If bitcoin acceptance reaches a critical mass where necessities of food, shelter, and clothing can be bought with it, it will likely have reached a tipping point where it displaces national currencies
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Africa May Leapfrog Traditional Banking
If bitcoin acceptance reaches a critical mass where necessities of food, shelter, and clothing can be bought with it, it will likely have reached a tipping point where it displaces national currencies
Max Keiser, StartJOIN Co-founder: ‘We are Monetizing Altruism’
Max Keiser is the co-founder of StartJOIN, a crowdfunding platform and launch pad for business ideas and projects that leverages on cryptocurrency such as StartCOIN and Bitcoin.
Microsoft Is Building 'New NFC Payment Capabilities'
Microsoft Payments Inc. made headlines this week when it filed for money transmitter licenses in all 50 states of America, suggesting that the multinational is one step closer to launching its very ow
APRIL 9 DIGEST: Coinsetter acquires CARTIVEX, Microsoft might be working on Payment Solution
New York-based bitcoin exchange Coinsetter acquired the Canadian bitcoin exchange CAVIRTEX, Microsoft seems to be working on a smart payments solution and more top stories for April 9.
Brazil Startup Success Points at Latin America Cryptocurrency Takeoff
Innovative technology is driving increasing interest in cryptocurrency and could allow Brazilian tech startups to leap frog other nations in the digital currency space.
Overstock Unveils Bitcoin-Only Discounts, Wider Adoption Strategy
A spokesman from the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin, Overstock.com, has confirmed that the company is planning to conduct exclusive Bitcoin-only customer outreach including sales and di
Newly Incorporated Nonprofit NXT Foundation to Be a ‘Point of Contact’
NXT Foundation became one of the three platinum sponsors of the Mind the Gap Expo. The foundation is also set to be the official cryptocurrency partner at the PayExpo.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
First Fintech-Only Hub Opens in Sydney to ‘Disrupt Banking’
The Central Business District (CBD) in Sydney is known for traditional banking and finance. Most of the major institutions are headquartered there. In the heart of this, the Tyro Fintech Hub has opene
2 Weeks Extra: Tell Us Your Bitcoin Story and Win 5 BTC with Share-the-Bitcoin!
Due to the immense popularity of CoinTelegraph and Share the Bitcoin’s video competition, we’d like to announce that the deadline for submissions is being extended by 2 weeks!
OneBit: Use Bitcoin Anywhere MasterCard PayPass is Accepted
Startup OneBit is developing a Bitcoin wallet app that lets users pay at any store with contactless mobile payments via the MasterCard PayPass payment network.
OneBit securely converts bitcoin on the fly at market rate into any major local currency using BitPay, and pays the merchant via their NFC payment terminals. OneBit will permit users to pay at any MasterCard PayPass-accepting merchant worldwide, with zero fees.
“The magic that happens underneath” is done by BitPay, which converts the OneBit user’s bitcoin to the local currency of the merchant, and MasterCard, which actually sends the money to the merchant.
OneBit was developed by entrepreneur Toby Hoenisch at a Mastercard Hackathon and, according to Hoenisch, got very positive feedback from MasterCard.
MasterCard is helping OneBit get a partnership with a card issuer, and OneBit is trying to secure funding for industrialization. OneBit is available on an invitation-only basis to selected early-access testers.
“We don’t want to launch a half-assed Bitcoin wallet that gets us in trouble for violating KYC laws,” says Hoenisch on Reddit. “And yes, legal is the main reason we can’t just ship it.”
Anyone can apply for early access on the OneBit website.
Hoenisch has a background in AI, IT-security and cryptography, and his co-founders have backgrounds in user interface design and security.
“I have been fascinated by Bitcoin for the last three years, but never quite found the right idea to form a company around until now,” says Hoenisch. “We managed to get MasterCard and DBS bank interested in OneBit and with their help, I am confident that we can build OneBit without getting burned like Charlie Shrem did.”
OneBit has been invited to the selection days of the startup bootcamp fintech accelearator in Singapore. If Hoenisch and his team get into the startup bootcamp accelerator program, which will also give them access to DBS bank and their network, they plan to launch OneBit at the end of their three-month program on July 28th.
If Hoenisch and his team manage to get funding and launch the project, OneBit promises to be nothing short of revolutionary: Bitcoin holders will be able to pay merchants directly from the Bitcoin wallet on their phones without requiring merchants to take direct steps to accept bitcoin.
NFC-enabled PayPass payment terminals are very common in Europe and Singapore, and increasingly common in Canada and Australia. Therefore, it seems likely that OneBit will make the life of daily bitcoin users much simpler and reduce their dependency on exchanges.
The direct involvement as a partner of MasterCard, whose APIs and SDKs are used together with those of BitPay to power the OneBit platform, may seem surprising to those who remember recent statements by MasterCard that indicated hostility to Bitcoin.
In a December 2014 submission to an Australian Senate inquiry, MasterCard urged regulators to move against the pseudonymity of digital currencies such as bitcoin.
“Contrary to transactions made with a MasterCard product, the anonymity of digital currency transactions enables any party to facilitate the purchase of illegal goods or services; to launder money or finance terrorism; and to pursue other activity that introduces consumer and social harm without detection by regulatory or police authority,” said the MasterCard statement.
It’s interesting to note that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) recently replied to the same Senate inquiry by stating that it is unlikely that any benefits of Bitcoin regulation would outweigh the potential costs. RBA’s head of payments policy Tony Richards also said that, while digital currencies are not legal tender, there is nothing to prevent two parties agreeing to settle a payment using a digital currency.
Perhaps, after many similarly open-minded positions on Bitcoin taken by governments worldwide, MasterCard realizes that Bitcoin is here to stay and moving toward more integration with mainstream fintech.
Image via OneBit.
1 Week Extra: Tell Us Your Bitcoin Story and Win 5 BTC with Share-the-Bitcoin!
Due to the immense popularity of CoinTelegraph and Share the Bitcoin’s video competition, we’d like to announce that the deadline for submissions is being extended by a week!
'Dick Pics' or Why Ed Snowden + John Oliver = Educational Gold (Op-Ed)
When I heard that John Oliver – the HBO news comedian – had interviewed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, I cringed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)