Author: Ibiam Wayas

Ibiam is an optimistic crypto journalist. He loves to associate with like-minded individuals and collaborate with them on similar projects. He spends much of his time honing his writing and critical thinking skills.

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Australia Blockchain

CBA, Westpac, ANZ Issues First Digital Bank Guarantee on Blockchain

CBA, Westpac, ANZ Issues First Digital Bank Guarantee on Blockchain

Lygon, a blockchain consortium of five organizations in Australia, has issued the first-ever digital bank guarantee in the country using blockchain technology. Bank guarantees are a pillar of financial systems worldwide. However, Australia has since relied on the traditional system of issuing these guarantees. Today’s development is considered as a major milestone that will digitize the process of commercial banking in Australia, according to the report on Tuesday.

First Paperless Bank Guarantee in Australia

The blockchain platform was formed by three banks in Australia – Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Westpac, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) – together with IBM Australia and Scentre Group. The platform is focused on streamlining the banking process in Australia, and it’s powered by the IBM blockchain network. For more than 200 years, banks in the country mostly issued paper-based guarantees.

This traditional method of issuing bank guarantees was not only time-consuming but also expensive. It wasn’t also the most transparent method, which led to the establishment of Lygon. Basically, this platform is aimed at digitizing the entire process of paper-based guarantees through blockchain technology, which has been achieved today. 

Lygon will Ensure Transparency with Blockchain 

“Lygon is paperless, transparent, accessible, and standardized, removing the inefficiencies, costs, and risks associated with a paper-based system,” said Lygon’s chief, Justin Amos. “The ability to reduce the risk of fraud and handling errors is a major advantage to Lygon, particularly given the heightened focus on digital security for businesses of all sizes and scale these days.”

According to Amos, the Lygon blockchain will be expanded to include other financial services in the country. The technology can be used to improve the processes with payment guarantees and financial instruments like performance bonds.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Uniswap wBTC Trading Volume Hits ATH Amid Tesla Bitcoin News

Uniswap wBTC Trading Hits ATH Amid Tesla Bitcoin News

The cryptocurrency market has been literally set on fire, following the news that Elon Musk’s Tesla has added a sizable amount of Bitcoin in its reserve. The development sparked an increase in trading volume across several major exchanges, including Uniswap. According to Glassnode, the leading decentralized exchange users traded a significant volume of wBTC, the tokenized version of BTC, a few hours after Tesla’s new.

Uniswap Hits ATH in wBTC Trading Volume

wBTC or Wrapped Bitcoin is basically an Ethereum-compatible cryptocurrency (ERC-20 token) backed 1:1 with Bitcoin. The token was developed to enable DeFi traders to gain exposure or access to the leading cryptocurrency. Thus, following the development today, more users on Uniswap were seen trading the tokenized BTC to a great extent. According to a market report from Grayscale, Uniswap recorded more than US$46 million in wBTC trading volume within an hour, making an all-time high for the exchange.

This confirms that Tesla sparked a massive inflow of capital into the leading cryptocurrency, and of course, the development pushed Bitcoin to a new record level in value. Bitcoin reached a new price ATH above US$44,000, and many people are still bullish that the price may increase to US$50,000 later today. Meanwhile, Uniswap isn’t the only exchange seeing massive traffic. Other exchanges like Binance gained massive trading volume, which again required the exchange to scale up.

Elon Musk Finally Buys Bitcoin, not Dogecoin

The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, had shilled Bitcoin and mostly Dogecoin as his favorite cryptocurrencies. From his tweets, many industry players could tell that the billionaire would buy Bitcoin. However, the date wasn’t certain.

In addition to buying Bitcoin, Tesla also intends to accept Bitcoin as a payment option for electric cars.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey is now Running a Bitcoin Node

Quantum Computers Are Not a Threat To Bitcoin (Yet), Expert Explains

The technology billionaire and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has stepped up his support for the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). In a tweet on Friday, Dorsey revealed he was setting up a Bitcoin node, which is essential in securing the cryptocurrency network, as well as validating BTC transactions. 

