Author: Cristian Lipciuc

Cristian Lipciuc is a blockchain journalist working with startup companies across multiple domains such as freelancing, app development & cryptocurrency. Cristian specializes in applied blockchain technologies, cryptocurrency integration, the adoption of new technologies by governments, and cybersecurity.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Industries

Mt. Gox Creditors Have The Option To Claim 90% Of Remaining Bitcoin

Back in the halcyon days of cryptocurrency trading — at a magical time when Bitcoin was worth barely anything and they could be mined by anyone with a good rig — Mt. Gox was one of the leading exchanges for Bitcoin. 

Haphazard Decisions Have Consequences

The Japan-based Bitcoin exchange was notorious for its poor management of funds and equipment. Hackers repeatedly made off with substantial amounts of Bitcoin, and coupled with a rather lackluster approach to funding the exchange sank deep into debt. 

After multiple unlucky adventures with hackers and other problems, Mt. Gox was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2014. At the time, a total of 850,000 BTC had been lost — 750,000 of which belonged to customers. 

The founder was allowed to get out on bail due to Japanese law — which allowed him to pay off his personal debt in Bitcoin at the equivalent dollar price at the time of his arrest. Luckily for him, the price of BTC had since skyrocketed. 

But the insolvent exchange itself cost investors and creditors a massive amount — and the courts haven’t forgotten.

After 7 years of court battles, Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee and MGIFLP, a unit of Fortress Investment Group reached an agreement that will allow creditors to claim the site’s remaining Bitcoins if they so wish. 

The exact number of remaining Bitcoins is unknown — however, considering that the value of Bitcoin has grown more than a thousandfold since 2014, there may actually be enough remaining BTC to pay off the massive accumulated debt.

However, the creditors aren’t required to take the deal and can instead wait for the court case to finally be settled.

If a deal is reached, the retrieved Bitcoin may have quite a large impact on Bitcoin prices — and given the shaky, albeit bullish market we currently find ourselves in, the consequences may be wild.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Cardano

Australian Investment Bank Notes Central Banks Close To Losing The Crypto Race

Aussie investment bank Macquarie recently stated in a research note that the slow and cautious approach to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) could end up costing central banks in the long run.

Potential Foothold By Cryptocurrencies May Soon Become Insurmountable

Although the European Central Bank, (ECB), the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and China are all in various stages of researching and even testing CBDCs, Macquarie fears that by the time any of these institutions actually get around to launching a CBDC, the market share in eCommerce occupied by well-known private cryptocurrencies may prove an insurmountable obstacle for central banks.

“The central bank digital currency landscape in free markets is lagging the pace of crypto adoption – it is still unclear how entrenched private cryptos will become before CBDCs become a viable alternative for more efficient transactions. We think the use cases for private crypto could come to fruition if commerce becomes too accustomed to private crypto use prior to a CBDC alternative launching as a stable, legitimate alternative. And fiat debasing could also in fact help demand stick.”

Indeed, cryptocurrencies geared towards electronic commerce – such as Cardano (ADA) are only getting stronger, despite the uncertainty of the market in recent times. Not only that, but even many retailers and even small-time shops worldwide now accept BTC and ETH as payment, along with regular old cash.

However, the report also stated that with the right amount of expediency in development, government-backed cryptocurrencies could eventually overtake private cryptocurrencies. The report goes on to say that this could help prevent speculation – although whether buying certain cryptocurrencies known to pump randomly counts as speculation is a matter up for debate.

Whatever the outcome of the CBDC debate will be, it’s worth watching what the Federal Reserve will do – since US economic institutions still wield a significant amount of power in the crypto space, as recently seen with Ripple.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Industries

GoChain Partnerships Increasing Following Success of Australian Experiment

A new pilot project involving GoChain with Pronatura Noroeste is going well – and helping ensure consumers that they are buying from a truly eco-friendly company.

Another company – Enviva – also stated in December that they specifically chose GoChain due to their ecologically friendly stance.

True Blue Lobsters

Back in May, GoChain started being used by Two Hands to ascertain the fact that lobsters shipped to China from Australia really were Australian.

The interest for Australian quality on the Chinese market is nothing new – and previously blockchain has been discussed (and used) in the Aussie food and drink industry, notably for wine, beef and cereals.

With GoChain, Two Hands gave each lobster a tamperproof smart tag that allowed the guests at the wedding reception that the lobsters were served up for to ascertain the quality of their special meal.

