How Much It Costs To Mine For Cryptocurrency
Mining for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether, and dogecoin isn't as lucrative as it used to be. Here's a look at how to do it and why small-time miners are being driven out of business. Bitcoin topped $58,000 in February for the first time. Ether, the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency, has also hit record highs this year. Even dogecoin — a cryptocurrency invented as a joke that does not have the same serious function and institutional backing as bitcoin — surged more than 50% in the last month after a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
It is easier than ever to buy a small fraction of one bitcoin using an app such as Coinbase. However, that’s not the only way investors can get their hands on cryptocurrency.
Investors can also mine for the digital currency. Before the Covid-19 pandemic started, CNBC went to a blockchain production studio in Brooklyn to learn how to mine for bitcoin’s biggest rival, ether.
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How Much It Costs To Mine For Cryptocash
March 05, 2021
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Why Central Banks Want To Get Into Digital Currencies
Intense interest in cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, and the Covid-19 pandemic have sparked debate among central banks on whether they should issue digital currencies of their own. Advocates argue that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, can make cross-border transactions easier, promote financial inclusion, and provide payment system stability. Here's how central bank digital currencies could become the future of digital finance.
Intense interest in cryptocurrencies and the Covid-19 pandemic have sparked debate among central banks on whether they should issue digital currencies of their own.
China has been in the lead in developing its own digital currency. It's been working on the initiative since 2014. Chinese central bank officials have already conducted massive trials in major cities including Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou.
"China's experiment is very large scale," said J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "When the world arrives in Beijing next winter for the Winter Olympics, they are going to be using the new digital renminbi to shop and to stay in hotels and to buy meals in restaurants. The world is going to see a functioning [central bank digital currency] very soon, within the coming year."
The U.S. is playing catch-up. In late February 2021, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. will engage with the public on the digital dollar this year.
Advocates contend central bank digital currencies can make cross-border transactions easier, promote financial inclusion and provide payment system stability. There are also privacy and surveillance risks with government-issued digital currencies. And in times of economic uncertainty, people may be more likely to pull their funds from commercial banks, accelerating a bank run.
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Why Central Banks Want To Get Into Digital Currencies
March 05, 2021
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Why U.S. Malls Are Disappearing
Shopping malls in the U.S. were already in decline before the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers shifted away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce. The outbreak has only exacerbated the challenges at malls as social distancing has placed restrictions on stores, movie theaters and restaurants. So what will become of malls in America after the pandemic ends?
Shopping malls across the U.S. have been reeling as restaurant and retail tenants struggle to keep their doors open.
Data compiled by Coresight Research shows about a quarter of U.S. malls could close over the next three to five years, accelerating a trend that began before the pandemic.
Simon Property Group — the nation's biggest mall owner — said earlier this month that its fourth-quarter revenue dropped by 24% on a year-over-year basis to $1.1 billion.
However, some analysts think Simon — with its portfolio of A-rated malls and a healthy balance sheet — will benefit as distressed malls operated by its rivals close their doors. The company is also expected to see gains from new additions like hotels and luxury residences.
"Unfortunately there are a lot of centers that don't fit that high profile and that have lost their competitive edge," said Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Goldfarb. "The thing about Simon is they've been really focused on maintaining it, and that's both been through a combination of culling the lower productive centers as well as making sure that they keep investing in their top centers."
Simon Property Group CEO David Simon said the company is also getting a lift from increasing traffic at some of its locations and from tenants paying their rent on time.
Malls are a big tax driver for the communities they serve and employ lots of people locally. Watch the video above to find out more about the struggles U.S. malls face and what could become of them after the pandemic ends.
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Why U.S. Malls Are Disappearing
March 04, 2021
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Money Is Pouring Into Carbon Capture Tech, But Challenges Remain
Elon Musk, Microsoft and oil giants like Occidental and Exxon Mobil are investing in carbon capture technologies. Carbon Engineering and Climeworks are two start-ups that have built machines to suck CO2 straight out of the atmosphere in a process known as direct air capture. But the technology faces a number of challenges, one of which is that there’s currently no market for the captured CO2. As a result, some companies are selling their captured CO2 to oil companies, which use it to produce even more oil.
Correction (March 4, 2021): At 9:08 we misstated a company that invested in Carbon Engineering. The correct company is BHP.
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Money Is Pouring Into Carbon Capture Tech, But Challenges Remain
March 03, 2021
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Why The U.S. Builds Houses Wrong
The housing market is experiencing a boom not seen since 2006. However, natural disasters like wildfires and floods are also wreaking havoc on more and more American communities. Here's how the U.S. can tackle building safer houses or retrofit existing homes for resiliency while keeping costs down, potentially mitigating the flow of domestic climate migrants.
Existing home sales last year reached their highest levels since 2006. However, increasing numbers of climate disasters across the country have sparked concern about how safe homes are.
Potential buyers rarely wonder “what the flood plain is here, or do they look around and see this beautiful forest and say, ‘Oh, my God, it’s going to be on fire in two years?’” American Institute of Architects consultant David Collins said.
Last year was the worst fire season in U.S. history. In California, five of the state’s six-largest fires began within a two-month window. Overall, more than a dozen severe weather storms each dealt more than $1 billion in damages across the U.S.
Jack Cohen, a research physical fire scientist, advocates for home construction that better stops the spread of wildfires by including nonflammable construction materials and ensuring nothing exists between houses that an ember can engulf in flames.
“We need to define the problem as a structure ignition problem, not a wildfire control problem,” Cohen said. His Home Ignition Zone research is supported by the National Fire Protection Association, a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA has a financial incentive in protecting America’s homes and encouraging local groups to follow the building codes set by the International Code Council.
Acting U.S. Fire Administration chief Tonya Hoover said the approximately 2,000 communities that have adopted the council’s building codes have saved the U.S. an average of $1.6 billion in annualized losses from flooding, hurricanes and earthquakes.
However, building homes that can withstand natural disasters are expensive and keep people, including the more than 500,000 thousand homeless counted in 2019, outside.
“A thousand dollars added to the price of a new home, at any time, in any way, ... will eliminate 153,967 households from being able to buy that home,” said Greg Ugalde, immediate past chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.
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Does The U.S. Build Houses Wrong?
March 02, 2021
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Why Content Moderation Costs Social Media Companies Billions
After the riots at the Capitol on January 6, debate is swirling over how platforms moderate content and what is protected as free speech. While some, like TikTok, directly employ content moderators, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube largely outsource the grueling work to thousands of workers at third-party companies. Some companies are relying more on algorithms to take over the dirty work, but experts say machines can't detect everything — like the nuances of hate speech and misinformation.
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Why Content Moderation Costs Social Media Companies Billions
February 27, 2021
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How The Global Computer Chip Shortage Happened
It’s not an overstatement to say that semiconductors power the modern world. They’re not only a key component of nearly every electronic device we buy and use — they also power the factories that make the electronic devices we buy and use. And now, there aren’t enough of them getting made. Here’s how the global semiconductor chip shortage got so bad, and what’s being done to fix it.
A chip shortage that started as consumers stocked up on personal computers and other electronics during the Covid-19 pandemic now threatens to snarl car production around the world.
GM said that it would extend production cuts in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico until the middle of March. They join a long list of major automakers, including Ford, Honda and Fiat Chrysler, which have warned investors or slowed vehicle production because of the chip shortage.
But it’s not just the automotive industry that’s struggling to get enough semiconductors to build their products. AMD and Qualcomm, which sell chips to most of the top electronics firms, have noted the shortage in recent weeks. Sony blamed the chip shortage for why it’s so hard to get a PlayStation 5 game console.
Chips are likely to remain in short supply in coming months as demand remains higher than ever. The Semiconductor Industry Association said in December that global chip sales would grow 8.4% in 2021 from 2020′s total of $433 billion. That’s up from 5.1% growth between 2019 and 2020 -- a notable jump, given how large the absolute numbers are.
Semiconductors are in short supply because of strong demand for electronics, shifting business models in the semiconductor world that created a bottleneck among outsourced chip factories, and effects from the U.S. trade war with China that started under former President Trump.
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How The Global Computer Chip Shortage Happened
February 26, 2021
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Apple Car: Here's What We Know So Far
Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world, and it could become massively more valuable if it can make a splash in cars. The past six years of speculation around the so-called Apple Car have been a roller coaster. First Apple was reportedly building a car. Then the company wasn't building a car, just the guts of a vehicle. Most recently, sources told CNBC that Apple will manufacture an autonomous car with Hyundai and Kia in Georgia. Now that might be out, too.
Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world, and it could become massively more valuable if it can make a splash in cars – the global auto and mobility market is worth about $10 trillion compared with the $715 billion smartphone market, according to Mordor Intelligence.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
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Apple Car News Keeps Coming – Here’s What’s Been Reported So Far
February 25, 2021
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What’s Wrong With The Unemployment Rate?
Economists and traders were shocked after the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped in May 2020 after shooting up in March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Bureau of Labor Statistics even admitted that there was a "misclassification error" that counted people as employed, rather than unemployed. What happened and how is it being fixed?
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Is The Unemployment Rate Wrong?
February 24, 2021
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How Shopify Dropshipping Works
Dropshippers are the ultimate middlemen. The trendy e-commerce model is what's behind the ads for products all over Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. While some sellers make millions dropshipping from overseas without ever touching the merchandise, others use it as a get-rich-quick scheme that's hurting legitimate businesses and unassuming customers.
The model relies on targeted ads designed to stop consumers from scrolling long enough to make an impulse purchase, usually from a Shopify store set up solely for that product. The dropshipper doesn’t place an order until the customer does, and rarely touches the merchandise. It’s often shipped directly from China to the customer, which can cause delivery times of more than 90 days.
Nick Peroni started dropshipping in 2016 and now does it full time from his home in the Philippines.
“I was an Army veteran living in Philadelphia and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and testing around just different kinds of business model ideas,” Peroni said.
Last year, Peroni said he tried selling 10 to 20 products before finding some big hits. His sales of a garden trimming attachment topped $1.9 million in six months in 2020, and in October he sold $150,000 worth of fleece-lined leggings in three weeks. Peroni uses agents in China to vet products and sourcing companies to keep shipping times down.
But dropshipping can also be a minefield for consumers.
“A lot of people just get into the business model and they’re lazy. They’re not looking at it like a business. They’re looking at it like a cash grab, like a get-rich-quick idea where we can sell this product using Facebook ads and make a lot of money,” Peroni said.
“What happens is then a whole cascade of different events where you buy fake reviews to distinguish yourself. You buy fake ratings, fake upvotes, a lot of ads, marketing, but all that adds up,” said Saoud Khalifah, founder of consumer protection software company Fakespot.
Fakespot has a Chrome plug-in that alerts shoppers if a seller on Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, Best Buy or Sephora can’t be trusted. It recently added capabilities to detect untrustworthy stores on Shopify.
“They made this a one-stop-shop for you to set up a store, and it’s just super easy for you to start selling online and a lot of these dropshippers know it,” Khalifah said.
In an analysis of more than 124,000 Shopify stores, Fakespot found more than 25,000 that engaged in some form of fraudulent activity like counterfeits, privacy leaks, or buying fake reviews. Of those, almost 72% showed evidence of dropshipping tactics being used in their business. On Shopify’s Help Center, there’s an entire section devoted to tips and strategies for dropshipping.
Athletic apparel company Gymshark used influencer marketing to grow a cult-like following, and now dropshippers are capitalizing on that success. Gymshark CCO Niran Chana said he’s seeing more and more copycat dropshippers selling knock-offs.
“Someone else is acting as the brand at that point. And we put a lot of investment into assets, content, etc. So for someone to come and almost copy that is frustrating,” Chana said.
Gymshark is building up its legal team to protect intellectual property, but Chana also called on Shopify to help.
“Where we could really do with their help and support is actually when people are abusing those brand rights and running away with a business model that is unsustainable for both themselves and/or Gymshark is they regulate that better. They have the right to be able to say we’re going to pull this site down or you guys are trading sort of uncompetitively,” Chana said.
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How Shopify Dropshipping Works
February 09, 2021
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