@ 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

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The banking giant is exploring an expansion of its blockchain services, focusing on digital payments and currencies.

JPMorgan Chase has filed a new trademark application for the name “JPMD.” The filing was submitted on June 15 to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The application, filed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., covers a broad range of services related to digital assets and blockchain technology. These include the issuance of digital currencies, electronic payment processing, and financial custody services — all of which suggest a possible new stablecoin initiative for JPMorgan.

Experience with JPM Coin

This move wouldn’t be JPMorgan’s first foray into blockchain-based finance. The bank already operates JPM Coin, a dollar-pegged stablecoin used to enable instant transactions between institutional clients. The token runs on Quorum, a private blockchain network developed in-house by JPMorgan and based on Ethereum’s technology.

The registration of the JPMD trademark comes as JPMorgan and other major U.S. banks are considering a collaborative stablecoin project through their jointly owned entities: Early Warning Services and The Clearing House.

Similarly, corporations like Walmart and Amazon are mulling the creation of their own stablecoins.

The post JPMorgan files trademark for ‘JPMD’: a new stablecoin on the horizon for the American bank appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

A new study by Kraken reveals how cryptocurrency investors perceive security as the main challenge in self-managing their digital assets.

According to The Block, a recent survey conducted by crypto exchange Kraken found that nearly half of respondents consider themselves the primary risk factor for their own crypto security. The research, which surveyed 789 participants, highlights that 48% of users see their own actions as the greatest threat to their investments in digital assets, surpassing concerns about external theft or fraud.

Kraken’s report underlines how personal responsibility in security management forces users to take full control of their digital funds. However, the study suggests that this autonomy can also become a source of anxiety for many investors.

Nick Percoco, Chief Security Officer at Kraken, commented on the findings, noting that “a lack of confidence in personal crypto security is capping the growth of the industry.” According to Percoco, unlocking the full potential of cryptocurrencies will require users to embrace self-custody and consistently invest in strong security habits.

Technologies to strengthen security

Despite the concerns highlighted in the study, 31% of participants expressed optimism about future technologies that could improve crypto security. Among the most promising solutions identified:

• advanced biometric systems for user authentication;
• multi-factor authentication to secure wallet access;
• AI-based fraud detection systems to prevent attacks.

Data and case studies

Kraken’s research emerges in a context where security threats remain a pressing reality. FBI data shows that in 2024, nearly 150,000 reports of crypto-related internet fraud resulted in $9.3 billion in losses. Older users, particularly those over 60, proved especially vulnerable, accounting for $3 billion in crypto-related financial fraud losses on their own.

The post Kraken study: 48% of users fear themselves in managing and securing their funds appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via Dr. Eli David

The case for a neutral, permissionless monetary protocol has never been stronger. The incumbent financial system is a permissioned wall garden that is susceptible to a tax. When you're using this system, you don't own your money. Your money doesn't really even exist. What you have is a claim to be able to ask your bank to give you your money or move it somewhere that you desire. Not only is it a permissioned wall garden, but it is an insecure permissioned wall garden that is susceptible to attacks from nefarious actors.

This was made very clear earlier today when Sepah Bank in Iran was the subject of a cyber attack that led to all of its databases being erased and their ATMs being deemed non-functional. Sepah Bank customers have been unable to withdraw cash. And many are warning Iranian citizens to withdraw as much cash as possible from any ATM outside of Sepah Bank's network that is working. Because there is a high likelihood that other banks and ATM networks will be targeted.

Bitcoin is a digital bearer instrument that you can custody yourself using either a software or hardware wallet. The network is operated by an army of geographically distributed nodes that maintain the rules and ensure that anybody trying to transact within the network is doing so within the rules that are set forth. Bitcoin is a push system, not a pull system. It is extremely hard to attack in the way that Sepah Bank was attacked earlier today.

I think it's important to note the way in which Sepah Bank was attacked and highlight that it is starkly different from the types of attacks or shortcomings from the financial system that we've seen over the years.

One of the events that caused a rush to Bitcoin over a decade ago was the banking crisis in Cyprus. We've seen hyperinflationary events in countries like Lebanon and Turkey that have rendered their currencies defunct. In the case of Lebanon, the central bank simply came out and said that people were not going to have access to their money and gave Lebanese citizens an overnight haircut on their savings. We've seen countries like India and Nigeria mess with their physical bills, forcing their citizens to exchange smaller denominations for larger denominations, causing massive disruptions in the process.

We've seen the United States government and its allies freeze the treasury assets of its enemies and they move towards a more multipolar monetary order over the last five years. We've seen the Canadian government freeze the bank accounts of protesters fighting for bodily autonomy. We've seen Operation Chokepoint 1.0 and 2.0. Here in the United States, the government directly targeted industries and businesses within those industries by either overtly preventing them from accessing bank accounts or covertly making it as hard as possible to access bank accounts.

On top of all this, obviously, we have the constant drumbeat of currency debasement across the world, even here in the United States, where the Federal Reserve and Federal Government are expanding the monetary base and going further into debt, ultimately destroying the purchasing power of the dollar at an increasing rate over time.

However, this type of cyber attack on a bank is unique, at least from what I can recall. The ability of nefarious actors to access bank databases and erase them is something new and something that should not be taken lightly. If Iranian hacking capabilities are as sufficient and capable as we are led to believe, it's not hard to imagine that we could see some retaliatory actions from the Iranian regime to counteract the attack on their banking system.

I don't want to incite alarm in any of you, but I think it is important to highlight that this new attack vector is definitely a step towards financial nihilism that could put hundreds of millions, if not billions of people in harm's way, in the sense that they could wake up one morning and be told that the bank does not have access to the records of their cuck buck IOUs. If something like this were to happen, I'm sure anyone who isn't holding Bitcoin in a wallet that they control will really wish they were. Being able to access your money is a vital part of being able to live you life. The thought of that ability being taken away because of a hacking war that breaks out is extremely unnerving.

As I said at the top of this letter, the case for a neutral, permissionless, distributed monetary system with a native currency that is finite is clearer than it ever has been, at least for me. It is imperative that you and anyone that you care about holds Bitcoin in self-custody to inoculate yourselves from these very real risks that are only going to increase from here on out.

Eliminate the trusted third party risks that exist in your life. Use Bitcoin as your money and use it correctly by holding it in self-custody.

Why 5% Interest Rates Won't Trigger The Next Market Crash

Guest Mel Mattison challenges the prevailing fear around rising interest rates, arguing that markets have developed immunity to higher yields. Unlike 2023's sharp selloff when the 10-year hit 5%, Mattison believes equities and Bitcoin can now absorb these levels because they signal stronger growth expectations ahead. He emphasizes that the pace of rate increases matters more than absolute levels, and notes that markets have had time to adjust. With oil trading at just $65 per barrel—a fraction of its inflation-adjusted 2008 peak of over $200—the deflationary pressure from cheap energy provides a crucial buffer.

> "It's not just what the rate we get to, it's how fast we get there." - Mel Mattison

Mattison's most compelling argument centers on AI-driven productivity gains enabling companies to maintain margins despite higher borrowing costs. As I've witnessed firsthand implementing AI tools at TFTC, what once required hiring multiple employees can now be handled by one person with the right automation. This productivity revolution means traditional rate sensitivity models may no longer apply.

Check out the full podcast here for more on institutional Bitcoin adoption, resistance money warnings, and bipartisan coalition building.

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Headlines of the Day

Davis Commodities Puts 40% of $30M Into Bitcoin - via X

Ukraine Bill Adds Bitcoin to National Reserves - via X

Vinanz Raises £3.58M to Expand Bitcoin Mining - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

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Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?

Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.

Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.

Download the report here

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $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...

The joy of a 5-year old riding a bike for the first time is something that should be protected at all costs.

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*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<https://www.opportunitycost.app/> start thinking in SATS today.

*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

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@ 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.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Flash Releases Free Bitcoin Invoicing Tool with No Fees, KYC, or Custody

Flash, a Bitcoin payment platform, just announced it has launched Flash Invoicing, a completely free, non-custodial, and KYC-free Bitcoin invoicing tool. Designed for freelancers, the platform allows users to send professional invoices without platform fees, identity checks, or third party custody.

According to Deel, a crypto payments company for freelancers, Bitcoin is the most used cryptocurrency in the world for payments. Despite this growth, many freelancers continue to use basic methods such as pasting Bitcoin addresses into PDFs or emails. Some rely on custodial platforms that deduct fees or require identity verification, which can affect both earnings and data privacy.

“We’ve seen too many people paste BTC addresses into documents and call it invoicing,” said the CEO of Flash Pierre Corbin. “It’s messy. It’s risky. And it’s time for something better.” 

Flash Invoicing Features:

• 0% platform fees: no subscriptions or commission
• Non-custodial: Bitcoin goes straight to the user’s wallet
• No KYC: users maintain full privacy
• Professional output: branded PDFs and secure payment links
• Integrated dashboard: manage payments, clients, and revenue
• Works with Flash ecosystem: including Stores, Donations, Paywalls, and POS

Many Bitcoin invoicing tools charge a percentage per transaction or require a subscription. As a result, freelancers often lose part of their income simply to issue an invoice and receive payment. Flash is aiming to solve this issue.

“Freelancers work hard enough. The last thing they need is a platform skimming off their earnings,” said Corbin. “That’s why we dropped our fee from 1.5% to 0% — and launched the first invoicing tool that’s truly free, without compromising on privacy or control.”

Flash Invoicing allows users to accept Bitcoin payments without relinquishing control, privacy, or revenue. It is integrated with the broader Flash suite, enabling users to manage invoicing alongside features such as setting up stores, receiving donations, or gating premium content.

“As a freelancer myself, I love using the Flash invoicing feature,” stated a freelancer & Flash user. ”It keeps all my clients in one place, allows me to easily edit invoices and track payments. Much more professional than sending a lightning address in the footer of a PDF invoice.”

This post Flash Releases Free Bitcoin Invoicing Tool with No Fees, KYC, or Custody first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

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It can already be used for pay-to-send e-mail. The send dialog is resizable and you can enter as long of a message as you like. It's sent directly when it connects. The recipient double-clicks on the transaction to see the full message. If someone famous is getting more e-mail than they can read, but would still like to have a way for fans to contact them, they could set up Bitcoin and give out the IP address on their website. "Send X bitcoins to my priority hotline at this IP and I'll read the message personally." -- Satoshi Nakamoto, January 17, 2009

"It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once it gets bootstrapped, there are so many applications if you could effortlessly pay a few cents to a website as easily as dropping coins in a vending machine." -- Satoshi Nakamoto, January 17, 2009

"Forgot to add the good part about micropayments. While I don't think Bitcoin is practical for smaller micropayments right now, it will eventually be as storage and bandwidth costs continue to fall. If Bitcoin catches on on a big scale, it may already be the case by that time. Another way they can become more practical is if I implement client-only mode and the number of network nodes consolidates into a smaller number of professional server farms. Whatever size micropayments you need will eventually be practical. I think in 5 or 10 years, the bandwidth and storage will seem trivial." -- Satoshi Nakamoto, August 10, 2010

"It can already be used for pay-to-send e-mail. The send dialog is resizable and you can enter as long of a message as you like. It's sent directly when it connects. The recipient double-clicks on the transaction to see the full message. If someone famous is getting more e-mail than they can read, but would still like to have a way for fans to contact them, they could set up Bitcoin and give out the IP address on their website. "Send X bitcoins to my priority hotline at this IP and I'll read the message personally." -- Satoshi Nakamoto, January 17, 2009

"It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once it gets bootstrapped, there are so many applications if you could effortlessly pay a few cents to a website as easily as dropping coins in a vending machine." -- Satoshi Nakamoto, January 17, 2009

"Forgot to add the good part about micropayments. While I don't think Bitcoin is practical for smaller micropayments right now, it will eventually be as storage and bandwidth costs continue to fall. If Bitcoin catches on on a big scale, it may already be the case by that time. Another way they can become more practical is if I implement client-only mode and the number of network nodes consolidates into a smaller number of professional server farms. Whatever size micropayments you need will eventually be practical. I think in 5 or 10 years, the bandwidth and storage will seem trivial." -- Satoshi Nakamoto, August 10, 2010

Bitcoin Is Winning Fast AF

I began writing about using the lightning network about 150,000 blocks ago because I got tired of hearing that bitcoin can't make more than 7 transactions a minute. That was true 565,000 blocks ago, but is no longer true since the inception of the lightning network. For example:

• We sent 4,187 bitcoin payments over an 8-hour period at Bitcoin 2025, a Guinness Book of World Record winning achievement.
• Nostr is the biggest bitcoin circular economy in the world.
• Shake N Steak, a U.S.-based Hamburger franchise, accepts bitcoin over the Lightning Network at all of its locations.
• We can pay our credit cards with fractions of bitcoin (sats).
• We can use bitcoin over the lightning network to pay AI agents to do vibe coding using tools like Stacks and Goose.
• Bitcoin Helped Secure An Election In A County In Georgia.

I pay for Protonmail with bitcoin on-chain.

I can also use this email to send it to other people who do the same. I've only done this once to test it out, but it works. This is not new. The time chain uses Hashcash (with a double SHA256 algorithm instead of SHA1) for its famous proof-of-work. Hashcash was originally intended to prevent spam. Now you can use bitcoin to do the same.

I ran the numbers. Our world record is an average of 8.72 bitcoin transactions per second. This is just in one place, but bitcoin is a global monetary network. Bitcoin over the lightning network makes it possible to send value at the speed of light, anywhere in the world.

We won a world record. We are winning. We use money that we know works better than gold.

"If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry." -- Satoshi Nakamoto

☮️ nostr:npub1marc26z8nh3xkj5rcx7ufkatvx6ueqhp5vfw9v5teq26z254renshtf3g0

901,672

Zap This Blog would like to think The Nakamoto Institute for making it easy to find these awsome Satoshi quotes. If you like this article, please Zap The Nakamoto Institute!

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

Desde a sua criação, Bitcoin tem sido visto tanto como uma inovação financeira quanto como uma ameaça ao controlo governamental sobre a economia. Como uma moeda descentralizada, Bitcoin opera fora do sistema financeiro tradicional, desafiando a autoridade dos bancos centrais e dos governos que regulam a emissão e circulação do dinheiro. Essa característica tem levado a diversos conflitos entre governos e a crescente adoção de Bitcoin por indivíduos e empresas.

Razões para a oposição governamental

Perda de controlo monetário: Os governos controlam a economia através da emissão de moeda fiduciária e da definição de políticas monetárias. Como Bitcoin tem uma oferta fixa e não pode ser manipulado, isso reduz a influência governamental sobre a economia.

Dificuldade na tributação e fiscalização: A natureza descentralizada de Bitcoin dificulta a cobrança de impostos e o rastreamento de transações, tornando mais difícil para os governos garantir a conformidade fiscal.

Concorrência com moedas digitais estatais (CBDCs): Muitos países estão a desenvolver moedas digitais de banco central (CBDCs), que oferecem maior controlo sobre as transações financeiras. Bitcoin representa uma alternativa descentralizada, o que pode ameaçar a adoção dessas moedas estatais.

Preocupações com crimes financeiros: Alguns governos argumentam que Bitcoin pode ser usado para lavagem de dinheiro e financiamento ilícito, apesar de ser mais rastreável do que o dinheiro físico devido à transparência da blockchain ou timechain.

Exemplos de conflitos entre governos e Bitcoin

El Salvador: Foi o primeiro país a tornar Bitcoin moeda legal em 2021. Essa decisão gerou reações negativas de instituições financeiras internacionais, como o FMI, que alertou para riscos económicos e tentou pressionar o país a reverter a sua decisão.

China: Em 2021, a China proibiu a mineração e o uso de Bitcoin, citando preocupações ambientais e riscos financeiros. Apesar da proibição, muitos utilizadores chineses continuam a usar Bitcoin de forma descentralizada.

Estados Unidos: Embora Bitcoin seja legal nos EUA, o governo tem aumentado a regulamentação sobre exchanges e mineradores, tentando exercer maior controlo sobre a rede.

União Europeia: A UE tem imposto regulamentos rigorosos sobre Bitcoin, como exigências de identificação para transações, mas não proibiu a sua utilização.

O futuro da adoção do Bitcoin

Apesar da resistência de alguns governos, Bitcoin continua a ser adotado por indivíduos e empresas como uma alternativa financeira segura. Em países com economias instáveis, Bitcoin tem sido uma ferramenta essencial para proteger a riqueza contra a inflação e restrições bancárias.

A tentativa de controlo governamental pode dificultar a adoção de Bitcoin em algumas regiões, mas não impedirá o seu crescimento global. Como uma rede descentralizada, Bitcoin não pode ser banido completamente, e a sua utilidade como reserva de valor e meio de troca continuará a atrair utilizadores em todo o mundo.

Resumindo, os conflitos entre governos e a adoção de Bitcoin refletem o choque entre um sistema financeiro centralizado e uma tecnologia descentralizada que devolve o controlo do dinheiro aos indivíduos. Embora alguns governos tentem restringir o seu uso, Bitcoin continua a crescer e a provar a sua resistência, tornando-se cada vez mais uma opção viável para aqueles que procuram liberdade financeira.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 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.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

A sede do ProtonMail está localizada na Suíça, um país conhecido por suas leis rigorosas de privacidade, embora a empresa tenha enfrentado alguns desafios, como ataques DDoS e pressão do governo suíço, ela continua comprometida em fornecer um serviço seguro e privado aos seus usuários.

O ProtonMail foi fundado em 2014 por um grupo de cientistas do CERN (Organização Europeia para Pesquisa Nuclear) que queriam criar uma plataforma de e-mail segura e privada que usasse criptografia de ponta a ponta. O objetivo era oferecer aos usuários uma alternativa aos serviços de e-mail tradicionais que frequentemente violam a privacidade dos usuários.A equipe fundadora incluía Andy Yen, Jason Stockman e Wei Sun, todos com formação em física e matemática.

Ao longo dos anos, o ProtonMail lançou vários recursos adicionais, incluindo aplicativos móveis para iOS e Android, integração com Tor e a possibilidade de enviar e-mails criptografados para usuários de outros provedores de e-mail. O ProtonMail também lançou uma VPN (rede privada virtual) chamada ProtonVPN, que segue o mesmo compromisso com a privacidade e segurança dos usuários.

A criptografia de ponta a ponta utilizada pelo ProtonMail assegura a proteção de todas as mensagens de seus usuários. O processo de criptografia ocorre no dispositivo do remetente antes do envio das mensagens aos servidores da ProtonMail, onde elas são armazenadas em formato criptografado. Quando o destinatário abre a mensagem, ela é descriptografada no dispositivo do destinatário, garantindo que somente o destinatário possa ler o conteúdo da mensagem. Isso significa que, mesmo que os servidores da ProtonMail sejam violados, as mensagens dos usuários permanecerão seguras e protegidas.

O ProtonMail oferece suporte à autenticação de dois fatores usando chaves de segurança YubiKey. Isso adiciona uma camada extra de segurança ao login da conta do ProtonMail, pois um invasor precisaria não apenas da senha, mas também da chave física para acessar a conta do usuário. A YubiKey é uma opção popular para autenticação de dois fatores, pois é fácil de usar e oferece proteção adicional contra-ataques de phishing e keylogging. O ProtonMail também suporta outras opções de autenticação de dois fatores, aplicativos de autenticação, como o Aegis Authenticator.

Outra funcionalidade importante é a proteção contra phishing e spam. O ProtonMail utiliza algoritmos avançados de filtragem para identificar e bloquear mensagens maliciosas antes que elas cheguem à caixa de entrada do usuário. Isso ajuda a reduzir a quantidade de spam recebida e a proteger contra-ataques de phishing, que tentam enganar o usuário a fornecer informações pessoais.

Passo a passo instalação do aplicativo protonmail no Android:

1. Baixe e instale o aplicativo protonmail em seu dispositivo móvel no F-droid ou obtainium.

2. Clique em "Criar nova conta" se você ainda não tiver uma conta ProtonMail, ou clique em "Fazer login" se já tiver uma conta.

3. Se você está criando uma nova conta, preencha os campos de registro, incluindo seu endereço de e-mail desejado e uma senha forte.

4. Depois de criar ou fazer login em sua conta, você pode usar o ProtonMail em seu dispositivo Android para enviar e receber e-mails seguros e protegidos.

Lembre-se de que, para garantir a privacidade e a segurança de suas informações, é importante usar uma senha forte e habilitar a autenticação de dois fatores. Utilize o Tor para acessar seu e-mail no site onion e considere usar uma VPN.

No Relatório de Transparência do ProtonMail, em muitos casos, a única informação que eles puderam fornecer foi um e-mail de recuperação (opcional na criação da conta) ou o IP que acessou o e-mail.

A própria ProtonMail recomenda o uso do Tor para acesso anônimo ao serviço. Se um juiz exigir a coleta do seu IP, a Proton não terá essa informação se você acessar seu e-mail via o site onion pelo Tor.

Se você é uma pessoa em situação de risco, como um ativista ou alguém que pode ser perseguido por diversos motivos, é essencial tomar medidas excepcionais: 1. Pague pelo serviço com Bitcoin. 2. Não use informações que possam identificá-lo ao se registrar. 3. Utilize o Tor, ou uma VPN, sempre que acessar o ProtonMail.

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The banking giant is exploring an expansion of its blockchain services, focusing on digital payments and currencies.

JPMorgan Chase has filed a new trademark application for the name “JPMD.” The filing was submitted on June 15 to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The application, filed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., covers a broad range of services related to digital assets and blockchain technology. These include the issuance of digital currencies, electronic payment processing, and financial custody services — all of which suggest a possible new stablecoin initiative for JPMorgan.

Experience with JPM Coin

This move wouldn’t be JPMorgan’s first foray into blockchain-based finance. The bank already operates JPM Coin, a dollar-pegged stablecoin used to enable instant transactions between institutional clients. The token runs on Quorum, a private blockchain network developed in-house by JPMorgan and based on Ethereum’s technology.

The registration of the JPMD trademark comes as JPMorgan and other major U.S. banks are considering a collaborative stablecoin project through their jointly owned entities: Early Warning Services and The Clearing House.

Similarly, corporations like Walmart and Amazon are mulling the creation of their own stablecoins.

The post JPMorgan files trademark for ‘JPMD’: a new stablecoin on the horizon for the American bank appeared first on Atlas21.

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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.

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Desde a sua criação em 2008, Bitcoin tem sido visto como um desafio direto ao sistema bancário tradicional. Desenvolvido como uma alternativa descentralizada ao dinheiro fiduciário, Bitcoin oferece uma forma de armazenar e transferir valor sem depender de bancos, governos ou outras instituições financeiras. Essa característica faz com que seja considerado um símbolo de resistência contra um sistema financeiro que, ao longo do tempo, tem sido marcado por crises, manipulações e restrições impostas aos cidadãos.

Crise financeira de 2008 e o nascimento de Bitcoin

Bitcoin surgiu em resposta à crise financeira de 2008, um colapso que revelou as falhas do sistema bancário global. Bancos centrais imprimiram grandes quantidades de dinheiro para resgatar instituições financeiras irresponsáveis, enquanto milhões de pessoas perderam as suas casas, poupanças e empregos. Nesse contexto, Bitcoin foi criado como um sistema financeiro alternativo, onde não existe uma entidade central com o poder de manipular a economia em benefício próprio.

No primeiro bloco da blockchain ou timechain de Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto incluiu a seguinte mensagem:

"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."

Essa frase, retirada de uma manchete de jornal da época, simboliza a intenção de Bitcoin de oferecer um sistema financeiro fora do controlo dos bancos e dos governos.

Principais razões pelas quais Bitcoin resiste ao sistema bancário

Descentralização: Ao contrário do dinheiro emitido por bancos centrais, Bitcoin não pode ser criado ou controlado por nenhuma entidade específica. A rede de utilizadores valida as transações de forma transparente e independente.

Oferta limitada: Enquanto os bancos centrais podem imprimir dinheiro sem limites, causando inflação e desvalorização da moeda, Bitcoin tem uma oferta fixa de 21 milhões de unidades, tornando-o resistente à depreciação artificial.

Impossibilidade de censura: Bancos podem bloquear contas e impedir transações a qualquer momento. Com Bitcoin, qualquer pessoa pode enviar e receber fundos sem pedir permissão a terceiros.

Autocustódia: Em vez de confiar os seus fundos a um banco, os utilizadores de Bitcoin podem armazenar as suas próprias moedas, sem risco de congelamento de contas ou falências bancárias.

Conflito entre bancos e Bitcoin

Ataques mediáticos: Grandes instituições financeiras frequentemente classificam Bitcoin como arriscado, volátil ou inútil, tentando desincentivar a sua adoção.

Regulação e repressão: Alguns governos, influenciados pelo setor bancário, têm criado restrições ao uso de Bitcoin, dificultando a sua compra e venda.

Criação de alternativas centralizadas: Muitos bancos centrais estão a desenvolver moedas digitais (CBDCs) que mantêm o controlo do dinheiro digital, mas sem oferecer a liberdade e a descentralização de Bitcoin.

Resumindo, o Bitcoin não é apenas uma moeda digital, mas um movimento de resistência contra um sistema financeiro que falhou repetidamente em proteger o cidadão comum. Ao oferecer uma alternativa descentralizada, transparente e resistente à censura, Bitcoin representa a liberdade financeira e desafia o monopólio dos bancos sobre o dinheiro. Enquanto o sistema bancário tradicional continuar a impor restrições e a controlar o fluxo de capital, Bitcoin permanecerá como um símbolo de independência e soberania financeira.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

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Bitcoin Magazine

Flash Releases Free Bitcoin Invoicing Tool with No Fees, KYC, or Custody

Flash, a Bitcoin payment platform, just announced it has launched Flash Invoicing, a completely free, non-custodial, and KYC-free Bitcoin invoicing tool. Designed for freelancers, the platform allows users to send professional invoices without platform fees, identity checks, or third party custody.

According to Deel, a crypto payments company for freelancers, Bitcoin is the most used cryptocurrency in the world for payments. Despite this growth, many freelancers continue to use basic methods such as pasting Bitcoin addresses into PDFs or emails. Some rely on custodial platforms that deduct fees or require identity verification, which can affect both earnings and data privacy.

“We’ve seen too many people paste BTC addresses into documents and call it invoicing,” said the CEO of Flash Pierre Corbin. “It’s messy. It’s risky. And it’s time for something better.” 

Flash Invoicing Features:

• 0% platform fees: no subscriptions or commission
• Non-custodial: Bitcoin goes straight to the user’s wallet
• No KYC: users maintain full privacy
• Professional output: branded PDFs and secure payment links
• Integrated dashboard: manage payments, clients, and revenue
• Works with Flash ecosystem: including Stores, Donations, Paywalls, and POS

Many Bitcoin invoicing tools charge a percentage per transaction or require a subscription. As a result, freelancers often lose part of their income simply to issue an invoice and receive payment. Flash is aiming to solve this issue.

“Freelancers work hard enough. The last thing they need is a platform skimming off their earnings,” said Corbin. “That’s why we dropped our fee from 1.5% to 0% — and launched the first invoicing tool that’s truly free, without compromising on privacy or control.”

Flash Invoicing allows users to accept Bitcoin payments without relinquishing control, privacy, or revenue. It is integrated with the broader Flash suite, enabling users to manage invoicing alongside features such as setting up stores, receiving donations, or gating premium content.

“As a freelancer myself, I love using the Flash invoicing feature,” stated a freelancer & Flash user. ”It keeps all my clients in one place, allows me to easily edit invoices and track payments. Much more professional than sending a lightning address in the footer of a PDF invoice.”

This post Flash Releases Free Bitcoin Invoicing Tool with No Fees, KYC, or Custody first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

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A rede Bitcoin é formada por uma infraestrutura descentralizada feita de dispositivos chamados nós. Esses nós têm um papel crucial na validação, verificação e manutenção do sistema, assegurando a segurança e a integridade do blockchain ou timechain. Ao contrário dos sistemas tradicionais, onde uma autoridade central controla as operações, a rede Bitcoin requer a colaboração de milhares de nós pelo mundo, promovendo descentralização e transparência.

Na rede Bitcoin, um nó é qualquer computador que está conectado ao sistema e participa do armazenamento, validação ou distribuição de informações. Esses dispositivos rodam o software do Bitcoin e podem operar em diferentes níveis de participação, desde tarefas básicas de transmissão de dados até a validação total de transações e blocos.

Existem dois tipos principais de nós:

Nós completos (full nodes):

Armazenam uma cópia total do blockchain ou timechain.

Validam e verificam todas as transações e blocos de acordo com as regras do protocolo.

Asseguram a segurança da rede ao rejeitar transações inválidas ou tentativas de fraude.

Nós leves (light nodes):

Armazenam somente partes do blockchain ou timechain, não a estrutura inteira.

Confiam em nós completos para obter dados sobre o histórico de transações.

São mais rápidos e menos exigentes em termos de recursos, mas dependem de terceiros para validação completa.

Os nós conferem se as transações enviadas seguem as regras do protocolo, como assinaturas digitais válidas e ausência de gastos duplos.

Somente transações válidas são enviadas para outros nós e incluídas no próximo bloco.

Os nós completos mantêm uma cópia atualizada de todo o histórico de transações da rede, garantindo integridade e transparência e se houver discrepâncias, os nós seguem a cadeia mais longa e válida, evitando manipulações.

Os nós transmitem informações de transações e blocos para outros nós na rede. Esse processo assegura que todos os participantes estejam sincronizados e atualizados.

Como a rede Bitcoin é composta por milhares de nós independentes, é quase impossível que um único agente controle ou modifique o sistema.

Os nós também protegem contra ataques ao validar informações e barrar tentativas de fraudes.

Os nós completos são muito importantes, pois atuam como auditores independentes. Eles não precisam de terceiros e podem verificar todo o histórico de transações diretamente.

Ao manterem uma cópia completa do blockchain ou timechain, esses nós permitem que qualquer pessoa valide transações sem depender de intermediários, promovendo clareza e liberdade financeira.

