DD
MM
YYYY

CATEGORIES

PAGES

DD
MM
YYYY

spot_img

CATEGORIES

PAGES

Home Blog Page 5757

Tesla Divorcing Bitcoin Creates Uncertain Future for the Leading Cryptocurrency

By
Samuel Nwite
-
0

Bitcoin has lost one of its biggest fans, Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO, whose announcement of accepting bitcoin for Tesla’s purchase earlier in March, fueled the lead-cryptocurrency’s rally that hit $64,000 in April, made a statement on Wednesday that wiped as much as $365 billion off cryptocurrency market.

In a blow-dealing U-turn, Musk said Wednesday that Tesla will no longer accept bitcoin, citing mining energy concerns: 

“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin,” a statement shared by Musk on behalf of the electric vehicle company said. “We are concern about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”

The decision comes at the heels of another Musk’s announcement, that SpaceX will henceforth accept Dogecoin for space trips in Doge-1 Mission. These two happening at the same time appears like Musk is ditching bitcoin for Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency he has been cheerleading.

There is a rising concern over what Musk’s decision to divorce bitcoin will mean for the leading cryptocurrency. Bitcoin plunged close to 15% at the news, trading less than $50,000 as of Thursday.

Environmentalists have been hinting on the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the environment. Tesla, which has become a darling vehicle to many, gaining support from pro-green advocates, including Joe Biden’s administration, was inadvertently caught in the mix of fossil fuel and clean energy through its bitcoin investment. Now the automaker is forced to choose where it stands in the moral question of saving the environment.

“Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment,” Musk said.

In addition to the environmental concerns, the sustainability of bitcoin’s energy consumption has increasingly become worrisome. Experts said it needs to be addressed fast to save the world from looming energy doom. In February, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the digital coin is “extremely inefficient” for making transactions and uses a “staggering” amount of power.

As Tesla freezes on BTC, the coin may have a challenge

The bitcoin network is responsible for 55 million metric tons of CO2 annually, which is as much as a nation like Singapore.

In March, China’s Inner Mongolia region said it would shut down cryptocurrency mining operations in the region due to concerns over energy consumption in an attempt to save the city from blackouts.

Last month, a coal mine in the Xinjiang region flooded and shut down. This took nearly a quarter of bitcoin’s hash rate — or computing power — offline, according to CoinDesk.

There have been suggestions to build more energy-efficient blockchains. Green Buzz published four practical ways to save bitcoin from its energy pitfall in 2019: Moving away from the proof-of-work validation method; Using blockchain to spur energy-efficient transportation methods; Building more energy-efficient blockchains, and Focusing on sustainable ways to mine bitcoin.

Musk said Tesla would only resume bitcoin transactions as soon as mining transitions move to more sustainable energy, but energy experts doubt it will ever happen. With the impact of Tesla’s withdrawal so loud, it would not be long before other organizations jump the bandwagon.

“Environmental matters are an incredibly sensitive subject right now, and Tesla’s move might serve as a wake-up call to businesses and consumers using Bitcoin, who hadn’t hitherto considered its carbon footprint,” Laith Khalaf, a financial analyst at investment firm AJ Bell, said in a note Thursday.

Energy transition has thus become an inevitable part of bitcoin’s proposed correction, although such transition will mean a short-term significant plunge for the cryptocurrency.

Musk says Tesla is “looking for cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction,” but such cryptocurrencies are not popular even among altcoins. Dogecoin, which Musk has chosen for SpaceX’s Doge-1 Mission doesn’t fall in that category, it uses proof-of-work, leaving the chance to a newbie like Chia, which uses Proofs of Space and Time (PoST) instead of Proof-of-Work, to curtail its energy consumption.

It therefore suggests that Musk’s fallout with bitcoin is limited to Tesla only, he may accept the cryptocurrency in his other companies that have no green message in their business.

But Tesla’s decision has placed bitcoin investors in a difficult situation, given its potential to trigger an environmental movement that will constantly attack bitcoin.

“Tesla’s decision certainly puts pressure on other big companies who accept Bitcoin to review their practices, because boardrooms will now be wary about getting it in the ear from ESG investors on the shareholder register,” Khalaf added.

The US’ Colonial Pipeline $5 million Ransom Payment – And The Lesson for Nigeria

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
-
1
Dr Ogbonnaya Onu
Dr Ogbonnaya Onu

It is a very hard news: a US company paid $5 million after ransomware attacked its supply chain. By paying that money, it was able to get itself out of the paralysis. That is the world where we have the FBI and the legions of US police. You would have wondered how possible? It turns out that these things happen: “The extortion fee was paid in untraceable cryptocurrency”. Yes, many companies are paying tons of money to criminals and those hired to figure out how to stop them, while trying, remain helpless in some cases.

The operator of the Colonial Pipeline forked out almost $5 million after a ransomware attack forced a shutdown of the artery that supplies a significant portion of U.S. gas stations last week, Bloomberg reports, based on two anonymous sources. The extortion fee was paid in untraceable cryptocurrency almost immediately following the attack, Bloomberg writes, “contradicting reports” the company never intended to pay. The pipeline yesterday resumed operations and it is expected to help restore supplies within several days. The shutdown led to panic-buying among drivers on the East Coast.

Why am I bringing this up? I connect you to a presentation I had in Moscow, Russia. The Mayor of Moscow and the junior Economic Minister had invited me to give a keynote speech (the invitation below). When I finished my presentation, it was time for Q/As. During the session, I realized that some people could not hack easily Nigerian banks because the networks were slow.

Then, I quickly made a joke: when I return back to Lagos, I will tell the bank CEOs to keep their networks slow, to avoid being hacked. That was in 2012, and of course networks have really improved on speed.

But the big question is this: if the US critical infrastructure could be this broken, is Nigeria paying attention to our hospitals, airports, grid, etc? Now is the time to pay attention because even though bitcoin exchanges are not allowed in Nigeria, if bad things happen, these guys will not show pity. Yet, we may be forced to connect one to get back our systems!

Workplace Productivity, Collaboration And Automation – A New Tekedia Course

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
-
0

I am happy to announce that Tekedia Institute has approved an additional course for Tekedia CollegeBoost, a mini version of Tekedia Mini-MBA. From many students attending our program, we have noticed that many are not vast on the fundamental constructs of workplace productivity, collaboration and automation. Accordingly, we will offer this course within Tekedia CollegeBoost to help them see a future even as they work to graduate from colleges.

More so, another version of this course is coming to Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 5. Microsoft is waiving all costs to its developer ecosystem. Amazon has also offered us access. Krozu has done the same. So, there are many choices for our members to build, develop and advance.

University of Ilorin First Class graduate of Statistics, and to my knowledge the #1 automation guy, is developing the course. Olanrewaju Oyinbooke, MCT, mMBA is the Head of Data Management Office of Axa Mansard, the insurance giant in Nigeria. 

Find how to advance your mission at school.tekedia.com

The Need to Regulate Online Lending Companies

By
Ozioma Okey-Kalu
-
0

In the olden days, people collect loans using their properties, including family members, as collateral. Then, a person that collected a loan and defaulted put his whole family in jeopardy. Depending on the amount of money he collected and the quality of his collateral, if he has any, the lender may decide to confiscate some or all of the borrower’s properties. Those that have nothing to give may have their households turned into wives, servants, or slaves of the lenders. No matter what the lender decides, his action towards recovering his money affects the borrower’s immediate and extended family; and no one can stop them. Greedy people used that excuse to lend to individuals that couldn’t pay them back because they have motives, which they could easily achieve by making their targets indebted to them. Through this method, many of our forefathers acquired lots of farmlands, slaves, servants, wives, children, animals, and other things used to measure wealth. Thanks for the coming of the colonialists, who, to a large extent, put a stop to all these.

As the era of human slavers and property confiscators came to an end, that of loan sharks began. These people are merciless. They lend to people at very high-interest rates and recover their principal and interests through intimidation and the use of violence. Once again, members of a borrower’s family face another type of risk. But unlike the former lenders that would have converted them to slaves, servants, and/or wives, or take their properties away, loan sharks harass, abduct and/or murder them to send messages across to the borrower. For that, a person that borrows from these sharks and defaulted is helped by his people to offset the loan because they are equally in danger.

But loan sharking is illegal just the way slavery is. However, confiscation of properties still exists. Our banks will not give you loans without collateral that commiserates with the amount borrowed. Hence, if the borrower defaults, the collateral is confiscated. But other properties of the borrower are left for him and his family and none of his family members is harassed or attacked. The deal is only between the bank and the customer (or his guarantors, as the case may be).

But there is a group of lenders that is combining the attitudes of slaver and shark lenders to recover their money. Unlike the banks, they do not collect collateral, thereby making it easy, fast, and convenient for people to access loans. These companies are accessible to low-income earners because they give small amounts of money as loans, unlike banks that only listen to those that borrow in millions. They are also attractive because their interest rates are usually between 3% and 6%; so, when borrowers calculate what they have to pay back, they are not discouraged from borrowing. All in all, many people run to these loaning companies for instant loans.

Piggybank for saving has enslaved many to online lenders

The loan companies described above are springing up every day in the country. Many of them have an online presence while some still operate offline. But the major interest of this essay is the loan companies that operate online, especially those that use apps. These are the companies whose attitudes have raised concerns from well-meaning Nigerians. They are the ones that need to be regulated as soon as possible.

As stated earlier, these companies are willing to give loans almost without collateral. They only demand that their customers download their apps, apply for loans, and wait for the approval. If the application is approved, voila! the money is there for you to spend. But then, as I implied above, they give loans with almost no collateral. This means there’s still collateral – your phone’s contact list. Yes, like the shark and slaver lenders, these people have an interest in the people close to you. They see those people as what should be used to hold you ransom or blackmail you into paying your loan. What they do with the numbers saved in your phone is almost the same as what kidnappers do when demanding ransom. The only difference is that, in the former scenario, there is a contract between the borrower and the lender.

If you are wondering how these companies gain access to borrowers’ contacts, know it now that they do so during the loan application process. As you are entering your details into their apps, you will be asked to allow the app to access your contacts. Many of us do not think twice before granting this permission. But unknown to many of us, that simple act exposes all the people in a phones’ contact list to the managers of the app. This is how these companies get to your friends, relatives, and acquaintances of people that fail to pay back loans by a few hours.

Initially, people had no qualms with being alerted that someone they know is defaulting. But as time goes on, the style of loan recovery became more offensive, aggressive, and threatening. The SMS sent out these days are no longer notifications but threats to the contacts and borrower. At a time like this, when scams, kidnappings, and other forms of crimes are the order of the day, receiving a message that promises you hell if so-so and so person did not pay what he borrowed is not welcoming. Many people that receive such messages become tensed up because they don’t know what the person indicated did. Some become confused because they don’t know the person indicated. By the end of the day, because of a small loan taken by an individual, hundreds of people are put through stress and anxiety.

The modus operandi of these online loan companies should be reviewed and regulated before it gets out of hand. The method may be working for them but it is an improper way to work. To start with, accessing and harassing owners of private phone numbers, without their consent and prior knowledge of the loan, is out of place and a civil offence. Secondly, notifying all the contacts in their borrowers’ phone about a loan default is a breach of privacy (borrower deserves right to privacy even if he breached a contract). Thirdly, the use of threat, aggression, and intimidation to recover money, as far as I am concerned, is criminal-oriented. These companies should be placed under a regulator that is up and doing. They have gradually turned into loan sharks. If they are not brought under control through heavy regulation, they will soon begin a physical confiscation of properties and the harassment of customers and their contacts.

Join Tekedia Institute As We Receive Mhagic Velocity Prize [Video]

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
-
0

Do not forget to celebrate with Tekedia Institute this weekend as Velocity Mhagic hands over the N25 million winning prize. TV stations, etc are coming. This is an academic festival for the Institute and I will be connecting from the United States. Do not eat before leaving your house! Tekedia is donating 100% of its award to education scholarships.

These TV stations will cover the event:

  • Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
  • Lagos Television (LTV)
  • Trybe
  • ONTV
  • 98.5 (Soundcity)

 The Schedule

  • Venue: Orchid Hotel, Plot 3, Dreamworld Way, Lekki Lagos
  • Date: Sunday, May 16, 2021
  • Time: 4pm WAT
  • Host: Nosa Rex

 

 

Tekedia Institute wins Velocity Mhagic Grand Prize of $60,000

1...5,7565,7575,758...7,959Page 5,757 of 7,959

© Tekedia. All rights reserved.

Term & Privacy

© Tekedia. All rights reserved.

Term & Privacy