The Wall Street Journal posted a even out on Dec 7, 2017 titled “Bitcoin Powerhouse Will Pull the Plug on Bitcoin.” In fact, “bitcoin bank” Circle Internet Financial announced that, amid other developments, it volition no longer offering customers the mightiness to purchase as well as sell bitcoins.
"Using bitcoin for speculative trading or people buying as well as selling bitcoin because they intend it's fun — that's non an interesting concern for us," said Jeremy Allaire, Circle's Co-Founder as well as CEO, inwards an interview with Reuters. “A few years agone when nosotros started the company, bitcoin was the alone digital currency applied scientific discipline that mattered. We patently envisioned it equally a mainstream phenomenon as well as nosotros had expected to a greater extent than progress inwards price of applied scientific discipline development, but the evolution has slowed inwards the terminal 3 years."
Allaire seems dissatisfied with the overall solid soil of the Bitcoin system. “The even out is 1 of essentially gridlock with inwardness developers, spell mainstream companies are using this technology,” he said. “We’ve been deeply frustrated with that lack of progress, as well as nosotros desire to movement it forward.”
Circle’s announcement is to a greater extent than sober as well as factual, as well as less sensationalized, than the WSJ headline. The companionship is non “pulling the plug on Bitcoin” — alone on bitcoin trading, Circle’s customers volition proceed to hold upward able to receive, shipping as well as concord bitcoin, but they volition convey to role alternative options to merchandise bitcoin.
“[We are] eliminating the mightiness for customers to purchase as well as sell bitcoin conduct on Circle, as well as introducing a novel preferred bitcoin central partnership with Coinbase,” nation Allaire as well as Sean Neville, Circle Co-Founder as well as President inwards the articulation post. “Consumers who seek to purchase as well as sell bitcoin inwards the hereafter may at 1 time leverage our novel preferred partnership with Coinbase. Customers may withal shipping their bitcoin to whatever wallet or central of their choosing, but Coinbase is our recommended consumer bitcoin exchange.”
However, Circle’s annunciation does seem to hateful that the companionship is de-emphasizing bitcoin as well as considering it equally simply 1 of many options for backend blockchain-mediated transactions. Besides bitcoin, Circle users convey the mightiness to concord funds inwards U.S.A. dollars, euros or British pounds, depending on their location. According to the company, blockchain-aided payments inwards traditional currencies convey been growing much faster than bitcoin payments on the Circle platform. Circle plans to proceed using bitcoin as well as other digital tokens behind the scenes to settle transactions inwards traditional currencies.
New Focus on Social Payments
The primary focus of Circle’s annunciation is on Circle apps for the web, iOS as well as Android, at 1 time updated with messaging features as well as a novel emphasis on social payments.
“We’ve rolled out novel messaging capabilities to all Circle customers across all of our apps on the web, iOS as well as Android,” nation Allaire as well as Neville. “We’ve long argued that social payments are best experienced inwards the context of the conversations as well as interactions nosotros convey with friends, colleagues, menage unit of measurement members as well as private sellers. Messaging provides context for a payment, whether that hold upward with a funny image, a photograph of a repast shared, a minute from a nighttime out, or a moving painting of the production mortal is selling.”
In other words, Circle is trying to seat its apps equally social messaging platforms — similar WeChat, Messenger, or WhatsApp — but with built-in payments via Circle’s network. The transaction history betwixt ii users is stored inwards a unmarried conversation, a characteristic that is besides available for Apple’s iMessage inwards iOS 10.
Introducing Spark
Circle is besides launching a novel blockchain applied scientific discipline dubbed Spark: a protocol for digital wallets to central value using blockchains, including bitcoin, equally short town layers. According to Circle, Spark, which the companionship plans to open-source as well as brand available to wallet developers, is designed to offering a seamless wallet-to-wallet payment sense that reflects local currency central rates spell ensuring total KYC/AML compliance.
Circle is initially deploying Spark inside the framework of ii novel partnerships with Korea’s Korbit as well as the Philippines’ Coins.ph, ii digital currency operators that volition connect to Circle as well as leverage the Spark APIs to serve their local markets as well as currencies. It’s worth noting that Coins.ph is besides partnering with Stellar to render global remittances to the Philippines.
The post service Beyond Bitcoin: Circle Pivots to Next-Gen Blockchain-Enabled Social Payments appeared starting fourth dimension on Bitcoin Magazine.
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