FTX, decentralized mining, Binance vs. the Philippines, and the story of Bitcoin millionaire Char…

From the basement to the cover of Forbes And then to prison we look at the Fascinating story of Bitcoin millionaire Charlie Shem good morning you're listening to The ryzen crypto podcast by coin Telegraph with me Robert bags steering You through the crypto Cosmos with daily Dispatches from the digital Frontier if You want to stay ahead of the curbing Crypto make sure you click that follow Button okay grab yourself a coffee and Let's get into [Music] It it's hard to believe so much can Happen in 24 hours but there's a lot you Need to know so here's the rundown FTX Has been given the green light to sell $873 million of trust assets to pay Creditors Jack dorsy leads a funding Round for a company trying to Decentralize Bitcoin mining the Philippines SEC says binance is Operating without a license the UK tax Authority hmrc issues a warning for Crypto holders and the fascinating and Turbulent story of Bitcoin millionaire Charlie Shrim it's not often that there's sort Of positive news surrounding FTX these Days but let's start with a story that Recently broke Braden lindrea wrote up The news that the bankrupt crypto Exchange has been given approval to sell

Around $873 million of trust assets According to a Delaware Bankruptcy Court Filing yesterday there will of course be A lot of hands stretched out for this I Imagine but the good news is that it is Earmarked for the repayment of creditors This $873 million is mostly from ftxs Stakes in several trusts issued by the Crypto asset manager grayscale although 66 million of it is from the custody Service provider bitwise a little Interesting Side Story here is that the Motion to sell the assets was filed in October when they were valued at $744 Million but they've increased Significantly in the interim as good as That is it must be an utter nightmare For those trying to resolve this mess FTX currently owns 22 million units of Gbtc grayscale Bitcoin trust which you May remember I discussed last week Because grayscale wants to convert this To an ETF this 22 million units is worth Nearly 700 million at the time of the Approval for this sale obviously it's Not going to clear ftxs debts but it Might make a dent Braden noted that the FTX debtors estimated in June that the Amount of customer assets Misappropriated was 8.7 billion though So far around 7 billion has been Recovered with just over half of that Being Crypto you can't travel very far into

The world of crypto without encountering Decentralization and realizing the Importance it has to the sector much of What makes crypto and web 3 attractive And useful is its decentralized nature However not everything in crypto is Decentralized and we still rely on many Centralized systems to bridge gaps and Build nevertheless there are still areas Of crypto that are centralized that Perhaps shouldn't be or could be Improved by becoming decentralized it's This notion that is the motivation Behind a new project for Bitcoin mining Called ocean Jack dorsy the co-founder Of Twitter and a crypto champion ion Yesterday backed a BTC mining pool that Looks to decentralize the reward process Ocean's parent company mumin saw a Successful $6.2 million seed round which Was led by dorsy Luke desier melin's Co-founder and longtime Bitcoin core Developer said ocean is a new type of Pole that enables miners to truly be Miners again we are launching as the Most transparent pole and also the only Non-custodial poll where miners are the Recipients of new block rewards directly From Bitcoin so here's why this is a big Deal at present BTC mining pools take Exclusive custody of the block rewards And transaction fees and then they Distribute them to the miners as melin's Other co-founder and president Mark

Timco said this gives them the ability To withhold payment from Individual Miners whether by their choice or by Legal requirement so Ocean's new mining Pool format would make the reward Mechanism of Bitcoin mining Decentralized it's hard to imagine Further decentralization of the Bitcoin Ecosystem meeting much resistance from Bitcoin supporters and Ocean's Non-custodial payouts to miners feels Like nothing but a positive on the face Of it so if there's a drawback here that I'm not seeing let me know ding ding Ding time for your daily binance story We're down to just one a day though now So uh that's progress what isn't Progress is the Philippines Regulators Say that binance has been operating Without a license yesterday Helen Parts Covered the Philippines SEC issuing a Warning against binance informing the Public and related entities that the Exchange is not authorized to sell C Securities in the country the statement Said based on the commission's database The operator of the platform binance is Not registered as a corporation in the Philippines and operates without the Necessary license Andor authority to Sell or offer any form of Securities as Defined under Section 3.1 of the SRC That is a very dry way of making the Same accusation we've seen against

Binance and many other exchanges that is They are selling unregistered Securities That's not all though the Philippines Authorities has also been alleging that Binance has been elicit ly promoting its Services a criminal offense that carries The penalty of a $90,000 fine which I Think they could manage or 21 years in Prison the Philippines National Telecommunication commission and the Department of information have announced That binance sites and apps are now Blocked while in the country and Google And meta have been asked to prohibit Adverts from binance to Philippines Citizens Helen pointed out a redditor's Comment on this story which is hard not To take seriously the user wrote binance Is currently being sued by the US SEC if It loses that case every binance Operation in most countries including The Philippines would crumble like a House of cards we've covered this us SEC Case against binance extensively and you May remember that they are looking for An FTX style back door but the judge Presiding over the case is running out Of patience so fingers crossed that is Resolved Soon okay this one is for my fellow UK Crypto folk his Majesty's revenue and Customs hmrc a very fancy way of saying Tax people issued a warning about paying Your taxes under prime minister Rishi

Sunx the UK is on a trajectory to become A hub for emerging technology or at Least that's the intention however like Most countries it is struggling with the Tax side of the public engagement with The new tech blockchain yesterday hmrc Published guidance on how to declare and Pay taxes on crypto Holdings and nfts Including back taxes citizens may not Have declared those looking to clear any Taxes they may owe for cryptocurrencies And nfts are asked to choose from one of Three reasons either they didn't take Enough care they evaded pay deliberately Or they intended to pay but somehow Failed how many people are going to fill This form in and say they evaded paying Deliberately anyway Ed tax has daily Interest charged and it can also come With penalties as a UK citizen I can Tell you that some years back it was Very tricky to work out as crypto is Usually considered as a financial asset And subject to capital gains tax but it Can also be an income in some Circumstances for some time now I've Just plugged all of my wallets into coin Le there's no affiliation here it's just What I use there are other options and Then I give that to my accountant which Ensures complete transparency what can I Say tax situations scare me so UK crypto Folk check if you owe anything those Brown envelopes from hmrc are anxiety

Inducing I've included in the show notes A link to Liza seeno's article on crypto Tax in the US UK and Canada as it's Really helpful if you're not sure where You stand with all this tax Stuff YouTube was once a place for Vlogs And dodgy animations now it's the Epicenter of video content and plays Host to unambiguously some of the Greatest documentaries you can watch I Mean that prod me on social media and I'll give you my top 10 what you may not Know is that coin Telegraph has an Amazing collection of mini documentaries Called crypto stories I'll link to the Whole playlist in the show notes Yesterday we got a new entry to this Playlist and it's the first of a Two-parter on Charlie Shem as far as Crypto biographies go Shem pioneered and Now familiar tale he went from a small Online business to the cover of Forbes And then to prison I really don't want To ruin this documentary or if you're a Reader I don't want to ruin Tom Blackstone's article on the first part Which is also linked in the show notes So instead I'll just give you a teaser As to why this story is so fascinating Shrim joined the Bitcoin Forum just a Few weeks after Satoshi posted for the Last time and discussions on the message Board led to him co-founding bit instant In 2011 bit instant was a Bitcoin

Exchange that was intended to be easier And quicker for buying Bitcoin at a time When it was really difficult to do so Bit instant grew to the point where it Was accounting for 30% of all Bitcoin Transactions on any given day the angel Investor Roger ver got involved the Winkl Vos twins invested seven figures And as Bitcoin rocketed in both price And popularity bit instant could Scarcely keep up however that was the Least of shem's problems in 2014 as he Landed at JFK airport he was arrested For allegedly conspiring to launder $1 Million of BTC to help users of the dark Net Market Marketplace Silk Road make Illegal purchases back then Bitcoin and Silk Road were seen as intrinsically Linked a reputation crypto is still Trying to shed today Charlie Shem is Known as the Bitcoin Prince and he's one Of the ogs of Bitcoin entrepreneurship I Didn't know much about his story so this Documentary was extra interesting to me And I must admit I shuddered when they Mentioned that they were using Mount GX If you don't know why that would be Terrifying set yourself aside 15 minutes And Google Mount GX right I'm not giving You any more information on this Documentary because part one is superb And I'm thoroughly looking forward to The second half either click the link to Tom's article or click the link to the

Playlist in the show Notes okay I think you're up to speed so That is it for today consider yourself Informed thank you for listening to the Ryzen crypto podcast by coin Telegraph If you're enjoying these daily updates Please make sure you let us know by Following subscribing leaving a review Or even sending us a tweet have a great Day let's do this again Tomorrow [Music]