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Grayscale Launches European ETF While Urging SEC to Approve GBTC Conversion Into Spot Bitcoin ETF

16/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Grayscale Launches European ETF While Urging US SEC to Approve GBTC Conversion to Bitcoin ETF

Grayscale Investments has announced the launch of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe. The company’s Future of Finance UCITS ETF will list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Borsa Italiana, and Deutsche Börse Xetra.

Grayscale Launches ETF in Europe

Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital asset manager, announced Monday the launch of its first European exchange-traded fund (ETF) called Grayscale Future of Finance UCITS ETF (ticker: GFOF). It will list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Borsa Italiana, and Deutsche Börse Xetra, the company said.

The announcement details:

GFOF UCITS ETF tracks the investment performance of the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index and seeks to offer investors exposure to companies at the intersection of finance, technology, and digital assets.

UCITS ETFs are products domiciled in European markets that are subject to the Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities regulation.

The GFOF UCITS ETF is Grayscale’s second ETF. The first, announced in February, is listed in the U.S. in partnership with Bloomberg. It also tracks the investment performance of the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index.

“We announced our first ETF earlier this year in partnership with Bloomberg as part of the expansion of our business,” said Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein. “We’re thrilled to be expanding our offering in Europe through the UCITS wrapper.”

Meanwhile, Grayscale is trying to convince the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve the conversion of its flagship product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), into a spot bitcoin ETF. GBTC currently has $19.2 billion in assets under management.

The company recently had a private meeting with the SEC to discuss its application, according to CNBC. The asset manager told the regulator that turning its Bitcoin Trust product into a NYSE-traded ETF would broaden access to bitcoin and enhance protections while unlocking up to $8 billion in value for investors.

So far, the SEC has not approved any spot bitcoin ETF. The deadline for the securities watchdog to either approve or reject Grayscale’s application is July 6. “The SEC is discriminating against issuers by approving bitcoin futures ETFs and denying bitcoin spot ETFs,” Grayscale previously said.

What do you think about Grayscale launching an ETF in Europe while trying to convince the SEC to approve its spot bitcoin ETF application? Let us know in the comments section below.

Filed Under: Bitcoin, crypto, cryptocurrency, English, ETF, european etf, exchange traded fund, Finance, GBTC, grayscale, grayscale bitcoin ETF, Grayscale ETF, grayscale europe, Grayscale Investments, News Bitcoin

China Backed Publication: Terra LUNA Crash Vindicates Country’s Ban on Crypto-Related Activities

16/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

An op-ed article published in the state-backed Chinese publication Economic Daily, has suggested that the recent crash of the Terra blockchain’s LUNA and the de-pegging of the UST stablecoin vindicate the Asian country’s decision to ban crypto-related activities. In the article, the author names the interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the buying and selling of crypto assets by several investment giants as the causes of the recent market crash.

Impact of Recent US Interest Rate Hike

An author writing for China’s state-backed publication, Economic Daily, has argued that the recent crash of Terra’s LUNA and the de-pegging of the UST stablecoin vindicates his country’s decision to block or prohibit virtual currency-related activities. The author, Li Hualin, also claimed that China’s “decisive” and “timely” action helped to “extinguish the ‘virtual fire’ of virtual currency speculation and put ‘protection locks’ on investors’ wallets.”

As reported by Bitcoin.com News, Terra blockchain’s native token LUNA’s troubles started after the network’s other project, the algorithmic stablecoin UST, lost its peg against the U.S. dollar. Initial efforts to rescue the stablecoin precipitated the native token’s plunge from a price of over $87 on May 4, 2022, to a current price of just under $0.0003.

While some crypto experts have placed the blame for the token’s crash on the actions of the project’s leader, Do Kwon, in the opinion piece, the Chinese author appears to attribute the token’s fall mainly to the raising of interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Explaining how the rate rise caused the token to plummet, the author wrote:

Since the beginning of this year, the Federal Reserve has launched an interest rate hike cycle, and global liquidity has tightened. Especially in early May, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50 basis points at a time, which had a negative impact on capital and market sentiment, and virtual currencies were the first to bear the brunt.