Além disso, os nós completos:

Reforçam a resistência à censura: Nenhum governo ou entidade pode excluir ou alterar dados registrados no sistema.

Preservam a descentralização: Quanto mais nós completos existirem, mais segura e forte será a rede.

Aumentam a confiança no sistema: Os usuários podem confirmar de forma independente se as regras estão sendo seguidas.

Apesar de seu valor, operar um nó completo pode ser difícil, pois exige espaço de armazenamento, processamento e largura de banda. À medida que o blockchain ou timechain cresce, os requisitos técnicos aumentam, o que pode dificultar a participação de usuários comuns.

Para resolver esse problema, a comunidade busca sempre soluções, como melhorias no software e aumento na escalabilidade, para facilitar o acesso à rede sem prejudicar a segurança.

Resumindo, os nós são a base da rede Bitcoin, desempenhando funções importantes na validação, verificação e distribuição de transações. Eles garantem a descentralização e a segurança do sistema, permitindo que os participantes operem de forma confiável sem depender de intermediários.

Particularmente, os nós completos têm um papel crucial na proteção da integridade do blockchain ou timechain, tornando a rede Bitcoin resistente a censura e manipulação.

Embora operar um nó possa exigir recursos técnicos, seu efeito na preservação da liberdade financeira e na confiança do sistema é inestimável. Assim, os nós continuam sendo elementos essenciais para o sucesso e a durabilidade do Bitcoin.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

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Bitcoin foi criado para oferecer uma alternativa segura e descentralizada ao dinheiro tradicional, permitindo transações financeiras sem a necessidade de intermediários. DeFi, por outro lado, surgiu como uma expansão deste conceito, propondo serviços financeiros descentralizados, como empréstimos, trocas e geração de rendimento. No entanto, apesar das promessas de inovação, DeFi apresenta inúmeros riscos, tornando-se uma aposta perigosa para quem valoriza a segurança do seu Bitcoin.

O que é DeFi?

DeFi refere-se a um conjunto de aplicações financeiras que funcionam sem a intermediação de bancos ou instituições tradicionais. Estas plataformas utilizam contratos inteligentes para automatizar transações, permitindo que qualquer pessoa aceda a serviços financeiros sem depender de terceiros. Na teoria, DeFi promete mais liberdade financeira, mas na prática está cheio de riscos, fraudes e vulnerabilidades técnicas que podem comprometer os fundos dos utilizadores.

Os riscos de DeFi para quem tem Bitcoin

Bitcoin é a moeda digital mais segura do mundo, protegida por uma rede descentralizada e resistente à censura. Ao contrário de DeFi, que ainda está em fase experimental e já sofreu inúmeros ataques, Bitcoin mantém-se sólido e confiável. Quando alguém coloca Bitcoin em plataformas DeFi, está a abrir mão da segurança da sua custódia direta e a confiar em sistemas mais frágeis. os principais riscos incluem:

Hackers e falhas de código: contratos inteligentes são escritos por programadores e podem conter falhas que permitem roubos massivos. ao longo dos anos, milhares de milhões de dólares já foram perdidos devido a vulnerabilidades em plataformas DeFi.

Riscos de liquidação: muitas aplicações DeFi funcionam com sistemas de colateralização, onde os utilizadores bloqueiam Bitcoin para obterem empréstimos. se o mercado se tornar volátil, esses Bitcoins podem ser liquidados a preços abaixo do esperado, causando perdas irreversíveis.

Fraudes e rug pulls: DeFi está repleto de projetos obscuros onde os criadores desaparecem com os fundos dos utilizadores. sem regulamentação e sem garantias, quem deposita Bitcoin nessas plataformas pode nunca mais recuperar os seus fundos.

Guardar Bitcoin em segurança é a melhor escolha

Bitcoin foi criado para ser auto-custodiado, ou seja, cada utilizador deve ter controlo direto sobre os seus fundos sem depender de terceiros. Ao enviar Bitcoin para plataformas DeFi, perde-se essa segurança e expõe-se o ativo a riscos desnecessários. A melhor forma de proteger Bitcoin é armazená-lo numa carteira segura, preferencialmente offline (cold storage), evitando qualquer tipo de exposição a contratos inteligentes ou sistemas vulneráveis.

Resumindo, DeFi pode parecer inovador, mas os riscos superam largamente os potenciais benefícios, especialmente para quem valoriza a segurança de Bitcoin. ao invés de arriscar perder fundos em plataformas inseguras, o mais sensato é manter Bitcoin armazenado de forma segura, garantindo a sua preservação a longo prazo. Enquanto Bitcoin continua a ser a melhor reserva de valor digital do mundo, DeFi ainda se revela um ambiente instável e perigoso, onde poucos saem ganhadores e muitos acabam por perder.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

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Struggles are an inevitable part of life, and everyone faces challenges that test their strength and resilience. While it can be tempting to shy away from difficulties, embracing the struggle can be a powerful catalyst for growth and self-improvement.

The Value of Struggles

Struggles help us develop resilience, perseverance, and problem-solving skills. They push us out of our comfort zones, forcing us to adapt and innovate. By facing challenges head-on, we build confidence and develop a sense of accomplishment.

Lessons from Struggles

• Resilience: Struggles teach us to bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward.

• Self-awareness: Challenges help us understand our strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

• Creativity: Struggles often require innovative solutions, fostering creativity and resourcefulness.

• Empathy: Experiencing difficulties can increase our understanding and compassion for others who face similar challenges.

Navigating Struggles

-Acknowledge your emotions: Recognize your feelings and give yourself permission to process them. - Break it down: Divide the challenge into manageable tasks to reduce overwhelm. - Seek support: Reach out to friends, family, or professionals for guidance and encouragement. - Focus on progress: Celebrate small victories and acknowledge your growth.

Emerging Stronger

Struggles are not roadblocks, but stepping stones to success. By embracing challenges and persevering through difficulties, we can emerge stronger, wiser, and more resilient. Remember, every struggle is an opportunity for growth and self-improvement.

Keep Moving Forward

You are capable of overcoming any obstacle. Draw on your inner strength, tap into your resilience, and keep moving forward. With each challenge, you will grow, learn, and become a more empowered version of yourself.

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O Bitcoin trouxe uma nova maneira de entender a economia monetária, rompendo com os modelos inflacionários das moedas tradicionais e apresentando uma estrutura deflacionária especial. Com uma oferta restrita e regras matemáticas claras, o Bitcoin proporciona previsibilidade, segurança e resistência a manipulações, características que atraem investidores e fãs ao redor do mundo.

Um dos aspectos mais importantes do Bitcoin é sua oferta limitada a 21 milhões de unidades, definida no código original por Satoshi Nakamoto. Essa característica separa o Bitcoin das moedas tradicionais, cuja oferta é ilimitada e muitas vezes aumentada por bancos centrais para atender a necessidades econômicas ou políticas.

A oferta limitada dá ao Bitcoin uma qualidade semelhante ao ouro, sendo frequentemente chamado de "ouro digital". Assim como o ouro, o Bitcoin é escasso e requer esforço para ser adquirido (por meio de mineração). A escassez programada cria uma dinâmica de oferta e demanda que tende a aumentar o valor do ativo à medida que a demanda cresce e a oferta se mantém constante.

A emissão de novos bitcoins acontece através da mineração, e as recompensas são reduzidas pela metade em eventos chamados halvings, que ocorrem aproximadamente a cada quatro anos. Essa diminuição gradual na emissão de novos bitcoins assegura que a quantidade total será alcançada por volta de 2140, tornando o Bitcoin previsível a longo prazo.

O modelo deflacionário do Bitcoin é definido pela diminuição na criação de novas unidades e pelo aumento potencial de seu valor com o tempo. Isso contrasta diretamente com o modelo inflacionário das moedas tradicionais, nas quais a oferta é constantemente aumentada, reduzindo seu poder de compra.

A deflação no Bitcoin acontece porque a oferta de novos bitcoins diminui enquanto a demanda global tende a aumentar. Em vez de perder poder de compra, como ocorre com moedas tradicionais, o Bitcoin tem potencial de valorização à medida que mais pessoas buscam guardá-lo como valor.

Economias que dependem de sistemas deflacionários enfrentam desafios, como a tendência dos consumidores de adiar gastos na expectativa de preços mais baixos. Contudo, no caso do Bitcoin, ele é visto principalmente como uma reserva de valor, diminuindo esse efeito negativo. Por outro lado, o modelo deflacionário estimula a poupança, protegendo a riqueza das pessoas contra desvalorizações arbitrárias.

O modelo inflacionário das moedas fiduciárias se baseia na ampliação da oferta monetária para impulsionar o crescimento econômico, o que, na prática, reduz o poder de compra das moedas ao longo do tempo.

Governos e bancos centrais frequentemente imprimem dinheiro para pagar dívidas ou estimular a economia, o que pode resultar em inflação descontrolada.

Esse aumento na quantidade de dinheiro diminui o valor do dinheiro já existente, prejudicando poupadores e pessoas com menos acesso a ativos que protejam contra a inflação.

Como o Bitcoin é descentralizado e funciona em uma rede pública, nenhuma entidade central pode mudar suas regras ou aumentar sua oferta.

Isso o torna um ativo confiável para quem quer proteger sua riqueza em economias instáveis ou inflacionárias.

De maneira resumida a economia do Bitcoin é principalmente movida pela interação entre oferta e demanda.

O aumento da aceitação global, tanto por investidores institucionais quanto por indivíduos, gerou maior demanda pelo Bitcoin.

Sua utilidade como reserva de valor e defesa contra inflação atrai pessoas de economias frágeis e investidores em busca de diversificação.

Cada halving reduz a criação de novos bitcoins, diminuindo a oferta no mercado. Historicamente, esses eventos têm sido seguidos por aumentos significativos no preço do Bitcoin, pois a oferta menor atende a uma demanda crescente.

Com a oferta limitada e um cronograma previsível de emissão, o Bitcoin funciona de maneira clara, evitando surpresas econômicas comuns em sistemas fiduciários manipulados por bancos centrais.

Com o tempo, o Bitcoin pode ter um papel cada vez mais importante na economia global. Seu modelo deflacionário é especialmente atraente em um contexto de crescente desconfiança em relação às moedas fiduciárias e aos sistemas financeiros tradicionais.

O Bitcoin está se estabelecendo como uma reserva de valor, parecido com o ouro, mas com vantagens em portabilidade e divisibilidade.

Em períodos de crise econômica, ele é visto como uma alternativa segura para proteger riquezas.

À medida que a recompensa pela mineração diminui, espera-se que as taxas de transação sustentem a rede, aumentando sua segurança sem afetar a economia dos usuários.

Resumindo, a economia do Bitcoin é uma inovação que desafia os conceitos estabelecidos pelas moedas fiduciárias. Com sua oferta limitada, modelo deflacionário e resistência à manipulação, ele oferece uma alternativa forte para proteger a riqueza contra os efeitos da inflação.

Apesar de enfrentar desafios, como volatilidade e aceitação global, o Bitcoin continua a se fortalecer como uma reserva de valor confiável e uma forma de dinheiro digital. Seu modelo econômico, baseado na escassez e na transparência, pode ter um impacto duradouro na forma como pessoas e instituições lidam com o armazenamento e a preservação de valor no século XXI.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 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

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A mineração de Bitcoin é um processo crucial para o funcionamento e a segurança da rede. Ela tem um papel importante na validação de transações e na geração de novos bitcoins, garantindo a integridade do sistema baseado em blockchain ou timechain. Esse processo envolve resolver cálculos matemáticos complicados, exigindo grande poder computacional. Além disso, a mineração tem efeitos econômicos, ambientais e tecnológicos que devem ser analisados de forma detalhada.

A mineração de Bitcoin é o procedimento pelo qual novas unidades da moeda são criadas e adicionadas à rede. Ela também é responsável por verificar e registrar transações no blockchain ou timechain. Esse sistema foi criado para ser descentralizado, eliminando a necessidade de uma autoridade central para controlar a emissão ou validar operações.

Os participantes do processo, chamados de mineradores, competem para resolver problemas matemáticos difíceis. Aquele que achar a solução primeiro ganha o direito de adicionar um novo bloco ao blockchain ou timechain e recebe uma recompensa em bitcoins, além das taxas de transação que estão no bloco. Esse mecanismo é chamado de prova de trabalho (Proof of Work - PoW).

O processo de mineração é muito técnico e segue uma série de etapas:

Agrupamento de transações: as transações enviadas pelos usuários são reunidas em um bloco pendente, que aguarda validação.

Resolução de problemas matemáticos: os mineradores devem encontrar um número específico, chamado nonce, que, quando combinado com os dados do bloco, gera um hash criptográfico dentro de um padrão exigido. Esse processo requer tentativa e erro, consumindo alto poder computacional.

Validação do bloco: quando um minerador encontra a solução correta, o bloco é validado e adicionado ao blockchain ou timechain. Todos os nós da rede verificam a autenticidade do bloco antes de aceitá-lo.

Recompensa: o minerador que vencer recebe uma recompensa em bitcoins, além das taxas pagas pelas transações que estão no bloco. Essa recompensa diminui ao longo do tempo em um evento chamado halving, que acontece aproximadamente a cada quatro anos.

A mineração de Bitcoin tem um impacto econômico grande, pois cria oportunidades de renda para pessoas e empresas. Ela também estimula o desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias, como processadores especializados (ASICs) e sistemas de resfriamento modernos.

Além disso, a mineração apoia a inclusão financeira ao manter uma rede descentralizada, permitindo transações rápidas e seguras em nível global. Em áreas com economias instáveis, o Bitcoin oferece uma alternativa viável para preservação de valor e transferências financeiras.

Apesar de seus benefícios econômicos, a mineração de Bitcoin é frequentemente criticada por seu impacto no meio ambiente. O processo de prova de trabalho consome grandes quantidades de eletricidade, especialmente em áreas onde a matriz energética depende de fontes fósseis.

Estima-se que a mineração de Bitcoin consuma tanta energia quanto alguns países inteiros, levantando preocupações sobre sua sustentabilidade. No entanto, há esforços contínuos para reduzir esses impactos, como o uso crescente de fontes de energia renovável e soluções alternativas, como redes baseadas na prova de participação (Proof of Stake - PoS) em outros sistemas descentralizados.

A mineração também enfrenta desafios ligados à escalabilidade e à concentração de poder computacional. Grandes empresas e pools de mineração dominam o setor, o que pode afetar a descentralização da rede.

Outro desafio é a complexidade crescente dos cálculos matemáticos, que exige hardware mais avançado e consome mais energia com o tempo. Para enfrentar esses problemas, pesquisadores estudam soluções que otimizem o uso de recursos e mantenham a rede sustentável por um longo período.

Resumindo, a mineração de Bitcoin é um processo essencial para manter a rede e para a criação de novas unidades da moeda. Ela garante segurança, transparência e descentralização, sustentando o funcionamento do blockchain ou timechain.

No entanto, a mineração também traz desafios, como o alto consumo de energia e a concentração de recursos em grandes pools. Apesar disso, a busca por soluções sustentáveis e inovações tecnológicas indica um futuro promissor, onde o Bitcoin continuará a ter um papel central na economia digital.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

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In a move that diverges from many other U.S. states, Connecticut has passed a new law that bars state and local governments from investing in bitcoin or any other digital currency.

The bill, HB7082, passed unanimously in both the House and Senate with zero opposing votes.

The law, officially titled “An Act Concerning the Regulation of Virtual Currency and State Investments,” was signed into law recently and is causing a stir in the Bitcoin and financial communities.

HB7082 prohibits the state of Connecticut and its political subdivisions from accepting, holding or investing in digital currencies. This includes bitcoin, ethereum and other digital assets. It also bars the state from creating a bitcoin reserve, a concept being explored by other states.

The law goes further by imposing strict rules on digital asset businesses operating in the state. These rules enforce anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and parental consent verification for digital asset users under 18.

It also requires 1:1 reserve requirements for bitcoin custodians.

Businesses that handle Bitcoin transactions must now provide users with clear information about risks and fees and provide receipts with full transaction details.

No business can let a minor use a money-sharing app without first getting proof of consent from a parent or guardian.

Lawmakers in Connecticut say it’s about protecting public funds and minimizing financial risk. They say Connecticut’s new law bars state investments in bitcoin to protect its financial assets from market risk.

Supporters argue that the high volatility of bitcoin makes it a risky investment for public money like pension funds and state reserves.

The law also looks to bring bitcoin businesses under tighter control, to make them follow the same rules as the traditional financial system.

While Connecticut is cracking down on digital assets, other states are going the other way.

States like Texas, New Hampshire and Arizona have already passed laws or proposed bills to create a bitcoin reserve, which allows public funds to be invested in bitcoin.

Texas has even described bitcoin as a “forward-thinking investment opportunity” and a long-term store of value.

The new law has caused mixed reactions in the financial world. Some think it’s too cautious, others think it’s part of a bigger plan.

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, responded with sarcasm, “The hedge fund managers got so upset they couldn’t beat Bitcoin…”

Matt Hougan on X

Some states like Florida, South Dakota and Oklahoma have either killed or vetoed Bitcoin bills this year. Others like Louisiana are still exploring the tech. Louisiana just announced it would create a special committee to study AI, blockchain and digital assets.

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O Bitcoin é amplamente reconhecido como a primeira e mais importante inovação no campo das moedas digitais. Criado por Satoshi Nakamoto em 2009, ele estabeleceu as bases para um sistema financeiro descentralizado. Desde então, surgiram milhares de outras moedas digitais, muitas vezes referidas como criptomoedas ou até mesmo "shitcoins" por críticos que apontam sua volatilidade, falta de utilidade clara ou centralização. Essa comparação entre o Bitcoin e outras criptomoedas é essencial para entender os valores exclusivos que o Bitcoin representa.

O Bitcoin foi criado para ser uma alternativa ao sistema financeiro tradicional. Sua missão central é fornecer uma moeda descentralizada, resistente à censura e livre de intermediários como bancos ou governos.

Por outro lado, a maioria das outras criptomoedas/shitcoins surgiu com diferentes objetivos, que vão desde experimentos tecnológicos até planos de enriquecimento rápido. Muitas dessas moedas não têm a mesma descentralização e segurança do Bitcoin, sendo frequentemente geridas por equipes ou organizações centralizadas, o que as torna mais suscetíveis à manipulação e falhas de segurança.

Descentralização e segurança

Bitcoin: a rede Bitcoin é suportada por milhares de nós espalhados pelo mundo, garantindo verdadeira descentralização.

Seu algoritmo de consenso, Proof of Work (PoW), é amplamente testado e proporciona altos níveis de segurança contra ataques.

Não há controle centralizado, o que significa que nenhuma entidade pode alterar suas regras fundamentais.

Outras criptomoedas/shitcoins

Praticamente todas sacrificam descentralização em troca de velocidade ou funcionalidades adicionais.

Algumas utilizam mecanismos de consenso alternativos, como Proof of Stake (PoS), que, embora sejam mais eficientes em termos energéticos, são frequentemente criticados por favorecer a centralização e oferecer menor segurança.

Em muitos casos, há equipes de desenvolvimento centralizadas que podem modificar o código, criar mais unidades da moeda ou até encerrar o projeto, comprometendo a confiança dos usuários.

Oferta e escassez

Bitcoin: o Bitcoin tem uma quantidade limitada de 21 milhões de unidades, garantindo sua escassez.

Essa característica, junto com a crescente demanda, posiciona o Bitcoin como uma reserva de valor confiável, frequentemente comparado ao ouro digital.

Outras criptomoedas/shitcoins

Muitas não têm limites claros em sua oferta, resultando em inflação descontrolada.

Algumas “moedas” são intencionalmente inflacionárias, o que pode reduzir seu valor com o tempo.

Em muitos casos, essas “moedas” são pré-mineradas ou distribuídas de maneira desigual, favorecendo os criadores em detrimento da comunidade.

Finalidade e utilidade

Bitcoin: o Bitcoin é, acima de tudo, uma forma de dinheiro digital e reserva de valor.

Sua rede é confiável e simples, com o foco principal em ser um meio de troca e proteção contra a inflação.

Sua solidez o torna ideal para transações e armazenamento de valor a longo prazo.

Outras criptomoedas/shitcoins

Muitas shitcoins são apresentadas como soluções para casos específicos, como contratos inteligentes, jogos ou finanças descentralizadas.

Apesar de promessas ousadas, muitos falham em oferecer utilidade real ou em competir com soluções centralizadas já existentes.

Há um número considerável de projetos que não têm uma proposta clara e acabam sendo abandonados após um tempo de especulação.

Volatilidade e reputação

Bitcoin: embora o Bitcoin seja instável, ele é amplamente aceito como o padrão-ouro das moedas digitais.

Sua imagem foi construída ao longo de mais de dez anos de operação confiável e segurança comprovada.

Outras criptomoedas/shitcoins

Muitas shitcoins enfrentam alta volatilidade, frequentemente impulsionada por especulação ou manipulação de mercado.

A falta de clareza e as práticas duvidosas de alguns projetos prejudicam a imagem do setor como um todo.

Resistência à censura

Bitcoin: devido à sua descentralização e segurança, o Bitcoin é muito resistente à censura. Qualquer pessoa com acesso à internet pode participar da rede e fazer transações.

Outras criptomoedas/shitcoins

Muitas "shitcoins" dependem de estruturas centralizadas ou têm líderes identificáveis que podem ser pressionados por governos ou outros atores para censurar transações.

Resumindo, o Bitcoin continua sendo o líder indiscutível no mundo das moedas digitais devido à sua descentralização, segurança e escassez comprovada. Ele é um sistema feito para durar, oferecendo liberdade financeira e proteção contra a inflação.

Enquanto isso, muitas criptomoedas ou shitcoins não conseguem atingir os mesmos padrões de segurança e confiança, frequentemente priorizando velocidade, funções extras ou lucros especulativos rápidos. Para investidores e usuários, é importante distinguir entre o Bitcoin e os vários projetos alternativos, muitos dos quais podem não resistir ao teste do tempo.

O Bitcoin não só iniciou uma revolução financeira, mas continua sendo o padrão pelo qual todas as outras moedas digitais são medidas.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

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No sistema Bitcoin, a proteção e a posse dos fundos são asseguradas por um modelo criptográfico que usa chaves privadas e públicas. Esses componentes são fundamentais para a segurança digital, permitindo que os usuários administrem e protejam seus ativos de maneira descentralizada. Esse processo elimina a necessidade de intermediários, assegurando que somente o legítimo proprietário tenha acesso ao saldo vinculado a um endereço específico na blockchain ou timechain.

Chaves privadas e públicas são partes de um sistema de criptografia assimétrica, onde dois códigos distintos, mas matematicamente ligados, são utilizados para garantir a segurança e a veracidade das transações.

Chave Privada = É um código secreto, normalmente apresentado como uma longa sequência de números e letras.

Funciona como uma senha que dá ao proprietário o controle sobre os bitcoins ligados a um endereço específico.

Deve ser mantida em total sigilo, pois qualquer pessoa que a tenha pode movimentar os fundos correspondentes.

Chave Pública = É matematicamente derivada da chave privada, mas não permite que a chave privada seja descoberta.

Funciona como um endereço digital, semelhante a um número de conta bancária, podendo ser compartilhada livremente para receber pagamentos.

Serve para confirmar a autenticidade das assinaturas geradas com a chave privada.

Juntas, essas chaves asseguram que as transações sejam seguras e verificáveis, dispensando a necessidade de intermediários.

O funcionamento das chaves privadas e públicas baseia-se na criptografia de curva elíptica. Quando um usuário quer enviar bitcoins, ele usa sua chave privada para assinar digitalmente a transação. Essa assinatura é exclusiva para cada operação e demonstra que o remetente possui a chave privada relacionada ao endereço de envio.

Os nós da rede Bitcoin checam essa assinatura utilizando a chave pública correspondente, garantindo que:

A assinatura é válida.

A transação não foi alterada desde que foi assinada.

O remetente tem a propriedade legítima dos fundos.

Se a assinatura for aceita, a transação é registrada na blockchain ou timechain e se torna irreversível. Esse procedimento protege os fundos contra fraudes e gastos duplicados.

A segurança das chaves privadas é um dos pontos mais importantes do sistema Bitcoin. Perder essa chave significa perder permanentemente o acesso aos fundos, pois não há nenhuma autoridade central capaz de recuperá-la.

Boas práticas para proteger a chave privada incluem:

Armazenamento offline: longe de redes conectadas à internet, diminuindo o risco de ataques cibernéticos.

Carteiras de hardware: dispositivos físicos dedicados para armazenar chaves privadas de forma segura.

Backup e redundância: manter cópias de segurança em locais seguros e distintos.

Criptografia adicional: proteger arquivos digitais que contêm chaves privadas com senhas fortes e criptografia.

Ameaças comuns incluem:

Phishing e malware: ataques que tentam enganar os usuários para obter acesso às chaves.

Roubo físico: no caso de chaves guardadas em dispositivos físicos.

Perda de senhas e backups: que pode resultar na perda definitiva dos fundos.

O uso de chaves privadas e públicas dá ao proprietário controle total sobre seus fundos, eliminando intermediários como bancos ou governos. Esse modelo coloca a responsabilidade de proteção nas mãos do usuário, o que representa tanto liberdade quanto risco.

Diferente de sistemas financeiros tradicionais, onde instituições podem reverter transações ou congelar contas, no sistema Bitcoin, a posse da chave privada é a única prova de propriedade. Esse princípio é frequentemente resumido pela frase: "Not your keys, not your coins" (Se não são suas chaves, não são suas moedas).

Essa abordagem fortalece a soberania financeira, permitindo que indivíduos guardem e movam valor de maneira independente e sem censura.

Apesar de sua segurança, o sistema de chaves também apresenta riscos. Se uma chave privada for perdida ou esquecida, não existe como recuperar os fundos associados. Isso já levou à perda de milhões de bitcoins ao longo dos anos.

Para reduzir esse risco, muitos usuários utilizam frases-semente (seed phrases), que são uma lista de palavras usadas para restaurar carteiras e chaves privadas. Essas frases devem ser guardadas com o mesmo cuidado, pois também podem ser usadas para acessar os fundos.

Resumindo, as chaves privadas e públicas são a base da segurança e da propriedade no sistema Bitcoin. Elas asseguram que somente os verdadeiros proprietários possam mover seus fundos, promovendo um sistema financeiro descentralizado, seguro e resistente à censura.

No entanto, essa liberdade acarreta grandes responsabilidades, exigindo que os usuários adotem práticas severas para proteger suas chaves privadas. A perda ou comprometimento dessas chaves pode levar a consequências irreversíveis, ressaltando a importância de educação e preparação ao usar o sistema Bitcoin.

Assim, o modelo de chaves criptográficas não apenas melhora a segurança, mas também representa a essência da independência financeira proporcionada pelo Bitcoin.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

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On June 10th, 2025, four members of the NVSTly team traveled to New York City to attend the 2025 American Business Awards® ceremony, held at the iconic Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It was an unforgettable night as we accepted the Gold Stevie® Award for Tech Startup of the Year—this time, in person.

Meow (left), rich (center), MartyOooit (right)

Representing NVSTly at the event were:

• Rich, CEO & Founder
• Meow, CTO, Lead Developer, & Co-Founder
• MartyOooit, Investor
• Noob, Market Analyst (not shown in photos)

MartyOooit (left), rich (center), Meow (right)

While we shared the exciting news back in April when the winners were announced, being there in person alongside other winners—including eBay, AT&T, T-Mobile, HP Inc., and Fidelity Investments—made the achievement feel even more surreal. To be honored alongside billion-dollar industry leaders was a proud and humbling moment for our startup and a huge milestone in NVSTly’s journey.

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🎤 Team Interview at the Event

During the event, our team was interviewed about the win. When asked:

“What does winning a Stevie Award mean for your organization?”
“How will winning a Stevie Award help your organization?”

Here’s what we had to say:
📺 Watch the video

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A Big Win for Retail Traders

NVSTly was awarded Gold for Tech Startup of the Year in recognition of our work building a powerful, free social investing platform that empowers retail traders with transparency, analytics, and community-driven tools.

Unlike traditional finance platforms, NVSTly gives users the ability to:

• Share and track trades in real time
• Follow and receive alerts from top traders
• Compete on global leaderboards
• Access deep stats like win rate, average return, and more

Whether you're a beginner or experienced trader, NVSTly gives you the insights and tools typically reserved for hedge funds—but in a free, social format built for the modern investor.

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Continued Recognition and Momentum

This award adds to a growing list of recognition for NVSTly:

• 🏆 People’s Choice Winner at the 2024 Benzinga Fintech Awards
• 🔁 Nominated again for Best Social Investing Product in the 2025 Benzinga Fintech Awards
• 🌟 Team members JustCoreGames and Lunaster are nominated for Employee of the Year (Information Technology – Social Media) in the 2025 Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence

We’re beyond proud of what our small but mighty team has accomplished—and we’re just getting started. 🚀

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Thanks to the Stevie Awards for an incredible night in New York, and to our community of 50,000+ traders who’ve helped shape NVSTly into what it is today.
This win is yours, too.

Stay tuned—more big things are coming.

— Team NVSTly

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The event brought together some of the most respected names in tech, finance, and business.

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

A rede Bitcoin é formada por uma infraestrutura descentralizada feita de dispositivos chamados nós. Esses nós têm um papel crucial na validação, verificação e manutenção do sistema, assegurando a segurança e a integridade do blockchain ou timechain. Ao contrário dos sistemas tradicionais, onde uma autoridade central controla as operações, a rede Bitcoin requer a colaboração de milhares de nós pelo mundo, promovendo descentralização e transparência.

Na rede Bitcoin, um nó é qualquer computador que está conectado ao sistema e participa do armazenamento, validação ou distribuição de informações. Esses dispositivos rodam o software do Bitcoin e podem operar em diferentes níveis de participação, desde tarefas básicas de transmissão de dados até a validação total de transações e blocos.

Existem dois tipos principais de nós:

Nós completos (full nodes):

Armazenam uma cópia total do blockchain ou timechain.

Validam e verificam todas as transações e blocos de acordo com as regras do protocolo.

Asseguram a segurança da rede ao rejeitar transações inválidas ou tentativas de fraude.

Nós leves (light nodes):

Armazenam somente partes do blockchain ou timechain, não a estrutura inteira.

Confiam em nós completos para obter dados sobre o histórico de transações.

São mais rápidos e menos exigentes em termos de recursos, mas dependem de terceiros para validação completa.

Os nós conferem se as transações enviadas seguem as regras do protocolo, como assinaturas digitais válidas e ausência de gastos duplos.

Somente transações válidas são enviadas para outros nós e incluídas no próximo bloco.

Os nós completos mantêm uma cópia atualizada de todo o histórico de transações da rede, garantindo integridade e transparência e se houver discrepâncias, os nós seguem a cadeia mais longa e válida, evitando manipulações.

Os nós transmitem informações de transações e blocos para outros nós na rede. Esse processo assegura que todos os participantes estejam sincronizados e atualizados.

Como a rede Bitcoin é composta por milhares de nós independentes, é quase impossível que um único agente controle ou modifique o sistema.

Os nós também protegem contra ataques ao validar informações e barrar tentativas de fraudes.

Os nós completos são muito importantes, pois atuam como auditores independentes. Eles não precisam de terceiros e podem verificar todo o histórico de transações diretamente.

Ao manterem uma cópia completa do blockchain ou timechain, esses nós permitem que qualquer pessoa valide transações sem depender de intermediários, promovendo clareza e liberdade financeira.

Além disso, os nós completos:

Reforçam a resistência à censura: Nenhum governo ou entidade pode excluir ou alterar dados registrados no sistema.

Preservam a descentralização: Quanto mais nós completos existirem, mais segura e forte será a rede.

Aumentam a confiança no sistema: Os usuários podem confirmar de forma independente se as regras estão sendo seguidas.

Apesar de seu valor, operar um nó completo pode ser difícil, pois exige espaço de armazenamento, processamento e largura de banda. À medida que o blockchain ou timechain cresce, os requisitos técnicos aumentam, o que pode dificultar a participação de usuários comuns.

Para resolver esse problema, a comunidade busca sempre soluções, como melhorias no software e aumento na escalabilidade, para facilitar o acesso à rede sem prejudicar a segurança.

Resumindo, os nós são a base da rede Bitcoin, desempenhando funções importantes na validação, verificação e distribuição de transações. Eles garantem a descentralização e a segurança do sistema, permitindo que os participantes operem de forma confiável sem depender de intermediários.

Particularmente, os nós completos têm um papel crucial na proteção da integridade do blockchain ou timechain, tornando a rede Bitcoin resistente a censura e manipulação.

Embora operar um nó possa exigir recursos técnicos, seu efeito na preservação da liberdade financeira e na confiança do sistema é inestimável. Assim, os nós continuam sendo elementos essenciais para o sucesso e a durabilidade do Bitcoin.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 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

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The Present Ecosystem It Is Not Just Calls

The role of telecommunications carriers has long since evolved beyond that of simple call connectors. Currently, they serve as actual digital centers that penetrate practically every facet of our interconnected lives. With more than 5.7 billion mobile service subscribers and 4.7 billion mobile internet users worldwide (roughly 58% of the global population), telecommunications are the foundation of the digital economy. It is anticipated that by 2030, this figure will rise to an astounding 5.5 billion mobile internet users, or 64% of the world’s population.

A variety of connectivity options are available in the current telecommunications ecosystem, ranging from home fiber optics to 5th generation of mobile networks, which is expected to be adopted globally by 57% by 2030, creating roughly 5.3 billion connections. Collaborations with streaming services that provide on-demand entertainment.

Current Telecom Ecosystem

From fiber optics to 5G technology, telecommunications companies have focused on diversifying global connectivity. By 2030, they are expected to reach 57% global adoption, resulting in around 5.3 billion connections.

There are partnerships with streaming platforms that have transformed carriers into true content gateways. This has helped the explosive growth of data traffic, which reached the mark of 26.53 exabytes per month in 2018.

These companies are offering some personalized business services, such as IoT, security and cloud solutions.

Furthermore, many carriers already provide basic financial services like mobile payments and device financing. This last one is the perfect starting point for a further revolution: the integration of Bitcoin into the telecom ecosystem.

Telecommunications and Bitcoin: A Perfect Match

Carriers’ use of Bitcoin is a radical rethinking of the business-customer relationship, not merely a new mode of payment. Here is how this new ecosystem could work:

• Customer Experience and Infrastructure – Before implementing Bitcoin, an carrier must build the necessary infrastructure. This entails creating mechanisms that may not only receive cryptocurrency payments but alsoIf companies want to lessen their exposure to volatility, they can automatically convert Bitcoin to fiat money. Companies can also easily integrate with current invoicing systems and provide a more straightforward user experience.

  Imagine launching the app for your carrier, scanning a QR code, and having your bill paid or your monthly plan renewed in a matter of seconds. Without waiting for business days, without banking middlemen, and without exorbitant costs.

• Bringing in New Segments – In addition to making life easier for current clients, Bitcoin’s acceptance draws in entirely new demographics:

  Those that appreciate innovation and wish to back trailblazing businesses are known as technology enthusiasts.
  Advocates for privacy: Customers who favor transactions that need less personal information to be shared
  Global clientele are tourists from other countries who can pay for services without worrying about regional restrictions or exchange rates.

  Carrier might develop targeted marketing, such as “early access to new devices for customers who use cryptocurrencies” or “10% discount on data top-ups when paid with Bitcoin,” to attract these demographics.

Ongoing Innovation: What Will Happen After Bitcoin?

When businesses embrace Bitcoin and fully utilize blockchain technology, the real revolution will take place. This strategy creates opportunities for developments like:

• Creative Smart Contracts – Smart contracts are self-executing, blockchain-based programs that eliminate middlemen and automate processes. This could be interpreted by carriers as:
  • Instant service activation – Your Bitcoin payment has been validated and your international data package is activated automatically even before you land at the airport.Contracts that automatically expire at the designated time eliminate the need for a constant call to the call center.
  • Simplified termination – Mini-smart contracts enable family members to automatically transfer excess mobile data.

This was recently illustrated by the Japanese carrier Rakuten Mobile, which unveiled a system that enables users to temporarily increase their bandwidth through smart contracts for a few hours (for instance, to broadcast live events) without modifying their primary plan.

• Creative Partnerships in the World Ecosystem – The carriers are able to establish strategic alliances with:
  • Fintech companies that specialize in bitcoin to create integrated digital wallets.
  • Startups creating telecom-specific decentralized applications (DApps).
  • Academic institutions will investigate novel applications of blockchain technology in the telecommunications sector.

Given that the market is dominated by industry titans like China Mobile (794 million subscribers in 2023), Verizon (US$ 133.97 billion in 2023), and AT&T (US$ 161.5 billion in revenue in 2022), these partnerships have the potential to accelerate disruptive innovations that benefit the entire telecommunications ecosystem.

Reimagining the Customer Relationship with New Business Models

The incorporation of Bitcoin enables the investigation of business ideas that were before unfeasible:

• Microtransactions: Only Paying for the Things You Use – Processing fees in the traditional financial system make it impossible to charge tiny sums. This issue is resolved by Bitcoin, particularly via the Lightning Network, which permits:
  • Payment per call second (think of paying R$0.001 per second for just the actual usage)
  • – Acquiring small data packages (e.g., 500MB for a single movie)
  • – Immediate access to high-quality WiFi networks at cafes or airports, with just the time spent connecting being charged,

The startup Althea Network, which enables communities to establish their own internet networks where users automatically pay for each byte consumed, is already testing this idea. The trend of increasing video traffic, which currently makes up 70% of all mobile data traffic and is predicted to reach 80% by 2028, is well aligned with this strategy.

• Loyalty Initiatives on the Blockchain: Conventional point systems have little transparency and are hard to use. A method based on blockchain can:

Make loyalty tokens that are equivalent to actual digital money.
Permit customer exchanges (you can trade or sell points you won’t use).
Form more extensive alliances wherein other businesses accept the carrier tokens.

A system where users earn blockchain-based “T-points” tokens that can be turned into modest amounts of Bitcoin or swapped for other services is already being tested by South Korean carrier SK Telecom. In South Korea, one of the top markets for the adoption of 5G worldwide, this kind of innovation is especially pertinent.

Obstacles and Realistic Implementation Considerations

Despite the vast potential, there are important issues that must be resolved:

• Evolutionary Regulation – Countries’ cryptocurrency regulations differ greatly from one another and are always evolving. Carriers will require:
  • Maintain specialized teams to keep an eye on regulatory developments, work with authorities to help create reasonable regulations, and create adaptable systems that can evolve to meet new needs.
  • This strategy is crucial in light of the fact that the telecom industry is already dealing with a lot of regulatory pressure in different jurisdictions, as demonstrated by the Canadian government’s recent initiatives to encourage more access to MVNOs (mobile virtual network carriers) in 2023.
  • Please read this to undertand how Governors don’t  do anything to help you.
• Financial Management and Volatility – One difficulty is the volatility of Bitcoin pricing. In order to reduce hazards, carriers can:
  • Convert a portion of payments into fiat money automatically.
    Employ hedge services to guard against sharp swings.
    Provide dynamic prices that change based on the state of the market.
  • Given that international carriers oversee yearly earnings in the hundreds of billions of dollars, these tactics are particularly pertinent.
• Education of Consumers – Many customers are still confused about cryptocurrencies. Strategies that work include:
  • The carrier app’s simplified instructional
  • Committed assistance for Bitcoin transactions
  • Rewards for initial cryptocurrency purchases

With more than 5.7 billion mobile consumers worldwide, this educational initiative has the potential to significantly accelerate the widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

Now is the time for deep digital transformation

Telecommunications companies that incorporate blockchain and Bitcoin into their ecosystem are doing more than simply introducing a new payment method; they are putting themselves at the vanguard of a significant digital revolution that will keep up with the industry’s explosive growth, which is expected to reach US$ 1.3 trillion globally by 2028.

The ability to innovate services, draw in creative clients, and open up new markets will be available to those that welcome this shift, which the conventional model would not allow. In order to prepare the infrastructure for this revolution, more than 300 commercial 5G networks will be operational globally beginning in 2024, marking the beginning of this shift.

As customers, we may anticipate more individualized, open, and effective services. Our civilization is progressing toward a telecommunications infrastructure that is fully suited to the digital era and capable of handling the enormous amount of data traffic

@ 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.

@ 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.

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

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The Blockchain Group Buys $20 Million Worth Of Bitcoin

The Blockchain Group has acquired an additional 182 Bitcoin for approximately €17 million ($19.6 million), further expanding its position as Europe’s first Bitcoin treasury company amid accelerating institutional adoption of Bitcoin reserves.

According to a press release issued June 18, the Euronext Growth Paris-listed company completed the purchases through multiple convertible bond issuances totalling over €18 million, subscribed by several investors, including UTXO Management, Moonlight Capital, and asset manager TOBAM.

JUST IN: French publicly traded, The Blockchain Group buys an additional 182 #Bitcoin for €17.0 million

Nothing stops this train pic.twitter.com/fwIqq934Yy

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 18, 2025

The acquisitions bring The Blockchain Group’s total Bitcoin holdings to 1,653 BTC, purchased at an average price of €90,081 ($104,000) per coin. The company reported a “BTC Yield” – measuring Bitcoin holdings relative to fully diluted shares – of 1,173.2% year-to-date, significantly outpacing other major corporate holders.

The company’s latest purchases were executed through Swissquote Bank Europe and Banque Delubac, with custody provided by Swiss infrastructure provider Taurus. Additional funding came from the conversion of share warrants into 2.98 million ordinary shares, raising €1.6 million.

We’re seeing unprecedented growth in corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies. The Blockchain Group’s success has created a model for European companies, with new organizations announcing Bitcoin purchases almost weekly.

The company indicated potential plans to acquire an additional 70 BTC through ongoing transactions, which could bring its total holdings to 1,723 BTC. This follows recent Bitcoin treasury announcements from companies including Metaplanet, which now holds 10,000 BTC, and Strategy’s latest acquisition of 10,1000 BTC.

At press time, Bitcoin trades at $104,021, down 1.26% over the past 24 hours, as markets continue to process the implications of growing institutional adoption. The Blockchain Group’s shares were down 3.9% to €4.80 on Wednesday, trading on Euronext Paris.

This post The Blockchain Group Buys $20 Million Worth Of Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Vivek Sen.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

K33 Announces Plans To Purchase Up To 1,000 Bitcoin

K33 AB, a leading digital asset brokerage and research firm, announced today the launch of a SEK 85 million direct share issue to fund the purchase of Bitcoin. The company aims to build Bitcoin as a core asset on its balance sheet, targeting the accumulation of up to 1,000 BTC as a strategic reserve.

PRESS RELEASE: K33 launches a share issue to finance the purchase of up to 1000 Bitcoin, with a minimum of SEK 85 million secured through pre-commitments pic.twitter.com/sG1LZjR6EI

— K33 (@K33HQ) June 18, 2025

The share issue, priced at SEK 0.1036 per share, is fully backed by existing shareholders and new investors. Proceeds from the raise will be used exclusively to acquire BTC, supporting K33’s accumulation strategy revealed in May. By acquiring BTC, the company aims to strengthen its balance sheet, boost brokerage margins, launch new products, and attract more investors.

“This raise marks a major milestone towards our initial goal of acquiring 1000 BTC before scaling further,” commented the CEO of the Company Torbjørn Bull Jenssen. “We strongly believe that Bitcoin represents the future of global finance and are positioning K33 to benefit maximally from this. A strong balance sheet built on Bitcoin enables us to significantly improve our brokerage operation while maintaining full exposure to Bitcoin’s upside potential.”

As part of the strategy, K33 recently completed its first Bitcoin acquisition, purchasing 10 BTC for approximately SEK 10 million on June 3. This transaction is the initial deployment of capital from the SEK 60 million investment commitment announced earlier this year to support the company’s BTC treasury.

“We expect Bitcoin to be the best-performing asset in the coming years and will build our balance sheet in Bitcoin moving forward,” stated Jenssen. “This will give K33 direct exposure to the Bitcoin price and help unlock powerful synergies with our brokerage operation. Our ambition is to build a balance of at least 1000 BTC over time and then scale from there.”

During its Q1 2025 Report and Strategic Outlook presentation, K33 underscored the accelerating institutional adoption of Bitcoin, referencing the rapid growth of the US Bitcoin ETFs, which attracted more capital in its first year than gold ETFs had in the past two decades.

“For K33, Bitcoin is not only a high-conviction asset — it’s also a strategic enabler,” Jenssen said. “With a sizable BTC reserve, we will be able to strengthen our financial position while unlocking new revenue streams, product capabilities, and partnerships.”

This post K33 Announces Plans To Purchase Up To 1,000 Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 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.

---

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.

---

The Giving Block

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

---

OpenNode

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

---

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

Bitcoin Tech Booms: Lightning Data Defies Digital Gold Narrative

Ego Death Capital’s portfolio reveals adoption metrics including $1.5 billion in Lightning-powered trading volume, as Block shocks the industry with their 9.7% Lightning Network yield. 

While bitcoin treasury companies, debates about market structure bills, and strategic bitcoin reserve advocacy dominate the headlines in 2025, a trend is quietly growing in the background: the success of Bitcoin technology companies.

Increasingly recognized as digital gold and a long-term store of value, bitcoin is far more than just a shiny rock in cyberspace. As a software technology, Bitcoin is programmable and has unlocked a new paradigm of payments, custody, settlement and trading possibilities.

Nevertheless, some critics point to the empty blocks on the Bitcoin base layer and historically low transaction fees as implicit proof that Bitcoin is failing as a medium of exchange. Others claim that the Lightning Network has failed to get mainstream adoption and even argue that it suffers from significant privacy problems. But the opposite may be true. 

New data coming out of various companies throughout the industry is starting to paint a different picture. Perhaps the Lightning Network has been so successful in drawing transactions off chain and making them more private that it is hard to quantify success metrics without companies involved sharing the data.

But, a variety of Bitcoin start-ups and companies using bitcoin to build out new financial infrastructure are now starting to boast of their success metrics, claiming numbers that suggest there is a strong product market fit beyond treasury strategies.

Jeff Booth, author of The Price Of Tomorrow and co-founder of the Bitcoin-focused VC firm Ego Death Capital, told Bitcoin Magazine he doesn’t “think the general public has any clue with how fast the Bitcoin ecosystem is growing.” Adding that, “They keep on hearing treasury companies this and politics that, and they’re missing the forest for the trees.” 

Below follows a summary of various companies and projects demonstrating Bitcoin adoption in significant numbers, many of them within the Ego Death Capital portfolio. 

Block: Earning Big on Lightning and Bitcoin Payments

The contrast in perspectives between the digital gold thesis and those that believe in Bitcoin as a payments technology was most recently seen at Bitcoin Vegas 2025 where Block, the parent company of Cash App, disclosed that they are earning 9.7% yield off their Bitcoin Lightning node. 

Miles Suter, Bitcoin Product Lead at Block, told the live audience that “at the infrastructure layer, we’re earning nearly 10% bitcoin-on-bitcoin returns by efficiently routing real payments across the Lightning network. This isn’t yield from altcoin staking or reckless speculation; it’s from solving hard, real-time routing problems, and its real bitcoin-on-bitcoin returns from our corporate holdings via supporting real payments use cases.”

Besides Block’s stunning 9.7% figure announcement, which stood out as one of the most lasting impressions from the conference, Suter claimed that Cash App ranks “among the top bitcoin on-ramps in the U.S., accounting for nearly 10% of on-chain block space at any time,” adding that in 2024, its Lightning usage grew 7x and one in four of their outbound Bitcoin payments are processed on Lightning. These numbers highlight Block’s growth as a Bitcoin payments giant, now perhaps the most common merchant payments terminal and consumer payments app that integrates bitcoin.

Ego Death Capital

Ego Death Capital has been investing in Bitcoin infrastructure start-ups since 2022, initially raising a tactical 30 million dollar fund amid a boom in crypto and altcoin VC investments. 

“When we first raised money, we actually targeted 30 million because the ecosystem at that time was really early. We realized we had to lean into these companies to help them scale. There were a lot of big crypto funds at that time, but they were spraying money everywhere else. And it was largely the exact opposite of what we believed would happen on Bitcoin.” Booth recalled that “Bitcoin was a protocol. It was developing in layers and it was early. And if you realized that and leaned in to help those companies that were developing in the layers, helping the infrastructure be created, then you would accelerate that. You would accelerate what we saw Bitcoin being, a currency, a store of value, an entirely new network.”

“We don’t have a failure in that fund,” Booth said of the firm’s first investment cohort, which included companies like Breez, Relai, LN Markets, Fedi, Wolf and Simple Proof. “That fund is just over three years old. It’s staggering. A number of those companies, I think three of those companies are already profitable — and profitable in bitcoin terms. So adding bitcoin to their treasury each month and growing incredibly fast.” 

Breez: Powering a Global Lightning Payments Network

Breez, founded in 2018, is a self-custodial Lightning-as-a-service provider that enables developers to integrate Bitcoin payments into apps using its open source Breez SDK. By simplifying Lightning’s complexities, Breez has been driving widespread adoption across diverse industries. 

“Over 40 apps have already implemented our SDK in production or beta since we launched it less than 18 months ago. Collectively, ~1.5 million users now have access to self-custodial, peer-to-peer bitcoin payments through these apps. These apps processed over $4.5 million in gross transaction volume in 2024,” wrote Roy Sheinfeld, CEO of Breez, in a January 2025 blog post. 

The “Bitcoin Payments Report” by Breez and 1A1z, released February 2025, added, “The Lightning Network now reaches over 650 million users; driven by integrations with mainstream products, new developer tools, and growing merchant adoption.” A month later Sheinfeld published that “Lightning Pay’s user base has been growing with users moving a billion sats monthly.” Additionally, Breez’s integration with Klever Wallet brought Lightning to “100,000 monthly active users,” as stated in a December, 2024, blog post. 

LN Markets: Lightning-Fueled Trading Takes Off

LN Markets, launched in 2020, is a Bitcoin-native derivatives trading platform, leveraging the Lightning Network for instant settlements and minimized counterparty risk. 

Its Lightning-native login interface demonstrates they are on the cutting edge of Bitcoin technologies and unlocks user experience features that differentiate it from most other advanced trading platforms. The fast payment rails that result from this deep integration with the Lightning Network unlock faster settlement, lower withdrawal fees and provides access to smaller traders throughout the third world, with many users in South America in countries like Mexico, Brazil and Colombia.

“Basically we’ve gone from 50 million in monthly trading volume to 1.5 billion last month in May,” co-founder Romain Rouphael told Bitcoin Magazine, adding that they have gone from “one billion dollar yearly trading volume in 2023 to six billion last year to 12 billion this year.” Profitability is also strong, with Romain stating, “We double our revenue each year and we double our EBITDA as well every year,” and “We are doing millions of Lightning transactions every year” These figures highlight LN Markets’ strong and active user base as well as Lightning’s scalability.

The exchange focuses on B

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitdeer Raises $330M to Expand Bitcoin Mining and AI Operations

Singapore-based Bitcoin mining firm Bitdeer Technologies Group has launched a $330 million convertible notes offering, aiming to strengthen its mining operations, develop ASIC rigs, and scale its AI infrastructure. 

The notes, due in 2031, carry an annual interest rate of 4.875% and may be converted into Bitdeer Class A shares at a 25% premium to the current stock price of $11.84, placing the conversion price at approximately $15.88 per share. 

The offering is targeted at qualified institutional buyers under Rule 144A of the Securities Act. If investors exercise an option to buy more within 13 days, the offering could reach $375 million.

This is Bitdeer’s third convertible notes raise. Previously, the company secured $150 million in August and $360 million in November last year. According to Bitdeer, the offering is expected to close on June 23, 2025.

Net proceeds are expected to total roughly $319.6 million. Around $129.6 million will go toward a zero-strike call option, with $36.1 million allocated for concurrent note exchanges. The remaining funds will support datacenter expansion, new ASIC rig development, and general corporate needs.

Bitdeer is also conducting a note exchange, offering cash and equity to holders of its 8.50% convertible notes due 2029. That transaction includes approximately $36.1 million in cash and 8.1 million shares, exchanged for $75.7 million in outstanding notes. 

This announcement follows Bitdeer’s recent growth. As previously reported, the company mined 196 BTC in May (worth over $21 million) and expanded its self mining hashrate to 13.6 EH/s. New SEALMINER rigs were deployed across sites in Texas, Norway, and Bhutan, and its AI cloud platform, powered by large language models, officially launched.

“In May 2025, we continued to deploy our SEALMINER mining rigs to our sites in Texas, U.S., Norway, and Bhutan, bringing Bitdeer’s self-mining hashrate to 13.6 EH/s,” said Matt Kong, Chief Business Officer at Bitdeer.

Bitdeer also raised capital from Tether in 2024 and secured $40 million from a debt facility with Matrix Finance in May. Both Bitdeer and Matrix are led by Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitmain.

With its market cap now exceeding $2.3 billion, Bitdeer continues to invest in scaling its infrastructure and technology as competition in Bitcoin mining and AI computing intensifies.

This post Bitdeer Raises $330M to Expand Bitcoin Mining and AI Operations first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The Trolls Are Coming: Defending Bitcoin Mining from Patent Trolls

Introduction: Patent Trolls Targeting Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin’s use of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which is essential for generating key pairs and validating digital signatures, has drawn the attention of a nonpracticing entity (NPE), more commonly known as a patent troll. In May 2025, Malikie Innovations Ltd., a troll that acquired thousands of patents from BlackBerry’s portfolio, filed lawsuits against major mining firms Core Scientific (CORZ) and Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA). (Some considered MARA an original patent troll itself and thus have expressed schadenfreude at the current attacks.) Malikie claims that routine Bitcoin operations (like verifying transactions with ECC-based signatures) infringe on several ECC-related patents originally developed by Certicom (later owned by BlackBerry). The patents cover techniques for accelerated digital signature verification, finite field math optimizations and other ECC improvements.

Malikie’s lawsuits, in Texas’ Eastern District against CORZ and Western District against MARA, demand damages for past infringement and an injunction against further use of the patented methods. In essence, Malikie seeks to impose a licensing regime on Bitcoin’s core cryptographic functions, a move that could set a dangerous precedent for the entire industry. If Malikie succeeds, virtually anyone running Bitcoin software (miners, node operators and potentially even wallet providers) could be exposed to patent liability. This threat has galvanized the Bitcoin and open source communities to explore every available defensive tool. In this preparatory briefing, we examine: 

1. Historical legal strategies used to fend off troll lawsuits. 
2. The mechanics, costs and effectiveness of Inter Partes Review (IPR) in challenging software/crypto patents. 
3. Community-led responses (EFF, Linux Foundation, COPA, etc.) that help defendants by funding prior-art searches or legal defenses. 
4. The potential ramifications for Bitcoin mining if Malikie’s claims prevail, drawing parallels from other industries.

1. Historical Strategies Against NPE Patent Lawsuits

Over the past two decades, tech companies and industries have developed several tactics to combat patent trolls. Key strategies include challenging patent validity, shifting lawsuits to favorable venues via declaratory judgment actions, leveraging recent case law to dismiss abstract patents and simply refusing to settle in order to deter trolls.

While not all strategies will apply to these cases, for completeness I’ll outline these approaches:

Rigorous Invalidity Challenges (Prior Art – §102/103): The most direct way to neutralize a troll’s patent is to demonstrate that the patent should never have been granted in the first place because earlier technology already taught the same invention. Defendants search for prior art — such as earlier publications, academic papers, standards (RFCs) or open source code — that predate the patent’s priority date and disclose the claimed invention. If a single prior art reference embodies every element of a patent claim, the claim is “anticipated” (invalid for lack of novelty under 35 U.S.C. §102). If no one reference is complete but a combination of references would have been obvious to a skilled person, the claim is invalid for obviousness (§103). In the Malikie cases, for example, Bitcoiners have been called to urgently collect publications from before January 18, 2005 (the priority date of one asserted patent, U.S. 8,788,827), and before December 31, 2001 (for U.S. 7,372,960). to prove the patented ECC techniques were already known. The Bitcoin community has noted that Hal Finney and others actively tracked ECC patents and even delayed certain optimizations in Bitcoin until patents expired — for instance, the famed “GLV endomorphism” speedup was only added to Bitcoin Core after its patent lapsed (and caution on the GLV issue was taken by developers, which Malikie itself acknowledged in its complaint — paragraphs 20 and 21 of the MARA complaint, for instance). Unearthing such prior art may not only win the case at hand but invalidate the patent for everyone.

• Inter Partes Review (IPR) and Post-Grant Proceedings: Beyond raising invalidity in court, since 2012 defendants have relied on IPR at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) as a powerful forum to knock out bad patents. IPR is an administrative trial within the U.S. Patent Office where challengers can present prior patents or publications to show a granted patent is invalid. We detail IPR’s mechanics in Section 2, but historically it has been a favored tool against NPEs because of its high success rate (around 70%+ of patents see claims canceled when reviewed) and lower burden of proof (“preponderance of the evidence,” 51%, rather than the “clear and convincing,” 75%, standard in court). Companies sued by trolls often file IPR petitions early and then move to stay (or pause) the litigation pending the PTAB’s decision — a stay which many courts grant once an IPR is instituted, given the likelihood that the patent may be invalidated. Notably, in the landmark Personal Audio “podcasting patent” case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed an IPR that successfully invalidated a troll’s patent on podcast distribution, even as the troll was suing podcasters in East Texas. That IPR, funded by over a thousand small donations from the community, culminated in the Patent Office canceling all claims of the patent in 2015, a result later affirmed on appeal. This victory protected not just the sued targets (like comedian Adam Carolla) but all podcasters going forward. Similarly, the best path for the Bitcoin ecosystem may be to file IPR (or the related Post-Grant Review) against Malikie’s ECC patents, leveraging the mountain of cryptography literature from the 1990s and early 2000s to demonstrate that Bitcoin’s use of ECC was not novel to Malikie’s assignors.

• Declaratory Judgment (DJ) Actions: Another defensive tactic is to preempt the troll by filing a declaratory judgment lawsuit in a preferred court, seeking a ruling that your product does not infringe or that the patent is invalid. Under U.S. law, a company that feels threatened by a patent (e.g., it received a demand letter or sees peers being sued) can sometimes sue first if it can show a substantial controversy. The goal is to avoid being haled into the NPE’s chosen venue (historically, the Eastern District of Texas was favored by trolls) and instead litigate in a more neutral or defendant-friendly forum. For instance, when notorious troll Lodsys threatened dozens of small app developers over in-app purchase patents, one strategy (supported indirectly by Apple and Google) was to seek declaratory rulings outside of East Texas to undermine the troll’s jurisdiction. In practice, DJ actions can prompt a faster resolution or even settlement on better terms. However, the patent owner must have made a concrete infringement assertion to establish the requisite “case or controversy.” In Malikie’s situation, if other Bitcoin companies (exchanges, wallet providers, smaller miners) suspect they are next in line, those companies could file a declaratory suit in a jurisdiction of their choice. This would flip the script, making Malikie the defendant and potentially consolidating the fight in a forum less favorable to NPEs.

• Motions to Dismiss Under Alice (35 U.S.C. §101): Since the 2014 Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank decision, many software patents have been invalidated early in litigation for claiming unpatentable abstract ideas. Courts now examine whether a patent is directed to a fundamental abstract idea (like a mathematical formula) without an “inventive concept.” Defendants often file Rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss, arguing the patent is invalid on its face under §101. While cryptographic algorithms can be viewed as mathematical computations (a classic abstract idea), success with an Alice motion depends on how the patent claims are drafted. If the claims merely cover a generalized math formula or the concept of using ECC on a computer, a judge could void them as abstract. Indeed, some defendants have beaten trolls this way, sparing the cost of trial. In Malikie’s case, their patents seem to cover specific techniques to speed up ECC computations (like endomorphisms, modular reduction optimizations, etc.) — arguably “technical improvements” in cryptography rather than a naked abstract idea. That may make an Alice challenge less straigh

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

@ 6a6be47b:3e74e3e1

Howdy frens! 🤠

☀️ With summer just around the corner, I started wondering—do any of you have “summer reads”? I don’t really have a set list myself, but I’d love to hear if you do, or if you have any books you’re planning to dive into as the days get longer. Please share your picks if you have them!

Thinking back, I realized I don’t always read seasonally, but last summer I finished the final volume of The Boys comic series. I absolutely loved the comics—the show is okay, but the original has more than just shock value. There’s real history and depth, and even though it has its moments of pure ridiculousness, I was hooked from start to finish.

📖 But the book that really stuck with me was one I read three summers ago: Unorthodox, The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman. What a ride! I couldn’t put it down until I finished. Even when it was painful and I was suffering right along with her, I just had to know what happened next.

🖋️The book follows Feldman’s childhood and her escape from her tightly knit Satmar Hasidic community. She was born into a world where every aspect of her life was dictated by strict Orthodox Jewish practice, leaving her with almost no control over her own choices or body. While her story is deeply rooted in her religious upbringing, the struggle for autonomy and self-determination is something many women around the world can relate to, regardless of background or belief.

Feldman’s storytelling is gripping—she takes you by the hand and doesn’t let go until the very end.

There’s a Netflix adaptation, but honestly, I prefer the book. The series is very loosely based on her story, and for me, it loses the intense claustrophobia and emotional impact that made the memoir so powerful.

Reading about her life—how so many things were decided for her, from school to marriage—was truly heartbreaking. It made me reflect on how difficult it can be to break free from a path that seems set in stone.

So, have you read Unorthodox? Do you have any recommendations to add to my never-ending list of books? Or maybe a summer favourite you’d like to share?

See y’all soon, and godspeed!

https://stacker.news/items/1009645

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Ele usa a tecnologia PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) para criptografar e descriptografar informações.

O OpenKeychain Foi criado por Dominik Schürmann em 2011, com o objetivo de disponibilizar uma ferramenta de criptografia acessível e fácil de usar para usuários de Android. O openKeychain é uma das principais opções de criptografia de e-mail para usuários de Android em todo o mundo.

Criptografia de e-mail é um processo de proteção das informações contidas em um e-mail, de forma que somente as pessoas autorizadas possam acessá-las. A criptografia envolve a codificação da mensagem original em uma sequência de caracteres ilegíveis, que só podem ser decodificados por alguém que possua a chave de criptografia correspondente.O objetivo da criptografia de e-mail é garantir a privacidade e segurança das informações enviadas por e-mail, especialmente quando se trata de informações confidenciais ou sensíveis. Isso ajuda a prevenir que informações privadas sejam interceptadas ou lidas por pessoas não autorizadas durante a transmissão do e-mail.

Tutorial OpenKeychain

1. Baixar no F-droid https://f-droid.org/app/org.sufficientlysecure.keychain

Ao abrir o OpenKeychain pela primeira vez, você verá uma tela inicial indicando que ainda não há chaves configuradas. Nesse ponto, você terá três opções:

1. Criar uma nova chave PGP diretamente no OpenKeychain: Ideal para quem está começando e precisa de uma solução simples para criptografia em comunicações diárias.

2. Usar um token de segurança (como Fidesmo, Yubikey, NEO, ou Sigilance) Se você busca uma segurança ainda maior, pode optar por armazenar sua chave privada em um token de segurança. Com essa configuração, a chave privada nunca é salva no dispositivo móvel. O celular atua apenas como uma interface de comunicação, enquanto a chave permanece protegida no token, fora do alcance de possíveis invasores remotos. Isso garante que somente quem possui o token fisicamente possa usar a chave, elevando significativamente o nível de segurança e controle sobre seus dados.

3. Importar uma chave PGP existente: Você pode importar uma chave PGP que já tenha sido gerada anteriormente, seja por meio de um arquivo no dispositivo ou por outro meio ler na área de transferência. https://image.nostr.build/51fdd924df4843ab73faa02a505c8fb17794f1789396ed89b154348ebb337f07.jpg

1. CRIANDO UMA NOVA CHAVE PGP.

Para iniciantes, recomendamos criar uma nova chave diretamente no aplicativo. abordaremos o uso do OpenKeychain em modo online, que é mais comum para comunicações diárias.

Passo 1: Clique em “Criar minha chave”. https://image.nostr.build/235f5cfdf4c3006ca3b00342741003f79a5055355c2a8ee425fc33c875f51e49.jpg

Passo 2: Criando sua chave PGP.

Para criar sua chave, você precisará fornecer algumas informações Os campos 'Nome' e 'Endereço de e-mail' são apenas formas convenientes para identificar a sua chave PGP.

• Nome: Escolha um nome ou um pseudônimo. https://image.nostr.build/de3fe3ddbde0c7bf084be6e4b8150fdb8612365550622559b0ee72f50f56a159.jpg

• E-mail: Associe um endereço de e-mail à chave, seja ele pessoal ou um e-mail relacionado ao pseudônimo. https://image.nostr.build/aff62baaeafe2c9a429ef10435a6f99dea36d6cfd7494e2bb882421dc8ed0f4e.jpg

2. REVISANDO E PERSONALIZANDO A CRIAÇÃO DA CHAVE.

Passo 3: Antes de criar sua chave PGP, verifique se os dados inseridos estão corretos. https://image.nostr.build/a8ec09ef3d9b4f557b0c4e380e7ca45d0fdbfa33fe80becea03ed0e5f5eedd24.jpg

Você também pode personalizar as configurações de segurança clicando nos três pontos no canto superior direito. https://image.nostr.build/1ce615555cea9a979ea951472052a219e77f4e1ebaaf5fcbbe9e91ea4f852bce.jpg

Ao cliclar em ' nova subchave ' pode alterar a data de expiração e pode mudar a criptografia usado na chave cliclando opção ed2255/cv255. https://image.nostr.build/b3224ff3dbe48ff78c4a2df8b001926b6d3eef1e33ef677a73b0d281791073da.jpg https://image.nostr.build/7763c7847e062cdcf71aafedbc2ef4c38056fd66aeb162ef3a1c30c028a14376.jpg https://image.nostr.build/5d3e20ade460dd5e89cc001ebdc062a36aff2c0e1573584ca3c0d1cb34bddcce.jpg

Neste tutorial, utilizaremos as configurações padrão do aplicativo.

Passo 4: Clique em "Criar chave" para concluir o processo. https://image.nostr.build/a8ec09ef3d9b4f557b0c4e380e7ca45d0fdbfa33fe80becea03ed0e5f5eedd24.jpg

3. Como Compartilhar sua Chave PGP Pública

Após criar sua chave PGP, você pode compartilhá-la para que outras pessoas possam enviar mensagens criptografadas para você. Veja o passo a passo de como exibir e compartilhar sua chave pública:

Passo 1: Acesse sua chave pública

Abra o OpenKeychain e selecione a chave que deseja compartilhar. Clique na chave para visualizar os detalhes. https://image.nostr.build/689c5237075317e89e183d2664630de973b09b68aaf8f3e3033654e987b781be.jpg https://image.nostr.build/4001610109579f27535628932258087b3b06c1f86b05f4f85537b6585c12a10b.jpg

Passo 2: Copiar sua chave pública

Nos detalhes da chave, você verá a opção "Copiar para a Área de Transferência". Clique nessa opção para copiar o código da sua chave pública. https://image.nostr.build/01ab3efa5e997e1910a2f8f7a888e6ad60350574cca4ca0214eee5581797f704.jpg

A chave PGP copiada terá o seguinte formato:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

mDMEZwsLHRYJKwYBBAHaRw8BAQdA6NRLlJIWnTBJtYwZHlrMbTKRbYuXmjsMn8MB 7etV3HK0JERhbmllbCBGcmFnYSAgPGRhbmllbGZyYWdhQG1haWwuaTJwPohyBBMW CAAaBAsJCAcCFQgCFgECGQEFgmcLCx0CngECmwMACgkQFZf+kMeJWpR4cwEA8Jt1 TZ/+YlHg3EYphW8KsZOboHLi+L88whrWbka+0s8A/iuaNFAK/oQAlM2YI2e0rAjA VuUCo66mERQNLl2/qN0LuDgEZwsLHRIKKwYBBAGXVQEFAQEHQEj/ZfJolkCjldXP 0KQimE/3PfO9BdJeRtzZA+SsJDh+AwEIB4hhBBgWCAAJBYJnCwsdApsMAAoJEBWX /pDHiVqUo/oA/266xy7kIZvd0PF1QU9mv1m2oOdo7QSoqvgFiq6AmelbAP9lExY5 edctTa/zl87lCddYsZZhxG9g2Cg7xX/XsfrnAA== =TniY -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Dica: Se ocorrer algum erro ao compartilhar sua chave pública com um amigo, peça para que ele a criptografe para ele mesmo. Isso permitirá que ele adicione a chave corretamente. Caso a chave pública ainda não esteja no dispositivo, ao clicar em "Backup de chave", aparecerá a opção para importá-la. Se a chave já estiver no dispositivo, essa ação irá recarregá-la. https://image.nostr.build/cd12abf07c93473db95483fe23112325f89d3eb02977e42756708bbd043f8bcf.jpg  https://image.nostr.build/537aeae38d229ee2cc78e18f412237b659c059e1c74fd7f0deecfe37f15713c9.jpg  https://image.nostr.build/16c8a3db5966c7c06904ee236655f47a6464ae0c1b5af6af27b28c61611d2bbe.jpg

Passo 3: Compartilhar sua chave PGP

Você pode colar a chave pública em e-mails, assinaturas, perfis de redes sociais ou outros meios para compartilhá-la facilmente. Para facilitar a visualização, você também pode exibi-la em seu perfil de redes sociais.

Para acessar mais opções de compartilhamento, clique nos três pontos no canto superior direito e selecione a opção "Avançado". https://image.nostr.build/0d4a13b7bd9a4794017247d1a56fac082db0f993a2011a4dd40e388b22ec88f5.jpg https://image.nostr.build/4ac2a7bc9fa726531a945221cf7d10e0e387deba68100ccf52fdedfcd17cbd59.jpg

Na seção "Compartilhar", você verá sua Key ID e terá a opção de publicar sua chave PGP em um servidor de chaves. https://image.nostr.build/1e972cc211a6d8060cdbd4a8aa642dd1a292810c532f178d3ddb133d1b9bca76.jpg

Passo 4: Como compartilhar sua chave pública PGP no formato .asc. no OpenKeychain

1. Acesse sua chave

Abra o OpenKeychain e toque na chave que você deseja compartilhar. Isso abrirá a tela com os detalhes da chave. https://image.nostr.build/c080f03d2eb7a9f7833fec0ff1942a5b70b97e4f7da7c6bc79ca300ef9ace55d.jpg

1. Compartilhe o arquivo .asc

Toque no ícone de compartilhamento, como indicado na imagem abaixo. O aplicativo abrirá a janela para que você escolha por qual app deseja compartilhar sua chave pública no formato .asc. Nesse exemplo, usei o SimpleXChat , mas você pode usar qualquer aplicativo de sua preferência.

1. Botão de compartilhar. https://image.nostr.build/8da74bdb04737a45df671a30bba1dd2e7980841fa0c2d751d6649630e7c25470.jpg

2. Selecionar o aplicativo para compartilhamento. https://image.nostr.build/5444f4e9d3fa5aef6b191bb6f553f94c6e49d30ead874c9ee435bca3218fd6c8.jpg

3. Enviando via SimpleXChat. https://image.nostr.build/e5d1ca04cbc69e1e8ac5caf1ab2a4b9b695500861c1ae9c55cea679cce349214.jpg

Sugestão para compartilhar nas redes sociais:

Você pode exibir sua chave de forma simples, por exemplo:

PGP: 1597 FE90 C789 5A94

Importar a chave pública usando a fingerprint

Passo 1:Clique no ícone "+" para começar. https://image.nostr.build/ca6e6e569b4be60165eaf60c7ba1e6e3ec781b525e467c72b4f3605837e6b5ec.jpg

Passo 2: Selecione a opção "Buscar Chave". https://image.nostr.build/87e27d9435e6e3ef78063b9f15799a8120ead4637cd06c89c0220b48327573ae.jpg

Passo 3: Digite a fingerprint da chave em letras minúsculas, sem espaços. A chave correspondente aparecerá para ser adicionada. https://image.nostr.build/33e6819edd4582d7a8513e8814dacb07e1a62994bb3238c1b5b3865a46b5f234.jpg

Além disso, você pode compartilhar sua chave pública em formato QR Code, facilitando a troca de chaves em eventos ou conversas rápidas.

Como Assinar Mensagens para Confirmar a Autenticidade da Sua Rede Social

Você pode autenticar sua conta em redes sociais utilizando sua chave PGP. Ao assinar uma mensagem com sua chave, você demonstra que realmente possui essa conta. Siga o passo a passo abaixo para assinar uma mensagem:

Passo 1: Clique na sua chave PGP.  https://image.nostr.build/ffacce1bfb293c9a0888cd5efe340a63d96b293f4c010f8626105c7b212d8558.jpg

Passo 2: Clique no ícone indicado pela seta para abrir o campo de texto.  https://image.nostr.build/4e992a2553810e2583b9d190280ce00a52fc423600a75eca48cbf541cf47d3c2.jpg

Passo 3: Deixe a opção "Encriptar para:" vazio. Em "Assinar com:", selecione sua chave PGP e digite a mensagem que deseja enviar, como o nome da sua rede social.  https://image.nostr.build/a4a2a8d233d186e3d8d9adddccc445bcb3ca3ed88de0db671a77cede12323a75.jpg

Passo 4: Clique no ícone indicado pela seta para copiar o texto assinado. Uma mensagem aparecerá informando: "Assinado/Encriptado com Sucesso".  https://image.nostr.build/a076dfc90e30a495af0872005bf70f412df57b7a0e1c2e17cf5aee9e9b3e39aa.jpg

A mensagem copiada terá o seguinte formato:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256

Minha rede social NOSTR é Danielfraga oficial. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iIQEARYIACwlHERhbmllbCBGcmFnYSAgPGRhbmllbGZyYWdhQG1haWwuaTJwPgUC ZxBBLgAKCRAVl/6Qx4lalGeNAPwP71rpsbhRnZhoWZsTDOFZY8ep/d0e5qYx5iPx HV26dwD/fKyiir1TR8JwZvEbOTYS0+Dn4DFlRAAfR3lKVTC96w4= =37Lj -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Com isso, você pode facilmente demonstrar a autenticidade da sua conta nas redes sociais.

4. PROTEGENDO SUA CHAVE COM UMA SENHA.

Passo 5: Após a criação da chave, é fundamental definir uma senha (ou passphrase) para adicionar uma camada extra de segurança. Recomendamos usar senhas longas (com mais de 20 caracteres) e de alta entropia para evitar ataques de força bruta. Ferramentas como KeePassDX ou Bitwarden podem ajudá-lo a gerar e gerenciar essas senhas.

Para definir a senha, clique na sua chave PGP, acesse o menu no canto superior direito e selecione "Alterar senha". https://image.nostr.build/689c5237075317e89e183d2664630de973b09b68aaf8f3e3033654e987b781be.jpg https://image.nostr.build/f28ecaa9890a8827f93cac78846c4b2ef67f86ccfc3501fdadf1d1c4874b0041.jpg https://image.nostr.build/919c277fbec63c397402abdd60f915cb239a674c317855cbda63a38edef80789.jpg

Agora basta adicionar uma senha forte. https://image.nostr.build/eb378219fbb1780f89663a474ce43b8d8ebb13beeb538f2a16279b056e5d9645.jpg https://image.nostr.build/cdfa3f9c6c4045841341da789deabb6318107812d5ba195529418572ab352aaf.jpg

5. CRIPTOGRAFAR E DESCRIPTOGRAFAR MENSAGENS E ARQUIVOS COM SUA CHAVE PGP

Criptografar Mensagens

Você pode criptografar mensagens para garantir que apenas o destinatário, que possui sua chave pública, possa lê-las. Siga os passos abaixo para criptografar um texto:

Passo 1: Abra o menu lateral clicando no ícone no canto superior esquerdo.
https://image.nostr.build/13ac93b38dd1633118ae3142401c13e8a089caabdf4617055284cc521a45b069.jpg

Passo 2: Selecione a opção "Encriptar/Descriptar".
https://image.nostr.build/8cd905d616b53968f0551c071d9acc2f47bbe8434c2c7e1a33076a504342de48.jpg

Passo 3: Clique na opção "Encriptar Texto".
https://image.nostr.build/405a730a6c774759d7913f92f59059d43146db4afb28451a6f8833f94e99437f.jpg

Passo 4: Preencha os seguintes campos: https://image.nostr.build/7dc5eba39ff82a321195dbf46b8113818632e3ef41175991d58e799a8e9d2751.jpg

1. Encriptar para: Selecione o destinatário da mensagem, ou seja, a pessoa para quem você está enviando o texto criptografado.
   https://image.nostr.build/1e8c8cba6d3c3136d9857512e2794a81ceb7434eccdfb0f7d26cdef008b2e6d2.jpg

2. Assinar com: Escolha sua chave PGP para assinar a mensagem.
   https://image.nostr.build/d25b228c35b132d396d01c354ef093b43b3565578fbc0d6ff7b9de4e41619855.jpg

3. Digitar o texto: No campo de texto, escreva a mensagem que deseja criptografar.
   https://image.nostr.build/8537271dfa4445e60cb4c3cdb5d97571dc0ff5ee8acd6ed89a8c81e4bd8736c2.jpg

Passo 5: Depois de preencher os campos, você pode copiar o texto criptografado de duas formas:

1. Copiar para a área de transferência: Clique na opção para copiar o texto criptografado e cole-o em um aplicativo de mensagens para enviá-lo.
   https://image.nostr.build/a5cb8e2c538a38db3972e7f3ac9aa9f602cda6b62848ff0c4b99928a67dcd486.jpg

2. Compartilhar diretamente: Utilize a opção de compartilhamento para enviar o texto criptografado diretamente através de seus aplicativos de mensagens.
   https://image.nostr.build/2b79cb564d623788a0de1111a067e0eb496f743389d465d4f4e8f6e65f0d08a7.jpg https://image.nostr.build/ff59e52bc8ab54ff377980a6ba5d1c4743d3298de11e5daa187ab7d45163a7be.jpg

Criptografar arquivos.

Passo 1: Abra o menu lateral clicando no ícone no canto superior esquerdo.
https://image.nostr.build/13ac93b38dd1633118ae3142401c13e8a089caabdf4617055284cc521a45b069.jpg

Passo 2: Selecione a opção "Encriptar/Descriptar".
https://image.nostr.build/8cd905d616b53968f0551c071d9acc2f47bbe8434c2c7e1a33076a504342de48.jpg

Passo 3 : clique na opção "Encriptar arquivos ". https://image.nostr.build/3fcae48ee38e7f4079ebccfd3eafb9ab0ad3559221d2c3560cdfe60e29f56a15.jpg

Passo 4 : os passos a seguir são os mesmo que você seguiu pra encriptar a mensagem texto. Ítens "Encriptar para:" "Assinar com:" https://image.nostr.build/4d6599b9d3a9fdfae0964daaa9dae513d5ce277a7b61930fa2937d534f72ed40.jpg

Passo 5 : clilcar na opção " Adicionair arquivo(s)" Vai abrir na memória interna do celular selecione o arquivo que deseja encriptar. https://image.nostr.build/09e3b9b54a1406426114926aab19011c36b98886ebae6fcf556cfea83bb2c2f4.jpg https://image.nostr.build/af422e243b36762dd66111ec7c848a1352c100ca3040dc21792c923f80aef74d.jpg https://image.nostr.build/ebebbdb273b4bca58d901852aec1c60e4799aa77e9d12a31f992b0cf8f73e753.jpg

Passo 6: Depois de preencher os campos, você pode compartilhar o arquivo criptografado de duas formas:

1. Salvar na memória do celular: A primeira opção salva o arquivo criptografado no armazenamento do seu dispositivo. Você terá a opção de editar o nome do arquivo antes de salvar.
   https://image.nostr.build/0a47c1e9f0003541f47091b2c2e8ce6b8d1533d95463e331b218070bae964ac8.jpg https://image.nostr.build/95a7a2b67356eb5ded5b217bab38a19bdeba5af7befd105834e413e0aec45462.jpg https://image.nostr.build/66cb3d22b271f3b73b7015613c72711a3ffbf5e1070d43153f9d1f3fcf35001c.jpg https://image.nostr.build/f9624d86f7592fe7ffad932b7805762dc279d9e8ff410222108155438a2c970f.jpg

2. Compartilhar diretamente: Utilize a opção de compartilhamento para enviar o arquivo criptografado diretamente por meio dos seus aplicativos de mensagens.
   https://image.nostr.build/85541e466c7755c65bd6ba0208a6d8612beaa5298712b6d92f53865167695a38.jpg https://image.nostr.build/bf1e0f0aeb60cafbdf82af4b3b598288519e85b396bd3f9e00e61f65b89ea9f8.jpg https://image.nostr.build/fb090339898f37cdbb020828689b142ca601ca3ee549f67ddf6b2e094df9ab9f.jpg https://image.nostr.build/50c249ced06efe465ba533fef15207b0dcd1a725e9b2c139e8d85c13fd798276.jpg

Descriptografar Mensagens e Arquivos

Para ler uma mensagem ou arquivo criptografado que você recebeu, utilize sua chave privada. Siga os passos abaixo:

Descriptografar Mensagens

Passo 1: Copie a mensagem criptografada que você recebeu.
https://image.nostr.build/c37754b12a458e0176b9137ae0aa9e8209f853bf9d9292c0867fd8b0606d53c4.jpg

Passo 2: Clique na opção "Ler da área de transferência" para descriptografar o texto.
https://image.nostr.build/d83c7dad2ee1cb6267779863bc174ee1a8f3cc3c86b69063345321027bdde7b5.jpg https://image.nostr.build/c0fae86e6ab1fe9dcee86753972c818bed489ea11efdd09b7e7da7422a9c81eb.jpg

Descriptografar Arquivos

Passo 1: Clique na opção "Selecionar arquivo de entrada".
https://image.nostr.build/9c276c630311d19a576f2e35b5ba82bac07360476edae3f1a8697ff85df9e3c9.jpg

Passo 2: Selecione o arquivo criptografado que deseja descriptografar.
https://image.nostr.build/6b6c2a3284ba96e7168fc7bd0916020c4f1bed7b77dfca48227fc96d6929e15a.jpg https://image.nostr.build/9945aad644af2e2020e07e55f65f11a0958d55e8fc9e13c862e6b9ca88b4f4d9.jpg

6. BACKUP E RESTAURAÇÃO DE CHAVE PGP.

Realizar o backup das suas chaves PGP é fundamental para evitar a perda de acesso às suas mensagens e dados criptografados. O OpenKeychain facilita esse processo, permitindo que você faça um backup completo e seguro. Recomendamos que você armazene o backup em um local seguro, como um HD externo ou pendrive conectado via cabo OTG, sempre protegendo-o com senha.

PASSOS PARA REALIZAR O BACKUP:

Passo 1: Abra o menu lateral clicando no ícone no canto superior esquerdo.
https://image.nostr.build/13ac93b38dd1633118ae3142401c13e8a089caabdf4617055284cc521a45b069.jpg

Passo 2: Selecione a opção Backup/restaurar.
https://image.nostr.build/6fa8fd14e23b47c6c924bc0d900646663f2124a93d8172ae79fdf43b5c7d4490.jpg

Passo 3: Escolha a primeira opção: Backup completo (criptografado).
https://image.nostr.build/4875fb27b6d04c3cb838b4fb9f308ef9194edc35ba1254ba965b7f0db2544170.jpg

Passo 4: O backup será protegido por um código de backup gerado automaticamente. Anote esse código em um papel e guarde local seguro, pois sem ele você não conseguirá recuperar suas chaves PGP. Após anotar o código, marque a opção “Anotei o código” e clique em Salvar Backup. Obs: todas as vezes que você for fazer o backup da sua chave PGP vai ser criado um novo código aleatório.

https://image.nostr.build/72a317ef5e59a01c03c36f1d04a91d42c418a478cc82e372acf21bb8302daa00.jpg

Passo 5: Escolha o local onde deseja salvar o backup (HD externo, pendrive, etc.), confirme sua escolha e clique em OK. Você verá uma mensagem de confirmação indicando que o backup foi salvo com sucesso.

https://image.nostr.build/d757e8bdf429371320daa44be8a48a0dbeb2324129f4254327f0f0383e70ede4.jpg https://image.nostr.build/f3ad80ceb8a191b4d1b40722b1d0d4f85bf183d412e7d7d901b25d19b2dfe0e3.jpg

Importação da Chave PGP

Caso você precise restaurar suas chaves PGP a partir de um backup, o OpenKeychain também facilita o processo de importação. Siga os passos abaixo para restaurar sua chave PGP:

Passo 1: Selecione a opção "Selecionar arquivo de entrada"

Abra o OpenKeychain, acesse o menu lateral no canto superior esquerdo e escolha a opção "Selecionar arquivo de entrada" para localizar o arquivo de backup que você deseja importar.
https://image.nostr.build/a06ddc1c1e6c50519097e614aa25b14311e49c0ca4d4607e42ebdcca3a6641c4.jpg

Passo 2: Selecione o arquivo de backup
Navegue até o local onde você salvou o arquivo de backup (HD externo, pendrive, etc.) e selecione-o. Em seguida, o OpenKeychain solicitará que você insira o código de recuperação que foi gerado no momento do backup. https://image.nostr.build/9d5649c04a98ec8b0a29355d9068e48313b1c5dc36cd965961f4d33f22d10046.jpg

Passo 3: Digite o código de recuperação
Insira o código de recuperação que você anotou anteriormente. É importante digitar o código corretamente para garantir o sucesso da restauração.

Passo 4: Depois de inserir o código corretamente, o OpenKeychain irá restaurar suas chaves PGP, e uma mensagem de confirmação será exibida, indicando que a recuperação foi concluída com sucesso.

Agora suas chaves estão restauradas e você pode continuar usando o OpenKeychain para gerenciar suas comunicações criptografadas de maneira segura.

https://www.openkeychain.org/

https://github.com/open-keychain/open-keychain

https://youtu.be/fptlAx_j4OA

@ 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

---

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

@ 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

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Bitcoin Core Github page announced yesterday that Core Developers have merged pull request #32406, removing support for “-datacarrier” argument for Bitcoin Core software in their next release, expected to be published in October.

Pull request #32406 has been merged — Github

This is the latest development regarding the initiative brought forth by Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd, which has caused intense debate among Bitcoiners, now known as the “spam wars”.

The disagreement is over a change to Bitcoin Core’s transaction relay policy that removes the OP_RETURN data limit, which some see as a threat to Bitcoin’s very purpose, while others see it as a necessary step to preserve decentralization and censorship resistance.

OP_RETURN is an arbitrary piece of data that can be amended to a bitcoin transaction, and used to be limited to 80 bytes. Users have found ways to go around this limit already and have uploaded larger data to the Bitcoin blockchain, including photos, audio, and even entire computer games.

Bitcoin Core allows for extra arguments when running the application, one of which is the “-datacarrier” argument, which tells the application to not accept transactions including larger OP_RETURN data into its mempool.

Now this argument is marked as “deprecated”, meaning it is not supported or developed anymore, and is expected to be completely removed in future versions.

This will make accepting Bitcoin transactions that contain non-financial data mandatory for anyone running future versions of the Core software.

Prior to the merging of the mentioned pull request on the morning of Monday June 9, a joint statement from 31 Bitcoin Core devs was released on June 6, reheating the already controversial debate in the Bitcoin community.

In the June 6 statement, Bitcoin Core devs explained how they think Bitcoin nodes should handle transactions that include non-financial data, like digital art or messages. This type of data has become more common with Ordinals and inscriptions.

Related: Discussions Heat Up Among Bitcoin Devs Over OP_RETURN Proposal

Core developers said they are not endorsing non-financial use of Bitcoin, but also won’t stop it. Their main point is that Bitcoin’s strength is in being open and censorship-resistant. They wrote:

“This is not endorsing or condoning non-financial data usage, but accepting that as a censorship-resistant system, Bitcoin can and will be used for use cases not everyone agrees on.”

They say it’s up to users and node operators to decide what kind of Bitcoin software they run. Bitcoin Core won’t block transactions that have economic demand and will be mined.

“Being free to run any software is the network’s primary safeguard against coercion,” the statement added.

The policy change goes back to a May 8th upgrade (announced by Core contributor and Engineer at Blockstream, Greg Sanders), where devs removed the long-standing 80-byte limit on OP_RETURN output size.

This limit was meant to discourage non-payment data usage, but devs say it no longer serves that purpose.

“Retiring a deterrent that no longer deters” makes sense, they argue, because people have already found ways to add large data to the blockchain.

They also point out that removing the cap may help miners and users more than it hurts. They claim the new approach helps predict which transactions will be mined, speeds up block propagation and helps miners find fee-paying transactions.

“Knowingly refusing to relay transactions that miners would include in blocks anyway forces users into alternate communication channels,” they explained, warning this could harm decentralization.

The response has been mixed.

The announcement of the merge received 64 upvotes and 93 downvotes from reviewers, showing the community is mostly against this action. Comments explaining their dissatisfaction with the merge also received the support of the majority.

Reviewers who voted ACK (acknowledgment and agreement) were downvoted, and the comments voting NACK (disagreement) received more upvotes.

Comments regarding the recent merge — Bitcoin Core Github page

Critics say it opens the door to blockchain spam, higher fees and more bloat on the blockchain with non-financial content. They say Bitcoin should stick to its original purpose as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”.

Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, was one of the most vocal critics. He said the devs are removing the barriers that protect the network from spam.

