NYT article on Bitcoin and why it uses so much electricity

The more I read about Bitcoin, the more excited I get. It started as a simple idea / project among a small group of users and today, the entire Bitcoin network consumes more electricity than some countries! Impressive for something that is so "young" relative to other projects that have touched so many lives. 

If it took Bitcoin a decade to consume this much electricity, imagine what the next decade will hold. Could Bitcoin be the driving force to use more green, renewable energy? It would be such a turn of events if in ten years most of the electricity that is being used for mining comes from solar, wind or other forms of renewables. 

That usage, which is close to half-a-percent of all the electricity consumed in the world, has increased about tenfold in just the past five years

Link to NYT article (free)


EIP-1559: Are you ready?

This is really exciting for Ethereum. I think this is positive and we'll see the price increase by year end. Today ETH is about $2,700. There are only about 12 hours left before this is implemented. 

Learn more about the upgrade from Coinbase here

Check out the countdown to the upgrade here

U.S. General Services Administration auctions BTC and LTC

I've never seen this before, but the U.S. government is auctioning crypto that was seized.  

Eleven lots of cryptocurrency up for bid on GSA Auctions

June 16, 2021

ATLANTA -- Become a part of the growing cryptocurrency community by placing a winning bid during GSA Auctions’ next cryptocurrency sale.

Bidding on 11 lots of cryptocurrency, totaling 8.93 bitcoins and 150.2 litecoins and with a combined market value of nearly $377,000, begins on Friday, June 18, 2021, at 5 p.m. ET. This 4-day auction closes Monday, June 22, 2021, at 5 p.m. ET, with the option to extend the closing time to accommodate last-minute bidding. This auction marks the first time that Litecoin will be available on GSA Auctions.

GSA first began auctioning cryptocurrency on behalf of the U.S. government in early 2021. To date, users of the GSAAuctions platform have successfully bid for a total of 16.99 bitcoins over three auctions that garnered $937,092.

“Experienced investors recognize a good opportunity when they see it, which is why our auctions have generated so much enthusiasm among the crypto community,” said Thomas Meiron, Regional Commissioner for GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. “With the addition of a new type of cryptocurrency, this promises to be one of our most exciting auctions of the year.”

Registration is required to place a bid, and the winning bidder must make a payment via wire transfer no later than June 23, 2021. The winning bidder will also need a digital wallet to receive the property. Network transaction fees may apply. As there is no tangible asset up for bid, GSA will not hold an inspection day.

A service of the U.S. General Service Administration, GSA Auctions is the federal government’s online clearinghouse for surplus federally owned assets and equipment, such as office furniture, vehicles, scientific equipment and collectibles.

The website looks so '90s:

What is Alchemix? Interview by Kevin Rose with ALCX co-founder and short YouTube video

I'm a subscriber to the Modern Finance podcast and enjoy Kevin Rose's interview with various crypto personalities. You can find what I'm listening to right now here. 

In this podcast, Kevin is interviewing the co-founder of Alchemix, a DeFi lending platform. Before listening to this podcast, I had a rough idea of what Alchemix is but didn't really understand how it was able to do it. Below is what I have learned so far in my hour or so research:

  1. A user deposits a stablecoin into the Alchemix vault
  2. The user is then able to borrow up to 50% of their initial deposit
  3. After a period of time (depending on the yield farming rate), the loan will repay itself
  4. The user can then take back their original loan amount

This all seems very compelling; especially when the loan repays itself. I'm not sure how sustainable high yields will be in the long run but perhaps in the short term this can work. 

I plan on doing more work to learn about Alchemix and its (governance) coin, ALCX. 

Additionally, Gemini this week started allowing trading of ALCX on its platform. This is positive news and I hope more attention goes into DeFi. 

Finally, here are some stats about ALCX including a calculator to show how long it would a loan to repay itself.

GameStop dips toes into the NFT game

Well, this is a big surprise. It appears GameStop, the meme stock, just went live with their NFT website.

It doesn't have much except that they're looking to hire a team. 

What's really intriguing is that there's an Ethereum wallet address (0x13374200c29C757FDCc72F15Da98fb94f286d71e) -- a subtle nod to the gaming crowd: 1337 = leet (as in elite) and 420 = well, weed.

Clever redditors have pointed out that GameStop is looking to launch their own ERC-20 token in July. Click here for a more in-depth analysis.

Case Bitcoin

I recently came across this simple to use, yet highly educational website called Case Bitcoin. It lays the case to invest in Bitcoin and also has plenty of interesting resources, including a comparison to the S&P500 and gold. 

Let me know what you think of the site: https://casebitcoin.com/

Crypto market correction

Woke up this morning to see that nearly every crypto coin is down around 30-45%. What are you doing to cope with this? I'm just sitting and watching out things unfold. I can't access my Gemini account to make any trades though; wonder if some of the downward pressure is a result of panic selling like a run on the banks. Coinbase Pro seems operational based on their status page.

One man tries to take down bitcoin

Elon Must has been on a crusade this weekend to disparage bitcoin. 

First it was about the climate impact (even though his private jet and space rockets use a lot of fossil fuel):

Then it was about about pumping Doge more and making crazy claims:

And finally making fun of Michael Saylor:

I read an argument that if one man can have such a huge effect on the crypto market (so far down 20% overall), then crypto isn't yet ready for mass adoption; I tend to agree here. The power of crypto is that no one single person or entity can affect it -- either positively or negatively -- and Elon, whether you agree or disagree with him, has shown the crypto market is still very delicate.