Category Archives: Bitcoin

In brief

Many in the crypto industry were surprised to see NFTs find traction on the Bitcoin-backed Stacks network last fall. For the creators of the Ethereum-based NFT profile picture project Satoshibles, the burgeoning market presented a potential opportunity to properly embrace Bitcoin.

After all, Satoshibles is inspired by Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. The images,by Moroccan artist Ayyoub Bouzerda, are all based on a photo of Dorian Nakamoto, the man who became something of a Bitcoiner meme in 2014 after Newsweek claimed he is Satoshi.

It was only right to create the NFTs on a platform that honored Satoshis legacy, developer Brian Laughlan told Decrypt in October.

But how? Satoshibles could have launched additional NFTs on Stacks, but Laughlan said this week that he didnt want to split up the community across multiple chains.

Instead, his team started developing a cross-chain bridge, which lets Satoshibles holders move the NFT asset from Ethereum to Stacks and back as they please. Now live, the StacksBridge offers Satoshibles owners the opportunity to shift back and forth between the blockchain platformsand other NFT projects can adopt the technology to support Stacks as well.

Its straightforward in functionality: a Satoshibles NFT holder can connect to the bridge with a MetaMask Ethereum wallet and Hiro Stacks wallet, and then pay transaction fees to execute the movement from one chain to the other.

The Satoshibles team has already minted the new Stacks NFTs on that platform, so when a holder uses the bridge, it either locks or unlocks access to each version of the NFT depending on which chain they want to be active on. A Satoshibles NFT can only be active on one blockchain at a time, with access locked on the other platform in the meantime.

An NFT acts like a deed of ownership to a digital item, whether its a profile picture, digital illustration, video file, or some other piece of media.

The NFT industry soared to new heights in 2021, with an estimated $25 billion worth of trading volume, according to DappRadar. Thats up from about $100 million the previous year.

Currently, StacksBridge has a trusted model, said Laughlan, which means the Satoshibles team is overseeing the security and operation of the bridge. They have explored building a trustless version that runs entirely on automated smart contractsthe code that operates protocols and applications on blockchain networksbut the team did not believe that it would be secure enough.

They do, however, believe that it could still be possible in future iterations.

As the name hints, StacksBridge isnt purely for Satoshibles either. Laughlan said he wanted to make it available for other projects to adopt as well.

Bitcoin doesnt have the capability to run smart contracts, which is required to operate NFT projects. Thats a key differentiator that sets Ethereum apart from Bitcoin, and part of why the NFT market has flourished on Ethereum, with other platforms like Solana and Tezos emerging too.

However, Stacks offers a solution. Its a smart contract blockchain network that rolls up its transactions into bundles and settles them within Bitcoin transactions. Its technically a layer-1 blockchain but acts akin to layer-2 or sidechain solutions on Ethereum.

Stacks founder Muneeb Ali described it to Decrypt as a layer 1.5 last September.

With smart contracts come NFTs, and an array of early Stacks projects emerged last fall, including Bitcoin Birds from 12-year-old Abraham Finlay. There have been Bitcoin-backed digital collectibles in the past, such as the in-demand Rare Pepes from 2016 on the Counterparty platform, but those now have to be wrapped as a new Ethereum NFT to make them tradeable.

For Laughlan, Stacks provided an opportunity to bring the Satoshibles collection of 5,000 randomized profile picturesto a more thematically appropriate platform. And in creating the Stacks versions that were minted for bridge users, Satoshibles reworked the backgrounds to feature Bitcoin imagery as well.

But there are potential functional or technical benefits to being on Stacks too, he said.

For example, hes working to build staking and gamification functionality on Stacks that would be prohibitively expensive to execute on Ethereums mainnet, but should be much cheaper for users to interact with on Stacks. For users who see Bitcoin as a more secure platform, bridging Satoshibles to Stacks can act like putting the NFT into a vault for long-term storage.

However, as the Ethereum space also develops and yields potential NFT-powered metaverse platforms, Laughlan wants users to be able to use their Satoshibles in that ecosystem as well. The option is left up to users with the StacksBridge, and Laughlan said that it could eventually incorporate an additional blockchain network in time.

StacksBridge launched earlier this week and about 4% of Satoshibles owners have already made the shift, Laughlan said. As of this writing, the cheapest-available Satoshibles NFT on Stacks (692 STX, or $1,169) is much more expensive than the cheapest on Ethereum (0.2 ETH, or $641), but theres a much wider selection of rarity levels on Ethereum at present.

As the Stacks NFT ecosystem takes shape, particularly around the thematic hook of Bitcoin, Laughlan hopes that the project can act like the Bored Ape Yacht Club for Bitcoin enthusiasts: a popular avatar, sure, but also a status symbol.

And for Bitcoin maximalists who wouldnt touch ETH or transact on other blockchains, Stacks provides an entryway into the NFT scene.

Weve got a lot of Bitcoin fans on the bandwagon, and a lot of them were saying that it's their first NFT, Laughlan explained. Basically, the only [negative] thing they said to me was that they were a bit annoyed that they had to buy it with Ethereum."

Now they wont have to.

https://decrypt.co/92537/satoshibles-first-nft-collection-bridge-ethereum-bitcoin-stacks

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Satoshibles Is First NFT Collection to Bridge Between Ethereum and Bitcoin via Stacks - Decrypt

Read enough about Bitcoin, and youll inevitably come across people who refer to the cryptocurrency as a religion.

Bloombergs Lorcan Roche Kelly called Bitcoin the first true religion of the 21st century. Bitcoin promoter Hass McCook has taken to calling himself The Friar and wrote a series of Medium pieces comparing Bitcoin to a religion. There is a Church of Bitcoin, founded in 2017, that explicitly calls legendary Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto its prophet.

In Austin, Texas, there are billboards with slogans like Crypto Is Real that weirdly mirror the ubiquitous billboards about Jesus found on Texas highways. Like many religions, Bitcoin even has dietary restrictions associated with it.

So does Bitcoins having prophets, evangelists and dietary laws make it a religion or not?

As a scholar of religion, I think this is the wrong question to ask.

The dirty secret of religious studies is that there is no universal definition of what religion is. Traditions such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism certainly exist and have similarities, but the idea that these are all examples of religion is relatively new.

The word religion as its used today a vague category that includes certain cultural ideas and practices related to God, the afterlife or morality arose in Europe around the 16th century. Before this, many Europeans understood that there were only three types of people in the world: Christians, Jews and heathens.

This model shifted after the Protestant Reformation when a long series of wars began between Catholics and Protestants. These became known as wars of religion, and religion became a way of talking about differences between Christians. At the same time, Europeans were encountering other cultures through exploration and colonialism. Some of the traditions they encountered shared certain similarities to Christianity and were also deemed religions.

Non-European languages have historically not had a direct equivalent to the word religion. What has counted as religion has changed over the centuries, and there are always political interests at stake in determining whether or not something is a religion.

As religion scholar Russell McCutcheon argues, The interesting thing to study, then, is not what religion is or is not, but the making of it process itself whether that manufacturing activity takes place in a courtroom or is a claim made by a group about their own behaviors and institutions.

With this in mind, why would anyone claim that Bitcoin is a religion?

Some commentators seem to be making this claim to steer investors away from Bitcoin. Emerging market fund manager Mark Mobius, in an attempt to tamp down enthusiasm about cryptocurrency, said that crypto is a religion, not an investment.

His statement, however, is an example of a false dichotomy fallacy, or the assumption that if something is one thing, it cannot be another. There is no reason that a religion cannot also be an investment, a political system or nearly anything else.

Mobius point, though, is that religion, like cryptocurrency, is irrational. This criticism of religion has been around since the Enlightenment, when Voltaire wrote, Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

In this case, labeling Bitcoin a religion suggests that bitcoin investors are fanatics and not making rational choices.

On the other hand, some Bitcoin proponents have leaned into the religion label. McCooks articles use the language of religion to highlight certain aspects of Bitcoin culture and to normalize them.

For example, stacking sats the practice of regularly buying small fractions of bitcoins sounds weird. But McCook refers to this practice as a religious ritual, and more specifically as tithing. Many churches practice tithing, in which members make regular donations to support their church. So this comparison makes sat stacking seem more familiar.

While for some people religion may be associated with the irrational, it is also associated with what religion scholar Doug Cowan calls the good, moral and decent fallacy. That is, some people often assume if something is really a religion, it must represent something good. People who stack sats might sound weird. But people who tithe could sound principled and wholesome.

For religion scholars, categorizing something as a religion can pave the way for new insights.

As religion scholar J.Z. Smith writes, Religion is not a native term; it is created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and therefore is theirs to define. For Smith, categorizing certain traditions or cultural institutions as religions creates a comparative framework that will hopefully result in some new understanding. With this in mind, comparing Bitcoin to a tradition like Christianity may cause people to notice things that they didnt before.

For example, many religions were founded by charismatic leaders. Charismatic authority does not come from any government office or tradition but solely from the relationship between a leader and their followers. Charismatic leaders are seen by their followers as superhuman or at least extraordinary. Because this relationship is precarious, leaders often remain aloof to keep followers from seeing them as ordinary human beings.

Several commentators have noted that Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto resembles a sort of prophet. Nakamotos true identity or whether Nakamoto is actually a team of people remains a mystery. But the intrigue surrounding this figure is a source of charisma with consequences for bitcoins economic value. Many who invest in bitcoin do so in part because they regard Nakamoto as a genius and an economic rebel. In Budapest, artists even erected a bronze statue as a tribute to Nakamoto.

Theres also a connection between Bitcoin and millennialism, or the belief in a coming collective salvation for a select group of people.

In Christianity, millennial expectations involve the return of Jesus and the final judgment of the living and the dead. Some Bitcoiners believe in an inevitable coming hyperbitcoinization in which bitcoin will be the only valid currency. When this happens, the Bitcoin believers who invested will be justified, while the no coiners who shunned cryptocurrency will lose everything.

Finally, some Bitcoiners view bitcoin as not just a way to make money, but as the answer to all of humanitys problems.

Because the root cause of all of our problems is basically money printing and capital misallocation as a result of that, McCook argues, the only way the whales are going to be saved, or the trees are going to be saved, or the kids are going to be saved, is if we just stop the degeneracy.

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This attitude may be the most significant point of comparison with religious traditions. In his book God Is Not One, religion professor Stephen Prothero highlights the distinctiveness of world religions using a four-point model, in which each tradition identifies a unique problem with the human condition, posits a solution, offers specific practices to achieve the solution and puts forth exemplars to model that path.

This model can be applied to Bitcoin: The problem is fiat currency, the solution is Bitcoin, and the practices include encouraging others to invest, stacking sats and hodling refusing to sell bitcoin to keep its value up. The exemplars include Satoshi and other figures involved in the creation of blockchain technology.

So does this comparison prove that Bitcoin is a religion?

Not necessarily, because theologians, sociologists and legal theorists have many different definitions of religion, all of which are more or less useful depending on what the definition is being used for.

However, this comparison may help people understand why Bitcoin has become so attractive to so many people, in ways that would not be possible if Bitcoin were approached as a purely economic phenomenon.

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Why are people calling Bitcoin a religion? - The Conversation AU

It's been another wild week for bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency surged 11% on Friday, bringing it back above $40,000 for the first time in two weeks. A few days earlier, it had slumped below $37,000.

But while bitcoin remains volatile, Betterment's Dan Egan says it is turning into a portfolio staple.

In the early days of bitcoin, for example, it was seen as a sudden path to riches now, it acts more like a "digital gold asset" that may provide a market hedge, he told CNBC's "ETF Edge" on Monday.

"It's definitely maturing into more of an alternative like gold or precious metals," Egan said. "You should have a little slice of it in your portfolio just for diversification's sake."

Still, bitcoin prices are well off the highs set in November. The crypto traded at close to $70,000 at its peak.

Alternative exposure to bitcoin can be found in the ETF space. Bitcoin prices jumped last year following the launch of the first bitcoin futures ETF, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), in October.

This futures ETF is useful for both long- and short-term investors, ProShares' Simeon Hyman said in the same "ETF Edge" interview.

"The futures market, if anything, is a better reflection of price and more liquid," he said. "BITO, in and of itself, trades lots of volume every day, and there are options on it as well."

Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Fidelity's application for a bitcoin ETF, but BITO still holds promise, Hyman added.

"The futures market [has] multiple exchanges that converge to the price of those futures," he said. "There are key advantages when you combine that with the ETF structure that make it a pretty compelling value proposition."

The BITO ETF is up 5% this month, though it has fallen 12% for the year.

Disclaimer

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'Early days of the Gold Rush are over' for bitcoin but it still has portfolio value, Betterment says - CNBC

Bitcoin price has seen tremendous gains over the past three days as it attempts to overcome a massive hurdle. While altcoins like Ethereum and Ripple have corresponded to this bullishness, investors need to exercise caution with fresh investments as a retracement could be around the corner.

Bitcoin price has risen 18% over the past four days and is currently hovering below the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) and the weekly resistance barrier confluence at $42,816. If this uptrend is a bull trap, BTC is likely to see rejection followed by a retracement to the immediate support level at $8,481.

A breakdown of the said barrier will knock the big crypto down to $34,752. In an extremely bearish case, Bitcoin price could revisit the $30,000 psychological barrier and collect the liquidity resting below it.

BTC/USD 1-day chart

If BTC produces a daily candlestick close above the breakers upper limit at $44,387, however, it will invalidate the bearish thesis. While this development will alleviate the sell-side pressure, it does not mean that Bitcoin price has flipped bullish.

A daily candlestick close above $52,000 will produce a higher high and suggest the possible start of an uptrend.

Ethereum price has followed the big crypto and pierced the bearish breaker, ranging from $2,789 to $3,167. Any further bullish momentum will push ETH to climb higher and retest the 50-day SMA at $3,242.

Assuming BTC retraces, investors can expect Ethereum price to face rejection at $3,242, leading to a 25% pullback to the weekly support level at $2,324.

In a highly bearish case, Ethereum price could revisit the $1,730 weekly support level and collect the sell-side liquidity resting below it.

ETH/USD 1-day chart

Regardless of the bearish outlook, the Ethereum price can invalidate the short-term bearish outlook if it produces a daily candlestick close above the $3,167 resistance zone. A bullish scenario could be kick-started, however, if buyers push ETH to produce a swing high at $3,413.

Ripple price broke out of its consolidation and rallied 25% from $0.604 to $0.754. This impressive move is currently retesting the weekly resistance barrier at $0.740, which rests below another hurdle that extends from $0.757 to $0.807.

Rejection at this multi-resistance zone seems likely considering the situation in which Bitcoin is in, and investors can expect the Ripple price to retrace 16%, returning to the consolidation zone at $0.628.

XRP/USD 1-day chart

A daily candlestick close above the supply zones upper limit at $0.807 will signal a resurgence of buyers and indicate their willingness to move higher. In this case, Ripple price could set up a higher high by rallying 12% to $0.911.

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Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple: BTC bears to go extinct beyond $53,000 - FXStreet

Bitcoin is one of the most trusted cryptocurrencies in the market and its dominance keeps growing

The year 2021 will go down in history as one of the greatest milestones for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Bitcoin witnessed massive institutional adoption in 2021, so much so that El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as its legal tender to make currencies available for the unbanked citizens of the country. Also, the upsurge of NFTs, the expansion of decentralization, and the emergence of various financial institutions have made it possible for major cryptocurrencies like BTC to expand their domain in the market. Bitcoin has been the talk of the town since its inception in 2009. Last year, BTC hit all-time highs of US$67,000 in November as the market analysts made wild predictions about the coin surpassing US$100,000 in 2022. But then it plunged right back into the crypto winter after its bullish run for quite some time. Several market analysts now believe that BTC will soon recover from its bearish phase and will achieve major goals by the end of 2022. In this article, we have listed the top Bitcoin predictions that might come true in 2022.

Crypto and blockchain experts believe that Bitcoin will be adopted as a digital asset by more people in 2022. They also believe that more understanding about the industry and the underlying technology will drive this adoption. There may be more countries like El Salvador that will adopt BTC as a legal currency to enhance and facilitate efficiency in the economic and financial infrastructure.

