BITCOIN
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. With the underlying technology blockchain, bitcoin has redefining money in terms of money form, money issuance standard and money movement. Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million coins and uses proof-of-work (POW) consensus. In some sense, bitcoin removes our reliance on central banks and traditional financial institutions that we have to trust on. Bitcoin brings monetary freedom.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. With the underlying technology blockchain, bitcoin has redefining money in terms of money form, money issuance standard and money movement. Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million coins and uses proof-of-work (POW) consensus. In some sense, bitcoin removes our reliance on central banks and traditional financial institutions that we have to trust on. Bitcoin brings monetary freedom.
El Salvador Eliminates Taxes on Technology Innovations
El Salvador has eliminated all income, property, and capital gains taxes on technology innovations, including software programming, coding, apps and AI development, as well as computing and communications hardware manufacturing. This move supports the country's ongoing efforts to expedite technological development, including the establishment of the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) to conduct joint initiatives with Bitcoin entrepreneurs and companies.
Declining trend in physical crypto ATMs
The number of physical cryptocurrency ATMs is declining, with 3,627 removed in March 2023, according to Coin ATM Radar. The trend of increasing installations is reversing, with the highest number of machines installed in a single month being 2,048 in January 2021. The three-month-long downtrend was broken in April with 37 installations. General Bytes, BitAccess, and Genesis Coin are the current market leaders in manufacturing crypto ATMs. General Bytes faced a security incident in March and promised to reimburse customer losses.
US Government to Sell Seized Silk Road Bitcoin
The US government plans to liquidate over 41,000 Bitcoin seized in the case against Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. The Bitcoin is expected to be sold in four more batches over the course of the year.
Bitcoin Hash Rate Spikes to All-Time Highs
Bitcoin's hash rate has hit all-time highs of 398 terahashes per second (TH/s) on March 23, with analysts suggesting miners are turning on their rigs as BTC's price rises. The increase in hash rate is attributed to unused mining inventory coming online and entrepreneurs finding cheap sources of mining. While some have speculated that lower prices forced miners to shut down their rigs, others believe that attractively priced hardware is being bought up by well-capitalized miners.
Binance faces investor backlash and Bitcoin withdrawals following CFTC lawsuit
Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, denies market manipulation allegations made by the CFTC. However, investors withdrew over 3,400 BTC from Binance within 24 hours of the lawsuit announcement, leading to a decrease in Binance's total Bitcoin balance while competing exchanges saw an increase.
ZeroSync to Bring ZK-Proofs to Expedite Bitcoin Validation
Swiss-based nonprofit, ZeroSync Association, is developing open-source tooling that enables users to validate the state of the Bitcoin network using zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) without downloading the entire blockchain. ZeroSync uses StarkWare's proprietary Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge (zk-STARK) validity proofs to generate succinct ZK-proofs for the Bitcoin blockchain, promising to overhaul the process of verifying the Bitcoin blockchain, which still requires node operators to download a large amount of data to synchronize the correct state of the Bitcoin network.
MicroStrategy Acquires More Bitcoin Amid Market Recovery
MicroStrategy has acquired 6,455 Bitcoin for $150 million and repaid its $205 million loan to Silvergate at a 22% discount, according to a filing with the US SEC. The company now holds a total of 138,955 BTC, bought for $4.1 billion at an average price of $29,817 per coin. MicroStrategy also sold class A common stock worth $500 million and acquired BTC between Feb. 16, 2023 and March 23, 2023.
"Tim Draper's Bitcoin Diversification Advice"
Venture capitalist Tim Draper advises business founders to diversify their cash holdings by keeping at least two payrolls worth of cash in Bitcoin or alternative cryptocurrencies, along with other recommendations, in response to the uncertainty created by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Dwpbank to Offer Bitcoin to 1,200 German Banks
Deutsche WertpapierService Bank (Dwpbank) is launching wpNex, a platform that will offer Bitcoin to its affiliates’ retail customers without requiring additional Know Your Customer procedures. The platform will also include other cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and tokenized securities in the future.
Greenpeace's Bitcoin Art Piece Praised by Supporters
Environmental group Greenpeace commissioned an art piece dubbed the "Skull of Satoshi" to highlight the climate impact of Bitcoin mining, but the piece has been praised by Bitcoin supporters who want to adopt it as their mascot. The 11-feet-tall skull features the Bitcoin logo and red laser eyes, with "smoking stacks" made of recycled electronic waste to represent the fossil fuel and coal pollution caused by Bitcoin mining.