Ep. 164 Carpe Novi
On this week's episode, we talk Facebook's triple rebrand, the Fed's tapering as it struggles to keep pump markets, Eth's difficulty bomb delay, and the latest shenanigans from Craig Wright. "1. The Australian computer scientist who claims he invented Bitcoin was told by a U.S. jury to pay $100 million in damages over claims that he cheated a deceased friend over intellectual property for the cryptocurrency. Jurors in Miami federal court took about a week to reach Monday’s verdict, following about three weeks of trial. The jury rejected most claims against Craig Wright and the outcome probably won’t resolve the debate over whether Wright is the mythical creator of the peer-to-peer currency, Satoshi Nakamoto. The brother of Dave Kleiman, a computer security expert who died in 2013, alleged that the late Florida man worked with Wright to create and mine Bitcoin in its early years. As a result, the plaintiffs claimed the estate was entitled to half of a cache of as many as 1.1 million Bitcoins worth some $70 billion, which are thought to be held by Satoshi. Some cryptocurrency investors see Wright as a fake, and yearslong litigation in Florida has done little to quiet the skeptics. Wright has declared many times in court that he invented Bitcoin, as he has previously in news interviews. Had the jury’s verdict gone against Wright, that would have forced him to produce the Satoshi fortune. To some observers, that would have been the true test. Wright said after the verdict, “I have never been so relieved in my life.” He said he won’t appeal. He also said he feels vindicated and that the verdict proves he’s the creator of Bitcoin. “The jury has obviously found that I am because there would have been no award otherwise,” he said. “And I am.” – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-06/self-described-bitcoin-creator-must-pay-100-million-in-lawsuit
WhatsApp has launched a new pilot that lets a “limited number” of people in the US send and receive money from within a chat using cryptocurrency. The feature is powered by Novi, Meta’s digital wallet that launched as a pilot six weeks ago, with payments made using Pax Dollars (USDP), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar issued by Paxos. The news was announced by Novi’s incoming head Stephane Kasriel and WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart. According to Novi’s website, sending a payment works much like sending any other attachment in WhatsApp. You access the feature via the paper clip icon on Android or the + icon on iOS, and then select “Payment” from the menu that appears. Novi’s site notes there are no fees for sending or receiving money, no limits on how often payments can be sent, and no fees to keep a balance in your Novi account or to withdraw it to your bank account. Payments are transferred instantly. The new pilot has its roots in Facebook’s (now Meta’s) much-hyped cryptocurrency plans, which were officially announced in 2019. At the time, Facebook (as part of the Libra Association) planned to develop and launch a cryptocurrency called Libra, which would be pegged to a basket of low-volatility assets rather than any one specific currency. This would integrate with a Facebook-developed digital wallet called Calibra. The whole system was designed to offer a way to send money around the world with lower fees than traditional methods. These plans have shifted considerably since then. Libra has become Diem, the Libra Association has lost several of its most high profile members and become the Diem Association, and Calibra has become Novi. Perhaps most notably, Novi has ended up launching without the Diem cryptocurrency. Instead, Pax Dollars are the work of a separate company called Paxos, and Meta is relying on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase as its custody partner. – https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/13/whatsapp-launches-cryptocurrency-payments-in-the-us-15764908/
Developers activated Arrow Glacier, an upgrade to the Ethereum network, on Thursday. The upgrade pushed back the so-called “difficulty bomb,” which could potentially slow or freeze mining on Ethereum, back to June 2022. By that time, developers hope to have transitioned Ethereum from a proof-of-work model for mining to a proof-of-stake model. Developers plan to introduce the “bomb” to motivate the transition to proof-of-stake, since it will make proof-of-work mining significantly more difficult. Delaying the “bomb” gave developers more time to work on Ethereum 2.0, or Eth2, before the shift.
As of Monday morning, 90% of the total bitcoin supply of 21 million has been mined, according to data from Blockchain.com. The remainder is not expected to be mined until February 2140. Until then, miners can continue to earn bitcoins. Bitcoin operates on a proof-of-work model, which means that miners must compete to solve complex math problems to validate transactions. It’s not an easy process — reaching the 90% milestone took 12 years.
Kickstarter is announcing some big changes to the foundations of its technology. The company said Wednesday that it will support the development of “an open-source protocol that will essentially create a decentralized version of Kickstarter’s core functionality,” according to a Kickstarter blog post published Wednesday. The protocol will live on a public blockchain and will enable anyone, “even Kickstarter competitors,” to build upon or use it, the company says. An independent organization will start the development of the protocol, and Kickstarter will give this group funding, appoint a board, and will be one of the protocol’s first clients, the company says. It’s also making an “independent governance lab” that oversees “the development of the protocol governance.” The protocol will be built on Celo, an open-source blockchain that uses the more environmentally friendly proof of stake system. The new company making the protocol does not have a name, according to Bloomberg, which also reports that Kickstarter expects to move its site over onto the protocol in 2022. Kickstarter didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment about if the change will affect the company’s business model but did say in its blog that “as a user, the Kickstarter experience you’re familiar with will stay the same.”
The Fed is expected to announce plans to cut the pace of its $120 billion-a-month of asset purchases by $30 billion every month, or double the current rate of reduction. Some cryptocurrency traders and investors say the stimulus program has bolstered bitcoin’s allure as an inflation hedge, so a reversal of the loose-money policy might be bearish.
https://twitter.com/cliftonbride/status/1470060470740598784"