The Bitcoin transition: How hodlers can become changemakers and drive adoption

April 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

“When you think about Bitcoin, it’s potentially the largest country or one of the largest countries today. But it’s digital and it’s spread out everywhere,” Jeff Booth told Cointelegraph.

If Bitcoin (BTC) were a country, it might be one of the biggest in the world. That’s according to Jeff Booth, general partner at Bitcoin venture fund Ego Death Capital and author of The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future. Cointelegraph spoke to Booth to better understand and visualize the Bitcoin movement’s state in 2023.

Booth sat down to enjoy a pint and a chat about Bitcoin in Bedford, a small suburban town that has attracted Bitcoin advocates and key opinion leaders from all over the world. Booth commented on the emergence and resilience of the Bitcoin community and how people can get involved personally in the decade ahead.

*Jeff Booth (right) speaks to Cointelegraph’s Joe Hall*

Booth suggested that the Bitcoin community could usher in a fundamental change to the world if its members dedicated more of their time to the cause. He said that change could be spurred “if all of those people just said, I’m moving and spending more of my time in this to massively step-change the adoption rate.”

The Bitcoin hodlers — those that hold onto their Bitcoin in the hopes of the currency reaching mass adoption — are the backbone of Bitcoin. However, if more of those people could actively use their Bitcoin, the movement could pick up steam and reach its goal faster, Booth argues:

“It would be staggering if the people that were just holding as a hedge decided, I’m going to advance, I’m going to spend more time in the world I want to see and move their time and attention there. The world would move there. I saw it in myself.”

From simple steps like asking if merchants accept Bitcoin to businesses choosing to accept Bitcoin as a preferred means of exchange, there are certain moves that people can make to further the cause. In-person Bitcoin meetups also contribute. Booth commented on the impact of the Bitcoin-themed Real Bedford football team as a way to introduce Bitcoin to a wider audience:

“He’s [Peter McCormack] using this vehicle to advance a whole bunch of other stuff, which is really cool.“

Peter McCormack told Cointelegraph in a separate interview that the Bitcoin movement in 2023 covers far more than the currency: “It’s Nostr, it’s Bitcoin, it’s mainstream media lies, it is poor governance and regulation.” Nostr is a decentralized protocol championed by Bitcoin advocates. Nostr applications like Damus seek to compete with Twitter and other popular social media platforms.

Booth shared that there are more and more ways to use and engage with Bitcoin since his “initiation” into Bitcoin, sometimes referred to as taking the “orange pill.” The Canadian observes that the payments network; the Lightning Network, and Fedimint; a solution for shared custody, present more ways for Bitcoin enthusiasts to get stuck in. Moreover, a lot of engagement and interaction with these Bitcoin subsets takes place online:

“It’s amazing how many friends that I’ve actually never met, and I consider them close friends that over time you develop these relationships, these online relationships that you’ve never met.”

Booth added, “There is something about meeting in person and spending that time going deeper doing this, and there’s something about that that I don’t think can be replaced online.” Initiatives like McCormack’s in Bedford help bridge that gap and encourage Bitcoiners to engage with the local community.

Plus, given that Bitcoiners are currently distributed across the globe, with communities popping up in Senegal, Guatemala and Vietnam, Booth sees potential for local network effects to develop.

“How many Bitcoiners are actually just holding it and are waiting?” he asked.

If the hodlers and those “holding it [Bitcoin] as a hedge” decided to spend more time in the world they want to see, and move both their time and attention there, then, as Booth concludes: “The world would move there.“

This interview is part of an upcoming documentary about Bitcoin in Bedford shown on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel. Subscribe here.

Cointelegraph Magazine: Bitcoin in Senegal: Why is this African country using BTC?

Algorand to support bank and insurance guarantees platform in Italy

December 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

This is the first time an EU Member State will use blockchain technology for bank and insurance guarantees, according to Algorand.

Layer-1 blockchain platform Algorand has been chosen as the public blockchain to support an “innovative digital guarantees platform” to be used in Italy's banking and insurance markets.

The Algorand-supported platform is expected to be launched in early 2023. According to Algorand’s Dec. 13 announcement, this is the first time an EU Member State will use blockchain technology for bank and insurance guarantees.

A bank guarantee is when a lending institution promises to cover a loss if a borrower defaults on a loan. It's an alternative to providing a security bond or a deposit to a supplier or vendor. An insurance guarantee is similar but is offered by an insurance company rather than a bank.

Algorand said that blockchain technology was ideally suited for the "Digital Sureties" platform because of its fast, efficient, low-cost, and scalable data transactions, and its ability to provide protection against fraud.

Just in: Algorand has been selected to be the public blockchain that will support an innovative digital guarantees platform in Italy.

This new Digital Sureties platform is being developed by @Cetif1 and endorsed by @bancaditalia and @ivassocial: https://t.co/EBsOkBEwcb pic.twitter.com/dCFatoYILk
— Algorand (@Algorand) December 13, 2022

The blockchain-backed Digital Sureties platform is being developed by The Research Center on Technologies, Innovation and Finance of the Catholic University of Milan (CETIF) and is a part of Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), an initiative set to boost Italy’s economic recovery following the COVID-19 crisis.

