Greetings Earthling,

Welcome to this week’s Quick Bits edition where we curate the most interesting and pertinent Bitcoin snippets from the past week.

This week’s edition is however extra loaded as it include snippets from the preceding week also. (Gmail users: please drag this email to your Primary folder if it ended under Promotions).

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As always, please leave any feedback via the poll near the end of the newsletter so I can continue improving it for you.

Happy readings! 👽️

📰 HEADLINES

SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, reports that a critical vulnerability has been found in the Libbitcoin Explorer 3.x library, resulting in the theft of more than $900,000 worth of BTC and other altcoins. The vulnerability, termed ‘Milk Sad,’ permits attackers to access private keys that were compromised due to a flawed random number generator in the Libbitcoin Explorer's bx binary that resulted in easily guessable entropy for wallet generation, rendering their holdings vulnerable. To be clear, this is not an issue with Bitcoin Core, but an issue with an external third party GitHub library. Known affected applications include Airbitz, Bitprim, Blockchain Commons, and Cancoin, but it is hard to tell who else got affected, unless they are open sourcing their code. This is another reason why you should not use closed source wallets. (Editor: I highly recommend you use Blockstream’s Jade which is fully open source. Get 10% of off when using coupon code: bitcoinbreakdown).

Intel processors vulnerability called ‘Downfall’ potentially affects billions of chips, which most likely includes the one you’re using right now. The vulnerability allows hackers to steal sensitive data, including passwords, from affected computers. Cloud computing environments could also be affected, as malicious customers might exploit the flaw to steal data from others sharing the same cloud computer. Intel has released a fix for the vulnerability, but it comes with a significant performance loss of up to 50%. (Editor: This should go without saying but do not backup your private keys digitally. I recommend you use a CryptoSteel metal seed backup which will make you immune to similar digital vulnerabilities).

Federal Reserve expands oversight of crypto-related activities at banks under a new program called the ‘Novel Activities Supervision Program’. The program will focus on ‘novel activities’ such as crypto-asset custody, trading, lending, and other applications of blockchain technology that could have a broader financial impact, including the issuing of stablecoins. The program institutionalizes the previously informal pressures felt by banks working with crypto (see: Operation Choke Point 2.0).

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⚡️ QUICK BITS

• Sam Bankman-Fried arrested as bail is revoked.

• Stacker News identifies a bug that led to rewards paying too much sats to users.

• Stacker News implements bolt11 invoices; you no longer need an account to zap at random; posts/comments will appear as @anon.

• Stacker News adds Nostr Login, Zap Metadata in notifications when your wallet receives a zap.

• Peach adds feature to swap Lightning sats against on-chain in a peer-to-peer fashion.

• Mash releases custodial mobile Lightning wallet.

• Iraq blocks Telegram access citing 'privacy concerns'.

• Kenya suspends crypto project Worldcoin over safety concerns.

• Argentine Agency for Access to Public Information initiates investigation targeting Worldcoin to ascertain the legality of its data collection practices.

• Germany’s AfD party says Worldcoin eyeball scanning is for ‘global surveillance of people’.

• Vault is a free, open source decentralized Nostr password manager.

• Binance does $90B worth of business in China even though crypto is illegal there.

• Swan Bitcoin releases short video, ‘Bitcoin VS Gold’ (6:35 min watch).

• Peruvian Bull releases short video, ‘The Monetary Event Horizon’ (7:15 min watch).

• Matthew R. Kratter releases short video, ‘Vitalik and Scam Bankster-Fraud’ (8:08 min watch).

• Jack Dorsey's Block reports $5.5B in Q2 revenue - almost half of it from Bitcoin.

• SEC: ‘Shitcoiner Richard Heart scammed investors and bought rare black diamond’.

• fSmartSats is a non custodial mobile lightning wallet that allows you to conveniently allocate sats for AI agents.

• Swarmstr is a Nostr client that helps you find answers to your questions and enables you to assist others in resolving theirs.

• Tether announces Q2 operational profits of over $1B and buying 1,529 BTC worth $44M in this last quarter, ending the period with a total of $1.67B worth of BTC.

• Tether is now the 11th largest bitcoin holder in the world.

• Tether developing Bitcoin mining software that will be open sourced.

• Brave Browser introduces Private Image and Video Search.

• BTC Transcripts uses AI to transcribe high-signal audio and video content.

• Elon Musk says Xitter will never launch its own crypto token.

• El Salvador pays maturing $800M bonds, silencing critics over its decision to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender.

• Binance becomes fully licensed in El Salvador.

• Coinbase mulling best ways to integrate ightning network for Bitcoin.

• Pensioner gives up fight with Israeli bank to deposit massive bitcoin savings.

• CoinShares report: Investors have stopped shorting Bitcoin for first time in three months.

• Bitrefill now supports eSIM purchases with bitcoin.

• Judge in Terraform Labs case rejects earlier Ripple ruling against SEC.Stacker News adds Nostr Login, Zap Metadata in notifications when your wallet receives a zap.

• Hong Kong debuts retail crypto trading with exchanges HashKey and OSL.

• Tatum Turn Up clarifies why he’s not following a regular publishing schedule in probably the most cringe video of the year (7:39 min watch).

• Voltage partners with Human Rights Foundation to help dissidents and NGOs accept BTC donations.

• Galaxy Digital CEO: Spot Bitcoin ETF ‘a question of when, not if’, based on his contacts from asset managers BlackRock and Invesco.

• Bitdeer confirms Bitcoin mining facility in Bhutan is completed.

• HSBC introduces payment limits for sending money to exchanges for your ‘protection’.

• First Direct plans to restrict customers buying Bitcoin, also for their ‘protection’.

• Australian Commonwealth Bank announces cryptocurrency transfer limits, also for your ‘protection’.

• Futurama Season 11 Episode 3 features Bitcoin mining.

• Revolut halts its US crypto operations from September 2 due to regulatory concerns in the USA.

• Australian Securities and Investments Commission sues eToro over its contract-for-difference speculation product, claiming it is harmful for investors.

• CryptoCloaks releases short video of Wall Street Charging Bull statue wearing Bitcoin apparel (0:48 min watch).

• Free Madeira releases trailer for Bitcoin Atlantis 2024 Conference (1:02 min watch).

• TIP_NZ releases music video, ‘Break The Frame' (3:06 min watch).

• Richard releases another Orange-Pill Edition song, ‘David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Kanye West - Kids Remix’ (1:51 min watch).

• David Rubenstein, billionaire co-founder of The Carlyle Group, says Bitcoin is not going anywhere, expresses regret for not investing earlier (3:51 min watch).

• Terra’s Do Kwon sells more BTC in apparent bid to secure funding for lawyers.

• Cathie Wood says SEC will approve multiple Bitcoin ETFs at once.

• Reclaim The Net releases video, ‘The World Economic Forum's Plot To Control The Metaverse’ (12:12 min watch).

• Iowa leaps into controversial state Digital ID scheme.

• ‘Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde’ plead guilty to money laundering.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr: Bitcoin energy concerns should not be used as 'smokescreen' to limit freedom.

• Satillionaire21 creates a short video of David Attenborough narrating Brandon Quittem’s classic article, ‘Bitcoin: the mycelium of money’ (1:23 min watch).

• The Highest of Stakes documentary that focusses on the HEX community premiered on August 4 (2:51 min trailer inside).

• SEC sues HEX founder Richard Heart for alleged fraud and unregistered securities sales.

• Umbrel Nostr relay app now syncs your private relay with public relays.

• Current App says Apple allowed them to keep zaps on Nostr posts.

• Ukrainian government reports $81M tax loss from unregulated crypto exchanges since 2013.

• Plan B releases his official Bitcoin prediction: 1 BTC will get to between $100,000 - $1M some point in the next bull cycle (20:05 min watch).

• Binance becomes first exchange in the world to receive a license in Dubai.

• Stemstr enables you to create, connect, and collaborate on music via Nostr.

• Samsung assists with India’s controversial Digital ID rollout.

• IRS issues a new ruling that crypto staking rewards must be reported as gross income in the year they are received.

• Bity, a Bitcoin ATM firm, takes on Swiss regulator for overly tight KYC limits.

• Bank of Korea chooses three regions to test CBDC program.

• Ukraine demands local crypto businesses provide financials.

• StableArtMaker is an innovative bot designed to be used on Nostr that allows you to create images from several Stable Diffusion models, Midjourney, and artistic QR codes.

• Putin outlaws anonymity by signing off on legal amendments that threaten to destroy online anonymity, crush free speech, and stifle innovation.

• Binance Japan to launch with 34 listed cryptocurrencies.

• Joltz hints the launch of a Taproot Assets wallet in just a few weeks.

• 0xchat is a new privacy focused chat app built on the Nostr protocol.

• Alby announces integration with LetsCast.fm, enabling the German podcasting platform to stream sats to listeners.

• Bitstamp to suspend trading of major altcoins for US users.

• Canadian loses $35K in Bitcoin to fraudsters posing as Microsoft representatives.

• Brazilian CBDC will be called ‘Drex’.

• US Department of Justice is concerned about a run on Binance should prosecutors bring fraud charges.

• Long-term Bitcoin holder metric hits new all-time high.

• Gerontocrats Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders demand crackdown on ‘crypto tax evaders’.

• SEC files Ripple appeal in challenge to XRP securities outcome.

• Russia to begin CBDC trials with 13 banks.

• Imp Chat is a revolutionary app that brings private group messaging to Nostr.

• Australian Banks restricting cash raises CBDC fears.

• Unchained releases short video explainer, ‘What is a bitcoin CoinJoin?’ (3:44 min watch).

• Joe Rogan and Post Malone discusses how disastrous a CBDC would be (1:43 min watch).

• India wants to use crypto tokens to digitally sign documents in a new indigenous web browser.

• Super Testnet released a new set of updates to his Magic Webstore.

• Satimoto is enabling EVs to charge with Lightning payments at over 60,000 locations in Europe.

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