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Japan’s largest banks Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and SMBC are now investors in bitFlyer, Japan’s largest bitcoin exchange. Samburaj Das Less than a year after  raising ¥3 billion ($27 million)  in a record funding round by a bitcoin and Fintech company in Japan, Tokyo-based bitFlyer now sees all three of Japan’s ‘mega-banks’ as investors in the bitcoin exchange. In an announcement today, bitFlyer, Japan’s largest bitcoin exchange and blockchain services company, revealed fresh funding from Mizuho Capital and SMBC Venture Capital, both of which are the investment arms of the Mizuho Banking Corporation and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation respectively. The two banking corporations join Mitsubishi UFJ as investors in bitFlyer. Mitsubishi UFJ Capital  participated in a ¥510 million ($4.5 million) round  of funding in August 2015. Altogether, all three of Japan’s megabanks have now invested in the country’s leading bitcoin exchange. Interest in Bitc...

Chris Weller EBay founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar in Delaware, December 7, 2009. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment arm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar,  has invested  $493,000 into an experiment giving people in Kenya free money. The experiment, put on by the charity GiveDirectly, tests an up-and-coming solution to poverty known as basic income. People under basic income receive a set amount of money on a regular basis to cover expenses like rent, food, and clothing. GiveDirectly is running a small pilot in just a few Kenyan villages at present, but once the full experiment launches in a few months it will be the largest basic income experiment in history. More than 26,000 people will receive free money in some form, whether it's for a period of 12 years, just a couple, or in a lump sum or spread out. Not much long-term research on basic income exists, but the studies that have been performed  suggest only good comes ...