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In our Friday articles, we take a deep dive into the current state of Bitcoin. Every Friday we will continue to publish brief State of Bitcoin newsletters to keep subscribers up to date on news from the Bitcoin industry. For full disclosure, Brandon and Daniel are strong believers in Bitcoin and both have allocated portions of their portfolios to BTC (HODL baby).
Dan’s top 3 stories from the week:
Intel’s new mining system has some catching up to do: Intel revealed more details about their “Bonanza Mine” ASIC chips this week at the Solid State Circuit Conference. The first generation of the chip - referred to as BMZ1 - measures 4.14 x 3.42mm for a total of 14.16mm^2 of silicon. Each ASIC has 258 mining engines, each computing parallel SHA256 double hashes and operating at what Intel describes as an 'ultra-low' voltage of 355mV. Each ASIC consumes an average of 7.5-Watts while hitting up to 137 Ghash/s. Intel also debuted a mining system, which includes 300 chips and delivers up to 40TH/s at 3600W of power, well behind Bitmain's Antminer S19j Pro 104T, which delivers 104 TH/s at 3068W and their S19j XP, which delivers 140 TH/s at 3010W. While Intel’s entrance in the market is a welcomed sight, it’s clear that they have a lot of catching up to do to remain competitive.
Bitfury launches new mining center in Ontario: Bitfury Group announced this week that they have launched a new bitcoin mining center in Sarnia, Ontario. The facility is already operational and is expected to reach a capacity of 16MW by the end of February and 28MW by the end of May of this year. The project has a long term, total expansion potential of up to 200MW. This new operation expands Bitfury’s global footprint; they now operate data centers in 6 countries, including Canada, Norway, Iceland, and Central Asia. On top of mining, Bitfury has a strong reputation for in-house development of ASIC mining chips and immersion-cooling technologies. I love to see bitcoin mining companies focus on in-house development and vertical integration - count me in the bullish group on Bitfury.
Illinois and Georgia using tax breaks to attract miners: Last week, Illinois and Georgia both introduced bills that would extend tax breaks to cryptocurrency mining companies. The Georgia bill would amend the state’s existing tax code “to exempt the sale or use of electricity used in the commercial mining of digital assets.” The Illinois bill would modify the definition of "qualifying Illinois Data center" to include data centers engaged in cryptocurrency mining. States that cannot offer access to abundant and reliable energy will need to find other creative ways to entice bitcoin miners. According to the US Energy Information Administration’s rankings for total energy production, Illinois ranked 11th and Georgia ranked 28th.
Brandon’s top 3 stories from the week:
Bitcoin Legal Tender Law to be introduced Mexico Senate: Nuevo León Senator Indira Kempis visited El Salvador earlier this year and wants to introduce a law to make bitcoin legal tender in Mexico. It seems like the bitcoin bug is running through Latin America as more and more LatAm countries are proposing bitcoin as legal tender. The success in El Salvador cannot be understated and is having a massive impact on the implementation of bitcoin in Latin America.
Brazil to Regulate Crypto and Bitcoin: The Brazilian Senate will now vote on a bill that allows Brazil to regulate cryptocurrency and bitcoin. This bill was unanimously passed by the CAE which gives promise for the Senate vote going forward. The bill is intended to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin for illegal activity. Bitcoin cannot be regulated by any entity if used with self custody and other various privacy practices and the regulation points to a large portion of the Brazilian population using bitcoin. Regulation can be good, but is also a way for the government to keep control so this is something to monitor going forward.
Canada Warns Crypto Exchanges to Not Encourage Self Custody: The Canadian government has already frozen bank accounts and now the Canadian government has informed law enforcement about tweets from CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong and Kraken CEO Jesse Powell encouraging users to take their crypto and bitcoin off exchanges into cold storage. This is where the power of bitcoin can be highlighted. Bitcoin cannot be stopped. It cannot be taken unless you leave it on an exchange. A motto in the Texas Revolution was “Come and Take it” and that is fitting for your bitcoin. Hold it in cold storage and make them pry it out of your hands. That is the power of bitcoin.
Quick word about stacking tax-advantaged sats!
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A quick look on chain:
Current price: $38,462 (last week -5.1%; last month -28.4%; last year -22.6%)
Market Cap: $730.1B
Spent Output Profit Ratio: 0.9954
Current block height: 724,805
Mean block interval: 10min. 55sec.
Meme of the week:
What would the BTC community do without memes? Every week on State of the Coin, we feature our favorite meme of the previous week. If you create or see a meme that you like and want us to consider featuring it, tag us on Twitter or instagram (both @Greencandleit)!
Video version:
For our complete rip, check us out on the pd:
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Happy Friday everyone - get after it this weekend!
Dan and Brandon
Disclosure: The authors of this writing hold positions in cryptocurrency mentioned in this article. That cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. The article was written by Daniel Kuhman, Brandon Keys, and occasionally a guest writer; it expresses the author's own opinions. They are not receiving compensation for it. The information presented in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way should be construed as financial advice or recommendation to buy or sell any stock or cryptocurrency. None of the authors of this article are financial advisors. We encourage all readers to do further research and do your own due diligence before making any investments.