Rabbit Hole Recap: Week of 2020.06.15
6/18/2020 · 121 min · transcript via mlx
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Key topics
— Coldcard firmware v3.1.6 released with BIP-143 attack detection and blocking; includes BIP-85 child seed generation feature for improved custody diversification.
— Electrum 4 incoming with automated BIP39 recovery scanning derivation paths; Blockstream bundled Electrum Rust Server (Electris) with Esplora for non-custodial address lookups.
— Bitcoin Core GUI separated into dedicated module allowing independent development from consensus code without risking unintended forks.
— ASIC manufacturing market share shifting: Bitmain fell from 67% (2018) to 46% (2020); MicroBT grew from 9% to 35%, with founder having designed Bitmain's successful S9.
— John Cantrell brute-forced Alistair Milne's eight-word seed phrase in 30 hours using rented GPUs; demonstrates vulnerability of split seed schemes and emphasizes 24-word seeds over 12-word.
— River Financial raised $5.7 million with 77% customer growth from ages 55+; Rod Rowdy announced as Chief Client Officer; expansion targeting all 50 states minus New York.
Market & price signals
— Bitcoin trading at $9,364 on Clark Moody dashboard. Difficulty adjusted up 15% post-halving with hash rate recovering. Blocks averaging 10 minutes 42 seconds; next retarget estimated June 29th. Mempool at 30,396 transactions. Network fees at 20 sats/byte for timely confirmation; 42 sats/byte for next block. Average fee-to-reward ratio ~3.41% or 0.22 BTC, declining post-halving. Consolidation below $10,000 noted despite macro tailwinds; speakers note Bitcoin has only spent <2% of lifetime above $10K.
Actionable insights
— Update Coldcard to v3.1.6 immediately and explore BIP-85 child seed functionality to safely diversify custody across multiple wallets backed by a single seed.
— Never split BIP39 seed phrases across locations; brute-force attacks on partial seeds are feasible with modest GPU rental. Use 24-word seeds and passphrases for stronger security; enter seeds only on device, never on computer.
— Run your own Electrum server via Blockstream's Esplora + Electris bundle to eliminate reliance on public or surveillance-company-operated servers; pair with a personal node for maximum privacy.
Episode sponsorships
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