Cryptocurrency Archives | PaymentsJournal

As the CEO of Clarus Merchant Services and a member of the merchant service and processing industry for over 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of emerging technologies and payment solutions that were going to revolutionize how consumers buy and sell goods. I deliberately moved into the electronic payment industry after personally owning thousands of ATM machines. I saw an incredible opportunity for the future of cashless payments, which would solve the need for better transparency for merchants who were working in a convoluted system wrought with hidden fees. I knew this from personal experience as I was once a merchant myself with several restaurants. Today, the big question that I am consistently asked is, “How is Cryptocurrency going to disrupt the mainstream electronic payment industry?” The transfer of assets has always been based on trust. Like the early years of crypto, the early years of banking in the U.S. was like the Wild West, as there was little regulation over banks and how they conducted business. That lack of trust led to the Great Depression of 1929. Trust was restored to the money system after the government reorganized its federal oversight of banks and added FDIC insurance for deposits. Trust in private financial institutions also played an important role in the mass adoption of credit cards. The first credit card – the Diner’s Club Card – was created in 1950. But the adoption of this new method of payment didn’t take off until Bank of America and other financial institutions issued the cards that established the Visa and MasterCard systems. Today, cryptocurrency is at a similar crossroads. Less than a year ago, it remained in the fringes and even went through its “Crypto Winter.” But last fall, crypto’s image began to change as major organizations began to announce their own venture into issuing digital coins. It started with JP Morgan’s announcement that it would issue a coin. But it was Facebook that brought crypto into focus as the mainstream and digital media pushed the news of Libra. With the U.S Senate Banking Committee recently holding hearings, it’s clear that if Crypto is going to take mainstream transacting adoption it must have the regulatory oversight that credit cards do so all of us can feel safe in trusting those transactions. “Crypto is a new asset class and should be regulated as such,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said. Regulation of cryptocurrencies is a challenging issue that is slowly being addressed on global and national levels in varying degrees. In some countries, such as Germany, bitcoin is recognized as a “unit of account” which citizens may trade freely. Other countries including Switzerland have taken a similar stance in recognizing cryptocurrencies as assets, but are also adopting laws to determine the status of the digital coins as securities and their taxability. The U.S. Government has yet to issue regulations specific to digital currencies and continues to proceed cautiously. “Although cryptocurrencies are innovative and may provide benefits related to automation and validation, they also pose challenges associated with speculative dynamics, investor and consumer protections, money-laundering risks, and governance,” the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System recently said. The Federal Reserve staff continues to “monitor and analyze developments across the spectrum of digital currencies to understand tradeoffs and to consider further these developments in the broader context of widespread payment innovations.” Specific relations to digital assets aside, all cryptocurrencies must comply with Federal regulations regarding money and banking, such as the Bank Secrecy Act, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Cryptocurrencies must also meet anti-money laundering and counterfeiting standards, and must register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. In addition, many states have adopted their own wide-ranging regulations, such as California, Texas and New York, where its controversial BitLicense regulates companies or persons residing in the state and using cryptocurrencies. Looking at crypto from the merchant side of the equation, the adoption of Federal Reserve Standards specific to cryptocurrencies will provide a framework that can open the door for digital coins to be readily accepted and processed at the point of sale. The Fed’s standards will set precedents and parameters on what form of cryptocurrency (such as a stablecoin, which is not meant to be speculative and is tied to traditional assets such as the U.S. dollar or gold) can be exchanged for goods and services.

Cryptocurrency

Mass Adoption of Crypto: It’s Coming with Regulation!

by Randy Tillim

October 16, 2019

As the CEO of Clarus Merchant Services and a member of the merchant service and processing industry for over 20...

Cryptocurrency

Aliant Payments to Pay Its Employees a Compensation Package in Cryptocurrency

by PaymentsJournal

October 16, 2019

Aliant Payments, a leading U.S. based provider of merchant services and payment processing, announced today that it will be paying...

Cryptocurrency

What Is Cryptocurrency? How Can It Benefit Me?

by Lewis Robinson

October 15, 2019

You, like most people these days, have probably been hearing about cryptocurrency - a lot. It's a technological breakthrough in...

Cryptocurrency

Don’t Let Regulators Cripple Libra

by David Seigel

October 8, 2019

Hold onto your wallets: Mark Zuckerberg’s latest brainwave, a digital currency called Libra, could be a genuine game-changer. In fact,...

Cryptocurrency

Paypal Bails on Facebook-Led Libra Cryptocurrency Dream

by Aaron McPherson

October 7, 2019

On Friday, various news outlets, starting with the Wall Street Journal, reported that PayPal was likely to abandon its membership...

Cryptocurrency

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President States That a US Fed Digital Currency Is Inevitable

by Tim Sloane

October 7, 2019

This statement was followed by two big hints about timing in the Reuters article that indicate this isn’t happening anytime...

Cryptocurrency

Should Central Banks Oversee Cross-Border Crypto Transactions?

by Steve Murphy

September 11, 2019

Cross-border B2B payments have gained increased notoriety in the past couple of years, mostly because of the growing availability of...

Blockchain

Global Payments: How They Shape the World We Live in Today and What They Might Look like ‘Tomorrow’

by Anders Uhrenholdt Anders Uhrenholdt

August 26, 2019

Traditional methods of performing transactions The conventional way of moving money across borders is to use financial intermediaries. To secure...

Cryptocurrency

New Guidelines Significantly Impacting Cryptocurrecy Exchanges

by Tim Sloane

August 16, 2019

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization that coordinates activities to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing across...

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin SV: Big Blocks for a Big Global Payment System

by Jimmy Nguyen

July 29, 2019

It’s been over 10 years since Bitcoin was introduced to the world with the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper describing “a...

Cryptocurrency

Mass Adoption of Crypto: It’s Coming with Regulation!

Aliant Payments to Pay Its Employees a Compensation Package in Cryptocurrency

What Is Cryptocurrency? How Can It Benefit Me?

Don’t Let Regulators Cripple Libra

Paypal Bails on Facebook-Led Libra Cryptocurrency Dream

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President States That a US Fed Digital Currency Is Inevitable

Should Central Banks Oversee Cross-Border Crypto Transactions?

Global Payments: How They Shape the World We Live in Today and What They Might Look like ‘Tomorrow’

New Guidelines Significantly Impacting Cryptocurrecy Exchanges

Bitcoin SV: Big Blocks for a Big Global Payment System

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