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
DeFi Hackers Industries

Pickle Finance Is The Latest DeFi Project To Be Beaten At Its Own Game

DeFi farming project Pickle Finance is the latest DeFi project to be hit hard by those who may share the same entrepreneurial spirit, if not the same methods.

Unlike the recent flashloan fiasco Value DeFi recently went through, the attack on Pickle Finance was a bona fide malicious attack, with none of the tongue-in-cheek humor. 

Value DeFi has since switched to Chainlink, arguing that their system provides better protection from exploits.

Evil Jar Swap

Pickle Finance’s modus operandi was based on providing automatic solutions for transactions between various DeFi protocols.

However, in order to maximize profits Pickle Finance required users to deposit funds in compound for trading purposes. 

This allowed the unknown bad actor to swap the funds between Pickle Finance’s cDAI jar and a copycat contract. The copycat contract had a similar interface to the legitimate one but was programmed to execute itself differently, allowing the bad actor to make a huge profit.

Confirmed 30 seconds later, the person behind the attack sent $20 million worth of funds from  Pickle’s cDAI jar to his own “evil jar”.

However, the DeFi company’s problems are not over, as their value has since plummeted by 58% within just a few hours – as proven by their current trending search on CoinGecko. The price has since slightly rebounded, making the loss of value closer to 52%.

Twitter users have been making light of the issue – with a user quipping that the new security audit will be to have proper insurance coverage, and others replying that they should start a security audit company for security audit companies.

Nevertheless, the past few weeks have seen several more DeFi projects, such as Akropolis, Harvest Finance, and Cheese Bank fall victim to bad actors. 

There is a silver lining to all the trouble, however: new and existing DeFi companies will now probably start beefing up their security, spurring decentralized finance down the path to becoming a huge competitor for traditional finance.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Europe Payments

Digital Payment Platform Azimo Launches In Australia

Azimo – a payment platform headquartered in Amsterdam – has recently launched in Australia.

 A country known for it’s thriving payment platform industry, Holland is well-known across Europe for its innovative banking solutions such as iDEAL or bunq.

A Cryptocurrency-Friendly Platform For Payments

Although not as well-known in the industry as the aforementioned platforms, Azimo has been operating in Europe for the past 8 years with little to no hitches – and bring something special to the market.

Azimo is a user of Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity Solution (ODL).

Ripple’s ODL service uses the XRP cryptocurrency asset to provide instant payments in over 45 countries and can reduce liquidity costs by up to 60% when compared to old-school banking practices.

Dora Ziambra – the Chief Operations Officer of Azimo – stated that Azimo identified Australia and the APAC region in general as a more attractive market than the USA, likely owing to the fact that the Australian public and private sectors as a whole have proven far more interested in blockchain technology than their NA counterparts.

According to Richard Ambrose – the CEO of Azimo – the use of digital assets to reduce payment SLAs has interested them for quite some time.

“We’ve been interested for a long time in the potential of digital assets like XRP to make cross-border payments better for customers. Ripple’s ODL solution has significantly reduced the cost and delivery time for cross-border transfers, and our customers are seeing the benefits. As more banks and financial institutions use ODL, we believe it has the potential to replace current methods of foreign exchange trading and to reduce settlement time to close to zero.”

Boasting a money transfer SLA of under 24 hours, Azimo seems poised to be a competitive choice for Australians looking to send and receive quick payments worldwide. 

Categories
Australia Blockchain Industries

Downer Group Trying Out Blockchain Improvements In The Construction Business

The Downer Group – a company offering a range of construction and engineering services  – is looking into the use of blockchain technology, hoping to improve their current modus operandi. Listed on the ASX and offering their services across Australia and New Zealand, the Downer Group is on the ASX 100 list and employs around 52,000 people.

Although blockchain has many uses in construction, the company has stated that they plan to use blockchain technology to keep a record of turnaround maintenance work – and to manage complex shutdowns.

Avoiding Mistakes And Misunderstandings

Over 130 shutdowns and turnarounds are performed by Downer every year, mostly in complex sites such as mines.

In industries where the slightest mistake can be fatal, there is no room for error – and blockchain can reduce those errors almost completely.

Blockchain has been used in Australian construction before – notably to create eco-friendly apartment complexes. However, the Downer Group states that this is the first use of blockchain in Australia for these specific areas of interest.

Pat Burke – the business executive general manager of Downer Group – stated that they are always looking for ways to improve customer experience. Among other innovative ideas, blockchain was singled out as a way to slice through previously opaque and confusing business practices, particularly those pertaining to unexpected costs and SLAs.

“A key factor in the successful management of large maintenance outages is having real-time information regarding asset condition, time, cost, and schedule that allows fully informed decision making during the actual execution of major and minor works.

“I believe blockchain technology will be used in many business-to-business transactions in the coming years.”

He added that by taking a leap of faith now, the Downer Group will be poised to offer innovative solutions to customers in a few years – while industry rivals play catch-up.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Mining Stablecoins

Coding Whiz Makes $5 Million With A Single Flashloan

Using the flashloan function made possible by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, a coding genius lent 80 thousand ETH and made a profit in DAI worth around $6 million.

However, a total of 8 million was actually gained – but $2 million were returned.

A flashloan is an operation that – if executed properly – can net you some capital gains with virtually zero risks involved. When pulled off right, you get your money back within 15 seconds, plus your profit. All you need is dollars to cover the network fees with the coder himself taking no risk as the code either executes all in one with the ability to instantly return the borrowed money and fees, or it doesnt. Although hard to execute properly, a fair bit of practice can lead to a massive payoff.

In this case, the mysterious dev flashloaned 80,000 ETH – worth AUD 52,398,834 at the time of writing – and netted himself a profit of AUD 6,833,870, paying only $57 of gas fees for the transaction.

For this transaction, the mysterious entrepreneur spotted an arbitrage opportunity that took advantage of stablecoin mining pools – and exploited it using solidity flashloans.

Do You Really Know Flashloan?

The universe loves to punish hubris – and the coder behind the operation seems to have an eye for comedy.

A few days ago, the team behind the DeFi mining pool who bore the brunt of the transaction tweeted about how they are impervious to “flashloan attacks”.

The tweet has since been deleted – but thanks to the Wayback Machine – it’s been saved for posterity.

The tweet encouraged crypto enthusiasts to read on about how technical marvels make them one of the most secure DeFi firms in the industry.

However, there is always a bigger fish – and someone who apparently was more well-versed in technical details called their bluff. Clearly a humorous individual, the coding whiz left a taunting message on the transaction – “do you really know flashloan?”

 The tongue-in-cheek antics then continued, with $2 million worth of the money returned to sender.

Many self-improvement blogs will tell you to work smart, not hard – but few took this old adage to heart as well as this individual.

Categories
Binance Trading

Binance Australia Launches Masterclass: Free Online Crypto Trading Course

Crypto Education is in demand as crypto has been gaining a lot of traction and more people are beginning to see it as an opportunity to make passive-income. An increasing number of people are curious about crypto and want to understand what it is and also how to get involved.

What is Binance Masterclass?

Binance Australia recently launched an Online Masterclass – a series of free online educational video courses that will teach you all you need to know about trading cryptocurrencies.

Binance Masterclass has become the worldwide leading crypto training course for both crypto newbies and enthusiasts since its launch this year – with Binance Africa and Binance Spain recently seeing great success due to the beginner friendly content and easy to follow instructions.

Why Trade Cryptcurrencies?

Most people generally trade cryptocurrencies to make a profit. Some coins can go up hundreds of percent in just a few days, so while a buy and hold strategy might win long term – people see crypto day trading as more exciting and get more satisfaction when they win.

Learn From Experienced Traders

Australian users can learn from experienced traders, provide feedback, hear from the CEO of Binance Australia, and meet local “Binance Angels” who are available in meetups across Australia, as well as a host of experienced crypto traders ready to help you along the way.

Veterans of the crypto community at Binance answer all questions – whether you ask them during the live course itself or shoot them a question afterwards directly via their support or social media.

