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Amazon is working on accepting Bitcoin payments and could even create its own token, according to a new leak, though it's unclear just how eager the world's biggest retailer is to wade into the volatile world of crypto. Though it may have cornered the market in online sales, Amazon's taste for currency currently skews old-school.
Officials in Malaysia have taken drastic measures to ensure more than a thousand mining rigs won't make their way back onto the market to siphon more energy from the nation's power grid. Local media has published a video of 1,069 mining rigs spread across the ground where they're systematically flattened using a massive steamroller.
In early June, Jack Dorsey revealed that Square was looking into the possibility of launching its own Bitcoin hardware wallet, one that, he said at the time, would be built "entirely in the open, from software to hardware design, and in collaboration with the community." Fast-forward a little more than a month and Dorsey is back with an update on the plan.
Residents in upstate New York are angry because they say a large bitcoin mining operation is heating up Seneca Lake. Seneca Lake is one of the largest Finger Lakes in upstate New York. Typically, the lake is used heavily for boating, fishing, swimming, and other leisure activities in the summer. However, residents say that a gas-fired power plant nearby pollutes the air and heats up the lake.
An NFT called "Source Code for the WWW" was sold on June 30, 2021 for a winning bid of 5,435,500 USD. This NFT was created by Tim Berners-Lee, the writer of the code that would become the internet. This NFT (non-fungible token) is roughly the equivalent of if Jonas Salk had at some point written down the formulation and production processes for his polio vaccine and put said piece of paper up for auction.
Chinese government officials cut power to cryptocurrency mining operations on Monday morning, resulting to an immediate drop in price for the coin and related cryptocurrency. This is the latest in a line of similar targeted operations in China aimed at cutting down on mining operations throughout the country here in the year 2021. Officials suggested this year that cracking down on crypto mining is aimed at bringing the country closer to environmental goals as a significant amount of the energy used was (and continues to be) generated by coal power stations.
El Salvador plans to use volcanic power to mine Bitcoin, the latest unexpected twist as the country makes the cryptocurrency a parallel legal tender. While El Salvador will continue to use the US dollar, as it has since 2001, it will also accept Bitcoin at the same time, a move which had frustrated environmentalists concerned about the energy requirements to mine the virtual coins.
The US Department of Justice has announced that it recovered more than 63 bitcoins that Colonial Pipeline had paid as part of a ransomware attack. The bitcoins are currently worth around $2.3 million, though they don't represent the full sum the pipeline company paid to the hackers behind the cyberattack.
Jack Dorsey revealed that Square was considering creating a Bitcoin hardware wallet this week. He suggested that "if we do it", they'll build it "in the open, from software to hardware design, and in collaboration with the community." Jack suggested that if they do it, they'll do it with principals like "bitcoin is for everyone" and "no keys, no cheese."
Cryptocurrency saw increased volatility this past weekend, with big tumbles for bitcoin and others as China threatens a heavy-handed approach to digital coins. The warnings came shortly after the US Treasury Department said it was pushing for new regulations that would force new IRS disclosures around crypto transactions.
The US Treasury is clamping down on cryptocurrency, proposing new rules meaning transfers of $10,000 or more of bitcoin, Ethereum, or other virtual currencies would need to be reported to the IRS. The extra regulation comes as the Treasury Department highlighted crypto's potential use in illegal activity, such as tax evasion, which it predicts could increase in coming years.
The cryptocurrency market has been in a freefall in the days following Elon Musk's announcement that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as a payment option for cars. Bitcoin, still the most valuable and popular cryptocurrency, briefly dropped to a low of just over $30,000 today before rebounding to around $39,000/coin.