The Bitcoin 2022 conference brought over 25,000 attendees to Miami last month to discuss the future of the worlds largest cryptocurrency. The event, which attendees have described as extravagant and compared to a bacchanal, featured a now-notorious keynote speech by Peter Thiel in which the venture capitalist rallied Bitcoin supporters against a list of people whom he described as Bitcoins enemies, including Warren Buffet and Jamie Dimon.

While Thiels speech grabbed a lions share of the attention surrounding the conference, many investors, developers and founders in the Bitcoin community convened at the same event to discuss a threat that could prove far more pressing than the aforementioned personae non gratae competition.

Even as the overall crypto market has plunged this week, Bitcoin remains the most valuable crypto asset in the world, with a market capitalization of around $589 billion as of May 9. Its status stems, in part, from the advantage of having been the first cryptocurrency token on a public blockchain.

But as new blockchains continue to spring up, and after last years DeFi summer that brought new traction to Ethereum, Bitcoin investors have had to start watching their backs. Now, the blockchains backers are pouring capital into efforts to ensure it can maintain its dominance as a form of money and expand into other use cases through decentralized apps (dApps) to keep up with competitors like Ethereum and Solana.

Bitcoins edge has typically been described as its value as an asset to hedge against inflation, much like gold, because of its fixed supply. Bitcoin supporters, including Thiel, ARK Invests Cathie Wood and MicroStrategys Michael Saylor, all spoke at Bitcoin 2022 about its ability to act as a store of value when central banks relax their policies and let inflation run hot, as has been the case in the United States throughout the majority of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reality has not been so simple, as Bitcoin has oftentimes traded down amid periods of rising inflation in the U.S. But Bitcoiners argue that its value is more clearly visible in developing nations, especially those experiencing hyperinflation or with sizable proportions of underbanked individuals. They view it as a relatively safe asset that can enable faster, more efficient payments both within and across borders.

The Bitcoin network itself only supports about five transactions per second, according to crypto exchange Binance. Bitcoin has integrated with a layer-two protocol called the Lightning Network to increase its speed and efficiency while lowering transaction costs, a piece of infrastructure used by the nation of El Salvador and major crypto exchanges such as Kraken.

Startup Lightning Labs, which raised a $70 million Series B round last month, is at the forefront of developing Bitcoins Lightning Network. It is building infrastructure for the Bitcoin Lightning Network akin to Visas payments network, Lightning Labs CEO and co-founder Elizabeth Stark told TechCrunch.

Elizabeth Stark, chief executive officer of Lightning Labs. Image Credits: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Lightning Network can execute hundreds of thousands of transactions per second by settling transactions off-chain in a separate ledger, thus freeing up space on the layer-one Bitcoin blockchain while still adhering to its underlying protocol, Stark explained.

People want access to Bitcoin, the asset When youre looking at stability, security and the global payments use case, and the global transaction aspects, thats where Bitcoin and the Lightning Network will shine, Stark said.

Lighting Labs recently announced a proposal to build Taro, a protocol that would allow individuals without bank accounts to send and receive money in the form of stablecoins that represent their domestic fiat currency through mobile applications.

If I were Visa, Id be scared, because there are a lot of people out there that have mobile phones, but now dont need to tap into the traditional system, and then the merchants dont need to pay the 3% fee plus 30 cents [for a transaction]. You can have fees that are dramatically lower than the legacy system, Stark told TechCrunch.

Startup Moon, in fact, partners with Visa to enable users to buy goods and services with Bitcoin through the Lightning Network at any U.S.-based e-commerce site using Visas rails.

While Lightning Labs is focused on optimizing global payments through the Lighting Network, trading platform Robinhood has found the network useful in keeping network fees low on its new crypto offering, which it rolled out to users last month, Robinhoods crypto CTO, Johann Kerbrat, told TechCrunch.

We will support Lightning on the [Robinhood] app, so you will be able to connect it to pay merchants directly with the Lightning Network, Kerbrat said. It also means that you will be able to kind of create a channel between people using Robinhood outside of Robinhood and be able to exchange Bitcoin for almost zero fees.

