Category Archives: Bitcoin

A fast-moving Bitcoiner has run through seven of 40 countries on his Bitcoin-powered marathon around the world.

Paco the Runner, also known as Paco de la India, set off on Sept. 17, 2021, paying for his entire running trip thanks to all the Bitcoiners around the world. Hes showing that Bitcoin gives everyone freedom in the way they desire it.

Paco went from living a lie on the fiat standard to traveling the world living off Bitcoin (BTC) only when a dear friend gifted him the book, The Bitcoin Standard. The reading and subsequent conversations with friends about money and the nature of the world led him down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.

He told Cointelegraph that once you see it, you cant unsee it. Hed been orange-pilled:

From that moment onward, Pacos travel plans morphed into a Bitcoin awareness, mass adoption, and showing the kindness of humans campaign. He documents the journey and every Bitcoin transaction via travel vlogs and social media updates.

He is keen to share Bitcoin with people from different walks of life is a blessing. To be able to share the importance of Bitcoin compared to shit coins with everyone is like one of the best works.

So far, he has successfully lived off BTC through the first seven countries of his travels. He only uses cash for public transport. Nonetheless, the Bitcoin-only journey has not gone without a hitch.

While visiting Sri Lanka, he lost his room keys and the hotel owner was upset.

He also recalls the moment he arrived at the Koh Samui in Thailand, an island known for its anti-Bitcoin sentiment. He was scared, as it was a new island, 100 kilometers big. Panic set in as Paco thought to himself, How I am going to live on such a large island with no money?

Fortunately, he started walking the island, and In 200 meters, I saw a sign that said the place accepts Bitcoin. Like, the universe conspired for this to happen.

He also recounted:

The list goes on and on: a banana bread baker in Cambodia, haircuts, burgers, Tuk-tuk, dentists, even a silver coin paid for with BTC.

Its not easy, but Paco recommends that for other aspirational Bitcoin travelers, its best to start small:

In the meantime, Paco will continue his runs around the world, meeting Bitcoiners and pre-coiners while spending sats. He concluded, Every step you take now will shape your future.

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Bitcoin runs the world: Traveling to 40 countries in 400 days with BTC - Cointelegraph

The famous author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has predicted the end of the U.S. dollar. Furthermore, he said that the Russian-Ukraine war has given rise to crypto as a safer haven asset than government fake fiat money.

The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, discussed bitcoin, the Russian-Ukraine war, and the end of the U.S. dollar in a series of tweets Tuesday.

Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries.

Citing that many Russians are using bitcoin as a lifeline after the Russian ruble collapsed, he wrote: Ukraine/Russian war giving rise to crypto as a safer haven than government fake fiat money.

Kiyosaki also tweeted Monday that the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve want inflation to pay off trillions in debt, advising:

[The] best investment may be stocking products you will always use such as toilette paper, trash bags, canned goods, frozen foods, gold, silver, bitcoin.

He explained further in a different tweet about investing in oil. I do not invest in oil companies such as Mobile or Exxon. I invest directly into oil wells. Higher risk for higher returns. Tax breaks fantastic. Two wells came in last week as oil went from $70 to $130. Rich get richer but poor suffer, the famed author wrote.

Last week, Kiyosaki warned that we are in the biggest bubble in world history and that the U.S. government will seize all cryptocurrencies. He predicted that the government will regulate the crypto sector then launch a Fed crypto. Ultimately, Kiyosaki stated that all cryptocurrencies will be seized and folded into the government crypto.

His predictions were heavily criticized on social media, with many people telling him that not all cryptocurrencies can be seized. For example, decentralized cryptos, like bitcoin, cannot be seized within the network and the government will have a tough time going after self-custodied cryptocurrencies.

Kiyosaki also discussed the end of the U.S. dollar Tuesday. He noted that the U.S. hegemony is ending and the U.S. is becoming less of a world power.

As evidence, the Rich Dad Poor Dad author referenced the news of Saudi Arabia considering accepting Chinese yuan instead of U.S. dollars for Chinese oil sales.

