The Australian government is seriously consider the rollout of central bank digital currency (CBDC) and has backed numerous forward-looking regulatory crypto-proposals as part of a new “payments and crypto reform plan.” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the reforms "will firmly place Australia among a handful of lead countries in the world." The reform plan is said to be the biggest shake-up of the Australian payments system since the 1990s, with part of the crypto-related groundwork set by the innovative proposals put forward by an Australian Senate Committee in September. According to the Australian Financial Review, the government is in favor of …

Ethereum, the second leading cryptocurrency, has long been crypto enthusiasts’ darling in terms of the value it has been bringing to the industry. However, with time and growing interest, the coin’s network showed flaws, including huge overloads, high transaction fees and speed issues. Cointelegraph talked to Marco Chen, co-founder of Parastate and member of Rust Foundation, about why Ethereum (ETH) compatible smart contracts are the new black for blockchain developers. 1. What’s the story behind ParaState? We’ve asked ourselves numerous times before starting ParaSate, “Crypto space is a fast-changing world, but what changes might be brought in the long term …

0x protocol and Celo blockchain have announced a joint partnership to allocate $4.5 million — consisting of $3 million CELO and $1.5 million ZRX — towards the growth of 0x’s ecosystem via its community-centric decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The news follows an agreement penned in mid-November between the two firms to integrate a zero-cost 0x API functionality on the Celo blockchain to enhance the experience of DeFi developers seeking to access multi-chain aggregated decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity services. Celo is an open-source collective of tech, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) unified to promote greater global access to decentralized applications (dApps) …

Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius has reportedly lost over $50 million in the exploit of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol BadgerDAO. As reported by Cointelegraph on Dec. 2, the attack targeted the protocol on the Ethereum network, reaping an unconfirmed $120 million in assets. According to one Redditor, the biggest alleged victim of the hack was an address that lost 896 Wrapped Bitcoin ($51 million). The address is supposed to be owned by Celsius “since it has interacted with other addresses known to be owned by them.” The address regularly transacts with an address that has a $67 million balance, $40 million …

Forbes has named 15 youthful crypto business leaders on the 2022 edition of its 30 under 30 list. Despite its misleading name, the annual Forbes 30 under 30 list is actually comprised of 600 people aged 30 and under from a total of 20 categories such as finance, gaming and music. Notable alumni from last year’s edition include FTX and Alameda Research founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and Brian Tubergen, the co-founder of U.S.-based initial token offering and exchange platform CoinList. In the latest edition published on Dec. 1, Forbes noted that the latest batch of under 30s raised more than $1 …

Earlier this month, the Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, formed a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, for the ENS community. Cointelegraph spoke to two ENS DAO delegates who applied for the opportunity to represent the community and stay involved in the decision making process: Victor Zhang, CEO of AlphaWallet, an open source Ethereum wallet, and Gregory Rocco, co-founder of Spruce, a decentralized ID and data toolkit for developers. Zhang spoke about his experience as an external contributor to ENS and an early supporter since 2018. Zhang initially sought to help ENS by offering Alpha Wallet as a user-friendly tool for …

Decentralized automated market maker (AMM) Bancor is set to launch new staking pools and an upgrade to its impermanent loss protection mechanism as part of its long-awaited Bancor 3 update. Bancor was founded in 2017 and was the first DeFi protocol to introduce AMMs to the blockchain. The Ethereum-based exchange and lending platform also allows users to earn staking rewards via various liquidity pools. In a Nov. 30 blog post introducing the upcoming Bancor 3 update, the platform announced several new features and upgrades including the Omnipool, Infinity pools, and “Instant Impermanent Loss Protection.” Introducing Bancor 3 pic.twitter.com/TuIyUnN13U — Bancor …

A haphazardly assembled online group of passionate people who formed a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, and pooled a spectacular amount of Ether (ETH) for a noble cause came tantalizingly close to pulling off an incredible feat of collective action. While they fell short of reaching their main goal — securing the last privately owned print copy of the United States Constitution’s first edition in order to make it available to the public — the speed, scale and efficiency of the decentralized effort were profoundly impressive. The fact that the group’s objective was to preserve an artifact epitomizing the most …

Freelancers have taken an increasingly important role in society, providing many valuable skills for businesses and driving a significant portion of the economy’s growth. To bring these skilled laborers together with available projects are centralized platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, now hosting billions of dollars worth of contracts each year. Unfortunately, dominant players have been known to remain in control, taking a large cut of profits and making it hard for freelancers to turn their efforts into a sustainable salary. While these platforms dominate the industry, they aren’t immune to industry-wide concerns, including subpar workers that businesses must learn to …

The online group, ConstitutionDAO, has failed in its bid to purchase the last privately owned, 1st edition print copy of the U.S. Constitution at public auction at Sotheby’s on Thursday. "The 'Official Edition' of The United States Constitution" was instead won by an unknown bidder for $43.2 million, meaning the DAO failed in its historic attempt to put it “in the hands of The People.” The news broke in an announcement on the official Discord. "While this was not the outcome we hoped for we still made history tonight," the post read. This specific copy is one of just thirteen …

As outlined in a prepared statement obtained by Cointelegraph, Game7 is an upcoming $500 million blockchain ecosystem acceleration decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, with the goal of onboarding gamers worldwide to the blockchain ecosystem. Entities backing the proposal include BitDAO, Forte, Alameda Research, Mirana Ventures, Warner Music Group, Aleo, Avalanche, Interchain Foundation, Offchain Labs, OP Games, Polygon Studios, and Solana Ventures. Meanwhile, Forte Labs and Magnus proposed its creation. 1/ BIP-5 has passed! @Game7_Official will be established by a diverse group of gaming and technology industry veterans, and will help create a future where blockchain and gaming unites! https://t.co/dZxqjMwpIk pic.twitter.com/Nxd5L4fgyD …

We have seen a steep adoption of crypto-based systems this year, including decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) such as digital art, crypto-centric gaming, and increased adoption of cryptocurrencies as investment and payment tools. One of the more recent developments is the emergence of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). DAOs have existed since 2016, when The DAO organization, a new form of investment vehicle that attracted a sizable portion of Ethereum (ETH) tokens, raised more than $150 million at the time. Many saw The DAO as the ultimate form of human coordination. Yet, due to a reentrancy exploit, hackers stole …