Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Hungary plans Bitcoin tax cut as part of economic recovery program

Lawmakers are reportedly planning to cut taxes on Bitcoin gains in half, possibly as early as 2022.　　Cryptocurrency investors in Hungary could be getting a major tax break very soon, as lawmakers seek to make the central European country more competitive in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.　　In a video that appeared on Facebook Tuesday, Finance Minister Mihály Varga outlined the governments stimulus program through 2022. As part of the post-COVID-19 relief efforts, lawmakers are considering reducing taxes on cryptocurrency trading to 15% of income, down from the current rate of 30.5%. Such a move would make Hungary a far more competitive jurisdiction with respect to crypto-based capital gains taxes.　　Cryptocurrency regulations are underdeveloped in Hungary, though the buying and selling of digital assets is classified as “other income” from the perspective of taxation.　　After surging during the heights of the 2017 bull market, cryptocurrency trading in Hungary remains fairly modest compared with other countries. However, a clear uptick has been observed since the start of 2021.　　Hungary has been involved in preliminary discussions surrounding a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In August 2020, a representative from the Hungarian National Bank joined a roundtable discussion with colleagues from the Swiss National Bank, the

2021-05-12Deep Dive

Polkadot Incorporates PARSIQ to Create Complex Automation and Workflows

The addition will allow users to receive transaction alerts through the platform.　　The Polkadot (DOT) Relay Chain has announced the integration of PARSIQs smart triggers. PARSIQ has also been integrated into Algorand (ALGO), Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Celo, Dash, and Solana (SOL).　　The announcement on PARSIQ‘s official Twitter account for the launch said that users will now be able to build smart triggers on the Polkadot Relay Chain and access the project’s real-time monitoring on yet another Layer 1 network.　　The smart-triggers used by PARSIQ are contacts that collect data from across different blockchains. They then relay that data off-chain. So, in essence, the smart-triggers relay web 3 activity to web 2 applications. Examples include sending transaction alerts to clients, monitoring data flow, dredging events, and sending price alerts.　　An example of how this could be applied would be to take a Polkadot trader using PARSIQ to be alerted when an arbitrage chance arises. Or they could set the parameters to be notified whenever their Polkadot wallet gets an incoming DOT payment. The platform is also able to deploy bots for various tasks.　　To bring blockchains together　　The advantage of PARSIQs tech, when paired with IFTTT (if-this-then-that), allows developers building on Polkadot to create complex automation

2021-05-12Deep Dive

Why Bitcoin Is The Solution To The “Powell Problem”

Legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller gave an interview to CNBCs Squawk Box strengthening the theory of Bitcoin as a store of value. Druckenmiller talked about the possibility of the U.S. dollar losing its status as a reserve asset and the rise of BTC and cryptocurrencies to solve a problem accelerated by the current economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.　　The hedge fund manager believes that the U.S. Federal Reserve is enabling a “massive expansion” in fiscal policy and an increase in debt. In the next 15 years, the U.S. could no longer be held as a reserve currency because of this policy.　　Druckenmiller has a “problem” with the FED planning to extend its Quantitative Ease, a policy implemented by the central bank to purchase financial assets to inject capital into the markets, up to $2.5 trillion after “vaccine confirmation”.　　However, the hedge fund manager believes that the U.S. economy is accelerating, with retail sales about trend and jobs recovering in this country. Out of the potential “black hole” that could have been the Covid-19 pandemic, there seems to be little point for these measures, according to Druckenmiller. Bitcoin and a crypto-based ledger system could be a solution:　　5-6 years ago I said Crypto was the

2021-05-12Deep Dive

How to hedge against instability with real world-backed tokens

Investment decisions today are primarily based on the investors appetite for risk, mixed with a bit of research or advice and, hopefully, a positive gut feeling. After all, the whole point of investing in equity, and now also cryptocurrencies, is that they can be liquidated, sooner or later, for a profit. Today, investing like this is typically seen as a more productive way of saving or “growing” your wealth over a long period of time. But this was not always the case.　　In the old days, or even still in more traditional settings, people would approach the idea of savings by putting extra money aside each month in a bank account, or under the bed, for bad times and rainy days. Investing in the stock market was typically something that was perhaps only a small part of ones savings, if at all, but never the majority of it. Savings has long been predominantly cash-based, or in the form of precious metals like gold.　　Today, however, having cash means to be constantly losing money. If it‘s not inflation in countries like Argentina, then it’s the negative interest rates in countries like Switzerland. Cash is by definition unlikely to appreciate in value, which is

2021-05-12Deep Dive

The Inception And Evolution Of Digital Art, And Where The Future Of The Industry Lies

If the acceptance of “digital art” into the characteristically aloof mainstream of “fine art” could be attributed to a single moment, it would arguably be the moment Andy Warhol sat down in front of a Commodore Amiga at New Yorks Lincoln Centre in 1985 to commit the likeness of Debbie Harry to a digital form using ProPaint.　　Since then, the number of artists substituting canvasses for computers has increased exponentially, with Statista forecasting the global online art market to be worth $9.32bn by 2024. In 2021, however, the phrase “digital art” conjures up an image of something seemingly unrelated and totally extraneous to art, whether rendered by brush or mouse; cryptocurrencies.　　This is due, in no small part, to Mike Winklemann; better known by his alias Beeple, he recently became the third most valuable living artist in the world with the sale of his digital artwork Everydays at Christies for $69 million.　　Beeple sold the artwork as an NFT; a one-of-a-kind entry on a blockchain ledger which cannot be duplicated, and which has a wholly unique value and virtual entity. This is to be compared to fungible tokens, like bitcoin, for which two coins are indistinguishable from one another and have the

