In the United States, pressure has already begun to build up on Speaker Nancy Pelosito amend the cryptocurrency section of the Infrastructure Bill.
The controversial bill, which has just been approved by the US Senate, is now going to the House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Speaker of the House has already received a letter from California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo asking her to change the definition of a broker given to cryptocurrency operators. The original bill includes not only exchanges, but also miners, validators and wallet developers, all of whom are supposed to report validated transactions to the IRS. However, since these are decentralized structures, this is impossible.
In her letter, the MEP calls for a change to the legislation by re-evaluating the amendment that was rejected by the Senate due to a lack of unanimity. The amendment was also approved by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“I share the goals of the underlying provision to address tax evasion in the cryptocurrency market, but the House should amend it, as the bipartisan compromise amendment would have, to meet this goal without stifling innovation in a nascent industry by imposing unworkable regulations. I stand ready to work with you to ensure this infrastructure legislation addresses tax to pay its investments without unduly threatening a growing sector of our economy”.
Nancy Pelosi and the Infrastructure Bill
The Infrastructure Bill’s path through the House is not expected to be easy. The Speaker of the House has already made it clear that she will not put the Infrastructure Bill to a vote unless the Senate first approves the $3.5 billion package proposed by the Democrats. This would mean waiting months. However, a group of moderate Democrats is reportedly opposing how the speaker is handling Congress.
It must be said that the Infrastructure Bill is not yet official law, precisely because it lacks the approval of the House. This is where the battle will be fought to amend it and make it more crypto-friendly, if Nancy Pelosi allows it.
A Reddit user has outlined a fake website trying to copy and even promise more features than the verified Cardano (ADA) wallet – Daedalus. However, the copycat has a slightly different URL address.
The user, going by the Reddit handle Tjaaark, posted on August 13th that a “fake Daedalus website is being marketed on Discord.” He advised users to be wary as the copycat had some notable differences from the verified one.
For instance, the one marketed on Discord has an URL address ending with “.one.” In contrast, the original version ends with “.io.”
Named after an architect and craftsman from Greek mythology, Daedalus serves as a “secure wallet for the ADA cryptocurrency.”
The fake one, marketed as an update to the verified version, comes with an identical website mirroring the official one perfectly.
However, it also promises more features, including the ability to convert digital assets into fiat currencies, enhanced speeds, and more robust performance.
Fake Daedalus Wallet Marketed on Discord. Source: Reddit
Cardano and its native cryptocurrency have been among the most popular projects in the digital asset space in the past year or so. The founder, Charles Hoskinson, vowed to provide more specifics about the long-anticipated smart contract launch today, on August 13th.
Perhaps due to the hype, ADA has surged by 50% in the last seven days. It’s up by 15% on a 24-hour scale and earlier broke above $2 for the first time since mid-May.
This growing popularity, though, seems to have caught the attention of bad actors. Consequently, investors have to be especially wary about where they store their ADA tokens.
Bitcoin mining difficulty has definitely increased, with associated drops in hashrate and profitability, but the algorithm’s adjustment does not alarm miners.
According to reports, the difficulty to mine Bitcoin appears to have increased, hitting 7.3% this morning. This figure is updated every 2016 blocks (roughly every 2 weeks).
Yet this spike in difficulty does not seem to alarm miners, who are aware of the consequences of the enforced ban on crypto and mining issued in China last spring.
Indeed, when considering that China alone accounted for 54% of Bitcoin‘s total hashrate and had to go offline, it is reasonable to think that the miners’ comeback would not be a cakewalk. In all this, the Bitcoin network has not missed a beat.
In this regard, engineer Brandon Arvanaghi stated:
“There was no downtime whatsoever to the bitcoin network. That’s actually the smartest part of the bitcoin software: the difficulty adjustment”.
Not only that, the redistribution of the hashrate previously concentrated in China, seems to have redistributed profitability. Here’s how Jason Deane, an analyst at crypto consultancy Quantum Economics, describes it:
“Hashrate levels are still down 42.1% from the peak in May 2021 when the China exodus happened. That hashrate deficit means that those plugged into the bitcoin network right now are making bank”.
The resilience of miners despite the difficulty of bitcoin mining
The likelihood that many miners who were in China have moved elsewhere could be described as an act of resilience against the new difficulty imposed on bitcoin mining.
Indeed, despite the declines in total profitability seen, compared to the pre-ban period, miners continue to cash in much more now than before.
This was only possible due to the self-correction of Bitcoin’s algorithm which, as early as July 2021, had seen a decrease in difficulty compared to previous periods.
In this sense, if the cost of energy and hashrate remain unchanged, the calculation to mine bitcoin should remain as simple as it was at the beginning.
In this regard, Mike Colyer, CEO of digital currency company Foundry said:
“We have seen the bottom of the hashrate decline, and it is nothing but up from here. This next adjustment reflects the fact that miners are building out capacity and plugging in new machines. There is an enormous amount of machines coming out of China that need to find new homes”.
