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LONDON Ether hit an all-time high Thursday as bitcoin's dominance of the cryptocurrency market declined.

The world's second-largest digital currency by market value surged to a fresh record of $2,800 on Thursday morning, according to data from Coin Metrics. Bitcoin, the top digital coin, was slightly lower at a price of $54,471.

The move comes after the European Investment Bank announced Wednesday that it had issued its first ever digital bond on the Ethereum blockchain, ether's underlying network. This led to speculation that the currency is gaining traction among mainstream financial institutions.

Most major cryptocurrencies were trading higher Thursday, boosted by ether's rise. Bitcoin, the most valuable digital coin, is down about 16% from its all-time high of almost $65,000 earlier this month. It has still had a stunning rally, though, climbing almost 90% so far this year, on the back of increased interest from institutional investors and corporate buyers like Tesla.

At the same time, some investors have warned of froth in the crypto market. Dogecoin, a meme-inspired digital token, rallied Wednesday after supportive tweets from celebrities like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban.

And plenty of other "altcoins," or alternative currencies, have also rallied this year. This led to bitcoin's dominance of the crypto market falling below 50% last week for the first time since August 2018, according to CoinMarketCap.

The first time bitcoin's share of the market sank below that level was in 2017, before a huge slump in crypto prices now referred to as a "crypto winter." But bitcoin bulls contend things are different this time, as the rally is being driven by institutional demand rather than retail investors.

"There's just so much hype from the institutions coming in," Carol Alexander, professor at the University of Sussex Business School, told CNBC last week. "Bitcoin is almost like a sort reference point, the numeraire of crypto. I think there's going to be sustained demand as institutional investors become more confident about the market."

"Having said that, on the more retail side that used to be in bitcoin, it's not cool anymore," Alexander added. "Everyone knows about bitcoin and we want things to talk about. We don't want to talk about Covid all the time. So much of this is about market psychology. We've been shut inside and haven't had any news to talk about."

Skeptics of cryptocurrencies say that bitcoin and other digital coins are a speculative bubble. Stephen Isaacs, chairman of the investment committee at financial consultants Alvine Capital, told CNBC earlier this month that he thinks bitcoin is in a "bubble" that will burst, citing risks around regulation and climate change.

Ethereum may be coming afterbitcoin, but there are some key differences between the two.For one, Ethereum has several software developers building apps on its network. Ether is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain.

One popular trend in the so-called decentralized app space is NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, digital assets meant to represent ownership of rare virtual items like art and sports memorabilia.Many NFTs are based on Ethereum.

Ethereum is also going through a major upgrade that will push it further from bitcoin, in theory allowing for faster transaction times and reducing the amount of power required to process transactions. Both bitcoin's and ether's networks have attracted criticism from environmentalists over the impact of crypto mining on the climate.

"Post the network upgrade, Ethereum in particular is proving its use-case, and with developers piling on to the platform, it is little wonder it is gaining so much traction with investors," said Simon Peters, cryptoasset analyst for online trading platform eToro.

"Underlying this is demand from institutional investors. While they may now have some exposure to bitcoin, institutions are now diversifying their exposure and Ethereum is the natural next pick, and that leaves the second biggest cryptoasset by market cap well placed to benefit further."

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank," which features Mark Cuban as a panelist.

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Digital currency ether hits a record high, stealing bitcoin's limelight - CNBC

When the price of bitcoin declines, its common to see the terms crash and correction used more or less interchangeably. However, the two words actually mean different things.

Bitcoin crash

A crash is widely regarded in traditional finance as an over-10% drop in price over the course of a single day.

These are often fueled by impactful, sudden changes in the crypto market that cause panicked investors to exit en masse.

While technical factors can have dramatic effects on bitcoins price, large crashes seem to be catalyzed more by fundamental circumstances such as macroeconomic events, major company announcements and sudden changes to international regulations and policies.

The largest crash ever recorded on bitcoins chart took place on April 10, 2013, shortly after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shut down crypto exchange Bitfloor and announced bitcoin exchanges needed to register as money transmitters. Bitcoin prices collapsed over 73.1% in 24 hours, according to Bistamp data, from a height of $259.34 to a low of $70.

During more recent times, the infamous Black Thursday crash of March 12, 2020, takes the top spot as the biggest crash after prices fell 40%, from $7,969.90 to $4,776.59, following the World Health Organizations declaring of the coronavirus a global pandemic.

Correction

A correction is characterized by a gradual decline where prices drop more than 10% over the course of several days.

These usually indicate bullish traders have become exhausted and need time to consolidate and recover. Exhaustion occurs when a majority of buyers has bought the underlying asset and there are no more new buyers appearing to support the uptrend. If sell orders continue to pile in without anyone on the other side of the order book buying them, prices start to fall.

Corrections can be influenced by minor events but tend to be initiated by technical factors such as buyers running into strong resistance levels, depleting trading volume and negative discrepancies between bitcoins price and indicators that measure its momentum like the Relative Strength Index (RSI).

High volatility

Bitcoin is known for being a highly volatile asset. This means its price tends to fluctuate significantly over a relatively short period of time compared to other assets. Its also why many traditional financial investors, including Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn, consider it a highly risky investment.

According to recent data, bitcoins one-year volatility stands at 32.7% significantly higher than the next most volatile assets and asset classes, which are oil, U.S. stocks and U.S. real estate (18.8%, 8.41% and 7.15%, respectively.)

While this high volatility has its upsides, particularly during bull cycles where prices can rise dramatically, it also means prices crash and correct on a frequent basis.

Since Jan. 1, 2021, there have been seven notable price moves on bitcoins daily chart trading against the U.S. dollar. Four of these movements have been to the downside (red boxes) with a mean average loss of 25.94%, while the other three have been to the upside (blue boxes) with a mean average gain of 58.36%.

BTC/USD chart

Knowing which downtrends are corrections and which ones are crashes can help you to better understand the market and how bitcoin traders react to certain fundamental and technical factors. In some events, crashes can foreshadow the arrival of a bear market and a prolonged period of cascading prices, whereas corrections can often be a sign of a healthy uptrend recovering to a support level before retesting a former high.

So the next time you see bitcoin prices dip into the red you should be able to tell if theres a correction taking place or a crash, and whether or not the market is going through a healthy recovery or likely reacting to a sudden announcement.

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Bitcoin Crash vs. Correction: Do You Know the Difference? - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Peter Wolfendale is a philosopher based at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. His interests range from metaethics to artificial intelligence. He was a founding voice in one of the truly original branches of thought that found expression on the internet, left-accelerationism, as well as a pioneering figure in the blogosphere. Suffice it to say, if its on the cutting edge, Wolfendale has thoughts about it.

CoinDesk reached out to Wolfendale for an interview about Bitcoin to ask why its a tool for emancipation, how it reproduces existing forms of prejudice and what it might mean for the future of capitalism.Here is what he had to say:

How does your interest in philosophy intersect with Bitcoin?

For the better part of the last decade, my work has been driven by the idea that philosophy of mind and philosophy of artificial intelligence are essentially the same thing: To understand what it would be to create systems that are generally intelligent and practically autonomous in the way we are is essentially to understand what we are ourselves.

This intellectual journey convinced me that philosophy of computer science isnt a niche subfield, but a lens through which the others need to be understood. Not only are individual human beings already computational, but so are the social, political and economic systems that weve built for and out of ourselves.

Its impossible not to be awed by the ambition of the cryptocurrency community: to reinvent money for the age of planetary-scale, distributed computation. Its also impossible to deny that its made a lot of concrete progress in a short space of time. But my job is to see if theyre guided by the right abstract questions about money and similar social institutions, and to tentatively suggest some better ones.

What are the most exciting things happening in crypto?

Some people are excited by crypto as a source of ROI (return on investment). Others are excited by it as a way of designing and implementing new sorts of social organization. These arent mutually exclusive, and a lot of people are motivated by both. But theres an understandable tendency to overestimate how compatible they are, and the resulting hype can push the ecosystem in questionable directions.

The obvious example here is NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are really interesting from a technological perspective, but are caught up in exactly the wrong sort of excitement. Theyre a direct demonstration that scarcity is a precarious substitute for use-value. The really exciting things are better ways to handle anonymity, decentralization and coordination. From a feature perspective, that means the spread of zero-knowledge proofs, systems optimized for dapps and multi-chain interoperability, and mature proof-of-stake protocols with on-chain governance.

Youve said in the past that bitcoin is more or less recreating existing monetary phenomena from banks to bank fraud. Is there a way to develop an alternative monetary framework that doesnt repeat errors or make things worse?

People often say that money does three jobs: a medium of exchange, a store of value and a unit of account. Bitcoin started out as a decentralized medium of exchange, but its not really very good at that. Instead, its become popular as a store of value: not so much digital gold coins as a distributed Fort Knox.

This is predicated on the belief that at some point itll become stable enough relative to other assets to function as a unit of account. The problem here is that its less about bitcoin being good at this job, than a self-fulfilling prophecy driven by network effects.

Money also quantifies privilege. It gives you access to a certain share of the output of the whole system of production, a share you earn by having a stake in that system. These arent the only sorts of privileges that can be quantified. If you acquire shares in a company, you dont just get dividends, you get votes.

In liberal, democratic states, political control and economic activity are nominally separate, but your stake in the system as a whole gets you a non-transferable token you can spend in elections to rebalance its overhead (e.g., taxes and spending). A major reason this model is decaying is that monetary sovereignty is less and less able to manage this balance.

How and why are matters of extreme controversy. But its clear to me that any improved social contract, liberal or post-liberal, will need to rethink the relationship between currency, geography and accounting. Precious metals, printing presses and TBTF (too big to fail) banks arent going to cut it.

Youve said scarcity is a blunt instrument with which to build financial infrastructure. Considering the current macroeconomic landscape of easy money and low rates, what is the alternative?

The scarcity we should be interested in isnt in the money supply, but in the output of the economy: the goods and services we consume. Are we more interested in conserving our share of this output than in the quantity, quality and sustainability of that output as a whole?

The banking ecosystem is responsible for securing value in the physical and social infrastructure that lets us live our lives. Its pretty obvious to many of us that its no longer doing this job well. Its progressively geared towards creating opportunities for rent extraction and minimizing risk for protected classes of investors. Theres no real trust in these institutions, even if weve no choice but to rely on them.

Money is power and power has a nasty tendency to ratchet itself

If DeFi (decentralized finance) wants to be better, it needs to do more than guarantee our share of the pie will remain stable as the pie slowly rots over time.

Theres not one simple trick for doing this. But here are two lines of thought riffing on existing organizational forms:

Tokens are more versatile than legacy units of account, and we should use them to build more decentralized and transparent successors to the fractional reserve model.

Is bitcoin actually a tool for reducing inequality?

Not as far as I can see. Any currency system which is optimized to fight inflation and act as a store of value is going to preserve and heighten inequalities in the long run. And this is before we talk about relative energy costs and related environmental externalities.

At the end of the day, money is power, and power has a nasty tendency to ratchet itself unless its checked in some way. Decentralization isnt a sufficient check all on its own.

Youve been critical of some aspects of the bitcoin worldview, which requires a high degree of individual responsibility. This is perhaps best exemplified by the phrase be your own bank. What are the issues of switching responsibility for personal wealth from banks to individuals, or of trust minimization across the web?

The problem is that most people cant be their own banks. One aspect of this is technical competence, which can be mitigated by better software and cultural change. The other is physical protection and insurance. Though cryptography and software verification can seriously narrow down the range of possible attack vectors on your assets, they cant eliminate them entirely. Anonymity helps, but only so much. Were social creatures, after all.

The old adage that crypto is a playground for market-oriented libertarians has been challenged by the recent bout of conservative corporations (like insurers) and Wall Street giants buying up bitcoin. How will this trend play out? Will there be room for cypherpunks in 10 years?

Honestly, its hard to say. But the two types of excitement I talked about earlier are going to increasingly pull apart, and this is going to feed into a much wider debate about cypher-politics. Current arguments are split between three camps: 1) the market is good, and big business can be trusted with your data (cypher-capitalists); 2) big business cant be trusted with your data, but big government can be (cypher-liberals and cypher-tankies); and 3) neither of them can be trusted with your data, and its up to you to find the tools needed to protect your own privacy (cypherpunks).

I think what may be missing is a model of government that, rather than protecting your privacy by monopolizing your data, protects your privacy by providing the tools and infrastructure for you to do so yourself (cypher-socialism). For example, keeping track of your own purchasing history and media selections and running recommendation algorithms yourself, rather than depending on Amazon or Spotify.

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Why Care About Bitcoin? Here's One Philosopher's Take - CoinDesk

At CNBCs Stock Draft, an annual stock-picking competition, bitcoin was the number one pick. Tim Seymour, the founder of Seymour Asset Management, believes that the government will come out with regulations that support bitcoin. He is confident that the cryptocurrency will take him to the top this year.

CNBCs 2021 Stock Draft, an annual stock-picking competition, began last week. There are 10 contestants or teams of different professions. Each team makes 2 picks from a list of 60 stocks and other investments.

