Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #161 of Bitcoin Breakdown, where every Tuesday and Thursday, we bring you the latest must-read Bitcoin thought leadership articles and the newest tools and projects you should know about.

But first, today’s Top Stories:

• 💰 Bessent confirmed as Treasury Secretary, w/ Bitcoin in his Sights

• 🕵️‍♂️ DARPA To Launch Pre-Crime AML Program

• 💥 Metaplanet’s Mega Raise for Bitcoin

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Jan 28, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

💰 Bessent confirmed as Treasury Secretary, w/ Bitcoin in his Sights

Scott Bessent has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary and is now tasked with overseeing Bitcoin and crypto policies. While tax cuts may be his main priority, Bessent has shown a clear opposition to a US central bank digital currency. Bessenta is a billionaire former hedge fund manager who liquidated hundreds of thousands of dollars tucked into a Bitcoin ETF when he received Trump's nomination. CoinDesk

🕵️‍♂️ DARPA To Launch Pre-Crime AML Program

DARPA wants to stop money laundering before it even happens by using predictive algorithms to track suspicious financial patterns. While it claims to target illicit actors, the program risks amplifying discrimination and bias, especially against marginalized groups. Ironically, the current AML system barely works, with a minuscule 0.02% success rate. The Rage

💥 Metaplanet’s Mega Raise for Bitcoin

Metaplanet, dubbed the ‘Microstrategy of Asia’, just broke records with the largest bitcoin-focused capital raise in Asian equity market history, raising 745M USD. The Japanese hotel investor issued 21M shares via 0% discount warrants to boost its BTC stash amid Japan's yen troubles. Metaplanet now holds 1,762 BTC and is the 15th largest publicly traded holder. CoinDesk

POLL

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• Bitcoin Mechanic, head of communications at Ocean Mining, highlights how Foundry's growing dominance in Bitcoin mining is driven by compliance pressures and unnecessary variance reduction, raising concerns about increasing centralization and potential risks to the network's integrity and future stability (Jan 26 | 7 min read).

• Fernando Nikolic, founder of Bitcoin Perception, explores how the mainstream media's narrative is shifting to associate Bitcoin holders with the financial elite, particularly as Bitcoin's surge in value sparks discussions on wealth inequality and economic reform, potentially casting Bitcoiners as part of the privileged class (Jan 27 | 3 min read).

• Pix, Researcher at Jirasan, writes about the harrowing kidnapping and torture of Ledger co-founder David Balland, highlighting how his wealth and the Bitcoin and crypto industry's increasing attention made him a target, ultimately sending a chilling warning to the broader community about the risks of public success (Jan 24 | 2 min read).

• Shinobi, Technical Editor at Bitcoin Magazine, argues that Bitcoin’s public discourse is dominated by extreme idealism and cynicism, distracting from achievable improvements that could enhance its censorship resistance and privacy, and calls for a more balanced focus on practical advancements within Bitcoin's current framework (Jan 24 | 3 min read).

• Blake Benthall, former operator of Silk Road 2.0, argues that Ross Ulbricht's release and the lifting of sanctions on Tornado Cash represent critical opportunities for the US to embrace innovation, privacy technologies, and decentralized finance, fostering a safer environment for blockchain development and financial freedom (Jan 22 | 4 min read).

• Massimo Musumeci, Lightning developer and researcher, demonstrates how to use submarine swaps in LND to refill outbound liquidity on a Lightning node by funding swap-in transactions with on-chain coins, offering step-by-step instructions and commands to complete the process efficiently and seamlessly (Jan 26 | 2 min read).

• Susie Violet Ward, CEO and co-founder of Bitcoin Policy UK, explores how Bitcoin fuels creativity across art, music, and street culture, highlighting how artists like Street Cyber, Fzero, and Nat Cole use it to challenge traditional norms, promote individual sovereignty, and reshape cultural narratives (Jan 26 | 5 min read).

• Frank Shostak, an associated scholar of the Mises Institute, challenges the conventional definition of inflation, arguing that it should be seen as the artificial increase in the money supply rather than merely rising prices, emphasizing how this leads to resource misallocation and economic distortions (Jan 27 | 6 min read).

• Brian Krebs, an investigative journalist covering cybersecurity and internet crime, uncovers how a sophisticated voice phishing crew exploits legitimate services from Apple and Google to scam victims, detailing their methods of spoofing official communications and social engineering tactics to steal sensitive data and Bitcoin or crypto (Jan 7 | 13 min read).

• Che Kohler of The Bitcoin Manual explains why Bitcoin Spot ETF shares trade at different prices, highlighting factors such as tracking methodologies, market liquidity, operational costs, and arbitrage opportunities while offering strategies to navigate price discrepancies for investors seeking Bitcoin exposure (Jan 24 | 6 min read).

• Bitvocation releases its 2024 Annual Bitcoin Job Market Data Report, revealing trends in global Bitcoin employment, demand for non-developer roles, and the challenges faced by candidates, including a lack of specialized skills and Bitcoin knowledge (Jan 27 | 6 min read).

• Mark Mason of Bitcoin Magazine explores how the divergence in short- and long-term US Treasury yields signals economic uncertainty, with Bitcoin potentially benefiting as both a hedge against inflation and a risk-on asset, offering new opportunities for investors navigating these shifts (Jan 27 | 3 min read).

• Bitfinex analyzes how the 2024 Bitcoin halving has driven miners to diversify into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC), leveraging existing infrastructure for stable revenue streams while addressing Bitcoin’s declining profitability, with the shift raising concerns about network security and environmental impact (Jan 24 | 6 min read).

• Rare Passenger analyzes the dangers of government control over Bitcoin, warning that a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve could lead to market manipulation, price crashes, and the erosion of Bitcoin’s decentralized essence, and advocates self-custody as the only way to preserve Bitcoin's core values (Jan 25 | 5 min read).

• Peter Todd, the guy denying he is Satoshi Nakamoto, explains how the Lightning protocol can use ‘fake’ channels for routing payments, emphasizing that client-side validation of tokens, like RGB and Taproot Assets, allows for scalable, secure transactions without needing to verify intermediaries' channels, enhancing the Lightning network's efficiency (Jan 25 | 4 min read).

• Onkar Singh of Cointelegraph explains how bitcoiners can navigate a complex tax landscape by understanding taxable vs. non-taxable transactions, key regulations by jurisdiction, and using strategies like tax-loss harvesting and gifting to minimize tax liability and avoid tax fraud (Jan 23 | 8 min read).

ANOTHER NEWSLETTER TO CHECK OUT*

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TOOLS & PROJECTS

• Rumble announces Rumble Wallet, enabling creators to transact with BTC and USDT, following a $755M investment and a deal with El Salvador.

• Mullvad VPN now accepts Bitcoin Lightning payments, enhancing user privacy by allowing anonymous, rapid transactions for their VPN services.

• Plan B Network's BTC204 course offers training on Bitcoin privacy, suitable for all levels, covering topics like chain analysis and transaction patterns.

• Mempool.space introduces new visualizers that allow users to customize their view of Bitcoin blockchain inscriptions, enhancing user experience and preference control.

• Nostr.net serves as a hub for Nostr resources, tools, clients, and protocols, catering to both developers and users.

• Valet offers a non-custodial Bitcoin and Lightning wallet for Android, featuring coin control, batching, hosted channels, and hardware wallet integration.

• SATS'N'FACTS is a Bitcoin Technical Unconference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from February 8–10, 2025, that emphasizes creativity, privacy, and open-source advocacy.

• First Rshiny is an interactive tool to visualize Bitcoin cost averaging performance, offering insights into long-term investment strategies and returns.

• Scure offers an audited library for creating, signing, and decoding Bitcoin transactions, supporting SegWit, Taproot, Schnorr, and PSBT with minimal dependencies.

• Zaprite integrates BTCPay Server, enabling merchants to accept Bitcoin and Lightning payments directly into BTCPay wallets alongside traditional fiat options.

• Interactive map by Valentin Rousseau visualizes Bitcoin mining operations across states, highlighting regional distribution and energy consumption.

• Ark Wallet SDK simplifies Bitcoin wallet development with TypeScript, enabling seamless on-chain and off-chain transactions for web and mobile applications.

• BitVid enables decentralized video sharing with WebTorrent technology and Nostr integration, offering secure webRTC magnet links for peer-to-peer streaming.

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