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Australia Economics Industries

ANZ, Westpac and CBA Switch To Blockchain To Ensure Bank Guarantees

ANZ Bank, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank have joined forces to found Lygon, a company that will switch traditional bank guarantees signed on paper for blockchain-based smart contracts. By vastly reducing the lease negotiation period between landlords and tenants and doing away with fraud, Lygon is on the way to becoming not only a staple of the market, but the way into the future.

Big League Shareholders Onboard

The company behind Westfield Sydney – the Scentre Group – has already invested in Lygon shares. Not keen on being left behind, the tech industry staple company known as IBM has also invested into the Lygon alliance.

Both of these companies are hoping to bring an end to the physical, signed guarantees used by clients in all industries, from construction to real estate.

ANZ’s Nigel Dobson had this to say about the formation of Lygon:

“Digitising the instrument will save commercial landlords onerous, operational overheads over the longer term.”

Following a test run with great results last year, the five companies involved have decided to take the plunge and put their plan into action. Lygon is currently looking for a chief executive as well as a small number of staff to run the platform, after which they plan on partnering with any banks and landlords who wish to join up.

Once this system becomes the norm in Australia, Lygon is planning to expand into New Zealand. If all goes as planned, IBM will use the success garnered so far to spread Lygon’s system to real estate markets worldwide.

Once it goes live this month, Lygon will become the first high profile case of blockchain use by banks in Australia.

Previously used mostly to store and transfer funds, this new alliance may lead to even more investments into blockchain technology.

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Australia Industries

Australian Government Continues Recruitment For Blockchain Integration

The Australian Government has decided to continue its strong approach to the adoption of blockchain technology, establishing two more working groups to further the national effort.

These teams will provide valuable analysis on the adoption rate of blockchain technology in Australia – taking an especially close look at the way Blockchain technology has affected supply chains and certificates of authenticity.

The two new working groups will work toward the integration of blockchain technology into two critical fields: supply chain and credential management.

When it comes to keeping track of all orders requested and delivered, Blockchain enables suppliers to keep a permanent, unchangeable record. In turn, this allows for a more accurate forecasting of demand. Additionally, balancing accounts also becomes more efficient and fraud-proof.

World-renowned quality attracts worldwide customers. Once reassured by a certificate that a certain product is genuine and has not been tampered with by third parties, customers are willing to pay more, due to increased trust in the producer. Ergo, using Blockchain to ensure the validity of credentials could lead to a wider profit margin for Australian industries.

Identifying And Removing Obstacles

Aside from exploring the use cases adopted so far and the economic opportunity that they present, the two new working groups will also focus on identifying obstacles to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology – whether their nature is technical, legal or simply suboptimal.

The Government Steering Committee selected members in the wake of an Expression of Interest consultation process.

 A panel of government representatives will observe the groups in order to aid the discussions between the teams and various regulatory bodies and technical consultants. The two groups will have an initial discovery report to present to the Steering Committee within the first quarter of 2021.

In addition to these two working groups, two more will be formed in September this year. Their areas of research will be cybersecurity and Regulatory Technology.

With two new teams, two in the wings and doubtless more to come, Australia is on track to becoming one of the first countries to benefit from the widespread adoption of Blockchain.

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Australia Blockchain Industries

Australian Government Will Certify Aussie Quality Via Blockchain

Consumer protection laws have come a long way since their introduction, ensuring clients get exactly what they paid for. Local farmers across Australia have proven the superiority of their products – and some have tried to cash in on their success without putting in the same amount of work. Once again, the solution comes from blending new technology with time-tested methods.

The quality of Australian livestock is recognized worldwide – and as with many other industries, the Australian government has invested into further equipping the industry with blockchain technology.

Blockchain provides an easily verifiable certificate of authenticity to any financial transaction, so it makes sense to apply this technology when it comes to agriculture – after all, you are what you eat.

In a statement, David Littleproud, Minister of Agriculture has extolled the virtues of blockchain and its future in Aussie industry and agriculture.

 “Open, transparent and trustworthy systems are important for long term sustainability and global competitiveness.

“Building on standards already used in transport and logistics, warehousing, distribution, retailing and eCommerce ensures Australian producers and processors can participate efficiently and effectively in global markets.”

 Ensuring Adoption At A Grassroots Level

 The initial phase of the project will raise awareness among dairy farmers with a short video and an informative paper. Once the benefits of adoption are well known to producers across Australia, the road to a dairy industry supported by cutting edge technology will have been prepared.

In the case of dairy farms, blockchain technology will assist farmers in storing all information that pertains to orders, quality control and pricing. Taking all of these into account, dairy farms can now sign smart contracts with buyers, elevating trust and removing any possible bad actors from the supply chain.

From a quaint farmhouse surrounded by nature to the fresh milk in your morning coffee, world-renowned quality accompanied by world-class innovation will be felt with every sunrise whose beauty you drink in.  

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Australia Blockchain Industries

Blockchain-Backed Beef: Aussie Exporters Eyeball On-Chain Provenance for Chinese Market

© Emerson Vieira

Red meat accounts for around 1.5 percent of Australia’s GDP. For many years, Australia has consistently been one of the top five beef exporters in the world, with much of the exported beef going to one of Australia’s key business partners, China. Now, Australia Exporters are considering integrating blockchain technology to cement the Australian beef brand in China

But what do Chinese customers think of Australian beef, though, and how does blockchain technology relate to the Australian export beef market?

