Episode 18: Bitcoin Global and Australian News - Panama and African adoption; WEF and IMF FUD; Australian CPI, ETFs, housing market, and bitcoin regulations; and BIP119 (Covenants).

Discount link (get six months of free weekly batched Auto-Send withdrawals from HardBlock): https://www.hardblock.com.au/join/ozbitcoinpod Hosts: https://twitter.com/mission_bitcoin https://twitter.com/jeremy_m16 Sponsor: HardBlock https://www.hardblock.com.au Notes GLOBAL Panama passes legislation that encourages bitcoin businesses to set up in Panama and makes bitcoin payments and income tax free https://cryptonews.com.au/panama-passes-crypto-bill-exempting-digital-assets-from-capital WEF releases “change the code” energy FUD propaganda video (and gets wrecked in the comments by bitcoiners who've actually done their research) https://twitter.com/wef/status/1519119185422524416 Bitcoin Mining Council writes to the US Environmental Protection Agency to tackle renewed bitcoin energy FUD https://cryptonews.com.au/saylor-and-dorsey-write-to-environmental-agency-to-tackle-btc IMF loans Argentina US$45 billion with strict stipulations that Argentina must discourage bitcoin adoption; major private Argentinian banks were set to release bitcoin-related products as the national currency's annual inflation rate surpassed 50%, but Argentina's Central Bank banned this from occurring https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/argentina-bans-banks-from-offering-bitcoin IMF expresses concerns over Central African Republic adopting bitcoin as legal tender, similar to the warning they issued to El Salvador for doing the same https://finance.yahoo.com/news/imf-expresses-concern-central-african-114218017.html?_guc_consent_skip=1651891100 Goldman Sachs has offered its first ever lending facility backed by BTC as the Wall Street giant deepens its Bitcoin product offerings https://cryptonews.com.au/goldman-sachs-makes-its-first-bitcoin-backed-loan Fidelity offering up to 20% bitcoin allocation to their 401k (pension) funds https://www.wsj.com/articles/fidelity-to-allow-retirement-savers-to-put-bitcoin-in-401-k-accounts-11650945661 MicroStrategy to be the first to offer employees bitcoin holding in their 401k pensions via Fidelity https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1518932341418307584 AUSTRALIAN Australian annual CPI at 5.1% as of March 2022 https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/mar-2022 Labor unveils plan to provide equity contribution of up to 40% of the purchase price of a new home, and up to 30% for an existing home https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/30/labor-to-help-low-and-middle-income-earners-buy-home-with-shared-ownership-scheme Senator Bragg hosts an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit regarding his views on upcoming regulation for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianPolitics/comments/uby7ao/i_am_senator_andrew_bragg_and_i_want_crypto/ Australian Bitcoin Industry Body confirms which Australian Federal election candidates support bitcoin or cryptocurrency https://bitcoinindustrybody.org.au/2022-political-poll-results/ Australia's first three CBOE bitcoin and cryptocurrency ETFs delayed at the last minute, although these funds (plus more currently in development for ASX) are still expected to be released soon https://cryptonews.com.au/australia-first-crypto-etfs-delayed-due-to-prime-broker TECHNICAL BIP119 (OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY / Covenants) https://www.bip119.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAE5fOZ2Luw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcrisuPlknY