Tag
Mining
Episodes summarised with this topic tag.
BTC Supertrend Flips Green + RSI Breakout: The Bull Run Just Started
- Bitcoin price breakout to $81.7K with technical indicators flipping bullish (Gaussian Ribbon, Super Trend, RSI). - Multiple technical analysts cite converging signals including falling wedge fractal, 2-year RSI breakout, and macro support from copper/gold strength. - Critique of Bitcoin cycle predictability; while historical cycles show patterns, newer data (2022–2025) breaks the "perfect 1,064-day" simulation narrative. - Hash rate reaching parabolic levels; host argues this is not a reliable leading indicator for price timing despite historical bull market correlation. - Coinbase data exposure affecting 70,000 users via Amplitude breach, framed by Coinbase as "no data breach"—contradictory messaging analyzed. - Three new Bitcoin Core vulnerabilities discovered and patched; Red Team and security researchers independently identified medium-severity flaws and node memory exhaustion risks. - Keone Rodriguez (Samurai wallet dev) letter detailing inhumane 29-day prison transfer with 23-hour-per-day lockdown, highlighting systemic waste and lack of accountability.
Google Wants to Custody Banks' Bitcoin. Brazil Shows Why You Hold Your Own | Rabbit Hole Recap 426
- Google announces MPC (multi-party compute) custody solution for institutions targeting early 2027 launch; competing with Fireblocks and BitGo for enterprise digital asset custody. - Bitcoin Core patches two medium-severity vulnerabilities discovered by Lupe Project; AI auditing now accelerating bug discovery and shortening disclosure embargoes. - Brazil's leftist victory under Lula triggers 13.88% stock market collapse and 25-year worst day for the real; illustrates capital flight from jurisdictions weakening property rights. - Jason Calacanis argues Bitcoin should be sold for superintelligence; dismissed as rage bait, though raises questions about AI capex sustainability versus hard money. - Anthropic S1 filing shows significant capex commitments; Paul Kedrosky argues frontier model training costs are rising and first lab to stop training may win most profitably. - eCash (Bitcoin dividend fork) launches with difficulty adjustment; requires node operators running Bitcoin Core 32.1 to update before fork block 973728.
Bitcoin $100K by Christmas? This Setup Shatters Diminishing Returns
- Bitcoin price holding around $80,400 amid FOMC meeting and inflation data; strength testers showing potential breakout above $81k to new highs. - Multiple analysts projecting $100k Bitcoin by Christmas or New Year's; Willie Wu's simulation modeling 241k–413k range for 2028 top. - Data Vault AI (DVLT), a Bitcoin treasury company, crashed after admitting inability to withdraw Bitcoin from exchange after four months; stock destroyed 99.9% of value through reverse splits. - Liquid sidechain recovering from security incident; 2.5 BTC returned to Federation wallet, reducing shortfall to 600 BTC; LBTC swaps re-enabled on Lightning. - Jason Calicanakis published thread claiming Bitcoin will fail; promoting BitTensor (TAU) instead, which has significantly underperformed Bitcoin. - Dutch Bitcoin exchange Bitonic suffered security breach affecting three customer accounts; unauthorized parties accessed systems and modified login credentials; customers reimbursed.
Bye Bye Bear Market? Bitcoin’s Most Reliable Bullish Signal is Back
- The halving cycle simulation is "back on" with 500 days remaining until the next halving; historical patterns suggest potential timing convergence around October 31st. - Bitcoin is consolidating at a key confluence inside the weekly Ichimoku cloud, with price interaction at the Tenkan and SSA forming the lower boundary of the bearish cloud configuration. - Multiple technical indicators (Dorito pattern, Monte Carlo simulation, descending broadening wedge, bullish blue circle consolidation) all suggest bullish setup favoring a move above the yearly open rather than a retest of the 200-day SMA. - Wall Street's 2026 Bitcoin price targets have "subtly fallen apart"; earlier forecasts ranging from $126K to $500K now appear overly optimistic given the 63 days remaining in 2026. - Keystone confirmed destruction of 18,835 hardware wallets after hackers stole the device authentication key used to verify device genuineness; customer data breach exposed 25,964 records with names, addresses, and purchase information. - Bitcoin Core node distribution remains fragmented across multiple implementations and versions; the notion of a single "reference client" remains philosophically contested within the development community.
Bitcoin’s Biggest Opportunity Just Opened Up
- Custody and financial services infrastructure represent the largest near-term opportunity in Bitcoin as hardware devices face supply chain attacks and centralized exchanges remain prone to failures. - Critical software vulnerabilities—including a 20-year-old PHP exploit and dozens of additional flaws—are being discovered at unprecedented speed via AI, shifting the attack surface faster than defense can keep pace. - The Pentagon's Fortress America plan requires major U.S. military bases to operate independently for 90 days without civilian power, communications, or external supply chains, signaling contingency planning for grid failure. - Visa's rumored $2.5 billion acquisition of Fireblocks at a 70% haircut from its 2022 valuation reflects broader consolidation of custody and infrastructure as fintech and traditional finance converge. - AI agents operating inside bank accounts independently, Mastercard's Agent Pay pilots, and the OCC's finalized stablecoin rule are accelerating the tokenization of money and emergence of internet-native payments. - Anthropic's S-1 filing shows operating cash flow positive path by Q3 2026 and $6+ million revenue per employee; OpenAI raising at $1.4 trillion valuation amid debt market tightening for AI infrastructure companies without diversified revenue.
Biggest Bitcoin Buy | The Hurdle Rate Podcast | Ep. 79
- Strive acquired 6,182 Bitcoin for $511.4 million, bringing total holdings to 43,000 BTC and positioning the company as the fourth-largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder behind MicroStrategy, 21Shares, and MetaPlanet. - Strive launched a $1 billion SATS ATM program and achieved its 61% amplification target through two perpetual preferred equity securities (SEDA and SATS) with different risk-return profiles. - SpaceX's $40 billion off-balance-sheet GPU financing deal exemplifies complex structured finance; the deal uses a special purpose vehicle, lease structure, and multiple tranches, contrasting sharply with Bitcoin's perpetual collateral model. - Perpetual digital credit backed by Bitcoin offers superior risk characteristics versus time-bound GPU financing, which faces depreciation cycles and deployment risk similar to 2021 Bitcoin mining ASICs. - AI model moats are eroding rapidly; open-source models now reverse-engineer frontier models for $40,000–$60,000 in compute costs, compressing the gap between closed and open systems to months. - Capital itself functions as the primary remaining moat in an AI-driven world where technology can be disrupted overnight; Bitcoin-backed balance sheets position companies to pivot and innovate as landscapes shift.
