The advent of cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, has seen widespread and rapid use to the point where high-profile companies are beginning to take an interest by allowing electronic currency to be used for their transactions.
Blockchain, which was developed alongside Bitcoin, revolutionized this field by acting as a sort of ledger that records every transaction and storing this information on a global network, preventing the tampering of digital currency and building security and trust between Blockchain and its users, making it an increasingly popular method of electronic payment. Below learn more from news excerpts. For more blockchain education, check out Byte Academy's course.
Satoshi Roundtable with Blockchain CEO: Last week, Peter Smith, Blockchain CEO and co-founder, wrote about his experience at the Satoshi Roundtable that included key bitcoin community members, devs, investors, and entrepreneurs. He detailed his experience discussing the future of bitcoin technology with other members as well as expressing his fear about the future of Blockchain and Bitcoin, citing the large spike in activity on the Bitcoin network and how scaling bitcoin and block size will play a pivotal role in the online currency.
Blockchain's Global Impact: Blockchain is making its presence known, as it finds continuous support and use by large entities: The Japanese tech firm Fujitsu Ltd., along with its subsidiary Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and bank Mizuho Bank Ltd. have announced that they have successfully completed a two month trial using a Blockchain-derived platform for carrying out cross-border securities transactions. The purpose of this trial was to see whether distributed ledger technology could reduce the time needed to carry out the transactions.
Airbnb co-founder and CTO Nathan Blecharczyk has spoken about the possibility of integrating Blockchain technology into the company’s system during an interview with City AM, claiming that the distributed ledger technology principles could help establish security and trust between users and the company.
Microsoft Mishap with Blockchain: Microsoft stated on Tuesday that it intends to continue support for bitcoin as a payment method for apps and services despite recent reports suggesting it had ended support for the currency. The report stated that Microsoft had ended an 18-month experiment where it allowed customers to pay for content on Windows and Xbox using bitcoin, which seemed to be the case since there was a short notice on Microsoft’s website stating that they would discontinue supporting the use of bitcoin as payment for their services, which was later refuted by their company in Redmond, Washington.
Although Microsoft was one of high-profile companies that integrate bitcoin into its systems in late 2014, it intends to move beyond bitcoin by looking into blockchain tech by creating a “certified blockchain marketplace” that should be ready for use by the spring.
