Category: Industries

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Australia Crypto News Industries Payments

Aussie Entrepreneur Banks $267 Million After Selling Crypto Start-up ‘Wyre’ 

Well-known US e-commerce platform Bolt has bought the crypto payment service Wyre in a billion-dollar deal, with the Aussie start-up’s founder joining the Young Rich List as the Silicon Valley deal earns him more than A$260 million.

On May 5, Bolt announced that it had acquired Wyre for an estimated US$1.5 billion, netting the latter company’s Australian founder, Michael Dunworth, an estimated A$267 million for handing over his 12.5 per cent holding in the company.

Secure, Regulated Crypto-to-Fiat Payments

Wyre uses blockchain-based technology to offer merchants fast cross-border payments. The start-up also vends a crypto-based payments application programming interface (API) that allows businesses to plug directly into secure, regulated crypto-to-fiat payment infrastructure.

Founded in 2013, Wyre has spent the intervening years attaining its money-transmitter licences, now valid in 27 US states and also legally operable in China and Brazil.

This acquisition will pave the way for seamless, secure crypto transactions, and NFT enablement for our retailers.

Maju Kuruvilla, CEO, Bolt

Growing Demand to Pay with Crypto

According to the press release from Bolt, the acquisition was made because of the “growing demand for purchasing goods and services with cryptocurrency and the opportunity of Web3”. Wyre’s API will help reduce the barriers to entry to utilise cryptocurrencies for payments from Bolt’s massive list of retailers.

Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla also stated in an interview that he hopes the integration will increase crypto adoption as it allows new functionality for “every crypto asset, every chain, to every merchant, irrespective of any shopping platform”.

Bolt is an incumbent in the payments space, and they can see crypto is where the market is heading […] They are like Peter Parker, and we’re the spider that’s going to bite them, turning them into Spider-Man.

Michael Dunworth, founder and CEO, Wyre

The newly added crypto functionality is planned to be fully integrated before the end of the year. Once complete, the acquisition will bring the power of Bolt’s CheckoutOS – its one-click checkout service that helps with authentication, payments, and fraud protection – to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

This acquisition is the fulfilment of a longtime ambition. When I wrote the draft business plan for Bolt, I had always imagined cryptocurrency at its centre.

Ryan Breslow, founder and executive chairman, Bolt

Another Australian blockchain start-up, Lygon, recently secured more than A$12 million in funding for the joint venture of the ‘Big Four’ Australian banks and IBM to create the first digital bank guarantee.

Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Industries

Tesla Powered Megapack Battery Uses 100% Solar Energy to Mine Bitcoin

Tesla, Block, and Blockstream are working together to build an open-source bitcoin mine that operates by only using renewable energy. The project will make all data available and aims to make such “green” mining ventures more viable.

Industry Leaders Team Up for Green Bitcoin Mining

In the Bitcoin (BTC) mining sector, some of the world’s biggest players have started collaborating to build the next generation of mining facilities. According to an announcement from Blockstream and Block Inc (formerly known as Square), both companies will be teaming up with Tesla to build a fully solar-powered bitcoin mining facility in Texas, US.

The facility will be powered by the 3.8 megawatt (MW) Tesla Solar PV array and energy stored in the 12 megawatt-hour (MWh) Megapack. The facility will also be an “open-source” proof-of-concept bitcoin mine operating on 100 per cent renewable energy.

The mine will process an estimated 30 petahashes per second and is anticipated to be complete before the end of this year. The entire project will be conducted to determine the feasibility of a solar-powered mining operation. This project was initiated in mid-2021 when Square invested US$5 million into infrastructure for the solar-powered crypto mine.

Mining Data to be Freely Accessible

By saying the mine will be “open-source” means that regular reports about the economics of the project will be made publicly accessible. Important metrics such as power output, bitcoin mined, and at a later stage, key metrics about the solar performance will be made available.

We figured we would actually make it a reality and public information in a more transparent way that’s usually done for commercial competitiveness reasons so that we can have a more informed discussion […] If we publish the raw data, the raw financial information, it speaks for itself.

Adam Back, Blockstream CEO

The data will be displayed through a 24/7 dashboard accessible through a browser, “providing the industry with a real-world, real-time case study of a zero-emission energy Bitcoin mine”.

People like to debate about the different factors to do with bitcoin mining. We figured, let’s just prove it. Have an open dashboard so people can play along; maybe it can inform other players to participate.

Adam Back, Blockstream CEO

If the project is successful, it will be operable from anywhere without the need for local infrastructure. This makes carbon-free bitcoin mining at scale available to anyone with a few million to spare for the infrastructure.

Advancing Bitcoin and Renewable Energy

Blockstream CEO Adam Back believes that “by collaborating on this full-stack, 100 percent solar-powered bitcoin mining project using solar and storage technology from Tesla, we aim to further accelerate bitcoin’s synergy with renewables”.

The rush for a green bitcoin has seen many companies change and innovate ways to make BTC sustainable. However, a recent report from digital asset management firm CoinShares stated that the network’s contribution to global carbon emissions was “inconsequential”.

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Australia Crypto News Industries NFTs

Qantas Launches NFTs Despite Environmental Pushback

Australian airline Qantas is one of the newest major ASX-listed companies to include a non-fungible token (NFT) offering. The offering, however, has since seen considerable pushback from the community, citing environmental concerns with NFTs and other issues.

World First for Australian Airline

Qantas’s digital collection of memorabilia is a first for any airline to allow users to buy, sell, and collect NFTs and also enable buyers to earn Qantas Points. Holders might also have something extra to look forward to with Qantas stating, “exciting future benefits for Qantas NFT holders [are] under way”.

Chief customer officer Stephanie Tully said customers have been collecting physical Qantas memorabilia for years and NFTs would be the newest iteration. According to its post, the ‘Flying Kangaroo’ will allow cash transactions as well as crypto when it launches the NFT collection mid-year.

A Qantas NFT collection allows us to engage the next generation of aviation and digital art enthusiasts, leveraging blockchain technology to celebrate our heritage and future.

Stephanie Tully, chief customer officer, Qantas

Qantas Customers Take to Twitter

However, very few commentators on Twitter seemed to be as excited as Qantas about its new offering:

NFTs have become popularised as a way for audiences to have a new way of engaging with their favourite brands. On the other hand, some see them as a money grab scheme implemented by businesses to create a new revenue stream:

NFTs have boomed in the past year – according to Chainalysis, in 2021 a minimum of US$44.2 billion was sent to NFT contracts – though they have also come under fire for facilitating greater carbon emissions and running on unsustainable blockchains.

In February, Salesforce employees protested the company’s plan to implement the novel technology. And according to recent statements from WWF and Uber, Bitcoin and NFTs are both still too power-hungry and neither organisation will accept them until they’re greener.

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Banking Industries Metaverse Sports The Sandbox

$3 Trillion Financial Services Giant HSBC Enters the Metaverse with Sandbox

One of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations – with assets worth US$2,958 billion as at December 31, 2021 – has bought space in the metaverse. HSBC aims to take sports engagements to the next level by buying plots of LAND in The Sandbox (SAND) and dedicating it to esports and gaming enthusiasts.

According to a blog post from Sandbox, the banking giant will be purchasing a considerable amount of LAND in the metaverse to create a space where esports and gaming enthusiasts can connect.

HSBC plot of LAND. Source: Medium

Sandbox hopes this will open the doors for other institutions to join the metaverse as a new platform to reach out and create better-gamified offerings. HSBC joins over 200 existing partnerships including Gucci, Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg and Adidas, among some other big names.

Through our partnership with The Sandbox we are making our foray into the metaverse, allowing us to create innovative brand experiences for new and existing customers. We’re excited to be working with our sports partners, brand ambassadors, and Animoca Brands to co-create experiences that are educational, inclusive and accessible.

Suresh Balaji, chief marketing officer, Asia-Pacific, HSBC

With the metaverse market forecast to grow from US$45.4 billion in 2019 to a staggering US$1.5 trillion in 2030, according to PWC, other institutions are trying to find their niche in the metaverse.

SAND Token Spikes After News

The native SAND token from the Sandbox project saw a spike up from the US$2.80 zone where it has been ranging for the past few days. At the time of writing the coin had gone up to US$3.21, a near 15 per cent increase. However, the coin is still 65 per cent down from its all-time high in November.

SAND/USDT price. Source: CoinMarketCap

HSBC Bans Binance Crypto Purchases

To some extent, HSBC still has its reservations toward crypto. Since August 2021, the bank has suspended payments to Binance and has also barred its clients from investing in stocks of companies that hold bitcoin, such as Microstrategy or Block:

In early 2021 the bank said it had “no plans to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk” or offer cryptocurrencies as investments to customers, Reuters reported.

As the adoption of crypto steadily increases, more and more large institutions are opting to embrace it. In November 2021, ING, the Dutch financial service giant – with US$1 trillion under management – started looking into DeFi, while Australia’s CBA is also supporting crypto purchases, making it the first bank down under to do so.

Categories
Industries Korea NFTs Theta Theta Network

New Samsung Galaxy Smart Phones to Come with Theta-Based NFTs 

To celebrate the launch of new flagship models Galaxy S22 smartphone and S8 tablet, tech giant Samsung will be dropping collectible non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through ThetaDrop to South Korean customers who pre-order the new devices.

Samsung has once again included NFTs in one of its new offerings. After the pre-order period, customers who pre-order and pre-book the new Galaxy S22 smartphone or S8 tablet will need to register on ThetaDrop – the official Theta NFT marketplace – to collect their commemorative NFTs via their phones.

Samsung announcement (Korean). Source: Samsung

Pre-orders opened on February 9, and the devices are planned to launch officially on February 25.

According to a tweet from Mitch Liu, co-founder and CEO of Theta Network, customers who hold the commemorative NFT will be provided with “ongoing membership benefits and privileges”.

Our NFT collaboration with Samsung Electronics truly exemplifies global adoption of Theta’s blockchain technology and marks an important milestone in the growth of our core blockchain purpose built for the video, media and entertainment industry.

 Mitch Liu, co-founder and CEO, Theta Labs

Samsung’s Long-Standing Relationship with Theta

Samsung has worked with the Theta network on previous occasions but has now decided to use the blockchain for its specialised capabilities in video, media and entertainment to mint and issue the NFTs:

Samsung’s long-standing relationship with Theta began in 2019 when its venture capital arm invested in Theta Labs as part of its commitment to new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and fintech. Samsung also collaborated with Theta when developing its new smart TVs that could act as a media hub and a node to expand the Theta network.

TVs can become relay nodes that are effectively on the edge of the network, and onboarding hundreds of thousands to millions of these devices could significantly bolster Theta’s network capacity.

Theta Network

Samsung has made quite a strong push into the crypto sector and has even opened a flagship store in Decentraland. The Korean company has on multiple occasions added some kind of blockchain functionality to its products, which will certainly support mainstream adoption in the long run.

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Bitcoin Charity Crypto News Industries

GoFundMe Withholds Freedom Funds Highlighting the Importance of Crypto Donations

GoFundMe has withheld US$8 million in donations to the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser for Canadian truckers after police stated it was no longer a peaceful protest. With an investigation pending into GoFundMe, this situation makes a clear case against centralised crowdfunding entities.

Vaccine Mandate Leads to Blockade

The Canadian insurrection has been driven by the Covid mandate requiring that all truck drivers crossing the US-Canadian border be vaccinated. Thousands of truckers in Canada have since gathered in capital Ottawa to protest the mandate and the force with which the state was handling the situation. During the debacle, a fundraiser was started on GoFundMe that raised an estimated C$10million for the protest.

On February 4, however, GoFundMe announced via Twitter that it would stop the fundraiser and reimburse the donors automatically:

According to a BBC report, GoFundMe shut down the fundraiser because the protest was deemed no longer peaceful, stating that “we now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity”. As a result, the company stopped the fundraiser since it was in violation of its terms.

However, truckers insist the protests have been peaceful but that the state is looking for a way to curb the protest due to its ramifications for the city:

How Decentralised Donations Could Solve the Problem

With GoFundMe deciding to scrap the fundraiser, others in the decentralised community have stepped up to create a fund that can’t be blocked by authorities. One such instance is HonkHonk Hodl, which uses the Lightning Network to donate satoshis (fractions of bitcoin) to the Freedom Convoy.

The Canadian Bitcoin community would like to have a second financial access point for #FreedomConvoy2022. Legacy financial infrastructure can sometimes be politicised and clamped down upon, whereas Bitcoin is a truly censorship-resistant method of communicating value. Don’t allow your voices to be silenced, and don’t allow your financial sovereignty to be trampled upon. 

