Various countries are considering banning cryptocurrency mining due to high energy consumption

The announcement by the Kosovo authorities that they would temporarily ban the mining of cryptocurrencies resulted in the sale of more equipment needed for this activity.

The government of this country has decided on a ban in order to alleviate the energy crisis.

Among other things, the equipment used for cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity.

These are extremely high-power computers.

Cryptocurrency mining in one of the poorest countries in Europe is very attractive.

One Bitcoin is traded for more than 37,700 euros.

On the other hand, the price of Kosovo’s electricity is the lowest in the Old Continent, and the reason for that is that 90 percent of electricity in domestic production is obtained from lignite, which this country has in large quantities.

In addition, the government subsidizes energy bills.

According to the online edition of the Guardian, it is assumed that this mining is most present in the north of Kosovo, where the predominantly Serb population lives.

Most of them do not recognize the independence of Kosovo and, according to the British paper, have not paid for electricity for two decades.

The number of cryptocurrency miners was increasing and they managed to make good money on it.

However, it seems that the decision of the Kosovo government is a bad time for cryptocurrency mining.

This raises the question of the future of mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The University of Cambridge has calculated that mining Bitcoin consumes 125.96 terawatt-hours of electricity worldwide annually.

This is more than the total annual electricity consumption in Norway, Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates.

The inability of the Kosovo government to meet the need for increased electricity consumption has resulted in an energy crisis.

Many households were left without electricity and electricity prices went up.

Due to that, the authorities were forced to import electricity and subsidize its payment to households.

Kosovo is not the only country that has banned cryptocurrency mining.

It was announced that this will be done in China, which is the world’s largest industry for this activity. They also decided on a ban in Iceland.

It is likely that mining of this kind will be questioned by the authorities of the United States of America, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

Among the most important reasons for that is the high electricity consumption.

In the previous year, cryptocurrencies exploded, and analysts predict an even more interesting market in 2022, here are the currencies that could disappear

Cryptocurrencies were marked last year when they entered the investment mainstream.

However, analysts predict that this year could be even more interesting in the cryptocurrency market.

Almost every cryptocurrency, from Bitcoin to Dogecoin, has reached record values and made astonishing gains.

However, in May, about 50 percent of the total market value was wiped out in just seven days.

And in September, the Chinese government launched a real war against cryptocurrencies, which led to a ban on all transactions.

Other important cryptocurrencies from 2021 occurred when El Salvador made bitcoin a legal tender, numerous meme tokens exploded, and one NFT was sold for an incredible $69 million.

What will cryptocurrency markets bring us this year?

Arcane Research, a blockchain research company, has made dozens of crypto predictions for 2022.

Narrow correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index

Despite the threat of global economic recovery due to the growing number of coronavirus cases, both Bitcoin and the S&P 500 achieved impressive growth in 2021: Bitcoin jumped 66 percent and the S&P 500 rose about 27 percent.

However, given that Bitcoin has increasingly acted as a risky asset, Arcane Research predicts that it will further intensify significant stock market movements.

“Therefore, if the stock market continues to grow in 2022, Bitcoin will probably surpass it,” they predict.

“But if we see a red year for the stock market, Bitcoin is likely to fail.”

Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin again

Although it has long figured as the second violin, ETHER far surpassed Bitcoin in 2021, soaring 418 percent compared to “only” 66 percent of Bitcoin growth.

“This gap in performance has been the biggest since 2015 when Ethereum was launched,” Arcane said.

Among the reasons why Ethereum will continue to outperform in 2022 is the increase in NFT sales. Most of these tokens still run on the Ethereum blockchain.

Most meme coins will disappear

Investors have seen meme coins have huge oscillations in 2021.

For example, Shiba Inu rose by a staggering 44,540,000 percent last year.

And squid, a cryptocurrency named after the popular Netflix series “Squid Game”, jumped more than 75,000 percent in less than a week and soon disappeared.

“We can’t analyze the 2021 market without mentioning last year’s absurd mime coin,” says Arcane Research, adding that the phenomenon will be remembered as “a historical relic of the absurd times of 2021.”

The USD coin will surpass the Theter

Tether has been at the top for some time as the largest stablecoin in terms of market value. However, that may change this year, especially with the decision of the USD coin to join the wave of lending.

“Innovative lending products that pay high returns for stablecoin deposits have been primarily the drivers of stablecoin growth,” Arcane Research said.

Bitcoin will remain closely linked to the VIX

Stock markets were a stellar success last year, but one pattern crystallized, according to Arcane Research:

“Fear in broad financial markets has directly affected Bitcoin performance.”

The rise in the CBOE volatility index, or VIX(better known as the fear index), followed the Bitcoin sell-off.

Arcane Research warned that market winds this year could have implications for the short-term trajectory of Bitcoin prices.

Mask solved the biggest mystery of cryptocurrency? “I think this man created Bitcoin”

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency mystery – the true identity of the person who created Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, is still unknown.

However, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, claims that the Hungarian cryptocurrency expert Nick Szabo could be Nakamoto writes Russia Today.

“You can look at the evolution of ideas before the launch of Bitcoin and see who wrote about those ideas,” Musk told artificial intelligence researcher Lex Friedman on his podcast.

The leader of Tesla also rejected claims that he could be Satoshi, saying that he would not hide it.

Musk said that he cannot say with certainty that he knows who created Bitcoin, but Sab’s theories seem to him to be the basis of the first cryptocurrency.

“It seems like Nick Szabo is probably, more than anyone else, responsible for the evolution of these ideas,” he said.

“He claims that he is not Nakamoto, but it seems that he is more responsible than anyone else for the ideas that led to Bitcoin,” Musk stated.

In 2014, a team of researchers studied Nakamoto’s document on Bitcoin together with the writings of Szabo and 10 other potential creators of this cryptocurrency.

“The number of similarities between Sab’s writing and the Bitcoin White Paper is incredible,” they said, adding that “none of the other possible authors were nearly as accurate.”

Before Bitcoin was launched in 2008, Szabo commented on his blog “the intention to create a living version of a hypothetical currency”.

He developed the mechanism of digital money known as Szabo Bit Gold between 1998 and 2005.

However, this cryptographer, also known for his research on digital contracts, has repeatedly denied that he was the inventor of Bitcoin.

The third largest cryptocurrency rose 1300% in 2021: Can it threaten Bitcoin?

By comparison, Bitcoin rose 65 percent, while Ether, the second-largest token, rose 408 percent.

This year, the old guard of cryptocurrency has lost its position in relation to tokens with higher yields.

Researchers predict that the trend could continue.

Among the three largest digital tokens, in terms of market value, Binance Coin, or simply BNB, has significantly surpassed its two major rivals – Bitcoin and Ether.

Coin, issued by the crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. – jumped approximately 1,300% in 2021, according to data available to Arcane Research.

By comparison, Bitcoin, the market leader, rose “only” 65 percent, while Ether, the second-largest token, rose 408 percent.

The BNB is widely used on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

It is also the home currency of Binance Smart Chain, a blockchain platform that supports smart contracts for use in decentralized finance (DeFi) and other applications.

As the BSC gained supporters over time, it helped increase profits in the BNB token, according to Fortune.

Other alternative coins, or “altcoins”, made big gains in 2021, thanks to an “explosion” of investor interest in digital assets and the expansion of crypto ecosystems.

Mexican Group Elektra has accepted Bitcoin as a means of payment

The Mexican retail chain Grupo Elektra has accepted Bitcoin as a means of payment, and now considers the BTC lightning network.

This is another in a series of companies in Latin America that are opting for Bitcoin as a legitimate means of payment.

The spread of Bitcoin as a method of payment

Elektra is a chain of supermarkets and banks and is part of the Mexican group “Grupo Salinas”.

As a convenience for paying with Bitcoins, Elektra offers a 20% discount on the amount of the bill.

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Piego said that Elektra was the first market chain to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment.

He believes that with this move, he matted the competition.

Payment will be made through PitPay, the US Bitcoin payment service.

Salinas is one of the richest people in Mexico and the owner of Banco Azteca, a banking business.

In June, he announced that his bank would be the first to accept Bitcoin currency.

The governor of the Bank of Mexico, Alejandro Diaz de Leon, warned him on that occasion that, due to its instability, Bitcoin is a high-risk investment.

We remind you that El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender, in addition to the US dollar.

The low-cost Mexican airline “Volaris” followed this example, announcing that it would accept Bitcoin in El Salvador.

Is Bitcoin a safe haven for investors?

Crypto supporters argue that unlike the dollar or any other traditional currency, a digital coin is designed to have a limited supply, so it cannot be devalued by a government or central bank that would distribute too much of it.

At a time when most central banks in the world are “printing” fresh money and “pumping” it into the system to provide the necessary liquidity due to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is expected that more money will lead to a decline in its relative value.

Inflation in the United States reached its highest value in the last three decades in October.

An increase in prices was recorded for both basic foodstuff and luxury goods.

The reason for this situation, in addition to “pumping” money, can be a constant lack of supply and high demand.

The US Secretariat of Labor announced that the October consumer price index, which measures how much consumers pay for goods and services, increased by 6.2% compared to last year.

It was the fastest 12-month growth since 1990 and the fifth month in a row with inflation above 5%.

This would mean that if inflation of 6.2% remained at the same level for 10 years, the current $ 100,000 would become $54,800.

This situation spreads concerns and burdens investors, forcing them to look for ways to preserve the value of their money.

The traditional way to protect against inflation is to invest in gold, but other ways have emerged in modern business conditions.

Cryptocurrencies are considered to be one of the most popular, with Bitcoin leading the way.

Bitcoin as a custodian of value

Cryptocurrency owners are in a unique position and benefit from these latest developments or at least gain refuge from them.

