Clear away the coin part, and what Bitcoin invented may very well be a better infrastructure for payments: the blockchain. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that logs and confirms transactions based on user consensus. To paraphrase Sarah Martin of the Digital Currency Council, blockchain is a distributed database and …

  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 …

Banco Santander, Barclays, and USAA: Three of many banks looking at ways the blockchain can reduce operating costs. BNP Paribas: The French bank is reportedly weighing the possibility of including Bitcoin in a currency fund. Goldman Sachs: Is exploring ways to apply the blockchain to its business processes and expects …

Blockchain is robbing traditional banks. It’s yanking money from beyond concrete walls, metal locks, and private ledgers and putting it behind cryptographic walls, mathematical locks, and public ledgers. As legacy banks gasp for air, here comes the one-two-punch: LoanChain. Its blow may be deeper at the core level. Banks make …

The payments fintech SumUp said it has made Tap to Pay on iPhone capability available for clients in Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Czech Republic and Romania. The technology allows merchants to accept card payments with nothing more than an iPhone. Payment Solutions Providers Services Inc., a Canadian fintech, has agreed to acquire the …

J.P. Morgan Payments has entered into an expanded relationship with One Inc, a payments platform specializing in the insurance industry, to focus on property & casualty insurance clients. Consumers will spend $1,778 on average during the upcoming holiday season, according to projections from Deloitte Consulting LLP. The FIDO Alliance, a group backing …

Six years after dropping its support for cryptocurrency, Stripe Inc. is once again enabling its merchants to accept the digital money. As of Oct. 9, Stripe merchants can now accept USD Coin, a stablecoin that settles transactions in U.S. dollars. In the first 24 hours after launch, consumers from more …

Payments companies may not yet be ready to embrace fully the world of blockchains, but some major payments networks are taking steps to deepen their experience in the world of digital currencies. Witness Visa Inc., which early Thursday said it will help banks issue tokens they create on a blockchain. …

Payments-technology provider Stax announced it has acquired payments-gateway provider BlockChyp. Terms were not announced. Payments provider TrustCommerce said its Cloud Payments platform has been certified by all major U.S. processors, including Fiserv, Chase, Elavon, Global Payments/TSYS, and Worldpay. The temporary-staffing platform Indeed Flex is working with payment provider Branch to launch a service called Same Day …

Against a backdrop of continuing industry consolidation, community banks see digital payments as a key competitive weapon, according to newly released survey data from Bank of New York Mellon Corp. “Nearly 30% of those polled indicated that launching new technology services focused on efficiency and security, such as instant payments, …