Who invented Blockchain?
Contrary to popular belief, shadowy inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, did not invent blockchain. So who did? In 1991, Dr W. Scott Stornetta and his co-author Dr Stuart Harber published a whitepaper introducing ‘blockchain’, a decentralised, cryptic database where digital transactions are secured. The cryptographers’ research focused on creating a digital hierarchy system which time-stamped and chronologically secured transactions in a chain of blocks. Together, they co-authored several publications in the cryptography field to pioneer a system that was transparent and verifiable. The first major blockchain innovation came in 2008, when the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper. Bitcoin is a digital currency which can be bought and transferred […]
Peppermint entering lucrative international remittance market
Peppermint has created a wholly owned subsidiary, Peppermint Payments Pty Ltd (PPPL) to provide international remittances in the Australian market. Reflecting Australia’s history as a “land of immigrants”, this market is already large and growing faster than GDP, but supply has been shrinking due largely to increased compliance requirements. PPPL is registered with Austrac as both a remitter and a remittance network provider, and our AML/CTF program has been approved by our Australian bank. PPPL will use the brand “BIZMOTO” which is being trade-marked in both Australia and the Philippines. Agreements have been signed with multiple providers reflecting a carefully planned “best of breed” approach and architecture. Emphasis on proven […]
Aussie fintech startup Stake makes buying US shares easier than buying shoes
Aussies now have simple, pain-free access to the US share market thanks to fintech startup Stake, a revolutionary platform that makes making shopping for shares as easy as buying shoes online. Stake operates more like an eCommerce site than a financial services platform, and is breaking down the current barriers limiting Aussies to local investments, cutting out the middleman and providing simple, user-friendly tools to buy, sell and gift global shares with $0 brokerage. From Apple to Atlassian, Aussie investors now have access to US shares at their fingertips. Stake’s CEO, Matthew Leibowitz is well versed in investing in global markets, having previously spent a decade at global trading firm […]
Why Twitter is taking the place of r/Bitcoin and Bitcointalk
Many Bitcoin core developers, business leaders and commentators post more often on Twitter than in crypto-related forums, such as Bitcointalk and the r/bitcoin subreddit. They engage in heated debates on the state of cryptocurrency. See this tweet from Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, and the conversation that followed it: A check on core developer Peter Todd’s Reddit username discloses that he posts there a few times a week. However, he posts and engages other users on Twitter several times daily. Cornell University professor Emin Gün Sirer, one of the most known crypto security experts, also posts almost daily on Twitter, but never on Bitcointalk or Reddit. If […]
Bitcoin surges to record high as controversial software ‘fork’ upgrade cancelled
Bitcoin jumped as much as 11 per cent to $US7,882 after the main architects behind an upgrade to its underlying technology known as Segwit2x, which would have caused the chain to split in what’s known as a hard fork, cancelled their controversial plans. Bitcoin experts cited a statement on the Linux Foundation website, signed by several high-profile bitcoin entrepreneurs and developers who had backed the plan, that said the “Segwit2x” upgrade would be scrapped for now as it could “divide the community”. The upgrade would have changed bitcoin’s rules in a so-called “fork”, effectively cloning the existing bitcoin to create another cryptocurrency. “Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade […]
A Focus on the Digital Currency
When the Internet was invented, everyone began to look for ways to make money online. Most of these ways involved using the power and connectivity of the Internet to improve upon old industries. Advertising, retail, communications – everything was being disrupted. The banking industry was the last to be disrupted because of all the regulatory restrictions that are in place with respect to the management of money. Options like PayPal began to emerge as early as 1998, but these systems were mostly just centralized online managers of fiat currency rather than completely new digital currencies. The first true digital currency that has ever received mainstream attention is Bitcoin. It was […]
Regulated Bitcoin banking will disrupt Aussie finance sector says DigitalX
The launch of regulated, global bank trading in digital currencies such as Bitcoin will be a disruptive game-changer, says Australian digital currency consultancy, DigitalX. DigitalX (ASX:DCC) was the corporate advisor to Europe-based Bankera, which recently closed an “initial coin offering” after raising €25 million ($37 million). An initial coin offering is an unregulated means of crowdfunding using digital currency. Bankera expects to have a banking licence within the next two years and will operate as a global, regulated bank offering traditional banking and investment services to the blockchain marketplace, including payments, loans, deposits and investments. Blockchain is a technology that provides a public ledger of digital currency transactions. Each “block” […]
Bitcoin surpasses milestone price of USD$3000 across global exchanges
Bitcoin has finally surpassed the US$3000 per BTC average across global exchanges. In fact, it didn’t stop there and touched an all-time high of $3230 during the start of August 5. The decentralized cryptocurrency now commands a hefty $51.9 billion market cap while trading platforms are currently seeing intense exchange volumes at $1.6 billion USD/BTC trades over the past 24-hours. On August 5 bitcoin surpassed the $3000 USD per BTC threshold on the trading platform Bitstamp. Smashing the $3000 vantage point was not enough for bitcoin as BTC prices touched an all-time high of $3230. At press time one BTC is roughly $3150 as traders take some profits from the […]
