Did you know WiFi was invented in Australia? Ultrasound scanners? Blackbox flight recorders?
Australia is a breeding ground for technological innovation — so what about blockchain? Australia is home to some world-leading blockchain projects!
In no particular order, here are 5 Aussie crypto projects to keep an eye on this year.
Immutable X (IMX): Sydney
Immutable X is the first Layer 2 scaling solution for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum. It’s a cutting edge protocol for NFTs which enables projects to build on Layer 2 Ethereum with a fantastic developer and user experience, and enables instant trading, massive scalability and zero gas fees for minting and trading, all without compromising user or asset security.
Immutable X is the most technically advanced solution for NFT scaling ever built, developed with StarkWare’s powerful STARK prover and rollup technology. Immutable believes NFT users and developers shouldn’t have to choose between the security and network effects of Ethereum, and creating a world-class experience for their users.
IMX is an ERC-20 utility token built for the purposes of rewarding pro-network activities on Immutable X, such as trading, liquidity provision and building applications. The token aligns incentives between traders, creators and marketplaces so that all participants benefit from protocol activity.
Oxen (OXEN): Melbourne
As the digital surveillance capabilities of governments and corporations continue to increase, projects like Oxen are doing their part to ensure the average joe has access to strong encryption technologies. Whether it’s trading, communication, or regular web browsing, Oxen has a privacy-first product to fill the need.
The Oxen team have developed two applications that demonstrate the power of their service node network, these are Session and Lokinet.
Session is a decentralised messaging app that uses onion-routing and end-to-end encryption for secure and anonymous communication. With over 300,000 monthly active users, Session is one of the most used dapps in all of web3.
Lokinet is a high speed onion-routing protocol which provides anonymous internet access. Lokinet is compatible with all web browsers, because it can run in the background instead of needing a specialised browser or plugin — so the user experience is more similar to VPNs than Tor. Because of Lokinet’s modern protocol and network architecture, it is significantly faster and more lightweight than other onion-routers — it can even handle things like video streaming.
All Oxen apps rely on the service node network to function. Service nodes are Oxen’s specialised staked nodes which secure the proof-of-stake blockchain. Service node operators stake OXEN to secure the network and are rewarded with OXEN coins for their service.
The OXEN cryptocurrency is an instant transaction privacy coin. With complete fungibility, OXEN coins cannot be traced, nor can specific OXEN coins be blacklisted by centralised entities.
To tie the ecosystem together and to reduce service node emissions, Session and Lokinet have planned monetisation features for services on their network, though its’ planned to keep all Oxen apps free to use.
Power Ledger (POWR): Perth
Power Ledger is an energy trading platform that allows buyers and sellers to trade energy directly with one another and without the need to go through a centralised power company.
Power Ledger offers a trustless trading platform where consumers can sell energy to their peers, allowing consumers to monetise their excess energy production and access cheaper energy by buying it directly from other users on the platform.
A permissioned based blockchain allows Powerledger to build and scale energy projects across the globe, processing 50,000+ transactions per second since shifting from Ethereum to Solana. This scalable technology is fast, transparent and secure. Powerledger’s blockchain technology facilitates secure trading and mitigates settlement risk, whilst also providing an immutable and verifiable audit trail.
In 2021, Carlton United Breweries partnered with Power Ledger to power their VB Solar Exchange program, which enables participants to track and trade their excess solar energy for VB beer.
Haven (XHV): Sydney
Haven is a project that aims to provide anyone, anywhere with access to true private digital assets in virtually any form they choose.
The Haven ecosystem gives you the ability to store, transact and convert your money into an asset type of your choice, all in complete privacy. It consists of 3 types of assets, which combine to give users genuine utility XHV, xUSD, and xASSETS.
Haven (XHV) acts as the network collateral, and has an elastic supply. It is volatile, so the price is set according to supply and demand on exchanges. Burning XHV is the only way to mint xUSD.
xUSD is a private stable coin which can always be converted to 1 USD worth of XHV. It’s created by burning the equivalent USD value of XHV. xUSD is the only currency that can be converted into xASSETS, so it also acts as a gateway between XHV and xASSETS.
xASSETS are price-stable synthetic assets which can be minted using xUSD and stored within a Haven Vault. In the future, there is virtually no limit to the number of xASSETS that could potentially be available. Currently, users can convert and transfer Gold (xAU), Silver (xAG), Bitcoin (xBTC), as well as a range of other fiat currencies. In the near future these assets will be tradeable on Thorchain’s decentralised exchange.
Emanate (EMT): Sydney
Emanate unites musicians and music lovers on a fast and fair collaboration and sharing platform where they can create and earn more. Emanate is much more than just a music streaming service, it brings transparency around royalty and rights distribution, allowing collaboration to occur effortlessly via smart collaborations on Emanate’s live platform.
The music industry—especially the streaming industry—has been marred by claims from artists that they are underpaid, misled, and exploited. Emanate co–founder Jimi Frew sees streaming platforms as an extension of the legacy music industry — and wants to bring the benefits of web3 to the music industry through Emanate.
Emanate is creating a more transparent music industry which makes life simpler and fairer for everyone to create and listen to music. With a specific focus on streamlining payments and agreements between collaborators. Soon, any label will be able to create a profile and start managing their artists.
Emanate has a growing number of artists, and an ever-increasing catalogue of music to enjoy. The best part is that when you listen to music, the artist will be getting paid in real time — truly linking creators and consumers.
Emanate puts power back into the hands of its users, the artists and the consumers. The EMT token can be used to access the full power of Emanate. It’s like owning a bit of the network for yourself, like creators and consumers owning a piece of Spotify.