🏦 Federal Reserve Threatens Bitcoin Magazine | ♻️ Turning Trash into BTC | 🤥 WSJ Issues Correction
Naiw
November 05, 2023
Greetings Earthling,
Welcome to issue #40 of the Bitcoin Breakdown, where we fully appreciate the significance of the discovery of decentralized digital scarcity and how unconfiscatable savings is transforming civilization.
In this week’s Top Stories edition:
🏦 The US Federal Reserve threatens legal action against Bitcoin Magazine
♻️ Marathon Digital Holdings launches Bitcoin mining project powered by methane gas
🤥 The Wall Street Journal partially corrects its misleading article
🖐️ The 5 phases of the Bitcoin halving
🔗 2023 is declared the year of the Great Bitcoin Decoupling
⚖️ Bitcoin's anti-totalitarian traits help against market manipulation
🎙️ Bitcoin is the new Rock & Roll
👁️ Privacy and Non-KYC
🔍 I pay a 5-8% premium for Non-KYC BTC, and so should you
🇰🇵 Elastic Security Labs discloses a novel intrusion by North Korea's Lazarus Group
🔮 The Stock to Flow model and how it predicts Bitcoin’s long term price
🌏 How to live a nomad life with Bitcoin
🗝️ Exploring Bitcoin self-custody more closely
Happy readings! 👽️
📰 HEADLINES
The US Federal Reserve threatens legal action against Bitcoin Magazine, alleging that the magazine's merchandise, which parodies the Fed's FedNow system, constitutes copyright infringement rather than protected speech.
In response, Bitcoin Magazine rejected the cease-and-desist request, defending its actions as an exercise of First Amendment rights and a critique of the Fed's policies and the FedNow system's potential impact on financial freedom.
Marathon Digital Holdings announces the initiation of its first Bitcoin mining pilot project powered solely by renewable, off-grid energy derived from landfill methane gas.
By utilizing landfill methane, which is 80 times more harmful than CO2 over a 20-year period post-release, this project capitalizes on an otherwise wasted energy resource while simultaneously addressing environmental concerns, thereby once again invalidating claims by critics like Greenpeace and Senator Elizabeth Warren regarding Bitcoin's environmental impact.
At this stage, detractors still labeling Bitcoin as environmentally detrimental are either misinformed or driven by ulterior motives, as Bitcoin challenges existing power structures.
The Wall Street Journal partially corrects its misleading article that overstated the extent to which Hamas and related militant groups have been funding their activities with BTC.
The initial WSJ article prompted a chain of events which eventually led to the new 'Bitcoin Patriot Act' proposal by the US Treasury and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Six days prior to publishing the FinCEN proposal, Senator Warren and congress members wrote a letter to President Biden about their concerns that BTC were being used to finance terrorism, specifically Hamas, basing their arguments on the WSJ piece.
The FinCEN proposal is not trying to change or pass a new law but is proposing a ‘rule change’ that will expand the already-totalitarian Patriot Act to cover CVC (convertible virtual currency) mixing.
Ultimately, they’re opportunistically using the recent flare up in Israel to make the Patriot Act apply to BTC transactions.
The FinCEN proposal is moving ahead and is open for public comments until January 22, 2024.
OTHER BEEHIIV NEWSLETTERS TO CHECK OUT
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🏆 TOP STORIES
The 5 Phases of the Bitcoin Halving (Oct 28 | 1 min read)
Rekt Capital goes over the five stages of the Bitcoin Halving set for April 2024. It begins with a Pre-Halving period, during which deeper retraces historically offer good returns post-Halving. As it nears, a Pre-Halving rally typically occurs due to anticipatory buying. Around the Halving, a retrace happens, causing some to question the bullish impact of the event. Post-retrace, a re-accumulation phase ensues, testing investor patience. Eventually, Bitcoin enters a Parabolic Uptrend, marking accelerated growth and new all-time highs.
The Great Bitcoin Decoupling (Oct 30 | 4 min read)
Marty Bent declares 2023 as the year of the Great Bitcoin Decoupling from traditional financial systems. The decoupling has been driven by factors such as Bitcoin's core philosophy, the mismanagement of national economies, and the fact that more and more individuals are beginning to understand how much counterparty risk they are exposed to in the banking system. He illustrates Bitcoin's 'unseizability' as a unique attribute that makes it stand out, overlining the value of self-sovereignty.
Bitcoin Is Anti-Totalitarianism (Oct 25 | 8 min read)
Preston Pysh criticizes Senator Elizabeth Warren's recent letter, which leveraged international crises to curtail financial freedoms and target Bitcoin, based on misconstrued terrorism financing claims. He further argues that the erosion of free markets, particularly since the 2008 financial crisis, threatens democracy and promotes totalitarianism. Bitcoin's anti-totalitarian features can help preserve democratic values against manipulated markets and knee-jerk policies that undermine financial freedoms.
Bitcoin Is The New Rock & Roll (Oct 31 | 7 min read)
Joe Martin, writing for Wavlake, draws a parallel between the societal shift brought about by rock & roll in the 1950s and the potential for Bitcoin to catalyze a similar movement today. He emphasizes Bitcoin's ability to provide financial sovereignty, potentially dismantling oppressive economic systems. The concept of ‘value for value’ is finding its way into new music platforms led by Wavlake and Fountain podcasts. It allows BTC to be send and received directly between artists and fans, revolutionizing digital content monetization. In the end, Bitcoin is a peaceful way to challenge a rigged economic system.
Privacy & Non-KYC - Why Use Cryptocurrencies as Payment Networks at all? (Oct 25 | 21 min read)
This excerpt from Juraj Bednar's book ‘Cryptocurrencies – Hack your way to a better life’ (which you can get here) emphasizes the importance of not requiring Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and the right to privacy in online transactions. Not only can personal data be at risk with KYC requirements, potentially leading to identity theft and financial loss, but privacy is a fundamental human right in itself, to begin with. Bednar further discusses a dystopian scenario where regulatory measures like the Travel Rule from FATF-GAFI could enforce identity tagging on transactions, potentially bifurcating them into 'legal' and 'illegal' based on identity markers.
I Pay a 5-8% Premium for Non-KYC BTC, and so Should You (Oct 23 | 3 min read)
@03219f72bd advocates on Stacker News for paying a 5-8% premium to acquire Non-KYC BTC due to its potential increased value in future restrictive regulatory scenarios. Purchasing Non-KYC BTC, particularly through the Lightning Network or certain accessible alternatives like Bitcoin ATMs, Bisq or RoboSats (see more platforms here), can ensure your stack’s origin remains untraceable. Utilizing services like Muun Wallet or Boltz for swapping Lightning balance for on-chain Bitcoin, followed by a Coin Join operation to enhance anonymity, is also recommended. As government and banking pressures reduce Non-KYC purchasing options, 03219f72bd foresees a substantial future premium on Non-KYC Bitcoin, making the initial premium a worthwhile investment. Additionally, selling Non-KYC Bitcoin in the future could yield a higher premium, especially in black market conditions, and potentially save on capital gains tax, outweighing the initial extra cost.
Cybersecurity Firm Exposes How Lazarus Infiltrated Crypto Exchanges (Nov 1 | 30 min read)
Elastic Security Labs disclosed a novel intrusion by North Korea's Lazarus Group targeting blockchain engineers on a crypto exchange. Utilizing a deceptive Python application delivered via Discord, the intruders attempted to load binaries into memory on a macOS system, a rare tactic for such intrusions. Tagged as REF7001, this multi-stage attack, involving stages called ‘Sugarloader,’ ‘HLOADER,’ and ‘Kandykorn,’ employed a blend of custom and open-source tools for initial and post-exploitation activities, each stage designed to evade detection while escalating the intrusion. Elastic's analysis, evaluating techniques, network infrastructure, and code-signing certificates, firmly attributes this complex, evasive cyber attack to the Lazarus Group.
📖 GUIDES & EXPLAINERS
Bitcoin’s Stock to Flow Model: Definition & How it Predicts Bitcoin’s Long Term Price (Nov 2 | 9 min read)
The S2F Model predicts Bitcoin's price based on its scarcity, calculated by dividing its total supply by the annual production. Created by an individual known as PlanB, the model has gained popularity for its historical accuracy in price prediction, especially around halving events that reduce block rewards for miners, thereby affecting Bitcoin's scarcity. Despite its popularity, the model mainly focuses on supply, overlooking crucial demand-side factors which could significantly impact Bitcoin's price. The model estimates a price of $1.25 million per BTC by 2026.
How to Live a Nomad Life with Bitcoin (Oct 19 | 9 min read)
Natalia Mok narrates her journey into immersing herself in the Bitcoin ecosystem, experimenting with living on Bitcoin as a nomad. She advises to first off examine your spending habits to eliminate unnecessary purchases, moving most of your savings into Bitcoin for simplicity. She shares a method of organizing her Bitcoin savings into cold and hot wallets for long-term and emergency access, respectively, alongside daily spending wallets. She further explores different avenues to convert Bitcoin to local currency, sharing some procedural tips for HodlHodl and RoboSats. She concludes with some pointers of how to earn in BTC.
Exploring Bitcoin Self-Custody (Oct 23 | 11 min read)
Stallion for Hacking Lives emphasizes the importance of self-custody and simplifies the process of achieving it into a few steps: using a non-custodial wallet for daily spending, obtaining a new hardware wallet for long-term storage, securely generating and testing a new seed, implementing a passphrase, and recording both the seed and passphrase on metal solutions stored safely in separate locations. Through these steps, you can transition into a self-sovereign individual with total control and ownership of your Bitcoin assets, embracing the full responsibility that comes with such financial freedom. Stallion also discusses the technical and security challenges associated with self-custody, showing that these hurdles are surmountable and are outweighed by the benefits of true autonomy.
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Until our next transmission,
Naiw
