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Russia hopes to launch its own digital currency
Russia has been talking openly about the prospect of creating its own cryptocurrency, and it looks like the country might turn those words into action. Local news outlets report that Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov has confirmed plans to launch a state-controlled digital currency. Don't expect to generate virtual rubles with your PC any time soon, though. While it would use blockchain to decentralize control and improve trust, you reportedly can't mine it -- instead, it'd be issued and tracked like conventional money. This would theoretically let Russia boost its internet economy without tying the fate of its currency to other countries or third-party brokers.
Tap your phone to withdraw cash from Wells Fargo ATMs
Wells Fargo enabled smartphone-only ATM withdrawals back in March, but the need to punch in both an app-specific code and your PIN partly defeated the convenience of the feature. As of now, though, it's decidedly easier: the bank has enabled NFC access at more than 5,000 of its ATMs across the country. As with Chase, you just have to tap your phone (using Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay) and enter a PIN code to start a transaction at a supporting machine. Suffice it to say this is considerably faster than entering two codes just to withdraw some cash.
EU raids banks over attempts to block financial tech rivals
You'd think that governments were waging a war against financial technology given reports of crackdowns and tighter regulation, but the opposite is true in Europe. EU officials have confirmed that they recently raided the offices of bank authorities in multiple countries, including the Netherlands and Poland, to investigate antitrust "concerns" that banks are stifling tech-driven newcomers. The banking establishment is allegedly preventing fintech companies from accessing account info despite customers granting permission, pushing people back to conventional services.
Roku's IPO pushes its value to over $2 billion
When Roku announced it was chasing an IPO, its sights were to raise $100 million. The end result is more than double that, according to Bloomberg. As of press time, investors had bought some $219 million in stock and the company has been valued at $2.1 billion. What's the streaming outfit planning to do with all that cash? Probably wrangle together more ad-supported programming.
China is clamping down on smaller bitcoin trading channels
China's crackdown on bitcoin could extend well past big commercial exchanges. Wall Street Journal sources claim that the country is leaning toward a "comprehensive" ban on bitcoin trading channels, such as over-the-counter platforms that help buyers and sellers find each other. It's not certain that this would forbid peer-to-peer trades (such as through messaging apps), but it would likely entail blocking access to foreign exchanges. You couldn't just turn to an American exchange like Coinbase if China-native outlets aren't available.
Pirate Bay 'borrows' visitor CPUs to mine virtual coins
Piracy websites can't really depend on ads, so how do they make money? By using your PC's processor cycles, apparently -- whether you want to or not. Visitors to The Pirate Bay have discovered JavaScript code in the website that 'borrows' your processor for the sake of mining Monero digital coins. It doesn't always happen (it mainly appears in search results and category listings), but you'll definitely notice the sharp spike in CPU usage when it kicks in.
Wind energy mines digital cash to support climate research
Climate change is frequently described as a vicious cycle that depletes the very resources needed to fight it. In the case of Julian Oliver's latest project, however, it could almost be described as virtuous. His Harvest project uses a 700W wind turbine to power a PC mining cryptocurrency (specifically, Zcash) that directly funds climate change research. In other words: the more the symptoms of climate change manifest themselves, the more money goes toward fighting that change. It was commissioned as a piece of art, but it's a very practical design that could find plenty of uses in the real world.
China might shut down the country's bitcoin exchanges
China has never been a fan of digital currencies like bitcoin, and now the country appears bent on a major crackdown. In the wake of China's recent ban on initial coin offerings (where you raise funds for a new cryptocurrency), Wall Street Journal sources understand that Chinese officials are ordering the shutdown of domestic bitcoin exchanges. The timeline isn't clear -- one says the closure decision had already been made, while another heard the process would take "several months." If the scoop is accurate, however, the motivations are clear.
After Math: As the cash flows
It was a profitable week for some of the biggest names in tech. Amazon released its second quarter earnings, Buzzfeed jumped into the hardware business with a smart hotplate, and Uber found yet another way to gouge its customers. Numbers, because how else will we know how much we owe?
Hobbyist developers will make $30 million via 'Roblox' this year
Roblox has exploded over the past two years. It's not quite a game and not quite a development platform, allowing players to boot up millions of user-made projects, or create their own games and immediately publish them across all supported platforms. In September 2015, Roblox Corporation was happy to report it had 6 million monthly players, most of them between the ages of 15 and 22, across PC, Mac, iOS and Android. Hundreds of developers were bringing in at least $250 a month selling items and upgrades in their Roblox games, and the ecosystem overall generated $2.5 million for creators. Yes, that's real-life money.
