Bitcoin B logo lights up Germany’s tallest building in Berlin

January 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Berlin

Berliners could see the Bitcoin B projected onto the Berliner Fernsehturm tower on January 21.

The Bitcoin (BTC) logo lit up the night sky in Berlin this weekend, adorning Germany’s tallest building with a giant orange B.

On January 21, the Bitcoin logo illuminated the Berliner Fernsehturm tower–known as the TV Tower. German Bitcoiners took to Twitter and social media to share photos and videos of the illumination, then shared by prominent Bitcoin Twitter accounts.

The man behind the B, a German Bitcoiner called Tilo told Cointelegraph why the idea came to him:

"We just want to call attention on bitcoin! We’re fans of Guerilla actions like this and will keep on track."

Tilo is CEO of an events agency that will host the "Best of Blockchain" conference this year. He explained that the process is simple for setting up light displays: “what you need is a mixer, power station, special Bitcoin logo,” in one of the comments. Tilo had tried the process at the end of last year, "But the beamer I used was too weak," he explained.

It’s not the first time the Bitcoin logo or themes have been projected onto iconic buildings. In May 2021 in London, “Fiat is the bubble, Bitcoin is the pin,” was projected onto the Bank of England.

The vigilante strikes again.

Last night on the Bank of England pic.twitter.com/1XsBgW7e0I
— Dominic Frisby (@DominicFrisby) May 3, 2021

Tilo had previously beamed Bitcoin slogans onto the iconic Berlin wall and had shared an inventory of products required to coordinate illuminations for those interested in trying it out. However, he insists that these kind of "advertisements" are not technically allowed, so it's best to tread with caution.

The Bitcoin B on the Berlin Wall. Source: Twitter

Whereas the Reddit group for Bitcoiners in Germany celebrated the event with a chain of comments saying “Noice,” the subreddit for Berlin residents took a different approach. One commenter criticized the light display as “Light pollution,” whereas another hope that “It [Bitcoin] never catches on.” They continued:

“Bitcoin is turbo capitalism without limits and morals, every six months disguised in a different guise and motto.”

The price per Bitcoin now sits comfortably in the $20k range having surged from the mid-teens, while network security recently hit all-time highs. The hash rate, or the number of searches performed by Bitcoin miners per second, recently punched through to 300 Exahash per second.

Moreover, the number of Bitcoin users worldwide is into the millions, while the developing world is beginning to research and take advantage of Bitcoin’s decentralized and sovereign properties. In Germany’s capital, Berliners can use Bitcoin to pay for Subway sandwiches over the Lightning Network.

Wife of Hal Finney announces Bitcoin charity event

December 27, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

She said that the event seeks to raise funds to provide assistance for victims of ALS.

Fran Finney, the wife of crypto pioneer Hal Finney, has announced a charity event to benefit victims of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Discussing the event on Twitter, Finney encouraged Bitcoin users to run a half marathon and share their experiences on social media between January 1 and January 10, 2023, to help raise funds to fight the disease.

https://t.co/xpcvzCmtMd Hi everyone, this is Fran Finney, wife of Hal Finney, an early pioneer of Bitcoin. I want to let you know about a special event I'm organizing in honor of my husband. Thank you for all your interest in Hal and your support... he would love it! 1/5
— halfin (@halfin) December 27, 2022

The announcement was made by Fran Finney, using Hal Finney’s official Twitter account. The account had previously been reactivated by her in order to save it from Twitter’s purge of old accounts.

Running Bitcoin — so called after the first-ever Bitcoin tweet, which was made by Hal Finney just a few days after Bitcoin went live in 2009 — is being held in cooperation with the ALS Association Golden West Chapter. According to its website, the organization provides equipment loans and educational materials to people who live with ALS.

Running bitcoin
— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009

The charity said itis seeking to raise funds from the event by offering official “Running Bitcoin” t-shirts and rare Hal Finney collectibles to some contributors.

Hal Finnney was an early pioneer of cryptocurrencies. In 2004, he created Reusable Proof of Work (RPOW), a system that allowed Hashcash coins to be reused by recipients. RPOW is often seen as a type of proto-cryptocurrency, although it used a central server instead of a decentralized network.

Finney also contributed code to the Bitcoin codebase in 2008 and early 2009, before it was released to the public in January 2009. He was the recipient of the first ever Bitcoin transaction, in which Satoshi Nakamoto sent him 10 Bitcoin.

Hal Finney was an avid runner for much of his life before his diagnosis with ALS in August 2009. Following a multi-year battle with the disease, he was cryonically preserved in 2014.

Not medical advice: Bitcoiner implants Lightning chip to make BTC payments by hand

December 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

A Bitcoiner has literally taken the Lightning Network into his own hands, installing a tiny payment chip into his hands to make NFC contactless payments.

The Lightning Network continues to shock the Bitcoin (BTC) community. A swiss IT Professional called F418 (not his real name) surgically implanted a Lightning-enabled chip into his right hand to make Lightning Network (LN) payments.

*An X-Ray image of the chip implanted into F418's hand. Source: Youtube*

Speaking with Cointelegraph, F418 said he experimented with body modification and LN payments for fun. He does not recommend that Bitcoin enthusiasts take the layer-2 payments network, the LN, into their own hands as he did. “The use is just to show that it is possible and you can do stuff like that." He added that most people carry cards, it’s just his hand has the wow factor:

“It’s funny if you are doing a presentation as I sometimes do presentations about payments and talk to people that are working in banks, and they make “Big Eyes” if they see that [my hand]. You don’t need to have the implant.”

Cointelegraph first met with F418 in his home country of Switzerland at the LN-friendly Plan B Lugano Conference. His attempts to pay failed as the first implant F418 used was “Defective.” Undeterred, F418 visited a medical professional to surgically remove the implant before trying again.

The second attempt succeeded. The chip sits neatly in his right hand and can now make LN payments–without reaching for a Bolt Card or a smartphone. But does it hurt, Cointelegraph asked. “I don’t feel anything–even when I go to the gym,” he replied.

*F418 taps his hand on the back of his phone to pay for two beers and some crisps. Source: Youtube*

Nonetheless, F418 brings up certain risks to the procedure. While the process is medically safe, “The only problem with the implants is that you can not make them really safe. It’s not the same security as the bolt card–you can only do LNURL withdraw; it’s not safe.”

Plus, if you make a mistake during the implantation process, it’s not a good idea to take the chip in and out of the body. It could cause harm or infection, F418 explained, so it's best to get it the right the first time.

In brief, the NFC chip works identically implanted in F418’s hand enables him to make LN payments without the need for a physical device, such as a smartphone or card. He can simply hold his hand near a compatible NFC reader to initiate a payment. It’s arguably the most convenient Bitcoin payment, allowing for quick and easy transactions without the need for any additional equipment.

NFC, or Near Field Communication technology use cases have bubbled up in the Bitcoin world. Indeed, NFC payments over the LN have surged in popularity since the introduction of the Bolt Card, first trialed over lunch on the Isle of Man, and now available in ‘Bitcoin Country,’ AKA El Salvador.

F148 shows the tiny raised insert of the chip to Cointelegraph during a call. Source: Google Meet

It’s straightforward to set up an NFC card, sticker or even a sock to work for payments (see below Twitter video). However, it’s worth noting that F418’s NFC implant into a human is the first of its kind. F418 has made the entire process open-source and accessible–including health warnings–on GitHub. He has called the process "Lightning Paw."

Paying for a coffee with #Bitcoin Lightning NFC and a pair of @mtsocks ⚡️

ANOTHER WORLD FIRST?!?! pic.twitter.com/E4c0eei3v1
— Molly Spiers (@CoinCornerMolly) December 10, 2021

The LN is a second-layer payment protocol that operates on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It allows for near-instant and near-free transactions by enabling users to make multiple payments without having to wait for the transactions to be confirmed on the blockchain. In essence, the LN creates a network of payment channels between users, allowing them to transact directly without the need for each transaction to be recorded on the blockchain.

