BT Daily News: Nigeria looking to legalize bitcoin usage and more
1. Nigeria looking to legalize bitcoin usage
A local Nigerian newspaper has reported that Babangida Ibrahim, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions of Nigeria, claimed the country will soon pass a law making the usage of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies legal. The bill would amend the 2007 Investments and Securities Act and would recognize bitcoin as legal capital for investment.Back in February of 2021, Nigeria effectively banned the usage of bitcoin with a letter prohibiting regulated financial businesses from “dealing” with cryptocurrencies. In the same year, Bitcoin Magazine reported Nigeria soaring to the largest volume of bitcoin peer-to-peer trading in the world, and Chainanalysis reports showed that Nigeria had greatly accelerated bitcoin adoption.
If the proposed regulation properly addresses the growing bitcoin usage within the country, it could be a major catalyst for the African continent’s most populated country.
Bitcoin has had a large presence in the country despite the current ban, including the construction of a Bitcoin village, Nigerian Bitcoiners participating in all sorts of development, philanthropic work from Bitcoin companies and mining being an active industry there.
2. Core Scientific’s lender offers $72 million bailout to embattled miner
Core Scientific’s lender, B Riley, has stated its intentions of loaning out $72 million to the embattled publicly traded miner. Core Scientific currently has an existing loan with B Riley totaling $42 million. The new $72 million loan would be “on favorable terms,” and aim to provide two years of runway before anticipating profitability from the company.In the lender’s released statement it described how, “We believe that there is a path forward and have been proactive in working through a solution, specifically by providing debt on a number of unencumbered assets.”
In addition to these, last week a lawsuit was filed by Kirby McInerne LLP on behalf of Core Scientific investors.
Despite this and statements by the mining firm that bankruptcy was not off the table, B Riley states that they believe “bankruptcy is not necessary at all.”
3. Russian Energy Companies Crack Down on Domestic Crypto Miners
Russian energy providers are hunting illegal crypto miners who are plying their trade from home, the government has said.Per Izvestia, Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Snikkars stated that some “home”-based miners have successfully changed the load profile of their electrical connections – allowing them to feed their rigs with more power.
Crypto mining regulation is still yet to be approved by the nation’s parliament, although lawmakers have stated that it could be voted in next week – paving the way for industrial mining to be legalized in early 2023.
The bill regulating the sector could also seek to criminalize unregistered crypto-mining efforts.
But some energy providers cannot wait any longer. Many have already asked the nation’s courts to help them prosecute individuals who use subsidized “home-rate” electricity to power crypto mining hardware.
4. Crypto Mining and Electric Vehicles Likely to Impact Future Energy Consumption
Electric vehicles (EVs) and cryptocurrencies are nothing short of evolution in their respective domains. Although both the entities are different from each in terms of their operations, customers being served and working mechanism, etc. But one thing that makes them common is their energy consumption. With the passing time, they both are increasing and so their usage of electricity is likely to grow—which is a concern.EV production and adoption prosper with the US Inflation Reduction Act like government policies. While use of bitcoin like crypto increases tends to increase in bitcoin mining—a heavily energy intensive process. Both result in an additional pressure given the demand given the fragile situation of the country’s electrical grid affected by closure of power plants, NERC added.
NERC reliability assessments manager, Mark Olser said that the newer uses of electricity could result in significant altering of the system’s nature, how it is going to be operational and what measures to take to make it able to provide the desired output.
The agency cited the data estimated by the California Energy Commission which suggests that the electrical load by 2030 given the plug in of EVs could see a rise of 5,500 megawatts of additional demand during midnights and 4,600 megawatts at around 10 am on weekdays. This shows a jump of 25% and 20% respectively in comparison to the currency levels.
5. How crypto projects can prepare for future success in 2023
This coming year will be a tipping point for crypto projects that are looking to position themselves well for the next wave of crypto growth.We predict that to excel under current market conditions, Web3 companies will need to focus on three core essentials:
- Focus to find product market fit
- Integrate for vertical strengths
- Prepare the infrastructure for growth