Unchained - Unconfirmed: Why Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Calls Crypto 'the Wave of the Future' - Ep.223

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez talks about how Miami plans to be the crypto capital of the world. In this show, he discusses: what Miami is doing to become the crypto capital of the world (1:40) why he... feels so strongly about bringing crypto to Miami (3:09) the relationship between cryptocurrencies and government (4:08) why he believes that, in the future, governments will transaction in crypto, not fiat currency (5:26) his feelings about the FTX sponsorship proposal and how he convinced city officials to move past crypto’s tumultuous past (6:51) whether city of Miami employees have expressed interest in being paid in bitcoin (10:06) what needs to happen for Miami to be able to hold BTC in its treasury (11:25) how Mayor Suarez balances his interest in Bitcoin against his interest in mitigating the effects of climate change on Miami (14:24) Crypto News Recap (18:00)   Thank you to our sponsors!  Download the Crypto.com app and get $25 with the code “Laura”:  https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2021   Check out InterPop, a superteam redefining the future of NTFs and fandom! https://hellointerpop.io/?utm_source=Unchained&utm_medium=episode-sponsorship&utm_campaign=interpop-launch&utm_content=interpop   Episode Links:   Francis Suarez - Mayor of Miami Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrancisSuarez    Miami and Crypto  Overview New York Times: https://www.nytimes3xbfgragh.onion/2021/03/23/business/dealbook/miami-suarez-crypto.html  CNBC interview: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/02/17/miami-mayor-francis-suarez-on-push-to-accept-bitcoin-attract-big-tech.html  Forbes Coverage: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerhuang/2021/02/01/miamis-mayor-leads-the-charge-to-bring-bitcoin-to-americas-largest-cities/?sh=5bbbbf68c6c9 https://www.forbes.com/sites/leeorshimron/2021/02/07/miami-mayor-francis-suarez-talks-bitcoin--building-a-tech-innovation-hub/?sh=1d1c40691a53  FTX Naming Rights Press Release: https://www.miamidade.gov/releases/2021-03-23-mayor-arena-agreement.asp  The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/99134/report-ftx-miami-heat-stadium-vote  Bitcoin paying employees in BTC + investing treasury in BTC: https://twitter.com/francissuarez/status/1360069847971954690?lang=en   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/tesla-is-a-hodler/   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, quick announcement. For last week's Unchained giveaway, I'd like to congratulate our three winners. At Matthew Mori, at A.H.D. Rick, and at Why Are You Like This? I received a ton of submissions, and it was super fun seeing which podcasts you enjoyed the most. It looks like NFTs are the most popular topic right now. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest. For more fun content, be sure to follow the Unchained Pod account on Twitter. That's at Unchained underscore Pod. And to our three winners, enjoy the Real Vision crypto gathering, which wraps up the day this show comes out. Be sure to check out my interview with Willie Wu and Peter Brandt at 1030 a.m. Eastern. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unconfirmed. The show that reveals how the marquee names and crypto are reacting to the week's top headlines and gets the inside scoop on what they see on the horizon.
Starting point is 00:00:54 I'm your host, Laura Shin, a journalist with over two decades of experience. I started covering crypto five years ago and as a senior editor at Forbes was the first mainstream media reporter to cover cryptocurrency full-time. You may have heard about Interpop, a superteam laser focused on the emerging landscape of fandom. They are tapping into the latest innovations in NFTs to revolutionize gaming, collectibles, and comics on Tezos. Learn more at hellointerpop.io. The crypto.com app pays you up to 8.5% interest on your Bitcoin. Get $25 when you download the crypto.com app with code Laura. The link is in the description. Today's guest is Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
Starting point is 00:01:36 Welcome, Mayor Suarez. Hi, Laura. It's a pleasure to be with you. As we record, Miami looks poised to approve the first cryptocurrency exchange sponsor of an NBA arena. Friday, which is the day this episode comes out, the Miami-Dade County Commission will vote on whether or not to approve the deal in which the current American Airlines arena would be renamed FTX Arena. How did this deal come about? Well, it was an open bid, and they bid, I think, $135 million for the naming rights. So they put in a very big bid. But I think it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the fact that Miami is trying and striving very, very much to become the crypto capital of the world.
