Episode 930 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!
Topics for today:
- Trump, RFK Promise Big
- Marathon Back to Hodling
- Qatar Changes its Bitcoin Tune
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Coming to you live from the San Juan mountains, this is episode 930 of Bitcoin, and it is 8:26 AM. It is well, I don't know. Like, what? The 29th day of July 2024. We are gonna go through some of the news today. We're gonna go we're gonna do some of the, speeches that were made over at the Bitcoin conference and some of that wackery. We got some funkery going on down south in Venezuela. We're gonna talk about that. Coinbase is gonna hold the keys to an entire nation's ETF. Bitcoins It's just disgusting the way this thing is working. So without further ado, let's jump right in. But first, we're going over to Wyoming. That's right.
University of Wyoming has launched the 1st Bitcoin Research Institute. This is out of Bitcoin Magazine written by Nick Hoffman. The University of Wyoming has established the UW, Bitcoin Research Institute, marking the first academic institute dedicated to Bitcoin studies. Doctor Bradley Retler, an associate professor of philosophy and author of Resistance Money, A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin, has been appointed as the inaugural director, Retler announced on the genesis stage at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville. The Institute aims to elevate the quality and impact of Bitcoin research by creating faculty positions for Bitcoin research, incentivizing and rewarding good academic research on Bitcoin, encouraging young scholars to pursue Bitcoin research projects, and provide workshops on related paper and papers and books. It will also connect researchers interests in Bitcoin and provide peer reviewed research for journalists, policymakers, and the public. The current state of academic Bitcoin research is, you know, not of the highest quality. So the Institute aims to address these issues by creating and providing more accurate and rigorous academic studies on Bitcoin.
The Institute will work to ensure that high quality evidence based research is accessible to all. God, I hope so. The University of Wyoming is strategically positioned to lead this initiative due to its interdisciplinary academic collaboration, its proximity to renewable energy sources, and supportive legislative and regulatory environment, the Institute will also collaborate with various university units, including the philosophy and economics departments, school of computing, and center for blockchain and digital innovation. Those interested in supporting this research can donate to UW Bitcoin Research Institute here.
Donations are tax deductible, yada yada yada yada. Alright, so is it good or bad? This in my opinion, the state of academia, the the academy. And I'm not talking just the United States. I'm talking the I'm talking about the the whole enchilada when it comes to higher education. The state of it right now is beyond pathetic. It's been completely co opted by the by student loans. Essentially, money printing has done its business on academia just like it's done on everything else at least in the West. But even in other countries that you wouldn't consider the West, academia has been infiltrated by all manner of douchebaggery, scumbaggery and a fiat mindset.
So I have serious reservations about whether or not the University of Wyoming is going to actually push forward real solid sovereign Bitcoin research without getting into or allowing itself to be guided by the misfortunate people that run academia at the highest level. Just because there is an institute does not mean that it's not going to be somehow or another, you know, mired in the tomfoolery of university provost and presidents. And these guys get paid like 6 figures. Where you it used to be the it used to be the case that you couldn't get somebody to be the president of a university. And now that's your gateway drug into politics. It's sad but it's true. So just because Bitcoin research is going to be done at the University of Wyoming, it doesn't mean that it's essentially going to be a good thing that it's going to produce anything. I I think it's actually good news because it's the University of Wyoming.
You got Caitlin Long out there. You got Trace Mayer out there. Say what you want about Trace? I still think that he gave I still think that he destroyed his reputation on purpose so that he could go do something else. He was running the Bitcoin Knowledge, podcast. It was the first podcast I listened to. And I I think he he told he made that some comments about Grin, being the next Bitcoin after he told everybody not to talk about or not to worry about shit coins. He started talking about shit coins. And then you never heard from him again. But he's still out in Wyoming as far as I know working alongside Caitlin Long and the legislative people out there. So there may be that there may be a ray of hope here. I I don't know. Again, as always, we're gonna have to wait and see what they actually produce. So we'll we'll do that.
In the meantime, Coinbase is going to provide custody for DigitalX's Australian Bitcoin ETF. Yeah. Not your keys, not your coins. And it goes for more than just the citizenry. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is doubling down on its support of global spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds becoming a custody partner for a Bitcoin ETF in Australia. Excuse me. Digital X's The issue, Australia's Digital X, the issuer of the Spot Bitcoin ETF called Digital X Bitcoin ETF has selected Coinbase as the custody provider for its spot Bitcoin Fund according to official BTXX fact sheets.
