The Bitcoin Conference And The Pursuit Of Hyperbitcoinization – Bitcoin Magazine

This is an opinion editorial by Chris Smith, the Events Ticketing Manager for BTC Inc. Disclaimer: BTC Inc. is the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine and the Bitcoin Conference.

The Bitcoin Conference is an annual tradition, a week-long extravaganza and a true celebration of freedom. The conference not only serves the bitcoin community but all who value freedom, individual sovereignty and the pursuit of hyperbitcoinization. With an event of this magnitude, there are thousands of hours poured into the product along the way toward the end goal. But, with the end goal being hyperbitcoinization, what exactly does that mean? According to the Bitcoin Magazine glossary, the definition is:

Hyperbitcoinization: The inflection point at which bitcoin becomes the worlds preferred medium of exchange.

With that understood, there is no hyperbitcoinization without the whole world being involved.

This historical event requires a reach to every continent, every nation, every language and every creed. With that goal set, the conference must go global and start reaching those with the shared vision of a hyperbitcoinized world.Thus, the spark of Bitcoin Amsterdam.

Bitcoin Amsterdam is going to make history in Europe, October 12-14, 2022. This will be a monumental event uplifting the trek of bitcoin to all nations and adoption to all people. With the magic that the team behind Bitcoin 2022 has brought in the past, the aim is to bring this same energy to the European stage with the goal of No region left behind.

Hyperbitcoinization is not just an end goal, but a journey that is taking place right now. As bitcoin continues its world tour, the conference hopes to be alongside it every step of the way. Learn more about it, get involved and come join us in Miami and Amsterdam this year.

In April of this year, the Bitcoin 2022 Conference took place in Miami, Florida where 26,000 Bitcoiners gathered to learn, teach and celebrate bitcoin. This was the largest gathering of Bitcoiners the world had seen to date. For a week straight, a wave of orange engulfed the city of Miami.

Bitcoin 2022 - The LARGEST Bitcoin Event In History!

As we think about the future of the Bitcoin Conference, it is important to focus on three things:

Throughout this past cycle, the Bitcoin Conference has served as the largest in-person platform for bitcoin and the industry that has sprung up around it. It's been a place where Bitcoiners, ranging from curious to convicted, can meet, learn, teach, grab a drink and maybe a bite to eat.

A popular location to eat for the plebs at Miami 2022 was a food hall called Lincoln Eatery which accepted sats for payment via Lightning and on-chain. Spots like these are great for gatherings, meetups and enjoying the community. This also encourages other restaurants in Miami to accept bitcoin and it drives business; capitalism at its finest. Make sure you stop by the Lincoln Eatery next year and enjoy the ease of paying for food with bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Conference is the best annual event for networking in the bitcoin industry as a whole. The majority of attendees are players in the space and are actively looking for opportunities to collaborate. As long as you put yourself out there, youll meet amazing people who are interested in what you are doing.

A lot of the magic behind the week includes amazing satellite events hosted by sponsors and other members of the community. Most satellite events are structured around this conference and have been a great way for companies to make a name for themselves. The conference also offers a Pitch Day which takes place on the first day, Industry Day. It serves as a great place for larger players to provide investment opportunities to smaller bitcoin companies.

Another unique feature of Bitcoin 2022 was giving attendees the opportunity to sign a 9 x 12 edition of the Declaration of Monetary Independence (DoMI). I worked with the three co-authors Mark Maraia, Mike Hobart, Ulric Pattillo and the rest of the #DoMI crew to bring this experience to Miami. Initially, gathering signatures came slowly, but by the end of the conference, it was difficult to find space to sign your name. DoMI represents a very important aspect of the conference and our movement. Those who signed were essentially stating I trust math more than I trust central bankers.

Left (Chris Smith) Right (Ulric Pattillo)

DoMI became one of the many great experiences at Bitcoin 2022 and provided a focal point for thousands of attendees at the conference. It is now a conference staple and I hope to see it return for Bitcoin Amsterdam.

You can also sign it yourself online at declarationofmonetaryindependence.org

What the Conference has taught us has been a few interesting, but deserving, lessons that must be learned and recognized for growth and a bright future.

First, with all Bitcoin conferences, it is important to emphasize bitcoin and only bitcoin, along with of course freedom, self-sovereignty and other tangential aspects but no other cryptocurrency projects. The sea of cryptocurrencies is truly a distraction from the end goal of hyperbitcoinization. In contrast to the rest, Bitcoin exists as a bright light in a sea of garbage, and only through education and past experience can people come to that conclusion. It is important to emphasize what really matters and not allow distractions to disrupt us from the end goal.

Secondly, it is important to encourage all, even those without similar beliefs, to attend, enjoy and be made to feel welcome. Nothing is worse than a bad first impression, and bitcoin is ultimately for anyone.

Lastly, it is important to not get caught in the limelight. During high price increases and bull markets, bitcoin is all anyone can talk about. But when the bears start winning again, the media will call it dead. Stay connected and persist through the volatility and you will come out okay on the other end.

Looking to the future, I know the team is extremely excited about returning back to Miami for Bitcoin 2023, May 18-20. With the Bitcoin Conference spreading across the world, it is important that the flagship event stays in a unique but also accessible area for the strong orange wave that resides in the U.S.

As the conference branches off from Miami and explores new parts of the world, it is important to maintain education as a core concept. An amazing part of the Miami 2022 conference was led by Matt Odell where he facilitated the idea of the Open Source Stage, a stage dedicated to Bitcoin open-source projects.

For the most part, it was a high-level overview of the interaction of open-source software and the Bitcoin Core protocol. It also provided very helpful tips for newcomers to learn more about bitcoin from a technical lens. Matt included many amazing speakers and knocked it out of the park with this stage. Core concepts like open-source Bitcoin projects are crucial to give a spotlight to as the world adopts bitcoin.

As the conference continues to grow and expand, hopefully, more hands will touch bitcoin in the process. Learning from past mistakes is important to keep improving in the future, but the future of bitcoin is and has always been bright.

As the Bitcoin Conference begins going global, Europe seems to be the first stop on the journey. Bitcoin Magazine, organizers of the worlds largest and longest-running Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin 2022, announced last week, in collaboration with Amsterdam Decentralized and Westergas, the launch of its first European-focused event: Bitcoin Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is going to be an action-packed three days with more activations to see than time in the day. The city, for one, is going to be incredible to explore and enjoy. And with a European partner for the event, the presence of European Bitcoiners will be strong.

While Europe is lagging behind other regions in terms of regulatory and governmental acceptance, demand from ordinary investors and institutions is among the highest in the world, said David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine. Whats more, the continents significant Bitcoin developer and innovator community is helping shape the future of the worlds preeminent digital currency which continues to rise.

Europe has been at the forefront of financial and technological innovation for over 500 years, with Amsterdam playing a particularly noteworthy role in the development of modern banking, making it the perfect choice for our first European event, he continued. While Europes regulators have been so far slow to embrace the potential of Bitcoin, the combination of the continents history and its continued high demand for Bitcoin means that our community can give the support, collaboration and direction that European governments are failing to provide, and together pursue our shared goal of hyperbitcoinization.

Bitcoin Amsterdam is Bitcoin Magazines first attempt at bringing the conference out of the United States, and it aims to galvanize attendees from Europe one of the worlds most uncertain regulatory environments for Bitcoin with the message that there can be no region left behind in the pursuit of hyperbitcoinization, said Brandon Green, chief of staff at BTC Inc.

The Netherlands is a special place in the Bitcoin universe, as one of the oldest and most deep-rooted Bitcoin cultures in the whole world. It was the host of one of the first major bitcoin conferences ever, the Bitcoin 2014 Conference. Since block rewards were 25 BTC, Amsterdam has had its hands all over bitcoin and it only seemed right to return in fashion.

Bitcoin and Amsterdam just make sense.

The speakers for the event are going to be predominantly European based, with universal staples sprinkled throughout the agenda. Many European bitcoiners and media members will be involved, finally getting a chance to participate in the monumental movement. There may also be a banger concert after, but dont hold me to it.

Overall, the three-day extravaganza is going to be a must-add when you are filling out your fall calendar. No matter your exposure to bitcoin, if you are looking for a great opportunity to dive into the culture, this is your chance.

To the European Bitcoiners, I have read so many emails and comments about you not being able to get approved for travel to Miami for Bitcoin 2022. It was only right by you all to bring our event to you, so I hope you all are loving the insanely cheap prices right now. GA (general admission) tickets are only 249 during the public pre-sale, which is currently LIVE.

Europe is only a stop in this journey though, and I foresee Asia, Australia or South America as viable next targets. Wherever bitcoin spreads, gatherings will follow. The Bitcoin Conference plans to be at the cornerstone of this movement and truly spread hyperbitcoinization. Lower your time preference and get involved with the long-term mission.

With enough talk about how great it is, its also important to direct people to the right avenues so they can plug themselves into the community. Assuming you at least know how to buy some bitcoin and if you dont, you should take the 21 Days of Bitcoin course here are some thoughts on how to go about involving yourself in the community and the annual conference.

Join a local meetup. Before we even talk about the conference, its important to nail down the basics first. And the first step is to join a local bitcoin meetup. If you go to meetup.com, you can type in your city and find the nearest meetup. Do not be discouraged if you live outside of the U.S., give it a search as I know of many other meetups around the world.

Self-custody your bitcoin. It is the most important step in protecting your stack. For a great guide, here is BTC Sessions, Trezor Model T - How To Use A Bitcoin Hardware Wallet. Ben is great, so make sure you check out his other tutorials as well.

Have conversations. Encourage discourse and talk about bitcoin with your peers. Learning from others and challenging each other's thoughts and ideas only improve your understanding of bitcoin in the long term.

Something that goes hand-in-hand with this is a famous Chinese proverb: He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

Engage in self-education. Self-education is important, especially for Bitcoiners. There are many great authors, podcasts, and teachers in the space. Take advantage of this.

