We are getting there. Regulatory clarity is a lot higher now, than it was 6 months ago. There is discussion on Bitlicences and more and more governments across the world are acknowledging bitcoins and taking a stand. Very soon, big investors will feel confident of taking the plunge.

I am glad it is a Swiss bank which is exploring Blockchain innovation. The Swiss have for decades been known for the secrecy of customer data that they maintain.
Of course, before leaping into the possibilities of Blockchain, they should start accepting Bitcoin deposits. That doesn't seem to be happening. 

How Bitcoin Will End World Poverty

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2015/04/02/how-bitcoin-will-end-world-poverty/

An interview with Brian Singer

And once you introduce blockchain cryptography, guess what they can do? Have a public ledger of ownership and transfer that cannot be denied because it’s absolutely transparent. It’s absolutely transparent. It is the means through which these individuals can get exactly what Hernando de Soto thinks they best need to bring themselves out of poverty.

It is so much more profound than that, but at its very basis, it has the ability to give these individuals the right of ownership to property. And that has more than anything else, the ability to bring them out of poverty. And I can’t wait. It’ll be adopted elsewhere. I mean, blockchain encryption is such a powerful tool. It’ll be used by banks, it’ll be used by credit card companies, it will become a standard. But what’s more interesting is what it can do to poverty around the world to eliminate poverty.

Tired of bitcoin? Try marijuana, manure-backed coin

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102553811

Frustrated by bitcoin's booms and busts but not happy that Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard? Incensed that central bankers continue to meddle with the macroeconomy?

Good news: There are more concepts in the works to create currency standards backed by physical commodities than ever before, thanks to the creative crypto-thinkers behind the digital currency revolution.

Anthem Vault plans to launch a gold-backed crypto-coin in May. The bet is that the coin—which is redeemable for 1 gram of gold at the market price—will be a big hit with investors who are tired of bitcoin's wild ways.


There are a multitude of alts to satisfy everybody.

Username: pitham1
Member rank: Senior
Post count: 422
BTC address: 1YDMEMroAEzyTNzBjQE8LdXfJqKZ7DmrZ

Hi Neotox,

Since it is now officially 1-Apr, I am changing my signature.

I would like to see some real-world application of electronic voting using blockchain. I guess it will happen really soon; the first test case would encourage a lot more people to try it out.

This report at least quotes Kaspersky. Forbes had presented it as an accepted fact.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/113806/warning-kaspersky-alerts-users-of-malware-and-blockchain-abuse

Warning! Kaspersky Alerts Users of Malware and 'Blockchain Abuse'

Kaspersky Labs warns users of a possible exploit in cryptocurrency blockchains that would allow malicious actors to distribute malware or even images depicting child abuse.

The warning is the result of research of INTERPOL Cyber threat experts, a group that includes a Kaspersky employee.

They warn that the extra space provided in each transaction, intended for notes, messages and as a space to allow additional functions to be built on top of the blockchain, could in fact be used to spread malicious code or worse.

China is perceived to be a bully in its neighborhood.
It has border disputes with all its neighbors, not to mention its position on Taiwan.
But the more fundamental problem is with Yuan's convertibility.

Another trigger for the USD's decline. 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-yuan-may-join-elite-money-club-this-year-2015-03-25

China’s yuan may join elite money club this year

In what would be a huge milestone in China’s emergence as a major world financial power, the International Monetary Fund looks likely to adopt the country’s currency into the basket that makes up its global forex benchmark.

Or so say strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, writing in a note Wednesday that they believe the IMF will vote this October to include the yuan as one of the units that make up the Fund’s “Special Drawing Rights” (SDR), a sort of meta-currency used in IMF transactions.

This might not seem like a big deal, but Merrill Lynch assures that it is. By joining the elite club — there are only four currencies in the basket right now: the U.S. dollar, the euro, the British pound  and the Japanese yen — it would “legitimize its use as a reserve currency,” possibly reducing China’s cost of foreign borrowing and offering an “extra degree of freedom in financing future current-account deficits,” the strategists said.