Category Archives: Bitcoin

As Canadian protests against vaccine mandates rose to become a cause clbre, millions of dollars in donations flew to a Christian crowdfunding site. But that site got hacked and also had to freeze millions of dollars meant for the self-styled freedom convoy, after the government enacted the Emergencies Act to cut off protesters from the financial system.

In that moment, Bitcoin entered the arena hoping to be the lead rescuer of the protesters from financial troubles, with the organizers of Bitcoin fundraiser HonkHonkHodl raising more than $1 million in the cryptocurrency. It was a big moment for Bitcoin, and the ideals that its proponents see in the cryptocurrency, like censorship-resistant money. "I still can't believe that this is the protest that would prove every Bitcoin crank a prophet, David Heinemeier Hansson, Basecamps co-founder and a longtime anti-Bitcoiner, wrote in a blog titled I was wrong, we need crypto, at the time. And for me to have to slice a piece of humble pie, and admit that I was wrong on crypto's fundamental necessity in Western democracies."

Getting your money turned off is insanely harmful. One trucker I met ran a business and didnt know when he was going to be able to pay his 10 drivers next, a HonkHonkHodl lead organizer who goes by the pseudonym NobodyCaribou told Motherboard. Incredibly messed up.

But a strangely familiar fate has befallen Bitcoin donations: Many truckers now cant cash out their donated bitcoin due to financial sanctions, with some of the bitcoins being seized from NobodyCaribou by the authorities. The lead protesters and fundraiser organizers are now facing a class-action lawsuit that wants to give all the donated bitcoins to Ottawa citizens who were in the vicinity of the protests.

J.W. Weatherman, a pseudonymous lead Bitcoin donor whom NobodyCaribou reached out to for help, brainstormed an action plan via a 25-page public Google doc, and eventually a coder volunteered to help divide 14.6 Bitcoins into 100 separate Bitcoin wallets to be distributed to the truckers.

But for the truckers to access the funds, NobodyCaribou had to approach them individually and hand out a meticulously-detailed explanation on how to claim the Bitcoin as well as the codes necessary, all carefully placed in envelopes.

I orange-pilled many truckers by giving them 8,000 reasons to look into it, NobodyCaribou told Motherboard. 10 percent of truckers refused the donation fearing scam or because [of] complexity, he said.

One trucker, who goes by UOttowaScotty on YouTube, was on a live-stream from his cab on Feb. 16 when NobodyCaribou approached him and handed out an envelope that contained $8,000 worth of Bitcoin, along with instructions on how to claim it. Thats insane, man, the trucker said, definitely one of the craziest things thats happened over the last two weeks.

According to a web page tracking fund movements in the distributed wallets, half of the wallets of the truckers have been accessed so far.

But all that radically transparent approachintended for the peace of mind of donors like Weatherman, who had threatened HonkHonkHodl with a lawsuit if they failed to distribute Bitcoin to truckers before being enlisted to helpis also what made the plans go awry. Bitcoins a system of public ledger, so all transactions on the network are visible to everyone. This includes, of course, the authorities that want to track them down.

The Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ordered banks and crypto exchanges to block any transactions from crypto wallets tied to the truckers. In reply to a question whether his crypto exchange would also ban addresses, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, who donated $43,000 himself, said, 100% yes it has/will happen and 100% yes, we will be forced to comply. If you're worried about it, don't keep your funds with any centralized/regulated custodian. We cannot protect you. Get your coins/cash out and only trade p2p.

In following the Bitcoin on the public ledger, it appears that some end users were able to cash out some Bitcoin before it could be frozen, law firm Lenczner Slaght partner Monique Jilesen told Motherboard. Lenczner Slaght acts for Champ & Associates, the law firm representing Ottawa residents in the lawsuit against the convoy organizers, including NobodyCaribou.

NobodyCaribou distributed the wallets on Feb. 16, one day before the freezing orderknown in Canada as a Mareva injunctionwas made. The order targeted individuals related to the protests as any banks, financial institutions, money service businesses, fundraising platforms or websites, cryptocurrency exchanges or platforms, or custodians of any cryptocurrency wallets.

The order specified cryptocurrency addresses controlled by NobodyCaribou and other organizers, and included any tokens belonging to NobodyCaribou which have been transferred to other digital wallets, as identified through the public Ledger, followed by a list of 123 addresses.

Although 14.6 bitcoin, which was worth around $630,000 then, were distributed to the truckers by then, the police came to NobodyCaribous home on Feb. 28 and took 0.28 bitcoin (worth about $15,000), stored in a wallet NobodyCaribou co-controlled with Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, members of a trucker-affiliated nonprofit who were previously arrested. According to court documents, NobodyCaribou claimed he was about to transfer the funds to an escrow agent when police compelled him to surrender his wallet under a search warrant.

The seizure of a censorship-resistant digital asset might sound odd at first, but all its referring to is a string of 12 words known as a seed phrase. If not held on a centralized crypto exchange like Coinbase, Bitcoin is self-custodial by design, which means one can only access their bitcoin if they type those 12 words in an exact order. According to NobodyCaribou, police compelled him to reveal his seed phrase.

The control of the seized bitcoin has now been passed on to a court-appointed escrow agent, Jilesen told Motherboard. The escrow agent will hold custody of bitcoin until the lawsuit has a verdict on the cryptocurrencys fate.

I wanted to give the bitcoin to truckers. A court order was issued for the bitcoin that had not yet been distributed, so regardless of what I want, Im not going to break the law and get arrested, NobodyCaribou told Motherboard. The basis for the claim on those funds is to be determined by courts. Until then, they are safely held in escrow.

In the fallout of a Bitcoin experiment that could have gone better but was nevertheless a proof-of-concept for the Bitcoin community, there are a few key lessons. Centralized coordination is fine, centralized custody is the problem, NobodyCaribou told Motherboard.

Note to self: never be a trusted third party again, he tweeted on March 10.

Now the seized bitcoins, and the rest of bitcoins that could yet be seized from the truckers, may end up in the public coffers. I cant speak for the province, but they have a variety of options including compensating the people of Ottawa who were subject to the conduct of the defendants, Jilesen told Motherboard.

Spokespeople for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General declined to comment as this relates to a matter that is before the courts.

Bitcoin wasnt meant to end up in a legal quagmire like thisthe cryptocurrency was designed and touted as an apolitical liberating force during times of heavy-handed government interventions, either for good or bad purposes. And yet, the realities of the cryptocurrency market, ranging from regulated entities to liquidity limitations, mean theres a long way before Bitcoin can fulfill its potential as a censorship-resistant monetary technology.

Go here to see the original:
The Freedom Convoy Bitcoin Donations Have Been Frozen and Seized - VICE

Nearly 150 million people use the franc of the Financial Community of Africa (CFA) on a daily basis, from Senegal in the extreme west to Gabon in the center of the continent.

Used in 14 countries, the CFA franc is pegged to the euro, printed in France and its monetary policy is controlled by Western powers. As Fod Diop, a Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning developer hailing from Senegal details, The IMF and the French government still control the currency.

While the official peg to the euro is 1 euro to 655.96 CFA francs, its purchasing power has eroded over time. In 1994, the World Bank devaluedthe CFA franc against the French franc from 1:50 to 1:100. That year, West Africans woke up to realize the value of their life savings had been slashed in half.

Gloire, the founder of Kiveclair, a Bitcoin Beach-inspired refugee project in the Congo, told Cointelegraph that the CFA makes whole countries dependent, and It is usually the poorest who suffer. He explained the situation in 1994:

Prior to the creation of Bitcoin, West Africans could store their money in euros, U.S. dollars or traditional stores of value: real estate and commodities. For everyday people, however, those options are not readily available.

Mama Bitcoin,the first retailer to accept cryptocurrency in Senegal,told Cointelegraph that the CFA is disempowering. She suggests that Bitcoin could provide a way out.

With the arrival of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, indeed, there is now a viable alternative. Gloire suggests that Bitcoin can help the countries of the CFA Zone to free themselves from France to finally turn the dark page of colonization.

In Senegal, Mouhammad Dieng, co-founder of SenBlock, a nonprofit organization for crypto promotion and adoption, told Cointelegraph that he doesnt like the CFA, because its monetary policy does not allow us to develop. Bitcoin is a less risky alternative to make the transition to an African digital currency.

Interestingly enough, the hope to replace the CFA is not restricted to grassroots cryptocurrency advocates. Governments of West African countries have been vocal in their efforts to improve the CFA and develop some autonomy.

With the current monetary policy, CFA zone countries are obliged to send more money to France than other countries due to colonial ties there is zero sovereignty over the currency.

A new currency called the ECO was flouted as a replacement for the CFA. However, it would still be pegged to the euro and biased to France. Concerning digital currencies which Dieng mentions the e-Naira, the digital version of neighboring Nigerias currency, has influenced the view of the CFA governments with regard to digital currencies and CBDCs. However, an e-ECO or e-CFA has not yet been planned.

Notwithstanding, the opportunity for a stronger currency in the CFA African territories is vast. The GDP of the CFA region is roughly $170 billion and covers 14 independent countries. Its a huge region with tremendous untapped resources, particularly agriculture and minerals.

Pape Alioune, a software engineer who founded Shintsha, a cryptocurrency exchange that allows payments via mobile money, told Cointelegraph: What country can develop without its own money or, better yet, a neutral money?

The SenegaleseSouth African team behind Shintsha which will soon rebrand to Mole App has created an innovative way of addressing the low banking levels in Africa. The exchange hopes to onboard more and more Africans into Bitcoin and crypto through mobile money, an Africa-centric solution.

Mobile money, originally derived from a Kenyan invention called M-Pesa, allows sim cardholders to pay each other with credit. It is incredibly popular in Subsaharan Africa, from Senegal to Somalia to Malawi. Orange money is one of the most popular outlets, although Free Mobile and Wave also exist.

Alioune estimates that more than 80% of the adult population uses mobile money in Senegal, and its similar in other countries that use the CFA. Africans use the tech the same way Northern Europeans use contactless payments its become a reflex, part of the daily routine.

While there is a sense of optimism in West Africa with regards to the future of cryptocurrency and more routes to purchasing crypto, Education remains the most significant hurdle to overcome. Thats according to Nourou, the founder of Bitcoin Senegal who is on a mission to facilitate Bitcoin adoption in his home country.

For Nourou, given that literacy rates in his home nation are just 50%, he speaks with business owners, entrepreneurs and educated members of the community. Most people in West Africa have at least heard of Bitcoin. Its a question of getting through to the right people and spreading awareness, he told Cointelegraph.

Nourou agrees with Gloire in that its not just about Bitcoin, its absolutely necessary to educate people about money. Gloire adds that while learning about money is key, people must understand that it is possible to decide ones destiny without asking permission.

He brings up the example of smartphones which are penetrating Africa at a good pace, to illustrate that Africa can pick up new technologies and run with them. As much as 46% of the Subsaharan population in Africa has a smartphone and, as evidenced, mobile money is booming.

For Idrissa Seck, a Bitcoin enthusiast and a payment agent at French bank Socit Gnrale, understanding money is the key to unlocking an understanding of Bitcoin. In order to understand and ultimately fall in love with Bitcoin, you have to understand money and the current financial system, he told Cointelegraph.

Dieng repeats, education, education, education, adding that you must spend at least 50 hours learning before investing in crypto.

With regard to the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the CFA zone, Gloire takes inspiration from the Salvadorian experience, which is going quite well. The first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvadors hotly awaited Bitcoin bonds are imminent. For Gloire:

Africa has all the ingredients to make meaningful use of cryptocurrencies, according to Mama Bitcoin. Its on a path to greater freedoms. It comes back to the notion that Bitcoin belongs to everyone.

Nourou of Bitcoin Senegal sums up Bitcoin and Africas relationship best. When asked if the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakomoto could be an African, he replies:

More:
We dont like our money: The story of the CFA and Bitcoin in Africa - Cointelegraph

United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA)is aiming to attackBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) mixers services that try to anonymize Bitcoin balances by mixing them, which the regulator saidmakes prosecutingcriminalsharder.

UK Regulator Eyes Bitcoin 'Mixing':Darknet Live, a news outlet focusing on deep web black markets,reportedon Tuesday that Gary Cathcard NCA's head of financial investigation said that Bitcoin mixers can be used to provide a layering service, churning criminal cash, obscuring its origins and audit trail, similar to how a cash business might be used by criminals to legitimize cash through the banking system.

The NCA saidregulation "would force mixers to comply with money laundering laws, with an obligation to carry out customer checks and audit trails of currencies passing through the platforms.

Law enforcement needs access to data necessary to investigate what is often serious criminal activity, according to the U.K. regulator.

Mixers could enable Bitcoin to be easily used for laundering funds involved in ransomware attacks, fraud, state-sponsored crimeand terrorism, according to the agency.

The Royal United Services Institute a leading defense and security think tank pointed out that "free and open-source software algorithms in which there is no entity that takes custody of funds cannot be effectively regulated.

A Bitcoin Wallet's Stance: Samourai Wallet a Bitcoin wallet featuring mixing features answered to an inquiry on the matter with an open letterpublishedon Tuesday, explaining that "Europol also highlighted Samourai Wallet as an emerging 'top threat' in 2020 due to its decentralized nature."

Samourai Wallet said that it believesthe "vast majority" of its users are law-abiding and agreed "that the use of centralized mixers that take possession and custody of funds should be scrutinized and avoided."

The company also wrote that "free and open-source software algorithms in which there is no entity that takes custody of funds cannot be effectively regulated. We believe the NCA should instead focus on more productive methods to prevent serious crime and catch criminals." The firm concluded:

"The argument that crypto users identity is obscured on the blockchain so users shouldnt need to worry themselves with basic financial privacy is not only bad advice, it is a feeble attempt to justify an unprecedented encroachment into the financial privacy of law-abiding citizens."

See the original post:
UK Regulators Take Aim At Bitcoin Mixers: What You Need To Know - Benzinga - Benzinga

(TNS) David Naylors knowledge of cryptocurrency was limited, to say the least, when Bitcoin miners started approaching him last year about buying power from the utility he runs across a 16-county stretch of rural Texas.

I was writing it down, B-i-t-c-o-i-n, said Naylor, chief executive officer of Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative Inc., which provides power to about 229,000 customers mostly small towns and homes north and east of Dallas.

Naylor has had to get up to speed quickly. Hes received multiple proposals to build Bitcoin mines, with rows of electricity-guzzling computers that solve mathematical problems to create digital coins, on whats now ranch land. Two of the mines would each require as much as $20 million to fortify power lines and avert blackouts. Each would consume enough electricity to power as many as 60,000 Texas homes. Utilities like Rayburn have to provide service to miners if its technically feasible to do so, but upgrades to the grid threaten to drive up bills for consumers already shouldering price shocks for almost everything.

These are just challenges weve never faced before, Naylor said in an interview.

Texas utilities may have to figure it out largely on their own, weighing the cost of upgrades against long-term benefits like revenue that can be invested in protecting against outages. It falls to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the states grid operator, to evaluate how Bitcoin mining will affect the power system. So far, Ercot hasnt publicly disclosed what it's done, but its members will vote this month on creating a task force to understand how many mines will connect to the grid and how fast. New types of demand come with a number of risks and challenges, and Ercot will continue to coordinate and collaborate with its regulators and stakeholders to successfully integrate crypto loads, the grid operator said in an emailed statement.

