Showing posts with label cryptocurrency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cryptocurrency. Show all posts

The WORLD's LARGEST Bitcoin Mine Begins Construction in Texas, USA...

Worlds Largest Bitcoin Mine

It wasn't long ago when Riot Platforms launched North America's largest mining farm in Rockdale, Texas - but now they want to go even bigger.

Just announced, they've begun construction at a colossal new site in Corsicana, Texas - once complete, it will become the biggest Bitcoin mining facility in the world!

The new location will be even larger than their existing facility in Rockdale, seen here.

Known as the US State Most Welcoming to Miners, the Infamous Texas Heat Poses a Challenge...

Mining rigs generate intense heat, making cooling a paramount concern, most of the daily work of running a mine revolves around keeping the rigs from overheating. This is why many mining companies seek locations year-round frigid temps - but even in the winter you won't find temperatures this low anywhere in Texas.

To combat this, Riot partnered with HashHouse Tech to use immersion-cooling, which surrounds the miners with a flow of liquid coolant, capable of cooling at 20X the efficiency of air. This strategic move ensures they can stay operational even in the Lone Star State's scorching sun. 

Massive Mining Power...

Riot expects their total mining power (hashrate) to hit 20.1 EH/s once the new facility launches by the end of 2024. Crunching the numbers, first taking the next halving event into account, and using $50k for bitcoin's price, at that hashrate the company should earn around $800,000 per day.

Of course, that's before they pay the bills, and mining always has a big one huge bill - electricity. It's common for the majority of earnings to be lost to the power bill.  Riot is part of a special program in Texas that involves mining companies pre-paying for electricity, but when the grid is reaching capacity they have the ability to lower their usage and sell some of this power back to the grid. 

Texas officials have praised the program as a solution that prevents the grid shutting down when overwhelmed on hot summer days. Last year Riot earned over $30 million selling power back to Texas, but remember they first had to buy it up front so only a small portion of that is profit. It's hard to imagine any deal where less than 50% of revenue goes to paying electricity costs.

Profit Potential...

Last month Riot mined 520 BTC, worth around $250 Million - and this is before the largest mining farm in the world joins in. Along with the additional ability to sell stock (Nasdaq Symbol RIOT)  when they need to raise funds, Riot is quickly becoming a vital member of the industry.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News
 

Someone Just Sent Over $1 Million Worth of BTC... to Satoshi Nakamoto - An Expensive 'Tribute' Donation? Or the First Step in EXPOSING Bitcoin's Creator?

Satoshi bitcoin

On January 5th, just two days after Bitcoin's 15th anniversary, a mysterious transaction has the cryptocurrency community scratching their heads. Someone sent 27 Bitcoin (approximately $1.2 million) to the network's genesis address, the very first wallet ever created that mined the first block of Bitcoin's blockchain. This legendary wallet, once controlled by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto, has become a digital monument to the birth of Bitcoin.

The sender's history reveals only a single transaction: the withdrawal of 27 Bitcoin from the Binance exchange followed by their immediate transfer to Satoshi's dormant wallet. This gesture has sparked speculation and intrigue.

Some interpret it as a symbolic "tribute" to Bitcoin's origins, a fitting commemoration on the anniversary. The genesis wallet already holds 50 original mining rewards, hundreds of small transactions, and now, these 27 new Bitcoins, bringing its total value to nearly 100 BTC worth over $4.6 million.

Overall, there are dozens of wallet addresses created by Satoshi, and they hold over 1,100,000 Bitcoins worth almost $50 billion...

While 27 Bitcoin might be mere pocket change for the mythical Satoshi, for most others, it's a significant investment. 

"Either Satoshi woke up, bought 27 bitcoin from Binance, and deposited into their wallet, or someone just burned a million dollars," Coinbase director Conor Grogan said in an X post.

...or is there more behind it?

Flushing Out Satoshi?

One intriguing theory suggests this could be designed to force Satoshi out of hiding, by testing a new US law requiring all crypto transactions exceeding $10,000 to be reported to the IRS.

If Satoshi is a US citizen, even he would need to report the transfer.

Personally, I'm among a fairly large segment of the crypto world that believes Satoshi is long gone, and most likely passed away shortly after Bitcoin's launch.  

As with most Satoshi related stories, I'm not expecting to learn more than what we know now.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London Newsroom
GlobalCryptoPress | Breaking Crypto News

Biden Administration Proposes New Crypto Tax Rules...


