Daily Archives: May 7, 2022

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Editors note: A completely unrelated article to this was published on Crypto Briefing as an April Fools Day joke article last month. It referenced a blockchain project whose founding company requested its removal and threatened legal action over the piece. You can read the letter their law firm, K&L Gates LLP, sent to our Editor-in-Chief here. We would like to clarify that the previous and below pieces are satires. This article is not based on any facts, and is completely unrelated to any real blockchain project.

Con reportedly said that if DUST fails, the broader crypto market should fail with it.

Terrorfarm Labs CEO Dough Con is planning on dumping his bags to zero, sources have said.

According to multiple sources, the hypersensitive billionaire decided he wants to crash Bitcoin and the broader crypto market on the realization that the Terror blockchains Ponzinomics model is unsustainable. He kept going on about how the failure of DUST is equivalent to the failure of crypto itself and that no one would be able to stop him from crashing Bitcoin because their size is not his size, a source familiar with the matter told Crypto Briefing. Then he posted a bunch of tweets about how anyone who wasnt a MOONboy was coping on the left side of the curve.

The revelation comes after Con, whos been living overseas his whole life to avoid U.S. regulations, was praised for reviving cryptos biggest bull market in history in Q1 2022. Con took the market out of Goblintown by accumulating whale-sized stacks of Bitcoin via the Let it Go Foundation, an organization established to stop Terrors DUST from meeting the same fate as every other algorithmic stablecoin. His conviction in Terror and the broader markets strength was so high that he bet an eight-figure sum with two veteran traders that MOON would hold above $8,888 by March 2023.

The Let it Go Foundation recently became the worlds second-largest Bitcoin holder, which isnt enough to crash the market alone. However, Con has reportedly enlisted a group of hackers who stole more than 500 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs to get access to Satoshi Nakamotos Bitcoin wallet, which contains 1 million coinsaround 5% of the supply. The hackers say that they and 0xSifu found Satoshi Nakamoto on the Wonderland Discord server and convinced him to give his seed phrase away. Con believes that dumping the lot will be enough to cause major ripples in the market, one source said.

A group of ardent Bitcoin bulls has established a plan to stop Con from tanking the market. According to documents seen by Crypto Briefing, Nayib Bukele, Adam Back, Cathie Wood, and Michael Saylor have created a group called the Bitcoin Maximal Bid Trust to front-run Cons selling. Saylors MicroStrategy has supposedly collateralized more than 100,000 Bitcoin, as well as his multi-million dollar property portfolio and two superyachts, via Silvergate Bank to borrow money to buy a swarm of cyber hornets, which is likely a reference to the top crypto asset (Saylor, known for his lack of interest in anything other than accumulating Bitcoin, has somewhat bizarrely likened Bitcoin to a swarm of cyber hornets on multiple occasions in the past).

Bukele, meanwhile, has reportedly allocated more than $1 billion dedicated initially to El Salvadors first Bitcoin bond. Sources said that he plans on using the 10-figure sum to buy the latest dip via his iPhone. Anthony Pompliano has also reportedly put The Best Business Show on hiatus to restart the Bitcoin pizza venture he launched last year; the funds raised will apparently go toward buying spot Bitcoin.

Various other networks have been hard-hit by the news. Ethereum, which this week postponed its Proof-of-Stake upgrade until 2028 so that the Ethereum Foundation can dump another multi-million dollar bag of ETH at the next market top, has suffered due to widespread uncertainty over cryptos future as an asset class. 0xSassal, a pseudonymous Ethereum devotee best known for hosting The Daily Wei podcast, told Crypto Briefing that he was considering following through on his promise to perform a dance to save ETH from the downturn (he memorably committed to a dance when ETH surged to a new all-time high in early 2021, but then backed out with no explanation as to why). Its looking bleak out there, so I was thinking of just posting it as a Twitter video, he said in a Telegram message. On the plus side, although ETH is tanking, I have a pretty decent collection of figurines Ill be able to dump if I need any spare cash. And as there are so few people using Ethereum now, gas fees have dropped below $200 again.

Solana, touted as the worlds most performant blockchain, was hit by another clog early Friday as users began to panic. Sources say the Solana team has developed a plan for the blockchain to turn itself off and on again to get it working. Cardano has been spared because no one uses it, while Cosmos, cryptos self-described Internet of blockchains, continues to trade in a year-long sideways channel.