Bitcoins low fees, enabled primarily by the Lightning Network, and early widespread adoption mean the blockchain has become synonymous with payments. Its closest competitor by value, Ethereum, is notorious for high network fees and is still worth less than half as much as Bitcoin by market cap. Newer challengers such as Solana offer lower transaction fees but are considered to be less secure.

But despite Bitcoins dominance in the payments realm, other blockchains are developing capabilities far beyond simple monetary transfers. As an open source blockchain, Ethereum lets developers easily build decentralized applications, or dApps on top of it, enabling use cases such as minting NFTs and offering DeFi lending products through which investors can earn interest.

As a result, Ethereum has been able to amass the largest ecosystem of tools, apps and protocols in the crypto world, and even competitors such as Polkdadot, Cosmos and Solana have more developers working on their blockchains than Bitcoin does, according to venture firm Electric Capitals 2021 Developer Report.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, ranks just fifth by number of developers, below Cosmos and Solana. Its backers are trying to give Bitcoin a boost and attract developers to work on new projects in the ecosystem.

A lot of [discourse] has been just about Bitcoin as an asset, and not necessarily Bitcoin as the network. And now I think were starting to see that paradigm shift, where people are looking at it more as an infrastructure, Alex Chizhik, head of listings at crypto exchange Okcoin told TechCrunch.

Chizhik co-chairs Bitcoin Odyssey, an initiative launched in March by Okcoin in conjunction with venture firms including Digital Currency Group, GSR and White Star Capital, to deploy $165 million into projects that will supercharge Bitcoin adoption, according to the group.

Indeed, $165 million is a lot of money, but seems like a drop in the bucket for the worlds biggest blockchain. Venture capitalists deployed more than $30 billion into web3 last year, much of which flowed to projects on chains that innately enable smart contracts, unlike Bitcoin.

Stacks, formerly known as BlockStack, plays a crucial role in expanding use cases for Bitcoin. Its open source network allows custom smart contracts to be built on Bitcoin, enabling developers to use the Bitcoin blockchain to create dApps. DApps built on the Bitcoin network with Stacks include CityCoins, a token protocol through which local governments can raise money from investors, and NFT exchanges such as Hey Layer and Gamma.io.

Ethereum definitely is leading the way in what can be done with things like DeFi and asset ownership, like NFTs, but thats largely probably in the past three years. I think Bitcoin now has this opportunity to kind of catch up, take some of the best lessons learned, and really unlock the value and the base layer chain, Brittany Laughlin, executive director of the Stacks Foundation, told TechCrunch.

Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Stacks. Image Credits: Alex Flynn/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Stacks Foundation is a nonprofit arm within Stacks that supports governance, education and grantmaking to improve infrastructure within the Bitcoin network.

Our role is really how to support growth of the network and make sure that we can fulfill our promise, which is a user-owned internet powered by Bitcoin, Laughlin said.

Laughlin explained that without the Taproot upgrade implemented on the Bitcoin network late last year, which makes it easier and faster to verify transactions, the growth of Bitcoin as an ecosystem would have been much more limited. She noted that the Bitcoin community is generally hesitant to change anything about the protocol, and that even the Taproot upgrade was met with some internal resistance and conflict before it was finally implemented three years after it was first proposed. Still, she said, Taproot doesnt solve all of the challenges Bitcoin faces, and further changes may be needed to continue building out the network.

Ultimately, though, Laughlin believes that Bitcoin will prevail in the long-run against other layer-one blockchains because of its first-mover advantage.

Anyone whos holding $100 of Bitcoin, from El Salvador to New York City, if they want to take a loan against that [$100], or if they want to secure an asset with it, they could do that [with dApps on Bitcoin], Laughlin said.

Laughlin compared Bitcoins race against other blockchains to Apples competition with Android, wherein Apple often launches products significantly later than Android does, but has a greater focus on the user experience.

Bitcoin is going to be like Apple, and secure the brand recognition, compatibility and ease of use all of that comes to mind when I think of Bitcoin.

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Bitcoins bid to become the one chain to rule them all - TechCrunch

Alas, stocks do not only go up.

The past couple of years have been quite exciting for many investors. After the stock market plunged at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, its been on a pretty good run. The S&P 500 climbed by 16 percent in 2020 and nearly 27 percent in 2021. Hordes of individual investors rushed into trading, getting into meme stocks like GameStop and AMC and enjoying the perks of a pretty broad-based bull market. Some dipped into cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which traded above $60,000 per coin for parts of last fall. Tech companies, from Peloton to Netflix to Amazon, felt like pretty sure bets for growth.

The environment made it perhaps a little easy to forget that bull markets dont last forever, and the waters can get choppy. As the saying goes, markets often take the stairs up and the elevator down, and were on the elevator right now.

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq are now well below where they were at the start of the year, down 16 percent, 11 percent, and 24 percent, respectively, as of market open on Tuesday. Last week, the Dow and Nasdaq saw their worst single-day declines since 2020. This week, the S&P 500 hit its lowest level in a year. Many names big and small in the tech sector, in particular, have been struggling. Bitcoin, which many proponents have long argued is a form of digital gold that could serve as a hedge for market turmoil, fell below $31,000, less than half of where it peaked at nearly $69,000 in November 2021. The bond markets been hit.

Stocks appeared poised to rebound on Tuesday after a tumultuous past few days, but in the broader recent picture, there really havent been many bright spots. Chances are if you look at your investments right now, you maybe arent feeling so great.

In market dislocations, correlations always go to one. Everything moves together, said Nick Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. There is never a safe haven when the storm is in full force.

Were in the midst of quite a storm right now. Its also one most investors should likely try to weather stocks dont go down forever.

While we are seeing this broad-based sell-off in the market, and it does seem like you cannot avoid it, this isnt exactly a time for panic, said Kristin Myers, editor-in-chief of the Balance, a finance website.

There is never a singular answer for why markets do what they do, why stocks rise and fall, or why investor sentiment changes from one day to the next. With that in mind, maybe the best explanation of whats going on right now is that there are a lot of reasons for investors to be freaked out, and so they are.

Inflation is a problem in the United States and across the globe, with the US inflation rate at its highest levels in 40 years. The Federal Reserve has begun to raise interest rates and will soon begin to reduce its balance sheet to combat inflation and try to get prices back under control. Those measures may be necessary, but theyre also ones that make Wall Street nervous.

It always works; thats the good news. The bad news is it always works because it creates a recession, Colas said.

Maybe not always. A recession in the near future isnt a foregone conclusion, but it is likelier than it was, say, a year ago. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate theres a 38 percent chance of the US economy entering a recession in the next 24 months. Deutsche Bank has forecast a recession as well, at first saying it believed it would be mild and then becoming a bit more pessimistic.

The Federal Reserve, ideally, would be able to bring down inflation without causing a recession. In early May, Fed Chair Jay Powell declared that inflation is much too high and the central bank has a good chance of restoring price stability without causing a severe economic downturn. But its a tough needle to thread, Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco, said in an email, and the tea leaves are hard to read. Markets are clearly confused about what the Fed will do this year and just how aggressive it will get, she said.

There are other uncertainties plaguing investor sentiment concurrently. Russias war in Ukraine is ongoing, which could exacerbate inflation, supply chain issues, and oil price fluctuations and contributes to an overall sense of unrest. Slowed growth in China and concerns about the impact of Covid outbreaks there are contributing to anxieties, too.

There are times in the market when things seem pretty predictable, and the market goes up gradually during those periods because tomorrow looks like today, Colas said. Then there are times when things are very uncertain, such as now, and the range of expected outcomes is higher. When that happens, market volatility is always higher.

As mentioned at the top, many assets have been up by quite a lot in recent months and years, perhaps to the point that they were trading at more than they should have been.

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, pointed out that coming into the year, some dips in the market were to be expected. As a general rule, what goes up usually comes down for a while, at least a little bit. Every time the S&P has been higher than 20 percent or more over the course of a year since World War II, investors have wound up digesting some of those gains early in the new year in other words, giving some gains back. Stocks, without question, were expensive, Stovall said.

The Nasdaq, which follows tech stocks, and the Russell 2000, which is composed of small-cap stocks, have already slipped into bear market territory, meaning theyre 20 percent off of their recent peaks. Stovall warned the S&P 500 might be close behind.

Tech companies, specifically, have been hit hard. For example, the at-home fitness company Peloton once a pandemic darling has had major struggles, business-wise. Its market cap, which once peaked at about $50 billion, is now under $5 billion. The stock trading platform Robinhood recently announced layoffs, as did the streaming company Netflix, the stock price of which was hammered in April after it announced it lost subscribers in the first quarter of the year. Uber says its cutting costs and slowing hiring, and Facebook parent company Meta plans to slow hiring, too. The stock prices of Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, and Meta are all down more than 20 percent this year.

Higher interest rates tend to negatively affect valuations and stock prices, and they could hit tech particularly hard. Higher interest rates take a bite out of future profits, and for high-growth stocks, those future profits are everything for them, Myers said.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, in recent years, tech companies have served as a relatively reliable source of growth. Whats not clear now is whether this is a temporary reshuffling and slowdown or a sign of a broader, more sustained slowdown in whats been a pretty hot area. Maybe there was too much excitement around some of these companies in the first place.

Tech companies, many of them, especially consumer product companies got over-valued on the venture side, and many of those companies that have since [gone public], if you will, have mostly lost their valuations, said Arjun Kapur, a venture capitalist focused on internet and consumer tech.

The crypto industry has not been immune from market moves, either a sign that its not as insulated from the market as some of its investors would like to believe. The people who own crypto tend to own stocks, and that means that even if the asset class is fundamentally unlinked to stocks, it is still linked through investor confidence in the future, Colas said.

Most asset classes other than cash are coming under pressure, Hooper said. This includes crypto.

As life gets back to a more normal state compared to where it was at other points in the pandemic, some of the trends that made certain companies attractive are reversing. People are going back to life in the real world and relying a little less on the internet for every part of their lives.

We have to kind of understand that we as a society, as a world, as an economy, as a stock market, were still in the early stages of coming out from the zombie apocalypse and the shutdown and the pandemic, said Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets. Were still living by different rules, and were trying to unwind those different rules as we inch toward this transitioning of normalcy.

In moments like this, where all the CNBC chyrons are red and all the headlines are talking about market meltdowns, its natural to feel panicky about the financial future. Vox is not in the business of giving investment advice, but just in terms of some life advice, the best is probably this: Do not panic.

Over time, historically, the stock market has gone up, and almost any expert out there will tell you thats whats going to eventually happen. Think back to how nervous a lot of people felt about the markets in February and March 2020 when they were in free fall and about what happened after that.

If youre young and have the stomach for it, this might not be a bad time to buy, Myers said, namely if there are stocks or assets youve had an eye on that are now trading lower than they have in the past. Think of this as everything is on sale, she said.

While you often hear that this kind of moment is not a great time to check in on your 401(k), it might not be a bad reminder that you should be checking in on it more often. Myers suggests once a quarter as a good rule of thumb, just to see whats going on and reevaluate. It doesnt mean that you need to make a lot of changes, but maybe its time for you to move around your assets a little bit, she said. Moving assets around does not translate to cashing out.

If youre closer to retirement, hopefully your portfolio has already been rotating away from riskier investments, such as stocks, and into something less volatile. If that hasnt been happening, now might be a good time to think about doing that.

Bigger picture: Ideally, investing is a long game that you should be able to win.

I think investors need to remind themselves that market declines are pretty common, Stovall said. That doesnt mean that, over time, markets wont recover. If investing is gambling, I would love to know what casino pays the gambler 80 percent of the time. In 80 percent of all years since World War II, the S&P 500 has posted a positive 12-month total return.

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Why the stock market and bitcoin keep crashing - Vox.com

Photo: Thitiwat Thapanakriengkai (Shutterstock)

The ever-volatile cryptocurrency is currently experiencing some of its patented volatility. Bitcoin has reached a ten-month low, falling below $33,000 for the first time since July of 2021, down 50% from its peak price. As of this writing, the price of one Bitcoin is hovering around $30,000but even at half of its previous value, thats still a lot of scratch. Heres a list of ideas on how to spend your Bitcoin, should you have a full one burning a hole in your pocket.

A souped-up 2022 Honda Accord. A 2022 Honda Accord has an MSRP (manufacturers suggested retail price for the non-car savvy among us) of $26,120. Leaving just under $4,000 for upgrades, with one Bitcoin you can buy yourself one of the most reliable midsize sedans equipped with chrome wheels, parking sensors, and a wireless phone charger, should you so choose.

Two Cameos from boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. Ever since Cameo burst onto the scene in 2016, over 30,000 celebrities have joined the platform to send personalized videos to fans. The websites most expensive celebrity for personal videos is Floyd Mayweather, who charges a cool $15,000 per message. With one Bitcoin, you can ask Floyd Mayweather to say whatever your heart desires, with enough buffer for a mulligan if you dont like what you chose the first time.

One semester of tuition at NYU. If youre impressionable like me, you saw Greta Gerwigs Ladybird and thought, hmm, maybe I should go to NYU. If you have one Bitcoin on your person, thats enough capital to cash in exactly one semesters worth of tuition at one of Americas most expensive universities. Bear in mind, if you plan to board at the university for this semester, youre going to need another Bitcoin.

A hefty kitchen remodel. A new set of appliances? Go for it. Granite countertops? Why not! In reality, a kitchen remodel can cost as much as you want it to cost, but its safe to say for the price of one Bitcoin, you can treat yourself to an updated kitchen.

250 years of a Planet Fitness membership. If getting in shape was one of your 2022 resolutions, you still have time. And if you have a Bitcoin youre looking to get rid of, you can even cash it in for 3,000 months worth of a Planet Fitness $10 per month membership. They may even give you a discount if you tell them youre willing to commit to a quarter-millenium contract.

Finance a sequel to the documentary Catfish. In 2010, Nev Schulman burst onto the scene with his documentary film about people who create fake social network presences to fool people while online dating. This cult classic cost only $30,000 to produce, so should you be able to convince everyone to come back for a sequel at their exact same pay rate, you too can be the producer of a well-regarded, gripping documentary.

VIP tickets to see Olivia Rodrigo with nine of your closest friends. Youre not impervious to a certified bop. Im sure ever since the Sour tour was announced, youve been glancing at Stubhub to see how much itd cost you to see Americas sweetheart with nine of your closest pals. Turns out with a going rate of $3,000 per VIP ticket, the answer is one measly Bitcoin.

A Cartier engagement ring. Ready to show that special person in your life that theyre the one for you? Go ahead and trade your Bitcoin for this Cartier engagement ring. Conversely, should you decide to eschew a ring, the cost of one Bitcoin just so happens to be about the average cost of a wedding.

A new 2022 Coachman RV Apex Nano 185BH. If youre the outdoorsy-type, Im sure youve had your eye on the 2022 Coachman RV Apex Nano for a while now. Not only can this bad boy comfortably sleep five, it also comes equipped with a microwave and a two-burner cooktop. For just one Bitcoin, you can travel in style while you roadtrip to one of Americas least visited states.

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What You Can Buy With Just One Single Bitcoin - Lifehacker

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.

A few years ago, Jamie Gravell needed help. She was working full time while finishing her dissertation, her son had just turned two, and the housework was piling up, even after shed repeatedly asked her husband to do more. So she downloaded Cozi. Its one example of an increasingly popular solution: chore apps designed to help families split housework more fairly. Gravells hope was that her husband would do more to lighten her load without her having to keep asking.

It was a disaster. It doesnt solve the problem: that youre nagging someone else or parenting your partner, she says. It doesnt empower or engage the other person to be a part of the family team. Within a week, Gravell had ditched the app. Cozi just didnt work, she says.

On paper, chore apps could help to solve the very real problem that women in heterosexual couples still shoulder a disproportionate amount of the housework. They could get male partners to become more like, well, partners. But as Gravell discovered, these apps might actually be doing the very opposite, by forcing womenand especially mothersto take on the additional burden of using technology to assign tasks. Read the full story.

Tanya Basu

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Unhelpful chore apps aimed at mother, and bitcoin's plummeting value - MIT Technology Review

Bitcoin Cash is preparing to include two significant improvements in its upcoming upgrade. Programmed to happen on May 15, the Bitcoin Cash Improvement Proposals (CHIPs) approved to be included are CHIP-2021-03, which brings bigger script integers to the chain, and CHIP-2021-02, which has to do with the activation of native introspection opcodes, directed to simplify the writing of smart contracts called covenants.

A new upgrade is on the horizon in the new one-year Bitcoin Cash upgrade schedule, modified from its previous six-month cycle during last years upgrade. This time, the improvements to be included in the Bitcoin Cash blockchain were decided using CHIPs, Bitcoin Cash Improvement Proposals, that allow for public discussion of the community on the proposed upgrades. This new MO was also approved during last years upgrade, which happened on May 15th, 2021.

The improvements this year are directed to improve performance and ease the way of programmers into writing covenants, which are smart contracts that enact rules on how funds can be used in a transaction. The two CHIPS included in this upgrade aim to allow covenants to be more precise and more useful, extending their functionality.

The first CHIP to be applied in BCHs upgrade is CHIP-2021-03, which introduces bigger script integers to the chain. The specification states that bigger, 64-bit integers will be allowed, and these integers will be able to be multiplied directly in code. This will improve the functionality of these contracts by allowing programmers to harness more value without having to design workarounds, also reducing redundancy and transaction sizes.

CHIP-2021-02, which enables native introspection opcodes, will also allow programmers to take information from the same transaction they are working on to include them in any covenant. This means that programmers will be able to queue information from transactions using different, new opcodes. The implementation of this CHIP aims to reduce the complexity of the code in covenants and to allow new use cases to arise due to the new functions provided by the opcodes.

On the upgrade, Jonathan Silverblood, a developer involved in the proposal of the two CHIPs to be implemented, stated:

Before this upgrade, anyone who wanted to build smart contracts could not multiply two numbers in code. They needed to understand how to (ab)use the transaction signing mechanics in order to check who is being paid, and how much. After this, we got a solid base to build on.

Normal Bitcoin Cash users will not have to make any changes to support this upgrade. Node operators will have to upgrade to the latest version of their node software to avoid service interruptions.

What do you think about the upcoming Bitcoin Cash network upgrade? 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.

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

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Bitcoin Cash to Include Bigger Integers and Native Introspection in Upcoming Upgrade Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

While bitcoins price has dropped to levels not seen since January 2022, a number of detractors think bitcoin is on its death bed. Data stemming from the Bitcoin Obituaries list shows the leading crypto has died seven times in 2022, outpacing the first three years of obituaries by year written by bitcoin haters. The last obituary written about bitcoin, opined by the financial journalist, John Plender, claims the leading crypto asset follows the greater fools scenario.

During the course of Bitcoins 13 years, the leading crypto asset has been deemed dead or extremely close to death by many journalists, economists, analysts, and financial experts. In fact, these types of opinions happen so much, that the team at 99bitcoins.com curated a list called the Bitcoin Obituaries. The data from the website shows bitcoin (BTC) has died 447 times since the list was started in 2010. That particular opinion that said bitcoin was dead was written on December 15, 2010 in a post called: Why bitcoin cant be a currency.

As the years continued, bitcoin obituaries were published more often, and during the bull run of 2017, there was 124 bitcoin obituaries added to the web portal. The following year in 2018, bitcoin died 93 times, and in 2019, only 41 deaths were recorded. 2020 saw a smaller number of bitcoin obituaries, as the year only saw 14 listed on the website. In 2021, bitcoin obituaries picked up the pace again, and the leading crypto asset saw 47 obituaries written about its so-called demise.

In 2022, theres only been seven bitcoin obituaries recorded, but the year is not over and it has outpaced 2010, 2011, and 2012 by the number of yearly obituaries so far. Bitcoins price has experienced a downturn in recent weeks, and its quite possible even more bitcoin obituaries will be added this year. The last obituary listed on 99bitcoins.com was written by the British financial journalist and columnist for the Financial Times (FT), John Plender. The post listed as: Bitcoin Will Run Out of Greater Fools, quotes Plenders statements from his April editorial. While Plender does not believe in bitcoin, the FT columnist does think blockchain is a powerful technology.

There can be no denying the astonishing power of blockchain technology, which is here to last, Plender writes in his FT editorial. Yet bitcoin is intangible, risky and incomprehensible to most human beings. While it is increasingly gaining acceptance among professional investors, its performance this year makes it hard to believe it can topple gold from its position as the ultimate bolt hole for frightened money. The financial journalist adds:

As for the important cultural dimension of the argument, bitcoin, frankincense and myrrh lacks a certain ring. The supply of greater fools will in due course run out.

While bitcoin is not dead, the cryptocurrency still has many detractors like the Iranian-American economist Nouriel Roubini, and the economist and gold bug Peter Schiff. The gold bug Schiff believes bitcoin and other crypto assets will keep falling in value. Schiff recently held a poll on Twitter after he said: If bitcoin breaks decisively below $30K it seems highly likely that it will crash below $10K. Schiff then added that this means any BTC holder has an important decision to make. What will you do? Schiff asked. You had better decide now so you dont panic and make a rash spur-of-the-moment decision.

Schiff then left a poll in his Twitter thread that gives people some choices on what they would do. Choice one was it wont break below $30K, which received 19.6% of the 37,000 votes. 54.5% said they would HODL, and 15.5% said they would sell and buy lower. Roughly 10.4% of the surveyed participants said they would sell bitcoin and would not rebuy. In Schiffs eyes bitcoin will always be dead, and he wholeheartedly believes the precious metal gold will continue to soar.

The 6% weekend drop in bitcoin was in fact a leading indicator of weakness in other risk assets as stock market futures are trading down 1%, Schiff said on Monday. Once investors figure out that Fed rate hikes will result in recession but not a significant reduction in inflation, gold will soar, the bitcoin detractor added.

What do you think about the Bitcoin Obituaries list hosted on 99bitcoins.com and John Plenders opinion? What do you think about Peter Schiffs opinion about bitcoin and his recent Twitter poll? 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 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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

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2022 Bitcoin Obituaries List Outpaces First 3 Years, Schiff Says Its 'Highly Likely Bitcoin Will Crash Below $10K' Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin...

Joe Rogan, the host of The Joe Rogan Experience, likens bitcoin to the early internet. Noting that now the cryptocurrency is a viable form of currency that You can actually buy things with, he said, the government is freaking out.

Famous podcaster Joe Rogan, the host of The Joe Rogan Experience, talked about bitcoin on his show, posted Tuesday. The show features an interview with UFC light heavyweight fighter Khalil Rountree Jr.

The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the worlds most popular podcasts with a back catalog of more than 1,800 episodes each receiving millions of views regularly. In February, The New York Times reported that Spotify paid over $200 million for Rogans podcast, which is now exclusively available on the platform.

I think about bitcoin the same way I think about the early internet, Rogan told Rountree. Noting that the government didnt see it coming, he said:

Now its a viable form of currency. You can actually buy things with it. I think the government is freaking out.

He proceeded to share what he expects the government to do, noting that they tried to censor the internet during the Obama administration. However, it fell apart because people were furious and uproared, and they thought the political repercussions of it were not worth it so they backed off of it, Rogan opined.

The popular podcaster believes that there will be a time when the government will introduce a centralized digital currency, similar to what China is doing. He stressed:

They are going to try to implement a digital currency a centralized digital currency that they can control.

Rogan explained that whats scary about the governments centralized digital currency is that they can look at you and your behavior online and decide what you can and cannot spend your money on. For example, the government could allow someone to spend money on food but not travel, he warned.

In January, Rogan said that he has a lot of hope for cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin. However, he admitted at the time that he doesnt understand it very well.

He opined at the time: What were seeing right now is, its either going to fall apart completely or were going to use this as an opportunity to right the ship and come up with a better way to live our lives.

What do you think about Joe Rogans comments? Let us know in the comments section below.

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

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

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Joe Rogan: Bitcoin Is Now a Viable Currency and the Government Is Freaking Out Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

On May 5, 2022, at block height 735,000, the bitcoin mining pool Poolin mined the 105,000th block reward since the last halving. The mined block also represents the halfway point to the next halving that is estimated to take place on or around April 27, 2024. Block 735,000 follows the network issuing over 19 million bitcoin and the hashrate reaching an all-time high three days ago on May 2.

The Bitcoin network is getting closer to the next halving which is estimated to happen on or around April 27, 2024, or 723 days from now. At block height 735,000, the 105,000th block was mined and theres now 105,000 left to go until the next halving. At the time of writing, data shows that theres 104,928 block subsidy rewards left to mine.

Presently, bitcoin miners get 6.25 BTC for a block reward and the fees associated with the confirmed transactions. Poolin earned the 6.25 BTC and 0.16215354 BTC worth of network fees associated with the block rewards 1,487 transactions. The halfway point to the halving follows Bitcoins hashrate all-time high (ATH) recorded on May 2, 2022, at block height 734,577.

On that day, BTCs hashrate reached an ATH at 275.01 exahash per second (EH/s). At the time of writing, the network has 767 blocks left until the next difficulty retarget which is expected to happen on or around May 10, 2022. A difficulty increase of around 5.29% is estimated to happen after the last difficulty change of around 5.56%.

When the next halving occurs, bitcoin miners will see their revenues shaved in half as the block subsidy reward will change from the current 6.25 BTC reward to 3.125 BTC. The current Bitcoin network issuance has an inflation rate of around 1.74% per annum. So far, throughout Bitcoins entire lifetime, only three halvings have occurred.

The first Bitcoin block reward halving took place on November 28, 2012, at block height 210,000. The second halving occurred on July 9, 2016, at block height 420,000, and the third halving event took place on May 11, 2020, at block height 630,000. The next halving thats expected to happen on or around April 27, 2024, will occur at block height 840,000.

The U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks worldwide like to target a 2% inflation rate per annum, but that has changed a great deal since the Covid-19 pandemic and the monetary supply expansions that took place globally. Bitcoins current inflation rate of 1.74% per annum is much better than the central banks long lost target rate.

When the next halving occurs 105,000 blocks from now, Bitcoins inflation rate will be an estimated 1.1% per annum. Because Bitcoin has a predictable monetary supply, we can also estimate that by the 2028 block subsidy halving, Bitcoins inflation rate will be an estimated 0.5% per annum.

What do you think about reaching the halfway point until the next Bitcoin network halving? 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 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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

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Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) is scheduled to announce Q1 earnings results on Tuesday, May 10th, after market close.

The consensus EPS Estimate is $0.86 (-71.8% Y/Y) and the consensus Revenue Estimate is $1.48B (-17.8% Y/Y).

Over the last 3 months, EPS estimates have seen 0 upward revisions and 5 downward. Revenue estimates have seen 5 upward revisions and 9 downward.

Coinbase stock fell ~15% on May 9, after cryptocurrency-exposed shares slumped as Bitcoin extended its slide to its lowest level since July 2021.

Earlier in May it was reported that ~19K bitcoins worth ~$703M flowed out of the cryptocurrency exchange through a series of four transactions.

The same month, Coinbase also saw its price target lowered at Mizuho to $135 from $150. The firm said that analyzing COIN's April and May volumes showed 25-30% potential downside to Q2 consensus revenue expectations.

In March, short seller Jim Chanos had said he's short the cryptocurrency exchange.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the U.S., currently finds itself down 70% from its IPO date, over a year ago, of Apr. 14, 2021. YTD, the stock has fallen -65.43%.

The company's stock had declined -1.52% on Feb. 25, the day after it reported its Q4 results, which beat analysts' estimates. COIN had said it expects subscription and services revenue to decrease in Q1 due to crypto asset declines.

Earlier in May, Coinbase is said to have end talks to acquire 2TM, owner of Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil's largest crypto exchange. In March it was reported that COIN was in talks to acquire 2TM.

Meanwhile in April, Coinbase was in discussion to buy Turkey's crypto exchange, BtcTurk for $3.2B.

In May, the company rolled out a beta version of its non-fungible token marketplace to everyone.

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Coinbase stock slumps on eve of Q1 results as Bitcoin sinks - Seeking Alpha