Author: Phil Stafford

Phil is a long-standing Australian journalist with specialised experience in business, finance, travel and popular culture.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Regulation

Australian Consumer Watchdog Reports Uptick of Crypto Investment Scams

Crypto has officially overtaken conventional bank transfers when it comes to investment scams, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Losses to investment scams increased by 90 percent to A$103 million in less than three months this year up to March 20, with the ACCC confirming payments to scammers are most often made in crypto.

No Regulation, No Control

According to Rami Greiss, the ACCC’s executive general manager for consumer and fair trading, “Because [crypto] is an unregulated product, there are no controls. There are no institutions that can be roped in to assist.”

Greiss was also quick to point out that only 12 percent of scams are reported, and thus figures could not be taken as absolute gospel. Citing the ACCC’s current lawsuit against Meta for allegedly publishing scam advertisements featuring prominent Australian public figures without their permission, Greiss said people were falling for scams through multiple channels.

People might meet someone through a dating or friendship site and then be drawn into a crypto scam that way. So it’s really multi-channel; I don’t think there’s one particular area [where] they can target you; it’s across the board.

Rami Greiss, executive general manager for consumer and fair trading, ACCC

Investment Scams Double Year on Year

According to a 2021 report by the ACCC, 4,763 Australians lost more than A$70 million in the first half of last year with more than half of that figure attributed to crypto investment scams. That represented a 53.4 percent increase on the 3,104 scams reported in the first half of 2020.

The Australian government recently announced that it would create a crypto badge of approval to license intermediaries such as exchanges.

Digital Economy Minister Jane Hume said that the licence would include a “fit and proper person” test and could include anti-hawking measures to prevent cold calling.

Categories
Crypto News NFTs Secret Social media

Director Kevin Smith Slammed on Twitter After Announcing First-Ever NFT Minted Film

Filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy) and his co-producers have partnered with blockchain platform Secret Network to launch Smith’s latest project, a horror anthology titled KillRoy Was Here, exclusively as an NFT.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith. Source: JoBlo.com

This represents the first time a movie will be minted as a non-fungible token, though the news has been roundly greeted with derision from sections of the Twittersphere displaying obvious signs of NFT fatigue.

Is This the Real Kevin Smith?

“Unless I am wrong, NFTs are still bad and wrong and useless and a scam, and literally bad for the environment,” tweeted @SiggyRod. “Is this Kevin Smith posting or a representative from a contract he was unaware of?” Others were far less polite:

Other, more succinct reactions included: “gross”, “no”, “please stop”, “this is the bad place”, “insanely disappointing”, “bad look, Kev” and the almost poignant “this makes me sad”.

A rare voice of reason amid the tumult – albeit suspiciously seeming to be aligned with the project – belonged to @TorBair, who tweeted:

On Twitter, we can expect animosity towards NFTs. If this is you – PLEASE look into this more deeply. Secret NFTs are NOT the same as any NFTs that have come before. We’re trying to establish a real connection for artists with audiences.

@TorBair via Twitter

Privacy Preserved on Secret Network

Secret Network, the first blockchain with data privacy by default for smart contracts, allows users to build and use applications that are both permissionless and privacy-preserving. This unique functionality protects users, secures applications, and unlocks hundreds of never-before-possible use cases for Web3.

Last year, Secret launched NFTs from another indie filmmaker who first made his name in the ’90s: Quentin Tarantino, whose Pulp Fiction collection spawned controversy and lawsuits.

However, Smith’s Secret NFTs won’t be based on dusty old film artifacts. Instead, the project will mint 5,555 NFT collectibles, each serving as an exclusive pass to watch the film and access bonus features. Secret NFTs are configured with hidden information that can only be viewed by each respective NFT owner.

The NFT launch will take place in Q2 on Secret’s Legendao platform. For further information, visit: legendao.io/artist/kevin-smith.

Categories
Crypto News Investing Surveys

Australian Financial Advisers Face Client Pressure to Include Crypto in Portfolios

Almost nine in 10 Australian financial advisers have been asked by clients about investing in cryptocurrencies but only a third are willing to allow them to do so, according to a new survey.

ETF fund manager BetaShares surveyed 252 financial advisers last month and found that 89.2 percent of respondents had been directly approached by clients about digital assets in the previous 12 months. Yet 70 percent of advisers said they would be “fairly or extremely unlikely” to recommend investing in cryptocurrencies within the next year.

