Banned Chinese Bitcoin Miners Have Moved On To Africa's Largest Dam In Ethiopia


Chinese bitcoin miners have officially arrived in Ethiopia.
With China banning bitcoin mining about two years ago, many miners look to be heading to Africa’s largest dam, the recently built Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, according to a new article from Bloomberg.
Nuo Xu, founder of China Digital Mining Association, told Bloomberg: “Ethiopia will become one of the most popular destinations for Chinese miners.”





There they are being lured by some of the cheapest energy costs in the world - and the dam is providing power to run miners at electricity substations.

Ethiopia's closer ties with China and the construction of a $4.8 billion dam by Chinese companies for electricity supply underscore the move, the report says. The change of location comes as climate concerns and energy shortages elsewhere in the world have prompted some backlash against the lucrative Bitcoin mining industry.

This makes Ethiopia a uniquely appealing prospect, though it now faces competition in places like Texas, Bloomberg writes. Kazakhstan and Iran initially welcomed Bitcoin mining, but eventually turned on the sector due to its massive energy use.





Meanwhile the national power monopoly in Ethiopia has secured agreements with 21 Bitcoin miners, predominantly Chinese, making clear the country's emerging role in the sector.

In a recent article called "Why I Bitcoin", Zero Hedge contributor Quoth the Raven wrote:
 
"If the people want the Bitcoin network, and they have power and an Internet connection, they’re going to get it. The network is like a slippery fish someone tries to hold onto — the harder you hold it and the more you try to control it, the quicker it slips from your grasp. If Canada bans it, it will drift to Mexico. If Mexico bans it, nodes will drift to Mauritius. If Mauritius bans it, nodes will drift to Russia. There’s always going to be somewhere on the globe – at least for the short to mid-term right now – that is going to embrace Bitcoin."

In this case, that place is - at least for now - Ethiopia.

zerohedge.com

Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs

Detailing the Biden Admin's coordinated, ongoing effort across virtually every US financial regulator to deny crypto firms access to banking services

"For crypto firms, obtaining access to the onshore banking system has always been a challenge. Even today, crypto startups struggle mightily to get banks, and only a handful of boutiques serve them.
This is why stablecoins like Tether found popularity early on: to facilitate fiat settlement where the rails of traditional banking were unavailable.

However, in recent weeks, the intensity of efforts to ringfence the entire crypto space and isolate it from the traditional banking system have ratcheted up significantly. Specifically, the Biden administration is now executing what appears to be a coordinated plan that spans multiple agencies to discourage banks from dealing with crypto firms.
It applies to both traditional banks who would serve crypto clients, and crypto-first firms aiming to get bank charters. It includes the administration itself, influential members of Congress, the Fed, the FDIC, the OCC, and the DoJ.

In sum, banks taking deposits from crypto clients, issuing stablecoins, engaging in crypto custody, or seeking to hold crypto as principal have faced nothing short of an onslaught from regulators in recent weeks.
Time and again, using the expression “safety and soundness,” they’ve made it clear that for a bank, touching public blockchains in any way is considered unacceptably risky


Beginning in 2013, Choke Point was a scheme which sought to marginalize specific industries operating legally — not through lawmaking, but by applying pressure via the banking sector.
The Obama DoJ had already cut its teeth with its successful effort to sideline the online poker space in 2011 and 2012 with threats issued to banks supporting poker companies. With Choke Point, the Department decided to scale up its efforts and target other industries, starting with uncontroversial targets like payday lenders.

Then, the DoJ coordinated with the FDIC and OCC to pressure member banks to “redline” — determine as too risky to do business with — certain legal but politically disfavored sectors, chief among them firearms manufacturers and adult entertainment. Banks and payment processors internalized this guidance, and even after the program was formally shuttered under Trump in 2017, its shadow lingered.
Today, banks simply ascribe a higher risk to activities that they suspect might draw the government’s ire, even if no specific guidance exists.

In 2017, Trump and Republican lawmakers like Rep. Luetkemeyer were able to put a stop to Choke Point for a time, but it didn’t last. One of the first moves from Biden’s OCC was to undo Brian Brook’s Fair Access rule that prohibited political discrimination in banking. Biden’s deputies picked up where Obama’s regulators had left off. And now, after the time it took to digest Biden’s Executive Orders, regulators are tightening the screw.


In some key respects, Crypto Choke Point 2.0 differs from the original. It appears that the administration has learned from the efforts of its predecessors.
In Choke Point 1.0, guidance was mainly informal and involved backdoor, off-the-record conversations. Its main tool was the threat of investigation from the DoJ and FDIC if financial institutions didn’t internalize the administration’s risk standards. Because this was patently unconstitutional, it gave Republicans the collateral to ultimately repeal the program.
In 2.0, everything is happening in plain sight, in the form of rulemaking, written guidance, and blogs. The current crypto crackdown is being sold as a “safety and soundness” issue for banks, and not merely a reputational risk issue.

Jake Chervinsky of the Blockchain Association calls it “regulation by blog post.” No need to ask Congress for new laws if federal regulators can simply make policy by publishing guidance which dissuades banks from doing business with crypto."

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1) Do you think similar policies will expand to other countries - or continents - outside of the USA?

2) Do you think they will expand to your country?
Or are similar policies in your country already in place?

3) Do you think political authorities' anti-cryptos bias will go away in the next future? Or will get stronger?
What is necessary for them to go away?

Your vote in the poll is much appreciated 

Wyoming Lays the Foundation for a Government-Issued Stablecoin


Wyoming’s recently enacted Stable Token Act is the latest step in the Cowboy State’s efforts to create a business and legal environment that is tailored to digital assets and blockchain businesses. It also cements Wyoming’s position in the debate among regulators and the private sector around the types of entities that can – or should – issue stablecoins.

The Act creates a path for Wyoming to issue the United States’ first government-issued stablecoin, which would be fully backed by reserves of US dollars.


https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/perspectives-events/publications/2023/05/wyoming-adopts-stable-token-legislation-and-lays-the-foundation-for-a-government-issued-stablecoin

In the thread The impact of stablecoins on the market  User Learn Bitcoin pointed me to this gold backed stablecoin, which I didn't know. (Thanks LB!)
I thought it deserves a thread.

https://gold.tether.to

Their Whitepaper Tether Gold - A Digital Token Backed by Physical Gold

Current Market cap: $500 Millions
Coins in circulation: 7,6 gold tons



Your thoughts are welcome!

"Exceptionally Risky, Scams" - Gensler Drops CYA** Post On X Ahead Of Imminent Bitcoin Spot ETF Approval

** = cover your ass 



It looks like SEC is - unwillingly - going to approve the ETF


"SEC Chair Gary Gensler just dropped the biggest hint yet that the Spot ETF approval is imminent.

This follows eleven of the asset managers that have applied for permission to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF filed 19b-4 amendments on Jan. 5.
The filers included BlackRock, Valkyrie, Grayscale, Bitwise, Hashdex, ARK Invest and 21Shares, Invesco and Galaxy, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, VanEck and WisdomTree.

The first stage in approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF would be the SEC signing off on 19b-4 filings by the exchanges planning to list the ETFs, all of which were submitted by 6 p.m. ET on Friday.
The SEC would then need to approve the issuers' S-1 applications; with both approved, the ETFs could technically begin trading the next business day."

www.zerohedge.com

Traders, investors and crypto people in general - like the users of this forum - can use cryptocurrencies in order to make money... Ok
Financial institutions and companies can use cryptocurrencies for quicker and cheaper transfers... Ok

But for teachers, nurses and pensioners, for the grocery store at the corner, the shoes shop, the restaurant, the car repair shop... for these people and businesses what are cryptocurrencies good for? What could cryptos be good for?


They are not night traders. They have no idea what Binance and Coinbase are and they not even think about trading cryptos.
Ordinary people.

What's the point of the existence of cryptocurrencies for them?

How can or could cryptocurrencies serve them?

Look at to the two charts below

I'm not sure but to me it looks like the BTC price follows the $1M wallets numbers rather than that of the Wholecoiners, which would mean that the BTC market and price are still driven - basically - by the BTC millionaires.

Interesting the steady increase - except the two years 2020 and 2021 - of the Wholecoiners all along the last 15 years (and even in 2020 and 2021, the number of wholecoiners stayed flat, there wasn't a decrease).
Imo that reflects a steady increase of the BTC people and of adoption of BTC, at least as an investment/speculation vehicle.





The number of wallets - currently 91.000 - containing BTC worth at least $1 million is up nearly 300% since the start of 2023









"Wholecoiners" - those unique addresses containing at least 1 BTC now number more than 1 million for the first time





www.zerohedge.com