“We are looking very carefully at the question of whether we should issue a digital dollar,” said Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in testimony before the Senate banking committee. “We are the world’s reserve currency and we have a responsibility to get this right.” As digital currency moves from the …

Despite scattered successes, too many pitfalls dot the road to widespread merchant acceptance. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies captured the public imagination over the past year, as Bitcoin shattered record after record, PayPal and Square Cash announced they would allow customers to buy cryptocurrency, and major financial institutions such as Bank …

Amadis, Advanced Mobile Payment Inc., and Texas Engineering Consulting Systems and Services said they launched the jointly-developed EMVMadeEZ, a pre-certified EMV migration product for automated fuel dispensers. The product enables convenience store operators, small chains, and single gas station owners with an EMV-at-the-pump service.Payments-technology provider AEVI International GmbH said it is …

Launched in 1989, Digicash introduced the first cryptocurrency. In the 1990s, it was considered leading-edge payments technology. But physical and digital currencies are payment networks. In payment systems, good technology is neither sufficient nor generally the biggest hurdle. No matter how good the technology, without critical mass they’re worth little.  …

Cryptocurrency can be a volatile store of value and continues to struggle as a medium of exchange, but merchants in some markets are slowly moving to accept it as a faster and cheaper payment method than cards in the face of complications brought on globally by the pandemic or by …

The two big card networks have made no bones about their interest in supporting cryptocurrency transactions, and last month both made major moves in that direction. The actions came as the value of the leading virtual currency, Bitcoin. has soared to record highs in recent months. The bigger move came …

Payments provider Clearent LLC and Transaction Services Group, a New Zealand-based software and integrated payments provider, will merge and form Xplor Technologies, TSG announced. Terms were not disclosed. Both companies are part of investor Advent International’s portfolio. The combined company will serve more than 82,000 businesses that processed more than $27 billion …

Promise Network Inc., a startup specializing in government-related payments such as utilities, child support, and parking tickets, said it has raised more than $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Kapor Capital and XYZ Venture Capital.A survey by payroll platform Everee Inc. of 400 U.S. independent contractors found that …

The push to increase the utility of cryptocurrency for purchases got a shot in the arm Friday as BitPay Inc., an Atlanta-based processor that offers crypto e-wallets, announced its prepaid Mastercard cardholders can add their card to the Apple Wallet and make purchases using Apple Pay. The BitPay Mastercard is …

The two big card networks have made no bones about their interest in supporting cryptocurrency transactions, and this week both made big moves in that direction. The bigger move came from Mastercard Inc., which on Wednesday announced its intention to launch later this year the ability to send and receive …