Good Morning, Bitcoin - Thursday, July 25th, 2024

GM! It is Thursday, July 25th, and we hope you're ready to have a fantastic day. Let’s dive into the latest updates and insights that shape our ever-evolving Bitcoin landscape.

What's happening

• A Bitaxe has found a block! A solo Bitcoin miner with 3 TH/s has mined block 853742, overcoming odds of 1 in 1.2 million and earning 3.192 BTC (approximately $200,000).
• Bitcoin financial services company Fold is set to go public on the Nasdaq via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Emerald Acquisition Corp. (EMLD), valuing Fold at $365 million. After the merger, Fold expects to have over 1,000 BTC on its consolidated balance sheet.
• The Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville kicks off today with an Industry Day. A livestream of the event will be available, and the agenda can be found here.

• Speaking of Bitcoin 2024 conference, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming is reportedly preparing to introduce new legislation that would require the Federal Reserve to hold some Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
• Coders at BitcoinOS claim to have successfully verified a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) on the Bitcoin mainnet for the first time in history. The team will present this achievement to a live audience at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville today.
• Switzerland has significantly advanced its "Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks" (EMBAG), which mandates the use of open-source software (OSS) in the public sector.
• Meanwhile, Europol's latest report, titled 'Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment,' indicates that Bitcoin remains the most popular digital asset in cybercrime cases involving cryptocurrencies. However, the use of altcoins, particularly stablecoins in investment fraud and Monero in ransomware attacks, is on the rise.
• Luxury car brand Ferrari announced that it will expand its acceptance of Bitcoin and other digital currencies to its European dealer network starting at the end of this month. This follows its initial rollout in the United States last year in partnership with BitPay.
• Blockchain Commons released its 2024 Q2 report. Read it all here.

Use the tools

• Proton, the privacy-focused Swiss technology company, has launched early access to Proton Wallet, an open-source, end-to-end encrypted, and self-custodial Bitcoin wallet.
• Alby Hub has opened a waitlist for users wanting their own nodes. Existing Alby users can upgrade their setup and easily migrate funds from their Alby Web wallet to their own node today. Alby Hub is also available as a free, open-source DIY setup for personal servers, desktops, or even Raspberry Pi Zero.
• Jack Mallers announced a Strike plug-in for BTCPay Server, set to be trialed at the Bitcoin 2024 Nashville conference with over 50 merchants.

Announcing the @Strike Plug-In For @BtcpayServer

BTCPay merchants now get the best of #Bitcoin with open-source software and the ability to plug into financial services they need to run their business.

All the benefits of #bitcoin with the convenience needed to adopt it. pic.twitter.com/7KTPoZ64kg

— Jack Mallers (@jackmallers) July 24, 2024

• Damus v1.9(14) is the latest App Store release for Apple users on Nostr, featuring a new thread chat view, emoji selector, and important bug fixes.
• 0xchat v1.3.0 is now out of beta, fixing NIP-29 relay groups and adding several new features and enhancements.
• Hyperion is a discrete time network event simulator for Bitcoin aimed at simulating data propagation using various techniques.
• Blockstream Green Android v4.0.31 now allows the disabling of TLS on Personal Electrum servers.
• Unify Wallet v0.0.2 is an early but functional version of a BIP-78 over Nostr Payjoin wallet, available on macOS and iOS.
• CLBOSS v0.13.2, an automated manager for Core Lightning forwarding nodes, introduces signet support, module diagrams for channel creation, off-chain to on-chain swaps, channel balancing, and updates to the seeds list.
• Citrine v0.3.0, a Nostr relay for Android, includes fixes for kinds filter and duplicated events.
• Nos v0.1.21 is now available on TestFlight, featuring numerous fixes and new features.
• ngit v1.3, a code collaboration tool over the Nostr protocol, now supports offline use and signing in from Android via Amber signer.
• Super Testnet has added proof-of-reserves and liabilities to StatechainJS project.

• Corny Chat, a live audio spaces app for Nostr, now utilizes LNbits for Lightning account management and as an LNURL Pay provider.
• Gossip v0.11.1 is a minor bug fix release for the Nostr desktop client.
• BitVMX showcased how to interactively verify a SNARK proof on Bitcoin with BitVMX, with more details available here.

Other stuff

• Seth For Privacy shared his initial impressions of Proton Wallet.
• Senator Cynthia Lummis shared an orange paper refuting The Biden administration’s scheme for taxing bitcoin mining.
• CASCDR, a Lightning-powered AI services platform, provided an update on how YouTube's crackdown on third-party scraping and APIs has affected their services.

• Do you want more? Subscribe and get No Bullshit GM report straight to your mailbox.
• Have something to share with the world? DM us on Nostr.