<ul class="summary-list"><li>As <keyword id="6354947" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bitcoin">bitcoin</keyword> sores, the matrix of computers that run its software now uses as much <keyword id="6357014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="energy">energy</keyword> as Sweden.</li><li>Rising value incentivizes bitcoin "miners" to compete with each to discover new tokens.</li><li>"I don't think the bitcoin industry is doing itself any favors by refusing even to accept that bitcoin's energy use is a problem."</li></ul>As bitcoin surges to unprecedented value, the sprawling matrix of computers around the world that run its software is now consuming as much energy a year as Sweden, <a href="https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons">the latest calculations</a> suggest.The higher the price, the more electricity this network uses. Iran was recently rocked by power outages that were<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/01/16/massive-blackouts-have-hit-iran-government-is-blaming-bitcoin/"> partly blamed on bitcoin</a>. Bill Gates recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/business/dealbook/bill-gates-bitcoin.html">warned bitcoin</a> was "not a great climate thing." U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellan has called its energy use "staggering."Conceived to defy central banks in the fallout of the financial crisis, bitcoin started life so counter-cultural that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-history-cryptocurrency-satoshi-nakamoto-2017-12">no one really knows who created it</a>.It has soared from around $10,000 through most of last year to around $58,000 now, thanks to<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/02/investing/gold-bitcoin-inflation/index.html"> investors who fear</a> traditional currencies are set to lose value,<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/crypto-investors-holding-record-amounts-digital-assets-coinshares-says-2021-3-1030237733"> an influx of traders</a> who speculate on the future price, and Elon Musk<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2021/03/24/elon-musk-reveals-tesla-will-increase-bitcoin-holdings-boosting-the-price/?sh=66ea4da27c5b"> who tweets that you can use it to buy Teslas</a>. It is now seriously talked of <a href="https://www.morganstanley.com/im/en-ch/intermediary-investor/insights/articles/why-crypto-is-coming-out-of-the-shadows.html">as a potential new global reserve currency</a>.But as<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-morgan-stanley-funds-tip-of-the-iceberg-jmp-cryptocurrencies-2021-3-1030225589"> Wall Street banks roll out bitcoin services</a>, they may find its environmental costs hard to balance with shareholders and customers who are increasingly conscious. Experts tell Insider that bitcoin faces a Catch-22.Like the cryptocurrency itself, bitcoin's community is decentralized, defiant, and nebulous. No one can simply tell it to heed growing calls to reduce its carbon footprint.Alex de Vries, a Dutch economist who created the<a href="https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/"> Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index</a>, estimates the electricity used has doubled since 2017 to between 78 terawatt hours (TWh) and 101 TWh a year. More than half of bitcoin miners<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/why-the-biggest-bitcoin-mines-are-in-china"> in China</a>, where most use coal. Bitcoin has no physical form. "Mining" refers to its network of computers finding new tokens by having them solve complex calculations.<div type="image" title="Hardware at the SberBit cryptocurrency mining equipment facility in Moscow, Russia, in 2017" height="3242" width="4864" msid="81781867" hostid="261"></div>New tokens these calculations uncover are a reward to the miners for using their computing power and electricity to secure the network against hacks and record transactions on bitcoin's decentralized ledger, known as the blockchain.As the price climbs, those running the vast networks of computers dedicated to solving these calculations can sell them and direct more computing power toward the network, creating a cyclical effect as they compete with other miners to find new bitcoin first.SEE ALSO: <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-btc-energy-use-mining-climate-environment-cyrptocurrencies-foundry-2021-3-1030229621">Bitcoin mining can be a 'bridge' to a renewable energy future by supporting green projects, a leading North American miner says</a>De Vries thinks bitcoin's energy use will continue to climb as the prices rises and miners buy more hardware.He forecasts the network could soon consume a staggering 200 TWh, as much energy as all data centers globally and equivalent roughly to London.He said potential investors may be put off by bitcoin's eye-watering energy use, adding, "I think this will be a major problem for bitcoin."But for bitcoin advocates, the fact it allows people to make transactions semi-anonymously and without third-party approval, outweigh the environmental costs.Nic Carter, a bitcoin investor and partner at crypto-focused venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures, told Insider its energy use was "not a new debate.""The costs of the dollar system are harder to comprehend but they are extremely real," he added. <div type="image" title="Bitcoin reading" height="2652" width="3974" msid="81781871" hostid="261"></div>He said that if investors conscious of environmental impact refused to buy bitcoin "because it consumes energy - like every other utility on the planet - they are just doing themselves and their investors a disservice."