TransferWise on Bitcoin and the Battle for International Money Transfers
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....
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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....
It has been said plenty of times in the past and it’ll be said again in the future. Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of TransferWise, a popular peer-to-peer international money transfer service has stated that bitcoin, is dead. TransferWise is a prominent player in the Fintech space. Founded in 2010, the money transfers service is among the leading remittance services in the world. In six years of the company’s existence, it has raised just under $100 million in equity funding with Richard Branson and Andreessen Horowitz among the notable investors. In comments made during an interview with Yahoo....
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....
Blockchain technology has been a huge topic of conversation at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the subject was brought up by TechCrunch’s Matt Burns during a panel that featured TransferWise co-founder and CEO Taavet Hinrikus and MasterCard President of International Markets Ann Cairns. Both participants on the panel seemed to agree with the popular sentiment of dismissing Bitcoin while embracing its underlying technology, and Cairns even stated that MasterCard is testing the blockchain in its labs. At one point during the panel discussion, Hinrikus questioned....