Greetings and salutations my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is the
Bitcoin podcast. It's Wednesday September 13th 2023. The time recording the
Bitcoin block height is 807450 and the value of one Bitcoin is still one
Bitcoin. Today's episode is the Bitcoin news roundup. I'm gonna cover the big
stories, run through some rapid-fire news, then zoom out and give you some
perspective. You can find all the links and accounts mentioned in this episode
via the article version of this show, linked in the show notes, or by going to
Bitcoinpodcast.net slash words. Earlier this week I released my latest Bitcoin
talk episode of the Bitcoin podcast with Preston Pish. You can watch the full
video interviews at Bitcoinpodcast.net on Twitter at Walker America or
youtube.com slash at Walker America. And of course you can always listen to these
episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Without further ado, let's get into the
Bitcoin news roundup.
Lightning strikes Coinbase. It looks like Coinbase is finally poised to add
Lightning Network integration. Here's a very high-level background. On July 26th
Jack Dorsey asked Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, why do you continue to ignore
Bitcoin and Lightning? What crypto is better money transmission protocol and
why? On August 1st Armstrong quote tweeted Jack saying, we're looking into how to
best add Lightning. It's non-trivial but I think worth doing. I'm all for payments
taking off in Bitcoin. Not sure why you think we're ignoring Bitcoin. We've
onboarded more people to Bitcoin than properly any other company in the world.
Let's build it together. On August 2nd Victor Boonen, protocol specialist at
Coinbase Cloud, quote tweeted Armstrong saying, friends I'm happy to say that I'm
leading up this effort. DM me if you'd like to grab some time to chat.
Lightning support at Coinbase. Particularly keen to get insights on
Lyft to add support. UX flows, open-source tooling, service providers and
edge cases. Thanks. Now fast forward to yesterday. Brian Armstrong tweeted, the
team did a great job digging into this and we've made the decision to integrate
Lightning. Bitcoin is the most important asset in crypto and we're excited to do
our part to enable faster cheaper Bitcoin transactions. We'll take some time to
integrate so please be patient. First and foremost this is great news. Coinbase is a
giant both in terms of Bitcoin and also crypto. For Brian Armstrong to publicly
state Bitcoin is the most important asset in crypto while simultaneously saying
Coinbase is moving forward with Lightning, a Bitcoin layer 2 that invalidates all
shitcoin use cases is a huge deal. That being said if you're a Bitcoiner you
may find the statement Bitcoin is the most important asset in crypto to be
absurd and based on the false premise that Bitcoin and crypto are even
comparable in any way. It's like saying breaking news water is wet. But while this
may be painfully obvious to anyone who has studied Bitcoin versus shitcoins
it's non-obvious to countless people who have been sucked in by the false
narratives promoted by shitcoin shows trying to pump their own bags. This
integration will expose countless crypto folks to the power of the Bitcoin
Lightning network and hopefully will be a reality check for many of the naysayers
who believe Bitcoin doesn't scale or Bitcoin doesn't work for payment.
Lightning isn't perfect, nothing is, but if you've used it you know that it feels
like magic. I'm looking forward to more people being given direct exposure to the
power of Lightning through this Coinbase integration. Now let's see how many blocks
tick by before this integration actually goes live.
The Emir of Qatar comes to El Salvador. Yesterday co-founder of El Zonte Capital,
Stacey Herbert, who worked to establish the Bitcoin office in El Salvador,
announced the Emir of Qatar has landed in El Salvador. El Salvador's president,
Naib Bukele, posted a video saying, El Emir de Qatar, Su Alteza, Tamín Bin Hamad
ha llegado a Nuestro país y con estilo. For humanolinguists, that means the
Emir of Qatar, His Highness, Tamín Bin Hamad has arrived in our country and with
style. According to the Embassy of Qatar in El Salvador, the visit of His Highness
the Emir to El Salvador will open new doors to promote commercial cooperation
between both countries. Like El Salvador, Qatar is a small but energy-rich
country but instead of hydroelectric and geothermal volcano power, Qatar has
massive natural gas reserves and production. As Bitcoin archive mused,
imagine Qatar adopting Bitcoin and also mining with flared gas. I think this is
a very interesting and very real possibility. Here are some numbers for
you. Qatar flares about 1 billion cubic meters of gas each year. For context, the
USA flares a little under 9 billion cubic meters of gas annually. But the USA has a
population of over 330 million compared to just under 3 million people in Qatar.