Overall, Bitcoin mining cost residents and businesses in upstate New York about $250 million a year in higher annual electricity bills, a 2021 University of California Berkeley study concluded. Mining pushes up monthly electric bills about $8 for individuals, and $12 for small businesses, the researchers estimated.

Industry advocates argue that as Bitcoin mining booms in the state, someone will come along to build more power plants. One year after the deadly winter storm, a record amount of solar capacity is planned for Texas. Plus, miners say their ability to quickly throttle back operations when the grid needs power will actually make the system more stable. Bitcoin mines shouldn't cost consumers much because they seek out more sparsely populated areas with electricity to spare, said Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, a lobbying group.

But Rayburn's experience shows that's not always the case. Miners are looking at remote sites, which in some cases will require millions of dollars in grid upgrades, Naylor said.

Utilities across Texas are fielding proposals. American Electric Power Co. is weighing requests from 75 to 100 Bitcoin miners to connect primarily across West Texas and is evaluating the need for upgrades to handle the mines. Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, which serves the Texas Panhandle and Central Plains, is studying inquiries from two dozen miners.

Austin Energy, which powers the state capital, says investors want to build five mines just outside Austin that would need a total of 1,000 megawatts of electricity, equal to about two-thirds of the city's current demand. That may require the utility to build more transmission lines, said Erika Bierschbach, vice president of energy market operations.

The risk is that we dont manage the opportunity very well, Bierschbach said. Austin Energy, Rayburn and Golden are considering whether to require miners to pay higher power rates.

Upgrades to the power system will be needed because the grid cant handle all of this new load, said Evan Caron, a former power trader in Austin who invests in energy technology. New investments in the transmission system are typically shared among Ercots consumers and show up in their utility bills. This year, Ercot expects more than $4.5 billion in transmission charges to be distributed among users from factories to utilities.

Given the crypto industrys notorious volatility, theres also the chance that miners will close up shop, leaving ratepayers to cover the costs of upgrades that may no longer be needed. To mitigate that risk, utilities can ask for a deposit, which would be refunded after the miner uses the power for a certain period of time.

Worldwide, mining consumes an amount equal to twice whats needed to power every light in the U.S., according to the University of Cambridges Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.

But in Texas, the payback can be immense because electricity is so cheap, Caron said. Even if Bitcoin prices fell to $30,000 roughly 25% below current levels miners would still make revenue equal to about six times the cost of power, he said.

At Rayburn, CEO Naylor wants to make sure hes not taking undue risks to help deliver those returns. Rayburn had to sell $908 million of bonds in February to cover the bill from Ercot for soaring power prices during last years crisis, and it will take 28 years for customers to repay the debt.

The risks may pay off because crypto miners have pledged to shut down in times of crisis to conserve power, Naylor said. The biggest Bitcoin miner in Texas, Riot Blockchain, did so in February and last year, and others, such as Compute North LLC and Bitdeer Technologies Holding Co., have committed to shutting if needed.

Even with those safeguards in place, Bitcoin mining comes with costs. Its definitely going to have an impact, Naylor said. Its simple supply and demand.

2022 Bloomberg L.P. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Read the original post:
Bitcoin Mining Threatens to Further Strain Texas Electric Grid - Government Technology

RIDGWAY--Over a dozen residents attended the Ridgway Township Supervisors meeting on Tuesday evening to voice their displease over the Pin Oak Energy Partners site in the township that is being used as a Bitcoin mine. But what exactly is all the noise about? When it comes to Bitcoin, the short answer is that its complicated.

Bitcoin was conceived by a person or group called Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym listed on the original 2008 Bitcoin white paper describing how the cryptocurrency would work. On Jan. 3, 2009, Satoshi mined the first Bitcoin block on a simple personal computer with a standard central processing unit or CPU. In 2010 the first Bitcoin mine was produced that used the power of a Graphics Card or GPU to speed up the task. Then in 2013, the Chinese Company New Cannan began a Bitcoin mine using an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that has now become the industry standard for Bitcoin miners.

Now for the complicated part. Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoins are entered into circulation. It is also how the network confirms new transactions and is a critical component of the blockchain ledger's maintenance and development. "Mining" is performed using sophisticated hardware that solves a computational math problem. The first computer to find the solution or get to the closest answer to the problem receives the next block of bitcoins. The miners are acting as auditors, confirming that each Bitcoin transaction is legitimate and valid, thus guaranteeing the "value" of the Bitcoin.

What is a Bitcoin? It's a 64-Digit Hexadecimal number or Hash in Bitcoin terminology.

0000000000000000046fcc608cf0130b95e27d158463e9f967ac56e4df598bc

The number above has 64 digits and contains not just numbers but letters of the alphabet. The decimal system that is accepted throughout the world uses factors of 100 as its base, which means that every digit of a multi-digit number has 100 possibilities, zero through 99. The decimal system is simplified to base 10, or zero through nine in computing. By using a "Hexadecimal," this math incorporates a base 16 with "hex" and "deca" derived from the Greek words for six and ten. In a hexadecimal system, each digit has 16 possibilities. Our standard numeric system only offers ten ways of representing numbers (zero through nine). The Hexadecimal system has to add letters; specifically, A, B, C, D, E, and F, to represent 11 through 15. Software developers and system designers widely use hexadecimal numbers to provide a human-friendly representation of binary-coded values. Each hexadecimal digit represents four bits or binary digits, also known as a nibble. In other words, the Hash above has 64 digits, with each digit representing 16 possibilities, for each of the four digits in the nibble.

Besides the coins minted via the "genesis block," which was the first block created by the founder Satoshi Nakamoto, every other bitcoin came into being because of miners. Because the rate of bitcoin "mined" is reduced over time, the final bitcoin won't be circulated until around the year 2140.

To earn new bitcoins, the company needs to be the first miner to arrive at the correct answer, or closest solution, to a numeric problem. This process is also known as proof of work (PoW). No really advanced math or computation is involved, despite the belief that miners solve complicated mathematical problems. In a way, that's true, but not because the math itself is complex. The computational power of trying to be the first miner to come up with the 64-digit hexadecimal number, or Hash, is basically guesswork. The answer, or closest number, is how a transaction with Bitcoin is verified and ensures the legitimacy of the cryptocurrency.

In a way, its a matter of randomness, but with the total number of possible guesses for each of these problems numbering in the trillions, it's incredibly tedious work. And the number of possible solutions only increases with each miner that joins the mining network. To solve a problem first, miners need a lot of computing power. To mine successfully, they need to have a high "hash rate," which is measured in terms of gigahashes per second (GH/s) and terahashes per second (TH/s). The enormous amount of electrical power necessary is the primary "cost" of Bitcoin mining, besides the cost of the hardware itself. The Bitcoin miner needs access to large amounts of cheap electrical power to be profitable. This is where energy companies like Pin Oak come into play.

Using the generators at its natural gas drilling platform in Ridgway Township, the Bitcoin miners have access to a dedicated power source at a very reasonable rate since they are directly at the power generating site. The generators at the site are not providing power to the electrical grid in Elk County or even Pennsylvania, but exclusively to the Bitcoin mine. With the entire process being handled remotely over the internet, there is no office building on-site or staff that have to be paid to live in the area. The money that is being produced using Elk County natural gas resources does not enter into the local economy at all, besides the natural gas drilling fees and the initial payment to the owner of the site from Pin Oak. And as neighbors and the Ridgway Record have discovered, it is almost impossible to get in contact with anyone to provide any answers from Pin Oak or the Bitcoin mining company, which is so far undisclosed.

Why is such a complicated system in place at all in rural communities all across the county and the world? Because it is incredibly lucrative. Currently, there are approximately 21 million bitcoins in existence with around 19 million in circulation, for a total that only keeps increasing, of roughly $1.3 Trillion dollars. As of March 2022, the price of Bitcoin was about $39,000 per bitcoin, which means a miner will earn $243,750 (6.25 x 39,000) for completing a block.

With new technology, there is always a certain portion of time that is needed for society, regulations, and the legal systems to adjust to new challenges, and right now, rural communities across the world are having to break new ground to regulate these massive uses of power and resources by people and companies that have almost no presence in the communities they are using as hosts. Time will tell if the Bitcoin mines, which generate enormous amounts of waste heat and greenhouse gases, are relegated to the dustbin of history, in the same way as coal-powered electric plants, or if they can manage to find the balance between profitable operation and acceptance in the rural landscape.

View post:
What exactly is all the noise about with Bitcoin Mining? - Ridgway Record

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week struggling to preserve support as key macro changes appear on the horizon.

In what could turn out to be a crucial week for Bitcoin and altcoins relationship with traditional assets, the United States Federal Reserve is set to be the main talking point for hodlers.

Amid an atmosphere of still rampant inflation, quantitative easing still ongoing and geopolitical turmoil focused on Europe, there is plenty of uncertainty in the air, no matter what the trade.

Add to that a failure by Bitcoin to benefit from the chaos and the result is some serious cold feet what would it take to instill confidence?

Just as it seems nothing could break the now months-old status quo on Bitcoin markets, which have been stuck in a trading range for all of 2022 so far, upcoming events could nonetheless provide that catalyst for a sea change in both sentiment and price action.

Cointelegraph takes a look at the factors set to help move the markets in the coming days.

Fight it or not, the Fed is the likely kingmaker when it comes crypto performance this week.

On March 16, policymakers will decide whether or not to proceed with a key interest rate hike which has been expected since last year.

The Fed has a problem inflation is running hot. But the desire to reduce its record balance sheet from two years of coronavirus excesses is too.

A rate hike is thus tipped to be only modest perhaps a quarter of a basis point but the implications could nonetheless be considerable for Bitcoiners.

BTC has already shown itself to be firmly attached to U.S. equities, and any knee-jerk reactions to the Fed will likely be copied.

Stocks are no friends of rate hikes, as the easy money period accompanied COVID-19 reactions was something of a golden era that only ended in late 2021. This comes as the reality of the Feds moves hit home. Bitcoin, likewise, saw an all-time high in November and then began a swift decline.

