Australia among first to introduce bitcoin regulations
Australia will be one of the first countries to impose regulations for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws. Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, is co-hosting a counter-terrorism financing summit with in Bali and, ahead of this, has highlighted that ecurrency such as bitcoin enables terrorists to transfer money anonymously. Justice Minister Michael Keenan said: “The report recommends strengthening an already robust legal framework to respond to new and emerging threats.” “The government is committed to facilitating growth and innovation in this sector and appropriate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulation will aid that development.” The AUSTRAC report, Terrorism Financing in Australia 2014, said: “Terrorist groups engaged […]
Fintech needs security baked in from the start
Fintech has been labelled a modern day gold rush fuelled by ambitious entrepreneurs and innovative technologies and consumer demand. KPMG and CB Insights’ “The Pulse of Fintech”report found that global investment in fintech currently sits at $13.8 billion with $4.5bn invested in the Asia-Pacific, across 140 deals. But as the relationship between new technologies, such as bitcoin and blockchain, and financial services deepens, so do the threats posed by increasingly sophisticated hackers. No market is more affected by cybercrime than financial services. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2016 Global Economic Crime Survey found that 48 per cent of financial sector respondents reported to have been affected by cybercrime, compared with 36 per cent across […]
Coinbase expands to Australia
We are excited to announce that Coinbase has expanded its services to Australia. Customers in Australia can now buy bitcoin and ether using their credit and debit cards. We’re focused on creating an open financial system for the world, allowing people to easily buy and sell digital currencies anywhere in the world. Along with this launch in Australia, we are also making the ETH/BTC trading pair available on our professional trading platform GDAX to customers in Australia. To get started, visit the “Trade” page on Coinbase.com or tap on “Buy” or “Sell” options in our iOS or Android apps to add a credit or debit card and buy digital currency. […]
A VC’s perspective on Blockchain opportunities & impacts on Australia
by Victor Jiang, Managing Partner, Sapien Ventures LLP. I was truly honoured to have presented to and judged alongside a distinguished panel (from ANZ, Westpac, UBS, & Northern Trust) and key industry leaders at the inaugural Australian Blockchain Summit 2016 (Melbourne June 28-30th, 2016), and to have a chance to speak about what we felt are the opportunities and impacts of Blockchain on Australia. (The speech was immediately before a pitch/showcase session of 6 excitingly disruptive blockchain startups from USA and Australia, including one dialling in from 3am in their local time!) __________________________________ I’m really excited and honoured to be here, speaking just ahead of some truly exciting startups in the blockchain space. […]
Blockchain: Distributed ledger technology still misunderstood
Blockchain may be the hottest technology trend in town, but business leaders run the risk of falling down a rabbit hole unless they are able to separate fact from fiction, according to Gartner’s research fellow Ray Valdes. While industry buzz around the bitcoin blockchain plus a dozen other competitive technologies has grown to deafening proportions, Mr Valdes warns that a dangerous cocktail of wishful thinking, mythmaking and misunderstanding can confuse the long-term transformative potential of the technology. “The thing about blockchain is that you will find businesses using the term in different ways in the same conversation,” Mr Valdes said. Mr Valdes also warns that the rampant interest in the […]
Telstra Ventures poised to invest in Blockchain
Telstra is looking to invest in blockchain companies that could help the telecommunications giant profit from a boom in mobile banking. Rocky Scopelliti, a Telstra executive responsible for the telco’s relationships with its clients in the banking, finance and insurance industries said the company is doing its research on blockchain developers with a view to finding potential future partners. A blockchain is an online ledger designed to underpin the trading of digital currencies, such as bitcoin, or other types of digital payments or contracts. The nascent technology is widely tipped to have a profound effect on the global banking sector in the future. “It [blockchain] is a significant and active […]
Bitcoin drifts lower after technical milestone
The virtual currency bitcoin made it through a closely watched technical milestone with a 2 per cent decline. The price of the alternative currency, measured in dollars, dipped on Saturday in light trading by about 4 per cent, but then recovered some ground to trade only about 2 per cent lower than it did early in the day, according to bitcoin tracker Coindesk. In recent months, a run-up in the price of bitcoin was attributed in part to the “halving” that arrived Saturday. That effectively cuts by 50 per cent the rate of production of new bitcoins. In theory, that makes existing bitcoins more valuable. The pre-programmed “halving” that took […]
H2 Ventures Fintech Expo 2016
H2 Ventures Fintech Expo 2016 H2 Ventures are hosting its third annual Fintech Expo, an opportunity to hear from some of the most talked about and exciting Fintech companies in Australia. Tuesday 19th of July 2016 Get your tickets here: http://h2vfintechexpo.eventbrite.com.au/ Save Save