It would be pretty amazing to see all this wasted energy from flared gas put
to work mining Bitcoin. The timing is also quite fitting. After all, just over
two years ago on September 7th, 2021, El Salvador became the first nation state
to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. I'm sure these two leaders have much to
discuss but I have to imagine that Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining will be a key
topic of conversation. It seems we've truly entered the era of Bitcoin
diplomacy with El Salvador leading the charge. CPI Oh My. Today, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics announced that year over year CPI increase came in at 3.7%
for August 2023 from the BLS. The consumer price index for all urban
consumers rose 0.6% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis after increasing
0.2% in July. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today over the last
12 months, the all items index increased 3.7% before seasonal adjustment. The
index for gasoline was the largest contributor to the monthly all items
increase, accounting for over half of the increase. Also contributing to the
August monthly increase was continued advancement in the shelter index, which
rose for the 40th consecutive month. The energy index rose 5.6% in August as
all the major energy component indexes increased. The food index rose 0.2%
in August as it did in July. The index for food at home increased 0.2%
over the month while the index for food away from home rose 0.3% in August.
President Biden's social media team tweeted the following on behalf of our
aging leader. Core inflation has fallen 2.4% over the last three
months, the lowest level in over two years. But despite the drop, I know
families are feeling last month's increase in gas prices. That's why lowering
costs for families from the pump to the pharmacy remains my top priority. I'm
sorry that was a pretty bad imitation but I'll try better next time. So thanks
for the empty platitudes and bullshit metrics White House social media
intern. Honestly I don't want to spend too much time on CPI because it's just
exhausting. But I'll say this as a reminder. CPI is a year over year measure
based on an arbitrary and changing basket of goods, the politicians, bureaucrats,
central bankers, and fiat economists use to obfuscate the fact that our money is
broken and that they are stealing the value of your time and energy by slowly
destroying the purchasing power of your money through the silent tax of inflation.
In August 2023, there was a 3.7% year-over-year increase since August
2022. In August 2022, there was an 8.3% increase year-over-year since August
2021. In August 2021, there was a 5.3% year-over-year increase since August
2020 and so on and so forth. Inflation compounds and your purchasing power
continues to decline.
Paypal fat fingers. On September 10th, Mononaut revealed that someone had
massively overpaid for a Bitcoin transaction. How much did they overpay?
They paid $8,182,079 sats per V-Bike, equating to a total transaction fee
of $1,982,108,632 sats or around $510,000. This is overpaying by around
479,000 times. Most folks took the opportunity to have a good laugh at this
and many mempool memes were made. Others tried to figure out how the hell this
could have happened. Jameson Lopp theorized the transaction that paid nearly
$20BTC, $500,000 fee a few hours ago looks like an exchange or payment
processor with buggy software. They've received 60,000 plus transactions and
sent 60,000 plus transactions from the same address, had practice, and likely
calculated their change-up put incorrectly. Today, Mononaut announced a
revelation. The fat fingers belonged to PayPal, quoting Mononaut. I had initially
discounted that possibility, but after receiving a tip-off, I took another look.
The overpaid fee came from a hot wallet reusing the address BC1QR3.ZPW3,
which started operating in June of this year. The on-chain activity is consistent
with automated processing of fiat-denominated withdrawals and also
closely matches the behavior of a now inactive wallet BC1QHS.KX4N,
which is labeled on PayPal on OXT.ME. In fact, the transition from the old
wallet BC1QR3.ZPW3 is clearly visible on-chain via an intermediate
address BC1QLM.YVA. To make doubly sure, I verified by looking up some
of the actual PayPal withdrawals on-chain. Of course, it's possible this is run by a
third-party vendor, but as far as I know, PayPal manages their Bitcoin in-house. All
evidence now points to a software bug, like this as the cause of error. I really
feel for the developer who wrote that code. It's such an easy mistake to make,
and it should have been caught in review. More importantly, there should have been
monitoring and sanity checks in place to prevent actual loss of funds. In reality,
the system was apparently running completely unmonitored, since PayPal
didn't notice our halt withdrawals for almost 24 hours. Some other thoughts.
Single address wallets are terrible for privacy. It was trivial to unravel PayPal's
entire wallet structure and payment history from one known transaction.
Bitcoin software is complex and unforgiving. Big companies are way worse at it
than you might expect. Thanks to atmononautical on Twitter for this
investigation and analysis. It's a great reminder that there are no takebacks in
Bitcoin, so double-check those transactions before you send them. And of
course, thanks to PayPal for your generous donation to Bitcoin miners.
Now for some rapid-fire news. Via Bitcoin Archive, $1.5 trillion asset
manager Franklin Templeton has filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF. This adds to the list
of other spot Bitcoin ETF applications. BlackRock, $10 trillion AUM, Fidelity, $4.5
trillion, Invesco Galaxy, $1.5 trillion, Wisdomtree, $87 billion,
VanEck, $61 billion, GlobalX, $40 billion, ArchInvest, $14 billion, Bitwise, $1 billion,
Valkyrie, $1 billion, bringing the total AUM value to $17.7 trillion. Via
BTC Times, we're trying to turn Bitcoin into a global payment network. We're
still in the fax era of global payments and that's what we're attempting to
solve, says Lightspark CEO David Marcus via the Kibise letter. The debt-to-income
ratio for all home buyers in the US just hit 40% for the first time in history.
Via House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. If not open, permissionless, and private, like
cash, a CBDC is nothing more than a CCP style surveillance tool that can be
weaponized to oppress the American way of life. Via Francis at BullBitcoin,
BullBitcoin is the first and only exchange in Costa Rica to allow Bitcoin
colonists conversions using the National Fiat Mobile Payment System, allowing
instant low-cost access for millions of Costa Ricans and an off-ramp for
tourists and businesses. Via CoinTelegraph, Binance US is said to have cut a
third of its staff with President and Chief Brian Schroeder also leaving the
crypto exchange amid suits from the SEC and CFTC. Via the Kibise letter, banks in
the US just saw their biggest weekly deposit outflows since the collapse of
SVB. Total bank deposits on a seasonally adjusted basis plunged by 70 billion
last week alone. This puts bank deposits at their lowest level since May. At the
same time, usage of the Fed's emergency bank funding facility just hit a record
high of $108 billion. Via Riot and Pierre Rochard. In August, Riot provided
over 84,000 megawatt hours of energy to the market in Texas to reduce overall
demand, lower consumer prices, and stabilize the grid during a heat wave.
They received $7 million from ERCOT and $24 million for selling
pre-purchased energy to its energy provider TXU pursuant to its long-term
power purchase agreements. And to wrap it up, Ted Cruz tweets, I'm bullish on
Bitcoin. Texas is the natural home for the digital asset industry since Texans
love freedom and so do digital asset bulls. This innovation is already
benefiting Texas's economy and the grid.
To wrap up today's show, let's zoom out and I'm gonna do something a little
different and read you an excerpt from a piece I wrote a while ago called It's
Time to Wake Up. I think I'll read the entire thing on an upcoming Bitcoin
out loud episode, but I wanted to give you a taste of it today. Here it is.
Ordinary citizens pay the price for the avarice of those who wield true power.
This is not opinion or conjecture. This is historical fact proven time and time
again. History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. They will try to hide this
truth, to paper over the ever-widening cracks with the creation of more money.
They are not but counterfeiters in expensive suits, stealing the value of
your hard work, thieves of time and energy. All they can do is lie. All we must
do is tell the truth. Bitcoin is truth and the truth will set us free.
Noster is the open pulpit from which we will speak. Noster is how we make our
voices heard. And that's a wrap on this week's Bitcoin News Roundup. If you're a
Bitcoin-only company interested in sponsoring another fucking Bitcoin
podcast, head to BitcoinPodcast.net. You can find me on Noster by going to
primal.net slash Walker. If you want to follow the Bitcoin podcast on Twitter, go
to attickoinpodcast and at Walker America. You can also find the video version of
this podcast at youtube.com slash at Walker America and Walker America on
Rumble and X. Bitcoin is scarce. There will only ever be 21 million, but Bitcoin
podcasts are abundant. So thank you for spending your scarce time to listen to
another fucking Bitcoin podcast. Until next time, stay free.