As for F418, he continues to tinker with Bitcoin and, increasingly the Lightning Network. IT professional and extreme sports enthusiast by day, he's a Bitcoin hobbyist “who likes to try stupid stuff” by night. He joins thousands of Bitcoin hobbyists around the world who continue to build on Bitcoin despite the brutal bear market. Speaking from home in Switzerland, he told Cointelegraph:

“If you have an open network where everyone can do innovative things; it will always have the advantage of a closed system that only a couple of people can work on it.”

Just don’t try this at home, anon.

Bitcoin advocate dishes out sats over Lightning Network to raise BTC awareness

December 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

A Twitter user from the United Kingdom spent hours sending micropayments to strangers on the internet to demonstrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

A Bitcoin (BTC) advocate on Twitter known by the name of ShireHodl, or simply Shire, sent over 110 micropayments to first-time Bitcoin Lightning users in response to Michael Saylor's Lightning Network pool.

Shire asked those new to Lightning to download a Lightning wallet from App Store or Google Play Store and to send him a QR invoice. To pay the invoice, Shire scanned the code with his camera, and the Bitcoin Lightning Network did the rest. In the Tweet, Shire said he’d send 1000 sats to as many people as he can be bothered before sleep.

OK guys. Sent 76 over the past hour and now I'm tired! Post an invoice and I'm sure other bitcoiners will pick up the tab though pic.twitter.com/dWytGmsjyf
— Shire (@ShireHODL) December 5, 2022

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Shire said that he has “sent out about 110 payments of 1000 sats.” Sats are short for Satoshis, or the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin. There are 100 million Satoshis in 1 Bitcoin. Shire said:

“It's not much, maybe $20 in total, but the total fee is less than a penny. Using a credit card or debit card, the fees would have been more than the value transferred, so it would have been impossible."

In all, Shire sent over 110 micropayments —effectively onboarding 110 new users to the Lightning Network. The business owner took Bitcoin Lightning's adoption into his own hands because he recognized that many Bitcoin users had not used Lightning before.

Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Microstrategy, asked over 60,000 people if they had used Bitcoin Lightning in a poll:

The results of the Michael Saylor poll inspired Shire to take action. He told Cointelegraph, “60% of respondents in his poll said they have never used a lightning wallet so this was a small incentive to give it a go."

Also, I knew the fees would be minuscule and that people taking part would be all over the world, demonstrating how LN is borderless and will enable micropayments for all kinds of future applications.

Indeed, in recent news, the Lightning Network has been used to facilitate cross-border payments across Africa.

Shire, a Bitcoin maximalist, added that his experiment and onboarding masterclass only works with Bitcoin: “This can't be done with shitcoins either. Fees are higher, settlement takes longer.”

“You need instant settlement on an asset with deep liquidity to be able to scale this to the world and its applications. Only Bitcoin is capable of fulfilling this role.”

Shire aims to continue sending Satoshis over Lightning to demonstrate that Bitcoin might become global money someday.

Bitcoin addresses holding at least 1 BTC close in to a million

November 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

Exchange balances continue to deplete while the number of “wholecoiner” Bitcoin addresses hits new highs.

Smaller wallet addresses in the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem continue accumulating BTC despite market turmoil.

The number of known addresses on the Bitcoin blockchain that hold 1 BTC or more has hit a new all-time high. According to blockchain analytics company Glassnode, the number of wallets holding at least 1 BTC or more reached 950,000.

Bitcoin balances of 1 BTC or more has surged since November. Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin podcast host Jake Woodhouse told Cointelegraph that “To the untrained eye, the price of something reflects the value. However, price action should not be confused with value, as the most recent data in the Bitcoin market represents.” He added:

“Plebs around the world are hoovering up Bitcoin, as they see this is an opportunity to accumulate a wildly under-valued asset, which most assume has no value as the price collapses. 'Bitcoin is dead,' shouts the mainstream... Is it? Clearly, many disagree.”

Bitcoin “pleb” is the name adorned to ordinary people around the globe who support Bitcoin. Plebs buy Bitcoin–or in pleb speak, stack sats (Satoshis)– and continue to believe in Bitcoin despite mainstream media’s attempts to eulogize the decentralized technology.

The trend coincides with billions of dollars of Bitcoin and crypto exiting exchanges. As Woodhouse suggests, the Bitcoin plebs of humbler means demonstrate higher levels of conviction while the price flirts with the low teens.

