Category: Blockchain

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Social media

Twitter Launches Crypto Team to Explore DApps

Twitter is building an expert cryptocurrency team focused on bringing crypto, blockchain, and decentralised technology into the social media platform.

Twitter Crypto and DeFi

Twitter has hired Tess Rinearson, dubbed Twitter Crypto, to lead the team in its plans to bring crypto, blockchain, and DApps to the platform for a wide variety of uses not necessarily related to the financial aspect.

Rinearson took to Twitter to explain what Twitter Crypto will bring to the table. The team hopes to enhance the BTC tipping platform and the proof of identity service for NFTs. Both features were announced a month ago after Jack Dorsey highlighted that Twitter could see significant growth with the integration of crypto.

Moreover, the team will seek how it can support DApps development amid growing interest from creators. Twitter Crypto hopefully will allow them to manage virtual goods and digital assets, and support other projects and communities.

Supporting Crypto Communities

Building communities and allowing them to share information has been an important aspect for Twitter, from crypto HODLers to NFT enthusiasts.

As Crypto News Australia reported last month, Twitter has been testing blockchain technology to verify NFT profile pictures.

Looking farther ahead, we’ll be exploring how ideas from crypto communities can help us push the boundaries of what’s possible with identity, community, ownership and more.

Tess Rinearson, aka Twitter Crypto

Rinearson has a solid background in the area of blockchain and consensus development, including engineering the Tendermint Core. She has also worked with the Interchain Foundation, Cosmos, and Chain.com. 

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Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Beeple’s Programmable Artwork Sells for $29 Million

The American digital artist known as Beeple is making headlines again with his latest installation artwork, Human One, paired with an NFT, selling at auction house Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale for almost US$29 million.

Human One, by Michael Winkelmann, aka Beeple.

Human One is a 3D mobile sculpture of a person in a spacesuit moving through different landscapes. In what is the first physical piece of art from Beeple (aka Michael Winkelmann), the life-sized astronaut-like figure is contained inside a translucent box, which the artist describes as “the first portrait of a human born in the metaverse”. 

The accompanying digital piece is the NFT containing the deed of ownership, minted on the Ethereum blockchain.

Beeple Holds Dual Record

Beeple now holds the record for both the most expensive and the second-most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) artworks ever sold.

In March, Beeple sold his ‘Everydays: The first 5000 days’ digital art collection for a mammoth US$60.25 million, setting a new NFT benchmark.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Gaming NFTs

Warner Bros Releases Matrix NFTs with ‘Red or Blue Pill’ Options

Ahead of the first Matrix reboot in 18 years, Warner Brothers is set to release a range of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for just US$50 each from November 30.

In conjunction with social NFT platform Nifty’s, Warners will launch 100,000 avatars themed around The Matrix Resurrections, the fifth instalment of the blockbuster film franchise and the first since 2003’s twin release of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Resolutions, set to open in Australian cinemas on January 1.

The series centres on a cyberpunk story of humanity’s technological fall, with the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) heralding a race of self-aware machines that imprison mankind in a virtual reality system – the Matrix – to be farmed as a power source. Some of the prisoners break free from the system and, considered a threat, are pursued by the AI both inside and outside of it.

Your Choice: Red Pill or Blue Pill?

A central theme of The Matrix is the dilemma of choice versus control, symbolised by the red pill and the blue pill: you can learn a life-changing truth by taking the former or remain in a state of blissful ignorance by taking the latter.

Similarly, buyers of the Matrix NFTs have a choice: choose the blue pill, and their avatar’s character remains in the Matrix; choose the red pill, and their avatar transforms into a resistance fighter.

If you think about all the ways fans of content can interact with their favourite characters and stories in 2021 – via retail stores, theme parks, social media, collectibles, or online shops – digital art and collectibles are certainly on that list now. NFTs are another touchpoint for fans to engage.

Pam Lifford, president, Warner Bros consumer products
Scene from The Matrix Resurrections, opening in Australia on January 1. Source: techbriefly.com

Warner Bros are far from the only filmmakers exploring the potential of NFTs for creative and commercial purposes. New 2021 feature films Lockdown and Zero Contact were both released as NFTs, while 2015 martial arts movie Kung Fury director David Sandberg has launched a line of NFT characters that may feature in his upcoming movies. And just last week, Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino announced the release of a line of NFTs based on his celebrated 1994 film.

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Australia Banking Blockchain Crypto News

ANZ Banking Chief on Crypto: ‘There is a Weight of Money You Can’t Ignore’

Between 2009 and early 2020, crypto and traditional finance operated in parallel universes. Then in March 2020, everything changed. Crypto and macro became inseparable and among crypto proponents, it seemed obvious that traditional institutions such as banks would eventually capitulate. ANZ is the latest to see that crypto is here to stay.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Mahatma Gandhi

Traditional Finance Getting Onboard With Crypto

Earlier this week, as reported by Crypto News Australia, Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will become the first to offer crypto trading to its customers, natively through its app. CBA plans to offer its 11 million customers access to 10 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Uniswap, Polygon, Filecoin, Aave and Compound. Other tokens and coins may be added in the future.

Shortly after CBA’s news, a local fintech and financial services webinar event organised by Blockchain Australia, called State of Play, sought to make sense of the current regulatory landscape and innovation in the sector:

ANZ Recognises CBA’s Move as ‘Bold’

Speaking of CBA’s recent move into the crypto space, ANZ Bank’s banking services portfolio lead Nigel Dobson described it as “bold”, suggesting this may be just the start of a major shift in the financial system and something traditional finance would need to embrace or adapt to.

There is a weight of money you simply can’t ignore … We have concluded that this is a major protocol shift for financial market infrastructure.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ banking services portfolio lead

Dobson went further, recognising the value of a decentralised system:

We are moving to a more decentralised system – arguably faster, cheaper, better (yet to be proven) – that can generate new outcomes and business models that can’t be ignored. If that’s the thesis – that these new protocols can generate better outcomes and new business models – then they can’t be ignored. We’re excited about them because they resemble, in many cases, financial markets.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ banking services portfolio lead

Ultimately, Dobson felt that much like the inevitability of the internet and changes it brought to banking, a shift to the digital asset economy was “completely going to occur”.

The preferences of our customers may lead us to places where we feel uncomfortable … but the ship has sailed … so what we need to do is to navigate our path towards utilising these [decentralised] networks. And the power of these networks is unquestionably strong. The power of networks transcends all companies – you just need to choose whether to be part of it or ignore it … I think we have a much stronger bias to participate than ignore.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ banking services portfolio lead

These sentiments from ANZ represent a remarkable change of tone given that the bank has previously been involved in debanking crypto businesses due to the perceived risk they posed. Just earlier this month, ANZ settled a case with a crypto trader after he was debanked solely on the basis of his profession.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto Exchange Crypto News Investing Melbourne Trading

Aussie Exchange ACX Case: Blockchain Global Collapses Owing Creditors $21 Million

Australian crypto exchange ACX came in for criticism “multiple times” last year from concerned traders and users who reported they were unable to withdraw funds.

Now the developer of the failed ACX trading platform, Blockchain Global (BGL), has entered voluntary administration, owing creditors A$21 million.

BGL has variously claimed to be the developer, operator and owner of ACX. Administrators were appointed on October 19, less than a month after BGL was ordered to disclose its assets by Victorian Supreme Court Justice Peter Riordan.

$12.3 Million Shortfall in BGL Assets

Sam Lee, CEO of BGL, claims to have stepped down as a director in March 2019 but he retains ownership of the brand. A preliminary administrators’ report dated October 24 revealed a $12.3 million shortfall in assets.

It’s a business decision for existing directors that it is in the best interest of creditors and shareholders to wind up the company. I abstained from all decision-making after my appointment as I didn’t have enough visibility to make informed decisions.

Sam Lee, CEO, BGL

According to the preliminary administrators’ report, BGL has A$8,264,764 in assets including A$5,729,175 in crypto spread across bitcoin, ethereum, MobileGo and XEM, plus A$1.3 million in shares along with another A$1 million in cash held in accounts with the Bank of Melbourne.

The value of BGL’s assets and uncollected debts, however, is far exceeded by its creditors. Since ACX ceased trading and froze the accounts of its users in March last year, an estimated 200 investors – who are understood to have lost as much as A$10 million – have been kept in the dark.

ACX Banned For Life, Digital Currency Licence Revoked

ACX was banned for life by the peak industry body while the financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC revoked its digital currency licence. Many of those investors have since given up hope of ever getting their money back.

One of them, University of Queensland research fellow Khaled Said, invested “a few thousand dollars” in popular currencies such as Ripple and Ethereum with ACX during the first bitcoin boom in 2017. He lost interest during a downturn but returned to the platform when prices began to recover in 2019, only to find he was one of many who could put money into ACX but could not take it out.

As far as we can tell there are 10 or 20 [investors] who lost a lot, who lost more than half a million, and the rest are people like me who lost a few thousand each.

Khaled Said, ACX investor and creditor

‘Nobody Wants to Take the Case’

Investors say the collapse of the platform has been reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Federal Police, various state police, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Cyber Crime Unit and several members of parliament.

Said personally reported his loss to ASIC in August 2020. He was sent a few links to fact sheets and has not heard anything since. “Nobody is willing to take our case, which is really concerning,” Said complains.

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Blockchain Privacy Tokens

Internet of Things Privacy Token $IOTX Soars 71% Overnight Amid New Partnerships

IOTX is a smart contract, layer one blockchain and IoT (Internet of Things) platform that aims to fuel the future of Web 3 through connecting the physical and digital worlds.

IOTX allows us to secure data from billions of smart devices and extract value from it with next-gen dApps. IOTX’s mission is to democratise access to the new machine economy and return power to the people.

Join the Revolution

The Internet of Things is a multi-trillion-dollar industry owned by centralised corporations that control our devices, mine our data and make huge profits, with no value being returned to the users who generate it. IOTX is here to change the status quo and build a future that empowers users, not corporations.

We envision a world where everyday people own and control their devices as well as the data and value they generate. A vision we call the Internet of Trusted Things.

The IoTeX Vision

IoTeX Announces Big Partnership Deals and $IOTX Price Pumps

Travala.com and IOTX announced their partnership via Travala’s official Twitter:

The other partnership deal with NOWPayments was also announced this week on NOWPayments’ official Twitter:

This huge news of real-world partnerships helped boost the price of IOTX, as well as a presentation given to investors by Larry Pang, IOTX head of business development, and Xinxin Fan, head of cryptography, on Trusted Vehicle Tracking with IoTeX and Pebble Tracker. See the full presentation below, uploaded on November 4.

IoTeX ($IOTX) Price Analysis

Source: CoinGecko

Just two months ago, IOTX surged 215 percent in a single day after listing on Coinbase Pro, as reported by Crypto News Australia.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Tokens

Upcoming Parachain Auction Sends Polkadot Soaring

Polkadot (DOT) has been rising lately, reaching new all-time highs after news of the upcoming launch of parachain auctions on the Polkadot platform.

DOT Reaches New ATH

Polkadot announced the developing of parachain auctions in early 2021. As Crypto News Australia reported last month, the protocol has released dates for the first set of parachain auctions, prompting an overnight DOT token price surge of more than 18 percent.

This week, the Polkadot team announced that a motion had been passed to Polkadot’s council. If approved, developers will be able to register their parachains from November 5 and seek crowdfunding.

The excitement surrounding the launch of parachain auctions is the force behind DOT’s bullish rally, which surged 16 percent this week, reaching an ATH of US$53.18 at press time, beating its previous ATH of $49.35 in May.

Parachains are blockchains integrated within the Polkadot network that can be customised and optimised for a wide range of specific use cases. Unlike Ethereum, Polkadot allows its developers to create their own independent chains and set specific parameters, such as transaction fees, block times, mining rewards, etc.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Privacy Tokens

Quentin Tarantino to Auction 7 Unseen ‘Pulp Fiction’ Scenes as NFTs

Quentin Tarantino will auction off seven never-before-seen Pulp Fiction scenes as non-fungible tokens amid the expanding NFT craze, the legendary film director announced earlier this week.

The Secret Is Out

The NFT market has truly exploded in 2021, and Tarantino is the latest to join in on the mania. Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction, released in 1994, quickly became a cult classic, earning US$213.9 million on a US$10 million budget, and its writer/director an Oscar for best screenplay.

Quentin Tarantino announces his Pulp Fiction NFTs. Source: gamingdeputy.com

And to keep fans on their toes, Tarantino will now auction off seven NFTs that will include previously unseen content only accessible to its buyers. The collectibles will be “Secret NFTs” built upon the SCRT Labs’ Secret Network, which will enable the NFTs to have both a public-facing and a secret element.

The collection will be auctioned off on OpenSea and will be built on Secret Network, a blockchain focused on privacy. Secret Network allows its users to post content that has hidden embeds. Secret NFTs are tokens issued on the network that allow their creators to include public and private metadata, with the choice of displaying ownership or keeping it confidential.

The public-facing element of the NFTs will be uncut and unreleased scenes from the film, each NFT containing a ‘secret content’ item that will only be accessible by the buyer. Among the seven NFTs, the secret elements will include the first uncut handwritten scripts of the film and exclusive custom commentary from Tarantino himself, in which he reveals secrets about the film and about himself.

“I’m excited to be presenting these exclusive scenes from Pulp Fiction to fans,” Tarantino said, adding:

Secret Network and Secret NFTs provide a whole new world of connecting fans and artists and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.

Quentin Tarantino, director, screenwriter and producer

Guy Zyskind, co-founder of Secret Network and CEO of SCRT Labs, highlighted the power and obsessive madness surrounding NFTs in saying that “NFTs could be the most disruptive technology to come out of this decade”. He continued:

The art community is alive with innovation and the media is actively exploring all the potential use cases associated with the technology. Now, we have privacy and access controls courtesy of Secret Network. Ultimately, that will enable a whole litany of new potential use cases.

Guy Zyskind, CEO, SCRT Labs, and co-founder, Secret Network

Hollywood Presents: the Blockchain

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Hollywood is expanding its reach into the blockchain. Earlier this year, it was announced that Zero Contact, a pandemic-themed picture with Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in the lead role will premiere on the new NFT platform Vuele. The film will be the world’s first to be offered for sale as an NFT.

Furthering the role of blockchain in Hollywood is Roman Coppola, a member of one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmaking families. He and his two sisters have founded Decentralized Pictures (DCP), a decentralised film financing platform based on blockchain technology.

The company aims to use its blockchain-powered platform to decentralise the film financing process, hoping it will lead to the discovery and support of many underrepresented filmmakers.

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Blockchain Crypto News Facebook Gaming Tokens

Metaverse Tokens Soar Amid Facebook Announcement, SAND Up 158% in a Week

It’s no secret that the gaming sector is the hot focus of crypto right now, with social media giant Facebook announcing its re-branding to “Meta”. The ripple effect has seen The Sandbox token SAND surge 158 percent since the announcement. And it’s not the only one.

I believe the metaverse is the next chapter for the internet. And it’s the next chapter for our company too.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook/Meta CEO

Zuckerberg added: “We’re a company that focuses on connecting people.” He says that “while most other tech companies focus on how people interact with technology, we focus on building technology so people can interact with each other”.

The Facebook name only represents one product, Zuckerberg says. Facebook is rebranding to Meta in order to “encompass everything that we do. Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company.”

As an example of Meta’s ambitions, a partnership with sunglasses manufacturer RayBan aims to produce augmented reality glasses to interact with the real world for immersive experiences that include: displays, audio, input, haptics, hand tracking, eye tracking, mixed reality, sensors, graphics, computer vision, avatars, perceptual science, AI and more.

Metaverse Tokens Soar Upon News

Although Facebook is building its own metaverse, the news has been bullish for other blockchain-based metaverse projects besides The Sandbox (SAND). Decentraland (MANA) and Axie Infinity (AXS) are among others to have seen big spikes in price since the Facebook/Meta announcement.

SAND token performance. Source: coinmarketcap.com

Celebrities are also starting to enter the metaverse, with rapper Snoop Dogg announcing in September that he will build his own house – or a virtual reconstruction of his mansion, at least – in the Sandbox Metaverse and offer his exclusive NFT collection to fans, perform live concerts and interact with players.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Tezos

The Grammy Awards in January 2022 Will Use NFTs as Awards

The 64th annual Grammy Awards are set to take place in January 2022, and it has been announced that NFT collectibles will be awarded as prizes.

The digital tokens will be produced in a collaboration between the US Recording Academy and NFT platform OneOf, backed by famed music producer Quincy Jones.

Grammys Goes Green for NFTs

Built on the Tezos blockchain, OneOf is hailed as an environmentally friendly NFT platform specifically designed with the music industry in mind. The platform does not charge artists and creator partners any minting fees to create NFTs, and claims to use 2 million times less energy than other blockchains such as Ethereum, which is the network utilised by most NFTs.

The platform also lowers the barrier to entry for fans by accepting debit and credit cards.

At the moment, NFTs do not offer the best user experience in that they are expensive and the only scaling solutions available compromise on security. This is the reason why more environmentally friendly initiatives are needed. Last month, Sydney-based tech business Immutable raised US$60 million for an eco-friendly NFT games platform.

Academy Scholarship Fund

According to the Recording Academy, the collection will include digital collectibles in a similar concept to what World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) now offers its fans. The Academy added that a portion of the proceeds from NFT sales will go towards its scholarship fund.

According to Recording Academy co-president Panos Panay:

As an academy, we are always looking for ways to help artists discover new forms of creative expression while also creating new ways of income generation and ways for fans to interact with the artists that they love. OneOf shares that vision, and we are proud to work with a sustainable NFT company.

Panos Panay, co-president, Recording Academy