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Join me today for Episode 874 of Bitcoin And . . . Topics for today: - IMF is One Step Away From Collecting Taxes - Miners May Not Have Halving Pain - Daily Hit of Hopium - Robosats, Blockstream and eNuts Releases #Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd Circle P: https://theleathermint.com/ Nostr: @LeatherMint Twitter: @TheLeatherMint Coupon code is BitcoinAnd for 10% off. Articles: https://cointelegraph.com/news/imf-pakistan-tax-crypto-capital-gains https://decrypt.co/221950/bitcoin-miners-halving-impact-profitable https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/03/18/nigerias-sec-proposes-400-increase-to-crypto-firm-registration-fees/ https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/mercury-layers-lightning-latch-swap-protocol - https://www.cnbc.com/futures-and-commodities/ - https://www.cnbc.com/bonds/ - https://dashboard.clarkmoody.com/ - https://mempool.space/ - https://fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/150000-standard-chartered-bitcoin-price-forecast-2024 https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/nostr-org/ https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/robosats-v0-6-0-alpha/ https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/blockstream-green-desktop-v2-0-2/ https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/enuts-v0-3-1/ Find me on nostr npub1vwymuey3u7mf860ndrkw3r7dz30s0srg6tqmhtjzg7umtm6rn5eq2qzugd (npub) 6389be6491e7b693e9f368ece88fcd145f07c068d2c1bbae4247b9b5ef439d32 (Hex) Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidB84567 StackerNews: stacker.news/NunyaBidness Podcasting 2.0: fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/unm35bjh Mastodon: https://noauthority.social/@NunyaBidness Support Bitcoin And . . . on Patreon: patreon.com/BitcoinAndPodcast Find Lightning Network Channel partners here: https://t.me/+bj-7w_ePsANlOGEx (Nodestrich) https://t.me/plebnet (Plebnet) Music by: Flutey Funk Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Good morning. This is David Bennett, and this is Bitcoin Ant, a podcast where I try to find the edge effect between the worlds of Bitcoin, gaming, permaculture,   podcasting, and education to gain a better understanding of all. Edge effect is a concept from ecology describing a greater diversity of life where the edges of 2 systems overlap.   While species from either system can be found at the edge, it is important to note there are species in the overlap that exist in neither system, and that is what I seek to uncover. So join me in discovering the variety of things being created as Bitcoin rubs up against other systems.   It is 10 AM   CST. No. Actually, I can't believe I did started out that way. Pacific.  

I'm on the Pacific coast, man. It's like the Pacific Daylight Time,   10 AM. It is the 18th day of March 2024. This is episode   874   of Bitcoin, and the circle p is open for business. The circle p is where I bring you plebs just like yourself who have goods and services for sale for Bitcoin. If they ain't selling it for Bitcoin, they ain't in the circle p. Today is the leathermint   dotcom. That is the leathermint.com.   Let me get their, picture up here. It's their website right here. Look at that. Look at those wallets. Look at that stylish functional quality.   You can just step into the world of the Leathermitt,   where luxury meets everyday essentials.  

Discover our latest collection of stylish, functional   and high quality leather goods from sleek signing device apparel to elegant belts, wallets and passport holders.   Each piece is handcrafted   for those who appreciate   sovereignty   in style just don't wear the accessory   Make a statement with the Leatherman.   Visit us now and embrace the craftsmanship   that sets you apart. And if you want a 10% discount,   your coupon code for the leathermint.com   is Bitcoinand.   The coupon code is Bitcoinand.   That will get you a 10% off of anything that you purchase over there at the leathermint.com.   If you wanna get a hold of them on nostril, it is at leathermint,   m I n t, leathermint.  

They're minting leather   like the Fed prints money, except this stuff is actually worthwhile.   On Twitter, they are   at the leathermint,   all one word. So   there you go. There's the daily shill.   Alright. What do we got up for news?   The IMF,   the International Monetary Fund   wants Pakistan   to tax crypto gains to pay for their $3,000,000,000   bailout.   I'm not even sure if the IMF understands   what's going on in the world anymore.   They seem principally focused   on   Bitcoin.   Now, here's here's the thing here's the thing   I'm watching the IMF   basically get frantic   to the point that I think they're losing their own plot. Now their plot, in my opinion, has never been good.  

