Coin News

Prominent Indian bitcoin startup Unocoin has raised a national record-setting $1.5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round from a group of...

The post Unocoin to Focus on Security Upgrades, Expansion After $1.5 Million Funding Round appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The effective management of regulatory requirements is vital to the continued advancement of the digital currency industry. Dash, a...

The post Interview: Dash and Coinfirm on Digital Currency Compliance Partnership appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Properties in Cook County, Illinois, will be the first to be conveyed in the blockchain by a government agency, according to cre.tech, a news source for commercial real estate technology. Velox, a blockchain technology provider, will provide the technology that will furnish better information on vacant Chicago buildings to prevent fraudulent conveyance. A pilot program will test […]

The post Cook County to Use the Bitcoin Blockchain for Property Conveyance appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying and managing applications through Microsoft’s global network of managed data centers, has officially brought the Nxt Blockchain to their platform. Now for the first time on Azure, developers worldwide will be able to start their own Nxt nodes easily.

On October 1 of this year, the IMF added the Chinese Yuan (CNY) to the Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies. Only Big Boy currencies...

The post Op-Ed: Yuan Internationalization Will Lead to Growth for Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Blockchain technology has won accolades for improving efficiency and transparency in business operations. It has also been seen as improving security. But blockchain security is a complex issue that pits anonymity against trust, according to IBM’s Security Intelligence, a thought leadership and technical expertise hub for executives who manage enterprise risk and security. Permissionless blockchains such […]

The post Blockchain And Identity Verification: Anonymity Versus Trusted Participant 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.

London-based travel money app Revolut has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bank of Lithuania (the country's central bank).

This is the first step toward Revolut getting a banking license — and ultimately access to the central bank's payments system, according to Banking Technology. 

Getting access to a central bank's payments system will make it easier for Revolut to process payments. At the moment, Revolut has to rely on bank partners to process cross-border transactions conducted through its platform across the Eurozone.

But if it gains direct access to an EU central bank, this will eliminate the need for such intermediaries, allowing it to handle more transactions in less time. It would also no longer have to pay any fees charged by its banking partners, and be protected from any disruptions in their service. 

This direct access will greatly help Revolut as it expands its offerings. Revolut recently announced that it is launching a version of its service for businesses. Businesses typically conduct more transactions, with much larger volumes than consumers. With direct access to a payments system in the Eurozone, Revolut will be able to better handle the increase in transactions, and more easily scale its business across the EU. 

Partnerships such as the one between Revolut and Lithuania's central bank are evidence that we’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs.

No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.

The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes:

• Traditional Retail Banks vs. Online-Only Banks: Traditional retail banks provide a valuable service, but online-only banks can offer many of the same services with higher rates and lower fees

• Traditional Lenders vs. Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: P2P lending marketplaces are growing much faster than traditional lenders—only time will tell if the banks strategy of creating their own small loan networks will be successful

• Traditional Asset Managers vs. Robo-Advisors: Robo-advisors like Betterment offer lower fees, lower minimums and solid returns to investors, but the much larger traditional asset managers are creating their own robo-products while providing the kind of handholding that high net worth clients are willing to pay handsomely for.

As you can see, this very fluid environment is creating winners and losers before your eyes…and it’s also creating the potential for new cost savings or growth opportunities for both you and your company.

After months of researching and reporting this important trend, 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

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Wall Street Journal was at the top of a list of websites that can now collect bitcoin from Brave on behalf of the browser's users.

Source

Earlier this week, the Polish government opened up the floor to bitcoin and blockchain issues, with an open meeting organized by a member of parliament that saw participation from the Polish Bitcoin Society. In a first of its kind meeting this Monday, October 3rd, an open televised session organized by economist and member of parliament […]

The post The Government of Poland Discussed Bitcoin this Week, Encouragingly appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Blockstream engineers Paul “Rusty” Russell and Dr. Christian Decker completed their first lightning transaction on Bitcoin’s testnet this...

The post Blockstream Completes Its First Lightning Transaction on Bitcoin Testnet appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

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

Payment automation technology firm MineralTree announced a strategic alliance with Visa that will give more of MineralTree’s clients access to Visa Payables Solutions.

The move will help MineralTree’s clients, which are largely middle-market businesses, more easily automate accounts payable and invoicing processes. The partnership will allow clients access to virtual Visa credit cards for accounts payable payments, bank and credit card account integration, synchronization with accounting platforms, and data and security features. 

For small and medium-sized businesses, electronic invoicing solutions are often not available. Smaller businesses are interested in electronic options for business-to-business (B2B) payments. But these businesses likely don’t seek out electronic payment solutions for B2B payments because, unlike checks or other forms, they aren’t always affordable and accessible.

In a press release, MineralTree noted that financial institutions see the opportunity to help these types of merchants integrate virtual commercial cards, but haven’t been able to capitalize on that opportunity. These types of integrations could make it easier for financial firms to bring these options to their clients.    

Finding ways to access these clients could be lucrative for Visa.

• Automation of B2B payments and accounts payable is on the rise. Many businesses still make over half of their B2B payments by check. But firms are increasing their spending on electronic and card-based plastic card solutions. That means that Visa and MineralTree could be reaching users that are interested in this type of automation.
• And the sheer size of the accounts payable market could build up a strong revenue stream for the card network. In 2013, the median organization processed 43,000 invoices per year. That’s a massive market that Visa can capture a share of, and presents a considerable opportunity for the card network to grow its processing revenue from commercial cards, particularly because increased interest in automation will likely allow it to grow its share over time.

Visa's foray into accounts payable is one piece of the much broader payments ecosystem, which includes card issuers, merchants, gateways, processors, and more.

Evan Bakker and John Heggestuen, analysts at BI Intelligence, have compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices.
• Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play.
• Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified.

In full, the report:

• Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond.
• Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers.
• Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step.
• Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more.
• Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, 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

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem.

Join the conversation about this story »

Voice will be the first Russian-language social media platform built on top of a blockchain. With cyber.Fund using Steemit as a template, Voice is intended to cater to the uniqueness of the Russian people, as contributions to the Steemit website are primarily in English, although there are posts in a few other languages. In an […]

The post New Blockchain Social Media Platform Speaks with a Russian ‘Voice’ appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

  MGT Capital Investments, the John McAfee-led investment firm that owns operates a bitcoin mining facility in Washington has begun “Phase Two” of its mining operations, which sees a goal to expand its processing power to more than five PetaHash this year. New York-based MGT Capital has begun what it calls as “Phase Two” of […]

The post John McAfee-led Bitcoin Mining Operation Aims to Scale 5 PetaHash in 2016 appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

After months of testing, bitcoin's big scaling upgrade is almost here.

Source

Ethereum-based investment fund platform, ICONOMI, has set a record by raising the 11th largest crowdsale in history through its Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which was completed last month. In September, the Slovenian-based company announced that it had raised more than $8.9 million in operational capital and equity through an ICO, raising $3 million in the […]

The post Ethereum-based ICONOMI Raises over $10.5 Million in ICO 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.

On October 4, the US Federal Reserve announced the launch of a major new study on digital payment technologies, bitcoin, and fintech more broadly, CoinTelegraph reports.

The bank explained that this new research is part of its ongoing effort to introduce a faster payments system, which would allow transactions to be processed instantaneously and outside of the central bank's operating hours. The study will be led by the Fed's Faster Payments Task Force, which is charged with making technologies like bitcoin secure enough to be used for faster payments, with the goal of eventually implementing a system throughout the country. 

The study will focus primarily on the security and implementation of faster payments technology. The Faster Payments Task Force will be subdivided into two groups, each comprising about 500 members.

The first group will focus on how to make a faster payments system "ubiquitous" in the US and will publish its findings in January 2017; the second group will concentrate on improving the security of technologies that would underpin such a system, namely cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and will publish its report by mid-2017.

The Task Force's strategy leader, Sean Rodriguez, said the aim of this research is to encourage businesses and end consumers to adopt this technology when it becomes available.

US institutions have been looking to modernize the country's payments system for a while. Earlier this year, the Fed held discussions with software giant IBM about launching its own digital currency. And in March, Jack Henry, a leading US payments solution group, partnered with The Clearing House to look into developing a faster payments system for the US.

Unlike other countries such as the UK, the US has lagged in implementing a such a system, and this latest undertaking by its central bank suggests that pressure is mounting on the country to bring its payments system up to date in an increasingly digital landscape. With such a dedicated effort by a player as big as the Fed, the introduction of a faster payments system in the US may not be that not far off.

Fintech regulations in the U.S. have been extremely restrictive thus far, but those in Europe have proven successful and allowed the region to become a hub of financial technology innovation. The U.S. would be wise to examine the policies in place across the pond and consider how to implement similar ones within its own borders.

The fintech industry is booming, with VC-backed fintech investment growing 106% to reach £10 billion ($13.8 billion) in 2015. But the new business models fintechs are bringing to market also need to be regulated, and the old models aren't sufficient. The approach regulators take will have a significant impact on how big fintech gets and how fast it gets there.

Sarah Kocianski, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on fintech regulation that explains how regulators in Europe are successfully growing fintech innovation and how it's becoming a model for regulators around the world.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The financial technology sector is booming, and Europe is a leading region for growth. VC-backed fintech companies in Europe raised £1 billion ($1.5 billion) in funding across 125 deals in 2015.
• With this boom in funding comes a need to regulate the nascent industry. There are a variety of approaches — active, passive, and restrictive — that regulators can take. The EU and the UK, in particular, have taken an active approach, in order to encourage growth.
• The regulation that will have the most impact on the European fintech market is the Second Directive on Payments Services, known as PSD2. It will force banks to open up their systems to fintechs. This will allow fintechs to act as intermediaries between banks and their customers.
• The UK regulator is actively promoting its approach to regulation as a model for other countries to follow. Some of its innovations are already being copied by other regulators around the world.

In full, the report:

• Examines the different approaches to fintech that regulators can take
• Explains the key EU laws that will affect the European financial services industry in the next two years and beyond
• Explores the potential impact of new regulations
• Details the workings of the initiative central to the UK regulator's approach to fintech
• Highlights what can be achieved when regulators, governments, and fintech companies work together

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, 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

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of fintech regulation.

Join the conversation about this story »

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

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)released its long-awaited prepaid card regulations, which better govern the fast-growing prepaid industry. The list of rules includes requirements for upfront fee disclosure, elimination of overdraft fees, better fraud and loss protection, and more stringent requirements for lines of credit. Most will go into effect on October 1, 2017, but some will come the following fall. 

The new rules will impact prepaid cards, but also other stored-value products, all of which have remained largely unregulated.

• Prepaid cards: Pew estimates that 23 million US adults use the cards, and volume increased from $20 billion in 2003 to over $300 billion last year. As the space continues to grow, and more consumers take advantage of these products instead of checking accounts, protections that mimic those afforded to bank accounts will be key.
• Other products: Despite pushback, stored-value products will also be covered. Those include peer-to-peer (P2P) products like Venmo and Google Wallet, and fintech services like Dwolla. Though mobile wallets that store payment information without funds, like Apple Pay, are exempt, it’s plausible that preloaded retail-based wallets, like the Starbucks app, might be included. This area is also fast growing — BI Intelligence estimates mobile P2P will reach $174 billion by 2019, up from $5.6 billion in 2014. 

The regulations will make prepaid card products considerably more consumer friendly.Prepaid cards are popular predominantly among un- and underbanked consumers, which seek them out because they seem like a more affordable alternative to traditional checking accounts. But high and widespread fees — 68% of prepaid customers pay a fee of some sort — might actually overshadow any benefits the card provides. Increasing fee disclosure and limiting what companies can charge for make these products more accessible to their often low-income underserved users. 

But they also come with a mix of positive and negative consequences.

• For prepaid card firms, the loss of fees could limit income. Prepaid card firms capitalized on their customers’ need for access to financial services by charging them exorbitantly high fees. The CFPB limitations might force these firms to raise fees in other areas or introduce new ways of charging their customers in order to compensate, which could inadvertently make the products less accessible or push more consumers toward checking accounts.
• But for P2P apps, which are relatively new and growing fast, they could actually strengthen the industry. Many stored-value applications don’t charge much in the way of fees beyond those for credit or debit functions, and when they do, those fees are clearly laid out. The regulations could consolidate the space if firms don’t have enough money to adjust in order to meet needs. But most importantly, the protections that the CFPB requires for lost or stolen funds might make these firms tighten their security in an age of rising e-commerce fraud, which could help the industry mature and make these platforms more trusted and a viable source of payment, therefore raising adoption. 

These prepaid card regulations have become part of the broader payments ecosystem, which includes gateways, processors, issuers, merchants, and more.

Evan Bakker and John Heggestuen, analysts at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, have compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices.
• Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play.
• Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified.

In full, the report:

• Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond.
• Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers.
• Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step.
• Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more.
• Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, 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

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem.

Join the conversation about this story »