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.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum

Cuba Set to Embrace Crypto to Tackle Ongoing Economic Crisis

Amid a tumultuous economic crisis and its Central Bank enforcing a ban on US dollar cash deposits, Cuba is looking for a way forward – and crypto might be the answer.

The Caribbean island nation is taking its cue from many other South American countries and will start to recognise and regulate cryptocurrencies, it announced on August 26.

According to a resolution published in Cuba’s Official Gazette, the republic’s central bank – Banco Central de Cuba – will govern how citizens would be allowed to use cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. It is also expected that Cuban authorities will distribute relevant licences to businesses based on the crypto-related services they offer.

Cuba’s Dire Economic Situation

The announcement comes as Cuba finds itself immersed in anti-government protests over a lack of food and medicine during an economic crisis. The situation is made worse not only by the Covid-19 pandemic but also by foreign sanctions.

The Cuban government has also done away with its dual-currency system, causing many citizens to lose money as they traded in Cuban convertible pesos for the traditional Cuban peso.

Cryptocurrencies have gained in popularity as the population finds it harder to use US dollars, partly due to the toughened embargo rules imposed by former US president Donald Trump.

Crypto allows for anonymous long-distance transactions, making it popular with citizens and businesses wanting to evade government regulations – including US restrictions on sending money to Cuba.

The official resolution added that the Central Bank can authorise the use of cryptos “for reasons of socioeconomic interest”, but the state will ensure that their operations are controlled. The resolution made it clear that operations could not involve illegal activities.

Cuba Follows El Salvador’s Lead

Cuba is not the first South American country to openly endorse and allow the use of cryptocurrencies. El Salvador passed a bill in June making it the first country in the world to approve bitcoin as legal tender.

Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Paraguay and Nicaragua are among other South American countries embracing cryptocurrencies.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News DeFi

Australia’s DeFi Adoption Growing Rapidly, Ranking 12th of 154 Countries

A newly published Global DeFi Adoption Index by Chainalysis ranks countries in terms of their grassroots DeFi adoption. The index includes the top 20 nations that have embraced DeFi along with key players and transactions driving interest in DeFi.

According to the index, Australia ranks 12th out of 154 countries.

DeFi (decentralised finance) platforms, otherwise known as protocols, are built on top of smart contract-enriched blockchains, mainly on the Ethereum network. The protocols can fulfill specific financial functions according to the smart contracts’ underlying code.

Popular types of DeFi protocols include decentralised exchanges and lending platforms. While concerns remain around DeFi’s safety and compliance obligations, it represents one of the fastest-growing and most innovative sectors of the cryptocurrency economy. Similar to our Crypto Adoption Index, the DeFi Adoption Index is designed to highlight countries with the highest grassroots adoption by individuals, rather than those sending the largest raw values of funds. 

Chainalysis Global DeFi Adoption Index

DeFi has featured heavily in crypto news this month due to a series of cyberattacks in which millions were stolen. While the safety of DeFi platforms remains a concern, business is booming. At the time of writing, the DeFi crypto market cap was sitting comfortably at over US$121 billion with a total trading volume of US$10.7 billion.

Inaugural Index Works on Three Metrics

The index, the first of its kind, ranks countries according to three different metrics that aim to balance DeFi activity by wealthier individuals and richer countries. The ranking indicates that DeFi adoption is popular in countries where there are high levels of crypto adoption and use among traders and investors.

Countries are ranked according to each of the three metrics. The geometric mean of each country’s ranking in all three metrics is calculated and then the final number is normalised on a scale of 0 to 1 to assign each country a score that determines its overall ranking. The closer a country’s score is to 1, the higher its rank (see chart below).

Source: Chainalysis

The data shows that large transactions make up a much bigger share of DeFi activity, suggesting that DeFi is disproportionately popular for bigger investors compared to cryptocurrency as a whole. Transactions above US$10 million accounted for over 60 percent of DeFi transactions in Q2 2021, compared to under 50 percent for all cryptocurrency transactions.

Chainalysis data extrapolation

New Protocols Drive Rise in DeFi Projects

Data reveals that the majority of top-10 DeFi projects gained more than 20 percent in the past 30 days, with some such as THORChain (RUNE) realising gains of over 115 percent.

