On Wednesday Vinny Lingham, co-founder and CEO of Civic.com in a post on Medium outlined his three phases of Bitcoin. The crypto entrepreneur and expert thinks it is the success of the first two phases that will drive the breakthrough of the last one. From his outlook no technology elsewhere will enable another cryptocurrency to get bigger than Bitcoin any time soon. When Cointelegraph asked him why he has that opinion, Vinny attributed it to Metcalf Law. This hypothesis affirms that the importance of a network is equal to the number of connected users in the network. “Bitcoin has an enormous network effect, similar to Facebook,” he wrote. Satoshi’s notion misleading According to him, Satoshi whitepaper definition of Bitcoin as “Peer…
OpenBazaar customers can now buy in the open-source marketplace using Zcash, Ethereum, Ripple and other altcoins in addition to bitcoin, thanks to an integration with ShapeShift.io, via its Shifty Button. OpenBazaar, an open-source project that launched in April 2016, allows buyers and sellers of goods to directly create shops and sell goods without fees, restrictions or accounts. Before the Shifty Button integration, OpenBazaar was only available to those who had bitcoin to deposit. Sellers can now accept dozens of digital assets. Customers Sought Feature “Enabling users to pay for OpenBazaar purchases with bitcoin and dozens of other cryptocurrencies was always something we wanted to do, and ShapeShift enabled us to do that quickly and easily,” said Brian…
Leave it up to the financial experts and regulators to hinder innovation at every step of the way. Even though most people agree fintech is a positive development for the financial world, some regulators only see it as a threat to the banking system. While it is true banks will need to innovate or risk being left behind, they are actively collaborating with fintech startups. OCC Feels Fintech Is A Systemic Risk To Banking US banks and other financial institutions have put off innovating their products and services for many decades. In this day and age of growing digitization, they have been unable to avoid the changes that will befall upon them. Two options are available to banks: either they innovate – by working together with fintech companies – or they risk…
Scotland’s University of Strathclyde has announced the launching of its new FinTech masters course, making it a first in the U.K. in an announcement on the university’s website. The Master of Science (MSc) in Financial Technology will provide students the financial, programming and analytical skills needed to help companies accelerate and enhance their security. It is hoped that this new course will support the digital transformation of Scotland’s growing financial sector. Boost in Scottish Jobs An economic modelling study found last year that Scotland could lose more than 14,000 jobs in its financial sector over the next ten years if it fails to embrace the FinTech wave. In a bid to retain those jobs within Scotland the launch of the new intensive 12-month…
The last 12 months have solidified bitcoin’s crucial role in the global economy. Investors and traders have relied on the digital currency to protect their wealth and avoid economic and financial crisis resulting from excessive government monopoly over current monetary systems. Indian government’s decision to demonetize 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes led to one of the worst economic disasters in recent history, essentially halving the economy’s cash circulation and causing a nationwide financial turmoil. China’s imposition of heavy regulations and impractical policies on cash outflow to prevent the devaluation of the Chinese yuan also pushed the demand for bitcoin further, as investors sought out for assets and stores of value that can be used to bring money…
Following a meeting between the People’s Bank of China and representatives of BTC China, OKCoin and Huobi, which in combination account for some 90% of bitcoin trading volumes, BTCC has e-mailed CCN an official statement in reply to our request for comments: “BTCC regularly meets with the People’s Bank of China and we work closely with them to ensure that we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China. As the longest running exchange in the world, we have always adhered to strict AML/KYC policies and continue to be compliant with all current regulations in China. The press release put forth from the PBOC today outlines that there is significant volatility in bitcoin trading, and also quoted from a notice released in 2013 saying that…