This Crypto City guide looks at Austins crypto culture, the citys most notable projects and people, its financial infrastructure, which retailers accept crypto and where you can find blockchain education courses and there are even the juicy details of…
This Crypto City guide looks at Austins crypto culture, the citys most notable projects and people, its financial infrastructure, which retailers accept crypto and where you can find blockchain education courses and there are even the juicy details of a famous controversy. Everything is bigger in Texas, including its enthusiasm for crypto.
Fast facts
City: Austin
Country: United States
Population: 974,000
Founded: 1839
Language: English
The capital of the largest state in the contiguous United States, Austin is known as a live music mecca, with festivals drawing in thousands of people from around the world each year, including Austin City Limits and South by Southwest. The Texas city is a unique blend of liberal and conservative values, yet in many ways, it still operates under the old motto keep Austin weird, with the University of Texas at Austin home to a diverse student body and the popular Texas Longhorns football team.
Long before becoming a hub of major tech companies earning it the nickname Silicon Hills Austin drew settlers from Mexico and the United States around the time Texas became an independent nation in 1836. Texas has stood under three flags with Austin as its capital: the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and the United States of America. Though the city was largely centered around the capitol building completed in 1888, it later became known to many as a college town. For some years, the University of Texas at Austin was the largest university in the country by enrollment.
Austin and the surrounding area have also been the shooting location for a number of famous films, including Death Proof from director Quentin Tarantino, Dazed and Confused Matthew McConaugheys first movie role and many others. Though the city once drew, and still does draw, many starving artists pursuing their passions, interest from major corporations and their wealthy executives has begun to drive many natives and newbies alike out of the area due to rising rent and housing prices.
As the population of Austin grows, gentrification and commuting times remain a large problem for many residents. The main highway, Interstate 35 which separates the downtown area from the freshly redeveloped East Austin seems inadequately designed to accommodate the rising number of Austinites, with some traveling up to 30 miles between their homes and offices. The city faces challenges including a lack of publicly provided infrastructure for its homeless population, the way Austins land can be used, and other issues endemic to the rest of the United States.
Austin skyline. (Source: Pexels)
Crypto culture
Many Texans have a dont tread on me approach to local, state and federal governments telling them how to handle their business, their money and their personal life, despite the state showing only a lone star on its flag rather than a snake. In some ways, Austin residents response to digital assets since 2011 has been representative of this mindset, with many jumping into the crypto space more as an alternative to central banking rather than a fad from the tech industry.
According to Paul Snow, a self-described technologist who runs the Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Meetup group in Austin and organizes the Texas Bitcoin Conference, the Texans who attend gatherings most consistently seem to be concerned about the state of the nation, and the state of banking and finance. Snow says the group doesnt focus on the latest project getting pumped and dumped, with many holding Bitcoin, Ether and SOL, although some are also advocates of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
[Our discussion] is basically a real broad analysis of every issue that is either in the crypto space or heavily within the context of the crypto space. Because the crypto space is largely a challenge to central banks, at least in a lot of peoples minds, then anything that happens in banking and finance is interesting to us.
Snow arrived in Austin in 2000 and started the Meetup groups in 2013, long before the U.S. government and Texas regulators turned their attention to crypto firms operating in the city. In mid-2021, the Texas State Securities Boardfiled for hearings against crypto lending firmBlockFi in addition to Celsius Network for allegedly offering unlicensed securities. However, lawmakers in the state also passed legislation the same year recognizing cryptocurrencies under commercial law.
Crypto also has a supporter in the form of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has hinted on social media that he wants the state to follow Wyomings example in passing more crypto-friendly legislation. When Texas supermarket chain H-E-B announced in June 2021 that it would be installing crypto ATMs, Abbott tweeted his approval, saying, Texas will be the crypto leader. Senator Ted Cruz has also recently come out as a vocal crypto proponent.
Count me in as a crypto law proposal supporter.
It is increasingly being used for transactions and is beginning to go mainstream as an investment. (Fidelity, etc. trying to get Bitcoin ETF).
Austin has previously hosted the SXSW Crypto Summit, Digital Assets and Securities Conference, Texas Blockchain Summit, Texas Bitcoin Conferenceand Bear Arms N Bitcoin trade show. The city is also expected to be the home of the major crypto-and blockchain-focused Consensus conference in June 2022.
Texas State Capitol building in Austin. Source: Pexels
Projects and companies
Before cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology existed, Austin and the surrounding area had the conditions to make it ripe for opportunity for the right tech firms. Computer manufacturerDell is located in nearby Round Rock, and in October, Elon Musk announced he would be moving car manufacturer Teslas headquarters close to the citys international airport. Major tech companies including Facebook, Google, IBM, Oracleand Hewlett Packard also have regional offices in Austin.
There are just so many different levels where crypto ought to be adopted and I think that the municipalities that jump on early are going to do so much better than those that drag their feet, says Snow.
I dont know if I have a lot of hope for that at a governmental level, but at a personnel level and development team level, I think Austin is pretty exciting and theyll do well.
Once officials in China began cracking down on Bitcoin miners, many firms relocated to Texas for its cheap electricity and seemingly crypto friendly regulations. Austin is home to crypto mining firm Blockcap, but other mining companies, including Riot Blockchain and Bitdeer Group an offshoot of Bitmain have set up shop in nearby Rockdale. Layer1 Technologies and Argo Blockchain also built mining facilities in West Texas.
Though many crypto exchanges and companies offering financial products potentially falling under the regulatory umbrella of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have headquarters in the United States, the city of Austin itself seems to attract more startups dealing with security and blockchain technology that with buying and trading tokens. Companies such as Pinata, Titanand Talos have employees based in the city, while Inveniam,Factom, Multicoin Capital, Horizen Labsand others have local offices.
In February 2014, the first Robocoin Bitcoin ATM in Austin was installed at HandleBar, a bar located downtown. The launch of the machine was one of the first in the United States and preceded companies like Coinsource and Bitcoin Depot placing crypto ATMs in a variety of locations around the capital city in addition to the gradual acceptance ofcrypto payments for goods and services.
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Though credit cards, Apple Pay and cash payments are still largely king in the United States, there are many businesses around Austin that accept BTC, including restaurants, grocery stores and photography studios. The supermarket chain H-E-Bs locations in Austin do not host crypto ATMs or accept payments in Bitcoin or Ether yet, but according to Coinmap, there are roughly 90 retail outlets in the area that do accept digital assets.
In Austin, Starbucks, Home Depot, Whole Foods and others accept crypto payments through third-party apps. Aside from the major retail chain stores, a few restaurants in the downtown area and Rainey Street Historic District, including Mai Thai, allow Austinites to pay for their food using crypto. However, many of these businesses have shuttered in the last year, likely due to the pandemic.
Like Miami and New York City, Austin currently has its own CityCoin built on Stacks, an open-source network of decentralized applications and smart contracts that use the Bitcoin blockchain as a programmable base layer. The initiative from CityCoins has received public support from both the mayors of Miami and NYC for their respective tokens, but Austin Mayor Steve Adler has not yet endorsed a digital coin for the Texas capital city.
The University of Texas at Austin currently offers courses on blockchain through the McCombs School of Business and on the use of technology in a decentralized economy through its School of Information. Students at both UT Austin and St. Edwards University had active cryptocurrency clubs prior to the pandemic, and Austin Community College partnered with IBM in 2019 as part of an apprenticeship program aimed at training students considering careers in blockchain and more. However, likely because so many crypto and blockchain firms have found a home in Texas, there are also additional classes hosted by private companies from time to time.
The University of Texas at Austin football game. Source: Pexels
Controversies and collapses
Austin was once the home of Ross Ulbricht, creator of the infamous darknet marketplace Silk Road. Operating under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts an homage to the movie The Princess Bride Ulbricht started developing the site in 2010 after returning to Austin following his graduation from Penn State. He avoided the authorities until his arrest in San Francisco in 2013.
Silk Road allowed users to buy and sell illicit goods such as weapons and stolen credit card information, but many of the listings were for illegal drugs, all of which drew the attention of the FBI. Since his arrest and conviction, Ulbricht is currently serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was found guilty of money laundering, computer hacking and conspiracy to traffic narcotics, but he still provides periodic analyses on the crypto market from prison.
Notable figures in Austin and former residents
Tesla CEO and Dogecoin proponent Elon Musk; Jimmy Song, a Bitcoin developer and crypto influencer known for wearing a cowboy hat; Nathan Nichols, a board member of the Texas Blockchain Council; Jim Breyer, the venture capitalist behind Breyer Capital; Bitcoin Frankie, a crypto influencer and owner of Brand Besties; and Ross Ulbricht, creator of the now-defunct Silk Road darknet marketplace. Cointelegraph team members based in Texas: Turner Wright, Rachel Wolfson andRay Salmond
If you have any suggestions for additions to this guide, please contact turner@cointelegraph.com.
It was Jan. 11, 2024 when software giant Microsoft (MSFT) briefly passed Apple (AAPL) as the most valuable company in the world.
Microsoft's stock closed 0.5% higher, giving it a market valuation of $2.859 trillion.
It rose as much as 2% during the session and the company was briefly worth $2.903 trillion. Apple closed 0.3% lower, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.886 trillion.
"It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said at the time, according to Reuters.
The two tech titans have jostled for top spot over the years and Microsoft was ahead at last check, with a market cap of $3.085 trillion, compared with Apple's value of $2.684 trillion.
Analysts noted that Apple had been dealing with weakening demand, including for the iPhone, the company’s main source of revenue.
Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country's economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and competition from Huawei.
Sales in China of Apple's iPhone fell by 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to research firm Counterpoint, as the company contended with stiff competition from a resurgent Huawei "while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi," said senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang.
“Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now," he said.
A man scrolling through Netflix on an Apple iPad Pro. Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images.
Counterpoint said that the first six weeks of 2023 saw abnormally high numbers with significant unit sales being deferred from December 2022 due to production issues.
Apple is planning to open its eighth store in Shanghai – and its 47th across China – on March 21.
The company also plans to expand its research centre in Shanghai to support all of its product lines and open a new lab in southern tech hub Shenzhen later this year, according to the South China Morning Post.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, Apple announced changes to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect last week, Reuters reported on March 12.
Beginning this spring, software developers operating in Europe will be able to distribute apps to EU customers directly from their own websites instead of through the App Store.
"To reflect the DMA’s changes, users in the EU can install apps from alternative app marketplaces in iOS 17.4 and later," Apple said on its website, referring to the software platform that runs iPhones and iPads.
"Users will be able to download an alternative marketplace app from the marketplace developer’s website," the company said.
Apple has also said it will appeal a $2 billion EU antitrust fine for thwarting competition from Spotify (SPOT) and other music streaming rivals via restrictions on the App Store.
The company's shares have suffered amid all this upheaval, but some analysts still see good things in Apple's future.
Bank of America Securities confirmed its positive stance on Apple, maintaining a buy rating with a steady price target of $225, according to Investing.com.
The firm's analysis highlighted Apple's pricing strategy evolution since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, with initial prices set at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model.
BofA said that Apple has consistently launched new iPhone models, including the Pro/Pro Max versions, to target the premium market.
Analyst says Apple selloff 'overdone'
Concurrently, prices for previous models are typically reduced by about $100 with each new release.
This strategy, coupled with installment plans from Apple and carriers, has contributed to the iPhone's installed base reaching a record 1.2 billion in 2023, the firm said.
Apple has effectively shifted its sales mix toward higher-value units despite experiencing slower unit sales, BofA said.
This trend is expected to persist and could help mitigate potential unit sales weaknesses, particularly in China.
BofA also noted Apple's dominance in the high-end market, maintaining a market share of over 90% in the $1,000 and above price band for the past three years.
The firm also cited the anticipation of a multi-year iPhone cycle propelled by next-generation AI technology, robust services growth, and the potential for margin expansion.
On Monday, Evercore ISI analysts said they believed that the sell-off in the iPhone maker’s shares may be “overdone.”
The firm said that investors' growing preference for AI-focused stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) has led to a reallocation of funds away from Apple.
In addition, Evercore said concerns over weakening demand in China, where Apple may be losing market share in the smartphone segment, have affected investor sentiment.
And then ongoing regulatory issues continue to have an impact on investor confidence in the world's second-biggest company.
“We think the sell-off is rather overdone, while we suspect there is strong valuation support at current levels to down 10%, there are three distinct drivers that could unlock upside on the stock from here – a) Cap allocation, b) AI inferencing, and c) Risk-off/defensive shift," the firm said in a research note.
Major typhoid fever surveillance study in sub-Saharan Africa indicates need for the introduction of typhoid conjugate vaccines in endemic countries
There is a high burden of typhoid fever in sub-Saharan African countries, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. This high…
There is a high burden of typhoid fever in sub-Saharan African countries, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. This high burden combined with the threat of typhoid strains resistant to antibiotic treatment calls for stronger prevention strategies, including the use and implementation of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in endemic settings along with improvements in access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Credit: IVI
There is a high burden of typhoid fever in sub-Saharan African countries, according to a new study published today in The Lancet Global Health. This high burden combined with the threat of typhoid strains resistant to antibiotic treatment calls for stronger prevention strategies, including the use and implementation of typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) in endemic settings along with improvements in access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
The findings from this 4-year study, the Severe Typhoid in Africa (SETA) program, offers new typhoid fever burden estimates from six countries: Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria, with four countries recording more than 100 cases for every 100,000 person-years of observation, which is considered a high burden. The highest incidence of typhoid was found in DRC with 315 cases per 100,000 people while children between 2-14 years of age were shown to be at highest risk across all 25 study sites.
There are an estimated 12.5 to 16.3 million cases of typhoid every year with 140,000 deaths. However, with generic symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and abdominal pain, and the need for blood culture sampling to make a definitive diagnosis, it is difficult for governments to capture the true burden of typhoid in their countries.
“Our goal through SETA was to address these gaps in typhoid disease burden data,” said lead author Dr. Florian Marks, Deputy Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). “Our estimates indicate that introduction of TCV in endemic settings would go to lengths in protecting communities, especially school-aged children, against this potentially deadly—but preventable—disease.”
In addition to disease incidence, this study also showed that the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Salmonella Typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid fever, has led to more reliance beyond the traditional first line of antibiotic treatment. If left untreated, severe cases of the disease can lead to intestinal perforation and even death. This suggests that prevention through vaccination may play a critical role in not only protecting against typhoid fever but reducing the spread of drug-resistant strains of the bacteria.
There are two TCVs prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and available through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. In February 2024, IVI and SK bioscience announced that a third TCV, SKYTyphoid™, also achieved WHO PQ, paving the way for public procurement and increasing the global supply.
Alongside the SETA disease burden study, IVI has been working with colleagues in three African countries to show the real-world impact of TCV vaccination. These studies include a cluster-randomized trial in Agogo, Ghana and two effectiveness studies following mass vaccination in Kisantu, DRC and Imerintsiatosika, Madagascar.
Dr. Birkneh Tilahun Tadesse, Associate Director General at IVI and Head of the Real-World Evidence Department, explains, “Through these vaccine effectiveness studies, we aim to show the full public health value of TCV in settings that are directly impacted by a high burden of typhoid fever.” He adds, “Our final objective of course is to eliminate typhoid or to at least reduce the burden to low incidence levels, and that’s what we are attempting in Fiji with an island-wide vaccination campaign.”
As more countries in typhoid endemic countries, namely in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, consider TCV in national immunization programs, these data will help inform evidence-based policy decisions around typhoid prevention and control.
###
About the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a non-profit international organization established in 1997 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme with a mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health.
IVI’s current portfolio includes vaccines at all stages of pre-clinical and clinical development for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries, such as cholera, typhoid, chikungunya, shigella, salmonella, schistosomiasis, hepatitis E, HPV, COVID-19, and more. IVI developed the world’s first low-cost oral cholera vaccine, pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and developed a new-generation typhoid conjugate vaccine that is recently pre-qualified by WHO.
IVI is headquartered in Seoul, Republic of Korea with a Europe Regional Office in Sweden, a Country Office in Austria, and Collaborating Centers in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Madagascar. 39 countries and the WHO are members of IVI, and the governments of the Republic of Korea, Sweden, India, Finland, and Thailand provide state funding. For more information, please visit https://www.ivi.int.
Incidence of typhoid fever in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, and Nigeria (the Severe Typhoid in Africa programme): a population-based study
We’ve added 60% to national debt since 2018. Germany - a country with major economic woes - added ‘just’ 32%.
Maybe it will never matter. Maybe MMT is real. Maybe we just cancel or inflate it out. Maybe career real estate borrowers or career politicians aren’t the answer.
I have no idea. Only time will tell. But it’s going to be fascinating to watch it play out.
He is right: it will be fascinating, and the latest budget deficit data simply confirmed that the day of reckoning will come very soon, certainly sooner than the two years that One River's Eric Peters predicted this weekend for the coming "US debt sustainability crisis."
According to the US Treasury, in February, the US collected $271 billion in various tax receipts, and spent $567 billion, more than double what it collected.
The two charts below show the divergence in US tax receipts which have flatlined (on a trailing 6M basis) since the covid pandemic in 2020 (with occasional stimmy-driven surges)...
... and spending which is about 50% higher compared to where it was in 2020.
The end result is that in February, the budget deficit rose to $296.3 billion, up 12.9% from a year prior, and the second highest February deficit on record.
And the punchline: on a cumulative basis, the budget deficit in fiscal 2024 which began on October 1, 2023 is now $828 billion, the second largest cumulative deficit through February on record, surpassed only by the peak covid year of 2021.
But wait there's more: because in a world where the US is spending more than twice what it is collecting, the endgame is clear: debt collapse, and while it won't be tomorrow, or the week after, it is coming... and it's also why the US is now selling $1 trillion in debt every 100 days just to keep operating (and absorbing all those millions of illegal immigrants who will keep voting democrat to preserve the socialist system of the US, so beloved by the Soros clan).
... having already surpassed total US defense spending and soon to surpass total health spending and, finally all social security spending, the largest spending category of all, which means that US debt will now rise exponentially higher until the inevitable moment when the US dollar loses its reserve status and it all comes crashing down.
We conclude with another observation by CNBC's Brian Sullivan, who quotes an email by a DC strategist...
.. which lays out the proposed Biden budget as follows:
The budget deficit will growth another $16 TRILLION over next 10 years. Thats *with* the proposed massive tax hikes.
Without them the deficit will grow $19 trillion.
That's why you will hear the "deficit is being reduced by $3 trillion" over the decade.
No family budget or business could exist with this kind of math.
Of course, in the long run, neither can the US... and since neither party will ever cut the spending which everyone by now is so addicted to, the best anyone can do is start planning for the endgame.
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