HonkHonk Hodl

HonkHonk Hodl has at this stage reached its goal of 600,000 satoshis, and is in fact well beyond with over 9 BTC (900,000,000 satoshis). Big names in the industry have joined the cause, with KrakenFX CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell, for example, making a donation:

Categories
Bitcoin Mining Crypto News Digital Asset Mining Industries

Intel Set to Launch a More Energy-Efficient Crypto Mining Chip

Semiconductor giant Intel could be about to join the Bitcoin mining business with a new chip designed to make the process more efficient.

Intel is poised to unveil a new crypto mining chip at one of the foremost conferences on the advancement of chips and circuits, at next month’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

On the agenda for February 23, day four of the confab, is the Q&A of “Bonanza Mine”, an “Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC” which might step into the ring this year with other ASIC miners such as those provided by Bitmain and MicroBT. Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners are special processors designed to execute one type of workload, making them ideal for mining compared to GPUs.

Intel’s Bitcoin mining ASIC presentation set for ISSCC on February 23.

ASIC Miners Set to be a Game Changer

Details are limited but considering the focus on sustainable Bitcoin mining over recent months, the new ASIC miners could be a game-changer for the company expanding into new avenues. Bitcoin mining is becoming more prevalent all over the world; in Australia, for example, Sydney-based crypto mining company Mawson has acquired 17,352 ASIC bitcoin mining rigs.

In an interview in December, Intel’s Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) senior vice-president Raja Koduri hinted that the company might be working on something for the crypto industry: “Being able to do much more efficient blockchain validation at a much lower cost, [using] much lower power, is a pretty solvable problem. And we are working on that, and hopefully not too far into the future we will share some interesting hardware for that.”

Intel Could Bring Mining to the Mainstream

In general, ASIC manufacturers price their components highly since they rely on third parties to produce their chips, and miners are notorious for their supply shortages. Last year there were major shortages of GPUs due to miners snatching them up, which led US manufacturer Nvidia to implement limiting software to prevent them being used for mining.

Intel could become a significant competitor purely because of its capacity to produce a large supply of chips. By cutting the main cost of electricity, mining becomes more sustainable and affordable, thereby also increasing profits. Even on a small scale, an Australia piggery has done this by using excess methane to power its Bitcoin mining sideline.

Categories
Gaming Industries NFTs Play to Earn

SEGA Backtracks on NFT Plans after Fan Backlash

SEGA has put its NFT plans on the backburner after copping considerable backlash from players across the globe, many of whom are calling it another “money grab” scheme from gaming companies.

Following a SEGA management meeting held on December 24, SEGA president and CEO Haruki Satomi mentioned that his views on the play-to-earn model were still to be decided. However, back in April 2019 when the company announced to some of its global customers that it was going to produce NFTs, some responses had been “negative”.

Satomi added that “if it is perceived as simple money-making, I
would like to make a decision not to proceed”. At the moment, there seems to be an uprise from gamers against the P2E model and NFTs built into games, especially in the light of what happened with Ubisoft Quartz last month.

As companies continue to gauge the reaction of this new wave of in gaming going forward, others are jumping in head-first. Recently, the creator of SimCity launched an NFT game in which players are also creators, but it is seen more as an educational game.

Not All Gamers Like NFTs

Gamers worldwide have been growing tired of big gaming companies finding new ways to make money off their clients, before loot boxes were even a thing. For some, adding NFTs looks like another way to make just that happen.

SEGA’s Vision of a Metaverse

Satomi also briefly touched on the metaverse, stating that as a concept it would possibly change in the next five years. He sees the metaverse as a place where a community can gather, but says that shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of a game.

We want to make Super Game as a game that supports global and multi-platform with having a network and a community. If such a game has a competitive element called PvP [player vs player], it could turn into an e-sport.

Haruki Satomi, president and CEO, SEGA

The creators of Sonic added that if they ever go into the blockchain space, they would “work with partners on new technologies and domains, including NFTs, rather than dealing with them in-house”.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Gaming Industries Metaverse NFTs

Report Reveals NFT Gaming Generated $2.3 Billion in Q3 Alone

A report published by the blockchain game alliance (BGA) shows that non-fungible token (NFT) games generated billions in revenue in the third quarter and generally saw remarkable growth throughout the year.

