"Unlike most governments, Bhutan's BTC does not come from law enforcement asset seizures, but from bitcoin mining operations, which have ramped up dramatically since early 2023," the crypto intelligence firm explained. Crypto intelligence firm Arkham highlighted the Kingdom of Bhutan's bitcoin holdings on social media platform X last week. Bhutan is a small, landlocked kingdom located in the eastern Himalayas, bordered by China to the north and India to the south. The country currently has a population of less than 800,000 people.

We learned last year that Bhutan had been secretly mining bitcoin using its abundant hydroelectric resources since around 2019. The operation, which began when bitcoin was priced at approximately $5,000, aims to harness the country's vast renewable energy reserves to power mining rigs.

Hydroelectricity already accounts for 30% of Bhutan's GDP and powers nearly all of its 800,000 residents. The government claimed last year that mining profits are used to subsidize power and hardware costs. This revelation makes Bhutan one of the few countries globally to run a state-owned bitcoin mine, alongside El Salvador.

At over $800 million in Bitcoin holdings, the reserve accounts for nearly a third of Bhutan's 2022-calculated GDP.

Abstract credit: https://slashdot.org/story/433433

I wonder if there can be made a cryptocurrency that locksdown mining during winter and summer months in order to put less stress on grids around the world as well as be more climate friendly?

Криптовалюти Chainlink: основні характеристики та як купити в Україні

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/17752039

The making of the Hydra Doom experience.

I find it fascinating that Doom’s “determinism” (identical inputs will produce identical results in the gameplay) makes it possible to encode entire playstreams on-chain and have each of them compete against each other. Detractors of Cardano may accuse it of being relatively slow due to its high security on layer 1 compared to Solana, but layer 2’s like Hydra make that decision to prioritize determinism and statelessness look visionary when the roadmap is unfolded. Extended UTXO is paying off when it comes to parallelism.

Hats off to the Hydra team!

Ps. Yes. Technically I know it is not running Doom. Nonetheless this is a great demonstration of the power of the Hydra zk roll up tech.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/17544659

In this keynote from Rooted in Research: Pushing the Boundaries of Blockchain Technology in Tokyo, Charles Hoskinson reflects on 10 years of groundbreaking research in blockchain and distributed systems. He discusses key achievements, ongoing challenges, and the future direction of research in the industry. After his keynote, Charles answers questions from the audience.

Clore has initiated a buyback program, starting with a $30k purchase of Clore tokens.

Polygon's significant upgrade includes transforming its native token from MATIC to POL, aiming for improved scalability and security.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin addresses concerns over ETH transfer, emphasizing philanthropic motives.

Federal judge dismisses claims of market manipulation and insider trading

The strategic transformation aims to simplify DeFi participation and boost accessibility.