Euro News | Pascale Davies
Despite a crackdown on Bitcoin in China last year, mining the largest cryptocurrency actually got much dirtier and emits around the same amount of CO2 annually as a country the size of Greece, a new study shows.
The joint study, titled Revisiting Bitcoin's Carbon Footprint, showed that the share of renewable electricity sources that fuel the Bitcoin network may have decreased from an average of 41.6 per cent in 2020 to 25.1 per cent in August 2021.
It also showed Bitcoin could be responsible for 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 annually, which is comparable to country-level emissions in Greece.
In May 2021, Chinese authorities ordered a crackdown on crypto mining and trading and regulators banned financial institutions from offering services related to cryptocurrencies.
One of the reasons for the decline in renewable energy sources powering Bitcoin mining is because the Bitcoin network no longer had access to hydropower from the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, said Alex de Vries, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the School of Business and Economics at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
"The reason why they had that amount of renewables was because within China, they could move around and they could get hydropower during the summer months and then in the winter months, they would be using coal," he told Euronews Next.
He said as soon as China banned Bitcoin mining, they moved to Kazakhstan and to the US.
"Kazakhstan coal replaced the Chinese coal, and Kazakhstan uses hardcore, which is the worst type of coal, the most carbon-intensive type of coal,” de Vries said, adding that in the US, miners replaced hydropower with natural gas.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Platformable | Jan 2022
Our open banking/open finance ecosystem maps the way that APIs can help generate new products and create financial health for end users, and indirect benefits for society, local economies and the environment.
Governments direct regulators to expand digital financial services infrastructure through open banking and open finance (in some locations, markets themselves encourage greater action).
API providers (including banks and fintech platforms, like payment gateways) make APIs available, drawing on industry standards and internal API governance. These APIs are used by API consumers (such as fintech, API aggregators and marketplaces) to build new products and services.
The utility of these APIs depend on value enablers including the level of developer experience, security and privacy provisions, and are influenced by demand for digital services from end users. End users including individuals, businesses, and enterprises make use of API-enabled fintech to generate financial health and wellbeing.
The broader ecosystem could also generate indirect impacts on society including impacts on levels of participation and inclusion, support for local economies through increased employment opportunities, and the environment through more optimised use of resources and creation of sustainability products.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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The Logic via FP | Catherine McIntyre | Feb 17, 2022
The firms that make up Canada’s private capital markets are slowly diversifying, according to a new report, with more women, people of colour, LGBTQ2+ and folks with disabilities than ever across all ranks of venture capital and private equity firms.
The Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association’s State of Diversity and Inclusion report—sponsored by BDC Capital, CIBC and The51, and to be released Thursday afternoon—gathered data on metrics like gender, race and sexual orientation from 413 employees across 122 firms in the country to get a clear picture of the demographic makeup of an industry that’s traditionally been overwhelmingly white and male.
Canada’s private capital markets are slowly diversifying their workforces, according to the latest diversity and inclusion report from the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association. Greater representation of women, racial minorities and LGBTQ2+ employees in VC firms’ junior ranks shows potential for a demographic shift at the partner level. But concerns about inclusion could threaten that progress.
The results show an improvement over the CVCA’s last diversity report, released in 2019, but president and CEO Kim Furlong said diversifying the industry is still a work in progress. Here’s what you need to know:
Women overtake men in non-management roles: Women accounted for 61.3 per cent of all non-partner employees at venture capital firms in 2021. (The report does not include data on non-binary employees.) That’s more than in the broader financial industry, which the CVCA used as a benchmark; industry-wide, 52 per cent of non-partner employees are women. In 2019, less than a quarter of VC firms that responded to the CVCA survey had women in over half of all junior-level positions, and about 14 per cent of firms had women in more than half of non-partner management roles.
Diversity overall decreases with seniority: At the partner level, the number of women dropped to just 19 per cent. For racial and ethnic minorities, representation fell from 20.6 per cent among non-partners to 18 per cent among partners, while LGBTQ2+ people accounted for 11 per cent of all non-management employees and 10.3 per cent of partners. People with disabilities—a category that includes physical, cognitive and learning disabilities, as well as mental health conditions—were the only group whose representation consistently increased with seniority, from 12 per cent of junior employees to 17.6 per cent of staff excluding partners and 19 per cent of partners.
Black and Indigenous underrepresentation: Most of the gains in racial and ethnic diversity at the VC partner level—up 5.2 per cent from 2019—came from people with East and South Asian backgrounds, while partners from Black, Indigenous, Middle Eastern and Latin backgrounds “remain few and far between,” the report notes. The CVCA identified the same pattern in the private equity sector. “Notably Black and Indigenous remain significantly underrepresented,” it reads.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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TCFD | Feb 14, 2022
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is conducting a survey of asset managers and asset owners on their climate-related financial reporting practices.The Task Force will publish aggregated survey results in its 2022 status report as well as a summary of TCFD-aligned reporting practices and challenges across asset managers and asset owners. This information should help asset managers and asset owners implement the TCFD recommendations and help a wide range of stakeholders understand the current state of asset manager and asset owner TCFD-aligned reporting.
We would appreciate if someone well-acquainted with your organization’s climate-related reporting would complete our 15-minute survey.
All responses will be kept confidential and will not be attributed to either you or your organization without permission.
We would be grateful to receive your response to the survey by Friday, March 25, 2022. Please feel free to contact info@fsb-tcfd.org if you have any questions.
Thank you for your support.
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
(TCFD) works to improve and increase reporting of climate-related financial information. In 2017, the TCFD released climate-related financial disclosure recommendations designed to help companies provide better information and support more informed capital allocation. More than 3,000 organizations around the world have declared support for the TCFD and its recommendations.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Maddyness | Firstminute Capital | Feb 7, 2022
Climate fintech is a cross-cutting sector covering the intersection of climate, finance and digital technology. It includes a range of financial product innovations, applications and platforms that serve as mediums between all stakeholders to catalyse decarbonisation.Climate change poses substantial economic and political risk to the global economy. Efforts to mitigate such risk will require a fundamental retooling of our global economy and coordinated action across public and private stakeholders. Financial services institutions play critical roles, however incumbents in banking, insurance and finance are slow to innovate. Their legacy technology infrastructure and business models don’t lend themselves to iteration and innovation.
Conversely, fintech has shown its ability to drive innovation and to reach venture scale. Financial product innovation and applied technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technologies make capital availability, data gathering and processing much faster, transparent and cost effective. As a result, they have important roles as enablers and disruptors within climate change.
The climate transition requires financial sector innovation in multiple areas:
The fintech market represents a small percentage of the overall financial services sector, however it is growing rapidly and driving change across the industry. The global fintech market is projected to grow steadily at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 23% reaching a market size value of $324B by 2026. Climate fintech is set to play a major role within a fast-growing space.
A wide range of business models across multiple verticals are emerging, applying a mix of already proven technologies.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Fast Company | Innovation 360 Webcast | Jan 20, 2022
Living paycheck to paycheck is one of the biggest sources of economic stress for Americans today—and these anxieties weigh on mental and physical health too. Two-thirds of the U.S. population struggles with one or more aspects of their finances, including spending, saving, borrowing, and planning.
These individuals have massive unmet needs because traditional banking just doesn’t work for them. Fintech innovations, such as a new offering to be introduced at this event by H&R Block, are changing the landscape and creating financial inclusivity for those who need it most.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Bitcoin magazine | Shinobi | Jan 28, 2022
As Bitcoin becomes more widely accepted in Nigeria, the country offers lessons in self-custody practices for Bitcoiners in developing nations.Nigeria's ground-up growth in the face of systematic government opposition to the use of Bitcoin is an inspirational story and a very valuable case study in terms of Bitcoin's ability to thrive in an adversarial environment, but it also illuminates some of the unique obstacles for users in a developing country such as Nigeria.
Corruption is a massive problem in the country, as evidenced by the scandal surrounding the SARS police unit that instigated this massive public perception shift of Bitcoin in the first place. This introduces a lot of issues in terms of importing any kind of hardware device related to Bitcoin.
Anything coming into the country, which is essentially any hardware wallet that could be used to store bitcoin (because no major wallets are produced in Nigeria) must first pass through customs before getting into the hands of the user ordering it.
This is a big potential risk to the user attempting to acquire a more secure mechanism for storing their coins.
It is very possible that customs agents could tamper with devices entering the country in a way that could lead to compromising people's bitcoin when the device is initialized and coins are sent to it. They could even completely replace the device with a malicious one.
Most hardware wallet manufacturers take some steps to package their devices in such a way as to make such tampering evident, but not every company's solutions to this problem is of equal quality, and some manufacturers do not engage in such practices at all. Some manufacturers have multiple layers of checks in the packaging, as well as combinations of checks on the actual device itself. Some companies simply employ basic tamper-proof stickers that cannot be resealed after opening.
Another factor related to the dynamic of self custody is simply the economics of interacting with the blockchain. Many Nigerians simply keep their coins on exchanges in custodial wallets because of the simplicity of managing things, and the economics of dealing with their own transactions on chain. This presents a big risk with the coming wave of FATF Travel Rule compliance rippling across the world right now. Countries like Estonia have already moved to increase KYC requirements in the process of implementing the FATF Travel Rule policies in legislation, and it is very possible that other countries might follow a similar example over the next year.
Places like Nigeria are demonstrating that Bitcoin can indeed thrive in an environment where government's are being openly hostile to its existence. Outside of the box thinking along the lines of community banks and multisig collaborative custody can provide tools to people in such an environment which allow them to make more optimal tradeoffs between the security and utility of their interactions with Bitcoin. If people embrace them, Bitcoin has a very bright future ahead in places like Nigeria, and so will the people who use it.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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