On Feb. 24, Tim Watts, Australia’s Shadow Assistant Minister for Cybersecurity, has published an article in the Financial Review on Feb. 24, criticizing the country’s government for its response to the 2019 “ransomware epidemic.” Watts states that Australia was not immune to last year’s ransomware outbreaks, citing a Victorian government regional health network that shut down their systems after becoming infected. The incident resulted in multiple surgeries being delayed. Watts also notes that during late Jan. 2020, Melbourne-based global transport company Toll “lost the use of up to 1,000 servers in a ransomware attack,” forcing the company to implement manual …

You need nothing short of “a miracle” to succeed with an initial coin offering (ICO) in Australia, a local industry leader told the government this week. At a Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology hearing on Feb. 20, Dr. Jemma Green said her blockchain firm had succeeded despite, not thanks to, government policy. Dr. Green is the executive chairman and co-founder of Australian blockchain energy firm Power Ledger, which develops blockchain-based software for decentralized energy trading. ZDnet reported her remarks on the day of the hearing. Tax system not “fit for purpose” Dr. Green appeared before the committee …

NSX Limited, the operator of the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSXA), is working on a joint blockchain-based project to enable same-day settlements. According to a Feb. 20 announcement, NSX has partnered with iSignthis (ISX), a publicly listed firm specializing in payment authentication services, to establish a new venture that would provide “multicurrency, real-time and same day clearing of share trades across multiple exchanges.” CHESS system will meet new competitor, DESS Dubbed ClearPay, the new venture will develop a delivery versus payment (DvP) platform that is designed to replace the existing system of clearing and settlement process offered by current …

So far, 2020 has been a year of cryptocurrency regulation: The European Union, the United Kingdom and Singapore have officially introduced their approaches to the burgeoning industry. Now, Australia has published its national roadmap, hoping to become a global blockchain leader. Last Friday, Australia's Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources launched the national blockchain roadmap — a 50-page document that defines how blockchain technology could benefit the local economy over the next five years. The paper, developed in conjunction with industry participants, oversees a number of specific fields where the technology might prove useful, namely Know Your Customer-related procedures …

The Australian government is going to launch its national blockchain strategy on Friday, Feb. 7, following a nearly year-long preparation. It has been almost a year since the country’s Ministry for Industry, Science and Technology and Ministry for Trade, Tourism and Investment announced the national blockchain strategy and roadmap last March. The new policy roadmap aims to make Australia’s nascent blockchain industry into a global leader, making the country’s wine industry, banking and finance the key priority sectors. Special focus on domestic wine Outlining the program’s development, Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, said that the five-year blockchain …

Back in April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India decided to go ahead and issue a notice prohibiting all of India’s banking and financial institutions from offering their services to crypto exchanges, companies operating within the space, and individuals seeking to explore the nascent asset class. Following the ban, India’s crypto ecosystem was brought to its knees, with a majority of operational exchanges either folding up completely or relocating to other nations with more hospitable regulations. Additionally, the notice resulted in digital currencies being maligned across India’s investment landscape, with many casual enthusiasts starting to view the overall sector with …

As megablazes ravage Australia, destroying vast amounts of land and wildlife, Cointelegraph and Oxygen Seven have partnered in a Bitcoin fundraising effort to benefit recovery efforts in the country. Fighting fire with fundraising The announcement between Cointelegraph and Oxygen Seven came last week. Through a page on Cointelegraph’s website, users can make anonymous or attributed donations in Bitcoin. The Bitcoin wallet address belongs to Oxygen Seven, which in turn is contributing all of the funds to the Australian Wildfire Fund. It’s a natural fit for Oxygen Seven, which focuses on issues of climate change, biodiversity, and reforestation. Having recently finished …

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is seeking to oversee stablecoin projects like Facebook's controversial stablecoin Libra. In an official proposal to the Senate published on Jan. 20, APRA submitted a possible regulatory framework dedicated to fintech and regulatory technology (regtech) covering topics ranging from digital wallets to data protection. The proposed framework, “is intended not only to be fit for purpose for the current financial system but also be able to accommodate future developments and technological advances, such as proposals for global stablecoin eco-systems that have been the subject of significant attention in recent months.” Overall, APRA admits that …

Australian micro-investment startup Raiz is set to bring Bitcoin (BTC) fund options to its users, Australian Financial Review (AFR) reports on Jan. 20. The firm cleared the last legal hurdle with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the country’s financial watchdog agency. Raiz is a fintech startup offering micro-investment services to its 300,000 registered accounts. Like the United States-based Acorns and other worldwide startups, it “rounds up” the spare change from the users’ purchases to invest it in a set of investment products, generally comprising exchange traded funds (ETFs). According to AFR sources, Raiz has been pushing to include …

Following the session that took place last August, a three-judge panel from India’s Supreme Court reconvened once again this week to discuss the much-hyped Crypto v. RBI case. During the last hearing, the Supreme Court had asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to clarify its position as to why exactly it enforced a nationwide banking ban on the country’s crypto market, as well as to discuss the seemingly unconstitutional nature of its aforementioned move. Ever since the RBI decided to go ahead and issue its controversial prohibition order, a number of public and industry-led petitions have been filed by …

January 16, 2020 — As a company, Cointelegraph cares about the environment and the world in which we all live. The wildfire crisis in Australia has mobilized us as an organization to take action to help the current recovery efforts down under. Cointelegraph is pleased to announce a partnership with ecological preservation organization Oxygen Seven. We have created a bitcoin donation fund with all money raised going directly to the Australian Wildfire Fund (https://aussieark.org/). Helen Vitalie Lang, Deputy CEO of Cointelegraph: “After seeing the horrific scenes coming out of Australia and the magnitude of loss and suffering being experienced by …

U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken has acquired Australia’s oldest crypto exchange. In a recent development, Kraken announced its acquisition of Bit Trade, an Australia-based crypto exchange formed in 2013, in a Jan. 14 press release on Kraken’s blog. The Bit Trades website will, for the time being, still operate as it does presently, a representative from Kraken clarified to Cointelegraph, including maintaining the existing staff. A representative said: “In the short term, Bit Trade will continue under its current brand and operate business as usual. As part of the acquisition we are pleased to welcome the Bit Trade team led by …