Federico Rajola, professor at CETIF said they chose Algorand for its "unparalleled level of innovation" among permissionless DLTs and its "leadership in sustainability," adding:

"Our goal is to help Italy not only recover from the economic impact of Covid-19, but also excel through innovation and leadership [...] We believe these platforms can and will dramatically contribute to the country's competitive sustainability for the benefit of all."

In September, Cointelegraph reported that Algorand had increased its transaction speed, processing capacity, and cross-chain functionality with a major protocol upgrade. The layer-1 blockchain network implemented State Proofs to its mainnet, which enables trustless communication between different blockchain protocols. The upgrade increased Algorand’s processing speed from 1,200 to 6,000 transactions per second.

Why the world’s largest museum is embracing NFT technology

December 10, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Art

The head of the contemporary art department at the State Hermitage reveals his vision of the future of NFT art.

Eventually, all museums will build their digital copy in the metaverse, according to Dmitry Ozerkov, the head of the contemporary art department at the State Hermitage Museum.

Ozerkov is currently developing the “Celestial Hermitage”, a digital version of the iconic Russian museum, which will be exhibiting NFT art.

"We are all moving into the digital era and our digital twin will be following us everywhere", Ozerkov told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.

The State Hermitage in Saint Peterburg, Russia, is the largest museum in the world by gallery space with around 3 million works of art.

In September 2021, the museum took its first steps in the NFT world by selling 5 digital reproductions of its most famous masterpieces in the form of NFTs raising almost $450,000.

In November the Hermitage launched its first entirely digital exhibition, titled ‘The Ethereal Aether”, where 38 NFTs are showcased within a digital reconstruction of the museum.

Unlike the physical Hermitage, where visitors can only watch the works o display, the virtual exhibition allows visitors to interact with the NFTs on display.

"You can pass through these doors without touching anything, while in the virtual world, you can do anything: you can play with artworks, you can make them interactive, you can add data to it", explained Ozerkov.

The exhibition can be visited online for free until December 10th.

As pointed out by Ozerkov, the interest of the Hermitage in NFTs transcend market dynamics and seeks to investigate the artistic value that NFT can bring into the contemporary art world.

“My idea was to take a selection of existing works out of the market and to put them into the museum and to have a look: what remains in them as art? Is there any art there or we like, what we value in them is only money?”.

Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

Spanish banks required to report 3-year digital currency plans

November 10, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Banco de Espana wants to assess the influence that digitalization has on financial services.

Digital currency plans by Spanish banks must now be reported according to sources at the Banco de Espana, which claimed that the central bank wants to examine the effect digitalization is having on financial services.

The Bank of Spain has been quiet for years on the subject of digital currencies. However, this year, it’s stepping up and asserting itself. After establishing a digital currency service providers’ registry, it’s moving on to the banks.

According to a report from Spain’s El País, the Banco de Espana is now on the lookout for additional information from financial organizations dealing with digital money.

The purpose of the research is to examine the effect that digitalization is having on financial services, not to prohibit or advocate digital currencies. The central bank is calling on commercial banks to disclose their ties with digital asset service providers, stakes in them, and any other exposure they may have to cryptocurrencies.

Banks that want to launch or offer custody for existing cryptocurrencies in the next three years must also detail such projects.

The latest development arrives as leading banks in Spain begin to embrace digital currencies. Banco Santander is the country’s largest bank, and it has stated that it is working toward a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund. Other financial institutions are also at various stages in their digital asset initiatives, such as BBVA and CaixaBank.

As reported, Banco Santander and four top Spanish banks completed a proof-of-concept for payment transfers utilizing smart contracts. Banco Santander also reportedly redeemed its blockchain-based bond in 2019.

Crypto will generate more wealth than the internet, says Morgan Creek Capital CEO

October 13, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Price

Hedge fund manager Mark Yusko believes cryptocurrencies will generate ‘untold wealth’ by powering the internet of value.

By laying the foundations of the internet of value, cryptocurrency and blockchain will generate more wealth than Web 1 and Web 2, said CEO of Morgan Creek Capital, Mark Yusko, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph.

“We haven't even gotten to the parabolic growth part of Web 3, which is going to create untold wealth”,, stated Yusko.

In his career as a hedge fund manager, Yusko profited from investing in early internet technologies. He embraced cryptocurrency in 2017 after realizing their potential to power the internet of value: a new iteration of the internet that will allow users to exchange value directly bypassing financial intermediaries.

In comparison to the previous iterations of the internet, which revolutionized the spheres of commerce and media, the"trust net", as Yusko calls it, will generate an exponentially larger amount of wealth.

"Financial services is far bigger than information, and media, and commerce", he pointed out.

However, Yusko is convinced that before entering a phase of parabolic growth, the crypto industry will need to overcome the opposition of traditional financial actors and possibly face another major correction.

“The incumbents really don't want the disruptors to win, so they will fight really hard. They'll throw up regulatory barriers, they'll try to buy up the companies and shell of the technology", he said.

Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

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