Category: Blockchain

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Bitcoin Blockchain Stacks Tokens

STX Token Gains 70% Amid ‘Bitcoin Odyssey’ Announcement, Then Plunges

STX, the utility token of layer-1 blockchain platform Stacks, has seen a 70 percent gain following the announcement of ‘Bitcoin Odyssey’, a US$165 million grants program. Stacks and OKCoin will be putting the pooled money towards developing decentralised apps and furthering Bitcoin. However, the token price plunged soon after.

Positive Reaction to Bitcoin Odyssey Program

The Bitcoin Odyssey program will fund Stacks product development that will reach NFTs, DeFi, and Web3. The announcement will stoke the Bitcoin ecosystem and has already generated a flurry of positive media attention:

However, the positive gain was short-lived as the token dived by 30 percent soon after the announcement. Due to STX’s long wick candlestick it appears that selling opportunities were identified by traders the day after, although the selloff also seemed partly technical.

The STX Token Has Spiked Before

The Stacks Network token had several value spikes towards the back end of 2021. In October STX exploded in value, soaring 57 percent in 24 hours. This followed an increase in demand amid a thriving NFT ecosystem.

Then, in December, another spike was witnessed in reaction to the exit of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO, with the token’s value rising by almost 65 percent in a week. Investor speculation peaked over the possibility of Dorsey migrating into the cryptocurrency industry.

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Australia Blockchain

Australian BeefLedger Blockchain Goes Into Administration

BeefLedger, a popular Australian blockchain provider in the red meat market, has been placed into administration, according to a spokesperson for the company.

BeefLedger to ‘Realign’ Its Organisation

David Clout and Associates, a Brisbane-based boutique firm of insolvency accountants, was reportedly appointed liquidator on February 28 and has already commenced investigations into the company’s affairs.

The company didn’t provide detailed reasons as to why it decided to enter administration. “Formalising the process is the appropriate way for us to complete an internal consolidation and reorganisation to align with strategic priorities”, reads BeefLedger’s official statement.

What Did BeefLedger Aim to Do?

The people behind BeefLedger intended to bolster beef exports by using blockchain technology to track and verify the authenticity of Australian beef on overseas markets, especially in China.

Customers could access the data history and provenance of a meat product by simply scanning its QR code.

BeefLedger executives (L-R) Marcus Sweeney (CIO); director Charles Turner-Morris, CEO Tony Clark and chairman Warwick Powell.
Source: MHD Supply Chain

The platform launched its own utility token in 2018. The BEEF token powered its blockchain and provided users with access to provenance data, sales history, consumer feedback and more.

Throughout 2018, BeefLedger garnered numerous investors and received grants to help develop the organisation. It also partnered with Queensland University of Technology to initiate in-depth market research, focusing on China.

However, it appears the demand for a blockchain-based platform to track the provenance of Australian meat wasn’t necessarily warranted. Many exporters have suggested that BeefLedger’s claims actually hurt the Australian industry’s reputation.

Agtech [agricultural technology] companies had to undertake enormous supply chain research to ensure what they were developing met a genuine need. Simply inventing something and telling farmers and processors they needed it would always be unsuccessful.

Beef marketers lobby group
Categories
Blockchain Crypto News ICON Korea Markets Regulation

New South Korea President Sends ICX Token Soaring 70%

The native token of the South Korean-based ICON blockchain, ICX, has jumped 70 percent following the election of a new crypto-friendly president.

In the 24 hours following the election of Yoon Suk-yeol, the ICX token went from a low of US$0.61 to a high of US$1.06. It has since retraced some of those gains and currently sits at US$0.83 – still down some 93 percent from its all-time high of US$13.16, reached in January 2018.

Crypto Plays Important Role in Close Result

Yoon Suk-yeol, who only came to politics in 2021 having previously worked as a high profile prosecutor, was the candidate for the conservative opposition party, People Power Party. His victory was not clear-cut, with the final margin being under 1 percent, reflecting how contentious politics has become in South Korea recently.

Suk-yeol ran on a platform promising to deregulate digital asset markets, lower taxes on crypto and reimburse victims of crypto fraud, in addition to tackling the stagnating South Korean economy and soaring housing prices.

New Direction for Crypto in South Korea

The previous South Korean president, Moon Jae-In, had been relatively anti-crypto, cracking down on South Korean-based exchanges in 2021 and forcing the vast majority of them to shut down.

The new president has taken a forward-looking approach to crypto, vowing to take what he characterises as a more realistic regulatory stance:

To realise the unlimited potential of the virtual asset market, we must overhaul regulations that are far from reality and unreasonable.

Newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol

Crypto Becoming More Politically Relevant 

In a sign of its growing political significance, crypto was used by both major parties to appeal to younger demographics. In addition to offering crypto-friendly policies, the candidates from both major parties minted election-related NFTs to demonstrate their crypto bonafides during the campaign.

Following the executive order released by US President Biden this week, this election in South Korea may signal the beginning of a trend towards increased regulatory clarity and adoption for cryptocurrencies globally.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Privacy

Stanford University Raises $32 Million for Privacy Focused Blockchain

Espresso is the new scalability optimised and privacy-focused layer-1 blockchain being developed in the US by Stanford University’s cryptography research group.

Espresso Systems is led by a dream team, combining some of the world’s leading experts in zero-knowledge proofs and cryptography from Dan Boneh’s Applied Cryptography PhD course at the California-based Stanford, one of the world’s leading teaching and research institutions.

Co-founders Ben Fisch, Benedikt Bunz and Charles Lu (who have worked together on other high-profile Web3 projects, including privacy-focused blockchain project Monero) join Jill Gunter (Slow Ventures) to bring Espresso to market.

The project not only has the best brains in the business but also has plenty of venture capital funding. Espresso Systems announced on March 8 that it had raised US$32 million in a Series A round.

Leveraging zero-knowledge (ZK-rollups) combined with “proof-of-stake” consensus, Espresso aims to optimise for both privacy and scalability, without compromising decentralisation, and build the infrastructure to support the future of Web3.

Core Feature is CAPE Transactions

One of Espresso’s core features is Configurable Asset Privacy for Ethereum (CAPE), a smart-contract application that enables customised privacy levels over the visibility of information on the blockchain. CAPE “wraps” wallet addresses, asset types, transaction amounts, and credentials so they can be hidden from public view. Issuers on CAPE get to determine what data gets shared and with whom.

Stanford is not the only prestigious university with a blockchain-focused research team. Cambridge in the UK recently announced it would launch its own crypto institutional research group, The Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP).

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gas

ETH Layer 2 Service StarkNet Goes Live, Promises 100x Cheaper Gas Fees

Cheaper gas at last, and it’s all thanks to ZK-rollups. StarkNet’s most advanced Layer-2 validity rollup promises higher throughput and lower gas fees, up to 100 times lower than Layer-1s.

StarkNet’s employment of Zero-Knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) and validity proofs could be the answer to solving the highly problematic scaling issues faced by the Ethereum network, without compromising on security.

Transaction Costs Down, Confirmation Rates Up

ZK-rollups are a favourable scaling solution for Ethereum because they drastically reduce transaction costs while speeding up the time it takes for transactions to be confirmed. The way they do this is by bundling, or “rolling up” transactions together for processing off-chain. Once verified, they are moved back on-chain and recorded as a single transaction. This reduces the number of transactions needed to be written to the blockchain in order to verify a single block, therefore significantly reducing the cost.

Unlike optimistic rollups, ZK-rollups use “validity proofs”. Validity rollups are much faster because they instantly prove transactions. This greatly speeds up the transactions per second (TPS) rate and makes the network run much faster. StarkNet transactions are estimated to reduce energy consumption anywhere between 200 to 200,000 times that of alternative chains.

Alchemy’s Integration of StarkNet

StarkNet and Alchemy are both pioneering the Web3 future, addressing two of the biggest challenges facing permissionless blockchains: StarkNet is tackling scalability, as Alchemy provides a complete platform for developers that reduces the complexity and costs of building on blockchain.

Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and president of StarkNet

StarkWare announced on Twitter that its layer-2 StarkNet has now been integrated by leading blockchain development platform Alchemy. The partnership will allow Web3 developers to build decentralised apps (dApps) using the Alchemy suite and utilise StarkNet’s cutting-edge ZK-rollup technology.

StarkNet has its own open-source browser wallet and Chrome extension, Argent X. Other platforms are also integrating StarkNet; last month, for example, Opera browser launched its own Ethereum Layer-2 web wallet powered by StarkNet.

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Blockchain Tokens

Pilot Concept: Agricultural Loans Backed by Tokenised Grains: SOYA, CORA, WHEA

Blending agriculture and innovation, Argentine startup Agrotoken and Spanish financial services firm Santander have come up with a concept that allows for loans to be backed by tokenised grains.

These agricultural commodities include wheat (WHEA), soy (SOYA), and corn (CORA). A pilot test is officially being carried out with Argentine farmers, according to a report from the Santander Post Team. The price of each commodity (based on the US dollar) will determine the value of each token.

https://santanderpost-com-ar.translate.goog/articulo/asi-es-la-primera-experiencia-mundial-que-ofrece-prestamos-garantizados-con-criptoactivos/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Agrotoken and Santander’s new joint venture. Source: Santander Post Team

Easier Loans for Agricultural Producers

Agrotoken has a multichain infrastructure built on Polygon, Ethereum and Algorand, with Agrotoken and Santander propelling their joint mission of providing the agricultural world with fluid access to this new financing system.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-novillo-astrada-h-387174bb/overlay/photo/

Together with Santander, we are co-creating various financial products to provide agricultural producers with a service with which they can easily and smoothly access a new credit system backed by their grains.

Eduardo Novillo Astrada, CEO & co-founder of Agrotoken

The pilot project will begin its test run in Argentina, with the Santander group investing US$225 million to get the system up and running. Farmers will be able to tokenise their grains online, storing them in digital wallets. The tokens can then be exchanged for any form of agricultural equipment or machinery, alongside the option to use them for collateral loans. Every tonne of grain will be validated with a ‘proof of grain reserve’ (POGR). POGR is a secure, transparent, decentralised system.

Australian Farmers Add to the Blockchain

Aussie farmers aren’t intending to be left off the blockchain and have been making several crypto additions over recent months. In August 2021, 70 million sheep were put onto the blockchain. Australian Wool Innovation Ltd (AWI) partnered with Everledger to tell the story behind their famous Merino wool.

The dairy industry followed shortly after in September 2021 by utilising blockchain technology to improve traceability, enabling participants to track dairy products and allowing for real-time payment.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Cryptocurrencies Events NFTs

Emergence Conference in Sydney to Explore Blockchain and Crypto Opportunities

Sydney is set to host a three-day conference exploring potential opportunities for blockchain and crypto technology. The Emergence22 conference (March 9-11) at the Fullerton Hotel in the city’s Martin Place will feature more than 40 guest speakers, with free virtual passes on offer for those who wish to attend digitally.

https://www.emergence22.com/
Emergence22 conference banner ad. Source: Emergence22

From Fintech to Web3 and NFT Art

Day one of Emergence Sydney is dedicated to discussion on renewable energy and the power grid, following a keynote address. Attendees can expect day two to touch on fintech and health care, and day three totally devoted to crypto with sessions on Web3 and NFTs and a lengthy list of industry guest speakers. The conference will also feature what Binance Australia is calling “the first NFT art gallery”.

There are free virtual passes to attend online, with live attendance tickets priced at A$101. For a more in-depth rundown of what’s available across the three-day event, access Emergence Sydney’s itinerary online. If you are looking to attend in person, limited tickets are still available.

More Notable Crypto Dates for 2022

March is action-packed in crypto terms, with several partnerships, announcements, rebrands and conferences greenlit. Most of this month’s live events are online, though we’ve compiled a full list of dates to make it easy for you to keep up.

The Gold Coast is set to host Australia’s largest crypto convention in September. This not-to-be-missed weekend will feature guest speakers, workshops, networkers, and more. Crypto News Australia has two weekend conference passes to give away. Visit our Twitter page for info on how to enter the draw:

Categories
Blockchain CBDCs Crypto News Stablecoins

UK’s Cambridge University Launches Crypto Institutional Research Group

Cambridge, one of the UK’s most famous and prestigious universities, is launching a research initiative focusing on digital assets, dubbed the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (CDAP).

IMF and Global Banks to Collaborate

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) is backing the initiative and will collaborate with 16 companies, including financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leading global banks, and private organisations.

The idea behind CDAP is to bring further insights into the growing cryptocurrency industry, and debate the risks and opportunities associated with the ongoing adoption of digital assets.

CDAP will focus on three main fields:

  • blockchain infrastructure;
  • the environmental implications of cryptocurrencies; and
  • the overall use of digital assets, stablecoins and CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies).

[CDAP] aims to meet the need for greater clarity by providing data-driven insights through collaborative research involving public and private sector stakeholders.

Bryan Zhang, CCAF executive director

Other notable research collaborators are British International Investment PLC, London Stock Exchange Group, Mastercard, Visa, World Bank, and the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Link to Australian Research Program

The CCAF’s initiative is similar to that of the DFCRC – Digital Finance Co-operative Research Centre, an Australian-based research program that focuses on the digital finance sector and the latest fianancial technologies. The project raised A$181 million through local industry leaders including the Reserve Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, and the National Stock Exchange of Australia.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Regulation

Senator Urges Australian Blockchain Industry to Pick Up the Pace

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has urged the Australian blockchain industry to pick up the pace or risk falling behind other developed nations, saying Australia is likely to miss an opportunity to become a world leader in cryptocurrency if the government is not given more power to prioritise digital asset reform.

According to a report titled ‘Cryptocurrency and the Distributed Digital Economy in Australia’, cryptocurrency and related digital assets could generate A$68.4 billion for the Australian economy and create jobs for 205,700 people by 2030. The central issue is that Australia does not currently regulate crypto use and could potentially let this opportunity slip by.

Regulatory Framework a Long Time Coming

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has announced intentions to establish a regulatory framework to guide crypto’s future growth. However, such a plan will not be ready before the year’s end.

NSW Senator Bragg, a pro-crypto politician ranked #82 in the Cointelegraph Top 100 of People in Blockchain and Crypto 2021, has stated he would prefer this framework be put in place much sooner, despite acknowledging that “governments move slowly”.

NSW Senator Andrew Bragg, #82 on Cointelegraph’s Top 100 People in Blockchain and Crypto 2021. Source: ioandc.com

Bragg intends to call for increased treasury funding so dedicated units can work on these reforms. He is also set to insist on “broad, principle-based, regulation-making power delegated by law to a minister”, and is expected to request these changes prior to the release of the federal budget on March 29.

The Current State of Australian Crypto

Last October, the Australian Senate Committee finalised its 12-point crypto reform plan. The successful implementation of the long-awaited plan should alter the nation’s regulatory approach to the digital asset ecosystem. Bragg is a champion of this reform.

Before finalising the plan, the Australian Senate Committee hosted several hearings with domestic crypto-related businesses who shared their struggles with financial institutions denying or terminating banking services without notice – a practice known as ‘debanking’. The 12-point reform plan has a step dedicated to addressing this issue.

Categories
Blockchain NFTs Solana

Number of Daily Active Solana (SOL) Accounts Surges 300% Since Last Upgrade

A new report has found the estimated number of daily active users on the Solana blockchain has surged around 300 percent since the last network update in September 2021.

SOL daily active accounts. Source: OurNetwork

The report from OurNetwork – a substack newsletter that covers the Solana ecosystem – used Solana’s unique daily active signers figure as a proxy for daily active users: this figure peaked at 299,000 in late January but has since dropped off to around 232,000.

Unique signers peaked at 299,000 in late January, but tapered off a bit to 232,000 after the network’s most recent bout with degraded performance. Solana’s long-term uptrend has recently been bolstered by its two top wallets – Solflare and Phantom – launching their own iOS mobile apps, along with strong consumer participation in the Solana NFT market. 

OurNetwork report

Solana Ecosystem Sees Sustained Growth

This increase in Solana daily active signers follows a general long-term uptrend in usage of the blockchain since mid-2021. The NFT market in particular has been a strong driver of growth for Solana. Since the June 2021 launch of the Metaplex protocol, the number of unique NFT owners on the network has grown from 28,000 to almost 2.5 million:

SOL unique owners. Source: OurNetwork

User Growth Despite Outages, Security Concerns

Somewhat surprisingly, the growth in Solana users continues fairly consistently despite relatively frequent and major disruptions to the network. 

Already, in the first two months of 2022 Solana has seen multiple outages either due to DDoS attacks or the network being over-taxed by legitimate users.