The adoption of the bitcoin lightning network has been on the rise for a while now. This was especially pronounced during the multiple bull rallies of 2021. It triggered an accelerated rate of adoption. Thus leading to network congestion due to all of the new users moving in. Naturally, transaction fees had risen while confirmation times had slowed. The lightning network preferred a solution to this by not being only faster but cheaper at the same time.

The bitcoin lightning network capacity had been tethering around 1,000 BTC by this time last year. Mostly because users were still comfortable transacting on the bitcoin network and confirmation times were reasonable. However, with massive adoption came the need for more capacity. The move to the bitcoin lightning network was accelerated by significant events in the space such as El Salvador making the cryptocurrency a legal tender.

Related Reading |JP Morgan CEO Says More Pain Ahead For Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano Investors

Since then, the growth of the bitcoin lightning network has been apparent. By December 2021, the lightning network capacity had more than doubled to be sitting above 3,000 BTC. Being a layer 2 solution, it was speculated that its capacity would hit a peak and start declining but that would not be the case.

By April 2022, the lightning network capacity had grown to more than 3,600 BTC. Since it allows users to carry out micro-transactions with very little transaction fees, more users are opting to use the lightning network for their transactions, hence the 9% growth that has been recorded in less than two months.

As of June 5th, the bitcoin lightning network capacity was sitting at 3,950. This growth rate indicates that more bitcoin users and investors are choosing to use the layer 2 solutions to carry out transactions off-chain.

The bitcoin lightning network has been around for a while now and like a lot of layer 2 roll-up solutions, has taken some time to catch on. However, what has been observed with solutions like these has been their accelerated growth rate once they have been tried and tested by users in the space.

This is actually evident in the growth trend of the lightning network. Even after bottoming out at the start of the year, it has been able to pick back up, growing 6% in the month of May alone. This is the fastest growth rate recorded since October if 2021. It also translates to a 100% yearly growth rate in lightning network adoption.

Related Reading |The Bottom May Not Be In, But How Low Can Bitcoin Go?

Although the bear market has been affecting the adoption of bitcoin, those already in the space continue to look towards other ways of carrying out cheap transactions. If the growth over the past month is anything to go by, then the lightning network capacity could be gearing for another run like the one recorded in the summer of 2021.

Follow Best Owie on Twitter for market insights, updates, and the occasional funny tweet

Go here to read the rest:
Shock And Awe: Bitcoin Lightning Network Capacity Reaches New ATH | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist

Bitfarms, a global bitcoin mining company, has told that the price of bitcoin, above all other elements, is one of the most important factors for the future of the industry. Damin Polla, Bitfarms Latam General Manager, stated that countries like Argentina, where Bitfarms is currency building a bitcoin mega-mining center, were a very good destiny for bitcoin mining companies due to different factors.

Bitcoin mining companies are starting to feel the effects of the deceleration of the price of bitcoin in crypto markets. The company has declared that the fall of bitcoin prices, above all elements, is the most important problem that miners are facing right now. This has affected the company directly due to its holdings, taking its valuation from a unicorn status to a sub $500 million currently.

In an interview given to local media, Damian Polla, Bitfarms Latam General Manager, stated:

The biggest challenge facing the sector in the short term, both in Argentina and globally, is the fall in the price of bitcoin, which reduces revenues and increases operating costs.

Polla also considered this fall in prices as proof of the advance of the cryptocurrency market, which he qualified as being mainstream in global markets due to its correlation with other traditional equity indexes.

The company, which has a quota of 1.5% of the global Bitcoin hashrate, has made important investments in Argentina and Paraguay. The company is currently building a Bitcoin mega farm in Argentina, that will be designed to host 55K miners with a power capacity of 210 megawatts. While other companies in the country are executing layoffs as a plan to resist the announced upcoming economic phase, Bitfarms is currently generating 200 jobs with the construction of the mentioned mining facility.

Polla revealed the factors that had made Bitfarms put its investment in the country instead of taking them elsewhere. He explained:

Argentina is a very good destination for an investment of this type because it offers competitive energy prices, quality human resources, and a very active cryptocurrency ecosystem. Despite the economic ups and downs, the crypto ecosystem in Argentina is a leader in the region.

While the company is not currently planning new investments in the area, Polla explained that Bitfarms is always evaluating new opportunities in Argentina, Latam, and even the U.S.

What do you think about Bitfarms opinion on the challenges of the mining sector? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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.

View original post here:
Bitfarms Worried About The Fall In Bitcoin Prices Amidst Its Investment Plan in Latam Mining Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Watch This Episode On YouTube

Listen To The Episode Here:

In this weeks episode of Bitcoin Bottom Line, hosts C.J. Wilson and Josh Oszelwicz are joined by guest Yankun Guo, a corporate and financial regulations attorney at Ice Miller, to discuss cryptocurrency regulations and how they intersect with law.

Guos interests lie in bridging the gap between technology and law. She explains her tasks as working with companies to help navigate new emerging technologies. Guo highlights the complex and evolutionary nature of the relationship between cryptocurrency and regulation and shared, One thing that is exciting about crypto is that, depending on what you do with it, you fall under a different jurisdiction, a different law or regulation.

As they dive deeper into this relationship, Wilson explains, Crypto is 24/7, Bitcoin trades 24/7, a lot of people think the law is sort of like 9:00 to 5:00. He goes on to ask, Is it going too fast for laws to catch up? Or are there certain instances where the laws have been ready, or really old laws are still applying even though its a brand new marketplace?

To this, Guo explains that in many cases older laws are being applied, but she pushes for evolution to, educate legislators and policy makers to make sure that the laws do catch up and hopefully foster innovation so that it doesnt impede progress.

Wilson then discusses the ways in which regulations can be variable from state to state. Guo explains that it is difficult to navigate because, No company, especially if you are a technology company, operates purely in one state you have federal regulations, as well as state-by-state regulations you have to follow and case law on top of that. When discussing regulations in the United States as a whole, Wilson refers to it as a double-edged sword, balancing safety and assurance, with comparably higher regulations. Guo explains that an increase in regulation has also been met with an adoption of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin on a wider scale. In the end, Wilson asks Guo What would better laws and rules look like? to which she outlines a two-step process to reach clarity and understanding, starting with What are we trying to achieve? Followed by What are the steps to get there?

Listen to the full episode for more!

Disclaimer: The opinions presented herein are solely of the individual and not necessarily representative of Valkyrie Investments Inc. and their affiliates. There is no guarantee that any specific outcome will be achieved. Investments may be speculative, illiquid and there is a risk of total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

The rest is here:
Does Bitcoin Need Regulation? - Bitcoin Magazine

Welcome to Bloomberg Crypto, our twice-weeklylook at Bitcoin, blockchainand more.If someone forwarded this to you,sign up here. In todays edition,Michael McDonaldchecks in on El Salvadors Bitcoin experiment:

If theres one world leader hoping for a Bitcoin price surge, its El SalvadorPresident Nayib Bukele. His government is currently down about 35%, nearly $40 million, on the 2,301 Bitcoinhe has bought with public funds since making it legal tender last year. The nations finance minister said Bitcoins price dip has even scared away potential buyers of a planned $1 billion Bitcoin-backed bond. Worse yet, the gambit seems to have cost his administration a much-needed program with the International Monetary Fund, which urged him to drop his crypto push. The ratings agencies arent impressed either and have downgraded the nation deep into junk territory. Its dollar bonds are trading at record lows.

The rest is here:
El Salvador Is Losing on Bitcoin (BTC), But President Bukele Says It's 'Cool' - Bloomberg

In 2008, the backing reserve was basically houses. In cryptocurrency, I'm quite serious about this, the backing reserve is gullibility.

It sounds like youre saying, one, crypto is all nonsense, but, two, the nonsense will continue indefinitely, because as long as you can invent money out of thin air, you can find a sucker to buy it. Unless governments step in to say you cant do certain things anymore.

