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What is Bitcoin and how does it work?

What Is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created in January 2009. It follows the ideas set out in a whitepaper by the mysterious and pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of the person or persons who created the technology is still a mystery. Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and, unlike government-issued currencies, it is operated by a decentralized authority. Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. There are no physical bitcoins, only balances kept on a public ledger that everyone has transparent access to. All bitcoin transactions are verified by a massive amount of computing power. Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any banks or governments, nor are individual bitcoins valuable as a commodity. Despite it not being legal tender, Bitcoin is very popular and has triggered the launch of hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, collectively referred to as altcoins. Bitcoin is commonly abbreviated as “BTC.” Understanding Bitcoin The bitcoin system is a collection of computers (also referred to as “nodes” or “miners”) that all run bitcoin’s code and store its blockchain. Metaphorically, a blockchain can be thought of as a collection of blocks. In each block is a collection of transactions. Because all the computers running the blockchain has the same list of blocks and transactions, and can transparently see these new blocks being filled with new bitcoin transactions, no one can cheat the system. Anyone, whether they run a bitcoin “node” or not, can see these transactions occurring live. In order to achieve a nefarious act, a bad actor would need to operate 51% of the computing power that makes up bitcoin. Bitcoin has around 12,000 nodes, as of January 2021, and this number is growing, making such an attack quite unlikely. But in the event that an attack was to happen, the bitcoin miners—the people who take part in the bitcoin network with their computer—would likely fork to a new blockchain making the effort the bad actor put forth to achieve the attack a waste. Balances of bitcoin tokens are kept using public and private “keys,” which are long strings of numbers and letters linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm that was used to create them. The public key (comparable to a bank account number) serves as the address which is published to the world and to which others may send bitcoins. The private key (comparable to an ATM PIN) is meant to be a guarded secret and only used to authorize bitcoin transmissions. Bitcoin keys should not be confused with a bitcoin wallet, which is a physical or digital device that facilitates the trading of bitcoin and allows users to track ownership of coins. The term “wallet” is a bit misleading, as bitcoin’s decentralized nature means that it is never stored “in” a wallet, but rather decentrally on a blockchain. Peer-to-Peer Technology Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the bitcoin network—bitcoin “miners”—are in charge of processing the transactions on the blockchain and are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the credibility of the bitcoin network. New bitcoin is released to the miners at a fixed, but periodically declining rate. There are only 21 million bitcoin that can be mined in total. As of January 30, 2021, there are approximately 18,614,806 bitcoin in existence and 2,385,193 bitcoin left to be mined. In this way, bitcoin other cryptocurrencies operate differently from fiat currency; in centralized banking systems, currency is released at a rate matching the growth in goods; this system is intended to maintain price stability. A decentralized system, like bitcoin, sets the release rate ahead of time and according to an algorithm. Bitcoin Mining Bitcoin mining is the process by which bitcoins are released into circulation. Generally, mining requires the solving of computationally difficult puzzles in order to discover a new block, which is added to the blockchain. Bitcoin mining adds and verifies transaction records across the network. For adding blocks to the blockchain, miners are rewarded with a few bitcoins; the reward is halved every 210,000 blocks. The block reward was 50 new bitcoins in 2009. On May 11th, 2020, the third halving occurred, bringing the reward for each block discovery down to 6.25 bitcoins. A variety of hardware can be used to mine bitcoin. However, some yield higher rewards than others. Certain computer chips, called Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), and more advanced processing units, like Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), can achieve more rewards. These elaborate mining processors are known as “mining rigs.” One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places (100 millionths of one bitcoin), and this smallest unit is referred to as a Satoshi. If necessary, and if the participating miners accept the change, bitcoin could eventually be made divisible to even more decimal places. History of Bitcoin 18.08.2008: The domain name bitcoin.org is registered. Today, at least, this domain is “WhoisGuard Protected,” meaning the identity of the person who registered it is not public information. 31.10.2008: A person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto makes an announcement on the Cryptography Mailing list at metzdowd.com: “I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. This now-famous whitepaper published on bitcoin.org, entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” would become the Magna Carta for how Bitcoin operates today. 03.01.2009: The first Bitcoin block is mined, Block 0. This is also known as the “genesis block” and contains the text: “The Times 03.01.2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” perhaps as proof that the block was mined on or after that date, and perhaps also as relevant political commentary. 08.01.2009: The first version of the bitcoin software is announced on the Cryptography Mailing list. 09.01.2009: Block 1 is mined, and bitcoin mining >>Read more
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Mexico City goes yellow on coronavirus risk map

The capital goes to medium-risk yellow on the coronavirus stoplight system on Monday, bringing 12 weeks of high-risk orange light restrictions to an end. For the first time since the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight system was introduced last June, Mexico City will switch to medium-risk yellow as case numbers and hospitalizations continue to fall. City official Eduardo Clark announced Friday that the risk level will be lowered on Monday, bringing 12 consecutive weeks of high-risk orange light restrictions to an end. Prior to February 15, when the capital switched to orange, red-light maximum-risk restrictions had been in place for eight weeks. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, Mexico City has seen sustained improvements in the different indicators used to determine the stoplight color, said Clark, who is the director of the government’s Digital Agency for Public Innovation. He said that 16.5% of hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are currently occupied, the lowest level in over a year. There are 1,404 Covid-19 patients in hospitals in Mexico City, 277 fewer than last Friday. Estimated active coronavirus cases in the capital have also declined from more than 8,000 a week ago to 6,419. However, even with the decline, Mexico City — the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the beginning of the pandemic — still has far more active cases than the other 31 states, according to Health Ministry estimates. The only other states with more than 1,000 estimated active cases are México state and Tabasco with 1,558 and 1,085, respectively. Nevertheless, restrictions will be eased in Mexico City due to the downgrade in the official risk level. Stores and movie theaters will be permitted to increase their capacity to 40% of normal levels starting Monday, and restricted opening hours will no longer apply to banks. Hotels will be able to host events with attendance of up to 50% of normal levels, and restaurants will be allowed to add extra tables in outdoor dining areas. Starting next Wednesday, open-air sporting events will be permitted, while indoor venues such as theaters will be allowed to open at up to 30% capacity from May 17. Children’s parties at party halls with up to 50 guests will be allowed starting May 27 as long as the risk level in Mexico City doesn’t increase, and public expos will be permitted as of the same date with attendance capped at 30% of normal levels. The shift to yellow will bring Mexico City in line with the majority of Mexico’s states. On the map currently in force, 20 states are yellow, six are orange and six are low-risk green. The federal Health Ministry will present an updated map at Friday night’s coronavirus press briefing. The national coronavirus situation has also improved considerably in recent weeks: the number of new cases reported in April was 30% lower than March while Covid-19 deaths were down 22%. Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to almost 2.36 million on Thursday with 2,846 new cases reported. The official Covid-19 death toll increased by 166 to 218,173. However, a new analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine puts Mexico’s real death toll at over 600,000. Meanwhile, Mexico’s national Covid-19 vaccination program continues to make progress in inoculating the adult population, with the first doses given to people aged 50–59 this week. A total of about 20.5 million doses had been administered by Thursday night, including more than 1 million in Mexico City. Most of the doses have gone to people aged 60 and over and frontline health workers. Mexico had received 26.6 million doses of five different vaccines, meaning that about three-quarters of those delivered had been used by late Thursday. Source: MexicoNewsDaily.com
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Mexico City is Sinking

The land in Mexico City is depressing at an ‘unstoppable rate’ of up to 20 inches a year. Mexico City is sinking at an ‘unstoppable’ with some parts decompressing up to 20 inches a year over the past decades. A new report highlights centuries of pumping water from the aquifer under North America’s most populous city that has caused its foundation to compress at an alarming rate. Mexico City was built on what was once Lake Texcoco, home of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. The city was built on what was once Lake Texcoco and the lake bed acts as an infrastructure underneath the bustling travel destination. However, the lake bed had become so dry that clay sheets are cracking and compressing, causing it to decompress. If the rate of sinking continues, it will end up contaminating the drinking water for millions. Metropolitan Mexico City is the largest city in North America, with a population of over 21 million people. More than three-quarters of its drinking water comes from wells that extract water from the ground and continue to deplete the area’s aquifers. Experts first noticed the city was sinking in 1900 when it was recorded at a rate of about 3.5 inches a year. Drilling for groundwater wasn’t capped until the late 1950s, by which time Mexico city was sinking at a rate of 11 inches a year. Completed in 2014, the Eastern Wastewater Tunnel in Mexico City is intended to help prevent flooding and the over-exploitation of groundwater resources. That slowed the rate of sinking, or subsidence, back to 3.5 inches a year but it didn’t stop the problem, which only worsened as the city’s population grew and development increased exponentially. A new report published in the journal JGR Solid Earth indicates that parts of the city, including the historic downtown, are now sinking at a rate of up to 16 inches annually. In some areas it’s even worse: the underdeveloped northeast has sunk 20 inches a year and experts say there’s no hope of reversing it. Should the northeast become more industrialized, the situation there would only worsen. Scientists from the US and Mexico analyzed more than a century of data, including more recent information from GPS and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). According to their findings, the level of subsidence in Mexico City is no longer even affected by how much water is being removed from the ground. “Instead, it reflects the steady compacting of the ancient lake bed on which the city was built” reports the American Geophysical Union. According to the AGU, centuries of water extraction have pushed the groundwater further underground, and the minerals in the dry lake bed have been repacking themselves tighter and tighter, ‘causing the ground to shrink and subside.’ The clay layers beneath Mexico City have been compressed by 17 percent, according to the report, and the subsidence ‘is almost fully irreversible.’ If water levels aren’t raised, the clay layers in the lake bed are expected to compress further, to 30 percent. That would cause Mexico City to sink almost 100 feet more in the next 150 years. But even if water levels are raised, the report said, ‘there is no hope for recovering the great majority of the lost elevation and the lost storage capacity of the aquitard.’ An aquitard is a zone that restricts groundwater flowing from one aquifer to another. The sunken city is especially vulnerable to flooding from rain and spring water washing down the Sierra Madre mountains. Those floodwaters could eventually pollute the groundwater, adding a drinking water shortage to the growing environmental catastrophe. ‘The stage is set for a dual water and subsidence crisis if no drastic water management actions are implemented,’ the researchers write. Completed in 2014, the Eastern Wastewater Tunnel is intended to help prevent flooding during the rainy season and stop the over-exploitation of groundwater resources. Some experts suggest harvesting rainwater is a “viable and necessary” solution to the city’s water crisis. ‘Harvesting rainwater offers a simple, practical, proven, and inexpensive solution that could provide water for up to six months in areas such as homes and schools,’ Eduardo Vázquez, executive director of Mexico City water fund Agua Capital, told BNamericas. Source: DailyMail.co.uk
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Should I invest the amount I would pay in premiums instead of buying long-term care insurance?

If you’re under 55, you might think that since the likelihood of long-term care outlays is many years in the future, you could invest the money you might otherwise spend for long-term care insurance premiums. That way, if you do need long-term care, you could just draw upon that investment, and if not, you’d have money for your heirs, for a charitable donation, or for your own needs. But this strategy leaves you vulnerable if you need long-term care services in your late 50s, 60s, or early 70s. And it might also leave you vulnerable if you need these services for a long time, even if you don’t need assistance until you’re in your 80s. Here’s why: Assume you’re 55 and won’t need long-term care for 30 years when you’re 85. Assume you save $2,000 per year, that you invest the savings, and that your investment grows at 5 percent per year, net after taxes. After 30 years, your savings will have grown to $139,500. Assume today’s monthly cost of nursing home care grows, due to inflation, by 5 percent per year, from $7,000 per month now to $28,800 per month in the future. At that time—that is, when you’re 85—if all these assumptions come true, your savings would be able to pay for less than three months of nursing home care; if you need more money—say, because the cost of services for long-term care grew faster than 5 percent per year or your investments earned less than 5 percent net after taxes—you’d have to liquidate other assets that you hadn’t planned to liquidate if you have them. It’s possible that you’ll save more than $1,000 per year, or earn more than 5 percent net after taxes, or that the cost of long-term-care services will rise more slowly than 5 percent per year, or that two or more of these things will happen. In that case, if you need long-term care services for the first time after age 85, you would be able to pay for more than the example above shows. Here are some indications of what results in alternate assumptions would produce: Nursing home costs inflate at 3 percent per year for 30 years: the monthly cost of $16,500 Earn 6 percent per year net after taxes on saving $1,000 per year: accumulate $83,800 Save $1,200 per year at 5 percent net after taxes: accumulate $83,700 Of course, it’s possible that you’ll never need long-term care services, or that if you do need them, you’ll need them only for a month or two. In that case, a long-term care policy won’t help. For most other scenarios, it’s probably a prudent buy.
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How can I save on long-term care insurance?

The tips below will help you save money wisely, but don’t rely on price alone. Key factors in choosing a policy Company financial stability – Because you may not collect for decades to come, be sure to buy from a company that has been around for some time and is financially stable. You may want to look up, from an independent rating agency, the financial strength ratings of a company you’re considering. Percentage of income – Keep the premium for your long-term care insurance policy to 7 percent of your income, or less. For example, if your monthly income is $4,000, the long-term care insurance premium should not be more than $280 per month. (This is what the National Association of Insurance Commissioners recommends in its Model Regulation for Long-Term Care Insurance.) Another expert advises that the income to use in this calculation isn’t your current income, but your expected income in retirement since that’s the income from which you’ll be paying premiums for most of the policy’s existence. Other ways of saving Find out if long-term care benefits are available through a group policy from your employer. Employers might subsidize the cost, lowering what you must pay. Check whether you can add long-term care benefits as a rider on an existing life insurance or annuity policy. These “combination” arrangements can save because the insurance company gains operational savings that it can pass along to you. Buy a policy with the longest waiting period you can afford. For example, choosing a 90-day period instead of a 30-day period can cut the premium by 30%. However, if you do need long-term care services, you should save some money to pay these costs until the waiting period ends. If both spouses of a married couple are considering buying long-term care policies, look into buying one joint policy for both of you. Such a policy pays when either one needs care and can pay for both, if necessary, up to its benefit limits. If you’re still looking to trim the premium further, consider buying a policy that will pay most, but not all, of the average nursing home costs in your area. For example, if a nursing home room now costs $120 per day, buy a policy that pays $100 per day. However, be sure to buy an inflation-protection provision. Check with several companies and agents, comparing both benefits and costs. As with other types of insurance (and many other purchases), comparison shopping can save you money. Just be sure you’re comparing policies with similar provisions and companies with comparable financial strength and service records.
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