Lawmakers haven’t adopted a single global template, but the direction is clear: new or higher charges tied to electricity use, the rollback of preferential power tax rates, and stricter grid-connection costs. In the U.S., the White House has repeatedly floated a 30% Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax on miners’ electricity; it has not been enacted. Outside the U.S.,…
The 10-second answer
Bitcoin uses a UTXO model. Every transaction consumes one or more unspent outputs (inputs) and creates new outputs locked by scripts. Wallets pick UTXOs, build outputs (recipient + change), estimate a fee in sats/vB, sign, broadcast to the network’s mempool, and miners include it in a block when the fee is competitive.
The moving pieces: inputs, outputs, and…
Bitcoin was conceived and published by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto in a whitepaper on October 31, 2008; the network itself started when Satoshi mined the “genesis block” on January 3, 2009; and the first public software (v0.1) arrived in early January 2009. Satoshi’s real-world identity remains unknown.
A simple timeline of Bitcoin’s invention
October 31, 2008: Satoshi posts the paper “Bitcoin:…
Why partnerships matter (and often fail)
Partnerships can unlock customers, distribution, credibility, technology, and speed—but alliances are hard to execute. Classic studies and executive surveys find high under-performance or failure rates in alliances and joint ventures, which is why discipline around selection, governance, and measurement matters from day one.
Step 1: Define the partnership thesis and value exchange
Write a one-page thesis that…
Florida has a lot of lawsuits because everyday disputes scale with the state’s huge population and record tourism, and because insurance and consumer laws historically made it relatively attractive to sue (for example, one-way attorney fees and assignment-of-benefits arrangements). Hurricanes, auto no-fault rules, ADA website cases, and aggressive legal advertising added fuel. Since late 2022 and 2023, however, major reforms…
Hardware wallets can anchor an enterprise crypto program, but businesses rarely stop at a single USB device. The real gains come from extensions: policy engines with multi-approvals, smart-account modules and guards (e.g., Safe), enterprise connectors like MetaMask Institutional, and server-side HSM or MPC infrastructure for scale. Together they deliver tamper-resistant key storage, programmable controls, and auditable operations that satisfy risk…
Why banks are revisiting blockchain for security in 2025
Banks face intensifying cyber and fraud risks, and supervisors are raising the bar on resilience and real-time recoverability. ENISA’s 2025 finance-sector threat landscape highlights ongoing ransomware, third-party compromise and data-exfiltration risks, while the ECB’s 2024 cyber stress test found “room for improvement” in recovery from severe incidents—context that makes tamper-evident records, programmable…
Quick answer
Yes—crypto can diversify a portfolio, but the benefit is regime-dependent. Correlations with traditional assets are not constant; they tend to be low-to-moderate on average and rise during risk-on phases, so sizing and disciplined rebalancing matter more than ever.
Why diversification from crypto is plausible (and when it isn’t)
Across long samples, Bitcoin and Ethereum show variable correlations versus stocks, bonds,…
Quick answer
Yes. Bitcoin is designed to be fractional. One bitcoin equals 100,000,000 satoshis, and Bitcoin transactions are constructed and recorded in satoshis, not whole coins. That means you can buy or send less than 1 BTC—in fact, far less.
Bitcoin units you’ll actually use
1 BTC = 100,000,000 satoshis (often shortened to “sats”).
Wallets and explorers increasingly display values in sats because…
The 2026 policy question in context
Crypto is now plugged into mainstream finance: the U.S. approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 and spot Ether ETFs in July 2024, while Hong Kong listed Asia’s first spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in April 2024. In parallel, the EU’s MiCA regulation began applying in phases from 2024, creating a harmonised single-market rulebook. These…
The next 12–18 months favor startups that combine durable growth loops with pragmatic AI, first-party data, and partner ecosystems. Regulation (EU AI Act), evolving search experiences, stricter email rules, and cloud marketplace co-sell programs all shift where and how growth happens.
1) Product-led growth, upgraded with agentic AI
GenAI is maturing from “chat features” into agentic systems that plan multi-step actions, personalize…
Across the EU, governments have moved from pilots to formal cooperation: a political pact (the European Blockchain Partnership), a production-grade network for public services (EBSI), a new joint legal vehicle to run it (EUROPEUM-EDIC), plus market rules such as MiCA and a capital-markets sandbox for tokenised securities. Together, these initiatives make cross-border blockchain services possible at EU scale.
What is…
A handful of jurisdictions have leapt ahead on three fronts that matter to users and businesses alike: clear and enforceable rules, mainstream market access, and real-world adoption. Together, these shifts have elevated the European Union, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, India, and Nigeria into a new leadership cohort. Data from Chainalysis and developer-activity dashboards reinforce these…
How to use this quiz
Work through the twenty questions below. Each one includes a concise answer and a one-paragraph explanation so you can learn as you go. Where helpful, I’ve linked to authoritative references.
The quiz
1) Who published Bitcoin’s whitepaper and when?
Satoshi Nakamoto published “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” on October 31, 2008. The paper introduced proof-of-work, peer-to-peer timestamping, and…
When a financial committee postpones publishing legacy market-research reports (e.g., work anchored in 2018’s market conditions), it usually reflects process, legal, or evidence issues—not merely “slow admin.” Across jurisdictions, committees often must complete hearings, verify evidence, and navigate publication protocols before reports are laid or released. UK and EU parliamentary materials, for example, describe how registration, laying dates, and internal…