Jul 19, 2022
Crypto Mining Ban Will Hurt New York and Our Environment
A two-year moratorium on proof-of-work crypto mining in New York would have a stifling effect on the industry’s growth and drive it out of state, possibly exacerbating existing carbon emissions.
Instead of developing the industry, it appears that legislators are attempting to stamp it out. For all practical purposes, it is a permanent ban on this sort of mining in the state. Entrepreneurs and investors are unlikely to wait two years in the optimistic hope that lawmakers will change their minds down the road. As more states allow the crypto industry to flourish, it’d appear that New York is working hard to establish as many roadblocks to entry as possible.
Supporters of the bill claim that crypto mining projects, especially those employing the proof-of-work method, are polluting the environment and wasting energy at a time when costs are high. How to reduce emissions and bring energy prices under control is a good question to ask, but pushing crypto mining out of New York would be the wrong answer. Even if New York outlaws crypto mining, proof-of-work mining will not be immediately banned in the United States. Instead, these operations will relocate elsewhere, providing well-paying employment to residents of other states while allowing these initiatives to operate under less strict environmental conditions than they would in New York. This move would stymie New York’s crypto sector’s development and might result in increased carbon emissions and damage local communities that rely on it, as well as the economic stability around the industry.
New York has long been a source of innovation. The city must ask the crucial question, if the proposed ban would stifle innovation or enable sustainable growth. Misguided legislation might jeopardize progress and give New York’s preeminence to other cities, states, and countries.
DeFi: The Financial Foundation Bringing Fiat Currencies to Cryptocurrencies
The growing DeFi sector is confronted with a number of obstacles. The most serious is linking fiat currencies (such as USD) and cryptocurrency. How can DeFi enable a coexistence of both?
By integrating conventional currencies into decentralized financial solutions, DeFi may create a synergy of crypto and fiat. After all, fiat-based bank systems have long been the lifeblood of the global economy. Decentralized finance can bring the crypto and fiat worlds together by providing similar lending and banking services in both crypto and fiat currencies. Offering cash loans backed by cryptocurrencies is a fantastic approach to integrating old and new currency coexistence. Another method for DeFi projects to assist with the coexistence of crypto and fiat is by enabling fiat liquidity pools. A fiat liquidity provider lends out its currency assets to a lending pool, which utilizes them to provide additional people with loans.
Users can access needed services like lending and yield farming through DeFi networks, all of which may accommodate fiats. In lending, DeFi projects allow borrowers to obtain cash in fiat by leveraging crypto as a security. They provide a pool for investors to offer fiat liquidity by doing so. It’s clear that DeFi is a powerful new technology that can help more people get access to more money in a secure, liquid, and disruptive way.
‘Lawless’ Crypto Industry Needs Regulation, Says European Central Bank
To safeguard investors from the “Ponzi scheme” of cryptocurrencies, members of the European Central Bank (ECB) board have recommended greater government regulation of the emerging asset class.
The European Central Bank (ECB) officials have raised concerns about the industry’s rapid expansion. The European Union, like the United States, is still in its early stages of regulating digital assets. The market, however, remains vulnerable to adverse shocks and extreme pricing volatility. While the asset class’ volatility has not yet had an impact on financial stability, it is a volatile sector that regulators must monitor, according to ECB Vice President.
The European Central Bank has been studying the use case for a central bank digital currency in the midst of calls for greater regulation. A central bank digital currency could assist to preserve the independence of domestic payment systems while also enabling cross-border usage of a currency in a digital world.
Crypto Mortgages Let Homebuyers Keep Bitcoin, Put Down Nothing
The latest example of the growing role of digital currencies in the American real estate market is crypto mortgages, which are being used by both property purchasers and lenders to underwrite deals for real assets.
In Miami’s up-and-coming technology neighborhoods, new properties are accepting digital tokens for deposits. A Miami-based firm has introduced a new twist to home loans by allowing customers to use cryptocurrency as collateral rather than just paying for real estate with tokens, with no down payments required. It allows investors to keep their coins, avoiding capital gains taxes and potentially profiting from increases in the value of both the tokens and real estate. It also raises the risk level by relying on a volatile asset to finance expenditures at a time when the most rapid rise in borrowing costs since the 1970s has prompted a property market slowdown.
The firm is providing as much as $10 million in loans on houses and speeding up the closing procedure by digitizing it. The coins must be pledged at least equal to the value of the property, and they are transferred to a custodian for safekeeping. The business pays the seller in dollars funded by the firm. After that, borrowers can pay their monthly bills using crypto or traditional currency. If the value of the cryptocurrency-to-loan drops below 65 percent, the firm will demand that the borrower put up more crypto or cash to compensate for the volatility. If the asset value falls below 30%, the company liquidates the assets and stores them in fiat currency.
Museums Are Not History. They Are Embracing NFTs and The Metaverse
The museums are not immune to the changing cultural landscape. As interest in “closer-to-home” and “in-home” experiences grows, so does the demand for digital content. Museums must adapt in order to meet this growing demand.
Museums all over the world have been upping their digital and virtual content game for some time. NFTs, on the other hand, are more similar to cryptocurrency than the traditional art market, which poses a challenge for museums that do not have the in-house expertise to deal with them. NFTs are also seen as a youthful and volatile market in part because of their anonymity. In the Chinese market, museums employ a different approach to NFTs in the form of “digital collectibles.” They are sold for regular currency (not cryptocurrency) and are not resalable, making them less speculative and less risky than NFTs. Museum visits with avatars of well-known artists (dead or alive) as guides will be one of the most intriguing developments we’ll see in this area. These would make for more interesting in-home experiences by providing more detailed storytelling.
Some believe that the metaverse is the last frontier for museums to explore, combining all of these inventions into a single comprehensive digitally immersive experience. Virtual galleries in the metaverse will allow visitors to view and purchase NFTs, interact with artworks in new and innovative ways, and attend sponsored virtual tours, live events, exhibition debuts, and NFT stores.
Naturally, there is still a great deal of caution from the cultural sector about how to go into this area, but we are already witnessing some pioneers. However, with digital technologies continuously evolving at light speed, many of these advances are now available to museums to utilize. They must be utilized strategically to ensure that the physical collections, current audience engagement, and museum’s brand are enhanced and expanded upon rather than jeopardized.
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