Malcolm Pallé

bitcoin mining in Paraguay: a brilliant opportunity to sell the surplus produced by the country through the generation of green and renewable energy from its hydroelectric plants.

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👉 Galaxy's recent announcement prompted me to take a closer look at the Bitcoin mining landscape. 𝗜𝗖𝗬𝗠𝗜: In their Q3 earnings report, Galaxy disclosed plans to convert its entire 800-megawatt mining capacity into hosting high-performance computers, potentially for AI training. Galaxy isn't alone in 'pivoting' from Bitcoin mining to AI—many mining firms have followed a similar path over the past two years. But why? After diving into a few reports, including CoinShares' latest Bitcoin mining report, here are some of the explanations I found: 1️⃣ 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 The average cash cost to mine one Bitcoin among listed miners rose to approximately $49,500 in Q2 2024. Including depreciation and stock-based compensation, this figure climbs to $96,100. This increase is largely due to higher mining difficulty and operational expenses. 2️⃣ 𝗟𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 Since the collapse of FTX and related crises, miners have struggled to access credit or are offered unfavorable terms. Combined with rising interest rates, many have turned to alternative funding options, such as issuing shares—often at the cost of significant shareholder dilution. 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 Hash prices, a key measure of miner profitability, hit new lows this year. This decline was driven primarily by • the steady growth of the network's hashrate (i.e. the total computational power securing the network)  • and the Bitcoin halving in April, which cut Bitcoin’s issuance rate, and consequently miner profitability, by 50%. 𝗦𝗼… All these factors have driven miners to repurpose their operational, ready-to-go power capacity as a means of diversifying their revenue streams. AI companies are a natural fit, as they can quickly leverage this existing infrastructure instead of building their own data centers from scratch. It's a win-win for both sides. That's why Galaxy certainly won’t be the last company to make such an announcement. P.S. I highly recommend taking a look at the CoinShares report yourself. You can find the link here.👇 https://lnkd.in/dKysQDy7 #blockchain #crypto #web3 #bitcoin

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A big thank you to Jonny Fry for the invite & encouragement If you’re interested in emerging technologies within finance please follow this man, he’s the big cahuna with a career to back up the title! #cryptofunds #blockchain #capitalraise

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There are now 29 Bitcoin mining companies who use emission negative sources by destroying previously atmosphere-bound methane). The list below shows who they are. Collectively, they mitigate 7.12% of all Bitcoin network emissions, a number that is growing year by year. No other industry has such a high proportion of carbon negative power users. ZE = Zero emissions EH = Exohash (a measure of computational power) Raw Data Source: https://lnkd.in/gqE9SieJ Data Gathering Methodology: https://batcoinz.com/BEEST

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🚨 Tokenisation, stablecoins, staking - what's next for the UK?🚨 Two speeches of note today at the City & Financial Global Tokenisation Summit. 1️⃣ Sasha Mills, Executive Director for Financial Market Infrastructure at the Bank of England, talked about innovation in wholesale financial markets. 2️⃣ Tulip Siddiq, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, talked about the government's plans for crypto, stablecoins and staking. 🤔 What did they say? 1️⃣ Sasha Mills, on innovation in wholesale financial markets: Digitisation has been the combustion engine of financial markets, transforming paper-based systems to computer-based activity, on to the digital systems of today. Tokenisation can further revolutionise financial markets. Not a novel concept – but the real innovation is the type of infrastructure on which that token sits, and what that enables. ✅ Distributed ledgers can reduce the need for a single central party to perform record-keeping on the ledger. ✅ No single point of failure in how critical data is stored. ✅ Cryptographic techniques to secure data can reduce risk by improving the security and integrity of financial transactions ✅ Programmability has facilitated the consolidation and collapsing of the trade and post-trade functions, resulting in reduced settlement risk, and unprecedented efficiency gains in the trade lifecycle. 🤔 What is the Bank of England’s role in this reinvention? ✅ Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS): ➡ allows industry to experiment with developing technologies to issue, trade and settle digitally native securities, and ‘digital twin’ tokenised securities in a safe and secure environment for a range of regulated asset classes. ✅ Innovations in Money: ➡ Money needs to keep up with tokenised assets. BoE considering ways to enhance usefulness of central-bank money as a settlement asset for digital asset transactions. Also considering what additional functionality a wholesale central bank digital currency could bring. ✅ Post-trade settlement: ➡ Traditional processes are sequential and often manual, time-consuming, costly, and operationally risky for all users of financial markets. The tokenisation of securities on distributed ledgers – digital securities – offers the potential to merge trade and post-trade functions, shortening settlement cycles and offering more programmability and automation in financial transactions. 2️⃣ Tulip Siddiq, on plans for crypto, stablecoins and staking: ✅ Government to introduce regulatory regime for cryptoassets. ✅ Stablecoins to be regulated at same time as cryptoassets. ✅ Issuance and custody will be regulated. ❌ No longer a phased approach. ❌ Stablecoins not to be in scope of payment services regulation. ❌ Staking is not a Collective Investment Scheme. ............. 🤔 What's next? ⏩ Expect to see the framework early next year. I'd love to hear your thoughts 👉 #HMT #BoE #innovation #tokenisation #stablecoins #staking

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BRICS Makes Huge Announcement About Launching New Currency! BRICS is working on the formation of a new currency in the global markets to challenge the US dollar’s supremacy. The alliance aims to uproot the US dollar from the world’s reserve and replace it with the new BRICS currency. The battle to dominate the financial sector kick-started after the White House pressed sanctions on Russia and other developing countries. Nations around the world fear their economies will be affected by sanctions and now want to end dependency on the US dollar. A handful of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are considering cutting ties with the US dollar. Read here to know how many sectors in the US will be affected if BRICS ditches the dollar for trade. South African Ambassador to China Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele confirmed in an interview that the BRICS currency is progressing. “The BRICS are advancing the progress of its common currency,” he said to Global Times. He added that the alliance is “actively promoting the use of local currencies from member states to reduce the risks of solely relying on the US dollar”. Therefore, even before the launch of the new BRICS currency, the bloc is promoting local currencies of its members to halt the prospects of the US dollar. The Ambassador revealed that a task force of member states formed by the financial ministers will meet in May to discuss the currency. Cwele stressed that local currencies will be traded heavily among member nations until the BRICS currency is launched. More details about the soon-to-be-released BRICS currency could be revealed in the upcoming summit. The 16th BRICS summit is scheduled to take place in October 2024 in the Kazan region of Russia. For the first time, nine member countries will be a part of the summit due to the expansion. #brics #currency #dollar https://lnkd.in/d3tR85Fn

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The World Economic Forum in 2017 infamously declared “In 2020 Bitcoin will consume more power than the world does today” Since then they have written more carefully researched articles on Bitcoin mining. What is less known is that since then, on all three occasions, they have highlighted its environmental benefits. 1. Why Bitcoin mining could become an essential part of the renewable transition Date: 2018 Source: https://lnkd.in/guaS396m 2. How Crusoe's Bitcoin mining operation is helping the UN in its efforts to reduce methane emissions Date: 2023 Source: https://lnkd.in/gdfz4SKV 3. How a Bitcoin mining venture quite probably saved an African National Park that protects endangered species from closure Date: 2024 Source: https://lnkd.in/g8AfJFZW

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💎TeraWulf, a public #BitcoinMining company with direct access to #NuclearEnergy, has been catching serious attention in 2024. As of Oct 7, their shares were up 70%YTD 📈 , and with 62.49% of ownership in the hands of institutions 🏦 . In my latest report, I tried to decode factors contributing to TeraWulf's investor interest—from updates on their Nautilus site and their big plans for #HPC to their “association” with Amazon. Full report: https://lnkd.in/gxwKh72W #BitcoinMiner #AI

