Latin America: New Hub for Bitcoin Mining in 2022

According to data analysis company Arcane Research, Latin America will become one of the fastest-growing Bitcoin mining regions globally. The prediction is that by 2022, the hash rate of cryptocurrencies will continue to be more geographically distributed.

Since China began cracking down on Bitcoin mining in mid-2021, miners have moved their operations to other countries. The places where Bitcoin mining takes place the most are the United States, Kazakhstan, Russia, Canada, and Iran.

Before banning cryptocurrencies, China generated more than 70% of global Bitcoin mining. In October last year, the United States replaced the Asian giant and took over the leadership of Bitcoin mining.

Chinese miners have immigrated to different countries where laws and regulations are more tolerant of crypto mining. However, the flow of miners will continue in 2022. Many will choose Latin American countries such as El Salvador that provide legal protection and cleanliness. Provide energy for miners.

In the view of analysts of the company, the rapid geographic changes of many mining companies indicate that although it is a physical industry, it is highly liquid, and the geographic distribution of computing power can change rapidly.

However, energy consumption is likely to remain a hot topic in 2022. The mining industry has prospered in China for several years as it has provided the best conditions for the industry. Reduce labor, energy resources, and equipment maintenance costs.

Everything changed when the Chinese government launched its digital currency (CBDC), and the persecution began. Then the miners had to flee and transfer their equipment to nearby countries or North America, where activity continued to increase. However, since the end of 2019, many people have issued warnings about what will happen.

President Bukele Predicts that Bitcoin Will Rebound by $100,000 in 2022

On January 2, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele shared five bullish predictions for the performance of Bitcoin in 2022.

Last year, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender during Bukele’s presidency in response to the country’s growing inflation. Since legalization, the president has obtained 1,370 BTC as a national reserve. Bukele also reinvested its unrealized proceeds in new infrastructure projects, including hospitals and schools.

President Bukele predicts two more countries will join El Salvador in 2022 and adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. In the same year, he predicted that the bull market would cause the Bitcoin price to rise to a record high of $100,000.

Bukele also envisions that two internal Bitcoin-based programs in El Salvador—Bitcoin City and Volcano Bond—will explode. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the president expects Bitcoin City to become a fully functional city with residential areas, shopping malls, restaurants, and ports. Everything revolves around Bitcoin.

According to Bukele, Bitcoin City will start construction this year. It means that a virtual city backed by a $1 billion Bitcoin bond will be developed. With this development, he predicted that Volcano bonds would be oversubscribed.

Bukele also predicted that Bitcoin would become a major election issue in this year’s U.S. election and told his Twitter fans to pay attention to the “big surprise” at the Bitcoin 2022 conference.

The mainstream Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador has encountered a series of technical obstacles. Recent reports show that funds have disappeared from the country’s internal Bitcoin wallet, Chivo wallet.

At least 50 Salvadorans reported losses totaling more than $96,000 in December due to an alleged unknown glitch in the Chivo wallet.

Samsung Announces The Launch Of The NFT Platform For Smart TVs

Among Bitcoin, NFTs gain popularity as well. South Korean technology giant Samsung has released a new smart TV product line with an integrated NFT platform.

According to Monday’s announcement, Samsung’s Smart TVs such as Micro LED, Neo QLED, and The Frame launched in 2022 will come with in-built NFT platform applications. With these apps, users will discover, buy and trade digital art.

The company pointed out that as the urging for NFT increases, the demand for solutions to today’s decentralized viewing and buying landscape has never been stronger.

In 2022, the company’s goal is to launch the first smart TV NFT browser and market aggregator. The upcoming platform will enable viewers to browse and trade NFTs without leaving the sofa.

It is unclear which NFT platforms or markets will be included in the aggregation. However, Samsung promises that its smart TVs will not tamper with the image quality and retain the preset values ​​of the creators of the NFT.

In addition to integrating NFTs in its products, the Korean multinational conglomerate also actively invests in NFT and metaverse projects through its venture capital arm, Samsung Next. Last Wednesday, the company participated in a round of investment in the Yuanjie game platform.

In addition to Samsung, other major companies have also boarded the NFT train. As early as July 2021, Coca-Cola entered the NFT for charitable purposes. One month later, Visa purchased CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000.