Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to issue #121 of the Bitcoin Breakdown, where we still appreciate and acknowledge gold. After all, it was the best proxy for scarcity that humans had for thousands of years—until Bitcoin digitally engineered scarcity to perfection.

Happy readings! 👽️

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OPSEC FEATURE ARTICLE

How To Protect Your Privacy Against Wearables Like Meta's New Ray-Ban Glasses

Two Harvard students recently demonstrated how wearables like Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses could be easily turned into a powerful doxxing tool.

This week we present how you can remove your information from the Internet so that this technology becomes ineffective immediately.

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🏆 FEATURE STORIES

• J.T. Woodhouse, a freedom tech novelist, contrasts the selfless legacy of Bitcoin's anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, with today's clout-chasing culture, highlighting the importance of giving to the world without seeking recognition or reward (Oct 11 | 4 min read).

• Brian Cubulis from Early Riders in an exceptional research report argues that companies with strong cash flows and competitive advantages can effectively ‘mine’ bitcoin more efficiently than traditional miners by allocating profits to direct bitcoin purchases, enabling long-term accumulation without operational risks (Oct 9 | 4 min read).

• Shane Neagle, Editor In Chief at The Tokenist, emphasizes that Bitcoin’s transparency, while integral to its security, necessitates privacy upgrades like Taproot and Silent Payments to ensure true final settlement, protecting users from surveillance, seizure, and criminal activity (Oct 6 | 8 min read).

• Thomas Eddlem, an economist and freelance writer, shows how inflation benefits the wealthy by transferring wealth from the middle class and working poor through rising real estate profits and suppressed wages, perpetuated by the Federal Reserve's policies (Oct 8 | 8 min read).

• Alex Lari of Bitcoin News covers how Michael Saylor aims to transform MicroStrategy into the leading Bitcoin Bank, leveraging its 252,000 BTC reserves and $16B investment to capitalize on Bitcoin’s potential as a revolutionary financial asset (Oct 12 | 4 min read).

• Pete Rizzo, Bitcoin journalist and historian, explores Murad Mahmudov's shift from Bitcoin maximalism to advocating for a ‘memecoin supercycle,’ suggesting that a chaotic crypto landscape may precede Bitcoin's rise as the dominant global asset (Oct 10 | 2 min read).

• @runningbitcoin on Stacker News posts a comprehensive guide at the hand of Michael Bazzell’s famous book, ‘Extreme Privacy: What it takes to disappear’, for enhancing one’s digital privacy by transitioning to Pop!_OS Linux, installing privacy-focused applications, implementing backup strategies, and optionally setting up a dual-boot system with Windows (Oct 15 | 13 min read).

• George Ford Smith, writing for Mises Institute, argues that the Federal Reserve, created in 1913 through political and banking partnerships, has manipulated currency and inflation for decades, making it time to let the free market take over (Oct 11 | 6 min read).

• bc1984adam, a privacy and sound money advocate, argues that the elimination of central banks and fiat money wouldn't result in a multi-decade depression, but rather a market reset that fosters innovation, resilience, and true economic freedom (Oct 8 | 8 min read).

• Kaká Furlan, founder of Area Bitcoin, reviews the Phoenix Wallet, a user-friendly, non-custodial mobile Lightning wallet that simplifies channel management and enhances financial sovereignty for Bitcoin users, despite recent regulatory challenges in the US (Oct 10 | 13 min read).

• Lightspark, a Lightning company, publishes a piece emphasizing that businesses should embrace bitcoin payments to capitalize on lower transaction fees, faster settlement times, and enhanced security, positioning themselves for growth in the evolving financial landscape (Oct 10 | 5 min read).

• Sadiq Jaffer of KPMG UK releases the slides from his talk at Amsterdam 2024 about risk management in bitcoin mining, examining its complexities and strategies to mitigate costs and enhance financial stability (Oct 9 | 20 min read).

• Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo, showes how Bhutan, leveraging its abundant hydropower, is using bitcoin mining for economic self-reliance, already holding over 13,000 BTC and potentially aiming for a Bitcoin standard where its Ngultrum currency would be pegged to Bitcoin, offering unique monetary policy possibilities (Oct 8 | 3 min read).

• ICYMI: WatchDoge in 2016 presented circumstantial evidence suggesting Peter Todd may be Satoshi Nakamoto in a 3-part article series, while emphasizing the uncertainty of this theory and the factors surrounding his possible identity (Jan 24 2016 | 17 min read).

• Vincenzo Palazzo, open source developer, introduces lnprototest, a Python library for testing Lightning Network implementations, emphasizing its role in ensuring compliance and interoperability as the network evolves and incorporates new features (Oct 9 | 3 min read).

• Carl B Menger, a pseudonymous Bitcoin writer, explores the intricate relationship between global liquidity cycles and Bitcoin's price, highlighting how central bank policies and the M2 money supply influence Bitcoin's value amid changing economic conditions (Oct 8 | 8 min read).

• Frank Corva of Bitcoin Magazine interviews Lea Petrášová, co-founder of Vexl, a service that offers a KYC-free, open-source Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading app, which enables users to securely and privately trade bitcoin while embracing the principles of financial sovereignty and decentralization (Oct 8 | 8 min read).

• Coin Center published an analysis of the recent denial of the motion to dismiss in the Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s case, claiming that the ruling is based on inconsistent interpretations of overlapping laws and sets a dangerous precedent, with the decision likely to be appealed (Oct 8 | 15 min read).

• LN+ explores Atomic Multipath Payments (AMP), a protocol that enhances Bitcoin's Lightning Network by splitting payments across multiple channels, increasing transaction success, improving scalability, and optimizing liquidity for larger, more reliable payments (Oct 7 | 6 min read).

• Daniel Kowalski, writing for the Mises Institute, examines the potential consequences of global de-dollarization, highlighting how massive government overspending, inflation, and geopolitical shifts could threaten the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency (Oct 4 | 7 min read).

• Bradley Rettler, author of ‘Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin’, highlights how activists are increasingly leveraging Bitcoin and coinjoin technology to protect financial freedom and support nonviolent resistance against authoritarian regimes (Oct 9 | 5 min read).

POLL

🛠️ TOOLS & PROJECTS

• Ark Labs announces partnership with Boltz to integrate Ark for Lightning liquidity swaps, improving scalability, reducing fees, and boosting Bitcoin infrastructure.

• SovereignKey by OKIN transforms any computer into a self-managed device for secure Bitcoin transactions, enhancing user control over digital assets and information.

• Liquisabi is a coinjoin explorer that tracks coinjoin transactions and allows you to filter them by the coordinator that staged it.

• LN VPN enables an anonymous number to receive an SMS that can be paid with Bitcoin Lightning.

• Azteco’s on-chain Bitcoin vouchers are now available on Fold’s app.

• Swapido enables you to send pesos to any bank account in Mexico using Bitcoin Lightning.

• The Bitcoin Masterpiece, an innovative work that fuses art and technology, launches in Paris with 99 limited edition pieces priced at 1 BTC each, showcasing real-time market data.

• Fountain Podcast app update simplifies library architecture, adds BOLT-11 invoice payments for withdrawals (allowing payments with apps like CashApp and Strike), and introduces artist pages for easier track browsing.

• Swapido partners with The Bitcoin Company to launch Mexico’s first non-custodial Lightning Network off-ramp solution.

• Cryptosteel partners with Mi Primer Bitcoin to bring stylish backups to students.

💥 MEME BREAK

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Until our next transmission,

Naiw

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