Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to issue #110 of the Bitcoin Breakdown, where we’re excited about Learning Bitcoin, a Bitcoin education event happening in Victoria, BC, Canada, on September 28. Get your tickets here.

Happy readings! 👽️

TOGETHER WITH MASTERWORKS*

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⚡️ QUICK BITS

• Mastercard launches a Bitcoin debit card for direct spending in Europe from non-custodial wallets.

• CoinGate data shows the Lightning Network is experiencing significant adoption growth, with a doubling of LN payments in two years and a projected LN adoption exceeding 20% in Q3 2024.

• BtcTurk integrates Lightning Network, enabling users to make instant Lightning deposits and free withdrawals at Turkey’s oldest exchange.

• Japan considers tax cuts for Bitcoin and crypto by reclassifying them as financial assets, reducing profits from a 45% income tax to a 20% capital gains tax.

• Strike integrates BOLT 12 support, enhancing bitcoin payments with reusable QR codes and improved user security.

• Central banks bought a record 483 tonnes of gold in the first half of 2024, but Bitcoin still outperforms.

• Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado calls Bitcoin a ‘lifeline’ in exclusive interview with Alex Gladstein.

• Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, asserts that Venezuela must revive its Bitcoin and crypto adoption efforts to combat the impact of ‘bandits and thieves’ on previous initiatives.

• Donald Trump's daughter-in-law and daughter have their X accounts hacked to promote a token purportedly tied to World Liberty Financial, the upcoming sh!tcoin project recently touted by Trump family members.

• Bitcoin holders prefer Trump over Harris by 12%, new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University reveals, highlighting significant support from younger men and minority groups.

• Kwallos Shop, a pioneering Bitcoin spaza shop in the Bitcoin Ekasi community in South Africa, faces devastating loss as fire claims a life and destroys essential stock (in need of donations).

• Zurich Cantonal Bank, Switzerland’s fourth largest bank, launches bitcoin trading.

• Ethereum underperforms Bitcoin by 44% since transitioning to proof-of-stake in 2022.

• Scottish prosecutors seize and convert 23.5 bitcoin into cash from a 2020 robbery that saw three men armed with a machete and a Toblerone chocolate bar break into a home near Glasgow.

• YubiKeys face significant security risks as researchers expose cloning vulnerabilities that compromise the FIDO authentication standard.

• Bitcoin wallets holding 100+ BTC reach a 17-month high, as whales capitalize on smaller traders selling amidst market pressure.

• IntoTheBlock data shows over $1B in bitcoin leaves exchanges in the past seven days as accumulation trends emerge.

• Bitcoin hashrate hits a new all-time high of 742 EH/s.

• JP Morgan reports that bitcoin mining profitability hits record lows as miners earn just $43,600 per exahash amid rising difficulty and declining market caps.

• Ethiopian Electric Power generates over $25 million in revenue from ‘data mining’ companies.

• Wells Fargo to start pitching Bitcoin ETFs to their client from September.

• Qatar launches 2024 digital assets framework to attract global firms.

• The Supreme Court of British Columbia orders $1.2M in damages to be paid in a Bitcoin-related loan dispute, reflecting the growing legal acceptance of Bitcoin.

• Bitcoin ATM scams rise dramatically, targeting older adults and resulting in over $110M lost in 2023.

• Swan customers receive fake 'Data Breach Notice' emails as phishing campaign emerges, likely stemming from the 2022 Klaviyo/HubSpot hacks.

• Russian authorities confiscate 238 mining rigs from a gardening community, citing significant power grid disruptions and fraud-related offenses.

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🎥 QUICK MEDIA

• Howard Lutnick, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO, says banks want to transact in BTC as a new asset class but are being held back by the existing requirements of US regulators (Sept 4 | 2:07 min watch).

• Whitney Webb warns that the Bitcoin community is losing sight of its original focus on freedom and decentralization, as Wall Street and governments try to co-opt it for financial gain (Sept 2 | 14:40 min watch).

• Former BCasher explains how a Reddit post by Adam Back convinced him to come back to Bitcoin (Aug 31 | 0:58 min watch).

• Erik Cason delves into the potential for Bitcoin to reshape our energy markets, empower the global South, and even fuel humanity’s journey to Mars and beyond (Sept 2 | 14:13 min watch).

• Area Bitcoin explains how Bitcoin, like a financial black hole, sucks value from other assets due to its unique properties, ultimately leading to a more fair and abundant future (Sept 1 | 7:59 min watch).

• River Financial publishes a short video that explains why the US Dollar is broken (Aug 30 | 3:15 min watch).

• Ioni Appleberg narrates a story involving a genie, a dystopian future and Bitcoin (Aug 30 | 8:03 min watch).

• Unchained releases a video listing 11 rules to keep your bitcoin safe for generations (Aug 29 | 8:58 min watch).

• Zaprite publishes a tutorial on creating and sending a recurring invoice (Sept 1 | 4:22 min watch).

• Jameson Lopp calls for a faster pace in making improvements to Bitcoin protocol before it is too late (Sept 4 | 0:35 min watch).

• Joe Nakamoto publishes a video about Aurore, a French politician, who has a political strategy centered around Bitcoin (Aug 31 | 25:21 min watch).

• hyperfr33 posts video of Starbucks accepting Bitcoin as payment in El Salvador (Aug 30 | 0:13 min watch).

• Matthew Vuk publishes video launching the Bitcoin Developer Project, a step-by-step online program to onboard the next generation of Bitcoin developers with community support (Aug 29 | 5:09 min watch).

• Robert Breedlove and Giovanni Santostasi discuss the ‘Bitcoin Power Law Theory’ (Aug 31 | 18:35 min watch).

💥MEME BREAK

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Until our next transmission,

Naiw

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