According to the Payments Council, cash transactions in the UK fell to 48% of overall payments last year, down from 52% in 2013. This comes as no surprise, given the international rise of popular social payment services such as Snapcash, Squarecash and Venmo, as well as the already mainstream use of Paypal to shop online. These services, along with debit cards and digital currency trade, have collectively overtaken payments in physical bills and coins as of last year. Crunching the Numbers It is expected that in about a decade cashless payments will account for £28.8 billion, as opposed to £12.7 …

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is investigating the use of digital currencies and blockchain technology for investment products, notably financial assets and derivatives. The EU markets watchdog, which is "seeking to understand investment using virtual currency and distributed ledger technology," has issued a call for evidence on Wednesday, to solicit market participants to share their feedbacks and experiences on virtual currency investments. The ESMA, which has been monitoring and analyzing the development of virtual currency investments for the past six months, is looking to understand the wider impact and potential of these technologies beyond their use as a …

The Spanish tax authorities have published a statement classifying bitcoin as a means of payment exempting it from VAT charges. Some of the UK's top bankers are to discuss bitcoin among a fintech discussion panel this week. BitSIM hardware proposes piggybacking a sim-card to provide secure mobile payments without carrier support and more top stories for April 20. Bitcoin exempt from VAT in Spain A department of the Spanish tax authority has published an opinion stating that bitcoin should be treated as a means of payment, and will therefore stand exempt from VAT calculations. The move puts Spain inline with …

European digital currency payment provider Coinify has announced a new Certified Payment Service Provider (PSP) partnership agreement with PensoPay, a Danish company providing card acquiring and payment gateway services to online and brick-and-mortar businesses. The agreement, which gives rights to PensoPay to promote, advertise and sell Coinify Merchant Solution, will also enable its clientele to start accepting bitcoin as a payment method with no volatility risk. Ulrik Pilehave, CEO at PensoPay, commented in a release: "We are happy to announce that we have selected the Coinify Merchants Solution as PSP product for our digital currency payments. PensoPay can now offer …

The UK government announced a US$14.6 million research fund to look into opportunities in digital currencies. Publishing the results of the five month consultation on the future of digital currencies, the government outlined a series of recommendations and the next few steps on their approach to the emerging sector. “The government is launching a new research initiative which will bring together the Research Councils, Alan Turing Institute and Digital Catapult with industry in order to address the research opportunities and challenges for digital currency technology, and will increase research funding in this area by £10 million to support this.” As …

Adam B. Levine calls “The Age of Cryptocurrency” by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey “a very positive book about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.” “This is the first book focused on a historical perspective of the first few years of Bitcoin.” —Adam B. Levine In episode 182 of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! (LTB) podcast, Levine speaks with the authors about the book and how they came to write it. Vigna and Casey are reporters with the Wall Street Journal, one of the first mainstream publications to cover digital currencies. The authors say they began a daily roundup on the topic, called …

“Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.” - Taylor Swift Entertainment news is buzzing with reports of Taylor Swift’s controversial decision to pull her music from online streaming site Spotify. We have reached a tipping point where artists are beginning to rebel against both legal and illegal downloading and the resulting shrink of their bank balances. The Music Industry Today In the process of standing up for the value of their work they do, however, risk an upsetting backlash from fans. The value of online content is …

1. Russian Government Plans to Block Cryptocoin ‘Information Resources’ On Monday, William Suberg reported on the ongoing attempts by the Russian government to hinder cryptocurrency use in the country, which includes blocking access to cryptocurrency information resources. “In a move which echoes the country’s recent contingency plans to shut off Russian access to the worldwide web in times of crisis, the legislation calls for ‘creating a mechanism to quickly block the information resources used for creation and circulation of surrogate currencies.’ “Specifically, while Bank of Russia’s remit will be to ‘set the protocols for administrative breaches of law related to …

Circle, a Bitcoin currency services provider, has launched a suite of consumer financial services that the company hopes will encourage average people to use the crypto-currency for everyday transactions. Circle was founded in 2013 by internet entrepreneurs Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville. The company is backed by leading venture capital investors Jim Breyer, Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners and Oak Investment Partners, who helped raise $26 million in series B financing for Circle. The goal behind the founding of the company was to address "the terrifying complexity and risk" many people associate with crypto-currency, as stated on their website. The …

The United States’ tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service, clarified its position on cryptocurrencies Tuesday in a statement. The full text is below. The biggest takeaway is that the IRS plans to tax digital currencies as property, which means that: anyone paid in digital currencies as a freelancer/ contractor will need to report this on Form 1099; profits and losses from the sale of such currencies will be subject to capital gains tax (at least if they’re used as capital assets); wages paid in cryptocurrencies must be reported. Income tax for most Americans must be filed by April 15, so …

It is a digital currency, which works online and makes anonymous transactions between buyers and sellers across all over the world. It works through the mathematical formula and does not have any regulators controlling it. The digital currency can be exchanged for real traditional money. Bitcoin is gaining its popularity and is already used in many ways, such as WikiLeaks in order to accept donations. A block chain is stored in every computer running bitcoin and registers every transaction between buyers and sellers. It is said that transactions are anonymous, although it is not entirely true. Anyone can see the …