But I'm seeing them focus more and more in this weird thing where they're so freaked out   about Bitcoin and or cryptocurrency.   You know, I put crypto in quotes because, you know, it's whatever. Bitcoin is the only thing that I care about.   They're starting to focus so solemnly   on Bitcoin that I think that they're gonna start letting their other missions actually fall to the wayside   And we're we've got this one here from Arjeet Sarkar,   CoinTelegraph,   gonna tell us about just how they're fumbling their own football. The International Monetary Fund has asked the Federal Board of Revenue   of Pakistan to charge capital gains tax on cryptocurrency investments   as one of the requirements   to qualify for a $3,000,000,000 bailout loan.  

During the review talks around a $3,000,000,000   standby arrangement or an SBA,   the IMF recommended that Pakistan's FBR impose taxes on capital or crypto capital gains.   The country has also been asked to review the taxation of real estate   and listed securities that just it looks like they're just trying to ravage   Pakistan.   The adjustment in tax rates as recommended by the IMF aims to collect yearly taxes on capital gains on real estate assets irrespective of whether the owner chooses to sell or retain the property. Holy crap. Additionally,   property developers   could have to comply   with stricter tracking and reporting requirements which will be supported by hefty fines for non compliance,   ultimately enforcing new tax rules in the real estate market. Again, in Pakistan.  

Local reports also suggest that the recommendations   made by the IMF   could become part of the upcoming bailout package under the extended fund facility.   As a result, Pakistan's budget for the fiscal year of 2024,   2025   could officially introduce a stringent crypto tax on capital gains.   The $3,000,000,000   of IMF aid aims to stabilize the hyperinflated fiat economy of Pakistan. Yeah. Good luck.   Which was a direct result of geopolitical tensions,   natural calamities, and unstable national governance, among others. The 4 day IMF review began on March 14th   and around $1,100,000,000   will be dis disbursed if Pakistan agrees to these   rather onerous conditions, honestly.  

The call for taxing crypto capital gains comes nearly 1 year after   there's no way I can pronounce this name. The minister of state for finance and revenue said the country would never legalize crypto trading.   Well, that's interesting, isn't it?   The policy framework hold on. We got some got some weird rendering issues going on on my on my,   my browser here. Czar. There we go. The policy   framework showcases Pakistan's willingness to integrate AI   for public and national bitterment.   The country has set 15 targets with timelines ranging from 2023 to 2028.   To support these initiatives, Pakistan   intends to establish a national   AI fund. I don't even know why the hell they're talking about this in this particular piece, but we'll finish it off by using the Ministry of IT and Telecom's   underutilized   resources and funds.  

Okay.   We are one step away from the IMF collecting taxes on countries   themselves.   They themselves becoming   the tax   people,   the internal revenue service as it were for all these countries that have been under the IMF thumb for decades decades decades. We are we are a heartbeat. We are a single breath. We are just   one away, one   single step away from the IMF just saying, you know what?   We're not even gonna make these recommendations to you, Pakistan,   for you to do this, for us to give you we're going to tax your people   and their real estate and their cryptocurrency   gains. We're just gonna do that ourselves and we're gonna take the money directly from your citizenry. We are one heartbeat away from that. And if you don't believe me,   check back with me within a couple of years and we'll probably see that I am in fact correct. Now moving on,   most public   mining firms will survive the having   according to an analysis. Andrew Thorvallis   has it from decryp.co.  

Experts say experts.   All the experts are saying that Bitcoin's massive price surge has paved a safe path forward for Bitcoin mining companies   post halving.   Back in January, Cantor Fitzgerald estimated   the average all in cost to mine 1 coin for several publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms after the halving in April, which will cut miner revenues in half in BTC terms.   Bitcoin traded for $40,000   at the time leaving just 2 of 13 firms in the profit zone.   At today's price of $67,000   however, every firm analyzed including Marathon,   Riot Platforms and Iris Energy would be firmly   in the green.  

Self reported performance figures from the miners would appear to back that up. In its February investor update, Iris Energy said its electricity cost per BTC was   $20,158, implying that it will spend approximately   $40,000 to mine coins   after the halving.   It's a promising sign   for long term buyers of mining stocks who investments have bled substantially since the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs back in January.   While other Bitcoin equity proxies like MicroStrategy and Coinbase have recovered substantially from the post launch dip, most miners continue to fall as fears around the halving plague the entire industry. Yes, a mining debt spiral. Here we go. It's all we've we've seen it before.   The last two havings, it was a mining death spiral. Yes. And we're going to hear that again. So be Anyway, CleanSpark stands as one of the only exceptions,   up 57%   year to date, roughly in line with the gains of BTC itself.  

By both the company's measures and Cantor's analysis, CleanSpark's mining cost per bitcoin   will remain under $37,000   and likely much lower. Quote   CleanSpark are doing things well, growing quickly and doing it through dilution, which is probably the best way, says Anthony Power, CEO of Power Mining Analysis.   He continues:   CleanSpark grew 6 point   0 exahashes per second year to date. That's why the stock price is higher.   Power named BitDeer   as another highly efficient contender, saying it is the complete   vertically   integrated   BTC mining company.  

Between its self mining fleet,   hosting services, cloud based mining, and ASIC production,   the firm's cash cost per bitcoin mined stood at $18,000   as of the Q3 of 2023 per the analyst calculations.   Cash costs are everything you need to pay for with cash and it excludes   depreciation   and stock compensation however   Kantor's   January estimate placed BitDeer's   cost per mined coin at just $17,744   after the halving substantially   lower than all competitors.   And sadly,   BitDeer is Jie Han Woo's outfit.   Jie Han Wu used to be the the lead guy over at   whoever,   makes the amp miner series.  

I can't remember the name of the company. He went all in with Roger Ver on be on Bitcoin Cash and he got his butt handed to him. He got ousted out of the the original company and now he's doing BitDeer.   The question   is just gonna be this,   Did Xi Han   Woo learn his lesson?   I don't know man. Hubris has a tendency to run deep   in the old school,   Bitcoin,   the old guard, the OG,   the original gangster, the old guard. Now now on to Africa.   We got, Nigeria.   Oh, by the way, bitmain. Oh, grind the grinder.   Thank you. Thank you. The grinder's in the chat. He also he also raided me from his, from his, stream over there on zap.stream. I appreciate that.   Jeehan, who was mining empty blocks back in the days.  

Yeah. See, he was. That was the whole that was the whole deal. A little   little bit of, history. If I get this one right, I'll I'll be happy.   The entire   2016   run up, 2017   run up, all those 2 years were fraught with   the onset of the block size wars.   And the issue was that we started seeing higher fees per transaction.   And those higher fees, it turned out, was because people like Jie Han Woo and their mining concerns and like Roger Ver   were indeed mining a shitload of empty blocks so that transactions wouldn't go through so that the other miners that weren't actually   mining empty blocks were getting   much higher   rates on their transactions.  

And so the argument became: See, the rates are going up, we need bigger blocks.   And then that precipitated into the split   of actual Bitcoin, BTC   and these other forks that have since collapsed and become failures on their own. And Xi Han Wu and Roger Ver were at the forefront of all that crap.   So I don't trust Xi Han Wu as far as I can chuck them.   So we'll just leave it at that. Now, we'll go back to Africa.   Nigeria's   SEC   proposes a   400%   increase to crypto firm   registration   fees.   Again, like the IMF, we are seeing the government of Nigeria   get panicked. And they have every   every reason to be panicked. They have mismanaged their economy. They've mismanaged their fiat money. They've mismanaged everything   and they're gonna pay dearly through it, they're gonna pay through the nose, but before   they go kicking and screaming into the great good night,   they're gonna do everything that they can to claw   and   slash and bite.  

It's gonna be awful. And here's some of the first death throes that we're seeing. Nigeria's securities watchdog   proposed a 400% increase to registration fees for crypto firms   as the country cracks down on the sector, according to a notice published on Friday.   The proposed amendments to the rules for crypto issuers, exchanges and custody platforms   include increases to all supervision fees.   Instead of a $100,000   naira or $64   application fee and a 30,000,000 naira registration fee,   the Securities and Exchange Commission now wants   300,000   naira with every application   and hopes to charge crypto firms a 150,000,000   naira registration fee.  

The proposals come as the Nigerian naira weakens to record lows against the dollar with the government blaming   the crypto industry for facilitating illegal capital outflows.   Bock the horror.   Earlier this month, reports surfaced that the SEC was updating its guidelines for crypto service providers in the country. While the government may have taken action against several crypto firms, officials   have singled out exchange platform Binance   using or accusing it of setting the naira exchange rate. Naira   has detained 2 Binance executives and is reportedly considering   hefty penalties against the firm. The SEC also proposed doubling the minimum paid up capital requirement for non or for interested crypto service providers   to 1,000,000,000,   that's billion with a b,   naira. 1,000,000,000   naira. Wow. The proposals   to rearrange the rules are to provide clarity to the market as well as to incorporate suggestions from industry stakeholders,   particularly with regards to the recent engagements   with the Central Bank of Nigeria,   their SEC said. Okay,   so going into the great good night, kicking and screaming, Nigeria,   Central Bank and Federal regulators   are going.  

It's sad. It's sad to watch, but they brought it on themselves.   And when the great fixer that is Bitcoin   just continues to roll into their country providing   an outlet of relief   for the citizenry, the Nigerian citizenry.   We see the frantic   grabbing at straws.   And I just don't think it's going to work.   Instead of them pointing and laughing at us for the last 15 years,   they probably should have been spending that   energy   trying to figure all this out, how this stuff works.   But thankfully for us they actually spent their time pointing at us and   laughing.  

Who's laughing now?   Mercury's   lair sorry excuse me try that again   Mercury layers   lightning latch   swap protocol   Now this is from Shinobi.   Shinobi has a tendency to be quite technical.   So,   buff up your ears, ladies and gentlemen, for this one out of Bitcoin Magazine.   Commerce Block has released a new atomic swap protocol   for use with state chains on   their Mercury layer protocol.   The HSM   server has introduced   to support atomically swapping 2 state chains,   as well as enforcing an atomic exchange   of a state chain for a Lightning payment.   This is the first example of concretely defined and built interactions between state chains   and the lightning network.  

Synergy between both protocols has been postulated since the concept of a state chain was originally proposed   by Ruben Somsen,   specifically as a way to solve the limitation   of having to transfer a whole state chain UTXO at once.   In order to support the new swap protocols,   the HSM   server needs to add some new fields to its database entries   tracking each state chain   it is facilitating.   And to facilitate the state chain to state chain swap, the server needs to track batch ID,   batch time   and locked now locked is a value indicating   whether or not the state chain is locked and restricted from regular transfers.  

This allows the server to track and enforce   all the variables necessary to ensure a safe atomic swap.   When initiating a swap, users have to communicate with each others directly, in order to establish a shared batch ID between them.   From this point, they trade all the necessary information required to facilitate a normal state chain transfer,   and send that information plus the batch id and batch time to the server. They essentially start the regular transfer process but also attach the variables to connect the individual state chains   as participating in a swap together and how long the timeout period for that is.  

The server at this point will apply a lock   to every state chain using the same batch ID in the transfer process. Until the timeout expires or all of the state chains in its database using the same batch ID have been unlocked   by the current owners,   the server will not approve any transfers.   A neat thing about the way the server enforces the swap logic   is that it doesn't matter who contacts the server first.   When the server gets a message using a batch ID,   it checks every state chain in its database and if there is a pre existing batch time for that batch ID,   it sets it as the same.  

This ensures that no matter who registers the swap first,   they all use the same time value for the timeout function.   Each client involved in the swap at this point checks for the downloads, the messages that initiated the transfer protocol, and   upon verifying   that they're correct, sends a message back to the server to unlock their state chain removing the transfer restrictions.   Whenever anyone attempts to finalize a transfer on the receiver side of any of the state chains involved in the swap,   the server checks to make sure all of the state chains with the same batch ID are unlocked.   If even a single one   with the related batch id is still locked, the server will finalize a transfer for none of them.  

If a swap doesn't succeed before the timeout, the server will continue restricting the finalization   of the swap transfer, but will let the current owners initialize a new transfer   to themselves to effectively cancel the swap.   The lightning latch functionality   swapping a state chain for a lightning payment   works very similarly to the state chain to state chain swap.   Here are the new fields the server must track for the Lightning swap the batch ID, the batch time,   the preimage, which is the preimage of the Lightning payment,   the locked1   and locked2.  

