Good Morning, Bitcoin - Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024

GM. "We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us."― Marshall McLuhan

What's happening

• Bitcoin hashrate reaches new all-time high. The network reached a record 769 EH/s for a time on Monday, with the 7-day moving average hashrate rising to 724 EH/s and surpassing the previous high of 700 EH/s set in early September.
  • The next mining difficulty adjustment is set to take place in ~54 blocks or approximately 8 hours. It is expected to set a new all-time high for mining difficulty as well.

• Minneapolis FED research finds that 'Bitcoin' makes permanent budget deficits unsustainable. The researchers go on to conclude that governments can either tax or ban "fixed supply private-sector bubble assets that are not a claim to any real resources" to ensure the long-term viability of large and permanent budget deficits.
  • The paper is rather theoretical and attempts to use Bitcoin as a "metaphor for a private-sector security that is in fixed supply and that is not a claim to any real resources."
• Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari is not doing well either. On Monday, he told audience members at a town hall in Wisconsin that "very few transactions were actually happening" in Bitcoin. He added that "it almost never happens unless people are buying drugs or other illegal activities." It's not clear from where the Federal official is pulling his data.

• Dutch bitcoin-only exchange BL3P to shut down on December 20th. According to the exchange, the decision was driven by new regulations such as MiCA, and the company will focus on the Bitonic platform moving forward.
• New York Judge dismisses defamation suit against Chainalysis. The New York Supreme Court's Judge Lyle E. Frank dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Chainalysis, filed by YieldNodes and its parent company Exceptional Media. The dismissal was based on New York's Anti-SLAPP laws, which protect free speech and public discourse.

• Tim Draper donates $250,000 to Brink. "We are pleased to announce a $250,000 contribution to our Bitcoin development funding efforts from Tim Draper and The Draper Foundation. Thank you for supporting Bitcoin and open source development," said the non-profit organization.
• Spiral renews grant for Ruben Somsen. He is currently working on Silent Payments and assisting with the implementation of Proof-of-Work fraud proofs into Floresta.
• Tether-owned Northern Data mulls selling Bitcoin mining unit to focus on AI. On Monday, the firm announced it is negotiating to sell its Bitcoin mining business, Peak Mining. The potential proceeds would be used to acquire data centers, purchase GPUs, and develop an AI product platform.
• Bitcoin miner Revolve Labs plans $60M AI data center in Minnesota. The company reportedly met with local authorities in September to plan expanding its facilities to include one or two AI data centers, complete with cooling systems and backup generators. Bitcoin mining has significantly contributed to the city's power revenues, funding streetlight projects and preventing electrical rate hikes over the last five years.

"It’s a revenue stream that goes into our coffers and, quite frankly, keeps everything cheaper," said Dave Meyer, general manager of the Glencoe Light and Power Commission.

• Leadership changes at Blink. Entrepreneur Lukas Duczko became Blink's CEO and Executive Chairman, and six new members joined the Blink Board of Directors. As part of this transition, a Bitcoin Beach Fund was created and infused with Blink shares. These shares will be distributed to Salvadorans contributing to Bitcoin circular economies in El Salvador.
• Argentina's Milei announced 'dissolution' of tax bureau. The government plans to close the AFIP tax collection agency and replace it with the simplified Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA), aiming for a 34% reduction in staffing levels and generating annual savings of up to 6.4 billion pesos.

Use the tools

• Blitz wallet v0.3.1-beta delivers Lightning Address contacts, making it easier to send payments, and Lightning Toggle, which is an option to toggle whether or not to use Lightning for transactions.
• Bitvaulty rebrands to BitVault. BitVault is an up-and-coming, multisignature Bitcoin wallet with custom time delays and seamless Bitcoin-layer 2 integrations.
  • To test the Beta, head over to bitvaulty.com and leave your email, or join the project's Telegram group.
• TimechainStats.com added Arcade mode where you can play some Bitcoin-themed games.
• LN Markets implemented Cash In from Trade Margin feature. It allows users to cash in not just on the positive P&L of running positions, but also on the trade margin.
• Osmo Wallet now lets users receive ACH and Wire transfers from the US. "Now our users can withdraw funds from PayPal, Wise, CashApp, Venmo, Deel, Airbnb, etc. directly into their OSMO USDc account," said the developer.

• lemon, the author of gifbuddy.lol (which makes it super easy to post GIFs to Nostr), has developed a Translator bot for automated translation of Nostr notes, videos, and memes. Users simply need to tag the bot in a note and state the target language.

• Unchained launched the ability to confirm bitcoin deposit addresses via email to protect browser-based bitcoin wallets from sending coins to wrong addresses due to malware.
  • "Confirming deposit addresses via email does not give you the same guarantees of confirming addresses with hardware wallets," noted the company.
• GrapheneOS v2024102000 includes a keyboard fix and ensures stack clash protection for arm64.

Other stuff

• Jameson Lopp published a blog post on Slow Block Validation Attacks.
• siggy47 shared his journey of setting up his first Meshtastic Radio.
• The Nostr Review is a bi-weekly newsletter covering Nostr protocol updates, interesting implementations, and other important events in the Nostr-verse.

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