Online auction marketplace eBay is teaming up Lolli, a crypto-centric shopping app, to integrate Bitcoin (BTC) rewards for its 127 million users. Lolli announced Wednesday that its users can earn 1% back in Bitcoin when they shop on eBay’s marketplace. The initiative is part of a dual strategy to integrate crypto payments with online marketplaces and to raise awareness about digital assets. Lolli CEO and co-founder Alex Adelman said: “Today, we are proud to partner and make bitcoin more accessible to those users and continue our mission of furthering bitcoin education and adoption.” Matt Senter, Lolli’s chief technical officer and …

Japan’s three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen. The group consists of banks, various Japanese brokerages, utility and telecom firms and retailers, according to a Reuters report published on Nov. 19. For the purposes of the experiment, the private banks will be responsible for issuing the currency, although the prospect of other actors becoming involved in issuance has not been ruled out, according to the chair of the new group, Hiromi Yamaoka. Yamaoka is a former executive at Japan’s central bank, which itself …

Decentralized finance and shopping seem like an unusual combination at first. How can liquidity pools help you save money at the till? But scratch a little deeper and some compelling use cases for DeFi emerge. With the retail sector suffering through one of the most challenging times seen in a generation, here are the main issues facing e-commerce right now… and how DeFi could fix them. A match made in heaven? The likes of Amazon, eBay and Shopify have transformed the way we buy everyday items. Now, anyone can become a merchant — and once exotic products can be delivered …

LibertyX, a major retail network of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs in the United States, is expanding Bitcoin sales options at thousands of its ATMs. According to an Oct. 26 announcement, LibertyX has enabled a Bitcoin cashout feature at 5,000 regular ATMs across the United States. As such, consumers can now sell Bitcoin for cash at any of the participating ATMs. LibertyX CEO and co-founder Chris Yim said that previously, the firm’s software only supported Bitcoin purchases with debit cards. The latest addition allows holders to receive cash for selling their Bitcoin. Yim noted that Bitcoin has reached new yearly highs. “With …

Graphic cards’ sales in Russia are surging amid an increase in remote work as well as the apparent growth in cryptocurrency mining, a new report says. According to several local retailers like Citilink and Svyaznoy, crypto mining-related sales of graphic cards in Russia notably surged in August 2020, Kommersant reported on Sept. 14. Alexey Rusakov, an executive at local tech distributor Citilink, told Kommersant that sales from mining-enabled graphic cards have spiked 49% in August. This comes in line with a two-fold increase in sales by tech giant Nvidia on a year-on-year basis, according to Irina Shekhovtsova, communications director of …

Vending machines operated by major Asia-Pacific soft-drink bottler and distributor Coca-Cola Amatil will now be accepting payments in crypto. The development follows a new deal with digital asset platform Centrapay announced on Monday. Coca-Cola Amatil’s network of 2,000-plus vending machines in Australia and New Zealand will enable consumers to spend their crypto by using their smartphone cameras to scan a QR code payment sticker, provided they have the Sylo Smart Wallet installed. Sylo Smart Wallet is a decentralized application that integrates messaging services with a digital wallet, with support for major digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and any ERC-20 …

London-based financial technology startup Plutus is offering rewards through its debit card when users shop Nike’s online store. Doing so unlocks up to 3% in crypto and 9% cash rewards for those purchases. Rewards are available for British pounds and euros only In order to receive the rewards, customers must use the Plutus Visa Card while shopping online. As Plutus currently operates within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, the service is now available for purchase in euros and the British pound, a spokesperson from the firm told Cointelegraph. The rewards are generated in Plutus’s native token, Pluton …

Rumors are surfacing of an upcoming real-world test of the proposed Chinese digital yuan currency. According to Chinese publication Interchain Pulse, a promotion conference was held on April 22 in the city of Xiong’an, located close to Beijing. Government agencies, digital currency developers and merchants participating in the upcoming pilot were invited. The initiative is part of the Xiong’an Smart City program. It began on September 25, 2019 as an association of enterprises, higher education institutions, research institutes and technology companies. Its board of directors includes companies like Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba Group, Baidu and others. The conference was thus joined …

Coinbase Commerce, a platform that supports cryptocurrency payments for internet retailers, just passed $200 million in total transactions processed over its two-year history. According to sources available to Cointelegraph, the wing of the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. reported on March 26 that the platform’s success was due in part to the 8,000 retailers currently using Coinbase for payment services. Bitcoin preferred for retail payments While the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc with traditional markets, the news from Coinbase Commerce would imply consumers are still comfortable using Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for products. John Zettler, product lead at Coinbase …

While some Australian authorities recognize cryptocurrencies as a form of investment, digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) are apparently not very popular as means of payment in the country. Australia’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), says that less than 1% of Australians used cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to make a consumer payment in 2019. Australian consumers increasingly prefer to use electronic payment methods The data is based on RBA’s own study, conducted in October and November 2019. Released on March 19, the RBA’s latest report is the fifth comprehensive survey of consumer payments in Australia. The purpose of the …

It’s funny what business leaders can and can’t tell the press. Cointelegraph caught up with Alexander Drummond, co-founder of crypto-enabled payments company GatePay, at the 50th edition of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week. Drummond was one of several crypto entrepreneurs presenting his company on stage at the CV Labs event on Tuesday. Drummond’s pitch for GatePay goes something like this: retail customers should be able to pay for products with any means of exchange they want, and retail stores should be able to handle it. Offering checkout support for different credit cards and popular cryptocurrencies, GatePay …

It has long been understood that satisfied customers are key to a thriving business. Customer relationship management, or CRM, enables just that by helping a business engage meaningfully with its customers, improving profitability while lowering costs. With companies spending a whopping $48.2 billion on CRM software in 2018 alone — up more than 15% from the previous year — and a forecast that CRM will become the largest segment in the software market by 2020, it’s curious that only 46% of businesses invested in such solutions last year. CRM is inhibited by the inability to connect relevant data to real, …