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The national US debt mountain is expanding exponentially, with billions of dollars piled onto it each day. Remarkably, the amount of daily debt added is more than the total market capitalization of most crypto assets.

Total United States debt has risen by a whopping $275 billion in just one day. This has pushed it to a record $33.44 trillion.

On October 4, Bitcoin pioneer Samson Mow compared the epic debt increase to Bitcoins market cap. It turned out to be more than half of that figure, around $267 billion.

Thats something like 10 million BTC. And yet there are still people that are unsure if $27k is a good price to buy.

Furthermore, it is more than the entire market cap of Ethereum, which is just under $200 billion at the moment. It also works out at about a quarter of the entire crypto market cap being added to the debt pile in just a day.

Two weeks ago, BeInCrypto reported that total US debt hit $33 trillion for the first time ever.

This means that the US has added $32 billion in debt per day for the last two weeks, observed the Kobeissi Letter. At the current pace, the US will add $1 trillion of debt in a month, it added.

Moreover, it has doubled since BeInCrypto reported that $14 billion was being added every day.

According to Goldman Sachs analysts, the cost of servicing Uncle Sams pile of debt is on track to hit a new record in 2025.

They said the rising cost of borrowing over the last year due to Federal Reserve interest rate hikes has pushed up the expenses on the USs massive debt load.

It cost the government $476 billion, or around 2% of the national GDP, to pay the interest on its debt in 2022. However, strategists estimated that interest payments will rise to 3% of GDP in 2024 and 4% of GDP by 2030.

Moreover, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation estimates that over the next decade, the US will spend a total of $10.6 trillion paying interest on the national debt mountain.

Other estimates predict the national debt-to-GDP ratio will grow at an accelerated rate. The federal debt could make up 181% of GDP by 2053, according to one projection from the Congressional Budget Office.

Finally, the debt ceiling remains unlimited until January 2025, so these mind-numbing figures will be the new normal.

In adherence to the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.

Original post:

US Added Over Half Bitcoin Market Cap in Debt in a Day - BeInCrypto

Although Bitcoin (BTC) is largely back in the sideways trading action, much like the majority of assets in the cryptocurrency market, some crypto experts have noted indicators that point to the possibility of a major move in the following weeks.

Indeed, renowned crypto analyst Crypto Rover pointed out that the next BIG Bitcoin move is happening in the coming 5-10 weeks, although this move could go in any direction at this point, according to his chart pattern analysis shared in an X post on October 4.

Specifically, the expert has observed two possible price targets, depending on which trend prevails the 95-week downtrend or the 46-week uptrend. If the former holds, the maiden cryptocurrency could end up at a bearish target of $12,000. On the other hand, the bullish target from the latter scenario is $63,000.

On top of that, another pseudonymous crypto analyst, known as el_crypto_prof and Moustache, has shared that something big is coming for BTC, based on the comparisons of Bitcoins price action in 2015, 2019, and 2023. As the experts explained, the same result awaits no matter which chart I look at at the moment.

Indeed, the previous occasions have seen each massive move by the decentralized finance (DeFi) asset precede the same pattern multiple bottoms, a deviation from the trend and a retest in 2015, bottoms, deviation, and retest in 2019 followed by the second Covid-19 induced retest in 2020, as well as the bottoms, deviation, retest, and second retest in 2023.

Until this massive move happens, Bitcoin is currently changing hands at the price of $27,617, recording an increase of 0.45% on the day, a 4.48% gain across the previous week, and an advance of 7.44% on its monthly chart, as per data on October 5.

Meanwhile, crypto analyst Stockmoney Lizards has predicted that we will likely see a start of the bull run slightly before halving, based on multiple factors, including the pattern, surroundings, and general situation, as Finbold reported on October 4.

Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.

Excerpt from:

Bitcoin to make 'big move' in the next 5-10 weeks; These are the ... - Finbold - Finance in Bold

Cryptocurrency mining in Uzbekistan faces major changes as the countrys crypto market supervisor has approved a framework for licensing crypto mining operations.

Uzbekistans National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP) issued a decree on licensing cryptocurrency mining operations, limiting such activities exclusively to legal entities.

Besides banning individual miners operations, the NAPP has also required firms to only use solar power to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). However, miners can still use the unified power system of Uzbekistan in certain cases stipulated by the legislation. The document doesnt mention what cases are meant.

Among other requirements, Uzbekistans cryptocurrency watchdog demanded companies set up a dedicated room for installing mining equipment and only mine crypto at the registered address. The rules also require crypto mining firms to provide timely and full payment of mining fees established by regulators.

Additionally, the NAPP has banned miners from mining anonymous cryptocurrencies those working based on anonymity and hiding transactions. The authority was referring to privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR), which allow users to obfuscate network transactions.

Related: Kazakh crypto miners plead with president to cut energy prices

All mining operations and services are only possible after obtaining a permitting document and license in the prescribed manner, the NAPP wrote, adding:

Its unclear whether the NAPPs latest crypto-mining document is a final decree establishing a framework for mining in Uzbekistan. The local government has issued multiple similar documents in recent years, repeatedly prohibiting individual miners from operating in Uzbekistan. One such decree was signed by Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in April 2022, reiterating that local people cannot pay with crypto or mine digital currencies.

The NAPP did not immediately respond to Cointelegraphs request for comment.

Magazine: Web3 Gamer: Minecraft bans Bitcoin P2E, iPhone 15 & crypto gaming, Formula E

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Bitcoin mining restricted to legal entities in Uzbekistan Regulators - Cointelegraph

In Cubas capital, Havana, a Bitcoin community has emerged from an economically antagonistic environment. Satoshi didnt create Bitcoin for Cubans, but it really comes in handy for us, Forte, co-founder of the aptly named local Bitcoin organization Cuba Bitcoin, tells Magazine.

Cubans are turning to Bitcoin because their money is increasingly worthless. Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Lebanon often compete for media coverage about runaway inflation levels, but the Cuban peso is not far behind.

The Cuban peso has devalued so much over the last few years that carrying bags of cash is increasingly common among the rich and the poor. In practice, even if someone bought Bitcoin at the top of the 2021 bull run at $69,000, their money is worth much less in Cuban pesos. Whereas Bitcoin dropped 80% to its bear market low, it has since recovered 100%, and the peso has devalued by 90%.

The realization that someone should swap local currency for the Bitcoin top, knowing that it will crash and theyll still retain more purchasing power, is one of the many financial wake-up calls received while working on Cointelegraphs new documentary, The Truth Behind Cubas Bitcoin Revolution.

In 2021, I came across the article Inside Cubas Bitcoin Revolution by Human Rights Foundation chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein, in which he explains how and why Cubans were utilizing Bitcoins stateless and low-fee properties to save money and escape financial oppression. In line with the Bitcoin mantra of Dont trust, Verify, I went to see with my own eyes what Gladstein described.

Camera in hand with my trusty travel partner Paco de la India by my side, I network my way into the Cuba Bitcoin community, which now counts thousands of enthusiasts and advocates.

Following one of the largest financial conferences in the world, Bitcoin Miami, in arguably the worlds most capitalist arena, the United States of America, I hop across the Caribbean to Cuba, one of the few extant socialist states. The contrast hits me harder than the Cuban tropical heat.

From the moment I landed at Havana Jose Marti International Airport, I noticed some funny quirks: doors open manually (forget automatic sensors), check-in and immigration are done on pen and paper, and the taxis are 1950s Chevrolets.

Its common to describe visiting Cuba as a time warp. Its not hyperbole; Cuba cannot access world markets, financial institutions or trade. The United States has subjected Cuba to a trade embargo the longest in modern history since the island nation nationalized U.S. oil refineries in 1960.

As a result, Cuban industry, economic output and commerce lag far behind the modern world.

The embargo, coupled with more than half a century of communism, has resulted in a highly educated, extraordinarily literate but desperately poor and hungry population, many of whom possess a heartbreaking desire to leave the island, or in Spanish, to find a salida an exit.

Why stay in a country where a taxi driver earns more than an atomic engineer and the emaciated engineer struggles to feed their family?

In such an environment, its a wonder why Cubas dont flock to Bitcoin as money that exists outside of state control. However, many Cubans are learning about and slowly turning to Bitcoin.

Catrya, one of the main characters in Cointelegraphs new documentary and one of the founders of Cuba Bitcoin, explains that there could be around 5,000 Bitcoiners in Cuba, and if you include crypto enthusiasts generally, the number is higher still.

Cubans do not have easy on-ramps into crypto. Firstly, those with internet connections cannot sign up for Binance, Coinbase or Gemini due to their nationality. For Cuban Americans on the island, Cubas government restricts access to American websites. Cubans buy Bitcoin peer-to-peer through Telegram or WhatsApp groups and at in-person meetups.

What amazes me is the tiny amounts of money Cubans put aside to save money or stack sats. Saving 1,000 satoshis (less than $1 a week) is meaningful to a Cuban on $40 monthly. The Cuban peso may not be here in 10 years, but Bitcoin certainly will be. The peer-to-peer process is straightforward, but its not beginner-friendly, and these hurdles can hamper adoption although they do have a silver lining, as Catrya explains:

Since were denied [access to exchanges] by default for being Cuban, we can never do KYC [Know Your Customer], so thats a good thing for us, at least in terms of privacy.

Buying Bitcoin peer-to-peer and storing Bitcoin by taking ownership of the private keys is safer. Customers who trusted custodians such as FTX, BlockFi, Celsius and Vauld with their crypto were wiped out. Cubans dont have that option, and while it takes longer, its more secure.

Erich Garcia Cruz, the founder of QvaPay and BitRemesas a currency remitter using Bitcoin that boasts tens of thousands of Cuban users says that the small but growing number of Bitcoin customers somewhat represents Cubas fledgling internet culture.

Cubans could get online in earnest from 2013. So, while the rest of the world was enjoying the iPhone 5C and 4G, a few lucky Cubans fortunate to access a computer could get online that year, albeit with an awful internet connection.

Now, Cubans can access 3G and sometimes 4G connectivity on their phones. The tech-savvy and younger Cubans use VPNs to circumnavigate online restrictions.

Generally, the lag in internet infrastructure combined with the cost and difficulty of buying a smartphone on a frighteningly low salary means Cuba is way behind in IT.

In 2021, the World Bank reported that three-quarters of Cuba has access to the internet. But while the issue is improving, internet censorship is rife, and Cubans are repeatedly told to trust the government through state-sponsored TV, newspapers and media.

Independent media publications are classified as enemy propaganda, which is something I was made aware of a few times during my investigation. I wont share those stories here, but its safe to say reciting such stories wouldve landed me in trouble had I stayed in Cuba.

Two exiled Cuban journalists have since advised me to avoid returning to the island for some time, especially if the Cointelegraph documentary gets a lot of attention.

A funny caveat to the state-run media is that some Cubans were orange-pilled by Bitcoin proponent Max Keiser. His appearances on the Russia Today news channel were approved for broadcast in Cuba. Some of Catryas peers watched the show where Keiser bashes fiat currencies and promotes Bitcoin.

And yet, Bitcoin is magic internet money; it lives on the web. If Cubans arent online or watching Russia Today how can they know about it?

Bitalion, one of the Cuba Bitcoin founders, works in telecommunications for the government. He explains that as a privileged public sector worker, he benefits from better internet connection speeds and lower online censorship levels.

Bitalion stumbled across the Bitcoin white paper in 2014 and became infatuated with the idea of an independent, borderless currency. He rhetorically poses the question: For those fortunate Cubans who are able to travel abroad, what can they bring to the new country? The peso in their pocket, or Bitcoin in a mobile wallet?

As with the other Bitcoin advocates on the island, Bitalion volunteers his time to educate people and support Bitcoin adoption. Hes also one of the handful of Cubans running a Bitcoin node. At Cubas first-ever Bitcoin-only meetup, he demonstrates to dozens of Cubans how to pay for goods and services directly to his Lightning Network node.

Cruz, Forte and countless business owners explain that Bitcoin is an easy orange pill to swallow, particularly for the digitally capable Cubans. You merely explain to them that nobody controls it; its stateless money.

At face value, Bitcoin is a useful tool for a country that has been financially and economically handicapped for generations. But for Forte, Catrya and Bitalion, the ideology of Bitcoin resonates strongly.

Forte jokes, Satoshi didnt create Bitcoin for Cubans, but it really comes in handy for us.

In the hope of encouraging more Cubans to explore Bitcoin, the trio and the Cuba Bitcoin community host monthly educational meetups in which they explain the principles of Bitcoin and delve into its philosophy.

They recently introduced the popular Mi Primer Bitcoin (My First Bitcoin) program in the country, which is already picking up speed in El Salvador and will soon be instructed in schools nationwide.

QvaPays Cruz explains that Bitcoin is the financial tool that allows the small but growing number of Cuban business owners to access foreign products.

Recent U.S. presidential administrations had fluctuating policies on the Cuban embargo, relaxing and tightening different aspects based on political expediency.

Cruz orange-pills suppliers in an attempt to open up the Cuban economy to international markets where possible:

You are accepting Bitcoin because youre dealing with a private [independent] coin. The government doesnt have access to the transactions you and you have the freedom to do whatever you want.

The term freedom, or libertad, popped up frequently as I mingled and met with Cuban Bitcoiners, crypto enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. The fact that citizens can hold money in a wallet, outside of government overreach, appealed to many Cubans whom the government has consistently let down.

The ability to store wealth on a mobile phone in a Bitcoin Lightning wallet instead of in pesos at a bank is also an efficiency gain. It means no more queues at banks to cash in money that could devalue by a few pesos over a bank holiday weekend.

Cruz and three other business owners also share that accepting Bitcoin benefits holidaymakers. Adan, a nightclub, bar and restaurant owner, explains that tourists bring a lot of cash to Cuba for vacation and thats risky.

Having Bitcoin on a mobile phone in a wallet is a safer way to travel than flashing wads of dollar bills that end up on the black market in Cuba, inadvertently supporting the illicit and sometimes dangerous black market activity of exchanging notes in public.

Adan accepts Bitcoin because of the international branding the Bitcoin logo brings. It opens up his bars doors to another potential market. Similar to El Salvador, where Bitcoin tourism has become a trend, bars and restaurants in Cuba could also attract holidaymakers to spend satoshis instead of pesos at the till.

Finally, there are myriad ways in which adopting Bitcoin can lead to positive and unexpected outcomes. Mister Navis bar and restaurant, run by Mr. Navi and his son Julian, recently began accepting Bitcoin. Following a conversation with Forte, Catrya and Bitalion, the Cuba Bitcoin group now hosts educational Bitcoin meetups at the venue.

I tipped one of the service staff in Bitcoin at Mr. Navis the first day we visited. Five days later, I saw her again when we went out for dinner with Mr. Navi and Julian. She seems different I ask her if she is OK. She confesses that she was mugged a few days ago, and the attacker stole her purse, cash and phone.

To her surprise, when she downloaded the Bitcoin Lightning app where Id tipped her, the funds magically reappeared on her new phone. On seeing her wide-eyed reaction, I tipped her again.

Its clear that, for Cubans, Bitcoin could represent a critical instrument for securing their financial future in the face of runaway inflation and government interference, or as a way of opening up to embargoed markets and the international financial world.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions and perspectives expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Cointelegraph.

Joseph is a research and interview journalist with a keen interest in the monetary policy implications of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Originally posted here:

The Truth Behind Cuba's Bitcoin Revolution: An on-the-ground report - Cointelegraph

Soda Jerk Hello Dankness (2022)

Mirroring our every trip to the multiplex, Hello Dankness (2022) begins with a commercial. Before any credit or title pageindeed, before any commentary, manipulation, or outside editthe artist duo known as Soda Jerk present the entirety of PepsiCo, Inc.s deeply batshit 2017 commercial wherein Kendall Jenner solves racism and police brutality with a can of soda. The inclusion makes us giggle in self-defense at the vulturous media-scape we live inone capable of producing such infamous relicswhile simultaneously setting precedent for the plastic, mashed-up Frankensteins monster of a film to follow: nothing is off the editing table. The inclusion of the ad catalogs and recommits to cultural memory the footage itself, as the ad was (obviously) hastily pulled by the corporation as the (obvious) criticisms rolled in. It was called a trivialization of radical intentions and just another tone-deaf act by a corporation to cloak profit-mongering in the garb of art-making and activism. Which is to say: it was an advertisement.

The Pepsi adwherein an army of bougie makers and entrepreneurs lead a protest against something, only to end up confronted by a wall of cops whose defenses are charmed and breached as soon as Jenner offers a can of Pepsialso demands the spectator of Hello Dankness to reason whether the movie has begun or not. Where in the cinematic apparatus are we when the pre-spectacle space and the cinematic one mush together so goopily? Its perhaps not off-base to suggest that most viewers of a film made by artists who are, as their press bio notes, interested in the politics of images, might be media-literate (read: online) enough to recognize the advertisement and chuckle in recognition before it reaches its daffy climax. The inclusion is a perfect throat-clearing in the films quest to unpack, atomize, and re-package cultural thrulines and inadvertently chaoticize the preliminary thesis and ensuing existence of Hello Dankness: all moving images freight art and commerce equally, or can. Why construct a collaged mash-up that plunders recent American popular culture to retell American history when the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad already exists as the perfect intersection of the crisis of image-making in the twenty-first century? What filmic critique exists past the bombed-out dread and looney resignation such a manipulation of image inspires? Because, Hello Dankness suggests that, simply by continuing past its opening ad-quote, we can waste an image just as good as art and commerce can. Hello Dankness, then, is not a question or investigation into whether acts of commerce and art bleed into each other (as always they obviously do), but a sensory experience of what that bleeding feels like in our collective, plastic body.

