Blockchain technology is claimed to be according to blockchain proponents to be one of the most impactfull discoveries in the recent history. It is promised to have a massive potential to change how we handle online transactions. Despite some skeptics, the majority of experts agree that blockchain has the potential to disrupt the banking and financial industry, and many other ones! To put it simply, blockchain enables decentralized transactions across a P2P network. There are applications where those propertied can be very useful, but there are many cases where blockchain migh not be the best solution even though it is hyped to be solution for very many application (remember to ask Do you need a blockchain? often).
This 16 Blockchain Disruptions (Infographic) by bitfortune.net tries to help you understand how the blockchain technology can and will improve 16 different industries, from music to government.
Infographic by bitfortune.net
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Tomi Engdahl says:
When the GDPR Meets (Public) Blockchains: Looking through the Lens of Public Communications to Users
https://pentestmag.com/when-the-gdpr-meets-public-blockchains-looking-through-the-lens-of-public-communications-to-users/
#pentest #magazine #pentestmag #pentestblog #PTblog #GDPR #EU #blochain #dataprotection #cybersecurity #infosecurity #infosec
Tomi Engdahl says:
The World Knows Her as ‘Disaster Girl.’ She Just Made $500,000 Off the Meme.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/arts/disaster-girl-meme-nft.html
Zoë Roth, now a college senior in North Carolina, plans to use the proceeds from this month’s NFT auction to pay off student loans and donate to charity.
The name Zoë Roth might not ring any bells. But chances are you’ve seen her photo.
One Saturday morning in 2005, when Ms. Roth was 4 years old, her family went to look at a house on fire in their neighborhood in Mebane, N.C. Firefighters had intentionally set the blaze as a controlled fire, so it was a relaxed affair: Neighbors gathered and firefighters allowed children to take turns holding the hose.
Ms. Roth remembers watching the flames engulf the house when her father, an amateur photographer, asked her to smile. With her hair askew and a knowing look in her eyes, Ms. Roth flashed a devilish smirk as the fire roared behind her. “Disaster Girl” was born.
In the years since Dave Roth, Zoë’s father, entered it in a photo contest in 2007 and won, the image has been edited into various disasters from history, with Ms. Roth grinning impishly as a meteor wipes out the dinosaurs or the Titanic sinks in the distance. Now, after more than a decade of having her image endlessly repurposed as a vital part of meme canon, Ms. Roth has sold the original copy of her meme as a nonfungible token, or NFT, for nearly half a million dollars.
The meme sold for 180 Ether, a form of cryptocurrency, at an auction on April 17 to a user identified as @3FMusic. As with any currency, the value of Ether fluctuates, but as of Thursday, 180 Ether was valued at more than $495,000. The Roths retained the copyright and will receive 10 percent of future sales.
The market for ownership rights to digital art, ephemera and media known as NFTs, is exploding. All NFTs, including the “Disaster Girl” meme Ms. Roth just sold, are stamped with a unique bit of digital code that marks their authenticity, and stored on the blockchain, a distributed ledger system that underlies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In an interview, Ms. Roth said selling the meme was a way for her to take control over a situation that she has felt powerless over since she was in elementary school.
Before making the decision to sell, Ms. Roth consulted “Bad Luck Brian” himself — his real name is Kyle Craven — and Laney Griner, the mother of “Success Kid.”
“It’s the only thing that memes can do to take control,” Ms. Roth recalled Mr. Craven telling her.
“Disaster Girl” memes have spread far and wide.
Over the years, she’s seen hundreds of iterations of her picture.
“Once it’s out there, it’s out there and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Mr. Roth said. “It always finds a way to stay relevant with whatever new kind of awful, terrible bad thing is happening, so I’ve laughed at a lot of them.”
Ms. Roth, now 21, is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying peace, war and defense. She has never been recognized as “Disaster Girl” outright, she said, but most of her friends and acquaintances know of her meme fame.
“People who are in memes and go viral is one thing, but just the way the internet has held on to my picture and kept it viral, kept it relevant, is so crazy to me,” she said. “I’m super grateful for the entire experience.”
“People who are in memes didn’t really have a choice in it,” she said. “The internet is big. Whether you’re having a good experience or a bad experience, you kind of just have to make the most of it.”
He said that NFT sales had helped establish memes as a sophisticated art form and “serious pieces of culture.”
“I think anytime you can find a collector — no matter what the price is — who respects the art behind it and is going to cherish it, that’s a successful sale, whether it’s one Ether or 200 or 300,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
BitCoinin luohinnan sähkönkulutus visualisoituna. Bitcoinien louhinta kuluttaa enemmän sähköä kuin koko Norjan valtio. Yli 65 % Bitcoineista louhitaan Kiinassa, koska siellä sähkö on edullista.
Visualizing the Power Consumption of Bitcoin Mining
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-power-consumption-of-bitcoin-mining/
Cryptocurrencies have been some of the most talked-about assets in recent months, with bitcoin and ether prices reaching record highs. These gains were driven by a flurry of announcements, including increased adoption by businesses and institutions.
Lesser known, however, is just how much electricity is required to power the Bitcoin network. To put this into perspective, we’ve used data from the University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) to compare Bitcoin’s power consumption with a variety of countries and companies.
Why Does Bitcoin Mining Require So Much Power?
When people mine bitcoins, what they’re really doing is updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions, also known as the blockchain. This requires them to solve numerical puzzles which have a 64-digit hexadecimal solution known as a hash.
Miners may be rewarded with bitcoins, but only if they arrive at the solution before others. It is for this reason that Bitcoin mining facilities—warehouses filled with computers—have been popping up around the world.
These facilities enable miners to scale up their hashrate, also known as the number of hashes produced each second. A higher hashrate requires greater amounts of electricity, and in some cases can even overload local infrastructure.
On March 18, 2021, the annual power consumption of the Bitcoin network was estimated to be 129 terawatt-hours (TWh)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Forget Bitcoin – Digital Currencies Can Only Work With Government Backing
https://vulcanpost.com/739734/digital-currencies-can-only-work-with-government-backing/
“Money is a matter of functions four: a medium, a measure, a standard, and a store.”
This chant cited by Alfred Milnes in 1919 book titled “The Economic Foundations Of Reconstruction” summarises the four basic properties of money.
It’s one of the basics you learn studying economics, which is going to help us understand why decentralised digital currencies are unlikely to perform the same functions.
