Technology

To take Bill Gates’ anti-cryptocurrency comments at face value is to dismiss out of hand a $500 billion cryptocurrency market and the thousands of traders, scientists, engineers, academics, businesspeople and media professionals it employs, writes Rob Viglione, co-founder of ZenCash.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's “Project Catalyst,” launched six years ago to help fintech companies navigate regulations, has failed to deliver.

While building consumer trust in these new payments methods will undoubtedly take time, the possibility of freeing consumers from physical payment objects — cash, cards, phones — would be transformative, writes Beatta McInerney, business development manager for payments at ScanSource.

It's hard to build an online marketplace when the same products can be found just as easily on Amazon and eBay. But Reverb has found success in fine-tuning the way it handles data and payments.

Eno is into reality TV, says Capital One's head of artificial intelligence. Who's afraid of big, bad Amazon? Not Nandita Bakhshi. Goldman Sachs won’t be breaking any glass ceilings. Plus, a study on sexual harassment in banking.

Legacy financial firms like the big credit bureau are seeking out financial technology to diversify themselves, bring new products to market faster and meet the needs of global customers.

Doubling down on its surprise pivot to blockchain technology, the former parent company of Long Island Iced Tea—now Long Blockchain Corp.—is buying a U.K. tech firm specializing in distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrency.

Global payments processor Payscout has launched a self-service payment portal to process transactions between a business and its debtors, in effect linking businesses to back-end processing facilities without involving bill-collection agents.

With substantial regulatory relief within reach, community bankers should use their clout to shape cybersecurity policy and ensure a level playing field for banks and nonbanks, retiring ICBA chief Cam Fine says.

Internet searches for “Bitcoin” have plunged, suggesting public interest has, too.