Arijit Sarkar
The bright orange Bitcoin (BTC) logo, for over a decade, has become synonymous with financial freedom amid modern-day recession and stringent governmental oversight. However, unlike the mysteries tied to Bitcoin’s origin, the development of the Bitcoin “₿” logo is fairly documented in the depths of the internet.
When Bitcoin was introduced 13 years ago by creator Satoshi Nakamoto, the first iteration of the Bitcoin logo represented a gold coin with a “BC” text embedded in the center.
However, on February 24, 2010, Nakamoto came up with a new Bitcoin logo, which saw the replacement of the “BC” text with “₿” embedded within the gold coin.
Based on community feedback, Satoshi then incorporated changes into the new logo and released the copyright-free images into the public domain. The logo then went on to be accepted as the official logo for Bitcoin for a short amount of time.
The decentralized nature of the Bitcoin ecosystem allows the general public to contribute to the Bitcoin network in various forms based on community consensus, including logo designs. On November 1, 2010, Bitcoin community member bitboy — not to be confused with YouTuber BitBoy Crypto — released a new iteration of the Bitcoin logo based on Satoshi’s design. However, this time the designer chose to replace the gold coin with the iconic orange circle and tilted the “₿” logo 14% clockwise.
As a result of overwhelming support from the community, bitboy’s design stands as the official logo for Bitcoin over the last 12 years. After releasing the finalized version of the Bitcoin logo, bitboy stated:
“Now everyone can make use of the graphics freely even for commercial purposes with this license and not bound by any restriction.”
Enthusiasts continue releasing new logos for Bitcoin to date, but the BTC community has yet to come across a symbol that comes close to the beloved orange ₿.
Bitcoin ATM installations made a steep recovery in June after witnessing a consistent decrease throughout 2022.
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Brian Newar
Billionaire crypto investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban says the current market downturn reminds him of a well-known adage uttered by Warren Buffett.
Cuban sees a parallel between the rise and fall of cryptocurrency markets and projects, and the 91-year-old Oracle of Omaha’s aphorism states that, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.”
Cuban’s observation was revealed during a Thursday interview with Fortune in which he discussed what he sees as flawed business models of some crypto projects that have fallen on hard times over the past two months.
“In stocks and crypto, you will see companies that were sustained by cheap, easy money — but didn’t have valid business prospects — will disappear,” the Shark Tank investor said:
“Like [Warren] Buffett says, ‘When the tide goes out, you get to see who is swimming naked.’”
Some of the companies that appear to have been swimming naked included Terra, Celsius and Three Arrows Capital.
The Terra ecosystem, now known as Terra Classic, completely collapsed by the middle of May. The fallout from that collapse has seen tens of billions in losses to investors, while a manhunt has ensued for the founder and CEO Do Kwon by several regulatory bodies.
Celsius, the staking and lending platform, is fighting to stay solvent if its recent pausing of withdrawals is any indicator. Investment firm Three Arrows Capital is reported to have faced a liquidation to the tune of $400 million and has been unable to meet margin calls.
Despite the gloomy short-term outlook for crypto, Cuban said that these downturns tend to have a cleansing effect on a market and that it would likely be the same for crypto this time around. But, he said you should always back innovation:
“Disruptive applications and technology released during a bear market, whether stocks or crypto or any business, will always find a market and succeed.”
CEO of Avenue Capital Group Marc Lasry has an even more gloomy assessment of the financial markets. He predicted on Bloomberg TV that the pain across the economy, in general, would continue through the end of 2022 as equity indexes could fall up to another 10%. However, Lasry believes that the United States economy is strong enough to keep the current downturn relatively abbreviated.
Lasry has been a crypto bull since 2018. In 2021, Cointelegraph reported that he lamented that he hadn’t bought enough Bitcoin (BTC). But, he told Bloomberg TV that BTC and Ether (ETH) have already dipped more than expected and that “Nobody knows what the bottom is for that.”
He added that even for professional investors it is hard to time a bottom, “so you want to get invested when you can.”
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Prashant Jha
The United Arab Emirates has launched the world’s most expensive modern postage stamp to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s Foundation Day.
Emirates Post Group, a government-owned post office launched the first edition of the modern postage stamp with four editions. Each physical stamp in the collection comes with a digital version.
The most expensive edition is the “Golden Jubille 2021,” which has a total of 2021 pieces and costs a 2021 AED ($550 USD). Each stamp contains one gram of gold.
The second stamp is called the “Spirit of the Union — 1971,” which symbolizes the establishment of the UAE by the founding fathers. Guess what, the third stamp is “Year of the 50th — 2021” while the fourth is the “Projects of the 50th 2071,” representing the futuristic vision of the UAE.
The other three collections are relatively cheaper and cost about 250 AED ($68) for each nonfungible token (NFT) postage stamp.
Cointelegraph reached out to the CEO of the post group Abdullah Al Ashram to understand the idea behind the launch of digital collectible postage stamps. Ashram explained that the decision was made to celebrate the anniversary of the Founding Day and anyone from around the world can buy it.
“It's definitely a part of the broader strategy and blockchain will be the key to many projects at Emirates Post roup."
The launch of the NFT postage stamps made the Emirates Post Group the only p in the Middle East and North Africa to do so. Blockchain has become a key part of UAE’s business strategy over the past year.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
