Latest Blockchain News: Finextra Research

UK government launches 'Call for Information' on virtual currencies

The UK government has launched a 'Call for Information' on the benefits and risks of digital currencies, as part of moves to support the growth of Britain’s booming fintech scene.

04 November 2014

News/Blockchain

Lawsky seeks to ease startup concerns with 'transitional' BitLicenses

New York State’s Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky has revealed plans to introduce a less onerous "transitional" BitLicense for cryptocurrency startups.

03 November 2014

News/Blockchain

Mobiles, cryptocurrency and private sector to boost financial inclusion - Gates Foundation

Mobile phones and the underlying technology behind crypto-currencies are helping to slash the cost of providing financial services to the poor, making the area an increasingly attractive proposition to the private sector, according to Rodger Voorhies from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

03 November 2014

News/Blockchain

Millennials and high earners drive North American adoption of mobile money and digital currencies

A significant proportion of North Americans - 40% - have used their smartphones to make payments at merchant locations, up from just 16% two years ago, according to an Accenture survey.

30 October 2014

News/Blockchain

UK watchdog to investigate blockchain potential

The Financial Conduct Authority is to investigate ways in which the technology underpinning bitcoin can be used elsewhere in the formal financial services industry.

29 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Former SEC chairman Levitt becomes advisor to bitcoin firms

Former US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt is taking on advisory roles at bitcoin firms BitPay and Vaurum. He enters the cryptocurrency industry as it digests rulings from regulators that could see many companies classed as money transmitters.

28 October 2014

News/Blockchain

MIT scientist develops algo to predict bitcoin price

Bitcoin's notoriously volatile price may look like it bounces around arbitrarily but an MIT computer scientist has developed a machine-learning algorithm that appears to have found a pattern in the mayhem, helping him to nearly double his investment in less than two months.

23 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Visa veterans raise $14.5m for bitcoin processing platform

Bitnet, a bitcoin payments processor targeting large merchants that was set up earlier this year by a gaggle of Visa and CyberSource veterans, has raised $14.5 million in a series a funding round led by Highland Capital Partners.

20 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Coinfloor to expand trading to wider range of currencies

London-based bitcoin exchange Coinfloor is to open up to new currencies, accepting deposits in US dollars, euros and Polish zloty, this Tuesday. Coinfloor is already the the biggest exchange for bitcoin-to-sterling transactions by volume of currency traded.

20 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Crook dumps Target card details on Russian forum

A cyber-crook has uploaded the details of more than five million cards, many of them stolen during the data breach at US retailer Target, to a Russian carding site, says security firm Group-IB.

17 October 2014

News/Blockchain

W3C standards body looks to improve web payments

The World Wide Web standards organisation, W3C, is bringing together banks, retailers and tech firms in an effort to develop standards for payments on the open web.

15 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Lawsky bows to BitLicense backlash

Individual users, software developers and bitcoin miners will be exempt from new regulations being drawn up to regulate the crypto-currency markets by New York's State Department of Financial Services.

15 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Overstock hires developers to create crypto-securities exchange

Online retailer Overstock has hired developers who worked on the P2P decentralised exchange Counterparty to build a marketplace for corporate stocks issued as 'cryptosecurities'.

07 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Madrid street transforms into Bitcoin Boulevard

Madrid has become the latest city to embrace the concept of a Bitcoin Boulevard, with the Spanish capital's Serrano Street getting a cryptocurrency makeover this weekend.

03 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Crypto-currency outfit Epiphyte triumphs at Innotribe Startup Challenge

US-based crypto-currency startup Epiphyte has emerged as the winner of the Innotribe Startup Challenge at Sibos in Boston.

02 October 2014

News/Blockchain

Reddit ponders own cryptocurrency to distribute shares to community

After closing a $50 million funding round, Reddit could create its own cryptocurrency as a way of handing over shares in the platform to its massive user-base.

30 September 2014

News/Blockchain

Bitcoin to make big splash at Sibos and Money20/20

Bitcoin values may be languishing at the $400 mark, but financial services interest in the crypto-currency shows no signs of abating, with two of the biggest shows in the banking calendar - Sibos and Money20/20 - devoting significant airtime to the technology.

26 September 2014

News/Blockchain

Visa Europe mobile director joins Apple

Visa Europe's director of mobile, Mary Carol Harris, has jumped ship to join Apple, where she will lead the firm's push into the mobile payments sector on the continent.

25 September 2014