Rabbit Hole Recap: Week of 2020.11.30
12/4/2020 · 146 min · transcript via mlx
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Key topics
— Ledger phishing scams exploiting the 2020 data breach are hitting users via email and SMS, requesting seed phrases; users should never enter recovery words into a computer and should request data deletion from Coinkite (Coldcard maker).
— Taproot activation is progressing toward consensus with 82% mining pool hash rate signaling support; Binance Pool's inclusion would bring total to over 91%, and BIP9 is recommended as the activation method.
— Major institutional investors—Paul Tudor Jones, Larry Fink (BlackRock), and Niall Ferguson (Bloomberg)—are publicly endorsing Bitcoin as a store of value and alternative to dollar hegemony, representing a shift in mainstream narrative.
— Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO) publicly warned of potential rushed self-custody restrictions from the Trump administration, signaling real concern that warrants attention despite past criticism of Coinbase.
— Samourai Wallet released Soroban, a Tor-based P2P layer enabling two-person and multi-party CoinJoins on demand without third-party coordination, breaking on-chain heuristics and advancing Bitcoin privacy at scale.
— Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador successfully processed 3,000 Lightning transactions in 12 hours during a local event, demonstrating functional circular economy and real-world Lightning adoption outside Western markets.
Market & price signals
— Bitcoin is trading at $19,452 with a market cap of $361.1 billion. Bitcoin priced in gold stands at 3.03% of gold's market cap; all-time high in fiat was hit November 30th but not yet in gold. 88.39% of all Bitcoin has been distributed; 12% remains. Fee pressure is subsiding: high priority is 38 sats/byte ($1.03), medium is 32 sats/byte ($0.87), and low is 26 sats/byte ($0.71). Mining difficulty is estimated to adjust downward 5.2% in 1,426 blocks. Mempool shows 26,768 transactions with 20.3% replaced-by-fee; fees versus block reward are ~5.85%.
Actionable insights
— Withdraw funds from centralized exchanges to self-custody immediately if self-custody restrictions are implemented, as this would represent a critical inflection point; the ability to exit the fiat system through KYC on-ramps into CoinJoin is currently available and should be preserved.
— Prioritize privacy tools now: use Samourai Wallet with Soroban for seamless CoinJoins, request data deletion from hardware wallet manufacturers, and obscure personal information (use P.O. boxes, burner phones, dedicated emails) when purchasing devices to limit exposure from future breaches.
Episode sponsorships
Paid placements mentioned in this episode. BTC Pods is not sponsored by or affiliated with these advertisers. Links are included so you can find offers mentioned on the show.
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