San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has opened a new office in Dublin, Ireland, according to an announcement published Oct. 15. In addition to helping expand its operations in Europe, the new Irish offices are reportedly part of a contingency plan for when the U.K. leaves the E.U. Per the announcement, the Dublin team will take on a number of new business-related functions, while London will remain Coinbase’s main office in Europe. The Irish Minister for Financial Services and Insurance Michael D’Arcy commented on the exchange’s expansion: “I am delighted that Coinbase is opening an office in Dublin. This decision highlights …

British finance minister Philip Hammond has said that the issue of trade across the Irish border after Great Britain leaves the European Union (EU) might be solved by deploying blockchain technology, The Irish Times reported October 1. Speaking at the Tory party conference in Birmingham, Hammond reportedly asserted that “there is technology becoming available [...] I don’t claim to be an expert on it but the most obvious technology is blockchain,” when asked how the government plans to achieve frictionless trade after Brexit. Addressing the future of the Irish border, the United Kingdom (UK) and the EU agreed to leave …

Brave browser, developed by Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich, has filed privacy complaints in Ireland and Britain against Google, Reuters reported September 13. Brave is an open-source blockchain-powered browser, which blocks ads and website trackers. The browser is designed to improve online privacy by sharing less personal data with advertising customers, yet targeting web ads by analyzing anonymized user browsing behavior. The complaint reportedly states that Google and the advertising technology (adtech) industry practice “wide-scale and systematic breaches of the data protection regime” in the way they publish personalized online ads. The complaint further explains that while a user is visiting …

The co-founder of Irish Bitcoin (BTC) broker Eircoin accused the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) of discriminating against crypto-related accounts, The Irish Times reports June 21. Dave Fleming blamed the BPFI for, “seeking to muddy the waters with insinuations of dirty money.” Eircoin, which is reportedly “Ireland’s only Bitcoin broker,” was closed in April. The firm’s co-founder Dave Fleming said they were “shuttered due to a negligent and defensive banking system”. According to Fleming and his business partner Roisin Coogan, banks also refused banking services to a new secondary consulting business. Fleming claimed that the closing of the …

Cointelegraph will be live-streaming crypto and fintech conference MoneyConf in Dublin, Ireland as the event’s official media partners starting today, June 12. The conference – organized by the team behind annual tech conference Web Summit – includes speakers from across the crypto, blockchain, and fintech industries, including Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Joseph Lubin of ConsenSys, Square CFO Sarah Friar, and Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. From the cultural side, musician Imogen Heap, also founder of music blockchain ecosystem Mycelia, will lead a panel titled “Is all fair in music and blockchain?” Today’s lineup kicks off with opening remarks from Paddy Cosgrave, the …

DHL is partnering with blockchain trade finance platform TradeIX, according to a presentation today, June 5, at the Money20/20 conference in Amsterdam. Becky Taylor, Vice President of Commercial at DHL Supply Chain UK and Ireland, spoke about how the company has been looking to “create more efficient networks” through digitization, including a way to “serialize products to be able to track that product through its life.” Taylor then announced the partnership by saying that DHL on its own “can’t achieve those types of funding rates to create an attractive price [for customers], so we started to work with Trade IX.” …

Visa has said that their card payments are experiencing disruptions across Britain and Europe, the BBC reports today, June 1. Visa, which handles over 150 mln transactions a day, tweeted about the service disruption, noting that they will keep updating as they resolve the situation: We are currently experiencing a service disruption which is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed. We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation. We will keep you updated. — Visa UK (@VisaUK) June 1, 2018 In comparison, the Bitcoin’s (BTC) decentralized network has been functional …

The authors of a study at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway on the adoption of blockchain in Ireland, called on the government to promote the technology more broadly in the country, The Irish Times reported May 11. The study proposes recommendations to increase blockchain awareness and adoption, that can reportedly have a positive impact on economic growth and establish a basis for how the government and Irish organizations carry out business. Dr. Trevor Clohessy at NUI Galway, who led the research, called for government action to promote blockchain in Ireland through the development of a national initiative: “...Beyond …

Financial services provider Mastercard has recently announced it will hire 175 new employees in Dublin to increase its presence in Ireland. Among others, the company is looking for Blockchain specialists, local news outlet Irish Tech News reported April 12. In order to boost innovation in the field of payments, the company is looking to hire a wide range of professionals such as software engineers, data scientists, information security experts and Blockchain specialists. Ireland’s Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys commented that the country has become “a very attractive location for international fintech and payment companies” stressing the favorable …