Category: Ethereum

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Amazon to Enable Crypto Payments This Year, Says Insider

Digital retail behemoth Amazon will reportedly accept BTC as payment by the end of 2021. The possibility of a native token also seems to be on the cards. A job posting on Amazon’s website has sparked speculation of a big move into the crypto space.  

Update July 28: Amazon have dismissed the rumours stating:  “Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true … We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon.”

According to reports from an Amazon insider, the company will “definitely” be accepting BTC as payment by the end of this year with the possibility of a native token existing.

Amazon posted a job advertisement over the weekend for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead” and wants someone who can “innovate within payments and financial system” to head up this position.

Not the First Time Amazon Has Advertised in the Crypto Field

The ad confirms recent speculation that the company will move to accept BTC and other cryptocurrencies as payment methods. An insider spoke to London business news publication City A.M. and gave a brief outline of Amazon’s plans for integrating crypto and blockchain technology.

This is not the first time that Amazon has posted a job offer in the crypto field. Twitter was abuzz with the news and this tongue in cheek job application stood out from the crowd.

According to the insider, Amazon will accept BTC payments by the end of 2021 and is not just going through the motions to set up crypto payments. The plan is an integral part of how Amazon will operate in the future.

Plans to move into crypto will start with BTC, but the company is keen to add other big cryptocurrencies once secure and fast methods of BTC payment have been established.

Should all go well with BTC, the company will then move on to accept Ethereum, Cardano, and BTC Cash before then bringing on about eight more of the world’s most popular cryptocurrencies.

The plan for adopting crypto reportedly comes from the very top of Amazon, Bezos himself.

Amazon Set to Launch Its Own Token

The involvement of a gigantic player such as Amazon will likely drive up the price of BTC and other larger alt coins. And Amazon’s plans for crypto do not stop here. It is reported that when all proposed crypto plans are integrated, the final move will be to create its own native token, reportedly by 2022.

The insider reported that after a year of experiencing crypto as a payment method, a move to tokenisation will take place.

This then becomes a multi-level infrastructure where you can pay for goods and services or earn tokens in a loyalty scheme. There’s little more to it, for now, but you can guarantee the Bitcoin plan will be monitored closely as opportunities with Amazon’s own version of a crypto will be explored.

Amazon insider

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Guest Author

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Binance Coin Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Hackers

THORChain Suffers Another Attack: $8 Million Held, Hacker Wants 10% Bounty

THORChain has been once again schooled by hackers who managed to take a further US$8 million in this latest attack, bringing the total losses to US$13 million for the month. The cross-chain crypto token exchange platform manages US$100 million in funds.

The “helpful” hackers were kind enough to leave a note explaining THORChain’s weaknesses and cautioned that the result could have been far more damaging had they gone for the vault (BTC, ETH and BNB). They added:

“Do Not Rush Code That Controls 9 Figures”

About the Exploit

THORChain stated that a hacker (or hackers) deployed a custom contract that was able to trick its Bifrost Protocol into receiving a deposit of fake assets, duping the network to mistakenly process refunds of real assets back to the hacker. The breach was a highly “sophisticated attack” and the hacker has requested a bounty of 10 percent of the funds stolen for services rendered.

The network has responsibly ceased operating until the code can be reviewed and deemed secure before launching again. A harsh and expensive lesson, perhaps, but events such as this are part and parcel of DeFi (decentralised finance) as the space is still in its infancy in the untamed wild west.

There were really only two options. Launch and accept the risk of issues, or not launch and stay in the 90 percent complete audit-review cycle for another six months. Both are difficult.

Thorchain spokesperson

Earlier this month, THORChain lost US$4.9 million in Ethereum drained in a previous attack. Daniel Kim, head of capital markets at Maple Finance, said: “There’s a constant battle for these smart contract securities firms to keep up with hackers. That said, the DeFi industry is still nascent … these issues lead to solutions.”

