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More shade for bitcoin from the establishment
The latest is Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, who on Wednesday told the House Financial Services Committee that cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value and have severe risks for investors, and suggested "relatively unsophisticated investors" have helped create a bubble, reports
Powell also said cryptocurrency is "great" if you're trying to launder money.
"The Committee has stated that we do not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range for the federal funds rate until we have gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%."
Saving's a blast
Blast, a savings account for gamers, has drawn a $12 million investment round for technology that allows payments to be rounded up, with small amounts transferred to a savings account.
The Forbes and Roth families are part of the investment team, along with motivational speaker Tony Robbins, reports
Blast works with most games, including League of Legends and Candy Crush. It has also integrated with account integration fintech Plaid, which gives Blast access to banks.
Ransomware loses favor with crooks
Baby steps
OCBC is the first bank in Singapore to offer e-commerce, launching a marketplace that caters to parents with babies.
Called mumstruly, the site launched with partners including Robinson Group, Singapore Medical Group and Doctor Anywhere.
The bank will manage products on the site as well as process payments and deliver other related content.
From the Web
CNBC | Thu July 19, 2018 - Tencent will step up its efforts to expand its payment service WeChat Pay to the U.S., an executive at the Chinese technology giant told CNBC, hinting at more merchants coming on board later this year. WeChat Pay allows users to show stores a barcode on their smartphone via the Tencent-owned WeChat messaging app. The shop scans the barcode, allowing a user to pay for an item or service with a Chinese bank account. WeChat has over 1 billion users and around 800 million of them use the WeChat Pay function.
CCN | Wed July 18, 2018 - Multi-billion-dollar Japanese tech conglomerate GMO has launched a new internet banking business that will use blockchain technology for faster and cheaper payments and financial services. In an announcement on Tuesday, the GMO Internet Group confirmed the launch of the GMO Aozora Net Bank in partnership with Aozora Bank Group, a joint-initiative that has been in preparation since July 2016 that will leverage the use of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) to provide new financial services through financial technologies.
Fox News | Wed July 18, 2018 - Skift recently reported that United is mandating the promotion of the airline’s credit cards on every flight, both domestic and international, by flight crews. Citing “leaked internal documents,” the outlet said starting Sept. 1 staffers will receive new training on the offerings, for which United is doubling their bonus.
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