Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Ripple Chris Larsen has unveiled his plan for Bitcoin miners to move away from Proof of Work (PoW), saying they should view it as “a net positive for their longevity.” He argues it could provide a major boost to the share prices of listed mining firms “as any new code proposal would almost certainly have to include lucrative incentives to gain their support.” PoW is the consensus algorithm that secures Bitcoin (BTC) transactions on the blockchain. While the Bitcoin network is the most secure and reliable, the amount of energy BTC mining requires causes endless …

There has been no shortage of people and institutions that woefully underestimated the potential of cryptocurrency. Among the ranks of once-were Bitcoin naysayers is Wired, which destroyed the private key to a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet holding 13.34623579 BTC back in 2013 in order to make the point the cryptocurrency was nothing more than an “abstraction”. The Bitcoin in the now inaccessible address is now worth $761,000. Author Robert McMillan (who now is a reporter with the Wall Street Journal) set up a Butterfy Labs Bitcoin mining rig in the corner of his office at Wired to see what all the …

In a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp, announced it would merge with Cincinnati-based Bitcoin (BTC) miner Griid at a $3.3 billion enterprise valuation. SPACs are blank check companies created for the sole purpose of acquiring other firms. After the deal consummates, Griid will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GRDI. The deal is expected to close by the first quarter of next year. According to its investor presentation, Griid expects to mine 637 BTC this year with a total …

According to YCharts data, the average transaction fee of Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped from $4.40 to $1.80 this year, a decrease of 57.97%. This rise may be attributed to a variety of factors. One explanation is that the fast expansion of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, in which transactions are off the blockchain, may have been a catalyst. For perspective, the Bitcoin network charges a fee for each transaction. This payment is then divided between miners. When the network is congested and demand for transaction processing far surpasses the supply of miners, users frequently pay more. On April 21, the average …

In a report aimed at assessing threats to Cloud users, Google’s Cybersecurity Action Team said that some attackers are exploiting “poorly configured” accounts to mine cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the Google team said out of 50 analyzed incidents that compromised the Google Cloud Protocol, 86% were related to crypto mining. The hackers used the compromised Cloud accounts to access resources from individuals’ CPUs or GPUs to mine tokens or take advantage of storage space when mining coins on the Chia Network. However, Google’s team reported that many of the attacks were not limited to a single malicious action like crypto mining, …

Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has expanded its $400 million Series B round from October to $750 million as a result of oversubscription in the firm’s capital raise. The company is now valued at $3.5 billion following the raise and CEO Alex Mashinsky told Cointelegraph he expects that figure to “double or triple” next year which would see it valued between $7B and $10.5B The firm previously closed the round on Oct. 12 amid a period of intense scrutiny placed on crypto lending firms from local regulators. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky emphasized at the time that “it’s not $400 million. …

As the state of Texas faces a rapid influx of Bitcoin mining operations, its electrical infrastructure will have to support the industry’s expected 5,000 megawatts (MW) of additional power demands by 2023. The Bitcoin mining industry in Texas currently consumes around 500 to 1,000 MW of power. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) anticipates that demand could increase as much as fivefold by 2023 and has planned an additional 3,000 to 5,000 MW according to reports. This expansion comes as the Lone star state plans to become the home to 20% of the world’s Bitcoin mining operations. Texas emerged …

It takes a lot of energy for miners to verify transactions and mint new blocks on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. According to Statistica, one Bitcoin transaction consumes as much electricity as over 1 million VISA transactions. Moreover, the cryptocurrency's environmental burden increases even more if the energy used for mining stems from fossil fuels. But SAITech, a Eurasia-based Bitcoin mining operator with headquarters in Singapore, seeks to recycle the waste energy from mining for use in residential, agricultural, and industrial applications. The company is also undergoing a $228 million special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, merger with TradeUP Global Corp …

Swedish financial watchdog’s call for a European Union-wide ban on proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining, mainly known as the method of minting new Bitcoin (BTC), has received backlash from crypto-related fund managers. Melanion Capital, a Paris-based alternative investment firm known for its Bitcoin ETF, addressed the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s call to ban PoW mining across Europe. “The claim that Bitcoin miners jeopardize the electricity network is completely misinformed,” noted Melanion, reminding that Bitcoin miners’ business model is prone to collapse when the electricity demand increases as it would also increase energy prices. The statement points …

New York-based crypto-mining service provider Foundry USA takes the lead to become the world’s second-largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool after taking up a 15.42% share of the network. Data from BTC.com shows that Digital Currency Group-owned Foundry USA stands behind the pool leader AntPool by a hash rate of just 4,000 PH/s, which contributed to a 17.76% network share at the time of writing. The rise in the participation of American entities can be attributed to China’s recent blanket ban on crypto trading and mining activities. The ban forced a large-scale migration of local Bitcoin miners, who now reside in …

During a meeting with representatives of the financial sector on Friday in Almaty, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan, expressed his opinion on the current state of affairs of the country's cryptocurrency industry. The details of the speech were posted on the official website of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and translated by Cointelegraph: Cryptocurrencies are an objective factor that cannot be simply ignored. It is necessary to clearly evaluate their potential to influence the current financial system. President Tokayev speaking at a conference | Source: Akorda.kz He then added: Therefore, work should be resumed on the formation of …

Those unfamiliar with blockchain may be quick to assume that its uses are focused on financial services. However, this is only a single application of how the technology can help accelerate traditional business practices. Among other examples are the safe storage and transfer of records in the medical industry, providing transparency to records in the food supply chain and accelerated processing in the insurance industry, to name a few. These uses are possible due to the blockchain being set up as a distributed ledger that is connected by many nodes. Since each node stores a copy of this ledger, the …