title: Finn Wolfhard

text: In January 2020, Wolfhard portrayed Miles in the supernatural horror film "The Turning", an adaptation of Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw", and co-starred in the anthology film "" (2020). Wolfhard then starred in the Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux–directed short film, "Rules for Werewolves" (2020), based on playwright and novelist Kirk Lynn's adapted screenplay from his debut novel, which is set to become a feature-length film with Wolfhard attached to star. He lent his voice to two Adult Swim productions: the animated special, "Smiling Friends" and the animated series "JJ Villard's Fairy Tales" as Boypunzel, a gender-swapped version of Rapunzel. Wolfhard joined the Jason Reitman–directed comedy miniseries "", which raised money for World Central Kitchen, and performed a live reading of "The Princess Bride"s script, as the Grandson, for a Democratic Party of Wisconsin charity event in September 2020.


title: Finn Wolfhard

text: At the age of 17, Wolfhard made his directorial debut with the comedy short film, "Night Shifts" (2020). He released the film on YouTube the following year. Wolfhard co-starred in the Audible Original, "When You Finish Saving the World" (2020), written by Jesse Eisenberg. He narrates Ziggy Katz, a 15-year-old boy recording audio sessions to a futuristic bot therapist. The audiobook was adapted by Einsenberg into the comedy-drama film "When You Finish Saving the World" (2022), with Julianne Moore and Wolfhard starring as mother and son. In July 2020, it was announced that Wolfhard and his brother, Nick Wolfhard, would be headlining the voice cast of sci-fi animated series "NEW-GEN", playing twin brothers. Wolfhard was included in "Forbes" 30 Under 30 class of 2020 in the field of Hollywood and entertainment.


title: Finn Wolfhard

text: Wolfhard co-starred with Carrie Coon in Jason Reitman's "" (2021), playing the son of Coon's single mother. He was cast alongside Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, and Helena Zengel in A24's fantasy epic "The Legend of Ochi", directed by Isaiah Saxon. In November 2021, he announced that he is working on directing a feature-length film. Wolfhard also joined Guillermo del Toro's upcoming stop-motion animated musical film, "Pinocchio" (2022).


title: Finn Wolfhard

text: Wolfhard was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and songwriter for Vancouver-based rock band Calpurnia, until the band dissolved in November 2019. A few weeks later, it was announced that Wolfhard's new band, The Aubreys, with Calpurnia drummer Malcolm Craig, would debut on the soundtrack of his film, "The Turning" (2020). The Aubreys released their single, "Loved One" on March 10, 2020, and their debut EP, "Soda & Pie", through AWAL, on March 13, 2020. Their next single, "Smoke Bomb" was released on August 17, 2020. The Aubreys' first collaboration single with Lunar Vacation, "No Offerings" was released on January 12, 2021. Their second single of 2021, "Sand in My Bed" was released on February 14.


title: Finn Wolfhard

text: The Aubreys released their single "Karaoke Alone" on September 10, 2021 from the group's debut studio LP, "Karaoke Alone", which was released on November 5, 2021.


title: Finn Wolfhard

text: In May 2017, Wolfhard hosted "Strange 80s," a benefit concert to raise funds for Sweet Relief, an organization that helps struggling musicians in need of medical care. He also performed three tracks with his former band Calpurnia at the event. For his work with Sweet Relief, he received an award at the 2017 Television Industry Advocacy Awards.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It is a decentralized system for verifying that the parties to a transaction have the money they claim to have, eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries, such as banks, when funds are being transferred between two entities.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger, which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership. Despite their name, cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense, and while varying treatments have been applied to them, including classification as commodities, securities, and currencies, cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice. Some crypto schemes use validators to maintain the cryptocurrency. In a proof-of-stake model, owners put up their tokens as collateral. In return, they get authority over the token in proportion to the amount they stake. Generally, these token stakers get additional ownership in the token over time via network fees, newly minted tokens, or other such reward mechanisms.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority. Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency (CBDC). When a cryptocurrency is minted, or created prior to issuance, or issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database. Traditional asset classes like currencies, commodities, and stocks, as well as macroeconomic factors, have modest exposures to cryptocurrency returns.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The first decentralized cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was first released as open-source software in 2009. As of March 2022, there were more than 9,000 other cryptocurrencies in the marketplace, of which more than 70 had a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 1983, American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash. Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digicash, an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient. This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 1996, the National Security Agency published a paper entitled "How to Make a Mint: the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash", describing a cryptocurrency system. The paper was first published in an MIT mailing list and later in 1997 in "The American Law Review".


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In the 1997 book "The Sovereign Individual", the authors, William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson, predict that the currency used in the information age would be using "mathematical algorithms that have no physical existence", which has led some in the cryptocurrency community to call the book's claim a "prophecy".


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 1998, Wei Dai described "b-money", an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system. Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo described bit gold. Like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it, bit gold (not to be confused with the later gold-based exchange BitGold) was described as an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In January 2009, Bitcoin was created by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, in its proof-of-work scheme. In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS. In October 2011, Litecoin was released which used scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Peercoin, created in August 2012, used a hybrid of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had commissioned a study of cryptocurrencies, and what role, if any, they could play in the UK economy. The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered. Its final report was published in 2018, and it issued a consultation on cryptoassets and stablecoins in January 2021.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In June 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, after the Legislative Assembly had voted 62–22 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In August 2021, Cuba followed with Resolution 215 to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In September 2021, the government of China, the single largest market for cryptocurrency, declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. This completed a crackdown on cryptocurrency that had previously banned the operation of intermediaries and miners within China.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 15 September 2022, the world second largest cryptocurrency at that time, Ethereum transitioned its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in an upgrade process known as "the Merge". According to the Ethereum Founder, the upgrade can cut Ethereum's energy use by 99.9% and carbon-dioxide emissions by 99.9%.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Tokens, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets other than Bitcoin are collectively known as alternative cryptocurrencies, typically shortened to "altcoins" or "alt coins", or disparagingly "shitcoins". Paul Vigna of "The Wall Street Journal" also described altcoins as "alternative versions of Bitcoin" given its role as the model protocol for altcoin designers.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable level of purchasing power. Notably, these designs are not foolproof, as a number of stablecoins have crashed or lost their peg. For example, on 11 May 2022, Terra's stablecoin UST fell from $1 to 26 cents. The subsequent failure of Terraform Labs resulted in the loss of nearly $40B invested in the Terra and Luna bitcoins. In September 2022, South Korean prosecutors requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against the company's founder, Do Kwon.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrency is produced by an entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is defined when the system is created and which is publicly stated. In centralized banking and economic systems such as the US Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency. In the case of cryptocurrency, companies or governments cannot produce new units, and have not so far provided backing for other firms, banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in it. The underlying technical system upon which cryptocurrencies are based was created by Satoshi Nakamoto.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Within a proof-of-work system such as Bitcoin, the safety, integrity and balance of ledgers is maintained by a community of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners. Miners use their computers to help validate and timestamp transactions, adding them to the ledger in accordance with a particular timestamping scheme. In a proof-of-stake blockchain, transactions are validated by holders of the associated cryptocurrency, sometimes grouped together in stake pools.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually decrease the production of that currency, placing a cap on the total amount of that currency that will ever be in circulation. Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies can be more difficult for seizure by law enforcement.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The validity of each cryptocurrency's coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called "blocks", which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, a timestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way". For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: A "node" is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network. The node supports the cryptocurrency's network through either; relaying transactions, validation or hosting a copy of the blockchain. In terms of relaying transactions each network computer (node) has a copy of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency it supports. When a transaction is made the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction (and every other transaction) is known.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Node owners are either volunteers, those hosted by the organization or body responsible for developing the cryptocurrency blockchain network technology, or those who are enticed to host a node to receive rewards from hosting the node network.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrencies use various timestamping schemes to "prove" the validity of transactions added to the blockchain ledger without the need for a trusted third party.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof-of-work scheme. The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256 and scrypt.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof-of-work include CryptoNight, Blake, SHA-3, and X11.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Another method is called the proof-of-stake scheme. Proof-of-stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency. It is different from proof-of-work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions. The scheme is largely dependent on the coin, and there's currently no standard form of it. Some cryptocurrencies use a combined proof-of-work and proof-of-stake scheme.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On a blockchain, "mining" is the validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and scrypt. This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: With more people venturing into the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for validation has become more complex over time, forcing miners to invest increasingly large sums of money to improve computing performance. Consequently, the reward for finding a hash has diminished and often does not justify the investment in equipment and cooling facilities (to mitigate the heat the equipment produces), and the electricity required to run them. Popular regions for mining include those with inexpensive electricity, a cold climate, and jurisdictions with clear and conducive regulations. By July 2019, Bitcoin's electricity consumption was estimated to be approximately 7 gigawatts, around 0.2% of the global total, or equivalent to the energy consumed nationally by Switzerland.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Some miners pool resources, sharing their processing power over a network to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: , the Chinese Government has halted trading of virtual currency, banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining. Many Chinese miners have since relocated to Canada and Texas. One company is operating data centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas field sites, due to low gas prices. In June 2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 megawatts of power to crypto companies for mining. According to a February 2018 report from "Fortune", Iceland has become a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part because of its cheap electricity.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In March 2018, the city of Plattsburgh, New York put an 18-month moratorium on all cryptocurrency mining in an effort to preserve natural resources and the "character and direction" of the city. In 2021, Kazakhstan became the second-biggest crypto-currency mining country, producing 18.1% of the global hash rate. The country built a compound containing 50,000 computers near Ekibastuz.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: An increase in cryptocurrency mining increased the demand for graphics cards (GPU) in 2017. The computing power of GPUs makes them well-suited to generating hashes. Popular favorites of cryptocurrency miners such as Nvidia's GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 graphics cards, as well as AMD's RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs, doubled or tripled in priceor were out of stock. A GTX 1070 Ti which was released at a price of $450 sold for as much as $1,100. Another popular card, the GTX 1060 (6 GB model) was released at an MSRP of $250, and sold for almost $500. RX 570 and RX 580 cards from AMD were out of stock for almost a year. Miners regularly buy up the entire stock of new GPU's as soon as they are available.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Nvidia has asked retailers to do what they can when it comes to selling GPUs to gamers instead of miners. Boris Böhles, PR manager for Nvidia in the German region, said: "Gamers come first for Nvidia."