For currency to serve its purpose, it has to be a:
1. Medium of exchange
2. Measure of value
3. Standard of (deferred) payment
4. Store of value
In other words, it has to be commonly accepted for transactional purposes so you don’t have to pay for a good with another good or service; it has to accurately reflect the value of products and services; it allows for settling payments at deferred dates (i.e. debt); and it can also be used to store value from whatever you sell (i.e. saved).
To serve well in at least three out of four of these functions, a currency has to possess a stable, predictable value.
The Volatility Of Bitcoin
It’s hard to accurately measure how much anything is worth using a medium whose own price fluctuates highly all the time.
Contracts for delivery of products or services can be settled within a window of a week, month or even a quarter. Of course, as long as a currency’s value is predictable, it isn’t a big deal as it’s unlikely that it is going to change dramatically.
30 days is a fairly standard timeframe for issuing payments. However, with cryptocurrencies being able to jump a few hundred per cent over a period of weeks, you can’t predict what the deferred payment you agreed to may actually be worth when the date is due. It would make conducting any business highly risky.
Finally, the worst indictment against digital currencies is their demonstrable inability to store value in a safe, predictable way — for the very same reasons outlined above.
You Can’t Stabilise The Value Of Bitcoins
Bitcoin — like other cryptocurrencies — does anything but store value. It can be treated as an investment or, more accurately, as a speculative gamble, as there really isn’t much that the currency is backed with other than prevailing demand.
Traditional currencies are currently supported by entire economies that the rest of the world is either engaging (or not) in trade with. This is additionally stabilised by central banks amassing foreign reserves and using their power to print additional currency as needed, to ensure the national currency remains stable and fulfils the four criteria.
National currencies provide access; you need them to buy goods and services in a given country.
However, decentralised cryptocurrencies are not really necessary for anything.
You can buy the same goods and services with dollars, pounds, euros. In fact, the only things that Bitcoin and other can open the doors for you is the illicit stuff, which you wouldn’t want to be seen or in any way tracked buying, like drugs.
At the very least, however, the gold standard had the benefit of being based on a scarce metal that held intrinsic, practical value.
You can take gold or silver anywhere in the world and exchange it for money, as there’s always demand for it, but cryptocurrencies are based on nothing. If their value collapses to zero, the only thing you’re going to hold is a digital record you wouldn’t even be able to use as toilet paper.
There are alternatives, of course, like Ethereum, which do not have a total maximum cap — at least theoretically. But in every case, the supply of the currency is controlled by predetermined mathematical calculations which do not respond to changing economic realities.
Many people distrust the governments and central bankers, but they’re still a safer bet than a computer algorithm that steadily ploughs onward regardless of the circumstances. Keeping control in human hands means that the policies can be adjusted rapidly, in response to economic challenges.
Ironically, for all the useful applications of the blockchain technology, using it for digital currencies is probably the least practical one.
Many tears have been shed by the owners of digital tokens depending on whether they bought in too late or sold too early.
And for these reasons, we shouldn’t be talking about Bitcoin et al as currencies because they simply do not fulfil the basic criteria to be one.
For any currency to retain a stable value, it has to be managed by state authorities, setting realistic expectations and using tools of monetary policy to achieve them.
It is simply not possible in the open-source world of anti-establishment nerds. I’m sure independent digital currencies aren’t going away — they’re here to stay for both use and speculation, but the real revolution is going to happen when the governments begin to issue their own.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vitalik Buterin launched Ethereum six years ago. The value of its ether cryptocurrency has surged more than 300% since January 2021.
Ethereum’s 27-Year-Old Co-Creator Is Now The World’s Youngest Crypto Billionaire
https://trib.al/aDuXbuC
Vitalik Buterin, who spearheaded the launch of the Ethereum blockchain in 2015, has become the world’s youngest crypto billionaire at age 27. Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, ether, surged past $3,000 for the first time early Monday morning, marking a 325% rise since the beginning of this year.
Buterin’s ether address, which he disclosed in October 2018 as his main ether wallet, currently holds 333,520 ETH, worth $1.09 billion at the ether price of $3,278 at 1:30 p.m. ET on Monday
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/02/19/239592/once-hailed-as-unhackable-blockchains-are-now-getting-hacked/?utm_medium=tr_social&utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1619799827
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/59375/are-hash-functions-strong-against-quantum-cryptanalysis-and-or-independent-enoug
Tomi Engdahl says:
A new green cryptocurrency called Chia uses a less energy-intensive method of minting new coins. Here are 6 things to know about the digital asset before it starts trading on Monday.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/green-cryptocurrency-chia-less-energy-intensive-bitcoin-crypto-ethereum-altcoins-2021-4-1030373374
A new green cryptocurrency called Chia (XCH) is set to start trading on Monday, May 3.
Chia uses “proof of space” and “proof of time” instead of bitcoin’s “proof of work” to mint new coins.
The rise of Chia is already causing shortages and price increases at hard drive and SSD manufacturers.
A new “green” cryptocurrency called Chia is set to start trading next week. It was created by Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, and uses what’s called “proofs of space and time” to “farm” rather than “mine” new coins.
The model is a less energy-intensive method of producing digital assets compared to bitcoin’s “proof of work” concept, which has led that currency to be criticized for using as much energy as some entire nations.
Chia Network boasts big-name backing from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Naval Ravikant, and Cypherpunk Holdings, according to data from Crunchbase.
Chia Network released a Business Whitepaper describing its new cryptocurrency (XCH) on February 9 and launched “farming rewards” on March 19.
https://www.chia.net/2021/02/10/chia-businesss-whitepaper.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency is up 89% this year.
JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says He Doesn’t Care About Bitcoin—But His Clients Do
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2021/05/04/jpmorgan-ceo-dimon-says-he-doesnt-care-about-bitcoin-but-his-clients-do/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie
JPMorgan’s billionaire CEO Jamie Dimon—an infamous crypto skeptic—said Tuesday that he is still not a “supporter” of bitcoin, but added that he recognizes that many of his bank’s clients are looking to invest in the world’s largest and most popular digital currency as it continues to captivate retail traders and major institutions alike.
Other big firms have also dipped their toes into bitcoin this year, including BNY Mellon, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock.
89%. That’s how much bitcoin has soared this year, from roughly $29,000 per coin at the beginning of the year to about $55,00 per coin on Tuesday. The cryptocurrency has seen wild swings in price as it’s climbed.
“I don’t really care about Bitcoin…I have no interest in it. On the other hand, clients are interested and I don’t tell clients what to do,” Dimon said.
This isn’t the first time Dimon has expressed skepticism about bitcoin and other volatile cryptocurrencies, though his tone has softened. In 2017, he warned that bitcoin was a “fraud” (a comment he later said he regretted) that was “worse than tulip bulbs,” and threatened to fire any JPMorgan employee who traded bitcoin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carmen Reinicke / CNBC:
Dogecoin’s price surged roughly 40% on Tuesday, reaching a market cap of $69B, up 11,000% YTD, and making Dogecoin the fourth-largest cryptocurrency — The latest cryptocurrency star is a coin named after a meme of a Shiba Inu dog that was started as a joke.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/04/dogecoin-is-blowing-up-invest-with-caution-.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. court authorizes IRS to seek identities of taxpayers who have used cryptocurrency
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-court-authorizes-irs-seek-identities-taxpayers-who-have-used-cryptocurrency-2021-05-05/
A federal court in the United States has authorized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a “John Doe Summons” on the crypto exchange Kraken, seeking identities of U.S. taxpayers who have used cryptocurrency, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
The IRS is seeking information about taxpayers who conducted at least $20,000 worth of transactions in cryptocurrency from 2016 to 2020, the DOJ said in a statement.
“Those who transact with cryptocurrency must meet their tax obligations like any other taxpayer”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin’s ungreen credentials will give governments an excuse to clamp down on cryptocurrency
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-bitcoins-ungreen-credentials-will-give-governments-an-excuse-to-clamp/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ether Classic Has Climbed More Than 300% In The Last Week—Here’s Why
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cbovaird/2021/05/07/ether-classic-has-climbed-more-than-300-in-the-last-week-heres-why/
Ether classic has had a great week, quadrupling in value in a matter of days as investors flock to altcoins, or digital currencies other than bitcoin.
The price of ether classic, a digital sibling of the more prominent cryptocurrency ether, reached an all-time high of $177.26 yesterday, according to CoinDesk data.
Traders have apparently taken an interest in ether classic, pushing it sharply higher, even though the digital asset’s network, Ethereum Classic, has encountered some challenges over the last few years.
“The ETC ecosystem is not very active, as demonstrated by on-chain data,” said Martin Gaspar, research analyst at CrossTower.
“The number of daily unique addresses on ETC steadily declined between 2018 and 2020, and has just recently picked up in 2021 amid the broader crypto market rally, according to data from BitInfoCharts,” he clarified.
Tomi Engdahl says:
David Pierce / Protocol:
Dogecoin dropped by about a third during Elon Musk’s SNL appearance; Musk conceded during the skit that Dogecoin was merely a “hustle” — Saturday night was the moment it became absolutely undeniable: tech is culture now. As Elon Musk took the stage on Saturday Night Live …
SNL was a good night for Elon Musk — and a bad one for Dogecoin
Are celebrity CEOs the future of pop culture? When they’re dressed as Wario, maybe.
https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/elon-musk-snl-dogecoin
Saturday night was the moment it became absolutely undeniable: tech is culture now. As Elon Musk took the stage on Saturday Night Live, he came with the kind of recognition and anticipation that even A-list actors and musicians struggle to get. Musk wasn’t on the show because he’s rich; he was invited to host because he’s a cultural figure as powerful as anyone else on the stage. People either hate him or love him, but everybody pays attention to him.
In a way, Musk is actually the very model of a modern SNL host. He’s constantly, shamelessly controversial, and seems to enjoy both crossing lines and bathing in the backlash to his line-crossing. He has wild ideas about practically everything, which would be easy to ignore if so many of them didn’t come true. And he doesn’t seem to have any of the shame or reservations that might keep most CEOs and captains of industry from doing insane things on live television. (And he’s proven basically impossible to keep from doing whatever he wants.)
Musk was, by all accounts, a pretty good host. He led the show by saying he was the first-ever SNL host with Asperger’s. He made jokes at his own expense, talked about renewable energy and Mars without talking too much about renewable energy and Mars. He played an awkward doctor, an awkward party guest, the Dogefather, a cowboy inventor, and himself. But Musk as Wario, saying “I’m not evil, I’m just misunderstood,” is surely going to be the skit people remember.
But Dogecoin was the star of this episode of Saturday Night Live. Speaking of Dogecoin: Saturday’s SNL had been billed as something of a coronation for the cryptocurrency, with watch parties set up all over YouTube and plenty of people hoping the coin would hit the crucial $1 mark. But almost as soon as the show began, Dogecoin’s price promptly collapsed, dropping nearly a third before recovering slightly. It was such an eventful night for the currency that Robinhood couldn’t even keep up. It all culminated with Musk joining the Weekend Update crew and, after repeatedly answering all those “what is Dogecoin?” questions, eventually called it “a hustle.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Overview of the major uptick in spending on lobbying in the US by crypto organizations like Coinbase, Ripple, and trade groups like the Blockchain Association
As Scrutiny of Cryptocurrency Grows, the Industry Turns to K Street
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/politics/cryptocurrency-regulation-sec-ripple-labs.html
Companies behind digital currencies are rushing to hire well-connected lobbyists, lawyers and consultants as the battle over how to regulate them intensifies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chia mining can wreck a 512GB SSD in as little as 6 weeks
By Paul Lilly 1 day ago
https://www.pcgamer.com/chia-mining-can-wreck-a-512gb-ssd-in-as-little-as-6-weeks/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com
If you’re thinking about becoming a Chia farmer, you’ll need a steady supply of storage.
Chia is one of the newest cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, and with a current valuation of over $1,000, you might be tempted to put your mining hat on and get to work. Before you do, however, be warned that you’ll potentially go through storage drives at a breakneck pace. Due to how Chia operates, you could ruin a 512GB SSD in just 40 days.
Unlike most cryptocurrencies, Chia leverages a ‘proof of space and time’ model, which essentially means you farm it on unused storage space.
“Users of the Chia blockchain will ‘seed’ unused space on their hard-disk drive by installing software which stores a collection of cryptographic numbers on the disk into ‘plots’. These users are called ‘farmers’. When the blockchain broadcasts a challenge for the next block, farmers can scan their plots to see if they have the hash that is closest to the challenge,” Chia’s FAQ explains
Chia farming is a write-intensive activity. Speed matters, so the most common strategy is to use an SSD for creating plots, because SSDs are much faster than HDDs, and then transfer them to an HDD once completed.
Chia is a different animal, though. According to MyDrivers, mining Chia can trash a 512GB in 40 days, while a 1TB SSD lasts twice as long, and a 2TB SSD can give up the ghost in just 160 days, or barely over five months.
The site didn’t mention which specific drive models fail at that rate, but those are undoubtedly consumer SSDs, likely with typical TBW (terabytes written) ratings. Most enterprise models are more durable.
https://www.chia.net/faq/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The cryptocurrency plunged after the billionaire entrepreneur said Tesla is no longer accepting Bitcoin as payment for purchases of its vehicles owing to the heavy amount of carbon-based energy it uses.
Bitcoin Tanks After Elon Musk Says Tesla Stops Accepting It Due To Carbon Energy Use
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2021/05/12/elon-musk-says-tesla-stops-accepting-bitcoin-for-car-purchases-due-to-carbon-energy-use/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie&sh=295c5216f858
Elon Musk, who has become a volatile force in the cryptocurrency universe, said Tesla is no longer accepting Bitcoin as payment for purchases of its electric vehicles owing to the excessive amount of carbon-based energy it uses. Bitcoin plunged following his comments.
“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. “Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”
While Tesla isn’t going to accept Bitcoin as payment, the company’s billionaire CEO said it also won’t be selling holdings in the cryptocurrency and still plans to use “it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.”
Bitcoin dropped 17% to $47,256.504 at 1:05 a.m. London time early Thursday.
Mining its uses “more electricity than Argentina” according to recent BBC report
Bitcoin consumes ‘more electricity than Argentina’
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952
Bitcoin uses more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina, analysis by Cambridge University suggests.
“Mining” for the cryptocurrency is power-hungry, involving heavy computer calculations to verify transactions.
Cambridge researchers say it consumes around 121.36 terawatt-hours (TWh) a year – and is unlikely to fall unless the value of the currency slumps.
Critics say electric-car firm Tesla’s decision to invest heavily in Bitcoin undermines its environmental image.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla Makes More Money Trading Bitcoin Than Selling Cars
Bitcoin trading and regulatory credits, not auto sales, helped power Tesla to a record profit
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/tesla-makes-more-money-trading-bitcoin-than-selling-cars-11619517615
Revenue of $10.4 billion and adjusted earnings of 93 cents a share both topped Wall Street expectations. Net income reached $438 million, a quarterly record for the company. What’s more, Tesla said it expects to increase vehicle deliveries by more than 50% this year from the 2020 total. That implies roughly 800,000 deliveries this year.
Tesla didn’t exactly earn its record profit from selling cars, however. The company said that it sold some of the $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin that it purchased in February, contributing $101 million to the bottom line. That is nearly a fourth of its total profit.
What is more, sales of regulatory credits to other auto makers to help them meet emissions mandates, which carry a 100% profit margin, reached $518 million. That accounts for nearly 100% of Tesla’s $533 million in pretax income. Those two helping hands helped avert red ink.
Tesla’s electric-car market share has eroded in established markets like Western Europe and the U.S. as larger car companies like Volkswagen, Ford, and General Motors have finally gotten serious about the electric market. Tesla has lately been setting sales records in China, but homegrown competitors are emerging there, too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elon Musk’s U-turn on bitcoin hits Tesla and other crypto-linked stocks as hundreds of billions get wiped off the digital assets market
https://trib.al/cFRJA5N
Elon Musk’s turnaround on bitcoin sent Tesla and other crypto-linked stocks lower on Thursday.
Crypto mining stocks like Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital fell 13%.
The entire cryptocurrency market lost as much as $365 billion in value at one point on Thursday.
Stocks linked to cryptocurrencies slumped on Thursday after Elon Musk’s sudden change of mind on bitcoin sent the popular digital asset 15% lower.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: U.S. Officials Investigating Crypto Exchange Binance Amid Market’s Massive Boom
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/05/13/report-binance-investigation-crypto-market/
The Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service have reportedly opened an investigation into cryptocurrency exchange Binance, heightening tensions in the largely unregulated industry amid unprecedented market volatility and reports that hackers demanded a $5 million cryptocurrency ransom from the fuel company that halted operations this week.
U.S. officials from the DOJ and IRS are seeking information about Cayman Islands-based Binance from people with intimate knowledge of the company’s operations, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Founded in 2017 by now-billionaire Changpeng Zhao (who goes by CZ), Binance has been at the center of the past year’s crypto market explosion, consistently ranking as the world’s top crypto exchange by volume and processing some $80 billion in transactions over the past 24 hours alone. Though it’s exploded in value, the cryptocurrency market is still largely unregulated in the U.S., but its anonymous transactions have drawn increased scrutiny from U.S. officials. In January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who at the time was still awaiting confirmation, called cryptocurrencies “a particular concern,” and urged lawmakers to take action to “curtail their use,” particularly to ensure they’re not used for illicit financing.
Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid hackers $5 million in an unidentified cryptocurrency on Friday following a cyberattack that forced the pipeline offline and created a severe gas shortage.
Hackers Got $5 Million: Colonial Pipeline Reportedly Paid A Ransom In Cryptocurrency, Contrary To Claims
https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissaholzberg/2021/05/13/hackers-got-5-million-colonial-pipeline-reportedly-paid-a-ransom-in-cryptocurrency-contrary-to-claims/?sh=31bd8e3f799e
TOPLINE The Colonial Pipeline Company reportedly paid hackers $5 million on Friday following a cyberattack that forced the pipeline offline and created a severe gas shortage, sources told Bloomberg News Thursday, which conflicts with reports the company would not pay a ransom.
Colonial was attacked by DarkSide, a group of hackers in Eastern Europe, on Friday and the company was forced to stop service of 2.5 million barrels of gasoline for five days.
The pipeline company reportedly paid the $5 million in cryptocurrency soon after the cyberattack, but the tool the hackers gave the company to restore its computer network took too long to work.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday the company was working with FireEye, a cybersecurity company, to recover its systems rather than pay the ransom, and the FBI does not recommend paying ransomware hackers because it “doesn’t guarantee you or your organization will get any data back.”
Colonial announced Wednesday night pipeline service was fully restored, but many gas stations continued to experience gas shortages as the company warned there would be “intermittent service interruptions” over the next few days.
The national average gas price climbed to $3.028 a gallon on Thursday, the highest it’s been in six years, according to AAA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sijoitusguru: bitcoin on vanhaa tekniikkaa ja tulee häviämään kuin pieru Saharaan
9.5.202110:15
Sijoitusguru vertaa bitcoinia 1990-luvun lopun teknologiabuumiin. Uudempi teknologia saattaa tulla ja syrjäyttää alan pioneerin.
https://www.mikrobitti.fi/uutiset/sijoitusguru-bitcoin-on-vanhaa-tekniikkaa-ja-tulee-haviamaan-kuin-pieru-saharaan/e6af01e7-d476-407e-b639-fa0d8fd7a4c5
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elon Musk says Bitcoin is bad for the environment, and some very big numbers are behind it.
Why does Elon Musk say Bitcoin is bad for the environment?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-14/why-is-bitcoin-bad-for-the-environment-elon-musk/100139280?utm_medium=social&utm_content=sf245886716&utm_campaign=fb_abc_news&utm_source=m.facebook.com&sf245886716=1
The price of Bitcoin dropped by more than 7 per cent yesterday, off the back of a single tweet by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Mr Musk’s problem? He said Bitcoin mining is bad for the environment, and as a result he announced Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin payments.
The move away from the lucrative cryptocurrency saw its price fall significantly — but how can a digital currency cause damage to the environment?
After all, calling it “mining” is just a metaphor, right?
What is Bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin ownership is verified through a public digital ledger known as the blockchain.
Every time a transaction happens, information needs to be recorded in the blockchain as proof money changed hands.
To do that, dedicated computer farms around the world spring into action and begin trying to solve what amounts to a very complex guessing puzzle.
When one of those computers hits on a right answer, a block is added to the blockchain, verifying the transaction.
Bitcoin’s website describes this process as a lottery that prevents people who want to commit fraud from being able to make dodgy additions to the blockchain.
“In this way, no group or individuals can control what is included in the block chain or replace parts of the block chain to roll back their own spends,” it says.
But why would someone bother to set up computer farms dedicated to verifying other people’s Bitcoin transactions?
Because when someone successfully adds a block to the blockchain, they’re rewarded with brand new, freshly minted bitcoin of their own.
Hence the term “mining”.
If Bitcoin is virtual, why are there environmental concerns?
The issue is that all these computer farms working overtime to mine bitcoin use up a lot of real-world energy.
The grunt work of adding to the block chain has computers run guessing games involving an astronomically large number of guesses each second.
To be more precise, the network is currently estimated as being able to handle 176,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s 176 quintillion) computations every single second.
All those numbers are energy intensive, so the power consumption of the Bitcoin network is huge.
According to the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance, the estimated annualised consumption of electricity by the Bitcoin network is 149.6 terawatt hours and growing.
A report from the centre noted that miners “have long competed on accessing the cheapest energy source”.
Many of those sources are fossil fuels.
According to German research published in the academic paper Joule in 2019, Bitcoin was responsible for up to 51 megatons of CO2 emissions annually.
Since then, the estimated energy use of the Bitcoin network has tripled, though the mix of renewables and fossil fuels may have changed too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clive Thompson / New York Times:
A brief history of NFTs and cryptoart, including interviews with artists who kickstarted the NFT boom, as celebrities and major brands fuel the frenzy
The Untold Story of the NFT Boom
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/magazine/nft-art-crypto.html
Digital creators used the blockchain to create a whole new art scene. Then their work started selling for thousands — sometimes millions of dollars.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The news Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment helped spur a $300 billion crypto sell off.
Bitcoin Bounces Back From Three Month Low As Elon Musk Denies Tesla Has Sold Its Crypto Assets
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/05/17/bitcoin-bounces-back-from-three-month-low-as-elon-musk-denies-tesla-has-sold-its-crypto-assets/
Bitcoin started to bounce back from a three month low Monday morning after Tesla CEO Elon Musk denied the company had sold its sizable bitcoin assets, marking the latest swing in volatile crypto markets since the billionaire precipitated a $300 billion crash by announcing Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment due to its weighty environmental footprint.
Bitcoin prices rallied Monday morning after Musk clarified that “Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin.”
The crypto’s value surged by about 7% in the 20 minutes following Musk’s tweet to around $45,700 a token.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blockchains Were Supposed to Be “Unhackable.” Now They’re Getting Hacked.
https://futurism.com/blockchains-unhackable-getting-hacked
Until recently, blockchains were seen as an “unhackable” technology powering and securing cryptocurrencies — but that’s no longer the case.
Hackers have gotten away with nearly $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency since 2017 by attacking the unique vulnerabilities of blockchains, MIT Technology Review reports. In other words, forget what you heard from Bitcoin boosters — just because information or currency is on a blockchain doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s more secure than any other form of storage.
In one recent attack, a hacker was able to gain control over Ethereum Classic’s network and rewrite transaction history. As a result, the attacker was able to “double spend” cryptocurrencies, getting away with some $1.1 million.
In fact, the same qualities that make blockchain technology so secure may also be the source of several unique vulnerabilities — a stark reminder that despite the hype, cryptocurrencies can’t entirely sidestep the vulnerabilities of any other banking systems.
Until the Ethereum Classic incident, hackers were generally aiming their sights at exchanges, the places where people trade and hold cryptocurrencies.
By gaining the majority over the digital currency’s computing power, the hacker was able to defraud other users by sending them payments and then rewriting the existing blockchain ledger to cover their tracks, as MIT Tech explains. This new ledger then exists as the authoritative one, a scheme known as a “51 percent attack.”
While it’s an exceedingly expensive stunt to pull off when it comes to popular cryptocurrencies, smaller currencies are cheaper to take over. And we should expect far more 51 percent attacks in the near future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrencies have “no real support value” and prices that are “extremely easy” to manipulate, three Chinese industry groups warned.
China Cracks Down On Crypto Business, Saying ‘Speculative’ Trading ‘Seriously Infringing’ On Financial Order
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/05/18/china-bans-banks-from-crypto-business-saying-speculative-trading-seriously-infringing-on-financial-order/
Chinese financial officials announced Tuesday that the country would crack down on financial institutions conducting cryptocurrency business or offering related services in light of the market’s recent volatility, marking another blow to the nascent market reeling from one of its biggest sell-offs ever after booming institutional adoption helped lift it to meteoric highs during the pandemic.
In a joint statement Tuesday, three Chinese industry groups overseeing the financial sector announced that bank and payment institutions can not conduct business related to cryptocurrencies, specifically banning a slew of activities including cryptocurrency registration, trading, clearing and settlement.
The guidelines, which reiterate a previous ban from 2017, also bar financial institutions from accepting or using cryptocurrencies in payments or settlements, developing digital currency exchange services and offering any such services to clients.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The global cryptocurrency has lost $655 billion in market value in just the past week.