This week will be big for crypto and equities traders, as the Fed is expected to decide on a quarter-point rate hike this week. Bitcoin & Ethereum have been pegged to the SP500 in 2022, and these decisions should impact cryptocurrencies greatly, analytics firm Santiment summarized on March 14.

The Fed, however, is far from the only macro player for Bitcoiners to worry about.

In Europe, lawmakers are set to vote on cryptocurrency legislation, with some attempting to instigate a ban on proof-of-work (Poprotocols citing environmental concerns.

While critics have already dismissed the idea as ludicrous, the threat to sentiment from a potential victory remains.

A PoW ban would be a ban on guessing a number, Knut Svanholm, author of Bitcoin: Sovereignty Through Mathematics,warned.

Next door, the Russo-Ukrainian conflict continues to advance along with its economic fallout Russia risks default, and sanctions and trade blocks are adding to inflationary pressures.

In China, meanwhile, COVID-19 itself is back on the radar with an increasing number of residents locked down.

As such, things are at best precarious for short-term Bitcoin traders.

Given that any one of the above macro factors could spark a fresh rout in equities, for many, Bitcoin felt like a sitting duck as the week began.

We are yet to see the capitulation dip as per every other macro dip we have seen, popular Twitter account Crypto Tony argued.

Such a capitulatory move has already been voiced as a stark possibility, and the timing would be grim, coming almost exactly two years to the day that BTC/USD crashed to $3,600 in the first round of COVID-19 mayhem.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, support levels remain unclaimed as $40,000 refuses to hold for more than a few days or hours.

The weekly close saw a last-minute dip toward $37,000, BTC/USD, nonetheless managing to reclaim much of the lost ground to trade at around $38,600 at the time of writing.

Analyzing the near-term prospects, fellow Twitter account Plan C turned to his Confluence Floor Model to conclude that a macro price bottom could be due in the coming month.

Such a low could fall at around $27,000, however. This would take Bitcoin below its 2021 opening price and briefly out of the range it has consolidated since then.

I am not convinced we go to 27k, but if history repeats for a 4th straight time that could be the low of this accumulation phase, Plan C added on Twitter.

On the topic of accumulation, it appears that it is not all bad news when it comes to the demand for Bitcoin at current prices.

As Cointelegraph reported, whales have been active in recent dayswhile the proportion of the overall BTC supply controlled by smaller investors has reached a one-year high.

Now, those habits are being reflected in the continued fresh lows in exchanges supply.

The changes were noted by Philip Swift, creator of on-chain analytics resource LookIntoBitcoin, on March 1.

Separate data from on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant confirms the trend and shows that out of the 21 major exchanges it covers, BTC balances are at their combined lowest since early August 2018 2.32 million BTC.

The story with exchange balances is in fact fairly complex, as different exchanges exhibit different trends.

In the latest edition of its weekly newsletter, The Week On-Chain, released March 7, fellow on-chain analytics platform Glassnode devoted significant attention to the phenomenon, noting that sell-side supply overall remains fairly modest given macro circumstances.

During the highly volatile macro and geopolitical events of the last few weeks, exchange net-flow volumes are also reasonably stable, despite a slight bias towards inflows this week, researchers noted at the time.

The latest Glassnode data shows that exchanges have since lost another $1.9 billion in BTC in the past week.

Unsurprising, perhaps, but Bitcoin and wider crypto sentiment is pointing firmly downhill this week.

After two months of ranging and fakeouts, bulls are tired and the threat of a macro-induced capitulation hangs in the air.

Bitcoin sentiment feels worse now than July 21 imo and price is over $8k higher now vs. the July 21 low, Twitter analytics account On-Chain College summarized.

Examining the on-chain reality this week, research, insight and education resource Cane Island Digital Research highlighted volume as another telltale sign that momentum had fallen out of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin volume is a horrible indicator of price but it is a decent indicator of sentiment, it commented.

While this could be an indicator of an incoming capitulation and trend reversal, the fear was still palpable.

Mark Yusko, founder, CEO and chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management, described the Cane Island numbers as sentiment getting close to washed out.

Meanwhile, The Crypto Fear & Greed Indexremains in extreme fear territory, near the 20/100 mark, which has acted as a line in the sand since mid-February.

Looking for a counterpoint to the seemingly endless bad news from macro sources?

Related:Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, DOT, SAND, RUNE, ZEC

It could well come this week in the form of El Salvador and the issuance of its much-vaulted ten-year Bitcoin bonds, known informally as the volcano bonds.

The country which became the first to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender last year has since turned to geothermal energy from a volcano to mine BTC.

To that end, it is now seeking long-term investment partnerships by issuing bonds tied directly to mining a move which has commentators excited about serious money potentially flowing into the ecosystem.

While the exact date of the bonds issuance, expected to attract $1 billion, remains unknown, suspicions are mounting that it could come this week.

Aside from the benefits of using the cash to invest in BTC, the long-term consequences of El Salvadors plan, if successful, should be underestimated as a shift in the global economic paradigm, according to former Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow.

In an interview with Saifedean Ammous on the Bitcoin Standard Podcast this weekend, Mow was as upbeat as anyone on the outlook.

So if El Salvador pulls off this bond, then it shows the world that you dont need to rely on the IMF or any central lending Institute that does not necessarily have your best interest at heart, but you can just fund everything with Bitcoin backed bonds, he said.