title: Cryptocurrency

text: A cryptocurrency wallet is a means of storing the public and private "keys" (address) or seed which can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency. With the private key, it is possible to write in the public ledger, effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency. With the public key, it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: There exist multiple methods of storing keys or seed in a wallet. These methods range from using paper wallets (which are public, private or seed keys written on paper), to using hardware wallets (which are hardware to store your wallet information), to a digital wallet (which is a computer with a software hosting your wallet information), to hosting your wallet using an exchange where cryptocurrency is traded, or by storing your wallet information on a digital medium such as plaintext.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Bitcoin is pseudonymous, rather than anonymous; the cryptocurrency in a wallet is not tied to a person, but rather to one or more specific keys (or "addresses"). Thereby, Bitcoin owners are not immediately identifiable, but all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain. Still, cryptocurrency exchanges are often required by law to collect the personal information of their users.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Some cryptocurrencies, such as Monero, Zerocoin, Zerocash, and CryptoNote, implement additional measures to increase privacy, such as by using zero-knowledge proofs.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrencies are used primarily outside banking and governmental institutions and are exchanged over the Internet.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, offer block rewards incentives for miners. There has been an implicit belief that whether miners are paid by block rewards or transaction fees does not affect the security of the blockchain, but a study suggests that this may not be the case under certain circumstances.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The rewards paid to miners increase the supply of the cryptocurrency. By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business, the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power. The verification algorithm requires a lot of processing power, and thus electricity in order to make verification costly enough to accurately validate public blockchain. Not only do miners have to factor in the costs associated with expensive equipment necessary to stand a chance of solving a hash problem, they further must consider the significant amount of electrical power in search of the solution. Generally, the block rewards outweigh electricity and equipment costs, but this may not always be the case.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The current value, not the long-term value, of the cryptocurrency supports the reward scheme to incentivize miners to engage in costly mining activities. Some sources claim that the current Bitcoin design is very inefficient, generating a welfare loss of 1.4% relative to an efficient cash system. The main source for this inefficiency is the large mining cost, which is estimated to be US$360 Million per year. This translates into users being willing to accept a cash system with an inflation rate of 230% before being better off using Bitcoin as a means of payment. However, the efficiency of the Bitcoin system can be significantly improved by optimizing the rate of coin creation and minimizing transaction fees. Another potential improvement is to eliminate inefficient mining activities by changing the consensus protocol altogether.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Transaction fees for cryptocurrency depend mainly on the supply of network capacity at the time, versus the demand from the currency holder for a faster transaction. The currency holder can choose a specific transaction fee, while network entities process transactions in order of highest offered fee to lowest. Cryptocurrency exchanges can simplify the process for currency holders by offering priority alternatives and thereby determine which fee will likely cause the transaction to be processed in the requested time.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: For Ether, transaction fees differ by computational complexity, bandwidth use, and storage needs, while Bitcoin transaction fees differ by transaction size and whether the transaction uses SegWit. In September 2018, the median transaction fee for Ether corresponded to $0.017, while for Bitcoin it corresponded to $0.55.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Some cryptocurrencies have no transaction fees, and instead rely on client-side proof-of-work as the transaction prioritization and anti-spam mechanism.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money, or to trade between different digital currencies.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Crypto marketplaces do not guarantee that an investor is completing a purchase or trade at the optimal price. As a result, many investors take advantage of this by using arbitrage to find the difference in price across several markets.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Atomic swaps are a mechanism where one cryptocurrency can be exchanged directly for another cryptocurrency, without the need for a trusted third party such as an exchange.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Jordan Kelley, founder of Robocoin, launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the United States on 20 February 2014. The kiosk installed in Austin, Texas, is similar to bank ATMs but has scanners to read government-issued identification such as a driver's license or a passport to confirm users' identities.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: An initial coin offering (ICO) is a controversial means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture. An ICO may be used by startups with the intention of avoiding regulation. However, securities regulators in many jurisdictions, including in the U.S., and Canada, have indicated that if a coin or token is an "investment contract" (e.g., under the Howey test, i.e., an investment of money with a reasonable expectation of profit based significantly on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others), it is a security and is subject to securities regulation. In an ICO campaign, a percentage of the cryptocurrency (usually in the form of "tokens") is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies, often Bitcoin or Ether.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, four of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings have used Switzerland as a base, where they are frequently registered as non-profit foundations. The Swiss regulatory agency FINMA stated that it would take a "balanced approach" to ICO projects and would allow "legitimate innovators to navigate the regulatory landscape and so launch their projects in a way consistent with national laws protecting investors and the integrity of the financial system." In response to numerous requests by industry representatives, a legislative ICO working group began to issue legal guidelines in 2018, which are intended to remove uncertainty from cryptocurrency offerings and to establish sustainable business practices.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is calculated by multiplying the price by the number of coins in circulation. The total cryptocurrency market cap has historically been dominated by Bitcoin accounting for at least 50% of the market cap value where altcoins have increased and decreased in market cap value in relation to Bitcoin. Bitcoin's value is largely determined by speculation among other technological limiting factors known as blockchain rewards coded into the architecture technology of Bitcoin itself. The cryptocurrency market cap follows a trend known as the "halving", which is when the block rewards received from Bitcoin are halved due to technological mandated limited factors instilled into Bitcoin which in turn limits the supply of Bitcoin. As the date reaches near of a halving (twice thus far historically) the cryptocurrency market cap increases, followed by a downtrend.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrency prices are much more volatile than established financial assets such as stocks. For example, over one week in May 2022, Bitcoin lost 20% of its value and Ethereum lost 26%, while Solana and Cardano lost 41% and 35% respectively. The falls were attributed to warnings about inflation. By comparison, in the same week, the Nasdaq tech stock index fell 7.6 per cent and the FTSE 100 was 3.6 per cent down.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In the longer term, of the 10 leading cryptocurrencies identified by the total value of coins in circulation in January 2018, only four (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Ripple (XRP)) were still in that position in early 2022. The total value of all cryptocurrencies was $2 trillion at the end of 2021, but had halved nine months later. The Wall Street Journal has commented that the crypto sector has become “intertwined” with the rest of the capital markets and “sensitive to the same forces that drive tech stocks and other risk assets”, such as inflation forecasts.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: There are also "centralized" databases, outside of blockchains, that store crypto market data. Compared to the blockchain, databases perform fast as there is no verification process. Four of the most popular cryptocurrency market databases are CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, BraveNewCoin, and Cryptocompare.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to Alan Feuer of "The New York Times", libertarians and anarcho-capitalists were attracted to the philosophical idea behind Bitcoin. Early Bitcoin supporter Roger Ver said: "At first, almost everyone who got involved did so for philosophical reasons. We saw Bitcoin as a great idea, as a way to separate money from the state." Economist Paul Krugman argues that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are "something of a cult" based in "paranoid fantasies" of government power.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Nigel Dodd argues in "The social life of Bitcoin" that the essence of the Bitcoin ideology is to remove money from both social and governmental control. Dodd discusses the ""Declaration of Bitcoin's Independence"", a message of crypto-anarchism with the words: "Bitcoin is inherently anti-establishment, anti-system, and anti-state. Bitcoin undermines governments and disrupts institutions because Bitcoin is fundamentally humanitarian."


