Francisco Rodrigues
The 13th birthday of the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper has crept up just as the world continues to deal with a global pandemic, inflation fears, an astounding memecoin mania trend and growing institutional adoption of the cryptocurrency space.
On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper to a cryptography mailing list hosted by Metzdow. The Metzdow mailing list was run by a group of cypherpunks and was filled with ideas meant to create a form of digital currency: some of these have even been cited in the Bitcoin white paper.
Satoshi’s white paper came in a message titled "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper," in which Nakamoto explained that his digital currency is fully peer-to-peer (P2P) and requires no trusted third party for a transaction to occur. Through a peer-to-peer network, Bitcoin solved the double-spending problem. Bitcoin also allowed network participants to remain anonymous and was secured through a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm.
At the time, the white paper wasn't received the way people would expect it to be, knowing what they know today. Only a handful of people saw Nakamoto’s email and replied with their thoughts and concerns surrounding Bitcoin.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Leo Matchett, co-founder and CEO of Decentralized Pictures, a non-profit organization supporting independent filmmakers, said that the Bitcoin white paper “is the genesis of a new era in monetary sovereignty,” adding, “Satoshi stood on the shoulders of giants and solved problems that those who came before could not.”
William Suberg
Bitcoin (BTC) has all but deleted any trace of the mining ban, which saw its hash rate dive 50% this year.
According to the latest estimates, the network hash rate is now back at levels from May, just before China outlawed its Bitcoin mining industry. Five months since the largest-ever migration in Bitcoin’s history began, network fundamentals have staged a major comeback.
Coming in leaps and bounds as miners relocated and started over, the recovery in hash rate and network difficulty is now approaching a seminal point. While impossible to measure in definitive terms, the hash rate has seemingly accounted for the entire China debacle, doubling from its bottom several months ago.
Likewise, the mining difficulty is set to increase by 5.7% next week, bringing it to within 4 trillion of its 25 trillion record high. Not only that, but Bitcoin will seal an eighth-straight difficulty increase — the first time such an event has occurred since 2018.
“Hash rate has only been higher than today on just 6 other days in history,” Charles Edwards, founder of investment firm Capriole, wrote in associated comments.
“We are knocking on new all time highs in network security. That’s kind of unbelievable.”
Bitcoin has gained 50% since May, while sources hint that China could be starting to regret its decision.
Martin Young
Cryptocurrency mining firm Argo Blockchain has just released its Q3 financial report detailing record setting revenues for the period.
The London headquartered company reported that it had mined 597 BTC and “BTC equivalents” during the third quarter of 2021. At current prices, Argo’s Bitcoin haul would be worth roughly $36.5 million.
As of Sept. 30, the firm had amassed holdings of 1,836 BTC (roughly $113 million at current prices). Argo also reported a gross margin of 120% and a mining net margin of 85%, estimating it cost the firm just $6,293 to mine each Bitcoin on average. Overall, the firm generated a record revenue of $26 million and pocketed $17.3 million in net profits.
For the nine months ending on Sept. 30, the firm’s revenue and net income were $67.9 million and $27.1 million respectively. In the first half of 2021, Argo reported a revenue of $42.3 million.
CEO Peter Wall attributed the profitable period to growth from its Helios facility in Texas and Sept. 23 IPO on the Nasdaq, stating:
“From breaking ground on our sustainable cryptocurrency mining facility in Dickens County, Texas to our public listing on Nasdaq in the United States, this quarter has been pivotal as Argo continues to scale,”
This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
