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Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #167 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:

• 🦢 Trump’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Sparks Bitcoin Speculation

• 💥 Trump’s Tariffs: Bitcoin's Rocket Fuel

• 🚀 Utah's 45-Day Sprint to Make Bitcoin History

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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

🦢 Trump’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Sparks Bitcoin Speculation

President Donald Trump yesterday issued an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund for the US, noting that it would reinforce the US’s global financial and strategic influence. This had Bitcoiners buzzing as BTC-friendly leaders Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent would helm the $5T-potential fund. Speculation swirls over a possible 10% BTC allocation, though degen Polymarket bettors give it just a 14% chance by July. CryptoSlate

💥 Trump’s Tariffs: Bitcoin's Rocket Fuel

Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico could not be a win for only the US economy but also for Bitcoin as weakened fiat currencies and rising inflation stand to benefit Bitcoin as a hedge. Jeff Park on 𝕏 also explains how Trump's tariff strategy is really about weakening the dollar and pushing down US rates, which will set Bitcoin on an explosive upward trajectory. Countries facing economic pain will seek alternatives like Bitcoin to protect their wealth. The result? A wildly faster rise in Bitcoin's value. Brave New Coin | Jeff Park

🚀 Utah's 45-Day Sprint to Make Bitcoin History

Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter reveals Utah's lightning-fast path to becoming the first US state with a Bitcoin reserve, thanks to its ultra-compact 45-day legislative calendar. The state's dedicated digital asset task force, running since 2022, gives Utah a strategic edge by developing Bitcoin reserve plans year-round outside legislative sessions. With strong political momentum and a pro-Bitcoin and crypto foundation already in place, Utah is set to outpace 14 other states in the race to stack sats. BeInCrypto

POLL

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of Strike, discusses the unraveling of the post-WW2 economic order, highlighting the US's deindustrialization, the Triffin Dilemma, and the global shift away from the dollar, ultimately arguing that Bitcoin could serve as a neutral reserve currency in this new economic landscape (Feb 4 | 3 min read).

• Will Jager, an independent journalist focused on privacy advocacy and technology, examines how Bitcoin's institutionalization is reshaping its role, highlighting concerns over government oversight, strategic Bitcoin reserves, and the shift from Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer currency to a treasury asset, potentially undermining its anti-establishment origins (Feb 3 | 5 min read).

• Nikolaus Hoffman writing Bitcoin Magazine argues that despite short-term volatility, Bitcoin remains the safest asset to navigate geopolitical tensions and the Trump tariff war, emphasizing its value as a decentralized, non-inflatable store of value that operates independently from traditional financial systems (Feb 3 | 3 min read).

• John and Nisha Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute warn that artificial intelligence, when used by governments without proper safeguards, could lead to an ‘immortal dictator,’ an AI-driven surveillance state that threatens privacy, democracy, and individual freedom, urging immediate action to ensure transparency and accountability (Feb 3 | 9 min read).

• Nanak Nihal of the Holonym Foundation argues that Social Security numbers are flawed identifiers due to their vulnerability to guesswork and lack of security, advocating for a modern, cryptography-based identity system using public key and zero-knowledge cryptography to protect sensitive personal data (Feb 2 | 3 min read).

• Paul Rosenberg, author of 'A Lodging of Wayfaring Men', argues that environmental concerns over Bitcoin mining are exaggerated, pointing out that its energy consumption pales in comparison to that of air conditioning and that efforts to tax Bitcoin are really aimed at undermining its proof of work mechanism and paving the way for central bank digital currencies (Feb 1 | 3 min read).

• Tim Sh, a product manager and an ex-CTO, uncovers in a revealing experiment how apps secretly collect and share geolocation data, even without user consent, exposing privacy risks through third-party ad networks, data brokers, and pervasive tracking technologies that compromise digital privacy (Feb 1 | 11 min read).

• Guillaume Girard of UTXO Management discusses Tether's return to Bitcoin via Taproot Assets, which boosts the Lightning Network's potential for stablecoin transactions and strengthens Bitcoin’s role as a decentralized settlement layer for economic activity, offering scalability and low fees while presenting challenges for infrastructure (Jan 31 | 4 min read).

