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Episode 1210 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!

Topics for today: 

• Czech Central Bank Buys BTC
• Master's in Bitcoin Degree
• U.S. Gov Reopens! . . . For 3 Months
• CashApp: Pay in BTC Even if You Have None

Circle P:

 
Oshi
 Artisan pecan butter, date bars and chocolates
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Today's Articles:

 
https://www.reuters.com/business/czech-central-bank-buys-1-mln-bitcoin-other-crypto-assets-testing-2025-11-13/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/hesperides-university-master-in-bitcoin

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/11/12/house-votes-to-reopen-government-as-congress-suddenly-ramps-up-crypto-work

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitdeer-ohio-mining-facility-fire-stock


https://atlas21.com/cash-app-now-lets-users-pay-in-bitcoin-even-without-owning-any/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/featured/merchants-dont-read-white-papers-they-read-cash-flow-statements

https://decrypt.co/348353/openai-unveils-gpt-5-1-making-chatgpt-smarter-faster-more-conversational

https://cointelegraph.com/news/hyperliquid-hlp-popcat-attack-3m-wipeout

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[00:00:02] David Bennett:

It is 09:44AM   Pacific Standard Time. It's the November   2025,   and this is episode   I believe it's $12.10   of Bitcoin and the Czech central bank has bought Bitcoin.   A central bank   has actually purchased Bitcoin. Not a lot of Bitcoin,   but a central bank has actually done the deed. It's actually purchased Bitcoin. We're certainly gonna talk about that one, but we've got other things too.   We've got a news story about something called   Hesperides   or Hesperides   University.   How about a master's in Bitcoin? I don't know. Maybe it's maybe it's nothing, but, you know, hey. At least they're trying.   Short term funding bill, I guess passed. We'll we'll find out together. I promise.  

And BitDeer catches on fire.   It was only a matter of time, if it hasn't already happened, it was only a matter of time   before a Bitcoin mining facility   goes up in flames. And I'm not talking metaphorically   either, brothers and sisters.   Cash App,   has turned on yet a new feature,   about Bitcoin, which   I thought was already there, but I guess it wasn't. We'll talk about it.   Merchants,   speaking of Cash App,   do they really give a shit about the technology that's underneath it?   Do they really? Do they have time? We'll find out.   OpenAI,   you you've probably seen it already, but if you haven't, you'll understand all about it   in the second part of the show. And then we're gonna end with,   you know, just, you know, burning   burning millions of dollars just to prove a point in some kind of performance play   is, in my opinion,   beyond   the stupidity   of gambling.  

It is a calculated   loss   to prove a point.   I don't I   you know, sometimes I just freaking hate people. And while I'm on   while I'm on that subject,   chastity belts are coming back into play. Well, let's just before we get into the news, this is just something that I saw on on Twitter.   Bitcoin Becca,   put reposted some tweet   that's there's a company that has designed   a chastity belt   slash underwear for women so that they don't get raped   in Europe.   Instead of dealing with border issues,   we're just going to shame women again like we did in medieval times.   And that that's my whole point.  

What is a chastity belt?   What   it   meant like, you know, people know, what was in the medieval times? The knights and the kings, they didn't want their their ladies to have sex with anybody else.   I'm not exactly sure that that's   entirely   the point of the chastity belt. I'm just gonna pause it here   that maybe it is   being able to force somebody to wear shame.   The the the your the fact that you're the fact that you are the way that you are, the the fact that you have this   type of physiology   clearly means   that we've gotta lock this shit away.   Is this really where we wanna go?  

As a society, as a modern society, are we really gonna get back on horseback   dressed in plates of armor and   have, you know, jousting tournaments?   Really?   Is this really where we're going? And I'm not lying about this. This is an actual honest to God thing. It's like except it's not made out of metal. It's made out of, you   know, I don't know, some kind of really weird durable,   you know I don't know. Maybe it's carbon fiber or something, but knives can't cut through it and scissors,   shears, and shit can't cut through it. And   it's it's a bizarre   demonstration in this video that was in this tweet that Bitcoin Becca,   reposted.  

It's sad.   And I mean, it's like they were showing   the gear in it and there's actual locking mechanisms, and I think I actually saw a fucking padlock.   Is   this is not the way I wanted to spend my Thursday waking up, dudes.   Just   is every like like I said, people   suck. It'd be really, you can't keep your hands off the ladies. You're that weak. My god almighty.   What have we become?   Maybe   maybe Bitcoin will change some of this attitude of   absolute   desperate   denigration.   Who knows, man? But   the people of Czechoslovakia,   no. It's not not Czechoslovakia   anymore. I keep making that mistake. I grew up with Czechoslovakia   as a thing. It's not Czechoslovakia   anymore. It's the Czech Republic.  

So   in the Czech Republic,   the Czech Central Bank has bought $1,000,000   worth of Bitcoin. Not 1,000,000 Bitcoin. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. $1,000,000   worth of Bitcoin. And at today's   prices, we're talking about 10. You know? Maybe they got, like, you know, at the time they bought it, maybe they got, like, 8 and a half, 9.25.   We'll find out. This is from Yon Lipotka   out of Reuters   writing this one.   The Czech central bank said on Thursday that it bought a million dollar of Bitcoin and other blockchain based digital assets, read that as shitcoins,   to gain experience with digital markets and will evaluate the project in, you know, two or three years.  

The portfolio   is mostly made up of Bitcoin, but also include includes US dollar based stablecoins   and a tokenized   deposit.   Remember,   pausing to say remember we're talking about JPM Coin?   That's a tokenized deposit. So did they buy JPM Coin? I don't know. Anyway, it was all bought through a regulated exchange   without giving specifics on the market used   to or used or the exact   assets. Anyway, quote, the purpose of the portfolio is to gain a practical experience withholding digital assets and to implement and test the necessary related processes, the bank said.   It will   be held separately from the bank's internal reserves or rather international reserves and will not be actively increased. Quote, in the test portfolio,   the central bank will test the whole chain of processes   associated with the purchase,   holding, and management of digital assets from technical administration of keys and multilevel approval processes   through crisis scenarios   and security mechanisms   to to verifying   anti money laundering compliance, the bank said. And governor Ales Mickle, who originally floated the idea of looking at Bitcoin back in January, said new ways of making making payments   and investments were emerging and the bank wanted to be ready. Quote,   it's realistic to expect that in the future, it will be easy to use the crown   to buy tokenized   check bonds   and more besides with one tap,   an espresso   with another, an investment such as a bond or other asset   that used to be the preserve   of larger investors, Mickle said in a statement. Quote, as a central bank, we want to test this path.  

The bank will be doing transactions with the portfolio   for purposes of the experiment.   The portfolio's value may change over time due to part price fluctuations,   and composition may change by the bank testing purchases of other digital assets.   The bank   said it would assess the project, leaving open the question of whether digital assets could become part of reserves in the future and in what form.   The CNB's   first idea of looking at Bitcoin   for reserves   received a   cold reception from the European Central Bank whose president, Christine Lagarde,   if you don't know, she was convicted in France in a federal court of a crime.  

She is a she is a convicted felon.   Okay? But she's, you know,   president of the European Central Bank. Let's just be very clear   about who we're talking about here. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Sorry. Christine Lagarde said she believed Bitcoin would not become reserve assets   of any EU members.   Although the Czech Republic does not use the euro, it is part of the European Union and its system of central banks. Buying the digital asset outside reserves, however, was compliant with Czech and European legislation.   The Nash the central bank said, the ECB   declined to comment.  

I can't imagine why.   The Czech bank said on Thursday it could already invest in Bitcoin in line with legal requirements through an exchange traded fund, but this was not now on the agenda due to Bitcoin's short track record and other characteristics   making it, for now, an immature   asset.   So   here's the gist. The Central Bank of Czech Republic   did buy Bitcoin.   It's a test.   It is in a portfolio. It will be sold. It will be traded. You know, they're they're not planning on   adding any more Bitcoin to it. So while they have, in fact, bought Bitcoin,   it's   probably not for the reasons that people will be talking about on Twitter or Noster or Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever.  

So be clear about the intentions   of The Czech Republic's central bank.   They're not building   a Bitcoin strategic reserve,   but they are the first European Union member state   to actually   purchase Bitcoin,   and that we can't just sweep under the rug.   And maybe they'll hire some people out of Hesperides University one day who has launched the world's first global master   in Bitcoin.   Bitcoin Magazine's Micah Zimmerman reporting   Hesperides or Hesperides, whatever, university today announced the launch of the master in Bitcoin,   the world's first English language higher education program dedicated solely to Bitcoin studies according to a note shared with Bitcoin magazine. And the program marks a milestone   in the academic   recognition of Bitcoin as a serious field of study.  

Unlike most universities, which group Bitcoin under broader, quote, crypto or blockchain programs,   Hesperides   has created a curriculum focused   entirely   on just Bitcoin, its technology, the economics,   societal impact.   The program is aimed at professionals, entrepreneurs, and researchers seeking a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its global ecosystem. Quote,   Bitcoin deserves its academic space, said Christina   Mazan   Kova,   director of the master of Bitcoin,   quote, for years, universities has treated Bitcoin, well, like a side topic, lumped together with speculation and short lived trends.   This program   stands apart. It's a declaration that Bitcoin deserves   serious academic attention as both a revolutionary   technology and a tool for human freedom. The curriculum combines academic rigor with practical experience.  

Students will explore Bitcoin from multiple angles,   including   monetary theory,   philosophy,   journalism, energy, cryptography, and economics.   Courses will be taught by a global faculty of educators and active professionals in the Bitcoin world. Quote, the master in Bitcoin   embodies our vision   of independent education rooted in intellectual freedom. We want to create a space where open minds can research, question, and collaborate on Bitcoin without   ideological   basis,   said Gabriel   Caldoza   Alvarez,   the rector,   not director, but the rector of Hesperides   University.  

Makes me wonder if Hesperides   is a   has   a religious bent to it. Because generally speaking, Rector   is associated with religious institutions, but I digress. The program is fully online.   It's designed to accommodate working professionals.   Enrollment opens January   2026 with early access available through the university website.   Hesperides is also inviting educators and Bitcoin experts to join the program as faculty, mentors, and guest lecturers.   Candidates with experience in economics, finance, journalism, mining, security,   security, and cryptography   can apply online.  

By creating a formal academic framework for Bitcoin, Hesperides   aims to bridge professional practice and scholarly understanding,   Mazan Kova will serve as the director of the master in Bitcoin. And before joining the Bitcoin industry in 2019, she built a career in technology and corporate communications,   later leading,   communications at Satoshi Labs. Oh. And heading public relations at BTC Inc, according to a note shared with Bitcoin Magazine. At Hesperidis University, she is helping to create a new kind of higher education that treats Bitcoin as a transformative   social, technological,   and economic   phenomenon.  

