Dan Loeb’s Third Point has taken a stake in PayPal Holdings Inc. in a vote of confidence for the payments processor as it faces increasing competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Square Inc.

The news that Snap Inc. is shutting down Snapcash, a version of Square Cash offered on its Snapchat social media platform, may have less to do with P2P payments and more to do with the long-term future of the company itself.

Maybe it's coincidence, or maybe it's progress — in recent weeks, a number of large payment networks have suffered brief but widespread outages, particularly in Europe.

The recent tariff escalations could cause financial pain for specific shopping corridors, particularly in price-conscious locales.

Mastercard and Worldpay are embarking on a strong push to promote Mastercard's Pay by Bank system, which will likely face a deluge of competition under the updated Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which took effect this year.

Digital payments are becoming a critical aspect of nearly every new service for merchants or financial institutions.

With the advent of the quantum computing, current encryption algorithms stand to be broken, and all of our data could be vulnerable as a result, writes Malte Pollmann, CEO of Utimaco.

Starbucks achieved rapid adoption of its mobile card app by building it on top of the highly successful Starbucks closed-loop gift card. Such a model could also apply to the cannabis market, which is largely shunned by mainstream banks and card networks.

Businesses that stick with the single gateway strategy will eventually find themselves challenged to grow with customer demands, as well as expand globally. As businesses grow, multiple payment processors are not only preferred, but required, writes Krish Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Chargebee.

A few early adopters — mostly restaurants — have gone cashless, but many merchants have concluded that cash must remain on their menu of payment options.

Since blockchain technology is based on the core principle of decentralization, it provides an opportunity to break through the multiple middleman fees with an alternative low-fee digital payments network, writes Sarthak Moghe, CEO of TillBilly.

Contactless card and mobile payments are set to see significant uptake in Australia, already a world leader in contactless card acceptance, as the country starts to implement open transit payments.

London-based Shieldpay will expand its reach in the U.S. this year through a partnership with AutoClassics.com.

Paysafe Group will launch an in-store and online installment payment service to serve a growing appetite it sees in the U.S. and Canada.

Amazon Prime Day is a marketing "holiday" that aims to expand Amazon Prime membership, a $119 subscription that's a major part of Amazon's marketing strategy at its core site and Whole Foods.

Overreliance on the smartphone risks mistaking device authentication for user authentication.

Worldpay and Mastercard have formed a global strategic partnership, expanding the ways consumers and merchants connect for online and in-app payments via Mastercard’s Vocalink business.

On the surface, the Uber-Venmo partnership sounds like a coup for Venmo, getting its brand into the app that defined the ride-sharing category. But the partnership is a much bigger deal for Uber.

Despite some criticisms of the strategy, community banks should continue to pair up with fintech companies that can help them expand their digital offerings.

If fintechs can prove effective at overcoming fraud challenges as they scale their customer base, they’ll be able to better capitalize on their unique position of operating independent of legacy platforms as they create a more financially connected consumer experience, writes Dave Excell, founder and CTO of Featurespace.