The US has given a lot of money to Ukraine, and while President Biden has been able to secure those funds by reducing spending on American cities and citizens, as seen recently following the massive Maui fire - it isn't nearly enough. 

Perhaps anticipating an influx people moving funds in to Bitcoin over concerns surrounding the US dollar, the administration is taking steps to insure citizens who do will still pay proper portions to tax.

Video courtesy of CNBC

FTX 2.0: Fallen Crypto Giant has Quietly Been Preparing to RE-LAUNCH...

FTX 2.0

FTX may be making headlines again soon, and finally not for more details on their spectacular fall from grace, actually, the total opposite - their potential resurrection!

In April we broke the story of an FTX relaunch even being a possibility, when our source inside the new FTX team told us they were considering two options - to pay back what they can and then close for good, or, the more intriguing option, re-open FTX for trading.

At that time they had just begun researching sentiment among former users, asking if all their funds had been returned to them, and knowing Sam Bankman-Fried was gone for good, would they consider trading at FTX again?

Then, if they determined enough users would return, they would still need to convince their larger backers, some of whom are owed millions, to go awhile longer or accept a smaller payment at first. However, if they support FTX's re-opening they could get 100% of their money back in the long run, because FTX would once again be generating profits.

That's Where We Left Off, And We Now Have An Update...

According to our source, re-launching the exchange is now their 'official' goal, as they've been instructed to begin preparing as if it is happening for sure — an order that comes directly from new CEO John Ray.

"I'll word it like this: it's not 100%, but it just went from a 50/50 chance to probably a 90% chance of FTX re-launching" our insider explained, but they still have some challenges ahead  "Right now we're legally a bankrupt company, so we don't have the freedom to just do something  we want to, there's additional oversight, and a process where we propose something and get approval to do it first."

When asked if they believed they would receive that approval, they told us "I think John (CEO) wants to make sure the proposal leaves no reason to say no. They'll want to see a company that fixed everything that went wrong under Sam, and see we've taken steps that would make a repeat impossible." I asked how close they were to being able to make those claims, and was told, "We can say all that now and it would be completely true" Reminding him I still needed an answer to the question, they added, "oh, yeah - yes" (they think the re-launch would be approved).

New Revelations...

This next part is a big deal - while I personally didn't have funds on FTX when it shut down, a lot of people did.  Since then, the media's coverage of the situation would probably give people the impression that most of what they stored on FTX is gone.

But when I asked what kind of responses they received from former FTX users when mentioning a possible re-launch, I got a surprising answer
"First, they say F-off and they would never use a platform that basically stole from them. Fair enough.  But then you ask, what if they didn't take anything from them? What if it opened and all the funds they left there were still there?"

'Are you saying this is what would actually happen?' I asked "I'm not in accounting, so I can't say this is the case with 100% of accounts, but one thing you'll probably be hearing if FTX re-launches or when Sam's case goes to trial - he didn't really mess with the FTX US funds".

This Wasn't a Total Surprise To Hear - It May Be Sam Bankman-Fried's Secret Weapon...

Back at the beginning of the year when FBI agents brought Sam back to the US where he was arraigned and pled 'not guilty' to the charges against him it seemed like the response from the crypto community was 'he's a liar and that won't work once he has a trial'. 

But that made no sense to me. Sam's parents are both literally famous lawyers and Stanford Law School professors - Sam takes their advice.  So why would they advise him to fight the charges against him when shortly before his arrest he appeared on various podcasts admitting to misusing user funds - his point at the time was 'I wasn't stealing user funds, I just got confused, used funds that belonged to my users, and lost some of it.'.

I could only come up with one theory that made sense, and published 'The Twisted Way Sam May Be Found INNOENT' which goes in to more detail, but basically the only way someone who already admitted so much on video could go to trial and stay out of prison is if he only misused funds belonging to non-US citizens, and only did that while at his company headquarters, which is also outside of the US, in the Bahamas.

What does the US justice department do when laws are broken in another country and none of the victims are American?  Absolutely nothing.

Users finding out all the crypto they left on FTX is still there would be great news, which I said in our conversation, but as we suspected, they warned that non-US may have some bad news coming soon. "It's the funds from FTX's international platforms that Sam really screwed with." our source said  "We're (his team) not involved with any of the international stuff, but several times I've had to talk with some of the guys that are. For the first few months they always sounded stressed out and exhausted, they were cleaning up one hell of a mess."

But recently, even the team cleaning up the worst of it started to sound less miserable. "Last couple of times I talked to them, they seemed way more chill. Remember Bitcoin was at like $20k when FTX shut down, FTX is holding a lot of BTC and other coins that have gained almost $2 BILLION since trading stopped." I didn't really think of that until now, but it makes sense. "Yep, so that instantly becomes funds we can use towards making users whole, if the market continues this way, there's a chance FTX won't owe anyone anything".

That really would be a great ending to an otherwise miserable story, if HODLing pays the rest of FTX's debts.

In Closing...

It's hard to say just how difficult a relaunch will be, the team must navigate a complex legal landscape of bankruptcy, and manage to meet all necessary requirements to gain approvals from an array of people both private and government sources. 

All this is happening at a time when exchanges that haven't had any major scandals are finding it challenging to operate in the US as seemingly incompetent leadership has taken over the agency that oversees them. 
 
One thing is for sure - they seem truly confident in their ability to pull it off.

Part of me says 'companies that go through what FTX has been through don't just come back one day'...  then I realized to company that went through what FTX did has ever even tried.

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Author: Ross Davis
Silicon Valley Newsroom
GCP Breaking Crypto News

Rising CONFLICT Over the 'Digital Dollar', As Some States BAN IT Before It Even Exists...

digital dollar cbdc

The battle for the future of money is heating up in the United States, with some states proposing to ban the "digital dollar" before it even exists, while others quietly pass laws to make it a reality. It's a conflict that has raised concerns about privacy, surveillance, and control.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is leading the charge against the digital dollar, announcing a proposed bill to ban it in his state. According to a statement from the governor's office, the legislation is intended to "protect Floridians from the Biden administration's use of financial sector weapons through a central bank digital currency (CBDC)."

DeSantis's bill seeks to prohibit the use of the digital dollar or CBDC as money in Florida and to create "protections" against digital currencies issued by central banks belonging to nations sanctioned by the United States. He hopes that other states will follow suit and establish similar prohibitions to "fight this concept throughout the country."

In the view of the Republican governor, a digital currency "has to do with surveillance and control" of citizens, and it "will stifle innovation." adding that "Florida will not side with the economic central planners. "We will not adopt policies that threaten economic freedom and personal security."

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is also pushing for a ban on the digital dollar, citing concerns about privacy implications. He argues that a digital dollar "could be used as a financial surveillance tool by the federal government."

As Other States Quietly Take Steps to Move the Digital Dollar Forward...

President Biden issued an executive order last year that instructs several government offices to research creating a central bank digital currency, since then things have appeared to be moving forward with no official updates from the federal government.

The silence seems to be deliberate when it comes to the most recent steps targeting the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which are laws that every state has, and every state controls. 

Intended to make sure states can easily conduct business with each other, the digital dollar may be the first time there's been major disagreements between some states and could result in the 'Uniform' codes ending up far from uniform nation-wide. 

Just this week South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem vetoed House Bill 1193 which would have opened the doors for the digital dollar in her state by amending their UCC to allow for fully electronic payments backed only by electronic records "this is extremely troubling. If Congress were to someday create an official electronic currency that is programmable, it would pose significant threats to Americans’ liberty and privacy rights. Why, then, would so many lawmakers want to make it easier for such a currency to be used in their states?"

Both republicans and democrats have made more public statements implying they are against the digital dollar, yet both parties have been found slipping the verbiage needed to make it happen into bills in their states, now there are similar bills headed to vote soon in 20 more states including in Arkansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and California.

One Major Roadblock Could Still Stop the Digital Dollar from Happening...

Not because they share any of the same concerns citizens have voiced - but nonetheless, they hate the idea and they may have enough power over politicians to get their way - the banks.

Banks see the Digital Dollar as a way for the government to become their biggest competitor.  Imagine - your job pays you in digital dollars, they're stored in an app on your phone, and virtually every place you would spend money accepts it, what do you need a bank for? 

While banks would still have a role when it comes to investing, lending, and securing larger business and personal accounts, the average person could go months, or even years without needing to interact with a bank, and have no need for a personal account. 

A battle with significant consequences...

Both for the future of our economy and the role of the government in our financial lives. Will we become a cashless society dominated by a digital dollar, or will we maintain the status quo? 

Until recently, this all felt like something so far in the future it was hard to really concern yourself with - but as we begin seeing real laws designed to move plans for the digital dollar forward proposed in multiple states, the potential implications are beginning to feel very real.

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Author: Ross Davis
Silicon Valley Newsroom
GCP Breaking Crypto News