By EZ in Weekly Digest — Aug 4, 2024

Block 855363: Important News of the Week

News. Updates. Research. Stats. Everything Important You Need to Know.

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News

The BITCOIN Act of 2024. Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide (BITCOIN) Act' in the Senate. The legislation aims to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, designed to manage the Federal Government's Bitcoin holdings transparently while safeguarding the private property rights of individuals and organizations.

Update your node. The Bitcoin Core project has announced two new security advisories regarding vulnerabilities identified in Bitcoin Core v0.21.0 and earlier versions. A comprehensive breakdown of these issues is available here.

"We will follow up later in August to publicly disclose vulnerabilities fixed in version v23.0. And then in September to disclose those fixed in version v24.0, and so on until we run out of unmaintained versions to disclose vulnerabilities for. The announced policy will then start to be observed for new versions," said Niklas Goegge.

The Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act. CoinCenter's Jerry Brito said that the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act has been reintroduced in the Senate with bipartisan support. The act aims to establish an exemption similar to that for foreign currency, excluding low-value, everyday Bitcoin transactions from capital gains tax.
The UW Bitcoin Research Institute. The University of Wyoming has launched , the first academic institute focused on Bitcoin studies.
Hong Kong likes the coin. The city's legislator Johnny Ng is exploring the feasibility of incorporating Bitcoin into the city's financial reserves.
The State of Michigan Retirement System likes the coin, too. Filings show it owned $6.6 million of the ARK Bitcoin ETF as of June 30.
The "Financial Technology Protection Act of 2023" passed. The U.S. House has passed the "Financial Technology Protection Act of 2023," establishing an "Independent Financial Technology Working Group to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing." The group will "make legislative proposals to prevent the evasion of sanctions and the facilitation of financial crime through digital assets and related emerging technologies," reported The Rage.
Russia attempts Bitcoin regulation. The Russian State Duma has passed two bitcoin-related laws. 1. The first law legalizes cryptocurrency mining in Russia starting November 1, 2024, permitting registered legal entities and individual entrepreneurs to mine, while unregistered individuals can only operate within energy consumption limits. The second law, effective September 1, 2024, establishes an experimental regime granting the Bank of Russia the authority to permit authorized companies to conduct cross-border settlements and digital currency trading.
Tether go up. Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has released its Q2 2024 attestation report. The firm reported a net operating profit of $1.3 billion and has $5.33 billion in excess reserves. The company also claims to hold ~80,000 BTC. According to CEO Paolo Ardoino, this positions Tether as the 18th largest entity in terms of U.S. debt ownership.

MicroStrategy now holds 226,500 BTC. The corporation announced that since the beginning of the second quarter, it has acquired 12,222 BTC for $805.2 million. As of July 31, MicroStrategy’s total bitcoin holdings of 226,500 cost $8.3 billion, or $36,821 per coin. The firm is also filing paperwork to issue new equity to raise up to $2 billion.
"Virtual Assets Increasingly Used By Terrorist Groups." The latest report from The Financial Action Task Force claims to shed light on 'Virtual Assets' and 'Virtual Asset Service Providers,' asserting that "Virtual Assets are increasingly used by terrorist groups." Yet, this bombshell comes devoid of proper citations or verifiable data, leaving those who are following the surveillance narratives to question its credibility, reports The Rage.
EU has clarified the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) rules. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a report advising firms on how to engage with overseas companies to ensure MiCA compliance. The guidance states that unauthorized firms cannot provide services to EU clients unless those clients reach out first.
Brink 🤝 Marco De Leon. Bitcoin development non-profit Brink announced that developer Marco De Leon has joined Brink to contribute to Bitcoin Core’s fuzz testing initiatives under the mentorship of Niklas Gögge. Together they will build out Bitcoin Core’s fuzz testing infrastructure.
Fedi 🤝 Save the Children. Global humanitarian organization Save the Children and Fedi, Inc., a developer building on top of the Fedimint protocol, have announced a partnership aimed at transforming cash and voucher assistance (CVA) delivery to communities most affected by inequality. This initiative will launch in the Philippines, providing select communities with Bitcoin as part of community cash assistance through the Fedi mobile app.

Metaplanet🤝Hoseki. Japanese public company Metaplanet has formed a strategic partnership with Hoseki, a global Bitcoin verification solutions provider, to enable users to verify the company’s Bitcoin holdings.
Riot 🍽️ Bitfarms. Texas-based bitcoin miner Riot has raised its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9% as part of its hostile takeover attempt, acquiring $19.3 million in shares. This move follows Riot's success on July 25 in terminating Bitfarms' initial "poison pill" strategy, leading Bitfarms to implement a new strategy that increases the equity dilution threshold from 15% to 20%.
CleanSpark has acquired two 75-megawatt mining sites in Cheyenne, Wyoming, formerly operated by MineOne, for $18.75 million. This acquisition comes after the Biden administration halted MineOne's operations due to national security concerns regarding Chinese ownership near a U.S. Air Force base, reports The Miner Mag.
Argo Blockchain, a London-listed Bitcoin miner, announced it raised £6.5 million (approximately $8.355 million) through a stock offering. The proceeds will be used for working capital, general corporate purposes, and debt repayment.
Greenidge Generation to hodl self-mined bitcoin. New York-headquartered power generator and bitcoin miner said it will retain self-mined bitcoin in order to increase its bitcoin holdings. The company has also entered into a $20 million common stock purchase agreement.
Lava, a Bitcoin self-custody and spending startup has announced a Seed Round, although the amounts have not been disclosed.

It's not getting safer out there. Four men have been arrested after a 29-year-old Moroccan man was kidnapped, forced to transfer 3 bitcoin (~$200k), and then strangled to death in Kyiv, Ukraine, the city's police reported. Meanwhile, the Thai police has arrested a gang of five Russian men accused of abducting and assaulting a Belarusian couple in Phuket, Thailand, and forcing them to transfer approximately $900k worth of cryptocurrency before releasing them.
Gemini has warned its users that an unauthorized actor breached its vendor's systems between June 3 and June 7, 2024 and accessed Gemini's customers' banking information, including their full name, bank account number, and routing number. The incident affects ~15k individuals.
Some Blockstream customers are reportedly targeted by a new phishing email campaign.

Pay-to-snitch surveillance firm Arkham Intelligence, which aims to "deanonymize the blockchain," is reportedly obscuring the sales of its own ARKM shitcoin.
TBD has announced the TBD Hackathon, set to take place at the Africa ₿itcoin Conference in December. You can sign up here.
Bitcoin Magazine revealed that the next edition of the Bitcoin Conference 2025 will be held in Las Vegas from May 27 to May 29, 2025.

Updates and releases

The Mempool Accelerator has officially entered open beta, according to The Mempool Open Source Project. Initial pool partners include Foundry USA Pool, MARA Pool, SBICrypto, SpiderPool, and Ocean Pool, collectively representing around 40% of the network's hashrate, reports The Miner Mag.
Casa now allows users to secure their vaults with Yubikeys.
Ledger unveiled Ledger Flex signing device, which comes with a secure E Ink touchscreen, Secure Element Chip and Ledger’s proprietary OS.

tri-recap-2 — Ledger Flex. Source: Ledger.

Breez SDK Liquid v0.2.0 now allows users to buy Bitcoin via Moonpay, improves Lightning receive performance, adds the ability to set claim fees in chain swaps and custom invoice descriptions, along with a breaking change related to the wallet directory structure.
Satonomics v0.3.0, a FOSS Bitcoin-only self-hostable alternative to Glassnode, is out with improved performance, new datasets like rations and block metadata, self-hosting enhancements, and several UI/UX upgrades.
Blockstream Green mobile v4.0.31 is now live on both Android and iOS. It includes updated Breez SDK, fixes for Lightning accounts, improved channel closure UX, and new swap notifications to reduce closures.
Blockstream Green Development Kit (GDK) v0.72.0 pre-release has been tagged, featuring various new functionalities and changes.
- GDK v0.72.2 is a minor release of the Blockstream Green Development Kit, featuring a couple of smaller fixes.
AMBOSS, a lightning data analytics company, has announced the closed beta of MiBanco, an open-source, self-custodial Bitcoin finance app designed for easy onboarding of new users. The first 100 testers can sign up using the code "bitcoin".
Acropolis is building the first comprehensive treasury solution, focusing on custody, advisory, and ancillary services.
The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute has unveiled its newly redesigned website.

BitBanana v0.8.4, a native Android app for Lightning node operators, now supports watchtowers and inbound fee control for LND nodes.
Alby Hub v1.4.0 enhances mobile-friendliness and integrates fixes and improvements for existing features.
- Alby Hub v1.3.4 patches minor issues around editing app permissions and opening channels.
Darthcoin introduced The Telegram Bot Channel Recommender for Lightning node runners.
lnp2pbot v0.10.9 is the latest version of the peer-to-peer trading Lightning network Telegram bot.
Lightning Terminal v0.13.3-alpha updates the integrated Taproot-assets (v0.4.1-alpha) and Loop (v0.28.6-beta) versions.
Blitz Wallet v0.2.4-beta simplifies new user account creation.
TwelveCash 1.10-beta now let's its users choose their own username via a paid option.
Torq v2.0.3, an advanced Lightning node management software for operating large routing nodes, has been released. It comes with support for the latest LND and CLN versions, new and improved workflows, and more.
- Torq v2.0.4 is a minor bug fix release that restores the functionality of the emergency recovery link on the dashboard.
SideSwap v1.6.0, a desktop and mobile app for trading assets on the Liquid Network, adds Bluetooth support for Jade devices and includes bug fixes.
TwentyTwo, the maker of the Portal hardware wallet, has announced a partnership with Nunchuk wallet provide "a world-class single-sig and multi-sig wallet app for Portal customers."
Nerdaxe v2.1.5 firmware is now available. It comes with a framework upgrade to ESP-IDF5.2, new BTC price screen, screen switch options, and other fixes.

libsecp256k1 v0.5.1 increases the default signing table size from 22 KiB to 86 Kib, and adds example code for ElligatorSwift-based key exchange. It also resolves compilation issues when extrakeys module is disabled.
Bitaxe-Satellite is a developing project aimed at integrating a system that will allow a Bitaxe BTC miner to communicate bidirectionally via satellite with a public-pool.io remote instance.
Strike has announced Target Orders, enabling users to buy or sell bitcoin only when it reaches a specified price.
Bringin app supports the ability to connect user's IBAN to any Lightning wallet that is compatible with Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC).

umbrelOS v1.2.2 brings support for Turkish, Hungarian, and Ukranian languages, along with bug fixes and security enhancements.
Super Testnet has launched a new website for tracking RoboSats stats.
Liquid Web Wallet is a proof-of-concept for a browser-based Liquid web wallet.
Keychat App v1.15.7 fixes an issue with Signal Prekey messages during the sending and receiving of red packets and images.
Lume v4.0.15 aims to make the Nostr client run on Linux and Windows again.
Voyage v0.9.0, a lightweight nostr client for Android with a Reddit-like user interface, now automatically integrates with local Nostr relay (if installed).
Parman has launched Parmanode4win v0.1.0. It is 'an easy AF Bitcoin Node' with automated installation for desktop computers, specifically for Windows users.
Live Wallet v0.3.0, an application designed to estimate the impact of bitcoin transaction fees on individual UTXOs and transactions with multiple UTXOs, now comes with support for various (HWI) hardware wallets.

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Phoenix Android v2.3.6 addresses parsing issues with BIP-353 addresses and BIP-21 URIs.
Phoenixd v0.3.2 introduces several new features and fixes.
The Voltage Bitcoin Core Solution has been launched, offering a streamlined, developer-friendly Bitcoin Core solution aimed at simplifying and enhancing the deployment and management of Bitcoin nodes.
The peer-to-peer chat app Keet v3.7.0 has been released on both desktop and mobile, featuring UI improvements, the ability to delete reported messages, and various fixes.
Boardwalk Cash v0.2.0 introduces features such as profiles, contacts, and eTips.
Satsails v1.0.0 is the initial release of a self-custodial app with atomic swaps across Bitcoin, Lightning and Liquid. The project is set to debut in September.
satsstackingpleb has launched the first batch of StealthMiner JPro+, a 27-30TH SHA256 miner with average performance of ~24-26 J/T in the 650-750W operating range.

bullishNuts v0.0.65 adds a paste button to the receive-ecash modal and allows users to check proofs.
Amber v1.2.0, a Nostr event signer for Android, now supports sending NIPs as permissions rather than kinds, offers improved descriptions for NIP-29 event kinds, and enhances event sending with NIP-46.
Holdboard is a simple forum featuring "Inns" (similar to subreddits) and "Solo" (for microblogging). It is a fork of freedit, and exists to demo one extra feature: access to the forum requires ownership of a single UTXO greater than 500K sats.
randombtc is a bitcoin-based "random number generator that everybody can agree on."
Arti v1.2.6, a next-generation Tor client in Rust, includes various bug fixes, cleanups, and improvements, along with enhancements to onion service client authorization, the RPC subsystem, and relay infrastructure.
Arti-controller v0.1.0, a minimal Tor controller for Kubernetes, has been released. It requires only one pod to run the entire controller instead of one pod per Onion Service, significantly improving performance for smaller Kubernetes deployments, said the developers.
Tor Browser 14.0a1 features important security updates based on the latest Firefox enhancements.
GrapheneOS v2024080100 reverts the VPN DNS leak protection once again, as it remains partially incompatible with Proton VPN and certain other applications for yet unknown reasons.

Guides and research

Bitcoin Optech #314 announces the disclosure of two vulnerabilities affecting older versions of Bitcoin Core and summarizes a proposed approach to optimizing miner transaction selection when cluster mempool is in use.
Super Testnet's Nostr workshop is available here for just $5 (or less).
Nicolas Burtey posted an interesting table comparing bitcoin transactions across Bitcoin conferences.

Bitcoin educator BTC Sessions uploaded a guide on setting up and using a Proton Bitcoin Wallet on both desktop and mobile.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) published a study showing that Bitcoin mining benefits the environment by effectively removing the equivalent of 20 million cars from the road each year.
Eric Yakes has announced that his book 'The 7th Property: Bitcoin and the Monetary Revolution' is now available for free as a PDF.