Woodhouse digs into self-custody: “How many of these BTC are in self-custody never to be moved again? My bet: the majority.” Indeed, in the aftermath of the FTX fiasco, some Bitcoin enthusiasts are learning how to take custody of their Bitcoin, registering record withdrawals from exchanges.

Bitcoin Balance on exchanges trends lower. Source: Glassnode

According to Glassnode data, exchange balances have trended down since the beginning of the year. In January, exchanger balances measured roughly 2.8 million, or almost 15% of the total supply of Bitcoin mined. In November, exchanges balances are down to 2.3 million Bitcoin or shy of 11% of the total supply.

Woodhouse told Cointelegraph, “The bear market is highlighting the fraudsters who have been selling bitcoin derivatives, naturally promoting the superpower of bitcoin self-custody, which I believe individuals are taking heed of; a signal of huge positivity for the bitcoin bulls.”

Billionaire Michael Saylor, one of the wealthiest Bitcoin bulls, agrees. Saylor recently shared nuggets of wisdom with Cointelegraph concerning the bear market. He advised Bitcoin buyers to relax and focus on the bigger picture.

How to build a Bitcoin Beach: Advice from the pros

November 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Africa

Founders of Bitcoin Beach El Salavdor, Bitcoin Ekasi in South africa, Dakar Bitcoin Days in Senegal and Global Bitcoin Fest shed light on building Bitcoin communities around the world.

How does one build a Bitcoin (BTC) community? How to start? Where to begin? And what are the best practices?

Cointelegraph spoke to Bitcoin community builders around the world to shed light on a growing phenomenon in the Bitcoin world.

From Indonesia to South Africa to El Salvador and the Congo, circular-based Bitcoin economies and community projects have sprung up across the globe. Cointelegraph asked the successful community-focused Bitcoiners how to kickstart a Bitcoin circular economy and what advice they’d lend to enthusiasts looking to replicate the success of projects like Bitcoin Beach, El Zonte.

*Using Bitcoin at Bitcoin Beach. Source: Twitter*

For Bitcoin community project leader Mike Peterson, it starts with Lightning. Peterson pioneered the Bitcoin Beach project in the sleepy surf town of El Zonte, El Salvador. The circular economy energized an entire nation and eventually led to El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Peterson told Cointelegraph:

“You need to be using lightning for for people to be transacting and to build a circular economy. It really needs to be built on lightning. [..] You need to get people transacting.”

The layer-2 Lightning Network is a payments solution built on top of Bitcoin. In El Salvador, El Chivo is among the most popular Lightning-enabled Bitcoin wallets, although it has experienced issues since its rollout. Across the rest of the world, Bitcoin enthusiasts use Wallet of Satoshi, Muun Wallet, CoinCorner or Blue Wallet to instantly transact with one another. Peterson continued:

“If you get them making that first transaction and they see how easy it is and that they’ve actually sent value from one person to another in like a second time for hardly almost no fees, that’s what the light bulb goes off and they realize the value that that has.”

Ultimately, leading with Lightning helps newbies realize that Bitcoin can be easy and even fun. In the Isle of Man, where there is a budding Bitcoin community, United Kingdom-based exchange CoinCorner has found inventive ways to demonstrate the Lightning Network.

*Bitcoin Ekasi Project next to Mossel Bay, South Africa. Source: Twitter*

Hermann Vivier, founder of Bitcoin Ekasi in the Western Cape of South Africa, shared a few tricks to establishing a Bitcoin economy. First, while it’s important to “put one foot in front of the other,” and “just start,” he said, try to see if there’s a preexisting community to tap into:

“We had something that that was already existing and we built the Bitcoin community on top of that.”

Bitcoin Ekasi is a township project that keeps kids away from gangs in school and among South Africa’s Atlantic waves, where they learn lifeguarding and surf skills. Vivier teaches Bitcoin as another element of the kids’ education.

Recent: What can blockchain do for increasing human longevity?

