Category: Australia

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Australia Binance Charity

Binance Charity launches Tree Tokens to plant 100,000 trees to restore wildlife habitats in Australia

Binance Charity Australia Tree Token Koala
Binance Charity Australia Tree Token Koala

Binance Charity, Binance Australia, and the Koala Clancy Foundation have, on Earth Day, launched a new cryptocurrency, Tree Token, in an effort to help restore the wildlife habitats impacted by the 2019 Australian Bushfires. The collaborative blockchain project aims to raise $1 million AUD worth of Tree Tokens to plant 100,000 trees in Australia.

The 2019 bushfires are being recorded as one of the worst fire seasons on record, incinerating 27 million acres of Australia and impacting almost 3 billion animals.

Koala mother with joey [Koala Clancy Foundation]

In the first phase of the joint philanthropic project, Binance Charity will commit $400,000 AUD worth of Tree Tokens, a cryptocurrency issued on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), for the specific use of supporting the environmental restoration of the disaster’s aftermath.

The Tree Token is pegged 1:1 to the Australian dollar (AUD). The initial funds will go to the Koala Clancy Foundation to plant 40,000 new trees in the You Yangs and Gippsland regions in Victoria.

The remaining $600,000 AUD will be donated in later phases of the project. The Tree Token is not for purchase to the public. Tree Tokens will enable Binance Charity to monitor and evaluate tree planting activities on the blockchain, allow donors to track the impact of their contributions and bring ownership to the philanthropic project.

Koala snoozing [Koala Clancy Foundation]

Head of Binance Charity, Helen Hai, said the pilot technology trialled with the Koala Clancy Foundation can have benefits across multiple functions in the philanthropy sector.

By issuing Tree Tokens, the process is made fully transparent to donors. This initiative’s model can be replicated and applied to revolutionise archaic practices in a variety of charity projects – helping to report progress and bring ownership to all parties.

Helen Hai, Head of Binance Charity

President of Koala Clancy Foundation, Janine Duffy, said “Cryptocurrencies seemed like they are for investments. We did not realise that they can be used for philanthropic sectors. With the Tree Tokens, we wish to give data on the restoration of koala habitat in regional Victoria to our donors transparently. Also, Koala Clancy Foundation is honoured to adopt this new technology to the system.”

A spokesperson from Binance Australia said: “The devastation of the recent bushfires will be felt for many years to come, so we’re proud to support the partnership with Koala Clancy Foundation to help restore wildlife habitats. This is an important step forward to demonstrate the exciting and impactful opportunities leveraging blockchain technology can have for the environment.”

With the rapid acceptance and growth of cryptocurrency in Australia, Binance Australia and Binance Charity stand together at the forefront of the industry showcasing how blockchain’s infrastructure can boost trust and transparency within the charity sector.

A spokesperson from Binance Australia
Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

All Australians Can Now Get Wages Paid In Bitcoin

Australian fintech company Living Room Of Satoshi released a service allowing its users to automatically set aside a portion of their salary as Bitcoin savings.

In order to use the service, the customer must switch the bank account where their salary is received to the one provided by Living Room Of Satoshi. The company will then automatically deduct the indicated amount from the user’s wage, converting it to Bitcoin and placing it in their wallet. The remainder will be sent to the bank account indicated by the user.

Set Up Savings in BTC

Living Room Of Satoshi is not a new player in this space. The company has been involved in cryptos since 2014. Their focus seems to be on allowing anyone to pay their bills, expenses and credits directly with cryptocurrencies, without having to convert them to cash first.

According to Daniel Alexiuc – chief executive of Living Room Of Satoshi – the company was founded when he spotted the opportunity to build a service addressing those who would like to hold cryptocurrencies, but don’t want to spend time managing a balance in cryptos. Instead, the process works more like a “route to savings account” option, similar to what is often offered by many banks.

