Felicity is an experienced writer and editor with experience in the publishing industry. She has strong media and communication professional graduated from University of Newcastle.
Portuguese professional soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first player to be rewarded for his career achievements in the form of cryptocurrency, receiving 770 JUV tokens for his goal milestone.
He received the Fan Tokens ahead of Juventus’s Series A clash against Benevento last Sunday. The figure 770 marks the record-breaking number of career goals the 36-year-old has scored to date.
The connection between sports and cryptocurrency is continuing to grow, with players being bought and sold using cryptocurrency.
What Is $JUV?
JUV was launched in 2019 by the Italian Football Club as the official Juventus fan token on the Chiliz (CHZ) blockchain using the Socios.com platform.
These fan tokens enable supporters the chance to vote on club decisions, while also receiving perks, competitions and prizes, as well as augmented reality-enabled features.
There’s currently 24 clubs that are using crypto tokens in professional soccer, including Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and more. Manchester City is one of the latest clubs to join Socios with $CITY token.
Sean’s Outpost is one of the first homeless outreach programs in the world that is primarily funded by cryptocurrency. The charity provides shelter and food to the homeless to help them get back on their feet.
Titled on reddit “some rich bitcoiner bought 8 acres of land to house the homeless” which is the private land they call “Satoshi Forest”. Co-owner Jason King is a regular presence on the Bitcoin Reddit community, where he has successfully managed to raise bitcoin funds to fuel the charity.
In response to a series of anti-homeless ordinances passed by the City of Pensacola and Escambia County, Satashi Forest was purchased in 2013. The idea was simple: to exist as a privately owned block of land, where no-one would be harassed for being homeless.
A Drawn Out Legal Battle
In 2018, after three years of legal battle against Escambia County, Sean’s Outpost was issued a permit to continue operating Satoshi Forest for the foreseeable future and it was authorised as a temporary home for the area’s homeless.
Co-founder of Sean’s Outpost, Mike Kimberl shares:
Our court case with the county determined there were things that we needed to do to come into compliance and that was to put in a driveway, put in fire extinguishers and then we had to put up fencing.
For the past three years, Satoshi Forest has been able to exist as a safe place for the homeless in the area, giving them a chance to get back on their feet. Say Kimberl:
This is not an end goal. This is not a retirement plan. Our goal is to get them back into better accommodations.
How to Donate To Support Satoshi Forest
You can donate by sending some BTC (check the website seansoutpost.com for the BTC deposit address).
Update 08/03/2021: Please note before donating that we are waiting to hear back from them directly as to whether they are still in operation.
Local building company, Broadwater Builds, is the first in the the state to accept digital currencies as a form of payment. Clients can pay using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance and Ripple, with other options to be added.
Director Louis Gonzalez holds a strong belief that cryptocurrencies will revolutionise the world of finance in the future. He says,
We see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as being here to stay. by providing the ability for people to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment, it shows we are prepared for the future and at the forefront of technology change.
How Does It Work?
There’s no doubt that there’s a high level of volatility when it comes to cryptocurrency, making it hard to predict how much it will be from one moment to the next. Louis Gonzalez shares,
For client interested in using cryptocurrency for transactions, we will need to agree upon an exchange rate at the time of transaction.
Owners and directors Louis and Nathan have more than 22 years’ industry experience in the residential and construction industry. Broadwater Builds offers new homes, renovation and extensions, kitchens, bathrooms, demolish and builds, developments, unfinished homes and more.
Broadwater Builds – Nathan Dreibergs and Louis Gonzalez
Cryptocurrency is growing in popularity, and we are starting to see many online shops – including giants Tesla and Apple – support them as a payment method.
This highlights the potentials of cryptocurrency becoming a legitimate form of value transfer.
Get Involved
If youâre looking to accept cryptocurrencies for your business we have a guide to help you set that up. And if youâre a customer in Perth looking to build a house, get a renovation or new kitchen/bathroom then get in touch with Broadwater Builds on 08 6468 6384.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have propelled the world of fashion into the future as the worlds of digital art and blockchain technology collide.
Over the past few months, we have seen NFTs popping up across many industries such as gaming, music, arts and now, fashion. We even saw some inspiring designs from the Crypto Fashion Week just last month.
The fashion NFTs vary from virtual fashion that can be worn online to artists uploading and selling their designs on blockchain marketplaces. When it comes to digital couture, the sky is quite literally the limit.
So, letâs take a look at whatâs hot right now in the world of crypto fashion.
Feast Your Eyes On These Digital Fashion NFTs
Meet Lucas Guzman, a 3D artist working in VR, AR and Crypto Art, bringing digital-only fashion into your home. What do you think? Does his design take your fancy for the virtual world?