The teams are led by asset manager Tim Seymour of Seymour Asset Management, professional poker player Maria Ho, Olympic swimmer Ryan Murphy, Shark Tanks Kevin OLeary (aka Mr. Wonderful), and The Stock Guy Jason Frank. Also competing are mentalist Oz Pearlman, supermodel Petra Nemcova, Tiktok star Josh Richards, professional basketball player for the Miami Heat Andre Iguodala, and Chief Investment Strategist and Portfolio Manager at Hightower Stephanie Link.

The founder and chief investment officer of Seymour Asset Management, Tim Seymour, won a drawing to make the first pick for the competition this year. The last time he got to make the first pick was in 2019 when he picked General Electric.

As an experienced investor in the cannabis space who manages Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF (CNBS), Seymour was expected to pick a cannabis stock first. However, he chose bitcoin as his top pick this year, stating:

It wasnt easy. Theres no Trevor Lawrence out there [but] Im happy to say no cannabis. Im taking the bitcoin talents to South Beach. Thats right. Number one pick: bitcoin.

The winner of the Stock Draft competition will be the one whose stocks have the highest average price appreciation between the closing price on April 29 and the close on Feb. 11, 2022.

Regarding the bitcoin chart, which some say looks troubling at least in the near term, Seymour replied, Im not worried about the near term and weve seen multiple pullbacks in bitcoin. While admitting that he would have loved to have bought BTC at $20K ago, he said, the sense for me is that we are starting to see much broader institutional adoption.

Seymour further opined:

I expect a policy to follow through that is going to be very supportive of bitcoin Bitcoin is going to take me to the top.

Seymours second pick was Tilray, a global leader in cannabis research, cultivation, processing, and distribution. Kevin OLeary, another bitcoin proponent who has 3% of his portfolio in the cryptocurrency, picked Alphabet and Palantir.

Do you think bitcoin will outperform other investments and help Seymour win this years Stock Draft competition? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, CNBC

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 Is Number One Pick Asset Manager Confident BTC Will Take Him 'to the Top' in Stock Draft Competition Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Bitcoins Taproot update has finally begun its Speedy Trial.

Todays difficulty adjustment kicks off the first phase of activation for the upgrade, Bitcoins biggest in years which (among many things) will make Bitcoin multi-signature transactions cheaper, more private and easier to deploy.

Starting today, miners who wish to adopt the upgrade can signal their support by including special data in the blocks they mine called a signal bit. If 90% of the blocks mined during this difficulty period include the Taproot signal bit (or any of the other roughly two week difficulty periods that occur between now and the August 11 timeout), then the upgrade is locked in for activation in November of this year.

Unlike a centralized network that can be changed unilaterally, a decentralized network like Bitcoin requires coordination from a global userbase to make substantial changes to its code, and it also requires intensive coordination among stakeholders to deploy these changes (as evidenced by the months-to-year-long discussions, not on the uncontroversial upgrade, but on how to bring it online).

Taproot when?

So if everything goes as planned, Taproot will be live on Bitcoins blockchain before the holiday season. If the network doesnt achieve the 90% threshold before the timeout, then the upgrade fails and we are back to the drawing board.

This isnt likely, though. Miners have already pledged their support for Taproot, so its really a matter of when, rather than if, said Poolin VP Alejandro del la Torre, who ran the original mining pool survey to gauge Taproot support among the mining community

I am confident it will happen, he told CoinDesk, adding that up to now, there has not been one complaint from our miners at Poolin about our wish to upgrade to Taproot.

Suredbits and Bitcoin Core developer Ben Carman told CoinDesk that the network will pass [the signaling threshold] most likely in the second difficulty period.

Previous soft forks, besides SegWit, all activated near the very beginning of their activation window, and that was all with needing 95% of miners now we only need 90%, he said.

Not as surefire but still voicing similar sentiments, prolific Bitcoin developer Matt Corrallo said he is cautiously optimistic.

Anyone wishing to track the percentage of Taproot-signalled blocks per period can visit Taproot.watch.

Fork in the road

A release candidate for Bitcoin Core 0.21.1, which contains Speedy Trials activation logic, is now available on GitHub.

Two weeks before this software release for Bitcoin Core (the client that runs ~98% of the Bitcoin network), Bitcoin developer Bitcoin Mechanic released an alternative Taproot activation client in concert with others like renowned yet controversial Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr.

This version is compatible with Bitcoin Core up to a point; if miners signal, then Taproot activates network wide no issue, but if miners dont, this alternative client includes a flag day for mandatory activation in October of 2022.