title: Cryptocurrency

text: David Golumbia says that the ideas influencing Bitcoin advocates emerge from right-wing extremist movements such as the Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society and their anti-Central Bank rhetoric, or, more recently, Ron Paul and Tea Party-style libertarianism. Steve Bannon, who owns a "good stake" in Bitcoin, sees cryptocurrency as a form of disruptive populism, taking control back from central authorities.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Bitcoin's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto has supported the idea that cryptocurrencies go well with libertarianism: "It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly." Nakamoto said in 2008.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to the European Central Bank, the decentralization of money offered by Bitcoin has its theoretical roots in the Austrian school of economics, especially with Friedrich von Hayek in his book "Denationalisation of Money: The Argument Refined", in which Hayek advocates a complete free market in the production, distribution and management of money to end the monopoly of central banks.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The rise in the popularity of cryptocurrencies and their adoption by financial institutions has led some governments to assess whether regulation is needed to protect users. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has defined cryptocurrency-related services as "virtual asset service providers" (VASPs) and recommended that they be regulated with the same money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements as financial institutions.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In May 2020, the Joint Working Group on interVASP Messaging Standards published "IVMS 101", a universal common language for communication of required originator and beneficiary information between VASPs. The FATF and financial regulators were informed as the data model was developed.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In June 2020, FATF updated its guidance to include the "Travel Rule" for cryptocurrencies, a measure which mandates that VASPs obtain, hold, and exchange information about the originators and beneficiaries of virtual asset transfers. Subsequent standardized protocol specifications recommended using JSON for relaying data between VASPs and identity services. As of December 2020, the IVMS 101 data model has yet to be finalized and ratified by the three global standard setting bodies that created it.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The European Commission published a digital finance strategy in September 2020. This included a draft regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), which aimed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the EU.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 10 June 2021, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision proposed that banks that held cryptocurrency assets must set aside capital to cover all potential losses. For instance, if a bank were to hold Bitcoin worth $2 billion, it would be required to set aside enough capital to cover the entire $2 billion. This is a more extreme standard than banks are usually held to when it comes to other assets. However, this is a proposal and not a regulation.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The IMF is seeking a co-ordinated, consistent and comprehensive approach to supervising cryptocurrencies. Tobias Adrian, the IMF's financial counsellor and head of its monetary and capital markets department said in a January 2022 interview that "Agreeing global regulations is never quick. But if we start now, we can achieve the goal of maintaining financial stability while also enjoying the benefits which the underlying technological innovations bring,"


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 2021, 17 states passed laws and resolutions concerning cryptocurrency regulation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering what steps to take. On 8 July 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren, part of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote to the chairman of the SEC and demanded that it provide answers on cryptocurrency regulation by 28 July 2021, due to the increase in cryptocurrency exchange use and the danger this poses to consumers. On 17 February 2022, the Justice department named Eun Young Choi as the first director of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to aid in identification of and dealing with misuse of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In September 2017, China banned ICOs to cause abnormal return from cryptocurrency decreasing during announcement window. The liquidity changes by banning ICOs in China was temporarily negative while the liquidity effect became positive after news.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 18 May 2021, China banned financial institutions and payment companies from being able to provide cryptocurrency transaction related services. This led to a sharp fall in the price of the biggest proof of work cryptocurrencies. For instance, Bitcoin fell 31%, Ethereum fell 44%, Binance Coin fell 32% and Dogecoin fell 30%. Proof of work mining was the next focus, with regulators in popular mining regions citing the use of electricity generated from highly polluting sources such as coal to create Bitcoin and Ethereum.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In September 2021, the Chinese government declared all cryptocurrency transactions of any kind illegal, completing its crackdown on cryptocurrency.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In the United Kingdom, as of 10 January 2021, all cryptocurrency firms, such as exchanges, advisors and professionals that have either a presence, market product or provide services within the UK market must register with the Financial Conduct Authority. Additionally, on 27 June 2021, the financial watchdog demanded that Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, cease all regulated activities in the UK.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: South Africa, who has seen a large amount of scams related to cryptocurrency is said to be putting a regulatory timeline in place, that will produce a regulatory framework. The largest scam occurred in April 2021, where the two founders of an African-based cryptocurrency exchange called Africrypt, Raees Cajee and Ameer Cajee, disappeared with $3.8 billion worth of Bitcoin. Additionally, Mirror Trading International disappeared with $170 million worth of cryptocurrency in January 2021.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In March 2021, South Korea implemented new legislation to strengthen their oversight of digital assets. This legislation requires all digital asset managers, providers and exchanges to be registered with the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in order to operate in South Korea. Registering with this unit requires that all exchanges are certified by the Information Security Management System and that they ensure all customers have real name bank accounts. It also requires that the CEO and board members of the exchanges have not been convicted of any crimes and that the exchange holds sufficient levels of deposit insurance to cover losses arising from hacks.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 30 April 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets for making purchases on the grounds that the use of cryptocurrencies for such payments poses significant transaction risks.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 9 June 2021, El Salvador announced that it will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, the first country to do so.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: At present, India neither prohibits nor allows investment in the cryptocurrency market. In 2020, the Supreme Court of India had lifted the ban on cryptocurrency, which was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. Since then the investment in cryptocurrency is considered legitimate though there is still ambiguity about the issues regarding the extent and payment of tax on the income accrued thereupon and also its regulatory regime. But it is being contemplated that the Indian Parliament will soon pass a specific law to either ban or regulate the cryptocurrency market in India. Expressing his public policy opinion on the Indian cryptocurrency market to a well-known online publication, a leading public policy lawyer and Vice President of SAARCLAW (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law) Hemant Batra has said that the "cryptocurrency market has now become very big with involvement of billions of dollars in the market hence, it is now unattainable and irreconcilable for the government to completely ban all sorts of cryptocurrency and its trading and investment". He mooted regulating the cryptocurrency market rather than completely banning it. He favoured following IMF and FATF guidelines in this regard.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them. At least one study has shown that broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated and that blockchain analysis is an effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool. While some countries have explicitly allowed their use and trade, others have banned or restricted it. According to the Library of Congress in 2018, an "absolute ban" on trading or using cryptocurrencies applies in eight countries: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates. An "implicit ban" applies in another 15 countries, which include Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macau, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. In the United States and Canada, state and provincial securities regulators, coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association, are investigating "Bitcoin scams" and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Various government agencies, departments, and courts have classified Bitcoin differently. China Central Bank banned the handling of Bitcoins by financial institutions in China in early 2014.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In Russia, though owning cryptocurrency is legal, its residents are only allowed to purchase goods from other residents using Russian ruble while nonresidents are allowed to use foreign currency. Regulations and bans that apply to Bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In August 2018, the Bank of Thailand announced its plans to create its own cryptocurrency, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 25 March 2014, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that Bitcoin will be treated as property for tax purposes. Therefore, virtual currencies are considered commodities subject to capital gains tax.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: As the popularity and demand for online currencies has increased since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009, so have concerns that such an unregulated person to person global economy that cryptocurrencies offer may become a threat to society. Concerns abound that altcoins may become tools for anonymous web criminals.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money. Money laundering issues are also present in regular bank transfers, however with bank-to-bank wire transfers for instance, the account holder must at least provide a proven identity.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Transactions that occur through the use and exchange of these altcoins are independent from formal banking systems, and therefore can make tax evasion simpler for individuals. Since charting taxable income is based upon what a recipient reports to the revenue service, it becomes extremely difficult to account for transactions made using existing cryptocurrencies, a mode of exchange that is complex and difficult to track.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Systems of anonymity that most cryptocurrencies offer can also serve as a simpler means to launder money. Rather than laundering money through an intricate net of financial actors and offshore bank accounts, laundering money through altcoins can be achieved through anonymous transactions.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrency makes legal enforcement against extremist groups more complicated, which consequently strengthens them. White supremacist Richard Spencer went as far as to declare Bitcoin the “currency of the alt-right.”


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In February 2014, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, declared bankruptcy. Likely due to theft, the company claimed that it had lost nearly 750,000 Bitcoins belonging to their clients. This added up to approximately 7% of all Bitcoins in existence, worth a total of $473 million. Mt. Gox blamed hackers, who had exploited the transaction malleability problems in the network. The price of a Bitcoin fell from a high of about $1,160 in December to under $400 in February.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 21 November 2017, Tether announced that it had been hacked, losing $31 million in USDT from its core treasury wallet.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 7 December 2017, Slovenian cryptocurrency exchange Nicehash reported that hackers had stolen over $70M using a hijacked company computer.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 19 December 2017, Yapian, the owner of South Korean exchange Youbit, filed for bankruptcy after suffering two hacks that year. Customers were still granted access to 75% of their assets.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold had its transactions hijacked and abused by unknown hackers. Exchanges lost an estimated $18m and Bitcoin Gold was delisted from Bittrex after it refused to pay its share of the damages.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 13 September 2018, Homero Josh Garza was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. Garza had founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014, acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme, and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza, who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of $9.1 million plus $700,000 in interest. The SEC's complaint stated that Garza, through his companies, had fraudulently sold "investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated" from mining.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In January 2018, Japanese exchange Coincheck reported that hackers had stolen $530M worth of cryptocurrencies.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In June 2018, South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing over $37M worth of cryptos. The hack worsened an already ongoing cryptocurrency selloff by an additional $42 billion.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 9 July 2018, the exchange Bancor, whose code and fundraising had been subjects of controversy, had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: A 2020 EU report found that users had lost crypto-assets worth hundreds of millions of US dollars in security breaches at exchanges and storage providers. Between 2011 and 2019, reported breaches ranged from four to twelve a year. In 2019, more than a billion dollars worth of cryptoassets was reported stolen. Stolen assets "typically find their way to illegal markets and are used to fund further criminal activity".


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to a 2020 report produced by the United States Attorney General's Cyber-Digital Task Force, the following three categories make up the majority of illicit cryptocurrency uses: "(1) financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes; (2) money laundering and the shielding of legitimate activity from tax, reporting, or other legal requirements; or (3) crimes, such as theft, directly implicating the cryptocurrency marketplace itself." The report concludes that "for cryptocurrency to realize its truly transformative potential, it is imperative that these risks be addressed" and that "the government has legal and regulatory tools available at its disposal to confront the threats posed by cryptocurrency's illicit uses".


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to the UK 2020 national risk assessment—a comprehensive assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risk in the UK—the risk of using cryptoassets such as Bitcoin for money laundering and terrorism financing is assessed as "medium" (from "low" in the previous 2017 report). Legal scholars suggested that the money laundering opportunities may be more perceived than real. Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis concluded that illicit activities like cybercrime, money laundering and terrorism financing made up only 0.15% of all crypto transactions conducted in 2021, representing a total of $14 billion.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In December 2021, Monkey Kingdom - a NFT project based in Hong Kong lost US$1.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies via a phishing link used by the hacker.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to blockchain data company Chainalysis, criminals laundered worth of cryptocurrency in 2021, up by 30% from the previous year. The data suggests that rather than managing numerous illicit havens, cybercriminals make use of a small group of purpose built centralized exchanges for sending and receiving illicit cryptocurrency. In 2021, those exchanges received 47% of funds sent by crime linked addresses. Almost $2.2bn worth of cryptocurrencies was embezzled from DeFi protocols in 2021, which represents 72% of all cryptocurrency theft in 2021.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: According to Bloomberg and the New York Times, Federation Tower, a two skyscraper complex in the heart of Moscow City, is home to many cryptocurrency businesses under suspicion of facilitated extensive money laundering, including accepting illicit cryptocurrency funds obtained through scams, darknet markets, and ransomware. Notable businesses include Garantex, Eggchange, Cashbank, Buy-Bitcoin, Tetchange, Bitzlato, and Suex, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Dark money has also been flowing into Russia through a dark web marketplace called Hydra, which is powered by cryptocurrency, and enjoyed more than $1 billion in sales in 2020, according to Chainalysis. The platform demands that sellers liquidate cryptocurrency only through certain regional exchanges, which has made it difficult for investigators to trace the money.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Almost 74% of ransomware revenue in 2021 — over $400 million worth of cryptocurrency — went to software strains likely affiliated with Russia, where oversight is notoriously limited. However, Russians are also leaders in the benign adoption of cryptocurrencies, as the ruble is unreliable, and President Putin favours the idea of "overcoming the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies."


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Properties of cryptocurrencies gave them popularity in applications such as a safe haven in banking crises and means of payment, which also led to the cryptocurrency use in controversial settings in the form of online black markets, such as Silk Road. The original Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and there have been two more versions in use since then. In the year following the initial shutdown of Silk Road, the number of prominent dark markets increased from four to twelve, while the amount of drug listings increased from 18,000 to 32,000.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Darknet markets present challenges in regard to legality. Cryptocurrency used in dark markets are not clearly or legally classified in almost all parts of the world. In the U.S., Bitcoins are labelled as "virtual assets". This type of ambiguous classification puts pressure on law enforcement agencies around the world to adapt to the shifting drug trade of dark markets.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Various studies have found that crypto-trading is rife with wash trading. Wash trading is a process, illegal in some jurisdictions, involving buyers and sellers being the same person or group, and may be used to manipulate the price of a cryptocurrency or inflate volume artificially. Exchanges with higher volumes can demand higher premiums from token issuers. A study from 2019 concluded that up to 80% of trades on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges could be wash trades. A 2019 report by Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95% of all Bitcoin trading volume reported on major website CoinMarketCap had been artificially generated, and of 81 exchanges studied, only 10 provided legitimate volume figures.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 2022, cryptocurrencies attracted attention when Western nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine in February. However, American sources warned in March that some crypto-transactions could potentially be used to evade economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In April 2022, the computer programmer Virgil Griffith received a five-year prison sentence in the US for attending a Pyongyang cryptocurrency conference, where he gave a presentation on blockchains which might be used for sanctions evasion.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of cryptocurrencies in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report. The criticisms include the lack of stability in their price, the high energy consumption, high and variable transactions costs, the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges, vulnerability to debasement (from forking), and the influence of miners.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Cryptocurrencies have been compared to Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes and economic bubbles, such as housing market bubbles. Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management stated in 2017 that digital currencies were "nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it", and compared them to the tulip mania (1637), South Sea Bubble (1720), and dot-com bubble (1999), which all experienced profound price booms and busts.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Regulators in several countries have warned against cryptocurrency and some have taken measures to dissuade users. However, research in 2021 by the UK's financial regulator suggests such warnings either went unheard, or were ignored. Fewer than one in 10 potential cryptocurrency buyers were aware of consumer warnings on the FCA website, and 12% of crypto users were not aware that their holdings were not protected by statutory compensation. Of 1,000 respondents between the ages of eighteen and forty, almost 70% falsely assumed cryptocurrencies were regulated, 75% of younger crypto investors claimed to be driven by competition with friends and family, 58% said that social media enticed them to make high risk investments. The FCA recommends making use of its warning list, which flags unauthorized financial firms.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Many banks do not offer virtual currency services themselves and can refuse to do business with virtual currency companies. In 2014, Gareth Murphy, a senior banking officer, suggested that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies may lead to too much money being obfuscated, blinding economists who would use such information to better steer the economy. While traditional financial products have strong consumer protections in place, there is no intermediary with the power to limit consumer losses if Bitcoins are lost or stolen. One of the features cryptocurrency lacks in comparison to credit cards, for example, is consumer protection against fraud, such as chargebacks.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The French regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) lists 16 websites of companies that solicit investment in cryptocurrency without being authorized to do so in France.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: An October 2021 paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Bitcoin suffers from systemic risk as the top 10,000 addresses control about one-third of all Bitcoin in circulation. It's even worse for Bitcoin miners, with 0.01% controlling 50% of the capacity. According to researcher Flipside Crypto, less than 2% of anonymous accounts control 95% of all available Bitcoin supply. This is considered risky as a great deal of the market is in the hands of a few entities.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: A paper by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student found that in 2017 the price of Bitcoin had been substantially inflated using another cryptocurrency, Tether.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Roger Lowenstein, author of ""Bank of America: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve,"" says in a New York Times story that FTX will face over $8 billion in claims.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent art, collectibles, gaming, etc. Like crypto, their data is stored on the blockchain. NFTs are bought and traded using cryptocurrency. The Ethereum blockchain was the first place where NFTs were implemented, but now many other blockchains have created their own versions of NFTs. The popularity of NFTs has increased since 2021.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: As the first big Wall Street bank to embrace cryptocurrencies, Morgan Stanley announced on 17 March 2021 that they will be offering access to Bitcoin funds for their wealthy clients through three funds which enable Bitcoin ownership for investors with an aggressive risk tolerance. BNY Mellon on 11 February 2021 announced that it would begin offering cryptocurrency services to its clients.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: On 20 April 2021, Venmo added support to its platform to enable customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In October 2021, financial services company Mastercard announced it is working with digital asset manager Bakkt on a platform that would allow any bank or merchant on the Mastercard network to offer cryptocurrency services.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Mining for proof-of-work cryptocurrencies requires enormous amounts of electricity and consequently comes with a large carbon footprint due to causing greenhouse gas emissions. Proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero were estimated to have added between 3 million and 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide () to the atmosphere in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2017. By November 2018, Bitcoin was estimated to have an annual energy consumption of 45.8TWh, generating 22.0 to 22.9 million tonnes of , rivalling nations like Jordan and Sri Lanka. By the end of 2021, Bitcoin was estimated to produce 65.4 million tonnes of , as much as Greece, and consume between 91 and 177 terawatt-hours annually.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Critics have also identified a large electronic waste problem in disposing of mining rigs. Mining hardware is improving at a fast rate, quickly resulting in older generations of hardware.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Bitcoin is the least energy-efficient cryptocurrency, using 707.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The world's second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, uses 62.56 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction. XRP is the world's most energy efficient cryptocurrency, using 0.0079 kilowatt-hours of electricity per transaction.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Although the biggest PoW blockchains consume energy on the scale of medium-sized countries, the annual power demand from proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains is on a scale equivalent to a housing estate. "The Times" identified six "environmentally friendly" cryptocurrencies: Chia, IOTA, Cardano, Nano, Solarcoin and Bitgreen. Academics and researchers have used various methods for estimating the energy use and energy efficiency of blockchains. A study of the six largest proof-of-stake networks in May 2021 concluded:


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In terms of annual consumption (kWh/yr), the figures were: Polkadot (70,237), Tezos (113,249), Avalanche (489,311), Algorand (512,671), Cardano (598,755) and Solana (1,967,930). This equates to Polkadot consuming 7 times the electricity of an average U.S. home, Cardano 57 homes and Solana 200 times as much. The research concluded that PoS networks consumed 0.001% the electricity of the Bitcoin network. University College London researchers reached a similar conclusion.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Variable renewable energy power stations could invest in Bitcoin mining to reduce curtailment, hedge electricity price risk, stabilize the grid, increase the profitability of renewable energy power stations and therefore accelerate transition to sustainable energy.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: There are also purely technical elements to consider. For example, technological advancement in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin result in high up-front costs to miners in the form of specialized hardware and software. Cryptocurrency transactions are normally irreversible after a number of blocks confirm the transaction. Additionally, cryptocurrency private keys can be permanently lost from local storage due to malware, data loss or the destruction of the physical media. This precludes the cryptocurrency from being spent, resulting in its effective removal from the markets.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In September 2015, the establishment of the peer-reviewed academic journal "Ledger" () was announced. It covers studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, and is published by the University of Pittsburgh.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers, which will then be timestamped into the Bitcoin blockchain. Authors are also asked to include a personal Bitcoin address in the first page of their papers.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: A number of aid agencies have started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies, including UNICEF. Christopher Fabian, principal adviser at UNICEF Innovation, said the children's fund would uphold donor protocols, meaning that people making donations online would have to pass checks before they were allowed to deposit funds.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: However, in 2021, there was a backlash against donations in Bitcoin because of the environmental emissions it caused. Some agencies stopped accepting Bitcoin and others turned to "greener" cryptocurrencies. The U.S. arm of Greenpeace stopped accepting bitcoin donations after seven years. It said: "As the amount of energy needed to run Bitcoin became clearer, this policy became no longer tenable."


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 2022, the Ukrainian government raised over worth of aid through cryptocurrency following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Paul Krugman, Robert J. Shiller, Joseph Stiglitz, Richard Thaler, James Heckman, Thomas Sargent, Angus Deaton, and Oliver Hart; and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan, Agustín Carstens, Vítor Constâncio, and Nout Wellink.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a "mirage" and a "bubble"; while the business executives Jack Ma and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a "bubble" and a "fraud", respectively, although Jamie Dimon later said he regretted dubbing Bitcoin a fraud. BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink called Bitcoin an "index of money laundering".


title: Cryptocurrency

text: In 2018, an increase in crypto-related suicides was noticed after the cryptocurrency market crashed in August. The situation was particularly critical in Korea as crypto traders were on "suicide watch". A cryptocurrency forum on Reddit even started providing suicide prevention support to affected investors.


title: Cryptocurrency

text: The May 2022 collapse of the Luna currency operated by Terra also led to reports of suicidal investors in crypto-related subreddits.


title: Suge Knight

text: Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight Jr. (; born April 19, 1965) is a American former music executive, convicted felon, and the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. Knight is considered a central figure in gangsta rap's commercial success in the 1990s. This feat is attributed to the record label's first two album releases: Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" in 1992 and Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle" in 1993.


title: Suge Knight

text: In 1995, Tupac Shakur began serving a prison sentence of up to four and a half years. Knight struck a deal with Shakur that October, paying his bail and freeing him from prison pending an appeal of his conviction, while signing him to Death Row Records. In 1996, the label released Shakur's greatest commercial success, "All Eyez on Me". That September, after departing a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas, a group that included Knight and Shakur assaulted Orlando Anderson, a Southside Compton Crips gang member. Three hours later, someone shot into the car that Knight was driving and fatally wounded Shakur, injuring Knight in the process.


title: Suge Knight

text: Dr. Dre left Death Row Records shortly before Shakur's death, followed by Snoop Dogg two years later. The label rapidly declined. Meanwhile, allegations mounted that Knight, beyond employing gang members, had often employed intimidation and violence in his business dealings. From the late 1990s into the early 2000s, Knight spent a few years incarcerated for assault convictions and associated violations of probation and parole. In September 2018, Knight pled no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2015 hit-and-run, and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Knight's conviction, along with his previous felonies (stealing a camera, and also sending a harassing text message to "Straight Outta Compton" director F. Gary Gray), triggered California's three-strikes law. He is eligible for parole in October 2034. Knight is a prime suspect in orchestrating the murder of the Notorious B.I.G.


title: Suge Knight

text: Marion Hugh Knight Jr. was born in Compton, California, the son of Maxine (née Dikemen) and Marion Knight Sr. His name Suge (pronounced "/ʃʊɡ/") derives from "Sugar Bear", a childhood nickname. He attended Lynwood High School in nearby Lynwood, where he was a football and track star. He graduated in 1983.


title: Suge Knight

text: From 1983 to 1985, he attended and played football at El Camino College. In 1985, he transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and played football there for two years.


title: Suge Knight

text: Knight went undrafted in the 1987 NFL Draft, but was invited to the Los Angeles Rams training camp. He was cut by the Rams during camp, but he became a replacement player during the 1987 NFL Players Strike, and played two games for the Rams.


title: Suge Knight

text: After the NFL, Knight found work as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities including Bobby Brown. In 1989, Knight formed his own music publishing company. His first big profit in the business came when Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle) agreed to sign over royalties from his smash hit "Ice Ice Baby", because the song included material allegedly written by Knight's client Mario Johnson. Knight and his bodyguards confronted Van Winkle several times. There was a rumor during that time, that said Knight entered Van Winkle's hotel room and allegedly dangled him by his ankles off the balcony. However, Van Winkle has said that never actually happened, only that Knight threatened to throw him off the balcony; the claim was resolved in court.


title: Suge Knight

text: Knight next formed an artist management company and signed West Coast hip hop artists DJ Quik and The D.O.C. Through the latter, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A.


title: Suge Knight

text: Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. wanted to leave both N.W.A and their label, Ruthless Records, run by Eazy-E, another member of N.W.A. According to N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, Knight and his henchmen threatened Heller and Eazy-E with lead pipes and baseball bats to make them release Dre, The D.O.C., and Michel'le from their contracts. Ultimately, Dre and D.O.C. co-founded Death Row Records in 1991 with Knight, who vowed to make it "the Motown of the ’90s".


title: Suge Knight

text: Initially, Knight fulfilled his ambitions: he secured a distribution deal with Interscope, and Dre's 1992 solo debut album, "The Chronic", went on to triple platinum status in the United States by the end of 1993. It also made a career for Dre's protégé, Snoop Dogg, whose own debut album "Doggystyle" obtained a quadruple platinum certification in the United States in 1994.


title: Suge Knight

text: Meanwhile, Death Row had begun a public feud with 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell. The following year, he opened a private, by-appointment-only nightclub in Las Vegas called Club 662, so named because the numbers spelled out "MOB" on telephone keypads, "MOB" standing for Member of Bloods. In 1995, he ran afoul of civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker’s campaign against gangsta rap, whose criticism of Death Row's glamorization of the "gangsta" lifestyle may have helped scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner.


title: Suge Knight

text: Knight's feud with East Coast entrepreneur Sean Combs ("Puff Daddy") progressed when Knight insulted the Bad Boy label founder on air at the Source Awards in August 1995. Openly critical of Combs's tendency of ad-libbing on his artists' songs and dancing in their videos, Knight announced to the audience, "Anyone out there who wanna be a recording artist and wanna stay a star, and don't have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records, dancing, come to Death Row."


title: Suge Knight

text: Conrad Tillard, then the Nation of Islam minister known as Conrad Muhammad, the Hip Hop Minister, counseled Combs during his ensuing feud with Knight, and also asked Knight to stop terrorizing Combs. Tallard also protected Combs, sending elite guards from his Mosque No. 7 to guard Combs, who was receiving death threats from gangsters connected to Knight.


title: Suge Knight

text: The same year, Knight offered to post bail () for Tupac Shakur if the rapper agreed to sign with Death Row. Shakur agreed, setting the stage for his 1996 double album "All Eyez on Me" and "".


title: Suge Knight

text: M.C. Hammer's relationship with Suge Knight dates back to 1988. With the success of Hammer's 1994 album "The Funky Headhunter" (featuring Tha Dogg Pound), Hammer signed with Death Row Records by 1995, along with Snoop Dogg and his close friend, Tupac. The label did not release the album of Hammer's music (titled "Too Tight") while he had a career with them, although he did release versions of some tracks on his next album. However, Hammer did record tracks with Shakur and others, most notably the song "Too Late Playa" (along with Big Daddy Kane and Danny Boy). After the death of Shakur in 1996, Hammer left the record company. He later explained his concern about this circumstance in an interview on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) since he was in Las Vegas with Tupac the night of his death. Hammer released 2Pac's "Unconditional Love", on his "Family Affair" album, in 1998. The friendships between Hammer (played by Romany Malco), Tupac (played by Lamont Bentley) and Suge (played by Anthony Norris) were depicted in the television film, "Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story" (airing on VH1 in 2001).


title: Suge Knight

text: Dr. Dre, frustrated with the company's increasingly thuggish reputation and Knight's violent inclinations, left and formed his own label, Aftermath Entertainment.


title: Suge Knight

text: Though never charged by any prosecutor for any involvement, Suge Knight has been the subject of theories in popular culture about the murder of two well-known rap artists. Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996, and died six days later on September 13. When Shakur's East Coast rival, The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls), was murdered in a similar drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California on March 9, 1997, speculation arose that Knight was involved and that Biggie's death was a revenge killing. Former Death Row artists, including Snoop Dogg, also later accused Knight of being involved in Tupac's murder.


title: Suge Knight

text: A theory accusing Suge Knight in the deaths of both Biggie and Tupac was that of ex-detective Russell Poole, who conjectured that Knight had Tupac killed before he could part ways with Knight's label and then conspired to kill Biggie to divert attention from himself in the Tupac case. The Biggie murder theory implicated Suge Knight, a rogue cop, and a mortgage broker named Amir Muhammad (who was never a police suspect) along with the chief of police and the LAPD in a conspiracy to murder and cover up the murder of Biggie. The Biggie theory formed the basis of a lawsuit by his family, the Wallaces, against the city of Los Angeles. A key source for Poole's theory was Kevin Hackie. Hackie had implicated Suge Knight and David Mack. Hackie, a former Death Row associate, said that he had knowledge of involvement between Suge Knight and David Mack and other LAPD officers. His information was used by the Wallace family in their suit against the city of L.A. for Biggie's death. But Hackie later told "Los Angeles Times" reporter Chuck Philips that the Wallace attorneys had altered his declarations. The suit brought by the Wallace family against the city of L.A. based on the Russell Poole theory was dismissed in 2010.


title: Suge Knight

text: A 2005 "Los Angeles Times" article said that another source for the theory of Biggie's murder implicating Amir Muhammad, David Mack, Suge Knight and the LAPD was a schizophrenic man known as "Psycho Mike" who later confessed to hearsay and memory lapses and falsely identifying Muhammad. John Cook of Brill's Content noted that Philips' article "demolished" the Poole-Sullvan theory of Biggie's murder.


title: Suge Knight

text: Around the same time, Philips wrote an "L.A. Times" two-part series titled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?" into the murder of Shakur and events surrounding it based on police affidavits, court documents and interviews.


title: Suge Knight

text: The "L.A. Times" story indicated that "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier. Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect after questioning him once briefly. He was later killed in what police said was an unrelated gang shooting." The article implicated East Coast music figures, including Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, Shakur's nemesis at the time, alleging that he paid for the gun. Before their own deaths, Smalls, his family and Anderson denied any role in Shakur's murder. Biggie's family produced documents purporting to show that the rapper was in New York and New Jersey at the time. "The New York Times" called the documents inconclusive stating:


title: Suge Knight

text: The pages purport to be three computer printouts from Daddy's House, indicating that Wallace was in the studio recording a song called "Nasty Boy" on the afternoon Shakur was shot. They indicate that Wallace "wrote half the session," was "In and out/sat around" and "laid down a ref," shorthand for a reference vocal, the equivalent of a first take. But nothing indicates when the documents were created. And Louis Alfred, the recording engineer listed on the sheets, said in an interview that he remembered recording the song with Wallace in a late-night session, not during the day. He could not recall the date of the session but said it was likely not the night Shakur was shot. "We would have heard about it," Mr. Alfred said.


title: Suge Knight

text: Mark Duvoisin, an editor at the "L.A. Times", wrote in an opinion piece in "Rolling Stone" that Philips' account had withstood attacks to its credibility.


title: Suge Knight

text: However, the "L.A. Times" printed a full retraction of the two-part series and released Philips shortly thereafter during a wave of layoffs.


title: Suge Knight

text: In "Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake," a documentary by Tupac Shakur's bodyguard, he and Cathy Scott, author of "The Killing of Tupac Shakur" and "The Murder of Biggie Smalls", said that Knight would not have placed himself in the path of bullets he knew were coming. On her website "Archived Letters" Scott responds to a reader of her book stating that she felt there was never evidence to link Knight to Tupac's murder. Scott also told "CNN", "That theory doesn’t even add up. 'Open fire on my car, but try not to hit me?'"


title: Suge Knight

text: A 2006 law-enforcement task force probe into Biggie Smalls' murder, which included then-LAPD Detective Greg Kading, included the murder of Shakur. In his 2011 self-published book, "Murder Rap", Kading wrote that Duane "Keefe D" Davis, a member of the "Crips" street gang, gave a confession years later saying he rode in the car used in the Las Vegas shooting of Shakur. The Crips said they had been offered a million dollars by associates of Bad Boy records to kill Shakur. Kading, who named Sean Combs as having been involved in the conspiracy, also wrote that a bounty was offered for Suge Knight's murder.


title: Suge Knight

text: While in Las Vegas, Kading's book stated, Davis and fellow Crips members crossed paths with a BMW carrying Knight and Shakur. The fatal shots were fired by Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, who sat on the side of the car closest to the BMW.


title: Suge Knight

text: Kading alleged that Knight hired Wardel "Pouchie" Fouse to kill Sean Combs' most valuable star, Biggie Smalls, a murder done following a party at the Peterson Automotive Museum. Pouchie later survived a murder attempt but died in a drive-by shooting a year after the first attack. Charges were never brought against Fouse or Knight and the task force disbanded for reasons of "internal affairs."


title: Suge Knight

text: After Shakur's death and the release of "Tha Doggfather", Snoop Dogg openly criticized Knight for the murder of Shakur and left the label in 1998. He signed with Master P's No Limit Records and then forming his own record label, Doggystyle Records. In 2002, Snoop released the song "Pimp Slapp’d", in which he repudiated Knight and Death Row. In 2006, Snoop again attacked Knight verbally. Knight responded, stating that Snoop was a "police informer" who "never goes to jail".


title: Suge Knight

text: On April 4, 2006, Knight filed bankruptcy due to civil litigation against him in which Lydia Harris was said to have been cheated out of a 50% stake in Death Row Records. Prior to filing, Knight had been ordered to pay to Harris. Under questioning by creditors, he denied having money tucked away in foreign countries or in an African company that deals in diamonds and gold. Bankruptcy documents filed showed Knight had no income from employment or operation of a business. According to financial records, his bank account contained just , and he owned clothing worth , furniture and appliances valued at , and jewelry worth . He also testified that the last time he had checked the label's financial records was at least 10 years prior. Knight's lawyer said that his client was still "at the helm" of Death Row and had been working on securing distribution deals for the label's catalog. Harris told reporters she had received a payment but had not agreed to settle the matter. "I'm telling you, I didn't do a settlement for . That's ridiculous. Let's keep it real," she said.


title: Suge Knight

text: On July 7, 2006, the federal judge, Ellen Carroll, ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, saying the record label had undergone a gross amount of mismanagement.


title: Suge Knight

text: He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows a company to continue business operations while restructuring. Death Row was being operated by Neilson during the bankruptcy proceedings, while Knight oversaw his bankruptcy estate as a debtor in possession.


title: Suge Knight

text: In June 2007, he placed his 7 bedroom, 9½ bath home in Malibu, California, on the market for as part of his "financial makeover". The mansion was finally sold in December 2008 in bankruptcy court for .


title: Suge Knight

text: In June 2008, Death Row Records was put up for auction in Bankruptcy Court. The winning bid went to New York-based company Global Music Group. Global Music Group failed to secure funding and the Death Row Records catalog eventually went to Wideawake Entertainment.


title: Suge Knight

text: On January 25, 2009, an auction was held for everything found in the Death Row Records office after the company filed for bankruptcy, including some of Knight's personal items. Of note was the Death Row Records electric chair which sold for . Some of Knight's personal items appeared in an auction during the debut episode of A&E's "Storage Wars", and a vault full of items (including a coat) was purchased by featured buyer Barry Weiss.


title: Suge Knight

text: In a 1995 federal case, Knight pleaded no contest and was sentenced to five years' probation for assaulting two rappers in the summer of 1992 at a Hollywood recording studio.


title: Suge Knight

text: On October 22, 1996, Knight was sent to jail pending a hearing on the probation violation that happened on September 7, 1996 when Suge Knight and his Death Row entourage including Tupac Shakur attacked Orlando Anderson, a Crips gang member. Knight was then sentenced to nine years in prison on February 28, 1997 for the probation violation but was granted early release and was let out of FCI Sheridan on August 6, 2001.


title: Suge Knight

text: In 2003, Knight was sent to prison again for violating parole when he struck a parking lot attendant. Death Row's income rapidly declined during Knight's recurrent incarceration.


title: Suge Knight

text: In 2006, Knight was engaged in another dispute with former friend and ex-associate Snoop Dogg after Snoop insulted him in an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine.


title: Suge Knight

text: In January 2008, it was stated by police that Knight was one of the members of the Mob Piru street gang in a crackdown by authorities in the city of Compton. On May 10, 2008, Knight was involved in an altercation involving a monetary dispute outside of a nightclub ("Shag") in Hollywood. He was unconscious for three minutes. At the hospital, he did not cooperate with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).


title: Suge Knight

text: As part of an October 30, 2008 bankruptcy claim, Knight also filed a lawsuit against Kanye West and his associates. The lawsuit concerns an August 2005 shooting at West's pre-Video Music Awards party, where Knight was wounded by a gunshot to the upper leg.


title: Suge Knight

text: In February 2009, Knight was taken to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn to be treated for facial injuries he received during an altercation at a private party in the W Scottsdale Hotel, where Knight was reportedly punched.


title: Suge Knight

text: On February 8, 2012, Knight was arrested in Las Vegas, after police found cannabis in his car and several warrants for prior traffic violations.


title: Suge Knight

text: On August 24, 2014, Knight was shot at a pre-Video Music Awards party hosted by Chris Brown at a West Hollywood Sunset Strip nightclub ("1OAK"). Although shot six times, he was able to walk from the venue to an ambulance. His injuries required surgery. It is reported by investigators that evidence from closed circuit television (CCTV) footage showed that Knight was the intended target of the shooting. Knight was released from the hospital on August 27. Friend Keith Middlebrook told the "New York Daily News" that Knight returned home with the intentions to "heal up in a few days and be stronger than ever".


title: Suge Knight

text: Knight refused to cooperate with law enforcement on the matter. Party attendee Jeezy later said on "The Breakfast Club" that he would have been shot had he not been pushed out of the way just prior to the shooting.


title: Suge Knight

text: On October 29, 2014, Knight and comedian Katt Williams were both arrested and charged with second-degree robbery in connection with an alleged theft of a camera from a paparazzi photographer the previous month in Beverly Hills, California. While in jail, doctors found a blood clot in Knight's lung. Both Knight and Williams pleaded not guilty to robbery. In 2016, the robbery trial was delayed until the resolution of the unrelated murder trial.


title: Suge Knight

text: On January 29, 2015, Knight crashed his car into two men, killing Terry Carter (his friend and co-founder of Heavyweight Records) and fled the scene in Compton, California. The second victim, filmmaker Cle Sloan, suffered multiple fractures in his ankles and head injuries. Witnesses said Knight followed the men to a burger stand parking lot after an argument on the "Straight Outta Compton" film set, and that the collision looked intentional. Security footage video showed Knight running over both men. Knight said he acted in self-defense.


title: Suge Knight

text: In March 2015, Knight was hospitalized after he told a judge that he was suffering from blindness and other complications. Knight fired attorneys handling his murder case and said he was receiving inadequate medical treatment while in custody. The same month, a court set bail for his release for . Knight collapsed in court shortly after the bail setting was announced. On April 16, 2015, Knight's bail was reduced to . In July 2015, Knight's lawyer said that Knight might have a brain tumor on the same day that Knight's request for lower bail was refused. In January 2016, Knight changed counsel in his murder trial for a fourth time. In May 2016, three attorneys replaced the two hired earlier in the year. In July 2016, the judge denied Knight's motion to reveal the identities of several key prosecution witnesses, citing Knight's long history of violence. Knight became emotional after the ruling, stating that because of his health problems, he will die in jail. In March 2017, Knight was hospitalized after suffering from blood clots, a condition that had been affecting him for two years by that time. Knight's hospitalization delayed the trial to September 2018. When September arrived, Knight pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. The judge sentenced Knight to 28 years in prison: 22 years for running over the victim and 6 years because it was Knight's third strike under California's three-strikes law. As of December 2018, Knight is incarcerated at RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, and will not be eligible for parole until October 2034.


title: Suge Knight

text: In August 2017, a grand jury indicted Knight on charges of "threatening death or bodily injury" for sending threatening text messages to F. Gary Gray, the director of "Straight Outta Compton", on August 8, 2017. Knight pleaded not guilty to the charge, and the charge was dropped as part of Knight's plea agreement in the death of Terry Carter.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest tanks in service at nearly 68 short tons (almost 62 metric tons), it introduced several modern technologies to US armored forces, including a multifuel turbine engine, sophisticated Chobham composite armor, a computer fire control system, separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment, and NBC protection for crew safety. Initial models of the M1 were armed with a licensed-produced 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 gun, while later variants feature a licensed Rheinmetall 120 mm L/44.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The M1 Abrams was developed from the failure of the MBT-70 project to replace the obsolescent M60 tank. There are three main operational Abrams versions, the M1, M1A1, and M1A2, with each new iteration seeing improvements in armament, protection, and electronics. Extensive improvements have been implemented to the latest formerly designated M1A2 System Enhancement Package version 3 or SEPv3 and M1A2 SEPv4, respectively versions such as improved composite armor, better optics, digital systems and ammunition. The Abrams was due to be replaced by the Future Combat Systems XM1202 but due to its cancellation, the U.S. military has opted to continue maintaining and operating the M1 series for the foreseeable future by upgrading with improved optics, armor and firepower.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The M1 Abrams entered service in 1980 and currently serves as the main battle tank of the United States Army and formerly the Marine Corps. The export version is used by the armies of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Iraq. The Abrams was first used in combat in the Persian Gulf War and has seen combat in both the War in Afghanistan and Iraq War under U.S. service, while Iraqi Abrams tanks have seen action in the war against Islamic State and have seen use by Saudi Arabia during the Yemeni Civil War.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Through the 1960s the US Army and West German Army had collaborated on a single design that would replace both the M60 tank and the Leopard 1. The overall goal was to have a single new design with improved firepower to handle new Soviet tanks like the T-62, while providing improved protection against the T-62's new 115 mm smoothbore gun and especially high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The resulting design, the MBT-70, incorporated new technologies across the board. A hydropneumatic suspension provided excellent cross-country ride quality and also allowed the entire tank to be raised or lowered by the driver, with the lowest position placing the top of the tank only off the ground. New 1,500 hp-class engines powered the designs which could both reach , two new guns were introduced, a US 152 mm design whose primary long-range weapon was the Shillelagh missile, while the Germans introduced a new 120 mm smoothbore design.


title: M1 Abrams

text: While the design was highly capable, its weight continued to grow, as did its budget. By 1969, the unit cost stood at five times the original estimates, causing the Department of Defense to suspend the program. Development of the tank continued on an austere basis until January 1970, when the DoD ended its tank partnership with Germany.


title: M1 Abrams

text: As a result of the problems with the MBT-70, the U.S. Army introduced the XM803, using some technologies from the MBT-70 but removing some of the more troublesome features. This succeeded only in producing an expensive system with capabilities similar to the M60. Congress canceled the XM803 in December 1971 but permitted the Army to reallocate $20 million remaining funds to develop a new main battle tank.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) began examining specific goals. After several rounds of input, the decision was made to provide armor to defeat the "heavy threat" posed by the T-62's 115 mm gun using projected improvements of their armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) ammunition through the 1980s, and the new 125 mm gun of the T-64 and T-72 firing high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds. To this end, a new design basis emerged in February 1973. It had to defeat any hit from a Soviet gun within 800 meters and 30 degrees to either side. The tank would be armed with the 105 mm M68 gun, a licensed version of the Royal Ordnance L7, and a 20 mm version of the M242 Bushmaster.


title: M1 Abrams

text: In May 1973, Chrysler Defense and General Motors submitted proposals. Both were armed with the 105 mm M68 gun, the licensed L7, and the 20 mm Bushmaster. Chrysler chose a 1,500 hp gas turbine Lycoming AGT1500. GM's model was powered by a 1,500 hp diesel similar to that used on the American MBT-70 and XM803.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Examining the experiences of the Yom Kippur War that year, a number of design changes were made. The newly created "Burlington" armor from the British Army's labs was incorporated to improve protection, especially against HEAT, and to incorporate the new armor package, the original goal of keeping weight under was abandoned. The Bushmaster was seen as superfluous and was deleted. As TACOM continued to improve the detailed design, initial samples of the armor system were sent to the Ballistic Research Laboratory for testing.


title: M1 Abrams

text: At the time, the Pentagon's procurement system was beset with problems being caused by the desire to have the best possible design. This often resulted in programs being canceled due to cost overruns, leaving the forces with outdated systems, as was the case with the MBT-70. There was a strong movement within the Army to get a new design within budget to prevent the MBT-70 experience from repeating itself. For the new design, the Army stated the unit cost was to be no more than $507,000 in 1972 dollars ().


title: M1 Abrams

text: The Pentagon's approach to control of research and development was modified with the XM1. Previous acquisition strategy called for a significant amount of the design work be done by the government. Under the new framework, contractors would competitively bid their own designs rather than compete solely for the right to manufacture the end product.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Through the period while the initial prototypes were being built, a debate broke out between Germany and US about the use of the 105 mm gun. The Army was planning on introducing several new types of ammunition for the 105 that would greatly improve its performance, notably, the XM-774 using depleted uranium. These rounds would give it the performance needed to defeat any Soviet tank with ease. There was some concern that depleted uranium would not be allowed in Germany, perhaps just in peacetime, so improvements to the tungsten cored M735 were also considered.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Through this same period, there was an ongoing effort to improve NATO logistics by standardizing ammunition to the maximum possible degree. The Germans were moving ahead with their 120 mm gun on the Leopard 2K, and noted that the British had also introduced a 120 mm gun of their own in keeping with their long-range combat doctrine.


title: M1 Abrams

text: By 1977 the decision had been made to eventually move the new tank to a 120 mm gun. After head-to-head testing between the Royal Ordnance L11A5 and the Rheinmetall Rh-120, the latter was chosen. The turret designs of the two prototypes were modified to allow either gun to be fitted. Although the L11/M256 120mm gun was chosen to be the main weapon of the M1 Abrams in 1979, the improved ammunition for the gun still was not fully developed, thus delaying its fielding until 1984.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The early production versions of the M1 Abrams (M1 & IPM1) were armed with the M68A1 for two reasons. First was due to the large number of M60 tanks with the M68E1 gun still in widespread US service in the 1980s and a large on-hand stockpile of 105mm munitions. Fitting the M1 with the M68A1 gun was viewed as an economical and practical solution that allowed for commonality in ammunition among the two types of tanks. Secondly was that the M68A1 could employ the newly developed M900 APFSDS depleted uranium round that had improved penetration performance in comparison to the M774.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Prototypes were delivered in 1976 by Chrysler and GM armed with the license-built M68E1 version of the 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7. They entered head-to-head testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, along with a Leopard 2 AV prototype for comparison. The Leopard 2 was found to meet U.S. requirements but was thought to cost more. The testing showed that the GM design was generally superior to Chrysler's, offering better armor protection, and better fire control and turret stabilization systems. These early preproduction prototypes were provisionally armed with the M68E1 105mm main gun while a preferred 120mm gun and its ammunition were in their design and component development phase. These prototypes used a combination mount that allowed for evaluating both 105mm and 120mm guns.


title: M1 Abrams

text: During testing, the power packs of both designs proved to have issues. The Chrysler gas turbine engine had extensive heat recovery systems in an attempt to improve its fuel efficiency to something similar to a traditional internal combustion engine. This proved not to be the case: the engine consumed much more fuel than expected, burning 3.8 gallons per mile. The GM design used a new variable-compression diesel design.


title: M1 Abrams

text: By spring 1976, the decision to choose the GM design was largely complete. In addition to offering better overall performance, there were concerns about Chrysler's engine both from a reliability and fuel consumption standpoint. The GM program was also slightly cheaper overall at $208 million compared to $221 million for Chrysler. In July 1976, Lt. Colonel George Mohrmann prepared a stack of letters informing Congress of the decision to move ahead with the GM design. All that was required was the final sign-off by the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.


title: M1 Abrams

text: On 20 July 1976, United States Secretary of the Army Martin Hoffman and a group of generals visited Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Clements and Director of Defense Research and Engineering Malcolm Currie on their decision. They were surprised when Clements and Currie criticized their decision and demanded the turbine be selected. Donald Rumsfeld heard arguments from both in the afternoon and asked for twenty-four hours to review the issues. The Army team spent the night writing briefs and presented them to Rumsfeld the next morning, who then announced a four-month delay.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Within days, GM was asked to present a new design with a turbine engine. According to Assistant Secretary for Research and Development Ed Miller, "It became increasingly clear that the only solution which would be acceptable to Clements and Currie was the turbine... It was a political decision that was reached, and for all intents and purposes that decision gave the award to Chrysler since they were the only contractor with a gas turbine." However, the Chrysler design had the advantage that the entire power pack had room to be replaced by any number of engine designs, including a Diesel if needed.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The turbine engine does not appear to be the only reason for this decision. Chrysler was the only company that appeared to be seriously interested in tank development; the M60 had been lucrative for the company and relied on that program for much of its profit. In contrast, GM made only about 1% of its income from military sales, compared to 5% for Chrysler, and only submitted their bid after a "special plea" from the Pentagon.


title: M1 Abrams

text: In January 1978, a program was initiated to develop an enhanced version of the 105mm gun, the M68A1 as a possible alternate weapon for the M1 Abrams. The new XM24/L55 gun barrel was 18 inches (45.72 cm) longer in comparison to the XM24/L52 barrel used on the M60 tanks. It has a higher chamber pressure, reinforced breech and a higher muzzle velocity.


title: M1 Abrams

text: Low rate initial production (LRIP) of the vehicle was approved on 7 May 1979. In February 1982, General Dynamics Land Systems Division (GDLS) purchased Chrysler Defense, after Chrysler built over 1,000 M1s. The M1 Abrams was the first vehicle to adopt Chobham armor.


title: M1 Abrams

text: A total of 3,273 M1 Abrams tanks were produced during 1979–1985 and first entered U.S. Army service in 1980. Production at the government-owned, GDLS-operated Lima Army Tank Plant in Lima, Ohio, was joined by vehicles built at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan from 1982 to 1996. The U.S. Army Laboratory Command (LABCOM), under the supervision of the United States Army Research Laboratory (ARL), was also heavily involved with designing the tank with M1A1 armor resistant shells, M829A2 armor-penetrating rounds, and improved weapon range.


title: M1 Abrams

text: The M1 was armed with the license-built M68A1 version of the 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 gun. The tank featured the first of its kind Chobham armor. The M1 Abrams was the first to use this advanced armor. It consisted of an arrangement of metal plates, ceramic blocks and open space. An improved model called the M1IP was produced briefly in 1984 and contained upgrades to armour and other small improvements. The M1IP models were used in the Canadian Army Trophy NATO tank gunnery competition in 1985 and 1987.


title: M1 Abrams

text: About 5,000 M1A1 Abrams tanks were produced from 1986 to 1992 and featured the M256 smoothbore cannon developed by Rheinmetall AG of Germany for the Leopard 2, improved armor, consisting of depleted uranium and other classified materials, and a CBRN protection system. Production of M1 and M1A1 tanks totaled some 9,000 tanks at a cost of approximately $4.3 million per unit.