PayPal taps into your Chase and Citibank accounts
Paypal-owned mobile payment app Venmo opened up third-party app support last year in an attempt to capture more money via more merchant transactions, including those from Poshmark, Parking Panda, and Delivery.com. The service has a competitor, of course, backed by more than 30 major US banks. Zelle promises easy money transfer between the bank's own apps without having to go through a middleman like Paypal or Facebook Messenger. Two of the banks involved with Zelle, Citibank and Chase, however, have just partnered with Paypal.
AMD and NVIDIA go after Bitcoin miners with new video cards
Dedicated digital currency miners know the importance of good graphics cards -- modern GPUs have enough general-purpose computing power to process money formats like Bitcoin much faster than a CPU alone. They've never really been suited for non-stop number crunching, though, and it looks like both AMD and NVIDIA hope to change that. CNBC has discovered that ASUS is making currency mining-oriented video cards using both vendors' chipsets. The AMD-based Mining RX 470 and NVIDIA-based Mining P106 are ultimately using off-the-shelf GPUs (the RX 470 and GTX 1060 respectively), but are fine-tuned for running around the clock.
Zelle takes on Venmo from within your bank's app
From Venmo and PayPal to Facebook Messenger, Google Wallet and even iMessage, there are plenty of ways to send money to your friends online. But these all require your contacts to have accounts set up to receive funds, which often causes friction when you're using different services or they don't want to download new apps. A new tool called Zelle should solve that problem. It works with more than 30 major US banks to allow interbank transfer from within each company's app, so you or your friends don't have to set up new profiles or crowd up your already-cluttered phones with more downloads.
Bitcoin is worth more than ever, but it's losing clout
To say that Bitcoin has had a roller coaster ride would be an understatement. Between regulatory hurdles, heists and its all-too-common use in online crime, it's sometimes a surprise the cryptocurrency has survived. However, it's faring well -- so well, in fact, that the value of a coin just topped $2,000 US for the first time. While it's mostly a symbolic milestone, it reflects confidence stemming from regulation (particularly in big Bitcoin markets like China and Japan) and a rapid rise that saw its value soar hundreds of dollars in a matter of weeks.
South Korea tests prepaid cards to replace pocket change
Coins are a pain in more ways than one. You probably don't like fishing for change, of course, but they're also expensive to make (the US loses money on every penny) and require mining that hurts the environment. Wouldn't it be good to get rid of coins altogether? South Korea is trying just that. The country is starting a trial that could lead to a coinless society. As of April 20th, shoppers at several stores (Seven Eleven, CU, E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Lotte Department Store) can deposit their change into mobile and prepaid cards. If you need to pay with cash, you can stick with paper notes instead of lugging around coins that you're unlikely to use all that often.
Microsoft to offer self-service refunds for digital games
According to a Reddit user, Microsoft may be looking to offer self-service refunds for games. The feature, as discovered by user gaymerRaver, apparently enables users that have purchased a game on Xbox One or Windows 10 to get a full refund. There are some caveats, however, including that any title you want to return must have been played for less than two hours.
Russia hopes legitimizing Bitcoin will thwart crooks
Russia's existing stance on bitcoin and other digital currencies is... less than welcoming. You could face website bans and prison time just for using it. However, the country is making an about-face on the idea. Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev tells Bloomberg that Russia hopes to recognize cryptocurrencies in 2018. Officials still have to determine how they will categorize this virtual money (assets? Cash? Securities?) sometime in mid-2017, but it's now more a question of "when" than "if." Of course, this isn't a purely benevolent move -- it's really about cutting back on crime.
Monzo is now a proper digital bank
UK banking startup Monzo has been given the green light by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority to operate, well, like an actual bank. Until now, the company has been working with a restricted banking licence, which meant you had to have a connected, external bank account to use its pre-paid card and money-saving software. The mobile-first approach attracted plenty of fans, but there were limitations to the setup -- Monzo could only hold deposits up to £50,000, for instance. For years, the plan has been to become a proper digital bank.
The Morning After: Friday, February 10 2017
Welcome to the end of the week. Read how the new FCC chairman is already making moves when it comes to net neutrality and cable TV reform, Samsung's new (expensive) 4K TVs and how hundreds of thousands of artworks are free online, courtesy of the Met. Oh and the secret to dancing is that it's all in the hips. Science says so.
PayPal's Slack bot makes recouping the office bar tab easy
Slack is a popular way for teams to communicate in the office and bots make the app a lot more helpful with a number of tasks. Thanks to PayPal, there's a simple way for you to send money to a colleague or friend if they grab your coffee or pick up a bar tab after work. With the PayPal Slack bot, all you have to do is type "/PayPal send $5 to (insert username here)" and the funds will be on their way.
