BitcoinLive and Blockcast hosted Paul McNeal. This time, we talked about Bitcoin and the crypto market, but also El Salvador, Amsterdam, Michael Saylor, and BTC Taproot!
Some highlights:
El Salvador has passed a potentially ground-breaking bill that has made it the world’s first country to recognize bitcoin as legal tender. At 62 out of 84 possible votes, El Salvador’s legislature passed the bill which would allow bitcoin to be legally used for purchases and tax payments while exchanges trading the cryptocurrency will also exempt from capital gains tax.
Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade received enough mining support to lock-in activation. Taproot is undoubtedly Bitcoin’s most significant improvement since the “Segregated Witness (SegWit)” upgrade in 2017. The governance vote for Taproot conformed to parameters set by “Speedy Trial,” which requires the support of at least 90% of the blocks mined in a designated two-week period to begin the activation process. With the 90% benchmark met, the Taproot upgrade has been scheduled for November. The upgrade is set to introduce a plethora of upgrades to the Bitcoin network, including improved privacy, scalability, multi-signature wallets, and security.
MicroStrategy made quick work of their recent fundraising plan to raise money to purchase more bitcoin. The money raised totals around $488 million after expenses and commissions. According to Business Insider, the sale received more than $1.5 billion in orders with many coming from large hedge funds. Clearly, despite the recent price dip, major investors are still clamoring to get more cryptocurrency as notes flew off the shelves. The notes purchased are “fully and unconditionally guaranteed on a senior secured basis, jointly and severally,” according to the release by MicroStrategy.
