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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
How Trump's crypto push boosted Bitcoin
Sam Hawley: Once a sceptic, now a convert. Donald Trump is embracing cryptocurrency and making a tidy profit on the side. The president's newfound love has seen cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin skyrocket in value, and now he's passing bills through Congress to change the sector entirely. Today, Ross Buckley, a Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, on whether it's still just a bubble waiting to burst. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Ross, this month, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin reached an all time high. Just tell me what is going on. Ross Buckley: Well, we saw a continuation of an incredible increase in Bitcoin's value throughout this year. It's now up 25% on where it started the year. News report: The price of the main cryptocurrency Bitcoin has increased 10% in a week. News report: The price of Bitcoin has reached a new all time high. Bitcoin has passed the symbolic 100,000 US dollar mark. The price of Bitcoin has reached a new all time high this week, surpassing 120,000 US dollars. Ross Buckley: There's a couple of thousand cryptocurrencies, you know, many of them are very minor, but the more significant ones have all been doing very well. Sam Hawley: Yeah. All right. And the overall market capitalisation for crypto has surpassed four trillion dollars, so it's a lot. OK, so let's unpack why, Ross, this is actually happening. And like so much right now, Donald Trump is a part of it. He is a crypto convert, isn't he? He's gone from saying it's a total scam, which he told Fox News in 2021. Donald Trump, US President: Bitcoin just seems like a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. Sam Hawley: To really embracing it fully. Ross Buckley: He has indeed. For one thing, he got a lot of votes out of crypto supporters in his run up to his election. And the other thing is he's made an awful lot of money personally out of it. The best estimates, the Financial Times of London estimates he's made between 320 and 350 million already himself. His wife has probably made about half that, about 160 Sam Hawley: million. Yeah, the whole family's in on this, aren't they? Yeah, they are. So Donald Trump is actually making a huge amount of money from it. And of course, there's a whole heap of ethical questions, concerns relating to that. Ross Buckley: Yep, absolutely. Sam Hawley: So just before we go on, you better just explain how crypto actually works. It's not real money. You can't go to a shop and buy something with it, but it is built on hype. So when Donald Trump says he likes it, that gives it a bounce, right? Just explain how it works. Ross Buckley: Well, it's there's a strictly limited amount of it, right? Under the algorithm that creates it, you can never create any more than a certain amount, which means if demand keeps going up and your supply is limited, the price keeps going up. It's not entirely accurate to say you can't buy anything with it. It's just a very inefficient way to buy things. But if you want to buy horrible things on the dark web, for instance, it would be your preferred way of buying them because, you know, it can't be traced. So if you're a money launderer or if you're the sort of person who shops for horrible services on the dark web, your crypto is your preferred way of paying for them. If you're a legitimate person, it is a wildly inefficient way of paying for anything. Sam Hawley: Right. Yeah. So if you're buying things illegally, you can buy drugs, weapons. All that stuff. But if you invest in crypto above board. Ross Buckley: Well, then it's just a speculative asset. So then you're just investing in an asset. History teaches us that when you have booms of this magnitude, they tend to be followed by busts. And when you have a bust, a lot of people lose a lot of money. And that's the purpose of financial regulation, to stop a lot of ordinary people losing a lot of money. I would say it's much more volatile than gold. You know, it's extraordinarily volatile. And, you know, and of course, doesn't have the track record of gold and the physicality of gold, etc. Sam Hawley: OK, so Ross, Donald Trump is now this huge enthusiast for crypto. And by the way, he's also the chief regulator of the industry and he is working to change it. Just tell me about this so-called crypto week in the United States. Ross Buckley: Yes, crypto week comprises three bills that are making their way through the Senate and the House. The first one that has got all the way through and has been signed into law was the so-called Genius Act. Donald Trump, US President: Yeah, we worked hard. It's a very important act, the Genius Act. They named it after me. And I want to thank you. I want to thank you. This is a hell of an act. Ross Buckley: The president might think it's a reference to him. It's actually an acronym. It stands for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act. The Genius Act promotes a regime for stable coins and stable coins use similar technology to crypto, but they're different to crypto. They're really profoundly different. So that's the first. There's three bills that were making their way through the legislative process. This one is through. It's signed into law and it promotes a regulatory regime for stable coins. United States Congress: The ayes are 294 and the nays are 134. The bill is passed without objection. A motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Ross Buckley: The second act is the so-called Clarity Act, and that provides a comprehensive regime for the regulation of crypto. And so that is part of what's behind the boom, that a regulatory regime is coming that will make it more legitimate, easier to operate, and most financial services prosper when they're well regulated. And the third part of the crypto week is the Anti-CBDC Act. Now, CBDC is a Central Bank Digital Currencies, and this is an act to make sure that the US will never issue a central bank digital currency, which itself is fascinating because virtually every central bank in every reputable jurisdiction in the world has been working for the last few years on developing central bank digital currencies because everybody else thinks they're a good idea. Sam Hawley: Okay, so one of these bills has already passed the House, the Genius Act, and this goes to the regulation of stable coins. And quite frankly, Ross, I have no idea what they are or what the point of them is. So can you please just unpack that a bit more? What on earth are stable coins? Ross Buckley: Stable coins are digital currencies that are tied to real currency, to government currency. So what the Genius Act says is that banks and other entities can issue their own private digital currency as long as it's fully backed up by US dollars on deposit or by short-term US treasuries or other unimpeachable financial securities. So stable coins, I think, will change the world, and they will be important for Australia in time because if you look at Australia's financial system, our retail payments within the country work extremely well. International payments don't. International payments are slow, they're expensive. If you're engaged in international trade, given the modern world, they use a technology that is centuries and centuries old. Stable coins are perfectly adapted for international trade. So rather than making international payments by the Australian bank contacting the New York bank, which contacts the bank somewhere else, where they all take a little clip out of the ticket, and eventually the transaction happens between Australia and another country, stable coins are digital tokens. They can be sent directly. Payments that today may take two or three days and cost one or two percent will cost one or two hundredths of a percent and happen in a few minutes. Sam Hawley: So if, hang on, so if I went and bought a stable coin, say, worth a dollar, the issuer that gave me that stable coin would have to keep a dollar in reserve. Ross Buckley: You've got it. Sam Hawley: Is that how it works? Ross Buckley: Yep, and it would get, under the Genius Act, it will get audited every month and the regulator will make sure that there is a dollar in a trust account in a bank backing up that stable coin. Sam Hawley: Right, so then if I want to cash in my dollar, I can get paid immediately? Ross Buckley: Yes, you can. And you might say, well, how is that different to digital money now? Is that this is a tokenized form of money. So this token can be sent abroad. This token will work well on blockchains and distributed ledgers and with, in all the sort of plumbing of the system that is being developed. So rather than something happening in the software and then having to step outside the software into the banking system to make the payment, this will run on the same software. So it's very much more efficient. Sam Hawley: But it's still a cryptocurrency, right? But it's just, well, it's less volatile. Ross Buckley: It's rather like a cryptocurrency. It uses all the same technology, but it should not, if it's well done, it shouldn't be volatile at all. It shouldn't be any more volatile than the Australian dollar because it will be a digital expression of the Australian dollar or in this case, the US dollar. Sam Hawley: OK, so how widespread could these stable coins become? Ross Buckley: Well, they're best thought of as just a digital expression of the currency of the country, which is why every other country, including Australia, thinks the best way to create them is as central bank digital currencies, because issuing money is a core sovereign function. You know, paper notes are going out of use. These are just digital versions of paper notes. So logically, you'd think they'd be issued by the entity that issues the paper notes, namely the nation's central bank. But that doesn't fit well with the American ethos. So this trio of acts, the Genius Act promotes stable coins. The Anti-CBDC Act says we will never have the central bank issue this currency, this digital currency. Sam Hawley: And why is that? Ross Buckley: You'd have to ask Americans, wouldn't you? It's a profoundly different culture. They don't trust the government. They're very worried about the privacy imposing potential of a CBDC that government could look into the transactions you're making. But of course, it's easy to develop a CBDC. So the government can't see inside what's happening. That's what the Bank of England is doing with its CBDC. It'll be able to see when you buy them, when you redeem them, but it won't be able to see the transactions you're making at all. And strangely, nobody seems to mind that MasterCard and Visa sees everything we buy on the current system, right? That doesn't seem to bother Americans, but the US government potentially, because the government will promise not to look and it will build in technological solutions to prevent it looking, but Americans don't trust their own government. That's part of it. Sam Hawley: All right, but there are big companies, aren't there, like Amazon and Walmart, that are pretty keen to jump on this? Ross Buckley: Well, if you are an Amazon or a Walmart, at the moment you're looking at those fees, those surcharges, right, which looks like Australia is going to prohibit the separate charging of. The bill for credit card surcharges for Walmart or Amazon, which are much higher than they are in Australia, by the way, in the US, is huge. So if they create their own stable coins, they can create their own payment mechanism and basically sideline Visa and MasterCard altogether. Sam Hawley: Wow, OK. All right, so Ross, Crypto Week was pretty significant in the United States. We're seeing this legislation aiming to integrate cryptocurrencies into financial markets. That's right. But what about here in Australia? Is something similar being considered at all? Ross Buckley: I don't know. I'd be surprised if Australian regulators went in that way because of the potential for a huge bust. And a lot of people losing a lot of money. In some ways, Australia, I think, clearly will respond. The Australian banks will have to respond with their own stable coins to facilitate cheap, efficient international payments by Australian corporations. And if that's done well, that should be absolutely fine. I'd be absolutely gobsmacked if we ever passed a piece of legislation saying we can't issue a central bank digital currency. That would be nutso in my humble view. So I don't think we'll ever have anything quite like the Crypto Week that the Americans have had. But on these issues, we're a profoundly different people. Sam Hawley: Yeah, sure, but could the RBA, for instance, could it be in the future that it is issuing things like stable coins? Ross Buckley: It would issue a central bank digital currency because it's a central bank. And it's been working on this for a few years. It had a very good project two years ago exploring use cases on this. And it's got one going at the moment, Project Acacia, which is looking more broadly to examine how you could use central bank digital currency to pay for tokenised real-world assets. So tokenised money being exchanged for tokenised assets. So the RBA's doing a lot of work on it, some internationally leading work on it, yes. Sam Hawley: OK, all right. Well, of course, Ross, some of us have dabbled in cryptocurrency. A lot of us have not. But does this all mean that perhaps it will become more accessible and more widespread, or do you think, really, it's just the same and it's just too risky? Ross Buckley: The stable coin stuff will change the rails upon which international payments and probably wholesale capital markets payments in Australia in time move. But that won't be something that the average person will really notice. You know, the same way you pay on Osco on your phone, you don't really deal with, you know, just transfer some money to a friend. You don't worry about how all that happens. It just works, right? The stable coin thing will be a revolution of payment rails and will really make a difference. But the cryptocurrency itself, Bitcoin type of stuff, that's every individual's personal choice. The actual cryptocurrency, I think, at these prices is extremely risky. Sam Hawley: Ross Buckley is a Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales. He's also a member of the Payments System Board at the Reserve Bank. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Commonwealth Bank replaces dozens of call centre jobs with AI chatbot
One of Australia's largest employers has axed 45 jobs in its customer call centres after rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to deal with customer inquiries. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) confirmed to the ABC that the organisation was consulting the dozens of people impacted by the cuts. "To meet the changing needs of our customers, like many organisations, we review the skills we need and how we're organised to deliver the best customer experiences and outcomes. That means some roles and work can change," a CBA spokesperson said. "Our priority is to explore opportunities for redeployment and to support affected employees with care, dignity and respect throughout the process. This includes access to redeployment options, career transition services, and wellbeing resources." The CBA said it hired more than 9,000 people over the past year and had about 670 open roles across Retail Banking Services and frontline teams. The major bank briefed the Finance Sector Union (FSU) on the recent changes last week, marking the first time a bank had informed the union its job cuts were due to AI. FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said workers affected by the "outrageous move" should be retrained and supported into new roles that leverage AI technology. "Just when we think CBA can't sink any lower, they start cutting jobs because of AI on top of sneakily offshoring work to India," she said. "Workers want a tech-savvy bank, but they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it." The CBA rejected the allegation that jobs were being sent offshore and suggested redundant staff would be re-skilled. "We're also proactively creating new roles to support career growth and help our people transition into future-fit opportunities," a CBA spokesperson said. "Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres. By automating simple queries, our teams can focus on more complex customer queries that need empathy and experience. "Recognising that the work context is evolving, and based on individual situations, many of our people have taken up the upskilling and reskilling pathways made available for them to continue their careers at the bank and build capabilities for future opportunities." According to a CSIRO report, 68 per cent of Australian businesses have already implemented AI technologies, with many customer service jobs being replaced with chatbots and virtual assistants. Some economists say AI is also creating jobs at an unprecedented rate, but not always for the people in the firing line. The latest row between the FSU and CBA follows the union taking the major bank to the Fair Work Commission for allegedly breaching a contract by outsourcing hundreds of jobs to India. In response to the CBA denying it is offshoring jobs, Ms Angrisano doubled down on the union's allegations. "The CBA never publicly acknowledged that they are offshoring jobs, even when we've presented clear evidence," she said. "The truth is they are cutting customer specialist roles in Australia while employing people in India doing the same work. This round of redundancies includes customer specialist roles and we have every reason to believe they are sneakily offshoring those jobs." In February, the CBA reported a 6 per cent increase in net profit, with a half-year result of $5.1 billion.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Aussie presenter Grace Hayden returns serve on nepo-baby critics
When you're the son or daughter of a famous figure and start to make a name for yourself, nepotism claims are going to be following close behind. Grace Hayden knows that all too well. The daughter of Australian cricket legend Matthew Hayden, Grace has been shining brightly on her own path for several years in the media ranks. Despite that, social media criticism can be seen far and wide anytime she appears on a television screen. The 23-year-old knows that some doors have been opened thanks to her dad, but how she's reached this point in her career hasn't been a simple stroll in the park … she's put in the hard yards and is now crafting her own journey. 'I am somewhat living in dad's footsteps, but I feel like I'm creating and paving my own path while still respecting dad's legacy,' Grace said to 'I'm just doing it my own way. I think that's the most important thing is making it my own. And you know what people want to say about nepotism all the time, right? And yes, I'm going to own the fact that yep, it opens doors for sure. 'But you do have to work really hard to stay in a job … It doesn't matter if you're a child of someone or you're a partner of someone, you still have to work bloody hard to earn your stripes in anything you might do.' And she has a simple message to those who will continue to sit back and paint her with the nepo-baby tag. 'I say thank you and move on,' she said. 'I just don't see it as a hate comment. I'm like, you can call me a nepo-baby, go for it. Thank you for saying that to me because I am one of the most competitive people of all time. 'I grew up as an athlete myself playing every sport under the sun, I was sports girl of the year most years at my school in Brisbane. 'I just loved it so anything that people give me a challenge on, I'm like, you know what? Game on. And that's the perfect name of my podcast Game on with Grace. 'It's like I love a bit of a competition. I love a challenge. So, if people want to give me hate comments, go for it.' In today's day and age, social media backlash has become an all too common occurrence with hate comments flooding in at a rapid rate. Having grown up on the world's stage, Grace was brought up with one simple mindset that she continues to maintain throughout it all. 'Keep your family close. Your family know who you are. Your friends know who you are. The rest don't matter,' she said. 'As long as you're checking in with the people that you care about and that care about you and they're giving you honest feedback … which definitely in my family and my mates that's definitely an open door in terms of criticism. 'But it's always you know those people that you lean on rather than listening to the white noise 'Not every single person is going to like you in this world. And you know what? I'm okay with that. 'As long as my family know who I am and my friends know who I am and they can sense check me. I'm right.' Grace's media career continues to go from strength to strength and it reached new heights behind the launch of her podcast with US streaming service Willow. The biweekly series will see her host candid conversations with athletes and artists. The latest venture comes after she worked for broadcaster Star India throughout the Indian Premier League. She has also featured as a fashion expert and roving reporter with Channel 7's horse racing coverage, and she worked alongside her father with the Disney-Star network during the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. In January this year she joined digital sport platform Racing X as the new face of the Hong Kong-based international racing content operation. After making her network debut with Channel 7 in 2022, Grace's star is on the rise with her new venture the latest stepping stone as she quickly becomes one of the most popular presenters in Australian sport.
