Trump Warns Of China’s Crypto Rise 🇺🇸, Samourai Devs Face Max Sentence 🔒, BTC Miners Becoming AI Titans 🔌

Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #395 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.

Today’s web edition is twice as long as usual; we’re catching up on last week’s missed stories after we couldn’t send the newsletter on Thursday.

Now for today’s Top Stories:

• 🇺🇸 Trump Bets on Bitcoin & Crypto Supremacy, Defends CZ Pardon

• 🔒 US Seeks Max Term for Samourai Devs

• 🔌 Bitcoin Miners Power Up Big Tech’s AI Dreams

TOGETHER WITH UNCHAINED

You know the story of bitcoin’s market cycles... euphoric blow-offs, brutal crashes. Maybe not anymore. The Bitcoin Checkpoint takes a deep look at how the 2023–2025 cycle has rewritten market structure and why these changes could be permanent.

Inside, you’ll find analysis of record-low volatility, ETF flows absorbing billions monthly, and why long-term holders remain in control with $1.3T in unrealized profit. Plus, download now for automatic access to the event where James Check took a deep dive into the report himself.

Nov 4, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

🇺🇸 Trump Bets on Bitcoin & Crypto Supremacy, Defends CZ Pardon

In a 60 Minutes interview, President Trump doubled down on making US Bitcoin and crypto dominance a national priority, calling it a ‘winner-takes-all’ industry rivaling artificial intelligence in importance. He also warned of China’s rapid expansion in terms of crypto, saying that ‘China is getting into it very big’. Trump also defended pardoning Binance founder CZ, saying that ‘I know nothing about the guy’, but framing his release as a stand against political bias and the Biden administration’s war on crypto, positioning it as a strategic move to safeguard US leadership. Bitcoin Magazine

🔒 US Seeks Max Term for Samourai Devs

The US government wants 5 years for Samourai Wallet creators Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill, accusing them of building Bitcoin privacy tools to launder $237M from darknet markets and other crimes. Although they pled guilty only to running an unlicensed money transmission service, prosecutors framed their privacy-focused Bitcoin tools as a criminal magnet. The devs insist they acted within legal advice, building Samourai to safeguard Bitcoin’s role as uncensorable digital cash, not as a laundering machine. Sentencing is set for Nov 6-7 in New York’s Southern District. The Rage

🔌 Bitcoin Miners Power Up Big Tech’s AI Dreams

Bitcoin miners IREN and Cipher Mining just inked massive AI infrastructure deals with Microsoft and Amazon worth over $21B combined. Once focused solely on stacking sats, these miners are now cashing in on excess power, land, and data-center capacity to host hyperscale AI workloads. Investors love the hybrid model – steady BTC income plus high-growth tech revenue – which has sent both companies’ stocks soaring. The trend shows miners can evolve into diversified tech heavyweights without dropping the orange pill. The Block

POLL #395

PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• Giacomo Zucco, Director at Plan B Network, argues that Bitcoin Core v30 doesn't meaningfully increase legal risks from data encoding since arbitrary data storage was always possible 'by design' from Satoshi's genesis block, while criticizing BIP444 as poorly designed consensus-splitting overreach (Nov 3 | 5 min read).

• Becca Bratcher, author of '21 Women in Bitcoin', writing for Forbes, argues that Bitcoin mining in Texas serves as an unlikely catalyst for cheaper energy by providing grid stability, monetizing surplus renewables, and transforming from an energy drain into a flexible demand solution that supports the state's deregulated power market (Nov 2 | 5 min read).

• Rizful, a Lightning Network company, in a post on Nostr, warns that Stephan Livera's recent podcast episode with Lightspark CTO Kevin Hurley dangerously misleads listeners by comparing Spark's closed, centralized service provider system to Lightning's open LSP standard, arguing that Lightspark's control over all Spark operators creates privacy risks and regulatory vulnerabilities (Nov 1 | 4 min read).

• Shawn Yeager, host of the 'Trust Revolution' podcast, argues that freedom tech must prioritize user experience over ideological purity to compete with centralized platforms, warning that Bitcoin, Lightning, and Nostr risk remaining niche without commercial excellence matching their technical achievements (Oct 31 | 10 min read).

• Che Kohler of The Bitcoin Manual analyzes how BIP-444, a controversial proposal by anonymous developer Dathon Ohm, seeks to implement a temporary soft fork restricting arbitrary data in Bitcoin transactions, sparking fierce community debate over Bitcoin's fundamental purpose as money versus censorship-resistant ledger (Oct 31 | 9 min read).

• Jasonb, a Bitcoin Ekasi volunteer, demonstrates how to transform any 3D printer into an 'orange pilling machine' by creating durable QR code keychains and necklaces that enable service workers to easily receive bitcoin tips without needing smartphones (Oct 31 | 5 min read).

• Max Musumeci, a Lightning Network researcher, explains how the Lightning Network employs source-based onion routing with the SPHINX protocol to enable private, censorship-resistant bitcoin payments while giving senders complete control over routing paths (Oct 30 | 11 min read).

• SimpleStacker, in a post on Stacker News, reviews the Jimmy Song versus Peter Todd debate on spam filters at Plan ₿ Lugano 2025, analyzing their opposing positions on whether Bitcoin nodes should filter non-monetary transactions to preserve the network's primary monetary function (Oct 30 | 5 min read).

• Nothingmuch of Spiral explores the evolving definition of 'CoinJoin' from Greg Maxwell's 2013 equal-amount privacy transactions to encompassing multiparty batching, PayJoin steganographic payments, and even Lightning channels, arguing that Bitcoin privacy depends on widespread adoption of privacy-preserving practices rather than theoretical limitations (Oct 29 | 13 min read).

• Shinobi of Bitcoin Magazine argues that Bitcoin Knots' transaction filtering represents a failed denial-of-service attack on the Bitcoin network that degrades relay services while failing to prevent 'spam' transactions from reaching miners or being included in blocks (Oct 28 | 5 min read).

• Gigi of OpenSats chronicles his 21-day experiment building 'Boris,' a nostr-native reading app using only AI prompts, exploring the potential and pitfalls of 'vibe-coding' while advocating for decentralized alternatives to traditional walled-garden reading platforms (Nov 1 | 20 min read).

• Bill Laboon, vice president of Ecosystem at the Web3 Foundation, argues that the EU's ProtectEU initiative creates 'digital feudalism' by mandating on-device scanning before encryption, establishing a two-tier security system where states maintain strong encryption while citizens face surveillance and weakened privacy protections (Oct 31 | 4 min read).

• Max, a privacy advocate and contributor to White Noise and the Marmot messaging protocol on Nostr, explains why leveraging open source MLS protocol developments from IETF researchers offers superior security solutions compared to creating custom cryptographic implementations (Oct 31 | 2 min read).

• Early Riders, a venture firm pioneering bitcoin adoption, argues in a new report that advanced software, AI, and bitcoin represent the highest-leverage deflationary tools, creating significant opportunities for companies to reinvest in business operations or return capital to shareholders (Oct 31 | 6 min read).

• Shinobi of Bitcoin Magazine argues that Bitcoin users collectively determine the system's purpose through actual usage rather than being constrained by Satoshi Nakamoto's 17-year-old whitepaper, which serves as a high-level description rather than a founding document (Oct 31 | 3 min read).

• Nina Bambysheva of Forbes examines how Bitcoin Magazine's David Bailey is attempting to transform tiny Utah healthcare firm KindlyMD into a major bitcoin treasury company through reverse merger, despite NAKA stock plummeting 98% amid massive dilution from private equity deals (Oct 30 | 6 min read).

• Plain Memo, writing for Bitcoin Magazine, argues that Tether's USDT stablecoin and the GENIUS Act are quietly undermining Bitcoin's revolutionary promise by creating a 'CBDC by proxy' that extends fiat system surveillance and control while co-opting Bitcoin advocates through sponsorships and partnerships (Oct 29 | 5 min read).

• Expatriotic, a Bitcoin writter, explains how to install Fulcrum 2.0.0 as a private Electrum server on Ubuntu, enabling users to query their Bitcoin node for wallet balances and transaction histories while keeping financial data on their own hardware (Oct 29 | 4 min read).

• Lisa Tscherry, founder of SatoShe, connects behavioral understanding with Bitcoin education to empower women through accessible workshops, arguing that both psychology and money are fundamental to society's functioning while advocating for neutral, educational approaches over investment evangelism (Oct 29 | 5 min read).

• Ayanfe Fakunle, writing for Disruption Banking, analyzes how Nigeria's youth are abandoning the Naira for bitcoin and crypto due to economic instability, high inflation, currency devaluation, and limited banking access, driving Nigeria to become the world's 6th largest market in the ecosystem (Oct 29 | 3 min read).

• Alby, a lightning wallet provider, explores a novel trust-minimized multi-user NWC wallet architecture using Ark or Spark protocols that enables seamless programmable bitcoin payments while addressing mobile wallet limitations and reducing operator dependence through individual user keys and collaborative signing models (Oct 28 | 6 min read).

• Jon Helgi Egilsson, writing for Forbes, argues that Bitcoin's 17-year journey from rebellious technology to institutional acceptance by Wall Street banks represents creative destruction in action, but warns the revolution remains incomplete until individuals embrace self-custody and financial sovereignty over convenience (Oct 28 | 6 min read).

• Andy Savage, writing for Lightning News, argues that current AI models are bloated and centralized due to corporate abundance bias, proposing a distributed AI network powered by Lightning micropayments where users contribute spare compute cycles and earn bitcoin for processing tasks, creating sovereignty-preserving intelligence infrastructure (Oct 28 | 6 min read).

TOOLS & PROJECTS

• New on Geyser: D++ spreads bitcoin literacy through Mario Kart: Double Sats, a gaming experience that teaches Lightning Network usage at global meetups while players race and earn real bitcoin rewards.

