A study of 12,015 consumers has found that smartphones are on track to replace cash and cards as the preferred method of payment over the next five years.

The five-year-old company has become the latest social network to implement payment capabilities by introducing a buy button that allows users to purchase items with Apple Pay or a credit card.

The bitcoin exchange Bitfinex has partnered up with BitGo, a bitcoin security and technology company, to create an infrastructure that allows near real-time verification of balances and improves security.

Verifone has joined forces with Visa in order to create an omni-channel platform, making payments easier for merchants and customers.

Mirror, a peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform that uses blockchain technology to create financial contracts for its customers, has gained over $8m in a funding round led by Route 66 Ventures.

The worldwide wearable device market has experienced steady growth in the first economic quarter of 2015, with over 11m wearable devices sold in the first three months of the year.