Good Morning Bitcoin - Thursday, July 4, 2024

GM. Happy 4th of July to our American readers and to all freedom enthusiasts around the world, wherever you are. Here's what has been on our radar in the past 24 hours.

News

• Bitcoin Core announced a new security disclosure policy for publicizing security-critical bugs in Core versions that are End of Life (EOL) and no longer receive maintenance updates. A new Security Advisories page has been added to the Bitcoin Core website. It currently documents disclosures for versions of Bitcoin Core prior to v0.21.0. Further disclosures will be posted in the coming months.
• The Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU) has discovered a remote unauthenticated code execution vulnerability in OpenSSH’s server (sshd) on glibc-based Linux systems. The vulnerability does not appear to be simple to execute, but bitcoiners running lightning nodes with remote SSH access are urged to update to v9.8p1 as soon as possible.
• The United States Supreme Court decisively overturned the Chevron deference last week. The decision greatly limits the authority of federal agencies to interpret the laws they oversee, stating that courts should instead interpret ambiguous laws themselves.
• The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations requiring custodial brokers to report sales and exchanges of digital assets.
• A federal jury in Greensboro, North Carolina, convicted a 24-year-old Florida man for leading a conspiracy to attack and kidnap U.S. residents in their homes to steal their bitcoin and other digital assets. Prosecutors said the robbers used sophisticated methods to coordinate their plans, including encrypted messaging apps, hacked email accounts, and personal surveillance of victim properties.
• Bitcoin miner Bitfarms said it mined 189 BTC in June. The operations update follows reports that Riot Platforms dropped its proposal to buy Bitfarms and is attempting to overhaul its board before engaging in further takeover attempts. Meanwhile, Riot Platforms boosted its hash rate by 50% in June.
• Marathon Digital Holdings boasts of increasing its operating fleet to approximately 250,000 Bitcoin miners capable of producing 31.5 EH/s. The firm reported a production of 590 BTC in June.
• The next edition of the Bitcoin Atlantis conference is set to take place in 2028. The event organizers decided to align Bitcoin Atlantis with the Bitcoin halving cycle, making it a unique event every four years.

Projects and tools

• Phoenix Wallet and Server: Received a major upgrade with Bolt12 offers. New features include reusable, non-expiring payment requests, a contact list (Android only), and the ability to attach messages to payments.
• BlueWallet v6.6.8: Now allows sending and receiving transactions using BIP47 Reusable Payment Codes (PayNyms) and can also send funds to Silent Payment addresses.
• LNbits: Announced two development bounties for Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC):

1. Build a NWC service extension for LNbits.
2. Build a NWC funding source for LNbits.

• btcd v0.24.2: Released with important security fixes. Full details will be disclosed in 90 days.
• OLYMPUS by ZEUS: Lightning node runners can now purchase channels directly from the OLYMPUS Lightning Service Provider (LSP).
• BTCPay Server: Now compatible with Invoice Ninja for invoicing and billing. A detailed integration guide is available here.
• Boltz backend v3.7.1: This non-custodial Bitcoin bridge now supports cooperative refunds for failed CLN transactions, labels for addresses and transactions, provides failure details in swap status, and more. The project's license has changed to AGPLv3.
• Stack Duo Wallet v1.2.0: Bitcoin users of Stack Duo can now use Tor support (.onion addresses), Replace-By-Fee (RBF), and Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) functionalities.
• Breez SDK Core v0.5.0: Released with the Greenlight signer upgrade and several other improvements.
• Amber v1.0.9: The latest version of Nostr event signer for Android comes with notification improvements.
• zap.store v0.1.3: Released with multiple fixes and improvements.
• PyBLØCK v2.6: A Bitcoin dashboard with a cypherpunk aesthetic, now includes bug fixes and Bolt 12, building on the latest Phoenixd release.

Other links

• Super Testnet shared an analysis of a 'weird bitcoin transaction.'
• The NixOS project appears to be plagued with extreme political activism.
• An article discussing classification of bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset for the United States has been published on Forbes.
• Miner Weekly provides a quick overview of Bitcoin miner dynamics in the post-halving environment.

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