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129-year-old asset management firm Northern Trust Corp. is looking to start a custody service for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies
129-year-old asset management firm Northern Trust Corp. is looking to start a custody service for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies
Let’s talk about on-chain tokenization, off-chain tokenization and how we should use them.
Let’s talk about on-chain tokenization, off-chain tokenization and how we should use them.
Today is the one-year anniversary of the ‘Bitcoin Independence Day’ that took place on August 1 2017. Since that day the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network and community have had a very productive year as the decentralized cryptocurrency has celebrated a ton of milestones including successful network upgrades, massive merchant adoption, and a wide variety of […]
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Today is the one-year anniversary of the ‘Bitcoin Independence Day’ that took place on August 1 2017. Since that day the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network and community have had a very productive year as the decentralized cryptocurrency has celebrated a ton of milestones including successful network upgrades, massive merchant adoption, and a wide variety of applications built using the BCH chain.
Also Read: Interest in Philippines Economic Zone Crypto License Spikes – 17 Firms Paid in Full
A year ago today Bitcoin proponents celebrated independence from the scaling debate stagnation that took place within the Bitcoin community for far too long. On August 1, 2017, after block 478,558 was found, the Bitcoin blockchain effectively split as miners began processing blocks from two protocols — Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Core (BTC). While many Bitcoin Core supporters didn’t think BCH would survive after the split, the BCH network proved them wrong by continuing to grow stronger every day that followed the event on August 1. During the first week of August, the BCH chain’s hashpower steadily grew more powerful and the currency’s value went through a small period of price discovery.
On August 13, 2017 the Bitcoin Cash spot price closed the day at $310 USD per BCH and the currency is today priced at $760 per coin which represents a solid gain of +145.16 percent since last year. Additionally, much like many of the other digital assets that touched all-time highs (ATH) this past December, bitcoin cash prices reached an ATH of $3,000 per BCH and even $4,000 per BCH on a few international exchanges. Because of the growing demand and high prices, BCH proponents often laugh at Bitfury’s George Kikvadze who sold his bitcoin cash at $668 per coin and thanked all the “fools” who purchased them.
During its first few months, the BCH network and its participants gathered lots of support from infrastructure services like wallets and exchanges, while at the same time BCH accumulated a massive amount of merchants. A few months later on November 13, 2017 the decentralized protocol completed a successful upgrade which saw the BCH network’s Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) change to a more stable system of operation. That day, at approximately 4 pm EDT, at block height 504031 the consensus rules upgraded the DAA and mining profitability between both the BTC and BCH chains has remained consistent ever since the fork.
Since August 1, BCH miners have processed close to 63,000 blocks and the network is over 6,800 blocks ahead of BTC. On August 4, 2017, the BCH network’s absolute hashrate was 339 Petahash per second. Now, thanks to the past year of growth, the BCH hashrate has gradually increased to 4-5.5 Exahash per second. At the moment there are eight known miners who process BCH blocks, and three unknown mining pools as well. Known BCH miners include Coingeek, Bitcoin.com, Viabtc, BTC.com, Antpool, SBI Crypto, Rawpool, and BTC.top. One of the mining pool operators, Alejandro de la Torre from BTC.com, a pool that typically commands 12-14 percent of the BCH hashrate, thinks the Bitcoin Cash network has had an amazing year so far.
“Bitcoin Cash has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to innovate upon community engagement with applications like on-chain social network — Memo, and a smart contract protocol layer called Wormhole that is built using Omni Layer, the token-issuance protocol that is the same technical basis for tether (USDT),” Alejandro details. “We think these community-driven networks can be very effective at moving the needle in the adoption of Bitcoin Cash as a medium-of-exchange, which is the primary reason it was forked and developed.”
One year after its creation, BCH has continued to expand onto 19 different services, e.g. Bitpay, Coingate, Viabtc, Coinpayments, Coindance. Bitcoin Cash is also involved in fourteen different projects, e.g., Openbazaar, Joystream, and Counterparty, and tradable on 41 different exchanges. Now entering its second year, BTC.com is poised to help the Bitcoin Cash community shift focus from investment, thinking only in terms of storing of value, to cash, thinking as a medium of exchange for merchants and consumers.
