Hello all and welcome again to the MNO blog – the leading source of information about HYIPs online that has been posting regularly on the net since 2007. For nearly fifteen years now MNO has remained the place to find out about the most prominent and talked about high yield investment programs and will hopefully stay this way in the future. For now though temporarily I have decided to shift my attention to the cryptocurrency market and its latest trends as subject of the Weekly CryptoNews Digest posted on my blog every Monday. And as the only MNO monitor listed program at the moment which is RoboticsOnline has been silent over the last seven days I don’t really have any news from the HYIP market to report tonight.

As you might have noticed though many websites involved in the HYIP industry at the moment are almost empty and MNO is no exception. After the mass exodus of professional and long-term admins the industry has become weaker than at any time since the very beginning of the internet. There is still some slim hope remaining that the situation will improve later in the year, as the vast majority of my readers so far submitted their votes in the latest poll on the MNO TalkBack page tend to think. If you haven’t haven’t shared your opinion on the subject please do so here and let me know “Do you believe that we will see another leader on the HYIP market later this year?”

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Meanwhile, let’s have a closer look what interesting events from the crypto industry that happened over the last calendar week, March, 21 to March, 27 that people are talking about.

If you can get past the temporary distraction of Chris Rock being on the receiving end of a well earned slap from Will Smith in last night’s Oscars ceremony, the most important news globally right now continues to be the Russian invasion and occupation of its neighbor Ukraine. Despite the heavily outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian resistance giving a formidable account of themselves, no immediate end to the insanity seems to be in sight. As sanctions, almost entirely from the west but not the so called “friendly countries” (“friendly” to who you might ask if Ukrainian!) from Russia’s eastern and southern neighbors put mounting downward pressure on Russia’s ability to finance a war the Kremlin looks to alternative means. Incredibly only mere weeks after speculating that Crypto related activities could be severely curtailed by the Russian state, they now seem to be warmly embracing Crypto with both arms.

According to a high-ranking lawmaker “friendly” countries could be allowed to pay for oil and gas in cryptocurrency or in their local currencies. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he wanted “unfriendly” countries to buy its gas with roubles. The move is understood to be aimed at boosting the Russian currency, which has lost over 20% in value this year. Sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union have raised the cost of living in Russia which still remains the world’s biggest exporter of natural gas and the second largest supplier of oil. Bitcoin is seen as a high growth asset even if its value has swung by as much as 30% this year. In comparison, the dollar has traded within 5% against the euro which means that clearly accepting Bitcoin, compared with other traditional currencies, introduces considerably more risk in the trade of natural gas. Moreover, one of the major friendly trade partners for Russia is China, and cryptocurrency is banned for use there completely. This clearly limits potential for payment using Bitcoin.

On the other side of the conflict, one journalist in a newspaper article I read during the week interestingly described it as history’s first crowdfunded war. Crowdfunding by itself is nothing new of course, we frequently see it used in the wake of humanitarian disasters calling for donations to a whole slew of charities and emergency aid agencies. Less so with the clear and explicit intention of arming another country’s military to fight off an invasion. The Central Bank of Ukraine has set up what’s reported to be a hugely successful page on their website where supporters the world over can make a contribution in any currency they wish to fund weapons, training, supplies, and equipment for the heavily outnumbered forces. If the latest figures are to be believed, they’ve collected $420 million dollars since the appeal was launched, and that’s just through that one government channel. The Ukrainian minister for digital transformation who also happens to be deputy prime minister launched an appeal specifically for cryptocurrency donations via Twitter. This was followed by an announcement that the government would be minting NFTs, who were then promptly rewarded with over $7 million dollars for an NFT of the Ukrainian flag. The thing about cryptocurrencies is that they are truly without borders and without permits. Even if you are in a war zone, if you can get online then you have access to funds. It was estimated last week that the Ukrainian government had raised around $64 million dollars in various cryptocurrencies using NFTs. It’s easy to point out that so many NFTs in the past merely succeeded in making existing crypto millionaires even richer, but with charities it can really make a difference as the operating costs are minimal. If you donate $10 they don’t have to ship a physical product to your home address in return, so more of the money goes to where it’s really needed most. With almost a million Ukrainian citizens mobilized to fend off the invasion it costs an eye-watering sum to keep them all armed, fed, warm, and safe. Understanding the position they are in, the relative lack of resources compared to the behemoth Russian war machine facing them down, the Ukrainian cabinet (who by the way are a surprisingly young group of people compared to the governments of most wealthy nations) have proven quite savvy in their efforts to drum up financial support and awareness for their cause from a new generation.

On one of the major international news media channels/websites, I recently came across a very interesting video on the workings of a full time BitCoin mine in northern Kazakhstan. I was genuinely surprised to see a gigantic industrial complex that was easily the size of any mid range manufacturing factory, refinery, or metal smelting plant. The “miners” there work 12 hours per day, from 8.00 in the morning until 8.00 in the evening where they live full time in the plant staff quarters for 15 days at a time, then have a 15 day vacation while the next shift takes over. There are some 50,000 machines operating around the clock, each one using around six times more electricity than your average domestic of office PC while doing so. The fact that Kazakhstan still has for now some of the lowest energy prices in the world makes this somewhat passable for the time being, though there’s no telling what the ongoing war in Ukraine plus the recent political unrest in Kazakhstan itself will do to this.

It got me thinking though, despite the obvious populist appeal that BitCoin holds for so many off-grid and digital nomad types of people, it’s become almost impossible for the independent free individual to see any serious success in mining. Of course you can try it, it’s just that the costs have spiraled so far out of control you’ll see a negligible reward for an inflated amount of work. I have no strong objection to these mega mining networks such as the one I just described in Kazakhstan, it’s a great employment opportunity for educated young people in a country with few alternative business options for them after all, I’d just prefer it if more private DIY entrepreneurs so to speak were also able to avail.

Anyway, it’s been reported that the largest American oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil is participating in piloting a Bitcoin mining project with excess gas from their fields in South Dakota. For now this remains just a rumor due to the people behind the report not wishing to be named and the information not being made public by Exxon at this time. If it succeeds however it’s believed that the company could sponsor more pilot projects at facilities in Alaska, Argentina, Guyana, and Germany. All of which puts BitCoin mining further and further out of reach for regular people, though admittedly that’s the way things have been going for a very long time now anyway.

Another couple of stories showing how cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more ingrained in the mainstream world caught my eye this week, starting with the US State of Florida which aims to allow businesses to pay their taxes in the form of BitCoin. I suppose it only makes sense that if you run a legitimate business where BitCoin is your customers currency of choice then you be allowed to use it to pay your taxes as well (not that many folks necessarily enjoy that part of business of course, it still needs to be done). It seems that the governor of Florida is a long term advocate of Crypto and a public supporter has informed state agencies to start work on figuring out ways to accommodate businesses who wish to proceed like this. It’s a very forward thinking move in my own opinion and one which will ultimately benefit The Sunshine State given time. On the other hand the state governor went on to express his concerns about BitCoin receiving too much legitimacy, saying that you don’t really want to start inching towards any kind of central authority in this kind of field.

The other story involves the FIFA World Cup, which as football fans will know takes place later this year in Qatar. Probably one of the finest examples of corruption in sport that it’s even being allowed to be held there in the first place, that’s a whole other story, but I suppose if you want to deal with shady characters in a suspect environment then you may as well go all in. I’m sure it would have been impossible to imagine when the tournament first started more than 90 years ago for invited guests that in the year 2022 such a thing as “an official BitCoin and cryptocurrency trading platform” for the event would exist. Well, that honor falls to Crypto.com which has been named as an official sponsor of the Qatar World Cup. Then again, nothing should really surprise me anymore since I remember being so amused on hearing the South African World Cup had an official brand of condoms as a sponsor for that tournament back in 2010. In fairness to them however Crypto.com does have a track record of sports sponsorship, not just in football but also in the likes of basketball, ice hockey, and so on. In sponsoring the coming World Cup it’s hoped that Crypto.com can help fans find alternative ways to attend some of the games and also promote official merchandise. We can argue all day about what team will lift the trophy come December, but it’s more obvious who the real financial winners will be in this one.

If you like reading the MNO Weekly CryptoNews Digest make sure you tune in next Monday when I’ll be back with more news and events I think will deserve your attention.

That will be all to report for today, guys. Thanks for reading and talk to you again later next week. MNO – For Money Lovers!