Launched on July 12th, The Digital X Bitcoin ETF aims to provide returns that mirror the performance of Bitcoin by maintaining long term holdings of BTC. Just so stupid. Digital X announced it received approval to list its spot Bitcoin ETF on the Australian Securities and Exchange on July 9th. Quote, the fund is intended to be a passive holder of Bitcoin and will not buy and sell Bitcoin other than to facilitate redemptions and creation of Bitcoin interests, the BTXX fact sheet notes. One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, Coinbase has emerged as a prominent firm involved in enabling the infrastructure for global spot bitcoin ETFs. And after being approved in the United States, in January, Coinbase has become a partner in custody provider for 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs and 8 of the 9 newly approved ether ETFs.
The most significant spot Bitcoin ETFs including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and BlackRock's iShares also rely on Coinbase as a Bitcoin custody partner. Quote, with a track record of over 12 years, safekeeping digital assets at scale, we have developed the leading institutional grade custody crypto community, Coinbase said in its suit speak letter on its website. Some industry executives previously argued that Coinbase's dominance across retail and Bitcoin ETFs poses a significant threat of a hacking or a state intervention of some sort or another. Others claim that even if Coinbase goes bankrupt, there's still a way to keep access to the Bitcoin ETFs underlying funds.
Okay. So that's honestly all we really need to know about that. Again, this kind of makes me nervous And it should make everybody nervous that Coinbase is custodying the Bitcoin for all these different funds. Because it is you wanna talk about a honey pot. And Coinbase was a honey pot before any of this crap happened with the ETFs and now it's even it's just it's and I don't and clearly I don't like Coinbase but you know, what do you gotta do? So Gutter has revisited their crypto stance after their ban. They promised regulations by the end of 2024.
Nathan Mintzberg writing for Decrypt. Qadar is making strides towards establishing a regulatory framework for digital assets signaling a shift from its previous hardline stance against cryptocurrencies. The wealthy Gulf State banned Bitcoin trading back in 2018. But, you know, as recent developments occur, it suggests that it's cautiously reconsidering its approach. Last year, Qatari Financial Regulators proposed a framework to regulate investments, investment tokens backed by tangible assets. The Gutter Financial Center Regulatory Authority and the, QFC Authority collaboratively developed this digital asset framework aiming to bolster Gunder's digital economy strategy. They sought industry feedback to refine a proposed regulation with the final legislation expected in Q4 of 2024.
The QFC also established a digital assets lab to encourage innovation in financial and digital asset sectors. The Digital Asset Framework represents a pivotal milestone in our journey towards fostering innovation and growth within gutters financial landscape. Maha al Sadhi, head of regulatory affairs at QFCA, said earlier this year during an interview with Unlock Media. The lab provides a collaborative space for startups and researchers to explore solutions related to digital assets and blockchain. However, Qatar's path to crypto adoption hasn't been very smooth. Last May, the Financial Action Task Force, the FATF, accused the country of being too lax on, of course, terrorist fundraising and urged the gutter central bank to be more proactive in sanctioning VASPs breaching the crypto ban.
The FADF report cited 2,007 rejected transactions and 43 closed accounts linked to digital assets, but noted that no formal sanctions were applied. Keep in mind, none of the regulatory ambiguity stopped crypto.com from becoming a sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup which was hosted in Gutter. The press release for the news even went so far to say that the crypto exchange would be the exclusive cryptocurrency trading platform sponsor of Gutter 2022. Despite these challenges, Gutter is moving forward. The central bank has finished building the foundation for its digital currency and plans to test it with local and international banks. So Gutter looks like it's you know back in play.
And why? Well, why do you think? The whole world is coming over to this now. There's there's there's nothing that can really be done to stop it. The only might you know, our only real concern is how much of the development of Bitcoin and infrastructure of Bitcoin can and will be co opted. Well thankfully the structure of Bitcoin doesn't really allow for the can But that doesn't stop the humans that work on Bitcoin from being co opted themselves or, you know, threatened with, I don't know, you know with your livelihood, your freedom, all manner of things from working on it. We're we're we've seen these things start popping up and we're gonna see more of these things start popping up.