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BlackRock's really diving into #crypto! They've gone from sceptic to nearly topping the charts with a $16.7bn #BitcoinETF & they have launched the fastest-growing tokenised Treasury fund! 🤯 #onchain #web3 #NFT #Bitcoin #stablecoin #tokenization #DeFi https://on.ft.com/4alJ8er

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Check out my blog post https://wix.to/5dGhiop 💰 Want to stay ahead in the investing game? Discover the power of real-world asset tokenisation and revolutionise your investment strategy today! Click https://wix.to/UldvBCg to learn more. 💡 #InvestSmart #Tokenization #WealthManagement #RWA

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👉 #Bitcoin and ATHs “”The best traders I have known in my half century (50 years) of trading futures market are sincerely interested in what the people on the other side of their bets think, whether technically or from a global macro viewpoint. With that in mind, it is extremely interesting to note that Bitcoin $BTC price (adjusted for inflation) has not made a new high in three years despite halving and Bitcoin ETFs. Question for Bitcoin bears, in your opinion why has the market not trended into new ATHs?”” https://lnkd.in/dSPUZiUz “”My take: - World still (wrongly) expects deflation & return to normalcy - Market still digesting FTX/Greyscale collapse - Crypto boys are bleeding, possibly selling BTC - Psychological disbelief around 1 BTC surpassing $100k and 1 kg of gold => normal for early bitcoin bull 🐂🚀”” https://lnkd.in/dHCX2yfq ~~~ #finance #web3 #FED #investors #interestrates #crypto #inflation #startups #stocks #wallstreet #IPOs #QT #VCs #Ethereum #ETF

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It may surprise many to learn that since 2018, there have been 3 separate reports from The World Economic Forum covering the environmental benefits of Bitcoin mining 1. Why Bitcoin mining could become an essential part of the renewable transition Date: 2018 Source: https://lnkd.in/guaS396m 2. How Crusoe's Bitcoin mining operation is helping the UN in its efforts to reduce methane emissions Date: 2023 Source: https://lnkd.in/gdfz4SKV 3. How a Bitcoin mining venture quite probably saved an African National Park that protects endangered species from closure Date: 2024 Source: https://lnkd.in/g8AfJFZW

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The latest IMF report on Bitcoin mining by Shafik Hebous and Nate Vernon-Lin contains several basic errors and as such, the report comes under the category of misinformation. https://lnkd.in/d5wvTjfD Mistakes include 1. IMF's own source data show that AI's share of energy consumption and CO2 emissions is increasing, which cryptocurrency's share is decreasing. However, they go on to propose a tax on crypto but not AI. (see chart below) 2. Citing CCAF's statistics on Bitcoin emissions, even though CCAF's own website acknowledges that their data has not been updated since Jan 2022 and is currently significantly overstating emissions. 3. Building their conclusion on the work of authors such as Mora et al and Alex de Vries, who's work has been discredited in peer reviewed research multiple times. (Cambridge Judge Business School, Sai and Vranken) 4. Ignoring the scientific consensus (9 of the last 10 papers published), World Economic Forum reporting (3 case studies highlighting positive environmental externalities), 5 independent whitepapers, and first hand experience of grid operators such as Brad Jones (who ran both ERCOT and NYISO) who confirm Bitcoin mining has a net decarbonizing impact on grids, helps the renewable transition and makes their operations more profitable. 5. Ignoring independent analysis from the Digital Assets Research Institute which showed Bitcoin is now the world's most sustainable energy driven industry, with 56.5% sustainable energy, rising 3.5% per annum. By contrast the banking and financial services sector, of which the IMF is part, uses ~38% sustainable energy, rising 0.5% per annum. 6. Failure to mention that Bitcoin projects such as Gridless in Africa have already supported multiple strategic objectives, which IMF claim on their website are strategic goals of theirs, such as supporting renewable microgrid development, energy independence and energy abundance in developing nations. (Notably: Bitcoin projects have achieved this without imposing a debt-burden on those benefitted). 7. Disclosure statement lacking: The IMF is developing its own CBDC. CBDCs represent a directly competing vision of the future of digital currency to Bitcoin. While this does not mean that the errors by the authors were made knowingly, it is a conflict of interest, and as such should be declared in your report. Due to these fundamental flaws, this report and its conclusions should be disregarded by policymakers and regulators until these errors are resolved. To the authors Shafik Hebous and Nate Vernon-Lin, I would encourage you in future to refer first to the newly formed Bitcoin Research Institute, who was set up to help eliminate basic errors in Bitcoin commentaries and improve the robustness of research done into Bitcoin.

