In a report entitled Distributed ledger technology: Beyond block chain, he said that distributed ledgers "could be at the heart" of the Government Digital Service's (GDS) development of government as a platform (GaaP). Wall Street bankers have become interested in understanding blockchain technology, and technologists, the ones building the software, need to familiarize themselves with the financial services market anti-money laundering laws and know-your-customer regulations.

Government wants to make sure the United Kingdom is at the forefront of using emerging technology to improve public services.

http://leadercall.com/2016/01/big-banks-test-new-trading-system/

New UK Science Office Report Recommends Blockchain
In a new published report from the UK Government Office for Science, the country’s Chief Scientist offers a glowing assessment of distributed ledger technology’s potential benefits for better governance. The report by Chief Scientist Sir Mark Walport, is titled Distributed Ledger Technology: Beyond Block Chain, and examines in detail the technology that empowers the blockchain, its disruptive potential in the marketplace, regulatory issues, security concerns, and possible applications for the government. It also offers specific recommendations for how the UK government can better understand the technology and eventually take advantage of the benefits it can provide.
http://dcebrief.com/blockchain-weekly-recap-1-23-2016/

Digital Asset, a software company that is developing proprietary blockchain technology, just raised $50 million as 12 different financial services firms rushed to support the young company.  The investors include some of the biggest names in traditional finance like; Citi, JP Morgan, Santandar, PNC, BNP Paribas, ABN Amro – and more.  Recently Bitcoin has taken a turn for the worse as prominent developer and advocate Mike Hearn called the cryptocurrency “dead”.  But while skeptics are challenging Bitcoin, Blockchain technology is booming as it has the potential to solve issues challenging many financial firms.

http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2016/01/80647-blockchain-company-digital-asset-raises-50-million-from-13-different-financial-companies/

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND—The World Economic Forum has identified “the blockchain” as one of the core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (this year’s theme of the Davos summit). The topic has come up a lot this week and there is plenty of enthusiasm, hand-wringing, fear and our-right denial.
Understandably so.
The digital revolution is bringing a new and radically different platform for business and other institutions that can take us through the next quarter century of human progress. At the core is the biggest innovation in computer science in a generation. It is the technology underlying the digital currency Bitcoin—the blockchain. This technology platform is open and programmable. My view is that as such it holds the potential for unleashing countless new applications and as yet unrealized capabilities that have the potential to transform everything in the next 25 years.
http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2016/01/23/the-blockchain-big-opportunity-or-big-danger.html

Financial technology has never been a more exciting or innovative category — especially in New York City. Oddly, tech is not the driving force in many of these ventures. The Blockchain and Bitcoin notwithstanding, most of what  we’re seeing now is financial product evolution and the unbundling of the large bank. Most of these companies could have been built 20 years ago.

Outside cryptocurrency and a few tools that enable better trading decisions, most of these startups developed a proprietary model to score the credit risks of potential customers and paired it with a clever go-to-market strategy that will appear to a new class of debt holders.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/23/is-vc-the-right-money-for-fintech/

While growing interest in blockchain technology from companies to governments shows little sign of abating and even the Chinese authorities are looking to create their own digital currency, the power of this technology is also being harnessed for deployment in other industries – including music. Now fintech platform OpenLedger and Danish bitcoin exchange CCEDK are joining forces with MUSE, a music-tailored blockchain, to make monetizing music as easy as new peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms made distributing it 15 years ago.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2016/01/23/muse-leveraging-blockchain-technology-to-revolutionize-music-industry/#2cc9ae9932b5

Digital Currency
Are you in the dark about Digital Currency? This article from the Wall Street Journal, Bitcoin and the Digital-Currency Revolution, will help explain how it works. But US News writes, “This digital currency may take daring investors on a wild ride...

"So is now a good time to buy bitcoins? Or is it ever a good time to invest in them? Financial experts from all corners of the traditional investment field answer with a resounding “no,” while digital entrepreneurs and their ilk say “yes,” often to the point of bullishness. Throughout 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission kept a close watch on bitcoin activity. In May, it issued a warning that "the rise of bitcoin and other virtual and digital currencies creates new concerns for investors. A new product, technology, or innovation – such as bitcoin – has the potential to give rise both to frauds and high-risk investment opportunities.”

The article continues, "If they’re stolen via computer hack, good luck, says Kim Caughey Forrest, vice president and senior analyst of portfolio management at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. “There are rules about what happens if someone breaks into the bank and steals and how the account owners are compensated. That is missing from the bitcoin world.”   

"She also notes, “We would never tell a client to buy bitcoins as an investment. How can I ever tell if a bitcoin is over, under or fairly valued? I can’t. Neither can anyone else. This is what makes an investment. Otherwise, it’s a lottery ticket."

"That said, you may be able to buy lottery tickets with bitcoins in the future..."

http://www.prescottenews.com/index.php/business/item/26891-be-wary-of-the-next-big-thing-when-investing

Banks are going gaga for blockchain technology, the protocol developed to underpin bitcoin.
It uses complex cryptography and a wide network of records - known as a "distributed ledger" - to eliminate the need for a central bank or middle man to regulate transactions.

Banks have been swarming around the technology, with 42 investment banks signing up to an industry-wide group looking at how to use it and Goldman Sachs declaring in a note that it has the potential to change "well, everything."

http://www.businessinsider.in/Goldman-Sachs-nails-why-banks-are-so-excited-about-the-technology-behind-bitcoin/articleshow/50696028.cms

watch this
Finding Satoshi Nakamoto - Short Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcNkggCXRQ
https://coinspondent.de/2016/01/23/youre-the-father-of-bitcoin-what/

Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury, believes there is a solution to the current bitcoin block size challenge. In a recent video interview at TC Davos, he explained his
solution and he also expounded on his belief in the future of bitcoin, taking issue with those who are proclaiming its demise.

The solution to bitcoin’s block size challenge is to increase the current one-megabyte “block” to two megabytes, Vavilov said. He acknowledges the need to increase the bitcoin blockchain’s scalability, and he envisions a great future for bitcoin in improving its scalability. He gave his insights during an interview with Matt Burns, senior editor of Tech Crunch, at TC Davos.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitfurys-vavilov-solution-block-size-challenge-rebuts-bitcoin-naysayers/

By late yesterday, price had returned to the level from which this week’s advance had launched. Just prior to this report, the market again again tested this level at 2500 CNY and $380 ($375 in some exchange charts).

Without acting on such anticipation, we might see a reversal here – back to a temporary advance and later returning to this very same level being established as a new support floor near $380 and 2500 CNY.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-plumbing-previous-support/

A text analysis of Craig’ Wright’s writing by a specialist working with the U.K.-based International Business Times (IBT) has determined that the Australian is most likely not Satoshi Nakamoto. The company used a technique that compares texts written by Wright with anonymous texts believed to be sent by Nakamoto, including the original bitcoin white paper.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/text-analysis-confirms-craig-wright-not-satoshi-nakamoto/

AlphaPoint is proud to announce that Scott Scalf will be joining the AlphaPoint Executive Team. Scalf, formerly Director of Trade Lifecycle Systems at Deutsche Bank Global Technology, will be joining the company as Executive Vice President of Development Operations.

AlphaPoint is a financial technology company that lies at the core of over 20 digital asset exchanges and provides institutions blockchain-enabled solutions to store, track, and trade digital assets. With a platform that can handle up to 1 million transactions per second, AlphaPoint is a name well known across five continents.

http://bitcoinist.net/alphapoint-appoints-scott-scalf-to-firm/

The past few months have been active for Ethereum, who has seen development, investment and positive media within its crypto-environment. The built-in turing-complete programming language as a layer configured into the ETH blockchain has intrigued developers and investors. This system is said to enable businesses and ordinary people the ability to construct autonomous organizations, smart contracts, and applications. The tokens currently have an available supply of 76,471,765 ETH and are worth $1.80 USD at press time seeing quite a bit of value increase.   

http://bitcoinist.net/ethereums-market-cap-takes-the-number-three-spot/

North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc. (Nadex), part of IG Group Holdings plc (LON:IGG), is planning to change trading conditions for Daily Bitcoin contracts.

The Exchange plans to narrow the strike interval width in the Daily Bitcoin contracts and add more strike levels to maintain consistency in the strike range.

Effective February 8, 2016, the interval width between each strike level shall be 1, instead of previous 1.5.

Also, twenty-seven (27) strike levels will be listed for the Daily Bitcoin Binary Contract Series. This compares with an existing number of 21 strike levels. Nadex explains that thirteen (13) strike levels will be generated above Binary Contract X at an interval of 1, and thirteen (13) strike levels will be generated below Binary Contract X at an interval of 1.

https://leaprate.com/2016/01/nadex-to-narrow-daily-bitcoin-contracts-strike-interval-width-to-add-more-strike-levels/

Bitcoin started off as an alternative to regular fiat currency. But over time, the underlying Blockchain technology has gained more prominence. While Bitcoin as a digital currency offers a viable alternative to fiat currency, Blockchain technology is on its way to change the whole FinTech industry. Symbiont is one such company that is leveraging upon the power of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology to offer smart securities and market solutions to Wall Street.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/23/symbiont-bitcoin-blockchain-smart-contr/

Lithuania Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) Director Kestutis Jucevicius has officially announced to the public that digital currency Bitcoin should be used with caution as it is used to finance “terrorism.”

“In the future can cause a lot of problems, because the money purified system through bitcoin can benefit not only organized groups engaged in arms trafficking, trafficking in human beings and drugs, the possibility that in the future such a cash transfer schemes and cash transfers could be used by terrorists” said Jucevicius on Friday at a press conference.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/22/lithuania-criticizes-bitcoin-for-assisting-terrorism/

Since the beginning of 2015, industry leaders and innovative startups have begun to adopt the blockchain network as a distributed ledger for recording unalterable and irrefutable ownership, instead of utilizing the technology to settle transactions and payments.
American multinational technology company Microsoft has been experimenting with bitcoin-style blockchain networks, providing their own Ethereum-based services through its Azure cloud platform to established partners including BitPay, Emercoin, LibraTax and Manifold technology.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/23/microsoft-azure-enterprise-grade-blockchains-will-disrupt-industries/

With growing concerns regarding the Chinese miners’ “monopoly” over bitcoin hash power, influential Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr proposed a Proof of Work algorithm change on January 17, 2016.

The Bitcoin network’s proof-of-work scheme is based on SHA-256, which was introduced by the creator of bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto as a part of the digital currency. Today, various cryptocurrency have adopted alternative hashing algorithms used for proof-of-work such as scrypt, Blake-256 and CryptoNight,

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/23/bitcoin-core-developers-controversial-algorithm-change-shut-down/

Takara, meaning treasure in Japanese is a new bitcoin based geocaching application that allows users to plant bitcoin across the world for other app users to find. The game comes integrated with Breadwallet along with an option to connect other bitcoin wallet applications. Takara can also be a powerful marketing tool.

The latest iOS application by MandelDuck, Takara allows its users to go out on an adventurous quest for bitcoin. The map on Takara shows locations where the treasure (read bitcoin) is planted. Those interested in the treasure hunt can find the nearby places where bitcoin is planted and make their way to those spots.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/23/takara-breadwallet-treasure-hunt/