Bitcoin Weekly Wrap: Central Banks, Exchanges and Dell’s Endorsement

While bitcoin prices continued fluctuating widely during the final week of February, news about digital currency technology continued to pour in. A major central bank  published an extensive study about how cryptocurrencies might affect monetary policy, endorsing the technology behind them, while Dell has become the biggest merchant to accept digital currency internationally.

Bank of England Report Considers Role Of Digital Currencies in Central Banks

Digital Currency and its technology may have a place with central banks, according to a 50-page discussion paper by the Bank of England.

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The paper, at a high level, examines a number of general themes relevant to central banks, such as the relationships between different policy frameworks and the employment of new methodologies.

In the final section, which reviews the central bank’s response to fundamental technological, institutional, societal and environmental change, the Bank considers the question: “Why might central banks issue digital currencies?”

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Coinsetter Announces On-Blockchain Settlement of Trades With Project High Line

New York-based Coinsetter has unveiled its Project High Line, which aims to use the blockchain itself to settle trades quickly and transparently.

The feature may be more relevant for a broker like Coinsetter, which recently began offering post-trade settlement for qualified accounts.

The exchange sought to improve what it considered an outdated and opaque system still used on Wall Street, where it takes numerous intermediaries to reassign ownership over a period of several days.

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Dell Becomes Largest Merchant to Accept Bitcoin Internationally

Dell says that it has become the largest merchant in the world to accept bitcoin both inside and outside the U.S., recently adding support for Canada and the U.K.

Last year, Dell.com started accepting bitcoin from online shoppers in the U.S. The integration was facilitated by Coinbase.

Dell said that customers were buying with bitcoin across its full product spectrum, including software and PCs. The biggest purchase to date was a highly configured $50,000 PowerEdge server system. Individuals, small and medium businesses are reported to be making purchases with bitcoin at dell.com.

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A Closer Look at SolidX, Bitcoin Swaps and Potential of The Blockchain in Wall Street

If the wild price moves of bitcoin from 2013 to 2014 did nothing more than get people’s attention about the blockchain, then arguably it can still be deemed a success for the digital currency. While a lot of the media attention in bitcoins has been focused on its price moves and questions of whether it is a legitimate currency or not, it is quietly gaining interest as a technology of the future in the financial industry. Specifically, financial firms are investigating how the underlying blockchain technology, whether in the form of bitcoins or other decentralized currencies, can be used to optimize the foundation of their businesses.

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FinFX-Inspired Cryptocurrency Exchange Looks to Make Most Of Finland’s Unique Bitcoin Rules

A new Bitcoin exchange, FinCCX, was launched on January 22 in Finland.

A partner company of FX broker FinFX, based in Imatra, Finland, the exchange was inspired by management and trader interest in bitcoin.

One of the unique features of the exchange is its maker-taker commission model. The majority of such models charge a standard fee to market takers who remove liquidity from the market with immediately executable orders. Market makers, who add liquidity through the entry of orders not immediately executable, are rewarded with either reduced or no fees.

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