This user activated soft fork (UASF) scenario allows node operators to reject blocks from miners who dont signal for Taproot to essentially force the upgrade.

Bitcoin stakeholders couldnt come to consensus on whether or not to include a UASF in Bitcoin Cores activation, hence the months of debate. Critics argued that theres no need for such extensive deliberation, given that miners have shown no opposition to Taproot, unlike the way they did with SegWit (a 2016/17 upgrade which required the threat of a user activated soft fork to bring to fruition).

People are shadow boxing casper right now lol, Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun said at the time, suggesting the calls for a UASF come from PTSD from the SegWit saga.

Proponents of the UASF say that its necessary to reinforce the precedent that node operators ultimately decide upgrades, not miners. (Miners may run nodes and provide an necessary utility for the network, but shouldnt have outsized sway, the argument goes.)

Judging by the data and sentiment we have now, though, it probably wont have to come to a UASF, but well know for sure come August.

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Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade Has Started Its Speedy Trial - CoinDesk

The Department of Justice said it has arrested a Russian-Swedish national who allegedly operated a long-running cryptocurrency laundering site. According to a news release from the DOJ, Roman Sterlingov ran Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency tumbler or mixer which hides a cryptocurrencys source by mixing it with other funds.

Bitcoin Fog gained notoriety as a go-to money laundering service for criminals seeking to hide their illicit proceeds from law enforcement, according to the DOJ. The department says over the course of 10 years, Bitcoin Fog moved more than 1.2 million bitcoin, valued at the time of the transactions at around $335 million.

Bitcoin Fog has received a fair amount of coverage from cryptocurrency blogs and news sites since its inception, with some recommending it as the best option for hiding the origin of bitcoin. The blockchain keeps track of bitcoin transactions, making services like Bitcoin Fog key for those looking to do business on the black market.

The bulk of this cryptocurrency came from darknet marketplaces and was tied to illegal narcotics, computer fraud and abuse activities, and identity theft, the DOJ said.

According to the IRS, the largest senders of bitcoin through Bitcoin Fog were darknet markets, such as Agora, Silk Road 2.0, Silk Road, Evolution, and AlphaBay, that primarily trafficked in illegal narcotics and other illegal goods.

The IRS said it appeared from Bitcoin Fog transaction activity that Sterlingov took commissions of as much as $8 million on the bitcoin he helped clients launder. The current value of the Bitcoin Fog cluster the large database of transactions is about $70 million, the IRS said.

Sterlingov is charged with money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and money transmission without a license in the District of Columbia.

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Feds arrest founder of bitcoin mixer they say laundered $335 million over ten years - The Verge

Rule III: Do Not Hide Inflation in the Fog

A reimagination of Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson through the lens of Bitcoin.

This writing mirrors the exact chronological structure of Beyond Order, offering reflection through a Bitcoin lens. This is part 3 of a 12-part series. If you read the book, it adds a second dimension. All quotes credited to Jordan Peterson. All reflections inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Do not pretend you are happy with something if you are not, and if a reasonable solution might, in principle, be negotiated. Have the damn fight.

Governments assume the guise of the savior handing out trillions in stimulus money. When prices rise, they deny. Dont pretend to be happy with your countrys monetary policy if you are not. The wealthy who already own assets get richer, the middle-class savers lose purchasing power, and the lower class watch the little they have vanish. The government is not here to save you. All currencies are being debased. Central banks are in a race to the bottom. The United States is printing with such intensity the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) discontinued updates to its M1 Money Stock and M2 Money Stock charts. This censorship hides the unwanted in the fog.

Bitcoin gives the ordinary worker a fighting chance. Check out John Vallis podcast on Decentralized Grazing. His guests, UntappedGrowth and BitcoinAndCows, apply the Bitcoin ethos, restoring Americas soil bank, earning self-sovereignty and sidestepping fiat debt. His model forms a mutually beneficial trinity between investors, ranchers and landowners, who serve their own interests but create exponentially more fruit together through the wisdom of low time preference collaboration. That clears the fog. It puts the farmers and ranchers back to being caretakers of the soil instead of strip miners. This allows them to become stewards again because they are providing for themselves not just today but for tomorrow. Landowners by healing the land, herd owners by preserving the heritage cattle, and ranchers by doing the work. All together as one. Its easier to aim at a brighter future when you step outside the fiat fog.

Have the damn fight, because you may not be able to take advantage of monetary debasement but monetary debasement is taking advantage of you. Adopt a Bitcoin state of mind and learn how to negotiate a better solution for yourself.

Life is what repeats, and it is worth getting what repeats right.

We are creatures of habit and routine. We use currency throughout our days. Its worth getting the money right. When a better option presents itself with a low barrier to entry, it is your burden to bear if you do not seize that opportunity. An easy on-ramp is with the Fold App, a bitcoin rewards program for your fiat spending. Change your reward system: change your life without changing your day-to-day.

It is difficult to win an argument, or even begin one, if you have not carefully articulated what you want (or do not) and need (or do not).

Bitcoin exists in many layers of resolution. Figuring out where to start can be confusing. My breakthrough came from reading The Internet of Money series by Andreas Antonopoulos. It is a quick read that covers both the problem and the solution at a high level. Lay this foundation and you will be able to carefully articulate what you want and do not want.

However, it is the easiest of matters, particularly in the short term, to ignore the prick of conscience and let the small defeats slide, day after day. This is not a good strategy.

We all accept unfavorable status quos, including our money. In 2008, we were all taken aback when the government announced plans to print billions to stabilize markets. In 2020, billions became trillions. These stimulus plans are sold as short-term solutions conveniently omitting the detrimental long-term consequences. Like the fable of the boiling frog, we are being slowly boiled alive. No-coiners hypocritically claim the intellectual high ground. They complain about the unjust disparity caused by our monetary system and simultaneously plead ignorance to their participation as the accomplice looking for their handout. This short-term relief is not a good long-term strategy. It is desperate high time preference thinking. Recalibrate your lifestyle toward low time preference and youll be on your path to prosperity.

People generally believe that actively doing something bad (that is a sin of commission) is, on average, worse than passively not doing something good (that is the sin of omission).

We all witnessed Wall Street commit crimes of commission against the r/wallstreetbets community over GameStop. It is bad enough that our money is being debased but GameStop adds insult to injury. When institutions collude in broad daylight, it inalienably exposes the asymmetrical game we all play just to stay ahead of inflation. Wall Street has created wealth for Boomers for decades, but their past success leaves them vulnerable to normalcy bias. Whats worked in the past no longer applies when something larger than Wall Street comes along. That thing is bitcoin. Bitcoiners have long memories and time continues to vindicate us. The internet never forgets and the writing is on the wall, continue ignoring bitcoin and trusting the bankers on Wall Street at your own peril. Heres a snapshot of how it started and how its going.

Dancing on graves is, admittedly, unsportsmanlike conduct and a Bitcoin pastime. It is in poor taste, but I sympathize with the fact that Bitcoiners have endured years of ridicule by everyone. What can I say besides this is that we are all victims of our pride. Buy bitcoin if you prefer dancing on graves to becoming a cautionary tale. Refusal to add bitcoin to your portfolio to protect your pride (or staying on the sidelines because you take issue with Bitcoiners dancing on graves) is a lie of omission where you are both the actor and the victim.

you are afraid that if you specify what you want precisely you will simultaneously discover (and all too clearly) what constitutes failure; you are afraid that failure is the most likely outcome; and, finally, you are afraid that if you define failure and then fail, you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was you that failed, and that is was your fault.

Kobe Bryant dominated because he knew our generation is soft like Charmin. Society is littered with leaders who actively minimize skin in the game while attempting to maximize gains. Weve exchanged human courage for computed risk adjustment. Bitcoin is a terrifying proposition to those individuals who have built careers on shirking responsibility while still capturing upside. In Bitcoin, you are the backstop. Bitcoin has no FDIC insurance. Bitcoins have infamously been lost forever. Mistakes tend to be terminal. Bitcoin ownership is similar to gun ownership. Its a serious commitment and the consequence of failure falls squarely on your shoulders. That level of full responsibility removes weak hands or calluses them natural selection. As the Bitcoin adage goes, Not your keys, not your bitcoin. Buy a hardware wallet. Learn to use multisig service like Unchained Capital and reduce the finality of mistakes take on the burden of responsibility and clear the fog.

The fog that hides is the refusal to notice to attend to emotions and motivational states as they arise, and the refusal to communicate them both to yourself and to the people who are close to you.

All investors misread markets leading to missed opportunities. The worst investors insist on staying on the sidelines after new information is revealed. Weve all doubled down on a bad position to appease our pride. Are you certain bitcoin is a scam? Or are you certain your financial woes can be overcome by doubling down on fiat currency? Put your cards on the table and be honest with yourself.