There are several investors and market analysts who believe that the year 2022 will witness more crypto regulations. Even though opinions on this aspect are not united, several government organizations believe larger industry players are looking for clearer regulations, and integrating regulations would help them build confidence in the industry and would also encourage them to adopt other major cryptos in the future.

One aspect that has become extremely clear in 2021 is that there are many other cryptos with great potential that pose direct competition to BTC. There are numerous coins launched every other day, directed towards specific purposes. Ethereum and Solana are the top rivals that Bitcoin faces right now, and experts believe that Ether or SOL might take over Bitcoin in the future.

As mentioned above, the crypto market comprises several other digital currencies, but BTC accounts for almost 70% of the whole market capitalization during early 2021. According to reports, the number has now risen to almost 40% more. But experts believe that the emergence of more digital currencies, including NFTs in the metaverses, will shift several existing conditions revolving around BTCs role in the industry.

Even though the relationship between cryptos like Bitcoin and centralized banks is not the best, with the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, more and more central banks are introducing Bitcoin-related services in 2022. Currently, major banks are undertaking projects that reflect on the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies and initiate such programs according to the customers needs.

At the beginning of 2022, Bitcoin might not have showcased its true potential, but that does not mean it will continue to dive further continuously. Market analysts are quite optimistic about BTCs future growth and performance. Even though volatility will always be a part of Bitcoin, like in all other cryptocurrencies, after all these fluctuations, the value of BTC will continue to rise.

One of the most unique opportunities that Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies possess is that they can create a lot of ownership opportunities. BTC can lead to widespread ownership of cryptocurrencies as people are looking for new ways to invest in innovative technologies and businesses. This increased ownership will also lead to large tech corporations investing in blockchain and cryptos.

The crypto industry has faced several hacks and scams. Market regulators believe that the rising popularity of BTC requires harder regulations. Otherwise, malpractitioners might use the crypto for various other illegal purposes.

Even though this might not seem like a possibility right now, experts are still confident about Bitcoins bright future in 2022. Several tech leaders consider Bitcoin as the face of the crypto domain. Quite rightly so Bitcoin has already presented its true potential in 2021. So, there are quite optimistic BTC price predictions.

Big development crypto investors will be on the lookout in 2022 for the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds by the US. Futures ETF is one of the greatest attractions for investors so there might also be developments in the spot Bitcoin ETF domain.

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Top 10 Bitcoin Predictions that Might Become Real in 2022 - Analytics Insight

Cryptocurrency custody solutions have become a big business over the last few years. Independent storage and security systems meant to hold large quantities of crypto on behalf of clients can bring in institutional capital and retail investors waiting on the sidelines simply because they remove a major fear: losing access to funds that become unrecoverable.

Because of the decentralized nature of major blockchains like that of Bitcoin or Ethereum, whenever a user loses access to their wallet and doesnt have a backup of their private keys, the funds within it cannot be recovered. Theres no central entity to turn to, and no one can control the blockchain to give anyone access back to their funds.

Storing a private key can be challenging, as it needs to be kept away from bad actors, yet close enough for the user to access it when necessary. Dealing with the challenges associated with managing cryptocurrency has seen many simply leave their funds on cryptocurrency exchanges, creating a massive demand for crypto custody services, to the point where Americas fifth-largest bank is offering a solution.

While keeping cryptocurrencies with a third party is often seen as a security risk because that third party can itself get hacked, experts told Cointelegraph that custody services are the best option out there when it comes to lost coins.

Early cryptocurrency adopters have lost cryptocurrency in numerous ways, including exchange hacks. These security breaches have seen Bitcoin academic Andreas Antonopoulos popularize the famous slogan not your keys, not your coins.

Cryptocurrencies can be lost in a number of ways, although unless someone admits that they have lost access to their funds, its impossible to tell from data on the blockchain. More often than not, users lose access to a wallets private key, which allows them to access the funds within it.

There have also been cases in which users send cryptocurrency to the wrong address. Once again, because of the decentralized nature of the blockchain, theres no remedial action to retrieve these tokens. Finally, users can pass away without leaving anyone else access to their funds.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Kim Grauer, director of research at blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, noted that an estimated 3.7 million Bitcoin (BTC) (today worth over $140 billion) has been lost. Grauer said the estimate is a bit old and is set to be updated with further research later this year.

Crypto assets are often considered lost after remaining dormant for a specific number of years. While this method does point to coins that are effectively not currently in circulation, it is flawed. In 2020, for example, a wallet with 50 BTC first mined in February 2009 moved its funds to two addresses.

Michael Fasanello, director of training and regulatory affairs at the Blockchain Intelligence Group which helps government agencies, cryptocurrency businesses and financial institutions address fraud told Cointelegraph it may be difficult to approximate the monetary value of lost coins because those who suffered losses would not always be interested in sharing such information.

The figure of 3.7 million represents close to 20% of Bitcoins circulating supply, which, to Grauer, likely has an economic impact that will affect the long-term price of the cryptocurrency. Grauer added:

The Chainalysis executive added that this quality isnt unique to the cryptocurrency ecosystem and should not be prohibitive to further adoption, as there are many ways to custody your cryptocurrency safely either in your own possession or on an exchange.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Chris Brooks, founder of cryptocurrency recovery business Crypto Asset Recovery, noted that in his experience, people should be more worried about leaving their seed phrase or private keys in paper wallets that can be mistakenly thrown out, rather than about hackers or scammers. Brooks said:

In March 2011, a user on the Bitcointalk forum started a thread, trying to add up the known lost BTC. While the thread derailed with time, it did show just how many users have lost access to cryptocurrency over the years.

These losses, as Chainalysis Grauer said, can have a significant economic impact on the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto has famously said that lost coins only make everyone elses coins worth slightly more and that they should be thought of as a donation to everyone. The Blockchain Intelligence Groups Fasanello said that when it comes to coins with a limited supply, Satoshi may be right, but those with an infinite supply could see the reverse be true.

Fasanello said that just as fiat currency loses value with inflation, so do cryptocurrencies. If a cryptocurrency doesnt have a finite supply, the value of the lost coins is simply going to erode over time.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Yuriy Kovalev, CEO of crypto trading platform Zenfuse, said that lost coins represent a hidden cost of security in the cryptocurrency space that benefits everyone else:

Indeed, most cases in which lost tokens are recovered involve lost passwords used to unlock wallets and not the private keys used to recover them. A recent case saw a computer engineer and hardware hacker crack a Trezor One hardware wallet that was locked because its owner had forgotten its security PIN.

Asaf Naim, founder and CEO of blockchain application developer Kirobo, told Cointelegraph that Satoshis words may be true for minor and occasional instances of losing crypto, but Naim added that the law of scarcity only holds if people have confidence in the underlying system. If too much cryptocurrency is lost, people will stop believing in its use and its intrinsic value.

Early stories from the cryptocurrency space about lost crypto have made headlines over the years, pointing to how hard it may be to recover lost funds. One such example is that of James Howells, who threw away a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC (almost $285 million today) while cleaning his house in 2013.

Wallet recovery services have gained popularity over the last few years but often charge large percentages of the funds they recover. Grauer said that there are industry solutions meant to reduce the chances of accidental losses, which include storing your cryptocurrency on a known and trusted exchange, or hot wallet, similar to what you do with a bank.

The approach contrasts those who argue that if a user does not control the private keys to their wallet, they do not actually own the coins within it. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Crypto Asset Recoverys Brooks seemed to agree with Grauer, adding, however, that crypto can be extremely complicated, and as such, he believes new investors are better off with custodial wallets.

To Brooks, if a user suddenly passes away or suffers a serious accident, its easy for loved ones to claim their crypto from a custodial wallet, but its hard to do so through the use of a private key. Kirobos Naim believes the cryptocurrency recovery industry may be important but is part of a backward approach:

He added that credit cards wouldnt be as popular as they are if there was a high chance of irreversibly losing money every time you used one. The solution could be related to cryptocurrency platforms and their user experience, which could, for example, implement whitelists the same way online banking platforms do to prevent common errors.

To the executive, its amazing that writing down words on a piece of paper or memorizing them is the best practice for security in 2022, as it shows crypto has lacked a safety net for human error.