According to a recent study, Chinese customers are great fans of Australian beef. So much that they are willing to pay between 6.2 AUD and 11.27 AUD more for a 150 gram cut of beef — if they could be reassured that the beef was true blue through and through.

With this in mind, Australian brands, encouraged by the government, have settled upon blockchain technology as a way of reassuring customers worldwide that their fresh cuts are as authentic as the label states.

Recommendations published in the Australian Blockchain Roadmap state that in order to capitalise on Australia’s current technological standing and realise the potential of blockchain technology both locally and worldwide, Australian businesses must:

  • Integrate efficient, effective, and appropriate regulatory standards
  • Enhance critical blockchain skills in order to drive innovation
  • Establish strong international investment and collaboration — such as blockchain integrations into Australian beef exports

China Integrates Blockchain into Existing Supply Chain

Chinese commerce organizations have leveraged blockchain technology in order to track the provenance of products for some time now, with major enterprises incorporating blockchain elements in the supply chain to qualify product authenticity.

China Mobile, one of the leading telecommunications companies in China, has been distributing water purifiers whose usage was tracked through blockchain, rewarding users with free new water filters.

As a part of Australia’s greater roadmap for national blockchain development, Australian companies stand to benefit greatly from integrating blockchain technology into their business plans.

Not only are blockchain endeavors championed by the government, but they are also highly appreciated by clued-in customers who will use this technology to make more informed choices.

Setting an example for other high-profile Australian businesses who may be looking into adopting blockchain technologies, the Australian beef industry now has the opportunity to be a trailblazer that will soon lead to not only increased customer satisfaction but increased profit as well.

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Australia Blockchain Industries

Australian Government Serves up $4mil in Grants, Supports Blockchain Food Tracing Startup

The Australian Government will distribute $4 million in funding to a variety of Australian tech startups and enterprises through the traceability grants program, providing blockchain-based farm-to-table supply chain systems with funding. 

The Department of Agriculture’s Traceability Grants Program, operating from  2019 to 2020 and 2022 to 2023, is aimed squarely at the Australian supply chain ecosystem and will see $7 million distributed across two rounds.

North Sydney-based blockchain startup FreshChain Systems is one of the first Aussie enterprises to receive an injection of capital from the grants program, and will use $195,000 in funding to launch a program that digitises end-to-end traceability in the agriculture sector.

The tech stack presented by FreshChain sits comfortably within the scope for the Australian Government’s Blockchain Roadmap. The FreshChain platform uses distributed ledger technology to create immutable provenance data for Australian food, providing traceability across the entire life cycle of food products.

Australian Blockchain Use Cases Expand Beyond Payments

In a press release published on July 27,  Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud noted the broad use cases of blockchain technology:

“FreshChain’s end-to-end traceability system has broad applications across all food, fibre and agricultural products for authentication, provenance, food safety and consumer engagement,”

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown has heightened consumer awareness of food provenance, creating fertile ground for the Sydney-based blockchain food tracing platform to grow. FreshChain is one of 16 Australian enterprises that will share in $4 million in funding under the first round of the Department of Agriculture’s Traceability Grants Program.

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Australia Industries Scams

Australian Bitcoin Ransomware Wave Takes out Aussie TV Networks

The latest wave of ransomware cyber attacks on Australian businesses has reached the media industry, with leading media market research company Nielsen taken out by a suspected ransomware attack.

Ransomware attacks — harmful cyber attacks that infect individual computers or networks — typically encrypt critical files or restrict access to them, forcing users to pay the actors responsible in order to decrypt, or “unscramble” them.

In many cases, ransomware fees are demanded in the form of Bitcoin or privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero, which are more difficult to trace.

Australian in Top 10 Highest Targeted Countries 

Data published by cyber security firm Emisoft reveals that Australia is in the top ten countries most affected by ransomware attacks, with costs to Australian businesses and individuals estimated to exceed $1 billion.

Emisoft’s State of Ransomware report indicates that the average ransomware attack cost — spread between both individuals and companies — is $84,000, forcing companies to pay a high price for poorly secured data. More concerning data published by Gartner places the cost of ransomware attacks at $5,600 per minute globally, positioning ransomware as a very real threat to Aussie businesses.

The impact of ransomware on the Australian economy is accelerating — on July 23, global data company Nielson was targeted by a ransomware cyber attack that saw the platform’s daily television ratings release delayed for several days.

Aussie Businesses Targeted by Malicious “State-Based” Attacker

Nielson performs market research and audience measurement for Australian television platforms rating provider, OzTam, providing that even large-scale media giants aren’t immune to the threat of ransomware.

In a statement published subsequent to the attack, Nielsen highlighted the ransomware nature of the attack:

“Nielsen has become aware of an unexpected disruption relating to the Australian TV Audience Measurement (TAM) data centre environment. This disruption is derived from a ransomware attack in which Nielsen was the victim. As a result, TV ratings data remains unavailable.”The Australian Government recently published an advisory warning Australians of the tactics used by ransomware attacks — noting that the recent increase in cyberattacks is associated with a “sophisticated state-based actor”