Australia Post signs on its first businesses with its Digital ID
Online job marketplace Airtasker, credit union CUA, foreign exchange company Travelex, and Queensland Police are among the first adopters of Australia Post’s new digital identity service as it seeks to corner the local market in proving credentials when the online and physical worlds collide. The Digital ID has been under development since early 2016 and will allow people to rapidly verify their identity via their smartphone using stored biometric data and other information. The technology will allow individuals to apply for passports or mortgage by mobile and Australia Post’s executive general manager of trusted e-commerce services Andrew Walduck said it was now entering commercial use and would become a growth […]
Bipartisan push for the Reserve Bank to back Australian bitcoin
Labor and Coalition senators have crossed the political divide to call on the Reserve Bank to embrace bitcoins as an official form of currency or risk the future competitiveness of Australia’s $145 billion a year financial services industry. The push from Labor senator Sam Dastyari and Liberal senator Jane Hume comes after the digital currency soared to an all time high of $4070 per bitcoin on Monday, up from less than 10¢ per coin in 2010. Senator Dastyari said when he first raised bitcoin in the Senate, one of his colleagues came to him and said: ‘I don’t get what the issue is, don’t they just melt all the coin […]
Bitcoin cash is essentially printing money
The creation of a second bitcoin asset this week did almost nothing to dilute the price of the original unit, with the value of the new asset instead rocketing skyward, generating almost $US7.5 billion ($9.5 billion) out of thin air. This week, a group of bitcoin activists and developers created a second version of bitcoin, within a few hours, the value of the new unit – bitcoin cash – leapt to over $US600. The original bitcoin price however, remained fairly steady, still trading at about $US2700 a coin, despite an almost 1:1 duplication of itself. “Everyone who has bitcoin now has bitcoin cash and because the market reckons this is […]
Bitcoin cash is already the 3rd largest cryptocurrency
Bitcoin cash has already secured its place as a top cryptocurrency, just a day after it entered the marketplace. According to Coinmarketcap.com, the cryptocurrency is trading at about $US490 per coin and its marketcap now stands above $US8 billion. As such, it is the third largest cryptocurrency by marketcap, surpassing big name coins such as Ripple ($US6.7 billion) and Litecoin ($US2.2 billion). Bitcoin cash came to fruition Tuesday after it split from the original network that powers its crypto-cousin, bitcoin. To recap, the split was preceded by a years-long war between power brokers in the bitcoin space over the rules that guide the digital currency’s network. Supporters of the newly […]
RBA study finds cards are king, overtaking cash for the first time
Credit and debit cards have overtaken cash as the most frequently used consumer payment for the first time, as food retailers and ridesharing apps such as Uber offer more cashless payment options. Cards were the most frequently used means of payment, accounting 52 per cent of consumer payments, followed by cash at 37 per cent, according to the Reserve Bank’s consumer payments survey released on Tuesday, which surveyed 17,000 day-to-day payments made by over 1500 participants during a week. A decade ago, cash accounted for nearly 70 per cent of consumer transactions, and cards 26 per cent. The RBA said credit and debit card use increased across the board in […]
Search for 2017 Fintech 100 innovators kicks off
Nominations are now open for the 2017 KPMG & H2 Ventures Fintech 100, the annual list designed to recognize leading fintech innovators. Visit www.fintechinnovators.com by Thursday, 31 August 2017 and nominate your company, or any fintech you think should be considered for the Fintech 100. The Fintech100, available at www.fintechinnovators.com, is compiled by fintech investment firm, H2 Ventures in collaboration with KPMG’s Global Fintech practice. The annual Fintech 100 includes both the leading 50 established fintechs, and the most intriguing 50 “emerging stars.” How to nominate and the judging process: Nominations for the Fintech 100 can be made at www.fintechinnovators.com website by Thursday, 31 August 2017. […]
‘Secret millions’ of a cryptocurrency trader
An unknown cryptocurrency trader turned $55 million of paper wealth into $283 million in just over a month. The only clue about this person or persons, beyond a virtual wallet with the identification code 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184, surfaced on a June 11 Instagram posting, in Indonesian, in which he or she (or they) (or somebody posing as them) boasted about the 413 percent profit accumulated earlier this year from ether, the digital money of the Ethereum blockchain. “I get many private messages asking how much ether I have,” the post read, alongside photos that purported to be the hardware powering a mining operation but looked lifted from another website. “One of the […]
Bitcoin seen surging to $US50,000 in decade
Ronnie Moas, who for the past 13 years has made more than 900 stock recommendations via his one-man show at Standpoint Research, is now venturing into cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin will double to $US5000 next year, and reach $US25,000 to $US50,000 in the next decade, the Miami Beach, Florida-based Moas said in a note to clients overnight, where he also disclosed he bought “a little bit” of litecoin, bitcoin and ethereum in a Coinbase.com account. It’s a testament to the exuberance around bitcoin, ethereum and other blockchain assets that equity investors who hadn’t been involved in cryptocurrencies are now starting to analyse and make bets on the sector along with established bitcoin […]
