Memecoin sends BTC fees to the moon, miner profits top $50B…

Top Stories This Week

Memecoin hype drives Bitcoin transaction fees to multi-year highs

The ongoing buying and selling frenzy of memecoins like Pepe has triggered an undesirable consequence for Bitcoin (BTC) — elevating its transaction prices to their highest level in two years. On May 3, the whole quantity of fees paid on the Bitcoin blockchain reached $3.5 million, leaping about 400% from late April. Bitcoin’s BRC-20 token commonplace has turn out to be the newest pattern in the crypto ecosystem amid the rise of memecoins. A complete of 8,500 totally different tokens have been minted utilizing the BRC-20 commonplace. Gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain have additionally just lately been skyrocketing to new multi-month highs.

Bitcoin miners earned $50B from BTC block rewards, fees since 2010

Amid an ongoing debate over miner prices and susceptibility to Bitcoin worth dips, new figures recommend that miners are firmly in the black in the long run. Calculations from on-chain analytics agency Glassnode recommend that since 2010, fees and block reward subsidies have netted miners billions. Miners’ whole all-time revenue is nearly 40% larger than their estimated prices, coming in at $50.2 billion versus $36.6 billion, respectively.

‘Godfather of AI’ resigns from Google, warns of the risks of AI

Artificial intelligence pioneer and former Google worker Dr. Geoffrey Hinton shared his considerations about the know-how that he helped develop over the previous a number of years. According to the neural networks professional, AI may pose a risk to humanity in the future because it learns surprising behaviors from the large quantities of information it analyzes. He can also be involved at the persevering with AI arms race to develop deadly autonomous weapons techniques, in addition to an elevated variety of faux images, movies and textual content flooding the web. 

Balaji pays out his loopy $1M Bitcoin guess, 97% underneath worth goal

A wild Bitcoin worth wager between former Coinbase chief know-how officer Balaji Srinivasan and pseudonymous Twitter person James Medlock has been settled 45 days forward of time for $1.5 million. Medlock provided to guess anybody $1 million that the United States wouldn’t expertise hyperinflation on March 17. The ex-Coinbase govt accepted the guess, predicting the U.S. greenback would deflate due to inflation and, consequently, BTC would attain $1 million inside 90 days. In the deal, Medlock netted $500,000, whereas one other $1 million went to two organizations.

Microsoft axes Bing wait listing, giving customers free entry to GPT-4

Microsoft just lately introduced quite a lot of new AI-powered options for its Bing chatbot and Edge internet browser, together with full entry to the GPT-4 mannequin — the identical underlying engine that powers the ChatGPT Plus subscription service. The new options gained’t require any purchases or subscriptions, although customers will want a free Microsoft account to reap the benefits of the Bing chatbot’s full suite of capabilities. By distinction, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus service prices $20 monthly for entry to the identical GPT-4 mannequin.

Winners and Losers

At the finish of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,618, Ether (ETH) at $1,991 and XRP at $0.46. The whole market cap is at $1.22 trillion, in accordance to CoinMarketCap.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at 961.32%, FLOKI (FLOKI) at 35.36% and Rocket Pool (RPL) at 10.15%. 

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Sui (SUI) at -70.87%, Immutable (IMX) at -10.68% and Cronos (CRO) at -10.06%.

For extra data on crypto costs, be certain that to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation.

Most Memorable Quotations

“Even in the U.S. where that [CDBC] was for quite some time a topic of not great interest, now there is engagement, and for the right reason. The future has arrived.”

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund

“I spent my own money to send a provably costly signal that there’s something wrong with the economy, and that it’s not going to be a ‘soft landing’ like Powell promises — but something much worse.”

Balaji Srinivasan, former chief know-how officer at Coinbase

“There’s going to be very few people over the next 10 years that don’t have some involvement in this [crypto] sector.”

Lisa Cameron, member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

“It’s this uncertainty that permeates everything. You just don’t know what’s coming next or where it’s going to come from or why or how in the U.S.”

Oliver Linch, CEO of Bittrex Global

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it [co-developed modern artificial intelligence], somebody else would have.”

Geoffrey Hinton, synthetic intelligence pioneer referred to as the “Godfather of AI”

“Well, I think we have both, and I think it’s somewhat naive to say that this [banking crisis] is just limited to First Republic.”

Bob Michele, chief funding officer of J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin worth units new May excessive above $29.5K as merchants eye breakout

Bitcoin eyed a reclaim of additional misplaced floor on May 5 as $30,000 remained in play. The BTC/USD pair had dipped with United States equities at the Wall Street open the day prior, however the weak spot was short-lived as $29,000 help returned.

Popular pseudonymous dealer Alan, also called Trader Tardigrade, was optimistic about upside continuation, which may mimic its breakout from late 2020. “#Bitcoin has entered the phase of ‘Storing of power,’” he advised Twitter followers alongside a comparative chart, including that the second was the preparation for an “incoming Bull Run.”

FUD of the Week 

Argentina’s central financial institution halts cryptocurrencies from fee apps

Argentina’s central financial institution banned fee suppliers from providing crypto transactions, alleging it intends to scale back the nation’s payment-system publicity to digital belongings. Cryptocurrencies should not regulated in Argentina, which suggests all cash and tokens are topic to the determination. Argentina’s fintech chamber urged the authorities to rethink the determination.

FBI, Ukraine seize 9 trade domains on cash laundering allegations

Nine digital foreign money exchanges allegedly aiding and abetting cybercriminals had their domains seized by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and Ukrainian legislation enforcement. The seized domains included 24xbtc.com, 100btc.professional, pridechange.com, trust-exchange.org and bitcoin24.trade. Each web site reportedly provided nameless crypto trade companies, skirting a lot of the guidelines and rules required from a licensed agency.

Darknet hackers are promoting crypto accounts for as little as $30 a pop

Cybercriminals from the shadowy components of the web are reportedly promoting hacked, verified crypto accounts on the darknet for as little as simply $30 apiece. Hacked accounts can be utilized to illegally evade Know Your Customer measures on in style cryptocurrency exchanges. But cryptocurrency accounts aren’t the solely gadgets on the listing — account data for bank cards with balances of up to $5,000 are offered for simply $110, whereas login credentials for on-line financial institution accounts with balances of up to $2,000 are offered for $60.

Best Cointelegraph Features

How to management the AIs and incentivize the people with crypto?

Does AI want blockchain and crypto to incentivise the people in the loop — or to assist preserve the robots in line?

Joe Lubin: The fact about ETH founders cut up and ‘Crypto Google’

Joe Lubin explains what actually occurred in 2014 when two co-founders had been pushed out and the way Ethereum actually is changing into the “World Computer.”

Does AI know-how spell doom for Hollywood? Joe Lubin on AI, Wes Anderson’s Star Wars, and AI tasked with destroying humanity goes darkish.