This compares with another survey commissioned in March 2021 in which 26 percent of financial advisers said they would recommend clients invest in cryptocurrencies over the following year.

‘Caution Tempers Awareness’: BetaShares CEO

BetaShares’ chief executive Alex Vynokur said the latest survey showed a “strong awareness” of digital assets seemingly at odds with an “underlying sense of caution” on the part of financial advisers.

BetaShares CEO Alex Vynokur. Source: the australian.com.au

More than 60 percent of advisers surveyed believed clients were investing in crypto regardless of their advice. The Betashares survey follows findings published by crypto exchange Gemini earlier this week revealing that 43 percent of Australians first invested in digital assets in 2021 – clearly a big year for crypto adoption.

It appears not all financial advisers received the memo.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi NFTs Tokens

NFT Music Token OPUL Surges 175% Amid DeFi Staking Announcement

Opulous, a relatively new blockchain-based music platform built for creators and investors, has seen the price of its token, OPUL, rally 175 percent after the project announced DeFi staking, CEX listings and S-NFT sales.

The biggest driver of interest in OPUL over recent weeks was the 45-minute sellout performance of its latest S-NFT (a non-fungible token sold as a security) for the song Patek Myself, by British rapper Ard Adz:

Opulous has foreshadowed a “major announcement” in the coming week that entails an S-NFT sale for an entire music album:

New Staking Pools with AlgoFi

In other Opulous-related news, Algorand-based automated market maker Pact has established two liquidity pools for OPUL to be paired with ALGO and USD Coin (USDC). It has announced a joint campaign with the Algorand Foundation set to distribute 1 million ALGO tokens to supported pools between April 8 and June 2. Opulous has also revealed that new staking pools will join the Algorand DeFi hub, AlgoFi, from April 5:

The ‘Biggest Thing Since Streaming’

Pretty good going, in all, for a platform that is little more than a year old. Launched in February 2021, Opulous provides a unique model for music artists to calculate future earnings and accept loans based on that forecast, while retaining 100 percent of their music’s copyright.

With its NFTs, Opulous makes it possible for artists to break down ownership of their music into tokenised shares and offer them directly to fans. This means fans can invest in the artists they love and financially benefit themselves through earnings made from sales.

The Opulous model provides a monetary incentive for fans to promote the artists they have invested in. The more successful the artist, the more money the fan makes, through royalties paid out monthly. It has rightly been described as “the biggest thing since streaming”.

Categories
Crypto News Crypto Wallets Hackers Trezor

Trezor Suffers Newsletter Phishing Attack via MailChimp Exploit

Crypto hardware wallet company Trezor has confirmed that some of its users were the target of a phishing attack over the weekend. Trezor tweeted that it was investigating “a potential data breach of an opt-in newsletter hosted on MailChimp” and warned users to avoid opening emails from “[email protected]”.

“We will not be communicating by newsletter until the situation is resolved,” Trezor advised in a later post. “Do not open any emails appearing to come from Trezor until further notice. Please ensure you are using anonymous email addresses for bitcoin-related activity.”

Fake Security Breach Used as Bait

Trezor users shared warnings and screenshots of the phishing attempt from April 2, some noting it was a bare-faced ruse to induce users to download malicious code under the guise of Trezor’s Suite desktop app by alleging a fake security breach at the company:

A Trezor Good News Story

In a rare good news story associated with a similar incident in January, a hacker using the handle ‘Kingpin’ was able to bail out a user who’d forgotten the PIN to his Trezor One hardware wallet.

Kingpin later posted a video demonstrating how he managed to retrieve the user’s PIN:

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News

TAFE QLD Creates First Accredited Blockchain Technology Course

In early March, Australian state Senator Andrew Bragg urged the Australian blockchain industry to pick up the pace or risk falling behind other developed nations. Almost exactly a month later, TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Queensland has answered the call by announcing the world’s first accredited course in blockchain technology.

Applications in Arts, Banking and Business

The new course, which will equip graduates with a Diploma of Applied Blockchain, will enable real-world applications in the arts, banking and business sectors.

According to its TAFE overview, the course is designed for experienced professionals with basic experience in business planning, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies wanting to formalise or further their skills in this area.

Recent workforce data from LinkedIn identified blockchain as the most in-demand hard skill of 2020, with qualified professionals in the field in high demand.

Among other specifics, the TAFE course will cover how to:

  • develop a blockchain business model implementation plan;
  • apply big data and blockchain technologies to the Internet of Things (IoT);
  • develop a team business model that aligns team operations with a blockchain business model;
  • identify and apply big data to enable marketing strategies within a blockchain ecosystem; and
  • develop, monitor and maintain a governance policy within a blockchain network.

Successful completion of the course will allow graduates to seek work in a range of management or operational roles applying blockchain technologies within new and existing organisations.

How to Apply

To apply and learn more about study options for the TAFE Queensland Diploma of Applied Blockchain, visit TAFE’s website.

According to Austin Lewinsmith, co-founder of Blockchain Collective, a partner of TAFE Queensland, “Blockchain technology will underpin the development of the Web 3.0 revolution because it provides highly effective, efficient and secure ways of managing data.’’

As also reported by Crypto News Australia this week, the Australian Web3 ecosystem is growing exponentially. The availability of this new course, therefore, could not have come at a better time.

Categories
Banking Coinbase Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ethereum Gas MetaMask Payments Stablecoins

MetaMask iOS Update Allows Users to Buy Crypto Using a Credit Card

MetaMask now allows iPhone and Apple Pay users to buy crypto using a debit or credit card through its mobile application, eliminating the need to transfer Ethereum from a centralised exchange such as Coinbase into the app.

And in response to popular demand, MetaMask has also introduced the Apple Dark Mode feature, which will automatically open in the app as long as a user’s iPhone operating system has dark mode enabled.

Daily Deposit Limit of 400 USD

Users can now deploy their Visas and Mastercards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit a daily maximum of US$400 into their wallets, thanks to the Wyre API (MetaMask uses two payment gateways, Wyre and Transak, to support debit card and credit card transactions).

Gas fees are also said to be lower, and some transactions may even be gasless if done on a private blockchain or if a project pays for the gas on the user’s behalf. (When completing an ETH purchase, MetaMask discloses that it does not profit from gas fees.)

Buy Stablecoins and Make Bank Transfers in 60+ Currencies

Via Transak, users have been able to buy stablecoins such as USDT, USDC and DAI on the Ethereum mainnet in MetaMask for some time now, but the latest update also allows them to make bank transfers and use credit/debit cards to buy crypto using more than 60 global currencies.

Exact payment methods and fees vary depending on the location. Earlier this month, OpenSea and Metamask blocked users from countries including Iran and Venezuela after both platforms cited compliance issues. It was later confirmed that Ethereum’s Infura cut off users to separatist areas in Ukraine, accidentally blocking Venezuelan users as well.

Just this week, the EU Parliament announced its intention to extend checks to cover privately managed unhosted wallets, including MetaMask, despite fears that such rules could prove unenforceable.

Categories
Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs Payments

Visa Launches Program to Invest in NFT Creators

Payments giant Visa has launched the Visa Creator Program, a one-year product strategy and mentorship course for entrepreneurs from the art, music, fashion and film worlds who seek to augment their work with non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The program had its beginnings in October 2021 when Visa announced former major league baseballer Micah Johnson as its first official creator. Johnson’s art has since sold for a total value of almost US$21 million. His best-known piece is Aku, a young black astronaut who digitally “travels” to the International Space Station.

Roughly 50 million artists, musicians, fashion designers and filmmakers already publish content as a source of income, with the global creator economy worth an estimated US$100 billion. Visa’s inaugural class of content creators are already engaging with NFTs, and prospective candidates who intend to join them must apply and be selected.

Program Also Offers Web3 Engagement

The Visa Creator Program offers participants opportunities to engage with Visa’s network of clients and partners, as well as providing access to “thought leaders” in the Web3 space.

Visa’s immersion in the NFT space began last August when it bought a CryptoPunk for almost US$150,000. At the time, the company’s head of crypto Cuy Sheffield said that Visa wanted to “signal [its] support” for people involved in the NFT market.

Six months later, you could say it’s a case of mission accomplished.

Categories
Crypto News Crypto Wallets Privacy

EU Set to Vote on Prohibiting Transactions to Unhosted Wallets

The global crypto community is up in arms over proposed new European Union rules that would sanction the invasion of personal privacy and treat new technologies less fairly than cash or traditional bank transfers.

The EU Parliament seeks to extend checks to cover privately managed unhosted wallets that store crypto, despite fears that such rules could prove unenforceable:

Examples of an unhosted, or non-custodial, wallet include MetaMask, WalletConnect, or hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor. 

“Money going to unhosted wallets may end up in the wrong place, for example with terrorist groups,” according to Paul Tang, one of the members of the European Parliament on the Economic Affairs Committee that will vote on the matter later this week.

Data Collection an Impossible Task

Tang, a Dutch socialist, tweeted earlier this week that wallet owners would need to be identified in the same manner as bank customers are. The draft regulation would require crypto service providers not only to collect personal data related to transfers made to and from unhosted wallets (as they are already obliged to do) but also to “verify the accuracy of information with respect to the originator or beneficiary behind the unhosted wallet”. Such verification would prove problematic, if not impossible, say those service providers.

‘Travel Rule’ Another Data Harvesting Scheme in Disguise

The likes of Coinbase are already objecting to the EU’s so-called travel rule, which proposes to extend anti-money-laundering identity checks to payments made in digital currencies, even if they fall under an existing threshold of 1,000 euros (US$1,098).

“The travel rule … is really a massive and indiscriminate personal data collection and transfer scheme,” said Mikołaj Barczentewicz, associate professor at the University of Surrey in the UK and Fellow of Stanford Law School (US).

Proponents of the new rules, Barczentewicz added, are “saying that it is necessary for all crypto service providers to report sensitive data of their clients, even when there is not even the slightest suspicion of a criminal connection”.

Even if the 1,000 euro threshold were maintained, he said, such a privacy restriction would “very likely not be as effective as less rights-restricting alternatives” because those with nefarious aims could simply circumvent them.

What we seem to be dealing with here is an attempt to do ‘something about crypto and crime’ without a serious, evidence-based reflection on how best to do it.

Mikołaj Barczentewicz, associate professor, University of Surrey (UK), and Fellow of Stanford Law School (US)

In more encouraging news earlier this month, the EU Parliament voted against a proof-of-work ban, allowing BTC holders at least to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Categories
Crypto News Crypto Staking Crypto.com DeFi Stablecoins

Crypto.com Slashes Interest Rates Suddenly on Crypto Staking Services

In what is a worrying precedent for investors across the board, leading exchange Crypto.com has again slashed the rate of returns it offers on token deposits.

Announced on March 26, the cut – the platform’s second this month – reduces flexible returns offered by Crypto.com on popular tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to 0.5 percent from between 1.5 – 2 percent. Returns on larger amounts, particularly stablecoins, have effectively been halved to 4 percent.

The promotional face of Crypto.com, actor Matt Damon.

Crypto.com said the new rates would apply immediately, and that pre-existing deposits will not be affected. In an announcement earlier this month, the platform said its planned rate cuts would come into effect from April 4. This latest interest cut also makes returns offered by Crypto.com lower than those on other major platforms, including Celsius and BlockFi.

Backlash Swift and Considered

Users took to social media to protest the cut, especially as it came without warning. Reddit user u/wyzard135 summed up the overall reactive mood of investors with the following post:

“The backlash [Crypto.com] is facing is well-deserved. Even though its rate cut in this market condition […] is understandable, some transparency and communication [would] go a long way.

“However, can’t help but notice this is exactly what banks do; the past couple of years their interest rates have been plummeting and there’s practically no communication to customers about it. Customers will only see their interest paying continuously shrink, and will have to manually look up interest rates, only to see [them] keep falling.

It pains me to see Crypto.com stooping to this behaviour and I fear not only crypto.com but other crypto exchanges will start behaving like banks, which ironically crypto is trying to replace, once they get big enough with unchecked power.

Reddit user u/wyzard135

Stablecoin Staking Reduced from 12% to 8% on Three-Month Term

The move has also spilled over into the DeFi space, with returns on stablecoin deposits falling to around 12 percent across most platforms, after initially being as high as 20 percent. Some platforms are only offering 8 percent on a three-month term.

Crypto News Australia has published a list of the 10 best crypto staking websites to earn daily returns. At the top of the list is Zipmex Australia, and a guide to investing on the platform can be accessed here.

Second on the list is Swyftx, Australia’s top-rated exchange, which offers staking rewards for top market cap coins including Solana, Cardano and Polkadot. In total, 12 assets are available for staking through the platform with zero fees.

Last week, ANZ became the first Australian bank to mint the Australian dollar stablecoin A$DC.