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Lightning Speed: Accelerators And Incubators Focus Their Sights On Bitcoin

You know what incubators and accelerators mean: interest. They say that bear markets are for builders, and the bitcoin ecosystem seems to be getting ready to work. One of the main catalysts is the success of the Lightning Network. The little engine that could went from being constantly mocked to being a key element in the El Salvador story. Nowadays, the Lightning Network is the bitcoin ecosystem’s absolute star and one of the reasons money is pouring in.

The three accelerators and incubators that this article will consider couldn’t be more different from each other, but they share the bitcoin-only ethos. And an unhealthy interest in the Lightning Network. From a Jack Dorsey-funded initiative, to a corporate ultra-deluxe opportunity, to a bunch of technically minded individuals that opened their doors in the name of bitcoin. Pick your poison, there’s probably an accelerator for you here. 

The TBD Open-Source Incubation Program

The Jack Dorsey-funded organization that’s working in the decentralized bitcoin exchange TBDex can probably help your bitcoin project. They recently announced the TBD Open Source Incubation Program, but there’s not much practical info on it yet. “TBD Incubation projects are managed by community contributors. They advance the decentralized web and accelerate development and adoption of the Web5 platform,” the company wrote.

They did specify that the program was focused on Open-Source projects and said that TBD will “soon be announcing our first Incubation project!” The announcement also promised that “when projects reach maturity, they may apply to be promoted out of Incubation into a central project,” so the TBD program might turn into an accelerator over time.

BTCUSD price chart for 11/03/2022 - TradingView

BTC price chart for 11/03/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

The Wolf Startup Accelerators Focused Exclusively On Lightning

This is the corporate one. This is the deluxe one. It’s run by “Stone Ridge, owner of an alternatives asset manager that has raised more than $40B since inception and parent of bitcoin company NYDIG.” Among other things, they offer, “transportation to NYC and lodging for the duration of the 8-week program are included from anywhere in the world.” The program is exclusively focused on the Lightning Network.“Wolf accepts applications from individual founders and small teams at the pre-seed idea stage up through those ready for a Series A financing round.”

The investments are also deluxe, selected developers get a $250K guaranteed seed funding, so they can focus all of their attention on the project. Also, “at the end of each program, one team will be chosen by a panel of judges to receive an additional $500K in funding.” That, plus all the knowledge you and your team can collect in those eight weeks.

The Pleb Lab Co-Working/ Accelerators

In contrast, Pleb Lab is “a co-working / accelerator in Austin, Texas at the heart of the financial district. We support outstanding projects and teams in several ways.” They are bitcoin-only, with a focus on “the Lightning Network – an essential step towards decentralized finance.” Their other focus is free and open-source development, “the FOSS ethos is at the center of what we do here at Pleb Lab.”

What does the Pleb Lab accelerator do, exactly?

  • “Working directly with Bitcoin & Lightning startups”

  • “Granting workspace among other brilliant Bitcoin developers at Pleb Lab”

  • “Providing startup advisory and mentoring”

  • “Providing business development, marketing and strategy”

The Austin bitcoin scene is growing by the minute, and Pleb Lab is right there in the middle of it. Apparently, one of its best characteristics is to be in the same room with other bitcoin developers trying to solve similar problems to yours. As you might imagine, they all help each other. This one is not a competition and there are no obvious prizes.

Featured Image: Pleb Lab logo from their website | Charts by TradingView

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Subsidiary Of Block Inc. Collaborates With Circle To Promote Global USDC Adoption

One of the expectations of the crypto community is adoption, a journey on which USDC has embarked. The more countries adopt crypto and its products, the better the industry thrives in value and utility. That’s why the reports of adoptions always evoke a sense of satisfaction in enthusiasts.

Following cryptocurrency adoption reports from different countries year after year, 2020 and 2021 recorded the most global adoption based on transaction volumes. However, from quarter three of 2021 to 2022, the crypto adoption slightly leveled off the challenging market conditions.

However, despite the decline, the market has remained resilient, and long-term crypto investors continue to hold on, hoping for better outcomes. The Crypto industry Stakeholders try to explore endless options to enable the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies globally.

