Category: Industries

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Australia DeFi Industries

Aussie DeFi Centered Around Institutional Lending Goes Live

Maple Finance – a DeFi startup focusing on institutional lending with top-notch conditions for collateral has recently finished their seed round.

The platform will not change their rates, bringing an interesting approach to the budding DeFi industry.

However, they may make special offers for institutional customers in good standing.

The seed round for the platforms MPL governance token – which brought in revenues of about $1.3 million – was done with Framework Ventures, FTX, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, FBG, The LAO and many other investors.

Ready For Kick-Off

Sidney Powell – the co-founder and CEO of Maple Finance – commented on the establishment of his company with over $15 billion worth of assets ready to be used for DeFi loans and more.

“What we’re allowing is top institutions with solid balance sheets, sound reputations and strong cash flows soon being able to access capital-efficient finance, which enables further growth and adoption of crypto globally.”

The company has expressed its interest in serving crypto-native organizations – Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) for instance.      As some of these firms don’t have traditional legal structures, investors and customers may have a harder time connecting with these firms – and that’s where decentralized finance institutions like Maple come in.

The company will split its assets up into pools – with a Pool Delegate in charge of each. These pools will be organized in categories like world regions, risk profiles, and more. Each Pool Delegate will supervise a pool where their expertise on a certain subject will be most helpful.

In order to demonstrate their business model, the first pool will soon go live – and offer limited funds within the $1-2 million range. The total amount of funds in the lending pool will be between $10 and 15 million.

With yet another up and coming decentralized financial institution, Australia continues down the path of becoming a regional – and hopefully global – blockchain superpower.

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Australia Blockchain Industries

Australian Wool Trading On Blockchain

On the 16th of December, Indorama Ventures Public Company Ltd. created and executed a Letter-of-Credit transaction with Techwool Trading PTY Ltd.

The deal was carried out with Indorama’s subsidiary active in the wool business, Indorama Holding Ltd.

Credit Approved

A Letter of Credit is a document that guarantees payment from one company or financial institution to another – but only once the seller meets all the terms and conditions stipulated within the contract.

The Letter of Credit was executed on the Contour blockchain – and is the first transaction of its kind for both companies involved.

For this transaction, both companies did away with the multitude of secondary tools usually necessary for trades of this type. HSBC Thailand took care of the banking for both sides and acted as an advisor for the transaction.

According to Mr. Krisda Phatchoroen – the Head of Commercial Banking at HSBC Thailand – the HSBC fully believes in the power of blockchain to make commerce better for everyone.

“We are pleased to be able to support IVL’s endeavors in digitizing its trade finance processes. HSBC believes that the use of technologies like blockchain and the Contour platform in particular will serve businesses well, especially in this restrictive environment brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitization is the way forward and we are glad to support IVL to successfully adopt this technology for their business.”

Indeed,  2018 predictions from Bain & Company suggest that the use of blockchain technology in order to increase security could lead to an increase in global trading volumes of over $1 trillion by 2026.

The UN has also predicted that tossing out current trade practices in favor of digital ones could slash export SLAs in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by 44% – as well as reducing costs by 31%.

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Australia Cryptocurrencies Industries

Banxa Listed On The Canadian Stock Exchange

Banxa – an Australia-based payment infrastructure provider centered around cryptocurrency should launch on the TSX Venture Exchange on the 25th of December, with a market cap of nearly $50 million.

The TSX Venture Exchange is the Canadian venture capital marketplace for companies new to the market. The TSX Venture Exchange is run by the TMX Group, which also manages the TSX Venture Exchange’s so-called older brother, the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Binance and OKEx Partner

Following the listing approval granted by Canadian financial regulators in the first days of December, the payment infrastructure provider should be able to sell shares on the Canadian market by the end of the month.

Among the partners that Banxa supports are well-known cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, OKEx, Abra, Kucoin, and ShapeShift.

A company focused on delivering payment solutions that are compliant with the regulations of governments around the world for services running crypto wallets, crypto exchanges, and just about anything in between.

Domenic Carosa – the founder and chairman of Banxa – expressed his pride in his team, noting that it is the first time in history that a crypto PSP is listed on a public exchange. In January, Banxa secured $2 million in funding from investors keen on joining the planned expansion of Banxa into even more international markets.

