Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
· Technology-testing provider UL says its cloud-based payments test suite has been approved by MasterCard Inc. It is used to test MasterCard mobile-payment applications. UL also says it now supports a new type approval program for mobile devices against an EMVCo standard. · TD Bank Merchant Solutions will offer small …
Read More »With an Improved Price Performance, Bitcoin Faces a Debate Over How to Grow
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has skidded about 8% since the end of 2015, putting a scare in investors and prompting talk of everything from a market correction to another recession. Unnoticed, however, is that the price of the digital currency Bitcoin has followed an almost identical path, dropping approximately …
Read More »Royal Canadian Mint Sells Digital-Currency Platform MintChip
Toronto-based loyalty-services and payments start-up nanoPay Corp. has acquired the MintChip digital-currency platform from the Royal Canadian Mint, the organizations announced Tuesday. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but nanoPay says it could be revealed at a later date. MintChip gained fame in 2012, just as Bitcoin and other virtual currencies …
Read More »Bitcoin Value Rallies As the Digital Currency Closes out a Promising Year
By John Stewart The Bitcoin digital currency is surging again. Factors ranging from the collapse of the Chinese yuan to the supposed unmasking of Bitcoin’s inventor have helped push the controversial currency’s price up 15% in the past week, to a close at $415.25 on Thursday, according to data compiled …
Read More »After a Year in the Dumps, Bitcoin’s Price Stages a Rally As Usage Steadily Climbs
After languishing in the $200s most of the year, the price of the Bitcoin digital currency rallied this week, briefly flirting with the $500 level on some exchanges before settling in the high $300s by Friday morning. At the same time, Bitcoin usage, though still relatively rare, is steadily rising. …
Read More »Blockchain Technology Enables Uphold To Offer Free Money-Exchange Services
With a mission to offer as many free, or cheap, money-exchange services as possible, Uphold, a virtual funds and commodity platform, on Wednesday launched the first of a four-phase effort to expand its reach among consumers, merchants, charitable organizations and software developers. Uphold, the new name of Bitreserve, an …
Read More »Eye on Bitcoin: Ingenico’s Bitcoin-Accepting Terminal; Feds Set Final Silk Road Auction
Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group has teamed up with Bitcoin merchant acquirer BitPay Inc. to retrofit a traditional POS terminal for Bitcoin acceptance in stores. And the U.S. Marshals Service is planning to auction off the last of the Bitcoin that the FBI seized in 2013 when it busted Ross …
Read More »Regulators Try To Catch Up With Swiftly Changing Payments Technology
By Jim Daly New York has its new BitLicense and California is actively looking at regulations for virtual currencies, but the organization that promotes uniform state laws is working on a prospective law that would guide regulations for alternative and mobile payments. The Chicago-based Uniform Law Commission (ULC) created its Alternative …
Read More »When “Free, Unlimited, Forever” Turns out To Have Limits, After All
By John Stewart While some startup transaction processors have capitalized lately on the idea of so-called free processing, at least one has now decided to backtrack on that concept. BitPay Inc., an Atlanta-based processor of Bitcoin transactions for merchants, announced Wednesday it is scrapping a plan it introduced only 14 …
Read More »Bitcoin Revisits $300-Plus Territory as Greece Grapples With Stringent Bailout Plans
The price of Bitcoin, which has languished under $300 for more than six months, briefly shot past that milestone over the weekend, only to close lower in trading later Sunday. The digital currency, which traded well over $600 a year ago before beginning a slide that saw it plunge below …
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