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Many headlines this week in the Bitcoin space. And because of demand Kraken, Gemini, Coinbase and Binance have been all down. Is this fast price increase in the last days healthy anymore? Not sure. We had a lot of announcements like the one of Strike to new regulatory guidelines to the usual FUD stories in mainstream media. (FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and denial: topics are for instance: chinese mining dominance, the madness of bitcoin mining electricity demand, the tulip bubble). And I did an interview with Lightning Labs about the outlook for Lightning in 2021.
“A Lightning balance and a Bitcoin balance, will be viewed in the future as like having a checking account and a savings account. It’s just that your money that’s in your lightning balance is much easier and more accessible to be sent and paid for stuff. And it’s very cheap. It’s very quick. It works really well. And you don’t have to ask permission or wait for the bank to be open.” — Ryan Gentry
What it does: Strike as a company has partnered with Bittrex exchange to be able to operate in 200 countries. With the Strike app it is possible to send money from your local bank account to someone elses bank account in another country in another currency. The currency exchange is done automatically and Strike is facilitating the Lightning Network for these transactions. The founder is 26 year old Jack Mallers, who is saying that these transactions come at no cost (which I can not believe). The Strike Card will be available in Q1 in the US and in Q2 in the EU and UK. With the Strike Card you can pay with bitcoin or USDT/USDC in your local store, that is receiving the amount in local currency. Read more about Strike Global
My opinion: It is a big improvement for the banking system. Strike is using the open, permissionless Bitcoin and Lightning network to send payments globally. Its software is doing currency swaps automatically. Remittances will get much cheaper and faster. Users can spend bitcoin or USDT, USDC as local currency or pay it out for cash at a Bitcoin ATM. But: Strike is basically a bank account. It’s KYC’ed and therefore it is not permissionless and not censorship resistant. It does not have the unique properties of Bitcoin. It is enabling fast, borderless, cheap payments, which is great, but within the legacy system. I know Jack Mallers is a true Bitcoiner, maybe his grand plan is to break the banking system from inside. Don’t know. I guess Strike will be helping a lot of people to save money when sending it to their families etc. That makes it a great improvement and maybe it helps for mass adoption. But it’s not Bitcoin.
New to #Bitcoin?@lopp has a wealth of data that gives some insights on the year that was for bitcoin, and some context for this year. Jameson is also the custodian of the extraordinarily detailed Bitcoin Resources over at https://t.co/WVKZHSHXuj
— WizardofAushttps://t.co/cMqZexbJSw
(@BTCSchellingPt) January 5, 2021
Absolutely wild note from the OCC. Banks given authorization to treat public blockchains as another form of settlement infrastructure. I think this will be seen as a watershed moment.https://t.co/eVy3eh50fC
— nic carter 🟨 (@nic__carter) January 4, 2021
Bitcoin is on the verge of settling a cumulative $10 TRILLION on-chain since inception.
— Yassine Elmandjra (@yassineARK) January 4, 2021
Since 2018, Bitcoin has settled $7.5 trillion. Wild.
cc: @kenoshaking pic.twitter.com/SHduskM1Qw
Remove Whatsapp from your devices, it’s spyware.
— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) January 7, 2021
Use Signal
(also remove FB & IG of course - especially from mobile devices).
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If you want to check, here is today’s Bitcoin price.
No financial advice. DYOR.
(@BTCSchellingPt) 
