Gemini Is Launching a Credit Card With Bitcoin Rewards

Later this year, cryptocurrency exchange company Gemini is planning to launch a credit card that earns bitcoin rewards based on your purchases. It’s based on the work done by Blockrize, a fintech startup which Gemini has acquired for an undisclosed sum. TechCrunch reports: The credit card will work like any other credit card and will be available in the U.S. Customers…

Elon Musk Tweeted About a Bitcoin Rival. It Soared 20%

“Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money,” Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday, and then followed it up with another tweet. “One Word: Doge.” “The tweet sent shares of Dogecoin up nearly 20% and landed it on the list of trending Twitter topics,” reports CNN. (Later that day Musk tweeted “i love all u crazy ppl out there.”) The tech billionaire…

PayPal Now Lets All US Users Buy, Sell and Hold Cryptocurrency

It was teased last month, and now it’s official: PayPal is bringing its newly-announced support for cryptocurrency to all US accounts. Engadget reports: PayPal says all eligible users can start buying, selling and holding bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum and bitcoin cash. Beginning next year, PayPal also plans to bring cryptocurrency into Venmo and will allow users to pay merchants with their cryptocurrency…

Facebook Claims Its Proposed Payments Network is 7 Times Faster Than Visa’s

As work continues on Novi, Facebook’s digital wallet the company hopes will one day be used to access currencies in the blockchain-based payment system Libra, semblances of a framework have emerged from new research published in AFT ’20: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies. From a report: A paper coauthored by scientists at Facebook’s Novi division…

Former US Regulator and Accenture Exploring Digital Currency for US Central Banks

A former chair of America’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission is working with Accenture to explore what Computerworld calls “a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency” — a cash-backed stablecoin, issued and controlled by America’s central bank, where one token represents one dollar. Long-time Slashdot reader Lucas123 writes: A cryptocurrency based on a blockchain ledger would be a cheaper, faster and more inclusive…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group Are Merging To Become World’s Fourth-Largest Automaker

williamyf writes: This puts Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Chrysler, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, and Vauxhall under a single corporate parent and merges operations. PSA Group boss Carlos Tavares will be CEO of the 11-person board, with FCA’s John Elkann as chair. Fiat Chrysler and PSA said that the 50:50 merger should save more than $4 billion a year…

Walmart Could Be Looking To Rival Facebook’s Libra With a USD-Pegged Stablecoin Issuance, Patent Filing Shows

Retail giant Walmart could be working on issuing a fiat-backed digital currency, similar to Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, according to a new patent filing. From a report: The filing, published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Thursday, outlines a method for “generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency,” meaning a…

French Startup Transition-One Plans a $5,600 Electric Makeover For Your Old Diesel Car

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: About 5,000 euros ($5,600) are set to buy your 10-year-old combustion clunker an electric makeover — and offer a cut-price way to avoid driving bans across European cities. French startup Transition-One has developed retrofitting technology that adds an electric engine, batteries and a connected dashboard into older models of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV,…

US Files Lawsuit Against Bitcoin Exchange That Helped Launder Ransomware Profits

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil lawsuit seeking to recover more than $100 million from a notorious cryptocurrency exchange that has helped cyber-criminals launder stolen funds, such as those obtained from ransomware payments, dark web drug marketplaces, and funds from hacked cryptocurrency exchanges. ZDNet reports: In a lawsuit filed on Friday, July 26, the U.S. wants to recover…

Celo Launches Decentralized Open Source Financial Services Prototype

Forbes notes that other financial transaction platforms hope to benefit from Facebook’s struggles in launching its Libra cryptocurrency — including Celo. The key value proposition of the assets running on top of the [Celo] platform is that they are immune to the wide swings in volatility that have plagued leading crypto assets in recent years. Many are designed to mirror the…