Morning, my dudes! Check out the Zero One Jacket I created! And today Im working on garment V2. Would you weat this in the #metaverse ? pic.twitter.com/ruaR3O7aHR
While The Dematerialised is still in Beta phase, their site has been designed intentionally to be a 3D world. Shoppers can quite literally view the item in their own environment through the use of AR.
Check out their first ever digital wearable designed by @daikontsar
MOM, MY JACKET IS ON FORBES! I am so proud and happy to be part of the crĂšme de la crĂšme journey. Congrats @dematerialised on their first ever digital wearable. This jacket is already iconic! Powered by @lukso_io https://t.co/34JC4Z5jtx
Sit back and watch the runway take off with this awe-inspiring virtual fashion show from @elizaveta.fdv.
My first virtual clothing job!!
There are 4 looks in collection. I named it âWavesâ or âĐĐŸĐ»ĐœĐžâ in russian. Name came to my mind after a million explanation to my friends what #digitalfashion and #cryptoart are. Why they just canât be on Wave with me?:) pic.twitter.com/4FrPwF5y5i
Helllllo virtual sneakers! RTFKT Studio’s latest sale, which finished last Saturday, is a collaboration with the crypto-artist known as FEWOCiOUS, an 18-year old with a rapidly rising profile in the digital space. The two collaborated on a series of virtual sneakers, accompanied by digital merch in the form of a âDripâ, and a âCharmâ.
The sneakers raised $3.1 Million USD in just seven minutes!
Welcome to the world of NFT wearable virtual fashion in this online marketplace called Rarible. It’s the first community owned marketplace where you can create, sell or collect digital items with blockchain. Have a browse and send your mind spinning.
Fashion NFTs for Sale on Rarible
âWeâre constantly trying to figure out how to translate emotionâsomething key to the fashion industryâfrom the real world to the digital world,â Kerry Murphy, Founder, The Fabricant
It’s no secret that the NFT Fashion space is booming, and we’ve recently see the worlds first cryptocurrency for fashion, as we watch the new internet quite literally being built around us. Creativity has been unleashed and we can only watch this space for what’s to come.
The first Crypto Fashion Week was held from 22 to 26 February 2021 and offered us a taste of digital fashion’s creative future. The show presented worlds of fashion, as digital art and blockchain technology intersected.
The week-long celebration of on-chain digital fashion gathered an exciting collection of world artists, designers and tech experts to showcase their talents in a futuristic way.
What Is Crypto Fashion Week?
Crypto Fashion Week brought ideas to reality with its inspiring virtual runway that showcased amazing ideas that are way ahead of their time.
From developing virtual sneakers for more sustainable consumption to artists uploading and selling designs on blockchain marketplaces, the event demonstrated the infinite possibilities of digital couture – both online and offline.
There’s no denying that crypto fashion is on the rise, interconnecting technology with design. According to Lady Phe0nix, co-founder of crypto art consultancy Universe Contemporary and co-organizer of Crypto Fashion Week.
These are the visionary people and companies moving the culture forward, and this is a rare chance to gather them together in the same place and time to get a glance at their hottest projects and to celebrate digital fashion in all of its exciting forms.
What Is Digital Fashion?
Digital fashion items aren’t just for the shows – they are being purchased and worn virtually. Who says fashion is limited to tangible or physical materials? The crypto world as eliminated all boundaries, intertwining design and technology to an extent never before seen.
From changing dress colours to shifting background landscapes, or gravity defying flows of a skirt, digital fashion is about exploring the limits of creative expression. Co-Founder of The Dematerialised, Karina Nobbs, explains:
Digital Fashion is a computer generated representation of a garment or an accessory. It can be experienced across physical and digital touchpoints and traded as an asset. It can be worn on an avatar or tracked and layered on a real body.
CFW Highlights
Technology was well and truly embraced for the event with sessions hosted on a variety of different platforms, including Clubhouse, Twitch, YouTube and in the Metaverse – a boundless territory of interactivity that has been described as the new internet.
— FASHION INTERRUPTED (@fash_interrupt) March 1, 2021
The featured artists, designers, and companies participating in Crypto Fashion Week are the most influential and accomplished in the growing field of digital fashion, including:
Maghan McDowell, innovation editor or Vogue Business and fashion-tech journalist.
Natalia Modenova, founder of DressX, the first fashion brand featuring digital collections and 3D designers.
Kesh, a visual artist, designer and musician, who has collaborated with high-end brands such as Mochino, American Apparel and SKIMS.
Workshops were also offered, featuring LUKSO, FTFKT, The Fabricant, The Dematerialised and Newlife.Ai., as they shared how they have embraced digital fashion.
