Category: Cryptocurrencies

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Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Industries

Losses From Accidental Ethereum Transactions May Be On The Way Out

Accidental trades happen – sometimes with big consequences. Just last week, an Ethereum trader accidentally paid 23.51 ETH for a transaction in gas fees.

However, moments like these may be on the way out, thanks to a company named Kirobo.

A fintech start-up based in Tel Aviv, Kirobo gained notoriety for creating a product that reverses accidental Bitcoin transactions during June of 2020, citing a survey where 18% of responders stated that they lost funds due to human error. After a few more months of work, they have also made the technology available for Ethereum.

No More Human Error

The technology named Retrievable Transfer is available to MetaMask users – as well as any Ethereum trader who uses the WalletConnect protocol.

When making a transaction, the Retrievable Transfer user will receive a generated password. After the transfer is made, the trader will have the opportunity to look over all the details again, before sending the password to the receiver.

In order for a transaction to be successful, the receiver must also enter the password – otherwise, the funds can be reclaimed by the sender.

Asaf Naim – the CEO of Kirobo – says that the aim of him and his team when creating this tool was to eliminate the anxiety felt by customers when making a transaction by ensuring the impact of human error was negated.

The use of our logic layer finally eliminates the need to send a test transaction, sharply reducing the level of anxiety users feel when transferring funds to a third party.”

The Retrievable Transfer function also includes safeguards against man-in-the-middle attacks – as well as safeguards against Smart Contracts that don’t allow deposits.

With yet another barrier to crypto adoption on it’s way out, more widespread adoption should follow.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain Technology Now Supported By Aussie Politicians On Both Sides

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has been an ardent supporter of Blockchain technology for a while – with his latest show of support at the Future Of Financial Services 2020 conference calling for more measures to promote the use of blockchain to attract international investors.

However, it turns out he is not the only Australian political figure to support blockchain technology.

Conservative Support Of Cryptocurrency

On the 10th of November, noted conservative Cory Bernardi came out in support of Bitcoin.

Cory Bernardi – who has served as senator from 2006 to 2020 – stated his support for cryptocurrency after becoming more acquainted with the concept over the years.

He stated that despite having risks, so does any other asset – but the demand is getting stronger. He then went on to compare the digital asset to gold – which was the non-monetary asset preferred by private investors belonging to prior generations.

Kraken – a cryptocurrency exchange based in the USA – also stated earlier this year that if millennials would invest 5% of their inheritance in Bitcoin – with no other influences involved – the asset would get such a boost that a price of $350,000 per BTC could be reached.

Indeed, young adults have been far keener on adopting cryptocurrency than other demographics, in part due to its volatility – something projects like Qoin are trying to remedy.

Data published by RMIT  this summer showed that during the earlier months of lockdown, home trading volumes increased by  50% globally – and by 66% in Australia.

“Interest in DeFi – which is the beginnings of a new global digital financial system – is driving this current cryptocurrency price surge.”

Jason Potts – RMIT

Whatever the reason for this surge of interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency from all sectors – public and private, business and personal – the fact that personalities on both sides seem to espouse favorable views towards blockchain technology means that the rise of legislative barriers for even more crypto adoption seems quite unlikely.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies DeFi Ethereum

Ethereum 2.0 Will Go Operational Sooner Than Expected

Although the release of the Ethereum 2.0 system was originally slated to go live on the 3rd of January, the work on the big update to the blockchain behind the second biggest cryptocurrency — and the basis for many other blockchain-related projects — has gone smoothly and will be launching a little over a month earlier.

The test launch — named Medalla —  concluded in August with satisfying results. The team at Ethereum believes that the deposit contracts will attract investors once they are convinced that the tools are safe and that Ethereum 2.0 is the way forward.

From Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake

The biggest update to the Ethereum Blockchain will be the switch to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) version — which, unlike Proof-of-Work (PoW), will allow participants to link their cryptocurrency to the Ethereum network. 

Basically, a component of computational power in a PoW system is tied to a unit of mining power.

However, in a PoS system, the unit of mining power will be tied to a component of value  — in this case, a crypto token.

