Nick Tomaino, a former business developer and marketing lead at Coinbase, explained how the idea of bitcoin for payments gradually lost its relevance in the market. Tomaino detailed that Coinbase rode this premise back in 2014 to raise 5 million in two funding rounds, but it was quickly clear that there was not a case […]
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Tether CEO and Ripple CEO Clash Over USDT — Brad Garlinghouse Says ‘I Wasn’t Attacking Tether’
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has responded to remarks made by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, branding him as an “uninformed CEO” and accusing him of fostering uncertainty about stablecoin USDT amid a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into his company. In reply, Garlinghouse clarified that his comments were not an attack on Tether but […]
Bitcoin News
Greenpeace Unveils ‘Skull of Satoshi’ to Spark Debate Over Bitcoin’s Environmental Impact; Creator Clarifies It ‘Wasn’t Meant to Be Anti-Bitcoin’
Greenpeace, the well known environmental NGO, has unveiled the “Skull of Satoshi,” an art installation intended to spark debate about the impact of Bitcoin on the environment. The 11-foot skull was constructed with electronic waste materials and features smokestacks and Bitcoin logos. However, its creator, Benjamin Von Wong, explained it was not meant to be an anti-Bitcoin symbol.
Greenpeace Unveils ‘Skull of Satoshi’ Art Installation
Greenpeace, the international environmental NGO, unveiled the “Skull of Satoshi” on March 23, an 11-foot art installation destined to criticize Bitcoin’s effect on the environment. The structure, which was created by Benjamin Von Wong, has distinctive elements included to spark a debate on how destructive bitcoin mining can supposedly be.
One of these is the presence of smokestacks, which symbolize the use of fossil fuels to produce the energy that serves to operate the Bitcoin network via mining. Also, the skull has hundreds of protruding cables and bitcoin logos in its eyes. According to Greenpeace, it was created with e-waste material, to symbolize the computers used to validate Bitcoin transactions.
Greenpeace’s objective is to raise awareness of the energy consumption of Bitcoin, and how this could change via a change in the code of the cryptocurrency. Greenpeace’s Rolf Skar explained:
Our skull design serves as a powerful symbol, urging financial institutions to use their influence to advocate for a code change that could reduce Bitcoin’s electricity usage by a whopping 99%. We cannot afford to expand our reliance on fossil fuels any further.
The Skull of Satoshi will next travel to New York to be part of an “accountability tour,” in which Greenpeace will try to encourage financial institutions using Bitcoin to call for a change in the code of the currency to lessen its effects on climate change.
Benjamin Von Wong Clarifies His Intention
Benjamin Von Wong, the maker of the Skull of Satoshi, took his opinions to Twitter, clarifying his true intentions with the construction of the installation. The installation, which was commissioned by Greenpeace, was created with a simplistic idea of Bitcoin, Von Wong explained in a Twitter thread on March 25. He stated:
I made the Skull believing that Bitcoin Mining was a simple black-and-white issue. I’ve spent my entire career trying to reduce real-world physical waste, and PoW felt intuitively wasteful. Of course, I was wrong.
Furthermore, Von Wong declared that the sculpture was never meant to be anti-Bitcoin, but part of his “optimistic hope that Bitcoin could shift away from the needless burning of fossil fuels without losing all the other features that make Bitcoin safe, secure, and decentralized.”
What do you think about the Skull of Satoshi and Greenpeace’s campaign to change Bitcoin’s code? Tell us in the comments section below.
Overheard On CNBC: If It Wasn’t For Bitcoin, Gold Would Be $3K
Bitcoin is making headlines left and right on media outlets everywhere, but none more so than CNBC. According to a well respected journalist, during a segment on CNBC it was said that gold would be trading at ,000 an ounce if it wasn’t for Bitcoin.
Here’s why that statement is probably true, and why the cryptocurrency will continue to take market share away from the aging shiny rock.
Gold Would Trade At K If It Wasn’t For BTC
The digital narrative worked like a charm, and Bitcoin is now stealing any capital looking to park somewhere resistant to inflation.
Gold has traditionally served that purpose, and as the economy first began treading on thin ice, the ages old asset that was once the “standard” began to uptrend again.
Related Reading | Seller’s Remorse: Day Trader Dave Portnoy Swears Off Bitcoin
Gold eventually reached more than ,000 an ounce at the height of its bull market. Natural profit-taking caused the price per ounce to pull back, but rather than go for another leg higher, capital well suited for gold made its way into Bitcoin instead.
Because Bitcoin exists, and money is pouring into the scarce cryptocurrency instead of gold, has prevented gold from trading at ,000 an ounce, according to a statement overheard on CNBC today.
Statement on @CNBC today : if there was no #bitcoin , #gold would be trading at k today.
— Daniela Cambone-Taub (@DanielaCambone) February 19, 2021
The statement was shared in a tweet, fingering the blame on Bitcoin as the culprit for gold’s lack of price appreciation.
How Bitcoin Makes Metals Seem a Lot Less Precious
Charts don’t lie, fortunately, and comparing gold against Bitcoin definitely shows a correlation between when gold peaked and the cryptocurrency really took off.
The change took place just days after gold had topped, and publicly traded companies began buying BTC to add to company reserves.
Gold's value has been diminishing while Bitcoin's rises. Coincidence? | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
That trend has now extended into the likes of Tesla, and more corporations are expected to follow suit and could be responsible for Bitcoin’s price appreciation.
Other reasons, however, are undeniably due to gold outflows from hedge funds and other investors. Even retail are now getting back into crypto, but are focused more on altcoins as the price per BTC becomes out of reach for the average person.
Related Reading | Chart Comparison Demonstrates Effectiveness Of Bitcoin Digital Gold Narrative
But even altcoins absorbing some of the capital that could have made its way into gold, is ultimately Bitcoin’s doing. It is because of the first ever cryptocurrency that the rest of the market exists, and according the the statement made on CNBC, is responsible for gold trading at under ,000, let alone the ,000 it would be otherwise.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com
Bitcoin Liquidation Data Suggest Recent Crypto Rally Wasn’t Driven by Retail Buyers
It has been a rough past few days for Bitcoin and the entire crypto market. Following BTC’s tests of its all-time highs in the mid-,000 region, the benchmark digital asset faced a massive influx of selling pressure.
However, this was expected, and most investors didn’t believe that it was enough to spark any long-lasting correction.
However, recent comments from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin regarding a potential second eave of crypto regulations caused BTC to see a sustained move lower that shows few signs of slowing down anytime soon.
If this trend persists, then the aggregated market could be poised to see some serious losses in the days and weeks ahead.
One narrative surrounding this recent rally has been that an influx of new retail buyers drove it.
A look into the liquidation profiles of Bitcoin and top altcoins seems to indicate that the derivatives market has played a bigger role in it than many may have realized.
This could be a negative sign for the market, as it indicates that the derivatives market could be behind the recent uptrend, which means it may be somewhat fragile.
Bitcoin Crash Sends Altcoins Reeling Lower
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading down just over 10% at its current price of ,700. This marks a massive decline from its recent highs of ,500 set at the peak of the recent move higher.
Today’s decline came about as the result of a combination of factors, including the rejection at its highs and comments from the current Treasury Secretary regarding a potential regulatory crackdown.
The altcoin market plunged due to this recent BTC decline, with top altcoins all dropping in tandem. ETH broke below 0 while the rest of the market also saw some serious signs of weakness.
Liquidation Data Suggests Derivatives Market was Behind Recent Uptrend
One investor noted in a recent tweet that the massive liquidations seen due to the recent selloff indicate that the derivatives market is still in full control of most assets’ price action.
“About b in liquidations in last 24 hours, only half of it in BTC. 0m in XRP liquidations? Maybe last week’s alt rally wasn’t entirely new retail money…”
Image Courtesy of Ari Paul.
The coming few days should provide insight into Bitcoin’s mid-term outlook. Any further selloff could put the cryptocurrency in oversold territory and allow it to see a strong rebound.
Featured image from Unsplash. Charts from TradingView.
Only 33 Days And Dwindling Remain Where Bitcoin Wasn’t Profitable
This week, Bitcoin nearly touched ,000, leaving very few days remaining where buying BTC would have been unprofitable. In fact, the number has now dwindled down to just around a month left, and in no time at all, there could be no days left where buying the cryptocurrency was a bad decision.
Bitcoin Has Been Profitable Over 99% Of History, Only 33 Days Remain Unprofitable
Bitcoin price has now set a higher high over the 2019 peak, and the only remaining high to take out that’s left is the all-time high at ,000. With the momentum the cryptocurrency currently has, the target could be taken out any day now.
The number of days left where buying BTC turned out to be unprofitable, is dwindling by the day now that the top cryptocurrency touched just under ,000 this week.
There are only 33 total days in which you could have bought bitcoin and lost money.
Buying on 99.1% of days has resulted in profit.
This is why we #HODL
— 21Million (@21MillionCo) November 6, 2020
Now, according to data, only 33 days remain where buying BTC was a mistake and turned out to lead to a loss. At over 99% of any other time within Bitcoin’s twelve-year lifetime, buying BTC would have brought at least some positive ROI.
Related Reading | PayPal CEO: Bitcoin Support Will “Fundamentally Bolster” Crypto “Utility”
This timeframe extends from the end of December, through the first week of January.
Only 33 days remain where Bitcoin price traded higher than it is currently | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
What Happens When The Crypto Bull Market Begins?
Buying BTC at any point in 2020 before yesterday would be been profitable. Bitcoin has also doubled in value since the start of 2020 with more than 100% ROI.
Meanwhile, gold, stocks, and other primary investment assets have performed nowhere near as well. Other cryptocurrencies did even better than Bitcoin, but have learned the hard way recently that none of that matters once the leading cryptocurrency gets started in its bull run.
Bitcoin is following the same path as the last market cycle and could reach 0K at the peak | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
The 100% ROI in 2020, is only the beginning if past market cycles are anything to go by. Projecting the last peak over the current market cycle, Bitcoin is following almost the same exact path and would be projected to reach as high as 5,000.
Related Reading | When Crypto’s Most Reliable Sell Signal Fails, The Bitcoin Bull Run Is On
And while past results aren’t a guarantee of future performance, and never is, Bitcoin’s block reward halving could make it pre-programmed to go parabolic every four years to the date. Supply-based theories put the cryptocurrency well over 0,000 in 2021 based on the asset’s scarce supply, and given the momentum, we’ll soon find out if these valuations models are right.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com
No, Another $1 Billion In Tether (USDT) Wasn’t Added To The Crypto Market Cap
This week, over billion in Tether (USDT) was minted and added to the stablecoin’s circulating supply and market cap. A correlation with newly minted USDT and Bitcoin pumping has sent the crypto community into a tailspin.
Today, an automated Twitter account that alerts investors as to when new Tether is minted claimed another billion was added, but that’s not quite the case. Before Bitcoin investors expect another major pump, here’s what really happened and what this actually means for crypto.
Tether Supply and Stablecoins Rapidly Rise Out Of Crypto Bear Market Ashes
Tether, the controversial stablecoin is now the third most dominant cryptocurrency in the entire industry, rising out of the bear market as the one clear winner. No coin has benefitted from the crypto winter as much as the stable flight to crypto safety has.
USDT as a token has several uses. It offers a stable store of wealth, a means of exchange, and a hedge against crypto market volatility and downturns. It grew in popularity chiefly due to crypto traders moving into USDT instead of actual dollars to keep capital in the crypto market, but away from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others that are more susceptible to violent price swings.
