WTFBitcoin Week 20-21, 2023
Bitcoin is absolutely scarce.
TLDR: Tether starts to massively DCA, Strike becomes available in 65 countries, More than 1M wholecoin addresses, Mexican bitcoin circular economy in the early innings & more!
Hey there niblings! I'm back after a two-week break, and nibs, do I have some news for you! The past couple of weeks have been buzzing with announcements, and you won't believe it, I guess many companies decided to hold off and drop their big reveals at the Bitcoin Conference 2023. Talk about building up the suspense, right?
But before we jump into the exciting stuff, I've been doing some serious pondering on the scarcity of bitcoin and what it means to be a wholecoiner. Personally, I believe its not well understood and potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Over the years, we have observed a significant rise in its value due to increasing demand. However, it's important to note that the quantity of bitcoin remains constant. This fixed supply contributes to the inherent absolute scarcity of bitcoin, making it truly limited in availability.
Bitcoin introduced the concept of absolute scarcity, which was a significant breakthrough. Prior to bitcoin, when something was in short supply and gained value as a result, people typically found ways to exploit its scarcity. They would invest additional resources, increase production, or uncover additional reserves of that limited asset. However, with bitcoin, the game changed. Its unique design ensures an unalterable scarcity, creating a new paradigm where the traditional methods of capital deployment or resource discovery no longer apply.
Now with Bitcoin, it’s different, being a whole coiner means owning 1 out of 21 million, as it becomes more valuable, it welcomes miners to add hash rate into the system, but only to divide the scheduled issuance by the entire effort put into the system. As of today there are 6.25 newly mined bitcoins being produced every 10 minutes. In a year from now, the number will be 3.125. In five years 1.0625.
I know it certainly ain’t easy, but it’s important to acknowledge this year might be our final opportunity to seize the chance and and earn the distinguished title of being a Wholecoiner. Trust me, it will only get harder.
As of 21st of May, there are 1,001,742 addresses holding at least 1 bitcoin.
The quantity of wholecoiners appears to be increasing, but let's face the reality: with a finite supply of only 21 million, there will inevitably be a limit. As we examine the current period leading up to the halving, the network effect and educational efforts surrounding bitcoin have exerted a powerful influence, with a strong accumulation behaviour happening throughout the year.
Notably, also the accumulation of bitcoin held for over a year has been steadily rising throughout 2023, a trend that diverges from the situation observed in 2019. In other words, it seems that indeed some people are starting to understand the effects of scarcity.
Another big difference is the balance on exchanges. For the first epoch, it happens to be decreasing.
Bitcoin price is volatile, and it is definitely not being accurately represented by the market, as people struggle to understand the value of an absolute scarce, non censorable and difficult to confiscate new kind of money. But here is precisely where the opportunity lies for all of us who embraced Bitcoin as “early adopters”.
But well, let’s now go on and enjoy more of these bitcoin bullish news 🗞️🗞️!
THE NEWS
1. After Tether released their financial reporting a reserve of $1.5 billion in bitcoin, they announced that starting this month, they’ll allocate up to 15% of the company’s realized operating profits towards purchasing Bitcoin.
2. Strike announced the expansion of Strike, its lightning app, to more than 3 billion people across 65 countries. As a fun fact, it is easier to roll out a financial app in 65 countries than New York or Europe, makes you think.
3. Brink and Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) have partnered to raise $1,000,000 for Bitcoin developers. Marathon has matched donations up to $500,000. Join and give back to the developer community!
4. Lightning Labs released the latest version of the newly named Taproot Assets (formerly Taro). “With this release, developers have the core set of features to bitcoinize the dollar in a chain-efficient manner!” - Lightning Labs
5. Azteco announced a $6 million fundraising round led by Jack Dorsey, with participation from Lightning Ventures and others.
6. Lightspark released their Wallet SDK, making it easy to build a delightful payments experience into products.
7. Boltz launched Liquid Swaps, a tool for rebalancing Lightning nodes using atomic swapping of Liquid for Lightning Liquidity. Users have found utility it to top up their Wallet Of Satoshi for Nostr Zaps.
8. Magic Webstore was released, a simple bitcoin webstore with whisper addresses for enhanced privacy. Using Nostr, it allows a decentralized bitcoin native alternative to Shopify, Etsy, etc.
9. People are now running smart contracts on Bitcoin. (Is this bullish though? Even though it’s not my preference, it brings attention from other communities, and with the hurdles comes innovation.)
GAME THEORY
10. Coordination Indonesian People for Anti-Corruption (MAKI) proposes bitcoin to be accepted as Indonesian legal tender.
11. Turkmenistan reveals mind-boggling methane emissions equivalent to 366m tonnes. To put into perspective, Cambridge estimates global mining at 75m tonnes.
In other words, Turkmenistan is wasting & releasing methane that could power up 5 entire bitcoin networks. We are so early..
12. Home miners are also becoming creative to repurpose energy from mining. HodlRev shares how he uses an S9 to heat a cold frame late winter to early spring to give his cannabis and vegetable seedings a head start on the season.
13. A Mexican Bitcoin circular economy is spawning up in Yucatán Mexico. Help support Mexico's 1st circular economy project called: Dinero Mágico Sisal.
14. From unthinkable to reality, 3 out of 5 leading presidential candidates in the USA have voiced their support for Bitcoin.
FUNDAMENTALS
Bitcoin UTXOs have experienced the largest wave of growth since the 2015 Flood Attacks following the Inscription mania, with a peak weekly increase of +540k UTXOs.
THOUGHTS BEFORE CLOSING
One of the big news that excites me the most, was the Tether announcement of a heavy DCA. Currently, it appears that there are two possible scenarios: either interest rates increase, resulting in Tether generating more profit and purchasing additional bitcoin, thereby driving up its price; or interest rates decrease, making money more readily available to the market and consequently leading to the appreciation of bitcoin.
It seems that there is no alternative outcome at this juncture. Regardless of the specific situation, it is evident that bitcoin is gaining popularity as a safe haven within the realm of investors.
Have a great weekend niblings.
Stay humble & stack sats.
You can share some love with Uncle Bam for cup of coffee ☕ or a nice ribeye 🥩 <3
Lightning Address:
rustybeam47@walletofsatoshi.com
Lightning URL: LNURL1DP68GURN8GHJ7AMPD3KX2AR0VEEKZAR0WD5XJTNRDAKJ7TNHV4KXCTTTDEHHWM30D3H82UNVWQHHYATNW3UKYETPD56RWT9G2XF