FedNow, the Federal Reserve's instant payment service, went live toward the end of July 2023 with, as the Mining Disrupt News host put it, "little to no fanfare." Outside the Bitcoin space, few people were talking about it, and the host said nothing in their own day-to-day banking had visibly changed. On the August 7, 2023 episode of the Mining Disrupt News update, the host set FedNow beside two other payment stories from that week, then closed with a report on what it costs public miners to produce one bitcoin.
The show opened, as these episodes do, with the numbers from timechaincalendar.com: Bitcoin at $29,171 on the host's screen, 3,428 sats per dollar, just over 38,000 blocks to the next halving, blocks arriving every 9 minutes and 56 seconds, and fees of 8 sats per vbyte for priority. The episode's argument followed from there: FedNow, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) prototype from MIT and Apple's push into payments all point toward a digital-only payment system, and in the host's view Bitcoin "slots perfectly into this."
FedNow and the Six Promises
The first story came from Payments Journal, an article by Carl Robertson dated August 3, 2023, titled "Six ways FedNow will transform the payments industry." The host read the list: real-time payments around the clock, access to instant payments regardless of the customer's bank, faster cash flow, support for innovation, less reliance on cash and checks, and global competitiveness through ISO messaging standards. The article put the adoption picture this way: roughly three in ten financial institutions said 2023 would be the year they deployed real-time payments, on top of the 18% of banks and 12% of credit unions already offering them.
The host treated every item as a possibility, not a certainty, and pushed back hardest on the fourth. "When was the last time the federal government did anything that spurred innovation?" the host asked, adding that they would be "exceptionally surprised" if a startup credited FedNow for its idea, while Bitcoin and Lightning were spurring new work daily. On the article's own caveat, that FedNow's impact depends on implementation, adoption by financial institutions and complementary services, the host said they would not be holding their breath for any of the three.
When was the last time the federal government did anything that spurred innovation?
Host · 4:44
MIT's CBDC Code and a Carefully Worded Review
The second story, also from Payments Journal (Josh Enos, August 4, 2023), covered MIT's Digital Currency Initiative releasing source code for a CBDC architecture. The host focused on one line from James Wester, head of cryptocurrency at Javelin Strategy and Research, who called the work interesting and said it shows how far the world still is from a working central bank digital currency.
shows just how far we still are from a real functioning central bank digital currency
James Wester · 6:44
The host read that as polite corporate language for real problems, comparing it to a retail manager at the Gap describing "areas of opportunity" before a write-up. Wester also said the release demonstrates design choices that must be made for a digital currency to support the scale and interoperability its use cases require. The host's version: it is like releasing a car and learning from the result that a car needs wheels.
Apple Pay, Goldman Sachs and X
The third story, by Rima Kotz in Payments Journal, covered a digital out-of-home advertising campaign for Apple Pay and four short videos poking fun at checkout frustrations. The article noted that the Apple Card savings account Apple launched in April with Goldman Sachs had passed $10 billion in deposits, and that Apple's financial products now included Apple Wallet, Apple Pay, Apple Card and Apple Pay Later.
The host then added Elon Musk, who bought Twitter at the end of 2022, rebranded it X and had recently spoken about making it a financial platform, an idea the host traced back some 22 years to X.com, the company that became part of PayPal. Taken together with FedNow and the CBDC work, the host said, these stories describe one direction of travel.
What we're seeing happening in real time is an extremely strong push on multiple fronts for there to be a digital and digital only payment ecosystem
Host · 10:14
The Host's Case for Bitcoin
The host's answer to that push was Bitcoin, which they called "perfectly positioned" for a digital payment world. The reasons given were digital scarcity, ownership (buying even a few sats, in the host's words, means "buying inalienable property rights"), decentralization, and the energy behind the network. The host also made two comparisons without citing a source: that more computing power backs Bitcoin than all other computing power combined, and that more energy backs it than backs the US Navy. Those are the host's claims as stated on the show.
Bitcoin is real scarcity, is digital scarcity
Host · 10:39
The point, the host said, was not whether FedNow or a CBDC works, or how hard Apple or X pushes into payments. Each of them builds the digital rails, and Bitcoin, in the host's view, can run on top of them.
What It Cost Public Miners to Mine One Bitcoin
The episode ended with a Crypto Potato article on a Bernstein report. According to the report, the 16 largest publicly listed miners together produced 16% of mined Bitcoin, with combined capacity of 72 exahashes per second, which they expected to grow by 182% within two to three years. Fifteen of those miners, the report found, could produce a bitcoin for under $15,000 while the price sat near $29,000. Its lead analyst warned that the halving would double that cost and leave a few miners at break-even if the price did not rise.
With the upcoming halving, that would double the cost of production and would push a few miners to break even
Bernstein analyst · 12:36
The report also argued that more institutional participation could follow if the Securities and Exchange Commission moved from its rigid stance, which would leave miners enough margin going into the 2024 halving.
Then and Now
Two of the report's conditions have since been tested. The SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, and the halving arrived in April 2024. When this episode was recorded on August 7, 2023, Bitcoin traded at $29,048; on October 26, 2026 it was $80,028. The episode closed on the host's own summary: whatever the noise around FedNow, CBDCs or Apple Pay, the host sees one sound money. The conversation continues at Mining Disrupt 2027, March 22 to 24 in Irving, Texas.