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.
Ten of the globe’s leading banks have worked with R3 to create a new service for Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure using the distributed ledger technology.
According to Seamus Cushley, financial organizations all over the world see a great potential in the blockchain technology trying to adopt it to various services.
Bitcoin experts previously predicted that the victory of Donald Trump can result in bitcoin price boost.
R3 has announced a deal with Singapore’s financial regulatory authority to establish the first dedicated distributed ledger technology (DLT) Center of Excellence in the Asian region.
Australian online travel company has unveiled a new project that is likely to change the future of the travel industry, saving travel firms billions of dollars annually.
Microsoft promises the same great functionality as the original release in the Azure Quickstart templates along with a more robust user experience.
On Wednesday, Swiss finance minister, Ueli Maurer, unveiled the government’s project to drive innovation in the country by easing regulation for fintech startups.
Iroha will allow even more developers to create projects and applications based on the distributed ledger technology.
One of the major cryptocurrency exchanges HitBTC has expanded the list of currencies traded on its platform by adding a new digital currency called Zcash.
Mastercard demonstrates its interest in the distributed ledger technology adding three blockchain APIs to its developer site.
Unlike bitcoin, Zcash doesn’t publish the full details of all transactions on the blockchain.
Segregated Witness has been added to the bitcoin core code on October 27th, offering a range of advantages like malleability fix and an effective block size limit increase.
Bitcoin has reached its highest value in the past three months, while Chinese central bank is tightening its control over the wealth management product funds.
Synereo wants to use the investment to truly disrupt the traditional role of centralized servers.
Speaking at the Money 20/20 conference on Tuesday, Overstock’s communications director, Judd Bagley, announced the company will commence trades on its blockchain platform this December.