Sunday, January 17, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/reporters-notebook/moving-to-venezuela/venezuela-currency?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Thursday, January 14, 2016

What To Make Of Wences Joining Paypal?

There is a mammoth struggle to be the Goldman Sacs of the new Fintech sector. Coinbase looks like it would have won the race after Bitpay floundered. Today it operates bitcoin on/off ramps in 32 countries.

With Paypal's announcement, the fog around paypal's intentions with bitcoin has solidified. Not only is Wences a driving ambassador in the bitcoin space, he also brings with him Xapo which when combined with Paypal's banking and remittances operations in 160 countries, will allow it to claim top spot.

You can now link Xapo's debit card to your Paypal account, meaning that you can already spend your bitcoins with Paypal to make payments. Accepting bitcoin as a currency on it's platform is not far off.

The legacy banks are staff with people with legacy banking mindsets and will always be feuding internally with the new incumbents coming in with R3. There will be lots of fear and very little co-operation. These people will fight to go down with the ship. None will be players in the new Fintech in any recognisable form.

Coinbase or Paypal. There is more to come in the battle for market share, looks like Bitpay will be specialising in B to B.

The space is still open for a main player to bank the unbanked. Could it be Bitpesa? It certainly needs a company with SMS banking technology.