Good Morning, Bitcoin - Monday, August 19th, 2024

GM. It is August 19th, 2024, and here's your Monday news digest.

What's happening

• US Treasury and Federal Reserve plan to redefine 'money.' U.S. federal agencies plan to redefine 'money' as used in the rules of the Bank Secrecy Act to tighten reporting requirements for financial institutions regarding domestic and cross-border cryptocurrency transactions. The proposed rulemaking is expected by September 2025, pending clearance.

• ₿trust announced Q3 2024 grant recipients. Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey-funded bitcoin non-profit ₿trust, focused on nurturing Bitcoin developers from the Global South, announced the recipients of its Q3 Starter Grants and new members of its ₿trust Open-Source Cohort.
  • ₿trust grants are available to developers in Africa, the MENA region, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, with consideration for other Global South developers on a case-by-case basis based on their Proof-of-Work.
• Dubai approves bitcoin for salary payments. On August 15, the Dubai Court of First Instance confirmed the legality of Bitcoin and digital asset payments for salaries. In a case between an employer and employee, the court upheld the contract terms, rejecting the employer's claim that crypto payments were not legally enforceable.
• Ghana releases draft guidelines for cryptocurrencies. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has drafted new regulations in response to the growing popularity of digital assets like Bitcoin and USDT. According to the draft, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) operating or planning to operate in the country must seek authorization from the BoG or the SEC, depending on their offerings.
  • Responses and recommendations regarding the proposed measures to the Bank of Ghana by or before August 31, 2024. Submissions should be sent to FinTech@bog.gov.gh.
• Australia took down over 7300 scam websites since July 2023. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced the takedown of over 5530 fake investment platform scams, 1065 phishing scam hyperlinks, and 615 cryptocurrency-linked investment scams.
• Greenidge Generation sued the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to prevent the agency from shutting down its bitcoin mining operation next month, reports The Miner Mag.
• Watch Out, Bitcoin 2024 conference will take place in Madrid, Spain, on September 27-29.

Use the tools

• Ark v0.2 is here. Ark is a layer-two protocol designed to scale Bitcoin transactions. The release includes covenant-less Ark implementation, offline payments, client SDKs, MutinyNet support, and enhancements to Ark's codebase and documentation.
• Bisq v2.1.0, the latest Bisq 2 update, brings support for the Lightning Network as an additional Bitcoin settlement method, a QR code scanner, upgraded chats, improved Tor startup, and more.
• BlueWallet v7.0.0 release adds a toggle to disable privacy blur, lock screen widgets for iOS, and makes BIP-47 payment codes available to everyone (you have to enable it in wallet settings).

• RaspiBlitz v1.11.2 is a quick patch addressing a bug related to new wallet creation in Core Lightning. If you are already running a Core Lightning wallet or using LND, an update is not required.
• LbtLightning released Payjoin Flutter library v0.18.0 for the Payjoin Dev Kit, making it easier to integrate Payjoin into Flutter Bitcoin apps.

• 0xchat v1.31-beta has been released. Voice calls can now continue in the background, multi-account switching is supported, and group admins can now delete messages for everyone, among other features.
• Wikifreedia v0.0.9, a free and open alternative Nostr-based alternative to Wikipedia, drops Markdown in favor of AsciiDoc.
• Mostro v0.12.4, a P2P exchange on Nostr, includes a few small improvements.
• Lightning Bot v1.0.4, a Telegram bot for managing one's Lightning node remotely, introduces enhanced system monitoring, better error reporting, and code refactoring for improved security.
• Swiss Bitcoin Pay app v2.1.1 update includes fee updates, an added Dockerfile builder, and fixes for on-chain payments.
• Strike has introduced ACH bank transfers for US businesses. The firm now also supports currency swaps in P2P transactions.
• Stacker.news has added Blink as an attached sending wallet, and fixed auto-withdraw issues.
• CASCADR launched a stacker.news bot that can summarize Fountain podcasts, ELI5 complex tech debates or even argue for/against a debate point in the tone of Donald Trump.

Other stuff

• Surveillance Watch offers an interactive map revealing intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources, and affiliations.
• The Network School. The latest initiative by Balaji Srinivasan aims to build a 'dark talent' school in an island near Singapore.
• A new gamified Bitcoin education app, Jippi, is set to launch on August 30th. Until then, you can join the waitlist here.

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