- On this rollercoaster day for Bitcoin, which I have indeed spent nailed to the GDAX Comedy Channel, here’s the front page of English Wikipedia, today’s “On This Day” section:
- China is thoroughly sick of crypto trading — having shut down local exchanges, they will now block access to outside exchanges. This comes after the PBOC ordered financial institutions to stop funding anything crypto-related. This also puts further pressure on the remaining Chinese miners.
- UK banks start blocking credit card purchases of cryptocurrency — Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA — in the wake of several American credit card providers doing the same. News broken by Simon Jones from the BBC last night. It turns out that people who buy Bitcoin at the peak on a 21% interest card aren’t such a good credit risk. Note that you can still use your debit card — because that’s your money, not the bank’s.
- Nathaniel Popper at the New York Times writes up the ridiculous scamminess of the crypto market, which I’m pretty sure he’s been wanting to write up for the past year, in the face of editors who are bored by anything more detailed than “number go up.” GOSH IT’S ALMOST AS IF I TOLD YOU SO, LOUDLY, CLEARLY AND REPEATEDLY. DID I OR DID I NOT TELL YOU SO? WHY I DO BELIEVE THAT INDEED I DID.
- Ars Technica runs a comprehensive overview of the Lightning Network. The author seems to think he’s being hugely positive, and actually ends up detailing everything wrong with it. The commenters are thoroughly unconvinced: “This looks to be an overly complicated solution that has to go through loops and hoops (and a lot of bandaids) to fix things.”
- One Redditor has hit the darknet research chemicals a bit hard and penned what is truly the “Kubla Khan” of our age. Now, you might be wishing for an international fiat bankster from Porlock …
- Bryce Elder has written the very best Bitcoin explainer. Guaranteed $100% accurate.
— Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) February 5, 2018
I've seen things you HODLers wouldn't believe. Mining rigs on fire off the banks of the Yangtze. I've watched sell walls vanish in the dark on the Bitfinex chart. All those moments will be lost in time, like your imaginary Lamborghini this afternoon. Time for popcorn.
— Z80 Inside (@raynerlucas) February 5, 2018
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