Government to strengthen money laundering rules, regulate bitcoin
The government will strengthen money laundering laws, including bringing bitcoin providers under the government’s financial intelligence unit, after the fresh scandal at Commonwealth Bank. The government said a coming bill would be the first stage of reforms to strengthen the country’s Anti-Money Laundering And Counter Terrorism Financing Act. “The threat of serious financial crime is constantly evolving, as new technologies emerge and criminals seek to nefariously exploit them. These measures ensure there is nowhere for criminals to hide,” Minister of Justice Michael Keenan said, without specifying when the legislation would be introduced. The bill will also aim to bolster the investigative and enforcement powers of the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC. […]
Australian FinTech Launches Australia’s Only Dedicated FinTech Jobs Platform – Australian FinTech Jobs
The team behind the highly successful Australian FinTech website have soft-launched their FinTech employment marketplace platform, Australian FinTech Jobs. Founder and CEO, Cameron Dart, says AustralianFinTechJobs.com.au has been born on the back of the highly successful Australian FinTech website and growing demand from the local FinTech community to have a dedicated employment platform for the sector. AustralianFinTechJobs.com.au is Australia’s only dedicated platform for FinTech companies and Recruiters to promote FinTech, financial technology, financial services, banking, legal and IT employment opportunities in Australia. “Australian FinTech have built a new jobs startup for fintechs and startups about startups, fintechs and jobs” “When people think of ‘FinTech’ in relation to employment, they might […]
Perth’s Power Ledger readies first Australia’s first Bitcoin IPO
Power Ledger, the Perth-based peer-to-peer energy trading company, is preparing to launch Australia’s first virtual currency IPO – an “initial coin offering” or ICO. The company, which is trialling community trading of solar energy over a custom private blockchain platform in Western Australia and New Zealand, aims to host a “token generation event” in early September. The amount they are seeking is uncapped and will be determined by demand for Power Ledger’s “POWRS” tokens. Chief executive Dave Martin said that, while they would be satisfied with $5 million, they could raise $10 million or $20 million if demand is strong. POWRs will be tradable on the Ethereum public blockchain platform […]
You can use Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin to BPAY your bills
Yes, this will be old hat to some, but you can definitely do more with cryptocurrency than letting it sit in a digital wallet. And you don’t even have to use a chain of different websites to do so. Online, local services exist that let you spend Bitcoin and its progeny directly, including playing bills. The strangely-named Living Room of Satoshi is one service that allows you to pay your bills via BPAY using various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Amounts are limited to $1000, though you can issue multiple payments for bills greater than the limit. What’s interesting (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) is that LROS […]
Microsoft to release open source blockchain framework
Coco Framework promises confidentiality, scalability, and governance.Microsoft has launched the open source Coco Framework for blockchain networks, promising to address key drawbacks for enterprise use of the distributed transaction ledger technology. Blockchain was originally part of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and was designed for public use with anonymous, untrusted actors and full transaction transparency. This means every participant in the blockchain network would execute all transactions added to it, making them visible to everyone with no confidentiality and unsuitable for enterprise use. Existing blockchain protocols also employ computationally intensive consensus algorithms, leading to poor scalability, with performance as slow as 10 to 20 transactions per second. Microsoft said the Coco Framework […]
Bitcoin hits new record, bitcoin cash fades
Experts say the rally in bitcoin still has a long way to go, after the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high of $US3525 this week. The latest price surge has been driven by the rise and fall of bitcoin cash – a secondary cryptocurrency – and an update in the underlying bitcoin software, which paves the way for an evolution of the bitcoin blockchain. The update – called SegWit – is the product of months of internal debate within the cryptocurrency community around how to handle the rapid increase in transaction demands. A byproduct of this debate was the creation of bitcoin cash, another coin, duplicated from the original, that […]
A Bitcoin for your thoughts?
By Naomi Christopher, Midwinter Financial Services, Senior Manager – Brand Those of us in the tech world can all agree that Bitcoin is genuinely starting to take off or at least cause a stir…. If by take-off you mean clamber $672 bucks one day and slide down $384 the next. But while some of us look on with wide eyed enthusiasm as the price of it continues to climb and fall and then climb and fall (but mostly climb at the moment!), much of the rest of the world continues to scratch their heads as they grapple to understand “what’s it all about?” And of course, whether it is in […]
You could buy 100 boxes of avocados for the price of one bitcoin
Even with all the hand-wringing about bubbles in stock and bond markets, it’s hard to ignore what’s going on in the world of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. The value of the largest digital currency continues to soar to record highs after weathering a split last week. It has increased more than threefold this year, compared with a doubling in the value of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the best performer in the S&P 500 Index. At the record price of $US3,486.73 reached overnight, one bitcoin could probably fund a nice holiday. By comparison, one share of Vertex at $US154.82 would get you a fancy dinner. Here’s some other stuff you could buy for the […]
