Category: Australia

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Brisbane Cryptocurrencies

Crypto Meets Coffee in Brisbane

Crypto is now part of your daily coffee run, via a café in inner suburban New Farm, Brisbane. This one-of-a-kind venture – Crypto Coffee – allows patrons to pay with funds from a crypto wallet, using a business model developed in partnership with cryptocurrency platform Swyftx.

https://content.cryptonews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/crypto-coffee.jpg
Crypto Coffee exterior and counter, with live currency screens.

Crypto Coffee uses crypto in all its transactions, removing banks from the equation entirely. Cryptocurrency platform Swyftx, based in the Queensland capital, helped bring the idea to life, removing currency conversion hurdles and helping to convert crypto newbies by offering A$20 worth of bitcoin to new Crypto Coffee customers.

How to Buy Your Coffee with Crypto

Simply sign up to Swyftx with the QR code in-store. Once customers have a wallet, staff will help them place their orders. Swyftx also provides Crypto Coffee with links to live currency price charts that are displayed alongside the menu board.

All meals on offer at the café follow the crypto theme, adding extra novelty to the experience. Options include Shiba toast, Doge BLT, and the BTC chipotle chicken toastie.

Crypto-themed menu items from Crypto Coffee. Source: deliveroo.com.au

Word of mouth has been Crypto Coffee’s best promotional tool, with LinkedIn also spreading the news to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), whose blockchain course further publicised the café. Crypto Coffee’s Instagram page garnered immense interest in the weeks prior to the café’s opening, further fuelling awareness of the venture.

Crypto Coffee is located at 572 Brunswick St, New Farm.

Crypto Moves into the Mainstream

Australia-wide, more and more industries are accepting crypto as a means of payment. These include online shopping, house renovations, solar installation and luxury properties. An example of the latter is a 2021 sale of a A$8 million Brisbane mega-mansion in a deal that allowed the use of crypto alongside standard payment methods for the purchase.

By Lauren Claxton, Crypto News Guest Author

Categories
Australia Crypto News Facebook Scams

Australian Consumer Watchdog Investigates Meta (Facebook) for Crypto Scam Ads

The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is investigating Facebook’s parent company Meta for allowing crypto scammers to advertise on the social network using fake articles or requesting crypto transfers.

Investment scams in Australia increased more than 53 percent in 2021, with Australians losing over A$70 million. Now the ACCC is probing Meta for allowing crypto scammers to advertise on Facebook, defrauding Aussies hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mining Magnate Sues Meta for Misrepresentation

This follows news last week, reported by Crypto News Australia, of Fortescue Metals chairman Andrew Forrest pursuing legal action against Meta for allowing crypto scammers to post fake articles using his image and name, along with those of other business identities and celebrities.

Forrest is accusing the social media giant of breaching Australia’s AML (anti-money laundering) laws and is also pursuing a related civil case in California.

Like Dr Forrest, we consider that Meta should be doing more to detect, prevent and remove false or misleading advertisements from the Facebook platform so that consumers are not misled and scammers are prevented from reaching potential victims. The ACCC will continue to consider whether Meta’s conduct raises concerns under Australian Consumer Law.

ACCC chair Rod Sims, The Australian

Forrest is not the only high-profile Australian whose identity has been co-opted to promote cryptocurrency scams. Others include actor Chris Hemsworth and TV commentators Waleed Aly and David Koch.

Fake Crypto News Australia Website

Notably, a fake Crypto News Australia website on Facebook is promoting “crypto bonuses”, requesting users to send ETH to a specific wallet to receive triple the amount sent. Keep in mind that Crypto News Australia will never ask for crypto or send crypto to readers.

Fake websites, fake wallets or exchanges, impersonation giveaways -there are so many types of cryptocurrency-related scams that it can be hard to keep track of them all. Make sure you stay safe and check out our guide on the Top 10 Bitcoin Scams to Avoid.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Australia’s Bitcoin Industry Body to Hold Historic Meeting With El Salvador

As the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, El Salvador has become the Bitcoin nation state poster child, inspiring others to consider following suit. Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB), for one, is looking to engage with El Salvador on its Bitcoin adoption journey in a meeting to be held this week:

Bitcoin Industry Body – a Voice for Australian Bitcoiners

At its foundation, newly launched ABIB seeks to provide a voice for the burgeoning local Bitcoin industry:

ABIB was established primarily for two reasons:

  1. to provide the local Bitcoin industry with a platform to engage directly with regulators such as AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre); and
  2. to provide a proper understanding of Bitcoin in response to misinformed perspectives in the media.

To get a better overall sense of ABIB’s role and purpose, see the video below in which one of its founding directors, Ethan Timor, provides a little more context:

ABIB Meets with El Salvador

On Wednesday, February 9, at 10am (AEDT), ABIB will hold a video conference with representatives from El Salvador, including its Ambassador to Australia, Werner Matías Romero, as well as its Director of Economic Relations, Eduardo Garcia.

In what is expected to be an exciting exchange of ideas, the topics expected to be discussed are Bitcoin adoption, learnings from the legal tender process, feedback from the citizenry, and how ABIB can collaborate with El Salvador going forward.

Crypto News Australia spoke with ABIB’s Ethan Timor in advance of the meeting, who added:

ABIB’s members and sponsors are thrilled to have the opportunity to meet with El Salvador’s representatives to discuss their historic Bitcoin legal tender adoption. One of our stated objectives is to advance Bitcoin adoption within Australia, and having an opportunity to meet with those at the forefront of Bitcoin innovation is invaluable to our mission. We are excited to learn about their experiences and how we can collaborate with them in the future.

Ethan Timor, ABIB director

For ABIB, the meeting with El Salvador is just the beginning. Local Bitcoiners will be also be pleased to hear that it has some lofty ambitions, including:

  • Bitcoin being classified and treated separately to all other cryptocurrencies;
  • Bitcoin being declared a foreign currency, as opposed to personal property;
  • enactment of the HODL Act, empowering government and the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet to protect against fiat debasement; and
  • financial literacy and education, particularly among young Australians.

While the El Salvador meeting is only available to members and sponsors, Australian Bitcoiners can follow developments, as well as other ABIB initiatives, on Twitter.

If you’re a Bitcoiner and keen to get involved, eligible individuals and companies are encouraged to join.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Gaming Immutable X NFTs

Australia’s Immutable X Partners with GameStop in $100 Million NFT Platform Deal 

One of the leading non-fungible token (NFT) scaling platforms, Australian blockchain startup Immutable X, has partnered with retail game giant GameStop to create its new NFT marketplace, as well as a US$100 million fund to support innovation in the NFT space and its creators.

GameStop will be using the Immutable X Layer 2 solution for its speed, zero gas fees, and 100 percent carbon neutral technology to move the company into the nascent NFT sector.

Pursuant to the February 2 announcement, the two companies will also be launching a US$100 million joint fund to empower game developers in the creation of their latest NFT projects. The fund will be used for grants to help creators of NFT content and technology. But individuals who want to build or are building an NFT game project can submit proposals here for a chance to be among the first to build on the new platform.

Gaming Industry Slowly Adopting NFTs

Co-founder of Immutable Robbie Ferguson stated that it wants to change the gaming landscape by “bringing the age of digital ownership to billions of players worldwide […] one that rewards players rather than extract value from them”. GameStop plans to be a catalyst for this by having its marketplace bring “billions of low-cost, in-game assets that can easily be bought and sold” to its 50 million+ users.

Some in the gaming space are of the opinion that the evolution of the industry will be toward players owning their in-game assets. Avid gamers will be able to monetise their time in-game and have more to show than just hundreds of hours and cosmetics that gather virtual dust. On the other side of the coin, many gamers are pushing back against integrating NFTs with games, seeing it as just another cash grab from corporates.

In correspondence with tech website VentureBeat, Ferguson stated that “the best thing to do is to create truly player-first gaming experiences that embrace the benefits, rather than the hype, of NFTs. Most importantly, the games have to be good – it’s play-and-earn, not play-to-earn.”

Immutable X has been busy carving out a name for itself in the gaming industry, having recently signed a deal with ESL Gaming to provide NFTs of its Counter-Strike global tour as well as raising US$60 million in its series B funding round.

NFTs Starting the Year With a Bang

NFTs have performed considerably better than cryptocurrencies this past month, with transaction volume gaining a steady increase.

Weekly NFT transaction count. Source: Dune Analytics

As more major names start joining the NFT space, it looks quite promising that NFTs will soon become part of gaming culture.

Categories
Australia Crime Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Facebook Social media

Australian Billionaire Launches Criminal Case Against Meta for Fake Crypto Ads

Australian mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has launched criminal proceedings against Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta conglomerate, alleging its Facebook social media arm breached Australia’s money laundering laws by failing to police false crypto advertisements.

Forrest, billionaire chairman of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals, has filed his criminal lawsuit against Meta in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, having already launched related civil proceedings in the US state of California last September.

In charges brought under the Australian Commonwealth Criminal Code, Forrest alleges Facebook has repeatedly failed to remove posts by scammers that used his image, among those of other celebrities, to promote crypto investments on the site since March 2019.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Metals. Source: cnn.com

According to Forrest’s complaint, the company’s failure to prevent or remove the ads constitutes “criminally reckless” behaviour. Forrest further alleges that Facebook “failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems being used to commit crime”.

‘World-First’ Criminal Action Against the Social Media Giant

In a statement, Forrest said he was launching the “world-first” action on behalf of “everyday Australians” to protect their savings from being “swindled away by scammers”.

“I’m concerned about innocent Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media,” Forrest said. “I’m committed to ensuring social media operators don’t allow their sites to be used by criminal syndicates.

Social media is part of our lives, but it’s in the public interest for more to be done to ensure fraud on social media platforms is eliminated or significantly reduced.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, Australian mining magnate

An initial hearing of Forrest’s complaint will take place on March 28, with the separate civil case pending in the Superior Court of California. A Meta spokesperson said the company was unable to comment on either court action, but provided a broader statement about scams on Facebook:

We don’t want ads seeking to scam people out of money or mislead people on Facebook – they violate our policies and are not good for our community. We take a multifaceted approach to stop these ads, working not just to detect and reject the ads themselves but also block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, take court action to enforce our policies. We’re committed to keeping these people off our platform.

Statement from Meta spokesperson

Meta Share Price Tanks, $200B Wiped Off Market Cap

It’s been a pretty ordinary start to the year for Meta, whose share price plunged 26 percent this week in what was the biggest single-day slide in market value for a US company. The drop erased over US$200 billion from Meta’s market capitalisation and around US$29 billion from CEO Zuckerberg’s net worth.

Yet Meta is not the only entity under fire for its advertising practices, with Spain, Singapore and the UK the latest jurisdictions to have made changes to their crypto advertising regulations. Last year, Google reviewed its crypto advertising policy after lifting its ban and adding specific requirements to which advertisers have to adhere.

Categories
Australia Blockchain CBDCs Crypto News Payments

Sovereign Aboriginal Yidindji Nation Launches Own CBDC

The Sovereign Yidindji Nation, an indigenous micronation located in the Australian rainforest region of far north Queensland, has created history in launching its own digital currency.

The micronation’s self-proclaimed financial technology minister, Murrumu of Walubara (see YouTube video, above), formed the Sovereign Yidindji Nation (SYN) in 2014 after renouncing his Australian citizenship. Now also the territory’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, renewable energy and communications and broadband, Murrumu this week announced the launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), making SYN the first indigenous nation on the Australian continent to become fully digitised.

Murrumu of Walubara. Source: sbs.com.au

Murrumu describes the so-called Sovereign Yidindji Dollar as a significant step in building the nation. “It was too expensive to mint coins and to print physical notes,” he explains. “It just didn’t make sense because it’s cheaper and better for the environment to go down the digital currency road.

We actually create the money in accord with our laws and that is then minted and verified on a digital platform, so we’re not just printing money out of thin air.

Murrumu of Walubara, Yidindji minister for financial technology, foreign affairs and trade, renewable energy and communications and broadband

Four Pillars of the Yidindji CBDC

The Yidindji CBDC has four distinctive features that differentiate it from others already established, such as the Sand Dollar in the Bahamas and Nigeria’s eNaira:

  • It is the first CBDC issued using the MetaMUI CBDC platform.
  • It has been issued exclusively in digital currency, without the need for paper bills.
  • It incorporates a payment system connected with MetaMUI’s service set identifier system, which can be used in all retail stores and government offices. Payments can be processed without using the dedicated network, there are no transaction fees, sales settlements are immediate, and cross-border payments can be made without using credit cards.
  • It is a convertible currency whose collateral assets are gold, silver, and other minerals and natural resources, such as green and blue carbon. Money issuance, backed by a digital certificate, is also backed with collateral assets.

MetaMUI combines the concept of a self-sovereign identity and a decentralised blockchain, thus safeguarding users’ privacy and avoiding centralised censorship and the abuse of private information.

Nation Already Using MetaMUI Identity System

The Sovereign Yidindji Government (SYG) has already built a national identity system using MetaMUI’s technology, meaning all Yidindji citizens, companies and organisations can create their own digital identities, own digital assets and make payments with the Yidindji Dollar.

The SYG has 17 ministers and 22 ministries, and plans to be the first government to become fully digitised. For the 40 SYN citizens with the digital identification app on their phones, using the new CBDC is simple. “Basically you can pay through a QR code,” Murrumu says.

The ultimate goal for Murrumu and the SYN is a treaty with the Australian Commonwealth. When that happens, Murrumu says, it will “enable our money to cross borders into the Australian system and vice versa”.

In September last year, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) joined Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa in launching a CBDC pilot for international settlements. At the time, the RBA announced it was looking to hire experts for its “CBDC research team” and expected the results of the pilot to be published “in early 2022”.

Categories
Australia Crypto News NFTs

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Set to Release ‘Censored’ NFT Collection

Pak (formerly known as Murat Pak), a digital artist who rose to fame with NFT (non-fungible token) artwork The Merge, is collaborating with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to launch Censored, Assange’s first NFT project.

Another Push to Free Assange

During a Discord discussion, Pak said that Censored is a push to fight for Assange’s freedom: “For me it’s about freedom, and this time my medium is a case.”

Censored drops on February 7, and will include a dynamic limited-edition and a dynamic open edition, in which anyone can participate. While there aren’t many details disclosed as yet, the NFT will incorporate an image that will change over time based on smart contract data.

FreeAssangeDAO Follows in the Wake of FreeRossDAO

FreeAssangeDAO is an decentralised autonomous organisation that was formed to help Assange with his legal fight. The organisation follows the precedent set by FreeRossDAO, which raised money for the release of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht from prison.

While the Censored NFT collection and the FreeAssangeDAO seem to have no connection, the organisation does plan to bid on the NFT.

Assange, an Australian editor and activist, is known as the co-founder of WikiLeaks, a non-profit organisation that publishes news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous users.

Supporters of Julian Assange cheer outside the Old Bailey in London after a judge ruled he could not be extradited to the US.

WikiLeaks has a large database containing classified information about war, espionage and corruption, mostly gleaned from US government sources. Assange has been confined in Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in London, since 2019. He may yet be extradited to the US to face numerous charges, such as hacking and espionage.

Categories
Australia Crypto News NFTs Sports

Nick Kyrgios Celebrates Australian Open Win With ‘King Collection’ NFT Launch

It was only ever a matter of time before flamboyant and controversial Australian tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios exploited the burgeoning non-fungible token (NFT) market, and his first Grand Slam title has afforded him the ideal opportunity with the launch of his “King Collection” series.

Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios. Source: Canberra Times

With boyhood friend and makeshift doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kyrgios (above, right) won the Australian Open men’s doubles championship last weekend, the pair sharing a lucrative A$675,000 purse for their trouble.

When $337,500 is Only the Beginning

But for a man of Kyrgios’s prodigious proclivities, that was never going to be enough. For added value, five Kyrgios “reaction moments” from the tournament will be released as NFTs in a limited run of 22 priced at US$399 apiece. The first of each of the five series will be an ‘Ultra Rare Gold’ moment, to be auctioned off over the next five days.

King Collection poster. Source: King Collection

Those five series (with descriptions, one suspects, supplied by Kyrgios himself, though the exclamation points are ours) are:

  • Bring The Heat: He sets the court aflame whenever he steps out! He is King Kyrgios!
  • Fly Higher: First Australia, then the world! Nick doesn’t care for limits!
  • Let’s Dance: This is no last dance for Kyrgios! This is only the beginning!
  • LFG: He says it how it is! But we won’t repeat it here! (OK, we will then: “Let’s f..king go!”)
  • Tongue Time: Sometimes the celebration takes over! Control on the court is key, but once you win it’s OK to let loose!

A ‘Hyper Rare Diamond’ NFT celebrating the actual moment Kyrgios and Kokkinakis claimed their doubles title will also be auctioned off as part of the drop at a starting price of (gulp) US$9,999.

Key moment from the ‘Hyper Rare Diamond’ NFT. Source: King Collection

But Wait! There’s More!

If that were not enough, a further drop of 2022 NFTs celebrating the year of Kyrgios’s maiden Grand Slam title will be priced at US$20.22 each. At least most of his fans may find these affordable.

I’m all about the fans and the fan experience so this feels like another great way to connect. NFTs are the future of collectibles and I always want to be on the cutting edge and to advance our sport.

Nick Kyrgios, tennis professional, NFT entrepreneur

The Nick Kyrgios NFT collection (officially and more regally dubbed the King Collection – as in “Nick is here to leave a mark, and to usher in the next gen of sports stars”) – is available to purchase here.

However well Kyrgios does with his NFT drop, it will no doubt run a distant second to the Australian Open (AO) Art Ball NFT metaverse project that has generated US$4.4 million (A$6m) in trading volume since early January in the lead-up to the tournament proper, which concluded last weekend.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Ethereum Gas NFTs

Australian Open Metaverse Winning Shot ‘AO Art Ball’ NFT Soars 4,000%

The singles champions at this year’s Australian Open (AO), Ash Barty and Rafael Nadal, pocketed a cool A$2.875 million each for two weeks’ work – but they weren’t the only big winners of the tennis world’s first Grand Slam of the season, completed last weekend.

Fans attending matches in the metaverse had the chance to buy an AO Art Ball non-fungible token (NFT) linked to a specific spot on centre court that marked the winning shot of both the men’s and women’s championships, along with all other finals matches in the tournament.

At no point did we anticipate we’d sell out the public drop in three minutes. As a result, we’ve set the bar extremely high for what NFTs can become in the future.

Ridley Palmer, metaverse and NFT project manager, Tennis Australia

The NFTs were released via a public drop where users could pay to mint an AO Art Ball from the 6,776 available. Fans could therefore literally buy a piece of the action via an NFT that gave them “property” rights to a 19cm x 19cm square of Melbourne Park’s Rod Laver Arena. They stood to win big should the last bounce of the ball fall into their square on the deciding point in any final.

Nadal’s NFT Surges 4000%

The price of bids for the NFT marking where men’s champion Rafael Nadal’s winning shot landed surged more than 4,000 percent during the tournament final, while the AO Art Ball NFTs generally have recorded US$4.4 million (A$6m) in trading volume since early January, according to OpenSea data.

Mens Final – Nadal’s winning shot

Nadal’s AO Art Ball NFT, meanwhile, has yet to change hands – meaning its expected value has escalated from around US$700 (A$981) to US$8,438 (A$11,836) in ether. The latest offer is worth 3.2 ETH, almost 4,168 percent above the floor price.

Barty’s NFT More Than Triples in Value

The day before, on January 29, Ash Barty became the first Australian to win a home Grand Slam in 44 years in taking the women’s title.

Two days later, offers on the AO Art Ball for Barty’s victory shot were coming in at least 1,230 percent above the floor price. That’s more than three times the original price paid, according to OpenSea and Etherscan data. The original minter sold the piece for 0.298 ETH, then worth about US$780 (A$1,107). But the value placed on it by bidders has reached as high as 1.3 ETH, or US$3,632 (A$5,094).

Womens Final – Barty’s winning shot

Keep in mind, though, that high gas fees for transactions on the Ethereum network are additional to the price of minting an NFT.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Oxen Privacy

Australian Homegrown Messaging App ‘Session’ Surpasses 1 Million Downloads

Session, an Australian born decentralised messaging platform running on the Oxen privacy network, hit a milestone at the beginning of this year by crossing 1 million downloads on the Google Play Store.

500% Growth Throughout 2021

Session is an end-to-end encrypted messaging application that runs on Oxen, a privacy-focused ecosystem supported by the $OXEN coin. Session runs on Oxen’s 1,700-plus community-driven nodes to store and route messages. Unlike P2P messaging apps, however, Session users can chat with each other when they are offline.

In 2021 Session witnessed 500 percent growth, and this year’s early milestone is a clear signal that users are more drawn than ever to privacy-focused, decentralised applications.

A million downloads is a huge milestone for us, we’ve been working towards this for a couple of years, and we’re expecting even bigger growth this year. Session is proof that people want to use decentralised applications — you just have to build good ones.

Kee Jefferys, Oxen CTO

Data Privacy and Anonymity

Session messages are onion-routed, a technique where messages are wrapped under layers of encryption, preventing traffic analysis eavesdropping (theft of information).

Unlike other messaging platforms, which compile meaningful information about the user, every encrypted message is routed through three nodes in the Oxen Service Node Network, making it virtually impossible for the nodes to compile sensitive data from the user.

Comparison of sensitive data from several messaging applications.

When users sign up to Session, their devices generate a Session ID, which is the sole contact information on the app – you don’t need your phone number or any other type of personal information to generate a Session ID.

Because of the design of the Session protocol, users can have extreme confidence that whenever they send a message that only the person they send it to will be able to know the message contents, who they messaged, and when they sent the message.

Session whitepaper

The Session app also has some really cool features such as the ability to unsend messages which deletes the message completely from both the sender and recipient devices.

Get started with Session: