🏦 Banks Still Need Permission

📈 $80K Gets Its Test

🛡️ Bisq Sounds The AI Alarm

TKay, in an article on Nostr, argues that Strategy's STRC preferred stock is not a novel financial invention but a centuries-old insurance model built on a bitcoin reserve, where buyers trade away BTC appreciation in exchange for yield and reduced volatility (May 5 | 7 min read).

Freddie Hiney, in an article for Forbes Africa, explores how Bitcoin circular economies in South African townships like Mossel Bay and Soweto are driving financial inclusion, empowering unbanked communities through grassroots BTC education, everyday payments, and access to global finance (May 4 | 16 min read).

Nullc, aka Greg Maxwell, a long-time Bitcoin developer, dismisses Hodlonaut's Citadel21 article 'The Lever' criticizing Bitcoin Core last week as AI-generated slop riddled with hallucinations, using his firsthand account of the Luke Jr BIP editor dispute to expose its factual errors and culture-war-driven misrepresentations (May 2 | 4 min read).

Semisol, in an article on Nostr, argues that decentralized moderation - combining user control, relay-level curation, and transparent third-party filtering - can combat spam, bots, and synthetic engagement on Nostr without enabling censorship (May 2 | 6 min read).

Checkonchain, a Bitcoin onchain analytics firm, argues that the 2026 bear market's $60k low marks a probable price-pain capitulation, with onchain data showing ~25% of the Realised Cap rotating to HODLers, signaling a bottom formation process already underway (May 1 | 41 min read).

Max Hillebrand, in a Nostr write-up, offers a structured reading guide to Murray Rothbard's major works, arguing that his self-ownership premise builds a uniquely rigorous libertarian system spanning economics, ethics, and history, best understood through a deliberate sequence of books (May 1 | 14 min read).

Reuters, in a special investigative report, reveals that Iran's largest exchange Nobitex was founded by two brothers from the elite Kharrazi family using an alternative surname, and has processed hundreds of millions in transactions linked to sanctioned entities including the IRGC and Iran's central bank (May 1 | 18 min read).

Alexander Blume, Founder and CEO of Two Prime, argues that bitcoin's true and lasting narrative is not digital gold or an inflation hedge, but a reflexive, high-volatility collateral asset that amplifies liquidity cycles and leads broader markets lower when financial conditions tighten (May 1 | 4 min read).

Glenn Cameron of Onramp argues that retail investors holding Strategy's STRC and similar 'Digital Credit' products would be better off owning Bitcoin directly alongside short-term US Treasuries, capturing more wealth with less counterparty risk and no hidden tax liability (Apr 30 | 101 min read).

Kirubai, writing for Lightning(dot)news, interviews Flowrate founder Dave Lund, who predicts corporate Bitcoin treasuries will soon compete on native Lightning yield rather than price targets, and explains how his suite of tools helps companies put their BTC to work without surrendering custody (Apr 30 | 5 min read).

Santosh V of Student of Bitcoin recaps a 12-week Indian Bitcoin accelerator where 9 teams competed for 0.1 BTC, building products spanning Bitcoin-UPI bridges, local hardware, EMI-based BTC access, Nostr identity, and self-custody tools to elevate India's presence on the global Bitcoin stage (Apr 24 | 2 min read).

The Bitcoin Evidence Base, a new AI-powered free research tool, lets users paste any Bitcoin claim and receive a fact-backed, peer-reviewed response with adjustable tone and multi-language support.

Galoy, a Bitcoin-native banking software firm, launches an expanded platform offering US banks and credit unions integrated BTC-backed lending, Lightning payments, custody, and compliance tools via a 'sidecar' system.

Hashbidder is an open-source CLI tool that automates bid management on Braiins' hashpower marketplace, helping Bitcoin miners using OCEAN Pool target and maintain specific hashrate levels.

Spiral unveils LDK Server, a tool built on its Lightning Development Kit that lets non-developers easily run Lightning Network nodes.

LND v21.0 will ship production taproot channel support, SQL payment migration, reorg protection for channel closes, and onion message forwarding with rate limiting.

LN-health a free open-source Python tool for Lightning Network node operators, provides seven diagnostic checks that score node health from 0-100 across sync, liquidity, and routing metrics.

Breez SDK Spark, an open-source development kit, releases version 0.13.1 adding stable USD-denominated balances, rotating deposit addresses, and Cash App as an on-ramp provider.

The Lightning Network BOLTs repository merges Simple Taproot Channels, enabling payment channels to use Taproot and MuSig2 cryptography for improved privacy and efficiency.

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki releases 'The Six Billion Dollar Man,' a Cannes-winning film about Julian Assange and US government persecution, via a Bitcoin-funded private watch party, bypassing traditional distributors.

Agentic AQUA, an open-source Model Context Protocol server and command-line tool, lets AI assistants like Claude manage Bitcoin and Liquid Network wallets using one unified seed.

Aeon, developer of the Ibis Bitcoin wallet, previews an upcoming release adding Spark Layer 2 support, multisig imports, silent payments, and message signing tools.