As cryptocurrencies continue to attract the attention of regulators and investors, some analysts have suggested that Bitcoin could become legal tender in many countries very soon. This proposal argues that Bitcoin is similar to traditional currencies such as US dollars or Euros. So it should be possible to enter the mainstream market as a means of payment and a store of value in the same way paper money does now.
However, several significant differences between the two types of assets make this an extremely complicated task, not least because they are subject to entirely different sets of rules (and their associated risks). In the UK and US, where Bitcoin is a form of payment, the government has been more cautious about regulating it than most other jurisdictions.
Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of Skybridge Capital, expects more countries to adopt bitcoin alongside national and international currencies.
He said:
"I think Bitcoin will be used by many Latin American countries as legal tender over time, not just El Salvador, but other countries,"
El Salvador introduced bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar last September. In January, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele predicted that two more countries would adopt Bitcoin as the legal tender this year, Bitcoin.com reported. Devere Group CEO Nigel Green indicated that three countries would adopt bitcoin as legal tender this year in January.
Meanwhile, Alex Hoeptner, CEO of crypto derivatives trading platform Bitmex, said last October that five countries would accept bitcoin as legal tender by the end of 2022.
Scaramucci also believes that Bitcoin could reach $500,000 per coin in the long run, according to Bitcoin.com. In addition, he expects that by the end of 2025, there will be more than 1 billion wallets containing Bitcoin, and the number of users will reach 250 to 3 billion in the next decade.
"If it gets there, then I think the maturing asset could be a conversation about whether it acts as an inflation hedge," he said.
A Brighter Future Awaits Cryptocurrency
The digital currency landscape is changing, according to a new research paper from Economist Impact commissioned by Crypto.com. The Economist Impact examines how much consumers trust digital payments and what barriers exist to digitalizing essential monetary functions.
Comparing consumer attitudes to similar surveys in 2020 and 2021, they found that cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are now at the crossroads of credit cards and payment apps.
Economist Impact shared its findings on July 6, 2022, in a PDF file titled Digimentality 2022 – Fear and Favoring of Digital Currency. They surveyed 3,000 people, half of whom came from developed economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom, and the other half from developing countries such as Brazil and the Philippines.
14% prefer CBDC, a significant increase from 4% in 2021. Interestingly, 37% of consumers expect their government or central bank to make cryptocurrencies legal tender within the next three years, and about one-third of consumers expect CBDC adoption.
Notably, more than 60 central banks are at various stages of CBDC development. China and Sweden have already launched live pilots, according to the 2021 CBDC Global Index by professional services firm PwC.
Skepticism Amidst the Unstable Market and Looming Recession
There is a great deal of skepticism about the future of cryptocurrencies amidst a bear market and looming recession. Some believe that cryptos are nothing more than an overvalued fancy that will eventually crash. In contrast, others remain convinced that they have the potential to revolutionize how we pay for goods and services. However, regardless of people’s individual opinions on cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects, it remains clear that this technology has captured the attention of many investors and enthusiasts across the globe.
In the current state of the market, there is a lot of speculation and few true believers. As a result, the price of most cryptos is in a downward trend, and this will likely continue into the future. Meanwhile, the economy is heading towards a significant recession, likely dampening interest in digital currencies even more.
In the long term, crypto may eventually succeed for several reasons, but it will happen much slower than many belief. First of all, even if the value of the cryptocurrency is rising fast, several factors limit its real value in the market. The value of Bitcoin depends on how many people use it as a currency.
The number of exchanges is limited, and they have to be closed down or bankrupted by regulators; governments can block access to their country, as has happened with China and Russia. Finally, the high volatility of the crypto market means that investors need to accept huge losses or gains; this could be enough to turn off potential customers.
Acceptance of Digital Money Despite Setbacks
Digital money is seen as a more secure and efficient way to conduct transactions. Consumers feel confident in using digital money because it eliminates the need for physical currency, which can be lost or stolen. Additionally, consumers believe digital currencies are protected from fraud and malicious activities. Although the current bear market may have impacted consumer confidence in digital currencies, this does not appear to have dampened their enthusiasm for them overall.
Soon, blockchain technology will be widely adopted by businesses of all sizes. They will increasingly rely on smart contracts to automate and streamline business processes such as: fulfilling customer orders and ensuring the timely delivery of products and services. It’s a significant development for the financial industry, which has been slow in adopting new technologies due to the complexity of legacy systems and the risk of disruption to existing revenue streams should the wrong changes occur during integration with new methods. Blockchain-based solutions will accelerate the adoption of new technologies across other industries, including the healthcare and insurance sectors and supply chain management.
In conclusion, the adoption of cryptocurrencies will continue to grow, and we expect to see more mainstream companies adopting blockchain solutions and services. This is a trend that will accelerate over the next few years as more industries adopt cryptocurrency-based technology for their operations and products, and more merchants accept cryptocurrencies on their websites and in stores using mobile apps or point-of-sale systems.
About: Prince Chinwendu. (Nigeria) Rapid and sustainable human growth is my passion, and getting a life-changing opportunity into the hands of people is my calling. Empowering entrepreneurs provides me with enormous gratification. Find me at my Markethive Profile Page | My Twitter Account | and my LinkedIn Profile.
There are a few different visions for how the financial world should evolve. Most of us dream of a future where we can be independent and free. On the contrary, some institutions are vehemently opposed to such liberty. The 'powers that be' will never allow us to be free, as eliminating their control would mean cutting their puppet strings.
Central banks are among the most prominent financial puppeteers in the world. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is like a member’s club for the central banks, and for the last two years, the BIS has been attacking all forms of cryptocurrency, trying to fault the decentralized system.
However, the cronies at the BIS have been some of the greatest advocates for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). They have been planning their vision of a future that would radically alter the financial system, verging on the dystopian. Recently, they released their latest report on this vision for the future monetary system.
There is a quote that seems to have become the narrative of the crypto industry;
‘First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
and then you win.’
It could be that crypto has entered the 3rd phase of the quote and is blatantly obvious in the rhetoric of the anti-crypto institutions, like the BIS, detailed in its report of a dystopian vision of the future of finance. It also documents a flawed and somewhat naive view of the crypto industry.
What is the BIS?
The Bank for International Settlements or BIS is the self-described bank for central banks. The BIS is owned by the 63 central banks that make up its membership and is based in Basel, Switzerland. The BIS's job is to help Central banks coordinate their monetary policies. An informational video by the BIS revealed that all 63 Central Bankers recently met in Basel to discuss monetary policy. A sporadic occurrence that only happens during times of Crisis.
The BIS has been working closely with central banks to develop their CBDCs, and CBDCs will make it possible for them to have total control over the economies of their respective countries by determining how and when money can be spent. It’s important to note that CBDCs are being built from the ground up to maximize financial control.
In contrast, most cryptocurrencies were created from the ground up to maximize financial freedom and, in some cases, financial privacy. It’s no surprise that the BIS is not a fan of cryptocurrency whatsoever and that the report summary in this article can be summarized in one sentence. According to the BIS, everything that cryptocurrency can do, CBDCs can do better.
The report was formulated by Hyun Song Shin, the economic advisor and head of research. Hyun is as anti-crypto as they come and attended a media briefing about cryptocurrency for the BIS in 2018. He talked about why cryptocurrencies will never replace fiat currencies because they can't scale and don't guarantee transaction finality; the ‘laugh at you’ part of the quote mentioned above.
He did another media briefing about cryptocurrency in early June 2022, specifically about this report. He talked about why CBDCs are better than cryptocurrencies, a considerable shift in tone from four years ago, and the ‘fight you’ part of the quote above. At the media briefing, Shin was asked some critical questions about CBDCs by reporters, to which he had no clear answer.
One reporter asked why are CBDCs necessary when we have alternatives? A second asked about people's privacy concerns about CBDCs, given that the BIS had specified that privacy will not be possible with CBDCs and that the central bank will keep all user data.
A third reporter asked whether CBDCs would see any adoption given their concerning characteristics. A fourth reporter asked whether someone would be blocked from buying the likes of alcohol and tobacco or entirely blocked if they speak out against their government.
Even though he couldn’t answer the reporters’ questions, he clarified and applauded that CBDCs problematic programmability could theoretically be applied to any payment system, providing a government successfully rolls out a digital ID.
BIS REPORT: The Future Monetary System
The BIS report begins with a brief introduction that describes the financial system as it functions today. In short, it states central banks issue the money and creates trust in it, whereas commercial banks make it possible for people to use that money to buy, sell and borrow.
If the idea that it's the central bank that creates the trust in money wasn't bad enough, the authors claim that “private sector innovation benefits society, precisely because it is built on the strong foundations of the Central Bank.”
To add insult to injury, the following sentence reads, “the monetary system with the central bank at its center has served society well.” This statement is highly debatable given that central bank money printing has made life even more unaffordable for the average person while enriching the 1%.
After briefly describing cryptocurrencies, the authors turned to Terra’s recent collapse as evidence that crypto can't beat the central banks. They claimed that the crypto industry constantly needs a “nominal anchor” such as fiat-denominated stablecoins.
They believe the only solution to this crypto dilemma is to switch everything over to permissioned blockchains run by central banks with CBDCs and so-called fast payment systems that commercial banks will leverage the same way they leverage the central banks today.
What Do We Want From A Monetary System?
The second part of the BIS report is titled, “What do we want from a monetary system?” It's important to remember that this report is intended to be read by powerful individuals and institutions, not the average person. So the authors aren't really asking what we want; they’re asking their wealthy and influential cronies.
Below is a table the authors provided that identifies eight monetary system goals. These are safety and stability, accountability, efficiency, inclusion, control over data, integrity, adaptability, and openness. It would seem that all eight of these can be rolled into one, and that's total control.
These boxes explain how well these eight “wants” are satisfied by the current financial system, cryptocurrency, and the BIS’s dystopian vision of the future of finance. Given that the BIS is the author and creator of this table, it’s no surprise that crypto fails on almost all metrics, whereas the BIS’s future system succeeds on all eight.
This ties into the third part of the BIS report, which relates to cryptocurrency problems. Not surprisingly, the authors have no shortage of crypto criticisms, and they start with all the volatility in the crypto market and the fact that most cryptos are down more than 90% from their all-time highs.
Of course, the authors don't explain the reason why crypto is so volatile and that its implicit goal is to replace the financial system, which is a massive undertaking. The authors also don't acknowledge that the volatility of most major cryptocurrencies has been on the decline over the years.
The authors seem to imply that crypto can't replace central banks because their blockchains are fragmented. Meaning they can't interoperate, which just isn't the case. Most crypto holders know the industry will be multi-chain, and interoperability innovation has been explosive.
They highlight that new cryptocurrencies are pretty centralized, and many existing cryptocurrencies have started to centralize to increase their speed and competitiveness. The authors then turn to decentralized finance. Notably, there’s growing awareness that the central banks and commercial banks alike see Defi as the biggest threat because it has the potential to play both of their roles.
Because centralized exchanges somehow fall under the umbrella of Defi, the authors list a few critiques of them, too, including the lack of transparency around crypto holdings, a lack of oversight compared to regular exchanges, and the fact that they let you withdraw your crypto.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), whose so-called recommendations aim to make self-custody next to impossible by labeling anyone who tries to hold their own crypto as high risk because they believe only the banks are allowed to preserve your assets, comes to mind.
Regarding the “structural limitations of crypto,” the authors argue that cryptocurrencies are incentivized to keep their fees high because it's the only way they can adequately compensate miners and validators. This is an interesting albeit flawed argument.
This is an argument that Hyun Song Shin made in his first media briefing about cryptocurrency in 2018. He and the authors of this report fail to realize that economic incentives and self-interest are why anyone does anything at all, ultimately.
While it's true that there are risks associated with securing a cryptocurrency blockchain, there are even more considerable risks related to giving control of the financial system to a small group of central bankers. And crypto’s inherent value is increasing as people start to realize this.
In the graph below, the results of a crypto study conducted by the BIS found that “a rise in the price of Bitcoin is associated with a significant increase in new users, i.e., the entry of new investors, with a correlation coefficient of more than 0.9. It analyzes the age and gender of users, exogenous shocks, and risk factors, which could convince the reader that crypto is dangerous.
The authors proclaim that “regulatory action is needed to address the immediate risks in the crypto monetary system and to support public policy goals.” These regulations the authors want to see include;
Regulators to crack down on stablecoins, especially decentralized stablecoins, which is no coincidence, given that stablecoins compete directly with all kinds of fiat currencies as per the BIS’s own admissions.
Cryptocurrency exchanges that hide transacting parties' identities and fail to follow basic know your customer (KYC) and other FATF requirements should be fined or shut down.
Regulators should consider restricting retail access to certain altcoins, banning Defi, and even crack down on crypto oracles like Chainlink for daring to provide data to decentralized applications without approval from the government.
Regulators should ensure that cryptocurrency doesn't become too big as it could compromise the integrity of the fiat financial system. To that end, the authors advised that regulators focus on the centralized entities in cryptocurrency, be they exchanges, custodians, or otherwise.
Because crypto is global, the authors even call on governments to create a new international regulatory authority and present the BIS as the ideal institution to play this role.
The authors also revealed that the BIS is developing a “cryptocurrency and defi analysis platform” that combines on-chain and off-chain data to produce vetted information on market capitalization, economic activity, and international flows. They concluded the crypto section of the report with;
“Overall, the crypto sector provides a glimpse of promising technological possibilities, but it cannot fulfill all the high-level goals of a digital monetary system. Central Bankers can provide such foundations, and they are working actively to shape the future of the monetary system.”
BIS Vision: Four Roles Of Central Banks
The report explains the central banks' four specific roles in the BIS's eyes. These are;
Issue Money
Provide Transaction Liquidity
Ensure Liquidity (also known as money printing)
Assist In Regulations
According to the BIS, the future of finance takes the four roles of the central bank to the next level by introducing Wholesale and Retail CBDCs. Select individuals and institutions will use the wholesale CBDCs, whereas the average person will use retail CBDCs.
Essentially, we will have two systems, and the BIS is OK with that because, as far as it is concerned, “central banks are mandated to serve the public interest” and are totally not influenced by politics or influential individuals and institutions in the private sector.
The authors then outline the different components of their vision of the future of finance and highlight concepts like programmability, composability, tokenization, interoperability, instant payments, open platforms, and inclusive designs. Wait a minute… It sounds like they’re describing the future of cryptocurrency!
The image below displays the metaphor they use to explain their vision of the future of finance. They paint a picture of trees with central banks as the trunk, showing how all the different central banks will lock branches, calling it the Forest of the Global system.
It seems a bit ironic as the report simultaneously claims that a fragmented financial system of this kind would never work. The authors also commented that putting central banks at the center of the financial equation is a “prerequisite for private innovation that serves the public interest,” which seems to imply that private innovation is incapable of serving the public interest in the absence of central banks.
Wholesale CBDCs
Regarding wholesale CBDCs, the authors note that they can be used to govern the inner workings of the financial system and promise their audience, which is again primarily powerful individuals and institutions, that their privacy will be protected, thanks to zero-knowledge proof—also used in the cryptocurrency industry.
The authors also described how a wholesale CBDC would be used to settle a digital currency transaction that’s not done in a retail CBDC. They gave someone buying a house with privately issued eMoney with the deed automatically transferred as an example. They suggested that “the same system could also allow for digital representations of stocks and bonds.”
In other words, they would be tokenizing all real-world assets on their permission blockchains. Some would argue that if this happens, the central bank and, by extension, the government would own your assets. They would be able to revoke your ownership of anything and everything. And if you don't have physical evidence that it was once yours, you will have no way of proving to anyone that it ever was.
People in crypto communities that understand crypto know that buying and holding cryptocurrency in your own wallet is the way to circumvent this, as no one can take it away from you.
Retail CBDCs
There’s no need to worry just yet because the next section of the BIS report talks about the real problem for us; the retail CBDC. It points out the mass adoption of Brazil's fast payment system as proof that the average person will voluntarily adopt a retail CBDC, even though the BIS’s own research shows that only 4-12% of adults in developed countries would voluntarily adopt a retail CBDC.
The authors also applaud the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's milestone of reaching 1.7 million transactions per second in its CBDC trials, noting that this is faster than payment networks like Visa and cryptocurrency blockchains.
It seems the authors conveniently forgot about Bitcoins Lightning Network, which can process an estimated 40 million transactions per second.
So, if you're wondering, how will the central banks convince anyone to adopt this? The authors clearly state that by allowing non-bank entities to offer CBDC wallets, they can also overcome the lack of trust in financial institutions that holds back many individuals in today's system.
In other words, central banks will use private companies that people trust to roll out their retail CBDCs. This is funny, considering the authors spent the earlier part of the report trying to convince the reader that the central banks and their financial systems are the pinnacles of trust.
What's even funnier is that the BIS actually reported on how much people trust the financial system. The figure is only around 60% in developed countries and possibly even lower now.
The authors then reiterate what's been said in other BIS reports about the privacy of retail CBDCs, stating that “central banks have no commercial interest in personal data and can thus credibly design systems in the public interest.” Put simply, privacy for them but not for us. They also quote that transactions would not be recorded on a public blockchain visible to all.
If all of this wasn't bad enough, the authors discuss a global “multi CBDC platform” that the world's central banks will govern in the following subsection. And the cherry on top is that the privacy of these entities will be insured, so the public will have no idea who controls this powerful system.
Although these statements are made in the context of a wholesale CBDC, the authors make sure that the reader knows that the same global platform could be put in place for retail CBDCs and similar types of digital currencies.
BIS Report Conclusion
The authors conclude by briefly commenting on the progress being made on the BIS’s explicitly stated goals and list the following statistics,
90% of central banks are exploring CBDCs.
Three retail CBDCs are currently live
28 CBDCs in development
Sixty countries are working on Fast Retail Payments.
This list includes the United States Federal Reserve’s plans to roll out the “FED NOW” fast payment system in 2023. It will have many of the same qualities as a retail CBDC, especially if the US government manages to roll out a digital ID system as per Shin’s remarks in his media briefing.
Meanwhile, France and Switzerland are working on a multi-CBDC platform, as are Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
“In sum, central banks are working together to advance domestic policy goals and to support a seamlessly integrated global monetary system with concrete benefits for their economies and end-users.”
And because the authors still need to bash crypto and drive home the conclusion,
“Instead of serving society, crypto and defi are plagued by congestion fragmentation and high rents, in addition to the immediate concerns about the risks of losses and financial instability.”
This statement might be the most hypocritical of the report because many central banks are testing their CBDCs using cryptocurrency blockchains.
What Does This Mean for Crypto?
So, the big question is, what does all this mean for the crypto market? Many believe this news is insanely bullish for crypto because nobody is buying into the BIS’s “BS” except the central bankers.
Other previous BIS reports could be considered shamelessly evil, and the average individual and institution would not adopt this technology voluntarily. The only way you could convince the average individual and, or institution to adopt this technology would be through force or a crisis, and, conveniently, there's no shortage of those these days.
It's also fascinating how the authors hold up the central banks as the center of the universe and how they are willingly or unwillingly unable to acknowledge just how fast innovation in crypto has been. Four years ago, the BIS laughed at crypto. Now, it's starting to fight it. Does this mean that crypto will win in four years' time?
Let's just say that it's interesting that this is around the time we would see the next crypto bull market top. This obviously doesn't mean that fiat currencies will be defeated in four years, but it could mark the tipping point where crypto adoption becomes so widespread that it genuinely can't be stopped.
Editor and Chief Markethive: Deb Williams. (Australia) I thrive on progress and champion freedom of speech. I embrace "Change" with a passion, and my purpose in life is to enlighten people to accept and move forward with enthusiasm. Find me at my Markethive Profile Page | My Twitter Account | and my LinkedIn Profile.
This information is provided for informational purposes only. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice.
A democratic society values a free-flowing media ecosystem. A healthy media ecosystem is one of the characteristics of a democratic society. Mass media outlets such as newspapers and cable TV networks were prominent in the past. Today, the internet and social media platforms allow for greater communication across society.
Journalism, investigative correspondents, and even freelance writers are essential to that ecosystem. High-quality reporting revealing brutal truths and users' scope and exposure on social media to either create or access information are forces that can drive genuine societal change. And even keep the power structures in check.
Despite the positive aspects mentioned above, harmful practices and negative external forces related to the media ecosystem often eclipse them. These issues are usually easy to recognize once they’re identified. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge them and spread awareness about their potential risks.
Doing so will help you make informed decisions about how you use media and how it can impact your life and the lives of others. The following are a few issues pervasive in many digital news sites, forums, and social media platforms.
Implicit Bias vs. Explicit Bias An explicit bias in media has two types: explicit and implicit. It is possible for publishers with explicit biases to control the framing of stories in their publications by overtly dictating the types of stories that are covered. They push their agenda by using narrative fallacies or false balance.
Implicit bias refers to unintentional filtering or skewing of information. This can occur by turning a blind eye to specific topics or issues because they would tarnish an advertiser's image. These are known as no-fly zones, and because the news industry is financially troubled, these zones are becoming increasingly dangerous.
Difference between Misinformation and Disinformation Inaccurate information is known as either misinformation or disinformation. While misinformation is unintentionally disseminated due to a lack of knowledge or truth on the topic, disinformation is purposely designed to mislead people. For example, a deepfake image, video, fake news story, or concept is considered disinformation.
The term 'fake news' is frequently used to describe poorly written news content or inaccurate news reporting, as well as conspiracy theories and poorly written or incorrect tweets by politicians. Fake news might refer more broadly to information that an individual disagrees with.
Context Stripping Through social media, stories are shared widely by many participants, and the most compelling framing usually wins out. More often than not, the truncated, provocative posts spread the furthest. The process of stripping context away from an idea may distort its meaning.
Sharing video clips on social platforms is a perfect example of this context-stripping process. Despite the absence of context, much discussion occurs around the video, especially if it’s controversial or shocking. As a result, viewers are unintentionally encouraged to stereotype the individuals in the video and to bring their own preconceived notions to the discussion table, helping fill the gaps.
Cherry Picking Media contributors search for attention-grabbing story angles to make their point in an article. This may result in cherry-picking information and ideas. Because the content is usually accurate, it makes sense on the surface, but it is missing critical context.
So cherrypicking can be questionable and compromising. It is tempting to create simplistic narratives that are compelling such as good-vs-evil, but real-world situations are often much more complicated than they appear.
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures Journalism is experiencing difficult times. Newsrooms are working with less staff and budgets, and 'churnalism' is one outcome. This term describes the act of publishing articles directly from wire services and PR releases. Even if it isn't widely known, 'churnalism' replaces more rigorous reporting. It is also an avenue for advertising and propaganda and harder to recognize as news.
Paywalls The drive to generate revenue is leading to other issues as well. Quality content is increasingly being restricted to subscribers only, otherwise called paywalls. This has resulted in a two-class system, with subscribers receiving in-depth, well-researched news and everyone else having access to trivial or sensationalized content only.
It’s not only about people with limited incomes; young people are also widely included. The average age of a paid news subscriber is 50 years old, raising concerns about the future of the subscription business model.
Advertisement Clutter Desperate times have led to desperate measures for advertising-reliant outlets. User experience has taken a backseat to ad impressions, with ad clutter (e.g., auto-play videos, pop-ups, and prompts) constantly interrupting content. One or two ads on a web page are manageable, but when ads overrun the site, it's distracting and disorienting.
Surveillance Capitalism In surveillance capitalism, organizations collect large amounts of data about their customers, employees, and other groups that are viewed as valuable sources of information. This information can be used for various purposes, such as generating revenue by selling data or predicting consumer behavior and targeting them with highly personalized advertising campaigns to increase their profits.
Some organizations capture and profit from individual information utilizing browser fingerprinting. When you visit certain websites, third-party companies scan your device and browser settings to track you online. Despite all the opt-in privacy prompts, these third-party trackers can still watch your every move digitally. Most people are not aware of this process.
Deplatforming Many individuals and communities have been banned from social and publishing platforms for various reasons. While harassment and violence, fake accounts, and bots are obvious reasons to remove the offenders’ accounts, many would argue the rules are inconsistently enforced. Users are falling victim to being suspended or deleted from a platform for having a different point of view than the mediators of the platform.
While we all are responsible for our online behavior as individuals, platform owners must also be careful to preserve the value of their platforms by avoiding over-zealous enforcement tactics that could lead to deplatforming. Invariably this causes irrefutable damage to the individual or company with a loss of followers and content.
In many cases, this behavior from specific platforms is seen as a structural bias and agenda-setting from the top down by placing importance on selected topics and is very quick to censor legitimate political discourse or other forms of honest expression. A problem that seems ingrained with legacy social media and a battle we can’t win.
Argument Culture It’s ultimately deviating to an adversarial approach when encountering people with an opposing worldview. Two examples of this are Twitter flame wars and broadcasts where hyperpartisan critics argue. While these are fun for some people, these activities do not require critical thinking or problem solving and are not helpful for the overall health of our society.
A flame war is created when multiple users engage in inflammatory responses to an original post, sometimes flamebait. Flame wars often draw in many users, including those trying to defuse the flame war, and can quickly become a mass flame war that overshadows regular forum discussion.
When engaging in argument culture, people will often cherry-pick facts to strengthen their argument, ignore facts that weaken their argument and dismiss facts that reinforce the opposing argument. This approach to facts is often referred to as post-factual. Similarly, people often use hyperbolic language when arguing with others.
Brigading & Social Bots Social media companies can be powerful enablers and disrupters where users can communicate in new and meaningful ways to help foster community engagement. On the other hand, they can also pose some unique challenges. They are driven by algorithms that privilege engagement with certain kinds of content over others.
There are autonomous or human-run accounts on certain social media platforms that manipulate discussions and boost specific messages. This alters the tone of online discourse and artificially inflates the spread of messages. These accounts often promote particular agendas, benefit specific groups, or spread misinformation. This type of social media manipulation is referred to as brigading.
Some websites use bots to delete specific comments that they feel do not fit into the narrative of their website and promote what they consider “positive” comments instead. The potential consequences of using bots to promote or suppress specific comments will negatively impact the website and be perceived as one with an agenda that does not allow open discussion.
Who Can You Trust? The issues mentioned above have led to a significant decline in confidence and trust across the various media outlets. A study of news media perception from 40 nations revealed that trust varied widely around the world, with European media trusted the most. Western Europeans trusted their media more than those in other parts of the world, and the Finnish were the most trusting, with 65%. The United States and Slovakia scored near the bottom regarding how much consumers trusted their news media at 26%.
The source is one factor that plays a significant role in whether or not an individual trusts news. On a global level, social media was the least trusted news medium, with Europe and North America leading this sentiment. A survey of U.S. adults found that most news on social media was regarded as biased.
Young people worldwide find it difficult to rely on mass media due to its current climate of polarizing political events and fake news. Older generations also share this viewpoint, and one of the top reasons for avoiding news was the inability to rely on its truthfulness.
Alternative Conservative Platforms Stand Up Participants who lack trust in these disingenuous and agenda-driven platforms or feel their voice is not heard are migrating to other websites where they can be heard. More alternative media are popping up, Conservative-based, bi-partisan, and some are even non-partisan, with their only agenda being freedom of speech, liberty, and sovereignty.
Conservatives are expanding their media outlets, aggressively building a conservative ecosystem with their own apps, cryptocurrencies, social media, and publishing houses. It includes Trump’s Truth Social and Gettr, launched by ex-Trump aide Jason Miller, with Rumble, the conservative alternative to YouTube, driving the news.
It is their effort to counter the perceived escalating liberal internet and media institutions and stand up against the developing cancel culture and censorship rife in legacy media. That is very commendable; however, it may well be perceived as still having a right-wing agenda that has the potential to stifle the platform’s ability to proliferate.
An Alternative To The Alternative Where can the people go who have no agenda, are critical thinkers, and have a completely unbiased worldview? People with an entrepreneurial spirit and a “live and let live” attitude that can rise above the injustices, evil trickery, and pettiness of the world.
Today, the Markethive Social Market Broadcasting Network is growing in prominence as the ecosystem for entrepreneurs with a non-adversarial, bipartisan free speech ethic and a collaborative culture. It is a system of all things media, including a video platform and news broadcasting. It is a culmination of several distinct mechanisms that will harmonize, delivering the resources we need for everything we do online in a decentralized sovereign environment.
Markethive Media has embraced blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, building an ecosystem that belongs to “we the people,” eliminating many of the issues plagued by media outlets today. With its meritocratic culture, dynamic social media interface, and growing community, Markethive is enhancing and bringing the platform into the future internet with new technology and interfaces, but still in keeping with the human touch.
There is no simple solution to the current problems facing news and social media. However, suppose we are more media literate and aware of what’s happening. In that case, we are better equipped to circumvent or even help fix these broken systems by encouraging honesty and transparency in communication channels that bond society, given that these mediums have become the primary source of information and interaction in the current dystopian climate.
Market Purge Continues As Crypto Industry Strives For Maturity. Perfect Timing For Markethive
Also, Updates On New Integrations And The Markethive Wallet
As the bear market continues wth its crypto-cleanse and traders bemoan the adverse price action, some industry leaders opine these conditions will eradicate bad actors and create more significant opportunities for upcoming projects and future participants. Several leading crypto analysts and engineers embrace the idea that this is the time to engage in moves leading to the loftiest gains when the bull cycle returns.
Markethive stands firm with these sentiments and continues to build its next-generation entrepreneurial platform and be ready for the market-cleansed bull run. Those on the Markethive journey may be aware that new features are being integrated into the newsfeed in preparation for the five-channel dashboard housing various feeds.
The new features and upload capabilities now active on the platform include;
Emojis
Emojis include a range of bees, appropriate for the Hive and a fantastic way to make the workplace and your social interactions fun. A poll conducted by Appboy found that people enjoy emojis in general. More than 64% like or love emojis, compared to only 6% dislike them.
Polling
Another sought-after feature by many entrepreneurs is now live on the Markethive platform. This is a great way to gauge reactions, opinions, and information from the community at large. Perhaps you could do a poll to see how the Markethive community like the new emoji integration.
Images and Gifs
We now have a new way to upload images and gifs either directly from any website or personal computer. Simply copy the image from the origin and paste it to the desired location in Markethive, or paste in the image address. With gifs, paste the image address unless you are copying from your files with your device. This is a requirement for the animation to work.
Videos
Now you can upload videos directly from your device into Markethive as part of the Markethive video system. This is the inception of the Markethive Video Channel that will be integrated into the new dashboard, where you can post your video from Markethive directly to many other media platforms by way of a permalink.
You can also upload videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Rumble, and Bitchute, which will play directly on the newsfeed. This negates being taken away from the Markethive site.
Significant upgrades have also been installed for the internal Markethive Messaging interface, Newsfeed, and comments system.
And It’s Just The Beginning
This is just the beginning of the dynamic transformation and direction Markethive is moving towards. The innovative five-channel dashboard integration will consist of five newsfeeds—the general newsfeed, the blog, the video channel, curation, and surveys.
It will significantly streamline your activities and business facilitation and will include a search engine so you can build your personal algorithms. This will save time and effort by eliminating what you don’t want to see in your newsfeeds, be more intuitive, and enhance the user experience.
The Markethive Wallet
CEO of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast, and the team of engineers have made substantial headway with the wallet. It is all but done, and the release is imminent. It’s not a simple wallet that just transfers coins. It is a complete portfolio and accounts of all your transactions, payments, and affairs, including your ILPs. The wallet comprises fourteen major foundational processes and is your internal wallet on the Markethive database.
An itemized account on all elements of the wallet is as follows;
1 Hivecoin wallet (done) for sending and receiving coin (initially for upgrades only) ✅
2 The New Vault (done) with Feed the Vault and Auto fund thresholds and deposits tracking control panel including the following:
a. Subscriptions ✅
b. Payment History ✅
c. Payment Methods ✅
3 Markethive Credits (done) Markethive Credits are used to pay for Markethive services.✅
A Markethive credit is a credit token valued at $1 USD per token and can be purchased with a credit card, crypto, (and Hivecoin after we are on the exchanges)
4 ILP notes control panel (this is the last function being built)
5 Hivecoin price chart scale (will be integrated when the coin is listed)
6 Subscriptions Control (done) ✅
7 Payment History (done) ✅
8 Payment Methods (done) ✅
9 Crypto Merchant Account (done) (turnkey for upgrade members use also) ✅
10 Feed The Vault (done) ✅
11 Vault Deposit History (done) ✅
12 Vault Threshold (done) ✅
13 New Staking (done). ✅
Markethive Credits will receive staking. Hivecoin will no longer be staked.
14 Coin Clip History (done) ✅
The manyfacets of the Wallet are completed except the ILP platform, which is nearing completion. Once these facets are completed, they all need to be designed into the wallet's interface. The Merchant Account, the Vault Interface, and Markethive Credits components are already completed.
As we approach the wallet release, the Coin Drop incentive for people joining Markethive will be reduced from 500 HVC to 50 HVC, and new Entrepreneur One accounts will no longer be available. Simultaneously, we will release our Premium upgrades at a reduced cost, enabling members to take advantage of the many benefits and services Markethive offers.
As stated by Thomas Prendergast,
“After the release of the wallet, we will launch a new offshore company to begin building our own exchange. We will also have several campaigns engaged in getting listed on as many exchanges as we can as quickly as we can.”
The Current Crypto Landscape
Although we are deeply immersed in a bear market, Markethive continues to progress in its development. As the entrepreneurial culture is knitted into the fabric of Markethive, its community sees the bigger picture and is aligned with the sentiments of the industry experts.
According to experts, crypto winters are actually good for Bitcoin; For example, pivotal projects like the Lightning Network, a major Bitcoin-related project enabling cheaper, faster Bitcoin transactions, were developed during bear markets. The initial concept of the Lightning Network was formulated during the bear market of 2015.
Also, people in the industry continue to reiterate that bear markets are actually healthy for the crypto industry, as they remove speculators and scams while providing space to build genuine and excellent products and services.
In recent weeks, a wave of panic has swept through the crypto community, with BTC miners' selling activity rising to seven-month highs as mining profitability dropped to levels last seen in October 2020.
TheBitcoin Fear & Greed Index posted that it recently fell to 7, indicating 'extreme fear,' the lowest number since the pre-pandemic Q3 2019. The self-updating image below shows a more positive rating at the time of writing, although it is still in the extreme fear category. But according to some industry experts, the recent events in the industry do not look as bad as they first appear and the bear market is not to be feared.
Anthony Pompliano, in arecent interview with Fox News, explained that Bitcoin’s value and price are diverging and that weak hands are selling to strong hands.
“What we’re watching right now is the transfer from weak, short-term oriented people with weak hands into the long-term oriented, strong hands.”
“Bear markets are good for Bitcoin. Builders face fewer distractions, and the fake ‘project founders’ that were only looking for a quick VC funding and naive retail exit liquidity disappear as quickly as they previously appeared. Real builders rejoice when all the bullshit gets washed out.”
Perfect Timing For Markethive
So the timing couldn’t be better for Markethive to distinguish itself and gain prominence in the crypto market as the blockchain-driven multi-media network pioneer. The purpose of Markethive is to deliver a broadcasting platform, marketing systems, and communication interface, all based on Biblical principles where truth, freedom, and liberty are the foundation and intrinsic to the entrepreneur.
Markethive and its community stand by these principles and are inherently guided by Divine Providence, where everything takes shape in God’s timing, not ours. Markethive is in every country in the world and ready to lift millions of people into an environment of freedom of speech and information, financial sovereignty, and well-being. We are responsible for creating a massive army for the Lord and a foundation for the last days; The final harvest.
We live in uncertain times, prophesied as the end times, with catastrophic events impacting society on every level. With the global economy in free fall, the need for a different approach is here, and these events are forcing the crypto industry to grow and mature. Markethive is here to pave the way as one of the new innovative technologies that will rise in the wake of this bear market.
Come to our Sunday meetings at 10 am MST as we approach massive major upgrades and the wallet launch. See and hear explanations, ask questions, and witness the ever-evolving technology and concepts of Markethive. The link to the meeting room is located in the Markethive Calendar.
CRYPTO BEAR MARKET – Why Experts Say It’s A Good Thing
Billions of dollars of value have been wiped off the cryptocurrency market in the last few weeks because of a sell-off in stocks, another rate hike and balance sheet shrinkage by the Fed, and the downfall of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD. Cryptocurrency and Blockchain industry leaders believe that the recent crash in the crypto market would purge “bad actors.” The executives said the market purge was necessary and characterized it as “healthy.”
There are currently over 19,000 cryptocurrencies and at least 1000 blockchain platforms with four types of Blockchain Networks. Blockchain is the technology underlying these digital currencies and platforms. Still, the question is who will survive this massive bear market that has been happening for at least six months, and the experts are shying away from predicting its short-term future.
Many industry executives see the current market situation as unsustainable. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes that the future may see “only a handful” of cryptocurrencies remaining, stating that there are around 180 national currencies worldwide. So many cryptocurrencies aren't really necessary.
Bertrand Perez, CEO of the Web3 Foundation, told CNBC,
“We’re in a bear market. And I think that’s good. It’s good because it’s going to clear the people who were there for the bad reasons.”
He went on to say,
“It’s good also because all those projects are gone. So the legit ones will be able to focus only on developing on building and forget about the valuation of the token because everyone is down. During the bull markets, when everything is green, no one thinks about building; everyone thinks about making a fortune, which is the wrong mindset.”
Other executives reiterated the same view that the massive price rally caused people to focus on speculation rather than building products. Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO of the crypto data analysis firm, Chainalysis, says these down periods help distinguish between the signal and the noise.
Mr. Gronager explained,
“It’s during these bear markets where good new tech gets developed. We’ve seen people get excited about new technology, and suddenly everyone wants to access it, but it’s never as good as people hope for. And then there’s a certain level of disappointment, but it’s when a bear market comes along, and companies are under-funded that real innovation emerges.”
So despite the anguish of speculative investors when the price of cryptocurrency collapses across the board, some argue it is a necessary development to sort the genuinely innovative projects from the pump-and-dump schemes.
Why Do So Many Cryptos Fail?
Although the flagship cryptos, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have fallen substantially from their historical prices, other altcoins have fared even worse, with many that have entirely failed, including Luna, Dogecoin, Squid Game, PayCoin, and many more for various reasons. So many crypto coins have been released into the market and have died and disappeared over time. Why do they keep failing?
Numerous ventures are sure to face challenges in a market that is still emerging. Therefore, after releasing their coins and tokens, the creators often realize that their concepts are obsolete. Developers typically do not invest sufficient time or research when planning their foundational structure for their coins and tokens, only to find out after release that their concept is already on the market.
Many cryptocurrencies are copied versions of previously successful currencies, and many of them aspired to match Bitcoin's success. However, Bitcoin is already on the market and is still in demand, especially now with its emerging Lightning Network.
A Few Key Elements Why Cryptos Fail
Lack of a Defined Purpose: Most cryptocurrencies do not have a clear purpose or target market. They are like a machine gun firing in all directions, hoping to find a target and hit it. A well-defined purpose will help your cryptocurrency attract the right people and repel the wrong ones.
Lack of a use case: A cryptocurrency with no actual use case will eventually become obsolete. A cryptocurrency with a clear use case will help people understand why they should own it. Many cryptocurrencies today don’t seem to solve a real problem. They are just trying to find a niche to apply blockchain protocol and take advantage of emerging technology.
Weak Ecosystem: Some cryptocurrency projects are focused on creating a coin and trading it without building a community that aligns with its vision and mission. The importance of a robust ecosystem cannot be overstated. Without one, a project will have a hard time gaining traction, let alone succeeding. A tenuous ecosystem could cause other problems, such as low liquidity and volatility.
Inactive Development: In the crypto ecosystem, things change at a rapid pace. New technologies emerge, new competitors appear on the scene, and user needs and preferences change. If a crypto project is not flexible enough to keep up with these changes, it will not be able to survive in the long term.
Security Issues: Breaches to cryptocurrency projects can also lead to their failures. From hacking to creating fake nodes, bringing down a coin is easy when its security isn't robust.
Rug Pull: A rug pull is a malicious maneuver in the cryptocurrency industry where crypto developers abandon a project and run away with investors’ funds. Rug pulls got away with more than $2.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency from victims in 2021.
Tokenomics: The amount of tokens supplied has a significant impact on the price. If there is a lot of supply, that can depress the price, even more so when demand is low. It's all about the law of supply and demand.
Shiba Inu is one example with a coin supply of 1 quadrillion. Shiba Inu trades for a small fraction of a penny because its supply is so large. There was some speculation it may reach $1; however, there’s currently a supply of 549 trillion SHIB tokens in circulation, giving it a market cap of around $11 billion.
If those tokens were worth $1 each, SHIB's market cap would be $549 trillion, roughly 200 times bigger than Apple, the world's most valuable company, and more than six times the world's annual GDP.
In other words, Shiba Inu reaching $1 would likely require a massive reordering of the world economy, and that's not going to happen. But there is a way to decrease the total coin supply by burning the coin; however, it takes considerable time.
Shibburn, a website dedicated to the project burn of Shiba Inu, said that 410 trillion Shiba Inu coins have already been burned. They were taken out of circulation by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum after the anonymous Shiba Inu founder gave him half of the one quadrillion Shiba Inu coin supply. Buterin said he was uncomfortable controlling so much of the supply.
According to Shibburn, around 63 million Shiba Inu coins have been burned in the last 24 hours, which seems like a lot. However, if that rate continues, it would take just over two weeks to burn 1 billion coins and 40 years to burn 1 trillion. If there were an organized movement among SHIB holders, the burn could accelerate and pick up steam if the value of SHIB continues to drop.
However, there's a clear disincentive to burning the coins. If the value begins to increase, it's in the interest of holders to keep their coins rather than burn them. The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency makes it unlikely that an organized movement will be powerful enough to reduce the number of coins substantially.
And what about the use case? John Wu, president of Ava Labs said, Shiba Inu "wasn't built with a sophisticated use case like borrowing, lending, trading, or gaming. It’s really just the Shib Army rallying behind the coin.”
Why Bitcoin And Other Purposeful Cryptos Will Survive
More and more institutions are paying greater attention to the role of Bitcoin and Ethereum as hedging tools. There is increasing interest in several countries to adopt Bitcoin as their official currency. El Salvador was the first to adopt it in September of last year as their legal tender, the most recent being the Central African Republic.
More individuals, companies, and governments are beginning to accept and adopt Bitcoin, and more investors are noticing its value, so I think it’s safe to say that our digital store of value or digital gold will remain and gain prominence well into the future.
In addition, Bitcoin has faced various attacks and smear campaigns in the past decade in the past decade. Despite everything, Bitcoin has withstood the test of time with great tenacity, providing ample evidence of its ability to overcome challenges and problems.
As mentioned earlier, experts in the industry believe the timing is perfect for getting rid of the weeds. At the same time, emerging projects rise with all the fundamentals and utility to cater to users' needs. So, it’s an excellent time to take stock of more promising cryptocurrency ventures for the remainder of this year. As the crypto world changes rapidly, some of these projects' overall strengths or weaknesses will likely change, while others will be on point.
Although Bitcoin and Ethereum have the first-mover’s advantage, a few Blockchain projects such as Solana, Elrond, and Cardano have the underlying principles and infrastructure to survive the most challenging crypto winters. They all have a strong community and dedicated team of developers with a defined end goal and solutions to some of the most challenging hurdles facing the blockchain and crypto industry.
An Emerging Sector For the Blockchain Crypto Industry
Another sector overcome by centralization and severely lacking in blockchain technology is the social media and marketing niche, until now. Markethive is a blockchain-driven social media, inbound marketing, and broadcasting network rapidly building a dynamic ecosystem for the entrepreneur.
Markethive is a crypto project with extensive and varied use cases that significantly drive demand for its token. (HVC) It has developed the much-needed solutions for marketers, influencers, business owners, and the like. We have all been victims of the current state of the media and tech companies where monopolies have been created.