After the successful upgrade in November that fixed the protocol’s DAA, the BCH network upgraded once again a few months later on May 15, 2018. The Bitcoin Cash protocol extended the 8MB block size fourfold to a 32MB block size cap. The consensus change was one of the largest block size increases in the history of blockchain and the upgrade also re-enabled a few old Satoshi OP_Codes and increased the network’s data carrier size. The data carrier size upgrade and the OP_Codes unleashed a plethora of innovation from developers building social media apps, trustless betting protocols, and tokenization and smart contract mechanisms.
In just one year, the BCH protocol and its network participants have been able to push adoption, create a wide variety of applications, and do all of these feats in the face of trolling, skepticism, and negative criticism. Every aspect of the protocol has seen exceptional increases including price, hashrate, merchant adoption, daily transactions, and new applications. Over time, BCH on-chain transactions continue to grow despite the opinion of naysayers. For instance, from August 1 to October 22, 2017, Bitcoin Cash transactions (tx) averaged between 6,000-12,000 tx per day. From October 22, 2017 to February 7, 2018, BCH transactions averaged 20,000 to 60,000 tx per day. From February 7 until June 30, 2018, BCH transactions averaged 20,000 tx per day. The recent stress test has increased daily BCH transaction volume to 25,000 to 85,000 tx per day.
Moreover, as far as merchant adoption, BCH has gathered nearly every merchant that the BTC chain has and no other cryptocurrency in existence has experienced such a rapid network effect. This includes merchant acceptance from Bitpay and Purse.io, and the wide variety of stores that accept BCH that can be found on the Accept Bitcoin Cash initiative and Marco Coino.
Bitcoin Cash fans have a lot to celebrate this year and the next 12 months should be just as exciting as proponents look forward to everything that lies ahead.
What do you think about the Bitcoin Cash one-year anniversary? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Coindance, Bitinfocharts, Pixabay, and Satoshi Pulse.
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Stellar (XLM) was the best performing cryptocurrency amongst the 25 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization during the month of July.
Stellar (XLM) was the best performing cryptocurrency amongst the 25 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization during the month of July.
The world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry has released a white paper called ‘Understanding Digital Tokens: Market Overviews & Guidelines for Policymakers and Practitioners‘. A guide to digital tokens The Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) is based in Washington DC and is a prominent blockchain advocacy group. It is comprised of a number …
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The world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry has released a white paper called ‘Understanding Digital Tokens: Market Overviews & Guidelines for Policymakers and Practitioners‘.
The Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) is based in Washington DC and is a prominent blockchain advocacy group. It is comprised of a number of initiatives that are working to promote multiple facets of the blockchain industry. This includes but is not limited to the Blockchain Intellectual Property Council, the Smart Contracts Alliance and the Token Alliance.
The latter initiative is responsible for publishing the first edition of its collaborative report; the paper offers guidance on how to nurture “responsible growth” of the digital tokens and the initial coin offering (ICO) facets of the nascent industry.
The Token Alliance has over 350 global contributors across multiple sectors, economists, former regulators, blockchain and token experts as well as law practitioners.
The three-part report covers the regulatory environment across five counties including the United Kingdom, with special regards to securities law, which is an especially debated topic in the United States. It also covers utility tokens and the “token economic landscape”.
In the report’s accompanying press release, Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners and former SEC Commissioner said, “These industry-developed principles are an important tool for responsible growth and smart regulation that strikes the right balance between protecting investors while allowing for innovation in this new technological frontier.”
In the paper’s introduction, the exponential growth of industry growth over the past two years has seen blockchain technologies become recognized as a transformative and disruptive force. It must be noted that globally, banks and major financial institutions have begun adopting the technology,
Across these multiple jurisdictions, there is no entirely unified set of regulatory frameworks. Countries such as Malta and Switzerland have already established their own set of laws and legislation offering a crypto-friendly environment for blockchain entrepreneurs.
However, nations such as the US and South Korea appear to be struggling to reach consensus on how to approach virtual tokens and ICOs. The report from the Token Alliance sets out to “open the doors to creative thinking and understanding in the token ecosystem”.
Perianne Boring, founder and president of the CDC said to Bitcoin Magazine, “The Chamber of Digital Commerce is advocating for regulatory clarity… “Up until now, there has been an absence of clarity on the regulatory landscape for ICOs and utility tokens.”
She describes the report as containing principles developed by the industry to be the “first set of guidelines for the token industry”. According to her, the purpose of this report is to provide clarity on a “full spectrum of laws” to businesses worldwide who are either already involved with or seeking to enter the industry.
This is the first installment from the CDC and the Token Alliance. The report concludes that in subsequent works, issues such as “utility token” concept promotion, cybersecurity and hybrid tokens could be addressed.
Other entities are also publishing documents pertaining to blockchain information and education. As recently reported, a US-based world-leading IT industry trade association released its guidebook on ‘Harnessing the Blockchain Revolution: CompTIA’s Practical Guide for the Public Sector‘.
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A survey conducted by crypto-friendly payment company Mistertango has found that almost 9 out of 10 digital currency exchange platforms want to see the industry regulated. However, there are also some fears that said regulation could stifle crypto innovation. Cryptocurrency Companies Crave the Stability that Regulation can Create The survey conducted by Mistertango targeted 24…
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A survey conducted by crypto-friendly payment company Mistertango has found that almost 9 out of 10 digital currency exchange platforms want to see the industry regulated. However, there are also some fears that said regulation could stifle crypto innovation.
The survey conducted by Mistertango targeted 24 different cryptocurrency exchanges from around the world. These included platforms based in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. Each of the participants has a trading volume of over $100 million per day.
The goal of the survey was to get a feeling for exchange’s attitudes towards regulation and how to move forward to a more mature cryptocurrency market. Some of the most interesting findings of the study are listed below:
According to a report by Finextra, the business manager of Mistertango stated that the crypto space needs regulation to help the industry achieve the level of stability necessary for the market to mature. Gabrielius Bilkštys continued:
“Unfortunately, there is no regulatory consensus – worldwide or otherwise. For cryptocurrencies to move towards the scale and ubiquity possessed by fiat currency, it needs cohesive, considered and comprehensive regulation. Thus, regulation will be a catalyst, not an inhibitor to the crypto market’s development.”
Meanwhile, the CEO of one of the exchanges responding to the survey also told the publication about the industry’s take on regulation. Oleksandr Lutskevych of CEX.io stated that contrary to popular opinion, those operating some of the services required by the industry want regulation. He continued:
“The industry is all too aware that regulation will lead to the maturity of the market and ensure businesses remain free from suspicion of involvement with illegitimate uses of cryptocurrency.”
It appears that some of the industry’s leading players are organising to ensure that the space is regulated as quickly as possible.
Just this week the NASDAQ stock exchange held closed door meetings with other high-profile exchange platforms and legacy financial firms to discuss cryptocurrency-related regulation. Whilst the conclusions of this specific meeting are currently unknown, the dialogue between the companies present is believed to be ongoing and could bring about the kind of safeguards that those companies surveyed by Mistertango are craving.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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A group of researchers led by a team of scientists in Russia and at the prestigious Princeton University discovered two tiny 42,000-year-old nematodes, better known as roundworms, in the frigid north of Russia. How the Worms Were Revived The two worms were said to have died during the Pleistocene era and were found frozen under […]
A group of researchers led by a team of scientists in Russia and at the prestigious Princeton University discovered two tiny 42,000-year-old nematodes, better known as roundworms, in the frigid north of Russia.
The two worms were said to have died during the Pleistocene era and were found frozen under shards of ice in 2015. Researchers placed the worms in a warmer environment in which roundworms normally prosper, and simply observed them for more than three years.
Over time, after the worms had been taken out of storage and placed in a warmer environment, they began to show signs of recovery, and eventually, by May of this year, the two worms sprung back to life, fully recovering for the first time in 42,000 years.
“The nematodes were also found in the permafrost sample from glacial deposits obtained by core drilling in the vicinity of the Alazeya River in 2015. The sample was taken from a core at a depth of 3.5 m (bore AL3-15) and contained weakly decomposed plant remains. The age of permafrost deposits, where nematodes were isolated from, was 41700 ± 1400 years according to radiocarbon dating conducted by AMS Laboratory, University of Arizona,” the study released by Princeton University read.
The joint Princeton-Moscow University study showed the first case of recovery from long-term cryobiosis in permafrost by multicellular organisms in a purely natural environment.
Subsequent to the discovery of the worms in the permafrost sample from glacial deposits obtained by core drilling in the vicinity of the Alazeya River, the researchers placed the worms in a storage room and kept the temperature at 20°C.
The two worms were placed into Petri dishes with the Prescott–James medium and cultivated at 20°C for several weeks, without any additional operations to revive them. After a few weeks, the two worms started to show signs of life, initiating small movements. As more time passed, the two worms began to consume, demonstrating a full recovery from their deaths more than 42,000 years ago.
