The hibernation. Ah, welcome back and watching l 0 the headlines. Its the final day of nato meetings with defense ministers discussing how to deal with moscow and better arm ukraine, while germany sent the 1st for promise to air Defense Systems to keep on wednesday, ukraines president volunteers. Lensky says, ukraine only has about 10 percent of what it needs. The air defenses hold up, bill hamid has more from keith. Air defense has always been top of the agenda. Photo ukrainian president , simply because russia does have superiority when it comes to s rise and it has shown that it can. And it continues to be able to have a really the width and breast of ukraine from cities incense in the central part like the new bra and the south region all the way to the western border in libby. So that is an issue that the ukranian president and the Korean Military have. Meanwhile, russian president Vladimir Putin is in catholic, stand for a meeting with the regional leaders. He is said to meet turkey is president richard cypert, one as well as the mayor of guitar. They will be discussing the war and ukraine. More than 500 people have died in nigeria is worst floods in a decade. And operation is under way to rescue thousands of stranded people after flood waters blocked roads and destroyed villages. Is really forces have arrested 25. 00 palestinians during raids in different parts of the occupied with bank in 24 hours. Most of the detainees are from occupied East Jerusalem and its suburbs. At least 9 rockets have hit the green zone in the iraqi capital, baghdad, and thats according to eye witnesses and sources and parliament, which is meeting to try and elect a new president. Also, conspiracy theorist alex jones has been ordered to pay almost a 1000000000. 00 in damages to families of the victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting in the us. Jones falsely claimed for years that the 2012 shooting was actually hoaxed. A report from the world wide lay fund says animal populations around the world have declined sharply in the past 5 decades. Populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. Ive seen a 69 percent drop since 1970. Those headlines on al jazeera next al jazeera after power hills president ial election is going to a 2nd round on october 30th convent hardline, president drake, also nato and socialist president. Are buying from hopes which one poses to reenact to brazil, highest office ongoing special coverage on outages era when bitcoin and other crypto currencies 1st period. Well, over a decade ago, few people could have mentioned how widespread they become. Now these various forms of digital money are in common use, if not yet universally understood, but where exactly do they come from . Who uses them . And what for better or worse might be the long term consequences. We sent reporter rory challenge in search of answers. I. The in any will to create a currencies. Moneys got strange the 13 years and big coins. Creation of being a roller coaster ride, born from the financial crashes, money liberation from Central Banks. Bitcoin is a person to person, electron a cache system. Think of them like token the by like very much. Now of course, this is just a prop crypto currencies are purely digital and we access them in a digital wallet. We can send them anywhere in the world in a flash. If a business accepts it, you can buy goods and services. You can think its built on the block chain, a decentralized database of transactions thats transparent and secure, but bitcoin can get pretty wild crypto currencies have no controller except the markets. People have made fortunes and lost them, their value can go. 6 way, way, way up. Oh, come crushing dough. But where does it come from . What does it cost a planet . Is it the future of money or the useful has money . Its all. My name is rory challenge, and i want to find out whos my 1st destination. Pennsylvania, the u. S. States that is fully embraced crit bitco, and hes going to take over the, well, itll have to conquer america. And its making good progress. Recent survey suggest about a 5th of American Adults that all ready bought into crypto. So now that im here, i better get some right. This is chain bytes inside is a man whos trying to make buying big cohen as easy as possible eyes. Hey, rory, let me check. I dont mean to like very much. So the machines. Yes they are. You want to use one i do because i dont have, i dont have any back going. So what do i do . This is brave you over me. First is click on the screen. Get it started. Yeah. Youre gonna buy decline. Its like how much you want to buy. So here we go. 10 bucks. Lots of the big spenders just in there. So thats that, thats it. And then you can look on your wall and you can see you got to the queen who. Oh said his pending. Yep, thats it. I mean you got it. Eric grill has been buying and selling bitcoin since the early days. Now he runs a company that makes crypto currency atm standpoint, solves one of the problems that weve faced for years and years and years, which is the government controls money. And you have a Central Authority controlling money. And so what that means is that people, you know, they just print it, devalue it, and you cant count on anything like, i dont know how many dollars are going to print next year, but i know exactly how many big ones are going to be issued. So can we call that currency, should we call . I cant say its, its the best currency the just on the planet. But the currency needs to be spindle, and im going to put this to the test. 50 is supposedly one of the most crypto friendly places in the states, the mass talking about the city having its own digital coin. Basketball team is sponsored by crypto dot com. So using my new bitcoin here should be easy. A check out coin map, a website that says it shows every business in the world that takes bitcoin for the philly area as a list of only around 20 or pick up the phone and start calling them. 1 6 1 