2021-05-11Deep Dive

Canadian Investment Fund Offsetting Carbon Footprint With Crypto ETF Fees

Canadian investment fund Ninepoint Partners LP has announced that they will dedicate a portion of its crypto ETF‘s management fee to offset the fund’s carbon footprint.　　The company‘s managing director, Alex Tapscott, said the company was doing so to alleviate the apprehension some investors have about cryptocurrency’s energy usage. “For some investors who are concerned about the carbon footprint of mining, they may be wary of investing in a Bitcoin ETF,” Tapscott said. “What were doing is creating what we hope is a solution to that problem and giving them the choice that they want and, frankly, that they need.”　　 Bitcoins carbon footprint　　Ninepoint has made this a priority in light of bitcoin (BTC) becoming notorious for the amount of energy mining it consumes. According to an analysis from Bank of America, the energy used to mine bitcoin is comparable to many developed countries.　　Recently, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen gave a more precise accounting. He said that “bitcoin alone [consumes] an average of 132 TWh a year (equivalent to roughly 12 million U.S. homes), and [releases] an estimated 63 million tons of CO2 annually.”　　For its part, Ninepoint is partnering with environmental software fintech-firm CarbonX to buy carbon credits and support forest conservation

2021-05-11Deep Dive

How a Next-Generation Blockchain Addresses "Privacy Poisoning"

The introduction of the EUs General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 marked a pivotal moment in the history of data privacy. Intended as a blow to the unchecked data harvesting of big tech firms such as Facebook and Google, the regulation brought in far-reaching legislation, putting significant responsibilitieson to companies as data processors.　　Intriguingly, given that blockchain advocates are also often vocal proponents of privacy rights, GDPR also throws up some interesting problems in the context of data stored on a blockchain. It contains clauses that stipulate data must be “kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary” and perhaps even more critically, introduces the “right to be forgotten.”　　The latter allows any citizen of the EU to request that their data be permanently deleted. Furthermore, it doesnt matter whether the data processor is in the EU or outside; EU citizens rights must be upheld.　　 Blockchain vs. the GDPR　　These rights are at odds with one of the core features of a blockchain – that data and transactions are immutable. Nobody can delete or change a transaction once its taken place. In the context of Bitcoin, where addresses arent tied to any personal data,

2021-05-11Deep Dive

Greenidge Expands Mining Operations, Raises Environmental Concerns

The struggle between cryptocurrency‘s climate impact and environment groups grows with news of Greenidge power plant’s planned expansion.　　Greenidge power plant, located in Upstate New York, is back in the news, with a planned expansion of its power usage. The once-abandoned power plant was purchased by equity firm Atlas Holdings for mining bitcoin (BTC).　　The plant, which used to provide electricity to the nearby town, now mines a reported 5.5 bitcoin every day. At todays price of $57,497.80, the plant mines around $316,000 daily.　　The natural gas plant, located near the Finger Lakes in Dresden, is made up of more than 7,000 mining rigs and powered on-site. The server farm is a result as a part of a $65 million rebuild of the crumbling coal plant. Conversion from coal to natural gas, as well as the electrical infrastructure, needed to mine at such a rate were the two major spends of the project.　　The farm is currently configured to consume less than 15 megawatts of power. Now, Greenidge is planning to ramp up its mining operation from 7,000 machines to more than 18,000. The recent approval of a data center expansion will add an additional 10,000, bringing the total to 28,000 mining machines on-site.　　The

2021-05-11Deep Dive

The Next Generation of Blockchain Infrastructure is Here

Defi　　Today, decentralized finance is widely regarded as one of the most popular use cases for blockchain technology — with over $76 billion locked up in DeFi protocols on the Ethereum network alone.　　The dramatic growth in DeFi seen in recent months has been largely catalyzed by a wave of innovation and the rapid iteration of novel protocols and tools that allow users to do more with their assets. Nonetheless, while DeFi is still very much in its earliest days, a new generation of DeFi products is beginning to paint a clear picture of where the industry is going.　　Yield Farms Have Evolved　　Though the DeFi landscape is remarkably diverse, one particular subset of DeFi products has emerged as particularly promising — were talking about yield farms. With many yield farms offering massive APYs that eclipse the returns offered by regular savings products and even crypto savings accounts, they have the potential to help cryptocurrencies and decentralized technologies appeal to even mainstream investors.　　Despite the fact that yield farms are a relatively new phenomenon that is being used by an increasing proportion of DeFi users, theyre also one of the fastest evolving niches — with new yield farm products, cross-chain farms, and unique takes on

2021-05-11Deep Dive

Traders Rotate From Bitcoin To Alts, While JPMorgan Sees Ether As Overvalued

Ethereum (ETH) and altcoins might keep outperforming bitcoin (BTC) in the months ahead, while the most popular crypto is preparing for a lift off, according to major crypto exchange Kraken. Meanwhile, JPMorgan sees “froth” in the crypto market and claims that ETH is now heavily overvalued. (Updated at 17:04 UTC with the latest market data, a new section - Time to sell, time to buy, time to hodl - has been added.)　　On average, April is its best performing month, but BTC posted its third-worst April performance (-2%) and its first negative monthly return since September 2020, Kraken said in its recent report.　　BTCs dominance falling to a 3-year low of 49% and ETH/BTC soaring to a 3-year high further indicate that “market participants are preferring altcoins over BTC at this point in the market cycle.”　　This “underwhelming performance” may be the result of market participants using their BTC to rotate into altcoins to try to generate higher returns, given that “as BTC gets larger and larger, it cannot sustain the same growth. Therefore, market participants may see altcoins as having a greater upside and/or a better risk-reward profile.”　　However, “staying true to the trend,” the percentage of BTC on exchanges decreased in April

2021-05-11Deep Dive

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