Starting point is 00:02:17 And we're doing that, frankly, by doing some things that I think are very easy. The first thing we did was we scoured the United States to find out what are the most crypto-friendly laws in the U.S. We found out that it was Wyoming. So we promptly copied their laws, tried to improve them, and now have a bill in the House and in the Senate that is making its way up to the governor, which would make Florida the most crypto-friendly state in the nation. And then as a city, we implemented a resolution that would allow our employees to get paid in Bitcoin, that would allow our residents to pay for fees in Bitcoin, and that would allow the city or at least explore the possibility of the city. investing in Bitcoin. So we've wanted to sort of own this space because we think that cryptocurrencies are the wave of the future and we want to be known as the city of the future. And how did you come to that conclusion and to have that desire to make Miami a crypto capital? Part of it was work
Starting point is 00:03:18 that I had been doing prior to this moment. I was on the Florida Blockchain Foundation and also on the Florida Blockchain Task Force that was established by the governor and the CFO of Florida. And so for me, you know, I knew about this technology early. I'm a finance undergrad, so I have a degree in finance. So I understand the financial concepts, the mathematical concepts that underpin it. And I understand people's frustration with government and government overspending and government trying to manipulate through policy, a variety of objectives. And I think that's what has, you know, attracted people to a system that is decentralized,
Starting point is 00:03:56 that is untethered to a central bank. And I think that's what makes it exciting, especially when you see some of the actions that are being taken by governments across the country and across the world. Well, that's interesting to have that take when you actually work in government. So how do you see the two blending together?
Starting point is 00:04:17 I think they have to interact like everything in life. I'm hoping that there's some benefits and some positive byproducts of this sort of cryptocurrency. the currency revolution, I think one of them will be, hopefully the elimination of deficit spending, where hopefully governments are going to now have to tether themselves to crypto as a currency, as opposed to the other way around. And so they're going to have to borrow money, like everybody else borrows money.
Starting point is 00:04:45 They can't just print their own money. You know, they borrow money at an interest rate. And if governments don't behave fiscally, they're going to have to borrow worse and worse rates. They just can't invent their own interest rates and invent their own. currency, which manipulates how markets work. And so I think that could be a tremendous future benefit. We in the city of Miami, just to give you an example, we're forced to balance our budget. So it's very natural for us. We actually have a surplus. We actually have about $150 million in surplus. And we have some of the lowest tax rates in the history of the city. So there is
Starting point is 00:05:18 totally a space where government can be small, can be nimble, efficient, deliver services without taxing people to death or without deficit spending. And so just the future that you described it basically sounds like a future in which people transact in non-governmental currencies and fiat is not dominant the way it is today. Is that what do you think will happen? I can totally see a future that that happens. In fact, that's really kind of a regression to our past. You know, government fiats are relatively recent in terms of human history. And, you know, it would not surprise me if, you know, the debacle. democratization of technology allows for people to come to a common understanding as to what they think has value and exchange from there, which is essentially what Bitcoin is or cryptocurrencies, right? It's a digital mechanism where people have agreed we're going to assign value to this,
Starting point is 00:06:10 you know, mechanical technological piece of data. And that's what we're going to trade. And then, of course, all the benefits flow from that. So as long as regulation doesn't impede it unnecessarily or there isn't like some sort of a main a big hack or anything like that. I see that the trend in the trajectory, particularly as you see governments implement monetary policy that creates a tremendous amount of inflation, I see the trajectory as being one that's on the upswing, kind of like this crane right behind me. Right, which for people who are listening in the audio, there is pretty much a near vertical crane right behind his head.
Starting point is 00:06:50 Yes. And so just a quick question, back to the FTA. Sponsorship, since it's a 19-year agreement and the crypto markets are known to have these bull and their cycles, is there any concern amongst the commissioners or other city officials about signing FTCS for such a long-term sponsorship? Not really. I mean, we'll know on Friday for sure, but I don't think so. I mean, I think it's a very generous agreement.
Starting point is 00:07:14 It could very well end up being a very inexpensive agreement for them if the price of Bitcoin continues to go up in the way that it's gone up. When I put the resolution on the commission meeting, it was traded. at 47. I don't know if it's at 55 now. It was at 55 earlier. So it's already up, you know, almost 20%. What's it up to now? 56. There you go. So somebody in my office is telling me 56. So it's up, you know, almost $10,000. It could, that $135 million price tag could look paltry. And that's probably what they're banking on, frankly, in the next five years. Forget about 10 years. Yeah. Yeah, it is true, obviously, over the long term.
Starting point is 00:07:53 it has been pretty parabolic. And I was also curious because obviously, as you're probably well aware, a lot of people in kind of what we would say, the normie world, the non-crypto world, view crypto as being volatile or associated with criminals. And so I just wondered, like, were there any perceptions amongst the other city officials that you had to overcome? And if so, what arguments did you find effective and persuasive with them? Well, the answer is yes. Of course, there were people that we had to convince and some people that weren't convinced. We had, you know, not everybody voted for it. It was a four to one vote.
Starting point is 00:08:28 One of the commissioners voted against it. And my argument was the currency on which the most illicit activity in the world, in the history of the world has happened, is the dollar. Okay. So we're not taking the dollar out of circulation because illicit of activities have, you know, have used the dollar to, you know, to transact business. I mean, there's all the famous stories of, you know, Colombian, or I shouldn't even say the national.
Starting point is 00:08:52 but drug dealers who are, you know, stuffing $100 bills in their drywall. So, I mean, that part, to me, it's kind of nonsensical to make the argument that, no, no, no, no, we should go to dollars because crypto has a tendency to be affiliated with criminal activities when dollars are the, are the fiat currency that has most been used in the history of humanity for criminal activity. I mean, it's kind of a silly argument. Okay. So in a moment, we will discuss the possibility of Miami transacting in Bitcoin, but first a quick word for the sponsors who make this show possible. With over 10 million users, crypto.com is the easiest place to buy and sell over 90 cryptocurrencies. Grow your crypto with crypto.com earn, which pays up to 8.5% interest on your Bitcoin and 14% interest on your stable coins. When it's time to spend your crypto, nothing beats the crypto.com visa card, which pays you up to 8% back instantly.
Starting point is 00:09:49 and gives you 100% rebates for your Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon Prime subscriptions. Download the crypto.com app now and get $25 by using the code Laura. The link is in the description. Back to my conversation with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. So as you mentioned earlier, the city may pay city employees in Bitcoin and also have the city's corporate treasury invest in Bitcoin. And I wondered, where is that interest coming from? city employees demanding or requesting to be paid in Bitcoin? Or what has their reaction been to this possibility? No, they're not, not really. You know, this was just something that we thought was an
Starting point is 00:10:30 interesting way for us to continue to be innovative, to give our employees options. You know, none of them are forced to do it. It's completely voluntary at whatever level they want. They could theoretically do it already on their own. I mean, they could get paid in dollars and go to an exchange and buy Bitcoin. So it's just sort of a mechanism that allows them to do it instantaneously. But it's, it's exciting because it also helps Bitcoin on what I call their, their ascendancy to mainstream. And I think a big part of Bitcoin's success is it being approved by and used by governmental agencies, because that's seen as one of the biggest threats to Bitcoin. So I think from a, from a branding perspective and from a sending to, you know, to mainstreaming perspective,
Starting point is 00:11:21 it's a really significant event for the Bitcoin community and the crypto community. And for the possibility of the city treasury investing in Bitcoin, what needs to happen to make that possible? Well, we're doing some legal research to see if we can even hold Bitcoin. That's something that we have to first figure out whether it's a legal investment. asset. If it is, then the second thing, the second threshold, I think, is you touch a little bit on its volatility. So we're only allowed to invest in certain kinds of assets that have a certain volatility threshold, even if they're going up completely, right? It's not about, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:01 their direction per se, even though it should be. It's more about their movement and, and what kind of an asset class can you invest in. So those are the analysis that have to take place before we can decided. And then, of course, you know, I've thought about some creative ways to defray the city's risk by maybe getting some big crypto holders to co-invest with the city so that it becomes less risky for the city and it becomes something that's more easily accepted by the residents. And how would that co-investment make it less risky for the city? Well, let's say for example that, let's see for example, that the city invested $250,000. I'm just making up numbers.
Starting point is 00:12:42 and the co-investors invested $750. But on the gains, right, on the gains, the city first gets back, it's $2.50, right? And then the co-investors get back their money, but their money stays in, right? They get back their $750, but their original $750 stays in. So the city ends up making, you know, back its money plus the balance. So their upside is significantly greater. And then, you know, obviously if there's a downside loss, the loss gets borne first by the co-investors and last by the city.
Starting point is 00:13:15 So that's just an idea that I've had that I've come up with. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to do something like that, but I think it's a creative way of defraying the risk so that you can sort of get your feet wet and dip your toe in the water without creating a tremendous amount of risk that your residents might be afraid of. And how long is this study expected to take? Hard to say. I mean, we have, you know, government and nothing ever is as fast as you want it to be.
Starting point is 00:13:41 And, you know, we have a lot of big projects that we're working on. We just came back from Las Vegas talking about a boring tunnel. So we're working out a variety of big projects. It's going to take whatever time. I'm always, I'm very anxious and sort of impatient. So, but we want to make sure that everybody's comfortable. We want to make sure our council's comfortable, you know. At the end of the day, this is not done by executive fiat.
Starting point is 00:14:01 You know, it's not like I can just wave a pen and make it happen. So, you know, you have, you know, you have to study it. And then you have to get your commission, your counsel, comfortable with it so that they approve it. And last topic, there's been a lot of controversy recently about the environmental impact of proof of work mining, which is what's used by Bitcoin. And Miami will be probably one of the city's hardest hit by climate change. So how do you reconcile your interest in Bitcoin as well as its potential impacting the environment against your love for Miami and your interest in mitigating the effects of climate change there? Extremely easy. Extremely easy to reconcile those two things because a part of the problem with Bitcoin,
Starting point is 00:14:40 mining is 90% of it is not done in the United States. 90% of it is done in countries that have dirty energy. So that's the reason why it's considered to be a dirty activity. But for example, in Miami, we would love to be a mining hub. For A, national security reasons, we don't think 90% of mining should be outside of the U.S. And B, we get nuclear power. So we have clean energy, a clean energy supply that's essentially unlimited. And so we have the ability to have to supply mining.
Starting point is 00:15:10 centers and data centers in perpetuity with clean energy. So it actually would be to the benefit of the crypto community if we did more mining in the U.S. because we, by and large, produce clean energy. So it would change that narrative and that dynamic. And I also think in the future you're going to see solar and other kinds of clean technology hydrogen as technology that propels mining, as well as you're going to see mining happening happening in the different forms. They're going to be bigger hash blocks. They're going to be, you know, more efficient in terms of authentication changes in terms of how, you know, Bitcoin and other transactions on the blockchain are authenticated. That's going to, that's going to be, that's going to reform.