• Matt Hougan, CIO at Bitwise, argues that Bitcoin’s traditional four-year cycle is evolving due to mainstream institutional adoption, regulatory shifts, and the impact of Bitcoin ETFs, signaling a new era of growth with shorter, shallower pullbacks and reduced future market volatility ahead (Jan 31 | 3 min read).

• Enza Coin critiques the current state of financial literacy, emphasizing how generations influenced by social media and manipulated systems have lost sight of practical financial wisdom, advocating for Bitcoin as a solution to break free from fiat hegemony and restore personal financial freedom (Jan 31 | 6 min read).

• Nina Bambysheva, writing for Forbes, highlights how Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy revolutionizes corporate finance by leveraging Bitcoin’s volatility, issuing low-cost convertible bonds, and amassing over $48B in BTC, creating a blueprint for companies to harness Bitcoin’s potential for growth and innovation (Jan 30 | 5 min read).

• Frank Corva of Bitcoin Magazine highlights how African Bitcoiners, from South Africa to Kenya and Ghana, embody the cypherpunk spirit by building Bitcoin-based projects that empower local communities and drive financial inclusion, all without waiting for approval from authorities (Jan 30 | 5 min read).

• Ghaffar Hussain highlights how Bitcoin empowers women globally by offering financial autonomy, breaking cultural and geographic barriers, and providing privacy, self-custody, and equal access to the global economy, thus transforming the economic landscape for women in developing regions (Jan 30 | 5 min read).

• Oleksandr Kurbatov of Distributed Lab presents a trustless, interactive game protocol to emulate Bitcoin's OP_RAND opcode, ensuring probabilistic fairness between transaction counterparties without requiring protocol updates or specific scripts, with potential applications in secure, decentralized protocols (Jan 27 | 12 min read).

• Ron Paul, one of the most influential libertarian politicians in recent times, argues that to restore American prosperity, the government must separate money from the state by ending Federal Reserve manipulation of interest rates, allowing free-market money alternatives like Bitcoin and precious metals, and letting recessions run their natural course (Jan 27 | 3 min read).

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• How to earn $10k from your first book (with Nathan Barry) shows you why you don't need to be famous or have a huge following. (link)

• The Neuron keeps 400,000+ professionals ahead with 3-minute AI updates impacting you. (link)

• Refind curates the best articles from thousands daily, tailored to your interests. (link)

*You can find more here.

TOOLS & PROJECTS

• Joltz Wallet launches on iOS TestFlight as the first self-custody wallet for Taproot Assets, enabling USDT testing with wrapped tokens until full Taproot issuance.

• Block's Open Source Program Office launches ‘codename goose,’ an open-source framework that connects AI to real-world actions, enhancing productivity with popular LLMs.

• Blink and BitDriver partner to offer Bitcoin home delivery in El Salvador, simplifying the buying and selling process with personal assistance and wallet setup.

• Summer of Bitcoin 2025 opens applications for university and high school students to contribute to Bitcoin's open-source development, offering paid internships, career opportunities, and valuable experience in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

• Plebs Together Strong, a grassroots Bitcoin initiative in Goa, India, celebrates the graduation of the first cohort from the Trezor Academy 3-day Bitcoin Masterclass, equipping participants with essential Bitcoin knowledge and security skills

• Pinja.in is a simple pinboard app built with Osty, a free, open-source framework designed for creating web apps on the Nostr protocol.

• Freeflow is a proof-of-concept for a TikTok-like app running on the Nostr protocol, developed by Kieran of Zap.stream and Snort.

• Futr is a censorship-resistant Nostr client with secure group chats, encrypted messaging, and cross-platform support for private communication.

• Damus celebrates its two-year anniversary on the App Store with an alpha release of its desktop client Notedeck, now available to the public for the first time.

• Mint Marketcap by Super Testnet provides data about the capacity of public ecash mints.

• Olas releases new features, including Instagram-like filters, video improvements, and Nostr-native wallet updates on iOS and Android platforms.

• PeerPad offers decentralized, real-time collaborative editing with end-to-end encryption, ensuring secure and private document sharing without relying on centralized servers.

• LocalSend enables secure, open-source file sharing across devices without the internet, offering a fast, private, and user-friendly alternative to cloud-based transfers.

MEME OF THE DAY

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Naiw

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