{"id":21261,"date":"2021-12-04T11:57:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T11:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=21261"},"modified":"2022-02-13T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T14:48:45","slug":"news-square-goes-block-wikipedia-nft-el-salvador-bitcoin-city-plans-where-the-chinese-mining-rigs-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/12\/04\/news-square-goes-block-wikipedia-nft-el-salvador-bitcoin-city-plans-where-the-chinese-mining-rigs-went\/","title":{"rendered":"News: Square goes Block, Wikipedia NFT, El Salvador Bitcoin City plans, where the Chinese mining rigs went"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\"><strong>Subscribe on Patreon!<\/strong><\/a> Your $5 or $20 or whatever each month helps the hits keep coming. Tell your friends and colleagues!<\/li>\n<li>And you can <a href=\"#byemail\">click here and enter your email address<\/a> to get every new post emailed to you.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s Christmas soon. You should consider getting books as the ideal gift to inoculate your loved ones against crypto. There\u2019s books <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/libra\/\">here<\/a> that would go down a <em>delight.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m doing a panel discussion for UCLA Bruintech: Technology for a Sustainable Future \u2014 meaning blockchain. It&#8217;s on Wednesday 8 December, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm PST, which is 21:00-24:00 UTC. [<i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bruintech.ucla.edu\/events\/technology-sustainable-future\">UCLA BruinTech<\/a><\/i>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/12\/04\/news-square-goes-block-wikipedia-nft-el-salvador-bitcoin-city-plans-where-the-chinese-mining-rigs-went\/block-executive-team\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21262\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21262\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/block-executive-team.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/block-executive-team.jpg 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/block-executive-team-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/block-executive-team-670x1024.jpg 670w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Let&#8217;s do financial shenanigans &#8230; <i>in Minecraft<\/i><\/h3>\n<p>The above image is not someone poking fun at Jack Dorsey. It&#8217;s a screenshot of the team page on the Investor Relations subsite of Block \u2014 the new name for Square, Jack Dorsey&#8217;s payments business. Dorsey&#8217;s left Twitter, to concentrate on going full blockchain, and renamed Square accordingly. [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/investors.block.xyz\/overview\/default.aspx\">Block<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/12\/01\/square-changes-corporate-name-to-block-.html\">CNBC<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll be delighted to know that someone&#8217;s already written a Block-head Generator. [<i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tarngerine\/status\/1466288061034156033\">Twitter<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/blockify-xyz.glitch.me\/\">glitch.me<\/a><\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Dorsey\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/09\/06\/news-the-eos-ico-was-a-fake-pump-cardano-smart-contracts-fail-cycling-vs-nexthash-microstrategy-de-indexed-el-salvador-live-tomorrow\/\">TBD decentralised exchange project<\/a> has published an incomprehensible white paper. Apparently, this will bank the 1.7 billion unbanked. [<i><a href=\"https:\/\/tbd54566975.ghost.io\/introducing-tbdex\/\">TBD<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/tbdex.io\/whitepaper.pdf\">TBD<\/a>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;square, having an entirely functional business providing turnkey pos solutions that actually work was clearly ripe for disruption&#8221; \u2014 infernal machines<\/p>\n<h3>Notice me, senpai!<\/h3>\n<p>CoinDesk never heard a rumour about proper investment bankers even glancing at Bitcoin that it didn\u2019t rush to print. This week\u2019s is that Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are looking at lending actual money, using Bitcoin as collateral. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2021\/12\/02\/goldman-sachs-other-wall-street-banks-exploring-bitcoin-backed-loans-sources\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Goldman Sachs correctly considers Bitcoin trash. So they\u2019re trying to construct a backing made of synthetic products \u2014 <i>i.e.<\/i>, bets on the price, such as CME Bitcoin futures, which are bought in dollars and paid out in dollars \u2014 so that they do not, at any stage, risk touching a bitcoin. Squiddy* wants some slight protection if Bitcoin goes bad \u2014 say, if BTC\/USD drops 20% in a few minutes, as it did last night \u2014 and the collateral is suddenly worthless. The regulators also have to go along with the specific product they come up with.<\/p>\n<p>The real story is that the whales \u2014 \u201clarge institutional trading firms,\u201d per the article \u2014 want (or need) to realise the face value of their bitcoins, and they can\u2019t, because there just aren\u2019t enough actual dollars in the market. This is the same reason miners are keeping a <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/13\/news-craig-wright-in-court-mt-gox-settlement-bitcoin-futures-etf-reddit-community-points-miners-still-cant-sell-their-bitcoins\/\">\u201cstockpile\u201d of unsaleable bitcoins,<\/a> as I\u2019ve noted previously.<\/p>\n<p>So the whales are going to Goldman Sachs to ask for a loan backed by their unsaleable bitcoins, even though the collateral can\u2019t possibly cover for the value of the loan even if Bitcoin doesn\u2019t crash. It\u2019s a way for the whales to cash out, and leave Squiddy holding the bag. I expect Squiddy is fully cognisant of this, and this is the scenario they\u2019re trying to construct a buffer against.<\/p>\n<p><small>* Traders nicknamed Goldman Sachs &#8220;Squiddy&#8221; after Matt Taibbi called the bank &#8220;a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity&#8221; in 2010. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-news\/the-great-american-bubble-machine-195229\/\"><em>Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>] I&#8217;m annoyed that I can&#8217;t find a Wikipedia-quality source for the fact that traders and finance nerds call Goldman Sachs &#8220;Squiddy&#8221; now.<\/small><\/p>\n<h3>The unofficial Wikipedia NFT<\/h3>\n<p>Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is auctioning the strawberry iMac he started Wikipedia on! And also, an NFT of the first Wikipedia edit. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christies.com\/features\/First-Wikipedia-edit-to-be-sold-as-NFT-11983-1.aspx\"><i>Christie\u2019s<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The money will be donated to free-culture charities. This won\u2019t include Wikipedia \u2014 Jimmy is taking care to stress that the Wikimedia Foundation is not involved with this at all. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/12\/3\/22808679\/jimmy-wales-nft-first-wikipedia-edit-imac-christies-auction\"><i>The Verge<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve known Jimmy since Wikipedia\u2019s early days \u2014 and he&#8217;s read my books and knows what I think of all things crypto. He went to Christie\u2019s to auction off the iMac. Christie\u2019s suggested doing an NFT, and he asked what I thought. I advised against the plan \u2014 I thought it was a bad idea and would get a bad reaction from the Wikipedia community, and from the general public, for all the reasons NFTs are bad.<\/p>\n<p>Christie&#8217;s were pretty sure the NFT could make quite a chunk of money \u2014 enough that even I was trying to think how we could do this without alienating the community and public.<\/p>\n<p>But Jimmy decided on balance that it was worth going ahead, buying a carbon offset for the NFT&#8217;s share of Ethereum mining, and so on. So here&#8217;s to some money for the charities. At least the strawberry iMac is a legitimately cool souvenir item.<\/p>\n<p>The other story here is that Christie\u2019s is actively promoting NFTs to sufficiently famous customers. Which is not surprising, as it\u2019s free money for a cryptographic hash, and they made millions from the $69 million JPEG that <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/03\/19\/foreign-policy-its-a-69-million-jpeg-but-is-it-art\/\">Beeple wash-traded with Metakovan.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re in the UK, please do send a Wikipedia-ish donation to Wikimedia UK, &#8216;cos they don&#8217;t get nearly enough from the mothership. They don&#8217;t accept cryptos, sorry. [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wikimediauk\/status\/1465652347053518853?s=20\">Twitter<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/donate.thebiggive.org.uk\/campaign\/a056900001wWOtNAAW\">Wikimedia UK<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n<p>Why Gaming NFTs Will Never Work. \u201cI don\u2019t want to spend too much time on our differences though, and instead rally around our similarities \u2014 namely, we all hate NFTs.\u201d An excellent single-paragraph summary of what the heck an NFT is: [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamer.com\/gaming-nfts-will-never-work\/\"><i>The Gamer<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A brief rundown of what an NFT is \u2014 it takes a picture on the internet (of which there are an infinite number) and arbitrarily attempts to limit the number available by selling digital ownership receipts. You can still right click and save for free, but you won&#8217;t \u2018own\u2019 the image, not without the receipt. Sound stupid? Great, you\u2019re all caught up. Oh, and it\u2019s also tremendously bad for the environment, thanks to the huge energy drain caused by the underlying blockchain technology that powers it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The NFT market is made of wash trading. The top 10% of traders have traded 97% of NFTs. 10% of buyer-seller pairs make up half the volume. The secondary market is a minority \u2014 \u201cless than 10% are sold at least once within one week after the primary sale, and only about 22% within 1 year.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-021-00053-8\"><i>Scientific Reports<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/static-content.springer.com\/esm\/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-021-00053-8\/MediaObjects\/41598_2021_53_MOESM1_ESM.pdf\"><i>supplementary information<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<h3>Desperate Finance<\/h3>\n<p>The Badger DAO was pwned for $115 million of cryptos by hacking the website front-end, and stealing the coins directly from the users. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/post\/126072\/defi-protocol-badgerdao-exploited-for-120-million-in-front-end-attack\"><i>The Block<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Crypto lender Celsius lost $54 million in the Badger hack, as spotted in on-chain data. [<a href=\"https:\/\/blockworks.co\/celsius-reportedly-affected-in-exploit-of-defi-protocol-badgerdao\/\"><i>BlockWorks<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Internal emails show Celsius suspending their CFO Yaron Shalem as of November 18 \u2014 over a week before they <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/28\/news-celsius-arrest-el-salvador-journalists-hacked-senate-vs-stablecoins\/\">admitted his arrest<\/a> publicly. [<a href=\"https:\/\/blockworks.co\/celsius-suspends-cfo-due-to-external-fraud-sexual-assault-investigation\/\"><i>Blockworks<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The SEC is looking into crypto lender BlockFi\u2019s \u201chigh yield\u201d crypto accounts. \u2018Cos if you offer interest on money loaned to you and you\u2019re not a bank, then you\u2019re offering an investment contract \u2014 a security. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-11-17\/blockfi-faces-sec-scrutiny-over-high-yielding-crypto-accounts\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Don\u2019t take me down to Bitcoin City<\/h3>\n<p>For your amusement, here&#8217;s Blockstream&#8217;s proposal for <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/21\/el-salvador-a-1-billion-bitcoin-bond-to-set-up-bitcoin-city\/\">El Salvador\u2019s Volcano Bonds.<\/a> This is the 9 November 2021 edition, where $500 million goes on buying bitcoins, and $500 million is spent buying &#8230; mining rigs. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.docdroid.net\/o7FrBIz\/volcano-bond-proposals-v1-pdf\"><i>PDF<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Here are the promotional slides for Bitcoin City that President Bukele played behind his speech announcing the project. [<a href=\"https:\/\/arquitecturaviva.com\/works\/bitcoin-city-en-el-salvador\"><i>Arquitectura Viva<\/i><\/a>] The architect, Fernando Romero \u2014 billionaire Carlos Slim&#8217;s son-in-law \u2014 recycled an old 2012 rendering he\u2019d done, and added a Bitcoin logo. Romero neglected that a flat circular city makes no allowance for the lumpy real-world geography in that part of La Uni\u00f3n. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cokerrega\/status\/1464083192533635087\"><i>Twitter thread<\/i><\/a><i>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The Lightning Network is more reliable than Chivo. Payments sent from the Bitcoin blockchain or the Lightning Network to Chivo sometimes just &#8230; don\u2019t get there. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DecouvreBitcoin\/status\/1461008433516265481\"><i>Twitter thread, with videos<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a Chivo ATM showing a Windows 10 blue screen. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/carlinha0110\/status\/1465376500220403721\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>ZDNet: Volcano-powered Bitcoin City could be Bond villainy or the state of play in 2021 \u2014 with extended quotes from me on how dumb an idea this all is. [<a href=\"https:\/\/zd.net\/3nZvLLK\"><i>ZDNet<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Baby\u2019s on fire<\/h3>\n<p>What happened to all the Chinese mining rigs? The Financial Times tracked the exodus. More than two million rigs left China. Of one sample of 432,000 rigs, most ended up in Russia (200,000), Kazakhstan (87,849), the US (87,200), Canada (35,000), Paraguay (15,500) and Venezuela (7,000).<\/p>\n<p>Russian mining company BitRiver claims to be running 200,000 ex-Chinese rigs. Roman Zabuga from BitRiver says \u201cThe focus of the market has shifted from a lack of equipment to a lack of space for its placement.\u201d He said that BitRiver had turned down an offer of another one million rigs, for lack of anywhere to put them.<\/p>\n<p>About 700,000 Chinese rigs went off and haven\u2019t been switched back on \u2014 mostly S9-generation rigs, which are all but unviable now. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/0dbe4f9f-a433-4288-858e-c4b852f4c340\"><i>FT<\/i><\/a><i>, paywalled<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Those who set up in Kazakhstan have discovered that the power is cheap \u2014 but not reliable. The miners are enough to overload the local grid. There\u2019s a reason the US and Canada are highly favoured destinations. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/086b7ec7-f71a-4214-bfa0-5644852056f3\"><i>FT<\/i><\/a><i>, paywalled<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>GPU makers are increasingly disengaging from crypto miners. Nvidia has moved most of its production to gaming, and AMD is \u201cnot servicing\u201d the crypto segment. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2021\/11\/19\/gpu_makers_not_keen_on_crypto\/\"><i>The Register<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Contact Energy in New Zealand wants to build a \u201cdata centre\u201d in Clyde in central Otago for UK company Lake Parime, to run off hydroelectric power from the Clyde Dam. The \u201cdata centre\u201d is a shipping container with louvre vents, Lake Parime does crypto mining, and they want 10 megawatts \u2014 more power than the town of Clyde uses. Residents are not happy that this drain on local renewable energy resources is (a) crypto mining (b) of no benefit to the local community, or indeed the country (c) trying to sneak in by stealth. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/national\/programmes\/ninetonoon\/audio\/2018821203\/plans-for-a-data-centre-near-clyde-raise-crypto-mining-concerns\"><i>RNZ<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Craigness<\/h3>\n<p>The jury in Kleiman v. Wright is deadlocked. The judge asked them to come to a decision, as a lot of people had spent a lot of money on this case; apparently, this was meant to convince a jury who\u2019d been asked to rule on a pile of abject nonsense. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2021\/12\/01\/jury-in-kleiman-v-wright-civil-suit-says-it-cannot-come-to-a-decision\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, Craig Wright posted threats of legal action against Kleiman\u2019s expert witnesses as they testified, because he\u2019s just nice like that. [<a href=\"https:\/\/protos.com\/craig-wright-used-slack-app-to-threaten-expert-witness-as-they-testified\/\"><i>Protos<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Bitcoin: Be your own bank!<br \/>\nIndia: Yes.<\/h3>\n<p>After a massive <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/07\/16\/news-bbc-on-kodak-kashminer-indian-crypto-ponzi-china-crypto-gambling-vinnik-to-france-ethereum-clog-institutional-investors-dont-want-cryptos\/\">crypto-based Ponzi scheme,<\/a> India tried banning crypto in its entirety by way of the Reserve Bank of India <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/04\/28\/news-iota-cultists-ethereum-as-security-exchange-regulation-and-market-manipulation-wikipedia\/\">issuing a regulation<\/a> that banks couldn\u2019t serve crypto entities. The Supreme Court knocked down that regulation, and said the government had to make a law.<\/p>\n<p>The law has been <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/03\/05\/news-india-crypto-ban-north-korea-bitmex-execs-to-appear-ibm-blockchain-dead-more-mcafee-charges\/\">in the works since,<\/a> and is close to being finalised. Regulated crypto trading may or may not be allowed, but using crypto for payments definitely won\u2019t be. Crypto firms can\u2019t advertise either. It&#8217;s not clear who the regulator will be. The government may impose hefty capital gains and sales taxes. India likes the idea of a CBDC, however. The final version is expected in two to three weeks. [<a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/\/news\/economy\/policy\/crypto-may-be-allowed-as-asset-not-as-currency-legislation-being-finalised\/articleshow\/87748367.cms\"><i>Economic Times<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/india\/new-indian-law-will-allow-only-few-cryptocurrencies-government-says-2021-11-23\/\"><i>Reuters<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Failson \u00e0 la Mode<\/h3>\n<p>London fintech and not-a-bank Mode told the world that it was giving Bitcoin rewards to shoppers at UK retailers such as Boots, Homebase and Ocado. Mode shares went up 15%!<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Mode\u2019s claims were denied by the retailers in question. Mode <i>clarified<\/i> its previous claims, and the share price dropped back down. Mode is totally still launching its crypto cashback in 2022, and definitely has forty or more online retailers on board, for sure. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d408872c-1141-43b3-9c25-80df09a2bdb7\"><i>FT<\/i><\/a><i>, paywalled<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Mode is the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/09\/21\/news-stupid-defi-tricks-tether-doesnt-have-the-documents-for-nyag-craig-wright-loses-again\/\">latest project<\/a> of Jonathan Rowland, large adult failson of former Conservative Party treasurer David \u201cSpotty\u201d Rowland, money manager for and good friend of Prince Andrew. Jemima Kelly at FT has previously documented Rowland the Younger\u2019s ten-year string of inept failed entrepreneurial initiatives, funded by pater\u2019s bankroll. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/22077ab6-448e-4921-963a-80a983573869\"><i>FT Alphaville<\/i><\/a><i>, 2020, free with login; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/fdd84b3f-d074-4ffc-bb5d-e8099e624e61\"><i>FT Alphaville<\/i><\/a><i>, 2020, free with login<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/12\/04\/news-square-goes-block-wikipedia-nft-el-salvador-bitcoin-city-plans-where-the-chinese-mining-rigs-went\/coinbase-btc-usd-2021-12-04\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21306\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-21306\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/coinbase-btc-usd-2021-12-04.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/coinbase-btc-usd-2021-12-04.png 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/coinbase-btc-usd-2021-12-04-300x172.