Good Morning, Bitcoin - Wednesday, February 19th, 2025

News

• The Human Rights Foundation has donated $250k to OpenSats operational budget. The funds will be allocated to ensure essential operational functions of the organization.

"OpenSats is a powerful force for good in the world. Their largely volunteer-driven team has an outsized impact, and HRF is thrilled to support their important work with this grant to help sustain their operations," said Christian Keroles, Director of Financial Freedom at the HRF.

• Bitwise has donated $150,000 to support open-source Bitcoin developers. The funds will be divided equally, with each receiving $50,000, among Brink, OpenSats, and the Human Rights Foundation.

"Thank you to the investors who’ve chosen Bitwise and BITB among many options. This donation is made possible because of your choice. We hope you’re as proud as we are to support Bitcoin open-source developers," said the company.

• Nigeria freed Gambaryan in exchange for access to US financial surveillance capabilities. Nigeria appears to have exchanged Binance Executive and former IRS criminal investigator Tigran Gambaryan for access to U.S. "resources and expertise" in financial surveillance capabilities as part of a secret deal with the U.S. State Department, reports The Rage.
• Fold has become the first Bitcoin financial services firm to trade on Nasdaq. The Bitcoin rewards app went public through a SPAC merger with Nasdaq-listed FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp. The company holds 1,000 BTC on its balance sheet, worth $96 million.

• Georgia has introduced a Bitcoin-only reserve bill. If approved, the new SB 178 bill would permit investing up to 5% of public funds in bitcoin, reports Atlas21.
• FTX has repaid $1.2 billion to its first group of creditors. These creditors, who were owed less $50,000 each, received their payments on February 18. Under FTX's bankruptcy plan, 98% of creditors will receive at least 118% of their claim value in dollars, rather than cryptocurrency, based on the value from 2022 when the exchange declared bankruptcy.
• bitcoin++ hacking edition is taking place in Brazil today. Check out the event's livestream here. The agenda for the event is available here.

Use the tools

• GitPlaza v0.1.0 is a GitHub alternative built on Nostr. Written in Rust, it currently supports basic features such as the ability to log in with nsec, create issues, make comments, and see an activity feed for followed npubs.
• OpenVibe v1.8, a client for browsing multiple open social media networks, has added the ability to share content directly from one's browser using the system share sheet and the ability to easily switch profiles with a long press of an overview icon.
• Utreexo v0.3.2, a hash-based dynamic accumulator based on a Merkle forest, is now available.

• Aqua wallet v0.2.10 includes bug fixes for amount display in USDT and a not respected minimum value in internal send. Additionally, it disables Sideshift TON send/receive due to a bug in the swap order flow.
• Boltz Client v2.4.0 now uses discount confidential transactions on the Liquid Network and introduces a new pro configuration option for using Boltz Pro fee rates.
• Blitz Wallet v0.4.1 pre-release is now available for testing.
• Zeus v0.10.0-alpha3 is now available for testing.
• ZapZap is a creative way to zap posts X. The implementation is built with Breez SDK and Greenlight.
• Coracle v0.6.5 is out with the latest bug fixes.
• Coop v0.1.2-alpha, a Nostr direct message client for desktop devices, now automatically sorts the inbox when new messages arrive and fixes a crash on some Linux systems.
• Unleashed.chat has implemented Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) support.

• Start9 has announced Server Pure 2025. It features a 45% faster CPU, upgraded NVMe SSD, up to 64GB RAM, a two-year warranty, and a lifetime support membership, starting at a price point of $899.
• Dojo v0.1.0-beta is now available on startOS.
• IVPN users on iOS are urged to update to v2.12.5 due to a potential DNS leak issue.
• eNuts, a mobile cashu wallet for Android and iOS, is no longer maintained. Users are encouraged to switch to alternative apps such as Macadamia on iOS and/or Minibits on Android.

Other stuff

• Nostr Biweekly Review (3 -16 Feb 2025) is now available.
• Expatoriotic wrote a quick email privacy guide.
• Will Jager published an article documenting some of the ongoing attacks on encryption globally.
• WantClue has recorded a tutorial for upgrading to a larger SSD on an existing startOS server.

• Do you want more? Subscribe and get No Bullshit GM report straight to your mailbox and No Bullshit Bitcoin on Nostr.
• Feedback or tips? Drop it here.
• #FREESAMOURAI