Last week, New York dominated crypto media headlines in very different ways. In New York State, the local Assembly voted in favor of the bill that would ban for two years any new mining operations that rely on proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanisms and use fossil fuel-generated energy. A temporary moratorium, which could be extended after the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation provides its assessments of the industry’s carbon footprint, marks the first major legislative attack on PoW mining on environmental grounds in the United States. The push mobilized the community — after digital asset advocacy groups rang the alarm on …

El Salvador’s government-backed Bitcoin (BTC) wallet has reached significant success in terms of adoption, according to an exec at the cryptocurrency exchange behind the wallet. The Chivo wallet was launched in conjunction with BTC becoming legal tender in El Salvador on Sept. 7, 2021. The official platform allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin, offering cryptocurrency custody and exchange services provided by the Mexican crypto trading platform Bitso. Bitso essentially provides back-end technology so that the government of El Salvador can purchase Bitcoin and ensure that BTC is convertible to the United States dollar, Bitso’s chief corporate and regulatory affairs …

Few crypto enthusiasts around the world could point to the remote island of Roatán prior to the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami. Dušan Matuska was one of them, a Bitcoin (BTC) educator whose plans to open a Bitcoin education center in a former brewery entangled with the Satoshi Nakamoto-inspired vision of a special economic zone in Honduras called Próspera. Located on Roatán, Próspera accepts Bitcoin as de facto legal tender as of April 2022. But how did a Slovakian Bitcoin miner stumble across one of the few locations worldwide to accept Bitcoin as de facto legal tender? And, what does …

Where I grew up, on the southern border in Texas, a tremendous number of people have come to the United States to work and send money back home. They don’t make much money, but they pay considerable fees on their transfers. Their focus is not on getting rich, but on supporting those back home in their native country. They support their families as they do hard labor day in and day out. It costs them too much to do so. Truth be told, my father was a migrant worker. He picked fruit in the fields. We sent money back to …

Bitcoin (BTC) has come a long way since an obscure and esoteric white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto was first published 13 years ago. The Bitcoin 2022 conference, hosted by Bitcoin Magazine and sponsored by Cash App, was perhaps the largest single event for the BTC community as 30,000 attendees and exhibitors descended on Miami Beach, according to the Miami Herald. Cointelegraph sent a contingency of journalists to experience the bullishness of Bitcoin 2022, a sentiment that was physically represented by a laser-eyed bull statue reminiscent of the Charging Bull on Wall Street in New York City. Along the way, …

Rappi, the most popular delivery service in Latin America, is working with Bitso and Bitpay to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrency payments. As reported by Cointelegraph Brazil, Rappi is integrating with Bitso and Bitpay through a trial project in Mexico. However, it's unclear whether the pilot plan will also enable access to the service in Brazil and other Latin American countries. In Mexico, Rappi, a Colombian delivery app with operations in nine Latin American countries, has launched a crypto payments pilot program. Customers will be able to convert crypto into credits that can subsequently be used to complete purchases …

The bill regulating the cryptocurrency market in Brazil is expected to be approved by the National Congress in the first half of this year, according to Cointelegraph Brazil. The legislation, which has been debated in the Chamber of Deputies since 2015, has been approved in the first round of consideration. The Senate has attached it to another crypto-focused bill, which has already been approved by the Economic Affairs Committee of the Senate. Two legislators, Senator Irajá Abreu and Deputy Aureo Ribeiro, both rapporteurs of the aforementioned proposals in their respective legislative chambers, are drafting a unified text of the bill …

The Bitcoin (BTC) community is at it again, dismantling FUD and orange-pilling officials in far-flung destinations. At the foot of Lake Atitlán, a bucolic yet impoverished region of Guatemala, a Bitcoin project has managed to get a miner into the hands of the local mayor. The process has boosted local incomes while also improving the air quality. In Panajachel, Guatemala a community of almost 20,000 people is coming around to Bitcoin after the local mayor, Cesar Piedrasanta was gifted an old S9 Bitcoin miner. It’s the first municipality in Central or South America to mine BTC. While this is exceptional …

Coinbase is set to continue its global acquisition strategy, reportedly buying the Brazilian company 2TM, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin. According to information from Estadão, the third-largest newspaper read by Brazil’s 212 million populace, the Coinbase acquisition could be complete by next month. Negotiations for the purchase have been taking place over the course of 2022. Mercado Bitcoin is Latin America’s largest crypto brokerage, whose parent company, 2TM cemented its unicorn status as a billion-dollar company in 2021. Valued at $2.2 billion, 2TM has also pursued an acquisition strategy, particularly in lusophone countries. 2TM’s Mercado Bitcoin snapped up Portuguese …

The Central Bank of Honduras, or BCH, addressed rumors regarding the country potentially adopting Bitcoin as legal tender like its neighbor El Salvador — and the answer seems to be negative. In a Wednesday statement, Honduras' central bank said “for the time being” Bitcoin (BTC) was not regulated in the country and not recognized as legal tender in many others. The BCH reiterated its authority under Honduras' constitution that it was the only authorized “issuer of banknotes and coins” considered to be legal tender in the country. “BCH does not supervise or guarantee operations carried out with cryptocurrencies as means …

Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Matheus Nicolau is the latest world-famous athlete to opt to receive his fight earnings in the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). The eighth-ranked UFC flyweight fighter, Nicolau received his first salary in Bitcoin on Monday through a deal assisted by Bitwage payroll service, according to a joint announcement shared with Cointelegraph. The Brazilian sportsman has opted to take a paycheck in BTC to hedge against the rising inflation. Nicolau said that earning Bitcoin will help him secure the value of his hard work and not to worry about his money going to waste, adding: “I make my …

Businesses in El Salvador have been slow to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) ever since the country famously recognized the digital asset as legal tender in September 2021, according to a recent survey by the Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce. Of the 337 companies polled between Jan. 15 and Feb. 9, only 14% said they had transacted in BTC since the Bitcoin Law came into effect. Over 90% of the companies indicated that Bitcoin adoption in the country had little impact on their sales. Seventy-one percent of the companies polled were micro or small businesses, 13% classified as medium-sized enterprises and 16% were …