Rabbit Hole Recap #180: End of 2021 roundup
12/30/2021 · 142 min · transcript via mlx
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Key topics
— Patriots quarterback Mac Jones gifted Bitcoin to his offensive line via Swan Bitcoin, with each player receiving 7.69 million sats (approximately 1 BTC ÷ 13 people); he also included Bitcoin Magazine subscriptions and tickets to Bitcoin 2022.
— Iran halted Bitcoin mining until March 6th due to winter electricity crunch, joining an earlier summer ban; this limits Iranian mining to only four months per year.
— Log4j vulnerability (now on its fifth CVE) was patched on December 28th; the second patch fixes remote code execution risks, not just denial of service, and affects AWS and many systems with layered technical debt.
— RTL (Ride the Lightning) released version 0.12.0 beta with Bolt 12 support, potentially qualifying for an OpenSats bounty; Bolt 12 offers privacy and decentralization advantages over LNURL by eliminating the need for a web server.
— Samurai Wallet v0.99.98 removed native OpenDime support in a commit titled "fuck NVK" due to ongoing licensing disputes between wallet developers; users can still sweep OpenDimes via QR code but face increased friction.
— Ronin Dojo Tanto hardware node shipped as a beautifully engineered fanless metal device with improved UX; pre-orders ship end of January 2022.
Market & price signals
— Bitcoin price noted at $47,875 per Clark's Dashboard. One BTC equals 2,089 sats. Market cap at $905.6 billion. Mempool shows 56,640 transactions with one sat-per-byte fees available. Difficulty retarget estimated for January 8th, 2022 with a projected -4.2% downward adjustment. Blocks averaging 10 minutes 27 seconds. UTXO set at 78,626,626 with rising address reuse (privacy concern). Block subsidy value at $299,000.
Actionable insights
— Stop reusing Bitcoin addresses for privacy reasons; generate a new address for each transaction unless accepting public donations (use LNURL, Bolt 12, or PGP-signed addresses instead).
— Consider self-custodying your Bitcoin via cold storage to protect against exploits like Log4j; hardware wallets with secure elements and multi-sig solutions eliminate exposure to internet-based vulnerabilities.
— Monitor Bolt 12 adoption across Lightning implementations (especially LND); as it matures, Bolt 12 offers superior privacy and decentralization for receiving payments compared to LNURL without requiring web server infrastructure.
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.
— Cash App helps you stack sats and stonks with fractional shares as little as $1, instant withdrawal to personal wallets, and an auto-buy feature for hands-free DCA. Use promo code stackingsats (one word) when you download the app to receive $10, and $10 will be contributed to OWLS Lacrosse; terms apply. Bitcoin services by Block, Inc.—see https://cash.app/legal/podcast for Bitcoin disclosures.
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— Braiins: Braiins is a leader in the mining industry running Slush Pool (the oldest mining pool since 2010, with 1.25M BTC mined lifetime), creates free and open-source firmware (Braiins OS+) to give miners more control over ASICs and help them stack more sats, and is leading Stratum V2 to help decentralize the mining pool protocol. Visit https://braiins.com/ and https://insights.braiins.com/profitability-calculator for firmware downloads and mining analytics.
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— Hodl Hodl Lend is a new non-custodial Bitcoin-backed lending platform allowing peer-to-peer lending and borrowing between users globally, anonymously, and on your own terms with no KYC or AML for US users. You create a multi-sig escrow and retain one key throughout; your collateral always remains locked in escrow. You can also provide liquidity on stablecoins for yield. Create your offers and set your own terms at https://lend.hodlhodl.com.
— Bitcoin 2022 is happening in Miami, April 6th to the 9th. Go to https://b.tc/conference to buy tickets and register for the event; use the code TFTC to get 10% off.