“Bitcoin Core devs have been changing the network gradually to enable spam,” Mow said. “It’s disingenuous to just say ‘It is what it is now, too bad’.”

Bitcoin dev Luke Dashjr also criticized the move, saying it undermines Bitcoin’s core function. He called the devs’ goals “basically all wrong” and said expecting spam to be mined is “defeatism”.

Luke Dashjr on X

One user said: “It’s Bit”Coin” not Bit”Bucket” or Bit”Store” or whatever general purpose data store you have in mind. It’s a peer to peer electronic cash system”.

Another user chimed in, warning it could increase costs, reduce efficiency and even hurt long-term scalability.

Their argument is simple: if nonfinancial data is allowed to be stored on the blockchain, it will increase its size over time, storing useless data, and it will hurt decentralization, as fewer individuals will be able to host the entire blockchain on their computers.

They argue allowing people to store whatever they want on the blockchain because transactions shouldn’t be censored, will lead to hurting bitcoin in the long run. Many even argue no additional information should be allowed on the blockchain at all.

But not everyone is unhappy.

Some like Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Bitcoin wallet provider Casa, praised the devs for being transparent and consistent.

“Core Devs are a group saying we can’t force anyone to run code they don’t like,” Lopp said. “Here is our thinking on relay policy and network health.”

Lopp believes a joint statement helps the public understand what the devs stand for.

Supporters also say in a truly decentralized system, devs shouldn’t be gatekeepers. Instead users and miners should be able to decide what goes on the blockchain.

With opinions so divided, the future of Bitcoin may be more contentious. Some predict a fork to create a version of Bitcoin that only deals with monetary use. Others expect new wallet and node software that lets users choose to filter out large data or allow it.

Despite the controversy, the devs are standing by their decision. “While we recognize that this view isn’t held universally,” they said. “it is our sincere belief that it is in the best interest of Bitcoin and its users.”

@ 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.

---

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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.

@ 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.

---

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

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

That’s exactly what Simplified Privacy VPN is offering: a new kind of privacy tool that feels more like spinning up a secure, disposable virtual browser than using a traditional VPN.

Most of us know what a VPN is: it hides your IP address, encrypts your traffic, and gives you a bit more control over your privacy online. But what if you could go way beyond that—without setting up a complicated system, running a full virtual machine, or revealing anything about yourself?

What Makes It Different?

When I tried it myself, I realized this wasn’t just another VPN. It didn’t just route my traffic—it gave me access to a completely separate browsing environment. Imagine logging into a private, anonymous machine in the cloud, one that:

• Has its own browser and system settings
• Can’t see your personal files, history, or identity
• Randomizes details like screen size and timezone
• Leaves no trace once you’re done

This isn’t just hiding your IP—it’s giving you a fresh, secure web session that’s disconnected from your actual device.

Simplified Privacy VPN: The Lightning-Powered Twist

Here’s where it gets even cooler for us in the Lightning world: access costs just $1 in bitcoin via the Lightning Network.

You send a few sats, and within seconds you get access to a private browser session that lasts for a full month. Want a different profile or setup? Just pay another dollar and spin up a new one—no account, no email, no friction.

You can create as many instances as you like, each with its own identity. This is microtransaction-based privacy in action—exactly the kind of innovation Lightning enables.

Excellent Support, Secure Channels

I also tested their support team with a couple of questions—one technical issue and one feature request. Support is offered through secure, privacy-respecting channels, including Session chat. Responses were fast, friendly, and helpful. Even more impressive: my feature request was implemented not long after I sent it in.

In a space where many privacy tools leave you to figure things out on your own, this kind of responsive support makes a big difference.

Why This Matters

For journalists, activists, developers, or just regular folks who don’t want Big Tech watching their every move, this setup is a game-changer:

• More realistic protection than just using incognito mode or a VPN
• No need to trust the website, since this system isolates the browser to its own filesystem
• No need to trust the app, since it doesn’t require root access or your system password.
• Instant access with no signup or personal info
• Perfect match for Lightning’s low-cost, no-middleman model

One Note of Caution

While the system is impressive and genuinely different from anything I’ve seen, the project is still early and niche. The website and team aren’t as well-known as major VPN providers. So use it like any experimental tool—test it, learn from it, but don’t put all your trust in one basket yet.

Final Thoughts

In a world where online tracking is getting creepier and centralized control is tightening, SimplifiedPrivacy.com is pushing in the opposite direction: easy, user-controlled privacy with zero setup and lightning-fast access.

If you’ve got a dollar and a need for a little online invisibility, this might be one of the best ways to spend your sats.

@ 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

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.

---

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

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Prenetics Becomes First Healthcare Firm to Launch Bitcoin Treasury Strategy With $20M BTC Purchase

Prenetics Global Limited, a health sciences company, announced today that it has purchased $20 million worth of Bitcoin as part of a newly approved corporate treasury strategy. The company acquired 187.42 BTC at an average price of $106,712 and stated that its board has approved allocating the majority of its $117 million balance sheet to Bitcoin. 

This follows the company’s strategic transfer of ownership of ACT Genomics, which increased its pro-forma cash to approximately $66 million and total liquid assets, including BTC and short-term holdings, to around $117 million. 

According to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine, Danny Yeung, CEO of Prenetics stated, “With our strengthened balance sheet of $117 million in cash, BTC and short-term assets, we now have the financial foundation to pioneer innovative treasury management approaches, including our historic Bitcoin treasury strategy.” 

Prenetics also announced the appointment of Andy Cheung, former COO of cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, to its Board of Directors. Cheung noted that the company’s Bitcoin strategy will include active treasury management, using tools such as derivatives and structured products. 

“This isn’t about passive Bitcoin storage,” said Cheung. “We’re talking about dynamic treasury management using derivatives, yield strategies, and institutional-grade trading techniques.”

Prenetics plans to expand its Bitcoin holdings through institutional capital partnerships and to implement advanced return strategies. It also plans to accept Bitcoin payments across its direct to consumer platforms, including IM8 Health and CircleDNA.

In addition to Cheung, the company is working with two industry advisors, Tracy Hoyos Lopez, Chief of Staff at Kraken and a board member at the Bitcoin Advocacy Project, and Raphael Strauch, founder of crypto conference TOKEN2049. 

“This is not a short-term play or market timing decision,” said Yeung. “We are implementing a comprehensive, long-term Bitcoin strategy that we believe will fundamentally transform our company’s value proposition.”

Prenetics reported strong recent growth, including a 336.5% year over year revenue increase in Q1 2025. It now operates three consumer health brands and maintains a deb free balance sheet. 

Prenetics’ strategy shows Bitcoin’s tremendous growth and potential. But this time, from within the healthcare sector. 

This post Prenetics Becomes First Healthcare Firm to Launch Bitcoin Treasury Strategy With $20M BTC Purchase first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9

pen & ink; monochromized;

This was based on an audrey hepburn reference, but the likeness is not very high, but I liked the image nonetheless.

"The Nun's Story is a 1959 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, and Dean Jagger. The screenplay was written by Robert Anderson, based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Kathryn Hulme. The film tells the life of Gabrielle Van Der Mal (Hepburn), a young woman who decides to enter a convent and make the many sacrifices required by her choice.

The film is a relatively faithful adaptation of the novel, which was based on the life of Belgian nun Marie Louise Habets. Latter portions of the film were shot on location in the Belgian Congo and feature Finch as a cynical but caring surgeon.[2] The film was a financial success and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Hepburn.[1][3]"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Movie Link

https://stacker.news/items/1009641

@ 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

@ c631e267:c2b78d3e

Ich dachte immer, jeder Mensch sei gegen den Krieg, \ bis ich herausfand, dass es welche gibt, \ die nicht hingehen müssen. \ Erich Maria Remarque

Was sollte man von einem Freitag, den 13., schon anderes erwarten?, ist man versucht zu sagen. Jedoch braucht niemand abergläubisch zu sein, um den heutigen Tag als unheilvoll anzusehen. Der israelische «Präventivschlag» von heute Nacht gegen militärische und nukleare Ziele im Iran könnte allem Anschein nach zu einem längeren bewaffneten Konflikt führen – und damit unweigerlich zu weiteren Opfern.

«Wir befinden uns im Krieg», soll ein ranghoher israelischer Militärvertreter gesagt haben, und der Iran wertet den israelischen Angriff laut seinem Außenminister als Kriegserklärung. Na also. Teheran hat Vergeltungsschläge angekündigt und antwortete zunächst mit Drohnen. Inzwischen ist eine zweite israelische Angriffswelle angelaufen. Ob wir wohl künftig in den Mainstream-Medien durchgängig von einem «israelischen Angriffskrieg auf den Iran» hören und lesen werden?

Dass die zunehmenden Spannungen um das iranische Atomprogramm zu einer akuten Eskalation im Nahen Osten führen könnten, hatte Transition News gestern berichtet. Laut US-Beamten sei Israel «voll bereit», den Iran in den nächsten Tagen anzugreifen, hieß es in dem Beitrag. Heute ist das bereits bittere Realität.

Der Nahe Osten steht übrigens auch auf der Themenliste des diesjährigen Bilderberg-Treffens, das zurzeit in Stockholm stattfindet. Viele Inhalte werden wir allerdings mal wieder nicht erfahren, denn wie immer hocken die «erlauchten» Persönlichkeiten aus Europa und den USA «informell» und unter größter Geheimhaltung zusammen, um über «Weltpolitik» zu diskutieren. Auf der Teinehmerliste stehen auch einige Vertreter aus der Schweiz und aus Deutschland.

Die Anwesenheit sowohl des aktuellen als auch des vorigen Generalsekretärs der NATO lässt vermuten, dass man bei dem Meeting weniger über das Thema «Neutralität» sprechen dürfte. Angesichts des Zustands unseres Planeten ist das schade, denn der Ökonom Jeffrey Sachs hob kürzlich in einem Interview die Rolle der Neutralität in geopolitischen Krisen hervor. Mit Blick auf die Schweiz betonte er, der zunehmende Druck zur NATO-Annäherung widerspreche nicht nur der Bundesverfassung, sondern auch dem historischen Erbe des Landes.

Positives gibt es diese Woche ebenfalls zu berichten. So hat der US-Gesundheitsminister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nach der «sensationellen» Entlassung aller Mitglieder des Impfberatungsausschusses (wegen verbreiteter direkter Verbindungen zu Pharmaunternehmen) nun auch bereits neue Namen verkündet. Demnach möchte er unter anderem Robert W. Malone, Erfinder der mRNA-«Impfung» als Technologie und prominenter Kritiker der Corona-Maßnahmen, in das Komitee aufnehmen.

Auch die Aufarbeitung der unsinnigen Corona-Politik geht Schrittchen für Schrittchen weiter. In Heidelberg hat die Initiative für Demokratie und Aufklärung (IDA) den Gemeinderat angesichts der katastrophalen Haushaltslage zu einer offenen und ehrlichen Diskussion über die Ursachen der Krise aufgefordert. Das Thema «Corona» sei «das Teuerste, was Heidelberg je erlebt hat», sagte IDA-Stadtrat Gunter Frank im Plenum. Außerdem seien aus den Krisenstabsprotokollen der Stadt auch die enormen Verwerfungen ersichtlich, und es gebe Anlass für tiefgehende Gespräche mit der Stadtverwaltung.

Den juristischen und öffentlichen Druck auf die Kommunen möchte der Unternehmer Markus Böning erhöhen. Seine «Freiheitskanzlei» will Bürgern helfen, die Aufarbeitung selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Unter dem Motto «Corona-Wiedergutmachung» bietet er Hilfestellung, wie Betroffene versuchen können, sich unrechtmäßige Bußgelder zurückzuholen.

So bleibt uns am Ende dieses finsteren Freitags doch auch Anlass zur Hoffnung. Es gibt definitiv noch Anzeichen von Menschlichkeit. Darauf möchte ich mich konzentrieren, und mit diesem Gefühl verabschiede ich mich ins Wochenende.

[Titelbild: Pixabay]

---

Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben und ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ 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.

@ 3c7dc2c5:805642a8

🧠Quote(s) of the week:

"Bitcoin trades 168 hours a week. Every other asset trades 35 hours at best (and less on holidays). This is the most magical, transparent, and hard-working [asset] in history. I’m in awe watching Bitcoin trade at 9:30 pm on a Saturday. You could liquidate $100 million worth, any hour of any day, and maybe take a 3% haircut. This is extremely high-bandwidth price discovery." —Michael Saylor https://i.ibb.co/LXCm3Kp8/Gshl-Ixas-Awezk3.png

🧡Bitcoin news🧡

13 years ago the block subsidy was 50 BTC. 13 years from now it will be 0.39 BTC.

On the 2nd of June:

➡️Hong Kong’s Reitar Logitech files to acquire $1.5B in Bitcoin, becoming the latest firm to join the Bitcoin treasury trend. The logistics and real estate company says the move strengthens its financial foundation as it scales its global tech platform.

➡️Bitcoin's global hashrate has reached a new all-time high, with data from Hashrate Index showing a 7-day simple moving average peak of 943 EH/s. https://i.ibb.co/3yR2ZZ0w/Gsahm-VXMAA1m-Ol.png

➡️(K)now (Y)our (C)ustomer is nothing but Stealth Mass Surveillance. What 95% of regulations cost versus return in one picture? https://i.ibb.co/Q3CLzF7j/Gsb20g-Pb-IAABy4-L.jpg

➡️Norwegian Block Exchange becomes the first publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company in Norway.' - Simply Bitcoin

➡️Poland just elected pro-Bitcoin Presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki. “Poland should be a birthplace of innovation rather than regulation.”

➡️NYC Mayor Eric Adams: “You all mocked me, ‘You’re taking your first 3 paychecks in #Bitcoin, what’s wrong with you?’ Now you wish you would have done.”

➡️Strategy plans to launch an IPO for 2.5M shares of its 10% Series A 'Stride' Preferred Stock (STRD), with proceeds going toward general corporate use and Bitcoin acquisition. Dividends are non-cumulative and paid only if declared.

Bit Paine: 'Remember: the entire fiat system is just various forms and layers of debt with different issuers all backed by an “asset,” (itself just a base layer of sovereign debt) that can and will be printed into oblivion. MSTR is just recapitulating this system but with a fixed supply underlying, meaning that in real terms anything it issues will benefit from the dilution of the fiat base layer and hence outperform (wildly) any fiat debt. No matter your institutional mandate, it makes no sense to hold debt whose base layer can be unilaterally demonetized when you can hold debt backed by a fixed supply underlying commodity that goes up forever.'

On the 3rd of June:

➡️Tether sends 37,229 Bitcoin worth almost $4 billion in total to Jack Maller's Twenty-One Capital

➡️El Salvador is running a full Bitcoin node!

➡️Canadian construction engineering company SolarBank adopts a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve "As the adoption of Bitcoin continues to grow, SolarBank believes that establishing a Bitcoin treasury strategy taps into a growing sector that is seeing increasing adoption."

➡️Willy Woo: "Who are the idiots who are selling when institutions and sovereigns are racing to buy billions in BTC?" This chart sheds light. The big whales >10k BTC have been selling since 2017. "They're stupid!" Most of those coins were bought between $0-$700 and held 8-16 years.' https://i.ibb.co/xKctV3Tf/Gsid236as-AAXPl-D.jpg

Selling at 20,000% profit is generally not a bad move.

➡️'South Korea just elected a pro-Bitcoin President who promised to legalize spot Bitcoin ETFs and scrap unfair regulation.' -Bitcoin Archive

➡️The average US investor owns 0.3% of their net worth in Bitcoin.

https://i.ibb.co/5WtFH9LM/Gsfoem-Tb0-AEfo-Ds.jpg

We are so damnn early.

➡️MARA mined 950 Bitcoin worth over $100 MILLION in May. They HODLed all of it.

➡️Bitcoin for Corporations: "Metaplanet just became Japan’s most traded stock — topping the charts in both value and volume:

➤ 170M shares traded

➤ ¥222B ($1.51B) value traded

This is what a Bitcoin strategy looks like in motion."

➡️'The Blockchain Group acquires 624 BTC for €60.2 million, nearly doubling their stack. They are now holding a total of 1,471 BTC with a BTC Yield of 1,097.6% YTD.' -Bitcoin News

➡️Publicly traded company K33 buys 10 Bitcoin for SEK 10 million for its balance sheet.

➡️California Assembly passes a bill to allow the state to receive payments in Bitcoin and digital currencies. It passed 68-0 and now heads to the Senate.

But hold up...

Bitcoin held on exchanges for +3 years will be transferred to the state of California under a law passed by the Assembly.

Not your keys…

➡️Adam Back invests $2.1 million into Swedish Bitcoin treasury company H100.

On the 4th of June:

➡️Daniel Batten: 'A large Bitcoin mining operation uses < 1/3 of the water of an average US family, and 0.0006% of the water a typical Gold mine uses.' https://i.ibb.co/TxNWSkHg/Gsn-VIjh-XQAEECOh.jpg

➡️And there it is: for JPMorgan, Bitcoin is now "safe collateral" JP Morgan will now offer loans backed by Bitcoin ETFs.

https://i.ibb.co/cXX0hKBK/Gsn-C5-B8-Wg-AA2e3i.png

Bent the knee. Wall Street realizes that Bitcoin is pristine collateral. Liquid 24/7/365 globally.

➡️Spanish coffee chain Vanadi Coffee to purchase $1.1 billion Bitcoin for its treasury reserve.

Disclaimer: This sounds great but it's not the whole story.

Pledditor: 'You mean a coffee shop chain founded just 4 years ago, only has 6 locations, and every year it has operated has suffered millions of dollars of net losses? They have 1975 Instagram followers. They have 149 Facebook followers. They have 48 X followers. But remember guys, you are investing in a "COFFEE GIANT"

So where does the $1.1B come from?

'The same way it came for Metaplanet (and all these other penny stocks) Get a bunch of high follower Bitcoin X accounts to hype your ticker (usually Bitcoin Magazine, Vivek, Pete Rizzo, etc), start up an "Irresponsibly Long ___" group, then dump a shitload of stock on the plebs.'

I have said it before...

Bitcoin treasury companies won't prevent another bear market; they’re the reason it’ll happen again this cycle.

➡️Public company Semler Scientific purchases an additional 185 Bitcoin for $20 million.

➡️Wicked: Imagine how rekt people would get if we went from $200k back down to $58k next bear market. The funny thing is that’d only be a 71% pullback, the smallest bear market pullback ever.

https://i.ibb.co/DfFtFZnP/Gsnr-U-3-Xo-AAJy-Kq.jpg

➡️Fidelty: An increasing number of institutions are leveraging Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. And as understanding of the asset deepens, interest continues to grow. See what may be driving the shift: Source: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/adding-bitcoin-corporate-treasury?ccsource=owned_social_btc_corp_treasury_june_x

➡️Solo Bitcoin miner solves block 899,826, earning 3.151 BTC ( $330K). A solo miner rented a massive amount of hashrate on @NiceHashMining and successfully mined a Bitcoin block solo on CKpool, claiming the full reward alone.

➡️Romania's national postal service, Poșta Română, launches a pilot program by installing its first Bitcoin ATM at a Tulcea branch, partnering with Bitcoin Romania (BTR Exchange), the country's leading cryptocurrency exchange.

On the 6th of June:

➡️Mononaut: 'With a weight of only 5723 units, block 899998 was the second lightest non-empty block of this halving epoch.'

➡️'UK-listed gold miner Bluebird Mining Ventures announces strategy to convert gold mining income into Bitcoin. A gold mining company will become the first UK-listed company to implement a Strategic Bitcoin Treasury' - Bitcoin News

➡️Phoenix Wallet: Phoenix 2.6.1 now supports NFC for sending and receiving. Works on Android and iOS. (NFC received on iOS is only due to Apple restrictions)

➡️Man from Germany fails to declare 24 words when crossing the border – nothing happens.

https://i.ibb.co/21W5qVks/Gswdghd-Xw-AA7-SH6.png

➡️Know Labs, Inc. to become a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy company starting with 1,000 BTC. Funny isn't it? Even former Ripple executive, Greg Kidd, is choosing to fill their company treasuries with bitcoin—not XRP.

➡️Bitcoin Successfully Mines the 900,000th Block! https://x.com/i/status/1930973314475815120

➡️Trump Media's latest S-3 filing officially adopts a Bitcoin treasury strategy. - Registers up to $12B in new securities to buy BTC - Adds to $2.44B already raised - Mentions “Bitcoin” 362 times (vs. once in prior S-3)

➡️Bitcoin News: Metaplanet just issued ¥855B ($5.4B) in moving-strike warrants to buy more Bitcoin, Japan’s largest equity issuance of its kind ever. It’s the first above-market pricing in Japan's history, defying the usual 8–10% discount.

➡️ Uber CEO tells Bloomberg Bitcoin is a proven store of value and that it is exploring crypto payments.

➡️Agricultural commodity trading company Davis Commodities will buy $4.5 million Bitcoin for their reserves, calling it "digital gold.

➡️Fidelity: As digital assets evolve, bitcoin’s potential as a store of value sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies. “Coin Report: Bitcoin” outlines why the asset’s design, scarcity, and decentralized nature help make it distinct—and where its future opportunities may lie. Read now: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/coin-report-bitcoin-btc?ccsource=owned_social_btc_report_june_x

➡️Japanese public company Remixpoint announces it bought 44.8 #Bitcoin worth $4.7 million

On the 8th of June:

➡️Wicked: Bitcoin has been running for 6,000 days and it’s already spent 60 of them, 1% of its life, closing above $100k. https://i.ibb.co/kVyrjR7v/Gs4uy-MIW8-AAOl-A.jpg

On the 9th of June:

➡️Australia’s ABC News reports on how Bitcoin adoption is bringing financial freedom and greater safety to Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums in Kenya.

➡️ IBIT just blew through $70b and is now the fastest ETF to ever hit that mark in only 341 days, which is 5x faster than the old record held by GLD of 1,691 days. https://i.ibb.co/DfKbwhjG/Gt-Ar6-Eq-X0-AAzrl5.png

Credit chart JackiWang17 on X

➡️Japanese fashion brand ANAP plans to buy and hold over 1,000 Bitcoin by August 2025.

➡️South Korean President to introduce legislation this week to allow big banks to adopt Bitcoin.

➡️Wicked: Bitcoin's now 3x larger than the top 9 shitcoins combined. https://i.ibb.co/LDQKsGHM/Gt-AJy-D6-X0-AA7-PIY.jpg

💸Traditional Finance / Macro:

On the 3rd of May:

👉🏽'Hedge funds are still not buying the Magnificent 7: Hedge funds’ long/short ratio on Magnificent 7 stocks is now at its lowest level in 5 years, per Goldman Sachs. This is even lower than at the 2022 bear market bottom. Furthermore, their exposure to Magnificent 7 stocks is now down -50% over the last year. Meanwhile, hedge funds have bought US information technology stocks for 3 consecutive weeks. This occurred after the sector had been net sold in 10 of the previous 12 weeks. Retail has led the recent rebound.' -TKL

On the 6th of June:

👉🏽If you net out the Mag 7 from the S&P 500, the remaining 493 stocks have barely gone anywhere in over a decade (comparatively speaking). Chart: Goldman Sachs https://i.ibb.co/s9LmVBL8/Gsx53k6-W8-AAM2xr.jpg

🏦Banks:

On the 21st of May: 👉🏽No News

🌎Macro/Geopolitics:

'The reality is that the US soft defaults on its debt every day through structural inflation (the perpetual debasement of the US dollar). In other words, the Treasury pays you back dollars that are worth far less than what you lent to them. A soft default.' This is also valid for Europe.

On top of that, the richest man in the world is publicly arguing with the president of the United States about America’s solvency. Consider buying bitcoin.

So far regarding Trump: - didn't audit the Gold - didn't stop the wars - didn't reduce the deficit/debt/budget - didn't form a Bitcoin reserve - didn't release the Epstein files

Anyway, consider buying Bitcoin.

On the 2nd of June:

👉🏽'The Bank of Japan just racked up a record ¥28.6 trillion in bond losses That’s three times bigger than last year! This isn’t just Japan’s problem. It’s a screaming red alert for global markets.' - StockMarket News

TKL: " Japanese equity funds posted a record $11.8 billion in net outflows last week. This brought the 4-week moving average of outflows to $4.0 billion, an all-time high. Investors’ concerns over rapidly rising long-dated Japanese government bond yields were behind the outflows. Additionally, investors withdrew $5.1 billion from US stock funds. All while global equity funds saw $9.5 billion in net outflows, the most this year. Investors are taking profits after a sharp market recovery."

👉🏽The money printer is back on. US M2 just hit a new all-time high at $21.86T. Liquidity is flowing back into the system.

https://i.ibb.co/fGdx5kmt/Gsd-Jn-R9-XUAAUAO2.jpg

Recession odds have just dropped by 70% to 30% That’s the steepest decline in 65 years without a recession actually happening. Forget everything about a recession when M2 is moving up. Simple as that.

👉🏽$698 billion worth of homes are for sale in the United States, a new all-time high. Rajat Soni: 'The price of a house should be 0.01 BTC right now The housing market is way overpriced in terms of Bitcoin Interest rates or real estate prices will have to fall for these these homes actually to be sold.'

👉🏽The US Dollar is worth 8.9% less than it was at the beginning of the year.

👉🏽Argentina's economy grew 8% year-over-year in April 2025, the highest in the Western world!

On the 3rd of June:

👉🏽Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" bans all 50 states from regulating AI for 10 years, centralizes control at the federal level, and integrates AI systems into key federal agencies. https://i.ibb.co/Q7t14q7M/Gse-V2f-YWUAAyb-Py.png

👉🏽 ZeroHedge: 'Total US debt is now $37.5 trillion (accrued). The $36.2 trillion actual is just the ceiling set by the debt limit which will be revised to $40 trillion in August/September.'

👉🏽A million seconds ago was May 23rd

A billion seconds ago was 1993

A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C.

The US national debt is now rising by $1 Trillion every 180 days.

👉🏽NATO pushes European members to increase ground-based air defense systems five-fold — Bloomberg

👉🏽Global Markets Investor: 'This is incredible how European markets have outperformed the US this year. Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria have grown their market capitalization by 44%, 36%, and 33%, respectively. Next are Hungary, Spain, Luxembourg, Greece, and Germany. The US has been flat.'

https://i.ibb.co/TMwrLnB0/Gsiu-KWYXEAAto-U1.jpg

This is one of the WORST years for the US stock market in history: The S&P 500 has UNDERperformed World stocks excluding the US by 12 percentage points year-to-date, the most in 32 YEARS. This is even worse than during the Great Financial Crisis.

👉🏽Bravos Research: 'M2 money supply is now expanding at 4.4% After reaching its deepest contraction in 65 years This is quite constructive for the stock market.' https://i.ibb.co/hFCRgFhr/Gsht-Kgk-Xw-AAy-PFq.jpg

On the 4th of June:

👉🏽“The $1.06 trillion unrealized loss in 2024 was ‘modestly higher’ than the $948.4 billion paper loss seen in 2023.” https://i.ibb.co/Pvm7zVWy/Gsj-9-OWs-AAvwp-F.jpg

Probably nothing. What’s a trillion between friends…

Currently, the US is spending $1,200 trillion per year on interest payments (dark line). If everything were financed at the current interest rate, the cost would exceed $1,500 trillion per year (green). https://i.ibb.co/mCpYtwVW/Gsm-H6-Mr-Xc-AAqd-F5.png

Note: The national debt is $36,9 trillion.

👉🏽Global debt is gigantic: Debt-to-GDP is above 100% in 6 of 7 G7 nations, and is still rising. Japan: ~250% Italy, the US, France, the UK, and Canada: all near or above 100%.

For 5 of 7 G7 economies, debt is set to surge further by 2030. Now debt is a problem but the main question would be...what will the productivity be in 2030?

On the 5th of June:

👉🏽 The United States Treasury just bought back $10 Billion of its own debt, the largest Treasury buyback in history.

Buying back your own debt with printed money. That's what happens just before fiat money goes to die (eventually). Eventually, nobody wants that worthless debt anymore, eventually!

Context by EndGame Macro:

💰 $10 Billion Buyback: The Treasury’s Silent Signal

On June 3, 2025, the U.S. Treasury quietly executed the largest debt buyback in American history, repurchasing $10 billion in short- and medium-term bonds. At first glance, it looked routine. But under the surface, this was a stealth intervention aimed at calming a system under increasing strain. This wasn’t just liquidity smoothing. It was strategic triage.

🧾 What Happened

Buyback Size: $10B (a record)

Debt Offered: $22.87B — more than double what was accepted

Target Maturities: July 2025 to May 2027

Issues Accepted: 22 of 40 eligible

Settlement: June 4, 2025

That huge offer volume isn’t just noise—it’s a warning sign that institutional players are under pressure.

🚨 What the Buyback Really Signaled

1. A Quiet Circuit Breaker The buyback focused on maturities clustered around a $9 trillion rollover wall over the next 12 months. Without announcing it, the Treasury effectively tripped a circuit breaker to reduce near-term funding stress.
2. QE Without the Label This wasn’t the Fed. No balance sheet expansion. But by retiring debt ahead of maturity and shrinking market float, the effect mirrored QE—without the political baggage.
3. Institutions Are Feeling the Squeeze A staggering $22.87 billion in offers points to constraints at banks, funds, or foreign reserve desks. The Treasury didn’t save everyone—just enough to relieve pressure quietly.

🎯 Strategic Motivation

This wasn’t about boosting confidence. It was about managing two threats: Maturity Wall Risk: Avoiding auction failures as short-term debt piles up in 2025–2026. Yield Curve Stability: Preventing disorderly spikes by quietly absorbing supply. This move avoided triggering headlines—while containing the fire under the hood.

🧠 Echoes from History

This buyback fits into a lineage of quiet but powerful interventions: Operation Twist (1961) – Rebalancing maturity without QE branding. BoE Gilt Crisis (2022) – Targeted long-end intervention to save pensions. Belgium’s Shadow QE (2014) – U.S. debt absorbed off-balance-sheet during geopolitical tension. Each move relied on subtlety and intent—not optics.

🧩 What the Market Heard

Primary Dealers: Help exists—but it’s selective and discretionary.

Foreign Holders: Exit in order—or risk exclusion.

Money Markets: Relief, not resolution.

❗ Where the Logic Cracks

If this was routine: Why buy back below par? Why accept only 44% of the offered debt? Why deploy this now and not earlier? Each of these points to deeper stress than officials are openly admitting.

🔒 High-Conviction Takeaway

This buyback was a preemptive stabilization maneuver, not a stimulus. With over $9 trillion in short-term debt set to roll, foreign participation weakening, and institutional selling pressure rising, the Treasury acted before fractures became visible. The line wasn’t drawn to show strength. It was drawn behind the market—to stop a collapse.

🕵️‍♂️ Known Unknowns

Who were the biggest sellers—and what’s pressuring them? Was this coordinated with the Fed or global reserve desks? Is this a one-off event—or the start of a multi-phase liquidity campaign? The silence is strategic—but the signal is loud.

👉🏽Joe Consorti: 'Congress refuses to cut spending. So we must "grow our way out" of the deficit. That would take 39 years of 5% nominal GDP growth, or 22 years at 10%. In other words, 2-4 decades of explosive growth just to break even. We can't "grow our way out". We'll print our way out.'

👉🏽ZeroHedge: And just like that, the "climate crisis" is gone https://i.ibb.co/GQ76Z79P/Gsr3uus-XEAAjuv6.png

Don't get me wrong and with all respect to my environmentalist friends, but the “Crisis” never existed. A big part of the push has been marketing dollars/euros and media spin, let's face it.

Why do I think that? How do you think we will grow out of the Global Debt problem? One word: PRODUCTIVITY.

How can we manage that? They (Governments/Central Banks) need AI data farms. What do data farms need?

Electricity, water, energy.

Because Big Tech and AI need energy -- wherever they can find it -- climate change as a cause is finished. It was all virtue signaling. And remember the climate didn’t cool, it just stopped polling well. The scariest part of the “climate crisis” becoming out-of-vogue with the left is that it'll likely be replaced by something equally absurd and artificially manufactured.

On the 6th of June

👉🏽 'The US economy adds 139,000 jobs in May, above expectations of 126,000. The unemployment rate was 4.2%, in line with expectations of 4.2%. The April jobs number was revised down from 177,000 to 147,000. The headline numbers continue to exceed expectations.' - TKL

Surprise, surprise…

March jobs revised: 185K 120K (-65k)

April jobs revised: 177K 147K (-30k)

13 of the L16 have been revised lower.

Just to make it even worse, this is something I have shared multiple times in 2024. The number of year-over-year private job gains in 2024 was likely overstated by a MASSIVE 907,000 jobs, according to BLS data released Wednesday. This comes as the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data covering 97% of employers showed a private payroll growth rate of 0.6% for December 2024. This is 50% lower than the 1.2% growth rate initially reported in the monthly non-farm payroll (NFP) reports. To put this differently, there was a 907,000 gap between NFP data and QCEW data in 2024. This means jobs were likely overstated by an average of 75,583 PER MONTH in 2024.

👉🏽Opinion: Milei reduced government spending by 30% and achieved a surplus in only 1 month. His popularity didn't fall, it rose. Don't tell me fiscal discipline isn't popular with the general public. It's just unpopular to the powerful special interests that control DC or Brussels.

👉🏽'In the current fiscal year, the U.S. government already spent $4,159 billion. This is for the first 7 months and the fiscal year ends in September. The latest available data is as of April. The already accrued deficit amounts to over $1 trillion: $1,049 billion.

You can see in the chart how net interest expense has become the #2 largest spending category at $579 billion (for 7 months) after social security ($907 billion) and even exceeded national defense ($536 billion), health ($555 billion), and Medicare ($550 billion). The deficit is 34% of total receipts! (1049/3110) In other words: the U.S. government spent 34% more than it took in.

The last full fiscal year ended in September 2024. In that fiscal year, we spent $1.13 trillion on interest expenses. After only the first 7 months of fiscal year 2025 ending in September, they are already at $776 billion. This means we'll likely touch $1.3 trillion this fiscal year!' - AJ https://i.ibb.co/RTLTZPn1/Gsxv-Tso-Xc-AAZs-Zo.jpg

On the 7th of June:

👉🏽 The EU Commission paid climate "NGOs" for questionable lobbying with money from German taxpayers and wanted to keep it secret. https://i.ibb.co/zH6J41Zq/Gsz-Lu-F9-Xg-AAZttn.jpg Now read the above statement again and after that read the following bit:

👉🏽EU TRIES TO LECTURE EL SALVADOR - BUKELE BODYSLAMS BACK Source: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/el-salvador-statement-spokesperson-foreign-agents-law-and-recent-developments_en

The Diplomatic Service of the European: "El Salvador: The EU regrets the adoption of the Foreign Agents Law, which risks restricting civil society and runs counter to international obligations. Recent arrests of human rights defenders raise further concerns."

The EU’s sanctimonious finger-wagging at El Salvador reeks of hypocrisy. Brussels lectures sovereign nations on “civil society” while funneling billions into globalist NGOs that undermine national sovereignty. The institution that attacks liberty, freedom, democracy, and free speech in the name of a neosocialist woke ideology wants to lecture other countries on how they defend against their constant meddling and aggression. They are a bunch of unelected bureaucrats, accountable to no one, representing no one. Classic!

Supporting this further, let’s have a look how the EU is increasingly positioning itself as a technocratic regulator of personal freedom:

'The EU – the one that:

•wants to monitor every Bitcoin transaction through MiCA & DAC-8 •would love to ban non-custodial wallets

•is planning a chat control law that would make even China blush

•is considering a wealth register to digitally track every cent of your retirement savings

•restricts cash withdrawals in some member states •is testing CBDCs with expiration dates and spending limits

•and is preparing the digital euro as a full-blown control tool

…this EU is now complaining about human rights violations in El Salvador – a country whose government enjoys one of the highest approval ratings in the world. Over 85% support for President Bukele. Show me a single Western leader who even comes close to that.' - Bitcoin Hotel

Great reply by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele: 'EU: El Salvador regrets that a bloc which is aging, overregulated, energy-dependent, tech-lagging, and led by unelected bureaucrats still insists on lecturing the rest of the world.'

👉🏽Sam Callahan: Alternative title: 73% of bonds in the world trading at less than the rate of debasement https://i.ibb.co/Y4qMvh0T/Gs7-Ry-WMAABf49.jpg

On the 8th of June:

👉🏽'US existing home sales dropped -3.1% year-over-year to an annualized 4.0 million in April, the lowest for any April since 2009. Month-over-month, home sales fell 0.5%, well below expectations of a +2.0% increase. The decline was driven by the West and Northeast regions. Sales in the South were flat, while in the Midwest improved slightly. Meanwhile, existing home inventory rose +21%, to 1.45 million, the most for any April since 2020, per ZeroHedge. Despite that, the median sales price increased +1.8% year-over-year to $414,000, a record for April. Homebuyer demand is weak and prices are still rising.' -TKL

On the 9th of June:

👉🏽Jeroen Blokland: '- China bought more gold in May. -China has been buying even more gold through ‘unofficial’ channels. - China's gold reserves today are low compared to those of the US and European countries -China is determined to move away from US dollar hegemony - China’s ambition to move away from the US dollar will only have strengthened because of the Trump tariff war - China has to acknowledge that few countries, companies, and households want to hold the Yuan So what will China be doing for years to come?'

No surprise central banks are avoiding sovereign debt and adding gold.

👉🏽TKL: Gold is on fire: Gold's share of global reserves reached 23% in Q2 2025, the highest level in 30 years. Over the last 6 years, the percentage has DOUBLED. At the same time, the US Dollar's share of international reserves has declined 10 percentage points, to 44%, the lowest since 1993. By comparison, the Euro's share has decreased 2 percentage points, to 16%, the lowest in 22 years. Gold is quickly replacing fiat currencies as a reserve currency.

🎁If you have made it this far, I would like to give you a little gift:

Lysander: "Lyn Alden gave one of the clearest breakdowns of why the U.S. is on an unstoppable fiscal path—and why Bitcoin matters more than ever because of it.

Lyn Alden walks through the numbers behind the federal deficit, interest expenses, Social Security, and the structural changes that happened post-2008. The short version? We’re in a new era. One where the government can’t slow down even if it wants to.

Her phrase: “Nothing stops this train.” Not because of ideology, but because of math—and human nature.

This isn’t hyperinflation doom-talk. It’s a sober look at what happens when a system built on ever-growing debt reaches its limits—and why Bitcoin, with its fixed supply and transparent rules, is the opposite of that system.

If you haven’t seen it, this is a must watch. Pure signal! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Giuzcd4oxIk

Credit: I have used multiple sources!

My savings account: Bitcoin The tool I recommend for setting up a Bitcoin savings plan: PocketBitcoin especially suited for beginners or people who want to invest in Bitcoin with an automated investment plan once a week or monthly.

Use the code SE3997

Get your Bitcoin out of exchanges. Save them on a hardware wallet, run your own node...be your own bank. Not your keys, not your coins. It's that simple. ⠀ ⠀

⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀

Do you think this post is helpful to you?

If so, please share it and support my work with a zap.

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⭐ Many thanks⭐

Felipe - Bitcoin Friday!

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@ 70c48e4b:00ce3ccb

Hello all :)

Something pretty exciting just happened in the world of decentralized tech.

A new social network project called Nostria successfully wrapped up its pre-seed funding round. It raised the funds through Angor, a crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin and Nostr that aligns perfectly with the project’s decentralized mission.This post is all about what Nostria is doing, why it matters, and how Angor made it all possible.

What is Nostria?

nostr:npub16x7nxvehx0wvgy0sa6ynkw9c2ghuph3z0ll5t8veq3xwm8n9tqds6ka44x is a social network app that’s built to make the Nostr protocol easy to use. If you're not familiar with Nostr, it's an open protocol for decentralized social networking. It gives users more control and privacy, without relying on big platforms.

Nostria makes all that feel less like a tech experiment and more like a real social network. The app is simple, elegant, and beginner-friendly. It is available across iOS, Android, and web so you can jump in from anywhere.

Think of it as the easiest way to start using Nostr without needing to understand all the technical stuff under the hood.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/screenshots/nostria-01.jpg

The Problem Nostria is Solving:

One of the challenges Nostr faces right now is scaling. The network relies on relays to pass messages around, but many of these are centralized and getting overloaded. That creates serious bottlenecks and makes the whole experience less reliable. Just to give you an idea:

• Damus relay has around 646,000 users
• Nos relay has 601,000 users
• Snort sits at 417,000 users

When so many users depend on just a few relays, it puts a huge strain on the system and limits how far the network can grow.

Nostria’s Clever Fix

Nostria introduces a smarter way to scale Nostr without losing its decentralized core. Instead of relying on a few overloaded relays, it uses:

• Regionally deployed Discovery Relays – Think of these as local hubs placed in different parts of the world. When users connect, they are matched with a nearby relay, which keeps things faster and spreads the traffic out so no single relay gets overwhelmed.

• Pooled User Relays – Instead of each person depending on just one relay, users are connected through a shared pool. This means messages are sent and received more efficiently, especially when more people join the network.

All of this happens behind the scenes. The app keeps things simple and intuitive, with automation that handles the complexity for you. Whether you're posting, reading, or connecting with others, the experience stays smooth.

Nostria has bold ambitions. Here’s what they’re going for:

• A goal of 1 million daily active users
• Competing with platforms like Bluesky, Mastodon, and even X (formerly Twitter)
• A long-term plan to support both free and premium services to drive adoption

As of now, the Nostr network as a whole has:

• 15,000 daily active users
• 42.7 million total users
• 552 million total events

So the market is already there. It just needs the right tools to grow.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/screenshots/nostria-02.jpg

Meet the Team

Nostria is led by nostr:npub1zl3g38a6qypp6py2z07shggg45cu8qex992xpss7d8zrl28mu52s4cjajh, a software engineer with deep experience in distributed systems. He has been involved with the Nostr protocol since its early days in 2021 and is deeply passionate about decentralization and open-source tech.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/sondre.jpg

He’s joined by nostr:npub1e0krp2gr3l5nfd2jw2cydh68adxjpmcqdhs2e0jxkrqd4crwt4dslwrk0k, a thoughtful full-stack developer focused on simplicity and sovereignty, and nostr:npub10c4sn723akd7fqegfe6xntpq43p86vnyvv7j2ryaq8jzvhyea4pq72c5ul, a junior dev who’s already contributed to open source and is finishing up her studies.

https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/kosta.jpg https://www.nostria.app/assets/team/lu.jpg

The Funding Round

To bring Nostria to life, the team aimed to raise $30,000 during their pre-seed round. This funding would help them:

• Complete their MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• Deploy global infrastructure
• Start building their user base
• Get ready for a full Seed round in late 2025

How Angor Helped?

Angor is a decentralized crowdfunding platform built on Bitcoin and the Nostr protocol. It’s designed exactly for projects like this. The team at Nostria launched their campaign on Angor between May 12 and May 31, and it was a success.

What made the campaign stand out?

1. The whole process was decentralized and transparent.
2. Backers could fund the project directly, without intermediaries.
3. Nostria aligned perfectly with Angor’s vision of empowering projects that push decentralization forward.

The campaign served as both a fundraiser and a real-world example of how decentralized infrastructure can power decentralized ideas. And it worked.

Inside the Funding Terms

As part of this funding round, Nostria offered contributors a post-money SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This is a modern, flexible way for startups to raise money early without the complexity of traditional equity rounds.

In simple terms:

•Investors contributed funds now, and in return, they will receive equity in Nostria during a future priced equity round. When Nostria raises its next round, most likely a Seed round, then those SAFE contributions will convert into actual shares.

•The SAFE includes a valuation cap, which sets a maximum company valuation for conversion. This guarantees that early backers receive shares at a better rate than future investors. While the exact cap isn't publicly listed, this feature ensures early supporters are rewarded for their trust.

•There is no interest or maturity date, which is a major benefit over traditional convertible notes. There’s no ticking clock or repayment obligation. Investors simply wait until the next funding event.

•The SAFE also features a Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause. This ensures that if the company issues another SAFE later with better terms, early investors will automatically receive the same improved terms. It’s designed to keep things transparent and equitable.

•Jurisdiction and legal terms: While the full legal text isn’t included in the note, SAFEs typically specify the legal jurisdiction governing the agreement. Nostria’s approach suggests a commitment to following standard legal frameworks, further underlining their seriousness and professionalism.

You can read Nostria’s public SAFE summary here: nostr:npub16x7nxvehx0wvgy0sa6ynkw9c2ghuph3z0ll5t8veq3xwm8n9tqds6ka44x

And you can view the full campaign hosted on Angor here: https://hub.angor.io/project/angor1qwdgxjuzhjykgpn5q8p3l2q9vyrgqdlrkfp5sjr

By sharing these details openly, the team added a strong layer of transparency and trust to the entire campaign. It is a clear signal that they are building something serious and thoughtful, with long-term commitment and care instead of shortcuts.

What’s Next?

With the funding secured, Nostria is sprinting ahead. The roadmap includes:

• June: Deploying media and relay servers
• July: Adding premium features and full cross-platform support
• August: Growing the user base and preparing for the next funding round

If all goes well, Nostria is on track to become one of the most accessible and user-friendly Nostr based platforms out there. With a clear roadmap and a team focused on long-term decentralization, the journey is just getting started...

Got an idea of your own? You can launch your project on Angor, just like Nostria did, and start your own funding round with the support of a like-minded community.

Thanks for reading. See y’all next week with another story from the world of open, decentralized innovation. Ciao

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

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.

---

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.

@ 502ab02a:a2860397

ปี 1937 — บริษัท Hormel Foods Corporation ในเมืองออสติน รัฐมินนิโซตา สหรัฐฯ ชายคนหนึ่งชื่อ Jay C. Hormel ลูกชายของผู้ก่อตั้งบริษัท มีไอเดียแสนทะเยอทะยานว่า “อยากทำผลิตภัณฑ์จากหมู ที่เก็บได้นาน ไม่ต้องแช่เย็น และไม่แพง”

เพราะตอนนั้น หมูเหลือเยอะ โดยเฉพาะ “หัวไหล่หมู” ที่ขายไม่ออก เพราะมันไม่ใช่ชิ้นเนื้อพรีเมียมที่คนอยากซื้อไปทำอาหาร เจย์เลยทดลองบดเนื้อไหล่หมู เติมเกลือ น้ำตาล สารกันเสีย โซเดียมไนไตรต์ และสิ่งสำคัญสุดคือ เจลาตินจากน้ำต้มกระดูก เพื่อให้เนื้อเกาะตัว ไม่แห้ง และอยู่ได้นานโดยไม่ต้องแช่เย็น

ผลลัพธ์คือ หมูกระป๋อง 340 กรัมในกล่องสี่เหลี่ยม พร้อมเปิดฝาดึงด้วยมือ ไม่ต้องใช้ที่เปิดกระป๋อง ชูความ ราคาถูก เก็บง่าย พกพาสะดวก และไม่ต้องปรุงอะไรเพิ่มเติม ซ่อนความของเหลือเอาไว้เงียบๆ

และเพื่อให้คนจำได้ง่าย บริษัทจัดประกวดตั้งชื่อ และผู้ชนะเสนอคำว่า “Spam” = Spiced Ham (แต่ไม่มีใครรู้จริงๆ ว่าย่อจากอะไรแน่) แค่ “สั้น จัดจ้าน และจำง่าย” ก็พอ

เมื่อเกิดสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 ในปี 1939 สหรัฐฯ ยังไม่เข้าสงครามเต็มตัว แต่เริ่มเตรียมเสบียงสนับสนุนพันธมิตร และ Spam กลายเป็นของขวัญจากพระเจ้า เพราะ เก็บได้นานหลายปี ไม่ต้องแช่เย็น น้ำหนักเบา เปิดง่าย ไม่เสียง่ายแม้เจอฝุ่น โคลน หรือไอร้อนจากปืนใหญ่

รัฐบาลสหรัฐฯ เริ่มจัดสั่ง Spam ให้กับกองทัพในสัดส่วนที่มากขึ้นเรื่อยๆ โดยเฉพาะทหารแนวหน้าในยุโรปและแปซิฟิก เช่น ฮาวาย, ฟิลิปปินส์, กวม, และเกาหลี ระหว่างสงคราม Hormel ผลิต Spam มากถึง 15 ล้านกระป๋องต่อสัปดาห์ และส่งออกไปมากกว่า 100 ล้านกระป๋อง ภายในเวลาไม่กี่ปี

Jay C. Hormel ถือว่ามีบทบาททางสังคมและการเมืองอยู่ไม่น้อย โดยเฉพาะช่วงก่อนสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2

เขาเคยเป็นสมาชิกของ America First Committee ซึ่งเป็นกลุ่มเคลื่อนไหวทางการเมืองที่มีอิทธิพลมากในช่วงก่อนสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 โดยกลุ่มนี้มีเป้าหมายคือ “ต่อต้านการที่อเมริกาจะเข้าไปร่วมสงครามในยุโรป” สมาชิกของกลุ่มนี้มีทั้งนักธุรกิจใหญ่ สื่อมวลชน นักวิชาการ รวมถึงชาร์ลส ลินด์เบิร์ก (นักบินชื่อดัง) เรียกได้ว่าเป็นกลุ่มที่มีอิทธิพลเชิงความคิดและการเมืองในช่วงปลายยุค 1930s

แม้ในตอนแรก Hormel จะมีแนวคิดไม่เห็นด้วยกับการเข้าสงคราม แต่พอสงครามเริ่มต้นจริง และสหรัฐฯ ต้องส่งทหารและเสบียงออกไปรบ เขาก็ “ปรับตัวทันที” และกลายเป็นหนึ่งในผู้จัดหาอาหารรายใหญ่ให้กองทัพ โดยเฉพาะ Spam ที่ผลิตส่งเป็นล้านกระป๋องต่อสัปดาห์ ซึ่งแน่นอนว่าไม่มีทางทำได้ถ้าไม่มีความสัมพันธ์และการประสานงานกับภาครัฐโดยตรง

หลังสงครามโลกสิ้นสุดในปี 1945 สิ่งที่รัฐบาลและภาคธุรกิจต้องเจอคือ จะทำยังไงกับโรงงานผลิตอาหารที่เคยทำเพื่อ “เลี้ยงทหารนับล้าน” แต่ตอนนี้ไม่มีสงครามแล้ว? Hormel ไม่ยอมให้ Spam หายไปจากโต๊ะอาหารโลกง่ายๆ แผนการตลาดที่ฉลาดมากของพวกเขาคือ 1. “Sell the nostalgia” ขายความทรงจำ! คนอเมริกันที่เป็นทหารผ่านศึก กลับมาใช้ชีวิตปกติ แต่ก็ยังคุ้นเคยกับ Spam อยู่แล้ว ก็ขายให้พวกเขานั่นแหละ 2. “ผูกกับอาหารเช้า” Hormel ทำสูตร “Spam and eggs” และโฆษณาว่าเป็นอาหารเช้าที่ให้พลังงาน ย่อยง่าย และเหมาะกับทุกครอบครัว 3. เจาะตลาดประเทศที่ได้รับ Spam ระหว่างสงคราม ฟิลิปปินส์, ฮาวาย, ญี่ปุ่น, เกาหลีใต้, อังกฤษ กลายเป็นตลาดหลัก บางประเทศพัฒนาเมนูท้องถิ่นกับ Spam เช่น ฟิลิปปินส์ Spam silog (Spam + ข้าว + ไข่ดาว), เกาหลี 부대찌개 (Budae-jjigae) หรือหม้อไฟทหาร, ญี่ปุ่น Spam onigiri, ฮาวาย Spam musubi (สแปมวางบนข้าว ปิดด้วยสาหร่าย) 4. สร้างแบรนด์ให้รัก Hormel สนับสนุนการจัดงานเทศกาล Spam (เช่น Spam Jam) และทำให้แบรนด์กลายเป็น Pop Culture ของอเมริกา เพื่อโปรโมตแบรนด์ให้เป็นของอเมริกันจ๋า ทั้งน่ารัก ทั้งเท่ ทั้งกินง่าย และกลายเป็นความภูมิใจของชนชั้นกลาง

ระหว่างปี 1937–1946 Spam สร้างชื่อให้ Hormel อย่างถล่มทลาย ถึงขั้นรัฐบาลโซเวียตยังเคยร้องขอให้สหรัฐฯ ส่ง Spam เข้าโซเวียตเพื่อเลี้ยงทหารแนวหน้า โดย นายพล Dwight D. Eisenhower (ต่อมาคือประธานาธิบดีสหรัฐฯ) เคยกล่าวว่า “I ate my share of Spam along with millions of other soldiers. I’ll even confess to a few unkind remarks about it—uttered during the strain of battle... But as former Commander in Chief, I believe I can still see Spam in my dreams.” (ฉันกิน Spam มากพอๆ กับทหารหลายล้านคน แม้จะเคยบ่นบ้าง แต่ในฐานะอดีตแม่ทัพใหญ่...ฉันยังฝันเห็นมันเลย)

Jay C. Hormel ไม่ใช่แค่คนขายหมู แต่เขาเป็นนักวางระบบอุตสาหกรรมขั้นเทพ สามารถยกระดับกิจการท้องถิ่นของพ่อให้กลายเป็นบริษัทอาหารที่ส่งออกระดับโลกได้ เขาเป็น early adopter ของสิ่งที่เรียกว่า vertical integration คือควบคุมทุกขั้นตอน ตั้งแต่ฟาร์ม โรงฆ่าสัตว์ โรงงาน บรรจุภัณฑ์ จนถึงการขนส่งและการตลาด

ในปี 1970s รายการตลกชื่อดังของอังกฤษอย่าง Monty Python’s Flying Circus ได้เอา Spam มาเล่นมุกในตอนหนึ่ง โดยฉากคือร้านอาหารที่ทุกเมนูมี Spam อยู่ในนั้น แล้วลูกค้าพยายามสั่งอาหารโดยไม่เอา Spam แต่ร้านไม่ยอม เพราะ “เมนูเรามี Spam ทุกอย่าง!” จนเสียงลูกค้ากับแม่ค้ากลายเป็นการโต้เถียงอันแสนตลก และมีนักแสดงแต่งเป็นไวกิ้งยืนร้อง “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...” ซ้ำๆ อยู่ด้านหลังแบบไม่รู้จบ https://youtu.be/anwy2MPT5RE?si=-68WQeng47lhJENJ

ฉากนั้นกลายเป็นตำนานในโลกตลก และคำว่า “Spam” ก็เริ่มถูกใช้เป็นคำสแลงหมายถึง “ของที่ซ้ำซาก ไร้สาระ รบกวน” ซึ่งต่อมาก็กลายเป็นคำที่เราใช้เรียกอีเมลหรือข้อความขยะนั่นเอง

จะว่าไปแล้ว Spam ถือเป็น “สินค้าที่ครอบงำและเปลี่ยนแปลงอาหารของโลกอีกตัวนึง” อย่างแท้จริง จากเศษหมูไร้คนซื้อ → สินค้าแห่งนวัตกรรมอาหาร → เสบียงสงคราม → อาหารเช้าคลาสสิก → วัฒนธรรมท้องถิ่น → Meme ตลก → และสุดท้ายก็กลายเป็นคำด่าบนอินเทอร์เน็ต

Jay C. Hormel ไม่ได้เป็นนักการเมือง แต่เขาเป็น “นักอุตสาหกรรมที่มีบทบาททางการเมือง” โดยเฉพาะในช่วงเปลี่ยนผ่านของประเทศจาก “ไม่เอาสงคราม” ไปสู่ “ต้องชนะสงคราม”

เขาอาจเริ่มจากแนวคิด “อย่ายุ่งเรื่องคนอื่น” แต่พอเห็นว่าโอกาสมา เขาก็เปลี่ยนโหมดทันที และทำให้ Spam กลายเป็นเสบียงระดับชาติ แบบนี้แหละเฮียถึงบอกว่า “สงครามทำให้คนธรรมดากลายเป็นตำนาน” ...หรือไม่ก็ “สงครามทำให้ธุรกิจธรรมดากลายเป็นธุรกิจผูกขาดที่ไม่มีใครเลิกกินได้อีกเลย”

Spam ไม่ใช่แค่อาหารกระป๋อง แต่เป็นเครื่องมือทางภูมิสงคราม อุตสาหกรรม และการตลาด จากห้องครัวทดลองเล็กๆ ในมินนิโซตา กลายเป็นไอเท็มในสนามรบระดับโลก และสุดท้าย…ก็กลายเป็นทั้ง อาหารในตู้, มุกในมุขตลก, และ คำด่าบนโลกออนไลน์ ทั้งหมดนี้เริ่มต้นจากคำเดียว... "หมูมันเหลือ"

#pirateketo #กูต้องรู้มั๊ย #ม้วนหางสิลูก #siamstr

@ 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.

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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!

@ 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.

@ a53364ff:e6ba5513

The internet is filled with countless social media platforms, all built on centralized servers and proprietary algorithms. However, in the world of decentralized technologies, a new contender is rising. Nostr is a simple, open protocol that promises to bring decentralized, censorship-resistant communication to the masses. In this article, we will explore what Nostr is, how it works, and why it might be the next big thing in the social media space.

How Did the Nostr Protocol Come About?

Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) was first conceived as a solution to the growing control centralized entities exert over online communications. Most social media platforms today are controlled by corporations, which have the power to censor, ban users, or manipulate what people see in their feeds. These issues, combined with growing concerns about privacy and data collection, inspired the creation of Nostr in 2020 by an anonymous developer named “fiatjaf”. The protocol aims to provide a decentralized alternative where users have control over their own content and identities.

What is Nostr?

Nostr is an open, decentralized communication protocol that allows users to send and receive messages in a censorship-resistant manner. It’s not a social network by itself but a foundation for building decentralized applications (DApps), such as social networks, chat apps, and other forms of communication platforms. Unlike traditional platforms, where all data is stored and managed by a single company, Nostr allows users to control their own data and interact directly without intermediaries.

Why is Nostr Different from Other Social Networks?

Traditional social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are centralized, meaning all of your posts, messages, and data are controlled by a single company. These platforms have the power to suspend accounts, remove content, or alter algorithms in ways that impact your online presence. Nostr, on the other hand, is decentralized and open-source. There is no central authority, meaning your posts cannot be censored or deleted by a single entity. Each user owns their data, and communication happens directly between users and servers (called relays), reducing the potential for manipulation or surveillance.

Similarities of Nostr with Bitcoin

Nostr shares a similar ethos with Bitcoin, in that both are decentralized, censorship-resistant, and permissionless. Just as Bitcoin allows people to transfer value without intermediaries, Nostr enables communication without relying on a central authority. Both projects promote the idea of individual sovereignty—whether that’s over your money or your communication.

Another connection is the use of public and private keys for identity management. Like Bitcoin wallets, Nostr uses cryptographic keys, meaning that users “log in” by signing messages with their private key. This ensures that only the true owner of the key can send messages from a specific identity.

Bitcoin Integrations

Bitcoin and Nostr are increasingly integrated, especially through Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, which is designed for fast, low-fee transactions. Nostr and Bitcoin are a natural fit. By integrating Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Nostr allows users to send and receive micropayments seamlessly. This is particularly useful for tipping or rewarding content creators within the network. Satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) can be sent across Nostr’s network almost instantly and with minimal fees. On Nostr, users can send Bitcoin micropayments, often referred to as “zaps.” This enables tipping and rewarding users directly within the network, providing a seamless way for content creators to monetize their work without the need for third-party platforms. For example, if you appreciate a post, you can “zap” the creator a small amount of Bitcoin, creating a new way to support online communities.

How Does Nostr Work? What are Clients and Relays?

Nostr operates through two main components: Clients and Relays.

