San Francisco-based Bitcoin company Chain Inc. has clinched an investment of $30 million and the investors include financial heavyweights such as Visa Inc., Nasdaq Inc., Citi Ventures, Capital One Financial Corp., Fiserv Inc. and Orange SA. Chain Inc. works with banks and other financial firms and claims that its “solutions enable institutions to design, deploy and operate blockchain networks that can power any type of asset in any market.” As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the company has also said that the former American Express Co. CEO and venture capitalist Jim Robinson III has joined its board. The investment and the interest shown by such big financial institutions may seem a little startling to those who recall how these very…
Blockchain technology startup Chain has raised $30 million in new venture funding, drawing funds from financial services companies including Capital One, Fiserv and Visa. French telecom giant Orange SA contributed to the round, months after disclosing that it was looking to invest in bitcoin startups, as did Nasdaq, which has been working with Chain, and Citi Ventures. RRE Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital and SV Angel – existing investors of the firm – also took part, as well as former Bank of America CEO David Coulter, X Prize Foundation CEO Peter Diamandis and MongoDB co-founder Kevin Ryan. In statements, Chain CEO Adam Ludwin spoke in broad strokes about the larger efficiencies major financial services providers could potential unlock as the…
Bitcoin start-up E-Coin has launched a virtual bitcoin debit card that works where VISA is accepted. The virtual bitcoin debit card has until now existed in the realm of possibilities largely due to the idiosyncrasies of the global financial system. E-Coin solves a problem that has affected bitcoin users worldwide. Bitcoin users have had to cope with limited spending opportunities. By combining bitcoin with VISA, users of the virtual prepaid card will now be able to perform all the normal transactions that ordinary cardholders are able to do such as load funds, withdraw, and shop online. The most exciting aspect about E-Coin is its merging of the traditional financial architecture with the new reality of digital currencies. E-Coin currently has about 20,000…
Visa credit card association founder Dee Hock is a world-leading expert in payment systems. While an official in 1968 at a local bank in Washington State franchised by Bank of America to issue BankAmericard, Hock became chairman on a committee to create what would become Visa in 1976. Hock is open-minded and outspoken. He has even spoken favorably of the online digital currency Bitcoin. “Bitcoin is one of the best examples of how a decentralized, peer-to-peer organization can solve problems that these dated organizations cannot,” Hock once said. “[Bitcoin] presents incredible opportunities for new levels of efficiency and transparency in financial transactions.” In a 1996 Fast Company article, many of Hock’s beliefs were made clear. He developed the concept of a…
Billboard recently reported that two companies, PeerTracks and Ujo, are building a system which would attempt to solve the issues that music world is finding it hard to deal with, i.e., licensing and global royalty distribution. And here is the part that will be ‘music’ to our ears as well; it plans to use blockchain technology to do so! Blockchain is a highly decentralized network run by people who update all transaction in real time. What makes this network transparent is that these individuals are not under any company. These records are kept on a public ledger which is open to anyone and anywhere, and is known as blockchain. So far, this system has been found to be impossible to breach and hence, it is now widely being seen as the answer to the traditional…