“The launch of ByteFederal Australia marks an exciting milestone in our mission to democratize access to the digital asset ecosystem,” said Alek Trpkoski, Managing Director of ByteFederal Australia. “We are dedicated to providing our customers with a seamless, secure, and user-friendly experience as they navigate the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.”
Entering into the Australian market, ByteFederal states it is steadfast in upholding the highest standards of compliance and regulatory practices, and that users can be rest assured that the company’s operations are transparent and fortified by robust security protocols, according to the release.
The company’s ecosystem includes a range of proprietary products and services, such as their Smart Kiosk network, digital wallet, merchant terminals, and more. ByteFederal Australia says they’re building the ‘Institution of The Future’ designed to offer a personalized and customer-centric approach to the digital asset economy.
ByteFederal Australia said it places an emphasis on fostering a work environment that encourages creativity, innovation, and collaboration. Trpkoski further emphasized the role of the team in ByteFederal Australia’s success, stating, “Our team is at the heart of our success. We believe in cultivating a culture of visionaries, where everyone’s unique perspective and expertise contribute to ByteFederal Australia’s continuous growth and success.”
To commemorate its launch, ByteFederal Australia is offering limited-time promotions, providing users with enticing incentives to embark on their Bitcoin journey with confidence.
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Today, Thibaud Marechal and Gustavo Flores announced the launch of Coinjoins.org, an open-source project focusing on educating Bitcoin users on the privacy functionality of collaborative transactions, per a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
Born from the observation of heated discussions surrounding popular iterations of coinjoin tooling, Coinjoins.org aims to bring clarity to the differing benefits and tradeoffs that come from each project.
“We hope that Coinjoins.org can open new conversations around privacy and Bitcoin. P2P exchanges, self-custody and coinjoins will be essential for the Bitcoin circular economy to flourish,” said Thibaud Marechal, a long time privacy advocate and current Wasabi Wallet contributor.
Marechal expressed the need for more articulate resources in order to encourage proper use of collaborative, non-custodial transactions, increasing the potential anonymity set for Bitcoin users. “We need less paper bitcoin on exchanges and more coinjoined bitcoin into cold storage,” he continued.
Bitcoin is an open ledger, with all of its transactions inscribed in perpetuity since genesis within its confirmed blocks. Being a public database allows each user to validate their own transactions and even audit the total issued supply of bitcoin.
Naturally, there are obvious privacy implications from this transparent blockchain, and thus privacy on Bitcoin functions as a team sport. Payers and receivers that utilize the censorship resistant quality of the Nakamoto Consensus can both benefit from coinjoins, protecting users from unnecessarily leaking personal or financial information simply when bargaining with satoshis. Privacy is a personal responsibility with social implications. The larger the crowd, the better your privacy.
“I believe Coinjoins.org has the potential to become an unbiased source of truth on the topic of Bitcoin privacy that will finally dispel a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt,” says Flores, contributor to Wasabi Wallet. The project plans to release studies comparing popular privacy wallets, such as Samourai Wallet, JoinMarket and Wasabi Wallet.
Alongside the debut of the project’s website, the founders of Coinjoins.org are soliciting contributions, ideas, and general feedback to [email protected].
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In an announcement Thursday morning, the Federal Reserve unveiled that its instant payment system, the FedNow® Service, has officially gone live. This tool aims to empower banks and credit unions of all sizes to facilitate instantaneous money transfers for their customers. The Federal Reserve claims that FedNow transactions can be executed 24/7, 365 days a year.
To start, 35 banks and credit unions, alongside the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, are among those already equipped to handle payments through the FedNow Service. Furthermore, a lineup of 16 service providers are poised to offer payment processing support for banks and credit unions.
“The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. “Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck, or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid.”
When asked if the FedNow service is attempting to replace cash, and if it was a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or not, the Federal Reserve stated “No. The FedNow Service is not related to a digital currency. The FedNow Service is a payment service the Federal Reserve is making available for banks and credit unions to transfer funds for their customers. It is like other Federal Reserve payment services, such as Fedwire and FedACH. The FedNow Service is neither a form of currency nor a step toward eliminating any form of payment, including cash.”
A comprehensive list of early adopters already equipped with instant payment capabilities can be found in an attached document. Further information can be found on the Federal Reserve Financial Services website.
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“In total, Coinbase One has a presence in 35 countries (predominantly in Europe) – in these other countries Coinbase One is rolling out to full availability in the coming months, and we plan to expand to additional markets internationally,” the email added.
Montenegro has granted approval to the bail terms proposed by lawyers for Terra founder Do Kwon, who was charged with the criminal offense of document forgery under Montenegrin law.
According to the official document released by local authorities on May 12, the court has accepted the proposed bail offer for Kwon and Han Chang-Joon — Terraform Labs’ chief financial officer — of 400,000 euros ($436,000) each. This is in addition to being put under house arrest instead of being taken into custody.
According to the documents, if the house arrest is compromised, the bail will be entered into a “special section” of the court’s working budget. Additionally, the notice said it would be necessary to verify the authenticity of travel documents and identity cards, which were “allegedly” issued by the competent authorities of Belgium.
This update comes only one day after Kwon’s lawyers filed their request for such conditions to the Montenegrin authorities. If the party is “unsatisfied” with the court decision, they have three days to repeal it.
Kwon and Chang-Joon were arrested by Montenegrin authorities in March 2023 at Podgorica airport for allegedly using false documents. The two had their passports confiscated in South Korea, their country of origin, in October 2022.
Interpol has wanted the Terraform Labs co-founder for his part in the Terra ecosystem’s $40 billion collapse in May 2022 that rocked the crypto industry. The current criminal trial in Montenegro is anticipated to start on June 16.
Reports from May 10 revealed that South Korean authorities had frozen $176 million of Kwon’s personal assets as part of the ongoing criminal proceedings.
Magazine: ‘Terra hit us incredibly hard’: Sunny Aggarwal of Osmosis Labs
“The SEC is a regulator that requires transparency from its registrants, but it is continuing to withhold regulatory clarity by not defining digital assets,” said Anne-Marie Kelley, a partner at Mercury Strategies who was a longtime SEC official. She suggested the commission may have deleted the definition because “any recognition of digital assets uniqueness as a novel product weakens their litigation stance that digital assets are securities and subject to the SEC securities laws.”
- A Bitcoin-themed PEZ dispenser has officially launched.
- Only 30,000 units will be produced.
- The scarcity of units is meant to both mirror the scarcity of bitcoin and create the first Bitcoin-themed candy collectible.
The world’s first Bitcoin-themed PEZ dispenser has launched for a limited-edition run, per a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
ProSnacktive Sales, a newly formed family-owned business, launched the product exclusively on Walmart Marketplace. The company is producing a hard limit of 30,000 units, mirroring the hard money scarcity of bitcoin.
“We believe the future is bright for Bitcoin, and that is one of the main reasons we pursued this project,” said Chris Coradini, owner of ProSnacktive Sales LLC. “It’s a fun way to promote Bitcoin and leave a long-lasting impression with all crypto, collectible, and candy enthusiasts alike! And yes, bitcoin was used to help fund this project!”
While the markets are suffering a downturn and news of acquisitions, liquidation events and volatile prices crowd investors’ screens, ProSnacktive intends for this product to be a well-deserved break from the market madness.
The company noted that while these PEZ dispensers might not need to be HODLed quite as tightly as one’s bitcoin, they still might be worth holding onto as a collectible. One local Connecticut resident and PEZ collector is already excited for the product launch.
“It’s awesome to hear that Bitcoin was adopted as a custom PEZ design,” local Connecticut resident Phil Grimaldi said. “I’m definitely going to be buying more Bitcoin before the dispenser goes on sale. I hope I am lucky enough to get one. PEZ and Bitcoin to the moon!
London, February 2023. Zebu Live, London’s annual showcase of the Web3 revolution, announces that it has been successfully certified carbon neutral.
The two-day live crypto conference, which took place in September 2022, partnered up with decentralised cloud computing network Cudos and carbon management provider Blue Marble to make a completely carbon-neutral event. Showcasing more than 160 of the industry’s brightest speakers, including Dragon & Thirdweb Co-Founder Stephen Bartlett, and Aave CEO Stani Kulechov, the sell-out event welcomed 1,500 guests to the Kensington Conference Centre and 5,000+ streaming globally.
Carbon neutrality was achieved post-event through partnerships with Blue Marble and Cudos. The former performs an intensive process to analyse, certify, and offset the event through a high-quality Voluntary Carbon Credits scheme that retires carbon emissions on behalf of clients. The project that Zebu Live is supporting in conjunction with Blue Marble is called ‘Pacajai REDD+’ and concerns preservation & regeneration in the Amazon region of Brazil. As well as tackling the threat of deforestation (illegal logging and land conversion for agriculture), Pacajai empowers local communities and protects threatened wildlife with education and infrastructure.
Ashton Barger, Head of Partnerships & Programming at Zebu Live comments:
“Sustainability is very important to me and the Zebu team, as I think it should be for all companies and event organisers. Considering the state of our climate, I think it’s essential to make our actions have the least possible impact on the environment. With this event, we went through a lengthy process to certify all aspects of Zebu Live that were carbon intensive – from the food that we served to the energy that the venues used all the way to the travel that the team conducted to promote Zebu Live. We were so glad to work with Blue Marble to offset our carbon the right way, and also have Cudos’ support to make this possible.”
Zebu Live’s official Carbon Neutral Sponsor for the 2022 event, Cudos, helped to facilitate this certification.
David Pugh-Jones, CMO of Cudos, also added:
“We’re immensely proud of Zebu Live’s carbon-neutral certification as it proves that it is eminently possible to run a leading industry event in a sustainable way. As we venture forth into a world of limitless possibility powered by Web3 and the Metaverse, it’s vitally important that we do so in a way that isn’t detrimental to our environment. As the first company in the sustainable crypto-mining arena to commit to carbon neutrality, we ensure our blockchain ecosystem is constantly working with our carbon emission partners to achieve net zero. This announcement today cements our ethos and officially aligns with the Zebu Live event mantra, marking a key milestone in our partnership.”
Henry Waite, Founder of Blue Marble, comments on the partnership between Blue Marble and Zebu Live, noting:
“Blue Marble was delighted to work with the Zebu Live project team. The event was forward thinking in many ways and becoming carbon neutral was yet another demonstration of that leadership.”
This three-way partnership between Zebu Live, Cudos, and Blue Marble will encourage further sustainable development in the UK events industry and the emerging Web3 events space.
Zebu Live looks forward to continuing its carbon neutrality for all conferences it hosts in the future.
About Blue Marble
Blue Marble is a team of Environmental Management Consultants, with diverse professional and scientific backgrounds delivering high-quality support and advice through the Blue Marble Partnership. They have developed a carbon accounting process and platform in order to provide highly accurate greenhouse gas inventories, emissions reduction advice and CO2 removals working to the highest international standards and protocols.
About Cudos
The Cudos Network is a Layer 1 network, providing scalable distributed computing direct to smart contracts or to any bridged blockchain. Cudos connects blockchain developers and services to a global pool of computing power. This enables up to 10x more cost-effective computing, greener computing and access to a global network to power your next Metaverse, Dynamic NFT, AI, Machine Learning, DeFi or any computationally demanding dApps and smart contracts.
About Zebu Live
Zebu Live is a global event brand and community built by Zebu Digital. Zebu Live 2022 was the second annual Web3 Conference hosted in London. Zebu Live 2023 will be the third edition of this conference, hosted on October 4-5. It is an immersive experience with 3,000+ people coming to London to build the Web3 revolution. ZL23 will bring together as many Web3 industry perspectives as possible to work towards the goal of mainstream adoption of the tech. Tickets for the October event are already being sold on various ticketing platforms.
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