Author: Jana Serfontein

Jana has keen interest in what cryptocurrencies have to offer in regards to NGO’s, governments and the financial system. And is also intrigued with the psychological effect that cryptocurrencies have on society.

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Blockchain CBDCs China Crypto News

China Pilots Mobile Wallet for CBDC Ahead of Winter Games

The People’s Bank of China (PoBC) has launched iOS and Android apps for digital yuan transactions in selected cities ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics. This comes after China declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal last year.

How the App Will Work

The new app will link users’ phone numbers to payment services provided by commercial banks using China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).

China published a whitepaper outlining the progress of the CBDC, formally called e-CNY. The document reveals that the e-CNY uses smart contracts programmability as part of one of its seven major features.

According to the above tweet from BlockBeats, individual users in China may now download a version of the app to try out “personal wallet opening and management and e-CNY exchange and circulation services”. The app is currently only available for trial in 11 locations within China: Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian, and the area where the Winter Olympics will be held.

Thus far, China has been testing the digital yuan through lotteries in some cities for limited users. The central bank hopes to expand the number of people using the digital yuan.

China also undertook CBDC tests in mid-2021 to determine the usefulness of digital currencies. Following testing, China announced it would pay the salaries of certain residents in the Xoing’an region in digital yuan.

PRC Unveils ‘FinTech Development Plan (2022-2025)’

Along with the release of its digital wallet, the PBoC has unveiled its FinTech Development Plan (2022-2025), which outlines the importance financial planners place on the digitisation of the economy. The document does not explicitly discuss blockchain technology, or cryptocurrency, though the trend has been toward exerting greater control over the trajectory of China’s digital economy to ensure government access to financial data.

Last year the Chinese government expelled the majority of bitcoin mining operations, crushing the country’s contribution to the Bitcoin network’s hashing power within the country and pushing the miners that remain further underground.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Samsung Set to Release Smart TV with NFT Trading Capabilities

What’s the point of owning an NFT (non-fungible token) if you can’t show it off to everyone you know? Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics understands this and is here to help by introducing three TV models incorporating an NFT explorer and marketplace aggregator – a platform that allows owners to browse, purchase, and display their favourite art.

Samsung Brings Blockchain to Your Smart TV

The past couple of months has seen an unprecedented explosion in the NFT market, and the need for tech companies to get on board has become all the more important. Samsung is leading the charge in this respect by introducing a new “NFT Aggregation Platform”, designed for three of its 2022 TV models.

According to Samsung:

In 2022, Samsung is introducing the world’s first TV screen-based NFT explorer and marketplace aggregator, a groundbreaking platform that lets you browse, purchase, and display your favourite art – all in one place.

Samsung Electronics announcement

Watch TV, Buy NFTs

The platform, which will be available on Samsung’s MicroLed, Neo QLED, and The Frame models, will allow users to browse and buy NFTs directly from the TVs. The new platform pulls in NFTs from different marketplaces so users can preview the art and see who created it, along with all relevant blockchain metadata.

Promotion for Samsung’s upcoming NFT TV platform. Source: Samsung

For users who already own NFTs, the platform can be used to showcase their prized possessions. Samsung has also introduced its “Smart Calibration” technology that automatically adjusts the TV’s setting to match the original specifications, to ensure the image is rendered as optimally as the creator intended.

Among the impressive specs offered by the platform, the application will feature an “intuitive, integrated platform for discovering, purchasing and trading digital artwork”, which allows users to trade NFTs on set.

Hopefully Samsung’s forward thinking will inspire the 90 percent of Australians who reportedly remain ignorant of cryptos and NFTs to investigate the new revolution.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum Metaverse NFTs

Eminem Buys Bored Ape for $452,000, Holds Another 166 NFTs

Slim Shady – aka Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem – joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community late last year by buying a non-fungible token (NFT) from the collection for a sobering 123.45 ether. The rapper paid US$452,000 to add BAYC #9055 to his already impressive collection of 166 NFTs.