Bitcoin has seen its price rise astronomically in the last 6 months, which has triggered an unprecedented buy-in from institutional investors. We wanted to provide an option for regular folks in Australia to also join this burgeoning ecosystem — and the simplest and most pain-free way is to have a small percentage of your wage converted and sent to you when you get paid.

Daniel Alexiuc, CEO of Living Room Of Satoshi

The name of the company came from the idea that at the end of the day, Satoshi Nakamoto might be sitting down in his living room paying his bills using the vast amounts he mined shortly after inventing Bitcoin.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News

EFTPOS Australia Plans To Use Blockchain For Micropayments, Autonomous Vehicles, and Digital Identity

During the Australian Blockchain Week conference, Australia’s leading point-of-sale technology provider EFTPOS announced that they plan to use blockchain-powered technologies to run autonomous vehicles and power smart cities with Hedera Hashgraph.

Ben Tabell, EFTPOS chief investment officer, stated that the partnership formed with Hedera will allow them to put in a shared effort to bring a combination of digital identity and payment solutions to Australia.

We’re going to be looking at smart cities. […] We’re going to be looking at autonomous vehicles and things that we haven’t even thought about yet. All of this needs new infrastructure, and EFTPOS needs to be informed by that.

Robert Allen, deputy chair of Blockchain Australia
Hedera Token Service launches with a fully supportive ecosystem of over 60 initial partners including leading exchanges, custody and wallet providers, members of the Hedera Governing Council, and applications that will issue tokens using HTS

This is a big part of our work and effort at the moment to bring in digital identity and transactions so that we can securely support payments and other transaction clubs in the Australian digital ecosystem.

Ben Tabell, chief investment officer at EFTPOS

Hedera Implementing Blockchain Use Cases in Australia

Hedera Hashgraph had previously also made local headlines in Australia in July 2020, when EFTPOS announced that they would be using Hedera technology to build a proof-of concept for an Australian stablecoin. The pilot focused on micropayments, such as real-time payments for streaming and pay-per-click content.

In January 2021, EFTPOS became Hedera’s 17th governing council member and Australia’s first Hedera node operator. Hedera has also been expanding its governing council recently, with Shinhan Bank joining earlier this month, French utility giant Électricité de France onboarding in March, and Standard Bank Group becoming the network’s first African node operator in February.

Hedera is the only next-generation network that will support those kinds of use cases. So, we wanted to test it, and it has operated beautifully. […] Now, because we’ve got all this digital strategy, we are in a position where we can start looking at ways that problems can be solved in a way which is maybe non-traditional and more distributed.

Ben Tabell, chief investment officer at EFTPOS
Categories
Australia Bitcoin Investing

Crypto Piggy Bank Launches To Help Kids Save Bitcoin

Strive, a UK-based company focused on teaching young kids the basic tenets of finance, has built crypto piggy banks that allow crypto-savvy parents to give kids a time-honoured way of helping kids learn about the value of cryptocurrency.

The piggy banks connect directly to any external wallet to display the BTC balance. This is designed to help parents introduce their children to cryptocurrencies in an innovative way.

Penny the piggy bank – source

While a child may not care much about hash rates and mining difficulties, they may very well care about the increasing sum displayed on the gadget’s digital display counter. It can display in USD, EURO and AUD and 30 other currencies. Other versions may be available as shown on the original Kickstarter.

The Future Of Money

According to Andrew Birt – the co-founder and CEO of Strive – the gadget priced at $149 USD aims to fill the niche left open by the skyrocketing adoption of cryptocurrencies. While there are a myriad of children’s books breaking down the advantages of delayed gratification, cryptocurrency has jumped onto the scene recently enough that even the majority of adults are still confused about it.

“Without a doubt, the crypto market is here to stay. With $2T now stored in crypto across 68M crypto wallets around the globe, there’s still a surprisingly visible lack of resources to teach kids about digital currency. This is why we’ve built Penny the Pig – to give everyone a simple, safe and responsible way to explore the space of cryptocurrencies and learn about the future of money.”