Related Reading | Financial Advisory Group: Bitcoin Would Be 40% More Valuable Without Manipulation
Today, however, its the base currency on most cryptocurrency trading platforms, and an ideal choice for sending funds around the internet thanks to its peg to the dollar.
Stablecoins, not just Tether, have grown immensely recently, showing the demand for digital dollars with more integrity than what Tether offers. Although nothing has ever been proven, a dark cloud has ominously hung over the stablecoin and its parent company by association.
Tether has been accused of being central to everything from Bitcoin price manipulation to being insolvent. Its also been embroiled in several high profile court cases, but its supply keeps on climbing.
BTCUSDT Versus Tether USDT Market Cap | Source: TradingView
Billion In USDT Is A Reprint, Not New Money To Pump Bitcoin
Each time the supply increases, Bitcoin pumps. Or so it seems. The one time a massive amount of USDT was pulled from the crypto market, Bitcoin plummeted to its bear market bottom at ,200.
Since then, every time more supply is injected into the crypto market, the top crypto asset soars. The ongoing correlation appears to indicate that Bitcoin is about to rise more than it ever has in the past.
And its got crypto investors watching the USDT supply like a hawk for the next major printing and pump in Bitcoin. Today, an alert got the community up in arms when another billion in Tether was said to be printed. However, that was not the case.
Related Reading | How Does The Next Chapter In The Tether Printing Story Unfold For Bitcoin
What actually took place, was a coordinated effort with a third-party to swap out billion of the USDT supply off of the Tron blockchain and onto Ethereum as an ERC-20 token.
Tomorrow Tether will coordinate with a 3rd party to perform two chain swaps (conversion from Tron to ERC20 protocol) for 1B USDt.
Tether total supply will not change during this process.
Read more here: https://t.co/abfgnELSvi— Tether (@Tether_to) September 14, 2020
Ethereum-based Tether has exploded as the most dominant chain of the stablecoin, however, rising gas fees recently has made USDT and other stablecoins expensive to send.
It is not clear what the motivation was behind the swap, but there is no reason to expect what is effectively billion removed and re-added will cause Bitcoin or any crypto assets to pump.
Featured image from DepositPhotos, Charts from TradingView
Charles Hoskinson Admits Cardano Incentivized Testnet Voting Process Wasn’t Ideal
With Cardano’s Shelley mainnet on track for rollout on July 29th, 2020, the incentivized testnet (ITN), which ran from November 2019 to June 2020, has served its purpose.
IOHK CEO, Charles Hoskinson put forward his case to retain the ITN as a parallel chain. He suggested the ITN infrastructure could become a rapid testing environment for Cardano.
However, this then creates additional problems such as how to incentivize ITN stake pool operators to keep going, as well as concerns over it competing with the main chain.
The community would decide by way of a community ballot. IOHK laid out the process in a forum post by saying, “one vote to create the possibility, a second to decide.”
In the first instance, ITN stake pool operators and testnet participants will be asked if they wish to extend the incentivized testnet rewards into July while a second vote, for ADA holders, will take place in July.
“we are inviting our existing ITN stake pool operators to vote to confirm that they wish to see the continuation of an incentivized network.”
But poor execution of the process meant the weekend vote failed to trigger the set participation threshold of 30%.
The vote has ended at 7:13pm UTC.
Thanks to all the participants, even if it seems that we didn’t reach the necessary participation threshold of 30% of the ITN active stake (short by 2%)
We all learned a lot from this first community consultation
#Cardano https://t.co/HucY1dyx49
— Romain Pellerin (@rom1_pellerin) June 28, 2020
Not only that, but the fallout has left many in the Cardano community confused about their participation in the process.
As things stand, those who did vote, voted “Yes” to retain the ITN. But without the necessary minimum 30% participation rate, it looks as if the second vote is canceled and the ITN will cease to exist.
“So, if this first vote delivers a ‘Yes’ then – and only then – a second stage will kick in. A second, separate validation vote we plan to hold in early July.”
Source: cardano.org
Cardano Vote Plagued by Confusion
Following the initial vote, many in the Cardano community have come forward to voice their concerns with the voting process.
Complaints relate to poor communication, lack of clear explanation, as well as the short time frame involved.
One user raised the point that he thought stake pool operators only would vote in the first instance. But it wasn’t until close to the deadline that he became aware that the vote also included test ADA holders as well.
“I thought the CLI voting was meant for stake pool operators only. I did not see any communication to indicate that the app “jorvote” was available for ITN delegators to use. I was able to vote merely 4 minutes before epoch 197 ended.”
Another user stated he was uncomfortable with entering his private keys into a website to vote. Considering the extent of scamming in the crypto space, this was a significant oversight by the Cardano team.
Yoroi and Daedalus Wallets should have voting capability built in to wallet. JorVote was not properly communicated and many felt uneasy putting in wallet keys. Been invested since 2017 and for the 1st time this was a downer
for me @IOHK_Charles
— J₳son Bluezy Sw₳rtz (@Bluezy01) June 29, 2020
Charles Hoskinson Responds
Without a doubt, the poor publicity and overly complicated wording on posts were significant factors to the low turnout.
With that, Hoskinson took to YouTube to address these concerns, attributing the voting fiasco to cryptocurrencies in general by saying, while they are consistent, they lack clout when it comes to rapid decision making.
“where they are weak is rapid decision making, when you have to make a decision in a week or two. A or b, x or y, because the [inaudible] coordination of that is enormous.
While this may seem like an unsatisfactory explanation to many, Hoskinson conceded that the initial vote was lacking in a number of areas.
“If we get to that second vote, the burden then on us, as a community, to have good tools and good explanations of why will this produce value.”
But as an experiment, the lessons learned will be used to improve the process going forward.
Satoshi’s Vision for Bitcoin Wasn’t Payments, Says Kraken Exec
Contrary to what you may have heard, Satoshi Nakamoto might have been keener on the idea of Bitcoin as a store-of-value than as a means of payment. At least, that’s what Kraken Business Development Director Dan Held thinks from his own study of Nakamoto’s work.
Held believes that clues within Nakamoto’s forum posts and the Bitcoin whitepaper itself suggest that the creator of cryptocurrency as we know it preferred the idea of digital gold to that of an improved version of the VISA network.
Did the Bitcoin Creator Mean Digital Cash or Digital Gold?
Based on the number of Bitcoin (BTC) held long-term, the market clearly favours Bitcoin as a store-of-value. However, there are many that believe Satoshi Nakamoto intended Bitcoin as a payments network, possibly capable of rivalling the likes of VISA. The main proponent of this version of events is Craig Wright.
Wright claims that he himself created Bitcoin and subsequently went into hiding after becoming disenchanted by the number of libertarian and anti-government folks embracing it in its early days. He says he returned from anonymity to work on restoring Bitcoin to the original vision of Nakamoto.
The Australian computer scientist claims that he never intended Bitcoin to serve as a store of value. Instead, vast data centres would support a blockchain with unlimited transaction capacity. If the operational demands of such facilities meant that only a few could exist, so be it.
… and What if Wright is Wrong?
Amongst those entirely refuting this version of events is Kraken director Dan Held. Held outlined his thoughts on the subject via Twitter earlier today:
1/ Satoshi’s Vision is a silly endeavor, as it doesn’t matter what it was, we are where we are now. However, those pushing the “Bitcoin was first made for payments” narrative insist on cherry-picking sentences from the white paper and forum posts to champion their perspective.
— Dan Hedl (@danheld) February 4, 2020
In the above thread, Held highlights several instances in Nakamoto’s posts that suggest the Bitcoin creator’s motives. Held concludes that Bitcoin’s creator was more interested in a store-of-value than means of payment. Accusing the Bitcoin SV community of “cherry-picking sentences from the white paper”, he suggests that the majority of Nakamoto’s work pointed towards Bitcoin’s use as a digital gold.
