We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation.Denelle Dixon is the CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization using blockchain to unlock the world’s economic potential by making money more fluid, markets more open and people more empowered. Before joining Stellar, Denelle served as the chief operating officer of Mozilla, one of the most successful mission-driven open-source organizations. During her tenure at Mozilla, she led the organization’s business, revenue and policy teams, including the ongoing fight for net neutrality and the global effort to ensure that people can control their personal data. She also pushed Mozilla to understand how to partner with commercial entities while staying true to its core mission of openness, innovation and opportunity on the web. A lawyer by trade, Denelle previously served as a general counsel and legal advisor in private equity and technology. Throughout her career, Denelle has been a vocal advocate for net neutrality, encryption, the disclosure of vulnerabilities by governments, and greater user choice and control. 1 — What’s one problem you think blockchain has a chance to solve but hasn’t been attempted yet?There is no shortage of ideas for what blockchain can solve in terms of efficiency, transparency, data security, speed and cost. The great thing is blockchain’s versatility can be applied to most if not all industries ranging from finance to healthcare to education to retail. And blockchain has been around long enough that it’s not just for crypto enthusiasts anymore. Companies, organizations and institutions are now looking for ways to make blockchain part of their tech stack. Essentially, if there is a process that can be improved upon with technology, blockchain has the potential to be part of that solution.But blockchain needs to further mature before we see a fully comprehensive solution happen. So, maybe “attempt” isn’t the right word here so much as “fully implemented.”I would love to see blockchain tackle cybersecurity. Staying indoors throughout the pandemic has only amplified people’s reliance on technology — through their modes of communication, shopping habits or content consumption/creation. But it’s difficult for users to choose between protecting their data and the incentives provided to them for providing access to their data — not to mention that users are constantly at risk of being scammed or hacked. So, while users need to take a more vigilant approach to safeguarding their own data, blockchain can protect users at the product level via decentralization and built-in encryption methods. I’m very excited to see where blockchain projects focusing on cybersecurity end up in the coming years. 2 — What do you think will be the biggest trend in blockchain for the next 12 months?From a general standpoint, as blockchain becomes more consumer-friendly, we’ll see more businesses and individuals begin to adopt it. Interest in blockchain is only rising as the technology and infrastructure becomes more robust and useful, allowing people to solve problems in increasingly versatile ways.This means that industries beyond just fintech will start thinking of ways blockchain can benefit them. I welcome the diversification of industries as they bring more applications, products and services to blockchain, as it indicates growing acceptance by the public that blockchain really can be part of the mainstream.Regarding financial systems, the conversation around stablecoins and digital currencies will continue to intensify. We’re finally starting to see buy-in from traditional financial institutions that blockchain is a cost-effective, swift and powerful solution. If these institutions begin issuing stablecoins on their own, as Bitbond and Bank von der Heydt did, the mainstream consumer will become much more comfortable with the idea of digital currencies and blockchain in general. 3 — What’s the most interesting place you’ve ever visited, and why?This is a hard question because “interesting” could cover so many feelings. If I had to pick one, I would go with Kraków, Poland. While my visit there was brief, I could feel the history — both beautiful and tragic — beaming from within the large, culturally distinct and historically significant areas of Kraków. The contemporary city boasts vibrant businesses with historic buildings and churches and cathedrals dotting the landscape. It was a moving juxtaposition for me, especially after visiting the Jewish Quarter — Kazimierz — which is an ever-present reminder of the tragedies inflicted during WWII combined with more recent brilliance in the resurgence of the Jewish community there with art exhibitions that commemorate the rebuilding. For me, going to Kraków was a lesson in life, art and cultural protection. 4 — What’s the future of social media?If anyone has watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix, they’re probably aware that social media has deviated far from its original promise: to provide a space where people can voice their thoughts and connect with one another.We see now that social media has a whole host of problems. Not only have the psychological and cultural impacts of social media been more dramatic than many of us anticipated but current policies and regulations are not enough to safeguard users.As with most technology, social media in itself is neither good nor bad. It’s a tool, albeit one that is highly susceptible to algorithmic changes and design choices in the hands of a few.So, will we see a lot more video-driven features because that’s what performs best according to the algorithm? Will we see the voices of a few rise to the top because they happened to say the thing that would get the most eyeballs? Will we see companies increase their prominence on social media because their advertising budgets are the primary source of revenue for these networks? Yes to all of the above.But now we know where the flaws of social media exist, and these networks need to be reexamined, redesigned and rebuilt with not just the input of a few, but from all voices….

