Nonfungible Tidbits: This week in bitcoin, cryptocurrency and NFTs

Welcome to the primary version of Nonfungible Tidbits, the place we spotlight a few of the most fascinating issues that occurred this week in cryptocurrency, NFTs and associated realms. 

Actually the largest story this week was the price of bitcoin, which is not, um, doing properly. Meta, previously often known as Fb, is reportedly ending its stablecoin project. And final Friday, Twitter debuted a feature that enables subscribers to its paid Twitter Blue service to make use of an NFT as a profile image. Listed below are a number of different tales that caught our eyes this week.

SEC turns down one other proposal for a spot bitcoin ETF 

The US Securities and Change Fee said no to a proposal on Thursday that will’ve allowed shares of Constancy’s Smart Origin Bitcoin Belief to be listed and traded. The SEC cited concerns over investor protections and public curiosity for the choice. Traders have been capable of purchase shares of an ETF that tracks bitcoin futures contracts since final 12 months. However a spot bitcoin ETF would monitor the precise value of bitcoin, slightly than the value of bitcoin futures, and the SEC is not prepared for that fairly but. 

Texas Gov. Abbott thinks bitcoin mines will shore up the state’s energy grid

The primary factor bitcoin mining operations require is electrical energy — lots and lots of electricity. That is what drives the ongoing concern about Bitcoin’s impact on the environment. However there is a growing presence of bitcoin miners in Texas, and Gov. Abbot wants to use them to… assist reinforce the state’s energy grid? The thought right here is that mining operations use a lot power they are going to entice new funding in energy vegetation in Texas. Then, when demand for electrical energy is excessive, prefer it was throughout the winter storms last year, the bitcoin miners can flip off their operations to unlock electrical energy. We must always be aware that there’s presently no regulation in Texas that will require miners to do that. Possibly if the governor asks properly?

Miller Lite goals for Tremendous Bowl advertising in web land 

Bud Gentle is the large recreation’s official beer, so no Miller adverts are allowed on America’s most valued promoting slots of the 12 months. What is the subsequent neatest thing? Apparently it is a “metaverse bar.” Miller Lite is partnering with Decentraland, a platform that enables folks to purchase and promote digital plots of land. What’s a metaverse bar? After studying this Marketing Dive story, the idea sounds prefer it’s basically a online game the place you log in, and your avatar sits at a bar and buys NFTs. Very 2022.

The Ethereum Basis nixes ‘Eth2’ terminology 

The Ethereum Basis oversees the Ethereum blockchain, which is the blockchain of ether, the No. 2 cryptocurrency after bitcoin (by market cap). The blockchain, presently in its “Eth1” part, is scheduled for an improve later this year, which is meant to make it extra environment friendly, environmentally friendly and cheaper to conduct transactions on. Beforehand, the brand new model was to be often known as Eth2, however not anymore. Why? In response to an Ethereum Basis blog post, Eth1 will likely be often known as the “execution layer” and Eth2 will likely be often known as the “consensus layer.” It is a change in semantics, and the change displays that the execution and consensus layers are, slightly than two separate variations of Ethereum, each elements of the identical system. And that is good, proper? 

That is all of the tidbits we’ve got for now. Thanks for studying. We’ll be again subsequent week with loads extra to speak about. Within the meantime, try the So Money podcast that includes CNET’s Farnoosh Torabi.