Category: Blockchain

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News DeFi

Australia’s DeFi Adoption Growing Rapidly, Ranking 12th of 154 Countries

A newly published Global DeFi Adoption Index by Chainalysis ranks countries in terms of their grassroots DeFi adoption. The index includes the top 20 nations that have embraced DeFi along with key players and transactions driving interest in DeFi.

According to the index, Australia ranks 12th out of 154 countries.

DeFi (decentralised finance) platforms, otherwise known as protocols, are built on top of smart contract-enriched blockchains, mainly on the Ethereum network. The protocols can fulfill specific financial functions according to the smart contracts’ underlying code.

Popular types of DeFi protocols include decentralised exchanges and lending platforms. While concerns remain around DeFi’s safety and compliance obligations, it represents one of the fastest-growing and most innovative sectors of the cryptocurrency economy. Similar to our Crypto Adoption Index, the DeFi Adoption Index is designed to highlight countries with the highest grassroots adoption by individuals, rather than those sending the largest raw values of funds. 

Chainalysis Global DeFi Adoption Index

DeFi has featured heavily in crypto news this month due to a series of cyberattacks in which millions were stolen. While the safety of DeFi platforms remains a concern, business is booming. At the time of writing, the DeFi crypto market cap was sitting comfortably at over US$121 billion with a total trading volume of US$10.7 billion.

Inaugural Index Works on Three Metrics

The index, the first of its kind, ranks countries according to three different metrics that aim to balance DeFi activity by wealthier individuals and richer countries. The ranking indicates that DeFi adoption is popular in countries where there are high levels of crypto adoption and use among traders and investors.

Countries are ranked according to each of the three metrics. The geometric mean of each country’s ranking in all three metrics is calculated and then the final number is normalised on a scale of 0 to 1 to assign each country a score that determines its overall ranking. The closer a country’s score is to 1, the higher its rank (see chart below).

Source: Chainalysis

The data shows that large transactions make up a much bigger share of DeFi activity, suggesting that DeFi is disproportionately popular for bigger investors compared to cryptocurrency as a whole. Transactions above US$10 million accounted for over 60 percent of DeFi transactions in Q2 2021, compared to under 50 percent for all cryptocurrency transactions.

Chainalysis data extrapolation

New Protocols Drive Rise in DeFi Projects

Data reveals that the majority of top-10 DeFi projects gained more than 20 percent in the past 30 days, with some such as THORChain (RUNE) realising gains of over 115 percent.

The surge in DeFi can be attributed to the arrival of new protocols such as DinoSwap, and the rise of Ethereum-network competitors such as Avalanche (AVAX). Both DinoSwap and Avalanche saw users flock to their networks to escape high fees on the Ethereum network.

‘Significant’ DeFi Growth in Australia

Although the DeFi sector in Australia has proven significant growth, hesitation still exists. Crypto News Australia recently reported how a Melbourne-based crypto fund outperformed Bitcoin on its year-to-date profits, returning 119 percent compared to Bitcoin’s 19.96 percent growth.

The fund has indicated that it avoids DeFi projects, citing an investment strategy in which audited code is a must. Many DeFi projects such as Whalefarm, which uses an unaudited code, quickly crashed to zero after showing much promise. Fears over hacking due to weaknesses in code are also proving a big risk.

Despite DeFi sector growth in Australia, projects are seen as partnerships or unincorporated associations for which the Australian regulatory framework remains unclear.

Yet Australia is is proving itself a worthy adversary in DeFi, with ThorChain and Synthetix.io two of the more successful Aussie DeFi start-ups.  

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

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Blockchain Crypto News Industries Tokens

Microsoft Crypto Patent Granted, Allowing Users to Create Own Tokens

Tech giant Microsoft has had its patent granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a new system allowing users to create crypto tokens that will be interoperable with all chains.

On August 24, a US patent was granted to Microsoft for developing a “ledger-independent token service”. The end result will be a “software service that enables users (individuals, organisations, automated agents/applications, etc) to create, transact with, and manage tokens across multiple different distributed ledger networks/platforms in a common way”.

Bank of America, one of the largest financial institutions in the US, announced earlier this month that it had received 227 patent approvals in the first half of 2021, 8 percent of which were blockchain-related.

Microsoft’s Token Creation System

In the case of the MS patent, the technology will allow the user to choose one or more token templates where each fits a type of physical or digital asset. The tokens have a set of one or more attributes and one or more control functions associated with each type.

The computer system receives from the user the selected token template and then creates the token on the distributed ledger network. In other words, it could allow anyone to create their own token without having to write smart contract code, but by using predefined and parametrisable smart contract templates available on different blockchains. 

As well as creating their own tokens, users could upload their smart contracts between different blockchains, letting the system do all the technical work. Under the MS patent, the creation of these cross-chain tokens can be managed with a single user interface, making it much more user-friendly to adopt the technology.

Will It Be Available to the Public?

Despite the patent being granted to Microsoft, it’s not a sure thing that this technology will be publicly available as it has not been explicitly stated it would be made into an actual product.

The goal is to make token development more efficient for business use cases that involve surpassing the limits of a single blockchain. Companies that wish to enter the blockchain industry or make use of blockchain technologies can use this kind of system without needing the skills and savvy to create such a technically advanced layer for a business.

Microsoft has been actively involved in blockchain-related development in recent years, filing a wide number of patent applications related to the cryptocurrency industry with Hyperledger and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. It also recently developed a blockchain-based anti-piracy system.

Microsoft may play a significant part in the future of blockchain by using this patent, perhaps becoming one of the protagonists of the cryptocurrency revolution, which for now is still in its relative infancy.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Budweiser Dives Into Crypto: Pays 38 ETH for Beer.eth Domain Name and Rocket NFT

American beer brand Budweiser has bought the Beer.eth domain name for 30 ETH and changed its Twitter profile picture to that of an NFT rocket ship from manufacturing plant Rocket Factory for another 8 ETH, its total outlay the equivalent of US$120,000.

For the uninitiated, .eth domains can be created via the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a distributed, transparent and extensible naming system powered by the Ethereum blockchain. All .eth domain owners are able to use their addresses to receive ETH, other cryptocurrencies and even NFTs.

The Tom Sachs-designed Budweiser rocket ship. Source: decrypt.co

Parent Company Partners With Gary Vee

The new Budweiser rocket ship NFT was designed by Rocket Factory’s Tom Sachs. Budweiser’s parent company, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), first dipped its toe into the burgeoning NFT collectibles industry last July when it signed a partnership deal with Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary Vee, a Belarusian entrepreneur and internet personality. At the time, the team made it clear it would invest in Vaynerchuk’s NFT media shop, which would mint Budweiser’s NFTs on the platform.

Budweiser’s breadth gave us an opportunity to go big because we think NFTs are not a fad … crypto-collectibles have the potential to change the way people think about their sponsorship properties in the future.

Richard Oppy, vice-president, global brands, AB InBev

Just Another Phallic Symbol?

Bizarrely, the wallet that holds the Tom Sachs Budweiser rocket and the beer.eth NFTs also holds a random assortment of other NFTs, including two shaped like a penis (see PeePeeBoy, above) and one pointedly called the “cryptodickbutt”. It has to be said that the shape of the Bud rocket ship is not a million miles removed.

Budweiser is not the first big beverage brand to recognise the potential market for NFTs. As reported on July 30 by Crypto News Australia, Coca-Cola released a collection in association with OpenSea and Decentraland to mark International Friendship Day and raise money for Special Olympics International.

The Budweiser NFT rocket mission, on the other hand, appears to be a strictly commercial arrangement.

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Unseen Photos of NBA Legend Kobe Bryant Auctioned as NFTs

Late basketball legend Kobe Bryant will be immortalised on the blockchain via NFT technology. According to reports, a collection of previously unseen photographs of Bryant is being auctioned as NFTs, with funds generated from the sales directed to his non-profit Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation.

Kobe NFTs Trades on Cryptograph

The collection consists of eight images of a young Bryant shot in a meatpacking facility in downtown Los Angeles by photographer Davis Factor in 1999. The black and white images were taken just prior to the peak of Bryant’s career as a professional basketball player with the LA Lakers. 

I think this shoot is special because it’s one of his first fashion shoots. The purpose of this NFT drop, for me, is to raise as much money as humanly possible to give to Kobe Bryant’s foundation.

Davis Factor, Smashbox Studios

The NFT photos of Bryant, launched on August 24 to commemorate his death last year, are being auctioned on the NFT platform Cryptograph. One of the photo-NFTs (below) attracted a 3.5 ETH bid, equivalent to US$10,994, at the time of writing. The proceeds go to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, which supports young women athletes and deserving communities. 

Widespread Benefits of NFTs

Over the past 12 months, NFTs have grown in popularity in diverse industries, including basketball and sports in general. Recently, Crypto News Australia reported that Indian startup Rario would launch the world’s first cricket NFTs this month. 

The benefits of NFT technology go beyond swapping or trading for quick profits. As seen with the Bryant photo auction, NFTs can serve as another viable medium to raise funds in support of communities. Crypto News also reported this month on how NFTs are helping to preserve wildlife.

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Blockchain Crypto News

Legendary Hollywood Family Decentralises Movie Financing

Roman Coppola, a member of one of Hollywood’s most important and influential families, has co-founded a decentralised film financing platform based on blockchain technology.

Roman and his illustrious sisters, Gia and Sofia, who are on the company board, aim to use the blockchain-powered platform to decentralise the film financing process, which they hope will lead to the discovery and support of many underrepresented filmmakers.

Roman Coppola at Cannes Film Festival 2021

How Will the Platform Work?

In many ways the platform is similar to other crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, however Decentralized Pictures (DCP) has the advantage of being purpose-built for discovering and creating film projects, offering not just finance but development support and guidance.

DCP is built to democratise film financing and development. Anyone can upload their project proposal – anyone can vote. Our platform community decides which projects are the most deserving of financing, support, and/or white glove mentoring throughout the life cycle of the film. Runners-up are rewarded with studio and agency introductions. The ethos of this decision-making process is to democratise support for the arts in a collaborative fashion.

Decentralized Pictures media article

At the heart of the platform will be DCP’s own cryptocurrency token. Creators will pay a submission fee using this token, which, through the use of smart contracts, will be used to pay other members of the community for giving feedback on projects. Initially, Decentralized Pictures will select the winners of each round from the projects that receive the most votes, but eventually this selection process will be made entirely by the community.

The blockchain-powered web platform is currently in beta testing through the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Ghetto Film School. DCP is hoping to make the platform available to everyone by the end of the year.

Learn more by watching the Fireside Chat with Roman Coppola and Leo Matchett.

Exciting Implications for All Artists

The idea of a platform that democratises financing and development could have huge, exciting implications for all artists. The current systems in place for most artistic industries are hugely centralised.

The majority of all art and entertainment comes from movie studios, game studios, television stations, publishing houses and record labels. The content produced is largely based on what these companies believe will generate the most profit.

Many novelists, filmmakers, game designers and musicians could benefit from this new type of platform that gives the power back to the people to decide for themselves what they want to see, play, read and listen to.

Zero Contact NFT blockbuster starring Anthony Hopkins

The entertainment industry, especially Hollywood, is definitely taking notice of crypto, with several studios setting up their own NFT platforms and the upcoming release of the first NFT blockbuster, Zero Contact, starring Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.

The Ethereum documentary, Ethereum: The Infinite Garden, recently raised $US 2.3 million in ETH through crowdfunding and NFTs.

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Blockchain Solana

First Solana Rugpull Steals US$10 Million

Solana has had its first and biggest rugpull on its ecosystem after Luna Yield, a cross-chain yield aggregator, stole nearly US$10 million from liquidity pools and shortly after proceeded to delete its official website, Telegram, and other media channels.

The Solana Luna Rugpull

On August 19, various Luna Yield users reported being unable to unstake their funds from the pools. SolPAD, a multichain IDO (Initial DEX Offering) platform for Solana, announced in a tweet that the protocol started experiencing “some problems”. SolPAD, which hosted Luna Yield’s IDO on its platform, said it contacted a third party to investigate the incident.

However, everything suggests that the team behind Luna Yield rugpulled and stole nearly US$10 million in funds.

Solana Users Unable to Unstake Funds

It all started when a user tried to unstake funds from Luna but failed due to insufficient balance. Someone had already drained the protocol’s pools even before the smart contract was set up.

One user found the address that was being used to send batches of ETH. The address starts with FBUKfg, which is a Sollet bridge, a Solana wallet with support for SPL tokens. 

