Welcome to What’s Trending In Payments – a weekly look at the most popular, irreverent and important stories the payments industry had to offer over the past five days. Which companies grabbed the most headlines – for better or for worse – this week, and which topics have the industry abuzz with intrigue, laughter or disbelief? Featuring breakdowns from the PYMNTS.com staff and commentary by Karen Webster, here’s our take on what all of you payments peeps thought.
Audio: Winklevoss Twins Struggle To Explain Bitcoin
Why It’s Hot: Because if the Winklevi can’t explain bitcoin after blowing millions on it who can?
Karen’s Commentary: Well, my guess is that they’re a lot more coherent than some of Silk Road’s biggest customers.
PYMNTS.com: OK, hate to stereotype anyone, but those guys really don’t look and sound like anyone who gets excited by heavy C++ programming.
Top Tweet – @TheDanKirby – How not to explain something complicated & techy: Watch The Winklevoss Twins Explain Bitcoin: http://buff.ly/1joDms5 via @themoneygame
No Crystal Ball Needed, This Algorithm Can Predict Your Startup’s Future
Why It’s Hot: If anyone had an algorithm, just think how much money they could save venture capitalists, angel investors and even entrepreneurs themselves. It’s like the fountain of youth, or the goose that laid the golden egg or something.
Karen’s Commentary: So, if you want to know that the dismal scientist has to say about this, here’s a quote from David Evans. “Yeah, I’ve got an algorithm too, based on hard science. Mine says, your startup has no future and it is going to fail, so pack it in buddy and get a real job. In fact, I’ve tested my algorithm over the years and it is correct 99.99 percent of the time. If I could only figure out the .01% of startups that will succeed I might be able to buy that small country I’ve always wanted.” (We closed the door and locked it again real tight… so don’t worry about any more outbursts for a while…)
PYMNTS.com: If we had an algorithm that could print money like this we probably wouldn’t hyperlink it.
Blackberry’s Latest Solution? The $2,250 Smartphone…
Why It’s Hot: It’s hot because who doesn’t want to keep track of the futile last efforts of dying companies, and because it shows the kind of stuff Blackberry management was focusing on while the company was burning to the ground.
Karen’s Commentary: Maybe this is what Wall Street investment bankers are going to get instead of Christmas bonuses. They are the only people still using Blackberries, aren’t they?
PYMNTS.com: Let’s see, the Apple 5S is gold and this comes with a patent leather back. The really sad part of this is when the guy in the infomercial gets to the apps and doesn’t actually mention how many apps there are, but that the icons now have a rounded corner. Now there’s an innovation … apps with rounded corners!
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