Alex de Vries, the founder of the Digiconomist, has given a damning assessment of the electricity consumed by Bitcoin (BTC) mining in an interview with British media outlet, The Telegraph. According to de Vries, a single Bitcoin transaction expends the same quantity of electricity needed to power a British household for 59 days, 780,650 Visa transactions, or 52,043 hours of video streaming on Youtube. The article asserts that the annual returns generated from Bitcoin mining are nearly $5.9 billion — with approximately 4 billion mining units competing for a share of the bounty worldwide. At the end of August 2019, …

Alex Liegl, CEO of Layer1 Technologies, a US-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company that recently announced its intention to repatriate 30% of Bitcoin’s hash power by 2022, has described Texas as offering miners the “cheapest power in the world, at scale.” Less than two weeks ago, Layer1 commenced mining operations at its facility in western Texas, bringing multiple 2.5-megawatt container rigs online. Texas is the largest producer of wind power in the United States, outproducing the second, third, and fourth-largest producers combined. If Texas were an independent nation, it would be the world’s fifth-largest generator of wind power worldwide. Despite the …

American lawmakers have reportedly introduced a bill aiming to put Facebook’s Libra under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Two Texas representatives, Sylvia Garcia and Lance Gooden, have proposed legislation that would put even more regulatory scrutiny on Facebook’s not-yet-launched Libra stablecoin and related projects, CNBC reports Nov. 21. The bipartisan team of the House Financial Services Committee introduced the bill today, speaking at a committee hearing on the role of big data in financial services. Libra is “clearly” a security under existing law, lawmaker claims In the new bill called the “Managed Stablecoins are Securities Act …

From the outside looking in, the United States seems to present a host of amazing financial opportunities. However, when it comes to launching cryptocurrency exchanges or altcoin trading platforms, these possibilities start to dwindle and fade quite rapidly. In this regard, over the past few years, the U.S. regulatory landscape has seemed so hostile toward the crypto industry that a number of prominent exchange operators have preferred not to serve U.S. citizens at all — a case in point being Bancor, a decentralized liquidity network, that recently decided to block American citizens from using its website to convert its tokens. …

Agricultural startup GrainChain backed by Medici Ventures, the blockchain venture arm of online retail giant Overstock, plans to unite the coffee industry of Honduras by delivering its blockchain platform to a network of local stakeholders. The firm has signed several agreements with the aim of bringing the entire coffee supply chain of Honduras together on its blockchain platform, according to the press release published on Sept. 24. One of the world’s biggest coffee producers By launching the initiative, GrainChain intends to facilitate multiple processes in the coffee supply chain of Honduras, where coffee has historically been one of the major …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a primary governmental regulator, has settled charges with digital assets company Bitqyck Inc. and its founders. Smart contracts and crypto mining? The SEC announced the development in a press release on Aug. 29. According to the announcement, Bruce Bise and Sam Mendez­ are the founders of Bitqyck — a company that provided security offerings for digital assets Bitqy and BitqyM in Dallas, Texas. The company claimed that Bitqy tokens gave investors fractional shares of company stock via a smart contract. Additionally, Bitqyck said that BitqyM tokens would give holders interest in a …

On Aug. 14, at least two American states introduced regulatory actions targeting the crypto space. First, Maryland’s attorney general announced that the state is participating in Operation Cryptosweep, a joint initiative of state and provincial securities regulators in the U.S. and Canada, wherein they launch probes into potentially fraudulent or noncompliant crypto investment programs. Then, the state of Nevada unveiled new requirements for crypto ATM owners, obliging them to obtain a transmission license. The first location granted by the license will cost business owners as much as $10,000, while every additional kiosk requires an extra $5,000 (however, bond requirements cannot …

Austin-based Antelope Water Management has announced that it is going to start using a blockchain platform developed by Data Gumbo. The announcement appeared in a press release on Aug. 15. Antelope Water Management is a company that develops sustainability-focused water services for oil and gas extractions, while Data Gumbo provides blockchain services for the oil and gas industry. According to the release, Data Gumbo’s blockchain network, GumboNet, will provide Antelope’s customers and vendors with data transparency, automatic contract executions and payments. Antelope CEO Dustin Brownlow remarked: “Data Gumbo is a game changer enabling us to provide customers, vendors and regulators …

Authorities in Texas have issued a cease and desist order against an alleged crypto scammer operating on Craigslist. According to an Aug. 7 announcement, the Texas State Securities Board (SSB) enforced an emergency action against New York-based purported investment provider Forex and Bitcoin Trader. The SSB states that this is the fourth such action since the regulator started a second investigative sweep of suspect fraudulent crypto offerings in late June. Purported investment returns of 900% According to the Emergency Cease and Desist Order, Forex and Bitcoin Trader was advertising its investment scheme on Craigslist Dallas, promising a 900% return in …

The government transportation department in the city of Austin, Texas partnered with nonprofit Iota Foundation to develop a more interoperable transportation ecosystem. The Austin Transportation Twitter account reported on the partnership on April 25. The tweet contained a link to an event — which took place on April 29 — featuring Dominik Schiener, co-founder of the Iota Foundation, and local authority holders delineating the scope of the partnership. During the meeting, the speakers describe their visions of a system in which every transit system can interact with the same payment app and a single digital identity. The speakers also suggest …

An official notice from Texas State Securities Board, dated April 9, shows that the regulator has issued an emergency cease and desist order against cryptocurrency and foreign currency trading platform FxBitGlobe. According to the order, the firm, which markets itself as an investment company, reportedly published forged government documents, used a fake address and falsely claimed to be a registered broker-dealer. The document points out that the service offers multiple investment plan tiers — with the highest tier accepting $50,000 or more — payable in fiat money and cryptocurrency. The investment tiers allegedly grant investors access to various “service plans,” …

The former CEO of reported cryptocurrency scam AriseBank has pleaded guilty to defrauding victims of over $4.2 million, Texas-based daily news outlet Dallas News reported March 21. Jared Rice, whom the FBI arrested over securities and wire fraud in November last year, confessed to his activities, according to an announcement by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Erin Nealy Cox. Rice had allegedly falsely claimed that AriseBank could offer customers “FDIC-insured accounts and traditional banking services, including Visa-brand credit and debit cards, in addition to cryptocurrency services.” The announcement, seen by Dallas News, reportedly shows that …