So it's an online program,   and   University of Phoenix has kinda left a bitter taste in many people's mouths about online education, so you're just gonna have to take this with whatever grain of salt you want.   But   it's there.   It's it's it's sort of like the Czech Republic, the central bank. They actually bought Bitcoin.   It may not be exactly how we wanted them to buy Bitcoin or for the reasons that we wanted them to buy Bitcoin, but   they did buy Bitcoin.   And here we have a university, whether it's online only or brick and mortar, I'm not exactly sure.   But   they have a master's in Bitcoin.  

It's   it it's framed   as academic   and scholarly. So   Bitcoin marches on no matter what the hell the price is doing today.   And I'm I think that we are seeing some losses in Bitcoin today because we've got   a couple of pieces of news.   One, let's go back to The Czech Republic buying Bitcoin. That that is definitely a sell the news event   because, you know, we it doesn't matter, and I've said this before. I've it took me a long time to understand this.   It doesn't matter if the news is good or bad   about anything.   If there is an asset attached   that can be sold   when news that might affect that asset comes out,   people just sell. It doesn't matter if the news is good.  

It doesn't matter if the news is bad. That's not the point.   It seems to be a   structural or yeah. It seems to be infrastructure   about trading that,   well,   I own like, I own this oil company's stock. And this oil company just announced that they found,   you know, a whole shit ton more oil, and they're that company is gonna be able to grow in perpetuity.   My reaction as somebody who holds that stock, if   I follow   what I've seen, is I immediately sell the whole fucking thing.   Because, you know, that makes sense. Right?   I know that there's probably that, yeah, you sell it all because that's that's the cycle. And therefore, you will get more back when you wait for the bottom and buy it. But that necessitates   that you're actually   watching what the hell is going on.  

The other piece of news is what we're about to get into right now.   Trump signs bill to reopen the US government   as congress suddenly ramps up crypto work. This is Nicholas Day writing for Cointelegraph.   Trump signed a short term funding bill   about for three months. Okay? It's not not this hasn't we're just kicking the can down the road, y'all.   But a short term funding bill has been signed by Trump to reopen the government late Wednesday after a majority of the US House of Representatives   voted in favor of ending   the record breaking forty two day shutdown.  

The government looked set to remain shut down for the foreseeable future before a group of senate Democrats   and the majority of senate Republicans voted in favor   of the roughly three month funding measure late Sunday   giving up their key demands   to end the shutdown   but forcing a failed vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies.   The lengthy shutdown slowed the US government's progress progress on crypto,   but legislators have signaled efforts to continue working on legislations that affect it. The final vote was 222   to 209   with 216   Republicans and six Democrats voting in favor of the funding measure, which will last through the January   2026.  

Trump signed the bill just after 10PM   eastern time, barely two hours after the house vote.   Just this week, the senate agriculture committee published an initial draft bill for their part of key market structure legislation that would define the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's role in overseeing crypto spot markets, and we've talked about that before. So   just to be clear here,   we're we've the the government is now open, and that should have kicked a whole bunch of stuff in the pants,   but it's not.   My suspicion   is that it didn't because   it didn't solve the problem   like it normally does.  

Right? Like, for instance, like, well, we we now have a full budget.   You know, we can just we we don't have to worry about anything until the next time that we have to do a budget. No. We gotta worry about this thing three months from now.   So   just understand   that's I   I wholeheartedly   believe that between the sell the news aspect   and and this this reminds me this story reminds me of, Jerome Powell cutting   the federal funds rate by, you know, point 25%   the other day and then have hawkish language on the other side of that saying, don't expect a cut in December, and we wanted another cut in December. So that tempered   everything.  

This is the same kind of thing here. He said, oh, we've we've broken the we've we've now broken the the federal lockdown or whatever, the the shutdown,   but only for three months.   So it's that exact same kind of   tempering   where you get what you want, but you didn't get everything that you want, and there's hawkish language on the other side of it. It just serves to squelch everything down.   So when we run the numbers, we'll find out   what kind of damage we're looking at. But first,   you might wanna go over to oshigood.us.   He's got three   crunchy coffee huddle butters in stock right now. If you don't know what,   well,   crunchy coffee Huddle butter is.  

This is glorious. It's think peanut butter, but it's not made out of peanuts. Right? So   ingredients are   pecans,   maple sugar, roasted   arabica,   coffee grounds,   sea salt flakes, cinnamon, and black pepper. It's his usual hot butter. It's just it's got roasted coffee grounds in it, and it imparts a hell of a flavor to this whole thing. It's not it's if you're thinking like Jiffy peanut butter, don't. Jiffy peanut butter's got so much freaking sugar in it. It's not even funny. There's there's no added sugar in here. What except well, except for the maple sugar. But there's not, like, high fructose corn syrup or anything like that. And he doesn't do that. He's part of the Circle p family of vendors,   and he sells his goods and services   for Bitcoin.  

Go to oshigood.us   and grab some of this stuff, man. You will not be disappointed. You will not be disappointed. I promise you, you will not be disappointed.   Treat it like peanut butter. Put it on toast. But, you know, one of the other things that I saw somebody do, they put a dollop on it   like they would put a dollop of butter on a freshly cooked steak. It was a beautiful rib eye, and they threw a dollop of this stuff right on top of it. Now I didn't taste it because it's a pitcher, and it was on Noster, so I can't even smell it. But they swear up and down it was delicious,   and it was very surprising just how good   the flavors meld with   steak,   which doesn't surprise me because   sea salt,   you know,   the maple sugar, pecans, cinnamon, black pepper,   Honestly, I could see that. I I could definitely see that. Go to oshigood.us,   pick yourself up some crunchy coffee huddle butter, use the code bitcoin, and as coupon code, that lets Oshi know   that I made a sale for him. And here at the Circle p, it is the only value for value advertising model anywhere in the world.  

And   if I make a sale, Oshii can determine for himself   what that sale was worth, and he will get me back on the other side with some Satoshis.   Alright. Moving on to   flaming   deer.   It's like Bambi running through the forest fire.   BitDeer in flames.   Ohio mining facility fire extends stock sell off. Vince Quill, Cointelegraph.   I shouldn't laugh because this is a lot of equipment that was lost.   I just hope that no nobody lost their life over it.   But Bitcoin mining company, BitDeer, has confirmed that a fire broke out at its facility in Missillin,   Ohio on Tuesday with no reported casualties. This is good.  

The fire affected two   of 26 buildings under construction at the Mazelin or   Mazin. I can't M A S S I L L 0 N. Pronounce it how you want. At the Mazelin site, which does not have any mining rigs installed according to an announcement on Wednesday. Oh, this is even better. Okay. So BitDeer said it does not expect the incident to impact the company's operational hash rate.   The fire came amid financial and macroeconomic   challenges for BitDeer   and the broader mining industry in 2025   as the sector grapples   with the impact of tariffs, rising energy costs, etcetera, etcetera. Shares of BitDeer declined 7.5%   on Wednesday,   trading at about $13.90   at the time of writing. Cointelegraph reached out to BitDeer but has not received a response.  

Let's see. Where is there anything else? Nope. That's about all there is on this story for the fire.   It's interesting   that the facility caught on fire, but there wasn't any mining rigs present in the newly constructed   buildings.   So it does make one wonder what the hell is flammable inside.   The only thing I can think of is that they had a power failure,   and all the insulation off   big,   heavy gauge power lines   basically went up in flames. And if you've ever seen insulation burn off of a electrical cable that's under duress,   it's one hell of a sight to see. Let's run the numbers.  

CNBC futures and commodities,   energy is looking up. They're all in the green today. Brent Norsee is up two thirds of a point to $63.13   a barrel. West Texas Intermediate up the same to $58.85.   Natural gas is up 2.7   to 4 wow. $4.66   per thousand cubic feet. Gasoline up two thirds to a buck 96 a gallon, and Murbaughn crude is up just over a point to $65.27.   Metals not doing well today. I guess we're all in the same boat over here. Palladium is down 1.8%.   Gold is down point 18%,   but still clocking in at $42.00   6 and 2 dimes.  

Platinum is down point 8%. Silver is down two thirds of a point, and copper is down,   a scant.   Then over to ag where it's mostly in the red, but we got some green here. Biggest, winner today is soybeans,   1.3%   to the upside. Biggest loser is chocolate,   two and a half percent to the downside. I got live cattle down 1.5.   Lean hogs cratering   3.28%   in the red. Ladies and gentlemen, McRibs   on the   way. Feeder cattle down 1.81%.   Indices are not reacting well to all this news either.   The S and P is down one and a third. Holy shit. NASDAQ is down 1.8%.   The Dow was down just over a point, and the S and P Mini is down one and one quarter points.  

Sub $100,000   Bitcoin, ladies and gentlemen. Here it is. $99,310,290.   Is it gonna drop again while I'm looking at it? 280.   I know. It's it's we we never like seeing this,   but these are uncertain times, and nobody knows what to do with their money.   That's that's an issue even for what's been going on in the stock market as you've just known   or just saw.   Market cap is now below $2,000,000,000,000   coming in at 1,980,000,000,000.00.   We can only purchase 23.7   ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin of which there are 19,948,138.66   of.  

Average fees per block are low.   0.02   BTC taken in fees on a per block basis.   There's about 28 blocks carrying 64,000   transactions   waiting to clear at both high and low priority rates of one satoshi per v byte.   Still in zeta hash range, though.   1.08   zeta hashes per second is the current hash rate for the Bitcoin network.   And as usual,   that's more than enough security on the Bitcoin network for me, you, and our Bitcoin   from Texas Hold'em, yesterday's episode of Bitcoin. And I got   a 100   from somebody that I I don't know. It's there's no name that's coming up. Jason Hyde gives me 500 sats, says, thanks for the news we can use. Well, you're welcome, sir.   And then k t with, wow, 1,200 says,   when you first reported the Cambodia   pig slaughter story, I boosted or boasted.  

Oh, no. He did. He boosted. Boosted about an ex user who linked the coins to vulnerable wallets. But I got a letter in his name wrong. No wonder you couldn't find it. This new information matches what Zach xBT   was saying on his ten fourteen   twenty five post. This story is getting interesting, and I imagine it's much deeper than we'll ever know,   par for the course with the global deep state. Also,   shorter episodes are fine if the daily news is light. Oh, I appreciate all your efforts no matter the length. Well, thank you. That's some nice feedback. I can I can do something with that? Oak Grove with nine forty one sat says,   it is wild the McRib was released in 1977.  

I first came across it when my family went to see Flintstones   with John Goodman in the theaters and ate out,   getting some of those sandies   oh, sandwiches.   It has had a warm spot in my heart ever since.   Speaking of Delaware,   does anyone know the other difference   for corporations   domiciled in Delaware versus any other state in the 49 states?   People joke about a president being born from oil money, southern corruption, or Chicagoland   actors.   What bore   wait. Hold on. What bore   the pres president?   I guess he's saying president.   What bore the president that bore Ukrainian gas company's board member? Oh, yeah. Biden.  

Not posting to Noster   as I have enough quotes to put me in the gulag already.   Yeah. K. That's okay, Oak Grove. You're you're fine, dude. Nick Dose with a 102   says, cheers.   Mister sat stacker with 5,000.   Oh, dude. And that was actually from   McBitcoin,   which was the day before. He says, thank you, sir. No, thank you. God's death with two thirty seven says, thank you, sir. No, thank you. Tulips with a thousand says, tulips,   this cheap bastard prefers longer   episodes.   Longer like the sentence   of the Chinese lady.   These people are like the dog chasing the car. They caught it and they don't know what to do with it. I am not a criminal mastermind   able to get my hands on all that corn, but I bet I can do a decent job enjoying it without getting caught.  

Let them play those games. Strikeforce teams and   international detectives will be working for nothing   according to Preston Pich's,   new FUD. Quantum computers will be cracking Bitcoin in two to eight years and nothing can stop it. All your MSTR,   SBR, and other Rs are just tulips and they are going to zero.   Yeah. This quantum FUD is never gonna go away. And it's honestly, it's it's not helpful.   And most of it's just bullshit. Most of these people have no idea   how quantum computing actually works, what it's really gonna take to be able to crack   the, ECDSA,   encryption schema that we use to generate our private and public key pairs.  

We're not worried about it cracking SHA two fifty six as much as it, you know, quantum cracking our private keys. SHA two fifty six is the hashing algorithm. ECDSA is the algorithm used to generate private keys. They are two different schemas.   And, yes, I I agree. This Preston Pishfud, it just it's all bullshit.   It's all bullshit and needs to go away.   Nikaz 18 with two ten says, live aloha.   And Pies with a 121,   Sat says, thank you, sir.   No. Thank you. And that's the weather   report.   Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Cash App   now lets users pay in Bitcoin   even without owning   any.  

This is out of atlas21.com.   Cash App   has introduced a new feature that allows users to make transactions in US dollars   using the Lightning Network infrastructure   without the need to hold Bitcoin in their own wallet.   Sounds like Strike.   It actually sounds exactly like something Strike does. The feature enables users to send traditional currency from their available balance, which is automatically converted   and transferred as Bitcoin to the recipient's wallet.   This functionality mirrors that of strike. Oh, okay. Which lets users spend USD,   Europe,   euros,   British break   great British pounds, Australian dollars, and USDT   over the Lightning Network, users can now freely choose   whether to complete a transaction using their existing Bitcoin balance   or their Fiat balance.  

Merchants will be able to receive Bitcoin via the Lightning Network while customers pay directly from their dollar balance.   Payment options include   USD to USD,   Bitcoin to Bitcoin,   Bitcoin to USD, or USD to Bitcoin, all powered by the Lightning Network.   As part of a broader update, the app will also allow users to send and receive stablecoins.   The service will primarily be available in The United States, although the app   is already approved and operational in The UK.   Earlier this week, Square rolled out Bitcoin payments for US merchants, allowing roughly 4,000,000   sellers   to accept BTC through their terminals with no processing fees   until 2027.  

So leveraging the Lightning Network continues, and it does not surprise me   if we find out that Cash App is actually using the back end infrastructure   of either Strike   or they worked with Strike to build their own clone   of that very same infrastructure because Strike pioneered that and has been doing it for a long, long time.   There's no reason in the world   to reinvent the wheel.   Speaking of merchants taking Bitcoin with Cash App, we got this one, which is actually written by the folks over at Spiral.   And Spiral is part of Cash App and Square and the Jack Dorsey family of companies that have embraced Bitcoin.   Headline is merchants don't read white papers. They read cash flow statements.  

Our thesis is pretty simple.   We can only make the case that Bitcoin is everyday money if people can spend it. Unfortunately,   for most of Bitcoin's existence,   this just   hasn't been many places   to spend it.   But then something happened. Planets aligned, seized parted, nerds hooted, and hollered from rooftops, and block added support for Bitcoin payments to millions of Square sellers,   making Bitcoin both ubiquitous   and easy to activate.   Suddenly,   almost everyone is seconds away from accepting Bitcoin payments.   Pretty cool. Right? Yeah. Well, except how merchants should accept Bitcoin payments   isn't the only problem.  

Why   bit   rather, why merchants should accept Bitcoin payments? That's the boogeyman that we need to vanquish,   and it always has been. How do we   how we do this? Sorry. I'm having some problems this morning. How we do this is more apparent and pragmatic than Bitcoin tropes about digital scarcity and immutability,   neither of which will convert someone running an ice cream shop.   What will motivate   small business owners to accept Bitcoin payments is their bottom line.   They're unlikely to be ideological.   They're far more likely   to be practical.  

And what's the most common problem in need of a practical solution faced by merchants that only Bitcoin can solve in a digital only world?   Credit card fees and the death of cash.   Back when cash ruled everything around everyone, 3% credit card fees on every purchase was just a distant but frightening hypothetical.   It was better time to run a small business,   a time when everyone carried cash.   Businesses universally accepted it, and margins were chunk.   This is obviously no longer the case, and yet this is where it gets interesting.   Credit card companies have been so successful at ridding the world of physical cash that they've created the perfect stage for the Bitcoin minded   to make the case for digital cash, a designation that still captures   Bitcoin's benefits better than any other.  

It seems obvious, yet it bears repeating. If a small business's profit margins are around 6%,   which they frequently are,   that means credit card fees might eat more than half of their profits.   Oops. Right?   That's the reality for millions of merchants.   Oh, man.   This is all window dressing, of course. Context written in the past tense so you can understand where we're coming from as we tell you   where we're going.   A universally true statement is that we trust the people we can relate to most.   Small business owners, it naturally follows, will trust the experiences of other people running small businesses.   This is why we're spearheading   a peer to peer community exclusively for them,   one that is Bitcoin service agnostic   to promote the idea of Bitcoin as everyday money. It's called the Bitcoin Merchant Community   or the BMC   for short.  

They've got a website,   but more importantly, they also have a Facebook group. There,   they'll find a like minded community of business owners both around the corner and around the globe who want to take back the 3% that they lose to credit card fees. They don't need to be on Square either because that won't work for everyone.   However,   getting the word out presents a problem. Most small business owners are too busy and not yet invested enough to do the heavy lifting   necessary to jump start such a community, and that's understandable.   So   what this initiative needs is passionate people to spread the word,   people who are already invested,   people who can really stand   to get away from their computers for an hour or two.  

What it needs   are Bitcoiners.   Yes. You,   the person reading this blog post   or listening to me on the Bitcoin and podcast. Anyway, Bitcoin advocacy   has been,   up to this point, very   online.   It makes sense. Bitcoin is online and online is where we all sort of live now. But for every level headed   and persuasive   pro Bitcoin post that makes it into a non Bitcoiners feed,   there are 999   posts above and below attempting to suffocate it.   Everything gets diluted online. Occasionally,   something will break through and register with someone only to be forgotten about, you know, five minutes later.   Because of   this, we realized that thoughtful,   focused, in person advocacy must play a central role in promoting Bitcoin and the Bitcoin merchant community.  

Advocacy that we think should come in two forms,   regular in person and weird   in person.   Realistically, a customer showing up in person to talk about how Bitcoin solves the problem of three percent fees,   memorable, definitely,   though maybe a little,   But a customer showing up in person with too impossible to ignore straight to the trash resistant leave behinds   and a powerful focused argument,   especially if that leave behind is bright orange,   cuddly, and just as grumpy about 3% credit card fees as the merchants are,   a leave behind that can be used at a register by merchants to tell patrons that, yes, we accept Bitcoin.  

Say what you will about the messenger,   but they won't be forgetting the message, especially when they learn that thousands of others like them got the same one.   Free onboarding leave behind kits   are now available   starting today   directly from Bitcoin hubs across The United States.   These include the following,   Presidio Bitcoin in San Francisco,   The Space in Denver,   ATL BitLab in Atlanta, and, of course, Bitcoin Park in Nashville   and Austin.   We expect to be doing even more free kit giveaways   in the near future   with more materials and creative assets for merchants that can be used to promote Bitcoin acceptance. But maybe you're uncomfortable approaching strangers   with a grumped out   eyebrow laden   bright orange plushie under your arm. That's not a problem.  

There's an approach for you too. Just download a merchant onboarding playbook   plus the one page leave behind combo pack from the Bitcoin merchant community you don't even need to engage.   You can just drop the ladder off. It's called a leave behind for a reason.   Ultimately,   trillions of Bitcoin transactions don't rest on the shoulders of the payer, but the payee.   So grab a kit to print one out. Talk to a merchant.   Help them with all the tech if you want to. You've already made Bitcoin what it is, now it's up to all of us to make it what it could be. Everyday money,   cash in the digital age.  

So what they talking about this plushie?   It's this grumpy looking   plushie. It's like it's like a orange Bitcoin with   fluffy eyebrows and and and looks kinda mean and it's got a a sour, doleful face on, but it's definitely it's definitely Bitcoin. It's got the whole Bitcoin symbol on it and and everything.   I like this approach.   I I hope that it that it catches on and that we start actually, you know, maybe doing this. There's a couple of places in town that I know of where I live or or the town that I live close to. Actually, there's a few towns that I live close to, and there's Square merchants there. There's actually quite a bit of food trucks that are popping up   all around the place, and most of those guys have been taking Square for years, you know, using a Square terminal.  

So this makes sense. So,   this is an important one.   All of   the URLs   to all of the stories that I read every single day are in the show notes.   Go find this one from Bitcoin Magazine.   Right?   And it's entitled   merchants don't read white papers, they read cash flow statements.   You will be able to go directly to   all of   the other URLs that are embedded in this story so that you can get your kit too.   I hope you do it. I hope you're interested.   It's time for us to stop   allowing   apathy.   We've seen I I've talked about what apathy has done to the world so far.   Do we want to continue   on that road?  

I think not.   But we're actually gonna have to invest time and energy.   We've gotta click on a few buttons. We probably gotta enter some kind of address to actually get one shipped to us. And then   then we gotta go out and meet people.   And that's becoming   increasingly   difficult.   After COVID, the amount of introverted people or people that I would identify as I don't really like talking to other people, maybe they did in the past and they literally forgot that they were extroverted.   There's   way more introversion   going on right now   that   is like throwing jet fuel on the fire of apathy.  

We've gotta go out and talk to these people.   It's it sucks   that the timing of the Square launch of Bitcoin and this Bitcoin merchant's kit   came out   at this time of year.   This   now that I'm thinking about it, this was not when you wanted to release this.   When would have been a better time to release all this?   Right when all of the farmer markets open, not when they're closed.   They're most of the farmer markets in The United States that are outdoor farmer markets, they're all closed. They were coming into winter.   Late fall, winter, it's cold. Nobody wants to go to the farmer's market. This shit should have launched   late spring,   early   summer.  

Now we gotta wait.   You we're not striking while the iron's hot is what I'm getting at. So we're gonna have to do double duty.   Alright. So,   again, go find the URL,   get into this news story, go hit the embedded URLs,   get your kit, go talk to the people that you actually buy shit from.   Moving on to OpenAI who has unveiled   GPT   5.1.   It just gets better and better and better. Josh Quintner   from   decrypt.c0   says OpenAI today announced the release of GPT 5.1.   It's an upgrade to the foundational large language model series.   The update, which is now rolling out to users featuring two models,   the GPT 5.1 instant   and the thinking version focusing   simultaneously   on increased capability   and improved   conversational   warmth.  

The company said the update aims to address user feedback that AI should not only be intelligent but also enjoyable to interact with,   positioning the new models as smarter,   more   conversational   ChatGPT.   The release is spit split across two primary use cases.   The instant version is designated as chat g p t's most used model.   Chat or g p t 5.1 instant has been optimized to be warmer by default and more conversational.   The improvements include adaptive reasoning.   For the first time, this widely used model can perform   adaptive reasoning, allowing it to internally assess the complexity of a question and decide   whether to engage in deeper processing before generating a response.  

And then there's a performance update that this whole adaptive capability has led to demonstrable   improvements in high stakes reasoning evaluations,   including math and coding benchmarks such as AIME   twenty twenty five and Code Forces.   And then there's instruction following.   The model is also cited as being   significantly better   at reliably   adhering to custom instructions and requested formats.   Now the thinking version is the other side of this.   This upgrade to the advanced reasoning model, the GPT 5.1 thinking,   centers on efficiency and clarity. And using dynamic processing, the model now adapts   its thinking   time dynamically to the input.  

It spends considerably less time on simple tasks, making it roughly twice as fast on the quickest   quickest queries while dedicating substantially more time to complex problems,   enabling more persistent and thorough answers. Yeah. And it's also probably cheaper to open AI. But clarity,   that's the other side of this. OpenAI   notes that GPT   5.1   thinking's responses are clearer,   utilizing less jargon   and fewer undefined   terms,   making its high capabilities   more accessible to non technical users.   In parallel with the model upgrades,   OpenAI is enhancing user control over the AI's personality and tone.  

New preset operations for conversational style, including professional, candid, and quirky,   are being introduced refining the previous tone controls.   The company also announced an experiment to allow users to tune   specific characteristics such as conciseness   and emoji frequency   directly from personalization   settings.   The rollouts   begin today for paid subscribers   before expanding to free users.   Enterprise and education users will have a seven day early access toggle before the new models become the sole default.   An API integration for developers is slated to follow later this week.  

I've played with it. It's better than it's better than five.   But I honestly,   a lot of times, if I'm if I'm, you know, doing something that's, like, more, I don't know, more personal,   I still go back to, chat four o. And I guess that's how you pronounce it, 40, which is still an option.   They haven't taken that away. And you got to wonder why.   Because five, honestly,   I Sam Altman said, oh my god. I had it a religious epiphany or or some kind of shit when he was talking to five. I didn't get anything like that. I was like, dude, this model sucks.   And I was pretty much centered on using four o for almost   damn near everything.  

Every once in a while, I'd accidentally be, you know, interacting with the five model before I would have to switch to four point o or to the four o model.   But I've been playing with this 5.1,   specifically   the thinking model.   It's it's better.   It's not great   and it's, you know, it's   AI is AI. If you actually think that it's thinking   or that it's actually intelligent, then you have been   deluded.   Right? Whether it's you've been deluding yourself or been deluded by others,   that's up to you to figure out. But, no, these these things don't actually think.   They predict.  

In fact, it's sort of like a a controlled hallucination   or not controlled.   Let's call it directed hallucination.   Chances are real good, the hallucinations   that is the core essence of what I find in AI   will have some meaning to you, and it will actually make sense.   There's nothing wrong with that. If it answers the question that you were asking or gives you insight into something that you weren't thinking about,   I don't find a problem with that.   But if you actually think that it's intelligent,   self aware, has a soul,   actually, you know, does any kind of real solid thinking itself,   No. It doesn't.  

I don't actually believe that will ever happen. And if it does,   we immediately start needing to talk about what does it mean to have a soul. And I am not about to enter into how many angels can dance on the head of a pen   philosophical discussion right now.   But if you think that   five point o   really sucked,   you might give the five point ones a shot.   They're actually way better than the five.   I'm still jury's still out as to whether or not I still like four o better than 5.1, but   so far,   I'm like, you know, I've been putting it through, like, the test that I think are applicable for me.   It's   pretty rock   solid. Unlike this asshole,   Trader Torches $3,000,000   to punch a $5,000,000   hole in Hyper Liquid's vault.  

So the shit coinery part of the show now begins,   and this is just always   always a warning   for people who think that maybe there's something better than Bitcoin.   There's not.   And Ezra Reguera will tell us why from Cointelegraph.   A coordinated   attack   on HyperLiquid   wiped out nearly $5,000,000   from the protocol's   hyper liquidity provider Vault   when an unknown trader   burned through $3,000,000   in capital   to manipulate the pop cat market and trigger cascading liquidations.   Blockchain analytics company Look on Chain shared on Thursday that it all started   when the attacker withdrew   3,000,000   USDC,   circle stablecoin,   from the OKX crypto exchange and split the funds into 19 fresh wallets. The trader then funneled those assets   into Hyper Liquid to open over $26,000,000   in leverage longs   tied to hype, the platform's   PopCap denominated   perpetual   contract.  

After this,   the trader built a $20,000,000   buy wall   near the 21¢   price point.   This became an artificially created signal of strength that pushed the market upward before the orders were canceled.   When the wall collapsed,   liquidity   thinned   as price support   vanished.   This meant that dozens of highly leveraged positions were forced into liquidation,   and the HLP   absorbed all of those losses.   Hyperliquids vault showed a $4,900,000   loss in the aftermath,   one of the largest   single event hits incurred by the platform since its launch.   My god. These freaking people.  

While the attacker caused damage to hyperliquid, the event revealed that the market manipulators own $3,000,000   of capital   was completely wiped out.   This suggested   that the attacker's goal was structural damage rather than profit. The sequence represents   a clear example of a trader   intentionally   setting fire   to their very own capital   to shock an on chain derivatives venue,   exploit its liquidity   architecture,   and stress test the limitations of an automated liquidity provider vault.   The event differentiated itself   from typical market manipulation   incidents because   the attacker did not exit the event with profits.  

Instead,   the trade structure suggested that the entire   goal   was to create artificial liquidity   and collapse it to drag HyperLiquid   Vault   into the liquidation   cascade.   Onlookers reacted to the move with varying sentiments. Yeah. I'll bet. A community member speculated that $3,000,000   was hedged,   suggesting that the attacker had positions locked in elsewhere.   Another ex user described the event as the costliest research ever.   Another community member suggested that the event was not an attack,   but rather a $3,000,000   performance art piece. Quote,   only in crypto do villains burn millions for the plot,   the ex user wrote. Meanwhile,   a community member described it as peak d gen warfare   where an attacker exploited the automated liquidity provider's absorption.  

The ex user said,   this was a reminder that perpetual markets without sturdy liquidity buffers are open season for anyone willing to, quote,   light money on fire, end quote.   This is ridiculous.   On Thursday, community member,   Jay Connergan   or something reported that the Hyper Liquid Bridge had stopped processing withdrawals.   The developer said that the contract was paused using the vote emergency   lock function   indicating that the team had initiated precautionary   measures against potential manipulations.   After about an hour, the developer reported that the platform started processing withdrawals again.   Hyper Liquid did not issue any official announcement linking the Popcat incident to temporary freezes   on withdrawals.  

So another shitcoin platform   and protocol   gets wiped out, this time at the hands of somebody who just doesn't care.   They don't care about themselves. They don't care about their own money. Maybe he was hedged   on some other platform.   Makes sense to me, but   just the the thought of   the potential that this shit doesn't work, he probably would have lost that $3,000,000   anyway, and hedging on someplace else wouldn't have helped.   Because the whole the whole gambit,   it was like it was almost as if he's like, okay. He wrote it I I can see this guy wrote it writing a flowchart   of what he's going to do given what he knows about Hyper Liquid   and comes up with a plan.  

And all these pieces of this plan all have to execute the way he thinks they're going to execute or she. Whatever. I I I honestly doubt that it's a woman. Why? Because women are not that fucking stupid. Men,   it's there's there's no there's no wonder why we die   earlier than women do, but I digress.   This is probably a dude   who thinks that all these things are going to happen. And in this case, all these things did happen. But what if he was wrong?   It wouldn't have mattered   where he hid hedged.   The chances are good he still would have lost that $3,000,000.   So it's still a $3,000,000   gamble.  

To do what?   What if he was hedged   and he actually was is in profit   from somewhere else, like on some other exchange looking at this,   then   maybe we can simply say the whole goal was to make profit.   But I don't think that's what this was. There's too much thought that goes into this. And if he was hedged,   could he be hedged by enough where he doesn't have to work another day in his life? I don't know. I mean, that that's completely masked to me.   But the potential to lose $3,000,000,   engaging in that kind of degenerate behavior   is sick.  

It's it honestly,   this and I see this all over even traditional finance.   It's almost as if the entire   financial   structure of the world   is run by people   who were sick,   which shouldn't surprise you. You'd be you're probably going nodding your head going, well, duh.   I mean, at a at a   fundamental   psychological   level.   The people that are in legacy finance that engage in this kind of behavior, which I think is actually most of them,   if they were to find themselves in any other venue,   in any other structure, in any other institution,   that they would not be hired or they or their behavior would not be tolerated for very long,   but not here.  

Not in finance.   And some of the shit that we've seen   over the past few decades, if not   the past few centuries,   leads me to ask a major question that I will leave you with.   Why are we not dragging   people into the streets?   What is it about our apathy that is so strong   that we   just allow   people to run around   and set buildings on   fire? Just allow the arsonist to run free   and wild   and somehow or another get fooled into protecting their very existence.   When I bring up anything that shines light on the misfeasance   and the malfeasance   of this structure,   I get met with resistance. And that resistance always comes in the form of, do you have an economics degree? Are you on the board of the Fed? Are you a banker at a major bank?  

Then I'm not listening to   Even though every single fucking person just mentioned is one of the goddamn psychopaths running around, setting shit on fire, shouldn't we stop them?   Why are we protecting them?   Is there not enough room in the street for all the bodies that we drag out into it   before we give them the what for?   And I will let you   ruminate on the what for is in your own mind. I prescribe nothing   other than stopping people from burning down buildings. It's not healthy   to burn down buildings. It's not healthy   to allow other people to burn down buildings.  

It's not healthy   to only have the reaction of trying to put out the fire with water.   There's something very, very, very, very wrong   in what we've allowed to happen. So   lit that   ruminate in your head and remember, apathy   is throwing jet fuel on the fires that brought us here in the first place. So go get the Bitcoin merchants kit,   that earlier story that I was talking about, and do   the work.   Go talk to the vendors that you buy from.   Go find new vendors that use Square.   Let's see what we can do. 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.   Day.