Good Morning, Bitcoin - Tuesday, November 19th, 2024

GM. We are so back.

What's new

• Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 0.63% and is currently at 102.29T. The network's hashrate (7-day Simple Moving Average) is approximately 734 EH/s.

• OpenSats issues third wave of Bitcoin education grants. Educational materials produced through these grants will be made available under permissive and open licenses, guaranteeing that they remain accessible to all. The latest grant recipients include:
  • BTC Map. A community-driven global directory of over 10,000 Bitcoin merchants using OpenStreetMap to simplify discovery and promote adoption.
  • Yes Bitcoin Haiti is building a circular Bitcoin economy in Haiti by educating, adopting merchants, and promoting financial inclusion for unbanked communities.
  • Entropy Bitcoin Education project makes Bitcoin learning fun and accessible worldwide through gamified workshops and open-source tools.
  • Bitcoin 4all provides free, multilingual video lessons in English, Spanish, and Portuguese to educate and support global Bitcoin literacy.
• Start your career in Bitcoin open source in 2025. Chaincode Labs is looking for individuals serious about a career in Bitcoin open source software (₿OSS). It offers a three-month online software development program open to all levels, emphasizing passion, dedication, and rigorous technical training with minimal entry barriers. Application deadline is December 31, 2024. The program is scheduled to start on January 13th.
• AnchorWatch becomes a Lloyd's of London Coverholder. The company will launch in December 2024 with up to $100M binding authority per customer, securing the wealth of American retail and institutional investors.

“We are proud to be at the forefront of transforming bitcoin custody with Trident Vault’s advanced security features and its pairing with coverage from Lloyd’s of London syndicates. Until now, individuals and businesses faced the difficult choice between uninsured custody or third-party policies, often valued at mere fractions of a cent per dollar in custody. AnchorWatch changes the game by providing true, insured bitcoin custody," said AnchorWatch co-founder and CEO Rob Hamilton.

• MicroStrategy buys 51,780 BTC for $4,6 billion. It now owns 331,200 BTC acquired for $16.5 billion at an average price of $49,874 per coin. The company also announced plans to raise additional $1.75 billion "to acquire additional bitcoin and for general corporate purposes."
• Semler Scientific acquired 215 BTC for $17.7 million. The company's total holdings of 1,273 BTC were purchased for $88.7 million at an average price of $69,682 per coin.
• Thumzup Media Corp approves a $1 million BTC strategy plan. Thumzup (TZUP), a leading social media branding firm, announced its entry into Bitcoin as the company's board has authorized a plan to buy up to $1 million in bitcoin for treasury reserves.
• Metaplanet snaps up an additional 124 BTC. The company purchased 124 BTC a day after issuing one-year ordinary bonds totaling ¥1.75 billion ($11.3 million) with an annual interest rate of 0.36%. Since April, Metaplanet has accumulated 1,142 BTC valued at ~$92.33 million.
• MARA Holdings is raising $700 million for BTC purchases. The firm has disclosed its intentions to utilize the proceeds from its financial activities primarily for the acquisition of additional bitcoin. Additionally, MARA plans to use funds for repurchasing its 2026 convertible notes and for general corporate purposes. The company was holding 27,562 BTC as of October 31, 2024.

• Chinese electric car manufacturer Kaixin Holdings enters Bitcoin mining. The company acquired a Middle Eastern mining facility to leverage efficient Bitcoin equipment and access to reliable, cost-effective energy.
• Pennsylvania introduces the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve act. Republican Representative Mike Cabell introduced the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (HB 2664) in the State House, permitting Pennsylvania to allocate up to 10% of state funds to Bitcoin. Similar bills are pending in ten other states, reports Atlas21.
• Polish Presidential candidate Sławomir Mentzen pledges to establish Strategic Bitcoin Reserve if elected in 2025. His vision includes lower taxes, supportive banking regulations, and a creating a crypto-friendly environment for businesses.

• Screven County, GA, became the first county in the United States to use the Bitcoin blockchain to safeguard the results of its elections. On November 5, 2024, the Board of Elections partnered with Simple Proof, a U.S. company that secures digital records with the Bitcoin blockchain, ensuring results remained unaltered, reports Frank Corva.
• Bitfinex hackers received their sentences. Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, has been sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for his involvement in a money laundering conspiracy arising from the hack and theft of approximately 120,000 BTC. His wife, Heather Morgan, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in the hack.
• BTC in D.C. conference to take place in September 2025. The event will explore Bitcoin’s role in finance and its regulatory impact, reports BTC Times.
• BTCHel conference to take place in Finland on August 15-16, 2025. The event is set to be "the first ever large scale bitcoin conference in the Nordics." Learn more about it here.

Use the tools

• PlebDevs.com platform has been launched. It provides tools, workshops, and educational content for aspiring Bitcoin, Lightning, and Nostr developers.

• Olas v0.1.2 is an Instragram-style Nostr client for iOS and Android. It serves a feed of videos and picture events and supports blossom uploads, NIP-22 replies, reels, image download optimization, and more. Try it out on iOS TestFlight here. The project's repository is available here.
• ZEUS v0.9.3-beta1 is now available for testing. This version brings channel reserve display, ZEUS Pay UX improvements, displays BTC-denominated amounts with spaces, and more.
• umbrelOS v1.3 Beta 1 is now available for testing. It includes swappable apps - the ability to switch between Bitcoin Core, Knots, and Libre Relay, or Electrs, Fulcrum, and ElectrumX. It also packages Cloudflare DNS and Factory Reset, performance enhancements, and essential bug fixes.
  • To try it out, go to Settings > Advanced settings, and enroll into the umbrelOS Beta Program.

The power to switch. The freedom to control.

Introducing umbrelOS 1.3.

🔄 Swappable apps: Effortlessly switch between Bitcoin Node, Bitcoin Knots & Libre Relay, or Electrs, Fulcrum & ElectrumX.

✨ New features: Cloudflare DNS and Factory Reset.

⚡ Faster & smoother: Enjoy a… pic.twitter.com/xL1jb27cVB

— Umbrel ☂️ (@umbrel) November 18, 2024

• Bitcoin Keeper v1.2.19 fixes Android bug for COLDCARD vault registration via NFC, and few other minor bugs.
• BTCPay Server v2.0.3 and v1.13.7 are maintenance releases that include security critical fixes for users of Boltcards.
• Blitz wallet v0.3.3-beta added multiple AI models, a block explorer for Liquid payments, Pick n Pay integration, and general bug fixes.
• Nix Bitcoin v0.0.115 updates bitcoind, CLBOSS, electrs, and trustedcoin implementations. Additionally, the LND module's ExecStartPost script is now extensible with custom scripts.
• ESP-Miner v2.4.0 has been released, delivering temperature sensor fixes, as well as UI, swarm, and overclocking improvements, among other enhancements.

• Clams Remote v2.5.1 brings the ability to send payments to BIP-353 usernames.
• Ride The Lightning (RTL) v0.15.4-beta is a minor release that improves authentication logic for clearer error handling and validation during login and password reset processes, as well as refined application settings for stricter validation of access keys.
• Coinos.io web wallet integrated the ability to pay BOLT 12 offers.
• Cashu Dev Kit (CDK) v0.5.0 includes NUT-17 WebSocket support for the mint, as well as many bug fixes and improvements.
• Nutshell v0.16.3 is out with a number of bug fixes. Multinut payments are now turned on by default, and mints now have the ability to signal multiple URLs in case their DNS gets rugged.

• Swiss Bitcoin Pay app v2.2.1 introduces support for multiple accounts on Bitbox02.
• Mempal v1.2.1, a mempool monitoring and notification app for Android, added widget functionality, the ability to test connections for custom mempool servers, confirmation notifications based on specific transaction IDs, and more.
• Proton Wallet implemented Replace-by-Fee (RBF) functionality. Learn how to use it here.

With Bitcoin heading to new highs, we expect more demand and volatile network fees ahead. Which is why Proton Wallet now lets you speed up the confirmation speed of transactions with Replace-By-Fee (RBF): pic.twitter.com/CMKo2huODX

— Proton Wallet (@ProtonWallet) November 18, 2024

• 0xchat v1.4.1 delivers video player optimizations with landscape mode support, adds audio configuration in settings, enables copying of ecash tokens from ecash messages, and supports media deletion.
• ezdvm v0.1.2, a simple DVM implementation in Python, now uses nostr-sdk v0.36, adds a test script to send events to DVMs, and improves the project's documentation.
• Grain v0.2.1, an open-source Nostr relay implementation written in Go, fixes event purging.

• Casa launched Case Enterprise, a Bitcoin treasury management solution for businesses.
• Satadelica is a fun and trippy web-based Bitcoin price visualizer.
• GrapheneOS v2024111800 is the latest release for a security-focused, free, and open-source Android-based mobile operating system.

Other stuff

• Bitcoin Optech #329 newsletter summarizes a new off-chain payment resolution protocol and links to papers about potential IP-layer tracking and censorship of Lightning Network (LN) payments.
• Lightning Dev Kit's team published new guidance on how to overcome the challenges of routing payments on the Lightning Network.
• Stratum V2 SRI's roadmap for Q4 2024 and 2025 is available here. A more detailed version of the roadmap can be found on GitHub.
• truthforall shared a video investigation by Factum documenting the death of Alejandro Muyshondt, a Salvadorian ex-security advisor who was also an avid Bitcoiner and the user of Nostr.
• djuri, the creator of BTClock, shared his perspective on the Coinkite vs BTClock saga.
• Nostr Wallet Connect published an updated NWC ecosystem map.

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