Furthermore, Vivier also shared that it’s important to keep it simple. Stick to Bitcoin, he joked. His hours of labor and love given to this community project have turned him into a “Bitcoin maximalist,” as it helps in avoiding the risk of scams in crypto, while blockchain buzzwords can get in the way of making progress:

“I would say 100% focus on Bitcoin only. And if there was something better than Bitcoin out there, then that's what you should focus on. But at the moment Bitcoin is where it’s at.”

Nourou, founder of Bitcoin Senegal, a community-led Bitcoin project in West Africa, told Cointelegraph, “You cannot create a community if you aren’t capable of answering people’s questions–and that requires a wide range of knowledge.”

Iman Yudha, who leads a group of crypto and Bitcoin enthusiasts in Indonesia, agrees. He told Cointelegraph that it’s important to “Get educated first–before you make any decisions. That's my personal opinion.”

After establishing a solid basis of foundational knowledge about Bitcoin, crypto and security. Nourou recommends to start talking about Bitcoin with close relations:

“Start with the family if you can't convince your mother, your brother, your sister, the cousins, and so on, it’s a bad start.”

He notes that the following step varies depending on the culture, business practice and environment. Over in Senegal, “it is the wealthiest who roughly define fashion, who define trends. So people tend to copy them.” It’s for that reason that Nourou tried to target his Bitcoin communication to those communities first. Incidentally, Nourou is hosting West Africa’s first major Bitcoin conference, Dakar Bitcoin Days, on Dec. 2 in West Africa’s largest theater.

*Cointelegraph attended Dakar, Senegal's first ever Bitcoin meetup in 2022.*

Lukas, a co-founder of Global Bitcoin Fest — which holds marathon Twitter Spaces for people all around the world — again encourages Bitcoin enthusiasts to focus on the people. It can be “lonely” in the land of Bitcoin, he told Cointelegraph, so finding a team with shared values can spur things along. He shared an example:

“It’s a conversation that I've had recently with two guys in Zimbabwe. They want to kickstart a [project] there. He wanted to do it, but he was alone. [...] Then he found Metamorphoses, another great maxi, and now they're forming a team — and the energy is completely different now.”

Yudha chimed in, sharing that energy and enthusiasm are critical, and community builders should avoid being “toxic” where possible.

Recent: FTX collapse: The crypto industry’s Lehman Brothers moment

In short, these Bitcoin pioneers suggest finding like-minded individuals to work with, starting small, taking advantage of existing communities, knowing and understanding the subject matter and not overstretching. The simplest way to do this is to focus on Bitcoin and Bitcoin only. And to get people interested and transacting, get people using the Lightning Network because that’s what gives people their own light bulb moment.

The Madeira Bitcoin adoption experiment takes flight

October 24, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

An update on the Bitcoin rollout on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, which according to entrepreneur Jeff Booth is “a bigger Bitcoin Beach but in the EU.”

This spring, the Madeiran archipelago “adopted” Bitcoin (BTC). Madeira’s President, Miguel Albuquerque, was invited onto the stage at Bitcoin Miami 2022 by Jan3 CEO Samson Mow to announce the promise.

The president announced, “I believe in the future, and I believe in Bitcoin.” Days prior, Albuquerque was breaking bread with Michael Saylor, executive chairman of MicroStrategy, at his luxury villa. Albuquerque was “orange-pilled” by one of the world’s wealthiest Bitcoin hodlers.

Nonetheless, as Cointelegraph later reported, the island of Madeira was not adopting but, in fact, “embracing” Bitcoin. The European Union governs the Portuguese islands, therefore, they cannot legally adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. Plus, regulatory hurdles and reliance on EU subsidies and energy pose a challenge to outright Bitcoin adoption.

*Author Jeff Booth (left) and podcaster Daniel Prince (right). Source: Youtube*

So Cointelegraph caught up with André Loja, the Madeiran entrepreneur and driving force behind the island’s Bitcoin strategy, following his appearance on stage at Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022.

Taking advice from F.R.E.E Madeira

Over the past six months, Loja has founded The Regional Forum of Economic Education, or F.R.E.E Madeira, alongside Bitcoin big-hitters including Bitcoin author Knut Svanholm and podcaster Daniel Prince. The board’s advisers boast entrepreneur and author Jeff Booth, Fedmint CEO Obi Nwosu, as well as Mow. The group serves to ensure the president upholds his “serious commitment,” Jeff Booth explained, to making Madeira a home for the “new base layer of the new internet.”

