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Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum: Can we fix it?

Deluged by NFTs and memecoins, Bitcoin has suddenly become a worse version of Ethereum. There are conflicting ideas about how to fix it.

Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum: Can we fix it?

The launch of BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals NFTs on Bitcoin has transformed the No. 1 blockchain overnight into a clunkier version of Ethereum.

The core developers and miners who signed off on the network’s Taproot upgrade in November 2021 never envisaged this would be the result. Bitcoin now suffers from many of the same problems that have bedeviled Ethereum for years, including scammy memecoins and shitcoins, NFTs of monkey pictures hogging block space and skyrocketing transaction fees.

The network is even having to deal with incidences of miner extractable value (MEV), whereby miners profit by reordering pending transactions.

Mati Greenspan

“I’m kind of upset at myself for not realizing,” says Quantum Economics founder Mati Greenspan, a Bitcoiner since 2013.

“It took these guys starting to hype up JPEGs on Bitcoin until I was like: ‘Oh shit, what did we just do?’” He laughs ruefully.

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Libra-related Sui blockchain fixes critical bug that put ‘billions’ at risk

The vulnerability was located in a file that translates human-readable code into machine language for storage.

Bitcoin trader eyes CME gap with $24K BTC price dip target in play

Bitcoin (BTC) surfed $27,000 on May 16 as traders stayed buoyant about upside continuation.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

$24,000 BTC price still in play, says trader

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD still focusing on the $27,000 mark, having dipped to $26,870 after the daily close.

Still lacking direction, traders hoped the pair would either attempt to exit its narrow range or touch more significant levels up or down.

For popular trader Crypto Ed, potential targets included the “gap” in CME futures created at the weekend.

“It’s really on the lower timeframe where the action is now; higher timeframe is not really exciting,” he summarized in his latest YouTube update on the day.

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Optimism’s major ‘Bedrock’ upgrade set for June 6

The much-needed upgrade will provide a number of improvements across the network, and come at a time when competition in the layer 2 space has been heating up.

US Secret Service holds crypto, praises blockchain tech in Reddit AMA

In a crypto-themed AMA session on Reddit on May 15, the U.S. Secret Service answered a wide range of questions and revealed their little-known NFT collection.

This Bitcoin options strategy allows early bird traders to prepare for BTC’s next breakout

Bitcoin’s price broke below its 55-day resistance at $27,000 on May 12, down 12.3% in 30 days. But more importantly, it decoupled from the S&P 500 Index, which is basically flat from 30 days ago and 15% below its all-time high.

Bitcoin price in USD (right) vs. S&P 500 futures (left), 12-hour. Source: TradingView

As the chart indicates, for some reason, Bitcoin (BTC) investors believe that the favorable macroeconomic trends for risk markets were overshadowed by the increasing risk perception of the cryptocurrency sector.

Financial crisis could fuel Bitcoin’s price increase

For starters, there’s the impending United States government debt ceiling crisis, which, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, could cause an “economic and financial catastrophe." The increased risk of default should, in theory, be beneficial for scarce assets, as investors seek shelter from a weaker U.S. dollar.

The $5.6 trillion commercial real estate market in the U.S. is subject to additional risks due to high interest rates and troubled regional banks. Guggenheim Partners chief investment officer Anne Walsh stated, “We’re likely going into a real estate recession, but not across the entire real estate market."

There is also positive news on the cryptocurrency regulatory front, as the industry gathers additional support against the regulatory efforts of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus brief on May 9, defending the Coinbase exchange and accusing the SEC of deliberately creating a precarious and uncertain landscape.

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Bitcoin offers ‘good signs’ as analysts retain $40K BTC price target

Bitcoin saw five-day highs on May 15 as a rebound continued after the Wall Street open.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

$40,000 “still a magnet” for BTC price

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $27,666 on Bitstamp.

Bitcoin (BTC) on Bitstamp held strength on hourly timeframes after a weekly close just below the $27,000 mark.

With United States equities in a tight range on the day, crypto analysts looked for cues over where markets might go next.

For Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, the outlook was good.

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Make 500% from ChatGPT stock tips? Bard leans left, $100M AI memecoin: AI Eye

How to create a $100M memecoin with ChatGPT, $50K portfolio handed over to AI targeting 500% return, and will writers have a job in future?

Make 500% from ChatGPT stock tips? Bard leans left, $100M AI memecoin: AI Eye

Your guide to the exhiliarating and vaguely terrifying world of runaway AI development.

It’s been a hell of a couple of weeks for Melbourne digital artist Rhett Mankind, 46, who enlisted ChatGPT to create a $100 million market cap coin called Turbo, which has now inspired a Beeple artwork and saved a man’s life.

Mankind, who knows nothing about coding, gave ChatGPT a $69 budget and asked it to design a top 300 memecoin. It came up with the tokenomics, the name “TurboToad” and Mankind used Midjourney to create the logo. Thanks to interest sparked on social media, CoinGecko shows the token hit a $100M valuation and joined the Top 300. 

AI artwork for TurboToad. (Twitter)

There were a few hiccups: ChatGPT writes shitty smart contracts, and Mankind needed it to ask it for numerous rewrites based on error codes. The AI also didn’t warn Mankind to look out for the bots that bought 90% of the token supply when it launched.

That put an end to the TurboToad token and he had to crowdfund another $6669 to launch the new token Turbo, with NFT collector Pranksy helping by launching a liquidity pool on Uniswap. 

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Are ZK-proofs the answer to Bitcoin's Ordinal and BRC-20 problem?

