This Week in Bitcoin

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Has Jeff finally got Bitcoin FOMO? I'll look at the numbers that's got everyone speculating. Then, my thoughts on the White House's next attack on Bitcoin and the notable shift in the public store of value debate.

Show Notes:

White House Flags Bitcoin Mining as Major Power Grid Burden

• Fox Biz Reporter talks with WH
• Miners’ bitcoin production dipped in January amid energy curtailment - Blockworks
  • How Bitcoin mining stabilized the grid and saved Texans $18Billion
  • Bitcoin Energy FUD Busting
  • 3 Indy Institutes in just six months with research showing Bitcoin supports renewable transition
  • Potential Reprieve for Bitcoin Miners With Upcoming Difficulty Adjustment
  • Demand Response And Curtailment Through Bitcoin Mining

Updates:

• GrapheneOS v2024 022 300: New Setup Wizard, New Color Schemes
  • Completely new GrapheneOS Setup Wizard implementation for the initial setup of the device and secondary user profiles;
  • Theme Picker: update color schemes including adding the monochromatic colorscheme option;
  • Sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer: add support for Android Auto 11.3
  • Sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer: add developer functionality for updating Android Auto via the Play Store for testing;
• Blockstream Green Wallet Desktop v2.0.0: New UI and UX
• New UI and UX: the user experience has been simplified and streamlined with a more polished, intuitive interface for easier access to key features;
• All-in-one UX: use your existing wallets for both your Bitcoin and Liquid accounts across singlesig and assisted multisig. You have the flexibility to choose whether to combine Bitcoin and Liquid accounts or not, and thus to organize your mainchain and second-layer stacks as you deem fit.;
• Simpler onboarding for new Jade users, minimizing ambiguity and errors during the initial setup;
• Sign with address to prove its ownership.
  
  
• PricedInBitcoin21
• The Bitcoin Company Promo Link

[00:00:55] Unknown:

Welcome into episode one of This   Week in Bitcoin. You're a brave one for checking out the first episode.   The plan is to focus on the most important signal of the week.   My name is Chris. I've been covering Bitcoin for like 14 years in various places.   But this is my first Bitcoin podcast in 12 years. But I think right now it's   some of the most interesting times in Bitcoin. First of all, congratulations.   Nearly all of you are in profit unless you bought it. It's a tippity-tippity top.   That's pretty great. It's been a little bit. It feels good. It was a long bear market.   But if you'll indulge me just for a moment, I know the Bitcoin's now the fifth   largest base money in the world, and that's very exciting.  

Number is going up. But as a long timer, if you will, allow me to say,   you should be prepared for anything in the short term.   I'm going to talk about some stuff that is fairly bullish in this episode,   but with the caveat, always expect for face ripping either direction in the short term.   In the long term, I'll expect to have your mind blown, really.   I think one of the biggest signals is just this week there has been a notable   narrative shift around Bitcoin by some of Wall Street.   Not all of Wall Street, but by some of Wall Street. And it is enough now that   the media industry that covers Wall Street is trying to adapt,   but they're struggling.  

There's underperformance, OK? It's depressing.   I don't want to. What has Bitcoin ever done for mankind? Are you ever on a Bitcoin phone?   What has Bitcoin ever done for mankind? Have you ever had a Bitcoin phone?   Jim might be a little salty there. He looks like he's in physical pain because   he did just happen to call one of the Pico bottoms again.   The inverse Kramer effect remains strong. But the idea that Bitcoin hasn't done   anything for humanity could only really be said from a position of immense privilege.   Because if you've been financially struggling and you put a little bit of money   in the last year into Bitcoin, well, you just got 170% return.  

And if you put money into Bitcoin in a four year period, you've you've never lost money.   It's giving financial tooling to the unbanked. It's giving access to just investing   basic types of wealth investing and saving to the people.   It is an immense, immense change. It is a sea shift and it is minting millionaires right now.   The other thing is that it is just is equally massive is that Bitcoin represents   sound money that is separated from the state.   Bitcoin separates state and money. That is going to be huge for humanity.   I realize it's maybe not great for those of you who have really been lapping   up this easy money cycle and really Fed policy since the 80s. I get that.  

But for some of us, it's a massive sea shift with immense value.   It's depressing. I don't want to. What has Bitcoin ever done for mankind? Are you a Bitcoin phone?   I like, too, that his measure of success is a Bitcoin phone.   Well, I mean, Solana's got a phone.   What does that have to do with anything? But not everyone's struggling.   Some are starting to come along, like CNBC's old-timer Joe, who's willing to   go on record and call Bitcoin a store of value, which has, if you're not familiar,   been a point of contention on CNBC for years now.   It's down a day. Not a lot happening in treasuries.  

The 10-year has sort of been locked in a little bit of a range as far as yield goes, 428.   But, and that's a big but, crypto, 59. Yeah. 59.   Not crypto, Bitcoin.   And what I was going to say last time when we were talking about it at 58,   when we were talking about it, Andrew, time goes fast.   You'll see the older you get. but we were talking about twenty six or twenty seven,   really it seems like last week it wasn't it was couple months ago but we were   wondering what's going on when there is a good move on the anticipation of the   piaf it what about the fed the easing is that going to be what finally you know you go to bed,   wake up at 59, 58.  

I think what Joe's trying to say is that we thought it was going to take Fed   easy before we see Bitcoin ripping again.   But then you go to bed and you wake up and it's ripped overnight.   It's ripping without the Fed printing.   That's unbelievable. It's almost back to where, you know, you always point out   how anybody who bought at 63 or 64 is losing money.   You're not going to be able to say that. I won't be able to say that.   Well, you might be able to It might go back down.   That's that is one of the things that if you buy it, you better be ready for   anything, which goes to the idea of is this a store of value?  

Oh, and Andrew has the smug look on his face. This debate has been ongoing forever.   You can go back and find clips of them arguing this years ago.   And what's remarkable is that through all of this time, Andrew hasn't gotten through his head.   Even though he sits on a financial analysis show every morning on the CNBC network,   he doesn't seem to understand that in order for something to bring returns of   significant value, it's going to have to have volatility.   That volatility goes both directions. You don't get the ups without the downs.   That's just the nature of it.  

So if you want small returns, you get into something that's very stable.   And, you know, maybe that's good for you. But if you want something that fights   22% compound inflation over the last two years, well, then you need an asset   that does better than 22% over the last two years.   There's not a lot. There's not a lot there.   And Bitcoin is there. Bitcoin is that asset.   But you don't get there without the swings in both directions.   And how Andrew doesn't understand that boggles my mind. And I feel like the   old Joe guy here, he's, well, he's just had it. He's just done with this conversation.  

Better be ready for anything. Which goes to the idea of, is this a store of value?   I don't think it does. Is it a speculation? I don't think. Is it a store of   value? No, I don't think that does.   If you have something that's the best performing asset over five,   10 and 15 year periods, it's a store of value. I'm ready to say that.   There you go.   I'm ready to give it the. On the record.   So brave. So brave. Over at Fox Business, they're struggling to really report,   but they did get some deets.   It seems the White House is very concerned about the energy use of Bitcoin mining.   You may have heard there has been surveys going around asking Bitcoin miners to dox themselves.  

They've had some success on pushing back on the deadline, but the Biden administration   still wants this registry complete.   And it seems with the rise in Bitcoin's price, the alarm over in the White House is escalating.   Bitcoin on an absolute tear, hitting $57,000 for the first time in more than   two years and lifting the rest of the crypto market right along with it.   As you can see, Bitcoin right now, $57,170.   Ethereum up also $3,200. Litecoin up at $74.   I don't know why they have to talk about Litecoin and Ethereum. Litecoin, really?   And then Ethereum, OK, but it's like $3,000.  

