{"id":10764,"date":"2018-11-11T22:42:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T22:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=10764"},"modified":"2018-11-11T22:42:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T22:42:57","slug":"news-more-coal-powered-bitcoin-mining-colorado-vs-icos-bitfinex-withdrawal-issues-the-decline-of-blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/11\/11\/news-more-coal-powered-bitcoin-mining-colorado-vs-icos-bitfinex-withdrawal-issues-the-decline-of-blockchain\/","title":{"rendered":"News: more coal-powered Bitcoin mining, Colorado vs. ICOs, Bitfinex withdrawal issues, the decline of &#8220;blockchain&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Every journalist covering cryptocurrency or blockchain needs to have a statement, right there on the page, of their holdings and positions in cryptos or blockchain companies. A few do. (Mine&#8217;s at the bottom of this page.) Most don&#8217;t, but should. Why don&#8217;t you ask them?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/05\/22\/bitcoins-stupendous-power-waste-is-green-apparently-bad-excuses-for-proof-of-work\/\">reprehensible power waste<\/a> totally advances renewable energy! Just never mind that Bitmain is deploying 90,000 Antminers to <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/mining-giant-bitmain-hurries-to-deploy-90-000-s9-antminers-ahead-of-bitcoin-cash-hard-fork\">&#8220;coal-rich&#8221; Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia<\/a> for the Bitcoin Cash split (<a href=\"https:\/\/mp.weixin.qq.com\/s\/zUmJRu42you99d9lIOG2EQ\">original report<\/a>). Or that Jihan Wu is personally responsible for 0.1-0.5% of all electricity use on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>FT Alphaville covers the <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/11\/09\/1541786925000\/The-unholiest-of-holy-wars---Satoshi--vs--Bitcoin-Jesus--\/\">Bitcoin Cash Ver vs. Wright split,<\/a> and Craig Wright&#8217;s new repetition of the claim &#8220;I AM Satoshi.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Transaction-per-Second is an inferior metric to measure <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/blockchain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#blockchain<\/a>. The truly illustrative dimensions to be looking at are how many Tweets per Second (&#39;tps&#39;) and Medium Blogs Per Second (&#39;mbps&#39;) there are about a certain individual, and using that, you can find who&#39;s da smartest<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kyle S. Gibson (@KyleSGibson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KyleSGibson\/status\/1061647368993550336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>US regulation isn&#8217;t just the SEC and CFTC \u2014 there&#8217;s fifty state regulators to comply with. Colorado just <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/colorado-takes-action-against-icos\/\">took out twelve dodgy ICOs.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The best thing about the crypto exchange business is the customers like Jermu Michael Salonen\u00a0\u2014 who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-46151991\">sent a letter bomb to his exchange, Cryptopay,<\/a> because they wouldn&#8217;t do a password reset for him via email.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m shocked, shocked to hear that <a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181108125211\/https:\/\/pure-bit.com\/\">Pure Bit,<\/a> an ICO to start a crypto exchange in Korea, just <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/hardfork\/2018\/11\/09\/korea-cryptocurrency-blockchain-scam\/\">exit-scammed with 13,000 ETH.<\/a> You can&#8217;t even trust a nice Bootstrap-based website design these days.<\/p>\n<p>Bitfinex&#8217;s banking arrangements are <em>fine<\/em> \u2014 so long as you don&#8217;t try to get your money out. Withdrawals are a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/for-bitfinex-users-dollar-withdrawals-are-now-a-weeks-long-struggle\/\">weeks-long struggle.<\/a> There&#8217;s now a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitfinex.com\/posts\/311\">3% fee<\/a> on &#8220;more than 2 fiat withdrawals in any thirty day period, and\/or more than $1M in aggregate in fiat withdrawals in any thirty day period.&#8221; You&#8217;ll be pleased to hear that Bitfinex will keep defending against &#8220;sustained and co-ordinated attacks from powerful forces attempting to harm global cryptocurrency markets.&#8221; You know \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/\">FinCEN.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Time to withdraw $1M in fiat:<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase Pro: 1-3 business days (Wire), 1-5 business days (ACH)<br \/>Bitstamp SEPA: 1-3 business days<br \/>Bittrex: 1-3 business days<br \/>Bitfinex: \u221e<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur banking remains stable\u201d &#8211; Bitfinex &#8211; November 11 2018<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \u260d Total\u0243uzzKit (@TotalBuzzKit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TotalBuzzKit\/status\/1061703507126845440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But the crypto market <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2018-11-06\/the-crypto-crash-how-a-price-collapse-could-be-good-thing\">crashing and burning like a pile of unwanted trash<\/a> will actually be <em>good<\/em> news for Bitcoin, and &#8230; &#8220;A\u00a0price collapse doesn\u2019t have to herald the end of a technology or its relevance,&#8221; says Tyler Cowen \u2014though this assumes the technology has a relevance, and not just masses of hype.<\/p>\n<p>Axios measured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/corporate-america-blockchain-bitcoin-fervor-over-fb13bc5c-81fd-4c12-8a7b-07ad107817ca.html\">the decline of &#8220;blockchain&#8221; as a corporate buzzword<\/a> by counting how often it&#8217;s been mentioned in S&amp;P 500 companies&#8217; investor calls in the past couple of years. This echoes <a href=\"https:\/\/go.forrester.com\/blogs\/predictions-2019-blockchain-distributed-ledger-technology\/\">the recent Forrester report.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/11\/11\/news-more-coal-powered-bitcoin-mining-colorado-vs-icos-bitfinex-withdrawal-issues-the-decline-of-blockchain\/axios-sp500-companies-saying-blockchain\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10773\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10773\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/axios-sp500-companies-saying-blockchain.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"463\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/axios-sp500-companies-saying-blockchain.png 463w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/axios-sp500-companies-saying-blockchain-300x276.