Ethereum: The great handshake – TechCrunch

Ashley TolbertContributor

Tarah WheelerContributor

Ethereum is the worlds most popular digital contract compiler, maintained by many but owned by none. Perhaps one of the most interesting factors behind its popularization is the future it paints one that transforms our current internet standards for ownership, value creation and, most importantly, privacy.

Not only can apps be written on top of Ethereum, but it allows any digital thing a picture, a music file, a video, your moms favorite pumpkin pie recipe to be uniquely owned, traded and stored for value, among many other possibilities that are created daily.

While many have predicted the future of the internet to be layered in bundles and levels of protection, it turns out that, paraphrasing Tim Berners-Lee, making the underlying technologies accessible to everyone supercharges its adoption and usefulness.

Ethereum and the emergence of Web 3.0 paint a shifting picture an internet not just private, but open and transparent by default.

In 2013, Vitalik Buterin conceived the idea of Ethereum, which would be developed and deployed two years later. The platform was built to allow anyone in the world with access to the internet to write permanent applications (known as decentralized apps or dApps) upon it, which anyone else can interact with but cannot change basically open source software with integrity to the nth degree. The bread and butter of these apps are called smart contracts a digital contract or intermediary.

Translated, that means financial and legal services no longer require a middleman. Ethereum basically substitutes an escrow agent, a notary, a bank teller who checks your ID, or a mortgage originator for an instant, digital transaction.

This invaluable function makes Ethereum one of the most recognized cryptocurrencies and blockchains in existence, with many contenders trailing. Bitcoin prices recently hit an all-time high, and the hype surrounding Ethereum remains in full swing.

Web 3.0, an associated concept, is an imagined future internet that uses these peer-to-peer blockchains to allow users to interact with data, value stores, entities, etc., all without a middleman.

As Ethereum becomes an underlying infrastructure for legal cases, financial deals, binding agreements and more, understanding its weaknesses and strengths will become a fundamental trait of property ownership and transfer.

Updating Stephen Hawkings words on how basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn, understanding the fundamentals of smart contracts such as those on Ethereum will become a basic legal and financial skill.

Today, the most booming applications on Ethereum are NFTs non-fungible tokens. While NFTs are relatively new, theyre catching on with consumers, artists and investors not only as a store of value but as an assertion of digital, unique ownership.

NFTs allow anything digital (any file) to be owned and traded on the internet because it cant be manipulated, changed or copied its non-fungible. Any social media hubbub surrounding Apes, Kittys or Punks are all in relation to the burgeoning fan-favorite phenomenon of luxury digital art.

We predict that one use case for this technology will be in interplanetary mining, as companies based on Earth will need to buy and sell mineral rights in asteroids that few if any of their human employees have ever actually visited or seen themselves.

Other predictions for use cases are mortgage lending, property purchasing, event ticketing, music festivals, file storage and gaming Axie Infinity, for example, is a testament to how players can make a decent living in an NFT-based gaming world.

The possibilities are endless and are being thought up by the curious and energized community more and more every day.

As regulation catches up to the power of this underlying technology, many wonder if well see attempts to control it. Much like the years-long debate in the Crypto Wars, which entailed requests to compromise or break encryption, changes to the assertions of Ethereums immutability could compromise its main valuable characteristic: its permanent integrity.

There may be a potential conflict between Ethereums immutability and its widespread adoption. It might mean that financial regulators will attempt to take some form of ownership or control over its deployment. We would be curious as to how those potential future regulators would answer the question: How can a widely connected sphere of nodes be cautiously governed while not compromising its true value decentralization itself?

Other challenges and limitations the technology is likely to face are performance sustainability fees to build on top of Ethereum called gas fees have gone up in recent years and the platform is known to be slowing in processing time. Ethereum 2.0 is anticipated to smooth inefficiencies, but how do we continue to maintain speed in a blockchain optimized for storing and computing each and every transaction?

Security also remains a challenge, with known Ethereum vulnerabilities existing though not widely exploited. Poly Network reported a hack this year that resulted from a vulnerability between contract calls.

Smart contracts are intricate and complex functions to write, so they require in-depth auditing before being deployed to a network. Ethereum security is also built on passwordless, asymmetric cryptography. Its entirely possible that quantum computing will eventually disrupt our asymmetric cryptography standards.

