@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Graphics materials for Bitcoin Knots https://github.com/bitcoinknots branding. See below guide image for reference, a bit cleaner and scalable:

Font family "Aileron" is provided free for personal and commercial use, and can be found here: https://www.1001fonts.com/aileron-font.html

Source: https://github.com/Blissmode/bitcoinknots-gfx/tree/main

https://stacker.news/items/986624

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Graphics materials for Bitcoin Knots https://github.com/bitcoinknots branding. See below guide image for reference, a bit cleaner and scalable:

Font family "Aileron" is provided free for personal and commercial use, and can be found here: https://www.1001fonts.com/aileron-font.html

Source: https://github.com/Blissmode/bitcoinknots-gfx/tree/main

https://stacker.news/items/986587

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) are not rushing to stack sats, and Oliver Porter, Founder & CEO of Jippi, understands the challenge better than most. His strategy revolves around adapting Bitcoin education to fit seamlessly into the digital lives of young adults.

“We need to meet them where they are,” Oliver explains. “90% of Gen Z plays games. 70% expect to earn rewards.”

So, what will effectively introduce them to Bitcoin? In Oliver’s mind, the answer is simple: games that don’t feel preachy but still plant the orange pill.

Learn more at Jippi.app

That’s exactly what Jippi is. Based in Austin, Texas, the team has created a mobile augmented reality (AR) game that rewards players in bitcoin and sneakily teaches them why sound money matters.

“It’s Pokémon GO… but for sats,” Oliver puts it succinctly.

Jippi is like Pokemon Go, but for sats

Oliver’s Bitcoin journey, like many in the space, began long before he was ready. A former colleague had tried planting the seed years earlier, handing him a copy of The Bitcoin Standard. But the moment passed.

It wasn’t until the chaos of 2020 when lockdowns hit, printing presses roared, and civil liberties shrank that the message finally landed for him.

“The government got so good at doing reverse Robin Hood,” Oliver explains. “They steal from the working population and reward the rich.”

By 2020, though, the absurdity of the covid hysteria had caused his eyes to be opened and the orange light seemed the best path back to freedom.

He left the UK for Austin “one of the best places for Bitcoiners,” he says, and dove headfirst into the industry, working at Swan for a year before founding Jippi on PlebLab’s accelerator program.

Jippi’s flagship game lets players roam their cities hunting digital creatures, Bitcoin Beasts, tied to real-world locations. Catching them requires answering Bitcoin trivia, and the reward is sats.

No jargon. No hour-long lectures. Just gameplay with sound money principles woven right in.

The model is working. At a recent hackathon in Austin, Jippi beat out 14 other teams to win first place and $15,000 in prize money.

Oliver of Jippi won Top Builder Season 2 — PlebLab on X

“We’re backdooring Bitcoin education,” Oliver admits. “And while we’re at it, encouraging people to get outside and touch grass.”

Not everyone’s been thrilled. When Jippi team members visited one of the more liberal-leaning places in Texas, UT Austin, to test interest in Bitcoin, they found some seriously committed no-coiners on the campus.

“One young woman told me, ‘I would rather die than talk about Bitcoin,'” Oliver recalls, highlighting the cultural resistance that’s built up among younger demographics.

This resistance is backed by hard data. According to Oliver, some of the Bitcoin podcasters they met with in the space to do market research reported that less than 1% of their listeners are from Gen Z and that number is dropping.

“Unless we find a way to capture their interest in a meaningful way, there’s going to be a big problem around trying to sway Gen Z away from the siren call of s***coins and crypto casinos and towards Bitcoin,” Oliver warns.

Jippi’s next big move is Las Vegas, where they’ll launch the Beast Catch experience at the Venetian during a major Bitcoin event. To mark the occasion, they’re opening up six limited sponsorship spots for Bitcoin companies, each one tied to a custom in-game beast.

Jippi looks to launch a special event at Bitcoin 2025

“It’s real estate inside the game,” Oliver explains. “Brands become allies, not intrusions. You get a logo, company name, and call to action, so we can push people to your site or app.”

Bitcoin Well—an automatic self-custody Bitcoin platform—has claimed Beast #1. Only five exclusive spots remain for Bitcoin companies to “beastify their brand” through Jippi’s immersive AR game.

“I love the Jippi mission. I think gamified learning is how we will onboard the next generation and it’s exciting to see what the Jippi team is doing! I love working with bitcoiners towards our common mission – bullish!” said Adam O’Brien, Bitcoin Well CEO.

Jippi’s sponsorship model is simple: align incentives, respect users, and support builders. Instead of throwing ad money at tech giants, Bitcoin companies can connect with new users naturally while they’re having fun and earning sats in the process.

For Bitcoin companies looking to reach a younger demographic, this represents a unique opportunity to showcase their brand to up to 30,000 potential customers at the Vegas event.

Jippi Bitcoin Beast partnership

While Jippi’s current focus is simple, get the game into more cities, Oliver sees a future where AR glasses and AI help personalize Bitcoin education even further.

“The magic is going to really happen when Apple releases the glasses form factor,” he says, describing how augmented reality could enhance real-world connections rather than isolate users.

In the longer term, Jippi aims to evolve from a free-to-play model toward a pay-to-play version with higher stakes. Users would form “tribes” with friends to compete for substantial bitcoin prizes, creating social connections along with financial education.

Unlike VC-backed startups, Jippi is raising funds pleb style via Timestamp, an open investment platform for Bitcoin companies.

“You don’t have to be an accredited investor,” Oliver explains. “You’re directly supporting the parallel Bitcoin economy by investing in Bitcoin companies for equity.”

Anyone can invest as little as $100. Perks include early access, exclusive game content, and even creating your own beast design with your name/pseudonym and unique game lore. Each investment comes with direct ownership of an early-stage Bitcoin company like Jippi.

For Oliver, this is more than just a business. It’s about future-proofing Bitcoin adoption and ensuring Satoshi’s vision lives on, especially as many people are lured by altcoins, NFTs, and social media dopamine.

“We’re on the right side of history,” he says firmly. “I want my grandkids to know that early on in the Bitcoin revolution, games like Jippi helped make it stick.”

In a world increasingly absorbed by screens and short attention spans, Jippi’s combination of outdoor play, sats rewards, and Bitcoin education might be exactly the bridge Gen Z needs.

Interested in sponsoring a Beast or investing in Jippi? Reach out to Jippi directly by heading to their partnerships page on their website or visit their Timestamp page to invest in Jippi today.

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

You’ve probably seen it before.

You open an agency’s website or a freelancer’s portfolio. At the very top of the homepage, it says:

We design for startups.

You wait 3 seconds. The last word fades out and a new one fades in:

We design for agencies.

Wait 3 more seconds:

We design for founders.

I call this design pattern The Wheel of Nothing: a rotating list of audience segments meant to impress through inclusion and draw attention through motion… for absolutely no reason.

Revered brand studio Pentagram recently launched a new website. To my surprise, the homepage features the Wheel of Nothing front and center, boldly claiming:

We design Everything for Everyone…before cycling through more specific combinations every few seconds.

Dan Mall, a husband, dad, teacher, creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur from Philly. I share as much as I can to create better opportunities for those who wouldn’t have them otherwise. Most recently, I ran design system consultancy SuperFriendly for over a decade.

Read more at Dans' website https://danmall.com/posts/the-wheel-of-nothing/

https://stacker.news/items/986392

@ 21335073:a244b1ad

The other day, I had the privilege of sitting down with one of my favorite living artists. Our conversation was so captivating that I felt compelled to share it. I’m leaving his name out for privacy.

Since our last meeting, I’d watched a documentary about his life, one he’d helped create. I told him how much I admired his openness in it. There’s something strange about knowing intimate details of someone’s life when they know so little about yours—it’s almost like I knew him too well for the kind of relationship we have.

He paused, then said quietly, with a shy grin, that watching the documentary made him realize how “odd and eccentric” he is. I laughed and told him he’s probably the sanest person I know. Because he’s lived fully, chasing love, passion, and purpose with hardly any regrets. He’s truly lived.

Today, I turn 44, and I’ll admit I’m a bit eccentric myself. I think I came into the world this way. I’ve made mistakes along the way, but I carry few regrets. Every misstep taught me something. And as I age, I’m not interested in blending in with the world—I’ll probably just lean further into my own brand of “weird.” I want to live life to the brim. The older I get, the more I see that the “normal” folks often seem less grounded than the eccentric artists who dare to live boldly. Life’s too short to just exist, actually live.

I’m not saying to be strange just for the sake of it. But I’ve seen what the crowd celebrates, and I’m not impressed. Forge your own path, even if it feels lonely or unpopular at times.

It’s easy to scroll through the news and feel discouraged. But actually, this is one of the most incredible times to be alive! I wake up every day grateful to be here, now. The future is bursting with possibility—I can feel it.

So, to my fellow weirdos on nostr: stay bold. Keep dreaming, keep pushing, no matter what’s trending. Stay wild enough to believe in a free internet for all. Freedom is radical—hold it tight. Live with the soul of an artist and the grit of a fighter. Thanks for inspiring me and so many others to keep hoping. Thank you all for making the last year of my life so special.

@ 8aa70f44:3073d1a6

Earlier this year I launched the asknostr.site project which has been a great journey and learning experience. I had wanted to write down my goals and ideas with the project but didn't get to it yet. Primal launching the article editor was a trigger for me to go for it.

Ever since I joined Nostr i was looking for ways to apply my skillset solve a problem and help with adoption. Around Christmas I figured that a Quora/Stackoverflow alternative is something that needs to exist on Nostr.

Before I knew it I had a pretty decent prototype. And because the network already had so much awesome content, contributors and authors I was never discouraged by the challenge that kills so many good ideas -> "Where do I get the first users?".

Since the initial announcement I have received so much encouragement through zaps, likes, DM's, and maybe most of all seeing the increase in usage of the site and #asknostr content kept me going.

Current State

The current version of the site is stable and most bugs are hashed out. After logging in (remote signer, extension or nsec) you can engage with content through votes, comments and replies. Or simply ask a new question.

All content is stored in the site's own private relay and preprocessed/computed into a single data store (postgres) so the site is fast, accessible and crawl-able.

The site supports browsing hashtags, voting/commenting on answers, asking new questions and every contributor get their own profile (example). At the time of writing the site has 41k questions, almost 200k replies/comments and upwards of 5 million sats purely for #asknostr content.

What to expect/On my list

There are plenty of things and UI bugs that need love and between writing the draft of this post and hitting publish I shipped 3 minor bug fixes. Little by little, bit by bit...

In addition to all those small details here is an overview of the things on my own wish list:

• Inline Zaps: Ability to zap from the asknostr.site interface. Click the zap button, specify or pick the number of sats zap away.

• Contributor Rank: A leaderboard to add some gamification. More recognition to those nostriches that spend their time helping other people out

• Search by Keyword: Search all content by keywords. Experiment with the index to show related questions or answers

• Better User Profiles: Improve the user profile so it shows all the profile questions and answers. Quick buttons to follow or zap that person. Better insights in the topics (hashtags) the profile contributes to

• Bookmarks: Ability to bookmark questions and answers. Increase bookmark weight as a signal to rank answers.

• Smarter Scoring: Tune how answers are scored (winning answer formula). Perhaps give more weight to the question author or use WoT. Not sure yet.

All of this is happening at some point so follow me if you want to stay up to date.

Goals

To manage expectations and keep me focussed I write down the mid and long term goals of the project.

Long term

Call me cheesy but I believe that humanity will flourish through an open web and sound money. My own journey started from with bitcoin but if you asked me today if it's BTC or nostr that is going to have the most impact I wouldn't know what to answer. Chicken or egg?

The goal of the project is to offer an open platform that empowers individuals to ask questions, share expertise and access high-quality information across different topics. The project empowers anyone to monetize their experience creating a sustainable ecosystem that values and rewards knowledge sharing. This will ultimately democratize access to knowledge for all.

Mid term

The project can help a lot with onboarding new users onto the network. Once we start to rank on certain topics we can get a piece of the search traffic pie (StackOverflows 12 million, and Quora 150 million visitors per month) which is a great way to expose people to the power of the network.

First time visitors do not need to know about nostr or zaps to receive value. They can browse around, discover interesting content and perhaps even create a profile without even knowing they are on Nostr now.

Gradually those users will understand the value of the network through better rankings (zaps beats likes), a cross-client experience and a profile that can be used on any nostr site or app.

In order for the site to do that we need to make sure content is browsable by language, (sub)topics and and we double down on 'the human touch' with real contributors and not LLMs.

Short Term Goal

The first goal is to make the site really good and an important resource for existing Nostr users. Enable visitors to search and discover what they are interested in. Integrate within the existing nostr eco system with 'open in' functionality and quick links to interesting projects (followerpacks?)

One of things i want to get right is to improve user retention by making the whole Q\&A experience more sticky. I want to run some experiments (bots, award, summaries) to get more people to use asknostr.site more often and come back.

What about the name?

Finally the big question: What about the asknostr.site name? I don't like the name that much but it's what people know. I think there is a high chance that people will discover Nostr apps like Olas, Primal or Damus without needing to know what NOSTR is or means.

Therefore I think there is a good chance that the project won't be called asknostr.site forever. I guess it all depends on where we all take this.

Onwards!

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

As a product builder over too many years to mention, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen promising ideas go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within months.

The problem with most finance apps, however, is that they often become a reflection of the internal politics of the business rather than an experience solely designed around the customer. This means that the focus is on delivering as many features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the needs and desires of competing internal departments, rather than providing a clear value proposition that is focused on what the people out there in the real world want. As a result, these products can very easily bloat to become a mixed bag of confusing, unrelated and ultimately unlovable customer experiences—a feature salad, you might say.

Financial products, which is the field I work in, are no exception. With people’s real hard-earned money on the line, user expectations running high, and a crowded market, it’s tempting to throw as many features at the wall as possible and hope something sticks. But this approach is a recipe for disaster.

Here’s why: https://alistapart.com/article/from-beta-to-bedrock-build-products-that-stick/

https://stacker.news/items/985285

@ c9badfea:610f861a

1. Install Sky Map (it's free and open source)
2. Launch the app and tap Accept, then tap OK
3. When asked to access the device's location, tap While Using The App
4. Tap somewhere on the screen to activate the menu, then tap ⁝ and select Settings
5. Disable Send Usage Statistics
6. Return to the main screen and enjoy stargazing!

ℹ️ Use the 🔍 icon in the upper toolbar to search for a specific celestial body, or tap the 👁️ icon to activate night mode

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

Here’s a revised timeline of macro-level events from The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 by Lionel Shriver, reimagined in a world where Bitcoin is adopted as a widely accepted form of money, altering the original narrative’s assumptions about currency collapse and economic control. In Shriver’s original story, the failure of Bitcoin is assumed amid the dominance of the bancor and the dollar’s collapse. Here, Bitcoin’s success reshapes the economic and societal trajectory, decentralizing power and challenging state-driven outcomes.

Part One: 2029–2032

• 2029 (Early Year)\ The United States faces economic strain as the dollar weakens against global shifts. However, Bitcoin, having gained traction emerges as a viable alternative. Unlike the original timeline, the bancor—a supranational currency backed by a coalition of nations—struggles to gain footing as Bitcoin’s decentralized adoption grows among individuals and businesses worldwide, undermining both the dollar and the bancor.

• 2029 (Mid-Year: The Great Renunciation)\ Treasury bonds lose value, and the government bans Bitcoin, labeling it a threat to sovereignty (mirroring the original bancor ban). However, a Bitcoin ban proves unenforceable—its decentralized nature thwarts confiscation efforts, unlike gold in the original story. Hyperinflation hits the dollar as the U.S. prints money, but Bitcoin’s fixed supply shields adopters from currency devaluation, creating a dual-economy split: dollar users suffer, while Bitcoin users thrive.

• 2029 (Late Year)\ Dollar-based inflation soars, emptying stores of goods priced in fiat currency. Meanwhile, Bitcoin transactions flourish in underground and online markets, stabilizing trade for those plugged into the bitcoin ecosystem. Traditional supply chains falter, but peer-to-peer Bitcoin networks enable local and international exchange, reducing scarcity for early adopters. The government’s gold confiscation fails to bolster the dollar, as Bitcoin’s rise renders gold less relevant.

• 2030–2031\ Crime spikes in dollar-dependent urban areas, but Bitcoin-friendly regions see less chaos, as digital wallets and smart contracts facilitate secure trade. The U.S. government doubles down on surveillance to crack down on bitcoin use. A cultural divide deepens: centralized authority weakens in Bitcoin-adopting communities, while dollar zones descend into lawlessness.

• 2032\ By this point, Bitcoin is de facto legal tender in parts of the U.S. and globally, especially in tech-savvy or libertarian-leaning regions. The federal government’s grip slips as tax collection in dollars plummets—Bitcoin’s traceability is low, and citizens evade fiat-based levies. Rural and urban Bitcoin hubs emerge, while the dollar economy remains fractured.

Time Jump: 2032–2047

• Over 15 years, Bitcoin solidifies as a global reserve currency, eroding centralized control. The U.S. government adapts, grudgingly integrating bitcoin into policy, though regional autonomy grows as Bitcoin empowers local economies.

Part Two: 2047

• 2047 (Early Year)\ The U.S. is a hybrid state: Bitcoin is legal tender alongside a diminished dollar. Taxes are lower, collected in BTC, reducing federal overreach. Bitcoin’s adoption has decentralized power nationwide. The bancor has faded, unable to compete with Bitcoin’s grassroots momentum.

• 2047 (Mid-Year)\ Travel and trade flow freely in Bitcoin zones, with no restrictive checkpoints. The dollar economy lingers in poorer areas, marked by decay, but Bitcoin’s dominance lifts overall prosperity, as its deflationary nature incentivizes saving and investment over consumption. Global supply chains rebound, powered by bitcoin enabled efficiency.

• 2047 (Late Year)\ The U.S. is a patchwork of semi-autonomous zones, united by Bitcoin’s universal acceptance rather than federal control. Resource scarcity persists due to past disruptions, but economic stability is higher than in Shriver’s original dystopia—Bitcoin’s success prevents the authoritarian slide, fostering a freer, if imperfect, society.

Key Differences

• Currency Dynamics: Bitcoin’s triumph prevents the bancor’s dominance and mitigates hyperinflation’s worst effects, offering a lifeline outside state control.
• Government Power: Centralized authority weakens as Bitcoin evades bans and taxation, shifting power to individuals and communities.
• Societal Outcome: Instead of a surveillance state, 2047 sees a decentralized, bitcoin driven world—less oppressive, though still stratified between Bitcoin haves and have-nots.

This reimagining assumes Bitcoin overcomes Shriver’s implied skepticism to become a robust, adopted currency by 2029, fundamentally altering the novel’s bleak trajectory.

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

I’ve written about MSTR twice already, https://www.chrisliss.com/p/mstr and https://www.chrisliss.com/p/mstr-part-2, but I want to focus on legendary short seller James Chanos’ current trade wherein he buys bitcoin (via ETF) and shorts MSTR, in essence to “be like Mike” Saylor who sells MSTR shares at the market and uses them to add bitcoin to the company’s balance sheet. After all, if it’s good enough for Saylor, why shouldn’t everyone be doing it — shorting a company whose stock price is more than 2x its bitcoin holdings and using the proceeds to buy the bitcoin itself?

Saylor himself has said selling shares at 2x NAV (net asset value) to buy bitcoin is like selling dollars for two dollars each, and Chanos has apparently decided to get in while the getting (market cap more than 2x net asset value) is good. If the price of bitcoin moons, sending MSTR’s shares up, you are more than hedged in that event, too. At least that’s the theory.

The problem with this bet against MSTR’s mNAV, i.e., you are betting MSTR’s market cap will converge 1:1 toward its NAV in the short and medium term is this trade does not exist in a vacuum. Saylor has described how his ATM’s (at the market) sales of shares are accretive in BTC per share because of this very premium they carry. Yes, we’ll dilute your shares of the company, but because we’re getting you 2x the bitcoin per share, you are getting an ever smaller slice of an ever bigger overall pie, and the pie is growing 2x faster than your slice is reducing. (I https://www.chrisliss.com/p/mstr how this works in my first post.)

But for this accretion to continue, there must be a constant supply of “greater fools” to pony up for the infinitely printable shares which contain only half their value in underlying bitcoin. Yes, those shares will continue to accrete more BTC per share, but only if there are more fools willing to make this trade in the future. So will there be a constant supply of such “fools” to keep fueling MSTR’s mNAV multiple indefinitely?

Yes, there will be in my opinion because you have to look at the trade from the prospective fools’ perspective. Those “fools” are not trading bitcoin for MSTR, they are trading their dollars, selling other equities to raise them maybe, but in the end it’s a dollars for shares trade. They are not selling bitcoin for them.

You might object that those same dollars could buy bitcoin instead, so they are surely trading the opportunity cost of buying bitcoin for them, but if only 5-10 percent of the market (or less) is buying bitcoin itself, the bucket in which which those “fools” reside is the entire non-bitcoin-buying equity market. (And this is not considering the even larger debt market which Saylor has yet to tap in earnest.)

So for those 90-95 percent who do not and are not presently planning to own bitcoin itself, is buying MSTR a fool’s errand, so to speak? Not remotely. If MSTR shares are infinitely printable ATM, they are still less so than the dollar and other fiat currencies. And MSTR shares are backed 2:1 by bitcoin itself, while the fiat currencies are backed by absolutely nothing. So if you hold dollars or euros, trading them for MSTR shares is an errand more sage than foolish.

That’s why this trade (buying BTC and shorting MSTR) is so dangerous. Not only are there many people who won’t buy BTC buying MSTR, there are many funds and other investment entities who are only able to buy MSTR.

Do you want to get BTC at 1:1 with the 5-10 percent or MSTR backed 2:1 with the 90-95 percent. This is a bit like medical tests that have a 95 percent accuracy rate for an asymptomatic disease that only one percent of the population has. If someone tests positive, it’s more likely to be a false one than an indication he has the disease*. The accuracy rate, even at 19:1, is subservient to the size of the respective populations.

At some point this will no longer be the case, but so long as the understanding of bitcoin is not widespread, so long as the dollar is still the unit of account, the “greater fools” buying MSTR are still miles ahead of the greatest fools buying neither, and the stock price and mNAV should only increase.

. . .

One other thought: it’s more work to play defense than offense because the person on offense knows where he’s going, and the defender can only react to him once he moves. Similarly, Saylor by virtue of being the issuer of the shares knows when more will come online while Chanos and other short sellers are borrowing them to sell in reaction to Saylor’s strategy. At any given moment, Saylor can pause anytime, choosing to issue convertible debt or preferred shares with which to buy more bitcoin, and the shorts will not be given advance notice.

If the price runs, and there is no ATM that week because Saylor has stopped on a dime, so to speak, the shorts will be left having to scramble to change directions and buy the shares back to cover. Their momentum might be in the wrong direction, though, and like Allen Iverson breaking ankles with a crossover, Saylor might trigger a massive short squeeze, rocketing the share price ever higher. That’s why he actually welcomes Chanos et al trying this copycat strategy — it becomes the fuel for outsized gains.

For that reason, news that Chanos is shorting MSTR has not shaken my conviction, though there are other more pertinent https://www.chrisliss.com/p/mstr-part-2 with MSTR, of which one should be aware. And as always, do your own due diligence before investing in anything.

* To understand this, consider a population of 100,000, with one percent having a disease. That means 1,000 have it, 99,000 do not. If the test is 95 percent accurate, and everyone is tested, 950 of the 1,000 will test positive (true positives), 50 who have it will test negative (false negatives.) Of the positives, 95 percent of 99,000 (94,050) will test negative (true negatives) and five percent (4,950) will test positive (false positives). That means 4,950 out of 5,900 positives (84%) will be false.

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Deliberate (?) trade-offs we make for the sake of output speed.

... By sacrificing depth in my learning, I can produce substantially more work. I’m unsure if I’m at the correct balance between output quantity and depth of learning. This uncertainty is mainly fueled by a sense of urgency due to rapidly improving AI models. I don’t have time to learn everything deeply. I love learning, but given current trends, I want to maximize immediate output. I’m sacrificing some learning in classes for more time doing outside work. From a teacher’s perspective, this is obviously bad, but from my subjective standpoint, it’s unclear.

Finding the balance between learning and productivity. By trade, one cannot be productive in specific areas without first acquire the knowledge to define the processes needed to deliver. Designing the process often come on a try and fail dynamic that force us to learn from previous mistakes.

I found this little journal story fun but also little sad. Vincent's realization, one of us trading his learnings to be more productive, asking what is productivity without quality assurance?

Inevitably, parts of my brain will degenerate and fade away, so I need to consciously decide what I want to preserve or my entire brain will be gone. What skills am I NOT okay with offloading? What do I want to do myself?

Read Vincent's journal https://vvvincent.me/llms-are-making-me-dumber/

https://stacker.news/items/984361

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Digital Psychology ↗

Wall of impact website showcase a collection of success metrics and micro case studies to create a clear, impactful visual of your brand's achievements. It also displays a Wall of love with an abundance of testimonials in one place, letting the sheer volume highlight your brand's popularity and customer satisfaction.

And like these, many others collections like Testimonial mashup that combine multiple testimonials into a fast-paced, engaging reel that highlights key moments of impact in an attention-grabbing format.

Awards and certifications of websites highlighting third-party ratings and verification to signal trust and quality through industry-recognized achievements and standards.

View them all at https://socialproofexamples.com/

https://stacker.news/items/984357

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) are not rushing to stack sats, and Oliver Porter, Founder & CEO of Jippi, understands the challenge better than most. His strategy revolves around adapting Bitcoin education to fit seamlessly into the digital lives of young adults.

“We need to meet them where they are,” Oliver explains. “90% of Gen Z plays games. 70% expect to earn rewards.”

So, what will effectively introduce them to Bitcoin? In Oliver’s mind, the answer is simple: games that don’t feel preachy but still plant the orange pill.

Learn more at Jippi.app

That’s exactly what Jippi is. Based in Austin, Texas, the team has created a mobile augmented reality (AR) game that rewards players in bitcoin and sneakily teaches them why sound money matters.

“It’s Pokémon GO… but for sats,” Oliver puts it succinctly.

Jippi is like Pokemon Go, but for sats

Oliver’s Bitcoin journey, like many in the space, began long before he was ready. A former colleague had tried planting the seed years earlier, handing him a copy of The Bitcoin Standard. But the moment passed.

It wasn’t until the chaos of 2020 when lockdowns hit, printing presses roared, and civil liberties shrank that the message finally landed for him.

“The government got so good at doing reverse Robin Hood,” Oliver explains. “They steal from the working population and reward the rich.”

By 2020, though, the absurdity of the covid hysteria had caused his eyes to be opened and the orange light seemed the best path back to freedom.

He left the UK for Austin “one of the best places for Bitcoiners,” he says, and dove headfirst into the industry, working at Swan for a year before founding Jippi on PlebLab’s accelerator program.

Jippi’s flagship game lets players roam their cities hunting digital creatures, Bitcoin Beasts, tied to real-world locations. Catching them requires answering Bitcoin trivia, and the reward is sats.

No jargon. No hour-long lectures. Just gameplay with sound money principles woven right in.

The model is working. At a recent hackathon in Austin, Jippi beat out 14 other teams to win first place and $15,000 in prize money.

Oliver of Jippi won Top Builder Season 2 — PlebLab on X

“We’re backdooring Bitcoin education,” Oliver admits. “And while we’re at it, encouraging people to get outside and touch grass.”

Not everyone’s been thrilled. When Jippi team members visited one of the more liberal-leaning places in Texas, UT Austin, to test interest in Bitcoin, they found some seriously committed no-coiners on the campus.

“One young woman told me, ‘I would rather die than talk about Bitcoin,'” Oliver recalls, highlighting the cultural resistance that’s built up among younger demographics.

This resistance is backed by hard data. According to Oliver, some of the Bitcoin podcasters they met with in the space to do market research reported that less than 1% of their listeners are from Gen Z and that number is dropping.

“Unless we find a way to capture their interest in a meaningful way, there’s going to be a big problem around trying to sway Gen Z away from the siren call of s***coins and crypto casinos and towards Bitcoin,” Oliver warns.

Jippi’s next big move is Las Vegas, where they’ll launch the Beast Catch experience at the Venetian during a major Bitcoin event. To mark the occasion, they’re opening up six limited sponsorship spots for Bitcoin companies, each one tied to a custom in-game beast.

Jippi looks to launch a special event at Bitcoin 2025

“It’s real estate inside the game,” Oliver explains. “Brands become allies, not intrusions. You get a logo, company name, and call to action, so we can push people to your site or app.”

Bitcoin Well—an automatic self-custody Bitcoin platform—has claimed Beast #1. Only five exclusive spots remain for Bitcoin companies to “beastify their brand” through Jippi’s immersive AR game.

“I love the Jippi mission. I think gamified learning is how we will onboard the next generation and it’s exciting to see what the Jippi team is doing! I love working with bitcoiners towards our common mission – bullish!” said Adam O’Brien, Bitcoin Well CEO.

Jippi’s sponsorship model is simple: align incentives, respect users, and support builders. Instead of throwing ad money at tech giants, Bitcoin companies can connect with new users naturally while they’re having fun and earning sats in the process.

For Bitcoin companies looking to reach a younger demographic, this represents a unique opportunity to showcase their brand to up to 30,000 potential customers at the Vegas event.

