BITCOIN BOX SCORE

Exchange Rate: $29,265

Market Capitalization: $569B

Hash Rate (90 days): 371.4 EH/s

Transactions (30 days): 13,946,477

Network Fees: 10 sat/vB

Bitcoin Dominance: 50.28%

What do these numbers mean?

Bitcoiners,

"There is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program," quipped the great economist Milton Friedman.

110 years of Federal Reserve history prove Friedman correct. Countless "temporary" measures have resulted in dramatic expansions of the Fed's scope and its influence over our lives.

The Fed has been around so long that no one remembers a time before it existed, which helps to distance it from criticism.

And yet, facts are facts. Prices in pre-Fed America did not generally inflate. Since the Federal Reserve was created, total inflation just reached the dubious milestone of 3000 percent.

And that's just the amount to which officials will admit. The real figure is larger. The slow and steady theft of Americans’ wealth via inflation has siphoned productive capital away from the economy for over a century.

Which medical breakthroughs have been delayed because of this wealth destruction? How much infrastructure could have been built? How many people lost out on their chance to build successful businesses?

We’ll never know. But thanks to bitcoin, it stops now.

You no longer have to accept that temporary politicians and officeholders in Washington will debase the value of your savings. You can own bitcoin.

With that, let's dive into the news.

NEWS

Fitch downgrades U.S. Credit Rating 📉

Fitch Ratings downgraded U.S. Treasury debt, a global benchmark for "risk-free" securities, from AAA to AA+, pointing to a rapidly declining fiscal outlook and increasing susceptibility to economic shocks.

The downgrade echoes growing skepticism about the U.S. government's ability to fulfill its financial commitments.

The bottom line:

The idea that anything could be "risk-free" was always a mirage.

That said, given the disregard for fiscal sanity in Washington, the recent IRS expansion, and the progression toward Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), the overdue US credit rating reduction raises additional concerns about the country's inclinations to shakedown citizens rather than implement fiscal reforms.

Worldcoin suspended in Kenya ❌

Kenya's government has suspended Worldcoin, Sam Altman's crypto project, due to concerns over collecting citizens' biometric data, disrupting the project's operations in a nation where it has already signed up hundreds of thousands of users.

The decision threatens the project's plans to expand its user base, particularly in poor countries, and increase the production of its retina-scanning orbs used for online identity verification and WLD token distribution.

Who could've seen this coming?

Last week we reported on Worldcoin's dystopian nature, and now the first national government has cracked down. Expect more pushback in the coming months as the project's exposure increases.

KPMG releases pro-bitcoin report 👀

Big Four professional services firm KPMG released a report highlighting the benefits bitcoin offers within an ESG (environment, social, and governance) framework. The report emphasizes that emissions, rather than energy usage, are a more significant indicator of environmental harm and positions bitcoin as a relatively minor contributor compared to sectors like tobacco and tourism.

What's the big deal?

The report marks a turning point in bitcoin's perception by mainstream institutions. Pundits and corporations previously lambasted the bitcoin network's energy consumption, and though ESG scoring is a dubious practice, the report marks a welcome change in the narrative.

Nasdaq halts crypto custody platform 🛑

According to CEO Adena Friedman, Nasdaq has decided to halt plans for a custody service amidst the shifting business and regulatory environment in the U.S.

Despite this setback, the firm will continue to support the digital asset industry, form partnerships with potential ETF issuers, and provide technology for custody of digital assets.

What's next?

The development could be viewed as a setback to institutional adoption in the U.S., given increasing regulatory scrutiny and the high entry barriers set by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yet, interest in bitcoin, in contrast to "crypto," remains strong, and bitcoin companies continue to build toward a bright orange future.

BITCOIN ADOPTION CONTINUES

"The internet became such an important part of our world, and I think the same thing is going to be true of bitcoin," investor Tim Draper stated on Fox News.

In Q2 2023, adhering to its strategy of spending 15% of its profit on bitcoin purchases, Tether, the firm behind USDT, confirmed the purchase of 1,529 Bitcoin, investing roughly $45.4 million in bitcoin holdings.

Genesis Digital Assets, a leading Bitcoin mining firm, has expanded its presence in the United States with three new data centers in South Carolina's Western region, offering a total capacity of 33 MW, bolstering its contribution to the Bitcoin network's total hash rate.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor announced plans to sell up to $750 million worth of company stock to potentially increase MicroStrategies's already significant bitcoin holdings.

Mash, a project utilizing Lightning for micropayments, has launched the beta version of their Bitcoin Wallet, accessible as a progressive web app straight from a mobile browser to circumvent potential app store censorship.

HOW BITCOIN WORKS

Learn one key idea about bitcoin each week. This week:

Bitcoin is technological progress

Consuming news today is like drinking cough syrup from a firehose: it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Every event is political and/or the end of the world. The lines between opinion and news are hopelessly blurred, and some articles read more like commands than "takes."

Yet, we do face real problems today. Trust in institutions is at all-time lows, and debt-soaked governments are sending an already lopsided economy swinging into recession.

The solutions that are commonly floated are equally unsatisfying. They often equate to nothing more than giving more power and capital to the same government actors who got us into this mess in the first place.

And that's where bitcoin comes in. In the bigger picture, quality of life is affected by technology more than by day to day politics.

Though "big tech" has received much scorn lately, technology still accelerates us toward a bright future. Imagine the possibilities if this week's "superconductor" experiments are legitimate.

Bitcoin is a key part of this future. By fixing money, bitcoin fixes many of the social ills that today's pundits and political leaders exploit for their gain at your expense. Bitcoin will even cause technology innovation to compound as it is used to finance a new wave of entrepreneurial activity.

Few realize that this trend is already happening. That's why bitcoin is underrated. For now.

Ready to get started with bitcoin? Coinbits is the best option. It's fast, safe, and free to create your account.

COIN CHECK

Who owns the most bitcoins?

1. The CIA

2. Saifedean Ammous

3. Satoshi Nakamoto

4. Vitalik Buterin

Check your answer at the end of the page.

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ANSWER

Trick question!

Nobody knows for sure who owns the most bitcoin. Bitcoin's public ledger is pseudonymous. While it is true that heuristics and public statements can be used to infer who can access which bitcoin addresses, it’s not possible to know for sure unless and until someone unlocks the bitcoin at a particular address with a private key.

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