Author: Vidya Saras

If you want to know what Bitcoin is backed by, you’ve hit the correct spot. Representing over 64% of the global digital asset ecosystem, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization (≈1.48T). In this article, we’ll delve deeper into the key factors from which Bitcoin derives its value.What Does “Backed By” Mean?When a currency’s value depends on physical assets, public trust, government decree, or demand-supply conditions, it is called a “backed” currency. Commodity-backed currencies: They’re backed by specific quantities of physical commodities such as silver and gold. For instance, under the Bretton Woods Agreement, the US Dollar was backed by…

This week on Uncanny Valley, hosts Brian Barrett and Zoë Schiffer discuss the highlights from Nvidia’s annual developer conference, and why Tesla recently got in trouble with some of its most loyal fans online. Plus, Meta’s initial decision to shut down Horizon Worlds VR on the Quest headset signals the end of the metaverse dream. (Meta has since stepped that back, saying it will keep the platform on limited support for the “foreseeable future.”)Articles mentioned in this episode:You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett and Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer. Write to us at [email protected].How to ListenYou…

Trump’s unhinged war in Iran is but an escalation of our willful misapprehension of the country’s history and makeup. Ad Policy People clear rubble away from a Tehran apartment bombed in the US/Israel war on Iran.(Majid Saeedi / Getty Images) President Donald Trump has plunged the United States, and the global economy, into turmoil with his impulsive, reckless, and illegal decapitation of Iran’s senior leadership and the ensuing, indefinite military “excursion.” Contrary to the surreal press conference hallucinations of self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the war increasingly looks like a bewildering strategic blunder whose costs will only escalate the…

Google has officially released the Colab MCP Server, an implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) that enables AI agents to interact directly with the Google Colab environment. This integration moves beyond simple code generation by providing agents with programmatic access to create, modify, and execute Python code within cloud-hosted Jupyter notebooks. This represents a shift from manual code execution to ‘agentic’ orchestration. By adopting the MCP standard, Google allows any compatible AI client—including Anthropic’s Claude Code, the Gemini CLI, or custom-built orchestration frameworks—to treat a Colab notebook as a remote runtime. Understanding the Model Context Protocol (MCP) The Model…

The U.S. Justice Department joined authorities in Canada and Germany in dismantling the online infrastructure behind four highly disruptive botnets that compromised more than three million Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as routers and web cameras. The feds say the four botnets — named Aisuru, Kimwolf, JackSkid and Mossad — are responsible for a series of recent record-smashing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks capable of knocking nearly any target offline. Image: Shutterstock, @Elzicon. The Justice Department said the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s (DoDIG) Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) executed seizure warrants targeting multiple U.S.-registered domains, virtual servers,…

Kim Kardashian is all for fairness and equity when it comes to reward for labor! “The Kardashians” star has lent her voice to a bill that would ensure that the firefighters who fought day and night to quench the destructive Pacific Palisades wildfire early last year get duly compensated for their courageous service. Kim Kardashian earned her share of backlash last year, first for promoting a SKIMS sale in the heart of the wildfire crisis and then for urging higher wages, which some critics think would make the issue political at such a sensitive period. Kim Kardashian Is On A…

THE PHILIPPINE PESO sank to a fresh record low on Thursday, breaching the P60-per-dollar mark and heightening inflation risks from more expensive imports. The local currency closed at a new record low of P60.10 a dollar — 58 centavos weaker than its Wednesday finish — as markets reacted to Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel and US assets in the Middle East. The peso opened the session sharply weaker at P59.90, which was its intraday best. The peso’s worst showing during the session was P60.40, a record intraday low. Dollar turnover rose to $2.437 billion on Thursday from $1.78 billion on…

Adam Back has been officially confirmed as a speaker at Bitcoin 2026, returning to the conference as one of the few people in the world whose contributions to Bitcoin predate Bitcoin itself. As Co-Founder and CEO of Blockstream and CEO of Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company (BSTR), Back comes to Las Vegas operating at the intersection of Bitcoin infrastructure and capital markets like never before. In 1997, Back invented Hashcash — a proof-of-work system originally built to combat email spam that became the direct technical foundation for Bitcoin’s mining process. Satoshi Nakamoto cited Back by name in the Bitcoin white paper,…

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure The wider crypto market slid about 4% on Wednesday, pulling major tokens back to key support zones and putting renewed pressure on Bitcoin (BTC).  By mid‑afternoon, BTC had retreated roughly 5% and was trading near $71,240, a pullback that has analysts re‑examining whether the current downturn is simply a short pause or the start of a deeper correction. Deeper Bitcoin Retracement Ahead? Market analyst Crypto Con argued on social media platform X that Bitcoin’s present weakness now closely tracks the 2022 bear market after an initial period…

One of the criticisms that many people have made about the current direction of the cryptocurrency space is the increasing amount of fragmentation that we are seeing. What was earlier perhaps a more tightly bound community centered around developing the common infrastructure of Bitcoin is now increasingly a collection of “silos”, discrete projects all working on their own separate things. There are a number of developers and researchers who are either working for Ethereum or working on ideas as volunteers and happen to spend lots of time interacting with the Ethereum community, and this set of people has coalesced into…