And those are 2 lock fields for the Lightning swap, one authorized by each of the users involved.   Just like with the state chain to state chain swap,   the users establish and share a random batch ID.   The current state chain owner then messages the server with the batch ID and state chain involved and requests it generates a hashlock preimage for a lightning payment.   This user then generates a lightning invoice using this preimage and the second user contacts the server to confirm   it generated the preimage.   The current state chain owner then begins the state chain transfer process and uploads the transfer message to the server.  

After confirmation of that, the second user trying to swap for the state chain initiates the lightning payment. At this time, the server is the only one with the pre image.   So, the state chain owner cannot finalize the payment yet.   The current owner, after verifying the pending lightning payment, sends the server an unlock message to remove the first lock on the state chain.   The receiver finally verifies the transfer message and if valid messages   the server to remove   their lock as well. Now with both of the locks removed,   the server will release the pre image to current state chain owner to finalize the lightning payment and will finalize the state chain transfer to the receiver.  

This scheme   does require trusting the state chain operator   to function honestly,   but that is fundamentally   not a change to the pre existing trust model of using a state chain in general.   At no time does the operator have control over users' funds,   nor do they learn anything about the Lightning payment details.   So what is it all good for? Well, the scheme is a far cry from the originally positive interaction between state chains   and lightning channels   stack stacking 1 on top of the other. But even as a simple starting point this presents functional utility for existing lightning users.   Rebalancing channels is a necessary thing for many nodes If the capacity is entirely pushed to one side or the other, the utility of that channel is limited for routing payments.  

Many businesses and users have started experimenting with using Liquid as a mechanism for this due to the on chain fees rising and making swaps into and out of the Lightning Network a bit more expensive.   State chains offer an alternative mechanism to a federated state chain to alleviate some of the fee expenses   associated with channel balance management.   Instead of having to swap out of the main chain directly,   or use a sidechain, funds can be swapped to a state chain and held there until they are needed for swapping funds back into a channel.   Similar savings and fees can be had while still maintaining the ability to unilaterally   claim your funds   on the main chain.  

Another potential use   and by the way, he's got a trigger warning here and I'm not sure why   would be the possibility of more efficient marketplaces for trading ordinals.   Oh, that's why.   Oh, god. No. Since ordinals are simply an index scheme tracking past backwards   in the transaction history to specific satoshis,   they can easily be lifted off the chain and onto a state chain.   That dynamic, in combination with Lightning Latch, could allow cheaper and faster off chain purchases of ordinals.   Someone could build a marketplace   where they can be sold instantly   off chain over the Lightning Network.  

It's even possible one day if Lightning clients   could become aware somehow   of which state chain operates   operator specific Lightning nodes trust that latch   could be used to help route payments by passing state chains   around between different nodes instead of using conventional Lightning Channels.   On the front of pure state chain to state chain transfers, this offers the potential   for a message passing layer   to recreate coin join like system mixing coins off chain   similar to the original mixing functionality of Commerce Block's very first state chain implementation.   While it is a very simple starting point, lightning latch and the state chain swap functionality   crack open the first door of state chains integrating into the existing lightning network   and other similar layers to come in the future in a way that lets them all integrate seamlessly   and function as a singular network in terms of payment routing and liquidity management.  

Even while we debate the need for and usefulness   of covenants,   there is still quite a lot of room to continue building with what we have already.   You can listen to the Commerce Block team explain the logic behind the protocol here, and he gives a link. And for a more technical explanation,   it's the same length link, but it's a different time stamp on this video that is on x, and I'm not going to do that for you here. Now so   this the the business of, the the trigger warning of ordinals.   Well, it would be interesting to I think it would be interesting to find out if any of the ordinals users   were actually to move over to using this   if and when it becomes fully functional and people actually know, you know, how to work it. If they don't,   then ordinals has always been a direct attack on Bitcoin.  

If they do,   then we can be assured that there is a group of people that actually find ordinals in the NFTs that are built upon them as having some sort of value. I don't think they do. But it would be interesting to find out   if anybody else does   because I'm not sure if if these things are anything but a straight up attack on whatever chain they are. I just don't see the value of paying $80,000   for a cartoon ape.   I don't get it. But more than that,   as the state as the state chain issue thing kind of, you know, keeps coming back into play,   I've never been I've never been for but I've never been against state chains because this is a little bit above my pay grade   as far as what they actually do and if they're actually needed.  

However, when I come at all this from just a biology standpoint   and I look at ecosystems   and the way that whether it's whole ecosystems, or it's whether   like   the local ecosystem of a single cell works.   There's always   going to be a situation where something gets bottlenecked.   For us on the main chain, it's block space.   It's fees. It's the amount of UTXOs.   But mainly   it's about block space and the amount of transaction throughput   any one block can actually do in 10 minutes which basically scales up to tell us how many transactions quote unquote per second   a, you know, the Bitcoin main chain can handle.  

Whenever you see a bottleneck in biology,   the very first thing that you look for is what are the release   mechanisms that are being built up around that bottleneck   to alleviate   the pressure?   Because biology   always does that.   It always does that it's always done that   That's because the rules of the universe is laid out in the Big Bang   It just that's just the way shit works.   So expect more of this.   Honestly, I'm interested to see where this goes.   Am I does that make me a state chain promoter?   No, because I still again a little bit above my pay grade. However, I am for   anything that approaches a trustless model that helps alleviate   pressure points   in what we're trying to do here. Now   let's run the numbers.  

CNBC   Futures and Commodities. They got West Texas Intermediate Oil is up just under 2 points, $82.64.   Brent, North Sea is up 1.76%   to 8684.   Natural gas, wow, is up as well. Normally, it goes the opposite direction of oil for whatever reason, but it's   almost 3 points to the upside. A buck 70 per 1,000 cubic feet. Gasoline is up over 1 and a half points to 2.76   a gallon. And gold is up scant, but, you know, over a tenth of a point to $2,164.   Silver is down 0.4. Platinum is down 2 and a quarter. Copper is up scant 0.07.   Palladium is down. Wow, man. Palladium bottoming out.  

4 and a half points to the downside.   Ag is fully mixed today. The biggest winner is wheat.   2.5 percent to the upside. The biggest loser is gonna be, what?   Looks like it's coffee. 0.68 percent to the downside. Live cattle is up almost a point.   Lean hogs, however, are down a third, but feeder cattle are up over a point.   The Dow is up a third of a point today. S and P is up 0.76%.   NASDAQ is up over a point,   and the S and P Mini is up   0.13%   today. Bonds, all the yields except for the 3 month bond have been pushed upwards. So all the yields are in the green today, and green is not a good number for, you know, for us that one of these days would like to own a house again.   Now, the 30 year is pushing 4.46%.  

The 20 year, 4.58%.   Wow.   And the 10 year is pushing   4.34   percent yields.   Over here on Clark Moody dashboard,   got   $67,060   for a $1,320,000,000,000   market cap. There are 19,000,000   657,599   and a quarter BTC in circulation at this time.   Average hash rate over the last 20 2016   blocks is 606xahashes   per second.   Average fees per block have dropped a little bit   0.29   BTC,   halving is effectively gonna be April 18th   this year. Blockspace percentage   for taking out the trash that is ordinals,   is down. Excellent.   Only 1.9%   of usable block space is being dedicated to taking out and handling   the garbage. Now, mempools. What's going on with mempools? We are looking at a 194 blocks   carrying a 158,000   unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at some fairly hefty rates.  

51 satoshis per vbyte. That's about $4.79   per transaction.   Low priority gonna get you in at 44 satoshis per vbyte, and anything under 4 and a half satoshis per vbyte are gonna be purged from memples around the world.   Mempool.spacemining   is flashing   629   exahashes per second.   Now from last   week's last Friday's   El Salvador   kicking butt episode 873   of the Bitcoin and protocol   podcast not protocol.   I have almost   I've got   4 boosts.   Come on, guys. I need some boost. I need some more boost. Pies with 420 says, good dad joke today. Oh, thank you, brother.   God's death with 337 says, thank you, sir. No. Thank you.  

MCOT 3D with 285 says, cheers.   And my good friend trucker to Bubba to trucker or trucker Bubba. However you want to say it. 200 Sat says, thank god I ain't the only one questioning Bukele. And why the hell would anyone send money to any government? Yeah. No shit. I guess lots of Bitcoiners   are still slaves in their mind. I don't know. I don't think it's I don't think it's that.   I I don't.   I think there's a little bit more I think there's too much   enthusiasm.   I think before you start sending your hard earned sats or your hard held SATs   to somebody,   or a government,   especially, it doesn't matter if it's Bukele's, I wouldn't say I sure as shit wouldn't send it to Saudi Arabia neither. You might wanna you might wanna curb that enthusiasm. Because once you send those sats, they're they're never coming back, and you're not gonna get any recognition out of it. But whatever. That's gonna do it for the weather report.  

Welcome to part 2 of the news that you can use. What do we got up today? Well, let's see. $150,000   Here's your daily hit of hopium.   Standard   Chartered   Bank   has raised their Bitcoin price forecast   to $150,000   for 2020   4. Bitcoin Magazine   Vivek Sin is writing, global banking   giant Standard Chartered   has upped its Bitcoin price prediction for the end of 2024 to $150,000   a significant increase from its previous forecast of 100.   In a new report, Standard Chartered analysts cited strong inflows into the recently launched ETFs   in the United States as a primary driver of their now new bullish outlook.  

The bank believes these sticky institutional flows will continue propelling Bitcoin's price. Well, that's not going on today.   Standard Chartered has emerged as one of the more Bitcoin   friendly legacy banks with an active research team covering Bitcoin.   Previously, the bank's analyst had predicted Bitcoin would reach $100,000   by the end of 2024.   But with Bitcoin's strong perform   performance in early 2020 4, the team is now forecasting a 150 k.   Standard Chartered Bank analyst led by Jeffrey Kendrick wrote, quote, for the year 2024, given the sharper than expected price gains year to date, we now see potential for the price to reach the $150,000   level by the end of the year, up from our previous estimate of $100,000.  

End quote. They expect the rally to continue into 2025 with Bitcoin   $1,000 not $200.   That's   no.   The updated price prediction comes as spot Bitcoin ETFs got approved in the United States. Yes, we're aware. Combined with Bitcoin's fixed supply and other positive fundamentals, the bank sees room for substantial   additional   upside.   Based on increasing mainstream adoption,   Standard Chartered expects these new highs. They're a bold call. Bold call, Cotton. Let's see if it works out for him. Illustrates a growing willingness among major financial institutions to make   ambitious   Bitcoin price forecast. If achieved,   a climb to a 150 k would mark a 120% gain from current levels near   $68,000. Yeah. Where you've been.  

4 Standard   Chartered Bitcoin's   status as digital gold   continues to strengthen. So there's your daily hit of hopium.   Take it as you will. Now here's reality, nostr.org,   nostr protocol   splash   page.   Good news, everyone.   After a year of haggling with the domain troll   who got nostr.org,   we've managed to get it back, announced Ben Ark. And this is no BS Bitcoin, by the way. The site will forever be a pure   simple protocol splash page.   Repo has   well hold on repo has committee of great Nostra people to keep pure   extra special thanks for eliti for graphics and theme   Repo is maintained by a group of excellent Nostra people to keep Pure proudly,   or proudly supported by LNbits.  

Please issue the PR and repo for device issues and all clients that we are probably missing, said the developer.   So what does that mean? Well, it's just that noster.org   was bought by some troll   and   and we weren't   the the people that, like me, that love absolutely are in love with Nostra   weren't able to leverage that platform. And think of it like this. Remember that if if you guys were back in the 2016 2017   days, one of the other things that you might remember   was the bitcoin.com   website.   Bitcoin.com,   owned by Roger Verde. As far as I know, maybe it still is. I I I never go there.   But   it when you think about bitcoin.com   as   a property,   the namespace,   the property that is the namespace bitcoin.com,   it's still relatively important.  

I but like I said, I never go there. I never really talk about it so   maybe it's not as important as even I think it is because I haven't really thought about it for years or at least until today   but nostr.org   that could be a viable property   hopefully   the people over there that now are controlling nostr.org   and I presume that that one of those people is Ben Ark   will not   be dickheads about that property and use it to   further the mission that is Noster in getting people out of the walled gardens that they find themselves in today.   Robosats   version   0.6.0   alpha   the Federation layer   Robosats   is a simple and private way to exchange Bitcoin for national currencies.  

Robosats   simplifies the peer to peer user experience   and uses lightning   hold invoices to minimize custody and trust requirements   The deterministically   generated avatars   help users stick to best privacy practices.   Special thanks to Koalasat   who's been who has driven some of the largest development pushes needed to get, quote, the federation layer, end quote, fully working.   The Robosats Federation is a set of rules   that allows multiple Robosats   instances to work together under a unified client app.   This federated client app enables users to seamlessly interact with any coordinator   track the coordinator reputation,   verify transparently   dev fund   donations,   and more.  

The Android app is currently not supported on this early phase of the federation app.   Let's see. Is there anything else? Oh, they have a new avatar generator.   Your robot identity is now generated in your client app when previously the robot identity   was created by the coordinator.   This allows   now for superfast robot avatar and nickname generation   that works even if your connection   to the coordinator is down.   The new robot avatars are, in fact, more diverse and better looking. However, the same token will now yield a different avatar   when compared to version 5.4,   but the robot identity remains the same, also keeping the same nickname.  

So the federated layer is the new version of Robosats which is version   0.6.0   alpha.   Blockstream.   Okay, what's going on here?   Again nobsbitcoin.com   Blockstream Green desktop   version 2.0.2   lbtc   coin control   Oh nice brother   The Blockstream green wallet just dropped point release 2.0.1   enabling liquid coin control   said liquid network on Twitter.   So they added a button to clear address fields,   manual coin selection for lbtc,   List relevant accounts to the asset details filter   for non confidential   coins.   They fixed a couple of crashes and some stuff, but it's the coin control that's the big issue here. And if you don't know what that is,   I'll give you an example of like my   I use Specter   on my node   as   an interface for my wallet,   which I I right now I'm using a cold card to be able to, you know, have my that's what generated my wallet and that's what I use for,   for signing message, you know, signing transactions or signing messages. This is my signing device. But when I'm looking   at my wallet in Spectre,   which I connected, you know, I basically said, hey, here's here's my my cold card wallet. Inspector, please use this   wallet. So now it uses that and   I get to select   what UTXO   my coins come from if I'm going to pay for something or if I'm going to transfer some bitcoin to somewhere else, whatever it is. I get to   select. Now when I used to use a ledger,   I had no there was no way to know what UTXO   was being pulled from.  

And, honestly,   you're going to want coin control.   But this isn't about BTC.   This is about liquid   BTC.   So now we're talking about the liquid network and now they've introduced   liquid   BTC   coin control.   Thank God. Even though I don't use liquid,   one of these days I might start. I don't know, liquid's starting to be used a little bit more   now that we've we're entering into a sustained   higher not a high but a higher   fee market   more people are starting to look at liquid especially when it comes to, as we heard earlier,   balancing   lightning network channels.  

So as more people start using liquid, it may become a thing. I don't know. We'll have to find out. But last up for the day   enuts   version 0.3.1   beta,   app store released.   Adobe as Bitcoin again. Enuts is a privacy focused custodial wallet   that not only allows you to perform lightning transactions, but also private e cash transactions   using the cashew protocol. Oh, nice.   All in one. It's like a Swiss army knife. If your access to the test flight beta version has expired, do not delete the expired version   and DM your email address for an invitation that will reactivate it so that you can transfer your funds,   said the project.  

After transferring the funds out of the deprecated test flight, please delete the app. And if you wish to continue using enuts,   then please install the newly maintained testflight   or app store version from the website   enuts.   Cache   Reminder,   LNbits   will shut down the demo server for Cashew Mints by the end of March.   All mints that start with   legend.lnbits.com   will no longer be available. So get your shit off. Okay?   Please move your funds to another mint as soon as possible or cash out via lightning. The enuts app will not provide a default mint anymore and is not responsible for refunding lost funds.   So there you go. That's the news for the day and that's gonna do it for the morning roundup.  

Dad says jokes.   What is the opposite   of a cross aunt?   A happy uncle.   So, there you go. Alright. We're starting a brand new week.   This Monday has been a disappointing Monday as far as inflows into the ETFs, I guess, as reflected by the Bitcoin price of $67,221   as we end   episode 874   of the Bitcoin and   podcast.   I will see you   on the other side.   This has been Bitcoin and, and I'm your host David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon.   Have a great day.