In order to ensure the Ethereum 2.0 launch goes as planned, almost 16,384 validators must stake 32 ETH or more. 

“Pre-genesis, the only active players on the Eth2 side are the beacon nodes; the validators spring into action immediately after the genesis event. The beacon nodes maintain the state of the system and talk to each other in a peer-to-peer network.”

Once this amount has been deposited, the Ethereum 2.0 launch will be complete. 

Vitalik Buterin — the man behind Ethereum — has made 100 transactions of 32 ETH himself to kick things off.


Whether the massive overhaul to Ethereum’s system will eventually cause Bitcoin to be outclassed remains to be seen. However, Ethereum has already served as the basis for countless other projects, and the way their blockchain is built encourages developers to take the project further —  and gives them all the tools necessary to do so.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency Law

Police Seize Nearly $1 Billion From Silk Road’s Hoard

This week, somebody transferred 69,369 BTC from a wallet believed to belong to the former owners of the Silk Road black market that was closed in 2013.

Although briefly brought back as Silk Road 2.0, the final nail in the coffin came on the 6th of November 2014 – exactly a year after the second iteration went online.

The wallet on the receiving end of the transaction was unknown until recently  – but the US Department of Justice confirmed in a press release on the 5th of November that they were behind it.

Ever since Paul Leslie Howard – an Australian national who was the first individual to be convicted of Silk Road-related crimes – was arrested and subsequently convicted for drug offences, law enforcement officials worldwide have been scrambling to confiscate assets that resulted from Silk Road’s sale of illicit drugs and other illegal merchandise.

Individual X

Five years after Ross Ulbricht – the creator of Silk Road – was sentenced to life behind bars, the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS managed to track down a stash of 69,369 BTC. Located in the world’s 4th biggest wallet, no transactions had been carried out involving it – until now.

It turns out a hacker – who goes by the online moniker “Individual X” – was the one who managed to take control of the crypto assets.

“According to the investigation, Individual X was able to hack into Silk Road and gain unauthorized and illegal access to Silk Road and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency from Silk Road and move it into wallets that Individual X controlled. According to the investigation, Ulbricht became aware of Individual X’s online identity and threatened Individual X for return of the cryptocurrency to Ulbricht.”

Individual X did not return the assets, in spite of the threats. He did, however, agree to transfer the funds to the US government, following an agreement with the San Francisco US Attorney’s Office.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Digital Asset Mining Mining

Uniswap Trader Accidentally Pays Thousands For A Relatively Small Transaction

 Although not as serious as the time over AUD 6 million in fees were paid out for a little over AUD 100 thousand, a Uniswap user recently made a comparably large blunder.

Human Error

When facilitating a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, miners are paid a fee for their effort – some to cover the cost of electricity resulting from the use of processing power, and some as profit. The cost of the transaction is referred to as “gas” and is measured in Gwei.

Although miner fees have been rising in recent months, the current average price is 0.0022 ETH – AUD 1.47 at the time this article was written.

In order to have their transaction prioritized, the person requesting the transaction can manually increase the miner fee. However, this leaves the door open for typos and other errors – such as the one made by a trader who goes by the alias “ProudBitcoiner” on Reddit.

While exchanging 0.2955 wrapped Ether (WETH) for 531 chi gas tokens (CHI) – an amount worth about 164 AUD – the trader accidentally paid 23.5172 ETH – worth almost AUD 13.5 thousand.

The trader stated in his Reddit post that the error arose when he mistakenly entered 200,000 in the “Gas Price” field instead of the “Gas Limit” field. The gas limit is the maximum amount of gas that can be used in a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain.

Although in the past miners have agreed to send back some or all of the money – such as when Sparkpool returned half of an accidental USD 300,000 fee to the sender – the decision to return the funds is ultimately up to the miner.

In the Reddit post, the unfortunate crypto trader stated that he had contacted the mining platform and was hoping to hear back from them.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency Law

RBA Partners With Perpetual, Consensys, And Others To Study CBDCs

In a press release, the Reserve Bank Of Australia Stated that they would be joining forces with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Perpetual, and ConsenSys Software in order to perform further research into the use of a wholesale CBDC.

Research Continues Despite Prior Reservations

This comes in the wake of an announcement in September that RBA will probably not be developing a CBDC – then recanting and continuing to study.

Whether this is due to banks in countries such as China, Germany, and the USA continuing research – the Chinese going so far as to test the digital yuan by handing out free digital currency to some Shenzhen residents – or a simple change of heart, it seems an Australian CBDC is being looked into more seriously than before.

The RBA hopes to develop a POC (proof-of-concept) system to create tokens for their tentative CBDC. This CBDC would be used for funding, settlement, and loan repayment by companies and individuals buying or selling products and services in wholesale qualities.

Like many other new cryptocurrencies, the new Aussie CBDC would be based on the Ethereum blockchain as a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) system.

Assistant Governor Michele Bullock stated that while the use of a CBDC remains up in the air, the interest by commercial partners in national cryptocurrencies has been noted.

“With this project, we are aiming to explore the implications of a CBDC for efficiency, risk management, and innovation in wholesale financial market transactions. While the case for the use of a CBDC in these markets remains an open question, we are pleased to be collaborating with industry partners to explore if there is a future role for a wholesale CBDC in the Australian payments system.”

The research should be done by the end of 2020, and the study group plans to release its results within the first half of 2021.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies Scams

Sydney-based Businessman Owns Up To Crypto Scam Worth Tens Of Millions

Running a firm specializing in private security, promoting concerts at the Sydney Opera House, and owning a sizable real estate portfolio – all respectable ventures that would lend an aura of trust to anyone. Unfortunately, it would appear the trust of nearly 150 Sydney residents was misplaced.

Ponzi Scheme

Back in 2017 during the cryptocurrency boom – Mr. Harpreet Singh Sahni started hosting seminars on cryptocurrency, claiming that “crypto is the safest investment possible.”, as reported by ABC News.

He also allegedly started advertising a cryptocurrency called Plus Gold Union Coin – and claimed the cryptocurrency was netting him between $5000 and $8000 a day.

Early adopters and investors are rumored to have been rewarded with huge commissions and expensive holidays for attracting even more investors. Coupled with the seemingly trustworthy nature of Mr. Sahni, news of the cryptocurrency spread rapidly.

Within a few months, investors across 22 countries had poured over $50 million into the cryptocurrency scam.

Mr. Sahni claimed that by depositing around $7000, investors could earn over $100,000 in a year.

However, in order to reap the large rewards, investors would have to lock into a contract that would not permit them to withdraw funds for 12 months.

Unfortunately, the PGUC website would go down for several weeks at a time – and when the crypto market crashed suddenly in December of 2017, users were understandably worried.

At the time, Mr. Sahini assured investors that everything was under control and that their assets were safe. Later on, he admitted he had taken advantage of close acquaintances to widen the scope of the project.

According to an investor whose name has been withheld – who had known him for  15 years – the $38,000 she had invested  together with her parents were invested with full confidence.

“We’ve always heard great things about him in terms of his ability to do charity or his ability to do service for God or for people.”

The investor admitted that she should probably have done more research before investing.

 After leaving investors in a sea of worry, August 2019 brought the news that Mr. Sahni had been arrested by New Delhi Police, following a complaint placed by Sydney real estate agent Rajiv Sharma.

Mr. Sahni has since stated in three written confessions that he had been approached by 3 men in early 2017 – who told him it was a scam – but he went with the plan anyway.

On the 25th of November, Mr. Sahni will appear in court – and face a maximum sentence of 25 years, if convicted.

Categories
Crypto Exchange Cryptocurrencies Payments

Huobi Simplifies Transactions

Following the support added for Banxa earlier this month, Huobi has taken more steps to increase the ease with which people around the world can buy cryptocurrency.

Native Support

Huobi has added support worldwide for Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards. This update will allow Huobi users to carry out transactions on the platform itself without being redirected to a third-party payment gateway.

Although Huobi supported Visa and Mastercard users before, a user attempting to make a payment or receive money through these cards was sent to a third-party processor – which often required users to go through another KYC process even after they had completed KYC for Huobi.

In an attempt to clear up confusion, Huobi has created a new entity – Huobi Gibraltar – in order to be able to process payments without extra steps for users situated in Europe and Australia, according to Ciara Sun, the Vice President of Global Business at Huobi Group.

“By removing an extra step in the user journey, we’re creating a frictionless experience.”

New currencies with native support from Huobi include – but are not limited to – AUD, ALL, BGN, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HRK, HUF, MDL, MKD, NOK, PLN, RON, SEK, TRY, UAH, HKD, and USD.

Huobi is currently the third-largest crypto exchange on the globe – if we’re going by volume. As of October 27, the company also holds the largest amount of Bitcoin in cold wallets of any company.

Cold wallets are never connected to the internet unless they are plugged into a PC or mobile device – if you are a personal user – or a server rack in order to transfer cryptocurrency.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies Digital Asset Mining Industries

Ebang Establishes Australian Subsidiary

On the 22nd of October, Ebang International Holdings Inc. established a full subsidiary in Australia. This is part of the company’s growth strategy, as they prepare to launch a Digital Asset Financial Service Platform to go with their hardware.

A Crypto Mining Hardware Company

Ebang International specializes in cryptocurrency mining rigs, and had a good run at the top of the cryptocurrency mining rig market in 2019.

A cryptocurrency mining rig is a setup used to mine cryptocurrencies using hardware generally used for PCs – with a twist. DIY mining rigs are generally composed of up to eight GPUs inside a case that keeps them cool. However, companies such as Ebang build professional mining rigs from scratch, often outclassing home-made mining rigs.

  After enjoying a growth period due to constantly rising sales, Ebang has decided to no longer limit themselves to hardware – and are hoping to launch their own financial service platform as soon as possible.

Mr. Dong Hu – the Chairman and CEO of Ebang International Holdings – stated that the interest in the Australian market comes in the wake of successful investments into blockchain technology across Australia, both by the private sector and the government.

“We are pleased to announce that the Company has established its presence in Australia in furtherance of our strategies to launch a comprehensive blockchain-enabled financial business and capture the growth opportunity along the value chain of the blockchain industry. We are currently applying for the Australian financial service license in preparation for our global expansion.”

Ebang has applied for the license necessary to run a financial business in Australia and is currently waiting for approval by Australian financial authorities.  

Categories
Australia Blockchain Cryptocurrencies

Reserve Bank Of New Zealand Is Now Looking Into CBDCs

While admitting that cash is still important to a large segment of the population, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Pūtea Matua – is looking into creating a digital currency of its own.

The Concept Of Money Is Changing

Whereas the Reserve Bank Of Australia seems to be indecisive when it comes to the need for a digital cryptocurrency – and how it may take shape – its New Zealand counterpart acknowledges that the very existence of money as we know it should no longer be taken for granted.

According to Governor Hawkesby, central banks will soon be facing big questions about the future of money – and should remain open to changes. He also stated that they will remain open-minded and see which way the wind blows.

In Australia, although the RBA has found “no strong public-policy case” – although the use of cash has been swiftly declining due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

However, research into CBDCs is still ongoing – a move other governments are also going with. Most notable among CBDC-sympathetic countries is China so far, where the DCEP (Digital Yuan) is already being tested by Shenzhen residents. The US Federal Reserve has also partnered up with the European Central Bank to research the pros and cons of digital currencies.

According to RBA Head Of Payments Tony Richards, any decision regarding the subject will be made with the goal of promoting efficiency in the payment system of Australia.

“Consistent with the Bank’s mandate to promote competition and efficiency in the payments system and contribute to the stability of the financial system, we will be continuing to consider the case for a CBDC, including how it might be designed, the potential benefits and policy implications, and the conditions in which significant demand for a CBDC might emerge.” 

Whether the RBA pushes forward or not remains to be seen. However, the Australian government’s sympathy towards blockchain technology so far just might tip the balance in the favour of CBDCs.