Hoakegani, a developer building on Solana, found the address belonging to the protocol’s owner. It appears this address was the one that funded the mint authority of LUNY, Luna Yield’s native token. The owner then used the FBUKfg address to send the funds in batches, and it appears the owner tried to bridge the funds directly to Binance.

Users Complain About Lack of Transparency on Solana

After the event, the SOL token slowed down after its massive uptrend rally in the past two weeks. Various users, including hoakegani, complained about the “lack of transparency” on Solana, and that “some shady businesses” were still occurring.

SOL Price Unaffected

After surging over 100 percent during the past few weeks, the price of SOL seems unaffected as it remains around the US$75 mark.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Rap Star Tyga to Launch OnlyFans Competitor Platform with NFTs

In the wake of OnlyFans’ recent announcement that they will ban sexually explicit content come October, multiplatinum artist turned entrepreneur Tyga has announced the launch of his own content platform called Myystar.

Tyga took to social media to announce that he has deleted his OnlyFans page and will be starting his own content platform to compete with OnlyFans.

Set for full release in October, Myystar will allow users “creative freedom” in response to the ban set by OnlyFans. Tyga’s platform will be taking only 10 percent of creators’ earnings – half of OnlyFans’ 20 percent.

Helping Others

Not only will Myystar house content from comedians, athletes, musicians and podcasters, but creators will be able to sell their own NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Tyga expressed his concern that many people make a lot of money on OnlyFans and most of their revenue is made there:

I want to give those people hope.

Tyga

Myystar is Tyga’s next business endeavour after launching Too Raww, a modelling agency aimed at helping people get started on OnlyFans.

Joining the NFT Craze

Myystar will join CumRocket, a new DeFi project which recently created its own private subscription platform and NFT marketplace.

NFTs provide artists with exposure, revenue and connection with their fans, as we saw earlier this year when Melbourne street artist Lushsux made over US$500,000 from selling NFTs.

The NFT craze is diverting the attention of musicians, artists and celebrities who now see it as an opportunity to promote their work and make some extra cash.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

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Blockchain Cardano Crypto News DeFi Stablecoins

Cardano Up 60% in Past Month as it Unveils New DeFi Stablecoin

The price of Cardano (ADA) continues to soar as the company makes strides. The ‘Alonzo’ hard fork set for release next month, along with the unveiling of its new stablecoin Djed, is keeping Cardano on everybody’s lips.

ADA’s new stablecoin, Djed, is the first coin to eliminate price volatility using formal verification, thereby overcoming one of the biggest barriers to crypto mass adoption.

What Djed Is All About

In the crypto market, volatility is a major concern and stablecoins aim to minimise this. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to commodities, other cryptocurrencies, stocks and fiat currencies that include mechanisms to allow low price deviation from their target price. With the aid of their built-in mechanism they can remove volatility, making them excellent to exchange or store value.

Some stablecoins, such as Tether and USD Coin, lack transparency about their reserve and liquidity, thereby compromising price stability.

In an effort to resolve some of the issues surrounding stablecoins, IOG has partnered with Emurgo, and the Ergo blockchain, to work on a stablecoin contract called Djed. Emurgo is one of the three founding partners of Cardano and Ergo employs UTXO-based accounting, like Cardano.

Djed is based on an algorithmic design, which means it uses smart contracts to secure price stabilisation. Thus the coin will be useful for DeFi operations.

How It Works

Source: Input/Output Global

Djed will work by using an autonomous “central bank line” contract, consisting of the reserve, equity and liabilities. To further ensure stability, Djed will allow the contract to sell stablecoins and use the charging fees and reserve assets to maintain a target price.

IOG, the developers of Djed, assert that their stability mechanism will benefit holders of the coin as it will enable them to “boost the reserve with funds while assuming the risk of price fluctuation”.  

Djed is a crypto-backed algorithmic stablecoin contract that acts as an autonomous bank. It operates by keeping a reserve of base coins, and minting and burning stablecoins and reserve coins.

Input/Output blog

Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOG and inventor of Cardano, shared his enthusiasm for Djed, citing that the coin’s properties are “proven by mathematical theorems”.

The mathematical theorems will help Djed to maintain a constant peg to the central assets with lower bound maintenance, no insolvency, no bank runs, and robustness during market crashes.  

Djed will launch in two versions: Minimal and Extended Djed. Minimal Djed will be as “simple, intuitive and straightforward as possible, without compromising stability”. Extended Djed will have more incentives to keep the reserve ratio “at an optimal level”, and will have more stability benefits.

Imminent Hard Fork Pushes Cardano Up 60% in Past Month 

The ‘Alonzo’ hard fork, set for release on September 12, is generating much excitement among traders and investors. ADA is currently trading at US$2.52, reaching all-time highs, and is up 17.32 percent in the past 24 hours. Cardano is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

The release will enable smart-contract functionality on the Cardano network and will allow ADA to add more applications such as DeFi platforms that will allow for automated trading and lending of cryptocurrency. This move addresses one of ADA’s biggest shortfalls and will put it in a better space to challenge Ethereum.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

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0x Blockchain Crypto News DeFi

Polygon Looks to Onboard 100 Million More DeFi Users by Launching Own DAO

Having seen massive adoption from DeFi protocols, interchain scalability solution Polygon is planning to debut a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) with the aim of improving users’ DeFi experience while also attracting the next 100 million users to the DeFi sector.

Polygon to Bootstrap DeFi Growth Through DAO

Polygon is a Layer-2 scalability solution that targets DeFi projects on the Ethereum blockchain. In a recent announcement, the company said it had seen massive adoption and economic activity from several DeFi protocols, including Sushiswap, Curve, Aave, Balancer and others, all of which are based on Ethereum.

These projects brought along with them more than just TVL but their communities.

Polygon

In order to further streamline the DeFi experience, Polygon will be creating a DAO. The DAO will allow developers and communities to build a better DeFi and Web3 ecosystem and essentially helps onboard the next 100 million DeFi users to the Polygon network.

What is DAO?

DAO is an organisational model for DeFi that spreads the governance of a protocol or system to the community or network rather than a central body. Basically, it’s a governance system that eliminates centralisation. 

Polygon says it will use part of the US$100 million #DeFiForAll Fund to accelerate the creation of the DAO system. This won’t be the first time Polygon gets involved in DAO development. Previously, the company collaborated with 0x protocol to spearhead a US$10 million DAO for projects that use 0x APIs on their network. 

It’s safe to mention that Polygon is running more like life support for most DeFi projects on Ethereum. Owing to Polygon properties, QuickSwap has been able to grow into a US$1 billion TVL decentralised exchange. Forked from Uniswap, QuickSwap allows users to swap tokens at lightspeed due to Polygon’s scalability solution.

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Blockchain Crypto Exchange Crypto News Hackers Japan

Japan’s Liquid Exchange Hacked for Almost $100 Million

Close to US$100 million has been stolen by hackers from Japan’s Liquid Global exchange, which has since suspended deposits and withdrawals while also moving its assets into offline storage.

According to an August 19 tweet, Liquid exchange confirmed that it had been breached and its hot wallet compromised. The exact amount still needs to be verified, but estimates place it upward of US$90 million.


With such a large amount of crypto compromised, the exchange has moved its digital assets into cold storage. According to Eddie Wang, senior researcher at OKLink, hackers made off with BTC, ETH, TRX, XRP and other ERC-20 tokens.

The cold wallet used for segregation management is safe, and no impact on the assets entrusted to us by our customers has been confirmed.

Liquid (via Quoine)

Blockchain analytics company Elliptic says US$45 million in tokens were being converted to Ethereum through decentralised exchanges – blockchain-based platforms that require no intermediaries – such as Uniswap.

Destination Wallets Blacklisted by KuCoin

In the meantime, the wallets that received the stolen tokens have been blacklisted by KuCoin and other exchanges are expected to soon follow suit.

Liquid exchange also announced that “under these circumstances, we will suspend the warehousing and withdrawal of cryptographic assets until the security of all wallets is confirmed”.

How It Was Done

According to a blog post by Liquid, “the MPC wallet [used for warehousing/delivery management of cryptographic assets] held by our Singapore subsidiary Quoine was damaged by hacking. The impact on us is currently being confirmed.”

MPC is an advanced cryptographic technique in which the private key controlling funds is generated collectively by a set of parties, none of which can see the fragments calculated by the others. Liquid Global’s blog post did not explain how this security arrangement was circumvented. However, an investigation is under way.

This breach comes in the same week as a record-breaking DeFi hack against PolyNetwork, which siphoned off around US$600 million from the protocol.