13th April 2023 - Zambia.

tl;dr

Crypto adoption in Zambia.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

BTC comfortably holding onto the 30-handle, which is a pleasant surprise. One might have expected weak hands to be taking advantage of this price point as we are now above break-even price for most holders of BTC.

Could it be that those months spent priced in the mid-teens saw a wholesale move away from weak hands into diamond hands? If so, that would be very positive for future price action, as those weak hands gnash their teeth in frustration at having taken hefty losses and get ready to open their chequebooks again.

Occasional Series – How AI nearly escaped into the wild

https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/gpt-4-tried-to-escape-into-the-internet-today-and-it-almost-worked-2689e549afb5

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Ethereum upgrade Shanghai

The upgrade and hard fork were successfully implemented yesterday. The key change is that stakers of ETH can now withdraw staking rewards, and staked ETH. So far, nearly 86,000 ETH have been withdrawn, worth approximately $170mm:

https://beaconcha.in/validators/withdrawals

A cursory glance suggests that many withdrawals are between 2 and 3 ETH, which are likely to be staking rewards. These withdrawals are probably headed to centralised crypto currency exchanges to be sold for fiat.

Meanwhile, I suspect the success of this upgrade – giving confidence that staking is working as it should – means that a whole load of previously unstaked ETH will now be staked.

Shanghai will be positive for ETH price action.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Zambia

In an interview with Reuters, Science and Technology Minister Felix Mutati has provided an update on Zambia’s moves towards embracing cryptos.

The government has been running various tests that simulate crypto usage with the aim of developing the infrastructure required to support the development of crypto finance in Zambia. High on the list of concerns is a genuine desire to allow for innovation allied with customer protection. Felix explains:

"Our main goal in the area of cryptocurrency is to strike a balance between innovation in terms of digital payments ... against citizens' safety, particularly given that cryptocurrency is very volatile. The central bank is simulating that to see what would happen in the real world. The results will assist us (in) the formulation of the regulation."

Felix also tweeted “We continue engaging people on how we can achieve digital financial inclusion.”

…

One of the more wildly successful use cases for cryptos will be to provide banking services to the previously unbanked. Many of the less fortunate souls in the world rely on foreign exchange remittances from a globally dispersed diaspora, which come with hefty fees, and slow transmission.

Cryptos have the potential to be a life-changing force of good for such people, a development that will be very exciting to watch unfold.