Bitcoin News Roundup For Jan. 25, 2021
The Library of Congress reports that, as of November 2021, nine countries have fully banned bitcoin use, while a further forty-two have implicitly banned it.[15] A few governments have used bitcoin in some capacity. El Salvador has adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, although use by merchants remains low.[16] Ukraine has accepted cryptocurrency donations to fund the resistance to the 2022 Russian invasion. Iran has used bitcoin to bypass sanctions.
Bitcoin News Roundup for Jan. 25, 2021
On 16 October 2021, the SEC approved the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, a cash-settled futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). The first bitcoin ETF in the United States gained 5% on its first trading day on 19 October 2021.[170][171]
On May 10, 2022, the bitcoin price fell to $31,324, as a result of a collapse of a UST stablecoin experiment named Terra, with bitcoin down more than 50% since the November 2021 high.[174] By June 13, 2022, the Celsius Network (a decentralized finance loan company) halted withdrawals and resulted in the bitcoin price falling below $20,000.[175][176]
According to Mark T. Williams, as of 30 September 2014[update], bitcoin has volatility seven times greater than gold, eight times greater than the S&P 500, and 18 times greater than the US dollar.[224] Hodl is a meme created in reference to holding (as opposed to selling) during periods of volatility. Unusual for an asset, bitcoin weekend trading during December 2020 was higher than for weekdays.[225] Hedge funds (using high leverage and derivates)[226] have attempted to use the volatility to profit from downward price movements. At the end of January 2021, such positions were over $1 billion, their highest of all time.[227]As of 8 February 2021[update], the closing price of bitcoin equaled US$44,797.[228]
In June 2021, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador voted legislation to make bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, alongside the US dollar.[j][258][254][259] The law took effect on 7 September, making El Salvador the first country to do so.[260][261][8] The implementation of the law has been met with protests[262] and calls to make the currency optional, not compulsory.[263] According to a survey by the Central American University, the majority of Salvadorans disagreed with using cryptocurrency as a legal tender,[264][265] and a survey by the Center for Citizen Studies (CEC) showed that 91% of the country prefers the dollar over bitcoin.[266] As of October 2021, the country's government was exploring mining bitcoin with geothermal power and issuing bonds tied to bitcoin.[267] According to a survey done by the Central American University 100 days after the Bitcoin Law came into force: 34.8% of the population has no confidence in bitcoin, 35.3% has little confidence, 13.2% has some confidence, and 14.1% has a lot of confidence. 56.6% of respondents have downloaded the government bitcoin wallet; among them 62.9% has never used it or only once whereas 36.3% uses bitcoin at least once a month.[268][269] In 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged El Salvador to reverse its decision after bitcoin lost half its value in two months. The IMF also warned that it would be difficult to get a loan from the institution.[270] According to one report in 2022, 80% of businesses refused to accept bitcoin despite being legally required to.[271]
Several news outlets have asserted that the popularity of bitcoins hinges on the ability to use them to purchase illegal goods.[189][299] Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that bitcoin's anonymity encourages money laundering and other crimes.[300][301]
As of 2021, Bitcoin's annual e-waste is estimated to be over 30,000 tonnes, which is comparable to the small IT equipment waste produced by the Netherlands. Creating one bitcoin generates 270 to 380 grams (9.5 to 13.4 oz) of e-waste. The average lifespan of bitcoin-mining devices is estimated to be about 1.3 years.[318][319][320] Unlike most computing hardware, the used application-specific integrated circuits have no alternative use beyond bitcoin mining.[321]
Checkpoints which have been hard coded into the client are used only to prevent Denial of Service attacks against nodes which are initially syncing the chain. For this reason the checkpoints included are only as of several years ago.[332][333][failed verification] A one megabyte block size limit was added in 2010 by Satoshi Nakamoto. This limited the maximum network capacity to about three transactions per second.[334] Since then, network capacity has been improved incrementally both through block size increases and improved wallet behavior. A network alert system was included by Satoshi Nakamoto as a way of informing users of important news regarding bitcoin.[335] In November 2016 it was retired. It had become obsolete as news on bitcoin is now widely disseminated.
[121] See Press Release, Federal Trade Commission, FTC Chair Lina M. Khan Announces New Appointments in Agency Leadership Positions (Nov. 19, 2021), available at -events/news/press-releases/2021/11/ftc-chair-lina-m-khan-announces-new-appointments-agency-leadership-positions; Press Release, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan Appoints New Chief Technology Officer and Public Affairs Director (Oct. 3, 2022), available at -events/news/press-releases/2022/10/federal-trade-commission-chair-lina-m-khan-appoints-new-chief-technology-officer-public-affairs.
[133] Press Release, Federal Trade Commission, FTC Finalizes Settlement with Photo App Developer Related to Misuse of Facial Recognition Technology (May 7, 2021), available at -events/news/press-releases/2021/05/ftc-finalizes-settlement-photo-app-developer-related-misuse-facial-recognition-technology.
[203] Press Release, FTC, FTC Staff Provides Annual Letter to CFPB on 2021 Equal Credit Opportunity Act Activities (Feb. 23, 2022), available at -events/news/press-releases/2022/02/ftc-staff-provides-annual-letter-cfpb-2021-equal-credit-opportunity-act-activities. 041b061a72