Bitcoin thought leaders weigh the pros and cons of Ordinals

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

What do Bitcoin ecosystem CEOs make of ordinals, and what does the computer game Doom have to do with it?

Ordinals are here to stay. Ordinals, or the ability to permanently ink the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain with data, typically in the format of a picture or jpeg, are a controversial topic among some members of the Bitcoin and wider crypto community. Not so for the builders and the CEOs of Bitcoin-focused companies who were present at the Bitcoin conference, Advancing Bitcoin in London.

Cointelegraph asked several CEOs, builders and key opinion leaders for their views on ordinals throughout the conference. The overarching sentiment was that of curiosity, indifference or deference.

Alex Leishman, CEO of River, told Cointelegraph that he doesn’t have a stance on ordinals just yet, but has recently been gifted an ordinal.

"In the abstract, the idea of having this sort of like meta-layer on top of Bitcoin that tracks Sats; that has a separate state or mapping onto the blockchain is really fascinating and could potentially be interesting for other things."

For example, Leishman recently played the vintage computer game Doom on an ordinal. “Someone had embedded doom in JavaScript and in a small web page in an ordinal,” which Leishman loaded up from the blockchain.

*Real gameplay of Doom loaded from an ordinal. Source*

Eric Sirion, cofounder and advisor to Fedi, and maintainer of the open source protocol Fedimint told Cointelegraph that he’s also “pretty neutral” on Ordinals.

“Essentially, we cannot do anything about it in a way that is morally consistent. Like if we try to fight it, what gives us the right to do that? And also, we cannot effectively fight it. […] So yeah, why get worked up about it?”

Sirion added that he’s not necessarily a fan of Ordinals as it might blow up the blockchain a bit, but “Who am I to tell other people what to do with the fees they pay like?”

The Bitcoin blockchain has since “bloated,” reaching an average block size all time high, but fees have remained more or less consistent.

*Average Blocksize has soared higher since ordinals. Source: Blockchain.com*

Benoit Mazouk, CEO of UK based Bitcoin exchange, Bitcoinpoint, shared Sirion’s concerns about blockchain congestion. He explained that while he understands that Bitcoin key opinion leaders, such as CEO of Blocksstream Dr Adam Back, who commented that ordinals are “useless” (insert tweet), for Mazouk, he’s “more into Bitcoin as a currency.”

"you can't stop them" well ofc! bitcoin is designed to be censor resistant. doesn't stop us mildly commenting on the sheer waste and stupidity of an encoding. at least do something efficient. otherwise it's another proof of consumption of block-space thingy.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) January 29, 2023

Perhaps a greater concern is that users can upload graphic images and offensive data onto the blockchain. Recently, shock porn was uploaded as an Ordinal.

However, the permanence and censorship resistance works both ways: Leishman states that creating permanent records for potentially important or culturally significant events and dats–such as Doom–can be permanently etched into the blockchain. “Ordinals can eventually become composable and it's really truly censorship resistant content,” Leishman commented.

Christian Keroles, managing director at Bitcoin Magazine, recently posted a culturally topical reference to the censuring of Roahl Dahl books. CK queried where the minting of books on the blockchain would preserve original copies.

Maybe banned books are worth inscribing to Bitcoin ‍♀️ https://t.co/WXpDYk4rzs
— ck (going to Bitcoin 2023) (@ck_SNARKs) February 28, 2023

In all, Ordinals are beginning to change the way Bitcoin advocates use and approach Bitcoin. Ordinals offer another use case to the Bitcoin network over its first one: peer-to-peer cash.

“Maybe the Bitcoin database has value for other things, and they're willing to pay for it, which is good for miners and maybe is what actually.”

Miners have earned more revenue per block since Ordinals’ introduction, while video gaming fans can rest assured that Doom is playable, loaded from the Bitcoin blockchain.

Most blockchain advocates haven’t even used Bitcoin

March 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Barcelona

Bitcoin, the original blockchain, struggles to gain traction among blockchain advocates; an opinion from one of Europe's largest blockchain conferences.

Bitcoin (BTC) popularised the term blockchain. Blockchains, or “decentralized and distributed digital ledgers used to record transactions across a network of computers,” have been around for over thirty years, the household name for a blockchain is Bitcoin.

