2021 was a breakout year for the cryptocurrency sector and this year is expected to see an extension of the “mass adoption” trend. Public awareness of blockchain technology is on the rise and a new cohort of projects designed to fill more niche roles in society are likely to emerge in the coming months. Three sectors that have the potential to see significant growth in 2022 are human resources (HR), employee payment solutions and platforms that serve the gig economy by offering corporate blockchain solutions. HR might pivot toward blockchain Human resource management is ripe for blockchain integration due to …

Bitcoin (BTC) investment firm, New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), has announced the acquisition of United Kingdom-based micropayment service Bottlepay for an estimated fee between $280 million and $300 million. NYDIG had previously participated in the company's $15.4 million seed funding round in February 2021, a raise which was led by British billionaire investor Alan Howard and saw the company valued in excess of $50 million. Utilizing the Bitcoin Lightning Network, Bottlepay’s mobile application service enables users across the U.K. and Europe to transfer small amounts, known as micropayments, of Bitcoin (BTC) and traditional fiat currencies such as pound sterling …

I recently came across Marc Andreessen’s article from 2014 on Bitcoin (BTC). In many ways, it is visionary (no surprise). I have been in the industry for four years now, with most of my focus being on the social impact of blockchain. It is astonishing to me that in 2014, before there was any institutional presence in Bitcoin — or, indeed, a popular understanding of this new technology — Andreessen was able to outline its potential economic and social impact for the future. Nearly eight years after he inked his words, I would like to address one of the topics …

The research unit of Arcane Crypto predicts the Lightning Network will go parabolic as adoption of the Bitcoin (BTC) layer-two payment protocol ramps up over the decade. Arcane Research published the “State of Lightning” report on Tuesday and analyzed the Lightning Network in terms of current capacity, wallet payment volume, the growing rate of adoption, and the switch from online services to everyday usage. The report provides ambitious estimates for the future of the Lighting Network, such as 90% of Salvadorans over the age of 15 having access to Lightning payments by 2026, and 50 million Lightning users, representing $17 …

Seety, a digital parking startup based in Belgium, has introduced crypto payment support for parking tickets. According to a report by DataNews on Thursday, the company, which is one of the firms bootstrapped by Belgian accelerator program Start it @KBC, has rolled out a crypto payment feature in Antwerp and Brussels. Beginning Thursday, Seety users will be able to use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for parking tickets in both cities. In addition to Bitcoin, customers can also use cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC), as well as stablecoins like Dai and USD Coin …

Charity fundraising risks being left behind in the shift to online activity. But taking inspiration from the COVID-19 pandemic trends, and new payment technology, could open doors. Change comes whether you’re ready or not, but being ready means you can seize the opportunity. The past year has accelerated the pace of digital transformation dramatically — sure, personal contact was already moving online, and contactless payments were slowly replacing cash, but the pandemic did not so much push as shove the world faster and farther than anyone expected. This creates specific challenges for the nonprofit sector — and with those, some …

Dash has announced the launch of DashDirect — a consumer app that allows users to spend the DASH cryptocurrency in stores across America. In an announcement released on Tuesday, Dash revealed that the new customer-focused app will offer up to 12% in savings on purchases by users. Detailing the rebates and discount features, Mashall Greenwald, DashDirect Founder and CEO of CrayPay told Cointelegraph: “After you enter the exact amount of your current purchase in the app, an immediate discount of up to 12% is applied,” adding: “This allows anyone to spend Dash for everyday purchases as easily as using USD, …

Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has reiterated his criticism of Bitcoin (BTC). Appearing on episode 10 of the Moneycontrol Masterclass program, the NYU professor doubled down on his longstanding repudiation of Bitcoin as currency. According to Damodaran, Bitcoin’s limited use in microtransactions flies in the face of claims that BTC is viable as a form of money, stating: “A good currency, in my view, is one that's used to buy coffee, buy your house, buy a car, and on that count, Bitcoin has failed, and not just failed, it's failed miserably.” For …

Australia’s leading point-of-sale technology provider Eftpos Australia has revealed ambitious plans to roll out blockchain-powered autonomous vehicles and smart cities in Australia built using Hedera’s Hashgraph. Speaking on Tuesday as part of the Australian Blockchain Week, Robert Allen, deputy chair of Blockchain Australia and Eftpos’ entrepreneur in residence, discussed the firm's intention to use distributed ledger technology for advanced infrastructure, among other applications: “We're going to be looking at smart cities. [...] We're going to be looking at autonomous vehicles and things that we haven't even thought about yet. All of this needs new infrastructure, and Eftpos needs to be …

Blockstream’s Samson Mow wants to move the conversation away from Bitcoin’s (BTC) performance in transactions per second and toward its role in ushering in “a new financial paradigm,” that is, serving as a permissionless medium for the store and transfer of value. #Bitcoin moves nearly half a million dollars in value around the globe permissionlessly every second. It was never about transactions per second and coffee. It's all about value transacted per second and a new financial paradigm. #VTPS not #TPS. Nothing comes close to @BTC. pic.twitter.com/aXfDauPx9b — Samson Mow (@Excellion) December 2, 2020 Mow’s argument is that “VPTS [value …

Major image hosting platform and meme site Imgur received $20 million from micropayments startup Coil, according to a press release published on June 26 Per the release, as part of the partnership between the two companies, the founder and CEO of Coil and former CTO of Ripple Stefan Thomas will join Imgur’s board of directors. Imgur CEO Alan Schaaf commented: “Coil's technology will open up new opportunities for users to give to one another and support the community in new ways.” The press release explains that Coil’s platform lets users subscribe to other users’ content and use the company’s application …

Blockchain-centric smartphone Exodus, developed by consumer electronics giant HTC, announced that it has partnered with web browser Opera as well as added support for multiple DApps. The news was revealed in a series of tweets on Feb. 26 from the firm’s official Twitter. The company announced support for Etheremon and Decentraland DApps in its ZIONVault integrated cold storage. Moreover, according to a Verge report, the smartphone now also supports a Taiwanese DApp called Numbers. Numbers reportedly tracks user data and allows users to sell their data to third parties for cryptocurrency while retaining both control over the data that is …