Cryptocurrency

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A cryptocurrency consortium plans to resurrect luxury resort plans for Great Keppel Island.
Great Keppel will become the world’s largest island cryptocurrency micro-economy, a project that could bring the new digital economy to the bricks-and-mortar mainstream.
Investors will be invited to buy so-called Great Keppel Island Tokens in order to fund the $300 million development through what is known as a Security Token Offering, similar to an initial public offering for shares.
The tokens will be tradeable on existing cryptocurrency exchanges.
Under the deal, the owner of the existing defunct resort at Great Keppel Island, Tower Holdings, will retain 12% of the GKI Tokens.
Tower Holdings, which owns more than 70% of Great Keppel Island, is owned by Sydney businessman Terry Agnew.
The GKI Tokens will be backed by the value of the development.
Building is expected to start next year and be completed within five years.
<p data-gtm-vis-polling-id-6236702_632="810" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen-6236702_632="1536019780230" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-6236702_632="1536019780230" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-6236702_632="2900">The STO is being marketed with a flashy sales video starring Greg Norman, who is designing the development’s golf course.
"The development is fully supported from all levels of Australian government, federal, state and local, and has approval for the immediate development of an 18-hole international golf course," says the video.
"Also approved are 750 luxury villas … 300 luxury apartments and a five-star beachfront resort with 250 rooms and a 250-berth marina."
Tower Holdings’ chief executive officer, Anthony Aiossa, told Fairfax Media even with all the approvals in place, Tower had difficulty raising the funds to develop the site until it was approached by someone proposing the cryptocurrency consortium earlier this year.
He said the company had to do homework into cryptocurrencies before it seriously considered the deal.
It is expected that a white paper, similar to a prospectus, will be released on Friday or Monday, with the minimum likely to be more than $100,000, while those buying in during the retail round might have to meet a minimum of around $1000. 
"I think to get a lot of people involved is a wonderful idea," the unofficial mayor Jeff Mercer told Ross Greenwood's 2GB Money News.
The island is a small active township with 18 private homes, he said, adding that the island wasn't closed.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Cryptocurrency play behind Great Keppel Island's $300 million development proposal

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Late last year it was all the rage to accept Bitcoin as a payment for your property.
A number of vendors, from all corners of the country, indicated they were happy to take the cryptocurrency, some as a part payment, some for the whole price.
But such offerings have waned as the hype disappeared.
The underperforming currency has dropped from its December 2017 peak of nearly $20,000 per Bitcoin to a low $8,400. Bitcoin had previously surged <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/78488-bitcoin-up-over-1-000-percent-in-the-last-12-months" target="_blank">over 1000 percent in 12 months.</a>
Now property is being marketed as a more stable investment than Bitcoin. 
Marketing for <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-unit-qld-logan+central-127508902" target="_blank">an apartment in Logan Central</a>, south of Brisbane, suggests the $169,000 plus price is "better than bitcoin."
The two bedroom unit, which last traded for $140,000 in 2005, is currently tenanted at $250 a week, which would see an impressive eight percent rental yield if it sold at its advertised price. 
A <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-unit-tas-claremont-127430954" target="_blank">Claremont, Tasmania home</a> sold earlier this year with the agent suggesting that its seven percent rental yield on offer would an "investment as safe as houses, far more secure than Bitcoin."
The two bedroom home sold for $205,200, with a tenant secured at $265 a week until December 2018.
Last year there were four listings willing to accept bitcoin all within a short two week period spike.
First a <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/78464-melbourne-house-on-sale-vendor-fine-with-part-bitcoin-payments" target="_blank">house in Melbourne's outer east</a> (below) was listed with the seller willing to accept part payment through Bitcoin.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/6/27/basin1.jpg" alt="">
Consumer Affairs Victoria said it was legal for the settlement amount to be paid in any asset or security agreed between the buyer and seller, including Bitcoin. 
The home at <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/1411-mountain-highway-the-basin-vic-3154-2014026324" target="_blank">1411 Mountain Highway</a> in The Basin sold for $885,000 earlier this year, but no Bitcoin exchanged hands.
Next to hit the market a few days later was a <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/78564-another-home-up-for-sale-with-bitcoin-accepted-as-currency" target="_blank">historic property in Far North Queensland</a>. The vendor was happy to take all of the $1.2 million asking price in Bitcoin, although it has not  sold. There is now now indication Bitcoin would be accepted.
Back then that was around 100 Bitcoin. Now it would be 142, or if the sales contract had ever been struck just in Bitcoin, rather than the property value, then it would represent a windfall purchase for the buyer.
There were further listings to come, Grandview, the <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/78590-grand-view-in-mount-macedon-another-to-accept-bitcoin-payment" target="_blank">Mount Macedon trophy</a>, was for sale through Bitcoin, followed by a <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/78665-no-slowing-down-property-listings-willing-to-accept-bitcoin-payment" target="_blank">luxury Gold Coast home</a>, a <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/buying/78689-land-parcel-near-toowoomba-for-sale-with-bitcoin-purchasing-option" target="_blank">land parcel near Toowoomba</a> and a <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/78835-surfers-paradise-apartment-accepting-bitcoin-payment" target="_blank">Surfers Paradise apartment.</a>
There's only been one listing this year, in Leura in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
A <a href="https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-leura-127988470" target="_blank">three bedroom home</a> with a self-contained studio has been listed for $798,000, which nowadays equates to around 95 Bitcoin. 
The home last traded for $499,000 in 2014.
Yesterday the RBA announced it is <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/85793-rba-continue-to-study-risky-bitcoin-and-its-implications" target="_blank">closely monitoring the cryptocurrency</a>, calling it a 'risky' investment. 
 
 
 
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jrobinson-rf4aSBido9

Bitcoin property offerings fade as cryptocurrency plummets

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GUEST OBSERVER
Some initial coin offerings seem like scams (and some are), but behavioural research shows our emotions are part of why people buy in to cryptocurrencies for fruits and vegetables or crypto trading even if cool-headed rationality screams at us not to.
An initial coin offering is just like an initial public offering. But, instead of shares, what’s being sold are cryptocurrency “coins” or “tokens”. These are similar to virtual currencies found in computer games, enabling you to buy goods or services within an ecosystem.
Around half of the initial coin offerings launched last year have already disappeared or failed. This has potentially cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars.
The boom in initial coin offerings is a textbook example of how our emotions drive us to be overly optimistic and to become fixated on the spectacular gains made by others. Companies and designers can also appeal to our emotions and our conceptions of ourselves by appearing to adopt moral positions.
This mix of emotions lets “irrational exuberance” over getting rich quick (while doing the world a favour) overwhelm our reason and willpower.
Early investors in initial coin offerings made an absolute killing, which led to a lot of media coverage of newly minted “crypto-billionaires”.
This is a recipe for creating what’s called “optimism bias” because people become fixated on the spectacular gains made by others, playing into a lust for wealth.
Comparing our meagre incomes to these huge profits also means, deep down, we become terribly afraid of losing our chance at riches, stimulating feelings of stress and what’s known as “loss aversion”.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208214/original/file-20180228-36671-19yn96t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
A bananacoin is pegged to the export price of one kilogram of bananas.
But even more striking in the boom of initial coin offerings is how many appear to be about some moral initiative, such as supporting sustainable energy, artists, veganism or organic bananas.
In other words, many initial coin offerings tap into a set of emotional impulses associated with morality.
Research in social psychology shows that morals are built on powerful emotions, not reasoning. Signals from our environment go through emotional centres of the brain not only before the reasoning centres, but even before our sensory centres – we “feel” even before we “see”.
Reasoning serves merely to justify emotional reactions. People will justify what they already want to do, or have done, after the fact.
We also know from other research that while reason does give us willpower to resist emotional temptation, it has only a finite capacity to do so and can be overwhelmed.
The moral aspect of initial coin offerings also taps into our conceptions of our own identities. My research shows that if I can find a way that my cryptocurrency (say a cryptocurrency for veganism) would allow you to live out your moral identity (being a vegan) then it’s much easier for me to get the idea into your mind that you should buy it.
Once such ideas are implanted into the mind, they are difficult to restrain.
When we lust for riches, fear being left behind and identify strongly with some moral cause all at once, reason and willpower don’t really stand a chance.
But simply regulating initial coin offerings is difficult. One of the first things you learn in economics is the “law of unintended consequences” – that regulation seldom does only what it was intended to do.
Regulations aimed at protecting individuals from themselves could restrict new technologies and discourage a necessary process – discovering what’s a stupid idea and what is a spectacularly good idea. The line between them is very fine indeed and almost never obvious.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92508/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">Among all the crackpots and charlatans we might just discover a technology to educate girls in Africa, fund a breakthrough in clean energy technology, or help to stamp out human rights abuses across the world.
Brendan Markey-Towler, The University of Queensland.
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-put-money-into-bizarre-cryptocurrencies-like-ponzicoin-and-cryptokitties-92508" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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