Validators receive punishments if they get disconnected from the platform. The penalties, in this case, are usually light due to the short time off-line.

Poloniex suffered a disconnection of all its Ethereum 2.0 validator nodes. They got inactive for at least 30 minutes on this June 22. This situation led to a loss in the returns of the exchange in parallel with a series of punishments.

These validator nodes got intended for the private use of the exchange since Poloniex does not give Ethereum 2.0 staking among its investment items. It means that it is not a staking pool; therefore, any loss goes as the sole and unique responsibility of the company.

The Ethereum 2.0 network did not face struggles due to the few nodes that got shut down. There are currently more than 400,000 validators, and Poloniex nodes only represent 0.1% of the total.

Each Ethereum 2.0 validator node gets generated by housing 32 ethers in a special contract, which cannot get withdrawn until the final launch of this platform takes effect. As the goal is to maintain a more transparent network, system validators could get punished for taking actions that may impact the said network.

These penalties are discounts in ETH. The fines might vary according to the activity executed by the node, which can range from inactivity due to a poor internet connection, carrying fewer penalties, to double-spending attempts, which can become the loss of a total of 32 ETH.

 The Nodes of the Staking Pools

Although Poloniex’s Ethereum 2.0 validator nodes are private, there are many exchanges in the crypto space that could currently bring the possibility of taking on this network, such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, which are in the top 5 holders of the most significant amount of validators.

The service offered by these exchanges is popularly known as staking pools. Users can invest in staking without the urgent need to count on the 32 ETH to become a validator.

Any staking pool has not received the penalties mentioned in the report. In that case, in theory, the company or organization should take complete responsibility for the losses, even though recent events show that entities sometimes transfer these consequences of their bad decisions to their users.

By: Jenson Nuñez

A global survey highlighted that 60% of CEOs wait for a recession by 2023. JPMorgan has a more pessimistic scenario, with an 85% chance of an imminent recession.

According to a Citigroup report, the probability that the world will go through a recession is 50%. Especially at a moment when central banks strengthen monetary control bills and demand for goods weakens, along with the acquisition of essential services.

Similarly, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing, explained this Wednesday at a financial congress in Frankfurt that the global economy is walking the pathway to a recession while central banks redouble their efforts to keep inflation under control.

According to Sewing, while Deutsche Bank had highlighted raising interest rates as its first strategy to restrain inflation, the pace of increases observed from central banks has surprised it.

Sewing said that at least they have a 50% chance of a recession globally. In the US and Europe, on the other hand, there is a slight chance of experiencing a recession in the second half of 2023, while at the same time, there might be high peak interest rates, a higher rate than the forecasts experienced before the conflict would break out in Ukraine.

Other Entities are Observing a Difficult Outlook

Sewing’s comments run in parallel with claims by a team of Citigroup economists, who spoke about a prediction citing supply shocks and an increasing trend for interest rates.

Previous phenomenons in history highlight that disinflation often carries considerable costs to growth and the probability of recession which is now approaching 50%,” the Citigroup economists also expressed that Central banks can still build up the soft landings. However, this action will need supply shocks to sustain itself and demand to remain enacted.

A global survey of CEOs and other managers, published last Friday the 17th, highlighted that 60% of these senior managers wait for a recession before the end of 2023.

An even more pessimistic prediction got provided by JPMorgan economists, who think that the probability of a recession is 85%, much higher than that expressed by Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.

Regarding the historic crashes in the S&P 500 index, the portfolio manager at the GPM firm, Hugo Ferrer, expressed that the fall of more than 20% of the said index on June 13 was a clear demonstration that the world is already in the middle of a recession. So far this year, both bitcoin and other digital currency stocks have experienced negative returns.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Iran decided to temporarily disconnect crypto mining operations due to the high demand for electricity due to the weather conditions. The energy industry will suspend the electricity supply to legal crypto mining centers before the seasonal increase in the energy demand.

One of the countries that explored the mining of crypto assets the most was precisely Iran. However, they recently announced that they would cut off electricity to cryptocurrency miners.

The government of the Mid-Western nation decided to temporarily disconnect crypto mining operations due to the high electricity demand.

Anyway, one of the primary reasons the Iranian authorities gave for taking that measure was the weather conditions. They argued that the country has a terrible drought, which has worsened with the high temperatures in the territory.

In 2020, the Iranian Ministry of Commerce granted licenses to 1,000 cryptocurrency miners as Iran intended to become a world mining hub. In addition, in 2021, the official introduced a bill to regulate cryptocurrency mining in the country.

Iran uses crypto mining to reduce the impact of the restrictions imposed by the West. It is relevant to remember that the territory is under extensive US sanctions preventing them from accessing the international financial system.

Iran to Suspend the Power Service to Licensed Crypto Miners

The Ministry of Energy of the Islamic Republic of Iran recently announced the disconnection of crypto mining farms from the electricity grid.

As a result, legal crypto mining companies will stop their operations due to electricity shortages. For that reason, they must unplug their equipment temporarily.

Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, a spokesman for the energy industry, talked about that situation in an interview with the Iranian state television. He said they would suspend the electricity supply to 118 legal crypto mining centers in Iran. He explained that this would happen before the seasonal increase in the energy demand.

He warned that the country should prepare for energy shortages since the demand might exceed 63,000 MW in the coming days.

They Had Taken that Measure on Previous Occasions

It is not the first time the Iranian authorities have taken that measure to suspend the electricity supply. They argued that the high energy demand increases during the summer months.

Over the last two years, the Iranian authorities have closed around 6,914 unregistered crypto companies.

In 2020, the Tehran Power Company began blaming cryptocurrency mining for depleting the energy supply. That has led the government to take strong measures against illegal crypto mining. For example, they seized 7,000 crypto mining devices in June l2021.

Iranian miners may expect three months of energy shortages, but Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi did not provide details.

The suspension of the electricity service to legal Iranian miners will affect their income significantly. However, they must have anticipated that as the authorities had previously taken similar measures.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is trading at around USD 20,308 and has accumulated a 0.6% gain over the last 24 hours. While its daily trading volume is above USD 22.54 billion, its market capitalization is around USD 387.55 billion, according to CoinGecko.

By Alexander Salazar