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@ Lexington Bitcoin Meetup
2023-04-25 17:24:09Good morning,
We're excited to welcome you all to another fantastic evening of lively discussions, networking, and all things Bitcoin! Join us tonight at 6pm at the Cellar for our weekly Bitcoin meetup. Whether you're a seasoned Bitcoiner or new to the world of Bitcoin, you're sure to find something of interest. Come share your insights, ask questions, and connect with like-minded individuals in our thriving community.
https://www.meetup.com/lexingtonbitcoin/events/gsjvtsyfcgbhc/
Once again we look forward to seeing everyone tonight! Here's a look at some of the news events over the last week in Bitcoin that we'll discuss tonight:
Bitcoin is now available in the Telegram @wallet - Telegram's @wallet bot now offers an integrated custodial bitcoin wallet, enabling over 700 million users to buy, receive, send, withdraw, swap, and sell bitcoin via Telegram's peer-to-peer marketplace using a user-friendly web interface, which also supports instant swaps of BTC, USDT, and TON at favorable rates. - The platform's "Buy & Sell" section simplifies bitcoin transactions, allowing users to select their preferred payment method, either via bank card or the P2P Market; however, some features may require phone number verification, and buying bitcoin with a bank card requires identity verification
Coinbase gets Bermuda license, plans to launch offshore exchange in coming weeks - Coinbase has obtained a license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority to operate in the offshore jurisdiction of Bermuda, reflecting the company's commitment to expanding its international business amidst increasing regulatory hostility toward the crypto industry in the U.S.; Bermuda is known for its early adoption of a comprehensive legal framework for digital assets in 2018. - Coinbase is planning to launch an offshore derivatives exchange in Bermuda as early as next week, with products such as perpetual swaps and other exotic crypto-related derivatives that are largely unavailable in the U.S. due to regulatory restrictions; the company is also looking to expand operations in Abu Dhabi as part of its "Go Broad & Go Deep" strategy
Gemini Foundation — A Non-US Crypto Derivatives Platform - Gemini has announced the upcoming launch of Gemini Foundation, a non-US crypto derivatives platform that will offer a BTC perpetual contract denominated in Gemini dollars (GUSD) as its first derivatives contract, followed by an ETH/GUSD perpetual contract; however, the platform will not be available to customers in the United States, and its services will be accessible in several countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey, among others. - This development by Gemini parallels a similar move by Coinbase, which is also expected to launch an offshore derivatives exchange this week, and has previously expressed concerns regarding the absence of regulatory clarity in the United States
AgoraDesk Free and Open Source Mobile Apps are Now Officially Out of Beta - The AgoraDesk mobile app, a private and open-source Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading platform, has officially come out of beta and is now available for download on both iOS and Android platforms. The app boasts a range of features including in-app proxy support, Tor/I2P domain connection, user experience optimized for easy trading, extensive security testing, no Google Services required, light/dark themes, stable notifications, and support for 32 languages - In the newly released version 1.1.0, updates include a limit of 25 attempts for the pin code before the app logs out, improvements to the proxy settings screen, the addition of BTC transaction costs in fiat currency, and a fix for an error related to the captcha dialog.
Trezor Launches Coinjoin Integration with Wasabi Wallet - Trezor Suite has launched an optional feature called "coinjoin" that enhances privacy by making Bitcoin transactions untraceable. Coinjoin strips personal data from Bitcoin transactions, taking back users' right to financial privacy, as Bitcoin transactions inherently carry data about coins' history and can potentially reveal user identities. - The service is using Wasabi Wallet which has been criticized for using coin analysis on it's input transactions
Tornando Cash dev Alexey Pertsev freed pending trial - Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer who was arrested by Dutch authorities in August over allegations of facilitating money laundering, has been granted release and will return home next week, pending trial. Pertsev's release comes with the condition of wearing an ankle monitor, and he will celebrate his birthday at home on April 261FaviconThe Block: Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev freed pending trial2FaviconThe Block: Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev freed pending trial. - The arrest of Pertsev, a Russian national, followed the U.S. government's decision to add Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service, and 44 associated Ethereum and USDC wallets to its Specially Designated Nationals list. The U.S. Treasury claimed that Tornado Cash had repeatedly failed to stop the laundering of funds for malicious cyber actors. Pertsev has denied the charges and a further investigation hearing is scheduled for May 24.
Silk Road Dark Web Fraud Defendant Sentenced - James Zhong was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for committing wire fraud in September 2012 by unlawfully obtaining approximately 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road dark web marketplace. Zhong executed a scheme to defraud Silk Road by creating multiple accounts, triggering over 140 rapid transactions, and tricking Silk Road's withdrawal-processing system to release approximately 50,000 Bitcoin into his accounts. Zhong later received 50,000 Bitcoin Cash in a hard fork coin split and exchanged it for an additional 3,500 Bitcoin, resulting in approximately 53,500 Bitcoin of total crime proceeds. - The U.S. Government seized over 50,000 Bitcoin of crime proceeds from Zhong's home in Gainesville, Georgia, and Zhong voluntarily surrendered 1,004.14621836 additional Bitcoin. The seized Bitcoin was valued at over $3.4 billion at the time of seizure and over $1.57 billion today. The court entered final orders of forfeiture for the seized Bitcoin, $661,900 in cash, metal items, and Zhong's 80% interest in RE&D Investments, LLC, a Memphis-based company with substantial real estate holdings
How to stop the onion denial (of service) - Onion services on the Tor network have faced denial-of-service (DoS) attacks exploiting the asymmetric nature of the onion service rendezvous protocol, where a small message from a malicious client triggers significant work by the service, making it difficult to distinguish between good and bad clients. To mitigate this, the Tor Project has provided scaling options, agile circuit management, and protection against CPU exhaustion to help operators build their own DoS detection and handling infrastructure. - Two potential long-term solutions are proposed: (1) defenses based on anonymous tokens, where good clients acquire tokens (e.g., via CAPTCHAs or donations) to prioritize their access during a DoS attack, with potential applications including restricting malicious Tor exit node usage and registering human-memorable names for onion services; and (2) defenses based on Proof-of-Work (PoW), where clients solve PoW puzzles before accessing the service, allowing the PoW difficulty to adapt dynamically based on attack volume, and enabling motivated clients to bid for attention with better proofs
Strom: Lightning/Nostr Enabled OCPP Bridge - Strom is an open-source application that enables charge point owners to accept lightning payments for electric vehicle charging sessions. The application can be run locally or on a hosted provider, and each charge point is configured with a unique nostr identity and LNURL friendly URL address. Payments made to the LNURL-p initiate charging sessions over the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), while LNURL-w is used to stop charging sessions. Unused prepaid amounts can be refunded - The Strom application includes features such as dynamic pricing, enabling tariff models based on energy spot markets or dynamic energy contracts. Charge points communicate with Strom via OCPP 1.6 over a websocket. Additionally, Strom could be extended to support the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI), allowing e-Mobility Service Providers to make charge points publicly available and support lightning payments through payment streaming for ongoing sessions
LND v0.16.1-beta: Bug Fixes and Optimizations - LND v0.16.1-beta is a minor release that introduces a range of important bug fixes and optimizations. - A notable update is the increase in the default CLTV (Check Lock Time Verify) delay from 40 to 80 blocks, lengthening the CLTV delta value from ~7 to ~13 hours, to help prevent unnecessary force closures due to mempool backlog or node downtime
Mutiny Node v0.2.6: BDK Core + IndexedDB - Mutiny Node v0.2.6 has adopted bdk 1.0-alpha, which is expected to resolve various issues with syncing. - The release also includes a transition of all storage to indexedDB, along with an in-memory clone, to enhance both the speed and safety of data persistence
LNbits v0.10.4 Released - The "Yvette2" release of lnbits features a series of changes and improvements to the codebase, including fixes for pre-installed extensions, the removal of the virtual environment (venv) from lnbits, documentation updates, improvements to code readability and formatting, and the addition of localization to the lnbits frontend. - A variety of bugs were addressed, including the proper handling of exceptions for already paid internal invoices, fixes to admin access, and improvements to error handling for lndrest.
BlueWallet v6.4.1 - Payment Codes Released - Highlights include fixes to price rates and currency search functionality, startup performance enhancements, accessibility improvements, Payjoin implementation fixes, GUI styling improvements, and the addition of support for Bip47 payment codes - The release enables Bip47 payment codes through a development backdoor for testing and feedback purposes. The first phase of Bip47 implementation includes the ability to get a payment code, receive on a Bip84 account, view transaction history, and use unspent transaction outputs (utxos) for sending payments. The release also includes various fixes, changes, and new features such as Bitstamp support for iOS widgets and watchOS, CoinGecko integration, improved app startup speed, and secure keystore key handling
These are just some of the topics we'll be discussing tonight. Free free to bring any topics of discussion for the group that you find interesting! We all want to learn this journey together.
Hope to see you all out tonight!