Next Masterclass Event

Next event: Trading Charts Analysis & Chart Patterns
When: November 27th 2020 at 5pm AEST
Register: Free via EventBrite
About: Learn the Psychology of Institutional Orders & Trading Chart Patterns with the founder of The Crypto Collective.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Investing

ASX Goes Down Temporarily, Raising Concerns Regarding Trading Tech

After opening for trade on Monday, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) was forced to freeze trading for a full 20 minutes after a software issue affected the possibility of trading several securities – apparently all tied to a single order.

The issue prompted the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to express concern over the technical capabilities of the ASX’s aging system – and led them to a possible investigation into the ASX’s ability to comply with its license obligations.

Blockchain Solutions Waiting In The Wings

Luckily for Aussie investors, there are not one, but two solutions lined up to fix the issues stemming from the ASX’s aging CHESS trading systems.

Following an unexpected spike in trading volumes back in March of 2020, the ASX was forced to delay the launch of its DLT (Distributed Ledger Trading) platform.

Dominic Stevens – the CEO of ASX – stated that the trading spike heralded a possible tripling of the volume the new ASX system would be required to carry, forcing the ASX to rethink parts of their projected replacement system.

“Some, including an important back-office systems provider for a substantial part of the market, expressed a preference for an extra six to nine months, which we are including in our deliberations. With the volume explosion we saw in March, we’re now looking at plans to ultimately double or triple that original volume target, which will increase go-live system capacity.”

However, the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX), have also been working hard to find a blockchain-based stock exchange solution – and at the beginning of October, they announced the creation of their new platform.

The Digital Exchange Subregister System (DESS) is yet another DLT trading system – developed in tandem with iSignthis – that is waiting for approval from the ASIC to help ease the load on the Australian stock market.

Whether the ASX adopts DESS or its own in-house solution, it is worth noting that both solutions are blockchain-based – hinting that the ASX, like many other Australian institutions, recognizes the viability of blockchain technology.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies Swyftx

Swyftx Reminds Crypto Users Why Cold Storage Is Important

This week, Swyftx – an Australian cryptocurrency exchange used regularly by over 30 thousand traders – reminded crypto enthusiasts that cold storage is a great solution for those with a large stash that they aren’t intent on trading in the near future.

Cold wallets are devices that store crypto tokens far away from the reach of the internet – and as a result, impervious to attacks by cybercriminals. Think of cold wallets as the safes in blast-proof banking vaults – but for cryptocurrency.

Calls For Responsibility

Although Swyftx and other trusted crypto exchange platforms have top-notch security, they are not completely immune to previously undiscovered exploits. As a result, Swyftx encourages users to deposit large stashes they plan to hold on to in cold wallets.

Certain types of cold wallets are available for purchase right on the Swyftx platform, and Alex Harper – the founder and CEO of Swyftx – states that more platforms should speak out on the unique benefits cold wallets offer.

“Other exchanges are not stressing cold storage options hard enough. Don’t get me wrong, the technology of exchanges has advanced lightyears since the Mt. Gox era, or even where we were when we first started almost 3 years ago. However, it’s still hard if not impossible to beat offline crypto storage. Crypto exchanges need to come out and talk to their communities about this… big time.”        

In addition, Harper stressed that he is intent on maintaining the platform’s status as a well-respected, consumer-friendly crypto service provider. Arguing that trust built and maintained over time is far more important than short term profit, he encouraged other platforms to speak out about the issue as well.

Swyftx has also put together a quick guide on crypto asset storage, outlining the benefits of each kind.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Payments Ripple

Ripple Launches New Trademark Following PayID Debacle

This August, Ripple was the subject of a lawsuit served up by NPPA, a payment platform serving countless users across Australia. 

The dispute started over the use of the “PayID” name in Australia —  which the NPPA was already using. 

The NPPA claimed that Ripple’s actions constituted deceptive conduct — in breach of both the Australian Security and Investments Act and Australian Consumer Law.

In a statement, the NPPA claimed that Australian investors — as well as regular users of their PayID platform — were at risk, as they could have been liable to confusion arising from the shared name.

PayID — the payment platform run by the NPPA — has served more than 68 million bank accounts ever since it’s launch 2 years ago.

“The aim of this action is to protect Australian consumers and businesses from potential losses or scams that could arise as a result of confusion created from a payments service using the same name.”

Ripple Rebrands 

Back in August, Neil Murray SC —  a counselor for Ripple Labs — stated that they would look for options, wishing to resolve the issue amicably if possible.

Last week, Ripple Labs filed a trademark for their rebranded platform with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 

Named Paystring, the new trademark has not been explained by Ripple — nevertheless, it is worth noting that the logo used has remained the same except for the name, as well as the trademark description itself. 

“[The]…trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of electronic financial services, namely, monetary services for receiving and disbursing remittances and monetary gifts in fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network and for exchanging fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network.”

Taking into consideration these similarities, it is quite probable that this trademark will be used to relaunch the service in Australia, free of legal issues.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Industries

Losses From Accidental Ethereum Transactions May Be On The Way Out

Accidental trades happen – sometimes with big consequences. Just last week, an Ethereum trader accidentally paid 23.51 ETH for a transaction in gas fees.

However, moments like these may be on the way out, thanks to a company named Kirobo.

A fintech start-up based in Tel Aviv, Kirobo gained notoriety for creating a product that reverses accidental Bitcoin transactions during June of 2020, citing a survey where 18% of responders stated that they lost funds due to human error. After a few more months of work, they have also made the technology available for Ethereum.

No More Human Error

The technology named Retrievable Transfer is available to MetaMask users – as well as any Ethereum trader who uses the WalletConnect protocol.

When making a transaction, the Retrievable Transfer user will receive a generated password. After the transfer is made, the trader will have the opportunity to look over all the details again, before sending the password to the receiver.

In order for a transaction to be successful, the receiver must also enter the password – otherwise, the funds can be reclaimed by the sender.

Asaf Naim – the CEO of Kirobo – says that the aim of him and his team when creating this tool was to eliminate the anxiety felt by customers when making a transaction by ensuring the impact of human error was negated.

The use of our logic layer finally eliminates the need to send a test transaction, sharply reducing the level of anxiety users feel when transferring funds to a third party.”

The Retrievable Transfer function also includes safeguards against man-in-the-middle attacks – as well as safeguards against Smart Contracts that don’t allow deposits.

With yet another barrier to crypto adoption on it’s way out, more widespread adoption should follow.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain Technology Now Supported By Aussie Politicians On Both Sides

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has been an ardent supporter of Blockchain technology for a while – with his latest show of support at the Future Of Financial Services 2020 conference calling for more measures to promote the use of blockchain to attract international investors.

However, it turns out he is not the only Australian political figure to support blockchain technology.

Conservative Support Of Cryptocurrency

On the 10th of November, noted conservative Cory Bernardi came out in support of Bitcoin.

Cory Bernardi – who has served as senator from 2006 to 2020 – stated his support for cryptocurrency after becoming more acquainted with the concept over the years.

He stated that despite having risks, so does any other asset – but the demand is getting stronger. He then went on to compare the digital asset to gold – which was the non-monetary asset preferred by private investors belonging to prior generations.

Kraken – a cryptocurrency exchange based in the USA – also stated earlier this year that if millennials would invest 5% of their inheritance in Bitcoin – with no other influences involved – the asset would get such a boost that a price of $350,000 per BTC could be reached.

Indeed, young adults have been far keener on adopting cryptocurrency than other demographics, in part due to its volatility – something projects like Qoin are trying to remedy.

Data published by RMIT  this summer showed that during the earlier months of lockdown, home trading volumes increased by  50% globally – and by 66% in Australia.

“Interest in DeFi – which is the beginnings of a new global digital financial system – is driving this current cryptocurrency price surge.”

Jason Potts – RMIT

Whatever the reason for this surge of interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency from all sectors – public and private, business and personal – the fact that personalities on both sides seem to espouse favorable views towards blockchain technology means that the rise of legislative barriers for even more crypto adoption seems quite unlikely.