Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News and Discussions

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The International Monetary Fund Tells El Salvador it Shouldn’t Use Bitcoin as Legal Tender
by Mitchell Clark
January 22, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/25/2290 ... und-crypto

Introduction:
(The Verge) The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has recommended El Salvador no longer use Bitcoin as a legal tender, citing potential risks to financial stability and consumer protection. The country’s use of Bitcoin could make it difficult for it to get a loan from the IMF, according to Bloomberg.

The recommendation comes as part of the organization’s consultation, where staff members visit a country and prepare a report that’s discussed by the IMF’s executive board. The summary from the board looks at and discusses El Salvador’s economic policies as a whole, but the country’s 2021 adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender got a lot of attention.

The IMF’s board agrees with its staff’s recommendations from November that the country change its law because of the “large risks associated with the use of Bitcoin on financial stability, financial integrity, and consumer protection, as well as the associated fiscal contingent liabilities.” Some board members “also expressed concern over the risks associated with issuing Bitcoin-backed bonds,” according to the IMF. Amid its concerns, it did commend one of the government’s stated goals of using Bitcoin and its Chivo wallets and ATMs to make financial services available to more Salvadorans.
El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in September 2021, after passing its Bitcoin law in June the same year. The law does a variety of things in addition to establishing Bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the US dollar — for example, it means that citizens can pay their taxes in Bitcoin and that shopkeepers can display prices in Bitcoin. The IMF isn’t recommending that the law be done away with completely, just that El Salvador should narrow its scope so that it’s not a legal tender anymore.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, is a strong proponent of Bitcoin — he announced the country’s Bitcoin law at a conference in Miami for the cryptocurrency and frequently tweets about investing in Bitcoin (sometimes somewhat caustically). The country’s coffers include over 1,500 Bitcoin, according to calculations based on Bukele’s public statements. The president has also proposed the idea of creating a $1 billion Bitcoin bond that investors can buy a stake in.
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caltrek wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:30 pm The International Monetary Fund Tells El Salvador it Shouldn’t Use Bitcoin as Legal Tender
by Mitchell Clark
January 22, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/25/2290 ... und-crypto

Introduction:
(The Verge) The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has recommended El Salvador no longer use Bitcoin as a legal tender, citing potential risks to financial stability and consumer protection. The country’s use of Bitcoin could make it difficult for it to get a loan from the IMF, according to Bloomberg.

The recommendation comes as part of the organization’s consultation, where staff members visit a country and prepare a report that’s discussed by the IMF’s executive board. The summary from the board looks at and discusses El Salvador’s economic policies as a whole, but the country’s 2021 adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender got a lot of attention.

The IMF’s board agrees with its staff’s recommendations from November that the country change its law because of the “large risks associated with the use of Bitcoin on financial stability, financial integrity, and consumer protection, as well as the associated fiscal contingent liabilities.” Some board members “also expressed concern over the risks associated with issuing Bitcoin-backed bonds,” according to the IMF. Amid its concerns, it did commend one of the government’s stated goals of using Bitcoin and its Chivo wallets and ATMs to make financial services available to more Salvadorans.
El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in September 2021, after passing its Bitcoin law in June the same year. The law does a variety of things in addition to establishing Bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the US dollar — for example, it means that citizens can pay their taxes in Bitcoin and that shopkeepers can display prices in Bitcoin. The IMF isn’t recommending that the law be done away with completely, just that El Salvador should narrow its scope so that it’s not a legal tender anymore.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, is a strong proponent of Bitcoin — he announced the country’s Bitcoin law at a conference in Miami for the cryptocurrency and frequently tweets about investing in Bitcoin (sometimes somewhat caustically). The country’s coffers include over 1,500 Bitcoin, according to calculations based on Bukele’s public statements. The president has also proposed the idea of creating a $1 billion Bitcoin bond that investors can buy a stake in.
Nothing like negative pressure from the ruler's of the world, as was rightfully expected.

It's unfortunate Bitcoin as a whole isn't as good as it should be (tech & stability-wise) to displace these jackals in-mass, but at least some countries are trying. :geek:
And, as always, bye bye.
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Edit: "This tweet is unavailable" -- Snowden's account is probably on a black list.
And, as always, bye bye.
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R8Z wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:43 pm Nothing like negative pressure from the ruler's of the world, as was rightfully expected.

It's unfortunate Bitcoin as a whole isn't as good as it should be (tech & stability-wise) to displace these jackals in-mass, but at least some countries are trying. :geek:
Indeed. I'm disappointed in the direction that bitcoin development and community governance has taken over the past half decade or so. It started with blockstream becoming the dominant development force and pushing against larger blocks which has made transaction fees prohibitively expensive for general use as a currency. The focus on the lighting network as a scaling solution is a problem too because lighting sacrifices decentralization for scaling.

Satoshi Nakamoto outlined very clearly in the original white-paper that bitcoin was meant to be a scalable system. Ethereum has taken on some of that onus by remaining true to decentralization in its development path, but I'm skeptical of layer-2 scaling solutions on ethereum to be honest. I think they will be successful in helping the blockchain grow, and providing transaction bandwidth for many of ethereums use-cases without sacrificing decentralization.

The issue I have with layer-2 scaling is that it's confusing to use for the average person and I'm concerned that relying on it for cheap transactions will cause a greater use of third-party custodial services instead of people directly managing their own cryptocurrency. The whole point of cryptocurrency is that individuals can be their own banks and interact with financial protocols with the same equal access that institutions can. By offloading responsibility and custody to an institution that freedom is partially curtailed.