While the dip has shaken most crypto holders, some more bearish market participants say they anticipated that this moment would arrive. One of the multiple identities tied to Degen Spartans Twitter account told Crypto Briefing that hes pleased to see the market panicking because he derisked years ago. Ive been sitting in stables since Bitcoin dumped from $19,000 in 2017, he said. Its difficult for me to have sympathy for anyone because it was obvious that everything was going to zero when Su Zhu hinted that he was long the other day.

Interestingly, one section of the crypto market appears to be trading largely uncorrelated with Bitcoin. Despite the looming threat of a crypto nuclear winter, several NFTs have hit all-time high floor prices this week. One source told Crypto Briefing that the hackers Con has enlisted have opted to hold onto their apes to keep the red hot market afloat. It benefits them if apes keep soaring, and they insist that theyre in it for the culture. One of them told me we like the JPEGs when I asked why they hacked so many users, the source said. The NFT market may not sustain its highs for long, though. Analysts told Crypto Briefing that the only reason many so-called blue chipsBored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki among themare rallying is that insiders scooped them up to get in on their recent airdrops. Now that token distributions have commenced, theyll soon dump them on the same people they front-ran, the analysts explained.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH, ATOM, and several other cryptocurrencies.

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Terror's Dough Con Planning to Dump Bitcoin to Zero: Sources - Crypto Briefing

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.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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

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

Bitcoin (BTC) marks a milestone mining journey on Thursday, crossing the halfway point on the way to its next halving.

In Block number 735,000, mined at approximately 10:29 am UTC, Bitcoin crossed the halfway point to the next halving. The block was mined by Poolin, earning0.16215354 BTC ($6,402.45) in fees.

Halvings occur every 210,00 blocks, and May 5 marks the cross-over point into the second leg of 105,000 blocks. For some Bitcoiners, such as Samson Mow, the Bitcoiner pioneering Bitcoin nation-state adoption, the halving is a reminder to stack more SATs:

The halving cycle is a unique device that envelops the Bitcoin issuance rate. As the Cointelegraph Cryptopedia explains, As a result of the halving cycle, the supply of available Bitcoin decreases, raising the value of Bitcoins yet to be mined.

The halving is key in determining the supply of Bitcoin at 10:29 am UTC which recently crossed the milestone 19 million markand the issuance rate, currently at 6.25 new BTC per roughly 10 minutes. In essence, roughly $250,000 worth of BTC is minted with every new block.

The next halving is due to take place in April 2024, and the previous halving occurred on May 11, 2020 as Bitcoin entered its fourth epoch. The system will continue until roughly 2140 when the last Bitcoin is mined.

The issuance rate and the "supply shock" that accompanies the halving have a significant impact on the price

As shown in the box above, the Bitcoin price has increased by a factor of 100 since the 2012 halving to reach the previous halving price. With current price levels around the $40,000 mark, the price has done another fourfold.

Related:Happy birthday, Hal Finney: Crypto community honors world's first known Bitcoiner

With typical Bitcoin honey badger aplomb, the decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system also struck a new record: the mining hash rate hit an all-time high.

The hash rate hit 249.1 exahashes per second (EH/s) overnight on May 4th, pipping the previous all-time high by 1 exahash. In essence, with the hash rate consistently setting new highs, Bitcoin security as these computers or "miners" work to secure the network has never been stronger.

Halfway to a halving and another ATH for the hash rate; its another small celebration for Bitcoin amidmini bear market woes.

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Bitcoin celebrates halfway to the halving with new hash rate record - Cointelegraph

Sunshine Tour a professional golf tournament held in Southern and Eastern Africa partnered with Luno to bring cryptocurrencies closer to the participants. Apart from prizes in fiat currency, the top golfers will receive awards in bitcoin.

The primary cryptocurrency keeps making its way through the sports industry. The latest such example came from the prestigious golf championship Sunshine Tour. The tournament, based in numerous African countries like Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, and South Africa, will give around $31,000 worth of bitcoin to the golfer that finishes first.

The second-ranked will receive approximately $12,000 in BTC, while the third will get $6,000 worth of the asset.

Sunshine Tours partner is the cryptocurrency exchange Luno. The winners will have their bitcoin awards transferred to their Luno accounts. Marius Reitz General Manager of the exchange said his companys goal is to empower people to access a new financial system suited to the digital age.