Several people have publicly spoken about the U.S. dollar losing its dominance since the war between Russia and Ukraine began, including veteran investor Jim Rogers who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros. What is happening with the U.S. dollar now is the end of the U.S. dollar because an international currency is supposed to be neutral but in Washington, they are now changing the rules, Rogers explained.

What do you think about Robert Kiyosakis predictions? Let us know in the comments section below.

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

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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

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Robert Kiyosaki Predicts End of US Dollar Says War Giving Rise to Crypto as Safer Haven Than Fiat Money Economics Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

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The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted that he's not selling any of his crypto during this time of high inflation.

On Sunday, billionaire Elon Musk tweeted to his 77.9 million Twitter followers during an exchange about the impact of high inflation on various asset classes. Musk announced that he believes cryptos are a good investment and that he will not sell any of his cryptocurrency holdings.

"As a general principle, for those looking for advice from this thread, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high. I still own & won't sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw [for what it's worth]," Musk stated in his tweet.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has publicly shared before that he owns Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Bitcoin. The Tesla enterprise is the second largest non-crypto-exchange corporate owner of Bitcoin in the world with 38,300 Bitcoin on its balance sheet -- second only to MicroStrategy.

While Musk is not a financial analyst, his own practices regarding asset management during rising inflation make sense. All he was saying is that whatever assets you invest in need to produce returns that are greater than inflation, otherwise you're losing money. Given the recent and enduring inflation trend, that's becoming more challenging.

In fact, the Labor Department data released last week show that the primary inflation gauge -- the consumer price index -- was up 7.9% for February, marking the highest level in 40 years and the 10th straight month it was higher than 5%.

The three cryptos that Musk mentioned all produced significantly higher returns than inflation in 2021:

Our top crypto play isnt a token - Heres why

Weve found one company thats positioned itself perfectly as a long-term picks-and-shovels solution for the broader crypto market Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and all the others. In fact, you've probably used this company's technology in the past few days, even if you've never had an account or even heard of the company before. That's how prevalent it's become.

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While this is not financial advice and investors should always do their own research while only investing what they can afford to lose, the richest man on the planet sees crypto as a worthwhile store of value during this period of record-level inflation. He might be onto something.

There are hundreds of platforms around the world that are waiting to give you access to thousands of cryptocurrencies. And to find the one that's right for you, you'll need to decide what features that matter most to you.

To help you get started, our independent experts have sifted through the options to bring you some ofour best cryptocurrency exchanges for 2022. Check out the list here and get started on your crypto journey, today.

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Elon Musk Remains Bullish on Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum - The Motley Fool

Cryptocurrency-related stocks, includingCoinbase Global Inc(NASDAQ:COIN),Marathon Digital Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:MARA) andRiot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT), are trading higher Wednesday amid a rise in the priceof Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).

Several cryptocurrencies are catching bids ahead of Wednesday's Fed decision.Fed officials are expected to raise rates by a quarter of a percentage point in what wouldbe the first rate hike since 2018. Bitcoin isgenerally viewed as an inflation hedge.

Related Link:Crypto World Abuzz With Inflation Talk: Here's What It Means For Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Prices

Coinbaseis the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in the United States. The stock was up 9.97% at $171.53at time of publication.

Marathon Digital is focused on mining digital assets. It owns cryptocurrency mining machines and a data center to mine the digital assets. The stock was up 5.89% at $23.75atpublication time.

Riot Blockchain is focused on building, supporting and operating blockchain technologies. At publication time, the stock was up 6.91% at $15.94.

$BTC, $ETH Price Action:Bitcoin was up 4.35% over a 24-hour period, tradingat $40,731, whileEthereum was up 5.73% at $2,710 at time of publication.

Photo:QuinceCreativefrom Pixabay.

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Why Bitcoin- And Ethereum-Related Stocks Are Trading Higher - Benzinga - Benzinga

Bitcoin miners hold on to a lot of the BTC they mine; they are called the original whales for a reason. Heres what the data says regarding which of the publicly listed mining companies hold the most coins.

