Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #356 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:

• 🏛️ Saylor & Heavyweights Storm Capitol Hill for Bitcoin Reserve Push

• 💸 PayPal Unleashes Seamless Bitcoin P2P Transfers Across Platforms

• ⚡ Bitcoin Hashrate Hits Mind-Blowing 1 Zetahash Milestone

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Sep 16, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

🏛️ Saylor & Heavyweights Storm Capitol Hill for Bitcoin Reserve Push

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor, Marathon Digital Holdings CEO Fred Thiel, and other prominent Bitcoin and crypto advocates will be in Washington DC on Tuesday at a Capitol Hill roundtable hosted by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Nick Begich. They will be advancing the BITCOIN Act, which would establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, acquiring 1M BTC over 5 years using budget-neutral strategies. Currently backed only by Republicans, advocates are pushing for bipartisan support as the bill awaits hearings in key committees. The Block

💸 PayPal Unleashes Seamless Bitcoin P2P Transfers Across Platforms

PayPal just rolled out peer-to-peer transfers for Bitcoin and other digital assets across PayPal, Venmo, and external wallets. US users can now send BTC via shareable links that expire in 10 days, making BTC transfers as easy as texting. Rolling out first in the US before hitting the UK and Italy, the service exempts family BTC transfers from tax reporting requirements. Many however still remember PayPal’s attempted policy change in 2022 fining users up to $2,500 for publishing MiSiNfOrMaTiOn. Decrypt

⚡ Bitcoin Hashrate Hits Mind-Blowing 1 Zetahash Milestone

Bitcoin's hashrate has smashed through 1 zetahash per second, meaning miners now perform more calculations every second than there are grains of sand on Earth or stars in the galaxy. This historic milestone further solidifies Bitcoin as the most secure computer network ever built, with macro investor Dan Tapiero calling it one of the top 10 developments in 50 years. The zetahash era proves Bitcoin's unmatched security and decentralization. CryptoSlate

POLL #356

PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• Atlas21 and Bull Bitcoin explores how Italian Bitcoin communities from Milan to Salento drive grassroots adoption through local meetups, educational initiatives, and merchant outreach, focusing on Bitcoin's original principles of monetary sovereignty and privacy rather than price speculation (Sep 16 | 10 min read).

• Schmidty, co-organizer of Bitcoin Core developer meetings and executive director of the Bitcoin Brink non-profit, defends against industry lobbying accusations by detailing transparent governance structures, independent oversight, and strict donor agreements that prevent corporate influence over Bitcoin development funding (Sep 14 | 3 min read).

• Fernando Motolese, founder of Praia Bitcoin Jericoacoara's circular economy experiment in Brazil, identifies 4 distinct Bitcoin archetypes - coordinators, market pragmatists, monetary purists, and minimalists - arguing that these complementary perspectives create productive tension that keeps Bitcoin useful and resilient for real people (Sep 13 | 8 min read).

• Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, argues that US President Trump isn't truly the 'bitcoin president' but rather the 'stablecoin president,' as his policies strengthen US dollar dominance and government borrowing capacity rather than advancing Bitcoin (Sep 12 | 10 min read).

• Pieter Wuille, a Bitcoin Core contributor, argues that removing OP_RETURN size limits prevents mining centralization and maintains decentralized transaction relay, despite concerns about blockchain data storage abuse, as attempts to block arbitrary data through node policy prove ineffective and ultimately harmful to Bitcoin's decentralized architecture (Sep 12 | 7 min read).

• LNbitcoin of the Bitcoin Learning blog explores the growing divide between Bitcoin Core v30 and Bitcoin Knots, examining how Core's expanded data carrier size limit to 100,000 bytes has sparked community fears of network spam and driven 22.12% adoption of Knots' stricter alternative (Sep 12 | 5 min read).

• Bitcoin Actuary, writing for the Bitcoin Collective, examines whether Bitcoin treasury companies represent legitimate corporate adoption or unsustainable Ponzi schemes, analyzing their explosive 2025 growth, valuation methods, capital-raising strategies, and risks while questioning their long-term viability amid volatile market conditions (Sep 11 | 9 min read).

• John Light of Alpen Labs, aka Lightcoin, argues that Jimmy Song's opposition to covenant soft forks is misguided, contending that covenants would reduce counterparty risk, improve scalability and privacy, and benefit users by enabling trustless alternatives to current custodial solutions (Sep 12 | 5 min read).

• Peter Van Valkenburgh, Executive Director at Coin Center, clarifies that while the US Treasury considers new regulations on Bitcoin and crypto privacy tools under the Patriot Act, current proposals involve enhanced reporting requirements rather than outright bans on mixers and similar technologies (Sep 11 | 4 min read).

• Max Webster of Hivemind Ventures argues that humanity's AI-driven intelligence explosion demands a revolutionary shift from legacy electric grids to decentralized solar-plus-storage macrogrids, proposing an ambitious roadmap to build an 'Internet of Energy' that could outpace China's renewable dominance (Sep 11 | 15 min read).

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TOOLS & PROJECTS

• New on Geyser: Garbageman is a Bitcoin network protection tool that counters DoS attacks from Libre Relay nodes spreading non-payment transactions and data spam.

• New on Geyser: Eng Abdullah Alarawi launches an open-source digital skills platform for children aged 7-14, teaching programming, design, and AI through interactive lessons and games.

• Timechain Calendar, a Bitcoin protocol visualizer and timechain explorer, launches a rebuilt mobile app for iOS and Android featuring live data dashboard with concentric circles displaying supply issuance, halving countdown, difficulty adjustments, and block distribution metrics.

• Braiins, a Prague-based bitcoin mining company, launches Braiins Deck, a $199 desktop device featuring touchscreen display, RGB lighting, and real-time bitcoin mining data tracking capabilities.

• Axewell UI is a new interface that integrates with the open-source Bitaxe firmware as an alternative to the default Axe OS.

• ZBD, a Bitcoin payments firm, integrates Lightning Network rewards into Idle Bank, a game title from TapNation with over 12 million downloads.

• Jonas Nick, Cryptographer and Bitcoin developer, releases a comprehensive workbook covering Bitcoin cryptography fundamentals including signatures, commitments, and security proofs for developers and researchers.

• Bitchat now routes all internet connections through the Tor network, providing complete IP address privacy protection for iOS and Android users.

• Orange Pill App launches the TapZap feature, allowing users to send 1 SAT with a single tap to show appreciation.

• Rhino Bitcoin launches the 'Bitcoin for Women' educational series inside their app to empower women with financial clarity and confidence.

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