Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

The wild ride of Bitcoin has dominatedheadlines in recent weeks. The cryptocurrencys value stands around $50,000 forone Bitcoin this week compared to about $10,000 a year ago and around $400five years ago. Bitcoin is just one of thousands of cryptocurrencies inexistence - and many of those are also surging but it has by far the highestvalue.

Since Bitcoin first appeared in 2009as the original decentralized digital currency, i.e., not controlled by banks ora government, a handful of travel companies have come to accept it as a form ofpayment.

One of the first was online travelagency CheapAir, which began accepting Bitcoin in 2013. Originally the companyused a third-party processor to convert the Bitcoins into dollars which couldthen be paid to airlines and hotels since virtually all suppliers stillrequire payment in fiat currency. Eventually, the OTA built its own processingtechnology for Bitcoin to manage the exchange itself.

CheapAir co-founder and CEO Jeff Klee says that the needto exchange the cryptocurrency is one of the roadblocks to widespread adoptionin the travel industry.

It would be much easier for everyoneif the suppliers would accept crypto. Its a bit of an ordeal when the supplierdoesnt, so we have to exchange into dollars and pay the supplier separately,he says.

Thats what makes it unattractiveto a lot of travel intermediaries. Theres a lot of infrastructure you need,training you need for your frontline agents to support it when customers call.We decided to commit to it, so we built that infrastructure and its a big partof our training.

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Even with that commitment, Klee says cryptocurrencystill accounts for just single digit percentages of CheapAirs sales. But therehave been positive aspects.

We really value and appreciate our Bitcoincustomers. They tend to be very loyal, and they tend to buy more expensiveproducts ... first-class tickets and luxury hotel accommodations, he says.

Spain-based OTA Destinia has beenaccepting Bitcoin since 2014. Managing director RicardoFernndez says that while it only accounts for about 2% of the platforms globalsales, offering payment in Bitcoin has enabled the site to attract a niche ofcustomers around the world that own and want to spend cryptocurrency.

But, he says, that relationshipbetween holding versus spending cryptocurrency is changing, something echoed byKlee.

Until 2020 the relation between priceof Bitcoin and number of bookings was direct - the higher price, the higherbookings. In 2020 when Bitcoin started to go crazy, the relation started to beinverse. So if price is growing, the number of bookings is decreasing because peopleare now looking at it as an investment, Fernndez says.

That hasnt been the case for Travala, an Australia-based OTA founded in 2017 that offers more than two millionaccommodations around the world and in two weeks will add tours and activities.The sites primary cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, followed by its native AVA tokenand 25 other cryptocurrency options.

Co-founder and CEO Juan Otero says Travala is processing about one million dollars worth of bookings each month and about 70% of thatis paid in cryptocurrency, for which the company has built paymenttechnology to manage the exchange and payment in fiat to suppliers.

He says broader adoption of cryptocurrencyis inevitable.

We are just at the beginning of whatwill be a true financial revolution where people will move away from fiat andinto cryptocurrencies, Otero says.

When you pay with crypto, its nearto instant, its near to free, its privacy preserving everything thatblockchain technology offers you is something you have when you usecryptocurrency to pay. Plus no added credit card fees, or waiting for a paymentto be processed or denied. All the issues and costs with traditional creditcard payments are removed when you pay with cryptocurrency.

That doesnt mean cryptocurrency is withoutrisk, cautions Thomas Helldorff, vice president for airlines and travel at Worldpayfrom FIS.

If you accept a Bitcoin as a form ofpayment, then you have to live with the risk that by the time you accept it,then you eventually convert it to your currency, that Bitcoins value mayfluctuate up or down and that may significantly erode your margin, Helldorffsays.

Travel companies with a very thin margin are not in the game of speculating with currencies.

Thomas Helldorff - Worldpay from FIS

Travel companies with a very thinmargin are not in the game of speculating with currencies.

Instead, Helldorff says he would liketo see governments or central banks issue their own digital currency, whichwould facilitate more modernized payment processing while providing thestability of being backed by fiat currency. Currently, central bank digitalcurrencies are in various stages of exploration and development in countries includingChina, Singapore and Sweden.

