Description

General

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Overview

• Cryptocurrency markets have seen their biggest bull run yet. After a pretty docile couple years since the last bubble in late 2017.
• Crypto prices began picking up in Q4 2020 as more institutional interest poured into the space. Open interest in Bitcoin (BTC) futures on the CME went from roughly $400M in October 2020 to $1.6B in January 2021. Crypto exchanges saw a similar run-up in volume.
• Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) also began to see some price traction starting in mid-Q3 2020. Ethereum, a blockchain platform which enables decentralized applications, also started to firm up plans for Ethereum 2.0, which would take the platform away from Proof of Work and toward Proof of Stake
• At time of recording, both Bitcoin and Ethereum hit all-time highs in Q2 2021. Ethereum hit nearly $4,400 per coin on Coinbase in mid-May and Bitcoin hit roughly $65,000 in mid April.

Other weird side-tangents

• Elon Musk and Tesla's will-they won't-they stance on Bitcoin
  • February 8, 2021. Tesla buys $1.5 billion in bitcoin, plans to accept it as payment (Steve Kovach for CNBC)
  • February 9, 2021. A Brief History of Elon Musk's Devotion to the Crypto Cause (Kristine Servando for Bloomberg)
  • May 1, 2021. Elon Musk’s History in Crypto: the Good, the Bad and the Doge (Andrey Kartsev for CoinMarketCap)
  • May 13, 2021. As much as $365 billion wiped off cryptocurrency market after Tesla stops car purchases with Bitcoin (Arjun Kharpal for CNBC)
  • May 23, 2021. Elon Musk Has Become Bitcoin's Biggest Influencer, Like It or Not (Akane Otani for the Wall Street Journal )
• Environmental impacts of proof-of-work
  • Proof of Work (PoW) definition on Investopedia.com
  • Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index is a project from Cambridge University tracking estimated electricity consumption of the Bitcoin mining network.
  • April 2021. Why Bitcoin is Bad For The Environment (Elizabeth Kolbert for The New Yorker)
  • September 2018. Why Bitcoin Is Not an Environmental Catastrophe(Diego Zuluaga for The Cato Institute)
  • April 2021. Policy assessments for the carbon emission flows and sustainability of Bitcoin blockchain operation in China
• Currency controls and banking restrictions imposed by non-U.S. financial regulators (e.g. China)
  • August 2020. Cryptocurrencies help Chinese evade capital and currency controls in moving billions overseas (Karen Yeung for the South China Morning Post)
  • March 1, 2021. China's furtive bitcoin trade heats up again, worrying regulators (Samuel Shen and Andrew Galbraith for Reuters)
  • May 18, 2021. China bans financial, payment institutions from cryptocurrency business (Reuters newswire)
  • May 19, 2021. Bitcoin's Obstacles Mount amid China Cryptocurrency Warning (Vildana Hajric and Joanna Ossinger for Bloomberg Quint)

About The Co-Hosts

• Jason D. Rowley is a researcher and writer at Golden.com. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.
• Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams in partnership with Brightgrove and other technology development organizations.