Ep. 157 Choosing Sigs
On this episode of the Unhashed Podcast, Ruben explained half-aggregated sigs and the bitcoin core dev meeting, is Chainalysis good or bad for bitcoin, ETF approval inches closer, Square getting into mining hardware, and MintGreen looks to heat North Vancouver buildings with bitcoin miners.
Blockchain tracing platform Chainalysis announced today the execution of a bitcoin purchase through NYDIG for the firm’s balance sheet, marking an advancement of a long-standing partnership between the two companies. Despite the bullish purchase, Chainalysis is still a surveillance company acting in self-interests and against the Bitcoin ethos. “Our expanding partnership with Chainalysis is a mutually beneficial relationship,” said Nate Conrad, NYDIG’s Head of Asset Management, in the announcement. “We are happy that they trusted our platform to safeguard their assets.” NYDIG is a services provider for institutional investors seeking bitcoin exposure. The firm specializes in trading, execution, and custody of BTC, and has enabled Chainalysis to acquire an undisclosed amount of bitcoin for its balance sheet. “We are thrilled to be adding Bitcoin to our corporate investment portfolio,” said Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO at Chainalysis, per the announcement. “Our longstanding relationship with NYDIG enabled us to invest with confidence, knowing we were dealing with an industry leader.” Chainalysis moves forward with this purchase, however the company doesn’t align very well to the true Bitcoin ethos as its business model is based on surveillance, allowing its customers to obtain information on bitcoin transactions for discrimination purposes. – https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/chainalysis-adds-bitcoin-to-balance-sheet
Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest crypto currency asset manager announced today that the NYSE Arca has filed to convert the firm’s flagship product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a Bitcoin Spot ETF. The filing comes on the first day the ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF, the first Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., began trading. The proposed ticker for the Bitcoin spot ETF is BTC. Craig Salm, Vice President and Head of Legal at Grayscale Investments commented, “Today we saw for the first time a Bitcoin Futures ETF trade on the NYSE. It is our belief that if the SEC is now good with Bitcoin futures, then the commission should also be comfortable with an ETF that holds Bitcoin. Our spot filling starts a 240 day review period, by that 240th day the SEC will either approve or disapprove that application, though it could be approved sooner.” Salm continued, “This listing today is absolutely a validation for Bitcoin. It’s further evidence that this asset class is here to stay. Bitcoin is a matter of when, not a matter of if. The more this asset becomes available to other investors, the more successful it will become. That’s why we filed to convert.” CEO of Grayscale Investments Michael Sonnenshein said, “Since 2013, the Grayscale team has worked tirelessly to build the world’s largest, most transparent Bitcoin investment vehicle, GBTC, while partnering with policymakers and regulators to build familiarity and trust in Bitcoin, blockchain, and the underlying Bitcoin market.”
Square CEO Jack Dorsey said late on Friday the company might jump into the bitcoin mining business. Dorsey tweeted that the company is considering a “bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide.” The price of bitcoin rose above $62,000 following Dorsey’s string of tweets, as the world’s most popular cryptocurrency pushes toward its all-time high. Dorsey’s goal would be to make crypto mining — the process of creating new bitcoins by solving increasingly complex computational problems — more accessible, much as Square’s original vision was to make it easier for small businesses and independent proprietors to take credit card payments. He wrote that bitcoin mining should be “as easy as plugging a rig into a power source.” Today, the bitcoin mining industry is dominated by large-scale players who can afford to buy tens of thousands of ASICs, the type of specialty gear used to mint new coins. The team run by Jesse Dorogusker, who is the hardware lead at Square, will begin studying the technology necessary to take this project on, according to Dorsey. “We will incubate the bitcoin mining system project inside Square’s hardware team, starting with architecture, design, and prototyping of more efficient silicon, hashing algorithms, and power architectures,” Dorogusker wrote in a tweet. Dorogusker said that Afshin Rezayee, the leader and architect of Square’s silicon team in Toronto since 2015, will lead the project, given silicon is at the core of this new initiative. “Building a strong core in silicon is just a start. Delivering the value we imagine requires the full stack – silicon, hardware, software, manufacturing, and innovative distribution that can help us support the whole world,” continued Dorogusker.
Two giants of the bitcoin mining world — Atlas Technologies and Compute North — are partnering up to take advantage of an unprecedented time to expand their US operations just as interest in US mining is at an all-time high. Serious chip shortages and backed-up supply lines resulting in equipment shortages are giving companies with ASICs like Atlas Technologies a step up in negotiating new infrastructure space. Atlas Technology Group, a multi-purpose data technology and mining company is adding 100 MW power generated by the latest model ASICs to Compute North’s US facilities with miners ready to go online starting Q1 of next year. Once all miners are online, Atlas expects the new rigs to be producing approximately 3.7 EH/s (exahashes per second).