7 days from the World of Blockchain
Today, in this turbulent world, great attention is paid to new technologies and their development. Naturally, a special place is given to news about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, since blockchain is one of the most advanced technologies, and cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketrate.com Those with a total capitalization of $1.7 trillion are becoming commonplace.
And so, let’s take a look at the most interesting and significant of them.
Elon Musk buys Twitter
At the end of January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired 9.2 percent of Twitter shares. A few weeks later, he began to criticize the platform on Twitter, arguing with his followers about the political preferences of the service.
Musk came to the conclusion that Twitter has great potential and is important for public discussion. However, according to him, rampant censorship limits the capabilities of the platform.
Then Musk said he wanted to take over Twitter completely and establish freedom of speech there. Later, he added that he was certainly not interested in full freedom of speech.
Rather, he wants to reduce censorship. The goal is not to allow all content, he said. He wants to continue blocking actions that are illegal.
In his opinion, full freedom of speech is undesirable, since the electorate will turn to the government if they want more censorship. Then the government will tighten the measures. Such censorship would correspond to the will of the people and therefore would be acceptable.
In another tweet, Musk said that Twitter should be politically neutral, and therefore equally targeted at both the far left and the far right. According to him, Twitter has so far carried out unilateral censorship of right-wing statements.
On the eve of this event, Musk was criticized for the planned acquisition of Twitter, especially by cryptocurrencies. Instead of decentralization, centralization is now taking place on Twitter, which worries many users.
After all, the billionaire’s promises don’t necessarily have to become reality, and the once-mentioned freedom of speech has already become a distant memory thanks to his recent messages.
And so…
After Musk initially made an offer to acquire Twitter, the actual implementation of this idea did not seem particularly realistic. Twitter’s board rejected it from the doorstep.
After a few days, obviously, the opinion changed. Musk held talks with Twitter shareholders and consulted with Twitter’s board of directors. Finally, an agreement was reached, and on April 25, Twitter announced that the company would be sold to billionaire Musk for about $44 billion.
But what does this mean for the world of cryptocurrencies? Musk was a Bitcoin enthusiast for several years, but abandoned it in 2021. Officially, high energy consumption is to blame for this. He has since switched to Dogecoin, of which he is now the most famous supporter.
There is great hope that thanks to the participation of the DOGE Mask, it will be implemented on Twitter, reach a large audience there that has not previously dealt with this topic, and thereby accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies.
The huge increase in the price of Dogecoin, as soon as new information about the Twitter takeover became known, showed how much people hope for such a development.
And as a result, Dogecoin’s trading volume has grown from 449 million to more than seven billion US dollars. This huge leap was achieved in just one day. Since then, the trading volume has been consistently high, exceeding one billion US dollars in most cases.
Euphoria is based only on assumptions. Musk has not made any statements suggesting the introduction of DOGE. Speculators expect Twitter to turn into a crypto hub.
Bitcoin Core Reaches Version 23
The software used by Bitcoin is called Bitcoin Core and appeared in version 23.0 after 132 developers worked on it for more than seven months. It contains significant new features.
The Bitcoin Taproot update, which took place on November 14, has now been brought to users by introducing Taproot addresses. The purpose of Taproot is to increase the confidentiality of Bitcoin, reduce transaction fees and increase the mutability of the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Core 23.0 also includes output descriptors. These are fragments of information that simplify the wallet recovery process and thus take less time.
The human factor is a serious problem when using wallet addresses. Cryptocurrencies can be easily lost if the user makes a mistake. This is a problem that they increasingly want to solve. For the first time, a security tool for Bech32 addresses appeared.
The validateaddress function can be used to verify that the address is correct. So far, however, this function has not yet been fully developed. There is no support for wallets with a graphical interface, so for now it can only be used on the command line.
In addition, no more than two typing errors can be clearly recognized. If there are more than two errors, a completely different address may be offered.
In addition, some UTXOs can be frozen in the wallet so that they are not used. The soft fork also includes improvements in data and internet usage, as well as a more accurate assessment of transaction fees.
So, Bitcoin Core 23.0 is released, and this is something new!
The Central African Republic has declared Bitcoin an official means of payment
After El Salvador became the first country on Earth to make Bitcoin its official currency in September 2021, now a second state is following its example. The Central African Republic (CAR) is taking this step, which is extremely unexpected.
Only in early April, the autonomous regions of Prosper and Madeira declared Bitcoin the official currency. Thus, the adoption of Bitcoin is rapidly gaining momentum, and the “Law on the Introduction of Bitcoin” has achieved resounding success in the CAR.
Politicians from all parties approved this proposal, so it was unanimously supported by the government and the opposition. The country in the center of Africa hopes for great economic benefits, as Bitcoin as a means of payment is a hope for non-bank people in Africa
Panama Supports the Adoption of Cryptocurrencies
It didn’t take long for this news to be followed by another country – Panama. However, unlike CAR, not only Bitcoin is mentioned here, but also a number of cryptocurrencies.
In fact, in Panama, all cryptocurrencies were also de facto recognized as accepted means of payment. In Panama, however, there is freedom of currency. Unlike many countries, in a Central American country, no one is required to accept a specific currency.
Although balboa has an official status in the country, the US dollar is often a practical means of payment. Panamanian politicians hope that cryptocurrencies will receive more support in society.
The new law, which was also passed unanimously, aims to make Panama an industrial center of the crypto industry, and to make social changes that will attract crypto tourists from all over the world.
Cuba Creates Cryptocurrency Licenses
Cryptocurrencies are very popular in Cuba. Residents face financial threats due to the weak Cuban peso.
Cryptocurrencies are also interesting for Cuba at the state level, since they can be used to circumvent economic sanctions imposed by the United States against the Caribbean country.
As is typical of governments, Cuba wants to take advantage – to avoid foreign regulation by the United States, but at the same time to abandon the alleged disadvantage.
After all, Cuban users can also avoid their government’s regulation if they use cryptocurrencies.
To prevent this newfound freedom, Cuba now requires companies to obtain a license for the cryptocurrency, which gives the right to use it for one year. Thus, monitoring should be successful, which will ultimately prevent unwanted behavior.
Buenos Aires Allows Tax Payments using Cryptocurrencies
A revolutionary event is taking place in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, which allows residents of the city to pay taxes in the form of cryptocurrencies.
They are converted directly into Argentine pesos through cooperation with a financial service provider, which means that the city never holds cryptocurrencies itself. According to him, the service will be available in the next few months.
While cryptocurrencies are gaining momentum in the South American country, the government of the state has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, according to which Argentina will prevent the further popularization of cryptocurrencies.
Summing up, we can safely say that the last seven days have been quite fruitful for the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the world.