There are 169 operational Bitcoin ATMs in Spain, surpassing countries like Austria, Switzerland, and Romania. Those devices have contributed to bringing society closer to crypto-assets, according to the founder of Bitnovo.

Installing 100 Bitcoin automatic teller machines (ATMs) will allow Spain to have more active devices than El Salvador. They will have nearly 300 ATMs that will operate in several autonomous communities.

Marcos Muñoz, the founder of Bitnovo, said that this would contribute to the growth of ATM networks working with cryptocurrencies. He stated that cryptocurrency ATMs do not stop growing, while traditional banks reduce their numbers.

The executive highlighted that those devices, which allow trading cryptocurrencies with fiat money, have brought society closer to those assets. He also commented that this would place Spain as the third country with the highest number of Bitcoin ATMs, following the United States and Canada.

Data from CoinATMRadar indicates that Spain is the European country with the most Bitcoin ATMs in operation. There are about 169 active ATMs, thus surpassing Austria (140), Switzerland (137), and Romania (113).

When the above installation is complete, Spain will have 269 Bitcoin ATMs in operation. That would be a significant difference compared to El Salvador, where 205 ATMs operate. However, nobody knows yet when all the ATMs will be active.

Bitcoin ATMs Offer More Options to Access This New Economy

The CEO of Eurocoin Spain, Fernando Dumont, considers that the new Bitcoin ATMs will help expand that market. They would allow going from traditional and digital payment systems to blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystems.

The specialist believes that the future of all forms of payments will coexist with the cryptocurrency universe. He said that installing more ATMs will help all Spanish users have many options to access this new growing economy.

Bitcoin ATMs Quadrupled in 2021 and Will Continue Growing

Analysts had already predicted the installation of new ATMs in Spain, considering their number increased four times in 2021.

Data from CoinATMRadar reveals that the number of ATMs installed until September was just over 27,800. That figure is four times higher than what was available about twelve months earlier.

The situation is not different in Spain, where several companies related to Bitcoin have decided to venture into ATMs. For example, cryptocurrency exchange BitBase has distributed more than 60 cryptocurrency ATMs throughout Spain.

The rise in those ATMs has led to more regulations for alleged crimes. However, they are here to stay, contributing to expanding the cryptocurrency market, which has a niche market to exploit in Spain.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become increasingly relevant in the economic system of many countries. For that reason, the installation of new ATMs represents an opportunity for many users that want to trade those assets with fiat money.

The pioneering cryptocurrency is currently trading at around USD 43,102 and has accumulated a profit of 0.4% in the last seven days. Its daily trading volume is above USD 14.35 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 815.95 billion, according to CoinGecko.

By Alexander Salazar

The hearing will get conducted by the Trade and Energy Oversight Subcommittee. Although there are not enough details, they will mainly address the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The Subcommittee on Supervision of Commerce and Energy is a group attached to the US House of Representatives and scheduled a new hearing for next January 20 to discuss energy consumption and the environmental footprint related to the operation of Blockchain networks.

The hearing will get called “Cleaning up cryptocurrency: The energy impact of Blockchains.” With this hearing, they will address the aspects associated with the functioning of Blockchain networks on which cryptocurrencies work, presumably those that operate under the Proof protocol. -of-Work (PoW) and have a mining ecosystem like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Although there are no details about this hearing or a list of the people who will participate, this hearing will handle a hybrid modality since some participants will be in person while others will attend digitally. It is also clear that the meeting will take place in the morning hours in the offices of the Rayburn House building.

This issue got addressed by the Subcommittee on Oversight, and it seems that the problem has not progressed adequately in the other Houses of Congress. This situation may be the beginning of the path to thinking about adequate legislation on the subject; since the entity aims at addressing any activity that gets considered problematic, leaving the mining of the most reputable cryptocurrencies in the spotlight.

Electricity Consumption and Environmental Footprint: The Problems of Cryptocurrencies

As Bitcoin and the most popular cryptocurrencies have been gaining popularity, the problems associated with electricity consumption and the environmental footprint resulting from carbon emissions have been an issue on the table throughout the year 2021.

Perhaps one of the most notable points of this situation took place in May 2021, when Elon Musk indicated that Tesla would withdraw support for payments via Bitcoin due to the environmental implications associated with the use of cryptocurrency.

This announcement generated a lot of uncertainty in the market; the impact on the price was such that its price fell sharply the day the decision of the electric car manufacturer was made public.

Given the visibility of the problem, Musk, together with Michael Saylor, founded an organization that would encourage renewable as the first energy provider in Bitcoin mining.

This activity could mitigate the impact generated by the sector and seek greater adoption of the digital currency between businesses and entities.

The second digital currency with the largest market capitalization, Ethereum, currently works on a transition of its mining system to implement Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

Proof of Stake is a modality that reduces the electricity consumption associated with mining by 99% operations of the network, bringing more improvements in scalability and low costs for most of its operations.

By Jenson Rivas

Year-on-year inflation would exceed 6% in the first quarter of this year. Colombia faces at least three economic risk scenarios in the short term.

Inflation is a monetary phenomenon from which no one gets spared. In Colombia, the national currency lost at least 99.96% of its purchasing power in the last 60 years.

This information can get spotted on the in2013dollars.com web portal, which allows users to run an inflation and devaluation calculator for various currencies based on the information brought by the Official Data organization.

 100,000 Colombian pesos (COP) of 1959, which is the year in which the count begins, according to the information provided, is equivalent to COP 36 of 2021.

Inflation Prospects for 2022 in Colombia

Inflationary prospects for the South American nation are not encouraging. According to specialists consulted by the Bloomberg Line portal, there could be an inflationary peak in the first months of 2022.

For example, María Paula Castañeda, an economist at BBVA Research, is convinced that year-on-year inflation will exceed 6% in the first quarter of this year. This inflation will be due to price controls by the Government and due to “the indexation of prices to higher inflation, the increase in the minimum wage well above inflation and a lagged effect of the recent devaluation of the exchange rate on prices.”

Analyst Laura Parra, from Corficolombiana, also believes so. For her, that percentage could get reached in the current month of January. Colombians would particularly feel the increase in food and transportation prices.

Last December, reports on various media outlets brought at least three risk scenarios for the Colombian economy shortly. These are high indebtedness, inflation and stagnation, and the political uncertainty and stagnation of the socio-economic process.

In this context, Colombians require an instrument that allows them to preserve their wealth, and bitcoin (BTC) emerges as an outstanding option. Despite its high volatility in the short and medium-term, the cryptocurrency turned out to be a good haven of value in long periods.

Its immovable monetary policy with a maximum issue that will never exceed 21 million units gives certainty to the market. The impossibility of increasing the currency means that if the demand continues to grow, so will the price of BTC (measured in fiat money).

Those who decide to put part of their savings in bitcoin after analyzing both risks and benefits gain the possibility to acquire it through various exchanges, brokers, and P2P platforms.

Fears of stagflation have plagued the markets in recent months, as prices begin to rise in an economy that is reeling and Colombia does not escape it, as the aforementioned economic study points out.

The 2022 book estimates that Colombia will achieve economic growth of 8.9% in 2021 but warns that this will drop to only 3.4% the following year due to the climate of uncertainty that will attack the nation’s economy over the next year.

By: Jenson Nuñez