July, 2016

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Meet YoCoin: The Bitcoin Alternative

PYMNTS

There’s another digital currency in town, and its name is YoCoin. The question is: Can YoCoin give bitcoin a run for its money? We’ll have to wait and see. But YoCoin is pitching itself as a “new cryptocurrency with mainstream appeal.” “Unlike most of the alternative cryptocurrencies, YoCoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency based on the Scrypt mining algorithm, making it far more accessible than bitcoin is when it comes to mining.

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Why A Startup CFO Is Like A Personal Trainer

Boston Startup CFO

According to a report from Harvard Business School, as many as three out of four startups fail to succeed in the long term. To hold their own amongst established competitors, startups need strong leadership teams and effective business strategy. I recently spoke with Tridivesh Kidambi, newly appointed CFO of CallFire, a technology company that provides voice and text connectivity to businesses, to learn more about how a company determines it needs a CFO and what it takes to be the CFO of a start

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With Blockchain, It’s Time For Less Talking, More Doing

PYMNTS

ATB Financial just completed the sending of a payment from its home base of Canada to a bank in Germany in 20 seconds via blockchain. Admittedly, most consumers, says SAP Senior Principal of Financial Services Kris Hansen, would simply shrug at this accomplishment. But, he said, they’re missing the point. The bank first announced the payment last week, an effort completed with the collaboration between ATB Financial, SAP and blockchain fintech company Ripple.

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Visa And PayPal Partner To Accelerate Digital Payments

PYMNTS

Visa and PayPal today (July 21) announced a strategic partnership that will combine the power of the largest payments network in the world with the largest digital payments network in the world to give consumers more choice about how they pay when using their PayPal accounts. According to a release that was issued by PayPal announcing the deal, “the partnership puts PayPal and Visa on a new path with the companies working more collaboratively to accelerate the adoption of safe, reliable and conv

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Why Tech-Forward Tax and Accounting Firms Have the Inside Track to the Future

Speaker: Joe Wroblewski, Sales Engineer Manager

Automating time-consuming manual tasks can save your firm hundreds of hours–and thousands of dollars. But it can also have longer-lasting benefits, like helping you attract and retain the next generation of CPAs, and we don’t need to tell you how important that is amid the current generational staffing crisis in the tax and accounting profession. You'll want to save your seat for this new webinar with industry expert Joe Wroblewski, where we'll explore how to: Maximize ROI with Cost-Effective Te

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Philippines-Based Bitcoin Remittance App Enters US Market

PYMNTS

Abra , the bitcoin remittance app, has made its way to the U.S. — via the iPhone and Android app options. What that means is that Abra customers in the U.S. or the Philippines can send money to each other using the app’s digital wallet that works with their bank accounts. The company noted in its release that this is the first move in helping it expand globally.

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Ransomware Attacks Targeted At Businesses On The Rise

PYMNTS

Ransomware may have started with consumers, but attacks against businesses and large organizations are on the rise, according to Symantec ’s Ransomware and Businesses 2016 report. The security software company said that, while individuals accounted for 57 percent of the recorded ransomware attacks in 2015, attacks on companies and larger organizations increased at the end of the year.

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Is New Extreme Value Grocery Store Latest Biz Disruptor?

PYMNTS

Will discount grocery stores like ALDI, Costco and Sam’s Club soon be facing some serious competition? Well, that’s what LogicLane , a new startup that offers discount wholesale groceries on its eCommerce marketplace, is certainly hoping. LogicLane recently opened its online marketplace to consumers and businesses after first beta testing it with an invitation-only period and can now connect customers to everything from a box of cereal to an entire pallet of cases of cereal boxes (the company is

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How Singapore Is Fueling A ‘Smart Nation’

PYMNTS

Singapore is on a mission to build up a Smart Nation by utilizing innovation and technology to create opportunities and strengthen communities. The country’s technology ecosystem is setting the foundation for good governance, infrastructure and increased capabilities, which makes it no surprise Singapore has gained attention for its tech initiatives.

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Massachusetts Just Stole An Important Page From Silicon Valley's Playbook

Boston Startup CFO

In the 1980s, the United States had two major hubs of technology innovation. Everyone knows about Silicon Valley, but the East Coast had a "Silicon Valley" of its own, located along Route 128 in the suburbs of Boston. When Gov. Michael Dukakis touted the "Massachusetts Miracle" in his 1988 presidential campaign, he was largely talking about Boston's high-tech boom.

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Live Demo - Supercharge your Month End Close

Automation generally supercharges any process and brings its value to the forefront. See how infusing automation such as ART (our month-end close solution), into your close can get you to the next level of closing. We will share a live demo of SkyStem's solution, ART and share the key elements of month-end close automation. Through ART, we'll take a look at: What month-end close automation entails Which process steps can and should be automated Benefits of achieving process automation, and Why i

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iPayYou Launches Pay-by-Twitter Bitcoin P2P Service

PYMNTS

Bitcoin may be a preferred method of payment for a slew of tech-savvy people, but it has yet to take off with the masses, or even micro-masses. iPayYou, the bitcoin wallet, is aiming to change that with a new service launched today (July 14). Dubbed Pay-by-Twitter, iPayYou is the first bitcoin wallet that enables Twitter’s 310 million monthly active users to make peer-to-peer payments over Twitter.

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How Big Banks Are Staying In The Mobile Payments Race

PYMNTS

Big companies like PayPal have been dominating the digital payments world for many years. And then came Apple, along with the other tech companies, like Google and Samsung. And for years, banks have caught flack for not offering digital and mobile payments options that are up to snuff with what the tech giants have brought to market. Now, however, big banks are dusting off their old-fashioned ways and getting up to speed.

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Can AI Take The Guesswork Out Of Beer Brewing?

PYMNTS

Will the wonders of artificial intelligence ever cease? In the last decade or so, artificial intelligence has been increasing at a dramatic clip, and software developers and programmers have developed AIs that can do everything from beating a world class chess champion to diagnosing medical conditions to moving and stacking heavy objects on a factory floor.

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Why Paris Has A Heart For FinTech

PYMNTS

In this week’s edition of PYMNTS’ Weekly Tech Center Roundup , we find ourselves back in Europe, where Brexit is all anyone can talk about. But we are heading to France, where the country’s capital city is making a name for itself as a booming tech center. Before we jump into the post, here are a few quick facts about Paris and its tech scene: Paris has an estimated population of 2,241,346.

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Mid-Year Review: How to Ignite Employee Potential Through Meaningful Feedback

Mid-year performance reviews aren’t just boxes for HR to check. Paycor’s toolkit empowers leaders to: Identify high-potential team members. Boost engagement with meaningful feedback. Support struggling employees. Nurture top talent to drive results. Learn how to ignite employee potential through meaningful feedback. When you nurture top talent, everybody wins.

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Millennials Are So Last Year: Study Says Retailers Need To Start Thinking About Gen Z

PYMNTS

Move over millennials , there’s a new kid in town that is about to become nearer and dearer to retailers’ hearts: Gen Z. Gen-Z shoppers, defined as those between the age of 14 and 19, are about to become the most coveted demographic in all of retail, according to a study entitled “The Next Generation of Retail” by retail marketing firm Interactions.

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Say Hello To ‘The Internet of Loyalty’

PYMNTS

Who isn’t familiar with rewards programs that incentivize consumers to become more eager c ustomers? But one company has devised a rewards program that aims to go even further. Gregory Simon, CEO of “The Internet of Loyalty” platform provider, Loyyal Corporation, recently checked in with Karen Webster to discuss the company’s work with the Dubai government on the Dubai points program — a tourism incentive program that is expected to roll out in August 2016.

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Stub Hub Pushes Closer To Primary Ticketing Platform Status With The Acquisition of Ticket Utils

PYMNTS

It looks like StubHub is getting an upgrade – care of parent company eBay’s latest acquisition. eBay has snatched up Ticket Utils , a firm that specializes in the software that manages ticket distribution to multiple services. That technology will now be folded into StubHub – though StubHub was already integrated into the system.

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Bitcoin’s Big Halving Countdown And ‘Long Tail Risk’

PYMNTS

On July 9, 2016, just eight days away, the bitcoin market is going to change. As for the impact of that change, it’s all speculation for now, but just the chatter around bitcoin’s halving event has sent its prices fluctuating a bit more than normal. Of course, there’s Brexit , too, that pushed bitcoin’s prices even higher. Bitcoin halving is an adjustment to bitcoin’s design in order to control how many new bitcoin can be created.

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Your Accounting Expertise Will Only Get You So Far: What Really Matters

Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA

In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. If you’re aiming for the summit, the air gets thinner—and what got you here won’t be enough to get you to the top (a concept first popularized by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ). What made you successful early in your finance career—technical accuracy, sharp analysis, flawless execution—won’t be what carries you to the next level.

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The Unlikely Retail Applications Of Pokémon GO

PYMNTS

For years, retailers have lamented the fact that mobile traffic so rarely translates in equal numbers to in-store traffic. An entire industry has even sprung up around leveraging digital engagement into visits to brick-and-mortar store fronts. Retailers spend millions — and would gladly spend millions more — if there was some sure-fire way to turn consumers’ phones into magnets that pull toward their stores.

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Is Sun Care The Next Big Thing In Retail?

PYMNTS

Your mother was right: You should always wear sunscreen. And it’s an axiom that the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) keeps repeating over and over again as a way to ward off skin cancer, including melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. According to its website, the AAD says that one in every five Americans will develop some form of skin cancer in their lifetime.

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Masterpass Gets Connected — And Contextual

PYMNTS

Mastercard CIO Ed McLaughlin was often heard describing mastercard’s vision for commerce as one that would take it anywhere the consumer wanted to take it, including “to any connected device on the edge of the network.”. Today, we’re seeing that vision made reality. Network giant mastercard said on Thursday (July 14) that it is enhancing its digital payments service, masterpass, and making it available across a number of commerce channels and devices in an effort to bring true omnichannel shoppi

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Venezuela Turns To Bitcoin As Inflation Skyrockets

PYMNTS

The search for inflation hedges and stability of purchasing power in a world of hyperinflation has led some in Venezuela to turn to the digital currency known as bitcoin. The state of “economic emergency,” as it has been termed by some observers and officially by President Nicolás Maduro, is so acute that the International Monetary Fund has estimated that the inflation rate could be as high as 480 percent this year and grow to as much as 1,640 percent next year.

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The Hidden Science Behind Why Finance Teams Resist Change—And How to Fix It

Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP

The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.

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Is Lyft Preparing To Sell?

PYMNTS

Ridesharing firm Lyft has been getting ready to capitalize on investor desire to delve into transports and has been exploring raising additional funding or even selling itself to outside interests, Reuters has reported. The newswire said that the firm has been working with investment bank Qatalyst Partners, which is based in Silicon Valley. Reuters cited unnamed people familiar with the dialogue.

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EU Pushes For Bitcoin Database And Transparency

PYMNTS

Anonymous is the name of bitcoin’s game. But Europe might like to make it less so. T he European Commission would like to create a central database of digital currency users to prevent terrorist financing and money laundering – for the obvious reasons. The regulators there would like to establish a central database by June 2019 whereby, “obliged entities need to collect, process and record personal data, and sometimes to share such data with public authorities (such as FIUs) or with private

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Three Startups Shaping The Future of Commerce

PYMNTS

Earlier this year, Visa announced the start of its second annual Everywhere Initiative , where startups go head-to-head to imagine the future of commerce. Three real-life business challenges gave 15 competing companies the chance to flex their commerce chops. Participants could use Visa’s APIs to create a payment solution, leverage social media channels to engage people at Visa-sponsored events or persuade Visa cardholders to go cardless.

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Australian Banks Launch Apple Pay Antitrust Attack

PYMNTS

The three largest banks in Australia – National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp – have partnered up to lodge an anti-trust application with regulators in an attempt to collectively negotiate with Apple over whether or not their own in-house electronic payments apps can be set up to run properly on an iPhone.

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Doing More With Less: The Modern Finance Miracle

Speaker: Mark Gilham, FCCA, CPP

Finance used to be the function that counted, now it's the one that’s counted on. 📊 For accounting firms, controllers, and finance leaders, expectations are rising faster than headcount. Businesses want agile forecasts, granular analysis, seamless reporting, and smart automation—often without added resources while demanding uncompromised accuracy and compliance.