Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #201 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:

• ⛏️ Is Trump Planning Bitcoin Mining? Rumors Fly

• 🔮 Bitcoin Prophet’s 84K $BTC.X ( ▼ 0.35% ) Prediction Stuns Traders

• 🖨️ Elon Musk Uncovers 'Magic Money Computers'

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Mar 18, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

⛏️ Is Trump Planning Bitcoin Mining? Rumors Fly

Rumors suggest the US Department of Defense might start mining bitcoin, sparked by cryptic social media posts from industry insiders like Michael Saylor and Matthew Pines. This follows President Trump's executive order for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, hinting at 'budget-neutral' acquisition methods, potentially including mining. While unconfirmed, these speculations make logical sense and align with the administration's growing pro-Bitcoin stance, fueled by key figures turning Trump to BTC, making the rumor highly pertinent. Bitcoinist

🔮 ‘Bitcoin Prophet’’s 84K Bitcoin Prediction Stuns Traders

Josh Mandell, an ex-Wall Street trader, is making waves in the community after correctly predicting a March 14 BTC target of $84k. He also turned a $2.1M BTC/MSTR stash into $23.4M in one year. He is further predicting BTC will rise from $84K to $444K and calls this the start of ‘The Fourth Turning.’ Mandell credits his thoughts to be some kind of ‘divine intervention’ – messages delivered to him through ‘premonitions’. 𝕏

🖨️ Elon Musk Uncovers 'Magic Money Computers'

Elon Musk claims he found over a dozen 'magic money computers' in US government departments, including the Treasury, Defense, and Health and Human Services. These systems can apparently issue payments from 'thin air.' Casa's Chief Security Officer, Jameson Lopp, responded simply w/ ‘Bitcoin fixes this’, as its 21M immutably capped supply hedges against the endless 'money printing' that plagues fiat currencies. Even DOGE is slashing subscription bloat, showing it's more responsible. Cointelegraph

POLL

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• Shinobi of Bitcoin magazine introduces a series exploring Bitcoin covenants, formal agreements restricting how coins can be spent, aiming to clarify their functionality, impact on the network and address community concerns (Mar 17 | 4 min read).

• Benjamin Wallace, in excerpt from his recently launched book 'The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto' published in the New York Magazine, explores the identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, highlighting a potential suspect, neoreactionary and Dark Enlightenment adherent, James A. Donald, while acknowledging the mystery identity remains unsolved (Mar 17 | 32 min read).

• Jameson Lopp of Casa argues for burning Bitcoin in quantum-vulnerable addresses to prevent wealth redistribution to quantum computing entities, ensuring network security and upholding Bitcoin's core principles against potential threats (Mar 16 | 20 min read).

• 028559d218, a pseudonymous Stacker News user, argues that Michael Saylor's strategy involves promoting dollar-backed stablecoins to increase demand for US debt, classifying Bitcoin as 'Digital Capital' to encourage global adoption, and potentially running for president in 8-12 years (Mar 16 | 11 min read).

• Aleksandar Svetski of Satlantis pivots from Nostr evangelism to pragmatism, viewing it as a useful tool, rather than a revolution, for his travel-focused social network after realizing Nostr’s network effect takes longer than initially anticipated (Mar 14 | 13 min read).

• bc1984adam, a Bitcoin privacy advocate, argues Samourai Wallet developers aimed to provide privacy tools, not facilitate money laundering, challenging charges against them by highlighting their open operations, non-custodial service, and First Amendment rights (Mar 14 | 6 min read).

• Bitdeer, a Singapore-based bitcoin mining firm, is shaking up ASIC manufacturing with its new SEALMINER A4, aiming for unprecedented efficiency and increased transparency in the otherwise opaque ASIC market, potentially disrupting industry leaders like Bitmain (Mar 14 | 8 min read).

• Jesse Myers, a Bitcoin researcher, argues that the proliferation of 36M+ altcoins has strengthened Bitcoin's position, citing digital scarcity, network effects, and the 'Crypto Catch-22' as reasons for Bitcoin's dominance (Mar 14 | 1 min read).

• Alles Voor Bitcoin, a Bitcoin-focused podcast, argues that most Bitcoin books are repetitive, outdated marketing tools for authors' self-promotion and lack the meaningful insight to justify their existence (Mar 13 | 14 min read).

• Justin of Shocknet argues that Bitcoin's scalability is limited by its 21M BTC (21 quadrillion satoshis) cap rather than technological improvements, claiming that it restricts sovereign use to 5-10M users and necessitates trust-based solutions for others (Mar 13 | 5 min read).

OTHER NEWSLETTERS TO CHECK OUT*

Looking for fresh insights? Check out this curated list by Refind of amazing newsletters! Explore a variety of topics, discover new perspectives, and subscribe to the ones that spark your interest. Happy reading!

*You can find more here.

TOOLS & PROJECTS

• Orange Pill App launches mass zapping to enable users to send sats to everyone in group chats instantly.

• PlebLab, a Bitcoin hackerspace and community accelerator in Austin, announces Startup School Summer Edition.

• ZEBEDEE introduces the ZBD MCP Server, bringing Bitcoin and Lightning support to LLM clients enabling bitcoin payments into workflows with MCP-compatible hosts like Claude and Cursor. x

• Wavlake's Ticketbot, a proof-of-concept ticketing agent, enables event organizers to sell tickets via zaps and direct messages, simplifying event management using Lightning and Nostr.

• Mnemonic Slots by Coinables generates random 12-word BIP39 mnemonic phrases, checking corresponding Bitcoin addresses for balances, offering a chance to 'win' discovered funds.

• Eclair introduces Bolt 12 offers support, a feature that would enable users to reuse Lightning invoices, in v0.12.0.

• Explora is a visual tool that lets users follow Bitcoin transaction chains using mempool.space and ankr.com APIs.

• Send.djazz.se simplifies e-reader file transfers by allowing users to wirelessly send any file, including ebooks and PDFs, directly to their device's browser.

• DuckDuckGo launches Duck.ai with free, anonymous access to popular AI chatbots and enhanced AI-assisted search answers.

• Chefmangoo, a pseudonyomus Reddit user, launches a free HTML5 Bitcoin trading game where players play as a trader to challenge a hypothetical Bitcoin HODLer from 2014 to 2024 to outperform him.

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