Jippi Bitcoin Beast partnership

While Jippi’s current focus is simple, get the game into more cities, Oliver sees a future where AR glasses and AI help personalize Bitcoin education even further.

“The magic is going to really happen when Apple releases the glasses form factor,” he says, describing how augmented reality could enhance real-world connections rather than isolate users.

In the longer term, Jippi aims to evolve from a free-to-play model toward a pay-to-play version with higher stakes. Users would form “tribes” with friends to compete for substantial bitcoin prizes, creating social connections along with financial education.

Unlike VC-backed startups, Jippi is raising funds pleb style via Timestamp, an open investment platform for Bitcoin companies.

“You don’t have to be an accredited investor,” Oliver explains. “You’re directly supporting the parallel Bitcoin economy by investing in Bitcoin companies for equity.”

Anyone can invest as little as $100. Perks include early access, exclusive game content, and even creating your own beast design with your name/pseudonym and unique game lore. Each investment comes with direct ownership of an early-stage Bitcoin company like Jippi.

For Oliver, this is more than just a business. It’s about future-proofing Bitcoin adoption and ensuring Satoshi’s vision lives on, especially as many people are lured by altcoins, NFTs, and social media dopamine.

“We’re on the right side of history,” he says firmly. “I want my grandkids to know that early on in the Bitcoin revolution, games like Jippi helped make it stick.”

In a world increasingly absorbed by screens and short attention spans, Jippi’s combination of outdoor play, sats rewards, and Bitcoin education might be exactly the bridge Gen Z needs.

Interested in sponsoring a Beast or investing in Jippi? Reach out to Jippi directly by heading to their partnerships page on their website or visit their Timestamp page to invest in Jippi today.

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Tokyo-listed investment firm Metaplanet has officially surpassed El Salvador in bitcoin holdings after its biggest-ever single purchase of the scarce digital asset.

On May 12, 2025, the company announced it had bought 1,241 Bitcoin (BTC) for approximately $123.8 million, or ¥18.4 billion. The average price per coin was about $102,111, marking the firm’s largest purchase to date.

This latest buy brings Metaplanet’s total bitcoin reserves to 6,796 BTC, worth over $700 million.

Metaplanet on X

That puts Metaplanet ahead of El Salvador, the Central American nation that made headlines in 2021 for adopting bitcoin as legal tender. According to its National Bitcoin Office, El Salvador currently holds 6,174 BTC, worth roughly $642 million.

El Salvador bitcoin holdings — bitcoin.gob.sv

“Metaplanet now holds more bitcoin than El Salvador. From humble beginnings to rivaling nation-states, we’re just getting started,” said CEO Simon Gerovich on X after the company’s announcement.

The Japanese investment company started its bitcoin treasury strategy in April 2024 and has become the largest corporate holder of bitcoin in Asia and 11th globally. It aims to hold 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025.

Metaplanet is now the 11th largest corporate holder of bitcoin — BitcoinTreasuries

To fund these purchases, the firm has turned to bond issuances, including zero-percent bonds. In early May, Metaplanet issued $25 million worth of 0% bonds under its EVO FUND program to finance bitcoin buys without diluting shares or taking on traditional debt.

And Metaplanet’s strategy seems to be working. Its BTC Yield — a proprietary metric that measures bitcoin accumulation per share — is 38% for Q2 2025 so far. In previous quarters, the firm reported 95.6% in Q1 and a whopping 309.8% in Q4 2024.

The stock price has also gone up 1,800% since May 2024 and 51% in 2025 alone, currently trading above 550 JPY.

Metaplanet is often called “Japan’s MicroStrategy”, a reference to the U.S.-based company Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) led by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor. Strategy is the world’s largest corporate bitcoin holder with over 568,840 BTC in its coffers, worth more than $58 billion.

Like Strategy, Metaplanet is using creative financing tools such as convertible bonds and non-dilutive bond issuance to build a big bitcoin treasury. These financial instruments give the company the ability to fund further bitcoin purchases without diluting shareholders’ value.

Metaplanet is buying bitcoin very rapidly. This has become a trend in the corporate world, where private companies are challenging nation-states in the digital asset space.

Unlike governments which face regulatory and political hurdles, corporations like Metaplanet can move quickly and decisively. Since 2020 over 80 publicly traded companies have collectively bought more than 632,000 BTC worth over $65 billion.

This is a fundamental shift in how companies manage their treasuries — moving away from cash or bonds and towards the digital scarcity that bitcoin presents.

This creates a new form of financial power where corporations can hold a significant portion of a finite asset, unlike fiat currencies which governments can print to infinity.

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May 13, 2025 – We are proud to announce that My First Bitcoin has received a $1 million grant from #startsmall. With this financial support from Jack Dorsey’s philanthropic initiative, we will continue to serve grassroots Bitcoin education initiatives worldwide.

This grant accelerates our work in the creation and distribution of free and open-source Bitcoin education materials and infrastructure.

It will not only help us improve existing resources, such as the Bitcoin Diploma, Bitcoin Intro Course, and teacher training workshops, but also to scale our digital platforms like our Online School and Community Hub. 

As a non-profit, founded in 2021, we have grown from a local project into a global movement. Besides creating curricula and frameworks, our team has directly taught tens of thousands of in-person students, as we workshop and refine our materials based on real world feedback.

In 2023, we launched the Independent Bitcoin Educators Node Network, providing a space for others to join us on our mission. The network spans 65+ projects from 35+ countries, including circular economies, meetup organizers and other grassroots projects.

All commit to the same six pillars: that their education is independent, impartial, community-led, Bitcoin-only, quality, and focused on empowerment over profit.

While we support that network, it is now self-governing. We always seek to give power-to, rather than have power-over.

John Dennehy, founder and Executive Director of My First Bitcoin, explains:

“The revolution of Bitcoin education is that it teaches students HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Funding from sources with their own incentives is the greatest vulnerability that threatens that. Education will be captured by whoever funds it.

“We will never take any government money and frequently turn down funding from corporations and companies. The subtle influence of funding has ruined fiat education and we need to create alternative models for the revolution of Bitcoin education to realize its full potential.”

Funding for Bitcoin education must be transparent.

This grant is a huge win for all of us. For Bitcoin itself, but even more for Independent Bitcoin Education as a whole. It enables us to serve the global community better than ever before. It shows everyone what can be achieved if you stay close to your values.

“My First Bitcoin is a proof-of-concept for all independent Bitcoin educators that if you stay on the mission, even when it’s challenging, then you will come out the other side even stronger,” added Dennehy.

Arnold Hubach, Director of Communications of My First Bitcoin, continued:

“Open source money deserves open source education. Over the past few years, we’ve seen growing demand for our resources around the world, and we remain committed to serving everyone in the Bitcoin space who needs support.

“This funding enables us to plan further into the future and continue being the first-stop provider of free educational tools.”

We’re grateful to #startsmall for believing in our mission and for understanding that Bitcoin education should always be free from external influence. We’re also grateful to the community for helping us arrive at this point where we are ready to receive such a grant.

You lead us to where we are today. You have been our primary funding source. You will continue to lead us forward.

We will always serve the community.

We’re also grateful for our amazing team and their proof of work. The grant will accelerate the work that they are already doing, such as curricula development, teacher training programs, the expansion of the global network, building online platforms, and providing in-person classes.

We will continue to lead by example, we will continue to push the limits, and we will continue to reimagine what’s possible.

We do not seek to please power in this world, we seek to create a proof-of-concept for a better one where the individual is empowered and able to think critically.

If you are an educator in need of tools or infrastructure; please contact us.

If you can help us continue to build out these tools and maintain this growing global movement; please contact us.

If you are aligned with our mission and are a supporter of independent Bitcoin education, please donate.

We work for the public. In public.

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American Bitcoin, a bitcoin mining company backed by President Donald Trump’s sons, is going public in a new merger deal with Gryphon Digital Mining. Investors and political observers are taking notice as it presents a mixture of Bitcoin, Wall Street and the Trump brand.

This reverse merger allows for American Bitcoin Corporation to become a publicly traded company. This will happen through a stock-for-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, a small-cap bitcoin miner already listed on the Nasdaq.

Once the deal is done, the new company will be called American Bitcoin and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ABTC. The merger is expected to close in the 3rd quarter of 2025.

Eric Trump, who will be the Co-Founder and the Chief Strategy Officer, said:

“Our vision for American Bitcoin is to create the most investable Bitcoin accumulation platform in the market.”

The Trump family’s involvement has gotten a lot of attention. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. launched American Bitcoin in March this year with digital asset infrastructure company Hut 8, which owns 80% of American Bitcoin.

American Bitcoin leadership team — Hut 8 presentation

After the merger, American Bitcoin shareholders — including the Trump brothers and Hut 8 — will own about 98% of the new company. Gryphon shareholders will own 2% even though Gryphon is the public company facilitating the merger.

Instead of an IPO (Initial Public Offering), American Bitcoin is going public through what’s called a reverse merger. This means it will take over Gryphon’s public listing.

This is often faster and simpler than a traditional IPO. It allows American Bitcoin to access public capital markets while maintaining operational and strategic control.

Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot said the merger is a big step forward for the company. “By taking American Bitcoin public, we expect to unlock direct access to dedicated growth capital independent of Hut 8’s balance sheet,” Genoot said.

The announcement sent Gryphon’s stock soaring. Shares rose over 280% and Hut 8’s stock went up over 11%. Clearly investors are interested in bitcoin-focused public companies when the asset itself is close to its previous all-time high.

But not everyone is buying. Some investors and analysts are questioning what Gryphon is actually bringing to the table. Gryphon won’t have a seat on the board or any representation in the new management team. Their role seems to be just to provide the public listing.

Many questions remain unanswered because there are no details on mining operations and what Gryphon’s role is beyond the merger.

American Bitcoin’s goal goes far beyond just mining bitcoin. It wants to become a national bitcoin reserve builder and a major player in that space by storing large amounts of bitcoin as a strategic asset.

The company plans to take “capital-light” advantage of Hut 8’s existing infrastructure, so there won’t be any need to build massive new data centers. Hut 8 already manages over 1,000 megawatts of energy capacity, and apparently, they will handle all the mining operations.

This is happening at a tough time for the mining industry in the U.S. and globally.

Profit margins are shrinking, and companies are really feeling the pinch of high operational costs. Hut 8 just reported a 58% drop in revenue and a $134 million net loss for the first quarter of 2025.

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Bitcoin-focused investment firm Twenty One Capital has made headlines after buying 4,812 BTC worth $458.7 million, making it the third-largest corporate holder of the scarce digital asset.

The move is a big and public one towards becoming the “ultimate Bitcoin investment vehicle” according to its leadership, and is turning heads in both bitcoin and tradfi world.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, bought the bitcoin on behalf of Twenty One Capital.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 13, Tether acquired the bitcoin on May 9 at an average price of $95,319 per coin.

Twenty One Capital was launched in April 2025 through a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners, a Cayman Islands-based firm affiliated with Wall Street giant Cantor Fitzgerald. The company is backed by Tether, Bitfinex exchange and Japanese investment giant SoftBank.

Related: Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether and SoftBank Launch $3B Bitcoin Venture

The firm is led by Jack Mallers, founder of the bitcoin payments app Strike, who has been vocal about bitcoin business models.

“We want to be the ultimate vehicle for the capital markets to participate in Bitcoin… building on top of Bitcoin,” said Mallers in an interview. “So we are a Bitcoin business at our core.”

At launch, Twenty One Capital had 31,500 bitcoin on the balance sheet with plans to get to at least 42,000 BTC.

The breakdown of that initial allocation was 23,950 BTC from Tether, 10,500 BTC from SoftBank and about 7,000 BTC from Bitfinex—all to be converted into equity at $10 per share.

The company is openly modeling its strategy after what Bitcoiners call “Saylorization”—a term coined after Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, who started large-scale bitcoin accumulation by corporations in 2020.

“Twenty One Capital isn’t just stacking sats,” said Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser, “It’s leading a generational shift in corporate capital allocation … Jack Mallers is taking the Saylor playbook and turning it into an arms race.”

The strategy is simple: use bitcoin per share as a metric instead of earnings per share, prioritize bitcoin accumulation over short-term profits, and use the capital markets to fund purchases. Mallers said:

“We do intend to raise as much capital as we possibly can to acquire bitcoin. We will never have bitcoin per share negative… Our intent is to make sure when you are a shareholder of Twenty One that you are getting wealthier in Bitcoin terms.”

The bitcoin purchase was made at a time of growing market momentum.

On May 14, bitcoin hit $105,000 briefly before settling at around $104,000—a 7.5% gain in the past week. Retail buying has also picked up, with purchases under $10,000 up 3.4% over two weeks, suggesting continued bullishness.

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Singapore, May 14, 2025 — NEUTRON, the leading Lightning Network infrastructure provider in Asia, is announcing a new partnership with Cobo, a globally trusted digital asset custody platform.

Through this collaboration, Cobo will integrate Neutron’s Lightning Network API, enabling real-time, cost-effective Bitcoin transactions across its services.

Neutron’s mission is to make the Lightning Network the financial backbone for modern Bitcoin use, bridging traditional finance with Bitcoin’s borderless, decentralized economy.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Cobo, a trusted leader in custodial services, to further accelerate Bitcoin infrastructure across Asia,” said Albert Buu, CEO of Neutron. 

“At Neutron, we are committed to providing enterprise businesses with easy and efficient integration into the Lightning Network, enabling next-generation global real-time settlement solutions.

“This partnership will not only drive innovation but also empower businesses across Asia with the fast, secure, and cost-effective benefits of Bitcoin payments.”

Neutron: The Lightning Engine for Bitcoin Adoption

Neutron provides a comprehensive API suite that allows businesses to instantly access the power of the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s second-layer protocol designed for high-speed, scalable, and low-fee payments.

The integration is part of Neutron’s broader vision to equip forward-thinking institutions with the tools needed to participate in the next generation of Bitcoin utility.

Lightning-Powered Custody for the Next Era of Finance

Cobo’s integration of Neutron’s API gives institutional clients an additional option for BTC settlement, making Lightning Network access more programmable and easier to integrate within their existing systems.

“At Cobo, we’ve built our custody platform to combine uncompromising security with the scalability institutions need to grow,” said Dr. Changhao Jiang, CTO and Co-Founder of Cobo.

“Integrating Neutron’s Lightning Network API allows us to offer real-time, low-cost Bitcoin settlement at scale without compromising on trust or performance. Together, we’re laying the groundwork for faster, more efficient Bitcoin infrastructure across Asia.”

About Neutron

Neutron is Asia’s leading Bitcoin infrastructure company, helping businesses and individuals unlock the power of the Lightning Network, specializing in Lightning-as-a-Service.

nThrough its scalable API platform, mobile app, and lending product, Neutron empowers businesses and individuals to send, receive, save, and build with Bitcoin.
Want to bring Lightning into your product or platform? Reach out to our team at sales@neutron.me or visit us at www.neutron.me

About Cobo

Cobo is a trusted leader in digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure, providing an all-in-one platform for organizations and developers to easily build, automate, and scale their digital asset businesses securely.

Founded in 2017 by blockchain pioneers and headquartered in Singapore, Cobo is trusted by more than 500 leading digital asset businesses globally, safeguarding billions of dollars in assets.

Today, Cobo offers the industry’s only unified wallet platform that integrates all four digital asset wallet technologies – Custodial Wallets, MPC Wallets, Smart Contract Wallets, and Exchange Wallets.

Committed to the highest security standards and regulatory compliance, Cobo has a zero-incident track record and holds ISO 27001, SOC2 (Type 1 and Type 2) certifications, as well as licenses in multiple jurisdictions.

Recognized for its industry-leading innovations, Cobo has received accolades from prestigious entities such as Hedgeweek and Global Custodian. For more information, please visit www.cobo.com

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Ukraine is reportedly about to make history by becoming the first country in Europe to have a national bitcoin reserve, a move aimed at strengthening its economy during the war with Russia.

The plan is still in its early stages and Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange, is involved.

According to Incrypted, a Ukrainian digital asset news outlet, Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, First Deputy Chairman of the Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Committee, confirmed that the draft law is almost ready and will be submitted to the parliament soon.

“We will soon submit a draft law from the industry allowing the creation of crypto reserves,” Zheleznyak told Incrypted.

Earlier discussions mentioned a broader “crypto reserve” but the current plan is focused on bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. If approved, the law will allow the National Bank of Ukraine to hold bitcoin as part of the country’s official reserves.

Since the war with Russia started, Ukraine has become one of the most bitcoin-friendly countries in the world.

In 2022 and 2023 Ukraine raised over $100 million in digital asset donations for defense and humanitarian purposes. A report from Chainalysis ranked the country among the top 10 countries for bitcoin adoption globally.

A rather vague and unconfirmed report by BitcoinTreasuries.net states that “holdings of public officials” currently stand at 46,351 BTC.

Ukraine bitcoin holdings as reported by BitcoinTreasuries

Supporters of the bitcoin reserve say it will help Ukraine protect its economy from war-related instability, inflation and currency depreciation.

By going digital, the government is looking for modern tools to strengthen its financial system in uncertain times. This is not just about storing bitcoin, it’s about establishing clear laws for digital assets ownership, management and use.

Binance is playing an advisory role in the project. The company has worked with Ukraine on digital asset education and regulations in the past and is now helping to shape the legal framework for the bitcoin reserve.

Kirill Khomyakov, Binance’s regional head for Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa, confirmed the company’s support, but warned it won’t be fast or easy.

“The creation of such a reserve will require significant changes in legislation,” Khomyakov said. “Another positive aspect is that this initiative will likely lead to greater clarity in the regulation of crypto assets in Ukraine.”

Despite the support from some officials, there are legal hurdles. Ukrainian laws don’t allow bitcoin to be in the official reserves. So the government needs to pass new laws for it to happen.

Efforts to legalize bitcoin in general have been going on for years. In 2021, a draft law on virtual assets was approved by Finance Committee but was withdrawn after the President’s Office and financial regulators objected.

Up to now, over 80 amendments have been proposed, showing how complicated the process is.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation is leading a larger reform that could introduce rules for digital asset exchanges, tax laws and anti-money laundering standards in the country.

Ukraine isn’t alone in considering bitcoin as a national reserve asset. In March 2025, the U.S. announced its own Strategic Bitcoin Reserve using BTC seized in criminal cases.

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KYC database of Coinbase, the largest U.S. digital asset exchange, has been breached and up to 1% of monthly active users, or around 100,000 customers, have had their personal info stolen.

Hackers reportedly bribed overseas customer support agents and contractors to leak internal company info and user data. They then demanded $20 million and threatened to release the stolen data if Coinbase didn’t pay.

Instead of paying the ransom, Coinbase said no and is setting up a $20 million reward fund for anyone who can help catch the hackers.

“They then tried to extort Coinbase for $20 million to cover this up. We said no,” the company said in a blog post. “Instead of paying the $20 million ransom, we’re establishing a $20 million reward fund.”

So what’s been stolen? The breach, which was first disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), did not involve any theft of customer funds, login credentials, private keys or wallets.

But the hackers did get:

• Full names
• Addresses
• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Last 4 digits of Social Security numbers
• Bank account numbers and some bank identifiers
• Government ID images (driver’s licenses, passports, etc.)
• Account balances and transaction history
• Internal corporate documents and training materials

Coinbase says Prime accounts were not affected and no passwords or 2FA codes were stolen.

According to Coinbase, the attackers targeted outsourced support agents in countries like India. They were offering cash bribes in exchange for access to the company’s internal customer support tools.

“What these attackers were doing was finding Coinbase employees and contractors based in India who were associated with our business process outsourcing or support operations, that kind of thing, and bribing them in order to obtain customer data,” said Philip Martin, Coinbase’s Chief Security Officer.

Coinbase said it first saw suspicious activity in January 2025 but didn’t get a direct email from the threat actors until May 11. The email had evidence of stolen data and the ransom demand.

Coinbase quickly launched an investigation, fired all the involved support agents and notified law enforcement. It also started notifying users via email on May 15.

The Coinbase data breach has hit it hard, financially and publicly. The company estimates it will spend $180-$400 million on security upgrades, reimbursements and other remediation.

Coinbase’s stock also took a hit, dropping 6.4% after the news broke, before rebounding.

Analysts say this couldn’t have come at a worse time, as Coinbase is about to be added to the S&P 500 index – a big deal for any publicly traded company.

It’s definitely an unfortunate timing. “This may push the industry to adopt stricter employee vetting and introduce some reputational risks,” said Bo Pei, analyst at U.S. Tiger Securities.

Coinbase will reimburse any customers who were tricked into sending their digital assets to the attackers as part of social engineering scams. They’ve also introduced new security measures:

• Extra ID verification for high-risk withdrawals
• Scam-awareness prompts
• A new U.S.-based support center
• Stronger insider threat monitoring
• Simulation testing for internal systems

Affected customers have already been notified and the exchange is working with U.S. and international law enforcement to track down the attackers.

This is part of a larger trend in the digital assets world. Earlier this year, Bybit, another exchange, was hit with a $1.5 billion theft, dubbed the biggest digital asset heist in history.

Research from Chainalysis shows over $2.2 billion was stolen from digital asset platforms in 2024 alone.

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In our culture today, people like to have “my truth” as opposed to “your truth.” They want to have teachers who tell them what they want to hear and worship in the way they desire. The Bible predicted these times.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3)

My question is, “do we get to choose what we want to believe about God and how we want to worship Him, or does God tell us what we are to believe and how we are to worship Him?”

The Bible makes it clear that He is who He says He is and He expects obedience and worship according to His commands. We do not get to decide for ourselves.

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24) {emphasis mine}

In this passage, Jesus gently corrects the woman for worshipping what she does not know. He also says, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” He states what God is (spirit) and how He must be worshipped “in spirit and truth.” We don’t get to define God however we wish, and we don’t get to worship Him any way we wish. God is who He has revealed Himself to be and we must obey Him and worship Him the way He has commanded.

In this next passage, God makes clear that He is holy and we do not get to worship Him any way we wish. We are to interact with Him in the prescribed manner.

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying,

‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,\ And before all the people I will be honored.’ ”

So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. (Leviticus 10:1-3) {emphasis mine}

God had prescribed a particular way to approach Him and only those whom He had chosen (priests of the lineage of Aaron). Nadab and Abihu chose to “do it their way” and paid the price for ignoring God’s command. God set an example with them.

God has been gracious enough to reveal Himself, His character, His power, and His commands to us. If we have truly submitted ourselves to His rule, we should hunger for God’s words so we can know Him better and honor Him in obedience.

But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. (John 17:13-17) {emphasis mine}

In today’s culture, everybody likes to claim their own personal truth, but that isn’t how truth works. The truth is not determined by an individual for themselves. It isn’t even determined by a consensus or majority vote. The truth is the truth even if not one person on earth believes it. God speaks truth and God is truth. Our belief or lack thereof doesn’t change the truth, but our lack of belief in the truth, especially the truth as revealed by God in His word, can negatively affect our relationship with God.

God expects us to study His word so we can obey His commands.

For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers. (Jeremiah 7:22-26) {emphasis mine}

Today you rarely see someone bowing down to a golden idol, but that doesn’t mean that we are any better at obeying God’s commands or submitting to His will. We still try to make God in our own image so He is a convenience to us and how we want to live our lives. We still put other things ahead of God — family, work, entertainment, fame, etc. Most of us aren’t any more faithful to God than the Israelites were. Just like the Israelites, we put on the trappings of faith but don’t live according to faith and faithfulness.

And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,\ But their heart is far away from Me.\ **But in vain do they worship Me,\ Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’\ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. (Mark 7:6-9) {emphasis mine}

How many “churches” and “Christian” leaders teach people according to the culture instead of according to the Word of God? How many tell people what they want to hear and what makes them feel good instead of what they need to hear — the truth as spoken through the Bible? How many church attenders follow a “Christian” leader more than they follow their Creator, Savior, and God? How many church attenders can recite the words of their leaders better than the Holy Scriptures?

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5) {emphasis mine}

How can we know if a church leader is rightly preaching God’s word? We can only know if we have read the Bible and studied it. We should be like the Bereans:

Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

Honestly, I don’t trust any spiritual leader who doesn’t encourage me to search the Scriptures to see whether their words are true. Any leader who puts their own word above the Scriptures is a false teacher. Sadly there are many, maybe more than faithful teachers. Some false teachers are intentionally so, but many have been misled by other false teachers. Their guilt is less, but they don’t do any less harm than those who intentionally mislead.

We need to seek trustworthy teachers who speak according to the Word of God, who quote the Bible to support their opinions, and who seek the good of their followers rather than the submission of their followers.

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,\ As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

“When your fathers tested Me,\ They tried Me, though they had seen My work.\ For forty years I loathed that generation,\ And said they are a people who err in their heart,\ And they do not know My ways.\ Therefore I swore in My anger,\ Truly they shall not enter into My rest.” (Psalm 95:8-11) {emphasis mine} *Teach me good discernment and knowledge,\ For I believe in Your commandments*.\ Before I was afflicted I went astray,\ But now I keep Your word.\ You are good and do good;\ Teach me Your statutes.\ The arrogant have forged a lie against me;\ *With all my heart I will observe Your precepts*.\ Their heart is covered with fat,\ But I delight in Your law.\ It is good for me that I was afflicted,\ That I may learn Your statutes.\ The law of Your mouth is better to me\ Than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (Psalm 119:66-72) {emphasis mine}

May our Creator God teach us the truth. May He fill our hearts with the desire to be in His word daily and to seek His will. May He do what is necessary to get our attention and turn our hearts and minds fully to Him, so we can learn His statutes and serve Him faithfully, so one day we are blessed to hear, “Well done! Good and faithful servant.”

Trust Jesus.

FYI, I see lack of knowledge of truth and God’s word as one of the biggest problems in the church today; however, it is possible to know the Bible in depth, but not know God. As important as knowledge of Scriptures is, this knowledge (without faith, submission, obedience, and love) is meaningless. Knowledge doesn’t get us to heaven. Even obedience doesn’t get us to heaven. Only faith and submission to our creator God leads to salvation and heaven. That being said, we can’t faithfully serve our God without knowledge of Him and His commands. Out of gratefulness for who He is and what He has done for us, we should seek to know and please Him.

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Donald Trump’s recent four-day visit took the President to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. This visit has intertwined diplomatic relations with business interests, while simultaneously influencing the bitcoin market.

In Qatar, the President met with Emir Tanim bin Hamad Al Thani, resulting in over $243 billion in deals including major defense agreements, according to Bloomberg.

On May 15, the President made his visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi alongside Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan. This occurs as the Trump family expands its business presence in the Middle East.

The Trump Organization is developing luxury properties across the region, including Trump Tower Dubai, real estate projects in Riyadh, and development in Jeddah and Oman.

Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman in King Khalid International Airport — NBCNews

Eric Trump publicly announced construction plans for Trump Tower Dubai just last month, highlighting the family’s ongoing commercial footprint in the region.

These business connections extend into the digital asset ecosystem as UAE-backed investment firm MGX recently announced it would use USD1, World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin to support a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange, according to APNews.

This connection between Trump-aligned interests and major digital asset investments creates a potential avenue for market influence. 

Historically, stability in the Middle East, especially among oil-rich nations, reduces global market volatility. This encourages risk appetite among investors, often leading to increased allocations to digital assets like bitcoin.

Middle East diplomacy directly affects global oil prices. Stable oil prices can lower inflation expectations and lead to interest rate cuts by the Fed. Lower rates lead to an increase in liquidity, having positive effects on bitcoin, an asset that benefits from money printing.

Related: Fed Rate Cuts Could Lead to Major Price Swings for Bitcoin

On the investment front, Abu Dhabi’s Wealth Fund, Mubadala Investment Company, has been focused on increasing their shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

According to a 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mubdala held 8.7 million IBIT shares, totaling $408.5 million as of March 31, 2025. 

The Abu Dhabi Wealth Fund increased its shares by 500,000 since its last filing in December of 2024.

Back in March, the United States created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The executive order states that the U.S. will not sell the bitcoin they already hold, and will create budget-neutral ways to increase their holdings.

The time has come where governments and wealth funds alike are jumping on board the Bitcoin train.

Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East illustrates how financial, diplomatic, and personal interests are becoming increasingly intertwined with Bitcoin and digital assets, serving as a new axis of influence in the U.S.-Middle East relations.

The combination of diplomatic progress and business expansion has heightened short-term volatility and trading volumes in the bitcoin market.

Trump’s business and digital asset ties in the region may further boost institutional interest and create an opportunity for more players to enter the market.

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Bahrain-based Al Abraaj Restaurants Group has made history by becoming the first publicly-traded company in the Middle East to add bitcoin to its corporate treasury. This is a major step forward for regional bitcoin adoption.

On May 15, 2025, Al Abraaj Restaurants Group, a well-known restaurant chain listed on the Bahrain Bourse, announced it had bought 5 bitcoin (BTC) as part of a new treasury strategy. This makes the company the first in Bahrain, the GCC and the Middle East to officially hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.

Al Abraaj adds bitcoin to its treasury — Zawya

This is a growing trend globally where companies are treating bitcoin not just as an investment but as a long-term store of value. Major companies like Strategy, Tesla and Metaplanet have already done this — and now Al Abraaj is following suit.

Metaplanet recently added 1,241 BTC to its treasury, boosting the company’s holdings above El Salvador’s.

Related: Metaplanet Overtakes El Salvador in Bitcoin Holdings After $126M Purchase

“Our initiative towards becoming a Bitcoin Treasury Company reflects our forward-thinking approach and dedication to maximizing shareholder value,” said Abdulla Isa, Chairman of the Bitcoin Treasury Committee at Al Abraaj.

Al Abraaj’s move is largely inspired by Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin. Saylor’s strategy of allocating billions to bitcoin has set a model that other companies — now including Al Abraaj — are following.

A photo shared by the company even showed a meeting between an Al Abraaj representative and Saylor, with the company calling itself the “MicroStrategy of the Middle East”.

“We believe that Bitcoin will play a pivotal role in the future of finance, and we are excited to be at the forefront of this transformation in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” Isa added.

To support its bitcoin initiative, Al Abraaj has partnered with 10X Capital, a New York-based investment firm that specializes in digital assets.

10X Capital has a strong track record in bitcoin treasury strategies, and recently advised Nakamoto Holdings on a $710 million deal — the largest of its kind.

With 10X’s help, Al Abraaj looks to raise more capital and increase its bitcoin holdings over time to maximize bitcoin-per-share for its investors. The company will also develop Sharia-compliant financial instruments so Islamic investors can get exposure to bitcoin in a halal way.

“Bahrain continues to be a leader in the Middle East in Bitcoin adoption,” said Hans Thomas, CEO of 10X Capital. He noted, with a combined GDP of $2.2 trillion and over $6 trillion in sovereign wealth, the GCC now has its first publicly listed bitcoin treasury company.

This is not just a first for Al Abraaj — it’s a first for the region. Bahrain has been positioning itself as a fintech hub and Al Abraaj’s move will encourage more non-fintech companies in the region to look into bitcoin.

The company said the decision was made after thorough due diligence and is in line with the regulations set by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). Al Abraaj will be fully compliant with all digital asset transaction rules, including transparency, security and governance.

A special Bitcoin Committee has been formed to oversee the treasury strategy. It includes experienced bitcoin investors, financial experts and portfolio managers who will manage risk, monitor market conditions and ensure best practices in custody and disclosure.

The initial purchase was 5 BTC, but Al Abraaj sees this as just the beginning. The company stated that there are plans in motion to allocate a significant portion of their treasury into bitcoin over time.

According to the company’s reports, Al Abraaj is financially sound with $12.5 million in EBITDA in 2024. This strong financial foundation gives the company the confidence to explore new strategies like bitcoin investment.

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Steak ‘n Shake recently made headlines by officially accepting bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network across all its U.S. locations. The integration of Bitcoin payments at over 500 locations is a monumental moment for both the fast food industry and the broader retail sector.

This is not just something that Steak ‘n Shake is testing in a handful of locations, they are doing a full-scale rollout, fully embracing Bitcoin. 

With more than 100 million customers a year, Steak ‘n Shake’s integration of Lightning—Bitcoin’s fast, low-fee payment layer—makes it easier than ever to use Bitcoin in day-to-day life. Buying a burger and a shake with sats? That’s now a real option.

The process is straightforward. Customers simply scan a Lightning QR code at the register, completing their payment in seconds, while Steak ‘n Shake receives instant USD conversion, ensuring price stability and ease of use.

So what does this mean for Bitcoin and E-commerce?

For starters, Steak ‘n Shake becomes the first of eventually many to fully embrace a digital world. As Bitcoin continues to grow, consumers will continue to realize the benefits of saving in a currency that is truly scarce and decentralized.

This is a huge step forward for Bitcoin as it shows it is not just for holding, it’s for spending, too. And by using the Lightning Network, Steak n’ Shake is helping prove that Bitcoin can scale for everyday transactions. 

This now creates a seamless checkout experience, making bitcoin a viable alternative to credit cards and cash.

More importantly, it signals a significant shift in mainstream attitudes towards Bitcoin. As a well-known brand across America, this move serves as a powerful endorsement, likely to influence other chains and retailers to consider similar integrations.

Related: Spar Supermarket in Switzerland Now Accepts Bitcoin Via Lightning

What can this mean for your business? 

Accepting bitcoin as payment can open the door to a new demographic of tech-savvy, financially engaged consumers who prefer digital assets.

As we know, companies that adopt Bitcoin receive a fascinating amount of love from the Bitcoin community and I would assume Steak n’ Shake will be receiving the same amount of attention.

From a business perspective, accepting bitcoin has become more than just a payment method—it’s a marketing tool. It sets your business apart and gets people talking. And in a crowded market, that kind of edge matters.

Steak ‘n Shake’s embrace of Bitcoin is likely to accelerate the adoption of digital assets in both physical retail and e-commerce.

As more businesses witness the operational and marketing benefits, industry experts anticipate a ripple effect that will increase interaction between consumers and digital currencies, further regulatory clarity, and bring continued innovation in payment technology.

Steak ‘n Shake’s nationwide Bitcoin payments rollout is more than a novelty. It’s a pivotal development for digital payments, setting a precedent for other retailers and signaling the growing integration of digital assets into everyday commerce.

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Nostr-PHP

Djuri submitted quite some pull requests in the last couple of week while he was implementing a Nostr connect / login on https://satsback.com. The backend of that platform is written in PHP so the Nostr-PHP library is used for several purposes while Djuri also developed quite some new features utilizing the following NIPs:

• NIP-04
• NIP-05
• NIP-17
• NIP-44

Thank you very much Djuri for these contributions. We now can do the basic private stuff with the library. 

PR for NIP-04 and NIP-44: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/84 and https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/88 
Examples:

• https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/blob/main/src/Examples/nip04-encrypted-messages.php
• https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/blob/main/src/Examples/nip44-gift-wrapping.php

PR for NIP-05: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/89 
Example: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/blob/main/src/Examples/nip05-lookup.php 

PR for NIP-17: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/90 
Example: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/blob/main/src/Examples/nip17-private-direct-messages.php 

PR for adding more metadata profile fields: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/94
Example: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/blob/main/src/Examples/fetch-profile-metadata.php 

Fetch 10050 event (dm relay list) of an given pubkey
Example: https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/blob/main/src/Examples/fetch-dm-relayslist.php 

The CLI tool is removed from the library, see PR https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/93 

Nostr-PHP documentation

While new NIPs are implemented in the Nostr-PHP library, I'm trying to keep up with the documentation at https://nostr-php.dev. For now, things are still much work in progress and I've added the AI agent Goose using the Claude LLM to bootstrap new documentation pages. Currently I'm working on documentation for

• How to direct messages with NIP-04 and NIP-17
• Encrypted payloads for event content NIP-44
• Fetch profiledata of a given pubkey
• Lookup NIP-05 data of given pubkey
• Using the NIP-19 helper class

CCNS.news

I've moved CCNS to a new domain https://ccns.news and have partly implemented the new NIP-B0 for web bookmarks. When you post a bookmark there, a kind 39701 event is transmitted to some Nostr relays (take a look at this event for example). Optionally you can also publish this content as a note to the network.

As you can see at https://ccns.news/l/censorship-resistant-publishing-and-archiving, I've listed some todo's. All this stuff is done with Javascript using the NDK Typescript library (so I'm not using any PHP stuff for this with Nostr-PHP).

Also new: https://ccns.news/global now has a global feed which fetches all the web bookmark events with kind 39701 from several public Nostr relays. I had a rough idea to compare feeds generated with NDK and Nostr-PHP (for both using the same set of relays).

Building a njump clone for this Drupal website

You can now use this URL pattern to fetch Nostr events: https://nostrver.se/e/{event_id|nevent1|note1|addr1} where you can provide a plain Nostr event ID or NIP-19 encoded identifier. 

An example, this URL https://nostrver.se/e/nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqmjxss3dld622uu8q25gywum9qtg4w4cv4064jmg20xsac2aam5nqqsqm2lz4ru6wlydzpulgs8m60ylp4vufwsg55whlqgua6a93vp2y4g3uu9lr fetches the data from one or more relays. This data is then being saved as a (Drupal) node entity (in a database on the server where this website is hosted, which is located in my office fyi). With this saved node, this data is now also available at https://nostrver.se/e/0dabe2a8f9a77c8d1079f440fbd3c9f0d59c4ba08a51d7f811ceeba58b02a255/1 where the (cached) data is server from the database instead. It's just raw data for now, nothing special about it. One of my next steps is to style this in a more prettier interface and I will need to switch the theme of this website to a custom theme. A custom theme where I will be using TailwindCSS v4 and DaisyUI v5. 

The module which is providing these Nostr features is FOSS and uses the Nostr-PHP library for doing the following:

• Request the event from one or more relays
• Decode the provided NIP-19 identifier

For now this module is way for me to utilize the Nostr-PHP library with Drupal for fetching events. This can be automated so in theory I could index all the Nostr events. But this is not my ambition as it would require quite some hardware resources to accomplish this. 
I hope I can find the time to build up a new theme first for this website, so I can start styling the data for the fetched events. On this website, there is also a small piece (powered by another module) you can find at https://nostrver.se/nostrides doing things with this NIP-113 around activity events (in my case that's cycling what interests me).

What's next

I'm already working on the following stuff:

• Implement a class to setup a persistent connection to a relay for requesting events continuously
• Extend the documentation with the recent added features

Other todo stuff:

• Review NIP-13 proof-of-work PR from Djuri
• Implement a NIP-65 lookup for fetching read and write relays for a given npub issue #91
• Build a proof-of-concept with revolt/event-loop to request events asynchronous with persistent relay connections
• Add comments to https://ccns.news

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Panama City may be the next Latin American city to adopt bitcoin, after El Salvador.

Panama City Mayor Mayer Mizrachi has got the bitcoin world excited after hinting that the city might have a bitcoin reserve. The speculation started on May 16 when Mizrachi posted a simple but powerful message on X:

Two words. That’s it. What makes it special is that it came after a high-profile meeting with Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, two key figures behind El Salvador’s bitcoin strategy.

Keiser is an advisor to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and Herbert leads the country’s Bitcoin Office.

El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender back in 2021. Since then, it has been building a national bitcoin reserve, currently holding 6,179 BTC worth around $640 million. It’s also using geothermal energy to power bitcoin mining in an eco-friendly way.

El Salvador’s bitcoin treasury — Bitcoin.gob.sv

Mizrachi’s meeting with Keiser and Herbert was about how Panama could do the same. While the details of the conversation are private, Keiser shared on social media that the two countries will play a big role in the future of Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin is transforming Central America,” Keiser wrote. “El Salvador’s geothermal & Panama’s hydro-electric will power the Bitcoin revolution.”

Max Keiser on X

Panama with its hydroelectric power could be a hub for green bitcoin mining.

Mizrachi has not announced a bitcoin reserve plan nor submitted a proposal to the National Assembly. But his post and public appearances suggest it’s being considered.

He will be speaking at the upcoming Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas just days after his social media post. Many expect he will share more about Panama City’s bitcoin plans during his talk.

If Mizrachi pushes for a bitcoin reserve, he will need to work with national lawmakers to pass new legislation. So far, there is no evidence of that.

Even without a bitcoin reserve, Panama City is already going big on digital assets.

In April 2025, the city council approved a measure to allow residents to pay taxes, fees, fines and permits with digital currencies. Supported tokens are bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT).

To comply with financial laws, the city has partnered with a bank that instantly converts these digital assets into U.S. dollars. According to Mizrachi, this way it’s easier for residents to use digital assets and the city’s financial operations will be transparent and legal.

Another part of the meeting with El Salvador’s advisors was education.

Stacy Herbert confirmed that Panama City will be integrating El Salvador’s financial literacy book, “What is Money?” into their digital library system. The goal is to help students, teachers and the general public understand bitcoin and digital currencies in modern finance.

This is a trend in Latin America where countries are looking for alternatives to traditional banking systems. Inflation, economic instability and the rise of decentralized finance are forcing governments to look into new financial tools.

@ 3f770d65:7a745b24

I’m Derek Ross, and I’m all-in on Nostr.

I started the Grow Nostr Initiative to help more people discover what makes Nostr so powerful: ✅ You own your identity ✅ You choose your social graph and algorithms ✅ You aren't locked into any single app or platform ✅ You can post, stream, chat, and build, all without gatekeepers

What we’re doing with Grow Nostr Initiative: 🌱 Hosting local meetups and mini-conferences to onboard people face-to-face 📚 Creating educational materials and guides to demystify how Nostr works 🧩 Helping businesses and creators understand how they can plug into Nostr (running media servers, relays, and using key management tools)

I believe Nostr is the foundation of a more open internet. It’s still early, but we’re already seeing incredible apps for social, blogging, podcasting, livestreaming, and more. And the best part is that they're all interoperable, censorship-resistant, and built on open standards. Nostr is the world's largest bitcoin economy by transaction volume and I truly believe that the purple pill helps the orange pill go down. Meaning, growing Nostr will also grow Bitcoin adoption.

If you’ve been curious about Nostr or are building something on it, or let’s talk. Whether you're just getting started or you're already deep in the ecosystem, I'm here to answer questions, share what I’ve learned, and hear your ideas. Check out https://nostrapps.com to find your next social decentralized experience.

Ask Me Anything about GNI, Nostr, Bitcoin, the upcoming #NosVegas event at the Bitcoin Conference next week, etc.!

– Derek Ross 🌐 https://grownostr.org npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424

https://stacker.news/items/984689

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This piece is the first in a series that will focus on things I think are a priority if your focus is similar to mine: building a strong family and safeguarding their future.

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Choosing the ideal place to raise a family is one of the most significant decisions you will ever make. For simplicity sake I will break down my thought process into key factors: strong property rights, the ability to grow your own food, access to fresh water, the freedom to own and train with guns, and a dependable community.

A Jurisdiction with Strong Property Rights

Strong property rights are essential and allow you to build on a solid foundation that is less likely to break underneath you. Regions with a history of limited government and clear legal protections for landowners are ideal. Personally I think the US is the single best option globally, but within the US there is a wide difference between which state you choose. Choose carefully and thoughtfully, think long term. Obviously if you are not American this is not a realistic option for you, there are other solid options available especially if your family has mobility. I understand many do not have this capability to easily move, consider that your first priority, making movement and jurisdiction choice possible in the first place.

Abundant Access to Fresh Water

Water is life. I cannot overstate the importance of living somewhere with reliable, clean, and abundant freshwater. Some regions face water scarcity or heavy regulations on usage, so prioritizing a place where water is plentiful and your rights to it are protected is critical. Ideally you should have well access so you are not tied to municipal water supplies. In times of crisis or chaos well water cannot be easily shutoff or disrupted. If you live in an area that is drought prone, you are one drought away from societal chaos. Not enough people appreciate this simple fact.

Grow Your Own Food

A location with fertile soil, a favorable climate, and enough space for a small homestead or at the very least a garden is key. In stable times, a small homestead provides good food and important education for your family. In times of chaos your family being able to grow and raise healthy food provides a level of self sufficiency that many others will lack. Look for areas with minimal restrictions, good weather, and a culture that supports local farming.

Guns

The ability to defend your family is fundamental. A location where you can legally and easily own guns is a must. Look for places with a strong gun culture and a political history of protecting those rights. Owning one or two guns is not enough and without proper training they will be a liability rather than a benefit. Get comfortable and proficient. Never stop improving your skills. If the time comes that you must use a gun to defend your family, the skills must be instinct. Practice. Practice. Practice.

A Strong Community You Can Depend On

No one thrives alone. A ride or die community that rallies together in tough times is invaluable. Seek out a place where people know their neighbors, share similar values, and are quick to lend a hand. Lead by example and become a good neighbor, people will naturally respond in kind. Small towns are ideal, if possible, but living outside of a major city can be a solid balance in terms of work opportunities and family security.

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Let me know if you found this helpful. My plan is to break down how I think about these five key subjects in future posts.

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Ed Suman, a 67-year-old retired artist who helped create large sculptures like Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog, reportedly lost his entire life savings — over $2M in digital assets — in a sophisticated scam.

The incident is believed to be tied to the major data breach at Coinbase, one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges.

Suman’s story is part of a bigger wave of attacks on digital asset holders using stolen personal info, and has triggered lawsuits, regulatory concerns and questions about digital security in the Bitcoin space.

In March 2025, Suman got a text message about suspicious activity on his Coinbase account. After Suman reported he was unaware of any unauthorized activity regarding his account, he got a call from a man who introduced himself as Brett Miller from Coinbase Security.

The guy sounded legit — he knew Suman’s setup, including that he used a Trezor Model One hardware wallet, a device meant to keep bitcoin and other digital assets offline and safe.

Suman told Bloomberg the guy knew everything, including the exact amount of digital assets he had.

The attacker persuaded Suman that his Trezor One hardware wallet and its funds were at risk and walked him through a “security procedure” that involved entering his seed phrase into a website that looked exactly like Coinbase, in order to “link his wallet to Coinbase”.

Nine days later, another guy called and repeated the process, saying the first one didn’t work.

And then, all of Suman’s digital assets — 17.5 bitcoin and 225 ether — were gone. At the time, bitcoin was around $103,000 and ether around $2,500, so the stolen stash was worth over $2 million.

Suman turned to digital assets after retiring from a decades-long art career. He stored his assets in cold storage to avoid the risks of online exchanges. He thought he did everything right.

Suman’s attackers didn’t pick his name out of a hat.

It looks like his personal info may have been leaked in the major breach at Coinbase. The company confirmed on May 15 that some of its customer service reps in India were bribed to access internal systems and steal customer data.

The stolen data included names, phone numbers, email addresses, balances and partial Social Security numbers.

According to Coinbase’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the breach may have started as early as January and affected nearly 1% of the company’s active monthly users — tens of thousands of people.

Hackers demanded $20M from Coinbase to keep the breach quiet but the company refused to pay. Coinbase says it fired the compromised agents and is setting aside $180M to $400M to reimburse affected users.

But so far, Suman hasn’t been told if he’ll be reimbursed.

Since the breach was disclosed, Coinbase has been hit with at least six lawsuits.

The lawsuits claim the company failed to protect user data and handled the aftermath poorly. One lawsuit filed in New York federal court on May 16 says Coinbase’s response was “inadequate, fragmented, and delayed.”

“Users were not promptly or fully informed of the compromise,” the complaint states, “and Coinbase did not immediately take meaningful steps to mitigate further harm.”

Some lawsuits are seeking damages, others are asking Coinbase to purge user data and improve its security. Coinbase has not commented on the lawsuits but pointed reporters to a blog post about its response.

Suman’s case is a cautionary tale across the Bitcoin world. He used a hardware wallet (considered the gold standard of Bitcoin security) and was still tricked through social engineering. Even the strongest security is useless if you don’t understand how Bitcoin works.

It’s never too early for Bitcoiners to start learning more about Bitcoin, especially on how to keep their stash safe. And the first lesson is “never ever share your seed phrase with anyone”.

Related: Bitcoin Hardware Wallet Hacks: What You Need to Know

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the U.S., is now allowing its clients to buy bitcoin — a big change of heart for an institution whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, has been a long-time critic of the scarce digital asset.

Dimon made the announcement on the bank’s investor day, which came as a shift in JPMorgan’s approach to digital assets. “We are going to allow you to buy it,” he said. “We’re not going to custody it. We’re going to put it in statements for clients.”

That means clients can buy BTC through JPMorgan but the bank won’t hold or store the digital asset. Instead it will provide access and include the BTC purchases in client statements.

According to multiple reports and posts, JPMorgan has been blocking transactions from digital asset exchanges, with several people complaining about their experience on social media.

Source

Source

There is even an official notice on the company’s UK website that explicitly says customers cannot use their funds to purchase digital assets.

JPMorgan Chase UK website — Source

It’s a big change because Dimon has been one of Bitcoin’s biggest critics. Over the years he’s called it “worthless”, a “fraud” and even compared it to a “pet rock”.

He’s repeatedly expressed concern over digital assets’ use in illegal activities such as money laundering, terrorism, sex trafficking and tax evasion. A role that his critics say the U.S. dollar is playing on a much larger scale.

Related: Jamie Dimon Would “Close Down” Bitcoin If He Had Government Role

“The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers … money laundering, tax avoidance,” he told lawmakers during a Senate hearing in 2023. At the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, he doubled down, “Bitcoin does nothing. I call it the pet rock.”

Despite his personal views, Dimon says the bank is responding to client demand. “I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke,” he said. “I defend your right to buy bitcoin.”

It’s worth noting JPMorgan isn’t fully embracing digital assets. The bank won’t be offering direct custody services or launching its own exchange.

Instead, it’s offering access to digital asset exchanges. There are even reports that the bank also plans to facilitate access to bitcoin ETFs and possibly other investment vehicles. Until recently, JPMorgan had limited its bitcoin exposure to futures-based products.

Other big financial firms have already taken similar steps.

Morgan Stanley, for example, has been offering some clients access to bitcoin ETFs since August 2024. Its CEO, Ted Pick, said earlier this year that the firm is working closely with regulators to explore ways to get into the digital assets space.

Dimon does like blockchain, though — the technology that underpins it. JPMorgan has its own blockchain projects including JPM Coin and recently ran a test transaction on a public blockchain of tokenized U.S. Treasuries.

Many criticize this view, saying that the most powerful aspect of Bitcoin is its decentralization. So, a centralized blockchain is just useless. This might be the reason Dimon has grown weary of all JPMorgan’s blockchain initiatives, because they offered nothing of value.

He said he might have given blockchain too much credit during his investor day comments: “We have been talking about blockchain for 12 to 15 years,” he said. “We spend too much on it. It doesn’t matter as much as you all think.”

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

There is something quietly rebellious about stacking sats. In a world obsessed with instant gratification, choosing to patiently accumulate Bitcoin, one sat at a time, feels like a middle finger to the hype machine. But to do it right, you have got to stay humble. Stack too hard with your head in the clouds, and you will trip over your own ego before the next halving even hits.

Small Wins

Stacking sats is not glamorous. Discipline. Stacking every day, week, or month, no matter the price, and letting time do the heavy lifting. Humility lives in that consistency. You are not trying to outsmart the market or prove you are the next "crypto" prophet. Just a regular person, betting on a system you believe in, one humble stack at a time. Folks get rekt chasing the highs. They ape into some shitcoin pump, shout about it online, then go silent when they inevitably get rekt. The ones who last? They stack. Just keep showing up. Consistency. Humility in action. Know the game is long, and you are not bigger than it.

Ego is Volatile

Bitcoin’s swings can mess with your head. One day you are up 20%, feeling like a genius and the next down 30%, questioning everything. Ego will have you panic selling at the bottom or over leveraging the top. Staying humble means patience, a true bitcoin zen. Do not try to "beat” Bitcoin. Ride it. Stack what you can afford, live your life, and let compounding work its magic.

Simplicity

There is a beauty in how stacking sats forces you to rethink value. A sat is worth less than a penny today, but every time you grab a few thousand, you plant a seed. It is not about flaunting wealth but rather building it, quietly, without fanfare. That mindset spills over. Cut out the noise: the overpriced coffee, fancy watches, the status games that drain your wallet. Humility is good for your soul and your stack. I have a buddy who has been stacking since 2015. Never talks about it unless you ask. Lives in a decent place, drives an old truck, and just keeps stacking. He is not chasing clout, he is chasing freedom. That is the vibe: less ego, more sats, all grounded in life.

The Big Picture

Stack those sats. Do it quietly, do it consistently, and do not let the green days puff you up or the red days break you down. Humility is the secret sauce, it keeps you grounded while the world spins wild. In a decade, when you look back and smile, it will not be because you shouted the loudest. It will be because you stayed the course, one sat at a time. \ \ Stay Humble and Stack Sats. 🫡

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, has entered the Bitcoin space with a $1.08 million investment in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF. This is a big deal for both Wall Street and the Bitcoin world.

Blackstone has made its first direct investment in bitcoin through regulated financial products. A May 20, 2025, SEC filing revealed that the firm purchased 23,094 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

BlackStone has bought 23,094 shares of BlackRock’s IBIT — SEC

While $1.08 million is a small drop in the bucket compared to Blackstone’s $1.2 trillion in assets under management, this is a big deal for the private equity giant which has been skeptical of bitcoin in the past.

In 2019, the company’s CEO, Steve Schwarzman, said he didn’t understand Bitcoin. “I was raised in a world where someone needs to control currencies,” he said, admitting he struggled to understand the technology.

Fast forward to 2025, and it is now one of the many institutional investors taking bitcoin seriously — but doing so through cautious, regulated channels.

The investment was made through Blackstone’s $2.63 billion Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund (BTMIX), which invests in a wide range of financial instruments.

Instead of buying bitcoin directly, Blackstone chose to get exposure through a bitcoin ETF — which is how many large institutions are approaching the digital asset. Spot Bitcoin ETFs like IBIT allow investors to track the price of bitcoin without having to hold the digital asset itself.

There are several advantages to this approach. ETFs trade like stocks, are regulated by the SEC and take care of complex issues like custody and compliance. This makes them more attractive for firms that are new to Bitcoin or still wary of the risks.

Related: Bitcoin ETFs Provide Convenient Price Exposure, But At What Cost?

Blackstone’s choice of a bitcoin ETF shows how effective these products are at connecting traditional finance to the digital age.

In addition to IBIT, Blackstone also disclosed smaller investments in two other digital-asset-related companies:

• 9,889 shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), valued at about $181,166.
• 4,300 shares of Bitcoin Depot Inc. (BTM), a bitcoin ATM operator, worth approximately $6,300.

Together, these are a tiny fraction of Blackstone’s portfolio but show growing interest and exploration into the space.

Since its launch in January 2024, BlackRock’s IBIT ETF has become the top-performing Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. As of mid-May 2025, the fund has seen over $46.1 billion in net inflows with no outflows since early April.

IBIT is ahead of other major ETFs like Fidelity’s FBTC and ARK’s 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.

But the trend is clear: big firms are getting comfortable with regulated bitcoin products. Industry insiders see Blackstone’s move as part of a broader shift in institutional sentiment towards bitcoin.

This is a small investment but it matters because of who is making it. Blackstone is known for being conservative and risk-averse.

Its decision to put even a tiny amount of capital into Bitcoin ETFs means tradfi companies are getting more confident in bitcoin as an asset class. Blackstone is dipping its toe in the water, and even a small step is significant given its size and influence.

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

Abstract

This document proposes a novel architecture that decouples the peer-to-peer (P2P) communication layer from the Bitcoin protocol and replaces or augments it with the Nostr protocol. The goal is to improve censorship resistance, performance, modularity, and maintainability by migrating transaction propagation and block distribution to the Nostr relay network.

Introduction

Bitcoin’s current architecture relies heavily on its P2P network to propagate transactions and blocks. While robust, it has limitations in terms of flexibility, scalability, and censorship resistance in certain environments. Nostr, a decentralized event-publishing protocol, offers a multi-star topology and a censorship-resistant infrastructure for message relay.

This proposal outlines how Bitcoin communication could be ported to Nostr while maintaining consensus and verification through standard Bitcoin clients.

Motivation

• Enhanced Censorship Resistance: Nostr’s architecture enables better relay redundancy and obfuscation of transaction origin.
• Simplified Lightweight Nodes: Removing the full P2P stack allows for lightweight nodes that only verify blockchain data and communicate over Nostr.
• Architectural Modularity: Clean separation between validation and communication enables easier auditing, upgrades, and parallel innovation.
• Faster Propagation: Nostr’s multi-star network may provide faster propagation of transactions and blocks compared to the mesh-like Bitcoin P2P network.

Architecture Overview

Components

1. Bitcoin Minimal Node (BMN):

   • Verifies blockchain and block validity.
   • Maintains UTXO set and handles mempool logic.
   • Connects to Nostr relays instead of P2P Bitcoin peers.

2. Bridge Node:

   • Bridges Bitcoin P2P traffic to and from Nostr relays.
   • Posts new transactions and blocks to Nostr.
   • Downloads mempool content and block headers from Nostr.

3. Nostr Relays:

   • Accept Bitcoin-specific event kinds (transactions and blocks).
   • Store mempool entries and block messages.
   • Optionally broadcast fee estimation summaries and tipsets.

Event Format

Proposed reserved Nostr kind numbers for Bitcoin content (NIP/BIP TBD):

| Nostr Kind | Purpose | |------------|------------------------| | 210000 | Bitcoin Transaction | | 210001 | Bitcoin Block Header | | 210002 | Bitcoin Block | | 210003 | Mempool Fee Estimates | | 210004 | Filter/UTXO summary |

Transaction Lifecycle

1. Wallet creates a Bitcoin transaction.
2. Wallet sends it to a set of configured Nostr relays.
3. Relays accept and cache the transaction (based on fee policies).
4. Mining nodes or bridge nodes fetch mempool contents from Nostr.
5. Once mined, a block is submitted over Nostr.
6. Nodes confirm inclusion and update their UTXO set.

Security Considerations

• Sybil Resistance: Consensus remains based on proof-of-work. The communication path (Nostr) is not involved in consensus.
• Relay Discoverability: Optionally bootstrap via DNS, Bitcoin P2P, or signed relay lists.
• Spam Protection: Relay-side policy, rate limiting, proof-of-work challenges, or Lightning payments.
• Block Authenticity: Nodes must verify all received blocks and reject invalid chains.

Compatibility and Migration

• Fully compatible with current Bitcoin consensus rules.
• Bridge nodes preserve interoperability with legacy full nodes.
• Nodes can run in hybrid mode, fetching from both P2P and Nostr.