Were interested in how Ethereum and blockchains can be sustained, and were HODLing all the way through. Into the metaverse and beyond .

The views expressed here are those of Ashley Tolbert and Tarah Wheeler and not the views of their affiliations.

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Ethereum: The great handshake - TechCrunch

Bitcoin’s Unknown Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Now the 20th …

In mid-April the creator of the Bitcoin network, Satoshi Nakamoto entered the worlds top 20 richest billionaire list but after bitcoins price dropped, the inventors wealth plummeted. This week, Nakamoto has once again joined the top 20 richest people on the face of the earth. The last time, Nakamoto made the 19th position, and this time around, Bitcoins inventor is now the 20th richest person(s) on the face of the planet.

The leading crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) has skyrocketed past the $60K handle and tapped a high of $62,945 on Friday. Using todays exchange rate and the estimated stash of bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto reportedly owns, indicates that Bitcoins inventor is the 16th richest person or persons worldwide. The last time Bitcoin.com News reported on this subject, Nakamoto climbed from the 159th richest person in the globe to the 19th in a mere five months. Using todays BTC exchange rates on October 17, 2021, six months later, Nakamoto is now the 20th richest person(s) worldwide.

The reason why people assume Satoshi Nakamoto owns all this wealth, is because it is estimated that Bitcoins inventor owns around 1 million BTC. Of course, there are lower-bound estimates which say the inventor only collected 750,000 BTC and then upper-bound estimates that assume Nakamoto has more than 1.1 million BTC. The crypto community at large assumes that Nakamoto has around 1 million bitcoin and because he, she or they acquired it during the first year of BTCs existence, the inventor owns all the forks tied to the stash as well.

This means that on October 17, 2021, Nakamoto owns roughly $60.7 billion in bitcoin (BTC), $625 million in bitcoin cash (BCH), $169 million in bitcoinsv (BSV), and $191 million in ecash (formerly known as BCHA or Bitcoin ABC). Thats a grand total of $60.9 billion between those four networks which places Bitcoins inventor at the 20th position in Forbes real-time billionaires list. Satoshi Nakamoto is above the net worth of Zhang Yiming, the billionaire from China. However, Nakamotos wealth is below the worlds 19th richest as Walmarts Rob Walton has around $75.3 billion to his name.

Whats pretty amazing is that one of the worlds 20 richest people in the world is the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. A person or group of people that have yet to spend a single penny of the $60.9 billion worth of crypto assets. Some people assume that Nakamoto may have passed away and this is why the inventor has never and will never spend the stash of 1 million coins collected when the creator kick-started the BTC network. However, Nakamoto may still be alive and may still have access to these riches.

Bitcoins inventor still has to catch up to the worlds two richest people which include Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos respectively. Musk has around $214.8 billion in wealth today according to Forbes real-time billionaires list and Jeff Bezos owns around $197.8 billion. In order to overtake Musks net worth, a single BTC will need to be valued at over $215K per unit. If BTC taps $100K this year, Bitcoins inventor will be in the top 10 richest person(s) list next to Warren Buffet and Mukesh Ambani.

What do you think about Bitcoins inventor Satoshi Nakamoto becoming the 20th richest person(s) on planet earth? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin's Unknown Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Now the 20th ...

As bitcoin soars in value again, here’s what to think about before you buy – CNBC

damircudic | E+ | Getty Images

It's been a good week for bitcoin, and it just got even better.

With the first bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund debuting on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency was trading at more than $66,000 on Wednesday.

That's a record: the highest the digital coin has ever gone before was in April, at $64,899.

As a result, temptations to buy bitcoin may be growing, too.

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Before you do, though, here are some useful things to consider, according to experts.

Stories of bitcoin millionaires. The fact that the digital coin's value went from essentially nothing to top $64,000 in under a decade.

Hearing this, of course that makes many people have a fear of missing out, or "FOMO."

Investors often fall prey to the social bias of "herding," said Kent Baker, a finance professor at American University. In other words: They do what the crowd does, believing that everyone else must know more than they do and that there's safety in numbers.

"Generally, such investors are wrong on both counts," Baker said.

In reality, the other people in the crowd are putting the same blind faith in everyone else, with just as little to back it up.

Trying to understand a digital asset's fundamental valuation is "very tricky," said Bruce Mizrach, an economics professor at Rutgers University's School of Arts and Sciences.

With most stocks, he said, you can at least get a price-earnings ratio, which tells you what investors are willing to pay for a company for every dollar of its earnings. That figure can help you determine if a company is over- or undervalued.

You're more in the dark with bitcoin.

By the time most individual investors get into a rising investment, it's often too late.

Kent Baker

finance professor at American University

"The rise in the cryptocurrencies is reminiscent of the early stages of the internet bubble, with investors trying to evaluate stocks without earnings," Mizrach said.

Most investors can explain what a bubble is: It's what happens when a good's price far exceeds its real value. And many of those considering buying bitcoin probably suspect that it's largely speculation and hype that's driven the price so high.

But people buy assets even when they know they're overvalued, "because they expect prices to go even higher," Mizrach said.

And, he said, "they all believe that they can exit before the bubble crashes."

Just remember: that's what everyone else is thinking.

"By the time most individual investors get into a rising investment, it's often too late," Baker said.

All that being said, investors would be mistaken to ignore the rise of cryptocurrencies, said Douglas Boneparth, certified financial planner and president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York.

"It's definitely a bad idea to stick your head in the sand and assume this is nothing," Boneparth said. "The reality here is you're watching an entire decentralized financial system being built before your eyes."

He recommends people educate themselves as much as possible on the technology, and then they can determine if they should be invested in digital currencies and if so, how much.

For many, the standard advice from financial experts is not to put more than 1% to 5% of your money into the assets will hold true. Meanwhile, others may find their conviction in the innovation and tolerance for risk allows for more.

Have you recently bought bitcoin for the first time? If you'd be willing to share your experience getting into cryptocurrencies for an upcoming story, please email me at annie.nova@nbcuni.com

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As bitcoin soars in value again, here's what to think about before you buy - CNBC

Bitcoin just hit an all-time high of over $66,000but it’s ‘the least ideal time to buy,’ one expert says – CNBC

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, hit an all-time high on Wednesday.

It topped $66,000 on Wednesday morning, surpassing its previous record of $64,899 set in mid-April, after the first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund made its market debut on Tuesday.

It's an exciting time for both cryptocurrency and the market overall, and investors might be wondering whether or not to buy in.

But at least one financial expert says to hold off.

"Usually when an investment hits an all-time high, that is the least ideal time to buy," Anjali Jariwala, certified financial planner, certified public accountant and founder ofFit Advisors, tells CNBC Make It. "I think it makes sense to wait and see what happens versus buying at an all-time high," she says.

In this case, that's mainly due to bitcoin's history of extreme volatility, Jariwala says. Like all cryptocurrencies, it is susceptible to big price swings.

However, not all financial experts agree.

"It's still a good time to buy," Ivory Johnson, certified financial planner, chartered financial consultant and founder of Delancey Wealth Management, tells CNBC Make It.

That's because interest in the new futures-based bitcoin ETF "shows that bitcoin is being increasingly adopted," he says. He predicts that as more people adopt bitcoin, the price will continue to go up exponentially.

"As institutional products make bitcoin easier to buy, and investors are comfortable that it is appropriately regulated, there is a greater likelihood of more demand," Johnson says.

Johnson also says that "it's a good environment for digital assets" right now because bitcoin supporters see it as a store of value and a hedge against growing concern over inflation. He argues that as the price increases, bitcoin becomes more valuable, making now a good time to buy in despite the high price.

However, remember that it's always risky to invest in cryptocurrency due to its volatile and speculative nature, Jariwala says. There's a possibility you could lose your entire investment.

But if you're still interested in investing, Jariwala suggests considering a buy and hold strategy. Rather than attempting to trade in the short-term, this strategy promotes holding an asset long-term. And again, only invest an amount you can afford to lose, she says. That way, the huge price fluctuations surrounding bitcoin will be easier to stomach.

"The one thing we can be certain about when it comes to bitcoin, and crypto in general, is that there will be volatility," Jariwala says.

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Don't miss: Mark Cuban says he won't invest in a potential bitcoin futures ETF: 'I can buy directly'

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Bitcoin just hit an all-time high of over $66,000but it's 'the least ideal time to buy,' one expert says - CNBC

Mark Cuban says that bitcoin will be ‘the safe haven of crypto’ with one ‘huge advantage’ – CNBC

To billionaire investor Mark Cuban, bitcoin has a major edge over other cryptocurrencies.

It has "a HUGE advantage" in that it has "ZERO competition" as a store of value, Cuban tweeted on Saturday. Cuban even calls bitcoin "the best store of value on the market."

In his opinion, that's due to its algorithmic scarcity, which makes bitcoin limited in supply by design. Because of this, Cuban sees bitcoin as an asset that will appreciate as demand increases. He has previously compared it to gold, even saying that bitcoin is a better store of value than gold.

The "Shark Tank" investor and Dallas Mavericks owner is so bullish on bitcoin that he predicts that it, along with Ethereum, will be viewed as "safe havens" in crypto in the future, meaning that bitcoin will be seen as an asset that will keep its value or grow in value, even when the overall crypto market faces turbulence.

But despite Cuban's comments, keep in mind that financial experts generally consider cryptocurrency risky, volatile and speculative, and warn that investors should only invest what they can afford to lose.

Cuban's thread of tweets came after he debated the use cases of bitcoin and Ethereum, among other things, with bitcoin maximalists on Twitter. They agreed on a few things, but some of Cuban's thoughts were met with pushback.

Bitcoin maximalists view the bitcoin blockchain as a decentralized, peer-to-peer financial system that has the potential to replace traditional financial systems. They view the cryptocurrency as both a medium of exchange and a hedge against inflation.

But Cuban said that, in his opinion, bitcoin is "not a cure for any financial system" and "it's not a hedge to anything." While Cuban sees bitcoin as a store of value that will appreciate, he doesn't view it as a medium of exchange or as a currency that will be be used commonly for transactions, due to factors like taxes and fees.

And although Cuban has invested in both bitcoin and ether, he said that he likes ether more.

That's because "I can see an unlimited number of applications that will change the biz/consumer world forever," Cuban said. "And to use them you need to buy Eth ... BTC doesn't have that demand pull."

By this, Cuban is referring to the smart contracts, or collections of code, on the ethereum blockchain that power decentralized finance, or DeFi, applicationsand nonfungible tokens, orNFTs. To him, smart contracts "really changed everything" in the crypto space.

In fact, when asked what cryptocurrency he'd suggest for beginners or new investors in the space, Cuban previously told CNBC Make It that "as an investment, I think ethereum has the most upside."

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Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."

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Mark Cuban says that bitcoin will be 'the safe haven of crypto' with one 'huge advantage' - CNBC

Weekend reads: Should you invest in a bitcoin ETF? – MarketWatch

A groundbreaking development in exchange traded funds this week has Mark DeCambre, the author of the ETF Wrap column, answering an important question: Should you buy a bitcoin ETF?

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF BITO, -3.23%, the first ETF listed in the U.S. that is tied to the price movement of bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.29%, is actively managed and began trading on Oct.19. But it didnt take very long for new competition to arrive, as the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF BTF, -2.80% followed on Oct. 22.

Tesla Inc. TSLA, +1.75% CEO Elon Musks net worth is estimated to be $226 billion, making him the worlds richest person, according to a continuously updated list of wealth estimates maintained by Forbes. The second-ranked person on the list is Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -2.90% founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, with $199 billion.

But Musk and Bezos have something else in common, which may point the way to a trillion-dollar nest egg for Musk, according to Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanleys head of global auto and shared mobility research.

Teslas share price rose 9% for one week through Oct. 21. The company said on Oct. 20 that its electric-vehicle deliveries during the first three quarters of 2021 had roughly doubled from a year earlier, and it reported record revenue and earnings for the third quarter despite supply shortages.

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Retirees John and Susan Pazera seem to move every three years: to Boquete, Panama, then Medellin, Colombia, the city once know for violent drug cartels, and now a small town. Silvia Ascarelli explains how they have done it and breaks down breaks down the costs and requirements of making a similar move.

The How to Invest series continues, as Mark Hulbert discusses investors fear of the bond market. Since bonds market prices move in the opposite direction of interest rates, its easy to conclude you shouldnt hold any bonds as rates are going up. Hulbert explains why everyone should have at least some bonds in their investment portfolios.

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The Biden administration is considering new regulations that would allow retirement plan managers to offer ESG funds that stands for environment, social and governance the idea that a fund should only invest in companies that are trying to curtail pollution or otherwise improve the environment, while also being fair to their employees and customers and making sure their boards of directors do what is best for shareholders.

Some investors can already select ESG mutual funds or ETFs if they make a special effort to do so. But the ESG label alone may not be enough to make a decision in line with your interests or beliefs.

Alessandra Malito explains how to make your own ESG investment decisions.

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Facebook Inc.s FB, -5.05% reputation has taken some hits of late, and there have been reports that the company is considering a name change as part of a rebranding effort. The prospect of a name change led to a predictable flurry of creative Twitter postings. On a more serious note, Mark Hulbert looks into how companies share prices perform after they change their names.

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A troubled supply chain might affect everyone. Have you noticed bare sections of shelves at the supermarket lately? Longer delivery times for various products and components are leading to shortages for items large (such as vehicles) and small (such as toys). Tonya Garcia describes a new phenomenon: People stockpiling extra presents before the holidays, just in case.

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Weekend reads: Should you invest in a bitcoin ETF? - MarketWatch

Is Bitcoin ‘disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization’ or should boomers just chill? – The Columbus Dispatch

Arvind Sabu| Guest columnist

I regularly encounter two mythologies about Bitcoin mythologies which allow us to celebrate our existing beliefs about how the world works.

Boomers often rant that Bitcoin is a dangerous and useless fad, while millennials offer rosy techno-utopian visions of how it will address a range of social ills.Both mythologies simplify evolving cryptocurrency-based ecosystems.

More: Logistics, bitcoin companies receive state tax incentives to create 125 jobs in Columbus

And, as someone who researches the taxation of cryptocurrency an intersection of the machinery of the state with novel blockchain technologies I wince at both mythologies.

But the boomer mythology about Bitcoin troubles me more deeply. It seems misguided on two fronts. First, as an empirical matter, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offer a broad range of utilities not present even a few years ago.

Second, as a normative matter, our existing system of value creation and transfer screams injustice; we see in it layers of oppressions the colonizers over the colonized, the haves over the have-nots, and relatedly the easy credit in certain corporate and housing sectors compared to the usurious terms of payday lending and credit cards.

There have been many significant developments in the cryptocurrency space over the past few years.I highlight two: a robust cryptocurrency-based saving and lending infrastructure and thick, mature, liquid markets for Bitcoin.

The wealthy have access to much higher rates of return than do the poor.The latter might have savings of a few hundred dollars, if they have any savings at all, and so rarely receive anything beyond a trivial interest rate for their wealth.

By contrast, cryptocurrency savings platforms such as BlockFi and Celsius offer double-digit rates.These cryptocurrency platforms also offer highly efficient collateral-based loans. They oftentimes fund a loan the same day and at much lower interest rates than those required under credit cards.

Furthermore, there are clear advances in the development of mature, liquid markets for Bitcoin.

Ten years ago, Mt. Gox was the principal bitcoin exchange in the world.Despite the hullaballoo about decentralization, it seemed that most users had to deal with one company and an opaque, unsavory one at that to trade in Bitcoin.

Now, there are hundreds of Bitcoin spot and derivative exchanges.

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US Coinbase is now a publicly traded company.The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has offered Bitcoin futures since 2017, andthis week a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund launched.

More: El Salvador becomes first country to make bitcoin national currency, and then it hit a snag

Furthermore, technological advances enable political experimentation we see that with El Salvadors decision to make Bitcoin legal tender and Ohios acceptance of Bitcoin for tax payments.

The latter proposal failed as experiments sometimes do but that failure is a necessary step in coming up with systems that work well and at scale.Some boomers seem to ignore such experimentation, preferring instead to imagine that the Bitcoin ecosystem is exactly as it was 10 years ago.

That selective observation may be, in part, due to differing normative commitments.Billionaire Charlie Munger said in May that he hated Bitcoins success, and that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization.

More: Ohio to accept bitcoin for tax payments

Attempts to create alternative money seem to perplex some boomers people who have lived at the top in post-war America with easy access to good money.But they live well while much of the world lives poorly partly due to our opaque, deeply inequitable system of national currencies.

To be sure, Bitcoin is no panacea.

But it enables sociotechnical experimentation that has become a promising frontier of possibility.

Arvind Sabu serves as an assistant professor of law at Capital University Law School, where he teaches tax and business associations. He researches the taxation of cryptocurrencies.

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Is Bitcoin 'disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization' or should boomers just chill? - The Columbus Dispatch

Why Bitcoin-Related And Ethereum-Related Stock Marqeta Is Falling – Yahoo Finance

Marqeta Inc (NASDAQ: MQ) shares are trading lower possibly on profit-taking. The stock rallied roughly 23% over the past 5 days. Also, Jim Cramer said he prefers Square to Marqueta, which could be impacting price action.

Marqeta shares were trading higher this week after the company highlighted it is 'powering cryptocurrency spending and rewards products' for Coinbase, Fold, Shakepay and Bakkt and is seeing 'rising interest' in new card products in the cryptocurrency category.

"To see such an impressive list of innovators turn to Marqeta to build out new crypto cards and reward programs shows the flexibility of our modern card issuing platform and our unique modern architecture, which can support entirely new card constructs and power their launch at scale," said Randy Kern, Chief Technology Officer at Marqeta.

"This is one of the bleeding edges of innovation in fintech and these new cards are providing even more points of access to and utility for cryptocurrencies. We're excited to see that our platform can help these companies build out full service digital banking capabilities alongside the card itself," Kern stated.

Marqeta provides its clients with a card issuing platform that offers the infrastructure and tools necessary to offer digital, physical, and tokenized payment options without the need for a traditional bank.

Marqeta has a 52-week high of $32.75 and a 52-week low of $19.78.

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Why Bitcoin-Related And Ethereum-Related Stock Marqeta Is Falling - Yahoo Finance

The Bitcoin Price Could Be Headed Toward Six Figures – Bitcoin Magazine

The below is from a recent edition of the Deep Dive, Bitcoin Magazine's premium markets newsletter. To be among the first to receive these insights and other on-chain bitcoin market analysis straight to your inbox, subscribe now.

As most people who own bitcoin know, price drawdowns that are greater than 50% have been a regular occurrence after each all-time high. What we also know is that bitcoin price has proven to significantly recover from every major drawdown, which has made it the best performing asset over the last decade.

Currently were rebounding from a 56% price drawdown post a 228% recovery. Historically what comes next is yet another massive recovery. This double top pattern playing out is eerily similar to 2013 where price went on to explode over 10 times in just 52 days, starting in early October. As we hover around $66,000, a six-figure bitcoin price is only a 51% price move away. This is a more conserative percentage move during a bitcoin bull cycle recovery based on previous cycles.

History may not repeat itself exactly but all of the on-chain metrics, recent price action and expectations of new entrant demand, during the most bullish holder behavior in bitcoins history, have signaled a major price recovery underway.

At its core, bitcoin price is a function of new demand, through increased adoption, relative to the amount of limited supply available on the market. And right now, theres just not that much supply on the market until the current holders of bitcoin find a new, higher price worth selling at. This is the free market, volatile nature of bitcoin that so many criticize playing out. Except this time the volatility is price exploding to the upside just like it has in every previous cycle.

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The Bitcoin Price Could Be Headed Toward Six Figures - Bitcoin Magazine

COVID-19 Is Accelerating Asias Digital Future Of CBDCs And Bitcoin – Bitcoin Magazine

Whether or not youd believe inflation could reach World War II levels, its clear that the global economy post-COVID-19 looks uncertain. A chasm is growing between the developed and developing markets fueled by uneven vaccination rates and Gross Domestic Product growth. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are set to be a key factor thatll accelerate the world economy fit for the digital age, ushering in a digitally-connected economy unlike anything weve seen before.

Despite inflation being slowly on the rise, depressed economies like the U.S. are accelerating in their adoption of new economic policies like Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which in a nutshell enables governments to print money at will. Basically, wealthier governments arent required to be reliant on taxes or borrowing when it comes to spending as theyre able to print money on demand. The stellar rise of MMT, particularly advocated by an economy with as much impact as the U.S., sends ripple effects that not only affect the U.S. but other economies as well. In Asia, governments particularly in mid- and small-sized economies are waking up to the potential power and influence that CBDCs have thanks to their latest understanding of MMT.

CBDCs draw influence from bitcoin, and bitcoin itself has transformed the public's perception about money and alternative asset investments. In fact, many today consider it a hedge for inflation. Recently, crypto companies are increasingly coming under scrutiny with government action ramping up as the publics interest in crypto has made way for governments that are beginning to recognize the plurality of bitcoins co-existence with fiat currency.

In fact, COVID-19 has accelerated an urgency to strike a balance on how this coexistence might look. Governments are looking for ways to employ an effective monetary policy that gives them more rights, with less reliance on the dollar for trade. As CBDCs hold a 1:1 value to fiat currency, they not only hold the benefits of faster, but also more secure transactions thanks to the use of blockchain technology. And for the public, its the ideal vehicle to boost consumption, and combat money laundering, while enabling a more effective tax collection policy. China is leading this development with its digital renminbi (DCEP) and it aims to improve financial inclusion and risk control.

In Southeast Asia, were also witnessing the emergence of a similar train of thought among governments. Cambodias Bakong, a blockchain payment system, is being devised as its own CBDC with the goal of helping central bankers to lower the cost of international remittances. And this distributed technology ledger system is a model that even the chief fintech officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Sopnendu Mohanty, believes will benefit international payment schemes as well.

Lets put it this way: Most wealthy nations monetary policy has remained accommodative with quantitative easing continuing in the backdrop. And statistics have shown that the U.S. Federal Reserve printed $2.3 trillion in 2020 to combat COVID-19. Admittedly, the stimulus was for a noble cause; it would keep families and communities afloat.

However, how we define the success of this program isnt black and white with unintended effects. According to a survey by Pew Research Center, About one in five (21%) say they will save a majority of the money, and 14% say they will use it to pay off debt. The remaining 10% say theyll use it for something else. Flush with cash, stimulus money was hitting Wall Street close to home with the hyper enthusiasm of buying stocks like GameStop and altcoins like Dogecoin. This exposed the already fragile financial system and raised valid questions about the efficacy of government aid programs, along with its impact on MMT in the long run.

Not to mention, the U.S.s policy has triggered an unintended ripple effect that has had drastic consequences for emerging Asian markets - particularly in Southeast Asia. With the stimulus fueling a strengthening influence of the dollar, emerging markets risk weakened currencies against the greenback and falling deeper into debt.

Its situations like these where a CBDC can come into the picture. In the case of helping those in need with precision, CBDC-based stimulus can ensure that the spending of the stimulus money is aligned with its original purpose, which means families and communities have access to basic necessities. And the progress of these programs can be measured in real time. In short, CBDC can become a viable option for the government to subsidize an industry or community with higher precision, transparency, and effectiveness.

With increasing scrutiny from the world, the perception that the U.S. is losing its fiscal responsibility is growing according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Council argues that investors could lose confidence in Washingtons ability to right its fiscal ship and become unwilling to finance U.S. borrowing without much higher interest rates. This perception endangers the dollars global acceptance and of course, means self-reliance, especially in the developing world, is more important than ever.

So how does bitcoin come to play a role in all of this? On a more extreme, yet seemingly realistic alternate reality, considering the disastrous outcomes like what weve seen in Venezuela when its economy experienced hyperinflation in May 2019, bitcoin tends to become the de facto tool to counter sovereign credit risk. And governments themselves recognize this. The El Salvadoran government in 2021 recognized bitcoin as its legal tender. Other countries of course have taken a more centralized strategy by deploying their own CBDC. But regardless of the currency used, the motives are one and the same. Whether its bitcoin or a government-backed digital currency, both offer tremendous value (albeit in different ways) to the digital economy, with more ways yet to be discovered.

As signs of an economic recovery make way for inflation, were sitting closer and closer to the edge and could tip over into a global financial crisis. And Im not the only one concerned. Satyajit Das from MarketWatch poignantly draws the conclusion that where supply constraints are reached, excessive deficit-financed spending would result in inflation, higher rates, and a currency correction. So, all it takes is for the Federal Reserve to increase the interest rate. By then, the dominoes in Asia - not just in the U.S. or the West - inevitably will topple.

So, theres no surprise that those developing countries have the best position to lead the charge toward a new digital currency and offset the risk. Whether the solution is a national CBDC or the adoption of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin may be up to a regional decision, but what Im certain about is that the digital economy is inevitable. Its just a matter of when.

This is a guest post by Flex Yang. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

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COVID-19 Is Accelerating Asias Digital Future Of CBDCs And Bitcoin - Bitcoin Magazine