Starting point is 00:15:57 So I think technology is going to make it more efficient, less expensive and less power consuming. And just one quick question on what you said when you were talking about mining in the U.S. Miami is very hot and obviously Bitcoin miners generate even more heat. So were you saying that you would want to do the mining in Florida or you mean just like in a colder part of the U.S.? No, no. I think it could be anywhere in the U.S., but certainly it could be in Miami as well. I mean, I don't think that the mining activity itself is going to contribute to the heat of the
Starting point is 00:16:25 city. I've never heard or seen of a study where the mining activity itself or data center, which, by the way, I don't know if I'm sure you've been to a bunch of data centers. I mean, their insulation is incredible. because they have to be basically bomb-proof, right? So you could drop a huge bomb on a data center, and they are guardians of the infrastructure, the technological infrastructure of a city.
Starting point is 00:16:48 So it's very unlikely that they're pushing off a tremendous amount of heat from the source itself. Okay. Well, actually, I mean, they do generally a lot of heat, but also then it takes energy to cool them down and whatever. But anyway, okay. But is that happening internal? Is that happening internal or external?
Starting point is 00:17:07 Well, I mean, some of them are, you know, like you said, kind of, I think in underground or in bunkers, but then others, I think, are, you know, just like a normal building. So it sort of depends on what the setup is. But this is for discussion, maybe when there's like an actual plan in the works and we can to talk about it then. All right. Well, thank you. That's fair. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on Unconfirmed. Thank you so much for having me. Don't forget. Next up is the weekly news recap. Stick around for this week in crypto after this short break. Meet Interpop, a super team redefining the feature of NFTs and fandom.
Starting point is 00:17:43 From comics and trading card games to digital collectibles and everything in between, they are building the architecture of an entirely new landscape of fandom using technology built on the TASOS blockchain to drive their vision. Visit hellointerpop.io to learn more. Thanks for tuning in to this week's news recap. First headline. Fidelity files for a Bitcoin ETF. An affiliate of Fidelity filed for a Bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The proposed ETF notes the application will, quote, provide direct exposure to Bitcoin and track the price of VTC through
Starting point is 00:18:25 Fidelity's in-house Bitcoin price index, which adjusts for the trust's expenses. Fidelity digital assets will custody the underlying Bitcoin. Fidelity's ETF will be named, the Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust. A subtle nod to Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator. On Twitter, Alex Thorne, head of firm-wide research at Galaxy Digital, pointed out that in Japanese, Satoshi means wisdom, and Nakamoto means origin. In a statement to the block, a fidelity spokesperson expounded on the filing, saying, quote, the digital assets ecosystem has grown significantly in recent years, creating an even more robust marketplace for investors and accelerating demand among institutions. An increasingly wide range of investors seeking access to Bitcoin has underscored the need for a more
Starting point is 00:19:16 diversified set of products offering exposure to digital assets. Fidelity's interests into the Bitcoin ETF race comes right on the heels of similar efforts by Van Eck, Valkyrie, NYDIG, Wisdom Tree, and First Advisors slash Skybridge. Next headline. Base's direct listing draws scrutiny to the firm's prospects, Brian Armstrong's net worth and customer service. Mario Gabriale, founder of Tech Newsletter, The Generalist, along with well-known crypto analysts such as Jill Carson, Ryan Todd, and Catherine Wu, wrote up a comprehensive piece on the paradoxes of Coinbase as a centralized exchange championing the rise of decentralization. The article is too long to summarize here, but I recommend it for those looking for a thorough
Starting point is 00:20:03 analysis on Coinbase ahead of its direct listing. Some choice highlights include the correlation between Coinbase's revenue growth and Bitcoin price has been around 70% for the past few years. Institutional trading made up 64% of Coinbase's trading volume while only accounting for 5% of revenue. Transaction fees made up 86% of Coinbase's revenue in 2020. CNBC reports the much-anticipated Coinbase Direct Listening is poised to make co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong a very wealthy man. At the latest valuation, Armstrong's stake in the company is worth $13.6 billion, which would leave him in the company of recent tech founders like Zooms, Eric Yuan at $16 billion, Twitter's Jack Dorsey at $13 billion, and Shopify's Evan Spiegel at $10 billion in net worth.
