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By EZ in Weekly Digest —

Block 868737: Important News of the Week

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

Block 868737: Important News of the Week
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Happy November, No Bullshit Bitcoiners! Shoutout to everyone who supported us last week, with a special thanks to an anonymous donor who tipped us 1.5 million sats!

  • Overall, we raised 2.51 million sats ($1,741) in October, making it the project's second-best month since September, when we started sharing more details on the project's financials.
  • Thank you for your generous support. It's an honor and a privilege to write news for such an audience, and we'll do our best to bootstrap No Bullshit Bitcoin into a fully-fledged news desk while keeping it up to the bar with the resources available. Now, onto the weekly recap.

News

  • Trump celebrates Bitcoin whitepaper day. U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump wished Bitcoiners a happy 16th anniversary of the White Paper Day. Notably, the post also used the #FreeRossDayOne hashtag, referring to the President's promise to release Silk Road's founder Ross Ulbricht on Day 1 of being elected.
  • MicroStrategy to raise $42 billion in next three years. "We are announcing a strategic goal of raising $42 billion of capital over the next 3 years, comprised of $21 billion of equity and $21 billion of fixed income securities, which we refer to as our “21/21 Plan,”" announced Phong Le, President and Chief Executive Officer of MicroStrategy. The company plans to use the additional capital to buy more bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. 
  • OpenSats issued the eight wave of Bitcoin grants. The latest grantees include Citadel-Tech, Lampo, Cashu Nutshell, and PickhardtPayments Plugin. Read more about these projects here.
  • Localhost Research launched. Localhost Research is a new Bitcoin-focused research center in the Bay area with a pending 501(c)(3) application. The organization will provide full-time employment and benefits, and foster a collaborative office culture with shared projects and group research efforts.
  • Spiral has renewed its grant to VLS project. The Validating Lightning Singer (VLS) is being used by Breez SDK to secure LN keys for 14 bitcoin products, said Spiral.
  • Spiral issues grant to Austin Krauss, who is developing a Programming Lightning workshop and a Programming Lightning book.
  • UI Charitable has issued a grant for Base58. University Impact has distributed the first grant from a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF). This grant came at the recommendation made through partnerships with Sound Advisory and Unchained. According to Unchained, the grant will provide support to five people going through the basics of Bitcoin engineering.
"Base58 is thrilled to be the recipient of the world’s first donor-advised fund bitcoin grant! This grant will be used this Fall as a scholarship fund for five software engineers who want to learn the basics of programming bitcoin. We’re grateful to University Impact and Unchained for creating charitable products that leverage bitcoin," said Lisa Neigut, Founder of Base58.
  • Ledger has raised over $90,000 for open-source Bitcoin development. Brink, a non-profit dedicated to supporting open-source Bitcoin development, said that it's ongoing partnership with Ledger has resulted in over $90,000 so far. Ledger is donating $5 to Brink for each Ledger Bitcoin hardware wallet sold.
  • PlebLab x ZBD Hackathon II at TabConf recap. Co-organized by ZBD and sponsored by Fulgur Ventures and the Open Source Justice Foundation, the hackathon ran from October 16 to 24. The top projects of the hackathon include:
    • Best Hack Overall: Frostr. The project uses FROST cryptography for t-of-n remote signing and key rotation on Bitcoin and Nostr. It comes with a desktop app called Igloo, the Frost2 x web extension, and the Bifrost TypeScript library. This solution flexibly secures user keys for both Bitcoin multi-sig and Nostr across devices, even if one share is compromised.
    • DL Chess. It uses adaptor signatures with Taproot to support betting on chess games through an oracle and the lichess API, leveraging Bitcoin's scripting abilities for secure and transparent gameplay.
    • Pepe.vote is a community-driven digital art museum focused on Pepe-themed images. It uses Nostr events for voting, enabling polls without monetary transactions, offering a novel, transparent, zap-free polling method on Nostr.
    • Tajfi. It is a Taproot Assets wallet using Nostr authentication for enhanced privacy and custody. It anchors vUTXOs to Bitcoin UTXOs, enabling seamless asset management and decentralized financial autonomy via Nostr-based PSBT marketplaces.
    • Discreet Luck is a Bitcoin prediction market using DLCs and Nostr. It integrates Bitcoin with Polymarket's liquidity, improving user experience by offering instantly-fillable bets without centralized exchanges.
"Will have the all the videos for each project out very soon on PlebTV," added PlebLab.
  • FutureBit miner solves a solo block. A solo miner using their own hardware and custom software found block 867760, raking in 3.161 BTC rewards.
"Bitaxe as well as solo blocks FutureBit devices have found years before were mostly found on solo pools like ckpool. This is the first time in a long time an independent solo block has been found by a single piece of hardware hosting their own node and stratum pool," said the company.
  • Lightspark introduces Spark. The company announced the launch of an alpha version of Spark, a statechain-inspired, trust-minimized solution designed to scale Bitcoin and extend the Lightning Network. The firm also introduced UMA Request, UMA Auth, and Lightspark Extend, stating that Spark will be used to launch wallet-as-a-service and stablecoin issuance products by the end of the year.
  • Synonym introduces Pubky. It is an open protocol for per-public-key backends for censorship resistant web applications. It comes with a flexible, open-source toolkit and makes use of PKARR (Public Key Addressable Resource Records) and Mainline DHT used by BitTorrent clients. Demo's of the project include:
    • PKDNS: a DNS server for self-sovereign and censorship-resistant domain names.
    • Pubky Explorer for decentralized file exploring tied directly to your public key.
    • Pubky Notes - a simple note-taking app for a personal home server.
    • Pubky Arcade is a turn-based game without a central server utilizing the Pubky protocol.
    • Pubme is a demo for a chat app built on the Pubky Core protocol. It empowers end users to decide how and where their conversations are stored, promoting flexibility, privacy, and censorship resistance.
    • Pubky Password Manager is a simple app for storing passwords on your own home server, built with Pubky Core.
    • Read more about Pubky and explore the protocol's documentation here.
  • Coracle may have exposed nsecs of users logged in with they private key. Coracle developer Hodlbod disclosed that Coracle has been sending user session objects to BugSnag when reporting errors. Affected users include those who triggered an error in Coracle while signed in directly with their private key, since December 5th, 2023. This does not affect users who logged into Coracle with browser extensions such as Alby or Nos2x.
"In practical terms, your keys should still be secure, since they were sent over TLS, and have been deleted. But there is no guarantee I can offer that they are in fact gone," added the developer.
  • Metaplanet now holds 1,018 BTC. The Japanese investment firm Metaplanet purchased 156.78 BTC on October 28, increasing its total Bitcoin holdings to 1,018.17 BTC, valued at approximately $68 million. This move makes Metaplanet Asia’s second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder, just behind Boyaa Interactive International, which holds 1100 BTC, reports TFTC.
  • Emory University holds $15.1 million in Bitcoin shares via Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust. A private research institution in Atlanta has revealed it holds nearly 2.7 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, worth approximately $15.1 million, according to an SEC filing on October 25, 2024.
  • LQWD Technologies Corp now holds 136 BTC. The Canadian-based Lightning network infrastructure company said it acquired additional 5 BTC to add to its balance sheet and grow its Bitcoin-Per-Share holdings. 
  • Florida to evaluate the possibility of including Bitcoin in state pension funds. The Chief Financial Officer of Florida, Jimmy Patronis, has proposed considering bitcoin as a diversification asset for public pension funds, requesting a feasibility and risk report by March 2025.
  • Suriname Presidential candidate pledges to make Bitcoin legal tender on day one. Speaking on The Bitcoin Podcast, Suriname Presidential candidate Maya Parbhoe has announced her plan to establish Bitcoin as Suriname’s legal tender through an executive order on her first day in office. The Surinamese presidential election will take place in May 2025.
  • Bhutan moves ~935 BTC to Binance. Blockchain surveillance firm Arkham Intelligence reported that Bhutan's government wallet moved more than 900 BTC on Tuesday after the price of bitcoin surpassed $70,000. The wallet still holds 12,456 BTC (~$886 million), managed by the state's investment arm Druk Holding & Investments.
"In the second half of 2023, Bhutan’s Bitcoin mines were mining around 780 BTC per month (~26 BTC/day). Over the past 3 months August - October 2024, that number has dropped to around 260 BTC per month (~8.6 BTC/day)," added the chain surveillance firm.
  • Reddit sold most of its bitcoin. A Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted that Reddit sold nearly $6.9 million worth of cryptocurrency during the quarter.
"We sold the majority of our cryptocurrency portfolio, which consisted primarily of bitcoin and ether. The net carrying value of our cryptocurrencies, as well as the gain recognized on sale, was immaterial," said the company.
  • Tether slams WSJ for irresponsible reporting. The company has published a blog post stating that "it is wildly irresponsible for WSJ to write articles with reckless allegations with such certainty when no authorities have gone on the record to confirm these rumors, and no sources are named."
    • The post came out in response to the WSJ's story published on Friday, claiming that federal investigators are probing the company for alleged anti-money laundering and sanctions violations.
    • At the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino also provided details about Tether’s current financial reserves, revealing that the company holds 82,452 BTC, 48.3 tons of gold, as well as approximately $100 billion worth of US Treasuries.
  • DOJ charges 53-year-old with laundering Silk Road's proceeds. According to an October 28 statement, the Department of Justice claims that 53-year-old Maximiliano Pilipis was running AurumXchange , which operated from 2009 to 2013. During that time, the exchange processed over $30 million through 100,000 transactions. Some of these funds were allegedly sourced from accounts associated with the Silk Road.
  • Disappearing Satoshi Nakamoto statue unveiled in Lugano. The statue, unveiled at Lugano's Plan ₿ conference, captured some attention with its invisible design. When viewed directly from the front, the statue vanishes completely, symbolizing Satoshi's anonymity.
  • Peter Todd not really hiding. The Bitcoin contributor told Decrypt he is certainly not in hiding, nor has he been, as a recent Wired story suggested. "I have taken some security measures. But it’s not a good idea to say exactly what I’ve done publicly. Best to keep the bad guys guessing," said the developer.
  • Coinbase integrates Visa Direct for real-time account funding. Customers of Visa can now add their eligible debit cards into their Coinbase accounts for near-instant deposits, announced the company.
  • Bitdeer releases SEALMINER A2 with 16.5 J/TH efficiency. A Bitcoin mining and colocation provider unveiled SEALMINER A2, featuring an efficiency of 16.5 J/TH and a hashrate capacity of 226 TH/s. The company also said that the SEAL03 ASIC is on track to tape out in Q4 2024, featuring a chip efficiency of 10 J/TH.
  • Sazmining is starting a modest-sized bitcoin mine in a small Norwegian fishing town. The operation will take place in a 350-square-meter facility with an energy capacity of 2.6 megawatts (MW). It is set to go live on December 1.
    • Earlier this year, Norwegian lawmakers moved to restrict Bitcoin mining as part of new data center regulations. Sazmining CEO Kent Halliburton views this as an educational phase, with Sazmining's new facility poised to highlight the benefits of Bitcoin mining.

Updates and releases

  • BTCPay Server v2.0.0 introduces full interface localization, sidebar-only navigation, a new onboarding flow for new users and Point of Sale merchants, as well as e-commerce integrations with Wix, Odoo, and BigCommerce. It also includes numerous fixes, improvements, and crucial backend updates that lay a solid foundation for future BTCPay Server developments.
"BTCPay Server 2.0 realigns the internal architecture with the lessons we’ve learned since 2017, positioning us to better support both plugin developers and ourselves as we implement new features. While it may not seem immediately obvious, we expect users to see the full potential of 2.0 in the upcoming months, as the ecosystem continues to thrive and build on top of it," stated the BTCPay Server's team.
  • Bitcoin Keeper v1.2.17 delivers an overhauled TapSigner experience, key/signer and wallet data management improvements, and bug fixes with UI updates.
  • Alby Go v.1.7 implements LNURL-withdraw support, improved currency selection, boostagram information in transaction details, and various bug fixes and improvements.
  • StashPay build (13) is now available on TestFlight. It updates Liquid SDK to v0.5.0-rc1 and packages several UI fixes.
  • BitBanana v0.8.7 brings a more flexible fiat currency setup.
  • Blitz Wallet 0.3.2-beta delivers multiple bug fixes and improvements.
  • Robosats v0.7.1-alpha pre-release is available for testing. It brings multiple performance improvements, better and faster web notifications, and several bug fixes.
  • Andreas Griffin released Bitcoin-Safe v1.0.0 beta. It is a Bitcoin wallet "for the entire family" and comes with an easy step-by-step wizard for setting up multisig wallets, full support for COLDCARD devices, BitBox02, Blockstream Jade, and Specter DIY, multi-language support, label syncing, encrypted cloud label backups, mempool view, and a money flow diagram.
    • Available on Mac , Linux, and Windows. It is still in beta, so use it with caution.
  • Kyoto v0.4.0, a simple, memory-conservative, and private Bitcoin client for developers to build wallet applications, introduces a new HeaderCheckpoint constructor from height, ability to add a TrustedPeer while the node is running, and few other enhancements.
  • Lightning Terminal (LiT) v0.13.6-alpha includes a hotfix that updates the application version of LiT, which was unchanged in v0.13.5-alpha.
  • Some of the latest Zaprite updates include an auto-pay feature, Merchant X credit card integration, UI updates, and the removal of Mutiny Wallet from available connections.
  • NodeGuard v0.15.7 fixes outputs for sweep transactions.
  • Krux Installer v0.0.20-beta now allows users to perform airgapped updates.
  • Envoy v1.8.4 fixes an issue affecting some users related to not being able to send to legacy address types.
  • Cash Nutshell v0.16.1 update brings several bug fixes and stability improvements. It also adds support for LND via gRPC.
  • Fully Noded - Server v0.0.0.1-alpha is now available for testing. It is a one-click Bitcoin Core, Core Lightning, and Join Market server to connect to Fully Noded apps.
  • YakiHonne v2.0 update brings a complete platform redesign, featuring an easier onboarding flow and the ability to create or add multiple Lightning wallets, a new content layout, and navigation improvements. The new and improved platform also includes a re-engineered core for better performance and outbox model support.
  • Nos.social v1.0.0 launched in Australia and New Zealand with an updated onboarding flow designed to aid new users, among other improvements.
  • Nostrmo v2.9.3, a Flutter Nostr client for Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Web, and Linux, comes with NIP-55 content-resolver and cache relay support, among other features.
  • Fedimint v0.4.4 has been released.
  • OpenLibrarian v0.1.0 is an initial MVP release for Nostr-based website dedicated to books. Check it out here.
  • Amber v2.0.8 delivers a fix for signing private zaps.
  • Citrine v0.5.4 fixes the notification icon size, loading screen, and updates dependencies.
  • Haven relay v1.0.0 comes with Blossom media server support, Gift Wrapped DM support, adds Delete Event support to Inbox Relay, and implements other bug fixes and enhancements.
  • Nak v0.7.9, a command line tool for doing all things Nostr, has been released.
  • NostrDVM v0.9.7 brings additional tutorials and minor bug fixes related to nutzaps and reannouncing mints.
  • Athenut is a privacy-friendly pay-per-query web search engine powered by Kagi and Cashu.
  • Cashu.me wallet and progressive web app (PWA) now supports restoring ecash from a seed phrase.
PR: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1369
0:00
/2:20

Source: Mullvad blog.

  • Noskey library added ability to generate Pubky keys, allowing users to generate Nostr keys, Bitcoin keys, and Pubky keys for use in multiple protocols.
  • Tor Browser v14.0.1 has been released.

Guides and research

  • The Bitcoin Popularity Index by Conor21m measures global Bitcoin interest using per capita Google search data for "Bitcoin" and "BTC" across languages, adjusted for population and Google's local market share.
    • According to the index, citizens and residents of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland are the most interested in Bitcoin. Bitcoin popularity is also relatively high in Canada, the United States, Singapore, Brazil, Israel, and Australia. You can download the full infographic here.
Source: Conor21m.
  • The Bitcoin Policy Institute published a new report making the case for bitcoin as a reserve asset. Get it here.
  • Awesome Pubky is a curated list of Pubky resources, libraries, tools, and applications.
  • 1440000bytes added steps for testing Joinstr app on Android.
  • The Institute of Cryptoanarchy released a report analyzing The Nocoiner Syndrome.
  • Atlas21 published a guide to coinjoins with Jam.
  • A new Bitcoin Policy UK website can be found here.
"By next year, multiple countries will use this platform, saving time, cutting costs, and making international collaboration on Bitcoin Policy easier than ever," said the organization.
  • Cashu.space is the new homepage of the Cashu protocol.
  • Jameson Lopp updated Bitcoin hardware signer multisig performance report with Ledger Flex and Trezor Safe 5 devices.
  • Bitcoin Illustrated shared a guide to Schnorr Singatures.
  • k3tan released the Ministry of Nodes Bitcoin Nodebox video tutorial series for 2024.
  • DarthCoin put together a simple guide for getting started with Walletano, a web-based Bitcoin and Lightning wallet.
  • Bitcoin Optech newsletter #327 describes a proposal for timeout tree channel factories and summarizes a draft BIP for proofs of discrete log equivalence to be used when generating silent payments.

Mining stats

  • The network's mining difficulty is set to adjust in approximately 24 hours. Currently, its average hashrate (7-day SMA) is around 741 EH/s.

Lightning stats

  • The capacity of the Lightning Network, along with the node count and number of active channels, remains relatively unchanged on a week-by-week basis.

Nostr stats

  • The Nostr protocol has added over 3000 new users last week.
Sats are the greatest form of gratitude.
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