Virtual Currency and the Chinese Law

Following the crash of the two Terra tokens, some within the crypto community are still trying to piece together what may have caused the spectacular collapse. However, others have already accused two firms, Blackrock and Citadel, of being behind LUNA’s woes. These allegations have been rejected by the firms.

The Chinese author, in the meantime, claims in the piece that the involvement of investment giants in crypto markets “can lead to violent fluctuations in currency values, triggering a large number of sell-offs.”

Hualin also reiterated that virtual currency transactions are not protected by Chinese law. These comments appear to contradict the recent Shanghai High People’s Court judgment affirming bitcoin to be a virtual asset protected by Chinese law.

The author ends the article by urging investors to “remain rational, promptly eliminate the greed of bottom-hunting and get rich overnight, and stay away from related trading speculations, otherwise it is very likely that ‘currency will go to the fortune.’”

What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Filed Under: ban, Bitcoin, Blackrock, China, crypto ban, Crypto markets, do kwon, English, Featured, LUNA, News Bitcoin, Shanghai High People’s Court, Terra Blockchain, UST, Virtual Currency

Bitcoin Songsheet: Wind And Solar Are The Altcoins Of Energy

16/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

A misdirection of resources and an obstruction of progress, wind and solar energy reflect the same distracting qualities of altcoins.

Wind and solar are altcoins.

They are unreliable, costly and make as much sense as LUNA. “Green” energy takes up too much real estate for the energy they provide but they grow through propaganda and subsidization like preferred pronouns on Facebook. Despite claims of being renewable, they require resources from the earth like everything else and have a finite lifespan. They are ridiculously inefficient and if governments stopped subsidizing them, they would not survive. But through fiat money, these boondoggles continue their rent-seeking existence like a gender studies professor at a mid-tier university.

If you’re reading this column, you already know where I’m coming from and my opinion is probably not surprising. But like the degeneracy of Hollywood, wind and solar are much worse than you think.

Few People Understand Energy

Energy is like money, which people think they understand, but really don’t. The average person uses a lot of energy day to day, whether it’s the electricity to power their computers, gasoline to power their cars or natural gas to heat their homes. Like money, usage gives people the illusion that they understand it. But this is like thinking you can run a semiconductor manufacturer because you use a phone.

Furthermore, the government is actively deceiving the public about how both money and energy work. They assert the U.S. dollar is the same now, in the past and forever more, just like they assert that solar and wind are the same as coal and oil but cleaner. There’s little to no discussion of the downsides of the schemes they favor, like inflation from rampant money printing or the unreliability of “green” energy. They’re like altcoiners who change topics when you point out that the founder of their altcoin is a serial scammer or that the incentives of their system will result in a death spiral. Like a procrastinating teenager, they believe that not thinking about something will make it go away.

The downsides of green energy are enormous. Wind and solar are unreliable, take up too much real estate and are only good for electricity. They ignore the role of fossil fuels for heating and transportation, which are much less efficient using electricity. The upside is relatively modest: lower emissions of CO2. The public perception is that green energy is good and more expensive on the front end but pays off over time. This is far from the truth and the perception speaks to the effective propaganda that comes from the government. The nightly news plays like an infomercial. Think of all the benefits! Buy now! Similarly, we’ll regret paying for these wastes of money years later when it doesn’t save us money and takes up a lot of space.

Similarly, the downsides of fossil fuels are exaggerated and the upsides completely ignored. The environmentalist claims are not lies, per se, but omission of key facts. After decades of fiat subsidization, wind and solar supplies a scant 3% of the world’s energy, all in electricity. They cause more power outages because they only generate electricity when it’s sunny or windy. In addition, removing petroleum would remove lots of other goods and services in the economy. They ignore possible downsides more than an altcoin founder.