Yes. The good news is, there's regulation coming. Treasury is looking at this stuff very closely because they basically have to make sure that these crypto bozos cannot screw up the actual economy where people live. And they would absolutely screw it up, because they're idiots. And they got a taste of that in 2019 when Facebook did its Libra cryptocurrency, or tried to, and every regulator, central bank, and finance ministry in the world said, "No, you are bloody not." Because Facebook didn't know what they were doing and they were really arrogant about not caring that they didn't know what they were doing. So basically, about a month later, the entire US government, Democrats and Republicans were united in this, squashed it like a bug.

So on the regulation question, are we talking about something like, if you have a stablecoin, you actually have to be audited and prove that you really have a dollar for every one of these stablecoins that you say is backed by a dollar?

That sort of proposal, yeah. There's various versions of this, like requiring that stablecoins be issued by actual banks that are highly regulated and so forth. There have been proposed laws to this effect. None have passed, but these ideas are very much in the air.

The thing is that the regulators are reluctant to move too fast, and also they have restricted enforcement budgets. But I'll tell you who really wants to regulate crypto: the money laundering cops. FinCEN are absolutely humorless cops who don't care if they crush your business. And internationally, the FATF, who set rules that regulators are advised to follow if they want their country to be allowed to do business with anyone else. Those guys have put in a bunch of rules that came in 2021 about making crypto transactions more traceable. I think we're going to end up with some sort of two-speed crypto market. Youll have the entities that are known exchangers where people are traceable, and changing it back and forth to actual money is relatively easy, and then there will be another market which runs high on crack and is just incredibly unregulated and has a much harder time getting to the precious US dollars.

Most people don't own any crypto, and yet you have Fidelity offering Bitcoin in 401(k)s, you have Wall Street institutions investing increasingly in crypto. How much could a crypto collapse affect the broader economy?

The main thing you have to worry about is that these bozos really want to get their tendrils into the world of real money. I think for a lot of them, that's the endgame: get it into people's retirement accounts. Now, the Department of Labor actually issued a notification in March warning financial advisers not to tell retirees to put their 401(k) into crypto. And Fidelity went and offered this product anyway. They really, really want to get into important products, because that way, when it collapses, they're looking to the government becoming the bag-holder of last resort. And this is something to be fought against strenuously. It hasn't happened yet, but we need to fear it.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

Read the original here:
Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Aren't Dead Just Yet - WIRED

United States President Joe Bidens executive order on digital assets has kickstarted an interagency mission to support financial innovation while protecting American consumers and interests. While many industry leaders welcome the constructive tone, some critics hope for a crackdown. We dont blame them.

Many cryptocurrency projects operate behind thin veils of decentralization. In public, theyre sold on the premise that they distribute power. Behind the curtains, leaders pull the strings. In the recent case of Wonderland, a serial scammer and felon directed a $1 billion treasury.

Many projects secretly pay influencers to shill their tokens. The price pumps. Insiders dump. Naive investors lose money. Sometimes, the shillers are celebrities. And, sometimes, those celebrities leak the surprisingly low cost of their integrity.

Related: Year of sponsorships: Celebrities who embraced crypto in 2021

Hundreds of projects suffer technical vulnerabilities. Seemingly every week, hackers exploit hidden software bugs. The third-largest ever occurred in early February, with $326 million gone. And then in late March, another $600 million poof.

Many cryptocurrencies are blatant scams some, proudly pyramid-shaped. Market participants treat these as facts of life, with oft-used terms for exit scams (rug pulls) and pyramid-shaped projects (Ponzis).

To most, cryptocurrencies look the same, like tomatoes pasted in Aisle 9 only tasteless, useless, and more numerous. The cynical see the menu of cryptocurrencies as a proxy most-wanted list. Neither group is entirely wrong.

Yet one item on the menu stands apart. It is arguably one of the more important technological advances since the internet, itself. Buy it or not, we dont care. But we three professors do care to bring one simple message: Bitcoin (BTC) is special. It deserves study and discussion.

Bitcoin is genuinely decentralized. Tens of thousands run nodes all around the world. Operating a node is easy; you could do so within the hour with an internet-connected computer and a few hundred gigabytes of storage. In 2017, these nodes vetoed a controversial change to Bitcoin that would have upped the networks centralization by making it harder for ordinary people to run a node. In doing so, they trumped a majority of Bitcoin miners, exchanges and other powerful legacy players.

Bitcoins decentralization makes it fair. No foundation enjoys a trademark or governs its monetary policy. This contrasts not only with more centralized cryptocurrencies but with the Federal Reserve, itself. In the past year, three Federal Reserve officials have resigned after a series of, lets say, well-timed trades. Bitcoin has never had any officials resign in disgrace it has no such officials. The network automates these jobs away.

Bitcoins decentralization also makes it secure. Most money is digital and sits under the thumb of third parties like banks and payment processors. But innocent Russian and Canadian citizens remind us that third parties can freeze and seize those balances, especially when subject to state pressure. Reliance on third parties jeopardizes funds. Bitcoin participants can hold their own private keys and thereby save and send value without third parties. Bitcoin is in a different league than other cryptocurrencies. In the digital age, Bitcoins unparalleled level of decentralization makes it the safe haven from state and corporate overreach.

Related: The meaningful shift from Bitcoin maximalism to Bitcoin realism

And unlike most other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin never had a private token sale to venture capitalists or an initial coin offering to enrich insiders. Bitcoin is the most widely distributed digital asset. In an important sense, it has no insiders only early adopters.

The main early adopter, Satoshi Nakamoto, mined about a million Bitcoin (5% of the maximum supply). Satoshis holdings are fully visible, and Satoshi never spent a single dime. With most other cryptocurrencies, the rich get richer, sometimes in hidden ways, and have more say over the network. Not so with Bitcoin.

Whereas some projects move fast and break things, Bitcoin moves slowly but surely. Bugs are rare. Granted, this conservative approach has tradeoffs. Upgrades are as rare as bugs. And Bitcoin lacks the flexibility of other platforms. But in exchange, countries and corporations feel secure with Bitcoin on their balance sheets.

You may have heard of hacks and stolen Bitcoin. These cases dont involve weaknesses in Bitcoin, itself. They illustrate instead the pitfalls of insecure key storage or relying on third-party custodians.

Related: Satoshi may have needed an alias, but can we say the same?

Finally, Bitcoin is no scam. It can certainly be used for scams much like the U.S. dollar, or other digital assets. But the Bitcoin network offers final settlement of its native asset, much like the Federal Reserve System offers final settlement of the U.S. dollar. People do speculate wildly on the Bitcoin price. Such is the way for early stages of innovation. And people worldwide need it even as privileged Westerners speculate.

Bitcoins design involves tradeoffs, to be sure. Its public ledger makes privacy difficult, though not impossible. It requires energy for its security. And its fixed supply engenders price volatility. But for all that, Bitcoin has become something remarkable: a neutral monetary system beyond the control of autocrats. Ideologues will balk as they seek that perfect but perfectly elusive monetary system. Wise and pragmatic policymakers, by contrast, will instead seek to use Bitcoin to improve the world.

First, we must not assume that cryptocurrencies share more in common than they, in fact, do. Bitcoin leads them all precisely because no one leads it. The policy must begin here from a place of understanding not of cryptocurrency, in general, but of Bitcoin, in particular. As President Bidens executive order conveys, digital assets are here to stay. The general category isnt going anywhere precisely because Bitcoin, itself, isnt going anywhere. We owe it special attention. Not Bitcoin only, but Bitcoin first.

Second, Bitcoin is credibly neutral since the network remains leaderless. Consequently, the U.S. can use and support Bitcoin without picking winners and losers. Bitcoin has, in fact, already won as a globally neutral monetary network. Nurturing the Bitcoin network, using Bitcoin as a reserve asset, or making payments over Bitcoin would be analogous to deploying gold within the monetary system only digital, more portable, more divisible, and easier to audit and verify.

We commend President Biden for recognizing that digital assets deserve attention. Well need all hands on deck from computer scientists, economists, philosophers, lawyers, political scientists, and more to spur innovation and nurture whats already here.

