#hashbased is a blockchain innovation newsletter provided by HashBased.com, an OKA innovation brand

Bitcoin energy consumption is comparable to a medium-sized developed country (~50-75 TWh) and there are doubts that it can be made more sustainable. Another issues related to bitcoin mining are CO2 emissions and generation of electronic waste. The waste is mainly from discarded ASICS, which can be used only for mining Bitcoin – most ASICS end up being incinerated when new models are on sale. In a recent article in Environmental Science and Technology researchers from Aalborg University describe how they “applied Life Cycle Assessment methodology to in-depth analysis of drivers of past and future environmental impacts of the Bitcoin mining network“. In general, energy production and its environmental impact vary widely across the world and when taking into account the geographical distribution of miners and the efficiency of the mining equipment Bitcoin’s energy consumption is much less then previously thought.

Worth reading

• Great write-up by Vanity Fair on Quadriga: Ponzi schemes, private yachts, and a missing $250 million in crypto: The strange tale of Quadriga
• Monetary Authority of Singapore issued on 21st November a consultation paper on bitcoin and Ether (“payment token”) to come under MAS regulatory remit and become underlying assets of derivative products, which could be traded by institutional investors on the city-state’s four approved exchanges.
• Rep. Sylvia Garcia and Rep. Lance Gooden introduce The managed stablecoins are securities act of 2019
• U.S. to strictly enforce anti-money laundering rules in cryptocurrencies
• Privacy coins: Breaking Mimblewimble’s Privacy Model by Ivan Bogatyy and Grin’s Daniel Lehnberg reply in Factual inaccuracies of “Breaking Mimblewimble’s Privacy Model”
• Storyline of Spencer Dinwiddie’s journey to securitize his NBA contract in the form of a digital token.