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.
The platform called Quorum will allow using a publicly available system for confidential transactions.
According to the internet entrepreneur, the launch of MegaUpload 2.0 and BitCache will cause the bitcoin price surge.
The US-based multinational technology company has studieв and announced the benefits and prospects of blockchain use in banking and financial markets shperes.
Computing giant will be working with Bank of America Merrill Lynch on creating blockchain technologies to improve financial exchanges between enterprises.
A group of eight banks, including UniCredit, HSBC, and UBS, have finally tested a distributed ledger prototype for bonds exchange using Intel’s blockchain platform.
ResuPress will offer two payment plans both for advanced bitcoin users and newcomers.
A number of the world’s leading banks have partnered to form Global Payments Steering Group, the first interbank group for payments based on the blockchain technology.
The program manager of Microsoft Azure’s blockchain engineering team, Marley Gray, has announced the initiative that will let customers to use fabric for building blockchain apps.
The Judge rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio who tried to prove that bitcoin does not qualify as “funds”.
BNP Paribas is planning to announce a new platform developed in the collaboration by the end of 2016.
IBM announced a partnership with the Japan-based Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to use the distributed ledger technology for the execution of contracts among business partners.
Ripple is proud to announce that it has significantly expanded the list of its customers and investors.
Keystone Capital Corporation has announced a license agreement with Overstock’s subsidiary to use its blockchain trading technology for offering trading account and brokerage services to investors.
Bankchain offers to reduce risk exposure and increase operational efficiency by delivering instantaneous transaction settlement.
To achieve its proposed offer to allow a true P2P economy which enables large scale cooperation between individuals without them being taxed by platform giants,