And Bitcoin's like, you know, one is like a brand new used car price and one   you can't even buy a used Honda with.   I don't understand why they put all of them together because it just confuses the viewer.   It's like when folks go to buy gold and they get sucked in by all these other precious metals.   Well, gold costs a lot of money, but you could buy this precious metal and this precious metal.   And silver, you should really stack up on silver. Of course,   Bitcoin is about to topple silver in value.   The altcoins is the precious metal thing. Really, you'd just be better off investing in the Apex asset.   But they confuse the average viewer by talking about Litecoin and Bitcoin and   Ethereum all in the same sentence.  

And crypto and the crypto world and crypto this. It's Bitcoin. It's a Bitcoin ETF.   It's Bitcoin mining, right? There's no other crypto miners out there anymore.   It's proof of work, which is Bitcoin.   I mean, yeah, there's some Monero here   and there, but there's nobody professionally doing it as far as I know.   If you know otherwise, let me know. But you see, Fox, they just haven't been   able to update their thinking on this.   What is going on? Well, guess what? Charlie Gasparino is here to tell us exactly   what's happening in the crypto world.   Charlie, it seems like we've come a long way from the collapse of FTX and all   of that fraud. It's been on fire.  

I wish I could invest in some of this stuff.   I mean, I can't because I cover it. But here's what we do know.   And this is a kind of interesting sort of side story. And it's a scoop.   It's an exclusive for Fox Business. Fox Business has learned that the Biden   administration is actually closely watching the surge in Bitcoin.   They are very worried that the Bitcoin's rise is going to have,   and by the way, not just a rise, that's a pretty significant spike,   is going to have essentially put a lot of pressure on the power grid,   the U.S. power grid. Now, why is that?  

Again, that's them saying it. I'm not saying I agree with this because a lot   of people in the crypto industry would disagree with this. But as you know,   Bitcoin is mined. It's mined by computers essentially figuring out complex mathematical   questions and problems.   And those computers take up a lot of electricity.   I guess there is an erroneous assumption here that the more activity on the Bitcoin network,   the more price or I'm sorry, I guess I should back up the higher the price,   the higher the activity, the higher the activity, the more power usage,   I think, is the erroneous assumption being made here.  

Right. Do you follow me? I know I kind of I kind of botched a little bit,   but I think the White House is genuinely thinking price goes up.   So activity must be going up. So power usage must be going up.   That's got to be what's going through their mind right now.   They put a big strain on the power grid of the U.S.   And right now, because we have so much inflow of retail investors putting money   into Bitcoin ETFs, you know, all those exchange traded funds that just got approved by the SEC,   the Bitcoin miners can't mine fast enough to meet that demand.   Oh boy, this is, it really shows you how poorly they understand this topic and   why this really has to be analyzed in the domain of podcasts.  

Not to toot our own horn here, but the traditional media just can't wrap their head around this.   First of all, the intraday trading in and out of ETFs buying and selling,   that's all paper Bitcoin.   That's not happening on the blockchain. All that activity has actually been   removed from the blockchain.   And then those ETF funds settle up either at the end of the day or the next day.   And when they do that, they generally   are doing one large transaction or a couple of large transactions.   And they're probably not a ton of little UTXOs. They're probably no monkey JPEGs.   They're just doing large transactions either in or out to settle.  

And as a result, the fees on the Bitcoin network are the lowest they've been in like a year.   The activity happens in the ETF. F. They settle out after business hours.   The fees spike momentarily. And then we go back down to super low fees.   Not only that, the difficulty adjusted today as I record, February 29th, downward by about 3%.   Now, if we were spinning up more mining and using more power,   the difficulty would be adjusting upward because there's a fixed issuance schedule.   And the the difficulty adjust to maintain the fixed issuance schedule?   Well, the difficulty just went down by 3% because power usage has gone down.  

I don't know exactly why. I would speculate that it's because of curtailment   programs during the winter.   I have links in the show notes, but in January, there was about 42% curtailment   by some of the miners out there.   Those are big numbers, links in the notes, really good resources around Bitcoin   Bitcoin and its supporting of renewables and the demand programs.   Good links in there if you've been looking to convince plebs that Bitcoin isn't   boiling the ocean this week. The show notes are useful. But you can see how   they have this misunderstanding.  

They think somehow the increased ETF activity is causing the miners to work   super hard to produce more Bitcoin to meet the new demand.   And I guess I can kind of understand this thinking because this would be true in gold or diamonds.   This would be true in real estate. They go build more houses and try to create more lots and whatnot.   And so I can kind of – I can see that – or if you think of it from a financial standpoint.   I can understand why, like, if you're used to MasterCard or Visa or banks,   when they reach a bunch of new demand, they have to deploy new data centers   and use more power to reach that demand.  

But the Bitcoin network uses the same amount of power regardless of the number of transactions.   The fees go up when there are more transactions, but the power usage does not change.   Now, you could argue that as the fees go up, it incentivizes more mining so   the miners can earn those fees.   But that is like, that is a second order effect thing.   And right now the difficulty is down by 3% and the having is coming up,   which will probably wreck a lot of miners.   So it's funny that the white house is raising these alarm bells when on-chain   activities at like a year low difficulty, just a dent, just went down by 3%.  

And the miners are about to get wrecked from the happening.   The Bitcoin miners can't mine fast enough to meet that demand.   So they are working overtime to mine.   How do you work overtime to mine something that runs 24-7 and has a fixed issuance schedule?   I mean, you could run the clock a little bit, get those blocks a little early.   Like, I love the idea that, well, guys, we're going to have to work 28 hours this week.   It's all week, 28 hours every day. We got to do it. We got to get those extra blocks.   The price is going up as they try to create more Bitcoin.  

But as they're doing that, what the Biden administration is worried about,   and I'm getting this from people in the crypto industry who are getting emails   and letters from the Biden administration,   my producer, Ellie Terrett, has been doing a lot of reporting on this,   is that the Biden administration is really worried that it's going to put a   strain on the power grid if this keeps going.   Now, Now, is this a real worry, you know, a sort of theoretical worry?   And it depends on who you talk to.   People in the crypto industry tell me it's purely theoretical.   I'm sorry. I just get the sense that this guy has somebody in the crypto industry   constantly whispering in his ear because he just has to like couch everything he says constantly.  

Whenever he gets off air, he's somebody he's going to get talking to. You can tell.   I don't know who it is, but they're working hard to keep that guy on the straight   and narrow. Let's talk about these ETFs for a moment, because this week has   been blowout, blowout in single in one day.   In fact, in fact, yesterday, in half the day, by half halfway through the day,   BlackRock had done more volume than the first two weeks combined.   The ETFs are just soaring.   It's the primary driver. That's what we're seeing. But I'll tell you,   after this meeting, I'm getting on a plane to go talk to one of the largest   institutional consultants in the U.S.  

This is Bitwise's CIO. They obviously have a Bitcoin ETF.   As a Bitcoiner, not sure if I'm going to really be recommending an ETF.   If you were going to get an ETF, the Bitwise ones would probably be the one   to get. They have that program to give 10% back to the development community.   But they also are the ones that first published their on-chain address so you   could actually verify their Bitcoin funds, which if you're going to participate   in paper Bitcoin, it seems to me that going with one that's publishing proof   of funds would be the one to trust.  

So he is sitting down and he's talking about a meeting coming up with some big mucky muck.   That's interesting, the timing of that, because BlackRock just held events for   mucky mucks to talk about the Bitcoin ETF as well. So there's a lot of institutional   meeting happening right now, and   it's on the shadow or the back of just unbelievable performance this week.   It's the primary driver. That's what we're seeing. But I'll tell you,   after this meeting, I'm getting on a plane to go talk to one of the largest   institutional consultants in the U.S. about this ETF.  

So we're going to see that next wave of institutional capital.   You did mention hedge funds, which I will put in sort of an institutional or   professional category.   Before he gets to this question, before Andrew finishes his question, I just want to translate,   Bitwise, the CIO, just said. He's saying that he has reasons to believe that   in the next couple of months, another tranche of institutional money will be coming on board.   So even if we get our historical pattern where we dip before the halvening,   which right now we're not, we're already in that phase and we typically are in a dip.   We're currently not. Of course, we've never had these ETFs either.  

However, as the market begins to sputter, if it does with the BTF,   whatever it is, the bank short-term funding program, long-term funding program,   the bank bailout program that J-PAL has going,   when that wraps up and maybe they go a little bit longer without cutting the   rates than people expected, maybe things get a little rocky, right?   But then he's saying this institutional money is coming on board and they're   going to have, they're going to, they're laying down the wires is what he said   earlier. They're laying down the wires right now.   And then that money is going to just come in like an avalanche,   like a wrecking ball as a wise woman once said.  

In terms of this big move, do you think it's that money that's pushed this or   do you think it's straight retail?   Oh, I think it's both. I think it's both. It's just new demand.   If you think about Bitcoin pre the ETFs, there was only a small set of investors who could buy it.   Now, almost everyone can buy it. And the supply demand dynamic is just off the hook.   There are 30,000 Bitcoin purchased by ETFs this week alone. loan.   Bitcoin miners have only created less than $3,000.   That's what's driving the price. And it's both hedge funds and retail and that advisor community.   All right. So a lot of people are talking about Bezos buying Bitcoin.  

I'll tell you what has them all worked up. But first, I wanted to mention that   when I do spend sats, I use the Bitcoin company, the bitcoincompany.com.   And you can use our promo code unplugged.   This is a way to buy gift certificates on the Lightning Network.   So you can zap your sats quick, private and cheap.   If you use our promo code unplugged, you'll get a $5 in-app credit once you've   spent $21 and also a thousand sat bonus.   And then they're going to kick 10% back to me to prepare for a road trip I'm   going on where I'll be using the Bitcoin company to make the entire trip possible.   It's a SaaS road trip to scale.  

I love it. It's such a minimal, but exactly what I need type of app.   They have a mobile and they have a web app and they have an API too.   And if you're going to spend your SaaS and you've already got them on the Lightning   Network, I think this is the way to do it.   The bitcoincompany.com promo code unplugged, or I'll put a link in the show   notes if I can, so you can just click that and make it easy.   Now, I want to take a moment and play a song that came out on the internet this   week. Yes, this is topical. This was released this week.   I think it's called the We're So Back Song or We're Back. I'll put a link in   the notes because it's great. It's a great watch too.  

But one of the fun things when the price is ripping or dipping is the memeing   and just people's reaction online.   And the vibe has been good this week.   All right, so everybody is wondering if Jeff Bezos is buying Bitcoin this week. Now, why?   Why has there been all of this speculation about Bezos bags?   Well, you know, he just sold $8.5 billion of Amazon stock. Okay.   All right, that's interesting. But then what kicked things up a notch was the   press got snapshots of Bezos hanging out on his boat and having dinner with Michael Saylor.   And the rumors are they were talking Bitcoin.  

Now, I don't know the timeline exactly, but shortly around this period of time,   a mysterious new Bitcoin wallet popped online with 26,200 Bitcoin,   which is around 1.6 million U.S. fiat as I record.   Now, who knows? But that's a big first buy, whoever it is.   And if you were Jeff and you had $8.5 billion, it'd be pretty logical to take   1.6 mil of that 8.5 bill and put it into Bitcoin.   Especially after talking to Michael Saylor, who, if CEOs aren't noticing what   he's been doing with MicroStrategy, are going to be considered negligent soon.   People were really kicking him in the bottom of the market, but now,   jeez, now he looks like some sort of freaking genius.  

They're adding to their margins.   They're adding to their balance sheet something like,   They're two years worth of revenue almost every night when Bitcoin rips.   The numbers are just staggering that I can hardly wrap my head around them.   But to give you an idea, to be listed on the S&P 500, you have to be worth $15.8 billion or more.   Well, MicroStrategy crushed that this week by reaching $16.5 billion,   which means every American with a retirement fund could soon have levered Bitcoin   ETF in their portfolio, essentially, if you think about the MicroStrategy stock.   They flipped United Airlines and TransUnion this week.  

MicroStrategy started buying Bitcoin in August of 2020.   Since then, Bitcoin is up 448% and MicroStrategy's stock is up 614%.   Wow. And they hold somewhere around 193,000 Bitcoin right now.   Now, if I were Bezos, I'd be looking at that.   Again, these are two tech CEOs that got their start during the dot-com boom.   They both watched their stocks ramp and crash together, and they've managed to stick it out.   And they're both founders. So they may have some common ground here,   more so than we'd initially think.   They've been around for a long time.  

Amazon may even be a customer of MicroStrategy.   And if you're looking at what Mikey over there is doing, you're thinking,   man, the Fed is about to turn the money printer back on.   J-PAL is going to make it rain, and I need to have some rain buckets set up   because I can take the microstrategy playbook and apply it to whatever business he wants.   And to get those rain buckets in place before the money printer turns back on   and J-PAL makes it rain would be a very savvy move, making Jeff even richer.   And I bet Jeff would love to be richer.   So is it Bezos buying Bitcoin right now? I don't know, but it should be.  

And other CEOs that, you know, have a mill or two to burn should probably be   doing it. And I wonder how long until they do.   It seems to be only a matter of time, assuming Bitcoin doesn't crash and burn.   Okay, I want to do some software updates. So let's get to that.   Graphene OS has a new release for the end of the month with a new setup wizard.   Wizard, totally new wizard implementation, they say.   Got a new theme picker so you can make your color schemes nice.   If you are a Bitcoiner using mobile wallets, you should really be considering graphing OS.   And one of the things that caught my attention is they've updated their Google   Play Sandbox compatibility layer to add support for Android Auto 11.3.  

And they've tweaked it now so that way they can update Android Auto via the   Play Store instead of having to be an entire OS update. I'll link to NoBSBitcoin   in the show notes, NoBSBitcoin.com, where they cover the release.   I am a very happy Graphene OS user and do recommend it. You do need a Pixel   phone, but it's the only Android OS I'm trusting right now.   Now, if you're a Liquid user or you like Blockstream, they have updated the   green wallet for desktop.   It's just nice to see a new desktop wallet get updated. They got a new UI and   they say a new user experience in here.  

They want you to have a nicer and smoother onboarding process when you get a   hardware Jade wallet, if you do.   And they say they want to minimize errors during initial setup.   They also have a feature that sounds really interesting to me.   If you have tried this, please do boost in and tell me.   They've added the sign with address to prove its ownership functionality.   Somebody tell me how that works. And they're also trying to make it easier for   you to hold your Bitcoin and your Liquid in the same place.   I think, you know, we'll see. Liquid will take off if the on-chain fees go up,   but otherwise I think people just hold their sats as sats for now.  

But it is really nice to see a wallet on the desktop get updated.   I have a link for you in the show notes that I'd love for you to check out.   It's one of my favorite websites out there. It's called pricedinbitcoin21.com.   Have you seen this?   It's so good. And go look at the fiat section. Oh man, everything's down,   but the fiat stuff, it is absolutely brutal.   It is just something else. Thank you for joining me on the first episode.   These first ones are always the worst.   So boost in, tell me what you'd like to see from the show, what you think works,   what doesn't work, what else could be covered.  

If I were to be ambitious, I'd say my goal would be to make this the number   one Bitcoin news podcast for the JB and podcasting 2.0 community.   So I'd love your suggestions on how I could do that. Your boost will also help   others discover and find this episode through fountain and other charts.   So your boosts are also a great way to send this first episode off into the   discovery zone. So blast off.   Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next week.