Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #338 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:

• 🔒 Google Ends Anonymous Android Sideloading

• ⛏️ UAE's $700M BTC Stash Revealed Through Mining Giant

• 💰 BlackRock CEO Calls Bitcoin 'Digital Gold,' Not Currency

Estimated reading time: 6 min

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Aug 27, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

🔒 Google Ends Anonymous Android Sideloading

Google is shuttering unrestricted sideloading on Android, requiring developer verification starting September 2026 in select countries before expanding globally. Developers must register with personal details and government identification to distribute apps outside Google's ecosystem. Critics blast the move as eroding user freedom and device ownership rights. This might mean that the only way to install apps from open and permissionless app stores like Zapstore will be to run a custom ROM such as GrapheneOS. Cybernews

⛏️ UAE's $700M BTC Stash Revealed Through Mining Giant

Arkham Intelligence confirms that the United Arab Emirates holds about 6,300 BTC worth $700M in bitcoin, ranking sixth globally among state-level holders with 6,300 BTC earned through legitimate mining operations. The UAE's reserves come from Citadel Mining, controlled by Abu Dhabi royal family member Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This revelation follows rumors that the Emirates holds over 420K BTC from enforcement actions against fraudulent schemes. Atlas21

💰 BlackRock CEO Calls Bitcoin 'Digital Gold,' Not Currency

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink calls Bitcoin 'digital gold' in an interview with Citi, emphasizing it's a long-term store of value, and saying that it is not everyday currency but a 'currency of fear' that people buy when worried about their country's security or currency debasement. His IBIT ETF has become the world's second-largest Bitcoin holder with over 781K BTC worth $88B. Coin Edition

POLL #338

PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• BlissHodl, author of 'The Gateway To Freedom', argues that Bitcoin serves as humanity's ultimate escape from a corrupt global financial system that systematically steals wealth through inflation, confiscation, and manipulation, urging readers to achieve true sovereignty through self-custody (Aug 24 | 9 min read).

• Gabriel Kurman & Ivan Kaleja, in a free excerpt from their book 'Bitcoin Circular Economies', explore how the Bitcoin Jungle initiative creates a spiritual and technological fusion in Costa Rica's jungle, where expats and digital nomads build a conscious circular economy combining bitcoin payments with freedom of expression through the Nostr protocol (Aug 23 | 19 min read).

• Andrea Carnimeo of Blockdyor examines how Canaan's Avalon Nano 3S brings improved 6 TH/s Bitcoin mining performance to homes with quieter operation, better efficiency, and enhanced features, though at triple the price of its predecessor (Aug 22 | 9 min read).

• Janusz of Bitcoin++ Insider clarifies widespread misconceptions about Citrea's architecture by explaining how bitcoin rollups actually function as sovereign systems using bitcoin for data availability rather than state enforcement, while detailing why this enables more trust-minimized bridges than traditional sidechains (Aug 22 | 10 min read).

• Bill Repasky, an attorney at Frost Brown Todd LLP, argues that blanket Bitcoin and crypto ATM bans are ineffective against fraud and harm legitimate users, advocating instead for smart warning systems at kiosks to intercept scams while preserving crucial infrastructure (Aug 22 | 4 min read).

• Craig of BiTHELM highlights how #zapsnag, a community-driven concept on Nostr, transforms commerce by enabling instant BTC Lightning payments, bypassing fees, and empowering creators and small businesses with direct peer-to-peer sales and global reach (Aug 21 | 4 min read).

• Paul Rosenberg of Freeman's Perspective argues that America suffered its fatal blow in 1913 through three constitutional changes: the 16th Amendment enabling income taxes, the 17th Amendment consolidating power in Washington, and the Federal Reserve Act creating a banking monopoly that collectively transformed the nation from a producer-friendly to a politician-controlled system (Aug 21 | 4 min read).

• Jonathan Newman, Fellow at the Mises Institute, argues that Federal Reserve 'independence' is a myth, contending that the 1951 Treasury-Fed Accord failed to establish true autonomy and that the Fed continues serving government financing needs rather than the American people (Aug 21 | 12 min read).

• Sam Bent, an OSINT & OPSEC Specialist, exposes how Czech researcher Marek Tóth revealed at DEF CON 33 that DOM-based clickjacking attacks can steal credentials from 40M password manager users in major browsers, while vendors like 1Password and LastPass refuse to address these critical vulnerabilities (Aug 20 | 8 min read).

• ICYMI: DarthCoin, a Bitcoin advocate and educator, argues that combining Bitcoin as unconfiscatable sovereign money with Natural Law principles enables individuals to reject fiat slavery, taxation theft, and corporate jurisdiction to achieve true personal sovereignty, financial independence, and freedom from tyrannical systems (Dec 11, 2024 | 13 min read).

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TOOLS & PROJECTS

• New on Geyser: VersusMedia, a Bitcoin-native indie streaming platform, raises funds to expand its Lightning-powered 'Sats for Views' model, scale 24/7 channels to major platforms, and grow its 800+ title catalog.

• New on Geyser: Joyce Dawn, lifelong educator and Bitcoin adoption advocate, aims to build a thriving circular economy in Comox Valley, Canada with 40+ onboarded businesses and launches the Bitcoin Valley Embassy project to create a permanent global hub for Bitcoin education, community, and real-world adoption.

• NYM is an ephemeral chat client built on Nostr that enables anonymous temporary messaging with Bitchat bridge compatibility and no registration required.

• Fanfares enables users to create and sell zapwalled content including notes, podcasts, and audiobooks.

• Bitmap is a website that displays a heat map of where Bitchat/geohash-based conversations are happening across the world.

• Jack Dorsey launches Bitchat version 1.3, offering secure location-based Bluetooth and decentralized relay chat with no signup, geohash features.

• Bitchat boosts messaging efficiency by migrating to georelays, connecting users to the nearest geohash-based relays and promoting global adoption of smaller distributed nodes.

• Nostr Forms is a simple forms application built on the Nostr network that allows users to create and manage forms securely and privately.

• Nos is a streamlined command-line tool that enables quick message posting to Nostr directly from terminal environments.

• Chasing Your Tail NG is a Wi-Fi probe request analyzer that monitors wireless devices, integrates with Kismet for packet capture, and features advanced surveillance detection with GPS tracking and KML visualizations for security research.

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