Namely, the decline in the value of fiat currencies, such as the dollar, has highlighted the dominance of Bitcoin and other altcoins when it comes to hedging against inflation.

Bitcoin has broken another record and is on the verge of reaching $69,000 for the first time after inflation data prompted arguments about Bitcoin as a custodian of value.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value rose as much as 1.9% to $ 68,991 last Wednesday, surpassing the previous high set at the beginning of the week in New York.

According to Bitcoin Stimulus, Americans who invested their $ 1,200 checks in April 2020 as part of a state support program in Bitcoin now have a BTC worth $12,172, an increase of 914%.

Crypto supporters claim that unlike the dollar or any other traditional currency, a digital coin is designed to have a limited supply, so it cannot be devalued by the government or the central bank that would distribute too much of it.

That is why Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be good custodians of the value of money and a safe haven for all investors and traders.

Indonesia’s highest religious body bans cryptocurrency trading!

AFP reports that Indonesia’s highest religious body has declared that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are banned under Islamic law and should not be traded in the world’s largest Muslim nation.

A powerful council of ulema has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, while trading in virtual currencies is increasing in Indonesia and elsewhere.

Fatwas have no legal effect in the country of Southeast Asia of 270 million, but the declaration could potentially convince many Muslims to avoid cryptocurrencies.

After Thursday’s meeting, the Council compared cryptocurrencies to gambling, which is haram, which is prohibited by Islamic law.

Cryptocurrencies as commodities or digital assets are illegal to trade because they have elements of uncertainty, bets and damage

religious decree chief Niam Sholeh told AFP.

It’s like a gambling bet

he said.

According to him, digital currencies are not tangible assets and their value can vary significantly, thus violating Islamic law.

Transactions in Indonesia, based on cryptocurrencies, amounted to about 370 trillion rupees ($26 billion) in the first five months of 2021, an increase from a year earlier, Trade Minister Mohammed Lutfi said in June.

The edict comes after the Central Bank of Indonesia said it was considering issuing its own digital currency.

In 2019, the Aceh Provincial Council branch issued a fatwa about the extremely popular but brutal online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) for fear of inciting real-world violence.

It recently issued a fatwa against online lending while announcing that COVID-19 vaccines are allowed under Islamic law, even if they contain pork products, which are usually banned for Muslims.

After the information about inflation in the USA, the fall in prices on the cryptocurrency market

Most cryptocurrencies are declining today.

According to the website Coingecko, the market capitalization decreased by 1.98 percent and amounts to 2.98 trillion dollars.

Bitcoin, which has reached its maximum value several times in the past few days, has fallen below $65,000 today.

It fell by 3.0 percent compared to yesterday, and it is currently traded at a price of 64,918 dollars.

Ethereum has lost 1.2 percent of its value and is currently trading at $4,672.

The fall in prices on the cryptocurrency market followed yesterday when the US Department of Labor announced that inflation, measured by the growth of consumer prices, jumped to 6.2 percent in October compared to the same month in 2020, to the highest level since December 1990.

After a few days of dormancy, the price of Bitcoin jumped again

The cryptocurrency market has seen a strong rise in prices in the last 24 hours.

The market capitalization has climbed 4.3 percent and currently stands at $3.01 trillion.

Bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency in the world, has increased its value by 6.6 percent in the last 24 hours and is currently traded at a price of 65,990 dollars.

Ethereum increased its value by 4% in the same period and is currently traded at a price of 4,741 dollars.

The bank predicts a huge jump in the price of Bitcoin

The largest American bank, JPMorgan, predicts that Bitcoin could jump to 146,000 dollars in the long run, if volatility subsides and institutions start to prefer Bitcoin more than gold in their portfolios.

That is approximately 130 percent more than the current price of Bitcoin, Business Insider writes.

JP Morgan also believes that Bitcoin, which is also a rare product, is increasingly gaining gold for investors’ attention as protection against inflation, ie as something that will grow even when inflation destroys the value of other assets.

The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors during September and October 2021 seems to have renewed interest in using Bitcoin as protection against inflation

said JP Morgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.

They discovered a Bitcoin scammer, pretending to be Elon Musk

Despite Facebook’s efforts to prevent the verification of suspicious popular accounts, the social network misses malicious content from time to time.

According to The Verge, the social network mistakenly verified the Facebook page for Elon Musk’s fans and characterized it as Musk’s official account.

In addition, it turned out that the site was run by a fraudster in the sphere of Bitcoin.

The site had more than 150,000 followers by the time the activity ceased.

In the meantime, it has been confirmed that this is not the official page of Elon Musk, but a page for fans.

The people who ran the site are stationed in Egypt.

While it was active, the site posted 11 posts, most of which were retweets by Musk from Twitter.

Among the announcements is a fake prize game for Bitcoin.

It is interesting that the page was created on July 28, 2019, and in the meantime, it has changed several names.

The name change to Elon Musk was made on October 17 this year.

Facebook’s verification process requires account holders to provide proof of their identity, but fraudsters often manage to find ways to circumvent official procedures.