Best to find out what is true best to disperse the fog and find out if the sharp objects you feared were lurking there are real or fantastical. And there is always the danger that some of them are real. But it is better to see them than to keep them occluded by the fog, because you can at least sometimes avoid the danger that you are willing to see.

There is no end to Bitcoin FUD. Mainstream media has celebrated Bitcoin obituaries since Bitcoins birth. To know the truth requires searching through the fog first hand. That is the best way to turn confusion into clarity. Part of clearing the fog surrounding bitcoin is knowing that owning bitcoin can be dangerous but not owning bitcoin can be deadly. Disperse the fog so you know if bitcoin can work to your advantage.

We want to know what happened but, more importantly, we want to know why. Why is wisdom. Why enables us to avoid making the same mistake again and again, and if we are fortunate helps us repeat our successes.

Its good to know what purpose bitcoin serves, better to know how it works, and best to know why bitcoin matters. Why takes you to the level of architecture. The architect recognizes invisible patterns and has the ability to modify intelligently without jeopardizing collapse. An -80% downturn is sufficient to shake out most who simply know what bitcoin is as well as how it works. Knowing why bitcoin matters is the only path to unshakeable conviction capable of HODLing through an -80% downturn. Bitcoin maximalists who understand why it matters hold for reasons beyond price. Fiat currencies are a blueprint for obsolescence. Bitcoin is a blueprint for predictable success: Plan Bs Stock to Flow model predictably traces halving cycles. Bitcoin creates positive feedback loops.

Do not hide inflation in the fog.

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

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Bitcoin Illuminates Inflation In The Fog - Bitcoin Magazine

The Tesla logo is seen at its store in New York on March 24. The automaker posted record earnings on Monday, thanks in part to a profit from its sale of Bitcoin. (Photo by John Smith/VIEWpress) VIEW press/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

The Tesla logo is seen at its store in New York on March 24. The automaker posted record earnings on Monday, thanks in part to a profit from its sale of Bitcoin. (Photo by John Smith/VIEWpress)

Electric automaker Tesla reported record earnings this quarter, with a substantial boost from its cryptocurrency speculation.

The company announced $438 million in net income for the quarter, with a $101 million "positive impact" on profits from selling Bitcoin, according to its quarterly earnings report.

The company put $1.5 billion into the volatile cryptocurrency earlier this year, then sold about ten percent of its holdings to realize that profit, the company said.

"Elon and I were looking for a place to store cash that wasn't being immediately used, trying to get some level of return on this, but also preserve liquidity," Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla's chief financial officer and "master of coin" said on the earnings call.

Kirkhorn also cited the extremely low rate of return that conventional cash-like investments are offering at the moment.

"Bitcoin seemed at the time, and so far has proven to be, a good decision a good place to place some of our cash that's not immediately being used," he said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk later said on Twitter that the sale was "essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet," rather than to take advantage of appreciation in the cryptocurrency's value.

Tesla is also accepting cryptocurrency as payment for its vehicles. Some critics have noted that the environmental impact of Bitcoin, which is very energy-intensive, is at odds with with the eco-friendliness of an electric vehicle.

Tesla also reported record production figures for the quarter, despite struggling with the same supply chain issues other automakers are grappling with.

As usual, the company also brought in significant revenue as a result of initiatives designed to boost electric vehicles. When other automakers don't produce enough zero-emissions vehicles to meet government requirements, they pay Tesla for "regulatory credits" that allow them to count Tesla's battery-powered vehicles against their own quotas.

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Tesla Reports Record Earnings, With More Than A Bit Of Help From Bitcoin - NPR

A chief economist at UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, sees a number of problems with bitcoin. In attempting to answer the question of whether the cryptocurrency defies the zeitgeist, he claims that bitcoin is denied to those minority groups who have reduced online access.

Paul Donovan, Chief Economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, published a weekly update entitled Does Bitcoin defy the Zeitgeist? on the UBS website Friday outlining a number of issues he sees with the cryptocurrency. UBS is the largest bank in Switzerland.

There is something weird about Bitcoin. Bitcoin seems to specifically defy the spirit of the age, in a way other cryptos do not, he began, adding:

Some suggest bitcoin is a safe haven from runaway inflation. But controlling supply does not guarantee value Bitcoin has a history of extreme price fluctuation.

We cannot keep living on environmental credit and must become increasingly sustainable, he continued, claiming that Bitcoin is increasingly destructive to the environment the more that is created and used, the worse the environmental damage.

Furthermore, he asserted: There is a global focus on reducing inequality. Bitcoin has extraordinarily unequal ownership. Holdings are concentrated amongst a tiny number of people, and its governance is more plutocratic than democratic. The economist additionally claimed:

Politicians and economists increasingly value inclusion, yet bitcoin is denied to those minority groups who have reduced online access.

As for the zeitgeist, he concluded that The modern trend that Bitcoin embraces is the power of narrative. Story telling matters hugely to Bitcoins evolution. Otherwise, Bitcoin seems opposed to the modern zeitgeist.

Many bitcoiners took to social media to counter Donovans argument. Bitcoin proponent Max Keiser tweeted: UBS doesnt understand the meaning of Zeitgeist. Faced with an existential threat from Bitcoin as the real popular zeitgeist moves against them Paul Donovan blabs boomer claptrap to the banks geriatric constituency hoping to stave off extinction. It wont work. Another Twitter user concurred: Im not sure you understand what the word zeitgeist means else youd be saying that Bitcoin is an integral part of it.

Regarding Donovans claim of bitcoins reduced access for minority groups, many people pointed out the hypocrisy. A different Twitter user commented:

Yeah sure, a UBS bank account is more available to these poor minority groups than a free bitcoin wallet on a cheap Android phone.

Another emphasized several flaws in Donovans claims, including that UBS requires a balance of 10,000 Swiss Franks to have an open account. I think people in crypto and bitcoin would agree this is a barrier for the people you claim to support.

In January, Donovan wrote that cryptocurrency has a fundamental flaw and that bitcoins fixed supply could cause the collapse of its value and spending power.

What do you think about Paul Donovans view on bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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UBS Chief Economist Says 'Bitcoin Is Denied to Minority Groups Who Have Reduced Online Access' News Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Ether (ETH) has ascended to the apex of cryptocurrency in the last couple of weeks, taking the top spot from bitcoin (BTC).

As of this writing,ether has grown 40.23%so far since April 1 to a new all-time high of $2,700. In the same period, bitcoin has experienced adrop off of 7.39%from $58,772 on April 1 to $54,428, this morning.

JPMorgan points out the difference between ether and bitcoin as it pertains to this study. Bitcoin is much more a commodity than a currency at this juncture, competing with gold as a store of value. On the flipside, ethereum is the backbone of the cryptocurrency economy and serves as an exchange medium. JPMorgan commented:

To the extent owning a share of this [ethers] potential activity is more valuable, the theory goes, ether should outperform bitcoin over the long run.

They go on to say, As a consequence, a higher proportion of ether tokens behave as if highly liquid than bitcoin, 11% versus 4% by some estimates over the past month. In a market with significantly higher spot turnover, it is plausible that the underlying base of long exposure is less reliant on leverage in the form of futures and swaps.

In response to this grand divide between the two cryptocurrencies this month, JPMorgan has released their thoughts on why this occurred and provided three main reasons for the shift.

Last week, the cryptocurrency industry was hit hard by aliquidity shockthat originated in the derivatives market, according to JPMorgan. All were affected but, bitcoin was hit harder than most and much harder than ethereum. Ethers resistance to these events is pegged as reason number one for ethers ability to hang on while bitcoin slipped.

This liquidity shockoriginated in the derivatives market, leading to sizable liquidations. The effect was arguable greater in bitcoin futures, where liquidations of net longs since that event total 23% of the ex-ante open interest; that said ether is not behind with 17% of net long liquidations over the same period, JPMorgan states.

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While on-screen liquidity on BTC markets continues to improve on traditional asset classes, the risk reportedly remains high. As with many other global markets, the majority of liquidity comes from traders who are high-frequency-style. These types tend to run for the hills when volatility spikes and can cause these shocks to reverberate across the industry.

The second reason that JPMorgan points out is ethers lack of reliance on derivatives markets to transfer, or warehouse, risk.

In a market with significantly higher spot turnover, it is plausible that the underlying base of long exposure [in ether] is less reliant on leverage in the form of futures and swaps [than bitcoin].

The third and final major reason for the discrepancy in BTC and ETH right now is ether has a more durable underlying demand base.

The ethereum network has long been characterized by a higher pace of transactions on the public blockchain than does bitcoin, likely due in no small part to increased activity on DeFi and other platforms, JPMorgan points out.

Based on this, JPMorgan believes that a disproportionate amount of ether tokens act as highly liquid than bitcoin. Some estimates put the number at 11% (ETH) and 4% (BTC).

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Ether Should Outperform Bitcoin Over the Long Run, Says JPMorgan - Yahoo Finance