Blockchain

Earlier this year Ripple announced that it has dedicated $50 million toward the University Blockchain Research Initiative, partnering Ripple with 17 universities around the globe from the U.K. to Brazil, with the aim of accelerating new innovations in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Andrew Keys, co-founder of the venture capital firm ConsenSys Capital, has a vision of the future bankers might find chilling, in which banks and other middlemen are cut out of financial services.

Standards are important to push blockchain payments, but the systems also need dynamic scale, according to Byung Ik Ahn, CEO of Fantom Foundation.

A multichain architecture that allows synergy between different platforms is the only viable option for ambitious applications, writes Evan Kereiakes, core researcher at Terra.

BBVA, BNP Paribas and MUFG recently used BBVA's blockchain to reach an agreement within 24 hours — instead of two weeks — to lend a Spanish power company $150 million.

The former Goldman CEO is said to be the unnamed executive at a meeting with Asian financier; the bank faces multibillion-dollar penalties in two countries.

The head of the agency developing the special-purpose federal license said the process is moving forward “independent” of legal challenges mounted by state regulators.

A standard for protocol layers and interoperability between protocols are needed to lower the threshold for businesses looking to adopt blockchain technology, writes Byung Ik Ahn, CEO of Fantom Foundation.

The credit card company's filings mirror patents Bank of America, Barclays and TD Bank have submitted in the past two years that focus on how funds transfers and data security would augment blockchain technology.

As mega data collaborations among multinational companies threaten to dominate payment technology, developers are digging even deeper into decentralized models as a workaround to sell both greater data analysis and more security.