Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome back to another edition of Friday Inspiration! Hope y’all have had a marvelous week and are ready for the beginning of Christmas week! AHHHH!!!!
This week I have 2 bitcoin articles and then a pretty epic climbing article, and finally an inspirational story about Spiderman! Let’s jump on in!
Bank refuses to deposit pensioner's massive Bitcoin savings
https://m.calcalistech.com/Article.aspx?guid=3923405
I thought this was pretty wild for multiple reasons. First and foremost, this 69-year-old Israeli lady invested about $3000 into bitcoin 8 years ago. It sounded like she pretty much forgot about it until now, too!
When she finally looked back she found out that her investment is now worth around $300,000!
She now has a problem, though. It would be nice if she could simply cash out and put the money in her bank account. However, her bank is refusing to deposit her $300,000!
Apparently, she first bought her bitcoin with cash, so there is not really a trace to prove her investment or something. The bank is claiming the $300K is connected to drugs or money laundering.
It’s super sad she can’t deposit her money, but on the other hand, she’s got $300,000! And the amount of possible ways to actually spend that money is growing. She may not be able to put it in the bank, but I think she’ll find a way to enjoy some of her profits anyways!
Fidelity set to launch physical spot bitcoin ETF
https://www.ft.com/content/f2a6d440-804e-4e32-93f1-a9ee2bbf0715
So this news came out about a week ago before that big bitcoin dip and I haven’t heard much about it since then. Some of you might be asking, I thought a bitcoin ETF was already released? You would be right! Some of you might not know that either and that’s ok too!
This news, however, is different than the bitcoin ETF that was released in the US already. See, that was a futures ETF. This article is talking about a spot ETF.
Now I don’t promise to know what those mean per se. From what I understand the futures ETF means that the price is not tied to a physical bitcoin, but more so it tracks what the price of bitcoin will be in the future? Or what they estimate it to be? Something like that.
However, the spot ETF is actually tied to real bitcoin. So when you invest in a bitcoin spot ETF it is very similar to actually buying bitcoin yourself, but you have the safety and security of doing it behind a broker like Fidelity! This is huge news!
Maybe the reason we haven’t heard more about it is that the US still won’t allow it...thanks SEC. This article is actually talking about how Fidelity is planning to release one in Canada. Hopefully, we won’t be far behind, though.
Wide Boyz Tackle The Great Rift (5.13) Roof Crack Under 2,500-foot Cement Bridge
https://www.climbing.com/news/wide-boyz-climb-the-great-rift-2500-foot-5-13-bridge-crack/
This was really really cool! Tay and I haven’t been climbing in a while and we really miss it. This article made me miss it even more. Not that we do this insane crack climbing.
Essentially what they do is jam their hands and feet in that crack underneath the bridge so that they can hold their weight. Again, jamming their hands and feet to hold their weight. Not holding something, but using the force of gravity and friction...it just sounds uncomfy.
But these guys love it! The Wide Boyz team is really pioneering crack climbing inside of climbing gyms. Until a few years ago the only way to crack climb was on a real rock or a crazy bridge like these animals are doing.
Wide Boyz has developed a really cool crack climbing system you can put on a climbing wall just like any other hold! They use them in competitions and everything. Our gym doesn’t have them, but if they ever do I’ll be happy to try it at least once. Not sure that style of climbing is for me, though, haha!
Andrew Garfield Finds Jesus During Filming
This was a really cool story that just reminded me of how God is always at work! Andrew Garfield (at least for me) is better known as the 2nd iteration of Spiderman. Unfortunately for him, he’s probably my least favorite Spiderman, but he was in fact Spiderman. So that’s better than I can say, haha!
Well, apparently, he can do more than just Spiderman. He is going to be in a new movie coming out sometime next year. It is Martin Scorsese’s new film “Silence.” In it, Andrew plays a character named Father Sebastiao Rodrigues. As such, Andrew spent the better part of a year studying Christian theology to prepare for the role.
This quote by Andrew really sums up what he learned:
“What was really easy was falling in love with this person, was falling in love with Jesus Christ. That was the most surprising thing.”
How beautiful is that!? God is always at work! I love seeing cool stories like this!
Alright, that’s it for this week! I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend and a marvelous Christmas! I will be taking next week off and we’ll pick back up after Christmas!
Merry Christmas, everyone!