Recognition itself is under scrutiny in Hello Dankness, nominally a collage that re-edits hundreds of pre-existing films, songs, memes, news feeds, and foley from the recent past. It culminates into a credits sequence that feels more like a chapbooks acknowledgements page than sample clearance. The films movements are recognizable to anybody reared on or responding to a Rickroll, its narrative familiar to any whove walked around and watched America after the 2016 election. In a certain way, Hello Dankness is a history of America. Its first post-Pepsi sequence establishes both its language and story, as footage of Tom Hanks in The Burbs (1989), Annette Bening in American Beauty (1999), Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Waynes World (1992), Ice Cube in Are We Done Yet? (2007) and a soon-to-be revealed cast of thousands share a neighborhoodand cinematic spacein 2016 America. Eyelines and match-cuts are swapped out and spliced in just as often as manipulated digital images are introduced into pre-existing frames. Hanks in The Burbs can look across his lawn at Benings Carolyn Burnham from American Beauty, their suspicious glances removed from their original contexts and remixed in reaction to a Bernie 2016 lawn sign for Hanks and an Im With Her Hillary placard for Bening. Though such a thing may only be theoretical, Soda Jerk suggests, on a purely visual level, Hello Dankness is a miracle of editing. In both image placement (of course Wayne and Garth move their hockey net out of the street to accommodate Carolyn Burnhams SUV) and image re-reading (of course the Waynes World doofuses would be chirpy alt-right teens, exhibiting trolly behavior by their own tuned-outedness, and of course American Beautys icy and beleaguered real estate girlboss would be the totemic Nasty Woman tote toter), the film feels both recognizable and alien. Its an ache in the mouth, a chewed-up something that impacts every utterance that passes through it. As the ensuing new text, Hello Dankness reads flawlessly despite being an act of flaw: an interrupted image (color correction and careful transcodingadvised by Anthology Film Archives own John Klacsmannacting in concert to nudge disparate images together). Less than a pre- or post-modern great soup of being, Hello Dankness is a digital quotation as ephemeral quotidian, a deadly lark that pranks looking as much as it pranks what gets looked at when were not looking: Because a vision softly creeping / Left its seeds while I was sleeping.

Narratively, Hello Dankness re-contains history in a certain way. In its plundered language, it plays out the ongoing farce of American electoral politics and charts the rise and decline of Bernies and Hillarys and Donalds and Joes amid conspiracy theory backlash, pandemic consciousness, and reactionary meme-making. One of its most compelling visual decodings occurs, again, in its credit sequence: by organizing its list of samples Ordered by president, the film presents the fallacy of assuming that history (of images and bodies) unfolds a certain way. Its a deliberate prank on the American social studies textbook, itself a collation of images curated a certain way to curate a certain narrative and an echo of Godards insistence: in order to see one image, you need two. Is the film ultimately an act of radical politics? Its too dubious of the culpability of the image to insist that it is. The film never gestures in irony. It ends with a breath of levity more sympathetic to the removal and recontextualization of human lives rather than digital images of them.

By forgoing memey irony for looney-tune heartinessas well as in its obvious affection for and attention to The BurbsHello Dankness is a fitting re-visitation of Joe Dantes own mash-up monster, The Movie Orgy (1968). Dante, a genre hound and film history font who made affably anti-capitalist films for several major American studios throughout the eighties and nineties, holds as much affection for the moving image as he does contempt for the market forces that corrode it. The best of his films areto invoke a word often misapplied to any hack with a studio contract and half a consciencesubversive dreamscapes, precisely because they hold postmodern despair accountable to material plasticity. What if we moved this way? What if we existed after a Pepsi commercial?

When one shot moves to another, there is, however momentarily, blackness. Certain decodings of film grammar suggest that this space between edits is where time and space continues to pass. As the camera position changes, moving either towards or away from the subject or finding a new one entirely, the spectator doesnt panic, recognizing the half-history, half-memory project of cinema itself. Theres an internal logic to each filmic universe that subconsciously teaches the spectator what these (very) momentary blackouts are: blinks in a unified vision. We dont panic in the iota interims blackness between shots, we fill in the gaps. Soda Jerk echoes and contains elders like Dante and Godard while simultaneously razing the rank and reductive idolization that stagnates both politics and image-making. In their digital slipstream, they suggest that the blink-void between different images isnt just inherent to a specific cultural object, but culture more broadly. The blink-space between shots in one movie is the same as the darkness between another. By not only allowing but chasing slippage, Hello Dankness insists that every image belongs to every other one and that cinema is the process by which, holding tightly to each other, we find the hollowing-out of commerce and the potentialities of art. And in between we fill in the gaps.

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Soda Jerk's Hello Dankness The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail