Good Morning, Bitcoin - Friday, August 9th, 2024

Good morning! Today is Friday, August 9th, and here's your patiently-awaited GM report.

The report has been rugged several times this week due to operational constrains on our end. Maintaining this site is still a full-time effort with minimal economic reward, but we will continue as long as we can—it is still far more meaningful than any soul-crushing fiat mining job. If you would like to support our independent journalism, check out our fundraising campaign on Geyser.

What's happening

• Norway is set to ban Bitcoin mining without public consultations by the end of the year. The country's Ministry of Digitalization and Public Administration told The Open Dialogue Foundation that it "has no plans to conduct a public consultation" on a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the country, which is likely coming by the year-end. Norwegian citizens are encouraged to reach out to their government, requesting public consultation and providing arguments about the social benefits of Bitcoin mining
• Qatar to 'legalize digital assets' by Q4 2024. The country is developing a regulatory framework for digital assets, pivoting from its previous hardline stance against Bitcoin. The Qatar Central Bank banned Bitcoin trading in 2018, citing the need to protect the financial system and consumers.
• Russian mining legislation signed into law. As reported, only Russian legal entities and registered individual entrepreneurs can mine legally. Individuals staying within government-set energy limits can mine without registration. The Bank of Russia, Ministry of Finance, and a select cabinet will oversee the mining industry. Additionally, the bill bans mass cryptocurrency advertising in Russia.
• Ireland increases its seized bitcoin stash. Irish police have seized €6.5 million ($7.1 million) in bitcoin and monero from three individuals in Dublin arrested for allegedly aiding a dark web and money laundering operation.
• More OpenSats grants. OpenSats, a non-profit focused on funding Bitcoin and freedom tech projects, has announced the sixth wave of Nostr grants, awarding nine projects. The organization has also granted long-term support to Kieran Harkin, who will use it to improve Snort client, and develop native apps for zap.stream, including a new backend to create a marketplace of streaming providers.
• Build Asset Management to donate 10% of management fees for open-source Bitcoin developers. The company has committed to donating 10% of management fees from its Bitcoin-backed direct lending fund, Build Secured Income Fund I. The donations will be no-strings-attached and will occur monthly, split equally between OpenSats and the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund.
• Chaincode Labs is offering a Bitcoin scholarship covering 100% tuition for an undergraduate anywhere in the world. Applications are open until August 31.
• CUBO+ is inviting Salvadoran Bitcoin developers to its Devs Generation 2024 program, providing a technical understanding of Bitcoin. The application deadline is August 26.
• Michael Saylor hodls over 17,732 BTC. During a live session with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Saylor revealed that he still holds at least 17,732 BTC, worth almost $1 billion at current prices. The initial stash was acquired in 2020 for approximately $175.2 million at an average price of $9,882.

"I haven’t sold any bitcoin, and I continue to acquire more bitcoin. I think it’s a great capital investment asset […], and I can’t see a better place to put my money," he added.

• Metaplanet prepares for more bitcoin shopping. he publicly listed Japanese investment firm has obtained a ¥1 billion ($6.8 million) loan to buy more Bitcoin. This follows its announcement to raise ¥10.08 billion through a stock rights offering, primarily for Bitcoin purchases, reports Bitcoin Magazine.
• IMF seeks agreement on fiscal policy with El Salvador. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to El Salvador has released a statement focused on supporting the country's medium-term growth, all while "mitigating fiscal and financial stability risks related to Bitcoin."

"We welcome this acknowledgment, and we believe that these risks will, in fact, never materialize in El Salvador," the head of the office, Stacy Herbert, told Forbes.

• 'Crypto for Harris.' The Democrats in the United States have launched the "Crypto for Harris" campaign to engage the cryptocurrency community and counter Donald Trump's growing influence in the sector.
• Craig Wright fails to file a COPA appeal. Faketoshi has not appealed his UK court verdict, despite two of his online accounts claiming he had.
• 1password Mac usrs are urged to update. An issue in 1Password for Mac has been identified that compromises the app's platform security, allowing a local malicious process to bypass inter-process communication protections. This affects all versions of 1Password 8 for Mac prior to 8.10.36 (July 2024), which resolves the issue.

Use the tools

• Fedi announced the first full release of its Bitcoin community “super app” during a livestream on Tuesday. The app is now available on Android and iOS. Fedi is currently "source available," meaning the code is available for inspection by the public, but the project is set to transition to a full AGPL open source license (Affero General Public License) by January 2026.
• Bitcoin Keeper v1.2.12 has been released. It comes with automatic cloud backups, custom fees for auto-transfers, ability to hide assisted keys, extra info on signing device history screen, bug fixes and performance improvements.
• PlebLab has launched PlebTV, a platform similar to Netflix for Bitcoiners, focused on showcasing and preserving educational video content accumulated since 2021. It includes premium content leveraging the new Zaprite API for an enhanced experience for users who prefer to pay in Bitcoin.

• Version 0.12.3 of Mostro peer-to-peer exchange has been released. It features update to Nostr events, introduces 'in-memory' price cache, resubscribe invoices, scheduler event with relay list, and more.
• BitForge Nano by @wantclue is an innovative, open-source Bitcoin miner designed for home use, utilizing 2x BM1368 ASIC chips to deliver over 1 TH/s. Support the project here.
• BitKit Wallet v1.0.3 introduces comment functionality for LNURL-pay, a liquidity information screen for receiving transactions, minor UI changes, and various bug fixes.
• 10101 v2.4.8, a self-custodial Bitcoin derivatives trading app using Discreet Log Contracts (DLC) for trustless trade execution, introduces funding rates.
• Grain v0.1.1, an open-source Nostr relay implementation written in Go, now features whitelist configuration overhaul, server timeout configuration, and event import functionality.
• Amethyst v0.89.9 adds improvements to the outbox model to filter large follow lists.
• Obscura VPN release v1.95 for macOS testers is here. It makes the VPN connection significantly more robust.

Other stuff

• Proton VPN has rolled out Discrete Icons for Android users.

• Awesome OP_CAT is a curated list of all things related to OP_CAT.
• Bitcoin’s record low hashprice is pushing bitcoin miners to the brink, reports The Miner Mag.

• What else did we miss? DM us on Nostr.
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