Monthly Archives: May 2020

A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin.

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Bitcoin faces a key technical event Monday known as the "halving." Due to take place later in the day, industry insiders are debating what effect it might have on the cryptocurrency market.

So what is the halving? You can think of it as an update to the underlying network that logs all bitcoin transactions. There are so-called "miners" on this network with specialized computing rigs competing to solve complex math problems to validate bitcoin transactions. Whoever wins that race gets rewarded in bitcoin.

On Monday, the amount of bitcoins rewarded to those miners is set to get cut in half. This is something that takes place roughly every four years to keep a lid on inflation. The current reward stands at 12.5 bitcoins, or BTC, so that will now be reduced to 6.25 BTC.

Unlike fiat currencies like the dollar, there is no central bank that manages the supply of bitcoin or its inflation rate. Instead, this is maintained thanks to a rule written into bitcoin's code by pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

The total number of bitcoins that will ever be mined is capped at 21 million. Rewards to bitcoin miners keep halving until they reach zero. Bitcoin bulls say that this scarcity is part of what underpins the cryptocurrency's value and make it a potential "hedge" against currencies that are vulnerable to devaluation in times of economic crisis.

"With its finite and scheduled supply and decentralized architecture, BTC, in particular, offers the certainty needed in times like these, and will likely become a new safe-haven asset class," cryptocurrency lending start-up Nexo wrote in a note last week.

Investors are likely to closely watch the reaction of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices to the halving event later in the day. Some believe the event has been mostly priced into markets already, but there are others who think it could boost prices.

The past two halvings led to opposite short-term price movements, according to British bitcoin exchange CoinCorner. Bitcoin climbed 7% one month on from the first halving event in 2012, but slipped 10% a month after the second one in 2016. However, the price rose 944% six months on from the 2012 halving and 38% in the same period in 2016.

"While many anticipate bullish movements post-halving, we believe the supply shock that comes immediately after the halving event should have limited impact on price in the short term," Lennard Neo, head of research at Singapore-based bitcoin index fund provider Stack, said in a note Thursday. "As the block reward for miners decreases, there will be a time lag as miners (supply side) reposition towards market equilibrium."

"We anticipate that it could take 6-9 months before this equilibrium is found and Bitcoin realises halving-induced price appreciation. That said, further turmoil in the broader economies could accelerate its upward trajectory."

But there are also fears that the 2020 halving will also have an impact on miners' earnings, as they'll need more competitive mining gear to win bitcoin rewards.

"Miners currently need to produce more work to get the same reward," said Ed Hindi, CIO at Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency hedge fund Tyr Capital. "Post halving their expected returns will be cut in half."

Bitcoin has risen more than 20% since the start of the year. The virtual currency, known for its volatility, suffered at sharp drop over the weekend. It briefly touched $10,000 on Friday but has since declined to around $8,800 as of Monday morning.

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Bitcoin investors are bracing for a key technical event here's what you need to know - CNBC

A cryptocurrency investor accused a teen hacker and his crew of juvenile hackers for stealing $24 million in cryptocurrency via a SIM swap attack. According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Michael Terpin, the founder and CEO of blockchain advisory firm Transform Group, claimed that a teenage hacker Ellis Pinksy (aged 15), along with his group of teen hackers, compromised his phone and stolen his cryptocurrency in 2018. Terpin is suing Pinsky (now aged 18) for $71 million under a federal racketeering law that allows for triple damages, Bloomberg reported.

Pinsky and his other cohorts are in fact evil computer geniuses with sociopathic traits who heartlessly ruin their innocent victims lives and gleefully boast of their multi-million-dollar heists, Terpin said in his complaint.

Terpin stated that Pinskys group identified people with cryptocurrency holdings and illicitly took control of their phones by launching SIM swapping attack to divert authentication messages, gain information, and breach victims cryptocurrency accounts.

What Is a SIM Swapping Attack?

A SIM swapping attack is one of the simplest ways for cybercriminals to bypass users 2FA protection. In a SIM swap attack, the attacker calls service providers and tricks them into changing a victims phone number to an attacker-controlled SIM card. This allows the attacker to reset passwords and gain access to victims sensitive data.

In a similar cyber heist, Jack Monroe, a popular food blogger and activist, revealed that she lost about 5,000 (around US$ 6,395) from her bank account after being hit by a SIM-Swapping attack. The British-based writer stated that her phone number was seized and re-activated on another SIM card, despite using two-factor authentication (2FA). Monroe stated the attackers were able to receive her 2FA messages and accessed her bank and payment accounts.

It seems my card details and PayPal info were lifted from an online transaction. The phone number was ported to a new SIM, meaning criminals access/bypass authentication and authorize payments. Im an autistic, methodical, ruthless investigator, and I have a LOT of info to go on, Jack Monroe said.

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Teen Hackers Accused of Cryptocurrency Theft, Sued For $71 Mn - CISO MAG

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says a new bill being considered by lawmakers in California would have a major impact on digital assets and the future of finance.

The legislation seeks to change the meaning of securities under state law to exempt certain cryptocurrencies. Lawmakers and regulators in the US have struggled to clarify which digital currencies are securities within the context of the Howey Test, a federal metric used to determine if a particular asset qualifies as an investment contract.

According to the proposal, assets whose profits do not fully depend on the management efforts of third parties will not be considered as securities.

This bill would create an exception from the above definition by providing that a digital asset meeting specified criteria is presumptively not an investment contract within the meaning of a security. The bill would allow that presumption to be rebutted upon good cause shown by clear and convincing evidence by the Commissioner of Business Oversight, as specified.

If approved, California would be one of the first states in the nation to set a clear definition of digital assets, and Armstrong believes it would position the West Coast as the main hub for a new financial ecosystem.

This would be huge for California if it happens ensuring the future of finance is built on the west coast.

So many startups are struggling with this right now the current securities laws are well intentioned, but stifling a lot of innovation right now.

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Coinbase CEO Says New Cryptocurrency Bill Would Have Major Impact on Future of Finance - The Daily Hodl

Longtime hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jonestold CNBC on Monday that Wall Street could be witnessing the historic "birthing of a store of value" through popular cryptocurrency bitcoin.

"It's a great speculation," Jones said on "Squawk Box."

He said he has "just over 1% of my assets in bitcoin. Maybe it's almost 2. That seems like the right number right now."

"Every day that goes by that bitcoin survives, the trust in it will go up," he added.

Jones, founder and chief executive at Tudor Investment and largely considered one of the best macroeconomic traders ever, told investors in a recent letter that he's betting on bitcoin as part of a far-larger strategy of maximizing profits.

For investors who have followed Jones' success in predicting the path of economic events, including his prescient bets against the U.S. stock market in 1987, his foray into cryptocurrency may seem unusual. But Jones defended his new investment, especially versus other stores of value like U.S. dollars.

Modern government-backed currencies, he argued, will almost always diminish in value over time. Many investors shy away from cash over the long term as legislatures continue to spend more than they generate in revenues and lean on central banks to pump cash into the economy, decreasing the purchasing power of each individual dollar.

"If you take cash, on the other hand, and you think about it from a purchasing power standpoint, if you own cash in the world today, you know your central bank has an avowed goal of depreciating its value 2% per year," Jones said. "So you have, in essence, a wasting asset in your hands."

Bitcoin, on the other hand, isn't subject to the whims of government spending, but is itself risky because it's only 11 years old, Jones said.He also confirmed that he has a portion of his portfolio invested in gold, a popular inflation hedge, and said he thought the metal could go "substantially higher" if inflation spikes.

"When I think of bitcoin, look at it as one tiny part of a portfolio. It may end up being the best performer of all of them, I kind of think it might be," he said. "But I'm very conservative. I'm going to keep a tiny percent of my assets in it and that's it. It has not stood the test of time, for instance, the way gold has."

Jones also said Monday that the economy would be in a "Second Depression" if the coronavirus pandemic doesn't get contained in a year.

The investor told CNBC in late March that the stock market could shoot higher by June if Covid-19 cases began to peak. The S&P 500 is up more than 15% since those comments on March 26 and the Nasdaq Composite has since turned positive for 2020.

Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.

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Paul Tudor Jones calls bitcoin a 'great speculation,' says he has almost 2% of his assets in it - CNBC

It hasnt been long since bitcoin broke the ground in 2009, turning the monetary landscape upside down. With its decentralized nature and exceptional privacy, cryptocurrency quickly became popular among young people trying to make quick money.

As interesting as it is for tech and financial experts alike, theres no way around the harsh truth thats often swiped under the rug while discussing crypto: it damages the environment and the communities where its mined.

There has been extensive research done on the disruptive effects of cryptocurrency on the financial market, however, fewer people have highlighted the environmental damage that it causes along the way.

What is crypto mining?

In order to maximize their profits, crypto miners always try to seek out places with low-cost electricity and weak environmental policies, ultimately creating hazards for the environments and impact local populations without benefitting the communities.

The way the crypto miners produce currency is through an energy-intensive process requiring vast computing resources. According to recent estimates, over the course of a year, cryptocurrency consumes around 64 TWh (terawatt hours) of energy. Ranking it on top of the country of Switzerland by energy consumption, which 58 TWh per year.

As financial technologies become more and more accessible, ultimately making our lives much easier, there are certain aspects of fintech that create lasting damage to human health and the environment around us. Some activities that were once only a prerogative of the privileged few, like foreign exchange trading, are now accessible for everyone with a smartphone. This mobile trading FX brokers list shows just how much more accessible it is for virtually anyone to get involved in the foreign exchange market. With the increased accessibility to both FX, crypto, and other interesting new financial technologies, there should also be an increased awareness of the potential damaging side-effects that they might entail.

Due to its decentralized control, most cryptocurrencies have emerged from the grassroots communities, rather being corporate or government managed. To put it simplistically, cryptocurrencies are generated by using computers to solve puzzles that are stored in a blockchain, which are accessible on a decentralized database.

The difficulty of the puzzles increases proportionally to the number of miners competing to unlock bitcoins. In order to continuously solve the algorithms, mining servers require a tremendous source of energy. Ultimately, if the energy expense of mining exceeds the income from the currency produced, there is no more motivation to continue mining, which also significantly undermines the infrastructure that validates its monetary value.

In practice, this means that the possibility of profiting from mining cryptocurrency rises with the more powerful computer, faster internet connection, and the cheaper infrastructural services, such as electricity.

The damaging environmental impact of crypto mining

Despite its digital nature, the impact that cryptocurrency has on the physical environment and the welfare of communities where its mined cant be ignored.

With each cryptocurrency, the rising electricity requirements to produce a single coin can lead to an almost inevitable cliff of negative net social benefit, states a recent study about the monetary price of health and air quality impacts of cryptocurrencies.

Researchers claim that although mining activities produce financial value, electricity use creates crypto damage a term coined to illustrate the effects of digital exchange on human health and the environment.

There are ongoing debates on the exact extent of the impact that mining has on the environment. Even though it is agreed upon that crypto mining damages the environment, the impacts are markedly higher in places where the mining is dependent on dirty energy sources, such as the coal-fueled crypto mines in Mongolia. Coal energy sources offer prices that are 30% cheaper than the average energy consumption rates for industrial firms. With that being said, any cryptocurrency mined in China will produce four times as much CO2 pollution as the volume produced by renewable energy sources in Canada.

Sustainable way forward

With the growing popularity of cryptocurrency, as demonstrated by it entering more mainstream markets and being embraced by traditional financial institutions, we can surely foresee that crypto isnt going to go anywhere anytime soon. With the damage that it currently does to the environment, its also evident that its not sustainable, for now.

There are several promising figures that show a sustainable way of going forward with the crypto mining industry.

Recent figures show that crypto-mining facilities are looking into subsidizing the development of renewable energy resources in order to seek the cheapest resource to optimize the consumption value. The relationship between renewable energy and crypto-mining is well demonstrated in the bitcoin mining operations in China. The provinces hosting the most crypto-mining facilities correlate with the ones producing energy with renewable resources.

80% of Chinas bitcoin mining operations were based in Sichuan in 2017 a province that generated approximately 90% of its energy production from renewable resources, thereby accounting for 43% of global Bitcoin mining operations at the time.

The profitability of cryptocurrency mining is heavily dependent on its market value coupled with the price of electricity. If the value of a cryptocurrency decreases and goes below its cost of production, mining becomes unprofitable due to the large costs of the energy it needs. The most well-off crypto-miners work at the lowest cost by accessing the cheapest electricity capable of achieving intense use. As a result, miners are finding inexpensive energy markets while taking advantage of policy conditions that do not control how energy can be consumed.

Going forward, the crypto industry can become more sustainable if it commits to using renewable, clean energy in order to sustain itself. As the statistics show, in the long run, renewable energy is the future of electricity consumption. Utilizing the low-cost nature, crypto miners have an incentive to continue mining while minimizing their damage to the environment. However due to the decentralized nature of crypto that makes it so attractive to many will come as a detriment to the initiative, as at the end of the day theres no one to make the decision to go green but the individual miners.

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No way around it: the irreparable damage cryptocurrency does to the environment - Green Prophet

For the first time in nearly four years, and for only the third time in its 11-year history, bitcoin is about to undergo a seismic shift to its technologicalfoundations. The halving event will not only affect how bitcoin is created, it will likely also have a significant impact on the entire cryptocurrency market.

Scheduled to take place next month, the event all stems from bitcoin's unique digital design. Unlike traditional currencies, the number of bitcoins that will ever exist is fixed. The mathematical code underpinning the cryptocurrency means that only 21 million bitcoins can ever be produced and no amount of quantitative easing can artificially inflate this.

More than 18 million bitcoins have already been produced through a process called mining, whereby new units of the cryptocurrency are generated by networks of computers programmed to solve complex mathematical puzzles.

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The imminent halving of bitcoin, however, is about to make this processconsiderably more difficult.

The halving event, sometimes referred to as thehalvening, is essentially the opposite of quantitative easing so much so that some crypto enthusiasts refer to it as quantitative hardening.

As the name indicates, the halving cuts the production of bitcoin in half in such a way that mining the cryptocurrency only generates 50 per cent of the yield it used to.

It takes place roughly once every four years whenever 210,000 blocks have been mined, and is predicted to take place on 12 May. This halving will see mining rewards fall from 12.5 bitcoins per block, to 6.25 bitcoins.

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

The event is not determined or governed by a centralised body.Instead,it is hard-coded into bitcoins underlying blockchain that was created in 2008 by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin was developed as an antidote to the perceived flaws in the established financial system, which had contributed to the global crisis of 2007-2008. By cutting the supply, the halving event is designed to ensure the scarcity of bitcoin while preventing extreme price inflation.

Previous halvings have resulted in sharp price increases and severe market volatility for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as traders and miners adjust to the new production limitationsof the worlds most valuable virtual currency.

The halving in 2012 saw bitcoins value shoot up by 80 times, while the 2016 halving preceded a 300 per cent rise in bitcoins value. The simplest explanation for these price increases is the basic economic principle ofsupply and demand: if the supply suddenly drops but demand stays the same, the price will inevitably rise. But the decentralised and semi-anonymous nature of bitcoin means it is difficult to attribute specific gains or losses to a specific event.

Mays bitcoin halving comes in the middle of a global economic meltdown, though it is not yet clear whether collapsing markets is driving money away from traditional assets into cryptocurrency. Some analysts claim that bitcoin is becoming a safe-haven asset similar to gold, and early evidence suggests that investors may already belooking towards it as an alternative store-of-value.

The CEO of one of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges recently revealed data showing a spike in deposits of $1,200 the exact same size as the US governments stimulus cheque.

Bitcoin is yet to be tested by global economic disruption on this scale, and it may well go the same way as stocks or other assets as investors rush to liquidate holdings into cash. Some analysts are hopeful, however, that the halving event combined with traditional market chaos could see the cryptocurrency reach above the record highs of $20,000 that it saw in 2017.

