Bitcoin Mining
Bitcoin mining in Norway gets the green light as the proposed ban rejected
There’s Nor-way they can ban Bitcoin (BTC) mining in Norway now. That’s according to a majority vote passed by the Norwegian parliament on May 10. The proposal to ban Bitcoin mining in Norway was first suggested in March this year by the Red Party (Norway’s communist party.) In this week’s vote, the proposal was overturned as only Norway’s left-leaning parties, including the Socialist Left Party, the Red Party and the Green Party would support a ban on cryptocurrency mining. Jaran Mellerud, an Analyst at Arcane Research and a Cointelegraph confidant shed light on the developments: “The vote these parties lost was against banning large-scale Bitcoin mining overall.” “Having lost this vote, these political parties will likely make one more attempt at increasing the power tax specifical...
Crypto-associated stocks hammered as COIN and HOOD drop to record lows
Bad news continues to dominate crypto media headlines and May 12’s juiciest tidbit was the unexpected collapse of the Terra ecosystem. In addition to the weakness seen in equities, listed companies with exposure to blockchain startups and cryptocurrency mining have also declined sharply. Bitcoin mining stocks continue bleeding… Mining investors probably wish they had simply bought bitcoin instead at the beginning of 2022, as most bitcoin mining stocks have underperformed bitcoin by a wide margin. pic.twitter.com/anSoUEoUJ1 — Jaran Mellerud (@JMellerud) May 11, 2022 While it may be easy to blame the current pullback solely on Terra’s implosion, the truth is that the price of Bitcoin mining stocks has largely mirrored the performance of BTC since reaching a peak in November...
Environmental groups urge US government to take action on crypto miners
A group of eight organizations focused on the environment have called on different government agencies under the Biden administration to implement new approaches in response to Proof-of-Work and other crypto mining operations. In a letter to the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy on Monday, the Environmental Working Group, Earthjustice, Greenpeace, the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, the Seneca Lake Guardian, and the Milwaukee Riverkeeper urged the White House to enact policies aimed at curbing “the electricity use and climate pollution associated with digital currencies that rely on [PoW].” Specifically, the organizations alleged crypto mining in the United States harmed communities by creating increasing demand for electricity sour...
Nvidia to pay $5.5M as part of SEC case concerning ‘inadequate disclosures’ around crypto mining
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has announced that it has settled charges against Nvidia — the company behind graphics cards used by many crypto miners — in regards to “inadequate disclosures.” In a Friday announcement, the SEC said that Nvidia failed to disclose that mining cryptocurrencies was “a significant element of its material revenue growth” based on sales of its graphics processing units, or GPUs, during the 2018 fiscal year. The company has agreed to pay a $5.5 million penalty and will be subject to a cease-and-desist order based on violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and disclosures required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. According to the SEC, Nvidia reported growth in revenue around its gaming business in 2018, but also had informatio...
Bitcoin celebrates halfway to the halving with new hash rate record
Bitcoin (BTC) marks a milestone mining journey on Thursday, crossing the halfway point on the way to its next halving. In Block number 735,000, mined at approximately 10:29 UTC, Bitcoin crossed the halfway point to the next halving. The block was mined by Poolin, earning 0.16215354 BTC ($6,402.45) in fees. Halvings occur every 210,00 blocks, and May 5 marks the cross-over point into the second leg of 105,000 blocks. For some Bitcoiners, such as Samson Mow, the Bitcoiner pioneering Bitcoin nation-state adoption, the halving is a reminder to stack more SATs: WE ARE HALFWAY TO THE NEXT HALVING AND YOU HAVEN’T STACKED ENOUGH #BITCOIN YET. — Samson Mow (@Excellion) May 5, 2022 The halving cycle is a unique device that envelops the Bitcoin issuance rate. As the Cointelegraph Cry...
