Category: Australia

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Australia Blockchain Cardano

Australian Investment Bank Notes Central Banks Close To Losing The Crypto Race

Aussie investment bank Macquarie recently stated in a research note that the slow and cautious approach to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) could end up costing central banks in the long run.

Potential Foothold By Cryptocurrencies May Soon Become Insurmountable

Although the European Central Bank, (ECB), the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and China are all in various stages of researching and even testing CBDCs, Macquarie fears that by the time any of these institutions actually get around to launching a CBDC, the market share in eCommerce occupied by well-known private cryptocurrencies may prove an insurmountable obstacle for central banks.

“The central bank digital currency landscape in free markets is lagging the pace of crypto adoption – it is still unclear how entrenched private cryptos will become before CBDCs become a viable alternative for more efficient transactions. We think the use cases for private crypto could come to fruition if commerce becomes too accustomed to private crypto use prior to a CBDC alternative launching as a stable, legitimate alternative. And fiat debasing could also in fact help demand stick.”

Indeed, cryptocurrencies geared towards electronic commerce – such as Cardano (ADA) are only getting stronger, despite the uncertainty of the market in recent times. Not only that, but even many retailers and even small-time shops worldwide now accept BTC and ETH as payment, along with regular old cash.

However, the report also stated that with the right amount of expediency in development, government-backed cryptocurrencies could eventually overtake private cryptocurrencies. The report goes on to say that this could help prevent speculation – although whether buying certain cryptocurrencies known to pump randomly counts as speculation is a matter up for debate.

Whatever the outcome of the CBDC debate will be, it’s worth watching what the Federal Reserve will do – since US economic institutions still wield a significant amount of power in the crypto space, as recently seen with Ripple.

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Australia Blockchain Industries

GoChain Partnerships Increasing Following Success of Australian Experiment

A new pilot project involving GoChain with Pronatura Noroeste is going well – and helping ensure consumers that they are buying from a truly eco-friendly company.

Another company – Enviva – also stated in December that they specifically chose GoChain due to their ecologically friendly stance.

True Blue Lobsters

Back in May, GoChain started being used by Two Hands to ascertain the fact that lobsters shipped to China from Australia really were Australian.

The interest for Australian quality on the Chinese market is nothing new – and previously blockchain has been discussed (and used) in the Aussie food and drink industry, notably for wine, beef and cereals.

With GoChain, Two Hands gave each lobster a tamperproof smart tag that allowed the guests at the wedding reception that the lobsters were served up for to ascertain the quality of their special meal.

According to Henry Ines – the CEO of GoChain – his company is doing all they can to help make the world a better place, whether by sustaining the environment or just reassuring consumers worldwide.

“2020 was an incredibly challenging year with the resiliency of businesses and supply chains tested. As the pandemic continues into the new year, businesses are responding to this new reality with technology-driven solutions. GoChain is proud to support these leading enterprises with blockchain-based applications that enable real-time traceability and auditability of supply chains. We anticipate the demand for such solutions will continue to rise as businesses respond to evolving consumer preferences and regulations globally.”

The tracing-oriented blockchain company is also partners with leading academic institutions such as Penn State – and together, the pair look to further the impact of quality and cruelty-free product on the global market.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic will hopefully be coming to an end soon, GoChain and yet another partner – Gentag – are proposing a blockchain-based NFC and optical scanning system for COVID tests to ensure their accuracy – and the coming return to normal.

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Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

Institutions Can’t Stop The Bulls: Bitcoin Bounces Back, And it Could Go Even Higher

Good news for Bitcoiners, as the father of all cryptos recently bounced back, reaching US$40,000, and currently traded at US$39,400. But Bitcoin could reach an even higher price if the demand increases, with a curbed purchasing power.

Could Exchanges Limit Bitcoin Buying?

The volatility of the cryptomarket has put heavy buying pressure on exchanges. So much, that the Israeli-based exchange eToro had to warn its users about “possible limitations” on Bitcoin buying orders.

After abruptly closing crypto positions on Wednesday due to “Extreme market volatility”, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday:

It’s our effort to give clients advance notice that there may be restrictions. We obviously hope we will not have to implement any of these but the crypto markets are incredibly volatile at the moment and the weekends present the greatest challenges

The warning has pumped fear and anxiety in several retailers, who argue this could only boost the price, and the famous Fear Of Missing Out —FOMO— could kick in among investors.

BTC/USD chart.

Millions of positions worldwide were wiped out in just a week when BTC caught retailers off guard with a -20% price dump.

Not surprisingly, now that BTC has recovered at least 10 % in price, traditional institutions are now desperate to regulate cryptocurrencies, quoting “money laundering scam”.

On Wednesday, Cristine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank stated:

Bitcoin is a highly speculative asset which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.

But tables are turning, as bulls ignore institutions and politicians trying to hold back cryptos and lowering them to mere schemes.

The statements from Lagarde had the opposite effect as well, as the bull run came exactly after her declarations.

Despite the recent price drop, Australians haven’t lost hope in cryptocurrencies as well. There’s a greater daily inflow of Aussies in exchanges looking to trade cryptos and invest in BTC using SMSFs.

Not only the possible limitations on buying calls could spark the price even higher, but traders are also worried about liquidation following institutional hoarding on cryptocurrencies.

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Australia Crypto News TimeX Exchange

Australian Shping Coin now Supported for Trading on TimeX Exchange

Binance Australia to List Polkadot, Cardano, and PancakeSwap

One of the leading Australian cryptocurrency exchange, TimeX, announced on Wednesday it has added support for users to trade the native digital currency of Shping, a Melbourne-based innovative shopper marketing and brand protection platform.

This is perhaps, a milestone for the company and its millions of users, as more exchange listing would make the cryptocurrency more accessible, and also create room for adoption. 

Shping Coin now Listed on TimeX

According to the update from TimeX, the cryptocurrency is available for trading on the platform with two crypto-to-crypto trading pairs. These include SHPING/.ETHEREUM and SHPING/ AUDT. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency was trading at the price of US$0.00003193 on Coinmarketcap. The Shping coin still has a low trading volume and market capitalization of $47,357 from a circulating supply of 1,483,041,697 coins.

This cryptocurrency was launched in the market in 2018 through the process of initial coin offering or ICO. According to the information provided by ICO Bench, the company behind the cryptocurrency bagged more than US$6.6 million from the offering.

When Coinmarketcap began tracking the Shping coin on October 11, 2018, it was trading at US$0.000313, which is lesser than the ICO price at US$0.0100. Meanwhile, the coin later reached an all-time high of US$0.0009726 on Coinmarketcap on May 12, 2019.

After reaching that peak, the crypto has been sliding, as seen in the chart below. 

Shping Coin Use Case

Shping runs a reward program for its users, which is powered using the cryptocurrency. With over 20 million supported products, the company basically allows customers to learn more about any product they wish to buy. By doing so, as well as performing other activities, they are rewarded with the Shping cryptocurrency, which can be converted to cash on exchanges.

Aside from TimeX exchange, the digital currency is also supported by exchanges like Coinbinhood, IDEX, and Livecoin.

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Australia Crime Crypto News Illegal

“E-bay For Criminals”: Australian Man Arrested For Running Illegal Marketplace With Cryptos

German authorities recently arrested an Australian man who ran an illegal marketplace, called “The E-bay for criminals”. Apparently, the man received payments via cryptocurrencies with transactions worth 4650 Bitcoins and 12,000 Monero — the current equivalent value of $212,832,280 Australian Dollars.

The 34-year-old, identified only as Julien K, was trying to cross the Danish-German border when the Police arrived and arrested him. The Dark Market was so large and popular in the darknet that The Australian Federal Police —together with the Scotland Yard, the Europol, German authorities, and the FBI— had to join forces to reach Julian’s whereabouts.

Dark Market Landpage

The Dark Market Ran Silk Road-style

Julian ran Dark Market similarly to Silk Road, the most famous digital black market that hosted illegal products and activities founded by Ross William Ulrich. But Silk Road still has its underground users: two months ago, the U.S. Justice Department seized $1 billion in moved Silk Road crypto.

Like Silk Road, Dark Market used Bitcoin and other cryptos as a payment method.

The Dark Market also used the Tor network for its illegal activities with cryptocurrencies.

There was a similar case in Australia, where New South Wales authorities arrested a woman behind a “Bitcoin scheme”. Police arrested the 59-year old in a shopping centre in Burwood, accused of belonging to a syndicate that profited off by illegally exchanging BTC for money. The case was called “The first kind in Australia”.

Dark Market was operating since 2014, but according to the German police, the joint investigation sparked in 2019 when they found a data processing platform that hosted illegal markets. Organized criminals ran the data center in an abandoned 5,000 square meters NATO bunker.

Likewise, authorities in the German city Koblenz seized around 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine, shutting them down on Monday.

According to dark.fail, The platform was run on “Eckmar” a PHP script that kept shipping addresses encrypted:

Julian refused to speak to any investigator for now. Prosecutors are now analyzing the platform to discover all its users and proceed to a greater investigation.

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Australia

Australians Remain Positive About Investing On The Cryptomarket Despite The Recent Price Drop

Despite the recent bearish run in the crypto-market, Aussies remain positive about investing in cryptocurrencies, especially in Bitcoin, with greater inflows of investors in crypto exchanges daily.

CEO of Bitcoin Markets, Caroline Bowler, stated that in the first weeks of January, BTC Markets registered an increased inflow of Australians looking to trade the cryptomarket on her platform. The recent price drop has given an entry for retailers who probably missed out on the all-time high of $40K or are looking to enter the market again by buying the dip.

“It’s just been unrelenting. We are now onboarding thousands of Australians a day who are looking to trade cryptocurrency. In the second half of last year we onboarded 40% more customers than we did the previous half, and in just the first six days of this year, we brought in 16% of last year’s total.”

Stated Bowler for Business Insider Australia.

Aussie Businesses Among The Most Crypto-friendly

Similarly, the number of businesses in Australia embracing crypto grew considerably by the end of 2020, with an increase of 94% globally. According to Stex Exchange, Australia is currently the third country with the most crypto-friendly businesses, with more than 700 places accepting crypto payments.

Currently, Bitcoin is back on the US$35,000 resistance level, after suffering a price drop of almost -12% starting this week, from $US42k to 30k. Several Aussie analysts believe 2021 could set the bar higher for the crypto-market, with greater adoption of cryptocurrencies globally.

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Australia Crypto News Payments

Australian Wristwatch Brand, Jacopo Dondi now Accepts Crypto Payments

Australian Wristwatch Brand, Jacopo Dondi now Accepts Crypto Payments

It’s no longer news that cryptocurrency adoption in Australia is increasing significantly, especially since the past year. Many investors in the country have allocated a reasonable percentage of their portfolio in one or more popular cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), etc. 

Additionally, Crypto News Australia recently reported that the crypto and blockchain industry in Australia had a massive growth in the number of new companies over the past year. Perhaps, it’s quite easy to forecast that Australia is likely to see more adoption this year, as local companies are also starting to integrate support for digital currency payments.

This will allow crypto users in Australia to purchase items with digital currencies in addition to fiat currency. 

Aussie Watchmaker Embraces Cryptocurrency

Jacopo Dondi, a young watch brand based in Australia, has integrated a payment function that will enable customers in the country and beyond, to order wristwatches using cryptocurrencies. According to the information on Monday, the company is open to accepting payments with Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin at the moment. Thus, customers can purchase items online using these cryptos or other traditional payment mediums.

The founders of the company noted in the report that they have been investing in cryptocurrencies recently; hence the idea to start accepting them was an easy and logical step for their business.

“We understand that many people still find the volatility of cryptocurrencies a huge risk, and they certainly can be in the short term, but there is a growing number of people that have realized that this is where the world is likely heading anyway and that over a longer period of time, they’re not as risky as they appear.”

The Aussie wristwatch brand was launched through a crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, in 2016. Following the development today, Jacopo Dondi is probably the latest company in the country to accept payments in digital currency. As cryptocurrency continues to go mainstream and price rallying, more companies in Australia are likely to follow suit.

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Australia Bitcoin

The Challenges of Crypto Adoption in Australia

Cryptocurrencies are taking a broader space in the media, with Bitcoin hitting new all-time highs —reaching levels of AU$52,000— and the cryptomarket now worth more than $1 trillion. With so much movement in the crypto space, BTC and Binance Australia recently landed in several Australian newspapers.

The adoption of crypto by the Aussie public grew considerably in 2020. On Wednesday, The Australian published an article by the market analyst David Rogers, addressing the issues Self Managed Super Funds face with crypto investments.

In the news piece, Rogers, together with analysts from the SMFS funds, stated that the problems of setting crypto with SMSFs do not rely on legislation but their usefulness. Two issues for SMFS auditors are Proof of Ownership and Proof of Value.

The auditor will need to be able to see something that verifies that your cryptocurrency holdings exist and have the value that you have placed on them and you haven’t just transferred the money to someone who says they’re selling you cryptocurrencies. It is these two problems, proof of ownership and proof of value that often cause problems with unusual assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Stated Meg Heffron, Heffron’s managing director.

The Growing Adoption Interest In Australia

Jeff Yew, CEO of Binance Australia, shared his thoughts with Cryptonews Australia about the future of cryptocurrencies for the country this year. Yew believes there will be an even broader adoption for digital assets this year by retailers and institutional investors:

I believe that this year, we will continue to see increased institutional adoption of Bitcoin as a reserve asset, which is likely to cause a supply squeeze of Bitcoin traded on the market, whilst its demand continues to rise. In Binance Australia, we have seen our SMSF and corporate user base growing 400% compared to the previous quarter.

But there still is a lack of education between the Aussie public when it comes to managing SMFS for cryptocurrencies, which why Yew plans to expand the reach of the Binance Masterclass this 2021 to facilitate the process. On the differences between this and the bull run of 2017, Yew added:

What has been significantly different this year to 2017 is that we’ve seen a massive increase in institutional interest in the asset class, more mature regulations, as well as safer and more convenient fiat on & off ramp bridges into digital currencies, offered by regulated exchanges like Binance Australia.

Aussie analysts like Mark Rodda agree that this year could bring exciting moments for the crypto market. By the end of 2020, Australia registered a record number of new crypto fintech companies with a 153 % growth. A positive sign of the expanding popularity of digital assets in the country.

I personally see Bitcoin as the money of the people, it’s money backed by maths instead of politics and bureaucracy, so it bears no biases to the millions of people using it. Some choose to use it as an alternative savings account, some see it as part of a well hedged asset portfolio, some use it as a currency. It acts as a check and balance to incautious fiscal planning by central banks, as people now have a choice to protect their wealth against inflation.

Stated Jeff Yew for Cryptonews Australia.
Categories
Australia Blockchain DeFi

Blockchain Australia Solutions Partners Up With Algorand

Almost 3 months ago, Ralph Kalsi – an Australian blockchain enthusiast and investor became one of Algorand’s brand ambassadors.

Since then, his company Blockchain Australia Solutions has also become an official member of Algorand’s global partner program.

Only Regional Partner

For now, Blockchain Australia Solutions (BAS) is the only official partner of Algorand in the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) region. BAS was brought into the partnership by Ralph Kalsi himself and Nadeem Shaikh (CTO) and Mohammed Naquib (CIO).

The Algorand blockchain — and it’s cryptocurrency, named Algo —  ensures true decentralization by using a Byzantine Agreement Protocol – also known in this case as a Pure-Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The Algorand blockchain is also immune to forking.

Byzantine fault-tolerant protocols are algorithms that are immune to arbitrary types of failures in distributed algorithms. Due to the omnipresence of the Internet, there has been a need to develop decentralized algorithms that are immune to malfunctions.

Algo provides immediate blockchain transaction assurance by using high-speed block finalization. This quality alone makes Algorand highly useful to any business that was  — up until now — heavily dependent on the chain of intermediaries that support and secure transactions to a wide array of customers and employees.  

Algo’s ultra-rapid transaction delivery makes it scalable to billions of users, making it a potentially valuable tool in the banking industry. Expect to see the use of Algorand’s blockchain used by banks both decentralized and traditional within the following years. No matter how many Algo users there will be, the transaction speed will never fall below 4.5 seconds.

Blockchain Australia Solutions brings to the table a strong focus on research into blockchain technology and its applications — such as quality assurance, eco-friendly housing, and much more.

BAS is also a partner of Fintech Australia — which may provide the Algorand Foundation with plenty of networking power in Australia and New Zealand.

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Australia Crypto News Europe Payments

Native Support For AUD Coming Soon To Neobank Strike

A Chicago-based neobank startup capitalizing on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Zap Inc. has launched native support for EUR, GBP, and CHF on their banking and wallet service Strike – and announced that native support for AUD and CAD will be coming soon.

Smaller Fees For International Currency Exchange

As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is starting to show it’s age, technologically speaking – which is why the Lightning Network was proposed as a solution to the number 1 cryptocurrencies’ scalability issues. It  is a “layer 2” payment protocol that operates through a peer-to-peer system in order to make micropayments of cryptocurrency using a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds.

The neobank intends to take advantage of this in order to eliminate the often arbitrary exchange rates used to send money through banks – or fast payment processors like PayPal. Although countries that are part of the SEPA network can often perform banking transactions almost instantly, long delays are part and parcel for many dealing with international transfers.

Jack Mallers – the Chicago-based founder of Zap – stated that the goal of his company remains in line with the original vision of Bitcoin, namely to allow large numbers of people to access the financial system quickly and cheaply.

“This will allow billions of people around the world to access the financial system in a simple low-cost way, fulfilling the original vision and promise of Bitcoin. [..] We can move any physical value anywhere in the world for no variable cost. Transaction finality from one point to another for free.”

Zap are not the first company using blockchain for quicker and easier money transfers. MoneyGram uses Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity (ODL) solutions for some money transfers, although they have denied using it for direct transfer of consumer funds, digital or not.

However, the current predicament Ripple Labs find themselves in may give other blockchain-powered payment methods some time in the spotlight – and it may be Zap’s time to shine.