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Join me today for Episode 1070 of Bitcoin And . . .


Topics for today:

• DOJ Axes Crypto Crime Division
• 10 Year Yield is Out of Control
• Dubia's Real Estate Idiocy
• The QRAMP BIP is Unworkable

#Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd 

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Articles:

https://www.theblock.co/post/349978/doj-shutters-crypto-crime-fighting-division-calls-unit-a-reckless-strategy-from-bidens-admin-fortune
https://cointelegraph.com/news/dubai-land-department-vara-agreement-real-estate-tokenization
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/04/08/the-all-important-u-s-10-year-yield-is-moving-in-the-wrong-direction-for-trump
https://decrypt.co/313854/tariffs-billionaire-investor-ray-dalio
https://www.theblock.co/post/349958/bernstein-bitcoin-resilience-tariffs

• https://www.cnbc.com/futures-and-commodities/
• https://dashboard.clarkmoody.com/
• https://mempool.space/
• https://value4value.info/
• https://fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI
• https://geyser.fund/project/thebitcoinandpodcast

https://atlas21.com/running-a-node-is-the-only-way-to-know-that-you-have-bitcoin/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/legal/pro-crypto-anti-privacy-will-trump-free-samourai
https://bitcoinnews.com/adoption/dormant-coins-qramp-quantum-resistant-fork/
https://atlas21.com/ftx-extends-kyc-deadline-2-5-billion-in-refunds-at-risk/
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/mempool-v3-2-0/
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[00:00:02] David Bennett:

Good morning. It is 08:37AM   Pacific Daylight Time. It is the April   2025.   This is episode ten seventy   of Bitcoin   and DOJ,   the Department of Justice, ladies and gentlemen,   has apparently   shuttered the crypto crime fighting division. We're gonna get into that one. We're also gonna talk about Dubai   and possibly, yes, you guessed it, real estate on the blockchain.   For god's sakes, please help us. Please let it stop. Make it stop.   Ten year yields. I told you about it. Apparently, it's very important also to James Van Stratten and Omkar Godbel.   They're gonna be writing their thoughts about the all important   ten year yield. Like I said, man, I told you about this yesterday.  

I was first.   I knew I knew it was gonna be important. And, yes, I have indeed been correct because they wrote a whole story about it. And then, of course, the Trump tariffs. But this time through the eyes   of guy named Ray Dalio.   And then Bernstein   analysts,   kind of impressed with the resilience of Bitcoin.   They've got some news on that one.   We're I I going to bring back up later in the show how important it is for you to run a node.   You need to run a node. You just it's not that hard. Honestly, it really isn't.   And, no, you're not gonna get in trouble for it like the guys over at free   well, at samurai.  

Lola Leitz has a piece about whether or not Trump is going to do something about the guys   from samurai. I mean, will they will he free them?   One can only hope. One one can only hope. And then there's been a lot of talk about this BIP,   this Bitcoin improvement proposal   about quantum resistance.   Yeah. We finally got somebody. A guy named Alex Larry is gonna write up a piece on that one. And then   the FTX   debacle continues.   It just continues.   And then we've got a small update from no bullshit Bitcoin. But first, let's go all the way back   to the DOJ   shuttering the crypto crime fighting division,   and it calls the unit a reckless strategy   from Biden's administration.  

Well, according to Fortune magazine, anyway, Naga   Avin Namayo is writing this one for the block dot c o. Todd Blanche,   US   deputy attorney general and Trump's defense lawyer in 02/2024,   issued a memo   directing the immediate shutdown   of the Department of Justice's   crypto litigation division as authorities adopt a friendlier roadmap for digital asset oversight, according to Fortune on Tuesday.   The four page notice   issued on Monday stressed   that crypto regulation was outside   of the Department of Justice remit.   Blanche wrote that the previous government under former president Joe Biden leveraged the Justice Department in a reckless strategy   to police the blockchain industry via enforcement action.  

The deputy AG told staffers to instead   prioritize investigating   individual bad actors   and criminals targeting crypto investors.   Biden's administration   formed   N CET   in the,   year 2021 as a collaborative legal strike team comprised   of United States Attorneys for the DOJ cybercrime and money laundering office.   NSAET or NCET   department worked on several landmark cases like Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash and the 100,000,000   Mango Markets exploit executed by Abraham Eisenberg.   Eisenberg was convicted on fraud charges last year while the US Treasury lifted   sanctions on Tornado Cash following the court ruling.  

Blanche's directive   comes as federal agencies change course   on crypto regulation. In February,   the Securities and Exchange Commission,   under acting chair Mark Ulleda,   announced plans to scale down the Watchdog's special crypto enforcement unit.   Jorge Tenerio, the SEC's top digital litigator,   was reassigned   to a department tasked with maintaining computer systems as part of the overhaul. Wow. It got bumped down to IT.   Did, bro. The move   signaled a new tune within agencies as Trump's return as the first pro crypto president promised more flexible oversight.   During his campaign trail, the Republican leader vowed to position The United States as a global crypto capital. And in March, Trump signed the executive order to establish a Bitcoin reserve, which I ain't seen jack shit done of since.  

Yeah.   Honestly, just   I hate to say it this way, shit or get off the pot with that thing. Okay? Let's move on over to Dubai.   Ezra Reguera from Cointelegraph   says, the Dubai government agencies are going to link real estate registry   with property   tokenization.   It sounds like houses and buildings on the blockchain to me. Let's find out.   Dubai's real estate and crypto regulatory   authorities   have signed a new agreement   aimed at expanding digital asset adoption in the real estate sector.   On April,   the Dubai Land Department   announced an agreement with the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.  

According to the announcement,   the agreement will link Dubai's real estate registry   with property tokenization   through a   governance system. The agreement aims to improve digital infrastructure and attract global investment by enhancing market liquidity and property management efficiency.   It also aims to support Dubai's broader economic strategy, which includes   the goal of doubling the city's gross domestic product   over the next decade.   The new development follows the DLD, the Department of Land Development,   their recent project pilot to convert real estate assets into blockchain based digital tokens.  

On March,   DLD announced the pilot phase of its real estate tokenization   project.   The launch made DLD the very first real estate registration entity in The United Arab Emirates to tokenize   property title deeds.   The DLD expects   the initiative to drive growth in real estate investment   aiming to reach a value of over $16,000,000,000   by 02/1933.   And Scott Teal, the cofounder and CEO of real world asset tokenization   platform,   TokenVest,   told CoinTelegraph that the new development   shows a clear message from the UAE government,   quote, in just three weeks,   Dubai has gone from pilot launch to strategic execution,   and the message is loud and clear. The future of real estate investment is on chain. Oh, God. Please make it stop. This is,   in fact, buildings on the blockchain.  

And I'm just gonna pause here just to remind everybody and their dog twice.   If it is a real world   asset,   the d like, let's say you've got a house, you got a property deed for the house, it's on file at the courthouse and, you know, it's your county seat, whatever county you live in, and we're talking about The United States here. And it's a good example.   Deeds to property are all over the place. They're in all kinds of countries. But in The United States, your deed is on file. Right?   That's kind of a paper token.   Right?  

But it's not going that deed doesn't give you shit.   If men with guns want to take your house,   that deed doesn't do you very much good.   Now if it's men with guns that are not sanctioned by the government, yeah, that deed is definitely gonna help. But if those men with guns are government entities or from government agencies,   that deed doesn't do you shit. And neither is this. This is a waste of time.   But let's continue. Thiel said that the two agencies are working hand in hand to create a smarter model that opens Dubai real estate market to a global pool of investors.   This isn't just another memorandum of understanding. It's a playbook   for real estate two point o. Oh, man.  

The executive urged investors across the globe to observe   what The UAE   is doing in terms of tokenization. Teal said, this is what the future of real estate looks like. No. It does not.   No. It doesn't. This is the same   tired ass crap.   Remember bananas on the blockchain? They're we're gonna, like, be able to prove that the bananas came from this particular, I don't know, region in, let's say, Central America.   No. It doesn't prove anything.   It's a real bananas and houses and buildings and cars if it's a if it exists in meat space.   Tokenizing it makes no sense.  

It's,   it's a fool's game and all it is here to do is to hype up   the other aspects of quote cryptocurrency   that gets people to give other people their actual money. And please, please, for the love of God, stop doing that.   The ten year yield   has risen above 4% again.   I talked about it yesterday. I think right now, it's at 4.22%.   And when I was talking to you yesterday, it was somewhere around 4.18.   So from yesterday to today, the yield on the ten year has gone up again.   Now the all important US Ten Year yield is moving   in the wrong direction   for Trump. And this is James Van Stratten and Amkar Godbold writing it for CoinDesk.com.  

Monday's trading session will go down as one of the most volatile since the COVID crash in March of twenty twenty.   Global markets   caught in the crossfire as The United States and China face off over tariffs and neither superpower shows any impulse to back down.   As equity markets teetered,   the volatility spilled into every single asset class. Bitcoin swung as much as 10%   intraday.   The real focus, however,   is on The United States Ten Year Treasury yield.   That is the so called   risk free interest rate, which the Trump administration   said it wants to lower as it looks to refinance   trillions of dollars of national debt.  

The yield dropped to 3.9%   all the way from 4.8%   late last week   after Trump bolstered trade tensions with sweeping import tariffs boosting demand for the Treasury notes.   Bond prices typically rise, sending yields lower   when Wall Street turns risk averse.   Unusually,   as the risk aversion increased on Monday,   yields turned higher,   jumping to 4.22%.   This spike was not confined   to The United States. The UK   experienced its sharpest rate jump since the Liz Truss era pension crisis in October of twenty twenty two, and yields rose globally,   signaling grower growing instability and diminishing confidence in sovereign debt and currencies.  

You mean, is it possible people are starting to get a freaking clue that when you are buying print or a debt that can just be printed out of thin air that maybe it's not a risk free asset?   Is it possible   that maybe other people are starting to look at US treasuries and UK   guilts and whatever the hell you wanna call the shit out of Germany. Is it possible that they're looking at that as toxic debt?   Well, I've been saying that for six months, but ole   s Hansen,   the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank,   pointed to the scale   of the move in long dated treasuries as a sign of something deeper potentially unfolding. Quote,   US treasuries suffered a massive   sell off yesterday   with long yields rising the most since the turbulence during the pandemic outbreak, a possible sign of large holders   of treasuries, such as foreign holders,   selling   and repatriating   their assets.  

The thirty year US Treasury benchmark   rose from lows near 4.3%   to as high as 4.65   yesterday,   while the ten year benchmark   lifted back to 4.17%   from a low near 3.85   the prior day.   While Hanson pointed fingers at foreign selling, especially China, which is said to have offloaded $50,000,000,000   in treasuries,   Jim Bianco,   president of Bianco Research, challenged that narrative.   No. Foreigners were not selling treasuries to punish The US, he wrote, pointing instead to a sharp rally in the dollar index, which climbed 2.2%   in just three days.  

Quote, if China   or other foreigners were selling treasuries,   they would have to convert those dollars to a foreign currency. Otherwise,   selling treasuries and leaving money in dollars in a US bank is pointless.   If they sold enough treasuries to swing yields, the subsequent selling of dollars would have driven down the dollar.   Instead, however,   it rallied more than usual.   This suggests   that foreign money was moving into The United States,   not away from it. The selling was more domestic   and more concerned about inflation.   Despite these conflicting views, unconfirmed reports about China's sale continues   to circulate.  

As of February,   China still held approximately $761,000,000,000   of US government debt,   the largest owner after the nation of Japan.   The narrative that the ten year and thirty year yields   surged on Chinese   is unconvincing   because most of the official Chinese investment in dollar denominated assets   are not any longer duration instruments, but   agency bonds, shorter term bills, and bank deposits.   There is a perception   that China can gain leverage in the trade war through its holding of US Treasury notes.   Not necessarily   true.  

As the economist and author of The Trade,   Conflict, and the Perilous Road Ahead for the World Economy,   Michael Pettis, has long argued China's holdings   of US Treasury bonds are directly linked to its current account surplus,   and it cannot weaponize these holdings against The United States.   It's no surprise that China has been tight lightening up its Treasury investments since 2013   with its current account surplus peaking during the February.   So   there is clearly some conflicting   ideologies   about which way and why. Well,   we know which way the yields are going. No matter what anybody does,   they cannot get these yields   down. And that's what Trump has been wanting to do. He's want he wants the yields on this ten year bond down so that he can go to Jerome Powell and say the Fed's gonna have to match. You're gonna have to lower your rates.  

And it's not working.   It's just not working.   And I'm sure that's frustrating to all these people. But   as far   as weaponizing   US debt against The United States by China,   Who knows? I honestly expect them to actually kinda do that.   But what, I mean, what breaks free?   See, that that's the whole thing.   The world is swimming, not just in their own debt, but in our debt.   Everybody holds US treasuries because   we somehow or another were so successful   at making the United States dollar the world's reserve currency   that the debt instrumentation   behind it came along for the ride.  

And now everybody's holding this paper going,   but they're just printing more.   See, it's just like us. The rest of the world is just like us. They print dollars,   and we say you gotta stop printing money because this is ridiculous.   On the outside, though, they're just print they just print debt, and it's just as bad.   It's probably worse. And when you see the collapse of the banks a couple of years ago, there was three or four of them that went down altogether over a weekend,   and it was because they were holding a shit ton of treasuries.   Because after COVID,   some rule changes occurred   where banks had to have treasuries on their books. They were sort of forced to buy this particular instrumentation.  

And then   and then   the face value of the bond started to collapse.   And all of a sudden, they didn't have the the backing   to be able to say that they've got enough to back the deposits in the bank.   This is a very this is a terrible situation, and those all those four banks basically just poof, went up in smoke, except for one of them didn't need to, but it was so bad. I guess   I guess the debacle was was so,   I don't know, so out of control   that I I believe the name of the the bank was silver,   Silvergate.   And they had everything that they needed to make every single depositor whole, and yet the FDIC   took over   like they took over all the other banks.  

And they just sold it all. It's just   the the debt instrumentation of The United States is not what I think many people think it is. I think it's a lot more toxic   than many people think it is.   I don't I like, it took me forever   in this space   to figure out what the hell a bond really was. And, honestly, I'm still learning   exactly what a treasury bond   actually is,   why it exists,   what is it used for,   and how is it used in manners of control.   And that is a huge nut to crack. Dude, that's just treasury bonds.   Think of all the other bullshit derivative crap.   If the instrumentation of debt in this world is out of control, but you know who's not out of control?  

Soap miner.   Soap miner is in control. He's in the circle p and he's selling you soap. You wanna get clean ladies and gentlemen?   You gotta get Soap miner's   all beef tallow soap.   It in depending on which one of the five flavors you choose, there's cedarwood, there's peppermint, there's lavender, there's pine tar, and then there's just straight   unscented,   un perfumed,   rough cut tallow soap. It has all of three ingredients,   % beef tallow,   lye, and distilled water.   So my wife, a couple of days ago, said to me,   I use one of those bars of soap. I use I go, which one? She goes, I just used the rough cut towel soap on my hands. I was just washing my hands. And I go, well, what'd you think? And she's like, she's now   she's in love with this soap. It makes her hands feel soft. It gets clean. It rinses clean. And you can buy   any one of the five bars of soap from soapminer.com.  

That's soapminer.com,   s 0 a p   miner Com. Go over there. Order his soap because he sells it for Bitcoin. If you don't sell it for Bitcoin,   you are not in the circle p. When you leave a note, he's got a little space on his order form at soapminer.com   where you can put in whatever you wanna put in and say, I heard it here on the circle p on the Bitcoin and podcast, and then maybe maybe maybe SoapMiner will cut me a few Satoshis for making him a sale.   Other people on Nostr are starting to talk about SoapMiner's soap. I am very happy   that I decided a long time ago to put SoapMiner   in the circle p. No. I did not ask his permission. I will only ever ask forgiveness. Again, that's soapminer.com.  

Go get your five ounce bars of soap. Do it now. Do it now. Make sure you tell him you heard it at the circle p.   And he doesn't tariff either because tariffs are just the tip of the iceberg   according to billionaire investor   Ray Dalio.   Vince Di Aquino is writing this one for decrypt.   Billionaire investor Ray Dalio   suggests that the past week's market meltdown triggered by president Trump's sweeping   tariff policy reveals more than just short term volatility   and a flight to safety.   Dalio,   who founded Bridgewater,   the world's second no. Act no. It's the world's largest hedge fund   by discretionary assets under management, whatever the hell that means, wrote Monday   that the world is witnessing a, quote, once in a lifetime   chaos that signals a breakdown of the global order.  

That's a pretty hefty charge there, Ray. Late Monday evening, Trump threatened   to raise the tariffs   on Chinese good by an additional   50%.   China's Ministry of Commerce responded, claiming that the country will resolutely take countermeasures   to protect its rights and interests.   Quote, while these tariff announcements are very important developments,   and we all know that president Trump caused them, most people are losing sight of the underlying circumstances that got him elected president   and brought these tariffs about, Dalio wrote.   He argues   that tariffs are merely symptoms   of five underlying forces reshaping the global order. One, rapidly mounting debt.  

Can you say   treasury bonds?   Domestic policies.   Three, a shift in how geopolitical power is wielded,   and four, acts of natures, and five, the impact of technological   innovation such as AI   on the world economy.   Debt has become   unsustainable because of the large imbalance between debtor borrowers   who owe too much debt and lender creditors who already hold too much, Dalio argued, citing the relationship between China and The United States.   While nascent crypto markets have increasingly moved in lockstep with US equities showing sensitivity   to macroeconomic   indicators such as inflation readings and central banking decisions on rate cuts.  

Bitcoin's dive below $75,000   level less than a day ago coupled with the broader market,   crypto market's rapid 7% contraction over the past weekend since, quote, Liberation Day,   point to what Dalio describes as a classic breakdown of the major monetary, political, and geopolitical orders   rather than simply a reaction to just trade policy.   Dalio argues   that the interconnectedness   of trade and capital flows   means that when the unsustainable   debt conditions and breakdown of international order materialize into concrete policy actions,   the resulting flight to safety affects all risk assets simultaneously.  

Meanwhile,   observers note that the rise in US Treasury yields   signals diminishing demand for government debt instrumentation   and opens up inflationary   expectations.   Still,   some divergence may be emerging.   Bitcoin has gained relative strength against the magnificent   seven tech stocks suggesting that in theory,   the asset can temporarily   decouple from traditional risk assets.   Matthew Siegel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, previously told Decrypt that while ten year treasury yields surged on Monday,   Bitcoin's reaction was notably subdued,   suggesting a potential decoupling from old macro sensitivities.  

And indeed, we saw that.   At the end of last week, we saw the basically,   a Black Friday event.   Major indices just tanked all over the place. Everything was down. Everything was red except for Bitcoin.   It took until Sunday   it took until Sunday afternoon   before the actual price of Bitcoin started to follow suit and tank, and I believe it was Rodolfo   Novak out of CoinKite that put a note on Noster that with a little laughing face that said,   recoupling   commencing or something like that. But still,   that forty eight hour, seventy two hour period   in which we were all dancing on equity markets graves because, hey, look at Bitcoin, it didn't do anywhere close to as bad as you guys did,   That represents a possibility in the future for other investors.  

Think about it.   And I don't I don't wanna use the the   I hate using the analogy of blowing up a bubble, but have you ever blown up a balloon?   Like, in the old days when when balloons actually, you know, were were kinda hard to blow up and you had to, like, kinda force air into it with your mouth and you had to blow it a couple of times to kinda and then you'd you'd have to take the the balloon back out and stretch it   to kinda relax the relax the rubber in the walls.   And then it was became easier to blow, but still the first few puffs   of getting air into that balloon were still really difficult. But once it hits a per a certain point,   it becomes way easier for air to flow into that balloon. Again, I I really hate using this term because bubbles and   balloons and whatever, but in either event, you get what I'm saying. And that's sort of what I'm seeing. I'm seeing, like, over a period of time, it's like the pressure release valve that that Bitcoin can be is being tested,   and air is being pumped into that thing   every single time we get these shocks to the system, but then it flows back out.  

But at one point or another, I expect   the rubber on that balloon to relax enough. Enough air will be pumped into it hard enough at one point or another that it will become a very relaxed environment,   and Bitcoin will start soaking up the   massive   amount   of whatever it is,   money,   debt,   derivatives.   Everything ends up being a situation where maybe we can just put it in maybe we can cash out of this and just put the money into Bitcoin.   And I think it's getting easier for that to happen. But, again, as always, we will have to see. But before we run numbers, let's do this one from the block and Adam James.   Bernstein   analysts   argue that Bitcoin's resilience   has been nothing but impressive   through the tariff troubles. These people are gonna echo what I'm just kinda talking about, but they'll probably use a different analogy.  

Though   US president Donald Trump's tariffs have wreaked havoc in both crypto and traditional markets in recent days and weeks,   Bitcoin's resilience has been nothing but impressive   according to Bernstein analysts.   Citing historical data,   the analyst noted   that the foremost cryptocurrency   used to see drawdowns of between 5070%   in previous periods of crisis such as COVID induced market panic,   rate shocks, etcetera.   The current price action, which is down 26%,   suggests demand for Bitcoin from more resilient capital they wrote in the notes sent to the block on   Tuesday.  

The analysts argue   that the Bitcoin price acting   or is acting as a leading indicator   of where risk is leaning does not detract from its long term outperformance   as a store of value in the digital realm. In our view,   Bitcoin on a time scale is probabilistic   gold, they wrote, adding that, quote, it trades as a higher volatility   and more liquid version of gold.   So there you   go. Even the Bernstein analysts are starting to see a trend.   And that's what I'm talking about when I say it's easier and easier to get money into. It's easier and easier for investors to look at Bitcoin as   a potential   at least a holding pattern.  

Instead of just going back into dollars,   maybe, just maybe, we start stacking some of this   whatever we got out here in equity markets and and financial legacy stuff, and we start shoving into Bitcoin. And as that balloon's   walls get a little bit weaker,   a little bit more I should say more relaxed, not exactly weak. You can shove more and more stuff in there faster and faster until all of a sudden you get   gotta hate doing it, and   inflated. You can you can easily inflate this thing. And and I've always kinda looked at Bitcoin as the potential   final resting place   as the escape hatch for all of the bullshit that we've done to ourselves   in this modern society.  

Let's run the numbers.   Futures and commodities, we've got some, I guess, a little bit of relaxation in the markets today. Oil is up one and a half percent,   up to $61.59   for West Texas Intermediate.   Brent Norsee is up only two thirds of a point to $64.64.   Natural gas,   two doll oh, no. 2.19%   of the downside,   and gasoline is up point 75%   to $2.03   per gallon.   Gold hitting back above 3,000 after a one and a half percent   gain.   We're looking at $3,017.60.   Silver is up 1.35%.   Platinum is up a point. Copper is down point 12%,   palladium is up a half.  

The biggest winner in ag today looks to be do do do do. Rough rice,   2% to the upside, biggest loser is chocolate, 2.7%   to the downside.   Live cattle, meanwhile, crawling sideways slightly in the red. Lean hogs,   point 64%   to the upside. Feeder cattle up a quarter.   Now,   wow, we're seeing some really   decent recovery in legacy markets. The Dow is up two and a half points,   back to 39,154.   S and P is up two and a half percent.   Nasdaq is up,   2.8.   Yeah. Wow. 2.8%.   S and P Mini is up 2.11%.   Now $78,370   for the price of Bitcoin gives us a measly, pathetic,   wimpy ass $1,500,000,000,000   of market cap. You can only get 25.9   ounces of shiny metal rocks with your one Bitcoin of which there are 19,848,266.53   of. And average fees per block are slightly higher up to 0.05   Bitcoin taken in fees on a per block basis.  

And there looks to be   six no. Seven.   Seven blocks.   High priority transactions are going for four. Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at three. I need to   pause here   and make a couple of statements about   this nonsense that I keep seeing, and I've been seeing it since I've been in Bitcoin,   which is 2015.   Okay?   It's this notion   that unless there are enough   full blocks   that Bitcoin's going to die,   and and and that   translates into nobody's using Bitcoin.   Okay. I've heard this 27 times,   maybe 30,   that there's not enough transactions. It's it's just gonna die.   Well, contrast that with all the times that Bitcoin was also going to die because there was too many transactions.  

The   67   times that Bitcoin was gonna die because there were the mempools were full and there's too many transactions and fee rates were high and blah blah blah.   Again,   people stop.   Those blocks are going to get mined   whether there's a transaction in them or not.   And second of all,   the gas station   analogy.   I love analogies.   Have you ever driven by a gas station and see not one person pumping gas?   Did you ever once think to yourself that that gas station is gonna die because when you happen to drive by, nobody was pumping gas and the entire   reason   for the for the existence of a gas station is for people to buy gas, and when you drive by it and nobody's buying gas, did you actually stop and go, wow. I wonder when they're going to take a bulldozer to that pathetic ass gas station because clearly,   clearly, nobody wants any ass.  

It's a pathetic argument,   and please don't buy into it. When you hear that crap, just, I don't know, continue your doomscrolling   to something else.   Because you know what? Who doesn't give a shit? The miners.   Dude, we hit an we hit, what was it? Not exahash,   a Zeta hash,   like, over the last few days. We are still at   913.7   exahashes per second. That is a massive amount of compute power.   There's no minor capitulation.   None.   The these guys were mining at 700 exahashes per second when we saw prices in the $60,000   range.  

Now we're in, like, the we're at $78.04   42,   and we've got 900   exahashes a hash rate. The miners are seeing something that the rest of these people squealing about no not enough transactions.   They see something different.   Why? And think about what they have.   They have the they have a world of infrastructure   that they have to buy,   maintain,   provide power to, go out, get power contracts, go do all the things, reach for stuff,   and yet they're not on Noster or Twitter bitching about the fact that there's not enough transactions to make Bitcoin viable.   You need to stop.  

I need to see everybody stop doing this, or we're gonna end up with a   Sunday, bloody Sunday, which was yesterday's episode of Bitcoin. And I got anonymous with a thousand   sats says, great episode.   Chill now one with,   555   sats says, it's all gone, bitches.   The timelines drown in flaky markets.   Return to where it all started.   Tired of the fake news lies? Learn how the orders were shaped.   Irish fighter meme coin rainbow end popped empty.   Derivatives of derivatives   scam your coins away.   He was searching for the truth, never asked to be the answer.   Your mind is the interface. Your will is the command. The strongest move is silence,   encrypted,   unseen,   unstoppable.  

Nice. Psyduck with five seventy eight says   Psyduck.   Pies with a hundred says thank you, sir. No thank you. And that is the weather report.   Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Running a node is the only way to know that you have Bitcoin,   says lightning network   co inventor. This is out of atlas21.com.   On April 5,   during a talk at the MIT Bitcoin Expo twenty twenty five,   Taj Dreyja, co inventor of the lightning network, addressed   several concerns   regarding the Bitcoin protocol,   particularly   highlighting the disparity between the assets market capitalization   and the low actual on chain usage. Oh, here we get to go. Yay.  

Dreyja stated, quote,   Bitcoin has a market cap of trillions of dollars.   But are people actually using it,   or are they using it the right way?   Throughout his presentation,   the Lightning Network co inventor reflected on the current state of the network pointing out that transaction volumes are low, oh god, and expressing concern over the lack of a competitive fee market, which is essential for the long term security of the protocol.   Dreyja also declared, quote,   Bitcoin   has value precisely because it works   even when it's illegal.  

If it only existed with government approval, it would be pointless, end quote.   However, many companies building on Bitcoin seem to overlook   this focusing   instead on regulatory compliance, Dreyja observed, highlighting the contrast between the ideals of open source development   and the corporate interests surrounding the industry.   The key concept that emerged from Dreyja's talk is the principle, not your keys,   not your coins.   Dreyja made it clear that in his view,   Bitcoin held on exchanges or through ETFs   as well as nodes run via cloud services do not constitute actual ownership   of the asset.  

He also warned   that scenarios similar to executive order sixty one zero two could happen again,   potentially leading to the confiscation of Bitcoin held with third parties.   He stressed that there is nothing in Bitcoin itself that would prevent issuance of an order similar to executive order sixty one zero two. In his opinion,   if a government were to demand users Bitcoin from exchanges,   the exchanges   would hand them over without resistance.   For Dreyja,   Bitcoin's main advantages   over gold lie in its easier self custody   and more discreet handling.  

Running a node   is the only way to know that you have Bitcoin. If you're not running a node, you're trusting someone else to do it for you.   The Lightning Network co inventor   concluded   by mentioning uTreeXO,   a project aimed at making it easier for anyone to run a node.   UTreeXO's   goal is to reduce the amount of data needed, speeding up the initial block download,   I e the process of initial synchronization with the network. And honestly, ladies and gentlemen, it does not take all that much to run a node. It also doesn't take all that much to just walk away for three days   during the IDB or the initial block or initial   IBD, the initial block download.  

I've had to do it twice. It's   it doesn't hurt. I I I don't get it.   I mean, the only thing that I get is, like, well, why would I wanna run a node? It costs, like, a couple of hundred bucks to set one up with enough memory to, you know, get you to last for, like, a couple of years. I get that part.   But the having to wait for the initial block download is,   again, is kinda juvenile.   But I'm I'm not saying anything bad about UTRIXO.   I think this is good. And I I think that the ability to spin up a node   and be able to within, say,   thirty minutes, maybe even fifteen,   have enough of the initial block download   that you can be confident   that you've got at least a thousand blocks.  

And the way I won't get into the way Bitcoin works because I'm hoping that most of you kinda know that   the block before,   like, the the the last block mined,   its hash   depends on the hashes of the blocks before   plus all of the transactions,   the hashes of all the separate transactions   along with the block hash before.   It it it's like a chain of hashes.   And it's not very likely that if you've got a thousand blocks in your node   that somebody's gonna be able to break that. So I think that it's you'd be able to make you know, go ahead and say, I I this is my Bitcoin.   I'm I've, like, you know, got my cold card reading on Specter Wallet that's running on my node, and I've got all the gear. I've got the I've got the Electrum stuff set up. I've got my own Bitcoin node. It's completely self sovereign.  

With a thousand blocks, I think you're safe. And then that way, in the background,   the entirety of the blockchain just continues to roll and roll and roll. Now I think UTRIXO   actually wants to take that down to the point where you're not even carrying the entire blockchain.   I kind of advise against that,   especially considering that in the future,   the the rate of storage and the cost of that memory storage is going to decrease at a far faster rate than the amount of blocks are going to   the the amount of blocks   or the amount of blocks are gonna cause a memory size where you   need a whole bunch of memory really quick. I think it's gonna be inverse. It's gonna be cheaper and cheaper and cheaper to hold the entirety of the blockchain for Bitcoin, and I think people should actually   endeavor to do that. But I think if you can spin up a node and start learning how to use it and it's not all that difficult   within fifteen minutes to thirty minutes, I think that that would be better.  

But I would hope that   the entirety of the blockchain in the background   continues to load, but in a way where you don't have to wait for it all before you can start using your node.   Now   onto pro crypto anti privacy. Will Trump free samurai?   Lol elites asks this question,   Bitcoin magazine.   Last month,   the treasury lifted sanctions on Tornado Cash.   In response, many rekindled their calls for the Trump administration to drop the charges against Keanu Rodriguez   and William Lonergan   Hill, the developers of SamuraWallet, who are currently being prosecuted   in the Southern District Of New York.  

What many appear to have missed is that the treasury's sanctions reversal for Tornado Cash   also revealed the treasury's stance on privacy services,   and it is not looking good.   Tornado Cash's removal from the OFAX SDN   list followed a lawsuit by Tornado Cash users in a Texas district court case that has become known as the Van Loon v versus US Department of the Treasury   in which it was argued   that the sanctioning   of the software was unlawful   and violated the right to free speech.   The lawsuit went to appeal in the fifth circuit   where three judges ruled that sanctioning a software like Tornado Cash was indeed unlawful   as OFAC's SDN list was reversed for businesses, foreign nationals, and property of which Tornado Cash is neither.  

The fifth circuit, in turn, directed the Texas district court to grant the plaintiff's motion for a partial summary judgment,   which would constitute a binding court order   that software like Tornado Cash cannot be sanctioned by the US government under current sanction laws.   Now the treasury is fighting back in attempts to avert the judgment that would strip the agency of its powers to sanction immutable privacy software by arguing   that a judgment is not needed because tornado cash has been removed from the OFAC list. But without the judgment,   the agency could continue to sanction software that works just like Tornado Cash and even resanction Tornado Cash itself.  

The sanctions reversal on Tornado Cash has little to do with the prosecution of samurai wallet developers   as neither are charged with sanctions evasion.   But the criminal prosecution   of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm is extremely important to their case as it may set precedent for the prosecution of Rodriguez and Hill who have been charged with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and   conspiracy to commit money laundering.   Both Tornado Cash and Samura Wallet   are purely non custodial software projects   which have long been understood to be exempt from falling under anti money laundering frameworks   usually applied to banks.  

If Storm is found guilty in July, the government would have a much easier time to successfully prosecute   the two Bitcoin developers as well.   While many were hopeful that the new administration would put an end to the former administration's   witch hunt on cryptocurrency developers, it seems that Trump's treasury   is just as unfavorable   to the department or to the development of privacy code.   As Coin Center pointed out at the end of last year, a pro crypto administration   does not necessarily   equal   a pro privacy and pro financial freedom administration.   It seems that we are now witnessing what this means.  

While lawsuits are being dropped against crypto casinos like Coinbase and Uniswap,   Privacy software developers like Rodriguez and Hill   continue to face threats of decades in jail.   The treasury appears to reason   these prosecutions   with their hard line stance against terrorist financing and cybercrime   as the agency wrote in the announcement of Tornado Cash's sanctions reversal.   Quote,   treasurer   remains committed to using our authorities to expose and disrupt the ability of malicious cyber actors   to profit from their criminal activities through the exploitation   of digital assets and the digital asset ecosystem.  

In what appears to be a first, the Treasury also issued a warning for users of privacy services   stating that, quote,   US persons should exercise caution before engaging in transactions that present such risks.   In an email   addressing the reversal of sanctions against Tornado Cash,   Blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis appears to echo the treasury's sentiment,   writing that, quote, organizations with exposure to mixing addresses   should seek legal counsel   on their responses and obligations   to OFAC, end quote. And I   expected nothing else   other than Chainalysis   to get on their knees and service their masters.  

That place is   I won't get into it. They've been a pain in everybody's ass for years now.   The messaging does seem clear, however.   While it is not officially   illegal   to use or deal with mixing services, the treasury appears to attempt to keep all options open to pursue charges   against persons involved with privacy services in the future.   As I have argued in several Bitcoin magazine print articles, this stance should not be a surprise and is rather an immediate   consequence   of integrating digital assets into US regulatory   frameworks. The more important Bitcoin becomes for the government, the more important it will be to root out any conduct deemed illicit   or criminal.  

Treasury secretary Scott Bessant   has now argued as much in Tornado Cash's sanctions reversal   stating that, quote, securing the digital asset industry from abuse by, you guessed it, North Korea   and other illicit actors is essential   to establishing US leadership in ensuring that the American people benefit from financial innovation and inclusion, end quote.   While North Korea allegedly   relies on cryptocurrency financing for its operations,   the overall share of illicit funds within the cryptocurrency space is minimal,   placed at a mere 0.14%   of all on chain transactions by Chainalysis   itself.  

At the same time,   the reasons for people to use privacy services are numerous.   As every transaction is visible on chain, privacy services help people keep their transaction histories   and net worth private, which in turn protects their physical security.   As Jameson Lop regularly highlights in his physical Bitcoin attacks repository,   having information   about your Bitcoin public may result in violent home invasions,   kidnappings, and in some cases, even murder.   The government's continued crackdown on privacy services does not seem proportionate   to eliminating   0.14%   of illicit actors,   but it seems that the Trump administration is in no hurry to do the right thing to protect Americans   and hashtag free samurai.  

So there's little elites' take on   what's going on and and and I I can't disagree.   And the fact is is that this shit spreads   because we keep thinking,   oh, well, it's his privacy in in crypto.   Right? It's privacy in in in this particular space. No. It's like anything. Even   Tor developers   could   potentially   have a problem.   Anybody who is involved in software   that somehow or another protects your privacy as a citizen of the world, much less your particular government and region,   they're all at risk   because of this crap.   That's why it's important that we need to free samurai.  

And it's also important   to understand that   I'm,   well,   I'm about to read this from Alex Larry out of Bitcoin news,   and there may very well be a couple of spots where I just   call straight up bullshit or possibly start laughing my ass off. So just be prepared because dormant coins are targeted in a proposed quantum resistant Bitcoin fork.   Talked a little bit about this in a couple of a couple of shows ago,   but Alex has a full write up of it. So let's see. Let's revisit   this Bitcoin improvement proposal   and see how honestly, I think it's more fear mongering than anything else, but   we you gotta know what's going on out there, guys.  

Bitcoin   could be about to get a major change.   A new proposal suggests some coins   might have to be destroyed   to protect the entirety of the network from future quantum computer attacks.   Let me pause already.   When this sentence   right here, Bitcoin could be about to get a major change,   No. It's not going to get not only is it probably never going this bit never going to see the light of day,   it certainly isn't going to happen quickly.   It's not about to get anything.   If if anything,   it'll be years,   years before anything like this is even proposed because this is an attack on the man in the coma, and you'll figure out why here in a little bit. And if you didn't know, man in the coma, there's the here's the theory.   I have Bitcoin.  

I get hit by a truck.   Right? All my Bitcoin's held by private keys,   and I'm the only one that knows where I put those keys. I get hit by a truck. I get put in a coma for forty years.   I wake up,   and I'm a trillionaire,   and I still remember how to go access my private keys.   However,   one of two things could have happened.   Even if I have my private keys,   if the network has changed consensus rules to the greatest degree possible that my private keys do not work anymore,   I'm fucking hosed.   I can't get I cannot even with my private keys, I cannot get my Bitcoin.   And two,   the only thing that could possibly happen to the network is a series of soft forks which don't change consensus rules, in which case my private keys   work just fine.  

And I'm happy because I'm a trillionaire, and my my hospital bill is, like, a hundred and 57 Satoshis or something like that.   Alright. So that's the man in the coma theory.   Now you're gonna figure out why this particular thing   is the first   kind of attack where the private keys would probably not work or you just don't have your coins.   Because the proposal is called Q ramp, short for Quantum Resistant Address Mitigation Protocol.   It was put forward by Bitcoin developer, Augustin Cruz, and has caused quite the stir in the Bitcoin community.   Bitcoin security is based on the ECDSA   cryptographic   system,   Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm,   that's strong against regular computers but might be broken by quantum computers in time.  

Quantum computers use a new kind of processing procedure based on the laws of quantum physics. Instead of working with just ones and zeros like regular computers, they use qubits   which can exist in multiple states   all at once.   And that means they can do specific   complex calculations   much faster.   Cruise and other developers worry that one day a powerful quantum machine could crack Bitcoin security and allow hackers to steal coins from vulnerable wallets.   Cruz said,   quote, addresses that have exposed their public keys may now be vulnerable if sufficiently powerful quantum computers emerge.   Cruz's Q Ramp proposal is a major update,   A hard fork, not a soft fork, but a hard fork to the Bitcoin network.  

A hard fork is a big software change that creates brand new rules for Bitcoin and essentially creates a brand new blockchain.   Older versions of the software would no longer be compatible.   If Qramp were to be adopted,   all Bitcoin users will get a deadline.   Before that deadline, they would need to move their Bitcoin from old vulnerable addresses to quantum resistant ones.   If they don't do this in time, their coins will become unspendable.   The idea is to force users to secure their funds before quantum computers become a real threat.   It provides rightful owners with a clear, non negotiable opportunity to secure their funds,   Cruz wrote in an email.  

But there's a big catch.   Any coins that remain in vulnerable wallets after the deadline would effectively be burned.   This means the total supply of Bitcoin could shrink, possibly by millions of coins.   The intense debate over this idea has really brought out the person or, sorry, the passion in Bitcoin supporters.   Some see it as a smart way to safeguard   the digital asset's future.   They believe acting early before a quantum disaster strikes is better than waiting. It's better to burn off some of those Bitcoin now than risk losing them all, one supporter put it.   Others think the plan goes too far. They say it undermines two of Bitcoin's core principles,   decentralization   and immutability.  

That means no one can change Bitcoin's history or rules.   Many people are worried about the coins locked away in dormant wallets,   those belong to users who've lost their private keys, passed away, or simply haven't accessed their funds in years.   Among those is Bitcoin creator,   Satoshi Nakamoto.   Analysts estimate that Satoshi himself has over 1,000,000 coins that hasn't been touched in over fifteen years. If those people don't migrate their coins,   they will be lost forever.   However, history shows that not all dormant coins are forgotten or lost.   There have been instances of old wallets activating after ten years. Quote, I admire the effort, one Reddit user wrote, but this will still leave everyone who doesn't migrate,   coins vulnerable,   including Satoshi's coins.  

Qramp is just a draft proposal at this stage. It doesn't even have a BIP number, and the Bitcoin community hasn't reached consensus to move forward.   Implementing Qramp would require a lot of work from users. Wallet developers, miners, node operators, and infrastructure providers, and everyone in the ecosystem would have to agree   and update their software to support the change.   Microsoft's recent announcement   of the Majorana   one   quantum chip which could scale up a million cubits might be why this discussion is happening now.   Current machines don't pose an immediate threat, but the technology is advancing.  

Other ideas have been proposed to protect Bitcoin from quantum threats, and such an idea from BTQ   is a new kind of blockchain verification   method using coarse grained boson   sampling,   but that would require replacing existing mining hardware   with quantum compatible   systems.   Okay. That's why it's an attack on the man in the coma.   If you're in a coma   and Q Ramp gets initiated   and you're still in a coma by the deadline, your coins get burned, which means you didn't have access to the coins in the first place. This is a terrible idea.   Everything about this is a terrible idea.  

In fact, that last statement that I said where you didn't really have possession of your own coins anyway, you didn't really have that much control that you thought,   all that does is erode trust in the system, and it should.   It absolutely   should. This Q ramp thing is fucking ridiculous.   Okay. So you'll be going, okay. Well, what's your what's your answer? A brand new blockchain.   We've seen this before. Check this out. And I and I don't mean to replace I don't really mean this to replace Bitcoin. I'm I'm just conjecturing here.   It's not outside the realm of possibility that the danger of a quantum,   situation or a quantum,   what they call it, quantum catastrophe,   that's that's not impossible.  

And ECDSA   could very well be vulnerable, which means all of the wallet addresses that have ever been, you know if that gets cracked,   then a lot of crap is gonna be vulnerable. But it's not a, it's not just Bitcoin.   Quantum computers means cracking nuclear codes,   all bank security access,   and for some reason, people think they're gonna go after Bitcoin first. I kinda doubt it. You got way bigger problems with quantum quantum computer than just or quantum computing rather than just Bitcoin having a problem.   Right? So   here's here and I don't think this is a viable solution, but it's like a it's a different way of thinking about this.  

Throughout the ages   of or the ages of Bitcoin for so we're talking sixteen years,   there have been multiple forks. And I'm gonna point at one in particular, the Bitcoin Cash Fork.   There was right it was it was the culmination   of the war   of block size, the also known as the block size war. Right?   So what happened was that anybody that held Bitcoin in any address   had the same exact amount of Bitcoin on the new fork, the Bitcoin core or the, the Bitcoin Cash Fork.   Now what did I do with my coins? I traded them directly for Bitcoin.   That's   the the first chance that I got control of my Bitcoin cash, I immediately liquidated that shit directly into Bitcoin. I didn't even stop at cash. I just went straight into Bitcoin.  

Alright? But I didn't have to.   I did it because I didn't like what what Roger Ver was doing, and I wanted to make sure that that I held that I that I was not responsible for for having any value in that chain whatsoever,   and I wasn't the only one. However, let's say we do this again.   We fork this chain.   There's a snapshot that's taken on a particular day, and everybody knows what's gonna happen. A snapshot of who owns what or what rather not who, but what addresses have what Bitcoin.   The new fork   is all the quantum resistance that you would ever need just dripping   with quantum resistance.  

Alright? It's gonna be fine.   And then   we don't sell those coins. We just don't. Let's say let's say we just don't.   It's just   a backup.   Right?   If if   a quantum attack actually happens,   we have the choice to migrate to that chain, but we don't have to move the coins from the original chain to anywhere.   That's the problem that I'm seeing with this entire idea, this Qramp idea.   The I don't think it's necessary.   If we could just have a, like, almost like a mirror   universe   of what's going on on the Bitcoin chain that that is updated   live   on the other quantum resistant chain. I think that that would actually work.  

But who's gonna mine it?   Who's gonna run a node for   it? There so even that idea has its own problems because people would actually have to invest real world assets to be able to functionally run that chain.   But I do not think forcing people to move their coins by a certain date is anywhere close   to coming into line with Bitcoin's ethos. It's just it's just not.   Alright. So   we'll move on because FTX has extended once again the KYC deadline   and $2,500,000,000   in refunds are at risk.   The failed exchange initially required users to complete verification by March third of twenty twenty five.   And recognizing the scale of this issue, the administrators   have extended that deadline to 06/01/2025.  

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are one of the nearly 400,000   former FTX customers, you have until June 1   to do your know your customer stuff and they are going to force it. If you're gonna if they're gonna give you your money back, you're gonna be handing over your driver's license. So just be aware, June 1 is the new deadline.   And then mempool version 3.2,   stratum jobs, UTXO bubble charts, address poisoning   detection, and more.   So, mempool is a fully featured open source mempool   visualizer   explorer and API service.   A live instance is running at mempool.space,   m e m p 0 0 l Space. I use it all the time, and it can also be self hosted on a wide variety of your own hardware which I also do I have my start nine has its own instance of mempool and that's what I use when I'm sending transactions   right so the new features in mempool include support for v3 transactions   anchor outputs, UTXO bubble chart, dataminer tags, runestone tags,   package broadcast, stratum job visualizations, Taproot multisig labels,   transaction and PSBT previews, and address poisoning detection warnings.  

So,   the new UTXO   bubble chart   users will find a new bubble chart on the address page   providing visual insights into unspent transaction outputs   Data miner tags and tags to identify runestone messages and inscriptions are there. The package broadcast feature is there for sending transaction packages,   stratum job data visualizations for a better understanding of mining job details. Jesus, I'm gonna have to go back and look at this new mempool thing because I didn't see any of this when I was setting up the show.   Taproot multisig   labels,   to identify   multisignature   transactions using Taproot,   and this is the this is the reason I'm bringing this to you. We talked yesterday about address poisoning.  

Well, mempool   has already answered with address poisoning detection.   Address poisoning detection helps identify and mitigate risks associated   with address   misuse.   So go check out mempool.space.   That's mempool.space   version three is   underway.   And I'm assuming that that that means it's live right now. I haven't haven't seen anything that said that it's not. So I'm gonna go check that out. You should go check that out, and I will see you on the other side.   This has been Bitcoin,   and and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon.   Have a great day.