The reason why this company was selected as World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer is due to their success. Blockchain solves common problems, such as settlements, cross-border payments, and even private company ownership. But their focus goes well beyond the corporate sector. Empowering individuals to get connected to financial services in a digital form will help create a better economy for all.

http://fintechist.com/blockchain-named-world-economic-forum-technology-pioneer/

For investors, it is important to bet on a winning horse. Short-term and long-term gains can be made in both the Bitcoin and gold markets. Scarcity is always an important factor in this regard, and both assets bring scarcity to the table. Keeping in mind how more and more people are pleading to return to the gold standard, interesting things are bound to happen.

http://blog.vaultoro.com/2016/06/28/brexit-result-makes-gold-and-bitcoin-look-very-promising/

The United Kingdom has been rather quiet on the Bitcoin front as of late, despite the trading volume still growing. No significant spikes were noted, albeit many experts assumed there would be. The way things stand right now, the country is well on track to reach 1.5m GBP in weekly LocalBitcoins volume moving forward.


http://themerkle.com/localbitcoins-volume-spikes-in-australasia-and-scandinavia/

Early reports seem to indicate there were only a few winners, though. The exact number remains unknown, but between three and five winners have bought Bitcoin through this auction. Interestingly enough, the winners purchased 13,999, 6,517, and 1,999.99 BTC respectively. Quick calculations tell us 1,999 Bitcoin is missing from the 24,518 BTC total. That particular lot remains unclaimed [at the time of writing].

http://fintechist.com/ey-auction-2000-bitcoin-unclaimed/

DigitalX is a publicly traded company on the ASX, and they seem to be gaining momentum in the market. Investors all over the world are looking for new opportunities, and blockchain companies tend to do well over time. Interestingly enough, their 11.11% gain comes at a time when the ASX 200 lost 0.66%.

http://themerkle.com/asx-traded-blockchain-company-digitalx-gains-over-11-in-valuation/

Although Indian merchants were able to accept Bitcoin payments before this partnership, there was no option to be paid out in the rupee. Now that Coinsecure and BitPay have joined forces, merchants can convert Bitcoin transactions to their local currency if they prefer to do so. Holding funds in Bitcoin will also be an option.

http://themerkle.com/coinsecure-and-bitpay-bolster-bitcoin-merchant-adoption-in-southeast-asia/

The company announced they have incorporated SafetyPay as a payment method to buy bitcoin. This online payment solution lets the user pay in their local currency with a bank transfer. Albeit not all of the regions Chip-Chap is targeting have high bank account penetration, SafetyPay is quite popular in Latin America and Europe.

http://themerkle.com/chip-chap-users-can-now-buy-bitcoin-through-safetypay/

Taiwan may be the one exception to this unwritten rule, for now. The country is rather convenient when it comes to using Bitcoin as there are convenience stores where cryptocurrency payments are accepted. It is good to see this approach too, as convenience stores are often frequented by tourists when visiting a new location.

http://themerkle.com/taiwan-may-be-the-most-convenient-country-for-bitcoin-enthusiasts/

I'm on the same fence, as I'm not sure the issuance of SJCX was really needed to get this off the ground.

We'll see how it affects the viability of this solution once it goes live, i guess.

The Bitcoin community on Reddit is not sharing the enthusiasm of the developers, though. Some people feel that Segwit is such a massive change to the protocol architecture that it technically does not resemble Satoshi’s creation anymore. While the supply cap of Bitcoin is not impacted by Segwit, it is not unlikely that situation may change through a similar soft fork in the future. Albeit this may sound unrealistic, one cannot discount the possibility either.

http://themerkle.com/segregated-witness-merge-request-sparks-new-debate-among-bitcoin-users/

Storj achieves its decentralization and distribution by using blockchain technology. A distributed ledger connecting people all over the world by installing a single piece of software. Moreover, the financial rewards, called SJCX, are issued over the blockchain as well. Participants can use this token to buy cloud space for themselves, or convert it to other currencies such as Bitcoin.

http://fintechist.com/storj-decentralized-cloud-storage/

Although details are not officially confirmed, security researchers believe Necurs is one of the largest botnets in the world. Threatpost mentioned how there seem to be over 6.1 million infected computers as part of this network.Moreover, this botnet has been instrumental in spreading Dridex and Locky, resulting in US$100,000 to US$200,00 in daily revenue from these malware strains.

http://bitcoinist.net/necurs-botnet-resurfaces-with-updated-locky-and-dridex-versions/

Now that prices seem to have regained their composure, the coming days will be interesting to keep an eye on. The Bitcoin price is not making significant gains in the USD or CNY market, which is rather odd. In most cases, the value increase is a global effort, led by the Chinese traders. Then again, a free market does not follow a similar path every time, and it’s nice to see some market diversification for a change.

http://fintechist.com/bitcoin-eur-market-remains-resilient-wake-brexit-vote/

We are living in a world where financial uncertainty is becoming the norm rather than an exception. More and more people show an interest in entrepreneurship and freelancing every day. Global payment solutions are needed, yet traditional finance will not accommodate that anytime soon. Bitcoin is the most viable solutions for all parties involved, either in its pure form or through intermediary services.

http://fintechist.com/bitcoin-perfect-sense-freelancers/

Bitcoin is part of this process, as Circle converts the incoming currency to Bitcoin. This amount is then moved to a different address belonging to the recipient. Once the transfer has been initiated, receivers can determine if they want to keep funds in Bitcoin, or convert it to local currency. Their entire business model shows off the strengths of the Bitcoin protocol and adds a social layer on top of it all.

http://fintechist.com/circle-bitcoin-money-transfer-china/

The report makes a clear distinction between ransomware and screen-blocker malware. While both types of malicious software result in similar experiences, they are not the same. As it turns out, the number of people suffering Bitcoin ransomware attacks has increased by 17.7%. To put this into perspective, these numbers compare April 2015- March 2016 to April 2014 – March 2015.

http://bitcoinist.net/bitcoin-ransomware-popularity-increased-spectacularly-in-2015/

It will be interesting to see how the community responds to this client release. Various people have been asking for bigger blocks for quite some time now. However, Bitcoin Classic has always seen limited support up until this point. Now that the choice is there for everyone to download, things could get absorbing in the coming weeks.

http://fintechist.com/latest-bitcoin-classic-release-increases-block-size-2mb/

What caught people’s attention is how the Bitcoin Uncensored team could run into legal trouble for this podcast. While there is a right to freedom of speech, it would not be the first time an episode had to be pulled offline. By the look of things, Perianne Boring has decided to take legal action if the episode is not removed immediately.

http://themerkle.com/bitcoin-uncensored-hosts-face-legal-action-over-perianne-boring-interview/

At the time of writing, it is very difficult to grasp the full scope of this phishing campaign. Moreover, it is next to impossible to determine who is behind these fake domain websites. It is not unlikely most of them are registered with stolen credit card information. Similar to what has happened in the past, the majority of these websites is being advertised through Google Adwords. Doing so gives these fake sites a prominent ranking in Google’s search engine results.

http://bitcoinist.net/large-scale-phishing-attack-targets-bitcoin-and-web-wallet-users/

It is not uncommon for Bitcoin to be a volatile cryptocurrency, though. In the past, there used to be very wild Bitcoin price swings on a weekly basis. However, it has been a while since we saw these types of discrepancies in a 24-hour period. The positive news is how the Bitcoin price seems to be recovering already.

http://fintechist.com/bitcoin-price-drops-rally/