WTFBitcoin Week 22, 2023
Bitcoin is not a Ponzi.
TLDR: Tether to launch mining in Uruguay, Google Cloud partners with Voltage and pinns Bitcoin tweet. Santa Monica Fire Fighters Union hold bitcoin, Circular Economy goes up!
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.
It could be that I’ve been getting used to having so many amazing news to share that it felt this week was quite a slow one. But looking through the content for this week, I must say it was quite a good one.
I started this newsletter as I slowly increased my exposure to Bitcoin and wanted to be sure I understood it, and kept track of its growth. Two years later, I must say it would be hard to convince me of a potential negative outcome for bitcoin. Not to say it couldn’t happen, but the trend is our friend, and the outlook in terms of adoption and regulation is better week by week.
Sometimes one still finds people who are against it or think it’s a Ponzi, but rarely anyone who hasn’t heard of it, which is good or a sign of mainstream adoption.
So is bitcoin a Ponzi? (In case a friend might ask..)
Well why don’t we show them one single graph and answer back with a question:
“Where would you like to store your hard work, in something that someone else has the power to create endless of units and could remove your rights from one day to another? Or in something that isn’t centrally controlled, can’t be created out of thin air, and no one could take from you without your consent?
I know my answer to this one.. But now, lets go to the good news on bitcoin 🗞️🗞️!
(As a little message.. If you enjoy this in your inbox on a weekly basis, please help spreading the word! A share or retweet helps much more than you’d think <3 - Bam)
THE NEWS
1. Tether to launch a Bitcoin mining operation in Uruguay, a country with 94% renewable electricity generation. The company is hiring talents to work in their local plant in Uruguay!
2. Tether reaches a new all time high in market cap and surpasses $83.2 Billion of issued USDT. We already know what is happening with the reserves right?
Tether buys Short term treasuries
Portion of the excess yield generated, goes into Bitcoin.
Repeat!
2. Voltage and Google Cloud are collaborating to offer global Lightning Network solutions, to expand its hosting, locations and enabling real-time payments with near-zero fees for enterprises.
Also, Google Cloud happened to not only tweet this news, but to pinnned it in their account. It must be nothing, right?
3. The Bitcoin Office of El Salvador announced Saifedean as their new Economic Advisor. According to Saifedean, no taxes from the people were stolen to achieve this, in other words, he is doing it voluntarily.
4. Scaling Lightning debuted on the scene this week, a new initiative bringing industry experts together to help prepare for the Lightning economy of tomorrow.
5. Santa Monica Fire Fighters become the first union to purchase and hold bitcoin, without a using a third party for custody.
ADOPTION
6. A Bitcoin Circular Economy continues to grow in Rolante Brasil. As of today, there is more than 110 establishments who opened their doors and accept bitcoin as payment.
7. Machankura is now available in 8 African countries, allowing 1.5 billion people without internet access to send and receive bitcoin through lightning, by only using a phone number.
8. Arnold shared his mind saying “It is not just an experiment anymore, they’ve been accepting it for some years now!” after having attempted to top up his SIM card with sats (sats goes for 100 millionth of a bitcoin, in case you haven’t heard).
He also shared how it’s possible to buy ceviche and beers at Honolulu El Salvador, with bitcoin.
9. Forbes publishes a great piece on how Africans are exploring using Bitcoin mining to bring cheap & reliable electricity to rural communities.
10. While on a live Lightning Presentation in Cuba, Joe Nakamoto, the presenter asked twitter to pay an invoice of $1 USD of bitcoin to showcase how fast an permissionless the protocol is. Seconds later, M__BTC had the kindness to send sats from the Neatherlands.
FUNDAMENTALS
Is bitcoin ready to rip?
It is hard to not get excited when you have a bias towards something, and you only keep seeing the good news and never ending ongoing development. Here I’ll now show you how healthy the ecosystem looks in a couple of metrics that I truly appreciate, as they signal adoption and determination.
The first one is 1+ Year HODL. This has today reach a new high of 68.51% of the bitcoin supply not having moved over a year. In other words The education, belief and determination of current hodlers are seeing bitcoin as a store of value with great potential of appreciation. Seems people are finding safety in sats.
The second one is the Hashrate. This metric is a reflection of the energy which is input into the system. The hashrate has more than double from the last time bitcoin reached its highest price in history. It demonstrates how the ecosystem is maturing, and the market signaling for a great place to invest in both infrastructure and energy usage. (Just up there we see how countries are becoming innovative with Africa’s example!)
Additionally, more than 1. 77 million Bitcoin addresses a balance were created in May 2023. Either new entrants or older ones creating new addresses, the fact that people are not letting go of their bitcoin, while more & more seem to be accumulating, its only bullish.
Hard to say there isn’t a new bull market just brewing. We all might be surprise by bitcoin’s price action in the near future. Historically, the next 3 years after a depreciating one, have normally been good ones.
Have a great weekend niblings.
Stay humble & stack sats.
Share some love with Uncle Bam for cup of coffee ☕ or a nice ribeye 🥩 <3
Lightning Address: rustybeam47@walletofsatoshi.com
Lightning URL: LNURL1DP68GURN8GHJ7AMPD3KX2AR0VEEKZAR0WD5XJTNRDAKJ7TNHV4KXCTTTDEHHWM30D3H82UNVWQHHYATNW3UKYETPD56RWT9G2XF