A recent report revealed that TBD, a subsidiary of Block Inc., has formed a collaboration with Circle to work on open-source and open-standard technologies. In addition, the partnership aims to promote the adoption of digital currencies for global transactions and financial applications.

Details Of The TBD-Circle Collaboration

TBD is an open-source platform that allows developers to create products and services on decentralized technologies. TBD plans to connect traditional payments and decentralized financial systems to promote digital currency through its products.

Block Inc. is a multinational tech firm founded by Jack Dorsey and co-founder Jim McKelvey. Block has many subsidiaries, such as Square, Cash App, Afterpay, and lots more. The company’s subsidiaries are majorly payments Platforms. It also owns a digital music streaming company known as Tidal. Block invested 1% of its total asset into Bitcoin in 2020.

On September 29, TBD posted a tweet announcing its partnership with Circle to support cross-border remittance and self-custody of USDC stablecoin. The circle is a global financial tech company that helps businesses and developers explore the power of digital currencies for payment and internet commerce worldwide.

The collaboration between TBD and Circle would undoubtedly yield benefits for the crypto industry. The Chief operating officer of TBD, Emily Chiu, thinks BTC is a potential reserve currency and might challenge the USD in the future. Chiu also feels the stablecoins would become the bridge between USD and BTC future.

Bitcoin on its way to closing above $19,500 l BTCUSDT on tradingview.com
TBD to Support USDC Use Cases For Cross-border Remittance

In the collaboration, TBD plans to support USDC in use cases. These use cases would enable developers to build on Block’s tbDEX protocol and Web5 decentralized identity platform.

The use cases include global real-time and low-cost remittance and self-custody USD-backed stablecoin wallets. The use cases would also enable businesses and consumers to make traditional payments using digital assets.

In the current US Feds’ monetary tightening policy and inflation, currencies of many countries have devaluated. As a result, the stablecoins are now remittance and savings alternatives.

TBD intends to support remittance in the United States and Mexico, targeting India, and the Philippines, the world’s largest remittance recipients. Mexico receives 95% of the remittances that come from the United States.

Featured Image Pixabay, Charts From Tradingview.com

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Intel Ships Blockscale ASIC Chips To Selected Bitcoin Mining Companies

It’s official, Intel is part of the bitcoin mining business. The gargantuan technology company announced its “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient” ASIC chip barely six months ago, and it’s already here. Under normal circumstances, infrastructural support from a multinational company like Intel would be tremendous for the bitcoin market. How will it react in the middle of all this chaos? Will it react at all? The news didn’t immediately do much, but the long-term effect remains to be seen.

Raja Koduri, Intel’s Architecture, Graphics and Software (IAGS) division’s senior vice president, recently tweeted: 

“Intel AXG Custom Compute team is now shipping the Blockscale ASIC! First product will always be unforgettable, congratulations team. Excited to see how Argo, Griid and Hive improvise around Blockscale and our open design.”

Notably absent from the list is BLOCK, Jack Dorsey’s company. Does that mean something or is BLOCK just fourth on the list? Three months ago, Bitcoinist quoted Raja Koduri emphatically saying:

“Our blockchain accelerator will ship later this year. We are engaged directly with customers that share our sustainability goals. Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly known as Square) and GRIID Infrastructure are among our first customers for this upcoming product.”

The Bitcoin Miners React To Intel’s Announcement

Green mining company Hive was the first to react, they tweeted “HIVE is proud to have partnered with Intel, and we can’t wait to put the new ASICs to good use mining BTC!” A few months ago, the company was much more eloquent in a press release NewsBTC quoted. “These miners are expected to be delivered over a period of one year starting in the second half of calendar 2022, the effect of which, if they are all installed, would be an expected increase of up to 95% in our aggregate Bitcoin mining hashrate from 1.9 Exahash per second.”

For their part, Argo also went the simple route and tweeted. “Thanks, Raja Koduri and Intel. We’re excited to be innovating with these new ASIC chips in our custom immersion mining rigs. Our thanks to ePIC Blockchain for joining us on the ride.” That new player, ePIC Blockchain Technologies produces self-proclaimed “North American Designed ASIC RIGs.” So, innovation and customization are on the way.

Last but not least, let’s remember Raja Koduri’s words when Intel’s bitcoin mining experiment started: 

“Today, we at Intel are declaring our intent to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies, with a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators. Intel will engage and promote an open and secure blockchain ecosystem and will help advance this technology in a responsible and sustainable way.”  

Remember that statement as we pass to the next section.

BTC price chart for 07/04/2022 on Bitfinex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Mainstream Media Mocks Intel

In the eyes of mainstream media, bitcoin or anything related to it can’t do anything right. And this bear-market-of-sorts we’re into gives them the perfect ammunition to attack the technology and the billion-dollar market around it. Luckily, bitcoin doesn’t care. In the first mainstream article about Intel shipping its Blockscale ASIC chips ahead of time, The Register starts with valuable information:

“Blockscale is shipping a couple days ahead of Intel’s previously stated release window for the third quarter, which begins Friday. Even if it’s a tiny head start, it is nonetheless an achievement for a corporation that is becoming notoriously under-schedule across multiple products, including the Sapphire Rapids server chips and the discrete Arc GPUs.”

Only to then, start dunking on bitcoiners and Intel alike. They start with this:

“Experts and company officials are warning that the world of blockchain-fueled digital currencies is entering a crypto winter, a period where the value of virtual coins plunge and remain low. This last happened between early 2018 and mid-2020.”

And then, they dedicate 1000 words to the market’s condition instead of discussing Intel’s SEG energy-efficient intentions. Or the perfectly executed roll-out strategy that the company exhibited these last few months. Or the fact that bitcoin is humanity’s only hope.

Featured Image: Blockscale promotional image from this tweet | Charts by TradingView

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Bitcoin Hash Rate Jumps To Sky As BTC Falls Below $25k

Hash rate plays a vital role in every Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain. It measures the computational drive for all transaction verification and block additions to the network. Hence, the Bitcoin hash rate represents the number of people involved in BTC mining.

As the number of miners increases, the hash rate will also increase. This results in maintaining the security and stability of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Many investors will consider hash rates before engaging in any project.

Before now, the BTC price and hash rate have maintained a direct proportionality relation. This is because there are always more transactions with the buying and selling BTC when the price is up. With such a price surge, there will be more mining activities to mint more tokens to balance the liquidity.

Total Hash Rate of Bitcoin. Source: Blockchain.com

Related Reading | Bitcoin Weekly RSI Sets Record For Most Oversold In History, What Comes Next?

But the recent outturn of events has proved a deviation between the relationship between BTC price and hash rate. Despite the bearish market trend with BTC going below $25,000, its hash rate has drastically risen. Bitcoin hash rate has reportedly grown to a new all-time high of 231.428 ExaHash per second.

The network difficulty of Bitcoin follows similarly with the rise in its hash rate. It has created a formidable stance for BTC in its recent position at 30.283 trillion.

Bitcoin Records More Growth In Different Aspects

The new growth cuts across several BTC mining pools, including AntPool, Poolin, SlushPool, F2Pool, and ViaBTC. The highest part of the hash rate came from miners denoted as OTHERS.

Also, the BTC Lightning Network grew its capacity to 4,000 tokens. This is a network development that inculcates layer-2 (L2) technology. The present increase would facilitate cheaper and faster peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on the network.

Bitcoin is currently staging more substantial traction for sailing through the general crypto price drop. As the bearish market almost blows off most crypto protocols, Bitcoin is gradually thickening its survival instincts.

The BTC ecosystem’s components collectively create a more favorable and sustainable core. There is consistency in the growing all-time high for its network capacity, hash rate, and network difficulty.

Suggested Reading | Crypto Markets Lose $100 Billion As Bitcoin Drops Below $26K – More Pain Ahead?

The network is also getting backing from developers, miners, and traders. So, the Bitcoin network could get the ranking as the most global secured blockchain. Another implication is that the Bitcoin network is still healthy and functioning correctly. By that, there’s the hope of a rebound from the ongoing bearish trend.

Bitcoin took a drastic fall on the day chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

In a new development, TBD, a block subsidiary, has disclosed plans for building Web5. This new development would be a decentralized web solely for Bitcoin. The concept would emphasize the belief of Jack Dorsey, the founder, on getting more influence in internet evolution from BTC.

Featured image from BBC, chart from TradingView.com

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What Is El Zonte Capital? Could Keiser, Herbert, And Klippsten Shake The Market?

A new investment fund, El Zonte Capital hopes to bring the Bitcoin Beach experience to the whole world. Controversial journalists and podcasters Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert joined forces with Swan Bitcoin’s Cory Klippsten to put their money where their mouth is. El Zonte Capital has $5M in committed funding, and that’s just the beginning. 

Related Reading | Cool Valley Mayor Will Airdrop $1000 Worth Of BTC To Each Household

The place where El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law started, El Zonte AKA Bitcoin Beach is the inspiration behind the venture. “El Zonte is hyperbitcoinization. Hyperbitcoinization is economic freedom, and hyperbitcoinization is our main investment thesis,” Keiser said to Bitcoin Magazine. 

Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert Launch El Zonte Capital https://t.co/tZvf7u7Pte

— El Zonte Capital 🏄🌋🇸🇻 (@ElZonteCapital) February 15, 2022

For the last two months, Keiser and Herbert experienced the bitcoin life first-hand by living in El Salvador. Speaking about their conversations with politician and merchants around the country,  Herbert said, “We’ve been asking hard, deep questions to all of them and discussing their plans extensively. This is the place to be.” Keiser added, “After experiencing what it actually looks like, we see this as the inevitable near future for everyone else. We are riding this wave as any surfer would.”

What Will El Zonte Capital Do?

To get into the meat of things, we give the mic to Bitcoiner Ventures’ Cory Klippsten. He said, “We hope to facilitate a two-way exchange of ideas and resources, with companies around the world bringing their products and services to El Salvador, and companies based in El Salvador exporting their innovation to the rest of the world.”

The trio is no stranger to investing, nor to bitcoin-specific investment. As a partner in Bitcoiner Ventures, Klippsten has a stake in Impervious, social network Zion, the Breeze wallet; and giants like Galoy, Unchained Capital, and Bitrefill. For their part, Keiser and Herbert have investments in Kraken, Swan Bitcoin, and Bitfinex.

BTC price chart for 03/11/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Should You Bet On El Salvador?

El Zonte Capital’s founding members couldn’t be more bullish on bitcoin and El Salvador. Keiser told Bitcoin Magazine, “The future is all around us. I haven’t been this excited about Bitcoin since I first heard about Bitcoin.” Herbert added, “El Salvador is drawing in the smartest, most creative people. Jack Dorsey recently said that ‘a big part of the future is happening in El Salvador,’ and he’s not wrong. The future is now and it is right here”

Bitcoin conversation was had

🇸🇻💙🚀 pic.twitter.com/kOdxvBC9yX

— Stacy Herbert 🇸🇻 (@stacyherbert) February 11, 2022

Their answer to the title’s question is a resounding yes. “We will look at education and education technology to onboard as many people as possible. El Salvador will be bigger than Singapore.” Keiser’s prediction here is ambitious, to say the least. But bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador and not Singapore. And bitcoin companies know this. 

Can El Zonte Capital Shake The Market?

What does “hyperbitcoinization is our main investment thesis” mean? It means that El Zonte Capital is betting on the whole world adopting bitcoin. Will that happen overnight? Probably not. So, the investment fund is playing the long game. Also, they’re funding companies that will probably take years to take off. 

This is the move to watch. Our first true #bitcoin Citadel now has a warchest. Prepare yourselves ✊ https://t.co/LhpaumPmZm

— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) March 11, 2022

So, no, El Zonte Capital will not immediately shake the market. However, if you lower your time preference, you’ll be able to see the importance of this investment fund. Their capital allocation aims to make El Salvador’s experiment successful. Plus, they’re not investing in the present of the bitcoin network. El Zonte Capital is looking at the future. Planting the seeds of what is to come.

