Good Morning, Bitcoin - Wednesday, September 18th, 2024

GM. It is Wednesday, September 18th, 2024, and here's your very latest GM recap.

What's happening

• Free Samourai: 8TB+ of discovery, motion to dismiss charges, Rodriguez's bail modifications denied. Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill attended a pre-trial hearing in the Southern District of New York. Defense attorneys argued that Samourai Wallet does not constitute a money transmitting business. Rodriguez's request to modify his bail conditions was denied. The next hearing for pretrial motions is scheduled for December 17th, 2024, at 10 AM ET.
• HRF Bitcoin Development Fund grants 10 BTC to 20 projects worldwide. This round of grants targeted technical education in authoritarian regions, Bitcoin development conferences, decentralized mining, and privacy-focused financial solutions for human rights groups, especially in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Find the full list of grantees here.
• BlackRock published a new report calling Bitcoin a unique portfolio diversifier. The report examines the significance of Bitcoin, what makes it unique, and recommends modest allocations for a 'diversifying effect on portfolios.'

"Over extended time horizons, we believe bitcoin’s adoption drivers are likely to be distinct from, and in some cases inverted with, the global macro factors that drive most traditional financial assets," said the report authors.

• First Maelstrom Bitcoin Developer Grant awarded to Rkrux. Arthur Hayes's family office has granted its first Bitcoin developer award to Rkrux, enabling him to work full-time on Bitcoin Core open-source contributions. "We look forward to identifying more grant candidates that will be instrumental in strengthening the Bitcoin ecosystem," said Arthur Hayes.
• Cathedra Bitcoin announces BTC as primary reserve asset. After seven years in the mining business, Canadian Bitcoin miner Cathedra Bitcoin (CBIT) is altering its focus. The company is now shifting to developing data centers and plans to use the profits to purchase bitcoin instead of mining it.

"The last three years have demonstrated to us that Bitcoin mining is not a reliable way to grow shareholders’ bitcoin per share. Indeed, nine of the ten largest (by market capitalization) publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies hold less bitcoin per share today than they did three years ago," the company stated in the memo, adding that companies like MicroStrategy, which focus on increasing bitcoin per share, have been rewarded by equity markets.

• US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $187 million on Tuesday, extending their positive run to four days, reports The Block.
• LQWD Technologies partners with Alby. Through this partnership, LQWD will provide Alby Hub users with robust liquidity solutions, as stated in a press release.
• Federal Trade Commission published a report on fraud at Bitcoin ATMs. According to the FTC, Bitcoin ATMs have become an increasingly useful tool for scammers. The agency found that, since 2020, fraud at these ATMs has surged nearly tenfold. In the first half of 2024 alone, consumers lost over $66 million to scams involving these beautiful machines.

• Base 58 Bitcoin Developer Workshop is set to take place in Tokyo on Friday, September 20th, 2024, at the upcoming Bitcoin Tokyo 2024 conference, which will occur on September 21-22, 2024.

Use the tools

• Peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Hodl Hodl announced a brand-new redesign with a fresh logo and visuals that reflect peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, self-custody, and decentralization.

• Meanwhile, Peach Bitcoin marketplace added Strike as a payment method for the EUR and GBP markets.
• Hardware Wallet Interface (HWI) v3.1.0, a minor release, brings support for recent Trezor Safe 5 and new Ledger signing devices, as well as some binary build compatibility fixes.
• BitBox02 firmware v9.20.0 brings Bitcoin UX improvements for payment request confirmations.
  • BitBox App v4.44.0 adds support in-app sales via Pocket Bitcoin.
• Blockstream Green Android v4.0.34 updates several dependencies and includes various bug fixes.

• Elements v23.2.3 is the latest release of the open-source software that underpins Liquid and other Elements-based sidechains. The developers added initial support for discounted fees for Confidential Transactions (ELIP-200), aimed at reducing network fees by nearly 90%. This feature is now available on the Liquid testnet, allowing Liquid wallets and platforms to start integration and testing.
  • The update also brings greater flexibility for peg-out operations, and adds several fixes to improve overall network stability and performance.
• Padawan Wallet v0.14.1, the bitcoin wallet trainer on Android, now fully supports the Portuguese language and includes numerous UI fixes and updates, such as incorporating the new edge-to-edge Android standard.
• Nunchuk Android v1.9.51 now supports reproducible builds. Nunchuk iOS v1.9.54 is a small release with bug fixes and improvements.
• Neutronpay App and Bitcoin wallet has launched in Singapore.
• Speed Wallet introduced swaps between BTC and USDT-L.
• Lightstack by massmux is an 'Automagic Self-Custodial Cloud Lightning Stack.'
• bullishNuts v0.0.71 fixes issues related to receiving ecash from different mints.
• Tor Browser v13.5.4 is here. It's a small cross-platform release that addresses several bugs.

Other stuff

• Junseth shared a third interview with social engineering scammers. Listen to it here.
• Cashu protocol specifications have been published on a sleek, searchable documentation page. Access it here.
• Cypherpunktools.com provides a comprehensive list of privacy tools with a selection hosted by privacy-focused VPS provider Mynymbox.io.

• What did we miss? DM us on Nostr.
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