Bank of England has described digital currencies as ‘harder money’ than a gold standard; Nigeria’s Central Bank is calling for bitcoin regulation and more top stories for August 20.

Bank of England: Digital currencies are ‘harder money’ than a gold standard

A report by the Bank of England has described bitcoin as harder money than gold standard. The report was published on August 19, 2015 under the title of Chief Economists Workshop.

Part of the report reads:

“In the near future the financial system could be supporting billions of new users – possibly double the current size”

Bitnet & PAY.ON Deal Brings Bitcoin to Over 100 Payment Service Providers

Bitnet and PAY.ON have announced a partnership allowing PAY.ON’s entire customer base, which includes over 100 PSPs and 56,000 merchants, to accept bitcoin on its platform.

Bitnet is an enterprise scale digital commerce platform while PAY.ON is a financial institution which offers white label payment gateway solutions for payment service providers.

PAY.ON:

“Thanks to the Bitnet partnership, PAY.ON’s PSP clients will be able to offer bitcoin payments without exposing their merchants to the risk of fraudulent transactions or volatility in the price of bitcoin.”

CoinATMradar launches Android version of the bitcoin ATM map

CoinATMradar, a website that helps Bitcoin users to locate Bitcoin ATMs within their surrounding, has launched an android app. Previously, only the iOS version was available.

CoinATMradar:

“Android version is quite similar to another already existing app. It provides several screens and options.”

Nigeria's Central Bank is Calling for Bitcoin Regulation

Reports from Nigeria indicate that the country’s Central Bank has called for the regulation of bitcoin to avoid it being used for money laundering.

Dr Okwu Nnanna, deputy governor of financial system stability at Nigeria's Central Bank (CBN):

"Virtual currency was dangerous because it was not a legal tender of any country hence it has a borderless nature without jurisdiction which makes it a channel for money laundering."

The Japanese Police Could Arrest Mt Gox CEO Again

Japanese police have shown interest that they might re-arrest and charge Mark Karpeles, the CEO of the defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, tomorrow with embezzlement. Mr. Karpeles has been in custody for the last three weeks.

Bitcoin XT Fork Can 'Blacklist' Tor Exits, May Reveal Users’ IP Addresses

In a post to the Bitcoin core mailing list, a researcher by the name of 'F L' points out a 'commit' to the Bitcoin XT source code, with over a thousand lines, including a hard list of IP addresses that are loaded by default into clients.

The code also asks a server for an updated list of IP addresses that it could disconnect from, upon the boot of the client. This, according to Peter Todd, could leak the Tor Bitcoin XT node's IP address.

The description of the commit created by Mike Hearn, reads:

“When a node reaches its max connection slots, it will attempt to find a peer with a lower priority than the one trying to connect and disconnect it, to stay below the max connection limit.”

FinTech Innovation Lab London accepting applicants for 2016

FinTech Innovation Lab London, a 12-week mentoring program, which starts in January 2016, is now taking applications from fintech startups.

The programme helps fintech entrepreneurs to accelerate their product development and gain exposure to leading financial-industry executives.

26-Year-Old Head of Argentina’s Banco Nacion

The 26 year old daughter of Argentina’s Defense Minister, María Delfina Rossi, was appointed head at Banco Nacíon, the country’s largest bank. This job is going to put her under public scrutiny and guest author Patrick Dugan has written an open letter with advice on how blockchain technology could be used to solve the country’s financial problems.