5.4.2016
Good to Know: Dr. Craig Wright was trending on social media earlier this week. The Australian entrepreneur claims that his alias is Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of virtual currency bitcoin. Some people are giving him major side eye, but he allegedly has “extraordinary proof.” Apparently, he’s got receipts.
THE SKINNY
When You’ve Moved Onto Something Else …
Dr. Craig Wright had the Interwebs abuzz. But at this week’s Consensus 2016 conference in New York City, execs said yawn. Newsflash: They don’t care about bitcoin.
When You’re TRENDING…
Bitcoin is out. But, the blockchain (bitcoin’s underlying technology aka a huge public ledger that records all bitcoin transactions) is in.
When You’re Not Sure What To Do …
For now, bitcoin as a virtual currency is the only application that works across the globe via the blockchain. But, we could see other applications popping up as fintech startups and major tech companies like IBM and Microsoft are working on different apps for the blockchain. How fast these experiments turn into something real comes down to one question: Small scale projects or moonshots? In other words, do companies want to take on a major project all at once or take their time with small-scale stuff?
When You’re Curious …
What’s the better approach? Working on small, achievable applications or taking the risk and shooting for the stars? Tell us in the comments!
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
Keeping It on the D.L…
While many financial peeps gathered this week in NYC, a select group including NASDAQ, Citigroup Inc., Visa Inc., Fidelity, Fiserv Inc., Pfizer Inc., had a pow-wow on the down low back in April. Yes, there was talk of the blockchain. But, we heard that digital U.S. dollars as an alternative to virtual coins like bitcoin came up too. Fiserv Inc. even created a digital dollar for show and tell.
SPOTLIGHT
CBS 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl talked fintech on this past Sunday’s episode. She sat down with John and Patrick Collison, Irish brothers and co-founders of payments company Stripe. The whole point of the company is to allow small businesses to get their online payments from anywhere in the world hassle-free. Check it out here.
QUICK POLL – RUN THOSE NUMBERS …
Young people are into their Venmo app, and the numbers prove it. It’s grown 154 percent from last year.
THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’
Young people may heart Venmo, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission won’t be saying “Venmo, me.” The agency, which is responsible for making sure businesses are on the up and up with their practices, is looking into the PayPal-owned, peer-to-peer payment service for “unfair and deceptive” practices. BTW, Venmo would appreciate if U.S. users stayed clear of using words like “Syria” and “Cuba” on Venmo on account of it’s still illegal to send money to those countries.
San Francisco startup Varo Inc. is building mobile banking app complete with deposit accounts, budgeting tools, and other services. For now, it’s looking to partner with banks but eventually wants to be a bank of its own. New U.S. bank these days? Don’t see that every day.
Android Pay is now an official payment options for your Uber rides.