Monday, June 15, 2015
Bitcoin vs. Malaria: A New Paradigm for Development Economics and Foreign Aid Emerges (Op-Ed)
Living Room of Satoshi Launches ‘Pay Anyone’ Bitcoin Payment Service to Any Australian Bank Account
Australian Bitcoin payment company Living Room of Satoshi announced that its new “Pay Anyone” service allows Australians to pay bitcoin directly to any bank account.
“Bitcoin users can now pay their friends, tradesmen and anyone else; even if the recipient has no knowledge about bitcoin,” says Living Room of Satoshi CEO Daniel Alexiuc. “This is a vital piece of payment infrastructure that is now available to all Australians.”
Living Room of Satoshi is a payments company that enables payment of any bill that uses the BPAY system using bitcoin. Customers can spend bitcoin to pay phone bills, electricity bills, school fees, credit cards, tax payments and more. Founded in 2014, the company has processed more than $500,000 of Australian bills using bitcoin.
BPAY is an electronic bill payment system in Australia which enables payments to be made through a financial institution’s online, mobile or telephone banking facility to organizations which are registered BPAY billers. BPAY is a registered trading name of BPAY Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cardlink Services Limited. Cardlink is owned equally by the four major Australian banks: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank Limited and Westpac Banking Corporation.
“Today BPAY offers fast, secure and convenient bill payments through over 150 Australian financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, covering over 95 percent of the consumer banking market,” states the BPAY website. “That means most Australians can now enjoy the convenience of paying their bills with BPAY. And with BPAY offered on over 44,000 bills (via 22,000 billers and more than 22,000 Sub Billers), these businesses cover a spectrum of industries with over 354 industry (ANZSIC) codes represented in the BPAY biller file. We now accept more payments than ever. In fact, each month we help process more than 30 million bills worth more than $24 billion – with around 92 percent of these paid through a customer’s online or mobile bank.”
“All of our customers find Bitcoin a fast, secure and convenient way to pay bills,” said Alexiuc in a recent interview published on the Australian edition of CIO Magazine. “You can see from our graphs page that our customers are paying all sorts of everyday bills, from toll road charges to tax bills. Many use Living Room of Satoshi to pay off their credit cards with Bitcoin, which opens up an even greater range of places to spend bitcoin.”
He added that, in Australia, by far the biggest impediment to the adoption of Bitcoin is the recent GST (Goods and Service Tax) ruling. According to Alexiuc, Bitcoin is a nascent and unprecedented technology that regulators are still struggling to comprehend, and therefore the software developers in Australia need to continue to innovate and demonstrate the utility of bitcoin, which will in turn shape regulation. It needs to be easy for businesses to transact completely in bitcoin – to sell products in bitcoin, pay their staff in bitcoin and purchase supplies in bitcoin.
Blockchain Workshop to Educate Financial Industry About Digital Currency
Today’s Blockchain Workshop will attempt to bring financial industry executives, regulators and digital currency entrepreneurs together to learn about the impact and potential of decentralized ledger technologies.
Blockchain Workshop runs June 15-16 at the Millennium Hotel in London and hosts a series of talks covering emerging blockchain payment networks, regulatory challenges, financial inclusion and more. The event is organized by Constance Choi, founder of blockchain law firm Seven Advisory, as well as two Harvard law professionals: Law Lab Co-director John Clippinger and Berkman Center for Internet & Society Research Fellow Primavera De Filippi.
“We believe that the rapid emergence of blockchain technologies presents revolutionary opportunities and challenges to the future of modern society as we face the 21st century,” Choi told Bitcoin Magazine. “The fundamental lack of understanding of these complex technologies has impaired exploration, innovation and deployment. We started this initiative to address blockchain policy issues through a multi-stakeholder approach.”
Demystifying the Blockchain
The conference’s location in London is not by accident. The city recently has been recognized as the world’s leading hub for financial technology and Bitcoin startups. The region’s financial focus is represented in the event’s partners and sponsors. Deutsche Bundesbank, the University of Oxford and the European Commission’s Startup Europe are some of the event’s partners, and sponsors include Barclays Bank, international law firm Bryan Cave and Swedish Bitcoin exchange Ecurex.
The conference will kick off with an introduction to digital currency and blockchains, covering Ripple, Ethereum, Eris, Bitcoin and others. Then talks get into the nitty gritty of the economics behind these emerging platforms with a keynote by Houman Shadab of New York Law School.
The event then transitions into one of the most talked about finance topics of the decade: financial inclusion. Yussar A.F. Abar, former governor of Central Bank of Somalia and vice president at Citigroup, will lead a talk about how blockchain technology could help those without bank accounts in Africa and beyond.
The next day starts with a keynote by IBM database programmer and Ethereum developer, Henning Diedrich, who will show how blockchains could be used to secure and facilitate transactions between the Internet of Things. The event will then go on to explore who and what will be regulated under new decentralized schemes for corporations and financial institutions. BlockchainWorkshop will end by going over existing or potential use cases, such as supply-chain payments, crowdfunding and monetization of art.
Lloyd’s Report Analyzes Bitcoin Risks for Insurers
More and more Bitcoin businesses are adopting mainstream practices and seeking insurance for their operations. A report by top insurance market operator Lloyd’s, published on June 12 and targeted at insurance service providers, highlights the key risk factors for the insurance of Bitcoin operations.
Lloyd’s, an insurance market located in London, is one of the best-known names in the insurance sector. It operates as a marketplace within which multiple financial backers come together to pool and spread risk. Lloyd’s itself does not underwrite insurance business, leaving that to its members. Instead, the society operates as a market regulator, setting rules under which members operate and offering expert advice and centralized administrative services to members.
The report suggests that the technology, procedures and practices that underpin Bitcoin are maturing. “Nevertheless, legitimate concerns remain over security risk and the potential for criminal exploitation,” notes the report. Lloyd’s does not, therefore, endorse the insurance of Bitcoin operations, but rather “aims to contribute to the assessment of these risks for insurance purposes.”
Lloyd’s shares a positive assessment of the benefits of Bitcoin, now widespread in the mainstream financial sector.
“In essence, Bitcoin offers a low-cost, relatively fast means to transfer value anywhere in the world; the only real constraint is the availability of an Internet connection. As such it offers a lower-cost alternative to established banking and money transfer systems, which require a bank account and/or the payment of fees,” states the report, adding that Bitcoin can bring global payment technology to populations unable to access or afford conventional banking methods.
These benefits could be significant for a wide range of users around the world. Insurance, according to Lloyd’s, can be a component of responsible risk management to enable the next phase of Bitcoin’s evolution.
At the same time, Lloyd’s is persuaded that the security risk of Bitcoin operations will never be reduced to zero. It can, however, be mitigated by the use of professional security measures and the adoption of recognized standards for secure bitcoin storage. The security measures required for Bitcoin should include both the physical and personal protection measures routinely applied for cash, and the cybersecurity measures required for sensitive data.
Lloyd’s also invites the Bitcoin community to cooperate with law enforcement to prevent Bitcoin from becoming “synonymous with crime” in the public perception.
The Lloyd’s report includes a thorough description, by Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center, of operational risks associated with theft. Brito and Van Valkenburgh cover both local risk – the risk that thieves steal bitcoin from specific users or operators, and global risks – for example, 51 percent or Sybil attacks.
In conclusion, Coin Center advises that insurers and industry observers keep tabs on whether a business is employing modern controls such as multi-sig, cold storage and hybrid wallets.
Garrick Hileman, of the London School of Economics, and Satyaki Dhar analyze risks not related to malicious intent, including market volatility and regulatory uncertainty, which should be factored in when assessing the overall risks of Bitcoin operations. For example, European authorities have discouraged banks from transacting with bitcoin or interacting with Bitcoin companies, which has limited the ability of Bitcoin businesses to connect with the broader financial system and grow. The conclusion of Hileman and Dhar is that there are no clear solutions on the horizon for these risks.
It’s to be hoped that the publication of this report by a leading insurance expert will facilitate the consolidation of best practices in risk assessment, and help Bitcoin businesses in obtaining insurance for their operations.
Image via Lloyds.com
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Sunday, June 14, 2015
Sweden’s 3rd Largest Bank Sponsors a Full-Page Ad to Explain Its Stance on Bitcoin
Exchanges Refrain from Commenting on the Block Size Debate
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