Popular podcaster Joe Rogan just gets Bitcoin (BTC). In his most recent podcast with Khalil Rountree, a renowned mixed martial (MMA) fighter, Rogan explained that BTC is something that the “government didn’t see coming.” “I think of Bitcoin the same way I think of the early internet. They [the government] didn’t see it coming and now it’s a viable form of currency–you can actually buy things with it.” Rogan explained that there will be a time when “some government” will implement a “centralized currency that they can control,” with the intention to “limit what you spend your money on.” Bitcoin …

Per an announcement and series of filings on Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice is calling shenanigans on Intuit's ambitions, at least in part. Intuit owns a stable of user-facing finance software, including budgeting app Mint, digital do-it-yourself tax software TurboTax and QuickBooks, for business accounting. The firm initially announced its acquisition of Credit Karma back in February. By its own account, Intuit was paying $7.1 billion. In its antitrust case released today, the DoJ does not object to the bulk of the new acquisition but has mandated that Intuit divest from Credit Karma's tax business, which it says …

Twelve out of 15 of the most popular decentralized finance protocols still have access to a ‘God Mode’ admin key, according to data on review platform DeFi Watch. These full-access controls allow developers to modify or replace the smart contracts underpinning their projects, including making adjustments to user balances. While admin keys have been justified as a way to protect users’ funds and are often used with security features such as timelocks and multi-sigs, analysts argue this calls into question exactly how “decentralized” these projects really are. In a YouTube video posted on September 24, "Mastering Bitcoin" author and educator …

Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos says he would like to see more privacy features on Bitcoin, but they’re unlikely to happen anytime soon. In a livestream Q&A on Antonopoulos’ YouTube channel on July 7, he said Bitcoin (BTC) was unlikely to ever implement privacy features similar to those used by Monero (XMR). Antonopoulos said creating such features on a cryptocurrency like BTC “would create an enormous amount of controversy.” In addition, he said the structure of Bitcoin simply doesn’t allow ring signatures and stealth addresses. “I think what we’re going to see soon is Schnorr, Taproot, and Tapscript, which open the …

Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos says there are risks behind any current method of earning steady income with one’s Bitcoin holdings, but DeFi offers one of the few ways to do so without “giving your money to other people.” In a livestream Q&A on Antonopoulos’ YouTube channel on June 27, he said decentralized finance (DeFi) contracts were one way for Bitcoin (BTC) owners to generate passive income without relinquishing custody of their coins. “Passive income” refers to money earned using methods that require little-to-no effort. According to Antonopoulos, investors could convert their BTC into Ethereum (ETH) or a stablecoin like Dai …

The litigating parties in the Kleiman v. Wright case have presented a joint witness list, which includes Andreas Antonopoulos, Gavin Andresen, Wright’s ex-wife, and a confidential witness. The parties have requested 36 witnesses in total. The high profile crypto case that has enchanted the crypto community for years is scheduled to go to trial in late August. The witnesses are split into fact and expert witnesses. Notable witnesses Some of the notable fact witnesses include: Gavin Andresen, former chief scientist of Bitcoin (BTC) foundation, Kimon Andreou, who co-authored a book with late Dave Kleiman, Ira Kleiman, Dave Kleinman’s brother and …

Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos sees the recent downturn in oil prices as a net positive for crypto miners worldwide, particularly those at the Bitmain mining facility in Texas. In a video he posted to his YouTube channel on May 27 titled “Down the Rabbit Hole”, Antonopoulos said the falling oil prices will benefit crypto miners by providing cheaper electricity worldwide, but “not equally worldwide.” Miners based in the United States — which gets 36% of its energy from petroleum — and Texas in particular will reap the rewards of these cheaper costs. One of the biggest new mining operations opened …

What if the world was hit with another major disaster, but this time, it included global electrical failure? Would Bitcoin (BTC) survive, would it thrive, what about the banks? — We have the answers. Bitcoin consumes massive amounts of electricity and with the constant growth of the network, this number will only increase. The Bitcoin protocol relies on the internet for communication. Thus, if all of a sudden, if there was a disruption to the world’s electric grids, one might conclude that this would doom the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Energy Consumption Relative to Countries. Source: Digiconomist. Bitcoin doesn’t need Internet However, …

The crypto news headlines at the start of May with regard to Kleiman v. Wright were mostly variations on the theme of Craig Wright’s Satoshi case going to trial. The two parties appear well entrenched in their positions, and lawyers for both sides have said they expect the trial to begin as scheduled on July 6, 2020, in Florida. Does this mean there will be no settlement? “This is not like an ordinary commercial dispute where the parties can agree they’ve got a 50-50 chance of winning on an ambiguous contract provision, so they just split the difference,” Jason Gottlieb, …

How does Bitcoin’s block halving work on an engineering level? We explain with help from Andreas Antonopoulos. In a recent video, Antonopoulos explained the Bitcoin Core code that controls the halving of the Bitcoin (BTC) block reward in detail. Bitcoin halving code. Source: Bitcoin Core Software. Line by line explanation Every time a Bitcoin block is evaluated or a new block is mined, the function GetBlockSubsidy gets called. Its purpose is to calculate the appropriate size of the block reward. Line 1240 evaluates the halving cycle and divides the current block height by 210,000; the interval between the halving. At …

On May 4, CoinShares Research put out its ranking of the likelihood of various halving scenarios as well as their potential impact on the industry. Bitcoin (BTC) halving has captivated the imagination of the crypto industry and there is no lack of outlandish predictions forecasting anything from the death spiral that will destroy the Bitcoin network, to the one predicting its parabolic rise. Earlier today, this subject was also discussed in another episode of Cointelegraph Talks. In the latest post, CoinShare’s head of research, Christopher Bendiksen, analyzed five of the most popular scenarios and concluded by proposing his own. Source: …

In a recent YouTube stream, Andreas Antolopoulos said that the controversial EARN IT Act might as well be called “Fuck you, Zuckerberg”. The bi-partisan bill was written by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and if passed, it would: “Create incentives for companies to “earn” liability protection for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material”. Antonopoulos: civil rights aren’t EARNed Talking to Cointelegraph, Antonopoulos disagreed with that premise: “The EARN IT act is a backdoor encryption ban disguised as a modification of the DMCA act [Digital Millennium Copyright Act]. Civil rights aren't "EARNed", they are inalienable.” …