The Shocking Events of Bitcoin and Crypto in 2021

While 2021 brought some phases of euphoria to active crypto investors worldwide, much of it is still fueled by fears from 2020. From the inflation rate From the outbreak to the new outbreak of the coronavirus, the icebergs moved under people’s feet without any they knew. For example, while everyone (including many traditional financial institutions) is assuming that Bitcoin will hit its target price of $ 100,000 relatively easily in late 2021 – early 2022, the leading cryptocurrency continues to fluctuate sharply after hitting an all-time high of $ 69,000 in early November and having turned in the last 10 months essentially only moved in a broad sideways channel.

As a result, there has been a lot of progress this year – mostly positive, but also some negative – around Bitcoin. In this article, we’re going to revisit some of these great stories.

speed accept reach Motivation when El Salvador write history

The Central American country El Salvador, known as the “land of the volcano”, shocked everyone in 2021 by becoming the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal money. The decision is likely to pave the way for other countries, especially those facing problems related to rampant inflation such as Turkey, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

While the move doesn’t immediately make El Salvador a BTC advocate, President Nayib Bukele was quite strategic in his approach when it came to solving the country’s economic problems. The citizen has been given access to the Chivo crypto wallet while also pledging to resolve the internet connection issues that are currently plaguing the country.

In addition, El Salvador has also heavily touted “Bitcoin Bonds,” which use a linked BTC sidechain to issue fiat currency bonds. This form is seen by many as an attractive way to make money as it gives users a new way to invest their currency and give them the opportunity to acquire citizenship of that country.

Amount of gBitcoin transaction increase

Lightning Network (LN) is showing tremendous growth in 2021, with more and more money flowing into various LN channels – especially as more nodes go online.

According to statistics, at the time of writing, over 3,300 BTC are locked on public Lightning channels. On the other hand, more funds may be contained in private / unlisted sewer networks currently operated between different exchanges.

In terms of improvements, the Lightning Network infrastructure underwent a number of major overhauls over the past year (such as anvil) that improved the system’s native node governance and the wallet user experience. In the future, LN’s BOLT-12 module promises to simplify recurring payments and enable other useful features like donations via a constant QR code.

The long-awaited taproot is coming out

One of the biggest forays into the Bitcoin network since the SegWit overhaul in 2017 was the activation of the Taproot upgrade. SegWit is the process of increasing the block size limit on the blockchain of an asset by removing signature data from the transactions contained in each block.

Essentially, Taproot is meant to help the leading cryptocurrency’s core community of supporters and developers gain access to a better framework of the “privacy policy” that allows them to remain anonymous in all possible ways in which they spend their BTC.

Speaking of which, the update improves the efficiency of certain multi-signature setups and at the same time makes transactions in the Lightning Network more secure and privacy-oriented.

In order for these benefits to be realized, some additional work may be required, especially with MuSig2 – a simple and very practical two-ring multisig scheme that makes bitcoin transactions easier. At the same time, it is also necessary to implement certain technical elements in connection with Lightning Network-based clients and to improve the hardware wallet support (Taproot only).

January 2021, the percentage of Bitcoin nodes that support Taproot is 63.49%. Specifically, the number of taproot nodes is 31,329, non-executing nodes are 17,122, light is 33 and unknown is 863.

The source: Taproot signal

China suspends mining operations

One piece of news that shook bitcoiners and crypto enthusiasts in particular over the past calendar year was that China put a tough ban on the local crypto economy.

While the world’s most populous power has issued many such bans, this time the threat is far more serious. Many cryptocurrency mining companies have been forced to move from national borders to keep operations running, and many have even closed their doors permanently.

After the great exodus since the ban came into force, Bitcoin’s hash rate fell to a record low, slipping from around 180 to around 90 exa-hash per second (EH / s), but quickly recovered shortly afterwards. Much of the recovery in BTC hashrate is attributed to the miners who moved to more crypto-friendly regions of the world like the US, Kazakhstan, Canada, Belarus …

After the ban, the crypto market also saw growth in the number of public miners, demonstrating these companies’ ability to enter the debt capital market as well as their sizeable size, largely due to their ability to borrow large sums based on how many cryptocurrencies they mine .

Excellent infrastructure

Bitcoin’s growing community of supporters continues to invest money in the technical development of the leading cryptocurrency. In this regard, organizations like Spiral, Blockstream, and MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative have distributed sizeable grants and grants to Bitcoin Core developers worldwide.

Other organizations have also made significant donations to help promote the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem, including Chaincode Labs, the Human Rights Foundation, and the BitMEX exchange. They are providing grants to help winners continue their work related to improving the reliability of the Lightning Network payment system, as well as improving the implementation of the Bitcoin mining pool protocol Stratum v2.

Mainstream companies are adding Bitcoin to their coffers

One of the most optimistic stories for BTC over the past year has been that some of the world’s largest investors have poured money into the top cryptocurrency. More specifically, 2021 begins with Tesla CEO Elon Musk aka “the godfather of DOGE” investing $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, making it one of the company’s largest investments in the company’s leading cryptocurrency.

Within a short period of time, Tesla even found in a filing with the SEC that it would allow customers to use BTC as a means of payment for products. As expected, shortly after Musk expressed its clear support for the leading digital asset, its price skyrocketed to an all-time high of $ 43,000 in minutes. However, this decision was later annulled due to concerns about adverse effects on the environment.

The only person to outperform Musk in Bitcoin purchases this year is Microstrategy CEO Michel Saylor. His maximum stance is clearly reflected in his continuous accumulation of BTC, both as the price fluctuates at all-time highs and lows. As for the specific amounts, Microstrategy claims it currently holds a whopping 124,391 BTC that has been purchased for nearly $ 6 billion. Conservative estimates suggest the company made a profit of $ 2.1 on its BTC investment.

Financial institutions participate in the action

Shortly after Musk made his foray into the world of Bitcoin, numerous other financial services giants such as Mastercard and the US lender Bank of New York Mellon began offering their customers a wide range of crypto-related services from custody to payment transactions.

Similarly, the US Bank, America’s fifth largest commercial financial institution, announced that it will offer its customers a full-featured crypto custody service that supports private key storage for Bitcoin, BCH and LTC with the help of NYDIG. State Street and the Northern Trust are also among other major U.S. financial institutions putting forward similar plans.

Earlier this year, Nasdaq-listed Marathon Patent Group bought $ 150 million worth of Bitcoin and stocked it. After that, the social networking giant Twitter allowed the “crypto tip” option. Additionally, Jack Dorsey – the head of payment services company Square – announced that he will allocate 5% of the company’s assets to Bitcoin (valued at $ 170 million).

Finally, several other companies such as WeWork, AXA, and Substack have announced their decision to accept Bitcoin payments – a move that relatively small capitalization companies around the world have followed.

Debate over affect The environment of Bitcoin

Another major topic of controversy surrounding Bitcoin over the past year has been its impact on the environment, as more and more studies have shown that it consumes “huge” amounts of electricity every year.

For example, an analysis by Cambridge University finds that Bitcoin consumes 707 kWh per transaction, which equates to a whopping 121.36 terawatt hours per year. That number is said to be above the electricity needs of some large countries like Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among many others.

In the last few months, however, the day …