It’s worth noting that Dorsey has been a Bitcoin support and has preached Bitcoin adoption on several occasions.

Jack Dorsey run Bitcoin Node on M1 Macbook Chip

Dorsey shared the screenshot of the computer synchronizing with the Bitcoin blockchain, with the message, “Running Bitcoin.” At press time, the Bitcoin Blockchain is about 325GB in size. As a new node operator, Dorsey has to download the entire history of the Bitcoin Blockchain to stay up-to-date with the network. As at the time the screenshot was taken, Dorsey already synchronized two percent of the network history.

The download may be completed in a matter of weeks, depending on the capacity of the computer system in use, including the internet speed. Meanwhile, the Twitter CEO is running his own Bitcoin node from the new M1 chip from Apple. “Starting from a scratch build on M1 first,” Dorsey precisely said while responding to a tweet that asked whether he was running the node from a dedicated Raspberry Pi. 

128 Bitcoin Nodes are Available in Australia

Following the development today, the Twitter CEO just became a prominent figure running a Bitcoin node. As of February 5, there were 7918 reachable nodes on the cryptocurrency blockchain. About 21.94 percent of these nodes are located in Germany, while 21.70 percent are in the United States. Other leading countries are as follows: France (7.72 percent), Netherlands (5.33 percent), Canada (4.18 percent), and so on. About 128 of these nodes are located in Australia.crypto

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Australia Crypto News

RBA Governor Says Cryptos Won’t Break Down the Financial System

RBA Governor Says Cryptos Won't Break Down the Financial System

The governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Philip Lowe, has addressed the fuss with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, saying they cannot bring down the financial system. However, financial regulators would need to pay closer attention to digital currencies like the Facebook-planned Diem (formerly Libra) stablecoin.

Besides the governor’s statement, one of the RBA executives added that they will still need to combat money laundering and terrorism financing issues with Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Cryptos are not a risk to financial systems

As reported by the Canberra Times on Friday, the RBA governor Philip Lowe told parliament’s economics committee that digital currencies don’t pose risks to the financial system. “It’s not a financial stability risk,” Lowe said. However, any investor dealing with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin should be wary of the volatility.

Rather than undermining the financial system, the volatility of digital currencies can be “a risk to investors,” Lowe told the committee.

“There’s a lot of fuss over Bitcoin – it’s not a payment instrument, and it’s not really money,” said Michele Bullock, the assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of Australia. “The issue that gets much more airplay recently is stable coins.” Following the case with the Facebook-planned stablecoin, Ms. Bullock added that regulators would need to pay more attention to them.

“With those sorts of ‘coins,’ as they’re so-called at the moment, nothing will happen until the regulators are happy,” Ms. Bullock said.

The Main Concern with Crypto

Although the Australian central bank doesn’t see cryptocurrency as being risky to the financial system, Ms. Bullock did mention that they would still need to address certain concerns with cryptocurrencies. These include privacy, consumer protections, and illicit activities with cryptocurrencies like money laundering.

Owning to the inherent privacy property with digital currencies, criminals are switching to using cryptocurrency to launder ill-gotten profits.

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Crypto News Ethereum

Ether new ATH Shoots up DeFi and Ethereum 2.0 Valuation

Ether new ATH Shoots up DeFi and Ethereum 2.0 Valuation

The second-largest digital currency by market capitalization, Ether (ETH), reached a new all-time high in market price today. For the record, this is the second time the cryptocurrency is topping its previous ATHs. Many people in the Ethereum space are going bullish amid the development, expecting to see a US$2,000 priced ETH sooner this year. 

Meanwhile, the increased price of the cryptocurrency has also contributed to the massive growth in the value of assets locked in decentralized protocols, including the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. 

Ether Made new ATH at Over US$1,600 

According to Coinmarketcap, the second-largest soared to a new price high of US$1,689 on February 4, surpassing the previous ATH at over US$1,400. At press time, however, the cryptocurrency was trading a little below the new ATH, precisely at US$1,622. On a seven-day count, the crypto is up by more than 23 percent. At the current price, ETH has a market capitalization of US$187 billion, from a circulating supply of 114.5 million ETH.

DeFi Markets Exceeds US$30 Billion

Following the spike in ETH price, there is also notable growth in the total value of assets locked in the decentralized finance protocols. Per DeFi Pulse, the industry’s analytics platform, there are currently about $32.48 billion in assets locked in DeFi. Interestingly, the number of Ether locked in DeFi increased by more than 780,000 from January 11 to date. The lending protocol Maker dominates the market by 17.99 percent.

The Ethereum community is still showing a strong level of confidence in the Ethereum 2.0 network. Data from Eth2 Launchpad showed that 2,937,378 ETH has been staked on the deposit contract. In today’s price, these staked coins will be worth over US$4.7 billion.

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Australia Binance Crypto News

CEO of Binance Australia Warns Users Against Fake Emails

Scammers Target Binance Users in Australia with Fake Emails

The interest and growth of the cryptocurrency market are unavoidably attracting the attention of cyber-criminals, which is unsafe for the nascent industry. The CEO of Binance Australia, Jeff Yew, took to his Twitter handle on Thursday to warn cryptocurrency users about an email phishing scam circulating in the whole of Australia.

Phishing is basically a kind of cyber-attack where a scammer or hacker impersonates a reputable company or business, in this case, Binance, to deceive and steal sensitive information from the customers, which eventually leads to losses. In most cases, phishing attacks involve emails.

Meanwhile, Binance users in Australia have been advised to verify their anti-phishing code before taking action from any Binance-related email, especially if it is strange.

Beware of Fake Emails

According to the CEO of Binance Australia, scammers are using fake emails to lure users into logging in to their account using a supposedly malicious link. “Do NOT open that email or click on any links within it. Always look for & verify your anti-phishing code,” Yew wrote, while also differentiating the fake email from the genuine Binance emails using images.

Binance users must always look out for the anti-phishing code to confirm the genuineness of any email claiming to be from the exchange. The code adds an extra layer of security for Binance users and should be enabled by users in Australia especially, amid the wake of this phishing scam.

Ledger Phishing Attack

Recently, Ledger wallet users had to face a similar phishing scam following a security breach that led to the exposure of customers’ data. This information was publicly released, allowing malicious actors to run several attacks on the users, including life-threatening messages. As Crypto News Australia reported on December 10, a Ledger wallet user lost about US$50,000 to the phishing scam, amid the data exposed.

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Australia Blockchain

WePower, MoJo Partner to Debut Blockchain-based Renewable Energy Trading for Australians

WePower, MoJo Partner to Debut Blockchain-based Renewable Energy Trading for Australians

The Energy industry is one sector where blockchain technology plays a significant role, especially in energy trading. 

WePower has reportedly partnered with an Australian solar-focused electricity company, Mojo Power, to enable retail electricity users in Australia to purchase renewable energy. WePower is a blockchain-based green energy financing and trading platform. Under the agreement, WePower will deliver its retail power purchase agreements (Retail PPAs) to Mojo’s upcoming energy trading marketplace, according to the announcement on Wednesday.

Mojo Power plans a Blockchain-based energy trading platform

Mojo is looking to establish a marketplace where corporate customers and other businesses in Australia can source and purchase renewable energy, as a standard retail energy contract, according to the report. The planned marketplace will run on the Ethereum blockchain, essentially allowing energy production companies, including Robinvale Solar Farm in Victoria (VIC), to find buyers for their energy produced easily. 

“The initial wholesale PPA between Robinvale’s owners and Mojo is tokenized by WePower and stored on the Ethereum blockchain so that it can be structured into smaller retail PPAs and made available to these customers,” Kaspar Kaarlep, the chief technology officer at WePower, explained. He added that the tokenization of the transaction on blockchain forms a “direct contractual link between the generating project and the end customer’s energy purchase.” 