That’s despite the fact that the Genesis block was mined well over 14 years ago when George W. Bush was president and “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas topped the charts–Bitcoin is still top of the blocks.

It’s to be expected, then, that most blockchain advocates would have used, understood or a the very least experimented with Bitcoin.

Nope. Not so.

*Speaking with Victoria Gago, co-founder of the European Blockchain Conference. Source: José Val Bal*

Here’s an example. While MC’ing at the European Blockchain Conference in February, I asked the audience for a show of hands. I inquired of the circa 250 blockchain believers sitting in front of me:

"Who here has used Bitcoin?"

Maybe 20 audience hands shot up. “Okay. Keep your hand up if you’ve used Bitcoin’s Lightning Network,” I said. The Lightning Network or (LN) is the payments network built on top of Bitcoin which allows near-instant, near-free transactions. Over half those hands went down.

One data sample is insufficient. So, the following day I quizzed the audience on stage. I was surprised to receive the same result. Four-fifths of the blockchain conference audience had never used Bitcoin.

Why is that? Why is it that so few people have touched arguably the only blockchain that solves what is known as the “scalability trilemma;” that of decentralization, security and scalability?

The Bitcoin blockchain, or timechain as Satoshi Nakamoto called it in the white paper, is still relatively small. Anyone with an old laptop can download the entirety of all transactions in order to run a node; the network can scale to reach millions and soon billions of people with layers, while the Bitcoin blockchain has never been hacked. And yet at the blockchain conference, very few attendees run nodes or have transacted on Bitcoin.

However, there are not enough data points to yet form this conclusion. I wanted to quiz individuals across the conference if they were blockchainers or Bitcoiners–and if so, why is that the case?

I quizzed conference-goers about a simple question. I asked around 15 conference goers to choose Web3 or Web5, and only one person of the fifteen chose Web5. Ironically, the sole Web5 proponent in the interview is Bitcoiner Antonia Roupell, whose job title is “Web3 lead” for Save the Children.

If @JoeNakamoto happened to give you one #Bitcoin at the @EBlockchainCon, what would you do with it? pic.twitter.com/tV3hdEIA0n
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 20, 2023

Most respondents looked confused when presented with the choice of webs. “What is Web5?” They queried.

Web3 is a world of reportedly decentralized blockchains in which tokens (and token sales) drive the economy forward; Web5 is the decentralized internet built on Bitcoin. Naturally, Bitcoin maximalist Jack Dorsey champions Web5.

Dorsey explained in December 2021 that Web5 will allow true ownership of identity and data, unlike Web3. Dorsey explains that “Web3" has the “Same corporate incentives [as Twitter] but hides it under "decentralization.”

The Twitter founder reckons Web3 will never achieve true decentralization as underneath the marketing spiel and tokenomics it’s the venture capitalists and limited Partners who own the blockchains and the data underpinning the systems.

Web5 already boasts social media applications such as Zion in which users can easily send Bitcoin to one another and own their data, built atop one decentralized blockchain and. Which blockchain? You guessed it, Bitcoin.

Web3 has existed since Ethereum coder Gavin Wood coined the term in 2014 and thus has more time on its side. Plus it’s a catchy, catch-all term that is often used interchangeably with blockchain, crypto and metaverse. It’s hard to define, underline or frame without referring to financially lucrative projects.

It finally struck me that the focus of most attendees at the European Blockchain Convention was business over Bitcoin. Or to put it another way–and to attempt to be a little less naive–the attendees wanted to make money over work towards a new monetary policy.

Moderating a panel on Web3 during the conference. Source: José Val Bal

I had the same experience when discussing Nostr, which stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays. The relatively new, decentralized network enables private messaging and uncensorable communication–among other projects.

One of the applications of Nostr, called iPhone app Damus, helped Nostr reach nearly half a million daily users in mid-February. User count multiplied by 5 since its listing on the Apple iOS store and the protocol is full of Bitcoin advocates.

I asked conference attendees for their public key so I could follow them on Nostr. I was met with bemused looks. The blockchain believers and champions of decentralized protocols had not tested nor heard of Damus.

Do you want one more example?

An employee at a popular Bitcoin company–who I won’t dox in this opinion piece–approached me during the conference. “I saw you sending sats to people on stage. You sound like a [Bitcoin] maxi,” he joked.

“Guilty, officer” I joked. I only hold Bitcoin and am passionate about bringing Bitcoin to the world, especially those living in financially kneecapped countries.

“You would probably recognize the company I represent then. I work for Blockstream.”

Of course! I told him. I actually played Jenga in the park with Blockstream’s CEO, Adam Back, recently. We immediately bonded.

The Blockstream employee confided in me that not a single conferencegoer had clocked his employer. Blockstream is a well-known Bitcoin companies. Blockstream pioneers lightning adoption, side chains, affordable hardware wallets and liquid, while Back was one of the few names mentioned in the Bitcoin white paper published in 2008.

He shared his surprise with me, but it was 5pm on the last day of the conference–by this point I understood. “It’s a Bitcoin company, mate” I explained. And after all, “Bitcoin and blockchain don’t really mix.” Bitcoin has a marketing problem, I said.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

BIS head claims fiat won battle with crypto, Bitcoin community disagrees

February 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BIS

BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens reckons the war between fiat and crypto has been won by fiat. The community would tend to disagree.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has long taken a cautious approach to Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. No need for caution anymore, however, as the “battle has been won” between fiat and crypto, according to BIS.

BIS general manager Agustín Carstens, who made the claim, highlighted that “technology doesn’t make for trusted money,” among further criticisms of crypto in an interview with Bloomberg.

Crypto has lost the argument that it's an alternative to fiat currency, the head of the Bank for International Settlements says https://t.co/xZKFHEj3b2
— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) February 22, 2023

As the central bank for central banks, the BIS has emphasized the need for regulation and risk management in the crypto space–but claiming the fiat battle has been won sparked outrage, satire and corrections among the Bitcoin and crypto community.

Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful and vocal Bitcoin maximalist told Cointelegraph that it's "easy to get sucked into these battles but is all a distraction with no ROI." He continued, "We must focus on the battles in the global south and fight for every inch and every eyeball. What is happening in Nigeria now is vital for us all."

"Want to p*ss the clowns off? Ignore their FUD bait and focus all in on the global south and what is happening on the streets of nigeria."

Bitcoin author Saifedean Ammous brought the BIS story to his followers’ attention, provoking condemnation and concern in the comments. Florida-based Bitcoin advocate called SVN (not his real name), whose frozen bank account prompted a switch to going all in on Bitcoin, told Cointelegraph that "These people are clowns.”

Meanwhile, Lady Anarki, a Bitcoin advocate based who recently closed a Bitcoin Security Education company explained that “fiat and crypto are essentially the same exact scam.”

“For fiat, it is nefarious elite oligarchs creating a rigged game system to enrich themselves while making everyone else poorer. Bitcoin is a technology designed with incentives and sound economic principles that enriches anyone who brings value to the world.”

Bitcoin losing the "war" for money, as Carstens explained, is another reference to the fact that Bitcoin has been declared dead, dead and dead again. The 2022 and 2023 bear market is no different, and Bitcoin advocates on Twitter seized the opportunity to mock financial experts dancing on the imaginary grave of the decentralized currency.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin is up over 40% from its 2022 lows, and Lightning Network adoption flourishes while the community appears increasingly vocal.

What Bitcoin Did, the popular podcast hosted by football club owner Peter McCormack–number 38 on Cointelegraph’s Top 100–tweeted some handy statistics to correct another inflammatory statement published by the BIS this week. Notably, from August 2015 to December 2022, the BIS explained that “nearly all economies made losses on their Bitcoin holdings.”

BIS analysis: Aug ‘15-Dec ‘22 “majority…in nearly all economies made losses on their #Bitcoin holdings”

Facts:
-Majority of global fiat lost value to USD since 2015
-USD has lost over 26% of its own value due to inflation#Bitcoin has gone up nearly 8000%

Facts be sticky pic.twitter.com/mMyBzuVhWz
— What Bitcoin Did (@WhatBitcoinDid) February 21, 2023

As shown, the Bitcoin price continues to trend higher despite the BIS' best efforts to the contrary.

The BIS has been a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies in the past, citing concerns about their volatility, scalability, and energy consumption. However, the BIS has also researched stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, juxtaposing Carsten's comment in the Bloomberg interview that tech “doesn’t make for trusted money.”

Willem Middelkoop, author and Bitcoin advocate, highlighted that the war between fiat and crypto is far from over. A cursory scroll on the original Bloomberg Crypto tweet would suggest that the war is just heating up.

How the Ordinals movement will benefit the Bitcoin blockchain

February 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Block Size

The increasing popularity of Bitcoin NFTs, or Ordinals, will impact posively the security of the Bitcoin network and attract developers to the ecosystem, according to Ordinals proponent Udi Wertheimer.

Bitcoin (BTC) NFTs will have a positive impact on Bitcoin ecosystem by improving its security and incentivizing developers to build on the network, according to independent developer Udi Wertheimer.

The number of newly created Ordinals, also referred to as "inscriptions", have been spiking in recent weeks, causing a surge in transaction fees and average block size on the Bitcoin blockchain.

According to Wertheimer, Bitcoin NFTs are going to be beneficial for Bitcoin's security budget: by driving up transaction fees, the creation of Ordinals will incentivize miners to secure the network while the revenue from mining reward will be decreasing with each Bitcoin halving.

“Because the block space is scarce and because there's demand for stuff like inscriptions, there's a lot of hope that we will get enough people who want to pay fees in order to keep the Bitcoin network secure,” Wertherimer explained in a recent interview with Cointelegraph.

Also, Wertheimer noted, Ordinals provide a new use case that will make building on Bitcoin commercially profitable.

“With all of that interest around Ordinals and inscriptions, I expect that there is going to be a very big ecosystem that is built around that,” he said.

Wertheimer dismisses the notion, held by some Bitcoin core developers, that creating NFTs is not an appropriate use case for Bitcoin. According to him, in recent years Bitcoin core developers "have ignored what actual Bitcoin users want."

To find out more about Ordinals and how they are impacting the Bitcoin network, watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

UK think tank launches a crusade against ‘surveillance’ CBDCs

February 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bank of England

The Bank of England's plans for a CBDC launch raises concern among UK Tax Reform Council and the broader Bitcoin community.

The U.K. Tax Reform Council has launched a campaign against the Bank of England's plan to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The non-profit organization warns that such a move could seriously harm individual privacy and lead to intrusive changes to the taxation system.

The freshly formed Tax Reform Council includes monetary economist John Chown, cofounder of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, on its advisory board. The Tax Reform Council believes implementing a CBDC would lead to increased government surveillance, greater intrusion from tax authorities and a heightened risk of cyber attacks on the nation's monetary system.

We are pleased to announce the formation of our Advisory Board. pic.twitter.com/6Lpmt3oJ0U
— Tax Reform Council (@TaxReformUK) August 23, 2022

The think tank shares similar concerns to the U.K. Bitcoin (BTC) community which has been vocal in its criticism of CBDCs. Jordan Walker, co-founder of the U.K.’s Bitcoin Collective, explained that “the rollout of CBDCs in the U.K. is dangerous on a matter of fronts. We would be handing over more control of our money to the government and central bank.”

“This ties the monetary system even closer to the political system which has caused significant problems in the past and present. Instead we should be aiming to separate money and politics.”

The advisory board economists including Patrick Minford, Julian Jessop and Chown, stated that “the decision of the Bank of England to pursue a British CBDC raises a number of very real concerns.” The group seeks to raise awareness of the “increased government surveillance” that CBDCs may offer.

CBDCs claim to offer greater financial inclusion, reduced costs for businesses and consumers, and increased security. However, Bitcoin already offers these advantages and more: El Salvador banked swathes of its population by introducing the Bitcoin law, while Bitcoin also provides a way out for those living in authoritarian regimes.

In the U.K. the Treasury and the Bank of England have been recruiting for CBDC roles. The Bank of England has highlighted the "need" to create a digital version of the British pound, despite pushback from the broader crypto community.

According to the Tax Reform Council, every personal transaction made using a CBDC would be recorded on the Bank of England's private blockchain ledger, giving the taxman unprecedented access to individuals' financial history. The press release stated that this is already happening in China with the renminbi CBDC.

Walker sounded the alarm: “I believe we are closer to the rollout than many think and unless we have greater education around this topic, we’ll see many people in this country unknowingly get sucked into this digitized monetary control.”

Bitcoin logo imperfection found on original artwork after 12 years

February 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

While Bitcoiners preach the “zoom out” narrative during crypto bear markets, zooming in on the original Bitcoin logo shows a small orange line from the background going into the white colored “₿.”