Bitcoin: The $80,000 Standoff ⚔️
- Bitcoin price consolidated near $81,500 with a 9% pullback from recent highs, prompting debate about whether bulls remain in control versus bearish capitulation narratives. - Multiple on-chain and technical indicators (Pi Cycle Top, Power Law, Stock-to-Flow, Rainbow Chart) have broken or diverged from historical patterns, reinforcing the lesson that no single model predicts price action reliably. - The Active Address Sentiment Indicator currently shows network utilization divergence from price, historically signaling good accumulation windows at major dips. - Bitcoin proxy products (MicroStrategy, Strive, 21Shares) are accumulating at scale; Strive recently launched a fixed 15% dividend product (SATS) and acquired 6,182 BTC, raising questions about dividend sustainability and financial engineering limits. - Security threats escalated significantly, with phishing attacks targeting hardware wallet users via compromised email databases (Foundation, Ledger, Trezor); AI-powered scams are becoming more sophisticated. - A billionaire venture capitalist (Chamath Palihapitiya) claimed Bitcoin will go to zero due to quantum computing and Satoshi's wallet compromise, a position widely dismissed as technically uninformed and potentially self-interested (he holds Zcash).
AI Is Breaking The Internet! Will It Send Bitcoin to Zero?
- Major AI-enabled cyberattacks have disrupted internet infrastructure globally, with 80% of PHP-based systems compromised, affecting banks, government services, and payment systems across dozens of countries. - Chamath Palihapitiya warned that Bitcoin will "go to zero" due to hacking threats, while the traditional financial system simultaneously experiences cyber breaches and potential collapse. - Simply Bitcoin's YouTube channel was temporarily banned during the Lugano conference but restored within hours, drawing massive support from the Bitcoin community and high-profile figures. - Scientists have successfully transmuted mercury into gold in a laboratory, theoretically undermining gold's scarcity narrative and Peter Schiff's arguments against Bitcoin. - Bitcoin held support at $81,000 despite global market chaos, macro turbulence, and bond volatility, with some analysts suggesting the bear market has already bottomed. - Strategy (STRC) continues aggressive Bitcoin accumulation through ETF purchases and selective STRC buybacks, adding 22.1 million more BTC as institutional demand outpaces supply.
Chamath's Bitcoin-to-Zero Warning, Bitcoin-Powered AI in Signal, Lending to Agents
- Goose Development Kit (GDK) demonstrated at AGentCon 2026 with three live demos: peer-code-review agent, robotic arm control via MHS protocol, and decentralized AI inference via Signal messenger. - Mesh LLM enables peer-to-peer AI inference payments over Bitcoin Lightning, allowing GPU compute providers to earn sats while inference users pay micropayments. - Signal integration demo showed a forked version with an embedded Bitcoin wallet (Lexi-compatible) paying for LLM inference from a federated network, not centralized providers. - GPU compute economics: underutilized data center capacity can monetize through Mesh LLM as a "buyer of last resort," enabling cheaper inference pricing and new financing models. - Chamath's "Bitcoin to zero" claim examined across three risk categories: cybersecurity, quantum cryptography, and mathematical breakthroughs; each assessed as low single-digit existential risk. - Bitcoin Core and LibSecP256K1 shown highly resilient in AI-powered security scans; latest Anthropic research proved NIST elliptical curves contain no NSA backdoor.
Bitcoin Parabolic Run Incoming? Don’t Give Them Your Coins!
- Bitcoin technical analysis shows double-bottom breakout patterns and channel formations suggesting targets around 89K-94K, with multiple indicators (Ichimoku clouds, Keltner channels, Bollinger Bands) aligning bullishly. - Bitcoin is climbing out of the bear market three times faster than in 2022, having recovered 48% of the 2026 crash in 113 days versus 348 days in 2022. - CME futures gaps remain unfilled at higher price levels; historical data shows gaps are not always retested before further upside moves. - Class action lawsuit filed against CoinKite and CEO NVK (Rudolfo Novak) over Cold Card security failures, with the plaintiff claiming economic injury. - Bolts Exchange shut down in August 2026 citing unprecedented AI exploits across the computing stack and unfavorable risk-reward of operating hot wallets for minimal yield. - Major U.S. banks (Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup) are restricting third-party AI access to customer accounts, framing restrictions as safety measures while actually addressing liability concerns.
The Cyber Pandemic Is Here: AI Found a Hole in the Code Running Most of the Web | Rabbit Hole Recap 425
- PHP vulnerability (CVE-2024-3156 and related) discovered by AI tools, affecting 69% of websites; exploitation attempts reached millions within hours of patch release, with Railway and other platforms already breached. - AI tools drastically lowering the cost of exploit discovery; CVE tracker shows exponential growth in critical vulnerabilities, from ~6,000 to over 15,000 in recent months. - Peter Thiel's fourth lecture on "New Rome" and the antichrist framework; discussion of catechon (what restrains evil), geopolitical consolidation, and potential internet shutdowns as governments seek control. - Heatbit Bitwater: new water heater element with 20 mining chips (BM1370s) that screws into existing electric tanks, producing 34 TH/s at 12 J/TH; ships Q1 2027 at $899–$1,299. - OCC finalizes GENIUS Act rules, dropping yield presumption on stablecoins; SoFi launches tokenized deposits paying 4.4%; France levies 31% tax on crypto-to-stablecoin swaps. - Anthropic and AI trade slowdown; Amazon CFO leaked criticism of AI spending going cash-flow negative; SpaceX revenue solid, but broader AI hype deflating amid infrastructure and profitability concerns.
85% Of The AI Boom Is Still Ahead Of Us | Dan Ives
- Dan Ives returned from Korea reporting **30% memory demand surge** in the past 4–6 weeks, validating fundamental AI strength despite market jitters and CoreWeave concerns. - The **AI bear narrative** overlooks real CapEx deployment by hyperscalers with trillion-dollar balance sheets; bears have missed every major transformational tech stock for 25 years. - Tesla and SpaceX merger is 80–90% likely; deal would require Tesla stock to reach $500–$550 (30–40% premium), creating a $4–$5 trillion combined entity. - Market concentration in the S&P 500's largest companies reflects early-stage CapEx concentration; broadening to software, infrastructure, and energy expected over next 12 months. - AI agents and autonomous trading will reshape investment industry; fintech platforms racing to enable agent-driven strategies while legacy banks restrict access. - Regulatory and political uncertainty around data centers and AI development dominates narrative, but fundamentals show continued strength.
Is Bitcoin Losing Its Miners to AI? | Nacho Pauls
- Luke Dashjr and Mechanic left Ocean as CTO and key operator due to fundamental disagreements over BIP110 fork proposal; their departure cost the pool approximately 20 exahashes but the company has since recovered to 26 exahashes and aims for 100 by year-end. - Ocean's role during the BIP110 controversy: the company maintained neutrality by giving miners the choice to signal or not, though leadership personally leaned toward BIP110's values; the pool avoided forced signaling that could have triggered a network split. - Mining decentralization faces multi-layered threats including geographic concentration (Texas, US-based pools), pool centralization (Antpool plus proxies near 50% of network), ASIC hardware manufacturer dominance (Bitmain ~70–80% market share), and government regulatory risk. - AI and high-performance compute have become a high-margin alternative for public mining companies; major facilities pivoting toward HPC can earn $280/megawatt versus ~$60/megawatt for Bitcoin mining, pressuring traditional mining growth. - Bitcoin mining's unique advantage over AI compute: it can thrive on stranded energy assets (flared gas fields, remote solar, hydropower dams) where latency and infrastructure don't matter; this enables genuine geographic decentralization. - Post-2028 halving profitability will require miners to achieve near-zero power costs through partnerships with energy producers or operators; only small/mid-sized miners with access to exceptional power economics and private entities (not just public companies) will survive long-term.
JPMorgan Just Set Up Bitcoin's Real Bull Run
- JPMorgan included Bitcoin for the first time in its 31-year Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions report, forecasting 10% annual returns—the highest of any asset class, though conservative given Bitcoin's historical performance across every 10-year period. - Charles Schwab completed its Bitcoin rollout to tens of millions of retail clients, enabling direct on-platform purchases with three-per-day withdrawal limits of $5,000 per transaction. - Germany's Sparkassen opened Bitcoin access to 50 million customers, and Switzerland approved its first spot Bitcoin ETF for retail investors, signaling accelerating global institutional adoption. - The OCC finalized the GENIUS Act rule (effective January 18, 2027) clarifying bank custody and trading of digital assets; France imposed a 31% tax on crypto-to-stablecoin swaps; and an IMF paper documented governments using financial repression to reduce debt burdens. - CoreWeave bonds fell below 80 cents on the dollar as AI data center debt reaches junk status; $3.1 trillion of off-balance-sheet AI debt dwarfs the entire subprime peak, with pension and retirement funds unknowingly holding repackaged speculative loans. - The hosts argue Bitcoin's real bull run has not yet begun because adoption requires people understanding Bitcoin as money, not as a portfolio asset—and that fresh cohorts of entrepreneurs and builders are still absent from the space.
Bitcoin Fell, We Grew 6x | The Hurdle Rate Podcast | Ep. 78
- Strive closed a $700 million IPO of SATS, a 15% fixed-rate cumulative perpetual preferred stock, after strong institutional and retail demand during a volatile market week. - The company acquired 36,818 Bitcoin over the past year—a 6.2x increase from 5,886 Bitcoin—despite a 35% decline in Bitcoin price during the same period. - SATS is structured as a junior, fixed-rate instrument complementing SEDA (the senior perpetual preferred), creating a two-tiered capital structure designed for different investor risk and income profiles. - The 15% fixed yield targets traditional income investors seeking stability, contrasting with SEDA's variable-rate model and addressing demand from high-net-worth and institutional investors uncomfortable with declining dividend rates. - Strive maintained an 18-month dividend reserve and never lost access to capital markets throughout the bear market, demonstrating operational resilience and building institutional trust. - The company positioned SATS as the first daily-dividend-paying fixed-rate security, generating real-time pricing and credit curve data to inform future capital structure decisions.
MSTR Shareholders Dealt a HUGE Blow
- MSCI adopted non-operating company rules on October 15 that may exclude MicroStrategy (MSTR) from equity indexes due to Bitcoin holdings dominating its treasury asset mix; the finalized list names no specific company, but MSTR faces potential removal with impact effective November 30. - Michael Saylor issued a public statement claiming Bitcoin doesn't need MSCI and neither does MicroStrategy, but hosts interpret this as defensive posturing after media pressure campaigns months earlier. - Five-dollar wrench attacks are escalating across the UK (20+ cases in first half of 2026) and France, with criminals targeting crypto holders through home invasions, kidnapping, and torture to extract keys and access digital assets. - Canadian Armed Forces reservists were arrested in Toronto for kidnapping a crypto holder in July 2026; military ammunition stolen from supply chains was recovered during the investigation, revealing systemic security lapses. - Hardware wallet manufacturers face pressure: Ledger launched the Atom (a risky Android-based "hybrid" phone with $849 price tag), while Trezor moved to direct-sales only distribution starting January 2027 to mitigate supply chain attacks. - Self-custody best practices emphasized: do not store hardware wallets, hot wallets, or keys in your home; build your own signing device (Seed Signer) using off-the-shelf components as a superior privacy and security alternative.
Bitcoin: Where Are We?!
- Bitcoin is trading around $80,000 with five consecutive weekly closes above the 50-week moving average, suggesting the bear market bottom is likely in. - On-chain data shows only 4.4% of Bitcoin held by 6–12 month holders sent to exchanges in the last 30 days, compared to 40% in May–June, indicating seller exhaustion. - MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Strive purchased significant amounts of Bitcoin (MSTR ~300 BTC, Strive 1,223 BTC), demonstrating institutional accumulation momentum. - The Wall Street Cheat Sheet cycle suggests the market is in the "disbelief" phase, where rallies are still dismissed as sucker's rallies despite 50% gains from lows. - Predictive models (Power Law, stock-to-flow) are frequently redrawn to fit current data and lack reliable predictive power; confluence of multiple data sources is more useful than single indicators. - Altcoins have underperformed Bitcoin every cycle; the rotation into alts that historically drove gains appears diminished due to Bitcoin ETFs and treasury company proxies reducing the appeal of unregulated altcoin markets.
MSTR Is Buying Back STRC. ASST Is Buying 4,045 Bitcoin.
- Strategy (MSTR) has deployed over $1 billion in STRC preferred share buybacks to push the price toward $100 par value, but market conditions suggest excess issuance has dampened effectiveness. - Strive (ASST) acquired 4,045 Bitcoin in one week through warrant exercises and announced a $700 million SATS IPO (upsized from $500 million), positioning it to reach approximately 44,000 Bitcoin and claim the #2 spot on Bitcoin Treasuries leaderboard within weeks. - SATS, Strive's new perpetual preferred stock, offers a 15% fixed dividend rate, priced at $90 (effective yield ~16.7%), creating interest rate and leverage risk if macro conditions shift. - Strategy and Strive compete via preferred equity capital-raising models; STRC trades below par despite stronger Bitcoin coverage than Strive's SATA, suggesting market saturation of STRC shares. - Metaplanet is expanding to US equity markets via Super Planet (SUPA), acquiring SLE and aiming to issue preferred equities to American capital markets with an initial 2,100 Bitcoin contribution. - Perpetual preferred equities have emerged as the dominant capital-raising tool for Bitcoin Treasury 2.0 companies, enabling amplified leverage and accelerated Bitcoin accumulation.
Is Bitcoin Ready To Rip While Wall Street Breaks? | Jordi Visser
- Long-term Capital Management parallels: Jordy Visser draws lessons from LTCM's collapse to explain current hedge fund leverage issues, arguing that hedge funds are being systematically deleveraged as AI disrupts their traditional arbitrage strategies. - Tokenization as industry disruptor: Tokenization could unlock trapped capital in illiquid assets (private credit, real estate, private equity) and fundamentally reshape how hedge funds operate by enabling real-time pricing and liquidity. - Bitcoin as defensive hedge: Bitcoin has held strong during recent market weakness, positioning itself as a defensive asset against broader portfolio disruption caused by AI acceleration. - AI growth trajectory remains intact: Despite near-term volatility and concerns about Anthropic's deceleration, revenue fundamentals remain solid; the issue is not whether AI will succeed but the concentration of capital required to fund it. - CPI and traditional macro metrics increasingly irrelevant: Core inflation data matters less as AI-driven deflation becomes the dominant force reshaping markets and business models across all sectors. - Anthropic vs. open-source models debate: Disagreement on whether enterprises will stick with frontier models (Anthropic, OpenAI) or migrate to cheaper, sovereign open-source solutions; both paths will likely coexist.
Bitcoin Is the Toll Collector of the AI Economy | Jordi Visser
- AI agents are disrupting traditional finance and banking, creating what Visser calls the "bankpocalypse" through lower spreads and instant settlement via stablecoins and tokenization. - Stripe is positioned to compete with legacy banks due to agility and existing infrastructure for crypto and agentic commerce, while traditional banks move too slowly. - General-purpose AI models are becoming commoditized, but compute and specialized workflows will create lasting value; the debate centers on whether specialized fine-tuned models or general models win. - Bitcoin and crypto are consolidating and testing technical levels; patience is required as traditional finance adoption through tokenization and stablecoins will drive the next leg higher. - Crypto adoption is shifting from contrarian to consensus trade as major players like BlackRock and Citigroup publish research connecting agents, DeFi, and Wall Street. - Bubble talk and doomsaying (Ray Dalio, bond yields) are noise; demand for compute and crypto infrastructure remains greater than supply, and previous crises (pandemic, rate hikes, bank runs, tariffs, geopolitical shocks) did not crash AI or crypto.
COFFER - Cyber Security Expert Joins Pleb Underground
- Ledger hardware wallet compromised via third-party reseller; attackers drained approximately $86–100 million in user funds despite Ledger's security measures. - Best practices for purchasing signing devices include buying directly from manufacturers, paying in cash or Bitcoin when possible, and avoiding third-party resellers. - Firmware updates and refreshing devices with manufacturer-signed versions mitigate supply chain attack risk; maintaining updated software across all devices protects against most active threats. - Cold Card's five-year vulnerability exploited in a sophisticated, precise attack raises questions about whether it was an inside job versus external hacking; closed-source code components prevent community security review. - Social engineering and phishing remain the primary attack vectors (80–85% of data breaches); attackers pose as legitimate companies, government contractors, and support teams to bypass user defenses. - OPSEC (operational security) requires understanding personal risk tolerance, trade-offs, and threat models; everyone remains vulnerable despite expertise, but knowledge reduces susceptibility.
ROLLUP: AI Threatens Crypto Security | Tom Lee Stops Buying ETH | Ethereum L2s Shut Down | Zcash ETFs
- Justin Drake warned the crypto industry to plan "bunker mode" due to AI potentially breaking ECDSA cryptography faster than previously expected (weeks to months, not years), not just quantum threats. - OpenAI solved 377 unsolved math problems; cryptographers including Matthew Green cautioned that public-key encryption could be compromised if AI advances sufficiently in mathematical problem-solving. - Tom Lee announced he will stop buying ETH after reaching 5% supply (nearly 98% complete), shifting Bitmine's $600M+ cash to buybacks, staking infrastructure (Maven), and outside investments like MrBeast's Beast Industries. - Blast and Abstract L2s shut down citing unsustainable economics; Starknet announced plans to become an L1 by 2027 citing quantum-resistance requirements, signaling major disruption to the Ethereum L2 roadmap. - FinCEN withdrew proposed unhosted wallet rules requiring identity verification for self-custody transfers and mixer bans, removing a major threat to on-chain privacy. - Zcash saw significant momentum with Grayscale's ZEC ETF surpassing $1B AUM and the Winklevii filing for a spot Zcash ETF (ticker: WINK).
$86M Drained From Ledgers & Can AI Break Bitcoin's Crypto? | Rabbit Hole Recap
- Ledger reseller attack via CryptoBillis: An estimated $86M in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron reportedly drained from wallets purchased through the Southeast Asian reseller; evidence suggests hardware manipulation (possibly eSIM implants) before sale. - Justin Drake's AI-breaks-ECDSA claim debunked: Ethereum Foundation researcher claimed frontier AI could break elliptic curve cryptography; cryptographer Yehuda Lindell (Coinbase) dismissed it as unfounded FUD with no evidence. - Project Loupe Bitcoin Core hardening: Spiral/Block-funded red team disclosed five merged and three pending pull requests fixing critical bugs (silent payments, RPC port vulnerability, transaction manager race condition, package eviction). - South Korean bank breaches via AI tools: Nine banks compromised; attackers used open-source Chinese AI models and Claude to brute-force loan status pages and extract 68,000+ customer records with minimal sophistication. - Dark Horse energy deal: 50MW expansion agreement with Hopkinsville Electric includes $65M substation (paid by Dark Horse) benefiting local grid with 15MW allocated to residential consumers—counters data center FUD. - Block's mainstream Bitcoin ad campaign: Multi-year campaign launching in movie theaters and major sporting events aimed at making Bitcoin approachable to everyday Americans.
12 Bitcoin Charts, One Painfully Obvious Conclusion | Rational Root
- On-chain data confirms the Bitcoin bottom is in, supported by the short-term holder cost basis breakout and comparison to previous bear market patterns across all cycles. - This was the least retail-driven cycle in Bitcoin history; institutional demand and gradual flows dampened volatility and prevented extreme blow-off tops near 100K. - The four-year spiral chart remains largely intact despite diminishing returns and early cycle timing; cycles are compressing but not breaking yet, and may diverge meaningfully only in future halvings. - ETF inflows were critical during the bear market, especially during the digital credit stress test; they provided bid support and reduced capitulation severity. - Macro headwinds included AI distraction, contractionary ISM PMI readings, and competitive capital flows away from Bitcoin; recovery speed depends on whether the business cycle continues up or rolls over near the midterms. - An all-time high is likely within 6–12 months, with a 50% probability estimate before June 2027; AI abundance may redirect value back to Bitcoin as the scarce asset.
Bitcoin Tonight - 043
- A $2 trillion grassroots Bitcoin movement highlights how small, unheralded developers write code for the world's best-performing asset, yet remain largely unknown outside technical circles. - The parasitic political class selects for people willing to abandon ethical constraints; unprincipled candidates capture power by promising contradictory things to different voter blocks. - Fold's free-Bitcoin business model was a short-lived marketing stunt that attracted scammers and failed to create real value once the promotional layer was stripped away. - AI is being used to eliminate unproductive middle-management roles and bureaucratic middlemen; fearing innovation is fear of being cut out, not fear of the technology itself. - Social dynamics and Bitcoin influencer drama distract from what matters: personal Bitcoin security and custody, not parasocial relationships with personalities. - Religious institutions (the Pope, Anthropic) are engaging in virtue signaling around AI safety while distracting from real concerns like critical infrastructure hacking.
BTC Broke The Weekly Market Structure!
- Bitcoin broke weekly market structure and closed above previous resistance after sweeping September lows around 75k; structure is bullish but leverage hunters may pull price down temporarily. - The quarterly candle that just closed engulfed every dollar of previous resistance and is considered a major bullish formation; if it fills to 97k, the host believes "fireworks time" begins heading into 2027. - Three consecutive green monthly candles is historically significant; Bitcoin has never had three green months during a bear market, and the fourth red candle did not materialize as bears expected. - Arguments that this may be the last cycle to buy Bitcoin below 100k are overstated; the host emphasizes staying solvent and stacking at your own pace rather than overextending on FOMO. - Time-weighted compounding matters most: starting at 25 years old requires 7.9 BTC to retire on 100k/year equivalent; delaying 10 years cuts that to 2.22 BTC and halves the required monthly DCA. - Entropy Labs released v1.0.0rc1, a self-hosted Bitcoin key and wallet calculator in one HTML file; users bring their own entropy and verify offline—positioned as an antidote to "trust me bro" signing devices. - Pakistan's Bitcoin mining landfill story is misleading: the crypto council allocated 2,000 MW from coal plants and landfill methane projects pursue carbon credits separately; no integrated infrastructure bridges exist between the two. - Shielded Bitcoin is a meta-protocol publishing data to Bitcoin and relying on separate indexers to parse transactions; the host views this as creating a trusted third-party dependency similar to Ordinals, not a true Layer 1 privacy solution. - A data breach compromised TRACFIN (French AML service); 136 declarants' personal data and 213 assistance requests were exfiltrated June–July, illustrating the honeypot risk inherent in centralized KYC/AML databases.
Paula Pendley: Major Victory for Bitcoin
- Paula Pendley, a Nelson Mullins partner, won a significant federal court victory defending Marathon Digital (MARA) against a 37-plaintiff nuisance lawsuit in Hood County, Texas, with claims ultimately dismissed with prejudice. - When discovery demands were served, plaintiffs dropped animal health claims, then medical injury claims, and failed to designate any expert witnesses to support their noise and vibration allegations. - A third-party sound study commissioned by Hood County itself found noise levels well below the 85-decibel public disturbance threshold and detected no perceptible vibrations from the facility. - Bitcoin mining facilities are transitioning to AI data center operations, leveraging existing power infrastructure; noise profiles differ by location and cooling technology, with immersion cooling reducing audible output significantly compared to air-cooled fans. - Local opposition to data centers blends genuine concern with NIMBYism and anti-AI sentiment; some communities seek moratoriums while others vote against restrictive measures, creating polarization even within neighborhoods. - The Mara site occupies industrially zoned land next to a decades-old power plant, not residential subdivisions; the company installed sound barriers, relocated loud equipment, and converted most miners to immersion cooling to reduce noise impact.
Bitcoin Positioning Itself For The Next BIG Move
- Bitcoin's four-hour falling wedge breakout with 82K holding as support and the 11-day exponential moving average continuing to hold. - Golden cross setup tracking for October 2nd on traditional finance Bitcoin charts, signaling potential bullish momentum. - Bear trap completion confirmed by weekly structure analysis; described as a "hated rally" driven by disbelief and anger rather than conviction. - Bitcoin flipping resistance into support levels; resistance now acting as support with next target identified at 100K. - Bitcoin trading inside a rising channel for nearly 10 years, with potential for channel-top targets around 640K by 2027 if pattern continues. - Centralized exchange reserves remaining stable at ~3.6 million Bitcoin over the past decade, contradicting "omega candle" supply-shock narratives.
Everyone Waiting For A Bitcoin Dip Is About To Get Left Behind | James Check
- Bitcoin has transitioned from bear to bull market with on-chain metrics confirming the shift: wealth in profit jumped from 8% to 55% as price rallied from $58K lows to $86K. - Short-term vs. long-term holder behavior patterns define market cycles; early bulls see short-term holders taking profits on rallies while long-term holders (who bought low) feel rewarded and remain bullish. - ETF inflows and outflows mirrored retail behavior: 90% of ETF capital was underwater before $8 billion in July outflows at the bottom; now seeing $2.2 billion weekly inflows back into Bitcoin. - Housing market corrections in Commonwealth nations (Canada, Australia) are creating rotation pressure into Bitcoin as real estate becomes unaffordable even with higher incomes. - On-chain resistance levels (short-term holder cost basis, 200-day moving average, 50-week moving average) will act as confidence builders; breaking above them signals early bull strength. - AI compute capex mirrors Bitcoin mining economics: companies over-leveraging on equipment purchases will face depreciation risks similar to mining industry cycles.
The Most Overlooked Bullish Signal: What Price Refuses To Do
- Bitcoin price action showing rejection at ~$85K after reaching intraday highs, currently trading around $84.3K with supply thinning above $86K and a potential 23% spread to $125K. - Historical chart patterns from 2015 and 2023 showing Bitcoin retesting broken market structure before breakouts, with discussion of potential seller exhaustion tipping points. - El Salvador's shift toward stablecoins (via Coinbase infrastructure) for remittances instead of Bitcoin, marking a strategic pivot away from direct Bitcoin use despite maintaining treasury holdings. - New Bitcoin client developments including rBitcoin (production-ready alternative to Bitcoin Core) and Bitcoin Roots as a patched fork, enabling users to opt out of Core client disagreements. - Vora Aegis hardware introduction ($2,000–$2,700 range) offering private, open-source AI with AMD Ryzen specs and targeting business rather than retail markets. - Competitive dynamics between Bitcoin treasury companies (MicroStrategy/MSTR vs. Semler Scientific/ASST) showing potential market cannibalization despite identical value propositions.
Bitcoin Tonight - 042
- Jurisdictional arbitrage as a monetary check on government power; how smaller, competing political units historically constrained overreach before nation-states consolidated authority. - Socialism's mathematical impossibility without real price signals for capital goods; Bitcoin's hard cap of 21 million as embodiment of Austrian economic principles. - False AI narratives claiming artificial intelligence will "want" Bitcoin; LLMs are token processors indifferent to payment method or currency type. - Quant (QNT) rug-pull watch and shitcoin valuation traps; the danger of measuring gains in USD rather than satoshis while broader purchasing power collapses. - Michael Saylor's "framing creep" from "digital capital" to "digital credit" mirroring broader Bitcoin narrative capture by derivative product shills and influencers. - Baby boomer purchasing power versus millennial and Gen-Z wage stagnation; M2 money supply expansion as root cause, not individual work ethic or job-market choices. - Ecclesiastes 1:9 ("nothing new under the sun") applied to Bitcoin Twitter cycles repeating memes and social dynamics without meaningful progress on core values.
Bitcoin Meets AI Agents And Everything Changes | Tillman Holloway & Andrew Parish
- AI agents are becoming prolific users of crypto and tokens, requiring new forums for trading compute power and hash rate in real-time markets. - Bitcoin's special use case as collateral is superior to real estate, gold, or physical assets because of low repossession costs and smart contract automation. - 24/7 trading markets are coming to traditional exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, CME); AI agents will be necessary to execute trades when humans sleep. - Tokens in finance and compute tokens in AI represent encrypted representations of value that enable global inclusion and eliminate barriers to entry for billions of unbanked people. - AI trading tools require human direction and oversight; the goal is an extension of personal will and judgment, not autonomous money-making machines. - Wall Street adoption of Bitcoin through ETFs (especially Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, and Bitwise) signals a shift from speculation to institutional allocation and retail demand.
Bitcoin Catch-up Rally Has Just Started.
- Bitcoin's catch-up rally has begun with spot ETFs forming a bull flag above May highs and a weekly falling wedge pattern establishing key support and resistance levels. - Q3 close approaching in two days with a potential bullish engulfing candle on the three-month chart; a Kijun cross expected around October 2nd marks a potential cycle turning point. - Gold and silver markets lost $1 trillion in combined market cap yesterday; Bitcoin-to-gold ratio showing strength as next year positioned as "all about Bitcoin." - Multiple bullish price targets referenced ($250K by 2027, $1M within 8 years per BSTR CIO Sean Bill) alongside structural analysis suggesting the current range repeats 2022 recovery patterns. - BitGet exchange reopens BTC withdrawals after four-day hack freeze; Liquid Network peg-outs remain suspended with no near-term resolution despite ongoing security audit. - Spain confirms self-custody crypto holdings exempt from foreign asset disclosures under Modelo 721; BLIP2BLAKE infinite money glitch exploits replay protection weakness.
345. Bitcoin, Mining, and Stablecoins
- US fiscal crisis and debt sustainability: The US carries $40+ trillion in debt, but dollar dominance persists due to network effects, superior inflation relative to other fiat currencies, and entrenched payment infrastructure; however, long-term Treasury yields at multi-decade highs signal growing market skepticism. - Bitcoin mining at a structural inflection point: Hash rate has experienced its longest bear market in Bitcoin history; Saifedean argues mining may have peaked in late 2025, as the expected value of mining becomes negative when Bitcoin price appreciation falls below ~100% per four-year cycle. - Stablecoins and systemic risk: While stablecoins disintermediate banks more efficiently, they concentrate short-term Treasury holdings at the low end of the yield curve, creating rollover risk if interest rates rise; a crypto crisis coupled with large stablecoin redemptions could force dumping of treasuries during refinancing periods. - Bitcoin halving cycles and volatility decline: Bear market drawdowns have shrunk from 87% (first cycle) to 54% (current cycle), indicating maturation; as more participants understand the four-year halving pattern, volatility should continue declining and attract institutional capital. - Tether's dollar-to-Bitcoin transition potential: Tether's small Bitcoin allocation has outsized impact on BTC price because Bitcoin's $2 trillion market cap dwarfs the $37 trillion Treasury market; over time, Tether could theoretically re-denominate itself as a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin. - MicroStrategy and Bitcoin treasury companies: While attractive conceptually, these firms borrow against Bitcoin holdings—a complex proposition requiring case-by-case balance sheet analysis rather than blanket endorsement.
Bitget Lost $351 Million Without Losing a Single Key
- Bitget exchange loses $351 million in digital assets through spoofed transfers in wallet backend system; cold storage remains secure and user protection fund pledges to make users whole. - Quantum-resistant Lightning Network research (PQLN) demonstrates zero-knowledge privacy layer for Bitcoin without requiring soft fork or touching channel funds. - X402 protocol integration with Bitcoin Lightning Network enables automated micropayments between software agents and APIs; real-world adoption remains uncertain. - Shielded Bitcoin design using zero-knowledge proofs allows pegging in regular Bitcoin, sending privately via encrypted notes, then pegging out; similar to mixers but trustless; still early research phase. - Wrench attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders increasing in frequency; UK case offers £10,000 reward for information on violent home invasion targeting couple's crypto holdings. - Blockstream Services Canada and USA operate under separate ownership, control, and management since mid-2024; River Financial sues for approximately $7 million over terminated agreement and prepaid funds.
Did El Salvador OFFICIALLY Give Up on Bitcoin?! | EP 1602
- El Salvador continues accumulating Bitcoin for its strategic national reserve, buying approximately one Bitcoin per day, while pivoting to stablecoins for everyday payments via a new Coinbase-powered remittance app called Savar. - Bitcoin adoption for consumer payments in El Salvador has been underwhelming; approximately 92 percent of Salvadorians reported not using Bitcoin in 2024, and only 1.75 percent of remittances moved through crypto wallets. - Stablecoins are becoming the intermediary step toward broader digital currency adoption because they offer familiarity and stability compared to volatile Bitcoin, particularly in developing economies where local currencies are weaker than the U.S. dollar. - The four-year Bitcoin cycle thesis is losing credibility; time and macro conditions are non-linear, making historical price patterns less reliable as predictive tools. - Rising interest rate environments, AI-driven productivity gains, and deflationary pressures are reshaping asset valuations; Bitcoin's role as a scarce collateral asset is strengthening amid geopolitical uncertainty. - On-chain metrics show the healthiest Bitcoin fundamentals ever recorded, with orderly price discovery, significant long-term holder accumulation, and minimal contagion events compared to previous bear markets.
I’m Sure This Bitcoin Scenario Is Impossible
- Weekly Bitcoin chart closed with a flat bottom and minimal wick, signaling strong bullish structure and potential continuation upward to fill the previous candle's wick. - Price projections ranging from $290K (bearish) to $500K+ (bullish) through 2029, with comparisons to Nvidia and Google's multi-year rallies. - Four-year cycle debate: some analysts claim it is dead and replaced by mid-cycle correction patterns; others argue the cycle still holds if understood through behavioral states rather than fixed timeframes. - Magic megaphone pattern potentially emerging, which could produce a "rally of disbelief" similar to past bull market rallies. - Regulatory clarity from SEC on wrapped Bitcoin and crypto as non-security deposit receipts, with custodians banned from lending underlying assets. - BitBlake (Blake2B) fork drama: community members and pool operators rejecting the attempted hard fork; Luke Dashjr and others claiming their fork is Bitcoin while creating arbitrary rules and division.
He's Made Money On 95% Of His Deals (Here's How) | Christopher Zook
- Modern portfolio theory and the "holy grail of investing" requires 8–15 uncorrelated assets to reduce risk by 80% while increasing returns, proven by Nobel Prize–winning research. - CAZ Investments avoids emotion-driven decisions by focusing on worst-case scenarios first, allowing upside to take care of itself; the firm has achieved a 95% success rate on realized and unrealized private market investments over 25 years. - Bitcoin and crypto exposure is best achieved through infrastructure and "picks and shovels" (blockchain companies, early-stage ecosystems) rather than direct coin ownership, reducing volatility uncertainty. - Space and defense represents a generational shift from legacy "prime" contractors to "neoprimes"—companies like Anduril that build faster, cheaper, and more efficiently without cost-plus government contracts. - Diversification does not require boring assets; scarcity-driven investments (sports teams, GP stakes, crypto infrastructure) can deliver strong returns while maintaining low correlation to public markets. - AI job displacement is the real concern, not existential risk; automation will eliminate rote roles (truck drivers, factory workers) but create demand for service-oriented, relationship-driven, emotionally intelligent work.
AI Just Bailed Out Bitcoin Mining | Bob Burnett
- AI has become a white knight for struggling public Bitcoin miners, allowing them to pivot energy contracts and infrastructure away from Bitcoin mining without going bankrupt. - Public miners' hash rate share fell from approximately 38% to 28% of global hash rate, which Bob considers healthy as it trims unprofitable "fat" from the ecosystem. - Mining is fundamentally a commodity business that sells block space, not a technology growth business; public companies misunderstood this and overspent on CapEx and executive compensation. - Off-grid mining offers superior economics and regulatory insulation compared to on-grid operations, which depend on third parties and remain vulnerable to hostile legislation. - Pool centralization is a critical Bitcoin security risk: only five pools create 80% or more of block templates, concentrating transaction selection and protocol signaling in too few hands. - Ocean's Datum protocol allows miners to create their own block templates (95–98% of Ocean blocks now do), with several hundred templates active simultaneously compared to the rest of the ecosystem combined.
Wall Street Is Buying All The Bitcoin!!!
- Bitcoin Treasury Conference happening in New York City this week, focusing on how businesses leverage Bitcoin as a treasury asset and its implications for corporate financial strategy. - First masterclass in a four-part series launched, covering earning in Bitcoin, capital preservation, conversion strategies, and asset usage; replay available for free. - BitGit exchange hacked for $351 million; Revolut exposed customer data and Bitcoin transactions to hackers posing as government; AI-enabled vulnerabilities outpacing defensive security measures. - Crypto ownership map shows Vietnam at #2 globally and UAE leading regionally, with Dubai likely higher due to self-selected population and regulatory environment attracting Bitcoin holders. - Bitcoin network cycles and indicators (RSI, power law, stock-to-flow models) breaking historical patterns; September was green despite seasonal bearish expectation, challenging predictive frameworks. - Maurizio built on-site tools including DCA calculator, Big Mac inflation standard, Bitcoin vs. S&P comparison, and ownership migration tracking across individuals, institutions, ETFs, and governments.
Rabbit Hole Recap #181: Internet Blackouts and More Consolidation
- Kazakhstan experienced widespread internet shutdowns during civil protests, disconnecting approximately 12% of global Bitcoin hash rate and highlighting critical infrastructure vulnerabilities for mining operations. - Redundant communication systems—satellite, cellular, mesh networks, and multi-ISP setups—are essential for miners to survive state-level internet attacks, though no single solution is bulletproof. - Human Rights Foundation announced 4.25 Bitcoin (425 million sats) in grants to Bitcoin developers and educators including Jiral Rodriguez (Bitcoin Core GUI), Farida Nabarema, and Blockchain Commons. - Kixunil proposed privacy-preserving reusable Taproot addresses as an alternative to BIP-47 PayNyms for donations, allowing senders to generate fresh addresses from a static public key. - Multiple software wallet releases occurred (Blue Wallet 6.2.16, Mercury Wallet 0.5.6, Foundation Passport 1.0.8, Samourai 0.99.98b) with modest updates and ongoing security considerations. - Bitcoin circular economies—peer-to-peer transaction patterns between self-custodied wallets—are critical for privacy and reducing dependence on KYC on-ramps and chain surveillance heuristics.
Rabbit Hole Recap #180: End of 2021 roundup
- 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.
Rabbit Hole Recap #178: We got a strike
- SEC delays Bitwise and Grayscale spot Bitcoin ETF proposals, maintaining approval resistance while approving derivatives-based futures ETFs; the delay ironically encourages self-custody and node operation among individual stackers. - Chinese underground Bitcoin mining persists with an estimated 20% of network hashrate still operating covertly despite the CCP ban, demonstrating Bitcoin's resilience and the futility of mining prohibition. - HRF, Strike, and OpenSats announce three Lightning-focused bounties worth 1 BTC each targeting activists and everyday users: Bolt 12 reusable invoices, stablecoin-pegged Lightning contracts, and Chaumian eCash federated wallet implementations. - OpenSats receives 501(c)(3) tax-deductible status approval, enabling tax-deductible Bitcoin donations to open-source projects and general developer fund deployment. - Cathedral Bitcoin donates $50,000 to Summer of Bitcoin, a university program connecting students to Bitcoin open-source development opportunities. - Multiple Bitcoin software releases advance node, wallet, and layer-two implementations: BTC Pay Server v1.3.7, Rust Lightning v0.0.104, LNBits v0.4.0, Mercury Wallet v0.5.1, and others; Blockstream sponsors Mempool project expansion to cover Liquid Network.
Rabbit Hole Recap #176: Party rip
- Swan Bitcoin adds Taproot support and API integration while exiting New York due to BitLicense regulatory burden; first wallet partner is Hexo Wallet. - Bitcoin mining approaching all-time high difficulty; estimated 8% adjustment with next ATH possible before year-end if current hashrate sustained. - El Salvador-focused Bitcoin Magazine print issue launching quarterly; distributed to Barnes & Noble across US with high editorial quality and meetup directory. - BitLicense regulatory regime drives Bitcoin companies and talent out of New York; tax and compliance burden makes jurisdiction uncompetitive for crypto business. - Bitcoin maximalism debate resurfaces during bull market; focus should remain on Bitcoin's monetary role and energy sector integration rather than shitcoin comparison. - Stacks token distribution and conflation with Bitcoin stacking; over-collateralized lending use cases driven primarily by capital gains tax arbitrage.
Rabbit Hole Recap #175: Don't live in fear
- Square rebrands to Block, consolidating Cash App, Square, Spiral (formerly Square Crypto), TBD, and other entities into one umbrella company with explicit Bitcoin focus. - Jack Dorsey steps down as Twitter CEO; concerns raised about increased censorship and platform hostility to Bitcoin and free speech advocates. - Ledger releases Bitcoin app v2.0 with PSBT support, Taproot, and multisig capabilities, addressing prior limitations in collaborative custody workflows. - MicroStrategy purchases additional 7,002 Bitcoin (total now ~129,000 BTC) while maintaining custody with third-party custodian rather than holding keys directly. - Silent Link launches US eSIM support via Bitcoin-only privacy phone numbers with no KYC, enabling anonymous cellular service on Calyx and de-Googled Android. - Difficulty adjustment downward 1.5% due to Chinese rainy season ending, DNS attacks on pools, and natural miner migration; unknown pool category now dominates hash distribution.
#289: Bitcoin is about to surpass the British Pound with Matthew Mežinskis
- Bitcoin ranks sixth largest base money globally, with Q3 2021 update showing it approaches the British pound (£1 trillion) and could surpass it in Q4 2021 at ~$68,000 USD. - Global monetary base grew 12.8% annually since 1970, doubling every 5.7 years; 30% of all cash ever printed occurred in the last two years due to COVID stimulus. - Central banks remain opaque despite claims of transparency—the Bank of England discloses only 90% of its balance sheet by value, making Bitcoin's fully transparent ledger a stark contrast. - Compound annual growth rates reveal weaker fiat currencies (Australia +184% YoY, Canada previously +300%) experiencing rapid devaluation while Bitcoin's supply growth has slowed to 1.8% YoY post-halving. - Rising authoritarianism and monetary debasement across multiple currencies (Turkey 44.5% annually, Argentina/Brazil >100%, Lebanon in hyperinflation) illustrate why Bitcoin offers a non-debasable alternative. - Supply-side analysis of monetary bases avoids the political manipulation of CPI indices and reveals empirical evidence of currency devaluation that demand-focused metrics cannot capture.
Rabbit Hole Recap #174: Much to be thankful for
- El Salvador announced Bitcoin City, a 0% tax jurisdiction powered by geothermal volcano energy, alongside a $1 billion bond ($500M for Bitcoin purchases, $500M for mining infrastructure and city construction). - Samsung is building a $17 billion chip foundry in Taylor, Texas, diversifying ASIC manufacturing away from Taiwan and South Korea—a bullish development for Bitcoin mining decentralization. - Odell Beckham Jr. is converting his entire Los Angeles Rams salary (~$4.5M) to Bitcoin via Cash App, joining a trend of professional athletes accepting Bitcoin payments. - The US paused diplomatic relations with El Salvador and the IMF issued warnings about Bitcoin adoption, reflecting institutional resistance to El Salvador's monetary sovereignty strategy. - Fold App partnered with Pokémon GO creator Niantic to drop satoshis at physical locations via augmented reality, enabling location-based Bitcoin rewards. - Bitcoin's post-China mining ban recovery demonstrated the network's technical robustness (difficulty adjustments) and social coordination through free-market relocation of hash rate globally.
Rabbit Hole Recap: Bitcoin Week of 2021.11.15
- Taproot activation at block 709,632 succeeded; multiple wallets including Muun added support quickly, with Cash App enabling pay-to-Taproot addresses by December 1st. - Dust UTXO consolidation problem discussed; dust jubilees would require out-of-band payments or mining pool coordination, raising questions about long-term UTXO set bloat and whether Bitcoin can scale to billions of individual UTXOs. - SEC continues rejecting spot Bitcoin ETF applications while approving cash-settled futures ETFs; officials argue custody concerns justify rejection, though futures products offer less direct Bitcoin ownership. - Perth Heat baseball club in Australia adopted a full Bitcoin standard: paying players, receiving advertiser payments, selling tickets and merchandise in BTC via Lightning Network, and holding Bitcoin treasury reserves. - TBDex protocol released by Square's TBD; allows peer-to-peer asset exchange using decentralized identity (DIDs) and verifiable credentials, supporting both KYC and privacy-preserving modes based on counterparty negotiation. - Tether announced Synonym, a stealth-mode company launching to bring tokens and tether specifically onto the Lightning Network, alongside identity and trust-building primitives.
#285: From bars to Bitcoin with Justin Rhedrick
- Justin Redrick's journey from homelessness and prison to becoming a Bitcoin educator through his book *From Bars to Bitcoin* and the Black Bitcoin Billionaires community. - How low time preference and understanding sound money can change individual and generational wealth outcomes, contrasted with desperation-driven crime motivated by poor monetary systems. - The technical capabilities of Bitcoin including Discrete Log Contracts (DLCs) on Lightning Network, smart contracts off-chain, and why order of operations matters (decentralization first, then scaling, then features). - Why Bitcoin's consistency and lack of manipulation distinguish it from altcoins and traditional finance; Bitcoin is emotionless protocol that doesn't know humans are using it. - The necessity of teaching Bitcoin as a solution to systemic financial problems rather than a get-rich-quick scheme; fixing money fixes the world. - How Bitcoin mining aligns incentives toward network decentralization and energy efficiency without requiring roadmaps, marketing, or corporate structures.
Rabbit Hole Recap: Bitcoin Week of 2021.11.01
- Lightning channel jamming attacks: Research from BitMEX highlights denial-of-service risks where attackers lock up channel capacity and forwarding slots; proposed solutions involve tokenized reputation systems and staking mechanisms but come with privacy and UX trade-offs. - Major adoption signals: Commonwealth Bank (Australia's largest) adding Bitcoin buy/sell/hold services; mayors and athletes (Miami, NYC, Aaron Rodgers) accepting Bitcoin salary payments; Navajo Nation mining Bitcoin with solar power. - Policy concerns: Proposed U.S. regulations (effective 2023–2024) would require individuals to collect KYC/AML data and file 1099 forms for peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions; also Biden administration vaccine mandates affecting workforce and supply chains. - Mining capacity expansion: Compass Mining partnering with Red Jar Digital in Ontario, Canada for 140-megawatt hosting facility; Braiins OS+ firmware and Stratum V2 work advancing mining decentralization. - African Bitcoin startup growth: Chipper Cash raises $150 million Series C extension; integrating with Twitter's tip jar and expanding cross-border payments across Africa. - Metaverse and escapism risks: Discussion of VR pod dystopias (Ready Player One, Snow Crash parallels); concern that frictionless virtual worlds may drive mass social withdrawal and reduce real-world productivity.