The surge in DeFi can be attributed to the arrival of new protocols such as DinoSwap, and the rise of Ethereum-network competitors such as Avalanche (AVAX). Both DinoSwap and Avalanche saw users flock to their networks to escape high fees on the Ethereum network.

‘Significant’ DeFi Growth in Australia

Although the DeFi sector in Australia has proven significant growth, hesitation still exists. Crypto News Australia recently reported how a Melbourne-based crypto fund outperformed Bitcoin on its year-to-date profits, returning 119 percent compared to Bitcoin’s 19.96 percent growth.

The fund has indicated that it avoids DeFi projects, citing an investment strategy in which audited code is a must. Many DeFi projects such as Whalefarm, which uses an unaudited code, quickly crashed to zero after showing much promise. Fears over hacking due to weaknesses in code are also proving a big risk.

Despite DeFi sector growth in Australia, projects are seen as partnerships or unincorporated associations for which the Australian regulatory framework remains unclear.

Yet Australia is is proving itself a worthy adversary in DeFi, with ThorChain and Synthetix.io two of the more successful Aussie DeFi start-ups.  

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Rap Star Tyga to Launch OnlyFans Competitor Platform with NFTs

In the wake of OnlyFans’ recent announcement that they will ban sexually explicit content come October, multiplatinum artist turned entrepreneur Tyga has announced the launch of his own content platform called Myystar.

Tyga took to social media to announce that he has deleted his OnlyFans page and will be starting his own content platform to compete with OnlyFans.

Set for full release in October, Myystar will allow users “creative freedom” in response to the ban set by OnlyFans. Tyga’s platform will be taking only 10 percent of creators’ earnings – half of OnlyFans’ 20 percent.

Helping Others

Not only will Myystar house content from comedians, athletes, musicians and podcasters, but creators will be able to sell their own NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Tyga expressed his concern that many people make a lot of money on OnlyFans and most of their revenue is made there:

I want to give those people hope.

Tyga

Myystar is Tyga’s next business endeavour after launching Too Raww, a modelling agency aimed at helping people get started on OnlyFans.

Joining the NFT Craze

Myystar will join CumRocket, a new DeFi project which recently created its own private subscription platform and NFT marketplace.

NFTs provide artists with exposure, revenue and connection with their fans, as we saw earlier this year when Melbourne street artist Lushsux made over US$500,000 from selling NFTs.

The NFT craze is diverting the attention of musicians, artists and celebrities who now see it as an opportunity to promote their work and make some extra cash.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

Categories
Blockchain Cardano Crypto News DeFi Stablecoins

Cardano Up 60% in Past Month as it Unveils New DeFi Stablecoin

The price of Cardano (ADA) continues to soar as the company makes strides. The ‘Alonzo’ hard fork set for release next month, along with the unveiling of its new stablecoin Djed, is keeping Cardano on everybody’s lips.

ADA’s new stablecoin, Djed, is the first coin to eliminate price volatility using formal verification, thereby overcoming one of the biggest barriers to crypto mass adoption.

What Djed Is All About

In the crypto market, volatility is a major concern and stablecoins aim to minimise this. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to commodities, other cryptocurrencies, stocks and fiat currencies that include mechanisms to allow low price deviation from their target price. With the aid of their built-in mechanism they can remove volatility, making them excellent to exchange or store value.

Some stablecoins, such as Tether and USD Coin, lack transparency about their reserve and liquidity, thereby compromising price stability.

In an effort to resolve some of the issues surrounding stablecoins, IOG has partnered with Emurgo, and the Ergo blockchain, to work on a stablecoin contract called Djed. Emurgo is one of the three founding partners of Cardano and Ergo employs UTXO-based accounting, like Cardano.

Djed is based on an algorithmic design, which means it uses smart contracts to secure price stabilisation. Thus the coin will be useful for DeFi operations.

How It Works

Source: Input/Output Global

Djed will work by using an autonomous “central bank line” contract, consisting of the reserve, equity and liabilities. To further ensure stability, Djed will allow the contract to sell stablecoins and use the charging fees and reserve assets to maintain a target price.

IOG, the developers of Djed, assert that their stability mechanism will benefit holders of the coin as it will enable them to “boost the reserve with funds while assuming the risk of price fluctuation”.  

Djed is a crypto-backed algorithmic stablecoin contract that acts as an autonomous bank. It operates by keeping a reserve of base coins, and minting and burning stablecoins and reserve coins.

Input/Output blog

Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOG and inventor of Cardano, shared his enthusiasm for Djed, citing that the coin’s properties are “proven by mathematical theorems”.

The mathematical theorems will help Djed to maintain a constant peg to the central assets with lower bound maintenance, no insolvency, no bank runs, and robustness during market crashes.  

Djed will launch in two versions: Minimal and Extended Djed. Minimal Djed will be as “simple, intuitive and straightforward as possible, without compromising stability”. Extended Djed will have more incentives to keep the reserve ratio “at an optimal level”, and will have more stability benefits.

Imminent Hard Fork Pushes Cardano Up 60% in Past Month 

The ‘Alonzo’ hard fork, set for release on September 12, is generating much excitement among traders and investors. ADA is currently trading at US$2.52, reaching all-time highs, and is up 17.32 percent in the past 24 hours. Cardano is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

The release will enable smart-contract functionality on the Cardano network and will allow ADA to add more applications such as DeFi platforms that will allow for automated trading and lending of cryptocurrency. This move addresses one of ADA’s biggest shortfalls and will put it in a better space to challenge Ethereum.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

Categories
Australia Crypto News Gaming NFTs

Axie Infinity Token Climbs 56% in a Week Joining the Top 50

NFT gaming appears set to continue its red-hot run. One of the frontrunners in the space, Axie Infinity, has seen its token, axie infinity (AXS), skyrocket over 50 percent in the last week.

Axie Infinity universe. Source: TechinAsia

Earlier this year, the price of the AXS tokens, also known as “shards”, reached a new all-time-high (ATH) of US$75.73. With the latest moves, however, and despite being 10 percent down from its ATH, AXS is currently the 34th largest crypto project by market capitalisation at just under US$4.15 billion.

Over the past three months, AXS has enjoyed a truly stellar performance, gaining 934.35 percent against the US dollar and 840.61 percent against bitcoin. Interestingly, these sharp recent moves have coincided with massive increases in Google search volumes, as well as Axie Infinity website traffic, both of which have also increased by 300+ percent over the same period.

Axie Infinity on the Lookout for Scams

With crypto fever in the air, the space is ripe for opportunists and bad actors to take advantage of inexperienced investors. Whether you are talking about the largest heist in DeFi history or the endless news of rug-pulls, it is perhaps not surprising to hear that a host of “Axie Infinity” scams have arisen. This has led the Axie Infinity team to caution investors and provide some much-needed guidance on asset security.

In addition, to help new users onboard, they have provided extra step-by-step information on how to get properly set up within the Axie Infinity ecosystem. This will hopefully assist users in avoiding issues such as downloading a fake Ronin wallet that drains users’ funds.

NFT Gaming – Want to Learn More?

Despite NFT gaming being in its infancy, there are clear signs it is catapulting towards mainstream adoption. To avoid making rookie mistakes, it’s worth doing your homework on how you can participate without getting your fingers burned.

To get started, Crypto News Australia partner Zipmex has provided a useful overview of what Axie Infinity is and how it works.

Categories
Blockchain Cardano Crypto News NFTs Ripple

ADA and XRP Surge 43.3% and 56.8% Respectively in Past 7 Days

Cardano (ADA) and Ripple (XRP) have made headlines recently for the immense growth they have shown. Coupled with a bull market, news from both has led to impressive surges in price.

Ripple is a technology that acts as a cryptocurrency and a digital network for financial transactions. Being one of the fastest and most scalable digital assets, the technology allows real-time global payments to take place from anywhere in the world.

The RippleNet payment platform acts as a real-time gross settlements (RTGS) system to enable global monetary transactions to occur instantly. XRP is the cryptocurrency native to the XRP Ledger.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading at A$1.74 and had grown 56.8 percent in the previous seven days.

Amid an ongoing battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple has made headlines as its price continues to surge.  

In the case brought forward by the SEC against Ripple Labs, the company has been asked to submit its Slack messaging history. According to the SEC, the slack messaging will yield critically important information to its case.

Ripple, however, remains steadfast in its defence, insisting that XRP is not a security.  

Ripple Supports NFT Innovation

Earlier this month, Ripple CTO David Schwartz explained why XRP Ledger will be ideally suited to assist in the future growth of NFTs. Although the biggest use case of NFTs is collectibles, he suggests this is “only scratching the surface”.

Schwartz sees a future where NFTs are the foundation of all digital rights management, one in which consumers can, for example, move away from services provided by Kindle and Apple to directly owning the rights to purchased movies or books.

According to Schwartz, XRP Ledger provides a unique combination of low costs, high speed and an efficient payments feature that can streamline NFT creation at scale. He makes specific reference to the ledger’s ability to consistently maintain transaction fees, thereby benefiting both buyer and seller.

Federated sidechains (blockchains that operate alongside other blockchains) may be available for XRP Ledger in coming months, which will open up the possibility of limitless transaction scalability and expanded DeFi capabilities.

GME Remittance Joins RippleNet

South Korean remittance company Global Money Express (GME Remittance) is the latest Korean financial institution and money transfer company to join RippleNet. Through RippleNet, Ripple’s global financial network, GME Remittance has connected to Thai Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand’s largest bank in terms of market capital.

The partnership was established through SBI Ripple Asia and will accelerate scale payments into Thailand for the 184,000 Thai nationals residing in South Korea.

Through partnerships such as this, GME Remittance aims to connect with existing RippleNet customers to expand into additional remittance corridors in the region and globally, including the US and Europe.

We chose Ripple as our partner because with RippleNet we can launch into new countries with new partners within one to two weeks. This has drastically reduced the time to market and provides us with an edge compared to our competitors.

Subash Chandra Poudel, director and COO, GME Remittance

Launch Date Set For Cardano Smart Contracts

Cardano (ADA) has been a frequent flyer in the crypto news sphere since announcing last week it would add smart contract capability to its network. CEO and founder Charles Hoskinson confirmed the Alonzo hard fork would launch on Monday, September 12, and the ADA price has since skyrocketed.

Dubbed the “Ethereum killer” but lacking smart contract capability, the upgrade will soon remove this major drawback. It is part of a multistage upgrade that will allow developers to deploy smart contracts on the Cardano network. This will allow Cardano to incorporate more applications such as DeFi platforms, which would allow for automated crypto lending and trading.

Cardano is a decentralised proof-of-stake blockchain platform that facilitates complex programmable transfers of value in a scalable and secure way. Its stated goal is to allow “changemakers, innovators, and visionaries to bring positive change to the world”.

At the time of writing, ADA was trading at A$2.93 and had grown 43.3 percent in the previous seven days.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Reddit

Reddit Now Worth $10 Billion Following Fund Raise to Push Ethereum Token Rewards

Reddit is making big plays in securing capital this year with another whopping round of funding driving up its value. The online community has announced a valuation of US$10 billion as it continues to expand its engagement in the crypto world.

Reddit has announced that it has raised US$410 million in a Series F round of funding led by Fidelity Management and Research LLC. Following this round, the valuation of Reddit goes up from US$6 billion, which it achieved six months ago, to an impressive US$10 billion. The company expects existing investors to take part in this round, bring the total amount raised to US$700 million.

Funding Not Planned

Steve Huffman, co-founder and chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview that the funding was not planned, but “Fidelity made us an offer that we could not refuse”. He went on to say that the capital will offer it more time to decide how and when it would go public.  

We want to build what is best for new users, because over time it will be best for everyone.

Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO

The discussion board platform said it intends to use the capital to improve product features and wants to make the platform easier for newcomers to explore and understand.

Reddit, which makes most of its money from selling advertising wishes to enhance video products. Advertisements appear in the feeds of users who browse the topic-based forums, known as “subreddits”.

The company, with 52 million daily users, operates in the shadows of digital giants such as Twitter and Facebook. Twitter, with a valuation of US$52 billion, and 206 million monetisable daily users, and Facebook with a value of US$1 trillion and two billion daily users, dwarf the site, making this round of funding crucial for Reddit.

The platform also intends to expand internationally as most of the site is US-centric.

Things are beginning to look up for Reddit. The company surpassed US$100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time in the second quarter of this year, up 192 percent from the same period in 2020.

Keeping Users Happy

Further enticing users on its platform, Reddit is expanding its Community Points crypto reward initiative. Reddit users will be rewarded with Community Points if they post quality content on the platform. The Ethereum-based token can then be used to unlock additional features on the site, or can be swapped for other cryptocurrencies on an exchange.

Community Points are currently offered on only two of the 100,000 subreddits. Moon tokens (RCP) are available on r/CryptoCurrency and Brick tokens are available on r/FortNiteBR. Moon tokens currently trade at US$0.28 and Brick tokens at US$0.05.

Reddit also recently announced it will be using layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum to scale Bricks and Moons. Arbitrum is just one of the many “rollups” currently being developed on Ethereum. The solution will take a large number of transactions first conducted on a different blockchain and will then roll them up into a single Ethereum block. This will reduce overall transaction fees massively.

The company has not yet announced when it will be expanding its Community Points into other subreddits.

The first priority on the product is just making Reddit awesome.

Steve Huffman

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News

Australian Farmers to Put 70 Million Sheep on the Blockchain

Australian Wool Innovation Ltd (AWI) has partnered up with the Everledger platform to share the story behind Australia’s world-famous merino wool industry.

Using blockchain technology, the industry aims to reveal the entire supply chain – from farm to fashion – that goes into the “miracle fibre”.

In the digital world, curious consumers are demanding to know more about the products they consume and where they come from, whether or not they are organic and what went into a product for it to end up in our shopping carts.

Concepts like provenance, transparency and sustainability are therefore concerns that need to be addressed. For instance, brands in the fashion industry have come under scrutiny from consumers who are becoming concerned about the sustainability and social and environmental impact of the garments they wear, and companies are needing to provide transparency regarding these issues.

Annually, merino wool contributes A$3.6 billion to the Australian economy and the country accounts for 90 percent of global supply. Merino sheep are renowned for producing some of the softest, finest and most beautiful wool known to the world.

Merino wool. Source: Everledger

Aside from its beauty, merino wool also creates a much lower ecological footprint compared to synthetic fibres. In order to thrive in the global market, the product needs to protect its reputation for quality and authenticity – enter blockchain.

Sharing the Story of Merino Wool

Getting merino wool into the hands of consumers follows a lengthy supply chain: tending, processing, manufacturing, retailing, buying, shipping, retailing again, and exchanging many hands along the way.

AWI is confident in Australian woolgrowers’ practices to abide by best practice production and wants to share this with the world. The organisation, responsible for protecting the livelihood of 22,000 woolgrowers and their 70 million sheep, aims to promote the traceability of global supply chains so consumers and stakeholders alike will understand the full value of their product.

Everledger is a digital transparency company that will use blockchain to help realise AWI’s provenance goals. Peter Hughes, Everledger’s regional head of Australia and New Zealand, explains the aim of the collaboration with AWI:

It is about being able to validate the journey of that material or product in a way that makes sense, both for a commercial customer, who is buying on a large scale, but also a brand that eventually receives that and wants to take that message through to a consumer.

Peter Hughes, Everledger

Everledger will build and host an Electronic Chain of Custody Tool (ECCT) on its platform that “will track and validate the exchange of ownership of selected wools as they move up the supply chain from farm to overseas processing and through to finished products”.

The ultimate goal is “to demonstrate sustainability and compliance best practices, and provide more confidence on the authenticity and provenance of the product”.

Other Industries Embracing Blockchain

The merino wool industry is not the only one to embrace blockchain. Crypto News Australia reported last week that Australia’s native Kakadu plum will be traced using blockchain technology to verify its provenance. Tracking the indigenous food will also aid in combating fraud.

The cotton industry in Israel has also adopted blockchain to trace cotton produced in that country. The Israeli Cotton Board recently partnered up with Australian blockchain authentication platform Security Matters to authenticate the origin of the cotton.

And in the US, DApp startup Eggschain is using blockchain to track sperm. The project will revolutionise the reproductive industry by building a blockchain solution to assist in the in vitro fertilisation process.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author