Held notes “Libertarian thought” throughout Nakamoto’s work. Examples include a clear distrust a central banking and references to the project as an effort to “gain a new territory of freedom”.
Nakamoto also refers to Bitcoin as a “collectable or commodity”. In addition to the notion of scarcity frequently appearing throughout their correspondence, they wrote:
“In this sense, [Bitcoin’s] more typical of a precious metal. Instead of the supply changing to keep the value the same, the supply is predetermined and the value changes. As the number of users grows, the value per coin increases.”
Finally, Held states that even the use of the word “cash” in the whitepaper’s title doesn’t mean the document describes a payment’s system primarily. The Kraken executive says that other attempts at digital money from the cypherpunk community in which Bitcoin was launched into used the word “cash” in a different way than many understand it:
“… ‘cash’ represents a pseudonymous push payment in contrast to a credit-based system… Other Cypherpunks had used the word cash in their whitepapers to reflect that functionality.”
Related Reading: Bitcoin SV (BSV) Hit New Monthly Low despite Successful Hard Fork
Featured Image from Shutterstock. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.
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The Case For Why $6,400 Wasn’t Bitcoin’s Local Downtrend Bottom
The cryptocurrency community is currently exploding with exuberance, as Bitcoin may have broken out from its recent downtrend into a full-blown reversal, and the rest of the crypto space has seen altcoins going on hundred percent rallies reviving talk of a bull run once again.
However, there are a number of similarities between the current rally in Bitcoin markets compared to the July 2018 rally, which could suggest that ,400 wasn’t Bitcoin’s bottom, and a deeper breakdown will arrive the weeks ahead. Here’s the case as to why ,400 wasn’t the bottom.
,400 May Not Have Been Bitcoin’s Bottom, If Fractal Confirms And History Repeats
Top analysts within the cryptocurrency industry, see many similarities between the current price action within Bitcoin’s recent rally from lows around ,400, and a rally that took place back in July 2018.
Related Reading | This Surprising Cryptocurrency May Hold Clues to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s Final Bottom
The similarities between the two are uncanny and could act as a plausible case for why Bitcoin hasn’t bottomed, indicating that ,400 was just a false bottom designed to give traders hope – hope that ultimately gets shattered, causing capitulation before the real bottom is put in. The flip-flopping in sentiment would be the psychological beating necessary to cause even the strongest hands to fold when the “bottom” eventually breaks.
More detailed thread on why I still believe 00 was a false bottom.https://t.co/VL42uLwH0c
— James (@sometrader78) January 16, 2020
As one expert crypto analyst points out, both the July 2018 rally and current rally were the result of an inverse head and shoulders formation confirming.
On larger timeframes, the monthly MACD is crossing over currently as did back in July 2018. The Relative Strength Index on the weekly and three-day timeframes are reaching similar areas on the gauge as it did back in July 2018 also. In both instances, there was a break of the 21-week EMA that didn’t end up holding.
Interestingly, the timeframe from the most previous rally top to the active rally top was roughly the same distance from April 2018’s top to July 2018’s top – roughly 80 days. And the time distance from the initial parabolic rally top to the current rally during both cycles was roughly 200 or so days.
Related Reading | Blind Bitcoin Bias Gives Crypto Technical Analysis a Bad Rap
There’s also a bearish divergence on the RSI on daily timeframes, dating back as far as the prior two peaks – just like the last time around.
While it is only possible to say that a bottom is in in hindsight, it’s understandable as to why many analysts believe the bottom is in. Bitcoin did confirm a common bottoming pattern, and broke through downtrend resistance, however, given all of the above similarities, it’s wise to approach any future price action with caution, as the bottom may not be in, and Bitcoin could break down to set new lows. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.
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