Bitcoin KILLED By Jpeg NFT or Just Another Clickbait? | Crypto Tavern #4
WE’RE BACK: Bitcoin mines a block with NFT and dies? Michael Saylor shills Lightning for reward programs. Sri Lanka’s central bank thinks Bitcoin would make his country’s crisis even worse, and more!
The good thing about the crypto space is that there’s always something exciting or weird going on, and we’re about to review it all in this week’s edition of the Crypto Tavern.
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Bitcoin Network Mines The Largest Block To Date Containing An NFT
So last week, the largest block ever of 3.96 MB was mined on the Bitcoin network. The reason why this block was near its maximum capacity is that it had this awkward and deliberately large jpeg embedded in it:
Doing things like that became possible thanks to all the new benefits that the Taproot feature brought to Bitcoin in November 2021, which allowed the opportunity to extend the length of Bitcoin transactions to almost the full size of a block using a project called Ordinals.
And it’s not the first time curious things were immortalized on the BTC blockchain. Just recently, the DOOM game was also inscribed into it.
Is this the world we’ve created? Is this the actual ending of Bitcoin? (Spoiler alert: no)
While some people see it as a positive for the chain as it can result in bringing more fees and use cases for the Bitcoin network, others believe it’s dangerous as the spamming of such huge blocks could be counted as an attack on the network and hurt its financial and transactional utility.
A genuinely controversial topic. However, that's not how Bitcoin dies, as you'll soon find out in the segment below, where we review what more intelligent people are talking about this particular topic on Twitter.
Michael Saylor Teases Lightning Network Solutions For Enterprise
As we all should’ve expected, MicroStrategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor continues unraveling his vision for Bitcoin, revealing his plans to introduce Bitcoin Lightning Network solutions for enterprises seeking to introduce reward programs for employees and customers.
And it makes sense. Lightning allows global payments in real-time for a fraction of a penny, making it the most efficient network for transferring money, which is something anyone would appreciate if presented in the right way.
Since Saylor is the biggest BTC whale besides Satoshi himself, the move to create Lightning-based services is not surprising and almost expected. If someone can onboard millions of users to Lightning, it’s Saylor.
Cathie Wood Doubles Down On $1M BTC Price Prediction
It seems that the Bitcoin enthusiast and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood is still super bullish on Bitcoin's price in the long term. During an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Cathie said her company had done its research, and her personal conviction of ~$1M BTC by 2030 remains intact.
Cathie explains that transparency and decentralization are essential to Bitcoin's future success as they are increasingly valued globally.
Currently, ARK Invest holds nearly 6.4 million GBTC shares worth around $53M, so it's unclear whether the prediction is justified or a bit hopium-induced. However, ARK Invest is known to do its due diligence, and its base case of $500K BTC by 2030 doesn't sound too crazy, judging by history.
Sri Lanka Refuses To Adopt Bitcoin In Fear Of “Making Crisis Even Worse”
Billionaire investor and venture capitalist Tim Draper thought it was a good idea to pitch Bitcoin to the Sri Lankan government. Since Sri Lanka struggles with high inflation and corruption, the idea of adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender doesn't seem so far-fetched, especially when El Salvador has already shown it can be done.
But Sri Lanka thinks the opposite, as its central bank governor told Tim that he doesn't want to "make the crisis worse". However, he couldn't explain how adopting Bitcoin would lead Sri Lanka to a more profound crisis. Who knows, he may have a better idea. Time will tell.
Last time, we asked you: is Bitcoin money?
We wanted to know if people perceive Bitcoin as money, so we created a poll. Here are the results:
According to the results, 58% of respondents believe Bitcoin is money, while 42% do not. It's clear there's no unanimous opinion, but is there any objective answer to this question?
Well, the first step is determining what attributes money must have to be considered as such and whether Bitcoin possesses them.
There are five main points to consider when evaluating if something can be money: acceptability, divisibility, portability, durability, and scarcity.
Does Bitcoin meet these criteria for money? Read more about it in this blog post, or buy NordVPN with Bitcoin or another crypto like the chad above to prove doubters wrong (and yes, this is a shameless ad plug).
!!! HOT PIECE OF CONTENT OF THE WEEK !!!
Web3 projects are popping up all around like mushrooms after rain. That’s why DappRadar, a platform for the distribution and analysis of decentralized applications (Dapps), has become a go-to platform for scouting these projects.
Their clients are from the same web3 world, so they always prefer to do business in cryptocurrencies. However, according to Modesta Masoit, CFO of DappRadar, the trouble starts when this money needs to be converted into euros at the exchange and then transferred to the company's bank account.
In the past, when a customer paid with cryptocurrencies, DappRadar's money went to a centralized exchange, from which it later went to a bank account. However, banks start asking a lot of questions, asking for various documents, and delaying payments for a week or more.
The slow process of transferring money from blockchain to a bank account was one of many obstacles the company ran into. High exchange fees and time spent by employees trying to figure out where and why payments get stuck in banks also led to the decision to integrate cryptocurrencies more deeply into business processes.
However, all these problems were solved by employing payment gateway services, and now the process is more straightforward - the received funds go straight to CoinGate while the customer passes a quick KYC procedure. After confirming the customer's identity, the transfer is forwarded to the bank immediately.
Learn how a web3 company DappRadar solved its crypto-to-fiat money flow issue by delving into our case study, which we deem to be the HOT PIECE OF CONTENT OF THE WEEK!
What crypto Twitter's tweeting?
In this funny video shared by Twitter user Mason @QuaceTheQuant, American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio trashes Bitcoin for being a tiny thing with disproportional attention and “no relation to anything”, then proceeds to describe what perfect money is, listing one property of Bitcoin after another. A hilarious display of lack of research and understanding, but at least Ray Dalio and Bitcoin maxis agree on something.
This tweet by Documenting ₿itcoin @DocumentingBTC showcases the world’s first water-cooled Bitcoin miner in Canada that recycles natural gas. Apparently, it is powered by stranded and wasted resources that no other technology can make use of in remote locations like this one. It's fascinating how Bitcoin still discovers new and exciting use cases after more than a decade.
Here’s an insightful and, at the same time, funny video shared by BTC Archive @BTC_Archive of Andreas Antonopoulos explaining to the audience how a successful 51% attack on Bitcoin would achieve almost nothing and cost a fortune. While true, this is something that not many people understand, so we definitely recommend watching this one.
Twitter account Timechain @timechain_ shares a mysterious tweet about an encrypted 7zip file hidden on the Bitcoin blockchain called "JulianAssange.txt.". The timestamp of this embed dates back to January 2017, but until now, no one has been able to unlock the encrypted file and figure out what information this document contains. Presumably, it's something incriminating. Legends say Julian has a deadman's switch, and the file would be unlocked in the event of his passing.
Going back to the topic of NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain, Pierre Rochard @BitcoinPierre shares eye-catching data suggesting that Ordinal inscriptions responsible for big blocks of 4MB are consuming nearly half of all Bitcoin block space since February 4. While it sounds pretty scary, he also explains that 4 MB every ten minutes is 210 GB per year, which results in ~$10 of added disk space per year or ~30 mins of additional initial block download per year if a gigabit internet is available, meaning there's nothing really to worry about.
Did you know?
In January 2023 alone, the word "Bitcoin" was mentioned in 424 company SEC filings;
The largest Bitcoin transaction to date happened on April 10, 2020, and was worth $1.1 billion (161,500 BTC at the time);
There are another six decimal places of Bitcoin that aren't showing but could be easily enabled if needed;
Due to high inflation and recently imposed ATM withdrawal limits, Bitcoin is trading at a 60% higher price in Nigeria;
It is possible to send a Bitcoin transaction over radio waves;
The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, owns Bitcoin.
Let’s take a closer look at: VPN industry as the early adopter of crypto payments
Cryptocurrency owners tend to be more careful online than regular people, arguably because they are more aware of dangers lurking online.
Luckily for VPN service providers, they identified this trend long ago, which is why many of them happily accept cryptocurrency payments.
Having crypto payment methods set up broadens their potential client base, makes their services more accessible around the globe and provides a way to pay for a VPN service without requiring personal information, such as credit card information.
This synergy between privacy-conscious customers and companies that provide privacy-enhancing services is unmatched and creates a perfect environment for cryptocurrency payments to flourish.
If you want to learn more about VPN companies that provide services for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as the benefits of having a VPN for cryptocurrency owners, be sure to visit this blog post.
Thank you for your time and attention. Be sure to follow Crypto Tavern for more crisp content and dank memes!
About the author:
Vilius Barbaravičius is a seasoned copywriter and bitcoin enthusiast. He's been with CoinGate since 2018, writing blogs, social media content, sales materials, newsletters, FAQs, and more. Relentless in his pursuit of knowledge and a better understanding of the crypto industry, he strives to create meaningful and engaging content daily, which requires tremendous amounts of coffee.: