You can use Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin to BPAY your bills
Yes, this will be old hat to some, but you can definitely do more with cryptocurrency than letting it sit in a digital wallet. And you don’t even have to use a chain of different websites to do so. Online, local services exist that let you spend Bitcoin and its progeny directly, including playing bills. The strangely-named Living Room of Satoshi is one service that allows you to pay your bills via BPAY using various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Amounts are limited to $1000, though you can issue multiple payments for bills greater than the limit. What’s interesting (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) is that LROS […]
What directors need to know about fintech
Since all organisations rely on financial services in some way, directors will need to be cognisant of the changes fintech is bringing as it enters the mainstream. Until relatively recently fintech had been perceived as the esoteric domain of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but two stories in Australian markets this week highlighted the increasing prominence and mainstreaming of the industry. Big four bank Westpac invested $40m in ASX-listed zipMoney, according to a stock exchange announcement on Monday (7 August). As part of the investment in the Fintech small cap, the bank committed to exploring the rollout of zipMoney’s ‘buy now, pay later’ services across its payments network. On the same day The […]
Microsoft to release open source blockchain framework
Coco Framework promises confidentiality, scalability, and governance.Microsoft has launched the open source Coco Framework for blockchain networks, promising to address key drawbacks for enterprise use of the distributed transaction ledger technology. Blockchain was originally part of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and was designed for public use with anonymous, untrusted actors and full transaction transparency. This means every participant in the blockchain network would execute all transactions added to it, making them visible to everyone with no confidentiality and unsuitable for enterprise use. Existing blockchain protocols also employ computationally intensive consensus algorithms, leading to poor scalability, with performance as slow as 10 to 20 transactions per second. Microsoft said the Coco Framework […]
Bitcoin hits new record, bitcoin cash fades
Experts say the rally in bitcoin still has a long way to go, after the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high of $US3525 this week. The latest price surge has been driven by the rise and fall of bitcoin cash – a secondary cryptocurrency – and an update in the underlying bitcoin software, which paves the way for an evolution of the bitcoin blockchain. The update – called SegWit – is the product of months of internal debate within the cryptocurrency community around how to handle the rapid increase in transaction demands. A byproduct of this debate was the creation of bitcoin cash, another coin, duplicated from the original, that […]
Locked out of property market? Five better places for Millennials to put money
By Clayton Howes – CEO of MoneyMe Life sucks for an aspiring property owner right now. You probably already know that the average price of a house in Australia ($656,800) is several (eight) times that of the average full-time yearly income ($78,832). You’ve probably already heard that in the past five years alone, wages have grown significantly slower (13 per cent) than house prices (41 per cent), especially if that house is in Sydney (70 per cent). It’s enough to make you want to drown your sorrows in the most expensive smashed avo and latte combo available! But honestly – enough, already. If you’re as bored as I am of […]
Sydney fintech Stake is starting its $0 brokerage US share trading service
Sydney startup Stake will launch its $0 brokerage US share trading service within the next few days, giving ordinary Australians a low-cost opportunity to invest in brands like Amazon, Facebook and Tesla. The fintech first revealed in June its plans for the new service but the details hadn’t been settled at the time. Now founders Dan Silver and Matt Leibowitz have revealed to Business Insider that the only user fee would be 70 basis points on the foreign exchange rate when loading up and withdrawing from the US dollar trading account. Stake had also previously flagged intentions to introduce paid services on top of the basic product, but Leibowitz now […]
Could Xinja be Australia’s first neobank?
Banking startup Xinja is built solely for mobile and will target tech-savvy consumers. Fintech startup Xinja is on track to becoming Australia’s first neobank, otherwise known as a challenger bank, and has already raised close to $3 million this year. The funding will help launch 5,000 prepaid debit cards to customers before expanding its product offering to bank accounts and mortgages. Xinja will provide a banking solution for tech-savvy customers who want to be able to operate completely via their mobile phone. It will enable customers to use new accounts instantly, to see transactions in real time and to follow their money using simple virtual tools. The government announced in […]
A Bitcoin for your thoughts?
By Naomi Christopher, Midwinter Financial Services, Senior Manager – Brand Those of us in the tech world can all agree that Bitcoin is genuinely starting to take off or at least cause a stir…. If by take-off you mean clamber $672 bucks one day and slide down $384 the next. But while some of us look on with wide eyed enthusiasm as the price of it continues to climb and fall and then climb and fall (but mostly climb at the moment!), much of the rest of the world continues to scratch their heads as they grapple to understand “what’s it all about?” And of course, whether it is in […]
