The Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency Thread

[wenshidi]

Thailand’s cryptocurrency gold rush | Unreported World - Channel 4

Thailand’s cryptocurrency gold rush | Unreported World
Unreported World is on the forefront of Thailand’s cryptocurrency boom where farmers and traders alike are going crazy for digital currencies that can lead to both riches and ruin. In Bangkok, on the Wild-East’s crypto frontier, a young multi-millionaire CEO is pushing for his country to embrace the crypto-revolution. He has influential allies but he’s also up against powerful adversaries who warn of looming financial catastrophe.

The pandemic has left many in Thailand cash-strapped and jobless. Millions, predominantly young Thais, are turning to crypto to boost their fortunes. But cryptocurrency trading has its dangers. It’s volatile, with prices rising and falling dramatically, and it’s prone to scammers and market manipulation. This has led some countries to outlaw crypto transactions completely. But, for now, Thailand remains a crypto-friendly nation, keen to harness new blockchain innovations which promise to usher in a new technological era.

But not everyone is a winner. In the back streets of Bangkok we meet a man who made and lost nearly a million US dollars within a few months. With his initial investments now worthless, the 23 year-old warns that those who seek instant fortunes could be risking it all.

[handdrummer]

If you make a lot of money, don't be greedy, take your winnings and go home. How much more than a million dollars do you need?

[buksida]

In Thailand, traditional investing has always been for the elites only. Crypto has given the younger generations something to learn and get into as it is accessible to all (while the junta permits). However, as we've seen, its easy to get burnt if you don't do your homework and blindly jump in chasing $$$.

[Spitfire]

Must say, that ADA (Cardano) is a bit of a disappointment today as the Vasil hardfork is supposed to happen today or tomorrow... hard to get a clear answer/info on it, to be honest.
Was hoping for a rally, but what happened today was due to the FED upping interest rates.
Guess I'll have to hang on to my ADA coins till it hits 0.6 at least... but was hoping for a little more.

[buksida]

Beginning to understand this market less and less, usually, Fed rate hikes are bearish for high-risk assets such as crypto. I've been waiting for the final flush out to buy the bottom and what does it do? Go the other way and rally - ETH is up 50% in a month! Wonder what'll happen when those U.S. politicians worm out of admitting they're in a recession today ...

[centermid7]

Beginning to understand this market less and less, usually, Fed rate hikes are bearish for high-risk assets such as crypto. I've been waiting for the final flush out to buy the bottom and what does it do? Go the other way and rally - ETH is up 50% in a month! Wonder what'll happen when those U.S. politicians worm out of admitting they're in a recession today ...

Maybe you are just not as clever as you thought you were . . . .

[buksida]

Maybe you are just not as clever as you thought you were . . . .

If you know more, please enlighten us dunces ...

[wenshidi]

In the UW video, I was very surprised to see TAT publicly endorse Bitkub and encourage crypto investors. Are they not concerned about the drain that mining will have on an already spotty electric system? I can understand why Yunnan was popular with its surplus of hydro but not so much Thailand.

It is also interesting that TAT refuses to promote cannabis tourism, which is something that I would have thought would be far more beneficial to the masses.

[buksida]

SEC approves four new digital asset operators despite problems faced with Zipmex
Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted operating licenses to four more digital asset operators after the Zipmex saga.

The four new operators include:

Krungthai XSpring (KTX) – a broker
T-BOX (Thailand) – an exchange
Coindee – an advisor and fund manager
Leif Capital Asset Management – a fund manager

Despite being granted the operating licenses, all four companies have yet to begin their operation as the next step is for the SEC to inspect their operating system before they can fully open for business.

This bring the total number of digital asset operators that have been granted a license to operate in Thailand to 21 including 3 fund managers, 9 exchanges and 9 brokers.

Apart from this, another major player is waiting to enter the market. Gulf Innova and Binance Capital Management are looking to launch “Gulf Binance” which is seeking licenses to operate as an exchange and a broker.

https://www.thaienquirer.com/42373/sec- ... th-zipmex/

[Spitfire]

Might be the final wash-out/pullback happening now that people were talking about. Could be a good time to buy altcoins over the next few days and just hold for a bit. A bit of a horror show the last day or so.
It also seems that some more exchanges are having issues, like that one in Singapore.

[buksida]

Yep, missed the last dip so will be loading up during this one - markets are still very sideways, don't expect another bull run until late next year when economies start to recover and inflation is under control.