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 463px) 100vw, 463px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>RCN is now offering <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@rcn_news\/rcn-decentraland-introducing-virtual-land-mortgages-9c9268665cdc\">cryptocurrency mortgages<\/a> on virtual land in <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/08\/27\/decentraland-second-life-but-on-the-blockchain-with-me-on-bbc-world-service-trending\/\">Decentraland,<\/a> a game that&#8217;s sort of Second Life, but on the blockchain. David Z. Morris remembers the 2008 financial crisis\u00a0\u2014 you know, the one that Satoshi Nakamoto put a message about in the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/bitcoins-quirky-genesis-block-turns-eight-years-old-today\/\">Bitcoin genesis block<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/breakermag.com\/for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy-do-not-take-out-a-crypto-mortgage-on-virtual-land\/\">coughs up his own skull in horror.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Winklevoss suit against Charlie Shrem is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/2018\/11\/09\/winklevoss-lawsuit-against-charlie-shrem-peeled-out-in-top-gear-but-now-may-be-stuck-in-neutral\/\">not going so great.<\/a> In particular, Stephen Palley thinks they may have annoyed their judge.<\/p>\n<p>And Nelson M. Rosario presents a lawyer&#8217;s perspective on the Ross Ulbricht trial, and why Ulbricht is now in jail forever\u00a0\u2014 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/2018\/11\/09\/crypto-caselaw-minute-week-of-11-4-18-bitmain-chases-a-ghost-canada-cracks-down-on-coin-deal\/\">STUPENDOUS AND OVERWHELMING QUANTITIES OF EVIDENCE.<\/a> &#8220;Anything you put in writing, online, on your laptop, sent via passenger pigeon, or disseminated via skywriting can be considered evidence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because the fact is, if it looks like a pyramid scheme and sounds like a pyramid scheme, we should treat it like a pyramid scheme until proven otherwise.&#8221; Jonathan Harris, CFA, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.cfainstitute.org\/investor\/2018\/11\/08\/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-or-pyramid-scheme\/\">urges caution when dealing with Bitcoin.<\/a> He holds his own in the comments too. &#8220;I\u2019ll just add that a noted CEO was sanctioned for making erroneous statements concerning his company. Should those who promote crypto currency be held to similar standards?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is a press release, but I&#8217;m trying to see the use case for <a href=\"https:\/\/neonewstoday.com\/general\/alchemint-reveals-stablecoin-user-manual-in-late-october-update\/\">multiple stablecoins as a product.<\/a> The purpose of stablecoins is (1) dollars for exchanges too shonky to get banking (2) evading anti-money-laundering regulations (3) <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/12\/17\/why-you-cant-cash-out-pt-1-why-bitcoins-price-is-largely-fictional\/\">arbitraging<\/a> minor altcoins &#8230; what do multiple dollar-substitutes get you? Once you&#8217;ve got a few that are less obviously problematic than Tether, of course.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitfinexed\/status\/1061434945942511616<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Shell Global <em>Inside Energy:<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shell.com\/inside-energy\/blockchain.html\">Blockchain: hype or hope?<\/a> With a quote from me. I&#8217;ll hopefully be doing a podcast with them next month as well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/london-blockchain-labs\/a-comprehensive-blockchain-reading-list-top-10-must-reads-ef51eb8841f1\">A nice review<\/a> of\u00a0<em>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain<\/em> by Ilya Kleyner, of London Blockchain Labs.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to be on Matthew Aaron&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/crypto101podcast.com\">Crypto 101 podcast<\/a> \u2014 going through <i>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain.<\/i> Should be out this week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a> &#8212; I added this to Replacerator a while back. I think this is a very apt way of being reminded that I have this substitution going on. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OCSBdMdboQ\">pic.twitter.com\/OCSBdMdboQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Armstrong (@DrCDArmstrong) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrCDArmstrong\/status\/1061690515530375169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Invest with confidence. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NbcP5iQvjY\">pic.twitter.com\/NbcP5iQvjY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/1057795998083411968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KodakOne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KodakOne<\/a> hey anyone at kodakone OR your saft platform Cointopia respond to emails? over a month since i registered and still says this &quot;Thank you for your commitment. An email will be sent with instructions on how to transfer funds as soon as the allocation has been approved.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Who got da KINishes (@WKinishes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WKinishes\/status\/1044276074048344064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It is with heavy heart that I must inform you that the bitcoin men are at it again <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n4ZG3kLeIn\">pic.twitter.com\/n4ZG3kLeIn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/1057803724448563202?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitfinex\u2019s banking arrangements are <i>fine<\/i> \u2014 so long as you don\u2019t try to get your money out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1000,42,38,343,74,330,995,997,852,989,996,235,1001,6,998,1002,327,999,328],"class_list":["post-10764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-axios","tag-bitcoin-cash","tag-bitfinex","tag-bitmain","tag-blockchain","tag-charlie-shrem","tag-colorado","tag-cryptopay","tag-decentraland","tag-forrester","tag-jermu-michal-salonen","tag-jihan-wu","tag-jonathan-harris","tag-links","tag-pure-bit","tag-rcn","tag-ross-ulbricht","tag-tyler-cowen","tag-winklevoss-twins"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10764"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10798,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764\/revisions\/10798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}