Energy consumption from mining is at its highest since 2018. Here's the proof.

American blockchain entrepreneur Rhett Creighton estimated that over $4 billion is being spent on Bitcoin mining each year. How did Creighton work this out? He estimated that Bitcoin mining uses 55 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy per year and costs 7.5 cents per hour. He multiplied those two numbers together, and out popped the tweet-worthy figure of $4.125 billion. 

If Creighton’s right, that amounts to a hefty sum, indicative of an even larger environmental cost. Bitcoin’s incredibly inefficient; all that computing power spent solving those complex puzzles is lost, and the money goes directly into the hands of energy companies. It’s a non-refundable investment, given that the world predominantly relies on fossil fuels, and the harsh price to pay for Bitcoin’s latest bull run.

It turns out that Creighton’s calculation was wrong—but not by much. Working out the financial and environmental cost of bitcoin mining is far more complex than a calculation that fits into a single tweet. 

According to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, the pet project of Alex de Vries, blockchain specialist at PwC, annualized global mining costs $3.66 billion, with a revenue of $7 billion. A neat and tidy profit to bitcoin miners riding high on Bitcoin’s soaring price—but a hefty cost to the environment. 

A crypto startup is recycling old announcements to help prop up its flailing tokens

San Francisco-based payments startup Metal, which raised some $3 million in a token sale in June 2017, has been furiously reviving old news, possibly to boost the price of its flagging token, MTL. 

At the same time, the startup has been accused by investors—many of whom are on the company's official Discord channel—of misusing whatever is left of its diminishing winnings to cash out and invest in dubious side projects.

Metal is apparently doing whatever it can to resurrect its token’s ailing price. Over the past few weeks, the company has been breathlessly re-releasing old announcements—some dating back to 2017—via one of its primary investors, the popular “teen bitcoin millionaire” Erik Finman, leading to brief spikes in MTL’s value. 

And it’s worked. 

Here are the biggest stories in the cryptoverse:

• HSBC executes first DLT-based letter of credit.   
• Another 500 million XRP transferred out of Ripple's wallet.
• Samsung files patent for blockchain SSD. 
• Crypto enquiries in Japan slump for 5th quarter in a row. 

Pay no attention to the Craig Wright sideshow. A Bitcoin SV bull explains why he thinks the upcoming "halving" is just what the doctor ordered.

What you need to know

If someone were to pay you $10,000 in BTC or BSV at today’s prices to be transferred to your ownership ten years from today, in which asset would you request payment?

From our reading of these technologies and the current landscape, the wise answer here is obvious: BSV.

So why does the market disagree? 

Why it's important

This may sound surprising, especially in light of the recent ruling against Craig Wright in his ongoing case against Ira Kleiman. But, this is precisely why the above heuristic is so important. Why would an intelligent investor care about Wright’s legal history and personal fortune?

What an investor should care about are the fundamentals of the technologies. If one is truly an investor, and not simply a speculator, they ought to broaden their time horizon beyond the purview of 2019 legal battles and Twitter drama. Allowing oneself to become easily distracted by these personalities can only muddle one’s sensemaking. An investor in Amazon equity ought not primarily concern himself with the details of the personal legal history of Jeff Bezos nor the precise terms of his divorce settlement.

Pay for play

Binance, the world's most popular cryptocurrency exchange has just announced the launch of two standalone futures trading platforms, temporarily named 'Platform A' and 'Platform B'. As it stands, both platforms are running on a testnet.

The Malta-based exchange is looking to join the likes of CME Group and Kraken, offering traders a variety of Bitcoin futures products. Futures are a type of derivative that allows users to speculate on the price movement of an underlying asset, without actually owning it.

Read more here.