Good Morning, Bitcoin - Monday, September 2nd, 2024

GM. It's Monday, September 2nd, 2024, and here's your first autumn No Bullshit GM report with the latest in Bitcoin and freedom tech.

What's new

• X banned in Brazil, citizens accessing it via VPNs threatened with a $8,874 daily fine. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended Elon Musk's social media platform X in Brazil after it missed a 24-hour deadline to appoint a local representative. The judge ordered internet providers and app stores to block X within five days, and the platform will stay blocked until it complies. Users or companies accessing X via virtual private networks (VPNs) will face daily fines of 50,000 reais (~$8,874). X has clashed with de Moraes over its refusal to block users as ordered.
• Bull Bitcoin launched in France. The exchange recently acquired Bitcoin Lyon, one of France's oldest brokers. "Our mission is to equip you with the tools to reclaim your freedom and sovereignty. It started more than 10 years ago in Canada, continued in Costa Rica, and now we open a new chapter in our fight against central bankers, alongside the French people," the company stated in a blog post.
• Chat control is back on the menu in EU. Chat Control regulation representatives of EU governments will resume work on September 4th, according to Patrick Breyer, former Member of the European Parliament. If there are no preventive actions from the public, the regulation will likely be endorsed on December 12-13, 2024, warns Lyudmyla Kozlovska.

• The regulations are set to move forward despite widespread opposition from European citizens and residents, and appear to be a part of a coordinated 'Going Dark' initiative.

• Nigerian SEC approves several local exchanges in a push for regulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Nigeria announced Approval in Principle (AIP) to two cryptocurrency exchanges under its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program (ARIP) and admitted five other Digital Assets Firms into its Regulatory Incubation (RI) program. The institution added that all firms that lack a license are operating illegally and advised the public to refrain from using such platforms and services.
• B-ONLY 2024 Conference is a three-day Bitcoin event taking place 'at the heart of the Alps.' It will be held on November 9-11, 2024. Get your tickets here.

Use the tools

• Core Lightning v24.08 has been released. We'll publish a more detailed post a bit later. For now, you can check out the release highlights here.
• Cashu Dev Kit (CDK) v0.3.0 adds LNbits, Strike API, and LND as supported Lightning backends for the mints. The Strike API supports both bitcoin denomination as well as fiat currency.
• Zaprite added virtual Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal integration for enhanced in-person payments experience that complements the platform's suite of online merchant tools.

• Phoenix Android v2.3.7 introduces support for custom 6-digits PIN code specific to Phoenix. It can replace or coexist with the user's ScreenLock.
  • Phoenix iOS v2.3.3 brings compatibility improvements for BOLT12 payments.
• Mempool v3.0.0 is now available on startOS.
• Nunchuk mobile apps Android (v1.9.50) and iOS (v1.9.53) ship with new and improved Coin Collection settings, a refactored sign-in flow, and other bug fixes and improvements.
• A beta version of Foundation Passport firmware v2.3.2 is now available for testing. It adds support for ephemeral seeds, the ability to sign messages via QR code, and a connection flow for Fully Noded.

• BitAxe Viewer Extension v1.2 adds new stats and makes it easier to navigate to the device's UI.
• New and improved Krux Installer v0.0.2-alpha is here. It comes with macOS support, ten languages, support for seven devices, a settings page, and more.
• Live Wallet v0.6.0, an app for estimating the effect of bitcoin transaction fees on invididual UTOXs and transactions containing multiple UTXOs, comes with improved fee estimation and bug fixes.
• Jippi, a new interactive Bitcoin education app for beginners to earn and learn about Bitcoin with others, is now available for download on both Android and iOS.
• Gifbuddy.lol, a GIF companion app for Nostr clients, now lets you upload your own GIFs, loads more search results, and works faster.

• 0xchat v1.3.1, a secure chat app built on the Nostr protocol, incorporates all changes from the previous beta versions. New features include better handling of microphone access, support for voice calls in the background, multi-account switching, and more.
• Amethyst v0.90.5 comes with an Orbot fix and a number of other fixes introduced in v0.90.4.
• Getwired.app is an anon agora built on the Nostr protocol to facilitate 'unstoppable free speech on the internet.' It also uses Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism to prevent spam.
• Zapin.me v0.1.0 has been released. It is an open-source platform where users can pin messages on a global map, with visibility determined by the amount of sats paid via the Lightning Network.
• GrapheneOS v2024083100 is the latest release for an open-source, privacy and security-focused mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

Other stuff

• Rearden wrote a reasonable breakdown of threat models in relation to the Dark Skippy vulnerability.
• M. K. Fain published a blog post on how to join Nostr in Brazil. Cobrafuma is a freshly launched Brazilian community on Nostr.
• Matthew Mezinskis put together the 25th monetary base update for Q2 2024. Get all the latest insights here.

• What did we miss? DM us on Nostr.
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