In a chaotic world, it is a force for stability and harmony.

Humans are a special type of creature because we like to stay busy. Instead of conserving energy, we spend as much as we can access, because our brains allow us to direct its use to improve our lives and our environment.

With so much energy being expended by people with different ideas and competing interests, chaos is inevitable. People need common ground so that they can communicate, and eventually cooperate to build a better world.

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Universal units of measurement allow economies to form and grow. One day, bitcoin may be recognized as a fundamental measurement of value, on par with standard units of time, space, energy, and other phenomena.

We love this animation from @StarfuryFlames which perfectly captures the power of bitcoin as a stabilizing force.

News

🌐  Block produces report with valuable bitcoin insight

Digital payment giant Block published a report titled "Bitcoin: Knowledge and Perceptions" that shed light on the state of bitcoin in the global economy. Some key findings:

• How people view bitcoin as a promise for a more equitable economy.
• The correlation between countries with high inflation and bitcoin adoption.
• The fundamental importance of bitcoin education in driving adoption.
• Strong awareness of bitcoin vs. other cryptos. 88% had heard of bitcoin, while only 43% had heard of Ethereum.

🛠 New York joins China (and no one else) with a 2-year moratorium on Proof-of-Work mining

A bill containing a moratorium on Proof-of-Work mining has passed New York's senate, and now awaits approval from the governor's office. It specifically forbids new miners from utilizing power from fossil fuels.

Prominent bitcoiner Nic Carter noted that the state had effectively "banned a kind of computation." Blockchain association VP and lawyer Jake Chervinsky described the bill as "feel-good performative politics dangerous for both the environmental and economic sustainability of the U.S."

🔥 Bitcoin bill coming in hot

Senators Cynthia Lummis (WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) released their highly anticipated bitcoin bill. It was met with high praise from bitcoin community. Some highlights of the bill include eliminating capital gains tax on transactions under $200, self custody as a right, and the treatment of bitcoin as a commodity under the CFTC (as opposed to a security regulated by the SEC).

During an interview with CNBC, Senator Lummis praised bitcoin as "some of the hardest money ever created in the world" while advocating for its place in retirement portfolios.

🍳 Fed posts eggs priced in bitcoin, quickly gets cooked

The Federal Reserve blog posted a chart denominating eggs in bitcoin in an apparent attempt to dunk on bitcoin – and deflect attention from record inflation. Unfortunately for the Fed, people on the internet zoomed out on the chart, which showed that the cost of eggs when priced in bitcoin crashes – and represents bitcoin's amazing, exponentially-rising purchasing power.

📰 Solana goes offline

In another example of the unreliability and centralization of digital assets not named bitcoin, popular network Solana had to temporarily shut down in order to fix a bug. The network was offline for over 4 hours, the second outage in a month, prompting the price to drop more than 12%. In related news, bitcoin never shuts down, halts, or goes offline.

Bitcoin adoption continues

• Chipotle to accept bitcoin for burritos. The popular food chain is offering a 10% discount on your order when you pay in bitcoin.
• Paypal offering bitcoin withdrawals. The popular financial services provider announced they are now allowing users to withdraw to external wallets. The move comes after withdrawals became the most requested feature.  
• Bermuda bitcoin hub announced, with the intent to attract digital asset companies and create policies to encourage adoption.
• Dubai malls embrace bitcoin. The largest shopping mall operator in Dubai announced the acceptance of bitcoin and other digital assets at all of its properties, including 29 shopping malls, 13 hotels and 4 mixed-use communities.
• Octagon Networks adopts a bitcoin standard. Octagon is the first cybersecurity company to convert its entire balance sheet to bitcoin. The company will also accept bitcoin as payment. The company stated “we believe Bitcoin will lead the world toward a better future.”
• Futbol in bitcoin. Popular Brazilian football club Sao Paolo FC announced they are letting fans buy tickets to their matches in bitcoin.

Bitcoin Roundup Live

Join us for a fun weekly Q&A where you can hang out with other bitcoiners and talk about current events.

It takes place every Thursday from 8pm to 9pm Eastern Time. Register here.

How bitcoin works

Learn one key idea about bitcoin each week. This week: Bitcoin is equal opportunity for everyone.

When first learning about Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamato and his mysterious disappearance, people quickly become intrigued.

‘So this person or group just created this digital money out of nowhere, handed it to the world, and left?'

'…And no one knows who they are?’

Yes and yes.

A few seconds of more pondering pass by.

‘Did they keep any bitcoin for themselves? What if he or she comes back?’

It’s estimated that Satoshi mined about 1 million or so bitcoin in the first seven months of the network’s existence, when each block reward yielded 50 bitcoin. For context, at this point in the halving cycle miners earn 6.25 bitcoin per block. Satoshi’s bitcoin remains untouched to this day.

There is a lot of speculation as to why the bitcoin hasn’t moved. The creator could have lost their private keys. They could have died - the final message from Satoshi was sent 11 years ago. Or, they could be demonstrating incredible restraint in an act of true benevolence.

Satoshi sent this final message on the bitcointalk.org forum and then updated bitcoin.org’s contact page to include the names and emails of the other developers that started helping him build on the network… and removing his own.

Potentially the most powerful aspect of bitcoin lies in the answer to ‘what would happen if Satoshi came back?’ Short answer: Nothing.

Satoshi would have no more influence over the network than you. Or me. Or anyone. Bitcoin’s open source nature ensures that no single entity has any more authority than any other. That is, if Satoshi ran his own node and tried to spend the same bitcoin twice or allocate a larger share to himself, the other nodes would reject his advances, same as any other bad actor.

One final caveat: if Satoshi did come back and attempted to dump his bitcoin, the price would certainly take a short-term hit. Fortunately, bitcoin is used to large drawdowns - and there’s no reason to believe it wouldn’t recover and return even stronger than previously, as it has many times before.

Coin check

What did Satoshi code in the first bitcoin block, known as the genesis block?  

1. The Bitcoin White Paper.
2. The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
3. Welcome to bitcoin. A peer-to-peer, decentralized, digital currency.
4. Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman totters, Merril is sold, AIG seeks to raise cash.

Check your answer at the end of the page.

From the meme pool

Special Edition: Courageous Coinbits employee makes an unannounced visit to the Central Bank of Egypt to bitcoin. Read the whole story on Twitter!

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Answer: 2. The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. Displayed proudly at Coinbits HQ: