Category Archives: Bitcoin
Bitcoin Price Analysis And Macro Overview – Bitcoin Magazine
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Fed Watch is the macro podcast for Bitcoiners. Each episode we discuss current events in macro from across the globe, with an emphasis on central banks and currency matters.
In this episode of the Fed Watch podcast, I sit down with Tone Vays, a true Bitcoiner and long-time price and macro analyst of Bitcoin. Our discussion ranges from the current conditions to bitcoin cycles to broader macro topics including the state of U.S. politics, Europe and the euro.
You can find the charts for this episode here.
In the first segment of the podcast, Vays talks about the psychological state of the bitcoin market.
I was around for the last two bear markets. 2013 was the classic bubble chart, you were mentally prepared for whats to come. 2017, again, the ICOs, it was an unreasonable exponential rise, so you were mentally prepared. I wasnt mentally prepared for this one. Because, when the top came in April 2021, we had an incredible amount of good news. Michael Saylor, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter to go all in on Bitcoin with Square [now Block], El Salvador [legal tender law], then El Salvador buying bitcoin.
That turned into a sell the news event. 50% correction, no big deal. Everyone was mentally fine with it. Then, this is where its all about your mental state. When we went back and broke that top in November, that was the breakout. Everyone thought we were going higher; I thought we were going higher. That fake out in November was mentally brutal. We crashed back to the $30,000 low, broke down to $20,000, and over the last three to six months people have been very, very concerned.
This prolonged move has made people tighten their belts. Mentally, they feel like they were cheated and dont think bitcoin should be at these lows. Bitcoin was built for this world we are seeing right now with all the uncertainty. They are stealing bank accounts from not just individuals, like in Canada, but from sovereign countries. Bitcoin was built for this, but the price keeps going down. People are starting to throw in the towel. Everyone is saying lower, lower, lower. This is where I have to believe that the majority is always wrong.
Credit: Tone Vays
Credit: Tone Vays
I asked Vays about bitcoin valuation models and four-year cycles. My question is whether they are all broken and if we need to find a new model.
He said he thinks models always fail. Stock-to-flow is theoretically correct in Vays mind, but it cannot be successfully used as a technical indicator. As for the four-year halving cycle, Vays believes that it is partly due to hype and partly due to actual supply shocks.
That is my position here on Fed Watch" as well. The four-year halving cycle has its own hype cycle, completely separate from the overall bitcoin hype. Kind of similar to how altcoins try to hype their hard fork upgrades, bitcoin accomplishes that naturally through the halving.
However, I think the hype is lessening with each cycle, along with the supply shock aspect. That is why I now believe we have a two-year cycle of sorts. A smaller effect from the halving but one that still causes an echo a couple years later.
Vays insightfully points out that there is much less of a clear distinction between bull and bear markets. Price action in 2020 and 2021 do not lend themselves to a clear dividing line. Going forward, it will become harder to delineate these cycles.
We started running up on our hard time limit before we got into the juicy stuff, so hopefully we can have Vays back on in a few months to continue this discussion. But we did get his opinions on Europe and the euro.
I will say that I have a very low opinion of Western Europe. Its nice; you go there and its safe. You can walk around the street; you feel fairly safe. It has remnants of a collapsing capitalist society, as they hand over all power to the World Economic Forum (WEF). I believe that the WEF is a liberal, socialist organization. They have too much control over politics. To quote Klaus Schwab, We have penetrated the cabinets. And they have.
I think the path of the WEF is a very, very dangerous path, and I short the future of Western countries that buy into its power. Thats why Im very bearish on Europe. I think the common currency will break up.
We talk about so much more, from bitcoins correlation to stocks and altcoins, to monetary policy. This is one of my favorite episodes weve ever done on Fed Watch, so it is definitely a must-listen.
That does it for this week. Thanks to the readers and listeners. If you enjoy this content, please subscribe, review and share!
This is a guest post by Ansel Lindner. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
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Bitcoin Price Analysis And Macro Overview - Bitcoin Magazine
Long-Term Investments That Will Survive The Crypto Collapse: Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and CashFi (CFI) | – Bitcoinist
With the fall of Terra (LUNA), a lot of FUD and negative speculation has spread throughout the cryptocurrency community with many believing that there could be another crypto collapse on the horizon.
In the past week, the market has dropped even further with top tokens hitting lows that havent been seen since late 2020 resulting from recent market activities such as the suspension of withdrawals and transfers on the major blockchain and cryptocurrency Celsius Network (CEL).
The cryptocurrency market has seen turbulent times in the past, and the most established tokens with the strongest fundamentals and community support always emerge prevalent. We take a look at three long-term investment cryptocurrencies for weathering the potential crypto collapse featuring Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and CashFi (CFI).
Launched in 2009, Bitcoin (BTC) is the first cryptocurrency with blockchain technology and it has the largest market capitalization out of all cryptocurrencies. Crypto is a fast-moving sector with market trends changing all the time, along with market demands, and despite all of this Bitcoin has consistently remained the top cryptocurrency.
The supply of Bitcoin (BTC) is finite and no more will ever be minted lending to exclusivity which, combined with its mass appeal and mainstream adoption, means the demand for Bitcoin will always outpace its supply. Bitcoin (BTC) is a store of value used primarily for financial exchanges and sending/receiving transactions.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the most widespread cryptocurrency in terms of adoption and is accepted by major retailers worldwide including Microsoft, Starbucks, Wholefoods, and via payments company Paypal. El Salvador and the Central African Republic are the first two countries in the world to have adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender.
Solana (SOL) is the native cryptocurrency of the open-source Solana smart contract platform and blockchain, a high-speed and low-fee alternative to blockchains such as Ethereum (ETH). It launched fairly recently in March 2020 and has since become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency ranked by market capitalization.
Due to its high performance, interoperability, and low fees, Solana (SOL) has become a popular platform for NFTs and DeFi applications with the fifth-greatest total value of locked funds (TVL) in DeFi out of all blockchains. Solana NFTs are supported on leading NFT marketplaces like SolSea and, as of April 2022, OpenSea.
In May 2022, Meta announced that support for Solana NFTs would be added to the Facebook and Instagram social media networks.
CashFi (CFI) is the ERC20 token used for utility on the next generation CashFi DeFi protocol, built on Ethereum, that gives users access to a huge amount of asset classes including NFTs, Synthetic Assets, and Liquid Staking.
CashFi (CFI) introduces Liquid Staking through CFI Staking, which reduces illiquidity for staked commodities and allows users to swap their crypto assets for tokens that can be staked in the DeFi sector.
CashFi (CFI) will also be implementing multi-chain support in the future and this will be seen in the CashFi framework for creating NFT marketplaces with cross-chain interoperability. Users will also be able to mint CFI NFTs on the CashFi blockchain as well as buy, sell and trade them on the CashFi interoperable NFT marketplace.
The current bear market presents a great opportunity for investment in the right tokens at bargain prices, before the inevitable market recovery.
Tokens with strong fundamentals, community support, and use cases such as CashFi (CFI), Bitcoin (BTC), and Solana (SOL) look to have the best chances of weathering the crypto storm ahead.
CashFi (CFI)
PRESALE: https://enter.cashfi.finance/registerWEBSITE: https://cashfi.finance/TELEGRAM: https://t.me/CashFi_Token
Disclaimer:This is a paid release. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist does not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information available in such content. Do your research and invest at your own risk.
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Long-Term Investments That Will Survive The Crypto Collapse: Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and CashFi (CFI) | - Bitcoinist
The Number of Tethers in Circulation Dropped by Over 12 Billion in 2 Months, USDC Grew by 9% Altcoins Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News
During the last two months, the stablecoin tether has been one of the most traded crypto assets swapped against a myriad of digital currencies. 66 days ago on April 11, 2022, tethers market valuation was over $82 billion with 82,694,361,442 tethers in circulation. Since then, more than 12 billion tethers have been removed from circulation amid the Terra blockchain implosion, the recent crypto market carnage, and rumors circulating around Celsius and Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
According to market data, the number of tether (USDT) in circulation has dwindled down from over 82 billion to todays 70 billion. Bitcoin.com News reported on the swelling stablecoin market valuation of all the fiat-pegged tokens in existence as the stablecoin economy neared $200 billion, on April 11.
On that day, there were approximately 82,694,361,442 tethers in circulation after the dollar-pegged crypto saw a 3% increase in growth the month prior. Since then, 15.30% has been removed from circulation as the circulating supply on June 16, 2022, is 70,038,816,028 USDT, according to coingecko.com metrics.
People have been noticing the number of tethers in circulation dropping, as crypto advocates have been discussing the subject on social media. Much of the USDT in circulation has been removed since the terrausd (UST) de-pegging incident, as there were 82.79 billion tethers in circulation on May 12, 2022.
Two days later on May 14, the number or tethers in circulation was down 7.25% to 76.70 billion USDT, according to coingecko.com stats saved on archive.org. During the course of 33 days, another 8.73% has been removed from circulation since May 14.
Meanwhile, tethers competitor usd coin (USDC) has grown during the last two months. On April 16, 2022, the total amount of USDC in circulation was approximately 50,090,822,252 tokens according to coingecko.com metrics recorded on archive.org. Since then, the number of USDC has grown to 54,582,713,063, or 8.96% larger, during the past two months.