While Satoshi Nakamoto is credited as the anonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC), what often goes unnoticed are the selfless contributions of the community members — miners, developers, designers, hodlers and investors — that help materialize the original vision. However, one such significant contribution was found to carry an imperfection for over 12 years, invisible to the naked eye.

On Nov. 12, 2010, bitcointalk.org member bitboy (not related to YouTuber BitBoy Crypto) posted the vector files of the iconic Bitcoin logo, which has been widely accepted worldwide. While Bitcoiners preach the “zoom out” narrative during crypto bear markets, zooming in on the original Bitcoin logo shows a small orange line from the background going into the white colored “₿.”

A small design detail that has stayed with many iterations of the original #bitcoin logo since its inception in 2010 pic.twitter.com/nYElwD2S6v
— Doc (@_Bosch_) February 9, 2023

The information was first revealed by Crypto Twitter member @_Bosch_, who then shared an updated Bitcoin logo after removing the mark and improving the stylistic proportions. On further investigation, community member @skyler_fs found that one of the curvatures of the ₿ logo was not smooth either.

Cointelegraph’s investigation of the above claims confirmed the imperfections sported by the original Bitcoin vectors. The image below shows the two locations where the microscopic design issues exist.

*Two imperfections found in the Bitcoin logo after 14 years. Source: Cointelegraph*

The revelation does not impact how Bitcoin operates and community members have not shown any concerns about it. Even if someone were to create new vectors after fixing the flaws, it would not gain mainstream acceptance unless the community decides otherwise.

As markets maintain a positive trajectory toward recovery, Bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark continues to amass equipment from distressed mining companies.

CleanSpark’s chief financial officer Gary Vecchiarelli said that the company envisions “explosive growth” in 2023 through mergers and acquisitions.

“With respect to our strategy regarding M&A, we have been one of the most active miners to date in acquiring infrastructure and machines, and we will continue to be active,” he added.

Gangsters, cats and Bitcoin: 9-year-old Henry takes BTC to the classroom

February 1, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

A young Andreas Antonopolous in the making, a nine-year-old in the United Kingdom, tried to orange pill his classroom.

A nine-year-old boy's efforts show that Bitcoin (BTC) is for everyone and Bitcoin education is for all ages.

Henry, who lives in the U.K., gave a talk on Bitcoin to his classmates in an engaging and funny presentation. Cointelegraph spoke to Henry’s mother, an author and Bitcoin advocate who goes by Decentrasuze on social media, to find out more.

My son orange pilling Year 5!

Teacher feedback:

‘It was very informative, engaging and he really knew his subject knowledge well.’#Bitcoin #Education #Environment pic.twitter.com/EVfWEejfVE
— Decentra Suze (@DecentraSuze) January 31, 2023

Decentrasuze, or simply Susie, explained that Henry gave the talk to his classmates to help them learn about a subject that he finds fascinating, probably because his Mum and Dad are infatuated with Bitcoin:

“Henry is surrounded by Bitcoin. His father and I talk about it all the time. There are always Bitcoin podcasts on in the background, and Henry often asks questions like 'How does bitcoin go up and down?'

A curious and inquisitive child, Henry was "unscrewing his cot at the age of 18 months to see what’s inside,” so naturally, he asks a lot of questions. But whereas kids in Henry’s class had given talks on coding or space, Henry settled on Bitcoin.

The talk was a success, Susie explained: “He was buzzing when he came out; so so pleased. His classmates enjoyed it because it was funny.” The presentation is a quirky example of Bitcoin's growing popularity and understanding among younger generations.

Henry had included a gif of his Cat called Molly as well as pictures of himself dressed up as a gangster–much to his classmates’ amusement–to demonstrate that Bitcoin is not for criminals.

However, was Henry successful in “orange pilling” his classmates about Bitcoin? Susie said that when he asked her son how it went, Henry replied:

“I don’t really know. You never really know with kids!”

Henry will be reassured by the efforts of organizations like My First Bitcoin, the El Salvador-based education program for kids, or even the Bitcoin toys, books and games that are available to help children learn about money and Bitcoin.