• New on Geyser: GuateLibre, an independent Guatemalan association promoting Austrian School economics and Bitcoin maximalism, develops educational programs inspired by Plan B Network to teach monetary sovereignty and economic freedom through Bitcoin adoption across educational institutions and meetups.

• Keep Android Open is a campaign that mobilizes global resistance against Google's 2026 mandatory developer registration requirements that threaten sideloading, F-Droid, and Android's open platform promise through regulatory complaints and developer boycotts.

• Fold partners with Steak 'n Shake to offer customers $5 in bitcoin rewards through the Fold app when making purchases.

• FutureBit launches Solo Node, a $299 Bitcoin stratum solo server and ARM desktop computer featuring 8-core processor, up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, dual NVMe bays, and Apollo OS 2 for self-sovereign mining operations.

• Phoenix Wallet introduces full Taproot channel support delivering 20% on-chain fee reductions and enhanced privacy features for its users.

• Bull Bitcoin partners with Coinkite to integrate COLDCARD Q support into BULL Wallet for seamless cold storage purchases and secure PSBT spending without exposing private keys.

• Miniscript Studio is an online IDE powered by Rust Miniscript crate for creating and analyzing Bitcoin scripts with policy editors, Taproot support, and learning resources.

• Bitcoin Core devs gather in Frankfurt for their regular biannual meeting, discussing key technical improvements including cluster mempool, quantum resistance, package relay, and silent payments development progress.

• Nostr user discovers a Strike-Venmo integration feature allowing Bitcoin users to pay through Venmo with zero fees while remaining on a Bitcoin standard.

• Rabble, Nostr developer, prepares to launch short-form video Nostr app at WebSummit Lisbon, seeking beta testers while proposing NIP-71 updates for video metadata editing and a new way to sign video content to verify authenticity called ProofMode.

• Lightning-vulns is a repository that maintains a comprehensive Lightning Network vulnerability database tracking CVEs from 2019 to 2025, including critical channel funding attacks, dust limit exploits, and recent Eclair preimage extraction vulnerabilities.

• Maple AI launches anonymous accounts requiring no email, featuring unique account IDs, user-set passwords, and Bitcoin-only payments for enhanced privacy protection.

• Economía Bitcoin announces its second annual conference in Berlín, El Salvador, featuring four pillars of circular Bitcoin economies through community leadership, technology innovation, entrepreneurship development, and sustainable economic growth on November 22-23, 2025.

• Arkash by Super Testnet is a project that uses the Ark protocol as backend to recreate self-custodial ecash-like payment experience without requiring recipients to be online.

• Hodlbod, a Nostr developer, releases Flotilla 1.4.0 with experimental content posting features, chat room improvements including message editing, member lists, and customizable icons for enhanced user experience.

• Frigate, an experimental Electrum server developed by Sparrow Wallet's Craig Raw, releases version 1.2.0, introducing GPU acceleration for Silent Payments scanning, delivering over 10x performance improvement and making public Silent Payments servers practically viable.

• Leopoldo López, former mayor of Caracas and Venezuelan opposition leader in exile, announces Democratic Decentralized Resistance, an event scheduled to take place on November 12 in Berlin, Germany to promote open technology and digital freedom.

• OP_RETURN Attack Surface Demo showcases how Bitcoin's OP_RETURN feature transforms blockchain storage into a public gallery for arbitrary data, enabling instant content access through standard APIs and creating expanded attack surfaces compared to obfuscated storage methods.

• BitcoinLatte aims to connect Bitcoiners with Bitcoin-friendly coffee shops worldwide.

• Proton launches a Data Breach Observatory, revealing 794 verified breaches exposing 300M records in 2025, with retail sector and small businesses most targeted by cybercriminals trading stolen data on dark web.

• Nostrdm is a lightweight CLI application that enables end-to-end encrypted private messaging over the Nostr protocol without servers or phone numbers.

• Noderunners collects Bitcoin content including podcasts, videos, documentaries and tutorials for community learning and engagement.

• Breez launches an open-source MCP server integrating Lightning Network functionality through Breez SDK Spark implementation, enabling AI agents to manage bitcoin payments, invoices, and wallet operations via the FastMCP protocol.

• Btrust, a non-profit organization decentralizing Bitcoin development in Africa and the Global South, launches the Pull Partnership program to place talented developers with top global Bitcoin teams, overcoming visa barriers and fostering international collaboration.

• Bitcoin Postcards enables users to send physical memories using Lightning payments, with postcards printed and shipped from the US within two business days while maintaining privacy through automatic data deletion within 90 days.

• Hodlbod launches Replicatr, a daemon that automatically syncs Nostr user content across relays using negentropy and the outbox model for improved decentralized social media reliability.

• Aegis, now a cross-platform Nostr signer app, launches version 0.3 with local relay setup functionality across iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, and Windows.

• Fedi, the Bitcoin company building Chaumian e-cash solutions, launches multi-signature guardian feature enabling easy creation of federated Bitcoin e-cash mints through the G-bot chatbot interface.

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