<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201208005461/en">Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said late last year</a> that cryptocurrencies "will eventually be powered completely by clean power, eliminating its carbon footprint and driving adoption of renewables globally ... Published estimates indicate bitcoin already consumes a significant amount of clean energy."Bitcoin miners, incentivized to use renewable energy<a href="https://hbr.org/2018/11/making-cryptocurrency-more-environmentally-sustainable"> by government subsidies</a>, have sought sustainable ways of fueling their computers.One German company set up a mining facility<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2018/11/09/bitcoin-mining-in-a-mine-without-breaking-the-bank-or-the-planet/?sh=4b2d144b3575"> under the fjords of Norway</a>, using hydroelectricity to power its machines and the freezing water to cool them.But estimates of how much bitcoin's overall energy use is green vary hugely.In a<a href="https://coinshares.com/research/bitcoin-mining-network-june-2019"> 2019 study</a>, cryptocurrency asset management firm CoinShares' analysis concluded the bitcoin network gets up to 74% of its electricity from renewables. But in a survey by Cambridge University's Judge Business School <a href="https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/3rd-global-cryptoasset-benchmarking-study/">the same year</a>, only 39% of miners said that their power came from renewables.Renewables aren't the only way to use less energy.Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, has a total value of $200 billion compared to bitcoin's $1 trillion market capitalization and soared over the last year. Its energy demands spiked to 30 TWh per year, up from 7 TWh 12 months ago, according to de Vries' <a href="https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption/">calculations</a>.It sought to cut its energy use by moving to a "proof-of-stake" algorithm, where, instead of miners who create new tokens as a reward for securing the blockchain, "stalkers" hold existing tokens and can commit - or stake - them to the network, generating new tokens and helping to validate transactions.But De Vries said fixing bitcoin's energy dilemma this way would be impossible without fundamental changes to bitcoin. Its miners and developers could vote for such a change but fundamental alterations to bitcoin's core software are broadly unpopular.One proposal to make bitcoin better suited to small payments in 2017 caused such a schism that a group of miners decided to "fork" the blockchain and create <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-cash-price-soaring-2017-9">a rival cryptocurrency called bitcoin cash.</a>Frances Coppola, an author on banking, finance, and economics, told Insider bitcoin needed to evolve if it is to solve the problem."I don't think the bitcoin industry is doing itself any favors by refusing even to accept that bitcoin's energy use is a problem, let alone do anything about it," she added.De Vries added that, if traders, miners and advocates cannot address its environmental impact, government action "seems like an inevitable outcome."Bitcoin may be set up to be distanced from authorities but, as hundreds of thousands dream of following its<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2021/01/11/bitcoins-recent-surge-creates-new-billionaires/?sh=6caf0243416c"> early investors into the ranks of the world's richest</a>, it is attracting the type of attention governments cannot ignore.India has proposed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-india-cryptocurrency-ban-idUSKBN2B60QP">fining anyone who trades or owns bitcoin</a>, As U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellan condemned its energy use, she also warned investors it was<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/22/yellen-sounds-warning-about-extremely-inefficient-bitcoin.html"> "extremely inefficient"</a> and "often for illicit finance."But De Vries added that, whatever happened, bitcoin would likely survive in some form.He said it would "continue to exist as long as some people think it has value ... It may just not be the same market value as it has today."

Bitcoin uses as much energy as Sweden and is on course to use even more. Experts say that's a 'major problem' for its future.