He further opined that the crypto opportunity could be beneficial to professional golfers who have a very different way of thinking about risk and reward, both on and off the golf course:

Their careers are constantly evolving, and this aligns perfectly with our vision to put the power of crypto in everyones hands by making it safe and easy to buy, store and learn about crypto.

The leading digital asset has been used as a financial stimulus in numerous sports over the past years. In 2021, the Indian-based crypto trading venue Bitbns promised to award each local Olympic champion from the Tokyo Games $2,700 worth of digital assets. Silver medal winners were supposed to receive $1,250 in crypto, while bronze medalists $675. The cryptocurrencies in question were bitcoin and ether.

Another sport where BTC is highly popular is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Last month, the organization partnered with CryptoCom to introduce the new Fan Bonus of the Night, which will be awarded to athletes in the digital asset.

The payouts range from $30,000 for first place, $20,000 for a second, and $10,000 for third. Fans can vote on the UFCs Pay-Per-View channel and decide which athlete deserves to be placed on top.

Dana White President of the championship described CryptoCom as the best partner the entity has ever had:

Theyre constantly coming up with new ideas about how we can work together to connect with the fans. This new Fan Bonus of the Night is an awesome way to get fans more engaged in our events while rewarding the fighters for bad-ass performances.

PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter POTATO50 code to receive up to $7,000 on your deposits.

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Sunshine Tour's Best Golfers to Win Bitcoin Awards - CryptoPotato

If Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were somehow transported to the present day and given a newspaper, the apparent lack of class conflict would probably make the revolutionaries think theyd won. They would see a society split on all manner of subjects from identity politics to the correct COVID-19 strategy but virtually silent on the eternal struggle between labor and capital, the oppressors and the exploited.

How different it would be if theyd returned just 10 years ago when the Occupy movement was in full swing, with tent cities springing up in protest against crony capitalism, corporate greed and a reckless, out-of-control financial sector. A decade on, the same problems persist, but theyve become a barely discernible background hum amid the roiling, raging culture wars.

The 1% may sleep easier these days, but any complacency they feel is profoundly misplaced. The rage never actually went away, and as inequality has grown even more pronounced, capitalisms discontents are no longer limited to the Left. Crucially, these proto-revolutionaries now have access to the most powerful economic weapon that ordinary citizens have ever had.

Related: The world doesnt need banks, policymakers or NGOs It needs DeFi

Why is revolution brewing? Because people arent stupid. They see governments spending trillions of dollars on propping up the too-big-to-fail while the poor continue to struggle from paycheck to paycheck. What most dont realize, however, is that governments know that welfare for the rich hits the poor hardest. Indeed, theyve known it for the better part of 300 years.

First described in the early 18th century, the Cantillon Effect describes how money-printing makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. When significant amounts of new money are pumped into an economy, the first recipients get to spend the cash before prices have increased. If theyre prudent as the rich tend to be theyll invest in assets such as real estate, precious metals, art or fine wine.

By the time this money trickles down to the poor (if it ever does), it becomes massively devalued by the inflationary effects of printing it in the first place. As prices rise, the rich double their winnings as they see the value of their assets increase, while the poor lose twice as the cost of living soars.

You dont have to be a socialist to rage against an economic machine that makes life harder for the poorest in society while rewarding reckless corporate behavior. Whats rarely understood, however, is that this isnt a bug of our supposedly capitalist economic system its a feature.

Related: How can third-world countries counter inflation using Bitcoin?

Its common to blame capitalism for the economic and societal issues the world is facing today. In fact, were Marx alive today, hed find a lot to love about our financial system including concepts that come straight out of The Communist Manifesto. For example, Marxs fifth tenet of communism argues for the centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. Sound familiar?

The truth is that we, in many ways, actually live in a soft socialist utopia, where regulations, subsidies and other state interventions are geared around protecting corporate behemoths and those whose wealth resides in assets rather than savings accounts. Its difficult to see how a further lurch to the left will solve the structural failings of an economic system that already sees printing money as the solution to every problem. Then again, short of a proper, blood-and-thunder revolution, its difficult to see what we can do against such powerful vested interests and their political backers. To borrow a favorite phrase of Vladimir Lenins: What is to be done?

Related: How a crypto revolution could have saved the Roman Empire

Whether youre on the Left or the Right, the answer is to avoid fighting the rich on their own terms. There is only one way for the poorest in society to seize power from the hands of the 1%, and that is by removing their ability to manipulate fiat currency.

