Technology

As a fast, low-cost payment system, Bitcoin provides healthy competition for legacy banks. It's also a bulwark for financial privacy and freedom of speech.

With their regulatory status, refined customer identity procedures and global infrastructure, banks could offer bitcoin exchange services and lead the modernization of financial services. Instead, they’re freezing Bitcoin entrepreneurs’ accounts.

As the world accelerates toward faster and contactless payments, the U.S. has been reinforcing checks, avoiding global payments standards and pursuing closed-loop innovations that further isolate it.

To succeed today, financial firms need to encourage female employees to take the right kind of risks, such as trying new innovations to serve clients.

The feature presents a win-win scenario for banks and their customers as well as an opportunity for mobile-centric financial startups that can serve as the catalyst for widespread adoption.