"Many eyes have been on bitcoin since the bull run of 2017, with people eagerly awaiting its next big moment. We believe that moment is coming and we can expect to see an explosive year for bitcoin," Danny Scott, CEO of British-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinCorner, toldThe Independent.

"With both the current unexpected global crisis and the halving event, we can only expect the price of bitcoin to continue in the direction that everything is currently pointing: towards that $20,000 figure and beyond."

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Bitcoin halving explained: What is cryptocurrency event and will it boost price? - The Independent

The cryptocurrency market has been painted with one big bearish flag led by the major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin price plunged from highs close to $10,000 on Saturday to intraday lows at $8,105. Ethereum could not hold above $200 due to its correlation with Bitcoin price. Ether touched lows at $180 but is now trading 11.21% lower at $186. The third-largest cryptocurrency has not been spared as it has spiraled to $0.1780 (intraday low) from Saturday levels above $0.22.

The selloff in the market is taking place less than two days the 2020 block reward halving. The drop was not expected many traders must have been caught off guard. For instance, data by analytics platform Skew shows that liquidations hit highs $226 million.

Other cryptocurrencies have also recorded double-digit losses include Bitcoin Cash (11.5%), NEO (10.66%), Litecoin (10.81%), IOTA (12.16%), EOS (10.91%) and Ethereum Classis (12.83%).

Intriguingly, Bitcoin price bounced off the 61.8% Fibonacci level to exchange hands at $8,611. This shows the willingness of the investors to buy in anticipation of a reversal above $9,000. Also holding the price in place is the 200-day SMA (0$8,053). However, the sharp slope of the RSI suggests that selling pressure is still high in spite of the bounce from the intraday lows. Therefore, other support areas to keep in mind include $8,000, .the 50-day SMA and $7,000.

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Cryptocurrency Market Update: Bloodbath as Bitcoin nosedives to $8,000, Ethereum $180 and Ripple $0.1780 - FXStreet

The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But you can significantly boost your returns by picking above-average stocks. To wit, the iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Inc. (CVE:IMIN) share price is 56% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market decline of around 14% (not including dividends) in the same period. So that should have shareholders smiling. In contrast, the longer term returns are negative, since the share price is 33% lower than it was three years ago.

See our latest analysis for iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency didnt have any revenue in the last year, so its fair to say it doesnt yet have a proven product (or at least not one people are paying for). So it seems shareholders are too busy dreaming about the progress to come than dwelling on the current (lack of) revenue. Investors will be hoping that iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency can make progress and gain better traction for the business, before it runs low on cash.

Companies that lack both meaningful revenue and profits are usually considered high risk. There is almost always a chance they will need to raise more capital, and their progress and share price will dictate how dilutive that is to current holders. While some such companies do very well over the long term, others become hyped up by promoters before eventually falling back down to earth, and going bankrupt (or being recapitalized). iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency has already given some investors a taste of the sweet gains that high risk investing can generate, if your timing is right.

iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency had liabilities exceeding cash by CA$236k when it last reported in February 2020, according to our data. That makes it extremely high risk, in our view. So were surprised to see the stock up 122% in the last year , but were happy for holders. Its clear more than a few people believe in the potential. The image below shows how iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrencys balance sheet has changed over time; if you want to see the precise values, simply click on the image.

In reality its hard to have much certainty when valuing a business that has neither revenue or profit. One thing you can do is check if company insiders are buying shares. Its usually a positive if they have, as it may indicate they see value in the stock. Luckily we are in a position to provide you with this free chart of insider buying (and selling).

Its nice to see that iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 56% over the last year. Theres no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 1.4% per year over five years. This makes us a little wary, but the business might have turned around its fortunes. Its always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. Weve identified 6 warning signs with iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (at least 4 which are potentially serious) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.

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Investors Who Bought iMining Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (CVE:IMIN) Shares A Year Ago Are Now Up 56% - Simply Wall St