The development today will basically make it easier for Australian consumers to access energy while also allowing renewable energy producers to locate buyers. As reported, Mojo Power has also sealed a contract with the Riverina Solar Farm in New South Wales and other solar-focused energy-producing companies around Australia. These energy producers will be included in the upcoming Mojo marketplace “with multiple other agreements currently in the pipeline.”

Blockchain in Australia’s Energy Sector

Notably, Australia has many energy-focused companies building on a blockchain, and today’s news isn’t the first instance involving the technology. About five months ago, Crypto News Australia reported that TYMLEZ would partner with Tyalgum Energy, a private company in New South Wales, to decentralize green energy trading on a blockchain.

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Crypto News Ethereum Tether TRON

Tether swaps 2 Billion TRC-20 USDT to Ethereum

For the first time in 2021, the company behind the largest US-dollar backed stablecoin, Tether Inc., has swapped a significant amount of USDT supply from Tron blockchain (as TRC-20 token) to Ethereum (as ERC-20 token). This move from Tether is no longer a new thing in the cryptocurrency space, as they did a similar swap last year. The development usually happens when there's a huge demand for the stablecoin on Ethereum. Tether moves Tron USDT to Ethereum Following the announcement on Twitter by Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer at Tether Inc., two billion USDT (~US$2 billion) was converted from the Tron blockchain to Ethereum. The swap was completed in five different transactions as Ardoino noted, which was also confirmed by Whale Alert, a dedicated crypto transaction tracker. Noteworthily, the process of swapping to Ethereum ensures that the total circulating supply of USDT doesn't increase or reduce. https://twitter.com/paoloardoino/status/1356871947674656768?s=19 However, Ethereum USDT supply will increase in this case by exactly two billion USDT, while Tron's supply will decrease by two billion USDT. The development today is coming about five days after Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron, celebrated a total supply of 10 billion USDT issued by Tether on their blockchain network. https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1355123845783408645?s=19 Ethereum Remains the top Network for USDT According to Tronscan, the network explorer for Tron blockchain, there are currently 8.6 billion USDT issued on Tron, all of which are currently in circulation, and held in about 1,815,892 addresses. Also, a further glance at Etherscan confirmed a total supply of 17.9 billion USDTs on Ethereum. These USDTs on Ethereum are held in over 2.4 million addresses. Over the years, Ethereum has since remained the biggest network for USDT, followed by Tron and other blockchain networks.

For the first time in 2021, the company behind the largest US-dollar backed stablecoin, Tether Inc., has swapped a significant amount of USDT supply from Tron blockchain (as TRC-20 token) to Ethereum (as ERC-20 token). This move from Tether is no longer a new thing in the cryptocurrency space, as they did a similar swap last year. The development usually happens when there’s a huge demand for the stablecoin on Ethereum.

Tether moves Tron USDT to Ethereum

Following the announcement on Twitter by Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer at Tether Inc., two billion USDT (~US$2 billion) was converted from the Tron blockchain to Ethereum. The swap was completed in five different transactions as Ardoino noted, which was also confirmed by Whale Alert, a dedicated crypto transaction tracker. Noteworthily, the process of swapping to Ethereum ensures that the total circulating supply of USDT doesn’t increase or reduce.

However, Ethereum USDT supply will increase in this case by exactly two billion USDT, while Tron’s supply will decrease by two billion USDT. The development today is coming about five days after Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron, celebrated a total supply of 10 billion USDT issued by Tether on their blockchain network.

Ethereum Remains the top Network for USDT

According to Tronscan, the network explorer for Tron blockchain, there are currently 8.6 billion USDT issued on Tron, all of which are currently in circulation, and held in about 1,815,892 addresses. Also, a further glance at Etherscan confirmed a total supply of 17.9 billion USDTs on Ethereum. These USDTs on Ethereum are held in over 2.4 million addresses.

Over the years, Ethereum has since remained the biggest network for USDT, followed by Tron and other blockchain networks.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Dogecoin

SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk Regrets not Buying Bitcoin in 2013

SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk Regrets not Buying Bitcoin in 2013

Last week, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, made headlines across cryptocurrency news outlets and other mainstream media, as he influenced a spike in the market price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin following his activity on Twitter. 

In a Clubhouse chat session on January 31, the billionaire revealed his opinions about the two cryptocurrencies, saying BTC is positioned for mainstream adoption amongst other digital currencies. He also admitted to not buying the leading crypto early when his friends asked him to do so.

Musk Talked Bitcoin, Dogecoin

The CEO of SpaceX mentioned that Bitcoin is a good thing and he doesn’t hold any strong opinion for other digital currencies. “I think bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by sort of the conventional finance people,” Musk said, adding that it’s already late for him to join the Bitcoin bandwagon now. He regretted not buying the cryptocurrency in 2013 when his friend tried to convince him to buy it.

Moving further, Elon Musk explained why he’s always fond of the thirteenth-largest digital currency, Dogecoin (DOGE). According to him, he only tweets about the cryptocurrency occasionally just to make “jokes about Dogecoin.” Notably, the US$5.3 billion market cap cryptocurrency was originally designed as a fun cryptocurrency. 

“But fate loves irony and often as a friend of mine says that the most ironic outcome or I’d say the most entertaining outcome and the most ironic outcome would be that Dogecoin becomes the currency of earth in the future,” Musk added.

Dogecoin update

Last week, the fun cryptocurrency spiked by over 1,000 percent after being hyped by the Redditors. Although the cryptocurrency is still up by 47.7 percent on a 24hour count, the cryptocurrency price has declined to US$$0.04182, according to the information on Coingecko.

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Crypto News Market Analysis

Top Crypto Gainers with Over 200% Increase in 2021

Top Crypto Gainers Since 2021

Alternative coins or Altcoins have been posting an exponential kind of growth recently, and many people do believe that it’s already their season. Since the start of 2021, more than ten digital currencies from relatively new projects have skyrocketed by over 200 percent. The native cryptocurrency of Voyager, VGX, made the largest increase in terms of the price change on a year-to-date count.

The top crypto gainers in 2021 are as follows:

  • Voyager Token (VGX)
  • Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA)
  • Archer DAO Governance Token (ARCH)
  • DODO (DODO)
  • Dogecoin (DOGE)
  • OnX Finance (ONX)
  • Fantom (FTM)
  • Idle (IDLE)
  • FunFair (FUN)
  • Presearch (PRE)
  • Badger DAO (BADGER)
  • Perpetual Protocol (PERP)
  • Cream Finance (CREAM)
  • Avalanche (AVAX)
  • PancakeSwap (CAKE)

The Breakdown

Most of the cryptocurrencies listed above are native tokens of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, which indicates a growing interest and participation in the industry. According to an infographic sourced from Cryptorank, the Voyager token sees a 1,437 percent increase on a YTD chart, which rates it as the top gainer in 2021. Voyager, meanwhile, is a cryptocurrency trading platform. The VGX coin was trading at US$2.9 at press time, with a market valuation of US$660,220,452.

The ALPHA, ARCH, and DODO tokens joined the list with a YTD price change of 979%, 933%, and 914%, respectively. These three cryptocurrencies are native tokens of decentralized finance protocols. Dogecoin is the fifth top gainer in 2021 so far, thanks to the collective effort of Redditors last week. DOGE sees a 747 percent YTD price change and a market capitalization of over US$5.1 billion.

Image

The cryptocurrencies that gained over 500 percent increase on YTD includes ONX FTM, IDLE, FUN, and PRE, as seen in the infographic. The other cryptocurrencies on the list, including PancakeSwap token, the leading AMM on Binance Smart Chain, has more than 200 percent YTD change in market price since the start of the year.