@cryptocracy 9 September 2022 more from that month

Will the U.S. Ban Bitcoin Mining? President Joe Biden’s executive order on crypto regulation has the Office of Science and Technology (OST) saying **bitcoin mining should be banned**. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler says Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should be the **regulator for bitcoin**. *We’ve had clear signals before from Gensler that he believes bitcoin is a commodity. Ultimately, I think the CFTC will be the bitcoin regulator, but what about the OST? If those goons think they can regulate bitcoin out of existence, they’re as stupid as this looks. What will happen is miners will move to another country and the Bitcoin network will continue as it is now. Few people will stop using bitcoin and the network will continue to grow without providing the U.S. much economic benefit.* https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2022/09/08/limit-or-eliminate-biden-executive-order-triggers-shock-us-bitcoin-ban-proposal-after-radical-ethereum-upgrade-and-wild-crypto-price-swings/?sh=5ad04c8974af https://www.wsj.com/articles/secs-gensler-supports-commodities-regulator-having-bitcoin-oversight-11662641115 After the Merge, ether could **decouple from other crypto**. What the Merge could mean for **Layer-2 solutions**. https://cointelegraph.com/news/ether-price-could-decouple-from-other-crypto-post-merge-chainalysis https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-the-ethereum-merge-means-for-the-blockchain-s-layer-2-solutions Coinbase is **funding a lawsuit** against the Treasury Department for its sanctions against Tornado Cash. In a **blog post**, they say, “Sanctions should target bad actors. Not technology. *Reasonable voices have been saying this all along. But this isn’t the first time the federal government has targeted technology. The cypherpunks fought their own battle over code just before and after the advent of bitcoin. For some reason, federal authorities feel threatened by what they don’t understand. Maybe Coinbase can educate them.* In another bold move, Coinbase offers MakerDAO **1.5 percent interest** on USDC. *Coinbase would benefit from this with additional liquidity while MakerDAO could have more stability.* https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/08/coinbase-bankrolls-suit-against-treasury-department-following-tornado-cash-sanctions.html https://blog.coinbase.com/sanctions-should-target-bad-actors-not-technology-cb541ac6839a https://cryptonews.com/news/coinbase-offers-makerdao-15-interest-usdc-held-at-prime.htm With Binance’s help, Tether has **stretched its lead over USDC**. In the last few days, Binance has said it will **auto-convert customers’ USDC** and other stablecoins (but not Tether) into Binance’s own stablecoin BUSD. *Is it just me or is this really outrageous?* Interestingly, Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire sees it as **a positive**. https://decrypt.co/109209/tether-usdc-gap-16b-binance-stablecoins https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/e62f703604a94538a1f1bc803b2d579f https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/09/08/ceo-circle-comments-binances-new-move/ Queen Elizabeth II is now the subject of more than **40 new meme tokens**. *Long live the Queen!* https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-markets-see-flood-of-queen-elizabeth-memecoins-and-nfts Binance launches Ethereum staking product with **6% APY**. *I’m glad they didn’t promise something outrageous, like 200% APY.* Binance also supports a **tax burn on Terra Classic**. And customers who complete KYC on Binance will receive **soulbound tokens**. https://watcher.guru/news/binance-launches-ethereum-staking-with-a-6-apy https://coingape.com/breaking-binance-breaks-silence-on-tax-burn-for-terra-classic-lunc-and-ustc/ https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/09/08/binance-issues-soulbound-tokens-on-bnb-chain-for-kycd-users/ Blockchain developer activity has slipped **26 percent in three months**. https://cointelegraph.com/news/weekly-active-crypto-devs-drops-over-26-over-the-last-3-months Gensler says crypto investments are not **laundromat tokens**. https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20220908402/these-are-not-laundromat-tokens-sec-chief-sends-warning-to-crypto-industry Hive Blockchain is exploring **coins other than ETH** to mine in the wake of Ethereum’s move to proof-of-stake. *I suspect that Ethereum miners will all find other coins to mine, which will strengthen those blockchains that miners move to, but that doesn’t mean they’ll abandon Ethereum’s proof-of-stake blockchain. Many of those miners have accumulated a good bundle of ETH and they can still be powerhouse stakers on the blockchain.* https://cointelegraph.com/news/hive-blockchain-explores-new-mineable-coins-ahead-of-ethereum-merge Will SHIB **flip DOGE**? *Not that I care, really, but we can only hope.* https://u.today/here-is-when-shib-will-flip-doge-in-market-cap-top Aave DAO proposes to reward Aave community members with **$16.28 million**. Defiant interviews Aave CEO Stani Kulechov concerning a new **Web3 social platform** called Lens. *From what I’ve seen of Lens, it makes bold promises. I can hardly wait to take it for a test drive.* ***I highly encourage you to listen to the podcast.*** https://insidebitcoins.com/news/aave-dao-proposes-receiving-16-3m-to-reward-members-of-aave-companies https://thedefiant.io/eth-btc-nine-month-high Snoop Dogg’s son Champ Medici is **paving his own path** into Web3. https://www.culture3.xyz/posts/champ-medici

Apple Inc. manages to wiggle itself out of a **class action lawsuit** involving a fake crypto wallet. https://bitcoinist.com/apple-escaps-case-of-fake-crypto-wallet/ The U.S. has seized over **$30 million in crypto** from Axie Infinity hackers out of North Korea. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/us-seizes-30-mln-crypto-north-korea-linked-hackers-rcna46929 Interest in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) has gone up **200 percent** in two years. In the U.S., Republicans are pounding the table to **get the Fed’s sentiment** on a CBDC. *The Fed is acting like a teenage girl right now. She wants a career, but she also wants babies. Life is so confusing!* https://it-online.co.za/2022/09/09/central-bank-digital-currency-adoption-sees-200-jump/ https://cointelegraph.com/news/republican-lawmakers-call-for-answers-on-digital-dollar-from-fed-vice-chair ***Intermittent comment:*** *If the Fed issues a CBDC and the federal government outlaws bitcoin mining, we could end up in a world where the primary digital currency is a government-issued one. That would be the worst-case scenario. Best-case scenario: The U.S. fails to outlaw bitcoin mining, the Fed issues a privacy-focused CBDC, and the most popular 10 virtual currencies are all private cryptocurrencies. There is no time more than now that the citizens of the world should host a freedom rally.* Decentralization theater and the **myth of DeFi**. https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2022/decentralization-theater-and-the-myth-of-defi/ Unstoppable Domains and Brave are sponsoring a **website building contest**. The top prize is $15,000 in store credit. *Wow! $15,000 in store credit at Unstoppable Domains. Just think of how many NFT domain names you can buy with that.* https://support.unstoppabledomains.com/support/solutions/articles/48001221295-unstoppable-domains-x-brave-website-building-contest Quentin Tarantino, Miramax settle over **Pulp Fiction NFT auction**. https://variety.com/2022/film/news/quentin-tarantino-miramax-pulp-fiction-nft-settlement-1235365550/ Traditional investors may **not be fond of DAOs**. https://www.yahoo.com/video/why-traditional-investors-may-not-161847177.html The limits of **smart contract enforcement** on the blockchain. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/limits-smart-contract-enforcement-blockchain The future of work could be **in the metaverse**. Some metaversians are voluntarily **muzzling themselves** as Ford prepares to drive its way into the metaverse **with NFTs**. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/09/08/why-the-future-of-work-could-take-place-in-the-metaverse/?sh=20c5f8de3bcf https://gizmodo.com/muzzle-microphone-headset-mutalk-noise-isolating-ar-vr-1849511121 https://cointelegraph.com/news/ford-prepares-to-enter-the-metaverse-with-virtual-automobiles-and-nfts A few days ago, I posted a link to a Yahoo! article that pointed to Hive as one of the **top five Facebook killers**. Since then, several Hivers went on the warpath and challenged Yahoo! to issue a correction. Those Hivers include **Unkle Bonehead**, **Hive.io** (who made mention of the bogus article a **second time**), and **Acidyo**. Yahoo! **rewrote the article** removing the reference to Justin Sun launching Hive, but they didn’t issue a correction or notify readers that the article was revised post-publication. *I guess journalistic ethics and transparency aren’t on Yahoo!’s radar.* https://cryptocracy.substack.com/p/dormant-bitcoin-moves-to-new-wallet https://twitter.com/3speakvidshare/status/1566070485917601799 https://twitter.com/hiveblocks/status/1567557894974971904 https://twitter.com/hiveblocks/status/1567558247388692485 https://twitter.com/oAcido/status/1567508269228503048 https://news.yahoo.com/facebook-web-3-challengers-revolutionise-social-media-083518898.html An NFT game consultant says poor people can **play the part of virtual world NPCs** to entertain rich people. *Like what we need right now is a virtual form of slavery. Is there any depth to which human depravity will not fall?* https://decrypt.co/109203/nft-game-consultant-says-poor-people-could-be-npcs What happened at the world’s first **no-coiner conference**. *This is both sinister and a little bit funny. It’s also a good read.* https://decrypt.co/109218/inside-the-worlds-first-no-coiner-conference A former central banker says **El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment** looks like a government-sponsored digital currency. https://fortune.com/2022/09/08/el-salvadors-bitcoin-government-digital-currency/ *Snark and commentary in italics. Love in the air.* Cryptocracy is a decentralized newsletter published several times a week. I curate the latest news and crypto analysis from some of the brightest minds in crypto, and sometimes offer a little insightful and snarky commentary. Always fresh, always interesting, and always crypto. *First published at Cryptocracy. Not to be construed as financial advice. Do your own research.*