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Welcome back everyone, I hope you have had a terrific Christmas-New Years break. The world has not stood still over summer however and this is especially true of the Digital Currency space.
Blockchain - the technology that governs Bitcoin - is now rightly being seen as a technology of great potential; something that is able to influence countless processes in technology, finance and even legal services. It is Blockchain technology that will drive investment in our sector.
ADCCA has been laying the groundwork for an expansion of operations, which will shortly be announced. At ADCCA we are keenly aware of the looming explosion of interest in the Digital Currency and Assets sector. We are ready for the increased responsibility at our doorstep and look forward to the challenges and opportunities of 2015.
The first big commercial event for the year in Digital Currency has been the launch of the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in the US, named Coinbase. This is an extremely positive move that signals the world's largest economy is quickly moving to capitalise on Blockchain technology.
Staying stateside, ADCCA was represented at the largest ever Digital Currency forum at Miami Beach. The forum held in Miami on 16-18 January - was a watershed moment in our sector and attracted unprecedented interest from government and corporate circles from all around the world.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of 2015 for Australian Digital Currency businesses is the biggest challenge that we faced in 2014; instituting a fair and globally competitive taxation regime for Bitcoin. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the ATO's interpretation of tax law as it applies to Digital Currencies is setting Australia back. We face the prospect of not only losing Digital Currency businesses, but also seeing all sorts of FinTech investment directed towards other more forward thinking countries. Australia must act as soon as possible to capitalise on this FinTech wave.
Senator Sam Dastyari, who many of you would know as the chair of the Digital Currency Inquiry has penned an op-ed on Digital Currencies for this newsletter. You can see what he has to say below.
Currently there are 46 submissions to the Australian Senate's Digital Currency Inquiry, including from PayPal and the Reserve Bank of Australia. I am hopeful the Inquiry can recommend some common sense measures to give Australia a world leading regulatory framework for our field and ensure our banks and FS sector remain at the forefront. This applies not just to tax, but to other areas such as law enforcement and auditing.
There is much more news on the way from ADCCA but for now please have a look at some of the news that has come out during the summer break.
Yours very sincerely,
Ronald M. Tucker
Chairman ADCCA
Delegate - Bit Trade Australia
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Australian Senate Inquiry into 'the Coin Bits'
Op Ed by
Senator Sam Dastyari
senator.dastyari@aph.gov.au
On August 20 last year, the Australian Tax Office announced that after some consideration they could not decide what Bitcoin was. Australia's tax legislation does not define a digital currency: and the Tax Office noted that our dictionaries didn't either...
I can also advise you that some of my esteemed colleagues in the Australian Senate also did not know what a digital currency was.
In October I walked onto the senate floor to propose a motion that Australia conduct the world's most extensive, wide-ranging and detailed investigation into the future of Bitcoin and Digital currency.
This was a big idea. Australia is the 12th largest economy in the word, well known for its ability to extract minerals from the dirt and that its sparsely populated landmass is ideal for farming, but we have undistinguished record of global regulatory leadership in the technology sector.
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DIGITAL CURRENCY HEADLINES
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"Rebellious NYSE President Calls Bitcoin 'Growth Market,' Joins $75M Coinbase Investment"
FORTUNE MAGAZINE | 20 January, 2015
Tom Farley, the 39-year-old President of the New York Stock Exchange, isn't wasting any time ruffling feathers at the largest securities platform in the world. Today, he announced the stock exchange participated in a $75 million investment in Bitcoin start-up Coinbase, the largest investment ever made in a Bitcoin company.
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"Bitcoin Gets First Regulated US Exchange"
TIME MAGAZINE | 27 January, 2015  Coinbase's new exchange has regulatory approval in 24 states, including California and New York. Coinbase, a start-up backed by $106 million in investor funding, has opened the first Bitcoin exchange inside U.S. borders, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new venture is to the first to let users buy and sell Bitcoin with a company based in the United States. -Read More-
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"PayPal [Subsidiary Braintree] Activates Bitcoin Payments for US Merchants"
CoinDesk | 22 January, 2015
 Merchants who use the payments software platform Braintree in the US can enable Bitcoin payments through Coinbase starting today. Braintree said that it had integrated Coinbase into its software development kit, which it calls v.zero. This means that merchants who use the kit can now enable Bitcoin payments quickly, Braintree said. -Read More-
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"KPMG: Retail Banking Approaching 'e-book moment', Describes Bitcoin as 'The Internet of Money'"
Forex Magnates | 24 January, 2015  While the banks are open to safely start buying European bonds, as the European Central Bank has become the 4th major institution to indulge in quantitative easing, KPMG revealed in a report that the disruptive potential of Bitcoin for retail banking was a serious matter. -Read More-
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"Bitcoin Finds a Place Among the World's Elite at Davos Economic Forum"
CNBC | 22 January, 2015
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"Winklevoss Twins Plan Regulated US Bitcoin Exchange"
NEW YORK TIMES | 22 January, 2015
Bitcoin, the virt  ual currency that was once the talk of the financial world, has been taking a beating over the last year with the price tumbling downward. Now two of the biggest boosters of the virtual currenc y, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, are trying to firm up support by creating the first regulated Bitcoin exchange for American customers - what they are calling the Nasdaq of Bitcoin. -Read More-
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"Perth's ASX Listed digitalBTC Inks Deal to Expand Mining Operation"
CoinDesk | 23 January, 2015
Australian Bitcoin company digitalBTC is expanding its mining capacity and entering a new contract with data centre provider Verne Global. The company said it is acquiring new Bitcoin mining hardware from manufacturer Spondoolies-Tech, although the exact details were not revealed.
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"Changes Tip Now Allows Facebook Friends to Tip Bitcoin"
CoinDesk, 18 January, 2015
Bitcoin microtransactions startup ChangeTip, which allows people to send Bitcoin tips over social media, has now added Facebook to its list of supported platforms. With the move, ChangeTip adds to its existing list of popular social media services, which include Twitter and Reddit.
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"Largest Digital Currency Conference Held in Miami"
BITCOINIST.NET | 19 January, 2015
The North American Bitcoin Conference got off to a good start on January 17th, despite the tumbling value of Bitcoin in the last couple weeks. The presentations and panels were loaded with heavy weights in the industry, including Jeff Garzik of BitPay is an electronic payment processing system for the Bitcoin currency.
-Read More-
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"The $1 Billion Love Affair with Aussie Tech"
THE AFR | 8 December, 2014
The call started normally enough. "Hi, my name is Chris and I need a lawyer to help me sell my technology company." So far so good. The next line caught me a little off guard. "I am on the Central Coast." What tech companies are there on the Central Coast, I wondered. Little did I realise I was just about to hear one of the great Australian tech stories.
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STATE OF BITCOIN REPORT
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CoinDesk is pleased to announce the latest quarterly State of Bitcoin report, featuring a 2014 Year in Review, an in-depth analysis of data and events from the fourth quarter of 2014 and a look ahead to what 2015 might bring. |
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6 Types of Businesses Bitcoin Will Enable for the First Time
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UK Treasury Call for Information on Digital Currencies
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STAY CONNECTED
www.adcca.org.au
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Copyright © 2015 | ADCCA | All rights reserved.
Published by the Australian Digital Currency Commerce Association
Editor: Ronald M. Tucker
Deputy Editor: Jessica McIntyre
The ADCCA Industry Newsletter reaches a regular audience of over 700+ Industry and Government Leaders, domestically and abroad. This reach includes regulators, parliamentarians, enterprise C-Level executives as well as cross-industry stakeholder participants both at the professional association and emerging FinTech business levels. To learn more about ADCCA or enquire as to Membership opportunities, please contact us via the below:
Our mailing address is: The ADCCA PO Box 21122 World Square Sydney NSW 2002 AUSTRALIA www.adcca.org.au | contact@adcca.org.au |
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renegade alternative to a world currency, 
