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The post Is Starbucks having an ICO? appeared first on CCN

Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz raised a few eyebrows when he brought up cryptocurrency during a conference call discussing the company’s latest quarterly earnings. The former CEO told listeners he believes that widely-accepted digital currencies will arrive within the next few years. Schultz also expressed his doubt that bitcoin will be one of them, saying

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The post Bitcoin vs. Economy 101 appeared first on CCN

Every Intro to Macroeconomics course defines money and describes the functions, types, and characteristics of money.  Large stone wheels, tea bricks, cheese, shells, dog teeth and countless other items have been used for money.  The use of money leads to a more efficient allocation of resources and eliminates barter and the double-coincidence of wants.  Almost

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The post Cryptocurrency Market Continues Recovery as Ethereum Records 15% Gain appeared first on CCN

The cryptocurrency market has continued to recover at a rapid rate over the past 24 hours, as several major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum recorded major gains. Ethereum’s Massive Gain In particular, Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, demonstrated a staggering 15 percent increase in price overnight, from around $1,100 to $1,235.

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The post Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor: Bitcoin Investing is a ‘Gamble’ appeared first on CCN

Nigeria’s central bank governor has become the latest to speak out against bitcoin, claiming that investing in it is a ‘gamble’ and that it may need to be regulated. Bloomberg reports that speaking during an interview in Nigeria’s capital city Abuja, Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said: Cryptocurrency or bitcoin is like

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The post Indian Bitcoin Exchange Zebpay Adds Litecoin Support appeared first on CCN

On January 25, 2018, Zebpay, one of India’s most popular mobile-based cryptocurrency exchanges, announced the addition of Litecoin to its trading platform. In a blog post on its website, the company stated that the cryptocurrency is one of the several other tokens that are also scheduled to be added in the near future. Litecoin, released

The post Indian Bitcoin Exchange Zebpay Adds Litecoin Support appeared first on CCN

The post Indian Bitcoin Exchange Zebpay Adds Litecoin Support appeared first on CCN

On January 25, 2018, Zebpay, one of India’s most popular mobile-based cryptocurrency exchanges, announced the addition of Litecoin to its trading platform. In a blog post on its website, the company stated that the cryptocurrency is one of the several other tokens that are also scheduled to be added in the near future. Litecoin, released

The post Indian Bitcoin Exchange Zebpay Adds Litecoin Support appeared first on CCN

• Investors in London's turbulent housing market can expect a shaky year
• In a note sent to clients, strategist Caroline Simmons said surveyors expect prices in the capital to fall by 0.4% this year, compared to a 2% rise in 2017.
• Prices in Prime Central London have fallen the furthest, but that decline seems to have bottomed out.

LONDON — Investors in London's housing market can expect a shaky year, according to UBS Wealth Management.

In a note sent to clients, strategist Caroline Simmons said surveyors expect prices in the capital to fall by 0.4% this year, compared to a 2% rise in 2017.

House prices across the country are expected to rise by 4% in 2018, which means a historical trend has been reversed: London is now lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of price growth.

SEE ALSO: A flagship policy to help British millennials buy a house is having almost no impact

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NOW WATCH: A crypto expert explains the difference between the two largest cryptocurrencies in the world: bitcoin and Ethereum

• Britain's economy has slowed significantly since the Brexit referendum with little to cheer about.
• However, this week represented a rare bright spot for the economy.
• GDP grew faster than expected, the number of people employed rose to a record high, and the deficit fell more than forecast.

LONDON — Doom, gloom, and a general sense of foreboding have been the overwhelming feelings when considering the British economy in the 19 months since Britain voted to leave the European Union.

Growth has slowed, inflation has jumped, and regular citizens have felt the squeeze on their pockets as their pay packets don't rise in line with rising prices.

All in all, it has been a tough year and a half for the country. But this week, several chinks of light started to shine through for the economy.

"A busy week for economic data delivered cause for optimism on several fronts," Martin Beck, the lead UK economist at research house Oxford Economics said in a note circulated to clients on Friday afternoon.

The most recent and noticeable of those was the UK's latest GDP number, which came in ahead of expectations after several quarters of disappointing expansion.

"Most prominently, GDP growth in Q4 2017 came in at 0.5%, beating the 0.4% expected by the consensus and representing the strongest quarterly increase since Q4 2016," Beck noted.

"Both the services and manufacturing sectors put in decent performances, expanding 0.6% and 1.3% respectively (a buoyant CBI survey for January suggested that the latter’s strength continued into the new year although the same organisation’s retail survey was more subdued)."

The ONS now estimates that the economy grew 1.8% over the course of 2017. That's hardly explosive, but it is nowhere near the recession some predicted. 

An annual figure of 1.8% for 2017 puts the UK ahead of OECD forecasts for growth in fellow G7 members Japan and Italy, both of which are expected to grow at 1.5% in 2017, and in line with France, which is expected to grow at 1.8%.

Friday's GDP figures succeeded a strong jobs report on Wednesday, which showed more Brits employed than ever before, and a joint record low unemployment rate.

Things were even more positive behind the headlines, with Beck pointing out that "employment growth was concentrated among full-time employee roles, with the vast majority of those entering work coming from the ranks of people previously defined as inactive."

"Indeed, the inactivity rate dropped to 21.2%, the joint lowest since records began in 1971 and evidence that a low unemployment rate does not preclude decent jobs growth, particularly while the State Pension age is rising."

Moreover, there still appears to be substantial slack in the labour market.

"Hopes of November’s strength in the jobs market continuing were supported by a further climb in job vacancies to a new record high of 810,000," Beck adds.

What's going on in the job market bodes well for Britain's recovering levels of productivity. Productivity hasn't grown since the financial crisis, but there are signs that this is about to change, with the Bank of England's Silvana Tenreyro particularly upbeat about the prospects of rising output per hour.

"Delving into the labour market numbers also delivered good news on the productivity front. Hours worked (an admittedly volatile series) dropped 0.4% in October and November compared to the average level in Q3," Beck writes.

"With GDP rising by 0.5% in Q4, this suggest a rise in output per hour of around 0.9% in the last three months of the year, matching the third quarter’s strong gain."

A final bright spot, particularly for the government, is that according to ONS data the budget deficit hit its lowest December level in 17 years last month.

"Given the sensitivity of public spending and tax receipts to the health of the economy, it would be natural if decent GDP and employment data fed into an improvement in the fiscal position," Beck said.

"And that is what December delivered in the form of a fiscal deficit of £2.6bn – the smallest December shortfall since 2000."

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NOW WATCH: Principal Global Investors CEO: Bitcoin lacks fundamental value and it won't replace gold

• Specialist investment bank Exotix argues that the biggest potential for blockchain technology, first developed to underpin bitcoin, lies in frontier markets.
• Analyst Paul Domjan says blockchain could be used for things like property registration, contract law, and exchange in countries with volatile local currencies.
• Goldman Sachs made a similar point about the potential for bitcoin in countries with unstable local currencies.

LONDON — The biggest potentially for blockchain technology is in developing markets not developed markets, according to specialist investment bank Exotix.

Paul Domjan, global head of research, analytics & data at Exotix, which specialises in emerging markets, compares blockchain technology to the smartphone and mobile boom of the last decade in a note sent to clients this week.

Smartphones brought about much greater change in developing markets than developed and allowed many countries to "leapfrog" fixed line telephones.

Domjan writes: "Today, frontier markets may be positioned to leapfrog developed economies once again, but this time the key technology is blockchain and cryptocurrencies."

He sees the clearest applications in recording property ownership, contract enforcement, and storing or sending currency.

Blockchain explained

Blockchain technology, also known as distributed ledger tech, was first popularised by bitcoin, the digital currency created in 2009. It allows for a shared database that is near instantly updated, meaning all parties can see the same version of that database. It uses complex cryptography and group authentication to police the editing of the ledger.

Usually people have a central database to record things like trade. That way an impartial middleman can make sure everyone is playing by the rules. Blockchain removes the need for that middleman.

The technology was originally developed to do away with the need for a central bank for bitcoin, meaning it could be totally independent. But this feature has almost endless applications for other industries and processes that involve a trusted middleman or central authorities.

Banks are particularly keen to adopt blockchain, as its inbuilt security and trust checks cut out the need for middlemen in processes like settlement and clearing. This, in turn, cuts down costs. Santander estimated in a 2015 report that the technology could save banks as much as $20 billion.

Sceptics argue that blockchain simply replicates processes and systems that already work relatively well, without enough of a payoff to warrant the costs.

Domjan says: "Due its distributed nature, recording new assets on a blockchain can be quite slow, with transaction times measured in hours or even days rather than the seconds that are typical of e-commerce. As such, blockchain technology is a poor substitute for existing ownership records in developed or even emerging economies."

'We see this advantage across the developing world'

That's not the case in emerging markets, Domjan says, where there is often only a poorly developed and unreliable system for recording property ownership.

"Whereas some emerging markets, such as Russia and China, have property registration systems on par with those in the high-income OECD countries, frontier markets in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia lag far behind, with average performance less than half that of the best performing economies," he writes.

While it is a developed nation, Sweden is looking at a blockchain-based land registry system. Others looking at the solution include Ukraine and Georgia.

Domjan writes: "Indeed, blockchain technology can be used to maintain a clear, reliable record of anything. For example, Estonia has implemented the BitNation public notary services, including recognising marriages recorded in the BitNation blockchain, and Ukraine is developing an election platform based on the blockchain."

It's a similar case for contracts. Ethereum's blockchain allows people to write rules based commands: if a payment is received, then release the deed to a property, for example. It's not that powerful in developed nations where processes are already established for this type of thing but it could be transformational in developing economies.

"The same principle can be used for transactions ranging from financial derivatives to international trade," he writes.

Finally, Domjan also argues that the ease of transfer of cryptocurrencies, which are built on blockchain technology, is also most useful to developing nations.

"In countries with capital controls, highly volatile currencies, and high inflation, the governance problems, payments transaction costs, and volatility of their domestic currency may seem worse than those of cryptocurrencies, or at least bad enough that cryptocurrencies represent an attractive hedge against their domestic currency," he writes.

"We see this advantage across the developing world, from foreign investors in Brazil looking to move money to brokers in Zimbabwe looking for an alternative store of value."

Goldman Sachs recently made a similar argument, saying that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could become a legitimate currency in parts of the global financial system where the traditional functions of money don't work as well.

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NOW WATCH: Principal Global Investors CEO: Bitcoin lacks fundamental value and it won't replace gold

The post Bitcoin Not a ‘Legitimate’ Currency, But a Trusted Digital Currency Could Be: Starbucks Chairman appeared first on CCN

Bitcoin is not a “legitimate” currency, but a digital currency could one day form the linchpin of a cashless future, at least according to Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz. Schultz made this prediction during a post-earnings conference call on Thursday, stressing — as mainstream executives so often do — that distributed ledger technology (DLT) can

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