According to the report, the third quarter of 2021 was dominated by NFT gaming, with 2.5 million Unique Active Wallets (UAWs) connected to blockchain dApps on average “making blockchain games responsible for half of all blockchain usage”.

With the surge in NFT games, the sector accumulated US$2.32 billion in revenue between July and September, representing 22 percent of total NFT trading volume industry-wide for that period.

The report also cited DappRadar’s data showing a 6,566 percent increase in daily UAWs interacting with game-related smart contracts, rising from 23,100 in Q3 2020 to 1.54 million daily in Q3 2021. However, UAW numbers do not translate to unique users, since a single individual might use multiple wallets to interact with a single dApp.

The Metaverse Raking in Digital Dollars

The metaverse has drawn much attention since a few major names in the tech industry mentioned they were dipping their toes in. The industry was also fuelled by virtual land sales that hit US$42.6 million and are continuing to grow; the market cap for virtual world dApps reached a new all-time high, surpassing US$4.6 billion at the end of November.

Blockchain gaming has firmly established itself as the industry’s darling. With the consumer growth participating in blockchain games, dApp and gaming trends will come together into something even bigger and potentially all-encompassing: the metaverse.

Dragos Dunica, co-founder, DappRadar

Recently, venture capital firm Galaxy Interactive raised US$325 million to focus on gaming startups and interactive technology. The spark of interest hasn’t just been for investors, but also the general public. As the year moved on there was a noticeable increase in web searches for the terms “metaverse” and “play-to-earn”.

Online mentions of metaverse, play-to-earn and NFT. Source Meltwater

The Issue with NFT Games

According to those working in the industry, many of the current challenges faced in the industry are caused by:

  • regulatory uncertainty;
  • the need for user education;
  • technology limitations;
  • poor user experience; and
  • gameplay quality (or lack of).

The majority of respondents (52 per cent) stated that regulatory uncertainty was their biggest concern and the industry’s most significant challenge, since in-game assets – if not structured properly – can be treated as securities under some laws and could cause unwanted complications.

Categories
Crypto News Gaming Industries NFTs

Gamers Revolt Against Ubisoft’s Move Towards NFTs, Calling It ‘Exploitative’

Ubisoft has received a massive backlash from the gaming community after announcing plans to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to its platform with the release of the latest title in the Ghost Recon series. The announcement has since been quietly withdrawn.

Ubisoft has announced the release of a new NFT offering called Digits. These in-game items will commence with the launch of the new Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and are marketed as digital collectibles that are completely cosmetic. The NFTs will be released in limited editions featuring an engraved serial number on the item that also serves as its cryptographic ID. The integration marks the first time a mainstream video game has added NFTs to its in-game economy.

Ubisoft Quartz an NFT Platform

The gaming industry has played with the idea for some time now and has met with many mixed opinions. EA has called NFTs “the future of our industry”, while Xbox boss Phil Spencer is worried they might be “exploitative”. Steam, the world’s biggest gaming platform, has completely banned NFTs and blockchain games.

The Digits come with a new wallet called Quartz, a platform where players can buy and sell in-game NFTs even on third-party markets. The platform will run on the Tezos blockchain, an energy-efficient Layer 1 solution, as part of its carbon-friendly campaign. Ubisoft’s partnership with Tezos to run a validator node also makes much more sense now after the launch of Quartz and the coming AAA-NFT titles.

Ubisoft has stated it will take a cut of NFT sales “in some cases”, making the gaming community feel it’s another moneymaking ploy. It seems that Ubisoft wants to take the micro-transaction era of Fortnite a step further by blending this tried and tested strategy with NFT technology and using it for its platform. After Ubisoft released its NFT trailer on December 7, it gained so much pushback that the company removed it, drawing a 96 percent disapproval rating.

Gaming Community Up in Arms

Blockchain technology has exploded in the past few years with all sorts of applications in different fields. Recently NFTs have infiltrated the gaming industry in a big way and the wider community is not happy about it. Many players and designers believe they are only added as a way to make money, rather than providing players with any benefit or enhanced gaming experience.

Will players be able to transfer in-game items to the next generation of their game, or if the servers go offline will they lose all their accumulated value? And why would someone buy an in-game NFT on a third-party market if they could never use it outside the game?

The consensus seems to be that gamers are upset that their hobbies could be moving towards crypto-based moneymaking machines rather than the fun and true experience of enjoying a game.