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Things happen<\/h3>\n<p>Bitcoin crashed to $42,000 last night! Someone sold 1,500 BTC, and that triggered a cascade of sales of burnt margin-traders&#8217; collateral of another 4,000 BTC. The Tether peg broke too. The surprising thing this time around is that all the crypto exchanges <em>didn&#8217;t<\/em> simultaneously need urgent scheduled maintence. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2021\/12\/04\/bitcoin-drops-9k-in-an-hour\/\"><em>CoinDesk<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>China still hates crypto. Three crypto media outlets \u2014 Chainnews, ODaily and BlockBeats \u2014 have been shut down, and several mining pools are now blocked by the Great Firewall. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/post\/125533\/china-crypto-censorship-media-mining-pools\"><i>The Block<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The IRS seized $3.5 billion from crypto-related fraud in fiscal 2021. [<a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/irs-seized-35-b-in-crypto-related-fraud-cases-this-year-as-illicit-activity-multiplies-150407019.html\"><i>Yahoo! News<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/pub\/irs-pdf\/p3583.pdf\"><i>IRS<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Vice wrote up the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/19\/constitutiondao-fails-to-buy-the-constitution\/\">collapse<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/16\/constitutiondao-a-20-million-stupid-ethereum-trick\/\">ConstitutionDAO<\/a> in detail. Their token, PEOPLE, is being traded on Uniswap as a negligible-volume <i>minor altcoin.<\/i> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/qjb8av\/constitutiondao-aftermath-everyone-very-mad-confused-losing-lots-of-money-fighting-crying-etc\"><i>Vice<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/constitutiondao-people-price-pumps-200-as-new-we-the-people-token-unveiled\"><i>CoinTelegraph<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin adoption in the enterprise is doing so incredibly well that insurers are no longer offering coverage against ransomware, as costs are going through the roof. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/europe\/insurers-run-ransomware-cover-losses-mount-2021-11-19\/\"><i>Reuters<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>John Kiff and Jonas Gross have written about retail CBDC considerations. CBDCs are mostly being floated in less-developed countries where commercial bank payment networks aren\u2019t very good or aren\u2019t up to the task \u2014 hence the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/11\/08\/libra-shrugged-chapter-15-central-bank-digital-currencies\/\">Sand Dollar and eNaira.<\/a> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/policy\/2021\/12\/03\/cbdcs-for-the-people-where-the-current-state-of-digital-currency-research-leads\/\"><i>CoinDesk<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin and other cryptos have slumped after record highs. Is market manipulation the reason why? An interview with me by Euronews. This was two weeks ago,\u00a0<em>before<\/em> the crash last night. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/next\/2021\/11\/17\/bitcoin-and-other-cryptos-have-slumped-after-record-highs-is-market-manipulation-the-reaso\"><i>Euronews<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"pt\" dir=\"ltr\">Vou come\u00e7ar agora o livro do <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yQQMizLiHm\">pic.twitter.com\/yQQMizLiHm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Maldi\u00e7\u00e3o de Cassandra (@bicicreta) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bicicreta\/status\/1465184299867688960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 29, 2021<\/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>&#8220;Sound stupid? Great, you\u2019re all caught up.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[335,2578,21,353,2580,2576,1795,1474,916,100,2366,2178,2537,2581,146,1552,2305,2579,631,287,1101,7,1516,2577,1877,2583,1996,75,2529,2582,233,6,1717,1995,203,2020,340,70,33,1517,2441,209,2564],"class_list":["post-21261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-amd","tag-badger-dao","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin-city","tag-bitriver","tag-block","tag-blockfi","tag-cbdc","tag-celsius","tag-china","tag-chivo","tag-christies","tag-constitutiondao","tag-contact-energy","tag-craig-wright","tag-defi","tag-el-salvador","tag-fernando-romero","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-india","tag-ira-kleiman","tag-irs","tag-jack-dorsey","tag-jimmy-wales","tag-john-kiff","tag-jonas-gross","tag-jonathan-rowland","tag-jpmorgan-chase","tag-kazakhstan","tag-lake-parime","tag-lightning-network","tag-links","tag-mining","tag-mode","tag-new-zealand","tag-nft","tag-nvidia","tag-ransomware","tag-sec","tag-square","tag-tbd","tag-wikipedia","tag-yaron-shalem"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/block-executive-team-header.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21261","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=21261"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21911,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21261\/revisions\/21911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}