AMC Entertainment said Monday it will start accepting bitcoin as payment for movie tickets and concessions if purchased online at all of its U.S. theaters. From a report: CEO Adam Aron said during an earnings call Monday that the movie theater chain will have the IT systems in place to take the cryptocurrency as payment by the end of 2021. The move marks a marriage of two highly speculative assets -- bitcoin, known for its wild volatility, and AMC, which became a meme stock star favored by retail traders on Reddit's infamous WallStreetBets forum.

The price of bitcoin swung drastically in recent weeks, last trading around $46,000 after falling below $30,000 last month. The recent rebound came amid optimism that a cryptocurrency compromise will be included as part of the bipartisan infrastructure package. The Senate ultimately failed to advance the deal.

While some bitcoin mining operations are now looking to nuclear power, the Associated Press reports, Bill Spence (and his company Stronghold Digital Mining) is creating crypto-mining hubs out of waste coal power plants. (Text-only version here): The plant he had bought was in trouble. It was competing with cheap natural gas on the power grid and losing — endangering the 35 jobs at Scrubgrass Generating Station along with the effort to clean up millions of tons of leaching coal waste left behind by mining companies over the course of decades. The plant couldn't just rely on the grid for revenue anymore, because the grid simply didn't need its power all that often. Mr. Spence started to look for other customers...

Already, some power generators — finding they can make more money supplying electricity to Bitcoin-mining operations than selling it to the grid — are shifting focus. Energy Harbor, which owns the Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant in Beaver County, announced earlier this month that it will supply nuclear power to a Bitcoin-mining data center in Ohio. Talen Energy, owner of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Luzerne County, is doing the same. The company said last month that it will develop a data center to mine digital currency that could use up to 300 megawatts, or 12% of the nuclear plant's capacity. Bitcoin miners, in turn, are hyper cognizant of power prices and availability. Some are taking mobile units into the oil fields, hooking up their machines to run on natural gas, a byproduct of oil product that would otherwise be flared...

Today, Scrubgrass, an 85-megawatt blue box with a black smokestack in the hills of Scrubgrass Township, looks much like it did when it first opened in 1993 — except for the trailers filled with Bitcoin miners in the back... [T]here are about 3,000 cryptocurrency miners packed into retrofitted shipping containers behind the power plant, most of them owned by Stronghold and some that belong to other mining companies that buy power from the plant. Another 5,000 machines are scheduled to arrive next month. According to documents filed with the SEC, Stronghold is planning to operate 57,000 miners by the end of next year. In 2020, when the power plant seldom ran, Stronghold made more money from its Bitcoin operations than by selling Scrubgrass's energy to the grid. During the first three months of this year, the trend reversed. It received almost $2 million from power sales and more than $1 million from its crypto datacenter...

Stronghold is buying another waste coal plant, Panther Creek Energy Facility in Carbon County, with plans to replicate its cryptomining data center there, and is eyeing a third.
The Associated Press notes that the waste-coal plants are powered by those thousands of acres of abandoned (and pollutant-emitting) coal piles left behind by earlier coal-powered plants, finally remediating them into reclaimable land. But with waste coal plants, there's always a trade-off.

"In 2019, the last year with available federal data, Scrubgrass emitted the equivalent of 371,000 tons of CO2 — the greenhouse gas footprint of 80,000 cars driving for a year."

Two competing amendments to the Senate's infrastructure bill may shape the future of cryptocurrency in the United States as senators fight over who must be subject to new tax reporting requirements. Motherboard reports: One proposal wants to exempt miners, hardware manufacturers, and developers, putting the focus on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and trading apps. But the Biden administration has thrown its weight behind another amendment that would grant exemption only to those behind so-called proof-of-work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but not other networks said to be more environmentally friendly because they don't consume as much electricity to validate transactions.

The infrastructure bill, which promises public spending on major projects like new roads and bridge repairs, wouldn't appear to have anything to do with cryptocurrency. But the Congress figured that "crypto brokers" could be squeezed for $28 billion in taxes over a decade to foot part of the bill. The proposal immediately caused a furor, with crypto influencers prompting their followers to call their senators and industry stakeholders applying pressure. The definition of brokers in the original bill -- any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person -- was so broad that it meant pretty much anyone that makes a cryptocurrency tick -- node operators, miners, validators, or services that stake digital assets -- would have to report to the I.R.S. the information on their "customers." Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are designed to be non-custodial and pseudonymous, so that requirement would be nearly impossible to satisfy for much of the industry, Olya Veramchuk, director of tax solutions at blockchain firm Lukka, told Motherboard.

