Tag Archives: Cryptocurrencies

Crypto Currency, currency trading

How Digital Nomads Can Take Advantage Of Cryptocurrency

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We all know someone who invested in cryptocurrency early on and is now living large. You’ve probably read a few things about the topic now, and might be tempted to get in on the action yourself. There are lots of options out there at the moment, and because you are a digital nomad, you are probably willing to explore the unknown and take some risks. If this is the case, stick around and you might learn some tricks. 

How Digital Nomads Can Take Advantage Of Cryptocurrency
How Digital Nomads Can Take Advantage Of Cryptocurrency

It’s More Difficult Than You Think

Your first move should be hitting the trading platform, acquiring the cryptocurrency you want, and storing it in a wallet. This sounds simple, but if you’re a digital nomad, it can be more tricky to get involved with the crypto exchange. If you travel a lot, a lot of trading platforms may stop you from accessing your account based on their strict ID policy. Customer support will only be able to do so much with rigid rules, and you can end up wasting a lot of time trying to explain your situation, with no results. 

 

Offer Your Services And Get Cryptocurrencies In Return

You have probably heard people say that crypto will eventually replace real money. Whether this is true or not, you will have to decide for yourself. However, the fact is that it is now completely possible to receive cryptocurrency donations. The only thing that you have to do is to find your own personal QR code, which is generated by your wallet. Of course, you don’t need to be a computer genius to be paid in crypto either. You can even trade some goods that you produce and exchange them for a chance to get into the game. 

Are You Interested In Mining?

There are thousands of articles out there claiming that mining is a waste of time and resources. There is some truth to this claim, especially if you live in a country where electricity bills are high, or if you have a basic laptop. The other path would be to invest large amounts of money into graphic cards and let them run all day long. You will probably only end up with no more than $20 on that account, but that money could cover some of your expenses. This tactic is especially useful if you don’t need to worry about your electricity bills, because you’re staying in a hotel, for example. It might not earn you much, but you don’t need to do anything except click the mouse a few times. 

 

Set Up A Trading Team

Being on a trading market while on the road is not an easy thing to do. Most of your competitors will probably be looking at a couple of monitors, eyeing every change, whereas you will only have your laptop. If you have some friends who are into trading, you can share valuable information, and succeed together. This works well if your team is spread out across the world, as you can monitor the latest changes all the time. Bringing in a different set of eyes to your assistance can be a great deal.

Bitcoin, Crypto Currency, currency trading, Trading

The Not-so Green Side of Cryptocurrency – How Sustainable are Assets Such as Bitcoin?

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The sustainability of Bitcoin (BTC) and similar crypto-assets has been under immense scrutiny of late, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk having made this a key talking point during the summer.

More specifically, Musk (who had previously invested heavily in BTC) spoke negatively about the asset’s lack of sustainability, announcing that Tesla would stop accepting the digital currency as payment for vehicles until “here’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners” with a positive future trend.

But just how sustainable is BTC’s mining process, and have miners already started to meet Musk’s demands? Here’s a breakdown of the current situation:

What Sustainability Issues Affect Crypto Assets? 

The mining process associated with BTC and similar crypto-assets is central to their decentralised nature, with secure and immutable transactions verified by “miners” who trying to solve mathematically complex problems.

Miners who successfully solve a particular issue essentially add a “block” to BTC’s underlying blockchain, while also receiving a real-time reward in the form of a finite number of coins (6.25).

This represents a tangible reward for the miner’s efforts, while the process itself is how new tokens are generated and introduced into circulation. At present, there are 18,821,387.00 BTC tokens currently in circulation, from a maximum supply of 21,000,000.

However, the complexity of each individual mathematical puzzle is incredibly high, requiring miners to invest in expensive hardware and consume large amounts of electricity when verifying blocks.

According to estimates from the University of Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, the global BTC network currently consumes around 89 terawatt-hours of electricity annually.

This equates to the annual output of 23 coal-fired power plants, or close to what is consumed by the citizens of Finland on an annual basis.

Just How Sustainable are Cryptocurrencies?

These statistics make for stark reading, and they seem to highlight an inherent lack of sustainability in the crypto space while supporting Elon Musk’s demand for less energy-intensive mining processes.

However, many people have countered Musk’s claim, particularly his call for a greater emphasis on so-called “clean energy”.

More specifically, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimates that 76% of all miners now use renewable energy sources as part of their mix. What’s more, CoinShares suggests that the total share of renewables in crypto mining is as high as 73%, while this percentage continues to inch higher on an annual basis.

Not only this, but second and third-generation blockchains have also introduced “Proof-of-Stake” (PoS) consensus algorithms to verify transactions and introduce new blocks.

This is diametrically opposed to BTC’s “Proof-of-Work” (PoW) model, which requires far higher levels of energy and is less sustainable over time.

So, there’s no doubt that people misunderstand just how sustainable crypto mining has become in recent times, and the consensus algorithms that are now widely used to minimise energy consumption.

Of course, there are also far less energy-intensive investment vehicles such as forex trading, so traders who are interested in building a sustainable portfolio have a number of viable options in the modern age.