Before looking at the numbers, one question arises first. Why do these mining companies hold on to most of the BTC that they mine, instead of selling it?

A big reason behind publicly listed miners maintaining a Bitcoin treasury is that they want their stocks to act as BTC investment vehicles.

Many traditional investors may not have gotten any BTC exposure yet due to a number of factors. For one, they might not be versed with the workings of the crypto world so they may not be comfortable dealing with exchanges and wallets.

However, such investors would be familiar with the stock market so they can look into stocks of Bitcoin mining companies, who keep large BTC treasuries to keep their stocks more correlated with the price of the crypto, and get exposure to the coin that way.

In fact, BTC mining stocks outperformed by two-to-one the coins ROI during the year 2021. So these stocks would have been a better investment than the crypto itself for the period.

Related Reading |Glassnodes New Bitcoin Indicator Reveals Little Accumulation Took Place Recently

Another reason these companies keep treasuries is that mining is capital intensive, and since these firms keep expanding their capacity, they need to maintain a liquid balance sheet.

Since they are Bitcoin bulls, it makes sense for them to keep their reserves in the form of BTC itself, rather than converting to fiat.

Now, coming back to the original topic, here is some data from the latest Arcane Research report about the reserves of the largest public Bitcoin mining companies:

As you can see above, Marathon is number one on the list with its Bitcoin treasury amounting to just under 9k BTC.

Core Scientific follows up in second with about 7.3k BTC. Hut 8 with 6.1k BTC and Riot with 5.7k BTC are 3rd and 4th place, respectively.

Related Reading |Elon Musk Confirms He Still Holds And Wont Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, And Dogecoin

Interestingly, Marathons BTC reserve is the third largest of any public company, behind only MicroStrategy and Tesla.

At the time of writing, Bitcoins price floats around $40.3k, down 4% in the past week. The below chart shows the trend in the price of the coin over the last five days.

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All Mine: Which Bitcoin Miners Hold The Most BTC? | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist

The Bitcoin mining industry is targeting retail miners more than ever before, and the mining market is fundamentally changing to serve this demographic.

Part disruptive trend, part return to tradition, the focus on small-scale mining is an echo of Bitcoins early years when transactions were mined at home (or in offices and dorms) with personal computers. But the ongoing surge in retail and hobbyist mining isnt limited to activity on online forums or social media. Home mining is now more sophisticated than ever, with dozens of companies building products and selling services to onboard more retail customers to mining.

One constant throughout almost every bitcoin market cycle is the introduction of new mining hardware designed for and marketed to home miners. In the past, miners saw Coinmines home mining machine launch in November 2018 and a similar device from Hands Free Bitcoin came to market the same year. Even though the past two years saw significant changes in the mining market including record activity from retail customers the trend of new retail-focused boutique hardware offerings continued.

One piece of new mining hardware that entered the market this cycle was a USB stick device designed and marketed by Los Angeles resident Idan Abada. Currently sold out at about $874 per unit, the customer receives 10 USB sticks and a 10-port USB hub. Abadas website claims that each stick generates 90-plus gigahashes per second (GH/s), giving the device a combined hash rate of nearly 1 terahash (TH). For comparison, an at-home miner would need at least 15 of these devices to match the hash rate of Antminer S9 (140 TH), one of the least-efficient Bitcoin ASIC machines still widely used around the world.

Some simple back-of-the-napkin math suggests earning enough satoshis to cover the initial investment required to buy this device would take well over half a decade. Nonetheless, this small, portable device went viral on TikTok and was featured in articles by CNBC, Business Insider and other mainstream news outlets.

Launched in early 2021, Heatbit a mining machine designed for home use also joined the retail mining hardware market. Marketed with the slogan The electric heater that earns you money, this tall, rectangular device reportedly offers 14 TH with an average noise level of 42 decibels, or nearly half the roughly 80 decibels of sound produced by an Antminer S19. But the extra noise from Bitmains Antminer is caused by generating between 95 TH and 110 TH, well over six times Heatbits hash rate.

It's important to note that while theres nothing wrong with building or marketing specialized home mining equipment like Abadas USB pad or Heatbits machine, these devices almost always sacrifice efficiency and hash power compared to their industry-standard counterparts (e.g., Whatsminer or Antminer), making them ultimately less profitable. But tinkerers looking for slightly cheaper and certainly more aesthetically-pleasing mining machines might find value in these alternate products.

One of the biggest trends in retail mining over the past two years has been the surge in companies offering hosted mining services. This sort of mining-as-a-service (MaaS) business model has been a fixture of the mining market for years, but its typical form so-called cloud mining carries a storied history and generally unreliable reputation after customers have been scammed repeatedly by various cloud mining companies. Many within the latest batch of MaaS companies seek to offer more transparency, individual ownership of mining hardware and to deliver a more reliable product.

The list of companies in this category include Blockware Solutions, Citadel 256, Compass Mining, Minerset, Mining Store, River Mining, Wattum Management and others. All of these hosting companies offer similar services and are in various stages of operation. But only two of them Wattum and Blockware were operational prior to January 2020.

Many of these same companies also offer direct hardware sales to their retail clients, joining veterans like Kaboomracks to compete to serve the market segment that wants to self mine. As part of this offering, several of these companies launched marketplace services for miners to buy or resell hardware to each other. Even Foundry, currently the worlds largest Bitcoin mining pool, launched a mining hardware marketplace in December 2021, although all users face a 50-unit minimum quantity threshold.

In short, the ease with which a retail miner can buy, sell or trade mining hardware became easier by orders of magnitude over the past two years than its ever been in Bitcoins history.

The surge in retail mining activity has been so strong over the past two years that a couple of companies were motivated to develop brand-new products to help home miners start and scale their operations.

The best example of this is from Saskatchewan-based Upstream Data, a mining company that historically offers mining solutions for the oil and gas industry. Last year, CEO Steve Barbour and the Upstream team started developing what was eventually named the Black Box, a weather- and fire-proof case that fits several mining machines and can operate indoors or outdoors.

The primary feature is the units noise minimization without any additional cooling technology. Noise is one of the worst byproducts of Bitcoin mining, and Barbours team wants to mitigate this annoyance as much as possible with a standardized product. Per Upstreams website, the Black Box can muffle mining noise by up to 20 decibels, which equates to a noise reduction of nearly 25% of the average 80 decibels of sound produced by many Whatsminer and Antminer machines.

For miners interested in immersion products, Houston-based Aiproenergy has fabricated immersion enclosures designed to hold between four and six machines, the perfect size for at-home mining clients. After starting the prototyping process in early 2021, the company tweeted a video last week of the finished product.

In February, pseudonymous miner Coin Heated, who leads the Aiproenergy project, explained that each unit called a HotBox Liu is currently made by hand, but the design is standardized across all units. At-home immersion miners have historically hacked together setups with whatever materials they have around, often using fish tanks to hold a pair of immersed machines.

Bitcoin mining started as an at-home, hobbyist activity, and thanks to the massive influx of retail mining activity over the past two years, mining is returning to its roots. In fact, the past two years are more likely than not just the first wave of fresh interest from hobbyist, at-home and generally small-scale miners.

The volume of activity combined with the number of companies and new products launched to serve this customer base cements this trend as a permanent facet of the market, not a passing fad.

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

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From Hardware To Marketplaces, Retail Bitcoin Miners Are Reshaping The Industry - Bitcoin Magazine

According to the report, titled State-Sponsored Cryptocurrency, CBDCs will require a redesign of the traditional monetary ecosystem. And Bitcoin can help in five key areas speed, security, efficiency, cross-border payments, and collaboration with other participants.

What would happen if we combined the best attributes of the technology of cryptocurrencies with the features of an established fiat currency under the sponsorship of a central bank? The result very well may just be a new method of handling payments that would revolutionize the current system. With the potential to reduce costs, reduce errors, speed the transfer of money, balance privacy with anonymity, and do it without the day-to-day operational need for a centralized organization, whether commercial or federal, the result could truly be transformational.