Future Fashion
Watch this space. According to CFW, this booming industry is “expected to be worth millions in the short term”.
Iris Energy, which has raised $25 million from investors, has plans to triple the computing power in its mining operation in Canada, which is powered by hydroelectricity, to meet the growing desire for ‘green’ investments.
Following Tesla’s recent investment in Bitcoin, Elon Musk, has led the way for more investments into crypto mining, enabling Iris to grow from their one facility hosting computers drawing on 9 megawatts of power, and build another 21 megawatts in two new data centres.
Who Is Iris Energy?
Photo: Iris Energy Founders, Dan and Will Roberts
Started by brothers Dan and Will Roberts, Iris Energy receives regular income in bitcoin for its mining, which is immediately liquidated into fiat currency. It uses the raw computing power to find a solution to the SHA-256 algorithm that secures the bitcoin network. The amount of bitcoin received is linked directly to the amount of computing power. About every 10 minutes, 6.25 bitcoins are released to the minor that solves the problem and then provides security to the network, know as the ‘block reward’. Dan Roberts says:
We sell bitcoin the day they are mined. We donât hold or keep it. This, and the focus on renewables and integration with energy markets, is one of the reasons it is popular with institutions.
At present, Iris represents 0.5 percent of the bitcoin mining activity. However, Dan Roberts believes this will shift after they invest in new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) SHA-256 machines. This is where renewable energy is helping them get ahead.
Tesla Leading the Way For Others
The Tesla investment comes after a flurry of interest from mainstream US financial institutions, including PayPal, Square and Visa. Lead portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, Oscar Oberg has made a small pre-IPO investment in Iris from its micro-cap fund. Oberg says:
“The growing US institutional interest in bitcoin, and Teslaâs huge investment this week, helped to validate the investment.”
Executive Chairman of Iris, Dan Roberts, who was Vice President at Macquarie Group in 2011, and then spent eight years at specialist infrastructure fund manager Palisade Investment Partners, says:
Tesla’s investment is another example of the institutional validation and interest we have seen over the past 6 to 12 months. In the current macroeconomic environment, the value proposition for a digital, scarce asset is gathering appeal.
The Future Of Green Mining
In the past 18 months, responsible investment has reached a tipping point, with sustainability concerns coming to the front for many institutional investors.
Investors, consumers and technology are aligning to accelerate the low-carbon transition, says Serge Colle, EY Global Energy Consulting Leader, creating the potential for outperformance by companies involved in the green economy.
Dan Roberts agrees with this shift. When it comes to bitcoin mining, it has moved away from those with access to the newest technology, to those who can build large-scaled energy and data centre infrastructure projects with access to institutional capital markets. And these institutional capital markets are going green.
Speaking on Iris Energy, Oberg says:
These guys are building data centres using the cheapest source of energy they can find, which is renewable, and they will have a lower cost of production to conduct bitcoin mining versus their competitors.
Dan Roberts says that if bitcoin reaches 20 per cent of goldâs market capitalisation, compared to a few per cent today, the energy demand to maintain the network would rise to 70 gigawatts. This is 10 times the level of bitcoin mining today, or three times the amount of power used by all of the worldâs data centres. He says:
The operational flexibility in bitcoin mining makes it the perfect load balancing solution to energy networks dominated by intermittent renewables. With the ability to dynamically adjust energy consumption in response to market conditions and locate data centres in remote locations, bitcoin miners are logical users of excess renewable energy and can manage intraday load variability from wind and solar farms.
Fashion house Australian Brands Alliance (ABA) will soon launch SwapPay – a fintech start-up offering fashions’ first cryptocurrency in Australia.
ABA currently sells nine of their clothing brands on online shopping powerhouse, The Iconic. Founder Paul Elsibai plans to encourage their Millennial customers to return unwanted items by offering ‘virtual coins’ to spend on one of these in-house brands.
Reducing Fashion Waste
According to Mr Eisbai, the aim of the initiative is to fix the post-purchase waste problem. On average, Australians buy 27kg of textiles each year, while 23kg are sent into landfill. Paul Eisbai says:
As a clothing manufacturer we have a responsibility to think about the life of the clothes we make. While we’re comfortable that our customers will get a long life from our clothing, we want to assist them if they tire of them or need a change.
How Does SwapPay Work?
SwapPay will accept clothing in good condition and offer a virtual coin of varying value for the items. Postage will be at the customer’s expense.
Brands themselves are able to assign the value of the coin. A coin at one brand may be worth $20, while for another it is $10.
The items will then be donated on to charitable organisations, or recycled and made into new garments. SwapPay is not the first business to offer this service. The Iconic, for example, already offers free postage for unwanted clothing, which is then donated to the Salvation army.
SwapPay is the first to offer digital currency in return.
The Future Of SwapPay
At the moment, SwapPay will only be offered with Australian Brand Alliance’s businesses.
The hope is that in time it will be offered up to other retailers both inside and outside the fashion world. It is still very much a work in progress with decisions to be made on how it will turn a profit. Paul Esibai says:
SwapPay is a communications platform, so we may charge retailers a fee for marketing through the platform. We are still ironing these things out. But one thing we will not do is make a profit from the returned clothing – that is all to be donated.
Stay Tuned
Want to learn more? Watch this space. Sign up with SwapPay to stay in the loop with what’s to come.
Paddington Hall will be transformed into a celebration of digital art and music with a three-day, multi-sensory walk-through experience featuring 20 of the world’s top digital artists.
Future Art is Australia’s first immersive Cryptoart Festival, and will combine HD projections, digital display frames and interactive VR to highlight the rare digital art space, which is redefining art ownership with the use of blockchain technology, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
What Is Cryptoart?
If an artist creates a piece of digital art, such as an animated gif or a movie, they can sell it using blockchain technology. A digital token is used that has all the information of the digital art store within its metadata. It brings with it scarcity and value into the digital art world. Future Art curator Sats Moon says:
âTwo or three years ago, if you created something on your iPad or phone, people could take a photo of that or copy a jpeg and thereâd be millions all over the world. There was no value attached to digital art. The crypto ethos is ruled by blockchain technology â the artists get paid a royalty directly into their currency wallet whenever their art is bought and sold. Itâs baked into the technology.â
How Does It Work?
The artist uploads their artwork to a digital gallery, such as SuperRare or Rairible. A transaction is created in the Ethereum blockchain, moving a token associated with the artwork to the crypto wallet of the artist who created the piece. The transaction is digitally signed to prove authenticity.
The artwork is them uploaded onto the system. When it is sold, another transaction is issued and the token is moved to the wallet of the buyer.
Itinerary
Future Art runs from January 15 to 17 at Paddington Town Hall. Buy tickets here.
The show will also include keynote presentations from leading VR and AR artists ‘Giant Swan’ and ‘Marc O Matic’, who will be painting live sculptures while interaction with the audience.
Friday 15 January2021 Future Art Launch Party, inc live performances by Dave Goode + Murat Kilic + The Planetts + butters “AAA – Access All Art” 7pm – 11pm Tickets: $50 + BF (includes admission)
Saturday 16 January2021 Keynote VR/AR Presentations Giant Swan (Australia) Marc O Matic (Australia)|7-10pm Tickets $50 + BF (includes admission) Music by Reckless Republic+ Dave Goode + Murat Kilic + The Planetts + butters
Sunday 17 January 2021 GA General Admission – 12pm- 6pm – $25+BF
Pet Parlour is the first Australia pet shop to accept cryptocurrency through their partnership with digital currency exchange Coinbase. Customers can pay using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dai, Ethereum or Litecoin.
Launching in November, Pet Parlour aims to deliver high quality pet products fast to Australian consumers. Founder Tom Sadler says,
âOur approach is unique in the Australian market. We wanted to offer our customers every possible payment solution. By offering multiple payment options we are aiming for a frictionless customers experience.â
At the moment, it looks like the pet shop mainly offers Dog products including dog food, toys and shampoo. They are supporting many brands, including the Australian Naturals range, where every product bought also supports an Australian business.
Along with accepting cryptos as payment, customers also have the option of paying via Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Afterpay.
Developing Trend – Australian Businesses Accepting Crypto as Payment
Cryptocurrency is not yet adopted mainstream as an everyday payment option, but this trend is slowly changing as we see more Australian businesses consider accepting it.
While Pet Parlour is the first Australian pet shop to go down this route, itâs a trend we have seen emerge from other industries. South Korean electronics giant Samsung Group renewed its partnership with crypto shopping application Lolli earlier this month, providing opportunities for shoppers to earn reward points in Bitcoin when shopping for Samsung products.
Cryptocurrency is growing in popularity, and we are starting to see many online shops support them as a payment method across Australia. Previously we have also seen many Australian restaurants support cryptocurrencies as payment. With worldwide e-commerce sales also rising it has been also suggested we may see giants such as Paypal and Amazon enter the e-commerce space soon. And we also saw Mastercard announce Crypto Card Partner Program, Making it Easier for Consumers to Hold and Activate Cryptocurrencies.
This highlights the potentials of cryptocurrency becoming a legitimate form of value transfer.