Slim Shady Slides into the BAYC Community

There is no doubt 2021 was the year of the NFT, with the BAYC NFT project alone grossing over US$1 billion in trading volume worldwide. BAYC recently entered partnerships with Rolling Stone to release two digital magazine covers featuring Bored Ape Yacht Club characters. Adidas also recently announced a collaboration with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs to enter the metaverse. As a show of good faith, the sports apparel brand also bought its own BAYC NFT.

On December 30, Eminem joined the BAYC project by purchasing BAYC #9055 for a cool 123.45 ETH, or US$452,000. The rapper shared his new purchase by changing his profile picture on Twitter:

Eminem’s new Twitter profile picture. Source: Twitter.com

The BAYC #9055 purchase was further confirmed by the OpenSea platform, which indicates the new owner of the NFT to be “Shady_Holdings”. The portfolio also owns a number of Lil Baby Doodles X NFTs, Ditaggdogg#1 featuring a stencil image of the famous rapper, and Superlatives Apes #3880.

In fact, Eminem owns a number of ERC721 NFTs, including Shaq Gives Back #4077, and Adult Fantasy Sub-Dude (130/151). He bought BAYC #9055 from the NFT’s former owner GeeGazza, who took to Twitter to share his excitement:

In fact, GeeGazza predicted the sale back in November last year:

Eminem Now Owns 166 NFTs from 32 Collections

The sale was facilitated by digital agency “Six”, who proclaimed on Twitter that its creator-focused agency helped secure the ape for Shady, and are now calling the NFT “EminApe”. Admittedly, the ape does rather resemble its new owner.

According to data from dappradar.com, the rapper owns 166 NFT assets from 32 collections. As it stands, Shady_Holdings address holds 1.52 ETH following the purchase. Eminem got 124 ETH from an account that uses the name georgio.eth. That account holds 504 NFTs from 51 different collections, including BAYC #4936, and it also spent 43.98 ETH on two CryptoPunks.

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Crypto News Events Metaverse NFTs Real Estate

New Year’s Eve Takes Place in Decentraland This Year

During unprecedented times such as the Covid-19 pandemic, large gatherings of people have had to come up with creative ways to remain safe and still enjoy themselves. New York City’s iconic New Year’s Eve Ball Drop is just one major event to have suffered the perils of the pandemic.

The virtual event, dubbed ‘MetaFest 2022‘, will include non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries, rooftop VIP lounges, and virtual musical performances. Virtual billboards will tie the experience to the event’s metaverse counterpart via live streams from New York City.

NYE Comes to Decentraland

On December 29, DCG and Jamestown announced their intention to recreate a significant cultural site within the metaverse – One Times Square. The 26-storey building in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square is home to the annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop celebration, now limited to 15,000 socially distanced and fully vaccinated attendees due to a rise in the number of Covid cases in New York.

NYE Ball Drop in Decentraland.

According to Simon Koster, DCG’s head of real estate, “This event highlights how virtual events can cohesively integrate with real ones in an effort to bring once-in-a-lifetime experiences to so many that would have never been able to participate otherwise.”

‘MetaFest2022’ is not the first event to take to the metaverse. As also reported this week by Crypto News Australia, a new project called Animal Concerts is building a virtual touring company to host VR live music events in the metaverse.

“The metaverse is an important part of the evolution of real estate and the built environment,” said Jamestown president Michael Phillips. “Whereas physical real estate is largely limited to people with geographic proximity, the metaverse can give people around the world meaningful access to places through immersive virtual experiences.”

To join in on the experience, users can create personalised avatars and explore the Times Square Plaza.

More and More Moving into the Metaverse

As the metaverse continues to explode, more and more industries are moving into the digital space and many are choosing the Decentraland metaverse to facilitate their move. In November, the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would become the first sovereign nation to have a digital embassy in the metaverse, forging an agreement with Decentraland to host it.  

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Blockchain Crypto News DAO DeFi Ethereum Hackers

Ethereum Sidechain Project Polygon ‘Hard Forked’ After Critical Bug Discovered

Ethereum sidechain project Polygon (MATIC) could well have lost all of its MATIC tokens, worth US$24 billion, after it discovered a “severe” bug that had gone unnoticed for some time. To offset the enormous loss, the Polygon network underwent a hard fork to save the project.

‘Critical’ Vulnerability Found in Polygon’s PoS Genesis Contract

The hard fork proceeded after a “critical” vulnerability was found in Polygon’s proof-of-stake genesis contract, which would have allowed attackers to steal 9.2 billion MATIC tokens. The total supply of MATIC is 10 billion, and any vulnerability would have put 9.2 billion of those tokens at risk, a potentially devastating loss.

The problem was reported on the bug bounty platform Immunefi by a white hat hacker known as Leon Spacewalker. Following the discovery of the bug, Immunefi informed the team at Polygon, after which they confirmed it.

However, Polygon did not come out entirely unscathed. Before the upgrade on the mainnet could be completed, an unknown black hat hacker stole 801,601 MATIC, worth about US$1.6 million.

The team at Polygon reported: “Despite our best efforts, a malicious hacker was able to use the exploit to steal 801,601 MATIC before the network upgrade took effect.”

Co-founder Conceded Pre-existing Vulnerability

Although Polygon did not release details regarding the incident until December 29, chatter on social media had emerged mid-month about the network zero-warning hard fork. During that time, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic did concede that a vulnerability existed and that the team would subsequently release details of the problem.

Bjelic wrote at the time: “We are now investing much more on security and we’re making an effort to improve security practices across all Polygon projects.”

When asked why the project waited until this week to disclose information regarding the bug, the core development team explained its “silent patches” policy:

All in all, the team struck the best possible balance between openness and doing what’s best for the community, partners and the broader ecosystem in handling this extremely urgent and sensitive issue. But you can be the judge of that.

Polygon core development team statement

Polygon Records Exponential Growth

Polygon is undergoing a period of growth and mass adoption, and is evolving and adapting along with it. The scaling solution has seen an increasing number of decentralisation applications (dApps) running on the network. Data has also revealed that Polygon is growing at a rate two times faster than Ethereum at a comparable time in its history.

Having seen massive adoption from DeFi protocols, Polygon is also planning to launch a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) with the ultimate goal of improving users’ DeFi experience, while at the same time attracting more users to DeFi.

Polygon was also recently included in an exciting partnership between Exodus Wallet and SportX, which will allow its users to wager on esports and crypto prices on the network.

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Airdrop Crypto News Ethereum Giveaways NFTs Tokens

OpenSea Users Can Claim a Free Airdrop of SOS Tokens

SOS, an airdrop from OpenDAO distributed to people who have spent money on OpenSea transactions, has surged 1,000 percent in two days as a result.

Although OpenDAO is not affiliated with non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, any user who has ever spent money on OpenSea could claim the Ethereum token SOS, with the amount determined by exactly how much users have spent.

Up to 240,000 Users Claim SOS Token

Since Christmas Eve, the popularity of the project has led to about 240,000 people claiming the SOS token, which pushed its value up 1,000 percent.

Tokens were dropped by OpenDAO, an independent decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) that has pledged to use some of the tokens it had earmarked for itself to compensate users of OpenSea for past scams, and to support the ever-growing NFT industry.

On Christmas Day, SOS was the largest gainer on CoinMarketCap, and by Boxing Day the token had risen to a market cap of US$321 million. The project’s Discord had about 50,000 members, and 100,000 people were following OpenDAO’s Twitter account.

How to Claim Your SOS

The more a person has traded, the more tokens that person is able to claim. OpenDAO calculates how many tokens are allocated based on transactions conducted prior to December 23. Any OpenSea transactions concluded after that date would not factor in the calculation.

For a short tutorial on the claims process, watch this informative video on YouTube:

OpenSea Thrives Following a Flurry of Issues

Amid the NFT boom, OpenSea appears to be thriving despite experiencing some issues. Earlier in 2021, the marketplace managed to raise US$23 million in a Series A round of funding to scale its NFT marketplace. Following a significant period of growth in the NFT market, OpenSea started experiencing some issues during September. Early that month, a bug was found on the marketplace that destroyed at least 42 NFTs worth around US$100,000.

Just a week later, OpenSea’s product lead Nate Chastain was accused of insider trading of NFTs promoted on the front page of the platform. The allegations were confirmed by the OpenSea team, and Chastain has since resigned from his position.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Real Estate

DAO to Buy Blockbuster Video and Offer Decentralised Film Streaming

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and attempting to buy historical artifacts are catching on in late 2021. Last month, ConstitutionDAO attempted to purchase a rare first-edition copy of the US Constitution, and now a new DAO, BlockbusterDAO, is trying to buy one of the best-known pre-digital brands of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Big Plans for Blockbuster LLC

After ConstitutionDAO was outbid by former Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin, a new DAO – BlockbusterDAO – announced its intention to purchase the iconic video brand. According to its Twitter feed, the DAO wants to ultimately create a decentralised film streaming service, with additional plans for movie financing and production down the line.

The thread also explained why BlockbusterDAO intends to go through with the purchase:

The Blockbuster brand is not only nostalgic, it’s a historic landmark in the history of film. Despite its 1/1 brand recognition, the company was destroyed by terrible leadership with an inability to pivot and make dynamic business decisions.

BlockbusterDAO, Twitter

To achieve its goals, BlockbusterDAO wants to raise US$5 million to purchase the brand from Dish Network, a US television provider which acquired Blockbuster in 2011. The DAO aims to raise the finance by selling BlockbusterDAO non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for 0.13 ETH each (US$494 at the time of writing).

Although ConstitutionDAO was unsuccessful in its efforts to purchase a copy of the US Constitution, the group is now giving donors a choice – to either accept refunds, or remain in the DAO and receive a “We The People” (WTP) governance token.

DAOs: the New-Age Crowdfunding Solution

As DAOs continue to gain popularity for various reasons, capital raising seems to be the most prominent. For those wishing to buy a National Basketball Association (NBA) team, or an island in the Caribbean, for instance, but don’t necessarily have US$50 million lying around, DAOs are the perfect way for individuals to realise such dreams.

DAOs – the new-age crowdfunding solution – show what a community of people can do when they band together to achieve a collective goal.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Hackers Illegal Monero Scams

New Spider-Man Movie Torrent Contains Malicious XMR Mining Program

Cybercriminals have to keep up with the latest trends in order to continue running their scams, so it comes as no surprise they’re exploiting the popularity of blockbuster movie Spider-Man: No Way Home as a way to launch crypto-malware attacks.

Fans are urged to be careful when downloading pirated copies of the newest edition of the film as cybercriminals have uploaded a Monero miner code on a torrent download file.

Scammers Hiding Crypto Miner Malware in Torrent Files

Experts from ReasonLabs have reported details of a new malware attack in which scammers embed a Monero (XRM) miner code on a torrent download file for the Spider-Man film. The warning was first issued on December 23, along with details that the torrent file for the movie is named “spiderman_net_putidomoi.torrent.exe” in Russian.

The name translates to “spiderman_no_wayhome.torrent.exe” and the filename has led experts to believe that the malware did in fact originate from a Russian torrenting website.

Once the file is downloaded, the crypto-malware exploits the computer’s power to mine Monero, a privacy coin that operates with untraceable transactions. This type of attack is not as severe as others and does not affect computer performance, but will drive a victim’s power bill sky-high due to its massive energy consumption. Police agents have conceded that hackers are using legitimate names, so the program tends to go unnoticed by antivirus software.

Researchers at ReasonLabs have provided an example of the malware’s details:

What the malware file meta looks like. Source: ReasonLabs

In order to keep from downloading the malware, users are urged to look carefully at aspects such as the file type. A real film should end with the suffix “.mp4” while a crypto-malware file ends with “.exe”. Fans should be especially cautious when downloading content from the internet and are discouraged from downloading a file in Torrent and from other non-official sources.

News of the scam came soon after Bitcoin penny stock BitTorrent soared 80 percent ahead of its Mainnet Launch, which took place earlier this month.

Crypto Scams Continue on the Rise

As more crypto projects launch, more opportunities are created for scammers to take advantage of unwitting users. Late last month, Crypto News Australia published an article detailing a Threat Horizons report released which indicated that 86 percent of hacked accounts were being used to mine cryptocurrencies. Poor security measures were cited as the main reasons for malicious actors being able to infiltrate accounts.

Although the scam found in the Spider-Man torrent is not particularly dangerous, last month an insidious and highly sophisticated crypter was found in the crypto community. Named the “Babadeda” crypter, the malware is still targeting crypto enthusiasts on the popular community chat app Discord.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

5 Xmas NFT Projects Launching This Christmas

‘Tis the season for NFTs, and the gifts just keep on coming. Earlier this month, Crypto News Australia published a guide on the five most interesting NFT projects launching on the Solana blockchain, as well as five exciting projects from the latest THETA hackathon.

As our gift to you, we’ve now created a guide to five Xmas NFT projects launching this Christmas, most incorporating a charity angle.

1. Santa Apes Christmas Club

Have a simian Christmas with Santa Apes, and help a needy family while you’re at it.

Santa Apes Christmas Club is a unique collection of 10,000 NFTs minted on the Ethereum blockchain and available for purchase on OpenSea. Santa Apes offers users unique utility, including 25 days of Christmas giveaways, raffles, access to a second secret collection, and a whitelist of future partnered projects. Five percent of mint sales and 10 percent of royalties from the project will be donated to families in need for Christmas using Fidelity Charity.

2. Santa’s Reindeers

A percentage of the Santa’s Reindeers mint will aid Mexican orphanages and shelters.

Santa’s Reindeers are a collection of 999 reindeers that all live on the Solana network. The project was created with the goal of innovation in the NFT realm and to give holders utility beyond the digital world. That said, the project will donate a percentage of the mint to orphanages and shelters in Mexico in an effort to help those in need have a better Christmas.

3. Solana Santa Business (SSB)

Children’s organisations around the globe will benefit from 10 percent of the SSB mint.

For those users who missed Solana Money Business, creators have brought you SSB. The project, built atop Solana, is a collection of 3,333 Santa generative NFTs with Christmas NFT gifts, a play-to-earn game, and charities inbuilt. NFTs all consist of 200 unique traits. The project will also donate 10 percent of the mint to children’s organisations around the globe.

4. Crypto Clans of Santas (CCoS)

Christmas combat with Crypto Clans of Santas.

A turn-based combat video game on the Cardano blockchain, CCoS can be played on any internet browser with two to four players (1vs1, 2vs2, or 1vs1vs1vs). Users compose a team of five fighters in the form of NFTs they retain in their Cardano wallets. Players can have as many fighters as they want, but can only use five in a fight unless they have an NFT boost which enables players to use more. Extra fighters can also be hired should the player not have enough.

5. Snowman Army

The uniquely hand-drawn Snowman Army figures.

Snowman Army is a collection of 100 Snowman NFTs which all reside on the Ethereum blockchain and are available for purchase on OpenSea. All NFTs are hand-drawn and not generated.

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Betting Crypto News Crypto Wallets Gambling Gaming Sports

Exodus Wallet Enables Sports Betting with USDC Using Polygon Blockchain

Blockchain, cryptos and smart contracts are changing the world as we know it, and now have moved into the world of esports, particularly online betting. A recent example is cryptocurrency wallet Exodus integrating with SportX, an online sports and cryptos betting platform, to allow its users to wager on esports games on the Polygon network.

Exodus Gets Into Esports

Exodus is a wallet that helps individuals control their wealth independent of old banking models and free from institutional control. Integration with SportX gives its users the ability to wager on esports games via smart contracts executed on the Polygon network.

The newly announced partnership gives Exodus’s one million-plus users access to SportX’s decentralised betting exchange, where users can wager on a wide array of sports and esports games using cryptos. The minimum bet allowed is US$5, denominated in USD Coin (USDC), which can be directly sent to the Exodus wallet or exchanged from any of the 138 cryptos it supports.

As it stands, SportX is authorised for use in South America, Canada, most European countries excluding France and the Netherlands, and throughout most of Asia.

SportX Also Allows Betting on Crypto Prices

SportX allows users to bet on the outcomes of their favourite sports, esports and also on crypto prices, bringing cryptocurrencies and betting together with the use of smart contract protocols. This capability ensures users’ funds are protected and payouts are guaranteed on time using the Polygon network. The platform also gives players the option to bet on future price fluctuations of major cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.