Litecoin, the 5th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is on a tear, rallying over 50% during the past week. Kenneth Asare, CEO of LitePay, a Litecoin payment processor, was with us to explain why merchants need to be ready for the digital currency revolution.
On February 26th, 41 countries will have access to LitePay merchant payment processing. Retailers will be able to use LitePay's retail, e-commerce, billing, and donation tools to accept Litecoin payments from customers anywhere on earth. Asare said the platform is targeting people with access to smartphones, but not banking.
Asare said Litecoin is the 'internet of money.' He stressed that it's not a way to replace fiat currency or the stock exchange, and it's not something to invest in. Instead, this is the very beginning of a new way of sharing and transferring value, he said.
Gillian Tans, the CEO of Booking.com, spoke with Cheddar's Alex Heath at the Web Summit about how the the platform known for hotel deals is transitioning into a full service travel concierge.
Disney's new streaming service and its acquisition of Fox assets will be the main fixation when the entertainment giant reports earnings and revenue after market close on Thursday.
Elon Musk will have someone to answer to at Tesla. The electric carmaker announced late Wednesday that Robyn Denholm would take Musk's place as chair of the board. Denholm, a Tesla board member, will leave her job as chief financial officer of Telstra, an Australian telco giant and inherit Musk's chairman duties full-time in six months when her notice period is complete.
Ford, the century-old automaker that all but invented the concept of the modern car, said it would acquire e-scooter start-up Spin as part of a broad re-positioning of the company as a mobility services provider in an era when car ownership is but one of many options for getting around. Cheddar discussed the strategy behind the acquisition with Sunny Madra, the vice president of tech incubator Ford X, and Euwyn Poon, the co-founder and president of Spin.
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Adrian Lovett, president and CEO of the non-profit Web Foundation, told Cheddar's Alex Heath why the rate of people getting online for the first time is becoming stagnant.
Services aren't just for tech companies ー retailers are also latching onto the recurring revenue trend. And for industry vet Office Depot, the services model promises serious growth. "We are not a retailer, we are an omni-channel company," Office Depot CEO Gerry Smith told Cheddar, underscoring the importance of services revenue and Office Depot's business-to-business division.
Microsoft will continue to provide technology to U.S. agencies and the military, despite the objections raised by employees over how the products are being used, specifically with regard to immigration and border control. "We will be proactive in using our voice," said Microsoft President Brad Smith, speaking to Cheddar from the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. "We think we'll be more persuasive if we're engaged than if we withdraw."
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Political fixer-turned VC Bradley Tusk doesn't think it's sufficient to just bring voters to the polls ー he wants to bring the polls to them. "We know, fundamentally, democracy works when a lot of people vote, and it really doesn't work when very few people vote," Tusk told Cheddar on Tuesday.
