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Blockchain gets its first test with international trade
Some financial gurus are convinced that blockchain (the underlying tech behind bitcoin) is the future of business, and they might already have some proof. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Wells Fargo have conducted the first international, inter-bank trade deal to use blockchain for the transaction. It was a relatively modest experiment that shipped $35,000 in cotton from Texas to China, but it demonstrated the advantages of taking humans out of the equation. The deal included smart contracts that automatically sent payments and transferred ownership as the cargo reached certain locations. The companies involved didn't have to waste time sending documents, processing money or worrying about potential fraud.
Experts think bitcoin's tech is the future of finance
Even if bitcoin fades into obscurity, finance experts believe that the technology behind it will live on and even change how financial services work. According to a study conducted by Swiss non-profit World Economic Forum, the blockchain, which is the public ledger that makes bitcoin transactions possible without a central infrastructure overseeing them, has the potential to "reshape financial services." The forum is known for holding an annual conference that brings business and finance experts together.
Imogen Heap is using digital currency tech to change music
Imogen Heap is no stranger to using bleeding-edge technology to perform music, but she's now using it to change how you buy music. Her Mycelia project not only lets artists sell music directly to fans, but uses blockchains (the same technology behind digital currencies like Bitcoin) to get the kind of data that would normally require the help of a label. It'd include credits and usage rights, and could track things such as where and when people play a given tune -- if a song is really popular with Australians, you'll know it without asking anyone else.
Has the 'Bitcoin experiment' failed?
A prominent voice in the Bitcoin community has announced that he is abandoning the cryptocurrency that he helped to popularize. Mike Hearn has revealed that deep divisions within the platform's "leadership" and a looming technical apocalypse threatens the system's entire existence. The creator of bitcoin has explained his position in a lengthy Medium post, saying that he has sold his coins and is washing his hands of Bitcoin. As far as he is concerned, the "Bitcoin experiment" has "failed."
Australian securities market set to begin trading Bitcoin
The Australian securities exchange (ASX) is preparing to publicly trade shares of the Bitcoin Group on February 9th, under the BCG handle. Bitcoin Group currently operates 6,000 "mining" rigs spread across seven international locations (though mostly in China where the cost of electricity is most affordable). The company hopes to raise more than $20 million on the sale of 100 million, $0.20 shares during its initial public offering.
Bitcoin tech approved as a way to issue shares
For the first time, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is allowing a company to issue public shares using the technology behind Bitcoin. The honor went to Overstock, which was also the first retailer to accept Bitcoins from the public for purchases. It built its own crypto-currency tech via a subsidiary called T0 (T-Zero), and uses open-source Colored Coins to issue stock in the form of "blockchains," a type of electronic ledger. Overstock plans to license the tech to other public companies, and company CEO Patrick Byrne told Wired that it "can do for the capital market what the internet has done for consumers."
Microsoft wants to make Bitcoin easier for banks
Microsoft no longer solely counts on Windows 10 to pay the bills. With CEO Satya Nadella at the helm, it's also betting heavily on cloud services, and just revealed an interesting new one: Bitcoin-style encryption. Redmond joined forces with startup ConsenSys on a platform called Ethereum to help business to play around with the blockchain tech used in crypto-currency. The move is well-timed, as banks are starting to get seriously interested in BItcoin-style currency. However, Microsoft said that Bitcoin applications are "just scratching the surface of what can be done when you mix cryptographic security [with the] reliability of blockchain."
Big banks want to adopt Bitcoin tech for the financial sector
Whenever you make a Bitcoin transaction, it's recorded on a public ledger called "blockchain." Now, a handful of big banks have partnered (PDF) with New York firm R3 to adopt the cryptocurrency's database system for use in finance. These nine banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays, will help the firm develop standards and agree on the underlying architecture that the sector will use. After that, they will decide where the software can be applied and then test it out to be sure. Due to the way blockchain works, it has many potential applications: for instance, it could speed up the process of tracking ownerships or the transfer of assets between two people.
Why it makes sense for Reddit to decentralize, a la bitcoin
Imagine a version of Reddit that's fully peer-to-peer like BitTorrent, and which relies on small bitcoin transactions to function. That's something the company was actually considering last year, according to Ryan Charles, Reddit's former cryptocurrency engineer. He was hired by former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong to lead the decentralization project -- a dream that didn't last for long. After Reddit nabbed a huge $50 million funding round, Charles shifted over to a project focused on returning Reddit shares to its users via bitcoin (which was also killed off). He eventually left the company after just four months. Today, the idea of a fully P2P Reddit remains an intriguing one, especially since it would have helped the company avoid much of the turmoil it's currently seeing.
IBM's planning to harness bitcoin for its own payments platform
Bitcoin may have a long march toward legitimacy, but that doesn't mean its technical design isn't about to go mainstream. Reuters is reporting that IBM is examining the cryptocurrency's inner workings in an attempt to build a new form of international payment system. The idea behind the scheme is to get people to swap cash without having to use a bank or wire service. Instead, users would use a bitcoin-style system to transmit money anywhere in the world without having to use a third party that charges service fees.
New web service prevents spies from easily intercepting your data
The encryption that protects your email and social updates is far from flawless -- it's relatively easy for spies to intercept your data using spoofs and hacked servers. If Greg Slepak has his way, though, there will soon be a safer way to send your info. His okTurtles project uses blockchains (the transaction databases you see in virtual currencies like Bitcoin) to let you communicate over the web without the risk of a man-in-the-middle attack. Rather than rely on website security certificates that could easily be compromised, it gives individual users public keys that unlock data within blockchains. There's no centralized authority, and you can even run one of the necessary servers yourself if you don't trust others. When complete, okTurtles will have a browser add-on that lets you use this authentication on virtually any site. You could talk to a fellow okTurtles user through Gmail without worrying that someone besides your recipient could easily read the message, for example.
