Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to issue #104 of the Bitcoin Breakdown, where we prefer Bitcoin’s upward volatility to the US Dollar’s steady decline and lack of protection for purchasing power.

🔈️We now have our own BIP 353 username to receive Lightning donations at: [email protected] (courtesy of Cake Wallet, Phoenix and Njalla).

We encourage everybody to similarly set up your own username incorporating Silent Payments (essentially stealth addresses for Bitcoin) and BOLT 12 invoices (reusable, privacy-preserving invoices for Lightning). You can use either this guide or this service.

🔈️You also still have the chance to join our exclusive Bitcoin-Only community and gain free lifetime access as a founding member. The private group empowers each other to become sovereign individuals in all aspects of life. Join the waitlist here and secure your freedom!

Happy readings! 👽️

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⚡️ QUICK BITS

• Robin Linus publicizes a new paper on BitVM bridges - a novel and trust-minimized protocol to bridge bitcoins to second layers, which would enhance Bitcoin’s programmability.

• Bitcoin is now the 6th largest monetary asset in the world.

• CoinGate reports a dramatic rise in Lightning Network adoption among their users, with Bitcoin payments made through Lightning on their platform doubling from 2022 to 2024.

• Marathon Digital announces $250M fundraising to expand Bitcoin holdings.

• Ben The Carman leaves Mutiny to join Taproot Wizards to help build CatVM, a project that aims to scale Bitcoin.

• Seth For Privacy announces that he is leaving Foundation’s team to join Cake Labs, developer of Cake Wallet.

• SEC approves the first leveraged single-stock ETF targeting MicroStrategy, offering 175% daily returns and amplified Bitcoin exposure through Defiance ETFs.

• US government seeks 30-year prison sentence for Roman Sterlingov, amid skepticism over blockchain evidence used in Bitcoin Fog case.

• UN Cybercrime Convention criminalizes hacking and whistleblowing while enabling financial surveillance and overriding bank secrecy across member states.

• Bitcoin reserves on exchanges decline to a five-year low as $5.96B is withdrawn in just 30 days, emphasizing the shift toward self-custody.

• Venezuelan government blocks Binance, limiting access for thousands and impacting crucial peer-to-peer trades.

• Nigerian SEC cautiously embraces Bitcoin regulation while James Otudor's lawsuit challenges restrictive crypto laws and advocates for investor rights.

• El Salvador announces $1.6B Private Investment - the biggest in the nation's history.

• Israeli tourists lose $700,000 in bitcoin to armed assailants in a violent beach attack in Costa Rica.

• National Public Data, a background check company, suffers a major data breach, exposing nearly 3B individuals' confidential information and personal data.

• Bitcoin ETFs are collectively on pace to hold more bitcoin than the believed tally of Satoshi Nakamoto.

• Core Scientific announces $350M senior notes offering to enhance financial flexibility and support debt repayment and corporate initiatives.

• Cleanspark secures 26,000 Bitmain immersion miners in $167.7M deal.

• Kamala Harris’ choice of advisers suggest she will keep Biden’s hostile attitude towards crypto.

• Ted Cruz calls Bitcoin an 'energy safety net' for Texas.

• Norway's sovereign wealth fund invests $217M in MicroStrategy, gaining leverage in the Bitcoin market through Michael Saylor's holdings.

• Nearly half of Bitcoin supply remains untouched for six months, showcasing strong conviction among hodlers despite recent market volatility.

• US government moves 10,000 Bitcoin seized during the Silk Road raid.

• Iran's state power company offers a $20 bounty to citizens who report illegal crypto miners as heatwaves exacerbate nationwide power shortages.

• Goldman Sachs has invested over $400M in Bitcoin ETFs according to the latest 13F filing submitted by them to the SEC.

• Coin Center celebrates two victories against unconstitutional financial surveillance, improving protections for Bitcoin developers and users from IRS reporting mandates.

• Tyler Winklevoss warns that the Fed's Operation Chokepoint 2.0 crackdown on crypto intensifies ahead of the November election, threatening the industry's future.

• Metaplanet, dubbed ‘Asia's MicroStrategy,’ increases its bitcoin holdings to 303 BTC after purchasing an additional 57.1 BTC for $3.3M.

• Norway plans to ban Bitcoin mining by year-end without public consultation, says Ministry of Digitalization and Public Administration.

• FBI issues Glomar response regarding individual records about Satoshi Nakamoto, neither confirming nor denying the existence of the records, which is typically their answer for requests regarding non-US persons.

POLL

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Every day Refind analyzes thousands of articles and send you only the best, tailored to your interests. Loved by 504,469 curious minds.

🎥 QUICK MEDIA

• River Financial publishes a video exploring the impact of a US Strategic reserve of Bitcoin (Aug 14 | 03:00 min watch).

• Jack Dorsey on implications of the government having a monopoly on violence (Aug 09 | 00:51 min watch).

• Seedor publishes funny video depicting how Cross Input Signature Aggregation works (Aug 10 | 00:12 min watch).

• Kamala Harris blames inflation on price fixing schemes (Aug 12 | 00:38 min watch).

• Congressman Ro Khanna says that being against Bitcoin is like being against cell phones (Aug 14 | 00:37 min watch).

• Matthew Krater of Bitcoin University explores the claim that the CIA created Bitcoin (Aug 12 | 06:12 min watch).

• Max Keiser explains how everything is going to zero against Bitcoin to Alex Jones on his show (Aug 12 | 02:32 min watch).

• Peruvian Bull explains how Bitcoin is an ultra sensitive liquidity asset and the most liquid money that's available to trade 24/7 (Aug 13 | 00:56 min watch).

• Ioni Appelberg publishes a video about Bitcoin’s scarcity (Aug 10 | 06:20 min watch). 

• Dusan of Amity Age gives an inside look at the Bitcoin Center in Pristine Bay, Roatan, Honduras that was established to teach the people of Roatan all about Bitcoin (Aug 09 | 08:39 min watch).

• Hodlr Swiss releases video short of its Hodlr Shield seed backup device (Aug 12 | 01:16 min watch).

💥MEME BREAK

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• Start9 empowers you to run your own Bitcoin node while also joining the sovereign computing paradigm, where concerns over privacy, censorship, hacks, and fees practically disappear—get a 5% discount by using the code: BITCOINBREAKDOWN.

Thank you for reading!

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Until our next transmission,

Naiw

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