Non-fungible tidbits: This week in bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and NFT – CNET

Welcome to the first edition of Nonfungible Tidbits, where we highlight some of the most interesting things that happened this week at cryptocurrencyNFT and related fields.

Certainly the biggest story of this week was bitcoin price, which, uh, is not going well. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, would be end his stablecoin project. And last Friday, Twitter launched a feature which allows subscribers of its paid service Twitter Blue to use an NFT as their profile picture. Here are a few other stories that caught our attention this week.

The SEC refuses another proposal for a spot bitcoin ETF

On Thursday, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission said no to a proposal that would have allowed Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust shares to be listed and traded. The SEC cited concerns about investor protection and the public interest in the decision. Investors were able to buy shares of a ETF that tracks bitcoin futures contracts since last year. But a spot bitcoin ETF would track the actual price of bitcoin, rather than the price of bitcoin futures, and the SEC isn’t ready for that yet.

Texas Governor Abbott Believes Bitcoin Mining Will Boost State’s Power Grid

The main thing Bitcoin mining operations need is electricity – lots and lots of electricity. This is what drives the ongoing concern about bitcoin’s impact on the environment. But there’s a growing presence of bitcoin miners in Texas, and Governor Abbot wants to use them to…help boost the state’s power grid? The idea here is that mining operations consume so much energy that they will attract new investment in power plants in Texas. Then, when demand for electricity is high, as was the case during last year’s winter storms, bitcoin miners can shut down their operations to free up electricity. It should be noted that there is currently no law in Texas that would require minors to do this. Maybe if the governor asks nicely?

Miller Lite targets Internet Super Bowl marketing

Bud Light is the official beer of the big game, so no Miller advertising is allowed in America’s most popular advertising slots of the year. What’s the next best thing? Apparently it’s a “metaverse bar”. Miller Lite partners with Decentraland, a platform that allows people to buy and sell virtual land. What is a metaverse bar? After reading this Marketing Dive story, the concept sounds like a video game where you log in, and your avatar sits in a bar and buys NFTs. Very 2022.

Ethereum Foundation Removes “Eth2” Terminology

The Ethereum Foundation oversees the Ethereum blockchain, which is the blockchain for ether, the #2 cryptocurrency after bitcoin (by market capitalization). The blockchain, currently in its “Eth1” phase, is set to be upgraded later this year, which is supposed to make it more efficient, more environmentally friendly and less expensive to transact. Previously, the new version was supposed to be called Eth2, but not anymore. Why? According to a blog post from the Ethereum Foundation, Eth1 will be known as the “execution layer” and Eth2 will be known as the “consensus layer”. This is a change in semantics, and the change reflects that the runtime and consensus layers are, rather than two separate versions of Ethereum, two aspects of the same system. And that’s good, right?

That’s all we have for now. Thanks for reading. We’ll be back next week with lots to tell you. In the meantime, check out GameSpot’s So Money podcast with Farnoosh Torabi.