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By EZ in Weekly Digest —

Block 872797: Important News of the Week

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

Block 872797: Important News of the Week
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News

  • U.S. Appeals Court overturns sanctions against Tornado Cash. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) exceeded its authority by adding Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List.
"We hold that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the 'property' of a foreign national or entity, meaning (1) they cannot be blocked under IEEPA, and (2) OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority," ruled the three-judge panel at the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court.
  • Samourai Wallet prosecutor Damian Williams to step down. Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash prosecutor Damian Williams will step down in December. Edward Y. Kim, the current Deputy United States Attorney, will take over as Acting United States Attorney upon his departure. President-elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate Jay Clayton, former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to lead the office.
  • Scott Bessent nominated as U.S. Treasury Secretary. Bessent, aged 62, is the founder of Key Square Capital Management and formerly served as the chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management. Earlier this year, he voiced his support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, describing them as representations of freedom and enduring components of the economy.
    • Check out the key members of the upcoming Trump administration in this write-up by Atlas21.
  • Trump team may shift Bitcoin regulation to CFTC. According to Fox Business, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may expand its role to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges and spot markets handling digital assets classified as commodities, such as bitcoin and ether.
  • Brazilian lawmaker proposes Bitcoin reserve bill. Congressman Eros Biondini has introduced the 'Reserva Estratégica Soberana de Bitcoins (RESBit)' bill. The proposal aims to allocate up to 5% of Brazil's approximately $372 billion in international reserves to Bitcoin through a phased acquisition strategy.
  • Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim proposes bitcoin as a city reserve asset. At a November 26 city council meeting, the mayor introduced a motion titled "Preserving the city’s purchasing power through diversification of financial resources: Becoming a Bitcoin-friendly city," which is set to be formally presented on December 11.
  • Russia approves 15% tax on cryptocurrency trading and reporting for miners. The country has amended its Tax Code to classify digital currency as property. Under the new law:
    • Individual Traders: Income from digital currency trades will be taxed at 13% for earnings up to 2.4 million rubles ($22,300) and 15% for earnings above that threshold.
    • Corporate Entities: Businesses dealing with digital currencies will be subject to the standard corporate tax rate of 25%, effective from next year.
    • Mining Operators: Must report their activities to local authorities or face a fine of 40,000 rubles ($380).
  • Morocco prepares law to allow cryptocurrencies. A draft law regulating cryptocurrencies is currently being introduced in Morocco, announced by Central Bank Governor Abdellatif Jouahri. Despite the 2017 ban on Bitcoin and other digital assets, the public continues to use them covertly to bypass restrictions.
  • Hong Kong mulls crypto tax break for hedge funds and billionaires. The local government intends to exempt private equity funds, hedge funds, and the ultra-wealthy’s investment vehicles from taxes on gains from bitcoin and other crypto assets, private credit investments, and other assets. This move aims to position Hong Kong as a leading offshore financial hub.
  • New Spiral grantee: Bob McElrath. The grant will aid his work on Braidpool, a decentralized mining pool that aims to address issues such as transaction selection, variance reduction, device monitoring, and mining payouts to enhance profitability and censorship resistance.
  • Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation Q4 grantee updates. Wei Chen is the new BDK's full-time Rust maintainer, Evan Lin continues as part-time Rust maintainer, and Nymius is a new project grantee working on Silent Payments and project maintenance. You can find all of the current BDK grantees here. Apply for 2025 at grants@bitcoindevkit.org.
  • MicroStrategy bought 55,500 BTC over the past week for $5.4B. The company is now holding a total of 386,700 BTC worth nearly $38 billion, acquired for $21.9 billion at an average price of $56,761 per coin.
  • Chinese gaming company Boyaa Interactive now holds 3183 BTC. On November 29, the company revealed it exchanged 14,200 ETH for approximately 515 BTC through open-market transactions valued at $49.48 million.
  • Rumble announces $20 million BTC Treasury Strategy. The video platform and cloud services provider said it will start allocating up to $20 million of its excess cash reserves to bitcoin.
"Unlike any government-issued currency, bitcoin is not subject to dilution through endless money-printing, enabling it to be a valuable inflation hedge and an excellent addition to our treasury," said Rumble chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski.
  • Semler Scientific purchases additional 297 BTC. The company increased its stash to 1,570 BTC, acquired for an aggregate of $117.8 million at an average purchase price of $75,039 per bitcoin.
  • Mara Holdings buys additional 703 BTC. The firm has acquired 6,474 bitcoin this month following the closing of its $1 billion offering of convertible notes, bringing its total holdings to 34,794 BTC, valued at ~$3.3 billion.
  • Make-A-Wish International now accepts bitcoin donations. "Supporting charitable initiatives with cryptocurrency sends the message that crypto has a purpose beyond financial gains—it can change lives and create meaningful social impact. Critical illness steals childhood from a child but, through helping to grant wishes, this unique group of donors has the power to restore childhood and build resilience in these children," said Luciano Manzo, President and CEO at Make-A-Wish International.
  • Timestamp officially launched. It is a new regulated investment platform accredited and nonaccredited investors to invest in bitcoin and open-source companies. Check it out here.
  • Battery Finance launched. Newmarket Capital partnered with Ten 31 to establish Battery Finance, a majority-owned subsidiary that incorporates Bitcoin into financing structures. It allows Bitcoin to serve as 10–30% of loan collateral alongside traditional assets.
  • Tether discontinues EURT stablecoin. The decision comes as the European Union's MiCA regulations come into effect by year-end. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has been a vocal critic of the new rules, and the company refused to obtain the necessary Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license to operate in the EU. Instead, Tether will focus on supporting new stablecoin initiatives, including recent investments in Quantoz and its tokenization platform, Hadron.
  • Officials are halting Antminer ASIC imports at U.S. ports. Bitmain’s latest Antminer S21 and T21 ASIC miner shipments are being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at various ports nationwide, including San Francisco and Detroit, following a request from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Seven U.S.-based bitcoin mining companies reported that these delays have persisted for up to two months. Notably, other ASIC manufacturers like MicroBT and Canaan are not targeted.
  • New rules for large miners in Texas. On November 21, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) mandated that virtual currency mining facilities in the ERCOT region must register if they consume more than 75 megawatts (MW) and have interruptible load representing at least 10% of their peak demand.
    • This regulation is set to ensure that large-scale mining operations comply with regulatory standards. Registrants are required to provide their legal business name, corporate information, regulatory contact, and details of each mining facility.
  • Canton of Bern, Switzerland, greenlights a feasibility study on Bitcoin mining. The study will examine three main areas: locating excess energy in the canton, exploring partnerships with Swiss miners, and assessing mining’s effect on power grid stability. It uses Texas as a reference, where integrating mining into energy policies has proven successful, reported Atlas21.
  • Bitdeer is raising $360m to expand operations. The Bitcoin mining and hosting company is preparing to finalize a new debt financing round of up to $400 million through convertible notes. The funds will be utilized to expand the company’s data center operations and develop capabilities for manufacturing ASIC miners, reports The Miner Mag.
  • Mining for Samourai. OCEAN Pool now allows miners to support Samourai Wallet's legal defense by donating rewards directly to the P2PRights fund. This initiative enables miners to contribute to the protection of digital rights and the ongoing legal efforts supporting privacy-focused tools.
  • Swan customers charged up to $125 Fortress 'Admin Fee.' The company said it will cover up to $250 of user purchase fees in the first half of 2025 for the affected users.
  • Foundation community moves to a new community forum. "The Telegram group is now read-only and reserved for company updates. Join us in our new space to stay connected, share feedback, and get support," said the company.
  • BitBox partners with BTC Direct. The companies are working to introduce Private Trading services for high-net-worth individuals.
  • The Tor Project calls for more WebTunnel bridges for users in Russia. Recent reports from Tor users in Russia reveal intensified online censorship efforts aimed at blocking access to Tor and other circumvention tools. In response, the Tor Project is calling the network users to deploy 200 new WebTunnel bridges by the end of December to ensure secure and reliable access for users in the region.
  • Wolfsberg Group creates 'Definitional Hierarchy' for ML/TF risks in digital assets. The Wolfsberg Group issued a FAQ addressing financial crime risks of digital assets to establish a "definitional hierarchy" that aligns AML/CFT evaluations for banks and policymakers. They have also failed to respond to inquiries about their flawed definitions, reported Will Jager for The Rage.
  • FROST developer meeting will take place on December 4. Organized by Blockchain Commons, it is aimed at developers who want to incorporate FROST into their wallets and related software. More details are available here.
  • SATS’N’FACTS Bitcoin Technical Unconference is set to take place from February 8–10, 2025, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Learn more and register here.

Updates and releases

  • RoboSats v0.7.3-alpha has been released. It introduces the ability to fetch orders from the LNP2PBot platform when the user enables Nostr orders in settings. Additionally, Android app users now have the option to enable Nostr orders in settings, along with a few other fixes.
  • Bisq v1.9.18 is a hot fix pre-release that improves connection reliability for users who aren't getting enough connections to the Bitcoin network.
  • umbrelOS v1.3.0 brings swappable apps, Cloudflare DNS, Factory Reset, performance enhancements, and essential bug fixes.
  • BlueWallet v7.0.5 is out. It comes with a variety of new goodies, including offline import support, CoinControl sorting, notification shortcuts, and more.
  • Bitcoin Keeper v1.2.20 enables remote key sharing and signing for Blockstream Jade signing device and seed key users. It also improves transaction fee estimation and displays more transaction details when signing external PSBTs. Additionally, this version includes several UX/UI enhancements, including a new app font, redesigned transaction priority screen, UI for adding a device, login passcode screen, and more.
  • Blockstream Green Desktop v2.0.15 adds a layout of the promo card in the wallet overview, complete tracking of promo events, and a reset of the analytics identifier.
  • Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.0 introduces an option to buy bitcoin via meld.io.
  • Envoy Wallet v1.8.5 fixes a couple of rare issues on iOS: 1) some users weren't able to see or select any fiat currencies after enabling the fiat toggle; 2) an issue where some iOS users might get stuck in the splash screen.
  • BitBox App v4.46.2 is a patch release for Linux devices that fixes a blank screen issue.
  • Nunchuk Android v1.9.55 and iOS v1.9.59 have been released with bug fixes and improvements.
  • BDK v0.30.0 pre-release increases the MSRV to 1.63.0 and updates the rusqlite dependency version to 0.31 to align with the upcoming 1.0.0 release.
  • kibo.money, a free and open-source alternative to Glassnode, has added a 'Save in Bitcoin' DCA simulation tool. Check it out here.
  • Rewind Bitcoin v1.1.3 (beta), a 'Bitcoin wallet that allows users to reverse theft,' is now available for testing. The latest version brings numerous UX tweaks and improvements, including pre-filled default emergency addresses with contextual help, increased robustness to network errors, and much more.
  • Stack Wallet v2.1.8 introduces the ability to set Tor/Clearnet options for individual nodes, temporarily disables Paynym functionality, and adds support for view-only wallets.
  • Mempal v1.2.3, a Bitcoin mempool monitoring and notification app for Android, fixes issues with the app crashing when enabling Tor.
  • LifPay introduces reusable payment QR codes with fixed amounts. It allows users to create a QR code with a fixed amount that can be scanned and reused multiple times. "From what we know, no other Lightning Wallet has introduced this functionality yet," said the project.
A reusable QR code with a fixed amount by LifPay. Include your Lightning Address in the note and LifPay will refund you for testing purposes.
  • Phoenix Android v2.4.3 redesigns the payment sending experience, prioritizing the contacts list and a free-form text input instead of opening the scanner first. A button to read QR codes from images stored on disk has also been added. Additionally, photos can now be attached to contacts on Android (this feature already exists on iOS).
  • Phoenix Server Lightning Wallet is a Lightning wallet for Start9 and Umbrel built on top of a Phoenix server.
  • lipa Wallet v0.6.37 has been released with effortless contact payments, on-chain Lightning balance top-ups, important bug fixes and stability upgrades, the ability to set display currency, and more.
  • Stashpay wallet v0.1.5 has been released. The app's code is now open-source (GPL-3.0 license) and is available here.
  • Torq v2.1.0, an advanced Lightning node management software, has been released. This release packages the bitcoind wallet as a node type, meaning that Torq now has on-chain wallet support for CLN, LND, and bitcoind. It also introduces UTXO locking management, improved transaction output visualizations, the Torq gRPC feature (beta), and more.
  • Zeus wallet v0.9.3-beta2 is now available for testing.
  • LND v0.18.4-beta rc1 is now available for testing.
  • Core Lightning v24.11 rc2 is now available for testing.
  • GDK v0.74.0 has been released with multiple PSBT fixes and improvements.
  • Breez SDK Greenlight v0.6.4 improves sync performance and trampoline payments reliability, adds the list_swaps API, and enables auto recovery of network connections after hibernation.
  • Breez SDK Liquid v0.5.1 can now pay BOLT-12 offers, allows connecting external signers, retrieves LNURL-Pay fees before paying, and more.
  • Boardwalk Cash v0.5.0 has been released. It introduces Artist eGifts.
  • Macadamia Wallet v0.2.0, a native iOS client for Cashu, is a complete rewrite of the implementation. This update segregates Cashu logic into its own library and implements a database model using SwiftData.
  • Cashu TypeScript library v2.0.0 for building Cashu wallets is now available.
"This update brings a lot of new features, along with huge DX improvements for implementers. Please make sure to read the migration docs carefully when upgrading. Thanks to everyone that participated in this release," was stated in the release notes.
  • Money printer go brrrrr at brrr.gandlaf.com now lets users distribute ecash tokens over Nostr.
  • Boltz Web App v1.5.2 adds Submarine Swap preimage copy button, along with a few other improvements.
  • Boltz Backend v3.8.1 is a patch release with bug fixes and minor features.
  • Boltz Client v2.2.2 fixes an issue related to GDK.
  • Amethyst v0.93.0 introduces support for displaying NIP-63 interactive stories, adds support for Blossom media servers and Olas' image feeds, and introduces Around Me feed, which is populated with location-based user posts.
  • Damus v1.11.0 features the Damus Share sheet action, enabling users to share content and links directly to Damus. It also adds multi-image uploads, includes significant enhancements to the video player, offers smooth scrolling, and more.
  • Rust Nostr v0.37.0 (Nostr SDK) is now available, featuring support for the NIP-17 relay list (when the gossip option is enabled). This release also adds support for NIP-22 and NIP-73, fixes issues with the Swift Package, and includes numerous performance improvements and bug fixes.
  • Satshoot v0.2.0, a free and open source freelance marketplace on Nostr, has been released with Cashu NIP-60 wallet and NIP-61 nutzaps, and rendering of Nostr URIs.
  • Voyage v0.17.0, a lightweight Nostr client for Android, introduces the ability to create polls, filter the HomeFeed by 'roots, cross, and polls,' various performance and UI improvements, and more.
  • 0xchat v1.4.3 addresses several issues, including the inability to add inbox/outbox relays, push notifications for voice calls having no sound, lag when loading private chat videos, and custom emoji reactions not being displayed.
  • Keychat app v1.21.6 brings support for large groups via OpenMLS Integration, enables ecash payments for ChatGPT-4o and ChatGPT-4o-mini interactions on a pay-per-message basis, and adopts NIP-17 "to send Signal hello messages and use new signature scheme."
  • Fountain app v1.1.8 introduces Fountain Radio—a global queue where users get to pay to play a track. It also includes Artist Takeovers.
  • NostrDVM v1.0.1, a Python framework to build and run NIP-90 Data Vending Machines, has been released. Code, instructions, and tutorials are available here.
  • Nos v1.0.2 is now available on TestFlight. It fixes several typos and a crash when tapping the Post button on macOS.
  • Openvibe v1.4.3, the app that aims to connect the open social web, introduces local Mastodon timelines, private replies, and UX upgrades.
  • zapstore v0.1.6 improves background loading, fixes themed icons, allows sending error reports, and more.
  • OpenLibrarian v0.1.4 updates requirements.txt for testing and markdown packages.
  • KoalaSat released Nest v0.0.1-alpha—a proof-of-concept for a web browser connected to Amber. It aims to bring a native app experience for Nostr web apps on Android.
  • Pokey v0.1.1-alpha, a pull notification app for Nostr events, adds NIP-05 picture display, prepares code for multi-account support, and includes architecture-specific APKs.
  • WoT Relay v0.1.14 is a small bug fix release.
  • Bullish Bulletin is a Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)-powered bulletin board for posting all sorts of messages.
  • Nostr PHP v1.5.1, a PHP helper library for Nostr, has been released.
  • Nosey is a high-performance search web app for the Nostr protocol.
  • Apollo OS v2.0.6 for Apollo BTC and Apollo II miners by FutureBit, has been released. d. This major bug-fix update addresses most outstanding and known issues. It also introduces a redesigned Solo Miner Page, making it easier to keep track of multiple miners and wallets mining on the solo pool, along with other improvements.
  • BitAxe Mining Dashboard project brings all your BitAxe miners and Satoshi Radio pool statistics together in one clean, informative interface.
More details available here.

Guides and research

  • Bitcoin Optech newsletter #331 summarizes several recent discussions about a Lisp dialect for Bitcoin scripting.
  • Blockstream Research verifies libsecp256k1’s modular inverse function. This work provides further evidence that verification of C code is possible in practice.
"Blockstream is the first to formally verify the safegcd algorithm, used in libsecp256k1, strengthening the security and reliability of Bitcoin and Liquid, and obtaining the highest possible software correctness guarantees," announced the company. 
  • Radpool is a syndicated mining pool proposal aimed at decentralizing mining while alleviating the scalability challenges. The detailed design is available here.
  • Jameson Lopp published a new guide for Bitcoin node operators on how to speed up the initial node synchronization using UTXO snapshots (aka AssumeUTXO).
  • BTC Sessions shared a new tutorial on how to accept payments using BTCPay Server.
  • Luke Childs has written a proposal for ecash mints funded with Spillman channels.
  • The latest issue Bitcoin Design Newsletter (#68) is now available.
  • The latest issue of Nostr Biweekly Review is available here.
  • HRF's Weekly Financial Freedom Report #51 is available here.
  • PlebDevs Starter Course is a free introductory course for absolute beginners looking to pick up basic coding and web development skills.
  • TABConf has published the first talk from TABConf 6 event, covering the production impact of FROST.

Mining stats

  • Currently, the network's hashrate (7-day SMA) is at ~749 EH/s. The next mining difficulty adjustment is expected to take place in ~ 21 hours.

Lightning stats

  • The Lightning network's capacity has changed by -0.03% last week. There are 27 nodes and 299 channels fewer, according to amboss.space.

Nostr stats

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