According to Henry Ines – the CEO of GoChain – his company is doing all they can to help make the world a better place, whether by sustaining the environment or just reassuring consumers worldwide.

“2020 was an incredibly challenging year with the resiliency of businesses and supply chains tested. As the pandemic continues into the new year, businesses are responding to this new reality with technology-driven solutions. GoChain is proud to support these leading enterprises with blockchain-based applications that enable real-time traceability and auditability of supply chains. We anticipate the demand for such solutions will continue to rise as businesses respond to evolving consumer preferences and regulations globally.”

The tracing-oriented blockchain company is also partners with leading academic institutions such as Penn State – and together, the pair look to further the impact of quality and cruelty-free product on the global market.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic will hopefully be coming to an end soon, GoChain and yet another partner – Gentag – are proposing a blockchain-based NFC and optical scanning system for COVID tests to ensure their accuracy – and the coming return to normal.

Categories
Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies Ripple

Ripple CTO Can No Longer Remember The Password To His Bitcoin Wallet Worth Hundreds of Millions

Staying on top of a company preparing to go to court with the SEC and dealing with the resulting delisting of your company’s token from multiple leading crypto exchanges can be quite challenging and stressful.

However, it must be at least equally stressful to have a multi-million dollar fortune locked away with a low chance of recovery.

Only 2 Attempts Left

Originally reported on by The New York Times among other long-time HODLers in a similar situation, Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas can no longer remember the combination necessary to unlock his hardware Bitcoin wallet worth  nearly $250.6 million at the time this article was written.

Mr. Thomas owns an IronKey hardware wallet that only has 2 more password attempts left before the device encrypts for good, out of a total of 10.

According to Mr. Thomas, the idea of being your own bank comes with some drawbacks – but he still retains some hope.

This whole idea of being your own bank—let me put it this way, ‘Do you make your own shoes?’ The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all those things that banks do. […] I would just lay in bed and think about it. Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again…I got to a point where I said to myself, ‘Let it be in the past, just for your own mental health.’

The 7002 bitcoins were given to him back in 2011 for making an informative video about Bitcoin – one that down the line ended up being the video that got vast swathes of people into the world of cryptocurrency.

According to Chainalysis, 2.4 million BTC are yet to be mined – but 3.7 million BTC have already been lost.

For now, Mr. Thomas has stashed the IronKey away in a secure location, in case new ways of cracking complex passwords are discovered in the future. Here’s to hoping he gets his stash back one way or another.

Categories
Binance Blockchain DeFi

Binance and Orbs To Boost New DeFi Projects

Binance has partnered up with Orbs in order to launch a new DeFi accelerator named DeFi.org.

Orbs is an Israeli company that is building blockchain infrastructure for the general public – and Binance is one of the largest crypto exchanges out there, well-known for an extensive list of trading pairs.

Supporting Open-Source Software

The project will focus on singling out DeFi projects interested in the research and development of open-source software that can benefit the crypto space at large. The accelerator will offer mentorship, networking opportunities, and even funding for companies involved.

“We’ve assembled a group of world-class mentors, each an industry expert, in these key fields: Product/UX to help pull your concept into a shippable product. Crypto economics to discuss theory and help finetune your model. Solidity to help review and improve your contract code. Frontend/dev to help engineer a fullstack dapp and actually deliver it. Community/marketing to help level up your meme game and create a kick-ass brand.”

All mentorship and collaboration will be done remotely.

The first mentors will come from Orbs – however, Binance crypto experts will be joining the team shortly.

Following the onboarding of the Binance experts, more mentors will be recruited from various sources.

Although the accelerator program will not focus exclusively on Blockchain-based projects, special attention will be given to companies interested in either the Orbs grant program or Binance’s “Bridging CeFi and DeFi” program.

Orbs themselves were originally looking for a future outside of the DeFi space – but after in-house blockchain development led by Tal Kol – the technical co-founder of Orbs – the team has made the transition from focusing on enterprises to focusing on DeFi. Orbs have developed a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm on the Ethereum blockchain that aims to make DeFi integrations effortless.

Tal Kol will be one of the mentors in the upcoming program.

DeFi.org is already taking applications – there’s no time like the present.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Investing

Crypto User Accidentally HODLs for 9 Years, Cashes Out A Fortune

Amid less heartening news such as the current bear market we have entered, fortunes are good for at least one student who recently found out he is a multi-millionaire.