Andrew Birt gives his son pocket money in Bitcoin himself – and says his son used to ask him constantly to check the price of Bitcoin on his phone. Now, he no longer has to.

Example of a kid receiving payment for making her bed – source

Penny the pig and the kids can:

  • Pay allowances (set as regular payments or one-off payments)
  • Set goals to help kids learn how to save
  • Make chores fun with set tasks and rewards
  • Send the kids encouraging video messages
  • Get others to add to the bank for birthday presents

With a bit of luck, the next generation of children will be better prepared – and if Australia is any indicator, the signs are promising.

If you want to buy a piggy bank there is an initial limit of 1000 units so you’ll need to be quick. They also accept BTC or ETH as payment. Currently only Coinbase wallets are supported with more to follow.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies Payments

Zip Considering Implementation Of “Buy Crypto Now, Pay Later” Offer

Zip is an Australia-based company offering customers the ability to buy a product or service at full-price on the spot, without paying the full price right away – instead, Zip pays the full price, and the end customer pays Zip the rest later on.

Companies offering these services are not new, with counterparts like Swedish firm Klarna and others providing the same service in Europe – but they may very well be the first to offer this service for cryptocurrencies, instead of clothing and the like.

Youth Targeted For “Buy now, pay later”

The company stated that they are looking at the possibility of expanding their offers to cryptocurrency as a way to liaise with their predominantly young customer base.

If the plan comes to fruition, the service would probably first be offered in the United States via QuadPay, the US branch of Zip. QuadPay seems to be bringing in a significant percentage of Zip’s revenue – more precisely, “674,000 customers in Zip’s fiscal third quarter for a total of 3.8 million customers”, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We’re very keen [to] move on this feature and the U.S., in particular, might be further advanced than Australia. It’s probably going to be slightly different for each of the products and services we roll out.”

According to Peter Gray – the co-founder of Zip, Co – the offer would most likely first be tested on the US market due to a more advanced interest in trading. Traditional stock trading was also briefly touched upon – although Zip is allegedly less keen on offering more traditional banking services like stock trading, compared to crypto trading.

Dangerous Game

The ability to buy stocks or crypto even if slightly out of pocket might be a dangerous game for inexperienced traders who might take on too much risk than they are comfortable with. With the current instability of crypto markets, this could pay off – but it could easily go wrong if the market turns, leaving people with more debt.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Australian Companies Are Starting to Accept Bitcoin as Payment

Australian Companies Are Starting to Accept Bitcoin as Payment

The adoption of Bitcoin payment options in Australia is growing, as more companies now accepting BTC as a payment option for their services.

Cryptocurrencies have seen significant price increases over the past year or so, and while lots of Aussies are seeing their holdings soar in value, companies might see this as opportunity to get more business if they accept cryptos as payment for their services.

Aussie Companies Now Accepting Crypto Payments

Australian companies from lots of different industries are getting in on the crypto payments, you can now order a custom PC built, buy your dog food, design a custom home, pay for your NBN, get a solar powered system, and pay for everything using Bitcoin!

Here are some of the recent companies now accepting crypto payments:

It’s not just BTC you can pay with, other popular digital currencies are being accepted – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and Ripple being the most used.

We see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as being here to stay. by providing the ability for people to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment, it shows we are prepared for the future and at the forefront of technology change

Louis Gonzalez, the director at Broadwater Builds. 

Cryptos Are Going Mainstream in Australia

Crypto adoption in Australia has been surging in recent months, as seen with the local crypto exchanges, including Binance Australia, who saw record growth in Q1 2021. And Swyftx, a local Australian based exchange also seeing massive growth as Australians flock to buy cryptocurrencies.

Digital currencies have seen massive attention since the coronavirus outbreak, which led more companies to accept cryptocurrencies for payment. If you’re a business looking to accept cryptocurrencies you can take a look at our guide How to Accept Bitcoin Payments for a Business in Australia for more information.

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Australia Coinbase Institutions

Westpac Bank Set To Make $300 Million from Coinbase Public Listing

As reported by the SMH, Australian Westpac bank’s venture capital fund Reinventure is set to make an estimated $300 million AUD profit from a Coinbase investment they made back in 2015.

Pictured above Reinventure’s Simon Cant, Danny Gilligan and Rohen Sood – source

The Sydney based company Reinventure, was seeded by Westpac with an additional $50 million in late 2014, with the purpose of investing in start-ups. In a statement with Financial Review earlier this year, Reinventure Group co-founder Danny Gilligan mentioned rumours that the fund had increased by nine times.

“We can’t comment on the secondary trading as it’s under NDA [non-disclosure agreement],” Mr Gilligan said. “But if those rumoured prices are true, then Fund 1 is currently nine times the original fund.”

Danny Gilligan – Reinventure Group co-founder

If the rumours are true this would made the fund worth $450 million today, one of the best-performing funds in the history of Australian venture capital?

The 10 start-ups backed by the Reinventure fund included:

  • SocietyOne – Peer-to-peer lending platform
  • Coinbase – Cryptocurrency exchange
  • Nabo – Social media platform (sold)
  • Zetaris – Big data (sold)
  • Hey You – Australian dining out app
  • Auror – Crime software
  • Data Republic – Data safety
  • Flare – HR cloud platform
  • Valiant – Business loans

Coinbase Goes Public

On April 15th, Coinbase (COIN) was listed on the New York Stock Market (Nasdaq). The exchange is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with an estimated 56 million users worldwide.

The exchange recently reported massive quarterly profits for Q1 2021 with a net income of $800 million USD, which led to a suggested massive $100 billion evaluation.

“With Coinbase, the appeal was it was like selling picks and shovels at a gold rush, rather than taking a view on bitcoin. And Coinbase seemed to have a very robust business for providing the tools for people who wanted to use bitcoin. That seemed like a fairly sensible and relatively low-risk bet”

Former Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer

DeFi is the “cutting edge” of Finance

Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is hot right now, with a growing number of start-ups entering the space. We have seen DeFi traders making millions, Mark Cuban calling DeFi the start of personal banking and a lot of DeFi funds get hacked since it the new internet technology emerged in mid 2020.

“DeFi is re-engineering the fundamentals of finance from the ground up,” Mr Cant said. “It still has a way to go before it starts to be used in a scaled way for real financial applications, but in the meantime, problems around scaling are being worked through and we are particularly bullish on the potential for decentralised finance infrastructure, data and the continued thematic of finance at the edge”.

Simon Cant – Reinventure Group co-founder

Fintech seems popular with VC’s right now as we saw earlier this year Australian DeFi company Synthetix raise $12 million, and just recently Australian Mark Carnegie setting up a DeFi crypto fund.

Will we see more Australian investors seed capital into the DeFi technology start-ups this year?

Categories
Australia Crypto News Scams

Two Australians Lose $130,000 To Tesla Scam While Buying The Electric Car Online

Two Australians have lost $130,000 AUD in total while trying to buy the Tesla 3 model by falling for a fake invoice scam. This scam involves changing the bank details of the supplier’s email while leaving the original design of the invoice intact – fooling the user into thinking it’s a real invoice.

Once of the victims, Andrea Hammond, told ABC News how she lost $74,647 AUD by sending the money to the bank account on the invoice received in an email from the company, instead of making her final payment through Tesla’s official site.

Hammond was not the only Australian that felt for this trick. Another Aussie, who preferred to go by the name of “Ron” was also scammed when he tried to buy a Tesla 3 model in late 2019. Ron managed to recover $17,800 AUD which had not yet moved out of the hacker’s bank account, but the rest of the money was lost.

Hackers Changed The Bank Details on the Invoice

It seems the hackers managed to intercept the email from Telsa and change the bank details on the invoice attached. This scam method has become prevalent with hackers as they do not need to change the original email design, leaving everything else looking exactly the same, including the design, address, logo, order information – but only changing the payment details.

Tesla Need To Improve Their Services in Australia

Ron said that while he wanted to check the legitimacy of the bank account, there was no phone number available to contact Tesla.

Both victims have stated that Tesla should verify its payment method and offer better alternatives. A month ago, the company announced the support for bitcoin payments, but it is only available in the US.

“The issue I have with Tesla, in my opinion, is that they have failed in their duty of care to their customers by using what is clearly, and certainly one can see this in hindsight, an insecure way and a risky way of requesting payment for the vehicles,”

— Ron said

Tesla said it would expand its support for Bitcoin payments in other continents. The company has not responded to the complaints about this outdated payment method.

The company is the biggest seller of electric cars in Australia. Aussies customers could benefit from paying with bitcoin so hopefully this option will become available soon.

Categories
Australia Crypto News E-commerce Gaming

Buy A Custom Computer With Bitcoin Through Dream PC Australia

Dream PC Australia, a premier custom computer builder in South Australia and one of the largest PC exporters for Australia has now started accepting crypto as payment for their PCs.

How to Order your PC and Pay in Crypto

Go to Build a Custom PC, selected the items that you want to buy, it’s as simple as going to checkout, selecting the cryptocurrencies payment method, and then you’ll be redirected to a page where you can select either BTC, ETH, or USDC. You can then either scan the QR code or pay it to their address, then you’re done!

An Increase in Australian Companies Accepting Crypto

Dream PC Australia is one of many other businesses in Australia that are now accepting crypto payments for their services, such as Broadwater Builds, Launtel an Internet Service Provider, Queensland Solar and Lighting, and others.

Companies are opting for this payment method because they allow for easy and secure payments, this also opens the gates to people who might only want to play with crypto. With Bitcoin reaching new all-time highs, Aussies are coming into contact with crypto more than ever and business owners want to keep the digital asset due to the increasing price and speculative media coverage.

There are also some associated risks with keeping Bitcoin that need to be taken into account by companies like the volatility of the market, new tax regulations that need to be complied with, and secure storage of the digital asset.

Categories
Australia Crypto News

Australian Mark Carnegie’s New Crypto Fund Targets 30% Annual Returns for Large Investors

Mark Carnegie
Mark Carnegie

Australian venture capital investor Mark Carnegie has partnered with entrepreneur Sergei Sergienko to launch MHC Digital Finance, a digital assets fund that combines DeFi and Crypto-trading to generate 30% annual returns for large investors.

As reported by the Australian Financial Review, Carnegie believes that DeFi and Crypto-assets have the potential to bring a better, decentralised financial system.

The platform is now live, and it offers institutional clients custody, OTC markets, and fund management, with a minimum investment of $50,000.

Crypto as a hedge Against Inflation

Talking about the declining use of fiat and the consequences of money printing, Carnegie said investors should allocate 1 or 2% of their total net worth into cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation.

The money printing is a risk and you’ve got to think what you’re going to do to protect yourself against it,” he said. “Now, with Australia the general solution is buy a house. The problem about that is you forgo a tonne of liquidity if that’s your only solution.

Mark Carnegie [AFR]

Carnegie lamented not seeing the potential of DeFi and cryptocurrencies at first when Ethereum and Bitcoin were barely taking place in investor’s portfolio.

He now believes the ecosystem has grown successfully through time and can bring a new opportunity for large institutions and individual investors. “All the success in DeFi is going to pull bitcoin higher with it”, he claimed.

Combining Traditional Market With DeFi

The fund combines the traditional aspect of the market while also combining some popular DeFi strategies like staking, where users lock their funds to receive rewards.

We use automatic market makers and the discrepancies in returns in stable coins to produce a greater return for the fund. Effectively, we’re providing liquidity to automatic market makers on DeFi market protocols and receive commission from the trades executed on those protocols. We do it on different blockchains, thereby also taking advantage of different pricing for commission on different blockchains.

Sergei Sergienko

The fund already saw participation from several private investors. It will invest 45-75% of its assets into high-market cap cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and the rest into stablecoins.