The free market has attempted to come up with better solutions over time, which include the creation of titanium sheets where users can write down their seed phrases or private keys. These sheets are harder to throw away by accident and can often survive natural disasters. Some wallets, including Coinbase Wallet, allow users to back up their private keys on Google Drive or iCloud.

While cryptocurrency custody services may offer institutional investors the security they need to enter the market, for users looking for an uncensorable form of money, lost crypto may continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future.

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Lost Bitcoin may be a donation, but is it hindering adoption? - Cointelegraph

During the House Hearing on Cryptos Energy Use & Impact there was a point of opposition provided in the manner of, number of jobs per unit of electricity consumed. Im not nonplussed by the question I think theres a fair question to ask relative to our understanding of where our energy is going somewhere in there, and maybe there is some validity to comparing it to our employment figures, I dont know. But to gain a bearing of understanding around this kind of thinking I wanted to look to compare the energy consumption of one of our favorite companies here in the United States.

I chose to look at Microsoft (MSFT). On some quick napkin math I looked at Microsofts 2019 employment numbers (144,000), as I could only find data on their energy consumption from 2019.

2019s total energy use, thanks to Microsofts 2019 Environmental Sustainability Data Factsheet, comes in at just over 9.2 million megwatt hours (MWh). Which is 9,200 gigawatt hours (GWh), or 9.2 terawatt hours (TWh).

Before we attempt to look into the energy consumption and moralization conversation, a quick input from the American Geosciences Institute:

The amount of electricity that a power plant generates over a period of time depends on the amount of time it operates at a specific capacity. For example, if the R. E. Ginna reactor operates at 582 MW capacity for 24 hours, it will generate 13,968 megawatt hours (MWh).

The largest nuke reactor in the world as of January 2020 resides in Japan. Tokyos Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactor has a net capacity of just shy of 8,000 MW, so for conversations sake well just use that nice, round number. To get our MWh measurement so we can compare production to consumption lets do the math:

8,000 MW output x 24 hours = 192,000 MWh

Now we need to get the annual potential output, this metric is not going to necessarily be reliable because nukes cannot operate perpetually. There is very important maintenance along the way in order to ensure that all safety and regulatory guidelines are met. But were speaking in hypotheticals here:

192,000 MWh x 365 days = 70,080,000 MWh annually

or

70,000 GWh

or

70 TWh

According to Power-technology.com that plant produces enough power to support 16 million homes.

Here we have Microsoft consuming nearly 13% of that relative output for themselves. And if we wanted to go down the line of thought around number of jobs per unit electricity consumed wed get a figure that looks something like:

9.2 million MWh / 144,000 employees = 63.9 MWh per employee

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration the average household consumes 10,715 kWh per year, at 893 kWh per month.

Okay now my math might be wrong here, so check me. But according to my brain that means that Microsofts energy consumption per employee equals that of approximately 4,000 households each.

Is this really a metric that Bitcoins opponents really want to use to try and argue against supporting the network and asset?

Both Microsoft and Bitcoin are providing massive services to tens of millions of people across the world: between facilitating digital communications and operations, to securing purchasing power and providing functionality for cross-border payments and settlement finality that are leaps and bounds improved over the standard today.

As a former artist, and academic by passion, all I ask is this:

Can we please criticize from honest, even and fair grounds?

Can Bitcoins opponents throw hypocrisy and ignorance out the window?

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

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Addressing More Bitcoin Energy FUD By Showing The Mirror - Bitcoin Magazine

El Salvador, which has been on the forefront of crypto adoption after making Bitcoin official tender, now has a new Bitcoin education center.

As you may remember, the bill to make Bitcoin legal tenderin El Salvador got passed by the Legislative Assembly on June 9 and theBitcoin Lawbecame effective on 7 September 2021.

On 24 June 2021, President Bukeleannounced during a national address that the Bitcoin Law will become effective on 7 September 7 2021.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, El Salvador has partnered with peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful to launch La Casa Del Bitcoin, an educational and training center to provide resources for learning about Bitcoin.

Paxfuls blog post, which was published on February 2, mentioned that the center would also be home to theBuilt With Bitcoin Foundationoffices, hosting events and meetups to build greater community participation and education.

It went on to say that La Casa Del Bitcoin would provide educational training and events that grow awareness around the benefits of buying and selling Bitcoin as a means of exchange for the local community and that it would further drive the next wave of Bitcoin mass adoption and equip growing segments such as small merchants and local businesses with tools to connect to a global community of users.

Ray Youssef, CEO and co-founder of Paxful, had this to say:

Its no secret that Bitcoin is shaping the future of finance in El Salvador and beyond. Education continues to be a key driver of global Bitcoin adoption and this new center represents its importance to the creation of an inclusive financial system. From the small merchant to the Bitcoin enthusiast, were excited to learn from the people and share the power of Bitcoin for freedom and equal financial access.

And Yusuf Nessary, Director of Philanthropy of Built With Bitcoin Foundation, said:

Were excited to build a home for the Built With Bitcoin Foundation in El Salvador and expand our impact. The projects that we are launching demonstrate the power of Bitcoin as a philanthropic tool to aid change and further financial freedom. Were grateful for the opportunity to deliver resources and continue building equitable opportunities for countless people and communities who bring our mission to life.

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.

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A New Bitcoin Education Center in El Salvador Aims to Bring About Next Wave of Adoption - CryptoGlobe

The Venezuelan government has approved a new tax bill aiming to collect up to 20% in taxes from cryptocurrency transactions, according to local reports.

Venezuelas National Assembly helda second discussion session on Thursday for a new draft bill targeting taxes on large financial transactions in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

The Venezuelan government reportedly approved the draft bill last Thursday, requiring local firms and individuals to pay up to 20% for operations carried out in cryptocurrencies as well as foreign currencies such as the United States dollar.

Filed on Jan. 20, the draft law aims to collect 2%20%from transactions in any currencies other than those issued by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, or the Venezuelan bolivar and the countrys oil-backed cryptocurrency, El Petro.

The initiative aims to incentivize the use of the national currency, which reportedly lost over 70% in value last year alone and shed nearly all its value over the past decade.

It is necessary to guarantee treatment at least equal to, or more favorable, to payments and transactions made in the national currency or in cryptocurrencies or crypto assets issued by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela versus payments made in foreign currency, the bill reads.

Related: India to introduce 30% crypto tax, digital rupee CBDC by 202223

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin adoptionhas been skyrocketing in Venezuela in recent years, with many thousands of local businesses starting to move into cryptocurrency to survive hyperinflation. In October 2021, a major international airport in Venezuela was preparing to start accepting cryptocurrencies like BTCas payment for tickets and other services.

Link:
Venezuelans reportedly hit by new Bitcoin tax of up to 20% - Cointelegraph

Ethereums competitor Polkadot network consumes the least electricity compared to Bitcoin, Solana and other top cryptocurrencies. This implies that Polkadot has a less negative impact on climate change than its counterparts . The network recently announced its Pioneers Prize program to reward technological innovation on the Polkadot blockchain.

The Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) conducted a new research on the electricity consumption of blockchain networks like Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin and Polkadot. Based on research findings, Polkadot consumes less power than most popular cryptocurrencies, at 6.6 times the annual electricity consumption of an average US household.

Bitcoin consumes the most electricity, followed by Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Algorand, Avalanche and Tezos.

The electricity consumption by a blockchain network is a factor influencing the inflow of capital from institutional investors. This is evident from Teslas move in 2021, when the electric car giant stopped accepting Bitcoin payments in 2021, citing the environmental impact of BTC mining.

The Polkadot network recently announced its Pioneers Prize program, with a reward of $20 million for technological innovation in its ecosystem. The Ethereum-competitor is keen on supporting the growth of its ecosystem and Web3; the prize sets a series of challenges to pick winners.

The news of the Pioneers Prize program and Polkadots low electricity consumption compared to its peers have fueled a bullish outlook on DOT among investors.

Analysts have evaluated the Polkadot price trend and noted that the altcoin has completed its breakout and retest. @CryptoBoss1984, a pseudonymous technical analyst, believes that Polkadot is in the buy zone.

FXStreet analysts have predicted that the Polkadot price would offer a buying opportunity before the altcoin rallies 45%.

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Polkadot consumes least amount of electricity compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana - FXStreet