Sam Bourgi
Square Inc., a crypto-friendly mobile payments company, is planning to invest $5 million in a solar-powered Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility for Blockstream Mining, offering further insight into Jack Dorsey’s continued support for blockchain infrastructure.
Chris Cook, Blockstream’s chief information officer, announced the collaborative partnership on Saturday, where he outlined plans to build the open-sourced mining facility at one of Blockstream’s United States operations.
"Together, we plan to provide public transparency by sharing the project economics and knowledge we’ve gained from building a Bitcoin mine powered by renewable energy,” he said, adding:
“Ultimately, we hope to demonstrate how bitcoin mining in conjunction with renewable energy can help drive the clean energy transition.”
In addition to providing regular reports on the status of the project, the new initiative will also feature a so-called public performance dashboard, where anyone can pull real-time metrics of the mining facility.
Erhan Kahraman
China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies has reportedly spread to social media. Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging service with over 530 million monthly active users, has reportedly suspended several popular Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto-related content creators on the platform.
According to local reports, at least a dozen crypto influencers on Weibo have been unable to use their accounts on Saturday night. Weibo greeted other users who visited suspended accounts with a message saying the banned accounts have violated Weibo guidelines and “relevant laws and regulations.”
A Weibo user nicknamed Woman Dr. bitcoin mini, who saw her account was blocked on Saturday, called Weibo’s action a Judgment Day crypto influencers. NYU law school adjunct professor and former China Investment Corporation managing director Winston Ma said, “The Chinese government makes it clear that no Chinese version of Elon Musk can exist in the Chinese crypto market.”
The academic was alluding to Elon Musk's controversial influence over cryptocurrency markets on social media.
Samuel Haig
In October 2014, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launched the MIT Bitcoin Project, an initiative that sought to give away $500,000 worth of Bitcoin to its undergraduate students.
Students were able to claim $100 worth of BTC in exchange for filling out a survey, equating to roughly 0.3 BTC at the time. The project was spearheaded by students Jeremy Rubin and Dan Elitzer, who raised $500,000 from university alumni and representatives of the Bitcoin community.
The project was intended to encourage exploration into digital assets and foster the campus as a global hub for crypto research.
With 3,100 students capitalizing on the offer and close to $200,000 worth of Bitcoin going unclaimed at the time, the university distributed roughly $33.8 million worth of BTC at current prices.
This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
