@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

https://youtu.be/-ne8adkjY6A

Orlando gets Bane

Memphis gets KCP, Cole Anthony, and a bunch of picks

This move makes a lot of sense. Orlando needed someone like Bane and Memphis needed to break up their core.

https://stacker.news/items/1007156

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

What is KYC/AML?

• The acronym stands for Know Your Customer / Anti Money Laundering.
• In practice it stands for the surveillance measures companies are often compelled to take against their customers by financial regulators.
• Methods differ but often include: Passport Scans, Driver License Uploads, Social Security Numbers, Home Address, Phone Number, Face Scans.
• Bitcoin companies will also store all withdrawal and deposit addresses which can then be used to track bitcoin transactions on the bitcoin block chain.
• This data is then stored and shared. Regulations often require companies to hold this information for a set number of years but in practice users should assume this data will be held indefinitely. Data is often stored insecurely, which results in frequent hacks and leaks.  
• KYC/AML data collection puts all honest users at risk of theft, extortion, and persecution while being ineffective at stopping crime. Criminals often use counterfeit, bought, or stolen credentials to get around the requirements. Criminals can buy "verified" accounts for as little as $200. Furthermore, billions of people are excluded from financial services as a result of KYC/AML requirements.

During the early days of bitcoin most services did not require this sensitive user data, but as adoption increased so did the surveillance measures. At this point, most large bitcoin companies are collecting and storing massive lists of bitcoiners, our sensitive personal information, and our transaction history.

Lists of Bitcoiners

KYC/AML policies are a direct attack on bitcoiners. Lists of bitcoiners and our transaction history will inevitably be used against us.

Once you are on a list with your bitcoin transaction history that record will always exist. Generally speaking, tracking bitcoin is based on probability analysis of ownership change. Surveillance firms use various heuristics to determine if you are sending bitcoin to yourself or if ownership is actually changing hands.  You can obtain better privacy going forward by using collaborative transactions such as coinjoin to break this probability analysis.

Fortunately, you can buy bitcoin without providing intimate personal information. Tools such as peach, hodlhodl, robosats, azteco and bisq help; mining is also a solid option: anyone can plug a miner into power and internet and earn bitcoin by mining privately.

You can also earn bitcoin by providing goods and/or services that can be purchased with bitcoin. Long term, circular economies will mitigate this threat: most people will not buy bitcoin - they will earn bitcoin - most people will not sell bitcoin - they will spend bitcoin.

There is no such thing as KYC or No KYC bitcoin, there are bitcoiners on lists and those that are not on lists.

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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

The former seems to have found solid product market fit. Expect significant volume, adoption, and usage going forward.

The latter's future remains to be seen. Dependence on Tor, which has had massive reliability issues, and lack of strong privacy guarantees put it at risk.

— ODELL (@ODELL) October 27, 2022

The Basics

• Lightning is a protocol that enables cheap and fast native bitcoin transactions.
• At the core of the protocol is the ability for bitcoin users to create a payment channel with another user.
• These payment channels enable users to make many bitcoin transactions between each other with only two on-chain bitcoin transactions: the channel open transaction and the channel close transaction.
• Essentially lightning is a protocol for interoperable batched bitcoin transactions.
• It is expected that on chain bitcoin transaction fees will increase with adoption and the ability to easily batch transactions will save users significant money.
• As these lightning transactions are processed, liquidity flows from one side of a channel to the other side, on chain transactions are signed by both parties but not broadcasted to update this balance.
• Lightning is designed to be trust minimized, either party in a payment channel can close the channel at any time and their bitcoin will be settled on chain without trusting the other party.

There is no 'Lightning Network'

• Many people refer to the aggregate of all lightning channels as 'The Lightning Network' but this is a false premise.
• There are many lightning channels between many different users and funds can flow across interconnected channels as long as there is a route through peers.
• If a lightning transaction requires multiple hops it will flow through multiple interconnected channels, adjusting the balance of all channels along the route, and paying lightning transaction fees that are set by each node on the route.

Example: You have a channel with Bob. Bob has a channel with Charlie. You can pay Charlie through your channel with Bob and Bob's channel with User C.

• As a result, it is not guaranteed that every lightning user can pay every other lightning user, they must have a route of interconnected channels between sender and receiver.

Lightning in Practice

• Lightning has already found product market fit and usage as an interconnected payment protocol between large professional custodians.
• They are able to easily manage channels and liquidity between each other without trust using this interoperable protocol.
• Lightning payments between large custodians are fast and easy. End users do not have to run their own node or manage their channels and liquidity. These payments rarely fail due to professional management of custodial nodes.
• The tradeoff is one inherent to custodians and other trusted third parties. Custodial wallets can steal funds and compromise user privacy.

Sovereign Lightning

• Trusted third parties are security holes.
• Users must run their own node and manage their own channels in order to use lightning without trusting a third party. This remains the single largest friction point for sovereign lightning usage: the mental burden of actively running a lightning node and associated liquidity management.
• Bitcoin development prioritizes node accessibility so cost to self host your own node is low but if a node is run at home or office, Tor or a VPN is recommended to mask your IP address: otherwise it is visible to the entire network and represents a privacy risk.
• This privacy risk is heightened due to the potential for certain governments to go after sovereign lightning users and compel them to shutdown their nodes. If their IP Address is exposed they are easier to target.
• Fortunately the tools to run and manage nodes continue to get easier but it is important to understand that this will always be a friction point when compared to custodial services.

The Potential Fracture of Lightning

• Any lightning user can choose which users are allowed to open channels with them.
• One potential is that professional custodians only peer with other professional custodians.
• We already see nodes like those run by CashApp only have channels open with other regulated counterparties. This could be due to performance goals, liability reduction, or regulatory pressure.

• Fortunately some of their peers are connected to non-regulated parties so payments to and from sovereign lightning users are still successfully processed by CashApp but this may not always be the case going forward.

Summary

• Many people refer to the aggregate of all lightning channels as 'The Lightning Network' but this is a false premise. There is no singular 'Lightning Network' but rather many payment channels between distinct peers, some connected with each other and some not.
• Lightning as an interoperable payment protocol between professional custodians seems to have found solid product market fit. Expect significant volume, adoption, and usage going forward.
• Lightning as a robust sovereign payment protocol has yet to be battle tested. Heavy reliance on Tor, which has had massive reliability issues, the friction of active liquidity management, significant on chain fee burden for small amounts, interactivity constraints on mobile, and lack of strong privacy guarantees put it at risk.

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If you have never used lightning before, use this guide to get started on your phone.

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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

@matt_odell don't you even dare not ask about nostr!

— Kukks (Andrew Camilleri) (@MrKukks) May 18, 2021

Nostr first hit my radar spring 2021: created by fellow bitcoiner and friend, fiatjaf, and released to the world as free open source software. I was fortunate to be able to host a conversation with him on Citadel Dispatch in those early days, capturing that moment in history forever. Since then, the protocol has seen explosive viral organic growth as individuals around the world have contributed their time and energy to build out the protocol and the surrounding ecosystem due to the clear need for better communication tools.

nostr is to twitter as bitcoin is to paypal

As an intro to nostr, let us start with a metaphor:

twitter is paypal - a centralized platform plagued by censorship but has the benefit of established network effects

nostr is bitcoin - an open protocol that is censorship resistant and robust but requires an organic adoption phase

Nostr is an open communication protocol that can be used to send messages across a distributed set of relays in a censorship resistant and robust way.
 - Anyone can run a relay.
 - Anyone can interact with the protocol.
 - Relays can choose which messages they want to relay.
 - Users are identified by a simple public private key pair that they can generate themselves.

Nostr is often compared to twitter since there are nostr clients that emulate twitter functionality and user interface but that is merely one application of the protocol. Nostr is so much more than a mere twitter competitor. Nostr clients and relays can transmit a wide variety of data and clients can choose how to display that information to users. The result is a revolution in communication with implications that are difficult for any of us to truly comprehend.

Similar to bitcoin, nostr is an open and permissionless protocol. No person, company, or government controls it. Anyone can iterate and build on top of nostr without permission. Together, bitcoin and nostr are incredibly complementary freedom tech tools: censorship resistant, permissionless, robust, and interoperable - money and speech protected by code and incentives, not laws.

As censorship throughout the world continues to escalate, freedom tech provides hope for individuals around the world who refuse to accept the status quo. This movement will succeed on the shoulders of those who choose to stand up and contribute. We will build our own path. A brighter path.

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My Nostr Public Key: npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx

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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

The newly proposed RESTRICT ACT - is being advertised as a TikTok Ban, but is much broader than that, carries a $1M Fine and up to 20 years in prison️! It is unconstitutional and would create massive legal restrictions on the open source movement and free speech throughout the internet.

The Bill was proposed by: Senator Warner, Senator Thune, Senator Baldwin, Senator Fischer, Senator Manchin, Senator Moran, Senator Bennet, Senator Sullivan, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Collins, Senator Heinrich, and Senator Romney. It has broad support across Senators of both parties.

Corrupt politicians will not protect us. They are part of the problem. We must build, support, and learn how to use censorship resistant tools in order to defend our natural rights.

The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Senators Warner and Thune, aims to block or disrupt transactions and financial holdings involving foreign adversaries that pose risks to national security. Although the primary targets of this legislation are companies like Tik-Tok, the language of the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions and, in extreme cases, block Americans’ access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin.

The Act creates a redundant regime paralleling OFAC without clear justification, it significantly limits the ability for injured parties to challenge actions raising due process concerns, and unlike OFAC it lacks any carve-out for protected speech. COINCENTER ON THE RESTRICT ACT

Full Text of Bill

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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Nostr is an open communication protocol that can be used to send messages across a distributed set of relays in a censorship resistant and robust way.

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If you missed my nostr introduction post you can find it here. My nostr account can be found here.

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We are nearly at the point that if something interesting is posted on a centralized social platform it will usually be posted by someone to nostr.

We are nearly at the point that if something interesting is posted exclusively to nostr it is cross posted by someone to various centralized social platforms.

We are nearly at the point that you can recommend a cross platform app that users can install and easily onboard without additional guides or resources.

As companies continue to build walls around their centralized platforms nostr posts will be the easiest to cross reference and verify - as companies continue to censor their users nostr is the best censorship resistant alternative - gradually then suddenly nostr will become the standard. 🫡

Current Nostr Stats

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• The latest firmware updates for COLDCARD devices introduce two major features: COLDCARD Co-sign (CCC) and Key Teleport between two COLDCARD Q devices using QR codes and/or NFC with a website.

What's new

• COLDCARD Co-Sign: When CCC is enabled, a second seed called the Spending Policy Key (Key C) is added to the device. This seed works with the device's Main Seed and one or more additional XPUBs (Backup Keys) to form 2-of-N multisig wallets.
  • The spending policy functions like a hardware security module (HSM), enforcing rules such as magnitude and velocity limits, address whitelisting, and 2FA authentication to protect funds while maintaining flexibility and control, and is enforced each time the Spending Policy Key is used for signing.
  • When spending conditions are met, the COLDCARD signs the partially signed bitcoin transaction (PSBT) with the Main Seed and Spending Policy Key for fund access. Once configured, the Spending Policy Key is required to view or change the policy, and violations are denied without explanation.

"You can override the spending policy at any time by signing with either a Backup Key and the Main Seed or two Backup Keys, depending on the number of keys (N) in the multisig."

• A step-by-step guide for setting up CCC is available here.

• Key Teleport for Q devices allows users to securely transfer sensitive data such as seed phrases (words, xprv), secure notes and passwords, and PSBTs for multisig. It uses QR codes or NFC, along with a helper website, to ensure reliable transmission, keeping your sensitive data protected throughout the process.

  • For more technical details, see the protocol spec.

"After you sign a multisig PSBT, you have option to “Key Teleport” the PSBT file to any one of the other signers in the wallet. We already have a shared pubkey with them, so the process is simple and does not require any action on their part in advance. Plus, starting in this firmware release, COLDCARD can finalize multisig transactions, so the last signer can publish the signed transaction via PushTX (NFC tap) to get it on the blockchain directly."

• Multisig transactions are finalized when sufficiently signed. It streamlines the use of PushTX with multisig wallets.
• Signing artifacts re-export to various media. Users are now provided with the capability to export signing products, like transactions or PSBTs, to alternative media rather than the original source. For example, if a PSBT is received through a QR code, it can be signed and saved onto an SD card if needed.
• Multisig export files are signed now. Public keys are encoded as P2PKH address for all multisg signature exports. Learn more about it here.
• NFC export usability upgrade: NFC keeps exporting until CANCEL/X is pressed.
• Added Bitcoin Safe option to Export Wallet.
• 10% performance improvement in USB upload speed for large files.
• Q: Always choose the biggest possible display size for QR.

Fixes

• Do not allow change Main PIN to same value already used as Trick PIN, even if Trick PIN is hidden.
• Fix stuck progress bar under Receiving... after a USB communications failure.
• Showing derivation path in Address Explorer for root key (m) showed double slash (//).
• Can restore developer backup with custom password other than 12 words format.
• Virtual Disk auto mode ignores already signed PSBTs (with “-signed” in file name).
• Virtual Disk auto mode stuck on “Reading…” screen sometimes.
• Finalization of foreign inputs from partial signatures. Thanks Christian Uebber!
• Temporary seed from COLDCARD backup failed to load stored multisig wallets.
• Destroy Seed also removes all Trick PINs from SE2.
• Lock Down Seed requires pressing confirm key (4) to execute.
• Q only: Only BBQr is allowed to export Coldcard, Core, and pretty descriptor.

Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
CCC Guide
Key Teleport site

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Humanity's Natural State Is Chaos
Without order there is chaos. Humans competing with each other for scarce resources naturally leads to conflict until one group achieves significant power and instates a "monopoly on violence."

Power Brings Stability
Power has always been the key means to achieve stability in societies. Centralized power can be incredibly effective in addressing issues such as crime, poverty, and social unrest efficiently. Unfortunately this power is often abused and corrupted.

Centralized Power Breeds Tyranny
Centralized power often leads to tyrannical rule. When a select few individuals hold control over a society, they tend to become corrupted. Centralized power structures often lack accountability and transparency, and rely too heavily on trust.

Distributed Power Cultivates Freedom
New technology that empowers individuals provide us the ability to rebuild societies from the bottom up. Strong individuals that can defend and provide for themselves will help build strong local communities on a similar foundation. The result is power being distributed throughout society rather than held by a select few.

In the short term, relying on trust and centralized power is an easy answer to mitigating chaos, but freedom tech tools provide us the ability to build on top of much stronger distributed foundations that provide stability while also cultivating individual freedom.

The solution starts with us. Empower yourself. Empower others. A grassroots freedom tech movement scaling one person at a time.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

For years American bitcoin miners have argued for more efficient and free energy markets. It benefits everyone if our energy infrastructure is as efficient and robust as possible. Unfortunately, broken incentives have led to increased regulation throughout the sector, incentivizing less efficient energy sources such as solar and wind at the detriment of more efficient alternatives.

The result has been less reliable energy infrastructure for all Americans and increased energy costs across the board. This naturally has a direct impact on bitcoin miners: increased energy costs make them less competitive globally.

Bitcoin mining represents a global energy market that does not require permission to participate. Anyone can plug a mining computer into power and internet to get paid the current dynamic market price for their work in bitcoin. Using cellphone or satellite internet, these mines can be located anywhere in the world, sourcing the cheapest power available.

Absent of regulation, bitcoin mining naturally incentivizes the build out of highly efficient and robust energy infrastructure. Unfortunately that world does not exist and burdensome regulations remain the biggest threat for US based mining businesses. Jurisdictional arbitrage gives miners the option of moving to a friendlier country but that naturally comes with its own costs.

Enter AI. With the rapid development and release of AI tools comes the requirement of running massive datacenters for their models. Major tech companies are scrambling to secure machines, rack space, and cheap energy to run full suites of AI enabled tools and services. The most valuable and powerful tech companies in America have stumbled into an accidental alliance with bitcoin miners: THE NEED FOR CHEAP AND RELIABLE ENERGY.

Our government is corrupt. Money talks. These companies will push for energy freedom and it will greatly benefit us all.

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Microsoft Cloud hiring to "implement global small modular reactor and microreactor" strategy to power data centers: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-cloud-hiring-to-implement-global-small-modular-reactor-and-microreactor-strategy-to-power-data-centers/

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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Headlines

• Twenty One Capital is set to launch with over 42,000 BTC in its treasury. This new Bitcoin-native firm, backed by Tether and SoftBank, is planned to go public via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will be led by Jack Mallers, co-founder and CEO of Strike. According to a report by the Financial Times, the company aims to replicate the model of Michael Saylor with his company, MicroStrategy.
• Florida's SB 868 proposes a backdoor into encrypted platforms. The bill and its House companion have both passed through their respective committees and are headed to a full vote. If enacted, SB 868 would require social media companies to decrypt teens' private messages, ban disappearing messages, allow unrestricted parental access to private messages, and likely eliminate encryption for all minors altogether.
• Paul Atkins has officially assumed the role of the 34th Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a return to the agency for Atkins, who previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. He has committed to advancing the SEC’s mission of fostering capital formation, safeguarding investors, and ensuring fair and efficient markets.
• Solosatoshi.com has sold over 10,000 open-source miners, adding more than 10 PH of hashpower to the Bitcoin network.

"Thank you, Bitaxe community. OSMU developers, your brilliance built this. Supporters, your belief drives us. Customers, your trust powers 10,000+ miners and 10PH globally. Together, we’re decentralizing Bitcoin’s future. Last but certainly not least, thank you@skot9000 for not only creating a freedom tool, but instilling the idea into thousands of people, that Bitcoin mining can be for everyone again," said the firm on X.

• OCEAN's DATUM has found 100 blocks. "Over 65% of OCEAN’s miners are using DATUM, and that number is growing every day. This means block template construction is making its way back into the hands of the miners, which is not only the most profitable for miners on OCEAN but also one of the best things for Bitcoin," stated the mining pool.

Source: orangesurf

• Arch Labs has secured $13 million to develop "ArchVM" and integrate smart-contract functionality with Bitcoin. The funding round, valuing the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, as announced on Tuesday.
• Tesla still holds nearly $1 billion in bitcoin. According to the automaker's latest earnings report, the firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31.
• The European Central Bank is pushing for amendments to the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets legislation (MiCA), just months after its implementation. According to Politico's report on Tuesday, the ECB is concerned that U.S. support for cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, could cause economic harm to the 27-nation bloc.
• TABConf 2025 is scheduled to take place from October 13-16, 2025. This prominent technical Bitcoin conference is dedicated to community building, education, and developer support, and it is set to return in October. Get your tickets here.
• Kaduna Lightning Development Bootcamp. From May 14th to 17th, the Bitcoin Lightning Developer Bootcamp will take place in Kaduna, Nigeria. Thisevent offers four dynamic days of coding, learning, and networking. Organized by Africa Free Routing and supported by Btrust, Tether, and African Bitcoiners, this bootcamp is designed as a gateway for African developers eager to advance their skills in Bitcoin and Lightning development. Apply here.

Source: African Bitcoiners.

Use the tools

• Core Lightning (CLN) v25.02.2 as been released to fix a broken Docker image. The issue was caused by an SQLite version that did not support an advanced query.
• Blitz wallet v0.4.4-beta introduces several updates and improvements, including the prevention of duplicate ecash payments, fixes for background ecash invoice handling, the ability for users to send payments to BOLT12 invoices from their Liquid balance, support for Blink QR codes, a lowered minimum amount for Lightning-to-Liquid payments to 100 sats, the option to initiate a node sync via a swipe gesture on the wallet's home screen, and the introduction of opt-in or opt-out functionality for newly implemented crash analytics via settings.
• Utreexo v0.5.0, a hash-based dynamic accumulator, is now available.
• Specter v2.1.1 is now available on StartOS. "This update brings compatibility with Bitcoin Core v28 and incorporates several upstream improvements," said developer Alex71btc.
• ESP-Miner (AxeOS) v2.7.0b1 is now available for testing.
• NodeGuard v0.16.1, a treasury management solution for Lightning nodes, has been released.
• The latest stacker.news updates include prompts to add a receiving wallet when posting or making comments (for new users), an option to randomize poll choices, improved URL search, and a few other enhancements. A bug fix for territories created after 9/19/24 has been implemented to reward 70% of their revenue to owners instead of 50%.

Other stuff

• The April edition of the 256 Foundation's newsletter is now available. It includes the latest mining news, Bitcoin network health updates, project developments, and a tutorial on how to update FutureBit's Apollo 1 to the Apollo 2 software.
• Siggy47 has posted a comprehensive RoboSats guide on stacker.news.
• Learn how to run your own Nostr relay using Citrine and Cloudflare Tunnels by following this step-by-step guide by Dhalism.
• Max Guise has written a Bitkey roadmap update for April 2025.

• PlebLab has uploaded a video on how to build a Rust wallet with LDK Node by Ben Carman.

• Do you want more? Subscribe and get No Bullshit GM report straight to your mailbox and No Bullshit Bitcoin on Nostr.

• Feedback or tips? Drop it here.
• #FREESAMOURAI

Sign up for No Bullshit Bitcoin

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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Good morning (good night?)! The No Bullshit Bitcoin news feed is now available on Moody's Dashboard! A huge shoutout to sir Clark Moody for integrating our feed.

Headlines

• Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.

• The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
• Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
• Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.

• The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) wants to contain 'crypto' risks. A report titled "Cryptocurrencies and Decentralised Finance: Functions and Financial Stability Implications" calls for expanding research into "how new forms of central bank money, capital controls, and taxation policies can counter the risks of widespread crypto adoption while still fostering technological innovation."
• "Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking, and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia." According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, criminal organizations from East and Southeast Asia are swiftly extending their global reach. These groups are moving beyond traditional scams and trafficking, creating sophisticated online networks that include unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges, encrypted communication platforms, and stablecoins, fueling a massive fraud economy on an industrial scale.
• Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
• Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.

"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.

• Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.

Use the tools

• Bitcoin Safe v1.2.3 expands QR SignMessage compatibility for all QR-UR-compatible hardware signers (SpecterDIY, KeyStone, Passport, Jade; already supported COLDCARD Q). It also adds the ability to import wallets via QR, ensuring compatibility with Keystone's latest firmware (2.0.6), alongside other improvements.
• Minibits v0.2.2-beta, an ecash wallet for Android devices, packages many changes to align the project with the planned iOS app release. New features and improvements include the ability to lock ecash to a receiver's pubkey, faster confirmations of ecash minting and payments thanks to WebSockets, UI-related fixes, and more.
• Zeus v0.11.0-alpha1 introduces Cashu wallets tied to embedded LND wallets. Navigate to Settings > Ecash to enable it. Other wallet types can still sweep funds from Cashu tokens. Zeus Pay now supports Cashu address types in Zaplocker, Cashu, and NWC modes.
• LNDg v1.10.0, an advanced web interface designed for analyzing Lightning Network Daemon (LND) data and automating node management tasks, introduces performance improvements, adds a new metrics page for unprofitable and stuck channels, and displays warnings for batch openings. The Profit and Loss Chart has been updated to include on-chain costs. Advanced settings have been added for users who would like their channel database size to be read remotely (the default remains local). Additionally, the AutoFees tool now uses aggregated pubkey metrics for multiple channels with the same peer.
• Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.45 release brings the latest bug fixes and improvements.
• Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.8 has renamed L-BTC to LBTC, and improves translations of notifications, login time, and background payments.
• Blockstream Green Android v4.1.8 has added language preference in App Settings and enables an Android data backup option for disaster recovery. Additionally, it fixes issues with Jade entry point PIN timeout and Trezor passphrase input.
• Torq v2.2.2, an advanced Lightning node management software designed to handle large nodes with over 1000 channels, fixes bugs that caused channel balance to not be updated in some cases and channel "peer total local balance" not getting updated.
• Stack Wallet v2.1.12, a multicoin wallet by Cypher Stack, fixes an issue with Xelis introduced in the latest release for Windows.
• ESP-Miner-NerdQAxePlus v1.0.29.1, a forked version from the NerdAxe miner that was modified for use on the NerdQAxe+, is now available.
• Zark enables sending sats to an npub using Bark.

• Erk is a novel variation of the Ark protocol that completely removes the need for user interactivity in rounds, addressing one of Ark's key limitations: the requirement for users to come online before their VTXOs expire.
• Aegis v0.1.1 is now available. It is a Nostr event signer app for iOS devices.
• Nostash is a NIP-07 Nostr signing extension for Safari. It is a fork of Nostore and is maintained by Terry Yiu. Available on iOS TestFlight.
• Amber v3.2.8, a Nostr event signer for Android, delivers the latest fixes and improvements.
• Nostur v1.20.0, a Nostr client for iOS, adds

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

News

• Bitcoin mining centralization in 2025. According to a blog post by b10c, Bitcoin mining was at its most decentralized in May 2017, with another favorable period from 2019 to 2022. However, starting in 2023, mining has become increasingly centralized, particularly due to the influence of large pools like Foundry and the use of proxy pooling by entities such as AntPool.

Source: b10c's blog.

• OpenSats announces the eleventh wave of Nostr grants. The five projects in this wave are the mobile live-streaming app Swae, the Nostr-over-ham-radio project HAMSTR, Vertex—a Web-of-Trust (WOT) service for Nostr developers, Nostr Double Ratchet for end-to-end encrypted messaging, and the Nostr Game Engine for building games and applications integrated with the Nostr ecosystem.
• New Spiral grantee: l0rinc. In February 2024, l0rinc transitioned to full-time work on Bitcoin Core. His efforts focus on performance benchmarking and optimizations, enhancing code quality, conducting code reviews, reducing block download times, optimizing memory usage, and refactoring code.
• Project Eleven offers 1 BTC to break Bitcoin's cryptography with a quantum computer. The quantum computing research organization has introduced the Q-Day Prize, a global challenge that offers 1 BTC to the first team capable of breaking an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) key using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer. The prize will be awarded to the first team to successfully accomplish this breakthrough by April 5, 2026.
• Unchained has launched the Bitcoin Legacy Project. The initiative seeks to advance the Bitcoin ecosystem through a bitcoin-native donor-advised fund platform (DAF), investments in community hubs, support for education and open-source development, and a commitment to long-term sustainability with transparent annual reporting.
  • In its first year, the program will provide support to Bitcoin hubs in Nashville, Austin, and Denver.
  • Support also includes $50,000 to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a $150,000 commitment at the University of Austin, and up to $250,000 in research grants through the Bitcoin Scholars program.

"Unchained will match grants 1:1 made to partner organizations who support Bitcoin Core development when made through the Unchained-powered bitcoin DAF, up to 1 BTC," was stated in a blog post.

• Block launched open-source tools for Bitcoin treasury management. These include a dashboard for managing corporate bitcoin holdings and provides a real-time BTC-to-USD price quote API, released as part of the Block Open Source initiative. The company’s own instance of the bitcoin holdings dashboard is available here.

Source: block.xyz

• Bull Bitcoin expands to Mexico, enabling anyone in the country to receive pesos from anywhere in the world straight from a Bitcoin wallet. Additionally, users can now buy Bitcoin with a Mexican bank account.

"Bull Bitcoin strongly believes in Bitcoin’s economic potential in Mexico, not only for international remittances and tourism, but also for Mexican individuals and companies to reclaim their financial sovereignty and protect their wealth from inflation and the fragility of traditional financial markets," said Francis Pouliot, Founder and CEO of Bull Bitcoin.

• Corporate bitcoin holdings hit a record high in Q1 2025. According to Bitwise, public companies' adoption of Bitcoin has hit an all-time high. In Q1 2025, these firms collectively hold over 688,000 BTC, marking a 16.11% increase from the previous quarter. This amount represents 3.28% of Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply.

Source: Bitwise.

• The Bitcoin Bond Company for institutions has launched with the aim of acquiring $1 trillion in Bitcoin over 21 years. It utilizes secure, transparent, and compliant bond-like products backed by Bitcoin.
• The U.S. Senate confirmed Paul Atkins as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At his confirmation hearing, Atkins emphasized the need for a clear framework for digital assets. He aims to collaborate with the CFTC and Congress to address jurisdiction and rulemaking gaps, aligning with the Trump administration's goal to position the U.S. as a leader in Bitcoin and blockchain finance.
• Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has been released from custody. Griffith, whose sentence was reduced to 56 months, is now seeking a pardon. He was initially sentenced to 63 months for allegedly violating international sanctions laws by providing technical advice on using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to evade sanctions during a presentation titled 'Blockchains for Peace' in North Korea.
• No-KYC exchange eXch to close down under money laundering scrutiny. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency trading platform said it will cease operations on May 1. This decision follows allegations that the platform was used by North Korea's Lazarus Group for money laundering. eXch revealed it is the subject of an active "transatlantic operation" aimed at shutting down the platform and prosecuting its team for "money laundering and terrorism."
• Blockstream combats ESP32 FUD concerning Jade signers. The company stated that after reviewing the vulnerability disclosed in early March, Jade was found to be secure. Espressif Systems, the designer of the ESP32, has since clarified that the "undocumented commands" do not constitute a "backdoor."

• Bank of America is lobbying for regulations that favor banks over tech firms in stablecoin issuance. The bank's CEO Brian Moynihan is working with groups such as the American Bankers Association to advance the issuance of a fully reserved, 1:1 backed "Bank of America coin." If successful, this could limit stablecoin efforts by non-banks like Tether, Circle, and others, reports The Block.
• Tether to back OCEAN Pool with its hashrate. "As a company committed to financial freedom and open access, we see supporting decentralization in Bitcoin mining as essential to the network’s long-term integrity," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
• Bitdeer to expand its self-mining operations to navigate tariffs. The Singapore-based mining company is advancing plans to produce machines in the U.S. while reducing its mining hardware sales. This response is in light of increasing uncertainties related to U.S. trade policy, as reported by Bloomberg.
• Tether acquires $32M in Bitdeer shares. The firm has boosted its investment in Bitdeer during a wider market sell-off, with purchases in early to mid-April amounting to about $32 million, regulatory filings reveal.
• US Bitcoin miner manufacturer Auradine has raised $153 million in a Series C funding round as it expands into AI infrastructure. The round was led by StepStone Group and included participation from Maverick Silicon, Premji Invest, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Mayfield, MARA Holdings, GSBackers, and other existing investors. The firm raised to over $300 million since its inception in 2022.
• Voltage has partnered with BitGo to [enable](https://www.voltage.cloud/blog/bitgo-and-voltage-team-up-to-deliver-instant-bitcoin-and-stabl

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News

• Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.
• Spiral renews support for Dan Gould and Joschisan. The organization has renewed support for Dan Gould, who is developing the Payjoin Dev Kit (PDK), and Joschisan, a Fedimint developer focused on simplifying federations.
• The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
• The European Central Bank is pushing for amendments to the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets legislation (MiCA), just months after its implementation. According to Politico's report on Tuesday, the ECB is concerned that U.S. support for cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, could cause economic harm to the 27-nation bloc.
• Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
• The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill 2025 introduced in Kenya. The new legislation aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for licensing, regulating, and supervising virtual asset service providers (VASPs), with strict penalties for non-compliant entities.
• Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.

"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.

• Paul Atkins has officially assumed the role of the 34th Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a return to the agency for Atkins, who previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. He has committed to advancing the SEC’s mission of fostering capital formation, safeguarding investors, and ensuring fair and efficient markets.
• Federal Reserve retracts guidance discouraging banks from engaging in 'crypto.' The U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew guidance that discouraged banks from crypto and stablecoin activities, as announced by its Board of Governors on Thursday. This includes rescinding a 2022 supervisory letter requiring prior notification of crypto activities and 2023 stablecoin requirements.

"As a result, the Board will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead monitor banks' crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process," reads the FED statement.

• Russian government to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The country's Ministry of Finance and Central Bank announced plans to establish a trading platform for "highly qualified investors" that "will legalize crypto assets and bring crypto operations out of the shadows."
• Twenty One Capital is set to launch with over 42,000 BTC in its treasury. This new Bitcoin-native firm, backed by Tether and SoftBank, is planned to go public via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will be led by Jack Mallers, co-founder and CEO of Strike. According to a report by the Financial Times, the company aims to replicate the model of Michael Saylor with his company, MicroStrategy.
• Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
• Metaplanet buys another 145 BTC. The Tokyo-listed company has purchased an additional 145 BTC for $13.6 million. Their total bitcoin holdings now stand at 5,000 coins, worth around $428.1 million.
• Semler Scientific has increased its bitcoin holdings to 3,303 BTC. The company acquired an additional 111 BTC at an average price of $90,124. The purchase was funded through proceeds from an at-the-market offering and cash reserves, as stated in a press release.
• Tesla still holds nearly $1 billion in bitcoin. According to the automaker's latest earnings report, the firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31.
• Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.

• Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.
• Arch Labs has secured $13 million to develop "ArchVM" and integrate smart-contract functionality with Bitcoin. The funding round, valuing the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, as announced on Tuesday.
• Citrea deployed its Clementine Bridge on the Bitcoin testnet. The bridge utilizes the BitVM2 programming language to inherit validity from Bitcoin, allegedly providing "the safest and most trust-minimized way to use BTC in decentralized finance."
• UAE-based Islamic bank ruya launches Shari’ah-compliant bitcoin investing. The bank has become the world’s first Islamic bank to provide direct access to virtual asset investments, including Bitcoin, via its mobile app, per Bitcoin Magazine.
• Solosatoshi.com has sold over 10,000 open-source miners, adding more than 10 PH of hashpower to the Bitcoin network.

"Thank you, Bitaxe community. OSMU developers, your brilliance built this. Supporters, your belief drives us. Customers, your trust powers 10,000+ miners and 10PH globally. Together, we’re decentralizing Bitcoin’s future. Last but certainly not least, thank you@skot9000 for not only creating a freedom tool, but instilling the idea into thousands of people, that Bitcoin mining can be for everyone again," said the firm on X.

• OCEAN's DATUM has found 100 blocks. "Over 65% of OCEAN’s miners are using DATUM, and that number is growing every day. This means block template construction is making its way back into the hands of the miners, which is not only the most profitable

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Headlines

• Spiral renews support for Dan Gould and Joschisan. The organization has renewed support for Dan Gould, who is developing the Payjoin Dev Kit (PDK), and Joschisan, a Fedimint developer focused on simplifying federations.
• Metaplanet buys another 145 BTC. The Tokyo-listed company has purchased an additional 145 BTC for $13.6 million. Their total bitcoin holdings now stand at 5,000 coins, worth around $428.1 million.
• Semler Scientific has increased its bitcoin holdings to 3,303 BTC. The company acquired an additional 111 BTC at an average price of $90,124. The purchase was funded through proceeds from an at-the-market offering and cash reserves, as stated in a press release.
• The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill 2025 introduced in Kenya. The new legislation aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for licensing, regulating, and supervising virtual asset service providers (VASPs), with strict penalties for non-compliant entities.
• Russian government to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The country's Ministry of Finance and Central Bank announced plans to establish a trading platform for "highly qualified investors" that "will legalize crypto assets and bring crypto operations out of the shadows."
• All virtual asset service providers expect to be fully compliant with the Travel Rule by the end of 2025. A survey by financial surveillance specialist Notabene reveals that 90% of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) expect full Travel Rule compliance by mid-2025, with all aiming for compliance by year-end. The survey also shows a significant rise in VASPs blocking withdrawals until beneficiary information is confirmed, increasing from 2.9% in 2024 to 15.4% now. Additionally, about 20% of VASPs return deposits if originator data is missing.
• UN claims Bitcoin mining is a "powerful tool" for money laundering. The Rage's analysis suggests that the recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report on crime in South-East Asia makes little sense and hints at the potential introduction of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures at the mining level.
• Riot Platforms has obtained a $100 million credit facility from Coinbase Credit, using bitcoin as collateral for short-term funding to support its expansion. The firm's CEO, Jason Les, stated that this facility is crucial for diversifying financing sources and driving long-term stockholder value through strategic growth initiatives.
• Bitdeer raises $179M in loans and equity amid Bitcoin chip push. The Miner Mag reports that Bitdeer entered into a loan agreement with its affiliate Matrixport for up to $200 million in April, as disclosed in its annual report filed on Monday.
• Federal Reserve retracts guidance discouraging banks from engaging in 'crypto.' The U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew guidance that discouraged banks from crypto and stablecoin activities, as announced by its Board of Governors on Thursday. This includes rescinding a 2022 supervisory letter requiring prior notification of crypto activities and 2023 stablecoin requirements.

"As a result, the Board will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead monitor banks' crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process," reads the FED statement.

• UAE-based Islamic bank ruya launches Shari’ah-compliant bitcoin investing. The bank has become the world’s first Islamic bank to provide direct access to virtual asset investments, including Bitcoin, via its mobile app, per Bitcoin Magazine.
• U.S. 'crypto' scam losses amounted to $9.3B in 2024. The US The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported $9.3 billion losses in cryptocurrency-related scams in 2024, noting a troubling trend of scams targeting older Americans, which accounted for over $2.8 billion of those losses.

Source: FBI.

• North Korean hackers establish fake companies to target 'crypto' developers. Silent Push researchers reported that hackers linked to the Lazarus Group created three shell companies, two of which are based in the U.S., with the objective of spreading malware through deceptive job interview scams aimed at individuals seeking jobs in cryptocurrency companies.
• Citrea deployed its Clementine Bridge on the Bitcoin testnet. The bridge utilizes the BitVM2 programming language to inherit validity from Bitcoin, allegedly providing "the safest and most trust-minimized way to use BTC in decentralized finance."
• Hesperides University offers a Master’s degree in Bitcoin. Bitcoin Magazine reports the launch of the first-ever Spanish-language Master’s program dedicated exclusively to Bitcoin. Starting April 28, 2025, this fully online program will equip professionals with technical, economic, legal, and philosophical skills to excel in the Bitcoin era.
• BTC in D.C. event is set to take place on September 30 - October 1 in Washington, D.C. Learn more about this initiative here.

Use the tools

• Bitcoin Keeper just got a new look. Version 2.2.0 of the mobile multisig app brought a new branding design, along with a Keeper Private tier, testnet support, ability to import and export BIP-329 labels, and the option to use a Server Key with multiple users.
  • Earlier this month the project also announced Keeper Learn service, offering clear and guided Bitcoin learning sessions for both groups and individuals.
• Keeper Desktop v0.2.2, a companion desktop app for Bitcoin Keeper mobile app, received a renewed branding update, too.

The evolution of Bitcoin Keeper logo. Source: BitHyve blog.

• Blockstream Green Desktop v2.0.25 updates GDK to v0.75.1 and fixes amount parsing issues when switching from fiat denomination to Liquid asset.
• Lightning Loop v0.31.0-beta enhances the loop listswaps command by improving the ability to filter the response.
• Lightning-kmp v1.10.0, an implementation of the Lightning Network in Kotlin, is now available.
• LND v0.19.0-beta.rc3, the latest beta release candidate of LND is now ready for testing.
• ZEUS v0.11.0-alpha2 is now available for testing, too. It's nuts.
• JoinMarket Fidelity Bond Simulator helps potential JoinMarket makers evaluate their competitive position in the market based on fidelity bonds.
• UTXOscope is a text-only Bitcoin blockchain analysis tool that visualizes price dynamics using only on-chain data. The

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• RoboSats v0.7.7-alpha is now available!

NOTE: "This version of clients is not compatible with older versions of coordinators. Coordinators must upgrade first, make sure you don't upgrade your client while this is marked as pre-release."

• This version brings a new and improved coordinators view with reviews signed both by the robot and the coordinator, adds market price sources in coordinator profiles, shows a correct warning for canceling non-taken orders after a payment attempt, adds Uzbek sum currency, and includes package library updates for coordinators.

Source: RoboSats.

• siggy47 is writing daily RoboSats activity reviews on stacker.news. Check them out here.
• Stay up-to-date with RoboSats on Nostr.

What's new

• New coordinators view (see the picture above).
• Available coordinator reviews signed by both the robot and the coordinator.
• Coordinators now display market price sources in their profiles.

Source: RoboSats.

• Fix for wrong message on cancel button when taking an order. Users are now warned if they try to cancel a non taken order after a payment attempt.
• Uzbek sum currency now available.
• For coordinators: library updates.
• Add docker frontend (#1861).
• Add order review token (#1869).
• Add UZS migration (#1875).
• Fixed tests review (#1878).
• Nostr pubkey for Robot (#1887).

New contributors

• @hexlorn made their first contribution in #1858.
• @umk0m1qk made their first contribution in #1864.

Full Changelog: v0.7.6-alpha...v0.7.7-alpha

GitHub Repo

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• Wasabi Wallet v2.6.0 "Prometheus" is a major update for the project, focused on resilience and independence from centralized systems.
• Key features include support for BIP 158 block filters for direct node synchronization, a revamped full node integration for easier setup without third-party reliance, SLIP 39 share backups for flexible wallet recovery (sponsored by Trezor), and a Nostr-based update manager for censorship-resistant updates.
• Additional improvements include UI bug fixes, a new fallback for transaction broadcasting, updated code signing, stricter JSON serialization, and options to avoid third-party rate providers, alongside various under-the-hood enhancements.

This new version brings us closer to our ultimate goal: ensuring Wasabi is future-proof," said the developers, while also highlighting the following key areas of focus for the project:

• Ensuring users can always fully and securely use their client.
• Making contribution and forks easy through a codebase of the highest quality possible: understandable, maintainable, and improvable.

"As we achieve our survival goals, expect more cutting-edge improvements in Bitcoin privacy and self-custody. Thank you for the trust you place in us by using Wasabi," was stated in the release notes.

What's new

• Support for Standard BIP 158 Block Filters. Wasabi now syncs using BIP 158 filters without a backend/indexer, connecting directly to a user's node. This boosts sync speed, resilience, and allows full sovereignty without specific server dependency.
• Full Node Integration Rework. The old integration has been replaced with a simpler, more adaptable system. It’s not tied to a specific Bitcoin node fork, doesn’t need the node on the same machine as Wasabi, and requires no changes to the node’s setup.
  • "Simply enable the RPC server on your node and point Wasabi to it," said the developers. This ensures all Bitcoin network activities—like retrieving blocks, fee estimations, block filters, and transaction broadcasting—go through your own node, avoiding reliance on third parties.
• Create & Recover SLIP 39 Shares. Users now create and recover wallets with multiple share backups using SLIP 39 standard.

"Special thanks to Trezor (SatoshiLabs) for sponsoring this amazing feature."

• Nostr Update Manager. This version implements a pioneering system with the Nostr protocol for update information and downloads, replacing reliance on GitHub. This enhances the project's resilience, ensuring updates even if GitHub is unavailable, while still verifying updates with the project's secure certificate.
• Updated Avalonia to v11.2.7, fixes for UI bugs (including restoring Minimize on macOS Sequoia).
• Added a configurable third-party fallback for broadcasting transactions if other methods fail.
• Replaced Windows Code Signing Certificate with Azure Trusted Signing.
• Many bug fixes, improved codebase, and enhanced CI pipeline.
• Added the option to avoid using any third-party Exchange Rate and Fee Rate providers (Wasabi can work without them).
• Rebuilt all JSON Serialization mechanisms avoiding default .NET converters. Serialization is now stricter.

Full Changelog: v2.5.1...v2.6.0

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

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News

• Wallet of Satoshi teases a comeback in the US market with a non-custodial product. According to an announcement on X, the widely popular custodial Lightning wallet is preparing to re-enter the United States market with a non-custodial wallet. It is unclear whether the product will be open-source, but the project has clarified that "there will be no KYC on any Wallet of Satoshi, ever!" Wallet of Satoshi ceased serving customers in the United States in November 2023.

• Vulnerability disclosure: Remote crash due to addr message spam in Bitcoin Core versions before v29. Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot disclosed an integer overflow bug that crashes a node if spammed with addr messages over an extended period. A fix was released on April 14, 2025, in Bitcoin Core v29.0. The issue is rated Low severity.
• Coinbase Know Your Customer (KYC) data leak. The U.S. Department of Justice, including its Criminal Division in Washington, is investigating a cyberattack on Coinbase. The incident involved cybercriminals attempting to extort $20 million from Coinbase to prevent stolen customer data from being leaked online. Although the data breach affected less than 1% of the exchange's users, Coinbase now faces at least six lawsuits following the revelation that some customer support agents were bribed as part of the extortion scheme.
• Fold has launched Bitcoin Gift Cards, enabling users to purchase bitcoin for personal use or as gifts, redeemable via the Fold app. These cards are currently available on Fold’s website and are planned to expand to major retailers nationwide later this year.

"Our mission is to make bitcoin simple and approachable for everyone. The Bitcoin Gift Card brings bitcoin to millions of Americans in a familiar way. Available at the places people already shop, the Bitcoin Gift Card is the best way to gift bitcoin to others," said Will Reeves, Chairman and CEO of Fold.

• Corporate treasuries hold nearly 1.1 million BTC, representing about 5.5% of the total circulating supply (1,082,164 BTC), per BitcoinTreasuries.net data. Recent purchases include Strategy adding 7,390 BTC (total: 576,230 BTC), Metplanet acquiring 1,004 BTC (total: 7,800 BTC), Tether holding over 100,521 BTC, and XXI Capital, led by Jack Mallers, starting with 31,500 BTC.
  • Meanwhile, a group of investors has filed a class action lawsuit against Strategy and its executive Michael Saylor. The lawsuit alleges that Strategy made overly optimistic projections using fair value accounting under new FASB rules while downplaying potential losses.
• The U.S. Senate voted to advance the GENIUS stablecoin bill for further debate before a final vote to pass it. Meanwhile, the House is crafting its own stablecoin legislation to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins and their issuers in the U.S, reports CoinDesk.
• French 'crypto' entrepreneurs get priority access to emergency police services. French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, agreed on measures to enhance security for 'crypto' professionals during a meeting on Friday. This follows a failed kidnapping attempt on Tuesday targeting the family of a cryptocurrency exchange CEO, and two other kidnappings earlier this year.
• Brussels Court declares tracking-based ads illegal in EU. The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled tracking-based online ads illegal in the EU due to an inadequate consent model. Major tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and X are affected by the decision, as their consent pop-ups fail to protect privacy in real-time bidding, writes The Record.
• Telegram shares data on 22,777 users in Q1 2025, a significant increase from the 5,826 users' data shared during the same period in 2024. This significant increase follows the arrest of CEO and founder Pavel Durov last year.
• An Australian judge has ruled that Bitcoin is money, potentially exempting it from capital gains tax in the country. If upheld on appeal, this interim decision could lead to taxpayer refunds worth up to $1 billion, per tax lawyer Adrian Cartland.

Use the tools

• Bitcoin Safe v1.3.0 a secure and user-friendly Bitcoin savings wallet for beginners and advanced users, introduces an interactive chart, Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) support, testnet4 compatibility, preconfigured testnet demo wallets, various bug fixes, and other improvements.
• BlueWallet v7.1.8 brings numerous bug fixes, dependency updates, and a new search feature for addresses and transactions.
• Aqua Wallet v0.3.0 is out, offering beta testing for the reloadable Dolphin card (in partnership with Visa) for spending bitcoin and Liquid BTC. It also includes a new Optical Character Recognition (OCR) text scanner to read text addresses like QR codes, colored numbers on addresses for better readability, a reduced minimum for spending and swapping Liquid Bitcoin to 100 sats, plus other fixes and enhancements.

Source: Aqua wallet.

• The latest firmware updates for COLDCARD Mk4 v5.4.3 and Q v1.3.3 are now available, featuring the latest enhancements and bug fixes.
• Nunchuk Android v1.9.68.1 and iOS v1.9.79 introduce support for custom blockchain explorers, wallet archiving, re-ordering wallets on the home screen via long-press, and an anti-fee sniping setting.
• BDK-cli v1.0.0, a CLI wallet library and REPL tool to demo and test the BDK library, now uses bdk_wallet 1.0.0 and integrates Kyoto, utilizing the Kyoto protocol for compact block filters. It sets SQLite as the default database and discontinues support for sled.
• publsp is a new command-line tool designed for Lightning node runners or Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) to advertise liquidity offers over Nostr.

"LSPs advertise liquidity as addressable Kind 39735 events. Clients just pull and evaluate all those structured events, then NIP-17 DM an LSP of their choice to coordinate a liquidity purchase," writes developer smallworlnd.

• Lightning Blinder by Super Testnet is a proof-of-concept privacy tool for the Lightning Network. It enables users to mislead Lightning Service Providers (LSPs) by making it appear as though one wallet is the sender or recipient, masking the original wallet. Explore and try it out here.

• Mempal v1.5.3, a Bitcoin mempool monitoring and notification app for Android, now includes a swipe-down feature to refresh the dashboard, a custom time option for widget auto-update frequency, and a

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Bank run on every crypto bank then bank run on every "real" bank.

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

Good morning.

It looks like PacWest will fail today. It will be both the fifth largest bank failure in US history and the sixth major bank to fail this year. It will likely get purchased by one of the big four banks in a government orchestrated sale.  

March 8th - Silvergate Bank
March 10th - Silicon Valley Bank
March 12th - Signature Bank
March 19th - Credit Suisse
May 1st - First Republic Bank
May 4th - PacWest Bank?

PacWest is the first of many small regional banks that will go under this year. Most will get bought by the big four in gov orchestrated sales. This has been the playbook since 2008. Follow the incentives. Massive consolidation across the banking industry. PacWest gonna be a drop in the bucket compared to what comes next.

First, a hastened government led bank consolidation, then a public/private partnership with the remaining large banks to launch a surveilled and controlled digital currency network. We will be told it is more convenient. We will be told it is safer. We will be told it will prevent future bank runs. All of that is marketing bullshit. The goal is greater control of money. The ability to choose how we spend it and how we save it. If you control the money - you control the people that use it.

---

If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

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This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:

• Recent Blocks View: Added to the Send tab and inspired by Mempool's visualization, it displays the last 2 blocks and the estimated next block to help choose fee rates.
• Camera System Overhaul: Features a new library for higher resolution detection and mouse-scroll zoom support when available.
• Vector-Based Images: All app images are now vectorized and theme-aware, enhancing contrast, especially in dark mode.
• Tor & P2A Updates: Upgraded internal Tor and improved support for pay-to-anchor (P2A) outputs.
• Linux Package Rename: For Linux users, Sparrow has been renamed to sparrowwallet (or sparrowserver); in some cases, the original sparrow package may need manual removal.
• Additional updates include showing total payments in multi-payment transaction diagrams, better handling of long labels, and other UI enhancements.

• Sparrow v2.2.1 is a bug fix release that addresses missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions, icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view, repackaged .deb installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression, and removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.

Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:

Release notes (v2.2.0)

• Added Recent Blocks view to Send tab.
• Converted all bitmapped images to theme aware SVG format for all wallet models and dialogs.
• Support send and display of pay to anchor (P2A) outputs.
• Renamed sparrow package to sparrowwallet and sparrowserver on Linux.
• Switched camera library to openpnp-capture.
• Support FHD (1920 x 1080) and UHD4k (3840 x 2160) capture resolutions.
• Support camera zoom with mouse scroll where possible.
• In the Download Verifier, prefer verifying the dropped file over the default file where the file is not in the manifest.
• Show a warning (with an option to disable the check) when importing a wallet with a derivation path matching another script type.
• In Cormorant, avoid calling the listwalletdir RPC on initialization due to a potentially slow response on Windows.
• Avoid server address resolution for public servers.
• Assume server address is non local for resolution failures where a proxy is configured.
• Added a tooltip to indicate truncated labels in table cells.
• Dynamically truncate input and output labels in the tree on a transaction tab, and add tooltips if necessary.
• Improved tooltips for wallet tabs and transaction diagrams with long labels.
• Show the address where available on input and output tooltips in transaction tab tree.
• Show the total amount sent in payments in the transaction diagram when constructing multiple payment transactions.
• Reset preferred table column widths on adjustment to improve handling after window resizing.
• Added accessible text to improve screen reader navigation on seed entry.
• Made Wallet Summary table grow horizontally with dialog sizing.
• Reduced tooltip show delay to 200ms.
• Show transaction diagram fee percentage as less than 0.01% rather than 0.00%.
• Optimized and reduced Electrum server RPC calls.
• Upgraded Bouncy Castle, PGPainless and Logback libraries.
• Upgraded internal Tor to v0.4.8.16.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue with random ordering of keystore origins on labels import.
• Bug fix: Fixed non-zero account script type detection when signing a message on Trezor devices.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue parsing remote Coldcard xpub encoded on a different network.
• Bug fix: Fixed inclusion of fees on wallet label exports.
• Bug fix: Increase Trezor device libusb timeout.

Linux users: Note that the sparrow package has been renamed to sparrowwallet or sparrowserver, and in some cases you may need to manually uninstall the original sparrow package. Look in the /opt folder to ensure you have the new name, and the original is removed.

What's new in v2.2.1

• Updated Tor library to fix missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions.
• Repackaged .deb installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression.
• Removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
• Added icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view
• Bug fix: Fixed issue in Recent Blocks view when switching fee rates source
• Bug fix: Fixed NPE on null fee returned from server

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

• This version introduces the Soroban P2P network, enabling Dojo to relay transactions to the Bitcoin network and share others' transactions to break the heuristic linking relaying nodes to transaction creators.

• Additionally, Dojo admins can now manage API keys in DMT with labels, status, and expiration, ideal for community Dojo providers like Dojobay. New API endpoints, including "/services" exposing Explorer, Soroban, and Indexer, have been added to aid wallet developers.
• Other maintenance updates include Bitcoin Core, Tor, Fulcrum, Node.js, plus an updated ban-knots script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.

"I want to thank all the contributors. This again shows the power of true Free Software. I also want to thank everyone who donated to help Dojo development going. I truly appreciate it," said Still Dojo Coder.

What's new

• Soroban P2P network. For MyDojo (Docker setup) users, Soroban will be automatically installed as part of their Dojo. This integration allows Dojo to utilize the Soroban P2P network for various upcoming features and applications.
• PandoTx. PandoTx serves as a transaction transport layer. When your wallet sends a transaction to Dojo, it is relayed to a random Soroban node, which then forwards it to the Bitcoin network. It also enables your Soroban node to receive and relay transactions from others to the Bitcoin network and is designed to disrupt the assumption that a node relaying a transaction is closely linked to the person who initiated it.
  • Pushing transactions through Soroban can be deactivated by setting NODE_PANDOTX_PUSH=off in docker-node.conf.
  • Processing incoming transactions from Soroban network can be deactivated by setting NODE_PANDOTX_PROCESS=off in docker-node.conf.
• API key management has been introduced to address the growing number of people offering their Dojos to the community. Dojo admins can now access a new API management tab in their DMT, where they can create unlimited API keys, assign labels for easy identification, and set expiration dates for each key. This allows admins to avoid sharing their main API key and instead distribute specific keys to selected parties.
• New API endpoints. Several new API endpoints have been added to help API consumers develop features on Dojo more efficiently:
  • New:
    • /latest-block - returns data about latest block
    • /txout/:txid/:index - returns unspent output data
    • /support/services - returns info about services that Dojo exposes
  • Updated:
    • /tx/:txid - endpoint has been updated to return raw transaction with parameter ?rawHex=1
  • The new /support/services endpoint replaces the deprecated explorer field in the Dojo pairing payload. Although still present, API consumers should use this endpoint for explorer and other pairing data.

Other changes

• Updated ban script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.
• Updated Fulcrum to v1.12.0.
• Regenerate Fulcrum certificate if expired.
• Check if transaction already exists in pushTx.
• Bump BTC-RPC Explorer.
• Bump Tor to v0.4.8.16, bump Snowflake.
• Updated Bitcoin Core to v29.0.
• Removed unnecessary middleware.
• Fixed DB update mechanism, added api_keys table.
• Add an option to use blocksdir config for bitcoin blocks directory.
• Removed deprecated configuration.
• Updated Node.js dependencies.
• Reconfigured container dependencies.
• Fix Snowflake git URL.
• Fix log path for testnet4.
• Use prebuilt addrindexrs binaries.
• Add instructions to migrate blockchain/fulcrum.
• Added pull policies.

#FREESAMOURAI

Learn how to set up and use your own Bitcoin privacy node with Dojo here.

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• The newest LND release brings upgrades that empower developers with better on-chain management, significantly boost backend scalability for expanding services, and ensure a more seamless and dependable payment experience.

"We are excited to announce the release of LND v0.19.0 beta! This new release focuses on making LND more secure, scalable, and reliable for powering global bitcoin and stablecoin transactions," was announced in a blog post.

• Some highlights of this release include a Replace-By-Fee Cooperative Close for flexible channel closure fees, migration of invoices to SQL for faster startups, enhanced payment reliability through improved pathfinding, transaction sweeper improvements, the addition of Testnet4 support for stable testing, among other things.

"As always, we are grateful for the ongoing support of our external contributors across development, review, and testing. A total of 51 developers contributed to this release. For the complete list of changes included in this release, check out the full release notes."

What's new

• New RBF cooperative close flow. It uses RBF to enable either side to increase their fee rate using their own channel funds. Channel peers must support the option_simple_close for this new protocol to work. This new feature can be activated with a new config flag: --protocol.rbf-coop-close.
  • This feature isn't compatible with older LND versions; fee bumping with them uses CPFP. It already works with Eclair v0.12.0 or up, and should work with other implementations as they roll out support for this protocol. The protocol currently does not support Taproot channels and Taproot asset channels.
• Support for archiving channel backups in a specific folder for future reference. It comes with a new config option, disable-backup-archive (default: false), to control whether previous backups are archived.
• Support for experimental endorsement signal relay. Deployed experimentally to assist ongoing channel jamming research, it has no impact on routing.
• Initial support for quiescence. This protocol gadget is required for upcoming Dynamic Commitments and Splicing features.
• Historical Sync: Fixed a race condition blocking initial sync due to syncer's internal state handling.
• Max Fee Rate is now respected during cooperative close initiation for both parties, not just the remote party.
• Lots of other bug fixes.

• Performance Improvements:

  • Limit outbound gossip traffic bandwidth with --gossip.msg-rate-bytes and --gossip.msg-rate-burst. Set burst to the maximum bytes transmittable without rate limiting, and rate to the ongoing permitted rate.

• Ability to use ZSTD for log rotation.

• Remove redundant iteration over a node's persisted channels when updating the graph cache with a new node or node update.

• Functional Enhancements:

  • Add pagination for wallet transactions.
  • Make MaxWaitNumBlocksFundingConf configurable for faster test timeouts, with a default of 2016 blocks for production.
  • Change sweeper to attempt sweeps if the budget is partially covered, preventing delays and high fees.
  • Validate MPP parameters before payment to avoid path finding loops and timeouts.
• Functional Updates:
  • Enable log compression with ZSTD using the logging.file.compressor argument.
  • Enhance SCB file with more data for last-resort rescue when a peer is unavailable.
  • Update channel.backup file at shutdown in LND.
  • Introduce chainio subsystem to sync subsystems with the current best block, fixing delays in HTLC sweeping due to block height discrepancies in ChainArbitrator, UtxoSweeper, and TxPublisher. Click here to learn more.
  • Sweeper now uses configured budget values for HTLCs with --sweeper.budget.deadlinehtlcratio and --sweeper.budget.deadlinehtlc.
  • Consider blockbeat dispatcher height when checking if lnd is synced to chain.
  • Allocate restricted slots for peers via --num-restricted-slots.
  • Added support for bitcoin testnet4.
  • Removed x/exp/maps dependency.
  • Add --no-disconnect-on-pong-failure option (default: false) to manage peer disconnection on pong failure or mismatch.

• RPC Additions and Updates. Some RPCs that previously returned an empty response now provide a short status message to help command line users confirm successful execution or background initiation. The following CLI commands no longer return an empty response ({}):

  • lncli wallet releaseoutput (WalletKit.ReleaseOutput RPC)
  • lncli wallet accounts import-pubkey (WalletKit.ImportPublicKey RPC)
  • lncli wallet labeltx (WalletKit.LabelTransaction RPC)
  • lncli sendcustom (Lightning.SendCustomMessage RPC)
  • lncli connect (Lightning.ConnectPeer RPC)
  • lncli disconnect (Lightning.DisconnectPeer RPC)
  • lncli stop (Lightning.Stop RPC)
  • lncli deletepayments (Lightning.DeleteAllPaymentsResponse RPC)
  • lncli abandonchannel (Lightning.AbandonChannel RPC)
  • lncli restorechanbackup (Lightning.RestoreChannelBackups RPC)

  • lncli verifychanbackup (Lightning.VerifyChanBackup RPC)

  • The ForwardInterceptor's MODIFY option now merges custom range TLVs with existing HTLC records, overwriting conflicting values with API-supplied ones.

  • Make ProofMatureDelta in gossip configurable via --gossip.announcement-conf, defaulting to 6.
  • Add LockedIn boolean field to lnrpc.HTLC to show if an HTLC is locked in by the remote peer.
  • Allow custom lock ID and duration in FundPsbt RPC.
  • Extend lnrpc.RPCMiddlewareRequest to include gRPC metadata pairs from the initial request's context.Context.
  • Updated PendingSweeps to return all registered outputs in the RPC response, regardless of future locktime, enabling planning for upcoming sweeps and custom aggregation logic. Added MaturityHeight field to PendingSweep for absolute locktime value.
  • Add BumpForceCloseFee RPC endpoint, moving lncli functionality to LND for broader accessibility.
  • Enhance walletrpc.FundPsbt with an option to set fees as sat_per_kw for greater precision.
  • Add a new option in walletrpc.FundPsbt to specify the maximum fee-to-output amounts ratio.
  • Sort lnrpc.Invoice.Htlcs by InvoiceHTLC.HtlcIndex in the list invoices RPC response.
  • Set a default 60-second timeout for routerrpc.SendPaymentV2 when timeout_seconds is unset or 0.
  • Include custom_channel_data for custom channels in lnrpc.ClosedChannels response.
  • lncli updates and additions:
  • Allow pre-generated macaroon root key in lncli create and lncli createwatchonly for deterministic macaroon generation.
  • Add --sat_per_kw flag to lncli wallet fundpsbt for precise fee rate specification.
  • Include --max_fee_ratio argument in lncli wallet fundpsbt to set maximum fee-to-output amounts ratio.
  • Enhance lncli listchannels and lncli closedchannels output with human-readable short channel ID and BOLT02 channel ID; rename chan_id to scid for accuracy.
  • Initiate cooperative close flow in coop close case even with active HTLCs, disabling the channel for new HTLCs and starting the flow when no HTLCs remain.
  • Introduce macaroon constraint for IP range-based access restriction, expanding beyond spe

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

via me

I think we'll look back at last weekend as one of the most pivotal points in human history. Ukraine's Operation Spider Web is one of the more shocking things I've seen in terms of military operations in my life. It validates something that many bitcoiners, many cypherpunks, and many prescient individuals have been talking about for decades now at this point, which is asymmetric drone warfare.

The Sovereign Individual is a book that many bitcoiners have talked about throughout the years due to how prescient it was in terms of the inevitable emergence of a digital currency outside the control of central banks and governments. The book was written in the mid-90s, so the fact that the two authors were able to predict that something like bitcoin would emerge less than 20 years after writing the book is pretty incredible. However, digital currencies leveraging cryptography were not the sole focus of the book. Another portion of the book was dedicated to the idea of asymmetric drone warfare and its effects on society overall.

It seems pretty clear today that this is another call from The Sovereign Individual that is coming true. Obviously, unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that Ukraine has been using drones in the battlefield to target strategic Russian assets and individual soldiers over the last year. The amount of battlefield videos I've seen of Russian soldiers running from autonomous drones that are hunting them down has been increasing significantly over the last six months. The footage is truly harrowing. It is a death that I wouldn't wish on anybody. With Operation Spider Web Ukraine has increased the stakes of this type of drone warfare by going deep into Russian territory and targeting strategic long-range bombers, some of which had the ability to deploy nuclear warheads. This is sure to incite a reaction from Russia. No one will be surprised if, by the end of the week, Russia has started a shock and awe campaign that goes deep into Ukrainian territory in retaliation for the kamikaze drone strikes on their long-range aircraft. I pray for peace and a quick resolution to this war, and every other war for that matter.

I didn't come here to pontificate and give my thoughts on this particular war, but I would like to focus on this new tactic of war and what it means for military budgets moving forward. The Sovereign Individual laid it out clearly when they wrote in the 1990s that at some point in the future autonomous drones would be leveraged in the battlefield and prove to be asymmetric because of the fact that they are extremely cheap to produce. When you compare the price it cost to produce one of these drones to the price of the equipment they are destroying, things get pretty crazy. With tens of thousands of dollars of drone equipment the Ukrainian army destroyed tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-range missile aircraft. And it did so without putting any Ukrainian military personnel in harm's way. Directly, at least.

When you consider the return on investment of deploying these drones compared to sending in soldiers, tanks, and your own aircraft, it becomes pretty obvious that this is going to quickly become the most logical way to fight a war moving forward. The question that remains is how quickly do other governments recognize this and implement it into their own defense strategies? As an American looking at our military budget, which is quickly approaching $1 trillion in annual spend, I'm forced to question whether or not most of that money is simply being wasted, considering the fact that we live in a time where these asymmetric battlefield strategies now exist. Why build new fighter jets when a Somali pirate, or nefarious individual for that matter, could use a $200 drone to destroy it in a matter of seconds with no threat of direct physical harm?

I'm no military expert, but if I were at the helm of the Defense Department, I would seriously be forcing those below me to focus a ton of effort on this problem and create plans to make sure that we are sufficiently protected from these risks. The only way to protect from these risks is to build the capabilities yourself. When it comes to the risk reward from a defense tech investment perspective I think a majority of the effort should be focused on defensive drone technologies and capabilities.

With that being said, it does seem like the US military is privy to this asymmetric reality that we currently live in. Defense contracts with Andruil make this pretty clear. Andruil is certainly ahead of the curve when it comes to autonomous drone warfare and defense against it. As an American, even though I don't like war, or the military industrial complex, knowing that the military is working with companies like Andruil does give me some comfort. However, the other side of that coin is that it is very unnerving when you consider that the government creating these public-private partnerships could lead to some Orwellian outcomes here at home. It may make some of you feel uncomfortable, but I believe the ideal scenario is that any individual has access to these types of defensive drone technologies in the future. The end goal being to create a nuclear game theoretical outcome where violence is reduced because one always has to assume that anyone they intend to attack has access to sufficient and formidable defensive technologies.

It's truly scary times we're living in as we transition further into the Digital Age. Part of the reason that I've dedicated my whole life to bitcoin is because I truly do believe that if you fix the money, you can fix the world. That is not to say that kinetic wars or physical violence will not exist in the future. It certainly will. But I believe sound money and open access to these systems and tools creates conditions which are much more suitable for cooperation and less so for conflict.

Multi-Signature Bitcoin Custody Is Replacing Single-Point Solutions

Jesse Gilger made a compelling case for why multi-signature Bitcoin custody represents the future of secure storage. He explained how Gannett Trust's approach ensures "not all of the keys are going to be at any one entity," fundamentally reducing the honeypot risk that plagues centralized custodians. This distributed model means no single point of failure can compromise your Bitcoin, whether through hacking, internal fraud, or regulatory seizure.

"I was on the list. I got the email. 'You were affected.'" - Jesse Gilger

Jesse's firsthand experience with the Coinbase data breach drives home why centralized custody is fundamentally flawed. While Coinbase holds keys for 10 of 12 Bitcoin ETFs, smart money is moving toward multi-institutional setups where Gannett holds a key, Unchained holds a key, and a third party holds a key. This alignment with Bitcoin's decentralized ethos isn't just philosophically pure—it's pragmatically superior for protecting generational wealth.

Check out the full podcast here for more on MSTY risks, Bitcoin retirement strategies and nation-state adoption dynamics.

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Final thought...

Trying to imagine the future my children are going to live in gets harder by the day.

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@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Connecticut halts all public investment in digital assets while other U.S. states move toward strategic bitcoin reserves.

Connecticut has taken a firm stance against digital assets by approving legislation that categorically prohibits all levels of state and local government from investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

On June 10, the Connecticut General Assembly published the final text of bill H.B. 7082, which has now become Public Act No. 25-66. The legislation was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate, signaling bipartisan agreement on the need to keep public finances away from the cryptocurrency market.

The new law establishes an outright ban on government entities purchasing, holding, or investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It also prohibits the creation of any “virtual currency reserve” and the acceptance of crypto payments.

In addition to restrictions on the public sector, the State’s legislation introduces consumer protection measures for private individuals. Crypto businesses operating as Money Service Businesses will now be required to disclose all material risks associated with cryptocurrencies through “clear, conspicuous and legible writing in the English language.”

Another provision addresses the protection of minors: the new law mandates legal guardian verification for all users under the age of 18.

While Connecticut adopts a restrictive position toward digital assets, several other U.S. states are moving in the opposite direction. New Hampshire became the first state to pass a bill for a strategic bitcoin reserve, followed by Arizona.

The post Connecticut says no to Bitcoin: law approved banning state crypto reserves appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The Russian government is preparing sanctions against those who violate mining regulations, with fines of up to $25,000.

The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has drafted a bill introducing financial penalties and the seizure of cryptocurrencies for miners operating illegally.

The ministerial proposal, currently under interdepartmental review according to Forbes Russia, would grant judicial authorities extraordinary powers over the mining sector. Courts would be able not only to impose financial penalties but also to directly confiscate illegally mined bitcoins.

Fines will follow a progressive scale:

• private individuals: 100,000 to 200,000 rubles ($1,272–$2,544);
• individual entrepreneurs and public officials: 200,000 to 400,000 rubles ($2,544–$5,088);
• companies and corporations: 1 million to 2 million rubles ($12,728–$25,456).

Crackdown on mining pools

Another aspect of the proposed legislation concerns mining pools. If approved, the bill would introduce penalties for those participating in such groups illegally. The government strategy aims to amend the Code of Administrative Offenses, effectively turning illegal mining into a criminal offense with harsher consequences than current administrative fines.

Crypto payments under scrutiny

Beyond mining operations, the new provisions would also target the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment outside the official sandbox managed by Russia’s Central Bank. Sanctions for this violation could reach 1 million rubles ($12,728).

Andrey Medvedev, Head of the Legal Department at the Central Bank, emphasized during the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum that “[crypto] illegally used as a means of payment will be confiscated.”

Regional restrictions on mining

Under current Russian regulations, unregistered citizens are allowed to mine domestically provided their energy consumption does not exceed 6,000 kWh per month. However, about ten Russian regions and territories under Russian control maintain specific restrictions.

Operators of mining infrastructures — primarily data center and hosting service providers — will be required to report operational details to Rosfinmonitoring, the national financial intelligence agency, including wallet addresses used at their facilities.

While penalties are tightening, the government recently chose not to extend mining bans to new regions. The government’s energy commission, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, rejected a proposal to ban mining in Khakassia and postponed annual restrictions in Zabaikalsky Krai and Buryatia. However, Moscow has approved a one-year mining ban in the southern part of the Irkutsk region, widely considered the de facto capital of Russian mining.

The post Mining in Russia: fines and asset seizures for illegal operations appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Bank run on every crypto bank then bank run on every "real" bank.

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

The four main banks of bitcoin and “crypto” are Signature, Prime Trust, Silvergate, and Silicon Valley Bank. Prime Trust does not custody funds themselves but rather maintains deposit accounts at BMO Harris Bank, Cross River, Lexicon Bank, MVB Bank, and Signature Bank. Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank have already stopped withdrawals. More banks will go down before the chaos stops. None of them have sufficient reserves to meet withdrawals.

Bitcoin gives us all the ability to opt out of a system that has massive layers of counterparty risk built in, years of cheap money and broken incentives have layered risk on top of risk throughout the entire global economy. If you thought the FTX bank run was painful to watch, I have bad news for you: every major bank in the world is fractional reserve. Bitcoin held in self custody is unique in its lack of counterparty risk, as global market chaos unwinds this will become much more obvious.

The rules of bitcoin are extremely hard to change by design. Anyone can access the network directly without a trusted third party by using their own node. Owning more bitcoin does not give you more control over the network with all participants on equal footing.

Bitcoin is:
- money that is not controlled by a company or government
- money that can be spent or saved without permission
- money that is provably scarce and should increase in purchasing power with adoption

Bitcoin is money without trust. Whether you are a nation state, corporation, or an individual, you can use bitcoin to spend or save without permission. Social media will accelerate the already deteriorating trust in our institutions and as this trust continues to crumble the value of trust minimized money will become obvious. As adoption increases so should the purchasing power of bitcoin.

A quick note on "stablecoins," such as USDC - it is important to remember that they rely on trusted custodians. They have the same risk as funds held directly in bank accounts with additional counterparty risk on top. The trusted custodians can be pressured by gov, exit scam, or caught up in fraud. Funds can and will be frozen at will. This is a distinctly different trust model than bitcoin, which is a native bearer token that does not rely on any centralized entity or custodian.

Most bitcoin exchanges have exposure to these failing banks. Expect more chaos and confusion as this all unwinds. Withdraw any bitcoin to your own wallet ASAP.

Simple Self Custody Guide: https://werunbtc.com/muun
More Secure Cold Storage Guide: https://werunbtc.com/coldcard

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Ukraine is opening the door to Bitcoin in its national reserves with a draft bill that would give the Central Bank the right to purchase digital assets.

Ukrainian lawmakers have introduced a legislative proposal that could allow the country’s Central Bank to include Bitcoin and other digital currencies in its national reserves.

The bill, filed on June 10 and registered as No. 13356, was put forward by a group of deputies led by Yaroslav Zheleznyak from the Holos party. The proposal calls for amendments to the Law on the National Bank of Ukraine, aiming to authorize the NBU (National Bank of Ukraine) to hold digital assets alongside gold and foreign currencies.

Source: Verkhovna Rada

The bill doesn’t require the Central Bank to invest in cryptocurrencies — it simply grants it the authority to do so. Zheleznyak stated:

“With this bill, we authorize the National Bank of Ukraine to include digital assets in the country’s reserves. However, decisions regarding the timing, methods, and volumes of such inclusion are left entirely at the discretion of the Central Bank.”

According to Zheleznyak, “proper management of crypto reserves will help strengthen macroeconomic stability and create new opportunities for the digital economy’s development.”

In a video discussion with Kirill Khomyakov, regional head of Binance for Central and Eastern Europe, Zheleznyak highlighted the growing international interest in cryptocurrencies as reserve assets, citing countries like the United States, El Salvador, Switzerland, and Brazil as examples of jurisdictions moving toward strategic bitcoin reserves.

The draft bill has been submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, and is now awaiting further consideration. If approved, Ukraine could become the first European country to officially hold bitcoin as a state asset.

The post Ukraine: draft bill to include bitcoin in Central Bank reserves appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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"Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy.  A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world." - Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto, 1993

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Privacy is essential to freedom. Without privacy, individuals are unable to make choices free from surveillance and control. Lack of privacy leads to loss of autonomy. When individuals are constantly monitored it limits our ability to express ourselves and take risks. Any decisions we make can result in negative repercussions from those who surveil us. Without the freedom to make choices, individuals cannot truly be free.

Freedom is essential to acquiring and preserving wealth. When individuals are not free to make choices, restrictions and limitations prevent us from economic opportunities. If we are somehow able to acquire wealth in such an environment, lack of freedom can result in direct asset seizure by governments or other malicious entities. At scale, when freedom is compromised, it leads to widespread economic stagnation and poverty. Protecting freedom is essential to economic prosperity.

The connection between privacy, freedom, and wealth is critical. Without privacy, individuals lose the freedom to make choices free from surveillance and control. While lack of freedom prevents individuals from pursuing economic opportunities and makes wealth preservation nearly impossible. No Privacy? No Freedom. No Freedom? No Wealth.

Rights are not granted. They are taken and defended. Rights are often misunderstood as permission to do something by those holding power. However, if someone can give you something, they can inherently take it from you at will. People throughout history have necessarily fought for basic rights, including privacy and freedom. These rights were not given by those in power, but rather demanded and won through struggle. Even after these rights are won, they must be continually defended to ensure that they are not taken away. Rights are not granted - they are earned through struggle and defended through sacrifice.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The involvement of America’s largest corporations with stablecoins has reached 29%.

According to the latest State of Crypto report published by Coinbase, interest in stablecoins among Fortune 500 executives has seen a significant surge, rising from 8% in 2024 to 29% in 2025.

The study, based on a sample of 100 executives from the 500 highest-revenue U.S. companies, reveals that nearly three in ten said their organization is either planning or seriously considering integrating stablecoins into their business processes.

The growing interest is mainly driven by inefficiencies in traditional payment systems. The executives surveyed identified slow transaction speeds and high fees as the main drawbacks of conventional payment methods.

The survey also found that 7% of Fortune 500 companies are already actively using or holding stablecoins in their corporate wallets.

And it’s not just large corporations getting on board. The study also surveyed 251 financial decision-makers at small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Among them, 81% expressed interest in using stablecoins — a sharp rise from 61% the previous year. Meanwhile, 46% of these businesses plan to integrate cryptocurrencies into their operations within the next three years.

Transaction volume data confirms this growing interest. Stablecoins have seen significant monthly spikes, with $719 billion in December 2024 and $717 billion in April 2025.

Over the course of 2024, total stablecoin transaction volumes reached $27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7%. At the same time, the number of stablecoin holders surpassed 161 million users as of May 2025, according to Coinbase.

The post Stablecoins: interest from major U.S. companies grows 260% in a year appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

People forget Bear Stearns failed March 2008 - months of denial followed before the public realized how bad the situation was under the surface.

Similar happening now but much larger scale. They did not fix fundamental issues after 2008 - everything is more fragile.

The Fed preemptively bailed out every bank with their BTFP program and First Republic Bank still failed. The second largest bank failure in history.

There will be more failures. There will be more bailouts. Depositors will be "protected" by socializing losses across everyone.

Our President and mainstream financial pundits are currently pretending the banking crisis is over while most banks remain insolvent. There are going to be many more bank failures as this ponzi system unravels.

Unlike 2008, we have the ability to opt out of these broken and corrupt institutions by using bitcoin. Bitcoin held in self custody is unique in its lack of counterparty risk - you do not have to trust a bank or other centralized entity to hold it for you. Bitcoin is also incredibly difficult to change by design since it is not controlled by an individual, company, or government - the supply of dollars will inevitably be inflated to bailout these failing banks but bitcoin supply will remain unchanged. I do not need to convince you that bitcoin provides value - these next few years will convince millions.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• Version 1.3 of Bitcoin Safe introduces a redesigned interactive chart, quick receive feature, updated icons, a mempool preview window, support for Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) and testnet4, preconfigured testnet demo wallets, as well as various bug fixes and improvements.

• Upcoming updates for Bitcoin Safe include Compact Block Filters.

"Compact Block Filters increase the network privacy dramatically, since you're not asking an electrum server to give you your transactions. They are a little slower than electrum servers. For a savings wallet like Bitcoin Safe this should be OK," writes the project's developer Andreas Griffin.

• Learn more about the current and upcoming features of Bitcoin Safe wallet here.

What's new in v1.3

• Redesign of Chart, Quick Receive, Icons, and Mempool Preview (by @design-rrr).
• Interactive chart. Clicking on it now jumps to transaction, and selected transactions are now highlighted.

• Speed up transactions with Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).
• BDK 1.2 (upgraded from 0.32).
• Testnet4 support.
• Preconfigured Testnet demo wallets.
• Cluster unconfirmed transactions so that parents/children are next to each other.
• Customizable columns for all tables (optional view: Txid, Address index, and more)
• Bug fixes and other improvements.

Announcement / Archive
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

A third of the bitcoins in circulation is now under the control of centralized entities, valued at $668 billion according to an analysis by Gemini.

A study conducted by Gemini in collaboration with Glassnode revealed that centralized actors currently hold 30.9% of bitcoin’s entire circulating supply.

These entities include national governments, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and publicly listed companies. Collectively, these players control 6.1 million BTC, equivalent to approximately $668 billion at current market prices. BlackRock alone holds around 665,635 BTC through its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF, representing over 3% of bitcoin’s total supply, with a value close to $73 billion.

Source: Gemini

The accumulation of bitcoin by such entities has grown by 924% over the past decade. This increase coincides with bitcoin’s price evolution, which has surged from under $1,000 to over $100,000 during the same period.

Analysts interpret this trend as further confirmation that institutions increasingly view bitcoin as a strategic store-of-value asset. According to the report, the correlation between the rise in institutional holdings and bitcoin’s price appreciation reinforces the case for the cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption.

One key takeaway from the research concerns the predominant role of centralized exchanges within Bitcoin treasury holdings. These platforms hold about half of the total, although a significant portion of those funds actually belongs to retail clients and individual investors.

Government bitcoin treasuries display distinctive characteristics compared to other institutional holders. According to the study, sovereign wallets show infrequent movements and limited correlation with Bitcoin’s price cycles.

However, the amount of bitcoins held by these governments remains large enough to significantly influence the markets whenever sales or transfers occur, the report states. The governments of the United States, China, and the United Kingdom have acquired most of their bitcoins through legal actions (seizures) rather than direct market purchases. In contrast, El Salvador and Bhutan accumulate bitcoin through intentional and ongoing purchases. According to analysts, while the volumes involved are smaller, these strategic allocations signal a long-term commitment and bolster investor confidence, encouraging broader institutional participation and contributing to market stability.

The research concludes that with nearly a third of bitcoin’s circulating supply now held by centralized entities, the market has undergone a structural transformation toward institutional maturity. According to the authors of the report, this evolution has made price action more predictable and less vulnerable to the speculative extremes that characterized Bitcoin’s early years.

The post Report: centralized entities control 31% of bitcoin’s total supply appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Treasury Secretary Bessent foresees a promising future for stablecoins pegged to the US dollar.

During a US Senate hearing held on June 11, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that the market for US dollar-backed stablecoins has the potential to surpass the $2 trillion mark within the next three years.

“I believe that stablecoin legislation backed by U.S. treasuries or T-bills will create a market that will expand U.S. dollar usage via these stablecoins all around the world,” the government official stated.

Bessent reiterated the administration’s commitment to strengthening the dollar’s status through USD-denominated stablecoins.

GENIUS Act gains ground

The legislative process received a boost after the Senate voted to advance the stablecoin bill, moving it closer to a final vote. The GENIUS Act, once approved, will establish strict requirements for the stable digital currency sector.

The bill mandates that stablecoins must be fully backed by US dollars or assets with equivalent liquidity (Treasuries). It also requires annual audits for issuers with a market capitalization exceeding $50 billion and includes specific provisions regarding the issuance of these cryptocurrencies abroad.

Stablecoins and the financial system

The stablecoin sector is drawing increasing interest from banking institutions. Bank of America is preparing to launch its own stablecoin, while Circle — issuer of USDC — went public this month, with shares surging 235% on its first trading day.

Currently, US dollar-pegged stablecoins account for over 96% of the entire stable digital currency market.

The post Stablecoins: market could reach $2 trillion by 2028, says Bessent appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

There must be a limit to how much data is transferred across the bitcoin network in order to keep the ability to run and use your own node accessible. A node is required to interact with the global bitcoin network - if you do not use your own node then you must trust someone else's node. If nodes become inaccessible to run then the network will centralize around the remaining entities that operate them - threatening the censorship resistance at the core of bitcoin's value prop. The bitcoin protocol uses three main mechanisms to keep node operation costs low - a fixed limit on the amount of data in each block, an automatic difficulty adjustment that regulates how many blocks are produced based on current mining hash rate, and a robust dynamic transaction fee market.

Bitcoin transaction fees limit network abuse by making usage expensive. There is a cost to every transaction, set by a dynamic free market based on demand for scarce block space. It is an incredibly robust way to prevent spam without relying on centralized entities that can be corrupted or pressured.

After the 2017 bitcoin fee spike we had six years of relative quiet to build tools that would be robust in a sustained high fee market. Fortunately our tools are significantly better now but many still need improvement. Most of the pain points we see today will be mitigated.

The reality is we were never going to be fully prepared - pressure is needed to show the pain points and provide strong incentives to mitigate them.

It will be incredibly interesting to watch how projects adapt under pressure. Optimistic we see great innovation here.

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_If you are willing to wait for your transaction to confirm you can pay significantly lower fees. Learn best practices for reducing your fee burden here.

My guide for running and using your own bitcoin node can be found here._

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

French authorities are intensifying their fight against kidnappings related to the digital asset sector with a new series of arrests.

French law enforcement has made further arrests in an investigation concerning a kidnapping case connected to the cryptocurrency world. According to the public broadcaster France 24, on June 11 several individuals suspected of involvement in the abduction of the father of a crypto entrepreneur were detained.

The case that drew international attention involves the father of an anonymous crypto entrepreneur, who was held captive for several days on an isolated property. The criminals, in their ransom demands, went as far as to cut off one of the victim’s fingers as a form of psychological pressure, demanding up to €7 million (about $8 million) for his release.

The rescue operation, carried out on May 3 by French special forces, led to the victim’s liberation and the arrest of five people on site. However, investigations uncovered a wider criminal network, resulting in new arrests, the exact number of which has not yet been disclosed by authorities.

French authorities did not limit their actions to national territory. On June 4, a man suspected to be a key figure behind the series of crypto kidnappings in France was arrested in Morocco.

The escalation of crypto kidnappings in 2025

Data shows an increase in crypto-related kidnappings in France and worldwide. The phenomenon has grown to such proportions that French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau convened an emergency meeting to address the issue.

Among the most notable cases of 2025 is the attempted daytime kidnapping of Pierre Noizat’s daughter and grandson. Noizat is the co-founder and CEO of the French exchange Paymium; the incident took place on May 13.

According to data from Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Casa, at least 29 personal attacks against cryptocurrency holders have been recorded in 2025 alone. If this trend continues, the annual total could surpass the 35 cases reported in 2024 and the 24 cases in 2023.

The post France: new arrests linked to crypto kidnappings appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

I often hear "bitcoin doesn't interest me, I'm not a finance person."

Ironically, the beauty of sound money is you don't have to be. In the current system you're expected to manage a diversified investment portfolio or pay someone to do it. Bitcoin will make that optional.

— ODELL (@ODELL) September 16, 2018

At first glance bitcoin often appears overwhelming to newcomers. It is incredibly easy to get bogged down in the details of how it works or different ways to use it. Enthusiasts, such as myself, often enjoy going down the deep rabbit hole of the potential of bitcoin, possible pitfalls and theoretical scenarios, power user techniques, and the developer ecosystem. If your first touch point with bitcoin is that type of content then it is only natural to be overwhelmed. While it is important that we have a thriving community of bitcoiners dedicated to these complicated tasks - the true beauty of bitcoin lies in its simplicity. Bitcoin is simply better money. It is the best money we have ever had.

Life is complicated. Life is hard. Life is full of responsibility and surprises. Bitcoin allows us to focus on our lives while relying on a money that is simple. A money that is not controlled by any individual, company, or government. A money that cannot be easily seized or blocked. A money that cannot be devalued at will by a handful of corrupt bureaucrat who live hundreds of miles from us. A money that can be easily saved and should increase in purchasing power over time without having to learn how to "build a diversified stock portfolio" or hire someone to do it for us.

Bitcoin enables all of us to focus on our lives - our friends and family - doing what we love with the short time we have on this earth. Time is scarce. Life is complicated. Bitcoin is the most simple aspect of our complicated lives. If we spend our scarce time working then we should be able to easily save that accrued value for future generations without watching the news or understanding complicated financial markets. Bitcoin makes this possible for anyone.

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Raising a human is complicated. It is hard, it requires immense personal responsibility, it requires critical thinking, but mothers figure it out, because it is worth it. Using and saving bitcoin is simple -  simply install an app on your phone. Every mother can do it. Every person can do it.

Life is complicated. Life is beautiful. Bitcoin is simple.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Lightspark introduces a layer 2 for instant payments, stablecoins and interoperability with Lightning.

Spark is an open-source layer 2 protocol developed by Lightspark, designed to offer instant low-cost payments without the need for intermediaries. It allows the creation of wallets and applications that interact directly with the Bitcoin and Lightning networks. The company’s stated goal is to transform Bitcoin into a true global digital currency, solving the scalability limitations of the base layer.

Lightspark, a company led by David Marcus (former PayPal and former Facebook), officially launched Spark in beta version on April 29, 2025. Developers can already use Spark’s SDKs (Wallet and Issuer) to build self-custodial wallets compatible with Lightning and tokens (such as stablecoins) native to the Bitcoin network.

How it works

Spark adopts a statechain-based approach, allowing the transfer of ownership of a UTXO off-chain between different users without using the main blockchain, thus reducing costs and transaction times. Instead of executing an on-chain transaction that physically moves the asset, users acquire signing rights or control over a key that represents a bitcoin UTXO. Transfers occur through a chain of signatures and a mechanism that allows subsequent transactions to overwrite previous ones, ensuring that neither the user nor the service provider (Spark Service Provider, SSP) can lose funds during the operation.

Spark is designed to be fully interoperable with LN, supporting not only bitcoin transactions, but also stablecoins and other tokenized assets. SSPs facilitate Lightning payments by accepting funds on Spark and converting them into Lightning transactions or vice versa, eliminating the need for users to manage nodes or worry about channel liquidity. For example, a user can pay an LN invoice with a stablecoin on Spark, with the SSP converting the stablecoin to BTC in the background and sending the funds to the recipient.

Shared signature model (multisig 2-of-2)

Unlike the LN trust model, which is based on peer-to-peer bidirectional channels with smart contract logic, Spark involves a coordinating entity, the “Spark Service Provider” (SSP). This shifts part of the risk from channel liquidity management to trust in operators who sign off-chain transactions. The SSP’s task is to sign “blindly” (blindly) on behalf of the user, which means the SSP does not see the content of the signature and does not even know if it is signing a Bitcoin transaction or something else.

Bitcoin deposited on Spark always remains under the user’s control. When a user sends funds to Spark, they are initially transferred to a statechain. Once funds are on the statechain, payments on the Spark network occur instantly and at near-zero costs.

At the heart of Spark’s security is the use of a shared signature scheme, specifically a multisig 2-of-2 model. This means that two keys are required to authorize a transaction, and the user always holds one. When users deposit funds on Spark, they send them to a multisig address. Here, they maintain control of their funds and can perform a unilateral exit without the need to interact with other parties.

Each payment is enabled by a Spark Service Provider (SSP), which must co-authorize the transaction together with the user for it to be valid and successful.

Although the network is currently managed only by Lightspark and another operator (Flashnet), users do not risk losing funds even if these operators stopped cooperating. In fact, Spark offers the possibility to unilaterally force the return of bitcoin to the mainnet at any time. Users can exit Spark in two ways: through a cooperative exit (cheaper and faster) or a unilateral exit (slower, but possible in case of malfunction or loss of trust). Lightspark has declared its intention to add more operators in the future to increase decentralization.

Fee structure

Regarding fees, transactions within the Spark network are zero fee. The only fees users will have to bear are Bitcoin’s on-chain fees for depositing or withdrawing funds from Spark. Additionally, transferring bitcoin from Spark to LN involves a 0.25% fee plus routing fees. Conversely, a transaction from LN to Spark costs 0.15%.

The native LRC20 token protocol

Introduced in the summer of 2024, LRC20 is a token issuance protocol designed to be compatible with both Bitcoin’s mainnet and LN. Anyone can issue an LRC20 token. The protocol also supports freeze and burn operations, giving the original issuing wallet the power to freeze tokens at any address, preventing transactions until unlocked. LRC20 is primarily designed for issuing stablecoins and regulated assets.

After thoroughly testing it, the Lightspark team decided to run the LRC20 protocol natively on Spark, to enable token issuance on the network.

Ecosystem and partnerships

The birth of Spark has immediately attracted the interest of other Bitcoin projects. Among the various partnerships established, the multisig wallet Theya has integrated Spark to offer its users simpler and faster bitcoin and stablecoin payments.

Last May, Breez announced a new implementation of the Breez SDK based on Spark, which allows developers to integrate Lightning payments directly into their apps through Spark. As part of this collaboration, Breez will also act as a Spark Service Provider, helping to expand the ecosystem. According to the two companies, this partnership will provide developers with new Bitcoin-native tools for use cases such as streaming payments, international remittances and micro-payments for AI.

The post Spark: the layer 2 launched by Lightspark appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

Michael Goldstein, aka Bitstein, presents a sweeping philosophical and economic case for going “all in” on Bitcoin, arguing that unlike fiat, which distorts capital formation and fuels short-term thinking, Bitcoin fosters low time preference, meaningful saving, and long-term societal flourishing. At the heart of his thesis is “hodling for good”—a triple-layered idea encompassing permanence, purpose, and the pursuit of higher values like truth, beauty, and legacy. Drawing on thinkers like Aristotle, Hoppe, and Josef Pieper, Goldstein redefines leisure as contemplation, a vital practice in aligning capital with one’s deepest ideals. He urges Bitcoiners to think beyond mere wealth accumulation and consider how their sats can fund enduring institutions, art, and architecture that reflect a moral vision of the future.

Best Quotes

“Let BlackRock buy the houses, and you keep the sats.”

“We're not hodling just for the sake of hodling. There is a purpose to it.”

“Fiat money shortens your time horizon… you can never rest.”

“Savings precedes capital accumulation. You can’t build unless you’ve saved.”

“You're increasing the marginal value of everyone else’s Bitcoin.”

“True leisure is contemplation—the pursuit of the highest good.”

“What is Bitcoin for if not to make the conditions for magnificent acts of creation possible?”

“Bitcoin itself will last forever. Your stack might not. What will outlast your coins?”

“Only a whale can be magnificent.”

“The market will sell you all the crack you want. It’s up to you to demand beauty.”

Conclusion

This episode is a call to reimagine Bitcoin as more than a financial revolution—it’s a blueprint for civilizational renewal. Michael Goldstein reframes hodling as an act of moral stewardship, urging Bitcoiners to lower their time preference, build lasting institutions, and pursue truth, beauty, and legacy—not to escape the world, but to rebuild it on sound foundations.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Michael’s BBB presentation Hodl for Good
07:27 - Austrian principles on capital
15:40 - Fiat distorts the economic process
23:34 - Bitkey
24:29 - Hodl for Good triple entendre
29:52 - Bitcoin benefits everyone
39:05 - Unchained
40:14 - Leisure theory of value
52:15 - Heightening life
1:15:48 - Breaking from the chase makes room for magnificence
1:32:32 - Nakamoto Institute’s mission

Transcript

(00:00) Fiat money is by its nature a disturbance. If money is being continually produced, especially at an uncertain rate, these uh policies are really just redistribution of wealth. Most are looking for number to go up post hyper bitcoinization. The rate of growth of bitcoin would be more reflective of the growth of the economy as a whole.
(00:23) Ultimately, capital requires knowledge because it requires knowing there is something that you can add to the structures of production to lengthen it in some way that will take time but allow you to have more in the future than you would today. Let Black Rockck buy the houses and you keep the sats, not the other way around.
(00:41) You wait until later for Larry Frink to try to sell you a [Music] mansion. And we're live just like that. Just like that. 3:30 on a Friday, Memorial Day weekend. It's a good good good way to end the week and start the holiday weekend. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for coming. I wore this hat specifically because I think it's I think it's very apppropo uh to the conversation we're going to have which is I hope an extension of the presentation you gave at Bitblock Boom Huddle for good. You were working on
(01:24) that for many weeks leading up to uh the conference and explaining how you were structuring it. I think it's a very important topic to discuss now as the Bitcoin price is hitting new all-time highs and people are trying to understand what am I doing with Bitcoin? Like you have you have the different sort of factions within Bitcoin.
(01:47) Uh get on a Bitcoin standard, get on zero, spend as much Bitcoin as possible. You have the sailors of the world are saying buy Bitcoin, never sell, die with your Bitcoin. And I think you do a really good job in that presentation. And I just think your understanding overall of Bitcoin is incredible to put everything into context. It's not either or.
(02:07) It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Yeah, it's definitely there there is no actual one-sizefits-all um for I mean nearly anything in this world. So um yeah, I mean first of all I mean there was it was the first conference talk I had given in maybe five years. I think the one prior to that uh was um bit block boom 2019 which was my meme talk which uh has uh become infamous and notorious.
(02:43) So uh there was also a lot of like high expectations uh you know rockstar dev uh has has treated that you know uh that that talk with a lot of reference. a lot of people have enjoyed it and he was expecting this one to be, you know, the greatest one ever, which is a little bit of a little bit of a uh a burden to live up to those kinds of standards.
(03:08) Um, but you know, because I don't give a lot of talks. Um, you know, I I I like to uh try to bring ideas that might even be ideas that are common. So, something like hodling, we all talk about it constantly. uh but try to bring it from a little bit of a different angle and try to give um a little bit of uh new light to it.
(03:31) I alsove I've I've always enjoyed kind of coming at things from a third angle. Um whenever there's, you know, there's there's all these little debates that we have in in Bitcoin and sometimes it's nice to try to uh step out of it and look at it a little more uh kind of objectively and find ways of understanding it that incorporate the truths of of all of them.
(03:58) uh you know cuz I think we should always be kind of as much as possible after ultimate truth. Um so with this one um yeah I was kind of finding that that sort of golden mean. So uh um yeah and I actually I think about that a lot is uh you know Aristotle has his his concept of the golden mean. So it's like any any virtue is sort of between two vices um because you can you can always you can always take something too far.
(04:27) So you're you're always trying to find that right balance. Um so someone who is uh courageous you know uh one of the vices uh on one side is being basically reckless. I I can't remember what word he would use. Uh but effectively being reckless and just wanting to put yourself in danger for no other reason than just you know the thrill of it.
(04:50) Um and then on the other side you would just have cowardice which is like you're unwilling to put yourself um at any risk at any time. Um, and courage is right there in the middle where it's understanding when is the right time uh to put your put yourself, you know, in in the face of danger um and take it on. And so um in some sense this this was kind of me uh in in some ways like I'm obviously a partisan of hodling.
(05:20) Um, I've for, you know, a long time now talked about the, um, why huddling is good, why people do it, why we should expect it. Um, but still trying to find that that sort of golden mean of like yes, huddle, but also what are we hodling for? And it's not we're we're not hodddling just merely for the sake of hodddling.
(05:45) There there is a a purpose to it. And we should think about that. And that would also help us think more about um what are the benefits of of spending, when should we spend, why should we spend, what should we spend on um to actually give light to that sort of side of the debate. Um so that was that was what I was kind of trying to trying to get into.
(06:09) Um, as well as also just uh at the same time despite all the talk of hodling, there's always this perennial uh there's always this perennial dislike of hodlers because we're treated as uh as if um we're just free riding the network or we're just greedy or you know any of these things. And I wanted to show how uh huddling does serve a real economic purpose.
(06:36) Um, and it does benefit the individual, but it also does uh it it has actual real social um benefits as well beyond merely the individual. Um, so I wanted to give that sort of defense of hodling as well to look at it from um a a broader position than just merely I'm trying to get rich. Um uh because even the person who uh that is all they want to do um just like you know your your pure number grow up go up moonboy even that behavior has positive ramifications on on the economy.
(07:14) And while we might look at them and have uh judgments about their particular choices for them as an individual, we shouldn't discount that uh their actions are having positive positive effects for the rest of the economy. Yeah. So, let's dive into that just not even in the context of Bitcoin because I think you did a great job of this in the presentation.
(07:36) just you've done a good job of this consistently throughout the years that I've known you. Just from like a first principles Austrian economics perspective, what is the idea around capital accumulation, low time preference and deployment of that capital like what what like getting getting into like the nitty-gritty and then applying it to Bitcoin? Yeah, it's it's a big question and um in many ways I mean I I even I barely scratched the surface.
(08:05) uh I I can't claim to have read uh all the volumes of Bombber works, you know, capital and interest and and stuff like that. Um but I think there's some some sort of basic concepts that we can look at that we can uh draw a lot out. Um the first uh I guess let's write that. So repeat so like capital time preference. Yeah. Well, I guess getting more broad like why sav

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Will not live in a pod.
Will not eat the bugs.
Will not get the chip.
Will not get a blue check.
Will not use CBDCs.

Live Free or Die.

Why did Elon buy twitter for $44 Billion? What value does he see in it besides the greater influence that undoubtedly comes with controlling one of the largest social platforms in the world? We do not need to speculate - he made his intentions incredibly clear in his first meeting with twitter employees after his takeover - WeChat of the West.

To those that do not appreciate freedom, the value prop is clear - WeChat is incredibly powerful and successful in China.

To those that do appreciate freedom, the concern is clear - WeChat has essentially become required to live in China, has surveillance and censorship integrated at its core, and if you are banned from the app your entire livelihood is at risk. Employment, housing, payments, travel, communication, and more become extremely difficult if WeChat censors determine you have acted out of line.

The blue check is the first step in Elon's plan to bring the chinese social credit score system to the west. Users who verify their identity are rewarded with more reach and better tools than those that do not. Verified users are the main product of Elon's twitter - an extensive database of individuals and complete control of the tools he will slowly get them to rely on - it is easier to monetize cattle than free men.

If you cannot resist the temptation of the blue check in its current form you have already lost - what comes next will be much darker. If you realize the need to resist - freedom tech provides us options.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

CANNES, FRANCE – May 2025 — Bitcoin mining made its mark at the world’s most prestigious film gathering this year as Puerto Rican director and producer Alana Mediavilla introduced her feature documentary Dirty Coin: The Bitcoin Mining Documentary at the Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival.

The film puts bitcoin mining at the center of a rising global conversation about energy, technology, and economic freedom.

Dirty Coin is the first feature-length documentary to explore bitcoin mining through immersive, on-the-ground case studies.

From rural towns in the United States to hydro-powered sites in Latin America and the Congo, the film follows miners and communities navigating what may be one of the most misunderstood technologies of our time.

The result is a human-centered look at how bitcoin mining is transforming local economies and energy infrastructure in real ways.

To mark its Cannes debut, Mediavilla and her team hosted a packed industry event that brought together leaders from both film and finance.

Dirty Coin debut ceremony at the Marché du Film

Sponsors Celestial Management, Sangha Renewables, Nordblock, and Paystand.org supported the program, which featured panels on mining, energy use, and decentralized infrastructure.

Attendees had the rare opportunity to engage directly with pioneers in the space. A special session in French led by Seb Gouspillou spotlighted mining efforts in the Congo’s Virunga region.

Dirty Coin builds on Mediavilla’s award-winning short film Stranded, which won over 20 international prizes, including Best Short Documentary at Cannes in 2024.

That success helped lay the foundation for the feature and positioned Mediavilla as one of the boldest new voices in global documentary filmmaking.

Alana Mediavilla speaks at the Marché du Film — Cannes Film Festival

“If we’ve found an industry that can unlock stranded energy and turn it into real power for people—especially in regions with energy poverty—why wouldn’t we look into it?” says Mediavilla. “Our privilege blinds us.

“The same thing we criticize could be the very thing that lifts the developing world to our standard of living. Ignoring that potential is a failure of imagination.”

Much like the decentralized network it explores, Dirty Coin is spreading globally through grassroots momentum.

Local leaders are hosting independent screenings around the world, from Roatán and Berlin to São Paulo and Madrid. Upcoming events include Toronto and Zurich, with more cities joining each month.

Mediavilla, who previously worked in creative leadership roles in the U.S. — including as a producer at Google — returned to Puerto Rico to found Campo Libre, a studio focused on high-caliber, globally relevant storytelling from the Caribbean.

She was also accepted into the Cannes Producers Network, a selective program open only to producers with box office releases in the past four years.

Mediavilla qualified after independently releasing Dirty Coin in theaters across Puerto Rico. Her participation in the network gave her direct access to meetings, insights, and connections with the most active distributors and producers working today.

The film’s next public screening will take place at the Anthem Film Festival in Palm Springs on Saturday, June 14 at 2 PM. Additional screenings and market appearances are planned throughout the year at Bitcoin events and international film platforms.

Dirty Coin at the Cannes Film Festival

Watch the Trailer + Access Press Materials

📂 EPK
🎬 Screener
🌍 Host a Screening

Follow the Movement

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirty_coin_official/
Twitter: https://x.com/DirtyCoinDoc
Website: www.dirtycointhemovie.com

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Carl Rickertsen completely exits his position in Strategy as insiders sell $864 million worth of stock.

As reported by Protos, Carl Rickertsen, a member of Strategy’s board of directors, has fully liquidated his entire shareholding for over $10 million.

Rickertsen’s decision to completely exit his Strategy position marks a sharp shift from his previous investment stance. In 2022, the executive had shown confidence in the company by investing $700,000 in MSTR shares.

On June 13, 2022, Rickertsen purchased $608,000 worth of MSTR stock at $152 per share. Since then, the stock has rallied 152%. However, by 2023, the director had already sold half of his 4,000-share position.

Rickertsen’s approach to managing his holdings has become increasingly aggressive in recent years. Since joining the board in 2019, he has adopted a strategy of immediately liquidating any stock options received.

One example of this tactic occurred on June 2, when he acquired and sold 26,390 MSTR shares on the same day.

As of June 5 this year, Rickertsen reported zero vested Strategy shares, marking the end of his equity involvement with the company.

Rickertsen’s situation is not an isolated case within Strategy. Data from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveals a controversial picture. According to information gathered by secform4.com, over the past five years, total insider sales have exceeded purchases by $864 million. This imbalance in insider transactions could raise questions about executives’ confidence in the company’s future.

The post Strategy director liquidates all his MSTR shares appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The new communication protocol aims to improve the industry with measurable advantages in terms of efficiency and security.

A new study conducted by Hashlabs, in collaboration with the SRI (Stratum V2 Reference Implementation) team and figures like Matt Corallo, Alejandro De La Torre and others reveals how the Stratum V2 protocol can increase miner profitability compared to the current Stratum V1 standard, used for over a decade.

Speaking to Atlas21, Gabriele Vernetti, Stratum V2 maintainer, declared:

“This first case study demonstrates how much Stratum V2 can help miners as well, securing and increasing their profits, in addition to the rest of the network. It’s just a first study aimed at demonstrating how decentralization can be aligned with the profit dynamics typical of the mining sector.

In the future we will also focus on the benefits for mining pool operators, who can benefit from the protocol’s efficiency to lower their operating costs (such as those for bandwidth used by their servers).

The feedback has been very positive: this first study was a joint work with various market players, including miners and mining pool operators. As SRI we want to continue working together with the entire community as done in this case, becoming a reference point for all actors interested in innovating the Bitcoin mining field”.

The research, based on controlled tests with two identical ASIC S19k Pro, with stock firmware, demonstrates that Stratum V2 can increase net profits by up to 7.4%. For an industry that often operates with 10% margins, this could represent a substantial competitive advantage.

The V2 protocol reduces various inefficiencies that plague the current system. The latency in block switching, that is the waiting time created when a miner must change block template after a new block has been mined on the network, goes from 325 milliseconds to just 1.42 milliseconds, a speed 228 times higher. This translates to about 4.9 hours of completely wasted hash power less per year.

Another problem of modern mining concerns “stale shares” – proofs of work that arrive too late to be remunerated, often due to network latency or inefficient communication. However, not all stale shares depend on inefficiency problems. On average, about 2% are rejected for expected reasons, such as when the share doesn’t reach the minimum difficulty required by the pool. This value is considered normal in the sector. The remaining 98%, instead, is caused by avoidable delays. With Stratum V1, miners lose between 0.1% and 0.2% of their computing power this way. Stratum V2 with Job Declaration completely eliminates this waste, provided that the miner and the pool node have the same level of connectivity. This step could translate into a net profit increase of up to 2% by fully adopting Stratum V2 with Job Declaration.

In the Stratum V2 protocol, the Job Declaration Client (JDC) is software that allows miners to receive mining jobs directly from their local Bitcoin node, that is the block templates to work on. The JDC communicates directly with the miner’s local node, receiving updated data for new block construction and immediately sending them to the mining software via Stratum V2. This allows miners to receive jobs in real time from their own node, without having to wait for them from the pool, reducing latency and the risk of working on obsolete jobs. Furthermore, if the pool allows it, miners can build custom templates choosing which transactions to include in the block.

The research also highlights an often overlooked aspect: the loss of transaction fees. With the Stratum V1 protocol, miners lose about 0.75% of potential fees for each block due to the delay in receiving new jobs. Considering that about 52,560 blocks are mined each year, this loss per block adds up to a total of about 74 bitcoins per year, equivalent to over $8 million at current prices.

Beyond economic advantages, Stratum V2 solves a critical vulnerability of the current system: hashrate hijacking. The V1 protocol doesn’t encrypt communications, allowing attackers to intercept and steal up to 2% of computing power without the miner noticing. The new protocol eliminates this risk through end-to-end encryption and authentication.

According to the study, by reducing latency, optimizing share sending and improving security, Stratum V2 enables a potential net profit increase of 7.4%, derived exclusively from technical improvements.

The post Stratum V2 increases profits by 7.4%: “The study shows that profit and decentralization can coexist”, says Vernetti, SV2 maintainer appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has announced a massive $5.4 billion plan to increase its bitcoin holdings to 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027 — that’s about 1% of the total bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet on X

The Tokyo-listed company is accelerating its already aggressive bitcoin plan, with CEO Simon Gerovich calling the initiative “Asia’s largest-ever equity raise to buy Bitcoin — again!”

The company’s new capital raise, called the “555 Million Plan”, involves issuing 555 million shares through moving strike warrants. That’s basically a type of option where people can buy shares later, and the price they pay depends on the stock’s price at that time.

So with moving strike warrants, the price at which people can buy the stock goes up or down depending on how the company’s stock is doing. It gives investors more flexibility — and it can make the warrants more attractive — because they don’t get stuck with a bad deal if the stock price drops.

This way the company can raise capital gradually over the next 2 years without impacting the stock market and existing shareholders.

The funds raised will be used to buy bitcoin, with some to redeem bonds and other income-generating strategies like selling put options.

This is a big step up from Metaplanet’s previous targets. Initially aiming to reach 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025, the company now plans to reach:

• 30,000 BTC by end of 2025
• 100,000 BTC by end of 2026
• 210,000 BTC by end of 2027

The Japanese investment firm hopes to be in the “Bitcoin 1% club” which means holding at least 1% of the total 21 million bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet bitcoin targets

Metaplanet is already making good progress. As of June 2025, the company holds 8,888 BTC, acquired at a cost of about ¥122.2 billion (around $849 million) and has already reached 89% of its original 10,000 BTC target for 2025.

This comes after the success of the company’s previous “210 Million Plan” which raised ¥93.3 billion ($650 million) in 60 trading days by issuing 210 million shares.

During that time, the company’s bitcoin holdings grew from 1,762 BTC to 7,800 BTC and the BTC Yield (a key performance metric showing growth in bitcoin per share) increased by 189%.

Year to date the BTC Yield is 225.4%.

Metaplanet’s BTC Yield graph

The stock has reflected this momentum, up 275% since early 2025 and 1,619% over the past year.

Metaplanet’s stock price chart — TradingView

Metaplanet is now one of the most actively traded stocks in Japan and has become a top-ten corporate bitcoin holder globally, recently surpassing Block Inc., the company founded by Jack Dorsey.

Metaplanet sees this as part of a bigger shift in capital markets.

By being a “bitcoin treasury vehicle” listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it aims to offer investors exposure to bitcoin through regulated equity markets. This is especially useful in Japan where retail investors are often restricted from accessing bitcoin directly.

“Bitcoin is repricing the global cost of capital,” the company said in a statement. “Through our 555 Million Plan, Metaplanet is doubling down on a high-conviction, equity-driven capital markets strategy to accelerate our Bitcoin accumulation trajectory.”

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:

“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.com

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 – Flash, the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses, just announced a new partnership with the Bitcoin Only Brewery, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Flash for seamless Bitcoin payments. 

Bitcoin Buys Beer Thanks to Flash!

As Co-Founder of Flash, it's not every day we get to toast to a truly refreshing milestone.

Okay, jokes aside.

We're super buzzed to see our friends at @Drink_B0B
Bitcoin Only Brewery using Flash to power their online sales!

The first… pic.twitter.com/G7TWhy50pX

— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) June 3, 2025

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack – shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented: “Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept Bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

Bitcoin payment usage is growing thanks to Lightning

In May, fast-food chain Steak ‘N Shake went viral for integrating bitcoin at their restaurants around the world. In the same month, the bitcoin2025 conference in Las Vegas set a new world record with 4,000 Lightning payments in one day.

According to a report by River Intelligence, public Lightning payment volume surged by 266% from August 2023 to August 2024. This growth is also reflected in the overall accessibility of lighting infrastructure for consumers. According to Lightning Service Provider Breez, over 650 Million users now have access to the Lightning Network through apps like CashApp, Kraken or Strike.

Bitcoin Only Brewery’s adoption of Flash reflects the growing trend of businesses integrating Bitcoin payments to cater to a global, privacy-conscious customer base. By offering no-KYC delivery across Europe, the brewery aligns with the ethos of decentralization and financial sovereignty, appealing to the increasing number of consumers and businesses embracing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method.

“Flash is committed to driving innovation in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Corbin added. “We’re building a future where businesses of all sizes can seamlessly integrate Bitcoin payments, unlocking new opportunities in the global market. It’s never been easier to start selling in bitcoin and we invite retailers globally to join us in this revolution.”

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

Media Contact:

Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.comPhotos paywithflash.com/about/press

How Flash Enables Interoperable, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Commerce

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Influencers would have you believe there is an ongoing binance bank run but bitcoin wallet data says otherwise.

- binance wallets are near all time highs
- bitfinex wallets are also trending up
- gemini and coinbase are being hit with massive withdrawals though

You should not trust custodians, they can rug you without warning. It is incredibly important you learn how to hold bitcoin yourself, but also consider not blindly trusting influencers with a ref link to shill you.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

This article was originally published on dev.to by satshacker.

Alright, you’ve built a useful and beautiful website, tool or app. However, monetization isn’t a priority and you’d rather keep the project free, ads-free and accessible?

Accepting donations would be an option, but how? A PayPal button? Stripe? Buymeacoffe? Patreon?

All of these services require a bank account and KYC verification, before you can send and receive donations – not very convenient.

If we only could send value over the internet, with just one click and without the need of a bank account…

Oh, hold on, that’s bitcoin. The decentralized protocol to send value across the globe. Money over TCP/IP.

In this article, we’ll learn how anyone can easily add a payment button or donation widget on a website or app.

Let’s get into it.

Introduction

Bitcoin is digital money that you can send and receive without the need for banks. While bitcoin is extremely secure, it’s not very fast. The maximum transactions per second (TPS) the network can handle is about 7. Obviously that’s not useful for daily payments or microtransactions.

If you’d like to dig deeper into how bitcoin works, a great read is “Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas Antonopoulos.

Bitcoin vs Lightning

If you’d like to receive bitcoin donations “on-chain” all you need is a bitcoin wallet. You simply display your bitcoin address on your site and that’s it. You can receive donations.

It would look something like this; 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

Instead of showing the actual bitcoin address, you can also turn it into a QR code.

However, this is not a recommended solution. Using static on-chain addresses has two major downsides. It lowers privacy for you and your donnors and it’s a UTXO disaster because many small incoming transactions could beocme hard to consolidate in the future.

For donations and small transactions, the Lightning Network is the better option. Lightning allows for instant settlement with fees only a fraction of a cent.

Similar to bitcoin, you have the choice between non-custodial and custodial wallets. This means, either you have full control over your money or the wallet provider has.

Option 1: Lightning Address

With the lightning address feature, you an easily receive donations to an email like address.

It looks like this: yourname@wallet.com

Many wallets support lightning addresses and make it easy to create one. Then, you simple add the address to your donation page and you’re ready to receive tips.

You can also add a link link as in lightning:yourname@wallet.com and compatible lightning wallets and browser wallets will detect the address.

How to get a Lightning Address Fast

Option 2: Lightning Donation Widgets

If you like to take it a step further, you can also create a more enhanced donation checkout flow. Of course you could programm something yourself, there are many open source libraries you can build upon. If you want a simple plug-and-play solution, here are a couple of options:

Name

Type

Registration

SatSale

Self-hosted

No KYC

BTCPay Server

Self-hosted

No KYC

Pay With Flash

Widget

Email

Geyser Fund

Widget

Email

The Giving Block

Hosted

KYC

OpenNode

Hosted

KYC

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SatSale (GitHub)

Lightweight, self-hosted Bitcoin/Lightning payment processor. No KYC.

Ideal for developers comfortable with server management. Simple to deploy, supports both on-chain and Lightning, and integrates with WooCommerce.

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BTCPay Server

Powerful, open-source, self-hosted processor for Bitcoin and Lightning. No KYC.

Supports multiple currencies, advanced features, and full privacy. Requires technical setup and maintenance. Funds go directly to your wallet; great for those seeking full control.

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Pay With Flash

Easiest for indie hackers. Add a donation widget with minimal code and no KYC. Payments go directly to your wallet for a 1.5% fee.

Setup Steps:

1. Sign up at PayWithFlash.com
2. Customize your widget in the dashboard
3. Embed the code:

1. Test to confirm functionality

Benefits:

• Minimal technical skills required
• Supports one-time or recurring donations
• Direct fund transfer, no intermediaries

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Geyser Fund

Crowdfunding platform. Widget-based, connects to your wallet, email registration.Focused on Bitcoin crowdfunding, memberships and donations.

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The Giving Block

Hosted, KYC required. Integrates with fiat and crypto, best for nonprofits or larger organizations.

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OpenNode

Hosted, KYC required. Accept Bitcoin payments and donations; supports conversion to fiat, suitable for businesses and nonprofits.

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Summary

• Fast, low-code setup: Use Pay With Flash or Geyser Fund.
• Privacy and control: Choose SatSale or BTCPay Server (requires technical skills).
• Managed, compliant solutions: The Giving Block or OpenNode.

Choose based on your technical comfort, privacy needs, and project scale.

I hope this article helped you. If you added bitcoin donations, share your link in the comments and I will send you a few satoshis maybe

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything

Coinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.  

JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025

This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020. 

“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.

The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.

Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.

Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet. 

The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.

This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

In today’s digital era, access to financial services remains a privilege for many. Bitcoinization – the mass adoption of Bitcoin as a payment medium and store of value – represents a unique opportunity to democratize access to financial services (Read this article Can the Lightning Network Lead to “Hyperbitcoinization”? to know more about Bitcoinization). Telecommunications carriers occupy a strategic position in this transformation, especially in regions where traditional internet access is limited. However, this aspect remains largely unexplored. This article seeks to examine how these companies can catalyze this financial revolution by analyzing the Machankura case and the technical possibilities within current communication infrastructures.

The Success Sotry of Machankura

The Machankura project (8333.mobi) emerged to address a common challenge in various African regions: financial exclusion due to limited internet access. Created by South African developer Kgothatso Ngako, the service utilizes the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) protocol, supported by virtually all mobile phones, to facilitate Bitcoin transactions via 2G and 3G cellular networks.

Machankura – derived from South African slang for “money” – functions as a custodial Bitcoin wallet. Through the USSD protocol, users can access the service by dialing short codes (*123*456789#, for example) or sending SMS messages to specific numbers. When the server receives the code or message, an interactive session between the parties (server-user) begins. This enables users to create Bitcoin wallets associated with their phone numbers, protected by multi-digit PINs.

Once registered, users receive a Lightning address (example: 1234567890@8333.mobi) that can be used to receive Bitcoin from anyone worldwide. Users can also customize this address to a preferred username, further enhancing privacy.

Currently, Machankura is available in nine African countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Malawi. The creator’s objective is to expand the service to all countries across the African continent in the coming years.

Why Lightning network? Please read this article Lightning Network vs. Traditional Bitcoin Transactions.

The Technical Foundations of Machankura’s Success – USSD

As mentioned, USSD is a protocol embedded in mobile networks and available on virtually all cellular devices. This choice proved crucial for the Machankura project, given that in Africa, more than half of phones sold are not smartphones. Additionally, this protocol offers critical technical advantages:

• Operates without requiring internet access, functioning in areas with poor connectivity.
• Universal compatibility with any mobile phone, including the most basic models.
• Provides real-time interactivity between users and the system.
• Features an intuitive interface already utilized for banking services, customer support, and self-service applications

These advantages have enabled Bitcoin to become accessible to a significant portion of the region’s population, with over 15,000 users, according to the Machankura project creator.

USSD and Connectivity Challenges

The primary technical limitation of USSD manifests in high-connectivity environments (4G, 5G, or higher). As established by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, organization for standardization of mobile networks), the protocol must be recognized by newer generations of cellular networks. However, this recognition requires a procedure known as inter-technology fallback. For instance, if a user is connected to a 5G network and streaming music, when accessing a USSD service, their connection will downgrade to a 3G (or 2G) network, inevitably interrupting media streaming execution.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS): The Evolution in Telecommunications Services

The solution to connectivity issues with USSD resides within the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), a subsystem within the standardized architecture of newer cellular networks (from fourth generation onwards). Its objective is to unify access and provision of multimedia services across both mobile and fixed networks. These services include:

• Voice services – such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi)
• Video services – such as Video over LTE  (ViLTE) and Video over WiFi (ViWiFi)
• Videoconferencing
• Instant messaging
• Streaming media
• Emergency services
• Interoperability between legacy networks

The New Era: USSI (USSD over IP)

USSI (USSD over IP) represents the solution for service continuity across 4G, 5G, and future networks when utilizing USSD services. This new protocol enhances service quality, increases simultaneous session capacity, provides additional features for recent devices, improves session security, and enables operation without requiring fallback procedures.

Strategic Opportunities for Carriers

Institutional Bitcoin adoption is already established, with integration into portfolios of mining companies, exchanges, automobile manufacturers (Tesla), investment funds (BlackRock), financial institutions (Galaxy Digital Holdings), technology companies (including MicroStrategy, MercadoLibre, and Brazilian Meliúz), and even nations such as El Salvador, the United States, and China.

With robust, secure, and extensive infrastructure, telecommunications carriers can implement complex and advanced Bitcoin-based financial services, demystifying its use and stimulating adoption. Strategic partnerships with exchanges and fintechs enhance integrated solutions for entrepreneurs and consumers, such as integration with Lightning Network nodes to enable rapid, low-cost transactions between IoT devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, and point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

The competitive advantages of this approach include

• New Revenue Streams: Companies can collect fees from simple transactions and provide advanced financial services such as loans, insurance, and investments.
• Customer Retention: By offering innovative services, they can reduce customer churn.
• Vanguard Strategy: Strategic positioning in an emerging high-capitalization market

The Future of Bitcoinization in Telecommunications

The success of the Machankura project unequivocally demonstrates the potential of telecommunications as transformative agents in the mass adoption of Bitcoin. As the Bitcoin ecosystem consolidates and expands, it is essential that we recognize this opportunity not merely as a new business vertical but as an important step toward strategic positioning at the forefront of a global economic transformation.

Given the extensive reach of existing infrastructure, these carriers can become the primary catalyst for transforming the lives of the unbanked in an unprecedented manner. As we have seen, Bitcoin is no longer just a trend; it is a reality. The natural consequence of this reality is bitcoinization, and we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this emerging paradigm.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The Coinbase Lightning Network is Coinbase’s implementation of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network technology, launched in partnership with Lightspark in April 2024. This innovative solution allows users to send, receive, and pay with bitcoin instantly and cheaply directly from their Coinbase accounts.

Think of the Coinbase Lightning Network as the express lane of bitcoin transactions. While regular bitcoin transfers can take 10-60 minutes and cost several dollars in fees, Lightning Network transactions on Coinbase complete in seconds with fees typically under a cent.

Key Benefits of Coinbase Lightning Network:

• Instant transfers: Transactions complete in seconds, not hours
• Ultra-low fees: 0.2% processing fee vs. traditional network fees
• Global reach: Send bitcoin anywhere in the world instantly
• Cost efficiency: 20 times cheaper than traditional credit card fees

Coinbase Lightning Network vs Regular Bitcoin Transfers

Understanding the difference between Coinbase Lightning Network and regular bitcoin transfers is crucial for choosing the right method:

Feature

Coinbase Lightning Network

Regular Bitcoin Transfer

Speed

Instant (seconds)

10-60 minutes

Fees

0.2% + minimal network fee

$5-50+ depending on network

Best for

Small to medium amounts

Large amounts, long-term storage

Availability

24/7 instant

Subject to network congestion

The Coinbase Lightning Network processes transactions “off-chain,” creating payment channels that settle later on the main Bitcoin blockchain, resulting in dramatically faster and cheaper transactions.

How to Send Bitcoin Using Coinbase Lightning Network

Sending Bitcoin through Coinbase’s Lightning option is incredibly straightforward. Follow these step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Access Your Coinbase Account

1. Sign in to your Coinbase account via web browser or mobile app
2. Ensure you have bitcoin (BTC) in your account balance
3. Navigate to your portfolio and locate your bitcoin holdings

Step 2: Initiate the Lightning Transfer

1. Click “Transfer” then select “Send crypto”
2. Choose bitcoin (BTC) as your asset
3. Enter the amount you wish to send
4. Select Lightning Network as your transfer method

Step 3: Add Recipient Information

1. Obtain the Lightning Network invoice from your recipient
2. Paste the invoice into the recipient field
3. The Coinbase Lightning Network will automatically detect and validate the invoice
4. Review the transaction details carefully

Step 4: Complete the Transaction

1. Verify the amount and recipient information
2. Click “Send” to initiate the transfer
3. Your Coinbase Lightning Network transaction will complete within seconds
4. Both you and the recipient will receive confirmation notifications

How to Receive Bitcoin via Coinbase Lightning Network

Receiving Bitcoin through Coinbase’s Lightning option requires generating a Lightning invoice. Here’s your complete guide:

Step 1: Generate a Lightning Invoice

1. Log into your Coinbase account
2. Navigate to “Transfer” then “Receive crypto”
3. Select Bitcoin (BTC) as the asset you wish to receive
4. Choose “Lightning Network” as your receiving method

Step 2: Create Your Invoice

1. Enter the specific amount you want to receive (required for Lightning)
2. Add an optional description or memo
3. Click “Generate Invoice”
4. Your Lightning Network invoice will appear as both a QR code and text string

Step 3: Share Your Invoice

1. Copy the Lightning invoice text or share the QR code
2. Send this information to the person sending you Bitcoin
3. Remember: Lightning invoices expire after 72 hours
4. Generate a new invoice if the original expires

Step 4: Receive Your Bitcoin

1. Once the sender pays your invoice, you’ll receive instant notification
2. The bitcoin will appear in your Coinbase account immediately
3. No waiting for blockchain confirmations required with Coinbase Lightning Network

Coinbase Lightning Network Fees and Limits

Understanding the fee structure of Coinbase Lightning Network helps you make informed decisions:

• Processing Fee: 0.2% of the transfer amount
• Network Fee: Minimal (typically fractions of a cent)
• Minimum Amount: Varies by region, typically $0.1- 5
• Maximum Amount: Subject to your account limits and Lightning Network capacity

The Coinbase Lightning Network offers significant savings compared to traditional bitcoin transfers, especially for smaller amounts under $1,000.

Troubleshooting Common Coinbase Lightning Network Issues

Even with the user-friendly Coinbase Lightning Network, you might encounter some challenges:

Invoice Expired Error

• Solution: Generate a fresh Lightning invoice
• Prevention: Complete transactions promptly after generating invoices

Transaction Failed

• Cause: Insufficient Lightning Network liquidity or routing issues
• Solution: Try again in a few minutes or use smaller amounts

Can’t Find Lightning Option

• Check: Ensure Lightning is available in your region
• Verify: Update your Coinbase app to the latest version

Address Whitelist Issues

• Problem: Lightning invoices may not work with address whitelisting enabled
• Solution: Temporarily disable whitelisting or contact Coinbase support

The Coinbase Lightning Network transforms bitcoin from a store of value into a practical, everyday payment method. With instant transactions, minimal fees, and user-friendly implementation, it’s never been easier to send and receive bitcoin.

@ f3873798:24b3f2f3

Muito se fala sobre racismo no Brasil. A mídia, os políticos e os intelectuais engajados repetem discursos antirracistas, promovem campanhas e ergueram bandeiras pela igualdade. No entanto, existe uma hipocrisia gritante quando olhamos para a realidade dos povos indígenas no país.

No Brasil, o indígena ainda é, juridicamente, tratado como incapaz de decidir por si mesmo, sendo suas terras consideradas propriedade da União. Isso significa, na prática, que tudo o que diz respeito à sua cultura, território e desenvolvimento precisa do “amém” do Estado. É um tipo de tutela que remete aos tempos coloniais, onde os “civilizados” decidiam o que era melhor para os “selvagens”.

O mais engraçado e trágico deste fato, é que não há nenhum movimento midiático que aborda sobre a existência absurda deste tipo de regimento jurídico, não há influenciar não há atores e atrizes da Globo, nem cantores que questione e lance a pauta

Como falar em fim da escravidão ou combate ao racismo estrutural, se ainda hoje tratamos povos inteiros como se fossem incapazes de autodeterminação?

Enquanto isso, o governo federal, representado atualmente por figuras como “Tio Lule”, negocia e entrega terras indígenas para interesses geopolíticos, sustentando ditaduras e alianças internacionais, enquanto os próprios povos originários ficam à margem do desenvolvimento econômico.

Recursos como açaí, cupuaçu, babaçu e muitos outros produtos amazônicos serão explorados por empresas estrangeiras, que lucrarão intensamente, sem que as comunidades locais tenham condições mínimas de acesso aos meios de produção ou ao mercado. Isso destrói a economia regional, perpetua a dependência e impede que o verdadeiro protagonismo indígena aconteça.

Um ciclo que se repete: a história da borracha

O que está em curso não é novidade. É uma repetição histórica. Basta lembrar do ciclo da borracha, quando os ingleses levaram sementes de seringueira da Amazônia para plantar na Ásia, quebrando o monopólio brasileiro e afundando a economia da região Norte, que até hoje carrega as marcas desse roubo histórico.

Agora, a história se repete, mas com outros nomes e produtos — e com o apoio explícito do Estado brasileiro.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Why are Stripe Alternatives are growing like mushrooms? When it comes to online payment processing, Stripe has long dominated the conversation.

However, with its complex pricing structure, strict policies and first-world focus, many entrepreneurs and companies are actively seeking viable Stripe alternatives.

Whether you’re a SaaS startup, e-commerce store, or global enterprise, choosing the right payment processor can significantly impact your bottom line and customer experience.

Table of Contents

• Why Consider Stripe Alternatives?
• The Complete List of Stripe Alternatives
• Additional Notable Mentions
• How to Choose the Right Stripe Alternative
• Conclusion

Why Consider Stripe Alternatives?

Before diving into our comprehensive list, it’s worth understanding why businesses are exploring alternatives to Stripe. While Stripe offers robust features and excellent developer tools, some businesses face challenges with pricing transparency, limited global coverage, or specific industry requirements that Stripe doesn’t fully address.

The Complete List of Stripe Alternatives

Based on extensive research and analysis of the payment processing landscape, here are 27 proven Stripe alternatives that could be the perfect fit for your business:

1. Flash – Easiest Bitcoin Payment Solution

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

2. Lemon Squeezy – The SaaS-Focused Alternative

Dubbed as “acq’d by Stripe,” Lemon Squeezy offers a comprehensive solution specifically designed for digital product sales and SaaS businesses. It provides strong customer support, built-in analytics, and handles payments, subscriptions, global tax compliance, and fraud prevention in one platform.

3. Gumroad – Creator Economy Champion

Gumroad has carved out a niche serving creators and small businesses by providing tools for selling digital products, physical goods, and subscriptions. It’s particularly popular among content creators, artists, and independent entrepreneurs who want to experiment with various ideas and formats. They also open-sourced their code which is quite the ‘chad-move’.

4. Paddle – All-in-One SaaS Commerce

Paddle caters to SaaS and software companies by offering a comprehensive platform with billing, licensing, and global tax handling capabilities. It’s designed to be a complete solution for subscription-based businesses, handling payments, tax, and subscription management in one platform.

5. FastSpring – Global E-commerce Specialist

FastSpring specializes in e-commerce solutions for software and SaaS companies, with a focus on global payments and subscription management. According to TechnologyAdvice, it’s particularly strong for international transactions and helps companies sell more, stay lean, and compete big.

6. 2Checkout – Versatile Payment Solutions

2Checkout (now part of Verifone) offers versatile payment solutions excelling in global payments, subscription billing, and digital commerce. One of the best stripe alternatives as it’s an all-in-one monetization platform that maximizes revenues and makes global online sales easier, supporting over 200 countries and territories.

7. Payoneer – Cross-Border Payment Expert

Payoneer simplifies cross-border payment solutions, offering local payment ease globally with a focus on market expansion and multi-currency support. It’s trusted by small to medium-sized businesses for global payment solutions and international money transfers.

8. Chargebee – Subscription Management Leader

Chargebee is a subscription management platform perfect for SaaS and SMBs, with robust billing and revenue management features. If you were looking for stripe alternatives to setup subscriptions, Chargebee might be right for you. It streamlines revenue operations and helps businesses grow efficiently with comprehensive subscription billing capabilities.

9. Maxio (formerly Chargify) – B2B SaaS Billing

Maxio offers a robust platform for B2B SaaS billing and financial operations, focusing on growth and efficiency for subscription businesses. It’s the most complete financial operations platform for B2B SaaS, bringing core financial operations into one platform.

10. Recurly – Dynamic Subscription Management

Recurly offers dynamic subscription management platform, excelling in churn management and data insights for subscription growth. It’s the only proven platform that expands and protects your recurring revenue with subscription management, recurring billing, and payments orchestration.

11. Braintree – PayPal’s Enterprise Solution

Braintree (by PayPal) provides a versatile global payments platform, integrating multiple payment methods with a focus on conversion and security. It delivers end-to-end checkout experiences for businesses, offering single-touch payments and mobile optimization.

12. PayKickstart – Modern Commerce Platform

PayKickstart offers a modern commerce platform for online billing and affiliates, focusing on revenue maximization and churn minimization. It’s the most complete checkout, recurring billing, affiliate management, and retention solution with global capabilities.

13. PayPro Global – Full-Service E-commerce

PayPro Global offers a full-service eCommerce solution for selling software and SaaS, focusing on global payments, tax compliance, and customer support. It provides flexible solutions with over 70 payment methods and great support for software companies.

14. Shopify Payments – E-commerce Integration

Integrated with Shopify, this service is ideal for SMBs in eCommerce, offering a seamless shopping cart and payment experience. It’s the simplest way to accept online payments, automatically set up for major methods with no fees for some payment types.

15. Square – Versatile POS and Payment Solutions

Square provides versatile POS and payment solutions for small businesses with a strong focus on retail and mobile payments. Forbes Advisor notes it as one of the top alternatives for businesses needing both online and offline payment capabilities.

16. Zoho Billing – Integrated Business Solution

Zoho Billing is an online recurring billing and subscription management solution, ideal for small and medium-sized businesses seeking professional invoice creation, time and expense tracking, and improved cash flow management. Zoho isn’t just competing for stripe alternatives, they offer a ton of other products and services.

17. WePay – Chase Company Integration

WePay, a Chase company, provides integrated payment solutions for ISVs and SaaS companies with customizable payment solutions. It’s designed for platforms like marketplaces and small business tools, offering seamless user experience and fraud protection.

18. QuickBooks Payments – SMB Accounting Integration

This service provides seamless accounting and payment solutions for SMBs and SaaS businesses, featuring real-time tracking and automated bookkeeping. It lets small businesses accept payments online from anywhere with easy integration into QuickBooks accounting.

19. Mangopay – Marketplace Payment Infrastructure

Mangopay offers a modular payment infrastructure for marketplaces and platforms, emphasizing flexibility, global payouts, and AI-powered anti-fraud. It uses flexible wallets built to orchestrate fund flows and monetize payment experiences.

20. Coinbase Commerce – Cryptocurrency Payments

Coinbase Commerce enables businesses to accept payments from around the world using cryptocurrency. It offers instant settlement, low fees, and broad asset support, making it easy for merchants to accept digital currency payments globally.

21. BTCPay Server – Open-Source Bitcoin Processor

BTCPay Server is a self-hosted, open-source cryptocurrency payment processor with 0% fees and no third-party involvement. It’s secure, private, censorship-resistant, and completely free for businesses wanting full control over their Bitcoin payments.

22. Lago – Open-Source Billing Alternative

Lago is an open-source alternative to Stripe Billing and Chargebee, specializing in billing and metering in one place for usage-b

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

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The new website is finally live! I put in a lot of hard work over the past months on it. I'm proud to say that it's out now and it looks pretty cool, at least to me!

Why rewrite it all?

The old kycnot.me site was built using Python with Flask about two years ago. Since then, I've gained a lot more experience with Golang and coding in general. Trying to update that old codebase, which had a lot of design flaws, would have been a bad idea. It would have been like building on an unstable foundation.

That's why I made the decision to rewrite the entire application. Initially, I chose to use SvelteKit with JavaScript. I did manage to create a stable site that looked similar to the new one, but it required Jav aScript to work. As I kept coding, I started feeling like I was repeating "the Python mistake". I was writing the app in a language I wasn't very familiar with (just like when I was learning Python at that mom ent), and I wasn't happy with the code. It felt like spaghetti code all the time.

So, I made a complete U-turn and started over, this time using Golang. While I'm not as proficient in Golang as I am in Python now, I find it to be a very enjoyable language to code with. Most aof my recent pr ojects have been written in Golang, and I'm getting the hang of it. I tried to make the best decisions I could and structure the code as well as possible. Of course, there's still room for improvement, which I'll address in future updates.

Now I have a more maintainable website that can scale much better. It uses a real database instead of a JSON file like the old site, and I can add many more features. Since I chose to go with Golang, I mad e the "tradeoff" of not using JavaScript at all, so all the rendering load falls on the server. But I believe it's a tradeoff that's worth it.

What's new

• UI/UX - I've designed a new logo and color palette for kycnot.me. I think it looks pretty cool and cypherpunk. I am not a graphic designer, but I think I did a decent work and I put a lot of thinking on it to make it pleasant!
• Point system - The new point system provides more detailed information about the listings, and can be expanded to cover additional features across all services. Anyone can request a new point!
• ToS Scrapper: I've implemented a powerful automated terms-of-service scrapper that collects all the ToS pages from the listings. It saves you from the hassle of reading the ToS by listing the lines that are suspiciously related to KYC/AML practices. This is still in development and it will improve for sure, but it works pretty fine right now!
• Search bar - The new search bar allows you to easily filter services. It performs a full-text search on the Title, Description, Category, and Tags of all the services. Looking for VPN services? Just search for "vpn"!
• Transparency - To be more transparent, all discussions about services now take place publicly on GitLab. I won't be answering any e-mails (an auto-reply will prompt to write to the corresponding Gitlab issue). This ensures that all service-related matters are publicly accessible and recorded. Additionally, there's a real-time audits page that displays database changes.
• Listing Requests - I have upgraded the request system. The new form allows you to directly request services or points without any extra steps. In the future, I plan to enable requests for specific changes to parts of the website.
• Lightweight and fast - The new site is lighter and faster than its predecessor!
• Tor and I2P - At last! kycnot.me is now officially on Tor and I2P!

How?

This rewrite has been a labor of love, in the end, I've been working on this for more than 3 months now. I don't have a team, so I work by myself on my free time, but I find great joy in helping people on their private journey with cryptocurrencies. Making it easier for individuals to use cryptocurrencies without KYC is a goal I am proud of!

If you appreciate my work, you can support me through the methods listed here. Alternatively, feel free to send me an email with a kind message!

Technical details

All the code is written in Golang, the website makes use of the chi router for the routing part. I also make use of BigCache for caching database requests. There is 0 JavaScript, so all the rendering load falls on the server, this means it needed to be efficient enough to not drawn with a few users since the old site was reporting about 2M requests per month on average (note that this are not unique users).

The database is running with mariadb, using gorm as the ORM. This is more than enough for this project. I started working with an sqlite database, but I ended up migrating to mariadb since it works better with JSON.

The scraper is using chromedp combined with a series of keywords, regex and other logic. It runs every 24h and scraps all the services. You can find the scraper code here.

The frontend is written using Golang Templates for the HTML, and TailwindCSS plus DaisyUI for the CSS classes framework. I also use some plain CSS, but it's minimal.

The requests forms is the only part of the project that requires JavaScript to be enabled. It is needed for parsing some from fields that are a bit complex and for the "captcha", which is a simple Proof of Work that runs on your browser, destinated to avoid spam. For this, I use mCaptcha.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

In a quiet corner of the world, bitcoin mining operations in Africa are turning electricity into digital currency and in the process, redefining how value is created.

At its core, bitcoin mining involves validating transaction information before adding new blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain by competing to solve a cryptographic puzzle that meets a specific criterion.

Globally, mining plays a key role in keeping the blockchain decentralized and secure. The system depends on miners to verify and record transactions, mainly to prevent a problem called double spending, the digital version of using the same money twice.

To understand this better, imagine Charles sends $5 to Amanda. With physical cash, Amanda can trust the note is real and hasn’t been used elsewhere. But with digital currency, copying data is easy, so how can she be sure that the same $5 wasn’t sent to someone else too? That’s the exact problem Bitcoin mining helps solve.

In recent years, Africa has started to draw attention in this space, positioning itself as a key hub in global bitcoin mining. While there may be less than 2 million bitcoin left to be mined from the total 21 million supply, the rise of mining operations in Africa has sparked excitement, creating new jobs and drawing in foreign capital.

Although some countries still grapple with power shortages and the energy demands of mining, many citizens view bitcoin as a more stable store of value and a safeguard against the volatility of their local currencies.

At the same time, Africa’s wealth of hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal resources makes the continent one of the most promising regions for cost-effective and sustainable mining.

What Makes a Large-Scale Bitcoin Mining Operation in Africa?

It all starts with difficulty. Bitcoin mining isn’t just about solving a puzzle, it’s about solving one that keeps getting harder. Mining difficulty refers to how much computational work is needed to generate a number lower than the target hash.

This difficulty automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks (about every two weeks), depending on how quickly miners solved the previous batch. If mining is fast and efficient, the network increases the difficulty; if miners drop off and block times slow, it reduces it, all to maintain a consistent block production time of roughly 10 minutes.

The significance of mining difficulty lies in the increased demands it places on mining operations. As difficulty rises, miners require more powerful hardware, cost-effective energy sources, advanced infrastructure, and substantial financial investment. These requirements distinguish large-scale mining operations from smaller, casual miners.

In short, it’s the difficulty of mining that births the need for large facilities, massive energy inputs, industrial-grade hardware, and significant financial investment, the very traits that define a “large” bitcoin mining operation.

This leads us to the 4 key factors that define large Bitcoin mining operations in Africa, each one a direct response to the growing demands of the network:

1. Facility size and infrastructure:

The physical size of a mining facility is a direct reflection of its capacity to house mining equipment and support systems. Larger operations typically have thousands of mining rigs installed, supported by extensive infrastructure such as advanced cooling systems and stable power supplies.

These are critical to ensure that the equipment runs continuously and efficiently, given the intense heat and electricity demands of mining.

While it is possible to mine Bitcoin using desktop computers or gaming rigs by joining mining pools, these setups are limited in profitability. Mining pools distribute rewards based on the computational power contributed, meaning small or less efficient machines earn only modest returns.

To compete effectively, mining operations invest in specialized hardware known as Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners. These machines are far more powerful and energy-efficient than regular computers but require significant capital investment, with prices ranging from $4,000 to $12,000 per rig depending on their performance.

Large-scale operations typically deploy hundreds or thousands of these ASIC miners, which necessitates the large facilities and sophisticated infrastructure mentioned earlier. In this way, the size of the facility and the sophistication of the mining equipment are tightly linked, together defining the overall scale and capability of a bitcoin mining operation.

2. Hashrate contribution:

Hashrate refers to the computational power used to mine and process transactions on the Bitcoin network. A higher hashrate indicates a more significant contribution to the network’s security and transaction processing.

Large mining operations often possess substantial hashrate, measured in exa hashes per second (EH/s). For instance, as of July 2024, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate was approximately 733.41 EH/s.

3. Energy consumption and power source:

Bitcoin mining is energy-intensive. The total energy consumption of the Bitcoin network has been estimated at 175.87 terawatt-hours annually, comparable to the power consumption of Poland. Large mining operations often seek locations with access to cheap and reliable energy sources, such as hydroelectric, solar, or wind power, to reduce operational costs and environmental impact.

4. Financial banking and investor interest:

Significant financial investment is required to establish and maintain large-scale mining operations. This includes the cost of mining hardware, facility construction, energy procurement, and operational expenses. Companies with substantial financial backing can invest in cutting-edge technology and infrastructure, enhancing their mining capabilities. 

Overview of Bitcoin Mining in Africa

Africa is beginning to carve out its share of the global Bitcoin mining market, which was valued at $2.45 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $8.24 billion by 2034. 

As Bitcoin’s value continues to rise, countries across the continent are positioning themselves to benefit, many by tapping into abundant renewable energy sources and taking advantage of regulatory ambiguity or excess energy production. 

Ethiopia currently leads the continent in Bitcoin mining activity, with around 2.5% of the global hashrate reportedly coming from operations powered entirely by renewable energy. 

This energy mismatch has attracted major miners from China and other regions, who see an opportunity to monetize surplus electricity. Ethiopia’s success showcases how renewable energy and mining can coexist sustainably while contributing meaningfully to state revenue. 

Kenya follows closely behind. As the top geothermal energy producer in Africa, with an installed capacity of 863 MW, the country is using its energy advantage to support sustainable mining. 

Nigeria is emerging as a serious contender. While not yet dominant, its large population, increasing tech engagement, and growing interest in using flared gas for mining signal potential for expansion. Nigeria’s complex but evolving regulatory landscape also leaves room for further mining developments as the government explores clearer crypto frameworks.

Malawi represents a more localized model of Bitcoin mining. By converting rainfall-powered microgrids into revenue-generating infrastructure, Malawi shows how small-scale mining can play a powerful role in community development and rural electrification.

In Libya, Bitcoin mining is technically illegal, but that hasn’t stopped it. Despite the ban, underground mining continues to thrive thanks to heavily subsidized electricity. In 2021, Libyan miners accounted for an estimated 0.6% of the global Bitcoin production, the highest in both the Arab world and Africa at the time. Today, mining reportedly consumes around 2% of the country’s electricity, even as it operates in the shadows.

Angola rounds out the list with limited public data but notable potential. The country struggles with energy inefficiencies, losing nearly 40% of its hydroelectric power during transmission. Some reports suggest Bitcoin miners are beginning to capitalize on this otherwise stranded energy, though large-scale operations are yet to surface.

What unites these countries is a shared set of conditions: untapped or mismanaged energy resources, an openness or gray area in regulation, and the growing understanding that Bitcoin mining can serve as a financial incentive to build and stabilize decentralized energy systems. 

Whether through massive hydroelectric projects or rural microgrids, Bitcoin mining is emerging as both an energy monetization strategy and a bridge to infrastructure development across Africa.

Profiles of the Largest Bitcoin Mining Operations in Africa

1. BitCluster (Ethiopia)

As of 2024, Bitcoin mining in Africa is largely concentrated in

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

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Know Your Customer is a regulation that requires companies of all sizes to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship with a customer. Such procedures fit within the broader scope of anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) regulations.

Banks, exchanges, online business, mail providers, domain registrars... Everyone wants to know who you are before you can even opt for their service. Your personal information is flowing around the internet in the hands of "god-knows-who" and secured by "trust-me-bro military-grade encryption". Once your account is linked to your personal (and verified) identity, tracking you is just as easy as keeping logs on all these platforms.

Rights for Illusions

KYC processes aim to combat terrorist financing, money laundering, and other illicit activities. On the surface, KYC seems like a commendable initiative. I mean, who wouldn't want to halt terrorists and criminals in their tracks?

The logic behind KYC is: "If we mandate every financial service provider to identify their users, it becomes easier to pinpoint and apprehend the malicious actors."

However, terrorists and criminals are not precisely lining up to be identified. They're crafty. They may adopt false identities or find alternative strategies to continue their operations. Far from being outwitted, many times they're several steps ahead of regulations. Realistically, KYC might deter a small fraction – let's say about 1% ^1 – of these malefactors. Yet, the cost? All of us are saddled with the inconvenient process of identification just to use a service.

Under the rhetoric of "ensuring our safety", governments and institutions enact regulations that seem more out of a dystopian novel, gradually taking away our right to privacy.

To illustrate, consider a city where the mayor has rolled out facial recognition cameras in every nook and cranny. A band of criminals, intent on robbing a local store, rolls in with a stolen car, their faces obscured by masks and their bodies cloaked in all-black clothes. Once they've committed the crime and exited the city's boundaries, they switch vehicles and clothes out of the cameras' watchful eyes. The high-tech surveillance? It didn’t manage to identify or trace them. Yet, for every law-abiding citizen who merely wants to drive through the city or do some shopping, their movements and identities are constantly logged. The irony? This invasive tracking impacts all of us, just to catch the 1% ^1 of less-than-careful criminals.

KYC? Not you.

KYC creates barriers to participation in normal economic activity, to supposedly stop criminals. ^2

KYC puts barriers between many users and businesses. One of these comes from the fact that the process often requires multiple forms of identification, proof of address, and sometimes even financial records. For individuals in areas with poor record-keeping, non-recognized legal documents, or those who are unbanked, homeless or transient, obtaining these documents can be challenging, if not impossible.

For people who are not skilled with technology or just don't have access to it, there's also a barrier since KYC procedures are mostly online, leaving them inadvertently excluded.

Another barrier goes for the casual or one-time user, where they might not see the value in undergoing a rigorous KYC process, and these requirements can deter them from using the service altogether.

It also wipes some businesses out of the equation, since for smaller businesses, the costs associated with complying with KYC norms—from the actual process of gathering and submitting documents to potential delays in operations—can be prohibitive in economical and/or technical terms.

You're not welcome

Imagine a swanky new club in town with a strict "members only" sign. You hear the music, you see the lights, and you want in. You step up, ready to join, but suddenly there's a long list of criteria you must meet. After some time, you are finally checking all the boxes. But then the club rejects your membership with no clear reason why. You just weren't accepted. Frustrating, right?

This club scenario isn't too different from the fact that KYC is being used by many businesses as a convenient gatekeeping tool. A perfect excuse based on a "legal" procedure they are obliged to.

Even some exchanges may randomly use this to freeze and block funds from users, claiming these were "flagged" by a cryptic system that inspects the transactions. You are left hostage to their arbitrary decision to let you successfully pass the KYC procedure. If you choose to sidestep their invasive process, they might just hold onto your funds indefinitely.

Your identity has been stolen

KYC data has been found to be for sale on many dark net markets^3. Exchanges may have leaks or hacks, and such leaks contain very sensitive data. We're talking about the full monty: passport or ID scans, proof of address, and even those awkward selfies where you're holding up your ID next to your face. All this data is being left to the mercy of the (mostly) "trust-me-bro" security systems of such companies. Quite scary, isn't it?

As cheap as $10 for 100 documents, with discounts applying for those who buy in bulk, the personal identities of innocent users who passed KYC procedures are for sale. ^3

In short, if you have ever passed the KYC/AML process of a crypto exchange, your privacy is at risk of being compromised, or it might even have already been compromised.

(they) Know Your Coins

You may already know that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies have a transparent public blockchain, meaning that all data is shown unencrypted for everyone to see and recorded forever. If you link an address you own to your identity through KYC, for example, by sending an amount from a KYC exchange to it, your Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous and can then be traced.

If, for instance, you send Bitcoin from such an identified address to another KYC'ed address (say, from a friend), everyone having access to that address-identity link information (exchanges, governments, hackers, etc.) will be able to associate that transaction and know who you are transacting with.

Conclusions

To sum up, KYC does not protect individuals; rather, it's a threat to our privacy, freedom, security and integrity. Sensible information flowing through the internet is thrown into chaos by dubious security measures. It puts borders between many potential customers and businesses, and it helps governments and companies track innocent users. That's the chaos KYC has stirred.

The criminals are using stolen identities from companies that gathered them thanks to these very same regulations that were supposed to combat them. Criminals always know how to circumvent such regulations. In the end, normal people are the most affected by these policies.

The threat that KYC poses to individuals in terms of privacy, security and freedom is not to be neglected. And if we don’t start challenging these systems and questioning their efficacy, we are just one step closer to the dystopian future that is now foreseeable.

Edited 20/03/2024 * Add reference to the 1% statement on Rights for Illusions section to an article where Chainalysis found that only 0.34% of the transaction volume with cryptocurrencies in 2023 was attributable to criminal activity ^1

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The Barcelona Cyphers Conference (BCC8333), the city’s first biggest bitcoin-themed event, transforms a historic building in the central born district of the Catalan capital into a hub for bitcoin enthusiasts and cypherpunks. Named after the port bitcoin nodes use to sync the timechain (8333), this inaugural event delivers high-signal discussions and practical applications of decentralized technology, uniting over 100 attendees from Spain, Europe, and beyond.

Venue and Atmosphere

Set in a 17th-century palace that doubles as a flamenco venue, Palau Dalmases blends historical elegance with a creative, almost rebellious vibe. The unique setting fosters deep conversations, hands-on workshops, and genuine connections, prioritizing substance over spectacle. The spectacular courtyard serves as a lively backdrop for collaboration and sparking chats that resonates with the event’s freedom/privacy-oriented ethos.

Lightning Network Integration

BCC8333 embedds Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN) into its core, emphasizing privacy and scalable technology. Two on-site bars accept LN payments for drinks, demonstrating fast, low-cost bitcoin transactions in action.

But the usage of Lightning Network extends beyond just ‘refreshments’. 

·       Chain Duel: This simple yet engaging game has many BCC8333 participants send sats via LN to enter, compete, and have fun for the two days of the event. A large-screen tournament on the main stage amplifies the excitement, showcasing one more practical case for LN in the bitcoin ecosystem with a nice bounty, i.e. winners claiming the collected sats.

·       Thematic sessions and practical workshops on wallets, vending machines, and Nostr highlight LN’s role in bitcoin adoption, while touching on the importance of privacy vs. scalable transactions.

While the overall adoption in Barcelona’s local establishments outside the venue remains rather limited, attendees find a nearby street with vivid graffiti dedicated to bitcoin, and in a practical way, whenever possible, swap sats for fiat among themselves when direct payments aren’t possible.

Selected Highlights

The agenda balances intense sessions with networking breaks, ensuring space for reflection and collaboration. Some of the key sessions include: 

·       Future of Private Transactions (English, Max Hillebrand).

·       Miniscripts Roundtable (English, Edouard from Liana, Landabaso from Rewind, Francesco from BitVault, Yuri da Silva from Great Wall).

·       Sovereign Hardware Tools (English, Wesatoshi).

·       Debate: Future of Lightning (Spanish, mixed attendees).

·       Op_return Debate (English, Peter Todd, Unhosted Marcellus, Lunaticoin).

Recordings from the main stage and additional coverage by Juan Cienfuegos, host of the BitCorner Podcast, will soon be available online (X: @BCC833, @TheJuanSC).

Why BCC8333 Stood Out

·       Local Maxis: vibrant and well-organized approach shines through, with local bitcoiners as organizers of the event (Spanish and expats) bringing their best PoW to the table.

·       Focused Discussions: Free of hype and influencers, BCC8333 prioritizes signal over noise, diving into critical topics like privacy, nodes, wallets, P2P tools, decentralized mining, and Nostr. 

·       Community Vibe: The smaller crowd enables authentic connections, fostering a tight-knit community of freedom-tech enthusiasts committed to sovereignty.

BCC8333 is a powerful testament to the cypherpunk spirit, blending bitcoin and privacy to fuel innovation. From LN-powered interactions to thought-provoking talks, the event underscores the strength of a community dedicated to building decentralized solutions. Congratulations to the organizers, contributors, volunteers, and attendees for making this conference a standout moment in the year’s lineup of bitcoin-themed events.

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Over the past few months, I've dedicated my time to a complete rewrite of the kycnot.me website. The technology stack remains unchanged; Golang paired with TailwindCSS. However, I've made some design choices in this iteration that I believe significantly enhance the site. Particularly to backend code.

UI Improvements

You'll notice a refreshed UI that retains the original concept but has some notable enhancements. The service list view is now more visually engaging, it displays additional information in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. Both filtering and searching functionalities have been optimized for speed and user experience.

Service pages have been also redesigned to highlight key information at the top, with the KYC Level box always accessible. The display of service attributes is now more visually intuitive.

The request form, especially the Captcha, has undergone substantial improvements. The new self-made Captcha is robust, addressing the reliability issues encountered with the previous version.

Terms of Service Summarizer

A significant upgrade is the Terms of Service summarizer/reviewer, now powered by AI (GPT-4-turbo). It efficiently condenses each service's ToS, extracting and presenting critical points, including any warnings. Summaries are updated monthly, processing over 40 ToS pages via the OpenAI API using a self-crafted and thoroughly tested prompt.

Nostr Comments

I've integrated a comment section for each service using Nostr. For guidance on using this feature, visit the dedicated how-to page.

Database

The backend database has transitioned to pocketbase, an open-source Golang backend that has been a pleasure to work with. I maintain an updated fork of the Golang SDK for pocketbase at pluja/pocketbase.

Scoring

The scoring algorithm has also been refined to be more fair. Despite I had considered its removal due to the complexity it adds (it is very difficult to design a fair scoring system), some users highlighted its value, so I kept it. The updated algorithm is available open source.

Listings

Each listing has been re-evaluated, and the ones that were no longer operational were removed. New additions are included, and the backlog of pending services will be addressed progressively, since I still have access to the old database.

API

The API now offers more comprehensive data. For more details, check here.

About Page

The About page has been restructured for brevity and clarity.

Other Changes

Extensive changes have been implemented in the server-side logic, since the whole code base was re-written from the ground up. I may discuss these in a future post, but for now, I consider the current version to be just a bit beyond beta, and additional updates are planned in the coming weeks.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin: How To Solve the Student Loan Crisis

Student loans continue to trouble millions of Americans, with a total of $1.77 trillion already owed. This crisis has been a major political issue for a while, especially after former President Biden promised to wipe out all of the student loan debt and ended up only fulfilling half of the promise. These billions of dollars are not just numbers on a spreadsheet; they represent people who repay their debt, every month, year in and year out. While the standard repayment plan spans 10 years, the reality is far more daunting: The average borrower takes 20-30 years to repay their loans. 

There are over two million new undergraduates every year, and, on average, they graduate with $29,400 in debt. Some, like medical students, surpass $250,000 in debt — a mortgage-sized pile. Almost $100 billion in new debt is created every year, piled upon the already unsustainable student debt pile. Similar to how we have (haven’t) dealt with public pensions, instead of dismantling a failed system we keep feeding the machine and crushing people’s lives and dreams underneath its weight. But perhaps there’s a way for future generations to avoid this dreadful fate — by borrowing new ideas from similar fields.

Real Estate: The Store of Value (SoV) Since Nixon

The real estate market is another system that heavily relies on debt to keep functioning, and like student loans, it’s not working too well. 

Real estate is a market where it’s completely normal to go 10x levered long on a single asset while putting all of your savings into it. Talk about idiosyncratic risk. The entire market has been in deep pain worldwide, not necessarily because of the debt, but due to how the fiat system has turned real estate into an investment-and-savings mechanism. In turn, the great investment of one generation becomes the unaffordable housing for the next. But a subset of the population has been divesting from the asset in favor of a better savings vehicle: bitcoin. 

Part of their thesis in divesting from real estate and moving to bitcoin is that they predict that bitcoin’s superior SoV function will drive real estate prices down, wreaking havoc on a fragile and overpriced asset class. This makes quite a bit of sense, especially to those individuals who invested in real estate in search of those SoV properties in the first place; they now have to contend with increasing risk all over the world, putting in peril what was once a “safe SoV” asset class. From wildfires all over the place to floods, expropriations, new taxes, and wars breaking out in places previously unimaginable, some investors are just fed up.

But housing is still necessary, and we still need to build a massive amount of new houses. In almost all major cities in the world, there’s a housing crisis driven in large part by shortages. This is due to lackluster housing buildouts following the 2008 great financial crisis, driven directly by housing debt. Thus, even if all of the real estate owners put all of their stock of housing into the market, we would still have to develop and construct new ones. But it’s hard to convince real estate developers to do so when you also tell them that, in bitcoin terms, the houses they are building will be worth less by the time they sell them.

Bitcoin Replaces Real Estate

That’s where a German Bitcoiner and real estate developer named Leon Wankum steps in and turns the problem into a solution. You may even say he used financial jiu-jitsu because his idea is to bundle new, debt-heavy real estate projects with a bitcoin fund. This way, a $10 million project — of which $9 million is debt-financed — would allocate a small percentage of the financing to bitcoin, in order to hedge the depreciation and devaluation of the main asset and thereby benefit from the appreciation of bitcoin. This way, real estate developers can leverage the debt-heavy nature of the real estate market to cover the demand for housing while also hedging themselves from any SoV risk that bitcoin may pose to that asset.

This seemed like a crazy idea. Bitcoin and real estate: a super conservative mainstream infrastructure investment combined with a hyper-volatile digital savings vehicle — an unlikely marriage. Yet, polar opposites attract, and an idea is only crazy until someone replicates it and makes it work. 

To everyone’s surprise, that’s exactly what happened last year, when Andrew Hohns of Newmarket Capital went on TV to announce they had started applying Wankum’s model to offer a loan to a real estate developer. They had provided financing for a real estate project with a few special conditions: 

• the developer had to use a small proportion to buy bitcoin, which was placed in escrow.
• the bitcoin is inextricably tied with the real estate asset.
• and the bitcoin has to be held for four years minimum.

The experiment was off to the races. If the past serves as a guide, this new investment structure will greatly reduce the burden of the loan.

Bitcoin and Student Debts, Rescuing the Next Generation

At this point, the parallels to student loans should be pretty clear. When 18-year-olds take out a mortgage-sized loan to bet on their education, their future human capital is effectively becoming the real estate (collateral) that backs the debt. Their capacity to make extra income from the knowledge and certificates they acquired by going into debt will help them pay it off (given that all goes well). Investment margins become very sensitive and risk increases immensely when huge amounts of leverage are added to any investment — be it trading stocks, real estate, or your future. Your room for maneuvering decreases, and you get trapped in the path you choose.

Thus, if you yourself become the real estate securing this mortgage-sized student debt, perhaps you could also secure that loan and reduce the burden on the main asset (you) by integrating bitcoin into the mix. This could have great benefits for all parties involved: decreasing the risk for the lender and giving increased peace of mind and opportunities for the borrower (you, the student).

One of the main advantages of adding bitcoin to your student debt structure is that there are now two assets rowing against the financial repayment current: yourself and bitcoin. By going to university, learning new skills and getting certificates, you open up the path to better-paid jobs and higher earning potentials, aka higher salaries. The more intriguing component is the bitcoin tied to your student debts. As a teenager itself, bitcoin has had an incredible CAGR over its lifespan. Even conservative numbers indicate that bitcoin will return about 60% annually for the foreseeable future. When compared with the 10-15% usually provided by the S&P 500, bitcoin looks like a Ferrari competing against horses. 

The other advantage is one that frustrates most students, and it has to do with acquiring bitcoin once they understand it. Unlike most adults, undergrads have barely had any time to build up savings, and are therefore unable to exchange much fiat for hard bitcoin. This can become incredibly frustrating, especially because you know that if you were a decade older, you could have aped into bitcoin and retired your entire bloodline. But now you are stuck being 16, saving up pennies, and sacrificing your younger years for trifling amounts of bitcoin that won’t make a difference in your lifetime. So close, yet so far away.

But what is debt if not a way to bring future purchasing power into the present? Debt is a time-traveling machine that allows people to buy assets by leveraging their future earnings, revenues, or salaries. And thankfully, the current system is created so that the moment you can legally go to jail or go to war, you can also indebt yourself up to your eyeballs with the promise of future wages as a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or another profession.

Funnily enough, bitcoin’s recommended minimum holding time is also the number of years for an average college degree — four years. This means that, as long as you create a similar structure as the one proposed by Newmarket Capital, where the bitcoin has a four-year holding period, you’ll be using financial jiu-jitsu. The four-year holding period, however, does not mean that the student needs to sell at that point. The question of how to manage your finances between repaying the student loans, selling the bitcoin, or acquiring more is a more complex and personal issue. Regardless of what any student does, with this hybrid method, student debts can help young Bitcoiners leap forward instead of taking a step back.

With this new method, students — and their families — now have another thing to celebrate when they walk onto the graduation stage. And if you drop out of school, for any set of reasons that life may hit you with, your student loan now comes with a fail-safe met

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Bitcoin Magazine

Where Could Bitcoin Peak This Cycle?

With Bitcoin looking as bullish as ever, the inevitable question arises of how high could BTC realistically go in this market cycle? Here we’ll explore a wide range of on-chain valuation models and cycle timing tools to identify plausible price targets for a Bitcoin peak. Although prediction is never a substitute for disciplined data reaction, this analysis gives us frameworks to better understand where we are and where we might be heading.

Price Forecast Tools

The journey begins with Bitcoin Magazine Pro’s free Price Forecast Tools, which compile several historically accurate valuation models. While it’s always more effective to react to data rather than blindly predict prices, studying these metrics can still provide powerful context for market behavior. If macro, derivative, and on-chain data all start flashing warnings, it’s usually a solid time to take profit, regardless of whether a specific price target has been hit. Still, exploring these valuation tools is informative and can guide strategic decision-making when used alongside broader market analysis.

Figure 1: Applying Price Forecast Tools to calculate potential cycle tops. View Live Chart

Among the key models, the Top Cap multiplies the average cap over time by 35 to project peak valuations. It accurately forecasted 2017’s top, but missed the 2020–2021 cycle, estimating over $200k while Bitcoin peaked around $69k. It now targets over $500k, which feels increasingly unrealistic. A step further is the Delta Top, subtracting the average cap from the realized cap, based on the cost basis of all circulating BTC, to generate a more grounded projection. This model suggested an $80k–$100k top last cycle. The most consistently accurate, however, is the Terminal Price, based on Supply Adjusted Coin Days Destroyed, which has closely aligned with each prior peak, including the $64k top in 2021. Currently projecting around $221k, it could rise to $250k or more, and remains arguably the most credible model for forecasting macro Bitcoin tops. Of course, more information regarding all of these metrics and their calculation logic can be found beneath the charts on the site.

Peak Forecasting

Another powerful metric is the MVRV ratio, which compares market cap to realized cap. It offers a psychological window into investor sentiment, typically peaking near a value of 4 in major cycles. The ratio currently sits at 2.34, suggesting there may still be room for significant upside. Historically, as MVRV nears 3.5 to 4, long-term holders begin to realize substantial gains, often signaling cycle maturity. However, with diminishing returns, we might not reach a full 4 this time around. Instead, using a more conservative estimate of 3.5, we can begin projecting more grounded peak values.

Figure 2: A view of the MVRV ratio predicts further cycle growth to reach historical 4+ and even more conservative 3.5 target values. View Live Chart

Calculating A Target

Timing is as important as valuation. Analysis of BTC Growth Since Cycle Lows illustrates that previous Bitcoin cycles peaked almost exactly 1,060 days from their respective lows. Currently, we are about 930 days into this cycle. If the pattern holds, we can estimate the peak may arrive in roughly 130 days. Historical FOMO-driven price increases often happen late in the cycle, causing Realized Price, a proxy for average investor cost basis, to rise rapidly. For instance, in the final 130 days of the 2017 cycle, realized price grew 260%. In 2021, it increased by 130%. If we assume a further halving of growth due to diminishing returns, a 65% rise from the current $47k realized price brings us to around $78k by October 18.

Figure 3: Based on the peak rate of previous cycles, this cycle is far from over. View Live Chart

With a projected $78k realized price and a conservative MVRV target of 3.5, we arrive at a potential Bitcoin price peak of $273,000. While that may feel ambitious, historical parabolic blowoff tops have shown that such moves can happen in weeks, not months. While it may seem more realistic to expect a peak closer to $150k to $200k, the math and on-chain evidence suggest that a higher valuation is at least within the realm of possibility. It’s also worth noting that these models dynamically adjust, and if late-cycle euphoria kicks in, projections could quickly accelerate further.

Figure 4: Combining projected realized price and a possible MVRV target to predict this cycle’s peak.

Conclusion

Forecasting Bitcoin’s exact peak is inherently uncertain, with too many variables to account for. What we can do is position ourselves with probabilistic frameworks grounded in historical precedent and on-chain data. Tools like the MVRV ratio, Terminal Price, and Delta Top have repeatedly demonstrated their value in anticipating market exhaustion. While a $273,000 target might seem optimistic, it is rooted in past patterns, current network behavior, and cycle-timing logic. Ultimately, the best strategy is to react to data, not rigid price levels. Use these tools to inform your thesis, but stay nimble enough to take profits when the broader ecosystem starts signaling the top.

For more deep-dive research, technical indicators, real-time market alerts, and access to a growing community of analysts, visit BitcoinMagazinePro.com.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.

This post Where Could Bitcoin Peak This Cycle? first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Matt Crosby.

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I'm launching a new service review section on this blog in collaboration with OrangeFren. These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Reviews are done in advance, then, the service provider has the discretion to approve publication without modifications.

Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing.

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The review

WizardSwap is an instant exchange centred around privacy coins. It was launched in 2020 making it old enough to have weathered the 2021 bull run and the subsequent bearish year.

| Pros | Cons | |------|------| | Tor-friendly | Limited liquidity | | Guarantee of no KYC | Overly simplistic design | | Earn by providing liquidity | |

Rating: ★★★★★ Service Website: wizardswap.io

Liquidity

Right off the bat, we'll start off by pointing out that WizardSwap relies on its own liquidity reserves, meaning they aren't just a reseller of Binance or another exchange. They're also committed to a no-KYC policy, when asking them, they even promised they would rather refund a user their original coins, than force them to undergo any sort of verification.

On the one hand, full control over all their infrastructure gives users the most privacy and conviction about the KYC policies remaining in place.

On the other hand, this means the liquidity available for swapping isn't huge. At the time of testing we could only purchase at most about 0.73 BTC with XMR.

It's clear the team behind WizardSwap is aware of this shortfall and so they've come up with a solution unique among instant exchanges. They let you, the user, deposit any of the currencies they support into your account and earn a profit on the trades made using your liquidity.

Trading

Fees on WizardSwap are middle-of-the-pack. The normal fee is 2.2%. That's more than some exchanges that reserve the right to suddenly demand you undergo verification, yet less than half the fees on some other privacy-first exchanges. However as we mentioned in the section above you can earn almost all of that fee (2%) if you provide liquidity to WizardSwap.

It's good that with the current Bitcoin fee market their fees are constant regardless of how much, or how little, you send. This is in stark contrast with some of the alternative swap providers that will charge you a massive premium when attempting to swap small amounts of BTC away.

Test trades

Test trades are always performed without previous notice to the service provider.

During our testing we performed a few test trades and found that every single time WizardSwap immediately detected the incoming transaction and the amount we received was exactly what was quoted before depositing. The fees were inline with what WizardSwap advertises.

• Monero payment proof
• Bitcoin received
• Wizardswap TX link - it's possible that this link may cease to be valid at some point in the future.

ToS and KYC

WizardSwap does not have a Terms of Service or a Privacy Policy page, at least none that can be found by users. Instead, they offer a FAQ section where they addresses some basic questions.

The site does not mention any KYC or AML practices. It also does not specify how refunds are handled in case of failure. However, based on the FAQ section "What if I send funds after the offer expires?" it can be inferred that contacting support is necessary and network fees will be deducted from any refund.

UI & Tor

WizardSwap can be visited both via your usual browser and Tor Browser. Should you decide on the latter you'll find that the website works even with the most strict settings available in the Tor Browser (meaning no JavaScript).

However, when disabling Javascript you'll miss the live support chat, as well as automatic refreshing of the trade page. The lack of the first means that you will have no way to contact support from the trade page if anything goes wrong during your swap, although you can do so by mail.

One important thing to have in mind is that if you were to accidentally close the browser during the swap, and you did not save the swap ID or your browser history is disabled, you'll have no easy way to return to the trade. For this reason we suggest when you begin a trade to copy the url or ID to someplace safe, before sending any coins to WizardSwap.

The UI you'll be greeted by is simple, minimalist, and easy to navigate. It works well not just across browsers, but also across devices. You won't have any issues using this exchange on your phone.

Getting in touch

The team behind WizardSwap appears to be most active on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/WizardSwap_io

If you have any comments or suggestions about the exchange make sure to reach out to them. In the past they've been very receptive to user feedback, for instance a few months back WizardSwap was planning on removing DeepOnion, but the community behind that project got together ^1 and after reaching out WizardSwap reversed their decision ^2.

You can also contact them via email at: support @ wizardswap . io

Disclaimer

None of the above should be understood as investment or financial advice. The views are our own only and constitute a faithful representation of our experience in using and investigating this exchange. This review is not a guarantee of any kind on the services rendered by the exchange. Do your own research before using any service.

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Bitcoin Magazine

JPMorgan Reports Record Profits for Bitcoin Miners in Q1

Bitcoin mining companies in the U.S. have kicked off 2025 with record performance, according to a recent report. The first quarter of the year was “one of Bitcoin miners’ best quarters to date,” analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce stated. 

JUST IN: JPMorgan reported Q1 2025 was one of the best periods on record for publicly traded bitcoin mining companies pic.twitter.com/gs9fGiTbZV

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 13, 2025

“Four of the five operators in our coverage reported record revenue and profits,” the report stated, underscoring the sector’s impressive rebound in profitability amid continued institutional adoption and high bitcoin prices, currently hovering around $105,462.87.

In total, U.S.-listed miners brought in $2.0 billion in gross profit during Q1 2025, with average gross margins reaching 53%—a jump from $1.7 billion and 50% in the previous quarter.

MARA Holdings (MARA) once again led the pack in Bitcoin production, mining the most BTC for the ninth consecutive quarter. However, despite its output dominance, MARA also posted the highest cost per coin, estimated at $72,600, JPMorgan noted.

On the profitability front, IREN (IREN) was the standout performer. For the first time, IREN earned the most gross profit among the tracked firms. The company also reported the lowest all-in cash cost per Bitcoin, around $36,400, helping to boost margins significantly.

CleanSpark (CLSK), another major player, did not raise any equity in the quarter—one of the more capital-disciplined moves seen among its peers. In fact, JPMorgan reported that the five miners it tracks issued only $310 million in equity for Q1, marking a steep decline from $1.3 billion in Q4 2024. 

On the operational expense side, miners spent an estimated $1.8 billion on power, up $50 million from the previous quarter—demonstrating the energy-intensive nature of mining. 

JPMorgan’s outlook on the industry remains bullish for select players. The bank maintains overweight ratings for CleanSpark, IREN, and Riot Platforms (RIOT), while assigning neutral ratings to Cipher Mining (CIFR) and MARA.

As profitability surges and strategic spending remains in check, 2025 may very well be remembered as a turning point in mining economics—especially for companies navigating cost discipline and scaling production. 

This post JPMorgan Reports Record Profits for Bitcoin Miners in Q1 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

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Bitcoin Magazine

UK Gold Mining Company Bluebird to Convert Gold Revenues into Bitcoin

Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd., a pan Asian gold project development company, recently announced a major strategic shift. It plans to convert future revenues from its gold mining projects into bitcoin and adopt bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. 

Strategy shift to covert gold into digital gold – #bitcoin #goldmining #goldequities #investinbitcoin #investingold
"Combining income streams from gold mining projects and recycling these revenues into a proactive "Bitcoin in Treasury" management approach, whilst maintaining a… pic.twitter.com/BpJA6hFU9Y

— Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd (LSE:BMV.L) (@bluebirdIR) June 5, 2025

“By adopting a ‘gold plus a digital gold’ strategy, it offers the Company an opportunity to turn the page and look to the future and seek to attract a new type of shareholder,” said the Executive Director and CEO of Bluebird Aidan Bishop. “Under the leadership of a new CEO, once identified, it is my sincere hope that Bluebird will finally realise its ambitions for which it was initially established for.”

The announcement comes as Bluebird progresses towards a key agreement on its flagship Philippine project. The company expects to finalize a deal in the coming weeks that will grant it a net profit interest throughout the life of the mine, with no ongoing capital costs. The company said it believes bitcoin offers a modern alternative to traditional store of value assets like gold.

“I am very pleased with the progress of discussions in the Philippines which are looking very positive and will enable, if successfully completed, Bluebird to maintain an ongoing exposure with zero future cash commitments,” stated Bishop.

Bluebird plans to recycle revenues from its mining operations directly into bitcoin, aligning with what they describe as an innovative treasury approach. The company cited bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million, increasing global adoption, and role as a hedge against inflation and monetary instability as key reasons for its decision.

“Combining income streams from gold mining projects and recycling these revenues into a proactive ‘Bitcoin in Treasury’ management approach…” the company said. “Companies that have adopted bitcoin into their treasury strategy globally across public markets have been enjoying significant investor interest as well as substantial premiums to Net Asset Value (NAV) that have challenged traditional financial metrics as a basis of valuation.”

To lead this new phase, Bluebird is actively searching for a new CEO with experience in digital assets.

“On a personal level, I embarked some time ago on a journey to understand and learn about bitcoin,” added Bishop. “I am convinced that we are witnessing a tectonic shift in global markets and that bitcoin will reshape the landscape of financial markets on every level.”

This post UK Gold Mining Company Bluebird to Convert Gold Revenues into Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

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Bitcoin enthusiasts frequently and correctly remark how much value it adds to Bitcoin not to have a face, a leader, or a central authority behind it. This particularity means there isn't a single person to exert control over, or a single human point of failure who could become corrupt or harmful to the project.

Because of this, it is said that no other coin can be equally valuable as Bitcoin in terms of decentralization and trustworthiness. Bitcoin is unique not just for being first, but also because of how the events behind its inception developed. This implies that, from Bitcoin onwards, any coin created would have been created by someone, consequently having an authority behind it. For this and some other reasons, some people refer to Bitcoin as "The Immaculate Conception".

While other coins may have their own unique features and advantages, they may not be able to replicate Bitcoin's community-driven nature. However, one other cryptocurrency shares a similar story of mystery behind its creation: Monero.

History of Monero

Bytecoin and CryptoNote

In March 2014, a Bitcointalk thread titled "Bytecoin. Secure, private, untraceable since 2012" was initiated by a user under the nickname "DStrange"^1^. DStrange presented Bytecoin (BCN) as a unique cryptocurrency, in operation since July 2012. Unlike Bitcoin, it employed a new algorithm known as CryptoNote.

DStrange apparently stumbled upon the Bytecoin website by chance while mining a dying bitcoin fork, and decided to create a thread on Bitcointalk^1^. This sparked curiosity among some users, who wondered how could Bytecoin remain unnoticed since its alleged launch in 2012 until then^2^.

Some time after, a user brought up the "CryptoNote v2.0" whitepaper for the first time, underlining its innovative features^4^. Authored by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen in October 2013, the CryptoNote v2 whitepaper^5^ highlighted the traceability and privacy problems in Bitcoin. Saberhagen argued that these flaws could not be quickly fixed, suggesting it would be more efficient to start a new project rather than trying to patch the original^5^, an statement simmilar to the one from Satoshi Nakamoto^6^.

Checking with Saberhagen's digital signature, the release date of the whitepaper seemed correct, which would mean that Cryptonote (v1) was created in 2012^7^, although there's an important detail: "Signing time is from the clock on the signer's computer" ^9^.

Moreover, the whitepaper v1 contains a footnote link to a Bitcointalk post dated May 5, 2013^10^, making it impossible for the whitepaper to have been signed and released on December 12, 2012.

As the narrative developed, users discovered that a significant 80% portion of Bytecoin had been pre-mined^11^ and blockchain dates seemed to be faked to make it look like it had been operating since 2012, leading to controversy surrounding the project.

The origins of CryptoNote and Bytecoin remain mysterious, leaving suspicions of a possible scam attempt, although the whitepaper had a good amount of work and thought on it.

The fork

In April 2014, the Bitcointalk user thankful_for_today, who had also participated in the Bytecoin thread^12^, announced plans to launch a Bytecoin fork named Bitmonero^13^.

The primary motivation behind this fork was "Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed"^14^. This time Bitmonero did things different from Bytecoin: there was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward went to development.

However, thankful_for_today proposed controversial changes that the community disagreed with. Johnny Mnemonic relates the events surrounding Bitmonero and thankful_for_today in a Bitcointalk comment^15^:

When thankful_for_today launched BitMonero [...] he ignored everything that was discussed and just did what he wanted. The block reward was considerably steeper than what everyone was expecting. He also moved forward with 1-minute block times despite everyone's concerns about the increase of orphan blocks. He also didn't address the tail emission concern that should've (in my opinion) been in the code at launch time. Basically, he messed everything up. Then, he disappeared.

After disappearing for a while, thankful_for_today returned to find that the community had taken over the project. Johnny Mnemonic continues:

I, and others, started working on new forks that were closer to what everyone else was hoping for. [...] it was decided that the BitMonero project should just be taken over. There were like 9 or 10 interested parties at the time if my memory is correct. We voted on IRC to drop the "bit" from BitMonero and move forward with the project. Thankful_for_today suddenly resurfaced, and wasn't happy to learn the community had assumed control of the coin. He attempted to maintain his own fork (still calling it "BitMonero") for a while, but that quickly fell into obscurity.

The unfolding of these events show us the roots of Monero. Much like Satoshi Nakamoto, the creators behind CryptoNote/Bytecoin and thankful_for_today remain a mystery^17^, having disappeared without a trace. This enigma only adds to Monero's value.

Since community took over development, believing in the project's potential and its ability to be guided in a better direction, Monero was given one of Bitcoin's most important qualities: a leaderless nature. With no single face or entity directing its path, Monero is safe from potential corruption or harm from a "central authority".

The community continued developing Monero until today. Since then, Monero has undergone a lot of technological improvements, migrations and achievements such as RingCT and RandomX. It also has developed its own Community Crowdfundinc System, conferences such as MoneroKon and Monerotopia are taking place every year, and has a very active community around it.

Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second. ^16^

This stands as a testament to the power of a dedicated community operating without a central figure of authority. This decentralized approach aligns with the original ethos of cryptocurrency, making Monero a prime example of community-driven innovation. For this, I thank all the people involved in Monero, that lead it to where it is today.

If you find any information that seems incorrect, unclear or any missing important events, please contact me and I will make the necessary changes.

Sources of interest

• https://forum.getmonero.org/20/general-discussion/211/history-of-monero
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/852/what-is-the-origin-of-monero-and-its-relationship-to-bytecoin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583449.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=233561
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/a/1024
• https://inspec2t-project.eu/cryptocurrency-with-a-focus-on-anonymity-these-facts-are-known-about-monero/
• https://medium.com/coin-story/coin-perspective-13-riccardo-spagni-69ef82907bd1
• https://www.getmonero.org/resources/about/
• https://www.wired.com/2017/01/monero-drug-dealers-cryptocurrency-choice-fire/
• https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin
• https://old.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/u8e5yr/satoshi_nakamoto_talked_about_privacy_features/

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“The future is there... staring back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.” — William Gibson.

This month is the 4th anniversary of kycnot.me. Thank you for being here.

Fifteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system: a decentralized currency free from government and institutional control. Nakamoto's whitepaper showed a vision for a financial system based on trustless transactions, secured by cryptography. Some time forward and KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and CTF (Counter-Terrorism Financing) regulations started to come into play.

What a paradox: to engage with a system designed for decentralization, privacy, and independence, we are forced to give away our personal details. Using Bitcoin in the economy requires revealing your identity, not just to the party you interact with, but also to third parties who must track and report the interaction. You are forced to give sensitive data to entities you don't, can't, and shouldn't trust. Information can never be kept 100% safe; there's always a risk. Information is power, who knows about you has control over you.

Information asymmetry creates imbalances of power. When entities have detailed knowledge about individuals, they can manipulate, influence, or exploit this information to their advantage. The accumulation of personal data by corporations and governments enables extensive surveillances.

Such practices, moreover, exclude individuals from traditional economic systems if their documentation doesn't meet arbitrary standards, reinforcing a dystopian divide. Small businesses are similarly burdened by the costs of implementing these regulations, hindering free market competition^1:

How will they keep this information safe? Why do they need my identity? Why do they force businesses to enforce such regulations? It's always for your safety, to protect you from the "bad". Your life is perpetually in danger: terrorists, money launderers, villains... so the government steps in to save us.

‟Hush now, baby, baby, don't you cry Mamma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true Mamma's gonna put all of her fears into you Mamma's gonna keep you right here, under her wing She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing Mamma's gonna keep baby cosy and warm” — Mother, Pink Floyd

We must resist any attack on our privacy and freedom. To do this, we must collaborate.

If you have a service, refuse to ask for KYC; find a way. Accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero. Commit to circular economies. Remove the need to go through the FIAT system. People need fiat money to use most services, but we can change that.

If you're a user, donate to and prefer using services that accept such currencies. Encourage your friends to accept cryptocurrencies as well. Boycott FIAT system to the greatest extent you possibly can.

This may sound utopian, but it can be achieved. This movement can't be stopped. Go kick the hornet's nest.

“We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.” — Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto

The anniversary

Four years ago, I began exploring ways to use crypto without KYC. I bookmarked a few favorite services and thought sharing them to the world might be useful. That was the first version of kycnot.me — a simple list of about 15 services. Since then, I've added services, rewritten it three times, and improved it to what it is now.

kycnot.me has remained 100% independent and 100% open source^2 all these years. I've received offers to buy the site, all of which I have declined and will continue to decline. It has been DDoS attacked many times, but we made it through. I have also rewritten the whole site almost once per year (three times in four years).

The code and scoring algorithm are open source (contributions are welcome) and I can't arbitrarly change a service's score without adding or removing attributes, making any arbitrary alterations obvious if they were fake. You can even see the score summary for any service's score.

I'm a one-person team, dedicating my free time to this project. I hope to keep doing so for many more years. Again, thank you for being part of this.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The 30,000-Foot View of the Oslo Freedom Forum

As I step onto the plane leaving Gardermoen Airport in Oslo, Norway, the weight and warmth of the past week settles into my chest.

The Oslo Freedom Forum is not a conference. It’s not a summit. It’s something harder to name and even harder to describe — a convergence of courage, truth and defiance that burns through the noise of the modern world and gives you no choice but to listen, feel and act.

For the second time, I leave this city more convinced than ever that something unstoppable is rising. That amid the censorship, surveillance and state repression spreading across the globe, there is a countervailing force rooted in humanity, accelerated by technology and led by those who’ve already paid the price for speaking out.

The Forum doesn’t trade in empty optimism. It delivers a different kind of hope, forged from lived experience and stitched together by people who have been in the dark and still choose to see the light. A hope borne from the stories of individuals who have lived through the worst an authoritarian regime can do and still choose to fight for the freedom of others. The experiences shared were hard. At times, devastating. But they weren’t offered for pity. They were calls to action.

Just days after she was abducted, blindfolded, tortured, and sexually assaulted in a Tanzanian prison cell, Agather Atuhaire stood in front of a crowd of strangers and told her story.

Her voice did not tremble.

The Ugandan journalist and lawyer had traveled to Tanzania in solidarity with fellow East African dissidents, only to be disappeared in a black van alongside Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi.

And yet, against all odds, she came back. Not just to her home in Uganda, but also to the stage in Oslo, where she spoke calmly and clearly about what it means to tell the truth under a dictatorship.

Her presentation, “The Digital Free Speech Crackdown in Uganda,” laid bare the authoritarian playbook: social media blackouts, propaganda campaigns, surveillance of journalists and the slow financial asphyxiation of independent media. When the government doesn’t like a story, it simply blocks the platform or website. When a journalist digs too deep, they disappear for a while. Or forever. Atuhaire painted a picture many struggle to even imagine.

And yet, after everything, she didn’t just recount these struggles. She looked out at the crowd and thanked the open source builders and contributors who write code and create tools that make it possible for activists like her to speak, move money and organize under regimes that want them silenced, or worse.

(Ugandan journalist and lawyer, Agather Atuhaire, speaks during the Freedom Tech track at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum.)

From Iran, independent Bitcoin educator Ziya Sadr reminded us that financial privacy is not a luxury but a necessary lifeline for those facing the financial repression by oppressive rulers. Sadr’s detainment during the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement following the murder of Mahsa Amini by the Iranian regime is a testament to that. Without financial privacy, activists’ actions, connections and finances are exposed to a regime equipped with widespread financial controls and a sophisticated, restrictive internet firewall that rivals even China’s.

The result is one of the most repressive digital environments in the world. And if that wasn’t enough, the Iranian rial currency has lost more than 80% of its value in just a few years.

Against this backdrop, Iranians are using bitcoin as undebasable savings, and to buy digital services like VPNs in order to access the open internet. But even that act, just reaching the outside world, requires a level of privacy most of us take for granted.

In his presentation, “Securing Lifelines: The Bitcoin Privacy Imperative,” Sadr shared that many Iranians turn to Bitcoin Coinjoins, a privacy technique that breaks the link between Bitcoin transaction inputs. Coinjoins preserve user transaction privacy and, more importantly, shield Iranians from the surveillance and retaliation of a regime who punishes anyone trying to access information beyond its tightly controlled digital spaces. The use of Coinjoins is becoming more difficult as global legal pressure mounts against open source developers, and in the aftermath of the Samourai developer arrests, privacy protocols like Whirlpool are unworkable.

Today, Sadr is learning more about additional Bitcoin privacy tools, including Payjoin, a privacy method that allows two users to contribute an input to a Bitcoin transaction. Payjoin breaks common chain analysis heuristics and conceals the sender and receiver of a transaction as well as the payment amount. Then there is ecash, a form of digital cash backed by Bitcoin that enables very private, everyday payments with the custodial trade-off of trusting mints (entities that issue and redeem ecash tokens) to store user funds.

The continued development of these protocols is crucial for Iranians, who live under a government that not only tracks and surveils digital behavior, but also imposes automatic fines on women for violating hijab rules and manipulates currency exchange rates to profit off citizens’ savings. For millions in Iran, bitcoin offers a last line of defense against a collapsing currency, intrusive surveillance and total financial repression.

(Independent Iranian Bitcoin educator, Ziya Sadr, speaks during the Freedom Tech track at the Oslo Freedom Forum.)

Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López took the stage at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum not as a politician, but as a witness to what happens when a state turns its institutions into further tendrils of its repression machine.

After Nicolás Maduro stole Venezuela’s 2024 elections, López watched thousands of his fellow people — activists, students, journalists, opposition members and lawyers — get arrested, disappeared or forced into exile. The regime blocked access to social media, revoked passports, criminalized dissent and used the financial system as a means of controlling the population.

Amid this digital repression and Venezuela’s 162% inflation rate, López sees bitcoin (decentralized money) and Nostr (decentralized social media) as lifelines. When dictators shut down the internet or freeze your bank account, alternatives that are open source, decentralized, uncensorable and accessible become more important than ever for the survival of democracy and freedom.

**“Decentralized resistance is the convergence of people, Bitcoin, Nostr, and AI.

People, it’s about the center and the end of what we are doing.

Brave women and men who sacrifice their freedom, who take risks, who are willing to fight for other people.

If it’s not about people, technology wouldn’t be something worth fighting for.

Bitcoin is freedom money. It’s decentralized, nobody controls it, nobody can stop it, it can move around without borders.”**

(Venezuelan Opposition Leader Leopoldo López during the Freedom Tech track at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum.)

For decades, Paraguay’s greatest natural resource, hydroelectric power, has flowed out of the country through international contracts, fueling development in neighboring countries like Brazil and Argentina while one in four Paraguayans remained trapped in poverty. Paraguay’s Itaipu Dam, one of the largest in the world, has long symbolized this paradox: a river of energy diverted away from the very people who need it most.

Björn Schmidtke and Delia Garcete of Penguin Group are flipping that script.

In a landmark move, they secured Paraguay’s first 100-megawatt power purchase agreement, marking the beginning of a bold experiment to reclaim that energy for the people of Paraguay. Instead of selling it off to foreign powers, they use it to mine Bitcoin — and the proc

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Pakistan’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: A Step Toward Orange-Pilling a Nation?

Pakistan’s relationship with Bitcoin has been marked by inconsistency and confusion over the past few years. Initially, the country outright banned bitcoin trading in 2018, citing concerns over fraud, money laundering and lack of regulation. However, over time, their stance softened and regulators began exploring the technology behind Bitcoin with courts even questioning the legality of the ban. Eventually, citizens were allowed to hold bitcoin, though trading remained murky and unregulated. This back-and-forth approach has created a confusing environment, where Bitcoin exists in a legal gray area. It is technically allowed, yet not fully embraced or regulated, reflecting the state’s struggle to balance innovation with control.

PAKISTAN TO ESTABLISH NATIONAL STRATEGIC #BITCOIN RESERVE

Honored to have had the Pakistan Minister Bilal Bin Saqib at the Bitcoin Conference pic.twitter.com/7WunP5fuZm

— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) May 29, 2025

This muddled relationship with Bitcoin seems to have turned a corner in recent weeks as Bilal Bin Saqib, head of the Pakistan Crypto Council, at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas announced that the country is moving to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Furthermore, he announced the allocation of 2,000 megawatts of excess energy to Bitcoin mining and high-performance computer data centers. The Ministry of Finance has also commissioned the establishment of an entirely new agency to oversee digital asset regulation which could lead to a less opaque legal framework around bitcoin ownership and usage in everyday transactions.

Critics have argued that this is merely an attempt by Pakistan to cozy up to Trump in the aftermath of the recent skirmish with India. After all, Saqib did state that Pakistan was inspired by the Trump administration when he spoke at the recent Las Vegas Bitcoin conference. Others have asserted that Pakistan is merely seeking to build resistance to possible sanctions in the future over its support for terrorist groups. I believe that such a geopolitically focused critique overlooks a deeper economic reality that has been staring Pakistan in the face for many years. 

I wrote an article for a Pakistani newspaper about a year ago in which I argued that the country is uniquely situated, in economic terms, to take advantage of Bitcoin and unlock the benefits that come with adoption. Pakistan suffers from rampant inflation, stagnant capital formation, depleted foreign reserves, an inefficient bureaucracy and an overreliance on remittances from abroad. These systemic issues have eroded citizens’ faith in traditional financial systems, leaving many Pakistanis disillusioned and seeking alternative means to safeguard their wealth and economic autonomy. 

Thus, nurturing a culture of Bitcoin adoption could go a long way toward alleviating much of these economic ills and empowering citizens to take control of their financial future. By earning and trading a form of currency that is deflationary in nature, Pakistanis can protect themselves from the downsides of the macroeconomic trends that have decimated the living standards of this once proud nation. Bitcoin adoption could transform the country’s lively remittance sector, with receivers keeping more of the money they are sent. It could also emancipate people from the inefficient banking system that is such a drain on the people. Permissionless transactions could also empower the beleaguered minorities who often struggle to achieve financial freedom. 

The announcement of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, as well as promises to introduce pro-Bitcoin regulation and a mining strategy, are steps in the right direction. They show that the mood is shifting and the country is starting to take a serious look at the only real digital currency in town. These steps also point to a much broader, global shift in attitudes toward Bitcoin — especially in nations where hyperinflation is a daily reality and the banking system struggles to meet citizens’ needs. 

However, real change will only come when Pakistan fully legalizes bitcoin as a digital currency and takes steps toward mass adoption. Only then will ordinary Pakistani citizens be free to trade with people from all over the world without the need to rely on the local banking system. Only then will financial autonomy become an achievable goal for those living far away from the big cities where banks are based. Only then will women be free to earn, store and transact in a digital currency that is resistant to cultural barriers. 

Creating a national strategic reserve merely signals that a nation believes in bitcoin as an asset with the potential to offer a reliable return. It does not signal that a nation has adopted the digital currency as a means to overcome the obstacles imposed by fiat. Strategic national reserves also hoard bitcoin and bring it too close to the state, even though the digital currency was designed to be a hedge against state-controlled money. As such, a reserve does not unlock the true potential of bitcoin to act as a buffer against domestic inflation, currency devaluation and a cumbersome banking system. 

A strategic Bitcoin reserve is a step in the right direction for Pakistan, as it would be for any nation that suffers from hyperinflation. But only mass adoption will truly unlock the immense potential Bitcoin can offer to a nation such as Pakistan and we have a long way to go before that becomes a reality. 

In my view, strategic reserves are not what bitcoin is all about, but let’s hope this is merely the first step in a long and prosperous journey toward orange-pilling a nation.

This post Pakistan’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: A Step Toward Orange-Pilling a Nation? first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Ghaffar Hussain.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

After almost 3 months of work, we've completed the redesign of kycnot.me. More modern and with many new features.

Privacy remains the foundation - everything still works with JavaScript disabled. If you enable JS, you will get some nice-to-have features like lazy loading and smoother page transitions, but nothing essential requires it.

User Accounts

We've introduced user accounts that require zero personal information:

• Secret user tokens - no email, no phone number, no personal data
• Randomly generated usernames for default privacy and fairness
• Karma system that rewards contributions and unlocks features: custom display names, profile pictures, and more.

Reviews and Community Discussions

On the previous sites, I was using third party open source tools for the comments and discussions. This time, I've built my own from scratch, fully integrated into the site, without JavaScript requirements.

Everyone can share their experiences and help others make informed decisions:

• Ratings: Comments can have a 1-5 star rating attached. You can have one rating per service and it will affect the overall user score.
• Discussions: These are normal comments, you can add them on any listed service.

Comment Moderation

I was strugling to keep up with moderation on the old site. For this, we've implemented an AI-powered moderation system that:

• Auto-approves legitimate comments instantly
• Flags suspicious content for human review
• Keeps discussions valuable by minimizing spam

The AI still can mark comments for human review, but most comments will get approved automatically by this system. The AI also makes summaries of the comments to help you understand the overall sentiment of the community.

Powerful Search & Filtering

Finding exactly what you need is now easier:

• Advanced filtering system with many parameters. You can even filter by attributes to pinpoint services with specific features.

The results are dynamic and shuffle services with identical scores for fairness.

See all listings

Listings are now added as 'Community Contributed' by default. This means that you can still find them in the search results, but they will be clearly marked as such.

Updated Scoring System

New dual-score approach provides more nuanced service evaluations:

• Privacy Score: Measures how well a service protects your personal information and data

• Trust Score: Assesses reliability, security, and overall reputation

• Combined into a weighted Overall Score for quick comparisons

• Completely transparent and open source calculation algorithm. No manual tweaking or hidden factors.

AI-Powered Terms of Service Analysis

Basically, a TLDR summary for Terms of Service:

• Automated system extracts the most important points from complex ToS documents
• Clear summaries
• Updated monthly to catch any changes

The ToS document is hashed and only will be updated if there are any changes.

Service Events and Timelines

Track the complete history of any service, on each service page you can see the timeline of events. There are two types of events:

• Automatic events: Created by the system whenever something about a service changes, like its description, supported currencies, attributes, verification status…
• Manual events: Added by admins when there’s important news, such as a service going offline, being hacked, acquired, shut down, or other major updates.

There is also a global timeline view available at /events

Notification System

Since we now have user accounts, we built a notifiaction system so you can stay informed about anything:

• Notifications for comment replies and status changes
• Watch any comment to get notified for new replies.
• Subscribe to services to monitor events and updates
• Notification customization.

Coming soon: Third-party privacy-preserving notifications integration with Telegram, Ntfy.sh, webhooks...

Service Suggestions

Anyone with an account can suggest a new service via the suggestion form. After submitting, you'll receive a tracking page where you can follow the status of your suggestion and communicate directly with admins.

All new suggestions start as "unlisted" — they won't appear in search results until reviewed. Our team checks each submission to ensure it's not spam or inappropriate. If similar services already exist, you'll be shown possible duplicates and can choose to submit your suggestion as an edit instead.

You can always check the progress of your suggestion, respond to moderator questions, and see when it goes live, everything will also be notified to your account. This process ensures high-quality listings and a collaborative approach to building the directory.

---

These are some of the main features we already have, but there are many more small changes and improvements that you will find when using the site.

What's Next?

This is just the beginning. We will be constantly working to improve KYCnot.me and add more features that help you preserve your privacy.

Remember: True financial freedom requires the right to privacy. Stay KYC-free!

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Layer 2: Statechains

Statechains are an original second layer protocol originally developed by Ruben Somsen in 2018, depending on the eltoo (or LN Symmetry) proposal. In 2021 a variation of the original proposal, Mercury, was built by CommerceBlock. In 2024, a further iteration of the original Mercury scheme was built, Mercury Layer. 

The Statechain protocol is a bit more complicated to discuss compared to other systems such as Ark or Lightning because of the range of variations that are possible between the original proposed design, the two that have been actually implemented, and other possible designs that have been loosely proposed. 

Like Ark, Statechains depend on a centralized coordinating server in order to function. Unlike Ark, they have a slightly different trust model than a vUTXO in an Ark batch. They depend on the coordinating server to delete previously generated shares of a private key in order to remain trustless, but as long as the server follows the defined protocol and does so, they provide a strong security guarantee. 

The general idea of a Statechain is to be able to transfer ownership of an entire UTXO between different users off-chain, facilitated by the coordinator. There is no requirement for receiving liquidity like Lightning, or the coordinator server to provide any liquidity like Ark. 

To begin, we will look at the original protocol proposed by Ruben Somsen. 

The Original Statechain

Statechains are effectively a pre-signed transaction allowing the current owner of the Statechain to unilaterally withdraw on-chain whenever they want, and a history signed messages cryptographically proving that past owners and the receivers they sent the Statechain to approved those transfers. 

The original design was built on eltoo using ANYPREVOUT, but the current plans on how to enable the same functionality make use of CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY and CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (a high level explanation of this is at the end of the CHECKSIGFROMSTACK article). The basic idea is a script enabling a pre-signed transaction to spend any UTXO that has that script and locks the appropriate amount of bitcoin, rather than being tied to spending a single specific UTXO. 

In the protocol, a user wishing to deposit their coins to a Statechain approaches a coordinator server and goes through a deposit protocol. The depositing user, Bob, generates a key that will be uniquely owned by him, but also a second “transitory” key that will eventually be shared (more on this soon). They then craft a deposit transaction locking their coin to a multisig requiring the coordinator’s key and the transitory key to sign. 

Using this multisig, Bob and the coordinator sign a transaction that spends that coin and creates a UTXO that can either be spent by any other transaction signed by the transitory key and the coordinator’s key using LN Symmetry, or Bob’s unique key after a timelock. Bob can now fund the multisig with the appropriate amount, and the Statechain has been created. 

To transfer a Statechain to Charlie, Bob must go through a multistep process. First, Bob signs a message with his unique private key that attests to the fact he is going to transfer the Statechain to Charlie. Charlie must also sign a message attesting to the fact that he has received the Statechain from Bob. Finally, the coordinator server must sign a new transaction allowing Charlie to unilaterally claim the Statechain on-chain before Bob sends Charlie a copy of the transitory key. 

All of this is made atomic using adapter signatures. These are signatures that are modified in such a way using a random piece of data that renders them invalid, but can be made valid again once the holder of the signature receives that piece of information. All of the messages, and the new pre-signed transaction are signed with adapter signatures, and atomically made valid at the same time through the release of the adapter data. 

Holders of a Statechain must trust that the coordinator server never conspires with a previous owner to sign an immediate closure of the Statechain and steal funds from the current owner, but the chain of pre-signed messages can prove that a coordinator has participated in theft if they were to do so. If a past owner attempts to use their pre-signed transaction to steal the funds, the timelock on the spend path using only their key allows the current owner to submit their pre-signed transaction and correctly claim the funds on chain. 

Mercury and Mercury Layer

The original Statechain architecture requires a softfork in order to function. CommerceBlock designed their variant of Statechains to function without a softfork, but in order to do so tradeoffs were made in terms of functionality. 

The basic idea is the same as the original design, all users hold a pre-signed transaction that allows them to claim their funds unilaterally, and the coordinator server still plays a role in facilitating off-chain transfers that requires them to be trusted to behave honestly. The two major differences are how those transactions are signed, and the structure of the pre-signed transaction users are given. 

Where the signing is concerned, there is no longer a transitory private key that is passed from user to user. Instead of this, a multiparty-computation protocol (MPC) is used so that the original owner and the coordinator server are able to collaboratively generate partial pieces of a private key without either of them ever possessing the full key. This key is used to sign the pre-signed transactions. The MPC protocol allows the current owner and coordinator to engage in a second protocol with a third party, the receiver of a transfer, to regenerate different pieces that add up to the same private key. In both the Mercury and Mercury Layer protocol, after completing a transfer an honest coordinator server deletes the key material corresponding to the previous owner. As long as this is done, it is no longer possible for the coordinator to sign a transaction with a previous owner, as the new piece of key material they have is not compatible with the piece any previous owner might still have. This is actually a stronger guarantee, as long as the coordinator is honest, than the original proposal.

The pre-signed transaction structure for Mercury and Mercury Layer can’t use LN Symmetry, as this is not possible without a softfork. In lieu of this, CommerceBlock opted to use decrementing timelocks. The original owner’s pre-signed transaction is timelocked using nLocktime to a time far out in the future from the point of the Statechain’s creation. As each subsequent user receives the Statechain during a transfer, the nLocktime value of their transaction is some pre-determined length of time shorter than the previous owner. This guarantees that a previous owner is incapable of even trying to submit their transaction on-chain before the current owner can, but it also means that eventually at some point the current owner must close their Statechain on-chain before previous owners’ transactions start becoming valid. 

The major difference between Mercury and Mercury Layer is how these transactions are signed. In the case of Mercury, the coordinator server simply sees the transaction proposed, verifies it, and then signs it. Mercury Layer uses a blind-signing protocol, meaning that they do not actually see any details of the transaction they are signing. This necessitates the server tracking Statechains using anonymized records on the server, and a special authorization key of the current owner so that they can be sure they are only signing valid transfers. 

Synergy With Other Layers

Statechains can synergize with other Layer 2s that are based on pre-signed transactions. For instance, part of the original proposal suggested a combination of Statechains and Lightning Channels. Because both are simply pre-signed transactions, it is possible to actually nest a Lightning channel on top of a Statechain. This simply requires the current owner’s unilateral exit key to be a multisig, and the creation of the pre-signed transactions spending that output into a Lightning channel. This allows Lightning channels to be opened and closed entirely off-chain. 

In a similar fashion, it is possible to nest a Statechain on top of a vUTXO in an Ark batch. This simply requires the pre-signed transactions necessary for a Statechain to be constructed, spending the vUTXO output. 

Wrapping Up

Statechains are not entirely trustless, but they are a very trust minimized scheme that is very liquidity efficient and allows freely transferring UTXOs off-chain between any users willing to accept the trust model of Statechains. 

While the original proposal has yet to be built, the two implementations designed by CommerceBlock have been completely implemented. Both failed to achieve anything more than marginal use in the real world. Whether this is due to users being unwilling to accept the trust model involved, or simply a failure in marketing or awareness is something that cannot be fully ascertained. 

Regardless, given that there are two full implementations and designs for a more flexible variation should LN Symmetry ever become possible on Bitcoin, this an option

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

O mercado imobiliário português está a viver uma enorme bolha. É tão grave, está se tornando mais que uma crise de habitação, mas sim uma crise geracional. Os jovens portugueses não conseguem comprar casa, acabam por adiar indefinidamente a criação da família ou ter filhos, ou então a solução mais fácil é emigrar. Esta crise está a condenar a gerações mais novas e sem os mais novos, condenamos o futuro do país.

Problema

A origem do problema é o excesso de procura/demanda, Portugal ficou na moda, o turismo cresceu exponencialmente, quase diariamente são inaugurados novos hotéis nos centros das cidades e também houve um forte crescimento Alojamento Local(Airbnb). Tudo isto removeu muitas casas do mercado.

Além disso, Portugal tornou-se num destino para aposentados de outros países, sobretudo do norte da Europa e de nómadas digitais, que têm um poder de compra muito elevado, muito superior aos locais.

Para complicar ainda mais, nos últimos 5 anos houve uma imigração descontrolada, em plena crise de habitação, a população aumentou 20%. Com tanta gente nova, onde vai morar tanta gente?

Todos os portugueses, sobretudo nos grandes centros, conhecem casos de casas sobrelotadas, 10 ou 20 ou 30 pessoas a viver na mesma casa. É desumano, é uma escravatura moderna. Depois estas pessoas fazem concorrência desleal, porque eles podem pagar rendas de casas altas, o custo é dividido por 20 pessoas, enquanto os jovens casais portugueses não conseguem pagar.

Não existe um único problema, é uma soma de vários problemas, que gera uma enorme bolha.

Oferta

Tudo isto resultou num aumento da procura por habitação, mas como em tudo na economia, sempre que existe um aumento da procura, posteriormente o mercado ajusta-se, com o aumento da oferta, só que isso não está a acontecer.

A oferta de nova habitação é extremamente baixa, é insuficiente para o volume da procura. Até parece estranho, se o preço das casas estão muito elevadas, porque razão os promotores imobiliários não constroem mais?

Aqui está a razão da crise da habitação do mercado português, parece um problema sem solução.

A burocracia, a falta de terrenos, os impostos altos, falta de trabalhadores, tudo isto contribui para a crise na oferta, mas estes problemas sempre existiram em Portugal, não é uma coisa de hoje. Há 15 anos, mesmo com esses mesmo problemas, o mercado florescia, claramente dificultava mas não foram um entrave.

A meu ver, o problema está no financiamento.

Até à crise do subprime, os promotores imobiliários financiavam-se, quase em exclusividade na banca, com o juro muito baixo. Durante a crise, os casos mais problemáticos de crédito malparado foram de promotoras imobiliárias e de empresas de construção civil.

A crise do subprime e posteriormente a crise das dívidas soberanas, levou a UE a criar novas regras bancárias, onde criou muitas restrições ao acesso ao crédito por parte das empresas. Essas novas regras, que limitou o acesso ao crédito, provocaram uma alteração no modelo de financiamento das promotoras imobiliárias. Em vez de se financiarem na banca, os promotores vendiam primeiro as casas, antes de as construir. As promotoras recebiam parte do dinheiro e com esse dinheiro, financiavam a obra.

O modelo funcionou até ao pós pandemia, a impressão de dinheiros por parte dos governos foi monstruosa, criando uma forte inflação. Essa inflação provocou uma forte subida de preço nos materiais de construção e na mão de obra. Como as promotoras venderam as casas anteriormente, o valor que venderam as casas não foi suficiente para cobrir os novos custos da construção. Este problema provocado pela inflação, não afetou apenas o imobiliário, mas sim toda a economia, foram milhares de obras, por todo o país que não foram concluídas, as empresas faliram.

Este problema de financiamento, afecta sobretudo o mercado imobiliário da classe média, onde o custo é mais controlado, onde as empresas têm uma menor margem de lucro, o mínimo erro pode provocar uma falência. Por esse motivo, mas empresas de construção estão a preferir construir, o imobiliário de luxo, onde a margem de lucro é superior, minimiza a margem de erro. Mas o grande problema, é que falta habitação para a classe média.

A inflação é um grande problema, gera muita instabilidade nas empresas, torna-se imprevisível fazer um orçamento. Se a inflação é um forte contribuidor para o problema da habitação em Portugal e em breve teremos mais uma emissão massiva de novo dinheiro, por parte do BCE, parece um problema sem solução. As empresas terão que arranjar um novo método de financiamento, ou adaptar-se à inflação. Uma coisa é quase certa, na próxima década vamos ter alta inflação, porque é a única maneira para evitar o colapso dos governos, devido às enormes dívidas soberanas.

Procura/demanda

A resolução do problema do aumento da oferta é tão complexo, os governos vão optar pelo caminho mais fácil e populista, atacar a procura.

Nos próximos anos, os governos vão aprovar medidas mais autoritárias e antidemocráticas para minimizar o problema. Medidas como impedir os estrangeiros ou não residentes de adquirirem casas, impostos muito altos para 2° habitação, para forçar a venda ou o arrendamento, os Airbnb também serão um alvo.

Em suma, quem tiver uma casa como reserva de valor, para fugir à inflação, será declarada persona non grata.

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"Included in the beta is the Dave, the Nostr AI assistant (its Grok for Nostr). Dave is a new Notedeck browser app that can search and summarize notes from the network. For a full breakdown of everything new, check out our beta launch video."

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Аутор: Срђан М. РАДУЛОВИЋ - Универзитет у Приштини са привременим седиштем у Косовској Митровици (Србија), Правни факултет

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Сажетак

Тенденција трансформације појединачних друштвених заједница у јединствено, унификовано друштво, које унутар себе не познаје никакве границе (или барем не инсистира на њима), можемо, уз неопходну дозу симплификације, сматрати појмовним одређењем глобализације, која, будући да је доживљавамо као тенденцију, по природи ствари има и своје темпорално одређење. Мада одређење временских координата ове појаве умногоме зависи од угла из којег је посматрамо, начелно је могуће постићи консензус око тога да овај процес није континуиран, већ да се одвијао у неколико засебних фаза.

Нама је блиско становиште да је ова тенденција имала три фазе. Но, верујемо да ће се и присталице нешто другачије периодизације усагласити са тим да је у периоду од 31. октобра 2008. године, када је објављен тзв. бели папир (white paper) под називом Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, до момента проглашења пандемије SARSCoV-2 вируса од стране Светске здравствене организације започела сасвим нова, по потенцијалним дометима најефикаснија и најсвеобухватнија фаза глобализације.

У овом раду, због усмерености и обима рада, представљамо део резултата раније спроведеног теоријско-емпиријског истраживања о социолошко-правним моментима који су погодовали почетку нове фазе глобализације. Други део прикупљених резултата, усмерен на потенцијални обим и ефекте промене коју доноси нова фаза, биће представљен у неком од наредних радова. Сазнања су у оба дела истраживања прикупљена употребом аналитичко-синтетичких метода, уз нарочит ослонац на предности апстракције. У раду су, такође, коришћене и различите технике нормативног метода, као и специфичне технике интерпретације правних норми.

Кључне речи: глобализација; биткоин; криптовалуте; криптоимовина; новчане облигације; SARS-CoV-2 пандемија.

Уместо увода

Уколико идеју о глобализацији генерализујемо и интерпретирамо је као трансформацију самосталних друштвених заједница са релативно јасно одређеним државним, културним, економским и/или другим границама, у унификовано друштво које не познаје ниједну од поменутих граница, или барем није њима спутано (Радуловић, 2017), можемо доћи до неколико закључака.

Први у низу закључака био би да је овај процес иманентан људском друштву. Иако се израз не појављује у научној литератури до средине XX века (Попић, 2018; Џамић, 2014; Chumakov, 2010), мишљења смо да тенденција интензивирања људских односа кроз смањење просторних, временских, културних, а нарочито економских баријера одувек постоји. Доиста делује као да друштво тежи свеобухватности и да је глобализацију немогуће избећи (2) (Domišljanović, 2000), а да је несклад између научног конституисања појма и тренутка када се глобализација појавила чак и природан. (3) (Џамић, 2014)

Облик и, нарочито, интензитет глобализације разликују се кроз епохе. Начини постизања ефеката глобализације, такође, сукцесивно су се смењивали (Антић, 2013). Можемо уочити и периоде стагнације, чак и радикалних, темпорално или географски одређених фаза у којима се промовише изолација у односу на „нетрадиционалне” вредности. То, међутим, не значи да тенденција пораста степена међузависности процеса, појава и односа не постоји (Џамић, 2014). Напротив. Управо виши степен радикализма у „традиционалистичким” (4) одговорима подстиче активности усмерене ка стварању више форме друштвене заједнице (Марковић и Булатовић, 2014). Уосталом, push and pull ефекти (Giddens, 1990) глобализације нису нимало необични. Они природно произлазе из осећаја апатије, изгубљености, угрожености коју кроскултурни начин организовања доноси (5) (Chumakov, 2010).

Даље, глобализација спаја прошлост и садашњост, представља будућност, мада сама не подлеже никаквим временским ограничењима (Попић, 2018; Chumakov, 2010). Но, глобализација није униформна појава (Радуловић, 2017). Она, уколико је доживљавамо као процес, има своје фазе. Њих је могуће разликовати и определити периодизацију.

Критеријуми периодизације врло су хетерогени и није једноставно определити се за један, тим пре јер историјска димензија глобализације није сасвим јасна (Антић, 2003). Уз напомену да би закључци принципијелно били исти и да смо одабрали другачију хронологију, бирамо модификовану трофазну периодизацију глобализације (Печујлић, 2002; Радуловић, 2017). Прва фаза започиње успоном најстаријих цивилизација и траје до XVI века. Други талас глобализације траје до пада Берлинског зида (6). Најзад, трећи талас турбоглобализације започиње падом Берлинског зида и траје до данас без прекида [sic!].

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1. Штавише, степен достигнуте повезаности и свеобухватности могуће је и изразити релативно прецизно кроз глобалност као меру дешавања на глобалу (Cifrić, 2009).
2. Природно је да свест о одвијању процеса, следствено и научно интересовање, у делу људске историје нису постојали, то јест да су се јавили у некој од фаза већ започетог процеса. Овакав закључак произлази из петофазне периодизације промишљања о проблемима и трендовима на нивоу човечанства као органске целине, а која почиње тек од средине XVIII века (Chumakov, 2010).
3. Ваља бити нарочито обазрив уколико између појмова глобализације и модернизације, односно традиционализма и конзервативизма, постављамо знак једнакости. Социолошка теорија нуди врло деликатно упутство за употребу ових термина, нарочито онда када их употребљавамо као вредносне судове (Giddens, 1990; Шуваковић, 2013).
4. Глобалистичке пројекције своје постојање, па и смисао уопште, потврђују тек кроз однос са изолационистичким тенденцијама. Однос глобалистичких тежњи друштва и регресивни одговори на те тежње само истичу контроверзну дуалну природу глобализације као процеса (Џамић, 2014). Утолико и синтагма „уједињено-разједињени свет” под којом је, како се сматра, Радомир Лукић проучавао глобализацију (Печујлић, 2002; Попић и Шуваковић, 2014; Џамић, 2014) има више смисла.
5. Творац трофазне периодизације од које полазимо, период од XVI века до пада Берлинског зида не види као континуиран сегмент, већ унутар њега разликује две засебне фазе (Печујлић, 2002). Ми на њима нећемо инсистирати, будући да (не)прихватање ове поделе није релевантно за касније извођење закључака.

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Корени четвртог таласа глобализације

Настанак и развој протоглобалних цивилизација, њихово ширење, те јављање тежње за унификацијом друштва нераскидиво су повезани са техничким открићима (Антић, 2003). Не само први већ сви таласи глобализације (а сваки наредни интензивнији је од претходног) узроковани су примарно модернизацијом у технолошком смислу. Увек када се појави технологија која има капацитет да обезбеди ефикасније умањење просторне и/или временске дистанце, за последицу имамо комплексне промене у друштву које, уз дозу генерализације, проучавамо као (нове) таласе глобализације. Изузетак није ни четврти талас на чије постојање желимо да укажемо.

Концепт новца и његова еволуција, такође, нераскидиво су везани за технолошки напредак, иако је он, будући да није спутан правним нити културним ограничењима, неупоредиво бржи (Calcaterra et al., 2020). Природно, кроз разраду идеја о дигитализацији традиционалних форми новца које су се појавиле већ у раним осамдесетим (Cavalhiero & Cavalhiero, 2022), у монетарним порецима започет је постепени прелазак са банкнотног на систем електронског плаћања (Димитријевић, 2018). Прелазак је био потпуно логична, чак и очекивана фаза у процесу еволуције новца усмерене ка његовој апстракцији. Безбројне предности апстрахованог инструмента – ефикасност, ефективност и погодност коришћења само су неке од њих (Ruslina, 2019) – учиниле су да се за мање од три деценије од појаве електронског (7), затим и виртуелног новца на глобално интегрисаном финансијском тржишту (Димитријевић, 2018), економски токови глобализују најпре у смислу да промет велике количине новца не трпи значајнија ограничења и да се одвија за релативно кратко време.

У таквом окружењу отвара се широк простор на међународном нивоу који теоретски може да попуни само наднационални, потенцијално недржавни новчани систем (Nahorniak et al., 2016). У том смислу, криптовалуте, базиране на блокчејн технологији, представљају занимљив новитет. Оне су створиле суштинске изазове за правне поретке и довеле у питање генералну улогу новца и различитих валута (Ronaghi, 2023). Такође, подстичу иновације и стварају нове прилике у свету који је створен у првим годинама интернета (Calcaterra et al., 2020; Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022).

Уз то, оне представљају облик дигиталног новца, но, нису исто што и електронски новац (Nahorniak et al., 2016). Оне су, заправо, нови правац у развоју дигиталног новца због тога што постојећу новчану масу комплементарно и квалитативно уздижу. Стога, криптовалуте нам се чине као најозбиљнији кандидат за задовољење потреба које на међународном тржишту новца постоје, а у мору пројеката издваја се феномен Биткоина (8).

Биткоин примарно не представља валуту, мада може преузети облик и функције новца (9), већ систем плаћања. Суштински, платформа поставља и спроводи правила усмерена на заштиту права својине (Abramowitz, 2016), која се, помало поједностављено, своди на својину на приватним кључевима (Raskin, 2015). Од момента када је постао оперативан, функционише као аутономан систем у потпуности заснован на транспарентним математичким и информатичким принципима. Прецизније, софтвер функционише искључиво према упутствима садржаним у самом коду, али она не долазе од централног ауторитета, сем иницијално, чак не ни од самог творца, већ од демократски организоване заједнице равноправних учесника у мрежи потпуно отвореног типа [нагласио аутор] (10). Као такав, практично посматрано, у потпуности је имун на постојећу међународну, а нарочито домаћу правну регулативу (која ће управо из тог разлога остати ван фокуса овог рада), јер његова поставка и није нормативна већ консенсуална.

Иако се данас стабилни коини погрешно или барем преурањено означавају као „Хајеков новац” (Syropyatov, 2021), биткоин, што се јасно види из његовог концепцијског манифеста, представља први успешан покушај оживотворења деценијама присутне идеје Ф. А. Хајека (1976) о демонополизацији државног утицаја на креирање монетарне политике кроз постепено увођење конкуренције „државном” новцу у виду новца креираног од стране приватних ентитета (Ruslina, 2019; Syropyatov, 2021), и то у форми „спољашњег новца” према прихваћеној дихотомији (Garrat & Wallace, 2018).

Биткоин мрежа је у потпуности транспарентна. Сет криптографских кључева, односно комбинација јавне адресе и приватног кључа (Raskin, 2015), омогућава да систем буде потпуно транспарентан, пре свега, у погледу начина рада, затим расподеле средстава и њиховог кретања (11), али истовремено и да буде имун на интервенције споља због апсолутне, криптографски гарантоване, анонимности учесника у мрежи. То, свакако, компромитује економски суверенитет државе, који је додатно компромитован и њеном немогућношћу да утиче на пуштање у оптицај и масе криптовалутних јединица (Raskin, 2015), затим њеном фактичком немогућношћу да их забрани или опорезује, као и немогућношћу да директно утиче на њихову курсну вредност или куповну моћ. Но, чињеница да овај систем не зависи од компарације и размене националних финансијских инструмената на интернационалном тржишту чини га суштински децентрализованим, а потпуна отвореност мреже интернационализованим, затим и глобализованим (Blaazer, 2020).

Дакле, када смо говорили о вези узрочно-последичног карактера између технолошких иновација и новог таласа глобализације, имали смо у виду примарно Биткоин. Суштински смо, заправо, имали у виду синтезу технолошких иновација први пут обједињених у оквиру функционалне целине од стране недржавног ауторитета која нема само локални већ која има и међународни домашај, а која је у време настанка идеје о новцу издатом од стране приватних ентитета била недоступна, што је саму идеју, по признању творца идеје, чинило утопистичком (Syropyatov, 2021).

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1. Електронски новац је облик дигиталног новца који, по правилу, представља електронску манифестацију већ постојећег новца у оптицају (Nahorniak et al., 2016; Ström, 2020). Појавио се најпре у Јапану средином осамдесетих година као припејд картица за плаћање неких врста „масовних услуга”, а замах је добио на западу где је коришћен као замена за кеш трансакције мале вредности (Димитријевић, 2018).
2. Будући да је њихова правилна дистинкција од кључне важности, за потребе овог рада систем плаћања означаваћемо као Биткоин, дакле великим почетним словом „Б”, а виртуелне јединице унутар система малим почетним словом „б” (биткоин).
3. Биткоин је најпре препознат као новац од стране специјализованих органа САД који се баве финансијским криминалитетом (Mirjanich, 2014), а тај став потврђен је у чувеном случају Silk Road (Raskin, 2015; Zebec, 2018) и широј јавности мање познатом, али правнополитички врло значајном случају SEC vs Shavers (Raskin, 2015).
4. Кроз овакву поставку, творац и иницијални издавач решио је два кључна проблема – нежељене додатне продукције новца и његово кривотворења (Garrat & Wallace, 2018).
5. Биткоин користи блокчејн технологију и hash функцију како би створио трајни запис свих трансакција које су се у оквиру мреже реализовале (Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022; Ruslina, 2019). У том контексту интересантан је податак да се чак и биткоини који су заплењени у случају Silk Road, то јест њихово кретање кроз заплену и каснију аукцију, могу пратити у потпуности кроз записе у блокчејну (адреса новчаника који припада FBI: lFfmbHfnpaZjKFvyilokTjJJusN455paPH), те да су оба поступка морала да буду потврђена кроз процес верификације специфичан за биткоинов блокчејн протокол (Raskin, 2015).

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Проблем одређења временских координата четвртог таласа

Уколико уопште прихватимо идеју о новом таласу, чврсто стојећи на том становишту, можемо рећи да је блокчејн технологија темељ модерних глобалистичких активности, тим пре ако имамо у виду ситуационо и територијално неограничене могућности њене примене. Штавише, иако има оних који су у том смислу резервисани (Horvatić i Tafra, 2022), сматрамо да је овај вид технологије, по потенцијалним дометима и брзини усвајања, импресивнији од интернета. Компарације криптовалутног тржишта и интернета с почетка деведесетих година то потврђују (Syropyatov, 2021).

Почетак овог таласа глобализације, међутим, не можемо стриктно везати за моменат настанка блокчејн технологије а да тиме успешно разрешимо све недоумице које евентуално могу настати. Разлога је неколико, а два су, сматрамо, нарочито битна.

Најпре, блокчејн технологија није нова технологија per se. Блокчејн је први успешан спој технолошких идеја које су постојале и биле коришћене значајно пре формирања првих „низова података груписаних у блокове” (12).

Друго, први случајеви имплементације блокчејн технологије, иако успешни, прошли су незапажено ван информатичке заједнице. Блокчејн остаје потпуно непознат вид технологије широј јавности све до њене уградње у основе система плаћања (13) познатог под називом Биткоин (Horvatić i Tarfa, 2022). Тек од тренутка када је Биткоин мрежа постала оперативна, иако њена дистрибутивност симболизује универзалност (Ronaghi, 2023), блокчејн технологија суштински постаје глобални, доцније и мејнстрим феномен. Следи моменат настанка блокчејн технологије, иако кључне у техничком и суштинском смислу, због иницијално скромних домета, дакле, пре првих примера функционалне имплементације, не би га исправно било узети за почетак четвртог таласа глобализације.

Иако је творац система пажљиво одабрао тренутак како би истакао поенту у свом манифесту револуционарне реформе монетарног система (Sławiński, 2019), више је разлога због којих не можемо везати почетак четвртог таласа глобализације стриктно ни за крај 2008. године, када је објављен тзв. бели папир (14) (Raskin, 2015) нити за почетак 2009. године, када је мрежа постала оперативна.

Први разлог је тај што је кибернетизација и глобализација новца, следствено капиталистичког облика привређивања, суштински започела још 1971. године (Ström, 2020). Даље, Биткоин, ма колико импресивна идеја била, посматрано из перспективе нашег рада, суштински није ништа друго до тек први успешан пројекат имплементације блокчејн технологије на начин који промовише децентрализовану глобализацију. Биткоин је први приказ потенцијала технологије која у монетарној сфери омогућава поуздано креирање и трансфер дигиталних добара (Ronaghi, 2023), мада и то на начин који због читавог низа објективних околности компромитује његово усвајање као мејнстрим економског феномена (Syropyatov, 2021). Дакле, стварни домети блокчејн технологије биће спознати тек кроз пројекте који су се појавили значајно касније или који ће се тек појавити (15).

Штавише, потпуно смо сагласни са тим да биткоин не само да није једини, већ да није ни најнапреднији пројекат те врсте (Teomete Yalabik & Yalabik, 2019). Примера ради, из перспективе финансијског тржишта, stable coin пројекти, којима се покушава решити проблем волатилности, тренутно су иновација која највише обећава (Syropyatov, 2021). Трећи разлог је тај што је крај 2008. године, због економске кризе која је тај период обележила, исправније интерпретирати као посртање антидржавне, laissez faire глобалистичке методологије и јачање државног интервенционизма, него као нови талас глобализације (Mellor, 2020). Коначно, исправно интерпретирање Биткоина као феномена могуће је једино у контексту врло хетерогене групе догађаја међу којима нарочито место заузима проглашење пандемије изазване SARS-CoV-2 вирусом.

Наиме, 11. марта 2020. године Светска здравствена организација прогласила је пандемију SARS-CoV-2 вируса. Вирус који је узрок обољења познатог под називом ковид 19, постао је катализатор читавог низа процеса. Због природе пандемије, пре свега чињенице да је током трајања пандемије било неопходно свести физичке контакте на минимум, природно је да је потрага за алтернативним моделима функционисања свакодневних активности убрзала процес дигитализације (Mijatović, 2022).

У ред појава и процеса код којих је промена карактера и интензитета најизраженија на првом месту налази се процес трансформације новца, генерално и финансијског тржишта, што је уосталом и научно доказано (Vareško i Deković, 2022). Наиме, систем размене добара какав је карактеристичан за монетарне економије данашњице није одувек постојао, нити је кроз различите епохе функционисао на исти начин. Од скромних почетака неформалног робноновчаног промета, базираног на локализованом личном контакту (Ström, 2020), евентуално на једноставним бартер аранжманима (Calcaterra et al., 2020; Mellor, 2020; Ström, 2020), преко увођења ретких метала као опште мере вредности робе, до појаве првог кованог новца, затим банкнота, коначно и електронског новца као репрезентације новца који се већ налази у оптицају, новац је кроз сопствену апстракцију (Ström, 2020) пратио интензивирање друштвених односа. Његова социјална и материјална апстракција погодовала је интензивном и екстензивном ширењу капиталистичког начина привређивања (Ström, 2020). Последица је континуирано смањење просторне, временске, а затим и културне дистанце. Смањење различитих видова дистанце иницирало је ново апстраховање новца, што је, у складу с потребама све интензивнијег привредног живота, резултирало његовом метаморфозом у врло софистициран финансијски инструмент.

Биткоин осећа и прати тенденције у развоју новца, а у контексту савремених друштвених релација има савршен смисао. Најпре, очигледно је постојање тенденције изградње електронских облика чувања новца и система плаћања. Њихове предности су неспорне и сматра се да такви системи повећавају ефикасност и у виртуелном и у реалном свету (Vareško i Deković, 2022). Оно што је у почетку деловало као крајње несигурна концепција, прихваћено је и раширено у тој мери да монетарни системи најразвијенијих земаља, по правилу, функционишу без било какве физичке репрезентације новца, то јест као cashless заједница (Calcaterra et al., 2020). Како Биткоин промовише употребу најновијих информационих технологија за чување и трансфер новца, јасно је да је претходна тенденција уважена у потпуности. Штавише, Биткоин не само да уважава тенденцију дематеријализације новца већ је и наставља и уздиже на квалитативно виши ниво.

Кроз peer-to-peer систем на којем почива промовише се digital trust, што омогућава директне трансакције међу корисницима (Ruslina, 2019). Иако се то може тумачити као разлог несигурности система (Ruslina, 2019), на овај начин елиминише се потреба за акредитованим посредницима који су есенцијални у традиционалним системима плаћања (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022; Raskin, 2015; Ronaghi, 2023; Horvatić i Tafra, 2022; Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022). Такође, елиминише се и могућност да се деси „двострука потрошња” (Ruslina, 2019), све то уз истовремено унапређење брзине обављања трансакција и смањење провизија (Teomete Yalabik & Yalabik, 2019). Трошкови чувања средстава, осим уколико се корисник не одлучи да криптографске кључеве похрани на напреднији cold wallet, практично не постоје. Иако би интуитивнији кориснички интерфејс олакшао употребу, Биткоин мрежа промовише апсолутну монетарну инклузију свих заинтересованих лица, омогућава лак приступ средствима и њиховом управљању. Најзад, овај систем плаћања имун је на државну и међународну регулативу (16), а самим тим и на границе држава – практично их не познаје, што иде у прилог тенденцији апстракције, универзализације и денационализације средстава плаћања.

Иако је начин његове примене константно еволуирао (17) (Vareško i Deković, 2022), инсистирамо на томе да Биткоин није валута, већ да је у питању систем плаћања. Уосталом, у том капацитету је и коришћен примарно, конкретно ради куповине и продаје робе и услуга путем интернета (Vareško i Deković, 2022). Ипак, будући да је временом постајао све глобалнији и разноврснији као инструмент (Karabulut & Sari, 2022), Биткоин је најавио крупне промене на међународном, глобализованом тржишту роба и капитала (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022). Неке од њих су се и десиле у претходном периоду. Но, како објашњавамо везу између пандемије SARS-CoV-2 вируса, Биткоина и четвртог таласа глобализације (18)?

Биткоин је привукао масовно интересовање 2017. годинe када су „Биткоин” и „како купити биткоин” били најчешће коришћени појмови у популарним претраживачима попут Гугла (Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022). Разлог је једноставан. Уз уважавање осталих квалитета, основна снага Биткоина лежи у одсуству могућности повећања количине јединица у оптицају (19), затим одсуству могућности копирања појединачних јединица које „циркулишу” унутар система, најзад и математички пројектованој динамици „пуштања у оптицај” предвиђене количине јединица (20) (Raskin, 2015). На основу тога, можемо рећи да се биткоин понаша као изразито дефлаторна валута, свакако под условом да га уопште посматрамо као валуту.

С друге стране, модерне државе имају суверенитет у погледу одређења средства плаћања, а ексклузивитет одређивања куповне моћи тог средства, након аброгације „златног стандарда”, делегирале су својим централним монетарним установама. Традиционални новац у потпуности је завистан од одлука и регулативе централних банака (Ronaghi, 2023). Поверење у централне банке и њихову пројекцију суштински je једини принцип за одређење вредности новца. Принцип тржишне привреде, златни стандард, лимитирани златни стандард, величина привредног раста и други механизми за одређење вредности новца замењени су „принудним курсом”. Није, дакле, претеривање рећи да не постоје „природне” или барем концептуалне границе продукције новца (Mellor, 2020).

Модел може ефикасно функционисати у време када нема потреса, но све несавршености поставке до изражаја долазе управо у време криза, нарочито оним глобалних размера као што је пандемија вируса SARS-CoV-2, и то из разлога што на овакве кризе, када је привредни живот успорен или чак стопиран, а буџетска потрошња повећана, неоптерећене обавезом да за то обезбеде покриће, државе посежу за непопуларним мерама које подразумевају повећање количине новца у оптицају. (21) У таквом амбијенту, природно, систем који се базира једино на поверењу у централну монетарну институцију показује инфериорност у односу на систем који се базира на поверењу у математичке гаранције лимитиране понуде и сигурности плаћања. Следствено, тврдња о томе да се поверење у јавне (државне) институције не може поверити технологији (Sławiński, 2019) показује се као, благо речено, застарела. Ово је нарочито тачно након аброгације Bretton Woods споразума и „златног” стандарда када је окончана дефлаторна и започела инфлаторна ера у економској историји (Syropyatov, 2021). Дакле, иако је читав систем, након ере „слободног банкарства”, организован са циљем да обезбеди стабилност у временима кризе (Sławiński, 2019), парадоксално, управо у временима кризе показује се да је прерогатив државе у продукцији новца пре случајан него што је заиста потребан (Blaazer, 2020). Уосталом, случајеви Ел Салвадора (22) и Централноафричке Републике (23), у којима је усвојен низ прописа којима је Биткоин признат као средство плаћања у готово неограниченом капацитету, иако ове потезе треба тумачити као отворени економски експеримент, принципијелно потврђују капацитет ове иновације (24) (Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022) и стање у монетарним порецима.

У доба здравствене и економске кризе изазване пандемијом, повећана је потреба за укључењем реалне финансијске активе у портфолио (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022). Мисли се на тзв. safe haven имовину попут злата, затим и сребра (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022; Wen et al., 2022). Но, поред традиционалних облика заштитне финансијске активе, интересовање инвеститора усмерено је све више ка модерним облицима активе – примарно оне базиране на блокчејн технологији (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022). У њима, пре свега биткоину, могуће је наћи сличне, потенцијално чак и боље safe heaven особине него код злата (Ronaghi, 2023; Wen et al., 2022) или деоница (Vareško i Deković, 2022). Штавише, иако је истина да се биткоин суштински налази негде између злата и америчког долара (Syropyatov, 2021), истраживања недвосмислено потврђују како је диверсификација кроз биткоин, под условом да је у портфолио укључен и неки од традиционалних облика активе, добар потез чак и код оних инвеститора који нису склони ризику (Šoja i Senarthne, 2019).

Релативно ниска базна вредност биткоина у првим годинама трговања, услед огромног интересовања инвеститора за ову до тада непознату финансијску активу, у 2019. години мења се и постаје изузетно висока, а наставља да расте напоредно са негативним утицајем пандемије у наредном периоду (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022). У условима кризе изазване пандемијом, због изразитог државног интервенционизма и централизације у свим областима, биткоин као инструмент имун на државну регулативу и аполитичан, па и у односу на злато, испољава и неке додатне предности (Wen et al., 2022).

Истовремено са испољавањем првих слабости традиционалних централизованих монетарних система под притиском пандемије, изразито дефлаторна природа биткоина бива додатно истакнута кроз тзв. трећи halving event који се догодио 11. маја 2020. године. У таквим условима вредност биткоина иницијално расте безмало 10 пута и у наредном периоду достиже вредност од готово 65.000 америчких долара за један биткоин.

Цена биткоина изузетно је интересантан показатељ. Познато је, наиме, да цена биткоина зависи једино од односа понуде и тражње, односно потражње, будући да је понуда програмски ограничена и укупно и периодично. Прецизније, укупна количина биткоина који се могу наћи у оптицају је ограничена кодом на 21.000.000, али је, због програмиране динамике пуштања у оптицај, тренутно у промету тек нешто више од 90% укупне количине. Дакле, према ценама формираним на специјализованим платформама, у условима двоструко ограничене понуде, произлази да је тражња за биткоином у једном тренутку била многоструко већа од тражње за најјачом класичном валутом.

Тачно је да таква цена није била одржива, па је јењавањем пандемије и консолидацијом финансијских токова тражња за биткоином опадала. У тренутку израде рада креће се око 20.000 америчких долара. У том смислу, сасвим се чини рационалном критика волатилности цене биткоина, али и шпекулативног карактера овог облика имовине (Šoja i Senarathne, 2019). Критика нестабилности, иако постоји сасвим рационална и до детаља описана аргументација зашто се суштински дешава (Syropyatov, 2021), апсолутно је на месту. Нагли пораст и пад цене није нешто што је неуобичајено када је у питању криптоимовина, а оваква тенденција ће се засигурно наставити барем до момента када тржиште достигне критични волумен. То природно подгрева неповерење. Међутим, само на први поглед.

Наиме, када би подухват који је апсолутна новина, на иначе врло ригидном финансијском тржишту, била номинално барем једнака најјачој валути, то би био изузетан резултат по себи. Но, без обзира на значајан пад цене у односу на 2021. годину, садашња цена показује да су субјекти на финансијском тржишту, грубо речено, у 19.999 трансакција пре вољни да прихвате биткоин него амерички долар. Из реторичког питања „какво је онда стање са поверењем у остале, релативно слабије валуте?” произлази као сасвим логичан закључак да биткоин и други слични пројекти неспорно преузимају примат и савремено финансијско тржиште постепено обликују у децентрализовано окружење имуно на државну регулативу, следствено државне и све друге врсте граница.

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1. Технолошке иновације о којима говоримо подразумевају, без претензија да их све обухватимо, имплементацију TCP/IP технологије, изградњу напреднијих програмских језика, напредак криптографије, нарочито hash функција, конструисање тзв. Меркеловог дрвета. Творац Биткоина, такође, успешно је комбиновао искуства неких ранијих покушаја изградње дигиталних валута, примера ради B-money и HashCash (Antonopoulos, 2010).
2. Иако има елемената на основу којих је Биткоин могуће исправно интерпретирати као валуту, идеја творца била је заправо најпре да створи економичнији и ефикаснији систем плаћања, пре свега код трансфера мале вредности (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022). Зато смо склонији ка томе да овај софтвер означимо као систем плаћања.
3. Исто важи и за моменат регистрације интернет домена www.bitcoin.org, за који неки аутори (Živanović i Vitomir, 2022) везују укључивање Биткона на међународно финансијско тржиште.
4. Могућност употребе блокчејн технологије није ограничена на изградњу система плаћања. У (децентрализованом) финансијском систему она се већ сада користи за формирање штедних улога, издавање полиса осигурања, пласирање кредита, трговање и управљање акцијама и обвезницама, прикупљање оснивачког капитала. Ван финансијског система она има потенцијал да се искористи за формирање катастара, вођење и чување медицинских картона или праћење пређене километраже коришћених аутомобила. Штавише, почетком јула 2020. године на референдуму је, поводом предложених уставних промена у Русији, део становништва са правом гласа своје активно бирачко право реализовао кроз софтвер базиран на блокчејн технологији. Детаљније о другим облицима коришћења блокчејн технологије видети у Ronaghi, 2023.
5. У том контексту, Ронаги (2023) нуди опсежну студију о томе како је увођење санкција Ирану од стране САД и ЕУ погодовало промоцији криптовалута, пре свега Биткоина, са циљем превазилажења негативних ефеката забрана које су у вези са интернационалним пословањем привредних субјеката, али и са свакодневним активностима појединаца на територији ове земље.
6. Ово потврђује и свеобухватна студија о броју, врстама и дистрибуцији патената који се односе директно на Биткоин, а који унапређују софтверску поставку на којој функционише. О томе детаљније видети у Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022.
7. Ипак, слажемо се у потпуности са ауторима који указују на то да је због релативне краткоће времена трајања врхунца пандемије и дневних флуктуација тешко извести сигурне закључке, не толико да ли је, већ у којој мери је пандемија заправо иницирала промене на традиционалном финансијском тржишту (Vareško i Deković, 2022).
8. Укупна количина биткоина која се може наћи у оптицају ограничена је на 21.000.000 кроз тзв. source code који се сматра непроменљивим. Ипак, будући да је Биткоин суштински особени софтвер, он није апсолутно затворен за измене, но, да би се таква измена десила у потпуно децентрализованом систему, потребно је да већина „нодова” у мрежи изрази сагласност са предложеним повећањем волумена биткоина. Сасвим је основано закључити да у мрежи са хиљадама „нодова” који су„DeFi ентузијасти” није вероватно формирати већину око става да се мрежа одрекне „ограничене понуде” као особине која је чини апсолутно супериорном у односу на традиционалне монетарне системе.
9. Мрежа је програмирана тако да се комплексност математичког проблема који је потребно решити у процесу „рударења” управља према количини већ изрудареног биткоина. Сваки блок има капацитет од 1МВ, што му омогућава да у себи меморише око 4.000 трансакција. Блок плански бива попуњен сваких 10 минута у просеку. Сваким додатим блоком у оптицај се пушта одређена количина нових биткоина. На сваких 210.000 доданих блокова, број биткоина који ће бити пуштен у оптицај по блоку смањује се за једну половину (halving). То нам омогућава да имамо извесну динамику пуштања јединица у оптицај (Antonopoulos, 2014; Horvatić i Tafra, 2022).
10. Примера ради, процена је да су само Сједињене Америчке Државе у последњих неколико месеци у оптицај пустиле преко 3,5 трилиона нових банкнота, а да је Европска централна банка дала зелено светло за штампање преко једног трилиона евра.
11. Ley Bitcoin, Diario Oficial ES, 110/2021, Decreto No 57.
12. République Centrafricaine Cryptomonnaie, Journal Officiel CAF, 22/2022.
13. Ова настојања, иако и она потврђују капацитет криптовалута заснованих на блокчејн технологији, суштински не треба мешати са настојањима држава или наддржавних институција да изграде своје дигиталне и криптовалуте. О томе детаљније видети у Mijatović, 2022.

Закључна разматрања (увод у наредни рад)

Процес дигитализације новца реорганизује постојећу пословну праксу и доноси социјалне, политичке, онтолошке, чак и еколошке промене, a истовремено интензивира концетрацију и централизацију у процесу доношења одлука на глобалном нивоу (Ström, 2020). Но, криптовалуте, пре свега Биткоин, иако јесу дигиталне по свом карактеру, не прате ову тенденцију. Управо супротно, Биткоин почива на идеји свесног одрицања контроле управљачких механизама у корист мреже компјутера која покреће софтвер (Magnuson, 2022; Ruslina, 2019). Он представља модел утопијског нивоа глобалне децентрализације, и то не само у финансијском сектору. То је темељна идеја која је окупила највећи, свакодневно растући број учесника у систему (25).

Иако је због новине феномена и непостојања адекватне временске дистанце у односу на коју бисмо процењивали стварне ефекте незахвално изводити закључке или правити пројекције, сматрамо, а то је уједно став и у академским круговима, да криптовалуте представљају изванредну новину (Karabulut & Sari, 2022). Оне засноване на блокчејн технологији, а које нису централизоване, имају моћ да национална тржишта претворе у регионална, а регионална даље у глобална. У том смислу заиста делује као да историја глобализације не памти инструмент који у тој мери интензивира дешавања и процесе.

Уколико то ипак није довољно за закључак да су криптовалуте, засноване на блокчејн технологији, изванредан катализатор процеса глобализације, онда треба нагласити следеће. Изградња и пуштање у рад Биткоина, али и читавог низа других пројеката, објективно, у другом је плану у односу на изградњу такозваног DeFi система, којем су пут трасирала техничка и економска решења имплементирана у Биткоин. Систем је осмишљен тако да у својој идеалној форми, уз напомену да је систем још увек у изградњи, обезбеђује: 1) пуну контролу средстава; 2) апсолутну инклузивност; 3) децентрализовану верификацију исправног рада система; 4) неограничену могућност изградње нових финансијских услуга и производа (Werner et al., 2021). Андреас Антонопулос у својим многобројним предавањима прави аналогију у односу на интернет из времена када је једина апликација унутар система била имејл. Он истиче да уколико DeFi монетарни систем упоредимо са интернетом, Биткоин, иако импресиван по својим технолошким решењима, био би тек имејл, односно прва функционална апликација унутар система. Данас, верујемо, не најбоља и дефинитивно не једина.

Иако идеја делује футуристички, делови DeFi система постају видљиви. Унутар њега је већ могуће успешно куповати, продавати, штедети, закључити уговор о осигурању или кредиту, трговати акцијама, инвестирати, водити хуманитарне фондове, све без интервенције државе, без посредника, без територијалних ограничења, уз криптографски гарантовану безбедност (26). Према доступним подацима, простор је у сталном порасту: конкретно, за непуне две године укупна вредност у промету је порасла са 700 милиона на 150 милијарди америчких долара (Werner et al., 2021). Систем је у повоју и потребно је још много рада да би он постао потпуно оперативан и одржив на нормативном нивоу (Werner et al., 2021). Но, чињеница је да на идеолошком нивоу представља озбиљну претњу постојећем ригидном финансијском систему.

Ипак, степен глобализованости којем данашње друштво тежи не окончава се ни окончањем радова на изградњи DeFi система. Ако уз извесну дозу апстракције пратимо претходно поменуту аналогију Андреаса Антонопулоса, слично као што Биткоин налази примену као један од функционалних елемената DeFi система без обзира на ком блокчејну је изграђен, DeFi систем је тек један од механизма, односно апликација унутар далеко већег пројекта познатог под називом Web 3.0. Блокчејн технологија сматра се есенцијалном за реализацију сада већ мејнстрим идеја у технолошком свету познатих као „интернет ствари” (IoT) и „интернет свега” (IoE) (Horvatić i Tafra, 2022). Ови пројекти децентрализовану глобализацију промовишу шире, тј. ван економских токова, наравно, примарно у дигиталном свету. Но, како су свакодневне активности данас неодвојиво везане за интернет, остварени ефекти глобализованости у дигиталном свету, очекивано, прелиће се у све сфере друштвеног живота.

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1. И не само да је број учесника у мрежи и корисника у сталном порасту, већ је и тржиште криптовалута све веће према економским критеријумима. Процена је да само тржиште биткоина достиже размере од 1,2 трилиона америчких долара (Cavalheiro & Cavalheiro, 2022).
2. Приказ појединих маркантних решења са техничким специфичностима, мада нису сви део DeFi система, видети у Mijatović, 2022.

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Литература

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• Димитријевић, М. (2018). Електронски новац у савременом монетарном праву. Зборник радова Правног факултета у Нишу, 57 (81), 221–236. https ://doi. org/10.5937/zrpfni1983061D
• Марковић, Д. Ж. и Булатовић, И. Ж. (2014). Социологија – основни појмови и савремено друштво. Београд: Београдска пословна школа − Висока школа струковних студија.
• Печујлић, М. (2002). Глобализација – два лика света. Београд: Гутенбергова галаксија. Попић, С. (2018). Идеје о глобализацији у часопису „Социолошки преглед” – могућност примене Хелдове поделе школа мишљења. Социолошки преглед, 52 (1), 147–180. https ://doi.org/10.5937/socpreg52-16798
• Попић, С. и Шуваковић, У. (2014). Академик Радомир Д. Лукић – претеча проучавања глобализације у Србији. Теме, 1 (38), 377−390.
• Радуловић, С. (2017). Аутономни концепт односа лекара и пацијента као продукт другог таласа глобализације. Зборник радова Правног факултета у Нишу, 56 (76), 467−478.
• Џамић, В. (2014). Глобализација: њено теоријско утемељење и њене противречности. Зборник Матице српске за друштвене науке, 149, 1001−1011. https:// doi.org/10.2298/ZMSDN1449001D
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• Abramowitz, M. B. (2016). Cryptocurrency-based law. Arizona Law Review, 58(2), 359–420. Antonopoulos, A. (2010). Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
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• Chumakov, A. N. (2010). Philosophy of Globalization. Moscow: MAKS Press.
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• Garratt, R., & Wallace, N. (2018). Bitcoin 1, Bitcoin 2, ...: An experiment in privately issued outside monies. Economic Inquiry, 56(3), 1887−1897. https: //doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12569
• Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press Hayek, F. A. (1976). Denationalization of Money (An Analysis of the Theory and Practice of Concurrent Currencies). London: The Institute of Economic Affairs.
• Horvatić, H. i Tafra, V. (2022). Identifikacija komercijalne blockchain tehnologije te izazovi i opasnosti primjene kroz konkretne primjere. Obrazovanje za poduzetništvo – E4E, 12 (2), 105−120. https ://doi.org/10.38190/ope.12.2.7
• Karabulut, T., & Sari, S. S. (2022). The attitude of academic staff towards bitcoin. Ekonomski vjesnik, 35 (1), 55−67. https ://doi.org/10.51680/ev.35.1.5
• Magnuson, J. W. (2022). The failure of market efficiency. Brigham Young University Law Review, 48(3), 827−908. http ://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4096270
• Mellor, M. (2020). Bitcoin and the myths of neoliberalism. Australian Humanities Review, 66, 204−209.
• Mijatović, N. (2022). Pravna (ne)uređenost kriptovaluta i njihov utjecaj na industriju osiguranja. Hrvatski časopis za osiguranje, 6, 93−106.
• Mirjanich, N. (2014). Digital money: Bitcoin’s financial and tax future despite regulatory uncertainty. DePaul Law Review, 64(1), 213–248.
• Nahorniak, I., Leonova, K., & Skorokhod, V. (2016). Cryptocurrency in the context of development of digital single market in European Union. InterEULawEast, 3(1), 107–124.
• Raskin, M. I. (2015). Realm of the coin: Bitcoin and civil procedure. Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 20(4), 969–1011.
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• Ruslina, E. (2019). Legal protection for bitcoin users in E-commerce transactions. Journal of Internet Law, 23(4), 3–6.
• Sławiński, A. (2019). Will IT technologies and globalisation change the mechanism of money creation?. Zarządzanie Publiczne / Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie, 4(50), 5–14. https ://doi.org/10.15678/ZP.2019.50.4.01
• Šoja, T. i Senarathne, C. W. (2019). Bitcoin i diversifikacija portfolija – perspektiva globalnog investitora. Bankarstvo, 48 (4), 44−63. https ://doi.org/10.5937/bankarstvo1904044S Ström, Т. Е. (2020). Abstracting money: Cryptocurrencies, cybernetics and contradictions. Australian Humanities Review, 66, 188−195.
• Syropyatov, V. A. (2021). Stablecoins as an implementation of Hayek’s private money theory. Russian Journal of Economics and Law, 2, 318–331. http ://dx.doi. org/10.21202/1993-047X.15.2021.2.318-331
• Teomete Yalabık, F., & Yalabık, İ. (2019). Anonymous bitcoin v enforcement law. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 33(1), 34–52.
• Vareško, A. i Deković, D. (2022). Utjecaj pandemije COVID 19 na povezanost kretanja cijena bitcoina i vodećih svjetskih burzovnih indeksa. Zbornik radova Međimurskog veleučilišta u Čakovcu, 13 (2), 89−99.
• Wen, F., Tong, X., & Ren, X. (2022). Gold or bitcoin, which is the safe haven during the COVID-19 pandemic?. International Review of Financial Analysis, 81, 102–121. https ://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102121
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• Zebec, S. (2018). Pravna regulacija bitcoina i ostalih virtualnih valuta u nekim neeuropskim zemljama i hrvatskom zakonodavstvu. Zbornik radova Međimurskog veleučilišta u Čakovcu, 9 (1), 87−91.
• Živanović, V. i Vitomir, J. (2022). Nove tehnologije i uloga kriptovaluta na nivou in- vesticionog portfolija. Megatrend revija, 19 (1), 1−16. https ://doi.org/10.5937/ MegRev2201001Z

@ 88cc134b:5ae99079

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@ beef3d4d:479b72bc

Costantino e il solidus

Quando Costantino il Grande prese in mano le redini dell'impero, ne risollevò le sorti adottando riforme economiche lungimiranti. Tra gli impegni assunti, il più importante fu quello di mantenere il solidus a 4,5 grammi d'oro senza tagli o svalutazioni, coniandolo in grandi quantità a partire dal 312 d.C.. Spostò poi la capitale verso est, a Bisanzio, nel punto di incontro tra Asia ed Europa, dando vita all'Impero Romano d'Oriente, che adottò il solidus come moneta.

Mentre Roma continuava a deteriorarsi economicamente, socialmente e culturalmente, crollando infine nel 476 d.C., Bisanzio, poi rinominata Costantinopoli, sopravvisse per quasi 1200 anni, e il solidus divenne la moneta più longeva e accettata della storia.

Il nome Bisanzio vuole quindi essere un omaggio alla saggezza di Costantino e celebrare l’unica moneta nella storia dell’umanità capace di durare oltre un millennio. Un esempio ed un auspicio per la Bitcoin, moneta di oro digitale che ci accompagnerà per un lunghissimo tempo.

\ Vedi anche: Monetazione bizantina su Wikipedia.

Il problema dei generali bizantini

Il termine Bitcoin soffre di un’ambiguità semantica: con lo stesso termine si indicano due cose ben diverse tra loro: il protocollo di comunicazione e la moneta digitale costruita su di esso. Bitcoin inteso come protocollo rappresenta la prima soluzione a un problema informatico, centrale per il funzionamento di sistemi distribuiti, denominato problema dei generali bizantini, formulato nel 1982 e che e’ rimasto irrisolto per decenni.

La sua formulazione e’ tipicamente la seguente:

> Diverse divisioni dell’esercito bizantino, ciascuna guidata da un generale, sono accampate in posizioni strategiche attorno a una città nemica e dovono condividere una strategia di attacco coordinato per poter sopraffare il nemico. Le divisioni possono comunicare solo mediante messaggeri al fine di coordinare l’attacco decisivo. Il terreno impedisce alle divisioni bizantine di comunicare a distanza e queste possono comunicare solo tramite dei messaggeri. Come possono le varie divisioni accordarsi per un attacco congiunto sapendo che i messaggeri che inviano potrebbero essere catturati dal nemico, o che alcuni generali potrebbero addirittura tradire e mandare messaggeri con ordini sbagliati?

Il problema che devono risolvere i generali bizantini è lo stesso che affligge i sistemi di elaborazione distribuiti. Come raggiungere un consenso su una rete distribuita in cui alcuni nodi che la costituiscono possono essere difettosi o corrotti?

Il protocollo Bitcoin offre una soluzione a questo problema introducendo il concetto di “prova di lavoro” (proof of work) e della “catena di blocchi” (blockchain). E quindi, nuovamente, il nome Bisanzio si collega a Bitcoin ed alla principale innovazione tecnologica da esso introdotta.

Vedi anche: Byzantine fault su Wikipedia.

PS

Come resistere poi alla disponibilità del dominio internet bisanz.io? :)

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• Version 1.3 of Bitcoin Safe introduces a redesigned interactive chart, quick receive feature, updated icons, a mempool preview window, support for Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) and testnet4, preconfigured testnet demo wallets, as well as various bug fixes and improvements.

• Upcoming updates for Bitcoin Safe include Compact Block Filters.

"Compact Block Filters increase the network privacy dramatically, since you're not asking an electrum server to give you your transactions. They are a little slower than electrum servers. For a savings wallet like Bitcoin Safe this should be OK," writes the project's developer Andreas Griffin.

• Learn more about the current and upcoming features of Bitcoin Safe wallet here.

What's new in v1.3

• Redesign of Chart, Quick Receive, Icons, and Mempool Preview (by @design-rrr).
• Interactive chart. Clicking on it now jumps to transaction, and selected transactions are now highlighted.

• Speed up transactions with Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).
• BDK 1.2 (upgraded from 0.32).
• Testnet4 support.
• Preconfigured Testnet demo wallets.
• Cluster unconfirmed transactions so that parents/children are next to each other.
• Customizable columns for all tables (optional view: Txid, Address index, and more)
• Bug fixes and other improvements.

Announcement / Archive
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@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

Let's support Bitcoin merchants! I'd love to hear some of your latest Lightning purchases and interesting products you bought. Feel free to include links to the shops or businesses you bought from.

Who else has a recent purchase they’re excited about? Bonus sats if you found a killer deal! ⚡

If you missed our last thread, here are some of the items stackers recently spent and zap on.

Like and repost: X: https://x.com/AGORA_SN/status/1934193660796780660 N: https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdaqz3qjmgta88a4wnzyh7vujla7ecsc7luatrtl0a2k7xq43thhq337lj2

https://stacker.news/items/1006838

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Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• "Today we're launching the beta version of our multiplatform Nostr browser! Think Google Chrome but for Nostr apps. The beta is our big first step toward this vision," announced Damus.
• This version comes with the Dave Nostr AI assistant, support for zaps and the Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) wallet interface, full-text note search, GIFs and fullscreen images, multiple media uploads, user tagging, relay list and mute list support, along with a number of other improvements."

"Included in the beta is the Dave, the Nostr AI assistant (its Grok for Nostr). Dave is a new Notedeck browser app that can search and summarize notes from the network. For a full breakdown of everything new, check out our beta launch video."

What's new

• Dave Nostr AI assistant app.
• GIFs.
• Fulltext note search.
• Add full screen images, add zoom, and pan.
• Zaps! NWC/ Wallet UI.
• Introduce last note per pubkey feed (experimental).
• Allow multiple media uploads per selection.
• Major Android improvements (still WIP).
• Added notedeck app sidebar.
• User Tagging.
• Note truncation.
• Local network note broadcast, broadcast notes to other notedeck notes while you're offline.
• Mute list support (reading).
• Relay list support.
• Ctrl-enter to send notes.
• Added relay indexing (relay columns soon).
• Click hashtags to open hashtag timeline.
• Fixed timelines sometimes not updating (stale feeds).
• Fixed UI bounciness when loading profile pictures
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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The latest AI chips, 8K displays, and neural processing units make your device feel like a pocket supercomputer. So surely, with all this advancement, you can finally mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, right?

The 2025 Hardware Reality: Can You Mine Bitcoin on Your Phone

Despite remarkable advances in smartphone technology, the fundamental physics of bitcoin mining haven’t changed. In 2025, flagship devices with their cutting-edge 2nm processors can achieve approximately 25-40 megahashes per second when you mine bitcoin on your phone—a notable improvement from previous generations, but still laughably inadequate.

Meanwhile, 2025’s top-tier ASIC miners have evolved dramatically. The latest Bitmain Antminer S23 series and Canaan AvalonMiner A15 Pro deliver 200-300 terahashes per second while consuming 4,000-5,500 watts. That’s a performance gap of roughly 1:8,000,000 between when you mine bitcoin on your phone and professional mining equipment.

To put this in perspective that hits home: if you mine bitcoin on your phone and it earned you one penny, professional miners would earn $80,000 in the same time period with the same effort. It’s not just an efficiency problem—it’s a complete category mismatch.

According to Pocket Option’s 2025 analysis, when you mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, you generate approximately $0.003-0.006 in daily revenue while consuming $0.45-0.85 in electricity through constant charging cycles. Factor in the accelerated device wear (estimated at $0.75-1.20 daily depreciation), and you’re looking at losses of $1.20-2.00 per day just for the privilege of running mining software.

Mining Economic Factor

Precise Value (April 2025)

Direct Impact on Profitability

Smartphone sustained hash rate

20-35 MH/s

0.00000024% contribution to global hashrate

Daily power consumption

3.2-4.8 kWh (4-6 full charges)

$0.38-0.57 at average US electricity rates

Expected daily BTC earnings

0.0000000086 BTC ($0.0035 at $41,200 BTC)

Revenue covers only 0.9% of electricity costs

CPU/GPU wear cost

$0.68-0.92 daily accelerated depreciation

Reduces smartphone lifespan by 60-70%

Annual profit projection

-$386 to -$412 per year

Guaranteed negative return on investment

Source: PocketOption

Bitcoin’s 2025 Network: Harder Than Ever

Bitcoin’s network difficulty in 2025 has reached unprecedented levels. After the April 2024 halving event that reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, mining became significantly more competitive. The global hash rate now exceeds 800 exahashes per second—that’s 800 followed by 18 zeros worth of computational power securing the network.

Here’s what this means in practical terms: Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) to maintain the 10-minute block time. As more efficient miners join the network, difficulty increases proportionally. In 2025, mining difficulty has increased compared to 2024, making small-scale mining even less viable.

The math is unforgiving:

• Global Bitcoin hash rate: 828.96 EH/s
• Your smartphone’s contribution: ~0.000000003%
• Probability of solo mining a block: Virtually zero
• Expected time to mine one Bitcoin: Several million years

Even joining mining pools doesn’t solve the economic problem. Pool fees typically range from 1-3%, and your minuscule contribution would earn proportionally tiny rewards—far below the electricity and device depreciation costs.

The 2025 Scam Evolution: More Sophisticated, More Dangerous

Fraudsters now leverage AI-generated content, fake influencer endorsements, and impressive-looking apps that simulate realistic mining activity to entice you to mine bitcoin on your phone.

New 2025 scam tactics include:

AI-Powered Fake Testimonials: Deepfake videos of supposed successful mobile miners showing fabricated earnings statements and encouraging downloads of malicious apps.

Gamified Mining Interfaces: Apps that look and feel like legitimate games but secretly harvest personal data while simulating mining progress that can never be withdrawn.

Social Media Manipulation: Coordinated campaigns across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube featuring fake “financial influencers” promoting mobile mining apps to younger audiences.

Subscription Trap Mining: Apps offering “free trials” that automatically charge $19.99-49.99 monthly for “premium mining speeds” while delivering no actual mining capability.

Recent cybersecurity research shows that over 180 fake mining apps were discovered across major app stores in 2025, with some accumulating more than 500,000 downloads before being removed.

Red flags that scream “scam” in 2025:

• Apps claiming “revolutionary mobile mining breakthrough”
• Promises of earning “$10-50 daily” from phone mining
• Requirements to recruit friends or watch ads to unlock withdrawals
• Apps that don’t require connecting to actual mining pools
• Testimonials that seem too polished or use stock photo models
• Apps requesting permissions unrelated to mining (contacts, camera, microphone)

The 2025 Professional Mining Landscape

To understand why, consider what professional bitcoin mining looks like in 2025. Industrial mining operations now resemble high-tech data centers with:

Cutting-edge hardware:

• Bitmain Antminer S23 Pro: 280 TH/s at 4,800W
• MicroBT WhatsMiner M56S++: 250 TH/s at 4,500W
• Canaan AvalonMiner A1566: 185 TH/s at 3,420W

Infrastructure requirements:

• Megawatt-scale power contracts with industrial electricity rates
• Liquid cooling systems maintaining 24/7 optimal temperatures
• Redundant internet connections ensuring zero downtime
• Professional facility management with 24/7 monitoring

For a small operation, you might need at least $10,000 to $20,000 to buy a few ASIC miners, set up cooling systems, and cover electricity costs. These operations employ teams of engineers, maintain relationships with power companies, and operate with margins measured in single-digit percentages.

2025’s Legitimate Mobile Bitcoin Strategies

While it remains impossible to mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, 2025 offers exciting legitimate ways to engage with bitcoin through your smartphone:

Lightning Network Participation: Apps like Phoenix, Breez, and Zeus allow you to run Lightning nodes on mobile devices, earning small routing fees while supporting bitcoin’s payment layer.

Bitcoin DCA Automation: Services enable automated dollar-cost averaging with amounts as small as $1 daily. Historical data shows $10 weekly bitcoin purchases consistently outperform any mobile mining attempt by 1,500-2,000%.

Educational Mining Simulators: Legitimate apps like “Bitcoin Mining Simulator” teach mining concepts without false earning promises. These educational tools help users understand hash rates, difficulty adjustments, and mining economics.

Stacking Sats Rewards: Apps offering bitcoin rewards for shopping, learning, or completing tasks.

Lightning Gaming: Bitcoin-native mobile games where players can earn sats through skilled gameplay, with some players earning $10 monthly.onfirm that even the most optimized mobile mining setups in 2025 lose money consistently and predictably.

The Bottom Line

When you mine bitcoin on your phone fundamental economics remain unchanged: it’s impossible to profit. The laws of physics, network competition, and energy efficiency create insurmountable barriers that no app can overcome.

However, 2025 offers unprecedented opportunities to engage with bitcoin meaningfully through your smartphone. Focus on education, legitimate earning opportunities, and strategic investment rather than chasing the impossible dream of phone-based mining.

The bitcoin community’s greatest strength lies in its commitment to truth over hype. When someone promises profits to mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, they’re either uninformed or deliberately misleading you. Trust the mathematics, learn from the community, and build your bitcoin knowledge and holdings through proven methods.

The real opportunity in 2025 isn’t to mine bitcoin on your phone—it’s understanding bitcoin deeply enough to participate confidently in the most important monetary revolution of our lifetime. Your smartphone is the perfect tool for that education; it’s just not a mining rig.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• This release introduces Payjoin v2 functionality to Bitcoin wallets on Cake, along with several UI/UX improvements and bug fixes.
• The Payjoin v2 protocol enables asynchronous, serverless coordination between sender and receiver, removing the need to be online simultaneously or maintain a server. This simplifies privacy-focused transactions for regular users.

"I cannot speak highly enough of how amazing it has been to work with @bitgould and Jaad from the@payjoindevkit team, they're doing incredible work. None of this would be possible without them and their tireless efforts. PDK made it so much easier to ship Payjoin v2 than it would have been otherwise, and I can't wait to see other wallets jump in and give back to PDK as they implement it like we did," said Seth For Privacy, VP at Cake Wallet.

How to started with Payjoin in Cake Wallet:

1. Open the app menu sidebar and click Privacy.
2. Toggle the Use Payjoin option.
3. Now on your receive screen you'll see an option to copy a Payjoin URL

• Bull Bitcoin Wallet v0.4.0 introduced Payjoin v2 support in late December 2024. However, the current implementations are not interoperable at the moment, an issue that should be addressed in the next release of the Bull Bitcoin Wallet.

• Cake Wallet was one of the first wallets to introduce Silent Payments back in May 2024. However, users may encounter sync issues while using this feature at present, which will be resolved in the next release of Cake Wallet.

What's new

• Payjoin v2 implementation.
• Wallet group improvements: Enhanced management of multiple wallets.
• Various bug fixes: improving overall stability and user experience.
• Monero (XMR) enhancements.

Learn more about using, implementing, and understanding BIP 77: Payjoin Version 2 using the payjoin crate in Payjoin Dev Kit here.

Announcement
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• This release introduces Payjoin v2 functionality to Bitcoin wallets on Cake, along with several UI/UX improvements and bug fixes.
• The Payjoin v2 protocol enables asynchronous, serverless coordination between sender and receiver, removing the need to be online simultaneously or maintain a server. This simplifies privacy-focused transactions for regular users.

"I cannot speak highly enough of how amazing it has been to work with @bitgould and Jaad from the@payjoindevkit team, they're doing incredible work. None of this would be possible without them and their tireless efforts. PDK made it so much easier to ship Payjoin v2 than it would have been otherwise, and I can't wait to see other wallets jump in and give back to PDK as they implement it like we did," said Seth For Privacy, VP at Cake Wallet.

How to started with Payjoin in Cake Wallet:

1. Open the app menu sidebar and click Privacy.
2. Toggle the Use Payjoin option.
3. Now on your receive screen you'll see an option to copy a Payjoin URL

• Bull Bitcoin Wallet v0.4.0 introduced Payjoin v2 support in late December 2024. However, the current implementations are not interoperable at the moment, an issue that should be addressed in the next release of the Bull Bitcoin Wallet.

• Cake Wallet was one of the first wallets to introduce Silent Payments back in May 2024. However, users may encounter sync issues while using this feature at present, which will be resolved in the next release of Cake Wallet.

What's new

• Payjoin v2 implementation.
• Wallet group improvements: Enhanced management of multiple wallets.
• Various bug fixes: improving overall stability and user experience.
• Monero (XMR) enhancements.

Learn more about using, implementing, and understanding BIP 77: Payjoin Version 2 using the payjoin crate in Payjoin Dev Kit here.

Announcement
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

In this landmark episode of TFTC, Adam Back and Sean Bill explore Bitcoin’s path to $1 million, focusing on its growing role as pristine collateral in a faltering financial system. Back highlights Blockstream’s infrastructure efforts, from mining operations to tokenized securities, designed to support this transformation, while Bill shares how he navigated institutional skepticism to bring Bitcoin exposure to a U.S. pension fund. Together, they unpack how institutions are entering the space through structured products and Bitcoin-backed credit, with Blockstream’s mining notes offering a glimpse of this new financial architecture. Amid rising debt, inflation, and fiat fragility, the duo presents Bitcoin not just as sound money, but as a strategic reserve asset gaining traction from El Salvador to Wall Street.

Best Quotes

"It's not a stretch to say that Bitcoin could reach parity with gold. That would imply something closer to a million dollars a coin."

"Digital gold vastly understates Bitcoin’s potential, but it’s where the conversation had to start."

"We’re not just building software, we’re solving financial market gaps, one at a time."

"You can wipe out an entire pension fund’s unfunded liability with a 2% allocation to Bitcoin, if it performs as we expect."

"ETF buyers are the new hodlers. They’re not day traders; they’re five-year pocket investors."

"Bitcoin is becoming super collateral, its role in structured credit could help engineer the soft landing everyone hopes for."

"In a world of financial repression, Bitcoin is how the have-nots finally access property rights and savings."

"Emerging markets will be the early adopters of Bitcoin finance because they need it the most."

"You worked for your money. To systematically steal it through hidden inflation is perverse."

"Bitcoin could be the story that saves public pensions, and the people relying on them."

Conclusion

This episode presents a bold vision of Bitcoin as more than sound money, it’s the foundation of a new global financial system. Adam Back and Sean Bill argue that Bitcoin’s role as “super collateral” is reshaping credit, pensions, and sovereign reserves, while a robust infrastructure of financial tools quietly prepares it to absorb institutional capital. As fiat trust erodes, Bitcoin’s adoption will be driven not by hype, but by necessity, and when the shift becomes undeniable, $1 million per coin will mark the start of a new financial era.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:38 - New ATH
00:02:06 - Sean's Journey Getting Bitcoin Into Pensions
00:03:15 - Blockstream's Evolution Into Finance
00:08:30 - Building Bitcoin Financial Infrastructure
00:14:30 - The Challenge of Conservative Pension Boards
00:17:02 - Bitkey
00:18:10 - Bitcoin's Current Price and Market Cycle
00:24:05 - Bitcoin as Super Collateral
00:27:24 - Unchained
00:30:09 - Cypherpunk Ideals vs Financial Reality
00:34:55 - Pension Fund Crisis and Bitcoin Solution
00:42:29 - The Cypherpunk Banking Stack
00:49:54 - Digital Cash and Free Banking
00:57:06 - Liquid Network and Institutional Rails
01:07:49 - Sean At CBOT
01:22:16 - Bitcoin Futures and Market Structure
01:25:53 - 2025 Bitcoin Price Predictions

Transcript

(00:00) I'm uh permeable, so I'm always astounded that it's not, you know, 10 or 100 times higher. If everybody saw it, the addressable mark, I mean, it would already be 100 200 trillion asset class, right? That's not a stretch to say that Bitcoin could reach parody with gold. That would imply something closer to a million dollars a coin.
(00:18) You see some established public market companies in different countries saying, "Oh, we're going to buy a billion of Bitcoin. We're going to raise and buy 500." Black Rockck ETF. They're even talking about recommended allocations to portfolio managers in the 2% range. Obviously, digital gold would vastly understate the potential of Bitcoin.
(00:38) Gentlemen, thank you for joining me. Of course. Thanks for having us on. Uh Adam, I was just saying I'm woefully embarrassed. This podcast is almost 8 years old and this is your first time on the show. Oh, okay. This is uh but it's an exciting time. Yeah. And you uh really dedicated to podcast. It's been a lot of years, a lot of episodes, right? It has been. Cool.
(00:59) I think we're approaching 700, which is crazy to think. Wow, that is impressive. The uh No, we're talking hit a new alltime high today. Yeah, Bitcoin doing Bitcoin things just as we were on stage uh at the talking hedge kind of asset manager conference uh trying to explain to them why they should put Bitcoin in their uh fund allocations.
(01:23) Yeah, we were discussing it before we hit record and I saw Tur's tweet looked like Tur was at the event, too. Yeah, he was. M so 50% held up they have Bitcoin in their personal account but only 2% or 4% of the funds very few that actually had allocated to Bitcoin. So a lot of them are believers at a personal level but they haven't been able to sell it within their institution you know so they own it themselves uh but they haven't quite gotten the boards to agree yet.
(01:53) So which was a similar situation I was in in 2019 when I first proposed it. You know, I had my experience with Bitcoin. I had a very good experience and was trying to convince uh the pensions in California that they should be looking at adding Bitcoin to the portfolio. Yeah. And it was great to hear some of your background last night, Sean.
(02:11) So, Sean, for those of you watching, uh is the CIO at Blockstream now. Yeah. I am really excited to have both of you here because I've got into Bitcoin in 2013 and nerded out uh on the tech side of Bitcoin distributed system mining full nodes the layered stack that's been built out and so I followed probably all the work that you guys have done at Blockstream since you've been around and it's been really cool to see everything you've done from the Blockstream satellite.
(02:42) I've broadcast some transactions through that before. It's a Jade um uh CLN or excuse me, Core Lightning now. Um the uh liquid and now over the last few years really sort of leaning into the financialization of finance as I like to um to reference it. And so Adam, like how's that transition from being hypert focused towards a more financial perspective on Bitcoin been? Well, actually in our 2014 uh kickoff meeting, you know, with the founders sitting around big whiteboard, we were trying to forward cast what we'd have to do to get
(03:28) a Bitcoin layer 2 for, you know, settlement of assets and Bitcoin working. And one of the risk you know so we thought we'll build the tech and other people issue the assets but like well they might be lazy they might not do it if that happens we'll have to do it ourselves. So there was a lot of situations like that actually where you know you would think there would be lots of people building applications but many people are really just more in business development and a technology is basically a website and a database and
(03:55) you know Bitcoin core wallet on a server or something like that right so we actually ended up building a lot of middleware and getting into asset management a couple earlier steps one was the mining note so we're doing hosting and mining in our own account and what we did when when it was public that we were hosting initially Fidelity was the uh launch customer.
(04:16) They kept coming back to us and saying, "No, we need we need some hosting." And you know, uh, they'd looked around and decided that we were the best. We were we were like, "No, no, we're prop mining. We don't do hosting." But they persuaded us to host them. And then we're like, "Okay, maybe we should expand and host for other people.
(04:31) " And then that became news. And so then a lot of Bitcoiners contacted us and says, you know, I've got like a dozen miners. Can you host them for me? And of course, if you're if you're hosting for thousands of customers, that's a whole you need need a support team. Somebody has got two miners and one of them's crashed or failed, they're very upset, right? It's half the revenue.
(04:52) Whereas somebody's got, you know, 10,000 per client, it's just part of the, you know, maintenance cycle like a big data center. Discs fail 1% a year, you replace them when they die, they raid, it doesn't matter, right? So, it's kind of that phenomena. So we try to figure out well how can we help you know how can we help people do this without creating a you know that painoint and so we designed this mining note concept where it's kind of socialized so that collectively they look like one of the enterprise customers and then we put a 10% buffer in it so that we would eat
(05:22) the first 10% of equipment failure so they wouldn't get you know the drooping hash rate as miners like failed due to age uh for the for the onset And we also figured out how to try and make them a unified market. So, you know, we're selling more tranches into the market. This started in 2021, a three-year product.
(05:45) And um you know, there was some people on the launch branch and then some people 3 months later. So, what we do is look at how many Bitcoin it had mined in the first three months. We buy that and then match it with a 33month contract for the next one. And so the economically equivalent neither dilutive or anti-dilutive for the buyer and therefore they could trade in a unified market even though there were eight sales tranches over the first I don't know like 12 months or something like that and that that market you know it was using initially using uh liquid
(06:17) security tokens uh with uh stalker a European company that does the securitization I mean the legal p

@ 93bfc86d:fc8e91f5

M of N 분산

이번 5월 BSL 컨퍼런스와 비트코인 서울 2025 컨퍼런스에서 펜락(Penlock) 프로젝트에 참여하고 있는 한 분을 만났다. 아마 이 분을 만난 한국인 분들이 더 있을 텐데, 현재는 익명을 원하시므로 프라이버시 보호를 위해 실명을 언급하는 것은 주의하는 것이 좋겠다.

키를 M of N으로 분산하는 방식 중 내가 알고 있는 건 멀티시그와 샤미르 분산이다.

멀티시그는 각자가 키를 생성하지만,

1. 스크립트 길이가 길어지고, 스크립트를 해시로 감싼다고 해도 일반 주소보다 길다.

2. 일반적인 P2MS는 공개키가 드러나므로 프라이버시 보장이 안 되고, P2SH로 감싸도 서명할 때 각자의 공개키가 드러난다(리딤 스크립트가 드러나므로).

이런 특징을 갖고 있다.

샤미르 분산은 하나의 키를 분산하는 방식이므로,

1. 키를 복원했을 때는 결국 하나의 키가 생성되므로 키가 복원되었을 때 보안에 매우 주의해야 한다.

2. 하지만 외부에서 볼 때는 어떤 방식으로 분할이 되었는지 알 수가 없으므로 프라이버시에 좋다.

이런 특징을 갖고 있다.

M of N은 회사에서의 권한 분산, 상속, 위험 지점 분산, 신뢰 지점 분산 등에 사용할 수 있을 것이다. 하지만 나는 멀티시그와 샤미르 분산이 둘 다 M of N을 구현하지만 그 특성이 약간 다르기 때문에 적합한 용처도 다르다고 생각한다. 만약 한 기업이 여러 이사진의 의사결정 과정에서 권한을 분산해야 한다면 멀티시그 방식이 훨씬 나을 것이다. 이사 각각이 서명하면 되기 때문이다. 여기다가 샤미르 분산을 쓴다면 이사 몇 명이 모여 키 하나를 생성했을 때 쪼개기 전의 원래 하나의 키가 생기므로 권한 분산에 차질이 생길 수 있다. 그 키를 갖는 사람이 갑자기 모든 권한을 가질 수 있게 되기 때문이다. 거꾸로 한 개인이 키를 백업하고자 하는데 키를 분실하거나 화재나 기타 재난 등의 이유로 파괴될 것에 대비하여 여러 장소에 분산하여 보관하고 싶다면 샤미르 분산이 더 적합할 것이다. 키 조각들을 합쳐서 원래 키가 생겼을 때 그 키는 어차피 한 개인이 쓰는 것이므로 권한 구조가 갑자기 한 곳으로 몰리는 것에 대해 걱정할 필요가 없기 때문이다.

그런데 샤미르 분산은 멀티시그보다 직관적이진 않은 것 같다. 멀티시그는 스크립트 구조를 보면 바로 어떤 구조인지 알 수 있다. 손으로 따라 쓸 수도 있는 수준이다. 하지만 트레저가 도입한 샤미르 분산인 SLIP-0039 같은 형식은 직관적이지가 않다. 일단 샤미르 분산이 다항함수를 통한 비밀 분산을 쓰는 원리라는 걸 이해해야 하고(키 조각이 부족하면 부정방정식이 되어서 복구 불가), 그걸 통해 복구하는 과정에서 사용하는 라그랑주 보간법이 인간이 손으로 계산하기에는 너무 어렵다. 키를 분할하고 복구하는 과정이 수학적인 함수 공간에서 정의되고, 사용자는 키 조각들만 보게 되므로 내부 구조에 대해 직관적으로 이해하기가 어렵다.

오프라인 손 계산과 직관적 이해

조금 다른 주제로 넘어가보자. 나는 기술의 사용자들이 그 기술을 '직관'적으로 이해할 수 있는 지가 매우 중요하다고 생각한다. 비트코인 경험에는 특히 '검증'이 중요한데 어떤 기술을 직관적으로 이해할 수 없다면 검증은 전문가들만의 전유물이 되기 때문이다.

예를 들어보자. 앨리스, 밥, 캐롤이 각각 니모닉을 만들었다.

1. 앨리스는 기계가 생성해준 니모닉을 사용한다. 기계는 SE칩 내부에 있는 전자의 브라운 운동 등을 엔트로피로 이용해 랜덤한 엔트로피를 생성했다. 하지만 앨리스는 이 사실을 모르고, 따라서 기계를 신뢰해야 한다. 앨리스는 기계가 생성해 준 엔트로피가 충분히 랜덤하고 안전하다고 "믿고 있다." 사실이 그런지 아닌지와는 별개로 말이다.

2. 밥은 주사위를 던져서 만든 니모닉을 사용한다. 하지만 주사위를 던졌을 때 나온 값이 어떻게 니모닉으로 변환되는지는 모른다. 기계는 주사위를 던져 나온 숫자를 유니코드 문자열로 인식하여 SHA256을 한 번 돌린 뒤, 그 해시값을 엔트로피로 사용한다. 밥은 자신이 직접 주사위를 던졌으므로 엔트로피가 랜덤하게 생성되었다는 것은 직관적으로 알지만, 그 숫자가 어떻게 니모닉으로 계산된 건지는 모른다.

3. 캐롤은 직접 동전을 던져 0, 1을 기록하고 자신이 직접 니모닉 표를 보며 니모닉을 대응시켰다. 따라서 캐롤은 자신이 사용하는 니모닉이 랜덤하다는 것도 이해하고 있으며, 랜덤한 엔트로피를 어떻게 니모닉에 대응시키는지도 알고 있다.

세 가지 경우 중 누가 니모닉에 대해 가장 잘 직관적으로 이해하고 있겠는가? 당연히 3번 캐롤이다. 이렇듯 오프라인에서 동전을 던져 직접 엔트로피를 생성하고, 표를 보며 손으로 직접 니모닉에 대응시키는 과정은 니모닉을 직관적으로 이해하는 데 매우 중요하다.

솔직히 3번의 경우도 완전히 신뢰 지점이 없진 않다. 왜냐하면... 니모닉의 체크썸을 계산하는 과정에서 해싱을 해야 하기 때문이다. 손으로 SHA256 함수를 계산할 수 있는 게 아니라면... 캐롤은 어떤 기계에게 체크섬 생성을 맡길 수밖에 없다. 그러면 적어도 그 과정에 대한 이해의 폭은 제한될 수밖에 없다.

오프라인에서 계산하는 경험들이 왜 직관적인 이해에 더 도움이 될까? 그 과정들을 자신이 온전히 통제하기 때문이다. 기계에 맡겨야 하는 순간에는 그 기계 안에서 무엇이 일어나는지 알 수 없으며 따라서 자신의 통제 밖에 있다.

펜락 프로젝트

서론이 길었다! 다시 샤미르 분산 이야기로 돌아오겠다. 샤미르 분산을 '손으로 계산'해 키 조각을 만들고, 키 조각들을 모아 다시 오프라인에서 '손으로 계산'해 하나로 만들 수 있을까? 거의 불가능에 가까울 것이다!

그런데 이번에 BSL 컨퍼런스에서 펜락 프로젝트에 참여하고 있는 한 분을 우연히 만나 인사를 나눴고, 며칠 뒤 있는 비트코인 서울 컨퍼런스에서 그 분이 나한테 선물을 주셨다. 바로... 아래 사진의 회전판이다. 직접 가위로 자르고 핀을 꽂는 것까지 봤다(컨퍼런스 강연 중에 뒷자리에서 가위로 자르고 있어서 웃음을 참을 수가 없었다ㅋㅋㅋ). 나는 이 귀엽고 조악한 회전판을 처음 봤을 때 이 위력에 대해 알지 못했다...

이 펜락 프로젝트 회전판은... 샤미르 분산처럼 하나의 키를 키 조각으로 나누고, 그 키 조각들을 오프라인에서 원래 키로 복구할 수 있게 만들어준다. 이게 작동하는 걸 처음 봤을 때 나는 정말 정말 x21 엄청나게 놀랐다.

사용 방법을 간단히 말해보자면, 메인 키(니모닉)가 있으면 니모닉 한 단어의 앞 4개 문자만 적는다(이유는 다들 아실 거라 생각... 니모닉은 앞 4글자가 겹치는 경우가 없기 때문). 그 다음에 두 숫자를 뽑는다. 1–32까지의 숫자 한 장, 그리고 1–32까지의 숫자인데 흰 동그라미/검은 동그라미 나눠져있는 걸로 한 장(그러면 총 64가지 경우일 것이다). 그러면 32*64 = 2,048가지 경우가 나온다. 그리고 체크섬을 표에서 찾아 적는데, 솔직히 추가 체크썸이 왜 필요한 건지는 아직 이해를 못했다. 진짜로 이 오프라인 과정을 해보며 생길 수 있는 오류를 잡기 위한 체크썸인 것으로 이해된다.

어쨌든 하이라이트는 지금부터인데... 자, 니모닉에서 'F'라는 단어가 있다고 해보자. 그러면 아래 사진처럼 눈금을 F에다 둔다. 그 다음 랜덤한 숫자를 뽑는다. 그렇게 뽑은 숫자가 22이라고 해보자. 그러면 회전판 내부에서 22, 23, 24에 있는 문자를 각각 아래에 적는다. 이게 키 조각이다... F가 ① V, ② P, ③ J 이렇게 세 가지 조각으로 분할 된 거다.

이제 세 개의 키 조각 ① V, ② P, ③ J로 키를 복구하는 상황을 생각해보자. 만약 ③번 키 조각인 J가 화재로 날아가버렸다. 2 of 3이니 그래도 키 조각이 두 개만 있어도 복구할 수 있다. ①번 키 조각인 V와, ②번 키 조각인 P를 조합해 키를 복구해보겠다. 그러면 회전판을 움직여... P가 V를 바라보게 하면 된다. 사진에서 빨간 박스로 표시한 부분이다. 그러면 큰 눈금이 원래 키인 F를 가리키게 된다. 정말 미쳤다! 만약, ②번 키 조각 P와, ③번 키 조각 J가 있다면 J가 P를 바라보게 하면 된다. 만약 ③번 키 조각 J와, ①번 키 조각 V로 키 복구를 시도한다면 J가 V를 바라보게 하고, 대신 ③번이 ①번을 바라보게 하는 것처럼 순환하는 상황에는 큰 눈금이 아니라 내부 1번 네모칸을 읽어야 한다.

펜락 회전판의 뒷면을 보면 이걸 어떻게 구현했는지 대강 알 수가 있다. 펜락 프로젝트는 반지름을 조금씩 다르게 하고, 회전 각도를 서로소인 두 숫자를 이용해 글자들이 겹치지 않도록 구현한 걸로 보인다. 말로 설명했지만, 직접 해봐야 "미쳤다!" 소리가 저절로 나온다. 이거 직접 해보면 ~비속어가 나올 정도로~ 놀란다. 정말로.

펜락 프로젝트는 오픈 소스라고 하고, 최고 개발자는 ganrama이다(사이트는 아직 베타라서 내용들이 채워지고 있는 걸로 보인다ㅎㅎ).

https://github.com/ganrama

https://beta.penlock.io/

나는 비트코인에서 나오는 프로젝트들을 일단 의심부터 하고 보는 편이다. 그런데 펜락은 직관적으로 다 이해가 되기 때문에 현재는 우려할만한 점이 생각나지 않는다. 비트코인 프로젝트들 중에는 편리함, 보안, 프라이버시 중 무언가를 희생시키고 그걸 교묘히 감추려고 하거나 비즈니스 모델을 만들다가 초기의 정신을 잊는 경우가 많다. 그런데 이 프로젝트는 그에 해당할 만한 게 없는 것 같아서 일단 의심의 눈초리를 거두고 응원한다. 내가 오프라인에서 직접 키를 분할해보고, 조합해본 경험이 너무 강렬하게 작용했기 때문인 것 같다. 펜락 대표 개발자가 올해 하반기에 기회가 된다면 한국에서도 소개하고 싶다고 하니 계속 관심을 갖고 지켜보려고 한다.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

Sorry for the lack of writing over the last week. As many of you may already know, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin 2025 conference. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I had successfully avoided Sin City for the first 34 years of my life. But when duty calls, you have to make some personal concessions.

Despite what many say about this particular conference and the spectacle that it has become, I will say that having attended every single one of Bitcoin Magazine's conferences since 2019, I thoroughly enjoy these events, even if I don't agree with all the content. Being able to congregate with others in the industry who have been working extremely hard to push Bitcoin forward, all of whom I view as kindred spirits who have also dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. There's nothing better than getting together, seeing each other in person, shaking hands, giving hugs, catching up and reflecting on how much things have changed over the years while also focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead.

I think out of all the Bitcoin magazine conferences I've been to, this was certainly my favorite. If only because it has become abundantly clear that Bitcoin is here to stay. Many powerful, influential, and competent people have identified Bitcoin as an asset and monetary network that will play a large part in human society moving forward. And more importantly, Bitcoin is proving to work far better than anybody not paying attention expected. While at the same time, the fiat system is in woeful disrepair at the same time.

As a matter of reflection and surfacing signal for you freaks, here are the presentations and things that happened that I think were the most impactful.

Miles Suter's Block Presentation

This presentation was awesome for many reasons, one of which being that we often forget just how dedicated Block, as an organization with many companies - including Cash App, Square, the open source organization known as Spiral and more recently, BitKey and Proto - has been to bitcoin over the last eight years. They've worked methodically to make Bitcoin a first-class citizen in their business operations and slowly but surely have built an incredibly integrated experience across their brands. The two big announcements from Block during the conference were the enablement of Bitcoin payments in Square point-of-sale systems and the amount of revenue they're making on their Lightning node, c=, from routing payments.

Right now, the Bitcoin payments and point of sale systems is in beta with many merchants testing it out for the next six months, but it will be available for all 4 million square merchants in 2026. This is something that many bitcoiners have been waiting for for many years now, and it is incredible to see that they finally brought it across the line. Merchants will have the ability to accept bitcoin payments and either convert every payment into fiat automatically, convert a portion of the bitcoin payment into fiat to keep the rest in sats, or simply keep all of the bitcoin they receive via payments in sats. This is an incredible addition to what Square has already built, which is the ability of their merchants to sweep a portion of their revenues into bitcoin if they desire. Square is focused on building a vertically integrated suite of bitcoin products for merchants that includes the ability to buy bitcoin, receive bitcoin, and eventually leverage financial services using bitcoin as collateral so that they can reinvest in and expand their businesses.

via Ryan Gentry

What went a bit underappreciated in the crowd was the routing node revenue that c= is producing, ~9.7% annualized. This is a massive validation of something that many bitcoiners have been talking about for quite some time, which is the ability to produce "yield" on bitcoin in a way that reduces risk significantly. Locking up bitcoin in a 2-of-2 multisig within Lightning channels and operating a Lightning routing node has been long talked about as one of the ways to produce more bitcoin with your bitcoin in a way that minimizes the threat of loss.

It seems that c= has found a way to do this at scale and is doing it successfully. 10% yield on bitcoin locked in Lightning channels is nothing to joke about. And as you can see from the chart above in the grainy picture taken by Ryan Gentry of Lightning Labs, this routing node "yield" is producing more return on capital than many of the most popular staking and DeFi protocols.

This is a strong signal to the rest of the market that this can be done. It may take economies of scale and a high degree of technical competency today. But this is incredibly promising for the future of earning bitcoin by providing valuable goods and services to the market of Bitcoiners. In this case, facilitating relatively cheap and instantly settled payments over the Lightning Network.

Saifedean Ammous' Bitcoin and Tether Presentation

This was one of the best presentations at the conference. Saifedean Ammous is a friend, he has been an incredible influence on my personal bitcoin journey, and I feel comfortable in saying he's been a strong influence on the journey of hundreds of thousands, at least, if not millions of people as they've attempted to understand bitcoin.

This presentation is a bit spicy because it puts a pin in the balloon of hopium that stablecoins like Tether are mechanisms that could bail out the market for US Treasuries in the medium to long-term if they take enough market share. As one always should do, Saif ran the numbers and clearly illustrates that even in the most optimistic case, Tether's impact on the market for treasuries, their interest rates, and curbing the growth of the debt held by the US federal government will be minimal at best.

One of the most interesting things that Saif points out that I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't recognize before is that much of the demand for Tether that we're seeing these days is replacement demand for treasuries. Meaning that many people who are turning to Tether, particularly in countries that have experienced hyperinflationary events, are using Tether as a substitute for their currencies, which are operated by central banks likely buying U.S. treasuries to support their monetary systems. The net effect of Tether buying those treasuries is zero for this particular user archetype.

Saif goes on to explain that if anything, Tether is a weapon against the US Treasury system when you consider that they're storing a large portion of the stablecoin backing in Treasuries and then using the yields produced by those Treasuries to buy bitcoin. Slowly but surely over time bitcoin as a percentage of their overall backing of Tether has grown quite significantly starting at 0% and approaching 10% today. It isn't hard to imagine that at some point within the next decade, Bitcoin could be the dominant reserve asset backing tethers and, as a result, Tether could be pegged to bitcoin eventually.

It's a fascinating take on Tether that I've never heard before.

Nothing Stops this Train from Lyn Alden

Lyn's been saying it loudly for quite some time now; "Nothing stops this train." She's even been on our podcast to explain why she believes this many times over the last five years. However, I don't think there is one piece of content out there that consolidates her thesis of why nothing stops the train of fiscal irresponsibility and unfettered debt expansion and why that's good for bitcoin than the presentation she gave at the conference. Definitely give this one a watch when you get a chance if you haven't already.

Overall, it was a great week in Vegas and I think it's safe to say that bitcoin has gone mainstream. Whether or not people who have been in the bitcoin industry and community for a while are okay with does not really matter. It's happening and all we can do is ride the wave as more and more people come to recognize the value prop of bitcoin and the social clout they can gain from supporting it. Our job here at TFTC is to help you discern the signal from the noise, continue to champion the self-sovereign usage of bitcoin and keep you abreast of developments in the space as they manifest.

Buckle up. Things are only going to get weirder from here on out.

Bitcoin's Mathematical Destiny

Sean Bill and Adam Back make a compelling case for Bitcoin's inevitable march toward $1 million. Sean points out that Bitcoin represents just a tiny fraction—2 trillion out of 900 trillion—of total financial assets, calling it a "tiny orange dot" on their presentation to Texas pensions. He emphasizes that reaching parity with gold alone would deliver a 10x return from current levels. Adam highlights the mathematical impossibility of current prices, noting that ETF buyers are absorbing 500,000 BTC annually while only 165,000 new coins are mined.

"Who's selling at these prices? It doesn't quite add up to me." - Adam Back

The institutional wave is just beginning. Sean revealed that while 50% of hedge fund managers personally own Bitcoin, only 3% have allocated institutional funds. Combined with emerging demand from nation states and corporate treasuries meeting Bitcoin's fixed supply, the price trajectory seems clear. Both guests stressed the importance of staying invested—missing just the 12 best performing days each year would turn Bitcoin into a losing investment.

Check out the full podcast here for more on pensions allocating to Bitcoin, cypherpunk banking, and commodity trading insight

@ 866e0139:6a9334e5

Autor: Jonas Tögel. Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben. Sie finden alle Texte der Friedenstaube und weitere Texte zum Thema Frieden hier. Die neuesten Pareto-Artikel finden Sie in unserem Telegram-Kanal.

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Die neuesten Artikel der Friedenstaube gibt es jetzt auch im eigenen Friedenstaube-Telegram-Kanal.

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Eine der wichtigste Säulen einer funktionierenden Demokratie ist die sogenannte „öffentliche Sphäre“ (1), ein Debattenraum, in den sich alle Menschen gleichberechtigt einbringen und über aktuelle, für die Gemeinschaft wichtige Fragen diskutieren können. In Deutschland ist die Offenheit dieses Debattenraumes eigentlich durch fundamentale Grundrechte wie die Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit geschützt. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHF6rjDbK9w

Soziale Medien im Visier

Dennoch wird der öffentliche Diskurs derzeit immer stärker eingeschränkt. Als Rechtfertigung dafür wird seit einigen Jahren der sogenannte Kampf gegen „Desinformation“ oder auch „Falschinformation“ (Misinformation) angeführt:  Unter dem Vorwand, die Bevölkerung vor schädlicher Einflussnahme von außen, beispielsweise aus Russland, schützen zu wollen, wird der öffentliche Diskurs mit Hilfe von „Faktencheckern“, „Trusted Flaggern“ oder durch das „Gesetz für Digitale Dienstleistungen“ (Digital Services Act) massiv eingeschränkt, wobei vor allem soziale Medien verstärkt ins Visier genommen werden. 

In der Propagandaforschung ergibt sich bei dem vorgeblichen Kampf gegen „Desinformation“ jedoch das Problem, dass die Begriffe selbst, die als Rechtfertigung dafür verwendet werden, um den öffentlichen Diskurs einzuschränken und bestimmte Inhalte zu löschen, nicht eindeutig definiert sind. Auch was „falsche Tatsachenbehauptungen“ sind, kann letztlich nur der offene, öffentliche Diskurs entscheiden. Wenn das, was „falsch“ oder „richtig“ ist, durch eine einzelne Instanz im Alleingang entschieden wird, dann landet man bei dem, was George Orwell in seinem bekannten Roman 1984 als „Wahrheitsministerium“ beschrieb: ein Ministerium, das auch noch nach Jahren alle verfügbaren Informationen dem aktuellen Stand der „Wahrheit“ anpasst – selbst wenn diese sich ständig ändern sollte. (2)

Auch heute steht immer wieder der Vorwurf im Raum, dass der Kampf gegen „Desinformation“ sowie der Kampf gegen „russische Desinformation“ gezielt genutzt werden, um im Kampf um die Deutungshoheit das eigene, westliche Narrativ durchzusetzen. Diesen Punkt habe ich ausführlich in meinem Artikel in der Berliner Zeitung dargelegt. 

Wie unehrlich der Kampf gegen falsche Informationen tatsächlich ist, kann folgendes konkrete Beispiel zeigen: Die deutsche Politikerin und ehemalige Vorsitzende des Verteidigungsausschusses im Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, erklärte in einer am 24. März 2025 im ORF2 ausgestrahlten Sendung: 

„Wladimir Putin ist ein Mörder, ein Killer, der hunderte von Millionen Menschen unter die Erde gebracht hat.“

In der gleichen Sendung behauptete Strack-Zimmermann, dass die Ukraine 70 Milliarden Menschen ernähre. Besonders bemerkenswert dabei ist, dass ihr niemand in der Sendung widersprach.

Wenn man beide Zahlen einordnen möchte, dann sollte man sich einerseits bewusst machen, dass Strack-Zimmermann damit behauptet, dass der russische Präsident mehr Menschen „unter die Erde gebracht hat“, als laut offiziellen Zahlen im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg zusammen gestorben sind. Andererseits sollte man wissen, dass die Weltbevölkerung insgesamt bei ca. 8,2 Milliarden Menschen liegt, die Ukraine laut dieser Aussage somit die gesamte Weltbevölkerung ca. 8,5 Mal ernähren könnte. 

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Das Messen mit doppeltem Maß

Als der Autor daher beschloss, die Äußerungen von Strack-Zimmermann bei mehreren, einschlägigen Meldeportalen für „Desinformation“ als gefährliche Hassrede zu melden, war das Ergebnis umso erstaunlicher: entweder erklärten sich die Meldeportale für das öffentlich-rechtliche Fernsehen nicht zuständig, oder sie lehnten eine Bearbeitung des Falles und einen Faktencheck der getroffenen Aussagen ab, da es wichtigere Fälle zu bearbeiten gäbe und leider keine Kapazitäten zur Prüfung dieses Aussagen zur Verfügung stünden. 

Dieses konkrete Beispiel soll zeigen, wie wichtig es ist, den vorgeblichen Kampf gegen „Desinformation“ oder auch „russische Einflussnahme“ als das einzuordnen, was er in vielen Fällen ist: ein unehrlich Kampf um die Deutungshoheit und damit ein gefährlicher Bestandteil von dem, was man ehrlicherweise als Kriegspropaganda bezeichnet. 

Den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern bleibt somit nur, alle Informationen selbst kritisch auf ihren Wahrheitsgehalt hin zu prüfen und selbst zu entscheiden, was als wertvolle Information und was als manipulative „Desinformation“ eingestuft werden kann. Je besser es gelingt, tatsächliche Desinformation und Kriegspropaganda aller an einem Krieg beteiligten Nationen zu hinterfragen, umso schwerer wird es, diesen Krieg zu führen. Damit ist das Durchschauen von unehrlichen Schlagwörtern wie „Desinformation“ oder „Falschinformation“ ein erster, wichtiger Schritt zur Neutralisierung von Kriegspropaganda und bildet das Fundament, das den Weg zum Frieden dadurch möglich macht. Jeder einzelne hat somit die Möglichkeit, diesen Weg zum Frieden aktiv mitzugestalten. Hier kann der Mut, sich jeden Tag im persönlichen Umfeld in den öffentlichen Diskurs einzubringen und die Friedensbotschaft zu stärken, bereits einen wichtigen Beitrag leisten. 

(1)  Habermas, Jürgen. 1971/1962. Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. 5th ed. Neuwied/Berlin.

(2)  Orwell, George (1948). 1984. Seite 193 ff. 

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Dr. Jonas Tögel ist Amerikanist, Propagandaforscher und *Bestsellerautor. Er hat zum Thema Soft Power und Motivation promoviert und arbeitet als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Psychologie der Universität Regensburg. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind unter anderem Motivation, der Einsatz von Soft-Power-Techniken, Nudging, Propaganda sowie Geostrategie. *

Zuletzt erschien sein Buch „Kriegsspiele“ im Westend-Verlag.

Website: *www.jonastoegel.de *

X (Twitter): *https://x.com/JonasToegel *

YouTube: *https://www.youtube.com/@DrJonasToegel *

Instagram: *https://www.instagram.com/drjonastoegel/ *

Telegram: https://t.me/drjonastoegel 

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@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

How do you look at the things in your life?

• Do you focus on your physical problems or do you look forward to your resurrection body in heaven?

• Do you spend your time trying to fix the corruption in government or do you spend your time trying to bring as many people as possible home to heaven?

• When you see someone suffering do you first pray for their physical healing or do you pray for their spiritual healing?

• Do you work to fit in with the people around you or do you work to become more Christ-like?

• Do you crave entertainment or do you crave biblical enrichment?

• Do you focus more on your citizenship here on earth or more on your eternal citizenship?

• Do you seek fellowship with the people of this world or do you seek fellowship with your Savior?

• Do you look at people’s faults and how they hurt you or do you look at their hurt and separation from God and seek to bring them to Jesus?

• Do you spend your time on work and entertainment or do you spend your time studying the word of God, praying to God, and telling others about God?

Do you have an earthly or an eternal perspective?

Physical or Spiritual Needs

Jesus always had an eternal perspective. This event is just one example.

One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” (Luke 5:17-24) {emphasis mine}

In this familiar story a man who was paralyzed was brought to Jesus for healing. The paralytic’s friends worked so hard to get him physically healed that they hauled him up on the roof, dug through the roof, and lowered him down in front of Jesus. What was Jesus’s response? Jesus forgave the man’s sins. Every person there saw the man’s need to be able to walk, so he could take care of himself here on earth. Jesus saw the more important spiritual need and forgave his sins. After taking care of his eternal need, he also took care of his more earthly need and healed him physically.

Do you see people’s eternal need or do you just see their physical needs or worse, only see their earthly failings? Do you only see the hurt they are causing you or do you see the hurt they feel that comes from being separated from God?

Earthly or Heavenly Citizenship

I’ve been involved in politics for many years. I’ve been to precinct, county, state, and national conventions. I’ve written, debated, and defended political platforms and resolutions. I vote every election. All of that is good and useful, but is that where we are supposed to spend most of our time and effort? I’ve come to the conclusion that this is not what is most important.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)

We are told that our citizenship is in heaven. The majority of our effort should be put into support of our heavenly citizenship, not our earthly citizenship. That doesn’t mean that we should let our earthly kingdom fall apart and turn away from God, but it does mean we should be more focused on turning hearts and minds to Jesus than we are with setting domestic laws. We should be more focused on worshipping God than supporting politicians.

Sadly I see too many Christians who focus on pushing the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag” than they do pushing loyalty to Jesus. I see too many Christians who put all of their effort into electing the “right” politician instead of pointing people to the real Savior. I see too many Christians who try to pass the “right” laws instead of reading the law of God. I see too many Christians who put all of their effort into changing people’s minds to the “right” party instead of changing hearts and minds for Christ.

Do you really seek the kingdom of God or are you only focused on your earthly nation? Do you spend more time trying to win people for your political party than you do trying to win people for Christ? Our primary focus should be on the Millennial Kingdom of Christ and on eternity in heaven with Jesus, not on our earthly country.

Yes, we are to be a light in the world and we should seek the good of our earthly nations, but sharing the gospel, living a life honoring to God, and doing everything within our power to draw people to Jesus should be our focus and where we put most of our effort.

And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:17-22)

The Hurt They Cause or the Hurt They Feel

People today are selfish and hurtful. Most people are trying to be the greatest victim which means they are accusing others of being abusers, tyrants, or haters. People are impolite, inconsiderate, and sometimes downright hateful. How do you respond?

Do you attack back when you are attacked? Are you rude back when you are treated rudely? Do you only see how others hurt you or can you see the hurt behind the hurtful behavior?

Most of the people who are striking out with hate and anger are truly hurting people. They have been taught that they are evolved pond scum and feel hopeless. They have been mistreated by other hurting people. They have been taught to be victims and to hate anyone who may not be a victim. Instead of feeling hate, we should feel compassion.

In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus tells a parable of a master who forgives his slave of his debts, but then that slave does not show the same mercy to another who owes him much less. The slave is rebuked.

Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 18:32-33)

God loved us before we loved Him. Jesus forgave us far more than we can ever forgive others. After all Jesus did for us, we should be forgiving like He is. We should see other’s hurt and eternal destination and have compassion on them. Instead of treating them the way we were treated, we should treat them like Jesus treated us. We should seek their eternal good above our momentary comfort.

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:31-34) {emphasis mine}

Just as Jesus had compassion for the crowd and their spiritual needs when He and His disciples had need of food and rest, in the same way we should sacrifice our egos to minister to the spiritual needs of those that may seem unlovable because of their eternal need.

May the Lord of Heaven help us to have an eternal perspective and to view everything and everyone with that eternal and spiritual perspective so we can faithfully serve Jesus and bring with us a plentiful harvest. May Jesus use us for His glory and for the eternal good of those around us.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

Michael Goldstein, aka Bitstein, presents a sweeping philosophical and economic case for going “all in” on Bitcoin, arguing that unlike fiat, which distorts capital formation and fuels short-term thinking, Bitcoin fosters low time preference, meaningful saving, and long-term societal flourishing. At the heart of his thesis is “hodling for good”—a triple-layered idea encompassing permanence, purpose, and the pursuit of higher values like truth, beauty, and legacy. Drawing on thinkers like Aristotle, Hoppe, and Josef Pieper, Goldstein redefines leisure as contemplation, a vital practice in aligning capital with one’s deepest ideals. He urges Bitcoiners to think beyond mere wealth accumulation and consider how their sats can fund enduring institutions, art, and architecture that reflect a moral vision of the future.

Best Quotes

“Let BlackRock buy the houses, and you keep the sats.”

“We're not hodling just for the sake of hodling. There is a purpose to it.”

“Fiat money shortens your time horizon… you can never rest.”

“Savings precedes capital accumulation. You can’t build unless you’ve saved.”

“You're increasing the marginal value of everyone else’s Bitcoin.”

“True leisure is contemplation—the pursuit of the highest good.”

“What is Bitcoin for if not to make the conditions for magnificent acts of creation possible?”

“Bitcoin itself will last forever. Your stack might not. What will outlast your coins?”

“Only a whale can be magnificent.”

“The market will sell you all the crack you want. It’s up to you to demand beauty.”

Conclusion

This episode is a call to reimagine Bitcoin as more than a financial revolution—it’s a blueprint for civilizational renewal. Michael Goldstein reframes hodling as an act of moral stewardship, urging Bitcoiners to lower their time preference, build lasting institutions, and pursue truth, beauty, and legacy—not to escape the world, but to rebuild it on sound foundations.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Michael’s BBB presentation Hodl for Good
07:27 - Austrian principles on capital
15:40 - Fiat distorts the economic process
23:34 - Bitkey
24:29 - Hodl for Good triple entendre
29:52 - Bitcoin benefits everyone
39:05 - Unchained
40:14 - Leisure theory of value
52:15 - Heightening life
1:15:48 - Breaking from the chase makes room for magnificence
1:32:32 - Nakamoto Institute’s mission

Transcript

(00:00) Fiat money is by its nature a disturbance. If money is being continually produced, especially at an uncertain rate, these uh policies are really just redistribution of wealth. Most are looking for number to go up post hyper bitcoinization. The rate of growth of bitcoin would be more reflective of the growth of the economy as a whole.
(00:23) Ultimately, capital requires knowledge because it requires knowing there is something that you can add to the structures of production to lengthen it in some way that will take time but allow you to have more in the future than you would today. Let Black Rockck buy the houses and you keep the sats, not the other way around.
(00:41) You wait until later for Larry Frink to try to sell you a [Music] mansion. And we're live just like that. Just like that. 3:30 on a Friday, Memorial Day weekend. It's a good good good way to end the week and start the holiday weekend. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for coming. I wore this hat specifically because I think it's I think it's very apppropo uh to the conversation we're going to have which is I hope an extension of the presentation you gave at Bitblock Boom Huddle for good. You were working on
(01:24) that for many weeks leading up to uh the conference and explaining how you were structuring it. I think it's a very important topic to discuss now as the Bitcoin price is hitting new all-time highs and people are trying to understand what am I doing with Bitcoin? Like you have you have the different sort of factions within Bitcoin.
(01:47) Uh get on a Bitcoin standard, get on zero, spend as much Bitcoin as possible. You have the sailors of the world are saying buy Bitcoin, never sell, die with your Bitcoin. And I think you do a really good job in that presentation. And I just think your understanding overall of Bitcoin is incredible to put everything into context. It's not either or.
(02:07) It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Yeah, it's definitely there there is no actual one-sizefits-all um for I mean nearly anything in this world. So um yeah, I mean first of all I mean there was it was the first conference talk I had given in maybe five years. I think the one prior to that uh was um bit block boom 2019 which was my meme talk which uh has uh become infamous and notorious.
(02:43) So uh there was also a lot of like high expectations uh you know rockstar dev uh has has treated that you know uh that that talk with a lot of reference. a lot of people have enjoyed it and he was expecting this one to be, you know, the greatest one ever, which is a little bit of a little bit of a uh a burden to live up to those kinds of standards.
(03:08) Um, but you know, because I don't give a lot of talks. Um, you know, I I I like to uh try to bring ideas that might even be ideas that are common. So, something like hodling, we all talk about it constantly. uh but try to bring it from a little bit of a different angle and try to give um a little bit of uh new light to it.
(03:31) I alsove I've I've always enjoyed kind of coming at things from a third angle. Um whenever there's, you know, there's there's all these little debates that we have in in Bitcoin and sometimes it's nice to try to uh step out of it and look at it a little more uh kind of objectively and find ways of understanding it that incorporate the truths of of all of them.
(03:58) uh you know cuz I think we should always be kind of as much as possible after ultimate truth. Um so with this one um yeah I was kind of finding that that sort of golden mean. So uh um yeah and I actually I think about that a lot is uh you know Aristotle has his his concept of the golden mean. So it's like any any virtue is sort of between two vices um because you can you can always you can always take something too far.
(04:27) So you're you're always trying to find that right balance. Um so someone who is uh courageous you know uh one of the vices uh on one side is being basically reckless. I I can't remember what word he would use. Uh but effectively being reckless and just wanting to put yourself in danger for no other reason than just you know the thrill of it.
(04:50) Um and then on the other side you would just have cowardice which is like you're unwilling to put yourself um at any risk at any time. Um, and courage is right there in the middle where it's understanding when is the right time uh to put your put yourself, you know, in in the face of danger um and take it on. And so um in some sense this this was kind of me uh in in some ways like I'm obviously a partisan of hodling.
(05:20) Um, I've for, you know, a long time now talked about the, um, why huddling is good, why people do it, why we should expect it. Um, but still trying to find that that sort of golden mean of like yes, huddle, but also what are we hodling for? And it's not we're we're not hodddling just merely for the sake of hodddling.
(05:45) There there is a a purpose to it. And we should think about that. And that would also help us think more about um what are the benefits of of spending, when should we spend, why should we spend, what should we spend on um to actually give light to that sort of side of the debate. Um so that was that was what I was kind of trying to trying to get into.
(06:09) Um, as well as also just uh at the same time despite all the talk of hodling, there's always this perennial uh there's always this perennial dislike of hodlers because we're treated as uh as if um we're just free riding the network or we're just greedy or you know any of these things. And I wanted to show how uh huddling does serve a real economic purpose.
(06:36) Um, and it does benefit the individual, but it also does uh it it has actual real social um benefits as well beyond merely the individual. Um, so I wanted to give that sort of defense of hodling as well to look at it from um a a broader position than just merely I'm trying to get rich. Um uh because even the person who uh that is all they want to do um just like you know your your pure number grow up go up moonboy even that behavior has positive ramifications on on the economy.
(07:14) And while we might look at them and have uh judgments about their particular choices for them as an individual, we shouldn't discount that uh their actions are having positive positive effects for the rest of the economy. Yeah. So, let's dive into that just not even in the context of Bitcoin because I think you did a great job of this in the presentation.
(07:36) just you've done a good job of this consistently throughout the years that I've known you. Just from like a first principles Austrian economics perspective, what is the idea around capital accumulation, low time preference and deployment of that capital like what what like getting getting into like the nitty-gritty and then applying it to Bitcoin? Yeah, it's it's a big question and um in many ways I mean I I even I barely scratched the surface.
(08:05) uh I I can't claim to have read uh all the volumes of Bombber works, you know, capital and interest and and stuff like that. Um but I think there's some some sort of basic concepts that we can look at that we can uh draw a lot out. Um the first uh I guess let's write that. So repeat so like capital time preference. Yeah. Well, I guess getting more broad like why sav

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

Leon Wankum, a real estate expert turned Bitcoiner, presents a powerful argument that Bitcoin is emerging as the new “hurdle rate,” outpacing real estate as the preferred store of value in a shifting financial landscape. As the 18-year property cycle nears its end amid high interest rates and imbalanced markets, Bitcoin’s scarcity, performance, and optionality are prompting capital allocators to rethink traditional strategies. Institutions are beginning to reallocate cash flows and refinance properties into Bitcoin treasuries, while new yield-bearing Bitcoin instruments like Strike, Strife, and Stride offer compelling alternatives to bonds and property. Wankum envisions a gradual transition to a Bitcoin standard, facilitated by dual collateralization and designed to avoid economic disruption as Bitcoin steadily replaces legacy financial infrastructure.

Best Quotes

"Bitcoin is starting to become the new hurdle rate that all other financial products have to abide to."

“No asset—not even prime real estate—can compete with Bitcoin’s long-term performance and absolute scarcity.”

"You can refinance a property and allocate to Bitcoin without selling—this is how many are making the transition."

"Strategy (MicroStrategy) has enough Bitcoin to cover preferred stock dividends for over 200 years."

"20% of our property cash flow into Bitcoin outperformed the 80% left in fiat."

“Bitcoin is digital real estate—but better. Scarce, global, and doesn’t need maintenance or tax sheltering gimmicks.”

“If it’s just 1% of the real estate market, that’s $3 trillion. And that’s enough.”

"A smooth transition, not collapse, is the optimal path forward."

Conclusion

This episode explores how Bitcoin is overtaking real estate as the global store of value, with Leon Wankum offering a rational, experience-based framework for understanding this shift. While institutional inertia slows adoption, capital flows are beginning to reflect Bitcoin’s growing dominance, as new financial instruments and treasury strategies emerge. Leon advocates for a thoughtful, evolutionary transition to a Bitcoin standard—one that prioritizes stability, practical integration, and long-term value creation across the global economy.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:50 - Real Estate
12:36 - Bitcoin for real estate investors
17:44 - Bitkey
18:39 - MSTR products and opportunity cost
30:43 - Unchained
31:13 - Cash flow alternatives
37:40 - Strategy risks
44:41 - Smooth or chaotic transition
50:58 - Is this cycle different?
56:42 - Tradfi degeneracy
1:02:00 - Leon’s Book - Digital Real Estate

Transcript

(00:00) Other than real estate, there were little investments that performed better. Few were aware of the existence of Bitcoin. As people become more aware, they will likely also sell off their properties. Bitcoin as a near-perfect form of money is starting to become the new hurdle rate that all other financial products have to abide to.
(00:19) Instead of buying a regular bond issued by a nation state, you can actually buy a fixed income product issued by Strategy. This is a product that could potentially tap into the real estate market. If it's just 1%, that's 3 trillion. And that's enough. They are starting to weigh the opportunity cost of not putting money into Bitcoin.
(00:36) But very few are able to comprehend the necessity of quickly investing large part of the capital into Bitcoin. Every 18 years will have a correction on housing. We're bringing in a housing expert to talk about the real estate market and Bitcoin corporate adoption. in the crazy frenzy that's going on right now in public markets.
(01:04) Leon, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me back. It was great seeing you even though it was briefly in Vegas last week. I caught you literally as I was running to the airport off the stage. Yeah. And uh look, I'm pull that back up because I think this is a good jumping off point. We'll start with like a personal story.
(01:24) I'm currently in the middle of a move right now, but decided to rent a house because I was looking at the prices for housing in the places I'm looking to buy and they were they were too high. Not only were they too high, we put a bid in on one house and it wound up going a million dollars over asking.
(01:44) And I think over here in the United States, this is a big topic of discussion right now, which is the real estate market feels a little toppy. Prices are still very high, very sticky. Rates are still very high. Uh, and that's one thing I'm trying to discern as somebody who would like to buy a house in the next few years, a forever house for my family, what is going on.
(02:08) And as we can see here, Red Red Fin reported earlier this week that 34% there are 34% more sellers in the market than buyers. At no other point in records dating back to 2013 have sellers outnumbered buyers this much. There are a total of $698 billion worth of homes for sale in the US, up 20.
(02:29) 3% from a year ago in the highest dollar amount ever. So, it seems like there's a ton of people who have rode the real estate market and they're being a bit stingy on pricing and we're waiting for a correction. Is that your take on this? Yeah, we definitely need to wait for price equilibrium to build because since 2008 really since we had low interest rates um prices were skyrocketing and now with a different interest rate environment.
(02:57) Um what I personally also feel is that people are not willing to sell their houses for a price that they believe is not what they could get because they still have the prices in mind that they were able to receive 2 three years ago and the buyers are not willing to pay prices that people want because interest rates are higher meaning the cost of capital and the cost of borrowing went up.
(03:21) So I think this is a healthy um and a healthy um development. We need a price equilibrium. We need um demand and supply prices to match. It's going to take a long time. I think it's also it also depends on interest rates. If Powell is going to um lower interest rates, which I don't think he will, even though that's something that the president would like him to do, but I don't think he will because it would cause inflation to go up again, especially in in goods and services and groceries.
(03:51) And um judging by that, I think interest rates will stay above 3% at least for the foreseeable future. Meaning I believe that real estate prices will come down a little bit till we meet that equilibrium. But something that's important to to remember which makes it a little bit odd that because as a Bitcoiner when you look at housing, I think you constantly think now it's going to crash, now it's going to crash.
(04:15) But the reason it's not really going to crash is as soon as new money is being introduced into your economy or as soon as interest rates are lowered that money is being funneled into real estate and also the existing system that is depending on real estate as collateral has an interest in propping prices up.
(04:34) So this can go on for another 10 or 20 years I think. I mean there could be there's definitely a correction that we can see right now and I personally wouldn't get into uh real estate development at this point if you'll ask me from the perspective what's the better investment of course that is Bitcoin but I just want to make a point that this can go can go on for longer than we think because housing is limited not as limited as Bitcoin but there's something called the 18-year property cycle and it says that every 18 years, we'll
(05:08) have a correction in housing. And the reason for that is if the money supply is expanded and that money goes into land, it's not going out of land because land is limited. It's similar to Bitcoin. But what happens is that after around 14 15 years, prices start to come down and then they find a new price equilibrium which is higher than when the cycle started.
(05:33) And we are at the end of this 18-year property cycle. and I had suggest that prices will fall until 2026 and then in 2026 if interest rates are lowered I think prices can find price equilibrium and then possibly move up in nominal value of course if you start now accounting for real estate and bitcoin it's a whole different story I know talked from the lens of a fiat um based system yeah that note on pal and the fed is interesting that it It's very obvious Trump's wanted him to lower rates since before he even got elected.
(06:09) But I was reading an article yesterday that made a lot of sense to me, which is he's not going to lower rates for multiple reasons. One of which you mentioned, which is it would it would reignite inflation, which nobody wants to see right now. And then number two, profit margins are going up because the productivity uh increases due to AI.
(06:32) I mean, and we're still at the early stages of that, um, where you have many of the big big tech, the MAG 7 beginning to lay off people because they're creating all these efficiencies via AI. So, we're able to increase productivity and profit margins and so there's no reason to to lower rates from that perspective, which agreed.
(06:58) Yeah, absolutely true. Yeah, which is uh you know it'll be it's crazy the confluence of events that are happening right now whether it's real estate market looking a little toppy at least temporarily the interest rate environment the progression of AI and the adoption uh by many large companies and small companies alike and then you have Bitcoin sitting over here sitting over $2 trillion establishing itself as a $2 trillion asset and it still seems a bit fringe where um where we are certainly as Bitcoiners, individuals

@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

Nostr's first algorithmic relay feed, was introduced by prolific Nostr user, builder, and supporter, utxo the webmaster and the Bitvora team. This idea takes control of your algorithms away from 3rd parties and puts it directly in the user's hands. The system was designed to give readers the ability to choose who and what they want to see in their Nostr feed, and at what frequency, while also encouraging discovery of new and interesting content. The design keeps in mind that users may not want to see posts that are inflammatory or contentious like ad-driven algorithms assume, but ones that simply generate interesting conversations. On top of that, it is also clearly designed to incentivize users to spend time offline and still keeping up with things that are important to them online.

After playing with the various settings, I have been pleasantly surprised with how well it works. To set up your individualized algo relay feed, you simply visit the landing page and sign in with your signer of choice. You will first be presented with some information about your network and the authors you interact with the most. This is a neat little bonus to me. I can clearly see the profiles that provide me with value, whether it be through learning, friendship, or professional (whatever that means). It gives me a good feeling to see who has been worthy of my attention, and I imagine if I were one to engage in defensive online discussions, the presentation of these authors might make me take a second look at my own behavior. Maybe the idea of anyone else doing that is a pipedream, but I like the thought. Just beyond the network information are some insightful statistics about the ways you engage online, like how often you post and reply.

Towards the bottom of the page are your actual settings:

As you can see, there are a variety of settings that all will impact the way that your personalized feed is built. Simply make some adjustments that feel right for you and click save. Your personalized algorithm feed will be available to you in any client that enables relay browsing, like Jumble and Coracle. It is worth trying out a couple of different formulas, as they are quite effective. Once you find a balance that feels right, you can just save the relay as a favorite for easy access, and basically forget about it. They relay will keep your settings to build your personalized Nostr feed whenever you connect. If at any time you need a change, just revisit the page and make your adjustments. The software is open source, making it possible to host your own for yourself and your friends.

I have found a lot of interesting content and people through the Nostr AlgoRelay. My first few settings adjustments didn't quite suit what I was looking for, but a few tweaks brought forth notes from some of my favorite people that I had missed but not stuff that was really outdated, a few notes from popular figureheads, and some things that my friends were engaging with that I did not know about prior. I highly recommend giving it a try, beyond a quick glance. The true value of this relay grows in time, as you go about life and come back to visit your Nostr world.

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

1. Introduction

The 21st century is marked by a rare confluence of demographic, technological, and monetary regime shifts. As birth rates fall below replacement levels across advanced and many emerging economies, global population growth slows and begins to reverse. At the same time, automation, AI, and robotics are increasing productivity at an accelerating pace. Simultaneously, trust in central banks and fiat currencies is waning, giving rise to calls for a return to hard currencies (e.g., gold, Bitcoin) and decentralized monetary systems.

These trends pose stark challenges to existing economic theories and institutions. This paper explores their implications through two opposing lenses: Keynesian economics and Austrian (Misesian) economics.

---

2. The Keynesian Reaction: Deflation, Demand Collapse, and the Paradox of Thrift

2.1. Demand-Side Fragility in a Shrinking Population

Keynesian theory is rooted in the principle that aggregate demand drives output and employment. A declining population implies a falling consumption base, which directly reduces aggregate demand. Combined with increased longevity, this trend leads to a larger retired population disinclined to spend, creating persistent demand shortfalls.

2.2. Technological Unemployment and Reduced Income Velocity

Rapid productivity gains from AI and robotics may displace large segments of labor, leading to unemployment or underemployment. With fewer wage earners and heightened uncertainty, consumption slows further. Even if goods become cheaper, widespread income insecurity constrains the ability to buy them.

2.3. The Paradox of Thrift

In times of uncertainty, both individuals and businesses tend to save more. Keynes argued that if everyone saves, aggregate demand collapses because one person’s spending is another’s income. Thus, increased saving leads to lower incomes, which reduces saving in aggregate—a self-reinforcing contraction.

2.4. Retreat from Fiat and Central Banking: A Catastrophic Constraint

Abandoning fiat currency and central banking removes the government’s ability to perform countercyclical policy. Interest rates cannot be lowered below zero; money supply cannot be expanded to fill demand gaps. In such a regime, deflation becomes chronic, debt burdens rise in real terms, and recovery mechanisms are neutered.

Conclusion (Keynesian):
The combined effect of declining population, rising productivity, and a hard money transition is catastrophic. It leads to a deflationary spiral, mass unemployment, debt crises, and secular stagnation unless aggressively offset by expansive fiscal and monetary policy—tools unavailable in a hard currency system.

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3. The Misesian Rebuttal: Market Coordination and the Natural Order of Decline

3.1. Savings as Capital Formation

Mises and the Austrian School reject the paradox of thrift. Savings are not lost demand; they are deferred consumption that funds capital investment. Increased saving, in a free market, lowers interest rates and reallocates resources toward longer-term, higher-order production.

3.2. Deflation as a Signal of Progress

Falling prices due to productivity gains are not a crisis but a benefit. Consumers gain real wealth. Entrepreneurs adjust cost structures. As long as wages and prices are flexible, deflation reflects abundance, not failure.

3.3. Population Decline as Economic Recalibration

A shrinking population reduces demand, yes—but it also reduces the labor supply. Wages rise in real terms. Capital intensity per worker increases. There is no systemic unemployment if labor markets are free and responsive.

3.4. Hard Currency as Restoration of Market Coordination

Transitioning to a hard currency purges fiat-induced malinvestment and restores the price mechanism. With no artificial credit expansion, capital is allocated based on real savings. Booms and busts are mitigated, and long-term planning becomes reliable.

Conclusion (Misesian):
There is no crisis. A hard currency, high-productivity, low-population economy stabilizes at a new equilibrium of lower consumption, higher capital intensity, and rising real wealth. Deflation is natural. Savings are the seed of future prosperity. Government interference, not market adaptation, is the threat.

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4. Final Synthesis

The Keynesian and Misesian views diverge on first principles: Keynes sees demand shortfalls and rigidities requiring top-down correction, while Mises sees market-coordinated adaptation as sufficient and self-correcting. As the 21st century evolves, this ideological conflict will shape whether the transition leads to depression or renewal.

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References

• Keynes, J.M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
• Mises, L. Human Action
• Hayek, F.A. Prices and Production
• Böhm-Bawerk, E. Capital and Interest
• Friedman, M. A Program for Monetary Stability

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Marty's Bent

via levelsio

Over the weekend, prolific vibe coder levelsio took to X to complain about the state of housing affordability across Europe. Something that I was very happy to see considering the fact that there is a massive real estate affordability crisis across much of the world and it is important that people who are respected and have platforms speak out when they identify the problem as well. More eyes and focus on the problem is how something begins to get solved.

With that being said, I think levelsio is missing the forest for the trees by blaming institutionalized NIMBYism, burdensome regulations and governments hoarding land that should instead be given to developers to produce more housing supply. I quote tweeted this particular tweet on the subject from levelsio and wanted to take some time today to republish those thoughts here and expand on the topic.

It’s almost as if real estate is being used as a store of value asset instead of the consumable good that it is.

What @levelsio is observing here is called a “monetary premium”. A monetary premium is the value added on top of the consumable/aesthetic/location value of real estate.

This monetary premium exist because central banks and governments have distorted the market for money and people are forced to push value into assets that are scarce relative to dollars. Over the last 50 years real estate has been one of the relatively scarce assets of choice.

The housing affordability crisis is a negative externality of the market reaction to the corruption of money. It can only be fixed by re-introducing hard money into the economy that enables people to store value reliably. If that emerges they won’t have to store value in real estate, the monetary premium of real estate will dissolve and prices will correct to their proper valuations.

This is one of the problems that bitcoin solves.

It’s still early yet, but more and more people are recognizing the utility provided by a neutral reserve asset that can’t be manipulated by central planners. At scale, the effect on assets that have accumulated a monetary premium over decades will be material. All of these assets are significantly overvalued and their monetary premium are leaking into bitcoin.

Put another way, "It's the money, stupid." Now, this isn't to say that the supply of housing in certain areas being artificially restricted isn't having an effect on the price of housing. This is certainly true, especially in cities like San Francisco where there is a relatively strong demand because of the economic density of the area and the desire of many high agency and productive people to live there. But I would put forth that the monetary premium is still the bigger problem and no amount of de-regulation to enable the supply of housing to increase will solve the affordability crisis in the long-run. The only way to get to the root of this specific problem is via bitcoin's mainstream adoption as an apolitical uncontrollable asset with completely idiosyncratic risks when compared to any individual asset class.

Let's say the government did ease up regulations and local NIMBY sympathetics were shoved in a corner to allow new units to be built. This doesn't solve the problem in the short-run because there is a time-delay between when regulations are lifted and when new supply actually makes it to market. In the interim, governments and central banks are inevitably going to go further into debt and be forced to print money to monetize that debt. This will exacerbate inflation and even if new real estate units are brought to market, the builders/owners of those properties will likely have to demand elevated prices to attempt to keep up with inflation.

This also does nothing to solve the problem of real income and wage growth, which are significantly lagging real inflation. Even if prices came down because of a surge in supply, could the Common Man afford a down payment on the property? I'd be shocked if this was the case. And since it's likely not the case the only way to get people into these houses as "owners" would be to offer them zero-down financing, which makes people feel richer than they actually are and leads them to make financially ruinous decisions.

It's the money, stupid. People need a way to save so that they can buy in the first place. Fiat currency doesn't allow this and the only people who can save effectively are those who make enough money to funnel into substitute store of value assets like real estate.

As it stands today, the price-to-income ratio of real estate is 5.0x and the price-t0-rent index is 1.36. Up from 3.3x and 1.14x respectively where the metrics sat in the year 2000. The growth in these ratios is driven predominately via their monetary premium.

And guess what, it's about to get much worse. Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk have all signaled that the plan moving forward is to attempt to drive growth and productivity as high as possible while also letting deficits and the debt increase unabated, which means that inflation is likely to continue unabated and potentially increase.

It might make sense to get some bitcoin if that is the case.

via me

"Whale in the Pool" Risk That Could Destroy MSTY Investors

Jessy Gilger raised serious concerns about MSTY and similar derivative products that promise eye-popping yields. He pointed to the COVID crash where gold mining ETFs using derivatives collapsed 95% and never recovered, despite gold itself performing well. Jessy noted that while his team calculated reasonable MicroStrategy covered call yields of 16-22%, MSTY advertises 120% annualized distributions - a red flag that suggests these aren't sustainable dividends from profits, but potentially just returning investors' own capital.

"If a whale pees in the pool, everyone is affected." - Jessy Gilger

Jessy explained that when large investors need to exit these pooled products during market stress, they must sell derivative positions into illiquid markets with no buyers, potentially triggering catastrophic losses for all participants. His solution? Private pools through separately managed accounts that achieve similar income goals without the contagion risk of being trapped with panicking whales.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Gannett Trust's multi-sig solution, Bitcoin retirement planning and corporate treasury strategies.

Headlines of the Day

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

Looking forward to a fun, productive and wholesome week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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[](https://youtube.com/@T

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Key Takeaways

In this landmark episode of TFTC, Adam Back and Sean Bill explore Bitcoin’s path to $1 million, focusing on its growing role as pristine collateral in a faltering financial system. Back highlights Blockstream’s infrastructure efforts, from mining operations to tokenized securities, designed to support this transformation, while Bill shares how he navigated institutional skepticism to bring Bitcoin exposure to a U.S. pension fund. Together, they unpack how institutions are entering the space through structured products and Bitcoin-backed credit, with Blockstream’s mining notes offering a glimpse of this new financial architecture. Amid rising debt, inflation, and fiat fragility, the duo presents Bitcoin not just as sound money, but as a strategic reserve asset gaining traction from El Salvador to Wall Street.

Best Quotes

"It's not a stretch to say that Bitcoin could reach parity with gold. That would imply something closer to a million dollars a coin."

"Digital gold vastly understates Bitcoin’s potential, but it’s where the conversation had to start."

"We’re not just building software, we’re solving financial market gaps, one at a time."

"You can wipe out an entire pension fund’s unfunded liability with a 2% allocation to Bitcoin, if it performs as we expect."

"ETF buyers are the new hodlers. They’re not day traders; they’re five-year pocket investors."

"Bitcoin is becoming super collateral, its role in structured credit could help engineer the soft landing everyone hopes for."

"In a world of financial repression, Bitcoin is how the have-nots finally access property rights and savings."

"Emerging markets will be the early adopters of Bitcoin finance because they need it the most."

"You worked for your money. To systematically steal it through hidden inflation is perverse."

"Bitcoin could be the story that saves public pensions, and the people relying on them."

Conclusion

This episode presents a bold vision of Bitcoin as more than sound money, it’s the foundation of a new global financial system. Adam Back and Sean Bill argue that Bitcoin’s role as “super collateral” is reshaping credit, pensions, and sovereign reserves, while a robust infrastructure of financial tools quietly prepares it to absorb institutional capital. As fiat trust erodes, Bitcoin’s adoption will be driven not by hype, but by necessity, and when the shift becomes undeniable, $1 million per coin will mark the start of a new financial era.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:38 - New ATH
00:02:06 - Sean's Journey Getting Bitcoin Into Pensions
00:03:15 - Blockstream's Evolution Into Finance
00:08:30 - Building Bitcoin Financial Infrastructure
00:14:30 - The Challenge of Conservative Pension Boards
00:17:02 - Bitkey
00:18:10 - Bitcoin's Current Price and Market Cycle
00:24:05 - Bitcoin as Super Collateral
00:27:24 - Unchained
00:30:09 - Cypherpunk Ideals vs Financial Reality
00:34:55 - Pension Fund Crisis and Bitcoin Solution
00:42:29 - The Cypherpunk Banking Stack
00:49:54 - Digital Cash and Free Banking
00:57:06 - Liquid Network and Institutional Rails
01:07:49 - Sean At CBOT
01:22:16 - Bitcoin Futures and Market Structure
01:25:53 - 2025 Bitcoin Price Predictions

Transcript

(00:00) I'm uh permeable, so I'm always astounded that it's not, you know, 10 or 100 times higher. If everybody saw it, the addressable mark, I mean, it would already be 100 200 trillion asset class, right? That's not a stretch to say that Bitcoin could reach parody with gold. That would imply something closer to a million dollars a coin.
(00:18) You see some established public market companies in different countries saying, "Oh, we're going to buy a billion of Bitcoin. We're going to raise and buy 500." Black Rockck ETF. They're even talking about recommended allocations to portfolio managers in the 2% range. Obviously, digital gold would vastly understate the potential of Bitcoin.
(00:38) Gentlemen, thank you for joining me. Of course. Thanks for having us on. Uh Adam, I was just saying I'm woefully embarrassed. This podcast is almost 8 years old and this is your first time on the show. Oh, okay. This is uh but it's an exciting time. Yeah. And you uh really dedicated to podcast. It's been a lot of years, a lot of episodes, right? It has been. Cool.
(00:59) I think we're approaching 700, which is crazy to think. Wow, that is impressive. The uh No, we're talking hit a new alltime high today. Yeah, Bitcoin doing Bitcoin things just as we were on stage uh at the talking hedge kind of asset manager conference uh trying to explain to them why they should put Bitcoin in their uh fund allocations.
(01:23) Yeah, we were discussing it before we hit record and I saw Tur's tweet looked like Tur was at the event, too. Yeah, he was. M so 50% held up they have Bitcoin in their personal account but only 2% or 4% of the funds very few that actually had allocated to Bitcoin. So a lot of them are believers at a personal level but they haven't been able to sell it within their institution you know so they own it themselves uh but they haven't quite gotten the boards to agree yet.
(01:53) So which was a similar situation I was in in 2019 when I first proposed it. You know, I had my experience with Bitcoin. I had a very good experience and was trying to convince uh the pensions in California that they should be looking at adding Bitcoin to the portfolio. Yeah. And it was great to hear some of your background last night, Sean.
(02:11) So, Sean, for those of you watching, uh is the CIO at Blockstream now. Yeah. I am really excited to have both of you here because I've got into Bitcoin in 2013 and nerded out uh on the tech side of Bitcoin distributed system mining full nodes the layered stack that's been built out and so I followed probably all the work that you guys have done at Blockstream since you've been around and it's been really cool to see everything you've done from the Blockstream satellite.
(02:42) I've broadcast some transactions through that before. It's a Jade um uh CLN or excuse me, Core Lightning now. Um the uh liquid and now over the last few years really sort of leaning into the financialization of finance as I like to um to reference it. And so Adam, like how's that transition from being hypert focused towards a more financial perspective on Bitcoin been? Well, actually in our 2014 uh kickoff meeting, you know, with the founders sitting around big whiteboard, we were trying to forward cast what we'd have to do to get
(03:28) a Bitcoin layer 2 for, you know, settlement of assets and Bitcoin working. And one of the risk you know so we thought we'll build the tech and other people issue the assets but like well they might be lazy they might not do it if that happens we'll have to do it ourselves. So there was a lot of situations like that actually where you know you would think there would be lots of people building applications but many people are really just more in business development and a technology is basically a website and a database and
(03:55) you know Bitcoin core wallet on a server or something like that right so we actually ended up building a lot of middleware and getting into asset management a couple earlier steps one was the mining note so we're doing hosting and mining in our own account and what we did when when it was public that we were hosting initially Fidelity was the uh launch customer.
(04:16) They kept coming back to us and saying, "No, we need we need some hosting." And you know, uh, they'd looked around and decided that we were the best. We were we were like, "No, no, we're prop mining. We don't do hosting." But they persuaded us to host them. And then we're like, "Okay, maybe we should expand and host for other people.
(04:31) " And then that became news. And so then a lot of Bitcoiners contacted us and says, you know, I've got like a dozen miners. Can you host them for me? And of course, if you're if you're hosting for thousands of customers, that's a whole you need need a support team. Somebody has got two miners and one of them's crashed or failed, they're very upset, right? It's half the revenue.
(04:52) Whereas somebody's got, you know, 10,000 per client, it's just part of the, you know, maintenance cycle like a big data center. Discs fail 1% a year, you replace them when they die, they raid, it doesn't matter, right? So, it's kind of that phenomena. So we try to figure out well how can we help you know how can we help people do this without creating a you know that painoint and so we designed this mining note concept where it's kind of socialized so that collectively they look like one of the enterprise customers and then we put a 10% buffer in it so that we would eat
(05:22) the first 10% of equipment failure so they wouldn't get you know the drooping hash rate as miners like failed due to age uh for the for the onset And we also figured out how to try and make them a unified market. So, you know, we're selling more tranches into the market. This started in 2021, a three-year product.
(05:45) And um you know, there was some people on the launch branch and then some people 3 months later. So, what we do is look at how many Bitcoin it had mined in the first three months. We buy that and then match it with a 33month contract for the next one. And so the economically equivalent neither dilutive or anti-dilutive for the buyer and therefore they could trade in a unified market even though there were eight sales tranches over the first I don't know like 12 months or something like that and that that market you know it was using initially using uh liquid
(06:17) security tokens uh with uh stalker a European company that does the securitization I mean the legal p

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MicroStrategy's Debt-Financed Bitcoin Strategy Will Force a Reckoning Within 18 Months - Jessy Gilger

Jessy Gilger from Unchained Capital warned about the sustainability of MicroStrategy's model and its derivatives like MSTY. He predicts that as more companies adopt Bitcoin treasury strategies, "the P&L will matter more as the balance sheet gets commoditized." Within the next 18 months, he expects the current arbitrage opportunities that MicroStrategy exploits will diminish as Bitcoin reaches higher liquidity levels and more competitors enter the space.

His most concerning prediction involves MSTY specifically, which currently offers distributions annualized at 120% - far exceeding the 16-22% he calculates as reasonable from covered call strategies. "If a whale wants out of MSTY in size... they could sell those derivative positions into an illiquid market where there's no bid," potentially causing a 95% collapse similar to what happened with gold mining ETFs during COVID. He advises investors to consider "private pools" for options strategies rather than pooled products where "you're in the pool with everyone else" and subject to forced liquidations.

Pensions Will Drive the Next Major Bitcoin Adoption Wave in 2026-2027 - Adam Back

Adam Back sees institutional adoption accelerating dramatically as pension funds begin allocating to Bitcoin. "The institutional cover of some of the bigger entities that people would reference... you don't get fired for following BlackRock's recommendation," he explained. With BlackRock now suggesting 2% portfolio allocations and the infrastructure finally in place through Blockstream's new Gannett Trust Company, the barriers for institutional adoption are falling rapidly.

Back predicts this will create a "snowball" effect as pension funds realize Bitcoin can help address their massive unfunded liabilities. He noted that financial institutions offering Bitcoin products are "slow movers" with "policies and training materials and guidance that they got to get through," but once activated, the scale will dwarf current retail and ETF flows. The combination of pension fund allocations, continued nation-state adoption, and the mathematical scarcity of Bitcoin leads him to view even $100,000 as "cheap" given where the market is headed.

Traditional Bond Markets Will Collapse as Bitcoin Becomes the Escape Hatch - Sean Bill

Sean Bill sees a massive shift coming as bond markets deteriorate globally. "You peel back the onion. So who benefits from financial repression, right. And inflating your way out of assets," he explained. With Japanese bond yields blowing out and U.S. 30-year yields jumping 10 basis points in a single day, Bill predicts we're witnessing the early stages of a sovereign debt crisis that will drive unprecedented flows into Bitcoin.

He pointed to Japan's MetaPlanet as a preview of what's coming: "The whole bond market of Japan just flowed into a hotel company." As pension funds and institutions realize they can't meet obligations through traditional fixed income, Bitcoin will become the only viable alternative. Bill believes this transition will accelerate once fiduciaries understand Bitcoin's role as "pristine collateral" that can help them "chip away at those unfunded liabilities." His experience getting Santa Clara County's pension into Bitcoin in 2021 showed him firsthand how a 1-3% allocation at $17,000 could have "wiped out the unfunded liability" as Bitcoin approached $100,000.

Adam Back & Sean Bill Podcast Here

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Blockspace conducts cutting-edge proprietary research for investors.

New Bitcoin Mining Pool Flips Industry Model: "Plebs Eat First" Could Threaten Corporate Dominance

UTXO Management's explosive report forecasts unprecedented institutional demand that could absorb 20% of Bitcoin's circulating supply by 2026. Bitcoin ETFs shattered records with $36.2 billion in year-one inflows, crushing every commodity ETF launch—and they're projected to hit $100 billion annually by 2027.

The real story? ETFs are just the appetizer. Five massive catalysts are converging: wealth platforms eyeing $120 billion from a modest 0.5% allocation across $60 trillion AUM; corporations following MicroStrategy's playbook now holding 803,143 BTC; potential U.S. Strategic Reserve of 1 million BTC; 13 states with active Bitcoin reserve bills; and the rise of BTCfi yield strategies offering 2-15% returns.

The game-changer: these aren't day traders. CFOs, treasurers, and governments are structurally locked buyers seeking BTC-denominated yields, not quick profits. With FASB mark-to-market accounting removing impairment headaches and regulatory clarity accelerating globally, institutions face a stark reality—allocate now or chase exposure at dramatically higher prices.

This isn't another cycle. It's the institutional colonization of Bitcoin.

Link to Full Article

Subscribe to them here (seriously, you should): https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com/

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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GAMERS, we're back in the virtual studio for another sophisticated and gentlemanly discussion on the most important topic in the media landscape: huge anime tiddies on the best and baddest Bodytype Bs you've ever seen. I think the VA strike ended too or something.

Stuff cited:

• SB steam charts
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• Mujin video that shows the leaked discord messages from the SAG discord

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Key Takeaways

In this episode, host Marty speaks with Ken, a former CIA deputy chief and now head of government affairs at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, about Bitcoin’s growing relevance in U.S. national security and policy circles. Ken traces his Bitcoin journey from professional curiosity within the CIA, studying adversarial use cases like the Lazarus Group, to personal conviction following events like the Canadian trucker protests, which exposed the dangers of financial censorship. Contrary to popular belief, he reveals that many in the intelligence community support Bitcoin for its alignment with American values such as sovereignty and freedom. The conversation highlights a major cultural shift in Washington, where policymakers now view Bitcoin as a strategic asset rather than a criminal tool. Ken stresses that the future hinges on whether Bitcoin shapes institutions or is co-opted by them, and that political engagement is crucial to ensure the former. He argues Bitcoin can help solve systemic problems from fiscal irresponsibility to geopolitical instability, but only if the industry continues to organize, advocate, and embed its values into national policy.

Best Quotes

"Either institutions are going to win, or Bitcoin is going to win."

"Bitcoin naturally washes out leverage… it's what makes Bitcoin antifragile."

"The CIA didn’t create Bitcoin, but they sure are paying attention now."

"We were all Satoshi."

"Let’s not test the resistance-money thesis in the United States."

"Bitcoin strengthens U.S. values, freedom, private property, sovereignty."

"Bitcoin is political, but it doesn't have to be partisan."

"If you're in a federal agency, the only incentive is to spend more. Bitcoin changes that."

"Don't underestimate your voice. If you keep the phones ringing, they listen."

Conclusion

This episode offers a rare glimpse into how Bitcoin is increasingly viewed as a serious strategic asset within the U.S. intelligence and policy communities. Ken, with his high-level government background and current role in Bitcoin advocacy, underscores the shift from skepticism to engagement among policymakers. His message is clear: Bitcoiners are no longer outsiders, they have a seat at the table, and with sustained political action and education, they can shape the future of Bitcoin policy. The time to engage is now, because the battle for Bitcoin’s role in society is already in motion.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Ken's background
6:58 - Tornado/Samourai, surveillance state
11:53 - Reestablishing trust
14:23 - Bitkey
15:18 - CIA bitcoin theory
18:42 - Neutral reserve asset
23:52 - Unchained
24:20 - BPI
29:49 - CLARITY and Secret Service message
33:54 - Withstanding a change in administration
40:03 - Institutions win or bitcoin wins
46:43 - Shrinking gov with bitcoin
57:47 - BPI summit

Transcript

00:00:00 compared to China or Russia, do we have a comparable advantage in gold? How do we compete with China? And this is what the kinds of things CI will think about. Bitcoin is a natural option. At the end of the day, Bitcoin undermines the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. Either institutions are going to win or Bitcoin is going to win. But we do fundamentally on some level need institutions to make the country run. We want those institutions to be properly incentivized. In 10 years, Bitcoin is

00:00:19 either at a million dollars or is zero dollars. Ken, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you for joining me. Marty, finally. We've been we've been kicking us around for a few weeks. I'm glad we uh glad we were finally able to make it work. As I was telling you, in the middle of a move, conference in the middle of that move. It's been a hectic week, so I think I'm finally settling in. As you can see, no bookshelf, but we have stacked books behind me. Hopefully, they will be on on shelves soon.

00:00:52 No, there there are definitely ways there are ways in the world to get you know to get credits on um you know uh what do you call it? Um uh we're good Catholics, you know, when you when you pass and don't go to heaven. Um come on. Thank you. Well, moving is purgatory credit. So, I've done it many times in my life. So, I uh I feel for you. Well, thank you. But I'm really excited for this conversation and likewise the event in a few weeks, the BPI event down in DC, the summit, we met about a month ago, two months ago now at

00:01:26 this point in Austin during the takeover. And Zach was very eager to introduce you to me considering the the history of the show, topics we covered. And I think I'm excited for this cuz I'm infinitely curious to learn how somebody with your pedigree and your resume got into Bitcoin is now working for the Bitcoin Policy Institute as a director of government affairs. So for anybody listening who was unaware of Ken's resume, he did 20 years in government culminating as deputy chief of operations at the CIA Center for Cyber

00:02:01 Intelligence. uh you've worked overseas for the US State Department and now you're advocating on behalf of Bitcoin on Capitol Hill. So, how does somebody with that resume go from statecraft to cipher punk sort of ideas? Yeah. No, so I um like everybody else, I uh I um my my Bitcoin journey is a little bit everybody everybody has a unique journey, right? Um mine actually started at CIA, believe it or not. And it was for purely professional reasons. I um so I was an operations officer. I spent most of my career overseas um as

00:02:37 most of us do. Um but my last two years, my last two turn tours at CIA, I was at the center for cyber intelligence, which is CIA's cyber unit. Um and my first job there, I was group ch I was a operations chief for a group that worked on cyber threat issues. And this was in 2018. So you remember this was when Lazarus group the North Koreans figured out that stealing crypto was a lot easier than like you know trying to rob banks. Um this is when ransomware broke out as a serious problem just preceded you may

00:03:04 remember the Colonial Pipeline hack that shut down you know gasoline shipments to the east coast. So in 2018 um and it's kind of funny like I this is people say did the CIA create Bitcoin. I can tell you in 2018 when policy makers first had to confront its use by actors as an issue like nobody was ready for it. Like if they created it, it was tucked away and hidden in the basement cuz the the bench for people with crypto knowledge in general, digital assets, certainly Bitcoin was really really really shallow. Um I remember we had two

00:03:33 guys um who kind of had background in it and then you they became superstars because all of a sudden we were calling upon them to teach us about Bitcoin and digital assets in general. Um, but yeah, that's so I learned and like everything else, I learned about it because I had to because people we cared people we cared about were using it. Um, but like everything else there there was sort of a mind virus to it. Um, and I I admit, you know, I during co I was in the uh I was in the altcoin casino. I was defying

00:04:00 and memecoining and it was it was fun, you know. No, I I I don't hold any hate for the uh for the alcoiners. People do what they want with their money. Um but I you know that that was when it was during co um I had been sort of buying in 2018 but during co when I really started learning because this is what everybody learned right um and I you know for me Bitcoin was immediately attracted me to it and I was sort of inspired by um I mean the co Kenny trucker protest was something really important to me um I saw how it was

00:04:29 being used um but also sort of in my day job you know I I had a pretty good understanding of how the government uses financial financial tools as a weapon. Um, freezing bank accounts, OFAC sanctions, that kind of thing. And if you're on the, you know, on the giving end of that, that's great. Those are great tools to have if you're the government. Uh, not so great if you're on the other end of it. And, you know, watching these Canadian truckers the first time, you know, you'll be able to, it's very easy

00:04:54 to say, "Yeah, sanction the Iranian, sanction North Korea, whatever." You know, I'm not Iranian. Um but when you see all of a sudden Kat and Trucker people you had some sympathy with being targets of financial you know weaposition of the financial system it you know it struck it struck a it struck a nerve like a really really profound stinging shot to my consciousness my conscious about this issue. Um so for me for the first thing about Bitcoin was um was permissionless transactions that that's that's what got me into it. Um

00:05:23 then of course you go from there and by the time I left the government 2022 I had I was f I was you know full boore I was you know attending meetups and um that's when I started doing some advocacy stuff on Capitol Hill and and and messing around with uh David and Granny PPI doing some advocacy stuff but yeah but it it comes from my time at CIA and yeah I think the um the uh I think what might surprise some people is there are a lot of Bitcoiners um not just at CIA but across the whole national

00:05:52 security establishment And I think they're into it for the same reason that you know that everybody most of your listeners are right like it's you see what's happening in the world. You see the challenges we're facing. You see how governments use financial tools to weaponize them against opposition. You know it's it's very natural that if you have that kind of insight that you look for things to protect yourself and Bitcoin is obvious. So I I I tell a funny story when I um when I was first into it there was um cubicle one of the

00:06:17 guys and he had a bumper

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

Sorry for the lack of writing over the last week. As many of you may already know, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin 2025 conference. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I had successfully avoided Sin City for the first 34 years of my life. But when duty calls, you have to make some personal concessions.

Despite what many say about this particular conference and the spectacle that it has become, I will say that having attended every single one of Bitcoin Magazine's conferences since 2019, I thoroughly enjoy these events, even if I don't agree with all the content. Being able to congregate with others in the industry who have been working extremely hard to push Bitcoin forward, all of whom I view as kindred spirits who have also dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. There's nothing better than getting together, seeing each other in person, shaking hands, giving hugs, catching up and reflecting on how much things have changed over the years while also focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead.

I think out of all the Bitcoin magazine conferences I've been to, this was certainly my favorite. If only because it has become abundantly clear that Bitcoin is here to stay. Many powerful, influential, and competent people have identified Bitcoin as an asset and monetary network that will play a large part in human society moving forward. And more importantly, Bitcoin is proving to work far better than anybody not paying attention expected. While at the same time, the fiat system is in woeful disrepair at the same time.

As a matter of reflection and surfacing signal for you freaks, here are the presentations and things that happened that I think were the most impactful.

Miles Suter's Block Presentation

This presentation was awesome for many reasons, one of which being that we often forget just how dedicated Block, as an organization with many companies - including Cash App, Square, the open source organization known as Spiral and more recently, BitKey and Proto - has been to bitcoin over the last eight years. They've worked methodically to make Bitcoin a first-class citizen in their business operations and slowly but surely have built an incredibly integrated experience across their brands. The two big announcements from Block during the conference were the enablement of Bitcoin payments in Square point-of-sale systems and the amount of revenue they're making on their Lightning node, c=, from routing payments.

Right now, the Bitcoin payments and point of sale systems is in beta with many merchants testing it out for the next six months, but it will be available for all 4 million square merchants in 2026. This is something that many bitcoiners have been waiting for for many years now, and it is incredible to see that they finally brought it across the line. Merchants will have the ability to accept bitcoin payments and either convert every payment into fiat automatically, convert a portion of the bitcoin payment into fiat to keep the rest in sats, or simply keep all of the bitcoin they receive via payments in sats. This is an incredible addition to what Square has already built, which is the ability of their merchants to sweep a portion of their revenues into bitcoin if they desire. Square is focused on building a vertically integrated suite of bitcoin products for merchants that includes the ability to buy bitcoin, receive bitcoin, and eventually leverage financial services using bitcoin as collateral so that they can reinvest in and expand their businesses.

via Ryan Gentry

What went a bit underappreciated in the crowd was the routing node revenue that c= is producing, ~9.7% annualized. This is a massive validation of something that many bitcoiners have been talking about for quite some time, which is the ability to produce "yield" on bitcoin in a way that reduces risk significantly. Locking up bitcoin in a 2-of-2 multisig within Lightning channels and operating a Lightning routing node has been long talked about as one of the ways to produce more bitcoin with your bitcoin in a way that minimizes the threat of loss.

It seems that c= has found a way to do this at scale and is doing it successfully. 10% yield on bitcoin locked in Lightning channels is nothing to joke about. And as you can see from the chart above in the grainy picture taken by Ryan Gentry of Lightning Labs, this routing node "yield" is producing more return on capital than many of the most popular staking and DeFi protocols.

This is a strong signal to the rest of the market that this can be done. It may take economies of scale and a high degree of technical competency today. But this is incredibly promising for the future of earning bitcoin by providing valuable goods and services to the market of Bitcoiners. In this case, facilitating relatively cheap and instantly settled payments over the Lightning Network.

Saifedean Ammous' Bitcoin and Tether Presentation

This was one of the best presentations at the conference. Saifedean Ammous is a friend, he has been an incredible influence on my personal bitcoin journey, and I feel comfortable in saying he's been a strong influence on the journey of hundreds of thousands, at least, if not millions of people as they've attempted to understand bitcoin.

This presentation is a bit spicy because it puts a pin in the balloon of hopium that stablecoins like Tether are mechanisms that could bail out the market for US Treasuries in the medium to long-term if they take enough market share. As one always should do, Saif ran the numbers and clearly illustrates that even in the most optimistic case, Tether's impact on the market for treasuries, their interest rates, and curbing the growth of the debt held by the US federal government will be minimal at best.

One of the most interesting things that Saif points out that I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't recognize before is that much of the demand for Tether that we're seeing these days is replacement demand for treasuries. Meaning that many people who are turning to Tether, particularly in countries that have experienced hyperinflationary events, are using Tether as a substitute for their currencies, which are operated by central banks likely buying U.S. treasuries to support their monetary systems. The net effect of Tether buying those treasuries is zero for this particular user archetype.

Saif goes on to explain that if anything, Tether is a weapon against the US Treasury system when you consider that they're storing a large portion of the stablecoin backing in Treasuries and then using the yields produced by those Treasuries to buy bitcoin. Slowly but surely over time bitcoin as a percentage of their overall backing of Tether has grown quite significantly starting at 0% and approaching 10% today. It isn't hard to imagine that at some point within the next decade, Bitcoin could be the dominant reserve asset backing tethers and, as a result, Tether could be pegged to bitcoin eventually.

It's a fascinating take on Tether that I've never heard before.

Nothing Stops this Train from Lyn Alden

Lyn's been saying it loudly for quite some time now; "Nothing stops this train." She's even been on our podcast to explain why she believes this many times over the last five years. However, I don't think there is one piece of content out there that consolidates her thesis of why nothing stops the train of fiscal irresponsibility and unfettered debt expansion and why that's good for bitcoin than the presentation she gave at the conference. Definitely give this one a watch when you get a chance if you haven't already.

Overall, it was a great week in Vegas and I think it's safe to say that bitcoin has gone mainstream. Whether or not people who have been in the bitcoin industry and community for a while are okay with does not really matter. It's happening and all we can do is ride the wave as more and more people come to recognize the value prop of bitcoin and the social clout they can gain from supporting it. Our job here at TFTC is to help you discern the signal from the noise, continue to champion the self-sovereign usage of bitcoin and keep you abreast of developments in the space as they manifest.

Buckle up. Things are only going to get weirder from here on out.

Bitcoin's Mathematical Destiny

Sean Bill and Adam Back make a compelling case for Bitcoin's inevitable march toward $1 million. Sean points out that Bitcoin represents just a tiny fraction—2 trillion out of 900 trillion—of total financial assets, calling it a "tiny orange dot" on their presentation to Texas pensions. He emphasizes that reaching parity with gold alone would deliver a 10x return from current levels. Adam highlights the mathematical impossibility of current prices, noting that ETF buyers are absorbing 500,000 BTC annually while only 165,000 new coins are mined.

"Who's selling at these prices? It doesn't quite add up to me." - Adam Back

The institutional wave is just beginning. Sean revealed that while 50% of hedge fund managers personally own Bitcoin, only 3% have allocated institutional funds. Combined with emerging demand from nation states and corporate treasuries meeting Bitcoin's fixed supply, the price trajectory seems clear. Both guests stressed the importance of staying invested—missing just the 12 best performing days each year would turn Bitcoin into a losing investment.

Check out the full podcast here for more on pensions allocating to Bitcoin, cypherpunk banking, and commodity trading insight

@ 8671a6e5:f88194d1

## ParentCoin; limitless

There's this almost altcoin-like pitch of parenthood these days. I might’ve fallen for the shiny marketing of parenthood — cute baby pics, promises of legacy, the whole “you’ll change the world” vibe. I even heard a would-be mom tell me once (true story) "You know having children, you don't have to be afraid of it, as a dad it doesn't cost as much as you think". \ These people actually believe that. Just like they've fallen for every fiat-scam out there: housing, cars, holidays in France, Nike shoes, 50% taxation, religion and main stream media subscriptions.\ \ It’s 2025, and I’m revisiting this like I’d revisit an old Lightning Network post. \ \ Having kids is like chasing an altcoin airdrop with a slick but buzzword laden whitepaper and a charismatic founder who’s probably exit-scamming as soon as he gets enough of your money in their bank account (yeah you see what I did there). If you're lucky that founder might twerk from time to time to get your attention. But don't hope for too much. Now change that diaper and work an extra job to pay for all of it while inflation murders you.\ \ While you do all that, the most damaging thing about the Having Children Shitcoin (HCS) is the time it takes. It literally can't be shorted like some token on an exchange. It laughs, plays around with your tech gadgets, has to be potty trained (like some altcoin founders) and needs attention, education and a lot of proof of work.\ But the damage is the time. \ The time it takes to do all that, is actually replacing value with time. \ Bitcoin might be a product of proof of work, HCS is not a product but the actual proof of work without the value proposition.\ On top of that, the founder usually lives rent-free in your head your whole life, or even worse: you literally live together with her/him.\ Imagine Satoshi Nakamoto living at your house right now. Like... hi Satoshi.. love your bitcoin man.\ "Yeah, thanks moth**f****r, when are going to buy more skittle and some toilet paper? We ran out 10 minutes ago when I shit all over your dirty toilet, ..."\ "Eh, But Satoshi, why don't you go to the shop to..."\ "Shut up you f'ing a--hole, you made me! You made me what I am today! You liked me when I invented thàh bitcoin right? Now get me some toilet paper and here's a list of items I want from the supermarket! Lazy dumb idiot."\ "You'll clean up the kitchen right?"\ "Yeah yeah, rolls eyes, after my Netflix series man... now get out"\ \ This might sound far-fetched but founders of shitcoins steal your money, while children steal your time ànd money while you have to endure the founders as well.

Time is slowly damaging you while you live your life further and further away from the hard-money proposition. Hell, you even will need to sell some hard money to get by. Because it's a rotten world and children make you short sighted about the future (it limits you to maximum 3 years ahead in my experience with people around me).

Long-term is your enemy Short-term is your prison

You’re hyped for the long-term gains—multi-generational dynasties, just like the elites—but the fine print? It’s a mess. I’m here to unpack the hope, the scepticism, and the grim reality of raising kids in a world that feels like it’s speedrunning towards the absolute bottom. Let me make that clearer:

Our power (as bitcoiners) doesn't grow with these new generations, because we're being out-Idiocracy'd at a rate we can’t reproduce our way out of. Bitcoiners don’t scale. Even if you produce two children that both become die-hard bitcoin maximalists (with a nasal voice and a fondness for TD-sequential analysis.

The Mirage of Birth Having a kid is like snagging a hyped-up crypto airdrop. You’re told it’s “free” value — new life, pure joy, a legacy token dropped into your wallet. Everyone’s tweeting about it, posting ultrasound pics like they just scored 10,000 USDC worth of free shitcoin tokens.

But then the transaction fees hit, getting another place to live more accommodating, getting a school, adopt a dad body demeaner while torpedoing your social life and having no fun other than baking cakes and getting less pussy than a laser pointer with dead batteries. Adjust for inflation), sleepless nights, a vortex of money being vaporized and a lifetime of HODLing a position you can’t dump nor short. You’re basically the holder of last resort for a diatribe of chaos. You’re the entry, the trade, and exit liquidity. The real kicker? Society’s cheering you on while you’re stuck debugging your life and seeing your time drained. You’re frozen in time, while you should be scaling ideas. \ \ Or getting more out of life than being the channelling of funds to a future fiat oppressed kid. Meanwhile, parents (if they stay together that is... with relations with kids having their own version of the bitcoin “halving”, be it every 7 years or so. The parents follow the higher noble goal and get some love and nice moments in return. \ \ They’re stacking diapers instead of sats, living above a dry cleaner next to a subway station that rattles your soul. You can’t short kids, no matter how much you see the “childfree” crowd thriving. The childfree crowd is also not always that neutral, as many of them want this same life, because the marketing, as with many shitcoins is excellent. It makes life more fun, more fulfilling, more whole, while promising you cheap, fast and always immutable transactions. You’re getting duped. \ You buy more stuff, more hobbies no one cares about, and smile at other parents at these gatherings like you’re at the whale room at a bitcoin conference in a bear market. Keep smiling, bitches. That’s you’re life now. The numbers don’t lie. Society sells parenthood as a Bitcoin-level HODL, but the safety net is thinner than a layer-2 solution created by an Albanian exchange.

Raising kids is like betting your airdropped tokens will moon into a blue-chip asset that takes care of you when you’re old. You’re hoping they’ll HODL your hand, not rug-pull you into a nursing home when their “value” spikes. It’s a gamble: will they be decent humans or turn into TikTok zombies? Back in the day, kids were economic assets, working the farm or whatever. Now? You’re praying they don’t ghost you after college or at least recognize all the proof of work you did for them. And yes, you can have a big impact on them, that’s something to be proud of if it works out. But in the end, you are you, a person, with dreams, hopes and needs. \ And your children are too,... they’ll always win. \ \ Teaching them to ride a bike is fun, but it’s like a shitcoin pumping on a founder’s tweet: fleeting, followed by a crash whenever you see the effects of your years of de-progress and social isolation. Socializing with other parents is like making friends with a fellow prisoner of war in some jungle camp, ... you’ll have to be nice because it’s all you have left of society’s pleasantries. So you make small talk or a little joke about a toy someone’s kid has brought to the playground. The real world would see these people piss all over your grave if they could. They’re the figurehead on a ship of fools. And you play along because you’re a total bitch that got stuck in the routine of the famous HCS. Finding trust is hard, certainly in a city’s virtual prison camp where you play Russian roulette for other people’s amusement. It’s like running a Lightning node — fun in theory, but you’re babysitting a system that crashes when you need it most. The highs are real, but “kinda fun” doesn’t cut it when you’re debugging life. \ \ The 35k to 200k € it will cost you throughout your life, is not measurable as gains or losses. Look at the lovely baby pictures, look at their school results, the painting they made especially for you saying “I love you, for the best dad/mom in the whole world”. It hits straight to your brain’s nucleus accumbens. It’s all the balanced injection of the right shot of chemical balanced reward center (ventral tegmental area) food. \ And people with kids wanted that because that’s what the system and urges are. Kids are a leveraged position with no stop-loss, unlike an airdrop you can dump when the hype fades. You’re all-in, praying society doesn’t crash before your “asset” matures. In the meanwhile, you get the occasional surprise through your mesolimbic pathway. \ \ "Happy you" proof of stakes' the unhappy you later. You could be in the Maldives diving into clear water while talking to another “founder”. Funny how that works. \ Meanwhile, the childfree are staking their tokens and chilling. \ Parents aren’t building dynasties; we’re just trying not to get rug-pulled by daycare costs and rotten school-systems that learn our kids to be obedient consumers and non-thinking parrots. It’s a financial social anti-grind with no cure, and the charts, unlike fiat-corporate nonsense, don’t lie.

The elites stack power like blue-chip stocks, minting wealth across centuries. Us? Our kids might be fighting over the leftovers while they battle their way through university diversity and mediocracy. Future generations are supposed to carry the torch, but consumerism and cultural decay make it feel like we’re being out-Idiocracy’d. \ We need to think long-term, teach kids to code, stack sats, and question the system. But above all else, we need them to learn that being more evil is more just. Being complacent in this farce of a system means always, and I mean always, that the multi-generational monsters will prevail. \ \ They’re more stubborn, faster, better educated and they take the shortcuts you can’t have. We have hard money, they have “hard world”.

Conclusion

Eighteen years into this parenting thing (or eight minutes—who’s counting?), it’s clear: kids are a shitcoin airdrop with no exit strategy for you. \ The highs are sweet, the costs are brutal, and the long-term. A gamble on humanity in a world trending toward a broad brush of average things made normal.

Maybe it’s not about winning the bitcoin standard, but betting on something bigger than yourself within yourself, even if that market’s rigged with traps and detractors everywhere. Stack sats, stack diapers, and pray your kids don’t rug-pull your heart. \ Because, let’s face it, we’re not the Rothschilds — we’re just HODLing and hoping. \ While we should be fighting with the hardest money. \ While your baby cries for more food, I hear Michael Jackson sing “If you can’t feed your baby hi hee-hee, then don’t have a baybaah”. \ \ The sad part is, that we're all torn between chasing the fiat-created dreams and the reality that everything is in fact a shitcoin sapping either your time, money or effort. \ Even within the bitcoin space, we don't realize what the next step should be.\ It certainly isn't big families. That's for sure.

AVB\ tipjar: https://allesvoorbitcoin.be/donate/

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Paris, France – June 6, 2025 — Bitcoin payment gateway startup Flash, just announced a new partnership with the “Bitcoin Only Brewery”, marking the first-ever beverage company to leverage Lightning payments.

Flash enables Bitcoin Only Brewery to offer its “BOB” beer with, no-KYC (Know Your Customer) delivery across Europe, priced at 19,500 sats (~$18) for the 4-pack, shipping included.

The cans feature colorful Bitcoin artwork while the contents promise a hazy pale ale: “Each 33cl can contains a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, hazy appearance and refreshing Pale Ale at 5% ABV,” reads the product description.

Pierre Corbin, Co-Founder of Flash, commented:

“Currently, bitcoin is used more as a store of value but usage for payments is picking up. Thanks to new innovation on Lightning, bitcoin is ready to go mainstream for e-commerce sales.”

Flash, launched its 2.0 version in March 2025 with the goal to provide the easiest bitcoin payment gateway for businesses worldwide. The platform is non-custodial and can enable both digital and physical shops to accept bitcoin by connecting their own wallets to Flash.

By leveraging the scalability of the Lightning Network, Flash ensures instant, low-cost transactions, addressing on-chain Bitcoin bottlenecks like high fees and long wait times.

For businesses interested in adopting Bitcoin payments, Flash offers a straightforward onboarding process, low fees, and robust support for both digital and physical goods. To learn more, visit paywithflash.com.

Media Contact:
Pierre Corbin
Co-Founder, Flash
Email: press@paywithflash.com
Website: paywithflash.com

About Flash

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

About Bitcoin Only Brewery

Bitcoin Only Brewery (@Drink_B0B) is a pioneering beverage company dedicated to the Bitcoin ethos, offering high-quality beers payable exclusively in Bitcoin. With a commitment to personal privacy, the brewery delivers across Europe with no-KYC requirements.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

via Matt Corallo

A lot of the focus over the last couple of months has been on the emergence of Strategy competitors in public markets looking to build sizable bitcoin treasuries and attract investors of all shapes and sizes to drive shareholder value. The other big topic in the bitcoin development world has been around OP_RETURN and the debate over whether or not the amount of data that can be shoved into a bitcoin transaction should be decided by the dominant implementation.

A topic that is just as, if not more, important that is not getting enough appreciation is the discussion around open source bitcoin developers and the lingering effects of the Biden administration's attack on Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash. If you read our friend Matt Corallo's tweet above, you'll notice that the lingering effects are such that even though the Trump administration has made concerted efforts to reverse the effects of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 that were levied by the Biden administration, Elizabeth Warren, and her friends at the Treasury and SEC - it is imperative that we enshrine into law the rights of open source developers to build products and services that enable individuals to self-custody bitcoin and use it in a peer-to-peer fashion without the threat of getting thrown in jail cell.

As it stands today, the only assurances that we have are from an administration that is overtly in favor of the proliferation of bitcoin in the United States. There is nothing in place to stop the next administration or another down the line from reverting to Biden-era lawfare that puts thousands of bitcoin developers around the world at risk of being sent into a cage because the government doesn't like how some users leverage the code they write. To make sure that this isn't a problem down the line it is imperative that we pass the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act, which would not hold bitcoin developers liable for the ways in which end users leverage their tools.

Not only is this an act that would protect developers from pernicious government officials targeting them when end users use their technology in a way that doesn't make the government happy, it will also protect YOU, the end user, looking to transact in a peer-to-peer fashion and leverage all of the incredible properties of bitcoin the way they were meant to be. If the developers are not protected, they will not be able to build the technology that enables you to leverage bitcoin.

So do your part and go to saveourwallets.org. Reach out to your local representatives in Congress and Senators and make some noise. Let them know that this is something that you care deeply about and that they should not only pay attention to this bill but push it forward and enshrine it into law as quickly as possible.

There are currently many developers either behind bars or under house arrest for developing software that gives you the ability to use Bitcoin in a self-sovereign fashion and use it in a privacy-preserving way. Financial privacy isn't a crime. It is an inalienable human right that should be protected at all cost. The enshrinement of this inalienable right into law is way past due.

FreeSamourai #FreeRoman

Headlines of the Day

Trump's Truth Social Files for Bitcoin ETF - via X

Norway's K33 Makes First Bitcoin Treasury Buy - via X

SolarBank Adopts Bitcoin Treasury Strategy - via X

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Final thought...

Should I join a country club?

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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

France’s The Blockchain Group Secures €9.7 Million More For Its Bitcoin Treasury Strategy

Today, The Blockchain Group (ALTBG), listed on Euronext Growth Paris and recognized as Europe’s first Bitcoin Treasury Company, announced it has raised around €9.7 million through a mix of equity and convertible bond issuances. This move is part of their continued push to build out their Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy.

The Blockchain Group announces an equity and convertible bond issuance for a total amount of ~€9.7M to pursue its Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy

Full Press Release (EN): https://t.co/jjGOBswJsd

Full Press Release (FR): https://t.co/0Jwuv2sP7W

BTC Strategy (EN):… pic.twitter.com/mUVLHJduX5

— The Blockchain Group (@_ALTBG) June 12, 2025

The funding comes from multiple sources and was carried out through their wholly-owned Luxembourg subsidiary, “The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA.” A major portion, about €6 million, was raised through a convertible bond issuance to TOBAM, with bonds priced at €6.24 per share. That price reflects a 30 percent premium over ALTBG’s closing price on June 9, 2025.

Ludovic Chechin-Laurans also came in with around €2.4 million, subscribing in BTC at a conversion price of about €0.7072 per share. This was part of a deal originally set up back in March 2025. If the stock price climbs 30 percent above that level, to around €0.919 over 20 consecutive trading days, he’ll have the option to convert into up to 3.4 million new ALTBG shares.

Adam Back also finalized his conversion of all OCA Tranche 1 bonds into 14.9 million ALTBG shares and subscribed to an additional 2.1 million shares for €1.16 million at €0.544 per share. 

“The Company recalls that Adam Back notified The Blockchain Group of his intention to convert all OCA Tranche 1 he holds, in accordance with the terms of the OCA Issuance Agreement entered into on March 4, 2025, the details of which were disclosed in a press release dated March 6, 2025, and which the Company now confirms has been definitively completed,” stated the press release.

TOBAM did the same, converting 1 million Tranche 1 bonds into 1.84 million shares and subscribing to 262,605 new shares for €0.14 million.

“Given the recent high volatility in the Company’s share price observed since the signing of the OCA Issuance Agreement, the conversion price of €0.544 reflects a discount of 89.52% compared to the closing price on June 12, 2025,” the press release added.

“These operations could allow for the potential acquisition of ~80 BTC, bringing the Company’s total potential holdings to ~1,611 BTC, including the proceeds from the potential completion of remaining operations announced in the press release dated May 26, 2025,” said the press release.

This post France’s The Blockchain Group Secures €9.7 Million More For Its Bitcoin Treasury Strategy first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything

Coinbase is launching its first-ever branded credit card in partnership with American Express, set to roll out this fall. Called the Coinbase One Card, it will be available only to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the platform’s monthly subscription service. The card will offer 2% to 4% back in Bitcoin on everyday purchases, along with access to American Express perks.  

JUST IN: Coinbase launches credit card allowing users to earn up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase pic.twitter.com/d6pdNZV4pi

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 12, 2025

This is a first-of-its-kind product for Coinbase, which previously only offered a prepaid debit card with Visa in 2020. 

“We see real potential in the combination of Coinbase and crypto with the powerful backing of American Express, and what the card offers is an excellent mix of what customers are looking for right now,” said Will Stredwick, head of American Express global network services, during the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York.

The card is part of a larger push by Coinbase to expand its subscription-based services. Coinbase One costs $29.99/month and includes zero trading fees, higher staking rewards, and customer support perks. The company also announced a cheaper version—Coinbase Basic—for $4.99/month or $49.99/year, which includes fewer features.

Coinbase’s subscription business is growing fast. It brought in $698.1 million in Q1 2025, compared to $1.26 billion in trading revenue. According to William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey, this kind of recurring revenue is a big reason why long-term investors are sticking with the stock.

Launched in 2023, Coinbase One now has over a million members. The company has been steadily growing its ecosystem with products like its Base developer platform and a self-custody wallet. 

The company has long positioned Bitcoin at the center of its strategy—offering BTC custody services to institutions, supporting Bitcoin ETFs, integrating Bitcoin rewards into its products, and actively advocating for Bitcoin-friendly regulation in Washington. Coinbase also supports Bitcoin development directly through funding grants and engineering support. As the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase continues to frame Bitcoin not just as an asset, but as the foundation of its long-term vision.

This post Coinbase Announces Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, Offering up to 4% BTC Back on Everything first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.