Future Work

• Integration with watch-only wallets and SPV clients using verified headers via Nostr.
• Use of Nostr’s social graph for partial trust assumptions and relay reputation.
• Dynamic relay discovery using Nostr itself (relay list events).

Conclusion

This proposal lays out a new architecture for Bitcoin communication using Nostr to replace or augment the P2P network. This improves decentralization, censorship resistance, modularity, and speed, while preserving consensus integrity. It encourages innovation by enabling smaller, purpose-built Bitcoin nodes and offloading networking complexity.

---

This document may become both a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP-XXX) and a Nostr Improvement Proposal (NIP-XXX). Event kind range reserved: 210000–219999.

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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.

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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.

@ 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

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

I https://www.chrisliss.com/p/mstr a few months ago with the subtitle “The Only Stock,” and I’m starting to regret it. Now, it was trading at 396 on January 20 when I posted it and 404 now (even if it dipped 40 percent to 230 or so in between), but that’s not why I regret it. I pointed out it was not investable unless you’re willing to stomach large drawdowns, and anyone who bought then could exit with a small profit now had they not panic-sold along the way.

The reason I regret it is I don’t want to make public stock predictions because it adds stress to my life. I have not sold any of my shares yet, but something I’ve noticed recently has got me thinking about it, and stock tips are like a game of telephone wherein whoever is last in the chain might find out the wrong information and too late. And while every adult has agency and is responsible for his own financial decisions, I don’t want my readers losing money on account of anything I write.

My base case is still that MSTR becomes a trillion-dollar company, destroys the performance of the S&P, the Mag-7 and virtually any other equity portfolio most people would assemble. Michael Saylor is trading an infinitely-printable asset (his shares) for humanity’s best-ever, finite-supply digital gold, and that trade should be profitable for him and his shareholders in perpetuity.

I don’t know exactly what he plans to do when that trade is no longer available to him — either because no one takes fiat currency for bitcoin anymore or because his mNAV (market-cap-to-bitcoin-holding ratio) goes below one — but that’s not my main concern, either. At that point he’ll have so much bitcoin, he’ll probably become the world’s first and largest bitcoin bank and profit by making his pristine collateral available to individuals and institutions. Even at five percent interest, half a trillion in bitcoin would yield $25B in profits every year. Even at a modest 10x valuation, the stock would more than double from here.

I am also not overly concerned with Saylor’s present amount of convertible debt which is at low or zero rates and is only https://www.strategy.com/. He’s been conservative on that front and only issuing on favorable terms. I don’t doubt Saylor’s prescience, intelligence or business sense one bit.

What got me thinking were some Twitter posts by a former Salomon Brothers trader/prophet Josh Mandell https://x.com/JoshMandell6/status/1921597739458339193 recently. In November when bitcoin was mooning after the election, he predicted that on March 14th it would close at $84,000, and if it did it would then go on an epic run up to $444,000 this cycle.

A lot of people make predictions, a few of them come true, but rarely do they come true on the dot (it closed at exactly $84K according to some exchanges) and on such a specific timeframe. Now, maybe he just got lucky, or maybe he is a skilled trader who made one good prediction, but the reason he gave for his prediction, insofar as he gave one, was not some technical chart or quantitative analysis, but a memory he had from 30 years ago that got into his mind that he couldn’t shake. He didn’t get much more specific than that, other than that he was tuned into something that if he explained fully would make too many people think he had gone insane. And then the prediction came true on the dot months later.

Now I believe in the paranormal more than the average person. I do not think things are random, and insofar as they appear that way it’s only because we have incomplete information — even a coin toss is predictable if you knew the exact force and spin that was put on the coin. I think for whatever reason, this guy is plugged into something, and while I would never invest a substantial amount of money on that belief — not only are earnestly-made prophecies often delusions or even if correct wrongly interpreted — that he sold makes me think.

He gave more substantive reasons for selling than prophecy, by the way — he seems to think Saylor’s perpetual issuance of shares ATM (at the market) to buy more bitcoin is putting too much downward pressure on the stock. Obviously, selling shares — even if to buy the world’s most pristine collateral at a 2x-plus mNAV — reduces the short-term appreciation of those shares.

His thesis seems to be that Saylor is doing this even if he would be better off letting the price appreciate more, attracting more investors, squeezing more shorts, etc because he needs to improve his credit rating to tap into the convertible debt market to the extent he has promised ($42 billion more over the next few years) at favorable terms. But in doing this, he is souring common stock investors because they are not seeing the near-term appreciation they should on their holdings.

Now this is a trivial concern if over the long haul MSTR does what it has the last couple years which is to outperform by a wide margin not only every large cap stock and the S&P but bitcoin itself. And the bigger his stack of bitcoin, the more his stock should appreciate as bitcoin goes up. But markets do not operate linearly and rationally. Should he sour prospective buyers to a great enough extent, should he attract shorts (and supply them with available shares to borrow) to a great enough extent, perhaps there might be an mNAV-crushing cascade that drives people into other bitcoin treasury companies, ETFs or bitcoin itself.

Now Saylor as first mover and by far the largest publicly-traded treasury company has a significant advantage. Institutions are far less likely to invest in size in smaller treasury companies with shorter track records, and many of them are not allowed to invest in ETFs or bitcoin at all. And even if a lot of money did go into any of those vehicles, it would only drive the value of his assets up and hence his stock price, no matter the mNAV. But Josh Mandell sold his shares prior to a weekend where bitcoin went from 102K to 104K, the US announced a deal with China, the mag-7 had a big spike (AAPL was up 6.3 percent) and then MSTR’s stock went down from 416 to 404. As I said, he is on to something.

So what’s the real long-term risk? I don’t know. Maybe there’s something about the nature of bitcoin that long-term is not really amenable to third-party custody and administration. It’s a bearer asset (“not your keys, not your coins”), and introducing counterparty risk is antithetical to its core purpose, the separation of money and state, or in this case money and bank.

With the bitcoin network you can literally “be your own bank.” To transact in digital dollars you need a bank account — or at least a stable coin one mediated by a centralized entity like Tether. You can’t hold digital dollars in your mind via some memorized seed words like you can bitcoin, accessible anywhere in the world, the ledger of which is maintained by tens of thousands of individually-run nodes. This property which democratizes value storage in the way gold did, except now you can wield your purchasing power globally, might be so antithetical to communal storage via corporation or bank that doing so is doomed to catastrophe.

We’ve already seen this happen with exchanges via FTX and Mt. Gox. Counterparty risk is one of the problems bitcoin was created to solve, so moving that risk from a fractionally reserved international banking system to corporate balance sheets still very much a part of that system is probably not the seismic advancement integral to the technology’s promise.

But this is more of a philosophical concern rather than a concrete one. To get more specific, it’s easy to imagine Coinbase, if indeed that’s where MSTR custodies its coins, gets hacked or https://www.chrisliss.com/p/soft-landing, i.e., seized by an increasingly desperate and insolvent government. Or maybe Coinbase simply doesn’t have the coins it purports like FTX, or a rogue band of employees, working on behalf of some powerful faction for “https://www.chrisliss.com/national-security-and-public-healt” executes the rug pull. Even if you deem these scenarios unlikely, they are not unfathomable.

Beyond outright counterparty malfeasance, there are other risks — what if owning common stock in an enterprise that simply holds bitcoin falls out of favor? Imagine if some new individual custody solution emerges wherein you have direct access to the coins themselves in an “even a boomer can do this” kind of way wherein there’s no compelling reason to own common stock with its junior claims to the capital stack in the event of insolvency? Why stand in line behind debt holders and preferred shares when you can invest in something that’s directly withdrawable and accessible if world events spike volatility to a systemic breaking point?

Things need not even get that rocky for this to be a concern — just the perception that they might could spook people into realizing common stock of a corporate balance sheet might be less than ideal as your custody solution.

Moreover, Saylor himself presents some risk. He could be compromised or blackmailed, he could lose his cool or get into an accident. These are low-probability scenarios, but also not unfathomable as any single point of failure is a target, especially for those factions who stand to lose unimaginable wealth and power should his speculative attack on the system succeed at scale.

Finally, even if Saylor remains free to operate as he sees fit, there is what I’d call the Icarus risk — he might be too ambitious, too hell-bent on acquiring bitcoin at all costs, too much of a maniac in service of his vision. Remember, he initially bought bitcoin during the covid crash and concomitant massive money print upon his prescient realization that businesses providing goods and services couldn’t possibly keep pace with inflation over the long haul. He was merely playing defense to preserve his capital, and now, despite his sizable lead and secured position is still throwing forward passes in the fourth quarter rather than running out the clock and securing the W.

Saylor is now arguably less a bitcoin maximalist and advocate, articulately making the case for superior money and individual sovereignty, but a corporate titan hell-bent on world domination via apex-predator-status balance sheet. When is enough enough? Many of the greatest conquerors in history pushed their empires too far until they fractured. In fact, 25 years ago MSTR was a big winner before the dot-com crash during which its stock price and most of Saylor’s fortune were wiped out when he was sued by the SEC for accounting fraud (he subsequently settled).

Now it’s possible, he learned from that experience, got up off the mat and figured out how to avoid his youthful mistakes. But it’s also possible his character is such that he will repeat it again, only this time at scale.

But as I said, my base case is MSTR is a trillion-dollar market cap, and the stock runs in parallel with bitcoin’s ascendance over the next decade. Saylor has been https://www.strategy.com/, prescient, bold and responsible so far over this iteration. I view Mandell’s concerns as valid, but similar to Wall St’s ones about AMZN’s Jeff Bezos who relentlessly ignored their insistence on profitability for a decade as he plowed every dollar into building out productive capacity and turned the company into the $2T world-dominating retail giant it is now.

Again, I haven’t (yet) sold any of my shares or even call options. But because I posted about this in January I felt I should at least follow-up with a more detailed rundown of what I take to be the risks. As always, do your own due diligence with any prospective investment.

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

When I was a kid, I wanted to be rich, but found the prospect of hard work tedious, pointless and soul-crushing. Instead of studying for exams, getting some job and clawing your way up the ladder, I wondered why we couldn’t just build a device that measured your brain capacity and awarded you the money you would have made had you applied yourself. Eliminate the middleman, so to speak, the useless paper pushing evoked by the word “career.”

But when you think about it, it’s not really money you’re after, as money is but purchasing power, and so it’s the things money can provide like a nice lifestyle and the peace of mind that comes from not worrying about it. And it’s not really the lifestyle or financial independence, per se, since moment to moment what’s in your bank account isn’t determining your mental state, but the feeling those things give you — a sense of expansiveness and freedom.

But if you did have such a machine, and it awarded you the money, you probably wouldn’t have that kind of expansiveness and freedom, especially if you did nothing to achieve those things. You would still feel bored, distracted and unsatisfied despite unrestricted means to travel or dine out as you saw fit. People who win the lottery, for example, tend to revert to their prior level of satisfaction in short order.

The feeling you really want then is the sense of rising to a challenge, negotiating and adapting to your environment, persevering in a state of uncertainty, tapping into your resourcefulness and creativity. It’s only while operating at the edge of your capacity you could ever be so fulfilled. In fact, in such a state the question of your satisfaction level would never come up. You wouldn’t even think to wonder about it you’d be so engrossed.

So what you really crave is a mind device that encourages you to adapt to your environment using your full creative capabilities in the present moment, so much so you realize if you do not do this, you have the sense of squandering your life in a tedious, pointless and soul-crushing way. You need to be totally stuck, without the option of turning back. In sum, you need to face reality exactly as it is, without any escape therefrom.

The measure of your mind in that case is your reality itself. The device is already with you — it’s the world you are presently creating with the consciousness you have, providing you avenues to escape, none of which are satisfactory, none that can lead to the state you truly desire. You have a choice to pursue them fruitlessly and wind up at square one, or to abandon them and attain your freedom. No matter how many times you go down a false road, you wind up at the same place until you give up on the Sisyphean task and proceed in earnest.

My childhood fantasy was real, it turns out, only I had misunderstood its meaning.

@ 4e7c1e83:1c2939b5

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Don’t wait — secure your Flash BTC now and experience a new era of cryptocurrency trading with Fashexperts!Are you looking for an innovative way to explore the world of cryptocurrency? Flash Bitcoin is your answer! At Fashexperts, we offer the best Bitcoin flashing service online, delivering Flash BTC that behaves just like real Bitcoin — except it’s designed to disappear after 180 days. Whether you’re a crypto enthusiast or a developer testing blockchain applications, our Flash Bitcoin is a game-changer.

# What is Flash Bitcoin?

Flash Bitcoin refers to a cryptocurrency sent to your wallet using specialized Flash Bitcoin software. While it functions the same as real Bitcoin, its key distinction is its temporary nature. After 180 days, it vanishes from your wallet or any crypto it has been converted into, making it ideal for short-term use. Generated securely by our cutting-edge tools, Flash BTC can be stored in any wallet — SegWit, Legacy, or BCH32 — and spent easily on any address.

Pricing That Fits Your Needs

• Minimum Order: Pay just $200 to receive $2000 BTC worth of Flash Bitcoin.
• Maximum Order: Invest $600,000 to get $10,000,000 BTC worth of Flash BTC.

With a maximum transaction limit of 12 transfers and the ability to convert Flash BTC into any other cryptocurrency on an exchange, you’re in full control — until the 180-day expiration kicks in. Transactions are 100% confirmed with priority fees for quick blockchain confirmation, ensuring a seamless experience.

Why Choose Fashexperts for Flash Bitcoin?

• Secure Storage: Flash BTC stays safe in your wallet for up to 180 days before being rejected by the blockchain.
• Universal Compatibility: Works with all wallets — spend it anywhere, anytime.
• Expert Guidance: Our team at Fashexperts is here to guide you via Telegram or WhatsApp, ensuring your digital assets are handled with care.

Key Features of Flash Bitcoin:

• Disappears after 180 days from receipt, along with any converted crypto.
• Limited to 12 transfers for controlled usage.
• Convertible to other coins (note: converted coins also vanish after 180 days).
• Fast, uncancellable transactions with maximum priority fees.

Are you ready to dive into the world of temporary crypto? Contact Fashexperts today to order Flash Bitcoin and explore this unique digital asset. Whether it’s $2000 BTC for $200 or $10,000,000 BTC for $600,000, we’ve got you covered with the best flashing service online.

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@ 58937958:545e6994

Since it's Bitcoin Pizza Day, I made a Bitcoin pizza!

To give it a Japanese twist, I made it a mentaiko pizza (※ mentaiko = spicy cod roe, a popular Japanese ingredient often used in pasta or rice dishes). For the Bitcoin logo, I used a salmon terrine.

Salmon Terrine

I cut out the "B" logo using hanpen (※ hanpen = a soft, white Japanese fish cake made from fish paste and yam). Tip: You can also cut a colored plastic folder into the "B" shape and place it on top as a stencil — makes it easier!

I blended salmon, hanpen, milk, egg, and a bit of salt in a food processor, poured it into a container, and baked it in a water bath.

Pizza Dough

I mixed bread flour, dry yeast, salt, olive oil, and water, then kneaded it with determination! Let it rise for about an hour until fluffy.

Mentaiko Mayo Topping

I mixed mentaiko, mayonnaise, and soy sauce.

I spread out the dough, added the mentaiko mayo, cheese, and corn, then baked it. Halfway through, I added thin slices of mochi (rice cake). After baking, I topped it with seaweed and the salmon terrine to finish!

Lots to reflect on

About the Terrine

In the video, you’ll see I divided the terrine into two portions. I was worried that the salmon and hanpen parts might end up looking too similar in color, making the “B” logo hard to see.

So for one half, I added ketchup, thinking: “Maybe this will make the red more vibrant?” But even with the ketchup, it didn’t change much.

The Mochi

I accidentally bought thinly sliced mochi, but I realized it might burn too easily as a pizza topping. Regular mochi with standard thickness is probably better.

I added the mochi halfway through baking, opening the oven once, but now I’m thinking that might have lowered the oven temp too much.

Lessons Learned

This was my first and only attempt—no test run beforehand— so I ended up with a long list of lessons learned. In the future, I should definitely do a trial version first… But you know… salmon and mentaiko are expensive! (excuses, excuses)

Cheese

I wanted to do that Instagram-worthy cheese pull moment, but nope. No stretch. None at all. I think that kind of thing needs a totally different kind of cheese or prep. Will have to experiment more.

Taste Test

Actually really good. I usually don’t eat mentaiko mayo myself, and I’m a Margherita pizza fan at heart. But this was surprisingly nice. A little rich in flavor—made me crave a bowl of rice. Next time, I might skip the soy sauce to tone it down a bit.

nostr:nevent1qqsrhularycewltxz88e9wrwutkqu5pkylh3vxrmys2e0nuh7c2h06qgqp9zc

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

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

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

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

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

Full Text of Bill

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

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

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

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

nostr is to twitter as bitcoin is to paypal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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My Nostr Public Key: npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx

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

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

via me

Don't sleep on what's happening in Japan right now. We've been covering the country and the fact that they've lost control of their yield curve since late last year. After many years of making it a top priority from a monetary policy perspective, last year the Bank of Japan decided to give up on yield curve control in an attempt to reel inflation. This has sent yields for the 30-year and 40-year Japanese government bonds to levels not seen since the early 2000s in the case of the 30-year and levels never before seen for the 40-year, which was launched in 2007. With a debt to GDP ratio that has surpassed 250% and a population that is aging out with an insufficient amount of births to replace the aging workforce, it's hard to see how Japan can get out of this conundrum without some sort of economic collapse.

This puts the United States in a tough position considering the fact that Japan is one of the largest holders of U.S. Treasury bonds with more than 1,135 sats | $1.20 trillion in exposure. If things get too out of control in Japan and the yield curve continues to drift higher and inflation continues to creep higher Japan can find itself in a situation where it's a forced seller of US Treasuries as they attempt to strengthen the yen. Another aspect to consider is the fact that investors may see the higher yields on Japanese government bonds and decide to purchase them instead of US Treasuries. This is something to keep an eye on in the weeks to come. Particularly if higher rates drive a higher cost of capital, which leads to even more inflation. As producers are forced to increase their prices to ensure that they can manage their debt repayments.

It's never a good sign when the Japanese Prime Minister is coming out to proclaim that his country's financial situation is worse than Greece's, which has been a laughing stock of Europe for the better part of three decades. Japan is a very proud nation, and the fact that its Prime Minister made a statement like this should not be underappreciated.

As we noted last week, the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds are drifting higher as well. Earlier today, the 30-year bond yield surpassed 5%, which has been a psychological level that many have been pointed to as a critical tipping point. When you take a step back and look around the world it seems pretty clear that bond markets are sending a very strong signal. And that signal is that something is not well in the back end of the financial system.

This is even made clear when you look at the private sector, particularly at consumer debt. In late March, we warned of the growing trend of buy now, pay later schemes drifting down market as major credit card companies released charge-off data which showed charge-off rates reaching levels not seen since the 2008 great financial crisis. At the time, we could only surmise that Klarna was experiencing similar charge-off rates on the bigger-ticket items they financed and started doing deals with companies like DoorDash to finance burrito deliveries in an attempt to move down market to finance smaller ticket items with a higher potential of getting paid back. It seems like that inclination was correct as Klarna released data earlier today showing more losses on their book as consumers find it extremely hard to pay back their debts.

via NewsWire

This news hit the markets on the same day as the average rate of the 30-year mortgage in the United States rose to 7.04%. I'm not sure if you've checked lately, but real estate prices are still relatively elevated outside of a few big cities who expanded supply significantly during the COVID era as people flooded out of blue states towards red states. It's hard to imagine that many people can afford a house based off of sticker price alone, but with a 7% 30-year mortgage rate it's becoming clear that the ability of the Common Man to buy a house is simply becoming impossible.

via Lance Lambert

The mortgage rate data is not the only thing you need to look at to understand that it's becoming impossible for the Common Man of working age to buy a house. New data has recently been released that highlights That the median home buyer in 2007 was born in 1968, and the median home buyer in 2024 was born in 1968. Truly wild when you think of it. As our friend Darth Powell cheekily highlights below, we find ourselves in a situation where boomers are simply trading houses and the younger generations are becoming indentured slaves. Forever destined to rent because of the complete inability to afford to buy a house.

via Darth Powell

via Yahoo Finance

Meanwhile, Bitcoin re-approached all-time highs late this evening and looks primed for another breakout to the upside. This makes sense if you're paying attention. The high-velocity trash economy running on an obscene amount of debt in both the public and private sectors seems to be breaking at the seams. All the alarm bells are signaling that another big print is coming. And if you hope to preserve your purchasing power or, ideally, increase it as the big print approaches, the only thing that makes sense is to funnel your money into the hardest asset in the world, which is Bitcoin.

via Bitbo

Buckle up, freaks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. Stay humble, Stack Sats.

Trump's Middle East Peace Strategy: Redefining U.S. Foreign Policy

In his recent Middle East tour, President Trump signaled what our guest Dr. Anas Alhajji calls "a major change in US policy." Trump explicitly rejected the nation-building strategies of his predecessors, contrasting the devastation in Afghanistan and Iraq with the prosperity of countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE. This marks a profound shift from both Republican and Democratic foreign policy orthodoxy. As Alhajji noted, Trump's willingness to meet with Syrian President Assad follows a historical pattern where former adversaries eventually become diplomatic partners.

"This is really one of the most important shifts in US foreign policy to say, look, sorry, we destroyed those countries because we tried to rebuild them and it was a big mistake." - Dr. Anas Alhajji

The administration's new approach emphasizes negotiation over intervention. Rather than military solutions, Trump is engaging with groups previously considered off-limits, including the Houthis, Hamas, and Iran. This pragmatic stance prioritizes economic cooperation and regional stability over ideological confrontation. The focus on trade deals and investment rather than regime change represents a fundamental reimagining of America's role in the Middle East.

Check out the full podcast here for more on the Iran nuclear situation, energy market predictions, and why AI development could create power grid challenges. Only on TFTC Studio.

Headlines of the Day

Bitcoin Soars to 100,217 sats | $106.00K While Bonds Lose 40% Since 2020 - via X

US Senate Advances Stablecoin Bill As America Embraces Bitcoin - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Texas House Debates Bill For State-Run Bitcoin Reserve - via X

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

Don't let the noise consume you. Focus on making your life 1% better every day.

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@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Sj1sG05VQ

Here's a great presentation from our good friend nostr:nprofile1qyx8wumn8ghj7cnjvghxjmcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqqyz2hj3zg2g3pqwxuhg69zgjhke4pcmjmmdpnndnefqndgqjt8exwj6ee8v7 , President of The Nakamoto Institute titled Hodl for Good. He gave it earlier this year at the BitBlockBoom Conference, and I think it's something everyone reading this should take 25 minutes to watch. Especially if you find yourself wondering whether or not it's a good idea to spend bitcoin at any given point in time. Michael gives an incredible Austrian Economics 101 lesson on the importance of lowering one's time preference and fully understanding the importance of hodling bitcoin. For the uninitiated, it may seem that the hodl meme is nothing more than a call to hoard bitcoins in hopes of getting rich eventually. However, as Michael points out, there's layers to the hodl meme and the good that hodling can bring individuals and the economy overall.

The first thing one needs to do to better understand the hodl meme is to completely flip the framing that is typically thrust on bitcoiners who encourage others to hodl. Instead of ceding that hodling is a greedy or selfish action, remind people that hodling, or better known as saving, is the foundation of capital formation, from which all productive and efficient economic activity stems. Number go up technology is great and it really matters. It matters because it enables anybody leveraging that technology to accumulate capital that can then be allocated toward productive endeavors that bring value to the individual who creates them and the individual who buys them.

When one internalizes this, it enables them to turn to personal praxis and focus on minimizing present consumption while thinking of ways to maximize long-term value creation. Live below your means, stack sats, and use the time that you're buying to think about things that you want in the future. By lowering your time preference and saving in a harder money you will have the luxury of demanding higher quality goods in the future. Another way of saying this is that you will be able to reshape production by voting with your sats. Initially when you hold them off the market by saving them - signaling that the market doesn't have goods worthy of your sats - and ultimately by redeploying them into the market when you find higher quality goods that meet the standards desire.

The first part of this equation is extremely important because it sends a signal to producers that they need to increase the quality of their work. As more and more individuals decide to use bitcoin as their savings technology, the signal gets stronger. And over many cycles we should begin to see low quality cheap goods exit the market in favor of higher quality goods that provide more value and lasts longer and, therefore, make it easier for an individual to depart with their hard-earned and hard-saved sats. This is only but one aspect that Michael tries to imbue throughout his presentation.

The other is the ability to buy yourself leisure time when you lower your time preference and save more than you spend. When your savings hit a critical tipping point that gives you the luxury to sit back and experience true leisure, which Michael explains is not idleness, but the contemplative space to study, create art, refine taste, and to find what "better goods" actually are. Those who can experience true leisure while reaping the benefits of saving in a hard asset that is increasing in purchasing power significantly over the long term are those who build truly great things. Things that outlast those who build them. Great art, great monuments, great institutions were all built by men who were afforded the time to experience leisure. Partly because they were leveraging hard money as their savings and the place they stored the profits reaped from their entrepreneurial endeavors.

If you squint and look into the future a couple of decades, it isn't hard to see a reality like this manifesting. As more people begin to save in Bitcoin, the forces of supply and demand will continue to come into play. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, there are around 8 billion people on this planet, and as more of those 8 billion individuals decide that bitcoin is the best savings vehicle, the price of bitcoin will rise.

When the price of bitcoin rises, it makes all other goods cheaper in bitcoin terms and, again, expands the entrepreneurial opportunity. The best part about this feedback loop is that even non-holders of bitcoin benefit through higher real wages and faster tech diffusion. The individuals and business owners who decide to hodl bitcoin will bring these benefits to the world whether you decide to use bitcoin or not.

This is why it is virtuous to hodl bitcoin. The potential for good things to manifest throughout the world increase when more individuals decide to hodl bitcoin. And as Michael very eloquently points out, this does not mean that people will not spend their bitcoin. It simply means that they have standards for the things that they will spend their bitcoin on. And those standards are higher than most who are fully engrossed in the high velocity trash economy have today.

In my opinion, one of those higher causes worthy of a sats donation is nostr:nprofile1qyfhwumn8ghj7enjv4jhyetvv9uju7re0gq3uamnwvaz7tmfdemxjmrvv9nk2tt0w468v6tvd3skwefwvdhk6qpqwzc9lz2f40azl98shkjewx3pywg5e5alwqxg09ew2mdyeey0c2rqcfecft . Consider donating so they can preserve and disseminate vital information about bitcoin and its foundations.

The Shell Game: How Health Narratives May Distract from Vaccine Risks

In our recent podcast, Dr. Jack Kruse presented a concerning theory about public health messaging. He argues that figures like Casey and Callie Means are promoting food and exercise narratives as a deliberate distraction from urgent vaccine issues. While no one disputes healthy eating matters, Dr. Kruse insists that focusing on "Froot Loops and Red Dye" diverts attention from what he sees as immediate dangers of mRNA vaccines, particularly for children.

"It's gonna take you 50 years to die from processed food. But the messenger jab can drop you like Damar Hamlin." - Dr Jack Kruse

Dr. Kruse emphasized that approximately 25,000 children per month are still receiving COVID vaccines despite concerns, with 3 million doses administered since Trump's election. This "shell game," as he describes it, allows vaccines to remain on childhood schedules while public attention fixates on less immediate health threats. As host, I believe this pattern deserves our heightened scrutiny given the potential stakes for our children's wellbeing.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Big Pharma's alleged bioweapons program, the "Time Bank Account" concept, and how Bitcoin principles apply to health sovereignty.

Headlines of the Day

Aussie Judge: Bitcoin is Money, Possibly CGT-Exempt - via X

JPMorgan to Let Clients Buy Bitcoin Without Direct Custody - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Mubadala Acquires 384,239 sats | $408.50M Stake in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF - via X

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed 158,469 sats | $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

I've been walking from my house around Town Lake in Austin in the mornings and taking calls on the walk. Big fan of a walking call.

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

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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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.

@ 979ab082:dedeefb6

Discover the power of Flash Bitcoin with FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic), exclusively available at FashExperts! This full-version tool allows you to send Flash Bitcoin across blockchain networks, with transactions lasting up to 90 days in any wallet — or indefinitely with hash rate. Ideal for crypto enthusiasts and testers, this software offers a simple, secure way to explore blockchain capabilities.

What is FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic)? The FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic) is a streamlined version of our innovative flashing technology, designed to generate and send fake Bitcoin (Flash BTC) over blockchain networks. Without hash rate, Flash BTC remains in your wallet for a maximum of 90 days before being rejected and disappearing. However, with hash rate, it can stay indefinitely! Built with a unique obfuscation security code, this software ensures authenticity and functionality — exclusively from FashExperts.

Key Features of FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic) 90-Day Duration: Flash BTC lasts up to 90 days without hash rate, and indefinitely with hash rate. Full-Version Access: Get the latest Flashcore BTC Software with essential flashing capabilities. Single-Device Security: Locked to one computer via obfuscation code for exclusive use. Blockchain Compatibility: Sends Flash BTC across networks, visible until rejection. Why Choose FashExperts’ FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic)? Simple & Effective: Perfect for beginners or testers who need basic flashing features. Secure Purchase: Sold only by the original developer at FashExperts — avoid reseller scams. Unlimited Potential: Extend Flash BTC duration indefinitely with hash rate. Reliable Performance: Built for consistent, hassle-free blockchain interaction. How It Works With FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic), you can send Flash Bitcoin to any wallet, where it remains for 90 to 360 days unless paired with hash rate for unlimited duration. Transactions are sent across blockchain networks and disappear after rejection if no hash rate is applied. The software’s full-version design ensures ease of use, while its single-device lock keeps it secure and exclusive just for you.

Important Warning This software is sold solely by the developer at FashExperts. Each purchase includes a unique obfuscation security code, restricting use to one computer. Resold versions are scams and won’t work — buy directly from FashExperts to ensure you get the authentic FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic).

Ready to Flash Bitcoin Affordably? Get FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic) from FashExperts and start sending fake BTC that lasts 90 days (or longer with hash rate). It’s the best entry-level flashing tool online — secure your copy today!

Call to Action: 📞 Call Us on WhatsApp : +1 (329) 226–0153

💬 Chat with Us on Telegram: @fashexpertssDiscover the power of Flash Bitcoin with FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic), exclusively available at FashExperts! This full-version tool allows you to send Flash Bitcoin across blockchain networks, with transactions lasting up to 90 days in any wallet — or indefinitely with hash rate. Ideal for crypto enthusiasts and testers, this software offers a simple, secure way to explore blockchain capabilities.

# What is FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic)?

The FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic) is a streamlined version of our innovative flashing technology, designed to generate and send fake Bitcoin (Flash BTC) over blockchain networks. Without hash rate, Flash BTC remains in your wallet for a maximum of 90 days before being rejected and disappearing. However, with hash rate, it can stay indefinitely! Built with a unique obfuscation security code, this software ensures authenticity and functionality — exclusively from FashExperts.

Key Features of FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic)

• 90-Day Duration: Flash BTC lasts up to 90 days without hash rate, and indefinitely with hash rate.
• Full-Version Access: Get the latest Flashcore BTC Software with essential flashing capabilities.
• Single-Device Security: Locked to one computer via obfuscation code for exclusive use.
• Blockchain Compatibility: Sends Flash BTC across networks, visible until rejection.

Why Choose FashExperts’ FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic)?

• Simple & Effective: Perfect for beginners or testers who need basic flashing features.
• Secure Purchase: Sold only by the original developer at FashExperts — avoid reseller scams.
• Unlimited Potential: Extend Flash BTC duration indefinitely with hash rate.
• Reliable Performance: Built for consistent, hassle-free blockchain interaction.

How It Works

With FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic), you can send Flash Bitcoin to any wallet, where it remains for 90 to 360 days unless paired with hash rate for unlimited duration. Transactions are sent across blockchain networks and disappear after rejection if no hash rate is applied. The software’s full-version design ensures ease of use, while its single-device lock keeps it secure and exclusive just for you.

Important Warning

This software is sold solely by the developer at FashExperts. Each purchase includes a unique obfuscation security code, restricting use to one computer. Resold versions are scams and won’t work — buy directly from FashExperts to ensure you get the authentic FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic).

Ready to Flash Bitcoin Affordably?

Get FLASHCORE BTC Software (Basic) from FashExperts and start sending fake BTC that lasts 90 days (or longer with hash rate). It’s the best entry-level flashing tool online — secure your copy today!

Call to Action:

📞 Call Us on WhatsApp : +1 (329) 226–0153

💬 Chat with Us on Telegram: @fashexpertss

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 3f770d65:7a745b24

🏌️ Monday, May 26 – Bitcoin Golf Championship & Kickoff Party

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada\ Event: 2nd Annual Bitcoin Golf Championship & Kick Off Party"\ Where: Bali Hai Golf Clubhouse, 5160 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89119\ 🎟️ Get Tickets!

Details:

• The week tees off in style with the Bitcoin Golf Championship. Swing clubs by day and swing to music by night.

• Live performances from Nostr-powered acts courtesy of Tunestr, including Ainsley Costello and others.

• Stop by the Purple Pill Booth hosted by Derek and Tanja, who will be on-boarding golfers and attendees to the decentralized social future with Nostr.

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💬 May 27–29 – Bitcoin 2025 Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center

Location: The Venetian Resort\ Main Attraction for Nostr Fans: The Nostr Lounge\ When: All day, Tuesday through Thursday\ Where: Right outside the Open Source Stage\ 🎟️ Get Tickets!

Come chill at the Nostr Lounge, your home base for all things decentralized social. With seating for \~50, comfy couches, high-tops, and good vibes, it’s the perfect space to meet developers, community leaders, and curious newcomers building the future of censorship-resistant communication.

Bonus: Right across the aisle, you’ll find Shopstr, a decentralized marketplace app built on Nostr. Stop by their booth to explore how peer-to-peer commerce works in a truly open ecosystem.

Daily Highlights at the Lounge:

• ☕️ Hang out casually or sit down for a deeper conversation about the Nostr protocol

• 🔧 1:1 demos from app teams

• 🛍️ Merch available onsite

• 🧠 Impromptu lightning talks

• 🎤 Scheduled Meetups (details below)

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🎯 Nostr Lounge Meetups

Wednesday, May 28 @ 1:00 PM

• Damus Meetup: Come meet the team behind Damus, the OG Nostr app for iOS that helped kickstart the social revolution. They'll also be showcasing their new cross-platform app, Notedeck, designed for a more unified Nostr experience across devices. Grab some merch, get a demo, and connect directly with the developers.

Thursday, May 29 @ 1:00 PM

• Primal Meetup: Dive into Primal, the slickest Nostr experience available on web, Android, and iOS. With a built-in wallet, zapping your favorite creators and friends has never been easier. The team will be on-site for hands-on demos, Q\&A, merch giveaways, and deeper discussions on building the social layer of Bitcoin.

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🎙️ Nostr Talks at Bitcoin 2025

If you want to hear from the minds building decentralized social, make sure you attend these two official conference sessions:

1. FROSTR Workshop: Multisig Nostr Signing

• 🕚 Time: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM

• 📅 Date: Wednesday, May 28

• 📍 Location: Developer Zone

• 🎤 Speaker: nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgdwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkcqpqs9etjgzjglwlaxdhsveq0qksxyh6xpdpn8ajh69ruetrug957r3qf4ggfm (Austin Kelsay) @ Voltage\ A deep-dive into FROST-based multisig key management for Nostr. Geared toward devs and power users interested in key security.

2. Panel: Decentralizing Social Media

• 🕑 Time: 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM

• 📅 Date: Thursday, May 29

• 📍 Location: Genesis Stage

• 🎙️ Moderator: nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqy08wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttjv4kxz7fwv3jhyettwfhhxuewd4jsqgxnqajr23msx5malhhcz8paa2t0r70gfjpyncsqx56ztyj2nyyvlq00heps - Bitcoin Strategy @ Roxom TV

• 👥 Speakers:

• nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qqsy2ga7trfetvd3j65m3jptqw9k39wtq2mg85xz2w542p5dhg06e5qmhlpep – Early Bitcoin dev, CEO @ Sirius Business Ltd

• nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytndv9kxjm3wdahxcqg5waehxw309ahx7um5wfekzarkvyhxuet5qqsw4v882mfjhq9u63j08kzyhqzqxqc8tgf740p4nxnk9jdv02u37ncdhu7e3 – Analyst & Partner @ Ego Death Capital

Get the big-picture perspective on why decentralized social matters and how Nostr fits into the future of digital communication.

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🌃 NOS VEGAS Meetup & Afterparty

Date: Wednesday, May 28\ Time: 7:00 PM – 1:00 AM\ Location: We All Scream Nightclub, 517 Fremont St., Las Vegas, NV 89101\ 🎟️ Get Tickets!

What to Expect:

• 🎶 Live Music Stage – Featuring Ainsley Costello, Sara Jade, Able James, Martin Groom, Bobby Shell, Jessie Lark, and other V4V artists

• 🪩 DJ Party Deck – With sets by nostr:nprofile1qy0hwumn8ghj7cmgdae82uewd45kketyd9kxwetj9e3k7mf6xs6rgqgcwaehxw309ahx7um5wgh85mm694ek2unk9ehhyecqyq7hpmq75krx2zsywntgtpz5yzwjyg2c7sreardcqmcp0m67xrnkwylzzk4 , nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgkwaehxw309anx2etywvhxummnw3ezucnpdejqqg967faye3x6fxgnul77ej23l5aew8yj0x2e4a3tq2mkrgzrcvecfsk8xlu3 , and more DJs throwing down

• 🛰️ Live-streamed via Tunestr

• 🧠 Nostr Education – Talks by nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq37amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3dwfjkccte9ejx2un9ddex7umn9ekk2tcqyqlhwrt96wnkf2w9edgr4cfruchvwkv26q6asdhz4qg08pm6w3djg3c8m4j , nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqg7waehxw309anx2etywvhxummnw3ezucnpdejz7ur0wp6kcctjqqspywh6ulgc0w3k6mwum97m7jkvtxh0lcjr77p9jtlc7f0d27wlxpslwvhau , nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3vamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wd33xgetk9en82m30qqsgqke57uygxl0m8elstq26c4mq2erz3dvdtgxwswwvhdh0xcs04sc4u9p7d , nostr:nprofile1q9z8wumn8ghj7erzx3jkvmmzw4eny6tvw368wdt8da4kxamrdvek76mrwg6rwdngw94k67t3v36k77tev3kx7vn2xa5kjem9dp4hjepwd3hkxctvqyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2qpqyaul8k059377u9lsu67de7y637w4jtgeuwcmh5n7788l6xnlnrgssuy4zk , nostr:nprofile1qy28wue69uhnzvpwxqhrqt33xgmn5dfsx5cqz9thwden5te0v4jx2m3wdehhxarj9ekxzmnyqqswavgevxe9gs43vwylumr7h656mu9vxmw4j6qkafc3nefphzpph8ssvcgf8 , and more.

• 🧾 Vendors & Project Booths – Explore new tools and services

• 🔐 Onboarding Stations – Learn how to use Nostr hands-on

• 🐦 Nostrich Flocking – Meet your favorite nyms IRL

• 🍸 Three Full Bars – Two floors of socializing overlooking vibrant Fremont Street

| | | | | ----------- | -------------------- | ------------------- | | Time | Name | Topic | | 7:30-7:50 | Derek | Nostr for Beginners | | 8:00-8:20 | Mark & Paul | Primal | | 8:30-8:50 | Terry | Damus | | 9:00-9:20 | OpenMike and Ainsley | V4V | | 09:30-09:50 | The Space | Space |

This is the after-party of the year for those who love freedom technology and decentralized social community. Don’t miss it.

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Final Thoughts

Whether you're there to learn, network, party, or build, Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas has a packed week of Nostr-friendly programming. Be sure to catch all the events, visit the Nostr Lounge, and experience the growing decentralized social revolution.

🟣 Find us. Flock with us. Purple pill someone.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

News

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

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

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

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

Use the tools

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

Source: Aqua wallet.

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

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

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

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

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

Seria possível um short squeeze na MicroStrategy, similar ao da Metaplanet?

Com aquela dimensão, eu acho pouco provável, mas um mais pequeno é bem possível. O Metaplanet valorizou mais de 300% em dois dias, é incrível.

Nestas empresas de Bitcoin Treasury Companies, como a MicroStrategy e a Metaplanet, o rastilho para o short squeeze é uma forte valorização do Bitcoin no mercado spot. É o Bitcoin que dá a volatilidade à ação.

A MicroStrategy tem um marketcap de $64B, é demasiado grande para ter valorização desta amplitude em tão pouco tempo. Além disso, existem outros fatores que poderão minimizar o impato do short squeeze.

Saylor, certamente iria aproveitar a oportunidade para emitir novas ações para gerar mais liquidez. Seria algo similar ao que a GameStop fez, ao emitir de novas ações, permitiu minimizar o short squeeze e gerou um caixa de $4B.

Depois existe um outro grupo de investidores, que é enorme, tem uma estratégia especulativa de capturar o NAV, ou seja, de estar short em MicroStrategy e long em Bitcoin.

Caso exista um short squeeze, as shorts seriam liquidadas, consequentemente as longs também, isso provocaria uma pressão de venda de Bitcoin, a valorização será minimizada. Isso reduz imenso a volatilidade do Bitcoin.

Claro que 300% não é possível, mas até 100% é bem possível.

Agora o ponto interesante, se o Saylor ficasse com os bolsos bem recheados, o que ele faria?

Todos nós sabemos qual é a resposta, claramente ele iria comprar ainda mais Bitcoin. Apesar de eu preferir que ele utilize essa liquidez para reduzir as notas conversíveis da empresa. Eu acho que ele já tem demasiado Bitcoin, a centralização nunca é boa, ainda mais agora, que já existem outras empresas que prestam serviços similares.

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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.

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

@ 3f68dede:779bb81d

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) September 16, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

Live Free or Die.

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

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

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

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

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

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@ 3f68dede:779bb81d

@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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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@ 3f68dede:779bb81d

testing schedule

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

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

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

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@ 0e9491aa:ef2adadf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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testing schedule

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testing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

A group of users has filed a class action lawsuit against Coinbase, claiming that its identity verification checks violate the state’s biometric privacy law.

According to plaintiffs Scott Bernstein, Gina Greeder, and James Lonergan in the lawsuit filed on May 13 in a federal court, Coinbase’s “indiscriminate collection” of facial biometric data for Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements breaches Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

The group argued that the exchange failed to notify users in writing about the collection, storage, or sharing of their biometric data, as well as the purpose and retention schedule for such data. “Coinbase does not publicly provide a retention schedule or guidelines for permanently destroying Plaintiffs’ biometric identifiers as specified by BIPA,” they alleged.

The complaint claims that Coinbase requires users to verify their identity by uploading a government-issued ID and a selfie, which is then sent to third-party facial recognition software to scan and extract facial geometry. This process captures biometric identifiers without the users’ informed written consent, thus violating BIPA, according to the lawsuit.

Additionally, the group alleged that Coinbase unlawfully shared biometric data with third-party verification providers such as Jumio, Onfido, Au10tix, and Solaris without users’ consent. “Coinbase ‘obtains’ biometric data in violation of [BIPA] because it explicitly directed the Third Party Verification Providers to use its software to verify and authenticate users, including Plaintiffs, and its software does so by collecting biometric data,” the complaint read.

The group also stated that over 10,000 individuals have filed arbitration demands on these issues with the American Arbitration Association, but Coinbase allegedly refused to pay the required arbitration fees, causing the claims to be dismissed.

Legal demands

The lawsuit brings three counts of biometric privacy law violations and one count of consumer fraud under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. The group seeks $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation, $1,000 for each negligent violation, along with injunctive relief and litigation costs.

Coinbase was also recently hit by at least six lawsuits following the May 15 disclosure that some of its customer support agents were allegedly bribed to leak user data.

The post Lawsuit against Coinbase for biometric privacy violations in Illinois appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

According to CEO Jamie Dimon, the banking giant will open the door to spot Bitcoin ETFs.

As reported by CNBC, JPMorgan has announced that it will allow its clients to buy Bitcoin, without offering custody services. The bank will give clients access to exchange-traded funds (spot ETFs) on Bitcoin, according to sources familiar with the matter.

During a recent investor event, CEO Jamie Dimon confirmed that the bank will open up to Bitcoin for its clients, while refraining from taking on the responsibility of asset custody. “I am not a fan” of Bitcoin, Dimon clarified during the event.

This decision marks a shift from the position Dimon held in 2017, when he labeled Bitcoin a “fraud,” compared it to the tulip mania bubble, and predicted its imminent collapse. At the time, Dimon had even threatened to fire any JPMorgan employee caught trading Bitcoin, calling such activity “stupid” and against company policy.

Despite this operational turnaround, Dimon continues to personally maintain a skeptical stance toward the cryptocurrency. In a 2024 interview with CNBC, he stated he no longer wanted to discuss Bitcoin publicly, emphasizing that, in his view, it lacks “intrinsic value” and is used for criminal activities such as sex trafficking, money laundering, and ransomware.

These comments from Dimon contrast with the recent optimism shown by JPMorgan analysts regarding Bitcoin’s market prospects. According to reports from the bank, Bitcoin could continue gaining ground at the expense of gold in the second half of the year, driven by rising corporate demand and growing support from various U.S. states.

The post JPMorgan to allow clients to buy Bitcoin ETFs: no custody services appeared first on Atlas21.

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testing schedule

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A Chinese printer company inadvertently distributed malware that steals Bitcoin through its official drivers, resulting in the theft of over $950,000.

According to local media outlet Landian News, a Chinese printer manufacturer was found to have unknowingly distributed malware designed to steal Bitcoin through its official device drivers.

Procolored, a Shenzhen-based printer company, distributed malware capable of stealing Bitcoin alongside the official drivers for its devices. The company reportedly used USB devices to spread infected drivers and uploaded the compromised software to globally accessible cloud storage services.

Crypto security and compliance firm SlowMist explained how the malware works in a post on X:

The official driver provided by this printer carries a backdoor program. It will hijack the wallet address in the user's clipboard and replace it with the attacker's address: 1BQZKqdp2CV3QV5nUEsqSg1ygegLmqRygj

According to @MistTrack_io, the attacker has stolen 9.3086… https://t.co/DHCkEpHhuH pic.twitter.com/W1AnUpswLU

— MistTrack (@MistTrack_io) May 19, 2025

The consequences of the breach have been significant, with a total of 9.3 BTC stolen — equivalent to over $950,000.

The issue was first flagged by YouTuber Cameron Coward, whose antivirus software detected malware in the drivers during a test of a Procolored UV printer. The software identified both a worm and a trojan virus named Foxif.

When contacted, Procolored denied the accusations, dismissing the antivirus warning as a false positive. Coward then turned to Reddit, where he shared the issue with cybersecurity professionals, drawing the attention of security firm G Data.

G Data’s investigation revealed that most of Procolored’s drivers were hosted on the MEGA file-sharing platform, with uploads dating back to October 2023. Their analysis confirmed the presence of two separate malware strains: the Win32.Backdoor.XRedRAT.A backdoor and a crypto-stealer designed to replace clipboard wallet addresses with those controlled by the attacker.

G Data reached out to Procolored, which stated that it had removed the infected drivers from its storage as of May 8 and had re-scanned all files. The company attributed the malware to a supply chain compromise, saying the malicious files were introduced via infected USB devices before being uploaded online.

Landian News recommended that users who downloaded Procolored drivers in the past six months “immediately run a full system scan using antivirus software.” However, given that antivirus tools are not always reliable, the Chinese media outlet suggested that a full system reset is the safest option when in doubt.

The post Bitcoin malware discovered: Chinese printer manufacturer involved appeared first on Atlas21.

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Vivek Ramaswamy’s company bets on distressed bitcoin claims as its Bitcoin treasury strategy moves forward.

Strive Enterprises, an asset management firm co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, is exploring the acquisition of distressed bitcoin claims, with particular interest in around 75,000 BTC tied to the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate. This move is part of the company’s broader strategy to build a Bitcoin treasury ahead of its planned merger with Asset Entities.

According to a document filed on May 20 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Strive has partnered with 117 Castell Advisory Group to “identify and evaluate” distressed Bitcoin claims with confirmed legal judgments. Among these are approximately 75,000 BTC connected to Mt. Gox, with an estimated market value of $8 billion at current prices.

Essentially, Strive aims to acquire rights to bitcoins currently tied up in legal disputes, which can be purchased at a discount by those willing to take on the risk and wait for eventual recovery.

In a post on X, Strive’s CFO, Ben Pham, stated:

“Strive intends to use all available mechanisms, including novel financial strategies not used by other Bitcoin treasury companies, to maximize its exposure to the asset.”

The company also plans to buy cash at a discount by merging with publicly traded companies holding more cash than their stock value, using the excess funds to purchase additional Bitcoin.

Mt. Gox, the exchange that collapsed in 2014, is currently in the process of repaying creditors, with a deadline set for October 31, 2025.

In its SEC filing, Strive declared:

“This strategy is intended to allow Strive the opportunity to purchase Bitcoin exposure at a discount to market price, enhancing Bitcoin per share and supporting its goal of outperforming Bitcoin over the long run.”

At the beginning of May, Strive announced its merger plan with Asset Entities, a deal that would create the first publicly listed asset management firm focused on Bitcoin. The resulting company aims to join the growing number of firms adopting a Bitcoin treasury strategy.

The corporate treasury trend

Strive’s initiative to accumulate bitcoin mirrors that of other companies like Strategy and Japan’s Metaplanet. On May 19, Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, announced the purchase of an additional 7,390 BTC for $764.9 million, raising its total holdings to 576,230 BTC. On the same day, Metaplanet revealed it had acquired another 1,004 BTC, increasing its total to 7,800 BTC.

The post Bitcoin in Strive’s sights: 75,000 BTC from Mt. Gox among its targets appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

According to the ECB Executive Board member, the launch of the digital euro depends on the timing of the EU regulation.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is making progress in preparing for the digital euro. According to Piero Cipollone, ECB Executive Board member and coordinator of the project, the technical phase “is proceeding quickly and on schedule,” but moving to operational implementation still requires political approval of the regulation at the European level.

Speaking at the ‘Voices on the Future’ event organized by Ansa and Asvis, Cipollone outlined a possible timeline:

“If the regulation is approved at the start of 2026 — in the best-case scenario for the European legislative process — we could see the first transactions with the digital euro by mid-2028.”

Cipollone also highlighted Europe’s current dependence on electronic payment systems managed by non-European companies:

“Today in Europe, whenever we don’t use cash, any transaction online or at the supermarket has to go through credit cards, with their fees. The payment system relies on companies that aren’t based in Europe. You can see why it would make sense to have a system fully under our control.”

For the ECB board member, the digital euro would act as a direct alternative to cash in the digital world, working like “a banknote you can spend anywhere in Europe for any purpose.”

The digital euro project is part of the ECB’s broader strategy to strengthen the independence of Europe’s financial system. According to Cipollone and the Central Bank, Europe’s digital currency would be a key step toward greater autonomy in electronic payments, reducing reliance on infrastructure and services outside the European Union.

The post ECB: digital euro by mid-2028, says Cipollone appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

A new study reveals: 4 out of 5 Americans would like the US to convert some of its gold into Bitcoin.

A recent survey conducted by the Nakamoto Project revealed that a majority of Americans support converting a portion of the United States’ gold reserves into Bitcoin. The survey, carried out online by Qualtrics between February and March 2025, involved 3,345 participants with demographic characteristics representative of US census standards. Most respondents expressed a desire to convert between 1% and 30% of the gold reserves into BTC.

Troy Cross, co-founder of the Nakamoto Project, stated:

“When given a slider and asked to advise the US government on the right proportion of Bitcoin and gold, subjects were very reluctant to put that slider on 0% Bitcoin and 100% gold. Instead, they settled around 10% Bitcoin.”

One significant finding from the research is the correlation between age and openness to Bitcoin: younger respondents showed a greater inclination toward the cryptocurrency compared to older generations.

A potential US strategy

Bo Hines, a White House advisor, is promoting an initiative for the Treasury Department to acquire Bitcoin by selling off a portion of its gold. Under the proposed plan, the government could acquire up to 1 million BTC over the next five years.

To finance these purchases, the government plans to sell Federal Reserve gold certificates. The proposal aligns with Senator Cynthia Lummis’ 2025 Bitcoin Act, which aims to declare Bitcoin a critical national strategic asset.

Currently, the United States holds 8,133 metric tons of gold, valued at over $830 billion, and about 200,000 BTC, valued at $21 billion.

The post The majority in the US wants to convert part of the gold reserves into Bitcoin appeared first on Atlas21.

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@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The exchange reveals the extent of the breach that occurred last December as federal authorities investigate the recent data leak.

Coinbase has disclosed that the personal data of 69,461 users was compromised during the breach in December 2024, according to documentation filed with the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

The disclosure comes after Coinbase announced last week that a group of hackers had demanded a $20 million ransom, threatening to publish the stolen data on the dark web. The attackers allegedly bribed overseas customer service agents to extract information from the company’s systems.

Coinbase had previously stated that the breach affected less than 1% of its user base, compromising KYC (Know Your Customer) data such as names, addresses, and email addresses. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company clarified that passwords, private keys, and user funds were not affected.

Following the reports, the SEC has reportedly opened an official investigation to verify whether Coinbase may have inflated user metrics ahead of its 2021 IPO. Separately, the Department of Justice is investigating the breach at Coinbase’s request, according to CEO Brian Armstrong.

Meanwhile, Coinbase has faced criticism for its delayed response to the data breach. Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, stated that the stolen data could cause irreparable harm. In a post on X, Arrington wrote:

“The human cost, denominated in misery, is much larger than the $400m or so they think it will actually cost the company to reimburse people. The consequences to companies who do not adequately protect their customer information should include, without limitation, prison time for executives.”

Coinbase estimates the incident could cost between $180 million and $400 million in remediation expenses and customer reimbursements.

Arrington also condemned KYC laws as ineffective and dangerous, calling on both regulators and companies to better protect user data:

“Combining these KYC laws with corporate profit maximization and lax laws on penalties for hacks like these means these issues will continue to happen. Both governments and corporations need to step up to stop this. As I said, the cost can only be measured in human suffering.”

The post Coinbase: 69,461 users affected by December 2024 data breach appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Bitcoin adoption will come through businesses: neither governments nor banks will lead the revolution.

In recent years, it’s undeniable that Bitcoin has ceased to be just a radical idea born from the minds of cypherpunks. It is now recognized across the board as a global asset, discussed in the upper echelons of finance, accepted even on Wall Street, purchased by banking groups and included as a “strategic reserve” by some nations.

However, the general perception that hovers today regarding Bitcoin’s diffusion is still that of minimal adoption, almost insignificant. Bitcoin exists, certainly, but in fact it is not being used. It is rarely possible to pay in satoshis in commercial establishments. Demand is still extremely low.

Furthermore, the debate on Bitcoin is still practically absent: excluding some local events, some niche media outlets or some timid discussion, today Bitcoin is in fact excluded from general interest. The level of understanding and knowledge of the phenomenon is certainly still very low.

Yet, Bitcoin represents an unprecedented technological improvement, capable of solving many problems inherent in the fiat system in which we live. What could facilitate its diffusion?

Bitcoin becomes familiar when businesses adopt it

When talking about Bitcoin adoption, many look to States. They imagine governments that legislate or accumulate Bitcoin as a “strategic reserve,” or banks perceived as forward-thinking that would lead technological change, opening up to innovation. But the reality is different: bureaucracy, political constraints, and fear of losing control inherently prevent States and central banks from being pioneers.

What really drives Bitcoin adoption are not States, but businesses. It is the forward-looking entrepreneurs, innovative startups and – eventually – even large multinational companies that decide to integrate Bitcoin into their operating systems that drive adoption. Indeed, the business world has always played a key role in the adoption of new technologies. This was the case, for example, with the internet, e-commerce, mobile telephony, and the cloud. It will also be the case with Bitcoin.

Unlike a State, when a company adopts Bitcoin, it does so for concrete reasons: efficiency, savings, protection, access to new markets, independence from traditional banking circuits, or bureaucratic streamlining. It is a rational choice, not an ideological one, dictated by the intent to improve one’s competitiveness against the competition to survive in the market.

What is currently missing to facilitate adoption is, in all likelihood, a significant number of businesses that have decided to integrate Bitcoin into their company systems.

Bitcoin becomes “normal” when it is integrated into the operational flow of businesses. Holding and framing bitcoin on the balance sheet, paying an invoice, paying salaries to employees in satoshis, making value transfers globally thanks to the blockchain, allowing customers to pay via Lightning Network… when all this becomes possible with the same simplicity with which we use the euro or the dollar, Bitcoin stops being alternative and becomes the standard.

Businesses are not just users. They are adoption multipliers. When a company chooses Bitcoin, it is automatically proposing it to customers, employees, suppliers, and institutional stakeholders. Each business adoption equals tens, hundreds, or thousands of new eyes on Bitcoin.

People, after all, trust what they see every day: if your trusted restaurant accepts bitcoin, or if your favorite e-commerce platform uses it to receive international payments, or if your colleague receives it as a salary, then Bitcoin no longer appears to be a mysterious object. It finally begins to be perceived as a real, useful, and functioning tool.

The integration of a technology in companies helps make it understandable, accessible, and legitimate in the eyes of the public. This is how distrust is overcome: by making Bitcoin visible in daily life.

Bitcoin and businesses today

A River Financial report estimates that as of May 2025, only 5% of bitcoin is currently owned by private businesses. A still very small number.

According to research by River, in May 2025 businesses hold just over a million btc (about 5% of available monetary units). More than two-thirds of bitcoin (68.2%) are in the hands of private individuals.

To promote Bitcoin adoption, it is necessary today to support businesses in integrating this standard, leveraging all its enormous opportunities. Among others, this technology allows for fast, economical, and global payments. It eliminates intermediaries, increases transparency and security in value transfers. It removes bureaucratic frictions and allows opening up to a new global market.

Every sector can benefit from Bitcoin: e-commerce, tourism, industry, restaurants, professional services, or any other business. Bitcoin revolutionizes the concept of money, and money is a transversal working tool.

We are still at the beginning, but several signals are encouraging. According to a study by Bitwise and reported by Atlas21, in the first quarter of 2025, a growing number of US companies (+16.11% compared to the previous one) are including Bitcoin in their balance sheets, not just as a financial bet, but as a long-term strategy to protect their assets and access a decentralized monetary system to transfer value worldwide without resorting to financial intermediaries.

Who is driving the change?

Echoing the words of Roy Sheinfeld, CEO of Breez, the true potential of Bitcoin will be unleashed first and foremost from the work of developers, the true architects in designing and refining tools that are increasingly simple and intuitive to use for anyone, regardless of level of expertise. It is the developers – Roy rightly argued – who will enable us to “conquer the world.”

But probably that’s not enough: the next step is to make Bitcoin a globally accepted technological standard, changing its perception towards the general public. And this is where businesses come into play.

Guided by the market, technological innovation, and the desire to meet user demands, entrepreneurs today represent the fulcrum to accelerate the monetary transition from the current fiat system towards the Bitcoin standard. It is entrepreneurs who transform innovations from opportunities for a few to a reality shared by many.

The adoption of Bitcoin will therefore not arise from a sudden event, nor from the exclusive fruit of enthusiasts’ enthusiasm or from arbitrary political choices decreed by States or regulators.

The future of Bitcoin is built in the places where value is created every day: in companies, in their systems, and in their strategic decisions.

“If we conquer developers, we conquer the world. If we conquer businesses, we conquer adoption.”

The post The key to Bitcoin adoption is businesses appeared first on Atlas21.

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Governor Abbott will have to decide whether to sign the bill establishing a bitcoin reserve for the state.

Texas could become the third U.S. state to set up a strategic bitcoin reserve, following the approval of Senate Bill 21 by the state House, with 101 votes in favor and 42 against.

Lee Bratcher, founder and president of the Texas Blockchain Council, expressed confidence that Governor Greg Abbott will sign the legislative measure. In an interview with The Block, Bratcher said:

“I’ve talked to the governor about this personally, and I think he wants to see Texas lead in this way.”

The bill is expected to reach the governor’s desk within a week or two, according to Bratcher’s projections. If signed, Texas would follow in the footsteps of New Hampshire and Arizona in creating a state-held bitcoin reserve.

Despite Texas ranking as the world’s eighth-largest economy — ahead of many nations — the initial approach to the reserve will be cautious. Bratcher estimates the starting investment will be in the “tens of millions of dollars,” an amount he describes as “modest” for an economy the size of Texas. The responsibility for operational decisions would fall to the state comptroller, who acts as an executive accountant in charge of managing and investing public funds.

“My sense is that it will be in the tens of millions of dollars, which, while it sounds significant, is a very modest amount, for a state the size of Texas.” explained the president of the Texas Blockchain Council.

The road to approval

According to Bratcher, the idea of creating a state bitcoin reserve dates back to 2022 and represents the culmination of years of work by the Texas Blockchain Council. The organization has worked closely with lawmakers who shared the vision of seeing the state accumulate the world’s leading cryptocurrency. Additionally, Texas has long been home to numerous bitcoin mining companies.

The post Texas one step away from a bitcoin reserve: only the governor’s signature is missing appeared first on Atlas21.

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

Passou alguns dias, após as eleições legislativas, a cabeça está mais fria, é um bom momento para um rescaldo e para um pouco de futurologia. Esta análise vai ser limitada apenas aos grandes partidos.

Podemos resumir esta eleição, numa única palavra: Terramoto.

A AD ganhou, mas o grande destaque foi a queda do PS e a subida do Chega. Se a governação do país estava difícil, agora com este novo desenho da assembleia, será quase impossível, piorou bastante. Neste momento, ainda falta contabilizar os votos da emigração, mas o mais provável é o Chega ultrapassar o PS.

A queda do PS foi tremenda, ninguém esperava tal coisa, o partido está em estado de choque. O partido vai necessitar de tempo para estabilizar e para se reconstruir.

Devido a motivos constitucionais (6 meses antes e 6 meses depois da eleição do presidente da República) só poderá existir eleições no final do próximo ano, isso garante que o novo governo da AD vai estar no poder pelo menos um ano. Isso vai obrigar a aprovação do próximo orçamento de estado, como o PS necessita de tirar os holofotes sobre si, vai facilitar o governo. Provavelmente vai existir um acordo de cavalheiro, um pacto de não agressão entre o governo e o PS, o PS vai se abster na votação do orçamento de estado e a governo não fará mudanças na constituição sem o consentimento do PS e também não mudará leis ou políticas que sejam contra os princípios básicos do partido socialista. Em suma, não haverá grandes reformas, será um governo de gestão com ligeiramente mais poderes.

Não será um governo de bloco central, nem um governo da AD com apoio PS, será apenas um governo da AD com uma falsa oposição do PS. Um governo de bloco central, é uma bomba nuclear, ainda seria demasiado cedo para utilizá-la.

O Partido Socialista sabe que, para ter algumas hipóteses de vencer a próxima eleição, necessita de estar bem e o governo da AD tem que demonstrar algum desgaste, uma queda na popularidade. Eu não acredito que um ano seja suficiente, talvez, seja necessário 2 anos. Isto significa que o país poderá ficar estagnado 1 ou 2 anos, se o governo não conseguir fazer grandes reformas, se os cidadãos não virem/sentirem sinais de mudança, vai dar ainda mais força ao Chega.

Eu acredito que o ponto chave, é a imigração, o governo terá que demonstrar muito trabalho e minimizar o problema, para “esvaziar” um pouco o Chega, caso não faça será um problema.

XXVI Governo

Assim, nessa próxima eleição, talvez em 2027, acredito que as percentagens ficarão mais ou menos como esta eleição, com um partido ligeiramente à frente e os outros dois mais equilibrados. Só que o vencedor seria o Chega, ficando a AD(provavelmente o PSD) e o PS a disputa pelo 2º lugar.

Seria um novo terramoto, mas aqui seria necessário utilizar a bomba nuclear, iria surgir uma nova geringonça. Apesar da vitória do Ventura, iria surgir o governo bloco central, com o PSD e PS, não haveria outra alternativa.

O governo de bloco central, teria que ser muito competente, porque se não o for, iria para novas eleições. Se o governo for um fiasco, PS corre o risco de ser esvaziado, cairá ainda mais, correrá um risco de existência, poderá tornar-se num partido insignificante na nossa política.

XXVII Governo

Agora o terramoto ainda maior, nessa futura eleição, o Chega venceria com maioria absoluta, aí sim, seria um verdadeiro terramoto, ao nível de 1755.

O Chega tem o tempo a seu fazer, tem uma forte penetração nos jovens. Cada jovem que faça 18 anos, existe uma forte possibilidade de ser eleitor do Chega, o seu oposto, acontece com o PCP e o PS, os mais velhos vão morrendo, não existe renovação geracional. Mas o ponto fulcral é a ausência de competência generalizada nos partidos e políticos que têm governado o nosso país nos últimos anos, o descontentamento da população é completo. Esses políticos vivem na sua bolha, não tem noção do mundo real, nem compreendem quais são os problemas das pessoas simples, do cidadão comum.

Ventura

Na minha opinião só existirá três situações, que poderão travar as ascensão do André Ventura a primeiro-ministro:

• Ou existe um óptimo governo, que crie um bom crescimento na qualidade de vida das pessoas e que resolva os 3 problemas que mais anseiam actualmente os portugueses: Habitação, Saúde e Imigração. A probabilidade de isso acontecer é quase nula.
• Ou se o André Ventura desistir, a batalha será muito longa e ele poderá ficar cansado. Pouco provável.
• Ou então, um Argumentum ad hominem, terá que surgir algo, factos concretos que manche a imagem do André Ventura, que destrua por completo a sua reputação.

---

É a minha a linha leitura da bola de cristal, poderão dizer é uma visão pessimista, eu acho que é realista e pragmática, não vejo qualquer competência na classe política para resolver os problemas do país. Esta é a opinião de um recorrente crítico do Chega.

@ 3f68dede:779bb81d

testing schedule

@ 3f68dede:779bb81d

testing schedule

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

We are all supposed to share Jesus and His word with those around us. We are called to:

but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15)

We should daily pray to God, read the Bible, and share Jesus with others. Some Christians will choose to go into full-time service to God. They will be pastors or missionaries. They will work for churches, Christian schools, and other Christian ministries. Of course, not everyone will make serving Jesus a career. That doesn’t mean the non-career Christians have no job to do. We are all to be a light to this world.

There is one ministry, though, that I’d argue is most important: sharing the gospel with and discipling our children.

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

This passage may have been written in the Old Testament, but I’d argue that it is even more true now that we have the truth of Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth, and the life.” If the Jews were called to diligently teach their kids the law, how much more should Christians diligently teach their kids the wonderous works and words of Jesus?

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

We should be so excited about what Jesus has done for us that it flows out of us in our daily lives. We should have a strong desire to learn God’s word and to share it with others, especially our children. We should share our excitement about Jesus with our kids. We should share our gratefulness for all Jesus has done for us. We should share our excitement about doing God’s work. Our children should see our faith in all we do and say.

Taking our kids to church Sunday morning and to Sunday school or youth group once a week is not going to teach our kids the importance of faith in Jesus. Praying openly at meals, at bedtime, when we hear about someone in need, and when a difficult situation happens teaches our kids to rely on Jesus. Reading our Bibles in front of our kids and doing daily devotions (at whatever time works for you, but we do evenings) teaches them the importance of the Scriptures. Acting according to a Biblical worldview and taking the time to explain to our kids the answers to the hard questions when the culture contradicts the Bible. This may mean taking the time to research answers to your kids’ questions because you don’t know the answer. Being patient with our kids, and even apologizing to them when we fail, teaches them to be humble and to repent. As the old saying goes, “morals are caught more than taught.” Also faith in Jesus is caught more than taught.

We need to live Godly lives that are different than the culture, remembering that our children are always watching, even when they are quite young and can’t articulate what they are learning.

We need to actively teach God’s word. This may be summarizing principles when they are young, but as soon as possible, this should include reading God’s word to our kids. (My daily reading is usually in an NASB Bible, but it is difficult for a young child to understand with its long, complex sentences, so I recommend something like the NLT Bible for children.)

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. (Deuteronomy 6:1-2) {emphasis mine}

We want to share all of our knowledge of God and the Bible with our kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. We want to disciple our kids into strong faith in God and knowledge of the Bible, so they are capable of training their kids and their grandkids. We want to multiply faith in our families.

It is definitely good to have scheduled, intentional times of training our kids about the Bible. This could be part of homeschooling (which I strongly recommend). This could be family devotions, but we want teaching our kids about God to be just a natural part of life.

You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 11:19)

Talking about what God has done in our lives, what we have learned about in our personal Bible study, and how the Bible relates to things we see in life should all naturally flow out of our interactions together. Talk about what the Bible says about a subject you hear on the news. Talk about what the Bible says about what is happening in a movie you watch. Talk about what the Bible says about the decisions you and your kids are having to make. Talk about what the Bible says about your kids’ relationship with each other and their friends and parents. God should be a normal part of everything in life.

We also want to make sure our actions don’t drive our kids away from God.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

The Bible does not make light of our need to train our kids in faith.

Discipline your son while there is hope, And do not desire his death. (Proverbs 19:18)

This is so important that failure to train up our kids in faith is considered desiring our kid’s death.

God finds this training so critical, He also addresses it from the kid’s point of view and commands them to listen to their parent’s teaching.

My son, give attention to my words;\ Incline your ear to my sayings.\ Do not let them depart from your sight;\ Keep them in the midst of your heart.\ For they are life to those who find them\ And health to all their body.\ Watch over your heart with all diligence,\ For from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:20-23)

In Proverbs 31, the Bible gives the best explanation of a Godly woman and mother.

She opens her mouth in wisdom,\ And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.\ She looks well to the ways of her household,\ And does not eat the bread of idleness.\ *Her children rise up and bless her*;\ Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:\ “Many daughters have done nobly,\ But you excel them all.” (Proverbs 31:26-29)

A Mom should continually “open her mouth in wisdom,” and teach kindly. A mother who fulfills this commandment faithfully is promised that “Her children rise up and bless her.” Being loved and appreciated by our kids is a wonderful blessing, but even greater is knowing that we will see our children with us in heaven.

May God guide you and encourage you as you teach, train, and discipline your kids to know their God, Creator, and Savior.

Trust Jesus.

@ 662f9bff:8960f6b2

This past week I have been very busy in Holywood - just outside Belfast, Northern Ireland with a lot to do on top of my day-job! It was an unplanned trip but mission accomplished and we are off on the road again. I am writing this on my 3h30 Ryanair flight - so even in weeks like this you can find time to reflect quietly and think clearly if you look for it and seize the opportunity.

You might have noticed that I have "rebranded" the website and newsletter as "Letter From ...around the world". This reflects the reality that Hong Kong is not currently the "Asia World City" and I am not there. Whether it will ever reclaim that title again and when, or even if I can return remains to be seen. I am deeply saddened that after living 10 fabulous years in HK we had to abandon everything that Saturday night at the end of February.

This is the third time in my life that I have chosen Exit from "Loyalty, Voice or Exit" - (recall issue 09 - On Location).... Expect both Voice and Exit to become increasingly difficult or even unavailable in many jurisdictions. It is time to wake up. Talk to me if you are awake or curious!

One thing I learned back in 2004 on my first businss trip to New York is that "The way you react to a situation determines how you feel about it". This is one of so many insights that I learned from "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey. I found the book at 4pm in the afternoon walking around outside my hotel trying to stay up to overcome jet-lag. I got back to the hotel and proceeded to devour the entire book overnight. I had never done that with any book before and I do not think I have done it since. Look out for a full review in an upcoming newsletter.

Thanks to Ali Abdaal for his passionate and insightful review of "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon - clearly this is something that he has internalised and he does practice what he preaches. Indeed this is a short and easy read with many pictures and simple suggestions - recommended! I did read it on my Kindle and I am enjoying how the highlights automagically sync into Obsidian (see last week's find).

I was also inspired by Ali's How to Start a Youtube Channel explainer. I have been following Ali for about 5 years since he was a student doing these videos in his student room on his iPhone while studying Medicine in Cambridge. His passion for sharing his insights on how to study effectively as well as facilitating the learning that medical students needed to do enabled him to set up his own businesss. This set him on the road to his current 3 million subscribers and a business employing over a dozen people inspiring and helping others to acquire skills that are increasingly valuable in the the world today and going forward.

Over the coming months I will be experimenting with different channels and different media not only to discover new insights for myself but also to share things that I distill and find interesting. Also somewhat loosely inspired by "How to Get What you want and Want What You Have" by Jon Gray, I do recognize that I am now in the latter of the "Ten Time Periods" - if I had to pick one, I would say number 8 - at least that is how I feel!

So do subscribe to the newsletter and do follow along on Youtube. I'm obviously still in stage 1 of Ali's 3-stage process - so be patient and do give feedback, questions and suggestions!

Another day - another Airport...

That's it!

No one can be told what The Matrix is.\ You have to see it for yourself.**

Do share this newsletter with any of your friends and family who might be interested.

You can also email me at: LetterFrom@rogerprice.me

💡Enjoy the newsletters in your own language : Dutch, French, German, Serbian, Chinese Traditional & Simplified, Thai and Burmese.

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Bitcoin surpasses gold in the United States: 50 million holders and a dominant role in the global market.

According to a new report by River, for the first time in history, the number of Americans owning bitcoin has surpassed that of gold holders. The analysis reveals that approximately 50 million U.S. citizens currently own the cryptocurrency, while gold owners number 37 million. In fact, 14.3% of Americans own bitcoin, the highest percentage of holders worldwide.

Source: River

The report highlights that 40% of all Bitcoin-focused companies are based in the United States, consolidating America’s dominant position in the sector. Additionally, 40.5% of Bitcoin holders are men aged 31 to 35, followed by 35.9% of men aged 41 to 45. In contrast, only 13.4% of holders are women.

Source: River

Notably, U.S. companies hold 94.8% of all bitcoins owned by publicly traded companies worldwide. According to the report, recent regulatory changes in the U.S. have made the asset more accessible through financial products such as spot ETFs.

The document also shows that American investors increasingly view the cryptocurrency as protection against fiscal instability and inflation, appreciating its limited supply and decentralized governance model.

For River, Bitcoin offers significant practical advantages over gold in the modern digital era. Its ease of custody, cross-border transfer, and liquidity make the cryptocurrency an attractive option for both individual and institutional investors, the report suggests.

The post USA: 50 million Americans own bitcoin appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 90152b7f:04e57401

Wikileaks - S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001733 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2017 TAGS: PREL, PTER, MOPS, KWBG, LE, SY, IS SUBJECT: MILITARY INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR YADLIN COMMENTS ON GAZA, SYRIA AND LEBANON Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones, Reason 1.4 (b) (d)

2007 June 13

1. (S) Summary. During a June 12 meeting with the Ambassador, IDI Director MG Amos Yadlin said that Gaza was "number four" on his list of threats, preceded by Iran, Syria, and Hizballah in that order. Yadlin said the IDI has been predicting armed confrontation in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah since Hamas won the January 2006 legislative council elections. Yadlin felt that the Hamas military wing had initiated the current escalation with the tacit consent of external Hamas leader Khalid Mishal, adding that he did not believe there had been a premeditated political-level decision by Hamas to wipe out Fatah in Gaza. Yadlin dismissed Fatah's capabilities in Gaza, saying Hamas could have taken over there any time it wanted for the past year, but he agreed that Fatah remained strong in the West Bank. Although not necessarily reflecting a GOI consensus view, Yadlin said Israel would be "happy" if Hamas took over Gaza because the IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state. He dismissed the significance of an Iranian role in a Hamas-controlled Gaza "as long as they don't have a port." Regarding predictions of war with Syria this summer, Yadlin recalled the lead-up to the 1967 war, which he said was provoked by the Soviet Ambassador in Israel. Both Israel and Syria are in a state of high alert, so war could happen easily even though neither side is seeking it. Yadlin suggested that the Asad regime would probably not survive a war, but added that Israel was no longer concerned with maintaining that "evil" regime. On Lebanon, Yadlin felt that the fighting in the Nahr Al-Barid camp was a positive development for Israel since it had "embarrassed" Hizballah, adding that IDI had information that the Fatah Al-Islam terrorist group was planning to attack UNIFIL before it blundered into its confrontation with the LAF. End Summary.

Gaza Fighting Not Israel's Main Problem

---------------------------------------

2. (S) The Ambassador, accompanied by Pol Couns and DATT, called on IDI Director Major General Amos Yadlin June 12. Noting reports of fierce fighting between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza that day, the Ambassador asked for Yadlin's assessment. Yadlin described Gaza as "not Israel's main problem," noting that it ranked fourth in his hierarchy of threats, behind Iran, Syria, and Hizballah. Yadlin described Gaza as "hopeless for now," commenting that the Palestinians had to realize that Hamas offered no solution. IDI analysts, he said, had predicted a confrontation in Gaza since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Yadlin commented that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had become personally close despite their ideological differences, but neither leader had control over those forces under them.

3. (S) Yadlin explained that both Fatah and Hamas contained many factions. The Hamas military wing had been frustrated since the signing of the Mecca Agreement in January, but there were also many armed groups in Gaza that were not under the control of either party. Yadlin cited the example of the Dughmush clan, which had shifted from Fatah to the Popular Resistance Committees to Hamas before becoming an armed entity opposed to all of them. After May 15, the Hamas military wing had sought to export the fighting to Sderot by launching waves of Qassam rockets. One week later, as a result of IDF retaliation, they realized the price was too high and reduced the Qassam attacks.

4. (S) In response to the Ambassador's question, Yadlin said he did not think that day's Hamas attacks on Fatah security forces were part of a premeditated effort to wipe out Fatah in Gaza. Instead, they probably represented an initiative of the military wing with the tacit consent of Khalid Mishal in Damascus. Mishal was still considering the costs and benefits of the fighting, but the situation had become so tense that any incident could lead to street fighting without any political decision.

Gaza and West Bank Separating

-----------------------------

5. (S) The Ambassador asked Yadlin for his assessment of reports that Fatah forces had been ordered not to fight back. Yadlin said Mohammed Dahlan had 500 men and the Presidential Guard had 1,500 more. They understand that the balance of power favors Hamas, which "can take over Gaza any time it wants to." Yadlin said he would be surprised if Fatah fights, and even more surprised if they win. As far as he was concerned, this had been the case for the past year. The situation was different in the West Bank, however, where Fatah remained relatively strong and had even started to

TEL AVIV 00001733 002 OF 002

kidnap Hamas activists. Yadlin agreed that Tawfiq Tirawi had a power base in the West Bank, but he added that Fatah was not cohesive.

6. (S) The Ambassador commented that if Fatah decided it has lost Gaza, there would be calls for Abbas to set up a separate regime in the West Bank. While not necessarily reflecting a consensus GOI view, Yadlin commented that such a development would please Israel since it would enable the IDF to treat Gaza as a hostile country rather than having to deal with Hamas as a non-state actor. He added that Israel could work with a Fatah regime in the West Bank. The Ambassador asked Yadlin if he worried about a Hamas-controlled Gaza giving Iran a new opening. Yadlin replied that Iran was already present in Gaza, but Israel could handle the situation "as long as Gaza does not have a port (sea or air)."

War with Syria "Could Happen Easily"

------------------------------------

7. (S) Noting Israeli press speculation, the Ambassador asked Yadlin if he expected war with Syria this summer. Recalling the 1967 war, Yadlin commented that it had started as a result of the Soviet Ambassador in Israel reporting on non-existing Israeli preparations to attack Syria. Something similar was happening again, he said, with the Russians telling the Syrians that Israel planned to attack them, possibly in concert with a U.S. attack on Iran. Yadlin stated that since last summer's war in Lebanon, Syria had engaged in a "frenzy of preparations" for a confrontation with Israel. The Syrian regime was also showing greater self-confidence. Some Syrian leaders appeared to believe that Syria could take on Israel military, but others were more cautious. The fact that both sides were on high alert meant that a war could happen easily, even though neither side is seeking one. In response to a question, Yadlin said he did not think the Asad regime would survive a war, but he added that preserving that "evil" regime should not be a matter of concern.

Fighting in Nahr al-Barid Positive for Israel

---------------------------------------------

8. (S) The Ambassador asked Yadlin for his views on the fighting in the Nahr al-Barid refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Although Yadlin was called to another meeting and did not have time to elaborate, he answered that the fighting was positive for Israel because it had embarrassed Hizballah, which had been unable to adopt a clear-cut position on the Lebanese Army's action, and because the Fatah al-Islam terrorist organization had been planning to attack UNIFIL and then Israel before it blundered into its current confrontation with the LAF. He also agreed that the confrontation was strengthening the LAF, in fact and in the eyes of the Lebanese people, which was also good.

9. (S) Comment: Yadlin's relatively relaxed attitude toward the deteriorating security situation in Gaza represents a shift in IDF thinking from last fall, when the Southern Command supported a major ground operation into Gaza to remove the growing threat from Hamas. While many media commentators continue to make that argument, Yadlin's view appears to be more in synch with that of Chief of General Staff Ashkenazi, who also believes that the more serious threat to Israel currently comes from the north.

********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv

You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** JONES

@ c230edd3:8ad4a712

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

In this episode of TFTC, Andrew Myers, founder of Satoshi Energy, explores the convergence of AI, humanoid robots, Bitcoin, and decentralized energy, warning of a near future where self-replicating machines dominate energy and labor. Myers argues that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature offers a critical check against centralized AI power, enabling autonomous agents to transact freely and protecting individual sovereignty. Through his company’s work and its software BitCurrent, Myers promotes Bitcoin as both a tool for energy market efficiency and a foundation for preserving liberty in an AI-driven world.

Best Quotes

“Humanoid robots are going to not only replace most of the jobs people do today… they're going to be able to recreate themselves and self-replicate faster than that.”

“For me the key value proposition of Bitcoin is leveling the economic playing field. Rather than those who control the money printer making the economic decisions, it's everyday people.”

“AI energy demand is infinite. Bitcoin has a Nakamoto point… AI doesn’t.”

“Satoshi Energy’s mission is to enable every electric power company to use Bitcoin by block 1,050,000.”

“If you're a Bitcoiner and you're not using Fold, what are you doing? You're leaving sats on the table.”

“Tesla said machines would eventually fight wars for us. When that happens, nation-states become spectators. Bitcoin is how we avoid centralized control of those machines.”

“There’s already an energy company in Texas using Bitcoin as collateral in a power contract.”

“Are we auditioning for a galactic federation? Maybe. Even if not, we should still be acting like we are.”

Conclusion

Andrew Myers delivers a compelling vision of the future where exponential AI and energy growth demand a decentralized response—one rooted in Bitcoin as more than money, but as critical infrastructure for freedom. Through Satoshi Energy and tools like BitCurrent, Myers bridges big ideas with tangible actions, advocating for bottom-up sovereignty across energy and finance. His message is clear: decentralization is no longer optional—it’s essential for preserving human agency in an increasingly automated world.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:34 - Tesla’s AI energy theory
8:59 - Bitcoin and decentralization fixes AI
13:02 - Fold & Bitkey
14:38 - How Satoshi Energy is using AI
19:28 - Bit Current
23:13 - Unchained
23:42 - Revealing inefficiency
32:57 - Proliferating OS AI with bitcoin
36:26 -Apple of Eden and Antichrist
45:11 - Iberian outage
48:48 - Defense tech
54:51 - UFOs, Atlantis and remote viewing

Transcript

(00:00) Humanoid robots are advancing so quickly. They're going to not only replace most of the jobs that people do today, probably the next 5 to 10 years, but they're going to be able to recreate themselves and self-replicate even faster than that. With AI, the energy demand is infinite. It's going to 10x and 10x and 10x again in terms of global energy consumption, and that's just going to completely change the world we live in.
(00:21) If there's a sufficiently advanced AI, is it going to listen to a politician that says, "No, you can't have that energy." Or is it going to say, "Fuck you. Send the drone. You can hear us loud and clear. Loud and clear. I have to put this in front of my face so I'm not leaning. Yeah, vibe coding. There may be some securityities.
(00:45) I do want to hand it off to a developer who actually understands this stuff to say, am I am I going to am I going to leak any information or like be Yeah, I should probably do that before I release to the public. Now, let me say that. does seem pretty simple though. It's just getting the data on the page, getting the price of Bitcoin, using Coin Gecko API, and then running the math of how much Bitcoin is this worth at this point in time.
(01:13) We're not collecting any data either. I don't think that you know of. No, this is AI once. This is the problem of vibe coding. Are you bearish on AI? Uh, I think we're at a fork in the road and on one side I'm very bullish. You shamed me for for admitting that I was turning my kids into Legos via or turning myself into Lego in this. I was channeling my inner Marty.
(01:36) What would Marty do? Well, that's what uh that's what precipitated this. You hit me up. Was it two weeks ago now at this point? this week with your tweet about Nicola Tesla essentially predicting AI and him not factoring in sound money to the inevitable future that he foresaw. Yeah, it kind of came up uh in the work we're doing at Satoshi Energy where we're developing sites for data centers and a lot of those were were Bitcoin data centers for the last five six years and then in the last couple of years just increasingly demand
(02:20) from AI data centers in some cases like a project that we sold to a Bitcoin miner then becomes an AI site and then start to have questions within the team about what is our AI strategy and it was always in the back of my mind as part of the strategy which we'll get into like what is this fork in the road which directions could it go but I hadn't ever really communicated it to our team uh until recently because it's such a big idea that like on top of thinking about sound money and energy like we're already thinking about enough but as the
(02:57) team's growing as people are starting to ask these questions and like in some cases feeling conflicted about um should we be serving this AI market and in some cases large institutional investors and tech companies uh really like felt the need to put the the pen to paper and and talk about this and talk about how AI fits into our overall strategy.
(03:20) Uh, and part of that reminded me of this uh, essay that Nicola Tesla wrote called um, the problem of human energy, which was kind of a cheeky title. Uh, because clearly he thought, you know, energy would liberate humanity. Uh, but it get you get a lot more readers if you, you know, if you name it, the problem of human energy, especially a lot more of the critics who you're trying to convince otherwise.
(03:44) And one of the biggest things, biggest takeaways for me in that in that essay is he he basically says at some point man will create machines that fight wars for us and limit the the loss of human life to the point where the different parties, nation states, other powerful people u that were fighting wars with each other will once it's sort of this this machine to machine battle, they'll just become interested spectators.
(04:13) and eventually lead to world peace. So I think that's the path we want to be on. Not the path where it becomes a very centralized AI and we ultimately become enslaved. Uh but on the path to world peace or or keeping ourselves on that path to world peace. I think that's where Bitcoin plays a role. it keeps the economic playing field level uh and keeps this technology sufficiently decentralized where Bitcoin is that protocol for you know decentralized AI agents communicating with each other.
(04:46) So we can go in any direction you want from there but it's a big idea. No, this is in line with something I wrote about earlier this week that was inspired by a tweet that Paul Otoy from Stack put out basically not explaining this exact problem but just giving his thoughts on how he's viewing the state of AI and where it will go in the future.
(05:10) And Paul, the team at stack and sphinx are highly focused on enabling the open- source AI as opposed to closed source AI. I I think based on what you just said, I think it's very line what Paul was saying in that tweet, which is we're reaching the point with MCP with these sort of protocols where you can store context that agents can plug into and begin communicating with each other.
(05:39) We're at the point where agentic models are getting are actually usable. And I think that's where you have this like critical tipping point of okay that's really going to dictate which direction in the fork in the road we go down because once the agents are able to go do these tasks you right have these network effects that take hold and it's very important that we thread the needle of making sure that it's open and incentivized properly.
(06:10) Yes. Yes, we had this idea of time preference in the Bitcoin community where you know we think with sound money we should have a low time preference meaning we think longer term uh we don't need need to make sort of quick rash decisions into investments today but then you have this tidal wave of AI coming our our direction it almost forces you back into that high time preference mindset of like I need to address this problem now um and Then from like an energy perspective, it's interesting too.
(06:44) Uh you have like Drew's concept of the Nakamoto point for Bitcoin. Like how much of of human energy of global energy will will Bitcoin mining consume? And like say it's between 1 and 10% of of human energy. If it becomes 100% then uh that doesn't make any sense because then you're just like worshiping Bitcoin.
(07:03) And if all of the energy is going towards that, it means you're not putting any energy towards any other sort of economic pursuit or uh you know human need. But with AI, the energy demand is infinite. I don't think there is a Nakamoto point. It's just like it's going to 10x and 10x and 10x again in terms of g global energy consumption.
(07:23) Uh and that's just going to completely change the world we live in. Another thing on sort of the high time preference concept is like humanoid robots are advancing so quickly. They're going to not only replace all of the job most of the jobs that people do today, very quickly within probably the next 5 to 10 years max, but they're going to be able to rec

@ 90152b7f:04e57401

Wikileaks - C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 002018 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE; NEA/IPA FOR GOLDBERGER/SHAMPAINE/BELGRADE; NSC FOR ABRAMS/WATERS; TREASURY FOR SZUBIN/GRANT/HARRIS/NUGENT/HIRSON E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/17 TAGS: ECON, EFIN, KFTN, KWBG, IS

2007 September 26

SUBJECT: ISRAELI BANK CUTOFF PORTENDS GAZA BANK CLOSURES AND MORE PRIVATE SECTOR DIFFICULTIES Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles,

Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1. 1. (SBU) Summary. Bank Hapoalim's decision to sever ties with banks in Gaza, and an expected move by Israel Discount Bank to do the same, could result in cash shortages, bank closures, and a suspension of commercial imports into Gaza, most of which are food, according to Palestinian banking sector representatives. Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) Governor George Abed is discussing possible solutions with his Israeli counterpart and other Israeli officials. Banks operating in the West Bank are attempting to ascertain the impact on their activities. End summary.

----------------

Threat Made Real

----------------

2. (SBU) Bank Hapoalim announced September 25 that it is severing its ties with banks operating in the Gaza Strip, according to local press reports. The bank reportedly decided to take this action after the GOI designated Gaza a "hostile entity." Since the formation of the Hamas-led government in March 2006, Bank Hapoalim and the Israel Discount Bank (IDB) have warned that they intended to terminate their correspondent bank relationship with banks operating in the West Bank and Gaza. Both banks provide check clearing services and coordinate cash transfers, operations considered vital to the Palestinian banking sector.

--------------

Damage Control

--------------

3. (C) PMA Governor Abed told Econoff September 26 that Bank Hapoalim's decision was "not a surprise" and the PMA "is dealing with it." He explained that he had spoken to Bank of Israel Governor Fischer September 25 and is also in contact with GOI Ministry of Finance officials. Abed said that he believes the GOI is seeking to find a solution because it wants to maintain economic and financial relations with Palestinians. If IDB follows Bank Hapoalim's lead, as expected, Abed fears that the banking sector in Gaza could shutdown. Already in steep decline, banking activity there comprises only 18-20 percent of total deposits and about 15 percent of total loan portfolios of banks operating in the West Bank and Gaza, according to Abed.

4. (C) Arab Bank General Manager Mazen Abu Hamdan and Cairo-Amman Bank Regional Manager Joseph Nesnas told Econoff separately September 26 that IDB does much more business with Gaza banks than Bank Hapoalim, so if IDB severs its ties, the impact will be even more severe. Both said they will close their Gaza branch offices if IDB takes this action. Arab Bank's correspondent account is with the IDB. Both Abu Hamdan and Nesnas said they are uncertain as to exactly how and when Bank Hapoalim will implement its decision, and what the consequences will be for banks in the West Bank. Abu Hamdan suggested that Bank Hapoalim may continue to clear Gaza-origin checks in the short-term with Israeli beneficiaries, but will very soon refuse to accept any checks drawn from Gaza branches.

---------------------------------------

Cash Shortage to Further Restrict Trade

---------------------------------------

5. (C) Abed noted that Gaza merchants frequently pay cash for imports, often upon receipt of the goods at the designated crossing. If banks close, Abed continued, cash payments will be even more common. If cash transfers to Gaza are suspended, however, cash will be hoarded and increasingly unavailable to conduct trade. (Note: According to the UN, 86 percent of commercial imports into Gaza are food.) Abed and Abu Hamdan noted separately that a cash cutoff will also adversely affect the payment of PA salary payments to Gaza-based employees. Banks in Gaza need about NIS 150 million each month to make PA salary payments.

---------------------------------

Hamas Not Guarding Cash Transfers

---------------------------------

6. Abed refuted a press report alleging that Hamas is now guarding cash shipments once they enter Gaza. He said he is aware that of one instance when a bank notified Hamas of a JERUSALEM 00002018 002 OF 002 shipment, and Hamas Executive Forces may have shadowed the cash movement in reply, but in all other cases the banks handle their own security arrangements and do not communicate with Hamas. WALLES

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

It's been a hell of a week in Austin, Texas. The Texas Energy & Mining Summit was held at Bitcoin Park Austin on Tuesday and yesterday. Around 200 people from across the energy sector and the mining sector convened to discuss the current state of bitcoin mining, how it integrates with energy systems, and where things are going in the near to medium term. Representatives from ERCOT, Halliburton, and some of the largest mining companies in the world were in attendence. Across town, Bitcoin++ is holding their conference on mempools, which is fitting considering there is currently an ongoing debate about mempool policy and whether or not Bitcoin Core should eliminate the data limit on OP_RETURN.

I've had the pleasure of participating in both events. At the Texas Energy & Mining Summit I opened up the two-day event with the opening panel on why Texas is perfectly suited not only for bitcoin mining but for the bitcoin industry in general. Texas is a state that highly values private property rights, low taxes, and free market competition. It's become clear to me over the four years that I've lived in Texas that it is an incredible place to start a bitcoin business. The energy down here (pun intended) is palpable.

I also hosted the ending panel with Nick Gates from Priority Power, Will Cole from Zaprite and Jay Beddict from Foundry about what we have to look forward to through the rest of the year. I think the consensus was pretty clear on the panel, there's never been a more bullish setup for bitcoin historically. The political support we're getting here in the United States, the institutional adoption that we're seeing, and the fervor around protocol level development are all pointing in the right direction. Even though the discussions around protocol development can be contentious at times, it's a signal that people really care about this open source monetary protocol that we're all building on. We all agreed that Bitcoin has never been more de-risked than it is today. That is not to say that there aren't any risk.

We also discussed the problem with mining pool centralization and the FPPS payout scheme and why people need to be paying attention to it. But I think overall, things are looking pretty good right now.

Yesterday I also had the pleasure of running the live desk at Bitcoin++ speaking with many of the developers building out the protocol layer and layers above bitcoin. It's always extremely humbling to sit down and speak with the developers because they are so damn smart. Brilliant people who really care deeply about bitcoin. Even though many of them have very different views about the state of bitcoin and how to build it out moving forward. I view my role on the live desk is simply to try to get everybody's perspective. Not only on the OP_RETURN discussion, but on the future of bitcoin and how the protocol progresses from a technical perspective.

I had many conversations. The first with Average Gary and VNPRC, who are working on hashpools, which are attempting to solve the mining pool centralization and privacy problems that exists by using ecash. Hashpool gives miners the ability to exchange hash shares for ehash tokens. that are immediately liquid and exchangeable for bitcoin over the lightning network. Solving the consistent payout and liquidity problem that miners are always trying to solve. Currently FPPS payout schemes are the way they solve these problems. I'm incredibly optimistic about the hashpools project.

I also had the pleasure of speaking with SuperTestNet and Dusty Daemon, who are both focused on making bitcoin more inherently private at the protocol layer and on the lightning network. I think Dusty's work on splicing is very underappreciated right now and is something that you should all look into. Dusty also explained an idea he has that would make CoinJoin coordination much easier by creating a standardized coordination protocol. I'm going to butcher the explanation here, But I think the general idea is to create a way for people to combine inputs by monitoring the lightning network and looking for individual actors who are looking to rebalance channels and opportunistically set up a collaborative transaction with them. This is something I think everyone should look into and champion because I think it would be incredibly beneficial to on-chain privacy. As Bitcoin scales and gets adopted by millions and billions of people over the next few decades.

I also had the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Poelstra and Boerst about cryptography and block templates. For those of you who are unaware, Andrew Poelstra the Head of Research at Blockstream and on the cutting edge of the cryptography that bitcoin uses and may implement in the future. We had a wide ranging discussion about OP_RETURN, FROST, Musig2, Miniscript, quantum. resistant cryptographic libraries, and how Bitcoin Core actually works as a development project.

I also spoke with Liam Egan from Alpen Labs. He's working on ZK rollups on Bitcoin. Admittedly, this is an area I haven't explored too deeply, so it was awesome to sit down with Liam and get his perspective. Alpen Labs is leveraging BitVM to enable their rollups.

I highly recommend if and when you get the time to check out the YouTube stream of the Live Desk. A lot of very deep, technical conversations, but if you're really interested to learn how bitcoin actually works and some of the ideas that are out there to make it better, this is an incredible piece of content to watch. I'm about to head over for day two of Bitcoin++ to run the Live Desk again. So if you get this email before we go live make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel and tune in for the day.

One thing I will say. Last night, there was a debate about OP_RETURN and I think it's important to note that despite how vitriolic people may get on Twitter, it's always interesting to see people with diametrically opposed views get together and have civil debates. It's obvious that everyone involved cares deeply about bitcoin. Having these tough conversations in person is very important. Particularly, civil conversations. I certainly think yesterday's debate was civil. Though, I will say I think that as bitcoiners, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of decorum when debates like this are had.

Tyler Campbell from Unchained mentioned that it is insane that there was such a small group of people attending this particular debate about the future of a two trillion dollar protocol. Bitcoin is approaching $100,000 again as I type and no one in big tech, no one in big finance outside of people looking for bitcoin treasury plays is really paying attention to what's happening at the protocol level. This is simply funny to observe and probably a good thing in the long run. But, Meta, Stripe, Apple, Visa, Mastercard and the Teslas of the world are all asleep at the wheel as we build out the future of money.

The $1 Trillion Basis Trade Time Bomb

The massive basis trade currently looming over financial markets represents a systemic risk that dwarfs previous crises. As James Lavish warned during our conversation, approximately $1 trillion in leveraged positions exist within this trade - ten times larger than those held by Long-Term Capital Management before its 1998 collapse. These trades employ staggering leverage ratios between 20x to 100x just to make minuscule basis point differences profitable. The Brookings Institution, which Lavish describes as a "tacit research arm of the Fed," has published a paper explicitly warning about this trade's dangers.

"The Brookings Institution came out with a solution... instead of printing money this time, the Fed will just take the whole trade off of the hedge funds books. Absolutely, utterly maniacal. The thought of the Fed becoming a hedge fund... it's nuts." - James Lavish

What makes this situation particularly alarming is how an unwind could trigger cascading margin calls throughout interconnected financial markets. As Lavish explained, when positions begin unwinding, prices move dramatically, triggering more margin calls that force more selling. This "powder keg behind the scenes" is being closely monitored by sophisticated investors who understand its destructive potential. Unlike a controlled demolition, this unwinding could quickly become chaotic, potentially forcing unprecedented Fed intervention.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Bitcoin's role as the neutral reserve asset, nation-state mining strategies, and the repeal of SAB 121's impact on banking adoption.

Headlines of the Day

Panama City Signs Deal for Bitcoin Municipal Payments - via X

U.S. Economy Polls Show Falling Confidence in Trump Leadership - via CNBC

Jack Mallers's Bitcoin Bank Targets $500 Trillion Market - via X

Bitcoin Decouples From Markets With 10% Gain Amid Asset Slump - via X

---

Looking for the perfect video _to push the smartest person you know from zero to one on bitcoin? Bitcoin, Not Crypto is a three-part master class from Parker Lewis and Dhruv Bansal that cuts through the noise—covering why 2

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

I recently released my first open-source tool:\ 👉 nostr-signal-filter

It fetches and formats your latest top-level Nostr note or long-form article, cleans up any embedded links using TinyURL, and outputs a clean version ready for reposting to:

• LinkedIn

• Facebook

• X / Twitter

---

⚙️ Built for Simplicity

The stack is intentionally minimal:

• Python + WebSockets + Bech32

• TinyURL API for link shortening

• Dockerized CLI usage:

bash

CopyEdit

docker run --rm -e PUBKEY=npub1yourpubkeyhere nostr-fetcher > latest.md

From idea to working repo took under 3 hours — including debugging, Docker tweaks, README cleanup, and tagging a clean release.\ \ This most certainly would have taken much longer if I had done this all without ChatGPTs' help.\ \ 🖼️ Example Output (latest.md)

text

CopyEdit

🕒 2025-05-20 22:24:17 📄 Note (originally posted on Nostr/primal.net) --- 🚨 New long-form drop: AI Isn’t Magic. It’s Engineering. How I use ChatGPT like any other tool in the stack — with iteration, discernment, and real output. Read it here: https://tinyurl.com/ynv7jq6g ⚡ Zaps appreciated if it resonates. --- 🔗 View on Nostr: https://tinyurl.com/yobvaxkx

---

🧪 Where I Used It

• ✅ My LinkedIn post ->

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew-g-stanton_primal-activity-7330808691933282304-QjmF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABQv18BeAPYRkxkYSr1mQStB9TczIhoXvQ

• ✅ Facebook: clean rendering with preview ->

https://www.facebook.com/andrewgstanton/posts/pfbid027EHZ1brPRBkHQKNsqUijPdPZGvK9id9asErdTxwjSDEf336o9TsuDPeKugToVDx7l

• ✅ X/Twitter: teaser + link (had to truncate for character limit) ->

https://x.com/AndyGStanton/status/1925045477172773136

---

🙌 Try It Yourself

If you're publishing on Nostr but still sharing on legacy platforms:

👉 github.com/andrewgstanton/nostr-signal-filter

• Clean output

• Easy to run

• Portable via Docker

All it needs is your npub.

---

⚡ Zap Me If You Found This Useful

If this tool saved you time — or if it sparked ideas for your own Nostr publishing stack —\ send a zap my way. I’m always looking to connect with other creators who value signal > noise.

🔗 Zap on Primal -> https://primal.net/andrewgstanton

---

🔭 Next Features (I’d Love Help With)

• Archive all notes + articles (not just the latest 50) to archive.md

• Function to shorten links in any text block

• Output post.md for any given Nostr event ID (not just latest)

• Optional API integration to post directly to LinkedIn or X

---

Built with ChatGPT’s help.\ Iterated. Published. Cross-posted.\ That’s proof of work.

@ 90152b7f:04e57401

WikiLeaks The Global Intelligence Files

Released on 2013-03-04 00:00 GMT

| Email-ID | 296467 | | -------- | ------------------------ | | Date | 2007-10-29 20:54:22 | | From | hrwpress@hrw.org | | To | responses@stratfor.com |

Gaza: Israel's Fuel and Power Cuts Violate Laws of War\ \ For Immediate Release\ \ Gaza: Israel's Fuel and Power Cuts Violate Laws of War\ \ Civilians Should Not Be Penalized for Rocket Attacks by Armed Groups\ \ (New York, October 29, 2007) - Israel's decision to limit fuel and\ electricity to the Gaza Strip in retaliation for unlawful rocket attacks\ by armed groups amounts to collective punishment against the civilian\ population of Gaza, in violation of international law, and will worsen the\ humanitarian crisis there, Human Rights Watch said today.\ \ "Israel may respond to rocket attacks by armed groups to protect its\ population, but only in lawful ways," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of\ Human Rights Watch's Middle East division. "Because Israel remains an\ occupying power, in light of its continuing restrictions on Gaza, Israel\ must not take measures that harm the civilian population - yet that is\ precisely what cutting fuel or electricity for even short periods will\ do."\ \ On Sunday, the Israeli Defense Ministry ordered the reduction of fuel\ shipments from Israel to Gaza. A government spokesman said the plan was to\ cut the amount of fuel by 5 to 11 percent without affecting the supply of\ industrial fuel for Gaza's only power plant.\ \ According to Palestinian officials, fuel shipments into Gaza yesterday\ fell by more than 30 percent.\ \ In response to the government's decision, a group of 10 Palestinian and\ Israeli human rights groups petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on\ Sunday, seeking an immediate injunction against the fuel and electricity\ cuts. The court gave the government five days to respond but did not issue\ a temporary injunction. On Monday, the groups requested an urgent hearing\ before the five days expire.\ \ Last Thursday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved cutting electricity to\ Gaza for increasing periods in response to ongoing rocket attacks against\ civilian areas in Israel, but the government has not yet implemented the\ order.\ \ The rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups violate the international\ legal prohibition on indiscriminate attacks because they are highly\ inaccurate and cannot be directed at a specific target. Because Hamas\ exercises power inside Gaza, it is responsible for stopping indiscriminate\ attacks even when carried out by other groups, Human Rights Watch said.\ \ On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel would\ respond strongly to the ongoing attacks without allowing a humanitarian\ crisis. But the UN's top humanitarian official, UN Deputy\ Secretary-General John Holmes, said that a "serious humanitarian crisis"\ in Gaza already exists, and called on Israel to lift the economic blockade\ that it tightened after Hamas seized power in June.\ \ Israel's decision to cut fuel and electricity is the latest move aimed\ ostensibly against Hamas that is affecting the entire population of Gaza.\ In September, the Israeli cabinet declared Gaza "hostile territory" and\ voted to "restrict the passage of various goods to the Gaza Strip and\ reduce the supply of fuel and electricity." Since then, Israel has\ increasingly blocked supplies into Gaza, letting in limited amounts of\ essential foodstuffs, medicine and humanitarian supplies. According to\ Holmes, the number of humanitarian convoys entering Gaza had dropped to\ 1,500 in September from 3,000 in July.\ \ "Cutting fuel and electricity obstructs vital services," Whitson said.\ "Operating rooms, sewage pumps, and water well pumps all need electricity\ to run."\ \ Israel sells to Gaza roughly 60 percent of the electricity consumed by the\ territory's 1.5 million inhabitants. In June 2006, six Israeli missiles\ struck Gaza's only power plant; today, for most residents, electricity is\ available during only limited hours.\ \ Israeli officials said they would cut electricity for 15 minutes after\ each rocket attack and then for increasingly longer periods if the attacks\ persist. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Israel would\ "dramatically reduce" the power it supplied to Gaza over a period of\ weeks.\ \ Cutting fuel or electricity to the civilian population violates a basic\ principle of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, which\ prohibit a government that has effective control over a territory from\ attacking or withholding objects that are essential to the survival of the\ civilian population. Such an act would also violate Israel's duty as an\ occupying power to safeguard the health and welfare of the population\ under occupation.\ \ Israel withdrew its military forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip in\ 2005. Nonetheless, Israel remains responsible for ensuring the well-being\ of Gaza's population for as long as, and to the extent that, it retains\ effective control over the area. Israel still exercises control over\ Gaza's airspace, sea space and land borders, as well as its electricity,\ water, sewage and telecommunications networks and population registry.\ Israel can and has also reentered Gaza for security operations at will.\ \ Israeli officials state that by declaring Gaza "hostile territory," it is\ no longer obliged under international law to supply utilities to the\ civilian population, but that is a misstatement of the law.\ \ "A mere declaration does not change the facts on the ground that impose on\ Israel the status and obligations of an occupying power," said Whitson.\ \ For more information, please contact:\ \ In New York, Fred Abrahams (English, German): +1-917-385-7333 (mobile)\ \ In Washington, DC, Joe Stork (English): +1-202-299-4925 (mobile)\ \ In Cairo, Gasser Abdel-Razek (Arabic, English): +20-2-2-794-5036 (mobile);\ or +20-10-502-9999 (mobile)

@ 90152b7f:04e57401

WikiLeaks The Global Intelligence Files

Released on 2013-03-11 00:00 GMT

| Email-ID | 364528 | | -------- | --------------------------- | | Date | 2007-09-20 03:02:09 | | From | os@stratfor.com | | To | intelligence@stratfor.com |

Rice, Israeli FM discuss Israeli decision of defining Gaza as "hostile\ entity"\ 2007-09-20 00:41:16\ http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/20/content_6756959.htm\ \ JERUSALEM, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State\ Condoleezza Rice met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on\ Wednesday, the two discussed Israel's decision that defined the Hamas-\ controlled Gaza Strip as a "hostile entity."\ \ At a joint press conference held after their meeting, Rice told the\ reporters that the Palestinian Hamas is a "hostile entity" to U.S. as well.\ \ Israel's Security Cabinet declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity" on\ Wednesday ahead of Rice's visit and said it would cutoff power and fuel\ supplies to the strip.\ \ Gaza's population, largely impoverished, is almost entirely\ dependent on Israel for the supply of electricity, water and fuel, and a\ cutoff would deepen their hardship.\ \ Since the Hamas takeover in June, Israel has closed crossings with\ Gaza almost entirely, allowing in only humanitarian aid. However, Rice\ reiterated that the United States will not abandon the innocent\ Palestinians in Gaza.\ \ For her part, Livni said that Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip\ two years ago, hoping that could lead to the establishment of a\ Palestinian state, but only get almost daily rocket attacks in return.\ \ "We expect the Palestinians to understand that Israeli security is\ in their own interests," Livni said, adding that Palestinians must\ understand "supporting Hamas won't help them."\ \ The Israeli Security Cabinet's declaration of Gaza as an "hostile\ entity" could lead to the most severe retaliatory measure taken by\ Israel against Palestinian rocket fire from the strip.\ \ The crude rocket attacks have killed 12 people in southern Israel in\ the past seven years, injured dozens more and badly disrupted daily life\ in the region.\ \ Last week, a Qassam rocket hit an Israeli military base near the\ Gaza Strip, wounding over 60 soldiers in the attack. The attack then\ sparked calls for the government to take harsh response against the Gaza\ Strip, which has been under the control of Hamas since it violently took\ over the enclave in mid June.\ \ The Jewish states has been holding Hamas responsible for the attack,\ although the movement has not been directly involved in the attacks.\ Israel still accused the Islamic movement of doing little to halt them.\ \ Apart from the Palestinian issue, Rice also discussed with Livni\ issues about Iran, Lebanon and the Middle East peace progress.\ \ She said Israel and the Palestinians are showing good faith in their\ negotiations towards a "two state solution."\ \ Regarding Iranian issues, Rice told reporters that diplomatic mean\ is a part of efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear program, but stressed\ it "has to have teeth."\ \ Rice, who had visited this region in August, is also expected to\ hold separate meetings on Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud\ Barak and the Likud party head Binyamin Netanyahu.\ \ She will then hold a dinner meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud\ Olmert.\ \ Rice is scheduled to leave here Thursday afternoon and visit the\ West Bank city of Ramallah for meetings with the Palestinian leadership\ on Thursday.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

I've pulled together the most compelling forward-looking predictions from our recent podcast conversations. These insights highlight where our guests see opportunities and challenges in the Bitcoin ecosystem, energy markets, and beyond.

AI Agents Will Drive Bitcoin Adoption More Than Human Users by 2030 - Andrew Myers

Andrew Myers described how the artificial intelligence revolution will fundamentally transform Bitcoin usage patterns over the next few years. He highlighted Paul's tweet that suggested machine-to-machine transactions using Bitcoin will soon dominate the network.

"We talk about Bitcoin being used as a medium of exchange. We're going to find that the machines are doing most of that exchange at some point relatively soon," Andrew explained. "The agents using Bitcoin to complete tasks using something like L4 or two protocol is going to far surpass the amount of transactions that humans are doing to do things in their everyday lives."

Andrew believes AI agents will naturally gravitate toward Bitcoin because it's more energy-efficient from a computational perspective than traditional payment rails. As AI systems optimize for energy efficiency, Bitcoin's direct settlement mechanism becomes increasingly attractive compared to legacy financial infrastructure. This shift could accelerate Bitcoin adoption in ways we haven't fully anticipated, creating a new category of machine-driven demand.

CalPERS Funding Status Will Drop Below 70% by June 2025 - Dom Bei

Dom Bei, who's running for the Board of Trustees at CalPERS, made a concerning prediction about America's largest public pension fund. Currently sitting at approximately 75% funded, Dom warned the situation could deteriorate further after recent tariff-related markdowns.

"They say that the fund had a $26 billion markdown, which if my math is correct, would bring the fund closer towards the 70% funded number," Dom explained. He noted the fund needs to recover these losses before the June 30, 2025 reporting deadline, or face serious consequences.

If CalPERS funding status drops below 70%, Dom predicts a familiar pattern will unfold: municipalities and taxpayers will face higher contribution rates to cover the shortfall, diverting money from essential services like parks, schools, and public safety. This would likely trigger another round of pension reform debates targeting worker benefits, despite similar reforms in 2013 failing to address the fundamental performance issues plaguing the fund.

Energy Companies Will Incorporate Bitcoin Into Settlements Within 3 Years - Andrew Myers

Andrew Myers outlined a compelling vision for Bitcoin's integration into energy markets, predicting that by 2027 (block 1,050,000), we'll see widespread adoption of Bitcoin for energy transactions and settlements. He described his company's mission as enabling "every electric power company to use bitcoin by block 1,050,000."

"Our mantra for Bitcoin is fast, accurate, transparent energy transactions," Andrew explained. He highlighted several inefficiencies in current energy markets that Bitcoin could solve, including: Information asymmetry between energy buyers and sellers. Slow 30-day billing cycles creating unnecessary credit risk
Capital locked up in prepayments, deposits, and collateral requirements.

Andrew revealed that his team has already prototyped a Bitcoin collateral product and that a major energy company in Texas is currently building similar functionality. He predicts these early implementations will demonstrate Bitcoin's potential to unlock billions in working capital across the energy sector through faster settlement and reduced collateral requirements.

Most significantly, Andrew mentioned early discussions with independent system operators about modifying power market protocols to incorporate Bitcoin as an alternative settlement mechanism alongside the US dollar.

---

Blockspace conducts cutting-edge proprietary research for investors.

Bitcoin Miners Face Hard Choices as AI Data Centers Pick Prime Locations

Bitcoin miners hoping to cash in on the AI boom by selling their facilities to hyperscalers are finding fewer opportunities than expected. With mining economics dimming and specific buyer requirements limiting potential deals, the industry faces significant challenges.

Christian Lopez, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at Cohen and Company Capital Markets, notes a "glut of bitcoin mines" currently on the market. While miners control substantial power resources, hyperscalers typically demand facilities with at least 150-200 megawatts capacity within 100 miles of major cities—criteria most mining operations don't meet.

An estimated 1-1.5 gigawatts of mining capacity is available for acquisition, creating downward pressure on power prices. This oversupply stems from both deteriorating mining economics and overoptimistic AI-related expectations. The valuation gap remains a persistent obstacle: "Buyers face the critical 'buy versus build' question," Lopez explains. While buyers typically value sites at $300,000-$500,000 per megawatt plus a modest premium, sellers often seek $1.5-$2 million per megawatt based on public company valuations.

Adding to these challenges, retrofitting mining sites for high-performance computing often requires completely reconstructing the power infrastructure rather than leveraging existing setups. Despite current difficulties, industry sentiment remains cautiously optimistic, with many experts predicting Bitcoin could reach $125,000-$200,000 by late 2025.

Link to Full Article

Subscribe to them here (seriously, you should): https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com/

---

Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

---

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

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

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@ cd17b2d6:8cc53332

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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

Lyn Alden unpacks the complex interplay of global trade imbalances, the dollar’s entrenched reserve currency status, and America’s eroded industrial base, arguing that aggressive tariffs under Trump have backfired by hurting U.S. businesses without reversing decades of offshoring. She illustrates how China has rapidly ascended the value chain, dominating key industries and making it nearly impossible for the U.S. to build a trade coalition against them. Despite the U.S.’s massive debt and persistent global demand for dollars, cracks are forming in the system as nations explore alternative payment systems and neutral reserve assets like gold and Bitcoin. Lyn emphasizes that Bitcoin’s most effective path to integration is through grassroots and corporate adoption, not government-led initiatives, and warns that unless the U.S. urgently scales its energy and industrial capacity, it risks falling further behind China’s unmatched pace of growth and infrastructure dominance.

Best Quotes

• "The trade deficit is often described as us sending out pieces of paper and getting goods and services, which sounds like a really good deal."
• "It's better to correct these imbalances from a position of strength, not weakness."
• "All that debt creates inflexible demand for dollars. There’s literally way more demand than dollars in the system."
• "China became the largest auto exporter in the world in just four years."
• "Bitcoin isn’t changing to fit into the global financial system. The global financial system is changing to fit Bitcoin."
• "Individuals, small businesses, corporations—these are the real drivers of Bitcoin adoption. Not governments."

Conclusion

This episode offers a sobering look at America’s trade and currency dilemmas, with Lyn Alden explaining why quick policy fixes like tariffs can’t reverse decades of deindustrialization tied to the dollar’s reserve status. She highlights the rise of neutral reserve assets like gold and Bitcoin as important hedges, stressing that grassroots and corporate adoption will be more effective than government-led efforts. Lyn also warns that without a major push to expand energy production, the U.S. risks falling behind in an AI-driven, hardware-centric world, urging strategic humility and innovation to navigate the shifting global order.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:31 - Triffin's dilemma
8:10 - Debt leverage
11:04 - Fold & Bitkey
12:41 - Trump's goals and tariff policy
19:54 - Unchained
20:24 - China is not weak
30:07 - Energy
37:15 - AI/robots
41:11 - SBR
48:47 - Bitcoin credit products
52:40 - Eventful week for bitcoin

Transcript

(00:00) They ramped up tariffs super high, super quickly. In many cases, were so high that they hurt us as much as some of our trade adversaries. China has ramped up to like unfathomable degrees. Nuclear, solar, pretty much everything that they can throw money at they're building. The trade is often described as us sending out pieces of paper and getting goods and services, which sounds like a really good deal.
(00:19) They take those slips of paper and then they buy our stocks. They buy our corporate bonds and government bonds. And so they end up owning a larger and larger share of corporate America. got the headphone hair. I'm all out of whack, Lynn. It's been a long week here in Austin. Yeah, I can imagine. It's been a long time since we've talked on the show. It's been two years.
(00:41) I was checking, which is a astonishing to me. But no better time than now. Uh I think quite literally based off of all the conversations we've had uh over the years. I mean, your famous saying, nothing stops this train. I think we're coming to a juncture where that's becoming abundantly clear. and you wrote uh a newsletter earlier this week, I believe you sent it out Sunday, that basically highlighted the crux of the problem, which is the dollar reserve status and the almost impossible task that Trump would like to accomplish, but
(01:21) likely isn't the case, which is sort of solving Triffin's dilemma of reshoring manufacturing while keeping US dollar dominance. So I think diving into this from first principles would be great. Sure. Yeah. And that's that's the um I can imagine the administration's challenge of trying to communicate this because uh the intricacies of how trade deficits and the reserve currency kind of pair together is very wonkish.
(01:46) It it kind of has this like academic quality to it that doesn't go over well uh in kind of political oriented speeches. Um like I would I would be terrible at a political rally for example when I try to explain any of this. Um and so we kind of have this situation where um and this was outlined back during the Breton Wood system by Triffin as you mentioned uh which is that having the reserve currency does come with a bunch of benefits um you know historically called a extraordin uh exorbitant privilege um but then it has certain costs to
(02:15) maintain it and those costs can vary a bit depending on how the system structure. So for example back in the Bretton Woods era the cost was that we kept draining our gold reserves. uh we basically had to kind of keep paying out our go gold gold reserves to maintain that part of the system and in the current formation uh instead we kind of pay for it with our industrial base.
(02:36) We keep kind of sending out little parts of our industrial base over time to maintain the the global reserve currency status. And there's a few reasons for that. One is that um because unlike every other fiat currency, the dollar has all these extra demands for it by countries all around the world. um all these different purposes.
(02:55) um there's this extra demand for dollars which sounds good on the surface and as for Americans for example we have tons of import power when we go on vacations to the rest of the world it's you know we have pretty strong purchasing power compared to when they come to the US um these things seem good on the surface but it also means that it's pretty expensive to manufacture lower margin things here at home uh and so we have this kind of situation where our imports are very strong our exports uh especially lower margin stuff is less uh
(03:22) competitive whereas we can still be competitive competitive on really high margin stuff, you know, technology, finance, healthcare, that kind of thing. Um, and then the other aspect is that even if you could somehow solve that, there's the more fundamental problem, which is that the whole world needs dollars uh for the you know, global reserve currency status to use it for international contract pricing, crossber financing, one side of every trade pair that they do, all these different purposes as a reserve asset. Um uh and
(03:51) when you step back and say, "Well, how do they get all those dollars if they're all using dollars? How did all those dollars get out there?" And the answer is trade deficits. Um basically that overvalued aspect forces open the US trade deficit. And every year we send out hundreds of billions or sometimes a trillion dollars in net outflows.
(04:10) And over years and decades, these have accumulated out there. And so, uh, kind of the way it works is that if you want to fix the trade deficit, which I've been I've been writing about since 2019, I think that's a I think that's a valid mandate to do. Um, unfortunately does come with trade-offs.
(04:26) Uh, some of the some of the benefits that that you know that we enjoy at the cost of the trade deficit. Um, if you do want to kind of fix that imbalance, it comes up, you know, with with basically giving away at least some of those benefits and prioritizing that that industrial base a bit more. And one of the dynamics that you highlighted in your newsletter, which makes sense, but wasn't very clear to me before, is that via these deficits, we flood international markets with dollars because we're sending parts of our industrial base over there. But then
(05:00) it's like cyclical. They take those dollars and then reinvest them in US financial assets. So it has this sort of flow where it goes out but then it comes back in into the financialized economy via equities and real estate and other such assets and that is good for asset owners here in the United States.
(05:19) But again I think that's is part of the bag of mandate is that sort of cycle has led to this large wealth gap in the United States that they're trying to fix. Yeah. Exactly. Um and so basically the opposite side of a current account deficit which is basically so the trade deficit plus things like interest and dividends.
(05:39) Um so we run a structural current account deficit and the opposite side of that is a capital account surplus. Um which is that funds flow in the rest of the world and buy our financial assets. Uh and so it's the the trade deficit is often described as us sending out pieces of paper and getting goods and services which sounds like a really good deal.
(05:57) Um but then the extra step of that that you mentioned is that they take those slips of paper or really those electronic digits that they have and then they buy our stocks, they buy our real estate, they buy our private equity, they they buy our corporate bonds and government bonds and so they end up owning a larger and larger share of corporate America as part of their kind of accumulated uh trade surpluses uh and reserve assets and uh international private assets.
(06:22) Um, and the kind of the consequence of this, if you kind of like view the foreign sector as an intermediary, we're basically constantly kind of taking economic vibrancy out of, you know, Michigan and Ohio and, uh, you know, rural Pennsylvania where the steel m

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

Last week we covered the bombshell developments in the Samourai Wallet case. For those who didn't read that, last Monday the world was made aware of the fact that the SDNY was explicitly told by FinCEN that the federal regulator did not believe that Samourai Wallet was a money services business six months before arresting the co-founders of Samourai Wallet for conspiracy to launder money and illegally operating a money services business. This was an obvious overstep by the SDNY that many believed would be quickly alleviated, especially considering the fact that the Trump administration via the Department of Justice has made it clear that they do not intend to rule via prosecution.

It seems that this is not the case as the SDNY responded to a letter sent from the defense to dismiss the case by stating that they fully plan to move forward. Stating that they only sought the recommendations of FinCEN employees and did not believe that those employees' comments were indicative of FinCEN's overall views on this particular case. It's a pretty egregious abuse of power by the SDNY. I'm not sure if the particular lawyers and judges within the Southern District of New York are very passionate about preventing the use of self-custody bitcoin and products that enable bitcoiners to transact privately, or if they're simply participating in a broader meta war with the Trump administration - who has made it clear to federal judges across the country that last Fall's election will have consequences, mainly that the Executive Branch will try to effectuate the policies that President Trump campaigned on by any legal means necessary - and Samouari Wallet is simply in the middle of that meta war.

However, one thing is pretty clear to me, this is an egregious overstep of power. The interpretation of that law, as has been laid out and confirmed by FinCEN over the last decade, is pretty clear; you cannot be a money services business if you do not control the funds that people are sending to each other, which is definitely the case with Samourai Wallet. People downloaded Samourai Wallet, spun up their own private-public key pairs and initiated transactions themselves. Samourai never custodied funds or initiated transactions on behalf of their users. This is very cut and dry. Straight to the point. It should be something that anyone with more than two brain cells is able to discern pretty quickly.

It is imperative that anybody in the industry who cares about being able to hold bitcoin in self-custody, to mine bitcoin, and to send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion makes some noise around this case. None of the current administration's attempts to foster innovation around bitcoin in the United States will matter if the wrong precedent is set in this case. If the SDNY is successful in prosecuting Samourai Wallet, it will mean that anybody holding Bitcoin in self-custody, running a bitcoin fold node or mining bitcoin will have to KYC all of their users and counterparts lest they be labeled a money services business that is breaking laws stemming from the Bank Secrecy Act. This will effectively make building a self-custody bitcoin wallet, running a node, or mining bitcoin in tillegal in the United States. The ability to comply with the rules that would be unleashed if this Samourai case goes the wrong way, are such that it will effectively destroy the industry overnight.

It is yet to be seen whether or not the Department of Justice will step in to publicly flog the SDNY and force them to stop pursuing this case. This is the only likely way that the case will go away at this point, so it is very important that bitcoiners who care about being able to self-custody bitcoin, mine bitcoin, or send bitcoin in a peer-to-peer fashion in the United States make it clear to the current administration and any local politicians that this is an issue that you care deeply about. If we are too complacent, there is a chance that the SDNY could completely annihilate the bitcoin industry in America despite of all of the positive momentum we're seeing from all angles at the moment.

Make some noise!

Bitcoin Adoption by Power Companies: The Next Frontier

In my recent conversation with Andrew Myers from Satoshi Energy, he shared their ambitious mission to "enable every electric power company to use bitcoin by block 1,050,000" – roughly three years from now. This strategic imperative isn't just about creating new Bitcoin users; it's about sovereignty. Andrew emphasized that getting Bitcoin into the hands of energy companies who value self-sovereignty creates a more balanced future economic landscape. The excitement was palpable as he described how several energy companies are already moving beyond simply selling power to Bitcoin miners and are beginning to invest in mining operations themselves.

"You have global commodity companies being like, 'Oh, this is another commodity – we want to invest in this, we want to own this,'" - Andrew Myers

Perhaps most fascinating was Andrew's revelation about major energy companies in Texas developing Bitcoin collateral products for power contracts – a practical application that could revolutionize how energy transactions are settled. As energy companies continue embracing Bitcoin for both operations and collateral, we're witnessing the early stages of a profound shift in how critical infrastructure interfaces with sound money. The implications for both sectors could be transformative.

Check out the full podcast here for more on remote viewing, Nikola Tesla's predictions, and the convergence of Bitcoin and AI technology. We cover everything from humanoid robots to the energy demands of next-generation computing.

Headlines of the Day

Steak n Shake to Accept Bitcoin at All Locations May 16 - via X

Facebook Plans Crypto Wallets for 3B Users, Bitcoin Impact Looms - via X

Trump Urges Americans to Buy Stocks for Economic Boom - via X

UK Drops Tariffs, U.S. Farmers Set to Reap Major Benefits - via X

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Final thought...

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

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@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

via Kevin McKernan

There's been a lot of discussion this week about Casey Means being nominated for Surgeon General of the United States and a broader overarching conversation about the effectiveness of MAHA since the inauguration and how effective it may or may not be moving forward. Many would say that President Trump won re-election due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan deciding to reach across the aisle and join the Trump ticket, bringing with them the MAHA Moms, who are very focused on reorienting the healthcare system in the United States with a strong focus on the childhood vaccine schedule.

I'm not going to lie, this is something I'm passionate about as well, particularly after having many conversations over the years with doctors like Kevin McKernan, Dr. Jack Kruse, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, Dr. Brooke Miller, Dr. Peter McCullough and others about the dangers of the COVID mRNA vaccines. As it stands today, I think this is the biggest elephant in the room in the world of healthcare. If you look at the data, particularly disability claims, life insurance claims, life expectancy, miscarriage rates, fertility issues and rates of turbo cancer around the world since the COVID vaccine was introduced in 2021, it seems pretty clear that there is harm being done to many of the people who have taken them.

The risk-reward ratio of the vaccines seems to be incredibly skewed towards risk over reward and children - who have proven to be least susceptible to COVID - are expected to get three COVID shots in the first year of their life if their parents follow the vaccine schedule. For some reason or another it seems that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has shied away from this topic after becoming the head of Health and Human Services within the Trump administration. This is after a multi-year campaign during which getting the vaccines removed from the market war a core part of his platform messaging.

I'm still holding out hope that sanity will prevail. The COVID mRNA vaccines will be taken off the market in a serious conversation about the crimes against humanity that unfolded during the COVID years will take place. However, we cannot depend on that outcome. We must build with the assumption in mind that that outcome may never materialize. This leads to identifying where the incentives within the system are misconstrued. One area where I think it's pretty safe to say that the incentives are misaligned is the fact that 95% of doctors work for and answer to a corporation driven by their bottom line. Instead of listening to their patients and truly caring about the outcome of each individual, doctors forced to think about the monetary outcome of the corporation they work for first.

The most pernicious way in which these misaligned incentives emerge is the way in which the hospital systems and physicians are monetarily incentivized by big pharma companies to push the COVID vaccine and other vaccines on their patients. It is important to acknowledge that we cannot be dependent on a system designed in this way to change from within. Instead, we must build a new incentive system and market structure. And obviously, if you're reading this newsletter, you know that I believe that bitcoin will play a pivotal role in realigning incentives across every industry. Healthcare just being one of them.

Bitcoiners have identified the need to become sovereign in our monetary matters, it probably makes sense to become sovereign when it comes to our healthcare as well. This means finding doctors who operate outside the corporate controlled system and are able to offer services that align incentives with the end patient. My family utilizes a combination of CrowdHealth and a private care physician to align incentives. We've even utilized a private care physician who allowed us to pay in Bitcoin for her services for a number of years. I think this is the model. Doctors accepting hard censorship resistant money for the healthcare and advice they provide. Instead of working for a corporation looking to push pharmaceutical products on their patients so they can bolster their bottom line, work directly with patients who will pay in bitcoin, which will appreciate in value over time.

I had a lengthy discussion with Dr. Jack Kruse on the podcast earlier today discussing these topic and more. It will be released on Thursday and I highly recommend you freaks check it out once it is published. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it.

How the "Exorbitant Privilege" of the Dollar is Undermining Our Manufacturing Base

In my conversation with Lyn Alden, we explored America's fundamental economic contradiction. As Lyn expertly explained, maintaining the dollar's reserve currency status while attempting to reshore manufacturing presents a near-impossible challenge - what economists call Triffin's Dilemma. The world's appetite for dollars gives Americans tremendous purchasing power but simultaneously hollows out our industrial base. The overvalued dollar makes our exports less competitive, especially for lower-margin manufacturing, while our imports remain artificially strong.

"Having the reserve currency does come with a bunch of benefits, historically called an exorbitant privilege, but then it has certain costs to maintain it." - Lyn Alden

This dilemma forces America to run persistent trade deficits, as this is how dollars flow to the world. For over four decades, these deficits have accumulated, creating massive economic imbalances that can't be quickly reversed. The Trump administration's attempts to address this through tariffs showcase how difficult rebalancing has become. As Lyn warned, even if we successfully pivot toward reshoring manufacturing, we'll face difficult trade-offs: potentially giving up some reserve currency benefits to rebuild our industrial foundation. This isn't just economic theory - it's the restructuring challenge that will define America's economic future.

Check out the full podcast here for more on China's manufacturing dominance, the role of Bitcoin in monetary transitions, and energy production as the foundation for future industrial power.

Headlines of the Day

Coinbase to replace Discover in S&P 500 on May 19 - via X

Mallers promises no rehypothecation in Strike Bitcoin loans - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Missouri passes HB 594, eliminates Bitcoin capital gains tax - via X

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

The 100+ degree days have returned to Austin, TX. Not mad about it... yet.

---

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@ bc6ccd13:f53098e4

The global population has been rising rapidly for the past two centuries when compared to historical trends. Fifty years ago, that trend seemed set to continue, and there was a lot of concern around the issue of overpopulation. But if you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ll know that while the population is still rising, that trend now seems set to reverse this century, and there’s every indication population could decline precipitously over the next two centuries.

Demographics is a field where predictions about the future are much more reliable than in most scientific fields. That’s because future population trends are “baked in” decades in advance. If you want to know how many fifty-year-olds there will be in forty years, all you have to do is count the ten-year-olds today and allow for mortality rates. That maximum was already determined by the number of births ten years ago, and absolutely nothing can change that now. The average person doesn’t think that through when they look at population trends. You hear a lot of “oh we just need to do more of x to help the declining birthrate” without an acknowledgement that future populations in a given cohort are already fixed by the number of births that already occurred.

As you can see, global birthrates have already declined close to the 2.3 replacement level, with some regions ahead of others, but all on the same trajectory with no region moving against the trend. I’m not going to speculate on the reasons for this, or even whether it’s a good or bad thing. Instead I’m going to make some observations about outcomes this trend could cause economically, and why. Like most macro issues, an individual can’t do anything to change the global landscape personally, but knowing what that landscape might look like is essential to avoiding fallout from trends outside your control.

The Resource Pie

Thomas Malthus popularized the concern about overpopulation with his 1798 book An Essay on the Principle of Population. The basic premise of the book was that population could grow and consume all the available resources, leading to mass poverty, starvation, disease, and population collapse. We can say in hindsight that this was incorrect, given that the global population has increased from less than a billion to over eight billion since then, and the apocalypse Malthus predicted hasn’t materialized. Exactly the opposite, in fact. The global standard of living has risen to levels Malthus couldn’t have imagined, much less predicted.

So where did Malthus go wrong? His hypothesis seems reasonable enough, and we do see a similar trend in certain animal populations. The base assumption Malthus got wrong was to assume resources are a finite, limiting factor to the human population. That at some point certain resources would be totally consumed, and that would be it. He treated it like a pie with a lot of slices, but still a finite number, and assumed that if the population kept rising, eventually every slice would be consumed and there would be no pie left for future generations. That turns out to be completely wrong.

Of course, the earth is finite at some abstract level. The number of atoms could theoretically be counted and quantified. But on a practical level, do humans exhaust the earth’s resources? I’d point to an article from Yale Scientific titled Has the Earth Run out of any Natural Resources? To quote,

> However, despite what doomsday predictions may suggest, the Earth has not run out of any resources nor is it likely that it will run out of any in the near future. > > In fact, resources are becoming more abundant. Though this may seem puzzling, it does not mean that the actual quantity of resources in the Earth’s crust is increasing but rather that the amount available for our use is constantly growing due to technological innovations. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the only resource we have exhausted is cryolite, a mineral used in pesticides and aluminum processing. However, that is not to say every bit of it has been mined away; rather, producing it synthetically is much more cost efficient than mining the existing reserves at its current value.

As it happens, we don’t run out of resources. Instead, we become better at finding, extracting, and efficiently utilizing resources, which means that in practical terms resources become more abundant, not less. In other words, the pie grows faster than we can eat it.

So is there any resource that actually limits human potential? I think there is, and history would suggest that resource is human ingenuity and effort. The more people are thinking about and working on a problem, the more solutions we find and build to solve it. That means not only does the pie grow faster than we can eat it, but the more people there are, the faster the pie grows. Of course that assumes everyone eating pie is also working to grow the pie, but that’s a separate issue for now.

Productivity and Division of Labor

Why does having more people lead to more productivity? A big part of it comes down to division of labor and specialization. The best way to get really good at something is to do more of it. In a small community, doing just one thing simply isn’t possible. Everyone has to be somewhat of a generalist in order to survive. But with a larger population, being a specialist becomes possible. In fact, that’s the purpose of money, as I explained here.

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The more specialized an economy becomes, the more efficient it can be. There are big economies of scale in almost every task or process. So for example, if a single person tried to build a car from scratch, it would be extremely difficult and take a very long time. However, if you have a thousand people building a car, each doing a specific job, they can become very good at doing that specific job and do it much faster. And then you can move that process to a factory, and build machines to do specific jobs, and add even more efficiency.

But that only works if you’re building more than one car. It doesn’t make sense to build a huge factory full of specialized equipment that takes lots of time and effort to design and manufacture, and then only build one car. You need to sell thousands of cars, maybe even millions of cars, to pay off that initial investment. So division of labor and specialization relies on large populations in two different ways. First, you need a large population to have enough people to specialize in each task. But second and just as importantly, you need a large population of buyers for the finished product. You need a big market in order to make mass production economical.

Think of a computer or smartphone. It takes thousands of specialized processes, thousands of complex parts, and millions of people doing specialized jobs to extract the raw materials, process them, and assemble them into a piece of electronic hardware. And electronics are relatively expensive anyway. Imagine how impossible it would be to manufacture electronics economically, if the market demand wasn’t literally in the billions of units.

Stairs Up, Elevator Down

We’ve seen exponential increases in productivity over the past few centuries, resulting in higher living standards even as population exploded. Now, facing the prospect of a drastic trend reversal, what will happen to productivity and living standards? The typical sentiment seems to be “well, there are a lot of people already competing for resources, so if population does decline, that will just reduce the competition and leave a bigger slice of pie for each person, so we’ll all be getting wealthier as a result of population decline.”

This seems reasonable at first glance. Surely dividing the economic pie into fewer slices means a bigger slice for everyone, right? But remember, more specialization and division of labor is what made the pie as big as it is to begin with. And specialization depends on large populations for both the supply of specialized labor, and the demand for finished goods. Can complex supply chains and mass production withstand population reduction intact? I don’t think the answer is clear.

The idea that it will all be okay, and we’ll get wealthier as population falls, is based on some faulty assumptions. It assumes that wealth is basically some fixed inventory of “things” that exist, and it’s all a matter of distribution. That’s typical Marxist thinking, similar to the reasoning behind “tax the rich” and other utopian wealth transfer schemes.

The reality is, wealth is a dynamic concept with strong network effects. For example, a grocery store in a large city can be a valuable asset with a large potential income stream. The same store in a small village with a declining population can be an unprofitable and effectively worthless liability.

Even something as permanent as a house is very susceptible to network effects. If you currently live in an area where housing is scarce and expensive, you might think a declining population would be the perfect solution to high housing costs. However, if you look at a place that’s already facing the beginnings of a population decline, you’ll see it’s not actually that simple. Japan, for example, is already facing an aging and declining population. And sure enough, you can get a house in Japan for free, or basically free. Sounds amazing, right? Not really.

If you check out the reason houses are given away in Japan, you’ll find a depressing reality. Most of the free houses are in rural areas or villages where the population is declining, often to the point that the village becomes uninhabited and abandoned. It’s so bad that in 2018, 13.6% of houses in Japan were vacant. Why do villages become uninhabited? Well, it turns out that a certain population level is necessary to support the services and businesses people need. When the population falls too low, specialized businesses can no longer operated profitably. It’s the exact issue we discussed with division of labor and the need for a high population to provide a market for the specialist to survive. As the local stores, entertainment venues, and businesses close, and skilled tradesmen move away to larger population centers with more customers, living in the village becomes difficult and depressing, if not impossible. So at a certain critical level, a village that’s too isolated will reach a tipping point where everyone leaves as fast as possible. And it turns out that an abandoned house in a remote village or rural area without any nearby services and businesses is worth… nothing. Nobody wants to live there, nobody wants to spend the money to maintain the house, nobody wants to pay the taxes needed to maintain the utilities the town relied on. So they try to give the houses away to anyone who agrees to live there, often without much success.

So on a local level, population might rise gradually over time, but when that process reverses and population declines to a certain level, it can collapse rather quickly from there.

I expect the same incentives to play out on a larger scale as well. Complex supply chains and extreme specialization lead to massive productivity. But there’s also a downside, which is the fragility of the system. Specialization might mean one shop can make all the widgets needed for a specific application, for the whole globe. That’s great while it lasts, but what happens when the owner of that shop retires with his lifetime of knowledge and experience? Will there be someone equally capable ready to fill his shoes? Hopefully… But spread that problem out across the global economy, and cracks start to appear. A specialized part is unavailable. So a machine that relies on that part breaks down and can’t be repaired. So a new machine needs to be built, which is a big expense that drives up costs and prices. And with a falling population, demand goes down. Now businesses are spending more to make fewer items, so they have to raise prices to stay profitable. Now fewer people can afford the item, so demand falls even further. Eventually the business is forced to close, and other industries that relied on the items they produced are crippled. Things become more expensive, or unavailable at any price. Living standards fall. What was a stairway up becomes an elevator down.

Hope, From the Parasite Class?

All that being said, I’m not completely pessimistic about the future. I think the potential for an acceptable outcome exists.

I see two broad groups of people in the economy; producers, and parasites. One thing the increasing productivity has done is made it easier than ever to survive. Food is plentiful globally, the only issues are with distribution. Medical advances save countless lives. Everything is more abundant than ever before. All that has led to a very “soft” economic reality. There’s a lot of non-essential production, which means a lot of wealth can be redistributed to people who contribute nothing, and if it’s done carefully, most people won’t even notice. And that is exactly what has happened, in spades.

There are welfare programs of every type and description, and handouts to people for every reason imaginable. It’s never been easier to survive without lifting a finger. So millions of able-bodied men choose to do just that.

Besides the voluntarily idle, the economy is full of “bullshit jobs.” Shoutout to David Graeber’s book with that title. (It’s an excellent book and one I would highly recommend, even though the author was a Marxist and his conclusions are completely wrong.) A 2015 British poll asked people, “Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world?” Only 50% said yes, while 37% said no and 13% were uncertain.

This won’t be a surprise to anyone who’s operated a business, or even worked in the private sector in general. There are three types of jobs; jobs that accomplish something productive, jobs that accomplish nothing of value, and jobs that actually hinder people trying to accomplish something productive. The number of jobs in the last two categories has grown massively over the years. This would include a lot of unnecessary administrative jobs, burdensome regulatory jobs, useless DEI and HR jobs, a large percentage of public sector jobs, most of the military-industrial complex, and the list is endless. All these jobs accomplish nothing worthwhile at best, and actively discourage those who are trying to accomplish something at worst.

Even among jobs that do accomplish some useful purpose, the amount of time spent actually doing the job continues to decline. According to a 2016 poll, American office workers spent only 39% of their workday actually doing their primary task. The other 61% was largely wasted on unproductive administrative tasks and meetings, answering emails, and just simply wasting time.

I could go on, but the point is, there’s a lot of slack in the economy. We’ve become so productive that the number of people actually doing the work to keep everyone fed, clothed, and cared for is only a small percentage of the population. In one sense, that’s a cause for optimism. The population could decline a lot, and we’d still have enough bodies to man the economic engine, as it were.

Aging

The thing with population decline, though, is nobody gets to choose who goes first. Not unless you’re a psychopathic dictator. So populations get old, then they get small. This means that the number of dependents in the economy rises naturally. Once people retire, they still need someone to grow the food, keep the lights on, and provide the medical care. And it doesn’t matter how much money the retirees have saved, either. Money is just a claim on wealth. The goods and services actually have to be provided by someone, and if that someone was never born, all the money in the world won’t change anything.

And the aging occurs on top of all the people already taking from the economy without contributing anything of value. So that seems like a big problem.

Currently, wealth redistribution happens through a combination of direct taxes, indirect taxation through deficit spending, and the whole gamut of games that happen when banks create credit/debt money by making loans. In a lot of cases, it’s very indirect and difficult to pin down. For example, someone has a “job” in a government office, enforcing pointless regulations that actually hinder someone in the private sector from producing something useful. Their paycheck comes from the government, so a combination of taxes on productive people, and deficit spending, which is also a tax on productive people. But they “have a job,” so who’s going to question their contribution to society? On the other hand, it could be a banker or hedge fund manager. They might be pulling in a massive salary, but at the core all they’re really doing is finding creative financial ways to transfer wealth from productive people to themselves, without contributing anything of value.

You’ll notice a common theme if you think about this problem deeply. Most of the wealth transfer that supports the unproductive, whether that’s welfare recipients, retirees, bureaucrats, corporate middle managers, or weapons manufacturers, is only possible through expanding the money supply. There’s a limit to how much direct taxation the productive will bear while the option to collect welfare exists. At a certain point, people conclude that working hard every day isn’t worth it, when taxes take so much of their wages that they could make almost as much without working at all. So the balance of what it takes to support the dependent class has to come indirectly, through new money creation.

As long as the declining population happens under the existing monetary system, the future looks bleak. There’s no limit to how much money creation and inflation the parasite class will use in an attempt to avoid work. They’ll continue to suck the productive class dry until the workers give up in disgust, and the currency collapses into hyperinflation. And you can’t run a complex economy without functional money, so productivity inevitably collapses with the currency.

The optimistic view is that we don’t have to continue supporting the failed credit/debt monetary system. It’s hurting productivity, messing up incentives, and contributing to increasing wealth inequality and lower living standards for the middle class. If we walk away from that system and adopt a hard money standard, the possibility of inflationary wealth redistribution vanishes. The welfare and warfare programs have to be slashed. The parasite class is forced to get busy, or starve. In that scenario, the declining population of workers can be offset by a massive shift away from “bullshit jobs” and into actual productive work.

While that might not be a permanent solution to declining population, it would at least give us time to find a real solution, without having our complex economy collapse and send our living standards back to the 17th century.

It’s a complex issue with many possible outcomes, but I think a close look at the effects of the monetary system on productivity shows one obvious problem that will make the situation worse than necessary. Moving to a better monetary system and creating incentives for productivity would do a lot to reduce the economic impacts of a declining population.