The CEO of Fidelity Investments, Abigail Johnson, spoke about blockchain technology at a conference in NY yesterday, revealing details about the company’s involvement in it and confessing her love for cryptocurrency, specifically bitcoin and ethereum.The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!“I love this stuff – bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain technology – and what the future holds,” she said.She revealed that Fidelity Investments is working on integrating into its website a display of assets held at San Francisco headquartered cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Coinbase.It is expected to be completed by Q3 2017.Back in March, New York’s financial regulator, the state Department of Financial Services (DFS), announced that Coinbase’s licensing application to offer ethereum and litecoin was approved.This means that we can expect these to appear on Fidelity Investments clients’ portfolios, in addition to bitcoin.The CEO also revealed that Fidelity Investments tested various aspects of  cryptocurrency: “We have built proofs of concepts that accept bitcoin micro-transactions.

We set up small bitcoin and ethereum mining operations, just done in the spirit of learning.”“Even we at Fidelity can see that the evolution of technology is setting up our industry for disruption.ethereum megahash calculatorWhat if this new technology could do for the transfer of value what the internet did for the transfer of information?mining litecoin with windowsBlockchain isn’t just a new way to settle transactions; it can fundamentally change market structure, or maybe even the architecture of the internet itself.bitcoin to inr price chartWhen combined with things like the Internet of Things or the cloud, there’s no underestimating the potential that’s on the horizon.”Despite this love for cryptocurrency, Johnson is not blind to the current problems and to the challenges ahead: “I like to think that huge new markets and products will be built on these platforms.buy litecoin visa

“But before that can happen, we need to address the barriers there are to adoption—and there are several.We care about the trade-off between scalability, privacy, and achieving peer-to-peer settlement.bitcoin millionaire pcIt seems right now you can’t have all three.Regulators will have a steep learning curve, and that will cause some growing pains.The financial services industry will need to work to understand the risks associated with who controls the features of these new systems.If you are looking for bitcoin to beat Visa at the point of sale today, you are going to be disappointed.bitcoin hash difficultyIf you are looking at this technology as just a faster settlement system for financial transactions … also disappointing.But I am still a believer – and it’s no accident that I’m one of the few standing before you today from a large financial services firm that hasn’t given up on digital currencies.”bitcoin extra flags

by Tyler Durden In what bitcoin geeks undoubtedly interpreted as a sign of bitcoin’s renewed relevance now that its price is at all-time highs, Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson told CoinDesk’s Consensus conference that her company is now in the business of mining bitcoin.litecoin alPer the FT: “Ms Johnson noted that Fidelity has also set up a bank of computers built by 21 Inc that can crunch complex algorithms to be rewarded with bitcoin.ethereum 90 days“My…computer has mined over 200,000 satoshis,” she said, using the name for the smallest unit of bitcoin.Her remarks coincide with an astounding rally in virtual currencies like bitcoin.As DoubleLine’s Jeffrey Gundlach noted on Tuesday, bitcoin is up 100% in under two months, implying that the turmoil in Chinese markets was driving more locals into bitcoin.One coin was trading at $2,275 Tuesday according to Coinbase, the latest in a series of all-time highs as global uncertainty rises... Johnson also added that Fidelity now allows employee to pay for lunch with bitcoin at the cafeteria in its Boston headquarters.

She noted that fewer than 100 employees have paid with bitcoin, demonstrating an unnatural-sounding mastery of industry slang.“I guess we have a lot of hodlers,” she said, using the slang for bitcoin users who avoid selling the currency when it jumps in value.And Fidelity's CEO also revealed information about her company's partners on its journey, naming blockchain startup Axoni, investment firm Boost VC and university initiatives based out of MIT, University College London and Cornell.To date, Johnson explained that Fidelity Labs, its internal R&D division has also set up experiments for bitcoin micropayments and even run bitcoin and ethereum mining operations in the spirit of learning more about the technology.Already, she said, this feature is available to employees who own digital currencies available through the startup's services.NEW YORK Fidelity Investments will allow its clients to see their holdings of bitcoin and other virtual currencies held on digital asset exchange Coinbase on the company's website, said Chief Executive Abigail Johnson on Tuesday.

The move will make the Boston-based asset manager one of a handful of large financial services firms to have integrated digital currencies into its website.A Fidelity spokesman said the new initiative may be launched in the second or third quarter this year.The company is testing the Coinbase holdings integration with its employees, Johnson said."I love this stuff – bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain technology – and what the future holds," Johnson said at a blockchain conference called Consensus in New York City.Blockchain, a shared online ledger of transactions which first emerged as bitcoin's underlying technology, has been attracting growing investments by established financial institutions which hope it can help them save money and time.Ethereum, a type of blockchain technology which can be used to build more complex applications, has also garnered interest from mainstream corporations.Most large financial services firms have so far steered clear of virtual currencies.Fidelity is one of a few traditional investment companies to have also openly backed the digital currency.

"We have built proofs of concepts that accept bitcoin micro-transactions," Johnson said."We set up small bitcoin and ethereum mining operations, just done in the spirit of learning."Bitcoin hit a record high on Monday, with one unit of bitcoin trading above $2,2000 on the Bitstamp platform.Fidelity has also been testing bitcoin internally by allowing it in its cafeteria, though fewer than 100 employees made purchases using the virtual currencies, Johnson added.The Fidelity chief executive noted that usability was slowing down adoption."If you are looking for bitcoin to beat Visa at the point of sale today, you are going to be disappointed, Johnson said."If you are looking at this technology as just a faster settlement system for financial transactions ... also disappointing."The asset manager still has faith in virtual currencies, she added."But I am still a believer – and it's no accident that I'm one of the few standing before you today from a large financial services firm that hasn't given up on digital currencies," Johnson said.