All roads lead to China: Surging demand pushes bitcoin above $700 June 13, 2016 The bitcoin price has breached the $700 (£491) mark today, a mere two weeks after the cryptocurrency broke through the psychological $500 barrier for the first time since August 2014. The price of a single bitcoin has hit a high of $703 according to market exchange trader Bitcoinity, while CoinDesk reported a day-high of $706.70 by around 1.30pm (GMT). [...]
The war on cash is raging – should we welcome or fear the death of hard money? June 7, 2016 Cash is no longer king. Although the Bank of England unveiled a new, polymer-coated £5 note last week, the seemingly unstoppable march towards paper-free transactions continues. Electronic payments overtook notes and coins last year in the UK, according to the Payments Council, an industry body representing the banks and card machine industry. They now account for [...]
A Decentralised Autonomous Organisation – “DAO” – has already raised a staggering $33m. What does that mean? May 9, 2016 The first Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) fund has now raised over $33m, making it the second-largest crowdfunding project of all time. DAOs enable people to buy tokens in Ether, the cryptocurrency of Ethereum. Token-holders (who are a bit like shareholders) are then able to invest in smart-contract projects that run on the Ethereum blockchain – operating [...]
Prepare for disintegration: How new technology and the euro-crisis legacy could break the EU apart May 5, 2016 Somewhat lost in the current debate over the UK and the EU is the fate of the European Union itself. Are we arguing over the membership of a club which might not exist 10 or 20 years from now? The pre-eminent American historian of the EU, John Gillingham, has written: “The EU is unfit for [...]
Introducing the DAO: The organisation that will kill corporations May 3, 2016 Imagine a world where companies didn’t exist. Instead of corporate entities being brought into existence through statute, networks of individuals would work, co-operate and generate wealth via DAOs – decentralised autonomous organisations. The hierarchical, centrally governed organisations we’re all so familiar with would not be needed. This is the world that the creators of the [...]
Blockchain, the technology behind digital currency bitcoin, makes a splash in insurance to offer a solution to homeowners renting out part of their property March 10, 2016 SafeShare is making digital waves by launching the first blockchain-based insurance solution for the sharing economy on the market. The insurance startup, in partnership with Vrumi, is offering the product, which was created with Z/Yen Group and using open source timestamp service MetroGnomo, to homeowners. Sharing economy firm Vrumi allows homeowners with extra rooms to [...]
The Bank of England, blockchain and the future of the payments industry: Innovation, resilience or both? February 23, 2016 The Bank of England's principal objective is clear: to maintain monetary and financial stability. It is, therefore, almost by definition, a risk averse institution. Yet in a speech to leaders in the payments industry delivered last month, the Bank’s deputy governor for markets and banking outlined the need to modernise the UK’s real-time gross settlement system (RTGS). This [...]
Which cities have the most businesses accepting bitcoin? London, New York, San Francisco among the world’s 11 most bitcoin-friendly cities January 18, 2016 Where in the world can you do most with your bitcoins? London is one of the hotspots for the cryptocurrency, but other than that your best bet is to head to the US. Using data from Coin Map, Crypto Coin News has put together a ranking of the world’s most bitcoin-friendly cities, based on the [...]
Comeback currency of the year: Bitcoin beat the dollar by nearly 40 per cent last year to become the best performer of 2015 January 12, 2016 Bitcoin was the world’s best-performing currency in 2015, beating out the US dollar by nearly 40 per cent. The cryptocurrency has been on a roll lately, boosted to hit a 2016 high of $450 by recent turmoil on Chinese stock markets. In afternoon trading, the currency was at $446.31. “Bitcoin is living up to its [...]
Bitcoin price soars past $450 on the back of China turbulence January 7, 2016 Bitcoin is having a roaring start to 2016 so far. While the pound has fallen to a five-year low against the dollar amid another turbulent day in China, bitcoin has benefited from the drama to go on a tear to $450 and beyond, hitting its highest point since Christmas. The cryptocurrency started the day at [...]