BitHalo Releases Version 2.1 to Compete Head on With Paypal and Western Union
BitHalo, "the world's first released working smart-contract software" announces the release of version 2.1 to compete head-to-head with the likes of Paypal and Western Union. The self-proclaimed "mother of smart contracts" launched its decentralized escrow client in July 2014 for blackcoin only. In August 2014 it added Bitcoin, making it "the world's first multi-coin client." Smart Contracts. One of the more fascinating and promising uses of blockchain technology is the ability to create Smart Contracts. These contracts are peer to peer agreements that eliminate the need for a trusted 3rd....
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Financial services companies Paypal and Western Union have each filed three new trademark applications covering a wide range of crypto services. Paypal’s applications are also for the payments giant’s logo.
Paypal’s New Trademark Filings for Crypto Services
Paypal Inc. has filed three new trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Mike Kondoudis, a USPTO-licensed trademark attorney, tweeted Monday:
Paypal has filed trademark applications for Paypal and its ‘overlapping Ps’ logo. The apps claim plans....
This essay is an updated chapter from Luis Buenaventura’s Reinventing Remittances with Bitcoin, available for free in e-book and print form now. One of the most common questions asked at industry conferences is why Western Union or Moneygram don’t just use Bitcoin themselves. If they did, they could eliminate the potential threat posed by the young Bitcoin remittance start-ups who are out there trying to eat their lunch. Theoretically, Western Union could just throw R&D resources at the problem and come up with a large-scale version of what companies like Bitspark in Hong Kong, Payphil....
In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Hikmet Ersek expressed a willingness to incorporate bitcoin into Western Union’s portfolio of world currencies “once bitcoin is regulated like a proper currency.” Perhaps even the world’s premier money transmitting service is coming around to bitcoin. But Ersek seems to find this a significant “if.” Western Union is the world’s largest money transmitting service. It deploys over 500,000 agents and 100,000 ATMs internationally. In an interview with Bloomberg, Ersek discussed the future of Western Union as it faces the spread and adoption of new....
In the world of cash-transfers, few other companies come to mind as instantaneously as Western Union. If you’ve walked in a convenience store anywhere between the west and east coast of the United States, you’ve probably seen a banner for Western Union. The remittance provider is currently facing a preliminary antitrust inquiry as the EU examines allegations of Western Union intentionally driving rivals out of business. Allegedly, Western Union is giving their retail outlet partners contracts with exclusivity contracts in them which don’t allow other cash-transfer services to operate....
Bitcoin could cause trouble for Western Union. New cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are disruptive by their very nature. They allow for cheaper, faster, and easier payments than any system can currently do. Market leaders in remittances, banking, and investing, could have their world turned upside down by the new Bitcoin ecosystem! Since Bitcoin allows for many banking or payment transfer “functions” to be automated by user created applications (similar to apps. in the iTunes app. store), some believe that these currencies could disrupt industry leaders like Western Union and Paypal in a same....