Energy From First Principles

To really understand energy, we need to go back to first principles. What is energy? What is it used for?

You might remember the definition from physics: energy is the capacity to do work. Work is what builds and maintains the things we use and work requires energy. Work is what builds everything. Without work, we wouldn’t have civilization. Without energy, we wouldn’t have work. Therefore, civilization needs lots of energy.

As humans, we get our energy through food and we are able to do work like walking, or digging or typing on a keyboard. For most of human history, we mostly harnessed energy from food, either through manual labor or using the labor of domesticated animals.

We discovered that we could use fire for energy, particularly for heat and cooking. We also captured energy from wind and water, with windmills and dams. Capturing energy is a productivity multiplier. Tilling soil with picks and shovels is much more difficult than using a horse to plow a field. Using farm equipment to do the same is even more efficient. Energy is the input that makes this efficiency gain possible. Food is not very efficient energy for the task of tilling soil, but gasoline is.

The productivity gains from energy abundance are dramatic. A hundred years ago, 26% of the US labor force was involved in farming. Now, it’s 1.5%. The productivity gains come from new technology, which requires energy. In every aspect of life, technology multiplies the effectiveness of labor through energy use. In a sense, we’ve all become Iron Man, able to work way more than one person could a hundred years ago.

Energy, in other words, is a way to multiply the effectiveness of our time. As we use more energy, fewer people are needed for what was once a labor-intensive task. The freed up people can then do other work, bringing in more goods and services to the market. Civilization grows when more work is done and new sources of energy have been how that work has been done the last 200 years. Each person has been given the tools to do as much work as hundreds of people from a hundred years ago. Energy has made us all 100x laborers.

Fossil Fuels

Energy abundance has primarily come through the harvesting of coal, oil and natural gas. These so-called fossil fuels are incredibly energy-dense and we can capture the energy for tremendous productivity gains. They are abundant, easily portable and incredibly efficient. Fossil fuels have contributed greatly to things we take for granted, like air travel and heating. They are demonized, however, because of carbon dioxide emissions.

I get it. CO2 is bad. It causes the atmosphere to warm. I’m not denying that. But how bad is the warming compared to all the other things that fossil fuels enable us to do?

That’s the topic of the book I read recently, Fossil Future. The book takes a balanced look at fossil fuels and the benefits it provides versus the drawbacks. Instead of only looking at the negatives, mostly the CO2 emissions, the book looks at the whole of what fossil fuels enable civilization to do, like the labor productivity multiplier I mentioned earlier. The book is a total red pill for thinking about energy and it woke me up to the reality of energy much in the same way Bitcoin woke me up to the reality of money.

The two uses of fossil fuels which were really compelling are the role of fossil fuels in transportation and everyday products. Neither cheap transportation or petroleum-based products are possible with wind or solar.

Airplanes, for example, are too heavy to fly using just electrical energy. An electrical plane is currently impossible because the batteries that are required would be too heavy to lift. It’d be like making a 400 pound person to run a 4 minute mile. The physics doesn’t work. You need a much lighter energy source such as jet fuel to make airplanes fly.

There are also all manner of petroleum based products that few people realize are made with oil. Nearly everything you own has petroleum products in it. Your clothes, your house, and your computer all have components that require oil as an input. Thus, the goal of net zero emissions, or canceling use of fossil fuels is sheer lunacy. Ending fossil fuel use would cause the collapse of civilization as we know it by making labor less efficient, energy more expensive and goods we use every day much more expensive.

The World Post-1971

This points to something that’s been prevalent in the world since getting off the gold standard in 1971. There’s been a persistent push to devalue human labor. The monetary case, we know; debasing money through inflation devalues our work. Monetary expansion is an implicit tax, time-theft and a form of economic slavery.

Similarly, fossil fuel reduction devalues our labor. Our time is enormously valuable because our labor is multiplied through energy. Taking that multiplier away or even curtailing that multiplier effect significantly shrinks our labor output. We won’t be forcing farmers to use horses again to till their land, but we will need a lot more farmers and many other manual laborers if we take away fossil fuels. By taking away cheap energy, we are being taxed on our labor.

Yet despite all that, labor productivity in the US has grown over 10% in the last 10 years. How is that possible? Even with all the regulation, fossil fuel providers have gotten better at producing cheap energy. Our productivity increased because cheaper energy further multiplied the output of our labor. If you think about it, productivity gains are ways of measuring this multiplier effect. Energy gains result in productivity gains, which builds civilization.

Yet since 1971, both monetary policy and energy restrictions have persistently debased human labor. What is going on?

A Drag On Growth

Our productivity increases when energy gets cheaper and more abundant. The energy sources that have proven to be the most reliable and abundant over the past 200 years are fossil fuels. Regulations on fossil fuels, and the clear bias against them in favor of solar and wind have come at the cost of civilization. Like the dollar hegemony, fossil fuel monopolization has oppressed developing countries.

Developing countries are prevented from multiplying their labor through the use of fossil fuel energy because the developed countries won’t let them. Instead of giving them reliable electricity through coal power plants or transportation fuel through oil refineries, they’ve essentially imposed on developing countries the use of solar and wind, the least reliable, most expensive and most limited sources of energy. It’s like they’re being forced to buy outdated Windows phones at full price.

Instead of building infrastructure and developing, these countries are saddled with worse tools and prevented from growing through western countries’ energy imperialism. Neo-environmentalism is similar to the IMF, which is viewed as benevolent, but is, in reality, a form of control and exploitation over developing countries. Like any rent seeker, they tell you that their restrictions are for your own good, when it’s for their own good.

It’s no wonder the best and the brightest in developing countries immigrate. They’re multiple times more productive in developed countries because they have access to abundant energy!

Bitcoin Fixes This

As usual, we can trace this hysteria around fossil fuels back to fiat money. The ending of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 meant that the US needed a new system to perpetuate the dollar. The dollarization of oil created an oil crisis in the 70’s that turned public sentiment against fossil fuels. The propaganda at the time blamed greedy Middle Easterners as the reason why gas was so expensive, when in fact it was the creation of the petrodollar standard. Fossil fuels became the scapegoat and renewables became salvation.

The resulting demonization of oil, gas and coal has been nothing less than disastrous for the developing world. Though we do get power outages once in a while, it’s been less devastating for developed countries. The subsidization of solar and wind have directed a lot of resources toward these boondoggles rather than making fossil fuels a lot more efficient and available. The blue haired environmentalist has gotten favorable treatment at the expense of the blue collar worker. Is it any wonder we’ve gotten more of the former and less of the latter?

As we go toward a Bitcoin standard, we get better incentives with respect to energy. First, more energy is explored and made viable through proof-of-work. Because bitcoin mining is a portable customer, energy development is more economical everywhere in the world. Traditionally, energy producers had to make sure there were enough customers first before building out energy facilities. Now, they don’t because Bitcoin mining will be a customer, provided the energy is cheap enough. Economic incentives get realigned around energy production, not what the government deems acceptable.

Second, bad ideas like solar and wind are no longer subsidized through money printing theft. The market chooses what it wants rather than the government. This means that the best fuels will win and more development of sources like nuclear will commence. We developed nuclear submarines in the 1950s which never needed refueling! Nuclear has stalled due to environmental concerns. Much like their restrictions on developing countries, their restrictions even on developed countries have been a significant drag on progress. Blame squarely goes to them for the fact that we don’t have nuclear cars or airplanes that don’t need refueling.

Bitcoin will remove the bad incentives and create good incentives for energy. That means a more productive work force through the multiplicative effects of energy use. I reject the charlatanism of wind and solar. I am an efficient energy maximalist.

Fossil fuels are sound energy.

