DEAR ELON

An Open Letter On Bitcoin To Tesla And Elon Musk
By Bitcoin Magazine Policy Team

It has been almost a year since Tesla became an industry leader by adding bitcoin to its balance sheet. In addition, it began accepting it as payment alongside Microsoft, PayPal, Starbucks, Overstock and Twitch. Not long after, in May of the same year Elon shared a message which Bitcoiners would consider FUD:

"Tesla's mission is accelerating the interest of sustainable energy. We can't be the company that does that and also not do appropriate diligence on the energy usage of Bitcoin." - Elon Musk

The message came as a surprise, as there is available evidence demonstrating that bitcoin actually accelerates sustainable energy adoption. To approach this issue, Bitcoin Magazine Policy Team, conducted a thorough analysis by adding context answering questions such as:

• What is the delta in energy usage from bitcoin versus both fiat currency equivalent and gold?
• What type of energy is used?
• When is the energy used (given the duck curve of energy usage)?

THE BEST FOR BITCOIN

Why China’s Ban Was The Best Thing For Bitcoin In 2021
By Sadie Williamson

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) ruled in September 2021 that all crypto-related activities would be considered illegal. Many speculated the industry would suffer, hash rate would plummet along with price and that it would take a long time for it to recover. However, the ban instead demonstrated how resilient the industry is and the entrepreneurial spirit of the miners, adapting to change quickly and keeping the network working despite the inconvenience.

Since the ban was announced, bitcoin’s price and hash rate hit a new all time high, and while China despised the industry, other countries welcomed it. Several U.S. policy makers have embraced the asset class, the first BTC futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) launched in the U.S. shortly after China’s announcement and the United States became the world’s dominant mining hub.

THE DAILY BITS

MASSIVE GROWTH

Blockstream’s 2021 In Review: How Bitcoin’s Biggest Infrastructure Company Grew Last Year.

By Fernando Nikolic

Blockstream is a global leader in Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Their goal is to create products and services to form the foundations for the financial infrastructure of the future. Alongside Bitcoin, Blockstream had a successful 2021, closing $210 million as part of their series B financing on a valuation of $3.2 billion, officially reaching unicorn status. By focusing on their mission, 2021 was a great year of achievements on topics of extreme relevance for the Bitcoin network:

• Solving energy inefficiencies by focusing on alternative energy solutions and incentivising the creation of more zero-emission power infrastructures for Bitcoin Mining. Also, their new service, Blockstream Energy, is able to tap wasted energy to maximize energy production efficiency.
• Lightning network scaling and decentralisation. Their services allow easy access to the lightning network and simplify lightning apps development. 
• Liquid network. The platform of choice for companies and even nations (El Salvador) to build the financial layer of the bitcoin economy. 

MEME OF THE DAY