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekBitcoin tumbles 10% in 12 hours and falls below $50,000 for first time since MarchThings were looking markedly bearish for Bitcoin following last weekend’s swift and sudden correction, which caused Bitcoin to crash by 20% in a single hour.Within minutes last Sunday, $60,000 became a distant memory… with bulls forced to defend $55,000 instead. BTC’s prized $1-trillion market cap was also lost, and at one point, dominance sunk below 50% — a milestone that hasn’t been seen since 2018.But by the early hours of Friday, as selling pressure heightened, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency succumbed, dipping below $50,000 for the first time since March.Ether, which had managed to hit a new all-time high of $2,641.09 in the hours before the crash, also wasn’t immune from the sell-offs.Mass liquidations, an overheated futures market, the decline of the Kimchi premium, whales selling and concerns over President Joe Biden’s tax plans may all have been factors in the major correction. PlanB speculates that Bitcoin’s price fall doesn’t mean the endThere’s been no shortage of reaction to Bitcoin’s loss of momentum, with PlanB, the analyst behind the stock-to-flow forecast, insisting that the fall below $50,000 doesn’t mean that the current bull run is over.Pointing out that nothing goes up in a straight line, he tweeted: “#Bitcoin has gone up 6 months in a row, until this month. This looks like the mid-way dip that we also saw in 2013 and 2017.”ExoAlpha’s Élie Le Rest also believes that there are reasons to be optimistic, saying: “This kind of market pullback is very healthy as it contributes to deleveraging market participants and builds ground for a more stable growth.”The next major move in Bitcoin’s price will prove decisive, helping us to determine if this is merely an overdue correction or the opening salvo of the next bear market cycle.Veteran trader and chart guru Peter Brandt wasted little time in making a cheeky observation, writing: “The chances of a correction in cryptos is directly related to the prevalence of laser eyes on Twitter. Want the correction to end? Get rid of your laser eyes.” Bitcoin transaction fees in U.S. dollars near all-time highsIn other signs that history is repeating itself, Bitcoin transaction fees measured in U.S. dollars neared all-time highs recorded in 2017.Data from Blockchair shows the average cost of a BTC transaction hit $58 on Tuesday — approaching the record of $62 set in December 2017.The latest spike in BTC transaction fees comes amid a major decline in the Bitcoin network hash rate, which may have been exacerbated by massive power outages in the Chinese mining hub of Xinjiang.And the spike has also prompted some crypto exchanges to introduce less expensive ways of moving Bitcoin around as a matter of urgency, too.OKEx has now integrated the Lightning Network, while Square’s Cash App has quietly raised the minimum Bitcoin withdrawal to 0.001 BTC — 100,000 satoshis — markedly higher than the 0.0001 BTC that was in force previously. “Bitcoin incentivises renewable energy,” agree Elon Musk and Jack DorseyAs crypto traders with furrowed brows were confronted by a sea of red, industry heavyweights were focusing their attention on how to go green.Earth Day 2021 happened this week, and with Bitcoin regularly castigated for the high levels of energy that it takes to keep the network secure, some of the cryptocurrency’s most vocal backers made the case for BTC’s environmental efficiency.A new report authored by The Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative argues that Bitcoin mining incentivizes the generation of electricity “from renewable carbon-free sources.”The paper has received support from top crypto luminaries including Square’s Jack Dorsey, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood. Tether is listing on Coinbase ProCoinbase Pro has announced that it is listing Tether on its platform, paving the way for trading pairs linking the ERC-20 version of USDT with BTC, ETH, USDC, the euro, the British pound and the U.S. dollar.This is a rather big deal, and it signifies that the exchange is not concerned about the stablecoin’s previous regulatory issues or the long-running controversy over the validity of Tether’s backing. Bitfinex chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino told Cointelegraph: “We are gratified by Coinbase’s decision to add Tether tokens on ERC-20 to its Coinbase Pro platform. This is happening as we near a market capitalization of $50 billion and represents another step forward as we broaden our community.” Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $49,237.93, Ether at $2,203.74 and XRP at $1.06. The total market cap is at $1,813,860,544,571.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Solana, Celo and PancakeSwap. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Bitcoin SV, NEM and Ontology.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.   Most Memorable Quotations “Contrary to what you may have been told or wish, #crypto is not a get rich quick scheme.”Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO “Bitcoin is up 600% in last year. Gold is up 3% in last year. No more tweeting until gold can beat inflation, Peter!” Anthony Pompliano, Bitcoin proponent “Without any strong catalyst, breaking above $60k looks difficult at this time, and a break below $50k may drive Bitcoin down to $30k. Traditional markets showing signs of exhaustion may also put a dent on the crypto markets recovery.”David Lifchitz, ExoAlpha chief investment officer “ETH is rapidly becoming the currency of the digital world and BTC is the pristine collateral and base layer.”Raoul Pal, Real Vision CEO “I think the crypto space is amazing right now. It’s the best-kept secret in the world and maybe the history of the financial markets.”Thomas Farley, New York Stock Exchange president “DOGE is relatively well suited for payments. It’s extremely fast and efficient — transactions cost less than a cent.”Jason Lau, OKCoin chief operating officer “unSAFEMOON”Luke Martin, blockchain developer “We have no appetite…

Toward the end of our hour-long interview, Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver drops a bombshell: He had considered killing himself to escape a jail sentence at the age of 23.Even for the most freedom-loving libertarian, this seems extreme. But Ver had worked out a way to escape his own death by having himself cryonically preserved, to be revived at a later date. At 20 years old, Ver had already signed up with Arizona life extension company Alcor to be frozen after death, long before he was handed a 10-month prison stretch in 2002 for selling firecrackers on eBay.“It’ll freeze your body in a big giant vat of liquid nitrogen when you die, in the hopes that future medical technology will be able to fix whatever it is that caused you to die in the first place — plus the damage caused by freezing,” he explains:“And so in fact, I even considered — suicide isn’t the right word — but I considered killing myself temporarily, going into cryonic suspension and then coming out later, when the technology is better, to avoid going to prison. That’s how upset I was about going to jail.”Now 42, and with a fortune he vaguely refers to as being in the billions, the Bitcoin Cash proponent intends to switch his investment focus to cryonics over the next decade, in the hopes of improving the experimental technology.“Rather than investing in cryptocurrency stuff, I want to focus on the extreme life extension technologies because if you die, you can’t enjoy your life anymore,” he says. At various points during our conversation, Ver refers to his mission with a well-rehearsed tagline about helping build the tools to give people control over their own money (or variations thereof). Riffing on this, he says his new focus will be to “build the tools that enable people to have as much time as they need in their lives to do the things that they enjoy, and spend it with the people they care about.”If Ver gets run over by a bus tomorrow, there’s a card in his wallet and notes on his phone with instructions to immediately get in touch with Alcor to freeze his body, with the hope of eventual resurrection. “That’s certainly my hope,” he says, adding wryly, “The downside of that is that the company’s in Arizona, and I’m zipping all over the world.”Paradise in the pandemicVer is currently bunkering down from the pandemic on the French-speaking island of St. Barts in the Caribbean, where it’s “summer all year round.” Following his run-in with United States authorities, he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014 and became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis. He spends a lot of time in neighboring Antigua, where he convinced businesses from gas stations to supermarkets to accept BCH. You can now even pay the $158,000 required to become a citizen in crypto.Compared with 2017 and 2018, when Ver seemed to be everywhere arguing the case for big blocks and peer-to-peer cash, he’s been a lot less prominent lately. “I absolutely made a deliberate decision to do less media stuff,” he says. “That civil war is kind of over now. So, I don’t think I need to argue with words so much as build useful things for people around the world to use.”He’s still pretty active behind the scenes though, playing an instrumental role in convincing Kim Dotcom to embrace Bitcoin Cash for his K.im content monetization platform.Speaking to Bitcoin maximalist Tone Vays (who was decidedly unimpressed), Dotcom revealed that Ver had won him over. “He shared with me some of the innovations that he’s working on. I think the guy at the moment, in terms of his way of thinking and where he is in his innovation, is a step ahead. I feel it would be stupid to ignore someone like that.”It sounds as if Ver may have also extolled the virtues of Bitcoin Cash to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, but he’s reluctant to confirm this.“I hate to be coy, but I’m not going to comment on that question. I’m happy to talk about just about everything, but that’s one that I think we’ll have to save for another time.”Well, that’s not a “No,” is it? Elon Musk and Kim Dotcom talk Bitcoin Cash low fees!! Does Bitcoin high transaction fees matter? #bitcoin #BitcoinCash @elonmusk @KimDotcom https://t.co/BbeVkDbUUl pic.twitter.com/UkvLapITD4— Ryan Giffin (@RyanMic87079594) March 29, 2021 The only bit of the story about Bitcoin forksAs one of the earliest and most ardent Bitcoin proponents, Ver is also one of the most controversial for his role in forking Bitcoin Cash away in November 2017. While BCH’s price and hash rate pale into insignificance against Bitcoin, as of late, the network’s transaction count is 100,000 more per day than Bitcoin’s, and its block size is larger too, suggesting it may actually be starting to be used as a currency.But forks spawn forks, and the once-ally and Satoshi-claimant Craig Wright forked Bitcoin SV away from Bitcoin Cash a year later. At one point, Ver seemed to give some credence to Wright’s Satoshi claims, but relations soured, and the Australian now spends much of his time mounting lawsuits against Ver for libel for calling him a fraud. The most recent case was filed in Antigua in September. “100% for sure he’s going to lose that one too,” says Ver, without even a hint of concern.But what was he hoping to achieve by hitching his fortune to Wright’s in the first place?“Good question,” he says, “The things that Craig Wright was saying back then are totally different than what he’s been saying more recently. Back then, he was espousing a lot of this free market libertarian-type rhetoric.” Hesitating, he adds: “I guess at the time, I was hoping to have one more ally. […] It turned out Craig wasn’t a good ally.”Yet another Bitcoin Cash fork occurred in November last year, as a result of Bitcoin ABC’s “benevolent dictator” Amaury Sechet trying to impose an 8% tax on miners to pay for development….

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekBitcoin bulls attack $57,000, and altcoins rally as April comes to a closeA sudden bullish surge took traders by surprise as April drew to a close, with Bitcoin staging a 10% rally in a matter of hours.Highs of $58,448.34 helped to erase recent losses — but not entirely.Data from Bybt shows that BTC’s price fell by 1.98% last month. That’s the first time the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has closed the month of April in the red since 2015.A contributing factor to upbeat market activity may have been linked to an astounding surge in revenues at MicroStrategy, a company that owns 91,000 BTC.MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said: “We will continue to acquire and hold additional Bitcoin as we seek to create additional value for shareholders.” Ethereum’s market cap exceeds platinum’s for the very first timeWhile Bitcoin had lost its footing for most of the week, Ether has gone from strength to strength.The No. 2 cryptocurrency continues to break new all-time highs — with the latest record of $2,879.75 set on Saturday.Overall, 2021 promises to be a crucial year for the Ethereum blockchain as the long-awaited Eth2 upgrade takes shape. The network is set to part ways with its proof-of-work consensus algorithm and shift to proof-of-stake, which is set to cut costs and preserve energy.At $330 billion, Ether’s market cap has now exceeded industry giants including Procter & Gamble and PayPal — not to mention platinum. The digital asset is also a stone’s throw away from overtaking The Walt Disney Company and Bank of America. Tesla books huge profit from Bitcoin sale in Q1 Tesla sold a portion of its Bitcoin holdings in the first quarter, pocketing a profit of $101 million as a result.The electric vehicle manufacturer announced that it had snapped up Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion in February, and this sale amounts to about 10% of its crypto stash.Crypto Twitter didn’t react kindly to the news, with comedian Dave Portnoy accusing Elon Musk of profiting from a pump-and-dump engineered by his public statements supporting BTC.Musk rejected these claims and said that he hasn’t sold any of his Bitcoin. He also explained that Tesla executed this transaction “essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.”Meanwhile, Musk has continued to champion Dogecoin on his Twitter feed — ahead of him hosting Saturday Night Live on May 8. Coinbase offers customers a way to purchase crypto using PayPalThere were a series of milestones this week when it comes to simplifying the process of buying crypto… and using it as a payment method.Coinbase announced that users in the U.S. will now be able to buy digital assets using debit cards and bank accounts linked to their PayPal profiles — giving them a greater choice of digital assets than PayPal alone provides.Meanwhile, rival exchange Gemini announced that it is teaming up with Mastercard to release a credit card that will allow crypto holders to spend digital assets and receive cash-back rewards in the form of Bitcoin.Elsewhere, Binance announced that it was launching its own NFT marketplace in June — complete with a “Premium Event” category that is designed to attract big-name signings.And, if you’re feeling hungry, Bubba Gump Shrimp’s seafood restaurants are going to start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the next 90 days.The Giving Block launches “Crypto Giving Pledge” to ramp up donation effortsA leading crypto donations platform has launched a new initiative that’s designed to help the digital assets sector become the most charitable in the world.The Giving Block has launched a “Crypto Giving Pledge” that encourages investors to pledge at least 1% of their holdings to charities each year and asks businesses in this space to contribute 1% of their revenue toward similar causes.Users can join the initiative anonymously and without having to disclose their contributions. If everyone in crypto donated 1% of their holdings to charities, they could collectively raise $20 billion.As well as raising money for “amazing causes in critical need of support,” the organization’s co-founder also says that this could erase crypto tax burdens for donors — and “put to bed this idea that crypto is bad.” Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $57,380.31, Ether at $2,880.41 and XRP at $1.56. The total market cap is at $2,212,553,216,270.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Fantom, Polygon and OKB. The only altcoin loser is Celo.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.   Most Memorable Quotations “After the current lawsuit, Ripple will go public. The current CEO wants to do that. Chris wants to do that.”Yoshitaka Kitao, SBI Group CEO “Facebook has purchased 0 bitcoin for an aggregate price of $0 in a strategic corporate move to have fun staying poor.”Texan Hodl “If you sold #Bitcoin because Facebook didn’t buy any in Q1 and you also think you’re GMI, I have some unfortunate news for you.”Travis Kling, Ikigai CEO “HMRC suspects that an increasing amount of hidden wealth is slipping through its fingers thanks to the rise of cryptocurrencies.”David Jones, UHY Hacker Young director “With blockchain analytics, the thing we say over and over is that all this activity is on this ledger forever, and if you did something bad 10 years ago you can be caught and arrested for it today.”Sarah Meiklejohn, computer scientist “Rather than investing in cryptocurrency stuff, I want to focus on the extreme life extension technologies because if you die, you can’t enjoy your life anymore.”Roger Ver, Bitcoin.com founder “This recent recovery in Altcoin Market Cap is much sharper than the post-retrace recovery in February.”Rekt Capital Prediction of the WeekEther will always come second to Bitcoin, says Shark Tank’s Kevin O’LearyDespite ETH strengthening further against BTC this week, Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary still believes that Bitcoin will remain top of…