Crypto Stocks Bounce After $6 Billion Drop as Bitcoin Churns

Crypto Stocks Bounce After $6 Billion Drop as Bitcoin Churns

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) – Editor’s Note: As more people are working from home, Bloomberg Pursuits is running a weekly Lunch Break column that highlights a notable recipe from a favorite cookbook and the hack that makes it genius.The plant-based revolution might be powered by burgers, but now chefs at the top ranks of the culinary universe are jumping on board.Eleven Madison Park, which has been ranked as the world’s best restaurant, revealed that the menu will be basically vegan when it reopens on June 10 in Manhattan. In Healdsburg, Calif., Kyle and Katina Connaughton, the owners of the Michelin three-star SingleThread Farm and Restaurant, have announced they will open a plant-based restaurant and café in the wine country downtown in late summer. Chefs, like their customers, are motivated by everything from health and environmental concerns to the opportunity to be creative with plant-based foods. “A piece of fish, meat—there aren’t that many different ways to prepare them. If you have a beet, an eggplant, the opportunities feel endless,” EMP’s chef-owner Daniel Humm told Bloomberg.The vegan market continues to grow. Retail plant-based food sales hit $7 billion in 2020 and grew 27% over the past year; $2.1 billion was invested in plant-based food companies last year, according to the Plant-Based Food Association. Beef, meanwhile, could become the new coal.In the U.K., the acclaimed four-year-old Root restaurant in Bristol is not a strictly vegan establishment. But it has been vegetable-forward since its inception and continues to move toward a more plant-based menu. “We opened Root with at-least six sides of meat or fish; now we have one—sometimes two—on the menu,” says head chef and owner Rob Howell.Howell has compiled his top recipes from his restaurant in Root: Small Vegetable Plates, a Little Meat on the Side (Bloomsbury; $32). Like the restaurant, the book isn’t vegan: In addition to a chapter that addresses meat, fish, and shellfish, there’s a cheese section. But most of the book is given over to alluring vegetable dishes, with several vegan recipes that don’t hit you over the head with their label, such as deep-fried celeriac that can be made with oat milk in place of buttermilkand tempura spring onions with sweet chili sauce. But rising above them all is an old-school mushrooms on toast.“We have an amazing mushroom grower close to the restaurant, which means they are available to us all year round,” says Howell about the dish, which is a menu staple at Root.The dish is the platonic ideal of mushroom soup meets sandwich: Quickly sautéed, just-tender chunks of fungi are piled high on bread beneath a creamy sauce that drips down the sides. Howell is smart to serve his version on focaccia—the puffy, oil-infused base makes it even more monumental. It’s especially lovely for spring, when fresh mushrooms abound in farmers markets after any rainy day.Although Howell proclaims mushrooms on toast as “one of those classic dishes with which it’s best not to meddle,” he does a sleight-of-hand trick with the signature cream sauce, subbing in an easily made, thick almond milk. The end result is, as the cliché goes, a dish you wouldn’t know was vegan. The tangy, green peppercorn almond “cream” sauce—punched up with an optional dash of brandy and hot sauce that counterbalances the sweetness of the nuts—is also great on tofu, rice, and anywhere you want a silky sop with a bite that also delivers a powerful dose of comfort. (It’s broken out below so you can make it separately.) For those of us who don’t cook vegan-style often enough, it also hints at the work that’s currently going on behind the scenes at a handful of America’s top kitchens—and what we’re about to see. The following recipe is adapted from Root, by Rob Howell. Testers note: Classic Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies. Vegan versions are available at specialty food stores and by mail order.Mushrooms on Toast With Almond CreamServes 4For the sauce5 oz. whole or slivered blanched almonds (about 1 ½ cups)2 oz. good quality olive oil1 ¼ cups water½ cup vegan Worcestershire sauce, plus more to taste2 tbsp. green peppercorns in brine, drained1 tsp. Dijon mustard, plus more to taste1 tsp. sugarPinch of cracked black pepperPinch of saltSplash of Tabasco (optional)Splash of brandy (optional), to tasteFor the mushrooms3 tbsp. vegetable oil12 oz. wild or good-quality mushrooms, large ones chopped into bite-size pieces1 tsp. lemon juice2 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley4 squares of focacciaFor the peppercorn sauce, put the almonds, oil, and water in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pass through a sieve into a bowl, pressing down on the solid.Put the Worcestershire sauce, peppercorns, mustard, sugar, pepper, salt, and Tabasco (optional) in a medium saucepan over moderate heat. Boil until the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds, about 4–5 minutes.Add the almond milk and allow the sauce to come to boil again. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, giving the sauce a good whisk to fully combine. Check the seasoning and add a splash of brandy or a little additional mustard to taste, if necessary. Set aside and keep warm. For the mushrooms, heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add the mushrooms and season with a good amount of salt (it’s surprising how much salt mushrooms can take). Leave the mushrooms to cook for 30 seconds, then give them a toss in the pan and cook again for a further 30 seconds, just until tender. Add the lemon juice and chopped parsley. Remove from the heat and taste to check the seasoning.Meanwhile preheat the broiler or a grill pan. Toast the foccacio until golden on both sides. If necessary, reheat the peppercorn sauce. If it’s too thick, loosen it with a mixture of water and olive oil. To serve, spoon the mushrooms on to the focaccia toast and spoon over the hot peppercorn sauce.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

What crypto insiders think about Elon Musk’s Bitcoin U-Turn

Cyptocurrency enthusiasts got a nasty shock Wednesday when Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Inc. and the second-richest person on the planet, announced on Twitter that his automaker wouldn’t accept payment in Bitcoin any more due to environmental concerns.

After all, this is the same man who just a few months earlier said Tesla bought into Bitcoin, to the tune of $1.5 billion. He tweeted “True" in response to a thread citing research that mining the token might actually spur the uptake of renewable energy, from Ark Investment Management LLC. Bitcoin mining is known to be energy-intensive, with the industry prizing cheap and plentiful power supplies.

Bitcoin slid as much as 15% to nearly $46,000 before recovering. It was down 6.4% at $51,039 as of 2:45 p.m. in Hong Kong.

Here’s what some people in the crypto industry have to say about the development:

New Highs Await?

“This may be the selloff that sets Bitcoin up for new all-time highs," said David Grider of Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC. “We think the news is overblown and wouldn’t be surprised if Tesla is signaling plans to make crypto ‘greener.’" In a note Wednesday, Grider said Bitcoin has been consolidating for months as its market dominance has waned, but he’s still bullish, with a target of $100,000.

Seeking an Explanation

“The most logical answer is that he’s feeling pressure" from people who think “that one can’t be green and own crypto," said investor Michael Terpin, calling that position “uninformed."

“First, there’s virtually no energy expending in SENDING Bitcoin; and the mining of new coins to keep the network secure is still a far lower amount of energy (and 70% of it from renewable sources) than the amount of energy expended to mine the world’s gold or power the global banking systems."

Watching Other Cryptocurrencies

It wasn’t lost on some pundits that Musk might have his sights set on boosting a rival coin with a greener, perhaps even fluffier, profile. One of the most-liked replies on Twitter to Musk’s original statement was from Billy Markus, the co-creator of Dogecoin – the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency that started as a joke in 2013. That token has become a favorite of Musk’s, and a darling among the retail set of investors and enthusiasts.

“If only there was a merge-mined cryptocurrency that had a much smaller carbon footprint than Bitcoin, and also had a dog on it," Markus said.

Doesn’t Add Up

“Broadly it’s a bit surprising given Tesla bought Bitcoin for their treasury in January and the argument is the same whether you’re using Bitcoin as a store of value or for transactional purposes," said Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia-Pacific at Luno Pte., in an email. “So it doesn’t add up. Usually in such cases there are unknown motives at play."

It Can’t Be

For some, the reaction bordered on disbelief.

“Tell me your account got hacked without telling me your account got hacked," said Yassine Elmandjra, crypto analyst at Ark, in a reply to Musk’s tweet.

Chance to Buy

“In retrospect, it was a great buying opportunity," quipped longtime crypto enthusiast and co-founder of Gemini Trust Co. LLC, Cameron Winklevoss, on Twitter.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

Share Via

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Solana, a blockchain platform followed by top crypto investors, says it’s far faster than Ethereum – TechCrunch

Solana isn’t widely known yet outside of the crypto community. But insiders think the blockchain platform is interesting for a wide variety of reasons, beginning with its amiable founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, who spent more than a dozen years as an engineer working on wireless protocols at Qualcomm and who says he had a lightbulb moment at a San Francisco cafe several years ago following two coffees and a beer.

His big idea centered on creating an historical record to speed along “consensus,” which is how decisions are made on blockchains, which are themselves peer-to-peer systems.

Right now, consensus is reached on various blockchains when members solve a mathematical puzzle, a mechanism that’s called “proof of work.” These miners are rewarded for their efforts with cryptocurrency, but the process takes an hour in Bitcoin’s case and a minute in the case of Ethereum, and it’s insanely energy intensive, which is why neither Bitcoin nor Ethereum has proved very scalable. (Bitcoin’s heavy reliance on fossil fuel is the reason Elon Musk cited earlier this week to explain why Tesla is no longer accepting Bitcoin as payment for the company’s electric cars.)

But there is another way. Indeed, crypto watchers and developers are excited about Ethereum and other currencies that are transitioning to a new system called “proof of stake,” wherein people who agree to lock up a certain amount of their cryptocurrency are invited to activate so-called validator software that enables them to store data, process transactions, and add new blocks to the blockchain. Like miners, “validators” take on the role to earn more cryptocurrency, but they need far less sophisticated equipment, which opens up the opportunity to more people. Meanwhile, because more validators can participate in a network, consensus can be reached faster.

Yakovenko is enthusiastic about the shift. We talked with him yesterday, and he’s certainly not rooting against Ethereum, saying it would be “devastating for the entire industry” if Ethereum weren’t able to pull off its transition to proof of stake given its mindshare and its roughly $500 billion market cap.

Still, he argues that not even proof of stake is good enough. The reason, he says, is that even with proof of stake, miners — and bots — have advance access to transaction information that allows them to exploit users, or front run transactions, because they can control transaction ordering.

Enter Yakovenko’s big idea, which he calls “proof of history,” wherein the Solana blockchain has developed a kind of synchronized clock that, in essence, assigns a timestamp for each transaction and disables the ability for miners and bots to decide the order of which transactions get recorded onto the blockchain. Yakovenko says doing so allows for greater security and “censorship resistance.”

According to a new explainer of Solana in the outlet Decrypt, Solana has innovated other ways, too, including by forwarding transactions to validators even before the previous batch of transactions is finalized, which reportedly helps to “maximize confirmation speed and boost the number of transactions that can be handled both concurrently and in parallel.”

“Basically, the speed of light is how fast we can make this network go,” says Yakovenko.

Certainly, Solana — which has sold tokens to investors but never equity in the company — has many excited about its prospects. In recent interviews with both investor Garry Tan of Initialized Capital and CEO Joe Lallouz of the blockchain infrastructure company Bison Trails, both mentioned Solana as among the projects they find most interesting right now. (We assume both hold its tokens.)

Others say on background that while they understand the developer benefits and need for more scaleable blockchains than Ethereum, Solana still needs to more developer mindshare to prove its long-term worth and it’s not there yet. According to Solana itself, there are currently 608 validators helping secure the Solana Network and 47 decentralized applications (or “dapps”) powered by Solana. Meawhile, they were reportedly 33,700 active validators helping to secure “Eth 2.0” as of late December and 3,000 dapps running on the Ethereum blockchain as of February.

In fairness, the Ethereum network went live in 2015, so it has a three-year head start on Solana. In the meantime, Solana has a lead of its own, says Yakovenko, who is based in San Francisco and has assembled a distributed team of 50 employees, including numerous former Qualcomm colleagues. Asked about other projects that have embraced a proof-of-history approach, he says that while it’s “all open source” and “anybody can go do it,” there “isn’t a set of our biggest competitors saying they’re going to rework their system and use this.”

One likely reason is that it’s almost comically complicated. “It just takes a lot of work to build these systems,” Yakovenko says. “It takes two to three years to build a new layer one, and you can’t really take an idea for one and stuff it in the other one. If you try to do that, you’re going to set yourself back by six to nine months at the least and potentially introduce bugs and vulnerabilities.”

Either way, Solana, which itself has a $12 billion market cap, isn’t interested in competing with Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies on every front, suggests Yakovenko. All it really wants is, well, to completely disrupt Wall Street and the rest of the global markets.

He knows it sounds crazy. But the way he sees it, what Solana is building is “an open, fair, censorship-resistant global marketplace” that’s better than anything inside of the New York Stock Exchange or any other means of settling trades. It’s certainly a much bigger opportunity than he imagined backed at that cafe.

“Everything that we do to make this thing faster and faster results in this better censorship resistance and therefore better markets,” he said yesterday. “And price discovery is what I imagine is the killer use case for decentralized public networks. Can we be the world’s price discovery engine? That’s an interesting question to ask.”

He’s far from alone in pondering the growing possibilities. Pointing to the wild swings in cryptocurrency prices right now, he says he suspects that “part of that is just developers and folks discovering the network and building cool applications on it.”

It’s exciting when people can “self serve and build stuff that they want to go to market,” he adds. “It’s the secret weapon of decentralized networks versus any incumbents like Bank of America or Visa or whatever. Those big companies can’t iterate and move as fast as a global set of engineers who can just come together and code whenever they want to.”

He saw very similar dynamics play at Qualcomm, in fact.

“Working in a big company, it seems like there’s a ton of resources and they can accomplish anything. But you saw us working on proprietary operating systems while the Linux guys were just working first for fun, right? And it seemed like it was just a weird hobby that people had; they were coding operating systems at night; they were coding over the weekend. Then all of a sudden, Linux is the de facto mobile iOS of Android.”