The findings of the two institutions are expected to have a significant impact on the study of cryonics, and possibly allow scientists to make breakthrough discoveries in the area of deep-freezing the bodies of people who have just died, with the hopes of reviving them in the future.
“We have obtained the first data demonstrating the capability of multicellular organisms for longterm cryobiosis in permafrost deposits of the Arctic. The viable soil nematodes Panagrolaimus aff. detritophagus (Rhabditida) and Plectus aff. parvus (Plectida) were isolated from the samples of Pleistocene permafrost deposits of the Kolyma River Lowland. The duration of natural cryopreservation of the nematodes corresponds to the age of the deposits, 30,000–40,000 years,” the researchers noted.
In March, NullTX reported that Sam Altman, the founder of major venture capital firm YCombinator, had paid Nectome $10,000 to preserve his brain post-mortem with the hopes of sustaining his consciousness until cryobiosis technology improves to the extent that it is possible to upload the consciousness of a human being to the cloud and transport it to a new form of body.
Cryptocurrency payments startup Ripple is partnering with Madonna to raise funds for orphans in the African nation of Malawi.
Cryptocurrency payments startup Ripple is partnering with Madonna to raise funds for orphans in the African nation of Malawi.
The U.S. market research firm Forrester Research estimates that 90 percent of blockchain initiatives by American companies will never become operational
The U.S. market research firm Forrester Research estimates that 90 percent of blockchain initiatives by American companies will never become operational
Washington State in the US is beginning to address crypto mining with more concern with two counties conducting moratoriums to prevent further applications from mining firms. As reported recently by Bitcoin News, the state is known for its cheap electricity tariffs and has attracted more mining activity than certain counties are prepared to tolerate. In …
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Washington State in the US is beginning to address crypto mining with more concern with two counties conducting moratoriums to prevent further applications from mining firms.
As reported recently by Bitcoin News, the state is known for its cheap electricity tariffs and has attracted more mining activity than certain counties are prepared to tolerate. In one particular instance, an authorized miner used an abandoned apartment in the Washington town of Wenatchee and used up to 20 times the usual reading in only one month, prompting further investigation by local police.
Chelan County PUD Commissioner Steve McKenna stated that he was concerned due to the risk posed to the community by illegal mining and the use of power as a result, but assured that those using power with “legitimate requests” were not under discussion.
It now appears that even authorized mining has come under the microscope in the Northwest, despite Bitmain’s recent plan to establish a 10-acre facility in Washington state. Chelan itself is now considering tightening its regulations, to the extent that the Chelan County Public Utility District (PUD) has installed bulletproof panels and security cameras in their headquarters, expecting a backlash after announcing a recent moratorium on crypto mining.
Franklin County has gone the same way, initiating its own moratorium to stop further mining applications while the long-term impact is reviewed.
New York, on the other side of the county, brought in sensible tariff solutions to keep local residents happy. In response to the permission given earlier by New York state to 36 municipal power authorities to charge higher rates to crypto miners, the Massena municipal utility came with its own plan to create a new rate structure allowed which would let crypto miners operating there negotiate their own contracts.
What is clearly needed is more focus on how to harness renewable energy resources and lower the ecological footprint caused by cryptocurrency mining. A new development, reported by Bitcoin News only last week, is a new planned installation on the edge of the Sahara where Soluna, a computing company that generates its own renewable energy, plans to build a 900-megawatt wind farm south of Marrakesh.
Kumamoto Electric Power Company in Japan is planning to commence mining this month using excess solar energy.
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A respected cryptocurrency market data website has partnered with Thomson Reuters. Going forward, CryptoCompare will provide data for the media and information firm’s market analysis platform Eikon. Partnership Brings More Functionality to Eikon Market Data Platform The partnership between CryptoCompare and Thomson Reuters will see the former providing market data for 50 of the top…
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A respected cryptocurrency market data website has partnered with Thomson Reuters. Going forward, CryptoCompare will provide data for the media and information firm’s market analysis platform Eikon.
The partnership between CryptoCompare and Thomson Reuters will see the former providing market data for 50 of the top cryptocurrencies.
This will include order book and other trade data that will be sourced from a number of trusted exchange platforms. The data will then be fed directly into the Thomson Reuters’ market analysis platform Eikon.
