For the average millennial or at least anyone that pays attention to the business world, the term “cryptocurrency” would not seem like such a strange word. If that is, then the terms Bitcoin, Ethereum or at least Blockchain should ring a bell. One might wonder, why are these terms suddenly so prevalent, especially cryptocurrency news? Computing is getting rather pervasive and the society is leaning towards digital services. The finance world too isn’t spared as the disruption of technology into this sector has fostered the birth and development of Fintech organizations.
These Fintech organizations look to digitize payments and transactions, offering the same services that are currently in existence but in a better, efficient and more effective way.
Blockchain is the network upon which most of these cryptocurrencies operate on. The history of blockchain and bitcoin, in particular, does not have a definite story. In 2009, an individual or group of individuals known to be “Satoshi Nakomoto” developed and published the technology to allow people make digital payments between themselves anonymously without having an external party to verify or authorize the transfer of the currency being exchanged.
Although technologies like this might seem rather complex, understanding how Blockchain works is quite easy, given that one has a basic idea of how networks work. Blockchain is simply a database shared between several users, containing confirmed and secured entries. It is a network, where each entry has a connection to its previous entry.
This technology affords a very secure model whereby every record in the database cannot be tampered with. Apart from the stellar security that this network offers, the transparency and speed at which the network operates give it an edge over the conventional way of conducting transactions.
In simple terms, cryptocurrencies are just monies in digital form, transacted via digital means and over a digital network. The transfer of these currencies is utilized with cryptography and the aforementioned blockchain network. Up until the 2010s, cryptocurrencies were not really known until Bitcoin made its breakout and this gave rise to the birth of new cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies have had their fair share of bullish and bearish trends, going to show how unstable they can be. The latest cryptocurrency news reports lots of people predicting prices for various cryptocurrencies in the years to come but no-one can say for sure.
Blockchain, on the other hand, is making its way into pervasive computing, especially IoT, giving way for the development of new solutions that embrace data security and transparency.
By offering advanced products for institutional investors, Coinbase tries to satisfy their growing demands in the crypto sphere.
Amber Baldet, the former head of blockchain projects at JP Morgan, announced her new project Clovyr. Patrick Mylund Nielsen, former developer for J.P. Morgan’s open source blockchain projects, became her partner.
Under this new Xpring initiative, Ripple will invest, incubate, acquire and provide grants to business that will make use of XRP or the XRP Ledger.
Blockchain is here to change the world. The first in history commercial trade finance transaction based on this technology has been carried out by HSBC.
Being built on the foundation of community support, Coinpulse Exchange will be giving away 200 free CPEX Tokens to everyone who signs up on its new innovative crypto-currency exchange.
Meet DX.Exchange. It is the first NASDAQ-powered cryptocurrency exchange that will go live in June and will offer zero fee trading to its users.
With blockchain technology opening the gateways for improvements across multiple sectors, New York sees its ability to streamline the process improving various services using the blockchain.
CME Group is announcing new ethereum price products that will provide users with an access to a reference rate and a real-time pricing index for the world’s second-largest digital currency.
Bitbond may drive out the global leader by using Bitcoin’s blockchain for international transactions. The borderless nature of this approach may boost the development of new business models.
Digix and GoldMint, similar in purpose, but still qualitatively different projects for tokenization of gold, are designed to hedge cryptocurrency volatility and simplify the process of trading commodities.
Thanks to Basepay ambitious plans, cryptocurrency payments will soon become available to a great number of people all over the world.
Omnitude, middleware blockchain-based platform, works to help eCommerce businesses and their customers making online retailing more transparent, profitable and secure.
ICOs were the first attempt at crowdfunding on the blockchain, but unforeseen problems have fueled the development of new fundraising solutions.
CBA CFO Rob Jesudason has left the bank to join Block.one, the company behind EOS coin which has recently enjoyed an increase in market capitalization.
The XRP Symbol project has been initiated to assign XRP tokens a Unicode-compliant currency sign.