Starting point is 00:20:57 In Coinbase's virtual AMA or Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Armstrong made headlines by acknowledging that Coinbase would support central bank digital currencies if and when they met the exchange's listing standards. In response to a question about Coinbase providing special blockchain-based shares to early customers, a la Crypto AirDrop, Chief Financial Officer Alicia Haas, with such rumors to rest, saying there will be, quote, no opportunity to to invest in the company prior to that direct listing. She revealed, however, that Coinbase had researched the idea of a security token, a digital representation of a stock instead of a standard IPO.
Starting point is 00:21:41 Haas cited a lack of opportunity for institutional investors as the reason why a blockchain native security never materialized. The Coinbase news cycle was not all positive. Last Friday, the CFTC fined the exchange $6.5 million. for allegedly providing misleading information about the trading volume on its platform GDAX, now rebranded as Coinbase Pro, between 2015 and 2018. The CFTC pointed out two in-house software programs that traded with each other, inflating the asset prices and volume on GDAX.
Starting point is 00:22:15 The agency also alleged that a former Coinbase employee participated in Wash trading, using Likecoin Bitcoin trading pairs. In a tweet thread, Evan Lorenz, a deputy editor at Grant's interest rate observer, speculated that Coinbase, which now, based on his revenues, would not be defined as an emerging growth company, quote, skated under the emerging growth deadline based on when it filed. This means that, along with other emerging growth companies, it is now only required to disclose two years of financials in its S-1. He rightly noted that the period of time for which it provided financials, quote,
Starting point is 00:22:51 begins just after the CFTC said that Coinbase stopped conducting wash trades to give the illusion of more training volume. The NFT looked into how Coinbase struggles with customer service by following several customers who lost five and six-figure amounts of crypto on the platform after their accounts were hacked. They say they received little to no customer support for long periods of time. The Coinbase said that only 0.004% of its users had experienced such an attack. The company said it has added 2,000 customer service reps to help in such circumstances, but the story is a reminder to secure your passwords and always use second-factor authentication services such as Google Authenticator or a UBee.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Next headline. Uniswap finally unveils V3 plans. Uniswap was introduced in true crypto fashion via an announcement of an announcement in a dramatic 46-second video featuring three unicorns and a hidden message written in the stars. A few hours later, Uniswap released a blog post, outlining the V3 plan, and setting May 5th as the target launch date. Uniswap V3 aims to be, quote, the most flexible and efficient AMM or automated market maker ever designed, and will, quote, provide liquidity with up to 4,000x capital efficiency relative to Uniswap V2. The heart of the update is centered on the concept of concentrated liquidity, which allows that. liquidity providers more control over the price range their markets trade on.
Starting point is 00:24:25 This version of Uniswap will launch with a business source license that delays the commercial use of the code for up to two years, perhaps in response to Sushi Swap, a rival that previously copied and pasted Uniswap's code to create a competitor. The question now becomes, as Jose Macedo, partner at Delphi Digital, asked on Twitter, how do you enforce a license if an anonymous and decentralized team forks the code. On a related node, Google search volume for Uniswap reached its highest point since September 2020. Next headline. FATF changes the definition of NFTs and DAPs. The Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, the intergovernmental organization tasked with developing anti-money laundering and other financial surveillance policies,
Starting point is 00:25:17 released draft guidance with two changes that could transform DFI. First, it expanded the definition of VASPs, virtual asset service providers, to include many defy applications or DAPs. That could require decentralized platforms to conform to the same anti-money laundering laws traditional financial institutions follow. Secondly, FAT have changed the phrase, quote, assets that are fungible to, quote, assets that are convertible and interchangeable. The new terminology would lump certain NFTs under the same regulations as virtual assets if the tokens were used to facilitate money laundering or terrorism. Peter Van Valkenberg, Director of Research at Coin Center, a blockchain advocacy organization,
Starting point is 00:26:03 called the proposed changes problematic. In a blog post, he wrote, quote, classification as a VASP would obligate these non-custodial persons to register with a local regulator, collect, and report to government masses of information about their activities and the activities of others, and to know the names and physical addresses of everyone with whom they interact. Those requirements may be reasonable for banks and other financial institutions where most money laundering takes place, but they are absolutely inappropriate for private persons participating in open computer networks. Ian Taylor, chair of Trade Association Crypto UK, also criticizes the changes, saying, FATF are recommending to the governments that they do everything they
Starting point is 00:26:47 can to stop digital asset-related financial relations that aren't intermediated. FATIF will be accepting public comments on the draft language until April 20th. Next headline. Elon Musk mines BTC through Tesla sales. You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin. Elon tweeted out on Wednesday, earning 762,000 likes. His announcement comes just over a month after Tesla revealed a $1.5 billion. billion dollar Bitcoin investment and vague plans to accept BTC as payment. Musk went on to clarify that, quote, Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency, designating Tesla as a corporate hodler.
Starting point is 00:27:33 He also noted that pay by Bitcoin capability will be available outside the U.S. later this year. Time for an NFT roundup. After his historic NFT sale at Christie's, digital artist Beeple received 53,000. million dollars in ether and promptly converted it to US dollars. In an interview with Fox News, he called the recent search in NFT prices a bubble, though he does believe that the technology behind NFTs will outlive the bubble, much like what happened with the internet. Time magazine offered up three non-fungible tokens inspired by Time's most iconic covers this week.
Starting point is 00:28:09 One, is God dead. Two, is truth dead. Three, is Fiat dead. The NFTs sold for 241 Eth or $385,000 on Superware Thursday. Jack Dorsey sold his original tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million. Dorsey converted all proceeds from the auction to Bitcoin and donated to Give Directly's Africa response. The New York Times released a recent column as an NFT and is auctioning it off for the Nidious Cases Fund. The article, ironically about NFTs, sold for $350,000.
Starting point is 00:28:47 thousand eth or $550,000 on Thursday. Time for fun bits. Bitcoin's energy consumption rationalized? As criticism over Bitcoin's environmental impact heats up, the community has banded together with ways to rationalize the energy used to power the proof of work blockchain. Nick Grossman, general partner at Union Square Ventures, used crypto mining as a battery, transforming electricity into value in the form of digital assets. He believes Bitcoin as battery will shift the narrative from, quote,
Starting point is 00:29:23 Crypto mining is a dangerously large consumer of energy to, quote, crypto mining is driving the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables. Square Crypto also chimed in, releasing the first volume of a Bitcoin mythology series. The pithy introduction reads, quote, Since there are no more prominent or prevalent myths about Bitcoin than those having to do with its environmental impact, we started there. While thought-provoking and quirky, both the Bitcoin as a battery concept and the idea that Bitcoin's environmental concerns are mythological, lack a quantitative foundation, which will be necessary in the coming years for the marketing war over the environmental impact of proof of work. This week, I will allow Bitcoin's creator the last word on proof of work. Quote, the marginal cost of gold mining tends to stay near the price of gold.
Starting point is 00:30:13 Gold mining is a waste, but that waste is far less than the utility of having gold. available as a medium of exchange. I think the case will be the same for Bitcoin. The utility of the exchanges made possible by Bitcoin will far exceed the cost of electricity used. Therefore, not having Bitcoin would be the net waste. All right, thanks for tuning in. To learn more about Miami, Mayor Francis Juarez, be sure to check out the links in the show notes. Don't forget, we are now on YouTube. Subscribe to the Unchained podcast channel today. Unconfirmed is produced by me, Laura Shin with help from Anthony Youne, Mark Murdoch, and Daniel Nuss. Thanks for listening.

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