On the March 16, 2022, bipartisan Blockchain Caucus letter… I have a few notes:

"This is not like the NYSE or Nasdaq. These platforms co-mingle. It's a toxic combination where they take people's money, they borrow against it, not much disclosure, and then they trade against their customers," says @GaryGensler on #crypto. "Building the evidence takes time."

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The Glencoe crypto operation is owned by Bit49, a Colorado-based company. Cody Nelson, Bit49's chief operating officer, said the company has gone to great lengths to respond to the couple's concerns.

"We've done everything we can," he said. "We consult professionals; they say, 'Do this,' and we do it."

Nelson said the company has taken a number of steps to mitigate the noise from its operation, which opened last winter. They're operating fans at lower RPM and have installed sensors that reduce the fan speed in cooler weather when the computers run less hot. Exhaust vents now have hoods and baffles that help diffuse the sound, and the company added an evaporative cooling system to further reduce the need for fan cooling.

Just last week, the company installed a polymer soundproofing blanket along the fence, which Nelson said could significantly reduce noise.

"That was an expensive fence," Nelson said, costing tens of thousands of dollars. "We won't be doing any more of that fence. It would be cheaper to buy their house."

When Bit49's crypto operation first opened, it was producing sound levels of 80 to 85 decibels, which is about the same as a gasoline-powered lawnmower or leaf blower running 24 hours a day. Nelson said the noise is now in the 70- to 75-decibel range, equivalent to a washing machine or dishwasher. The soundproofing blanket could reduce that by 20 decibels or more, he said, and the company plans to retest the noise level now that the soundproofing is installed.

Gould and Olson really shouldn't have any expectation of quiet solitude, Nelson said, given that the land across the street from their home has been zoned for industrial use for decades.

"Honestly, in my opinion, they're making noise because they think we make a lot of money and they think they'll get something out of it by fighting us," he said.

"We're worried about our health. We're worried about our sanity," Gould said. "We feel greatly oppressed."

Said Olson: "I'm just crossing my fingers that this one will go under."

The fast-paced, personal-stakes cryptocurrency heist story stars Jeremy Davies (Twister, TV’s “Lost,” Saving Private Ryan), Tom Cavanagh (TV’s “Scrubs,” “Ed,” “The Flash”), Noah Anderson (Realm of Shadows, Broken Cross), Ella Ma (Bridge and Tunnel), and Frank Whaley (Field of Dreams, Pulp Fiction), and is directed by Matt Osterman (400 Days, Hover). Mill Creek/Allied Entertainment’s Bitcon arrives on Digital and DVD on October 18, 2022.

A missing hard drive with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency and the issue of trust in the modern era.

“I'm totally opposed to OFAC looking at this,” said Emmer. “My problem is that this software is controlled by code, not by any person or entity. So if you think about it, the sanctioning of Tornado Cash is an unprecedented shift in the Office of Foreign Asset Control in their sanctioning policy.”

“Their primary priority is protecting the United States national security,” he added. “So I think our role – Congress – can be most effective in inquiring with OFAC to find out if they believe the sanction addresses are controlled by people, not code, and what this means for privacy rights and innovation.”

The Tornado Cash ban is adding to an already heated debate in Washington over who should regulate crypto and to what extent. Joining "First Mover" to share his thoughts is Congressman Rom Emmer of Minnesota. Also joining, Omid Malekan, Columbia Business School Adjunct Professor and Nauman Sheikh, Wave Financial Managing Director.

well written @NWilliams_STrib. in the future it would be helpful to distinguish between bitcoin and 'crypto' for those new to the space.

Home Depot, Whole Foods and Starbucks are among retailers that now accept crypto at checkout, said Vivian Fang, Honeywell professor of accounting at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. Payment platform and credit service company PayPal late last year introduced a crypto checkout option, and most services that use PayPal now let shoppers pay for their items with crypto.

"That opens up the options to over 2 million online merchants in the U.S.," Fang said.

Immigrants also have been increasingly using it to send money to relatives in their home countries, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Right now, 159 Coin Cloud kiosks are in Minnesota, with 105 inside UNFI-owned groceries.

Earlier this year, La Crosse, Wis.-based gas station and convenient store operator Kwik Trip — which has over 800 locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa — announced a partnership with Bitcoin ATM operator Coinsource. Texas-based Coinsource's kiosks are in 2,500 locations in 46 states.

The CFPB investigation found evidence that U.S. Bank officials were aware of the pressure facing employees to create fake accounts and not only did not intervene, but held incentive-compensation programs that financially rewarded employees for selling bank products and opening new accounts.

The U.S. Bank fine is not the first time a major bank has been found illegally creating accounts for unsuspecting customers without their permission. In 2016, Wells Fargo settled with regulators for $185 million after 2 million fake accounts were found to have been illegally created by employees to increase their cross-sell ratio.