Bans-R-Us
How many bans does it take to ban something?
I am pickled. China's recent crypto ban is the same ban of Sept 11, 2017; that was reiterated on Sept 15, 2021 via a notice posted on PBOC website but for some fashionable reason it made its appearance in general mainstream media few hours before the quarterly expiry. To be fair: PBOC might have back dated the entry on their website. Funnily enough, I could go backwards (Jim Blanco @blancoresearch did a tweet thread with evidence) - there was a china ban on bitcoin on Dec 6, 2013 too. As far as l have understood; holding crypto is not banned; fiat on/off-
ramps are and central counterparties are. Makes me wonder how this plays with SEC's narrative of having more central counterparties in crypto space who abide by SEC's rules and control the space. In weird manner China seems to be pushing people into greater decentralization; while US wishes for less!
NYDIG Bitcoin Net Zero paper
During April 2021 estimated $15bn bitcoin transfers settled per day. Aggregate value of outstanding units of bitcoin is ~$700bn. Worldwide estimated users of crypto range between 101 - 191 million; with 46 million being in the US; and potentially 71 million own bitcoin.
musings:
I found via statista.com (wanted to look for things that cost money; impacted health negatively and destroyed lives just for a very extreme end comparison with no ROI for its users).
There are 24.6 million users of cocaine worldwide with 5.5 million in the US. There are 200 million users of cannabis worldwide (according to
UN 94 million users in the US have admitted to using it at least once)
Bitcoin's greatest per-capita penetration is in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. 20 most crypto-active states, measured by usage per unit of population, are all what I would class as 3rd world or developing countries except the US and China
Bitcoin's absolute electricity consumption represents 0.04% of global energy consumption, 0.2% of global electricity generation and 0.1% of global carbon emissions.
Bitcoin mining's carbon emissions will increase and peak within the next decade. High price scenario (490k / BTC based off gold's average % of annual global GDP) shows emissions peaking at 0.9% of global carbon emissions.
Interesting Reads / Listens:
