Ethereum is a contract validating and enforcing system based on a distributed public ledger (or blockchain) such as the one implemented by the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Yet, Ethereum also features an internal Turing-complete scripting language that can be used to encode advanced transaction types directly into the blockchain. This allows for the deployment of self-enforcing smart […]
Photo: Mark Hodson Every week, we’ll be offering a quick rundown of the most relevant news in finance and technology. PayPal reached a valuation of $ 50 billion in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq as an independent company since its split from eBay (which had acquired PayPal back in 2002 for $ […]
Ethereum, the decentralized application and smart contracting platform prepares to shoot the starting gun, as their Frontier release reaches 99% 98% completion. Miners, who have been waiting a year since the crowdfund, have begun sharpening their GPU pick axes. [Update: Another bug seems to have been added over night, bringing it back to 98%] Imagine […]
Successful partnership is possible, under the right circumstances. Source: McKinsey In May, McKinsey released a report of their latest findings and advice on potential improvements in banking and payments. The report points out that the threat of disintermediation looming over banks can be neutralized through the implementation of judicious partnerships and white-labeling of technological products […]
This is the first in a series of recommendations on who to follow in fintech social media. Stay tuned for more. #FintechFollowFriday Financial technology is like a busy intersection in a huge city. Banking and finance runs east to west; from the venerable past into the unknown future. Traffic on that road isn’t as fast […]
Consumers are demanding faster payments in the UK. Photo: Flickr This is part 1 of our 2-part interview series with Jeremy Light on the future of payments. Real-time payments is the hottest topic in Europe if not globally, says Jeremy Light, a managing director at Accenture and payments industry expert. When you think of influential authorities […]
WiredMoney 2015 was held on July 8 at the British Museum in London, and as audiences have come to expect, the event attracted presenters and speakers from power players and new entrants to the world of finance. Incumbents like Visa shared the stage with disruptors like Bitcoin, and Ripple Labs presented on the integration of […]
In its comprehensive report on the impact of emerging payment schemes, the message of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is clear—the industry must integrate legacy systems with new technologies in order the leverage the best of both worlds. The report, which had a mandate to “explore the transformative potential of new entrants and innovations is […]
An open marketplace has expanded both supply and demand for taxi services. Photo: Daniel Horacio Agostini One unique feature of Ripple is the open nature of the network, which has numerous benefits for banks, market makers, regulators and ultimately consumers. Given that the idea of an open value network is somewhat of a new paradigm, […]
The Ripple ecosystem has many participants including gateways, market makers, and users—and we want to make it easier for you to customize the currencies and gateways that you access on Ripple Charts. Although we have done our best to update the gateway list as often as possible, we are now launching a new feature that […]