Australian government announces $3M grants to demonstrate blockchain potential
The Australian government has released two grants of up to three million dollars to “develop measures that demonstrate the potential for blockchain to reduce regulatory compliance burden for business.” These grants will be used to fund two pilot projects that will take a particular focus on the Critical Minerals sector and the Food and Beverage sector.
According to the government’s announcement, the overall objectives of the Blockchain Pilot grants are to:
- Reduce compliance costs for businesses
- Ensure buy-in from regulators
- Bolster blockchain literacy and contribute to the overarching objectives of the national roadmap
- Develop blockchain solutions for government and showcase to industry the viability of the regulatory efficiencies of blockchain
- Support the inclusion of blockchain in broader policy work to increase management capability around digital technologies.
The first Pilot 1 will be conducted in the Critical Minerals sector, and aims to:
build supply chain integrity and contribute to the Critical Minerals National Ethical Certification Scheme and help “critical” minerals businesses get more of their products to international markets. Given Australia’s exports to find cost savings for miners.
The second Pilot 2 will focus on the Food and Beverage sector and has a specific goal of addressing “the challenges faced by businesses complying with excise tax regulations throughout spirit production and supply”.
The Australian government’s initiative demonstrates their growing support for the use of blockchain technology in the Australian economy, and its recognition of the promising role the technology can play to reduce compliance burdens.
Applications can be made here and close 29 April 2021.
The agony of ACX Exchange customers continues
It’s been 12 months since the Australian-based digital currency exchange, ACX dramatically stopped responding to users’ withdrawal requests and ceased updating the price of tokens on their website, yet customers involved are no further ahead (paywalled) in understanding what has happened to their money.
The Australian Financial Review reported:
About 200 [customers of ACX] are understood to have lost as much as $10 million … ACX has been banned for life by the peak industry body [Blockchain Australia] while the financial regulator AUSTRAC has revoked the digital currency [registration of] the platform. Yet investors still have no visibility over a path to restitution or justice.
Prior to 5 February 2020, the terms of use on the ACX’s website identified Blockchain Global Limited (Blockchain Global) as the operator, yet an unannounced change suddenly named Peak Trading Group Pty Ltd as the operator of the exchange. Peak Trading Group appears to have been registered as a DCE with AUSTRAC but that registration was cancelled on 23 December 2020.
The AFR reported that:
Many [customers] believe they are victims of a well-planned scam and have given up hope of ever getting their money back.
While Blockchain Global has offered to fund legal fees for “the liquidation of all related entities to return consumer funds“, given that very few liquidations result in a meaningful return to creditors, it seems until legal action is commenced against those who were operating the exchange, many questions will remain unanswered.
Non-Fungible Tokens Take Flight
The Australian Financial Review published a piece this week titled “Crypto-art becomes the new cultural currency” which updates the whirlwind rise of non-fungible tokens but regretfully continues to spread myths and mistakes about blockchain and this exciting way that collectibles are going digital.
Digital collectibles have been around for a long time; from the days of physical / digital Tamagotchis through to purely digital critters and collectors today. The epic market created by companies like Blizzard and Epic in their massive online multiplayer games World of Warcraft and Fortnite continue to grow.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represent an important shift away from the existing walled garden of digital assets games and open up collectibles of all kinds to a new global audience. Those playing online games and spending their hard earned cash on skins and art and other assets risk a problem if they stop playing, the value of all the in-game collectibles is lost when the user leaves the game environment. This has led to odd situations like game accounts being offered for sale (usually in breach of terms and conditions of the game itself).
NFTs are designed to be portable and transferable so that collectors can engage trading at a peer-to-peer level, just like takes place with collector cards in school yards and at card meets and stamp trading conventions now. The biggest change is a true global reach and lower barriers to reaching keen collectors.
Some myths still persist, repeated in the AFR piece which are worth clarifying:
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The AFR reports on “complaints” of NFT marketplaces, which charge people to list items for sale, just like eBay does, which is entirely consistent with almost every marketplace currently operating to sell goods or services;
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The AFR also notes that “unpredictable ‘gas’ payments” are needed to “cover the cost of ethereum’s baroque processing methods” a curious choice of word given Gas is a straight processing fee for the ethereum network shared by the computers processing transactions. It’s not remotely “baroque”.
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Despite most NFTs being on Ethereum, which is rapidly moving towards proof of stake, it wouldn’t be a news article if a shot wasn’t taken about electricity usage. It would be useful to compare the costs of what NFTs are delivering with the existing systems of galleries, storage and the payment rails globally which enable artists to sell their creations but it is impossible to calculate the magnitude of electricity used in all of that infrastructure. Needless to say, we are comfortable in saying the Ethereum network is vastly more efficient in energy use for what it delivers than the existing “real world” infrastructure it replaces.
