💸 BECOMING A CURRENCY

Morgan Stanley Says Bitcoin Is Close To Being A Currency: Report
By Shawn Amick

Morgan Stanley, one of the largest banks in the world, recently stated that bitcoin has reached an important milestone in order to be more widely used as a currency.

The report emphasizes that Strike, a fintech payment processor operating on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, integrating with BlackHawk, the largest payment processor, paves the way for bitcoin to cement itself as a medium of exchange.

Bitcoin has previously been thought of as a pristine collateral or store of value, and the hopes of becoming a medium of exchange were in its volatility decreasing as the price goes up. But now the consumer can spend their bitcoin, with nearly zero fee deduction, while the merchant receives U.S. dollars and benefits from lower payment processor fees.

Bitcoin Mining Around The World: Norway’s Outsized Presence Relative To Its Size
By Jaran Mellerud

After covering Georgia, a former Soviet Republic located at the intersection of eastern Europe and western Asia, this series of articles, dedicated to describing the bitcoin mining industry in various countries around the world, is back with its second chapter now doing a similar analysis on Norway, a Scandinavian country encompassed by mountains, glaciers and deep coastal fjords where the bitcoin mining industry is flourishing.

The author of this article shares his findings about the country, which is responsible for almost 1% of the global Bitcoin hash rate. He mentions how Norways is a green oasis of renewable energy, it has cheap electricity costs due to its hydroelectric power, its political stability related to power usage, the controversy of Bitcoin mining in the country, how Norwegian miners want to contribute to the energy sector and more.

📰 THE DAILY BITS

🏦 RULES NOT RULERS

Bitcoin And A World Of Rules Without Rulers
By Hermann Vivier

Even though most of us are well familiar with the concept of fairness and our conscious mind can, without indoctrination, identify clearly between right and wrong, human beings are by nature incapable of playing fair when it comes to money and power. 

We are a social species, programmed to survive and full of instincts that will force us to behave in certain ways so that we ensure our well-being. Fear and greed are probably the most primitive and most difficult emotions to control. For that reason, a person cannot be entitled to be the arbitrator of the financial game, because when it comes to money and power, we are unable to control our instincts. Rulers can’t stick to the rules and they end up ruling according to their own best interest.

Fortunately we now have a system of rules instead of rulers. Bitcoin is just a computer protocol designed to account for sending and receiving payments. Nothing more. It is fair by design, it is unalterable and immune to coercion and manipulation.

MEME OF THE DAY