Crypto Chatter Friday - no FUD, no PUMP, no FOMO
It was all fun and games and Elon SNL memes when the online crypto webonanza continued unabated this week.
Friday Rundown. ELONWEEK - Friday, May 15.
Webonanza crypto news summary – week 19
Crypto Markets Revert to Buzzword Game Theory
Well, it was fun until Elon Musk and Tesla executed a crazy Ivan and repeated old FUD about Bitcoin being bad for the environment, and Elon's car company Tesla stopped accepting bitcoin.
Let's hope Elon can learn about the differences between bitcoin mining and electricity production.
You should note the differences between bitcoin mining and electricity production. And what other uses electricity has https://t.co/7sS8YXd8TT
— Nanok (@nanok) May 13, 2021
The latter can be green or not. Bitcoin mining is neutral regarding the environment.
Bitcoin miners can power their mining with wind and solar, like every other industry can. Miners actually do not decide how electricity is produced, that's up to nation states like China.
Other cryptocurrencies would need to use the same levels of energy to reach Bitcoin's security level. The energy-consumption is part of the invention. Bitcoin is protected by power instead of passwords. As passwords are secrets, and secrets can leak, they can be hacked. Cryptocurrencies protected by passwords, like proof-of-stake, are less secure than proof-of-work currencies.
But what if all this Bitcoin pampering is another marketing move from the giant? That the next big thing from Elon is a solar-powered Gigamine?
Today: “... as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.”
— BRADY (@CitizenBitcoin) May 13, 2021
Also today: Elon buys the dip.
Later: Tesla announces Gigamine, the largest Bitcoin mine in the world, 100% powered by the sun.
And what should we say about Elon's mining for metals? Maybe it's time to stop accepting Tesla cars for money. They aren't "green", really.
You mean lithium mining? pic.twitter.com/Ej4O5nmt6G
— Satogon (@corazon720) May 13, 2021
In April, consumer prices in the US rose 4.2 per cent in April, fueling fears that the humongous stimulus packages push prices higher, steering economies towards real inflation. Some, like Michael Saylor, argue that inflation is already here, and it's at 15-20 per cent, if you look at real estate prices in desirable areas. How to hedge? Bitcoin, of course.
Nah, the Bulgarian government aren't OG Bitcoin Hodlers
Some misinformation has been re-circulated this week, and sadly also added to the Bitcoin Treasuries list site. The false info is the idea that the Bulgarian government controls over 200,000 bitcoins.
This article, from 2017, stands as reference at Bitcoin Treasuries:

But in reality, the Bulgarian government is not in possession of billions in bitcoin.
They've actually denied it themselves. Check this reporting:

The whole thing is explained by a misunderstanding on where to place the comma in a large number. The two thousand bitcoin is rather closer to two hundred bitcoin. Not thousand. Read this:

And on that subject, is this the next company to be added to the list at http://bitcointreasuries.org? Hopefully better referenced and sourced than the bulgarian info above if so...
Palantir says it may add bitcoin to its balance sheethttps://t.co/Rh8HLtkt0t
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) May 11, 2021
Jealous of the life styles of the "rich" crypto traders?
Now, take a look at Sam Bankman-Fried. A famous crypto trader. This is a guy who thinks he is living his life to the fullest. But look at him. Engulfed in screens. Look at his leg. How fast is it shaking? Is this the picture of a relaxed and happy man? Well, Sam Bankman-Fried, and his "quant" trading friends, obviously believe that a man should be sitting lit by thousands of small LEDs while stressing about what to buy and what to sell next. Yea. Great, what a dream job guys. Don't you wanna get into crypto trading you too, so you can sit and stare at charts all day long?
Term of the week: "unit bias"
Another round of discussions among Bitcoin pumpers have started on why exchanges and everyone else should start setting the Bitcoin price in sats instead of bitcoins (BTC). There are 100 million sats in a Bitcoin. Some want the moniker "bits", some want "sats".
It is time to switch to Satoshis. Too many people telling me at $58,000 $BTC too expensive. Which exchange will be first to quote in SATS? @cz_binance @brian_armstrong @SBF_Alameda @tyler
— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) May 8, 2021
So, "unit bias" became a known term this week. Apparently that is also good for Bitcoin. The latest argument: get rid of sats and bits altogether and rename sats to bitcoins. That means, if you have 1 bitcoin today, after the change you will have 100 million bitcoin. If you own 5 bitcoin today, you will own 500 million of them after this change:
The current x.xxxxxxxx decimal placing in #Bitcoin is a relic from when the price of #BTC was $0.10 and transaction fees were 0.01 BTC.
— grubles (@notgrubles) May 12, 2021
Let's prepare ourselves for the next 10-20-50 years of Bitcoin by deleting the decimal point and referring to 0.00000001 as a "bitcoin".
One US dollar equaled 1,770 sats at the time of writing. Use the site below to quickly check different bitcoin units priced in your local fiat currency.
The discussion will probably continue forever, or until a bit or a sat is worth a dollar. Today a dollar is worth about 2,000 sats:

Luckily there are always people who can come up with bullish charts. This week it's William Clemente THE THIRD:
Here's a reason to be bullish right now
— William Clemente III (@WClementeIII) May 9, 2021
Every time #Bitcoin touched the 128DMA in the 2017 bull market price did the following:
- 88%
- 225%
- 175%
- 650% pic.twitter.com/0fOtCapoLq
Bitcoin upgrade in progress
The latest techno infusion into Bitcoin is called Taproot, and it'll increase Bitcoin's privacy features as well as help with scaling. It's a soft fork upgrade and and least 90 per cent of miners need to signal approval of the change for it to take effect. Taproot activation watch is a site that monitors the progress. At the time of writing the number stood at 32.39%. However, the online chatter seems to indicate this number will rise quickly during the next activation period, and we are now betting that Taproot will activate in 4-8 weeks.

Norway goes all-in
Bitcoin is heating up in Norway. Now this is what I call a modern minister of climate and energy:
Norwegian Minister of Climate and Energy @Rotevatn says he bought a little #Bitcoin years ago and he's still HODLing 🚀 🙌
— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) May 5, 2021
pic.twitter.com/g7F3PRVm0Z
Norway has taken the crypto lead in the nordics, with otherwise tech-savvy Sweden trailing behind. If you haven't yet, do read Kjell Inge Røkke's letter explaining the rationale behind getting into bitcoin:
https://www.seetee.io/static/shareholder_letter-6ae7e85717c28831bf1c0eca1d632722.pdf
Back to the Buzzword Game Theory Theory
Crypto markets all the more hegelian. Powerful priming words with "flow" reign supreme. Taste the sonic flavours of "Ethereum" and "Cardano". Markets are betting on which promising wordings will captivate the herd next.
But the biggest question this week on everybody's lips was, and is (as Doge has climbed 24% just since yesterday): Bitcoin, or Doge?
if you bought bitcoin in December 2013 you are up 5600%
— Udi Wertheimer (@udiWertheimer) May 6, 2021
If you bought doge in January 2021 you are up 6000%
However; the difference in value isn't THAT large when you look at it in bitcoin terms: On Jan 1, one doge was worth 0.000001 BTC.
On May 6, one doge was worth 0.00001 BTC.
Just one zero then.
I think I’ve wildly underestimated the degree to which people are unironically buying dogecoin
— Eric Wall (@ercwl) May 5, 2021
And, are you thinking about quitting your job to "join the crypto craze?" Well, maybe you should read this first:
I'm seeing a lot of people FOMO quit their jobs to join "crypto", probably out of some over-romanticized view of what goes on in these projects. Let me illuminate you about what actually happens:
— Jon Syu (@jonsyu) May 4, 2021
👇
Here's a comparison list, how much you would've gained if you sold some BTC six months ago and put that value into one of these altcoins:

Even Ripple has gained.
Oh, the humanity, if you are a bitcoin maximalist and hear about how wall street professionals are retiring after making a killing on DOGE.
Another classic for all poor (in a double sense) maximalists:
The weekly reading/watching/doing tips:
Do you know what a "covenant" is? Well, you need it to power a so called Spacechain, a "permissionless chain creation without a new speculative asset."
Ruben Somsen explains this latest attempt to create a buzzword meme:
And a classic tip here at the end: did you see this guide on inflation by Lyn Alden? It's a good refresher, worth a look through: https://www.lynalden.com/inflation/
Tips & Tricks & Tools
Marina can acess the Liquid Network directly from your web browser. It's a new Liquid wallet.
https://vulpem.com/marina.html
Lopp simplifies setting up a node:
I'm releasing a new tool to help Bitcoin node operators get set up. From what I could tell, the only way to generate the rpcauth config for a node was with command line scripts. Now you can do so with the user friendliness of a web form. https://t.co/FGVvmNOIuE
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) May 9, 2021
And that's it for this Friday Rundown.