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Max Mellenbruch is a well known Bitcoin artist, famous for creating incredible works of art. You can read more about his story in his new book (free pdf download) at https://kialara.com/product/kialara-art-bitcoin-the-book/One of his latest creations, Kialara Guardians, is a beatiful and unique self-custodial wallet. They have been sold out for a long time, but he just created a new batch   Here's how they work: https://kialara.com/how-it-works-guardiansAnd more info about them: Kialara Guardians introduces a fresh perspective on the concept of self-custody. The innovative design offers individuals the chance to encapsulate their personal public and private key pair or seed phrase within a captivating 2.5″ diameter artwork. This is made possible by an exclusive braille-inspired code system crafted specifically for this purpose.
In this scenario, users are empowered to seize control of their private keys, emphasizing the vital responsibility that accompanies our progressive shift into the blockchain era. By eliminating the requirement for a printer, the system ensures all the security that can only be provided by a fully manual process once keys or seeds have been generated. This immersive hands-on approach fosters a profound connection between users and their individual hard-wallets, establishing a tangible bond of trust and ownership.
The artworks showcased in this edition are brought to life through the assistance of AI, resulting in the creation of distinct characters symbolizing the four elemental forces that sustain all life forms: water, fire, air, and earth. The overarching theme of this edition has given birth to avatars ranging from endearing to eccentric and surreal, seamlessly capturing the spirit of modern AI pop culture.
The Guardians find their home within a specially crafted double-hinged box, delicately wrapped in genuine leather. The inclusion of this nostalgic material serves as a bridge between the ever-evolving realm of futuristic technology and the tangible aspects of life that are steadfast, trustworthy, and palpable.
Continuing the cherished gemstone tradition of Kialara, the Guardians enchant with their aquamarine, sapphire, diamond, and emerald variations. Every artwork boasts absolute uniqueness and is accompanied by a personalized hologram representing its respective element. Although users have the freedom to select their desired element, the specific character they receive remains a delightful surprise. In a sense, the whimsical and lighthearted nature of these AI-driven characters brings a touch of relief amidst the current tensions surrounding the pervasive presence of AI in every facet of human intellectual and creative pursuits, even extending to the audacious promises of immortality itself.
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It's already been almost a month since The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) decision that Central Banks can hold up to 2% came into effect under their "Prudential treatment of cryptoasset exposures". BIS initially was planning for a 1%, but when Central Banks asked for 5%, they proposed a 2% as a compromise. A bank’s total exposure to Group 2 cryptoassets must not exceed 2% of the bank’s Tier 1 capital and should generally be lower than 1%. Given that Central Banks are already looking into this, let's examine the impact this could have. Let's be conservative and assume we continue with the proposed 2%, and not the 5% that banks want. Banks have about $188T: The value of bank assets worldwide increased gradually between 2002 and 2023, despite some fluctuation. In 2023, global bank assets amounted to more than 188 trillion U.S. dollars, up from 183.2 trillion U.S. dollars a year earlier. At 2%, this represents $3.76T in Bitcoin. For comparison, the current market cap of Bitcoin is $2.05T. This, even at 2%, is a game changer for Bitcoin.
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The company MARA mined block 879613 and decided to create some art in it (Note that there's also the constitution of the USA in the OP_RETURNs)  That green dot at the bottom left clearly will annoy some people  Here is the block at mempool: https://mempool.space/block/000000000000000000010c05038d08c742d28a7a248e9d0f94ebe5102f366c8e?audit=falseNote that you need to leave audit=false at the url, otherwise you don't get the full picture correctly: https://mempool.space/block/000000000000000000010c05038d08c742d28a7a248e9d0f94ebe5102f366c8eHere's how the audit works at mempool: A block audit visually compares Mempool's expected block to the actual block for a particular block height.
How is the expected block determined? Mempool monitors its view of the mempool and runs a re-implementation of Bitcoin Core's transaction selection algorithm to determine the transactions it expects to see in upcoming blocks (source code here). Since there is a continual flow of new transactions, this algorithm runs every 2 seconds, and as a result, you will see the transactions projected to be in upcoming blocks change in near real-time.
At the moment a new block is mined, Mempool saves a snapshot of its projected block template for the next block. We call this snapshot the expected block for the block height in question, and it serves as the basis for the block audit.
