The PIT digital currency exchange of Blockchain.com is one of the few exchanges to turn on the U.K. Faster Payments Scheme, The Block reported. The Faster Payments Scheme, as it stands, is a U.K. banking effort that cuts payment times between the customer accounts of different banks to a matter of seconds from three working days. The initiative will enable users to instantly deposit and withdraw British pounds, and purchase digital currencies. Two cryptos are currently supported: ether and bitcoin. The exchange reportedly plans to add more in the future. As of now, only a small assortment of digital currency exchanges have enabled the coffering, such as Coinfloor, Coinbase and CEX.IO.
In other news, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has been granted a patent in the U.S. that allows users to send bitcoin via email, Coindesk reported. The patent illustrates a system for users to make digital currency payments through email addresses, which are related to wallet addresses. Coinbase has reportedly made over $2 billion in transaction fees since 2012, but the proposed system would not charge user fees. With the system, the sender asks to send digital currency to an email address, and the system sends the agreed amount automatically — given they have the balance needed. Digital currencies not in use would be kept in a secure vault that only an email address connected to a corresponding wallet can access.
On another note, a former National Football League (NFL) minority owner could potentially admit in January that he participated in running an illicit shadow bank for digital currency traders, Bloomberg reported. A federal judge agreed to a hearing to allow Reginald Fowler to possibly modify his plea. He pled not guilty to charges earlier in the year that he and Ravid Yosef ran an operation for money-transmitting that was unlicensed and linked to the trading of crypto. Fowler and Yosef processed hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of digital currency exchanges, and were deceitful to banks to open accounts, according to prosecutors. Yosef is reportedly still at large.
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