Publicly traded software firm Splunk is using Ethereum sidechain xDai Chain to power the payments at its Las Vegas SplunkConf 2019. Payments at the conference Per a report shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 24, conference participants have the opportunity to use a dedicated, modified version of xDai’s Burnerwallet dubbed PonyPurse. Splunk’s Head of Blockchain and DLT Nate McKervey explained in a tweet sent on Oct. 21 that over 10,000 event attendees were able to spend Buttercup Bucks (BCB): “BCB is a digital currency running on the #Ethereum based @xdaichain. >10,000 attendees can earn and spend #BCB to buy special swag, …

Alfred F. Kelly, CEO of major payment processor Visa, has said that the company is still in discussions with Facebook on the Libra project. In an interview with finance and economics-focused publication Economic Value on Oct. 24, Kelly assured the interviewer that Visa still maintains a close relationship with Facebook on the subject, as it believes that digital currencies provide safer payments to more people and places. Kelly said: “As a curious and open company — and given the leadership we have in the payments ecosystem — we want to engage in everything in the payment space until we reach …

Facebook’s Libra stablecoin would be a serious threat to WeChat Pay, the payment service’s parent company Tencent admitted in a recent blockchain whitepaper. Asian news outlet EjinSight reported on Oct. 24 that in the document Tencent acknowledges that international expansion of Chinese mobile payments offerings would be threatened if Libra launched. In the newly released whitepaper, Tencent illustrated the effectiveness of Libra’s expansion strategy: “It’s a safe play resorting to the strategy of ‘encircling the cities from the rural areas,’ in which Libra coin could quickly enter markets with underdeveloped financial infrastructure, especially those that do not have a credible …

Blockchain platform TBCASoft, technology behemoth IBM and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank announced on Oct. 22 a collaboration to adopt a cross-carrier telecommunications blockchain payment solution. New cross-carrier system Per the release, the partnership aims to allow carriers to use blockchain through the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) Consortium — founded by TBCASoft and SoftBank. TBCASoft reportedly already created a cross-carrier blockchain with 18 participants. The first application that CBSG intends to launch is the Cross-Carrier Payment System (CCPS), which aims to enable mobile service users to use their phones for payments with local merchants abroad. Founder and CEO of TBCASoft Ling …

The German Federal Ministry of Finance has expressed concerns about rising use of privacy tokens due to their association with criminal activities and difficulties in tracking them. Published on Oct. 19, the ministry’s “First Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment” for 2018-2019 provided analysis aimed at the identification of existing and future risks in the field of anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorism financing (TF) in Germany. Among other challenges, the report examines circulation of cryptocurrencies in the darknet for criminal purposes. Pseudo-anonymous vs. anonymous tokens The report marks a distinction between pseudo-anonymous and anonymous tokens, noting that pseudonymity …

Assistant Governor at the National Bank of Cambodia Serey Chea said that blockchain payments will enable greater financial control and remittance efficiency in an interview with CNBC published on Oct. 22. Chea said that the National Bank of Cambodia has experimented with domestic blockchain payments for retail, but the main interest is testing them for cross-border transactions. She noted that the institution has been collaborating with Malaysian bank Maybank. It has already been recently reported that Maybank has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Bank of Cambodia on blockchain cross-border payments and remittances, though the details of the …

Web browser Opera now allows making payments with Bitcoin (BTC) directly inside the browser. The company announced the news in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 21, detailing that Opera’s 350 million users can now send and receive BTC directly from the browser, as well as use the cryptocurrency for purchasing goods and services on e-commerce websites. Additionally, the browser now enables adding a Bitcoin and TRON (TRX) card into the built-in Crypto Wallet to keep track of the cryptocurrency owned. Charles Hamel, head of crypto at Opera, commented on the new feature launch: “We believe that opening …

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on cross-border payments and remittances. On Oct. 16, Malaysian business news outlet The Edge Markets reported that the country's largest bank will work together with the National Bank of Cambodia to promote cross-border payments and remittances. With the MoU, Maybank Malaysia, Maybank Cambodia and NBC will explore the possibility of transferring funds between Cambodia and Malaysia through NBC’s blockchain-based Bakong payment system and Maybank’s Maybank2u digital platform. Chea Serey, the assistant governor and director-general of central banking at NBC said that the …

Earlier in October 2019, Binance announced a fiat on-ramp for crypto trading via Chinese payment services Alipay and WeChat. This move was part of the exchange giant’s peer-to-peer (P2P) trading rollout for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) against the Chinese yuan. The public nature of this announcement did bring questions to the fore regarding the use of payment channels like Alipay and WeChat for crypto trading. Alipay did, in fact, release statements distancing itself from cryptocurrency trading activities, with Binance later clarifying that it wasn’t working directly with the aforementioned payment services. Meanwhile the evolving narrative around the …

California-based luxury electric car manufacturer Karma Automotive has begun accepting digital currency as a means of payment at one of its stores in Newport Beach. Karma Newport Beach now enables customers to pay in Bitcoin (BTC) for new vehicle purchases and related services, according to a company news release on Oct. 15. Announcing the new offering, Karma CEO Lance Zhou said: “We are opening our platform to serve as a test bed to help convert theoretical blockchain applications to practical use. Karma’s flagship store will support our efforts to prove emerging technology and provide the latest VVIP customer treatment offerings …

United States merchant services provider and payment processing firm Aliant Payments will be paying each of its employees part of their compensation package in cryptocurrency. In a press release on Oct. 16, Aliant said that the offer reflected a desire that employees become invested customers in the shift to digital currency. Aliant’s evolving crypto payments processing solution Aliant launched its crypto processing system for merchants, dubbed CryptoBucks, back in 2017 and developed a proprietary, fully compliant solution in July 2018 to process crypto payments, converting them to USD, and offering merchants next day payouts. In a statement, Aliant CEO Eric …

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has defended Facebook’s choice to create a new currency. Canadian news outlet TheStar reported Carney’s remarks on Oct. 15, noting that he highlighted the shortcomings of the current traditional financial system. Because of the inefficiency of the payments, Carey thinks that firms such as Facebook should be involved in projects like Libra. The current payments industry is lacking More precisely, he reportedly criticized the high costs of moving money, saying that they penalize small businesses and can cost firms as much as 200 basis points per transaction, besides being processed too slowly. According to …