When details for an expected block and actual block are available, we can compare them. The purpose of block audits is to deduce when miners intentionally include or exclude transactions from blocks they mine. Since this information cannot be precisely known, Mempool uses a handful of heuristics to accomplish this.
Block audits highlight transactions in different colors to convey these heuristics:
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An Italian member of parliament, Marcello Coppo, said that banking foundations should start investing in Bitcoin to see great returns in the future. A banking foundation is an organization set up as a bank that uses its funds to support social, cultural, and philanthropic activities. This seems to be an unstoppable wave of new Bitcoin interest from corporations. For example, recently the largest bank in Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo, acquired $1 million worth of Bitcoin. It seems that Bitcoin is now so mainstream that is starting to be part of many, many organisations balance sheet. source: https://decrypt.co/301689/italian-lawmaker-urges-banking-foundations-to-buy-bitcoin
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Some people might want to accept Bitcoin for their goods and services, but might not know where to start. Here is a list of Bitcoin Payment Processors that anyone can use to start accepting Bitcoin as payment. No third party needed. No permissions required. Just you and your client.  The up to date list with links is available in the source, here: https://github.com/alexk111/awesome-bitcoin-payment-processors
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 This is the press release: https://ir.heritagedistilling.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/113/heritage-distilling-introduces-bitcoin-treasury-policyIt makes this company the first ever spirits company to accept Bitcoin for payment for their products. The company not only accepts Bitcoin but they say they are planning to keep Bitcoin as part of their financial strategy. This is a difference compared to other companies which accept Bitcoin for payment but immediately change it to USD. “Heritage has always been an innovator and once again we are leading the way in the craft spirits space as we prepare to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for online e-commerce sales and to acquire and hold bitcoin as an asset. As noted in our policy statement, unlike traditional investors who purchase bitcoin with cash and are immediately subject to potential pricing volatility, as a company producing goods for sale, acceptable margins between the retail price of our products and their cost of production is expected to offset potential fluctuations in the value of bitcoin we accept as payment. This provides us considerable financial flexibility as we develop product offerings for users and enthusiasts of bitcoin.” I think Bitcoin is now finally starting to enter in companies and countries financial spreadsheets for real.
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 Jon Collins-Black, a web entrepreneur and early Bitcoin investor, made his fortune by selling a website and hodling his Bitcoin from the early days. He wrote a book, There's Treasure Inside, which contain all the instructions and hints required to get the loot. Collins-Black commissioned five unique puzzle boxes, which have been scattered across the United States, four of similar sizes and then one larger box containing the lion’s share of the fortune.
“We’re in a digital world and what I’ve put together is an analog adventure,” he says of his new book There’s Treasure Inside. “All you need is a book, some water and some shoes.”  The treasure contains one of the physical Bitcoins by Casascius. So, why did this guy do this? Just for fun! “At the end of the day, there’s value to the excitement and the joy of the experience,” he says. “That sounds like cliché but for me, when I was searching for Forrest Fenn’s treasure, it was the idea of it that was most exciting. If I had found the treasure it would have been euphoric, but I don't know if it would have exceeded the total joy that I had just through the whole process of it.”
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On December 11th, 2024, Mayor Ken Sim introduced a motion to the council of the City of Vancouver titled "Preserving of the City's Purchasing Power Through Diversification of Financial Reserves – Becoming A Bitcoin Friendly City", available here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20241211/documents/cfscA3.pdfIn that motion, the Mayor requested a report to be made by the end of the first quarter of 2025 to investigate the potential risks and benefits of including Bitcoin as part of the savings of the City of Vancouver to fix the problems of inflation. He goes on to list El Salvador, Lugano, and others, as successful examples of Bitcoin adoption, and he quoted Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper in the motion. And it ends with this:  I think many cities and countries around the world are waking up to this reality. Fiat is losing traction, and Bitcoin is getting everywhere.
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 Article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/a-federal-agents-laptop-held-the-keys-to-seize-36-billion-in-stolen-bitcoin-heres-how-it-ended-up-at-the-smithsonian-180985485/Podcast version: https://www.si.edu/sidedoor/bitcoin-bank-heistIn 2016 Bitfinex was hacked, and about 120k Bitcoins were stolen. A hacker responsible for stealing 119,754 Bitcoin in a 2016 hack on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange was sentenced to five years in prison by U.S. authorities.
The man, Ilya Lichtenstein, was arrested in February 2022 in Manhattan following a lengthy investigation led by the IRS, HSI, and the FBI, which managed to recover roughly 80% of the stolen cryptocurrency (94,000 Bitcoin)
At the time of the theft, the 119,754 bitcoins were worth $78,000,000 but equaled $3.6 billion at the time of the seizure. They were able to seize the Bitcoins because they ended up having access to their computer, where he had the key to most of the stolen Bitcoin: IRS-CI Special Agent Chris Janczewski, working closely with Department of Homeland Security investigators and prosecutors from the Department of Justice, traced the stolen Bitcoins. He treated the blockchain as a digital crime scene that eventually allowed him to identify the suspected perpetrators, search their home and seize their digital files onto his laptop. Within the tranche of seized files, Janczewski discovered the digital keys to the majority of the Bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex, enabling him and his law enforcement colleagues to seize funds worth approximately $3.6 billion, as valued at the time of the seizure in February 2022, and arrest Lichtenstein and Morgan. Today, those funds are valued at about $8.6 billion. It is not clear from the article if the keys found were encrypted with a password or not, but eventually the Federal agent's laptop was used to access the Bitcoins with this seized key. It is this laptop that was acquired by the Smithsonian to be showcased in their exhibition called " The Value of Money”:  You can have a look at the exhibition either in person, or online: https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/value-money/online
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https://bitcoinbushbash.infoNext weekend will be an interesting one for Bitcoin in Australia as there will be a free event with a large amount of talks and meetups over three days. It all starts on Friday November 29th from 2pm at Cooke Park Pavilion https://www.parkes.nsw.gov.au/Community/Facilities/Venues-for-hire/Cooke-Park-PavilionHere is the current agenda: Friday, November 29 1400 - 1700: Bitdevs - Hosted by WizardOfAus, Benjamin & Alex
1800 - Onward: Drinks and dinner at nearby establishment
Saturday, November 30 SESSION 1
1000: John Pratt - Welcome to Bush Bash + A short history of Bitcoin and how we got here.
1030: WizardofAus (Tim) - Silent Payments: Reusable addresses without compromising privacy
1100: Pete Winn - The union of Bitcoin and AI
1130: Ketan - Transitioning to Linux
1200: Baz - Is Bitcoin Mining Broken?
1230 - 1400: Lunch
SESSION 2
1400: James Check - Astrology for men: A data-driven Bitcoin markets update.
1430: Phil - Bitcoin Income Options
1500: Adam Ahmed - Bitcoin Tax Q & A
1530: Seb Walker - The Cycle of Liberties: From Private Property to Public Prosperity.
1600: Libertarian Party - Bitcoin Policy panel
1800 - Onward: Drinks and dinner at nearby establishment
Sunday, December 1 0900: (Bonus Early Session) - Piers Cockram: Self Custody Workshop
SESSION 3
1030: Jen & TBone - Freedom through responsibility
1100: BT - Reflections of a Newcomer
1130: Turtles - Life: On Purpose
1200: Kermit - Bitcoin Is Family
1230 - 1400: Lunch
SESSION 4
1400: Soapbox session: An opportunity for anyone to speak for 5 minutes each on a topic of their choice.
1430: Piers Cockram - Why are Miners Embracing AI
1500: Black Ink - Bitcoin & Alchemy
1530: James NZ - Tipping Bitcoin
1600: Communities
From 1800: BBQ Dinner and Afterparty with BBQ by Brisket. BYO Salad, Snacks & Drinks (Location TBA)
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Alberto Echegaray created "Moneyballs", an art exhibition that showcases mining rigs next to balls made of shredded US Dollars and Argentinean Pesos. https://cryptobriefing.com/crypto-art-exhibition-argentina/ As far as I'm aware, this is the first time that a central bank anywhere in the world exhibits a display related to Bitcoin. “No central bank has ever handled operational mining equipment, and it’s good for both art enthusiasts and those interested in economic and digital systems to see it.” The money spheres, or "balls", have a diameter of 50 cm and are made of 10 thousand $100 bills, shredded. That's basically one million USD, out of circulation. The US Treasury provided the out-of-circulation dollars, while local discarded pesos were sourced from BCRA’s own refuse Echegaray’s installation features spheres that connect virtual assets to real-time valuation data, encouraging visitors to ponder the changing role of money. His work also delves into deeper socio-economic questions, critiquing society’s dependence on the dollar and the evolution of economic systems.
