Chain Reaction - 4th November 2024
News and updates and upcoming events in a few weeks!
In the lead up to the Australian Crypto Convention we have a slew of events going on that week including this one at the ACS with myself speaking alongside Dolly Brtan , Rachael Jones , Danielle Marie , and Karen Cohen. We'll dive into blockchain fundamentals, industry shifts, regulatory challenges, and the evolving landscape of decentralised tech. https://www.acs.org.au/cpd-education/event-detail.html?eventId=701Om00000FKGUc
There's also the Blockies going on that week too and we'll be back and supporting, especially given our recognition for community leader of the year award (and I say our as this was most certainly a team effort of both our volunteers and supporters and our community). Sign up here to buy tickets https://www.blockies.com.au/events/australian-blockchain-industry-awards
Then it all leads up to the Australian Crypto Convention (23-24 November at ICC Sydney). We had our first one of those on the Gold Coast and then Melbourne last year and now Sydney. Will be an amazing event and we'll be there to watch and interview and just support the amazing space that is blockchain, web3 and crypto in Australia. Sign up here https://auscryptocon.com/
And as always, there's a bunch of other events going on that week as well so check out the pre-party and afterparty links listed on the Aus Crypto Convention website.
Now to the rest of the news...
More crypto and traditional banking connections this time with FV Bank and Visa launching debit and corporate expense cards https://crypto.news/fv-bank-and-visa-launch-new-cards-to-merge-crypto-and-usd/
Funds siezed by the US as part of Bitfinex hack a few years ago were hacked again but $19.3m were returned with $1.2m kept by the hackers so far https://decrypt.co/288296/hacker-returns-millions-drained-us-government-crypto-walletÂ
The Digital ID took further steps forward https://www.linkedin.com/posts/victordominello_data-attestation-address-is-a-nsw-activity-7256765173888122880-Ofun?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_androidÂ
And my take on it here especially as this includes bringing zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs) into the mix https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7257262577431257088/Â
Speaking of adoption, we saw Chainlink with the updates here to help adoption of blockchain into capital markets which also includes ZKPs
More on this on the Chainlink blog here https://blog.chain.link/deco-sandbox/Â
And from Anurag at ANZ given they're one of the places this will be rolled out to https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anurag-soin-4319943b_building-the-foundation-for-onchain-finance-activity-7257487132154290177-iepG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_androidÂ
More on Stripes acquisition of Bridge and their push into web3 as well as more on stablecoins here in this post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/glennrachlin_stripes-11b-acquisition-of-bridge-isnt-activity-7257350636185309185-hSgv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_androidÂ
Immutable in the SEC crosshairs with their receipt of a Wells notice informing them of pending enforcement actions https://www.afr.com/technology/australian-crypto-giant-immutable-faces-sec-blowtorch-20241101-p5kn24Â
You can read Immutable’s statement on it here https://www.immutable.com/blog/defending-digital-ownership-in-gamingÂ
ASX CHESS replacement (moving to blockchain) round 2 is even seeing delays as reported in the AFRÂ https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/asx-risks-falling-behind-on-chess-remake-20241030-p5kmjtÂ
Polymarket, the crypto based betting marketplace has seen Kamala Harris’ chances of winning the presidency increase to 39% whilst Trump’s chances are down to 61% in latest betting odds. We’ll find out more later this week as the election results come through https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/01/harris-odds-rise-on-polymarket-as-election-fraud-allegations-ramp-up-trump-hedge-bets/Â
The Tornado Cash developer, Roman Storm, has seen his trial delayed until April https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/11/01/tornado-cash-developer-roman-storms-trial-pushed-to-april/Â
A decentralised AI society versus just AI owned by the big corporations like Google, Microsoft, Meta et al? Enter decentralised AI as the way this could happen https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/11/01/with-decentralized-ai-and-tokenized-ownership-we-can-fight-the-six/Â
Australian police in Victoria seized $143k of crypto after gaining new digital asset seizure powers. More here https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-16-year-anniversaryÂ
Crypto.com is seeing strong growth in North America as they overtake Coinbase in spot trading volume https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/29/cryptocom-overtakes-coinbase-to-dominate-north-american-crypto-trading-data-shows/amp/Â
That’s it for this week folks, see you soon.
About Aus DeFi Association
The Australian DeFi Association (Aus DeFi) is a non-profit community organisation dedicated to increasing education and awareness of blockchain technology, specifically decentralised finance (DeFi) and web3-based projects. Their goal is to empower the Australian community with the knowledge and tools to participate in the decentralised 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 organisations in Australia, and to provide a platform for community members to learn about and engage with this emerging technology.
Sponsors
This newsletter is brought to you by our sponsors at NotCentralised who use their AI tool, SIKE, to bring together the highlights each week. For more on SIKE and the world of business-friendly AI, see