In May 2013, Wired published an article where it went through a tutorial on bitcoin mining, titled “ Miner.” At the end of the article, the company decided to destroy the wallet’s private keys and therefore lose access to a nice haul of that today would be worth a few hundred thousand dollars.
Presently, the amount Wired was able to gather with that experiment would be worth around $116,000 (and at BTC-USD’s all-time high near $20,000, it would be valued around half a million dollars). By not going more in-depth in their investigation and calling an abstraction, Wired squandered a hefty sum of money.
“Lost Coins Only Make Everyone Else’s Coins Worth Slightly More”
In 2013, the technology-focused online publication started an experiment with the intent of promoting the then-new Butterfly Labs ASIC miner. Wired agreed to set up one of these Butterfly miners at its office and with that take part in a experiment while advertising the product at the same time. Little did they know that the amount of bitcoin gathered with that experiment would be worth a small fortune five years later.
This was just a test and an advertisement contract taking place to produce later an article that would bring a lot more information on bitcoin mining to the public. Wired joined a bitcoin mining group called the Eclipse Mining Consortium and mined solo as well, and with only 4.86 GH/s to 6.15 GH/s worth of hashing power, they were able to recoil a sheer amount of coins in a few weeks.
The experience was set in the online magazine office and even recorded live using a ‘BitCam’ to show the readers the performance of the new mining hardware. The article begins by explaining the type of energy consumption the device has and what is its sole purpose. It then goes through a simple explanation of the rewards given to the miners when a block is found and how the whole process works.
After that, the article describes the device and its capabilities in comparison to the old hardware for mining bitcoin such as CPU mining or GPU and FPGA hardware.
Lack of Foresight
Wired also wanted to give its readers a closer look at how mining was done and how the incentives for mining were distributed. Back then, was still on the shady side of the financial world and as so the online magazine disregarded its real potential.
At the end of the experiment, Wired didn’t quite know what to do with the amount of bitcoin gathered. Back then two bitcoins would be worth around $220 and a few options to get rid of it were set upon the table; either use it for beer or , but neither was picked. Instead Wired decided to destroy the used for the wallet where the bitcoin gathered throughout the experiment was stored.
The article concluded:
“The world’s most popular digital currency is really nothing more than an abstraction. So we’re destroying the private key used by our bitcoin wallet. That leaves our growing pile of bitcoin lucre locked away in a digital vault for all eternity — or at least until someone cracks the SHA-256 encryption that secures it.”
At the end of the day, even if the coins are locked, the squandered bits ends up being like a reward for the community as the loss only contributes to bitcoin’s scarcity. The public address used to store the bitcoins generated by the experiment is; .
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Indian authorities have joined forces together to stifle the growth of its local cryptospace. In the latest development, the Supreme Court has refused to grant an interim injunction against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directive prohibiting domestic financial institutions from rendering banking services to firms in the blockchain-based virtual currency world.
No Room for bitcoin
According to a tweet by Crypto Kanoon, a group of Indian legal luminaries whose primary area of focus is on carrying out regulatory analysis and creating mass awareness, the Supreme Court has denied an interim injunction against the nation’s apex bank and has adjourned the case until May 17, 2018.
Supreme Court declined to grant interim injunction against RBI banking restriction. Fixed the matter for hearing on 17th May.
— Crypto Kanoon (@cryptokanoon)
On April 5, 2018, the RBI sent out a circular to all banks and regulated financial institutions, them to stop facilitating financial transactions of -related companies.
As contained in the letter, the RBI feels cryptocurrencies are only good at aiding illegal activities such as money laundering and the likes.
An excerpt from the circular , “Reserve Bank has repeatedly through its public notices on December 24, 2013, February 01, 2017 and December 05, 2017, cautioned users, holders and traders of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, regarding various risks associated in dealing with such virtual currencies.”
“In view of the associated risks, it has been decided that, with immediate effect, entities regulated by the Reserve Bank shall not deal in VCs or provide services facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs.”
Appealing the Ban
On receiving the news that banks would no longer handle their business transactions, 11 representatives from various firms in the virtual currency space took the matter to the Supreme Court and pleaded that there should be an interim injunction against the RBI directive. However, the court has taken sides with the apex bank so far, and the until May 17.
While the RBI has maintained its draconian stance on cryptocurrencies so far, virtual currency investors and firms in the country have refused to give up without a fight.
On April 25, 2018, BTCManager that Kali Digital Ecosystems Private Limited, a firm that operates a multi cryptocurrency exchange had filed a writ petition against the RBI, arguing that its blanket ban on cryptos was against articles 19(1)(g) and 14 of the Indian constitution.
Khaitan and Co., the legal counsel of the firm, declared that the Central Bank’s sudden restrictions should be considered illegal as they violate the laws of the land.
“The move by the RBI has put the burgeoning cryptocurrency sector in jeopardy and may affect the basic rights of such entities to carry on any trade. The circular appears to be arbitrary and unconstitutional since it does not give strong facts as to why RBI is against the business of cryptocurrencies,” said Rashmi Deshpande, an advocate at Khaitan and Co.
A Massive Exodus and Brain Drain
India’s harsh crypto environment is already pushing local virtual currency-powered businesses away from the country, to regions like and other places with amenable regulations for the cryptosphere.
bitcoin evangelist and investors in the blockchain industry such as Tim Draper have the RBI’s move, stating it would inevitably result in a brain drain that would be detrimental to India, as bitcoin and blockchain would disrupt industries for good soon.
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