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MicroStrategy Buys Additional $1.11 Billion Worth of Bitcoin

MicroStrategy Buys Additional $1.11 Billion Worth of Bitcoin

MicroStrategy announced it had purchased 18,300 Bitcoin for $1.11 billion, boosting its total holdings to 244,800 BTC acquired for $9.45 billion.

The business intelligence firm, led by Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, has been steadily accumulating Bitcoin as part of its corporate strategy since 2020. MicroStrategy's latest billion-dollar purchase was conducted at an average price of $60,408 per Bitcoin.

According to Saylor, the company has achieved a 17% Bitcoin yield year-to-date, capitalizing on BTC's appreciation as it continues borrowing fiat at low interest rates to expand its holdings.

At current prices, MicroStrategy's Bitcoin trove is worth over $15 billion, greatly benefiting shareholders. The company's stock price has surged in tandem with its Bitcoin accumulation.

Despite rough market conditions in 2024, MicroStrategy continues compounding its Bitcoin position for the long term. The firm treats Bitcoin as a superior treasury asset compared to cash that is subject to inflationary debasement.

MicroStrategy is executing the biggest speculative attack on fiat currency in history by acquiring the hardest money for its treasury. Other public companies are following MicroStrategy's lead by adopting Bitcoin treasury policies and acquiring Bitcoin exposure on their balance sheets. However, MicroStrategy remains the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world.

By harnessing underutilized capital to capture Bitcoin's upside, MicroStrategy has moulded itself into an emerging Bitcoin development company that is powering the worldwide adoption of Bitcoin.


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Bitcoin and Crypto Exchange HTX To Integrate Lightning Network

Bitcoin and Crypto Exchange HTX To Integrate Lightning Network

HTX, one of the largest Bitcoin and crypto exchanges globally, announced it will be integrating the Bitcoin Lightning Network in partnership with Bitcoin firm IBEX.

With over 45 million registered users, HTX is a leading Bitcoin and crypto platform in Asia and worldwide based on trading volume and Bitcoin custody. The exchange now plans to incorporate Lightning Network capabilities into its ecosystem.

Lightning Network is a second-layer payments protocol built on top of Bitcoin. It enables near-instant transactions with significantly lower fees. Exchanges have long sought to implement Lightning to boost speed and affordability.

"Through this strategic partnership, HTX and IBEX will jointly promote the application and popularization of Bitcoin and Lightning Network technology worldwide, providing users with more efficient, secure, and convenient digital asset trading services," said an HTX spokesperson.

By leveraging IBEX's Lightning Network solution, HTX users will soon enjoy faster payments and withdrawals along with reduced transaction costs.

Lightning is finally going mainstream with adoption by Coinbase and now HTX. The Bitcoin community has long awaited Lightning adoption by leading exchanges to boost functionality. Now, HTX is delivering by leading the next wave of Lightning integration.

This shows the gradual maturation of Lightning Network technology and its increasing viability for mainstream Bitcoin platforms. As more exchanges implement Lightning payments, Bitcoin strengthens its position as an efficient medium for global, instantaneous transactions with negligible fees. 


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Trump Election Victory Could Send Bitcoin to $125,000, Says Standard Chartered Analyst

According to Geoff Kendrick, Head of Crypto Research at Standard Chartered bank, a Donald Trump victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election could drive Bitcoin to $125,000. However, Kendrick notes that new all-time highs (ATHs) for Bitcoin are likely no matter who wins the election, with Bitcoin still expected to hit $75,000 if Vice President Kamala Harris secures the presidency.

In the new report, Kendrick explained that while the outcome of the election will impact the Bitcoin industry, the risks of a Harris presidency may be overstated. “BTC will end 2024 at fresh all-time highs under either election outcome – [circa] $125,000 level under Trump or c.$75,000 level under Harris,” Kendrick wrote. While a Harris win could initially result in a price decline, he emphasized that "dips would be bought as the market recognizes that progress on the regulatory front will still be forthcoming."

Despite concerns within the industry that Harris may adopt a more hostile stance toward Bitcoin, Kendrick believes that her administration would be "much less negative" for digital assets than a second Biden administration. Furthermore, Standard Chartered maintains its bullish outlook, forecasting that Bitcoin will hit $200,000 by the end of 2025, regardless of who wins this year’s election.

The 2024 election has drawn attention to the differing approaches to Bitcoin regulation by the two candidates. Trump has become an ally to the Bitcoin industry, speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville this summer, where he expressed support for Bitcoin. The Republican National Committee has also included Bitcoin in its platform, pledging to defend the right to mine Bitcoin and protect self-custody.

In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris has remained silent on the issue, opting not to attend the Bitcoin conference. The Democratic Party’s platform makes no mention of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, which has led to concerns within the industry about the potential regulatory environment under a Harris administration. Although Harris has not publicly shown hostility to crypto, some fear a continuation of the stricter regulatory policies seen during President Joe Biden’s term, notably shaped by figures like Senator Elizabeth Warren and SEC Chair Gary Gensler.


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Revolutionizing Bitcoin Mining: The Power of Three-Phase Systems

Revolutionizing Bitcoin Mining: The Power of Three-Phase Systems

Bitcoin mining has seen exponential growth since the first ASIC miner was shipped in 2013, improving hardware efficiency from 1,200 J/TH to just 15 J/TH. While these advancements were driven by better chip technology, we're now reaching the limits of silicon-based semiconductors. As further efficiency gains plateau, the focus must shift to optimizing other aspects of mining operations—particularly the power setup.

Three-phase power has emerged as a superior alternative to single-phase power in bitcoin mining. With more ASICs being designed for three-phase voltage input, future mining infrastructure should consider adopting a uniform 480v three-phase system, especially given its abundance and scalability across North America.

Understanding Single-Phase and Three-Phase Power

To comprehend the significance of three-phase power in bitcoin mining, it's essential first to understand the basics of single-phase and three-phase power systems.

Single-phase power is the most common type of power supply used in residential settings. It consists of two wires: one live wire and one neutral wire. The voltage in a single-phase system oscillates sinusoidally, providing power that reaches a peak and then drops to zero twice during each cycle.

Imagine you are pushing a person on a swing. With each push, the swing moves forward and then comes back, reaching a peak height and then descending back to the lowest point before you push again.

Just like the swing, a single-phase power system has periods of maximum and zero power delivery. This can lead to inefficiencies, especially when consistent power is required, although this inefficiency is negligible in residential applications. However, it becomes significant in high-demand, industrial-scale operations like bitcoin mining.

Three-phase power, on the other hand, is commonly used in industrial and commercial settings. It consists of three live wires, providing a more constant and reliable power flow.

In the same swing analogy, imagine you have three people pushing the swing, but each person is pushing at different intervals. One person pushes the swing just as it starts to slow down from the first push, another pushes it a third of the way through the cycle, and the third person pushes it two-thirds of the way through. The result is a swing that moves much more smoothly and consistently because it’s being pushed continuously from different angles, maintaining a constant motion.

Similarly, a three-phase power system ensures a constant and balanced power flow, resulting in higher efficiency and reliability, particularly beneficial for high-demand applications like bitcoin mining.

The Evolution of Bitcoin Mining Power Requirements

Bitcoin mining has come a long way since its inception, with significant changes in power requirements over the years.

Before 2013, miners relied on CPUs and GPUs to mine bitcoins. The real game-changer came with the development of ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) miners as the bitcoin network grew and competition increased. These devices are specifically designed for the purpose of mining bitcoins, offering unparalleled efficiency and performance. However, the increased power requirements of these machines necessitated advancements in power supply systems.

In 2016, a top-of-the-line miner was capable of computing 13 TH/s with a power consumption of approximately 1,300 watts (W). While considered highly inefficient by today’s standards, mining with this rig was profitable due to the low network competition at that time. However, to generate meaningful profits in today’s competitive landscape, institutional miners now rely on rigs that demand around 3,510 W.

The limitations of single-phase power systems has come to the fore as the power requirements of ASIC and the efficiency demands of high-performance mining operations grows. The transition to three-phase power became a logical step to support the growing energy needs of the industry.

480v Three-Phase in Bitcoin Mining

Efficiency First

480v three-phase power has long been the standard in industrial settings across North America, South America, and other regions. This widespread adoption is due to its numerous benefits in terms of efficiency, cost savings, and scalability. The consistency and reliability of 480v three-phase power make it ideal for operations that demand greater operational uptime and fleet efficiency, especially in a post-halving world.

One of the primary benefits of three-phase power is its ability to deliver higher power density, which reduces energy losses and ensures that mining equipment operates at optimal performance levels.

Additionally, implementing a three-phase power system can lead to significant savings in electrical infrastructure costs. Fewer transformers, smaller wiring, and reduced need for voltage stabilization equipment contribute to lower installation and maintenance expenses.

For example, a load requiring 17.3 kilowatts of power at 208v three-phase would need a current of 48 amps. However, if the same load is supplied by a 480v source, the current requirement drops to just 24 amps. This halving of the current not only reduces power loss but also minimizes the need for thicker, more expensive wiring​​.

Scalability

As mining operations expand, the ability to easily add more capacity without major overhauls to the power infrastructure is crucial. The high availability of systems and components designed for 480v three-phase power makes it easier for miners to scale their operations efficiently​​.

As the bitcoin mining industry evolves, there is a clear trend towards the development of more three-phase compliant ASICs. Designing mining facilities with a 480v three-phase configuration not only addresses current inefficiencies but also future-proofs the infrastructure. This allows miners to seamlessly integrate newer technologies that are likely to be designed with three-phase power compatibility in mind​​.

As shown in the table below, the immersion-cooling and hydro-cooling techniques are superior methods in scaling up bitcoin mining operations in terms of reaching higher hashrate output. But to support such a much higher computation capacity, the configuration of three-phase power becomes necessary for maintaining a similar level of power efficiency. In short, this will lead to a higher operational profit with the same profit margin percentage.

Implementing Three-Phase Power in Bitcoin Mining Operations

Transitioning to a three-phase power system requires careful planning and execution. Here are the key steps involved in implementing three-phase power in bitcoin mining operations.

Assessing Power Requirements

The first step in implementing a three-phase power system is to assess the power requirements of the mining operation. This involves calculating the total power consumption of all mining equipment and determining the appropriate capacity for the power system.

Upgrading Electrical Infrastructure

Upgrading the electrical infrastructure to support a three-phase power system may involve installing new transformers, wiring, and circuit breakers. It's essential to work with qualified electrical engineers to ensure that the installation meets safety and regulatory standards.

Configuring ASIC Miners for Three-Phase Power

Many modern ASIC miners are designed to operate on three-phase power. However, older models may require modifications or the use of power conversion equipment. Configuring the miners to run on three-phase power is a critical step in maximizing efficiency.

Implementing Redundancy and Backup Systems

To ensure uninterrupted mining operations, it's essential to implement redundancy and backup systems. This includes installing backup generators, uninterruptible power supplies, and redundant power circuits to protect against power outages and equipment failures.

Monitoring and Maintenance

Once the three-phase power system is operational, continuous monitoring and maintenance are crucial to ensure optimal performance. Regular inspections, load balancing, and proactive maintenance can help identify and address potential issues before they impact operations.

Conclusion

The future of bitcoin mining lies in the efficient utilization of power resources. As advancements in chip processing technologies reach their limits, focusing on power setup becomes increasingly critical. Three-phase power, particularly a 480v system, offers numerous advantages that can revolutionize bitcoin mining operations.

By providing higher power density, improved efficiency, reduced infrastructure costs, and scalability, three-phase power systems can support the growing demands of the mining industry. Implementing such a system requires careful planning and execution, but the benefits far outweigh the challenges.

As the bitcoin mining industry continues to evolve, embracing three-phase power can pave the way for more sustainable and profitable operations. With the right infrastructure in place, miners can harness the full potential of their equipment and stay ahead in the competitive world of bitcoin mining.

This is a guest post by Christian Lucas, Strategy at Bitdeer. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.


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Bitcoin Vaults and the Future of Bitcoin Custody

Bitcoin Vaults and the Future of Bitcoin Custody

Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, has come a long way from its informal past. From an experimental digital currency that occupied cypherpunk niches on the internet, it has grown to a trillion-dollar market cap asset valued at over $66,900 per coin as of this writing.

While investing in Bitcoin is still considered a wild ride, the asset is quickly maturing. Financial institutions are closing in and creating hybrid vehicles to invest in cryptocurrency. The ecosystem reached a new milestone with the advent of Bitcoin ETFs, making people realize the immensity of Bitcoin’s potential in traditional markets and spurring new demand.

As more people and institutions invest in Bitcoin, Bitcoin vaults become more crucial. Here, we examine the features and importance of Bitcoin vaults and how they contribute to ensuring a reliable infrastructure that promotes sustained value and investability.

We explore their role in professionalized and institutional custody. Secure custodians are vital to protecting digital assets from theft and loss. This article also tracks the fast-advancing technology of Bitcoin vaults and how it relates to future developments in the custody space.

What are Bitcoin vaults, and how do they work?

Bitcoin vaults are offline digital asset storage solutions offering enhanced protection against online threats. This protection is created through multiple security layers.

As the Bitcoin investment sphere grows, new products are being created. Bitcoin vaults are a critical component of these new financial products. While hot wallets and exchange accounts offer easy transaction access, they are vulnerable to hacks.

Bitcoin vaults are fortified digital safes. They protect your Bitcoin by taking it offline and shielding it from the constant openness to online attacks. Their multiple layers of security include withdrawal delays, multi-signature or multisig authentication, and cold storage solutions.

One highly secure approach to Bitcoin or crypto vaults is called air-gapping. Air-gapped storage offers robust protection against malware attacks, phishing scams, and unauthorized access.

Many Bitcoin vaults integrate advanced encryption techniques. They typically require multiple authorizations for transactions to proceed. Advanced encryption and the need for layered authorization steps bolster security posture.

As a Bitcoin investor, ensuring that your coins are kept in air-gapped and layered security vaults protects your investment and helps you hold it long-term.

Vaults: Vital Components of Bitcoin Custody

Bitcoin vaults are a component of Bitcoin custody solutions. Bitcoin custody is the entire process of holding and securing BTC.

Because Bitcoin is a digital asset, it requires unique storage solutions to protect it from theft and loss. As BTC’s value rises, so does the interest from cybercriminals and hackers. Therefore, secure custody solutions are essential for protecting these digital assets.

The Advanced Technology Behind Bitcoin Vaults

The following advanced technologies combine to create the security behind Bitcoin vaults. Understanding them helps you understand, evaluate, and appreciate their robustness.

Cold Storage

Cold storage is a security method that keeps Bitcoin offline or away from internet-connected devices. Being offline reduces the risk of cyberattacks. Bitcoin cold storage is often used with multi-sig technology to provide maximum security.

Multi-Signature Technology

Multi-signature or multisig technology requires multiple private keys to authorize a Bitcoin transaction. This method implies that even as one key is compromised, the Bitcoin in the wallet cannot be transferred. The transaction still requires the other keys to be approved.

Multisig technology enhances security by distributing ownership and control over Bitcoin. It makes it very challenging for a single entity to access or steal the assets.

Hardware Security Modules (HSMs)

Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are tamper-resistant and hardened devices that secure cryptographic processes. They generate, protect, and manage keys used for data encryption and decryption, as well as digital certificates and signatures.

These specialized devices, in other words, are designed to protect and manage your digital keys. They provide a secure environment for cryptographic key generation, storage, and usage, ensuring that the private keys are never exposed to potential threats. HSMs are often used in Bitcoin vaults to enhance the security of the stored assets.

HSMs are recommended for those with significant BTC holdings. They are also ideal for businesses handling Bitcoin and other crypto. While integration can be complex and require continued maintenance, the security benefits far outweigh the cost for those with high-value holdings.

Furthermore, HSMS are tested, validated, and certified to the highest standards. They enable organizations to meet and exceed emerging and established regulatory requirements for cybersecurity.

Companies Offering BTC Custody Solutions

As Bitcoin and its related financial products gain popularity, so does the need for reliable custody. Companies that offer this service are called Bitcoin or crypto custodians and are a critical component of the digital asset industry.

These companies or platforms offer secure BTC and crypto storage and provide services such as private key management, online security solutions, and transaction processing.

Crypto custodians are gaining prominence as the cryptocurrency market grows. They are essential in ensuring that assets are stored and managed securely. Moreover, they protect investors' funds by providing layers of security beyond what public wallets or exchanges offer.

However, it must be noted that exchanges, trading desks, and investment platforms run their own custody solutions. In addition, some exchanges are also the most noted custody providers. Examples of top custody providers, most of which offer investment access, include Swan Bitcoin, BitGo, Coinbase Custody, Anchorage, Gemini Custody, Bakkt, and Bitcoin Suisse.

How To Choose Among BTC Custody Providers

Several companies are competing in the crypto custody market. If you are a regular BTC trader or investor, you might be curious about how to choose what works for you.

Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

Platforms should enable users to buy and store Bitcoin easily. While popular exchanges like Binance and Kraken offer a wide range of services, including retail buying and selling of crypto, they have downsides. They may not provide the best storage options for your crypto, and they may be more vulnerable and open to various hacks.

Long-term BTC investors usually shun day trading and prefer the buy-and-hold strategy. Swan Bitcoin is a low-fee platform specializing in BTC-specific investments. It offers a full suite of BTC financial services, including Swan Vault, simplifying BTC storage for users. If you're curious how it compares to large global exchanges, check out the Kraken review on Swan Bitcoin’s site.

The best Bitcoin vaults give you complete control over your coins, with user-friendly and straightforward features for setup, deposits, and withdrawals. They use the most reliable hardware to provide users with the most robust security. An example of such hardware is the Blockstream Jade signing device, a hardware wallet used by Swan Bitcoin to ensure BTC owners' full access to keys offline.

You need signing devices that store two private keys to unlock a Swan Vault. Swan manages a third key called the Cloud Key, which is recommended for use as a second key to prevent bringing both hardware signing devices to the same location.

Bitcoin vaults must have sound recovery strategies for BTC theft or loss, as 72-hour holds for Cloud Key withdrawals. Moreover, these vaults need to offer comprehensive support services, including secure storage of spare keys to assist you in moving funds and customer support manned by trained specialists.

When Investing in BTC, Choose a Reliable Custodian

Bitcoin vaults are becoming increasingly important as more people and institutions invest in Bitcoin. As digital assets gain legitimacy through legalized financial products, security custody solutions become increasingly vital to protect them from theft and loss.

By leveraging advanced technologies such as multi-signature authentication, cold storage, and Hardware Security Modules, Bitcoin vaults provide a robust security solution for digital assets. In addition, multi-layered features ensure secure storage of private keys and means of recovery in case keys are lost or stolen.

Bitcoin vaults are not just meant to store BTC securely. They form the bedrock of the asset's long-term viability as an investment vehicle.

It is not enough to leave the knowledge to technical experts or institutions. By understanding the importance of secure Bitcoin storage and the advancements in custody solutions, investors can make better-informed decisions about safeguarding their digital assets.

This is a guest post by Ivan Serrano. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine. 


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UK Parliament Introduces Bill to Recognize Bitcoin and Crypto as Personal Property

UK Parliament Introduces Bill to Recognize Bitcoin and Crypto as Personal Property

The UK Parliament has introduced the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill today to officially and legally recognize Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and other digital assets as personal property. With this new legislation, for the first time, British law would officially protect digital holdings such as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and carbon credits.

"It is essential that the law keeps pace with evolving technologies and this legislation will mean that the sector can maintain its position as a global leader in cryptoassets and bring clarity to complex property cases," said Justice Minister Heidi Alexander. "Our world-leading legal services form a vital part of our economy, helping to drive forward growth and keep Britain at the heart of the international legal industry."

This bill aims to address a long-standing legal gap, where digital assets were previously excluded from English and Welsh property law. As a result, owners of digital assets had little recourse if their holdings were interfered with, leaving them in a legal grey area.

Under the new bill, digital assets will be classified as a third category of property, allowing owners to benefit from stronger legal protections against fraud and theft. The legislation will also assist courts in resolving complex disputes, such as those arising in divorce settlements or business agreements involving digital assets.

"The Bill will also ensure Britain maintains its pole position in the emerging global crypto race by being one of the first countries to recognise these assets in law," stated the announcement.

The UK government further explained that with this new legislation, their legal sector will be better equipped to respond to these new technologies and attract more business and investment to the legal services industry.

"The UK has passed a new bill that will allow crypto and other digital assets to be recognised as personal property," stated the UK Ministry of Justice X account. "That means owners of digital assets will gain legal protection against fraud and scams."


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Early Bitcoin Developer Backs Satoshi Nakamoto Theory

Jeff Garzik, a veteran Linux contributor and early open-source developer who contributed to the Bitcoin project from 2010 to 2017, has released a series of new videos detailing his time working with Bitcoin’s anonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

Joining the project in July 2010, Garzik contributed to early software releases, entering notable pull requests including the first proposal to raise the block size limit, as well as the first proposal to eliminate subsidies for free transactions. Under Satoshi’s time as maintainer, Garzik had pull requests accepted, including for work separating the mining code from the Satoshi client.

Most notably, the new videos find Garzik sharing recollections about his time with Satoshi, including new commentary on whether Satoshi was indeed a singular individual or a group.

"Satoshi as a coder, he’s more the ‘A Beautiful Mind’ type lone genius,” Garzik recalls.

 “When I was a computer science major, we thought highly of ourselves as coders, and we would notice that some of the other disciplines, the chemists, the biologists, the physicists, they had to do it, but they didn’t approach it as a profession. Satoshi was the same way.”

In this way, Garzik says he believes Satoshi knew what problem he wanted to solve, but that lacked an understanding of “modularity,” “unit testing,” and other basics that “computer science majors learn.”

“He very wisely pulled cryptographic solutions off the shelf that were well known, well studied, and he put all those together in a new and interesting way,” Garzik said, adding:

Elsewhere, Garzik attested to his belief that Satoshi was a “self-taught” programmer, arguing Bitcoin’s founder was humble about his limitations

In other statements he spoke to Satoshi’s temperament and working methods, noting his strict focus on Bitcoin.

“Satoshi would never stray from that topic. He would never let slip any personal information whatsoever, never talk about his mood, the time of day,” he says in one clip. “It was always 100% all about Bitcoin.”

All told, the recollections cover a period of 6 months through Nakamoto’s resignation from the project in January 2011, at which point Garzik’s friend and collaborator Gavin Andresen took over as lead maintainer.

The videos come during a year in which other early Bitcoin contributors have gone public in releasing correspondence with Satoshi, with Martti ‘Sirius’ Malmi and Adam Back publishing hundreds of pages of never-before-seen emails in connection with a public trial in the U.K.

While Garzik has yet to release emails with Satoshi, the videos, produced by a new venture he founded, Hemi Network, represent the most public discussion the developer has had on the subject in some time.

Launched in July, the Hemi Network is advertised as “a modular Layer-2 protocol for superior scaling, security, and interoperability, powered by Bitcoin and Ethereum.”

The work follows a period after 2017 in which Garzik has become more interested in blockchain networks that are not tied to any specific base layer cryptocurrency, a path that includes Metronome, a project from 2017 that also sought compatibility with multiple blockchains.

Garzik left the Bitcoin project that year after serving as the lead maintainer for a hard fork of the Bitcoin protocol that despite early startup ecosystem support never formally launched. 

The full video playlist can be accessed below:


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Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits Record 92 Trillion

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits Record 92 Trillion

The Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new all-time high of 92.67 trillion on September 11. This represents a 3.04% increase over the last 24 hours and continues an upward trajectory in mining competition.

The Bitcoin difficulty chart plots the historical increases and decreases in mining difficulty over time. It measures how hard it is for miners to find a valid hash for the next block. Higher difficulty requires more computing power to mine new Bitcoin.

When combined with the Bitcoin price, difficulty helps determine miners' profitability and return on investment. The metric soared in 2024 amid massive growth in Bitcoin's overall hash rate and adoption.

The rising difficulty shows intensifying competition on the Bitcoin network as more miners fight for limited block rewards. This is generally constructive for network security and decentralization.

Despite rough market conditions this year, the difficulty increase displays the unprecedented demand for Bitcoin block rewards. It underlines the incredible security offered by the collective computing power of miners around the world.

The difficulty adjustment algorithm built into Bitcoin's code dictates the pace of change in mining competition. It is programmed to find blocks approximately every 10 minutes, maintaining a steady influx of new Bitcoin over time.

This predictable Bitcoin issuance schedule makes its inflation rate easy to model and appeals to investors compared to fiat currencies subject to central bank policies.


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Standard Chartered Bank Launches Bitcoin and Crypto Custody Service in UAE

Standard Chartered Bank Launches Bitcoin and Crypto Custody Service in UAE

Standard Chartered has officially launched its digital asset custody service in the UAE, according to an announcement from the bank. The service has been licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), following a memorandum of understanding signed in May 2023.

"The launch of our digital asset custody offering represents a pivotal moment not just for Standard Chartered, but for the financial services industry," said Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered. “We firmly believe that digital assets are not merely a passing trend, but a fundamental shift in the fabric of finance. With this new service, we are strategically positioning ourselves at the forefront of this next evolution in the custody business. Our robust infrastructure, coupled with our expertise in the field allows us to provide a bridge between the world of financial services and the emerging digital asset ecosystem."

The service aims to provide secure storage for digital assets, with an initial focus on supporting Bitcoin and Ethereum. The bank said it decided to launch its custody services in the UAE "due to its well-balanced approach to digital asset adoption and financial regulation."

Brevan Howard Digital, the crypto division of Brevan Howard, an investment management platform specializing in global macro and digital assets, has been named as the first client. According to Margaret Harwood-Jones, Global Head of Financing & Securities Services, this launch addresses the growing institutional interest in digital assets. 

"After a period of intensive work and close collaboration with regulators both regionally and globally, we are thrilled to welcome Brevan Howard Digital as the first client of our digital asset custody offering," said Harwood-Jones. "Our offering goes beyond simple wallet services – it is a comprehensive solution that addresses the unique challenges of digital asset custody from a regulatory, risk and prudential point of view. It is a game changer for institutional clients, as we can support them with our traditional expertise to navigate the complexities of the digital asset space, without compromising on the highest standards of security."

Standard Chartered further stated that it plans to expand its custody services to include more digital assets and is exploring more opportunities to launch its custody services in other global financial hubs.


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Un Ode de l’Provocateur du Bitcoin

Un Ode de l’Provocateur du Bitcoin

Out of the ashes emerged a snarling rodent dubbed Max Punk.

Open conflict, Whales besting Bored-Apes, the social layer manifest.

Bitcoin leaders sent to prison, then freed by massive strike waves.

HODL’ers fighting in the streets, power cuts, three-day work weeks, Maxi's battling for Hashrates, governments brought down, Central Banks crying.

The Banksters powerless.

The Orange-Pilled class – loud, stacked and toxic.

L’ Provocateur don't stand downwind from sh%#tcoins.

Max Punk smells of victory not of FOMO.

An Orange sky at night traverses’ seas of fiat to El Salvador dreams, not NFT nightmares.

Un Bukele ami très explosif.

Promoting Bitcoin thru absurdist and provocative actions,

a means of enacting monetary change.

Proof of 'work[ers]' never strike.

God won't save the dollar, the regime.

Fiat makes you a moron, a potential Elon-bomb.

L’ Provocateur don't stand downwind from sh%#tcoins.

Max Punk smells of victory not of FOMO.

An Orange sky at night traverses’ seas of fiat to El Salvador dreams, not NFT nightmares.

Un Bukele ami très explosif.

Orange shoes and garb only taunts the volcanos.

Consuming sats, not the FUD.

And there ain't no future 'cept with Bitcoin.

...In your dreaming Laser eyes!

This is a guest post by Enza Coin. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.


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Metaplanet Buys Additional ¥300 Million Worth of Bitcoin

Metaplanet Buys Additional ¥300 Million Worth of Bitcoin

Metaplanet, a publicly listed Japanese company, announced it had purchased 38.6 Bitcoin for 300 million yen (approx. $2.2 million), bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 398.8 BTC.

This latest Bitcoin acquisition comes after Metaplanet announced in August that it would raise 10.08 billion yen to purchase more Bitcoin, part of its broader corporate strategy to allocate funds to Bitcoin.

Metaplanet first adopted a pro-bitcoin investment policy earlier this year and has steadily accumulated Bitcoin. The company now holds an aggregate of 398.8 bitcoins purchased for approximately 3.75 billion yen (approximately $27.6 million).

Metaplanet's ongoing Bitcoin treasury build mimics MicroStrategy's playbook, which has raised debt to buy Bitcoin. Public companies seem to have discovered a model for acquiring Bitcoin.

Other firms following this strategy include Marathon Digital Holdings, which recently raise a $250 million via convertible note offering to buy more Bitcoin, and Semler Scientific, which similarly announced plans to raise more money to buy more Bitcoin.

Companies can capitalize on Bitcoin's appreciation potential by borrowing fiat currency at low interest rates to purchase Bitcoin. This allows public companies to gain Bitcoin exposure without liquidating existing assets.

Disclaimer: Bitcoin Magazine is wholly owned by BTC Inc., which also operates UTXO Management, a regulated capital allocator focused on the digital assets industry and invested in Metaplanet. UTXO invests in a variety of Bitcoin businesses, and maintains significant holdings in digital assets. 


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Give Me Time

Give Me Time

This article is featured in Bitcoin Magazine's "The Privacy Issue". Subscribe to receive your copy.

With the Fourth Halving in the rearview mirror, it seems a perfect time to provide some on-record analysis of Bitcoin from the perspective of Number and Time, aka Crypto-K, which is the name for a methodology my friend and I have developed over the years in pursuit of a technical analysis of synchronicity — the sense that our reality is arranged according to some as yet undefined acausal ordering principle. The K stands for Kubrick, as in Stanley Kubrick, director of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining, whose life and mysterious works of cinematic art are powerful strange attractors for synchronicity and high strangeness. It is the Monolith around which our methodology — and seemingly everything else — was built.

Most reading this know that Bitcoin is an all-encompassing subject — a rabbit hole. Well, the same goes for Crypto-K, which in some respects is a study of everything, or how everything connects. And that everything includes Bitcoin. So you’re about to find out what happens when one rabbit hole intersects with another.

How is Bitcoin related to Crypto-K?

Both are about Time, or the problem with it. Crypto-K is about asking, “What is the meaning of Time’s Pace?” while Bitcoin is a new spin on the old saying “Time is Money. How do we protect our MONEY from temporal entropy? On the other hand, how do we protect our TIME from monetary entropy?

All of these concerns fall under the astro-alchemical rubric of Saturn, the seventh classical planet. The planet of laws, boundaries, inheritance, burdens: “the labor of existence, the harvest of time” (Tarnas). Here’s astrologer John Hughes, writing about Saturn: “It is the planet of real worth, as apart from show and make-believe, and gives to all things their permanent and lasting qualities. Its action is slow, thorough and inevitable.” This sounds a lot like the BTC timechain: slow, thorough, and inevitable, defined by its permanence and lasting qualities. Real worth — the labor of existence, the harvest of time, or, in other words, proof of work.

Yes, Satoshi, Bitcoin is Saturnine, all right.

Saturn has a peculiar history when viewed through the lens of fringe theory. In 1980 David Talbott published a book called The Saturn Myth which posited the idea that long ago a previous solar system arrangement had Saturn as the Earth’s primary star, before some terrible calamity occurred that threw everything out of whack.

Maybe Talbott’s theory is whack, but there’s also Richard Hoagland (the “Face on Mars” guy), who has presented theories about Saturn, particularly its moon Iapetus, which he speculated might be an artificial body inhabited by extraterrestrials. It’s possible he regurgitated this from Arthur C. Clarke in the novelized version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, where in that book the climactic Monolith is found buried on Iapetus (not floating by Jupiter as in the film). But forget all that: Even the straight astronomers and scientists, for whom microbes in the dirt would be tremendously exciting, seem to think that Saturn (or rather, one of its moons) is the place to look when it comes to possible life within our solar system.

The point is that your reality tunnel doesn’t matter: Saturn tends to dominate the frame. As the seventh and slowest-moving classical planet, it came to represent the outer limits of material reality itself. As such it was the secret destination of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The story goes that the special effects team had trouble creating a realistic Saturn, so they pivoted to Jupiter instead. It’s also the secret meaning of the title of Kubrick’s follow-up, A Clockwork Orange. The traditional read on that title is negative, meaning what a human being would become if he lost the ability to choose good over evil — something organic turned false and machine-like, a clockwork orange. It’s a hypothetical state of the human being denigrated under 21st-century pharmacracy. Bitcoin flips this script: What if something which began as a meaningless Saturnine process grew into a truth-affirming juggernaut imbued with analog richness but beyond the reach of any seething sovereign?

Forget “A”. Bitcoin is the clockwork orange.

But why orange?

Bitcoin became the “orange coin” when the logo was finalized by anonymous BTC-talk user “bitboy” on 11/1/10, or the day after the second anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper. He had taken Satoshi’s original idea and cleaned it up, added a 14% twist, and decided to make the whole thing orange. Everyone agreed it was a perfect choice and it has remained in place ever since. The perfect choice of logo met with a perfect release date too, because that date can be reduced to 11110, as in the 1963 executive order issued by President Kennedy to issue silver certificates from the Treasury (occasionally cited by anti-Fed types as the reason JFK was assassinated). Here’s what we call a good old-fashioned sync. It’s possible that bitboy (whoever he was) released the logo on this day intentionally because he recognized the historical pun it would make, but more likely it just kind of happened that way as a grand micro-expression of that general acausal ordering principle mentioned above. It has a pointed sense of humor at times.

Satoshi Nakamoto published the white paper on 10/31/2008 — in other words on Halloween. It’s possible that bitboy had Halloween on his mind when he decided on orange for the logo and released it two years later. Satoshi’s original logo was gold, but that crystallized into orange, perhaps as a way to give Bitcoin its own identity apart from the “shiny rock”. But it was an appropriate move to make from an alchemical perspective. In an essay from The Sync Book Vol. 2 called “Moon in the Middle”, writer Mark LeClair offers a gnostic interpretation of reality (and the color orange) based on a run of 7s: the 7 tones of the diatonic scale, the 7 days of the Gregorian week, and the 7 colors of the rainbow, which all come together to communicate the essential truth of Creation: The Moon is actually the center of everything, the crucified Christ holding reality together. According to LeClair, each day of the week and color correspond to a different planet and stage of the gnostic creation myth. The story begins with the color red and Venus on Friday, then continues to Saturday and Saturn, and of course, the next color on the spectrum, orange. “The color orange is associated with deceit and mistrust, pridefulness and passive assertiveness—a tiger, brimming with orange rage, striped and softly panting, glowering, lurking in the thickness of ferns, ready to pounce and consume the soul from the inside out. The color of gold is also a function of orange, and not of yellow as is the common misconception. Gold is the achievement of royalty and godhead through the act of alchemy, which is a process of Saturn.

As Ideal Money, true digital gold, the “orange coin” is an achievement in alchemy. The crowning achievement, perhaps, of “Cronos, the designer of Time, the Clockwork Orange… he is tough and resourceful, smart, too dangerous to dismiss as a mere force of blunt or banal evil… Feed him. Give the devil his due. Milk and cookies on the counter should do the trick.”

This imposition to feed the beast might not be unlike the way Bitcoin must be “fed” with more and more electricity to power the global “macro-chip”. Not to compare Bitcoin to the devil or anything, but Satoshi did publish the white paper on All Hallow’s Eve — and wouldn’t you know it, the BTC timechain had been cranking away for exactly 666 days on Halloween 2010, aka the day before the famous orange logo was published.

But there’s another, more spectacular way of connecting Bitcoin to 666 with the calendar. Satoshi gave the public a birth date for himself when he registered with the P2P Foundation: 4/5/1975, also known as the 42nd anniversary of FDR’s EO6102 that unilaterally confiscated U.S. citizen’s private gold holdings. In the late 1980s, there was an issue of The Economist featuring the headline, “Get ready for a world currency” backed by a “Golden Eagle” atop a pile of flaming fiat money (an image much loved by conspiracy theorists over the years). The cover date for this issue was 1/9/1988.

This means that Satoshi Nakamoto was exactly 666 weeks old on the day of The Economist’s “world currency” issue. The magazine came well before Bitcoin ever existed. Did Satoshi know this when he “chose” his birth date?

Does it seem a little threatening to you? Consider the following facts. There are 7 days in one week. This means that in 6 weeks there are 42 days. This means that in 666 weeks there are 42×111 days. Now, 666 is supposed to be a bad number right? But 42 is kind of a funny, happy number, right? So don’t think of Satoshi being 666 weeks old on the day of The Economist’s world currency issue, but instead that he was 4,242 + 420 days old! See, The Book of Revelation designates 666 as the “number of the Beast”. But notice how something as ordinary as the clockface secretly communicates it right in front of you all the time: three overlapping hands — 60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 (6) hours. The number of the Beast is the number of the Clock. 666 is the Fourth Seal of Crypto-K. The Beast is time, ruled by Saturn. Nothing to be afraid of, though, especially now that we have Bitcoin.

In pursuit of the analysis of synchronicity, we employ what we call the parent-thesis, a dialectical configuration where two points in time (“parents”) generate a third (the “child”) via the exact midpoint between them. Whether it be the midpoint of a person’s life’s or the midpoint between two deaths or two movie releases, it creates a static synchronicity that can be studied and, perhaps, classified. In the case of the birth of Satoshi Nakamoto and the cover date of The Economist world currency issue, the two dates 666 weeks apart generate a midpoint 333 weeks either way of 8/22/1981 — and this happens to be the day that NASA’s Voyager 2 probe made its approach to Iapetus, kicking off its encounter with Saturn. This fly-by first clued astronomers into the existence of the equatorial ridge on Iapetus, which now ranks as the third tallest mountain structure in the entire solar system.

In keeping with the theme, 8/22/1981 also saw the release of a horror B movie called Evilspeak in which Ron Howard’s brother Clint Howard plays a nerd named Stanley Coopersmith (= 237, standard gematria), who stumbles onto the laboratory of a sixteenth-century warlock in the basement of his military academy, then uses his computer skills to summon the Devil in order to enact revenge on the kids who bully him. The opening scene has the bullies calling him “Stanley Cooperdick”, making the Stanley Kubrick comparisons even more obvious. Here we have a Stanley using computer technology to interface with Satan (a kind of artificial intelligence), and commandeering it to do his bidding — in a film released on the day Voyager 2 begins its encounter with Saturn and photographs the moon Iapetus (we’re told) — and on the mid-point of the 666 weeks between Satoshi’s birthday and The Economist’s “get ready for a world currency” issue. As the “clockwork orange”, Bitcoin could be seen metaphorically as a new form of artificial life, a new element “conjured” with computers — a decentralized phoenix rising from the ashes of centralization: Satoshi Nakamoto.

It’s in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that a powerful artificial intelligence in the future is built to answer the question of “life, the universe, and everything”, and comes back after millions of years of processing with the answer 42 — which we call the First Seal of Crypto-K. Satoshi loved 42 and originally wanted the total supply of Bitcoin to be 42 million, but cut it to 21 for economic reasons — then there’s the halving every 210,000 blocks (that’s two halvings per 420,000 blocks). Whether he meant to or not, Satoshi first announced his creation to the P2P Foundation forum on the 42nd day of 2009.

Then there’s also the difficulty adjustment — which some say is Satoshi’s stroke of genius — every 2,016 blocks. Satoshi could have made the adjustment every 2,100 blocks, mirroring the supply cap and halving schedule. Instead, he chose 2,016, a number that was 42 + 42 less than 2,100. There is a mundane explanation for this and then there are several more exciting explanations for this. Was it because 2016 is 6102 — the number of FDR’s gold confiscation order, issued 42 years before Satoshi’s birthday — backward? It could have been because 2016 reduces to 216 which is 6 x 6 x 6 and kabbalistically significant. Or it might simply have been because this made for a difficulty adjustment every 14 days instead of every 14.58333 days. It’s all of the above: Satoshi was carefully synchronizing his creation with the clock and the calendar, i.e., with the movement of the heavens. Thus it naturally fell into the prescribed order of time’s pace, which it is the purview of Crypto-K to analyze and unwind.

Of course, there’s always another sync, and always another opportunity to misinterpret the sync as evidence of conspiracy. Because events occurred in the year 2016 that are indelibly stitched into the timechain of history and retroactively make Satoshi’s choice somewhat conspicuous. Chiefly, it’s 11/9/2016, the election of Donald Trump — the orange man — for U.S. President. But on the inverse date, 9/11/2016, Hillary Clinton appeared to collapse and was tossed like a side of beef into a van that then sped away. It was interpreted by some at the time to have been the effects wrought by 4chan autists and meme-pirates unintentionally invoking an ancient Egyptian frog deity called “Kek”. This then sparked an influential online movement with a food-related name we won’t even mention that subsequently morphed into (or was co-opted by) the Q operation that officially began a year later. Did Satoshi have foreknowledge of the year in which The Plan™ was to begin and encode it into Bitcoin? Probably not, but it was encoded there nonetheless.

Another more salient example of “2016” encoding has to do with the late JFK Jr., who died in a plane crash with his wife on 7/16/1999 — the day on which Stanley Kubrick’s posthumous film Eyes Wide Shut was contractually obligated to be released. JFK Jr.’s death figures heavily into the lore of some Q-adjacent conspiracy merchants, who have lately deployed the narrative that, with his friend Donald Trump’s help, JFK Jr. actually faked his death in 1999 and is set to return when the time is right. Oh boy, where have we ever heard that one before? But that’s not to say there isn’t legit weirdness there, because here’s my point: John-John was born on 11/25/1960 and died on 7/16/1999, which means that his entire life lasted for exactly 2,016 weeks.

If you make John-John’s 2,016-week lifespan a parent-thesis and divide it to find the midpoint, exactly 1,008 weeks into his life was 3/21/1980, the day the TV show Dallas aired its season 3 finale, “A House Divided”, which featured the cliff-hanger death by gunshot of the show’s star J.R. Ewing — one of the most iconic moments in TV history. “Who shot JR on Dallas?” became the question on TV in 1980 in the way that “Who shot JFK in Dallas?” became the question of 1963 — and JFK Jr.’s death occurred such that this episode — a cheeky re-enactment of the Father’s death — aired on the midpoint of the life of the Son.

*If* JFK Jr. faked his death, he apparently did so in such a way that his official fake lifespan silently communicated the future year in which his friend would be elected president, and also pointed to a TV episode referencing his Father’s death. Why the hell would anyone do that, though? Forget the clickbait conspiracy slop. JFK Jr. is dead as a doornail, and more and more it feels like nobody is choosing to do any of this stuff consciously. Again, we are looking at the acausal ordering principle that Carl Gustav Jung discussed in his book Synchronicity — or something along the lines of VALIS, put forth by Philip K. Dick in the wake of his revelatory experiences/temporal lobe seizure which he codenamed 2-3-74. Apparently, different people and events are or can be products of the same underlying operating principle, i.e., VALIS, the salvific entity that is here transforming our world and using us as its implements in doing so.

Orange man, meet orange coin. Is it a match made in heaven? Not so far, though recently the man has softened his tune on the coin after basically denouncing it during his presidency. Here’s what you didn’t know: The orange man’s presidency was inaugurated on 1/20/2017, which was exactly 420 weeks after the orange coin was inaugurated in the Genesis block on 1/3/2009. It would seem that there might be something deeper connecting these two than just the color — after all, Trump isn’t really orange just like Bitcoin isn’t really orange either. In both cases, it’s the brand. Trump’s critics (and his fans) have often remarked how he could shoot someone in broad daylight and get away with it — a hyperbole to emphasize how he resists or repels criticism. In other words, he can survive anything, and can usually spin any negative energy sent his way into a positive outcome. It’s not unlike the way Bitcoiners often say that “everything is good for Bitcoin”. It’s that everlasting Saturnine quality behind both phenomena — or maybe it is just something about the color orange.

