“One of the strongest blockchain communities in Australia”: NEM Foundation opens blockchain hub in Melbourne
NEM Foundation is opening a new blockchain hub in Melbourne, to help startups understand how the technology could help their business, and to engage and educate the general public. The foundation, designed to promote the NEM blockchain platform and its cryptocurrency XEM, already has a hub in Brisbane, as well as in Westport, New Zealand, both of which opened within the past year. Speaking to StartupSmart, NEM Australia lead Jian Chan says Melbourne has established itself as “one of the strongest blockchain communities in Australia”. Jason Lee, NEM’s expansion director for Australia and New Zealand adds the hub is focused on encouraging uptake and development of blockchain technology. There is […]
Can flawed credit rating systems be rebuilt on the blockchain?
Credit scores control people’s lives, and something that powerful needs to be decentralised. On 2 October 2018, Mastercard filed a patent for connecting an individual’s cryptocurrency and fiat accounts. It’s described as a “behavioural profiling method and system to authenticate a user.” This verification might be an important security element in the process where credit cards or accounts will be automatically frozen when a strange transaction is detected. Strange, in this case, is defined as a deviation from the user’s typical behaviour according to their established profile, such as a transaction taking place outside their usual country of residence. “Variations between the behavioural characteristics of the user interactions observed during […]
Programmable money will be the trigger for governments to adopt blockchain
The original blockchain use case – bitcoin – involved making payments while circumventing government and banks. So there’s some irony that its latest local use case involves a big government agency and the country’s largest financial institution adapting the original blockchain to control how government payments are spent. But blockchain innovation is full of surprises. Like the internet itself, what was briefly a rebellious technology is fast becoming mainstream. The Australian Financial Review revealed today that Commonwealth Bank and the CSIRO’s Data61 unit have teamed up on a pilot that could see targeted payments made by the National Disability and Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The blockchain will be a private version […]
CBA and Data61 join forces to create ‘smart money’
The Commonwealth Bank and CSIRO’s Data61 have joined forces to create “smart money” using blockchain technology, which has the potential to reduce fraud and revolutionise government programs such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In an initial proof-of-concept called Making Money Smart, the organisations have created programmable money by using smart contracts on a private blockchain, allowing conditions to be applied to the way the money is spent. CBA’s head of experimentation and blockchain, Sophie Gilder, told The Australian Financial Review the NDIS was a logical scheme to apply smart money to because of the number of rules, the scale and the lack of transparency and manual reconciliation that takes […]
Fintech Investment Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2018-2025
Global Fintech Investment Market to reach USD 152.94 billion by 2025. Global Fintech Investment Market valued approximately USD 39.6 billion in 2017 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 18.40% over the forecast period 2018-2025. The growth of an alternative business model that can both replace and complement traditional payment practices is a key growth driver for the fintech market growth. Major banks are helping to incubate, invest in, or partner with FinTech companies. For instance, Oradian, a software provider caters to organizations that offer financial services to low-income individuals. Oradian develops core systems that help microfinance institutions manage their clients efficiently and facilitates day-to-day […]
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall hopes to build blockchain hive
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall is eyeing the blockchain technology industry as one of the future growth engines of the state’s economy and wants a cluster of companies to eventually settle in a hub on the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital. Mr Marshall said there was a first-mover advantage to be had in such a young industry and he wanted to grasp it. However, he would not be offering any financial incentives to entice individual companies to set up on a part of the former hospital site known as Lot 14, which is being promoted as an incubator of technology and creative industries on a prime city site […]
The crypto world is going wild for ‘stablecoins’ — here’s everything you need to know about them
The latest innovation in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies is the “stablecoin” – cryptocurrencies pegged to real-world assets such as the dollar or gold. A report from crypto wallet provider Blockchain released this week found that “the number of active stablecoin projects has dramatically increased over the past 12-18 months and more than a dozen project teams have stated they plan to launch in the coming weeks/months.” There are now over 50 in development globally. Here’s everything you need to know about the hottest new area of crypto: What is a stablecoin? “Stablecoins” are cryptocurrencies whose prices are linked to a real-world asset. In theory, they could be linked to […]
Bitcoin Price: Is blockchain cryptocurrency still the future?
It’s highly volatile, can be extremely risky, and is something most have heard of but don’t know much about. And after a horror 12 months which saw Bitcoin plunge by more than 60 percent most investors who were bold enough to invest are now wondering if they will ever reap any reward from their investments. While nothing in economics is certain, those who trade and invest are fairly confident it will happen but not straight away. According to Fred Schebesta, Co-Founder of Finder-backed cryptocurrency financial services company HiveEx.com, crypto is basically digital gold and like the real thing, is more of a long-term investment. Mr Schebesta admits the high risk […]
