Coin News

Ahead of the Blockchain Protocol Analysis and Security Engineering 2017 conference slated for January 2017, the Cyber Initiative of Stanford University has announced its call for papers from interested presenters. The conference will explore the use of formal methods, empirical analysis, and risk modeling to better understand security and systemic risk in blockchain protocols. It […]

The post Stanford University to Host Blockchain Conference appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Fintech Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

In another blow to the reputation of the US alt lending industry, LendUp is being forced to pay a total $6.3 million in fines, refunds, and settlements after it was found guilty of violating a number of laws between 2012 and 2014, TechCrunch and the Financial Times reports. This includes a $1.8 million fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and a $100,000 fine from the California Department of Business Oversight. LendUp offers subprime borrowers a short-term loan product designed to compete with payday loans but with the claim of fairer pricing, as well as a credit card called L Card. 

Here's what LendUp did wrong:

• Charging illegal fees and over inflating interest rates. The company charged customers fees for accessing their loans on the same day they were approved, but such charges are illegal under California law. Furthermore, LendUp charged customers for extending their payment period from 15 to 30 days, which is also illegal. In addition, LendUp told customers that they had to take out an installment loan if they wanted a payday loan, contradicting a law that says a loan provision cannot depend on the customer buying another product. LendUp was also found to have miscalculated interest rates, meaning it charged customers overinflated fees.
• Advertising loans in states where they were not available. LendUp advertised its loans throughout the US, when in fact, a large proportion of its loan products were only available in California.
• Falsely telling customers that borrowing from LendUp would improve their credit scores. LendUp promised borrowers with low credit scores that if they repaid their LendUp loan on time, it would pass this information on to credit bureaus, thereby improving these borrowers' credit scores. However, in the majority of cases, it never passed this information on, meaning that even if borrowers paid back their loans on time, it made no difference to their credit score. 

LendUp has succumbed to a crackdown on payday lenders that was supposed to be its golden opportunity. LendUp markets itself as a fairer alternative to payday loans and high interest credit cards, which are typically the only options available to subprime consumers looking for credit. This means that when the CFPB said back in June that it would get tougher on exploitative payday lenders, LendUp had a tangible opportunity to fill a gap in the market while payday lenders cleaned up their acts. However, LendUp's missteps will likely damage its reputation, making it hard for it to maintain a more-compassionate image relative to payday lenders. The regulators' response also shows that fintechs will be punished with the same harshness as legacy players if they break the rules in a regulated area of finance. 

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

Join the conversation about this story »

Bangalore-based Bitcoin start-up Unocoin has raised $1.5 million (m) in a Pre ‘Series-A’ investment round, a record high for any digital currency venture in Indian history. But while the founder’s vision is to “scale Bitcoin” to the masses and address a largely ‘unbanked’ nation, is it such a big deal really?

  A recent notice and update from the official taxation authority in Spain sees bitcoin mining fall under the purview of an economic activity, opening cryptocurrency mining to taxation. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners in Spain will see taxation of their profits, a recent notice issued by the country’s National Directorate of Tax revealed. First reported […]

The post Spain to Tax its Bitcoin Miners up to 47% of Profits appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Deutsche bank is facing rising pressure that could result in the firm's financial insolvency.

Source

Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. 

To sign up, scroll to the bottom of this page and click "Get updates in your inbox," or click here. 

It's all about Deutsche Bank right now. Here are the headlines:

• Deutsche Bank is reportedly close to a $5.4 billion settlement with the US government.
• That news has sent the share price soaring.
• Goldman Sachs on Deutsche Bank: It's not as bad as you think.
• Deutsche Bank has a "fundamental business problem" beyond its immediate crisis.
• "Deutsche Bank may be the end of Merkel's career."
• Deutsche Bank CEO tells staff: "Some forces in the markets are currently trying to damage trust."

In other news, Nutanix finally had its IPO on Friday, and the entire tech industry is relieved. We also got a behind-the-scenes look at what actually goes on during an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, so take a look. 

Janet Yellen may resign as Federal Reserve chair if Donald Trump wins the presidential election, according to Bob Landry, a portfolio manager at USAA investments. China has the markets totally fooled. And "politics as we knew it is over," according to Ian Bremmer.

Lastly, these are the new New York City restaurants Wall Street should check out this fall.

Here are the top Wall Street headlines at midday

Gaddafi, bribery, and a $40 billion hedge fund: The key details from the case against Och-Ziff — Och-Ziff Capital Management has agreed to settle charges of bribery, paying nearly $200 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC announced Thursday.

OPEC just reached a surprising deal — here's what comes next — The oil watcher Robert Mabro, who died last month, once quipped that OPEC should change its logo to a tea bag "because it only works when in hot water."

