Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to issue #56 of the Bitcoin Breakdown, where we’re reminding plebs that every purchase of BTC below US$69k is on discount.

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🏆 FEATURE STORIES

• Michael Zhao of Grayscale releases a report explaining why the 2024 halving is different from past events, expecting its financial impact to be partially offset because of the transaction fees miners receive from Ordinals inscriptions and the improved market conditions following the US regulatory approval of Bitcoin ETFs (Feb 9 | 10 min read).

• Leon Wankum discusses for Bitcoin Magazine the comparative reliability of Bitcoin and real estate as value stores during times of conflict, emphasizing Bitcoin's portability, independence, resistance to confiscation, deflationary model, and increasing acceptance as superior attributes (Feb 12 | 6 min read).

• 0xjaypeg summarizes Bob Loukas’ latest video on Bitcoin (41:17 min watch) explaining where we may be in the cycle - Loukas makes the case for a left-translated (or shorter) cycle this time around (Feb 14 | 2 min read).

• Susie Violet Ward writing for Forbes explores how Bitcoin is revolutionizing the finance sector and looks at Fedimint and Cashu - projects that reveal Bitcoin's capacity to strengthen communities by equipping them with the tools to establish their own decentralized banks (Feb 14 | 4 min read).

• Jamie Crawley explores the revival of Satoshi-era Bitcoin's OP_CAT function, highlighting the growing enthusiasm and development efforts surrounding this once obsolete aspect of Bitcoin's original code, which could enable smart contract-like functionality and layer-2 innovations (Feb 14 | 7 min read).

• Gareth Grobler presents a comprehensive guide on understanding the design elements, evolution, and significance of the Bitcoin logo (Jan 30 | 9 min read).

• The Bitcoin Manual critiques Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions, suggesting they dilute the core essence of Bitcoin's decentralization and are being used for lucrative personal gains by some developers (Feb 5 | 8 min read).

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⚡️ QUICK BITS

• Ethiopian state electricity company signs power supply agreements with 21 Chinese bitcoin mining companies.

• BTC Market Cap surpasses $1T again on February 14, 2024.

• Bitcoin call options surge, with bets rising to between $60k and $80k, according to a QCP Capital report.

• Bitcoin ETFs are sucking up 10X more BTC per day than miners can produce.

• BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF surpasses 100k BTC under management.

• Tuur Demeester, who called the 2021 BTC all-time high, forecasts a BTC price range of $200k to $600k by 2026.

• Bitstake is an enhanced permissioned optimistic bridge based on BitVM with a 1-of-N trust model, leveraging proof of stake protocols to enable universal participation in bitcoin computing.

• Peter Thiel's Founders Fund bought $100m in Bitcoin when the price was below $30k.

• New Zealand Central Bank governor says Bitcoin cannot replace fiat currencies yet also poses a risk to the legacy financial infrastructure.

• European Court of Human Rights rules against weakening secure end-to-end encryption, thwarting EU's 'chat control' and mass surveillance plans.

• Fidelity takes the Bitcoin ETF fee war to Europe by slashing the management fee of a popular Bitcoin-based exchange-traded product in Europe from 75bps to 35bps.

• Satscrap launches AI-powered Bitcoin auctions for selling sats.

• Blockchain Association sends open letter signed by 80 former military and national security professionals with a background in digital assets criticizing Sen. Warren’s Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act.

• Craig Wright blasts experts who 'cannot verify' his lie that he is Satoshi Nakamoto.

• Craig Wright embarrassingly ‘forgets’ in court who he sent BTC to as Satoshi Nakamoto.

• Japanese regulator wants to ‘stop’ ‘illegal’ P2P transfers from fiat to exchanges.

• Kraken now requires UK users to dox their self-custodial wallets, referring to local regulations.

• Nsec.app is a non-custodial key storage with remote signing for Nostr apps.

• Holepunch launches Pear, a combined Peer-to-Peer runtime, development and deployment tool.

• Radentor compiles a handy Atomic Swaps Directory on Stacker News.

• The Lightning Keychain is a sleek, functional accessory by the Orange Manufacturing Group for accepting BTC tips entirely unplugged from the internet.

• Zaprite announces integration with Jack Dorsey’s Square’s SDK.

• Whynostr enables experimental collaborative document-editing over nostr.

• Bitcoin Magazine partners with Unchained on crypto custody education.

• Bitcoin ATMs see tightening regulatory landscape in California.

• Awesome-cashu is a curated, collaborative list of resources for getting started with Cashu.

• Brazilian firm Ramp rolls out ID free onboarding in attempt to add more clients.

• BitGo acquires fintech software provider, Brassica.

• Central Bank of the Philippines reveals plans to develop a CBDC without employing blockchain technology.

• Satcom is a collaborative layer browser extension powered by Nostr that integrates web content and online discussions.

• Michael Saylor says MicroStrategy is ‘now a Bitcoin development company, in the same way you would see a real estate or petroleum developer.’

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📽️ QUICK BITS MEDIA

• Umbrel releases short video introducing umbrelOS 1.0 — ‘The ultimate home cloud OS, built from the ground-up’ (0:57 min watch).

• Coinkite releases teaser video for its upcoming Coldcard Q device (1:11 min watch).

• Bitcoin Shooter releases another teaser trailer for his upcoming film ‘No More Inflation’ (1:52 min watch).

• Plan B Passport releases a brief FAQ on Second Passports for Bitcoiners (2:38 min watch).

• Matthew Kratter of Bitcoin University covers Nostr in ‘Unstoppable Money And Free Speech’ (5:36 min watch).

💥 MEME BREAK

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Until our next transmission,

Naiw

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