Except from Deloitte 2022 Report State-sponsored cryptocurrency

Indias Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said that the country will be issuing a CBDC soon. A CBDC is the legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different, T Rabi Shankar, deputy governor of the RBI, said in a speech in July last year.

In fact, on February 10, the Economic Times reported that the RBIs upcoming CBDC may not be based on blockchain technologies at all.

On March 9, US President Joe Biden also issued a historic executive order that directed the Federal Bank to explore the possibility of issuing CBDCs. Bidens order also noted that impact cryptocurrencies have on the environment, and called for responsible development, design, and implementation of cryptocurrency.

To be sure, Bitcoin isnt the only crypto to have faced such concerns. The premier cryptocurrency is based on a system of mining called proof-of-work (POW), under which every miner is rewarded for being part of the system, and in turn, raises the overall electricity requirements. Any cryptocurrency that has a large enough following and is based on the system could be under the radar of regulators.

According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin consumes over 132 TWh of power every year, which is higher than many small countries. Earlier this week, the European Parliament voted against a ban on POW cryptos, though regulations around the use and mining of cryptocurrencies are still expected.

The Swedish Riksbank, which is the oldest bank in the world, also began its CBDC project in 2017. The pilot for this took place in 2020 and was extended to February this year. Swedens CBDC is called e-krona right now.

Smaller nations like the Bahamas have also issued CBDCs, called the Sand Dollar.

SEE ALSO:Meta's Mark Zuckerberg says Instagram to add NFTs soonPaper manufacturing company stocks are in big demand since last couple of days and heres why

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Bitcoin could form the backbone for CBDCs, according to a new report - Business Insider India

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Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MIGI) announced unaudited bitcoin production and operational update for February 2022.

Bitcoin Self-Mining Update:

Hosting Co-location Update:

Operational Update:

In February Mawson continued to build and expand its existing and new facilities in the US and Australia. ASIC Bitcoin miners continue to be delivered on a monthly basis, with a batch of Canaan A1246 miners delivered during the month. February saw 3 fewer calendar days vs January, as well as a continued rise in network difficulty over the course of the month. Despite these headwinds, monthly Bitcoin production was up +8.5% vs January 2022, and up +300% vs February 2021.

Midland, Pennsylvania facility: First Modular Data Centres (MDCs) and electrical transformers have arrived, with the site expected to be online with approximately 16 megawatts of mining hardware by the end of March 2022.

Sandersville, Georgia facility: 38 Modular Data Centres (MDCs) now deployed on site, expected to be fully operational at approximately 80 megawatts online by the end of March 2022. Stage 3 expansion has been approved to 230 megawatts (capable of accommodating up to 7.5 Exahash) with site planning now underway.

Australian facility: Due to weather-related issues, operational ramp-up now expected to occur throughout Q2, with the facility fully operational by June 2022.

Expected Hash Rate Growth:

Mawson expects Bitcoin Self-Mining to be at 3.35 EH by Q2, 2022, and reiterated the 2023 target of 5 EH online by early Q1.

Aerial views of Sandersville, Georgia facility expansion

On March 4, 2022, James Manning, CEO and Founder of Mawson, said, In FY2021, we generated (unaudited) $850,000 in revenue from our 2 MW of hosting customers the agreements we have signed this week take us to 114 MW in our hosting business in total. Our hosting business is expanding rapidly and total contracts signed to date makes us one of the largest Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining companies."

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.

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Mawson Produces Record Bitcoin In February, Expects To Generate Additional Revenue With Hosting Contracts - Benzinga

Cathedra Bitcoin mining containers. Source: Cathedra

Governmental policies in money and energy underpin most of todays food shortages and soaring prices across consumer goods and services, at least according to bitcoin mining company Cathedra Bitcoin.

