France is a country of conflicts and odd decisions at times. Albeit the Front National wants to ban Bitcoin altogether, yet Fintech startup Stripe is now available in the country. Among the many supported payment options for Stripe, customers are Apple Pay, Alipay, and Bitcoin. The expansion of Stripe has not gone by unnoticed, as the service is now available in no less than 25 countries. Many investors and financial experts see the company as one of the last ‘unicorns’ in the Fintech sector, thanks to their US$5bn valuation at the time of writing. Stripe Supports Bitcoin and Mobile Payments What Stripe does is make it a lot easier for retailers and merchants to accept a wide variety of payment options. So far, the solution supports 130 different fiat currencies,…
Where is the blockchain heading? Whether the distributed ledger technology really has the potential to solve the issues currently faced by the banking and financial sector? These were some of the topics discussed in the last month’s Revolution Banking 2016 summit, which happened in Madrid, Spain on the 10th of May 2016. Revolution Banking 2016 was an event focused on new technologies, innovations, and collaborations in the banking industry. Digital currency and blockchain technology are two things that can’t be ignored when it comes to banking and fintech. The discussions, during the event touched upon the subject as well. Revolution Banking 2016 Welcomes Blockchain Technology According to reports, the experts attending the summit seemed to agree upon…
Hardly anyone ever expected to use the terms Federal Reserve and Bitcoin in the same sentence in a positive manner. As it turns out, the Fed has been quite open to Bitcoin and blockchain as of late, but there is still a lot of work to be done. On the first of June 2016, there was a fintech conference for central bankers at the Federal Reserve premises. With roughly 100 attendees from the central banking world, the topic eventually turned to Bitcoin and blockchain. While the crowd seemed very open to the idea, there is still a lack of understanding regarding the technology of blockchain. Federal Reserve Awed by Bitcoin and Blockchain Moreover, a Bitcoin transaction took place at the Federal Reserve premises during this conference. Chain CEO Adam Ludwin…
Millenials, a generation born from 1981 to 2000, represents more than 84 million people in the US alone, they were conceived in the information era, a world filled with electronic devices, and a global communication network (The Internet). FinTech Trends A three-year survey named The Millenial Disruption Index (MDI) covered more than 200 interviews, with more than 10,000 respondents, the goal was to identify the industries most likely to be transformed by Millennials, the largest generation in American history. The most blatant conclusion of the report? That banking is at the highest risk of disruption. Although this survey isn’t new, it allows us to confirm the importance of having technological solutions applied to the way in which we handle money. The…
The independent regulatory authority of Abu Dhabi’s newest financial free zone is seeking to promote the development of blockchain startups as part of a drive to create new efficiencies in the regional financial sector. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), one of three divisions of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), has released a consultation paper in which it detailed its plans to create a sandbox environment for FinTech under which startups would be allowed to work under a flexible regulatory framework for up to two years. The FSRA’s proposal would seek to limit startups accepted into the program to those that “promote significant growth, efficiency or competition in the financial sector”, though the paper goes on to…