A 150-year-old English church is being sold for $1.5 million with the vendor accepting payment in Bitcoin (BTC). Vendor is willing to receive payment in Bitcoin According to a listing on Rightmove, a major British online real estate portal and property website, a vendor put an 18th-century church converted into a seven-bedroom character property up for sale and is willing to accept Bitcoin as payment. While the property unit is priced at 1.2 million British pounds ($1.5 million), the final price in Bitcoin is to be agreed and confirmed with the vendor and will depend on the market price of …

Five major automakers — BMW, General Motors, Ford, Renault and Honda — will start testing a blockchain car identification and payment system next month in the United States. Automakers envision self-paying cars, digital IDs Nikkei Asian Review reported on Oct. 14 that the partnership aims to test the vehicle ID system developed under the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative. As part of the project, cars are assigned digital IDs linked to ownership, service history and a wallet allowing the vehicle to automatically pay fees without specialized hardware. The alliance reportedly envisions the system being applied to connected electric vehicles so tolls, …

The China Construction Bank (CCB) officially released the second version of its blockchain trading platform, which reached 360 billion yuan ($50 billion) in cumulative transaction volume. CCB will actively promote blockchain platform On Oct. 9, Xinhua news agency reported that CCB, one of the big four banks in the People's Republic of China, announced the release of “BCTrade 2.0,” a blockchain trade finance platform that digitizes trade and financial services between a reported 54 domestic and overseas CCB branches and 40 external organizations, including a number of state-owned and foreign banks. The platform conducts trade and financing activities, such as …

Alfa-Bank and Novolipetsk Steel Company (NLMK), in cooperation with Commerzbank and Vesuvius GmbH, are piloting Russia-Germany cross-border payments on R3’s Marco Polo network. Powered by R3’s Marco Polo Blockchain Global Trade Network On Oct. 11, Alfa-Bank announced that it is launching a foreign trade finance pilot transaction, with the cooperation of NLMK, Commerzbank and Vesuvius GmbH using R3’s Corda-powered Marco Polo Network. In the announcement, Alfa-Bank described itself as Russia’s largest financial institution measured by total assets, total equity, deposit and loan portfolios. The cross-border payment pilot aims to build a digital end-to-end trade finance and supply chain finance solution …

Ripple’s investment arm Xpring has invested into cryptocurrency wallet BRD to enable users to hold, purchase, sell and spend XRP tokens through the wallet. Xpring announced the development in an Oct. 11 blog post, noting that BRD — a mobile cryptocurrency wallet, with a reported user base of 2.5 million — will build on the Xpring platform to support and integrate XRP. Large user base and geography By selecting BRD, Xpring ostensibly focused on the wallet’s large user base and territorial coverage of 170 countries, as well as the company’s healthy growth in key metrics such as transaction volume. The …

French crypto startup Keplerk has relaunched its service to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments in over 5,200 tobacco shops in France starting from Oct. 10. Service first launched in January After suspending the service in less than two months after launch in January, Keplerk says that its customers will be able to buy Bitcoin from tobacconists in coupons of 50, 100 or 250 euros, France’s top news channel BFM TV reports Oct. 10. According to the report, Bitcoin payments in all 5,200 locations will be feasible through Keplerk’s partner Bimedia, which will provide payment terminals. As previously reported, Keplerk’s initial launch …

Alipay, the digital payment arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has declared that it will be banning any transactions related to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Combating illicit players On Oct. 10, Alipay reiterated its anti-crypto stance in a Twitter thread, which warned that the company is closely monitoring over-the-counter transactions to identify irregular behavior and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Alipay wrote: “If any transactions are identified as being related to bitcoin or other virtual currencies, @Alipay immediately stops the relevant payment services.” This move follows various reports that Alipay is being used for BTC transactions. Binance uses Alipay …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has begun accepting fiat currencies through online payment service Alipay and mobile messaging and payment app WeChat, CEO Changpeng Zhao confirmed in a tweet on Oct. 9. Zhao was quick to clarify that Binance is not working directly with WeChat or Alipay, and users are still able to use them for peer-to-peer transactions. The move follows the implementation of Binance’s peer-to-peer trading for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) against the Chinese yuan (CNY) earlier on Oct. 9. The service will be initially available to Android users who already have Binance accounts registered for at …

The United Kingdom’s central bank has established provisions that Facebook’s yet-to-be-released Libra stablecoin must comply with in order to be issued in the country. The Bank of England presented its latest Financial Policy Summary and Record at a Financial Policy Committee (FPC) meeting held on Oct. 9. The document — which addresses the resilience of the U.K. financial system in general — discusses innovative developments in the payments sector, noting that Libra has the potential to become “a systemically important payment system.” Launch of new payment systems The FPC pointed out that it would require payment systems like Libra to …

Crypto wallet and debit card service company Cryptopay now offers transfers with the British pound (GBP) through the Faster Payments Scheme. Cryptopay revealed the development in a news release with Cointelegraph on Oct. 9, specifying that its United Kingdom-based users can now fund their accounts and make withdrawals with GBP, avoiding euro conversion charges. The release further explains: “Upon activation users will get their own sort code and account number, which means that the transfers will bear the account holder’s name, not Cryptopay. This is especially important as some banks may block crypto-related transactions resulting in money getting stuck with …

United Kingdom-based financial software firm Finastra has partnered with Ripple to join RippleNet, a global blockchain payments network with over 200 members. Faster integration with partners As officially announced by Ripple on Oct. 9, the new partnership will allow hundreds of Finastra’s customers to connect and transact with RippleNet to provide faster and cheaper cross-border payments. In turn, over 200 financial institutions on RippleNet will have access to Finastra’s network of banks, allowing mutual customers to access and partner with each other. Users will be able to send international payments with end-to-end tracking and monitoring of the fees, transaction time …

OmiseGo, a finance-oriented scaling network for Ethereum (ETH), has become a member of Universal Protocol Alliance, a coalition of blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused firms. Targeting financial services and tax collection In a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 8, the startup revealed that it will incorporate the Universal Protocol Platform UPT utility token into its payment processing technology. By doing so, OmiseGo intends to let stakeholders to use UP stablecoins for financial services and tax collection, as well as collect transaction fees. Dan Schatt, co-founder of the Universal Protocol Alliance, said that OmiseGo’s technology “will help support the mass adoption …