Economy

Bitcoin is gaining legitimacy as an alternative to cash and card payments, but for all its popularity, the digital currency has many limitations. Here are a few.

SmartMetric Inc. is launching a Bitcoin card protected with biometric fingerprint authentication. The card can be used as offline storage for bitcoins, but in the future it might also be used for payment.

The new online savings account Dream adds to the online bank's existing savings and CD mix and comes with some twists: deposit restrictions and goal-based account tools expected to come by yearend.

The nation's cash machines are becoming outmoded because of EMV, the end of a key Windows operating system, and issues raised by the ADA and PCI.

SCVNGR's LevelUp expected merchants would prefer its Interchange Zero pricing for mobile payments, but many clients told the company they would prefer to pay a 2% transaction fee.

OnPoint Community Credit Union is using person-to-person payments as the foundation of building consumer comfort with mobile as a channel for money movement.

TrueCar, Tesla Motors and Uber approach auto lending from sharply different perspectives , but each, in its own way, is dragging the slow-to-adapt industry into the future.

Acquirers say they're signing up new merchants and retaining established customers with the help of software that bundles payment services.

The Target Corp. data breach just before the holiday shopping season triggered another round of rhetoric on the merits and shortcomings of chip-based cards. But the breach's direct effect on merchant EMV plans is largely up in the air.

Cloud-based wallets, QR code wallets and other software-based wallets seem to be shoving Near Field Communication hardware out of the spotlight. But reports of the death of NFC, which enables contactless payments from many mobile devices, have been greatly exaggerated.

Acquirers say they’re signing up new merchants and retaining established customers with the help of software that “bundles” payment services.

Chirpify founder and CEO Chris Teso's five o'clock shadow and plaid shirt identify him as one of the new breed of payments entrepreneurs. His advice to newcomers: be fearless.