Credit Unions & Bitcoin: The Winning Formula
Banks are expensive and inaccessible for many, especially for the poor. “Not only is banking not for everyone, accounts are inaccessible to about half of the world. People are too poor, live too far from a bank, or don’t have the required documentation,” according to CNN. As a result, billions of people in the world are unbanked or underbanked. As a....
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Credit unions may one day find some of their core functions replicated by bitcoin, a new report suggests. According to Mercator Advisory Group, a global consultancy for the payments industry, such an evolution would only occur should bitcoin's market volatility lessen and security mechanisms develop further. The report, entitled Understanding Bitcoin's Implications for Credit Unions, largely serves as a vehicle for understanding the fundamentals of bitcoin and its distributed ledger, the blockchain. Not until the last page does the report turn to the implications of the technology on....
August saw the first meeting of US credit unions looking to pioneer so-called distributed ledger technology (DLT) in CULedger, a “dedicated” version of the banks’ R3 Consortium. CULedger ‘Does What R3 Is Doing for Banks’. CULedger, which seeks to mimic R3 in order to allow organizations to benefit from blockchain technology, is currently fundraising....
A less-discussed type of financial entity, the credit union service organization (CUSO), has emerged as an unlikely – but significant – player in the industry’s CU Ledger blockchain initiative. In fact, to say that the involvement of CUSOs in broader credit union collaborations on blockchain has been a surprise wouldn’t shock may long-time industry observers. Part of the trend is is simply pure business. With the number of credit unions in the US declining by about 250 institutions per year, this means CUSOs are competing for a ever-smaller piece of the pie. But the advent of distributed....
Glenbrook and PSCU have released a white paper “Blockchain and the Credit Union - The Asset Transfer Revolution.” The authors hope that this white paper will shape the future use of the Blockchain in the credit union industry. PSCU has been providing traditional as well as online services to credit unions, representing at least 800 credit unions. Glenbrook is a payments industry strategy consulting and research firm. Credit unions have an important role to play in the world of finance. They are a service provider whose primary motivation is the satisfaction of their members, rather than....
The credit union industry is following the lead of hackers and thieves, according to Jeff Johnson, chief information officer at Illinois-based Baxter Credit Union (BCU). "This is going to sound strange," he said. "[But] criminals, no matter how much you hate them, are really smart people. They take the path of least resistance." In his mind, if it’s working for international payments on the black market, there has to be a way to leverage the technology for above-board use that is just as robust, anonymous and secure. It's one of the reasons BCU has joined 55 other....