Amid Sell-Off And Extreme Volatility, Investors Should Be Wary About Cryptocurrencies, UBS Warns
https://www.forbes.com/sites/palashghosh/2021/05/19/amid-sell-off-and-extreme-volatility-investors-should-be-wary-about-cryptocurrencies-ubs-warns/
The latest plunge in cryptocurrencies highlight the volatile and speculative nature of this relatively new asset class, while making them less than ideal for an investor’s portfolio, UBS warned in a report on Wednesday.
The two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have dropped 9.55% and 20.2%, respectively, over the past 24 hours as of 2:15 p.m.
In just the past week, the total market cap of global cryptocurrencies has plunged by $655 billion, or 27%, according to CoinMarketCap.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analysts at UBS said in a report Wednesday that investors should treat crypto as a speculative asset and not strictly as “currencies” as their “high volatility” makes them “an unreliable store of value.”
UBS also cautioned that the benefits of holding crypto in one’s portfolio is “limited,” adding that their value as a form of diversification – given their low correlation to conventional assets — is not a “sufficient reason” alone to add cryptocurrencies to a portfolio.
UBS also said it is unlikely that cryptocurrencies, despite their decentralized nature, can operate totally free from government influence, citing China’s recent clampdown on crypto trading, and the fact that crypto holdings are already subject to capital gains and other taxation in many countries, including the U.S.
“Weekly moves of more than 10% in Bitcoin are common. In the week to May 14, Bitcoin fell 24%, which would be a high level of volatility [even] for a small-cap stock, let alone a currency,” UBS said.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/palashghosh/2021/05/19/amid-sell-off-and-extreme-volatility-investors-should-be-wary-about-cryptocurrencies-ubs-warns/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Other leading cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (Ether), Cardano (ADA), and Dogecoin all saw significant losses.
China Signals Crackdown On Cryptocurrency, Causing Bitcoin To Tumble
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/china-signals-crackdown-on-cryptocurrency-causing-bitcoin-to-tumble/
Bitcoin took another tumble on Wednesday after regulators in China signaled a crackdown on cryptocurrency payments.
The decision saw bitcoin fall below $40,000 for the first time since February 2021, while other leading cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (Ether), Cardano (ADA), and Dogecoin all saw significant losses.
In a joint statement issued on the People’s Bank of China’s WeChat account, banking and internet industry bodies said that banks and online payment channels should not accept cryptocurrencies as payment or offer services related to them. It has not made it illegal for individuals to hold bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. However, it will make it more difficult for people to buy cryptocurrencies using various payment channels.
“The price of cryptocurrency has soared and plummeted, and cryptocurrency trading speculation has rebounded, which has seriously violated the safety of the people’s property and disrupted the normal economic and financial order,” the statement reads.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘If Elon is actually serious about rebuilding Doge with his elite ninja engineers over at Tesla … here’s how you do it’
Ethereum founder tells Elon Musk how to ‘fix’ dogecoin
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ethereum-elon-musk-dogecoin-b1849418.html
Charles Hoskinson, who also invented Cardano, said Tesla boss could rebuild Doge with ‘elite ninja engineers’
Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson has offered advice to Elon Musk on how to radically upgrade the cryptocurrency dogecoin in order for it to become “the currency of Earth”.
The Tesla boss and self-appointed Dogefather claimed this week that “low fees and high volume” are needed for dogecoin to ever make sense as a mainstream form of currency.
“Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X and drops fee 100X,” Mr Musk tweeted this week. “Then it wins hands down.”
Dogecoin creator Billy Markus responded to Mr Musk by saying that increasing the block size and lowering fees would be easy, but not speeding up the block time.
“If Elon is actually serious about rebuilding Doge with his elite ninja engineers over at Tesla, which I have no doubt he has great programmers there, here’s how you do it,” Mr Hoskinson said.
The proposed upgrade involves 11 steps that would introduce various protocols to speed up transaction times, improve the mining process, as well as make it quantum resistant and allow smart contracts on its platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethereum could shift away from GPU mining in a matter of months.
Ethereum moves to kill graphics card mining ‘in the upcoming months’
By Jacob Ridley about 19 hours ago
https://www.pcgamer.com/ethereum-set-to-kill-graphics-card-mining-in-the-upcoming-months/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social
Ethereum Foundation promises a much less power and GPU hungry cryptocurrency network.
It’s not often we dive into updates on specific cryptocurrency algorithms here at PC Gamer, but this one could have a material impact on our humble hobby. While the relationship between Ethereum—the most popular crypto for GPU mining—and PC gaming has been, uh, rocky at the best of times, that could be all about to change.
Ethereum is looking to shift to a proof-of-stake model within months, the Ethereum Foundation has said, and that brings with it some major changes to how the cryptocurrency operates fundamentally.
Today, Ethereum uses proof-of-work to shift transactions and generate new Ether, which is the currency used on the Ethereum network. Proof-of-work requires lots and lots of computational power to operate, much the same way as Bitcoin does, but while Bitcoin is largely powered by application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), Ethereum is powered almost exclusively by graphics cards.
Proof-of-stake will cut the requirement for GPUs. Instead, the very network itself will verify transactions, or blocks, according to their stake in Ethereum.
As a result, Proof-of-stake would cut the requirement for GPU mining, which means less demand for cards and less power sapped from the limited resource that is planet Earth.
“Ethereum will be completing the transition to Proof-of-Stake in the upcoming months,” Carl Beekhuizen, Ethereum Foundation, says in a blog post, “which brings a myriad of improvements that have been theorized for years. But now that the Beacon chain has been running for a few months, we can actually dig into the numbers. One area that we’re excited to explore involves new energy-use estimates, as we end the process of expending a country’s worth of energy on consensus.”
Beacon Chain is the system by which the Ethereum network will manage a proof-of-stake network. It differs from the mainnet blockchain in use today for proof-of-work. Both effectively aim to produce a secure network for verifying Ether transactions, however.
Ethereum has been eyeing up a Proof-of-Stake concept for years now.
Proof-of-stack, if successful, would cut Ethereum’s power use by up to 99.95%, the foundation claims.
But what happens to all the miners when proof-of-stake inevitably happens?
Either miners can pack up shop, sell their GPUs for a quick buck second-hand, and move on with their lives. Or they move to one of the many, many alternative cryptocurrencies out there that are still happily mining away.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CNBC:
Bitcoin fell 30% to just over $30K on Wednesday, recovering partially to $38K; Ether, Dogecoin, and others also plunged — Galaxy Digital’s Novogratz on bitcoin’s plunge: These are setbacks for investor base — Bitcoin plunged to near $30,000 at one point on Wednesday morning …
Bitcoin plunges 30% to $30,000 at one point in wild session, recovers somewhat to $38,000
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/bitcoin-btc-price-plunges-but-bottom-could-be-near-.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kristine Owram / Bloomberg:
Coinbase reported “intermittent downtime” on its platform Wednesday, now fixed, as cryptocurrencies sharply fell; Coinbase stock closed down 5%+ at $224.80
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-19/coinbase-plunges-with-other-crypto-stocks-amid-bitcoin-rout
Tomi Engdahl says:
China bans financial, payment institutions from cryptocurrency business
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/china-bans-financial-payment-institutions-from-cryptocurrency-business.html?__source=sharebar%7Cfacebook&par=sharebar
China has banned financial institutions and payment companies from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions, and warned investors against speculative crypto trading.
It was China’s latest attempt to clamp down on what was a burgeoning digital trading market.
Under the ban, such institutions must not offer any service involving cryptocurrency, such as registration, trading, clearing and settlement, three industry bodies said in a joint statement.
China has banned financial institutions and payment companies from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions, and warned investors against speculative crypto trading.
It was China’s latest attempt to clamp down on what was a burgeoning digital trading market. Under the ban, such institutions, including banks and online payments channels, must not offer clients any service involving cryptocurrency, such as registration, trading, clearing and settlement, three industry bodies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Bitcoin dropped as much as 31% Wednesday to near $30,000, and Ether was 44% down at less than $2,000 at one stage. While both have recouped some of the losses, those crashes spread plenty of pain across crypto assets. There were $9.4 billion of liquidations in the 24 hours through 9 a.m. Thursday in Singapore, as more than 887,000 traders liquidated, according to data from Bybt.com. Exchanges offer so much leverage that new traders will always be at risk of forced sales when virtual currencies drop, Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC’s Tom Lee said in a note after the big tumble.
“What causes such deeper pullbacks are a case of system overload, liquidations, and such factors,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific at Luno Pte. “Crypto is still a much ‘wilder West’ than any other asset class where you can trade on some exchanges for up to 50-100X leverage,” and “what we’ve seen is a big funding reset across exchanges due to overleveraged traders.”
Bitcoin and Ethereum’s spectacular ride is arguably the third time in the space of two months when margin calls have roiled markets, after Archegos Capital Management’s forced sales in late March and the tumble in Taiwan equities that accelerated last week.”
“In a market where leverage of as much as 100 times isn’t uncommon, Wednesday’s precipitous slides across the cryptocurrency complex highlight the extreme downside risks that can bite investors. Still, it’s been regarded by many as a feature of crypto rather than a bug; Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of pioneering crypto exchange BitMEX who’s now in trouble with the U.S., said at a conference in 2019 that “Bitcoin is fun, but it’s a hell of a lot more fun at 100 times leverage.”
Billions of dollars was liquidated as Bitcoin and Ether dropped
To some extent, it may not have been surprising — and could have cleared out the system a bit.
“The liquidations happened at the lows as always,” said Todd Morakis, founder of digital-finance product and service provider JST Capital. “Normally during times after big selloffs it is range-trading with not much leverage in system.”
The market is showing nascent signs Thursday of recovering after the hit, though it may take a few days to see whether sentiment can stabilize.
“We’ve seen a lot of higher leverage positions be liquidated in a short span of time,” said Jeffery Wang, head of Americas at the Amber Group, a global crypto finance service provider, on Wednesday. “This was a large flushout and if the market wants to continue higher it was likely necessary to remove some of the froth from overleveraged positions. After the move in the past 24 hours, the next few days will be important to see how overall sentiment is.””
— With assistance by Eric Lam
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/crypto-meltdown-turbocharged-by-mix-of-leverage-and-liquidations
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrency & Mining
Bitcoin dump may have been coordinated sell off to bankrupt one person
An insider has claimed that the recent Bitcoin price reduction was a coordinated sell-off that was aimed at bankrupting one person.
Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/79477/bitcoin-dump-may-have-been-coordinated-sell-off-to-bankrupt-one-person/index.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
US Treasury calls for stricter cryptocurrency rules, IRS reporting for transfers over $10K
https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/20/new-cryptocurrency-irs-rules-2023-crypto/?tpcc=ECFB2021
President Biden’s vision for an empowered, expanded IRS is poised to have a big impact on cryptocurrency trading.
According to a new report from the U.S. Treasury Department, the administration wants to put new requirements in place that would make it easier for the government to see how money is moving around, including digital currencies. The report notes that cryptocurrencies pose a “significant detection problem” and are used regularly by top earners who wish to evade taxes.
Most digital currencies exist in a sort of twilight state just beyond the grasp of federal regulators, but the U.S. tax authority is starting to get savvy to this whole bitcoin thing. On Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Coinbase must supply the IRS with identifying information on users who had more than $20,000 in annual transactions on its platform between 2013 and 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrencies and NFTs may be catching everyone’s attention, but there are better uses for blockchain.
Forget Cryptocurrencies and NFTs—Securing Devices Is the Future of Blockchain Technology
https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/standards/forget-cryptocurrencies-and-nftssecuring-devices-is-the-future-of-blockchain-technology
Cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) may be all the rage right now, but they’re overshadowing better uses for blockchain and other distributed-ledger technologies. Rather than using them to disrupt financial systems or the art world, distributed ledgers can be used to create trust among Internet of Things devices, which is essential for any successful IoT network.
Trust among devices can enable scenarios like an autonomous security robot checking the security clearances of drones flying overhead, or a self-checkout register at a grocery store that flags recalled meat when someone tries to buy it. Unfortunately, these use cases exist in primarily theoretical or pilot stages, while flashy crypto applications garner the most attention. But finally, an upcoming smart-home standard is using blockchain to create trust among devices.
The new standard, put forth by the Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) working group in the Zigbee Alliance, an organization developing the ZigBee wireless standard, focuses on improving IoT-device compatibility. That includes making sure devices from different manufacturers can securely interact with one another. Project CHIP’s ledger is one of the first scaled-out blockchain efforts outside of cryptocurrency launches.
CHIP’s standard describes a blockchain-based ledger that contains each CHIP-certified device, its manufacturer, and facts about that device, such as the current version of its software and whether or not it has received a particular update. The standard also includes other basic security features such as encryption among devices.
What’s great about this blockchain approach is that it eliminates the need for users to track and monitor the security of all their devices. Depending on how the ledger is set up, it could also alert people to device vulnerabilities. The ledger could even be used to automatically quarantine those vulnerable devices.
CHIP hasn’t shared a lot of details on the ledger yet
While CHIP’s ledger may not be as flashy as an NFT selling for over US $60 million, it’s an important step toward a more useful approach to distributed ledgers. A device’s ability to establish its bona fides and list its software patches over its lifetime is invaluable for device security.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hetzner cloud server provider bans cryptocurrency mining https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/cryptocurrency/hetzner-cloud-server-provider-bans-cryptocurrency-mining/
“With storage boxes this leads to problems with the bandwidth on the host systems. With chia mining there is also the problem that the hard drives are extremely stressed by the many read and write processes and will therefore break.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
lol the chain can’t be altered if malicious code commands etc (or worse) get in there it will always be in there. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47130268
https://www.pcmag.com/news/bitcoins-blockchain-caught-loaded-with-child-pornography
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/59w8jx/colorado-wants-to-track-weed-with-chemicals-and-the-blockchain
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s been over a decade and quite few have found any use for blockchain other than transferring value between strangers without a trusted third party.
we had the tech to do distributed databases in the 1980′s?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict-free_replicated_data_type
Tomi Engdahl says:
NFTs are the digital trend du jour, and there’s no telling how long this will be a lucrative space. What we do know is there’s no time like the present to try your hand at it.
How to Get In On The Hot NFT Market Before It Cools Off
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/how-to-get-in-on-the-hot-nft-market-before-it-cools-off/
While NFTs themselves might be complex, there’s no confusion about the hype around these digital treasures. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital representations of one-of-a-kind items including art, music, collectibles, virtual items in video game and more. They’re also raking in a lot of money right now. So much so, that everyone from sports teams and rock bands to renowned auction houses are riding the NFT wave.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NFTs are the digital trend du jour, and there’s no telling how long this will be a lucrative space. What we do know is there’s no time like the present to try your hand at it. Best case scenario, you’ll create a valued piece of art and start to make money in the NFT-verse. Worst case, you’ll have a deep understanding of an important aspect of blockchain, giving you a leg up on future innovations.
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/how-to-get-in-on-the-hot-nft-market-before-it-cools-off/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital NFT Art Is Booming—But at What Cost?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/5947911/nft-environmental-toll/%3famp=true
While NFTs hold promise, critics say the mining that makes them possible is perhaps humanity’s most direct way of making money by polluting the planet–Ethereum mining consumes about 26.5 terawatt-hours of electricity a year, nearly as much as the entire country of Ireland and its almost 5 million residents. In theory, all mining energy could come from renewable sources, but right now, there is money to be made by essentially converting cheap fossil fuels into valuable cryptocurrencies. And for an asset with no physical presence or utility outside the digital realm, the process of producing the “coins” is tremendously inefficient–one 2018 study found that cryptocurrency mining consumes more energy for every dollar of value generated than extracting gold or copper.
“This is just heartbreaking in so many aspects,” says Camilo Mora, a professor of geography and environment at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. “Not only the environmental [toll], but the social and ethical.”
All this may come as a surprise to artists and others adopting NFTs, in part because they’re far removed from the technology’s environmental cost. If a digital artist wants to sell an NFT, they first have to “tokenize” their work on a blockchain, which is a kind of tamper-resistant digital public ledger; many use the Ethereum blockchain. To do that, they pay Ethereum miners a fee of up to a few hundred dollars to have their computers crank out the necessary calculations.
But from the artist’s perspective, they’re just paying money on a website to get a token in return, masking the environmental cost. “If you are buying an artwork you don’t see those calculations going on,” says Alex de Vries, a financial economist and founder of Digiconomist, a site that explores the unforeseen consequences of technology trends. “You don’t see your money is going to a miner who’s going to pay for fossil fuel-based energy with it. That’s a real problem.”
This issue–an “externality,” in economist-speak–extends far beyond the digital art world. It’s long been a problem for Bitcoin, the largest and most mainstream cryptocurrency, and it only stands to become a bigger dilemma as other kinds of assets, like financial securities and real estate, also become tokenized. Some in the crypto world are working on solutions. The developers of Ethereum itself, for instance, promise to launch a new framework that would use orders of magnitude less energy than the current system by 2022.
For now, this year’s NFT craze appears destined to not only fuel coal-hungry server farms from the Texas plains to the Caucasus, but also to power a new wave of hype around cryptocurrencies more broadly, incentivizing the creation of yet more massive and wasteful mining operations. Still, the recent boom is raising fresh awareness of crypto’s environmental toll, and there’s a chance that activism could lead to real change–but many are skeptical that enough will be done in time. “This was a game,” says Mora. “It’s turning into a disaster.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoineja on louhimatta enää 2 miljoonaa kappaletta – paitsi jos koodiin tulee muutos
22.5.202110:07
Bitcoinien lukumäärä ei lähdekoodin mukaan voi ylittää 21 miljoonaa. Lähdekoodia voidaan kuitenkin muuttaa, jos valtaosa louhijoista saavuttaa yhteisymmärryksen.
https://www.mikrobitti.fi/uutiset/bitcoineja-on-louhimatta-enaa-2-miljoonaa-kappaletta-paitsi-jos-koodiin-tulee-muutos/b88446b7-eb07-414c-94cf-a2c7dd2026df
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Setting up a Hotline for Snitching on Cryptocurrency Miners
By Nathaniel Mott 1 day ago
The Blockchain Scare
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/china-establishes-cryptocurrency-mining-hotline?utm_content=tomsguide&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/pancakebunny-tanks-96-following-200m-flash-loan-exploit/amp
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s largest cryptocurrencies have crashed as much as 50% from all-time highs earlier this month.
Crypto Crash Intensifies As Losses Eclipse $1.2 Trillion Just Two Weeks After Market’s All-Time High
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/05/23/crypto-crash-intensifies-as-losses-eclipse-12-trillion-just-two-weeks-after-markets-all-time-high/
The cryptocurrency market’s massive crash worsened Sunday as a wave of crackdown measures in China continues to rattle investor sentiment, pushing losses to nearly $1.3 trillion since May 12, the day billionaire Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would no longer invest in or sell bitcoin due to its hefty environmental cost.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin Has Crashed: What’s Next After The ‘Extreme Fear’ 50% Price Plummet?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2021/05/23/bitcoin-has-crashed-whats-next-after-the-extreme-fear-50-price-plummet/
The bitcoin price, after nudging $65,000 per bitcoin in April, dropped to just under $30,000 this week before rebounding slightly, falling after Tesla billionaire Elon Musk expressed doubts about bitcoin and fear gripped the market China could crack down hard on bitcoin operations in the country.