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By EZ in Weekly Digest —

Block 869727: Important News of the Week

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

Block 869727: Important News of the Week
Source: Bitbo.
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We're almost 7 months past the Bitcoin halving of 2024, and things are starting to accelerate. Shoutout to everyone who supported No Bullshit Bitcoin last week - it's been an additional ~65k sats added to our bitcoin coffers.

Snapshot taken on November 9th, 2024.

We'll be launching additional rewards on Geyser to help bootstrap our efforts towards making free and independent Bitcoin reporting sustainable while maintaining as much transparency as possible. Keep up the good work, legends, and stay focused on what's important.

News

  • Donald J. Trump elected as 47th President of the United States as bitcoin reaches new USD all-time high. Donald Trump has officially secured a victory, becoming the 47th President of the United States. He is set to begin his second term on January 20th, 2025. Bitcoin's price surged to new all-time highs following the election results.
"To fuel innovation, we’re offering CHF 10,000 sponsorships for promising projects, with selected teams invited to Lugano to collaborate directly with our team," added the firm.
  • Disclosure of hindered block propagation due to stalling peers in Bitcoin Core v25 and earlier. In versions before Bitcoin Core v25.1, an attacker can cause a node to not download the latest block. The issue is of medium severity. The issue was reported and fixed by Greg Sanders, and mitigation was introduced in Bitcoin Core v26.0 and backported to v25.1.
  • Bitcoin Dev Mailing list at lists.linuxfoundation.org is no more. The list moderator, Bryan Bishop, said that the list, including archives, has been removed. Earlier this year, the list was migrated to Google Groups, prompted by the Linux Foundation’s decision to stop hosting email lists as of the end of 2023.
  • Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the United States report. The Bitcoin Policy Institute published a 53-page report endorsing Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) for the United States. It highlights a number of benefits of such policy, including economic and monetary stability, advantages in the geopolitical arena, support for energy and climate-friendly development, financial inclusion, and human rights.
  • Tornado Cash developer trial delayed until April. A New York judge ruled on Friday that the criminal trial for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, initially set to begin in December, has been postponed to April 14, 2025.
  • EU Going Dark: New surveillance package? Former Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer reports that the European Commission and the Council of the European Union are preparing a new, controversial, and non-transparent digital surveillance package. This plan reportedly includes reinstating and expanding the retention of citizens’ communications data and proposals to weaken data encryption on all connected devices. The Commission is also preparing impact assessments and an implementation plan behind closed doors.
"The plan is still widely unknown among citizens, journalists and politicians, even though we hold the documents in our hands and the extent of the plans is frightening. A number of questions remain unanswered," writes the activist.
  • Detroit to accept bitcoin payments for taxes and fees. By mid-2025, Detroit will become the largest U.S. city to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency payments. Residents will be able to pay taxes and fees via a platform managed by PayPal, according to an announcement by the local government. Currently, Colorado, Utah, and Louisiana accept Bitcoin for state payments, reports The Block.
  • Out with regulation by enforcement, in with regulation by the President? L0la L33tz details why the forthcoming Trump administration may pursue 'regulated Bitcoin' with the Bank Secrecy Act (AML/KYC), and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (sanctions).
  • IP Spoofing attack targeting Tor Relay operators. delroth writes that malicious attackers are exploiting networks without BCP38 filtering by sending spoofed TCP requests. This causes the source IP to be blacklisted and possibly shut down due to abuse complaints.
  • Deutsche Telekom launches Bitcoin mining pilot. Europe's leading telecommunications provider is launching a Bitcoin mining pilot called 'Digital Monetary Photosynthesis', developed by Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary MMS in collaboration with Bankhaus Metzler. The project aims to provide data for stabilizing Germany's energy grids.
