Good Morning Bitcoin - Wednesday, July 3, 2024

GM. Today we're launching Good Morning Bitcoin news roundup - a daily digest focusing on the latest in bitcoin and freedom tech. With our limited time and resources, we recognize there's a lot happening in Bitcoin that needs coverage. Good Morning Bitcoin report will help us expand our reporting and deliver the most bang-for-the-buck in terms of time and signal. We know your time is scarce and we are here to help you maximize it.

What's happening

• OpenSats has announced its 5th wave of Bitcoin grants for 10 more Bitcoin projects.
• On Monday, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) transferred an additional 1,500 Bitcoin to various crypto exchanges such as Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken. This action is similar to recent moves by the U.S. government, which transferred 3,940 BTC to Coinbase Prime, possibly indicating plans to sell. These developments come amid reports that the bankrupt Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, will soon start reimbursing its users with approximately 950,000 BTC (~$9 billion) worth of Bitcoin.
• Meanwhile, Coinbase has officially partnered with the U.S. Marshals Service, a part of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that is responsible for managing seized and forfeited assets. The agreement revolves around safeguarding and trading so-called "class 1 (large cap) digital assets."
• The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (DFSA) has denied reports suggesting that the regulator plans to ban personal (non-custodial) bitcoin wallets.
• Australia-based Bitcoin miner Iris Energy announced raising $413.4 million through stock offerings since mid-May to fund its 2024 expansion plan.
• Bitcoin mining and energy technology firm CleanSpark has acquired GRIID Infrastructure in an all-stock deal valued at $155 million. Additionally, the company announced that it has achieved a hashrate of 20.4 EH/s.
• Electronics giant Sony Group is set to launch a Bitcoin and 'crypto' exchange in Japan following its acquisition of Amber Japan, the local subsidiary of Amber Group. No specific launch date has been announced yet.
• Kraken is considering going nuclear - the bitcoin and 'crypto' exchange is looking to partner with energy providers in North America and Europe that can supply small modular reactors, reports Coindesk.

Projects and tools

• COLDCARD Mk4 firmware v5.3.2 and Q firmware v1.2.2 have been released. It comes with NFC Push Tx, which enables the transmission of signed transactions to the blockchain via NFC and a web service.
• Bitcoin and Lightning Network node provider Nodl announced nodl One Mark 2 with a 2 TB SSD. The company said it is phasing out its 1 TB devices due to the growth of Bitcoin blockchain and indexes. Nodl One Mark 2.2 costs Є599.
• Bitcoin Knots v27.1 has been released. It introduces several new features, various bug fixes, and performance improvements.
• Labelbase v2.2.2 is out. It comes with the ability to scan addresses from your favorite hardware wallet, QR codes from your mobile device, or even from a SATSCARD.
• LND v0.18.1-beta is a minor hot fix release that resolves an issue that arises when handling an error after attempting to broadcast transactions if a btcd backend with an older version (pre-v0.24.2) is used.
• Bitcoin Keeper v1.2.9 has been released with cached transactions, health check for all keys, timeline view, ability to backup wallet configurations in a PDF file, and other improvements.
• Vincenzo Palazzo announced the release of Lampo v24.06, an experimental, fast and modular Lightning Network implementation for all usages written in Rust. This release contains bolt12 support improvements and bug fixes.
• Burak announced Brollup v2, an improved version of Brollups. The developer says he has found a way to eliminate the need for a trusted setup.
• Ride The Lightning (RTL) v0.15.2-beta is a minor release addressing several technical issues occurring in installations on Umbrel.
• SeedHammer v1.3.1 has been released. This release removes support for the SH01 plate, the protective plate and switches to the SeedQR format.
• Lume, a cross-platform desktop client for the Nostr protocol, has released v4.0.13, which improves its performance, stability, search function, and adds several fixes.
• Nos.social, a nostr client with advanced user safety and moderation features, has released v0.1.19 to its TestFlight users.

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