A decentralized and open media ecosystem, by definition, requires it necessary to have different options to broadcast and consume information free from censorship. Where content remains the creator's property, and the culture embraces self-sovereignty.
Markethive is an entirely different animal and one of the most promising and potentially disruptive projects in the entire social media and marketing industry. It is a project with a large number of real-world applications, and it has the potential to change the media landscape.
With its comprehensive wallet and member merchant accounts nearing completion, the timing couldn’t be better to distinguish itself and gain a foothold in the crypto market. This bear market will see weak projects and unscrupulous players fall, and the meaningful, intense, and focused projects will survive and thrive.
Some argue that the best bear strategy is to hoard cryptos, but a better approach is to earn more cryptos with one's existing holdings, which resembles receiving interest on bank deposits. This strategy is just one of the ways Markethive rewards its users who are part of the community.
The whole ecosystem revolves around earning and accumulating your crypto holdings by being active on the platform and conducting ecommerce via their business facilitation, thereby creating traction and velocity that is very likely to propel the coin.
As Markethive is a first-mover for the blockchain-related social media and marketing sector with its proprietary technology, it is poised to become mainstream in the next phase of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in the aftermath of the massive cleanup of all useless altcoins. Many experts in the cryptocurrency space have said they expect thousands of cryptocurrencies to collapse.
Some exchanges have already folded or laid off employees, including Coinbase. Much of this is due to the crypto crash and the fact they hold many of these dead coins on its exchange. Perhaps it’s time for them to rethink their strategies when listing cryptos.
We are currently experiencing a collapse in traditional financial markets and many unprecedented events that are being hailed as “the storm”; spiritual, social, political, and economic – a storm affecting every aspect of our lives.
As the volatility of the global socioeconomic conditions continues on a downward trend, Markethive, guided by Divine inspiration, is here to pave the way as one of the new innovative technologies that will rise in the wake of this bear market.
There is a large contingent of people that believe that cryptocurrency can offer a more stable alternative. With more people investing and utilizing crypto, the market has more stable prices and less chance of being manipulated by outside forces.
When looking beyond the shortcomings and issues of nascent technology, there are many positive benefits with new technology constantly emerging and the philosophical approach of many entrepreneurs heading the upcoming sophisticated projects. It makes sense why crypto is becoming an increasingly popular alternative for investing in the face of instability in traditional markets.
The Central Hub Of The Markethive Economy – The Wallet
What Does The Wallet Do?
What Does It Mean For You?
The launch of the Markethive wallet is approaching, so it’s time to start beating the proverbial drum. It is the start of an exciting time with the advent of many integrations to follow the release of the wallet that will bring Markethive into prominence as an unprecedented platform. The combination of inbound marketing, social media, digital broadcasting, video, conference rooms, e-commerce, gamification, etc.
Markethive is a blockchain-driven crypto economy, all-inclusive, with a distributed database system required for this decentralized, monolithic global project. We’re almost there with the release of the wallet that will initiate entrepreneurial sovereignty and open the floodgates of this divine enterprise with its plethora of systems and services, including the new interface and dashboard.
We now have a complete working wallet with the Solana Network, and we also have a fully functional crypto merchant account. The Markethive wallet is being polished with the finishing touches, keeping mindful that it’s not just a simple wallet but a comprehensive, dynamic engine centralized for you that powers your platform and business.
Markethive is fundamentally a sophisticated inbound marketing and storefront platform, integrated with a social network, and not just another social media platform you see popping up to counter the media tech giants we’ve come to know as oppressive, censoring you and using your personal data for their own gain.
Markethive Pay Transaction Example
Your Very Own Merchant Account
The Markethive platform is massive,and it lends itself to the cottage industry concept allowing members to monetize the various initiatives within Markethive. It also allows you as an entrepreneur and business owner to facilitate and promote every aspect of your business, including eCommerce payments, right from your business Storefront in Markethive.
In other words, you will have a personal Merchant Account that you can plug in to your WordPress or Storefront group through Markethive. You will be able to utilize your chosen wallet address for payments relating to your business, and it will keep track of everything for you. You will not have to rely on APIs and third parties that can shut you down at a whim because you don’t go along with their agenda.
The Functionality Of The Wallet
The wallet is not just a wallet to send coins out from Markethive to an exchange. It will house the functioning and tracking of the ILPs, your transactions, subscriptions, statements, payments, and the Vault. The Vault is home for your Markethive Credits, likened to a stable coin.
You can fund your vault with Markethive Credits via various cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Hivecoin, Credit/debit cards, and a payment processor new to Markethive, wise.com. Due to the adversarial nature of PayPal, the processor will not be available. More updates will come as we finalize all the moving parts of this comprehensive mechanism.
With the tightening of crypto regulations by the unforgiving, anti-business sentiment of the US government, it is in everyone’s best interest to stake Markethive Credits instead of Hivecoin. If we were to stake HVC, the regulations require Markethive to report monthly all individuals' staked earnings. This would be a tedious, expensive exercise and not one any of us as a community or individual would want.
As Markethive Credits are not classed as crypto, it sidesteps these regulations and allows us to accumulate Hivecoin passively. Utilizing the Vault by having an ongoing threshold balance of Markethive Credits is a form of staking. In other words, keeping any amount in the Vault above your monthly commitments (e.g., subscriptions) that are automatically debited from your vault generates interest.
The higher the threshold balance, the more interest you receive, and it also increases your Hive Ranking, which also increases your interest. You cannot trade or sell your Markethive Credits; they are for purchasing services within Markethive, so the vault can be considered a debit card.
Equally, it can be used as a bank account, except the interest received from banking your funds in the Vault would be considerably more than a regular bank account. With interest being paid to you in Hivecoin, it also has increased worth as the price of the coin rises.
Markethive Wallet Example
Markethive’s Coin-Only Exchange
Markethive is also in the process of setting up an offshore corporation to be able to facilitate a coin-only exchange wholly owned by Markethive, similar to Yobit.
Why is it important to have our own exchange system?
Markethive has a tremendous amount of activity with its coin through its members, so the way to document that for other exchanges to view the millions of transactions is to have our own exchange. This makes it conducive for other coin-to-fiat exchanges to have Markethive on board and allow trading (buy/sell), invoking pre-eminence and increased market value.
Markethive is not just building a non-purposeful meme coin like Doge or Shiba, nor are we creating a simple exchange. It’s a comprehensive, dynamic platform that will serve humanity on every level imaginable, helping us through these difficult times and into the light where our personal sovereignty will rise in harmony and abundance in the collective.
Benefits Of A Reduced Total Coin Supply
Along with the integration to the Solano Blockchain, Markethive will drastically reduce the total supply of Hivecoin into the low millions (actual amount to be advised). This means the price potential for HVC, through supply and demand, will increase a hundredfold+ and benefit you as a Hivecoin holder.
Think of Bitcoin's total Market supply of only 21 million coins as opposed to the other altcoins with a supply into the trillions. (less supply, more demand, market price increases.)
It will also make Hivecoin kinetic and benefit you when building your business within Markethive with all the tools and services you and others need all transacted with Hivecoin. The implementation of a gamified system will draw people in, which in turn broadens your sphere of influence as you use the system.
As this activity takes place, it expands the usage, awareness, and adoption of Markethive services, which then drives up the demand for the coin. It creates an alternative economy, a complete ecosystem for entrepreneurs of every caliber making a living online. It makes Hivecoin legitimate as it has purpose and utility, unlike so many other tokens out there that have very little to no purpose and a total supply into the billions and trillions.
Entrepreneur One Upgrades First Access. Automatic KYC
The Entrepreneur One members will be the first to receive access to the wallet. KYC (Know Your Customer) will also be implemented for all members. Notably, if you register a credit card within Markethive, you will automatically be KYC level two. Uploading your passport or driver's license and utility bill will be classed as KYC level one.
What this means for you when building your business is that the people you are dealing with in Markethive are verified and legitimate. They are who they say they are, and your level of engagement will be much better and more genuine than on any other social network.
It’s important to understand that the Entrepreneur One Upgrade will no longer be available upon release of the wallet. Existing, current E1 members will continue to enjoy the benefits of the upgrade, including receiving a 1/10th ILP for every year their subscription is active for up to ten years. The benefits are explained further in this article.
The Premium Upgrade will also launch once the wallet is released, with many benefits for Markethive members. It increases your earning potential and allows you to monetize the initiatives Markethive has implemented. Click here to preview the features of the Premium Upgrade.
There's still time to upgrade to Entrepreneur One and be privy to the complete Markethive system that can be described as a cottage industry with money machines that champions everything else out there. You will be one of Markethive's early adopters and have a rare opportunity to cement your future of self-sovereignty.
How can you forge your future as an Entrepreneur and get your share of ILPs with the Entrepreneur One Loyalty Program?
By clicking on the Membership Upgrade tab on the main menu of the home page and following the prompts.
The precarious state the world is in provides us with the opportunity to take advantage of emerging technology to “unhook” from the global majority and its nefarious, corrupt systems.
Markethive truly wants everyone to succeed and have a sustainable business that’s making you a sustained income from anywhere in the world. That’s the Markethive promise, the vision, and what we’re building.
Be with us at the Sunday meetings at 10 am Mountain time to learn more and stay updated with the latest Markethive news. You’ll find the link to the meeting room in the Markethive calendar.
A Step In The Right Direction For The Crypto Industry
The narrative around BTC is constantly changing. First, BTC was seen as a risk-on asset correlated to the stock market. Then BTC was seen as an inflation hedge similar to gold. Now we’re seeing the narrative of BTC as uncensorable money emerge. So which one is it? Or could it be all three?
This week, we saw that long-awaited Executive Order finally issued. This had many people on the edge of their seats about what could be included, especially in the context of what was happening at the time, such as the Russian sanctions.
However, thanks to an initial leak of a statement from the Treasury, we got a glimpse into the tone it would be taking. An executive order would attempt to foster innovation in the space while maintaining investor protection.
When it was finally issued the day after, many in the space not only breathed a sigh of relief but were also pleasantly surprised. That’s because the tone set the previous day by Janet Yellen’s leaked press release was carried through with the Executive Order.
While there were still concerns about crypto being used for illicit purposes without sufficient oversight, Biden did say the rise of cryptocurrencies was “an opportunity to reinforce American leadership in the global financial system and at the technological frontier.”
There was quite a bit to cover in the EO, but here are some of the essential points:
No Bans or Regulations: Contrary to the FUD, there were no bans or knee-jerk reactions to curtail crypto use and adoption. The EO was specific in that more research was required to craft regulations better. Like regulations that could still foster innovation, as well as protect investors.
No new government bodies: Something else that was rumored to be in the works was a specific agency that would craft crypto legislation. This does not appear to be the case. However, there was a directive for federal agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the SEC, and the CFTC, to coordinate their efforts concerning their oversight of the crypto industry.
Research & Development on CBDCs: The EO stated that research on a US CBDC is encouraged with “the highest urgency.” This was on the back of the acknowledgment that over 100 other countries are already looking into CBDCs. More specifically, the EO will ask the Fed and any other relevant agencies or departments within the federal government to look at the possible risks of a CBDC and the potential benefits.
As Kristin Smith of the Blockchain association said in a recent post, this is a major milestone for the industry in the United States.
“If you are bullish on the long-term possibilities for cryptocurrencies to transform many of the foundational services of our lives, then this recognition by the federal government of crypto's fundamental importance can only be viewed as an affirmation of that position.”
Kristen goes on to say that the crypto industry welcomes open dialogue. The debate is no longer whether crypto will survive; the discussion has shifted to encouraging responsible innovation and how the United States can maintain a leadership position in this innovation.
Kristin Smith is the executive director of the Blockchain Association, the Washington D.C.-based trade association representing the most prominent and reputable organizations in the crypto industry.
In the video, she talks with Coindesk about the outcome of the EO.
What is significant about this Executive Order is that it shows how the attitude and thinking have evolved within the administration. Biden has not been the most pro-crypto individual in the White House by any flight of fancy. Still, even he now realizes the importance of crypto innovation is revealing.
Not so long ago, policymakers typically viewed crypto with confusion, disdain, or apathy. Last year, Congress tried to quietly slip misguided Internal Revenue Service requirements on crypto entities into a bill as a pay-for provision to raise cash for the infrastructure bill. Now, the president of the United States is publicly saying that the federal government must do its due diligence before moving forward with new regulations.
Jerry Brito of CoinCenter also said that the Executive Order shows that the Federal government recognizes cryptocurrency as a “legitimate, serious, and important part of the economy and society, and I think it’s a good signal to serious people who’ve been holding back from getting involved.”
It’s in no small part thanks to individuals like Kristin and Jerry and their organizations who have been standing up for the industry in Washington. From the big battles over the infrastructure bill provision last year to this relatively positive Executive Order.
There are, of course, also those pro-crypto politicians who have been standing up for the industry since last year. These include the likes of Tom Emmer, Pat Toomey, and Cynthia Lummis, to name but a few.
While this is a victory for the crypto industry, there is still work to be done. There are still anti-crypto zealots who seek to hinder the industry’s progress, and there are still countries that have yet to appreciate this technology's value.
The recent historical events exposed to the mainstream, such as Canada’s tyrannical move to block payments and withhold bank accounts of the people fighting for their rights and crypto donations to war-torn Ukraine, show the world that crypto has a real purpose and really is unstoppable.
One More Positive Outcome For Crypto
Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, it was reported that the EU Parliament committee voted against a ban on the Proof-of-Work mechanism underlying popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
A proposal put forward by the EU’s Economic Monetary Affairs Committee failed to win approval that would have effectively banned the mining and transactions of energy-intensive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The topic of crypto energy consumption has been a controversial and spirited debate, especially with the growing demand for Bitcoin and other cryptos in this ever-expanding sector. As cited in this report, the crypto industry adopted the move to renewable energy and will continue to do so. Bitcoin will become 100% renewable when all other sectors become 100% renewable.
Some would argue there seems to be no credence to this proposal other than an anti-crypto sentiment by those who voted for it. (Pictured below) A final tally of the committee’s voting showed the proposed clause was defeated with 23 votes in favor, 30 against, and six abstentions.
“Bitcoin won that vote,” said Michael Saylor, chief executive of software company MicroStrategy, during a Monday webinar hosted by the Economic Club of New York. “You need energy to create real property.”
Markus Ferber, a lawmaker and the spokesman for the Europe People’s Party (EPP) in the committee, said the failed proposal sent a “clear signal” that the EU wishes to support the crypto industry as it grows.
Ferber explained,
“Banning ‘proof of work’ would have meant for the EU to become crypto no man’s land,” If we want to foster innovation, we should be open to new technologies, not banning them.”
In the 1990s, a novel technology called the internet was catching on and growing fast, so regulators suddenly had to grapple with how to address it. Ultimately, Congress passed legislation that provided clear rules and necessary protections.
The move gave technology companies the breathing room to create better products, and the evolution of the various systems in technology is something we’ve never seen before. If Congress considers the same for crypto as it did for the internet, then we could see a similar explosion of innovation.
That innovation could have a positive impact on communities. Crypto technology has the power to provide financial services to the unbanked and underbanked, give individuals control over their finances, make data storage secure, private, and autonomous. It can create sovereign ecosystems to uphold freedom, liberty, and financial sovereignty for all the right reasons.
Could Solana Be The Answer To Decentralized Social Market Networks?
The Genisis Of The Blockchain Concept
The Blockchain concept was brought to light over 30 years ago by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta. They worked at Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), specializing in Telecoms research and development. As research scientists, they wrote a series of papers on cryptography, focusing on timestamping digital documents, and ended up creating a distributed immutable ledger. Some of their published materials and concept were adopted heavily by Satoshi Nakamoto in the 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper.
Image courtesy of Coingeeks Stuart Haber and W.Scott Stornetta
Haber and Stornetta were very influential and foundational in the development of the Blockchain we know today; however, almost every cryptocurrency blockchain today records transactions without reference to time. It took a few years, but someone eventually noticed that nobody was effectively keeping time in crypto and decided to do something about it.
Solana is the first blockchain crypto ecosystem to implement a timestamp mechanism by building a decentralized clock into its own native blockchain. Why is this important? Because Solana proves that it’s possible to be decentralized, secure, and scalable and shows that this can be done without using any layer two solutions like Ethereum 2.0’s Sharding protocol or Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
Solana is named after a beach slightly North of San Diego, in the US, where Solana cryptocurrency founder Anatoly Yakovenko worked for nearly 13 years as a software engineer at Qualcomm and was instrumental in developing the technology used in Andriod phones. Qualcomm is a Fortune 500 company specializing in software, hardware, and wireless technologies for mobile phones.
Initially, Anatoly was not a very big fan of cryptocurrency, and he wasn’t impressed with Bitcoin and was only slightly interested in Ethereum. That was until one strange night in 2017, with what he described as a “caffeine-induced fever dream,” Anatoly figured out how to improve cryptocurrency blockchains by time-stamping transactions. The analogy Anatoly uses to explain this process will help you understand how.
Anatoly Yakovenko’s Analogy
In time past, if two radio towers sent out a signal on the same frequency simultaneously, those signals would collide, and the result would be white noise. So, to combat this, radio towers began operating on a time schedule.
For example, the first radio tower would send out a signal on the 1st second, and the second radio tower would send out a signal on the 2nd second. Then the first tower would send out a signal again and so on. Cryptocurrency blockchains, such as Bitcoin, are currently operating like those old radio towers.
Sometimes, two different miners will produce a new Bitcoin block at the same time. The blockchain splits, and the longest of the two blockchains wins. Whichever of the two new chains produces a block first becomes the actual Bitcoin blockchain. The other one gets ditched by Bitcoin Miners, and all transactions on that chain get shafted.
This is where the terminology, “the longest chain,” comes in and is used for this temporary situation where you have two blockchains. As with the radio towers, this inefficiency could be fixed if everyone on the Bitcoin network worked in sync with a clock where each transaction could be timestamped.
While companies such as Google and Intel can timestamp data using a regular clock in their centralized servers, building a decentralized clock is not easy. Who would be the timekeeper on a decentralized blockchain? And what would happen if two or more parties had different timestamps for the same transaction?
Anatoly figured out that the same SHA256 mining algorithm used by Bitcoin could be tweaked to function as a decentralized clock. Combining this with an optimized proof of stake consensus would make it possible to process an insane amount of transactions per second while maintaining network security and decentralization.
Solana. Unique Technology In Current Blockchain Systems
So in November of 2017, Solana was born with the release of the Solana platform testnet in February 2018. The core Solana innovation is Proof of History (POH), a globally-available, permissionless source of time in the network that works before consensus. POH is not a consensus protocol or anti-Sybilmechanism but a solution to the clock problem.
Solana uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism to validate transactions, with Proof of History incorporated, and is a critical component of the proof of stake consensus. This protocol is a verifiable delay function that is repetitively outputted by the SHA256 algorithm.
This repetitive output functions as the ticking of Solana’s decentralized clock, which is used to timestamp transactions. Validator nodes take turns performing tasks on the Solana blockchain, including producing blocks.
Proof Of History Explained
The Solano Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and maintains the open-source project. Solana's scalability ensures transactions remain less than $0.01 for both developers and users.
Solana is all about speed, with 400 millisecond block times, and as hardware gets faster, so does the network. Solana is also censorship-resistant, meaning the network will remain open for applications to run freely and will never stop transactions.
Time Is Money In Your Pocket
The Solana project is highly complicated. So complicated that even crypto veterans hosting the Epicenter podcast had trouble wrapping their heads around it when they interviewed Anatoly.
At a glance, Solana is a high-performance Layer 1 Proof of Stake Blockchain. This means it does not need to use additional layer 2 Chains or solutions to handle transactions. Solana can process 50k to 65k transactions per second, making it the fastest Layer 1 cryptocurrency blockchain out there right now.
Like Ethereum, Solana is Smart contract compatible, meaning that developers can create new cryptocurrency tokens and decentralized applications on it. Solana already has over 250 projects and partners, including FTX, Tether USDT, USDC, Chainlink, BSN, and Serum.
At only 1000th of a cent to send a transaction, costing you just US$10 to send 1 million transactions on Solana’s blockchain, it’s no wonder many projects and applications are turning to the Solana ecosystem.
To put this in perspective, 1 million transactions on Ethereum today would cost you over US$300,000 worth of Eth, and that’s with the cheapest and slowest gas option possible. Solana's cheap transactions secret is in the POH and its verifiable delay function to the SHA256 mining algorithm, making it possible for all transactions to be timestamped.
This makes it possible for validator nodes on the network to organize transaction records after the fact without waiting for other validator nodes to check their records. On the Solana Blockchain, each new block produced is treated as a “tick” on this decentralized clock, and Solana’s clock ticks every 400 milliseconds.
The Secret To Fast Secure Transactions
So now we know how Solana organizes its data, but how can it generate so many transactions per second? A large part of this is due to Solana’s low barrier to entry to participate as a validator node on the network. To be a validator node on Solana, you need to stake their native SOL token. Here's the twist, though. There is no minimum stake required to be a validator node on Solana.
Compare this to the $70k you have to shell out to be a master node on Dash or the nearly $11k you need to become a validator node on Ethereum 2.0. Moreover, validator nodes on Solana fulfill all roles on the blockchain, and they are responsible for verifying transactions, storing transaction records, and generating new blocks.
For example, each validator node takes turns being the leader, which produces Solana blocks. Each turn lasts for four blocks, which is just 1.6 seconds, and the likelihood of being chosen to be a leader is proportional to the amount of SOL tokens you have staked. The fact that leaders change every 1.6 seconds makes it hard for a single validator node or even a group of validators to collude, attack or corrupt the network.
According to Coingecko, Solana has a total supply of 508 Million SOL tokens and a circulating supply of 320 Million.
Revealed in the Solana Climate FootprintAnalysis, Solana is already highly energy efficient. The most recent analysis from the Solana Foundation estimates that a single Solana transaction uses only 1,939 Joules, which is less than the amount of energy required to complete two Google Searches. That is the equivalent of leaving an LED lightbulb on (36,000 J per hour) for a little more than 3 minutes or running your refrigerator (810,000 J per hour) for about 11 seconds.
