Now you can read "Deconstruction." In this podcast, we discuss the main topics of the past week, summarizing the essence: the hidden motives of regulators, subtle market trends, and philosophical insights.
Miners Extract the Last Bitcoins
20 million bitcoins have already been mined, and it will take over a century to mine the remaining million.
While historically, the deflationary model and halvings have driven prices up, we now see traditional four-year cycles breaking down, with the actual breakeven point for mining, considering equipment costs, exceeding $100,000.
The most unexpected trend is the total shift of miners towards the artificial intelligence sector. Companies are selling off crypto reserves en masse to repurpose their farms for neural networks, despite the enormous cost differences: $10 million per megawatt for AI with its liquid cooling and backups versus $400,000 for cryptocurrencies.
For those seeking alternatives to energy-intensive farms on Earth, an unexpected solution is emerging: orbital mining. Launching satellites equipped with cheap ASIC chips will allow bitcoin mining using endless and free solar energy from space.
U.S. Treasury Advocates for Privacy
The U.S. Treasury has unexpectedly recognized crypto mixers as tools for protecting the constitutional right to privacy. However, behind this appealing phrasing in a 34-page report lies a bureaucratic trick. The regulator is reluctantly changing its rhetoric in light of lawsuits against Tornado Cash developers while simultaneously promoting an "innovative approach to AML/KYC" for custodians.
It is highly likely that authorities are preparing corporate solutions—so-called "licensed mixers"—to replace independent decentralized smart contracts. The average citizen may not notice the catch while anonymizing transactions, but outside the narrow permitted framework, their entire financial history will automatically be sent to intelligence agencies.
Essentially, we are witnessing a repeat of the Patriot Act scenario, where total surveillance of law-abiding users is subtly legalized under the guise of state protection.
No Charges Against Binance for Terrorism Financing
A lawsuit against Binance and Changpeng Zhao for terrorism financing has been dismissed. The plaintiffs were clearly trying to capitalize on last year's criminal fine of $4.3 billion against the exchange, but the court recognized the platform as merely an independent commercial intermediary.
This news shatters the myth that digital assets are ideal money for criminals. In reality, cryptocurrency remains a highly inconvenient tool for wrongdoers: public blockchains are transparent and closely monitored by analysts like Chainalysis.
Moreover, to purchase or cash out funds, terrorists inevitably face stringent KYC procedures on centralized gateway platforms, reducing the use of cryptocurrencies in illegal activities to negligible percentages compared to traditional banking systems and cash.
What’s Wrong with Schools?
As early as 1971, radical thinker Ivan Illich explained that traditional schools are instruments of discipline and submission, not educational institutions. The state system turns the vibrant creative process of learning into a one-way forced memorization for the sake of issuing a certificate, without which a person loses the right to practice their profession.
True intellectual freedom, according to Illich, lies in P2P education. Just as cryptocurrencies have excluded banks from value exchange, society must create networks for horizontal exchange of real skills—where math can be directly traded for Spanish lessons. This would permanently eliminate bureaucracy from the process of human intellectual development.
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