Latest Blockchain News: Finextra Research

Switchless buys South African bitcoin exchange

Switchless, a South African-based outfit which develops bitcoin-related software for financial institutions, has bought local bitcoin exchange BitX. Financial terms were not disclosed.

25 October 2013

News/Blockchain

Money2020 stirs up cashless society debate

While much of the chatter at the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas centred on schemes to eliminate hard cash, former Citibanker Jay Bhattacharya took a contrarian approach, brandishing a newspaper clipping from 1972 that confidently forecast the arrival of a cashless society by the end of the 1970s.

11 October 2013

News/Blockchain

Dwolla kills support for bitcoin

Payments firm Dwolla is severing its ties with bitcoin exchanges and services, cutting off a major route for moving funds between the virtual currency and its fiat cousins.

11 October 2013

News/Blockchain

Digital currency trading platform Kraken inks EU deal with Fidor Bank

Payward, the US firm behind digital currency exchange Kraken, has set its eyes on the European market through an exclusive partnership with Germany's Fidor Bank.

09 October 2013

News/Blockchain

Bitcoin sets the agenda on day one of Money2020 conference

The topic of Bitcoin was a recurring subject on day one of the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas. However, the FBI's action against alleged Silk Road mastermind, Ross Ulbricht, caused disruption as planned speakers from government organisations and law enforcement found reasons to stay at their desks.

07 October 2013

News/Blockchain

Bitcoin value bounces back after Silk Road shock

Virtual currency bitcoin has seen its value bounce back after an initial heavy fall in the wake of the FBI's take-down of the Silk Road online marketplace.

03 October 2013

News/Blockchain

SecondMarket preps bitcoin fund

SecondMarket has launched the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a fund dedicated exclusively to investing in the virtual currency.

26 September 2013

News/Blockchain

Bitcoin firms meet UK govt officials as regulation looms

Representatives from the bitcoin community met UK government officials in Downing Street this week amid claims that the Financial Conduct Authority is considering regulating the virtual currency.

06 September 2013

News/Blockchain

US govt seized $2.9m from MT. Gox's Dwolla account

The Dwolla account holding funds belonging to bitcoin exchange MT. Gox that was seized by the US government earlier this year held more than $2.9 million, newly filed court documents show.

20 August 2013

News/Blockchain

SEC files charges over alleged $4.5 million bitcoin Ponzi scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Texas man with running a bitcoin Ponzi scheme that raked in 700,000 bitcoins, worth $4.5 million, from unwary investors.

24 July 2013

News/Blockchain

Predictious lets gamblers bet bitcoins on royal baby sex

Gamblers with a predilection for decentralised and anonymous currencies finally have a place to place their bets thanks to the opening of bitcoin-based prediction market, Predictious.

12 July 2013

News/Blockchain

Anarchists, idealists and capitalists struggle for bitcoin's soul

Anarcho-libertarians were thin on the ground at the Bitcoin London event yesterday, as the suits took over Level 39 in Canary Wharf to talk about building businesses, attracting venture capital investment and dealing with financial regulations.

03 July 2013

News/Blockchain

Winklevoss twins to float $20 million bitcoin fund

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, most famous for their legal tangles with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have revealed plans to float a bitcoin trust.

02 July 2013

News/Blockchain

PKO Bank fights the good fight against cash

Wojciech Bolanowski, managing director of Electronic Banking, PKO Bank Polski explains to Finextra how the firm's IKO Project, an account based mobile payments service for Poland, is not a fight against the cards market.

14 June 2013

News/Blockchain

Swedish Mpos vendor iZettle poised for global expansion

Ignacio Garcia, managing director, iZettle Spain discusses how the vendor increased Mpos adoption by 25% in Sweden and how the recent €5 million investment from Banco Santander will expedite its global expansion.

14 June 2013

News/Blockchain

Make mine a pint of Bitcoin: UK pub chain takes virtual currency

A pub chain run by a former Cambridge University scientist has started accepting bitcoins in exchange for pints of beer.

12 June 2013

News/Blockchain

Barclays takes another payments hackathon crown; Holvi and Azimo talk disruption

In what is becoming a trend in the fintech world, Barclays has taken top honours at a London hackathon, this time triumphing at a weekend-long event hosted by payments start-up Birdback at Google Campus.

03 June 2013

News/Blockchain

New breed of money spending advisory apps set to disrupt payments value chain

The development of digital payment advisor (DPA) applications residing on customer smartphones and mobile devices has the potential to significantly disrupt the payment value chain states analyst group Gartner

31 May 2013

News/Blockchain

US charges Liberty Reserve over $6bn money laundering scam

Liberty Reserve has been shut down and its founder arrested over claims that the digital currency outfit was used by crooks to launder more than $6 billion.

29 May 2013

News/Blockchain

Bitcoin round-up: Schemes, machines and luxury condos

A rogue staffer at competitive gaming firm Esea enslaved users' computers to run a background bitcoin mining operation that generated around $3700 worth of the digital currency.

03 May 2013