The price of $RUNE fell 17 percent on the day as a result. It had been trading as high as US$20 in May, though the current value is bouncing around the US$4 mark, down over 80 percent from its peak.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Scams

Influential Aussie Crypto Personality Remains Silent on Alleged Scam

A Twitter storm has erupted with Australian cryptocurrency influencer Alex Saunders at its centre, other investors alleging they’ve been “scammed” to help fund a possibly fictitious stablecoin project.

After leveraging the funds, believed to run to “eight figures”, with American derivatives exchange FTX, Saunders is said to have “lost the lot”.

“It’s clear a lot of people have been scammed,” tweeted victim Ben Armstrong, aka @Bitboy_Crypto. “I’ve been holding this back but now I think it’s necessary for people to know the truth.”

Alex asked me for a 5 bitcoin [BTC] loan back in early March [the BTC price reached its peak for that month at $9,160.39 on March 7]. I gave it to him as a friend. Big mistake.

Ben Armstrong, aka Bitboy_Crypto

Another Twitter user, Richard Heart (@R.Heart), recounted a similar tale of woe, his involving 50 bitcoin (worth approximately A$2.5 million). “Alex begged me for a 50 BTC loan,” Heart tweeted, “then tried to sell me a ‘pre-allocation’ in a token. Then tried to sell me on just giving him money to talk.”

Recently, they were doing a live stream discussing Heart’s crypto project, called HEX, and Heart cut Saunders off the call abruptly after the latter claimed to have “exposed $HEX as a fraud“.

“This Is Now Over Eight Figures of Fraud”

Saunders, who has been curiously silent on social media for some weeks despite his previously high public profile, is the founder and CEO of crypto media channel Nugget’s News. He describes himself in his Twitter profile as “a post-GFC investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum”, and claims to have been involved in “crypto, finance and economics education since 2012”.

On July 23, Twitter user @DeFi_Ted voiced what some of Saunders’ alleged victims were thinking:

Another Twitter user, JP (@JP_Technology), in a slightly more tongue-in-cheek tweet, suggested Saunders’ disappearance from the public sphere might be just the “tip of the iceberg”, hinting at a broader industry-wide issue.

Crypto News has tried to make contact with Saunders to get his comments, but he has thus far remained silent.

Ironically, Saunders has in the past been quick to blow the whistle on other scams affecting the crypto community. He reportedly lost thousands of dollars to a fake Uniswap mobile application hosted on the Google Play store last November.

And earlier this year, Saunders called Gold Coast-based retail-targeted cryptocurrency Qoin “a massive scam” and urged people to “get their money out before it collapses”. Qoin’s membership of Blockchain Australia was terminated amid the claims.

After a reported A$26 million lost in Australia crypto scams in 2020 alone, the crypto community is urged to stay vigilant and be aware of the current crypto scams going around.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Dogecoin Ethereum Sports

Surf Legend Kelly Slater Wants to Create His Own Crypto

Champion surfer and environmentalist Kelly Slater has expressed an ambition to add a personalised cryptocurrency brand to his list of 11 world titles.

The 49-year-old American has long observed the progress of Bitcoin and Ethereum and says the prospect of hitching a crypto asset to his latest green project is his next challenge after 40 years at the sporting forefront.

Slater has been focusing his attention on a wood recycling company and hopes to link a crypto coin to his environmental endeavours.

I’ve started reaching out to people in the crypto world who make these things. We’ll see if there’s something we can do that’s a positive one, and not a fly-by-night coin where people are just trying to make a quick buck overnight.

Kelly Slater

The Florida native says he has a basic understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency, and their relationship to world economies.

I think it’s interesting to have a currency – a store of value – that isn’t controlled by a CEO or a government. It’s an exciting, rare time for people to do their investing themselves.

Dogecoin and Its Ilk “Need to Disappear”

Slater doesn’t want his crypto to be a meme currency like Dogecoin, which “literally has zero purpose for anyone”. In fact, he adds:  “Those all need to disappear.” A new technology, he says, “should have some kind of utility or protocol that makes a company or people’s lives better”.

