Tag: self-trader

Ripple may be about to turn the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) upside down.

Blockchain startup Ripple and it’s cryptocurrency XRP have been snagging high profile headlines for months now. After making waves in September when it briefly overtook Ethereum as the number two traded crypto as the price spiked up to $0.76, experts took notice, with many predicting that XRP may break the $1 mark by the end of 2018.

While that prediction hasn’t come to fruition just yet, there have been rumors of a different sort swirling lately. Some predict that Ripple may be poised to replace longstanding traditional financial tool, SWIFT.

What is Ripple?

Ripple and XRP are a bit different than other cryptocurrencies. Yes, XRP is a coin, but it isn’t mined like Bitcoin. Instead, it was issued by Ripple at its inception, who decided on a set amount of coins to create, in this case 100 billion.

Another thing that’s different about XRP is that it isn’t used to purchase good and services like other coins. Instead, financial institutions trade the currency between one another to transfer money quickly. Banks like Ripple’s system and XRP because their customers like it: XRP facilitates money transfers cheaply and in a matter of seconds or minutes. Before, international money transfers could take days to clear and were expensive.

That convenience has an increasing number of banks contracting Ripple for their services, raising speculation that XRP transfers are poised to overtake the current system, SWIFT,

What is SWIFT?

SWIFT is an acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a system used by banks to transfer money for nearly five decades now. Launched in 1973 with just over 200 participating banks, SWIFT now boasts more than 11,000 financial institutions using their system to exchange 15 million secure messages each day.

That number may be starting to shrink, however. According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple now provides services for more than 100 banks that would otherwise be on the SWIFT network.

“The technologies that banks use today that Swift developed decades ago really hasn’t evolved or kept up with the market,” Garlinghouse recently told Bloomberg TV. “Swift said not that long ago they didn’t see blockchain as a solution to correspondent banking. We’ve got well over 100 of their customers saying they disagree.”

All of this comes among speculation among blockchain industry experts of a potential buy out of Ripple by SWIFT, ostensibly with the aim of slowing down Ripple’s growing progress.

The rise of Ripple and their increasing role as a player in the financial transfer services industry hasn’t escaped the notice of SWIFT. As early as 2015, SWIFT began looking into adopting blockchain technology for use on its network. Though the results were reportedly positive, SWIFT decided that it wasn’t the right time to make a major switch.

Whether or not that decision turns out to be fateful inflection point remains to be seen. In the meantime, Garlinghouse isn’t pulling any punches about Ripple and XRP’s ultimate goals.

“What we’re doing and executing on a day-by-day basis is, in fact, taking over Swift,” he said.

Earlier this spring, hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students were turned away when they attempted to register for popular new crypto courses.

Dawn Song, a computer science professor at University of California, Berkeley, co-instructed a class during spring semester of 2018 called “Blockchain, Cryptoeconomics, and the Future of Technology, Business and Law.” A collaboration between the school’s computer science, business, and law schools, it admitted students from each school in equal amounts, but that still wasn’t enough to satisfy demand.

Song says the course was “hugely popular,” and notes the school was forced to turn down more than 200 students for a classroom that could only seat seventy.

It’s a scene playing out in dozens of universities across the United States as more and more campuses begin to meet a rising demand for an education in blockchain.

Student Interest High

A study conducted for Coinbase by research firm Qriously found that, in a survey of 675 students, nearly 10% had already taken a cryptocurrency course.

A potential reason for the strong enthusiasm about blockchain in education is its potential, already being seen in its impact across financial markets and other aspects of society.

“[Blockchain] can have really profound and broad-scale impacts on society in many different industries,” says Song. “Blockchain combines theory and practice and can lead to fundamental breakthroughs in many research areas,” she said.

Qriously also found that, of those same students surveyed, 17% percent of them stated that their knowledge of blockchain and cryptocurrency is “very good,” compared to just nine percent of the general population. This mirrors the fact that 18 percent of students said they own (or have owned) cryptocurrency, also twice the rate of the general population.

A quarter of all students said they would definitely or probably take a course focused on cryptocurrency or blockchain.

