According to the The Sunday Times, the British multinational banking services company formed a strategic partnership with an unnamed Bitcoin exchange to feed its purpose to “experiment” with the controversial payment technology. The pilot program is further believed to go on floors by the end of this year, with the sole aim to bring Bitcoin into the mainstreams.
But for many, Barclays is being too cautious in its approach to embrace the Bitcoin technology. The company’s decision to limit the digital currency’s applicability to donations justifies its fears of negative outcomes. Bitcoin’s use in charities is reportedly on decline. It is believed that people won’t buy the digital currency specifically to donate it afterwards.
Nevertheless, it is still an apprehensible step to serve a better purpose, i.e. improving Bitcoin’s PR among the potential adopters. Barclays might be hoping to study how the Bitcoin technology works in real time, while ignoring the sum of individuals who use it. As long as the digital currency proves its worth, the banking company might decided to integrate it further into its other operations.
It gets further clear with Barclays’s recent steps. Earlier this year, the company had entered a proof-of-concept partnership with a Bitcoin startup Safello. A few months later, Barclays had also selected three digital currency firms into its FinTech startups accelerator program. Furthermore, the company currently has two offices in London, specifically dedicated to Bitcoin and its public ledger technology, the blockchain.
With firms like Barclays, as well as NYSE, Nasdaq and UBS entering the Bitcoin industry, the future of this disruptive payment technology looks extremely bullish.
We are trying to reach Barclays representatives for comments. This article will be moderated accordingly.
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Gola Yashu
India-based IT professional Yashu Gola found Bitcoin in 2012, when he was trying to send money to one of his friends in the US. As he quotes, it was “love-at-first-sight” with the mystical work of digital currencies. He left his online advertising job to work as a full-time Bitcoin writer for forex news website ForexMinute.com. Apart from covering the minute-to-minute Bitcoin events, Yashu is also an active Bitcoin trader and analyst.When not working, he is found reading and writing movie scripts, poems and songs. He is also a passionate movie buff View all posts by Gola Yashu