My husband’s basement office is always warm.
It has nothing to do with any HVAC or space heaters. Rather, the temperature can be attributed to the two GPUs he’s running in an open-case rig, mining cryptocurrency…24/7/265. At the rate things are going, he will have made enough to cover all of the components he needed to build the rig in about six months. Even figuring the increased electric bill, it won’t be long until his efforts turn into profit. (And, there is no need to turn up the thermostat, just to try to heat the basement.)
Crypto is big news these days, not just at our house. There have been ongoing rumors that Amazon plans to accept cryptocurrency as payment, and there’s a whole lot going on in digital currency news. Here’s just a few of interest:
- PayPal confirms it’s exploring the launch of its own stablecoin [Engadget] “A developer named Steve Moser found hidden code and images for a “PayPal Coin” in the company’s app and shared them with Bloomberg. Based on what he discovered, the PayPal Coin will be backed by the US dollar.”
- Signal’s Cryptocurrency Feature Has Gone Worldwide [Wired] “But the challenge for many will be loading that wallet in the first place; the cryptocurrency is listed for sale on only a few smaller cryptocurrency exchanges—such as BitFinex and FTX—none of which yet offer it to US consumers. “
- Mozilla pauses accepting crypto donations following backlash [The Verge] “On Thursday, Mozilla addressed the situation in a Twitter thread. ‘Last week, we tweeted a reminder that Mozilla accepts cryptocurrency donations,” Mozilla said. “This led to an important discussion about cryptocurrency’s environmental impact.'”
- Kazakhstan internet shutdown sheds light on a big Bitcoin mining mystery [Fortune] “In October, Kazakhstan announced that it would ration electricity to existing, licensed Bitcoin mines in an effort to forestall more shortages and blackouts. A new law severely limits the amount of power fresh entrants can use, and caps the total that all newcomers can deploy at extremely low levels. ‘The internet shutdown shows something else,’ says de Vries. ‘That the government hasn’t had much success limiting Bitcoin mining.'”
From the Ohio Web Library:
- Cryptocurrency traders are buying from themselves (Stokel-Walker, C. (2021). Cryptocurrency traders are buying from themselves. New Scientist, 252(3363), 11.)
- ‘Investigate rising adoption of cryptocurrency despite restrictions’ (“Investigate rising adoption of cryptocurrency despite restrictions.” (2021, December 6). Nation (Nigeria).)
- DECIPHERING CRYPTOCURRENCY: Skeptics are wary, but banks and other institutions are starting to take it seriously (Barstow, T. A. (2021). DECIPHERING CRYPTOCURRENCY: Skeptics are wary, but banks and other institutions are starting to take it seriously. Central Penn Business Journal, 37(17), 1–8.)
