| Wall Street Walkout: Top Execs Jumping Ship To Bitcoin |
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This week saw many companies bail out on New York after the BitLicense took full effect, including bitcoin exchanges Kraken and BitFinex, and Bitcoin marketplace Paxful. Much more quietly, another exodus is underway. This one is of the more traditional, mainstream "money changers" on Wall Street, heading towards the freedom of decentralized currency within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Migration from Wall Street to the Blockchain
When a person changes companies or starts a new one, it rarely makes global news, but that all changed earlier this year. When Blythe Masters left JP Morgan to begin the Bitcoin startup Digital Asset Holdings, it was a wake up call for the financial industry in the Western world, and she is not alone. This was merely the lightning rod in a thunderstorm of industry movement.
Timo Schlaefer, who has a doctorate in financial engineering, was enjoying a budding career at Goldman Sachs in London. Transferring from the Mergers and Acquisitions department to become an executive director of credit quantitative modeling, he suddenly picked up and left in February.
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What Banks Fear More Than Stress Tests, Cybercrime, and Mortgage Meltdowns (AVRN)
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Don't look now, but that quirky little digital-currency project called Bitcoin is no longer quirky, or little. It's a full-blown stable ecosystem that -- now hitting its full stride -- is about to get much bigger. It's getting big enough now to worry banks, now that they're not the only game in town.
The Bitcoin statistics are pretty staggering no matter how you slice them. Take, for instance, the sheer number of people now using the cryptocurrency on a regular basis. As of the end of last year, Juniper Research says the total reached 1.3 million. It's not a lot relative to the 7 billion people living on earth, but in light of the fact that Bitcoin was non-existent until 2009 and is still viewed as a premise as much as it is finite good, that's a pretty impressive figure.
Even more impressive, though, is the ongoing growth of Bitcoin usage, especially after a handful of computer hacks in 2014 underscored the inherent risks of digital currency.
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| It's Your Business: Get To Know Bitcoin |
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One of the best things about being a small business owner, and also one of the worst, is that the ground beneath us is always shifting.
Take, for example, all the buzz around Bitcoin, the worldwide payment system that some are calling a new kind of money. (For those unfamiliar with Bitcoin, YouTube has some helpful videos.)
Depending on whom you ask, within a few years we may all be using Bitcoins to buy and sell, or some similar technology.
Already in Charlotte a handful of businesses are starting to accept the online currency. Others are watching to see what happens.
To help explain it all, two Bitcoin enthusiasts from the Raleigh-Durham area are coming to Charlotte Friday and Saturdayto host their Second Annual Cryptolina Bitcoin Expo, an event that drew more than 300 people to its 2014 launch in Raleigh.
To get a better feel for why small business owners might want to notice this technology, I talked with Daniel Spuller, one the expo's co-founders. In the Q&A below, his answers were edited for brevity and clarity.
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Bitcoin: How My Views, And The Currency, Have Changed During The Last Year
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Exactly one year ago I embarked on a journey. I sat down to write my weekly column on Bitcoin for the first time. At the time I was somewhat skeptical. As somebody with a background in the interbank foreign exchange market, my interest at the time was almost purely that of a trader. This "new currency" had displayed remarkable volatility, and where there is volatility, there is potential for profit. Beyond that my knowledge was, I should say, somewhat limited and fairly typical. I had heard the bad stories: Mt. Gox's collapse and various tales of criminals attracted to the anonymity that Bitcoin offered, but that was about it.
Of course, before I wrote I did some basic research, but not enough to completely remove the feeling that this was a fad, a fascinating experiment with a limited lifespan. The fanaticism of what were at that time Bitcoin's loudest supporters was dispiriting, and served to increase my doubt as to the concept's long term viability. I was not a natural believer in the extreme, somewhat anarchistic, strain of libertarianism that saw digital currencies as a blow to the power of government. Plus, the paroxysms of rage directed at any questioning of any aspect of Bitcoin was, to say the least, a little off-putting.
Over the last year, however, I have come to appreciate the Bitcoin community, where there is undeniable passion at the extremes. Additionally, a year ago, the members of the "anti-Bitcoin" brigade were as vocal and ubiquitous as the supporters, but they seem to have drifted away.
The attitude of big money has changed too. When I started, I don't believe there was a major bank that had done anything but dismiss the idea and warn customers not to get involved. Now hardly a day goes by without another bank releasing some kind of ringing endorsement of Bitcoin, or rather the technology behind it.
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| Bitcoin Being Increasingly Used By Tourists |
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Biometric authentication company NXT-ID has observed that Bitcoin is now being increasingly used as a standard currency more often, especially by tourists. Many instead of converting Euros choose to bring Bitcoin. Although it could be a late fad, but Bitcoin being acceptable at restaurants, amusement parks and gift shops prove one point, and that is that the market for this remains insatiable and secure digital Wocket® indeed will help a consumer make safe choices.
It was recently reported that interest in Bitcoin has evened out and blockchain is emerging as the main attraction among the financial institutions. Wocket is now in a strong position to help consumers who want to use Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
After the launching of the secure digital Wocket®, that looks set to also ease the usage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and the raising of the capital to fund marketing and production expansion for the impending holiday season, the shares of NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD) have been cut down to half as the stock market has been really undergoing turbulent times recently especially when it comes to liquidity of the already thinly-traded issues.
Leading research and investment firm Zacks, which is driven by a set of quantitative and also a backward-looking metrics, has a sell rating on the stock. NXT-ID, however, maintains that it has remained on the plan and will continue to remain steady on it.
Recently, the company announced it has filed provisional patent 62/198989 for ELECTRONIC CRYPTOCURRENCY MANAGEMENT METHOD AND SYSTEM in a bid to advance cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin into the consumer payments market.
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| BBVA: Blockchain Tech Could Replace Centralised Finance System |
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Blockchain technology could be used to bypass today's centralised financial infrastructure entirely, according to a report by BBVA Research US.
The report, titled Blockchain Technology: The Ultimate Disruption in the Financial System notes that the application of blockchain technology would first be useful in the payments space, where it would eradicate the need for any intermediaries and significantly reduce costs for banks.
However, decentralised public ledgers could disrupt the financial system as a whole, adds the report. "Given that the majority of financial assets such as bonds, equities, derivatives and loans are already electronic it may be possible that someday the entire system is replaced by a decentralised structure."
Touching upon smart contracts, the report also noted how being able to register and trade assets on a decentralised register increases efficiency.
It adds:
"In this environment, the current system where financial institutions record individual's accounts in a centralised fashion and the bank's reserves are stored by the central bank would be replaced by the 'Internet of money' or the 'Internet of finance' - a fully decentralised financial system."
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