Musing time

It's Friday again, time to write some market musings. Only this week I'm a bit confused because which MARKET musings should I write about if I haven't looked at crypto at all in the past week? Now if you were to ask me how much Bitcoin has lost or gained in the last 24 hours, I seriously wouldn't be able to give you an answer. If you were to ask me now how much Eth is worth today, I wouldn't have to give you the answer either. And I don't even know what Hive is worth at the time of writing. That actually reflects where my thoughts are at the moment. Not so much with crypto. And whether that is a good development or a very bad one will become apparent later. My thoughts revolve around other things these days. And that is more about creating income. Since crypto is currently not succeeding in that for me, I have to focus my thoughts on other angles. And I'm going to work on plans that have been in my head for some time, which have to do with other markets. That is why I have my crypto on the back burner at the moment. Oh don't worry, I do what I really need to do every day to keep my portfolio up to date. But I'm certainly not as on top of it as I used to be. It is a changed mindset, and that mindset has been changed by the need for income. Not a potential income in x time, but NOW! Inflation is forcing this change. Okay, that's about the introduction today.

A Nightmare!

In order to be able to write some musings, I delved into the news and what I saw there has been discussed before. But I thought I should report the latest update again. I swear, it would give every Bitcoin owner nightmares! To know that you had 8000 Bitcoins, and that hard drive was thrown in the garbage by your ex. That's what James Howells says about his missing hard drive. This happened in 2013 and since then Howells has been in a battle with the council of Newport in the UK. He wants to dig out the bulky waste dump to get his Bitcoins back. This story has of course been known for much longer, 10 years to be precise. But the final chapter in this long story is that James now wants to sue the municipality of Newport and demand much higher damages. He wants no less than 450 million from the local government! And of course, he still wants permission to search the landfill to find that coveted hard drive, the size of an iPhone. Which I can imagine very well, because in times of crisis and economic downturn, such a windfall would be very welcome. Unfortunately for James, the money he could get out of it is not his alone, but he has to settle for about a third of the total proceeds. Two-thirds of everything should go to payments for the team he has now gathered around him. That James is serious is evident from the fact that he has given up his job for this. Let's hope for James that he finds a way to search the landfill... or maybe not, the compensation he is seeking is worth more than the Bitcoins on his lost hard drive!

Not Sweethearts

And talk about lost money. Of course, there is more to be found about that. It is not always the fault of an ex, or of the people themselves, but it seems that the North Korean government is also making a lot of money through crypto. Now you may be asking yourself how. And that can be explained by the hacking attacks of the well-known hacker group Lazarus.

We all know that these are not sweethearts, if they can pluck you bald they will do it. And the funding to do this appears to be linked to the North Korean government. Well, what can I say? I don't think I'll say anything more about it, you never know which eyes are reading and I prefer to keep myself as far away from politics and condemnation as possible. So read the article and decide for yourself what you think. Regardless of what opinion you or I may have about it, the fact that Lazarus exists is scary enough and the fact that they can squeeze so much out of crypto is bad enough. This will not give crypto a better name and will not help give crypto a wider reach. Mass adoption will take even longer if this kind of shenanigans continues.

A warning is in order again. People, be careful where you invest your money, and where you send and store your crypto. Don't trust anything or anyone and take all possible safety measures you can take.

Will Tesla Reactivate Bitcoin Payments?

Meanwhile, Bloomberg has stoked the fire with a suggestion that Tesla may need to rethink accepting Bitcoin payments. Now that the Bitcoin mining industry uses more than 50% green/clean energy, it is up to Elon Musk to fulfill the promise he made in 2021. Then he said that if Bitcoin runs on more than 50% clean energy, he would accept Bitcoin payments for Tesla again. That moment has now arrived! So, what do you think? Will Tesla start accepting Bitcoin again? And Elon Musk could once again be the one who can push Bitcoin to greater heights again.

Personally, I think people who are waiting to buy a Tesla with their Bitcoin should think about other things because even in the electric car industry there are many other problems. The production of an electric car costs just as many raw materials and CO2 as a normal car. However, the battery does require more raw materials. Unfortunately, these raw materials are sometimes extracted under inhumane conditions. More CO2 is also released during the production of a battery. So even though the electric car is mainly presented as better for the environment, this is not entirely the truth and it is certainly not better for the people who have to extract these raw materials under very poor conditions.

But I also understand that for some people Elon Musk is some kind of crypto hero, and Tesla is some kind of status symbol, so I'm curious, just like everyone else, whether Elon Musk will keep his promise. Will Elon reactivate the Bitcoin payment for Tesla? Time will tell!

Well, that's it for this Friday. I hope you all have a great weekend, I'm crawling back into my hole!