On Wednesday, three senators -- Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), and Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) -- put forward an amendment to narrow the definition of a crypto broker down to those who are custodial and actually hold information on their customers, such as cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase or trading apps like Robinhood, granting exemption to everyone else. But an amendment proposed by Senators Rob Portman (R. Oh) and Mark Warner (D., Va) on Thursday, favored by the Biden administration, grants an exemption from the tax reporting obligation to only a segment of the crypto industry, resting on a major technical difference in blockchain design between proof-of-network and proof-of-stake. [...] The vote on rival amendments is expected to take place on Saturday. A proof-of-work model is when a network, such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin, requires miners to take care of the task of validating transactions using huge amounts of electricity for a reward in the form of newly-minted coins. "Others, like Polkadot and Cardano, require 'staking' (hence, proof-of-stake) -- which is a process of pledging funds to the network and getting semi-randomly called to validate transactions," notes Motherboard. "Validators are rewarded with newly-minted coins."

The U.S. government regularly holds auctions for its stockpile of bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and other cryptocurrencies it seizes and then holds in crypto wallets. "In fiscal year 2019, we had about $700,000 worth of crypto seizures. In 2020, it was up to $137 million. And so far in 2021, we're at $1.2 billion," said Jarod Koopman, director of the IRS' cybercrime unit. CNBC reports: As cybercrime picks up -- and the haul of digital tokens along with it -- government crypto coffers are expected to swell even further. Interviews with current and former federal agents and prosecutors suggest the U.S. has no plans to step back from its side hustle as a crypto broker. The crypto seizure and sale operation is growing so fast that the government just enlisted the help of the private sector to manage the storage and sales of its hoard of crypto tokens.
[...]
Once a case is closed and the crypto has been exchanged for fiat currency, the feds then divvy the spoils. The proceeds of the sale are typically deposited into one of two funds: The Treasury Forfeiture Fund or the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund. "The underlying investigative agency determines which fund the money goes to," said [Sharon Cohen Levin, who worked on the first Silk Road prosecution and spent 20 years as chief of the money laundering and asset forfeiture unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]. Koopman said the crypto traced and seized by his team accounts for roughly 60% to 70% of the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, making it the largest individual contributor.

Once placed into one of these two funds, the liquidated crypto can then be put toward a variety of line items. Congress, for example, can rescind the money and put that cash toward funding projects. "Agencies can put in requests to gain access to some of that money for funding of operations," said Koopman. "We're able to put in a request and say, "We're looking for additional licenses or additional gear,' and then that's reviewed by the Executive Office of Treasury." Some years, Koopman's team receives varying amounts based on the initiatives proposed. Other years, they get nothing because Congress will choose to rescind all the money out of the account.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: [Miami has] launched its own cryptocurrency, MiamiCoin, which claims to allow city citizens to earn Bitcoin "in their sleep." On Tuesday, Okcoin was the first crypto exchange to list MiamiCoin. The idea is to fill the city's coffers via speculation. People can mine the coin (which is less difficult and thus less energy intensive than mining Bitcoin or Ethereum), and revenue from the coin will be diverted to the city's treasury. As investors buy the coin, its value will ideally continue to go up, and that cash will be used to fund infrastructure projects or events in the city.

MiamiCoin, which is listed as $MIA on exchanges, is the product of CityCoins, a project that "gives communities the power to improve their cities, while providing crypto rewards to individual contributors and city governments alike." MiamiCoin is the first CityCoin to be released, though a cryptocurrency for San Francisco is on the way, too, according to the website. The project works hand-in-hand with the Miami government.

Bitcoin comes into all of this because the blockchain MiamiCoin runs on, Stacks, is built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. So, MiamiCoin miners are rewarded with small amounts of Bitcoin by inadvertently contributing to the Bitcoin blockchain. Mayor Francis Suarez, who previously invited persecuted Chinese Bitcoin miners to Miami after the country cracked down on the industry, said that the coin could earn the city "millions of dollars" in an interview last week. Suarez told Fox Business that the funds could be used to help "eliminate homelessness completely" and "increasing our police force." Despite emphatically not being Bitcoin and having complex layers of mechanics, Suarez said that MiamiCoin was "like a Bitcoin." Not all Bitcoiners agree with that sentiment. "Miami would be better off converting long term treasury holdings to Bitcoin. While MiamiCoin's novelty will likely generate some traction after its launch, I think it will fade away. All the while Bitcoin will continue to grow faster than the internet itself," said Brady Swenson, Head of Education at Swan Bitcoin, an app that automates Bitcoin purchases, and the host of podcasts Swan Signal Live and Citizen Bitcoin. "MiamiCoin will not benefit from Bitcoin's global network effect, nor accrue the corresponding exponential gains in purchasing power."

Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain network, is about to undergo a technical adjustment that will significantly alter the way transactions are processed, as well as reduce the supply of the ether token and sharply boost its price. The scheduled coding revamp will go live on Aug. 4. From a report: The upgrade known as Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 is similar, analysts said, to a bitcoin "halving" event in which periodic adjustments reduced the supply of bitcoin. Each halving helped propel bitcoin's price to higher records. While bitcoin is the preferred store of value in the digital ecosystem, Ethereum has emerged as the leading financial infrastructure, settling over $12 billion of daily transactions, according to a Grayscale report released in February this year.

Andrew Keys, managing partner at DARMA Capital, said ether's current price has yet to factor in the looming software upgrade. He estimates that the expected software adjustment next week, coupled with another upgrade in the first quarter of 2022, should "easily quintuple the price of ether" by next year. On Thursday, ether was up 0.6% at $2,312. EIP-1559 is a software upgrade that fundamentally changes the way transactions are processed on Ethereum by providing clear pricing on transaction fees in ether paid to miners to validate transactions and "burning" a small amount of those tokens. The burned tokens will be permanently taken out of circulation. In token burning, miners would typically send the tokens to specialized addresses that have unobtainable private keys. Without access to a private key, no one can use the tokens, putting them outside the circulating supply. By reducing the number of tokens, the currencies that remain in circulation become rarer and more valuable.

Amazon on Monday denied a media report saying the e-commerce giant was looking to accept bitcoin payments by the end of the year. Reuters reports: The report from London's City A.M. newspaper, citing an unnamed "insider," sent the world's biggest cryptocurrency up as much as 14.5% before it trimmed gains to last trade 6% higher at $37,684.04. "Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true," said a spokesperson from Amazon. "We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon." The company on July 22 posted a job opening for a digital currency and blockchain product lead. In a statement to Ars Technica, the Amazon spokesperson added: "We're inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon. We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A U.S. probe into Tether is homing in on whether executives behind the digital token committed bank fraud, a potential criminal case that would have broad implications for the cryptocurrency market. Tether's pivotal role in the crypto ecosystem is now well known because the token is widely used to trade Bitcoin. But the Justice Department investigation is focused on conduct that occurred years ago, when Tether was in its more nascent stages. Specifically, federal prosecutors are scrutinizing whether Tether concealed from banks that transactions were linked to crypto [...]. Criminal charges would mark one of the most significant developments in the U.S. government's crackdown on virtual currencies. That's because Tether is by far the most popular stablecoin -- tokens designed to be immune to wild price swings, making them ideal for buying and selling more volatile coins. The token's importance to the market is clear: Tethers in circulation are worth about $62 billion and they underpin more than half of all Bitcoin trades.

Federal prosecutors have been circling Tether since at least 2018. In recent months, they sent letters to individuals alerting them that they're targets of the investigation, one of the people said. The notices signal that a decision on whether to bring a case could be made soon, with senior Justice Department officials ultimately determining whether charges are warranted. A hallmark of Tether is that its creators have said each token is backed by one U.S. dollar, either through actual money or holdings that include commercial paper, corporate bonds and precious metals. That has triggered concerns that if lots of traders sold stable coins all at once, there could be a run on assets backstopping the tokens. Fitch Ratings has warned that such a scenario could destabilize short-term credit markets.

In the course of its years-long investigation, the Justice Department has examined whether traders used Tether tokens to illegally drive up Bitcoin during an epic rally for cryptocurrencies in 2017. While it's unclear whether Tether the company was a target of that earlier review, the current focus on bank fraud suggests prosecutors may have moved on from pursuing a case tied to market manipulation. [...] Tether has already drawn the ire of regulators. In February, Bitfinex and several Tether affiliates agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle claims from New York Attorney General Letitia James that the firms hid losses and lied that each token was supported by one U.S. dollar. The companies had no access to banking in 2017, making it impossible that they had reserves backing the tokens, James said. The firms settled without admitting or denying the allegations.

"Amazon is looking to add a digital currency and blockchain expert to its payments team," reports CNBC. According to a recent job posting, Amazon's payments acceptance and experience team is seeking to hire an "experienced product leader to develop Amazon's Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap."

"You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities," according to the job posting, which was previously reported by Insider... An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement: "We're inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon.

"We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.
UPDATE (7/26): While CNBC speculated the move meant that Amazon "could be taking a more serious look at cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin," Reuters reported the next day that Amazon had "denied a media report saying the e-commerce giant was looking to accept bitcoin payments by the end of the year."

But reports like CNBC's nonetheless caused a 17% spike in the price of Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg, which briefly boosted its price back above $40,000 (before dropping back down to $38,000...)

Payments services company Square will open a new business focused on creating an "open developer platform" to make it easier to provide non-custodial, decentralized financial services, CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday in a series of tweets. From a report: The still to-be-named division's "primary focus" would be bitcoin, he added. The initiative, which will be led by Mike Brock, would feature "open roadmap, open development and open source," Dorsey tweeted. Brock heads the company's strategic development group. The new division will differ from Square Crypto in that Square will provide direction as well as funding for its work, Dorsey tweeted. Square Crypto is working on the Lightning Development Kit.

Electric-car maker Tesla will most likely restart accepting bitcoin as payments, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said at a conference on Wednesday. From a report: Musk's comments come after Tesla said in May it would stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases. "Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin, it is most likely" Musk said at the B Word conference, where Square's Jack Dorsey also took part. Musk said he personally owned bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin, apart from bitcoin that Tesla and SpaceX owned. Musk added that neither he nor any of his companies are selling any bitcoin. "If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I pump but i don't dump. I would like to see bitcoin succeed," he added.

Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender. From a report: The proposals would make crypto-assets more traceable, the EU Commission said, and would help stop money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The new rules would also prohibit providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets. The proposals could take two years to become law. The Commission argued that crypto-asset transfers should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering rules as wire transfers. "Given that virtual assets transfers are subject to similar money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks as wire funds transfers... it therefore appears logical to use the same legislative instrument to address these common issues," the Commission wrote. While some crypto-asset service providers are already covered by anti-money-laundering rules, the new proposals would "extend these rules to the entire crypto-sector, obliging all service providers to conduct due diligence on their customers," the Commission explained. Under the proposals, a company transferring crypto-assets for a customer would be obliged to include their name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient.

Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender. The BBC reports: The proposals would make crypto-assets more traceable, the EU Commission said, and would help stop money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The new rules would also prohibit providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets. The Commission argued that crypto-asset transfers should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering rules as wire transfers. "Given that virtual assets transfers are subject to similar money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks as wire funds transfers... it therefore appears logical to use the same legislative instrument to address these common issues," the Commission wrote.

While some crypto-asset service providers are already covered by anti-money-laundering rules, the new proposals would "extend these rules to the entire crypto-sector, obliging all service providers to conduct due diligence on their customers," the Commission explained. Under the proposals, a company transferring crypto-assets for a customer would be obliged to include their name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient. To become law the proposals will need the agreement of member states and the European Parliament. The proposals could take two years to become law.

The price of bitcoin has come crashing below the $30,000 mark for the first time in a month. "At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at $29,694.34," writes Paul Lilly via HotHardware. "That's down from around $31,000 yesterday, and less than half of where Bitcoin peaked at in April of this year, when it topped $60,000." From the report: Will it go back up? Probably, but for Bitcoin investors, there are definitely reasons to be cautious, outside of the normal volatility associated with cryptocurrencies. For one, China is cracking down on cryptocurrency in general. As such, crypto miners recently dumped a bunch of used GeForce RTX 3060 cards on eBay for relatively cheap (compared to what they had been selling for), as well as ASIC hardware, the latter of which is what Bitcoin miners use these days. But it's not just China.

Malaysian police recently seized and then steamrolled 1,069 ASIC mining rigs after discovering that miners had illegally tapped into a power grid to steal electricity for their operations. Talk about sending a strong message. In addition, six people were arrested, jailed, and fined (but hey, at least they weren't steamrolled). Tighter regulations in various territories could affect Bitcoin's value, too. For example, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said lawmakers must "act quickly" to construct and adopt new rules on stablecoins. "Bringing together regulators will enable us to assess the potential benefits of stablecoins while mitigating risks they could pose to users, markets, or the financial system," Yellen said in a statement. "In light of the rapid growth in digital assets, it is important for the agencies to collaborate on the regulation of this sector and the development of any recommendations for new authorities." It's worth noting that other cryptocurrencies are down too. Dogecoin is down more than 5 percent to $0.16, while Ethereum dropped more than 3 percent to $1,755.99. Just over two months ago it was at nearly $3,900.

Malaysian authorities seized 1,069 bitcoin mining rigs, laid them out in a parking lot at police headquarters, and used a steamroller to crush them, as part of a joint operation between law enforcement in the city of Miri and electric utility Sarawak Energy. CNBC reports: Assistant Commissioner of Police Hakemal Hawari told CNBC the crackdown came after miners allegedly stole $2 million worth of electricity siphoned from Sarawak Energy power lines. A video of the event posted last week by local Sarawak news outlet Dayak Daily has since gone viral on social media.

Acting on a tip, authorities on the island of Borneo confiscated the rigs in six separate raids between February and April. In total, police destroyed about $1.26 million of mining equipment. Police opted to crush the mining gear rather than sell it, in accordance with a court order. Other countries, like China, have taken a different route, reportedly auctioning off seized rigs. Hawari said that electricity theft by bitcoin miners led to three houses burning down in the city. The Miri police chief told CNBC that there are no other active mining operations underway currently. The report notes that crypto mining is not illegal in Malaysia, although "there are stringent laws around power use."

"The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance estimates that Malaysia accounts for 3.44% of all the world's bitcoin miners, placing it in the top ten mining destinations on the planet."

"Well before China decided to kick out all of its bitcoin miners, they were already leaving in droves, and new data from Cambridge University shows they were likely headed to the United States," reports CNBC: The U.S. has fast become the new darling of the bitcoin mining world. It is the second-biggest mining destination on the planet, accounting for nearly 17% of all the world's bitcoin miners as of April 2021. That's a 151% increase from September 2020. "For the last 18 months, we've had a serious growth of mining infrastructure in the U.S.," said Darin Feinstein, founder of Blockcap and Core Scientific. "We've noticed a massive uptick in mining operations looking to relocate to North America, mostly in the U.S."

This dataset doesn't include the mass mining exodus out of China, which led to half the world's miners dropping offline, and experts tell CNBC that the U.S. share of the mining market is likely even bigger than the numbers indicate... "500,000 formerly Chinese miner rigs are looking for homes in the U.S," said Marathon Digital's Fred Thiel. "If they are deployed, it would mean North America would have closer to 40% of global hashrate by the end of 2022."

America's rising dominance is a simple case of luck meeting preparation. The U.S. has quietly been building up its hosting capacity for years... It also helps that the U.S. is also home to some of the cheapest sources of energy on the planet, many of which tend to be renewable. Because miners at scale compete in a low-margin industry, where their only variable cost is typically energy, they are incentivized to migrate to the world's cheapest sources of power.

Thiel expects most new miners relocating to North America to be powered by renewables, or gas that is offset by renewable energy credits. While Castle Island Ventures founding partner, Nic Carter, points out that U.S. mining isn't wholly renewable, he does say that miners here are much better about selecting renewables and buying offsets. "The migration is definitely a net positive overall," he said. "Hashrate moving to the U.S., Canada, and Russia will mean much lower carbon intensity."

"This week, a 22-year-old self-described Bitcoin millionaire introduced the Freedom Phone, a $499 device meant to be completely free from 'Big Tech's' censorship and influence," reports PC Magazine.

"But it turns out the same smartphone is actually from China, and probably just a cheap knock-off." The Freedom Phone comes from Erik Finman, who unveiled the device earlier this week. He claims the product has everything Trump supporters could dream of, including an "uncensorable" app store, preinstalled conservative-friendly apps including Parler and Rumble, and even its own anti-surveillance operating system called FreedomOS... However, The Daily Beast noticed the Freedom Phone looks strikingly similar to a budget smartphone device from a Chinese vendor called Umidigi. The device is called the Umidigi A9 pro, and you can actually buy it over on the Chinese e-commerce site AliExpress starting at $119. Finman later told The Daily Beast that the Freedom Phone was indeed sourced from Umidigi, a company that's based in Shenzhen, China...

An uncensorable app store opens the door for hackers and shady developers to circulate malware and data-collecting programs to users. We're also doubtful Freedom Phone has its own operating system if it can run apps such as Parler and Rumble, in addition to Signal, Telegram and Brave
The Daily Beast adds this anecdote: The Freedom Phone's "Freedom OS" operating system is based on Google's Android operating system, according to Finman. But during a livestream video promoting the phone, right-wing activist Anna Khait was confused by her fans' basic questions about the phone. "Is it an Android?" Khait said. "I'm not really sure. No, it's a Freedom Phone."
Gizmodo calls the phone's web site "radically vague on the details." There is no information about the phone's operating system, storage, camera, CPU, or RAM capabilities. It has a list of features, but there are no actual details about them. Instead, under each feature, there's merely a "Buy it now" button which redirects you to the site's shopping cart. The phone's hefty price, combined with the company's total lack of transparency, is ridiculous — essentially asking the buyer to cough up half a grand in exchange for, uh, something...!
But Gizmodo also shares a philosophical thought: Before we get into the specifics of why this device probably sucks, let me just say that the desire to have a phone that is dedicated to protecting your autonomy and privacy is a reasonable one — and should be encouraged. That said, I don't think the Freedom Phone provides that. Actually, aside from its overt partisan bent, it's impossible to tell what kind of device this is because Finman and his acolytes haven't provided any information about it...

The funny thing is, if Trump voters are looking for a way to get off the "Big Tech" grid, there's no need for them to buy this sketchy shit. There are actually entire subcultures within the phone industry dedicated to escaping the Android/iOS paradigm. You can wade into the de-Googled phone sector, for instance — where Android phones are sold that have ostensibly been refurbished to rid the devices of code that will "send your personal data" back to the tech giant. There's also the Linux-based Pinephone, which sells at a fraction of the Freedom Phone's cost (between $150 and $200), and is a favorite of those in the privacy community. All of these come with caveats, obviously, but the point is that there are much more transparent and affordable options than the Freedom Phone...

It'd be nice if Americans could actually come together around the issue of privacy since it's an area where — regardless of political party — we're all collectively getting screwed.

"Anthony Di Iorio, a co-founder of the Ethereum network, says he's done with the cryptocurrency world, partially because of personal safety concerns," reports Bloomberg, in a story shared by Slashdot reader tekram: Di Iorio, 48, has had a security team since 2017, with someone traveling with or meeting him wherever he goes. In coming weeks, he plans to sell Decentral Inc. [maker of Jaxx, a digital asset wallet], and refocus on philanthropy and other ventures not related to crypto. The Canadian expects to sever ties in time with other startups he is involved with, and doesn't plan on funding any more blockchain projects. "It's got a risk profile that I am not too enthused about," said Di Iorio, who declined to disclose his cryptocurrency holdings or net worth. "I don't feel necessarily safe in this space. If I was focused on larger problems, I think I'd be safer..."

He was also for a time chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange. In February 2018, Forbes estimated his net worth was as high as $1 billion. Ether's price has more than doubled since then.
Bloomberg points out that Di lorio's net worth was estimated in 2018 at $1 billion — and that since then Ether's price has more than doubled, with the token holding a total market capitalization around $225 billion (second only to bitcoin).

Bloomberg also notes that Di lorio is involved in Project Arrow, a company building a zero-emission self-driving car. Di Iorio plans to sell Decentral Inc for equity, not cryptocurrency, telling Bloomberg that "I want to diversify to not being a crypto guy, but being a guy tackling complex problems...

"I will incorporate crypto when needed, but a lot of times, it's not. It's really a small percentage of what the world needs."

The Guardian's UK/US site editor in the Asia Pacific timezone argues that China wants to undermine bitcoin because, behind the scenes, its reserve bank wants to set up its own digital currency — and then reboot the international financial system: The People's Bank of China aims to become the first major central bank to issue a central bank digital currency. While the PBOC's counterparts in the west have taken a more cautious approach, it has held trials in several major cities including Shenzhen, Chengdu, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The benefits of an e-currency are immense. As more and more transactions are made using a digital currency controlled centrally, the government gains more and more ability to monitor the economy and its people.

The rollout is also seen as part of Beijing's push to weaken the power of the U.S. dollar, and in turn that of the government in Washington... Alarm in western governments is such that the threat posed by the digital yuan, which could put China out of reach from international financial sanctions, for example, was discussed at last month's G7 meeting.
There's additional reasons for China's desire to replace bitcoin with its own currency, various experts tell the site. No central bank relishes the thought of a "parallel currency" — and there's also concerns about consumers being hurt by a lack of regulations, as well as the strain crypto-mining puts on the nation's electricity system. But the Guardian also adds that "The threat of an unregulated alternative monetary system emerging from blockchain technology is a clear and present danger to the Communist party, according to observers."

"Jim Cramer, a former hedge fund manager and CNN business expert, said the government in Beijing "believe it's a direct threat to the regime because... it is outside their control".

North America's largest crypto mine is six miles outside Rockdale, Texas, "a four-square-mile town that hosts a Walmart, one other grocery store, a handful of Mexican restaurants and a couple of pizza places," reports the Washington Post.

The miners took over an old Alcoa aluminum facility, creating a "fenced-off crypto compound" with more than 100,000 servers, stacked 20 feet high. "When the expansion is completed by the end of 2022, that number will have more than doubled," the Post reports, citing the company's CEO Chad Harris.

Texas has some of Ameria's cheapest energy prices. But what's really interesting is what happened last month when 94-degree temperatures strained the state's energy grid: Thanks to the way Texas power companies deal with large electricity customers like Whinstone, Harris's bitcoin mine...didn't suffer. Instead, the state's electricity operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), began to pay Whinstone — for having agreed to quit buying power amid heightened demand. That sort of arrangement has helped make the state one of the go-to locations for expanding crypto entrepreneurs the world over, despite its continued agonizing over power shortages. Indeed, Whinstone's new owners are undertaking a major expansion of its facility outside Rockdale, with the intention of doubling its capacity. When fully developed, the crypto mine here is expected to require 750 megawatts of power — enough to power more than 150,000 Texas homes during peak demand.

And it's not just Whinstone. More crypto farms want to move into the area as China, believed to be the nation with the most crypto miners, moves to restrict local bitcoin mining and trading by, among other limitations, ordering power companies not to sell them power. Shenzhen-based BIT Mining said in May that it plans to invest more than $25 million in a Texas data center, while Beijing-based server firm Bitmain is already modernizing the old aluminum plant across the street from Whinstone's Rockdale-area facility.

Rockdale's mayor, a bitcoin miner himself with a rack of computers in his home, says he's met with at least one other firm interested in locating here. Whinstone, which leases shelving on its campus to other crypto miners' servers, has been contacted by "several," the company's CEO said. It's not just happening near Rockdale. Peter Thiel-backed crypto mining firm Layer1 Technologies last year opened a plant near Pyote in West Texas (population 138 in the 2020 census). In February, Canada's Argo Blockchain announced plans to buy 320 acres of land in the same West Texas area within a year... "One good thing about crypto mining is it's adding flexibility to the system," said Peter Cramton, a former board member of ERCOT, the nonprofit that's charged with managing the state's wholesale energy market. "But the problem is it's consuming real resources, doing a function that has no value...."

Bitcoin mines of Whinstone's size may be capable of creating roughly 500 bitcoin per month, the company says. At today's bitcoin value of approximately $34,000, that's $17 million, helping to explain why Riot Blockchain, a publicly traded company, paid $80 million in May to acquire Whinstone.