Speeding up Crypto Using a New Payment Channel Network Design (Faster Than Lightning)

The topic of payment channel networks is arcane but also required to speed up blockchain transactions. Bitcoin uses Lightning and ...

Here’s What to Expect from Commerce and Fintech in 2020

by Rachel Gore

January 30, 2020

2019 was business as usual for U.S. consumers, as consumer payment volume and growth remained solid. Year-over-year holiday spending from ...

Vodafone Dumps Libra, Libra Touts Governance Is Sustainable

Vodafone Dumps Libra; Libra Touts Its Governance as Sustainable

by Tim Sloane

January 22, 2020

Another early member of Libra, Vodafone, has pulled out. This follows the departure of PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. Vodafone ...

Finger on the Pulse! Waving Goodbye to a Big Year for Biometrics

by Lina Andolf-Orup

January 16, 2020

After years of predictions and goals set for “2020”, it feels quite surreal to have finally welcomed in the year ...

Bitcoin Is up 9,000,000% in a Decade: Is It Time for You to Invest?

by Tim Sloane

December 31, 2019

Are you feeling lucky? This Bloomberg article gives the history of Bitcoin’s ups and downs in value and offers an ...

Will Ethereum Updates on New Year’s Cause ETH Havoc?

by Tim Sloane

December 30, 2019

Ethereum has a problem and Ethereum 2.0 is supposed to be the fix. The problems, as stated by SFOX Edge, ...

Bitpay Now Supports Stablecoins, but Other Challenges Lie Ahead If Bitcoin Is Upgraded

by Tim Sloane

December 11, 2019

Cointelegraph states that a Bitcoin upgrade to BIP21 addressing may eliminate the addressing method currently used by BitPay. If so, ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Tag: cryptocurrency