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 …

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most influential person in the blockchain industry, according to Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which added five trading pairs: Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP at the beginning of December, as well as adding Tether (USDT) later the same month against the Russian ruble. Putin was the first to propose a multinational cryptocurrency along with the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, and BRICS countries after being advised by Vitalik Buterin in the wake of the 2017 cryptocurrency bubble. Related: Pax Crypto: Russia Proposes First Multinational Cryptocurrency, Expert …

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Saudi Aramco, has bought into the blockchain-based oil trading company Vakt, Reuters reports on Jan. 28. Saudi Aramco’s Energy Ventures branch has bought $5 million in new shares, according to Vakt’s press release. The investment will be used to develop the platform, with a focus on expansion into the Asian market. In addition to investment, the oil conglomerate’s trading subsidiary Aramco Trading is set to use the Vakt platform. The platform is currently live in the North Sea Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll crude oil markets, where it reports to have a high market …

Recently, the cryptocurrency mining community has been shaken with rumors of Chinese miners leaving Iran — where crypto mining is authorized as an industrial activity — for Central Asia. The move has ostensibly been taken in an attempt to find a new safe haven amid the tensions between the United States and Iran, as well as rising oil and energy prices. Iran’s attraction for crypto mining operations lies in subsidized electricity rates — as of July, 0.7 cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh), — which had purportedly even prompted miners from mining centers such as China to relocate their operations to the …

Blockchain development firm Bitfury is set to partner with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on a project to conserve and increase Kazakhstan’s forestland. As the Astana Times reported on Jan. 14, the project aims to help the country to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15% over the coming decade to meet its commitments in the 2016 Paris Agreement. Offsetting Bifury’s carbon footprint Bitfury and the UNDP are poised to sign an agreement later this month with the Kazakh Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources to create a forestland in the nation’s Pavlodar Region. The project will start …

Australia-based blockchain energy firm Power Ledger has purchased a 250 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic system that will utilize a blockchain-based data management and settlement system. Per a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Jan. 13, Power Ledger purchased the system from Perdaman Advanced Energy, an Australian firm that provides clean energy consulting and project development. The new system will be located in Maddington and integrate a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to make renewable energy trading more transparent. Transformation of the energy market “The renewable energy that the Maddington asset generates will be tracked using blockchain technology to provide a verified audit …

The operator of what is set to become the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility has reportedly signed a deal with Japanese financial services giant SBI and internet provider GMO. A Jan. 7 BNN Bloomberg report claims that the two Japanese mega-firms have agreed in principle to process cryptocurrency transactions at a new mining facility — of unprecedented scale — now being developed in Rockdale, Texas. The facility will be operated by Whinstone Inc., a subsidiary of the Frankfurt-based Northern Bitcoin AG. Whinstone — which has been operating since 2014 and has its own mining sites across the Netherlands, Sweden …

Researchers at Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) have proposed that using a blockchain-based “forward trading system” can provide a more effective incentive for the smart management of renewable energy consumption. In a working paper published on Dec. 20, Mel T. Devine, Marianna Russo and Paul Cuffe proposed a new mechanism for forward selling renewable electricity generation and tokenizing the interaction between renewable energy providers and consumers. Automating renewable energy trading and management Blockchain-based forward trading, the paper outlines, implies a transactive framework in which a renewable energy provider — say, a wind or solar farm — directly sells …

United States-based cryptocurrency brokerage BitOoda has secured $7 million funding from major investors including former senior investment exec at JPMorgan. Founded in 2017, BitOoda positions itself as a digital asset financial services platform that combines digital finance and applied science. Investors are former execs from British Petroleum, JPMorgan and S&P Global Platts According to an official announcement on Dec. 23, BitOoda’s new seed round featured founder of international energy analytics firm PIRA Energy Gary Ross, who is also a former head of global oil analytics and chief energy economist at S&P Global Platts. Other investors included Roy Salame, former managing …

Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7,000 crypto mining machines, illegally consuming electric power, local news outlet CCTV reported on Dec. 22. The cryptocurrency mining confiscation came as part of an inspection of more than 70,000 households, 3,061 merchants, 1,470 communities, as well as factories, mines, courtyards and villages in the Kaiping District of Tangshan city. The inspection was carried out by Tangshan police in collaboration with State Electric Power Department and other authorities looking to inspect suspicious electricity use. During the investigation, which initially started in April last year, the authorities seized 6,890 ASIC miners and 52 high-power transformers. According …

Earlier this week, Russian tech startup Waves announced it has been testing a blockchain solution for payments in the retail electricity sector. The pilot program was initiated by Rosseti, Russia’s national energy grid operator, which is looking to automate and make transactions between energy producers, suppliers and consumers more transparent. Now that the first stage has been successfully completed, the partners will proceed to scale up their efforts. Ultimately, they envision rolling the blockchain-powered solution out nationwide. Blockchain and energy: What makes them work together? According to Wood Mackenzie, a global natural resources research and consultancy group, the first documented …

Abkhazia, an autonomous region in northwest Georgia, is planning to intensify the works on the identification of cryptocurrency mining farms in the region. According to a news release published on the Cabinet of Ministers’ website on Dec. 12, Prime Minister of Abkhazia Valeri Bganba held a meeting dedicated to the current state of the region’s electricity grids. The meeting saw the presence of representatives of the State Security Service, the Ministry of Economy, and the state electric utility Chernomorenergo RUE, among others. Significantly increased loads on electric grids During the meeting, some of the participants brought to notice that the …