– Clients are applications that allow users to create accounts, post messages, and interact with others. These clients can be web apps, mobile apps, or desktop apps that interact with the Nostr network.

– Relays are servers that store and transmit the messages between clients. When you post a message on Nostr, it is sent to a relay, and other users’ clients pull that message from the relay. You are not tied to any single relay, so even if one relay is down or blocks your content, you can still interact with others using different relays.

This relay-client model ensures that the network remains decentralized and difficult to censor.

Difference Between Today’s Internet and Nostr’s

Today’s internet is heavily centralized. Most of our communication, from emails to social media, is managed by large corporations with access to vast amounts of data about their users. This leads to issues like censorship, surveillance, and data harvesting. Nostr seeks to change this by decentralizing communication. It puts control back into the hands of users, allowing for a more private and open internet experience. There’s no need for trust in any single company—users own their data and decide which relays to trust or use.

How Do Bitcoin Zaps and Micropayments Work on Nostr?

One of the most exciting features of Nostr is its integration with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Through this integration, users can send Bitcoin zaps, which are small amounts of Bitcoin transferred instantly over the Lightning Network. Zaps function like “likes” on traditional social media platforms, but with the added benefit of rewarding users with real monetary value.

To send a zap, users link their Nostr profile to a Lightning wallet. Once connected, they can zap others by sending small amounts of Bitcoin, typically for content they enjoy or want to support. These zaps are fast, inexpensive, and work seamlessly within the Nostr ecosystem, making it easy for users to monetize content and interact with Bitcoin in a meaningful way.

Conclusion

Nostr is an exciting protocol that promises to reshape how we think about online communication. Its decentralized, censorship-resistant nature, along with its integration with Bitcoin, creates a platform where users have control over their data and interactions. Whether you’re looking for a more private social media experience or want to explore new ways to integrate Bitcoin into everyday interactions, Nostr is a protocol worth watching. With its growing ecosystem of clients and relays, Nostr might just be the future of decentralized communication.

Nostr is more than just a social network; it represents a shift towards user autonomy, privacy, and decentralized control. By combining cutting-edge technology with a solid ideological foundation, Nostr offers a refreshing alternative to mainstream social platforms. Whether you’re tech-savvy or just curious about new innovations, Nostr is worth exploring. And with various clients making it easily accessible, there’s no reason not to dive in and experience the future of decentralized social networking for yourself!

@ 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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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

@ fd0bcf8c:521f98c0

Marcus enters the dining room.

They're all waiting.

Ramirez at the head of the table like some broken queen. Morrison to her right, medals catching light that costs more than food. Chen sweating through his collar, salt stains mapping his desperation. Williams straightening his tie with shaking hands.

The table is set.

China plates cracked at the edges. Crystal glasses clouded with water spots. Nothing on them. Nothing coming.

"Mr. Cross." Ramirez rises. Perfect smile painted over ruin. "Marcus. Thank you for coming."

"You said lunch."

"Yes. Well. Please, sit. We have so much to discuss."

He takes the empty chair. Studies the empty plates. The pristine silverware that won't touch food. Because there is no food.

Outside, sirens wail. Inside, silence breeds.

"How was the drive?" Morrison asks. His voice too bright. "Traffic not too bad, I hope?"

"Fine."

"The new checkpoint system," Chen adds, dabbing sweat. "It's actually improved flow rates by thirty percent."

"Forty percent," Williams corrects. His collar damp now. "In some sectors."

Small talk. The dance of the damned. Marcus waits. Watches them perform their ritual of normalcy while the state dies around them.

"Your parents," Ramirez says finally. The real conversation beginning. "We've been discussing ways to honor them."

"Have you."

"The Cross Memorial Act. Full posthumous pardons. A park perhaps." She gestures at nothing. "With fountains."

"They're dead."

"Their legacy—"

"Dead too."

Silence falls like ash.

Morrison adjusts his medals, each one marking battles they've already lost. Chen dabs his forehead with a napkin that costs more than most people's meals. The air conditioning hums but doesn't cool. Nothing cools anymore.

"Water?" Ramirez offers. Lifts an empty pitcher. Crystal catching fluorescent light. Sets it down with a clink that echoes. "I apologize. We're waiting on a delivery."

"No need."

"The shortages," she explains. Her voice smaller now. "Temporary. Everything's temporary."

"Except Bitcoin."

The word hangs there.

What they've been dancing around.

Why he's really here. Why they called him to this tomb of a dining room with its empty promises and emptier plates.

"Yes," she says. Breathing shallow. "Bitcoin. We should discuss that."

"Should we."

"California's position has... evolved." The word costs her. "We see the value now. The importance."

"You had ten thousand coins once."

Her smile flickers. Dies. Returns as a grimace. "Ancient history."

"You sold."

"The state needed liquidity." A lie they've told themselves so many times it almost sounds true.

"The state needed better advisors."

Morrison leans forward. His chair creaks under the weight of his desperation. "We've learned... from our mistakes."

"Have you."

"We bought back what we could," Chen says. Voice breaking on each syllable. "Four coins. Cost us everything."

"Two coins," Williams corrects quietly. A whisper of defeat. "We paid for water this morning."

The mask slips. Ramirez's perfect composure cracks like drought earth. Like everything else in this dying place.

"Two coins," she repeats. Testing the words. Tasting failure. "Yes. Two."

"Not enough," Marcus says.

"No. Not nearly enough."

More silence.

The empty plates mock them with their hunger. The crystal glasses hold nothing but light and broken dreams. Somewhere in the distance, gunfire. Always gunfire now.

"We know you have ten," Morrison says. Drops the pretense like a worn mask. "Chain analysis confirms it."

"So?"

"First purchase at sixteen thousand. Smart. Eight more over the years. The last two—" He stops. Even desperation has limits.

"What about them?"

"We know what they cost you. What you sacrificed."

Marcus says nothing. The silence stretches taut as wire. They all know. His wife. His daughter. The hospital that wouldn't take dollars. That only took Bitcoin. The choice no father should make.

"We need your help," Ramirez says simply. Truth naked and bleeding. "California needs your help."

"California needed help ten years ago."

"We weren't ready then."

"You're not ready now."

"We are." She opens her laptop. Shows him contracts printed on paper they can't afford. Plans drawn in blood they haven't shed yet.

"With what funds?"

"We'll find funds."

"You can't afford lunch."

The words land like bullets. Chen looks at his empty plate as if it might sprout food through will alone. Williams studies the ceiling, counting cracks like rosary beads.

"The militia needs payment," Morrison says. Each word a stone in his throat. "Without them, it's chaos."

"It's already chaos."

"Controlled chaos. One Bitcoin keeps them loyal for three months."

"And then?"

"We mine more."

"With what power?"

"Solar. Wind." Fantasies dressed as plans.

"With what hardware?"

"We'll source it."

"With what expertise?"

"You."

Ramirez turns her laptop. "Digital Currency Advisor. New position. Help us transition."

Marcus stands. The empty chair scrapes marble like nails on coffin wood. The sound echoes in the tomb they've made of governance.

"We're done here."

"Wait." Morrison stands too. His hand moves toward his sidearm. Old habits. "Executive order 12204. We can requisition digital assets."

"From where? My brain?"

"We have methods."

"You have nothing. Empty plates. Empty promises. Empty threats from empty men."

"Sit down," Ramirez says quietly. The last queen of a broken kingdom. "Please."

Marcus remains standing. Ten feet tall in a room full of shadows.

"Half a coin," he says. Each word measured. Weighed. "For the kids. Not for you. Not for your militia. For the kids dying of thirst in your streets."

"Half?" Chen's voice breaks completely. "We need all ten."

"You need time travel. You need your ten thousand coins back. You need leaders who understood value before it was too late."

"That's not fair," Williams whispers.

"Fair?" Marcus almost laughs. The sound would shatter glass if there was any left unbroken. "You invited me to lunch with no food. You talk about honoring my parents with no money. You make threats with no power. Tell me about fair."

Ramirez closes her laptop. The performance over. The curtain fallen. The truth naked between them like a wound.

"Half a coin," she says. "We accept."

Marcus pulls out his phone. The transfer screen glows like salvation. His fingers pause over buttons that control the future.

"This is the last time. Don't contact me again."

"Understood."

He sends it. Half a Bitcoin disappearing into the void of their incompetence. Ten percent of his wealth. For children he'll never meet in a state that can't save itself.

The transaction confirms. Somewhere, servers hum. The blockchain grows. The future loads one block at a time.

Marcus walks to the door. Each step an epoch. Stops. Turns back to them. Their empty plates. Their empty treasury. Their empty souls.

"What if we fail?" Ramirez asks. The last question of the dying.

"You already did."

He opens the door. Steps through. Closes it behind him with the finality of extinction.

In the dining room, they sit with their empty plates and their single Bitcoin and the weight of what comes next. Outside, through windows that still gleam with borrowed light, California burns on. The sovereign individual has made his choice. The state has made theirs.

The future already loading. One block at a time.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The banking giant is exploring an expansion of its blockchain services, focusing on digital payments and currencies.

JPMorgan Chase has filed a new trademark application for the name “JPMD.” The filing was submitted on June 15 to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The application, filed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., covers a broad range of services related to digital assets and blockchain technology. These include the issuance of digital currencies, electronic payment processing, and financial custody services — all of which suggest a possible new stablecoin initiative for JPMorgan.

Experience with JPM Coin

This move wouldn’t be JPMorgan’s first foray into blockchain-based finance. The bank already operates JPM Coin, a dollar-pegged stablecoin used to enable instant transactions between institutional clients. The token runs on Quorum, a private blockchain network developed in-house by JPMorgan and based on Ethereum’s technology.

The registration of the JPMD trademark comes as JPMorgan and other major U.S. banks are considering a collaborative stablecoin project through their jointly owned entities: Early Warning Services and The Clearing House.

Similarly, corporations like Walmart and Amazon are mulling the creation of their own stablecoins.

The post JPMorgan files trademark for ‘JPMD’: a new stablecoin on the horizon for the American bank appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 044da344:073a8a0e

Im September starten wir an der Freien Akademie für Medien & Journalismus eine Veranstaltungsreihe im Vorderen Bayerischen Wald und laden alle ein, live dabei zu sein, wenn Menschen interviewt werden, die etwas zu sagen und spannende Geschichten zu erzählen haben. Nach etwa einer Stunde werden die Kameras ausgeschaltet, sodass genug Raum bleibt für Fragen, für das Kennenlernen, für den Austausch mit Gleichgesinnten.

Die ersten Gäste ab dem 8. September: Jürgen Fliege, Joana Cotar, Gerd Reuther und Gabriele Gysi. Es gibt eine zweite Gesprächsreihe, die am 13. Oktober mit Jörg Bernig startet. Die Aufzeichnungen beginnen jeweils um 18 Uhr in einer Gaststätte im Raum Sankt Englmar. Wer eine weitere Anreise hat: Die Gegend ist wunderschön, lädt zum Entspannen ein (Wandern, hervorragende Gastronomie, Unterkünfte für jeden Geldbeutel) und verfügt über alles, was das Urlauberherz begehrt. Organistorisches und Anmeldung

8. September 2025: Jürgen Fliege – Glaube, Kirche, Hoffnung

Eine Talkshow im Ersten, präsentiert von einem Pastor, der alles mitbringt, was man braucht, um Menschen zu gewinnen: Einen besseren Werbeträger hätte sich die evangelische Kirche nicht wünschen können. Jürgen Fliege war von 1994 bis 2005 Stammgast in den Wohnzimmern und ist trotzdem oder gerade deshalb schon damals immer wieder in Konflikt geraten mit Amtsträgern aller Art. Ab 2020 hat er sich in Sachen Corona öffentlich klar positioniert und dabei auch auf die Bibel verwiesen.

9. September 2025: Joana Cotar – Acht Jahre Bundestag. Wie weiter mit der Demokratie?

Ganz stimmt das mit den acht Jahren nicht: Die zweite Legislaturperiode ist vor der Zeit zu Ende gegangen. Joana Cotar wurde zweimal über die AfD-Landesliste in Hessen in den Bundestag gewählt, war dabei 2021 auch als Spitzenkandidatin im Gespräch und zwei Jahre im Bundesvorstand. Ende 2022 hat sie Partei und Fraktion verlassen, im Parlament aber weitergemacht und immer wieder den Finger in die Wunde gelegt, wenn es um das Parteiensystem ging oder um den Spielraum der Volksvertreter.

10. September 2025: Gerd Reuther – Tatort Vergangenheit

Gerd Reuther hat sich als Medizinaufklärer ohne Tabus einen Namen gemacht – ein Radiologe, der an drei Kliniken Chefarzt war, dann aber mit 55 aufgehört hat. Sein Buch „Der betrogene Patient“ war 2017 ein Bestseller. Danach hat er die Geschichte der Medizin gegen den Strich gebürstet („Heilung Nebensache“) und in „Hauptsache Panik“ die europäische Seuchengeschichte demontiert. Jetzt nimmt er sich unsere gesamte Geschichte vor und stellt von den Römern bis in die Neuzeit unser „Wissen“ über die Vergangenheit in Frage.

11. September 2025: Gabriele Gysi – Gibt es noch eine deutsche Frage?

Niemand kann das besser beantworten als diese Künstlerin, Spross einer Politikerfamilie und Zeitzeugin für alle drei deutschen Nachkriegsstaaten – für die DDR sowieso, nach ihrer Ausreise 1984 aber auch für die alte Bundesrepublik und dann natürlich für die neue, wo sie unter anderem Chefdramaturgin der Berliner Volksbühne war. Gabriele Gysi sagt: Solange wir keine gesamtdeutsche Geschichte haben, bleibt die große Frage offen.

Michael Meyen: Videos

Freie Akademie für Medien & Journalismus

Unterstützen

@ a8d1560d:3fec7a08

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!

After the wave of word-scrambling spam bots, a new and very problematic kind of spam has arrived in the Nostr. Whenever you post something now, you will get gay porn videos as an automated answer (No, being gay itself is not problematic!!!). To get rid of all the automated spam, remove the following relays from your inbox and outbox relay list: - nos.lol - relay.damus.io - nostr.oxtr.dev - relay.primal.net

As long as you have even one of these relays in your inbox and outbox lists, you and your followers will be spammed whenever posting something.

It is unknown if the bots only reply to kind 1 events or to all events.

@ 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.

---

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

@ 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

---

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

@ a53364ff:e6ba5513

Run Knots…

Knots helps you exercise your self sovereignty verification muscle, instead of conforming to the TrustMeBro defaults of core. Thus, you are more prepared to actively defend Bitcoin in case of hardfork-softfork or other shenanigan’s.

Knots is more feature rich and useful than core, allowing end users to finely tune their nodes mempool policy to reject spam transactions from their own mempools, through such bitcoin.conf settings as: rejectparasites=1 , datacarrier=0, permitbaremultisig=0

Running a Underdog Bitcoin Client makes the Bitcoin network more robust as a whole. Supporting an ecosystem of multiple compatible clients running in tandem. Running knots makes Bitcoin, the network more robust, and makes the bitcoin development ecosystem richer. Knots is a backup-option in case core becomes obviously compromised. For decentralization, do we really want only a single implementation, with all our eggs in one basket with just bitcoin core? No.

Knots makes it so that you’re not using your node’s computing resources to hold and process spam shitcoin transactions and you have better control over what transactions you prioritize processing.” — Thus you can save your mempool resources from being abused by bad actors with Knots, but not with core, unfortunately. Core doesn’t believe in giving their end users too much choice. This has long been their attitude: to dictate down and deny non-consensus violating choice to end users.

Thus running Knots is a counter movement to the unfortunate attitude in core that has willfully neglected a core subset of it’s users who care about spam filters. Running Knots is not just a technical improvement in running Bitcoin. It’s a political statement in the Bitcoin development ecosystem.

@ b7274d28:c99628cb

Tired of dealing with spam? You're not alone. Here is a guide to picking relays that are good at keeping spam out, without sacrificing your own reach.

If you just want to skip to the relay suggestions, scroll to the sections titled "The Setup." There is one for users of Haven and one for those who aren't running their own relay at all.

Client Selection

"Wait, I thought this was a guide about selecting relays, not clients."

Yes, it is. But what relays you choose doesn't matter if you are using a client that does not read from your chosen relays, or that hard-codes problematic relays as fallbacks in addition to the relays you selected in an effort to "help you."

Additionally, some clients have settings that can help make up for poor relay selection using client-side spam mitigation methods. This includes clients like Coracle, Damus, Amethyst, and Nostur. Some may do so via web-of-trust (WoT) filters, so you only see notes and replies from those within your broader social circle, while others will automatically hide notes that those you follow have reported as spam or scams.

Coracle is a great client for dealing with spam, so long as you have gone into your "Content Settings" and set the "Minimum WoT Score" to at least 1. This means you will only see posts from users followed by at least one of the npubs you follow.

Damus also employs WoT, but it appears to be just for notifications, so you only receive notifications for those you follow and those they follow, or "friends of friends," as Damus put's it. This can be accessed by toggling it on in your notification tab at the top right, where you see the icon of the person with a check mark.

Nostur has WoT filters for downloading media turned on by default and also uses WoT to filter spam by default. Even better, if you use multiple npubs, you can filter using the WoT of your main npub, while logged into your alternate npubs.

Jumble recently added WoT filtering specifically for interactions. When you load a thread in Jumble, a shield icon will appear near the top right of the page, in line with the tabs for Replies and Quotes. Toggle it on, so the shield is green with a check mark and you will only see replies from those you follow and those your follows follow.

Amethyst does not yet have WoT based filtering built into the client, but it can hide notes that have been reported as spam, scams, impersonation, etc, by those you follow. This is not the most effective way to combat spam, though, since most users aren't often using the report feature. Hopefully we will see WoT filtering as an option in a future update.

Primal's apps do not read from any of your selected relays, but rather from their caching server alone. That said, they have a spam filter that is turned on by default so you see relatively little spam, regardless of which relays you use.

For this guide, I recommend using Amethyst for updating your relays, if you possibly can. The reason for this is because Amethyst has the most robust settings for being able to update all of your various relay lists.

Relay Lists Explained

Contrary to what you might think, there is not a single relay list for each user that is stored in a single note, because you can have relays that are used for only one purpose, and not for any other. Each of those purposes for which you might use a particular relay has its own list. That way a Nostr client can tell which relays you want to use for each separate purpose.

While this can make things less approachable for the user, it also means users don't have to rely on clients to hard code appropriate relays for each of these use-cases. If your client doesn't let you edit each of these relay lists, chances are they are using a set of relays for that purpose that the developer chose instead of you.

Public Outbox/Inbox Relays

This list of relays is found in your kind 10002 note, if you have one. If you don't have one, there won't be any relays shown for these categories in Amethyst. Other clients may fallback to showing you relays from a different list.

This list is intended to be used for Nostr clients to implement the "outbox model" to fetch notes from whatever relays they were written to, even if they aren't in the requesting user's relay list. This solves the issue of needing to share relays with those you follow in order to see their notes, allowing Nostr to remain decentralized.

Your "outbox" relays are the ones you write to, or at least the ones you want other users to know that you write to. When you add a relay here, it's like advertising to everyone, "If you want to see my public-facing notes, look for them on these relays."

Your "inbox" relays are the ones you read from. On this part of your list you are advertising, "If you want me to see your replies, comments, reactions, and zaps, then send them to these relays." These relays are massively important for reducing the amount of spam you see. If you have relays listed here that anyone can post to for free, you will almost certainly see a lot of spam in your replies, unless you have WoT filters turned on in your Nostr client.

DM Inbox Relays

This list is found in your kind 10050 note, if you have one, and is a list of relays where you want others to send you Direct Messages. Ideally, you will use a relay or two here that supports AUTH, so that it will only allow direct messages to be retrieved by the user they are addressed to.

What happens if you put a relay in here that doesn't support AUTH, so it allows anyone to retrieve your DMs? Not much. Anyone who wants to will just be able to see the encrypted content of the message, and depending on the type of DM they will see the identity of the receiver and perhaps also the sender. They will not be able to decrypt what was actually said in the messages. It's better if they cannot retrieve even that much, though.

Private Relays

This list is found in your 10013 note, if you have one. This is intended for listing a relay that you run yourself and that only you can access, as it will house notes that other users should not be able to see at all, such as eCash tokens and draft notes.

Search Relays

This list is found in your 10007 note, if you have one, and is used to search for notes or users who may not be using the same relays as you. It is good to use relays here that aggregate notes from other relays automatically, and which support NIP-50 for search capability.

Local Relays

This section is for any relays running on the local device, such as Citrine. Because the relays themselves are local, this list is local, as well, and is not saved to any note kind that is saved to your relays like the above lists.

General Relays

This list is found in the "content" tag of your kind 3 note, which is also where all of the npubs you follow are stored. As such, this note is commonly known as your follow list, rather than as a relay list. However, some clients, such as Amethyst, do make use of this list, and others use it as a fallback if they can't find a kind 10002.

If you are an Amethyst user most of the time, then I would recommend using this list to fill in any gaps that you may have from only writing to a few outbox relays, or only reading from a few inbox relays. It's a good place to put an aggregator relay, for instance, so long as that relay has good spam filtering, or a blastr relay, so those who don't yet use a client that supports the outbox model will still likely see your notes.

If you do not generally use Amethyst, then I would recommend you mirror your public inbox/outbox relays here, in case you use a client that cannot find your 10002 list. Relays that are only for outbox should be added as write only, those only for inbox should be added as read only, and those you use for both outbox and inbox should be both read and write.

The Setup (Haven Users)

If you are running your own set of Haven relays, here is the setup I would recommend:

Public Outbox (kind 10002)

Maximum of 4 relays.

• Your Haven outbox relay (Remember to add some public relays to your blastr)
• A paid relay of your choice (List available in "Paid Relays" section)
• A public relay, such as relay.damus.io, relay.primal.net, or nos.lol

Public Inbox (kind 10002)

Maximum of 4 relays.

• Your Haven inbox relay: [RelayAddress]/inbox
• A paid relay of your choice (can be same as outbox)
• A WoT relay of your choice (available in "WoT Relays" section)
• Optional additional WoT relay

DM Inbox

Maximum of 3 relays.

• Your Haven "chat" relay: [RelayAddress]/chat
• An alternate AUTH relay, such as inbox.nostr.wine(paid), nostr.land(paid), or auth.nostr1.com(free).

Private Relays

Maximum of 3 relays.

• Your Haven private relay: [RelayAddress]/private

Search Relays

Maximum of 4 relays.

• wss://nostr.wine (even if you don't pay to write to it)
• wss://relay.nostr.band
• wss://relay.noswhere.com
• wss://search.nos.today

Local Relays

• Your Citrine IP:Port, if you run Citrine.

General Relays

Assuming you use Amethyst on a regular basis, I recommend the following:

• A couple additional WoT relays set to read only.
• An aggregator relay that has good spam filtering, such as wss://aggr.nostr.land(payment required) and/or wss://nostr.wine(paid for write, but can read for free).

The Setup (Not Running Haven)

If you are not running your own set of Haven relays, I would highly recommend you learn how and do so. However, if you decide against it, here is a setup that should suffice:

Public Outbox (kind 10002)

Maximum of 4 relays.

• A paid relay of your choice (List available in "Paid Relays" section)
• A large public relay, such as relay.damus.io, relay.primal.net, or nos.lol
• An additional public relay, but a smaller one, or one-time-payment paid relay.

Public Inbox (kind 10002)

Maximum of 4 relays.

• A paid relay of your choice (can be same as outbox)
• wss://nostr.wine - Even if you don't pay for it, you can read from it.
• A WoT relay of your choice (available in "WoT Relays" section)
• Optional additional WoT relay

DM Inbox

Maximum of 3 relays.

• A paid AUTH relay, such as inbox.nostr.wine or nostr.land.
• An alternate AUTH relay, such as auth.nostr1.com(free).

Private Relays

Maximum of 3 relays.

• A private relay you run on your Umbrel or Start9, or that is hosted for you on relay.tools.

Search Relays

Maximum of 4 relays.

• wss://nostr.wine (even if you don't pay to write to it)
• wss://relay.nostr.band
• wss://relay.noswhere.com
• wss://search.nos.today

Local Relays

• Your Citrine IP:Port, if you run Citrine.

General Relays

Assuming you use Amethyst on a regular basis, I recommend the following:

• A couple additional WoT relays set to read only.
• An aggregator relay that has good spam filtering, such as wss://aggr.nostr.land(payment required).
• A blastr relay, such as filter.nostr.wine(paid), or...
• A few additional public relays set to write only.

Paid Relays

• wss://nostr.land - Details.
• The Nostr.Wine suite of relays.
  • wss://nostr.wine - Details
  • wss://filter.nostr.wine - Details
  • wss://inbox.nostr.wine -Details
  • wss://cellar.nostr.wine - Details
  • wss://creatr.nostr.wine - Details
• wss://jellyfish.land - Details

There are a ton of other paid relays out there that can be found via nostr.watch. The above listed options are simply the most popular with the largest feature-sets.

WoT Relays

These relays will only accept notes from npubs that are within the relay owner's WoT. I have provided a Jumble.social address for each relay so you can peruse the feed for yourself to see if you want to use it.

• wss://wot.utxo.one - Jumble Feed
• wss://nostrelites.org - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.nostr.party - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.sovbit.host - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.girino.org - Jumble Feed
• wss://relay.lnau.net - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.siamstr.com - Jumble Feed
• wss://relay.lexingtonbitcoin.org - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.azzamo.net - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.swarmstr.com - Jumble Feed
• wss://zap.watch - Jumble Feed
• wss://satsage.xyz - Jumble Feed
• wss://wons.calva.dev - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.zacoos.com - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.shaving.kiwi - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.tealeaf.dev - Jumble Feed
• wss://wot.nostr.net - Jumble Feed
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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

@ 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.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

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

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

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

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

O protocolo Matrix é um sistema de comunicação descentralizado de código aberto que fornece uma plataforma para mensageiros descentralizados. O Element foi lançado em 2014 como uma implementação do protocolo Matrix, originalmente conhecido como Riot.im , A ideia do Element nasceu quando Matthew Hodgson e Amandine Le Pape, dois desenvolvedores de software, decidiram criar uma plataforma de comunicação aberta e segura, que permitisse aos usuários terem total controle sobre suas informações. Eles acreditavam que a internet deveria ser um lugar onde as pessoas pudessem se comunicar livremente, sem se preocupar com a privacidade de suas informações.

O Element é um aplicativo de chat gratuito e de código aberto disponível em várias plataformas, incluindo desktop, web e aplicativos móveis. Ele oferece criptografia de ponta a ponta, o que significa que as mensagens são protegidas e só podem ser lidas pelo remetente e pelo destinatário. Além disso, o Element é descentralizado, o que significa que ele não é controlado por uma única entidade, mas sim por uma rede global de servidores.

O Element é amplamente utilizado por indivíduos e empresas que desejam ter uma comunicação segura e privada. É frequentemente usado por equipes de projetos, organizações sem fins lucrativos e grupos ativistas que precisam compartilhar informações confidenciais e se comunicar de forma segura. O Element também é conhecido por seu recurso de salas públicas, que permite que os usuários se juntem a grupos de discussão sobre vários tópicos de interesse.

Uma das principais vantagens do Element é sua arquitetura descentralizada. Ao contrário das plataformas de mensagens convencionais que centralizam os dados em seus próprios servidores, o Element utiliza uma rede descentralizada, distribuindo as informações em diversos servidores espalhados pelo mundo. Isso significa que os dados dos usuários são menos suscetíveis a ataques cibernéticos e invasões, já que não são centralizados em um único ponto vulnerável.

Para usar o Element, normalmente os usuários precisam se registrar em um servidor Matrix. Existem várias opções disponíveis, incluindo servidores públicos e privados. No entanto, outra opção é criar um servidor próprio para usar o Element.

O Element também utiliza criptografia de ponta a ponta para proteger as mensagens e arquivos trocados entre os usuários. Isso significa que apenas o remetente e o destinatário das mensagens podem ler o conteúdo, garantindo que as informações permaneçam seguras e privadas.

Outra vantagem do Element é sua ampla variedade de recursos, incluindo videochamadas criptografadas, compartilhamento de tela e integração com outros serviços, como calendários e aplicativos de produtividade. Isso torna o Element uma plataforma completa de comunicação e colaboração, adequada para uso pessoal e empresarial.

O Element também é fácil de usar e possui uma interface intuitiva e personalizável. Os usuários podem personalizar a aparência do aplicativo e acessar diferentes configurações e recursos com apenas alguns cliques.

https://element.io/

https://github.com/vector-im/element-android

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

Bitcoin tem vindo a desempenhar um papel cada vez mais relevante em protestos e movimentos sociais em todo o mundo. Graças à sua natureza descentralizada, resistente à censura e independente do controlo governamental, Bitcoin tornou-se uma ferramenta valiosa para ativistas, organizações e cidadãos que lutam contra regimes opressivos ou sistemas financeiros restritivos.

Bitcoin como alternativa ao sistema financeiro tradicional

Nos últimos anos, governos e instituições bancárias têm utilizado restrições financeiras como uma forma de repressão política. Contas bancárias congeladas, doações bloqueadas e limitações a transações são algumas das estratégias utilizadas para enfraquecer movimentos sociais e protestos. Bitcoin oferece uma alternativa, permitindo que fundos sejam transferidos e armazenados sem a interferência de bancos ou governos.

Uma das principais vantagens de Bitcoin nestes contextos é a sua resistência à censura. Enquanto contas bancárias podem ser encerradas e serviços de pagamento centralizados podem ser pressionados a bloquear transações, Bitcoin funciona numa rede descentralizada, onde ninguém pode impedir que um utilizador envie ou receba fundos.

Exemplos do uso do Bitcoin em protestos

Hong Kong (2019-2020): Durante os protestos pró-democracia, ativistas enfrentaram restrições financeiras ao tentarem organizar manifestações e campanhas. Muitos recorreram a Bitcoin para evitar o rastreamento do governo chinês e garantir financiamento para as suas ações.

