Category Archives: Bitcoin

Whales are held responsible for sudden price fluctuations in the crypto and traditional markets every so often. Given their capability to manipulate market prices, it becomes paramount for the general Bitcoin (BTC) investors to understand the nuances that make one a whale and their overall impact on trading.

Wallet addresses that contain large amounts of BTC are identified as Bitcoin whales. Dumping or transferring large amounts of BTC from one wallet to another negatively impacts the prices, resulting in losses for the smaller traders. As a result, tracking Bitcoin whales in real-time allows small-time traders to make profitable trades amid a fluctuating market.

Despite Bitcoin's global and decentralized nature, tracking down and monitoring whales simply boils down to accessing readily available trading data from crypto exchanges and services. There are four primary ways to track whale activities, which include monitoring known whale addresses, order books, sudden changes in market capitalization and trades on crypto exchanges.

Monitoring known whales provide a headstart to smaller investors as the likeliness of coming across a whale trade increases significantly. Moreover, keeping track of market changes via order books and trades on crypto exchanges indicates incoming whale trades, which can be leveraged to profit during volatility.

The crypto community also uses free services that inform investors about successful whale trades, often including information about the senders and receivers wallets and the amount. One of the most popular services for automatically tracking whale trades is @whale_alert on Twitter, which issues alerts related to large transactions as shown above.

Related: Bitcoin whales still 'hibernating' as BTC price nears $21K

In a recent market update, Cointelegraph revealed that on-chain data suggested that the largest Bitcoin hodlers were reluctant to act at current prices. BlockTrends analyst Caue Oliveira supported the above finding by highlighting a "hibernation" continuing among whale wallet. He added:

Moreover, numerous altcoins continue to mimic Bitcoins bearish trends as whales await a greener sentiment across the crypto market.

Go here to read the rest:
What is Bitcoin whale watching and how to track Bitcoin whales? - Cointelegraph

The first time Jackie Sawicky learned that a Bitcoin mining operation was coming to Corsicana, a rural Texas city 60 miles south of Dallas, was on April 27, when she happened upon a Facebook video of a meeting at the local public library. The featured speaker was Chad Everett Harris, the upbeat executive vice president of Riot Blockchain, a Bitcoin mining company based in Castle Rock, Colorado. Bald and comfortably plump, Harris wore a suit jacket and open-collared shirt over blue jeans and delivered his message with the verve of a motivational speaker.

Were coming to Corsicana to build the largest [Bitcoin mining facility] in the world, Harris announced, describing the four-building, 400,000 square-foot complex that will occupy 265 acres with number-crunching machines. We turn energy into opportunity.

READ MORE: Landmark bill to limit energy-intensive cryptomining passes New York Legislature

Riot already operates the largest Bitcoin mine in the country in Rockdale, Texas. When someone in the audience asked Harris what drew him to Corsicana, the seat of Navarro County (pronounced Nah-verr-o in local parlance), he answered without hesitation. The Navarro Switch! he said, referring to part of the 192-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line that moves power from West Texas to eastern parts of the state, where demand is high. And water, he added. You can pay a lot to bring power somewhere. But you cant get water.

He literally told us, Sawicky says, that he was coming to exploit our resources.

To some people, Bitcoin the most valuable and well-known of the 10,000 or so currently circulating cryptocurrencies is nothing more than a pyramid scheme; to others, it represents the future of money: decentralized, unregulated, and tracked on a virtual ledger in the digital cloud that everyone can inspect, known as a blockchain. But its production consumes dizzying quantities of electricity. In May of 2022, the worlds sum total of Bitcoin mining operations had an annual energy budget nearly equal to the entire country of Argentina, or the Czech Republic, or, according to Cambridge Universitys Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, all the tea kettles in England boiling water for 26 years.

In warmer climates, cryptocurrency-mining by the Bitcoin method, known as proof of work, typically needs water to cool those machines running fast and hot as they play the Bitcoin lottery (Riot says it will use a new technology in Corsicana that reduces water use). Proof-of-work mining is essentially a high-stakes guessing game: Computers spend all day throwing out random 64-digit numbers until one matches the right number, as determined by Bitcoins consensus-managed protocol. On the worldwide network of Bitcoin servers, you have 200 quintillion guesses every second of the day nonstop, explains Alex de Vries, a researcher at the School of Business and Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. And even despite that, only one machine gets it right every 10 minutes.

The correct answer gets logged on Bitcoins blockchain, and the winner gets a reward: 6.2 Bitcoins. Thats not as much money as it used to be: In the coins current slump, each coin nets about $20,000, down from a high in November 2021 of just under $68,000.

Due to its high demand for electricity, proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining has not been welcomed in every corner of the world. Miners seek cheap energy to maximize their profits, but their energy-intensive activities typically drive electricity costs up for everyone. Even when mining plants run on renewable energy, critics say, they often exploit existing clean energy resources at the expense of ordinary consumers, who are then forced to buy more expensive, and often dirtier, power.

FILE IMAGE: A bank of cryptocurrency miners operates at the Scrubgrass Plant in Kennerdale, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 8, 2022. Alan Freed/Reuters

In Bonner, Montana, a small city in Missoula County, the Bitcoin company HyperBlock set up in 2016 and almost immediately began cutting into the communitys supply of hydropower from the Salish-Kootenai Dam; County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier called the plants energy use grotesque and equal to as much as one-third of the countys household demand. HyperBlock went bankrupt when Bitcoin plummeted at the start of the COVID pandemic. The county subsequently enacted a first-of-its-kind zoning ordinance requiring, among other things, that cryptominers supply their own, new renewable energy sources.

A similar scenario has played out in upstate New York. The region initially drew cryptominers with its abundant supply of cheap hydropower electricity from the 2.6 gigawatt Niagara Power Project. In 2017, when the Bitcoin company Coinmint set up in the vacant space behind the Family Dollar Store in Plattsburgh, a city of less than 20,000 residents, electricity costs were one-third of the national average. Bitcoin miners had registered as industrial consumers, says Colin Read, a professor of economics and finance at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, who was also Plattsburghs mayor at the time. And our industrial rate was less than 2 cents per kilowatt hour, which might be the lowest in the world.

But Plattsburgh, which manages its own municipal utility, also has a monthly quota for electricity use. If the city exceeds that quota, it has to go looking elsewhere for electricity, forcing everyones utility bills up. In the winter of 2018, residents who heated their homes with electricity saw costs rise 30 to 40 percent, according to Read.

Plattsburgh quickly imposed a moratorium on new crypto-mining operations while city officials figured out how to make it more efficient. We imposed a regulation that says Bitcoin miners have to recycle a share of their heat, Read says. After that, they simply werent interested in coming here anymore. They always migrate to the places with the least regulation.

Bitcoin mining has faced similar challenges in other countries. China, despite once being the worlds largest supplier of the application-specific integrated chips used in crypto-mining, declared all virtual currency activities illegal in the fall of 2021, in part because the mining produces high carbon emissions. (The countrys central bank also wants to develop its own digital coin.) Icelands national power company, Landsvirkjun, which once attracted cryptocurrency miners with its climate-friendly geothermal energy, began denying power to new miners in late 2021. Even Iran, where the oversight-free nature of peer-to-peer currency had enabled entrepreneurs to dodge international sanctions, found crypto-mining so burdened its grid that the government was forced to ban it first for four months beginning in May 2021, then again the following December, as heating demands strained its electricity supply.

Neither energy consumption nor water nor Bitcoins volatility have deterred the elected leaders of Texas, who have welcomed the industry with effervescent enthusiasm. Blockchain is a booming business Texas needs to be involved in, Governor Greg Abbott tweeted last summer after signing into law a bill recognizing cryptocurrency in the states commercial code. (Texas was the second state to do so, after Wyoming.) And the miners have come, reveling in the states wide-open spaces, where the rattling fans that cool their hard-working rigs can operate without disturbing the neighbors, and abundant cheap energy keeps overhead low. Whereas once China hosted 75 percent of the crypto-mining business, now the United States is home to 40 percent of the activity, and one-quarter of it happens in Texas.

Three days after Harriss announcement at the Corsicana library, Jackie Sawicky founded Concerned Citizens of Navarro County to marshal opposition to Riot Blockhains plans for Corsicana. More than 600 people have signed a petition to stop the mine, and the group has more than 500 members on its Facebook page, where Sawicky and others post news stories about their states grid and water woes.

READ MORE: From the stock market to crypto, a punishing six months for investors

Were going to be paying increased electricity bills to upgrade ERCOTs grid to accommodate these places, she says, referring to Texass independent system operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The grid notoriously slumped under the strain of winter storm Uri in 2021, cutting power to more than 4 million homes and businesses, many of which relied on electricity to heat their buildings. Hundreds of people died from extreme cold exposure or the failure of medical equipment.

Harris has insisted in news stories that mining only uses excess power when demand is light; when the grid is overloaded, ERCOT issues them credits for shutting down, which miners can do within minutes. In that way, he says, Riots participation in demand response can actually stabilize ERCOTs unsettled and isolated grid.

Thats at least partially true, says de Vries, the Dutch researcher. But the companys participation in demand response isnt exactly altruistic. Riot Blockchains filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, he points out, state plainly that the company will pay a mere 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour for its electricity, a full 10 to 11 cents less than the going residential rate. That figure represents our contractual cost of power, confirms Trystine Payfer, spokesperson for Riot Blockchain, minus the credits the company earns for participating in the utilitys demand-response program. That program is a sweet deal: It means that, when electricity supply is tight and Riot voluntarily shuts down, the company earns credits for power. If electricity prices shoot up to $9 per kilowatt hour, as they did during 2021s winter storm, it might be more profitable to unplug from the grid than to keep mining Bitcoin.

Our utility provider does not actually pay us the credited amount each month, Payfer stresses, rather, we have the right to apply the credits toward future [bills].

Nevertheless, de Vries argues, its hard to see how that wont drive prices up for everyone. The utility still has to buy the power, he notes, and the credits it issues under the demand-response program come from the same pool of money other customers fund when they pay their bills.

We have a saying here in Texas, Sawicky says. Dont piss on my boots and tell me its raining. And thats pretty much whats going on.

Not every community has fought Bitcoin mining the way Sawickys group has. Riot Blockchains Rockdale facility, initially built on 100 formerly forested acres near the former Alcoa aluminum plant, has by most accounts been a boon to the community, which had long been a company town revolving around the now-shuttered factory. We rebuilt the animal shelter, Harris said at the Corsicana launch meeting. When I learned kids didnt have lights in their parks, we put lights in the ball fields. For a year, we rented an entire hotel. Bitdeer, another Bitcoin mining company, set up shop nearby and bought emergency ventilator equipment for Rockdales volunteer firefighters.

But Corsicana, Sawicky argues, is different. People came to Navarro County for farming and ranching and open space. We have wildlife. We have two pair of nesting bald eagles and tons of migrating birds. I worry about all of them.

Mostly she worries about electricity prices. Electricity prices in Texas are already up 70 percent over what they were a year ago. We have a 15 percent poverty rate in Navarro County, Sawicky notes. We cant pay more for electricity than we already do.

FILE IMAGE: A geothermal energy plant in Ahuachapan, El Salvador, where the Salvadoran president has expanded that infrastructure to begin bitcoin mining projects. Image taken June 16, 2021. Photo by Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Some ambitious Bitcoin miners have tried to eliminate their pressure on utilities by buying up their own fossil-fuel plants to power their mining activities. The coal-fired Greenidge power plant in New Yorks Finger Lakes region, decommissioned in 2010 and revived seven years later as a gas-fired plant, in 2021 became a gas-powered Bitcoin mine; 120 miles west, in North Tonawanda, Canadian cryptominer Digihost intends to inhabit a still-operational gas-fired power plant using the plants power to mine its coin.

But more such projects in New York State could be in peril if Governor Kathy Hochul signs a pending bill instituting a two-year moratorium on new fossil-fueled proof-of-work crypto-mining in the state. The bill, passed by New York legislators on June 3, is designed to give the state time to evaluate how the technology fits within the states 2019 climate law, which commits New York to 100 percent zero-emissions electricity by 2040. The state law would be the first in the country restricting cryptocurrency mining.

Read doesnt think the bill does enough. Even if Bitcoin miners arent using hydrocarbons, he says, theyre displacing renewable energy that would be used for other purposes. And theres no easy way to measure that. Bitcoin, he says, will continue to increase the use of fossil-gas-fired power in the state, regardless of whether miners use clean energy or not. Nor has Governor Hochul committed to signing the legislation. Both she and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has asked her to consider a veto, have received significant donations from the crypto industry.

There are ways to reduce the energy use and, consequently, the climate impact of cryptocurrency mining. Some energy companies have developed plans to capture fugitive methane from oil and gas drilling and divert it to electricity plants dedicated to Bitcoin mining. Crusoe Energy has already begun such operations in North Dakota and Colorado and plans to expand to Texas and New Mexico. Another company, the Casper, Wyoming-based JAI Energy was specifically founded to take advantage of waste gas to mine Bitcoin. The process could theoretically be a net win for the climate, as methane from the oil fields is typically ether flared or vented, releasing fast-acting planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.

An even better alternative, Read says, is to trade proof-of-work mining for another process, known as proof of stake. It doesnt use exorbitant amounts of energy, because it doesnt involve gazillions of computers taking 200 quintillion stabs per second at a random number. Instead of trying to win the lottery in 10 minutes, he explains, you put down a large deposit proving you have a stake in the outcome. You ensure you dont corrupt the system when you verify an entry on the cryptocurrencys blockchain. If you fail to verify properly, you lose your investment.

Proof-of-stake means you can have everything in crypto without having all these environmental problems, Read says. Several currencies, such as Cardano and Peercoin, use proof-of-stake exclusively; Ethereum, the second most-valuable coin next to Bitcoin, is in the process of transitioning to proof-of-stake.

In fact, almost all cryptocurrency currencies are mined with proof-of-stake right now, Read says. We just dont hear about it so much because Bitcoin represents 99 percent of all capitalization in cryptocurrency. There may come a day when you get auto and home loans on a smartphone with decentralized, digital currency. But that currency probably wont be energy-devouring proof-of-work Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, Read says, is cryptocurrencys Model T.

This article is reproduced with permission from Yale Environment 360. It was first published on June 21, 2022. Find the original story here.

More here:
Bitcoin requires an immense amount of energy. Heres why thats sparking a crypto backlash - PBS NewsHour

While the crypto and stock markets both remain bearish, Bitcoins correlation with stocks is close to its lowest point this year. The 40-day correlation between the largest cryptocurrency and the Nasdaq 100 index is now below 0.50, according to Bloomberg data.

Bitcoin is trading for $20,712 at the time of writing, a 2.5% increase in the past 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap. In contrast, U.S. stocks were hit hard on Thursday as investors worry about the Federal Reserve continuing to hike interest rates. And it isnt just the tech-heavy Nasdaq: global equities markets also took a beating on Thursdayalong with oilas more investors move towards holding onto their greenbacks.

Correlation with the Nasdaq is measured on a -1 to 1 scale: -1 means the prices always move in opposite directions; 1 means they move together. Today, Bitcoin is at its lowest correlation with the Nasdaq since early January.

This is a very different story from as recently as April, when its 30-day correlation with the Nasdaq was at its highest level in over a year.

The correlation is still positive, which means that Bitcoin and tech stocks still move in similar directions. But if the correlation continues to weaken, it might be taken as a sign crypto has seen the bottom and is ready to rebound.

For most of the pandemic, Bitcoin has moved in the same direction as stocks. Right now it is down nearly 70% from its all-time high last November near $69,000. This is largely because crypto is seen as a risky asset by many big investors, and we are in a risk-off environment as sky-high inflation hits virtually every country on the planet. Political uncertainty with Russias war in Ukraine and supply chain chaos from China make a recession seemingly imminent.

Since 2020, Bitcoin had been going more mainstream than ever as major companies like MicroStrategy and Tesla added it to their balance sheets and even previous Wall Street skeptics changed their tune, leading Bitcoin to perform like a tech stock. Until it crashed in May.

Could the crypto rebound be in full swing?

Get the biggest crypto news stories + weekly roundups and more!

View post:
Bitcoin Up, Stocks Down as BTC Correlation to Nasdaq Weakens - Decrypt

This is an opinion editorial by Andrea Bianconi, a research assistant at the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which is a public policy think tank.

An analysis of the fundamentals, recent geopolitical and macroeconomic events and their impact on Bitcoins future.

In the last few months, financial markets have lost over 30% from their highs as the Federal Reserve Board took away the punchbowl from the intoxicated market players by hiking interest rates, and now recession (stagflation) seemingly looms.

The yen and the euro are inflating like developing countries currencies.

Inflation and commodities explode higher.

The spark for WWIII has been lit in Ukraine unbeknownst to the ignorant and brainwashed masses who think that this is just a local conflict and that peace can be reached in spite of Western nations selling unlimited quantities of weapons into the war and pouring billions of "freshly printed" U.S. dollars and euro debt into the conflict, adding fuel to the fire.

Then we have the suicidal sanctions, which are destroying the economies of the Western sanctioning countries rather than the sanctioned Russia.

After all, it is clear to anyone with a functioning brain that 10 years of sanctions have made Russia totally decoupled and immune from Western economical warfare.

And finally, the icing on the cake, bitcoin has died for the 459th time in its short 12-year history.

As I have expected and warned about in this February 2021 article, the growing financialization of the industry could become an existential threat for Bitcoin. Wall Street has brought its usual playbook excessive debt and leverage to their darling DeFi cryptocurrency sector drawing a crowd of suckers and shitcoiners who were allowed to leverage their bitcoin equity 100x or more to speculate on altcoins like LUNA. The leveraging and deleveraging process is well described in this ZeroHedge article here. All this is good until, sooner or later, reality hits. Shitcoins are invariably revealed for what they ultimately are, usually scams, and the only real asset posted as collateral (bitcoin) is then sold to cover the losses. Then the deleveraging causes a cascading liquidation of collateralized bitcoins. The suckers are wiped out and the smart money buys back the bitcoin on the cheap.

While one of the biggest purposes of Bitcoin is to be your own bank, DeFi rather aims at recreating the fiat fractional banking system with all its risks and hazards. This Bitcoin Magazine article correctly points out: Crypto lending shops such as Celsius are fractional reserve banks in principle; however this time there is no lender of last resort in the form of a central bank to bail out the founders and their clients when things turn sour.

Lets make one thing clear: a yield always has to come from somewhere. To generate a positive yield on a scarce asset such as bitcoin, the institution offering said yield has to leverage the clients deposits in various ways. And whereas banks face strong regulatory requirements as to what they can do with the customer deposits (such as buy treasuries, facilitate mortgage loans etc.), cryptocurrency lending companies face no such regulatory requirements, so they basically go and put their customers deposits into casinos of various kinds DeFi yield farming, staking, speculating on obscure altcoins."

While this wash-and-rinse cycle is nothing new for seasoned Bitcoiners and one can reasonably argue that it is needed to clean up the market from excesses I feel that there is one new, worrying and more obscure side to it this time.

As I wrote in this series of articles Part 1 here and Part 2 here, Bitcoin represents the wrench thrown in the engine of the globalist agenda: global money, global government and consequent global enslavement. As there is no practical way to stop Bitcoin adoption (since it is a fully decentralized, immutable, uncensorable peer-to-peer settlement asset and parallel payment system with cash-like finality), the only way is to try to demonize it. This is done using the usual FUD and mainstream media scare tactic campaigns and arguably more effectively by causing its price to drop substantially thanks to smartly engineered attacks on highly leveraged shitcoins where bitcoin is used as collateral.

The Terra/LUNA collapse is an example. We do not know for sure whose fiat fake money was behind the attack. Both Blackrock and Citadel among the most influential Davos players in advancing the globalist agenda were rumored to have played a key role in the attack, however they officially denied involvement. The thought remains, though, in order to borrow 100,000 bitcoin worth approximately $3 billion to pull off the attack you must be a big player or at least have someone with big pockets to back you up. It will be almost impossible to learn where the money came from.

Until the current fiat-based system which grants to the few close enough to the spigots of fake money the great privilege to fight wars, colonize and enslave others at no cost collapses, then the massive amount of fiat-based debt created ex nihilo will be always used by the privileged few to expropriate real assets like gold or bitcoin. This is the main reason why one should keep direct custody of his/her bitcoin and not play the corrupted fiat game with DeFi and shitcoins.

Alternative cryptocurrencies and DeFi in the end are nothing but the latest casino playground for Wall Street. The problems are well-known: excessive leverage, derivatives, derivatives of derivatives in an endless chain of liabilities, contagion and spiraling insolvencies when things turn sour. Theres one big difference though: in cryptocurrency and DeFi there is no Fed to bail risk-takers out. Unfortunately bitcoin is the only solid cryptocurrency asset with no counterparty risk which can be used as collateral in the sector. Therefore bitcoin will always be subject to extreme volatility in case of insolvencies in the sector. This is not the first time nor the last it will happen.

Ultimately, DeFis artificial yield game will play against ones bitcoin stash. Every bitcoin which is left in third-party custody or rather pledged as collateral, will be used against its ultimate owner. It will be lent out or collateralized in a spiraling game of leverage with shitcoins and un-stablecoins. When prices go down this triggers margin calls and the liquidation of the only real asset pledged as collateral in a cascading effect of ever-increasing margin calls and liquidations to cover the losses. In the end one will lose both the speculative altcoin position and the collateralized bitcoins. By using the structural weaknesses of fragile protocols like Terra/LUNA, smart players can trigger margin calls and liquidations thereby gaining both from shorting the shitcoin, betting safely against bitcoin on the futures market (they are causing the price drop so it is a safe bet) and then closing the positions by buying the suckers bitcoin on the cheap. They can further double the bet by going long on the futures market as well. An easy and safe bet given enough firepower. And traditional finance has plenty of firepower thanks to the leveraged debt-based fiat system. Unless of course, Bitcoiners finally wake up and stop playing in DeFis casino and stop collateralizing their bitcoin.

Truth is, like most of bitcoins pullbacks before, this one too has very little to do with Bitcoin itself.

The protocol is stronger than ever. The following charts will give you an idea of the exponential growth of the network.

Figure 1 Hash Rate

The growth of the Lightning Network which is a real proxy for Bitcoins adoption mainly in the East and global South has been impressive. Here is the chart:

Figure 2 Lightning

Lightning can handle 1 million transactions per second, while Visa handles 24,000 per second. The network has been increasing its capacity and is currently handling approximately 4,000 BTC on public channels.

Kraken, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has now added Lightning to its standard payment options and it has released an intelligence report showing very interesting data on Lightning growth and adoption.

According to the Kraken Report "Lightning usage has been on a steep upwards trajectory since late 2020, growing parabolically in September 2021 corresponding with the introduction of BTC as legal tender in El Salvador. Still, public metrics do not describe the full extent of Lightning adoption because of the number of users in the Lightning ecosystem utilizing private channels."

Figure 3 Lightning Nodes

Regarding the Lightning nodesgrowth (Figure 2), Kraken states "Furthermore, the growth in the sheer number of Lightning nodes indicates that the network is beginning to see many new participants. Nodes saw continuous growth from 2018 to late August 2020, rising from 54 to 6,134. However, node growth has since gone parabolic, rising over 176% to 16,940 nodes at the time of writing. Lightning node growth has proliferated so fast that there are now roughly 1,000 more Lightning nodes than Bitcoin nodes. Should adoption continue to grow at this rate, the Lightning network could realize BTCs potential as a medium of exchange asset an essential feature for global money that was previously a bottleneck for BTC going mainstream."

Among developing countries El Salvador has been leading the path towards Bitcoin adoption. While I have been and remain critical of the risky strategy adopted by the country, I grant that President Bukele has taken a revolutionary step, and a historical one for a nation-state. Therefore, El Salvadors success remains fundamental for Bitcoins future adoption among developing countries. So far El Salvadors results are encouraging.

In this interview President Bukele states that a large portion of the previously unbanked population may now financially transact with bitcoin. President Bukele stated, If it works, why would any other country not want to do the same thing? Imagine a country like El Salvador, which had 75% of people unbanked. Imagine in a year from now, that's down to 10%. We have been trying for, I don't know, 30 years to bank our people, and it has been impossible, because they don't trust the banks, because the banks don't want to give service to them, because the services are too expensive, whatever.

More importantly though, Salvadoran citizens will save over $400 million per year in fees from direct remittances from expatriates abroad. This is over 2.5% of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP). This was a major factor in making the decision to adopt Bitcoin. And this number can only increase since the cost of remittances through intermediaries which currently stands between 5% to over 20% will go down to practically zero. So if you are a Salvadoran expatriate and you currently try to limit remittances, you pool them in the largest possible transactions to reduce the impact of the fees. If you now have substantially zero fees using bitcoin via the Lightning channel then you could remit even a small amount whenever you have the chance.

No doubt many developing countries are looking at El Salvadors experience and are preparing to follow in its steps.

Sound money has ruled human monetary history while an unconstrained fiat money standard has been the peculiar case of only the last 50 years. While the topic of sound money and fiat money in monetary history is not the purpose of this article, I still need to make an important point.

Money has been primarily a technological issue. Technology has always dictated the transition from a less technological form of money to a superior one. Think about the transition from primitive forms of money to gold and silver thanks to the invention of coinage and the standardization of weight in ancient Greece (for a good history of money read Dr. Saifedean Ammous "The Bitcoin Standard"). The fundamental reason why gold was abandoned as money was because it could not be moved through space and time at the same speed of information and commerce as new technologies appeared. Historically, the banking sector was born to arbitrage the opportunity created by technological developments by initially substituting golds cumbersome circulation with convenient to use paper IOUs fully backed by gold reserves held at the bank. The next step was to move to a fractional reserve system partially backed by gold and, once enough trust was built into the fractional fiat system, the fractional reserve asset was completely abandoned to conveniently install an unbacked fiat currency system based solely on paper claims, which gifted the elites with the riches and privileges granted by the Cantillon effect: a five=decade sleight of hand which is coming, one way or another, to an end.

So it was technological progress and the laws of physics which rendered gold obsolete and impractical as a bearer asset for financial/business transactions in modern times. Gold could only serve as a reserve asset. This was the true reason for its demise as a bearer settlement asset first and for its full demonetization later.

Bitcoins revolutionary technology completely changes that paradigm.

Nowadays there is no opportunity to arbitrage time and space in financial transactions by offering soft/unsound money solely because it moves faster than hard money. Bitcoin fills that gap.

Not only can nowadays bitcoin travel faster than fiat money, but it also has the additional advantages as a bearer settlement asset to have cash-like immediate finality, more security, total immutability and absolute scarcity

Bingo.

Therefore, as far as technology is concerned, Bitcoin is a superior form of money compared to anything humanity has ever experienced so far. 12 years after its creation still nothing compares to Bitcoin, full stop.

While it remains impossible to forecast what the course of its adoption and its monetization process will be in the future because that will depend on too many variables Bitcoin is there for everyone to use, to experiment with and there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle.

All the FUD thrown at Bitcoin has been entirely debunked in its 12 year history. However there is always something new coming up. Regardless of the reasons behind it, this is after all a worthwhile exercise since it enables the community to focus on critical aspects, analyze them and propose solutions. If the critics are reasonably motivated the effect can only be positive. The latest addition to the FUD narrative has been Bitcoins energy use. The topic is not new and it has been very effectively and rationally discussed on many occasions. The Bitcoin Mining Council, in particular, has done a great job in responding to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys misperceptions about Bitcoin mining. Here you can find the Councils response letter to the EPA.

In addition, a number of competent authors have done a great job in analyzing the real aspects of Bitcoins energy use and its complexities. Among them Nic Carter is certainly one of the most prolific and competent. Here you can find all his interesting articles on the topic. The critics, even if largely instrumental in the demonization of Bitcoin, had the positive effect of fostering a change in mining operations towards the use of residual energy sources which would be lost in any case or would negatively impact the environment like gas flaring/venting in oil fields or using landfill methane and the stabilization of energy grids in critical instances. Very important developments which the MSM has totally disregarded, obviously.

Therefore, going forward despite the debunking and the rapid progress of Bitcoins alternative mining one should only expect that the pressure applied using the energy consumption FUD narrative will continue to increase in the future.

The reason is that climate change has been erected by the World Economic Forums Davos 2022 conference as their foundational narrative to justify all sorts of restrictions on human activity. From praising the virtues of the destructive for both the economies and the health of human beings COVID-19 lockdowns to the U.N. praising the virtues of famine, to the banning of Bitcoin mining or unhosted wallets. Therefore the fight against this new type of FUD will be much more difficult. Simply debunking their arguments with real data, statistics and counter arguments will have little impact against the massive firepower at their disposal in terms of money and the support this money buys from the corrupted mainstream media.

But in the medium-long term the green energy transition narrative forced by Davos 2022 will ultimately play in favor of Bitcoin.

Energy markets expert Dr. Anas F. Alhajji points out in this interesting MacroVoices interview that a major global energy crisis is inevitable. That crisis is essentially created by our political leaders policy, which is forcing away key investments in the oil and gas sector before the alternative replacement had realistically been phased in.

Simply put, only an insane person will stop investing in a fundamental resource which keeps the whole economy and societal life running until a reliable replacement has been found. Unless of course the consequent massive energy crisis and the double-digit inflation which will be arising from that insane policy is exactly what they want and what they need. Indeed, in addition to benefiting from directing hundreds of billions of freshly printed fiat currencies into the pockets of their own ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) players, "what they want and what they need" is to fulfill a complex agenda whose ultimate and true objective is NOT the "green transition" but the transition to a new monetary system to save their old privileges: a monetary reset.

That is a key point to be noted.

What is going on does not happen by chance. Nor it is simply the result of the politicians incompetence. My belief is that it is a deliberate policy choice, and the agenda includes (i) inflating the excessive debt away, (ii) the unavoidable (high) inflation of the national currencies will be used as the excuse to transition into a new monetary system based on CBDCs. Western populations - while impoverished and annihilated by monetary inflation - will be easily made dependent on governmental subsidies, and they will easily accept free digital currencies in their wallets to survive at the expense of their freedoms; and (iii) this will consequently achieve the final objective of installing a global government, a global money and the global enslavement of populations.

Adding to this point, macroeconomic advisor Luke Gromen, points out in this MacroVoices interview: The ECB can never raise rates high enough to reduce energy input inflation without blowing up the debt, when they're cutting back their energy inputs from the Russians. And so, what's the response you get? Well, you see it in the U.K., we're gonna start handing out 400 pounds to everybody because energy costs have gone up, are you insane? They are literally setting up an energy hyperinflation death spiral with their currencies, which, if I'm looking at it from a very Machiavellian point of view, there's I think probably certain interests in Washington that would love to see that happen. Watch the Eurozone implode and get those German surpluses recycled back into buying Treasurys instead of financing, you know, Southern European deficits.

As I write, the euro is down to parity against the dollar and is breaking below parity against the Swiss franc levels not seen since exactly 20 years ago in 2002.

So if it is inflation that they want on one side of the ocean, Luke Gromen adds that it is not different on the other side of it: The balance sheet of the United States is our leading indicator, and it tells you that we are going to get inflation for a long time to come. And just by way of context, the 8% CPI inflation we saw in 2021. It took our deficit from 129% of GDP to 122% of GDP. You have to have inflation run higher than your interest coupon for an extended period of time. So we need double-digit inflation for probably five years.

Summing up, an artificially created global energy crisis is in the making and double-digit inflation is very likely to persist for a very long time because in the end this is what Western governments need to destroy their excessive debt.

To further make the point there is also a concurrent artificially created global food crisis in the making which despite the West blaming of Russia clearly has nothing to do with the war. This food crisis has been set up by a few global players who have cornered the food commodities market. Again, those few players are also part of the Davos elite and owned by the usual suspects who profit from their oligopolistic market position. A handful of global funds which basically own all the global companies: Blackrock, State Street, Vanguard, Bill Gates Foundations, George Soros, etc.

Regardless of the causes though, the highly inflationary macroeconomic background which is shaping up will be net positive for Bitcoin for two reasons:

(i) while Davos-sponsored ESG and green energy transition projects will fail miserably simply because there is currently not yet a viable timely alternative to fossil fuels and this will soon force governments to either go back to more polluting alternatives like coal (already happening in the green EU) or simply collapse Bitcoin miners are extremely flexible to respond to market signs and incentives. If oil and gas prices go through the roof then they will switch to untapped renewable sources, since you can mine bitcoin in the middle of the desert with solar panels well away from energy grids.

(ii) The response by governments to the energy crisis will be to print more money to hand out subsidies to the impoverished citizens. This creates a highly inflationary environment which is bullish for Bitcoin, the ultimate scarce asset.

The Western indiscriminate sanctions on Russia with the unlawful and arbitrary expropriation of Russian assets, both private and state-owned together with the weaponization of the dollar and its payment rails (SWIFT), have shown to the global South and the East of the world that the Western democracies are a joke and their monetary system is terminally ill. They may be looking for alternatives to transact business without using the dollar and its payment rails. The entire world has learned from Russias hard lesson what each Bitcoiner learns first the equivalent of not your keys not your bitcoin. U.S. Treasurys are not a safe asset to own if you do not conform to the issuers diktats. Nor is it safe to hold reserves in the dollar or euro currencies or entrust gold reserves with a Western central bank. All can be seized and expropriated on a whim. This is the lesson that all the independent (or willing to be) countries in the world have learned from recent events. And the lessons wont be forgotten anytime soon.

So, while the West has committed economic and monetary suicide, the rational bet can only be bullish bitcoin, regardless of its short-term volatility caused by the deleveraging in the cryptocurrency space.

Why the West collectively commits economic suicide though is a much more complex question to answer. While this is commonly blamed on the Western politicians incompetence (which is also a factor), the truthful explanation lies with the role that the Davos globalist elite plays in directing those politicians who have been co-opted within their powerful network. The Davos elite are the puppeteers and the Western politicians are their puppets.

For anyone familiar with how the lobbying system and the revolving doors work in advancing ones interest and agendas at political level, it should not take a lot of imagination to figure out what Davos-supported politicians would do to advance the agenda of their sponsors.

Among their ranks it is not only the Davos WEF which plays a key influential role in nurturing and shaping the young global leaders of the future, but also parallel, complex and interlocking networks like the Bilderberg Meetings, the Trilateral Commission, the Atlantic Council, the Fabian Society or the Soros Open Society.

Make no mistake, those sponsored politicians are not idiots (well some are ). They are very well paid actors and they are fulfilling their role splendidly. They are executors and they have to implement an agenda. The puppeteers and their puppets know what they are doing.

By expropriating Russias assets and by weaponizing the dollar they have killed the dollar, the U.S. Treasurys and the euro as reserve currencies and safe assets. This suicidal move of the U.S. administration cannot be explained if not with the prevalence within the U.S. government of non-American interest. Indeed, rather than American interest, the latest moves are beneficial to a global government and global money at the expense of the reserve status of the U.S. dollar.

Basically, both the U.S. administration and the EU, do not represent their citizens anymore rather, they represent the gang of Davos. Independent geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo shares the same view: that the American president, as a proxy for the oligarchs in Davos, is acting on their behalf to ultimately weaken the U.S.

All this, aims to create the crisis needed to transition to a new monetary system based on a supranational/global money which could well be the special drawing rights (SDR) reserve asset of the International Monetary Fund. Under that global money a new set of national digital currencies (in the form of CBDCs) could be used to guarantee their globalist puppet governments the very same old privileges which they enjoyed so far in an unconstrained fiat system: unlimited power to create digital fiat money and control how this is spent. Their vassals would continue to profit from the Cantillon effect at the expense of society and continue to expropriate real valuable assets in exchange for fiat digital worthless currencies. Wealth inequality will continue to increase.

Global enslavement could ensue for the ignorant masses globally.

Everything changes and nothing changes.

With some luck though, their plan now has two fierce adversaries. The first one they have themselves created and it is the unexpected and unwelcome result of their geopolitical crazy games. The other one has been there since 2009 but only more recently came into their crosshairs.

Russia and China, together with the rest of the global South and the East, have been forced in an inextricable alliance for survival and independence from the West. They have had enough and have stopped playing a game made by someone else with someone elses rules. The short-lived American unipolar global order born in 1989 after the fall of communism ends now, and a new multipolar order is born. Again, this new multipolar order and the consequent deglobalization, should be a thriving environment for Bitcoin, the embodiment of decentralization. Since gold and bitcoin are the only existing assets with no counterparty risk they might even play a role in the coming monetary reset. They might be part of the basket of currencies and/or commodities chosen to back up the SDR or whatever else is chosen. In this article I have postulated the reasons why a monetary reset might mean $18,000 gold and $650,000 bitcoin.

More likely though governments will not use bitcoin but only gold in a monetary reset. After all this is the real asset that the biggest central banks own. Bitcoin then will become the preferred reserve asset for all non-sovereign institutions and also small developing nations which have little gold reserves. In this scenario, the Bitcoin standard will be likely adopted by the legacy financial sector, commercial banks (which can use bitcoin as a reserve asset to offer a new wave of commercial free banking services), corporations and individuals. Basically, the world might be using two monetary systems mutually integrated: an upper tier - for governments and central banks - running with SDR as the global world currency fractionally backed up by gold reserves; and a lower tier for small sovereigns, banks and individuals running on national fiat currencies and bitcoin as a reserve asset, frictionless moving between fiat currencies for expenditures and bitcoin for savings. This would be the ideal solution."

At least this is what I hope. Anything short of that will mean a dark future for humanity.

Despite the recent price pullback, Bitcoins fundamentals and its investment case are stronger than ever. Never before has the protocol been more secure. It continues to grow and adoption is on the rise especially in developing countries, where Bitcoin represents a lifesaver for millions of people. As we have seen, even the most recent geopolitical events paint a bullish case for Bitcoin. That background though is fluid, complex and with so many variables, it is impossible to forecast what the outcomes will be.

The war in the heart of Europe, the high risk of an escalation outside of Ukraines borders, the high inflation and a global crisis building up in the energy, commodities and food sectors and the Western currencies inflating after years of monetary madness to fund consumerism and asset bubbles rather than productive investment: All this should in my opinion compellingly direct investors towards the ONLY asset which acts as protection against such complex and worrisome background thanks to its unique features. Bitcoin achieves absolute scarcity, true decentralization, censorship resistance, immutability, the highest protocol security, unlimited portability, relative anonymity and unique cash-like finality to settle peer-to-peer transactions in a parallel financial system. But this is the first time in history that we are at such a complex juncture with Bitcoin so we will have to see what happens next.

Then we have the Davos variable.

The powerful financial elite and the new tech oligarchs own also the largest mainstream media channels and publications and basically all the leading global corporations in an intricate web of money, power and vested interest which is unprecedented in recent modern history. For years they have also funded, formed, nurtured, sponsored and shaped the minds of their career bureaucrats and political puppets and have installed them in key posts to take care of their interests. As they are pulling the strings to fight those non-aligned governments - which thrive for independence and do not want to bow to their new global order in the geopolitical arena - you should also expect that they will fight Bitcoin tooth and nail, since Bitcoin is THE tool which enables true independence, self-sovereignty and decentralization.

It is a fight between two powerful forces. The one pushes towards an authoritarian globalist regime based on the central banks control of new digital money, the abuse of surveillance tech and the control of big data. The other is a fully decentralized asymmetrical technology which empowers the majority of the people over elitist central entities thanks to the unique combination of cryptography, encryption, difficulty adjustment and POW (proof-of-work - this is why POW is needed and the whole debate about POW and proof-of-stake for Bitcoin is preposterous).

It is a battle between a top-down authoritarian power and a bottom-up tech market-based revolution which can bring about the very much needed separation of State and money.

One is the dark Middle Ages, the other is the early American dream and the Western frontier free spirit.

Someone said that being decentralized does not mean being disorganized. I agree. It is probably high time for Bitcoiners to come together in an organization similar to the Bitcoin Mining Council, at least to study the scenarios and the background that I have mentioned in this article and somehow elaborate some countertactics. At least debating over such topics will also bring ideas.

Count me in.

As for the rest, Bitcoin remains the wrench thrown in the evil globalist engine. It will no doubt continue to do its work against evil and for the free world provided we let it do what it has been programmed to do.

Being a Bitcoiner means always holding your keys, having a low time preference and

investing for the future to be a free man.

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

Read the original:
Bitcoin Is Down, But Its Case Has Never Been More Compelling - Bitcoin Magazine

In just 13 years, Bitcoin (BTC 1.64%) went from trading for just a few pennies to nearly $69,000 at the peak. Even though the world's original cryptocurrency is only worth about $21,000 today, many are optimistic that Bitcoin will rebound.

These hopeful price predictions use varying methods and different reasoning for their estimates. For this evaluation of Bitcoin's future price, we will focus on the patterns between halving events and use the year 2024 as the deadline, since that is when the next Bitcoin halving should occur.

Halving events are what helps make Bitcoin so unique. Bitcoin's code is programmed to ensure that the growth in supply falls with time. Since Bitcoin's code is open source, we can do a little math and find out that Bitcoin's block reward is cut in half every 210,000 blocks -- or roughly every four years.

The halving events serve as an easy marker to track the progression of Bitcoin's price. Bitcoin analysts refer to the time between each halving as a cycle.

Bitcoin's first halving was in November 2012 and dropped the block reward from 50 Bitcoins to 25. The second was in the summer of 2016. And the most recent was in May 2020, resulting in the reward being cut from 12.5 to 6.25 Bitcoins.

When looking at the data between halvings, a few things become evident. First, the price at each halving is roughly 55% less than the all-time high from the previous cycle.

Before Bitcoin's first halving, the price topped out near $34 in June 2011. By the time of the November 2012 halving, Bitcoin was worth just about $12 -- a drop of just over 60%. At the 2016 halving, Bitcoin was worth around $650. This was about a 45% decrease from Bitcoin's previous all-time high of around $1,200 in November 2013.

A similar situation occurred at the halving in May 2020. Back then, Bitcoin was worth about $8,800 -- nearly 65% less than the December 2017 all-time high. When averaging those decreases, we discover that on average, Bitcoin's price is about 55% less than the previous all-time high when the halving occurs.

The next halving is set to take place about May 2024. Simple math can help us arrive at a possible price that Bitcoin will reach by then. In the current cycle Bitcoin peaked at almost $69,000 in November 2021 -- based on past behavior, Bitcoin's price should be about 55% less than that. This implies a price of about $30,000 if past patterns continue at the time of the next halving.

Another insight we can gather from data is that the amount Bitcoin increases in between each halving diminishes from the previous cycle.

Bitcoin was trading at about $11 at the time of the first halving in November 2012. It then peaked in December 2013 to about $1,100 -- an increase of almost 10,000%. From the next halving in July 2016, Bitcoin's price rose from around $650 to a new high in December 2017 of just under $20,000 -- almost a 3,000% gain. From the most recent halving in May 2020, when it was trading for about $9,000 to the all-time high of just under $69,000 in November 2021, Bitcoin increased about 670%.

It becomes further evident that Bitcoin's returns diminish with each halving cycle that passes. But how much will the price increase after the next halving?

On average, Bitcoin returns about 25% less with each new cycle. Subtracting a quarter from the previous 670% return, we arrive at about a 500% increase. A gain of this size from our speculative $30,000 price in May 2024 price would imply a new all-time high of almost $150,000.

We could speculate on Bitcoin's price until the last Bitcoin is mined sometime after 2100. Regardless of what the actual price becomes, there is one clear trend that has held true: Those who hold Bitcoin longer are rewarded with better returns as each halving passes.

Investors who bought Bitcoin after the May 2020 halving likely haven't seen great returns. To maximize potential returns, the data show us that Bitcoin should be held for at least one halving. Although recent weakness in Bitcoin caused every portfolio to take a hit, current prices should be viewed as an opportunity to increase exposure before the next halving in May 2024.

Continued here:
Will Bitcoin Hit $100,000 in 2024? - The Motley Fool

Alex Dovbnya

Tron founder Justin Sun claims that Warren Buffett continues to hold his gifted crypto

Tron founder Justin Sun believes that legendary investor Warren Buffett continues to hold Bitcoin (BTC) and Tron (TRX).

In February 2020, the crypto entrepreneur finally got his $4.5 million charity dinner with the Oracle of Omaha.

Sun gifted Buffett a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 phone loaded with 1 Bitcoin and 1,930,830 TRX tokens, making one of the most influential investors a cryptocurrency holder. Some users noticed that the wallets containing gifted crypto had remained inactive.

However, after the dinner, Buffett told Sun that he gave the phone to the GLIDE Foundation. "I don't own any cryptocurrency. I never will," the Oracle of Omaha said. Hence, it is likely that the billionaire no longer has anything to do with the gifted crypto given that he has a strong distaste for cryptocurrencies.

The Berkshire Hathaway boss, the seventh richest person on the planet with an estimated net worth of $97 billion, is known as one of the harshest cryptocurrency critics.

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger predicted that the largest cryptocurrency would drop to as low as zero while calling Bitcoin evil.

Back in 2018, Buffett described Bitcoin as probably rat poison squared. The comment riled up the cryptocurrency community, making the Oracle of Omaha one of its biggest nemeses.

As reported by U.Today, Buffett dismissed the flagship cryptocurrency all the way back in 2014.

Read the original post:
Tron Boss Says Warren Buffett Still Holds Bitcoin. Is This the Case? - U.Today

A popular analyst is digging into the charts to set price targets for six crypto assets as the markets try to end the week on a bright note.

Pseudonymous crypto trader Altcoin Sherpa tells his 180,100 Twitter followers hes looking at the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA) for Bitcoin (BTC) on four-hour candles to plot out both short-term highs and lows.

The crypto strategist also says that while Bitcoin has managed to establish a near-term range, he does not believe that the bear market bottom is in for BTC.

I think that the top of range makes sense at this point, eyeing $21,600 and $22,000 as of now.

Still doubtful this is the macro bottom but its a very strong tradeable event. Taking profits higher where the 200 EMA four-hour is.

Bitcoin is currently up by 1.5% over the last 24 hours, changing hands for $20,693.

Moving on to leading smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH), Altcoin Sherpa again utilizes the 200-day EMA metric to establish a price fluctuation zone of $1,013 to $1,283 while cautioning that ETH could fall to as low as $850 before the next big rally.

Idea [ETH] goes to the highs/hits resistance at 200 EMA four-hour and then back to the lows.

Could even go as low as $850 before springing higher. NOT the bottom yet though [in my opinion].

Ethereum is up by 2.33% on the day, priced at $1,217.

Regarding enterprise-grade blockchain platform Fantom (FTM), the crypto analyst doesnt have high hopes but thinks FTM could at least reach the mid-point of its current trading range.

I havent looked at this shitcoin in a while. I wouldnt be surprised to see this grind up to the [equilibrium] of the range around $0.32.

Its still super bearish though overall.

At time of writing, Fantom is valued at $0.25.

Next on the analysts radar is Ethereum competitor Solana (SOL). He says hes planning to fully exit his positions if SOL can work its way up to $42.

Im 1/3rd out of this position, took this one and entered at $34.

I think this can make its way to the top of the range at $42, where Ill be mostly all out at that time.

Solana is rallying nicely off its weekly lows in the $32 range and is currently trading at $37.01.

As for cross-chain interoperability protocol Polkadot (DOT), Altcoin Sherpa believes the bottom still isnt in despite DOT pushing steadily downward since April.

I dont think this is accumulation quite yet but this is always really hard to see in real time. Chop around here another few weeks and I could maybe see it being the bottom.

Until then, Im going to assume $5 is coming.

Polkadot is currently changing hands for $6.74.

Last on the traders list is lending and borrowing protocol Aave (AAVE), which he predicts is due for a significant leg down before any rally could take place.

I think that the cluster of EMAs could be a decent entry around the mid-$70s ($75ish) if youre playing the lower timeframes.

It looks bullish on the four-hour but still pretty bearish on the one-day/higher timeframes.

Id probably look to short low-$100s if/when it gets there.

Currently, Aave is down over 4% on the day with a price of $88.85.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/klyaksun

Visit link:
Have Bitcoin and Ethereum Bottomed Out? Top Trader Examines Path Forward for the Two Largest Crypto Assets - The Daily Hodl

Indias finance minister has called on the G20 countries to bring crypto within the Automatic Exchange of Information framework. More than 100 countries have adopted the Common Reporting Standard under the framework.

Indias finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, talked about cryptocurrency Friday during the G20 Ministerial Symposium on Tax and Development in Bali, Indonesia.

Noting that tax transparency is an area where considerable progress has been made with the Automatic Exchange of Information in respect of financial accounts, she described: Our investigations have shown that numerous layers of entities are often set up by tax evaders to conceal their unaccounted assets.

Sitharaman added that although the Automatic Exchange of Information framework provides for financial account information to various jurisdictions, tax evaders, being smart, explore other avenues to shift their unaccounted wealth through investment in non-financial assets. Emphasizing that this area is a point of action for the G20, the finance minister detailed:

While the development of the crypto asset reporting framework is underway, I call upon the G20 to examine the feasibility of an Automatic Exchange of Information in respect of other non-financial assets beyond those covered under the CRS like immovable properties as well.

The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) aims to reduce global tax evasion. The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an information standard for the AEOI. It was developed in response to a G20 request and approved by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Council in July 2014.

The CRS calls on jurisdictions to obtain information from their financial institutions and automatically exchange that information with other jurisdictions on an annual basis, the OECD described.

The Indian finance minister continued: Over 100 countries have committed to exchanging financial account information under the Common Reporting Standards.

However, she pointed out that some jurisdictions have yet to commence exchanges of information under this framework. They will have to be brought in Therein lies one work agenda for G20, Sitharaman stressed. She opined:

I would think it is for the G20 to play the role of a catalyst in encouraging these jurisdictions to become part of the Automatic Exchange of Information and this mechanism because it can strengthen global efforts against offshore tax evasion and avoidance.

Do you think crypto should be included in the Automatic Exchange of Information framework? 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.

View post:
India Calls on G20 to Bring Crypto Within Global 'Automatic Exchange of Information' Framework Regulation Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

As the S&P 500 just had its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970, the cryptocurrency market has also fallen off a cliff. After approaching a total value of nearly $3 trillion last November, the entire market is now worth just $888 billion as of this writing. Amid the bear market, investors are fearing a recession is on the horizon, causing them to sell off risky assets.

The world's most valuable cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC 1.78%), has also cratered. However, I think there's a good chance that it eventually bounces back. Its price (on the afternoon of July 12) was $19,907 down from an all-time high of $68,790, but there's a clear path for it to one day reach $300,000. And that would equate to a monster 15-fold return.

Launched in January 2009, Bitcoin's creation was truly revolutionary. A borderless, peer-to-peer internet-based currency completely upends the traditional monetary and financial system, one that is controlled by governments. While the idea was sound and made sense, Bitcoin's actual adoption in commerce has been unimpressive.

According to Cryptwerk, Bitcoin today is directly accepted as a method of payment at 7,879 different merchants. And although there are a number of different financial services that allow users to spend with Bitcoin, like Coinbase'sVisadebit card and PayPal'sCheckout with Crypto feature, consumers aren't really incentivized to do this.

Why use Bitcoin, an appreciating asset that triggers a tax liability when sold, to pay for things? You're much better off buying and holding this digital asset. Spending fiat, or government-issued currency, on the other hand, is what has worked because it is constantly being inflated by massive stimulative measures. Maybe this situation changes in the future, but right now, I don't see how Bitcoin can become an effective medium of exchange.

Many Bitcoin bulls want the top cryptocurrency to become a true medium of exchange, but in its 13-year history, this use case hasn't caught on. Instead, Bitcoin's most promising use case is that it continues to become more popular as a legitimate store of value, or digital gold.

Despite the recent market drawdown, both individual and institutional investors are increasingly allocating small portions of their portfolios to Bitcoin. Whether it is viewed as an inflation hedge or simply as a way to diversify holdings, I believe that as familiarity and understanding of Bitcoin continue to rise over time, more people will own it.

Compared to gold, Bitcoin has some key advantages. Bitcoin is absolutely finite, as there will ever only be 21 million coins created. The supply of gold, on the other hand, can increase if the price of the precious metal rises enough to justify finding and opening new mines. As mentioned, Bitcoin can be used in transactions, a characteristic gold doesn't have. Furthermore, Bitcoin is divisible and a lot easier to store.

Bitcoin's market cap today of $380 billion is roughly 3% of the $12.5 trillion of gold in the world. Even if Bitcoin one day represents 50% of the gold market, which isn't a huge stretch of the imagination, its market cap would be $6.3 trillion. And the price of one Bitcoin at that point easily eclipses $300,000. I have no clue as to the timeframe of this happening, but it appears to be Bitcoin's most likely path to significant price appreciation.

There is another exciting use case that Bitcoin could positively impact, and that's the market for global remittances. Workers in the U.S. sent $74.6 billion back home to family in other countries, with an average fee of 6% on a $200 transaction. With Bitcoin, the fee is essentially nonexistent. Furthermore, remittances seem to fit perfectly with Bitcoin's narrative of being a borderless global currency.

This is a major possibility of unlocking real economic value. The World Bank estimates that this year, $630 billion will be sent as remittances from economic powerhouse nations to low- and middle-income countries. Six percent of that massive amount equals $37.8 billion, a material sum that can immediately go from paying for fees to having a positive economic impact for those involved.

But as things stand today, Bitcoin's biggest hope is to find a place in a greater number of investment portfolios. And if it can become a reasonable substitute for owning gold, a $300,000 price target is an honest possibility over the long term.

Neil Patel has positions in Bitcoin and Coinbase Global, Inc. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Coinbase Global, Inc., PayPal Holdings, and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read more:
Here's Bitcoin's Only Path to $300,000 - The Motley Fool

While Ethereum (ETH) being down almost 40% against Bitcoin (BTC) may give ETH traders some worries, crypto community members on Twitter shared their takes on the possibility of the smart contract platform eventually surpassing the king of crypto assets.

On Twitter, the Cointelegraph social team asked the crypto community to share their thoughts on whether Ethereum can eventually surpass Bitcoin. From predicting that it would happen in 2030 to a firm no, members of the community offered a variety of answers.

According to Jesus Crypto, theres a possibility of ETH overtaking BTC in 2030. While the Twitter user thinks that it will be very difficult, the upcoming shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) may play a part in having ETH take the throne ten years from now.

Calling Bitcoin a dinosaur, Twitter user WakeNBakeTrades also believes that Ethereum can surpass the top crypto with the help of Polygon's (MATIC) scaling. They tweeted that:

On the other hand, Rahul Singh argued that it will never happen, pointing out that BTC is digital gold while ETH is the second iteration of the internet. Singh noted that there are many differences between the value of digital assets and digital software. Twitter user CyberKingK agreed with the sentiment and tweeted:

Bob Shiby also weighed in on the topic saying that theres plenty of room for both. The Twitter user noted that they would hold out on deciding and wait for further developments in Bitcoin while recognizing that there are a lot of tokens relying on Ethereums uptime.

Related: Ethereum co-founder responds to PoS critics amid upcoming Merge

On Monday1, a decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher said that the change to PoS consensus through the coming Merge will create an economic structure that would allow ETH to overtake BTC. The researcher noted that with the shift, ETH inflation will go down, security will go up and the asset would cement itself as a digital bond.

Read the original post:
Will Ethereum ever surpass Bitcoin? Crypto community answers - Cointelegraph