Zero-knowledge proofs could be a viable means to address recent network congestion and high fees on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Sink or swim at $27K? 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin (BTC) is fighting for the bull trend as the new week begins with the market acting within a crucial zone.

After closing the weekly candle at just below $27,000, BTC/USD is attempting to cement support as a stubborn trading zone holds.

The stakes are already high, with last week seeing a flash dip below $26,000 and two-month lows for Bitcoin, making traders fearful of a larger bearish breakdown to come.

While this has not materialized, nerves remain on both shorter and longer timeframes.

Where is price action likely headed next? A relatively calm week of macro triggers means less chance of volatility from external sources.

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Samsung to research South Korea's CBDC for offline payments

The collaboration will have both parties researching the offline capabilities of CBDC issued by South Korea’s central bank.

Primordial NFT? Someone tried to sell a JPEG for BTC months before Bitcoin Pizza Day

The seller even got help from Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, though it's still up in the air whether the artist actually made the "sale."

Bitcoin price hits $27.2K, but new analysis warns more losses 'likely'

Bitcoin (BTC) sought to recover $27,000 into the May 14 weekly close as volatility picked up out of hours.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

BTC price gains over 7% in two days

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD spiking to $27,200 on Bitstamp.

Its highest in several days, the performance reflected gains of around 7.5% versus local lows from the week’s final Wall Street trading session.

“Strong movements on Bitcoin as it swept all the lows in recent moves and grinds back up to $27.2K,” an optimistic Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, reacted.

“Patience, as flipping $27.2K is the first serious trigger for continuation upwards. In that case, close to a temporary bottom & potentially new highs to $36-42K still possible.”

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4 alarming charts for Bitcoin bulls as $27K becomes formidable hurdle

Bitcoin (BTC) has rallied nearly 60% to around $27,000 in 2023 amid anticipations that the Federal Reserve would pause its quantitative tightening amid the U.S. banking crisis. Still, BTC price has failed to move beyond $30,000 decisively.

Buying exhaustion at this key psychological level led to a price correction toward $25,000 over the past week. Interestingly, the decline has strengthened Bitcoin's correlation with several traditional financial metrics.

But does this raise the risk of Bitcoin continuing its downtrend in Q2? Let's have a closer look.

U.S. dollar index's double bottom

The U.S. dollar index (DXY), which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of top foreign currencies, rose 1.4% to 102.70 in the week ending May 14. The rise marked the dollar's best week since September 2022.

Interestingly, the dollar's rise left behind a potential double bottom pattern, confirmed by two low points near a similar horizontal price level of around 100.75. A double bottom pattern is a bullish reversal setup, suggesting DXY could rise toward 105.85 in the next few months.

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Coinbase screws up, Florida bans CBDCs, and Ordinals face controversy: Hodler’s Digest, May 7-13

Top Stories This Week

Coinbase calls Pepe a ‘hate symbol,’ prompting calls to boycott the exchange

An email sent out to Coinbase customers describing the Pepe the Frog meme as a “hate symbol” co-opted by alt-right groups has drawn significant ire from the PEPE memecoin community this week. Two hours after the email was sent, the hashtag “#deletecoinbase” hit the trending sidebar on Twitter, with over 14,000 comments calling on users to boycott the exchange. Paul Grewal, the Coinbase’s chief legal officer, took to Twitter to respond to the outrage and apologized: “We screwed up and we are sorry.”

United State’s Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill restricting the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the state. The new law prohibits the use of a United States federal CBDC “as money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).” It also bans the use of CBDCs issued by foreign governments and calls on other states to use their commercial codes to institute similar prohibitions. DeSantis said he was spurred into action by White House studies of the new financial technology. The law takes effect on July 1.

Milady (LADYS), the self-organized memecoin based on the anime avatar NFT collection of the same name, surged by over 5,250% on May 11 after Elon Musk tweeted a meme using the imagery of a Milady NFT. The tweet also boosted the collection’s average sale price. “LADYS is a meme coin without any intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap,” said the token developers. “The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

Bitcoin Ordinals continue to inspire debate among the Bitcoin community. Soon after their introduction in January 2023, opponents of the technology began to raise concerns about its perceived flaws, citing slow speeds and rising transaction costs. Meanwhile, its supporters claim that the ordinals provide more opportunity, improve decentralization and ensure freedom of expression. The technology enables adding text, images and code on a satoshi — the smallest unit of Bitcoin.

To catch a scammer: Kraken builds fake crypto account to ‘bait’ fraudsters

Crypto exchange Kraken has provided a novel method for flagging malicious wallets — building a fake crypto environment to “scam bait” bad actors. Kraken created the “custom environment” for popular streamer Kitboga to frustrate a scammer posing as U.S. President Joe Biden. The punchline comes when Kitboga, who portrays an elderly person with a $450,000 balance in Bitcoin, infuriates the scammer after incorrectly typing his wallet address before sending over all of the funds.


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Coinbase screws up, Florida bans CBDCs, and Ordinals face controversy: Hodler’s Digest, May 7-13

Calls for a boycott of Coinbase over memecoin controversy, Florida’s ban on CBDCs, and the effects of Bitcoin Ordinals on the BTC network.

Ethereum's Beacon Chain is updated after finality issues

Ethereum core developers released patches for Prysm Labs and Teku clients in response to a Beacon Chain issue preventing block finalization.

Ordinals and BRC-20 will disappear in a matter of months, JAN3 CEO says

The hype around Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens is unsustainable and will fade away in a matter of months, according to JAN3 CEO Samson Mow.

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