@ 2dd9250b:6e928072

Durante a década de 1990, houve o aumento da globalização da economia, determinando a adição do fluxo internacional de capitais, de produtos e serviços. Este fenômeno levou a uma interdependência maior entre as economias dos países. Justamente por causa da possibilidade de que um eventual colapso econômico em um país resulte no contágio dos demais. Diante disso, aumentou a preocupação com os riscos incentivando a utilização de sofisticados modelos e estratégias de avaliação de gestão de risco.

Na década, ganharam destaque ainda os graves problemas financeiros enfrentados, entre outros, pelo banco inglês Barings Bank, e pelo fundo de investimento norte-americano Long Term Capital Management.

Outro grande destaque foi a fraude superior a US$ 7 bilhões sofrida pelo banco Société Generale em Janeiro de 2008.

O Barings Bank é um banco inglês que faliu em 1995 em razão de operações financeiras irregulares e mal-sucedidas realizadas pelo seu principal operador de mercado. O rombo da instituição foi superior à US$ 1,3 Bilhão e causado por uma aposta equivocada no desempenho futuro no índice de ações no Japão. Na realidade, o mercado acionário japonês caiu mais de 15% na época, determinando a falência do banco. O Baring Bank foi vendido a um grupo financeiro holandês (ING) pelo valor simbólico de uma libra esterlina.

O Long Term Capital Management era um fundo de investimento de que perdeu em 1998 mais de US$ 4,6 bilhões em operações nos mercados financeiros internacionais. O LTCM foi socorrido pelo Banco Central dos Estados Unidos (Federal Reserve ), que coordenou uma operação de socorro financeiro à instituição. A justificativa do Banco Central para esta decisão era "o receio das possíveis consequências mundiais da falência do fundo de investimento".

O banco francês Société Generale informou, em janeiro de 2008, uma perda de US$ 7,16 bilhões determinadas por fraudes efetuadas por um operador do mercado financeiro. Segundo revelou a instituição, o operador assumiu posições no mercado sem o conhecimento da direção do banco. A instituição teve que recorrer a uma urgente captação de recursos no mercado próxima a US$ 5,0 bilhões.

E finalmente chegamos ao caso mais problemático da era das finanças modernas anterior ao Bitcoin, o caso Lehman Brothers.

O Lehman Brothers era o 4° maior de investimentos dos EUA quando pediu concordata em 15/09/2008 com dívidas que superavam inacreditáveis US$ 600 bilhões.

Não se tinha contas correntes ou talão de cheques do Lehman Brothers. Era um banco especializado em investimentos e complexas operações financeiras. Havia feito pesados investimentos em empréstimos a juros fixos no famigerado mercado subprime, e o crédito imobiliário voltado a pessoas consideradas de forte risco de inadimplência.

Com essa carteira de investimentos que valia bem menos que o estimado e o acúmulo de projetos financeiros, minou a confiança dos investidores na instituição de 158 anos. Suas ações passaram de US$ 80 a menos de US$ 4. Acumulando fracassos nas negociações para levantar fundos; a instituição de cerca de 25 mil funcionários entrou em concordata.

O Federal Reserve resgatou algumas instituições financeiras grandes e tradicionais norte-americanas como a seguradora AIG no meio da crise. O Fed injetou um capital de US$ 182, 3 bilhões no American International Group (AIG).

Foi exatamente essa decisão do Fed em salvar alguns bancos e deixar quebrar outros, que causou insegurança por parte dos clientes. E os clientes ficaram insatisfeitos tanto com os bancos de investimentos quanto com as agências de classificação de risco, como a Standard & Poor's que tinha dado uma nota alta para o Lehman Brothers no mesmo dia em que ele quebrou.

E essa foi uma das razões pelo qual o Bitcoin foi criado. Satoshi Nakamoto entendeu que as pessoas não estavam mais confiando nem no Governo, nem nos Bancos Privados que o Governo federal restagatava quando eles quebravam e isso prejudicou muita gente. Tanto que o “hash” do Genesis Block contém o título do artigo “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” (Chanceler à beira de segundo resgate para bancos, em português) da edição britânica do The Times.

Esse texto foi parcialmente editado do texto de ASSAF Neto, CAF (2014).

@ 6c05c73e:c4356f17

Análise Detalhada das Melhores Ações para Junho 2025

O mercado financeiro está em constante movimento, e identificar oportunidades de investimento é crucial para o sucesso. Exploraremos uma seleção de ações promissoras para junho de 2025. Analisaremos cada ativo individualmente, destacando seus pontos fortes e fracos para auxiliar investidores na tomada de decisões informadas. As ações a seguir foram selecionadas com base em análises de mercado e potencial de crescimento, e incluem nomes como ALOS3, RECV3, AZUL4, USO, USDBRL, BIDU, REXR, PR, GPN e CIVI.

Análise Individual das Ações

ALOS3

Essa é uma empresa que já falei aqui e está sempre voltando ao radar. Vou deixar ela em primeiro lugar, porque para mim é. Não existe empresa imobiliária tão saudável quanto ela.

Ponto Forte: ALOS3 tem demonstrado um crescimento consistente no setor de tecnologia, com inovações e expansão de mercado. A empresa possui uma forte base de clientes e uma estratégia sólida para o futuro.

Ponto Fraco: A alta volatilidade do setor tecnológico pode impactar o desempenho de ALOS3, tornando-o um investimento de maior risco em comparação com setores mais estáveis.

RECV3

Essa empresa apareceu no meu radar esse mês. Nem sabia da sua existência. Mas, isso porque seu IPO foi em 2021. E sua especialidade está em otimização de produção e revitalização de campos de petróleo.

Ponto Forte: RECV3 se destaca no setor de varejo, com uma rede de distribuição bem estabelecida e uma marca reconhecida. A empresa tem apresentado resultados financeiros positivos e um plano de expansão ambicioso.

Ponto Fraco: A concorrência acirrada no varejo e as flutuações na economia podem afetar as margens de lucro de RECV3.

AZUL4

A empresa anunciou essa semana que entrou em recuperação judicial. Contudo, o setor aéreo é sempre uma incógnita. Na minha visão, a operação de crédito da empresa é o diamante escondido.

Ponto Forte: AZUL4 é uma das principais companhias aéreas do Brasil, com uma vasta rede de rotas e uma frota moderna. A empresa tem se beneficiado da recuperação do setor de viagens e do aumento da demanda.

Ponto Fraco: O setor aéreo é altamente sensível a fatores externos como preços de combustível e crises econômicas, o que pode gerar instabilidade para AZUL4.

USO

Com os preços do petróleo em queda, devido ao aumento de produção divulgado pela OPEC. Enxergamos uma oportunidade de médio prazo. Pois, se faz muitos produtos com petróleo. Da um Google e pesquisa aí.

Ponto Forte: USO é um fundo de investimento ligado ao petróleo, que pode se beneficiar do aumento dos preços do petróleo devido a tensões geopolíticas ou aumento da demanda global.

Ponto Fraco: O preço do petróleo é extremamente volátil e sujeito a eventos imprevisíveis, tornando o USO um investimento de alto risco.

USDBRL

Não é novidade para ninguém que o dólar está previsto em R$6 para logo menos. A julgar pela impressão monetária, juros e inflação. Não vai ser difícil chegar lá. O P O R T U N I D A D E !

Ponto Forte: USDBRL representa a taxa de câmbio entre o dólar americano e o real brasileiro. Investir nesse ativo pode ser uma forma de se proteger contra a desvalorização do real e diversificar a carteira.

Ponto Fraco: A taxa de câmbio é influenciada por inúmeros fatores econômicos e políticos, tornando-a altamente volátil e difícil de prever.

BIDU

O maior motor de busca na China está derretendo. Em partes pelos avanços das IA. Que agora são amplamente usadas para pesquisas.

Ponto Forte: BIDU é uma das maiores empresas de tecnologia da China, com forte presença no mercado de buscas e inteligência artificial. A empresa tem um grande potencial de crescimento no mercado asiático.

Ponto Fraco: As regulamentações governamentais na China e a concorrência com outras gigantes da tecnologia podem limitar o crescimento de BIDU.

REXR

Empresa californiana focada em desenvolvimento imobiliário. Com excelentes resultados e fundamentos.

Ponto Forte: REXR é uma empresa do setor imobiliário com um portfólio diversificado e um histórico de crescimento constante. A empresa tem se beneficiado do aquecimento do mercado imobiliário em algumas regiões.

Ponto Fraco: O mercado imobiliário é sensível a taxas de juros e ciclos econômicos, o que pode impactar o desempenho de REXR em momentos de crise.

PR

Cara, essa empresa chama muito a atenção. Pelos números robustos. A empresa administra petróleo e campos de gás.

Ponto Forte: A empresa PR atua no setor de recursos naturais e tem se beneficiado do aumento da demanda por commodities. A empresa possui ativos valiosos e uma operação eficiente.

Ponto Fraco: A volatilidade dos preços das commodities e questões ambientais podem afetar negativamente o desempenho de PR.

GPN

A empresa tem excelentes fundamentos e está sentada sobre uma pilha de dinheiro em caixa que excede e muito a real necessidade da empresa. Olho nela!

Ponto Forte: GPN é uma empresa do setor financeiro, com destaque para serviços de pagamento e tecnologia financeira. A empresa tem apresentado crescimento consistente e inovação em seus produtos.

Ponto Fraco: A concorrência no setor financeiro e as regulamentações podem impactar as margens de lucro de GPN.

CIVI

Para concluir nossa lista. Temos essa empresa de construção civil que derreteu caixa. Mas, tem seu valor patrimonial bem abaixo do esperado.

Ponto Forte: CIVI é uma empresa do setor de construção civil, com projetos de infraestrutura e desenvolvimento urbano. A empresa tem se beneficiado de investimentos governamentais e crescimento populacional.

Ponto Fraco: O setor de construção civil é sensível a crises econômicas e atrasos em projetos, o que pode gerar instabilidade para CIVI.

Resumo da ópera:

Investir em ações requer pesquisa e análise cuidadosa. Cada uma das empresas listadas apresenta pontos fortes e fracos que devem ser considerados. ALOS3 se destaca pela sua excelente gestão nos shoppings e imóveis. BIDU se destaca no setor de tecnologia, enquanto RECV3 e AZUL4 oferecem oportunidades nos setores de varejo e aviação. USO e USDBRL são investimentos mais voláteis, ligados ao petróleo e câmbio, respectivamente. REXR e CIVI representam o setor imobiliário e construção civil, enquanto PR e GPN atuam nos setores de recursos naturais e financeiro. Esperamos que esta análise tenha sido útil. Boa sorte em seus investimentos!

Disclaimer

Lembre-se: este não é um conselho de investimento. Faça sua própria pesquisa antes de investir. Resultados passados não garantem lucros futuros. Cuide do seu dinheiro!

Bio

Apaixonado por investimentos e pela transformação que eles podem trazer, a equipe threedolar dedica-se a desmistificar o mundo financeiro e guiar seus leitores rumo à independência financeira. Acreditamos que o conhecimento é a chave para o sucesso nos investimentos.

Links

• https://www.fundamentus.com.br
• https://finviz.com
• https://permianres.com

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

News

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

Source: b10c's blog.

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

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

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

Source: block.xyz

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

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

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

Source: Bitwise.

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

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

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Bitmain’s new device raises the bar for energy efficiency.

During the World Digital Mining Summit, Bitmain introduced its latest bitcoin mining device: the Antminer S23 Hydro. The new miner promises an energy efficiency of 9.5 joules per terahash (J/TH), setting new industry standards.

ANTMINER S23 Hyd. Newly Launched at WDMS 2025!
580T 9.5J/T
Sales Start from May 28th, 9:00AM (EST)
Shipping from Q1, 2026 pic.twitter.com/Kg3VJTt7Rg

— BITMAIN (@BITMAINtech) May 27, 2025

According to Bitmain’s presentation, the Antminer S23 Hydro delivers up to 580 TH/s with a power consumption of 5,510 watts.

Scheduled for release in early 2026, the Antminer S23 Hydro marks a major leap forward compared to the first ASIC devices dedicated to mining. To put it in perspective, the first specialized miners launched in 2013 consumed around 1,200 J/TH. Bitmain’s latest device therefore represents a more than 99% improvement in efficiency.

Hashprice and economic challenges

In recent months, the hashprice — the metric measuring mining profitability — has remained relatively low, dropping below $39 per petahash per second during the year. As of now, the hashprice stands at around $55 per petahash per second, according to data from Hashrate Index.

This scenario has pushed several companies in the sector to rethink their expansion strategies. Instead of increasing hashing capacity, many are choosing to upgrade their existing fleets, focusing on efficiency rather than sheer scale.

The introduction of the Antminer S23 Hydro could catalyze a transformation within the mining ecosystem. The gradual replacement of outdated devices with more efficient technology could lead to a significant reduction in the Bitcoin network’s overall energy consumption.

The post Bitmain unveils the Antminer S23 Hydro: unprecedented efficiency appeared first on Atlas21.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

In the heart of East Africa, where M-Pesa reigns supreme and innovation pulses through bustling markets, a quiet revolution is brewing—one that could redefine how millions interact with money.

Enter Bitika, the Kenyan startup turning bitcoin’s complexity into a three-step dance, merging the lightning speed of sats with the trusted rhythm of mobile money.

At the helm is a founder whose “aha” moment came not in a boardroom, but at his kitchen table, watching his father grapple with the gap between understanding bitcoin and actually using it.

Bitika was born from that friction—a bridge between M-Pesa’s ubiquity and bitcoin’s borderless promise, wrapped in a name as playful as the Swahili slang that inspired it.

But this isn’t just a story about simplifying transactions. It’s about liquidity battles, regulatory tightropes, and a vision to turn Bitika into the invisible rails powering Africa’s Bitcoin future.

Building on Bitcoin

• Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into bitcoin/fintech, and what keeps you passionate about this space?

I first came across bitcoin in 2020, but like many at that time, I didn’t fully grasp what it really was. It sounded too complicated, probably with the heavy terminologies. Over time, I kept digging deeper and became more curious.

I started digging into finance and how money works and realised this was what I needed to understand bitcoin’s objectives. I realized that bitcoin wasn’t just a new type of money—it was a breakthrough in how we think about freedom, ownership, and global finance.

What keeps me passionate is how bitcoin can empower people—especially in Africa—to take control of their wealth, without relying on unstable systems or middlemen.

• What pivotal moment or experience inspired you to create Bitika? Was there a specific gap in Kenya’s financial ecosystem that sparked the idea?

Yes, this idea was actually born right in my own home. I’ve always been an advocate for bitcoin, sharing it with friends, family, and even strangers. My dad and I had countless conversations about it. Eventually, he understood the concept. But when he asked, “How do I even buy bitcoin?” or “Can you just buy it for me?” and after taking him through binance—that hit me.

If someone I’d educated still found the buying process difficult, how many others were feeling the same way? That was the lightbulb moment. I saw a clear gap: the process of buying bitcoin was too technical for the average Kenyan. That’s the problem Bitika set out to solve.

• How did you identify the synergy between bitcoin and M-Pesa as a solution for accessibility?

M-Pesa is at the center of daily life in Kenya. Everyone uses it—from buying groceries to paying rent. Instead of forcing people to learn new tools, I decided to meet them where they already are. That synergy between M-Pesa and bitcoin felt natural. It’s about bridging what people already trust with something powerful and new.

• Share the story behind the name “Bitika” – does it hold a cultural or symbolic meaning?

Funny enough, Bitika isn’t a deeply planned name. It came while I was thinking about bitcoin and the type of transformation it brings to individuals. In Swahili, we often add “-ka” to words for flair—like “bambika” from “bamba.”

So, I just coined Bitika as a playful and catchy way to reflect something bitcoin-related, but also uniquely local. I stuck with it because thinking of an ideal brand name is the toughest challenge for me.

• Walk us through the user journey – how does buying bitcoin via M-Pesa in “3 simple steps” work under the hood?

It’s beautifully simple.

1. The user enters the amount they want to spend in KES—starting from as little as 50 KES (about $0.30).

2. They input their Lightning wallet address.

3. They enter their M-Pesa number, which triggers an STK push (payment prompt) on their phone. Once confirmed—pap!—they receive bitcoin almost instantly.

Under the hood, we fetch the live BTC price, validate wallet addresses, check available liquidity, process the mobile payment, and send sats via the Lightning Network—all streamlined into a smooth experience for the user.

• Who’s Bitika’s primary audience? Are you focusing on unbanked populations, tech enthusiasts, or both?

Both. Bitika is designed for everyday people—especially the unbanked and underbanked who are excluded from traditional finance. But we also attract bitcoiners who just want a faster, easier way to buy sats. What unites them is the desire for a seamless and low-barrier bitcoin experience.

Community and Overcoming Challenges

• What challenges has Bitika faced navigating Kenya’s bitcoin regulations, and how do you build trust with regulators?

Regulation is still evolving here. Parliament has drafted bills, but none have been passed into law yet. We’re currently in a revision phase where policymakers are trying to strike a balance between encouraging innovation and protecting the public.

We focus on transparency and open dialogue—we believe that building trust with regulators starts with showing how bitcoin can serve the public good.

• What was the toughest obstacle in building Bitika, and how did you overcome it?

Liquidity. Since we don’t have deep capital reserves, we often run into situations where we have to pause operations often to manually restock our bitcoin supply. It’s frustrating—for us and for users. We’re working on automating this process and securing funding to maintain consistent liquidity so users can access bitcoin at any time, without disruption.

This remains our most critical issue—and the primary reason we’re seeking support.

• Are you eyeing new African markets? What’s next for Bitika’s product?

Absolutely. The long-term vision is to expand Bitika into other African countries facing similar financial challenges. But first, we want to turn Bitika into a developer-first tool—infrastructure that others can build on. Imagine local apps, savings products, or financial tools built using Bitika’s simple bitcoin rails. That’s where we’re heading. 

• What would you tell other African entrepreneurs aiming to disrupt traditional finance?

Disrupting finance sounds exciting—but the reality is messy. People fear what they don’t understand. That’s why simplicity is everything. Build tools that hide the complexity, and focus on making the user’s life easier. Most importantly, stay rooted in local context—solve problems people actually face.

What’s Next?

• What’s your message to Kenyans hesitant to try bitcoin, and to enthusiasts watching Bitika?

To my fellow Kenyans: bitcoin isn’t just an investment—it’s a sovereign tool. It’s money you truly own. Start small, learn, and ask questions.

To the bitcoin community: Bitika is proof that bitcoin is working in Africa. Let’s keep pushing. Let’s build tools that matter.

• How can the bitcoin community, both locally and globally, support Bitika’s mission?

We’re currently fundraising on Geyser. Support—whether it’s financial, technical, or simply sharing our story—goes a long way. Every sat you contribute helps us stay live, grow our liquidity, and continue building a tool that brings bitcoin closer to the everyday person in Africa.

Support here: https://geyser.fund/project/bitika

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

When Sergei talks about bitcoin, he doesn’t sound like someone chasing profits or followers. He sounds like someone about to build a monastery in the ruins.

While the mainstream world chases headlines and hype, Sergei shows up in local meetups from Sacramento to Cleveland, mentors curious minds, and shares what he knows is true – hoping that, with the right spark, someone will light their own way forward.

We interviewed Sergei to trace his steps: where he started, what keeps him going, and why teaching bitcoin is far more than explaining how to set up a node – it’s about reaching the right minds before the noise consumes them. So we began where most journeys start: at the beginning.

First Steps

• So, where did it all begin for you and what made you stay curious?

I first heard about bitcoin from a friend’s book recommendation, American Kingpin, the book about Silk Road (online drug marketplace). He is still not a true bitcoiner, although I helped him secure private keys with some bitcoin.

I was really busy at the time – focused on my school curriculum, running a 7-bedroom Airbnb, and working for a standardized test prep company. Bitcoin seemed too technical for me to explore, and the pace of my work left no time for it.

After graduating, while pursuing more training, I started playing around with stocks and maximizing my savings. Passive income seemed like the path to early retirement, as per the promise of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). I mostly followed the mainstream news and my mentor’s advice – he liked preferred stocks at the time.

I had some Coinbase IOUs and remember sending bitcoin within the Coinbase ledger to a couple friends. I also recall the 2018 crash; I actually saw the legendary price spike live but couldn’t benefit because my funds were stuck amidst the frenzy. I withdrew from that investment completely for some time. Thankfully, my mentor advised to keep en eye on bitcoin.

Around late 2019, I started DCA-ing cautiously. Additionally, my friend and I were discussing famous billionaires, and how there was no curriculum for becoming a billionaire. So, I typed “billionaires” into my podcast app, and landed on We Study Billionaires podcast.

That’s where I kept hearing Preston Pysh mention bitcoin, before splitting into his own podcast series, Bitcoin Fundamentals. I didn’t understand most of the terminology of stocks, bonds, etc, yet I kept listening and trying to absorb it thru repetition. Today, I realize all that financial talk was mostly noise.

When people ask me for a technical explanation of fiat, I say: it’s all made up, just like the fiat price of bitcoin! Starting in 2020, during the so-called pandemic, I dove deeper. I religiously read Bitcoin Magazine, scrolled thru Bitcoin Twitter, and joined Simply Bitcoin Telegram group back when DarthCoin was an admin.

DarthCoin was my favorite bitcoiner – experienced, knowledgeable, and unapologetic. Watching him shift from rage to kindness, from passion to despair, gave me a glimpse at what a true educator’s journey would look like.

The struggle isn’t about adoption at scale anymore. It’s about reaching the few who are willing to study, take risks, and stay out of fiat traps. The vast majority won’t follow that example – not yet at least… if I start telling others the requirements for true freedom and prosperity, they would certainly say “Hell no!”

• At what point did you start teaching others, and why?

After college, I helped teach at a standardized test preparation company, and mentored some students one-on-one. I even tried working at a kindergarten briefly, but left quickly; Babysitting is not teaching.

What I discovered is that those who will succeed don’t really need my help – they would succeed with or without me, because they already have the inner drive.

Once you realize your people are perishing for lack of knowledge, the only rational thing to do is help raise their level of knowledge and understanding. That’s the Great Work.

I sometimes imagine myself as a political prisoner. If that were to happen, I’d probably start teaching fellow prisoners, doctors, janitors, even guards. In a way we already live in an open-air prison, So what else is there to do but teach, organize, and conspire to dismantle the Matrix?

Building on Bitcoin

• You hosted some in-person meetups in Sacramento. What did you learn from those?

My first presentation was on MultiSig storage with SeedSigner, and submarine swaps through Boltz.exchange.

I realized quickly that I had overestimated the group’s technical background. Even the meetup organizer, a financial advisor, asked, “How is anyone supposed to follow these steps?” I responded that reading was required… He decided that Unchained is an easier way.

At a crypto meetup, I gave a much simpler talk, outlining how bitcoin will save the world, based on a DarthCoin’s guide. Only one person stuck around to ask questions – a man who seemed a little out there, and did not really seem to get the message beyond the strength of cryptographic security of bitcoin.

Again, I overestimated the audience’s readiness. That forced me to rethink my strategy. People are extremely early and reluctant to study.

• Now in Ohio, you hold sessions via the Orange Pill App. What’s changed?

My new motto is: educate the educators. The corollary is: don’t orange-pill stupid normies (as DarthCoin puts it).

I’ve shifted to small, technical sessions in order to raise a few solid guardians of this esoteric knowledge who really get it and can carry it forward.

The youngest attendee at one of my sessions is a newborn baby – he mostly sleeps, but maybe he still absorbs some of the educational vibes.

• How do local groups like Sactown and Cleveland Bitcoiners influence your work?

Every meetup reflects its local culture. Sacramento and Bay Area Bitcoiners, for example, do camping trips – once we camped through a desert storm, shielding our burgers from sand while others went to shoot guns.

Cleveland Bitcoiners are different. They amass large gatherings. They recently threw a 100k party. They do a bit more community outreach. Some are curious about the esoteric topics such as jurisdiction, spirituality, and healthful living.

I have no permanent allegiance to any state, race, or group. I go where I can teach and learn. I anticipate that in my next phase, I’ll meet Bitcoiners so advanced that I’ll have to give up my fiat job and focus full-time on serious projects where real health and wealth are on the line.

Hopefully, I’ll be ready. I believe the universe always challenges you exactly to your limit – no less, no more.

• What do people struggle with the most when it comes to technical education?

The biggest struggle isn’t technical – it’s a lack of deep curiosity. People ask “how” and “what” – how do I set up a node, what should one do with the lightning channels? But very few ask “why?”

Why does on-chain bitcoin not contribute to the circular economy? Why is it essential to run Lightning? Why did humanity fall into mental enslavement in the first place?

I’d rather teach two-year-olds who constantly ask “why” than adults who ask how to flip a profit. What worries me most is that most two-year-olds will grow up asking state-funded AI bots for answers and live according to its recommendations.

• One Cleveland Bitcoiner shows up at gold bug meetups. How valuable is face-to-face education?

I don’t think the older generation is going to reverse the current human condition. Most of them have been under mind control for too long, and they just don’t have the attention span to study and change their ways.

They’re better off stacking gold and helping fund their grandkids’ education. If I were to focus on a demographic, I’d go for teenagers – high school age – because by college, the indoctrination is usually too strong, and they’re chasing fiat mastery.

As for the gold bug meetup? Perhaps one day I will show up with a ukulele to sing some bitcoin-themed songs. Seniors love such entertainment.

• How do you choose what to focus on in your sessions, especially for different types of learners?

I don’t come in with a rigid agenda. I’ve collected a massive library of resources over the years and never stopped reading. My browser tab and folder count are exploding.

At the meetup, people share questions or topics they’re curious about, then I take that home, do my homework, and bring back a session based on those themes. I give them the key takeaways, plus where to dive deeper.

Most people won’t – or can’t – study the way I do, and I expect attendees to put in the work. I suspect that it’s more important to reach those who want to learn but don’t know how, the so-called nescient (not knowing), rather than the ignorant.

There are way too many ignorant bitcoiners, so my mission is to find those who are curious what’s beyond the facade of fake reality and superficial promises.

That naturally means that fewer people show up, and that’s fine. I’m not here for the crowds; I’m here to educate the educators. One bitcoiner who came decided to branch off into self-custody sessions and that’s awesome. Personally, I’m much more focused on Lightning.

I want to see broader adoption of tools like auth, sign-message, NWC, and LSPs. Next month, I’m going deep into eCash solutions, because let’s face it – most newcomers won’t be able to afford their own UTXO or open a lightning channel; additionally, it has to be fun and easy for them to transact sats, otherwise they won’t do it. Additionally, they’ll need to rely on

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Bitcoin Magazine

Panama City Mayor Mizrachi: “Bitcoin Is Not Just Safe, It’s Prosperous”

At the 2025 Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, the Director of Bitcoin Beach Mike Peterson, the Presidential Advisors of Building Bitcoin Country El Salvador Max & Stacy and the Mayor City of Panama Mayer Mizrachi discussed Bitcoins future in Panama.

At the beginning of the panel, Is Panama Next? El Salvador Leading The Region For Bitcoin Adoption, Mayor Mizrachi started by mentioning, “We accept Bitcoin. The city gets paid in Bitcoin, but it receives in dollars through an intermediary processing, payments processor. Bitcoin is not just safe. It’s prosperous.”

Max commented about the scammers in crypto and how El Salvador is managing it.

“We did a couple of things early on, one was to create The Bitcoin Office which will be directly reporting to the President, and then also we passed a law which will say bitcoin is money and everything else is an unregistered security,” said Max.

Mike Peterson stated, “the access of Bitcoin in Central America to do battle against the globalists that have always looked at the regionist back yard. This is intolerable and this is going to change right now.” After Mizrachi commented, “Imagine yourself in an economic block powered by El Salvador, supported by Panama and the rest will come.”

Stacy reminded everybody about El Salvador’s School system. 

“El Salvador is the first country in the world to have a comprehensive public school financial literacy education program from 7 years old,” mentioned Stacy. “These are little kids, learning financial literacy.”

Max ended the panel by saying, “the US game theory right? Because the US wants to buy a lot of Bitcoin, so if Panama wants to buy a lot of bitcoin then it helps everybody in the US. This is the beautiful expression of game theory perfectly aligned in the protocol that is changing the world that we live in. And on the street level what bitcoin does to the population is to go from a spending mentality to a saving mentality.”

You can watch the full panel discussion and the rest of the Bitcoin 2025 Conference Day 3 below:

This post Panama City Mayor Mizrachi: “Bitcoin Is Not Just Safe, It’s Prosperous” first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

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Bitcoin Magazine

The Debt Train Has No Brakes: Lyn Alden Makes the Case for BTC at Bitcoin 2025

“Nothing stops this train,” Lyn Alden initially stated at Bitcoin 2025, walking the audience through a data-rich presentation that made one thing clear: the U.S. fiscal system is out of control—and Bitcoin is more necessary than ever. 

Her first chart, sourced from the Federal Reserve’s FRED database, displayed a stark decoupling: the unemployment rate is down, yet the fiscal deficit has surged past 7% of GDP. “This started around 2017, went into overdrive during the pandemic, and hasn’t corrected,” Alden said. “That’s not normal. We’re in a new era.” 

She didn’t mince words. “Nothing stops this train because there are no brakes attached to it anymore. The brakes are heavily impaired.

Why should Bitcoiners care? Because, as Alden explained, “it matters for asset prices—especially anything scarce.” She displayed a gold vs. real rates chart that showed gold soaring as real interest rates plunged. “Five years ago, most would have said Bitcoin couldn’t thrive in a high-rate environment. Yet here we are—Bitcoin over $100K, gold at new highs, and banks breaking under pressure.”

Next came what she called “The Turning Point”—a side-by-side showing how public debt growth overtook private sector debt post-2008, flipping a decades-long norm. “This is inflationary, persistent, and it means the Fed can’t slow things down anymore.” 

Another chart revealed why rising interest rates are now accelerating the deficit. “They’ve lost their brakes. Raising rates just makes the federal interest bill explode faster than it slows bank lending.”

Alden called it a ponzi: “The system is built on constant growth. Like a shark, it dies if it stops swimming.”

Her slide showed a relentless rise in total debt versus base money—except for a jolt in 2008, and again after 2020. “This isn’t going backward. Ever.” 

So why Bitcoin? “Because it’s the opposite. Scarce, decentralized, and mathematically capped,” Alden concluded. “There are two reasons nothing stops this train: math and human nature. Bitcoin is the mirror of this system—and the best protection from it.” 

You can watch the full panel discussion and the rest of the Bitcoin 2025 Conference Day 3 below:

This post The Debt Train Has No Brakes: Lyn Alden Makes the Case for BTC at Bitcoin 2025 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Jack Mallers Announced A New System of Bitcoin Backed Loans at Strike

The Founder and CEO of Strike, Jack Mallers, at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, announced a new system of Bitcoin backed loans at Strike with one digit interest rate.

Jack Mallers began his keynote by pointing at the biggest problem. Fiat currency. 

“The best time to go to Whole Foods and buy eggs with your dollars was 1913,” said Mallers. “Every other time after, you are getting screwed.”

What’s the solution?

“The solution is Bitcoin,” stated Mallers. “Bitcoin is the money that we coincide that nobody can print. You can’t print, you can’t debase my time and energy, you cannot deprive me of owning assets, of getting out of debt, of living sovereignly and protecting my future, my family, my priced possessions. Bitcoin is what we invented to do that.”

Mallers gave a power message to the audience by explaining that people should HODL every dollar they have in Bitcoin. People should also spend a little of it to have a nice life.

“You can’t HODL forever,” said Jack.

While talking about loans that people borrow against their Bitcoin. He explained why he thinks banks putting 20% in interest for loans backed with Bitcoin is outrageous.

“All these professional economists, they are like Bitcoin is risky and volatile,” stated Mallers. “No it’s not. This is the magnificent 7 one year volatility and the orange one in the middle is Bitcoin. It’s no more risky and volatile. It’s a little bit more volatile than Apple, but is far less more volatile than Tesla.”

“As Bitcoin matures, its volatility goes down,” continued Jack. “Bitcoin volatility is at a point where it is no more risky than a Tesla Stock. We should not be paying double digits rates for a loan.”

Mallers announced his new system of loans at Strike of 9-13% in interest rates. It will allow people to get loans from $10,000 to $1 billion. 

Mallers closed by saying, “please be responsible. This is debt. Debt is like fire in my opinion. It can heat a civilization. It can warm your home, but if you go too crazy it can burn your house down.”

“Life is short,” said Jack. “Take the trip, but with bitcoin you just get to take a better one.”

This post Jack Mallers Announced A New System of Bitcoin Backed Loans at Strike first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Michael Saylor Presents The 21 Ways to Wealth at Bitcoin 2025

Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy, took the stage at Bitcoin 2025 delivering a keynote titled “21 Ways to Wealth.” He stated: “This speech is for you. I’ve traveled the world and told countries, institutional investors, and even the disembodied spirits of our children’s children why they need Bitcoin. This is for every individual, every family, every small business. It’s for everybody.”  

He began with clarity. “The first way to wealth is clarity,” he said. “Clarity comes the moment you realize Bitcoin is capital—perfected capital, programmable capital, incorruptible capital.” For Saylor, every thoughtful individual on Earth will ultimately seek such pristine capital, and every AI system will prefer it as well. 

The second path is conviction. Bitcoin, he said, will appreciate faster than every other asset, because it’s engineered for performance. “It’s going to grow faster than real estate or collectibles. It is the most efficient store of value in human history.”

The third way is courage. “If you’re going to get rich on Bitcoin, you need courage,” he warned. “Wealth favors those who embrace intelligent monetary risk. Some people will get left behind. Others will juggle it. But the bold will feed the fire—sell your bonds, buy Bitcoin. An extraordinary explosion of value is coming.”

Fourth comes cooperation. “You are more powerful if you have the full support of your family. Your children have time and potential. The secret is transferring capital into their hands. Families that move in unity are unstoppable.”

The fifth is capability. “Master AI,” he said. “In 2025, everything you can imagine is at your fingertips—wisdom, analysis, creativity. Ask AI, argue with it, use it. You can become a super genius. Don’t put your ego first—put your interests first. Your family will thank you.”

Saylor’s sixth way to wealth is composition: construct legal entities that scale your strategy and protect your assets. “Ask the AI and figure it out. You can work hard, or you can work smart. This year, everyone should be operating like the most sophisticated millionaire family office.”

The seventh is citizenship. Choose your economic nexus carefully—“domicile where sovereignty respects your freedom,” he said. “This isn’t just about this year—it’s about this century.”

Eighth is civility. “Respect the natural power structures of the world. Respect the force of nature,” he explained. “If you want to generate wealth in the Bitcoin universe, don’t fight unnecessarily. Find common ground. Inflation and distraction are your enemies.”

Ninth is corporation. “A well-structured corporation is the most powerful wealth engine on Earth. Families are powerful. Partnerships are even more powerful. But corporations can scale globally. What is your vehicle? What is your path?”

The tenth way is focus. “Just because you can do a thing doesn’t mean you should,” he warned. “If you invest in Bitcoin, there’s a 90% chance it will succeed over five years. Don’t confuse ambition with accomplishment. Come up with a strategy—and stick to it.”

The eleventh is equity. “Share your opportunities with investors who will share your risk,” he said, pointing to MicroStrategy’s own rise from $10 million to a $5 billion market cap by aligning with equity partners who believed in the Bitcoin mission.

The twelfth is credit. “There are people in the world who are afraid of the future—they want small yield, certainty. Offer that. Give creditors security in return for capital. Convert their fear into fuel and turn risk into yield by investing in Bitcoin.”

The thirteenth is compliance. “Create the best company you can within the rules of your market. Learn the rules of the road. If you know them, you can drive faster. You can scale legally and sustainably.”

The fourteenth way is capitalization. “Velocity compounds wealth,” Saylor said. “Raise and reinvest capital as fast and as often as you can. The faster your money moves into productive Bitcoin strategies, the more it multiplies.”

Fifteenth is communication. “Speak with candor. Act with transparency. And repeat your message often,” he urged. “Creating wealth with Bitcoin is simple—but only if people understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”

Sixteenth is commitment. “Don’t allow yourself to be distracted,” he said. “Don’t chase your own ideas. Don’t feed the trolls. Stay committed to Bitcoin. It’s the greatest idea in the world. The world probably doesn’t care what you think—but it will care when you win.”

The Seventeenth way is competence. “You’re not competing with noise—you’re competing with someone who is laser-focused, who executes flawlessly,” he said. “You must deliver consistent, precise, and reliable performance. That’s how you win.”

The Eighteenth is adaptation. “Circumstances change. Every structure you trust today will eventually fail. A wise person is prepared to abandon their baggage and adjust plans when needed. Rigidity is ruin.”

Nineteenth is evolution. “Build on your core strengths. You don’t need to start over—you need to level up. Leverage what you already do best, and expand it through Bitcoin and advanced technologies.”

Twentieth is advocacy. “Inspire others to walk the Bitcoin path,” he said. “Become an evangelist for economic freedom. Show others what this revolution really means. Show them the way.”

Finally, the twenty-first way is generosity. “When you’re successful—and you will be successful—spread happiness. Share security. Deliver hope. That light inside you will shine. And others will be drawn to it.” 

As he ended, Saylor smiled and quoted the very origin of it all: 

“It might make sense to get some, in case it catches on.” – Satoshi.

In Michael Saylor’s worldview, Bitcoin is not a get-rich-quick scheme—it’s the ultimate long-term play. It is the foundation of generational wealth, the engine of personal and institutional freedom, and the tool for those bold enough to lead humanity into a more sovereign, secure future. 

You can watch the full panel discussion and the rest of the Bitcoin 2025 Conference Day 3 below: 

This post Michael Saylor Presents The 21 Ways to Wealth at Bitcoin 2025 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Builders Exist Because Of Users

Builder: Nicholas Gregory

Language(s): C++, Rust

Contribute(s/ed) To: Ocean Sidechain, Mainstay, Mercury Wallet, Mercury Layer

Work(s/ed) At: CommerceBlock (formerly)

Prior to Bitcoin, Nicholas was a software developer working in the financial system for banking firms developing trading and derivatives platforms. After the 2008 financial crisis he began to consider alternatives to the legacy financial system in the fallout. 

Like many from that time, he completely ignored the original Slashdot article featuring the Bitcoin whitepaper due to the apparent focus on Windows as an application platform (Nicholas was a UNIX/Linux developer). Thankfully someone he knew introduced him to Bitcoin later on. 

The thing that captured his interest about Bitcoin rather than other alternatives at the time was its specific architecture as a distributed computer network. 

“The fact that it was like an alternative way. It was all based around [a] kind of […] network. And what I mean by that, building financial systems, people always wanted a system that was 24-7.

And how do you deal with someone interacting [with] it in different geographical parts of the world without it being centralized?

And I’d seen various ways of people solving that problem, but it never had been done, you know, in a kind of […] scalable solution. And using […] cryptography and proof of work to solve that issue was just weird, to be honest. It was totally weird for me.”

All of the other systems he had designed, and some that he built, were systems distributed across multiple parts of the world. Unlike Bitcoin however, these systems were permissioned and restricted who could update the relevant database(s) despite that fact that copies of them were redundantly distributed globally. 

“The fact that in Bitcoin you had everyone kind of doing this proof of work game, which is what it is. And whoever wins does the [database] write. That mess[ed] with my head. That was […] very unique.”

Beginning To Build

Nicholas’s path to building in the space was an organic one. At the time he was living in New York City, and being a developer he of course found the original Bitdevs founded in NYC. Back then meetups were incredibly small, sometimes even less than a dozen people, so the environment was much more conducive to in-depth conversations than some larger meetups these days. 

He first began building a “hobbyist” Over The Counter (OTC) trading software stack for some people (back then a very significant volume of bitcoin was traded OTC for cash or other fiat mediums). From here Nicholas and Omar Shibli, whom he met at Bitdevs, worked together on Pay To Contract (BIP 175). 

BIP 175 specifies a scheme where a customer purchasing a good participates in generating the address the merchant provides. This is done by the two first agreeing on a contract describing what is being paid for, afterwards the merchant sends a master public key to the consumer, who uses the hash of that description of the item or service to generate an individual address using the hash and master public key. 

This allows the customer to prove what the merchant agreed to sell them, and that the payment for the good or service has been made. Simply publishing the master public key and contract allows any third party to generate the address that was paid, and verify that the appropriate amount of funds were sent there. 

Ocean and Mainstay

Nicholas and Omar went on to found CommerceBlock, a Bitcoin infrastructure company. Commerceblock took a similar approach to business as Blockstream, building technological platforms to facilitate the use of Bitcoin and blockchains in general in commerce and finance. Shortly afterwards Nicholas met Tom Trevethan who came on board. 

“I met Tom via, yeah, a mutual friend, happy to say who it is. There’s a guy called, who, new people probably don’t know who he is, but OGs do, John Matonis.  John Matonis was a good friend of mine, [I’d] known him for a while. He introduced me to Tom, who was, you know, kind of more on the cryptography side. And it kind of went from there.”

The first major project they worked on was Ocean, a fork of the Elements sidechain platform developed by Blockstream that the Liquid sidechain was based on. The companies CoinShares and Blockchain in partnership with others launched an Ocean based sidechain in 2019 to issue DGLD, a gold backed digital token. 

“So we, you know, we were working on forks of Elements, doing bespoke sidechains. […] Tom had some ideas around cryptography. And I think one of our first ideas was about how to bolt on these forks of Elements onto […] the Bitcoin main chain. […] We thought the cleanest way to do that was […] using some sort of, I can’t remember, but it was something [based on] single-use sealed sets, which was an invention by Peter Todd. And I think we implemented that fairly well with Mainstay.”

The main distinction between Ocean and Liquid as a sidechain platform is Ocean’s use of a protocol designed at Commerceblock called Mainstay. Mainstay is a timestamping protocol that, unlike Opentimestamps, strictly orders the merkle tree it builds instead of randomly adding items in whatever order they are submitted in. This allows each sidechain to timestamp its current blockheight into the Bitcoin blockchain everytime mainchain miners find a block. 

While this is useless for any bitcoin pegged into the sidechain, for regulated real world assets (RWA), this provides a singular history of ownership that even the federation operating the sidechain cannot change. This removes ambiguity of ownership during legal disputes. 

When asked about the eventually shuttering of the project, Nicholas had this to say: 

“I don’t know if we were early, but we had a few clients. But it was, yeah, there wasn’t much adoption. I mean, Liquid wasn’t doing amazing. And, you know, being based in London/Europe, whenever we met clients to do POCs, we were competing against other well-funded projects. 

It shows how many years ago they’d either received money from people like IBM or some of the big consultancies and were promoting Hyperledger.  Or it was the days when we would be competing against EOS and Tezos. So because we were like a company that needed money to build prototypes or build sidechains, it kind of made it very hard. And back then there wasn’t much adoption.”

Mercury Wallet and Mercury Layer

After shutting down Ocean, Nicholas and Tom eventually began working on a statechain implementation, though the path to this was not straightforward. 

“[T]here were a few things happening at the same time that led to it. So the two things were we were involved in a [proof of concept], a very small […]POC for like a potential client. But this rolled around Discreet Log Contracts. And one of the challenges of Discreet Log Contracts, they’re very capital inefficient. So we wanted a way to novate those contracts. And it just so happened that Ruben Sampson, you know, wrote this kind of white paper/Medium post about statechains. And […] those two ideas, that kind of solved potentially that issue around DLCs.”

In the end they did not wind up deploying a statechain solution for managing DLCs, but went in a different direction. 

Well, there was another thing happening at the same time, coinswaps. And, yeah, bear in mind, in those days, everyone worried that by […] 2024/2025 […] network fees could be pretty high. And to do […] coin swaps, you kind of want to do multiple rounds. So […] state chains felt perfect because […] you basically take a UTXO, you put it off the chain, and then you can swap it as much as you want.”

Mercury Wallet was fully built out and functional, but sadly never gained any user adoption. Samourai Wallet and Wasabi Wallet at the time dominated the privacy tool ecosystem, and Mercury Wallet was never able to successfully take a bite out of the market. 

Rather than completely give up, they went back to the drawing board to build a statechain variant using Schnorr with the coordinator server blind signing, meaning it could not see what it was signing. When asked why those changes were made, he had this to say: “That would give us a lot more flexibility to do other things in Bitcoin with L2s. You know, the moment you have a blinded solution, we thought, well, this could start having interoperability with Lightning.”

Rather than building a user facing wallet this time, they built out a Software Development Kit (SDK) that could be integrated with other wallets.

“{…] I guess with Mercury Layer, it was very much building a kind of […] full-fledged Layer 2 that anyone could use. So we [built] it as an SDK. We did have a default wallet that people could run. But we were hoping that other people would integrate it.”

The End of CommerceBlock

In the end, CommerceBlock shuttered its doors after many years of brilliant engineering work. Nicholas and the rest of the team built numerous systems and protocols that were very well engineered, but at the end of the day they seemed to always be one step ahead of the curve. That’s not necessarily a good thing when it comes to building systems for end users. 

If your work is too far ahead of the demand from users, then in the end that isn’t a sustainable strategy. 

“…being in the UK, which is not doing that well from a regulatory point of view, played into it. If I

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

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

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

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

What's new

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

Other changes

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

#FREESAMOURAI

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

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

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Bitcoin Magazine

Amboss Launches Rails, a Self-Custodial Bitcoin Yield Service

Amboss, a leader in AI-driven solutions for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, today announced Rails, a groundbreaking self-custodial Bitcoin yield service. According to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine, it’s designed to empower companies, custodians, and high net worth individuals. This allows participants to earn a yield on their Bitcoin.

Big news from @TheBitcoinConf !
We’re thrilled to announce Rails—a self-custodial Bitcoin yield service that empowers you to earn on your BTC while supercharging the Lightning Network.

Let’s bring Bitcoin to the World.https://t.co/3WYYvB95hP

— AMBOSS (@ambosstech) May 29, 2025

Rails also launched a secure way for Liquidity Providers (LPs) to hold all custody of their Bitcoin while generating returns from liquidity leases and payment routing, although they are not guaranteed. The implementation of Amboss’ AI technology, Rails strengthened their Lighting Network with more dependable transactions and larger payment volumes.

“Rails is a transformative force for the Lightning Network,” said the CEO and Co-Founder of Amboss Jesse Shrader. “It’s not just about yield—it’s about enabling businesses to strengthen the network while earning on their Bitcoin. This is a critical step in Bitcoin’s evolution as a global medium of exchange.”

The service offers two options: 

• Rails LP is designed for high net worth individuals, custodians, and companies with Bitcoin treasuries, requiring a minimum commitment of 1 BTC for one year. 
• Liquidity subscriptions are designed for businesses that receive Bitcoin payments, with fees starting at 0.5%.

Amboss partnered with CoinCorner and Flux (a joint venture between Axiom and CoinCorner), to bring Rails to the market. CoinCorner has incorporated it into both its exchange platform and daily payment services in the Isle of Man. Flux is jointly focused on advancing the Lightning Network’s presence in global payments. Their participation highlights growing industry trust in Rails as a tool to scale Bitcoin effectively. 

“Rails offers a practical way for businesses like ours to participate in the Lightning Network’s growth,” said the CFO of CoinCorner David Boylan. “We’ve been using the Lightning Network for years, and Rails provides a structured approach to engaging with its economy, particularly through liquidity leasing and payment routing. This aligns with our goal of making Bitcoin more accessible and practical for everyday use.”

This post Amboss Launches Rails, a Self-Custodial Bitcoin Yield Service first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

Good morning.

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

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

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

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

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

@ 2cde0e02:180a96b9

https://stacker.news/items/993562

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current Nostr Stats

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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.

---

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

---

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

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

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

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

Current Nostr Stats

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

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

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

What's new

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

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

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

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

  • For more technical details, see the protocol spec.

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

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

Fixes

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

Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
CCC Guide
Key Teleport site

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• RoboSats v0.7.7-alpha is now available!

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

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

Source: RoboSats.

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

What's new

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

Source: RoboSats.

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

New contributors

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

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

GitHub Repo

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

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

• Upcoming updates for Bitcoin Safe include Compact Block Filters.

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

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

What's new in v1.3

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

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

Announcement / Archive
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:

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

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

Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:

Release notes (v2.2.0)

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

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

What's new in v2.2.1

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

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 2e8970de:63345c7a

https://evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/EVIDoa2300311

The solution to peanut allergy? Import Bamba!

https://stacker.news/items/993440

@ 005bc4de:ef11e1a2

LUV and Hivebits/HBIT/Wusang pause tl;dr LUV and HBIT (aka, Hivebits and the Wusang game) are on a pause at the moment, taking a break. https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/crrdlx/23x1SY8Vx8j1mVGnDFtq7ebuzKNGd8K9Ssex51AEerxks1VYikxGPShM7bjNhmSrEZ2wf.png Image from pixabay.com Why? There are odd things going on. I have a theory, but here's what is known... May 28, 2025, at about 1:30 pm GMT (8:30 AM EDT), a second attack (for lack of better term) hit HBIT in about a week. It seemed to start with @tyler45 with this comment https://peakd.com/blog/@tyler45/comment-20250528125108033 tx: https://he.dtools.dev/tx/7e7d4126196ca5b6dbe0a04dcded0e25d3bcc7f4 See tyler45's activity at https://he.dtools.dev/@tyler45 Notice the reply and WUSANG command is to a post by @olivia897 and how many of the other WUSANG comments on the explorer are in reply to olivia897. It seems these are all auto-generated accounts. The names and "birthdates" and interactions all point to automation. Once initiated, things happened very fast on the back end, clearly not being done manually. In this way, this seems rather sophisticated technically. I estimate just over 400 HBIT were pilfered the other day from the @Hivebits account before I noticed and was able to shut things down. Just for a little background, after the first attack May 21, 2025. I wrote a small bit of info: https://peakd.com/hivebits/@crrdlx/hbit-resource-credits A couple of days ago this post by @holoz0r was interesting: https://peakd.com/hive-133987/@holoz0r/text-analytics-reveal-thirty-two-percent-of-comments-on-hive-are-not-unique-and-at-least-ten-percent-add-no-value-to-discussion The thing that caught my eye was that the WUSANG comment was the largest by far, along with BBH (hello @bradleyarrow), because the attackers used both commands. Then, a few days later, things happened again: sudden start, repetitive bot attack, until I shut things down. So, a pause This is a period in my personal calendar where I simply don't have time to sit down at a computer for an extended period and try fiddle with this stuff. So, for now @Luvshares and @Hivebits (HBIT) and the @Wusang game are on hold. Plus, there's other fun stuff to do. https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/crrdlx/AJL43SREA1EuyqPXhydmqaq1RHhRVoYd12PfiBN5vDMu2WSKUtGeYWgKJyuRwV8.jpg I go by @crrdlx or "CR" for short. See all my links or contact info at https://linktr.ee/crrdlx.

Originally posted on Hive at https://peakd.com/@crrdlx/luv-and-hivebitshbitwusang-pause

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@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The revelation by Miles Suter, Product Lead at Block, at the Bitcoin Conference 2025 confirms the economic potential of LN for professional operators, but the yield comes mainly from routing fees

During the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Miles Suter, Bitcoin Product Lead at Block Inc., revealed data that could change the economic perception of the Lightning Network: the company’s routing node is generating annual returns of 9.7% on invested liquidity.

During his presentation, Suter confirmed what many experts suspected but no one had ever quantified precisely: Lightning payment routing can be not only technically effective, but also economically profitable on a large scale. With an estimated public capacity of 184 BTC (approximately $20 million), Block is demonstrating that Lightning infrastructure can generate significant returns through the use of bitcoin as a payment method.

Non-custodial yield, with a doubt

Lightning routing represents what experts define as “true non-custodial yield” – returns generated from the pure economic utility of bitcoin as a means of payment, without having to entrust one’s funds to third parties.

“We are earning almost 10% returns on Bitcoin by effectively routing real payments on the Lightning network,” Suter declared.

Riccardo Masutti — researcher and founder of Baited — has, however, observed that the double-digit yields advertised by Block are closely tied to an exceptionally aggressive fee structure that markedly deviates from the median parameters of the Lightning Network. In particular, the Cash App nodes apply a fee rate of 2,147,483,647 ppm, resulting in fees up to 2 million times higher than the average cost of standard channel transactions. Block’s own node also enforces significant fees: to route a million satoshis, it requires 1,053 sats in outgoing fees and 2,955 sats in incoming fees, compared to a network median base fee of approximately 0.999839 sat and a median fee rate of 0.000063 sat/sat. This discrepancy suggests that the yield is generated more by a surcharge imposed on intermediated payments than by any real efficiency in liquidity allocation.

In 2024 Cash App recorded an increase in Lightning payment volume equal to 7 times that of the previous year: one in four outgoing payments now occurs via LN, Suter stated.

According to Block’s Product Lead “if Bitcoin becomes only digital gold, we have failed the mission. If we don’t use bitcoin for payments, we risk losing one of the most important promises permissionless money. If we don’t preserve the qualities of cash in the digital world, human liberty is seriously in trouble.”

The company aims to incentivize practical and daily use of bitcoin, seeing Lightning payments as the key to realizing Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision of a “peer-to-peer electronic payment system.”

The post According to Block, routing on Lightning yields 10% annually: but the yield comes from fees appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

At Bitcoin 2025, the company unveils the Blockstream App and a strategic roadmap to accelerate adoption.

During the Bitcoin 2025 conference held in Las Vegas, Blockstream announced several updates, including a new non-custodial application and a corporate strategy structured around three operational divisions.

Introducing the Blockstream App: a new Bitcoin wallet that grows with you.

From first sats to advanced custody, it brings self-sovereignty into reach no matter where you start. Available now on Android, coming soon to iOS. pic.twitter.com/UBiNHKh8bO

— Blockstream (@Blockstream) May 29, 2025

The new Blockstream App allows users to purchase Bitcoin directly and store it in their own wallet, eliminating the need to rely on external custodians for fund management. This technological solution is built on the infrastructure of the Blockstream Green wallet. The app supports Bitcoin, Lightning, and Liquid.

The app’s design has been conceived to meet the needs of a diverse audience, the company stated. Its interface is accessible for beginners while retaining advanced functionalities for more experienced users.

It also remains compatible with advanced security features such as hardware wallet signing and air-gapped transactions via Blockstream Jade.

Corporate strategy: consumer, enterprise, and BAM

During the event, Blockstream revealed a strategic restructuring organized into three distinct operational units. This new framework aims to strengthen the company’s position within the Bitcoin economy through tailored approaches for specific markets.

The Consumer division will focus on developing products for retail users, while the Enterprise division will manage relationships with corporate clients. Blockstream Asset Management (BAM) will serve as the company’s institutional arm, specializing in Bitcoin investment products for institutional customers.

Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, commented:

“The past year has shown clearly that Bitcoin no longer sits on the margins of the global financial system—it is rapidly becoming the foundation. Our vision is simple: the future of finance runs on Bitcoin.”

The post Blockstream launches a non-custodial app to buy Bitcoin appeared first on Atlas21.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

A new investment vehicle combines exposure to Bitcoin with downside protection based on the price of gold.

On May 29, Cantor Fitzgerald Asset Management announced the launch of an investment product that merges direct exposure to Bitcoin with a bearish hedge linked to gold.

According to the financial institution, the new fund offers a solution for investors seeking to benefit from the growth potential of the leading cryptocurrency while maintaining a safety net tied to the precious metal.

Fund features

The fund is structured with a five-year term and no cap on potential upside, allowing investors to fully capture Bitcoin’s growth. The “1-to-1” protection mechanism means that any losses on Bitcoin would be offset by corresponding gains from gold.

Brandon Lutnick, Chairman of Cantor and son of former CEO Howard Lutnick (now Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration), called the product “a truly revolutionary investment vehicle” that helps investors access Bitcoin’s potential while providing downside protection. “There are still people on the Earth that are still scared of Bitcoin, and we want to bring them into this ecosystem,” Lutnick added.

The fund marks Cantor Fitzgerald’s first BTC-focused investment product. The firm, with 79 years of history and $14.8 billion in assets under management, is making its first significant move into the Bitcoin market.

The announcement follows the closing of its first round of financing agreements with Maple Finance and FalconX. Through its “Bitcoin Financing Business” division, Cantor plans to initially make up to $2 billion in financing available to institutional clients.

The post Cantor Fitzgerald launches Bitcoin fund with gold hedge appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

The third annual Bitcoin FilmFest (aka BFF25) proved once again that sovereign minds and decentralized culture thrive together.

For four electrifying days in Poland’s capital, the festival’s rallying call—’Fix the money, fix the culture‘—wasn’t just a slogan but a living, breathing movement.

From May 22-25, 2025, Warsaw buzzed with cinematic innovation, Bitcoin philosophy, and artistic vibe marking this gathering as truly incomparable.

Rebel Tribe with Unfiltered Creativity

With 200+ attendees from 20+ countries – primarily Poland, Czech Republic, the UK and Germany (~70% combined), plus representation from Spain, Italy, USA, Turkey and 15+ other nations including Thailand, Israel, Dubai and Latin America—BFF25 became a true global hub of freedom-fighters at heart. 

The European Pizza Day opener (May 22), celebrating Bitcoin’s first real-world transaction, saw rainy evening weather that couldn’t dampen the energy.

With concerts by Roger9000 and ABBE plus DJ sets from MadMunky, 2140 collective w/Airklipz and G.O.L.D., all early arrivals had a memorable start.

Dual Focus on Film and Bitcoin Culture

• Seven film workshops and seven hands-on sessions running parallel across Friday and Saturday at Amondo Cinema Club. Film: Martin Piga, Oswald Horowitz, Psyfer, Juan Pablo Mejía, Kristina Weiserova, Rare Passenger, Noa Gruman & Lahav Levi (Scardust). Bitcoin/Nostr: Aleks Svetski, Ioni Appelberg, Flash,  CryptoSteel, Bitrefill, Polish Bitcoin Association, Bitvocation.

• The Community Stage (Friday to Sunday afternoon) gave important space for both projects and individuals discussing their work and passions.
  Everything from music, art, fiction, Nostr, personal sovereignty to Polish-language debates on Bitcoin’s state and its possible future.

• Onscreen, 9 cinematic blocks from Friday to Sunday featured titles like UNBAKABLE, REVOLUCIÓN BITCOIN, HOTEL BITCOIN, PLANDEMIC: THE MUSICAL, plus shorts on new media (AI/experimental cinema), parallel communities (outcast cinema), and newly released pilots.

• Cinematic shark-tank with a €3,000 bounty: 8 contestants

  • Martin Piga: “PARALLEL SPACES”
  • Kristina Weiserova: “PUZZLE”
  • Aaron Koenig : “SATOSHI’S LAST WILL”
  • Philip Charter: “21 FUTURES”
  • Jenna Reid: “WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?”
  • Mr Black: “A LODGING OF WAYFARING MEN”
  • Oswald Horowitz: “THE LEGEND OF LANDI”
    The event ended with Jenna winning.

• Official Gala: Golden Rabbits 2025 crowned:

  • HOTEL BITCOIN by Manuel Sanabria & Carlos “Pocho” Villaverde (Best Story)
  • SATOSHI: THE CREATION OF BITCOIN by Arthur Machado (Best Short)
  • REVOLUCIÓN BITCOIN by Juan Pablo Mejía (Audience Choice)
  • NO MORE INFLATION by Maiku Tsukai’s aka Bitcoin Shooter (Best Film)

Nights Charged with Music and Unscripted Surprise

The festival’s legendary afterparties kept the energy high—Friday’s underground gathering at Morph Club (ex-Barbazaar) featured Aaron Koening’s live concert and 2140 DJs (Akme + Andy Princz).

The weekend’s unforgettable moment came when Noa Gruman took the stage with “MY HEAVEN” (Scardust original) and “40HPW” — her powerful tribute to Bitcoin podcasts and Bugle.News.

Lightning-Powered Innovation, and Extras

• Lightning in Action: Flash enabled instant Bitcoin payments across both main venues (Amondo + Samo Centrum, merch stations, and online shop)

• IndeeHub Backstage Pass: Attendees unlocked exclusive access to Lightning-powered VOD featuring selected films from BFF23-25

• BFF TV: Kiki (El Salvador) broadcasting live interviews, event clips, and trailers. Day One, and Day Two to rewatch online.

• Comedy Strike: Robert Le Ricain’s Gala stand-up proved Bitcoiners pack brains and humor—in equal measure.

A Community-Driven Cultural Experience

Bitcoin FilmFest wasn’t just an event—it was proof that culture shifts when money gets fixed. Mark your calendars for June 2026 and the next edition. More info and tickets going on sale soon.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

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

What's new

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

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

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

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

  • For more technical details, see the protocol spec.

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

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

Fixes

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

Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
CCC Guide
Key Teleport site

@ 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

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Bitcoin FilmFest (BFF25) returns to Warsaw for its third edition, blending independent cinema—from feature films and commercials to AI-driven experimental visuals—with education and entertainment.

Hundreds of attendees from around the world will gather for three days of screenings, discussions, workshops, and networking at the iconic Kinoteka Cinema (PKiN), the same venue that hosted the festival’s first two editions in March 2023 and April 2024.

This year’s festival, themed “Beyond the Frame,” introduces new dimensions to its program, including an extra day on May 22 to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day, the first real-world bitcoin transaction, with what promises to be one of Europe’s largest commemorations of this milestone.

BFF25 bridges independent film, culture, and technology, with a bold focus on decentralized storytelling and creative expression. As a community-driven cultural experience with a slightly rebellious spirit, Bitcoin FilmFest goes beyond movies, yet cinema remains at its heart.

Here’s a sneak peek at the lineup, specially curated for movie buffs:

Generative Cinema –  A special slot with exclusive shorts and a thematic debate on the intersection of AI and filmmaking. Featured titles include, for example: BREAK FREE, SATOSHI: THE CREATION OF BITCOIN, STRANGE CURRENCIES, and BITCOIN IS THE MYCELIUM OF MONEY,  exploring financial independence, traps of the fiat system, and a better future built on sound money.

Upcoming Productions Preview – A bit over an hour-long block of unreleased pilots and works-in-progress. Attendees will get exclusive first looks at projects like FINDING HOME (a travel-meets-personal-journey series), PARALLEL SPACES (a story about alternative communities), and THE LEGEND OF LANDI (a mysterious narrative).

Freedom-Focused Ads & Campaigns – Unique screenings of video commercials, animations, and visual projects, culminating in “The PoWies” (Proof of Work-ies)—the first ever awards show honoring the best Bitcoin-only awareness campaigns.

To get an idea of what might come up at the event, here, you can preview 6 selected ads combined into two 2 videos:

• Unique Bitcoin-Video Ads: Part One
• Unique Bitcoin-Video Ads: Part Two

Open Pitch Competition – A chance for filmmakers to present fresh ideas and unfinished projects to an audience of a dedicated jury, movie fans and potential collaborators. This competitive block isn’t just entertaining—it’s a real opportunity for creators to secure funding and partnerships.

Golden Rabbit Awards: A lively gala honoring films from the festival’s Official Selection, with awards in categories like Best Feature, Best Story, Best Short, and Audience Choice.

BFF25 Main Screenings

Sample titles from BFF25’s Official Selection:

REVOLUCIÓN BITCOIN – A documentary by Juan Pablo, making its first screening outside the Spanish-speaking world in Warsaw this May. Three years of important work, 80 powerful minutes to experience. The film explores Bitcoin’s impact across Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Spain through around 40 diverse perspectives. Screening in Spanish with English subtitles, followed by a Q&A with the director.

UNBANKABLE – Luke Willms’ directorial debut, drawing from his multicultural roots and his father’s pioneering HIV/AIDS research. An investigative documentary based on Luke’s journeys through seven African countries, diving into financial experiments and innovations—from mobile money and digital lending to Bitcoin—raising smart questions and offering potential lessons for the West. Its May appearance at BFF25 marks its largest European event to date, following festival screenings and nominations across multiple continents over the past year.

HOTEL BITCOIN – A Spanish comedy directed by Manuel Sanabria and Carlos “Pocho” Villaverde. Four friends, 4,000 bitcoins , and one laptop spark a chaotic adventure of parties, love, crime, and a dash of madness. Exploring sound money, value, and relationships through a twisting plot. The film premiered at the Tarazona and Moncayo Comedy Film Festival in August 2024. Its Warsaw screening at BFF25 (in Spanish with English subtitles) marks its first public showing outside the Spanish-speaking world.

Check out trailers for this year’s BFF25 and past editions on YouTube.

Tickets & Info:

• Detailed program and tickets are available at bitcoinfilmfest.com/bff25.
• Stay updated via the festival’s official channels (links provided on the website).
• Use ‘LN-NEWS’ to get 10% of tickets

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Bitcoin FilmFest (BFF25) returns to Warsaw for its third edition, blending independent cinema—from feature films and commercials to AI-driven experimental visuals—with education and entertainment.

Hundreds of attendees from around the world will gather for three days of screenings, discussions, workshops, and networking at the iconic Kinoteka Cinema (PKiN), the same venue that hosted the festival’s first two editions in March 2023 and April 2024.

This year’s festival, themed “Beyond the Frame,” introduces new dimensions to its program, including an extra day on May 22 to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day, the first real-world bitcoin transaction, with what promises to be one of Europe’s largest commemorations of this milestone.

BFF25 bridges independent film, culture, and technology, with a bold focus on decentralized storytelling and creative expression. As a community-driven cultural experience with a slightly rebellious spirit, Bitcoin FilmFest goes beyond movies, yet cinema remains at its heart.

Here’s a sneak peek at the lineup, specially curated for movie buffs:

Generative Cinema –  A special slot with exclusive shorts and a thematic debate on the intersection of AI and filmmaking. Featured titles include, for example: BREAK FREE, SATOSHI: THE CREATION OF BITCOIN, STRANGE CURRENCIES, and BITCOIN IS THE MYCELIUM OF MONEY,  exploring financial independence, traps of the fiat system, and a better future built on sound money.

Upcoming Productions Preview – A bit over an hour-long block of unreleased pilots and works-in-progress. Attendees will get exclusive first looks at projects like FINDING HOME (a travel-meets-personal-journey series), PARALLEL SPACES (a story about alternative communities), and THE LEGEND OF LANDI (a mysterious narrative).

Freedom-Focused Ads & Campaigns – Unique screenings of video commercials, animations, and visual projects, culminating in “The PoWies” (Proof of Work-ies)—the first ever awards show honoring the best Bitcoin-only awareness campaigns.

To get an idea of what might come up at the event, here, you can preview 6 selected ads combined into two 2 videos:

• Unique Bitcoin-Video Ads: Part One
• Unique Bitcoin-Video Ads: Part Two

Open Pitch Competition – A chance for filmmakers to present fresh ideas and unfinished projects to an audience of a dedicated jury, movie fans and potential collaborators. This competitive block isn’t just entertaining—it’s a real opportunity for creators to secure funding and partnerships.

Golden Rabbit Awards: A lively gala honoring films from the festival’s Official Selection, with awards in categories like Best Feature, Best Story, Best Short, and Audience Choice.

BFF25 Main Screenings

Sample titles from BFF25’s Official Selection:

REVOLUCIÓN BITCOIN – A documentary by Juan Pablo, making its first screening outside the Spanish-speaking world in Warsaw this May. Three years of important work, 80 powerful minutes to experience. The film explores Bitcoin’s impact across Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Spain through around 40 diverse perspectives. Screening in Spanish with English subtitles, followed by a Q&A with the director.

UNBANKABLE – Luke Willms’ directorial debut, drawing from his multicultural roots and his father’s pioneering HIV/AIDS research. An investigative documentary based on Luke’s journeys through seven African countries, diving into financial experiments and innovations—from mobile money and digital lending to Bitcoin—raising smart questions and offering potential lessons for the West. Its May appearance at BFF25 marks its largest European event to date, following festival screenings and nominations across multiple continents over the past year.

HOTEL BITCOIN – A Spanish comedy directed by Manuel Sanabria and Carlos “Pocho” Villaverde. Four friends, 4,000 bitcoins , and one laptop spark a chaotic adventure of parties, love, crime, and a dash of madness. Exploring sound money, value, and relationships through a twisting plot. The film premiered at the Tarazona and Moncayo Comedy Film Festival in August 2024. Its Warsaw screening at BFF25 (in Spanish with English subtitles) marks its first public showing outside the Spanish-speaking world.

Check out trailers for this year’s BFF25 and past editions on YouTube.

Tickets & Info:

• Detailed program and tickets are available at bitcoinfilmfest.com/bff25.
• Stay updated via the festival’s official channels (links provided on the website).
• Use ‘LN-NEWS’ to get 10% of tickets

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• RoboSats v0.7.7-alpha is now available!

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

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

Source: RoboSats.

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

What's new

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

Source: RoboSats.

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

New contributors

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

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

GitHub Repo

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Starting January 1, 2026, the United Kingdom will impose some of the world’s most stringent reporting requirements on cryptocurrency firms.

All platforms operating in or serving UK customers-domestic and foreign alike-must collect and disclose extensive personal and transactional data for every user, including individuals, companies, trusts, and charities. 

This regulatory drive marks the UK’s formal adoption of the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), a global initiative designed to bring crypto oversight in line with traditional banking and to curb tax evasion in the rapidly expanding digital asset sector.

What Will Be Reported?

Crypto firms must gather and submit the following for each transaction:

• User’s full legal name, home address, and taxpayer identification number
• Detailed data on every trade or transfer: type of cryptocurrency, amount, and nature of the transaction
• Identifying information for corporate, trust, and charitable clients

The obligation extends to all digital asset activities, including crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat trades, and applies to both UK residents and non-residents using UK-based platforms. The first annual reports covering 2026 activity are due by May 31, 2027.

Enforcement and Penalties

Non-compliance will carry stiff financial penalties, with fines of up to £300 per user account for inaccurate or missing data-a potentially enormous liability for large exchanges. The UK government has urged crypto firms to begin collecting this information immediately to ensure operational readiness.

Regulatory Context and Market Impact

This move is part of a broader UK strategy to position itself as a global fintech hub while clamping down on fraud and illicit finance. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has championed these measures, stating, “Britain is open for business – but closed to fraud, abuse, and instability”. The regulatory expansion comes amid a surge in crypto adoption: the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority reported that 12% of UK adults owned crypto in 2024, up from just 4% in 2021.

Enormous Risks for Consumers: Lessons from the Coinbase Data Breach

While the new framework aims to enhance transparency and protect consumers, it also dramatically increases the volume of sensitive personal data held by crypto firms-raising the stakes for cybersecurity.

The risks are underscored by the recent high-profile breach at Coinbase, one of the world’s largest exchanges.

In May 2025, Coinbase disclosed that cybercriminals, aided by bribed offshore contractors, accessed and exfiltrated customer data including names, addresses, government IDs, and partial bank details. 

The attackers then used this information for sophisticated phishing campaigns, successfully deceiving some customers into surrendering account credentials and funds.

“While private encryption keys remained secure, sufficient customer information was exposed to enable sophisticated phishing attacks by criminals posing as Coinbase personnel.”

Coinbase now faces up to $400 million in compensation costs and has pledged to reimburse affected users, but the incident highlights the systemic vulnerability created when large troves of personal data are centralized-even if passwords and private keys are not directly compromised. The breach also triggered a notable drop in Coinbase’s share price and prompted a $20 million bounty for information leading to the attackers’ capture.

The Bottom Line

The UK’s forthcoming crypto reporting regime represents a landmark in financial regulation, promising greater transparency and tax compliance. However, as the Coinbase episode demonstrates, the aggregation of sensitive user data at scale poses a significant cybersecurity risk.

As regulators push for more oversight, the challenge will be ensuring that consumer protection does not become a double-edged sword-exposing users to new threats even as it seeks to shield them from old ones.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

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

• Upcoming updates for Bitcoin Safe include Compact Block Filters.

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

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

What's new in v1.3

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

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

Announcement / Archive
Blog Post / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ 866e0139:6a9334e5

Autor: Marcel Bühler. Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben. Sie finden alle Texte der Friedenstaube und weitere Texte zum Thema Frieden hier. Die neuesten Pareto-Artikel finden Sie in unserem Telegram-Kanal.

---

Die neuesten Artikel der Friedenstaube gibt es jetzt auch im eigenen Friedenstaube-Telegram-Kanal.

---

In einem Artikel in der NZZ vom 27. Mai mit dem Titel "Trump nennt Putin verrückt" wird über den laut Kiew grössten russischen Drohnenangriff seit Beginn des Krieges auf ukrainische Städte berichtet. Dabei sollen am vergangenen Wochenende 355 Drohnen und 69 Raketen auf Kiew, Odessa, Ternipol (Westukraine) und andere Städte gesteuert bzw. abgefeuert worden sein. 288 Drohnen und 9 Raketen konnten laut Kiew von der ukrainischen Luftverteidigung abgeschossen werden. Was der Artikel verschweigt: bereits in der Woche davor, am 20. - 22. Mai hatte die Ukraine 485 Drohnen gegen russische Städte wie Kursk, Belgorod oder Brijansk geflogen, 63 davon erreichten die Region Moskau. Auch am Wochenende schickten die Ukrainer 205 Drohnen gegen russische Städte, 13 davon erreichten Moskau. Auch hier konnte die Luftverteidigung die meisten Drohnen unschädlich machen, eine davon hatte gar den Helikopter von Präsident Putin (!) im Visier. Als Reaktion darauf erklärte Präsident Putin, dass in der ukrainischen Region Sumy bzw. Tschernihiw im Norden eine Sicherheitszoneeingerichtet werden soll da die meisten Drohnen von hier aus gestartet wurden. Auch am 27./28. Mai schickte die Ukraine wieder 296 Drohnen Richtung Moskau, offenbar soll die russische Luftverteidigung damit überlastet werden um später westliche Cruise Missiles wie "Storm shadows", "Skalp" oder die umstrittenen deutschen "Taurus" effektiver einsetzen zu können. Der neue Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz hat dafür rund 5 Milliarden Euro in Aussicht gestellt um solche Waffensysteme in der Ukraine selber zusammenbauen zu können. 

Diese Gewaltspirale hat eine lange Geschichte: diese begann 2007 mit der 43. Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz, in der Präsident Putin sich gegen die unilaterale Weltordnung der USA und ihrer Verbündeten aussprach. Auch erteilte er den NATO-Osterweiterungen seit 1991 eine deutliche Absage, da diese entgegen (mündlich) gemachten Zusicherungen vollzogen wurden (siehe im Anhang die Rede im Wortlaut). Bei anderer Gelegenheit bezeichnete er vor allem einen möglichen NATO-Beitritt der (ehemals russischen) Ukraine als die "rote Linie", da es hier im Osten eine gemeinsame Grenze zu Russland über weit mehr als tausend Kilometer gebe und zudem Millionen von russischstämmigen Bürgern in der Ukraine lebten welche durch die Unabhängigkeit des Landes von ihrem Mutterland getrennt seinen. Im mittlerweile umstrittenen Budapester Memorandum von 5.12.1994 hatten zudem die Signatarmächte USA, GB und die Russische Föderation in getrennten Dokumenten die Unabhängigkeit und territoriale Integrität der Ukraine garantiert, wenn diese ein neutraler Pufferstaat zwischen der NATO und der Russischen Föderation sei und auf ihre Atomwaffen aus der sowjetischen Zeit verzichte (die Neutralität war in der ukrainischen Verfassung verankert). Trotzdem erklärten am darauffolgenden NATO-Gipfel in Bukarest im April 2008 die versammelten Staats- und Regierungschefs der 26 NATO-Staaten: "Die NATO begrüßt die euro-atlantischen Bestrebungen der Ukraine und Georgiens, die dem Bündnis beitreten wollen. Wir kamen heute überein, dass diese Länder NATO-Mitglieder werden." Zudem wurde die Unabhängigkeitserklärung des Kosowo vorbehaltlos anerkannt, dies nach einer völkerrechtswidrigen militärischen Intervention (d.h. ohne eine entsprechende UN-Resolution) der NATO gegen die Republik Serbien im Jahr 1999 (Staatsgrenzen dürfen also unter Umständen verändert werden).

Die Gewalt begann schon wenige Monate danach, als der durch die "Rosenrevolution" 2003 mit Unterstützung der USA in Tiflis an die Macht gekommene Exil-Georgier, Michail Saakaschwili, in der Nacht auf den 8.8.2008 einen militärischen Angriff auf die seit 1992/93 abtrünnigen Südosseten bzw. deren Hauptstadt Zchinwali befahl und dabei auch russische Friedenstruppen (als Schutzmacht der Osseten) unter Beschuss gerieten. Dies nachdem die Regierung Bush jr. die georgische Armee durch NATO-Offiziere ausgebildet und aufgerüstet hatte. Laut einem NZZ-Artikel vom 1.10.2009 kam eine von der EU eingesetzte Untersuchungskommission unter der Schweizer Diplomatin Heidi Tagliavini 2009 zum Schluss, dass zuvor von beiden Seiten Provokationen in Form von Terroranschlägen, Entführungen und Morde begangen worden waren. Zudem hatte Russland jahrelang an willige Osseten und Abchasen russische Pässe ausgegeben, was völkerrechtswidrig sei, da dies die Staatlichkeit Georgiens untergrabe (Abchasien ist eine weitere abtrünnige Region Georgiens am schwarzen Meer). Saakaschwili wollte offenkundig mit dem überraschenden Angriff auf die Osseten die volle Kontrolle der Zentralregierung über das Gebiet wieder erlangen, da die Satzungen der NATO nur die Aufnahme von Ländern erlauben in denen keine ungelösten territorialen Konflikte vorhanden sind. Den Abchasen hätte also das gleiche Schicksal gedroht wenn die Aktion erfolgreich gewesen wäre. Da die Russen aber aufgepasst hatten, lief innert 24 Stunden eine russische Gegenoffensive welche die georgischen Verbände und ihre amerikanischen Berater innert wenigen Tagen bis nach Gori (Geburtsort von Stalin) zurückwarf. Präsident Saakaschwili verlor bald darauf in Tiflis die Macht und setzte sich in die Ukraine ab. Die heutige georgische Regierung unterhält wieder politische und wirtschaftliche Beziehungen zu Russland und verzichtet auf einen NATO-Beitritt. Siehe dazu das Interview von Roger Köppel mit dem aktuellen georgischen Regierungschef Kobachidse (auf englisch mit deutschen Untertiteln):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWh6bAfLdhw

In der Ukraine begann die Gewalt mit dem rechtswidrigen Sturz des 2010 legal gewählten Präsidenten Wiktor Janukowitsch, der zwischen der EU und Russland hin und her gerissen war und daher die Unterzeichnung eines EU-Assoziierungsabkommens auf unbestimmte Zeit vertagte. Nach den folgenden wochenlangen Protesten und Krawallen auf dem Maidan in Kiew ("Euromaidan") unterschrieb er unter Vermittlung Deutschlands, Frankreichs und Polens am 21.2.2014 einen Vertrag mit der Opposition und versprach baldige Neuwahlen. Trotzdem wurde er am Tag darauf durch einen regelrechten Putsch gestürzt und in die Flucht getrieben, indem unbekannte Heckenschützen aus verschiedenen Positionen zuerst auf die "Berkut"-Polizei und anschliessend auf militante Demonstranten schossen, welche die "Institutskaja" hinauf das durch eine Strassensperre der Polizei geschützte Regierungsviertel stürmen wollten.

Dabei kamen insgesamt 104 Menschen ums Leben, darunter 34 Polizisten und Vertreter der Regierung. Nach dem Putsch wurde der zuvor völlig unbekannte Exil-Ukrainer Arsenij Jazenjuk Chef der neuen Übergangsregierung, von dem die Europagesandte des US-Statedepartements, Victoria Nuland, bereits einige Tage davor in einem abgehörten Telefongespräch mit dem amerikanischen Botschafter in Kiew, Geoffrey Pyatt, gesprochen hatte ("Jaz is our man"). Die mit rund 600 Mann unter Führung von Andrij Parubi während Wochen auf dem Maidan präsenten militanten und teilweise bewaffneten Kräfte des "Prawi sektor" ("Rechter Sektor") und der "Swoboda" ("Freiheit") weigerten sich zuerst, der neuen Regierung ihre Waffen auszuhändigen. Mitglieder der "Swoboda" unter Oleh Tjahibok besetzten aber anfangs im Kabinett das Aussen-, Innen-, Verteidigungs- sowie das Ministerium für Kultur und "strategische" Kommunikation (Propaganda), während die Mitglieder des "Prawi sektor" unter Dmitro Jarosch eine Zusammenarbeit mit der neuen Regierung verweigerten. Als eine der ersten Amtshandlungen nach dem Putsch wurde in der ganzen Ukraine die russische Sprache als offizielle Amtssprache und als Unterrichtssprache in den Schulen verboten (auch in den mehrheitlich von russischstämmigen Menschen bewohnten Regionen im Osten und Süden des Landes).

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Als erste Reaktion auf den rechtswidrigen Umsturz wurde in Simferopol auf der Krim das lokale Parlament von prorussischen Aktivisten besetzt und russische Soldaten verliessen illegal den Flottenstützpunkt in Sewastopol und besetzten strategische Positionen auf der ganzen Krim bzw. blockierten die ukrainischen Kasernen. Unter dem Schutz dieser "grünen Männchen" konnte dann am 16.3.2014 ein Referendum über den zukünftigen Status der Krim durchgeführt werden. Rund 70% der Bevölkerung stimmten für eine Wiedervereinigung mit Russland, was ungefähr dem Anteil der ethnischen Russen auf der Krim entspricht. Der Kommandant der ukrainischen Flotte in Sewastopol lief mit dem Grossteil der Matrosen zu den Russen über, so dass fast die gesamte Flotte im Kriegshafen verblieb (die Schwarzmeerflotte war anfang der 90er Jahre zwischen Russland und der Ukraine aufgeteilt worden). Die restlichen Matrosen und Soldaten durften später in die Ukraine heimkehren. Angesichts der klaren Machtverhältnisse auf der Krim verzichteten die ukrainischen Ultra-Nationalisten auf die angedrohte Entsendung von "Zügen der Freundschaft" (mit bewaffneten Schlägern) nach Simferopol.

Auch in den Städten Lugansk, Donezk und Mariupol in der Ostukraine besetzten prorussische Aktivisten analog den Vorgängen einige Monate zuvor in der Westukraine Regierungs- und Verwaltungsgebäude und hissten russische Fahnen auf vielen Gebäuden. Auch hier gab es am 11. bzw. 12.5.2014 Referenden über die zukünftige Zugehörigkeit dieser Gebiete, doch konnten dabei nur ungefähr die Hälfte der Bevölkerungen überhaupt darüber abstimmen, weil die Separatisten nicht die volle Kontrolle über die jeweiligen Bezirke hatten. Auch in anderen ukrainischen Städten wie Odessa und Charkow gab es prorussische Demonstrationen, doch wurden diese von den ukrainischen Behörden unterdrückt. In Odessa kam es am 2.5.2014 zu einem Massaker, als prorussische Aktivisten von mit Zügen aus Kiew angereisten Rechtsradikalen und Hooligans in ein Gewerkschaftshaus abgedrängt wurden welches dann kurzerhand abgefackelt und mit Handfeuerwaffen beschossen wurde. Rund 50 Menschen verloren dabei ihr Leben während die ukrainische Polizei untätig herumstand.

Die am 12.4.2014 von der neuen Regierung in Kiew verkündete "Antiterror-Operation" gegen die Separatisten im Osten wurde anfangs nur zaghaft umgesetzt, da viele russischstämmige Soldaten auch hier mit den Aufständischen sympathisierten und teilweise mitsamt dem Material überliefen. Erst nachdem sich der "Spreu vom Weizen" getrennt hatte und nach der Bildung von Freiwilligenverbänden wie "Donbas","Asow" oder "Aidar" - welche in der ukrainischen Nationalgarde (dem Innen- und nicht dem Verteidigungsministerium unterstellt) zusammengefasst wurden - gewann die ukrainische Offensive an Kraft, so dass bereits im Mai/Juni 2014 die Hafenstadt Mariupol vom Asow'schen Bataillon (später ein Regiment bzw. neu die 12. Brigade für spezielle Aufgaben) und einer Marinebrigade zurückerobert und bis zur vollständigen Kapitulation im berühmten Stahlwerk "Asowstal" nach der russischen Intervention vom 24.2.2022 besetzt werden konnte. Bei den heftigen Kämpfen im Frühjahr 2022 mussten die Zivilisten wochenlang im Keller ausharren, da die Stadtverwaltung die rechtzeitige Evakuierung der Zivilbevölkerung versäumt hatte). Nach den Kesselschlachten von Ilowaisk im Juli/Aug. 2014 bzw. von Debaltsewoim Jan./Feb. 2015, bei denen weit über tausend ukrainische Soldaten und hunderte von Kämpfern der neu aufgestellten Donezker- und Lugansker Volksmilizen sowie vermutlich rund 100 russische Soldaten ihr Leben verloren (laut Kiew beteiligten sich mehrere russische Bataillone an den Kämpfen), wurde am 12.2.2015 das Minsker Abkommen (Minsk II) unter Vermittlung von Weissrussland, Deutschland und Frankreich unterzeichnet. Vertragspartner als Unterzeichnende waren: der frühere Präsident der Ukraine Leonid Kutschma, der Botschafter der Russischen Föderation in der Ukraine Michail Surabow, die Milizenführer der selbstproklamierten Volksrepubliken Igor Plotnizki und Alexander Sachartschenko sowie die OSZE-Beauftragte Heidi Tagliavini. Der Waffenstillstand und die vertrauensbildenden Massnahmen (wie z.B. der Rückzug der schweren Waffen von der Frontlinie) wurden dabei von beiden Seiten wiederholt verletzt. Am 18.2.2017 unterzeichnete der russische Präsident Wladimir Putin ein Dekret, nach dem Pässe und andere Papiere der Volksrepubliken Donezk und Lugansk von Russland offiziell als gültig anerkannt wurden, was wiederum die Staatlichkeit der Ukraine untergrub und daher dem Minsker Abkommen widersprach, wonach die abtrünnigen Gebiete weiterhin zur Ukraine gehörten. Insgesamt verloren in dem jahrelangen Konflikt bis 2022 rund 14'000 Menschen ihr Leben, darunter ca. 3'500 Zivilisten inkl. 200 Kinder, besonders in der Stadt Donezk und Umgebung welche von der ukrainischen Armee immer wieder mit Artillerie (Granaten und Raketen) oder durch Scharfschützen beschossen wurde.

Nachdem eine von NATO-Offizieren jahrelang gut ausgebildete und mit modernen Waffen aufgerüstete ukrainische Elitearmee von rund 130'000 Mann ab Sommer 2021 vor dem Donbas aufmarschiert war um den Konflikt offenkundig gewaltsam zu lösen und seit Anfang 2022 auch der ukrainische Beschuss von Donezk und dessen Umland wieder verstärkt wurde, unterzeichnete Präsident Putin am 21.2.2022 ein Freundschafts- und Beistandsabkommen mit den ostukrainischen Volksrepubliken und anerkannte ausdrücklich deren Unabhängigkeitvon Kiew. Das Minsker Abkommen habe keine Zukunft mehr. Am 24.2.2022 intervenierte die russische Armee mit anfangs "nur" rund 190'000 Mann in der Ukraine da die rund 40'000 Mann der Donezker- und Lugansker Volksmilizen einem Angriff der ukrainischen Elitearmee nicht mehr hätten standhalten können. Zuvor hatte die Russische Föderation im Dez. 2021 den USA noch einmal Verhandlungen über den Abschluss eines gesamteuropäischen Sicherheitsabkommen unter Berücksichtigung des Konflikts in der Ukraine vorgeschlagen, was aber von der Regierung Biden abgelehnt wurde. Bei Beginn der "speziellen Militäroperation" erklärte Joe Biden öffentlich, das politische Ziel sei der Sturz des Regimes in Moskau.

Mit dem Beginn der russischen Sommeroffensive an allen Frontabschnitten dürften die ukrainischen Kräfte endgültig überdehnt werden. Da der Oberbefehlshaber der Ukraine, Alexander Syrskij, aus der Region Sumy und Charkow verschiedene Verbände wie die 36. Marinebrigade, die 43. Artilleriebrigade, die 44. mechanisierte Brigade, die 82. Air Assault Brigade sowie die berüchtigte 12. Brigade "Asow" nach Südosten verlegen musste, um die Lage um den wichtigen Logistikpunkt Pokrowsk bzw. die Stadt Konstantinowka zu stabilisieren, dürften die Russen auch bei der oben erwähnten Einrichtung einer Sicherheitszone im Norden rasche Fortschritte machen. Rund 50'000 russische Soldaten werden dort eingesetzt um die zukünftige Bedrohung durch ukrainische Drohnen zu minimieren.

Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass in dem jahrelangen Konflikt alle Seiten das Völkerrecht missachtetoder zum eigenen Vorteil interpretiert haben. Angefangen damit hat aber klar der Westen (NATO und EU), der mit der finanziellen und politischen Unterstützung des rechtswidrigen Putsches in Kiew 2014 die Gewaltspirale in der Ukraine in Gang setzte und mit den anhaltenden Waffenlieferungen und Geheimdienstinformationen für den Tod von weit mehr als einer Million Soldaten auf beiden Seiten und unzähligen Zivilisten entscheidend mitverantwortlichist. Zudem wurde zumindest im Falle der Ukraine mit der NATO-Erklärung von 2008 zu deren Aufnahme als Beitrittskandidat der Geist des Budapester Memorandums von 1994 verletzt. In einem erstaunlich offenen, zweiseitigen Interview in der NZZ vom 6. Mai hat der amerikanische Politikwissenschaftler Prof. John Mearsheimervon der Universität Chicago erklärt, er hätte anstelle von Präsident Putin "die Ukraine schon viel früher überfallen". Und: "Der Westen ist der Bösewicht. Aber das wollen die USA und die Europäer natürlich nicht hören". Er glaube, dass dieser Krieg auf dem Schlachtfeld entschieden werde und dass wir am Ende einen eingefrorenen Konflikt haben werden (ähnlich wie in Georgien).

Über das Problem des ukrainischen Faschismus und Ultra-Nationalismus, der letztlich die multiethnische Ukraine in ihren Grenzen von 1991 zerstört hat, äusserte er sich nicht. Stattdessen hat die EU gerade die ersten 150 Milliarden Euro zum Aufbau einer eigenen Rüstungsindustrie beschlossen. Der neue Vorsteher des Schweizer Verteidigungsdepartementes, Bundesrat Martin Pfister, hat in einem NZZ-Artikel vom 27. Mai erklärt, die Kooperation mit der EU und der NATO müsse intensiviert werden, "stets in Vereinbarkeit mit der Neutralität". In der gleichen NZZ-Ausgabe wurde auch berichtet, dass die Schweiz den Spitzendiplomaten Gabriel Lüchinger nach Moskau schicke um für Friedensgespräche in der Schweiz zu sondieren (Bürgenstock II).

Ob der während Jahren provozierte und stigmatisierte "russische Bär" darauf noch eingeht?

(Der Beitrag folgt der Schweizer Rechtschreibung)

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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Starting January 1, 2026, the United Kingdom will impose some of the world’s most stringent reporting requirements on cryptocurrency firms.

All platforms operating in or serving UK customers-domestic and foreign alike-must collect and disclose extensive personal and transactional data for every user, including individuals, companies, trusts, and charities. 

This regulatory drive marks the UK’s formal adoption of the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), a global initiative designed to bring crypto oversight in line with traditional banking and to curb tax evasion in the rapidly expanding digital asset sector.

What Will Be Reported?

Crypto firms must gather and submit the following for each transaction:

• User’s full legal name, home address, and taxpayer identification number
• Detailed data on every trade or transfer: type of cryptocurrency, amount, and nature of the transaction
• Identifying information for corporate, trust, and charitable clients

The obligation extends to all digital asset activities, including crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat trades, and applies to both UK residents and non-residents using UK-based platforms. The first annual reports covering 2026 activity are due by May 31, 2027.

Enforcement and Penalties

Non-compliance will carry stiff financial penalties, with fines of up to £300 per user account for inaccurate or missing data-a potentially enormous liability for large exchanges. The UK government has urged crypto firms to begin collecting this information immediately to ensure operational readiness.

Regulatory Context and Market Impact

This move is part of a broader UK strategy to position itself as a global fintech hub while clamping down on fraud and illicit finance. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has championed these measures, stating, “Britain is open for business – but closed to fraud, abuse, and instability”. The regulatory expansion comes amid a surge in crypto adoption: the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority reported that 12% of UK adults owned crypto in 2024, up from just 4% in 2021.

Enormous Risks for Consumers: Lessons from the Coinbase Data Breach

While the new framework aims to enhance transparency and protect consumers, it also dramatically increases the volume of sensitive personal data held by crypto firms-raising the stakes for cybersecurity.

The risks are underscored by the recent high-profile breach at Coinbase, one of the world’s largest exchanges.

In May 2025, Coinbase disclosed that cybercriminals, aided by bribed offshore contractors, accessed and exfiltrated customer data including names, addresses, government IDs, and partial bank details. 

The attackers then used this information for sophisticated phishing campaigns, successfully deceiving some customers into surrendering account credentials and funds.

“While private encryption keys remained secure, sufficient customer information was exposed to enable sophisticated phishing attacks by criminals posing as Coinbase personnel.”

Coinbase now faces up to $400 million in compensation costs and has pledged to reimburse affected users, but the incident highlights the systemic vulnerability created when large troves of personal data are centralized-even if passwords and private keys are not directly compromised. The breach also triggered a notable drop in Coinbase’s share price and prompted a $20 million bounty for information leading to the attackers’ capture.

The Bottom Line

The UK’s forthcoming crypto reporting regime represents a landmark in financial regulation, promising greater transparency and tax compliance. However, as the Coinbase episode demonstrates, the aggregation of sensitive user data at scale poses a significant cybersecurity risk.

As regulators push for more oversight, the challenge will be ensuring that consumer protection does not become a double-edged sword-exposing users to new threats even as it seeks to shield them from old ones.

@ a4043831:3b64ac02

Money can be complicated. You work hard, save diligently, and try to make smart choices. But when it comes to long-term financial security, is that enough? That’s where wealth management services come in. They help you plan, invest, and secure your financial future. But are they the right fit for you?

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Wealth management isn’t just about investing. It’s about creating a strategy that covers all aspects of your financial life—retirement, taxes, healthcare, and even the legacy you want to leave behind.

At Passive Capital Management, wealth management is designed to help you navigate life’s financial twists and turns with confidence. Whether you’re planning for retirement, growing your assets, or protecting what you’ve built, a structured approach can make all the difference.

Do You Need Wealth Management?

Not everyone needs a wealth manager. But if you answer “yes” to any of these questions, it might be time to consider it:

• Do you worry about outliving your retirement savings?
• Are you unsure how to structure your investments for long-term security?
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• Are tax implications of your income and investments confusing?
• Do you want to leave behind a financial legacy for your family?

If any of these concerns sound familiar, a wealth management service could help you create a roadmap for financial success.

The Key Benefits of Wealth Management

1. Retirement Planning: More Than Just Saving

Retirement isn’t just about putting money aside. It’s about ensuring you can live comfortably once your regular income stops. Passive Capital Management helps clients create a sustainable retirement strategy, ensuring they have enough to cover daily expenses, healthcare, and even the fun things—like travel or hobbies.

By assessing income sources like pensions, social security, and investments, they build a tailored plan that matches your lifestyle and long-term goals.

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Investing can feel overwhelming. Stocks, bonds, real estate—where do you even begin? Wealth management helps you make informed choices based on your risk tolerance, time horizon, and financial objectives.

Rather than chasing trends, a well-planned investment strategy focuses on steady, long-term growth while minimizing unnecessary risks.

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No one likes to pay more taxes than necessary. But without a strategy, you might be doing just that.

Wealth managers help structure your income, retirement withdrawals, and investments in a tax-efficient way. Whether it's maximizing tax-free accounts or minimizing liabilities, they ensure you keep more of what you’ve earned.

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As you age, healthcare becomes a bigger concern—and a bigger expense. Without proper planning, medical costs can quickly eat into your savings.

A solid financial plan includes strategies to manage these costs, whether through insurance, savings, or investment strategies. This way, you get the care you need without financial stress.

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Do you want to leave something behind for your loved ones? Wealth management ensures your assets are distributed according to your wishes, minimizing tax burdens and avoiding unnecessary legal complications.

Whether you’re thinking about passing on wealth to family or contributing to a cause you care about, having a plan in place ensures your money makes the impact you want.

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The best time to start planning? Yesterday. The second-best time? Today.

Wealth management isn’t just for retirees or the ultra-rich. It’s for anyone who wants financial security and a clear plan for the future. Whether you’re in your 30s and just starting to build wealth or in your 50s preparing for retirement, having expert guidance can help you make smarter financial decisions.

Final Thoughts: Is It Right for You?

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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Sati, a Bitcoin payments app and Lightning infrastructure provider, announced the launch of its Lightning integration with Xverse wallet.

Launched in 2025 with investors of the likes as Draper Associates and Ricardo Salinas, Sati powers Bitcoin payments on applications such as WhatsApp to fuel the next wave of adoption.

The Whatsapp bot allows users to send bitcoin via the messaging app through a special bot. After verifying their identity, the user selects the “send” option, chooses to pay to a Lightning address, enters the amount (1,000 sats), confirms with a PIN, and the transaction is completed, with the funds appearing instantly in the recipient wallet.

The new integration will now bring Lightning functionality to over 1.5 million people worldwide. Users can send and receive sats (Bitcoin’s smallest denomination) instantly over the Lightning Network all within the Xverse app,

Further, every xverse wallet user gets a Lightning Address instantly. That means they can receive tips, pay invoices, and use Bitcoin for microtransactions—all without having to manage channels or switch between different apps.

While Xverse adds support for Lightning, users should be cautious in using the wallet as it’s mostly known for enabling access to rug pull projects.

Initially designed in 2017, the Lightning Network has grown to become Bitcoin’s leading layer-2, with a current BTC capacity of over $465M.

“Bitcoin was not meant to be an asset for Wall Street—it was built for peer-to-peer money, borderless and accessible,” said Felipe Servin, Founder and CEO of Sati. “Integrating Lightning natively into Xverse brings that vision back to life, making Bitcoin usable at scale for billions.”

Sati expects USDT on Lightning to be supported as early as July 2025 for users accessing Sati through WhatsApp.

This integration positions Sati’s role as a Lightning infrastructure provider, not just a consumer app. By leveraging its API-based solution, the company provides plug-and-play backend services to wallets and platforms looking to add Bitcoin payments without compromising on security or UX.

Sati recently closed a $600K pre-seed round. The funding is used to support global expansion, stablecoin integration, Lightning infrastructure growth, and broader access to Bitcoin in emerging markets.

The Sati team is attending Bitcoin2025 in Las Vegas this week and looking forward to connect with bitcoin enthusiasts.

@ 8173f6e1:e488ac0f

Start writing your article [CoreNostrService] Publish results: 6/6 successful, 0 paid relays skipped core-service.ts:174 🗑️ [DEBUG] Deletion event published: ef7f0123a7b6a750bed1806cf102bf919eb15b61c4c39b94e65ce2bfd2c25761 core-service.ts:174 ✅ Published deletion event for original article core-service.ts:174 🗑️ Removing old article from local state: article_1748683257035_1lnua6yia core-service.ts:174 🗑️ [Redux] Deleting article: "create article 1" [article_1748683257035_1lnua6yia] core-service.ts:174 ✅ [Redux] Article deleted. Remaining: 1 core-service.ts:174 🔄 Refreshing articles list to reflect deletion... core-service.ts:174 [useArticles] State updated: {totalArticles: 1, drafts: 0, published: 1, draftIds: Array(0)} core-service.ts:174 [useArticles] State updated: {totalArticles: 1, drafts: 0, published: 1, draftIds: Array(0)} core-service.ts:174 [ArticlesPage] Component state: {draftsCount: 0, publishedCount: 1, activeTab: 'published', selectedDraftForViewing: undefined} core-service.ts:174 [CoreNostrService] Query subscription closed: closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller, returning 3 events core-service.ts:174 [useArticles] State updated: {totalArticles: 3, drafts: 0, published: 3, draftIds: Array(0)} core-service.ts:174 [ArticlesPage] Component state: {draftsCount: 0, publishedCount: 3, activeTab: 'published', selectedDraftForViewing: undefined} core-service.ts:174 [CoreNostrService] Query subscription closed: closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller, returning 2 events core-service.ts:174 [EventsAPI] Querying events with filters: [{…}] core-service.ts:174 [CoreNostrService] Query subscription closed: closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller, returning 56 events core-service.ts:174 [EventsAPI] Querying events with filters: [{…}] core-service.ts:174 [CoreNostrService] Query subscription closed: closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller, returning 56 events core-service.ts:174 [EventsAPI] Querying events with filters: [{…}] core-service.ts:174 [CoreNostrService] Query subscription closed: closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller, returning 56 events core-service.ts:174 [EventsAPI] Querying events with filters: [{…}] core-service.ts:174 [CoreNostrService] Query subscription closed: closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller,closed by caller, returning 56 eventshere...

@ 17e2889f:a8fbe515

More content will come soon!

Headline

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

What is KYC/AML?

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

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

Lists of Bitcoiners

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• Coinswap is a decentralized protocol for private, trustless cryptocurrency swaps. It allows participants to securely swap digital assets without intermediaries, using advanced cryptographic techniques and atomic swaps to ensure privacy and security.
• This release introduces major improvements to the protocol's efficiency, security, and usability, including custom in-memory UTXO indexes, more advanced coin-selection algorithms, fidelity bond management and more.
• The update also improves user experience with full Mac support, faster Tor connections, enhanced UI/UX, a unified API, and improved protocol documentation.

"The Project is under active beta development and open for contributions and beta testing. The Coinswap market place is live in testnet4. Bug fixes and feature requests are very much welcome."

• Manuals and demo docs are available here.

What's new

• Core protocol and performance improvements:
  • Custom in-memory UTXO indexes. Frequent Core RPC calls, which caused significant delays, have been eliminated by implementing custom in-memory UTXO indexes. These indexes are also saved to disk, leading to faster wallet synchronization.
  • Coin selection. Advanced coin-selection algorithms, like those in Bitcoin Core, have been incorporated, enhancing the efficiency of creating different types of transactions.
  • Fidelity management. Maker servers now automate tasks such as checking bond expiries, redemption, and recreation for Fidelity Bonds, reducing the user's management responsibilities.
  • Taker liveness. The WaitingFundingConfirmation message has been added to keep swap connections between Takers and Makers, assisting with variable block confirmation delays.

• User experience and compatibility:

  • Mac compatibility. The crate and apps now fully support Mac.
  • Tor operations are streamlined for faster, more resilient connections. Tor addresses are now consistently linked to the wallet seed, maintaining the same onion address through system reboots.
  • The UI/UX improvements enhance the display of balances, UTXOs, offer data, fidelity bonds, and system logs. These updates make the apps more enjoyable and provide clearer coin swap logs during the swap process.

• API design improvements. Transaction creation routines have been streamlined to use a single common API, which reduces technical debt and eliminates redundant code.

• Protocol spec documentation now details how Coinswap breaks the transaction graph and improves privacy through routed swaps and amount splitting, and includes diagrams for clarity.

Source: Coinswap Protocol specification.

Announcement
GitHub Repo
Protocol Spec

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:

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

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

Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:

Release notes (v2.2.0)

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

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

What's new in v2.2.1

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

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 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

@ 84b0c46a:417782f5

MAKIMONO

Simple Long Form Content Editor (NIP-23)

機能

• nostr:npub1sjcvg64knxkrt6ev52rywzu9uzqakgy8ehhk8yezxmpewsthst6sw3jqcw や、 nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzq4jsz7zew5j7jr4pdfxh483nwq9vyw9ph6wm706sjwrzj2we58nqqyxhwumn8ghj77tpvf6jumt9qys8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtt2wqhxummnw3ezuamfwfjkgmn9wshx5uqpr4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnhd9ex2erwv46zu6nsqyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqqsgcn99jyn5tevxz5zxsrkd7h0sx8fwnqztula423xh83j9wau7cms3vg9c7 のようにnostr:要素を挿入できる （メニューのNアイコンから挿入またはnostr:note～～のように手動で入力）

• :monoice:のようにカスタム絵文字を挿入できる(メニューの🙂アイコンから)

:monopaca_kao:

:kubipaca_karada:

• 新規記事作成と、既存記事の修正ができる

やることやったこと

• [x] nostr:を投稿するときにtagにいれる

• [x] 画像をアップロードできるようにする（NIP-96） できる

• [x] 投稿しましたログとかをトースト的なやつでだすようにする
• [ ] レイアウトを整える
• [ ] あとなんか

test

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpp9sc34tdxdvxh4jeg5xgu9ctcypmvsg0n00vwfjydkrjaqh0qh4qqxnzde58q6njvpkxqersv3ejxw9x9

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Knowledge - Pattern knowledge - Trend knowledge - A desire to learn more - A desire to explore good design

Experience - A sense of where to start/what will work - Good taste - Good judge of your own design and others’ - Comfortable working in many styles - Willing to have a strong opinion

Creativity - Novel ideas - Exhaustive exploration of options/approaches - Exhaustive iteration

Quality - A preference for quality - A preference to test designs - Open to feedback - Able to balance classical and expressive aesthetics - Able to balance aesthetics and usability - Obsessed with details - Rigorous

Technical skills - Good typography - Good composition/layout - Good colour choices - Good at some associated skills (e.g. prototyping, animation, imagery, writing) - Tool expertise

Wider picture - Informed by understanding of the product (e.g. research) - System thinking (how the work is connected to other things) - Product thinking (what makes a successful product) - Development thinking (how a design might be implemented) - Practical mindset when necessary - Believes in importance of accessibility

Communication - Able to articulate your design “feelings” - Able to explain design principles to others - Can clearly document/explain the design (e.g. specifications, mockups) - Good relationship-building, especially with developers - Able to “sell” a design idea

---

Read more about Anthony Hobday.

https://stacker.news/items/993319

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

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

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

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

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

What's new

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

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

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

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

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

It's been a pretty historic week for the United States as it pertains to geopolitical relations in the Middle East. President Trump and many members of his administration, including AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, traveled across the Middle East making deals with countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and others. Many are speculating that Iran may be included in some behind the scenes deal as well. This trip to the Middle East makes sense considering the fact that China is also vying for favorable relationships with those countries. The Middle East is a power player in the world, and it seems pretty clear that Donald Trump is dead set on ensuring that they choose the United States over China as the world moves towards a more multi-polar reality.

Many are calling the events of this week the Riyadh Accords. There were many deals that were struck in relation to artificial intelligence, defense, energy and direct investments in the United States. A truly prolific power play and demonstration of deal-making ability of Donald Trump, if you ask me. Though I will admit some of the numbers that were thrown out by some of the countries were a bit egregious. We shall see how everything plays out in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this power move by the United States.

While all this was going on, there was something happening back in the United States that many people outside of fringe corners of FinTwit are not talking about, which is the fact that the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yields are back on the rise. Yesterday, they surpassed the levels of mid-April that caused a market panic and are hovering back around levels that have not been seen since right before Donald Trump's inauguration.

I imagine that there isn't as much of an uproar right now because I'm pretty confident the media freakouts we were experiencing in mid-April were driven by the fact that many large hedge funds found themselves off sides of large levered basis trades. I wouldn't be surprised if those funds have decreased their leverage in those trades and bond yields being back to mid-April levels is not affecting those funds as much as they were last month. But the point stands, the 10-year and 30-year yields are significantly elevated with the 30-year approaching 5%. Regardless of the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East, the Treasury has a big problem on its hands. It still has to roll over many trillions worth of debt over over the next few years and doing so at these rates is going to be massively detrimental to fiscal deficits over the next decade. The interest expense on the debt is set to explode in the coming years.

On that note, data from the first quarter of 2025 has been released by the government and despite all the posturing by the Trump administration around DOGE and how tariffs are going to be beneficial for the U.S. economy, deficits are continuing to explode while the interest expense on the debt has definitively surpassed our annual defense budget.

via Charlie Bilello

via Mohamed Al-Erian

To make matters worse, as things are deteriorating on the fiscal side of things, the U.S. consumer is getting crushed by credit. The 90-plus day delinquency rates for credit card and auto loans are screaming higher right now.

via TXMC

One has to wonder how long all this can continue without some sort of liquidity crunch. Even though equities markets have recovered from their post-Liberation Day month long bear market, I would not be surprised if what we're witnessing is a dead cat bounce that can only be continued if the money printers are turned back on. Something's got to give, both on the fiscal side and in the private markets where the Common Man is getting crushed because he's been forced to take on insane amounts of debt to stay afloat after years of elevated levels of inflation. Add on the fact that AI has reached a state of maturity that will enable companies to replace their current meat suit workers with an army of cheap, efficient and fast digital workers and it isn't hard to see that some sort of employment crisis could be on the horizon as well.

Now is not the time to get complacent. While I do believe that the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East are probably in the best interest of the United States as the world, again, moves toward a more multi-polar reality, we are facing problems that one cannot simply wish away. They will need to be confronted. And as we've seen throughout the 21st century, the problems are usually met head-on with a money printer.

I take no pleasure in saying this because it is a bit uncouth to be gleeful to benefit from the strife of others, but it is pretty clear to me that all signs are pointing to bitcoin benefiting massively from everything that is going on. The shift towards a more multi-polar world, the runaway debt situation here in the United States, the increasing deficits, the AI job replacements and the consumer credit crisis that is currently unfolding, All will need to be "solved" by turning on the money printers to levels they've never been pushed to before.

Weird times we're living in.

China's Manufacturing Dominance: Why It Matters for the U.S.

In my recent conversation with Lyn Alden, she highlighted how China has rapidly ascended the manufacturing value chain. As Lyn pointed out, China transformed from making "sneakers and plastic trinkets" to becoming the world's largest auto exporter in just four years. This dramatic shift represents more than economic success—it's a strategic power play. China now dominates solar panel production with greater market control than OPEC has over oil and maintains near-monopoly control of rare earth elements crucial for modern technology.

"China makes like 10 times more steel than the United States does... which is relevant in ship making. It's relevant in all sorts of stuff." - Lyn Alden

Perhaps most concerning, as Lyn emphasized, is China's financial leverage. They hold substantial U.S. assets that could be strategically sold to disrupt U.S. treasury market functioning. This combination of manufacturing dominance, resource control, and financial leverage gives China significant negotiating power in any trade disputes, making our attempts to reshoring manufacturing all the more challenging.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Triffin's dilemma, Bitcoin's role in monetary transition, and the energy requirements for rebuilding America's industrial base.

Headlines of the Day

Financial Times Under Fire Over MicroStrategy Bitcoin Coverage - via X

Trump in Qatar: Historic Boeing Deal Signed - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Johnson Backs Stock Trading Ban; Passage Chances Slim - 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...

Building things of value is satisfying.

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@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) October 27, 2022

The Basics

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

There is no 'Lightning Network'

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

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

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

Lightning in Practice

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

Sovereign Lightning

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

The Potential Fracture of Lightning

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

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

Summary

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

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

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

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company behind Truth Social and other Trump-branded digital platforms, is planning to raise $2.5 billion to build one of the largest bitcoin treasuries among public companies.

The deal involves the sale of approximately $1.5 billion in common stock and $1.0 billion in convertible senior secured notes.

According to the company, the offering is expected to close by the end of May, pending standard closing conditions.

Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, said the investment in bitcoin is a big part of the company’s long-term plan.

“We view Bitcoin as an apex instrument of financial freedom,” Nunes said.

“This investment will help defend our Company against harassment and discrimination by financial institutions, which plague many Americans and U.S. firms.”

He added that the bitcoin treasury will be used to create new synergies across the company’s platforms including Truth Social, Truth+, and the upcoming financial tech brand Truth.Fi.

“It’s a big step forward in the company’s plans to evolve into a holding company by acquiring additional profit-generating, crown jewel assets consistent with America First principles,” Nunes said.

The $2.5 billion raise will come from about 50 institutional investors. The $1 billion in convertible notes will have 0% interest and be convertible into shares at a 35% premium.

TMTG’s current liquid assets, including cash and short-term investments, are $759 million as of the end of the first quarter of 2025. With this new funding, the company’s liquid assets will be over $3 billion.

Custody of the bitcoin treasury will be handled by Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital. They will manage and store the digital assets.

Earlier this week The Financial Times reported Trump Media was planning to raise $3 billion for digital assets acquisitions.

The article said the funds would be used to buy bitcoin and other digital assets, and an announcement could come before a major related event in Las Vegas.

Related: Bitcoin 2025 Conference Kicks off in Las Vegas Today

Trump Media denied the FT report. In a statement, the company said, “Apparently the Financial Times has dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.”

There was no further comment. However, the official $2.5 billion figure, which was announced shortly after by Trump Media through a press release, aligns with its actual filing and investor communication.

Trump Media’s official announcement

This comes at a time when the Trump family and political allies are showing renewed interest in Bitcoin.

President Donald Trump who is now back in office since the 2025 election, has said he wants to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”

Trump Media is also working on retail bitcoin investment products including ETFs aligned with America First policies.

These products will make bitcoin more accessible to retail investors and support pro-Trump financial initiatives.

But not everyone is happy.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren recently expressed concerns about Trump Media’s Bitcoin plans. She asked U.S. regulators to clarify their oversight of digital-asset ETFs, warning of investor risk.

Industry insiders are comparing Trump Media’s plans to Strategy (MSTR) which has built a multi-billion dollar bitcoin treasury over the last year. They used stock and bond sales to fund their bitcoin purchases.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The Wall Street financial institution has signed strategic agreements for bitcoin-backed loans with Maple Finance and FalconX.

According to Bloomberg, on May 27 Cantor Fitzgerald officially launched its new division dedicated to Bitcoin lending, announcing the completion of the first transactions of its Bitcoin Financing Business. The Wall Street firm confirmed it has finalized a first round of deals with two crypto sector players: Maple Finance and FalconX.

The company initially plans to make up to $2 billion in financing available to institutional clients.

Brandon Lutnick, President of Cantor Fitzgerald, commented:

“From the start, Cantor recognized the transformative impact that financial services for digital assets would have on the global economy. This milestone highlights how the combination of Cantor’s deep expertise and entrepreneurial spirit creates a distinctive advantage on Wall Street.”

The partnership with Maple Finance is part of Cantor’s broader expansion strategy. Sidney Powell, Co-Founder and CEO of Maple Finance, emphasized how the deal will expand his company’s ability to serve clients looking to access the digital asset market:

“We’re seeing strong and growing demand from institutions seeking to enter the crypto market through trusted and regulated channels.”

Josh Barkhordar, Head of U.S. Sales at FalconX, stated:

“Digital assets have lacked the institutional-grade credit infrastructure essential for healthy capital markets. This collaboration between Cantor and a crypto-native firm is a meaningful step toward building that framework.”

To ensure the security and reliability of its bitcoin-backed financing services, Cantor Fitzgerald has selected Anchorage Digital and Copper.co for custody solutions.

The post Cantor Fitzgerald launches first bitcoin-backed loans appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

DDC Enterprise, a consumer brand and e-commerce company with operations in the U.S. and China, has launched a big plan to make bitcoin (BTC) a key part of its financial strategy.

The company just bought 21 BTC as the first step in a plan to buy up to 5,000 BTC over the next 3 years.

The move was announced in a press release and a letter to shareholders by DDC’s founder, chairwoman and CEO Norma Chu.

The 21 BTC, worth around $2.28 million at current prices, was bought through a share exchange. DDC issued 254,333 class A ordinary shares.

“We are fully committed to ensuring the success of this strategy, which aligns with our vision to drive long-term value for our shareholders,” said Norma Chu. “Today marks a pivotal moment in DDC’s evolution.”

Chu is the first female founder and CEO of a U.S.-listed public company to lead a bitcoin-only treasury strategy. DDC is one of the first companies in its industry to adopt this strategy in such a structured way.

DDC’s plan is being rolled out in phases. The company will buy another 79 BTC soon and will have 100 BTC in the short term.

In the next 6 months, it will buy 500 BTC, and long-term, it expects to build a 5,000 BTC reserve over 36 months.

This phased approach may allow DDC to manage market volatility and take advantage of price movements.

In her recent letter to shareholders, Chu called the bitcoin strategy “a cornerstone of our long-term value creation plan”.

She said bitcoin’s qualities – especially as a hedge against macroeconomic uncertainty and inflation – make it the perfect reserve asset for DDC. She added:

“Bitcoin’s unique properties as a store of value and hedge against macroeconomic uncertainty align perfectly with our vision to diversify reserves and enhance shareholder returns.”

The announcement comes on the back of a record-breaking year for DDC.

In 2024, the company made $37.4 million in revenue—a 33% increase from 2023.

Gross margin improved from 25.0% in 2023 to 28.4% in 2024 due to strategic acquisitions in the U.S. and more efficient operations in China.

As of March 31, 2025 the company had $11.3 million in shareholder equity and $23.6 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.

This gives DDC the flexibility and credibility to do something as bold as this bitcoin accumulation plan.

DDC’s announcement comes as corporations are getting increasingly interested in adding bitcoin to their balance sheet.

While giants like Strategy have made headlines with large bitcoin purchases, DDC is the first e-commerce company to do so.

The company’s dual presence in China and the U.S. also adds complexity, especially with the different regulatory environments surrounding Bitcoin in each region.

To ensure proper execution, DDC has expanded its treasury and advisory teams to include experts in the bitcoin markets.

The company will use a mix of dollar cost averaging and tactical buying, adjusting purchases based on market conditions.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

nostr is to twitter as bitcoin is to paypal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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My Nostr Public Key: npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx

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

@ 3770c235:16042bcc

In a world full of constant stimulation, overflowing schedules, and ever-growing to-do lists, our physical spaces often bear the brunt of our busy lives. The clutter in our homes and workplaces can slowly pile up until it becomes overwhelming, contributing not only to a chaotic environment but also to increased levels of stress and anxiety.

But what if the simple act of removing junk and organizing your space could bring clarity to your mind, lift your mood, and create a lasting positive impact on your mental health? Decluttering isn't just about aesthetics—it’s about mental wellness. Junk removal can be a powerful tool to help you take control of your space and, in turn, your mindset. Let’s explore how clearing the clutter can boost mental health and transform your daily life.

The Psychological Impact of Clutter Clutter isn’t just stuff—it’s unmade decisions and postponed actions. Psychologists have long understood the connection between our environment and our emotional well-being. Clutter bombards our minds with excessive stimuli, making it difficult to focus or relax. It sends a signal that work is never done, which can lead to chronic stress.

A study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that women who described their homes as cluttered or full of unfinished projects were more likely to be fatigued and depressed than those who described their homes as restorative and restful. The same study found that cortisol levels—the body’s main stress hormone—were significantly higher in women living in cluttered environments.

Additionally, according to a UCLA study, families living in homes with a high density of household objects experienced increased levels of anxiety. The psychological toll of clutter isn’t minor; it has real, measurable effects on our mental health.

Junk Removal as an Act of Self-Care Self-care isn't just about spa days or bubble baths—it's about creating systems and habits that support your well-being. Removing clutter and excess junk from your living or working space can be an essential act of self-care, sending your brain a clear message: you deserve a clean, peaceful environment.

The physical act of junk removal creates a sense of accomplishment. Whether it’s donating unused clothing, throwing away broken items, or clearing out the garage, every bag removed is a step toward emotional relief. The process can be surprisingly cathartic, especially for those dealing with stress, grief, or major life transitions.

Why Clutter Creates Mental Clutter Clutter and disorganization can reduce our ability to process information. Researchers at Princeton University Neuroscience Institute found that physical clutter competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress. When your environment is chaotic, your mind tends to mimic that chaos.

Every time you walk past a cluttered desk or disorganized closet, your brain registers it as a task you haven't completed. Over time, this leads to mental fatigue. You might find yourself feeling constantly behind, overwhelmed, or unable to concentrate—even when you're not consciously thinking about the mess.

On the flip side, a tidy, clutter-free environment can promote mental clarity, boost productivity, and help foster a greater sense of control and calm.

How Junk Removal Enhances Mood There’s a distinct emotional payoff to junk removal. Many people report feeling lighter, freer, and happier after decluttering a space. Here's why: 1. Reduces Anxiety and Stress Too much clutter can create a constant low-grade stress that gnaws away at your peace of mind. By physically removing items that no longer serve a purpose, you're also removing sources of tension. 2. Improves Focus and Productivity When your environment is clear, your mind follows suit. A cleaner space supports sharper thinking and better decision-making. Whether you're working from home or studying, a decluttered area can significantly enhance your ability to concentrate. 3. Boosts Self-Esteem Clutter can carry feelings of guilt or shame—reminders of undone tasks, unused purchases, or poor organizational habits. Taking the step to clean up can restore confidence and create a sense of achievement.

1. Encourages Mindfulness Decluttering forces you to be present. You have to examine each item, reflect on its usefulness, and make a conscious decision about its place in your life. This process promotes mindfulness and intentional living.

The Decluttering Process: Step-by-Step for Mental Clarity If the idea of decluttering your entire home feels overwhelming, start small. Begin with one drawer, one shelf, or one room. Here's a practical approach to get started:

Step 1: Set a Clear Intention Know why you're decluttering. Is it to feel less stressed? To improve your focus? Having a specific goal will keep you motivated. Step 2: Sort Items into Categories Use the classic “keep, donate, toss” system. Be honest with yourself about what adds value to your life. Step 3: Focus on One Area at a Time Avoid jumping from room to room. Focus your energy on one space to see progress quickly and stay motivated.

Step 4: Remove the Junk Promptly Once you've sorted items for removal, don’t let them linger. Hire a junk removal service or take them to a donation center right away. Step 5: Maintain Your Space Set a monthly reminder to reassess clutter. Make it a habit, not a one-time task.

Professional Help: The Role of Junk Removal Services For some people, the physical and emotional burden of clearing out clutter is too overwhelming to tackle alone. This is where professional junk removal services come in. These services not only handle the heavy lifting but also offer a judgment-free way to transform your space quickly and efficiently. By outsourcing the task, you reduce stress and avoid decision fatigue. It’s a practical solution for busy professionals, seniors downsizing, or those recovering from emotional trauma like the loss of a loved one.

The mental relief from seeing a room go from chaotic to clean in just a few hours is worth the investment. Plus, many services are eco-friendly and donate reusable items to charities, adding another layer of purpose to the process.

Real-Life Impacts: Statistics that Speak Decluttering doesn’t just feel good—it’s backed by data. Consider this: • According to a study by the National Association of Professional Organizers, 54% of Americans are overwhelmed by clutter, and 78% have no idea what to do with it [source]. • A report from the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that people with clean homes are happier and more relaxed, with higher activity levels and lower levels of cortisol [source]. These statistics highlight how deeply our environment influences our emotional health—and how important it is to reclaim control of your space.

Decluttering in the Digital Age While physical clutter is the most obvious, digital clutter can also affect your mental state. Overflowing email inboxes, unorganized files, and constant notifications can leave you feeling scattered and distracted. Take time to regularly clean up your digital life by: • Unsubscribing from unwanted emails • Deleting unused apps • Organizing desktop files and folders • Turning off non-essential notifications Just like physical spaces, a clean digital environment supports a clearer, more focused mind.

When Clutter Signals Something Deeper While decluttering is beneficial, it’s important to recognize when excessive clutter or hoarding behavior may be a sign of deeper mental health issues. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can manifest in the inability to discard items or maintain an organized space. If clutter feels insurmountable or leads to distress and dysfunction, it may be time to seek support from a mental health professional. Therapy can help address the root causes and develop strategies for long-term change.

Final Thoughts: Clearing the Path to Mental Well-Being Junk removal and decluttering may seem like simple tasks, but their effects on your mental health can be profound. By reducing chaos in your environment, you invite peace, focus, and emotional clarity into your life. Whether you choose to tackle the clutter yourself or enlist the help of professionals, taking the first step is often the hardest—and the most transformative. Your environment is a mirror of your mind. Clear the clutter, and you’ll often find that clarity, joy, and calm aren’t far behind.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

This article was originally published on aier.org

Even after eleven years experience, and a per Bitcoin price of nearly $20,000, the incredulous are still with us. I understand why. Bitcoin is not like other traditional financial assets.

Even describing it as an asset is misleading. It is not the same as a stock, as a payment system, or a money. It has features of all these but it is not identical to them.

What Bitcoin is depends on its use as a means of storing and porting value, which in turn rests of secure titles to ownership of a scarce good. Those without experience in the sector look at all of this and get frustrated that understanding why it is valuable is not so easy to grasp. 

In this article, I’m updating an analysis I wrote six years ago. It still holds up. For those who don’t want to slog through the entire article, my thesis is that Bitcoin’s value obtains from its underlying technology, which is an open-source ledger that keeps track of ownership rights and permits the transfer of these rights. Bitcoin managed to bundle its unit of account with a payment system that lives on the ledger. That’s its innovation and why it obtained a value and that value continues to rise. 

Consider the criticism offered by traditional gold advocates, who have, for decades, pushed the idea that sound money must be backed by something real, hard, and independently valuable. Bitcoin doesn’t qualify, right? Maybe it does. 

Bitcoin first emerged as a possible competitor to national, government-managed money in 2009. Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper was released October 31, 2008. The structure and language of this paper sent the message: This currency is for computer technicians, not economists nor political pundits. The paper’s circulation was limited; novices who read it were mystified. 

But the lack of interest didn’t stop history from moving forward. Two months later, those who were paying attention saw the emergence of the “Genesis Block,” the first group of bitcoins generated through Nakamoto’s concept of a distributed ledger that lived on any computer node in the world that wanted to host it.

Here we are all these years later and a single bitcoin trades at $18,500. The currency is held and accepted by many thousands of institutions, both online and offline. Its payment system is very popular in poor countries without vast banking infrastructures but also in developed countries. And major institutions—including the Federal Reserve, the OECD, the World Bank, and major investment houses—are paying respectful attention and weaving blockchain technology into their operations.

Enthusiasts, who are found in every country, say that its exchange value will soar even more in the future because its supply is strictly limited and it provides a system vastly superior to government money. Bitcoin is transferred between individuals without a third party. It is relatively low-cost to exchange. It has a predictable supply. It is durable, fungible, and divisible: all crucial features of money. It creates a monetary system that doesn’t depend on trust and identity, much less on central banks and government. It is a new system for the digital age.

Hard lessons for hard money

To those educated in the “hard money” tradition, the whole idea has been a serious challenge. Speaking for myself, I had been reading about bitcoin for two years before I came anywhere close to understanding it. There was just something about the whole idea that bugged me. You can’t make money out of nothing, much less out of computer code. Why does it have value then? There must be something amiss. This is not how we expected money to be reformed.

There’s the problem: our expectations. We should have been paying closer attention to Ludwig von Mises’ theory of money’s origins—not to what we think he wrote, but to what he actually did write. 

In 1912, Mises released The Theory of Money and Credit. It was a huge hit in Europe when it came out in German, and it was translated into English. While covering every aspect of money, his core contribution was in tracing the value and price of money—and not just money itself—to its origins. That is, he explained how money gets its price in terms of the goods and services it obtains. He later called this process the “regression theorem,” and as it turns out, bitcoin satisfies the conditions of the theorem.

Mises’ teacher, Carl Menger, demonstrated that money itself originates from the market—not from the State and not from social contract. It emerges gradually as monetary entrepreneurs seek out an ideal form of commodity for indirect exchange. Instead of merely bartering with each other, people acquire a good not to consume, but to trade. That good becomes money, the most marketable commodity.

But Mises added that the value of money traces backward in time to its value as a bartered commodity. Mises said that this is the only way money can have value.

The theory of the value of money as such can trace back the objective exchange value of money only to that point where it ceases to be the value of money and becomes merely the value of a commodity…. If in this way we continually go farther and farther back we must eventually arrive at a point where we no longer find any component in the objective exchange value of money that arises from valuations based on the function of money as a common medium of exchange; where the value of money is nothing other than the value of an object that is useful in some other way than as money…. Before it was usual to acquire goods in the market, not for personal consumption, but simply in order to exchange them again for the goods that were really wanted, each individual commodity was only accredited with that value given by the subjective valuations based on its direct utility.

Mises’ explanation solved a major problem that had long mystified economists. It is a narrative of conjectural history, and yet it makes perfect sense. Would salt have become money had it otherwise been completely useless? Would beaver pelts have obtained monetary value had they not been useful for clothing? Would silver or gold have had money value if they had no value as commodities first? The answer in all cases of monetary history is clearly no. The initial value of money, before it becomes widely traded as money, originates in its direct utility. It’s an explanation that is demonstrated through historical reconstruction. That’s Mises’ regression theorem.

Bitcoin’s Use Value

At first glance, bitcoin would seem to be an exception. You can’t use a bitcoin for anything other than money. It can’t be worn as jewelry. You can’t make a machine out of it. You can’t eat it or even decorate with it. Its value is only realized as a unit that facilitates indirect exchange. And yet, bitcoin already is money. It’s used every day. You can see the exchanges in real time. It’s not a myth. It’s the real deal.

It might seem like we have to choose. Is Mises wrong? Maybe we have to toss out his whole theory. Or maybe his point was purely historical and doesn’t apply in the future of a digital age. Or maybe his regression theorem is proof that bitcoin is just an empty mania with no staying power, because it can’t be reduced to its value as a useful commodity.

And yet, you don’t have to resort to complicated monetary theory in order to understand the sense of alarm surrounding bitcoin. Many people, as I did, just have a feeling of uneasiness about a money that has no basis in anything physical. Sure, you can print out a bitcoin on a piece of paper, but having a paper with a QR code or a public key is not enough to relieve that sense of unease.

How can we resolve this problem? In my own mind, I toyed with the issue for more than a year. It puzzled me. I wondered if Mises’ insight applied only in a pre-digital age. I followed the speculations online that the value of bitcoin would be zero but for the national currencies into which it is converted. Perhaps the demand for bitcoin overcame the demands of Mises’ scenario because of a desperate need for something other than the dollar.

As time passed—and I read the work of Konrad Graf, Peter Surda, and Daniel Krawisz—finally the resolution came. Bitcoin is both a payment system and a money. The payment system is the source of value, while the accounting unit merely expresses that value in terms of price. The unity of money and payment is its most unusual feature, and the one that most commentators have had trouble wrapping their heads around.

We are all used to thinking of currency as separate from payment systems. This thinking is a reflection of the technological limitations of history. There is the dollar and there are credit cards. There is the euro and there is PayPal. There is the yen and there are wire services. In each case, money transfer relies on third-party service providers. In order to use them, you need to establish what is called a “trust relationship” with them, which is to say that the institution arranging the deal has to believe that you are going to pay.

This wedge between money and payment has always been with us, except for the case of physical proximity.

If I give you a dollar for your pizza slice, there is no third party. But payment systems, third parties, and trust relationships become necessary once you leave geographic proximity. That’s when companies like Visa and institutions like banks become indispensable. They are the application that makes the monetary software do what you want it to do.

The hitch is that

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

Full Text of Bill

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

@ 0971cd37:53c969f4

ขุด Bitcoin ด้วยเครื่อง ASIC เช่น Antminer หรือ Whatsminer นั้น "อุณหภูมิ" ถือเป็นหนึ่งในปัจจัยที่สำคัญที่สุดที่มีผลต่อ ประสิทธิภาพ, ความเสถียร, และ อายุการใช้งาน ของเครื่อง หากอุณหภูมิสูงเกินไป อาจทำให้แรงขุดลดลง

ตัวอย่าง Antminer S21 Pro อุณหภูมิ Chip Temp (Tuning Power)

ตัวอย่าง WhatsMiner M30S++ อุณหภูมิ Chip Temp (Tuning Power)

📌 จุดวัดอุณหภูมิที่สำคัญ Chip Temp: อุณหภูมิของชิป ASIC โดยตรง เป็นค่าหลักที่ใช้ประเมินความร้อน

Inlet Temp: อุณหภูมิของอากาศที่เข้าเครื่อง ควรต่ำกว่า 35-38°C

Outlet Temp: อุณหภูมิของลมร้อนที่ออกจากเครื่อง อาจสูงถึง 60–80°C ได้

ตัวอย่าง Antminer S21 Pro (Tuning Power)

แนวทางการจัดการความร้อน

• ทำความสะอาดพัดลม ฮีตซิงค์ และ ซิลิโคนระบายความร้อน 6 เดือน/ครั้ง

• ใช้ระบบ พัดลมดูดลมออก หลักการ Inlet และ Outlet หรือ custom water cooling kit (สายแนว hydro)

• วางเครื่องในที่ที่มีอากาศถ่ายเทดี อุณหภูมิแวดล้อมไม่เกิน 30–35°C หลีกเลี่ยงการวางเครื่องในพื้นที่อับ เช่น ห้องปิด

หากไม่ทำความสะอาดเครื่องขุด Bitcoin เป็นระยะ โดยเฉพาะฝุ่นที่สะสมในพัดลมและฮีตซิงก์ อาจเกิดผลเสียหลายด้าน

• ความร้อนสะสม อุณหภูมิสูงเกินไป ฝุ่นจะอุดตันช่องลม ทำให้อากาศไหลเวียนไม่สะดวกพัดลมระบายความร้อนไม่สามารถพาอากาศร้อนออกได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพส่งผลให้ อุณหภูมิของชิป (Chip Temp) พุ่งสูงขึ้นเรื่อย ๆ

• เครื่องทำงานช้าลง เมื่ออุณหภูมิเกิน 80–85°C ระบบจะ ลด Hashrate อัตโนมัติ เพื่อป้องกันความเสียหาย กำลังขุดลดลง รายได้จากการขุดก็ลดลงด้วย

• เสี่ยงต่อการเสียหายของฮาร์ดแวร์ หากปล่อยให้ความร้อนสะสมจนเกิน 90°C บอร์ดอาจไหม้ ชิป ASIC เสียหายถาวร พัดลมทำงานหนักเกินไป จนมอเตอร์พัง

• อายุการใช้งานเครื่องสั้นลง เครื่องที่ร้อนจัดและสะสมฝุ่นจะเสื่อมเร็วกว่าเครื่องที่ได้รับการดูแล อาจใช้ได้ไม่ถึงปี

• ค่าซ่อม/เปลี่ยนอุปกรณ์สูง หากต้องเปลี่ยนบอร์ด ASIC หรือ พัดลม จะมีค่าใช้จ่ายหลักพันถึงหลักหมื่นบาทต่อเครื่อง ในบางกรณี อาจต้องเปลี่ยนทั้งเครื่องหากเสียหายหนัก

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Bitcoin FilmFest (BFF25) returns to Warsaw for its third edition, blending independent cinema—from feature films and commercials to AI-driven experimental visuals—with education and entertainment.

Hundreds of attendees from around the world will gather for three days of screenings, discussions, workshops, and networking at the iconic Kinoteka Cinema (PKiN), the same venue that hosted the festival’s first two editions in March 2023 and April 2024.

This year’s festival, themed “Beyond the Frame,” introduces new dimensions to its program, including an extra day on May 22 to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day, the first real-world bitcoin transaction, with what promises to be one of Europe’s largest commemorations of this milestone.

BFF25 bridges independent film, culture, and technology, with a bold focus on decentralized storytelling and creative expression. As a community-driven cultural experience with a slightly rebellious spirit, Bitcoin FilmFest goes beyond movies, yet cinema remains at its heart.

Here’s a sneak peek at the lineup, specially curated for movie buffs:

Generative Cinema –  A special slot with exclusive shorts and a thematic debate on the intersection of AI and filmmaking. Featured titles include, for example: BREAK FREE, SATOSHI: THE CREATION OF BITCOIN, STRANGE CURRENCIES, and BITCOIN IS THE MYCELIUM OF MONEY,  exploring financial independence, traps of the fiat system, and a better future built on sound money.

Upcoming Productions Preview – A bit over an hour-long block of unreleased pilots and works-in-progress. Attendees will get exclusive first looks at projects like FINDING HOME (a travel-meets-personal-journey series), PARALLEL SPACES (a story about alternative communities), and THE LEGEND OF LANDI (a mysterious narrative).

Freedom-Focused Ads & Campaigns – Unique screenings of video commercials, animations, and visual projects, culminating in “The PoWies” (Proof of Work-ies)—the first ever awards show honoring the best Bitcoin-only awareness campaigns.

To get an idea of what might come up at the event, here, you can preview 6 selected ads combined into two 2 videos:

• Unique Bitcoin-Video Ads: Part One
• Unique Bitcoin-Video Ads: Part Two

Open Pitch Competition – A chance for filmmakers to present fresh ideas and unfinished projects to an audience of a dedicated jury, movie fans and potential collaborators. This competitive block isn’t just entertaining—it’s a real opportunity for creators to secure funding and partnerships.

Golden Rabbit Awards: A lively gala honoring films from the festival’s Official Selection, with awards in categories like Best Feature, Best Story, Best Short, and Audience Choice.

BFF25 Main Screenings

Sample titles from BFF25’s Official Selection:

REVOLUCIÓN BITCOIN – A documentary by Juan Pablo, making its first screening outside the Spanish-speaking world in Warsaw this May. Three years of important work, 80 powerful minutes to experience. The film explores Bitcoin’s impact across Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Spain through around 40 diverse perspectives. Screening in Spanish with English subtitles, followed by a Q&A with the director.

UNBANKABLE – Luke Willms’ directorial debut, drawing from his multicultural roots and his father’s pioneering HIV/AIDS research. An investigative documentary based on Luke’s journeys through seven African countries, diving into financial experiments and innovations—from mobile money and digital lending to Bitcoin—raising smart questions and offering potential lessons for the West. Its May appearance at BFF25 marks its largest European event to date, following festival screenings and nominations across multiple continents over the past year.

HOTEL BITCOIN – A Spanish comedy directed by Manuel Sanabria and Carlos “Pocho” Villaverde. Four friends, 4,000 bitcoins , and one laptop spark a chaotic adventure of parties, love, crime, and a dash of madness. Exploring sound money, value, and relationships through a twisting plot. The film premiered at the Tarazona and Moncayo Comedy Film Festival in August 2024. Its Warsaw screening at BFF25 (in Spanish with English subtitles) marks its first public showing outside the Spanish-speaking world.

Check out trailers for this year’s BFF25 and past editions on YouTube.

Tickets & Info:

• Detailed program and tickets are available at bitcoinfilmfest.com/bff25.
• Stay updated via the festival’s official channels (links provided on the website).
• Use ‘LN-NEWS’ to get 10% of tickets

@ c230edd3:8ad4a712

Chef's notes

Most Santa Maria tri tip roast recipes call for red wine vinegar and dijon mustard. I prefer other ingredients in place of those, but should you like those flavors and textures, they are more traditional.

Keep in mind when cooking and slicing, that the grain of tri-tip runs in 3 directions and the meat is unevenly thick. Pulling the roast when the thin end achieves well done, the thicker end will be a nice medium rare. When slicing, change direction to cut against the grain as you transition through for the most tender outcome.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 minutes
• 🍳 Cook time: 1 hour ( with grill heating time)
• 🍽️ Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1.5 - 2 lb Tri-Tip Roast
• 1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
• 1 tsp Black Pepper
• 1 tsp Cayanne Pepper ( substitute all or some with smoked paprika for a milder taste)
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp Onion Powder
• 1 Tbsp Rosemary
• 2 Tbsp Stone Ground Mustard
• 1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 2-3 Cloves Garlic, Minced

Directions

1. Mix all dry spices.
2. Pat the roast dry and coat on all sides with seasdoning mix.
3. Cover loosely and allow to sit in fridge for 8-12 hours.
4. Preheat grill to 475 degrees F, allow meat to sit at room temp during this process.
5. Mix vinegar, mustard, and minced garlic.
6. Place meat on hot grill, fat side down and coat the upward side with mustard mix
7. Grill approximately 7-10 minutes.
8. Flip meat, repeat coating and grilling.
9. Flip once more and grill for 2-3 minutes to caramelize the glaze and until the fat begins to render.
10. Remove from grill and let the roast rest for 5 minutes before slicing,
11. Serve with grilled veggies or any side of your choice. This is a bit spicy so it goes well with a salsa fresca and tortillas, too.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

— ODELL (@ODELL) December 14, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 6a6be47b:3e74e3e1

Hi frens! 🦖

📖 How’s your weekend starting out? I’ve been painting and reading, and I’m super excited to share that I finally finished Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton!

😜 I’m still working on the art of convincing people to read a book without spoiling it, but I’ll do my best here.

📕 Let me just say: the book is so much better than the movie (and that’s saying something, because the movie will always have a special place in my heart). The novel is basically one cliffhanger after another—I was absolutely hooked! There’s nonstop adventure and so much tension as the characters dodge dinosaurs at every turn.

I was pleasantly surprised by how the characters react to the dinosaurs in the book. I love Ian Malcolm’s character even more here—his warnings about the park being a disaster waiting to happen are even sharper and more compelling. I thought Dr. Grant would come to the same conclusion as Malcolm a bit sooner, but as a paleontologist, he’s understandably in awe—this is the pinnacle of his career, after all! Unlike Malcolm, he has less time to process the reality of prehistoric creatures walking the earth again.

The characters are all a bit different (sometimes a LOT different) from their movie versions, but it works so well. If I could change one thing, I would have loved to see Dr. Sattler play a bigger role throughout the novel.

📝 All in all, I’m so glad I finally read it. There’s action, adventure, dinosaurs, humans being humans, and a sprinkle of science and deep questions about the consequences of our actions. I was hooked from start to finish.

If you haven’t read it yet, I hope you give yourself the chance—don’t wait as long as I did!

See you later, alligator 🐊

Godspeed! By the way, I wrote and painted some dinosaurs here 👀 just in case you want to know more about dinosaurs, just like it happened to me!

https://stacker.news/items/993455

@ 812cff5a:5c40aeeb

NIP-02 — أنماط المفاتيح العامة

رقم التعريف (NIP): 02
العنوان: أنماط المفاتيح العامة
الحالة: نهائي
المؤلف: fiatjaf
التاريخ: 2020-12-10

---

الملخص

يقترح هذا المستند نمطًا معياريًا لطريقة تمثيل المفاتيح العامة (public keys) في نُستر — يُعرف باسم npub — لتسهيل مشاركتها وقراءتها من قبل البشر، تمامًا كما يتم تمثيل عناوين البيتكوين بـ bech32.

---

التنسيق المقترح

نقترح استخدام bech32 لترميز المفاتيح العامة، حيث يكون التنسيق كالتالي:

npub1<سلسلة bech32>

على سبيل المثال:

npub1qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqzv9sx

هذا الشكل يمكن نسخه بسهولة، والتعرف عليه بصريًا، والتعامل معه دون الوقوع في أخطاء النسخ الشائعة للمفاتيح بصيغ hex.

---

السبب

• الشكل hex التقليدي للمفاتيح العامة (مثل 32e...af1) صعب القراءة.
• bech32 أسهل للمشاركة عبر الرسائل أو الوسائط الاجتماعية.
• وجود بادئة npub1 يوضح فورًا أن السلسلة تمثل مفتاحًا عامًا في نظام نُستر.

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ملاحظات إضافية

• نفس المبدأ يُستخدم أيضًا مع أنواع أخرى مثل note (لتمثيل معرفات الأحداث) وnsec (للمفاتيح الخاصة).
• هذه الصيغ لا تغيّر البيانات الأصلية، بل فقط تمثلها بطريقة أسهل وأكثر أمانًا للبشر.

---

الخلاصة

npub هو معيار لتنسيق المفاتيح العامة باستخدام bech32، مما يجعلها أكثر قابلية للقراءة والاستخدام من قبل البشر.
يُوصى بأن تستخدم جميع تطبيقات نُستر هذا النمط عند عرض أو مشاركة المفاتيح العامة.

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

It's been a pretty historic week for the United States as it pertains to geopolitical relations in the Middle East. President Trump and many members of his administration, including AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, traveled across the Middle East making deals with countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and others. Many are speculating that Iran may be included in some behind the scenes deal as well. This trip to the Middle East makes sense considering the fact that China is also vying for favorable relationships with those countries. The Middle East is a power player in the world, and it seems pretty clear that Donald Trump is dead set on ensuring that they choose the United States over China as the world moves towards a more multi-polar reality.

Many are calling the events of this week the Riyadh Accords. There were many deals that were struck in relation to artificial intelligence, defense, energy and direct investments in the United States. A truly prolific power play and demonstration of deal-making ability of Donald Trump, if you ask me. Though I will admit some of the numbers that were thrown out by some of the countries were a bit egregious. We shall see how everything plays out in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this power move by the United States.

While all this was going on, there was something happening back in the United States that many people outside of fringe corners of FinTwit are not talking about, which is the fact that the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yields are back on the rise. Yesterday, they surpassed the levels of mid-April that caused a market panic and are hovering back around levels that have not been seen since right before Donald Trump's inauguration.

I imagine that there isn't as much of an uproar right now because I'm pretty confident the media freakouts we were experiencing in mid-April were driven by the fact that many large hedge funds found themselves off sides of large levered basis trades. I wouldn't be surprised if those funds have decreased their leverage in those trades and bond yields being back to mid-April levels is not affecting those funds as much as they were last month. But the point stands, the 10-year and 30-year yields are significantly elevated with the 30-year approaching 5%. Regardless of the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East, the Treasury has a big problem on its hands. It still has to roll over many trillions worth of debt over over the next few years and doing so at these rates is going to be massively detrimental to fiscal deficits over the next decade. The interest expense on the debt is set to explode in the coming years.

On that note, data from the first quarter of 2025 has been released by the government and despite all the posturing by the Trump administration around DOGE and how tariffs are going to be beneficial for the U.S. economy, deficits are continuing to explode while the interest expense on the debt has definitively surpassed our annual defense budget.

via Charlie Bilello

via Mohamed Al-Erian

To make matters worse, as things are deteriorating on the fiscal side of things, the U.S. consumer is getting crushed by credit. The 90-plus day delinquency rates for credit card and auto loans are screaming higher right now.

via TXMC

One has to wonder how long all this can continue without some sort of liquidity crunch. Even though equities markets have recovered from their post-Liberation Day month long bear market, I would not be surprised if what we're witnessing is a dead cat bounce that can only be continued if the money printers are turned back on. Something's got to give, both on the fiscal side and in the private markets where the Common Man is getting crushed because he's been forced to take on insane amounts of debt to stay afloat after years of elevated levels of inflation. Add on the fact that AI has reached a state of maturity that will enable companies to replace their current meat suit workers with an army of cheap, efficient and fast digital workers and it isn't hard to see that some sort of employment crisis could be on the horizon as well.

Now is not the time to get complacent. While I do believe that the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East are probably in the best interest of the United States as the world, again, moves toward a more multi-polar reality, we are facing problems that one cannot simply wish away. They will need to be confronted. And as we've seen throughout the 21st century, the problems are usually met head-on with a money printer.

I take no pleasure in saying this because it is a bit uncouth to be gleeful to benefit from the strife of others, but it is pretty clear to me that all signs are pointing to bitcoin benefiting massively from everything that is going on. The shift towards a more multi-polar world, the runaway debt situation here in the United States, the increasing deficits, the AI job replacements and the consumer credit crisis that is currently unfolding, All will need to be "solved" by turning on the money printers to levels they've never been pushed to before.

Weird times we're living in.

China's Manufacturing Dominance: Why It Matters for the U.S.

In my recent conversation with Lyn Alden, she highlighted how China has rapidly ascended the manufacturing value chain. As Lyn pointed out, China transformed from making "sneakers and plastic trinkets" to becoming the world's largest auto exporter in just four years. This dramatic shift represents more than economic success—it's a strategic power play. China now dominates solar panel production with greater market control than OPEC has over oil and maintains near-monopoly control of rare earth elements crucial for modern technology.

"China makes like 10 times more steel than the United States does... which is relevant in ship making. It's relevant in all sorts of stuff." - Lyn Alden

Perhaps most concerning, as Lyn emphasized, is China's financial leverage. They hold substantial U.S. assets that could be strategically sold to disrupt U.S. treasury market functioning. This combination of manufacturing dominance, resource control, and financial leverage gives China significant negotiating power in any trade disputes, making our attempts to reshoring manufacturing all the more challenging.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Triffin's dilemma, Bitcoin's role in monetary transition, and the energy requirements for rebuilding America's industrial base.

Headlines of the Day

Financial Times Under Fire Over MicroStrategy Bitcoin Coverage - via X

Trump in Qatar: Historic Boeing Deal Signed - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Johnson Backs Stock Trading Ban; Passage Chances Slim - 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...

Building things of value is satisfying.

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@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Starting January 1, 2026, the United Kingdom will impose some of the world’s most stringent reporting requirements on cryptocurrency firms.

All platforms operating in or serving UK customers-domestic and foreign alike-must collect and disclose extensive personal and transactional data for every user, including individuals, companies, trusts, and charities. 

This regulatory drive marks the UK’s formal adoption of the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), a global initiative designed to bring crypto oversight in line with traditional banking and to curb tax evasion in the rapidly expanding digital asset sector.

What Will Be Reported?

Crypto firms must gather and submit the following for each transaction:

• User’s full legal name, home address, and taxpayer identification number
• Detailed data on every trade or transfer: type of cryptocurrency, amount, and nature of the transaction
• Identifying information for corporate, trust, and charitable clients

The obligation extends to all digital asset activities, including crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat trades, and applies to both UK residents and non-residents using UK-based platforms. The first annual reports covering 2026 activity are due by May 31, 2027.

Enforcement and Penalties

Non-compliance will carry stiff financial penalties, with fines of up to £300 per user account for inaccurate or missing data-a potentially enormous liability for large exchanges. The UK government has urged crypto firms to begin collecting this information immediately to ensure operational readiness.

Regulatory Context and Market Impact

This move is part of a broader UK strategy to position itself as a global fintech hub while clamping down on fraud and illicit finance. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has championed these measures, stating, “Britain is open for business – but closed to fraud, abuse, and instability”. The regulatory expansion comes amid a surge in crypto adoption: the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority reported that 12% of UK adults owned crypto in 2024, up from just 4% in 2021.

Enormous Risks for Consumers: Lessons from the Coinbase Data Breach

While the new framework aims to enhance transparency and protect consumers, it also dramatically increases the volume of sensitive personal data held by crypto firms-raising the stakes for cybersecurity.

The risks are underscored by the recent high-profile breach at Coinbase, one of the world’s largest exchanges.

In May 2025, Coinbase disclosed that cybercriminals, aided by bribed offshore contractors, accessed and exfiltrated customer data including names, addresses, government IDs, and partial bank details. 

The attackers then used this information for sophisticated phishing campaigns, successfully deceiving some customers into surrendering account credentials and funds.

“While private encryption keys remained secure, sufficient customer information was exposed to enable sophisticated phishing attacks by criminals posing as Coinbase personnel.”

Coinbase now faces up to $400 million in compensation costs and has pledged to reimburse affected users, but the incident highlights the systemic vulnerability created when large troves of personal data are centralized-even if passwords and private keys are not directly compromised. The breach also triggered a notable drop in Coinbase’s share price and prompted a $20 million bounty for information leading to the attackers’ capture.

The Bottom Line

The UK’s forthcoming crypto reporting regime represents a landmark in financial regulation, promising greater transparency and tax compliance. However, as the Coinbase episode demonstrates, the aggregation of sensitive user data at scale poses a significant cybersecurity risk.

As regulators push for more oversight, the challenge will be ensuring that consumer protection does not become a double-edged sword-exposing users to new threats even as it seeks to shield them from old ones.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

When Sergei talks about bitcoin, he doesn’t sound like someone chasing profits or followers. He sounds like someone about to build a monastery in the ruins.

While the mainstream world chases headlines and hype, Sergei shows up in local meetups from Sacramento to Cleveland, mentors curious minds, and shares what he knows is true – hoping that, with the right spark, someone will light their own way forward.

We interviewed Sergei to trace his steps: where he started, what keeps him going, and why teaching bitcoin is far more than explaining how to set up a node – it’s about reaching the right minds before the noise consumes them. So we began where most journeys start: at the beginning.

First Steps

• So, where did it all begin for you and what made you stay curious?

I first heard about bitcoin from a friend’s book recommendation, American Kingpin, the book about Silk Road (online drug marketplace). He is still not a true bitcoiner, although I helped him secure private keys with some bitcoin.

I was really busy at the time – focused on my school curriculum, running a 7-bedroom Airbnb, and working for a standardized test prep company. Bitcoin seemed too technical for me to explore, and the pace of my work left no time for it.

After graduating, while pursuing more training, I started playing around with stocks and maximizing my savings. Passive income seemed like the path to early retirement, as per the promise of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). I mostly followed the mainstream news and my mentor’s advice – he liked preferred stocks at the time.

I had some Coinbase IOUs and remember sending bitcoin within the Coinbase ledger to a couple friends. I also recall the 2018 crash; I actually saw the legendary price spike live but couldn’t benefit because my funds were stuck amidst the frenzy. I withdrew from that investment completely for some time. Thankfully, my mentor advised to keep en eye on bitcoin.

Around late 2019, I started DCA-ing cautiously. Additionally, my friend and I were discussing famous billionaires, and how there was no curriculum for becoming a billionaire. So, I typed “billionaires” into my podcast app, and landed on We Study Billionaires podcast.

That’s where I kept hearing Preston Pysh mention bitcoin, before splitting into his own podcast series, Bitcoin Fundamentals. I didn’t understand most of the terminology of stocks, bonds, etc, yet I kept listening and trying to absorb it thru repetition. Today, I realize all that financial talk was mostly noise.

When people ask me for a technical explanation of fiat, I say: it’s all made up, just like the fiat price of bitcoin! Starting in 2020, during the so-called pandemic, I dove deeper. I religiously read Bitcoin Magazine, scrolled thru Bitcoin Twitter, and joined Simply Bitcoin Telegram group back when DarthCoin was an admin.

DarthCoin was my favorite bitcoiner – experienced, knowledgeable, and unapologetic. Watching him shift from rage to kindness, from passion to despair, gave me a glimpse at what a true educator’s journey would look like.

The struggle isn’t about adoption at scale anymore. It’s about reaching the few who are willing to study, take risks, and stay out of fiat traps. The vast majority won’t follow that example – not yet at least… if I start telling others the requirements for true freedom and prosperity, they would certainly say “Hell no!”

• At what point did you start teaching others, and why?

After college, I helped teach at a standardized test preparation company, and mentored some students one-on-one. I even tried working at a kindergarten briefly, but left quickly; Babysitting is not teaching.

What I discovered is that those who will succeed don’t really need my help – they would succeed with or without me, because they already have the inner drive.

Once you realize your people are perishing for lack of knowledge, the only rational thing to do is help raise their level of knowledge and understanding. That’s the Great Work.

I sometimes imagine myself as a political prisoner. If that were to happen, I’d probably start teaching fellow prisoners, doctors, janitors, even guards. In a way we already live in an open-air prison, So what else is there to do but teach, organize, and conspire to dismantle the Matrix?

Building on Bitcoin

• You hosted some in-person meetups in Sacramento. What did you learn from those?

My first presentation was on MultiSig storage with SeedSigner, and submarine swaps through Boltz.exchange.

I realized quickly that I had overestimated the group’s technical background. Even the meetup organizer, a financial advisor, asked, “How is anyone supposed to follow these steps?” I responded that reading was required… He decided that Unchained is an easier way.

At a crypto meetup, I gave a much simpler talk, outlining how bitcoin will save the world, based on a DarthCoin’s guide. Only one person stuck around to ask questions – a man who seemed a little out there, and did not really seem to get the message beyond the strength of cryptographic security of bitcoin.

Again, I overestimated the audience’s readiness. That forced me to rethink my strategy. People are extremely early and reluctant to study.

• Now in Ohio, you hold sessions via the Orange Pill App. What’s changed?

My new motto is: educate the educators. The corollary is: don’t orange-pill stupid normies (as DarthCoin puts it).

I’ve shifted to small, technical sessions in order to raise a few solid guardians of this esoteric knowledge who really get it and can carry it forward.

The youngest attendee at one of my sessions is a newborn baby – he mostly sleeps, but maybe he still absorbs some of the educational vibes.

• How do local groups like Sactown and Cleveland Bitcoiners influence your work?

Every meetup reflects its local culture. Sacramento and Bay Area Bitcoiners, for example, do camping trips – once we camped through a desert storm, shielding our burgers from sand while others went to shoot guns.

Cleveland Bitcoiners are different. They amass large gatherings. They recently threw a 100k party. They do a bit more community outreach. Some are curious about the esoteric topics such as jurisdiction, spirituality, and healthful living.

I have no permanent allegiance to any state, race, or group. I go where I can teach and learn. I anticipate that in my next phase, I’ll meet Bitcoiners so advanced that I’ll have to give up my fiat job and focus full-time on serious projects where real health and wealth are on the line.

Hopefully, I’ll be ready. I believe the universe always challenges you exactly to your limit – no less, no more.

• What do people struggle with the most when it comes to technical education?

The biggest struggle isn’t technical – it’s a lack of deep curiosity. People ask “how” and “what” – how do I set up a node, what should one do with the lightning channels? But very few ask “why?”

Why does on-chain bitcoin not contribute to the circular economy? Why is it essential to run Lightning? Why did humanity fall into mental enslavement in the first place?

I’d rather teach two-year-olds who constantly ask “why” than adults who ask how to flip a profit. What worries me most is that most two-year-olds will grow up asking state-funded AI bots for answers and live according to its recommendations.

• One Cleveland Bitcoiner shows up at gold bug meetups. How valuable is face-to-face education?

I don’t think the older generation is going to reverse the current human condition. Most of them have been under mind control for too long, and they just don’t have the attention span to study and change their ways.

They’re better off stacking gold and helping fund their grandkids’ education. If I were to focus on a demographic, I’d go for teenagers – high school age – because by college, the indoctrination is usually too strong, and they’re chasing fiat mastery.

As for the gold bug meetup? Perhaps one day I will show up with a ukulele to sing some bitcoin-themed songs. Seniors love such entertainment.

• How do you choose what to focus on in your sessions, especially for different types of learners?

I don’t come in with a rigid agenda. I’ve collected a massive library of resources over the years and never stopped reading. My browser tab and folder count are exploding.

At the meetup, people share questions or topics they’re curious about, then I take that home, do my homework, and bring back a session based on those themes. I give them the key takeaways, plus where to dive deeper.

Most people won’t – or can’t – study the way I do, and I expect attendees to put in the work. I suspect that it’s more important to reach those who want to learn but don’t know how, the so-called nescient (not knowing), rather than the ignorant.

There are way too many ignorant bitcoiners, so my mission is to find those who are curious what’s beyond the facade of fake reality and superficial promises.

That naturally means that fewer people show up, and that’s fine. I’m not here for the crowds; I’m here to educate the educators. One bitcoiner who came decided to branch off into self-custody sessions and that’s awesome. Personally, I’m much more focused on Lightning.

I want to see broader adoption of tools like auth, sign-message, NWC, and LSPs. Next month, I’m going deep into eCash solutions, because let’s face it – most newcomers won’t be able to afford their own UTXO or open a lightning channel; additionally, it has to be fun and easy for them to transact sats, otherwise they won’t do it. Additionally, they’ll need to rely on

@ 14206a66:689725cf

We’ve all been there, you’re locked in, desperately fighting with spreadsheets, the dishwasher’s going, and a banana cake is in the oven. Suddenly, all goes quiet, lights are off, oven’s off, PC dead as a doorknob. You check the fusebox, it’s fine. Must be a blackout. Usually, the power comes back on after 30 minutes to an hour, but you’re left standing there wondering what happened. 

We’ve just seen a country-wide scale event like this, which was much more extreme. On 28th April, the Iberian Peninsula experienced a catastrophic breakdown of the grid (see here).

Power was off for several days. I won’t dig into the details of this particular event; doing so is way beyond my pay grade. Suffice it to say it follows the ideas I want to introduce in this article.

We’ll begin with the simplest model I can think of, getting to grips with the issue from first principles. Then I’ll walk through how the basic premise scales up the Australian grid (or at least the east coast, the NEM), before introducing the shadowy supergeniuses in control of it all (AEMO) and one of the most important market mechanisms they use - Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS). 

Part one: First principles

Imagine a way-over-simplified system with a single source of power and a single load. Our source of power is just a battery that produces 10MW of power at an assumed 1000V. The battery has no rotating components. It is connected to a very basic inverter. The inverter is designed to produce 50 Hz AC power; however, let's imagine it has no sophisticated voltage controls or protections (unlike real inverters). All that our inverter comprises is a basic switching and timing circuit.

This specific frequency of 50 Hz is a fundamental design standard for almost all AC electrical equipment. Just like a clock needs to tick at a precise rate to tell accurate time, electrical devices like motors rely on the AC power cycling exactly 50 times per second. If the frequency deviates too much, it can cause motors to speed up or slow down incorrectly, or sensitive electronics to malfunction. Our simple inverter, despite its limitations, is designed to produce 50 Hz because that's what the heater and any other AC device expect.

Our load is a large but mechanically simple industrial heater. It has a large coil that produces heat by running a current through it. Importantly, the heater has a dial to adjust temperature (which can change its power consumption). The heater is currently set to draw 10MW of power.

That’s the start, with a simplified system in equilibrium, all is well. The heater is producing heat, and you can make up your own story about what the heat is used for. The important point is that the voltage, current, and frequency are all stable.

Next, the foreman operating the heater turns the dial up to increase the heat output. Assume the heater now wants to draw 20MW of power. We’re simplifying, so also assume that in this instant, the voltage remains at 1000V.

To draw this much power, the heater now has to draw more current (because power = voltage x current, it’s the rules). Since we assumed the voltage remains at 1000V, there is an instantaneous demand for more power from the battery than it was previously supplying.

The battery now attempts to supply this current, which means the current must flow through the battery’s components, the inverter’s components, and the wire connecting the battery to the heater. All of these physical components have resistance. This means the actual voltage the heater receives will be lower than 1000V.

Now that the heater is receiving voltage lower than 1000V, things start to go wrong. The power consumed by the heater is proportional to the square of the voltage across it (rules are rules), so power = voltage^2 / resistance. Following this rule, since the voltage has decreased, then that means the actual power the heater draws will be less than the 20MW desired. For example, it might only draw 15MW, but it depends on the resistances in all the components, which we haven’t set.

Things just get uglier. The battery and inverter are operating under extreme stress, trying to deliver the higher current demanded, but at reduced voltage. Inside the inverter and the battery, the components start getting hot (rules, again). Since we assumed the battery and inverter are super simple, the inverter can't adjust its power output based on actual grid conditions (like a sophisticated one would); it can only fail. Then the heater goes out, and the foreman gets mad; it’s just a bad day all around. 

The fix: add a spinny thing.

Reimagine the situation just as before, but now, instead of a battery, imagine the source of power is a contemporary synchronous generator system. Say it’s a hydro plant, where the spinning turbine is directly connected to the grid. This generator, unlike the battery-inverter, inherently uses its large rotating mass to move a metal rod up and down inside a magnetic coil and produces AC power. Importantly, it synchronises with our system’s required 50 Hz rhythm.

In this case, the story proceeds as before. When the foreman turns the heater dial up the heater wants to draw 20MW. In this case, the increased current flows through the impedance of the generator’s internal components and the wire. Just as before, this causes an immediate, rapid voltage drop at the heater’s terminals. In that instant, the heater will not get its desired 20MW because the voltage is too low.

Since the generator’s power output is less than the load demand, the lack of energy causes the rotating mass of the generator to decelerate (energy is conserved), and the frequency of the AC power in the system drops below 50 HZ. Because the generator’s turbine is a large mass, it has substantial inertia (pesky rules again), so the drop in frequency happens much more slowly than in our first story, and there is no catastrophic failure of the system. Instea,d this inertia buys time for the system to react.

The reaction comes from the manager of the generator. In the real world, this is a piece of software called a governor, but it’s useful to imagine it’s a person. The manager sees the drop in frequency and presses some buttons to let more water flow to the turbine, the frequency climbs back to 50 HZ and the power output of the generator increases.

Then the heater gets its required 20MW of power at 1000V and 50Hz, and the foreman is happy, everyone’s happy, it’s just a good time.

Frequency, in this simple system, indicates power imbalances and triggers the manager of the generator to respond. Equally, we could have assumed the foreman can be notified that he shouldn’t increase the heater’s dial - we can manage the imbalance either on the supply (generator) or demand (heater) side, or a mix of both. 

This hints at a crucial question: how the hell do we coordinate this? Even with just a single load and a single generator, what sort of contracts would the foreman and generator manager need to keep everything running?

Part deux: AEMO, the not-so-invisible hand coordinating the market

Above is a story of a system with one load and one generator, without protections for the management of voltage or frequency. I walked through how this simple system could suffer a catastrophic breakdown as a result of the load increasing. Followed by a slight added complexity, which solves the issue. 

Everything that applies in the simplified model also applies in the real world; the basic principles scale up and create complex incentives, coordination, and knowledge problems. 

In my simple story, there was a manager in charge of the generator and a foreman in charge of the heater. In the much more complex National Electricity Market (NEM), there’s a third main actor: Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO, because it operates the energy market, perfect naming convention). Among a host of competing priorities, AEMO has one role we’re particularly interested in: making sure we have a good time, i.e making sure the grid is stable. How it does so is the economics bit.

The NEM covers a huge geographic area (all the way up the East Coast from South Australia up to North Port Douglas). Within the vast area it covers are around 10 million customer connections (source). AEMO provides an interactive map that shows you how many substations there are - lots! 

here's a map from AEMO

With all those connections and interconnections, the only constant is change. Strong winds can suddenly break connections, generators can trip for a host of reasons, and sometimes physics just says “no”.

On the flip side, sometimes large loads connect unpredictably and want instant power to be available. The physics says supply must equal demand or things get bad, so how does AEMO make sure supply equals demand?

In short, dispatch instructions. AEMO coordinates the supply-side market participants using signals to their control rooms. The economics of it could be summed up as: AEMO is a visible hand trying to approximate the role of Smith’s invisible hand in the market*.

Though not the focus of my current article, dispatch can be (over)simplified as follows: Every five minutes, generators send an offer to AEMO containing a price-quantity pair for power output. AEMO sorts the offer from lowest price to highest and matches supply to forecasted demand, starting from the lowest offer to create a dispatch interval/dispatch window, within system constraints. Importantly, generators all receive the highest marginal price (spot price) of all offers within the dispatch interval. Then, all generators included in the dispatch interval receive revenue equal to their power dispatched times the spot price.

So, assuming the system is in balance. This plays out, and everyone’s happy. But that’s not guaranteed in such a complex interconnected system like the NEM. So, what happens if, after offers are placed and power is scheduled, a generator suddenly trips off (cutting supply) or a large load connects unexpectedly (rapidly ramping up demand)?

AEMO needs some sort of backup power supply or backup demand as a contingency for when imbalances happen. One of such contingencies is what we call this service provision Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS). So named because AEMO uses system frequency to understand where, when, and how much extra supply or demand (load) is required to return the system to the normal stable operation. 

But AEMO doesn’t own any generators, batteries, or large loads itself. So, how does it get them? Someone came up with the idea that you can sell backup supply or demand (load) to AEMO, for a fee. This idea implies that AEMO has to find the right incentives to bring backup supply or backup demand (load) online in a flash.

There’s a market for that! 

Actually, there are eight markets, but we’re simplifying.

To procure FCAS, AEMO runs a similar auction process to the market for power. Participants submit bids to AEMO every five minutes, containing a service type and availability across up to 10 price bands. The service type is one of: increase/decrease frequency in one of the three time intervals.

AEMO then considers all bids and finds the least-cost solution that meets all system requirements, matching the supply of FCAS to the demand for FCAS. Just like in the market for power, AEMO orders the FCAS bids into a “merit order” based on price for each service type (lowest price to highest price). It then decides which bids it will accept and pays all accepted bids the highest marginal price of all accepted bids. This creates a price signal for FCAS in the market.

The design has obvious intentions: FCAS suppliers win big if they can be super low cost while their competitors are high cost. 

Just like in the market for power, once bids are accepted, AEMO sends a signal to the control panels of the FCAS participants. 

You can see how , by following this process, AEMO acts to approximate the emergent order (or invisible hand) of a market by creating price signals for both power supply as well as FCAS. Then, physically matching those price signals with the actual power flows using a (pretty amazing, honestly) control scheme. 

The idea that AEMO is only approximating the invisible hand is important; I’ll explore that more deeply in future articles.

That’s the physics and market mechanisms in a nutshell. But who sells FCAS to AEMO, and what about the mullah, dollars, buckerinos, fat stacks?

Part tres: How big is the market

Firstly, who can participate in the FCAS market? As far as I understand, it’s quite open; if you invent a device that meets the standards and go through the application process, then you can participate. AEMO’s concern is system stability, so from their POV, any particular device is fair game as long as you meet the engineering standards. 

One common example is certain electricity retailers who use their customers’ hot water cylinders as a demand response. By sending an electrical signal to your hot water cylinder, the company can turn it off for a short period, reducing demand (load). There’s a complex “annoyance cost” paid by the consumer of their hot water cylinder being turned off, but then that’s balanced against potentially lower bills as the electricity retailer can substitute FCAS revenue. 

Another example is grid-scale batteries; these can build or release charge on a whim. For batteries, the incentives are about whether their charge is worth more in the spot market or in the supply response FCAS market. If the battery is connected to a facility like a solar plant, then the incentives get more complex; is it worth selling power instantly or building charge in the battery for potential spot market or FCAS later? Add in a futures market and you just get more complexity.

A final, still emerging, example is bitcoin miners, these are basically just computers. These machines can be powered up or down relatively quickly and easily with little ill physical effects, and no ill effects to the Bitcoin network or protocol. When they are powered up, they earn a stream of income for the owners in the form of bitcoin.

This creates an interesting dynamic when bitcoin miners participate in the FCAS market; their FCAS bid, all else equal, should be at least the value of the opportunity cost of not mining bitcoin.

A completely unanswered question is what happens if bitcoin mining becomes a large proportion of FCAS? Consider a case where the FCAS from bitcoin miners drops out of the market because bitcoin fees spike and miners find it more profitable to mine rather than provide FCAS.

Alright, but the money! Surely FCAS is lucrative?

AEMO publishes data on FCAS. The most readily understandable data is the payment data. This is, as the name suggests, how much AEMO paid to FCAS participants over the eight service types (and in each State/Territory in the NEM) each month. This is the raw revenue of FCAS market participants. One way to think of it is as the cost of stability. 

In total, FCAS payments have been about $39 million this year (up to week 20, which ended May 18). 

AEMO has also provided total revenue for FCAS from batteries in the NEM, specifically in its Quarterly Energy Dynamics - Q1 2025, covering 1 January to 31 March 2025 report. This data suggests that batteries in the NEM have earned $69 million in 2024, which is 42.9 percent of all FCAS costs. This is remarkable to me, because grid-scale batteries are relatively new to the market as compared to other generation and storage technologies. 

The cause lies in the fact that batteries can* *have a low marginal cost to charge and discharge, so the fact that they captured such market share this fast highlights the idea that he who produces FCAS cheapest wins.

This data release also contains aggregate FCAS costs for all states. The data tells us that in 2024, total FCAS costs were $161 million.

The fact that there is such a healthy pot up for grabs speaks to the fragility of our grid, but also to the resilience; it's a strange duality.

With continued investment in solar generation, because such systems have little to no inertia, we could see increased frequency excursions (technical term for being out of range). Engineers are busy solving this using inverters, which simulate inertia. These are genius, but such innovations take time (and standards) to be adopted.

Then there’s the question of critical infrastructure risk - how tolerant can we be of instability when datacenters mining Bitcoin and running AI models are on the line

At the risk of repeating myself, the whole construction is very much a visible hand trying to approximate what Adam Smith’s invisible hand might do. 

Fin

Full disclosure, I do use AI (Gemini specifically) to help me research, learn, and write my articles, but I go over everything multiple times to make it my own voice and reflect my own ideas.

*Adam Smith described the idea of an invisible hand, which directs the market, coordinating people's desires, as a metaphor to explain how people in a market somehow end up serving each other's best interests even without directly communicating.

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

Today some clients and I were talking and they asked me about my recent seminar where I attended the “Unleash The Power Within” seminar with Tony Robbins. I explained that the firewalk I performed was not the highlight of the seminar, It was all the junk I got rid of mentally. We talked some more and then someone said something a little derogatory about Scientology.

I said, “wait a second, Scientology changed my life!”

It’s true. Some of the things I learned through Dianetics and Scientology were catalysts in me changing my entire life around.

It started one evening in Coral Gables, FL when I was walking down the street going to meet someone for dinner. I was stopped by a lady holding a clipboard outside of a 50’s-looking building.

“Would you like to take personality test?”

I asked: “What’s that?”

She explained and since I’m always early to things, I had plenty of time to kill. I said: “Sure! let’s do it!”

I took the test and the results seemed spot on. Then they asked if I would like to learn more about the mind , I could sign up for a course for a modest amount and I was genuinely curious about the whole deal and I agreed.

The Class I came back like a week later to start the class. I’m remembering that building had a distinct smell. It wasn’t bad. I can’t really describe it, but if I ever smell something similar, I’d recognize it instantly.

I walked in and they took me to a big room, a classroom with lots of tables and chairs. Every table had a small box with objects in it. There were people reading, there were people in groups studying, lots of chatter.

It seemed exciting!

I don’t remember if it was my first lesson or not, but we had to do TR’s (Training Routines) and I was asked to sit across from some guy and just stare at him. Look him in the eyes and not laugh, not blink excessively, just keep your composure.

Bah! Stupid! But I can do this!

We started the exercise and it seemed silly at first, but then my heart started racing and started freaking out. It felt like I was in a tunnel, but somehow his eyes were attacking me.

Then all of a sudden I’m hovering 8 feet above myself and I’m looking at the situation from above.

Next thing I know, I’m back in my body and the exercise is over.

The teacher, or facilitator came by to ask me how everything went. I started to tell her exactly what happened and she was writing very matter-of-fact-ly.

“And then I left my body!,” I emphasized.

“So you exteriorized?” She asked.

“I guess.”, I mumbled.

What really made me curious is these people are just nonchalantly just writing down stuff like it’s no big deal.

They got me. I was hooked.

Auditing

I started doing some courses whenever I had some free time: maybe once or twice a week. I learned that there is something that they call the “reactive mind” and that past traumas can affect someone in the present time.

We did this exercise that when my “Auditor” would snap her fingers, I would repeat the first word that popped into my mind, until we got a string of words. I would the repeat this string of words until they “lost their charge” and had no effect.

During one of these sessions, I

felt like I was choking.

No, not choking !

I could taste salt water!

I was drowning!

This shook me up because I had no recollection of almost drowning like that.

I asked my mother if I ever almost drowned and I was surprised by her answer.

She said; “Yes. We were at the beach-you were a baby and in the water with your father. A wave got both of you and your dad had to throw you towards me like a football, because he couldn’t fight the riptide.”

Wow.

Study Tech

before you start the “heavy” course, you must learn how to study. So they have designed a way to teach people “How.”

I thought, “wow, no one ever really taught me how to study.”

In high school, I kind of just skated by, with no need to ever read or do much. I didn’t make valedictorian, but I was discovering my social life and that was top priority for me at the time.

They showed me if you read something and can’t remember what you just read, t means you read past a misunderstood word. You never skip a word you don’t understand. There are always dictionaries at every study table.

If you get woozy and want to bail on the material being studied, then you have skipped a gradient, so you should go back to a point you understand and work back up.

If you get a headache while, studying, that means you have a “lack of mass” and the topic is abstract and you need to make it more physical to be able to understand it.

That is why they had those baskets with modeling clay and stuff in it, so you could model out concepts.

I still use this knowledge.

Basic Study Manual

The Purification Program

At some point one of the coaches pointed out that if I wanted to make quicker progress, I should do The Purification Program. The Program is designed to get rid of environmental toxins and medications and other materials that are stuck in your physical body and is interfering with your progress “up the bridge”

So of course, I am fascinated by this idea and sign up for the course, This time, it;s a lot of books and it’s going to cost be some serious cash. I didn’t have that kind of money, because I was scraping by on an assistant manager at Wendy’s salary.

No worries, take out a new credit card to pay for it. And one of the members drove out to my work to get the signature (and $$) to pay for the course. I think It was the end of the month and they got a bonus if I signed up before then.

The Program

The program basically consists of sitting in a sauna for 5 hours a day, Taking supplements: cal-mag, megadoses of niacin, and oils

It was perfectly organized: we were taken to a different part of the building to an area with a eucalyptus smell. We were shown the sauna-it was a large sauna , It could hold like 10 people.

We were given our supplements and then told to jog for few blocks around the building and then come into the sauna.

By the time you are done with the run, the niacin has kicked in and given you a nice “flush” skin is red and blood vessels have dilated. Now you’re ready for the sauna.

Everything done here is monitored. The guy supervising us was a Medical Doctor and he recorded weight going in and was always available supervising and answering any questions.

Five hours a day in a sauna is a LONG time- especially with someone like me who is not crazy about sweating constantly.

You were free to come in and out to prevent from getting overheated and get in the shower to cool off.

I brought reading material, I was doing this!

Reactions

X Ray Radiation

For the first couple of days, nothing significant happened except my skin started getting better.

One day as I am leaving the sauna to cool off, I take a look in the mirror and it looks like I’d been in a fight. Both my eyes had black rings like bruises around them.

I asked the attendant what this was and he looked at them and asked me if I had been exposed to many x-rays. I said that yes, I had been a sick kid and had tons of diagnostic procedures and medicines and stuff.

He said : “Ok, get back in there! You’re just running out x-ray radiation”

Came back out about 20 minutes later and the rings were gone.

Medications

I’m sitting in the sauna and I start getting sleepy. More like “anesthesia count down to ten sleepy”

Again, I was concerned, so I asked attendant what the deal was and he said I was likely detoxing from medicines and drugs I’d taken.

Went back in until it cleared up.

Chlorine

One day there were about 5 of us in the sauna and all of a sudden a strong smell of chlorine started. It keeps getting worse until it was so bad it was burning our eyes. We all exited the sauna thinking there was some sort of chlorine spill or something like that.

The attendant asked: “Has any of you worked as a pool maintenance tech?”

We looked around and one guy raised his hand.

The attendant said “Ok! Everyone dismissed for today except for you!” as he pointed to the Pool Tech guy. “Get back in there!”

I was doing this in the mornings when I had the evening shifts at the restaurant and when I worked days, Id try to make it to the sauna in the evenings.

After about 3 weeks, everything started to taper off and I was done.

I was feeling great and there was something different about everything, I felt like I was more awake and aware. And my skin and complexion were fabulous!

Clear Body, Clear Mind

The Sea Org

At some point, the people in charge routed me to talk to someone one in the Sea Org.

It was a small glass office, like the one you are led into when you are buying a car. I was greeted by a man in an impressive looking uniform like Captain Steubing from the “Love Boat”.

He said they had been watching me and my progress and were impressed with my IQ score. He said I stood out among the other people and compared me to this woman we could see through the glass.

He basically ripped her to shreds in front of me, telling me how her life was in chaos and how she had created all of her chaos and that somehow I was different from her.

They basically offered me a job.

One catch:

I had to sign a contract for a “billion years” and I couldn’t be in debt.

Seeing I was already in debt from some of the previous courses, I didn’t qualify. Also a billion years seemed a bit long.

I thanked him and said I would consider it- I was pretty sure it was a solid no, but I didn’t want to tell him that. I was probably intimidated by the uniform.

Healing with Vitamins

This was not an official class or anything, but during my time there, I saw whenever someone was having issues with their body, they would consult with one of the counselors and they would look into a little book: “Earl Mindell’s Vitamin Bible” or see a chiropractor down the road who was apparently a Scientologist.

I used what little I learned and suggested home remedies to my Wendy’s employees and their families and developed a little side gig offering supplements to anyone willing to listen.

The Bottom Line

I know there is a lot of negative press and negativity in general about Scientology, but be clear about this: Scientology changed my life!

I’m not an active Scientologist, and don’t feel like I want to go back. But it definitely shaped me into the person that I am today.

If there is bias against the church in this article, it’s just the way that it’s run. Running an organization like an MLM encourages bad behavior.

I have moved countless times since those days, and the first piece of forwarded mail is usually from a Scientology Org.

I’m not sure I would have taken the steps to make a drastic change and decide to attend chiropractic school had it not been for my brief time in Scientology,

Love,

-Dan

@ d360efec:14907b5f

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

What is KYC/AML?

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

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

Lists of Bitcoiners

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Wall Street is warming up to Bitcoin and getting closer and closer to it.

Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the oldest and most respected investment banks on Wall Street, has launched a $2 billion bitcoin-backed lending program.

They’ve reportedly already done their first deals, lending to two big digital asset companies: FalconX and Maple Finance.

This is a big step in connecting traditional finance to the fast-moving world of Bitcoin.

Cantor’s new service allows big investors, hedge funds and asset managers, to borrow money using bitcoin as collateral.

This is a game changer for institutions that hold bitcoin, as they can now access liquidity without having to sell their assets.

“Institutions holding bitcoin are looking to broaden their access to diverse funding sources,” said Christian Wall, co-CEO and global head of fixed income at Cantor Fitzgerald.

“And we are excited to support their liquidity needs to help them drive long term growth and success.”

The loans are not speculative or unsecured.

They are structured like traditional finance deals, backed by the borrower’s bitcoin. This reduces the risk for Cantor while giving bitcoin-holding companies new ways to grow and operate.

The first recipients of Cantor’s lending program are FalconX, a digital asset brokerage, and Maple Finance, a blockchain-based lending platform.

FalconX confirmed they secured a credit facility of over $100 million. Maple Finance also received the first tranche of their loan from Cantor.

This comes at a time when the bitcoin lending space is recovering after a tough period. Several big firms went under in 2022 and investor confidence was shaken.

Now with traditional finance on board, bitcoin-backed lending has returned. According to Galaxy Research the total size of the digital asset lending market grew to $36.5 billion in Q4 2024.

Cantor’s move into bitcoin-backed lending isn’t new. They announced their plans in July 2024 and have been building their presence in the Bitcoin space since then.

Earlier this year, they partnered with Tether, SoftBank and Bitfinex to launch Twenty One Capital, a $3.6 billion fund to buy over 42,000 bitcoin.

In May 2025 Cantor Equity Partners merged with Twenty One Capital and bought nearly $459 million worth of bitcoin.

They also own around $1.9 billion in shares of Strategy, a company that holds a lot of bitcoin. Clearly Cantor believes in bitcoin as a long-term asset.

Cantor is also a big player in the stablecoin space.

They manage U.S. Treasury reserves for Tether, the company behind the $142 billion USDT stablecoin. This adds another layer of trust and credibility to Cantor’s digital asset involvement.

To secure the bitcoin used as collateral, Cantor has partnered with digital asset custodians Anchorage Digital and Copper.co.

These companies are known for their robust security and institutional-grade infrastructure. Cantor hasn’t disclosed loan terms or interest rates but confirmed the lending will follow current regulations.

This also shows how traditional financial players are embracing DeFi.

Maple Finance for example allows undercollateralized lending using blockchain. By backing companies like Maple, Cantor is innovating while still having control and compliance.

For years, bitcoin-backed loans were only available through digital-asset-native companies like Genesis, BlockFi, and Ledn.

These loans were mostly for smaller clients and retail investors. But with Cantor’s entry, the scale and professionalism of bitcoin lending are expanding.

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

I did my chiropractic studies at Life University in Georgia. When I picked schools, I had no idea about chiropractic philosophies or the politics in chiropractic.

I picked Life for two reasons: It was the closest to home (Miami at the time), and it was the first one to get back to me and tell me I was accepted.

My chiropractor in Miami wanted me to attend Palmer College, but that was in Iowa, and it sounded remote and cold. So, hell no.

I was so excited to start my new life that I crammed a U-Haul with all my junk and headed to Marietta.

Once classes started, someone suggested I join clubs to make friends.

I asked around, and there was this club having an upcoming party. It was Spizz Club. Spizz was short for Spizzerinctum, which meant “chiropractic enthusiasm.”

Well, I had a lot of that—plus, there were some attractive girls in that club.

I showed up at the party, which was at a student’s apartment, and got greeted with a long, uncomfortable hug. Do you remember the old cartoon of Pepe Le Pew and the cat? Well, I was the cat.

I grabbed a beer and started mingling. It was one uncomfortably long hug after another. Some made moaning sounds!

Fucking weirdos.

I got invited to a philosophy class while I was at the party. My social calendar wasn’t exactly overflowing, so I went.

Wow! These people were explaining concepts I’d known deep down my entire life, but I was hearing them out loud for the first time.

Deciding to move 700 miles away and change careers was a rash and selfish decision because I was running away.

Running from:

Failure

A failed marriage

Failure at real estate

Failure at finding something I was good at

Failure at being happy

Failure as a student, ten years after high school with no degree.

Here I am, listening to the speakers, and I realized this was different.

Maybe this was MY thing.

Maybe I could be a chiropractor.

Maybe I could help people.

Maybe I could be proud of myself.

Maybe someone could be proud of me.

That night changed me. The weirdos seemed less weird. I made friends, I found my footing.

Chiropractic college was tough, much tougher than I expected. I had always kind of “skated by,” but now I had to put in hard work because I hadn’t been in school full-time for ten years.

I also had never lived the college life, and apparently I was partying too much. We hit the bars to blow off steam after midterms and finals—turns out, there were a lot midterms and finals.

I almost flunked out one quarter, but there was a lot going on. My 85-year-old dad came to visit and was going to stay with me for a bit, then he passed away suddenly.

I had a lot of guilt from that, thinking that I could have done something different and could have stayed around a little longer. That guilt would resurface years later in a Craniosacral therapy session.

I couldn’t fail at this. This was too important. I went to a Hypnotherapist to see if maybe I could get “programmed” to not flunk out. Apparently, it worked.

Funny thing, I worked hard and time passed. We did it. We graduated and made it through.

Look, those brutal study sessions weren’t easy, and almost flunking out scared the hell out of me. I am thankful that Chiropractic passion stuck with me. That Spizz still gets me through some days.

Live Long and Prosper,

-Danny

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 81022b27:2b8d0644

How the birth of my grandson is making me re-think my own future

I just became a grandfather. My youngest daughter had a baby boy.

I’m thrilled.

And

I’m scared.

Babies are pure potential Infinite possibilities, all sorts of different paths they could take.

They haven’t drank the Kool-Aid, or in fact any Kool-Aid at all, lol

Will he be gregarious and outgoing?

Will he be shy and introverted?

Will he want to be an artist?

An engineer?

Will he be brave or scared?

Will he be like his grandfather, trying to overcompensate in his later life for being afraid of nearly everything in the early part of his life?

I am thrilled. All the grandparents that I have ever met said to me:

Just wait until you have grandkids, its different

And yes, it is different.

I’m not so worried about the how to take care of the baby-all I have to do is love him.

The other day, I was just holding him and was able to stay in “the love state” for the longest time ever.

(The love state is the goal of a meditation that I do-The goal is to stay “in love” feeling for as long as you can.)

I was able to get to this place so easily with him!

He has also taught me to slow down even more. He is not in a hurry to do anything. His job is to eat, poop and grow.

I feel like I get to savor the time I get with him even more than with my own kids.

I’m Scared His mom has had her share of issues.

She is now a single mom trying to navigate all the responsibilities of being a parent.

I didn’t think she was ready, but here we are.

She doesn’t have her mom to help guide her, but I thank god that she has Christi-my girlfriend. She has been such an incredible support for both Audrey and me.

I’m scared mostly because now my own future is uncertain.

I had my future planned out like where i wanted to retire-the things I wanted to do and now this little guy has me re-thinking all my plans about the future.

Here’s to uncertainty!!

Live Long and Prosper 🖖,

-Dan

Links | The Natural Life | The Intuitive Chiropractor