Layer-1 scaling is in the development pipeline too but it's not prioritized enough in my opinion nor will the upgrades planned provide enough bandwidth soon enough. It seems that for the foreseeable future settling a transaction on a secure blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum will remain well above the cost of using existing corporate services like SWIFT. What cryptocurrency can offer right now is greater security and fungibility than fiat. Which is enough for some use-cases. Volatility isn't an issue either if ethereum is chosen as there are decentralized stable coins that solve that problem.
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Despite Bumps, Crypto Investment Starts 2022 with a Roar
by Alex Wilhelm
February 1, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/01/despi ... th-a-roar/

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) Regardless of your perspective on blockchain-centered projects, venture capitalists appear to have made up their minds about the sector: Investments into crypto-themed companies — the web3 space, as its supporters call it — set records in 2021, records that could be beaten in 2022 if early data indicates where capital will flow this year.

Data from a new venture capital fund and recent funding rounds underscore the pace of deal flow the crypto market has ahead of it, indicating that bets placed on blockchain-related startups will continue despite some wobbly indicators from the decentralized market.

That there are believers in crypto in the market is not a surprise. The pace of investing may prove to be. For example, early PitchBook data relating to startups it categorizes in the “Cryptocurrency/Blockchain” sector raised around as much this January as all startups in Africa did last year — despite the fact that the African startup investment market is accelerating, as TechCrunch has noted.
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How Texas is Becoming a Bitcoin Mining Hub
by Leigh Cuen
February 11, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/11/how-t ... ining-hub/

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) There are thousands of pounds of bitcoin mining equipment still in transit from China to Texas, part of a multi-month caravan, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott makes courting the bitcoin industry a pinnacle part of his re-election campaign in 2022.

Texans are broadly looking to pick up on China’s missed opportunity, as the Chinese government forces bitcoin mining operations to relocate or go underground, ensuring that Texas will have a major role to play in the cryptocurrency industry.

“We have launched our first bitcoin mine in downtown Fort Worth, which will be a showpiece for our larger mine located right outside the city,” Geosyn Mining co-founder Caleb Ward described a new Texas facility that opened in January 2022. “We’re using income from this 20,000-square-foot facility outside of Fort Worth to bootstrap a significant solar power build.”

By the end of March, Ward expects to have roughly 530 bitcoin mining machines operating in his facility alone. And he’s not the only bitcoin miner turning an eye toward Texas. There are reportedly 27 local bitcoin mining companies tallied by the Texas Blockchain Council. Abbott’s challenger in the upcoming election, Don Huffines, a Republican real estate developer and candidate for Texas governor, recently said that he would look to opportunities beyond the mining industry and be even more pro-bitcoin than Abbott. Huffines said he would make bitcoin tender if he’s elected.

Across the board, Texan politicians appear to be pro-bitcoin. Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in October 2021 that bitcoin mining could help “strengthen our energy infrastructure.” There are, however, critics in Congress who doubt the bitcoin mining industry would benefit the power grid. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., pointed out in January that bitcoin’s proof-of-work mining process requires massive amounts of power.
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Bitcoin Miners Revived a Dying Coal Plant – then CO2 Emissions Soared
by Oliver Millman
February 22, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ons-soared

Introduction:
(The Guardian) Critics say the enormous electricity consumption needed to sustain cryptocurrency is fueling the climate crisis and now threatens a partial resurrection of coal in the US.

Environmentalists in Montana called it the “death watch”. Following years of financial losses one of the handful of remaining coal-fired power plants in the state appeared doomed, its likely fate offering a small but noteworthy victory in the effort to avoid disastrous climate change. But then a bitcoin mining company stepped in to resurrect it.

The Hardin generating station, a 115-megawatt coal plant located a dozen miles from the historic site of the famous battle of Little Big Horn in southern Montana, was slated for closure in 2018 due to a lack of customers only to somehow limp on, operating on just 46 days in 2020. “We were just waiting for this thing to die,” said Anne Hedges, co-director of the Montana Environmental Information Center. “They were struggling and looking to close. It was on the brink. And then this cryptocurrency company came along.”

In a deal struck in late 2020, Marathon, a bitcoin “mining” company, became the sole recipient of the power station’s electricity. It established an elongated data center on 20 acres of land beside the facility that is packed with more than 30,000 Antminer S19 units, a specialized computer that mines for bitcoin. Such thirst for power is common in crypto – globally bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than Norway, a country of 5.3 million people.

As the bitcoin miners moved in last year, Hardin roared back to life. In the first nine months of 2021 alone, the plant’s boilers fired up on 236 separate days. Planet-heating emissions from the burning of Hardin’s coal soared too, with 187,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted in the second quarter of last year, more than 5000% more than was expelled in the same period in 2020.
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New proposal for a layered, conceptual, NFT-based patent framework
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-02-lay ... ework.html
by Li Yuan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

By taking advantage of blockchain technology, digital assets are broadly grouped into fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFT). NFT refers to those with unique and non-substitutable properties.

A research team led by Prof. QU Qiang from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan from Yazd University has proposed a layered, conceptual, NFT-based patent framework.

The study was published in Scientific Reports on Feb. 9.

Although NFTs have had many applications so far, it has rarely been used to solve real-world problems.

Applying for a patent and trademark is time-consuming and costly. With the help of unique features of NFT technology, it is possible to accelerate this process. In fact, tokenizing patents would provide more transparency, traceability, and cost-efficiency of commercialization. NFT-based patents may facilitate reliable information sharing among offices and patentees around the world, reducing the burden on examiners and perhaps even accelerating harmonization efforts.

NFTs can offer IP protection while an applicant waits for the government to grant his/her more formal protection. By using hash and asymmetric cryptography, IP owners can record a claim, such as hash or ciphered claims in the blockchain network. The IP owner can prove his/her property right using the original document and its hash or private key without third-party involvement.
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