The Australian government this week unveiled its $574 million Digital Business Plan that includes seven-figure grants for distributed ledger technology initiatives. Announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison ahead of next week’s Federal Government budget, the plan outlines $4.95 million in support for “two blockchain pilots directed at reducing business compliance costs.” Morrison said: “The plan supports Australia’s economic recovery by removing out-dated regulatory barriers, boosting the capability of small businesses, and backs the uptake of technology across the economy.” Piper Alderman partner Michael Bacina told Cointelegraph that these two projects are important “to help demonstrate and unlock the value of …

While other countries may be placing central bank digital currencies — also known as CBDCs — at the top of their agenda, Australia could buck the trend. According to a local news report on Sept. 17, the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest payments paper has taken a cautious and sceptical line toward CBDCs as well as private-sector stablecoins. The RBA does not believe there is currently a strong policy case for issuing a CBDC in Australia, pointing to the success of the country’s efficient, real-time New Payments Platform. Moreover, while the use of cash for transactions is broadly declining, Australians …

BNP Paribas’ securities arm has partnered with Digital Asset to develop a number of real-time trade and settlement applications using DAML-based smart contracts, the firm announced on Sept. 15. The new DAML-driven apps will connect BNP Paribas Securities Services with major global stock exchanges like the Australian Securities Exchange, or ASX, and the Hong Kong Exchange, or HKEX. The apps will provide market participants in the Asia Pacific with real-time access to ASX’s and HKEX’s upcoming blockchain-based trading and settlement platforms. BNP Paribas will specifically connect to the ASX’s blockchain-powered equity transaction platform known as the Clearing House Electronic Subregister …

The Lygon blockchain platform, which runs on IBM Public Cloud, has reportedly successfully conducted its pilot since last year with Australian banks ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac and a group of 20 Australian businesses. Banks are expected to issue bank guarantees in just one day once they implement Lygon compared to the current paper-based guarantees that can take a month. The three Australian banks and retailers Scentre Group and IBM are planning to expand the Lygon platform for commercial use, according to a report on Sept 1. A bank guarantee is a type of financial backstop offered …

A supply chain forum featuring local experts and government officials has advocated using blockchain technology to fight the $1.7 billion worth of food fraud annually harming Australia's primary sector. Blockchain Australia deputy chair Rob Allen moderated the online panel discussion on Sept. 4 discussing use-cases for blockchain within the supply chain sector to an audience of more than 150 attendees. Allen set the scene by stating that verifying the authenticity of produce claiming to be Australian-made in local and overseas markets is one of the largest challenges facing the country's agricultural industry. Australia is a major exporter of produce, National …

Anti-crypto activist David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, has once again used his influence as a senior Wikipedia editor, this time to remove a blockchain-related entry about Australian firm Power Ledger. In his latest blog posting, the Wikipedia editor appeared to boast about his success in having the Power Ledger article deleted, which he said was "on the basis of being a pile of press-release churnalism, and the only genuine press coverage was about how Power Ledger was a scam.” A publicly available discussion between Wikipedia editors debating the Power Ledger page shows Gerald arguing that …

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned John Louis Anthony Bigatton, the former ‘Australian National Representative’ of the multi-billion-dollar crypto Ponzi scheme BitConnect, from providing financial services for seven years. ASIC asserts that the New South Wales resident provided unlicensed financial product advice and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct while working for BitConnect from August 2017 through January 2018. While an investigation is still ongoing, the regulator has found that: “Mr. Bigatton is not a fit and proper person to provide financial services: is not adequately trained, or is not competent, to provide a financial service or …

After opening its doors to Australians last month, one of the largest brokerage firms in Europe is now offering crypto trading services. U.K.-based money app Revolut announced on Sept. 3 that its tens of thousands of Australian customers are now able to buy, sell, and hold crypto assets. Users can convert their fiat into Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP, and Stellar (XLM). Revolut stated that its ‘Metal plan’ customers could now transfer digital assets to other users, as well as exercise the option to round up credit card payments to the nearly dollar, so their …

Three of the “big four” Australian banks are forming a new company called Lygon to digitize bank guarantees using blockchain technology. Bank guarantees are an official contract between a debtor and a financial institution. It ensures the debtor and the debt provider that the debt will be paid on time under all circumstances. The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation along with two other shareholders — the Australian shopping center company Scentre Group and technology behemoth IBM — are forming the company after a successful pilot last year. The last of …

Ripple is facing a lawsuit from New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) — a consortium that includes every significant bank in Australia. While court documents are yet to have been made public, it is believed the suit alleges intellectual property infringement concerning the branding of Ripple’s ‘PayID’ payment standard. The lawsuit was reported by technology journalist Rohan Pearce on August 24, who shared a screenshot indicating that NPP Australia Limited, the operators of Australia’s interbank payments network ‘Pay ID’, had filed a suit with the Federal Court of Australia against Ripple Labs Inc. NPPA’s payment platform is currently used by more …

Pressured by external forces, two Australian exchanges have begun to delist a number of privacy coins including Monero (XMR) and Bytecoin (BCN). On August 24, YouTuber Alex Saunders tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be an announcement from the Australian exchange, Coinspot. This announcement seemed to suggest that several privacy coins were going to be delisted by August 31: Source: Twitter. Another Twitter user alleged that CoinSpot was not the only one planning to delist privacy coins, claiming that Swiftx, another Australian exchange, was planning to do the same. On the same day, Chainalysis announced that it was partnering …

Blockchain-enabled approaches to advancing the transition to renewable energy sources are making inroads in new regions. On Aug. 25, Australian blockchain firm Power Ledger announced its forthcoming launch of a marketplace for trading renewable energy certificates (RECs) across Thailand and the Southeast Asian region. The project builds on Power Ledger’s long-standing collaboration with Thai renewable energy firm BCPG. Their earliest joint project dates back to 2018, when they conducted a peer-to-peer renewable energy trading trial in one of Bangkok’s central precincts. Since then, Power Ledger has worked together with BCPG and the Thai Digital Energy Development (TDED) on developing a …