Excerpt from:
Two years since the COVID-19 crash: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week - Cointelegraph

Here are your FOX Business Flash top headlines for March 14.

Cryptocurrency prices were lower early Tuesday morning as the war in Ukraine has intensified and peace talks have stalled.

Bitcoin was trading at around $38,420, down 1.72%, while Ethereum and Dogecoin were also lower, trading at approximately $2,520 (-2.87%) and 11.13 cents (-3.12%), respectively, according to Coindesk.

AnAustin,Texas, city council member on Thursday announced a resolution that would explore possible uses ofBitcoinand othercryptocurrenciesin the city.

AUSTIN MAY BE NEXT MAJOR CITY TO EMBRACE CRYPTOCURRENCY

The resolution, from Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly (District 6), came ahead ofSouth by Southwests return to the city after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Councilmember Kelly spoke alongside Austin Mayor Steve Adlerand other tech entrepreneurs at a Web3 andBlockchainEcosystem news conference.

Bitcoin prices were down early Tuesday morning. (iStock)

In other cryptocurrency news, the European Union's (EU) landmark regulatory framework for governing crypto assets has passed another threshold on its way to ratification, Coindesk reported.

On Monday, the EU parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee voted 31-4 in favor of a new draft of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, with 23 abstentions.

The framework broadly captures the issuance and trading of cryptocurrencies, and promises to make it easier for crypto firms to expand throughout the EU's 27 member states by facilitating a "passportable" license that would be valid between countries, the report said.

CLICK HERE TO READ FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO

"Finally, the agreed text includes measures against market manipulation and to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities," said an official statement on Monday's vote.

Link:
Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum all down early Tuesday - Fox Business

Every so often, someone at Motherboard (or a few of my former colleagues who have since left Motherboard) will say something like We should do something with that old Bitcoin footage. I always agreed, and then started on some email adventure.

I heard about the Bitcoin tapes soon after I started at Motherboard in 2013, which, according to my calculations, was a long time ago. We sent a team of people to the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose, which was one of the first major Bitcoin conferences. Bitcoin cost $118 at the time; its blown up so much since then that even the comedian who performed at the conference got rich. We also filmed in the basement of the organizer, Charlie Shrem. Shrem would later get arrested and go to jail because BitInstant, the company he founded, was found to be laundering money for users on the Silk Road drug market.

Anyway, we shot this footage and then it never turned into a documentary. People who worked on it left the company or moved on to other projects, we got busy, the footage went onto a server somewhere. Years passed. The legend of the lost Bitcoin tapes began.

My first email record of trying to actually unearth this footage is from late 2017I sent an email called Reviving bitcoin doc. Heres how I framed it: Sorry for the seemingly random assortment of people on this email list. Wanted to raise the spooky specter of possibly going deep into the vault to unearth some historical footage we shot in 2011 or 2012 (I think) for a documentary about bitcoin that we never ended up running. It should be like 10 hours of footage with some of the most important people in bitcoin, at an early conference in SF (right?). I'm not totally positive this footage is still even accessible? In any case, with people losing their goddamned minds over bitcoin at the moment I think it's worth at least seeing what we have if we can find it, and this idea has been bugging me for months so if we can't find it I'd like to be able to get some closure.

We did not find the footage. I tried again with some folks in VICEs post-production team. They were able to find existence of it but could not find the footage itself. More time passed. I sent an email in 2018 called Bitcoin doc white whale. No luck.

Anyways, more years passed, and the opportunity came up to do a documentary series about cryptocurrency with our colleagues at VICE News. This would be a current look at all things crypto. But to look to the future I thought we would need to look into the past. And so we tried again to find the Bitcoin tapes. And this time, we did, stored on a drive somewhere (many thanks to the archival team at VICE and, of course everyone who has worked on this over the years).

Over the last few months, producer Jesse Seidman and Motherboards Jordan Pearson went through the tapes like they were an archaeological find, identifying people in the crowd and seeing if the predictions made all those years ago came to pass. We also got back in touch with Charlie Shrem and Alec Liu, the original Motherboard host of the 2013 footage, to see what theyre up to now. Both of them are still in crypto.

The result is the first episode of CRYPTOLAND, a series were very excited about. Please check it out. This first episode is up, and over the next seven weeks well be rolling out new episodes, all of which were shot in the latter part of last year and which explore the environmental, political, and cultural implications of the crypto gold rush.

See the original post here:
Unearthing the Bitcoin Tapes - VICE

Bitcoin prices are not in great shape.Many investors and observers are wondering whether the top cryptocurrency by market value will soon return to its highs posted last November or if has left for a period of decline known as crypto winter.

Well, if bitcoin is now prompting everyone to agree one of aspect of the cryptocurrency, it is its reputation.

For the past few weeks bitcoin has been scoring victories on this front. Crypto is no longer seen in a bad light by the Biden administration in view of the presidential executive order that advises federal agencies/regulators not to stifle innovation.

The White House has also revived the idea of a digital dollar.

And then there are theclassic finance superstars, who one after another are saying they were wrong about digital currencies, and more specifically bitcoin.