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Bolivia, a country in South America, used to be extremely against Bitcoin. Since 2014 they have had regulations against its use, with further updates on that in 2020. But now it has all changed, and the Central Bank of Bolivia has recently removed all bans on Bitcoin transactions. Here's the X post from them: https://x.com/BancoCentralBO/status/1805997364362318143 PDF link here: https://www.bcb.gob.bo/webdocs/files_noticias/CP_35%20NormativaActivosVirtuales4.pdfThis is the official statement from the central bank (in Spanish): El Banco Central de Bolivia (BCB), comunica a la opinión pública que mediante Resolución de Directorio N°082/2024, de 25 de junio de 2024 dejó sin efecto la Resolución de Directorio N°144/2020, de 15 de diciembre de 2020, habilitando, de esta manera, el uso de canales e Instrumentos Electrónicos de Pago (IEP) para operaciones de compra y venta de Activos Virtuales. They also clearly stated that this doesn't mean that Bitcoin is legal tender: El BCB enfatizó que la única moneda de curso legal en el país es el Boliviano conforme a la Ley N°901 de 28 de noviembre de 1986. En este sentido, un activo virtual no es una moneda de curso legal, no es efectivo y no existe obligación, por parte de la población, para recibirlos como medio de pago, por lo que los riesgos inherentes al uso y comercialización de los mismos serán asumidos por los usuarios de dichos activos So, basically Bolivia is now at the same level of most of the developed world in terms of Bitcoin. It is legal to transact with it, but it is not seen as a legal tender.
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Electrum Personal Server is a great lightweight electrum server, but it seems like the project is not going to be maintained any further as there hasn't been any new releases since June 2022, and at the end of that year the main maintainer, Chris Belcher, mentioned he was having some health issues: Hey everyone, thanks for your concern. Unfortunately I'm dealing with some health issues and haven't been working since July. I haven't been following any bitcoin news. I don't know anything about this Toronto developer, I just learned about it reading this thread now. Certainly no three letter agency has said anything to me (yet?). Even if that happened, joinmarket is decentralized and still works even if I'm not around (I haven't actually checked joinmarket but there's no reason it shouldn't be working right now).
The current version of the software works, but you need to update the certificate as it expired on March 2023. Here is the current workaround, which is to generate your own self-signed certificate: https://github.com/chris-belcher/electrum-personal-server/issues/286#issuecomment-1465354568I wonder if there is any similar project that is actively maintained.
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While checking out solo mining on Ocean XYZ, I noticed they mined empty blocks from time to time, like this one: https://mempool.space/block/842828 I then checked for other blocks and realized that this seems to happen to pretty much all the pools, as you can see by ordering the latest blocks by transaction number. All these are empty blocks, mined by different pools: " https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/blocks?s=transaction_count(asc)"  When you go to the solo ckpool website, it states: Unlike regular pools, ckpool never mines transaction-free blocks due to its ultra-scalable code which has miners on both new blocks and transactions concurrently. And it seems that in fact ckpool hasn't mined empty blocks. My question is, how is it possible that this small pool run by one person, Con Kolivas, can manage to write code so that the miners never get an empty block but massive companies like Binance and others still produce empty blocks? Is there something fundamentally different in how solo ckpool is run that cannot be replicated in these other pools?
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https://www.monochrome.au/news/articles/monochrome-launches-australias-first-bitcoin-etf-under-crypto-licensing-rulesMonochrome Asset Management just launched Australia's first Bitcoin ETF, named Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC). It will be accessible through the Cboe Australia exchange with the ticker "IBTC", more specifically, CBOE:IBTC. This is probably great news for investors wanting to access Bitcoin directly through an ETF. Personally I just prefer to buy Bitcoin directly though. Maybe there is a benefit in terms of less fees?, but it's not worth it in my mind as you don't hold the key to these coins...
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Source: https://archive.is/BZal2In 2013, a man stored 43.6 BTC in his wallet, and protected it with a strong, 20-character password generated using a password manager called RoboForm. Instead of simply storing this password in the password manager, he decided to store it in a file and encrypted it using a tool called TrueCrypt. Some time later that encrypted file got corrupted, so he was unable to obtain the password to his wallet. Now, the interesting part is that because of the way RoboForm generated passwords, it was possible to regenerate the same password and unlock the wallet! Here's the video that explains this in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5IySpAkThgRoboForm used certain parameters like password length, use of upper or lower case letters, etc, which were simply guessed by the "hackers/researchers" based on other passwords that the man used in the past. But the crucial step is that RoboForm used the time of the system to seed the PRNG(Pseudorandom number generator) algorithm to generate the password. This reduced the number of checks dramatically and made it possible for them to crack it. The password was generated on May 15, 2013, at 4:10:40 pm GMT. They were able to generate the same password that the software gave to the man at that time. This is a happy ending, with the man now holding 30 BTC (he sold some and also paid the "hackers"), but it is also a cautionary tale: If you use a password generator, make sure to manually edit it so that it is not possible for people trying to steal your money to do something like this.
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The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Diana Mondino, recently confirmed that in Argentina you can make contracts paid in Bitcoin: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/argentinas-minister-of-foreign-affairs-affirms-bitcoin-acceptance-for-contract-agreementsRecently, there was a story about a guy in Argentina who did just that to rent an apartment: "A guy just signed a contract to rent an apartment using bitcoin, likely a world first" Here is the original story, in Spanish: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/703173-en-rosario-se-firmo-el-primer-contrato-de-alquiler-en-bitcoi The first thing to consider is that the price in the contract is set in USDT, not even USD. The contract says 100 USDT, which is today the equivalent of $100. Here is the original in Spanish that mentions this: Según consta en el contrato, el monto del alquiler será de la cantidad de bitcoins (BTC) equivalente a "100 Tether tokens USDT", una criptomoneda "estable" o stablecoin que cotiza 1 a 1 con el dólar. Es decir, 100 dólares, o 0,0021 BTC. Now, first of all that sounds very cheap for a full month of rent, but the most interesting part to me is that the price was set in USDT, which can at any time depeg: https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-and-why-do-stablecoins-depeg So, any month, those 100 USDT can represent a completely different amount of USD, which will then be converted to BTC. The second thing to highlight here is that they are not paying the BTC directly to the other person wallet. They are using a centralized exchange called Fiwind, and basically they deposit their Argentinean Peso into the platform, exchange it to BTC, and then transfer the BTC in the platform to the landlord, monthly: Así, el inquilino deberá, mensualmente, transferir los pesos argentinos "que estén en la cuenta bancaria o billetera virtual del usuario" a la plataforma Fiwind, y una vez allí convertirlos a la criptomoneda deseada (en este caso, Bitcoin). Luego, ese monto en criptomoneda será transferido al propietario en la misma plataforma, sin costo. Apparently the centralized exchange is part of the contract, so maybe they are doing it this way to get all their fees from this person, and get some PR on the side. It is a bit of a shame really, when they could have easily just paid directly from one person to another. The details of this story reveal that it's not really a direct peer to peer transfer, but a convoluted payment involving a third party. Might as well just pay it directly in Argentinean Pesos, or USD since they are setting it to $100 USD. Missed opportunity. I think the main point here is setting the price in USD equivalent instead of the Argentinean Peso which devalues a lot over time.
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  When Bitcoiners ask me about the sign, I tell them, “You’d have done the same in my seat.” Yes, only I attended the hearing, drew the sign, and flashed it for the camera. However, it was the network spirit which seized the image and fabricated the memes. The full poetry of the stunt was far beyond my devising, therefore, my attitude can only be one of post-authorship. Bitcoin was massively rupturing into the halls of institutional finance in 2017. Any Bitcoiner worth their sats would have told you so. It’s good to finally liberate this number from my sock drawer and offer it back to the Bitcoin public. The message was subversive then, but now merely obvious: Bitcoin is flowing. Control is dead.   Auction Start: Thursday, April 18, 12 pm ET (16:00 UTC) Auction End: Wednesday, April 24, 7 pm ET (23:00 UTC) Auction link: https://scarce.city/auctions/buy-bitcoin
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