127 BTC made through surveys as a kid

According to the reddit post from a new account created just to share the success story, in 2011 the author and his friends were playing a game called Dark Orbit. In order to purchase the in-game currency Uridium – which none of them could afford – they went to a site that allowed you to purchase the in-game currency with Bitcoin.

At the time, many sites would allow you to watch videos or complete surveys in order to earn Bitcoin – which was easy to mine and cost nearly nothing. There were also plenty of free Bitcoin faucets made to promote the cryptocurrency.

The anonymous user made 127 BTC doing these tasks, but never got around to buying the in-game currency.

This Christmas the crypto user visited his grandfather and accidentally found the text document with his keys on an old laptop he used to play on.

In a follow-up post, the anonymous user clarified that he has since sold it all for over $4.2 million. Although HODLing for another week would have brought his fortune closer to 5 million, the sudden unexpected windfall was more than he could have hoped for.

He has since sold the entire amount to a company dealing in crypto – feeling that crypto exchanges wouldn’t be able to get him the best deal.

“I spent the next week figuring out how to safely and securely liquidate such a large amount of Bitcoin for the cheapest price possible. I went back and forth between different [over-the-counter principal desks] and ultimately ended up selling all 127 Bitcoins for a price of $33,439.02 per coin minus a 0.15% fee. The net was roughly $4.24 million.”

The post was accompanied by proof.

/u/BitcoinHolderThankU has stated that he will invest the bulk of it into the S&P 500, stating that he doesn’t want to buy fancy properties or cars for the moment.

Categories
Blockchain DeFi Investing

AAVE Looking Into A Security Module Rehaul

The 8th of January marks a full year since AAVE has been on the Ethereum mainnet. The team behind AAVE hosted an anniversary zoom call to mark the occasion – an AAVEversary, if you will.

Better Insurance Against Shortfall Events

Among other small updates on the state of affairs at AAVE, the team also announced that they are in talks with Delphi Digital, who are offering to completely rework AAVE’s safety model and build a new insurance product from the ground up.

The current procedure in place at AAVE is to allow AAVE holders to stake their tokens in the Safety Module – which is a liquidity pool that aims to safeguard the tokens from smart contract exploits and other “shortfall events”. The safety module currently holds the largest decentralized insurance fund, worth about $375 million.

However, there are some pitfalls – such as the fact that the safety module covers the whole platform, which means investors who deposit funds in the safety module are covering all projects in the AAVE network – even if some projects bring with them a considerably higher risk level than others.

According to Jose Maria Macedo – a founding member of Delphi Digital and Jonathan Ehrlich – an analyst at the company, the insurance product they offered would come as a separate product for users, instead of being bundled in with all deposits, allowing a better prediction of risk factors for potential investors.

“With existing insurance solutions users have to purchase cover upfront which entitles them to insurance on a given protocol for a set amount of time (generally at least 6 months). With the current state of DeFi, most users don’t know where their capital will be next week let alone 6 months from now […] With our architecture, users only pay for insurance while they use it and the process of buying/selling is abstracted away entirely.”

Although nothing has been decided yet, the new insurance product may help AAVE attract more cautious investors, who may want to stick with safer projects – making it a proposal worth seriously considering.

Categories
Australia Blockchain DeFi

Blockchain Australia Solutions Partners Up With Algorand

Almost 3 months ago, Ralph Kalsi – an Australian blockchain enthusiast and investor became one of Algorand’s brand ambassadors.

Since then, his company Blockchain Australia Solutions has also become an official member of Algorand’s global partner program.

Only Regional Partner

For now, Blockchain Australia Solutions (BAS) is the only official partner of Algorand in the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) region. BAS was brought into the partnership by Ralph Kalsi himself and Nadeem Shaikh (CTO) and Mohammed Naquib (CIO).

The Algorand blockchain — and it’s cryptocurrency, named Algo —  ensures true decentralization by using a Byzantine Agreement Protocol – also known in this case as a Pure-Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The Algorand blockchain is also immune to forking.

Byzantine fault-tolerant protocols are algorithms that are immune to arbitrary types of failures in distributed algorithms. Due to the omnipresence of the Internet, there has been a need to develop decentralized algorithms that are immune to malfunctions.

Algo provides immediate blockchain transaction assurance by using high-speed block finalization. This quality alone makes Algorand highly useful to any business that was  — up until now — heavily dependent on the chain of intermediaries that support and secure transactions to a wide array of customers and employees.  

Algo’s ultra-rapid transaction delivery makes it scalable to billions of users, making it a potentially valuable tool in the banking industry. Expect to see the use of Algorand’s blockchain used by banks both decentralized and traditional within the following years. No matter how many Algo users there will be, the transaction speed will never fall below 4.5 seconds.

Blockchain Australia Solutions brings to the table a strong focus on research into blockchain technology and its applications — such as quality assurance, eco-friendly housing, and much more.

BAS is also a partner of Fintech Australia — which may provide the Algorand Foundation with plenty of networking power in Australia and New Zealand.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Europe Payments

Native Support For AUD Coming Soon To Neobank Strike

A Chicago-based neobank startup capitalizing on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Zap Inc. has launched native support for EUR, GBP, and CHF on their banking and wallet service Strike – and announced that native support for AUD and CAD will be coming soon.

Smaller Fees For International Currency Exchange

As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is starting to show it’s age, technologically speaking – which is why the Lightning Network was proposed as a solution to the number 1 cryptocurrencies’ scalability issues. It  is a “layer 2” payment protocol that operates through a peer-to-peer system in order to make micropayments of cryptocurrency using a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds.

The neobank intends to take advantage of this in order to eliminate the often arbitrary exchange rates used to send money through banks – or fast payment processors like PayPal. Although countries that are part of the SEPA network can often perform banking transactions almost instantly, long delays are part and parcel for many dealing with international transfers.

Jack Mallers – the Chicago-based founder of Zap – stated that the goal of his company remains in line with the original vision of Bitcoin, namely to allow large numbers of people to access the financial system quickly and cheaply.

“This will allow billions of people around the world to access the financial system in a simple low-cost way, fulfilling the original vision and promise of Bitcoin. [..] We can move any physical value anywhere in the world for no variable cost. Transaction finality from one point to another for free.”

Zap are not the first company using blockchain for quicker and easier money transfers. MoneyGram uses Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity (ODL) solutions for some money transfers, although they have denied using it for direct transfer of consumer funds, digital or not.

However, the current predicament Ripple Labs find themselves in may give other blockchain-powered payment methods some time in the spotlight – and it may be Zap’s time to shine.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin ATM Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Auscoin Founder’s Bail Conditions Relaxed

In 2019, Auscoin founder Sam Karagiozis was arrested for suspected drug trafficking. In mid-2019, he was granted bail, but on certain conditions – such as a nightly curfew.

Mr. Karagiozis – a native of Bulleen, is currently on bail on a $600,000 surety and must check in with the police twice a week. He is also forbidden to leave Victoria.

Sam Karagiozis, an entrepreneur who even tattooed “Self Made” on his fingers was well on his way to accumulating ever-greater fortunes – before legal troubles forced his crypto platform Auscoin to halt its activity.

Auscoin was a crypto exchange platform with plans to install bitcoin ATMs across the country. However, the amount of Bitcoin ATMs that were actually installed was far less than predicted, due to a lack of funding.

The company also minted crypto tokens, namely AUSC – which are currently valued at around 0,0077 AUD per token.

Conditions Lessened For A Hopefully Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience

On Tuesday, Mr. Karagiozis’s bail conditions were relaxed, citing the need to administer his chain of Greek restaurants – and the wish to attend his brother’s wedding as the best man, as well as the buck’s night taking place 2 weeks prior.

Defence counselor Dermot Dann obtained the loosening of Mr. Karagiozis’s bail restrictions, stating that Mr. Karagiozis had complied with all bail conditions to date and that his client was eager to attend what would  “hopefully be a once-in-a-lifetime event”.

Furthermore, Sam Karagiozis is expecting a child in April and hopes to avoid any possible legal troubles that may arrive from having to drive to a hospital past curfew.

Magistrate Andrew McKenna granted the request despite the opinions of detractors present in court – on the condition that Mr. Karagiozis will not be allowed to talk to co-accused Victorian police officer Emmanuel-O’Neil about the upcoming court hearing.

“They can talk about how wonderfully well the night is going or the weather or the pandemic, but nothing about the proceedings.”

The hearing will take place in March – and will determine whether the pair will face trial or not.