Banks like to talk about blockchain, but none want to be the first to actually use it — There are more than 50 major banks clamoring to adopt the technology known as blockchain — the underpinnings of bitcoin — but none of them wants to be the first.

Why this top VC is funding a startup that could eat away at his own business — When Andy Weissman began to look at investing in a startup called CircleUp, he realized the underlying concept was something that could put him, or some of his competitors, out of business.

GM just quietly created a new car brand — For a hundred years, General Motors was defined by its brands: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, GMC, Cadillac. Later, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer joined the portfolio.

The 22 hottest cars at the 2016 Paris Motor Show — The Paris Motor Show kicked off ths week and it did not disappoint.

100 under-the-radar places everyone should visit in the world — Travel should be more than crossing attractions off a bucket list. It should be an opportunity to see some truly magnificent — and surprising — parts of the world.

SEE ALSO: 22 maps that explain America

Join the conversation about this story »

Bitcoin price is setting up for advance but the consolidation process appears incomplete. A large wave of advance into the final months of 2016 is building pressure. 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 […]

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Walking Blues appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The team behind a long-contentious proposal to upgrade the bitcoin protocol is making new funding available for research.

Source

It is generally accepted that latency in block propagation is one of the bottlenecks for Bitcoin scaling. This is why many of Bitcoin’s most...

The post Why Bitcoin Mining Pools Aren’t Incentivized to Broadcast Blocks Quickly appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

At CCN, we frequently receive requests from crypto developers, Fintech industry executives and other representatives for the opportunity to turn in relevant, newsworthy blogs. If you are looking to contribute, we welcome it! Here are some guidelines: Begin with a great idea. This gets easier if you already have something in mind to write about. […]

The post Submitting a Guest Post on CCN appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

JP Morgan, America’s largest bank with total assets of $2.35 trillion, is building a private blockchain based on ethereum according to a recently published presentation. JP Morgan’s Quorum, built in partnership with EthLab, co-founded by Jeffrey Wilcke, an Ethereum core developer, is “a minimalistic fork of the Go Ethereum client” and a “derivative of Go Ethereum.” […]

The post JP Morgan Joins Ethereum in Developing Private Blockchain ‘Quorum’ appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The NFX Guild, a mentorship-driven startup accelerator, has partnered with Synereo, a blockchain-based, decentralized social network, to develop an ecosystem of decentralized applications (dApps) on top of Synereo’s Blockchain 2.0 platform. The organizations share the vision of a freer and fairer Internet. Synereo’s technology for the next class of the NFX Guild accelerator program. The […]

The post Blockchain Network Synereo Partners Silicon Valley’s NFX Guild to Accelerate dApp Dev Teams appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Press Release: Trust.Zone VPN Service is one of the leading anonymous VPN services on the web which offers 100% anonymity for the users on the Internet. Trust.Zone VPN service hides online identity of internet users, prevents Internet Service Providers from tracking users’ internet activity, bypasses censorship on the web and keeps internet users anonymous on […]

The post Trust.Zone VPN Anonymous Service Announces 10% Discount for Bitcoin Users appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

In a major step forward for collaboration in building decentralized apps on blockchain technology, NFX Guild, a Silicon Valley startup...

The post Synereo and NFX Guild Launch Strategic Partnership to Build a Decentralized Internet appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

 Shanghai-based blockchain startup Antshares has raised over $4.5 million a crowdsale, enabling it to complete the first ever open-source blockchain project in China. Antshares Blockchain, an open-source blockchain project has raised over $4.5 million in a crowd sale. The funds will see the startup complete the development of its blockchain platform under what it deems as […]

The post Chinese Open-Source Blockchain Startup Antshares raises $4.5 Million appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Making blockchains editable opens up financial systems to the potential for fraud, says author and investor Brian Kelly

Source

A new report from Ovum has found that 75 percent of corporate treasures in Africa and Latin America are interested in the solutions that blockchain can deliver to banks. Developed in partnership with Temenos, a Swiss financial services software specialist, the report, Understanding Today’s Corporate Treasurer: The Implications for Corporate Banking Services [PDF], looked at how […]

The post Research: Blockchain Tech Interests Corporate Treasurers in Africa and Latin America appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Press Release: The popular Bitcoin trading platform, QUOINE’s new mobile app, and trading dashboard offers new functionalities to both professional and casual traders alike. September 29, 2016 Tokyo, Japan – QUOINE, the cryptocurrency spot, margin and futures exchange has announced several key updates to its platform following the successful $20 million funding round. These […]

The post QUOINE Bitcoin Trading Platform Launches New Mobile App and Trading Dashboard appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.