Don Quijones — ECB Just Launched “Better Than Blockchain” Instant Payments System

On Friday the ECB launched, with minimal fanfare, a brand new system aimed at enabling banks to settle payments instantaneously across Europe, helping them to compete with PayPal and other global tech giants. Developed in little over a year, the ECB’s not-for-profit TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system will let people and businesses in Europe transfer euros to each other almost instantly, at extremely low cost, and irrespective of the opening hours of their local bank....

Wolf Street
ECB Just Launched “Better Than Blockchain” Instant Payments System

Don Quijones

Dan Frommer — PayPal is finally free—let the real mobile-payments battle begin

It’s finally happening: eBay is officially spinning PayPal off as a separate company. And it comes at a crucial time, just as the budding mobile-payments industry—which many see as the future of payments and commerce—is getting interesting.

While PayPal has very done well for itself—payment volume grew 29% from a year earlier in the June quarter to $55 billion—things are about to get more competitive.

Quartz

PayPal is finally free—let the real mobile-payments battle begin
Dan Frommer

Spencer Soper and Olga Kharif — EBay’s PayPal Unit to Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments

EBay, as the world’s biggest Web marketplace and operator of a global payments service, is the most significant business to date that’s embraced bitcoin. The move could potentially enable PayPal’s 152 million registered accounts to transact using the virtual currency, spurring wider use and acceptance of bitcoin, according to Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc.

“PayPal integrating bitcoin into Braintree is a very substantial development,” Luria said. “Not only will it make it possible for some of the fastest-growing apps to integrate bitcoin seamlessly, it opens the door for PayPal to integrate bitcoin into its main wallet functionality. If that happens millions of retailers will de facto be accepting bitcoin overnight.”…

[Ebay Braithree unit's Bill] Ready said that tens of thousands of PayPal merchants using Braintree will be able to accept bitcoins if they choose to do so.

Bloomberg

EBay’s PayPal Unit to Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments
Spencer Soper and Olga Kharif

Victor Luckerson — PayPal President Gets His Credit Card Hacked

My card (with EMV chip) got skimmed while in the UK. Ton of fraudulent txns. Wouldn’t have happened if merchant accepted PayPal… — [PayPal president] David Marcus 

Curious Capitalist
PayPal President Gets His Credit Card Hacked
Victor Luckerson

AFP — Federal Reserve studying effect of Paypal and Bitcoin on banking

The United States is studying the potential risk from online payment mechanisms like PayPal and Bitcoin, a top US Federal Reserve official told an international conference on Monday.
Some bankers have expressed worries that newer players in the online marketplace could have negative implications for the financial system.

“We have been talking… with banking organisations over the last year or two, trying more carefully to understand what the concerns are with these new payment mechanisms,” Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen said.

But she denied the widespread view that such players operate completely unregulated, saying the United States has a stronger regulatory environment than many are aware of, especially in the area of consumer protection.

The Raw Story
Federal Reserve studying effect of Paypal and Bitcoin on banking
Agence France-Presse

Franco Iacomella — WordPress.com starts taking payment in Bitcoin

Beginning today, users around the world will be able to pay with Bitcoin — the unregulated, decentralized digital currency built on public-key cryptography. Explaining its decision, the company noted that PayPal currently blocks access from over 60 countries, and that many credit card companies have similar restrictions, whether because of politics, fraud, or other reasons.

WordPress.com says that its Bitcoin payments will be handled by BitPay.com and that there is no need to wait for confirmation since the transaction risk is “already acceptably low.” And while Bitcoin famously doesn’t permit refunds (because of the possibility for fraud), WordPress says it will still honor its refund policy, working with BitPay to get unhappy customers their money back.

Clarification: It’s WordPress.com, the web hosting service run by Automattic, and not the free WordPress software platform that underpins it, that has begun taking payment in Bitcoin.

P2P Foundation — Researching, documenting and promoting peer to peer practices
WordPress.com starts taking payment in Bitcoin
Franco Iacomella