It is also notably much less energy than transactions on other Blockchains, such as an Eth 2 transaction (126,000 J), an Ethereum transaction (777,600,000 J), or a Bitcoin transaction (7,412,400,000 J) as researched by Digiconomist. However, I have another recent report that analyzes Bitcoin’s carbon footprint contrary to what some headlines purport.
2021 – A Big Year For Solana
As mentioned in Solana’s community update, in January 2021, when Solana was less than a year old, it had 10 billion total transactions, $100 million total value locked, (TVL) 360 global validators, and 70 total projects.
By December 2021, those numbers had taken off: 45.5 billion transactions, $11.4 billion (TVL), 1,328 global validators, and 5,145 total projects in the ecosystem, plus more than 1 million NFTs minted, 5,985 total public repos, and many more highlights.
The Solana blockchain can already host something as demanding as the Serum DEX, and Tether”s integration with Solana, along with many other high-profile major projects, is also a massive vote of confidence for Solana.
This is all thanks to Solana’s unique design. Its Proof of History mechanism takes its Proof of Stake consensus mechanism to the next level by timestamping transactions. The low entry barrier to becoming a staking validator node on the network is a huge selling point.
Combine these two elements with the fact that the validator nodes frequently take turns producing blocks and fulfilling other roles on the Solana Blockchain, and you have a recipe for scalability, decentralization, and security for all types of projects.
The company had a humble beginning; it was not propped up by hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital investors who wanted to turn a quick profit. It’s good to see that Solana does not appear to be heavily influenced by venture capital funding, which has been a significant issue for many other crypto projects.
It Takes A Special Blockchain To Cater To Social Media
Some blockchains have shied away from integrating social media platforms for several reasons. One is the amount of data and content generated on a platform, and many are not technologically able to cope with such a vast application or protocol.
Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Cardano, had an interesting conversation with SingularityNET CEO Ben Goertzel on decentralized social media. Although they are not ready for a platform like Markethive or even recognize it yet, they describe Markethive!
They speak of the dynamics and what’s needed to integrate a decentralized platform on a Blockchain. They analyze the shortcomings of Minds and Steemit, Facebook, and Twitter, stating that incentives are crucial, and it's always been an incentives problem.
“If you show that in a free market system you can achieve great wealth, or at least the prospect of great wealth by building a system of a certain design, then you'll end up getting a lot of it. The incentives models being aligned so that people can actually make money and produce money and do useful things with the system.”
The solving of top-level control issues by introducing a decentralized, AI-guided rating and reputation system that is self-policing and fosters a healthy level of interaction. It would also create a breeding ground for positive, creative, and beneficial content in which people's minds are being nudged toward positive growth.
Charles stated,
“You have to solve all three of those with one protocol design and one incentives design. And if you do that, then it's going to be this massive beacon that will attract tons of people to come in and start working on an augmented system and evolve it.
And it doesn't matter if it starts very small. It'll go very viral and eventually get to that Tesla-style hockey stick when Tesla figured out the entire model. Plenty of battery-powered cars before, but their particular model was the one that everything came together and then it had exponential growth.”
Because of Solana’s POH method, it can horizontally scale the rest of the blockchain, the same way that operating systems and databases scale their software. Each Solana team member has over a decade of experience working in operating systems GPU acceleration. Compilers, networks, etc., giving them extensive and deep experience optimizing software.
Solana is based on scaling software with hardware, with the vision of building the world's largest decentralized, single chart blockchain. The only way to do that is by scaling all the core technologies with hardware.
Scaling the Blockchain in this way delivers a cheap cryptographic base for financial transfers and, more importantly, outside of finance. It is a way for Solana to build a better web experience for social media communities regarding micropayments.
Also, advertising-based revenues can be relinquished for social networks, leading communities to generate value by self-expression, creating their own content, and growing the network and the connections within the community, creating a better world for all.
Listen to Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and architect of Solana, explain its submission to the Reddit Scaling Bake-Off.
Anatoly explains the team will work tirelessly to make sure that they can roll out the features Reddit wants for the entire 430 million Reddit user base. They aim to build the best possible experience for their communities to issue cryptocurrencies and have an open Smart contracts platform that is fully programmable.
Anatoly believes that technology can handle large crypto-based communities, and they’re just getting started. There is so much more to the Solana project. It’s all laid out in the Solana Documentation on its Website. https://docs.solana.com/introduction
Markethive is also working tirelessly to bring a beacon of light in these relentless dark times of the world. It is a monolithic project arming itself with complete autonomy on every level, rendering it impervious to the wicked tyranny that currently assails civilization globally.
There are various aspects of Markethive’s arsenal being forged simultaneously and will be ready for the millions seeking refuge and reclaiming their sovereignty. We now have our sovereign merchant account and preparing for our crypto wallet.
Solana and its technology look favorable as the conduit to assist in making Markethive the go-to for an alternative and autonomous, a censorship-free platform providing all components of social media, marketing, broadcasting, publishing, eCommerce, and business facilitation. A cottage industry economy for people from all walks of life to thrive.
Markethive also had a humble beginning and no prominent venture capitalists. It is built by the people, of and for the people. It is an ecosystem for entrepreneurs, and it’s the rank and file, the community that will profit, sharing the prosperity and abundance of every level of humanity.
Stay informed of Markethive’s progress as we make headway with the rollout of our new advanced system. A Divine fortress where evil cannot penetrate. Come to the weekly meetings every Sunday at 10 am Mountain Time, and you will find the invite link in the Markethive calendar.
This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Time To Move Out From Under The Oppressive Overreach Of Bureaucrats and Technocrats
They can be outsmarted. Good will always reign over evil, just like light cancels out the darkness.
If you consider yourself a sovereign being created and given life by a Universal Divine Consciousness, our God of perfect love, then you would be moved by the rallies and protests happening worldwide. Standing up for their rights and freedoms that have been brutally stripped away, with ongoing mandates and enforcements that have people living in fear of the pandemic narrative.
We have been living under this medical tyranny for two years now, and people are increasingly waking up to the real reasons behind this pandemic that has been in the planning phase for decades. If lockdowns, forced jabs, masks, and job losses due to mandates weren’t enough, the authorities now are trying to control the protests by freezing the protesters’ bank accounts, along with the people that donated to the cause.
The truckers rally or Freedom Convoy in Canada was the protest to start all protests globally. In late January, the organizers of the trucker protest started a GoFundMe page to crowdfund everything the truckers would need. After raising $10 million, GoFundMe pulled the page under pressure from Canadian politicians.
When the GoFundMe page was taken down, another crowdfunding website called GiveSendGo set up a few campaigns for the truckers, vowing not to bow to any political pressure. After raising almost another $10 million, Canadian courts issued an order to block payments from the platform.
Around this time, a crypto crowdfunding website called Tallycoin started accepting BTC donations on behalf of the truckers. It raised nearly $1 million, which included contributions from high profile people in the crypto community such as Kraken CEO Jesse Powell who sent a whole Bitcoin, and Elon Musk tweeting “Canadian truckers rule.”
Crypto Community Outraged
However, it came as a shock to the crypto community when an Ontario Supreme Court Justice ordered to freeze all digital assets and bank accounts associated with the Freedom Convoy. Under Prime Minister Trudeau’s authoritarian orders, the RCMP blocklisted 34 cryptocurrency wallets.
Brought about by invoking the Emergencies Act and amending it to include crowdfunding platforms and the service providers they use. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced,
“We are broadening the scope of Canada’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules so that they cover crowdfunding platforms and the payments service providers they use. These changes cover all forms of transactions––including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies… As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order.”
As mentioned in this report, it demanded that all FINTRAC regulated companies in Canada cease transacting with these wallets that affected over 25 BTC, worth approximately $1.4 million. However, the report stated that, while the police are eager to freeze any funds related to the Freedom Convoy, in all likelihood, this digital cash is far beyond the reach of the Government of Canada.
That may be the case for self-hosted or private wallets; however, centralized 3rd party wallets are at risk from a self-serving, overreaching authoritarian government with little regard for people and their civil liberties.
Upon hearing the news, Jesse Powell retaliated by tweeting,
“Yes. There's the risk of government retaliation. I'm less worried about the US government because US residents are heavily armed. You will never see widespread pet confiscation in the US, for example. I stand for human rights and believe that evil prevails when good men do nothing.”
When faced with the possibility that Kraken would be put in a position where they were ordered to freeze assets without judicial consent, Jesse replied that they would be forced to comply and could not protect you. He recommended not to keep funds in a centralized, regulated custodian wallet and to get your coins and cash out and only trade peer to peer.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice sent a Mareva Injunction, ordering Nunchuk (a multisig wallet) to freeze and disclose information about the assets involved in the Freedom Convoy. Here is Nunchuk’s official response;
On the US front, Congressman Warren Davidson has introduced the “Keep Your Coins” bill in the House of Representatives to protect individuals’ self-custodied crypto wallets from United States government agency control. The introduction comes just a day after the Canadian government invoked the Emergencies Act.
Congressman Davidson has been working on the bill since 2016 and has the support of crypto colleagues such as Cynthia Lummis. However, he says that he finds it unbelievable that Congress won’t unite to end the unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional practice of civil asset forfeiture, calling it government theft.
As stated in an article by the CATO Institute, Many Americans may not realize it, but the same principles that make this attack on Canadians’ financial freedom possible are ingrained in U.S. law. Specifically, they are featured in both the Bank Secrecy Act and the ever-expanding use of the third-party doctrine.
Holding cryptocurrency in a “self-hosted” wallet is the digital equivalent of holding physical cash in a traditional wallet. It gives the owner complete control over what’s contained inside it and the extent that they want to maintain their privacy. The same cannot be said of cryptocurrencies held in wallets or accounts maintained by third parties because, in the eyes of the federal government, relying on such third parties effectively waives an individual’s right to financial privacy.
So, it seems that financial censorship is a powerful force and even though crypto itself is uncensorable, the infrastructure used to interact with it is not. It means that it’s more important than ever for the cryptocurrency industry to create its own financial infrastructure.
What happened in Canada is a warning for why money needs to be money, and under complete control of the sovereign individual. Not an instrument of surveillance or an attempt to censor the public where a governmental Emergency Act can be changed on a whim to suit the dictators.
"We The People" Will Win In The End
Due to the fascism of governments the world is experiencing and the recent events, Markethive will have its own merchant account with its exchange to ensure complete privacy and anonymity. It also eliminates the threat of having your account closed or confiscated by authorities who feel the need to censor you and withdraw your liberties for whatever reason.
Markethive is building a fortress of an ecosystem to propagate the earth completely free from tyrannical forces and oppressors. This is a place for social interaction, with a sense of belonging, free from censorship and bias. It is a place to facilitate businesses with Storefronts and eCommerce, marketing, and broadcasting to disseminate your uncensored messages worldwide.
Markethive is a home for all commercial artists where their creative content can reach billions and accumulate followers. There's so much more to Markethive, including the ability to earn an income just by using the platform. A sovereign income that cannot be touched by the evil forces upon us.
As you may be aware, centralized servers can and do withdraw their internet access to any company or individual that doesn’t maintain their narrative. Markethive is perpetually working on a solution to bypass the centralized entities with a blockchain-driven distributed database capable of minting cryptocurrency, thereby creating an ecosystem for the community.
Empowering users with their own data and ways to earn crypto with applications built upon decentralized data networks increases trust between the individual and the platform. Blockchain technology is the underlying infrastructure of cryptocurrencies and distributed data systems, and the technology makes it possible to achieve a sovereign and autonomous environment and decentralized identity.
With its Maiar Wallet headed by Lucian Todea, the Elrond Blockchain Network is also ahead of the curve, committed to bringing a new wave of applications focusing on empowering privacy and agency by default for every individual. Maiar and Elrond stand as foundational layers to accelerate the transition and be an active part of the solution.
Both Elrond, as an internet-scale Blockchain and Markethive, the blockchain-driven social media, market, and broadcasting network, is concerned for those who suffer the economic and social harms from leaked data and lack of ownership of proprietary content. Plus, now the threat of having your livelihood confiscated (more to the point, stolen) by the so-called powers of illegitimate, marionette governments and the elites that pull their strings.
This is a spiritual war between good and evil and affects everyone on the planet. By the power of the collective, universal consciousness, people are now seeing the evil in the world. Markethive is God’s terrain and built with Divine inspiration and guidance for the awakened who seek refuge from the tyranny of the oligarchs and technocracy. Markethive is anend-times project.
A Critical Report On Bitcoin Mining And Its Carbon Footprint
Finally, FACTS That Counter The FUD
Cryptocurrency is more popular than ever as the mainstream populace realizes its potential as a new monetary system, especially in light of hyperinflation in our legacy financial system. The control that the “powers that be” already have over our sovereignty and the introduction of Central Bank CBDCs will only result in a more oppressive regime for sovereign citizens.
There are factions of people intent on discrediting crypto to minimize adoption, particularly Bitcoin or any Proof of Work protocol that relies on mining. Their primary focus is on damage to the climate due to fossil fuel emissions, even though the statistics for their claims have been negligible and inconclusive at best.
China’s recent ban of all crypto-mining is purported to be for the concern of excess carbon emissions. Arguably, the real reason for the ban was to push the Yuan CBDC already in circulation. Central Bank Digital Currencies are not a cryptocurrency but a financial system to exercise total control of its people. This ties in with China’s Social Credit System and publicized scoreboard pictured below.
The highly reputable firm, Coinshares, has published a recent report to counter this argument of concern ramped up last year, under the guise of ESG. The report illustrates how much of an effect Bitcoin mining has on the climate relative to other industries, including printing fiat currency, and what it means for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Mining report begins with a brief history of the concerns about the energy used by Bitcoin mining. This includes a famous response from Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, who already dealt with energy critics way back in 2010.
“The utility of the exchanges made possible by Bitcoin will far exceed the cost of electricity used, therefore not having Bitcoin would be the net waste.”
The authors of the report agree with Satoshi because the economic incentive to spend caused by the constant inflation of fiat is wasting a lot more energy than Bitcoin mining and destroying the environment.
The report also points out that concerns about Bitcoin mining are recurring subjects that tend to get resurrected in full force with each successive market cycle. In other words, when Bitcoin is on the rise and sensationalist commentators have not been shy about offering their (often poorly supported) opinions. However, many Bitcoin-fluent commentators have conveyed retorts to the contrary.
The authors also mentioned that they would be open-sourcing the model and the data they used. So that crypto critics and supporters alike can play around to see what it says about Bitcoin mining.
The second part of the Bitcoin mining report lays out the methodology the authors used to measure the carbon emissions created by Bitcoin mining. They start by making an essential point that “Bitcoin, like electric cars, is as green as the electricity you feed it, meaning that in a 100% renewable energy environment, Bitcoin would be 100% renewables driven.”
The report then breaks down the three components in their methodology. These are; calculating network efficiency, carbon emissions, and a variety of assumptions in terms of network efficiency.
The authors then estimated the total energy use by looking at the total Bitcoin Blockchain hash rate. When calculating carbon emissions, they looked at the different regions where Bitcoin miners are based and how those regions get their power logically. If a territory is getting 100% of its power from fossil fuels, it's safe to assume that any Bitcoin mining operations in that region use those same energy sources.
One of the most important results is Bitcoin's total energy use, a highly sought-after statistic by interest on both sides of the debate. It quotes that
“The Bitcoin mining Network uses approximately 0.05% of the total energy consumed globally. This strikes us as a small cost for a global monetary system, and on the global energy balance sheet, it amounts to a rounding error.”
The report unpacks how Bitcoins energy use is distributed across different regions, with the United States leading in crypto mining, since the China ban. Currently, it accounts for the most significant slice of the energy pie at around 42%. Kazakhstan comes in second place at 22%, and Canada is third with 11.5%. After crunching the numbers, the authors also found that China currently generates about 7% of Bitcoin’s hash rate, despite the country's crypto ban.
Another set of results relates to the carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining, and it starts with the statistic that made crypto news headlines. According to the author's analysis, the carbon emissions related to Bitcoin mining account for “less than 0.08% or less than 1/1000th of the global total.”
To put things into context, this is only around 4X more than the carbon emitted to just create fiat currencies. It's less than a third of the carbon emitted by the gold industry, almost less than a third of the carbon emitted by the global banking system, and slightly less than the carbon emissions of dryers each year.
Now, these comparisons are in stark contrast to the comparisons you see in clickbait headlines about crypto mining and the climate. Coin Bureau explains the FUD and false claims that crypto is bad for the environment in the video below.
Carbon Emissions On The Decline
The report indicates the decline in carbon emissions will be more aggressive in the Bitcoin mining industry due to the mobility of miners and their incentive to seek out the cheapest energy sources, which are almost always renewable. It allows miners to take advantage of cheap, newly constructed renewable energy generation faster than other industries.
“As of December 2021, we estimate the relative contributions of coal, gas, hydro, nuclear, and wind at 35%, 24%, 21%, 11%, and 4%, respectively. The remaining generation of 5% is a mixture of small amounts of oil, solar and other renewables, mainly geothermal.”
This means that more than 1/3 of Bitcoin's energy comes from renewable energy sources.
The US currently dominates the global Bitcoin hashrate, and in places like North Dakota, mining is solving flare gas emissions. In Wyoming, they focus on wind farms as an abundant renewable energy source. Solar panels are a prolific innovation to homes that reward homeowners and supplement veterans’ incomes.
As cited in the Bitcoin Mining Report, they expect Bitcoin miners to start consuming large amounts of wasted flare gas. If this becomes a large enough share of the mining energy input, the mining network could become carbon negative.
The authors point out that the best way to minimize Bitcoin mining emissions is for western governments to create a policy that attracts them to regions that use more renewable energy. Outright banning Bitcoin mining, punitive taxation, or oppressive regulation would just result in mining operations relocating to areas that use fossil fuels as their primary energy source.
The only reason why Bitcoin miners are in those regions right now is that the governments provide massive subsidies to fossil fuel companies, which makes dirty energy artificially cheaper than clean energy. While western countries are not entirely free from fossil-fuel subsidies, they are much smaller than in countries such as China, Kazakhstan, and Iran, where coal, oil, and gas are all heavily subsidized by the state.
The authors then pivot to an interesting possibility of whether it would be financially feasible to offset bitcoin’s existing carbon emissions through the purchase of carbon credits. Carbon credits are essentially certificates given to companies by government authorities when they do something green, such as adding a solar panel to their facilities.
Furthermore, the holders of the carbon credits can be traded. They're often purchased by companies that produce emissions to avoid emission sanctions, as one carbon credit gives its holder the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide. Interestingly, Tesla makes most of its money from selling carbon credits it receives.
Ironically, Tesla banned Bitcoin from being used to purchase its cars for being classed as environmentally unfriendly by erroneous sources, which up till now was speculative and arguably fear-mongering and profiteering. Think Al Gore.
Carbon credits are an interesting idea; however, the authors calculated and determined that the carbon output of Bitcoin mining could be offset at the cost of USD 200 per BTC. This works out to less than ½% of Bitcoin mining revenue, assuming an average price of $42K per Bitcoin.
As stated in the report,
Another interesting takeaway from the emissions figures is that they can be used to calculate the carbon offsetting cost of holding one bitcoin for one year. Assuming the cost of emissions is shared equally among all holders of bitcoin, at 18.9 million bitcoin outstanding, each bitcoin would require offsetting 2.2 tonnes of CO2 per year, or roughly the same as one return flight on Business class between New York to Tokyo.
The authors of The Bitcoin Mining Report conclude by emphatically stating,
In the grand scheme of things, the carbon emissions emitted by electricity providers supplying the Bitcoin mining network are inconsequential. At 0.08 % of global CO2e emissions, removing the entire mining network from global demand—and thereby depriving hundreds of millions of people of their only hope for a fair and accessible form of money—would not amount to anything more than a rounding error.
They say that to provide its combined services of open peer-to-peer, objective, censorship-resistant, and trust minimized participation in a global monetary network, Bitcoin strictly requires a non-zero amount of input energy in perpetuity. The future magnitude of this requirement is unknown. In other words, the authors acknowledge that the energy needed to maintain the Bitcoin blockchain will continue to increase indefinitely until the last Bitcoin is mined.
The authors also note that Bitcoin’s future energy use is irrelevant because almost every other industry will require more energy in the future as well. What's important is that this energy use doesn't involve any fossil fuels, to which the authors say, “Bitcoin will be 100% renewable, as soon as our electricity generation is 100% renewable.”
Currently, the vast majority of energy is used for mining new coins, but mining is programmatically preset to decay to zero over the next 100 years geometrically. Already by the decade of 2040, more than 99% of all bitcoins will have been mined. Once mining is effectively over, the vast majority of the energy requirement will result directly from market demand for Bitcoin transaction settlement through transaction fees offered to miners by consumers.
They then conclude the report with,
“Our focus should be on building out renewable power generation, not on stifling the development of monetary technology. When analyzed over the long term and in the proper context, we believe that the emission costs of Bitcoin are dwarfed by its benefits. ”
Bitcoin is more than a cryptocurrency. It's decentralized and the most secure payment network. Its security is made possible by the proof of work (POW) consensus mechanism. Also, it’s the most battle-tested Blockchain and considered the digital gold or store of value in which all cryptocurrencies are based, so Bitcoin is the ideal currency to hold.
The Bitcoin Blockchain has its share of performance issues compared to the emerging Proof of Stake (POS) protocols, like Elrond and Cardano Blockchain Networks. However, going forward, some crypto projects such as Stacks are building a Smart Contract compatible layer for the Bitcoin Blockchain, and others like the Lightning Network are building seriously scalable payment systems.
As it happens, institutional investors value security more than anything else. And one of the only things standing in the way of them and BTC are their environmental concerns, which will hopefully subdue as this groundbreaking report circulates.
There are decentralized ecosystems emerging in the cryptocurrency space in various industries including the social media and marketing spectrum that rely on credible, infallible Blockchain systems, be it POW or POS. As technologies advance, both protocols will offer an alternative financial system delivering financial freedom and sovereignty at minimal cost to the climate and surrounding environments.
.png)
.png)
