Bitcoiners,

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank sent shock waves through the financial system. Where there is smoke, there is fire. Bank failures are the smoke.

While the Federal Reserve and the Treasury were able to conjure enough funding to limit the spread of the crisis in the short term, the underlying problems in the financial system were not addressed.

The timeline of how and when the unwinding occurs cannot be predicted, but what is clear is that we are in the "bust" of a massive boom and bust cycle, and a liquidity crisis that is morphing into a credit crisis.

Central banks will eventually face a choice: Keep banks and governments afloat by continually printing money, or protect the value of the currencies at the expense of the economy itself.

Those in power tend to hold many more dollar-denominated assets than dollars themselves, which means that, in aggregate, those who can influence policy will tend to protect themselves by choosing to print money. This will eventually lead to a currency crisis – it cannot lead anywhere else. People will lose faith in fiat money when they see its purchasing power evaporate before their very eyes.

This all sounds painful, and it will be. Without bitcoin, we would not have any alternative but to extract what value we can from the current system and hunker down. However, with bitcoin, there is hope for protection against the "everything collapse." Holding hard assets, including bitcoin is no longer a speculative play. It is essential for peace of mind in tumultuous times.

With that, let's dive into the news.

NEWS

SEC Commissioner Slams... the SEC?

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce strongly criticized the SEC's lack of clarity on cryptocurrency and decentralized finance, revealing how the regulatory agency harms American innovators. 

Pierce's statement exposes a fault line in the US regulatory regime, and other politicians and committees have followed her lead and criticized SEC Chair Gary Gensler's approach to regulation. 

The implication: Regulators still don't understand the paradigm shift as individuals and institutions move away from fiat.

Where will Coinbase go?

Facing legal action from the SEC, Coinbase's warning of a potential relocation to the United Kingdom comes on the heels of regulators in the United States pushing firms out of American markets by creating an overwhelmingly burdensome regulatory environment.

Many global finance hubs are competing to create the best environment to attract these "ex-pat" digital asset businesses. Hong Kong, for example, once a headquarters to firms like Bitmex, is opening up after Zero-Covid policies and mainland China's regulatory hostility made the city unattractive for businesses.

In addition to Hong Kong, large firms are increasingly looking to relocate operations in Singapore, Dubai, Bermuda, and European commercial centers. 

The upside: There is an excellent bitcoin-only alternative for ex-Coinbase customers.

Its time to #StopThePresses 

The New York Times has received a torrent of well-deserved criticism since publishing a heavily biased article on bitcoin mining last week. 

However, the focus has shifted to the environmental impact of the newspaper's physical paper production. #StopThePresses launched a campaign claiming that the venerated NYT kills approximately 59 million trees annually and creates billions of CO2 from printing newspapers that most people throw away in the digital age. 

You can sign up here if you're tired of the Times' hypocrisy. 

BITCOIN ADOPTION CONTINUES

Bitcoin financial services firm Unchained Capital raises $60M Series B funding, and French bitcoin app Bitstack announces a $2.1M fundraising round.

Forbes reporters uncovered that the Kingdom of Bhutan's sovereign investment arm held millions of dollars worth of bitcoin, while some bitcoiners discussed the likely possibility that larger nations have similar purchasing plans.

Formally shuttered bitcoin marketplace OpenBazaar announced that it would soon reopen for business.

Strike announces its Send Globally feature is now available in Senegal, Benin, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, and Togo, using the bitcoin network to enable seamless cross-border payments.

New data shows over 53% of bitcoins haven't moved for more than two years, indicating the army of HODLers is growing. 💪

HOW BITCOIN WORKS

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

Bitcoin is evergreen

Today, short-term headlines and short-term thinking dominate macroeconomic commentary and inform "expert" investment perspectives.

What will the Fed do today? How will oil supply cuts affect energy portfolios? The list goes on, but it is always the same game.

Following expert "advice," investors scramble to allocate their latest prescription of stocks, bonds, and real estate, hoping to protect themselves from inflation or the tail end of a boom and bust cycle.

What if you could break from the neverending cycle that really only benefits the cantillionaires closest to the money printer?

Although commonly associated with the color orange, bitcoin is green. Evergreen actually. And not just because bitcoin mining is a boon to clean energy resource development.

Like a timeless book or fine artwork, bitcoin is the best form of money ever invented, regardless of what macro pundits screech about this week or next. 

Unlike forms of money before and after it, bitcoin's monetary qualities are unique:

• It is a secure, decentralized payment network, uncontrollable by politicians and governments. 

• Anyone with internet access can use bitcoin and exchange it with others, with no third party or intermediary.

• Its fixed supply prevents an issuing body, such as a company or central bank, from issuing more units and diluting the equity stake in the network enjoyed by bitcoin holders.

• Bitcoin can be divided into infinitesimal parts. Everyone is used to the base currency unit, like dollars, being divisible into hundredths, like cents. In bitcoin, every coin is divisible into 100,000,000 sub-units called "sats." If needed, the protocol could one day be updated to further divide it. 

• It's impossible to counterfeit bitcoin, because it's so easy to make software that can validate whether a bitcoin is real.

Make sure the amount you hold is consistent with your financial goals.

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

COIN CHECK

What is a Merkle root?

1. A popular root used in energy drinks

2. The hash of all the transaction hashes in a block

3. The hash of a single transaction in the block

4. A signature that verifies the authenticity of a block.

Check your answer at the end of the page.

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ANSWER

2. The hash of all the transaction hashes in a block

   A Merkle root is generated on the Bitcoin network by combining the hash values of transactions in pairs, resulting in a distinct hash that represents all the transactions in a block.

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