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Hey everyone, I am very excited that we will be bringing back the in-person certificate program next semester. The certificate program is an educational program that is done weekly and teaches the basics of blockchain all the way to learning solidity(Coding language for Ethereum). Something new that we have not done is having companies come in to teach a concept that can you give members exposure to internship opportunities. If you have any interest, the google form is below.
Also, to clarify the certificate is not associated with the University of Texas and you will not receive any class credit.
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Oil drillers and Bitcoin miners bond over natural gas
As I stated previously, I would follow up my claim that Bitcoin mining incentives solar and wind energy with more evidence of how it is not harmful to the environment. Well, Bitcoin helps in more than just incentivizing renewable energy. It allows oil drillers to use excess natural gas which would have been burned off in a process called flaring. According to the Natural Academy of the Sciences of the United States, flaring contributes to six percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. As well, reductions in Russia and Nigeria, have been offset by increases in the United States, which has quadrupled its flaring activity since 2010, driven by the shale boom. The reason that natural gas is flared is because there isn’t enough to justify pipelines. Instead of burning this excess natural gas and wasting the energy, miners have created mobile units that take the natural gas and convert into energy to be used for mining. Denver-based Crusoe Energy Systems Inc is one of the continent’s largest Bitcoin mining companies using otherwise stranded gas. It expects to double its current staff of 55 this year, said Cully Cavness, co-founder and a former oil and gas engineer.Crusoe has about 40 mobile containers in oil shale basins. It plans on increasing that number to 100 after receiving $128 million in financing last month from investors including Chicago-based firm Valor Equity Partners LP and Lowercarbon Capital.Crusoe’s partners have included Kraken Oil & Gas Partners LLC, which produces about 10,000 bpd of oil, making the company the largest oil producer in Montana.
World Wide Web source code NFT sells for $5.4 million at Sotheby's
An NFT of the original internet code, which includes 9,000 lines of code written in 1990, was auctioned for more than $ 5 million. NFTs keep their great run going despite the crypto market's volatility.The auction house Sotheby's, which is well into the NFT's auction roll, managed to sell the original Internet code for more than $5 million, which includes more than 9,000 lines of code. This auction reiterates the great interest that digital assets have for some investors and collectors, however, it is not all sentimentality because, like someone who buys a house to sell it at a later date for a profit, some NFTs have also proven to greatly appreciate over time, which has made the market very attractive for some.\Sotheby's is the auction house that has been most active in transactions involving NFTs, as it was also recently in charge of carrying out the NFT auction of a Picasso painting, bought for more than 2 million euros.
Digital-Asset Investment Funds See Net Inflows of $63M
CoinShares numbers show that investment funds in digital assets registered a net inflow of 63 million dollars last week, of which 39 million went to funds dedicated to bitcoin. Meanwhile, funds focused on ether (ETH) made 18 million dollars after "bleeding" 50 million the previous week. Last week was the first week in more than two months that individual digital assets showed upside investments, although the turnover was down to its lowest number since November 2020. These funds had a huge explosion of popularity at the beginning of the year, but then the waters calmed down a bit. Also important to note is the role of NFTs in the market. For the year, they have added a total of 2.5 billion dollars in sales, a big change when we compare them with the 13.7 million they registered during the first six months of 2020.
DeFi Exchange PancakeSwap’s Token Jumps 15% Amid Burn Event
Recently, the native token to PancakeSwap, CAKE, has increased 15% in value since the implementation of tokens being burned. PancakeSwap has opted to burn $72 million USD worth of CAKE tokens on Monday, July 5th. Token burn is not uncommon in the crypto-space and can ultimately help boost the asset’s price. PancakeSwap recent transaction boost has contributed to pushing 5 times the total number of transactions on Binance Smart Chain than what is run on Ethereum’s blockchain. The CAKE token is being traded at $15.58 according to Binance Data.
NFT Sales Climb to $2.47B in First-Half 2021: Report
Non-Fungible token (NFT) sales have risen to $2.47 billion USD in the first half of 2021. Q1 sales produced $1.23 billion while Q2 brought in $1.24 billion. These numbers are a massive jump from 2020 NFT sales totaling to $13.7 million. NBA Top Shot’s recent growth of popularity has largely driven the interest and sales of NFT’s. NBA Top Shot accumulated a yearly sales of $700 million USD. The growth of the NFT space looks promising for the blockchain community, especially for the producers of NFT’s.
Chart of the Week
Bitcoin Mining Council: mining electricity mix increased to 56% sustainable in Q2 2021; results from survey of the network — link
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Texas Blockchain’s ‘State of the Market’ is a student-led editorial. None of the views expressed by the authors should be taken as the view of the University of Texas at Austin or the Texas Blockchain organization. Furthermore, none of the views expressed should be taken as financial advice in any circumstance.