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Following months of preparation, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover announced the launch of "
The card networks don’t have a strong track record in getting consumers to register for e-commerce checkout systems or digital wallets — if that were not the case, a new service would not be necessary. Past efforts such as Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode are remembered for the friction they added to e-commerce.
This time around, the networks have let go of their unique brands and agreed on a single look and feel for a system based on EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) specification announced this year. SRC limits the exposure of payment credentials for one-off purchases.
Blockchain phone
HTC has formally launched its
The phone sells for about $244 in traditional currency, reports
The Exodus1's blockchain features support storage of cryptocurrency wallet keys. It's initially available in Europe, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Wins for digital ID
Several of South Korea's largest banks have joined a national decentralized identity project that's designed to move beyond passwords to a universal blockchain-based system.
Shinhan and NH Nonghyup are among the banks that will permit sharing personal information and authenticating financial transactions, according to
The news comes quickly after
Lightning strike
A relatively easy attack method could compromise payments on the bitcoin lightning network.
Assailants could use a denial-of-service to slow or stop a "huge" percentage of payments on the network, reports
The flaw is based on the way payments are routed, using a network of nodes. If one node is artificially flawed it will slow down or halt the transaction. The researchers say it's easy to compromise an individual node by using false marketing to lure users — then not relaying payments.
Kik's kin
Kik has found a way to save its Kik Messenger app, despite earlier plans to shut down the app in favor of developing its
The technology startup has sold the messaging app to MediaLab, a holding company that also operates messaging app Whisper, reports
Kin and Kik Messenger will remain linked, as MediaLab and Kik will collaborate on projects for both products.
From the web
ARABIAN BUSINESS | Mon October 21, 2019
Visa, the global digital payments firm, has appointed international property developer Sweid & Sweid to build its new Dubai headquarters. The building to cater for operations in the company's Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region will increase capacity to over 500 employees, a statement said.
TECH RADAR | Mon October 21, 2019
A new phishing campaign which aims to harvest user credentials from the online payment company Stripe has been discovered by the Cofense Phishing Defense Center (PDC).Stripe users should check their email cautiously and avoid clicking on any suspicious URLs to avoid falling victim to this new phishing campaign.
TECH CRUNCH | Tue October 22, 2019
Luge Capital, a fintech and AI-focused venture capital fund headquartered in Montreal and Toronto, is looking to close that gap. The firm has raised $85 million for its debut fund and plans to make seed investments as small as $150,000 and as large as $2 million.
More from PaymentsSource
Facebook's original proposal for Libra was to develop a sweeping, global currency with the backing of the world's biggest companies. Now, with fewer companies on its side and a massive backlash by lawmakers, Facebook is loosening one of Libra's core values.
The Federal Reserve's fraud definitions work group is doing essentially the same thing TV detective Columbo did in his heyday — asking a lot of questions about a crime that it already knows many of the answers to.
WASHINGTON — The head of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network had a blunt message Monday for fintech firms that offer users anonymity: Anti-money-laundering laws apply to you just like everyone else.
In seeking to eliminate manual back-office payment processes for long-term healthcare and social service providers, AvidXchange says it is launching new software to steer providers to digital accounting and B2B e-payments — and eliminate paper checks.