The island now boasts a series of Bitcoin-first investments, developments and even Bitcoiner residents, as well as a steady trickle of crypto-curious people who have embarked on their first trip to the island.

Loja told Cointelegraph that while Bitcoin is at the core of economic development and investment, “Madeira is not only investing in Bitcoin, but all kinds of technologies.” For example, a center for ocean-oriented startups and an advanced medical center are under construction.

Madeira, Madeira, Portugal, Bitcoin Community

These economic activities fit under the president’s purview of adopting new technologies and working toward Madeira, shedding its reputation as uniquely a haven for older generations. Nonetheless, these developments in wider technology dwindle in comparison to the progress made in embracing the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

Following a series of talks with Bitcoin OGs, including privacy advocate Matt Odell and Unchained Capital’s Parker Lewis, Madeira has the green light to set up a Bitcoin Commons. “It’s basically a big Bitcoin-only coworking space. It’ll also be a place to park the association,” Loja explained. The Bitcoin Commons is a space for the nonprofit, F.R.E.E. Madeira, to thrive:

“We’ll have a podcast room there, we’ll do the [Bitcoin] meetups, we'll do the education part there. We’ll also have the remittances also set up there with the ATM and so on to connect to the diaspora.”

The Madeiran diaspora sprawls across the globe. Lucinda Castro, a Madeiran lawyer on the governance board of F.R.E.E., told Cointelegraph in June that “Madeirans emigrated to Venezuela, the United States and Canada in their thousands;” inclusive of second and third-generation immigrants, there are now over one million Madeirans living in Venezuela. The use case of Bitcoin as a remittance tool for Madeirans is, therefore, compelling.

Sending money home from overseas played a part in El Salvador’s move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, while another small island nation, Tonga, has also been vocal in supporting Bitcoin remittance payments.

The Bitcoin Commons will also support human development with the founding of a coding academy. The academy encourages Bitcoin companies around the world to travel to Madeira to learn new skills while providing locals with a space to hone their digital skills on the island. The Bitcoin Academy, as it will become known, also shines a light on the Lightning Network, the layer-2 payments network.

Will Bitcoin be the standard in Madeira?

As things stand, Bitcoin believers can purchase property, invest and mingle with the budding Bitcoin community on the island, Loja explained. On stage at Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022, Jeff Booth announced his intent to invest in the island, adding, “an island such as Madeira can compete globally and can be the new Silicon Valley.”

However, in order to facilitate payment in Bitcoin, investors should enlist the help of a third-party intermediary, such as Archipelago Investments. Bitcoin merchant adoption is slowly spreading across the island, but much like the mainland, it’s a challenge to live on a Bitcoin standard. Across the Atlantic in Lisbon, there’s a thriving Bitcoin community, but very few merchants accept Bitcoin as a means of exchange.

The panel in Amsterdam was frank in response to questions regarding merchant Bitcoin acceptance. The team at F.R.E.E. is set on guiding the president and the administration into the new Bitcoin era. Ultimately, the autonomous region must roll out Bitcoin adoption without burning bridges with the EU on which Madeira remains heavily dependent. Merchant adoption will come, however, and “that’s what the [Bitcoin] plebs are for,” Svanholm said.

Just like mainland Portugal, Madeira’s first language is Portuguese, and Portuguese business resources are growing. Nico Laamanen, a co-founder of the Konsensus Network, established business operations on the island as part of his mission to “make Bitcoin knowledge accessible to everyone, in every country, in every language.” Naturally one of their priorities is translating books into Portuguese:

“Madeira is great for remote workers which overlaps with many bitcoiners myself included. The tax regime, friendly environment and Bitcoin curiosity are just big bonuses.”

The Looking Glass Education, backed by F.R.E.E. adviser Greg Foss, is another sound money educational resource to support Madeira.

When pressed on whether Madeira is effectively becoming a European hub for Bitcoin development, Loja joked, “that’s the idea.” Notwithstanding headwinds posed by Portugal jockeying to tax crypto gains, the Madeira initiative should put the island firmly on the map for Bitcoin adoption.

Finally, Bitcoin filmmakers PlebMusic and Cinemuck shot F.R.E.E.’s initial meetings with policymakers and politicians on the island and showed the trailer at Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022. The full documentary will screen by December 2022 and will likely equip the island with another Bitcoin-friendly marketing tool.

Laamanen concluded, “I think Madeira will become a hotspot for bitcoin entrepreneurs and users in Europe and I want to be a part if it.”

Web3 grows in online searches as interest in Bitcoin declines: Google Trends

October 24, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

Online searches for the term “Bitcoin dead” reached an all-time high owing to peak anxiety among investors amid ongoing selloffs at the time.

The global crypto community has started to redirect its interest from Bitcoin (BTC) to Web3, according to Google search trends.

In order to keep up with decade-long innovations spanning from blockchain-based applications to nonfungible tokens (NFTs), crypto investors and enthusiasts rely on searching the web — disclosing their true sentiments in real-time. Most recently, searches for the term “Bitcoin dead” reached an all-time high, owing to peak anxiety among investors amid ongoing sell-offs at the time.

As a result of the prolonged bear market, global Google searches for Bitcoin have reached their lowest point in over a year. On the other hand, Google searches for Web3 have picked up steam and recorded an all-time high in terms of peak popularity in 2022.

*Google search results for Bitcoin (top) and Web3 (down). Source: Google Trends*

As shown above, the interest in Web3 stands at 72, while for Bitcoin, the number has come down to 27 — a three-times difference based on peak performance.

Taking a closer look shows that interest in Bitcoin (based on Google searches) is strongest in El Salvador, supported by communities residing in Nigeria and the Netherlands. However, China takes the number one spot in searching about Web3.

Interestingly, Nigeria is in the list of the top three countries for both Web3 and Bitcoin Google searches. Supporting local interest, the Nigerian government recently conducted early-stage talks for a crypto-friendly economic zone with crypto exchange Binance.

On Oct. 11, Google added a new feature allowing users to find details about Ethereum wallet addresses.

Well done, blockchain address is now available in Google Search! pic.twitter.com/7IuKv1gddR
— Han⚡️ (@hhua_) October 11, 2022

Further research from Cointelegraph confirmed that the feature comes with limited functionality because Google is not yet able to pull up wallet details of numerous addresses.

Raising a glass to Satoshi’s Place and the challenge of running Bitcoin businesses

September 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

A Bitcoin-themed bar and education center has popped up in Northern England —Cointelegraph swung by to interview the founder and raise a glass.

Cointelegraph took a trip to Satoshi’s Place on Friday, a Bitcoin (BTC) hub in Greater Manchester. Named after the anonymous creator of the world’s largest and most widely accepted cryptocurrency, the bar and workspace offer workshops, coworking spaces for local businesses and Bitcoin-inspired cocktails.

Adam, the founder (who chose not to share his surname), first heard about Bitcoin in 2012 and has spent the past 10 years experimenting with ways to onboard and educate people about the magic internet money. He told Cointelegraph over a beer — paid for by Bitcoin over the Lightning Network — that it’s the first of many forays into the Bitcoin business.

Everything in the space–absolutely everything–is Bitcoin-themed or Bitcoin-branded. From orange being the dominant colour to rare Bitcoin art adorning the walls to the hand dryer in the loos which generates heat from–you guessed it–a Bitcoin miner plugged in upstairs.

The "Gold Rush" was the most popular cocktail on the night.

Adam explained that over the past four years he’s focused his efforts on Bitcoin merchant adoptin, a growing trend in the United Kingdom. Satoshi’s Place began life as a coffee shop and then a pizzeria back in 2018. At first, customers could buy coffees with Bitcoin and even use a Bitcoin ATM to buy and sell Bitcoin, “Back when it was legal,” he joked.

“People were putting £20,000 worth of cash into an ATM on a monthly. From teenagers to I think the eldest was 93 years old.”

Bitcoin ATMs were forced to shutter by the Financial Conduct Authority in March this year. Adam explained that despite the fact that they did everything by the book — “a full exchange system literally to the minute,” — the banks made life hard.