  • Argentina's Central Bank is hosts live Bitcoin mining exhibit. The art installation, titled "Art, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Economy" by Alberto Echegaray, features a series of Bitcoin mining machines, spheres displaying bitcoin prices, and a sphere filled with mangled fiat money.
Source: tn.com.ar
  • CleanSpark Completes Acquisition of GRIID Infrastructure Inc. The acquisition will reportedly allow CleanSpark to build over 400MW of capacity in the coming years. "Moreover, this adds significant geographic and power supply diversity through expansion in the Tennessee Valley Authority service territory, providing us with additional operational flexibility," said CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford.
  • Applied Digital to raise $375m via convertible notes. Bitcoin mining colocation firm announced a $375 million private offering of convertible notes,  joining a growing list of miners making similar moves in recent months, including Core Scientific, MARA, Bitdeer, Hut 8, and Terawulf.
  • U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs now 'hold' over 1 million BTC. Last week saw strong Bitcoin ETF inflows, totaling 31,658 BTC, primarily led by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). The total holdings purchased via Bitcoin spot ETFs are nearing 5% of the total bitcoin supply.
Souce: Bitbo.
  • US Treasury sees stablecoin growth increasing demand for T-bills. The Treasury's report for the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee indicates that tokenization and stablecoins are emerging forces that could transform the Treasury market while also calling for more stringent regulations. The report estimates that $120 billion in stablecoin collateral has been invested in Treasuries to date.
  • Tether registers $2.5 billion in net profit for Q3. "One of the quarter’s highlights is Tether’s Stablecoin issuing companies reaching a new ATH of almost $120 billion USDT in circulation," the company said in its Q3 attestation report. Tether's nine-month profit this year is $7.7 billion.
  • Semler Scientific adds 47 BTC. Medical device company Semler Scientific disclosed additional bitcoin purchases in its Q3 earnings report. The company now holds 1058 BTC purchased for approximately $71 million.
  • First UK pension fund invests directly in bitcoin. British pension specialist Cartwright has guided the UK's first pension fund to invest in bitcoin, allocating 3% of the unnamed fund's assets directly to bitcoin instead of using a proxy like a spot ETF. Cartwright is also introducing a Bitcoin Employee Benefits scheme, allowing employers to pay bitcoin directly into staff wallets.
  • Strive Enterprises to integrate bitcoin into standard client portfolios. Strive Enterprises, a $1.7 billion asset management firm co-founded by former U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has announced the launch of a new wealth management unit that incorporates bitcoin into client portfolios.
  • Fold App introduced insured bitcoin deposits. The new feature allows Fold users to deposit or receive bitcoin directly into institution-grade custody covered by $250 million deposit insurance as a result of firm's partnership with BitGo.
  • Block winds down TBD, scales back investments in Tidal. The company is reducing its investment in TIDAL, the music streaming service, and is also closing TBD, its Bitcoin-focused division developing 'Web5.' These changes allow Block to redirect resources towards Bitcoin mining and Bitkey, as stated in the Q3 shareholder letter.
  • NYDIG reportedly acquired Consensus Technology Group. Bitcoin infrastructure and financial services firm NYDIG has acquired bitcoin mining company Consensus Technology Group (CTG), reports Blockspace Media. The complete details of the acquisition are unclear, but CTG reportedly operates 120 MW with 5 EH/s under management.
  • OP_NEXT Bitcoin scaling conference. The OP_NEXT Bitcoin scaling conference took place in Boston yesterday. You can rewatch the event's talks here.
  • Nairobi Bitcoin Lightning Developer Bootcamp 2.0 is set to take place on December 3-6, 2024. It is a four-day deep dive into the Lightning Network development taking place in Kenya. Learn more and sign up here.
  • Bitcoin++ mempool edition to take place on May 7-9, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Ticket prices will increase on January 1, get yours here.
  • Bitcoin Alive 2025 conference. Australia's premier Bitcoin-only conference is set to take place in Sydney on March 8, 2025. Tickets are available here.

Updates and releases

  • libsecp256k1 v0.6.0 brings the much anticipated musig module, adds a significantly more robust method to clear secrets from the stack, and removes the unused secp256k1_scratch_space functions.
  • Bitcoin Core v27.2 has been released. It includes various bug fixes and performance improvements, as well as updated translations.
  • RaspiBlitz v1.1.3 is optimized to run on plain Debian 12 Linux for Proxmox/VM and x86 systems. It also packages Public Pool for solo mining, Telegraf for Grafana monitoring, Tailscale for remote connections, the ability to connect Zeus to CLN via CLNrest, and various other fixes and improvements.
  • BTCPay Server v2.0.1 is the latest bug fix release for the free and open-source bitcoin payment processor.
"Without it, an attacker with access to a pull payment could drain the Lightning wallet without limit," warn the developers.
  • Boltz BTCPay plugin v2.0.3 re-enables pull payments along with some other minor fixes. It requires BTCPay Server version 2.0.1 to work.
  • Boltz Web App v1.5.0 adds BOLT 12 support for Submarine Swaps (swapping into Lightning), the ability to fetch BIP-353 with DNSSEC prover, and new integrations with BancoLibre and StashPay. It also includes support for Ledger and Trezor, among other improvements.
  • Boltz Backend v3.8.0 brings support for a new CLN hold invoice plugin rewritten from scratch with a focus on performance, the ability to renegotiate amounts for Chain Swap in case they are over or underpaid, enables the creation of Chain Swaps without an amount, allows for paying BOLT 12 invoices in submarine swaps, and introduces an API endpoint for fetching invoices for offers.
  • Boltz Client v2.2.0 adds support for paying to BOLT-12 invoices via submarine swaps and allows Chain swaps with any amount (within our min/max).
  • Boltzmann v0.1.0 is a TypeScript library that computes the entropy of bitcoin transactions and the linkability of their inputs and outputs.
  • Blockstream Green Android v4.0.37 is a minor release fixing crashes.
  • LiquidSabi is a tool for monitoring the liquidity status of WabiSabi coordinators on Nostr.
  • Fully Noded - Server v0.0.0.2-alpha, a one-click Bitcoin Core, Core Lightning, and JoinMarket server to connect to Fully Noded apps, is another testing release that fixes a crash when clicking "Install Bitcoin Core."
  • Stacker.news postpones non-custodial transition. "We knew it would rain in October, but it ended up pouring and we missed the deadline. The switch will still happen, guaranteed. We'll give a two week [™] warning once the changes are done this time around," said k00b.
    • Other stacker.news updates include encrypted device sync for syncing spending wallet credentials between devices, and the ability to attach a Blink wallet for receiving zaps.
  • Robosats v0.7.1-alpha comes with multiple performance improvements, better and faster web notifications, and a disable notifications button for Android users. Besides, it fixes for robot avatar generation on the web version, and removes Experimental and Satstralia coordinators, among other updates.
  • Alby Hub v1.10.4 now encrypts channel backups for Alby Accounts using a key derived from the recovery phrase and adds a new NWC get_budget method for topping up isolated app balances via the Alby Hub interface.
  • Zeus wallet v0.9.2 beta1 brings the ability to export transaction history to spreadsheets, BIP-353 and BOLT 12 improvements, a 'Spooky theme', and few other enhancements.
  • Nigiri v0.5.2, a command line tool for spinning ready-to-use Bitcoin regtest development environment with a Bitcoin daemon, an Electrum Rust server, an Esplora block explorer web interface, and a Liquid daemon, has been released.
  • Kyoto v0.5.0, a simple, memory-conservative, and private Bitcoin client for developers to build wallet applications, has been released.
  • Electrs v0.10.7 introduces support for testnet4, enables LTO in release builds, and stops mempool sync when the bitcoind mempool is not yet loaded.
  • ncklr shared a Great Restored Script Interpreter. It is an experimental partial interpreter for the Great Script Restoration (GSR) by Rusty Russell, a proposal to re-enable and clean up Bitcoin script opcodes.
  • rust-nostr v0.36.0 brings numerous improvements to Relay and RelayPool performance, adds a NostrSigner trait, and features better method and struct names. It also introduces LocalRelay and allows it to be easily served as a hidden onion service with the embedded Tor client. Read more about it here.
  • Nostr Dev Kit (NKD) v2.10.4 has been released. It squashes some bugs and implements changes needed to use NIP-46 with FROST.
  • 0xchat v1.4.0 improves the app's user experience, updates message and calling sounds, adds support for CashuB tokens in the wallet, ensures compatibility with Android 9, and enables support for 'kind 15' encrypted file messages.
  • chachi.chat by verbiricha is a relay-based group chat (NIP-29) client for the web. It is designed to be mobile-friendly, bandwidth efficient and interoperable with all kinds of content. It's a work in progress, so there might be bugs and missing features.
0:00
/2:32

Source: verbiricha

  • Mostro v0.12.8 is the latest point release for the Lightning Network peer-to-peer exchange platform on Nostr.
    • Mostro tools is a TypeScript library providing lower-level functionality tools for developing Mostro clients.
  • Jumble v0.1.0 is 'yet another' Nostr desktop client. It implements relay-based browsing, relay-friendly design, relay groups, all packaged in a minimalistic interface. "Currently, only browsing is supported. Posting, liking, and reposting will be available soon," said its developer.
  • Lume v24.11.3, a Nostr desktop client for macOS and Windows 11, brings support for multiple accounts, adds 'discover newsfeeds' and 'discover interests' columns, as well as a dedicated relay viewer column.
    • Lume v24.11.4 ships with an improved dark mode and the ability to enter a custom relay for relay feeds.
    • Lume v24.11.6 improves Nostr Connect and the notification column in Dark Mode.
  • Wherostr v1.2.6, a geo-social mobile app built on the Nostr protocol, added the ability to watch live streams, read in-app articles, pull-to-refresh functionality, and more. It is available on iOS and Android, and the web version can be found at wherostr.social.
  • Gitworkshop.dev provides a 'decentralized git workflow on nostr for freedom lovers.'
  • Pokey v0.0.6-alpha, a 'pull notification' client for Nostr events, now displays more info on zaps, includes a relay list manager and better relay authorization, and fixes notification dates and issues with Amber.
  • Citrine v0.5.5, a local Nostr relay for Android devices, limits replaceable event storage to 1, and temporarily removes the restore contacts feature.
  • NostrDVM v0.9.9 tests the latest breaking NostrSDK (v0.36.0) changes.
  • Jamie v2 by CASCDR can now generate content based on any podcast published via an RSS feed, making it super easy to get podcast transcripts, summaries, blog posts, and more.
  • AI RAND is a Pubky-based generative AI bot that accepts Lightning Network payments.
  • SnapNostr is a simple and fun site for creating nice and clean pictures of Nostr notes.
  • Clinch PvP Solitaire game by THNDR Games is now available on Telegram.
  • Nutshell v0.16.2 is a hotfix release that disables  MINT_DISABLE_MELT_ON_ERROR by default. "Tests have shown that this feature triggers in too many unrelated cases," was stated in the release notes.
  • Ray Wallet,a user-friendly RGB wallet, is now available for testing on iOS TestFlight.
  • lnwCash now lets its users pay Lightning invoices by melting users' ecash into bitcoin.
  • bullishNuts v0.2.49 adds flow for ecash redemption by scanning a QR code.
  • Podcaster-boost-dashboard lets you convert Core Lightning's listinvoices output to a podcasting 2.0 dashboard.
  • Strike has launched automatic withdrawals. It also now shows Lightning payment preimages in transaction details, among few other things.
  • Bitcoin Well, a regulated Canadian bitcoin onramp, has integrated the ability to purchase bitcoin directly via the Lightning Network.
  • Geyser v0.13.0 (geyser.fund) introduces major enhancements for posts. Projects and campaigns can now choose from nine post types, send posts to followers by email, and link posts to goals and rewards. Additionally, all existing posts have been migrated to Markdown.
  • Bitcoin education app Jippi is raising funds for the development of Tribe Clash—the world’s first Pokémon GO-inspired Bitcoin education game. It will let you create or join a tribe and battle for dominance over a city with your friends by solving Bitcoin quizzes and capturing Bitcoin beasts in 21 real-world territories. The winning tribe with the most beasts and territories at the end of the game wins $30,000 in BTC.
  • Fedimint Observer has added a health indicator to help users understand their federation's health status.
  • Lightspark's Spark protocol has been seeking initial testers.
  • Mullvad VPN will remove OpenVPN on January 15, 2026, to focus entirely on the WireGuard protocol.
  • Matrix v2.0 update implements end-to-end encrypted group voice and video conferencing, a Sliding Sync API for instant login, launch, and sync, Next Gen Auth, and significant improvements to Matrix’s end-to-end encryption.
  • Arti v1.3.0, a next-generation Tor client written in Rust, has now achieved feature parity with C Tor on most major client features.
  • Tails v6.9 has been released. It fixes an issue with automatic upgrades.
  • GrapheneOS v2024110700 is a November security patch level update for an open-source, privacy and security-focused mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project.

Guides and research

  • Bitcoin Optech #328 describes a vulnerability affecting Bitcoin Core versions before 25.1, along with regular sections.
  • "Analyzing Bitcoin Consensus: Risks in Protocol Upgrades" is a paper on Bitcoin consensus and the analysis of risks around protocol upgrades from a technical and economic perspective. The v1.0 PDF can be found here.
  • The "ColliderScript: Covenants in Bitcoin via 160-bit Hash Collisions" paper introduces a method for enforcing covenants on Bitcoin outputs without requiring any changes to Bitcoin.
  • BTCPay Server released "PAID IN BITCOIN," a full feature film showcasing the setup of Bitcoin payments during the Bitcoin Conference 2024 in Nashville.
  • Pietralberto Mazza from Ark Labs wrote a blog post on unlocking liquidity prior to shared output expiration.
  • Lightning Network Limitations is a repository for exploring and documenting the technical limitations of the Lightning Network.
  • In October, The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute has added ten more timeless articles and essays on bitcoin, cryptography, economics, and liberty.
  • Exponential Science released a research paper on the unintended consequences of Bitcoin mining bans.
  • Charlene Fadirepo published "The Bitcoin Leap"—a book documenting how Bitcoin is transforming Africa.
  • 'Verifiably Buy Solutions to NP Problems with Bitcoin" is the latest blog post by Conduition.
  • João Thallis gave a short introduction to nix-bitcoin at NixCon2024.
  • Charmaine Ndolo posted to Delving Bitcoin about her recent paper on payment censorship in the Lightning Network despite encrypted communications.
  • Atlas21 published a guide on how to create a multisig wallet with Electrum.
  • benny b wrote a comprehensive introduction to the DLC Dev Kit's API.
  • Bitcoin Design Newsletter issue #67 is here.
  • BTC Sessions released the second tutorial for Ashigaru Wallet, covering Ricochet transactions, coin control and labeling features, Stonewall and Stowaway, and more.

Mining stats

  • Another Bitcoin mining difficulty all-time high. Bitcoin mining difficulty has adjusted to a record 101.65T, a 6.24% increase from the previous difficulty epoch. The network's hashrate (7-day SMA) is currently at ~733 EH/s.

Lightning stats

  • The Lightning network capacity is at ~5300 BTC.

Nostr stats

  • The Nostr protocol added almost 3000 new users this week.
  • Nostr active (trusted) daily active users reached nearly 20,000 on November 8th, per nostr.band stats.
Sats are the greatest form of gratitude.
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