2021W27- WTF has happened in bitcoin this week?

Bitcoin is growing.

TLDR: Peer to peer with Lightning, Bitcoin doesn’t need internet, Companies adopting it for payments. Argentina passing a bill to receive it as salary, Hydroelectric facility becomes profitable

Hey there niblings, it’s uncle Bam again, with a summary of the most insightful events in the Bitcoin space. Back at it again digesting all the important news for you.

Let’s begin this with a little story. This is a real story, from uncle Bam and a dear friend, when dared to tell me..

”I stopped stacking bitcoin because of this instability. I want some signs that btc is fighting back and that it's not going to be regulated into a "good idea" that got stopped by big money.. I'm risk averse. So when I see something in my portfolio exposed to risk, I diversify more.” - Friend.

It hit me hard, first because he has been stacking for a while, and I realized that if that was his perception, many others could be feeling the same thing. Secondly, because I care about him, and would like for him to maximize his stack.

I write my full response but if you’d like to just skip this, and go to the news, then be my guest.

Bam’s response to a dear friend:

Dear friend,
I hear your concerns, and I would like you to see a different perspective. Bitcoin appreciation takes time, and volatility is expected. I wonder which part form being regulated you are mostly referring to? From my point of view, all I see is progress in the space.

1. El Salvador approved bitcoin as a legal tender
2. Paraguay proposing bitcoin bills
3. Argentina: Submitted a bill to allow people to receive salaries in bitcoin.
4. Mining is not centralized in China anymore.

The industry is growing at a fast paced.. and yeah wealthy people saw this too, identified the trend probably bought a lot in $10-20K range and pushed the price up. Then hype started, a bunch of people bought into something they didn’t understand, price went even higher, some wealthy people sold and trend changed. Some people who bought at high prices couldn’t embrace the volatility and sold at a loss creating a cascade effect..

A little summary from my perspective, and YES this will probably happen again in the future and there is only 2 things we can do to help..

1. Stack constantly (to keep the price stable/only appreciating
2. Share the word. (Educate ourselves and others)

Education -> Conviction

It is scary to share the word on something so volatile, where one has to have to be strong in order to stomach the volatility.. Which is why I understand your point of being risk averse. The important thing is to have some bitcoin as an insurance.

"Risk" is a weird thing.. because it is hard to evaluate.. we empirically experience it by price movement.. but it needs education to be able and see it in a different perspective..

We tend to assign an amount of risk to bitcoin, due to a perceived perception of acceptance based on Mainstream media, instead of looking at the blockchain which could clearly be compared to the growth of the internet in the 90s.

At the same time, we see it "safe"to have money in a local fiat currency, which by the way, they are backed by US.Dollars, which issuance is kind of infinite.

Which funny enough, they discontinued it after people starting to talk more and more about the massive money printing that has been happening.
(was this the reason? who knows, The FED don’t owe explanations to anybody, they have a complete monopoly on money issuance)

So, yeah at the end of the day, the volatility of bitcoin is the price to pay for having an asset that has outperform the S&P500 or any other index or asset class, in the last decade.

Anyway with all this, Im not saying that "you should only buy bitcoin", but it is both a good investment and an"altruistic"thing to do.

Sometimes we should also ask ourselves what WE can do for bitcoin? And today, it is the only viable option for billions of people without access to "better currencies", and by stacking sats, we help both to stabilize the price, and push it higher. So with all this I say to you, do not stop stacking, even if the amount is small, it helps every individual in the network to find freedom.

That is my moral case for bitcoin :)

with love, Uncle Bam

And this is how the week started.

1. The Lightning Network showing off how easily it is to send money from anywhere to anywhere else in the world, by simply using a QR code. Bart_Mol decided to start his philanthropic case study by donating to Mario, an Ice cream sales man. Mario must have had a pretty blessed day by receiving donations from bitcoiners from all over the world.

2. Sending bitcoin without internet, broadcasting the transaction from space, is not only possible but affordable. @NotGrubles shares his setup with a Raspberry Pi and a $20 USB SDR, and a DIY tutorial.

3. World famous hotel chain, Pavilions Hotels & Resorts, started to accept bitcoin as payment this week.

“It’s exciting times to be able to see more and more people adopting cryptocurrency for business. You’re going to see more and more in the travel sphere adopting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.” - Managing Director Scot Toon

4. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is experimenting with bitcoin integrations in their rewards program. The hotel chain is opening an addressable market of 50,000 hotels and 87 million enrolled members.

5. Monobank, an Ukrainian mobile-only bank, announced to integrate bitcoin exchange services later this month to allow its customers to buy and sell BTC from its mobile banking app.

6. Allied Payment Network, announced a partnership with NYDIG, to become the first bill pay provider to embed bitcoin services in its platform and offer it to financial institutions. The company will allow its customers pay internet, rent, loan payments, all funded in bitcoin. Additionally they it will make an allocation to bitcoin for its corporate treasury, facilitated by its new partner.

7. Sotheby’s auctioned a diamond of its luxury series, allowing its customers to pay with bitcoin. The bidding started at $15 million, making it the most valuable object offered in bitcoin up to today.

8. José Luis Ramón, member of Argentina's National Congress, submitted a bill to allow workers to receive salaries in bitcoin.

9. N26, a German digital bank, will provide in-app features to its 7 million customers to buy and sell bitcoin.

10. Mechanicville Hydroelectric, the oldest renewable energy facility in the world that’s still running, is now profitable due to Bitcoin Mining with part of its energy. The plant was nearly dismantled due to problems of maintaining profitability.

11. Gryphon Mining, through a deal with Bitmain, buys 7,200 bitcoin mining rigs for $48 million. This could position the company among the 15 largest bitcoin miners worldwide.

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As a summary note..

I already flooded you with many words. I’ll leave you with a bullish chart to put a perspective on the potential of bitcoin growing as a pristine asset and global digital money.

Source: Perspective shared by Brisket

If bitcoin represented only 1% of the global wealth, it would be sitting now at $190,000.
But remember! This chart changes constantly given the massive money printing our inflationary monetary system constantly is subjected to.

Have a great weekend niblings.
Stay humble & stack sats.

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