Work in the bitcoin space. Of course, you never have to work in the bitcoin space. Many great Bitcoiners work outside of the space and still manage to stay involved. But, working with like-minded individuals in pursuit of a similar goal or path as you cannot be understated in its rewards. And as Bitcoiners, we all want to see bitcoin succeed. Many job opportunities exist all over the space.

If youre interested, check out b./tc/jobs for new openings. Another great website is Bitcoiner Jobs.

Attend the conference. The most important part to engage in the conference is actually getting a ticket! Pre-sale tickets are live for Bitcoin 2023. It is always better to get these on the front end as most conferences do price increases to drive FOMO and demand.

Check out satellite events. The Bitcoin Conference does a great job at highlighting satellite events going on in Miami in what is referred to as Bitcoin Week. Here is where most of your schedule planning will occur outside of the conference agenda hours you wish to attend.

Get involved. There is also a Get Involved page where you can participate in multiple activations including volunteering, enrolling in hackathons, becoming an affiliate or hosting a satellite event yourself!

Give back. Lastly, as events like this arise, it is important to allow proper space to give back to those less fortunate. Giving Back was a project that coincided with the Built With Bitcoin Foundation. The Built With Bitcoin Foundation is, a humanitarian organization devoted to creating equitable opportunity by providing clean water, access to quality education, sustainable farming and humanitarian support all powered by Bitcoin

As bitcoin marches on, it is of the utmost importance that members of the bitcoin community continue meeting in person, face to face and celebrating the freedom that all who participate in bitcoin receive. Conferences are only one way to do this. Try and find a way to interact with the bitcoin community on a daily basis. This community is truly a group of critical thinkers, hard workers and flat-out winners.

When we look at the recent contagion that has hit the market, which companies have been the ones performing the best? The ones that stuck to the game plan, did not deviate or get distracted, stayed moral and focused on bitcoin and bitcoin only.

Bitcoin is the key to defeating the plague that has inhabited this earth fiat.

Lower your time-preference and get on board with hyperbitcoinization or get out of the way.

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

More:
The Bitcoin Conference And The Pursuit Of Hyperbitcoinization - Bitcoin Magazine

What is Bitcoin and can it be a viable currency? – BBC Science Focus Magazine

Since its creation in 2009, Bitcoin has been one of the internets favourite talking points. It has made millionaires and billionaires of some, and completely emptied the wallets of others.

But, despite its glorious gains and eye-watering declines on a near-weekly basis, there are many who still argue that it is the future of money. Some countries have even gone ahead and adopted it as their official currencies.

So is Bitcoin and the many other cryptocurrencies it has been followed by the future? We spoke to Brett Scott, author of Cloudmoney: cash, cards, cypto, and the war for our wallets to find out.

Bitcoin sits in a bit of a weird position. As a fairly new concept in the world of finance, it hasnt really been classified into the world of currencies, and there is good reason for that.

Bitcoin is traditionally described as a decentralised digital currency, but I dont find that a very informative description. If you look at how it works, it is essentially a system for issuing tokens, says Scott.

It is a way for a network of strangers to get together and follow a set of rules by which they will issue tokens and move them around between themselves. Historically, that has been a difficult task to do.

Up until Bitcoin, the transfer of digital money from one person to another required a third person in the form of a bank. When you pay for something with a contactless card, you are asking your bank to send over some of your money to another account.

The aim of Bitcoin is to enable these transactions without the use of a middle party. However, it isnt quite that simple.

Solarseven

The technological aspect of Bitcoin is ingenious, but the actual monetary side is quite crude. Imagine taking a big sheet of glass and then punching a bunch of disks out of it and then handing them out, claiming thats a monetary system, thats similar to what Bitcoin is, says Scott.

It might sound like a strange description, but it is an easy way to understand Bitcoin. At its core, Bitcoin is a pretty featureless token. In its early days it didnt have much of a use and could just be assigned from one person to another, it wasnt until later that it was assigned monetary value.

When you hear a news story about someone buying a pizza with Bitcoin, they arent actually exchanging Bitcoin for pizza. They are using a system called counter-trading. This is where non-monetary objects are exchanged for a monetary value, says Scott.

An easy way to picture counter-trading is to imagine you buy a jacket from a store for 100. You leave, decide you dont like the jacket and go back to return it. The store says to you that they can offer a refund or swap it for something of a similar value, so you pick up a pair of jeans that have a similar value.

If an Alien was to watch this transaction, it could seem like jackets were a type of currency to be spent, but really youre doing multiple transactions to get there: youre buying a jacket, returning it for its full value and then using that money to buy another item.

Youre taking two monetary transactions and superimposing them over each other to cancel out the money part. Thats in theory how Bitcoin transactions work. When someone says they bought jeans for Bitcoin, they first had to calculate how much Bitcoin they needed to buy to afford those jeans, essentially using a standard currency with an added step, says Scott.

If youve followed the cryptocurrency market, or even just seen the headlines, youll know that Bitcoin has had a messy price history. But is that something that can be sorted?

The instability is inherent. In a traditional stock market, there is uncertainty around a stock in the companies early stages as people try and work out what is happening. But as you get more information, a more realistic price is set. You calculate the future prospects of the company. Financial market bubbles occur when companies are wildly overestimated, says Scott.

This is a problem for bitcoin because there is no underlying story or clear path. You cant ever tell if it is under or overvalued, and there is no scientific methodology to measure it out like you see in the stock market.

Cryptocurrencies are almost purely self-referential speculative markets so they can just crash out of nowhere unexpectedly, says Scott.

This is an especially noticeable issue now that Bticoin has been adopted as a currency in multiple countries, all of which will be at the mercy of those price swings.

Bitcoin in its current state isnt really a currency like the Dollar or Yen is, but could Bitcoin and other digital currencies transition to operate as currencies we use on a daily basis?

Bitcoin has a number of structural problems where it is constantly having to try and create this mythology that it is some kind of commodity. At some level everyone knows that there is something dubious about that, says Scott.

Thats why it is so highly subject to these speculative flows, because it has just become an object traded in the normal monetary system. It is this digital currency with no physical value. I dont see how it will get out of that, especially with the wild price changes.

Read more about money:

Continued here:
What is Bitcoin and can it be a viable currency? - BBC Science Focus Magazine

Bitcoin looks good, but the Cardano price faces one more shake-out – FXStreet

Cardano price shows subtle signs of concern. It is not the best digital asset in the bunch currently. Best to consider finding a more promising opportunity.

Cardano price, like many cryptocurrencies, shows retaliation amidst the bearish onslaught prevalent for several weeks. However, subtle cues still show that the ADA price might not be ready for the anticipated bull run.

Cardano price currently trades at $0.46 after rallying to a high of $0.49 during the Asian market session on July 8, 2022. The profit-taking consolidation has subtly gone too far as the bulls have breached through the 21-day simple moving average (SMA) on the 3-hour chart. Consecutive indecision-doji candles have been printed since the breach, which confounds early evidence of bearish rejection at the SMA. Additionally there seems to be bearish presence within the current downtrend move on the Volume Profile Indicator.

ADA/USDT 3-Hour Chart

Traders should stay clear from placing an early entry. There may be better opportunities in the coming days as the Bitcoin price shows promising technicals. A break below the 8-day moving average at $0.45 could be the catalyst to a future liquidity hunt targeting $0.40.

Invalidation of the bearish thesis is a break and definitive candle close above $0.50. If the bulls breach this level, they may be able to rally as high as $0.55, resulting in a 19% increase from the current Cardano price.

Visit link:
Bitcoin looks good, but the Cardano price faces one more shake-out - FXStreet

Heres The Large Public Bitcoin Miner That Has Refused To Succumb To The Bears | Bitcoinist.com – Bitcoinist

Over the last several months, the market has watched bitcoin miner profitability plummet to new lows. These miners who are dependent on the BTC gotten from their mining activities have found themselves in a tight spot as the price of bitcoin has suffered. The result of this has been multiple miners selling off their BTC holdings to raise money to keep their operations going. However, not all of the bitcoin miners have resulted in this.

Marathon Digital is one of the most prominent names when it comes to public bitcoin mining. The company had been one of the winners of 2021 given how its stock price rose as its popularity skyrocketed. And just as how the public miner had enjoyed the spoils that followed the 2021 bitcoin bull market, it has also come under pressure during the bear market trend of 2022.

Related Reading |The Infamous Cyclicality Of Bitcoin Mining: What Causes This?

The company is now seeing competitors succumb to the market pressures and begin selling off their holdings. However, Marathon Digital has refused to give in to this trend of selling. The public miner has refused to sell any bitcoin as shown in a recent report.

Marathon Digital has not sold any BTC since 2020 and had been one of the companies to see its BTC production rate go up compared to 2021. The company now holds a total of 10,055 BTC after producing 707 BTC through the second quarter of 2022. Accounting for an 8% increase in BTC mined in the same time period last year. In total, Marathon Digitals BTC production is up 132% with 1,966 BTC produced year-to-date.

Not only is Marathon Digital not selling its BTC but it has also been one of the only companies that have been able to stick to its expansion plan through the downtrend. In its report, Marathon Digital highlights that operation had been reduced to about 6,300 miners due to a storm in Hardin, MT. However, the company plans to add new miners to its fleet. It plans to grow this fleet to a total of 199,000 miners by the first half of 2023.

Related Reading |Inverse Bitcoin ETF Sees 300% Increase In Short Interest

The company has also continued to repay debt with $35 million of outstanding revolving credit line borrowings paid off during the month of June. Its outstanding balance is now sitting at $35 million. It also remains in a good cash flow position with a reported $88.7 million in cash on hand. Its liquidity profile remains promising with $153.7 million in total liquidity in unrestricted cash and available credit facilities.

On the flip side of this, some major bitcoin miners had been dumping their bitcoin. One of these is Core Scientific. The public miner had sold off 7,202 BTC in the month of June, more than its total BTC production for the month.

Riot Blockchain and Cathedra Bitcoin have sold 250 and 235 BTC respectively. While Argo Blockchain plans to sell some of its bitcoin alongside raising debt to keep its operations going.

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

Read this article:
Heres The Large Public Bitcoin Miner That Has Refused To Succumb To The Bears | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist

Spanish Exchange 2gether Blocks Operations, Affecting 100000 Users Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

2gether, one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in Spain, has suddenly blocked its operations, leaving its users without access to their accounts. The platform informed it had to take this action due to the current situation of the market in an email directed to customers. In addition, the platform erased its presence from social media, deleting its account on Twitter.

The current downturn in the cryptocurrency market has affected several cryptocurrency exchanges and lenders unable to return funds to customers, having declared bankruptcy, or being in the process of finding additional funding to keep operating. This time, one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in Spain, 2gether, has been the one affected, blocking the access of customers to its platform.

The exchange reported this situation to its customers via an email, where it stated that due to the current market conditions, it was unable to continue to serve its customers. The company explained:

After five years of serving the crypto community, we are forced to close the private account service. The lack of resources and the crypto winter prevent us from providing the service with the quality and guarantees [with which] other nearby providers are doing it.

2gether looks to be the first Spanish cryptocurrency exchange affected in such a way by the current crypto climate.

However, 2gether has not allowed its customers to withdraw their funds to other exchanges or to self-custody wallets. Instead, the company has closed its platform and has informed customers that, to keep their accounts active, each one of them will have to provide the equivalent of 20 ($20.35) to be collected by the exchange to continue operating.

Accounts that dont have this amount of funds available by June 10th will be suspended, with the cryptocurrencies still available also being liquidated. According to reports from Asufin, the Financial Users Association of Spain, this action is affecting 100,000 customers that trusted in 2gether to make their transactions and safeguard their funds. The organization is preparing to initiate legal action in the name of all of the customers of the exchange.

This situation might be used by regulators to press for the establishment of clearer cryptocurrency regulations regarding the actions of virtual asset service providers in the country. In May, Pablo Hernandez de Coz, the Governor of the Bank of Spain, highlighted the importance of establishing such regulations in a quick way to avoid the risk of financial instability.

What do you think about 2gethers account blockade? 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.

More:
Spanish Exchange 2gether Blocks Operations, Affecting 100000 Users Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Biden Administration Expected to Publish Report on Bitcoin Mining and the Industry’s Impact on Climate Mining Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

According to a new report, U.S. president Joe Biden and his administration are focused on proof-of-work (PoW) mining. The principal assistant director for energy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) discussed the research report on July 2, 2022. The OSTP official, Costa Samaras, said if digital currencies plan to stick around then it is important that these financial systems are developed responsibly and minimizes total emissions.

A new report will be published by the White House in August according to the OSTP principal assistant director, and the study will focus on proof-of-work (PoW) mining and its effects on the environment. Constantine (Costa) Samaras detailed on July 2 that the Biden administrations energy team plans to look at mining farms working with applied demand response programs, and the two most popular crypto consensus models, proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS).

Its important if this is going to be part of our financial system in any meaningful way, that its developed responsibly and minimizes total emissions, Samaras told reporters at the news outlet Bloomberg Law. When we think about digital assets, it has to be a climate and energy conversation.

Bitcoin mining has received a lot of negative attention over the energy consumption used to confirm transactions and secure the PoW blockchain. However, two recent studies have shown contrarian views that highlight how BTC mining could actually be beneficial to the environment. For instance, one specific study shows that the Bitcoin network leverages 50 times less energy than the traditional banking system. Another environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report highlights findings showing bitcoin mining could potentially eliminate a significant amount of leaked methane, and stressed that no technology could do it better.

Despite positive studies, Samaras has seen the negative reports that have been published over the past year that say theres noise, local pollution, older fossil generators being restarted in communities These are not trivial loads. Samaras explained that the White House energy team plans research policy response concepts that are appropriate for PoW and PoS algorithms. We need to think about what would be the appropriate policy responses under a world that shifted to proof-of-stake, or a world that has some continuous mix of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, Samaras remarked during the interview. The White Houses principal assistant director for energy added:

Proof-of-work is energy-intensive by design, but it also increases security.

The statements from Samaras follow U.S. president Joe Bidens crypto executive order (EO) issued during the first week of March 2022. The crypto EO establishes a national policy for digital assets across six key priorities. The White House was supposed to establish the crypto-focused EO in February, but the Ukraine-Russia war started. In April 2022, U.S. representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) urged Biden to create a robust strategy so crypto cannot be used by international enemies to avoid financial sanctions. Currently, the upcoming White House report concerning crypto mining seems to be simply research, but many wonder if government policies could come out of the new study and Bidens aggressive climate change strategy.

What do you think about the Biden administrations plans to publish a report on crypto mining and its impact on the environment? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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.

See the article here:
Biden Administration Expected to Publish Report on Bitcoin Mining and the Industry's Impact on Climate Mining Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Open source alternatives | Opensource.com

So you've decided to start integrating more open source tools and applications into your life. Now what?

Whether you've decided to seek out open source tools because you're trying to cut costs over proprietary alternatives, because you want to become more involved in the direction of a project, or simply because you want to have more control over your digital world, there is an amazing collection of free and open source projects out there.

If you're coming from a Mac or Windows environment, the first thing you might want to understand when exploring open source is what the equivalents are to the closed source, proprietary programs that you may be used to.

To get you started, Opensource.com has compiled a collection of articles introducing you to some of the most popular and useful open source tools for a wide variety of common needs. Looking for a replacement for a tool not listed here? Let us know what you're interested in, and we'll consider it future additions to this series.

Do you use Basecamp, Microsoft Project, or Asana to help you with project management? There are many open source tools which provide the same functionality.

Are you keeping notes in Evernote, Google Keep, or OneNote? There are a ton of excellent alternatives with Joplin trending in the category.

Some teams, particularly in the software world, turn to kanban boards like Trello to manage their projects instead of a full project management suite. Open source Kanban projects are a good fit here, and in fact many offer better integration into large project management suites than what Trello offers.

Teams are more and more turning to chat tools for facilitating communication, both for remote employees and those who share a physical space. While tools like Slack and HipChat receive a lot of attention, there are open source chat tools that work just as well (in many cases, better).

If you have a large number of contacts to manage, theres a good chance youre using a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce, Hubspot, or Zoho to organize contacts. But open source CRM projects fit the bill as well, and several have commercial support.

Businesses need ways to balance pricing, product planning, accounting and finance, managing payroll, dealing with inventory, and more. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools like Oracle ERP, Microsoft Dynamics, and SAP ERP are the big names in the space, but there are plenty of open source ERP solutions as well.

Did you use Dreamweaver or another visual editor for laying out web pages? Consider these alternatives for WYSIWYG and direct editing of HTML/CSS for your next web design project.

Think Photoshop is the only tool for graphic designers looking to make professional edits to photos or other graphics? Consider one of these tools instead.

Designing print layouts with InDesign, Publisher, or QuarkXPress? These three free tools might meet your needs.

For industrial designers, engineers, and others building things in the physical world, AutoCAD is the big name in the business for computer aided design. For many uses, an open source CAD program might work just as well.

Minecraft has proven a great tool for teaching kids the basics of logic and programming, but unfortunately, its a closed source program. The community has created many open source alternative Minecraft-like games.

MATLAB is an important learning and research tool for many people working in the physical sciences, but its far from the only tool for numerical computing. Scilab, NumPy, SageMath, and GNU Octave all offer similar functionality.

Are you a user of Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Windows Movie Maker, or Pinnacle Studio? Check out these alternative open source video editors.

Go here to see the original:
Open source alternatives | Opensource.com

Open API – Wikipedia

This article is about type of application programming interface. For the web service specification, see OpenAPI Specification.

An open API (often referred to as a public API) is a publicly available application programming interface that provides developers with programmatic access to a proprietary software application or web service.[1][2] APIs are sets of requirements that govern how one application can communicate and interact with another. APIs can also allow developers to access certain internal functions of a program, although this is not typically the case for web APIs. In the simplest terms, an API allows one piece of software to interact with another piece of software, whether within a single computer via a mechanism provided by the operating system or over an internal or external TCP/IP-based or non-TCP/IP-based network.[3] Currently, many APIs are provided by organizations for access with HTTP. APIs may be used by both developers inside the organisation that published the API or by any developers outside that organisation who wish to register for access to the interface.

Open APIs have three main characteristics:

A private API is an interface that opens parts of an organization's backend data and application functionality for use by developers working within (or contractors working for) that organization.[6] Private APIs are only exposed to internal developers therefore the API publishers have total control over what and how applications are developed. Private APIs offer substantial benefits with regards to internal collaboration. Using a private API across an organization allows for greater shared awareness of the internal data models. As the developers are working for (or contracted by) one organization, communication will be more direct and therefore they should be able to work more cohesively as a group. Private APIs can significantly diminish the development time needed to manipulate and build internal systems that maximise productivity and create customer-facing applications that improve market reach and add value to existing offerings.

In contrast to a private API, an open API is publicly available for all developers to access. They allow developers, outside of an organization's workforce, to access backend data that can then be used to enhance their own applications. Open APIs can significantly increase revenue without the business having to invest in hiring new developers making them a very profitable software application.[7] However, it is important to remember that opening back end information to the public can create a range of security and management challenges.[8] For example, publishing open APIs can make it harder for organisations to control the experience end users have with their information assets. Open API publishers cannot assume client apps built on their APIs will offer a good user experience. Furthermore, they cannot fully ensure that client apps maintain the look and feel of their corporate branding.

Open APIs can be used by businesses seeking to leverage the ever-growing community of freelancing developers who have the ability to create innovative applications that add value to their core business. Open APIs are favoured in the business sphere as they simultaneously increase the production of new ideas without investing directly in development efforts. Businesses often tailor their APIs to target specific developer audiences that they feel will be most effective in creating valuable new applications. However, an API can significantly diminish an application's functionality if it is overloaded with features.

For example,[9] Yahoo's open search API allows developers to integrate Yahoo search into their own software applications. The addition of this API provides search functionality to the developer's application whilst also increasing search traffic for Yahoo's search engine hence benefitting both parties. With respect to Facebook and Twitter, we can see how third parties have enriched these services with their own code. For example, the ability to create an account on an external site/app using your Facebook credentials is made possible using Facebook's open API.

Many large technology firms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, allow the use of their service by third parties and competitors.[10][11][12]

With the rise in prominence of HTML5 and Web 2.0, the modern browsing experience has become interactive and dynamic and this has, in part, been accelerated through the use of open APIs. Some open APIs fetch data from the database behind a website and these are called Web APIs. For example, Google's YouTube API allows developers to integrate YouTube into their applications by providing the capability to search for videos, retrieve standard feeds, and see related content.

Web APIs are used for exchanging information with a website either by receiving or by sending data. When a web API fetches data from a website, the application makes a carefully constructed HTTP request to the server the site is stored on. The server then sends data back in a format your application expects (if you requested data) or incorporates your changes to the website (if you sent data).

Read more here:
Open API - Wikipedia

Modern app dev is about more than tools, platforms and languages – SDTimes.com

Todays application development is a complex landscape of services, integrations and architectures. In fact, most developers today spend more time writing API calls and finding open-source projects and maintaining those applications once theyre created than they do writing code for innovative new features.

It looks nothing like your fathers app dev, which involved a code editor, compiler, and few other tools. In todays world, we see developers struggling under the weight of an ever-expanding toolbox now required to bring products to life.

According to Andrew Manby, AVP of Product Management of HCL Volt MX, among the drivers behind modern development are the needs of business to satisfy customers, and overcoming the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to be able to continue to deliver fixes and new features at speed.

We did a survey late last year with Forrester, and in our survey, 78% of respondents said theyre prioritizing improving the ability to innovate and really reach their customers, Manby said. And for businesses to survive the pandemic, businesses had to rely on that old Yankee spirit and ingenuity, he said. I think businesses could make do or innovate. Almost like having their own Apollo 13 moment, to fix the problem, to be able to continue to reach the customer, adding buy online, pick up in store, things like that. It was that sort of duct tape and air filter moment, for a lot of organizations.

Piecing together tools for collaboration, development and deployment to a remote workforce has been made a lot easier with cloud computing no more creating VPNs, unless organizations have specific regulations or security needs they must follow. However, the cloud doesnt really help address issues such as culture change and the move towards delivering products instead of projects.

Agile development is one of those areas where scaling up has been a thorny issue for many organizations. Agile, according to Forrester vice president and analyst Diego Lo Giudice, is not just a bunch of practices. Some think going to Scrum training and bringing what you know back to the organization will have everyone working in an Agile way. But Lo Giudice said shifts to Agile and other methodologies require a cultural and behavioral change. Think about your IT that has been owning the projects, and now suddenly they say were going to move to products and youre going to have a product owner from the business side. And he or she is going to tell you what are the most important things you need to implement. Its kind of losing power for project managers that used to manage these projects.

Another issue Lo Giudice pointed out is integrating all of it throughout the organization. Everybody thinks SAFe is saving the world. I get lots of clients who tell me, were replacing the old bureaucracy with a new type of bureaucracy here. Cultural and behavioral change is really tough for organizations.

Further, he said, these product owners from the business dont have the skills to think in terms of how project managers in modern development think about minimum viable features and minimum viable products. They still think in terms of big releases, he said. Also, he added, business-side product owners are not even committed to Agile. Its like, We want to do Agile, but you do it, Im not going to get involved. But thats not the way agile works.But because of this drive to modern application development, organizations are starting to think seriously about what agility, responsiveness and velocity really mean to them. It comes down to the business problem, HCLs Manby said. I think CIOs are still faced with the same thing at the end of the day, they still need to modernize their application inventory, they need to move to the cloud because they want to obfuscate some of the risks that they have in their data center. And they want to move that off to other vendors, they want to make the portfolio of applications more modern.

Another aspect of modern development to think about has nothing to do with tools or programming languages. Its the difficulty organizations are having in attracting and retaining developer talent. People, given this day and age, are more mobile not in the physical sense, but more willing to swap one job for another, Manby said. Developers want to do meaningful work, they want to be in an engaging work environment, and they want to use the cool tools. But they also want to use the stuff they learned in college, or in their experience. But theres the old guard who know how to do things in a certain way. Theyre used to using WebSphere and db2 and Oracle, and Siebel. And the new generation is coming in, and theyre all React and Angular and all container ready and Git friendly. Its not the culture clash, but the organizations that havent shifted are finding it more difficult to get to containers and the cloud. The smarter organizations are bringing in more of the influx of those newer developers and the new-wave IT people to help push that acceleration along, to use those new types of tools.

With different languages and platforms for creating or importing pieces of code to create modern applications, Manby said weve probably got as much fragmentation now from an application developer standpoint as weve ever had. He went on to say that the rate of change has gotten faster as well. Angular 1, Angular 2, React, Flutter. Its almost like theres a faster inertia, he said. And theres a concern about obsolescence. If you have to look after a piece of code thats got Dojo in it, when you give that to a new developer, they say, whats this stuff? Thats a challenge. But at the same time, in its day Dojo was modern and exciting for folks.

This, Manby believes, is where low code is trying to come from. The appeal of the platform is, whatever framework you may be using, if we as a vendor do this the right way, then whether its Angular or React or whatever, were going to insulate you from those sorts of challenges, he said. But were still going to give you something thats not going to dumb down the skills that youve learned but also allows you to be a superhero, and do some cool stuff without boxing you in.

Low code has become a modern de rigeur term, and represents a way to apply rigor to development and deployment, Manby said. Low code is applied to DevOps pipelines, its applied to data integration. You could apply the principles of anything, which gives you a visual model, a model-driven approach. You can say that no code or low code makes [development] go faster, when it comes back down to pure developer productivity.

When it comes to professional development, low code is not removing tools, Manby said. Its providing pieces to try and make those developers lives simple. If you can simplify how you aggregate data across multiple systems, or provide you with an orchestration layer so you can orchestrate a series, a more complex workflow with parallel looping. Do you want your developers to create that from scratch, and then have to maintain it? Or do you want to use a tool to enable you to do that?

As for testing, Manby said a low-code tool can generate the test case automatically and continually test the applications as they evolve, which saves developers time. Its not about removing things, he said. Its just trying to make you more productive.

The baseline activities of modern application development, as defined by research firm Forrester, are ideate, design, build and deliver. According to an August 2021 report on MAD, Forrester said organizations augment these activities with value stream management, collaborative work management, low code and continuous testing.

The design phase includes developing a prototype, then a minimum viable product. In its report, Forrester notes that experimentation can begin in this phase, using feature management (such as flags) to let developers turn those features on or off as the product makes its way toward full release.

But at the core of all this is business value, and Forresters MAD model says that everything developers create must ultimately be in service of value streams. Value streams and management of those streams is how organizations can raise their Agile and DevOps practices by gaining insights into the processes used to create and deliver quality software that customers want. Determining what the business wants, and why, should be the first step in the process of creating software products.

Collaborative work management, according to Forrester, supports the confluence of project and process work by allowing users to create personal and team workspaces, according to the report, while low code expands development outside of IT.

Meanwhile, continuous testing is required to ensure the accelerated pace of software creation and delivery does not impact the quality of the product.

Originally posted here:
Modern app dev is about more than tools, platforms and languages - SDTimes.com

Los Angeles’ 6th Street Viaduct opens to the public this weekend – Los Angeles Times

The 6th Street Viaduct projects grand opening in Los Angeles will begin Saturday with a community celebration and continue through the weekend.

The four-lane bridge will connect Boyle Heights and the Arts District across a 3,060 foot-breadth that spans the Los Angeles River, 101 Freeway, railroad tracks and Metrolink tracks.

Dubbed the Ribbon of Light, the $588-million project is considered the most extensive bridge project in the citys history and took six years to complete, with delays due to COVID-19.

After more than six years of being closed, we are thrilled to reopen the newly built Sixth Street Viaduct and usher in a new era for Los Angeles, Councilman Kevin de Len said in a news release. This celebration will be a tribute to the years of dedicated work that went into creating one of the most inspiring public works projects in our Citys history.

To recognize completion of this project, the city will hold a weekend-long celebration. There will be a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge Friday, at which city officials will hold a news briefing. The media event is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and will include L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilman De Len and city engineer Gary Lee Moore.

The community celebration open to the public will kickstart on Saturday.

Roughly 15,000 residents are expected at Saturdays event, which will feature live music, food, a market, a vintage car display which includes a lowrider tribute and more, according to the 6th Street Viaduct Replacement Bureau of Engineering.

Saturday night will conclude with a fireworks show and the official lighting of the bridge.

As of June 22, tickets for the Saturday event sold out. Those who RSVPd will get priority access from 2 to 6 p.m. to enter the event. After 6 p.m., ticketholders will have to wait in line to get into the event.

Residents who couldnt get tickets can take part in Sundays community events, which will not require tickets. Gates will open at 11 a.m. to bikes and pedestrians only. Pedestrians are asked to walk along the sidewalks, while bikes will have access to the driving lanes.

The bridge will officially open to cars at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The original 6th Street Viaduct, built in 1932, was a structural landmark in Los Angeles featured in films including Grease and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The new viaduct has been built to replace the original, which was deemed seismically deficient and irreparable and demolished in 2016.

The new bridge was designed by architect Michael Maltzan, who focused on creating something that could knit the city together in a more consequential way. The design of the bridge was selected by the Bureau of Engineering through an international design contest.

Starting in 2023, the Bureau of Engineering will begin constructing a 12-acre park below the bridge. Sixth Street Park is estimated to cost $40 million and will provide access to the Los Angeles River, public art, recreational programming and much more, according to a news release.

Go here to see the original:
Los Angeles' 6th Street Viaduct opens to the public this weekend - Los Angeles Times