2016 October

The Next Step to Improve Bitcoin’s Flexibility, Scalability and Privacy Is Called MAST

The soon-to-be proposed Segregated Witness soft fork is set to extend Bitcoin’s potential in several ways. One potentially promising innovation enabled by “SegWit” is MAST, an abbreviation for Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees. While mainly designed to increase smart contract flexibility, MAST would increase scalability and privacy on the platform at the same time. The idea of MAST […]

Is the Time Finally Ripe for Bitcoin Remittances in Africa?

When the words Bitcoin and Africa appear in a sentence, the word remittance usually follows. When Bitcoin first hit the mainstream in 2013, its low-cost money transfer feature was hailed as the solution to the overly expensive remittance costs charged by the large money transfer operators (MTOs), Western Union and MoneyGram. This is especially true […]

No-Fee Trading for Global Remittance Companies From OKLink Hailed as “Meaningful Milestone”

OKLink, a Hong Kong-based global blockchain money network, is offering $100 million in free remittance trades to international remittance companies in order to promote remittance payments and accelerate the growth of new money transfer companies. Remittance payments — earnings which foreign workers send home to their families around the world — may be one of the […]

Hyperinflation Leads to Greater Bitcoin Use in Venezuela

Recently, we reported on bitcoin activity in Russia. Now common knowledge, bitcoin usage has long been demoralized in the land of hammers and sickles. Those who indulge in the benefits of digital currency are faced with the prospects of prison time and exorbitant fees. Despite these threats, bitcoin exchange site LocalBitcoins has witnessed increased activity […]