Canadá (2022): O movimento dos camionistas que protestavam contra restrições governamentais viu as suas contas bancárias congeladas. Como alternativa, doações em Bitcoin foram utilizadas para contornar a repressão financeira.

Bielorrússia (2020): Após as eleições presidenciais contestadas, manifestantes usaram Bitcoin para financiar atividades e ajudar aqueles que perderam os seus empregos devido à repressão estatal.

Nigéria (2020): Durante os protestos contra a brutalidade policial, conhecidos como #EndSARS, doações internacionais para os manifestantes foram bloqueadas. Bitcoin tornou-se um dos principais meios de financiamento do movimento.

Desafios do uso do Bitcoin em movimentos sociais

Educação e acessibilidade: Muitos ainda desconhecem como utilizar Bitcoin de forma segura e eficiente. A falta de conhecimento pode dificultar a sua adoção em larga escala.

Segurança digital: Movimentos sociais muitas vezes operam sob vigilância intensa. Se as medidas de segurança adequadas não forem seguidas, os fundos podem ser comprometidos.

Volatilidade: O preço de Bitcoin pode variar significativamente num curto período, o que pode afetar o valor das doações e dos fundos arrecadados.

Resumindo, o Bitcoin tem demonstrado ser uma ferramenta essencial para a resistência contra a censura financeira e a repressão governamental. Ao permitir que movimentos sociais e ativistas financiem as suas causas sem depender de intermediários, Bitcoin fortalece a luta pela liberdade e pela justiça. No entanto, a adoção eficaz da tecnologia exige conhecimento, segurança e adaptação às suas características únicas. À medida que mais pessoas aprendem a utilizar Bitcoin, o seu papel nos protestos e movimentos sociais continuará a crescer, reforçando a importância da soberania financeira na luta por direitos e liberdades.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

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

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

Milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo ainda não têm acesso a serviços bancários básicos, seja por falta de infraestrutura, requisitos burocráticos ou instabilidade económica nos seus países. Bitcoin surge como uma solução inovadora para este problema, permitindo que qualquer pessoa com acesso à internet tenha controlo sobre o seu dinheiro, sem depender de bancos ou governos. Ao oferecer um sistema financeiro aberto e acessível, Bitcoin torna-se uma ferramenta poderosa para a inclusão financeira global.

O problema da exclusão financeira

Em muitos países em desenvolvimento, grande parte da população não possui conta bancária. Isto pode acontecer por diversas razões, como:

Falta de acesso a bancos: Muitas comunidades, especialmente em áreas rurais, não têm instituições financeiras próximas.

Exigências burocráticas: Alguns bancos exigem documentação específica ou um histórico de crédito que muitas pessoas não conseguem fornecer.

Custos elevados: As taxas bancárias podem ser proibitivas para quem ganha pouco dinheiro.

Instabilidade económica e política: Em países com alta inflação ou governos instáveis, os bancos podem não ser uma opção segura para guardar dinheiro.

Estas dificuldades deixam milhões de pessoas à margem do sistema financeiro, impossibilitadas de poupar, investir ou realizar transações de forma eficiente.

Bitcoin como alternativa

Bitcoin resolve muitos dos problemas da exclusão financeira ao oferecer um sistema acessível e descentralizado. Com Bitcoin, qualquer pessoa com um telemóvel e acesso à internet pode armazenar e transferir dinheiro sem necessidade de um banco. Entre as principais vantagens estão:

Acessibilidade global: Bitcoin pode ser usado em qualquer lugar do mundo, independentemente da localização do utilizador.

Sem necessidade de intermediários: Diferente dos bancos, que impõem taxas e regras, Bitcoin permite transações diretas entre pessoas.

Baixo custo para transferências internacionais: Enviar dinheiro para outro país pode ser caro e demorado com os métodos tradicionais, enquanto Bitcoin oferece uma alternativa mais rápida e acessível.

Proteção contra a inflação: Em países com moedas instáveis, Bitcoin pode ser usado como reserva de valor, protegendo o poder de compra da população.

Casos de uso na inclusão financeira

Bitcoin já tem sido utilizado para promover a inclusão financeira em diversas partes do mundo. Alguns exemplos incluem:

África e América Latina: Em países como Nigéria, Venezuela e Argentina, onde a inflação é elevada e o acesso a dólares é limitado, muitas pessoas usam Bitcoin para preservar o seu dinheiro e realizar transações internacionais.

Remessas internacionais: Trabalhadores que enviam dinheiro para as suas famílias no estrangeiro evitam as elevadas taxas das empresas de transferências tradicionais ao utilizarem Bitcoin.

Microeconomia digital: Pequenos comerciantes e freelancers que não têm acesso a contas bancárias podem receber pagamentos em Bitcoin de forma direta e segura.

Desafios da inclusão financeira com Bitcoin

Apesar das suas vantagens, a adoção de Bitcoin como ferramenta de inclusão financeira ainda enfrenta alguns desafios, tais como:

Acesso à internet: Muitas regiões pobres ainda não têm uma infraestrutura digital adequada.

Educação financeira: Para que mais pessoas utilizem Bitcoin, é necessário maior conhecimento sobre a tecnologia e as melhores práticas de segurança.

Volatilidade do preço: As oscilações de valor podem dificultar o uso de Bitcoin no dia a dia, especialmente em países onde as pessoas vivem com rendimentos instáveis.

Resumindo, o Bitcoin oferece uma solução viável para milhões de pessoas excluídas do sistema financeiro tradicional. Ao proporcionar acesso global, transações baratas e segurança contra a inflação, torna-se um instrumento poderoso para promover a inclusão financeira. No entanto, para que o seu potencial seja totalmente aproveitado, é essencial investir na educação digital e expandir a infraestrutura tecnológica, permitindo que mais pessoas tenham autonomia financeira através de Bitcoin.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

When Richard Scotford moved to Costa Rica in 2018, he had no idea he would become a key figure in a thriving Bitcoin economy.

A longtime Bitcoin holder who initially saw it through the lens of speculation, Scotford’s journey led him to embrace Bitcoin’s deeper purpose and spearhead Bitcoin Jungle — a grassroots movement bringing real-world Bitcoin adoption to Costa Rica.

Bitcoin circular economies create holistic value for Bitcoiners

Bitcoin Jungle is inspired by Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador but uniquely adapted to Costa Rica’s economic landscape. Unlike El Salvador, where Bitcoin was positioned as a tool for financial inclusion, Costa Rica already has a fairly stable banking system.

The real issue? The friction of moving money. Expats, business owners, and tourists struggle with high fees, banking red tape, and slow transactions. Bitcoin helped solve a lot of these problems.

The Birth of Bitcoin Jungle

Scotford and his team launched Bitcoin Jungle in late 2021 with a simple goal: get bitcoin into people’s hands and make it usable. However, there was one challenge — he had no technical background.

Determined to create a circular bitcoin economy, Scotford networked aggressively. He attended the first Adopting Bitcoin conference in El Salvador, approaching strangers with his vision:

“I was just walking around trying to find people who could help me make this economy, going up to random people saying ‘Hey, what can you do? We’re trying to make a circular economy in Costa Rica, can you help us?’ They all thought I was crazy.”

The breakthrough came when he turned to Bitcoin Twitter. Nicolas Burtey from Galoy encouraged him to create a wallet, and developer Lee Salminen forked the Bitcoin Beach wallet for their project. 

“Within two weeks of Adopting Bitcoin, Lee forked the Galoy Bitcoin Beach wallet, which took Galoy by surprise. Even though they made their wallet to be forked if necessary, I don’t think they were expecting people to do it so fast and, I’d like to say, so well. They were like, ‘Okay, cool, who are these guys doing this?’”

Finally Bitcoin Jungle had its own working wallet, surprising even the Galoy team with the speed of execution.

Grassroots Adoption: One Vendor at a Time

How do you build a bitcoin economy from scratch? Scotford’s answer was simple: start at the farmers’ markets.

“We were like, okay, we’re going to get all the bespoke niche market sellers who are in this area. We have all these beautiful farmers markets, and we decided to approach these people first,” Scotford explained.

His team took a strategic approach, targeting market gatekeepers first.

“If you want to talk to every individual person, it’s really difficult. But if you can talk to the person who is the owner of the market, and then they can introduce you to their market stores, you’re already halfway there.”

Going stall by stall, they pitched Bitcoin’s advantages — no bank fees and better payment options. But adoption didn’t happen overnight, so Bitcoin Jungle initially offered a safety net — vendors could cash out at the end of the day.

“We would say to the vendors, ‘Look, accept bitcoin, and at the end of the day, if you don’t want to keep the bitcoin, we’ll buy it off you,’” Scotford recalled.

“When we first started, maybe 30–40% of the vendors were cashing up every day or at the weekends. Lee would be walking around with big fistfuls of money, cashing out vendors.”

But over time, something shifted — they started keeping their bitcoin.

“Eventually, the vendors started to learn themselves that, ‘Oh, actually it’s better to keep it.’ They would then pay for their tables in the markets using bitcoin. They thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to keep this bitcoin, I don’t really know what to do with it, but I can pay for my table.’ So there, the circular economy starts to happen.”

Today, Bitcoin Jungle runs with minimal intervention, and Scotford takes pride in their reliability.

“When you come here to Costa Rica, what we really pride ourselves on is that if someone says they accept bitcoin, 99% of the time, they will. And if they’re part of Bitcoin Jungle, they will 100% accept bitcoin and you will have a fluid experience with it.”

By mid-summer 2024 over 380 locations in Costa Rica accepted bitcoin

The Bitcoin Jungle Wallet and Real Usage

Bitcoin Jungle is an open-source community project built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Acting as a community bank, the project processes a large number of transactions daily. To encourage proper security practices, Scotford’s team alerts their peers, reminding users to move their bitcoin to cold storage.

“If you’ve got too much bitcoin on your wallet, we send you a message telling you to move it to cold storage,” he explained. For larger businesses, they even offer hands-on assistance to secure funds properly.

Unlike the HODL-only philosophy that many Bitcoiners advocate, Bitcoin Jungle encourages spending.

“Michael Saylor says don’t spend your bitcoin. We say the opposite,” Scotford laughed. “We’re the antithesis of that. You need to spend it.”

Bitcoin Jungle’s Unique Approach to Costa Rica

Bitcoin Jungle isn’t just another Bitcoin adoption effort; it’s tailored to Costa Rica’s economy. The wallet operates in Costa Rican colónes, making transactions feel familiar to residents while ensuring tourists and expats can still interact easily.

The team has also introduced low-fee bitcoin ATMs, point-of-sale integrations, and partnerships that allow users to pay in bitcoin while the recipient receives local currency.

A major breakthrough came when Francis Pouliot from Bull Bitcoin joined forces with Bitcoin Jungle, bringing his expertise in banking infrastructure to the project.

This collaboration enabled seamless bitcoin payments that integrate directly with Costa Rica’s financial system, allowing users to pay anyone, even businesses that don’t directly accept bitcoin, while the recipient receives funds in colónes or dollars.

“I can go to a hardware store, order steel for my new basketball court, pay in bitcoin, and the store gets dollars,” Scotford said. “For a non-tech guy like me, it’s magical.”

Why Aren’t There More Bitcoin Jungles?

Scotford sees an opportunity for more localized bitcoin economies.

“There should be a Bitcoin Harbor, a Bitcoin Mountain, a Bitcoin Driveway,” he joked. “But instead of waiting for permission or corporate funding, people need to take action themselves.”

He emphasizes that building a circular bitcoin economy doesn’t require deep pockets. “I probably gave away $600 worth of bitcoin when we started — just $3 here, $4 there — to get people using it.”

The Future of Bitcoin Jungle

Bitcoin Jungle continues to grow, recently hosting events like the Bitcoin Freedom Festival and integrating bitcoin into community projects, including a school where tuition can be paid in bitcoin.

“The institutions have come in, but the grassroots projects haven’t caught up,” Scotford observed. “It’s time for people to stop sitting on their hands and start building.”

Bitcoin is permissionless, no one has to wait for approval to start using it. Bitcoin Jungle proves that with vision and persistence, anyone can build a thriving Bitcoin economy, one market stall at a time.

Get the latest from Bitcoin Jungle: follow them on X

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

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/

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

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.

@ 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

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@ 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

@ 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.

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

Desde a sua criação, Bitcoin tem sido alvo de debates sobre a sua utilização em atividades ilícitas. muitos críticos afirmam que Bitcoin facilita crimes como lavagem de dinheiro e financiamento de atividades ilegais, devido à sua natureza descentralizada e à possibilidade de realizar transações sem intermediários. no entanto, a realidade é mais complexa e muitas dessas alegações são exageradas ou baseadas em mitos. na verdade, a maioria das transações com Bitcoin são legítimas e até mais rastreáveis do que muitos imaginam.

O mito: Bitcoin é a principal moeda para criminosos

Um dos maiores mitos sobre Bitcoin é a ideia de que ele é amplamente utilizado por criminosos devido ao seu suposto anonimato. este argumento tornou-se popular principalmente devido a casos como o da Silk Road, um mercado negro online desmantelado pelas autoridades em 2013, onde Bitcoin era usado para transações ilegais. no entanto, os dados mais recentes mostram que apenas uma pequena fração das transações em Bitcoin está relacionada com atividades ilícitas.

Além disso, ao contrário do dinheiro em espécie, que é quase impossível de rastrear, todas as transações de Bitcoin são registadas publicamente na blockchain ou timechain. isto significa que qualquer pagamento feito com Bitcoin pode ser analisado e seguido, tornando mais difícil esconder transações suspeitas a longo prazo.

A realidade: Bitcoin é transparente e rastreável

Ao contrário do que muitos pensam, Bitcoin não é completamente anónimo, mas sim pseudónimo. todas as transações ficam registadas na blockchain ou timechain, permitindo que autoridades e analistas de dados consigam seguir os fluxos de dinheiro com precisão. várias empresas especializadas em análise forense de blockchain ou timechain já ajudaram a identificar e desmantelar redes criminosas que tentavam utilizar Bitcoin para fins ilícitos.

Governos e autoridades, como o FBI e a Europol, têm utilizado esta característica para combater crimes financeiros. na prática, criminosos que tentam usar Bitcoin acabam frequentemente por ser apanhados devido à transparência do sistema. por isso, a ideia de que Bitcoin é um refúgio seguro para criminosos não corresponde à realidade.

O uso ilícito de moedas fiduciárias é muito maior

Se compararmos Bitcoin com as moedas fiduciárias tradicionais, como o euro ou o dólar, percebemos que estas são muito mais utilizadas para atividades ilícitas. segundo relatórios de organizações internacionais, a lavagem de dinheiro e o financiamento de crimes organizados ocorrem predominantemente através de bancos, empresas fictícias e dinheiro em espécie.

Por exemplo, em escândalos financeiros globais, como o Panama Papers e o caso do banco HSBC envolvido em lavagem de dinheiro para cartéis, os meios tradicionais foram os preferidos para esconder fortunas ilegais. apesar disso, Bitcoin continua a ser injustamente associado ao crime, enquanto os verdadeiros mecanismos de financiamento ilícito continuam a operar dentro do sistema financeiro convencional.

Resumindo, o mito de que Bitcoin é um meio privilegiado para atividades ilícitas tem sido amplamente desmentido por dados e investigações. apesar de alguns criminosos terem tentado usá-lo no passado, a realidade é que Bitcoin é um sistema financeiro mais transparente e rastreável do que o dinheiro tradicional. a grande maioria das suas transações é legítima e, à medida que a adoção cresce, Bitcoin continua a provar o seu valor como um meio seguro e descentralizado para transações financeiras.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Only 1% of stablecoin transactions in 2024 are linked to criminal activity.

A recent report by TRM Labs has revealed new data on stablecoin usage in 2024. Contrary to widespread perception, 99% of stablecoin transactions were entirely legal and compliant with existing regulations.

The research shows that over 60% of last year’s total transaction volume was conducted using dollar-pegged tokens.

One key point highlighted in the report is the intrinsic traceability of stablecoins. Operating on public blockchains, these digital currencies allow for highly precise transaction monitoring through specialized analytics tools.

Issuers of centralized tokens like USDT and USDC also have the ability to freeze or permanently remove tokens associated with illicit activities.

TRM Labs data shows a 24% decrease in crypto-related criminal activity compared to 2023, with a total of $45 billion representing just 0.4% of overall crypto transaction volume. This decline is attributed to increased law enforcement efforts, stronger industry collaboration, and the growing adoption of advanced analytics tools.

According to TRM Labs, regulatory clarity provided by legislation such as the GENIUS Act could accelerate stablecoin adoption among major banks, financial institutions, and corporations. Many of these entities are already testing stablecoin-based infrastructures for cross-border payments, supply chain management, and programmable finance.

The post Stablecoins: new report debunks myths about illicit use appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 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

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

O Bitcoin tem revolucionado a forma como as pessoas realizam transações financeiras em todo o mundo. Sendo uma moeda digital descentralizada, oferece novas oportunidades para pagamentos no comércio eletrónico e transferências internacionais de dinheiro. A sua rapidez, segurança e baixos custos tornam-no uma alternativa eficiente aos métodos tradicionais, eliminando intermediários e facilitando transações globais.

Bitcoin no comércio eletrónico

O comércio eletrónico tem crescido exponencialmente, e o Bitcoin surge como uma solução inovadora para pagamentos online. Grandes retalhistas e pequenas empresas estão a começar a aceitar Bitcoin como forma de pagamento, oferecendo benefícios tanto para os comerciantes como para os consumidores.

Vantagens do Bitcoin para o comércio eletrónico:

Baixas taxas de transação: ao contrário dos cartões de crédito e plataformas de pagamento que cobram taxas elevadas, as transações em Bitcoin apresentam, geralmente, custos mais reduzidos. Isto beneficia os comerciantes, que podem diminuir despesas e oferecer preços mais competitivos aos clientes.

Eliminação de chargebacks: no sistema tradicional, os chargebacks (reembolsos forçados pelos bancos ou operadoras de cartão) representam uma preocupação para os lojistas. Como as transações em Bitcoin são irreversíveis, os comerciantes evitam fraudes e disputas.

Acesso global: qualquer pessoa com acesso à Internet pode pagar com Bitcoin, independentemente da sua localização. Isto permite às empresas expandirem o seu mercado internacionalmente, sem depender de bancos ou sistemas de pagamento locais.

Privacidade e segurança: as transações em Bitcoin protegem a identidade do utilizador, oferecendo maior privacidade em comparação com pagamentos através de cartão de crédito ou transferências bancárias. Além disso, como não há necessidade de partilhar dados pessoais, o risco de roubo de informações é reduzido.

Desafios do Uso do Bitcoin no Comércio Eletrónico:

Volatilidade: o preço do Bitcoin pode oscilar rapidamente, o que dificulta a fixação de preços para produtos e serviços. No entanto, alguns comerciantes utilizam serviços de pagamento que convertem automaticamente Bitcoin em moeda fiduciária, minimizando esse risco.

Adoção limitada: apesar do crescimento, a aceitação do Bitcoin ainda não é universal. Muitas lojas e plataformas populares ainda não o adotaram, o que pode dificultar a sua utilização em compras diárias.

Tempo de confirmação: embora o Bitcoin seja mais rápido do que as transferências bancárias tradicionais, o tempo de confirmação pode variar consoante a taxa de rede paga. Algumas soluções, como a Lightning Network, estão a ser desenvolvidas para tornar os pagamentos instantâneos.

Bitcoin na remessa de dinheiro

O envio de dinheiro para o estrangeiro sempre foi um processo burocrático, dispendioso e demorado. Serviços tradicionais, como os bancos e empresas de transferência de dinheiro, cobram taxas elevadas e podem demorar dias a concluir uma transação. O Bitcoin, por outro lado, oferece uma alternativa eficiente para remessas globais, permitindo que qualquer pessoa envie e receba dinheiro de forma rápida e económica.

Benefícios do Bitcoin para remessas:

Custos reduzidos: enquanto os bancos e empresas como a Western Union cobram elevadas taxas para transferências internacionais, o Bitcoin permite o envio de dinheiro com custos mínimos, independentemente do montante ou do destino.

Velocidade nas transações: as transferências bancárias internacionais podem demorar vários dias a serem concluídas, especialmente em países com uma infraestrutura financeira limitada. Com o Bitcoin, o dinheiro pode ser enviado para qualquer parte do mundo em poucos minutos ou horas.

Acessibilidade global: em regiões onde o sistema bancário é restrito ou ineficiente, o Bitcoin possibilita que as pessoas recebam dinheiro sem depender de bancos. Isto é particularmente útil em países em desenvolvimento, onde as remessas internacionais são uma fonte essencial de rendimento.

Independência de intermediários: o Bitcoin opera de forma descentralizada, sem necessidade de recorrer a bancos ou empresas de transferência. Isto significa que as pessoas podem enviar dinheiro diretamente para amigos e familiares sem intermediários.

Desafios das remessas com Bitcoin:

Conversão para moeda local: apesar de o Bitcoin poder ser recebido instantaneamente, muitas pessoas ainda precisam de convertê-lo em moeda local para o utilizar. Isso pode envolver custos adicionais e depender da disponibilidade de serviços de câmbio.

Adoção e conhecimento: nem todos compreendem o funcionamento do Bitcoin, o que pode dificultar a sua adoção generalizada para remessas. No entanto, a crescente educação financeira sobre o tema pode ajudar a ultrapassar essa barreira.

Regulamentação e restrições: alguns governos impõem restrições ao uso do Bitcoin, tornando as remessas mais complicadas. A evolução das regulamentações pode afetar a facilidade de uso em determinados países.

Resumindo, o Bitcoin está a transformar o comércio eletrónico e as remessas de dinheiro em todo o mundo. A sua capacidade de eliminar intermediários, reduzir custos e oferecer pagamentos rápidos e seguros torna-o uma alternativa viável aos sistemas financeiros tradicionais.

No comércio eletrónico, proporciona benefícios para lojistas e consumidores, reduzindo taxas e melhorando a privacidade. No setor das remessas, facilita a transferência de dinheiro para qualquer parte do mundo, especialmente para aqueles que vivem em países com sistemas bancários pouco eficientes.

Apesar dos desafios, a adoção do Bitcoin continua a crescer, impulsionada por soluções inovadoras e pelo reconhecimento do seu potencial como meio de pagamento global. À medida que mais empresas e indivíduos aderirem a esta tecnologia, a sua presença no comércio eletrónico e nas remessas internacionais será cada vez mais relevante.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 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

@ 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

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

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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

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@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Fold Holdings Secures $250 Million Equity Deal to Expand Bitcoin Treasury

Today, Fold Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLD), the first publicly traded bitcoin financial services company, has announced a $250 million equity purchase agreement to significantly increase its bitcoin holdings.

JUST IN: Publicly traded Fold secures $250 million equity facility to buy more #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/M7E3fzwAsT

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 17, 2025

Fold Holdings has the option, but not the obligation, to issue and sell up to $250 million in new common stock. The ability to access the funds is subject to certain conditions, including the requirement that a registration statement covering the resale of the stock be filed with and approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“The Company is not required to use the Facility and controls the timing and amount of any drawdown on the Facility, subject to certain restrictions under the Facility,” said the press release. “The Company expects to use the net proceeds from the Facility, if any, primarily to acquire additional bitcoin for Fold’s corporate treasury.”

The shares offered under the facility will be issued through a private placement, relying on exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 and Regulation D. Fold noted that it “plans to file with the SEC a registration statement relating to the resale of the Common Stock issuable under the Facility.”

“The offers and sales of the Common Stock issuable under the Facility will be made in a private placement in reliance on an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933,” according to the press release. “The Company cannot draw on the Facility, and the Common Stock may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time that the registration statement covering the resale of the Common Stock is declared effective by the SEC.”

On May 19, Fold also announced the launch of its Bitcoin gift card, marking its entry into the $300 billion U.S. retail gift card market. This new product allows consumers to purchase and gift bitcoin through familiar retail channels, with plans to expand to major retailers nationwide throughout the year.

“This gift card gives us distribution directly to millions of Americans who may not be buying Bitcoin because they haven’t downloaded a new app, don’t have a brokerage account, or haven’t seen the ETF,” said the Chairman and CEO of Fold Will Reeves.

“I think there’s a real chance by the end of 2025 that Bitcoin becomes the most popular gift in America because of this card,” stated Reeves.

This post Fold Holdings Secures $250 Million Equity Deal to Expand Bitcoin Treasury first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 31a4605e:cf043959

Você já ouviu isso antes. Um bitcoiner é questionado sobre seus sats e, com um sorriso irônico, responde: “Perdi tudo num acidente de barco.” Mas de onde vem essa frase? Por que tantos bitcoiners fazem essa piada? E mais importante: o que ela realmente significa?

A origem do meme

A expressão "Lost all my Bitcoin in a boating accident" nasceu nos fóruns americanos de entusiastas de armas e metais preciosos, muito antes do Bitcoin ganhar notoriedade mainstream. O contexto original era o seguinte: alguém perguntava se você ainda tinha sua coleção de armas (ou ouro), e a resposta sarcástica era "infelizmente, perdi tudo num acidente de barco".

Essa desculpa servia como uma forma de recusar-se a declarar posse de bens aos olhos do governo ou de outras autoridades. Afinal, o que não se pode provar que existe, não pode ser confiscado, taxado ou regulado. Com o tempo, essa lógica encontrou um terreno fértil entre os defensores da soberania individual, um grupo no qual os bitcoiners naturalmente se encaixam.

A metáfora da resistência

Quando os maximalistas de Bitcoin adotaram a frase, ela passou a representar mais do que apenas uma desculpa para evitar perguntas incômodas: virou um símbolo de resistência contra um sistema financeiro cada vez mais invasivo e coercitivo. Dizer que “perdeu os seus Bitcoin num acidente de barco” é, muitas vezes, um eufemismo para dizer:

“Não é da sua conta quantos sats eu tenho.”

“Não reconheço a autoridade de quem tenta confiscar meu patrimônio digital.”

“Meus ativos são soberanos, autocustodiados e inalcançáveis por meios tradicionais.”

Bitcoin é liberdade, não compliance

O meme também toca num ponto central da filosofia bitcoin: a autocustódia e o direito à privacidade financeira. Em um mundo onde governos congelam contas, censuram transações e imprimem moeda ao bel-prazer, possuir Bitcoin é uma forma de resistência civil. Mas para que isso tenha valor real, é necessário que o indivíduo assuma a responsabilidade pela custódia e, inevitavelmente, pelo silêncio.

Dizer que você “perdeu seus Bitcoin” também é um lembrete: não fale sobre suas chaves privadas. Não ostente seus sats. Não coloque um alvo nas suas costas.

Um meme com propósito

No fim das contas, o “acidente de barco” é uma piada com um fundo muito sério. Ele nos relembra que, num sistema verdadeiramente soberano, a posse de ativos digitais é algo íntimo, pessoal e — se necessário — negável. É uma forma de reafirmar que o Bitcoin não é apenas uma ferramenta de investimento, mas um instrumento de liberdade.

Então da próxima vez que alguém te perguntar onde estão seus bitcoins, sorria e diga:

“Infelizmente, perdi tudo num acidente de barco…”

E deixe que fiquem imaginando.

Muito obrigado por teres lido o texto até aqui, espero que esteja tudo bem contigo e um abraço enorme do teu madeirense bitcoiner maximalista favorito. Viva a liberdade!

@ 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

@ e5cfb5dc:0039f130

はりまメンタルクリニック：GIDの大手そう。丸の内線ならパムくんちが近い。

わらびメンタルクリニック：GIDの大手そう？公式サイトには影もかたちも

ナグモクリニック：SRS手術までしてるところ。GID精神科外来が月1第1木曜日だけ？

狭山メンタルクリニック：距離・時間的にはまま近い。サイトの記述が思想的にちょとあやしげ。新患受付がだいぶ先。GIDは専門外か？

川島領診療所：オンライン診療あり！強迫性障害や美容皮膚科をやっている。雰囲気よさそうなところ。GIDは専門外か？

Jこころのクリニック：電車いっぽんなので楽。GIDは専門外か？

ハッピースマイルクリニック：オンライン診療あり！GIDは専門外か？

@ 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.

---

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

@ 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.

@ 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.

---

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

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

U.S. Senate Passes Stablecoin Bill The GENIUS Act

The U.S. Senate has passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act (S. 394) by a vote of 68-30, establishing the first comprehensive federal framework for fiat-backed stablecoins.

The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty and co-sponsored by Senators Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cynthia Lummis. It passed under the official title “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025.” 

The United States Senate has passed the GENIUS Act

— Bo Hines (@BoHines) June 17, 2025

“Today, on a bipartisan basis, the Senate passed its first piece of major legislation this Congress with my bill—the GENIUS Act,” said Senator Hagerty. “With GENIUS, the United States is one step closer to becoming the crypto capital of the world.” 

The GENIUS Act tightly regulates payment stablecoins, requiring 1:1 dollar-backed reserves, monthly disclosures, audits, and clear federal or state licensing. It prohibits algorithmic coins and places strict limitations on rehypothecation and commingling of reserves. Importantly, the bill also amends existing securities laws to explicitly state that compliant stablecoins are not securities—freeing them from SEC jurisdiction.  

While the bill is aimed at stablecoins, many Bitcoin proponents see it as a win since stablecoins can act as a bridge into Bitcoin, enabling on-ramps, easier settlements, and institutional access. 

And as the financial system modernizes, trusted access points like dollar-backed tokens could play a role in onboarding new Bitcoin users—especially in international markets and corporate treasuries. 

“The U.S. Senate has passed the GENIUS Act — landmark stablecoin legislation that provides regulatory clarity, enhances consumer protection, and extends U.S. dollar dominance online,” said President Donald Trump’s AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks. “Thanks to President Trump for his leadership on crypto & Senator Hagerty for authoring the bill.”

The passage of the GENIUS Act may be the clearest signal yet that the U.S. is preparing for a stablecoin and Bitcoin-powered future.   

This post U.S. Senate Passes Stablecoin Bill The GENIUS Act first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

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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