“Our TSX [Ventures] listing … will make Banxa the first crypto payment service provider to be listed in the world, bringing well-needed transparency and governance to the crypto sector.”

Although the trading of Banxa assets should commence on the 25th of December, it’s safe to say that Christmas came early for those who helped secure the funding for this bold, first-of-its-kind move.

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Blockchain Industries Institutions

MetaMask Is Making An Enterprise Version Of Its Services

MetaMask is looking to improve the multi-billion dollar DeFi environment with a new version of its wallet, aimed at crypto exchanges, financial institutions, and hedge fund management companies.

The Ethereum wallet MetaMask is one of the most popular wallets around, with over 1 million monthly users. Following the launch of token swaps earlier this autumn, the company is now trying to advance the advent of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) by compensating for the current industry protocols – which some feel leave much to be desired.

Developers Consensys Looking To Expand The Scope Of The Wallet

Consensys – the dev team behind Metamask – feel that although DeFi may be all well and good for independent crypto traders and investors, the current protocols are too inefficient for heavy-hitting professional trading firms.

They also identified room for improvement in the figures department, citing a lack of efficient reporting capabilities when it comes to taxes and returns – as well as profit and loss statements.

The team at MetaMask has already found their first partner for the institutional decentralized finance protocol.

Curv, a leading digital asset security firm, will set up its DeFi customers with everything needed for a professional DeFi trading platform.

Although Curv may not sound familiar, their clients’ names may ring a bell – clients such as eToro, purveyors of stocks, bonds, and moderately humorous YouTube ads.

Itay Malinger – the CEO and co-founder of Curv – stated his belief in a need for DeFi solutions geared at financial institutions.

“Since there is no reliable and secure institutional solution for DeFi, organizations are reverting to retail-level use of MetaMask or custom integrations with individual apps as a workaround.”

As senator Andrew Bragg reminded panelists at the Future Of Financial Services 2020 Conference, staying competitive in the financial domain is a key objective for the Australian government – and the announcement of an industrial-grade DeFi service may prove very useful to Aussie investment firms.

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Blockchain Cryptocurrencies Industries

Steve Wozniak’s Cryptocurrency Is Still Steadily Climbing

Steve Wozniak – the co-founder of Apple – launched the sale of tokens for his 2nd blockchain related project on the 3rd of December.

An Eco-friendly Platform

The brand new company is named Efforce, and its token WOZX can be bought by investors interested in eco-friendly projects.

Revolving around energy-saving, Efforce calls itself the first blockchain-based energy-saving platform. The company was founded by Steve Wozniak, as well as Project Lead Jacopo Visetti and chief technical officer Jacopo Vanetti.

Co-founder Jacopo Visetti shared his hopes that the new platform will allow investors to connect with eco-friendly platforms in an easier way.

“Energy efficiency is a way to create a sustainable future, and this is a way to help counter climate change, reduce carbon — and make money while you do it.”

Although it was founded in 2019, the company’s token sale only took place in early December on the HBTC platform – with great results.

With a total token supply of 1 billion, a market cap of 950 million was reached within 13 minutes of launch. It will soon be followed by a 9th of December launch on the South Korean crypto exchange platform Bithumb, and the token price keeps climbing with no signs of stopping.

In fact, at the time this article was written, the token price increased by 2490% – all the way up to $2.59 from $0.10.

The company based in Malta aims to give investors keen on saving the environment a direct way to contribute using blockchain technology – much like the New South Wales blockchain initiative to power the town of Tyalgum with green energy.

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Cryptocurrencies Industries Institutions

Libra/Diem In Hot Water Again Following Attempted Rebranding

Late last month, Libra announced its plans to launch early in 2021. Based in Geneva, Switzerland and made up of 27 members – chief among them being Facebook – the Libra Association plans to establish a far-reaching stablecoin ecosystem backed by big-league corporations, after attempting to negotiate with its detractors.

Last week, the Libra association announced its plans to rebrand as Diem. Stuart Levey – the CEO of the newly-rebranded Diem Association, stated that this was one of the company’s steps taken to ensure compliance with largely skeptical government entities.

“We are committed to doing so in a way that promotes financial inclusion – expanding access to those who need it most, and simultaneously protecting the integrity of the financial system by deterring and detecting illicit conduct. We are excited to introduce Diem – a new name that signals the project’s growing maturity and independence.”