If you count the weeks instead from the Bitcoin white paper to Trump’s inauguration it’s 429, which is 666 - 237. This means that 237 weeks before the white paper was 666 weeks before the Trump inauguration, and likewise 666 weeks after the white paper was 237 weeks after Trump’s inauguration. Did Satoshi plan that? Perhaps he did, or perhaps that is only a side-effect of some deeper process unplanned by anyone, what you might call a decentralized signal hidden in the noise.

There are more calendar connections between orange man and orange coin. For instance, Satoshi’s “birthday” on 4/5/1975 was the day after 4/4/1975, when Donald Trump became 1,503 weeks old on the same day Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded their company Microsoft. 153 is the Second Seal of Crypto-K, and one of the most important and mysterious numbers in existence all on its own. Coincidentally or not, this particular span of time — 1,503 weeks — lines up closely with what’s known to astrologers as the Saturn Return, when the planet makes a full orbit and returns to where it was in the sky at birth. This will often coincide with a person’s coming into adulthood in one form or another (a phenomenon known to most people as turning 30). During this period of his life, Donald Trump was embroiled with his father in a lawsuit for civil rights violations.

Actor Heath Ledger who died on 1/22/2008, was born four years after Microsoft (on 4/4/1979), which means he was exactly 1,503 weeks old when he died.

For Trump it was the full legal weight of Uncle Sam that came down on his head in Ledger’s case, Saturn came home to roost in the form of death by an accidental overdose (or so we are told). According to NASA the actual length of Saturn’s orbit in days is 10,756. The day on which Heath Ledger would have been 10,756 days old was 9/14/2008, aka the 237th day after he died! Let it be known then that this timespan we’re highlighting — 1,503 weeks — is actually 237 days shy of a full orbit of Saturn! 237 is the Third Seal of Crypto-K, spotlighted by Stanley Kubrick in The Shining and, together with 153, they solder the orange man’s Saturn Return to the birth of orange coin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

So Satoshi Nakamoto was “born” the day after Donald Trump turned 1,503 weeks old (the same day Microsoft was “born”), 42 years after EO6102 — and the Bitcoin Genesis block was mined 420 weeks before Trump took the oath of office.

Then Satoshi registered the website for his incoming digital ledger on 8/18/2008, exactly 210 days after the death of Heath Ledger. This was precisely 1,053 weeks after Donald Trump turned 42.

Donald Trump’s first Monday in office as President — 1/23/2017 — was also what we call his K-Day, or the same age Stanley Kubrick was when he died. The Bitcoin white paper was published 3,006 or 1,503 + 1,503 days before Trump’s K-Day. What makes this truly remarkable is the midpoint: 12/12/2012, the day that someone using the name Nicholas von Saberhagen published the white paper for what would eventually become the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero. Some have speculated that there might be a connection between Satoshi and Saberhagen (SN/NS). This information was reported by “MoneroOutreach” in what appears to have been an April Fool’s joke on 4/1/2020. A fact is that Satoshi made his final forum post on 12/12/2010, meaning Saberhagen published the CryptoNote white paper on a two-year “delta” with Satoshi’s final message, not unlike how the orange logo was published only hours after the two-year “delta” of the Satoshi white paper.

Anyone who has read Infinite Jest knows that April Fool’s day can carry serious undertones (especially in spycraft). It would be a mistake to discount this report as totally worthless. The tone seems off somehow, like it’s a joke being told by someone who knows it’s not a joke, but needs it to seem like it is, while also communicating (with no hands) the underlying truth — that Satoshi and Saberhagen were one and the same.

This deliberately paced article mentions three specific dates — two we already know from the first paragraph, and then in the fourth paragraph, “August 13, 2010”, the day of a forum post by Satoshi first referencing the privacy tech that would eventually be implemented into Monero. The magic of this day becomes apparent when you check it against the BTC Genesis block — 42 + 42 weeks apart, meaning it’s also in a 42-week line-up with the Trump inauguration 336 weeks ahead (aka 77 months, 7 days!), which is a remarkable parallel with Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment every 336 hours. In other words Satoshi’s first mention of ring signatures came 420 - 42 - 42 weeks before the Trump inauguration, similar to the difficulty adjustment every 2,100 - 42 - 42 blocks.

The report from MoneroOutreach on 4/1/2020 was published exactly 20 days, 3 months, and 7 years after the Saberhagen white paper — but further fuel for the conspiratorial fire is that it was also day 1,776 after the death of legendary mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. and his wife Alicia in a car crash on the New Jersey turnpike on 5/23/2015. John Nash — who you might remember as being played by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind — remains one of the more intriguing under-the-radar candidates for the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto due to his singular genius in all the requisite fields. Forgetting the Oscar-winning cartoon for a moment, the real John Nash was a visionary-grade cryptologist, mathematician, and game theorist who harbored a lifelong interest in applied economics (not to mention programming and the internet). Late in his life (in the early 2000s) he lectured and wrote on the subject of Ideal Money, and was publicly concerned with countering the mounting effects of decades of inflationary Keynesian monetary policy. We can theoretically surmise that the people in charge of implementing Nash’s ideas from above wouldn’t have been too keen on the concept of ideal money (Bitcoin). In order for it to work it would anyway have had to be released “in a roundabout way” (as Hayek suggested). So was born Satoshi Nakamoto, an alter-ego for a man already haunted by voices — and so went he, out of the window of his taxi, once his managers finally realized what he had done. That’s if you buy the theory, at least.

It’s highly speculative conjecture backed mostly by synchronistic evidence, but hear it out anyway. In Clint Howard’s brother Ron Howard’s 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, John Nash was played by Russell Crowe, while his wife Alicia (in real life an honored native citizen of El Salvador, funnily enough) was played by Jennifer Connelly. In the film we see Connelly/Alicia as a devoted wife standing by her husband as he wrestles with his “demons” while carrying out work he believes he has been singled out to perform by a ‘higher authority’. That film released in December 2001 — but 13 years later the acausal ordering principle struck once more when Crowe and Connelly were cast as husband and wife again, this time in Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 Biblical epic Noah, where we again see Connelly as a devoted wife who stands by her whacko husband as he wrestles with his demons and carries out work he believes he has been singled out to perform by a higher authority. Noah and Nash are a lot alike, are they not?

What work was that again? Oh yes, building the Ark, an engineering project from God to allow humanity and the animals to endure the incoming deluge. Any Bitcoiner worth their salt has already understood the parallel. The orange coin has been referred to as a financial Noah’s Ark on more than one occasion, seemingly engineered (by God, of course) to help humanity stave off an inflationary financial apocalypse, and Nash has emerged (independently) as one candidate for the anonymous builder of that financial Ark. It’s a theory bolstered synchronistically by how the same actors that played Nash and his wife in a Hollywood film, later played Noah and his wife in a Hollywood film about building the Biblical Ark! Again the dichotomy presents itself: Does this represent intentional encoding of media by Hollywood filmmakers and producers, or is it an example of Jung’s acausal ordering principle, where humans can’t help but make certain decisions, telling on ourselves over and over? Good luck getting a consensus on that question.

So, again, the 4/1/2020 report on the Satoshi/Saberhagen matter was published 1,776 days after John Nash and his wife died on 5/23/2015. If there’s anything to compare this to it’s that likewise, Queen Elizabeth’s death on 9/8/2022 arrived 1,776 days after the inaugural Q drop. 1776 was spotlighted by the founding of the USA that year and is the Fifth Seal of Crypto-K, so these are syncs, to be sure, but it’s possible — if however infinitesimally — that all of these items are related on a material level. John Nash remains one of the most convincing candidates for the mantle of Satoshi (even without the Hollywood casting magic) and this April Fool’s dispatch was suspiciously well-timed against his death, which, at this point, might as well be deemed an assassination. It feels like the universe has a secret to tell us, and is using us as its implements to do so.

There’s another temporal tell tying Nash’s possible assassination on 5/23/2015 to Bitcoin: It happened exactly 333 weeks after the Genesis block. In other words, Nash died when the Bitcoin timechain was half of 666 weeks old. If Nash was assassinated for his secret work on Bitcoin, the people who did it would probably go about timing it perfectly according to their secret midnight rituals, and this might be evidence of that — they love their 3s. Or it could be evidence of something else.

Nash died 333 weeks after the Genesis block — so we ask what happened 333 weeks before the Genesis block, or 666 weeks before Nash died? That day is 8/17/2002, a Saturday. The synchronicity that must be remarked on here is how that weekend (Friday, or the beginning of that week, as Mark LeClair would have us believe) a movie was released starring Eddie Murphy called The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Taking place on the Moon in the year 2087, Murphy plays Pluto Nash, an ex-con trying to run a successful lunar nightclub all while evading the lunar mafia. Despite the decent cast, the film was a horrendous bomb, but the universe often uses bombs like these to conceal its deeper truths. Pluto represents Hades, or death itself, so the combination of Pluto and Nash in the title character of a film (in which Nash is being hunted by the “Mafia” who wish to kill him) released 666 weeks before the car crash that killed John Nash and his wife — with the BTC Genesis block at the midpoint. It more than bears mentioning. It’s downright freaky.