The champion surfer would approve of Quebecois bitcoin mining company Bitfarms, which listed on NASDAQ last month and is committed to using green energy. More than 99 percent of the power it uses to run its operations comes from hydroelectric energy.

He’d also be happy to know that Ethereum 2.0 is greener and better for the environment – up to 99 percent more sustainable, according to some industry observers.

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Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Hackers

DeFi Project Thorchain Attacked, Draining $4.9 Million Worth of Ethereum

Thorchain has suffered a second attack, draining millions in assets from the protocol. The attack was brought on by an unforeseen exploit in the ETH Bifrost allowing for an intuitive attack vector.

Initially it was thought that close to 13,000 Ethereum (ETH) had been stolen but according to an update posted by Runebase, it is now estimated at about 2,500 ETH. The update also stated that “the discrepancy may be due to additional loss from arbitrageurs taking advantage of the price manipulation”.

While the treasury has the funds to cover the stolen amount, we request the attacker get in contact with the team to discuss return of funds and a bounty commensurate with the discovery.

Thorchain Telegram administrator

Other protocols like Rari have also been able to reimburse their proponents after being hacked.

Decentralised Community Protecting the Network

When trying to attack an open-source decentralised protocol, you’re not just attacking the developers but the community as well. Communities and node administrators have various incentives to protect the network, not just for the value they have pumped in, but the value they get out from time and effort spent building and securing the network.

The issue was discovered by a community developer and when anonymous nodes started voluntarily using the “make halt” command to stop their nodes, the emergency was made clear. Once more than a third of the nodes had been halted, the network itself was halted. This was a decentralised action taken by node operators to protect the network.

DeFi Targeted by Attackers

As DeFi is one of the more recent innovations in blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT), much of what is happening in the space is innovative. In spaces such as these, there will always be room for improvement and considerations not yet made, but as the space matures so will the knowledge and experience of risks.

So far this year, millions have been stolen in DeFi hacks, in various ways ranging from coding errors to rug pulls. Thorchain was in good stead after its price dropped only 14 percent following the attack. Other tokens like FinNexus (FNX) had dropped 90 percent after being hacked.

As the space matures many lessons will be learnt, but as these exploits occur developers are documenting and fixing them, strengthening protocols and best practices. In the long run, this will work to the advantage of the crypto industry as a whole.

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Australia Bitcoin Cash Crypto Debit Cards Crypto News Ethereum Payments Ripple

First Aussie VISA Crypto Debit Card Officially Approved

Visa has approved the issuance of physical crypto debit cards to allow Australians to pay for goods at local stores and venues without having to exchange crypto to fiat, but using bitcoin (BTC) and other assets directly.

There are various companies working together to bring the first crypto spending card to Australians. Aussie software technology firm Novatti Group is in charge of the card issuance while New York-licensed custodian BitGo will safeguard the assets.

Transactions will be made through CryptoSpend, an Australian startup that called the attention of the payment giant and approved the project after reviewing the startup’s compliance with anti-money laundering regulations. 

Co-founder of CryptoSpend, Richard Voice, says the number of Aussie users who want to use crypto in their local stores is increasing every day.

We have customers that range from 18-year-old students to 70-year-old grandmothers. [This] further emphasises the growing appetite for people of all ages to use crypto as an everyday currency.

Richard Voice, CryptoSpend

First BTC Spending Card in Australia

There are several crypto debit cards for Aussies, but their use is restricted and no Australian payment application is in charge of their issuance.

Visa has already approved debit cards issuance for various crypto-exchanges worldwide, but they are not yet available in Australia. This card, which is slated to arrive in September, is the first to allow Aussies to use cryptoassets on an Australian payments card.

Australian customers can download the app via AppStore or Google Play and fund their portfolio with other assets besides bitcoin, including ethereum (ETH), ripple (XRP), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

In February, the number of users on the Visa network increased exponentially as they were using crypto cards to convert crypto to fiat to spend it on merchants worldwide. The payment giant said this trend was “unmistakable”.

