Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to issue #109 of the Bitcoin Breakdown, where we are excited to announce that we have partnered up with the team from Flash - The Bitcoin Payment Gateway to enable recurring bitcoin payments for our Premium Membership programme. Check out our new page here.

Happy readings! 👽️

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OPSEC FEATURE ARTICLE

A Self-Hosted, Open-Source Alternative to Audible

Services like Audible offer convenience but come with privacy concerns, restricted ownership, and reliance on proprietary ecosystems.

This week we present a compelling alternative for audiobook listeners who value privacy, control, and transparency.

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🏆 FEATURE STORIES

• Peter Todd in a new research paper analyzes various covenant-dependent Layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin, highlighting their potential to improve scalability and efficiency while noting their complex implementation and dependence on significant protocol changes (Sept 2 | 47 min read) (Audiobook version available here).

• Blink Lightning wallet explores 17 groundbreaking Lightning Network innovations that are reshaping Bitcoin transactions, making fast and cost-effective payments possible for remittances, micropayments and more (Aug 27 | 5 min read).

• Voltage analyzes the privacy implications of Lightning, highlighting vulnerabilities like cross-layer data leakage and potential de-anonymization techniques that undermine its initial privacy goals (Aug 26 | 4 min read).

• Kaká Furlan, writing for Area Bitcoin, explains how to buy Bitcoin privately on Robosats, a P2P platform that utilizes the Lightning Network for secure, anonymous transactions without KYC requirements, ensuring user privacy during trades (Aug 27 | 10 min read).

• Joakim Book, writing for the Mises Institute, reviews the new book Bitcoin: The Inverse of Clown World by Knut Svanholm and Luke de Wolf, and explains how Bitcoin offers a pathway to freedom amid societal decay caused by interventionism and a broken monetary system (Sept 2 | 4 min read). 

• Joe Consorti analyzes the slow and painful death of Ethereum, emphasizing its waning narratives, ETF struggles, and reversed deflationary supply, ultimately signaling its failure to maintain market relevance (Aug 27 | 5 min read).

• ZK-SHARK analyzes how Bitaxe, an open-source ASIC Bitcoin miner, empowers home miners to reclaim Bitcoin’s decentralized vision by challenging existing centralization in Bitcoin mining and offering new paths for self-sovereignty (Aug 29 | 16 min read).

• Marty Bent discusses how the French government's arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov highlights the fragility of such platforms versus the robust freedom offered by protocols like Nostr, which enable decentralized and censorship-resistant communication (Aug 27 | 6 min read).

• BTC Sessions shares practical tips and settings for optimizing the use of Coldcard hardware wallets, highlighting features like Bip85 for secure seed management and efficient transaction processes for savings and spending (Aug 31 | 2 min read).

• L0LA L33TZ critically examines the existential threats facing Bitcoin, highlighting how overconfidence and complacency in its community could lead to its downfall unless proactive solutions address systemic issues (Aug 27 | 8 min read).

• Frank Corva of Bitcoin Magazine reviews Proton’s new Bitcoin wallet and explains how it simplifies Bitcoin transactions by allowing users to send Bitcoin with just an email address, but lacks advanced features like Lightning Network support for faster and cheaper payments (Aug 29 | 7 min read).

• Ian Slane provides a comprehensive guide for newcomers on how to start contributing to the open-source Lightning Dev Kit (LDK) Node, emphasizing the importance of community engagement and simplifying the contribution process (Aug 30 | 4 min read).

• Shehzan, founder and CEO of Lava, publishes a paper on Lava Loans, an interesting use of DLCs to make loans available for Bitcoin in which, instead of trusting the company, users end up trusting the oracle to give the right information on the Bitcoin price (Sept 1 | 13 min read).

• Runningbitcoin publishes a guide on buying Bitcoin with Bisq2 and explains how it introduces a streamlined way to buy Bitcoin via the Lightning Network, and enhances P2P exchanges with new features like Bisq Easy, which eliminates collateral requirements and simplifies transactions (Aug 27 | 5 min read).

• New research in the Journal of Cleaner Production presents an innovative solution for curbing methane emissions while generating revenue, offering financial incentives for methane mitigation through Bitcoin mining collaboration (Aug 28 | 38 min read).

• Andrew Throuvalas explores the potential of Bitcoin's OP_CAT upgrade, a proposed and debated soft fork that may enhance functionality and utility, but faces skepticism regarding its true benefits among developers (Sept 1 | 6 min read). 

• Jonas Nick, Kiara Bickers and Tim Ruffing explore the benefits and challenges of Distributed Key Generation in enhancing Bitcoin multisig wallet privacy through FROST, proposing the ChillDKG protocol as a practical solution for implementation (Aug 27 | 5 min read).

POLL

AFFILIATES & REFERRALS

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🛠️ TOOLS & PROJECTS

• StashPay is a personal Bitcoin wallet for freelancers and digital nomads that integrates with Zaprite and is available for testing on iOS TestFlight.

• Angor revolutionizes crowdfunding by offering a fully decentralized Bitcoin platform with time-lock contracts, enhancing control for investors and privacy for projects.

• Lightning Bounties is a beta-stage project that automatically pays code contributors in bitcoin for their valuable contributions to open-source projects.

• Stampseed releases a limited-edition titanium seed plate inspired by the ‘Infinity divided by 21M’ meme.

• Peach Bitcoin is now on the Zap Store, an app store built on Nostr.

• Bitcoin Fees Mobile App is an open-source, cross-platform tool that alerts users to on-chain fee changes and includes a fee calculator.

• Buttcoiner Opportunity Cost Tracker measures the opportunity cost of not having invested $1,000 in bitcoin on the day r/Buttcoin was created.

• Voltage Tipper is a free, easy-to-deploy Lightning tipping page with built-in Lightning Address compatible with Voltage Cloud and any LND node.

• Public-Key Chaining Protocol is a public-key chaining protocol for decentralized self-sovereign digital identity management.

• NymVPN launches as the first commercially available VPN on a decentralized mixnet, offering free beta testing while providing advanced anonymity and protection from surveillance.

• Gifbuddy.lol by Lemon enhances your Nostr experience by allowing seamless GIF search, sharing, and integration, ensuring easy access to content across all clients.

• Anonostr enables users to send anonymous notes on the Nostr network, ensuring privacy through key pair generation, tagging, threading, quoting, and burning for secure communication.

• Getwired.app delivers unstoppable free speech on the internet with an anonymous agora powered by the Nostr protocol and a Proof-of-Work mechanism to prevent spam.

• Alby Hub has a new landing page.

• Alby Hub introduces subaccounts, allowing runners to easily create custodial ‘Uncle Jim’ services and instantly provide NWC wallets for new Lightning and Nostr users.

💥MEME BREAK

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Until our next transmission,

Naiw

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