Governmentally backed digital currenciesare simply a digital representation of the currency that they represent. Their valuedoesnt change, Helldorff says.

And it is a digitally certifiedpayment instrument that you cant alter, you cant fake, you cant change. Thatsthe next evolution.

Helldorff says airlines and othertravel suppliers should begin preparing for this shift now developing standardsand systems to connect a digital payment type to a travel record.

We all know it takes years for thesespecifications to be endorsed by IATA, by everybody, so I think its the righttime when we are not terribly busy while we are waiting for things to get better. ...We might use some of this time to think about whats the next big paymentoptions, get prepared and maybe be the first industry to be able to cross-borderaccept those currency units, he says.

By linking central bank digitalcurrencies to a smart contract a mechanism inherent to blockchain-basedcryptocurrencies the process of payments between travelers, intermediariesand suppliers would be faster and frictionless.

Helldorff says this automationcreates a significant advantage that will eventually motivate broad adoption ofsmart contracts and distributed ledger technology by the travel industry.

With a smart contract, there are definedrules for what happens in what situation and the money just bounces around becausethere is no need for clearing and settlement, he says.

Theres no invoicing and banktransfers and checks going forth and back to make that money flow work. Thebooking, the order itself, holds the financial value or access to the financialvalue and distributes the financial value as per order and moves the moneybetween the players as the services get executed or as the contract stipulates.

"This is how I see the future of settlements happening in the airlineecosystem.

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As Bitcoin surges, will cryptocurrency become an accepted form of payment in travel? - PhocusWire

Change doesn't come fast, or often, to institutions like Christies, a British auction house founded in 1766 predating American independence. But it has come all at once to Christie's, which is accepting cryptocurrency for the first time for its first purely digital artwork.

Christies has never offered a new media artwork of this scale or importance before, Noah Davis, specialist in Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christies in New York, said in a release. Acquiring Beeples work is a unique opportunity to own an entry in the blockchain itself created by one of the worlds leading digital artists.

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The auction house is accepting payment in the cryptocurrency Ether, hosted on the open-source blockchain Ethereum, via a digital wallet transfer although not for the buyer's premium (the fee you pay for winning the bid, in addition to the bid).

I almost look at it now like Im a political cartoonist, Mike Winkelmann, known online as Beeple, said about the work, which is a compilation of digital pieces one created each day for 5,000 days. Except instead of doing sketches, Im using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real-time.

Beeple, who has created digital artwork for everyone from Ariana Grande to deadmau5, has 1.8 million followers on Instagram, where he posted the first installation in the series on May 1, 2007, a picture of his Uncle Jim, nicknamed Uber Jay.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

"I probably would have spent more time on this, had I known it would eventually be part of a piece auctioned by Christies," he told the auction house.

There's another from the morning his first child was born, a bad bout of food poisoning and even one inspired by the fly that landed on former vice president Mike Pence's head during a debate last year.

The winning bidder won't be taking it home with them, at least not in the traditional way. The digital work will be sent using blockchain technology, which will use a non-fungible token encrypted with the artists unforgeable signature a unique identifier for the original. The starting bid is at $100, but if you don't have the cryptocurrency to afford the work, you can still see it online, with the rest of the plebeians.

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Christie's becomes first major auction house to sell cryptocurrency-based artwork | TheHill - The Hill

In this photo illustration, visual representations of the digital cryptocurrency, Bitcoin are arranged on January 4, 2021 in Katwijk, Netherlands.

Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China Bitcoin could rise to $1 million over the long term to become a reserve currency for the world, according to one asset manager.

But JPMorgan warned of risks ahead as the cryptocurrency continues to rally.

Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets, said bitcoin could hit $500,000 by the end of the decade. It could eventually reach $1 million per coin, he added, without giving a timeline.

"I think that bitcoin will eventually rise to become the global reserve currency. I think bitcoin will eventually be much much larger than the gold market cap," he said during the latest episode of CNBC's "Beyond the Valley" podcast.

Meanwhile, global central banks have been easing monetary policy such as lowering interest rates and buying assets through the so-called quantitative easing program to help cushion the blow to economies hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

"There were trillions of dollars that were printed and injected into the economy and everyone from individuals to financial institutions and corporations ran around the world looking for the best way to protect their purchasing power, they ultimately decided it was bitcoin," Pompliano said as he discussed what was behind bitcoin's surge.

(Bitcoin) will eventually take that seat at the kingdom of being that global reserve currency of the internet generation.

Anthony Pompliano

Morgan Creek Digital Assets

The bitcoin bull's prediction that bitcoin could hit $1 million is based on a few factors including the scarcity of the cryptocurrency which has a cap of 21 million coins, as well as the decentralized nature of the technology.

There is no central authority like a central bank that controls bitcoin.

Instead, the so-called bitcoin network is made up of miners who process transactions. These miners operate a vast array of specialized computers required to carry out the bitcoin mining process.

As there are many different miners, no single entity can control the network. And because the computers they use are often very powerful machines, bitcoin proponents claim the network is one of the strongest computer networks in the world.

"As more and more people come into the market, there is more liquidity. As there is more liquidity, there is more utility. As there's more utility, there's more stability in the price you get kind of this evolution," Pompliano said.

"If you think about that internet economy, there is no native currency (bitcoin) will eventually take that seat at the kingdom of being that global reserve currency of the internet generation."

In January, JPMorgan released a note to clients putting a "theoretical" long term price target on bitcoin of $146,000 as bitcoin begins to compete with gold.

Gold is broadly accepted as a "safe haven" asset where investors flock to in times of political strife or financial market turmoil. Bitcoin is now beginning to develop such a reputation.

"Bitcoin is competing with traditional gold, bitcoin is a form of digital gold," Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, global markets strategist at JPMorgan, told CNBC's "Beyond the Valley."

He said that the value of gold held by the private sector, solely for the purpose of investment, is around $2.7 trillion. For bitcoin's market cap to reach that, it would need to hit a price of around $146,000.

But there are caveats, the biggest one being the volatility in bitcoin's price. The digital coin is known for wild swings in price. Panigirtzoglou said bitcoin is "five times more volatility than gold."

The key to bitcoin's volatility converging with gold is institutional adoption, the JPMorgan strategist said.

"The faster the pace of institutional adoption, the quicker that convergence in volatility will take place," he said.

Still, there are risks ahead for the current rally. While it has been driven by institutional investors, retail participation has also been high.

"The biggest risk is that the flow impulse we've seen over the past months slows materially from here," Panigirtzoglou said.

"In particular when the economies reopen, people go back to the office, they have less time to trade at home, and as a result some of that, retail flow impulse slows from here," he added.

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Bitcoin at $1 million? Some analysts are bullish but others warn of risks ahead - CNBC

The recent rally in Bitcoins price is often attributed to institutional buying support, with many publically traded companies adding the digital asset to their balance sheets Tesla being the one that grabbed the maximum eyeballs.

However, Bitcoin and blockchains story begins more than a decade ago when the cryptocurrency was first released by an anonymous person or group of people known only as Satoshi Nakamoto.

Regardless of whether you think cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are in a bubble or not, the underlying technology called blockchain that powers them is objectively groundbreaking.

The iGaming industry was one of the early adopters of Blockchain and cryptocurrency. In this article, we take an in-depth look at blockchain and cryptocurrency, how they are used in the iGaming industry, and where they might be heading in the future.

A blockchain is a database where information is stored in different blocks and chained together via cryptography methods.

Bitcoin introduced blockchain to create a decentralized network that could operate trustlessly. You do not need a third-party to validate a transaction between two parties; instead, the transaction is validated through a decentralized consensus-building process known as mining.

In the case of Bitcoin, there is no single entity keeping track of the entire blockchain database. Instead, it is maintained by a massive network of miners who validate new blocks by competing against each other to win rewards.

Cryptography techniques are used to protect the system and enable the competitive mining process, which is why Bitcoin is called a crypto currency.

Since the database is decentralized and validated by a large number of computers worldwide, it is not possible to alter previous transactions recorded in the ledger because to do that, the majority of miners will have to agree to change the transaction in the history of the ledger; this removes a central point of failure and makes the ledger immutable.

Additionally, since the entire blockchain data is available to the public, every Bitcoin transaction in history can be viewed by anyone, providing transparency since all the information is publicly available.

As people kept researching blockchain technology over time, several developments have been made like smart contracts, which allow you to run applications on a decentralized network using Blockchain. Private centralized blockchains also became possible as an excellent way to store data and prevent the chances of fraud securely.

It is important to note that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies overlap but are not the same thing. For example, blockchains are also used to improve Supply-Chain Communications and Proof-of-Provenance, which has nothing to do with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

In 2018, it was estimated that 50% of all Bitcoin transactions were related to online gambling. One of the earliest gambling websites that used cryptocurrency was SatoshiDICE, where players could use Bitcoin to bet on a game of Dice. The company was eventually sold to an unknown buyer in 2013 for 126,315 BTC (worth $11.5 million at the time).

Today, blockchain is used for many purposes in the iGaming industry other than just for processing payments. Here are some functional areas where blockchain can help iGaming companies:

Additionally, gaming regulators may also start using Blockchain technology in their licensing procedures to ensure better compliance and bring more transparency.

The entire platform runs using a smart contract, which means the whole process is decentralized, and no centrally controlled entity stores the funds. It also leads to lower commission costs for the operator and faster transaction speed.

Additionally, white-label solutions for sports betting like Bethereum bring the benefits of using a blockchain to sports betting.

One of the significant benefits of using cryptocurrency payments is that it allows people to deposit money quickly, mainly if the online casino is located offshore and doesnt support any convenient traditional payment option for the player.

In countries with an unregulated online casino industry like India, many highly-ranked online casinos allow payments to be processed via cryptocurrency.

However, given the nature of cryptocurrency, it is likely that cryptocurrency would be regulated if not outright banned in the emerging markets. Ironically, these markets stand to gain the most from cryptocurrency payments as international transactions usually carry a hefty fee and take a long time to be processed.

Regardless, it is pretty clear that blockchain and cryptocurrency will play a much more significant role in the iGaming industry over the years to come.

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How Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Became a Vital Part of the iGaming Industry - Dazeinfo

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and technological whiz turned philanthropist, may not be a fan of bitcoin and digital-assets.

Asked during an interview published on Thursday with The Wall Street Journal what technological advancement the world could do without, Gates had this to say:

The way cryptocurrency works today allows for certain criminal activities. Itd be good to get rid of that, he quickly added: I probably should have said bio weapons. Thats a really bad thing.

The comments from Gates implies that the billionaire technologists is no bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.65% BTC.1, +0.67% enthusiast but his remarks may simply suggest that he feels that cryptocurrencies are prone to abuse by swindlers and in money-laundering schemesa common criticism of the decentralized digital asset that was created in 2009.

During a CNBC interview that aired on Thursday, Gates adopted a more moderate stance, describing his views on bitcoin as neutral.

I dont own bitcoin, Im not short bitcoin, so Ive taken a neutral view, he said in the interview that aired on CNBCs Sqawk Box show.

I do think moving money into a more digital form and getting transaction costs down, thats something the Gates Foundation does in developing countries, he added.

Bitcoin can go up and down just based on the mania or whatever the views are and I dont have a way of predicting how that will progress, he said.

Bitcoin prices have seen parabolic moves of late, despite critics who say that it is a technology looking to solve a problem that doesnt exist, while using outsize amounts of energy to create a single bitcoin.

To be sure, this isnt the first time, Gates has discussed bitcoin and cryptos but has beliefs have wavered over time. Back in 2018, he said in a separate Squawk Box interview that he would bet against bitcoin if he could.

As an asset class, youre not producing anything and so you shouldnt expect it to go up. Its kind of a pure greater fool theory type of investment, Gates said on CNBC two years ago.

Prices of the cryptocurrency were trading above $52,000 on Thursday and have gained nearly 80% so far in 2021. By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.00% was up 2.7%, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.19% was holding on to a 4% year-to-date gain, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.07% is up nearly 8% so far this year. Gold GC00, +0.32%, an asset that bitcoin is often pit against, is down 6.4% since the start of 2021.

Gates, who boasts a net worth of $123 billion,according to Forbes, making him the second wealthiest man in the world behind Amazon.comsAMZNJeff Bezos, has been getting more attention from his comments on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has ravaged the domestic economy and brought most of the worlds business and personal activity to a screeching halt.

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Bill Gates says cryptocurrency is one innovation the world could do without - MarketWatch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization and volume, hit a record high on Thursday, lifted by growing institutional interest in the space, and more than a week after its futures were launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

FILE PHOTO: Representation of the Ethereum virtual currency standing on the PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, February 3, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The virtual currency reached an all-time peak of $1,938 and was last up 4.6% at $1,936.94.

The CME last week launched futures on ether, the digital currency or token that facilitates transactions on the ethereum blockchain. In the crypto world, the terms ether and ethereum have become interchangeable.

Increasing institutional participation in cryptocurrencies also propelled bitcoin, the largest and most popular crypto asset, to an all-time peak of $52,640 on Wednesday.

Ethereum is really undervalued, and I believe it has been ... due to its more complex narrative, said Luis Cuende, co-founder of Aragon, a decentralized application on the ethereum blockchain.

A global computing network for Web3 (internet 3.0) is extremely exciting and new. I would say over the next three months, we could see ethereum hit $2,500.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is currently in consolidation mode after hitting a record high. It was last down 0.3% at $52,000. Among the mainstream investors and companies that have recently jumped on bitcoins bandwagon were Tesla, Mastercard, and BNY Mellon.

Jeffrey Gundlach, the billionaire chief executive of investment firm DoubleLine Capital, is the latest of the traditional investors who seemed to have a change of heart on bitcoin. He said in a tweet on Thursday that bitcoin may be the stimulus asset, not gold, adding that lots of liquid poured into a funnel creates a torrent.

Last month, Gundlach said he was neutral on bitcoin due to its volatility, which was a downgrade of his outlook from overweight.

Another beneficiary of bitcoins climb as a mainstream asset was the surge in trading volume for Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the worlds first bitcoin exchange traded fund, which was approved by Canadian regulators. Purpose started trading on Thursday.

More than C$80 million of Purpose were traded in the first few hours after its launch. By comparison, volume for the Bitcoin Fund, a closed-end investment fund, was about C$30 million.

CME data, meanwhile, showed nearly 1,900 ETH futures contracts were traded for the first five days after last weeks launch or about 92,800 ether, equivalent to roughly $160 million.

Around 27% of volume came from outside the United States and more than 33% traded during non-U.S. trading hours.

(1 U.S. dollar = C$1.2698)

Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto; Editing by Steve Orlofsky

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Cryptocurrency Ethereum hits record high, lifted by bitcoin, institutional demand - Reuters

American technology major Nvidia is all set to roll-out GeForce RTX 3060, the company's latest and most powerful Graphics Processing Unit later this month.

This is designed primarily for delivering the best user experience for gaming and professional work, but the GPU can also be used for other power-intense tasks including gene sequencing, weather simulations, and cryptocurrency mining.

With Bitcoin,Etherium, and other digital currencygaining a lot of value, there is an increased interest among tech enthusiasts to mine cryptocurrency and this has led to a lot of demand for powerful graphics cards.

Apparently, Nvidia is struggling to meet the demand for its GPUs in the market and expectsthe new GeForce RTX 3060 series may not reach the pro-gamers. Itis worrying that cryptocurrency miners may create a shortage of computer peripherals.

"We designed GeForce GPUs for gamers, and gamers are clamoring for more. Yet NVIDIA GPUs are programmable. And users are constantly discovering new applications for them, from weather simulation and gene sequencing to deep learning and robotics. Mining cryptocurrency is one of them. With the launch of GeForce RTX 3060 on February 25, were taking an important step to help ensure GeForce GPUs end up in the hands of gamers," said Matt Wuebbling, VP of Global GeForce Marketing, Nvidia.

In the coming days, Nvidia is slated to release RTX 3060 software drivers. It is designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm, and limit the hash rate, or cryptocurrency mining efficiency by up to 50% on the PCs.

On the bright side, Nvidia is bringing a new line of processors specially designed for professional Ethereum mining, dubbed as NVIDIA CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor).

The company says that the CMP products won't be able to process any graphics, but offer the best mining performance and efficiency.

Must read |Bitcoin breaches $56k, ether up 12%

What is cryptocurrency mining?In simple terms, cryptocurrency mining is a transactional procedure that involves the use of computers and cryptographic algorithm to solve complex operations and record data in a blockchain (a decentralized distributed ledger). For the work, a developer is rewarded with a bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

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Nvidia to release software to block cryptocurrency mining on its GeForce GPUs - Deccan Herald

CMP chips will not do graphics processing, Nvidia said. Unlike gaming-focused GeForce GPUs, they also lack display outputs, enabling improved airflow while mining so they can be more densely packed. CMPs also have a lower peak core voltage and frequency, which improves mining power efficiency, the company said.

"Creating tailored products for customers with specific needs delivers the best value for customers," Matt Wuebbling, head of global GeForce marketing, said.

"With CMP, we can help miners build the most efficient data centers while preserving GeForce RTX GPUs for gamers."

At the same time, Nvidia plans to reduce the hash rate of Ethereum mining by around 50 percent on its upcoming RTX 3060 graphics cards - intentionally using software to make them worse at crypto mining. This will not affect existing GPUs, the company said.

It is not the first time that Nvidia has used artificial restraints to limit the sale of chips to certain industries. In 2018, it updated the EULA on consumer-focused GeForce GPUs to prohibit data center use - instead pushing data center companies towards the significantly more expensive enterprise GPU line. It claimed that the move was simply due to GeForce not being designed for the data center, but continued to use the chip in its own facilities for the GeForce Now cloud gaming service.

Nvidia has claimed that the new CMP chips will not affect the production of GeForce products, which have been out of stock for most of 2020 and 2021. Limited supply, caused by a global semiconductor shortage, has been made worse by booming crypto demand as Bitcoin and Ethereum hit record highs.

Instead, Nvidia argues, the new product line and software restrictions will ensure that future GeForce supplies will only go towards gamers.

There is another benefit to Nvidia that may have led to its decision to create a new product category. Cryptocurrency mining is a boom and bust industry, built on tight margins. During the last bitcoin bubble, GPU supplies were again heavily constrained - but when bitcoin's price fell precipitously, miners were forced to sell their equipment en masse, flooding the market with cheap GPUs. This cut heavily into Nvidia's profits as second-hand GPU prices fell, making purchasing a new one less appealing. Q4 2018 was "an extraordinary, unusually turbulent, and disappointing quarter," CEO Jensen Huang said at the time.

Now, should Ethereum prices collapse, miners will only be able to sell CMPs to other miners.

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Nvidia plans Cryptocurrency Mining Processor for Ethereum, will artificially limit mining capabilities of upcoming GPUs - DatacenterDynamics

By Sathvik VishwanathDespite the uncertainty over the future of cryptocurrency in India, as the nation awaits the unveiling of the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in Parliament, the appetite for blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, in particular, among Indians appears to be fascinating.

Even if the broad consensus goes in favour of banning private cryptocurrency India, perhaps it wont prevent users from dealing in it. The reasons for the recognition to cryptos and the massive investor response to this asset class are manifold: failed government policies, disillusionment with the banking system and unfair distribution of IT returns.

So why is crypto gaining popularity in India in recent years? One of the key factors is traditional Indian reverence for gold to save, and with increasing tech-savviness, crypto is emerging as a kind of digital gold. The advanced currency has opened up avenues for international transactions and democratised the currency.

Wanna know what's happening on the crypto front? Join ETMarkets Crypto Conclave on Feb 24Crypto is Probably the Best Solution for Many Things Going Wrong in the NationEven the worlds richest man, Elon Musk, has added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio and tweeted In retrospect, it was inevitable.

There is huge potential that India can gain when bitcoin and blockchain go mainstream, and it is not restricted within the strict regulatory ambit. How can the country gain by championing decentralised cryptocurrencies? It can help safeguard national security, deter financial frauds, strengthen monetary policy, attract international capital, accelerate technological development and drive the nation towards becoming a global power.

Further, India is one of the biggest inward remitters from many foreign nations, and there is expected to be a massive boom in remote work and remittances going forward. A significant amount of such transactions is lost in transfer, and currency conversion fee. Cryptocurrencies, however, save money and substantial time for both the remitter and the receiver, as it is conducted entirely on the Internet, runs on a mechanism that involves very less transaction fees and is almost instantaneous.

Crypto is the Financial Internet: Is it Wise to Distance from this Development?Blockchains are about transferring value, as it enables a financial Internet that is digitizing commodities, currencies, stocks, real estate, bonds and every imaginable type of financial instrument. If we do not move in pace with the innovation, it would prevent all of that advancements and growth from happening in India. It is like banning the Internet or smartphones when they were launched. Can you imagine your life without the Internet and smartphones today?

Crypto can also reignite the entrepreneurial wave in Indias startup ecosystem and create job opportunities across different levels, from blockchain developers to designers, project managers, business analysts, promoters and marketers. Its greater adoption will also attract institutional investors to the promising world of cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, with crypto by her side, the country can bank the massive unbanked population. This is because cryptocurrency runs on a decentralised grid.

Summing Up!According to Coindesk, the total value of all cryptocurrencies is over $1.5 trillion and it is growing at a rapid pace from a total market capitalisation of just above $760 billion in late 2017. While crypto has the potential to strengthen the economy, national security, technology, currency & foreign policy, India has the talent to pull this off. A move by the country in favour of cryptos would attract global attention and support from the worlds financiers and technologists can put the country on the forefront of the rapidly evolving industry. (Sathvik Vishwanath is Co-Founder & CEO of Unocoin. Views are his own)

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Is India about to miss the bus in leveraging cryptocurrency? - Economic Times

(Credit: Nvidia)

For now, Nvidia plans to only restrict cryptocurrency mining capabilities on the RTX 3060not any of the other graphics cards in its 3000 series.

We are focused on RTX 3060 currently. And we are not limiting the performance of GPUs already sold, a company spokesperson told PCMag.

Thats bad news for PC gamers still trying to snag an RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, or 3080, which continue to sell out in minuteseven six months after the initial release, thanks in part to cryptocurrency miners in need of powerful GPUs.

The most affordable entry in the series, the RTX 3060, goes on sale next Thursday. So to try and free up the supplies, Nvidia is handicapping the cards ability to mine the cryptocurrency Ethereum through the GPUs software driver. The move should not impact gaming performance.

The company isn't explaining why it wont bring cryptocurrency mining caps to the rest of the RTX 3000 series. However, Nvidia is pushing back against doubts that the RTX 3060s anti-cryptocurrency mining restrictions can be easily reversed.

No details were given, but the company says it has essentially locked access to the "hash rate limiter" that deliberately halves the RTX 3060s mining efficiency by 50%. There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents removal of the hash rate limiter, Nvidias spokesperson said.

Still, you can bet many in the cryptocurrency community will try to hack the cards. In the meantime, Nvidia is working on another way to dissuade miners from buying up the RTX 3000 stock. It's preparing to introduce graphics cards specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining.

Those Nvidia CMP cards are slated to start arriving this quarter, but they wont take away any existing manufacturing capacity for the RTX 3000 GPUs, the company said.

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Nvidia's Cryptocurrency Mining Restriction Won't Be Coming to Other RTX Cards for Now - PCMag