Backers of the so-called SegWit2x proposal to double block size for Bitcoin suspended the effort on Wednesday, citing a lack of “consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade.” The move, which would have occurred around Nov. 16, was an effort to increase transaction capacity for Bitcoin and relieve upward pressure on …

NCR Corp. launched the NCR Silver Quantum point-of-sale system that features an integrated payment device with mobile wallet acceptance, a customer loyalty program, and a scanner that are loaded onto a Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet. NCR Silver Quantum, in addition to the NCR Silver POS software, is the first …

USA Technologies Inc., which provides payment technology for unattended merchant locations, announced it has an $85 million cash and stock deal to acquire Cantaloupe Systems, a San Francisco-based software provider serving the vending-machine industry. Cantaloupe operates in the U.S., Canada, and several international markets, and its Seed Cloud applications include …

Consumers who want to use cash online can now load an Amazon Cash account at U.S. 7-Eleven Inc. stores by presenting cash and a personalized Amazon barcode to the cashier. Users can load between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, with no fees, 7-Eleven says. The company has nearly …

Apple Pay users have more than doubled over the past 12 months, Apple Inc. reported, without citing a specific number. Yearly transactions have increased 330%, and more than 5 million U.S. merchant locations will be accepting the mobile-payment service by the end of the year, the company said during an …

Encryption specialist Bluefin Payment Systems said it will provide encryption services to clients of payments provider Accepta LLC. A report from processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) found 25 real-time payments systems in operation globally, up from 19 last year and more than twice the number in 2013. Another …

Mobile point-of-sale provider CardFlight said payment processor Beyond will offer CardFlight’s SwipeSimple device to merchants. The technology enables EMV chip card transactions from a mobile device. CME Group, a major derivatives marketplace, announced plans to launch a futures market for Bitcoin before the end of the year, pending regulatory review. On …

American Express Co. released SafeKey 2.0, an online authentication tool that uses the EMVCo 3-D Secure 2.0 standard. The service will be available in spring 2018. Payline Data Services LLC announced that payment-processing technology company Pineapple Payments purchased Payline Data for an undisclosed amount. Payline Data has almost 10,000 merchants processing …

Payments company PayTrace Inc. launched a browser-based EMV-acceptance service that uses an Ingenico Group EMV card reader and processing from Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). WaveCrest, an issuer of prepaid cards used to pay fleet drivers and reimburse workers, said it has introduced EMV chips on its cards issued in …

Point-of-sale system provider Revel Systems announced it is working with mobile-payments provider LevelUp to integrate mobile order-ahead, in-store mobile payments, and loyalty service for Revel’s restaurant clients. After more than 50 years in the Houston area, First Data Corp.’s TeleCheck Services unit will vacate its headquarters in suburban Sugar Land, …