Project Spokane, a Montana-based mining firm that has been sued by tribal-owned electricity company Energy Keepers Inc. for $3.7 million in unpaid power bills, claims the debt is not its responsibility. On Dec. 14, Project Spokane requested that a Montana federal judge nix the lawsuit, asserting that Hyperblock LLC — a company that purchased most of the mining firm’s assets in 2018 — is liable for the debt. However, Hyperblock declared bankruptcy in March following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Project Spokane and Hyperblock share an owner. The suit, which was filed by Energy Keepers, or EKI, in May, …

Bitcoin (BTC) miners appear to be selling large amounts of BTC once again. Data from CryptoQuant shows that the BTC Miners’ Position Index — a metric tracking the ratio of BTC leaving miners’ wallets — achieved a three-year high. This trend indicates that miners are likely selling BTC on over-the-counter or spot exchanges. On Dec. 10, two large miner-linked Bitcoin transactions were spotted right as the Miner’s Position Index abruptly spiked to levels unseen since 2017, according to data from CryptoQuant. First, around 800 BTC, worth $14.5 million, moved to Binance. Second, 11,852 BTC, equivalent to $215.9 million, moved to …

On Tuesday, payments giant Square announced a major push to go carbon neutral by 2030. As part of the initiative, Square will be dedicating $10 million to its Bitcoin Clean Energy Investment Initiative, which aims to “support companies that help drive adoption and efficiency of renewables within the Bitcoin ecosystem.” Square is the firm behind CashApp — a major force in bringing crypto to regular users. In today’s announcement, Square identified Bitcoin as “a unique part of Square’s footprint.” Jack Dorsey, CEO of both Square and Twitter, said: “We believe that cryptocurrency will eventually be powered completely by clean power, …

The assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province in northwestern Pakistan, has become the first legislative assembly to call for changes in the country’s stance toward cryptocurrencies. As previously reported, Pakistan has, to date, been relatively slow to introduce new frameworks for digital assets and cryptocurrencies. This week’s resolution to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was reportedly introduced on Dec. 2 by Sumera Shams, a member of the provincial assembly and the centrist political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI. Fellow PTI member Zia Ullah Bangash, who is also Advisor to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Science and Technology and Information …

Slush Pool, the world’s oldest mining pool, put a Reuters headline about Bitcoin’s 2020 bull run in a block on Dec. 2. “Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; Bitcoin hits all-time peak” is now part of Bitcoin block number 659678. Announcing the news on Twitter, Slush Pool said that the pool’s miners wanted to “immortalize” the bullish Bitcoin (BTC) headline from mainstream media, making it live forever on the Bitcoin blockchain. Our miners asked us to immortalize it. Block 659678: Reuters 01/Dec/2020 Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; bitcoin hits all-time peakhttps://t.co/pmzK3HXhpw pic.twitter.com/LKpvlj9TC4 — Slush Pool | Braiins (OS+) (@slush_pool) …

Bitmain, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) miner producers, has reportedly halted its funding for some primary developers maintaining Bitcoin-related software. Jonas Schnelli, a major Bitcoin Core contributor and maintainer, claimed that Bitmain halted its support after funding his efforts for more than three years. In a Dec. 1 tweet, Schnelli said that he lost his sponsorship from Bitmain alongside Joao Barbosa, another Bitcoin Core contributor also known under the “Promag” nickname on GitHub. “Thanks Bitmain for all the help (despite the disagreement we had),” Schnelli tweeted, asking the crypto community to contribute to his further efforts on Bitcoin …

Local sources report that authorities from the city of Baoshan in the Chinese province of Yunnan are escalating efforts to crack down on Bitcoin miners, ordering electricity producers to cease supplying power to the city’s miners. On Nov. 30, Chinese crypto reporter Colin Wu tweeted that several miners had informed him of the ban, sharing what appear to be scanned copies of official documents issued to power producers: Several miners told Wu that Baoshan, Yunnan, where China’s crypto mines are located, received a ban on November 30, requiring the power station to stop supplying power to the miners. Yunnan is …

The regime of Nicolás Maduro continues to lean on crypto to keep economically solvent. Via Instagram, an engineering brigade of the Venezuelan army inaugurated the new "Digital Assets Production Center of the Bolivarian Army of Venezuela." As the video shows, the center houses various ASIC mining equipment used to crack proof-of-work algorithms. General Lenin Herrera presented the new mining operation. The stated goal of the mining operation is "strengthening and self-sustainability of our units of the Bolivarian Army," adding later that these mining centers would be generating "unblockable sources of income" and an alternative to the "trust system blocked and …

The stock of one of China’s "Big Three" mining firms is in free fall Monday after reporting another quarterly loss, underscoring the operating challenges imposed by COVID-19. Canaan Creative, which manufactures mining rigs, released its third-quarter financial results Monday. The company posted a net loss of $12.7 million, or 54 cents per share, on revenues of $24 million. Although quarterly revenues grew 5%, the company’s net losses more than quadrupled. Quanfu Hong, Canaan’s chief financial officer, poured cold water on the negative earnings release by claiming that demand for mining equipment rebounded during the quarter — a trend expected to …

Per a Monday announcement, the United States Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York have extradited from Panama a leader of alleged Ponzi scheme AirBit Club. Gutemberg Dos Santos is one of six operators of AirBit Club indicted, and the last to come into the U.S. to face trial before the SDNY. Dos Santos is a dual citizen of Brazil and the United States. Authorities initially apprehended five of the six back in August, with a sixth avoiding authorities until October. The DoJ alleges that AirBit Club sold "memberships" that promised guaranteed returns. The six operators marketed …

The price of Bitcoin has reached a two-year high of more than $19,000 and fallen below $17,000 more than once in the span of a week as mining difficulty continues to rise. According to on-chain analytics provider Glassnode, Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty increased by 8.9% today, putting the metric within 5% of its all-time high value set last month. #Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 8.9% today. It is now only 4.4% below its ATH. Chart: https://t.co/qtmuDmTfGS pic.twitter.com/1eX63yBAgc — glassnode (@glassnode) November 29, 2020 A rise in mining difficulty marked the start of bull cycles in 2013 and 2016, though it …

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is planning to execute the Thanos hard fork, an upgrade that would ensure several more years of mining functionality for graphics cards with 4 gigabytes of RAM. The upgrade, scheduled for block 11,700,000 — set to be mined between Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 — will roll back the epoch parameter for Ethereum Classic’s mining algorithm, Ethash. Ethash features a set of precomputed data used during the mining process, called DAG. The data set grows at a rate of about one gigabyte every 18 months, and is currently very close to reaching 4 GB. This poses a …