This is a guest post by Jimmy Song. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Filed Under: Altcoins, Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin Songsheet, culture, Energy, English, Marty's Bent, Opinion, Solar, wind

Bitcoin Gaming Studio Pnkfrg Raises $3 Million For Mobile Games

16/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Pnkfrg is a new mobile gaming studio building on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network targeting a casual, F2P creator economy experience.

  • Pnkfrg, a new gaming studio building mobile F2P games on the Bitcoin Lightning Network just raised $3 million.
  • The funds will be used to develop games targeting a F2P circular creator economy with a casual experience.
  • The studio based in Berlin and Helsinki includes team leads from the Candy Crush Saga.

Pnkfrg studios, a mobile gaming studio startup designing games for the Lightning Network on Bitcoin, has raised over $3 million in a seed round, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.

The funds will be used to develop a casual gaming experience built on the Lightning Network. With a core focus on mobile gaming, pnkfrg studios focuses on free-to-play (F2P) economics which allow participating gamers to engage in economies without requiring funds be spent to enjoy the game. The studio intends to integrate the creator economy into the mobile experience driving a circular economy that allows users to earn and spend within the ecosystem.

“We founded pnkfrg studios because we believe in a paradigm shift in casual mobile gaming as well as in a new way of digital financial transactions. Players and creators seek to be rewarded for their time, want to own and trade digital assets, and expect to gain value for their skills and contribution while having a fun time” said Philipp Lanik, CEO and co-founder of pnkfrg studios.

Continuing on the circular economy, Lanik noted “With our product we are addressing the needs of the generation of mobile natives and social creators,” as many participants in digital economies are looking for ways to become native to the environment they choose.

Seed round funding partners included: Stillmark, Velo Partners, Fulgur Ventures. The funding was led by LVP, who is a gaming industry expert, and Initial Capital.

“Bitcoin’s payments network – the Lightning Network – is the only protocol within the broader cryptocurrency field that has demonstrably established the ability for instant, nearly free transactions, across the globe, 24/7 and at scale,” Alyse Killeen, founding managing partner of Stillmark said. “Moreover, Lightning payments are economical at very low value – at just a fraction of a cent – making micropayments a native capability.”

Filed Under: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Magazine, business, English, Games, lightning network, News, Pnkfrg Studios

Brazilian Stock Exchange To Begin Trading Bitcoin Futures This Year

16/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, will begin trading bitcoin futures contracts within the next three to six months and hopes to offer crypto-based services.

  • B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, will begin trading BTC futures in three to six months.
  • This past January, the CFO of B3 announced plans to trade futures based on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
  • The CFO also mentioned becoming a service provider of custodial solutions, as well as a settlement provider for the growing ecosystem during January.

The Brazilian stock exchange known as B3 (Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão) will begin trading futures contracts for bitcoin within the next three to six months, according to a report from Valor.

“We plan to launch bitcoin futures in the next three to six months,” CFO André Milanez reportedly said on a conference call.

No details were offered on whether or not B3 had partnerships lined up to offer the products or if another company would be providing infrastructure. This past January, Valor reported that Jochen Mielke de Lima, director of information technology at B3 stated the exchange’s intentions of releasing BTC futures.

During the January interview, Mielke noted that B3 had been looking into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since 2016, but that the issue of valuing the assets against either the dollar or the Brazilian real played a confusing role in B3’s determination.

“We are identifying points of friction that we can help solve to face it, such as helping our customers provide the best access to their end customers,” he said.

B3 noted that similarities between the equities market including: trade, settlement and custody, are all issues that the exchange believes it can offer services for.

“We have around 30 national crypto brokers, apart from the international ones that operate here. We could offer a service to facilitate and standardize their operations. I believe you have something to explore in providing custody services and the settlement process,” Mielke told Valor in the January interview.

Filed Under: B3, bitcoin futures, Bitcoin Magazine, Brazil, contracts, English, Markets, News

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  • Bitcoin Songsheet: Wind And Solar Are The Altcoins Of Energy

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