Kazakhstan ramps up power consumption reporting requirements for crypto miners
The government of Kazakhstan has laid out new reporting requirements for cryptocurrency mining operators with a keen eye on how the industry’s energy usage affects the local power grid. The order published by the country’s Minister of Digital Development earlier this week compels digital mining businesses to provide comprehensive information 30 days before starting operations. The electricity consumption and “technical specifications” for connection to the power grid must be provided before commencing operations. The amount and type of mining equipment used, the customs cargo declarations for that equipment and any investments planned for the next 12 months must also be included. Kazakhstan was flooded with an influx of crypto miners after the Chinese government cracked down on the p...
Happy birthday Hal Finney: Crypto community honors world’s first known Bitcoiner
Finney was also the first person to publicly run Bitcoin (BTC), going down in the annals of crypto Twitter history with a famous tweet that often resurfaces: Raise a glass to the world’s first Bitcoiner today. Hal Finney, the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction from none other than Satoshi Nakamoto would have celebrated his birthday today. Running bitcoin — halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009 On Bitcointalk.org, Hal Finney explained that when Satoshi first released the software, he “grabbed it right away.” “I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test.” The wallet address for the 10 Bitcoin transaction tells a story: surging to 10 ...
Law Decoded: The difference between New York City and New York State, April 25-May 2
Last week, New York dominated crypto media headlines in very different ways. In New York State, the local Assembly voted in favor of the bill that would ban for two years any new mining operations that rely on proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanisms and use fossil fuel-generated energy. A temporary moratorium, which could be extended after the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation provides its assessments of the industry’s carbon footprint, marks the first major legislative attack on PoW mining on environmental grounds in the United States. The push mobilized the community — after digital asset advocacy groups rang the alarm on Twitter. Then, proponents of the ban had to endure three hours of a heated debate to narrowly pass the draft. There’s hope for an even tighter fig...
Bitcoin network difficulty breaks into a new all-time high of 29.794T
Reassuring its position as the most resilient blockchain network against attacks, the Bitcoin (BTC) network recorded a new all-time high network difficulty for the second time this month in April — jumping from its previous all-time high of 28.587 trillion to 29.794 trillion. Greater network difficulty demands greater computational power to successfully mine a BTC block, which prevents bad actors from taking over the network and manipulating transactions, also known as double-spending. As evidenced by data from blockchain.com, Bitcoin’s network difficulty has seen almost a year-long uptrend since August 1, 2021. Before that, between May and July 2021, was a timeline when BTC network difficulty fell nearly 45.5% from 25.046 trillion to 13.673 trillion — at the time raising momentary concern...
Sustainable energy usage for BTC mining grows nearly 60% in a year
Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies are further adopting green energy as the global Bitcoin mining industry increased its sustainable energy mix by approximately 59% year over year. The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) is group of 44 Bitcoin mining companies claiming to represent 50% of the global Bitcoin network, or 100.9 exahash (EH). It released a new report on Monday April 25 with the findings. The group is also fronted by Bitcoin proponent and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. The latest survey of BMC member companies questioned how much electricity their companies consumed, what percentage of that electricity is generated by hydro, wind, solar, nuclear or geothermal sources, and what the hash rate of their operations were. The BMC estimates the global mining industry’s sustainable electricity...
EU officials considered Bitcoin trading ban to enforce proposed mining ban
European Union (EU) officials discussed banning Bitcoin trading during a debate on a proposal to ban Proof of Work mining according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request. According to a report, published by German digital culture organization Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went as far as suggesting that an all out ban on trading Bitcoin (BTC) should be enforced in order to curb its overall energy consumption. The most worrying comments from the crypto community’s perspective came from a document that detailed the minutes from an EU meeting with Sweden’s financial supervisor and an environmental protection agency in which officials suggested that regulators pressure the Bitcoin community to switch to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, instead of its current...
EU officials considered Bitcoin trading ban to enforce proposed mining ban
European Union (EU) officials discussed banning Bitcoin trading during a debate on a proposal to ban Proof of Work mining according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request. According to a report, published by German digital culture organization Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went as far as suggesting that an all out ban on trading Bitcoin (BTC) should be enforced in order to curb its overall energy consumption. The most worrying comments from the crypto community’s perspective came from a document that detailed the minutes from an EU meeting with Sweden’s financial supervisor and an environmental protection agency in which officials suggested that regulators pressure the Bitcoin community to switch to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, instead of its current...
