This week we have a major Coinbase event coming to Sydney with the layer 2 BASE launch being run by the folks at NotCentralised along with Aus DeFi. Check out the post here from team Coinbase and register for your last chance to get along https://twitter.com/BuildOnBase/status/1669840274464407553
Not fully web3 related but given how AI helps with all things web3 in terms of productivity but also seeing blockchain and crypto tech help AI, it was great to see founder Mark Monfort head down to Melbourne to see the Sam Altman talk. Apart from our association, he is also co-President of a data science association (DSAI). Here’s a tweet with a few links to the full write-up about the event https://twitter.com/AusDeFi/status/1669927263608119296
Loretta Joseph in the news this week too with the launch of the Australian Digital Financial Standards Advisory Council. She highlights this in a news article from the AFR on Australia falling behind other countries when it comes to the digital asset ecosystem. More here https://www.afr.com/technology/australia-is-falling-behind-nigeria-on-crypto-regulation-20230615-p5dgv0
Speaking of the local community, if you’re into the NFT space, you should follow Greg Oakford for his various updates such as this piece he wrote for CoinTelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/coldie-snoop-dogg-piece-vitalik-buterin-john-mcafee/
News
Binance was in the news as well as they strike a deal with the SEC to ensure only US staff can access client funds. This addresses some of the concerns from their earlier lawsuit but more to come so we’ll see. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/17/binance-sec-strike-deal-to-move-all-us-customer-funds-wallet-keys-back-onshore/
Exciting news at home as Novatti brings AUDD to the Ripple blockchain https://on.ripple.com/45XAiCt?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=linkedin
A major call to action by the blockchain godfather himself, Vitalik. In this blog he summarises 3 areas he think we need to unlock for further growth. See the full article here https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/06/09/three_transitions.html
We put out the call on a retweet of a Bankless thread on the topic calling for Aussie builders to look at this https://twitter.com/AusDeFi/status/1668903835379843072?t=uqQsfdXESrxg7gftpl9YMw&s=19
Looks like a16z are headed to London according to this Chris Dixon tweet (https://twitter.com/cdixon/status/1668031647671885827) with more details in the blog https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/announcement/expanding-uk-andreessen-horowitz/
The Daily Gwei highlighted the latest SEC dramas and updates to the Polygon network
We also saw last week this piece from Michael Bacina and the team at Bits of Blocks. They go through AUSTRAC, Australia's financial intelligence agency, issuing new guidance discouraging 'debanking'. They emphasise that debanking can have a detrimental effect on legitimate businesses and can undermine efforts to combat financial crime, urging instead for closer collaboration and open communication between financial institutions and their customers to effectively identify, mitigate, and manage potential risks. Link here https://www-bitsofblocks-io.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bitsofblocks.io/amp/new-austrac-guidance-discourages-de-banking-urges-closer-collaboration
Interesting highlights here from Jabran from Adiuvo Legal about the SEC vs Ooki DAO case. In summary, Ooki will pay a fine but the questions are now sitting with other DAOs or those looking to set up one. Read the thread here https://twitter.com/jabranthelawyer/status/1668161716155478016?t=_LjEpCDOzWNJj2JNODW2Og&s=19
More on Web3 adoption in this Bankless in-depth interview with Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal. They discussed PayPal's vision for crypto, its integration strategy, potential use cases, and views on the U.S. banking system and crypto regulation.
We also saw Blockchain Australia put forth this announcement to address the debanking going on locally https://www.linkedin.com/posts/blockchainaus_response-to-banking-limits-on-crypto-payments-ugcPost-7074563946388590592-uodX?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
About Aus DeFi Association
The Australian DeFi Association (Aus DeFi) is a non-profit community organization dedicated to increasing education and awareness of blockchain technology, specifically decentralized finance (DeFi) and web3-based projects. Their goal is to empower the Australian community with the knowledge and tools to participate in the decentralized economy, and to promote the adoption and growth of blockchain technology in Australia. They strive to provide a more grassroots approach to promoting blockchain technology compared to other industry-focused organizations in Australia, and to provide a platform for community members to learn about and engage with this emerging technology.
You can watch our recorded meetups and interviews here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ausdefiassociation3956/videos
Sponsors
We also thank all of our sponsors who help us run and organise and keep this association going. We could not do it without them so check out their details here