Asia is leading the way in the use and development of digital currencies and remains the world’s largest digital payments market, with China alone accounting for more than half of the total transaction value worldwide, according to a new research paper published by Singapore’s DBS Bank... More
Belfast City Council has partnered with Israel-based Colu for the launch of Belfast Coin, a city-wide rewards and payment platform that enables participants to earn rewards for taking part in ‘good citizen’ activities such as shopping at local businesses, volunteering and recycling... More
Bitcoin under the skin – Why people are using subdermal microchip wallets — CCN — “Dutchman Martijn Wismeijer is very cautious when it comes to storing Bitcoin so much so that in 2014, he had two NFC (near field communication) chips surgically implanted into each hand to store his encrypted Bitcoin keys. Wismeijer stated a number of reasons for the drastic method of storing crypto, saying he had lost the majority of his Bitcoin over the years to exchange failure, hacking, and theft… Wismeijer says he uses his chips every day to make purchases — the process involves scanning the chips with his smartphone to receive and then decrypt the keys in order to make a transaction.”
Ending Bitcoin support — Stripe — “Transaction confirmation times have risen substantially; this, in turn, has led to an increase in the failure rate of transactions denominated in fiat currencies. (By the time the transaction is confirmed, fluctuations in Bitcoin price mean that it’s for the “wrong” amount.) Furthermore, fees have risen a great deal. For a regular Bitcoin transaction, a fee of tens of US dollars is common, making Bitcoin transactions about as expensive as bank wires.”
Bank halts crypto-currency plans over stability fears — FT Adviser — “The Bank of England (BoE) has been researching the possibility of launching its own digital currency to rival bitcoin, but fears about the impact on the wider financial system means it has no ‘current plans’ to do so… If the central bank launched a digital currency of its own, it worried consumers would stop using commercial bank accounts and, instead, have a bank account with the Bank of England, and choose to use digital technology to purchase goods and services over paper money.”
Bank Hapoalim, IAI team on blockchain for cybersecurity — Globes — “The joint research undertaken by the two companies will examine how blockchain, the technology at the basis of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, could be used for developing innovative cybersecurity solutions, such as secure transmission of information between services and supply chains, user authentication, critical devices and elements that run with no human intervention and additional solutions for the cyber challenges in a hyper-connected world.”
Landor Pulse: PayPal leads as most trusted financial services brand — Landor — “Approximately 30% of consumers rank PayPal as trustworthy, compared with 25% for Visa, 23% for Mastercard, and 17% for American Express… Apple Pay and Google Wallet are trusted by only 13% of consumers… Just 17% think Capital One and Chase are trustworthy, with Bank of America one point below at 16%… Bitcoin has the lowest rating of all, with only 6% of consumers believing it to be trustworthy.”
Uruguay to launch digital currency, ‘not Bitcoin’ it stresses — Bitcoin.com — “Uruguay’s Central Bank (BCU) formally presented rollout of its pioneering digitization of the Uruguayan peso on 3 November 2017… The plan ‘consists of a test with 10,000 mobile phone users of Antel,’ the release notes, ‘which will last for six months’ and be international… Registered users will be able to interact with merchants as well as peer-to-peer in money exchanges.”
Japan’s big banks showcase fintech at Ceatec show — Nikkei Asian Review — “A smartphone app lets users buy MUFG Coin with yen from their bank accounts and send the digital currency to others. Remittance costs are kept low thanks to blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that underpins bitcoin. With MUFG Coin, wiring amounts of money too small to be practical under typical bank fees becomes possible, according to the lender.”
Monopoly without a monopolist : An economic analysis of the bitcoin payment system — Bank of Finland — “Owned by nobody and controlled by an almost immutable protocol the Bitcoin payment system is a platform with two main constituencies: users and profit-seeking miners who maintain the system’s infrastructure… We explore the future potential of such systems and provide design suggestions.”
Steps being taken to address non-compliance with existing rules, rather than the introduction of new regulations, are the reason a number of Bitcoin card issuers are having to withdraw availability of their services from non-European customers, Visa has told NFC World... More
Bitcoin debit cards halt service to non-European residents due to Visa’s new rules — Bitcoin.com — “Four bitcoin Visa debit cards are suspending service to non-European residents due to Visa’s new licensing restrictions. BTCC and Bitwala have joined Xapo and Shakepay to stop debit card service to users who reside outside of the Visa European payment network… The new Visa rules went into effect on August 21.”
Some Bitcoin backers are defecting to create a rival currency — The New York Times — “Bitcoin Cash is set to increase the limit on the number of transactions that can be processed by the Bitcoin network every 10 minutes. Currently, the network can process only blocks of transactions that are smaller than one megabyte, which allows for roughly five transactions in a second.”
You can now fund your Abra wallet with your American Express card — Abra — “This feature will be made available to a small group of Abra wallet users today and will be rolled out to our entire user base in the coming days… With growing acceptance of bitcoin by major retailers and vendors worldwide, it is getting easier to spend funds directly from your Abra wallet every day.”
Japan’s Bic Camera to accept bitcoin nationwide — Nikkei Asian Review — “Bic Camera will allow payments in bitcoin at all locations throughout Japan as early as this month, looking to provide more options for foreign and domestic shoppers… The more-than-expected popularity of this option prompted Bic Camera to expand the system to the rest of its locations, the company says.”
Public-private sector digital currency experiment releases results of phase II — Payments Canada — “The Bank of Canada, along with Payments Canada, R3 and seven commercial banks, today disclosed the results of phase II of Project Jasper, an experimental wholesale interbank payment system, using digital ledger technology (DLT)… The results show that, despite progress made, underpinning an entire wholesale payments system with DLT still faces many hurdles.”
Customers will now be able to pay for Amazon purchases using Bitcoin through Bitcoin wallet iPayYou’s Amazon Direct service... More
Swiss commuters will soon be able to buy Bitcoin at more than 1,000 ticket machines belonging to the country’s national railway service SBB from November 11, under a deal between SBB and payment and distribution services provider SweePay... More
Canadian payments start-up NanoPay has completed a US$10m Series A funding round... More
South Korea’s KB Kookmin Card is working with Bitcoin exchange service startup Coinplug to release a blockchain-based personal authentication service for mobile transactions next month, Pulse reports... More