After the hedge-funder Ken Griffin, it is the turn of the king of bonds, Bill Gross, to pledge allegiance to bitcoin. In a recent interview with CNBC, Gross claimed to have invested in bitcoin.

I simply think that, you know, the crypto coins are a bubble. I do think there are survivors, Gross said. I do think we need an alternative to the dollar as weve seen in the last week or two and that you know, there will be several survivors and Im invested to a small extent in bitcoin.

Gross does not say how many bitcoins he holds or when he bought them.

He explained trying to choose among the winners of the new finance. And if he seems to believe in bitcoin, this is not the case for nonfungible tokens.

The phenomena of NFTs is the same way and reminds me of when my kids were collecting Beanie Babies, Gross said.

Gross, 77, co-founded California-based Pimco in 1971 and rose to the pinnacle of the financial world after building it into a fixed-income behemoth. In 2014, he left the firm following clashes with other executives

The financier has a complicated history with cryptocurrencies and especially with bitcoin.

The young retiree Gross was initially open to bitcoin.

In 2016, the king of bonds believed that bitcoin could be a safe-haven asset for investors fleeing volatility and falling interest rates.

"Bitcoin and privately agreed upon blockchain technologies amongst a small set of global banks are just a few examples of attempts to stabilize the value of their current assets in future purchasing power terms, he wrote on Bloomberg in October 2016.Gold would be another example -- historic relic that it is. In any case, the current system is beginning to be challenged.

But in the midst of cryptomania in December 2017, Gross completely changed tune. He felt that bitcoin was a poor substitute for both fiat and gold. He justified his decision by the fact that it was difficult to use bitcoin to make payments.

It is not really a currency alternative at the moment, Gross told Bloomberg Television. Buying a bag of groceries at the grocery store is going to be a little difficult.

Bitcoin would also not be an alternative investment in times of economic crisis, according to Gross. The famed financier also reiterated that bitcoin's high volatility was one of the reasons it would not serve as a viable store of value.

Shutterstock

Five years later, he has changed his tune again. But he is not alone.

By becoming a bitcoin investor, Gross joins a list of big names in traditional finance who are converting to digital currencies.

"Crypto has been one of the great stories in finance over the course of the last 15 years. And Ill be clear, Ive been in the naysayer camp over that period of time," billionaire Ken Griffin said recently."But the crypto market today has a market capitalization of about $2 trillion in round numbers, which tells you that I havent been right on this call."

"I have a tiny percentage on it on my portfolio to diversify," billionaire and hedge-funder Ray Dalio said in February.

In the same interview with CNBC, Gross also confirms that he continues to bet on the same stocks, which are also among the favorites of crypto fans, especially on the Reddit forums.

I am still trading GameStop (GME) - Get GameStop Corp. Class A Reportand AMC (AMC) - Get AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. Class A Report. These are lottery-ticket stocks, the investor said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview with Brian Sullivan.

The volatility on these options that Im dealing with is so high that if you sell the options out of the money, which take GameStop around $120. Now, Im selling four-month calls at $200 and capturing $12 or $13 per option of because the volatilitys like 120%, Gross added.

The frenzy in GameStopand AMCshook Wall Street in January 2021 as retail investors piled into those stocks and call options, causing massive short squeezes that burned many short-selling hedge funds.

View original post here:
Bill Gross, 'King of Bonds' and Prominent Crypto Critic, Invests in Bitcoin - TheStreet

After seven weeks of consecutive inflows, digital asset investment products saw $110 million worth of net outflows last week.

What Happened:In thelatest editionof its Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report,CoinSharesfound that $80 million worth of outflows were from North America alone. CoinShares believes these outflows may have been a response to the U.S.Presidential Executive Orderon digital assets.

Bitcoin(CRYPTO:BTC) investment products saw $69.6 million in outflows for the week, whileEthereum(CRYPTO:ETH) recorded a $50.6 million outflow. Overall, the two leading crypto assets recorded $120 million in outflows.

Bitcoin investment fundssaw $1 billion in volume last week, down from the average $1.24 billion, representing just 5% of total bitcoin trading volumes, stated CoinShares.

Regulatory concerns and geopolitics remain at the forefront of investors concerns for digital assets, said the firm.

While some large-cap altcoins, includingSolana(CRYPTO:SOL),Ripple(CRYPTO:XRP), andPolkadot(CRYPTO:DOT) saw minor inflows of $300,000, $700,000, and $900,000 respectively,Cardano(CRYPTO:ADA) andLitecoin(CRYPTO:LTC) recorded $200,000 worth of inflows over the week.

See Also: https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-buy-cardano-ada/

Last week, CoinShares noted another report that crypto trading volumes in Russia and Ukraine had risen sharply since the conflict between the nations escalated.

Combined, Russia, and Ukraine have seen daily trading volumes rise to $80m/day at times. This has predominantly been against the crypto pairs USDT and BUSD, commonly used US Dollar stable coins (crypto coins that are pegged to the US Dollar), but we have also seen significant amounts of Bitcoin and Ethereum used too, read the report.

Price Action: At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $38,812, up 0.56% in the last 24 hours. Ethereum was trading 0.88% lower at a price of $2,549.

See original here:
Bitcoin And Ethereum See $120M In Weekly Outflows What's The Major Trigger? - Benzinga