Bitcoin Daily: PumaPay Blockchain Payment Systems Gets PCI Compliance; OpenBazaar Announces Mobile Crypto Trading App

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Blockchain-based payment system PumaPay has announced the launch of a new cryptobilling solution which has secured PCI (payment card industry) compliance.

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    PullPayment Protocol will enable multiple payment scenarios and all the familiar billing methodologies used with credit cards.

    “PCI compliance puts PullPayment Protocol on the map, giving PumaPay the recognition it needs to deliver its cryptobilling solution, while also keeping users’ financial information secure,” Yoav Dror, CEO of PumaPay, said in a press release. “The goal here is to give people the ability to spend their cryptocurrency easily and safely as they would regular fiat, and to allow businesses to accept cryptopayments using the same payment method to which they’re accustomed.”

    In other news, OB1, the developer behind OpenBazaar, has announced a mobile counterpart called Haven which allows users to buy and sell goods and services directly with each other using crypto.

     

    The app is divided into four sections — shopping, social, chat, and a non-custodial multi-wallet — with user information stored locally and protected with end-to-end encryption.

     

    “We’ve heard many stories from merchants about finding OpenBazaar a refugee from the high fees, restrictive terms and conditions and poor treatment of merchants on eBay and Amazon,” said Jenn Cloud, OB1 communications lead, according to CoinDesk.

    And Australia’s government has decided to exclude digital currencies from new restrictions on cash payments. Lawmakers said that the reason for the exclusion was to prevent the disappearance of cryptocurrencies from the local economy and interfere with innovation.

    “Digital currency is a new and developing area in the Australian economy. Unlike physical currency, it does not have a firmly established regulatory framework or industry structure. This makes it difficult to apply the cash payment limit in a way that would not largely prevent the use of digital currency in Australia or significantly stifle innovation in the sector,” stated the memorandum, according to Cointelegraph.

     


    X Exploring Payments Cards With Trading Function Coming ‘Soon’

    X’s CEO says the social media platform will “soon” offer an investment/trading option.

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      “You’ll be able to come to X and be able to transact your whole financial life on the platform,” Linda Yaccarino said in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) Thursday (June 19) at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. 

      “And that’s whether I can pay you for the pizza that we shared last night or make an investment or a trade. So that’s the future.” 

      Yaccarino added that the company was considering the launch of a X debit or credit card, which could arrive as soon as this year.

      As the FT noted, the push into financial services is part of X owner Elon Musk’s plan to turn the platform into a hub for messaging, payments and commerce, similar to China’s WeChat.

      The company has already announced plans to debut X Money, a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment service in partnership with Visa, later in the year.

      Writing about the Visa deal earlier this year, PYMNTS examined whether it would give X Money an edge over neobanks. That report pointed to PYMNTS Intelligence’s research showing that digital wallets are finding wide embrace across the world as a main vehicle for payments.

      Depending on where you look, PYMNTS added, these wallets are serving as a central point of access for a range of nonpayment activities, such as storing credentials. In the U.S. 48% of consumers use their digital wallets for online shopping, while 39% use them in-store. 

      “In other research, we’ve found that consumers were voicing that they’d trust a number of Big Tech names to store their payments credentials, which would pit those firms against traditional banks,” that report said.

      Yaccarino also told the FT that X Money would launch in the U.S. before being rolled out in other countries, and said that the service would let users purchase merchandise, store value or tip creators on the platform.

      “A whole commerce ecosystem and a financial ecosystem is going to emerge on the platform that does not exist today,” she said. 

      Meanwhile, this week also saw reports that xAI — the Musk-owned artificial intelligence (AI) company that owns X — expects to spend $13 billion this year against revenues of $500 million.

      The company shared this data with investors while trying to raise $9.3 billion in debt and equity, Bloomberg reported earlier this week, citing unnamed sources.

      That report said the rate at which the company is raising money and spending it is typical for the AI sector, because of the financial demands of the technology, which requires server farms and specialized chips.