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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (169820)	3/22/2021 11:06:30 PM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 217623

is why I am reading and re-reading, as I do Agatha Christie novels, because I cannot remember what I read :0) 'they' are certainly spinning the nay-sayings BTC is stumping them, especially when compared to what they do control, fiat money - it is too costly, un-green, volatile, blah blah blah - has no intrinsic value Too funny siliconinvestor.com Bitcoin Dubbed ‘Far Too Costly’ in Norway as Cashlessness Rules Ott Ummelas 23 March 2021, 02:10 GMT+8 Norway recently emerged as the world’s most cashless society, but its central bank governor says people shouldn’t start turning to Bitcoin as an alternative. Oystein Olsen, the governor of Norges Bank in Oslo, says it’s inconceivable that Bitcoin -- the most popular cryptocurrency -- will replace the money that’s currently controlled by central banks. Bitcoin is “far too resource-intensive, far too costly and most importantly, it doesn’t preserve stability,” Olsen said in a phone interview. “I mean, the basic property and task for a central bank and central-bank currency is to provide stability in the value of money and in the system, and that is not done by Bitcoin.” GLOBAL INSIGHT: Carpe Diem - Central Banks in Digital Future Olsen’s dismissal of Bitcoin comes not long after one of Norway’s most prominent businessmen, Kjell Inge Rokke, endorsed the cryptocurrency, arguing it will ultimately be on the right side of monetary history. He even suggested a single Bitcoin might one day “ be worth millions of dollars.” On Monday, one Bitcoin traded at around $57,000, almost 900% up from its value roughly a year ago. Elon Musk is a fan, as is Cathie Wood of Ark Investment Management. Matt McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs Global Markets Division, recently said there’s now “ huge” institutional demand across different industry types and from private banking clients for Bitcoin. Meanwhile, central banks are racing to respond to widespread cashlessness by developing their own digital currencies before cryptocurrencies take over. Norges Bank Deputy Governor Ida Wolden Bache said last November that Norway has become the world’s most cashless country, with only 4% of all payments conducted with bank notes and coins. That’s raised questions about how payments should be conducted in the future. But Norway isn’t one of the front-runners when it comes to developing central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Instead, Sweden and China are the world leaders among major economies, as policy makers team up with technology experts to figure out how best to design something that central banks can control. Central Banks Are Getting Serious About Digital Money: Chart Norges Bank is due to publish a report on its CBDC project in April. Wolden Bache said earlier this month the goal is that users “must be able to pay efficiently and securely in” Norwegian kroner. According to her slide presentation, a Norwegian CBDC “will not change private sector credit intermediation.” As for Bitcoin, which some central bankers have compared to the tulip bubble of the 17th century, Olsen said, “I don’t think at the end of the day it will be a threat to central banks. Although some people talk about that.” Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE

To: carranza2 who wrote (169820)

3/22/2021 11:08:58 PM

From: TobagoJack

Respond to of 217623

My comment about BTC's production carbon foot-print, ban BTC mining

18 out of 21M is enough

bloomberg.com

Bitcoin Rally Stirs BofA Alarm on ‘Enormous’ Surge in Energy Use
Vildana Hajric
Bitcoin’s massive rally over the past year means it’s only getting worse for the environment.

The energy used by the network of computers that power the digital coin is comparable to that of many developed countries and rivals the emissions from major fossil-fuel users and producers such as American Airlines Group Inc. and ConocoPhillips, according to a report by Bank of America Corp. The level of emissions, which have risen alongside a spike in Bitcoin’s price, have grown by more than 40 million tons in the past two years. And when the digital asset is trading around $50,000 -- which it’s done for much of this year -- it uses about 0.4% of global energy consumption.

More worrisome, according to the report titled “Bitcoin’s dirty little secrets,” is that rising prices may mean Bitcoin’s energy consumption will soon rival that of some of the largest countries in the world.

“What I’m concerned about is the pace of growth in the demand for energy,” Francisco Blanch, head of commodities and derivatives research at Bank of America and lead author of the report, said in an interview. “The rate of change is enormous -- nothing is growing at this pace in the energy world.”

Bitcoin has skyrocketed into the limelight during the Covid-19 pandemic amid unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus that’s been a boon to more-speculative parts of the financial markets. The world’s largest cryptocurrency surged almost 10-fold in the past year. That’s meant greater energy use, too.

Because the coin’s supply is limited, any excess demand could push prices even higher. Rising prices encourage more so-called mining activity and may consequently push CO2 emissions up even more, according to Bank of America.

Bitcoin transactions are processed by miners -- crypto slang for companies that operate a vast array of computers. Miners compete to confirm transactions and get new coins awarded in return -- but they require huge amounts of energy to run. Buoyed by increased competition, only a handful of such firms -- most China-based -- controlled about 50% of all the computing power on the network, Bloomberg News reported last year.

Read more:

Bitcoin Is Red Hot. Can It Ever Be Green?

Bitcoin Mining Comes to the Arctic Circle

China Region Declares War on Crypto Mining, Stirring Wider Fear

According to Bank of America, it’s since become even more concentrated, with roughly three-quarters of so-called hash power now concentrated in the country. That, too, is worrying to Blanch, as almost 60% of Chinese electrical generation is derived from coal-fired plants.

“Right now, this thing is taking a lot of energy and it’s possible that if everyone comes in and prices go higher, then it’s going to be way more energy,” he said.

But crypto fans argue Bitcoin’s energy use is immaterial when placed within a larger context. Many say, for instance, that its carbon footprint is pretty negligible, compared with that of cars, power plants and factories. And even as its price surges, it’s hardly made a ripple in power markets, according to analysts at BloombergNEF.

“Bitcoin miners use whatever power is available and the focus is absolutely on the lowest-cost power possible,” Jaime Leverton, chief executive officer at Hut 8 Mining Corp., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Her firm’s mining operations are located in Alberta, Canada, where natural gas and wind are among the predominant energy sources. “It’s a conversation that certainly needs to evolve over time and doesn’t accurately reflect how we talk about energy in other tech sectors,” she said.

Nic Carter, a partner at crypto-focused venture firm Castle Island Ventures, said he expects Bitcoin’s energy use in the long run to come almost exclusively from sources -- including hydro and flared gas -- that otherwise would go to waste.

Still, “there’s a moral case to be made for Bitcoin, even in the presence of a carbon outlay, which is it’s so useful for society,” said Carter by phone. “The focus should be on making the grid greener in the aggregate, not trying to take a line-item veto and say this specific usage of society’s energy is illegitimate.”

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