TransferWise CEO Thinks Talking down Bitcoin Is a Good Business Strategy
Mike Hearn wrote a Medium post which went viral and was the topic of much debate in the Bitcoin world. In his opinion, the Bitcoin community was dead. He wrote: “[Bitcoin] has failed because the community has failed… Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse.” Hearn has spent considerable time in the trenches of the Bitcoin technology. He is one of the foremost Bitcoin experts in the world. If anyone had enough perspective to make such a bold proclamation, it was he. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is priced at approximately $445, according to the....
Related News
Euro and bitcoin payment processor Cashila has hinted that Transferwise has decided to block deposits to its bank accounts. Transferwise is a traditional money transfer service which gained popularity promising cheaper money transfers. Cashila users often use it to deposit funds into their accounts and to ICONOMI, its ether-based service. As a result, it surprised Cashila when one of its users complained that it was no longer possible to send funds to the processor through Transferwise. Cashila stated on its website: Transferwise did not notify us beforehand of their decision. We....
Back in 2013, TransferWise had stopped processing transfers to Bitcoin exchanges. The money transfer service however was extremely apologetic, and simply blamed their banks for making them take such a "heart-breaking" decision, saying: "The banks - just like everyone else in the sector - are nervous because they don't know what to think of Bitcoin. The regulators and politicians' silence on the topic leaves us all in the dark." TransferWise was visibly sandwiched between its very own morals and the bankers' muscles. The UK-based firm had always supported the digital currency technology,....
No one is saying Hinrikus needs to embrace Bitcoin, or even become a fan of the concept. However, it would be wise for any CEO to at least do their own research, rather than quoting mainstream media. Most bitcoin enthusiasts will have read the recent comments made by TransferWise CEO Taavet Hinrikus. According to him, Bitcoin is “dead, and the experiment is over”. Quite a strange statement, considering Bitcoin has been trucking along despite all of the adversity faced so far. Is this another case of lack – or willingness – to understand what Bitcoin is all about? Reading through the entire....
The CEO of TransferWise, a money transfer company that is among the most successful FinTech startups in Europe, has said at a conference in London that it will be removing its European headquarters from the English capital to maintain access to the single market after Britain leaves the European Union (EU) in two years. Speaking at the International Fintech Conference in London, Taavet Hinrikus, who co-founded TransferWise with Kristo Kaarmann, in 2011, said that due to Brexit if they were to restart they would not pick Britain as its location choice. A report from Reuters states that....
Everyone from Nick Szabo, who developed the concept of smart contracts, to Blockchain Capital Managing Partner Brock Pierce has been touting Bitcoin’s value as a vehicle for international money transfers lately, but it appears that TransferWise CEO Taavet Hinrikus has not received the memo. Hinrikus was recently on a panel with MasterCard President of International Markets Ann Cairns at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and he did not seem threatened when asked about the new Bitcoin-based alternatives to his service, such as Align Commerce, that have popped up over the past year. Although....