Universities Scramble to Meet Demand

The Qriously survey also found that, of America’s top fifty universities, 42 percent of them offer at least one class on blockchain or cryptocurrency, and 22 percent offer more than one. When those results are expanded to include foundational classes on cryptography, an underlying technology of blockchain, 70 percent of universities offer at least one crypto-related class.

There are now dozens of blockchain and crypto courses offered nationwide, with new ones being added all the time. Johns Hopkins University offers a business course in which students study “the potential benefits and weaknesses of [blockchain’s] fundamental structure as applied to businesses and organizations.” At Princeton, students are offered an information-security class focused on secure computing systems, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and related economics, ethics, and legal issues. Cornell offers “Anthropology of Money” and “Introduction to Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and Smart Contracts,” which covers the cryptocurrency bitcoin and “the technological landscape it has inspired and catalyzed,” according to the class catalog.

Looking Ahead

To better prepare future job seekers, universities are expanding to offer even more classes in the future. Stanford launched its Center for Blockchain Research to bring together faculty and students across multiple school departments to work on various aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

And it looks like the focus on these classes pays more than just financial dividends. Professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University and co-director of the center Dan Boneh says that he finds himself walking away with three new research ideas every time he talks with a new team in the group.  “There are new technical questions being raised by blockchain projects that we would not work on otherwise,” says Boneh.

Campbell Harvey, a Duke professor of international business adds “You need to prepare your students for the future…blockchain is not going away.”

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — BitcoinIRA.com, the world’s largest and most secure cryptocurrency platform that allows customers to purchase Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies for their retirement accounts, has launched the first self-trading platform for retirement accounts, called the BitcoinIRA.com Self-Trader™.

BitcoinIRA.com’s Self-Trader enables customers to buy, sell and swap cryptocurrencies directly inside their retirement accounts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Multiple coins can be purchased at once to provide an easier experience for customers.

BitcoinIRA.com’s original managed service and all-new Self-Trader use best-in-class storage and security, including multi-signature “cold storage” digital wallets. BitcoinIRA.com also has a top-level BSA/AML compliance program, two-factor authentication and a $1 million Consumer Protection insurance policy.

“This is a game changer. No other company currently offers this,” said BitcoinIRA.com’s Co-founder and COO Chris Kline. “We are continuing to provide innovative, trusted and fully-compliant solutions in the retirement space that offer consumers truly unique opportunities to capitalize on digital asset investments. Our Self-Trader exemplifies our mission and cements us as the leading cryptocurrency IRA platform.

In addition to BitcoinIRA.com’s Self-Trader, the company has launched a full website redesign to BitcoinIRA.com which includes a faster and easier application process, a trading simulator, improved real-time cryptocurrency price charts, a knowledge center, order history reporting and much more. The company now allows consumers to trade 8 leading cryptocurrencies, including recently announced Zcash and Stellar Lumens. It also offers Digital Gold and a non-retirement option that helps consumers purchase, trade and store cryptocurrency in a cash account.

Consumers can use the 24/7 Self-Trader, brand new website and faster online application process through its website at https://bitcoinira.com.

About BitcoinIRA.com

BitcoinIRA.com is the world’s largest and most secure cryptocurrency IRA platform that allows customers to purchase Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies for their retirement accounts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The company offers full-service and self-service options which include setting up a qualified cryptocurrency account, rolling over funds from an existing IRA custodian, executing a live trade on a leading exchange and then moving funds into an industry-leading multi-signature digital wallet.

Since 2017, BitcoinIRA.com has processed over $300 million in investments, gained more than 3,000 customers, and received more than 600 customer reviews. The company has been featured extensively in the media, with coverage in Forbes magazine, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

BitcoinIRA.com is a fintech service provider and as such is not a financial adviser, cryptocurrency, exchange, custodian, wallet provider, initial coin offering (ICO), or money transmitter. BitcoinIRA.com is privately funded and based in Los Angeles.

CONTACT: Mike Schrobo, [email protected]

SOURCE Bitcoin IRA

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