Another detail about John Nash that adheres to the architecture of Crypto-K is that he was born in the same year as Stanley Kubrick — 1928. In fact, Nash’s birthday 6/13/1928 and Kubrick’s birthday 7/26/1928 together bracket a span of only 42 days. The Shining received wide release on 6/13/1980, but it premiered three weeks earlier on 5/23/1980, which means that The Shining released on John Nash’s 52nd birthday, while Nash and his wife were car-crashed 35 years after The Shining premiered — 35 years being exactly 420 months, and 52 years being 666 - 42 months. In other words, when a person turns 52, they are one “reign of the Beast” (Rev 13:5) away from 666 months old.

The exact midpoint of John Nash’s life hit on 12/3/71. See it? The 237? Since we’re comparing Nash to Kubrick, we can provide the ready-made knowledge that Kubrick’s life midpoint arrived on 11/15/1963 — one week before the JFK assassination.

Do you want to guess how much time passed from Stanley Kubrick’s midpoint to John Nash’s midpoint?

Exactly 420 weeks. The same length of time as from the Genesis block to the inauguration of Donald Trump! What’s more, the day of Nash’s midpoint — 12/3/71 — was the same day the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki premiered his De Natura Sonoris No. 2, music which would later be incorporated by Stanley Kubrick into The Shining! Could this get any more convoluted? Of course, it’s that symmetry thing again, drawing what we call a parent-thesis: Nash’s midpoint arrived 420 weeks after Kubrick’s midpoint, so what happened 420 weeks before Kubrick’s midpoint? You’ll never guess, so it’s 10/28/1955, the birthday of Bill Gates, who has already been mentioned in connection with the founding of Microsoft the day before Satoshi Nakamoto’s “birthday!” Small world, hey?

In A Beautiful Mind, Jennifer Connelly plays a beleaguered wife who, in trying to protect her child, stumbles onto her crazy husband’s papers which prove that he’s schizophrenic. That’s a virtual mirror to The Shining where Shelley Duvall plays a beleaguered wife who, in trying to protect her child, stumbles onto her husband’s private papers which prove that he’s insane. According to Mark LeClair again, Jack Torrance represents Saturn, the demiurge, the “master of time”, an archetype Kubrick also applied to himself via the backstage documentary shot by his daughter Vivian Kubrick, where we see them dressing alike, dramatically typing away at a typewriter, and even hassling “Wendy” — aka Shelley Duvall. Kubrick wanted us to see him squarely equating himself with the character of Jack Torrance — i.e., Saturn. So it would seem that in the year 2001 the character of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind also was overlapped by the same Saturnine trope as Jack and Kubrick in The Shining and then it happened again with Noah in Noah! It’s almost like the universe (or VALIS) was trying to tell us something, and this is how it speaks.

Nash’s birth brackets 42 days with Kubrick’s birth, and the midpoint of Nash’s life on 12/3/71 came 420 weeks after Kubrick’s life’s midpoint.

So what about the end of their lives?

If you go look it up, you’ll find that Nash died 846 weeks after Kubrick, a figure which amounts to 420 + 420 weeks, plus 42 days.

Who exactly is doing all this, and why?

One person who was verifiably involved in the beginnings of Bitcoin was of course Hal Finney, who was right there to help Satoshi along when the first BTC client launched on 1/9/09, and he was there to receive the first BTC transaction from Satoshi in block 170 on 1/11/09 — which, by the way, occurred exactly 153 + 153 + 153 weeks before the first post from another anonymous internet entity, Q (the 17th letter), on 10/28/2017.

Hal Finney’s birth on 5/4/1956 means that on the day of the Bitcoin Genesis block, he was 19,237 days old. Here we have the Third Seal, 237, combined with what we call the “Ruler” — 19. One property of 19 that remains relevant is how it alphanumerically translates to AI, the abbreviation for artificial intelligence, now positioned as the existential threat of our time. Some Bitcoiners have wildly claimed that BTC represents the counterbalancing force required by nature for humanity to resist AI’s eventual total liquid control of all centralized systems, though none of them have been clear on the specifics of how that might work. But in this regard — BTC vs. AI — the name “Hal Finney” carries certain connotations, because “Hal” is the name of Kubrick’s malevolent AI in 2001: A Space Odyssey: HAL 9000. “Finney” could be read as finis, for finished, as in “HAL finished” — AI finished.

What’s in a name? In this case, perhaps the sum total of a man’s mission on earth.

It was noticed early on that Stanley Kubrick’s death on 3/7/1999 occurred 666 days before 1/1/2001. It took some time for Crypto-K to come along and ask, What happened 666 days before Kubrick died? The answer turned out to be the day that chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov lost a match to the computer Deep Blue, making it the first time that the best human had lost to an artificial intelligence in match-play chess — much the same way that Frank Poole lost to HAL in the film. Compounding the sync is that the computer Deep Blue was built by IBM, and modeled after the Monolith from 2001!

The trope continues to express itself: Man vs. Machine, in a chess match for all the marbles, with history itself the board for the Game of All Time.

Is Bitcoin someone’s idea of checkmate?

Satoshi Nakamoto appeared in digital public for the last time 15 years to the day after Kubrick died — with a message that read “I am not Dorian Nakamoto” — and then exited the stage for good, much like Flight MH370 which disappeared along with Satoshi less than 24 hours later. Satoshi’s final message on 3/7/2014 meant that the total time elapsed from his first published word to his final published word was 279 or 42 + 237 weeks. Hal Finney would find his own end later that year, succumbing to ALS on 8/28/2014, 4,200 hours after Satoshi’s final post — and John and Alicia Nash would be taken less than nine months after that.

His death on 8/28/2014 meant that Hal Finney’s life’s midpoint occurred around 7/1/1985 — a scant 42 hours before the release of Back to the Future, a movie about a plan to use time-travel technology to stop a “terrorist” attack and break a temporal curse.

We know Bitcoin is the clockwork orange, but could it also be the flux capacitor?

Maybe what you’ve read here seems to you like the ravings of a man who has not been properly medicated. But hopefully some shards of this screed will stick in your temporal lobe anyway and in a few weeks or months you’ll be compelled for one reason or another to think about it again, and say, “Huh, maybe that number freak was onto something”. We’ll see.

The Fourth Halving took effect on 4/19/2024, when the BTC timechain was exactly 19 × 42 weeks old — the Ruler (AI) meets the First Seal and the orange coin, a showdown for life, the universe, and everything.

Perhaps Satoshi planned that one ahead of time as well, but even if not, he would have loved how perfectly it all worked out.


via bitcoinmagazine.com
Introducing The Bitcoin Report: A New Monthly Digest from Bitcoin Magazine Pro

Introducing The Bitcoin Report: A New Monthly Digest from Bitcoin Magazine Pro

In today’s financial world, understanding Bitcoin is no longer optional—it’s essential. As the sector grows and continues to attract attention from traditional finance, the need for high-quality, data-driven analysis has never been greater. That’s why we at Bitcoin Magazine Pro are excited to introduce The Bitcoin Report, a new monthly research digest tailored specifically for professional and institutional investors.

Why The Bitcoin Report?

Echoing Gordon Gekko's famous line from *Wall Street* (1987), “Tell me in 30 seconds why talking with you for 5 more minutes will make me more money.” We know that investors need actionable insights fast. With Bitcoin evolving as a maturing asset class and institutions seeking reliable sources of information, The Bitcoin Report aims to be the go-to resource for navigating this dynamic market.

Each edition of The Bitcoin Report provides a clear and concise industry overview, offering deep dives into key topics that matter most to investors. We’ve designed this digest to deliver insights in a familiar and professional format, so you can quickly assess market trends and make informed decisions.

What Makes The Bitcoin Report Unique?

What truly sets The Bitcoin Report apart is the expertise and depth of knowledge behind each edition. Every month, we feature contributions from some of the most respected professionals in the Bitcoin and financial industry. The debut issue is particularly special, featuring insights from a diverse range of subject matter experts. These include CEOs, investment managers, academics, senior economists, digital asset portfolio fund managers, family offices, and directors of Bitcoin strategy.

For the inaugural edition, we are proud to have insights from thought leaders such as Richard Byworth, Pascal Hügli, Lucas Betschart, Lukas Pfeiffer, Dr. Demelza Hays, Dr. Michael Tabone, Dylan LeClair, Philip Swift, and Thomas Zeltner. Their expertise spans the full spectrum of the financial world, providing readers with invaluable perspectives on how Bitcoin fits into the broader economic landscape.

We extend our gratitude to these contributors for being part of the first issue and for sharing their unique insights with our readers.

Key Features of The Bitcoin Report:

- On-chain Analysis: Get an insider's view of Bitcoin’s underlying network data to better understand market movements and trends.

- Bitcoin Mining Insights: A critical focus on mining activity and its influence on the Bitcoin ecosystem, shedding light on key operational developments.

- Bitcoin Stocks & Derivatives: Analysis of publicly traded companies involved in Bitcoin and their performance, as well as insights into Bitcoin derivative markets.

- Regulatory Updates: Keeping you informed of regulatory changes that could impact Bitcoin markets globally.

- Price Modeling Forecasts: Expert projections based on the latest data, helping you anticipate potential price movements.

- Macroeconomic Outlook: How global economic conditions might affect Bitcoin’s trajectory, with detailed discussions of interest rates, inflation, and other major factors.

Our Inaugural Edition: August 2024—Available Now for Free!

We are proud to offer the inaugural August edition of The Bitcoin Report for free. Unlike many other industry reports hidden behind paywalls or subscriptions, we are committed to reaching the widest possible audience. Our goal is to make The Bitcoin Report the most-read Bitcoin digest available online, offering unparalleled value to institutional and professional investors.

Download and Share the Report!

We invite you to download the August edition and see firsthand the wealth of insights included. Whether you're managing portfolios, seeking long-term exposure to Bitcoin, or simply staying informed, this report will provide you with the key highlights from the past month’s activity.

Feel free to share the report and its content—take screenshots, post snippets on social media, and join the conversation by using the hashtag #TheBitcoinReport. Tracking these posts will help us improve future editions and ensure that our content continues to provide value to the Bitcoin community.

A Comprehensive Resource for a Diverse Audience

Although The Bitcoin Report is tailored to professional investors, we recognize that the majority of individuals and businesses still do not own Bitcoin. As part of our mission to educate and inform, we’re including high-quality, easy-to-understand content to reach a broader audience. Each report features contributions from respected Bitcoin industry professionals, sharing exclusive insights based on their areas of expertise.

A Bridge Between Traditional Finance and Bitcoin

As institutional interest in Bitcoin grows, so too does the need for insightful, digestible analysis that bridges the gap between traditional finance and the Bitcoin world. The Bitcoin Report provides exactly that—a comprehensive monthly overview that helps investors navigate the complexities of this rapidly maturing asset class. From direct Bitcoin ownership to proxy exposure via publicly listed companies, the investment landscape is broadening, and we’re here to ensure you’re well-informed every step of the way.

A Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Our team at Bitcoin Magazine Pro is dedicated to evolving The Bitcoin Report with each monthly edition. We will continually expand on our content, add expert contributors, and refine the report based on feedback from readers. Our goal is to provide you with the most valuable, timely insights available, helping you stay ahead of the curve in this fast-paced market.

Opportunities for Sponsorship and Collaboration

If your organization is interested in sponsoring future editions of The Bitcoin Report or exploring joint-publication opportunities, we’d love to hear from you. Partnering with us offers a unique chance to reach a wide, engaged audience of investors, providing valuable exposure in the rapidly growing Bitcoin space.

Please reach out to Mark Mason at mark.mason@btcmedia.org to discuss how your brand can be part of this exciting initiative.

Conclusion and Call to Action

We invite you to explore the inaugural edition of The Bitcoin Report and see how it can enhance your understanding of Bitcoin and its investment potential. Download the report today, share it with your network, and don’t forget to use #TheBitcoinReport on social media to join the conversation.


Stay tuned for future editions as we continue to provide the Bitcoin market insights you need to succeed. Follow Bitcoin Magazine Pro for ongoing research, and together, let’s navigate the future of finance.


via bitcoinmagazine.com
Bitcoin Rollups - The Rock Or The Hard Place?

Bitcoin Rollups - The Rock Or The Hard Place?

Rollups have become the narrative focus of scaling Bitcoin lately, becoming the first thing to truly “steal the limelight” from the Lightning Network in terms of wider mindshare. Rollups aim to be an off-chain layer two that is not bound or constrained by the liquidity limitations that are central to the Lightning Network, i.e. end users required someone allocate (or “lend”) them funds ahead of time in order to be able to receive money, or intermediary routing nodes requiring channel balances that can facilitate the movement of the payment amount all the way from sender to receiver.

These systems were originally developed to function on Ethereum and other Turing complete systems, but as of late the focus has shifted to porting them to UTXO based blockchains such as Bitcoin. This article is not going to discuss the current state of things being implemented on Bitcoin currently, but going to discuss the function of an idealized rollup that people are aiming for in the long term depending on features Bitcoin currently does not support, namely the ability to verify Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) on Bitcoin directly.

The basic architecture of a roll is as follows: a single account (or in Bitcoin’s case UTXO), holds the balances of all users in the rollup. This UTXO contains a commitment in the form of a merkle root of a merkle tree that commits to all the current balances of existing accounts in the rollup. All of these accounts are authorized using public/private key pairs, so in order to propose an off-chain spend a user must still sign something with a key. This part of the structure allows users to leave without permission whenever they want, simply by crafting a transaction proving their account is part of the merkle tree, they can unilaterally exit the rollup without the operator's permission.

The operator of the rollup must include a ZKP in transactions that update the merkle root of account balances on-chain in the process of finalizing off-chain transactions, without this ZKP the transaction will be invalid and therefore not includable in the blockchain. This proof allows people to verify that all changes to off-chain accounts were properly authorized by the account holder(s), and that the operator has not conducted a malicious update of balances to steal money from users or reallocate it to other users dishonestly.

The problem is, if only the root of the merkle tree is posted on-chain where users can view and access it, how do they get their branch in the tree in order to be capable of exiting without permission when they want to?

Proper Rollups

In a proper rollup, the information is put directly into the blockchain everytime that new off-chain transactions are confirmed and the state of the rollup accounts change. Not the entire tree, that would be absurd, but the information necessary to reconstruct the tree. In a naive implementation, the summary of all existing accounts in the rollup would have balances and accounts simply added in the transaction updating the rollup.

In more advanced implementations, a balance diff is used. This is essentially a summary of what accounts have had money added to or subtracted from them during the course of an update. This allows each rollup update to only include the changes to account balances that occur. Users can then simply scan the chain and “do the math” from the beginning of the rollup to arrive at the current state of account balances, which allows them to reconstruct the merkle tree of current balances.

This saves a lot of overhead and blockspace (and therefore money) while still allowing users to guarantee access to the information needed for them to exit unilaterally. Including this data in a formal rollup that uses the blockchain to make it available to users is mandated by the rules of the rollup, i.e. a transaction that does not include the account summary or account diff is considered an invalid transaction.

Validiums

The other way to handle the problem of data availability for users to withdraw is to put the data somewhere else besides the blockchain. This introduces subtle issues, the rollup still needs to enforce that the data was made available somewhere else. Traditionally other blockchains are used for this purpose, specifically designed to function as data availability layers for systems like rollups.

This creates the dilemma of security guarantees being as strong. When the data is posted directly to the Bitcoin blockchain, consensus rules can guarantee it is correct with absolute certainty. However when it is posted to an external system, the best it can do is verify an SPV proof that the data was posted to another system.

This entails verifying an attestation that data exists on other chains, which is ultimately an oracle problem. Bitcoin’s blockchain cannot verify anything completely except what occurs on its own blockchain, the best it can do is verify a ZKP. A ZKP however cannot verify that a block containing rollup data was actually publicly broadcast after being produced. It cannot verify that external information is actually publicly available to everyone.

This opens the door to data withholding attacks, where a commitment to the data being published is created and used to advance the rollup, but the data is not actually made available. This renders users funds beyond their ability to withdraw. The only real solution to this is to depend entirely on the value and incentive structure of systems completely external to Bitcoin.

The Rock and Hard Place

This creates a dilemma in terms of rollups. When it comes to the data availability issue, there is essentially a binary choice between posting the data to the Bitcoin blockchain or somewhere else. This choice has massive implications for both rollup security and sovereignty, as well as their scalability.

On one hand, using the Bitcoin blockchain for the data availability layer introduces a hard ceiling on how much rollups can scale. There is only so much blockspace, and that puts an upper limit on how many rollups can exist at one time and how many transactions all rollups in aggregate can process off-chain. Every rollup update requires blockspace proportional to the amount of accounts that have had balance changes since the last update. Information theory only allows data to be compressed so much, and at that point there is no more potential for scaling gains.

On the other hand, using a different layer for data availability removes the hard ceiling on scalability gains, but it also introduces new security and sovereignty issues. In a rollup using Bitcoin for data availability it is literally not possible for the state of the rollup to change without the data needed by users to withdraw being atomically posted to the blockchain. With Validiums, that guarantee depends entirely on the ability of whatever external system is being used to resist gaming and data withholding.

Any block producer on the external data availability system is now capable of holding Bitcoin rollup users’ funds hostage by producing a block and not actually broadcasting it to make the data available.

So which will it be, if we ever do get to an ideal rollup implementation on Bitcoin that actually enables unilateral user withdrawal? The rock, or the hard place? 


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