Chief among the detractors of the Geneva-based alliance for the new stablecoin is the European Union, spearheaded by the financial departments of the French and German governments, with Olaf Scholz – the German Finance Minister – calling the project a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“We must do everything possible to make sure the currency monopoly remains in the hands of states.”

The French Finance Minister agrees, stating that the incredible reach of Facebook could cause quite a stir once mixed with the planned state of the association’s cryptocurrency.

“All these concerns around Libra are serious. So I want to say this with a lot of clarity: In these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of libra on European soil.”

Regulators Not The Only Parties Concerned

However, European governments are not the only ones bothered by the project.

A lawsuit reminiscent of the one that pit Australian platform PayID against Ripple, the association is being sued by a much smaller fintech company also known as Diem, who accuse the association of encroaching upon their intellectual property.

Diem – a platform described as “a digital pawnbroker of sorts” – was launched in October and garnered a following of about half a million followers.

Geri Cupi – the CEO of Diem – stated that if the association took their name, it could seriously stunt their growth.

Meanwhile Chris Adelbach – the co-founder of Diem and a well-known investor in fintechs operating on the European market – stated that although he was reticent to take on companies much larger, he has been advised to do so.

“It wouldn’t have taken that much effort for Facebook to find out if there’s another Diem in financial services […] They obviously took the view that ‘we can just crush them, we’re Facebook.’”

PayID’s grievances with Ripple Labs were solved by Ripple rebranding their service as ClearPay. It’s possible that this lawsuit will have a similar outcome.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News Industries

Australian Government Reviews Digital Transformation Strategy

In a published discussion paper titled Digital Transformation Strategy 2.0, the Australian Government laid out its progress since the project was announced 2 years ago – and noted the achievement of having been able to go above and beyond what was promised in the roadmap.

“In the past two years, we have steadily delivered against that roadmap. Practical initiatives which provide benefit to people and businesses in Australia include the Digital Newborn Enrolment service, automating tax reporting for business and the National Drought Map, where farmers can access information on drought conditions and relief services.”

Blockchain To Be At The Heart Of One Of The Top Three Digital Governments

Considered bold and even unprecedented to a certain degree, the 2020 iteration of the Digital Transformation Strategy Roadmap plans to make the Aussie government one of the top three digital governments by the time 2025 rolls around.

According to minister Stuart Robert, the transformation would greatly benefit from the public and private sectors working together in order to reach this goal on time.

“If we’re going to reap the benefits of digital transformation, for all Australians, we have to keep moving…we’re going to have to innovate and we’re going to have to get the private and the public sector together perhaps in ways they’ve not done before.”

Reiterating the need for rapid progress in the technology sector due to the nature of a year like 2020, the government goes on to state in the paper that from now on, different sectors of the government should cease to be isolated from one another.

Instead, all areas should be connected to each other – as far as privacy concerns and other healthy limitations will allow it. Using blockchain, all government sectors can benefit from fast and secure transfers of information.

The paper also encourages all interested parties to leave feedback on the project, just one of the many ways the plan seeks to invest in people over the next 5 years.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Industries

New Zealand Builds Green Energy Plant Partly Paid For In Bitcoin

Earlier this Autumn, TYMLEZ set out to equip the town of Tyalgum in New South Wales with green energy powered by blockchain. However, it turns out they aren’t the only blockchain-conscious fans of green energy in the area.

New Zealand’s Largest Solar Power Plant

Kea Energy has started working on the construction of the largest solar power plant in New Zealand. Construction has already started on the 2.5 MW future power plant in Marlborough.  The new power plant will take advantage of the sunny area to produce about 4500 MW of electricity – enough to power around 550 households all year-’round.

In order to build the promising new power plant, Kea Energy has paired up with solar panel manufacturer Yingli Solar Australia.

Open to environmentally-conscious energy solutions and innovative payment methods alive, Yingli Solar Australia has accepted part of the payment for their solar panels in Bitcoin.

Tim Feng – the managing director of Yingli Solar Australia – stated that although New Zealand already derives 80% of its energy from environmentally-friendly energy, he and his company is glad to be able to help New Zealand reach their target of 90% green energy production by 2025.

