We are about to witness the launch of the biggest and most serious cryptocurrency venture in history. We are about to witness the launch of the largest and most serious cryptocurrency venture in history. Bitcoin has been around for 9 years now. For the first few years, bitcoin was just a "toy" for geeks and libertarians that the financial world had never heard of or laughed at. In fact, hardly anyone had heard of bitcoin except a handful of enthusiasts. That quickly began to change. With the rise in popularity and exchange rate, there are probably already more people in the world who know anything about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies than those who have never heard of the phenomenon at all. Bitcoin has become quite common and this has caught the attention of governments working in a hurry to create new regulations as well as the financial world at large led by the major players. Unfortunately or not, an era is coming to an end which can be called the childhood of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Anonymity and therefore freedom is being eroded by regulations and increasingly strict AML laws. Regulations in turn make cryptocurrencies interesting for serious players offering products to the masses, institutions and the financial world. Startup Bakkt is an example of this. ICE, the largest player on Wall Street, which owns the NYSE, is responsible for the project. ICE is the second largest owner of financial exchanges in the world in terms of revenue. The project also involves Microsoft, Starbucks, Boston Consulting Group and many investors such as Fortress Investment Group, Eagle Seven and Susquehanna International Group. So it can be said that it will be "thick". Bakkt, which will be launched in November, in a nutshell is supposed to offer bitcoin to the regulated market, i.e. launch it into wide waters. Bakkt's primary task will be to make bitcoin a robust and secure offering for key players currently avoiding it. It also aims to offer mutual funds, pension funds and ETFs based on bitcoin. Another possible step for the future, is to make bitcoin a serious competitor to the credit card. "We are working together to build an open platform that will help unlock the potential of digital assets in global markets and commerce," said Kelly Loeffler incoming CEO of Bakkt The presence of Starbucks and Microsoft suggests that Bakkt will seek to revolutionize the way payments are made in retail and online. Starbucks is already a leader in promoting smartphone payments instead of expensive credit cards. And Microsoft, through its Azure cloud business, serves a huge base of retailers by handling back-office tasks from invoice processing to e-commerce. "As a flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a key role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into U.S. dollars, " said Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments for Starbucks One can only imagine what will happen if this new project develops solutions on a massive scale, eliminating credit card payments. If it starts with Starbucks, you can expect an avalanche of imitators. update 06.08.2018] Following the media hype that Starbucks may introduce bitcoin payments, the coffee giant has denied that such a form of payment is involved. Tags Bakkt bitcoin cryptocurrencies NYSE startup
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