It is currently being used by financial professionals and institutional players alike to inform strategies about the various markets supported. Using the extensive real-time data sets provided, it’s possible for such market traders to make more efficient investment decisions.
Previously, the service only extended to more traditional asset classes and instruments. These included commodities, equities, foreign exchange, and others. However, the partnership with CryptoCompare announced today will expand upon the already extensive Eikon service by including market data on digital assets. This will allow users to more accurately identify buying and selling opportunities in these markets.
According to a report in Finextra, the decision to partner with CryptoCompare was made due to the platform’s role as “gatekeeper for reliable accurate and clean data.” The publication also noted CryptoCompare’s “rigorous standards to safeguard data integrity, normalising global data sources to ensure consistency and confidence in the market.”
The Eikon platform itself has been widely celebrated for its user-friendly news and analytics tools. The service is fully open and customisable. This allows maximum control for the user. Its utility for those involved in the buying and selling of different financial products has seen the platform named the LinkedIn Editor’s Choice Award for Top Professional Market Data Software in 2017. The professional and employment-focused social platform said the following about Eikon:
“Eikon stands out for its wealth of content and more affordable price point.”
The founder and CEO of CryptoCompare, Charles Hayter, spoke to Finextra about the partnership. He told the publication that there was an increased demand for better market data for cryptocurrencies.
According to Hayter, much of this demand is coming from the institutional investor community. The CEO also noted that the company was excited to extend their knowledge and insight into the cryptocurrency space to this class of investors.
Meanwhile, Thompson Reuters’s director of strategy in innovation and blockchain supported this. Sam Chadwick told Finextra:
“Despite the decline in the price of many of the leading cryptocurrencies during 2018, we continue to see increasing demand from our customers for pricing coverage of the major names.”
He went on to state that there had been a working relationship between the two services since 2016 and that CryptoCompare had suitably impressed Thompson Reuters with their coverage of the digital currency space. Ultimately, Chadwick noted that the partnership gives their customers “a more comprehensive trading view in Eikon.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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Security and volatility. They are the two aspects of cryptocurrencies that are attacked the most. While there are other challenges such as scalability, the energy consumption associated with mining, and privacy, cryptos’ volatility is often cited by skeptics as the reason they could never become a mainstream payment method. In 2017 alone, Bitcoin’s value rose […]
Security and volatility. They are the two aspects of cryptocurrencies that are attacked the most. While there are other challenges such as scalability, the energy consumption associated with mining, and privacy, cryptos’ volatility is often cited by skeptics as the reason they could never become a mainstream payment method. In 2017 alone, Bitcoin’s value rose from $1,000 to almost $20,000, with altcoins like XRP appreciating by upwards of 30,000 percent. And while cryptos’ volatility can’t be ignored, other asset classes are not immune either, as was proven recently by one of the most formidable companies in the world: Facebook. The social media giant recently shed more than $120 billion in what is a new record for a publicly listed company.
A rough year for Facebook resulted in reduced growth and profitability, and the market reacted quickly to the company’s announcement. In just one day, the company lost over $124 billion in market capitalization. This surpassed Intel’s dip in 2000 when the tech giant lost $91 billion. The announced figures fell short of many analysts’ predictions, as Facebook finally felt the effect of its security breaches earlier in the year.
While totally unrelated, crypto enthusiasts quickly began drawing parallels between the Facebook share price drop and the constant volatility that is witnessed in the crypto industry. At press time, Bitcoin’s market cap stood at just over $140 billion. Facebook’s market cap therefore dropped by an amount equal to almost the entire market cap of Bitcoin and close to half that of all cryptos.
However, with cryptos, the criticism is always very quick. Had the crypto markets lost $120 billion in one day, many mainstream financial executives would have called on the relevant authorities to bring “the madness” to a halt. Volatility and unpredictability is heavily criticized in crypto, and it’s one of the reasons some people think of the industry as a bubble.
The heightened criticism of cryptos is not unjustified, after all, as the technology behind them is still relatively nascent. With any technological advancement, there is initial apprehension which is almost always followed by widespread acceptance (think about the internet, the telephone, and even penicillin).
