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A busy first day of Blockchain Summit, part of International Blockchain Week in Shanghai, was filled with product demonstrations and...

The post Blockchain Summit Day One: Highlights From Shanghai appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Blockchain app specialist, Tendermint, winner of the 20,000 RMB prize for the "Most Innovative" Award at the International Blockchain Week...

The post Tendermint Wins Innovation Award and Announces Cosmos at International Blockchain Week appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

According to a former assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division, tackling the rise in ransomware attacks could see action taken against hard-to-trace digital currencies such as bitcoin.  

The post Could Digital Currencies Become a Target in the Fight Against Ransomware? appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Ripple joins with Bank of America, Santander, the Royal Bank of Canada and more to build a global blockchain steering group.

Source

The deputy general director of Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service has reportedly stated that cryptocurrencies -like bitcoin- threatens the Russian economy and could lead to its destruction. Paul Livadniy, the deputy director at the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, aka Rosfinmonitrong, has warned that the cryptocurrency industry represents a threat to the […]

The post Cryptocurrencies Can Destroy Russian Economy, Says State Official appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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Nine months after raising $13 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, P2P insurtech Lemonade finally revealed its business model — and it has a twist, the Financial Times reports. The app-based firm, which offers rent and home insurance policies (at $5 and $35 a month, respectively), launched in New York on Wednesday. It works by asking all new customers to choose a charity, and then pays premiums from all customers who choose the same charity into a pool. Lemonade takes 20% of the premiums up front, and then claims are paid out of this pool — any money left at the end of the year is donated to the pool's nominated charity. For context, legacy insurers normally keep any money not paid out in claims for themselves. Initially, the app will offer a default list of 15 charities, but in the future, the list will expand to accommodate customer preferences. 

Lemonade said the donation model was designed to help combat insurance fraud. CEO Daniel Schreiber explained that by linking insurance with a charity that a customer feels passionate about, these customers will be better disposed toward their insurer, and will therefore be less likely to file a fraudulent claim. Lemonade will also use other fraud-deterring techniques like asking customers to sign documents certifying that everything they claim is true at the outset of the claims process, rather than at its conclusion. Fraud is a pervasive problem across the insurance industry — an AXA study found that at least a third of UK consumers have made fraudulent claims. In most cases, that's because they thought their insurer would try to avoid a pay out even if they made an accurate claim, in order to hold onto the full value of the customer's premium. It's this attitude that Lemonade hopes its charity-based model can change. 

However, it's questionable whether charitable donation will be enough for insurers to win customers' trust. Other P2P lenders, such as Germany-based Friendsurance, return any money left in the pool at the end of the year to its customers. We think it likely that cash is a better incentive to stay honest, and that Friendsurance's model could combat insurance fraud more effectively than Lemonade's — it's possible the latter is making too big an assumption about the strength of charity as a common interest. 

 Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together an essential report on the fintech ecosystem that explains the new landscape, identifies the ripest areas for disruption, and highlights the some of the most exciting new companies. These new players have the potential to become the next Visa, Paypal or Charles Schwab because they have the potential to transform important areas of the financial services industry like:

• Retail banking

• Lending and Financing

• Payments and Transfers
• 
Wealth and Asset Management

• Markets and Exchanges

• Insurance

• Blockchain Transactions


If you work in any of these sectors, it’s important for you to understand how the fintech revolution will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any part of the digital economy, you’ll want to know how you can exploit these new technologies to make your employer more efficient, flexible and profitable.

Among the big picture insights you'll get from The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry:

• Why financial technology is so disruptive to financial services—it will soon change the nature of almost every financial activity, from banking to payments to wealth management.
• The basic conflict will be between old firms and new—startups are re-imagining financial services processes from top to bottom, while incumbent financial services firms are trying to keep up with new products of their own.
• Both sides face serious obstacles—traditional banks and financial services firms are investing heavily in innovation, but leveraging their investments is difficult with so much invested in legacy systems and profit centers.
• Meanwhile, startups are struggling to navigate a rapidly-changing regulatory landscape and must scale up quickly with limited resources.
• The blockchain is a wild card that could completely overhaul financial services. Both major banks and startups around the world are exploring the technology behind the blockchain, which stores and records Bitcoin transactions. This technology could lower the cost of many financial activities to near-zero and could wipe away many traditional banking activities completely.

This exclusive report also:

• Explains the main growth drivers of the exploding fintech ecosystem.
• Frames the challenges and opportunities faced by incumbents and startups.
• Breaks down global and regional fintech investments, including which regions are the most significant and which are poised for the highest growth.
• Reveals which two financial services are garnering the most investment, and are therefore likely to be transformed first and fastest by fintech
• Explains why blockchain technology is critically important to banks and startups, and assesses which players stand to gain the most from it.
• Explores the financial sectors facing disruption and breaks them down in terms of investments, vulnerabilities and growth opportunities.
• And much more.

The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry is how you get the full story on the fintech revolution.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the fintech revolution, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

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Ethereum is gaining ground in China as innovators have announced key developments and partnerships during International Blockchain Week in...

The post BlockApps Expands Ethereum's Presence in China; Announces New Funding and Key Partnerships appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin price has held support and advanced on $600 and 4,000 CNY earlier today. However, the bear is not yet out of the woods. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 12h00 UTC Friday Bitstamp 1-Hour […]

The post Bitcoin Price Reaching for $600 appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

  With the launch of the “Global Payments Steering Group”, blockchain startup Ripple has revealed details of a new interbank group that will create the first “rules-based blockchain payments network” for global money transfers. In an announcement today, blockchain and Fintech startup Ripple has revealed that banks are getting closer toward uniform policies and governance […]

The post Ripple, Big Banks Launch First Interbank Blockchain Group for Global Payments appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

  With the launch of the “Global Payments Steering Group”, blockchain startup Ripple has revealed details of a new interbank group that will create the first “rules-based blockchain payments network” for global money transfers. In an announcement today, blockchain and Fintech startup Ripple has revealed that banks are getting closer toward uniform policies and governance […]

The post Ripple, Big Banks Launch First Interbank Blockchain Group for Global Payments appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Coinciding with the opening of the Ethereum Foundation’s Devcon2 conference in Shanghai this week, significant parts of the Ethereum network...

The post The Long History and Disputed Desirability of Alternative Bitcoin Implementations appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that, contrary to popular belief, bitcoin is not the payment of choice for students. In 2014, two MIT students, Jeremy Rubin and Dan Elitzer, raised $500,000 and started the MIT Bitcoin Project. For every undergraduate student that signed up to the project they were […]

The post MIT Study: Bitcoin Not Popular with Students appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Press Release: MTI (‘Marine Transport International (UK) Limited’) today announces the deployment of the world’s first public blockchain solution in the global shipping industry.  MTI is an industry-leading freight forwarder based in the United Kingdom and the United States. It provides sophisticated, technology-based freight forwarding solutions for global shipping companies worldwide. Public blockchain technology will […]

The post First Operational Use of Public Blockchain Technology in the Global Shipping Industry Announced appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

  GFT, an IT and software services firm that caters to the financial services sector will join the Google Cloud Platform’s partner program, enabling it to simulate and deploy blockchain test infrastructure for banks on the platform. GFT, a software and IT provider for major banking corporations and financial services institutions will be utilizing Google’s […]

The post Banking Services Giant to Use Google Cloud Platform for Real-World Blockchain Testing appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The Wall Street Blockchain Alliance Certification Framework (WCF) has announced it will use distributed ledger technology to authenticate certificate issuance and tamper-proof content for its fall/winter courses. The use of distributed ledger technology is consistent with the alliance’s goal of promoting the adoption of distributed ledger technology across financial markets. A Blockchain Brain Trust The […]

The post Wall Street Blockchain Alliance Sees Applications in Authenticated Content And Certification appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.