BT Daily News: BTC miners have this to look forward to amid mining difficulty reaching ATH

1. BTC miners have this to look forward to amid mining difficulty reaching ATH

In the latest fortnightly adjustment, mining difficulty was recorded at 32.05 trillion at the block height of 753,984 according to BTC.com.

Data analytics platform Glassnode has also provided an update on Bitcoin Hashrate. The share of BTC hashrate of Poolin has declined by over 12.4% to just 4.8% of the total. Analysts at Glassnode concur through this about the ability of miners to redirect hashrate in a “short timeframe”.

That being said, Galaxy Digital published their latest report on Bitcoin mining titled “2022 Mid-Year Bitcoin Mining Update.” The report addresses the current mining challenges and why enthusiasts should remain optimistic about the mining industry.

They provided support to the stressed grid by curtailing operations as demand for energy skyrocketed. This may lead to a drop in network difficulty soon. Next, we have the problem of power efficiency.

Immersion cooling allows for efficiency improvements in terms of j/TH. Companies can expect a 20-40% higher efficiency as compared to regular air-cooled machines. Well, policymakers are also laying emphasis to reduce the reliance on Chinese manufacturers for chip development.

2. BigCommerce launches bitcoin payments for over 60,000 ecommerce merchants

BigCommerce, a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce platform, has partnered with BitPay and CoinPayments enabling merchants to accept bitcoin and some cryptocurrencies.

BigCommerce, similar to Shopify, empowers businesses to launch their own ecommerce stores with a user-friendly setup and partner integrations. This business model supports over 60,000 merchants globally, and now each one of them can accept bitcoin as payment.

First, alternative payment methods open up merchants to a broader audience. Additionally, merchants will experience lower fees, thus reducing business operating costs. Furthermore, through the partners BigCommerce has chosen, the ecommerce platform enables merchants to control their wallets, thereby lessening the likelihood of false-chargebacks.

In conclusion, BigCommerce noted that its bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem is currently only supported by these two partners. However, the SaaS provider intends to expand integrations in the future.

3. The Ethereum 'Merge' has happened and marks a new era for greener cryptos and blockchain

The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has undergone a significant transformation that will change its technology to cut carbon emissions by more than 99.9 per cent, according to its platform Ethereum.

The transition known as "the Merge" has been finalised, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed on Thursday. It means its blockchain technology has been upgraded from the intensive energy-consuming model used by its rival Bitcoin.

The Merge name choice is because Ethereum is adopting the Beacon Chain PoS system but it is a bit deceptive as there is likely to be more of a split, creating the PoS chain and a PoW chain.

This fork is not the first time to happen in crypto history. Bitcoin too has seen splits after upgrades and has created Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash. For investors and the crypto start-up scene, Merge will not have that much of an impact, according to Eloisa Marchesoni, a tokenomics expert.

4. Dogecoin becomes second largest PoW cryptocurrency

Meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) is now officially the second largest proof-of-work (PoW) crypto in terms of market cap, following the Ethereum network's proof-of-stake upgrade on Sept. 15.

Meanwhile, the Dogecoin Foundation has been considering a transition of Dogecoin to a proof-of-stake after first hinting at the shift in Sept. 2021, which was put forward by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who is also an advisor for the Dogecoin Foundation.

In Dec. 2021, the Dogecoin Foundation released its “Dogecoin Trailmap” which proposed to build a Dogecoin “community staking” version that resembled PoS.

“Such a version would allow all Dogecoin users to stake their DOGE and get extra tokens for supporting the network,” the Dogecoin Foundation said. However, little progress has been made since then, as it still appears to be in “proposal” status according to the Dogecoin website.

5. How digital currency can help to crack the code on unemployment

Cryptocurrencies seem to have established itself as a form of investment, with its economic impact expected to be seen across different areas of national and global communities in the coming years. Among the many sectors where it’s believed will leave a mark, employment is predicted to be one of them. As per a previous research by Indeed, an employment website, job postings which are associated with terms such as cryptocurrency or blockchain have increased 621% since November, 2015, with a 1,065% growth in searches for jobs. “Reportedly, cryptocurrency jobs have increased by almost 15 times since 2019, which is a sign that organisations are looking for people with expertise in blockchain. Application developers, wealth managers, blockchain developers, technical product managers, among others, are some of the many roles which could see a rise in hiring. I believe people from various academic domains are looking for jobs in the cryptocurrency space, and this convergence of intelligence makes cryptocurrency an interesting place to work,” Avinash Shekhar, CEO, ZebPay, a cryptocurrency exchange, told FE Blockchain.

Insights from reports have stated that use of cryptocurrencies are expected to provide a decentralised and communal approach towards jobs creation over a centrally-controlled and profit-driven approach. According to a report by Linkedln, an online service provider, number of cryptocurrency job listings in the USA went up by 395% in 2022. Reportedly, technology companies such as Amazon, Meta, Twitter, among others, have opened cryptocurrency-oriented vacancies in 2022. “Usage of cryptocurrencies has the potential to benefit the Indian technological industry in terms of employment. It will also show that the interest factor of working professionals towards this space is high. Furthermore, jobs are being created for marketers, accountants, public policy specialists, and for traders,” Gaurav Dahake, co-founder and CEO, Bitbns, a cryptocurrency exchange, said.