While the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central banks central banker, blames 40-year-high U.S. inflation levels on pandemic-induced supply chain bottlenecks, Cathedra has laid out an alternative view in its latest annual letter to shareholders.

We believe the root causes of these issues are quite simple: unsound money and unsound energy infrastructure, the letter reads.

Cathedra argues that much of the current mainstream line of thought is influenced by a Malthusian approach, which purports that progress is zero sum and resources are finite, thereby leading experts and governments to tilt favorably for policies that judge human action by whether it disturbs the natural world.

However, the bitcoin miner subscribes to Prometheanism the belief that progress is positive sum and human creativity and technology allow resources to be employed in novel ways that preserve the natural world while benefiting the human species. Prometheans evaluate human action by its ability to trigger human flourishing, a line of thought that guides all of Cathedras business decisions.

Energy abundance is necessary. While different energy sources bring different benefits and tradeoffs to the table, a cohesive plan to enable maximum energy throughput is a necessity for any nation to thrive. Short-sighted policies that subsidize intermittent renewables and shutter stable forms of generation lead to energy insecurity and higher energy costs, Cathedra outlines in its letter.

This is the underlying logic of these net-zero policies: make energy more expensive so that we use less of it, per the letter. In fact, economists advising the European Central Bank view rising energy costs (greenflation) as a feature, not a bug a necessary consequence of the energy transition.

While every human being needs energy to survive, rising energy costs asymmetrically favor those who thrive in society while punishing people with low incomes who spend much of their paychecks on basic necessities. The higher the energy price, the higher the price for every product and service and the higher the toll on economic growth.

Rising energy prices are a regressive tax on the least well-off in society, Cathedras letter reads. Energy is the key input for every other good and service in the economy, and over time accounts for all wealth in an economy. To the extent energy gets more expensive, so does everything else (including and especially food), making society poorer.

This is the Malthusian approach to energy, it adds. Expensive green energy that the elites can afford, while the unwashed masses bear the brunt of those rising costs.

The U.S. has spiraled into a deep push for renewable energy sources under the Biden administration. However, instead of allowing electric grid adjustments in the short-to-medium term by maintaining old power generation plants, President Bidens administration has opted for a complete overhaul.

Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office over concerns that burning oil and crude could make climate change worse and harder to reverse. The pipeline would have channeled 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the move led to rising tensions between U.S. and Canada. Bidens worries about climate change have also led him into a legal battle to pause new oil and gas leases.

Similar U.S. efforts have occurred at the state level. Over the past two years, New York has banned fracking and closed a nuclear power plant that supplied a quarter of the states energy needs as it eyes hydropower. However, that maneuver is also meeting resistance as environmentalists argue hydropowers inevitable flooding of some areas would lead to carbon emissions. Progress on other renewable energy sources, like solar, also have been hindered.

The result is more unreliable energy and less baseload generation, which ultimately raises the cost of energy across the board, Cathedra CEO A.J. Scalia told Bitcoin Magazine, referring to governmental subsidies for renewable energy.

In the absence of these government incentives, capital and entrepreneurs would pursue ventures that satisfy genuine consumer preferences, he added. Renewables would be forced to compete with other forms of generation on their own merits, and renewable energy entrepreneurs would have to develop long-term, profitable, sustainable business models that dont rely on the largesse of government.

Nearly all energy sources will present environmental challenges in one way or the other. Cathedra advocates for low-entropy options, which it says are needed to maintain order and advance the development of civilization.

The story of civilizational progress is one of humanity improving its ability to harness highly ordered sources of energy and therefore our capacity for shedding entropy, Scalia said. A half century of government subsidies and declining interest rates has steered capital towards high-entropy renewables, jeopardizing our ability to preserve order in the future, thereby bringing us closer toward thermodynamic equilibrium (read: civilizational collapse).

With its immutable monetary policy, Bitcoin preserves the information contained in prices and will allow humanity to flourish through more efficient, decentralized allocation of resources, improving our ability to resist the influence of entropy in the physical world, he added.

The current global fiat monetary standard, based on bilateral agreements between the U.S. and oil-producing countries in the petrodollar system, backs the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency through energy and debt. However, central bank monetary policies of recent have started to crack this foundation, Cathedra said.

A half-century of irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy has pushed sovereign and private sector debt to the brink of unsustainability and fragilized financial markets, per the companys letter. The once steady foreign demand for treasuries is evaporating, forcing the Fed to begin monetizing U.S. deficits at an increasing rate. The U.S.s share of global GDP is waning, and the role of the dollar in key trading relationships is diminishing. Even the once-mighty U.S. military on whose supremacy the entire petrodollar system was predicated shows signs of degeneration.

To this bitcoin miner, Bitcoin is the answer to fix record-low interest rates, supply chain disruptions and asset price and consumer price inflation.

We believe the next global monetary system will be built atop Bitcoin with bitcoin the asset and Bitcoin the network working together to offer final settlement in a digitally native, fixed-supply reserve currency on politically neutral rails, the Cathedra letter reads. Bitcoin uniquely enables this value proposition, and game theory and economic incentives will compel nation-states to take notice amid the collapsing monetary order.

The company notes that competition to Bitcoin may emerge, promising even more control, which would appeal to Malthusian leaders. However, Cathedra remains cautiously optimistic that the U.S. will favor Bitcoin over dystopian technologies like a central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, the U.S. government doesnt seem to be leaning that way.

Biden signed an executive order (E.O.) on Wednesday tapping urgent development of a Federal Reserve CBDC. The E.O. outlines federal efforts to research and develop specific guidelines for the use of bitcoin, alternative cryptocurrencies and a possible digital dollar as the country seeks to remain at the core of the global financial system.

While Bitcoin empowers an open, freedom-based economy, CBDCs foster a permissioned and censorable financial system underpinned by control from institutions over the people. Image source: Cathedra Bitcoin.

The U.S. is ceding control of the unipolar, dollar-based monetary system; 50 years of irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy has made this a certainty, Cathedra President and COO, Drew Armstrong, told Bitcoin Magazine. The only choice we have at this point is how to respond. If America wants to extend its economic leadership in a post-Bretton Woods III monetary order, the path of least resistance would be to lean into its dominant position in the Bitcoin industry.

Our macro views on energy and money inform everything were doing at Cathedra, the letter reads. Chief among them is the belief that sound money and cheap, abundant, highly ordered energy are the fundamental ingredients to human flourishing. Our company mission is to bring both to humanity, and so lead mankind into a new Renaissance one led by Bitcoin and the energy revolution we believe it will galvanize.

The bitcoin miner rebranded from Fortress Technologies to Cathedra Bitcoin in December to reflect its aspirations in building a bold, ambitious, long-term project in the spirit of historys gothic cathedrals with energy and Bitcoin, not crypto, at its core.

Our long-term plan is to vertically integrate to own everything from the energy resource, to the mining data center, to the mining machines hashing inside the data center, Scalia said. Once Cathedra is a scaled, low-cost producer of bitcoin and energy, well also be uniquely positioned to deliver a suite of ancillary products and services across the financial and energy sectors as well.

Another aspect of Cathedras long-term play involves off-grid mining, which the company believes will trump the current popular practice of on-grid mining. To help achieve this vision, the miner has begun producing proprietary modular data centers made to function even under harsh environmental conditions, called Rovers, to house over 5,000 bitcoin mining machines that Cathedra expects to receive this year.

Armstrong told Bitcoin Magazine that the advantages of off-grid mining relate mostly to the cheap energy costs. The chief executive highlighted how, by leveraging energy that would otherwise go to waste, the miner wouldnt compete with other customers as in on-grid mining.

First, by mining off grid, were necessarily pursuing sources of energy that are non-rival, Armstrong said. Because theres no other demand for the energy, were able to buy it for cheaper than we otherwise would and in some cases, can even get paid to consume it.

Cathedra mines bitcoin leveraging otherwise-wasted energy sources. Pictured are bitcoin mining containers built by a third party that enables Cathedra to monetize flared gas in a North Dakota facility while contributing to the security of the Bitcoin network. Photo courtesy of Cathedra Bitcoin.

