Berlin

Bitcoin halving, BTC ETF hype driving price up into 2024 — NBX Berlin

Several macro events are contributing to increased interest in Bitcoin, its price and a knock-on effect on the wider markets.

The potential approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the looming BTC mining reward halving and major regulatory and enforcement actions have a profound psychological effect on market prices. 

This is a key takeaway from the Next Block Expo conference in Berlin, just as Bitcoin tipped past $42,000 for the first time in over a year.

Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung, gumi Cryptos Capital managing partner Miko Matsumura, Binance regional manager Jonas Jünger, and Polkastarter business development lead João Leite weighed in on whether the current cryptocurrency bear market was coming to an end in a conversation with Cointelegraph.

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Bitcoin B logo lights up Germany’s tallest building in Berlin

Berliners could see the Bitcoin B projected onto the Berliner Fernsehturm tower on January 21.

The Bitcoin (BTC) logo lit up the night sky in Berlin this weekend, adorning Germany’s tallest building with a giant orange B.

Source: Twitter

On January 21, the Bitcoin logo illuminated the Berliner Fernsehturm tower–known as the TV Tower. German Bitcoiners took to Twitter and social media to share photos and videos of the illumination, then shared by prominent Bitcoin Twitter accounts.

The man behind the B, a German Bitcoiner called Tilo told Cointelegraph why the idea came to him:

 “We just want to call attention on bitcoin! We’re fans of Guerilla actions like this and will keep on track.”

Tilo is CEO of an events agency that will host the “Best of Blockchain” conference this year. He explained that the process is simple for setting up light displays: “what you need is a mixer, power station, special Bitcoin logo,” in one of the comments.  Tilo had tried the process at the end of last year, “But the beamer I used was too weak,” he explained. 

It’s not the first time the Bitcoin logo or themes have been projected onto iconic buildings. In May 2021 in London, “Fiat is the bubble, Bitcoin is the pin,” was projected onto the Bank of England.

Tilo had previously beamed Bitcoin slogans onto the iconic Berlin wall and had shared an inventory of products required to coordinate illuminations for those interested in trying it out. However, he insists that these kind of “advertisements” are not technically allowed, so it’s best to tread with caution.

The Bitcoin B on the Berlin Wall. Source: Twitter

Whereas the Reddit group for Bitcoiners in Germany celebrated the event with a chain of comments saying “Noice,” the subreddit for Berlin residents took a different approach. One commenter criticized the light display as “Light pollution,” whereas another hope that “It [Bitcoin] never catches on.” They continued:

“Bitcoin is turbo capitalism without limits and morals, every six months disguised in a different guise and motto.”

The price per Bitcoin now sits comfortably in the $20k range having surged from the mid-teens, while network security recently hit all-time highs. The hash rate, or the number of searches performed by Bitcoin miners per second, recently punched through to 300 Exahash per second.

Related: Coinbase CEO urges Bitcoin legal tender for Brazil, Argentina — Reaction

Moreover, the number of Bitcoin users worldwide is into the millions, while the developing world is beginning to research and take advantage of Bitcoin’s decentralized and sovereign properties. In Germany’s capital, Berliners can use Bitcoin to pay for Subway sandwiches over the Lightning Network.

Subway accepts Bitcoin, so users can get a sandwich on the Lightning Network

The largest franchise in the world, Subway, is testing out the Lightning Network layer-2 Bitcoin payments solution and receiving encouraging results in Berlin, Germany.

No, it’s not Groundhog Day. Subway is accepting Bitcoin (BTC), again — but this time it’s using the fast, nearly free Bitcoin Lightning Network.

The world’s largest franchise by number of restaurants is trialing Bitcoin payments at three Subways in Germany’s capital, Berlin. Subway first experimented with Bitcoin almost 13 years ago in Moscow, Russia. 

Over the past few months, Daniel Hinze, the Berlin Subway franchise owner, recorded over 120 Bitcoin transactions. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Hinze explained his desire “to help Bitcoin become money.”

“Five years ago, I started to deal with cryptocurrencies; and in the last two years, I have dealt very intensively with the topic of Bitcoin. With that in mind, I’ve decided that [Bitcoin] could be the better money system.”

Bitcoin is not a popular means of exchange in Europe, despite the efforts of merchants, retailers and even Lightning-enabled conferences. Hinze has encouraged Bitcoin payments by offering a 10% discount on all footlongs, meatball marinaras and sucookies paid for with BTC.

To kick off the campaign, Hinze offered a 50% discount on all Bitcoin payments for one week:

“Around the week, there was, of course, extremely high demand. Our three restaurants were frequently visited by people who liked to pay with Bitcoin.”

German-speaking social media was buoyed by Subway buys as the hashtag #usingBitcoin took over. Hinze partnered with Lipa, a Swiss-based Bitcoin company, to enable an easy-to-use point-of-sale solution.

Bastien Feder, CEO of Lipa, told Cointelegraph that its mission is to make Bitcoin “basically irresistible to use because Bitcoin is currency.” Lipa kitted out the Subways with merchant devices that allow customers to quickly scan a Lightning-enabled QR code that allows for fast, frictionless, low-cost payments.

Lipa charges merchants 1% for the service, as opposed to Visa or Mastercard payment rails, which charge double or more. Feder explained:

“It’s 2.5% to 4% depending on the contract from the merchant. If it’s a business card, there’s 0.5% on top of that. […] And if it’s a foreign business credit card, you pay up to 7%, and you don’t know until the end of the month.”

The experience of paying over the LN differs greatly from when Subway franchises first accepted Bitcoin payments in 2014. Before the arrival of the LN, customers would have to wait for around for several minutes.

Miners would mint the next block on the blockchain, with the transaction confirmed by Bitcoin nodes around the world. The process was inconvenient for retail payments due to the wait time as well as the sometimes high fees. With the LN, customers enjoy faster settlement times than Visa or Mastercard and lower fees thanks to a peer-to-peer network of payments.

Nonetheless, due to the fact that Bitcoin has for most of its history been a speculative vehicle — sparing a few use cases for purchasing — encouraging Bitcoiners to spend BTC can be a challenge.

Nonetheless, retail examples are popping up, such as in Berlin or San Salvador. Nicolas Burtey, CEO of Galoy Money, told Cointelegraph that the adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador was the tipping point for the Lightning Network. He joked that the Bitcoin Law “should have actually been called the Lightning Law!”

Related: McDonald’s, pizza and coffee paid in Bitcoin: The Plan B for crypto payments

Lipa and Hinze expect a steady increase in demand for Bitcoin payments. Feder told Cointelegraph that it’s due in large part because of the ”exponentially rising Bitcoin community in Germany, in Switzerland, basically all over the world.”

Indeed, the LN is enabling communities keen to trade, from Senegal to Guatemala and Switzerland. Hinze told Cointelegraph that for the moment, the Subway restaurant only accepts the world’s most recognizable currency, as he and his business partners “firmly believe in Bitcoin.”