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Standard Bank tries out cryptocurrency with Bitcoin pilot project

Late breaking news of the day: Standard Bank appears to have been testing a Bitcoin trading platform which allows customers to buy and sell the cryptocurrency through an online banking system, and use it to pay for goods and services directly from their regular current accounts.

The system is based on a third-party set-up developed by Stellenbosch-based firm Switchless, which also owns and operates South Africa’s only Bitcoin exchange, BitX.

Switchless founders Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex showed off a demonstration of their Bitcoin trading software at the FinovateEurope 2014 conference in London yesterday, with Standard Bank branding at the top. Finovate is a future-gazing get together at which the outlook for money is discussed.

Images captured during the demo include this one, shared by Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director Jon Matonis on Twitter.

 

Members of the Bitcoin Foundation were in South Africa late last year engaging local banks in talks around the currency and how it could be deployed to bring financial services to the very poor.

We’ve reached out to both Switchless and Standard Bank for comment as to whether or not this internal testing project will see the light of day. Tweets from several conference goers suggest that the demo was described on stage as a genuine trial.

Bitcoin enthusiasts could do with some good news and support from institutions. The currency saw its value drop another $100 per coin on Monday after several large exchanges were hit by an attack in which fake codes are injected into transaction processes making it appear that coins have changed hands when they have not. The Bitcoin Foundation is describing this as a ‘Denial of Service’ attack based on bugs in the reference software for authenticating transactions and that used by some exchanges.

//Update – Standard Bank has apparently confirmed the slides are genuine.

[Source – Futurescope and Finovate]

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