Hello everyone!Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider's Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-weekly">Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.</a>What we're going over today:<ul><li><keyword id="6361649" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword>' <keyword id="4514" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Marcus">Marcus</keyword> is struggling with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-marcus-burnout-cloud-tech-hiring-attrition-culture-gs-2021-4">burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus.</a></li><li>Leaked Amazon documents detail a controversial system that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-annual-reviews-rating-2021-4">insiders say forces managers to give bad reviews to good employees</a>.</li><li>DEI execs are burning out <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dei-leaders-risk-burnout-diversity-equity-inclusion-addressing-systemic-racism-2021-4">amid the billion-dollar push to diversify corporate America</a>.</li><li>Why Adobe's $540 million bet on advertising went awry, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-decline-of-adobes-advertising-business-2021-4">according to former employees, analysts and ad buyers</a>.</li><li>A VC investor who was Fidelity's first cryptoasset analyst <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-opportunities-vc-breaks-down-2-emerging-on-radar-2021-4">breaks down two emerging crypto opportunities</a>.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-marcus-burnout-cloud-tech-hiring-attrition-culture-gs-2021-4"></a>Here's what's trending this morning:<ul><li>Subway up for sale? Rumors are flying as the distressed sandwich chain <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-sale-rumors-ceo-john-chidsey-2021-4">lays off hundreds to cut costs and abandons franchisees</a>.</li><li>Next big tech rivalry: $67 billion Snowflake and $28 billion Databricks <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snowflake-databricks-big-data-ai-collision-course-ghodsi-slootman-2021-4">are on a "collision course" as the AI and data analysis market heats up.</a></li><li>Housing boom: Four reasons the housing market will cool down and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-sustainable-boom-homebuyers-mortgage-rates-millennials-construction-jefferies-2021-4">settle into a long and sustainable boom</a>.</li><li>Big Law's burned-out associates: Five current and former lawyers from firms like Cleary, Davis Polk, and Goodwin <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-law-associates-hours-burnout-remote-work-cleary-davis-polk-2021-4">detail their nonstop daily work schedules.</a></li></ul><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-marcus-burnout-cloud-tech-hiring-attrition-culture-gs-2021-4">Goldman Sachs exodus</a></h2>From Dakin Campbell:Goldman Sachs launched its consumer-banking arm five years ago with a marketing blitz and much fanfare, sending a strong signal to <keyword id="42111" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wall-Street">Wall Street</keyword> that it wanted to disrupt retail banking - and reshape its own future.Since then the bank has built it into a $1 billion business by standing up new technologies at breakneck speed.But now Marcus staffers are quitting in droves at the precise moment the bank needs them most, just as it announced a slew of ambitious products and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-new-appointments-consumer-wealth-division-product-management-2021-1">reshuffled</a> its corporate structure to focus on growth. Former employees, as well as banking consultants and an analyst briefed by Insider, said the exodus raises questions about Goldman's ability to drive its people hard and still compete with Main Street banks.Read the full story here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-marcus-burnout-cloud-tech-hiring-attrition-culture-gs-2021-4">Burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus: How Goldman Sachs' Marcus is struggling to live up to its lofty consumer-banking ambitions</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-responds-with-cash-bonuses-as-banker-burnout-mounts-2021-3">Wall Street firms are trying to outdo each other with pay and perks to hold onto young talent. Here's what 8 banks and private-equity shops are doing.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-interns-students-scrambing-housing-new-york-city-summer-2021-4">Goldman Sachs interns are scrambling to find housing in New York City this summer as the bank prepares them to head into the office</a> </li></ul><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-annual-reviews-rating-2021-4">Amazon employee reviews</a></h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-annual-reviews-rating-2021-4"><div type="image" title="Jeff Bezos" height="2000" width="2666" msid="82018594" hostid="261"></div></a>From Ashley Stewart and Eugene Kim:Internal Amazon documents show the company has a five-tiered ranking system for employee performance reviews and expects managers to rank 20% of employees at the top level, 75% in the middle tiers, and 5% in the bottom tier.More than half a dozen employees who spoke with Insider said <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-annual-performance-review-process-bonus-salary-2021-4">the tier system was evidence of stack ranking</a>, a controversial performance-review system in which employees are evaluated on a curve and a certain percentage must rank at the bottom - which could hurt both an employee's compensation and their future at the company.Employees who have been part of the performance-review process told Insider the ratings had to be distributed across teams.Read the full story here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-annual-reviews-rating-2021-4">Leaked Amazon documents detail a controversial system that insiders say forces managers to give bad reviews to good employees</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/9-instacart-power-players-helping-the-grocery-delivery-provider-as-it-prepared-for-a-2021-ipo-2021-3">Instacart Power Players: The 11 top executives - including recent hires from Amazon, Uber, and Goldman Sachs - as the company eyes an IPO</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/atlassian-hire-1000-workers-remotely-2021-4">How to impress at $55 billion Atlassian, which plans to hire 1,000 workers after bringing on 1,200 during the pandemic</a> </li></ul><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dei-leaders-risk-burnout-diversity-equity-inclusion-addressing-systemic-racism-2021-4">DEI burnout</a></h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dei-leaders-risk-burnout-diversity-equity-inclusion-addressing-systemic-racism-2021-4"><div type="image" title="DEI consultant burnout 2x1" height="1251" width="2500" msid="82018595" hostid="261"></div></a>From Marguerite Ward:<a href="https://www.themelanincollective.org/about">Doris Quintanilla</a> is drained.For over four years, she's worked on corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion as the CEO and cofounder of The Melanin Collective - but never in a climate like today's.In the wake of the killing of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-floyd-protests-defining-history-politics-election-black-lives-matter-2020-6">George Floyd</a>, her inbox has been flooded with requests from corporate and nonprofit leaders. They want change, and they want it fast. But at the same time, she felt many were not respecting her.Read the full story here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dei-leaders-risk-burnout-diversity-equity-inclusion-addressing-systemic-racism-2021-4">DEI execs are burning out amid the billion-dollar push to diversify corporate America: 'It's hard to be both the advocate and the abused'</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chauvin-trial-stress-black-americans-how-leaders-allies-can-help-2021-4">Derek Chauvin's trial is testing the stress levels of Black Americans. Here's what leaders and allies can do to help.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-adding-stay-at-home-parent-could-backfire-on-moms-2021-4">LinkedIn wants you to add stay-at-home parent to your résumé. But the move could backfire on moms.</a> </li></ul><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-decline-of-adobes-advertising-business-2021-4">Adobe's ad bet</a></h2><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-decline-of-adobes-advertising-business-2021-4"><div type="image" title="Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen" height="1483" width="2222" msid="82018596" hostid="261"></div></a></h2>From Lauren Johnson:Five years ago, Adobe had big advertising ambitions. Adobe acquired <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tubemogul-ceo-brett-wilson-on-why-he-sold-to-adobe-2017-1">$540 million</a> for TubeMogul, a video adtech company that buys ads for brands programmatically and competed with Google, Amazon, The Trade Desk, and MediaMath.At the time, Brad Rencher, then-EVP and general manager of Adobe's digital experience business unit and a key player in the TubeMogul integration, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adobe-is-acquiring-ad-tech-tubemogul-for-450-million-2016-11">promised the deal</a> would create a "'one-stop shop' for video advertising, providing even more strategic value for our Adobe Marketing Cloud customers."But last summer, Adobe shut down a big part of its TubeMogul acquisition, closing its advanced TV business that sold linear TV ads <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/adobe-plans-to-ban-political-ads-on-its-online-ad-sales-platform-11596222336">and political advertising</a> to advertisers.Read the full story here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-decline-of-adobes-advertising-business-2021-4">Why Adobe's $540 million bet on advertising went awry, according to former employees, analysts and ad buyers</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/roku-looking-for-new-ad-agency-prepares-biggest-campaign-2021-4">Roku is looking for a new ad agency to help position it as the king of streaming</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wpp-omnicom-mdc-others-discuss-plans-to-return-to-office-2021-4">Here's how major ad agencies like WPP and Omnicom are planning a return to the office</a> </li></ul><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-opportunities-vc-breaks-down-2-emerging-on-radar-2021-4">ICYMI: </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-opportunities-vc-breaks-down-2-emerging-on-radar-2021-4">Fidelity's first cryptoasset analyst on</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-opportunities-vc-breaks-down-2-emerging-on-radar-2021-4"> opportunities</a></h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-opportunities-vc-breaks-down-2-emerging-on-radar-2021-4"><div type="image" title="Bitcoin Bull nft art cryptoart" height="2000" width="2000" msid="82018598" hostid="261"></div></a>Vicky Ge Huang talked to Nic Carter, an investor at venture-capital firm Castle Island Ventures and founder of Coinmetrics. You can read the full story here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-opportunities-vc-breaks-down-2-emerging-on-radar-2021-4">A VC investor who was Fidelity's first cryptoasset analyst shares what he looks for in companies to back - and breaks down the 2 emerging crypto opportunities on his radar</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-arbitrage-trading-strategy-alameda-research-sam-bankman-fried-billionaire-2021-4">A 29-year-old self-made billionaire breaks down how he achieved daily returns of 10% on million-dollar crypto trades, and shares how to find the best opportunities</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/defi-decentralized-finance-bitwise-cio-disruption-bull-case-largest-assets-2021-4">The investing chief and research analyst at a $1.2 billion crypto asset manager share how DeFi is disrupting the traditional financial services industry - and break down the 10 largest assets in the space</a></li></ul><hr /><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/free-virtual-event-leaders-in-climate-action-discuss-moving-forward-2021-3">INVITATION: Keeping our promises to the planet</a></h2>Join us Tuesday, April 20 at 12 p.m. ET | 5 p.m. GMT | 6 p.m. CET for a free virtual event, "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/free-virtual-event-leaders-in-climate-action-discuss-moving-forward-2021-3">Act to Impact: Keeping our Promises to the Planet</a>." Hear from corporate leaders, climate activists, experts, and artists about how we all can mitigate and adapt to climate change today to avoid catastrophe in the near future<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/free-virtual-event-leaders-in-climate-action-discuss-moving-forward-2021-3">Sign up here.</a>Lastly, don't forget to<a href="https://www.morningbrew.com/?utm_source=insider&amp;utm_medium=partnership&amp;utm_campaign=insiderweekly_h12021y_h12021" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> check out Morning Brew</a> - the A.M. newsletter that makes reading the news actually enjoyable.Here are some headlines you might have missed last week.- Matt<hr /><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/todd-young-profile-senate-indiana-republican-2021-4">Introducing Todd Young, the most important senator you've never heard of</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-eats-doordash-dara-khosrowshahi-2021-4">Uber is battling DoorDash to rule food delivery. These are the steps Uber's CEO is taking to topple Eats' biggest rival.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-is-influencing-teens-favorite-beauty-and-skincare-brands-2021-4">TikTok is reshaping beauty and skincare trends among teens. Here are the brands that are the biggest winners.</a> </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/journalism-burnout-mental-health-crisis-2021-4">Newsrooms are facing a mental-health crisis, and burnout is driving some journalists to quit</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ransomware-cybersecurity-insurance-coalition-deep-instinct-vicious-cycle-2021-4">Hacked companies are paying off ransomware gangs, the criminals are reinvesting the profits in making bigger and bolder attacks, and there's no end in sight</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-remote-work-return-office-shareholder-letter-2021-4">JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-remote-work-return-office-shareholder-letter-2021-4"> remote work can undermine the 'character' of a company and lays out the bank's plans for the future of the office</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-four-ways-cannabis-companies-like-curaleaf-and-gti-will-benefit-from-new-york-legalization-2021-3">New York just legalized recreational cannabis. The move will give the state's 10 existing operators a big leg up - and that could be good news for investors</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/female-founders-bias-diversity-legal-tech-lawyers-women-vc-funding-2021-4">These founders left the legal industry to launch their tech startups. They found Silicon Valley even more sexist than Big Law.</a> </li></ul>

Goldman Sachs' Marcus unit is struggling with burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/590b48c9fcd8eb1a008b504e-1280/gettyimages-508571832.jpg" alt="Julian Assange" data-mce-source="Carl Court/Getty Images" />Carl Court/Getty Images</div></div></div><ul><li>A leader of California's oldest and largest independence movement, Louis Marinelli, said he would "welcome vocal support" from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange</li><li>Assange began tweeting about CalExit last month, as he was ramping up his support for Catalonia's secession referendum</li><li>Marinelli's embrace of Assange risks widening the rift between Yes California and another major separatist group, the California National Party</li></ul>The cofounder of the California separatist group Yes California said in an interview Monday that the group welcomes "the vocal support" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who recently began tweeting about the California independence campaign known as "Calexit.""Ultimately the Calexit vote and its preceding debate will be up to Californians to decide but we welcome the vocal support of Julian Assange, as we would for any individual with the courage to stand up against and defy the powers that be in order to affect positive change in this world," said Louis Marinelli, the cofounder. "That's what our campaign is all about."Marinelli, a 31-year-old activist, announced in a 1,600-word statement on Monday that he would return to California after spending just over a year in Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, with his wife Anastasia. Marinelli spearheaded the Calexit campaign for nearly two years <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/calexit-leader-louis-marinelli-russia-2017-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">before deciding to settle in Russia</a> permanently in April. He withdrew his petition for a referendum at that point in favor of the "new happiness" he'd found in Yekaterinburg. The organization relaunched in August, this time as "a movement" rather than a political action committee, Marinelli said Monday. It also has a new president: cofounder Marcus Ruiz Evans, who previously served as the organization's vice president.Evans closed the Moscow "embassy" Marinelli had established in December, calling it "a distraction, a point of contention, and a source of division among supporters of California independence."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/585c654bf10a9a1c008b5035-914/screen shot 2016-12-22 at 64335 pm.png" alt="louis marinelli" data-mce-source="Screenshot/YouTube" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVh58vuxkN4" /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVh58vuxkN4">Screenshot/YouTube</a>Louis Marinelli</div></div></div>In his statement on Monday, Marinelli claimed it was never really an embassy at all. "I hyped it up, printed a vinyl banner, and called it an embassy - that was a mistake," he wrote.Marinelli characterized the initiative differently back in December, telling Business Insider that the "Embassy of the Independent Republic of California" was part of the group's outreach to countries that were likely to recognize and support California's independence.He described Russia's Anti-Globalization Movement - far-right Russian nationalists who enjoy Kremlin support while promoting secessionist movements in Europe and the United States - as a "partner," and said Yes California aimed to "rock the boat and ruffle feathers."Now, Marinelli says he "never sought to have Russia as a partner in the Calexit campaign in the first place.""Pursuing their recognition of our independence after the fact is not endorsing our Calexit campaign," he said.<h2>'See #CalExit'</h2>The link among Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, and Russia has always been murky. The US intelligence community believes the three worked together to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, while Assange has staunchly denied that Russia was its source for hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. But as journalist and Russia researcher Casey Michel <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/assange-catalonia-independence-0a83cd016972/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has written</a>, the Kremlin has not exactly been an unbiased observer of Western independence movements. Marinelli's former "partner," the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, <a href="http://anti-global.ru/?p=19373">issued a statement</a> last month supporting Catalonia's secession push.Assange turned his attention to Spain around the same time, becoming <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/julian-assange-catalonia-independence-movement-and-referendum-spain-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the de-facto international spokesman</a> for Catalan separatism.He taught young Catalans how to use encrypted chat apps and evade detection from federal police ahead of the October 1 independence referendum, and he used his Twitter account <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/julian-assange-catalonia-independence-movement-and-referendum-spain-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to relentlessly pump out</a> a pro-separatist narrative aimed at villainizing the Spanish central government and celebrating Catalan nationalism.Asked whether he would support a similar independence referendum for Texas or California, <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/906966526665871360" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Assange said</a>: "Yes. There will likely be a plebiscite in 2018 for California, see #<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CalExit?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click">CalExit</a>."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5863c47df10a9a6d008b581c-845/screen shot 2016-12-28 at 85533 am.png" alt="yes california moscow" data-mce-source="Screenshot/YouTube" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMRDvXb-Qu4" /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMRDvXb-Qu4">Screenshot/YouTube</a></div></div></div>It's not clear whether the government would recognize such a plebiscite as legitimate. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-california-secession/more-californians-dreaming-of-a-country-without-trump-poll-idUSKBN1572KB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Reuters/Ipsos poll</a> conducted after President Donald Trump won the election found that 32% of Californians said they would support independence (another 15.5% said they "don't know").Asked if he'd "welcome" it if Assange took similarly aggressive measures in support of the Calexit campaign, Marinelli said: "While I stand by my previous statement about Julian Assange and his vocal support for California Independence, the spokesperson for this campaign should be a Californian."He added, however, that if Assange "has constructive criticism then we should be welcoming constructive criticism and feedback and suggestions on how to run a better campaign." He also said he was "appreciative" of anyone willing to expose what he perceives as corruption within the national Democratic and Republican parties, which he called "criminal" organizations.<h2>'If supporters of CalExit love what Assange is saying, I can't control that'</h2>The group's current president, meanwhile, said he is "not a super big fan of Julian Assange.""I will never coordinate with Assange on CalExit - ever," Marcus Ruiz Evans said in an interview on Monday. But he said he's "cool with anybody who's not a racist saying that members of a democracy should have the right to discuss and vote on issues" that affect them.<div>He added that he can't control who Assange tries to appeal to, and whether he succeeds. </div>"There are four separate CalExit groups," Evans said. "I'm part of the oldest and largest one, as is Louis [Marinelli]. The other three don't have Louis on their team and kind of reject him. But because the movement is an idea, no one really has control. If supporters of CalExit love what Assange is saying, I cant control that."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591f19a7dd08957a158b464f-1800/pa-31370922.jpg" alt="julian assange" data-mce-source="PA Images" />PA Images</div></div></div>Marinelli said on Monday that he wants to "make peace between each of the separatist California Independence groups out there" and "build a big umbrella" that could more effectively campaign for a CalExit. But it's not clear whether those groups, like the California National Party and the California Freedom Coalition, want anything to do with either Marinelli or Assange.California National Party secretary Timothy Irvine told Business Insider in a statement that CNP "has no interest in receiving support from foreign groups, foreign nationals, criminals, or generally incompetent and unsavory individuals." Irvine added that the CNP is "democratically and transparently run by, paid for, and dedicated to serving Californians," and had been "productive" since Marinelli departed California, at which point he was banned from the CNP."CNP will not work with, and will refuse support from or association with, individuals who have a track record of political incompetence, of alienating Californians, or of putting their own private interests above the public good of Californians," Irvine said. The CFC declined to comment. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/firings-trump-administration-anthony-scaramucci-fired-resignation-steve-bannon-2017-8">Tom Price resigns after controversy over private flights - here are the casualties of the Trump administration so far</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/DBwCcsq5-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

California separatist leader: 'We welcome the vocal support of Julian Assange'

<img class="float_right" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53fba4c86bb3f72a74e83de7-1200-800/ap984213932274.jpg?maxX=600" border="0" alt="Nigerian Soldier Boko Haram" width="600">The Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram just perpetrated <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/boko-harams-deadliest-terrorist-attack-2015-1">what might be the worst attack in its history</a>, killing hundreds of civilians in a remote northeastern corner of Nigeria. The widely reported upper estimate for the death toll of Boko Haram's onslaught in Baga and 16 other communities around the Nigerian side of Lake Chad is <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/09/africa/boko-haram-violence/">around 2,000</a>.</img>
The attack took place in a part of the country that Nigerian army has proven unwilling to hold - and that the government in Abuja has been remarkably unwilling to even contest. Years of institutional rot and regional tension have helped enable one of the most vicious jihadist insurgencies on earth. 
As the New Yorker's Alexis Okeowo <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/boko-haram-death-toll">wrote today</a>, the attack might not actually have killed 2,000 people. But going by Okeowo's reporting, which is based on Nigerian sources who had access to survivors, the attack would still rate among the deadliest ever pulled off by any terrorist group.
Okeowo cites a well-placed Nigerian source who "had spoken with Baga residents and a district head who said that they had seen hundreds, but not as many as a thousand, bodies: people who were breathing and eating one moment and dead the next, from a grenade or bullet. Surviving families have been fractured as they seek refuge elsewhere in Nigeria and beyond its borders."
Her sources say that the attack may still be ongoing. And it's taking place in one of the most remote and dangerous places in northeastern Nigeria - a factor that could go a long way towards explaining why Boko Haram has grown capable of reaching such astonishing levels of violence.
<h3>The Context Of Boko Haram's Biggest Attack</h3>
The recent Boko Haram rampage is taking place against the backdrop of Nigeria's presidential elections, scheduled for this coming February.
 The current president, Goodluck Jonathan, is from the country's oil-rich southern half and is emphasizing his economic record while making every attempt at ignoring the conflagration in the northeast. Boko Haram, which comes from the Muslim and historically marginalized and underdeveloped north, is perhaps trying to derail the electoral process and undermine confidence in Nigeria's tenuous multi-ethnic, secular, and democratic order. 
At the same time, Boko Haram's recent activities may be dictated by factors that have little to do with the elections themselves. In mid-2014, just after <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/233-teenage-girls-kidnapped-from-chibok-nigeria-school-2014-4">the April kidnapping of over 200 girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok vaulted them into global infamy</a>, Boko Haram became interested in actually securing and holding territory in the northeast, something it has done with a worrying degree of success. The group <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28925484">even declared a "caliphate" in August</a>, a possible echo of ISIS's ambitions in the Middle East.
As Brandon Kenhammer, a Nigeria scholar and an assistant professor of political science at Ohio University explained to Business Insider, Boko Haram's gains may have had more to do with the weakness of the Nigerian state than with any long-term strategy. 
"They're trying to destabilize the region and demonstrate that the security forces can't hack it in northeastern Nigeria," Kendhammer says.
And they've succeeded. "Boko Haram is doing what they're doing in part because they can," says Kenhammer. "In the absence of any real Nigerian military capability, they walked into more than they thought they'd be able to."
<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53bbca34eab8ea2467e57a54-768-510/nigeriabomb.jpeg" border="0" alt="nigeriabomb"> </img>
Boko Haram now has a safe-haven along the Chadian and Cameroonian borders and the resulting breathing room and supply routes have created their own justification for holding territory. "So long as Boko Haram controls the northeastern quadrant of Nigeria, they can shape the environment to their liking," Rudy Atallah, the CEO of <a href="http://www.wmrgrp.com/index.php">White Mountain Research</a> and a former US Air Force officer told Business Insider. Boko Haram has seen an opportunity to put down roots for long-term territorial control, and they're taking advantage of it.
It's a situation partly enabled by the Nigerian military's collapse in the northeast. Nigeria's army was once one of the most powerful in Africa, and earned <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> respect for helping to pacify Sierra Leone and Liberia during the countries' conflicts in the late 1990s. 
But Nigeria's <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword> and major institutions are highly regional and ethnic. And the military, which has seen its leadership, preparedness, and hardware all decline in quality over the past decade, has been accused of <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/01/nigeria-massive-destruction-deaths-military-raid">repeated human rights violations</a> in the already marginalized northeastern parts of the country that Boko Haram now controls.
"It's hard for the army to make any headway when the average soldier who is up there is probably not from those states, not speaking the local languages and are are under-equipped and facing a civilian population that is distrustful and frightened," Alex Thurston, an expert on Islam in Nigeria who teaches at Georgetown, told Business Insider.
 The army has suffered defeats at Boko Haram's hands in the northeast and even <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28927898">deserted several bases</a>. Boko Haram's brutality, along with the military's poor abilities and unsavory reputation, has left the Nigerian army unable to operate in the parts of the country the group controls. The army also seems incapable of reforming itself. Nigeria <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-tells-us-halt-training-battalion-164536406.html">cut off US military training assistance in December</a>, partly out of Abuja's frustration that US concerns over the military's human rights record had blocked any additional aid from Washington. 
The government seems uninterested in remedying the situation. President Goodluck Jonathan is emphasizing the country's economic gains during his presidential campaign - Nigeria <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304819004579485360572851126?autologin=y">passed South Africa as the continent's largest economy last April</a>. And Kenhammer adds that Jonathan is surrounded by political allies from the south and central parts of Nigeria who may not see Boko Haram as a national-level problem. 
"If you look at who's around Goodluck Jonathan there are so few northerners inside that inner circle that I'm genuinely not sure how seriously this is being taken in Abuja," he says. "I think there is a large but influential minority of people who think of this as being a problem those Hausas [the dominant ethnic group in Nigeria's north] are having."
<h3>Boko's Brutality</h3>
Boko Haram has managed to keep up its campaign of violence because of its ability to hold territory in the face of a deficient military and a relatively indifferent central government. That still doesn't explain what the group hopes to gain from its nearly over-the-top brutality - its killing of <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/report-11000-dead-in-boko-haram-insurgency/2475164.html">an estimated 11,000 people</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/world/africa/suicide-bomber-hits-maiduguri-nigeria-market.html">use of kidnapped children as suicide bombers</a>. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53553d65ecad04377b083f7f-1200-858/ap615230102731.jpg" border="0" alt="Boko Haram Nigeria">APIn this Thursday, June 6, 2013 file photo, soldiers stand guard at the offices of the state-run Nigerian Television Authority.</img></div></div></div>Boko Haram's brutality has had the practical effect of scaring off the Nigerian military and sending a grim message to people in northeastern Nigeria about the deadly costs of defying the group. But it also speaks to Boko Haram's particularly extreme worldview. 
"[Abubakr] Shekau is a lunatic," Atallah says of the group's leader." There's nothing between his ears except radicalism. He's a self-absorbed and narcissistic guy who believes he has a solution to the world."
Boko Haram doesn't have as fully developed a jiahdist ideology as ISIS or Al Qaeda does. But Thurston believes they have a stark view of the world that expresses itself through the group's violence. 
"My suspicion is that their brutality is more tactical than ideological," says Thurston. "With that said, I do think that they have a really sharp sense of themselves as an in-group and of everybody else as an outsider."
<div>They also have a motive common to all terrorist groups: the objective of provoking fear and galvanizing both its supporters and its enemies, no matter how horrifying the human cost. </div>
"I think the kidnapping of the Chibok girls was intended to shock the whole world, and it worked," says Thurston. "Their propaganda is not necessarily sophisticated, but they've at least mastered the art of shock."

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