Mining off-grid also enables Cathedra to cut down many costs associated with power transportation, transmission, and distribution.

Finally, by vertically integrating to design, manufacture, and operate our Rovers, were able to remove additional layers of margin and realize savings on the capex side as well, Armstrong added. As we achieve scale, well benefit from volume discounts on materials, greater bargaining power with suppliers, etc., driving down our cost to produce each Rover.

Cathedra also is dedicated to accumulating bitcoin on its balance sheet. The company said in its letter that it leverages financing opportunities to keep as much of the bitcoin it mines as possible, a long-term vision that it says will produce outsized results as companies with big BTC holdings get a head start in an eventual Bitcoin standard.

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Meet Cathedra, A Promethean Bitcoin Miner Focused On Killing The Petrodollar - Bitcoin Magazine

The below is a direct excerpt of Marty's Bent Issue #1178: "Pressure forcing alternative transaction relay solutions." Sign up for the newsletter here.

Earlier today I had a conversation with Luke Gromen, Founder & President or Forest for the Trees. The discussion really drove home a few things I have been trying to articulate in this rag over the last few weeks. Mainly that producing and being in control of assets like energy, industrial metals and food are much more important than controlling the dominant fiat currency of the world when shit hits the fan.

I highly recommend you freaks take some time to check out the interview when you get a chance. Toward the end Luke explains that people in the Defense Department who are war gaming are some of the only people in the government who are willing to admit that embracing bitcoin and actively working to transition to a Bitcoin Standard is the best strategic move the US could make at this juncture. Moving to a sound distributed peer-to-peer monetary system while many big players may be looking to abandon the dollar is a trump card on the table. It's certainly not an easy card to play because it would entail admitting that mainstream monetary policy has been completely wrong for decades, but the card is certainly in play.

The academic economists who roam the halls of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are vehemently opposed to Bitcoin for the reason stated above, it is diametrically opposed to the policies they've been instituting for over half a century. They are highly unlikely to be the ones to pull the bitcoin trump on the rest of the world. With that in mind, one has to wonder, "How do we pull the trump card and set the US up for greatness in the Digital Age if the people we need to pull the card are unwilling to because it reveals they are completely wrong about everything they claim to be experts on?"

Well, freaks. You turn to one of the industries that produces some of the assets that we are finding out are pretty important to control; the energy sector. If the energy sector adopts bitcoin by implementing mining into its operational stack and/or normalizing bitcoin on the balance sheet as a reserve asset it could be the industry to wind up pulling the trump card. Energy is the base layer of society. Without it we would not be able to enjoy life as we know it today. If energy producers develop the testicular fortitude to band together and make the bold move of adopting a Bitcoin Standard it could make the trump card inevitable. Again, energy is the base of everything we enjoy today and if those who provide the market with energy demand payment in bitcoin it will be hard to turn the momentum back in the other direction.

"That's crazy, Uncle Marty." What's even crazier is that energy producers are more incentivized than ever to band together and take this bold stance. With the costs to extract and deliver their products to market rising due to accelerating inflation the only way to ensure their businesses are able to maintain profitability is to convert their rapidly inflating dollars into bitcoin, which is the hardest money the world has ever seen and happens to be at the very beginning of its monetization phase. Adding bitcoin to their stack may be the best way to remain profitable. Better yet, they can use bitcoin to speculative attack their own dollar denominated debt as well.

Imagine every oil and gas company banding together and making this move. The amount of buying pressure would be so intense that it would likely cause the price of bitcoin to rise materially. Providing everyone involved with the ability to restructure their balance sheets by quickly paying off their dollar denominated debt. Creating a golden opportunity to manifest a resetting of the industry and creating a base from which companies can attempt to do incredibly bold and innovative things.

It's all about the energy, stupid.

More here:
Energy Producers Can Lead The Transition To A Bitcoin Standard - Bitcoin Magazine