During the terrausd (UST) fiasco, the number of USDC slid to 49,122,170,211 on May 12. The USDC in circulation then grew from the 49.12 billion region to 53,804,005,416 by June 10. USDC saw a slight issuance increase since then. Circle also announced the launch of euro coin (EUROC) backed 1:1 by the euro this month.
Data recorded on June 16 shows that USDT commands the lions share of the global cryptocurrency trade volume, as it accounts for $51.41 billion of the $96.31 billion in volume on Thursday. That means 53.37% of all the crypto trades on Thursday have been paired with USDT.
The amount of USDC traded on June 16 pales in comparison, as the stablecoin recorded $5.93 billion or 6.15% of the global crypto trade volume during the last 24 hours. Cryptocompare data recorded on June 16 shows USDT trades accounted for 56% of bitcoins (BTC) trade volume. While USDC accounted for 2.77% of all BTC trades on Thursday.
What do you think about the number of tethers in circulation declining? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
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The Number of Tethers in Circulation Dropped by Over 12 Billion in 2 Months, USDC Grew by 9% Altcoins Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News
Going Down With The Ship: Bitcoin Or Nothing – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by Aleks Svetski, author of The UnCommunist Manifesto, founder of The Bitcoin Times and Host of the Wake Up Podcast with Svetski.
Bitcoin or nothing
Its times like this when a little written copium, blended with some philosophically-infused hopium is just what the doctor ordered.
Svetski is here to deliver this cure for your sorrows and ailments. This concoction is for my brothers and sisters in the recent Bitcoin classes of 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Welcome.
This is the moment where you earn your bitcoin. Inheriting the world via first-mover advantage on bitcoin was never going to come easy, and each one of these episodes is an opportunity for you to not just stack some cheap sats, but truly build conviction.
The former is a nice perk, but the latter is what builds character.
In this short piece, I shall endeavor to remind you why we are all here.
We are not the same.
Most freedom- and wealth-LARPing individuals will be running for the hills right about now, with their tails tucked between their legs. They shall be trading their energy money for toilet paper, government- or central-bank-issued funny money.
Its an incredible sight to behold.
But Those who dont, those of you who stick around, are going to be forged into something more powerful and profound.
I am writing this for you, because I and many others have walked this same path. We are still in the early stages of what shall be a multi-decade struggle in which the old empire of lies must be replaced with a timechain of truth. The world cannot go on as it is. The center and the central planners cannot hold.
You are finally going to have an opportunity to become a Bitcoiner. Now is your chance to earn your way into the Bitcoin hall of fame, and I dont mean some public record written on some wall. I mean the laying of a foundation for generational wealth.
We are still in the heat of the battle. What the world needs more of now is battle-hardened Bitcoiners with conviction, who will not, under any circumstance, yield to the enemy.
That enemy is multi-faceted. It includes the get-rich-quick schemes of the shitcoin space, the false gods of the fiat state and the fraudulent machinations of the central banking cartels. Each conspire to turn you into either a battery, a Judas, an Ephialtes of Trachis or simply a mindless blob of gray goo to be molded into whatever suits the hysteria of the moment.
Your job is to resist. The only question is, what will you choose to do? Source.
Bitcoin is not going anywhere because you and I are not going anywhere. Bitcoin is unyielding because you and I are unyielding. If Bitcoin sinks, we transform it into a submarine and we keep going. We find a way to resurface.
There is no plan C. To take the island, you burn the fucking boats.
None of this is novel, its just our generations version of the struggle. The psyche of the victor remains the same.
Nobody is going to devote their lives to the printing of euros by the ECB. But many shall devote their lives to the establishment of a techno-sociological phenomenon that roots the scorecard for the product of our labor into the universal currency (energy).
That inherent advantage is what makes us different to both the lemmings and the parasites, the former who are oblivious to whats going on, while the latter want to maintain the status quo because they get to pull the levers.
The intolerant minority wins, because they shall not yield. Time is always on our side. We may not have the numbers, but we have the advantage of the gravity of truth. The Empire of Lies has to fight entropy. As such, it will lose.
Lock up your bitcoin, make it impossible to touch, and watch what happens.
When I wrote about the 42 reasons to sell your bitcoin in January 2022, I was very clear about what this year was going to look like. Im not even sure I consider what were going through a bear market. At worst, its an intermittent phase within a broader up-cycle. Either way it is irrelevant, because it serves but one purpose; earning your bitcoin.
42 Reasons to sell your Bitcoin:
1. If you believe it won't go lower:
Then youre in for a rude awakening. Sell your bitcoin.
2. If you believe it wont go higher:
Then what are you even doing here?
Sell your bitcoin.
3. If you believe in 14-year-old tea-leave analysts with large Twitter accounts:
If this is the basis upon which you bought bitcoin, then you should definitely sell it all. Drawing lines on a screen helps you understand why bitcoin just as much as watching someone else train at the gym helps you lose weight
23. If you think $69,000 was the top:
Then you should sell it.
24. If you think $600 to $300 is any different from $60,000 to $30,000:
Then you cant do math so you should sell it.
25. If you think $42,000 was the bottom:
Then you should sell it.
26. If youre still watching Real Vision:
Then fuck me youre definitely beyond help or reason. These clowns have been right once in 10 years and youre still watching them?
I suggest you not only sell your bitcoin, but buy some BSV, make a poster of Raoul, put it on your wall, take a photo, make an NFT and pretend like you just made some innovation in Web 3.0
40. That transforming the world was going to be easy:
If you wanted salvation and thought it would come with no sacrifice, if you thought that winning was going to be a walk in the park and that we were not going to have to earn this over decades of ridicule, then Im sorry, you were gravely mistaken.
If you think that The Great Transition would somehow be a Kumbaya where we all hold hands and skip happily onto a Bitcoin standard, then youre about as deluded as the next central planner and I would prefer that you just give up now. Go draw unicorns and build smart contracts on Ethereum.
Over here in Bitcoin, we need warriors: The 300, not the Arcadians...
42. If you think Im joking:
No I am not.
I get genuinely happy when bitcoin drops, not because I get to buy more cheap corn (thats nice to have, but $20,000 differences now mean fuck all later), but because it shakes out all the lemmings and losers.
A new elite is forming, and one whose core principles and character is different from the masses that preceded them.
Your focus right now should be on a few simple things:
Number three is a direct corollary to the question of whether or not you wouldve been a camp guard. As Jordan Peterson says, most people would have just obeyed because its easier to go with the crowd or the prevailing narrative. Compliance and obedience is the mark of the masses.
The Remnant are those who cultivate and forge the monster within. They are those who can say no to the false narrative, and stand their ground not because someone told them to, but because its the right, honest and truthful thing to do.
This is where identity is built, and as Tony Robbins would say, the greatest force in the human psyche is the need to stay consistent with ones identity.
Now is the time to forge the identity of the Bitcoiner. The Remnant. The intolerant minority. He or she who shall not yield.
It reminds me of the famous line by King Leonidas of the Spartans.
What is your profession?
Who shall you choose to be?
Are you an Arcadian, or a Spartan? Its fine to be either, but now is the time to choose. Another quick excerpt from Why You Should Sell Your Bitcoin:
This journey is a rite of passage. Its not about getting rich, and its not even about a legacy. Its about building a fucking dynasty.
Cheap sats are a bonus, but it goes far beyond that.
Its about unevenly distributing bitcoin into the hands of those who get it, who care and who are willing to go up with the rocket or down with the ship.
These shakeouts mean that the future kings, lords, emperors and gods will have more.
Whilst the parasites, slaves and lemmings will have less.
We are going back to the age of greatness.
Bitcoin falling in price sharply, on a regular basis wipes out all the shitcoiners and get-rich-quick sub-humans so that the royals, nobles and pure bloods can collect.
Nature is healing.
This is what it looks like.
And as Randy Savage would say You may not like it, but accept it.
This is your opportunity to viscerally learn that the only monetary measure that counts is how much bitcoin you have. If you have more today than you did yesterday or last week, you are winning.
The exchange rate between bitcoin and other units of account is irrelevant, because each of those units are transient in nature. What matters is the absolute territory you can amass on the Bitcoin network and your proportion of the total units of energy money available.
If you can master this mindset, your descendants will have a foundation upon which to build. If you do not, nobody can help you.
This is the greatest time in human history to be alive. Do not squander it. Revel in the pain. Embrace it. Let it forge you into something greater.
You are a Bitcoiner in the making.
Welcome
This is a guest post by Aleks Svetski, author of The UnCommunist Manifesto, founder of The Bitcoin Times and host of The Wake Up Podcast. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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Going Down With The Ship: Bitcoin Or Nothing - Bitcoin Magazine
How Gain Bitcoin Swindled Users Out of Over $12 Billion – Bitcoinist
An Indian-based company called Gain Bitcoin was accused of running one of the largest scams in the country. Back in March 2022, authorities shut down this illegal operation that was suspected to steal $3.8 billion or 80,000 from 100,000 victims. This number is larger, according to a recent report.
Related Reading |Crypto Firm Three Arrows Capital Considers Bailout, Hires Financial Advisers
Local authorities record over 40 reports filed by Gain Bitcoin or GainBitcoin victims. The scam stole money from people nationwide. New estimates claim that the illegal operation could have defrauded victims with as much as 600,000 BTC.
