Chinese regulators have been cracking down on bitcoin recently but traders have found a workaround; traders can use the messaging app WeChat to buy and sell coins; users are not sure how long this will last as the government is keen to shut down as much as they can; traders do believe they can stay ahead of the government by moving from app to app. Source.
Citing low usage numbers by customers and retailers the payments company says they will end all bitcoin related payments by April 23rd; "Empirically, there are fewer and fewer use cases for which accepting or paying with Bitcoin makes sense," Stripe product manager Tom Karlo wrote in the announcement reported by Business Insider; the volatility of price and mining fees also played into the decision by Stripe and has been cited by others as an issue that needs be be addressed. Source.
Bitkan, a China-based bitcoin-focused data and trading services provider, has released the trailer of the first Chinese bitcoin documentary, "Shape the Future"; the documentary will provide a panoramic view of the development of the bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem in China, the country with the number one hashrate in the bitcoin realm. Source
Investors will be able to gain exposure to bitcoin through the fund, without direct exposure to the volatile currency that traded over $62,000 over the weekend alongside this and other pro-crypto news. On Tuesday morning, the ProShares ETF went live under the ticker BITO at around $40.
With the price of bitcoin increasing as of late there have been increasing amount of people coming out stating that it is a bubble; conversely there are enthusiasts who claim that people simply don't understand the cryptocurrency; the WSJ reflects on recent bitcoin news and shares the wide variety of perspectives from their readers. Source
Bitcoin's growing e-waste issue is even more concerning that its bloated energy consumption. Unlike the energy, it's not yet being addressed.
The price of bitcoin is the highest in Zimbabwe which reached $13,500 at the time of the article being published; this is due to the conflicts happening in the country; for people in Zimbabwe bitcoin is seen as a safer option; the US dollar and South African rand also trade for approximately twice their price in the country. Source
With the exception of those who reside in few states, users of Square’s Cash payments app can buy and sell bitcoin; users are limited to purchasing $10,000 in bitcoin per week; Square will not add fees to bitcoin transactions and uses the major exchanges to calculate prices. Source
Over the weekend, the price of bitcoin dropped by as much as 20%; the price has since rebounded slightly with a current price as of writing of $1,041; the recent volatility is due to disagreements between developers, exchanges and entrepreneurs about the size limit of a block; some want to increase the current block limit of 1 MB; two groups have been debating including Bitcoin Unlimited, who is advocating for no limit on block sizes, and Bitcoin Core, who is advocating to keep the block size as is; Bitcoin Unlimited has recently threatened to implement a hard fork. Source
This week, we engage deeply with Ray Dalio's economic research about American Empire, capitalism, and the structure of money and credit. His clear ideas and model of the macro economy help connect the dots between emerging schools of thought, like Modern Monetary Theory and Market Monetarism, and the scarcity-focused philosophies of Gold and Bitcoin. This exploration will give you tools for understanding the $2 trillion printed by the US government, as well as potential associated impacts on finance and society.