This article was co-authored by Andrew M. Bailey, Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Andrew M. Bailey, Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke are fellows with the Bitcoin Policy Institute and the Resistance Money Bitcoin research collective and teach, respectively, at Yale-NUS College, the University of Wyoming and Northern Illinois University. Warmke is also a writer for Atomic.Finance.

Continue reading here:
Bitcoin stands apart from other crypto, and what that means for US public policy - Cointelegraph

The below is a full, free article from a recent edition of Bitcoin Magazine Pro, 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.

The purpose of this release in specific will be twofold; the first will be to update readers on the latest updates for publicly-traded miner hash rate, production, and bitcoin holdings. The second will be to present a framework for how to approach investing in bitcoin miners, with a focus on the publicly-traded sector in particular.

With the end of the month near, we will have another round of public miner production updates for all of May 2022 in a couple weeks. With the latest monthly production releases, April 2022 was yet another month of growing hash rate and held bitcoin, despite a slightly lower production month. The group of public miners were tracking below now make up roughly 18% of total network hash rate using their April numbers of 37.91 EH/s and the latest decline in total network hashrate to 209.91 EH/s.

Bitcoin holdings across miners are now up to 46,132 bitcoin worth over $1.3 billion at a $29,000 price. Thats roughly a 7% monthly increase when including miners with reported data for both March and April. All of this data is pre bitcoins market fall from $40,000 so the next month of data updates will be key to see if top public miners are scaling down their bitcoin holdings or hash rate in response.

Hash rate of public mining companies

Hash rate of public mining companies March 2021 to April 2022

Bitcoin holdings of public mining companies

Monthly bitcoin production of public mining companies

Investing in publicly-traded bitcoin miners carries risks that buying bitcoin itself does not, due to the operational risk as well as the reality that public equities trade at multiples of future expected earnings. During environments where treasury yields rise significantly, this causes earnings multiples to fall, which is why equities as a whole have performed poorly over the course of 2022.

However, the dynamics involved with evaluating publicly-traded bitcoin miners is a bit different. Unlike other commodity producers, bitcoin miners often attempt to retain as much bitcoin on their balance sheet as possible. Relatedly, the future supply issuance of bitcoin is known into the future with near 100% certainty.

With this information, if an investor values these equites in bitcoin terms, significant outperformance against bitcoin itself is achievable if investors allocate during the correct time during the market cycle using a data-driven approach.

An extremely simple framework for investors is:

Hash price bull market = Bitcoin miners outperform bitcoin

Hash price bear market = Bitcoin miners underperform bitcoin

Hash price divides miner revenue by hash rate (daily miner revenue per 1 TH/s, as first coined by the team at Luxor).

While there are certainly other variables involved in valuing these companies, including the operational risks and the competence of the management team to just name a couple, this is a simple framework for investors to internalize and utilize going forward.

To start, lets display hash rate since the start of 2020, which hash price is partially derived from.

Average bitcoin hash rate

Below is the hash price (daily miner revenue per TH/s) in both USD and BTC.

Hash price in USD and BTC terms

Currently, hash price is $0.118, which is above the 2020 low of $0.074 but falling rapidly as hash rate (and subsequently miner difficulty) continue to increase as price falls/consolidates.

Lets take a look at the latest hash price bull and bear cycles and how the publicly-traded miners performed benchmarked not against dollars, but instead bitcoin (as this should be the entire purpose of investing in a mining operation).

Below is the hash price from its 2020 low to its 2021 high and the performance of a few publicly-traded miners ($MARA, $RIOT, $HUT) benchmarked to bitcoin. During the hash price bull market (where price rises faster than hash rate), these three names outperformed bitcoin by 318%, 207%, and 62% respectively.

Bitcoin hash price and public mining stocks priced in bitcoin

Following the hash price top in October at $0.4222 dating all the way to today where hash price is $0.1182, these same names have returned the following against bitcoin:

Hash price and public mining company stocks priced in bitcoin

While bitcoin itself has obviously drawn down significantly since its highs made in the fall of 2021 (down 57%), these publicly-traded miners have declined in value by significantly more with most down over 70%.

Public miner stocks percent drawdown from all-time high

Bitcoin public miner market capitalization

Bitcoin public miner stocks priced in bitcoin

The point of this article is to dissect the cyclicality of the mining industry, and how to think of these securities when navigating the bitcoin market cycle.

Another important fact of the bitcoin market is that hash rate has continued to rise in an exponential manner over the course of its history, which in turn means hash price is in a secular downtrend in both USD and BTC terms.

To circle back to a point made earlier, the entire purpose of investing into a mining operation should be to get a return on investment in bitcoin terms. If you cannot achieve a positive ROI in BTC terms, it was likely not a good investment in the first place.

Thus, because of the diminishing block reward and rising hash rate, hash price in BTC terms is falling in lockstep in programmatic fashion with each subsequent positive difficulty adjustment and halving event.

Bitcoin hash price

In simple terms, this means that it is becoming increasingly more challenging to produce a marginal unit of bitcoin with a unit of hash, which is also why nailing the timing of investing in publicly-traded miners as well as the ASIC rigs themselves can be so lucrative.

While nothing is ever certain, using a data-driven approach, it is possible to achieve significant return on investment in bitcoin terms with bitcoin miners, in both the public and private sectors.

While achieving advantageous levels of relative performance requires a fair share of analysis (and luck) regarding both the bitcoin hash rate, the bitcoin price action, and increasingly the macroeconomic backdrop, we expect the opportunity to once again arise for mining investors to outperform in the not-so-distant future.

While that day may not be here today, our mission is to put forward transparent analysis around the bitcoin ecosystem, with an aim to help individuals and institutions alike make informed decisions regarding their savings/investments.

If you enjoyed the content/analysis in todays free issue, make sure to give this post a like, share with a friend, and consider subscribing to our paid research tier

The Bitcoin Magazine Pro Team

See the original post:
The Performance Cycle Of Public Bitcoin Miners - Bitcoin Magazine

This millennial invested in Bitcoin and isn't deterred by the recent crash. (PHOTO: Getty Creative)

By Lyn Chan

SINGAPORE After peaking near US$69,000 last November, Bitcoin has been on a wild ride and its now hovering around the US$30,000 mark. And lets look at the performance of other cryptocurrencies there was the stablecoin disaster and Lunas stunning crash.

For casual observers, disentangling the hype and shaking off the niggling doubt about cryptos asset class viability from any genuine potential is tough.

Some, like Michelle who declined to give her full name for publication are curious. In January 2022, she leapt into the volatile crypto market. Her Bitcoin and Ether holdings also happen to be her first ever investments.

This is the only investment that I have studied and am quite familiar with. I think that you should understand what goes on behind the investment that you are making. Also, I like the fact that I can buy as little or as much Bitcoin as I want, she said.

Bitcoins recent meltdown did shake Michelle a little but shes holding firm to her Bitcoin and Ether investments. The 32-year-old, who runs an edtech business, will be watching the current crypto market movement, hawk-eyed, over the next few days or weeks for further downward trend. She has so far invested S$2,400 in Bitcoin and S$500 in Ether.

However, if Bitcoin drops to below US$25,000, she will stay away for a while.

The fledging crypto investor talks about her attraction to crypto in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance Singapore.

What attracts you to crypto?

In the few months leading up to me first buying Bitcoin, whenever somebody mentioned cryptocurrency, Web3, Bitcoin or metaverse, I would dismiss it, thinking I dont understand these things, its just a fad, it will pass, or it's too complicated.

The turning point for me came when I suddenly realised that my mentality was similar to my parents generation, or earlier, when the internet age started to grow. We see some people getting left behind because they just didnt want to learn about new technologies or thought they were irrelevant. I didnt want to be that person that got left behind.

Story continues

During the same period, I saw the trend of both local and international talent moving from big tech to Web3 and cryptocurrency start-ups. Big tech usually hires the brightest and the smartest, so if those talents are placing their bets on Web3 and crypto, there must be something there.

I also saw Facebook making the name change to Meta, which is a huge bet on Web3 as well. Facebook has the best and brightest of the industry doing the research on what the next wave of technology would be. If they are willing to change their name and strategy, then thats a pretty good indication of where technology is headed as well.

Those factors gave me the confidence to get into crypto at the beginning.

Going into Bitcoin, many people have warned me that its volatile and unpredictable. But after researching, I decided to buy in because I believe in it and not because I want to make a quick profit. It has just been a few months in for me now, but I want to be in it for the next five, 10, 20 years.

How did you start investing in crypto?

At the start of 2022, Bitcoin was crashing in the news. I was curious and checked it out. At that point, it was around US$42,000, down from US$67,000 at the highest point towards the end of last year.

I was intrigued because if it could reach US$67,000, then US$42,000 sounded like a good price.

I read up to see if it was worth buying some Bitcoin. I learnt that you dont need to buy a whole Bitcoin, and you can buy as little or as much as you want, so I just threw in a few hundred dollars out of curiosity. Having a little skin in the game prompted me to do even more research to understand how it works.

What kind of due diligence have you done?

After I threw the first few hundred dollars into Bitcoin, I started to get really interested in it.

The first category of research I did was around the basics of buying and selling, like how to read charts, and how to identify patterns in the charts. I wanted to know when would be a good time to buy and to sell. After a while, I realised that I dont want to become a trader and that I want to be in it for the long haul because I believe in the long-term value of Bitcoin. So, I just learnt the basics of how to read charts, and that was enough.

Then, I went into a period of trying to get a handle on knowing what Bitcoin would do next, so that I could plan what to do. I watched many YouTube videos, and eventually learnt how to differentiate between those who are merely posting clickbait content and those who really have good technical analyses. At the end of the day, I realised that no one really knows what Bitcoin will do next, and I just have to act based on all the information that I have at that point in time.

The last type of research I did was on Bitcoin itself as a project and how it works. The technology of Bitcoin just amazes me, and this is what keeps me on Bitcoin, even with its ups and downs. I love that it challenges the current monetary system. The blockchain technology behind it is amazing as well. Its also interesting that there are charts that parallel the growth and adoption rate of Bitcoin to the early years of the internet and Amazon.

I saw a YouTube video of Bill Gates trying to explain what the Internet is to David Letterman in 1995. The interview took place only 27 years ago, and look where the internet is now. The way that Bill Gates explains about the internet is strikingly similar to the way people attempt to explain about Bitcoin today.

To keep myself updated with crypto happenings, I check the Bitcoin Reddit forum quite often, and I follow a few Bitcoin analysts on Twitter. I also check Coindesk, which is a publication for Bitcoin news. If any of those sources mention an interesting podcast or YouTube video, Ill check those out, too.

I might not be super familiar with the intricacies of the crypto market, but I am so excited about the possibilities that Bitcoin can bring.

As with all other investments, definitely invest money that you are willing to spare and/or willing to lose. Its just not wise to put all of your life savings into investments no matter how much you believe in it.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

Read this article:
This millennial invested in Bitcoin and isn't deterred by the recent crash - Yahoo News

The Giving Block, a bitcoin and cryptocurrency fundraising platform for nonprofits, announced the Miami Impact Index Fund, allows donors to provide funds to all participating Miami area nonprofits with a single donation, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.

When donors provide donations to the fund, each participating nonprofit will receive an equal share of the donation. Donations will also be doubled due to The Giving Block partnering with Shift4, a payment processor, in a program called Caring With Crypto.

The partnership between the two companies will see Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman personally match any donation up to the first $10 million donated to the program. This effectively doubles any donation made to all of the causes in a single transaction.

The release explains that it is more common for high net-worth individuals to donate property than it is to donate cash, as donating cryptocurrency like bitcoin directly to a 501c3 nonprofit is more tax efficient than a standard cash donation since the IRS classifies cryptocurrency as property.

