Arijit Sarkar
While Satoshi Nakamoto is credited as the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, what often goes unnoticed are the selfless contributions of the community members — miners, developers, designers, hodlers and investors — that help materialize the original vision. However, one such significant contribution was found to carry an imperfection for over 12 years, invisible to the naked eye.
On Nov. 12, 2010, bitcointalk.org member bitboy (not related to YouTuber BitBoy Crypto) posted the vector files of the iconic Bitcoin logo, which has been widely accepted worldwide. While Bitcoiners preach the “zoom out” narrative during crypto bear markets, zooming in on the original Bitcoin logo shows a small orange line from the background going into the white colored “₿.”
A small design detail that has stayed with many iterations of the original #bitcoin logo since its inception in 2010 — Doc (@_Bosch_) February 9, 2023
The information was first revealed by Crypto Twitter member @_Bosch_, who then shared an updated Bitcoin logo after removing the mark and improving the stylistic proportions. On further investigation, community member @skyler_fs found that one of the curvatures of the ₿ logo was not smooth either.
Cointelegraph’s investigation of the above claims confirmed the imperfections sported by the original Bitcoin vectors. The image below shows the two locations where the microscopic design issues exist.
The revelation does not impact how Bitcoin operates and community members have not shown any concerns about it. Even if someone were to create new vectors after fixing the flaws, it would not gain mainstream acceptance unless the community decides otherwise.
As markets maintain a positive trajectory toward recovery, Bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark continues to amass equipment from distressed mining companies.
CleanSpark’s chief financial officer Gary Vecchiarelli said that the company envisions “explosive growth” in 2023 through mergers and acquisitions.
“With respect to our strategy regarding M&A, we have been one of the most active miners to date in acquiring infrastructure and machines, and we will continue to be active,” he added.
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Ciaran Lyons
A major Brazilian bank is offering a new and convenient option for taxpayers to settle their dues using cryptocurrencies.
According to a statement published by Brazilian bank Banco do Brasil on Feb. 11, it is now “possible” for Brazilian taxpayers to pay their tax bill with crypto in a joint initiative with Brazilian-based crypto firm Bitfy.
It is available to Brazilians with crypto under the custody of Bitfy, which will act as a “collection partner” for the major Brazilian bank.
It noted that besides the convenience it brings to customers, it could “expand” the use and access to the digital asset ecosystem with “national coverage” while having the comfort of a reputable bank providing consumer protection.
Lucas Schoch, Bitfy’s founder and CEO, added that the “new digital economy is a catalyst for a future full of advantages.”
The statement said crypto users would experience a straightforward process, with the tax details displayed along with the amount of reals, the official currency of Brazil, that should be converted into the chosen cryptocurrency to pay the bill.
Taxpayers will access their tax bill by scanning a barcode, similar to how they pay a “boleto,” meaning ticket, a popular payment method in Brazil.
This move comes after the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro started accepting cryptocurrencies as payments for taxes in October 2022.
In December 2022, Brazil passed a regulatory framework that legalizes the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method within the country.
The law will likely come into effect in June of this year.
Brazil’s citizens were previously told, in May 2022, that they would be required to pay taxes on like-kind crypto trades, for example, swapping Bitcoin for Ether.
However, not all crypto investors in Brazil need to declare their trades. The regulator establishes that only investors who trade more than 35,000 reals (around $6,711) in crypto should pay income tax.
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Ana Paula Pereira
Crypto exchange Coinbase’s executives are standing up for its crypto staking services, claiming they cannot be classified as a security and threatening to bring the matter to the courts in the United States.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on Twitter that the company will “defend this in court if needed.” The move follows the agreement reached by crypto exchange Kraken with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 10 to stop offering staking services or programs to clients in the country.
According to the SEC, Kraken failed “to register the offer and sale of their crypto asset staking-as-a-service program,” which the commission now qualified as securities. Aside from the service’s halt, Kraken agreed to pay $30 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties.
Coinbase's staking services are not securities. We will happily defend this in court if needed. — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 12, 2023
Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, weighed in on the issue in a blog post, claiming that “staking is not a security under the US Securities Act, nor under the Howey test.” Grewal added:
“Trying to superimpose securities law onto a process like staking doesn’t help consumers at all and instead imposes unnecessarily aggressive mandates that will prevent US consumers from accessing basic crypto services and push users to offshore, unregulated platforms.”
Grewal argues that staking fails to meet the four elements of the Howey test: investment of money, common enterprise, reasonable expectation of profits and the efforts of others. “The Howey test comes from a 1946 Supreme Court case – and there is a separate discussion to be had about whether that test makes sense for modern assets like crypto,” he wrote.
“The purpose of securities law is to correct for imbalances in information. But there is no imbalance of information in staking, as all participants are connected on the blockchain and are able to validate transactions through a community of users with equal access to the same information.” Further, the executive wrote:
“Blockchain technology can spur significant economic growth in the US and staking is a safe and critical aspect of that technology. [...] But regulation by enforcement that does nothing to help consumers and drives innovation offshore is not the answer. Getting it right on staking matters.”
The SEC decision on crypto staking sparked criticism. In a statement titled “Kraken Down,” Commissioner Hester Peirce publicly rebuked her own agency over the shutdown of Kraken's staking service. Peirce argued that regulation by enforcement “is not an efficient or fair way of regulating” an emerging industry.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
