Good Morning, Bitcoin - Thursday, December 19th, 2024

What's new

• Apply for the Btrust Builders’ 2025 ₿OSS cohort. Btrust Builders, in partnership with Chaincode Labs, is inviting applications for the 2025 Builders January Cohort. This part-time, three-month, fully remote program aims to support passionate software developers in Africa to contribute to Bitcoin open-source software (₿OSS). Applications are open until December 27, 2024.

• El Salvador to scale back Bitcoin policies for $1.4 billion IMF loan deal. The country finalized a four-year $1.4bn IMF deal strained by its Bitcoin adoption. The agreement is set to make bitcoin use voluntary for the private sector, limits public sector bitcoin activities, and phases out government involvement in the Chivo wallet. It may also unlock extra $3.5bn in development bank funds.

"Taxes will only be paid in U.S. dollars and the government’s participation in the crypto e-wallet (Chivo) will be gradually unwound. Transparency, regulation, and supervision of digital assets will be enhanced to safeguard financial stability, consumer and investor protection, and financial integrity," said the IMF.

• Jerome Powell: "We're not allowed to own bitcoin." During a December 19 press conference, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has rejected the idea of adding bitcoin to the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, citing legal limitations under the Federal Reserve Act.

"We’re not allowed to own Bitcoin. The Federal Reserve Act says what we can own, and we’re not looking for a law change. That’s the kind of thing for Congress to consider, but we are not looking for a law change at the Fed," Powell said.

• On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve also lowered interest rates by 25 basis points.
• The Bitcoin Policy Institute drafts a proposal for an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in the United States. The draft mandates consolidating government-held bitcoin within seven days of signing, prohibits selling seized bitcoin and instead diverts it to the country's bitcoin reserve, and establishes a bitcoin acquisition program within 60 days to purchase at least $21 billion in bitcoin.

• COPA wants Craig Wright in prison as he skips UK court contempt hearing. Craig Wright has failed to attend his London contempt hearing yesterday, citing lack of travel means.” COPA claims that Wright has violated his court injunctions after filing a lawsuit against Block and Bitcoin Core, seeking £900 billion in damages. Judge Mellor has instructed COPA to invite Wright to a sentencing hearing today, which he can attend remotely, where a judgment will be rendered.
• Bitcoin miner Hut8 buys 990 bitcoin. The miner purchased approximately 990 BTC at an average price of $101,710 each, and now holds 10,096 BTC, valued around $1 billion.
• BlackRock's latest Bitcoin ad controversy. In the December 17 video, BlackRock stated that Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply "controls supply, purchasing power, and helps avoid currency misuse," while adding a legal disclaimer stating that "there is no guarantee that Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap will not be changed," sparking some heated discussions.

Use the tools

• LND v0.18.4-beta is a minor release that includes the features required for building custom channels, along with the usual bug fixes and stability improvements. It also delivers the bitcoind v28.0 compatibility fix and an optimization for payment requests (invoices) that removes unnecessary size expansion.
• Core Lightning v24.11.1 is a minor release aimed at Xpay plugin users and testers. Xpay is an experimental plugin built on Askerne that enables advanced payment routing.
• P2PK Playground by Super Testnet is a site for creating P2PK outputs in Bitcoin and paying someone's raw key.

• Debifi app v0.2.0, a non-custodial Bitcoin-backed lending platform, implements Coldcard Q integration and a variety of bug fixes, ensuring a smoother experience.
• Nunchuk Android v1.9.56 and iOS v1.9.61 add dark mode, biometric login support, and bug fixes and improvements.
• Lightning Loop v0.29.0-beta introduces support for persisting address loops in mode.
• Satoshi v1.0 is a new Bitcoin, Lightning, and Liquid wallet. It comes with buy and sell Bitcoin functionality and lets its users earn satsback rewards.

• Orange Pill App integrated Nostr Login support. "With Nostr Login and the option to pay for your membership in Bitcoin you can now Stack Friends who Stack Sats in the most private way possible," said the project.

• Fully Noded Server v0.02-beta update fixes a number of bugs and hides Core Lightning until an issue is resolved.

"There is a known bug when starting CLN after a fresh install which we should have fixed shortly, in the meantime it has been hidden from the UI. Please focus on testing Bitcoin Core and Join market for now," said the developer.

• Boltz Web app v1.6.0 adds WalletConnect, displays an error when QR scanning is not supported, updates RBTC swap contracts, and more.
• Trezor Suite v24.12.3 transactions now use nVersion=2, reducing fingerprinting for enhanced privacy, among other updates and improvements.
• Geyser Guardians are now live. The aim of the program is to power the Geyser platform and grants going towards creators who are pushing grassroots Bitcoin adoption. Become a Geyser Guardian here.

Other stuff

• Athena Alpha wrote a beginner's guide to setting up a Bitcoin Lightning node.
• Braiins shared a post explaining that Bitcoin mining is not "solving complex math problems."
• miljan shared his thoughts on building Primal Premium service and how to establish an ethical business on an open protocol.

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