For the tens of millions of people using those platforms, one of the simplest ways to spend crypto is through a Visa card. We’re seeing digital wallets and crypto platforms build payment products entirely with digital currency.

Visa spokesperson
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Bitcoin Crypto News Dogecoin Ethereum Ethereum Classic Market Analysis

Q2 2021 Crypto Returns Analysis: BTC -38%, ETH +13%, DOGE +391%

The cryptocurrency market took a big hit in the second quarter of the year, to the extent that almost US$1 trillion was wiped off the entire crypto market capitalisation from the all-time high (ATH) in May. 

Comparison of crypto returns. Source: Coin Metrics

In Q2 2021, Bitcoin (BTC) registered its worst quarterly performance for the past three years. However, Dogecoin (DOGE), Ether (ETH), and a few other major altcoins made positive returns within the same period. 

BTC Returned -38%, Worst Record Since 2018

Bitcoin had been in an uptrend during the first three months of this year. However, it began tumbling in value shortly after reaching an all-time high of over US$63,000 on April 14. Based on data from Coin Metrics, BTC closed Q2 with a negative return of -38 percent. 

Besides the bear market, some developments may have contributed to the significant drop in BTC. These include Tesla’s suspension of Bitcoin payments and the recent crackdown on Bitcoin mining in China. 

Dogecoin Led Q2 With +391% Return

Despite the fact that the largest crypto tanked heavily in Q2, a few major altcoins came out with positive returns, including Ethereum (ETH).

At today’s price of US$2,000, ETH has lost about 54 percent value from its ATH of US$4,362 on May 12. However, it still pulled through the second quarter with about 13 percent gain.

It’s worth noting that the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) was the best-performing major crypto in Q2, based on the data from Coin Metrics. Dogecoin posted a return of 391 percent in Q2, although it has lost over 70 percent of its value from the ATH. 

Ethereum Classic (ETC) and MATIC follow on the list with about 297 and 226 percent gains, respectively.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Solana

Australia’s Power Ledger Ditches Ethereum for Solana Blockchain

Australian renewable energy trading platform Power Ledger has announced its migration from Ethereum to Solana, favouring the latter’s higher throughput and speed. 

Power Ledger will migrate its Powerledger Energy Blockchain to Solana, benefiting from its PoH (Proof of History) consensus, allowing greater scalability and better overall performance than the traditional Proof of Work mechanism.

The Power Ledger technology stack was originally built on a low-power POS consortium chain called EcoChain in 2016 before transitioning to a modified fee-less Proof-of-Authority Ethereum consortium chain in 2017. That served its purpose in the short term but the limitations of this solution were always very apparent, including low transactions per minute.

John Bulich, co-founder, Power Ledger

However, the company isn’t terminating its relationship with Ethereum. The platform is moving its blockchain to Solana and staking will happen there, but POWR (Power Ledger’s utility token) will continue to use the ERC20 standard.

POS will occur on our Powerledger Energy Blockchain but will be linked to our existing POWR (ERC20) token, which remains on Ethereum mainnet, with both the stake and rewards convertible and payable in existing POWR tokens.

John Bulich

Solana is Gaining Traction in the DeFi Market

Solana’s high throughput, speed, and innovative technology have caught the attention of the DeFi market, putting pressure on Ethereum to meet investors’ demand for higher scalability and speed as adoption increased.

As reported last month, Solana received a funding injection of US$300-450 million to challenge Ethereum. Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are working in ETH 2.0 in a major protocol upgrade that will improve transaction time, scalability, and shift from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.

Solana on the other hand has Proof of History – a consensus mechanism introduced by CEO Anatoly Yakovenko as an alternative to Proof of Stake and Proof of Work. PoH can be defined as a cryptographic clock that puts a timestamp on every transaction to prove it occurred on the network within a given period.

Last year, Power Ledger successfully completed a trial with US wholesale electricity provider American PowerNet.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Dogecoin Ethereum

TikTok Bans Users From Promoting Cryptos

Popular social media platform TikTok has banned its users from promoting financial products and services, including those related to cryptocurrency. The company also prohibits ads relating to crypto.