The total value of the scams is linked to the price of Bitcoin. The number one crypto by market caps has lost over 60% of its value since 2021 and currently trades at $20,500 with a 31% loss in the past week alone.
One of GainBitcoins main suspects, Amit Bhardwaj was the alleged leader of the operation. However, this suspect died from a cardiac arrest.
His brother Ajay Bhardwaj is the primary suspect after Amits death. Local authorities have attempted to get Ajay to surrender the private keys and password to the crypto wallet which could be holding the stolen funds.
In a trial held in March 2022, Ajay refused to cooperate with authorities. His legal representation argued that the living Bhardwaj lacks the skills to operate a crypto wallet.
Local police enforcement agencies record over 60,000 IDs and email addresses, according to the news media, from potential victims. These people were attracted to the illegal operation due to its yield. Clients were promised a risk-free 10% monthly payment on their BTC deposits.
Those people that agreed to lend their BTC, the report says, were offered bigger monthly payments for taking on more risks. Ultimately, as often happens with these investments, the risk-free option is the most expensive.
The local report claims that Ajay Bhardwaj remains the prime suspect. Other suspects included Magender Bhardwaj and Vivek Bhardwaj, potentially related to the late lead suspect. The report quotes a spokesperson from Indias Enforcement Directorate (ED):
The investigation conducted so far has revealed that Amit Bhardwaj (who died in January this year) with the connivance of petitioner, Vivek Bhardwaj, Mahender Bhardwaj and others i.e, multi-level marketing agents and associates have collected 80,000 bitcoins as proceeds of crime.
Related Reading |BlockFi Mentions That It Liquidated Three Arrows Capital, Heres What We Know!
The ED is yet to track down all the crypto wallets related to the scam. In that sense, they have continued to conduct raids and perform other operations to advance the case which have led them to seize hardware, and other evidence linked to GainBitcoin.
Original post:
How Gain Bitcoin Swindled Users Out of Over $12 Billion - Bitcoinist
Little-Known Altcoin Soars 197% in Just One Week, Far Outperforming Bitcoin, Ethereum and Crypto Markets – The Daily Hodl
One blockchain-based review platform is defying current market trends, exploding by nearly 200% in the past seven days.
The native asset for feedback platform Revain (REV) is outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and most altcoins after surging from a seven-day low of $0.000759 to a seven-day high of $0.002257 for an increase of over 197% in just one week.
Revain aims to provide high-quality user feedback on global products and services that utilize emerging technologies like blockchain and machine learning. The company claims to have accumulated the biggest volume of user feedback on crypto on the Internet. Users who provide high-quality reviews are rewarded with REV tokens.
According to the projects website, Revain has accumulated 73,453 reviews from 29,785 authors.
Its not entirely clear what is driving REVs massive price surge this week. Revain and BitYard, a crypto exchange, held a review contest that kicked off on Tuesday.
Revain also updated its smart search functionality on Friday, though the Twitter announcement happened after REVs price took off.
REV has retraced since posting its seven-day high, and its currently changing hands for $0.001844.
Despite REVs huge gains this week, the asset remains more than 99.9% down from its all-time high of $3.96, which it hit in February of 2018.
In the past week, Bitcoin has dropped 33.6% to $19,377 at time of publishing. Ethereum has fallen 38.8% in the same time frame, to $1,018.
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Dai Yim/Sensvector
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Little-Known Altcoin Soars 197% in Just One Week, Far Outperforming Bitcoin, Ethereum and Crypto Markets - The Daily Hodl
Bill Gates: Crypto Is 100% Based on Greater Fool Theory ‘I’m Not Involved in That’ Featured Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says crypto is an asset class that is 100% based on the Greater Fool Theory. The billionaire also mocked Bored Ape NFTs, stating: Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates talked about cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at this years Techcrunch Sessions: Climate 2022 event Tuesday.
Referring to the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, Gates sarcastically said: Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely. Thats so incredible.
He clarified, Im used to asset classes like a farm where they have output or a company where they make products, describing crypto as:
An asset class thats 100% based on some sort of Greater Fool Theory that somebodys going to pay more for it than I do.
The Greater Fool Theory suggests that there will always be a greater fool in the market ready to pay a price based on a higher valuation for an already overvalued investment. However, eventually, when theres no one left willing to pay a higher price, asset prices can decline sharply, leaving investors holding worthless investments.
Gates stressed that he is not getting involved in any asset that at its heart has sort of this anonymity that you avoid taxation or any sort of government rules about kidnapping fees or things. He emphasized:
Im not involved in that. Im not long or short in any of those things.
The billionaire also claimed that the digital banking efforts he supports through his philanthropic foundations are hundreds of times more efficient than cryptocurrencies.
The Microsoft co-founder has long been a critic of cryptocurrency and bitcoin. In May, he said during a Reddit AMA that he does not own any cryptocurrency. I like investing in things that have valuable output, the billionaire explained. The value of crypto is just what some other person decides someone else will pay for it, so not adding to society like other investments.
What do you think about the comments by Bill Gates? Let us know in the comments section below.
A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, lev radin
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Bitcoin Mining Could Be The Answer To Nigerias Inflationary Crisis – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by Heritage Falodun, a software engineer and co-host of the Bitcoin In Nigeria podcast.
The aim of this work is to give a brief, concise but insightful elucidation around the economic meltdown and environmental degradation in Nigeria, while also proposing Bitcoin mining through renewable energy sources as a solution to those problems.
This document analyzes and showcases the complexity around electrical energy sources that have been explored, and the impact of such exploration to the countrys ecosystem.
Observed available renewable energy sources should be explored for mining Bitcoin in Nigeria in order to spur the nation's growth economically, and concurrently to serve as a reference point for curbing environmental degradation and climatic havoc caused by carbon emissions from fossil fuels and gas.
Bitcoin mining is the process of creating new digital tokens and adding past transaction records to a public blockchain ledger.
Bitcoin mining requires sophisticated hardware, specialized computers called ASIC miners for solving complex math problems, and as a reward, miners earn new bitcoin and collect transaction fees on every valid transaction in the block, which is what has been instrumental in keeping the Bitcoin network active. Miners can be curious individuals or professional mining firms. The bitcoin mining process is ultimately a proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
The first miner to solve a cryptographic puzzle receives bitcoin for expending computing energy and validating the transaction block. Bitcoins pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, originally implemented a limit of one megabyte of transaction data per block.
The inventor of Bitcoin also set a hard limit on bitcoins supply at 21 million bitcoin. Miners have mined more than 90% of the available bitcoin. Every four years, the number of bitcoin awarded for solving new blocks is halved, which is a process known as Bitcoin halving.
This is a feature that is widely believed to corroborate the principles of economics and scarcity. Based on this schedule, it could be a few decades before the final bitcoin is mined. However, these hardware devices that enable Bitcoin mining must be powered by electricity and the mode of generating this electrical energy from different energy sources without causing environmental havoc and climatic degradation is of utmost importance. Generating electrical energy from green and renewable energy sources has been the best option for the Bitcoin mining ecosystem globally.
A study by CoinShares estimated that, as of 2019, at least 74% of cryptocurrencys global energy consumption came from renewables, mostly in the form of relatively cheap, Chinese hydropower.
Bitcoin being a global, decentralized currency which is a censorship-resistant, deflationary asset, as opposed to the inflationary Nigerian naira, means Bitcoin will be the best bet for revitalizing Nigerias economy if consideration are put in place to initiate Bitcoin mining investment powered by the various, unexplored renewable and green energy sources available in Nigeria, one of the leading countries in global Bitcoin adoption.
Nigerias economy remains the biggest economy in Africa, despite the challenges that have been dwindling its growth over the years.
According to Heritage.org:
Nigeria's economic freedom score is 54.4, making its economy the 124th freest in the 2022 Index. Nigeria is ranked 23rd among 47 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and its overall score is above the regional average but below the world average. In the long-term, Nigeria GDP is projected to trend around 445.00 USD Billion in 2022 and 450.00 USD Billion in 2023, according to our econometric models. The gross domestic product (GDP) measures national income and output for a given country's economy. Nigeria gdp for 2020 was $432.29B, a 3.53% decline from 2019. Nigeria gdp for 2017 was $375.75B, a 7.14% decline from 2016.
However, inflation has been eating deep into the Nigeria economic market, driving the cost of food there up by nearly 26% over the last year.
Fixing carbon emission hasn't played out as a priority for the government agenda in Nigeria yet, as demonstrated by the increasing levels of carbon emissions there. Carbon dioxide emissions stem from the burning of fossil fuels. They include carbon dioxide produced during the consumption of solid, liquid and gas fuels and gas flaring. Nigerias carbon (CO2) emissions for 2018 was 130,670 kilotons (kt), a 15.72% increase from 2017.
Nigeria has the required infrastructure, climate, expertise, as well as human capital to take advantage of renewable energy sources.
In 2018, the share of energy derived from renewable energy sources in primary energy consumption amounted to around 75.4 percent in Nigeria, according to Statista. It is projected that the renewable energy share of total final energy consumption in Nigeria will reach 86.4 percent by 2025.
Solar Energy: According to Solynta Energy, there is an average of 1,885 hours of sunlight per year, with an average of five hours and nine minutes of sunlight per day in Lagos. It is sunny for 43% of daylight hours there.
Solar panels are known to work(although dependent on the design) with an average peak sunlight hour of 3.5 hrs, per Solynta, thus indicating that solar power would be a feasible energy source in a Nigerian city like Laos.
Hydroelectric Energy: To my knowledge, the only major rivers that are being explored for hydroelectric power in Nigeria are the Kanji, Shiroro, Niger and Benue. According to recent research, 32 exploitable hydropower sites have been observed in Nigeria with a total installed capacity of 12.22 gigawatts (GW).
But Nigeria is bestowed with many rivers and natural falls that could favor the initiation of more hydropower systems.
Electricity in Nigeria is generated through thermal and hydropower sources. Most electricity generation in Nigeria comes from fossil fuels, particularly gas, which makes up 86% of the capacity in Nigeria, with the remainder generated from hydropower sources.
A consistent increase in carbon emissions in Nigeria is likely.
Kanji Jebba Power Plc
Hydro
1,330 MW
Ugheli Power Plc
Gas
942 MW
Sapele Power Plc
Gas
1,020 MW
Shiroro Power Plc
Hydro
600 MW
Afam Power Plc
Gas
987.2 MW
Niger Delta Power Holding Company
Gas
5,455 MW
IPPs
Gas
1,392 MW
Egbin Power Plc
Gas
1,020 MW
With the abundance of renewable energy sources in Nigeria, as explained above, Nigeria should consider mining Bitcoin with these energy sources.
Bitcoin ecosystem research released in January by the Bitcoin Mining Council stated that, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the worldwide Bitcoin mining sector was being powered by about 58.5% renewable energy. I believe that Nigeria shouldnt be left out of this emerging market as it stands a chance of boosting its economy.
The mining data shows that a new hybrid model for Bitcoin mining has emerged. Bitcoin miners can easily buy energy from renewable energy providers when energy is abundant, or create a private structure and capital around generating electrical energy from green and renewable energies as part of their setup costs and implementation capital. In so doing, the miners are monetizing renewable assets that would have otherwise been dumped or ignored, while maintaining a generally high uptime and safe environment and contributing to the countrys economy.
Taking a look at an existing mining farm in Alberta, Canada, run by Hut 8 Mining, for example: The bitcoin generated from its first quarter 2022 mining rewards was 942 BTC. If similar mining farms were implemented across 36 locations in Nigeria a reasonable number based on my research into locations where this would be feasible that could yield some 33,912 BTC in one quarter if conditions were the same, worth about $712 million at the time of writing this.
Bitcoin being a deflationary currency which serves as the reward for mining makes it an investment source capable of boosting Nigerias internally-generated revenue with about $2.84 billion per year (based on the $712 million assumption from above, multiplied across four quarters), assuming the government taxed privately-owned Bitcoin mining farms.
But the mining farms must be powered by renewable and green energy sources such as solar energy and hydroelectric energy sources. This will be a perfect way of utilizing the possible electricity that could be generated from an average of 1,885 hours of sunlight per year in places like Laos. Hydroelectric power plants very frequently substitute power generation from fossil fuels, thus reducing issues like acid rain, carbon emissions and smog.
The unexplored, possible electrical energy that can be generated from hydro sources in Nigeria should be developed, and nation states with government-owned and privately-owned Bitcoin mining infrastructure, such as El Salvador, Canada and some parts of the United States, should be considered as reference points in this context.
This is a guest post by Heritage Falodun. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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Bitcoin Mining Could Be The Answer To Nigerias Inflationary Crisis - Bitcoin Magazine
Crashes are the best times to get rich heres why Robert Kiyosaki …
Crashes are the best times to get rich heres why Robert Kiyosaki thinks bitcoins plunge is great news and how you can take advantage of it
Bitcoin is on a wild ride.
The worlds largest cryptocurrency soared to $68,990 last November. Now, its at around $29,500 a staggering 57% pullback from the peak.
If the downtrend continues, Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says hes ready to start buying.
BITCOIN CRASHING. Great news, he tweeted recently. I am waiting for Bitcoin to crash to 20k. Will then wait for test of bottom which might be $17k. Once I know bottom is in I back up the truck. Crashes are the best times to get rich.
Kiyosaki added that bitcoin is the future of money and that its bottom may be even lower at $11,000.
In todays market environment, its not easy to be a contrarian investor. But if you share Kiyosakis view, here are three simple ways to capitalize on bitcoin's potential rebound.
The first option is the most straightforward: If you want to buy bitcoin, just buy bitcoin.
These days, many platforms allow individual investors to buy and sell crypto. Just be aware that some exchanges charge up to 4% in commission fees for each transaction. So look for apps that charge low or even no commissions.
While bitcoin commands a five-figure price tag today, theres no need to buy a whole coin. Most exchanges allow you to start with as much money as you are willing to spend.
Exchange-traded funds have risen in popularity in recent years. They trade on stock exchanges, so its very convenient to buy and sell them. And now, investors can use them to get a piece of the bitcoin action, too.
For instance, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) started trading on NYSE Arca in October 2021, marking the first U.S. bitcoin-linked ETF on the market. The fund holds bitcoin futures contracts that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and has an expense ratio of 0.95%.
Theres also the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), which made its debut a few days after BITO. This Nasdaq-listed ETF invests in bitcoin futures contracts, and charges an expense ratio of 0.95%.
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When companies tie some of their growth to the crypto market, their shares can often move in tandem with the coins.
First, we have bitcoin miners. The computing power doesnt come cheap and energy costs can be substantial. But if the price of bitcoin goes up, miners such as Riot Blockchain (RIOT) and Hut 8 Mining (HUT) will likely receive growing attention from investors.
Then there are intermediaries like Coinbase Global (COIN) and Paypal (PYPL). When more people buy, sell, and use crypto, these platforms stand to benefit.
Finally, there are companies that simply hold a lot of crypto on their balance sheets.
Case in point: enterprise software technologist MicroStrategy (MSTR). It has a market cap of $2.3 billion. Yet its bitcoin count reached 129,218 at the end of March, a stockpile worth around $3.8 billion.
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
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Crashes are the best times to get rich heres why Robert Kiyosaki ...
Bitcoin, Ether Price Outlook: Why They Will Survive Crypto Winter As Inflation Hedge Fails – Business Insider
"The world is moving towards more transparency," says Michael Wang, a former senior analyst at Steven Cohen's now-defunct hedge fund SAC Capital.
The 15-year capital markets vet, who later worked for a now-shuttered hedge fund Tourbillon Capital Partners, told Insider that Wall Street has a transparency problem. But Wang says his Los Angeles-based fintech startup is making strides to fix this.
His new venture, Prometheus, is an alternative funds marketplace coupled with a social network. It facilitates investment in hedge funds, venture-capital funds, and crypto funds despite the latter not being especially known for its transparency.
Wang says to imagine the platform as a pseudo-LinkedIn for people who want exposure to more than what Robinhood and Coinbase has to offer them. The transparency problem across the assorted funds listed above, Wang mentioned, can be remedied with a more efficient and faster avenue to communicate with investors.
"Think about how many doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and engineers you know that have probably close to 0% of their assets in hedge funds, venture funds, and private equity funds," Wang said. "We want to change that."
Given how Prometheus allows users to invest in crypto funds, Wang has been watching the space as its seen widespread losses over the past several months. For context, both bitcoin and ether the two most dominant cryptos historically have lost more than 50% since recent highs in late 2021.
There's also been wreckage in altcoins, perhaps none more severe than in USDTerra and its sister coin LUNA. Solana is down 83% from its record high amid sporadic outages on its network.
The fact that this has all happened at a time when the US is seeing the highest inflation in 40 years has dispelled the formerly popular idea that bitcoin could serve as a hedge against higher consumer prices. Instead, bitcoin, and crypto at large, has functioned more like a traditional risk asset.
That explains why crypto prices have declined alongside stocks for the better part of 2022, in response to the Federal Reserve's monetary tightening efforts, which are intended to cool inflation and head off an overheating economy. With the central bank set to announce significant rate hikes at their next two meetings, the main headwind for both crypto and equity investors looks likely to persist.
Wang, who was named Institutional Investor's 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Star, said crypto markets are highly correlated with the broader equity market, and agreed with the narrative that bitcoin has failed as an inflation hedge. But that interrelatedness is just the start: Wang notes that bitcoin has a "much higher beta" than stocks, making it more susceptible to sharp downside swings.
For signs of what's to come in the crypto market, Wang like most stock investors is looking at central bank activity.
"What supersedes anything for any asset class and asset price whether it's crypto, stocks, or real estate is what the Fed does," Wang said.
Wang predicts that most cryptocurrencies are not going to "survive" long term with the exception of "probably" bitcoin and ethereum. The two have amassed large market caps and have garnered enough mainstream adoption to withstand bearish markets.
"Your litmus test here for some stocks and cryptos is that if it's not going bankrupt, you're probably going to make money holding it for a year," Wang said.
Bitcoin, in particular, will continue to gain traction as a borderless payment method, allowing users to bypass remittance fees and slow transaction times.
"Many parts of the world are still unbankable," he said. "Blockchain can be used as a solution in helping people in those areas."
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Bitcoin, Ether Price Outlook: Why They Will Survive Crypto Winter As Inflation Hedge Fails - Business Insider