Can Bitcoin (BTC) really challenge the millennia-long hegemony of the asset-owning class (and without shedding any blood)? You may say Im a dreamer, but Im not the only one. Just ask Salvadorans.

Before Bitcoin, Salvadorans receiving remittances from abroad had to pay a sizable fee to money transfer businesses like Western Union or MoneyGram cash that would be far better spent on food or medicine. With Bitcoin now adopted as legal tender, these businesses are estimated to lose $400 million per year. Thats money going straight back into the pockets of the worlds poorest.

This is how the revolution will happen not via violence but through choice. Show people how the fiat system makes them poorer, give them the ability to grow their wealth in uninflatable Bitcoin, and theyll vote with their feet. Rather than being overthrown in a lightning coup, fiat money will simply dwindle in importance as more people use Bitcoin to inoculate themselves from inflation. This will gather pace as the squeezed middle find themselves harder hit, with history conferring countless proofs that revolutions only happen once the middle classes and political moderates embrace the radical ideas of the revolution.

Related: Blockchain is as revolutionary as electricity: Big Ideas with Jason Potts

That same whiff of rebellion is in the air today. People long ago lost faith in their politicians, but now theyre beginning to question long-established economic and monetary narratives. Whats so compelling about Bitcoin is that it doesnt have to preach its own gospel or attack the other side: The more people learn about Bitcoin, the more they understand how theyre being cheated under the current system.

Bitcoins critics like to claim that its too complex for mass adoption. But which is harder to grasp, a digital currency with a hard cap of 21 million coins or the bewildering sleights of hand employed by central banks and finance ministers to cloak inflationary policies that reward the rich while hurting the poor?

While revolutionary France had the guillotine and Soviet Russia the gulag, we dont need to use terror to fight the tyranny of unsound money. Ours is a truly Velvet Revolution: Our sole weapon is an alternative currency that cannot be inflated, censored or otherwise manipulated, and the only victims are those who make a killing from a system that hurts everybody else.

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

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

Nik Oraevskiy is a co-founder of Bitcoin Reserve. Nik has been in Bitcoin since 2012 and has worked with wallet and exchange startups in North America, helping to develop and lead their strategic visions. He was also involved with international finance and fund management in Liechtenstein before starting down the brokerage path with Bitcoin Reserve, with the goal of bringing smart Bitcoin-buying to the whole of Europe.

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Bitcoins Velvet Revolution: The overthrow of crony capitalism - Cointelegraph

Main residence at 241 Bedford Rd in Greenwich, CT

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

The Gold Coast of Connecticut soon might become the Crypto Coast if this real estate listing is any indication.

The owner of a Greenwich estate is willing to accept cryptocurrency as payment for its $6.5 million asking price, in what an agent says is the first such listing of its kind in the wealthy town.

The unidentified owner's background explains the unusual offer, and their comfort level in taking bitcoin or Ethereum crypto for the 4.3-acre farmhouse compound on Bedford Road, which dates to the early 1800s.

"It's not like a gimmick," the property's listing agent, Kevin Sneddon of Compass told CNBC in an interview.

"Not only does my client hold a lot of cryptocurrency," Sneddon said, "she actively trades a fair amount of it on a daily basis."

Dining room

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

The prices of bitcoin and Ethereum are highly volatile and have declined by more than 19% apiece since the beginning of 2022.

If a buyer of the property uses cryptocurrency to pay for the estate as opposed to cash which remains an option for payment the seller would be accepting a risk of further significant decline in the price if she did not immediately sell off the crypto for cash.

In recognition of that risk, a number of prior real-estate listings that have entailed cryptocurrency have required the buyer to convert the crypto to cash before the sale closes.

But the listing for this property makes crystal clear, in all-capital-letters type at the end of the description of the estate: "SELLER WILL ACCEPT CRYPTOCURRENCY."

Main residence on the left with one bedroom guest-cottage in the foreground.

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

Sneddon said the seller intends to hold the payment in cryptocurrency.

"She's not going to turn it over and convert it to anything else," Sneddon said. "She's going to add it to her crypto portfolio."

Sneddon is counting on state-of-the-art amenities on the property to attract a buyer, and he hopes his seller's willingness to accept payment in digital currency will scorehis listing the attention of newly minted crypto millionaires.

"They'd want to come up and consider this house because we take their currency," he said.

"Someone's already asked me what kind of crypto she would take," Sneddon noted.

The fact that the seller in the Greenwich property will accept crypto at closing has brought more attention to the old home in the form of press and inquiries from intrigued potential buyers.

But Sneddon said his "private-minded" seller isn't interested in any of that extra attention focusing on her.

"They wouldn't want their names out there," he said of the buyer.

Aerial view of the farmhouse compound in Greenwhich, CT

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

Public records don't shed light on the identity of the homeowner.

The property last changed hands in 2009 for $5.68 million, according to the Multiple Listings Network.

Records showed it was bought by a limited liability corporation called Bedford Road Holdings.LLCs often are created to hide the true owners of real estate.

Kitchen in main residence

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

Then, the property's seller was Anson McCook Beard Jr., a retired Wall Street bigwig, who is the brother of the late photographer and artist Peter Beard.

Beard spent many years at Morgan Stanley. According to the investment bank's website, he was hired in 1977 to launch its private client services division.

The compound up for sale sits in the northwestern-most part of Greenwich, only about 200 feet from Connecticut's border with New York state.

Sneddon described the area as the equestrian countryside, an area of town where neighbors tend to have their third, fourth, or even fifth home set aside for weekend retreats.

The residence at 241 Bedford Road was built in 1835 and is a Greenwich-designated landmark known as the Levi Ireland House, the agent said.

Interior view of the compound's "party barn"

Stephanie Loda - Greenwhich Photo

The main house spans over 4,200 square feet with five bedrooms, three baths, and a powder room.

Elsewhere on the property is a carriage house that boasts three bedrooms, a one-bedroom guest cottage and an old barn.

That "party barn," as it is called in the listing, is wired for electricity, but otherwise has an unfinished interior.

Primary bedroom in main residence with Porsche lighting in the ceiling.

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

While it is a great space for throwing a bash, Sneddon said the new owner might want to convert it into stables for horses.

"Not many 187-year-old farmhouses are packed with as many modern comforts as the Levi Ireland House," said Sneddon.

In other words, a lot has changed on the estate since Andrew Jackson was president.

"It's got Lutron lighting, and you press a button and it's got automatic shades, and it has Porsche pinhole recessed lighting."

Sneddon said that his client told him the German carmaker-designed fixtures cost her $2,800 per light and that many of her high-tech splurges were inspired by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Prior to the pandemic, his crypto-trading client and her family spent most of their time in Manhattan, but when New York went into lockdown they retreated to their Greenwich estate.

When weeks turned into months his client decided to turn the home, which was mostly just used as a weekend getaway, into a full-week residence where she and her family could live and work from home.

One of the main residence's four guest bedrooms.

Anthony Acocella - Modern Angles

Sneddon said it was important for the owner to be able to trade crypto in real-time from anywhere on the property including the poolside lounge chairs, so she equipped the residence with a top-shelf Wi-Fi system that delivers high-speed internet to every corner of the sprawling estate.

The homeowner also installed a Covid-inspired heating and cooling system that includes a virus-killing infrared air purifier.

Pool and an outdoor dining area.

Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles

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Greenwich estate owner will accept bitcoin or Ethereum cryptocurrency as payment for $6.5 million property - CNBC

Some of the biggest names in bitcoin including Jack Dorsey, Tom Lee, and Michael Saylor have banded together to refute claims made by House Democrats calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the environmental effects of crypto mining.

Bitcoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) mining model, meaning that miners around the world run high-powered computers to simultaneously create new bitcoin and validate transactions. Proof-of-work mining, which requires sophisticated gear and a whole lot of electricity, has virtually become synonymous with bitcoin, though ethereum at least for another few months still uses this method to secure its network.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), along with nearly two dozen House legislators, wrote to the EPA last week asking that the regulatory body ensure mining companies are in compliance with the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, citing "serious concerns regarding reports that cryptocurrency facilities across the country are polluting communities and are having an outsized contribution to greenhouse gas emissions."

In a rebuttal letter sent to EPA Chief Michael Regan Monday morning, a mix of bitcoin miners and industry experts as well as firms like Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Investments, and Fortress Investment Group make the case that House Democrats got a lot wrong in their messaging about the fundamentals of proof-of-work mining.

For one, the letter takes issue with lawmakers conflating data centers with power generation facilities.

The rebuttal letter says, data centers that contain miners'' are no different than data centers owned and operated by Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. According to the letter, each is just a building in which electricity powers IT equipment to run computing workloads.

"Regulating what data centers allow their computers to do would be a massive shift in policy in the United States," the letter reads.

"They're confusing the public," said Darin Feinstein, co-founder of cryptocurrency mining operator Core Scientific and one of the primary authors on the letter. "The pollution comes from the energy generation source, and all data centers buy electricity off-site, upstream."

Feinstein said if the EPA wants to regulate energy generation, there are already channels in place to regulate energy generation facilities on a federal, state, and local level.

"It would be very unusual for the EPA to regulate the kind of computation that's occurring within a data center. That's clearly outside of their remit," Castle Island Venture's Nic Carter, who helped to write the rebuttal, told CNBC.

"It doesn't make any sense to ask the EPA to care about what kind of computation is being done," said Carter.

While the EPA does regulate power plants, very few PoW mining companies actually own the power production, according to the rebuttal.

"The letter makes it sound like there's a bunch of these vertically integrated miners like Stronghold and Greenidge...but that's a minuscule portion of overall hashrate," continued Carter, referring to anindustry termused to describe the computing power of all miners in the bitcoin network.

Huffman and his fellow House colleagues also take issue with the specialized computing hardware, which they claim creates "major electronic waste challenges" as millions of devices quickly become obsolete, leading to large amounts of electronic waste.

The letter cites estimates that bitcoin mining alone produces 30,700 tons of electronic waste annually. "The industry needs to be held accountable for this waste and discouraged from creating it," the letter argues.

The note to the EPA this morning refutes the e-waste claim, saying that legislators cited a widely criticized research study that makes bold assumptions about the depreciation timeline for mining rigs. The letter says that the assumption of a 1.3-year period for depreciation is "extremely short" and lawmakers infer that the entire fleet of rigs are periodically junked.

It is unclear whether the EPA will wade into the larger debate around proof-of-work mining. The agency did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Link:
Dorsey, Saylor, Fidelity and others defend environmental impact of bitcoin mining in letter to EPA - CNBC

Authorities in Georgia are now holding discussions with industry representatives to finalize a bill designed to regulate coin trading, among other crypto-related activities. The legislation will be presented to the Georgian society this fall at the latest, a top central bank official announced.

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is fine-tuning a draft law tailored to establish a legal framework for certain operations with cryptocurrencies with the help of interested parties from the sector. Public and business officials are currently holding talks on the new legislation, the banks Vice Governor Papuna Lezhava revealed, quoted by Sputnik Georgia. He stated:

We are working on a bill regulating cryptocurrency, and now it is at the stage of consideration with market participants. The final document will be made public either in the summer or in the fall.

The law will regulate several crypto-related areas at once, the central bank official elaborated. These include consumer protection and cryptocurrency trade. Its provisions will introduce rules for trading platforms such as digital assets exchanges. However, they do not concern crypto miners and their activities, Lezhava noted.

Cryptocurrency mining became a popular business and an alternative income source for many Georgians a few years ago. A study by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), published in 2018, ranked Georgia second in the world in terms of amount of electricity used to extract digital coins.

In April, NBG Governor Koba Gvenetadze told the Georgian business news portal the Financial that the monetary authority was planning to regulate transactions in the crypto space of the Southern Caucasus country. He revealed that companies in the industry may expect a licensing regime.

At the same time, the regulator intends to ban traditional financial institutions from providing crypto-related services. Gvenetadze also pointed out that the amendments the central bank is working on are in compliance with the requirements of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF).

Do you expect Georgia to adopt bitcoin-friendly regulations and become a crypto hotspot? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchenss quote: Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do. Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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

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Georgia to Unveil New Cryptocurrency Law by This Fall Regulation Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

The world's first cryptocurrencyBitcoinBTC/USD is seeing its whales cryptospeak for large holders come to life, with mean transaction volume on its blockchain reaching a seven-month high.

What Happened:The seven-day moving average of Bitcoin's mean transaction volume just reached a seven-month high of 25.66 BTC meaning that the average transaction processed over the last seven days would now be worth well over $923,000, according to Glassnodedata.

See Also:How To Earn Free Crypto

The news follows reports that Bitcoin isrefusingto realign its price with the stock-to-flow (S2F) model just as itreaches halfway to the next halvingthat will cut its inflation rate once again now standing at just 35.6% of the price estimated by S2F. Despite this, adoption continues to grow with Horacio Rodriguez Larreta the Mayor of Argentina's capital city and chief port Buenos Aires currentlylookingto have the city adopt cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in the city.

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Bitcoin Whales Are Alive: Mean Transaction Volume At 7-Month High - Benzinga - Benzinga