Back in 2010 in my first month at Lend Academy one of the first people I reached out to was...
The payment company announced the news that they were launching a cryptocurrency yesterday; it aims to be the digital version...
In its Q3 2016 State of Blockchain report, CoinDesk provides insights on blockchain; says blockchain investment is decreasing however significant development efforts continue to occur primarily from major banks and stock exchanges; report also says interest in blockchain from central banks is likely to continue. Source
Broadridge Financial Solutions, J.P. Morgan, Northern Trust and Banco Santander have reported a blockchain solution for increased transparency in proxy voting; the pilot solution can provide daily reporting on proxy voting throughout a company's proxy voting period; the solution is built on the Ethereum blockchain platform and can also provide for enhanced proxy voting analytics. Source
ConsenSys has announced their latest venture, a peer to peer trading company called CarbonX; CarbonX plans to tokenize carbon credits; the company is backed by a co-founding group that includes the Tapscotts, authors of Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business and the World; Joseph Lubin, Founder of ConsenSys stated, "As one of the fastest growing companies working on Ethereum, a platform that is poised to reformat how the world organizes itself, ConsenSys is committed to enabling technologies to be built that will facilitate attention to externalities like pollution and critical new foundations like sustainability. CarbonX has the potential to incentivize behavior that contributes to environmental sustainability, and is an excellent example of Ethereum-based technologies poised to make positive change." Source
The project will help to connect multiple digital wallets to process money transactions; they say this will allow different currencies to flow through wallets like HTTPS, SMTP and SIP information goes between web browsers according to Banking Technology; this would allow an individual making a payment through WeChat to send money to a friend who uses PayPal. Source.
San Francisco-based Coinbase has received approval for digital currency trading of Ether and Litecoin in New York; the company was also granted approval for a debit card service called Shift Card; with the approval, Maria Vullo and the the New York State Department of Financial Services reiterated their position on the OCC's fintech charter, noting the importance for state fintech oversight. Source
In an opinion piece on American Banker, General Counsel of US Century Bank argues that community banks could gain a lot from using blockchain technology; unlike big banks they don't have resources to test ideas and spend millions of dollars; pooling their resources or joining a consortium would be the best way forward to begin to test usages of the technology; engaging with the big four bank vendors is another idea; FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry and D+H provide the core banking software at most banks and ensuring a dialogue with them is crucial; increased efficiency can help community banks stay competitive in an environment that is becoming more crowded by the day. Source
Representatives Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) have announced the creation of a Congressional Blockchain Caucus; in comments regarding the Caucus, Jared Polis said, "Lawmakers need to understand that as the world rapidly changes, it's our responsibility to ensure that we craft policies and adapt laws that match our ingenuity."; the Caucus has already gained considerable support and will seek to educate, engage and provide research on blockchain innovation and issues that could require regulatory guidelines and laws. Source
CoinDesk reports that the Ethereum incubator has cut over 90 staff, or about 14% of the company; the news follows...