When a donor donates bitcoin to one of the previously mentioned nonprofits, they receive a tax deduction equal to the fair market value of the bitcoin and they avoid paying the capital gains tax normally incurred by selling bitcoin, meaning that donors would have less access to donatable cash after paying the taxes to receive cash for selling the bitcoin. In short, donors can give more and deduct more from their taxes, which sometimes makes up to a 30% difference, according to the release.

Participants of the fund include but are not limited to: Nicklaus Childrens Health System, NU Deco Ensemble Inc., Third Wave Volunteers Inc, Chapman Partnership, Jackson Health Foundation, Legal Services of Greater Miami, and United Way Miami.

View post:
The Giving Block Launches First-Ever Bitcoin, Crypto Donations Fund For Miami Nonprofits - Bitcoin Magazine

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

Bitcoin had a very bad day a few weeks ago, its price crashing along with those of other cryptocurrencies, adding a dollop of misery for those who put money into the asset class without snatching it right back out. The crypto market is notoriously volatile, and the trouble this time was the collapse of part of it known as stablecoins. Go figure.

We refer to the recent misery as an added "dollop" because things did, well, stabilize for crypto, which trades around the clock. Even so, the most prominent cryptocurrencies of which bitcoin is the mostest are down by half since November.

So, that'd be a terrible thing to let people muck around with in their retirement accounts, right?

The U.S. Department of Labor thinks so, issuing guidance in March with concerns about the "reliability and accuracy of cryptocurrency valuations" and reminding fiduciaries about their "obligation to ensure the prudence of the options on an ongoing basis." The department isn't necessarily driving a "never crypto" bandwagon, but it's eyeing the reins.

More pointedly, the famed investor Warren Buffett once called cryptocurrency "rat poison squared." More pointedly still, his famed compatriot Charlie Munger recently said bitcoin is "like a venereal disease or something."

And yet.

In April, Fidelity the mostest among the hosts of retirement accounts announced a plan that would put bitcoin on the menu of investment options for 401(k)s. But just bitcoin for now, not the multitude of other cryptocurrencies, and only at levels of no more than 20% of an account, and only for those investors whose employers agree to it.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, despite any purported resemblance of cryptocurrencies to rodenticides or worse. Even Buffett's and Munger's firm, Berkshire Hathaway, has invested in a bank that focuses on crypto.

Consider this: If you're a buy-and-hold investor of the broad market, which is basically what is recommended for most people for most of their working years, you're also down over the last few months about 20%, as it happens. History suggests that your account will bounce back, but history makes no guarantees about how fast.

Set aside the promises of astronomical long-term gains supporters say are inevitable because of the way some cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, are designed. While crypto at present can only be described as speculative, there may come a day when it is a reliable alternative to asset classes influenced by central banks. As a nonphysical form of money created using encrypted data (thus the name), the movement of which is managed by decentralized computer networks, not by governments, it could offer investors a way to diversify and potentially steady their accounts.

The Star Tribune Editorial Board wrote last year about signs that crypto was beginning to gain serious traction. The Fidelity plans confirm that. We also wrote that there is room to let the crypto market shake out before deciding how best to regulate it. But that permissiveness can't last forever.

Indeed, there are reasonable questions about Fidelity's plans, and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota is among those raising them. Along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Smith wrote a letter to Fidelity asking why the company ignored the Labor Department's guidance; how it plans to deal with various crypto risks, including theft, fraud and the reliability of record-keeping, in addition to volatility; what fees it may charge, and whether it has a conflict of interest as a bitcoin miner. A response is pending.

"My job is not to tell people what to invest in," Smith told an editorial writer. "My job is to make sure that they have accurate and fair information."

That sounds right to us.

In any case, having a bitcoin option in retirement accounts doesn't mean investors have to choose it. They certainly shouldn't if they don't understand it, and even those who think they grasp the concept would be wise to limit their risk to less of their account value than Fidelity would allow. One recommendation we read recently was 1%.

In other words, handle it with care, as with any potential poison.

See the rest here:
Your 401(k) and the bitcoin boogie - Star Tribune