“Economic savings for solar systems are highly predictable and proven by the financial modeling. New Zealand has 80 percent of its electricity supplied by clean energy. However, we will need to work closely with our partners to achieve the government’s target of 90 percent of electricity to be sourced from renewables by 2025.”

Kea Energy also stated their pride to be the first company in New Zealand to install a large-scale solar farm – as well as their excitement to explore innovative payment solutions with equally innovative partners.

“We are proud to be the first company in New Zealand to install a multi-MW solar farm. Our team will be executing the entire project including design, financial procurement, and installation as well as managing the grid connection process. It’s good to work with a company as innovative as Yingli Solar who is willing to look at payment transactions such as Bitcoin.”  

The electricity produced by the solar farm will help power the local grid, further reducing the environmental impact of energy consumption in the area.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Industries

Australia and Singapore Will Collaborate On A Blockchain Project Targeting Trade Between The Two Countries

Both Australia and Singapore are frontrunners when it comes to blockchain technology – and they’ve now come together to work on improving their trading partnership through blockchain.

Digital Economy Agreement Paves The Way

The Australian Border Force (ABF) stated that the Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) led to this project, among other improvements to trade.

Michael Outram – the commissioner for the ABF – said the ABF looks forward to close collaboration with international partner agencies on mutual border modernization programs. As a result, we can expect to see more similar partnerships in the future.

“The ABF welcomes the opportunity to collaborate further with Singapore to improve cross-border trade between our countries. In addition to our efforts internationally, this initiative will incorporate paperless trading and secure, digital exchange of trade information as part of the future architecture and design of an Australian Trade Single Window”.

Many financial institutions will take part in the trial run, such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,  the Australian Industry Group. Financial institutions in Singapore such as ANZ will also take part in the trial.

The trial will be run by the ABF in tandem with Singapore Customs and the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). The trial run will attempt to integrate the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger (IGL) and the IMDA’s TradeTrust system for electronic trade documents.

If the trial run is successful, blockchain technology will be implemented in the Australia – Singapore trade relationship in order to reduce administrative costs – and to facilitate the transfer of relevant documents, as well as to certify the provenance of imported and exported goods across the supply chain.

This trial fits in nicely with the Australian Government’s recently announced Simplified Trade Agenda which aims to reform digital trade by streamlining compliance and documentation procedures.

The ABF will report their progress – and hopefully, their success – to the Supply Chain Working Group of the National Blockchain Roadmap.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News Industries

ASX Partner VMWare Releases Blockchain Software For Commercial Use

VMWare, Inc., a company providing highly scalable software solutions for enterprises of any size , has taken the decision to launch their blockchain software available for purchase. This will allow businesses to increase the security of their data silos, allowing instant blockchain-powered data transfers.

Partnered With The ASX

Ever since the launch of its beta in 2018, the VMWare blockchain has connected with a steady stream of partners.

Among them is the ASX, who in the search for an upgrade to their aging infrastructure have turned to blockchain.

According to Dan Chesterman – the Chief Information Officer of ASX – Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) helps automate processes in a secure, accountable manner, giving it a leg up over competing technologies.

“The combination of VMware Blockchain and Digital Asset’s expertise in smart contracts and distributed ledger technology is the right partnership to help us transform and modernize Australia’s financial market infrastructure. DLT can help financial services firms transform data, preserve privacy and confidentiality, and remove manual processes that exist in the industry.”

The VMWare Blockchain’s Scalable Byzantine Fault Tolerance (SBFT) also works together with DAML in order to provide access to smart contracts ready to be used by booming enterprises and small-time businesses alike.

According to Yuval Rooz – the co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, the company behind DAML – the smart contract tool developed by his team ensures privacy to the point where companies competing in the same field can collaborate on a distributed ledger.

Yet another partner of VMWare is none other than Accenture. David Treat, the head of Blockchain development at Accenture, also stated that blockchain allows companies to unlock the real potential of their data.

“By unlocking the real potential of data in our digital world, multiparty systems, supported by blockchain, are reshaping industries and transforming the way companies work together. It’s reshaping financial services, for example, by reimagining how transactions are executed, from payments to post-trade processing.”

After two years in post-beta development, VMWare’s blockchain solution seems poised to take the world by storm.