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Is Saudi quietly preparing to join the #BRICS Gold-backed currency? Reporting by Jan Nieuwenhuijs suggests the Saudi Central Bank – SAMA has covertly bought 160 tonnes of gold (~$10bn) via Switzerland since early 2022. GOLD Vs OIL? Does this gold (and the stocks of other nations) actually matter when aramco market cap is $1.8 trillion? Even China's 'official' gold stocks of 2264 tonnes are worth a modest $188 billion - 1/10th of Saudi's oil. Could BRICs use a mix of highly liquid commodity collateral to back the BRICs currency? It would be much easier to find the necessary reserves. KSA's 259 billion barrels of oil - regardless of push to renewables - still has has 10x the value of China's gold and probably 100x its own Gold stocks. By 'convincing' Saudi Arabia to sell Oil exclusively for USDollars, US President Nixon effectively replaced the Gold backing of USD with 'Black Gold'. This global, energy-backed demand for dollars + military superiority ensured its reserve currency status and its ability to fund huge deficits and spending through money printing without destabilising hyperinflation. The rise of gold-backed currencies offers a way for other nations to break the debasement spiral of holding debt-backed fiat dollars and directly supporting Pax Americana. Although trading currency initiatives are probably more material to USD confidence MKT ANALYSIS The analyst notes the following... 1: Gold purchases reported to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows a large deficit to the numbers of the World Gold Council. This in part thanks to #SaudiArabia gold imports but more due to #China (PBoC). In theory Central Bank buying of Gold is referenced as 'Monetary Gold' and private purchases as 'non-monetary'. The author notes that private channel is being used for state purchases. 2: The gold is bought in Switzerland via #banks. They have to deal with customs so it shows up as cross-border trade. As such, KSA Gold imports match the Swiss 'exports' amounts. The last time the Saudi central bank updated its official gold reserves was in February 2008, when it conveyed to hold 332 tonnes (~$27bn). Since then there has been no change. Zimbabwe's failure of its new gold-backed digital tokens ('GBDT') also 'ZiG' - after decades of volatility/hyperinflation - shows that the shiny metal collateral was not enough to break the cycle of mistrust. Will the disparate nations of BRICs have more credibility with currency markets/investors. "Both central banks, the former of the most influential country in the oil market and the latter of the second largest economy globally, must be confident in what direction the gold market is headed." https://lnkd.in/d5mdiVnJ DETAIL https://lnkd.in/dGrHmqTW ZIG https://lnkd.in/dPafxxuA

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JUST IN: International Business Times says Bitcoin mining can help achieve “net zero by 2050," This is big. This is mainstream media channel, based in NY. It’s a well researched article on bitcoin mining, aware of contemporary research including ✅Cornell study showing bitcoin can create “a self-sustaining cycle for renewable energy expansion” ✅Digital Assets Research Institute study showing bitcoin mining uses 54.5% sustainable sources ✅Various studies showing Bitcoin mining can turn [wasted] “Excess Energy Into Economic Value” Well done IBTimes for putting in the research hours

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💡 What happened in Web3 in May 2024? See the summary of a few topics in the article below: ▶ Crypto Policy: Changing Tides ▶ Approval of the Ether spot ETFs ▶ Bitcoin ETF Update ▶ Bitcoin’s Corporate Adoption? ▶ Blockwall Portfolio Update ▶ Key events of the last few weeks ▶ What we’ve been reading https://lnkd.in/dceZbbB8 👇 If you want to learn more about Web3 and ventures in the space, make sure you subscribe to our substack channel.

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