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.

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Australia Blockchain Investing

Root Cause Of November ASX Crash Found

Last month, a glitch caused the ASX to go down for nearly half an hour – merely one of the many telltale signs that the ASX’s CHESS system is showing its age, and coming out worse for wear.

NASDAQ Takes Responsibility

Although the ASX and others are working hard to upgrade from the CHESS system to a blockchain-based one that can carry the weight of one of the leading securities exchanges worldwide, NASDAQ has identified the bug in their software – used by the ASX – that nearly wiped an entire trading session last month.

NASDAQ Chief Executive Officer Adena Friedman issued a statement regarding the November 16 glitch.

“We take our role as a provider of mission-critical technology seriously and apologize to ASX, its customers, and all those impacted.”

The responsibility for the crash lies with an incorrect functionality in the Tailor-Made Combinations (TMC) order book created by NASDAQ and used by ASX Ltd.

A tool used by many equity and equity derivative traders across both public and private sectors, TMC  allows multiple trades to be carried out in a single transaction. When the error occurred on November 16th, the ASX was forced to halt trading in order to avoid losses by stock traders.

Although the ASX plans to bring back some functionalities of the TMC system on the 21st of December, this seems to be a stop-gap measure until the ASX makes its planned move towards a blockchain-based trading system.

Whether the ASX will choose its own in-house solution after scaling up the size of their project or go for the DESS system that the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX) has built is not yet clear – however, the planned switch to blockchain stock trading solutions will be a boost to the system’s reliability. 

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News Investing

Linqto Announces Speakers For The Global Investment Conference 2020

Taking place on the 8th and the 9th of December, the conference will have a line-up of 48 speakers from all corners of various investment markets.

Linqto is one of the top digital trading platforms for private market securities The upcoming conference will aim to look over the way the world has changed in the past year – and how to change things for the better in 2021, whether by using new investment strategies, digging in for a possible future bull run and much more.

Australian Speakers And Hosts

Australia will be represented at the GIC taking place next week by the CEO of BTC Markets and the founder of Sapien Ventures.

BTC Markets is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, and its CEO – Caroline Bower – will be present for a discussion with Steve Vallas about the importance of blockchain technology and its impact on multiple sectors worldwide.

Steve Vallas is the CEO of Blockchain Australia, an advocacy group working with both the public and private Australian sectors in order to further the development and adoption of blockchain technology.

The conference will be hosted by Victor Jiang and Karim Nurani. Karim Nurani –The Chief Strategy Officer at Linqto – has been a part of over 100 successful start-up ventures and is here to tell the story.

Victor Jiang is the executive chairman of Sapien Ventures, a firm specializing in venture capital operating out of Sydney, Melbourne, and Shanghai. With a large portfolio of companies under its wing and a range of options for potential investors, Sapien Ventures is a true heavy hitter in the investment market.

The Global Investment Conference can be joined free of charge via a zoom link that will be provided to you upon sign-up.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Cryptocurrencies

Crypto.com Receives Australia License Allowing Them To Issue Crypto Debit Cards

A document mandatory for any financial institution in order to begin issuing crypto cards, Crypto.com has recently secured an Australian Financial Service License (ASFL).

All blockchain-based companies operating in certain areas of the Australian financial markets are required by law to possess an ASFL in order to comply with Australian anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism regulations.

“The guidance goes on to examine when tokens issued by an ICO could be a managed investment scheme, share, derivative, or non-cash payment facility under the Corporations Act. […]

 If a cryptoasset trading platform enables trading in tokens that are financial products, this may involve the operation of a financial market and a market license may be required.”

Crypto Cards On The Way

Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency trading website allowing users to buy and sell over 80 different cryptocurrencies. They also offer cryptocurrency cards in the UK, the USA, Singapore, and the European Union – and Australia seems to be next in line.

Even before the announcement of a card company acquisition, Crypto.com enabled transfers in AUD via PayID and BPAY.

In order to do so, they’ve acquired an Australian financial services company. Named The Card Group Pty Ltd, the financial firm specializes in prepaid cards, mobile, and wearable solutions.

The firm had also been vetted a priori by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, virtually guaranteeing the receipt of an ASFL.

As a country interested in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the highly innovative technological solutions that stem from them since way before the crypto boom of 201

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Payments Ripple

Ripple Is Selling About A Third Of Their MoneyGram Stocks

Ripple Labs, Inc. has announced that they are selling 4 million of their MoneyGram shares, worth about 33% of their stock in the company.

Relationships Between The Two Companies Remains Unchanged

However, a spokesperson for Ripple Labs stated that this should not be taken as an indication that the two partner companies are having a falling out – rather, Ripple is trying to take advantage of the recent boom in MoneyGram stock price.

“Ripple is a proud partner in MoneyGram’s digital growth transformation. This is purely a judicious financial decision to realize some gains on Ripple’s MGI [MoneyGram International] investment and is in no way a reflection of the current state of our partnership.

We will remain a significant shareholder in MoneyGram following the sale – in just over a year, we’ve made incredible progress and look forward to continuing to work alongside Moneygram to transform cross-border payments.”

At the time this article was written, MoneyGram (MGI) stock is valued at USD 7.42, a massive leap from the USD 2.06 price tag they had back on the 2nd of January.

MoneyGram and Ripple Labs partnered up last year, making Ripple Labs’ xRapid technology available to MoneyGram, who were seeking to update their traditional money transfer MO. xRapid uses Ripple (XRP) to speed up payments and add an extra level of security to them by using Blockchain. The xRapid technology has since been rebranded and is now known as the ODL (On-Demand Liquidity) network.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from the 27th of November, Ripple currently owns 8.6% equity in MoneyGram, equal to 6.24 million shares.

Ripple Labs also have the opportunity to buy 5.96 million MoneyGram shares under a warrant – however, seeing as Ripple Labs have already put up the aforementioned 4 million MGI shares for sales, this seems unlikely for the moment.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News Industries

Australian Government Reviews Digital Transformation Strategy

In a published discussion paper titled Digital Transformation Strategy 2.0, the Australian Government laid out its progress since the project was announced 2 years ago – and noted the achievement of having been able to go above and beyond what was promised in the roadmap.

“In the past two years, we have steadily delivered against that roadmap. Practical initiatives which provide benefit to people and businesses in Australia include the Digital Newborn Enrolment service, automating tax reporting for business and the National Drought Map, where farmers can access information on drought conditions and relief services.”

Blockchain To Be At The Heart Of One Of The Top Three Digital Governments

Considered bold and even unprecedented to a certain degree, the 2020 iteration of the Digital Transformation Strategy Roadmap plans to make the Aussie government one of the top three digital governments by the time 2025 rolls around.

According to minister Stuart Robert, the transformation would greatly benefit from the public and private sectors working together in order to reach this goal on time.

“If we’re going to reap the benefits of digital transformation, for all Australians, we have to keep moving…we’re going to have to innovate and we’re going to have to get the private and the public sector together perhaps in ways they’ve not done before.”

Reiterating the need for rapid progress in the technology sector due to the nature of a year like 2020, the government goes on to state in the paper that from now on, different sectors of the government should cease to be isolated from one another.

Instead, all areas should be connected to each other – as far as privacy concerns and other healthy limitations will allow it. Using blockchain, all government sectors can benefit from fast and secure transfers of information.

The paper also encourages all interested parties to leave feedback on the project, just one of the many ways the plan seeks to invest in people over the next 5 years.

Categories
Blockchain Europe Stablecoins

Libra Aiming To Launch In January

The Libra Association – based in Geneva, Switzerland and made up of 27 members – is expecting approval from Swiss financial authorities to launch their stablecoin project.

Backed By Facebook

Although the Libra Association is made up of 27 members, the most notorious member of the group is none other than Facebook – who revealed the project last year.

According to the Financial Times, The new stablecoin digital token Libra will be backed by the US Dollar and hopes to better the world of payments. It’s also reasonable to assume it will become a widely used payment option for advertisements run on Facebook, as well as Instagram.

Other noteworthy members of the Libra Association such as Visa have since ditched the project.

The Facebook-backed digital currency was meant to do more than it probably will when it launches, as financial regulators – especially those of European Union member states raised concerns about a stablecoin backed by one of the world’s largest corporations.

Fearing that Libra could erode financial stability across the globe, a torrent of backlash forced Facebook and its associates to scale back the project to its tentative current form.

Bruno Le Maire – the French Finance Minister – is one of the principal detractors of the project, arguing that Facebook has such a far-reaching influence all over the globe that allowing the cryptocurrency to be traded in the European Union would have serious consequences.

“All these concerns around libra are serious. So I want to say this with a lot of clarity: In these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of libra on European soil.”

It remains to be seen if Libra will now be allowed to launch within the European Union and worldwide in its scaled-back form. Even if it is, it will now have to compete with CBDCs being tentatively developed In China, Australia, the USA, and elsewhere.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Industries

New Zealand Builds Green Energy Plant Partly Paid For In Bitcoin

Earlier this Autumn, TYMLEZ set out to equip the town of Tyalgum in New South Wales with green energy powered by blockchain. However, it turns out they aren’t the only blockchain-conscious fans of green energy in the area.

New Zealand’s Largest Solar Power Plant

Kea Energy has started working on the construction of the largest solar power plant in New Zealand. Construction has already started on the 2.5 MW future power plant in Marlborough.  The new power plant will take advantage of the sunny area to produce about 4500 MW of electricity – enough to power around 550 households all year-’round.

In order to build the promising new power plant, Kea Energy has paired up with solar panel manufacturer Yingli Solar Australia.

Open to environmentally-conscious energy solutions and innovative payment methods alive, Yingli Solar Australia has accepted part of the payment for their solar panels in Bitcoin.

Tim Feng – the managing director of Yingli Solar Australia – stated that although New Zealand already derives 80% of its energy from environmentally-friendly energy, he and his company is glad to be able to help New Zealand reach their target of 90% green energy production by 2025.

“Economic savings for solar systems are highly predictable and proven by the financial modeling. New Zealand has 80 percent of its electricity supplied by clean energy. However, we will need to work closely with our partners to achieve the government’s target of 90 percent of electricity to be sourced from renewables by 2025.”

Kea Energy also stated their pride to be the first company in New Zealand to install a large-scale solar farm – as well as their excitement to explore innovative payment solutions with equally innovative partners.

“We are proud to be the first company in New Zealand to install a multi-MW solar farm. Our team will be executing the entire project including design, financial procurement, and installation as well as managing the grid connection process. It’s good to work with a company as innovative as Yingli Solar who is willing to look at payment transactions such as Bitcoin.”  

The electricity produced by the solar farm will help power the local grid, further reducing the environmental impact of energy consumption in the area.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Industries

Australia and Singapore Will Collaborate On A Blockchain Project Targeting Trade Between The Two Countries

Both Australia and Singapore are frontrunners when it comes to blockchain technology – and they’ve now come together to work on improving their trading partnership through blockchain.

Digital Economy Agreement Paves The Way

The Australian Border Force (ABF) stated that the Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) led to this project, among other improvements to trade.

Michael Outram – the commissioner for the ABF – said the ABF looks forward to close collaboration with international partner agencies on mutual border modernization programs. As a result, we can expect to see more similar partnerships in the future.

“The ABF welcomes the opportunity to collaborate further with Singapore to improve cross-border trade between our countries. In addition to our efforts internationally, this initiative will incorporate paperless trading and secure, digital exchange of trade information as part of the future architecture and design of an Australian Trade Single Window”.

Many financial institutions will take part in the trial run, such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,  the Australian Industry Group. Financial institutions in Singapore such as ANZ will also take part in the trial.

The trial will be run by the ABF in tandem with Singapore Customs and the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). The trial run will attempt to integrate the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger (IGL) and the IMDA’s TradeTrust system for electronic trade documents.

If the trial run is successful, blockchain technology will be implemented in the Australia – Singapore trade relationship in order to reduce administrative costs – and to facilitate the transfer of relevant documents, as well as to certify the provenance of imported and exported goods across the supply chain.

This trial fits in nicely with the Australian Government’s recently announced Simplified Trade Agenda which aims to reform digital trade by streamlining compliance and documentation procedures.

The ABF will report their progress – and hopefully, their success – to the Supply Chain Working Group of the National Blockchain Roadmap.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Investing

Pendal Group Joins The Big League Financiers Hedging Their Bets On Bitcoin

The Pendal Group – a Sydney-based investment management firm among the biggest in Australia – has recently come out in support of Bitcoin, lauding the asset’s qualities, especially when compared to government bonds.

No Longer An Asset For “The Tinfoil Brigade”

Vimar Gor – the head of Bond, Income, and Defensive Strategies at Pendal Group – iterated his support for Bitcoin and declared that the Pendal Group will be entering the crypto market via futures contracts.

In order to trade Bitcoin futures, the investment management firm is looking to join longstanding futures markets such as the CME Group Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), among others.

In an interview for the Australian Financial Review, Vimar Gor went on to say that the currently ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for greater market trends that have been around for a while – and that cryptocurrencies are in the right spot to profit from it. With official interest rates and bonds plummeting and large scale central bank QE programs doing the rounds, Vimar predicts that bond yields won’t be very fruitful in the foreseeable future.

Vimar then went on to explain that cryptocurrency has become the elephant in the room – or rather a cockroach in the room that you can’t really ignore anymore.

“Bitcoin is a cockroach that exists. They can’t ban it out of existence.

We think ultimately that government bonds will turn into a dead asset class, so we now have to imagine what it will be like for other assets classes when bonds are no longer relevant to hold in a portfolio.”

Contrary to notorious naysayers such as Peter Schiff, Vimar Gor sees a bright future for digital assets, owing to their finite supply and high demand.

Following the major investments into cryptocurrencies by companies like Square, Paypal, and now Pendal Group, it is not unlikely we will see more and more big-league financial companies hopping on the crypto train.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News Industries

ASX Partner VMWare Releases Blockchain Software For Commercial Use

VMWare, Inc., a company providing highly scalable software solutions for enterprises of any size , has taken the decision to launch their blockchain software available for purchase. This will allow businesses to increase the security of their data silos, allowing instant blockchain-powered data transfers.

Partnered With The ASX

Ever since the launch of its beta in 2018, the VMWare blockchain has connected with a steady stream of partners.

Among them is the ASX, who in the search for an upgrade to their aging infrastructure have turned to blockchain.

According to Dan Chesterman – the Chief Information Officer of ASX – Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) helps automate processes in a secure, accountable manner, giving it a leg up over competing technologies.

“The combination of VMware Blockchain and Digital Asset’s expertise in smart contracts and distributed ledger technology is the right partnership to help us transform and modernize Australia’s financial market infrastructure. DLT can help financial services firms transform data, preserve privacy and confidentiality, and remove manual processes that exist in the industry.”

The VMWare Blockchain’s Scalable Byzantine Fault Tolerance (SBFT) also works together with DAML in order to provide access to smart contracts ready to be used by booming enterprises and small-time businesses alike.

According to Yuval Rooz – the co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, the company behind DAML – the smart contract tool developed by his team ensures privacy to the point where companies competing in the same field can collaborate on a distributed ledger.

Yet another partner of VMWare is none other than Accenture. David Treat, the head of Blockchain development at Accenture, also stated that blockchain allows companies to unlock the real potential of their data.

“By unlocking the real potential of data in our digital world, multiparty systems, supported by blockchain, are reshaping industries and transforming the way companies work together. It’s reshaping financial services, for example, by reimagining how transactions are executed, from payments to post-trade processing.”

After two years in post-beta development, VMWare’s blockchain solution seems poised to take the world by storm.