Related Reading | The 411 On “Adopting Bitcoin,” A Lightning Network Conference in El Salvador

So, yes, El Zonte Capital and the companies they fund will hopefully affect the market at a future date. If everything goes according to plan, hyperbitcoinization will take over the world. That’s the day El Zonte Capital is betting on.

Featured Image by 12019 on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView

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Intel Announces Mining Chips’ First Clients: BLOCK, Argo Blockchain, and GRIID

Intel ’s play to get into the bitcoin mining market might end up being the story of the year. In a post titled “Blockchain and the New Custom Compute Group,” Raja Koduri reveals a little of the company’s playbook. At Intel, he’s the senior vice president and general manager of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group. 

Related Reading | Jack Dorsey’s Block To Democratize Bitcoin Mining With Open Source Mining System

In the article, Koduri says, “we are focusing our efforts on realizing the full potential of blockchain by developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.” Intel’s play is deeper and harder than previously thought. They’re going all-in in the blockchain business. With a twist that every corporation is claiming for.  

“Today, we at Intel are declaring our intent to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies, with a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators. Intel will engage and promote an open and secure blockchain ecosystem and will help advance this technology in a responsible and sustainable way.”

That’s right, they’re tackling the problem “in a responsible and sustainable way.” And they’re calling the mining chips “accelerators” for some reason. Will the name catch on?

“Intel Labs has dedicated decades of research into reliable cryptography, hashing techniques and ultra-low voltage circuits. We expect that our circuit innovations will deliver a blockchain accelerator that has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining.”

This new line of Intel products responds directly to the ESG crowd. The bitcoin-consumes-too-much-energy FUD people. Soon enough, they’ll have to face Intel ’s PR machine.  How can bitcoin consume too much energy if Intel’s product “has over 1000x better performance per watt than mainstream GPUs for SHA-256 based mining”?

BTC price chart for 02/14/2022 on Kraken | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Who Are Intel ’s First Clients?

We can’t prove it, but, all of these companies probably knew years ago about Intel’s plans to release a bitcoin mining chip. Again, Raja Koduri:

“Our blockchain accelerator will ship later this year. We are engaged directly with customers that share our sustainability goals. Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly known as Square) and GRIID Infrastructure are among our first customers for this upcoming product. This architecture is implemented on a tiny piece of silicon so that it has minimal impact to the supply of current products.” 

When NewsBTC analyzed Intel’s chip announcement, we summarized the situation as:

“This could be huge. Intel plans to enter the Bitcoin mining space with a cleverly marketed “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient” ASIC chip. Considering that the chip shortage severely delayed the next generation of ASIC miners, this is tremendous. And, more importantly, it opens up the door for Bitcoin miners manufacturing in the USA. And in the rest of the Western world, even. ”

After that, we analyzed the situation’s implications:

“Now, the open-source Bitcoin miner that Jack Dorsey’s Block is working on makes a lot more sense. Theoretically, the silicon chip is the only part of an ASIC machine that can’t be bought in a hardware store. With that problem solved, by no less than an industry leader with immense manufacturing power, the sky’s the limit. If this whole thing materializes, expect a huge leap forward in the further decentralization of Bitcoin mining.”

Notice how Block is one of the first clients. And how Intel had the energy-efficient ASIC chip marketing ready from the get-go. And how Koduri even addressed the chip shortage in the last line there.

Intel’s Bonanza Chip’s Future

Reading between the lines, it’s clear that this is not a secondary project for Intel. They have high hopes for this low-energy chips play. Here, Koduri discusses the Custom Compute Group:

“The objective of this team is to build custom silicon platforms optimized for customers’ workloads, including blockchain and other custom accelerated supercomputing opportunities at the edge.

Onward, we aspire to leverage technologies from our zetta-scale computing initiative to deliver energy-efficient solutions.”

Related Reading | Green Energy: In NY, Bitcoin Mining Saved The Oldest Working Hydroelectric Plant

You read it here first, Intel ’s play to get into the bitcoin mining market might end up being the story of the year.

This is not financial advice, though.

Featured Image by geralt on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView