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Bitcoin prices have now been above $500 for six consecutive months, CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) reveals.

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The Swiss outfit of professional services firm EY is set to begin accepting bitcoin payments next year.

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A number of companies are rolling out new technology solutions that pair blockchain with connected sensors to provide history, visibility, and security into their supply chains.

Blockchain is a distributed database that serves as a secure and unalterable ledger of activity, enabling companies that use it to ensure accountability and reliability. Here are a couple of examples showing how this database can be combined with physical devices to create savings and secure products:

• Walmart is using blockchain to monitor produce in its stores, according to Bloomberg. The retailer will use the database technology to track pre-packaged produce at the individual package level, from the farm where the food is grown, to the supermarket floor it's transported to. Blockchain will allow the company to pinpoint the exact source of a particular package that's sold, so a product that is subject to a recall, for example, can be identified easily. This information can be included in the barcode of a product, and can save major costs by reducing the amount of produce that must be recalled and destroyed in the event of illness, providing a far more granular means of recalling and tracking products.
• A new pharmaceutical seal from Chronicled combines NFC chips with blockchain to track and secure prescription drugs, according to NFC World. The seal contains secure information about the contents of a prescription bottle, registering the information on a blockchain while also recording the registering party and location data, reports the IB Times. This tamper-proof technology solution adds a key layer of visibility to pharmaceuticals, allowing patients and physicians to ensure that medication is authentic and providing visibility into the medication supply chain.

As more and more devices create mass quantities of data and companies aim to leverage the IoT to create and employ those data, security and accountability will be major hurdles. The incorporation of blockchain databases into IoT solutions could be one way to secure those data and ensure that devices are accurately registering and reporting information.

Blockchain can provide a level of accountability and surety that traditional databases cannot, as no employee can potentially cover up a mistake with a database change or shift blame to another party. Look for more IoT solutions to incorporate blockchain and future iterations of secure, distributed databases to tap into these benefits and improve their value propositions.

Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander.

That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping.

As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain. 

Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Spending on capital markets applications of blockchain is expected to grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, according to Aite Group, to reach $400 million that year.
• Banks and major financial institutions are working both collaboratively and independently to develop blockchain tech. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, like R3 CEV or Chain. And many are investing in the technology on their own as well.
• Putting blockchain to use for real-world transactions is likely not that far off. If working groups' tests are successful, firms could be using it to transact real value as early as the end of this year and we could see widespread industry application within the next few years. 

In full, the report:

• Examines the funding increases that are pouring into blockchain
• Assesses why blockchain is becoming so popular and what factors are driving up increased research and development
• Explains in full how blockchain technology work and what assets make it valuable and vulnerable
• Identifies pain points in the financial industry and profiles how various firms are using blockchain to solve them
• Demonstrates the challenges to mainstream adoption and their potential solutions

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 blockchain technology.

Join the conversation about this story »

A Japanese insurance firm is reportedly planning to launch a new policy line aimed at bitcoin exchanges.

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

The growing number of partnerships between fintechs and legacy players suggests that incumbents believe there are benefits to working with new market entrants.

Meanwhile, some of these collaborations are now established enough for those benefits to be measured, with a new survey from global law firm Mayer Brown showing where incumbents think their partnerships are paying off. The firm surveyed 70 UK financial services providers including banks, insurers, and asset managers. 

• Cost savings. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they were able to cut costs to some extent by working with fintech providers. These savings likely come from incumbents spending less on the development of new customer-facing services, as well as the efficiencies fintechs can bring to legacy processes thanks to their agile structures and use of the newest technology. 
• Brand refreshes. Eighty-three percent of respondents said collaborations with fintechs offered opportunities for incumbents to refresh their branding. That's likely because partnerships with fintechs enable legacy players to improve customer engagement and launch innovative products and services faster than they could build them in-house. This allows incumbents to reposition themselves as better serving a particular market, or simply as cutting-edge. 
• Increased revenue. Fifty-four percent of respondents said partnerships had resulted in boosted revenue. It's worth noting that this is the benefit seen by fewest incumbents, which suggests it may take longest to emerge as the parties involved work out a business model that suits everyone. 

The full benefits of fintech partnerships will only be realized by incumbents with well thought out fintech strategies. To make the most of partnerships, firms need to decide in advance which specific areas they want to improve or change — cost savings or their brand, for example — and which fintechs are best suited to help them achieve such goals.

Incumbents also need to carefully consider the practicalities of integrating fintechs' technology with legacy systems, as well as ensure that fintech and legacy working cultures can work side by side. Incumbents that jump into partnerships without considering these factors in advance will likely be slower to reap any benefits from working with fintechs.

The increase in fintech partnerships shows 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, senior 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 »

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

Major payments gateway Stripe has raised another round of funding, receiving $150 million.

That brings its valuation to $9.2 billion, accordingto Tech Crunch. Although Stripe is mainly known for its payment services, it has been adding new offerings to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving payments ecosystem.

This funding round will likely give Stripe even more opportunity to offer a robust payment service, including added security and convenience for merchants. 

• Security: Stripe recently announced the launch of Radar, a new API-based fraud protection tool for its merchant clients. The service could be very attractive to small merchants who may find standard fraud prevention tools too expensive or inconvenient — 60% don’t currently use one, according to MasterCard. The service will help merchants seamlessly alleviate security concerns, while potentially saving Stripe from any revenue loses as a result of fraudulent or declined transactions.
• Convenience: Stripe also announced Works With Stripe, a new directory that will make it easier for the company’s merchants to use third-party apps. This directory will allow merchants to seamlessly integrate services they may already be using with Stripe’s platform. Merchants will be able to consolidate their operations, which leads to a much more efficiently run business, thus making Stripe a much more attractive option. 

These added offerings could make Stripe more appealing for merchants, which could help the payments gateway grab a larger market share. Stripe already counts SAP, Macy’s, and GE as partners. However, with these new initiatives it could increasingly attract a different clientele. Small business merchants will likely be attracted to Stripe's fraud prevention and new app directory as they hope to stay competitive in the ever changing commerce market.

These merchants can now integrate the services they’re already using into Stripe’s platform, while at the same time having a more secure business.  That could lead to improved performance in the form of higher sales or increased transactions, which would lead to transaction revenue gains for Stripe.

Stripe is just one piece of the larger payments ecosystem, which has grown to include merchants, issuers, processors, acquirers, 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 »

By most accounts, the activation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) should be a boon for bitcoin. The code, first proposed last December, has been introduced to the network, and at least 20% of bitcoin's hashing power is now signalling support for the software change that is expected to provide the first significant boost in capacity to […]

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Indian bitcoin exchange Unocoin has launched a new mobile wallet app.

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San Francisco's MUNI knocked down but not out by HDDCryptor ransomware. The crooks wanted $70,000 in Bitcoin but it's unlikely they'll get paid.

India is buying bitcoin at a premium of 35%.

The post Indian Bitcoin Buying Reaches $985 as Exchanges Push for Adoption During Demonetization appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.