Facebook is no stranger to entanglement with cryptos. Earlier this year, the social media giant banned crypto ads in order to deter malicious actors from using the platform to defraud users. The ban was interpreted as hostile by the crypto community, especially since there was no consideration for the genuine products. This changed after the company re-allowed crypto ads on its platforms, but under strict scrutiny. This has been interpreted by some market analysts as a precursor to an impending foray into the issuance of a native crypto by Facebook. While the company is yet to officially confirm the rumors, it has set up a group to explore the possibilities offered by cryptos and blockchain technology. Moreover, Mark Zuckerberg recently resolved to be more involved in cryptos so as to understand the technology behind it. Turning to blockchain technology would be a prudent decision for Facebook, especially given the recent security breaches that eventually led to Zuckerberg’s appearance before a House committee.
Cryptocurrencies are not exactly bathed in the light of righteousness right now when it comes to the environment. Despite not having a physical form, they are ultimately responsible for a substantial amount of en…
Cryptocurrencies are not exactly bathed in the light of righteousness right now when it comes to the environment. Despite not having a physical form, they are ultimately responsible for a substantial amount of environmental impact. This has stemmed from news stories detailing how, in Iceland, more electricity is being used to mine Bitcoin than is used to power its homes, or that Bitcoin mining now uses as much energy as all of Ireland consumes. Sensationalist as these headlines might be, there is no denying that Bitcoin, Ethereum and the myriad of minable altcoins are responsible for significant power consumption today.
These headlines are why people are more aware of the perceived negative impacts of cryptocurrency mining than they are of the process of mining itself. To grossly oversimplify the process, every 10 minutes a bundle of transactions are encrypted in a block, which is added to the blockchain. Bitcoin miners bundle said transactions into blocks by hashing the transactions together in a Merkle tree, then solving a so-called “proof-of-work” puzzle. This puzzle takes the form of a series of mathematical equations used one after another until the “winning” equation is solved. At this point, the block is verified and added to the blockchain. In return, the miner (or consortium) receive the transaction fees and a predetermined allocation of coins for their efforts. For Bitcoin, this reward currently amounts to roughly $14 million per day.
Critically, the difficulty of the mining task adjusts automatically every two weeks in order to maintain a block creation rate of roughly one every 10 minutes. This means that increasing computing power will not result in more coins being created. Instead, the computation task just consumes more computing power to maintain the status quo of production. This system makes existing mining hardware less profitable and drives up the amount of energy consumed per bitcoin earned.
According to Digiconomist, the Bitcoin network currently consumes about 71 TWh of electricity per year, with the Ethereum network a distant second consuming about 21 TWh. Together, they account for energy consumption on par with the United Arab Emirates (~96 TWh per year). Economist Alex de Vries boldly predicted currency mining could consume 0.5 percent of the world’s energy in 2018, something that has put cryptocurrencies — and bitcoin in particular — in the firing line of multiple environmental groups.
Obviously, this would be a moot point if all mining was being powered by renewable sources like solar, wind or hydroelectric power (Iceland is powered entirely by geothermal and hydro power for example). However, an estimated 60 percent of the mining hash power originates from China. Furthermore, 70 percent of the electricity in China is generated by non-renewable sources, particularly coal. It shows that Iceland’s sustainable cryptomining is the exception rather than the rule. Put simply, cryptomining is not all powered by coal, but it mostly is.
Common environmental criticisms of cryptocurrencies often neglect to put the issue in the context of the wider financial sector’s impact. The devastating physical mining of metals to create obsolete coins is a key example. Also, the big banks are fundamentally unable to wean themselves off the massive energy consumption required to keep every headquarters, branch and ATM operating.
That said, if the crypto community really believes itself to be the future, it needs to do better than finger-pointing and petty whataboutism when it comes to environmental issues. How, therefore, do we rehabilitate crypto and blockchain technology to be greener?
The idea of “green crypto” is not a misnomer. There are initiatives out there that encourage more responsible cryptomining. The Canadian province of Québec has actively courted cryptocurrency companies to use its spare hydropower capacity. Recently, actor William Shatner threw his significant weight behind Solar Alliance, a Canadian company building a three-megawatt solar farm that can be rented out to cryptocurrency miners.
The emergence of similar projects is a positive sign for greater investment in crypto’s greener side. While most of these projects receive the bulk of their funding through the ICO route, more traditional investments and partnerships have been effective in driving mainstream visibility of the solutions they provide. Electrify Asia is one such project, raising $29 million through an ICO and going on to secure the backing of one of Ethereum’s original founding team members Wendell Davis, along with prominent Japanese VC group Global Brain.