1 ringback oh, good afternoon. Calling this payment. Yeah. You doing . All right, thank you very much, bye. As we move through the list as similar story now. Okay, well, do you guys accept bitcoin as payment there . Now we do not know did, did you ever we used 2 years ago and then what happens, why did you stop . The technology was too hard to maintain, regularly enhanced the staff is ensure what bitcoin really is. So think does not billy like using it, is like between evangelists, may say, is the feature of money, but the vast majority of business is listed as accepting it. Dont. Until do you guys accept bitcoin as payments . You do . They invited us down for lunch. This is the sum paid food truck home, so they say some of the best barbecue sandwiches in town. What can i get . So we have brick, pork and chicken. Jessica and her partner began accepting bitcoin in 2015 and say, unlike others, they will continue to do so. Can i pay with . Yes, you can. Or this next amazing. Thank you very, very much. A lot of the people that were accepting the coin in the city and they stopped, you know, they saw how to cycle and how it kept fluctuating. And i think it really scared a lot of people away, but you kept us, but we kept at it. Yeah. Why, i dont know, its just something we believe in. We just believe that crypto is the future. Do you worry a total about the security of it or the whether its a scam and anyway, i worry more about the dollar than i do bitcoin. I do believe its going to be the currency of the world, but if it is bit going, has a long way to go. Few american seem to be spending it for most is just another investment. But why does big coin come from anyway . Im heading into the pennsylvania countryside to find out when i get their future finance is a little money than id imagined. I just i make a note or what is that noise . What youre hearing are the klein miners, the, the big one is in the next one liner. You can see all the little fans in there. Theres a little computer on each one of those fans. Jeff campbell is the lead engineer stronghold Digital Mining. It has 12000 specialized computer processes. Were looking for 200. 00. This is a long number and everybody in the world is working on the same equation. Theyre all trying to find the same number. And if you get it, if you get it, you get 6. 25, that point right now. And how often do you get it every time that its somebody on in the world finds that number, its high tech lottery to function. Mine is race to verify the newest transactions made everywhere on the bitcoin network. The winner is rewarded in bitcoin. Its an entirely digital process, and it used to be done by amazon enthusiasts on home computers. But these days, its big business, and the u. S. Does more of it than anywhere else. Worldwide, were going through more combinations of numbers and there are grains of sand on the earth. So you can say its profitable if you can find that grain of those profits are putting in bigger and bigger, operates as a 21st century gold rush. But heres the catch. Bitcoin was designed on a system called proof of work. The more processes get thrown at it, the heart of the algorithms become, the harder the algorithms become more computers and needed. Its an energy guzzling arms race. And this is how strong holds operation gets his power, their own dedicated power station. It burns fossil fuels, coal waste, with all the Greenhouse Gas emissions that entails stronghold. See, greg bill takes me into the hissing, roaring heart of the beast. Vocals me the oldest kind of brute. Industrial power is just going to make something that you cant even touch it. Its a Digital Currency that kind of plates around and then in the spare it is after the old world industrial mates near will finance. But whats the environmental cost of all this Cambridge University says, bitcoin pumps out as much c o 2. 00 per year as a country like the Czech Republic and consumes as much energy as the whole of highlands. Then greg tells me something astounding when we started the project. 4 or 5 years ago, the mining economics for bitcoin were really enough to support the plant. Thankfully said pennsylvania in a, in a bipartisan way, modified the rules a bit to allow us to earn more of a, whats called the Renewable Energy credit. And that isnt that plus higher power prices was a port is running today. So pennsylvania, not only coals coal waste, an alternative energy source, it actually subsidizes stronghold to burn the stuff to make bitcoin. How can this be . Oh, because of this in the toxic legacy of nearly a century of coal mining coal fed, the furnace is a pennsylvania is once mighty steel industry. And this waste, sprawling across the state in vast sly keeps, is the low quality material left over from the mining acid and poisonous heavy metals. Leach out at them, bill spends his strong whole Digital Mining chairman. I feel as if america had in the world had a party here. And then we woke up the next morning with the residual garbage left over and theyre having to clean up after the party like the state of pennsylvania. He wont see hes gone. He says hes using the States Alternative Energy incentives and the profits from big coin mining to make that happen. But coal is the dirtiest source of power there is. And coal waste is especially inefficient. So i asked bill the obvious question. Do you think that the c o 2 emissions ah, a justifiable byproduct of clearing this landscape . I absolutely do. And what im asking you is just stop a minute. Look at this. I understand where people say its not perfect, but how many things in life are perfect. I, i mean, rory, i mean dont let perfect be the enemy a very good. So do you consider yourself an environmentalist . I absolutely consider myself an environmentalist or bill and his colleagues firmly convinced that theyre doing what is best for this area. I have a feeling people campaigning against climate change. Im going to disagree who im on my way to meet one has another coal waste power station. Right . Makes spect chimney. There are plenty of bitcoin miners who say their operations are green, but most tend to seek out the cheapest energy, whatever it source. This is russells ebay, who works for the clean air council. The interesting thing about bitcoin is you could do it in the cleanest way possible, or you can do it in the dirty way possible. And as long as there are government subsidies to do it, in the dirtiest way possible, people will keep burning coal waste. Generate big coin was supposed to be moving towards the next 0 future, reducing Carbon Emissions to nothing by 2050. How does that fit with bitco . Its huge Energy Consumption. It does not the introduction of crypto currency and its Energy Consumption is such a massive step backward for environmental efforts efforts to confront climate change. Russell says several states in the us or considering banning bitcoin mining, but not pennsylvania globally, as a growing list of countries that have already outlawed it. China being the most significant one of the other things ive heard about big coin. Its a haven for criminals. Crypto links crime says to record levels in 2021 up 79 percent from the year before. I want to know whats behind this. Got us greg is a former f b i. Agent who now works for a company investigating crypto crime. Criminals are using crypto, the very same reason why the vast majority of crypto users use it for that speed, liquidity, and cross border nature. What are the kind of crimes that we see around crypto . Theyre doing everything in this virtual asset world that they were doing in the regular world, particularly scans and frauds, make up the largest category of elicit use of crypto. But you dont think this actually is a problem with crypto itself. You know, theres nothing inherently evil or bad about crypto itself is just simply another method for value transfer. Criminals stole 14000000000. 00, encrypt currencies last year. Or we see any kind of state involvement. And this we have seen, elicit use of hacking by north koreans, for example. In fact, theyre responsible for hacking over a 1000000000. 00 in Exchange Hacks in the past. But galvis also says the transparent nature of crypto is block chain ledger actually gives investigates as a treasure trove of data to work with. So for example, if there was an elicit transaction where a little lady was scammed out of her money and they, and she said no, i paid them in bitcoin. Well they, they can look at that transaction and see where that womans bitcoin went to. And from there they can then engage Legal Process to either freeze that account or seek recovery from that victim. And thats why thats so important. Ah, my next stop is london. One of the worlds financial hubs. I want to see what government and Central Banks think of this brave new world. Easier said than done. We are so Central Banks, both in the United States and here in england to talk to us about that. I know why, while many Central Banks are undecided what to do about technology designed to break the control of money. Ive come to meet harriet baldwin, a british conservative m p, a former investment banker, and a member of the Treasury Select Committee which examines governments economic policy. Do you think the central bank should be scared to correct that kind of things . I think theyre all looking at it. I think its going to be important to coordinate the approach amongst the developed world. Busy Central Banks. I think, you know, there is also the risk that being currency could end up being the, you know, the tulip bulbs of the 21st century. 14. I was, you mean it could be a bubble. People could be buying something for way above the value that someone else will pay in the future to take it off the hands and they could lose a lot of money in the process. And that was something that they discover is actually just lines of code and doesnt have Intrinsic Value because no one else will accept it as payment. Does Crypto Currency Development poses threats to Financial Stability . It could be potentially, if it becomes a much more significant size in the well financial markets. At the moment all the evidence weve had on the Treasury Select Committee is that its still a very small proportion of the worlds asset base. And so therefore, weve been told that it doesnt pose a threat to Financial Stability at this level box. What happens when a nation state does jump with both feet into this weird new world in our home, in the german, at this point . I have come to a country that boldly gone when no other his dad and turn self into a unique fiscal petri dish. Ah, is assigned to the bank on beach now this, this is where the experiment started for l. Salvatore. 3 is back. A clique of crypto converts began transforming the surf town of ells on tape. They persuaded people to join a local circular economy based on bitcoin. But all of el salvador is bitcoin beach. Now, last summer, the countrys president , i had to kaylee, rush through a law that elevated bitcoin to legal tender alongside the us dollar. Know how the government has taken such a gamble with national finances. Im interested to hear what the founders of bitcoin beach think of it all. Roman martinez has one of them was beautiful. That dream that started super small now is more bigger than our sabbath or, and mainly people around the world dreaming with our country. And i, Jamie Patricio and this missionary, 70 percent of some other into for world blankets. And that means theyve got your bank account right now. Bank account, any kind of Financial Service a now as soon speed can arrive in our community, will start to seen. People say, be modern people transacting digital people, receiving and making digital payments. People buying an asset, the for the 1st time people sending money from all saba to the us from the us each other because we can use the monetary network. The humanity ever had. You know, these a