An example that’s part of a wider trend, Bitcoin Businesses in the UK are beleaguered by banks. Adam’s experience is no different: he had issues with Barclays while operating a UK-based crypto festival called CoinFest and has had bank accounts blocked and emails ignored despite best efforts do business above board.

Satoshi’s Place is his third attempt at creating a by-the-book space for Bitcoin enthusiasts and precoiners to meet and learn what is money, and why Bitcoin might be a better one. Thanks to the Lightning Network, a layer-2 Bitcoin solution, payments are now near-instant, frictionless and basically free. Many punters, Bitcoin enthusiasts, and even first-timers bought burgers and beverages with Bitcoin at the bar on Friday.

The youngest of the Satoshi’s Place crew buying a drink! @theboltcard @CoinCorner #SPTeam #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/o2uQdfJTEc
— Satoshi's Place® - A UK based Bitcoin Hub (@SatoshisPlaceUK) September 17, 2022

The bar uses solutions from Fast Bitcoins and CoinCorner, two Bitcoin companies based on the Isle of Man. CoinCorner’s team made the trip across the Irish Sea to mingle on Friday and host a Bitcoin workshop the following day.

Elsewhere, Nathan Day, “Pleb at Large” and contributor to BTCMap.Org, an open source map to show where Bitcoiners can spend Satoshis, demonstrated Bitcoin-themed games. Jordan Walker, CEO at the Bitcoin Collective, the group behind the UK Bitcoin Conference, was schooled by Day's son at Sats-Man (like Pac-Man but with Satoshis).

Related: The UK 'Bitcoin Adventure' shows BTC is a family affair

https://t.co/Xi10jsz6TB https://t.co/afm5iJCwJ4 pic.twitter.com/AQjZcrKypB
— ⚡ BTC Map ⚡ (@BTCMapDotOrg) September 19, 2022

The workshops at Satoshi’s Place will be as close to free as possible and open to all: Bitcoin the currency doesn’t discriminate, after all. Workshops in the workspace at the front room cover “Everything from lightning education to Bitcoin for kids, Bitcoin development, all different types. There are about 16 hosts that I've got up to now that want to do workshops.”

It's been more than a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto stepped away from public involvement in the blockchain community. It makes you wonder what they would have thought of spaces like this, all these years later.

Bitcoin might be down but interest in crypto and NFTs is here to stay: Ledger CEO

September 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

According to Pascal Gauthier, CEO at Ledger, in spite of the bear market there is a lot to be optimistic about in the crypto and Web 3 space.

The future for crypto remains very bright. That’s according to the CEO of Ledger, Pascal Gauthier who sat down for a tête-à-tête with Cointelegraph in his home country, France. Gauthier, who enters his eighth year working at Ledger, explained that the recent downward price action in Bitcoin has not brought interest in crypto to a standstill:

“Bitcoin might be down, but people are buying NFTs and you know, they're participating in communities.”

Gauthier voiced his opinion while sitting in front of the doors to the Biarritz Grand Casino, home to France’s largest Bitcoin conference, Surfin Bitcoin. The conference was a Bitcoin maxi-style affair where royalty and Bitcoin hobbyists rubbed shoulders to nurture Bitcoin adoption in France.

Commenting on the “religious war of Bitcoin maxis versus the rest of the world,” Gauthier explained that it’s a question of product fit. While competition is good as it drives innovation, it’s also a question of use case: “It's also interesting to see that people just use the product. And when they use the product, they use Bitcoin and sometimes they use other things.”

In response to the crypto contagion , in which Hodlonaut, Zipmex, Vauld, and countless other exchanges experienced difficulty managing—or went as far as freezing–customers’ funds, Gauthier told Cointelegraph that Ledger’s sales are “Way up.” Gauthier lamented that the increase in sales is bittersweet as people have to learn “The hard way.” During the interview, he gave a stark warning about the importance of holding one's keys.

On a lighter note, however, Gauthier is optimistic and hopeful for the future of crypto. From the Metaverse to crypto gaming to more participation in Web3 technology, Gauthier admitted that it’s early days for the space but a lot of things in the future make him go “Wow!”

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