A former engineering executive at PayPal and Google will join the team behind the institutional digital asset platform Bakkt, the firm’s CEO Kelly Loeffler announced in a blog post on Medium on April 11. With over 25 years of experience in digital payments, engineering, strategy and operations, Mike Blandina has joined Bakkt as its chief product officer (CPO). As the new CPO of Bakkt, Blandina will lead the firm’s efforts to converge a trusted ecosystem for digital assets with payments use cases in order to help Bakkt bring real applications to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, the announcement notes. Blandina …

Top Stories This Week PayPal Invests in Digital Identity-Focused Blockchain Startup in Apparent First Global online payments firm PayPal has invested in startup Cambridge Blockchain, a firm that focuses on leveraging the tech in order to give users more control over their digital identities. The investment, whose amount is undisclosed, is part of an extension to a Series A funding round that had raised an initial $7 million in May 2018. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stated that Cambridge Blockchain raised a total of $3.5 million in new equity since May 2018. Cambridge Blockchain has notably …

Bitcoin (BTC) should usurp current global payment systems within the decade, a new report from software startup DataLight concluded on April 2. In a report on transactions on the Bitcoin network versus those with Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, the company made the prediction that if Bitcoin’s current rate of network growth continues, it will beat out competition from market incumbents. “In just 10 years, Bitcoin has managed to compete with the leaders of the payment system industry. Bitcoin’s development is occurring exponentially,” the report’s conclusion reads. It continues: “If it maintains this pace, in another 10 years, it will surpass …

In an apparent first, global online payments firm PayPal has made an investment in a blockchain startup — one that focuses on leveraging the technology to give users more control over their digital identities. The news was reported by Forbes on April 2. The investment comes as part of an extension to a Series A funding round in the startup — called Cambridge Blockchain — that first raised a total of $7 million in May 2018. While neither PayPal nor Cambridge Blockchain have disclosed the size of the payments giant’s investment, recent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange …

A new strain of Trojan malware for Android phones is targeting global users of top crypto apps such as Coinbase, BitPay and Bitcoin Wallet, as well as banks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The news was reported by technology news outlet The Next Web on March 28. Based on research from prominent cybercrime analytics firm Group-IB, this is reportedly the first time the Trojan — now named “Gustuff” — has been reported or analyzed. The malware is described as being designed for mass infection and is spread by SMS messages with links to load malicious Android package …

LinkedIn co-founder and former PayPal COO Reid Hoffman has become the latest participant in the Lightning Torch Bitcoin (BTC) transaction relay, Blockstream CEO Adam Back confirmed on social media on Feb. 26. Reid, whom Back appeared to choose due to his lead investment role in Blockstream, is the 224th person to “hold” the Torch, which began its journey around the Bitcoin community in mid-January. Each participant sends an invoice for the transaction via the Lightning Network, adding 10,000 satoshis to the balance before sending it forward. Twitter has become the platform of choice for informing the wider community about who …

PayPal’s co-founder Luke Nosek has said that his firm initially wanted to create a digital currency that would be independent from banks and governments, similar to crypto. The video of his comments was uploaded to crypto streaming service Bloxlive.Tv on Thursday, Jan. 31. At a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, Nosek was asked whether PayPal or WeChat Pay, an in-app payment system used by the major Chinese messenger, have already solved various problems related to online transactions, or whether cryptocurrencies can also solve those problems. Responding to that question, PayPal’s co-founder said: “Many people …

This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting has finished, and it’s time to recap the highlights. The forum — held in Davos, Switzerland, as per tradition — lasted from Jan. 22 to 25. Similar to the last year, cryptocurrencies were one of the major talking points in Davos. In general, it seems that the “Blockchain before Bitcoin” attitude prevailed this time, as the overall positive outlook on the technology coincided with a significant portion of crypto-bashing. WEF announced Global Council on Blockchain, co-chaired by BitPesa founder As one of the most important takeaways from the forum, the WEF appointed …

Major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has introduced free of charge cash withdrawals to online payment system PayPal, according to an announcement published Dec. 14. From now on, Coinbase’s United States-based customers are able to withdraw their cash balances to Paypal. The service for other countries will reportedly be rolled out some time in 2019. Coinbase and PayPal previously integrated in 2016, when Coinbase added support for the payment platform in addition to major credit cards. At the time, Coinbase users were able to sell Bitcoin (BTC) and have their fiat funds deposited to a PayPal wallet. The integration was subsequently …

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency payment platform Crypto.com has hired a former PayPal executive, the company confirmed in a press release Dec. 11. Tyson Hackwood will join the crypto firm as its senior vice president and head of global merchant acquisition. Crypto.com, which came into being after cryptocurrency debit card provider Monaco acquired the domain name for a reported $10 million in July, seeks to increase consumer and merchant adoption for point-of-sale (PoS) transactions. Hackwood was previously head of the Australian branch of PayPal Here, the company’s own PoS division, followed a role as head of Asia Pacific for mobile and web …

Major global online payments system PayPal has launched a blockchain-based reward system for its employees. Financial news channel Cheddar reported on the platform launch Thursday, Dec. 6, citing PayPal’s director of innovation Michael Todasco. According to Cheddar, the program was prepared by PayPal’s innovation team, which is based in San Jose, California, over a six-month period and was launched in mid-November. Employees using the program are granted tokens for participating in innovation-related programs and contributing ideas. These tokens are only valid within PayPal and can be traded among the participants of the program via “public ledger.” Todasco compared the reward …

Taiwan-based tech giant ASUS has partnered with GPU mining platform Quantumcloud to allow users to mine crypto via their graphic cards, multinational tech media TechRadar reported Thursday, Nov. 30. According to the agreement, ASUS graphic cards owners will be able to mine crypto through Quantumcloud software and withdraw earnings using PayPal or Chinese app WeChat. The new partnership allows gamers to monetize idle GPUs when the units are not occupied by graphic-consuming processes by mining cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC). However, Quatumcloud does not guarantee specific profits or outcomes for users, stating that users have to consider usage costs on …