Subnostr

Bitcoin Veterans 1y ago

BTC Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)

Block: 831,682

DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 23Feb24

Precedence: Routine (RR)

Controls: Public Release

QQQQ

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BLUF: ATT Outage, Pharma Hack Raise Suspicions / Houthis Hit Another Ship / Private US Firm Lands on Moon / TX Blockchain Sue DOE / Reddit Reveals BTC, ETH Positions

Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $50,966, 25.15 oz Gold, .12 Median US House

24hr Hi: $52,009 / Lo: $50,856

Vol: $23B (Down 14%)

Mkt Cap: $1T (Down 1%)

HashRate: 607 EH/s

Avg Fees: 7,485 sats/tx (Up 8%)

Nodes: 18,480

---Reports---

-International Events-

1. Houthi rebel attack sets cargo ship ablaze, forces Israel to intercept another attack near Eilat: The attack Thursday in the Gulf of Aden saw two missiles fired at a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander, the U.S. military’s Central Command said. A European naval force in the region described the attack as sparking a fire and wounding one sailor on board the vessel, though the ship is continuing on its way. (AP)

2. South Korea health alert raised to ‘severe’ over doctors walkout: Almost two-thirds of the country’s young doctors are on strike against a government plan to admit more students to medical schools, forcing hospitals to turn away patients. (NBC)

-US Events-

1. U.S. returns to the moon as first private spacecraft touches down: Space company Intuitive Machines became the first business to land a private spacecraft on the moon on Thursday. The spacecraft is carrying a host of NASA science experiments alongside several other private payloads. The experiements will help support NASA's Artemis program which will place humans back on the moon in 2026. (Axios)

3. Florida House passes legislation that would prohibit kids under 16 from having certain social media accounts: On Thursday, the House passed House Bill 1 in a vote of 108-7 and is now headed to Gov Desantis' desk. (CNN)

-Regulatory and Legal-

1. Texas Blockchain Council including Riot file lawsuit against US Energy Department over Bitcoin miner survey: The Feb. 22 court filing showed that the miners want to halt what they deem an “unlawful emergency data collection,” Lee Bratcher, president of the TBC, said: “It’s evident that this survey is not about grid stability, as bitcoin miners are the most flexible load on any grid, but is a targeted political effort led by figures like Elizabeth Warren.“ (CryptoSlate)

2. Trump: Bitcoin Has Taken on 'a Life of its Own,' Will Probably Need Some Regulation: The former U.S. president had previously said he was "not a fan" of cryptocurrencies and called central bank digital currencies dangerous, vowing not to allow them if elected. (CoinDesk)

-Institutional Concerns-

1. Reddit Adds Bitcoin and Ether to Its Treasury: The social-media company said that it invested some of its excess cash reserves in the cryptocurrencies, which are the two largest coins in crypto by market value. Reddit said that its investments in crypto for treasury purposes will be limited to coins that are unlikely to be securities, based on statements by regulators. (WSJ) (AC-Wall Street is taking notice)

-Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)-

1. Digital Yuan Now Used to Complete Car Prepurchase Payments: The digital yuan, China’s CBDC, is being used as a security element in car prepurchase payment settlements. According to local media reports, a pilot test that allows customers to pay for their cars with digital yuan was established in early February in Shenzhen, and several customers are already purchasing their vehicles using this system. (Bitcoincom)

-Economic Indicators-

1. It’s Been 30 Years Since Food Ate Up This Much of Your Income: In 1991, U.S. consumers spent 11.4% of their disposable personal income on food, according to data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. At the time, households were still dealing with steep food-price increases following an inflationary period during the 1970s. More than three decades later, food spending has reattained that level, USDA data shows. In 2022, consumers spent 11.3% of their disposable income on food, according to the most recent USDA data available. (WSJ)

-Technological Updates-'

1. AT&T outage caused by software update, company says: AT&T told ABC News in a statement ABC News that the outage was not a cyberattack but caused by "the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network." (ABC)

-Security Incidents and Concerns-

1. UnitedHealth Blamed ‘Nation-State’ Threat in Hack That Disrupted Pharmacy Orders: A cyberattack against a division of UnitedHealth Group Inc. has caused a nationwide outage of a computer network that’s used to transmit data between health-care providers and insurance companies, rendering some pharmacies unable to process prescriptions, according to the company and reports from affected organizations. (Yahoo)

-Bitcoin Community-

NSTR

-Bitcoin Sentiment-

1. Fear(0)/Greed(100) Index: 76/100 (Up 2 pts)

Analyst Comments (AC): Yesterday's cyber and communication anomalies are suspect. The AT&T outage, UnitedHealth's hack and sporadic reports of Wells Fargo customer outages happening on one day are indicative of foul play, environmental effects (i.e. solar flares), or incompetencies. What is relevant to the general population is the apparent fragility of the networks of power, communications and infrastructure that we so rely on. Whether yesterday's events were a test or some combination of incompetence, distributed and redundant systems are necessary and individual planning for contingencies are simply prudent.

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