What you need to know about crypto
You may have seen recent headlines that many cryptocurrencies crashed in value this summer. Is there a red flag for this so-called “revolution?”
SCRANTON, PA – The towns and cities of northeastern and central Pennsylvania were built on mining, they called it “black gold.”
The area’s anthracite drove the world and is burned into our past.
Now there is a new type of miner all over our area; burns power and cuts away what some believe is our future.
“Everyone is like, ‘Oh, we’re afraid of it, we’re afraid of it. But unfortunately, it’s coming a lot faster than you think, “said Stacey Toy of NFT Drop LLC.
Stacey Toy, a native of Wayne County, talks about cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is the one you may have heard of, but there are thousands of them.
Currencies, or coins, are not backed by gold, printed by a government, or held by a bank.
They are sent from person to person online, each transaction ending up in a public digital ledger that anyone can see.
Miners in this world work by verifying the general ledger over and over again to ensure that it is accurate.
A computer does all the work; Entrepreneurs like Toy and her partner Gil Laueiro make money from it.
A map shows miners in the Scranton area of only one type of cryptocurrency, called Helium, which does its work in a warehouse along N. Washington Avenue.
Laureiro says crypto-mining entrepreneurs are attracted to NEPA.
“They look for places that have cheap real estate and low electricity costs. If you compare Manhattan or Long Island costs with Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania is without a doubt so much cheaper,” he said.
Mining is not the only way entrepreneurs try to make money on cryptocurrency, there is also money to be made by investing; or in the case of Eric Grills, helping others invest their money in crypto.
Grill owns ChainBytes, a company based outside Allentown that produces and operates Bitcoin ATMs.
“They see the money being printed, they see their fortunes being stolen from them, so they’re looking for alternatives. Traditionally it would be gold, stuff like that. Now cryptocurrencies will definitely be a place to store valuables. What we want to do is to build that road, a bridge, between the old legacy system of this new economic system that we will all use in a few years, Grill said.
You may have noticed the units at your local gas station right next to traditional ATMs.
You can buy crypto on any computer, but Grill says that some investors prefer knowledge of an ATM.
He showed us how his machines work.
Stacy: “When you said you had a wallet, I thought you meant a physical wallet, I went to get my wallet.”
Eric: “Sorry! Do you have a phone?”
Stacy: “I have a phone! Look, that’s why we’re doing this story!”
In under one minute we made a $ 20 to.00050471 Bitcoin.
“It’s sent to the blockchain, everyone knows about it, now the miners are validating it,” Grill said.
He makes money by taking 17 percent of the cash a customer puts into the machine.
“What you have there is like having dollars in your pocket, except you can send it anywhere in the world without asking permission,” Grill said.
He believes cryptocurrencies can replace our current financial system. From his office in Lehigh County, he has advised the Venezuelan government in making Bitcoin a legal tender, and he is working with a team of lawmakers in Mexico hoping to do the same there.
“Our system is very outdated, the way we transfer money, the way our financial system works, has not been updated for a while,” said Grill.
It is not just entrepreneurs who want to make money on crypto, there are some large local companies that invest and extract bitcoin and other currencies.
We will profile these companies next time.
All of these efforts come with risks and consequences.
We get into that too.
Stay tuned throughout the month while Action 16 Investigates: Crypto.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.