Crypto is on TikTok’s list of prohibited products and services, which also includes lending and management of money assets, loans and credit cards, trading platforms, foreign exchange, pyramid schemes and investment services.

In most countries, including the US and UK, TikTok bans “ads promoting virtual currencies/cryptocurrencies (eg bitcoin and ethereum), as well as cryptocurrency trading platforms and advisory services”.

TikTok’s move came after individuals were warned about taking financial information from TikTok amid concerns it could be misleading young savers or investors.

Martin Bamford, head of client education at Informed Choice, believes TikTok is “clamping down on directly or indirectly sponsored content which leads to an affiliate link, for example, to sign up to a trading platform and get free stocks”.

We see a huge amount of this branded content on TikTok, usually from poorly informed commentators, who lure in followers with promises of riches but in reality are making their money off people signing up via affiliate links.

Martin Bamford, head of client education, Informed Choice

Many people have been using TikTok to promote cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin (DOGE). Some TikTok videos have even pumped the prices of various cryptocurrencies.

Ban Good for Consumer Protection?

Almost exactly a year ago, the Australian government warned that TikTok was under scrutiny for any potential risks it might pose to user privacy or even national security.

The ability to advertise on TikTok is still an option for some, as the real issue lies with influencers who are paid a flat fee or commission for endorsing certain coins, exchanges, dApps, or other related products.

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Banking Crypto News Ethereum Institutions

Sygnum the World’s First Bank to Offer ETH 2.0 Staking as a Service

Swiss bank Sygnum is officially the world’s first digital asset bank to offer Ethereum 2.0 staking as a service. The bank will stake its clients Ethereum (ETH) to generate up to seven percent yield per annum.

Sygnum and regulatory body, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), can now offer clients Ethereum staking services on their institutional-grade platform via a simple user-friendly setup:

With Ethereum powering the exponential growth of decentralised finance (DeFi) applications, staking is a compelling choice for long-term Ethereum investors also seeking attractive yields.

Sygnum

Sygnum already offers staking for the Tezos blockchain, as well as yield generation for its Digital Swiss Franc stablecoin (DCHF). However, the bank has various exchanges and pools to compete with. This offer is one for those who don’t want to get down and dirty with buying crypto and the perceived intricacy of moving it to a staking pool.

Higher Yields than Traditional Interest Rates

With interest rates of savings accounts in the US barely breaking one percent, and some of the best in Australia nearing three percent, the offer is “a digital asset alternative for yield generation in today’s low or negative interest rate environment”.

Bankrate, one of the leading providers of rates and financial information, shows that its top-rated online high interest account returns 0.57% APY.

And when considering real interest rates (bank lending rate minus inflation) in developed countries, most of them are sitting under 4%, with Australia’s at 1.65% in 2019.

US 10-year Real Treasury rate. Source: Multpl

With the US currently sitting at a negative real interest rate, people are looking for places to keep their money where it won’t be eaten away by inflation and decreasing interest rates.

Staking as a Long Term-Investment

Staking involves the locking up of assets to participate in the validation of transactions on proof-of-stake blockchains, with a financial ‘reward’ provided in exchange.

Sygnum

By staking Ethereum, investors hold an asset that has had a year-to-date growth (YTD) of 220 percent. So not only can the asset grow in value, but one also receives a percentage growth of the asset itself as a reward for contributing to the consensus process.

Sygnum clients can participate in the new proof-of-stake Ethereum and benefit from potentially higher staking rewards now. This is a compelling choice for long-term investors in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Thomas Brunner, head of accounts and custody, Sygnum

Most recently the number hit 6.1 million Ethereum being staked, with more than 185,000 validators. The amount of ETH being staked equates to over US$14 billion in Ethereum.

The digital asset bank is also looking to support DeFi assets, launching regulated banking services for eight leading tokens including Uniswap (UNI), Maker (MKR), and Curve DAO Token (CRV).