Another example of mainstream investment in green crypto projects is Climate Coin, which has the backing of tech specialist PAL Capital. Climate Coin operates as a crypto-based carbon credit that can be purchased by anyone worldwide to offset their carbon footprint. On a macro level, energy-focused blockchain startups like this raised over $300 million between Q2 2017 and Q1 2018 alone, most of which came through ICOs. This level of investment, in what would have been a technological fantasy only a short time ago, is a sign that blockchain technology is being taken seriously by energy companies.
From an economic standpoint, increased investment from existing utility companies is inevitable. Blockchains’ penchant for decentralization blends well with existing energy-saving practices. In small scale use cases, the technology is enabling smaller companies to enter markets long monopolized by big energy companies.
Various initiatives are using a peer-to-peer exchange model to trade cheap renewable energy, circumventing the need and cost of buying energy from established suppliers. By motivating small renewable energy producers to sell directly to energy users, and using smart contracts to earn credits in the form of fungible crypto assets from any excess power produced, there is an opportunity to make the existing energy ecosystem cheaper, more efficient and consumer friendly.
While less common, there are still many crypto- and blockchain-based companies directly addressing environmental unsustainability. One blockchain-based initiative is the Plastic Bank, run with the support of partners including IBM. It is issuing tokens earned from collecting plastic waste to help impoverished communities. These tokens can then be converted into cash, exchanged for cooking fuel or education vouchers, demonstrating the good that this technology can do for the less fortunate.
Energi Mine is using a similar system, providing the cryptocurrency EnergiTokens (ETK) to consumers when they engage in energy-saving activities such as using public transport or buying energy-efficient appliances to reduce energy consumption. The ultimate goal of this is to cut global energy demand and carbon emissions by creating a system of financial incentives, which will subtlety shift positive energy decisions to become unconscious reflexes.
In this way, some blockchain and cryptocurrency companies are taking a holistic approach to tackling the established “rebound effect” — where the reduction in energy consumption created by new technologies and new efficiencies gets cancelled out by negative behavioral or other systemic responses. This is something that happens often without people realizing it. For instance, a 5 percent improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency may result in only a 3 percent drop in fuel use because 2 percent more fuel is consumed by people being able to afford to drive faster or further than before.
This is a well-documented phenomenon in the conservation space, and cryptominers are especially guilty of this. Every advancement in processor efficiency or cooling is negated by the gradual upward creep in mining power consumption needed to stay competitive.
This very phenomenon, however, could provide an opportunity for the industry to contribute to energy-saving technology in a huge way. The power/efficiency ratio demanded by cryptominers has given rise to an arms race in specialized hardware that can be used to mine cryptocurrencies more efficiently. A meaningful investment in green tech here would have an impact not only on the crypto community, but on the green hardware sector as a whole, especially if some of the breakthroughs can be extrapolated to other uses, which would go a long way toward creating a “good citizen” reputation for the crypto space.
Whether it is making sure that the energy for cryptomining comes from renewable sources, or simply investing in green-minded initiatives pioneered by the crypto and blockchain community, everyone in the sector can do something to reduce or offset its environmental impact. If crypto truly is the future of money, then the crypto community should feel obliged to do more to change the world for the better. Not just from a financial standpoint but from an environmental one as well.
This is a guest post by Omar Rahim, CEO of Energi Mine. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bitcoin Magazine or BTC Inc.
This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.
Korean police are investigating a cryptocurrency startup claiming to be selling treasure from a sunken ship, the Korea Joongang Daily reported.
Korean police are investigating a cryptocurrency startup claiming to be selling treasure from a sunken ship, the Korea Joongang Daily reported.
Ethereum World News (blog)A total collapse in bitcoin is a real possibility, says Nobel Prize–winning economist KrugmanMarketWatchBitcoin evangelists tout digital currencies as revolutionary, a technology that could reshape the global monetary system. …
Ethereum World News (blog) |
A total collapse in bitcoin is a real possibility, says Nobel Prize–winning economist Krugman
MarketWatch Bitcoin evangelists tout digital currencies as revolutionary, a technology that could reshape the global monetary system. Pioneered because of a lack of faith in traditional banking, cryptocurrencies will become the new global currency, gold for a … Paul Krugman: Bitcoin Will “Set the Monetary System Back 300 Years” Bitcoin is Erasing 300 Years of Monetary Evolution: Nobel Economist Paul Krugman |