[PeteC]

SCB-Bitkub deal fizzles as young investors lose big on crypto

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/economy ... -on-crypto

As the crypto market cools and young, naive investors lose big, the deal for SCB Group to acquire a majority stake in Thai digital asset exchange Bitkub Online has fallen apart. The deal, announced in November of last year, pushed Bitkub Online’s value over US$1 billion and drove the company’s own cryptocurrency to triple in value overnight.

Siam Commercial Bank Group’s parent company SCBX struck a deal to take over 51% of shares of Bitkub from its parent company Bitkub Capital Group Holdings, a deal valued at the time at 17.85 billion baht. But the bank corporation announced Thursday that they had reached a mutual agreement to cancel the major investment plan.

The plan was a major boost to cryptocurrencies in Thailand, bringing a national infrastructure that incorporates a digital asset exchange. But Bitkub has a variety of issues that need resolving, which killed the deal, according to a statement released by SCBX and signed by their CEO.

“Whilst the results of the due diligence exercise did not reveal any significant abnormal issues which are irremediable, Bitkub is currently in the process of resolving various issues as per the recommendations and orders of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand, which are uncertain in terms of timeframe in resolving those issues. As a result, the buyer and the seller have agreed to terminate the transaction. SCBX and SCBS remain committed to their strategic plans to expand into businesses relating to blockchain technology and digital assets, which will play an important role in Thailand’s economy and financial industry.”

Meanwhile, a government think tank called the National Economic and Social Development Council warned that digital assets and cryptocurrencies have brought big losses to young Thai investors that considered crypto a get-rich-quick miracle without proper understanding of the market or investing in general.

About half of all registered crypto investors in the country are under 30 and, while a few people made millions in cryptocurrency, others thought they could become millionaires as well and instead lost massive amounts. A study by Mahidol University’s College of Management found that 45% of investors lacked an understanding of the market, with 25% choosing crypto investments on gut feelings instead of research and information.

The study also found that about 65% of traders in Thailand actually use international crypto platforms instead of domestic platforms like Bitkub to avoid paying Thai taxes.

SOURCE: The Nation 1 & 2

[buksida]

Crypto dreams dashed as regulators tighten rules
Thailand’s goal of becoming Southeast Asia’s leading trading centre for digital assets has suffered a setback, following moves by regulators to tighten rules in the wake of trading irregularities and the collapse of a major acquisition involving a crypto exchange.

The country was the first in the region to implement digital-asset legislation in 2018, which helped attract droves of so-called millennials to put their money into cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) licensed six platforms as exchanges, including Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co and Zipmex Thailand. Bitkub founder and CEO Jirayut Srupsrisopa even became a pop-culture icon as a frequent guest on TV shows and YouTube, with his face plastered on highway billboards.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/23 ... hten-rules

[PeteC]

Condensed version of the below: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/23 ... use-by-99-

The Ethereum Merge Is Done, Opening a New Era for the Second-Biggest Blockchain

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/09/1 ... d-it-work/ (Video)

The historic upgrade casts aside the miners who had previously driven the blockchain, with promises of massive environmental benefits.

The massive overhaul of Ethereum known as the Merge has finally happened, moving the digital machinery at the core of the second-largest cryptocurrency to a vastly more energy-efficient system after years of development and delay.

It was no small feat swapping out one way of running a blockchain, known as proof-of-work, for another, called proof-of-stake. “The metaphor that I use is this idea of switching out an engine from a running car,” said Justin Drake, a researcher at the non-profit Ethereum Foundation who spoke to CoinDesk before the Merge happened. “I like to think of it as kind of like the switch from gasoline to electric.”

The payoff is potentially gigantic. Ethereum should now consume 99.9% or so less energy. From an energy costs perspective, it's like Finland suddenly shut off its power grid, according to one estimate.

Ethereum’s developers say the upgrade will make the network – which houses a $60 billion ecosystem of cryptocurrency exchanges, lending companies, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces and other apps – more secure and scalable, too.

The idea was there from the start that Ethereum would eventually make the switch to proof-of-stake. But the transition was a complicated technical effort – an endeavor so risky that many doubted it would happen at all.

"There’s a part of me which hasn’t completely realized that this is actually happening,” Drake said. “I’m somewhat in denial, you know, because I’ve trained myself to just expect it to happen in the future.”

When the Merge officially kicked in at 2:43 AM EST, over 41,000 people were tuned in on YouTube to an "Ethereum Mainnet Merge Viewing Party." They watched with bated breath as key metrics trickled in suggesting that Ethereum's core systems had remained intact. After around 15 long minutes, the Merge officially finalized, meaning it could be declared a success.

The update, which ends the network’s reliance on the energy-intensive process of cryptocurrency mining, has been closely watched by crypto investors, enthusiasts and skeptics for the impact it is expected to have on the wider blockchain industry.

Mark Cuban, investor and billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, told CoinDesk he would be “watching [the Merge] with interest like everyone else,” pointing out that it might make ETH, the network's native token, deflationary.

In the minutes immediately following the Merge, ETH – whose current market value near $200 billion makes it the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin (BTC) – was trading at $1,632, down about 0.4% in the previous 24 hours.

The update’s complexity was compounded by the fact that it may have been one of the largest open-source software endeavors in history, requiring coordination across dozens of teams and scores of individual researchers, developers and volunteers.

Tim Beiko, an Ethereum Foundation developer who played a key role in coordinating the update, said to CoinDesk, “I think the Merge can genuinely get those people who were interested in Ethereum, but skeptical of the environmental impacts, to come and experiment with it.”
Goodbye, miners

In 2008, Bitcoin introduced the world to the idea of a decentralized ledger – a single, immutable record of transactions that computers around the world could view, alter and trust without the need for intermediaries.

Ethereum, introduced in 2015, expanded upon the core concepts of Bitcoin with smart contracts – or computer programs that effectively use the blockchain as a global supercomputer, recording data onto its network. That innovation was the essential ingredient behind decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs – the main catalysts of the most recent crypto boom.

The Merge retires Ethereum’s proof-of-work system, where crypto miners competed to write transactions to its ledger – and earn rewards for doing so – by solving cryptographic puzzles.

Most crypto mining today happens in “farms,” though they may be more aptly described as factories. Picture massive warehouses lined with rows of computers stacked on top of one another like shelves of books at a university library – each computer hot to the touch as it strains to pump out cryptocurrency.

This system, which was pioneered by Bitcoin, is what caused Ethereum to guzzle so much energy and is responsible for fueling the blockchain sector’s reputation as an environmental menace.

“My daughter and I spoke about NFTs a few months ago,” recalled Ben Edgington, a product leader at the Ethereum research and development firm ConsenSys. “At the dinner table I rather foolishly mentioned some NFT projects, and she was yelling at me, ‘How can you boil the oceans with this nonsense? This is terrible. I can't believe that you do this for a living.’”

Edgington, who began his career researching climate science before eventually landing in crypto, understood where his daughter was coming from. “Rightly or wrongly, she'd absorbed a very toxic environmental narrative,” he said. “I mean, it's kind of hard to defend ‘stickers for grownups’ that emit, by some estimates, a megaton of [carbon dioxide] a week.”
Hello, stakers

Ethereum’s new system, proof-of-stake, does away with mining entirely.

Miners are replaced by validators – people who “stake” at least 32 ETH by sending them to an address on the Ethereum network where they cannot be bought or sold.

These staked ETH tokens act like lottery tickets: The more ETH a validator stakes, the more likely one of its tickets will be drawn, granting it the ability to write a “block” of transactions to Ethereum's digital ledger.

Ethereum introduced a proof-of-stake network in 2020 called the Beacon Chain, but until the Merge it was just a staging area for validators to get set up for the switch. Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake involved merging the Beacon Chain with Ethereum’s main network.

According to Beiko, the energy consumption of proof-of-stake is “not even a rounding error in terms of environmental impact.”

“Proof-of-stake is like running an app on your MacBook,” he said. “It's like running Slack. It's like running Google Chrome or running Netflix. Obviously, your MacBook plugs into the wall and uses electricity to run. But no one thinks about the environmental impact of running Slack, right?”

Edgington pointed to the environmental impact of the Merge upgrade as the benefit he is personally the most excited about. “I feel very proud, you know, that I'll be able to look back and say I've had a role to play in removing a megaton of carbon from the atmosphere every week. That's something that meaningfully affects my family and others,” he said.
New incentives

Rather than a single piece of open-source software, the Ethereum network is better understood as a nation-state – a kind of living organism that comes together when a bunch of computers talk to one another in the same language, all following an identical set of rules.

Ethereum’s new system introduces a new set of incentives for the people operating these computers to follow the rules as written, thereby securing the ledger from any unwanted tampering.

“Proof-of-work is a mechanism by which you take physical resources and you convert them into security for the network. If you want your network to be more secure, you need more of those physical resources,” Beiko explained. “On proof-of-stake, what we do is we use financial resources to convert to security.”

Although Ethereum had thousands of individual miners operating and securing its proof-of-work network, computers from just three mining pools dominated a majority of the network’s hashrate, a measure of the collective computing power of all miners.

If a few of Ethereum’s big mining firms colluded to amass a majority of the network’s hashrate, they would have been able to execute a so-called 51% attack, making it difficult or impossible for anyone else to update the ledger.

In proof-of-stake, the amount of ETH one stakes – not the amount of energy one expends – dictates control over the network. Proof-of-stake boosters say this makes attacks more expensive and self-defeating: attackers can have their staked ETH slashed, or reduced, as punishment for trying to harm the network.

Not everyone buys into the proof-of-stake hype. There are no signs that Bitcoin, for instance, will ever abandon proof-of-work – which proponents insist remains the more battle-tested and secure system.

And although control of the Ethereum network will no longer be concentrated in the hands of a few publicly traded mining syndicates, critics insist that old power players will just be replaced by new ones. Lido, a kind of community-run validator collective, controls over 30% of the stake on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake chain. Coinbase, Kraken and Binance – three of the largest crypto exchanges – own another 30% of the network’s stake.

Skepticism around proof-of-stake fueled Chandler Guo, a prominent crypto miner, to announce in the lead-up to the Merge that he would launch a fork of Ethereum’s old proof-of-work chain – a clone of Ethereum’s blockchain that hums along using the old miner-based mechanism.

Ethereum’s core developers have generally derided proof-of-work forks as sideshows and scams, but Guo’s “ETHPOW” effort and others like it have gained modest traction in certain corners of the crypto community.

Trading the Merge

In crypto markets, the Merge had become an object of speculation since at least mid-July, with traders initially viewing the event as a catalyst for a steep rally in the price of ETH. The market for ETH options started pricing in post-Merge gains, a welcome respite following the crash in digital-asset markets earlier in the year.

The prospect of a fork of the Ethereum blockchain by irate crypto miners spurred a wave of new activity, this time as traders tried to lock in value from the theoretical airdrop of a new “ETHPOW” token.

In general, it is impossible to predict with certainty how the markets will react to a successful Merge. The upgrade has been on Ethereum’s roadmap since its inception, so there’s the possibility that it has already, by-and-large, been priced in by the market.

“I think if you asked me maybe about three weeks ago, I would say that not only is it priced in, it’s overly priced in,” said Kevin Zhou of Galois Capital. “Now the market is roughly 70/30 in favor of this being a positive event for ETH.”

What’s next?

"This is the first step in Ethereum's big journey towards being a very mature system, but there are still steps left to go," said Vitalik Buterin, who co-created Ethereum and reflected on the Merge during Thursday's viewing party.

Ethereum's relatively high fees and slow speeds were not addressed by the update, and they remain as much a barrier to growing its user base as environmental concerns ever were.

Buterin, Ethereum's most visible figurehead, previously outlined a set of next steps for the network that includes “sharding” – a method that should help address the network’s sluggish transaction times and high fees by spreading transactions across “shards,” like adding lanes to a highway.

That upgrade was initially slated to accompany the transition to proof-of-stake, but it was deprioritized given the success that third-party solutions – called rollups – have had in solving some of the same issues.

Rollups foreshadow the likely future for Ethereum development, where community solutions – rather than updates to Ethereum’s core code – play the primary role in expanding the chain’s capabilities.

For Buterin, the Merge is just the beginning. "To me, the Merge just symbolizes the difference between early stage Ethereum, and the Ethereum we've always wanted ... to become," he said on Thursday's live stream. "So let's go build out all of the other parts of this ecosystem and turn Ethereum into what we want it to be."

[buksida]

Bank of Thailand continues push for digital currency

The Bank of Thailand (BoT) plans to take more time to develop its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) to ensure it offers additional benefits to the financial system with good risk management.

Several central banks, including the BoT, have developed a retail CBDC, but none of them officially implemented the currency in the markets.

Global retail CBDC development is expected to take more than five years before a market launch, said central bank governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput.

He said on Friday the regulator wants to better understand the benefits and risks of retail CBDC, including whether there are additional benefits with regard to PromptPay, the country's digital payment infrastructure system. The central bank has yet to see such additional benefits, said Mr Sethaput.

The currency should eventually benefit everyone, changing the country's financial system, he said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/24 ... l-currency

Thailand wants a CBDC because China has one - it is the perfect tool to control and monitor what people are spending. It doesn't seem to be in a rush though.

China also wants an ASEAN digital currency that the PBoC will control - https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-econ ... float-idea

The U.S. is not keen, knowing what it means for financial freedom (or what little of that remains) - https://www.computerworld.com/article/3 ... k-you.html