LONDON Eleven major banks, including Barclays (BARC.L), UBS UBSG.VX and HSBC (HSBA.L), said on Wednesday they had tested a system that could make trading much faster and cheaper, using the technology that underpins crypto-currency bitcoin.The banks are part of a consortium of 42 major lenders, brought together last year by New York-based software company R3 to work on ways blockchain technology could be used in financial markets - the first time so many have collaborated on using such systems.A blockchain is a huge, decentralised ledger of every bitcoin transaction, verified and shared by a global computer network, that can also be used to secure and validate any exchange of data, including real assets, such as commodities or currencies.Banks reckon the technology could save them money by cutting out middlemen and making their operations more transparent.But analysts caution it is early days - bitcoin was invented just six years ago and blockchain experiments are still under way.For this test, R3 used a Microsoft platform, which runs on a blockchain built by Ethereum, a non-profit organisation.

The 11 banks in the simulation, operating across four continents, each used their own computer, or "node", and transferred "Ether" to each other - Ethereum's equivalent of bitcoin, R3 said.They were able to settle the transactions almost instantaneously, it added.bitcoin dinero electrónicoThat compares to settlement times of days or even weeks, depending on the asset class, under the current systems used by banks.btc robot loginR3 Managing Director Charley Cooper said the technology could be used by banks to transfer real assets within the next one or two years.bitcoin vs doge"Rather than just talking about what we might do, we've moved into a new phase, which is actually executing these plans and demonstrating how this technology might work in practise," said Tim Grant, who runs R3's test labs.ppt on bitcoin technology

The other eight banks involved in the experiment were BMO Financial Group, Credit Suisse, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Natixis, Royal Bank of Scotland, TD Bank, UniCredit and Wells Fargo - all members of the R3 consortium.feather bitcoin"Proving the scale and peer-to-peer operation of blockchain experiments is an important next step," said UBS's senior innovation manager Alex Batlin, who is in charge of a blockchain lab for the bank in London.china bitcoin guardianR3 has recruited many heavyweights from the worlds of bitcoin and technology more broadly.ethereum online walletMike Hearn, a former lead bitcoin developer who last week said the crypto-currency had been a failed experiment, is its lead platform engineer.bitcoin instant verification

Banks see potential in the so-called "smart contracts" that blockchain technology facilitates: agreements that are automatically executed when pre-determined conditions are met."Though ... there are still many implementation hurdles left to overcome, this exercise further validates the utility of smart contract consensus technology," a spokesman for Ethereum said.bitcoin madness(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Andrew Heavens)We are actively seeking partners, entrepreneurs, and team members.Contact us, or join our mailing list to stay informed.Submit We have full-time jobs open.Join us to shape the future of decentralized technology.There are a few ways to buy Ethereum, Ether or ETH (it's trading ticker name), and this guide is going to show you how you can get hold of some in the easiest way possible.Just like Bitcoin there can be quite a few cumbersome hoops to jump through but hopefully we can show you the best method to suite yourself.

You can buy it with fiat currency, buy it with bitcoin or you can mine it.Buy Ether with Fiat Currency: There are a number of fiat exchanges that you can use to buy ethereum, or ether, directly with local fiat currency such as dollars euros or yuan.Kraken is a particularly good way to buy ethereum with dollars, pounds or euros and we've written a guide on that here.There are other exchange that you can use to get hold of ethereum immediately.All you need to do is go to the page here and find out which exchange trades into your local currency by clicking on the tabs on the right hand side.If you can't find the right currency to trade into or you think the bid ask spread is too high or there isn't enough liquidity you will have to buy it another way.The best way to do this is to buy bitcoin first.One of the least hassle ways to buy bitcoin is to use Coinbase.Unfortunately Coinbase is only supported in a few countries and their pay by debit card feature is limited to a certain quantity per day.

There are other exchanges you can use and you can find them out by doing exactly the same check as you have done on the ethereum page.Once you have found the right place to buy some bitcoin.... buy some.There are some loopholes to go through usually that can make the process painful, but that is only Companies trying to comply with legislation on KYC and AML.Now you have bitcoin you can get ETH or ether by using one of the exchanges that operates a BTC-ETH pair.They can be found here.Another option to get hold of some ether is to to mine Ether yourself.Alternatively, you can also try buying a cloud mining contract with Hashflare or Genesis Mining.If you want to mine ethereum yourself the process can be quite tricky but our guide here will get you through the process.You will also want to join a mining pool to reduce the volatility of returns.If you want to buy a mining contract it means you surrender a small slice of the profit for the sake of someone else taking care of the management, maintenance and set up costs.