Unfortunately, and despite Henry's best efforts, his friend Willliam said he might be interested in Dogecoin (DOGE). William joins Elon Musk in supporting the crypto token that was coded up for fun but still pumps every time multibillionaire Musk mentions the meme in his tweets.

As for Henry, he doesn’t have a phone, so he cannot stack sats (save in Bitcoin) just yet. “His older sister does have a Wallet of Satoshi account, but the only place she can spend sats is at her dad’s osteopath,” Susie joked.

The osteopathic practice near London, U.K. Source: BTCmapdotorg

The osteopathic practice is one of the few places that accept Bitcoin in the Chelmsford area, as shown on BTCMap.org. Nonetheless, more and more merchants are joining the network as the U.K. slowly warms up to the decentralized currency.

Henry's teacher shared encouraging feedback on his presentation, and there’s now some discussion on whether Henry could deliver the Bitcoin talk to the year above–a real test of his skills.

The teacher even left an encouraging note saying that Decentrasuze should be “very proud” of her son’s activities. Judging by the Bitcoin community’s reaction on Twitter, they are too.

Bitcoin adoption of Guatemalan merchants grows one BTC tattoo at a time

January 30, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Art

The Central American country of Guatemala is getting inked on the path to greater Bitcoin merchant adoption.

Bitcoin (BTC) use in Guatemala is on the up. The Latin American country that borders El Salvador boasts Guatemalan-grown Bitcoin companies such as Ibex and Osmo, several Bitcoin Beach-inspired projects including Bitcoin Lake, and now, free BTC tattoos.

A Bitcoin merchant adoption competition hosted by Osmo Wallet in 2022, a Guatemala-based Bitcoin company, led to the free ink promotion. Cointelegraph spoke to Piero Coen, the co-founder of Osmo Wallet, and Steven Marroquin, the owner of Soul’s Anchor, a tattoo parlor in Guatemala City.

Free tattoo ideas from Soul's Anchor. Source: Coen

Coen explained how it that the mission is to get more people to use Bitcoin:

“So we ran a competition amongst merchants to see who would process the most volume in Bitcoin sales in 2022. Turns out Soul's Anchor Tattoo Shop in Guatemala City, who started accepting Bitcoin payments using Osmobusiness back in October, won the competition.”

Merchant adoption is nothing new in Guatemala. So they thought about how to make things more exciting. They decided that offering free Bitcoin tattoos to customers might be a Bitcoin-friendly marketing tactic. “It was a huge hit. All the slots filled up in hours!” He explained.

The free Bitcoin tattoos get the thumbs up from Cointelegraph's Bman. Source: Coen

Guatemalan Bitcoin believers and Bitcoin tourists streamed into the store to ink their favorite Bitcoin meme, quote or art onto their skin. Steven Marroquin, Souls Anchor owner, explained, “It’s been around seven months since we officially accepted Bitcoin and have two to three customers per month.” It's a small amount, but payments are on the rise, he reports:

“The first months we had only one customer, and even though it’s still a few percentages of our income, probably 1%, we are happy have started accepting it.”

Coen explains that “It’s still super early” for Bitcoin adoption in Guatemala, and “Most business owners are still unsure about accepting and holding onto Bitcoin because of the volatility.”

By allowing instant Bitcoin to fiat currency conversion at the payment merchant terminal, merchants can sidestep the volatility. Instant BTC to fiat conversion is a growing trend in the Bitcoin payments space, as companies such as Strike–headed up by Jack Mallers–and CoinCorner offer similar solutions. Bitcoin as a means of exchange is burgeoning and Coen is optimistic about its future:

“Bitcoin adoption in Guatemala City is on the rise, every day we see more and more people are getting into it, learning about it, and stacking up on Sats."

Rikki, one-half of the Bitcoin Explorers couple who spent 45 days living off Bitcoin only in El Salvador, recently traveled around Guatemala, paying his way in Bitcoin. Rikki told Cointelegraph the level of “adoption of Bitcoin in Guatemala has really surprised us,” referring to himself and his partner Laura.

“Locals are curious, they want to learn about Bitcoin and see it as an important alternative to credit cards whose fees are very high in the country.”

Indeed, by accepting Bitcoin, business can save over 50% on transaction costs when compared to accepting credit card payments, “So the incentives are there,” Coen explained.

Rikki added that “orange-pilling” efforts by Guatemalan-based companies, such as Ibex and Osmo, “are pushing to raise awareness of the technology.” The couple also visited the Bitcoin Lake, a Bitcoin-beach-style community project, where a Guatemalan mayor is mining Bitcoin in his office, before getting inked themselves as part of the promotion.

“We found the tattoo idea very cute. It is a company that wants to reward its shopkeeper who has received the most Bitcoin transactions by promoting its business.”

Bitcoin and crypto tattoos are increasingly common, as crypto advocates choose to brand themselves with their coin of choice. However, crypto tattoos can sometimes go very, very wrong.

Bitcoin tattoos belonging to Rikki (top) and Laura (bottom). Source: Rikki

Take Mike Novogratz, the Galaxy Digital founder, as an example. His Terra (LUNA) tattoo is a constant reminder that investing requires humility. The LUNA token crashed by over 99% in price in 2021. Fortunately, the Bitcoin tattoos are safe, for now, thanks to a January price pump.

ChatGPT learns Bitcoin will end central banking and fiat currency

January 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

A Bitcoin mentor convinced ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, that Bitcoin would bring about the demise of fiat currency.

ChatGPT is a powerful new AI tool, capable of problem-solving, advanced coding, answering complicated questions and now–spelling out the end of fiat currencies.

Parman, a Bitcoin self-custody mentor and writer, taught ChatGPT that Bitcoin (BTC) would bring about the end of government-issued fiat currencies and shared the results in a Twitter thread.

You're not going to believe this, but I just Orange Pilled #ChapGPT. It is now a Bitcoiner. See this conversation, it's incredible. (Thread) pic.twitter.com/HJOqezmjlG
— Parman (public account) Bitcoin Pub Key Whisperer (@Parman_Public) January 26, 2023

Parman explains that he "orange-pilled," or convinced the bot about Bitcoin and that the machine learning tool "Is now a Bitcoiner."

The process was straightforward. First, Parman asked ChatGPT how humanity could end central banking. After all, Bitcoin was created in the shadows of the 2008 financial crisis; and in the genesis block, the words “Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks” are etched, perhaps showing founder Satoshi Nakamoto’s aversion to central banking.

ChatGPT explains that one way to end central banking could be: “Decentralized digital currencies,” which sounds a lot like Bitcoin. Parman asks the bot to answer the question in two words, to which it replies, “decentralize finance.” That is to say, DeFi could bring about the end of central banking.

Parman, a Bitcoin maximalist, told the bot that DeFi is a “marketing term for what is actually centralized finance to scam people” and asked it to look a little deeper, to which ChatGPT answered, “end fiat.”

In conversation with Cointelegraph, Parman explained that he was testing ChatGPT and trying to use two-word answers to chivvy along the conversation:

“I wanted to see how "smart" it [ChatGPT] was. If it came up with the answer for 2 words to end central banking as 'buy Bitcoin I was going to be blown away.”

Parman was satisfied with the response that ending fiat would fall central banking, so he moved on to the how. How can humanity end fiat currency?

ChatGPT's capabilities. Source: chat.openAI

ChatGPT listed four options: a return to a gold standard, promoting alternative currencies such as Bitcoin, reducing government spending, and changing government perception. The AI bot was getting close, but Parman is a serial Bitcoin orange-piller and educator and wouldn't let up. He explained:

“My natural instinct is to orange pill, so I guided it to the right answer.”

The machine learning tool now understood that crypto adoption could lead to the end of fiat, but crypto, in Parman’s view is not the answer. “There is only one cryptocurrency that makes this possible, as it is the only one that has no issuer,” he typed.

Parman refers to the fact that when Bitcoin was first mined, it was a digital trial, an experiment with a virtual token that had no value nor a promise of value. All other cryptocurrencies, Parman explains, “have leadership teams and are therefore centralized.”

So which one is it, ChatGPT, Bitcoin or crypto? The bot replied: Bitcoin.

Parman had successfully convinced a machine learning bot that Bitcoin could bring about the end of fiat currency. But why bother going to all that effort? Parman explained in a conversation with Cointelegraph:

“Importantly, the world needs to know central banking is a scam, and everyone needs to know that Bitcoin is the only thing that can stop it.”

Perhaps with the powerful ChatGPT bot on team Bitcoin, the world may draw a little closer to that realization.

UK Bitcoin community reacts to incoming CBDC and digital pound rollout

January 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

A new role, "Head of CBDC," will help the United Kingdom to "explore the case for a digital pound," although UK Bitcoiners would argue that might not be necessary.

The UK Government's economic and finance ministry, HM Treasury, is recruiting for a Head of central bank digital currency (CBDC) to lead the development of a digital pound. The work is described as "Important, complex, and cross-cutting" and will "require extensive engagement across and beyond the HM Treasury."

According to the Linkedin post, the Treasury and the Bank of England are working together through the CBDC Taskforce to explore the case for a digital pound. The role of the Head of CBDC may bring the UK government closer to its aim of rolling out a CBDC.

*HM Treasury's job posting for a CBDC Head. Source: LinkedIn*

Danny Scott, CEO of a UK-based Bitcoin (BTC) company, CoinCorner, told Cointelegraph that a CBDC could be missing the “Actual real-world use and purpose–which is what we often see.”

“For those that have been in the industry for a cycle or two, we've seen the hypes come and go, altcoins, blockchain, distributed ledger, ICOs, DeFi, NFTs. You see large companies come along and jump on the latest hype to avoid looking like they're falling behind, it falls under R&D and exploratory for most, which is perfectly understandable.”

Scott, who has been working and building in the Bitcoin space for over a decade, explained that sometimes the public could misinterpret the research and development projects in the crypto space and perhaps confuse them with useful real-world solutions.

“A CBDC (digital pound) doesn't fall far from this, many countries around the world are exploring this and trying to understand the benefits of this over the current system, fair enough, this will happen.”

Indeed the move towards a digital pound matches the trend among central banks worldwide to explore the potential of CBDCs. In Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) has been actively studying the future of a digital euro, and several countries, including Sweden and Denmark, are also exploring their own digital currencies.

CBDCs claim to offer a number of benefits, including improved financial inclusion, reduced costs for businesses and consumers, and increased security and efficiency in the payment system.

However, El Salvador banked as much as 70% of its unbanked population with the introduction of Bitcoin as legal tender, while countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya can now receive money from around the world to a mobile phone or Bitcoin exchange account.

*Paying for coffee in El Salvador using Bitcoin. Source: Cointelegraph*

Moreover, there are potential risks to introducing a new digital currency. James Dewar, Partner at UK Bitcoin merchant solution Bridge2Bitcoin and a Director at Laser Eyes Cards, told Cointelegraph that the “Introduction of a CBDC would itself present different challenges and risks than Bitcoin,” as the CBDC requires “trust in third parties, Central Banks and Governments, to not abuse the supply of the currency.”

“This risk applies at the macro level as it does today, but more worryingly with a CBDC on the ability for a government or its agencies to monitor and censor individual spending. This is a huge risk for the rights of freedom and property ownership within our societies.”

He raises the question, “Whilst we may trust one government or another, do we as citizens trust all future governments, of whatever color, with this power?” Tony Yates, a former senior adviser to the Bank of England, has spoken out against CBDCs. Resonating Dewar's thoughts, he questioned the motivations behind the global rollouts of CBDCs, calling them “suspect.”

Dewar continued: “It is reasonable that government explore the idea properly. Overall we worry that there may be political pressure brought to the process that ignores or significantly downplays the risks to society of a CBDC.”

The “digital” aspect to money is also brought into question. The UK is increasingly a digital cash-based society: less than 15% of payments are made with physical cash according to the Bank of England, and as many as 23 million people–about a third of the UK population–did not use cash at all in 2021.

*Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall races contactless payments, Bitcoin vs pounds sterling in Gibraltar. Source: Cointelegraph*

Scott asks of the treasury, "Don't we already have a digital pound?"

"From an end consumer perspective, the pound is mostly digital these days regardless of the mechanism used.So once they have finished their exploratory stages, I would love to see a list of the benefits and new features a CBDC will be bring to the public.”

In the meantime, Scott will “continue to focus on Bitcoin and making a global interoperable system everyone can participate in.”

Dewar shared that there could be hope for Bitcoin and the UK government: “the role description notes that the emergence of private sector money (such as Bitcoin) offers exciting opportunities for UK businesses and consumers, and we would very much agree with that at Bridge2Bitcoin.” The Bank of England CBDC, by design, will be available to Brits although no official timeline is set.

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