Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, recently announced his company had bought US$1.5 billion (almost A$2 billion) of Bitcoin. The announcement led to a flurry of enthusiasm and a quick surge in price for the controversial cryptocurrency. This price bump has been good news for Musk in the short term. At one point, Tesla’s… Read more »
Iranian police confiscated more 45,000 bitcoin mining machines, chewing up around 95 megawatts per hour (MWh) of electricity, because the miners were using cheaper, subsidised power illegally, according to local media agency Tasnim News. To put that in perspective, that’s around half the capacity of South Australia’s Tesla “big battery” plant (aka Hornsdale). Iranian authorities… Read more »
If you’re feeling a bit sad about your fortunes at the moment, spare a thought for San Francisco-based computer programmer Stefan Thomas, who, around a decade ago, made this video and took 7,002 Bitcoins as payment for the job. The New York Times has the sad tale of German-born Thomas – a former CTO at blockchain… Read more »
Bitcoin continues to trade close to its all-time high reached this month. Its price is now around US $34,000 — up about 77% over the past month and 305% over the past year. (Editor’s note: Since this piece was first published, Bitcoin’s price has doubled in a month to US$40,000.) First launched in 2009 as… Read more »
Bitcoin is back. Three years after the bubble that inflated its value from US$5,000 to US$20,000 in less than three months burst in spectacular fashion, plunging more than 80%, the cryptocurrency is again on the verge of a record high. In recent days it has been trading above US$19,000, up from US$10,000 in October and… Read more »
Digital currency exchange Cointree has launched the ability to pay everyday bills using cryptocurrency after signing a deal with AI bill payment platform Gobbill. The deal allows Australians to pay bills via BPAY using more than 100-plus supported coins. Founded in Melbourne in 2013, Cointree has more than 60,000 members and processed in excess of… Read more »
Qnect Technologies has had its customer data stolen, with the hackers threatening to publish the information online unless the business paid out bitcoins.
Blockchain startup R3 has announced the close of a US$107 (AU$143) million Series A round, marking the largest raise for a blockchain startup to date.
A life coach, or somebody of a similar non-profession, once said ‘never hold a grudge’. But, in case you do hate someone, shit delivery startup Shit Express is here to accommodate. At first glance, what’s impressive about Shit Express is its succinct tagline: “Send a piece of shit in a box to someone”. In a short sentence, the startup has summed up its entire business.
At the start of the month, Australian startup Payonix Technologies launched the sales of the first high-performance, easy-to-use Bitcoin mining hardware. The company’s in-house designed ONIX Series ASIC mining rigs have been pre-sold out – a strong indicator that cryptocurrency is well on its way to becoming mainstream.
Melbourne-based car manufacturing startup Tomcar Australia is well on its road to success, having pre-sold 100 units of the all-terrain vehicles and now accepting cryptographic currency Bitcoin.
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