Ethereum and Bitcoin have shared the same market capacity for the previous two months. The current pandemic scenario, inflation, and potential fluctuations, on the other hand, have been a source of concern for investors.

With all of these significant issues, investors have been concerned and unsure whether to put all of their money into Trading App or Ethereum. Both Ethereum and bitcoin have their own value and individuality regarding the potential rewards.

However, is Ethereum on the verge of overtaking bitcoin as the most popular cryptocurrency? Read this article.

Significant Rise in Ethereum

The last time we checked, the value of Ethereum was $371 billion dollars, whereas the value of bitcoin was $789 billion dollars. This means that Ethereum is over 113 percent behind bitcoin in terms of price value. In order to overtake Bitcoin, Ethereum will have to increase its pricing value significantly in the following months, assuming that bitcoin’s value remains unchanged. Only in this fashion will Ethereum be able to overtake bitcoin.

This development may appear nearly unachievable, yet in 2022, Ethereum made significant progress toward making it possible.

In comparison to bitcoin, Ethereum features a programmable blockchain, which allows it to attract the attention of the developer community. These developers are responsible for the creation of non-fungible tokens, decentralized apps, and decentralized finance. The token marketplace is also expanding, as the number of dApps (decentralized apps) on the Ethereum platform has now surpassed 3000.

More utilization comes with convenience, which dApps provide. As the number of dApps users grows, the number of Ethereum users and the demand for Ethereum tokens increases. The developers are receiving more attention, which means that introducing applications is more likely.

Ethereum 2.0, released in 2022, will have more advanced and extensive features. This proof-of-stake consensus process will give the market better scalability, security, and environmental benefits. The improvement will completely transform the transaction process, increasing it from 30 seconds to 100,000 transactions per second.

The existing Ethereum mining method is similar to that of bitcoin, which uses blockchain technology to create a decentralized network where miners solve mathematical problems and pay with crypto for each problem solved. The solved block is added to the blockchain. This procedure consumes a lot of electricity and computational power, and it also lowers scalability and raises transaction fees. If only Ethereum 2.0 had been released by now, it would have already surpassed bitcoin as the most valuable cryptocurrency.

Will Ethereum Overtake Bitcoin in 2022?

The position is a little complicated and risky for Ethereum since the crypto must not only double its pricing worth in 2022, but it must also hope that bitcoin’s price value remains consistent during the year.

Bitcoin is highly volatile, but it has delivered more positive returns to its holders for the previous 5 years or more, with a claimed return of over 4700 percent. Given the increase in demand over the last few years and the increasing number of people interested in purchasing it, it’s practically difficult to believe it will remain steady at its current price. That’s why, despite the fact, it doesn’t appear that Ethereum will be able to overtake bitcoin.

In addition, the advent of Cardano and Solana in the smart-contract blockchain category has increased Ethereum’s competitiveness. Both of the freshly released cryptocurrencies are attempting to learn about Ethereum’s flaws and address them in their respective cryptos. One of the primary flaws that Cardona and Solana are examining is transaction speed and fees. Furthermore, both cryptocurrencies have seen more significant gains in the last 12 months than Ethereum.

It’s unlikely that Ethereum will replace bitcoin this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s not profitable or worth investing in.

Is it Time to Invest in Ethereum?

Visit the official website to discover more about cryptocurrencies and the best moment to buy in Ethereum. According to data and expert predictions, there are also numerous valuable growing cryptocurrencies on the market. However, Ethereum cannot surpass bitcoin’s original value and outperform it.

Ethereum is undoubtedly a valuable cryptocurrency; however, if you are purchasing it with the expectation that it will overtake bitcoin in 2022, this is quite doubtful.

It’s 2022 and digital apes have taken over the internet. Who knew that 2D monkeys smoking cigars would carry the kind of thumb-stopping power that content creators and brands dream of? Or that pixelated punks in cool kid’s hats would break Twitter because their creator turned down a multi-million-dollar sale offer?

Unique art pieces and their equally unique creators are getting their moment and we couldn’t be more excited. You’ve probably guessed what we’re talking about: Non-Fungible Tokens, otherwise known as NFTs. These blockchain-based tokens are attached to tangible or intangible works and are non-fungible, meaning unique. They cannot be copied, replaced, or reproduced and are therefore used to price digital assets.

NFTs do sound interesting, but most of us have no clue how to use NFTs to start earning a passive income. Don’t let the thoughts deter you. NFTs sound a lot more complicated than they really are, and once you sink your hooks into the ecosystem, you can set up a passive cash flow pretty quickly. Before we get into the various methods of how to earn your passive income, let’s take a deeper look at NFTs and the current state of the market.

NFTs – A Brief Overview

We’ve already defined NFTs as unique tokens that are used to buy and sell digital assets, but what exactly are these assets? Essentially, anything can be made into an NFT. We’re talking digital art, 2D and 3D animations, sports highlights, Tweets, Instagram Reels, and a lot more. One of the rarest and best-selling NFTs last year was Pantone colors. Imagine paying over $100,000 to purchase a solid color block. And yet, people do.

Can NFTs Be Copied?

One of the major questions people have when talking about NFTs is about duplication. If you think about it, a digital art piece that’s online can easily be copied and downloaded for free. For example, when Nyan Cat was sold as an NFT for about $590,000, a lot of eyebrows were raised because the asset had already been saved and passed around for years. How did a viral video go from being available everywhere for free to become one of the highest valued NFTs in history?

The answer isn’t simple but it is intuitive. Consider this: if you went to the Louvre and took a picture of the Mona Lisa, would the picture be as valuable as the real thing? You already know the answer to that question. Owning the Mona Lisa and owning a picture of it are vastly different because, in the former, you’d be recognized as the legal owner versus the latter, where you’d be known for having a cheap imitation.

It’s pretty similar with NFTs. Owning a copy of Nyan Cat isn’t the same as owning the real thing simply because the owner has the NFT. And since the token is encrypted into the blockchain for the NFT, there can only be one owner. NFTs don’t currently have concrete laws that back them up, but this is also in the works.

How Can You Earn Passive Income with NFTs?

Here are a few passive income ideas through NFTs:

Royalty Fees

This is one of the best ways to keep earning through NFTs. Since NFTs are unique codes, they allow creators to set their own terms depending on their earning requirements. This means that once a creator sells his NFT, he can continue to receive royalties from it. For example, if a creator sets his royalty percentage to 15, he will receive 15% of the sale price whenever the NFT is sold onwards.

The best part about this process is that it’s regulated by machines. This means creators don’t need to worry about getting their royalty payments because the whole system is governed by smart contracts. So, all you have to do is get to work on creating and minting your first NFT!

Staking

Think of NFTs as ownable entities and the people who own them as stakeholders. Staking is the process that allows you to lock or seal your NFT into a DeFi (Decentralized Finance) smart contract to ensure it keeps generating money.

Staking allows buyers to keep interests in their NFTs and generate a substantial yield every so often. Owning a staking token means you also get to reinvest in different protocols, much like in a corporation. You can earn staking tokens through different platforms, although some of them may require you to purchase NFTs from them first.

Put Your NFTs on Rent

Another great way to earn passive income from your NFTs is to rent them out. This is another process that’s regulated through smart contracts and is therefore safe to participate in. All you have to do is lease your NFT on terms that suit you. You have full freedom to set the duration and rate of the agreement.

This is particularly lucrative for assets like digital trading cards or NFTs that allow you to attend high-profile and exclusive events. As a renter, you can get access to privileges you wouldn’t normally have without shelling out millions of dollars.

Are NFTs Worth It?

Collins Dictionary called ‘NFT’ the word of the year for 2021. All in all, it’s a good time to invest in or create NFTs for passive and active income. The market is open for early adopters because, despite their virality, NFTs hold endless untapped potential. They are currently minted using Ethereum and gas fees are relatively low. These may go up once more people start investing. In a nutshell, considering the popularity of NFTs, it seems a wise choice to mint or invest in NFTs as soon as possible so you can set up a reliable stream of passive income right away!

The global interest in cryptocurrencies, the whooping profits, and the expected rewarding future have made crypto a trending topic everywhere. Today, investors are investing millions of dollars into the crypto market and the investment scale is just getting bigger and bigger.

However, there are investors too that are concerned with the future of crypto considering the China crackdown, unpredictable prices, regulations, and similar other factors. As a new investor, if you are confused about whether to invest in the crypto market or penny stocks, then follow up this blog to have a detailed comparison of both.

The comparison will try to assess which asset class can provide a better return on investment, keeping in mind the risk-to-reward ratio involved in both. Bitiq app is the perfect platform for anyone looking to trade bitcoins in a safe and secure environment. With its user-friendly interface and variety of features, Bitiq app makes it easy for traders of all experience levels to get started.

A Starter’s Guide to the Crypto-Market

Investing in the crypto market comes with its fair share of technicalities that must be understood before making an investment. Often while researching any cryptocurrency, the fundamentals that you will be looking at won’t probably be easily comprehensible at the start. Words like “second-layer solution”, “side-chain”, “Proof-of-stake”, and similar others will be the selling point for most coins, confusing the average retail investor. However, it is important to develop a solid understanding of the underlying technology, as it is easy to lose money on a cryptocurrency that might have a good marketing team that promotes how they will “revolutionize finance”, but the underlying fundamentals are weak.

Taking Note of Market Capitalization

For a new retail investor coming into the cryptocurrency market, it is also important to stay in projects that have a relatively high market cap. This is because while a newcomer might gain a high reward by investing in a low market cap coin at the start, he/she can also lose all of the principal investment on a low market cap project. This is why it’s better to earn a decent amount of profit on your principal investment on a high market-cap cryptocurrency and then use those profits to diversify into low cap coins. This approach might take some time to reward you, but it is also a safer way to make money in the cryptocurrency market. Using platforms like the Eralmonum App and other trading sites can give you an advantage when venturing into the crypto market.

Pros and Cons of Investing in the Crypto Market

Below, we have listed the pros and cons of the cryptocurrency market and how your investment can be affected positively and negatively as a result.

Pros of the Crypto Market

• High Reward: The primary factor that draws investors towards the crypto market are the high rewards involved. To compare, Bitcoin has remained the best performing asset of the last decade when compared with other asset classes, such as stocks, gold, silver, etc. Investors have enjoyed gains ten times more than the NASDAQ 100 over the long term.
• Security: Another core philosophy upon which the crypto market was built is security. If your funds are invested in crypto, it is very next to impossible for the technology to get hacked or for any government to seize your funds due to the encryption involved with blockchain technology.
• Utility: Many major cryptocurrencies hold a promise of utility that can create major value for the world once it’s fully achieved. Compared that with penny stocks, the likelihood of long-term value creation is higher in crypto. Thus utility is another major factor why investors can achieve lucrative profits in the crypto market.

Cons of the Crypto Market

• Volatility: For some, the volatility might present an opportunity. But for most who wish to invest in the cryptocurrency market, volatility has always remained a major issue. This is because it is not uncommon to make an investment in crypto and lose 50% of its value within a month, thus causing the investment to get stuck until it reaches breakeven again.
• Altcoins follow BTC: Almost all altcoins gain or lose their value according to Bitcoin. This makes it an issue for investors putting money in altcoins, as Bitcoin has a major influence on them. Thus, all investments in crypto have to be made while considering how Bitcoin might perform in the future.
• No Government Oversight: While zero government intervention was a core philosophy upon which the cryptocurrency market was established, it does have major drawbacks as well. Major rug pulls, pump and dumps, and other forms of market manipulation are very common in crypto. Due to the lack of government oversight, the investor has no one to turn to in case of becoming the victim of any such events.

A Starter’s Guide to Penny Stocks

Commonly in the larger stock market, any stock that has a price less than $1 is typically referred to as a “penny stock”. While some even consider $3 or $4 stocks to be penny stocks. A good way to categorize any share as a penny stock is by classifying any company with a market cap of less than $250 million.

For a new investor looking towards penny stocks, it is important to know that this is a market of its own where investors with a very specific mindset come to trade. The market is typically known to be volatile, as many companies fail that are listed in the “pink sheets”. This is why any investor looking to invest here needs to perform thorough due diligence into the company’s financials.

Pros and Cons of Investing in Penny Stocks

More can be understood by considering the pros and cons attached to penny stocks as listed below.

Pros of Penny Stocks

• High Reward: The primary reason anyone invests in penny stocks is due to the high rewards involved. Typically, getting a 50-100% return on investment in a very short period of time is possible with penny stocks. It is very common for share prices to move to $2 from $1.
• Low Capital Required: As the share price is small, the investor requires less capital to pick up more stocks of the company. Since with less capital, investors can get a high return on investment, penny stocks have historically attracted a lot of retail investors.

Cons of Penny Stocks

• Risk of Default: Since the companies listed as penny stocks are usually very small, it is fairly common for many to default and shut down completely. In such a case, investors have to bear the significant financial loss.
• Low Volume/Lack of liquidity: Because most individual penny stocks do not have a lot of buyers and sellers, the investor can possibly get trapped with shares that no one else wants to purchase in the future.
• Market Manipulation/Frauds: Many market movers are aware of major retail activity happening in the penny stock market. This is why investors can become victims of fraud or market manipulation, as the share price can be more easily manipulated to low volume/small market cap.

Final Verdict: Crypto or Penny Stocks?

Both the crypto market and penny stocks promise a common outcome: high rewards for the right investments. However, both come with their own forms of risks/worst-case scenarios. According to our opinion, cryptos hold a fundamental advantage over penny stocks, i.e., cryptocurrencies are still building towards a final product that has not been widely adopted. In comparison, most businesses that are penny stocks are unlikely to rate highly in the value-creation department.

Investors who invest in the crypto market have a higher likelihood of getting high rewards if the project adds major value to the world. This is why large institutions are more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies in the future than penny stocks. Thus, given the risk profile for both options, the crypto market holds a more promising long-term future for investors, despite the volatile price action.

Last week, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency hack ever took $323 million from Wormhole, a blockchain bridge. (A blockchain bridge does exactly what it says: it allows users to transfer cryptocurrency from one blockchain to another.) While Wormhole owner Jump Crypto compensated the victims of the breach within hours, many doubts persisted.

Although the event resulted in exploitation and financial losses for the firm that distributed the software, investor monies have been returned. Why was the hack feasible? Who was the perpetrator? And how did Jump Crypto come up with $323 million in cash to make things right? Let’s get started.

What’s Wormhole?

Wormhole is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows users to exchange Solana for other cryptocurrencies directly on decentralized apps (dApps) running on the Ethereum blockchain. Solana and other leading decentralized finance (DeFi) networks use Wormhole as a communication bridge. Existing projects, platforms, and communities may use Solana’s fast speed and cheap cost to transport tokenized assets smoothly between blockchains.

Jump Crypto

Many users were perplexed as to how Jump was able to come up with that much cash so quickly. Jump Crypto is a branch of a decades-old trading business that has just made a huge push into cryptocurrency, employing roughly 140 employees in the process. It’s unclear how it generates all of its money, but completing crypto transactions made by Robinhood members appears to be a big contributor, a right it paid Robinhood $247 million for in the first nine months of last year.

What Happened

A software error allowed an anonymous hacker to mint 120,000 wrapped ETH on the Solana network without posting the requisite collateral on Ethereum, resulting in a $323 million loss. Wormhole halted all token transfers on its bridges shortly after discovering the breach to begin repairing the vulnerability, which took roughly 16 hours. Jump has restored the stolen ETH by Thursday AM, assuring that no user money had been harmed.

The attacker falsified a transaction’s signature in Wormhole, then presented the invalid transaction as a legal one to the Solana network, allowing for the fraudulent minting of a significant amount of ETH tokens on the Solana network. They subsequently moved many of the tokens to an Ethereum-based digital wallet.

Could This Happen Again?

The hack brought to light the vulnerability of crypto bridges. It’s challenging enough to create safe and secure smart contracts on a single blockchain. As demonstrated by the exploit, Wormhole, which interacts with six chains (Avalanche, Oasis, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, and Terra), faces an exponentially more difficult challenge. Because of the complexity of writing for several chains, security experts like Dan Guido, CEO of the security firm Trail of Bits, deem blockchain bridges “among the most challenging programs to develop.”

Wormhole, a cross-chain bridge, with a market cap of more than $20 billion, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has highlighted the security flaws with such applications. Wormhole was, in fact, the second bridge to be exploited in less than two weeks. DeFi is still fairly new to us, and although it has a lot of advantages outside of traditional banking, it also has a lot of drawbacks. Check that a protocol’s smart contracts have been audited and that you’re following best practices to keep your crypto safe before utilizing it.

The fundamental difference between the Proof of Stake (PoW) model and the Proof of Work (PoW) model can only be understood by reviewing the history of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. If we go towards the origins of the first blockchain-based digital currency, i.e., Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency was created as a reaction to the distrust in the global financial system caused by the big banks (who people felt had a role to play in causing an economic collapse). Because of such distrust, people felt unsafe handing their money to centralized financial institutions.

The original creators of Bitcoin designed the Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain model that created a secure method to store your funds, fundamentally making it impossible for any outside authority (such as any government) to gain access to it. But while the PoW model promised security, the heavy electricity consumption required as a trade-off when mining became the primary argument against the currency’s adoption. For the market to grow, an alternative was required as well. The “Proof of Stake (PoS)” model emerged, designed to operate in such a way that mining would not be required.

This is not a problem for trading platforms like Immediate Alpha that can handle both PoS and PoW models, but the issue of power consumption is worth considering when you are looking at holding your coins for a long period.

Today, both Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) models are being used by different projects. Both models have their own trade-offs, which must be looked at if we are to assess which one has better utility with less downside.

The Proof of Work (PoW) Model

When the concept of ‘decentralized systems’ was first proposed, there needed to be a way for the network to run without the need for a central authority operating everything. The Proof of Work (PoW) proposed a consensus-based method by which volunteers from all over the world would share processing power to a common blockchain network.  The model incentivized volunteers who would “mine” in order to update and run the blockchain. The “miners” would be rewarded in cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin) that could then be cashed as regular real-world money.

The most famous cryptocurrencies using the PoW model include Bitcoin and Litecoin. Because the entire cryptocurrency market follows Bitcoin, it can be argued that even today the PoW model dominates the crypto ecosystem.

Security

The Proof of Work (PoW) model was first used by Bitcoin and provided an extremely secure method of storing your funds. The encryption that PoW provided is extremely secure and has never been compromised. Even today, Satoshi Nakomoto’s wallet holds tens of billions of unclaimed dollars, that no hacker has been able to access due to the secure nature of the network. The security exists due to miners all over the world solving complex puzzles that in turn support the functioning of a cryptographic system, which becomes more complex to solve as more miners join the system.

Mining, Processing Power, & the Electricity Consumption Trade-Off

While the Proof of Work (PoW) model is able to provide high security, the trade-off is the large processing power required. Powered typically by mining, the PoW model is a sort of race between miners to solve a puzzle, with the first one to solve it being rewarded. Because the model incentivizes miners to have high processing power at their disposal to solve the puzzle first, this in turn raises the overall electricity consumed by the network. The high-power consumption attached to the PoW model has been a critical point of concern when talking about scalability. Environmental concerns have also created a mainstream argument against miners, with certain countries such as China banning miners altogether. 

The Proof of Stake (PoS) Model

Like the PoW model, the Proof of Stake (PoS) model is built on a consensus-based algorithm, where the core philosophy of keeping any central authority out of the blockchain network remains the same, as volunteers participate to keep the blockchain running. But unlike PoW where miners pool their computational power to keep the blockchain running, PoS requires participants to pool their funds through staking.

For any transaction taking place on the blockchain to be validated, the validator is chosen based on the number of funds staked. The more money you have staked on the blockchain network, the higher the chances of you being selected as the validator.

Lower Power Consumption

Because actual hardware that is required to solve complex puzzles is not there, the Proof of Stake (PoS) model inherently requires relatively less power consumption in order to keep the network running. The network validates transactions and functions based on the amount staked by participants, thus removing the primary issue of environmental hazards that mining created.

Easier to Scale

When we talk about scalability, the issue that arises with PoW is that better hardware that has higher computational power is required as time passes on because the complexity of the “puzzles” that need to be solved increases. Not only does this increase the overall processing power required by the system over time, but it also makes it harder to scale the system.

Today, new cryptocurrency projects choose to build over a Proof of Stake (PoS) model because it is easier to scale. Many within the cryptocurrency community see PoW as outdated, as it was adopted to be used in currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin when there was no alternative at the time. Since the rise of PoS, many have preferred it as a better option. Ethereum’s famous transition from PoW to PoS is a primary example of projects adopting the newer model in order to scale better.

The Concerns of 51% Rule in PoW & the Safety in PoS

The 51% rule is a scenario known within the crypto-community especially for Proof of Work (PoW) based networks, where miners take control of the majority mining pool and use it to hijack the blockchain network. Since the network runs on a consensus mechanism, any individual/group controlling 51% of the total consensus involved will obviously be in control, possibly creating fake blocks for themselves and invalidating other transactions.

Because of the nature of PoW, it is more likely that miners try to attempt such a scenario when mining rewards become too small. However, with Proof of Stake (PoS), the potential hijackers would need 51% of the total currency supply in order to take control, which is a very unlikely scenario to happen.

Final Verdict: Proof of Stake (PoS) or Proof of Work (PoW)

Despite the improvements that Proof of Stake (PoS) promises, it is unlikely that cryptocurrencies running on Proof of Work (PoW) will go away anytime soon. This is because Bitcoin (running on PoW) is unlikely to go away, which means miners are here to stay for long. However, many cryptocurrencies attempting to do more than Bitcoin, such as Ethereum, will probably move forward with PoS because it can maximize the utility that can be added by the project.

It is hard to argue against Proof of Stake (PoS) being a more efficient alternative, as it solves major problems such as scalability issues, power consumption, and the issue of high processing power required. This is why PoS is fundamentally more efficient than its predecessor, and will probably be adopted by more and more projects unless something better comes along. But at the same time, the high security that PoW provides will be a major reason why some tried and tested cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, will also remain dominant. 

Over the last few years, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have become not only talking points but also have seen multiple use cases across every industry. The adoption of crypto technologies is rising in the movie industry as well. Numerous companies in this space started accepting cryptocurrencies for payments, while others tried to take advantage of blockchain technology. For example, some animation studios tried to find how to invest in Golem tokens since they allow them to get extra processing power for rendering computer-generated imagery (CGI). 

According to a recent report from Industry Research, blockchain can help the movie and entertainment industry reinvent business functions and facilitate transactions. One of the blockchain-based technologies that can make it is NFT. NFTs use blockchain technology to verify ownership of unique digital assets and create secure transactions to authenticate digital art.

The craze around NFTs has swept across content industries in 2021, and Hollywood hasn’t been left out. In the first half of 2020, the total NFT sales added up to about $250 million. But the NFT sales for the same period in 2021 grew almost tenfold, reaching $2.47 billion. In October 2021 alone, NFT market sales surged to $4.2 billion.

Much of that trading activity is related to speculators who buy assets to find another buyer and earn profits. However, most media companies insist they started using NFTs not to make a quick buck. Let’s find out how Hollywood already tried to use NFTs.

Big Names Join the NFT Craze

In March 2021, Legendary Entertainment partnered with Boss Logic and Terra Virtua Ltd to launch two NFT collections related to the “Godzilla vs. Kong” movie. It was one of the first big moves from Hollywood in NFT that was gaining hype at that point. The company offered fans to buy exclusive collectibles of the two monsters fighting. It helped Legendary Entertainment to get both a new revenue stream and a new way to promote the movie.

Warner Bros. used the same approach by launching the sale of 100,000 NFTs of “Matrix”-inspired avatars in November 2021. The price for each NFT was $50, giving the company potential $5 million in revenue. But as for Legendary Entertainment, this event was more about promoting the “The Matrix Resurrections” movie released in December 2021.

Disney has released a series of “Golden Moments’ NFTs, featuring iconic characters and items to promote Disney Plus and drive up streaming subscribers. In selected markets, owners of “Golden Moments” NFTs were also able to receive a three- or a 12-month subscription for Disney Plus.

Hollywood sells not only images as NFTs but video content as well. Lionsgate released a “Saw”-inspired video collectibles before Halloween, and the limited-edition of NFTs quickly sold out. Lionsgate has seen $500,000 in sales for six NFT pieces. Then the company pointed out that NFT is just a way to extend entertainment franchises.

Some companies are counting on NFTs to be something more than a one-time promo opportunity and see them as a sizable option to generate revenue. For example, Fox Entertainment formed Blockchain Creative Labs with Bento Box. Blockchain Creative Labs is a content studio with $100 million in funding to launch the NFT initiative for Fox and third parties. Marvel joined Fox in similar ventures, creating NFTs from popular comics characters and other parts of the universe.

Despite the slight hype fading around NFT by the end of 2021, media companies continue joining the space. In the spring of 2022, ViacomCBS is planning to introduce its own NFT platform in partnership with startup Recur. The platform is expected to feature characters and content from Nickelodeon, MTV, Paramount Pictures, and Showtime brands as NFTs. 

Movie as NFT

NFTs are also seen as a way to fund independent filmmaking. A startup NFT Studios is aiming to produce a first-ever movie that will be fully funded by NFTs, selling 10,000 NFTs to the public and institutional investors. The startup hopes to raise $8-10 billion from this initiative and promise that those who buy NFTs will get a share of any profits and meet the stars of the production. According to NFT Studios co-founder Niels Juul, such a way should “democratize the process” of filmmaking and circumvent a Hollywood system under which smaller productions take up to eight years to reach movie or TV screens. Niels Juul also expects to begin shooting by April 2022.

The Indie project “Zero Contact”, starring Anthony Hopkins, claims to experience a significant payoff from NFTs. The production company Enderby Entertainment that financed the movie decided to distribute the film via its own NFT platform Vuele. In September 2021, Vuele released 11 limited NFT copies of “Zero contact”, seeing $100,000 in sales. Rick Dugdale, CEO of Enderby Entertainment and co-founder of Vuele said that these 11 buyers were cinephiles and crypto enthusiasts who “wanted to own a piece of history”. Vuele plans to release another set of NFTs and “that’s it”, forming some kind of artificial scarcity for the movie.

For Hollywood and media companies, NFTs could become a new way to promote and monetize intellectual property, increasing the engagement of fans. But most of Hollywood’s NFT initiatives are currently experimental toes in the water to find the appropriate use of technology. The true power of NFTs in Hollywood has yet to be realized. Potentially, NFT may help Hollywood resolve such issues as content piracy and funding independent projects but NFTs have to resolve a lot of their own issues to accomplish that.

Blockchain is not going away. In fact, more and more businesses are investing in it. This encrypted, distributed database model proved its potential when it comes to security and online trust. As a result, 2022 will see a continuation of businesses heavily investing in developing new things. This brings us to the following trends highlighted by Crypto specialists in regards to what next year holds for us.

Greenifying The Blockchain

The big problem blockchains face right now is that they generate carbon emissions at very high levels and tend to use too much energy for some people. This is why Tesla stopped accepting BTC payments at the beginning of 2021. In 2022, it is certain greenifying the blockchain will be a priority.

Several options are being investigated right now. The most popular one will be used by Ethereum, which wants to move to proof-of-stake (POS) instead of proof-of-work as soon as possible. The other interesting option we already know about is using renewable energy.

NFT Expansion

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) were very popular in 2021. It was primarily used in art but it also saw a degree of popularity in music. Artists like Shawn Mendes released some tracks by using the NFT format.

2022 is when we will surely see NFTs making their way into several other industries. Gaming is the first one that comes to mind but it should be noted that even fashion brands like Nike and Dolce & Gabbana created items with NFTs associated.

New Countries To Adopt National Cryptocurrencies And Bitcoin

2021 was a big year for Bitcoin as we saw the first country to officially list it as legal tender in El Salvador. This means BTC can actually be used to make payments for services and goods. It is even used to pay salaries. With this precedent created, 2022 will surely see other countries doing the same thing.

We should also highlight national cryptocurrencies. Growth in this part of the industry is expected in several countries like Ecuador, Tunisia, Singapore, and China, which already created what is needed for the launch. Countries like Estonia, Sweden, and Japan will join the trend as soon as possible.

IoT Integration

Blockchain technology is perfect for IoT since it creates records of transactions and interactions. This might help solve several scalability and security problems linked to encrypted, automated, and immutable transactions. Even micropayments might be done with the use of cryptocurrencies in an automated manner pretty soon.

The current adoption of 5G technology allows for much higher connectivity between appliances and smart equipment. Speed is faster and blockchain transactions can join the fray for extra security and scalability.

The Use Of Blockchain Technology For Vaccine Tracking And Manufacture

The pandemic that started in 2020 will not go away in 2022 and it does look like blockchain technology will step in to give a helping hand. Counterfeiters are already being reported so blockchain could be used to guarantee vaccine shipment authenticity. Also, blockchain has the capability of helping guarantee supply chain integrity.

IBM already created a very interesting system that gives access to coordination between varied and different healthcare authorities and agencies involved in the distribution of vaccines. Blockchain unifies vaccination efficacy and rates statistics, giving access to an extra tool that can be used to make sure people that actually need the vaccine can get it as fast as possible.

The market capitalization of Bitcoins has been found to be $913.1 billion till December of 2021. Bitcoin is indeed one of the most important digital assets in the market. It is added among the lists of the most successful digital currencies all over the world. It is a revolutionary concept. The very first Bitcoin which had been traded in the market or exchange-traded fund (ETF), launched in October of 2021. This has given a new boost to cryptocurrency in the market. To know more about ETF, Bitcoin, and trading, visit bitcoinx.

The sudden and unprecedented rise of Bitcoins from 2009 has created a diversified portfolio of investors. The categories of investors have been divided into millionaires and billionaires. Most of these millionaires have been cashing off the ever-growing ecosystem of Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies in the market. The others have been judicious enough to create their own brand of financial products. Their tokens have been accepted by the other traders and created millions in return. The surge in popularity of Bitcoins has been entirely the contribution of the investors who believed in its power.

Bitcoin can never be considered among the group of risky assets. The absence of any kind of central or regulatory body has created an open path for volatility. The criminals and investors are interested in the field with the same energy. Smaller drawbacks have not held the billionaires back. Rather, they thought it would be interesting to invest in something which has economic opportunities with some risk elements.

Owner of the Most Bitcoins

• Did you know that Bitcoins had been created by an anonymous internet entity? Yes, Satoshi Nakamoto had been the anonymous designer of Bitcoins and it is believed that he had mined more than 22,000 blocks in the platform.

• It is also rumored that the creator had hold of one million Bitcoins just as cumulative rewards for his great works. It is strongly believed that Satoshi has the greatest number of Bitcoins in the entire world. 

• He has more than 1 million BTCs and it has been valued at about $ 4,500,000,000 in present times.

Billionaires in Bitcoins

• Three Bitcoin addresses have more than 100,000 Bitcoins each. None of these include Satoshi.

• Binance, Bitifinex, and another unnamed company have their names on the list of being billionaires in Bitcoins. 

• They collectively have 575,000 Bitcoins in their collection. That is something hard to contend with.

Companies With the Most Number of Bitcoins

• Large corporations like Microstrategy, Galaxy Digital Holdings, and Tesla own treasuries worth in Bitcoins.

• They do so in order to protect their assets against any kind of inflation of prices. 

• Negative yield bonds can also be countered in this manner. They issue corporate bonds with lower rates of interest. Cheap debt is created by these enterprises to earn profits as soon as the dollar prices inflate. 

• Bitcoins can also help to pay off the debts of these companies when required.

Public Companies

• Public companies collectively own about 216,038 Bitcoins. This is about 1.029% of the total supply of Bitcoins in the blockchain market. 

• Ten of the famous public companies have a balance of 200,000 Bitcoins in total. 

• Microstrategy on itself has more than 105,000 Bitcoins which is about 0.05% of the entire supply. Corporate strategies include the development of a treasury which can keep the bonds safe. 

• The tactics have allowed Microstrategy to acquire Bitcoins at a low rate and sell them beyond expectations. 

• Tesla has about 42,902 Bitcoins in the market. 

• Galaxy Digital Holdings has 16,400 Bitcoins in its treasury.

Private Companies

• According to the data and statistics, private companies have about 174,068 Bitcoins in the collection. 
• This is about 0.829% of the entire collection. 
• Block. one, a Chinese company, has about 140,000 Bitcoins in its treasury.

Governments in Bitcoin Holding

• All governments around the world have accumulated 259,870 Bitcoins in their possession. 
• Bulgaria is claimed to own 213,519 Bitcoins and Ukraine comes around with 46,351 Bitcoins from the market.
• The United States of America has about 70,000 Bitcoins in the cache. FBI and other agencies are responsible for the safekeeping.

Conclusion

Companies are no longer conservative about buying and selling Bitcoins in the market. They have realized that corporate bonds can turn out to be better with Bitcoins in their possession. The public companies of the United States have tried to hold Bitcoins in their own treasuries. This has been done as a precaution against Bitcoin price falls. The interests in terms of Bitcoins will always be in the field as long as virtual assets are accepted by the investors. 

If you are thinking about the price rises in the case of Bitcoins, you would be surprised to know that the prices had reached $68,000 in 2021. The prices had again fallen to $46,000 in the last month of 2021. The prices undergo a continuous rise and fall and this might determine the profit and loss for the traders in the market. To know more about profit and loss in bitcoin, click here.

The highest point in terms of the Bitcoin price is quite significant. The price had been just $30,000 in January. The prices undergo wild changes every day and it is expected that they can change even by the minute. The prices of Bitcoins can move easily up from $45,000 to more than $50,000 in a single month. The lowest has been stabling for quite a bit in the last weeks. If the prices stick to this in the end, the investments will increase.

The volatility of Bitcoins as stated by the experts will continue to be high in the upcoming days. The experts have stated that the prices may reach $100,000 in the upcoming days quite soon. The investors must be very careful about the strategies they are using as the prices are bound to rise in the next year. If a major part of their portfolio is dedicated to Bitcoins, their caution must reach the threshold value by now!

The steady rise of Bitcoins is something that is always wanted by investors. It is reasonable for traders to anticipate the primal rise of Bitcoins. Let us get to know a bit about the series.

Getting to the Value of 1 Million

• There are about 6.25 new Bitcoins that are already issued by the miners. The statistics are set at each investment by 10 minutes. The total supply chain will be capped at a value of 21 million. 

• Millions of coins might be lost within the blockchain forever and this cannot be attained at any cost. The coins have been mined till now and the data has been set according to that.
• The global market is estimated at a value of $119 trillion at this moment.
• Many of the bonds in the corporate world are at their lowest in this very instant. Negative bond yields have plagued investors for a very long time. 
• The thoughts about the bonds reaching the values of trillion are not magical or even wonderful! If the math checks out, Bitcoins are likely to to have greater values than bonds in the present market.

The bonds which are not quite acceptable in the market right now will be absorbed gradually. Bitcoins will absorb this price and this will gradually entertain the bond size of Bitcoin investments. The case of simple supply and demand will come into the picture and the investors will find Bitcoins to be more profitable. The subset of the total supply of Bitcoins will be increasing with increased time and the invested traders will benefit from it.

Impact of Other Markets

• The two percent value which is held by the global equities in terms of gold will be simplified into the view of Bitcoins as well. 

• The combined four sectors like bond, gold, stocks, and real estate will be brought under the jurisdiction of Bitcoins and the values will increase exponentially. The opportunity for growth will be quite evident in this case for the Bitcoins in the market.

You have to remember that although these are quite well accepted in the market, you cannot hope to get all Bitcoins in your collection. The pressure on the prices of Bitcoins may not come right now but it will be coming quite soon. The investors must not pull out of the market during this hour.

Conclusion

It is not very easy to say exactly how each of these sectors is going to pan out. The investors must go with their gut feeling at some moments in the trade. There is only data assimilation of 10 minutes in case they wish to get their statistics in order. There are ways in which the traders can be realistic and creative to make sure that the future becomes certain for them in this volatile atmosphere. This alone can save them from any kind of uncertainty in the future. 

The cryptocurrency was not initially accepted as one of the best modes of virtual assets in the world. It was considered a potential disaster that could strike the financial system. This was the scenario in 2007. In 2018, the hottest topic of discussion is Bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency. The potential with which it can change the world has changed from what it was in 2007. Most investors have found that it is one of the best places in which they can get their money into. The acceptance of cryptocurrencies in the market has been a major milestone in the financial market. For more information about bitcoin and trading, visit https://bitcoinsystem.app.

The economy of the United States took a hit in 2020 after the pandemic. The investors panicked during this phase and sold most of their assets. The price of Bitcoins fell to about 50% of its actual value. The entire crypto market was affected by this fall in price in Bitcoins. The fallen market did not take much time to get from its depths. 2021 became the redeeming year for Bitcoins. The all-time high of Bitcoins reached about $60,000 this year. The value of the entire market was estimated at 1.5 trillion USD. This gave hope to several investors in the market.

Many of the investors of reputed companies have realized the actual potential of Bitcoins or any kind of cryptocurrency. The entire ecosystem is dynamic and it is growing at a very rapid rate. The crypto billionaires have been interested in the field for a very long time. New investors are using online trading tools like Immediate Connect to make their claim to the billionaire’s fortune. The time is now to make your mark in the crypto trade to earn greater profits in the future.

Billionaires in the Crypto World                     

The market of cryptocurrency is not something that has the monopoly of the traders or adults. If you are smart enough to get your investments in a profit, the crypto market is welcoming for all age groups and professions. The implementation of the ideas which are related to the crypto market can help to bring riches into one’s house. The names which have stood out among the others have been named here for the novice traders to learn and implement!

1. Sam Bankman-Fried 

• Bankman-Fired has been one of the top people who have the highest worth in terms of cryptocurrency in the market. 
• His assets have doubled up to $22.5 billion. 
• He is the wealthiest person in the world of cryptocurrency.
• The young man is of just 29 years and he is a pass out from MIT. 
• Alameda Research was founded by him.
• He already owns a quantitative trading firm. 
• There are other popular derivatives in the market and FTX under his company as well. 
• He had donated $5 million to the campaign of Joe Biden in 2020.

2. Brain Armstrong

• Brain Armstrong is considered to be yet another person who is a giant in the world of cryptocurrency. 
• $11.5 billion is his net worth.
• He is the co-founder of Coinbase. 
• He has the ownership of his company by almost 19% and almost $1 billion in his revenue. 
• He has several portfolios in Bitcoins and Altcoins. 
• His portfolios have numbered up to $10 million.

3. Chris Larsen

• Chris Larsen has a net worth of $6 billion in the market. 
• He is also the co-founder and chairman of Ripple. 
• He has seen the rise in his fortunes by $800 million with the XRP soaring in his company. 
• He also owns about 3 billion tokens of XRP. 
• Ripple itself has several large customers. 
• The mortgage lender E-Loan in 1996 and Prosper has him as their founder. 
• Larsen is also known for his philanthropic nature. 
• He had donated about $25 million to San Francisco University in XRP.

4. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

• These twins were former Olympic rowers who had sued Facebook for stealing their idea. 
• They each have 4.3 billion USD in their net worth. 
• They are also the founders of Gemini which is a famous crypto exchange platform.
• Their investments in different portfolios have gathered attention from various places.

5. Michael Saylor

• Saylor is not like these giants but they do have 2.3 billion USD in their pockets and are the CEO of Microstrategy. 
• He has risen to the heights in the year 2020 when the prices of Bitcoins fell to the depths.

Conclusion

The billionaires and millionaires who have made their name in the world of cryptocurrency are nothing less than geniuses. There are chances and strokes of luck but none of these areas are considered to be long-lasting contributions. If you are thinking of getting into the market, better not dally and jump right into it.

Cryptocurrency and energy consumption are two words we are hearing a lot recently. With the popularity of cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin soaring to epic heights, there has been a prominent increase in Bitcoin miners who have entered this profession. Hence, more power-hungry machines and computers are being operated than ever before by miners to achieve a small profit from every Bitcoin transaction that goes through.

Nevertheless, with rising electricity charges and the occasional fluctuation of the value of Bitcoin, is mining Bitcoin just as profitable as it is made out to be? In this blog, we will closely look at the profitability aspects of Bitcoin mining at normal electricity cost.

Why Are We Focusing on Energy Consumption?

Bitcoin mining incurs three major costs:

1. The cost of energy that is being consumed due to mining;
2. Expenses such as overheads incurred for the maintenance of a crypto farm or a single rig;
3. The cost incurred of purchasing, replacing, and renewing the mining hardware.

Out of these three, the cost of energy consumed is the primary element that is focused on. The reason for this is that energy is the only cost whose value can be accurately calculated with some approximation. Moreover, carefully analyzing the impact of Bitcoin mining on energy resources provides an overview of the growth of the industry.

In comparison, maintenance costs and overheads cannot be estimated precisely because they vary depending on the size, the location, and at what scale the crypto farm is operating. Furthermore, such details are not always available to the public either. Thus, an accurate cost analysis regarding this element cannot be calculated.

Similarly, at the rapid rate of technological development, even relatively recent mining hardware is becoming obsolete. However, it is not plausible that the Bitcoin mining industry purchases or renews their already existing hardware to the upgraded novel hardware. Hence, it would be more feasible to assume that there is a healthy mix of recent and old hardware systems coinciding within the Bitcoin network. Moreover, with the fluctuating progress of the development of the mining hardware industry, the market share cannot be ascertained. Thereby, it cannot provide a precise value for the cost analysis of Bitcoin mining.

How Much Electricity Does Bitcoin Mining Consume?

According to the University of Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, researchers state that Bitcoin mining consumes approximately 84.31 terawatt-hours (tWh) annually. For comparison, this amount of electricity consumption is more than what the countries of Argentina or Finland consume annually.

The above information provides more clarity to the phrase when we speak of power-hungry machines that run 24/7, which assist in cracking complex algorithms to validate Bitcoin transactions. These hefty computer rigs are expensive to run, and thus the electricity expense that is derived from it is the most significant cost Bitcoin mining farms have to bear. So, is bitcoin mining profitable at average electricity costs?

Is it Profitable to Mine Bitcoin at the Average Electricity Cost?

Back in 2009 when cryptocurrency and Bitcoin were still a novelty, its mining operations were being run by a few Bitcoin miners on their personalized computers. Thus, the scope to earn a profit back then was much higher because there were practically no equipment costs, and the algorithms that needed to be solved were fairly easier than they are now. Additionally, although the electricity cost varied from country to country, it did not impact the profitability of Bitcoin mining to discourage them from the profession.

However, in recent years, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips have revolutionized cryptocurrency mining. ASICs are implemented in powerful crypto farms and mining rigs. But the cost of running these power-intensive units has decreased the level of profit. Furthermore, with the introduction of ASICs, the difficulty level of mining has heightened that further restraining the level of profit that can be achieved.

In regards to energy, the average cost of electricity nowadays is anywhere between $0.05/kWh to $0.13/kWh. Up until last year, the maximum cost of electricity fell at $0.03/kWh, and the possibility of mining operative costs increased over $0.04/kWh the following year.

To complete one Bitcoin transaction, 1702.85 kWh of electricity is consumed, which is enough energy to power the average US household for approximately 58.37 days.

Now since electricity cost is directly associated with the income that is earned by a miner, it can be confidently said that the higher the revenue of the mining operation, the more powerful machines can be supported. Hence, increasing the electricity consumption level.

Moreover, as mining happens more on an industrial level rather than a residential or personal level, the revenue earned from mining can now finance for more kWh than before, despite mining revenues being nowhere near as high as they once were. With Quantum Flash you can use AI to assist you make your trading quick and efficient.

Furthermore, statistics by the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index show that the annual income of mining revenues totaled $14,119,197,457 (taking into consideration the fee and mining rewards). In comparison, the annual electricity cost incurred is $7,477,566,860 while assuming that there is no fluctuation in the electricity rates and that the cost is fixed at USD 0.05/kWh. These figures illustrate that the approximate ratio of electricity cost to the miner income is 52.96%.

Meanwhile, the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index created a mathematical model assuming the price of electricity fixed at USD 0.05/kWh. This model illustrates that the profitability level of Bitcoin mining is at a threshold of 0.33 J/Gh as of August 2021. This has been the highest threshold Bitcoin has reached since the past year, mostly assisted by the increase in the price of the Bitcoin that leads to an increase in profitability. However, this is predicted to be rectified soon and its effects to be canceled out because of the increasing total hash rate.

The Answer

The above statistics present the profitability ratio of Bitcoin against electricity cost, but do we really find Bitcoin mining profitable at normal electricity cost?

Well, the answer to that question is yes, Bitcoin mining is profitable at normal electricity cost if the cost is at a reasonable level. Although, the energy to mine Bitcoin is significant, its increasing value aids to its profitability. Additionally, in the past 10 years, even though Bitcoin mining activity has increased by 10 billion, the ratio between the cost of mining and the transaction cost has remained the same.

However, in order to increase your mining efficiency, it is advised to negotiate terms with your energy provider on your electricity contracts to ensure that the cost is below $0.05/kWh. Alternatively, you can opt for Dogecoin and Litecoin mining, as they require a fractional amount of power compared to what Bitcoin mining demands.