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Join me today for Episode 1089 of Bitcoin And . . . 


Topics for today:

• SDNY Withheld Evidence in Samourai Case
• Coordinated Round of Bitcoin Mining FUD
• Florida Decides to be Poor
• OP_RETURN Limit Will be Lifted

#Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd 

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Articles:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/legal/sdny-withholding-of-evidence-undermines-charges-against-samourai-wallet
https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs95et3gwnq67tryypclx3enl6qmztj74whfjzrffcrnczlfdmatzq830lzv
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-core-unilaterally-remove-controversial-op-return-limit
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/05/06/florida-withdraws-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-bills-from-consideration

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https://x.com/DSBatten/status/1919764778106405089
https://decrypt.co/318045/uk-rules-out-national-crypto-reserve
https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-stablecoin-bill-loses-democratic-support-trump-corruption-concerns
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/wasabi-wallet-v2-6-0/

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It is 09:09AM   Pacific Daylight Time. It is the May   2025.   This is episode ten eighty nine   of Bitcoin, and we got some weird stuff going on with the Southern District of New York Federal Court and the samurai   case along with tornado cash.   It's,   seems that there's been some evidence that was withheld   that led up to the indictment of   the fellows behind Tornado Cash and Samurai Wallet.   Let's just start off today with Lola Leads   because she's got she's been keeping tabs on this pretty much   more than anyone else. She has the best coverage of what's going on. So here's Lola Leads writing for Bitcoin Magazine.   S d n a or excuse me. S d n y,   withholding of evidence   undermines charges against Samura1 Wallet.  

This morning,   a letter filed by the defense of Samura1 Wallet developers,   Keon Rodriguez   and William Longer Lin Hill,   revealed that the Southern District Of New York   had suppressed   exculpatory   evidence in the criminal case.   According to the filing,   the prosecution had consulted   Thin Sen   prior to the indictment of the developers on the viability   of bringing unlicensed   money transmission charges against a noncustodial   service.   Quote,   a mixer like samurai that does not take custody   of the cryptocurrency   by processing the private keys   would strongly suggest that samurai   is not acting   as a money services   business or   SMSB.  

FinCEN   directly told the prosecutors according to the filing.   In internal communications,   prosecutors stated that they may bring charges based on the functional control of the code,   likely referring to Samurais control over the user interface   in Samurais Wallet's CoinJoin server.   The prosecution stated that such an argument, quote, has never been addressed in the guidance,   acknowledging that it could,   quote, be a difficult argument to make, end quote.   The communications   between FinCEN   and SDNY   were revealed following a so called Brady request   ordering the government   to hand over any evidence that may exonerate the developers of the charges.  

The government   is required to hand exculpatory evidence over to the defense   two weeks after filing its indictment   at the latest.   The late disclosure of such highly relevant materials   may now have misled the court, the letter alleges,   affecting both the bail requirements placed on the developers   as well as the judge's inclination to deny the filing   of a motion to dismiss.   The defense is now seeking a hearing to determine potential remedies to SDNY's   conduct, including the dismissal of the charges. Quote,   it is hard to imagine   a more clear example of regulation by prosecution   than what we have here, the defense states referring   to the recent Blanche memo, quote,   the relevant regulator telling the prosecutors   that samurai wallet was not,   I repeat, not a money transmitter   under the same public guidance that mister Rodriguez and mister Hill relied on to guide their conduct   and the prosecutors   going ahead   and indicting them anyway for operating an unlicensed   money services business,   end quote.  

FinCEN's stance on noncustodial   service providers shared with SDNY   echoes its 2019   guidance, which stated that, quote, a cryptocurrency   wallet provider   is to be classified   as a money transmitter   if, quote,   the host has total   independent control over the value,   although it is not   or rather,   although it is contractually   obligated to access the value only on instructions   from the owner, end quote.   That means they have control over the funds, guys,   but they have to be told what to do with it by the owner of said funds. Otherwise, they could be well, it it would be, generally speaking, theft or   misfeasance or malfeasance.  

Anyway,   advocacy groups and legal scholars alike have long argued that the prosecution of samurai wallet developers as well as the prosecution of Tornado Cash developer or developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov   constitute   a clear violation of FinCEN guidance.   While Samurais Brady request was successful,   a similar request made by Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm   attempting to compel the government to disclose any materials received from OFAC and FinCEN   not already produced, including any substantive communications with those agencies,   was denied   last year as the government argued that FinCEN   is not part of the prosecutorial   team on the case.  

As Storm points out on Twitter, he was arrested the same day.   Samurai Wallet prosecutors consulted FinCEN   on the viability of unlicensed money transmission charges, making it appear as though   SDNY had additionally been aware of the stretch of its charges for the entirety of Storm's prosecution.   Quote,   FinCEN   explicitly   informed SDNY   prosecutors   that samurai wallet's   noncustodial   design did not require money transmitter licensing yet.   The Department of Justice indicted the developers regardless.   Bitcoin Policy Institute's head of policy, Jack   Shapiro, tells Bitcoin Magazine, quote, this prosecution   exemplifies regulation   by criminal indictment directly defying   deputy attorney general Blanche's directive   and undermining the Trump administration's   crypto policies, end quote. Further, quote, Brady violation   writes anti money laundering expert, JW Verret, on Twitter.  

The case should be tossed on that alone,   much less the new DOJ memo effectively ordering SDNY   to drop the case.   The fact   that prosecutors attempted to withhold this information from the defense is a serious ethical violation   and may end up getting the case tossed,   Verit tells Bitcoin Magazine.   That is   if   the DOJ doesn't drop it altogether, given the main justice has effectively ordered the cases like this to be dropped.   As we've said,   the DOJ's   unlicensed   money transmission   prosecutions are straight up counter to the rule of law.   Today,   we got further confirmation that the prosecution understood   that it was contradicting   long standing regulatory guidance but brought the charges   anyway.  

It follows   that if they were not money transmitters   under FinCEN's guidance, the defense states in their letter,   then they could not possibly   be prosecuted for not having a license   and not implementing   anti money laundering controls,   alluding that the case against samurai wallet developers should be thrown out altogether.   Alright. So that's the article.   And   I I think Lola should have gone   a a a lot more heavy   on the prosecutorial   team, and they're   absolutely at this point, it's malfeasance.   It's not misfeasance.   They didn't accidentally do it. They were told   that there's no basis for the charges against   well, in this case, the samurai wallet developers.  

It has implications   for Tornado Cash, but this is expressly   about the samurai wallet case.   They straight up knew   that they were filing   bad charges against them, and they did it anyway.   Against FinCEN's   guidance, that's a financial center   or financial criminal enforcement network or whatever,   they're they're the guys that are going to hand down guidance to people like the DOJ or the SDNY   prosecutorial teams and say,   there you don't have a case.   And that's what they told them. You do not have a case, and they filed it anyway.   So what what does this look like? What   who do you remember   that wasted the court's time?  

His name is Craig Wright.   And it wasn't just the court. It was several courts to the point that he is, I think he's straight up barred from suing in any court in any country in the world at this point because his malfeasance   in withholding evidence   and straight up falsifying evidence,   straight up plagiarism, completely   guided the court and misdirected the court, and that means the judge.   That's Craig Wright.   We know what a scam   bastard that dude is.   This is the Southern District Of New York Prosecutorial Team   doing almost exactly the same thing.  

They just wanted to get their way, and they lied, and they cheated, and they stole   to do   it, which means the judge looks like a fool.   Judges,   from my experience,   don't like to be made to look like a fool,   In my opinion, and it is only my opinion,   the prosecutorial   team of samurai wallet needs to be debarred. Every single one of them needs to lose their law license,   barred from practicing law ever again, at least in the state of New York.   The Department of Justice at the federal level should bar them, the entire prosecutorial   team against samurai wallet and hopefully tornado cash barred from ever practicing   any amount of law inside the borders of The United States for the rest of their natural born lives.  

They've destroyed lives.   They've stolen   time from people.   These guys could have been out on bail   at a lot you know, if they are out well, I'm not sure if they are they I don't know. Not even sure if they are out on bail. I think they're actually   in jail   because they couldn't afford the bail or bail was never set because   I don't know why except for the fact that whatever the judge's reason   for the bail stuff   is going to be directly related   to these charges, which now   well, they don't appear to be anything.   They are, in fact,   baseless charges.  

And this is the kind of shit that   countries get into   where they where you have entire teams of people that were born in that country that are supposed to serve that actual country   just completely   disregarding   the country that they live in. The the the these are be these are beyond anti patriots.   These are straight up enemies of the state.   Keep your fingers crossed because this is so bad   that I don't see I don't see how   I don't see how this court does anything but dismiss the charges.   Now whatever court, and I can't remember who, it's probably Southern District Of New York as well, whoever's handling tornado cash, they're gonna have to bail out.   If they don't, I don't see any way forward for them either given the fact that   that this directly impacts the Tornado Cash thing as well as samurai wallet.  

So I really do appreciate,   what Lolita said about that, except that she's got   I think she's got one more thing to say here that actually she, she does this on Noster. She's got a note here that she posted up this morning at about 6AM my time,   and it says that the state of Indiana   has just dismissed   an unlicensed   money services business and money laundering charges   against Aurum Exchange   operator   Maximiliano   Pilip   Pilipus, I think is how you pronounce it, because he could not be held liable   for a crime that he didn't know he committed   due to a lack   of FinCEN guidance.  

I am no lawyer, but SDNY should finally do the right thing and dismiss charges against Samura Wallet and Tornado Cash given that FinCEN   has acknowledged that its guidance does not address the functional control arguments made against the developers   just like Maximiliano,   neither Estab or Samurai Wallet nor Tornado Cash could have known   that they may have made themselves criminally liable for a charge that prosecutors appear   to have completely pulled out of their asses.   Yeah. See, when when I was in high school and we were playing   playing drinking games, we called those Insta rules.  

Yeah.   So even the state at the state level, Indiana's like, we're we're we're we're dropping all charges against this shit. Probably because they read they they figured out that FinCEN that this FinCEN guidance that was basically ignored   by all prosecutorial   teams of samurai wallet,   tornado cash, and Arum Exchange,   at least the guys at the Arum Exchange, they were like, oh, holy shit, because they probably did not know what FinCEN actually said because this is at the state level, and they immediately dropped charges.   So even Indiana is signaling this what   we we were screwed.  

We did not have the correct information.   We were completely misguided. We've wasted everybody's time. All charges dropped.   I suspect that by the end of this week, we will see   either all charges against samurai wallet dropped and tornado cash starts that that case starts signaling that they may drop   or both cases get dropped this week. That's that's I'm gonna make that prediction.   Keep your fingers crossed. Keep those guys in your prayers. Maybe we can get out of this one. But   we're not probably gonna be able to get out of the op return limit debacle. Yeah. I I'm gonna have to. I I I gotta do it because an announcement seems to have been made. Martin Young, Cointelegraph   says Bitcoin Core   to unilaterally   remove controversial op return limit.  

This was written nine hours ago, by the way. Bitcoin Core developers   have decided to remove a limit on transaction data in the next network upgrade,   enabling more data to be included in a more efficient way. Quote,   Bitcoin Core's next release will,   by default,   relay and mine transactions   whose op return outputs exceed   80 bytes,   and allow any number of these outputs.   Read the announcement on GitHub by Bitcoin developer Greg Sanders on May.   That was yesterday.   The long standing limit was originally a gentle signal that block space should be used sparingly for nonpayment   proof of publication data and apparently has outlived its utility.  

The proposal,   PR32359,   was created by Bitcoin pioneer   Peter Todd at the request of Chaincode Labs. Now this is another piece of news, so let's pause.   Somebody, and I can't remember who, dug it up.   It showed a screenshot on Stacker News,   nonetheless. Stacker dot news is a great place to go, but I didn't even realize that Peter Todd posted over to Stacker.news.   Somebody was bitching and moaning about the op return debacle thing. And Peter Todd and was specifically was bitching about Peter Todd doing it. Peter Todd wrote back and said, no. I was requested to make this pull request by somebody else.   I've I have seen the screenshot, but nobody has come up with the actual link to that Stacker News,   page. So I I can't verify that he actually did that shit himself. And even, you know, even if I mean, I I don't even know if it's if it's really Peter Todd over there on Stacker.news,   but it appears,   as of right now,   that this was not Peter Todd's idea.  

This does not remove him from blame, by the way.   He did it at the behest of somebody who we don't know   request.   Although, now it appears that it may be Chaincode   Labs.   Jesus. See,   sometimes you just get handed a bag of crap, but you still gotta report on it. Off return is a special type of Bitcoin transaction output that allows   storing small amounts of data on the blockchain, and it was popularized during the ordinals inscription craze of early twenty twenty four. Yeah. Well, last year.   Unlike regular transaction outputs, off return outputs are not spendable   and don't bloat unspent transaction outputs.  

The original limit is no longer effective   as people found out ways to get around it, such as using fake output addresses, which are actually worse for the network,   while some mining services   were already ignoring the limit, said Sanders, quote,   large   data inscriptions are happening regardless   and can be done in more or less abusive ways. The cap merely channels them into more opaque forms   that cause damage to the network, end quote.   Benefits of removing the limit include include a cleaner UTXO set or database of spendable outputs,   more consistent behavior across the network, and better alignment with how Bitcoin is actually being used, he added.  

Three possible paths were considered.   One, keeping the cap. Two, raising the cap. And three, removing the cap, which was ultimately decided upon after earning broad,   though not perhaps unanimous   support.   Quote, many users find   this to be an undesirable change for a number of reasons, said Bitcoin or Samson Moe on Twitter on May.   He added that users can refuse to upgrade and stay on two 29   or run another implementation altogether of the network.   Critics said that the proposal was introduced without a proper consensus process.   I   think one thing is pretty clear. There is no consensus   at the moment on this op return issue, said ten thirty one fund managing partner, Marty Bent.  

Some   also expressed concerns about deprioritizing   Bitcoin's financial utility and raised questions about undisclosed conflicts of interest.   Jesus, hold on, he's got a screenshot of of God God forbid Bitcoin Twitter here hold on,   MoonSetter says   children's book version,   yes, it's still garbage no, removing garbage bins does not make garbage disappear   yes, garbage is less harmful in the bin no, you can't force people to use the garbage bin   yes, you can try shaming people into using the garbage bin   and then Jonathan Silverblood comes back to say, fun analogy   I think opporturn is a sensible   say I think it meant meant to say way, but it's spelled say, to store some types of transactional metadata,   but 10 kilobytes per output is kind of insane.  

Imagine that. A b cache are not wanting to fill up them blocks. Okay. So, well, whatever.   Is is the problem here with more data on the blockchain?   I'm I'm going to probably give an unpopular opinion.   No.   I don't think so.   We went through this with ordinals and inscriptions. No. It doesn't make that shit okay either. I'm just saying   we're still here.   We're we we survived the ordinals and inscriptions thing.   In a very real   way, the removal of the op return cap   in that sense,   given that particular context,   makes a sort of sense.   Where I have a problem with is the way this was   shoved   through Bitcoin Core,   the way that it got into Bitcoin Core in the first place, and the fact that anybody who it seems okay. I'm gonna say it seems   that anybody who had anything   that even remotely approached a dissenting view   of this basically got, well, banned from the GitHub repository for, for Bitcoin on   everything about this everything about this is kinda bad, except for the fact that I I don't think this is really about whether or not op return   cap limit is removed or not. It's the way that this shit was handled.  

This feels very, very different.   Now   when Marty Bent said,   I think one thing is pretty clear. There's no consensus   at the moment on this opportune issue.   The argument against that is that this is not a consensus rule. I tend to agree, but I don't think Marty Bent was actually saying that it was a consensus on a consensus rule.   He's using I think he was using the word consensus as in, we don't have widespread agreement on this at all. It's a it seems to be a very small group of people shoving this shit through,   and the way it was introduced   is shady   AF.  

I mean and I like Peter Todd. Don't get me wrong.   I actually like the guy. I've talked to him about cave diving before   and how scary it would have to be to be diving in caves with a bunch of scuba gear on and you're underwater in caves. What the hell happens if you get lost?   Yeah. I've talked to the guy before.   I like him.   I don't know what he's doing.   This is see, this is what's so odd for me,   is that this doesn't this sounds out of bounds for what the way that that I   have come to know Peter Todd. And if I mean,   I've is I didn't wasn't talking to him back in Zcash days, but if you didn't know,   Peter Todd was one of the guys that launched Zcash.  

He was part of the key ceremony is what they called it.   He I remember him being really pissed off at the Zcash developers a few years after they had had opened that chain up. And he said, are you telling me   that I drove all the way across Canada   with a laptop   wrapped in aluminum foil so that I could perform my duties as as one of the key signers in the key ceremony for nothing?   He was really angry about it.   Because at the time, Zcash was like you know, had some pretty interesting privacy about it.   But there's been nothing that I've ever seen of Peter Todd doing that seemed arbitrary.   And I gotta tell you, man,   without totally being a fly on the wall and not being able to see very much of of of anything other than what's presented on social media, in the GitHub stuff, in Stacker News,   this doesn't sound like him   at all. So, and, no, I'm not suggesting that he's under duress. I'm just saying this just doesn't sound like him. And this is one of the reasons why   this whole thing just gives me the willies,   but   there's, a, there's two things here.  

There's nothing I can do about it, and that's okay. And b or two,   this isn't going to break Bitcoin   because that one of the facts of the case is is that people are getting around   the limit   of how much arbitrary   BS data you can shove into a into a block via transactions.   It doesn't matter.   We're not dead.   Every roughly every ten minutes, a block ticks over. If there's transactions that are valid, given consensus rules inside that block well,   well, the transactions are mined and then put into the well, the transactions are validated and then put into a mined block. I so that a little fake. But I'm just saying   people were getting around this anyway.  

People were doing this anyway. We were getting arbitrary data into the blocks. Anyway, we're not dead.   The for me, the only thing of any importance whatsoever is how this was handled.   And just because it wasn't a consensus rule per se does not mean   that something like this should not have been, like, I don't know, discussed   heavily   with all the stakeholders   of Bitcoin instead of just saying we're the developers. And if you're not a developer, then you have no business telling us what to do. I think that that's a really shitty attitude.   So let's move on because we have other things to do. We've got Florida   deciding to pull the gun out of their holster   and shoot themselves in the head because they are withdrawing   their strategic Bitcoin reserve bills, both of them from consideration.  

Jamie Crowley writing for CoinDesk.   Florida has indeed withdrawn two bills related to the creation of a state level strategic Bitcoin reserve.   House bill four eighty seven and senate bill five fifty have been indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration according to the state senate website.   The two bills   were both filed in February and sought to allow the investment of public funds into Bitcoin.   That's all you need to know about that one.   So, yeah, it's kind of a bad news day.   Although, let's keep our fingers crossed for the for the samurai thing. The only bad news is the fact that they've lost times   the time of their lives that they'll never be able to get back because of the greed and and absolute   malfeasance   of the SDNY   prosecutorial team.  

So that's the bad news part of it, but maybe we'll we'll we'll have some some silver lining on the other side of it. But, yeah, Florida, this is kind of a surprise.   And, you know, they joined, like, other dipshit states like Arizona and Oklahoma. I mean, they're all making they're all making pretty   pretty big mistakes   because none of these bills   say you have to.   It just opens up a mechanism that you can   invest state funds into Bitcoin.   So   the whole   thing about getting the of of having these things either   vetoed   or pulled from consideration   It kinda doesn't make sense because it's like this can be this is essentially just a freebie.  

This just opens a a way.   It doesn't   designate that you have to. So I think Florida is making   yet another mistake along with a whole bunch of the other states that are doing the same thing, but   we have numbers to run.   CNBC futures and commodities oil actually getting a lift today for some reason or another, and I I don't really know why. But West Texas Intermediate is up almost four points back up to $59.41   a barrel. Brent Norsey is up three and and two thirds of a point.   Natural gas is down two points to $3.49   per thousand, and gasoline   is up two and a third   to $2.07   a gallon. Gold having a little rally here. 2.7%   to the upside,   $34.12   and 4 dimes.  

Silver up 2.61%.   Platinum is up three and a third. Copper is up 1.7.   Palladium is up 4%.   Ag,   looking pretty mixed today. Biggest winner is chocolate,   I guess, erasing its losses from yesterday.   Four points to the upside.   Biggest loser looks to be   soybeans. Wow. Down point 79%.   America loves their soybeans because it's all soy. Anyway, live cattle   is up point 13%.   Lean hogs down, oh, one and a half. Feeder cattle up a quarter.   But the equity markets, your legacy equity markets are not having the best day ever.   Well, they're not having the best day, although   it's it's been worse.  

Dow is down a half point. S and P down a half point. Nasdaq down three quarters of a point. S and P Mini down a third.   So I'm trying I wanna figure out why it is that oil's rallying. Hold on for a sec. Let me go over here and see if I can get any kind of news whatsoever.   No.   No. There's absolutely no reason in the world   that oil should be going up. So I guess somebody's just making some long bets there. Alright. So   price of Bitcoin, 90 4 thousand 6 20. That is a $1,880,000,000,000   market cap. We can get 27.7   ounces of shiny metal rocks with their one Bitcoin of which there are 19,860,838   and third of an average fees per block remain low   at 0.04   BTC   taken in fees on a per block basis.  

It looks to be about oh, let's see. One, two, three,   seven blocks carrying 13,000   unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear.   High priority rates get you in at 6 Satoshis.   Low priority gets you in at four, and hash power is interesting   today.   The one week moving average is 901   exahashes.   However,   if I zoom into this graph here on mempool dot space   and I take it right to the edge,   the hash rate   and it's   not a direct indicator. It's just the from the clues given by the blockchain is the best number that we have. We are back over a petahash.   1,024   exahashes   at this time.  

The moving average, which I think is beyond one week, is 869   exahashes per second. And like I said, the one week moving average is actually 901.   So there's   still   no minor capitulation   other than   the selling off of Riot of its 463   Bitcoin that it mined last month. Other than that, I'm not really seeing any changes in the mining landscape.   By the way, we are about to get a pretty hefty,   difficulty adjustment,   7.67%   to the upside   coming April   because blocks seem to be coming in at   nine point four minutes a piece.   So there you go. From Johnny e Cash, yesterday's   episode of Bitcoin and I got anonymous with 2,000 SAT says,   Tether as the central bank of all shit.  

Yet all these younger kids hate, quote, dumbass boomers, but they are doing the same freaking thing. After the idiots,   Bitcoiners in parentheses,   ruin a pristine asset,   they will cry like bitches.   Hey, young people. Get your dick out of your hand. Freaking stupid is as stupid does.   Lather, rinse, repeat. Chill now with 666   sats.   Run river ten eighty eight echo signals. Shadow central banks arise on debt.   Funding Tether AI integration,   wallets drained in AI fairy tales, ushering the dystopian Disneyland   espionage ghost protocol engaged.   Bloodshot eyes soft focus into the abyss, orb scanning optical device cascades, shitcoin data, mining infidelities,   nullifying   originality claims, gateway unlocked.  

Just another day in Sector 4, looking for a friend for the end of the world in transmission.   Psyduck with 595   says   Psyduck. Turkey with 500 says nothing. Yodel with 444   says nothing, and god's death ends us. 237.   Thank you, sir. No thank you. That's the weather report.   Welcome to part two of the news you can use   FUD.   Yes.   Starting out second part of the show with FUD.   There was a report on Bitcoin mining that I talked about a couple of weeks ago.   It seems that it's been picked back up. It's complete BS. It's talking about it was that one where where   they were saying that miners that turn on in Texas   cause,   I don't know, coal fired power plants in Tennessee to to switch on, which   pollutes the air of people in, I don't know, New York state, then they die of particulate matter. It's complete BS.  

Apparently, it's been picked back up, and it's been run it's been making its rounds this morning.   There are   major   and several   media outlets that are reporting on the exact same thing. In my opinion, this is coordinated.   Now I saw this because there's a gentleman by the name of Daniel Batten who writes about Bitcoin and energy over on, god forbid, yes, I know, Twitter, but still good guy.   And I've been seeing him combat this crap   since last night.   He can like, this is why I I kept seeing this thing come out because I'm following him on Twitter. I look and I see that he's like, he keeps making these replies to these different media outlets and it's all about the exact same thing.   So I ask him, quote,   Daniel,   this is the third report on Bitcoin mining being bad that I've seen this morning.  

Feels like another coordinated FUD push from the media. Do you get this feeling as well, or is it just me?   So Daniel writes back and he says, yes.   The Guardian did a hit piece a couple of days ago, and it's now been copy pasted around the various media outlets   who have more lax fact checking.   What do I mean by this? Well,   I'm I've I've got,   I've got I kept seeing the same thing from The Nation.   Like, on Twitter, they would put out, like, The Nation as a media outlet would put out something that sounds like this. It says, Texas is the national epicenter of Bitcoin mining. There is an estimated 40 crypto mines in Texas, which together consume enough electricity to power 800,000   homes   with at Texas Observer.  

And then another one from the nation says, quote, how long are all these communities throughout Texas going to tolerate this, end quote. Texas has more crypto mines than the rest of The US combined,   writes Candace Bernd   in partnership with at Texas Observer.   Okay. Well, that's all fine and good, but here's the Texas Observer, and this is   their tweet.   In our magazine from Candace Bernd,   Texas is the national epicenter of Bitcoin mining. Approximately forty minutees are operating in the state together consuming   about 3,200   megawatts,   which is enough to power 800,000   homes.  

And then there there's another one from the nation, and then we get this one, Seneca   Lake Guardian.   Bitcoin mining is spreading across the country like a cancer   harming communities.   Whether it's direct or indirect,   you are being impacted by this industry all to make a very few people,   rich   people, even richer.   I triple e spectrum   is Bitcoin mining worth the environmental cost, and they lift it for their image in this tweet. They lift   the bullshit   map directly out of the bullshit   publication   that was saying   if mines turn on in Texas, it causes Nashville to start burning coal, which kills people in, I don't know, freaking Ottawa, whatever.   It's it was it was completely debunked   the minute it came out.  

And yet they're using the map here. Now who's I triple e spectrum?   I triple e   is like the international   electrical engineers   exposition or something like that. It's like those are the guys that give all the, the, like, category five cable that you use for Ethernet.   That's an I triple e standard.   This is all about electrical engineering. Right?   There's, like, there's many, many standards like I triple e double float point compliancy   in error correction and calculations.   That's a thing.   Are you double float double float point compliant?   This is I, Tripoli, and even these guys are coming out with crap.  

Is there anything else here? I think wait a minute. Wait a minute.   Nope. That yeah. That that's it. Obviously, we are I, Tripoli, Texas Observer,   the this whatever   rag that that I had said. So I, Triple E, Seneca Lake Guardian,   The Nation, and Texas Observer   all throwing stuff out within hours of each other, and it's the exact same thing based on already debunked information.   So be aware   that this is coming again. We always go through these cycles where all of a sudden, national media   gets a hold of something like a dog with a bone, and they won't let it go.   Do not believe these people   at all because they're all lying to you.  

Okay. So The UK Secretary Of State   has ruled out a national crypto reserve, quote,   not the plan for us.   Decrypt.c0   written by Stephen Graves.   The UK's economic secretary   of the treasury   has poured cold water on the idea of the country launching a national crypto reserve. And speaking at the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit in London,   Emma Reynolds MP   said that following the US government's lead in stockpiling Bitcoin is not the plan for us. Quote, we don't think that's appropriate for our market,   Reynolds   said. We understand   that's what   The US is going for, but that's not the plan for us. Yeah. Oh my god. You keep saying that for us for us for us. In other areas, The UK is looking to align with The US, Reynolds said, noting that we think it's really important to have collaboration and cooperation,   whatever the hell that means. It's I mean, this is just like she's like saying nothing. It's like she's opening her mouth and literally saying nothing.  

She pointed to recent meetings   between The UK's Chancellor Of The Exchequer and US Treasury secretary Scott DeSant and the establishment of a, quote, senior official level working group between The UK and The US. Sounds like a reason to have very expensive dinners and wear very expensive clothes. That's what it sounds like. The regulatory forum will meet in June to discuss cooperation on digital assets, she said, noting that The US has undergone a big change from the previous administration and its stance on crypto under the new administration.   While a UK digital asset reserve is off the cards   I don't know what that means. Do you mean off the table?  

I've never heard off the cards before.   Anyway, the country is looking at the potential of issuing sovereign debt through using distributed ledger technologies,   Reynolds said. Oh my god.   Adding that the procurement process is underway,   and the government hopes to appoint a supplier by lates a supplier of what   if the issuing Sovereign Debt   using distributed Ledger Technologies   and the government hopes to appoint a supplier by late summer. Does anybody have any idea what miss Reynolds is talking about?   A supplier of what?   Sovereign debt?  

You already have a supplier.   This is Bank of England.   Looking to the other side of The Atlantic,   The UK isn't looking to exactly duplicate the bespoke regime of digital assets   established under the EU's markets and crypto assets legislation,   quote, we've decided   not to go down that particular road, she explained,   pointing out that The UK's legislative tradition is, quote, much less like that of the EU   in that we are looking at outcomes.   The UK's position   is that digital asset regulation should take place, quote, within the regulatory perimeter   that traditional   financial services firm operates.  

Essentially, we're saying   same risk, same regulatory approach, end quote.   Reynolds conceded   that some areas of crypto are beyond the ability of governments to regulate with Bitcoin's fully decentralized   nature posing   a particular challenge. Quote, there's only so much the government can do in that regard. We understand that some of this stuff is a little bit amorphous   and the decentralized   stuff is particularly   difficult. So they're telegraphing   that there's no way they can wrap their little minds around it, so they're just not going to deal with it. They're going to close their eyes and they're gonna bury their head in the sand and they're gonna hope and pray that it goes away.   It's   not. It's not going away. And if you   if you literally have an economic secretary of the treasury say shit like,   where was it?  

Hold on.   The country is looking at the potential of issuing sovereign debt through using   distributed ledger technologies,   and the government hopes to appoint a supplier by late summer. I suppose she means a supplier of distributed ledger technologies, but   that it's either that or or sovereign debt, and we know that's Bank of England.   If you have   somebody like that in your government that can barely even speak,   this is a dangerous thing. She's not saying anything. All she keeps saying is it's not for us, and we've decided not to go down that particular road.   It it   why is she even at the Digital Summit asset   if they're not gonna go down this particular road?  

If they're I mean, and the whole fact that they're going to try to issue sovereign debt   through using distributed ledger technologies, that sounds like stablecoin.   Of course, they wanna do it with a digital   probably a digital pound or something like that. They I don't think they've actually said that, but I'll   bet they're thinking it. I'm just saying that you're late to the game.   You're gonna get your ass handed to you because The UK, even if you're not part of the Eurozone,   you're going to be under attack too   through the weaponization of US debt   delivered on the weaponry platform that is called Tether.  

I'm sorry, but you're toast.   I I wish it wasn't true for the people   of Europe because the people of Europe are lovely.   Right?   Because the citizens pretty much the citizenry around the world, no matter what country they're from, are lovely people.   It's the people that are either in power,   seek power,   or somehow, like warlords and drug gangs, have some kind of illegitimate   power. Those are the assholes.   Those are the ones that should be rounded up and thrown into the sea.   The rest of the people, like, just wanna go fishing and have babies and fall in love and, I don't know, drink a Coke, you know, that's not laced with poison. I   we're we're really simple.  

We really don't wanna get into each other's crap all the time.   But the centralized   idea of governance is just it's a bad way to go.   And maybe Jack Mallers can help us out because   finally,   as of today,   they are announcing   strike lending.   Quote, you shouldn't have to sell the best performing asset in human history to access cash, and now you don't have to. Access your Bitcoin wealth without selling it. Build a better life on top of Bitcoin with Strike.   Borrow Fiat, HODL Bitcoin.   Yes. So Strike and Jack Mallers have finally made the official announcement.   They're going to start making loans   to you in fiat   with your Bitcoin as collateral.  

If I don't know any   at all   of what the parameters are on these loans. I don't know what the interest rate is. I don't know what the terms are. I'm saying absolutely nothing about that.   However, I do like Jack. I I mean, even if he is gonna be the CEO of twenty one and his family basically was, like, knee deep in Chicago commodities exchange,   if they didn't build it   themselves. Still, I don't know.   I'm I'm not going to throw him under the bus just yet. I I still like the guy.   And if I had to, you know, make a loan   with my Bitcoin, it would probably I would I would at least call them first   to find out terms.  

We used to have places like BlockFi,   but,   that's a bad that was a bad deal, clearly.   So strike, if for whatever reason, you're in the, you know, market for a loan, you might at least take a look at strike.   Just saying.   Now onto US Stablecoin bill, losing democratic or democrats amid Trump corruption concerns.   Aaron Wood tells us about this from Cointelegraph.   Democratic lawmakers in Washington DC   are backing off support   for legislation   amid heightened concerns over corruption, including the conduct of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial.   In March, the Genius Act, which would regulate stablecoins in The United States,   passed a critical committee reading   with the support of several pro crypto Democrats.  

Democratic senators Rubio Gallego,   Mark Warner, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Andy Kim, and Angela as also Brooks   voted with Republicans   opposite lead Democrat and prominent crypto critic senator Elizabeth Warren.   The bill passed by the committee   only after a number of changes were made, including stricter requirements for stablecoin issuers   and provisions for, of course, anti money laundering,   counterterrorism   financing,   and risk management procedures. Now it seems that even those provisions are insufficient   to quell democratic concerns.   Following   some high profile crypto deals that personally enriched president Donald Trump, congressional   democrats are pulling their support. Oh, they're out. They're going. They're leaving. They're leaving in droves. We wanna have stable coin support. Oh, no.  

It's like, by god, the humanity. It's like the freaking Hindenburg   of the five pro crypto democrats to pass the genius act.   In the senate banking committee, four signed their names to a statement on May 3 saying that they do not feel comfortable   with the direction stablecoin legislation is taking.   Quote, the   bill, as it currently stands, still has numerous issues that must be addressed, including adding stronger provisions on anti money laundering, foreign issuers, national security, preserving the safety and soundness of our financial system, and   accountability,   end quote.  

Every single one of those   is a cloud of from is a is a fog of war. Every single one of those is a fog of war. You just change the rules.   Oh, okay. Well, we'll meet your, anti money laundering   request by doing x. Well, that's not what we meant. We just that's why we said just anti money laundering.   See how this goes. The statement does not explicitly call out corruption nor mention Trump by name, but   taken alongside other measures from Democrat lawmakers,   it shows a growing reticence   to engage on cryptocurrency issues. As Cointelegraph   reported on May, representative Maxine Waters and other Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee planned to leave   a house of representatives hearing on crypto   titled   American Innovation   and the Future of Digital Assets on May.  

That would be today.   According to a staffer familiar with the matter,   this would sink the hearing as house rules require all committee members to be present.   The hearing concerns a draft bill announced by representative French Hill and other top Republicans on May   that would change   how   United States financial regulators, namely the SEC   and the CFTC   treat cryptocurrencies.   Waters, who has previously called for bipartisan   cooperation on crypto legislation,   has harshly criticized Trump,   specifically   his   WLFI   crypto investment firm. She characterized his Trump meme coin or yeah. Sorry. Yes.   She characterized   his Trump meme coin   released on his inauguration   as the worst of crypto   and has been particularly   vocal about   WLFI   USD 1 stablecoin project.  

At a markup hearing   on April   concerning the STABLE Act Okay. That was all about the Genius Act. Now I guess we're onto the STABLE Act.   Waters said the bill in its current form allows the president and insiders to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. Quote, if there is no effort   to block the president of The United States Of America from owning his stablecoin business, I will never be able to agree on supporting this bill, and I would ask other members not to be enablers, said Maxine Waters.   Even Hill, a Republican leading the charge for crypto in Washington,   said that Trump's crypto projects complicate   congress's ability to pass legislation.  

Corruption   concerns may be one factor behind Democrats pumping the brakes on bipartisan crypto laws, but   some observers believe it could be more of a political ploy.   Aaron Brogan,   a lawyer specializing in regulatory issues in the cryptocurrency   industry, said, quote,   it's unlikely   that this group of senators suddenly came to their senses   and realized that the mostly benign stablecoin bill they had previously supported lacked protections that they refused to name, end quote.   Brogan suggested that either lawmakers   wanted to use support for the bill as leverage,   senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has reportedly urged democratic lawmakers   in private   not to commit to the bill for this very reason,   or an influential donor wants to kill the bill or use it as leverage.  

Protect   progress.   A major political action committee supporting crypto donated millions   to Gallego's campaign, Brogan noted.   He said it is possible that major donors to the committee, I e, Coinbase,   would rather see the bill replaced with something more to their liking.   While he said it's impossible to know for sure, quote, Coinbase has attempted to bundle   the pending market structure legislation   with stablecoins to make it more likely to pass.   WLFI   has already netted some $550,000,000   from Trump token sales and is sealing more deals that will enrich its founders and board members, many of whom are Trump family members. One of them, Eric Trump, announced on May that Abu Dhabi based investment firm, MGX, would use   SD one, the Trump family stablecoin or whatever you wanna call it, to settle its $2,000,000,000   investment in global crypto exchange, Binance.  

At token $20.49,   Eric Trump praised The USE or The UAE   for its crypto friendly approach saying that the regulatory heavy EU is a lost   cause.   Let's pause.   The regular regulatory   heavy   European Union   is a lost   cause.   I'm telling you, man,   they are taking aim at the European Union. That entire   structure is going to fall, and they're going to there it's not gonna be USD 1 that does it. It's gonna be Tether.   Let's be very clear on what what weapon has more firepower.   Just because Trump is backing USD 1 and his family is backing USD 1 isn't going to do a damn thing.   It's going to be Tether.  

It's it it it is the it's the   f 15   weapons platform to launch US debt from, and it's taking its first aim at the European Union. I guarantee it. But back to this, in November of twenty twenty four,   the founder of Tron blockchain,   Justin Sun, became the largest investor in WLFI   when he bought some $30,000,000   worth of Trump.   We're talking Trump coin.   More   recent reports suggest he has spent nearly $70,000,000.   On February,   just one month after Trump took office, the SEC,   then with acting chair Mark Ullieda at the helm, halted its civil fraud investigation   into Justin Sun   despite previous allegations that Sun and the Tron Foundation   had illegally distributed tokens, concealed celebrity donations,   and inflated trade volumes.  

And then there's more history,   like, basically, it's sort of a hit piece on on Trump. But I've said this before.   It does not make any sense to me at all   why Trump launched Trump coin,   the world   liberty   or the world financial liberty thing,   Melania coin, all of it. It it it doesn't make sense on the surface.   I'm sure somebody somewhere say, well, they're playing four d chess, man. I don't fucking care.   It still doesn't make sense.   This   it just looks bad.   I'm sorry. It just does.   And I I I I could, you know, I could come out and try to defend orange man or I could try to cripple him. I'm I'm trying to be neutral here.   But let's say that this was let's say it was Barack Obama that was doing it. Let's just let's just flip the tables   to see what the mirror image looks like.  

There would have been   no end   no end whatsoever   to the amount of beratement   that Barack Obama would have gotten had he done this exact same thing under these exact same circumstances.   Alright? So there's   the the problem isn't the man.   The problem is   the presidency of the United States.   Doing things that look even and here's the whole deal.   Trump has nothing to do with w f WLFI   directly   out on paper.   Legally,   the legal infrastructure   precludes him from making any decisions.   Does that mean that he doesn't call his sons up because they're the ones that do have actual charge and say, hey. You need to do this, and then they do it? Sure. I'm I'm sure that that actually happens. But as far as legal framework is concerned,   he doesn't have anything to do with this damn thing.  

But   it's the optics, isn't it?   The optics here are very bad. It doesn't matter how you slice it. It doesn't matter if you love them, hate them, completely neutral on them. The optics here are terrible.   Now what is this does this mean that stablecoin legislation is gonna stall? Yeah. Probably. Does this mean that that's bad? I don't give a shit. It doesn't matter to me. I don't I I don't use stablecoins.   However,   that stablecoin   regulation   has more to do with what's going on in The United States than it does, say, oh,   with Tether.  

Remember what I've been saying. Tether is an outside entity that is acting as a de facto spread of United States debt. It's like a shadow central bank. I've said it before. I've said it several times.   I will continue to say it.   Whatever they do here on this stablecoin legislation in The United States is not going to save the European Union from being torpedoed   by Tether.   It's not going to save any other country   from having our debt flooded into their pockets,   And that's not going to help them, by the way. It's it's going to look like it helps them. And at first, it's gonna seem like a jubilee, but it's just gonna end up being us printing an assload of debt,   and we're just gonna ship it off to to the shores, you know, the golden shores across the seas.  

It's gonna be great for us in the short to medium term. It's going to be great for the rest of the world that needs dollar liquidity in the shorter term.   But in the long term,   you're gonna wanna hold Bitcoin,   and you might wanna do that with Wasabi Wallet. I don't know. I actually, I shouldn't have said that because I've never used Wasabi Wallet, but Wasabi Wallet version 2.6   is out,   and they   it's the first version to sync and operate without a central server.   Oh, nice. This is no bullshit Bitcoin by the way.   Key features include support for BIP one fifty eight block filters   for direct node synchronization,   a revamped full node integration for easier setup with without   no with no third party reliance,   slip 39 share backups for flexible wallet recovery, and a Nostr   based   update manager for censorship resistant updates. Oh, wow.  

So Wasabi is going to take part of Nostr store.   Nice.   Additional improvements include UI bug fixes, a new fallback for transaction broadcasting, updated code signaling, stricter JSON serialization.   Yada yada. It's above my pay grade there. The new version brings us closer   to our ultimate goal, which is ensuring Wasabi is future proof, said the developers.   As we achieve our survival goals, expect more cutting edge improvements   in Bitcoin privacy and self custody. Thank you for your trust. Yada yada yada. And then they get into a long list of updates. It looks like it's a pretty big update.   But the biggest thing here for me is the fact that you can update your wallet with Gnoster,   which is gonna provide   web of trust   and it's going to provide   signatures   that you can trust that what you're getting is, in fact, the pack payload package that you need to install,   that by itself is totally awesome. Plus the fact that you can synchronize without a central server is   that's that's what we want.  

So if you're looking for to test wallets out because you're a geek like me,   give Wasabi Wallet version 2.6   a try.   That's the end of the show. Ladies and gentlemen,   do not fret with,   all the stuff that's going on.   Honestly,   this op return thing,   please just let me leave you with this.   It's not about the data.   It's not about   bloat on the blockchain. We already had that with ordinals, and now ordinals, nobody gives a shit about them. Just like nobody cares about the Ethereum rocks. Do you even remember those? I do.   Nobody cares about NFTs   anymore.  

Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. It was a fad.   It was always destined to be a fad.   Yet we were getting, like, we were getting   full men pulls all over the place after ordinals and inscriptions were released. We were it was   for months   for months, there was, you know, fairly high,   fee rates on transactions.   It's it's all gone. Nobody cares anymore because it's all worthless, and it was always meant to be worthless.   Everybody knew all of these things were worthless.   It's not about the data.   It's about the way the op return thing was handled by Bitcoin Core.   It doesn't mean that I'm switching over to knots,   but it also doesn't mean that I'm going to be   guilt going up in my version number past 29.  

I'm gonna wait and see what the hell happens.   It's I can I can chill out on twenty nine point zero for quite a while, and so can you if you're a node runner? Right? That that's what I'm referring to. It's like I run two Bitcoin nodes, and they're both up to date, and they're both at 29.   I'm not   going to upgrade when they release this new thing, and I never do. I always wait at least, you know, a couple of months. I think, you know, like this last time, I waited quite a while.   I've waited I've waited up for a year before. It doesn't make me any difference. It doesn't   my wallet still works just fine,   and yours will too. You don't have to do that. And you also don't have to go over to Bitcoin knots, which is Luke Dash junior's thing,   although   he he's gained a lot he's got a lot of new users of his Bitcoin Core implementation,   which is what Bitcoin knots is. It's Bitcoin Core. It's just his version of it.  

It works the same way Bitcoin Core does, except   he's got filters that blocks ordinals and inscriptions.   And he's going to have I guess, he's going to do something where it clearly does not,   allow a lift of the op return   past 80 kilobytes.   So if you wanna run that, that's fine.   Right now,   Bitcoin knots   actually has more users   than Bitcoin Core version 29   because a lot of people are thinking   that this will fix it. I'm not saying that it won't, but I'm also not suggesting that it automatically fixes it. You gotta remember, Bitcoin knots is an implementation   by one guy.  

It doesn't mean that it makes it bad. It just means be aware.   It's not a team of people,   at least as far as I know, unless he's gotten some more people to work on it.   What I'm really saying is that take a deep breath,   calm down   and For god forbid don't go look at Bitcoin Twitter. It is a mess especially today   It's really bad. It's gonna make you feel bad   Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. If you're looking for someplace else to go that will give you positive vibes,   finally find your way over to Nostr for the love of God, please.   And you can create your Nostar account in, like, five or six simple steps   with nstart.me.  

That's nstart.me.   It'll take you right through, like like, four or five screens, maybe six. And And each one of those screens tells you what you're doing, and it gives you all the stuff that you need to do it. And then you do it right on the screen. You just fill out stuff in boxes, and you hit next.   It's as easy as it will ever get.   And after that, you need to go over to   following dot space.   Following .space   will give you   whole packs of people   on Nostr to follow.   Like, you can follow   64 users   that are all from Brazil just by clicking one button. If you're a Brazilian   and you're listening to me and you hate Bitcoin Twitter as much as I do and you wanna try an Oster, then you need to go   to   what was it? Start.me?  

In start.me,   n   as in Nancy, start Me. You'll be up and running on Nostr in, like, five minutes. And then right after that, go to following dot space,   log in with your Nostr,   and then you can if you're Brazilian, you can go over here to the Brazil One. It has 64   users. And if I click on it at following dot space,   there's a button here that says follow all.   If you just wanna say, I wanna follow all my Brazilian pals,   just hit that one button. That's how easy following dot space is and end start dot me is to get started on Nostr.   Do yourself a favor. Get as far away from Twitter for at least for the next few weeks as you possibly can. It's gonna be a shit show, and I'll 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.