But the nature of Bitcoin, the nature of its decentralization is going to come out ahead on all of this. But in the meantime, we're gonna watch country after country after country like dominoes falling in a chain start adopting Bitcoin or some kind of God forbid crypto or you know regulation. It just can't be stopped. It's it was never going to be able to be stopped. So, speaking of why these people might be changing their minds. Well, RFK Jr proposed to buy 4,000,000 Bitcoin if he's elected president. I don't know if he's pandering or what. Let's find out more from Vivex in Bitcoin Magazine. Independent US presidential candidate, Robert f Kennedy junior, made headlines at the Bitcoin 2024 conference by pledging to purchase 4,000,000 Bitcoin for the US government if he's elected president.
Speaking to a cheering crowd, Kennedy outlined his bold plan to integrate Bitcoin into the national economy. Quote, I will sign an executive order. Oh, yes. The executive order. Directing the US Treasury to purchase 550 Bitcoin daily until the US amasses a reserve of at least 4,000,000,000 Bitcoin. Good luck, dude. Kennedy declared this would represent nearly 20% of the total Bitcoin supply. Again, good luck, man. Kennedy also said that he would transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin currently held by the government into a Federal Reserve strategic reserve. He promised the cascading impact of these moves would effectively move Bitcoin to a valuation of 100 of 1,000,000,000,000 of dollars.
He praised Bitcoin as the currency of hope and a way to restore financial stability after years of poor monetary policies. You spelled malfeasance wrong, but that's okay, Bobby. Quote, fiat currency was invented to fund the war, Kennedy said. Adding that a Bitcoin standard would eliminate incentives for military conflict. While Kennedy is not doing very well in early polls, his full throated embrace of Bitcoin could help him gain traction with libertarian leaning voters. He railed against high inflation and shrinking purchasing power, issues he believes adopting a Bitcoin standard would address.
Again, can't really argue with that. Kennedy also pledged to make Bitcoin transactions non taxable and allow Bitcoin to be exchanged tax free. He said Bitcoin's transparency makes it the greatest foe of government corruption. With Bitcoin becoming a hot topic in the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy is clearly trying to seize the mantle as the most Bitcoin friendly candidate. His call for a massive 4,000,000 Bitcoin reserve shows he's willing to stake out bold positions to attract the growing Bitcoin voter block. Just because somebody says that they wanna do something, doesn't mean that they're actually going to do it. And if anything proves that, just, I don't know, look at politics for the last 400 years.
I don't know if he's I'm not suggesting that Kennedy's lying. But there's a couple things here. He's not going to be president. And even if he even if he was doing well in the polls, he's not going to be president. He's just not. However, where I think he comes into play here is probably by being given some kind of seat, either at the attorney general's office, either as AG himself or some kind of like, I don't know high up assistant attorney general or I don't know secretary of secretary some secretary seat in the cabinet of the president of the United States. I don't think he's gonna be left out is what I'm saying. And if he does not get left out and he's taken in in whatever new administration that we have, Because I honestly at this point think Trump's gonna win this. I I just don't see I don't see it any other way.
And I don't see I also don't see there being such a I don't see there being a differential that would suggest that they would be able to get away with stealing the election. It's too weighted over to Trump's side, right? So I don't think that they can do that and get away with it. So I'm pretty sure Trump's going to get in. And if he gets in, I'm pretty sure that Bobby Kennedy is going to come along for the ride somehow. And if they are both at least not lying that they like Bitcoin, I don't need them to amass 4,000,000 Bitcoin. I actually you don't need that much for for the United States. 20 percent of the world's Bitcoin supply, that makes me nervous for obvious reasons. It just becomes too centralized. But if they're not lying about things like tax free transactions or just being able even if we had just a de minimis, like the ability for me to you know make a $600 you know purchase of something with Bitcoin that I bought like 10 years ago and not have to pay taxes on it. That would be awesome. That would be great.
And if Trump had any sense about him at all at this point, he would start talking to Robert Kennedy's camp and say I want to put him in somewhere because I want your voters. And then if anybody that's voting for Robert Kennedy, they know he's not gonna win. Now he's he's I don't even think he'd beat Kamala Harris at this point. Not because he's unpopular. I just don't think that he's going to be able to to get that high a number. But if Trump takes him in and says, hey let's do this thing, then I guarantee you the voters that would go for Bobby Kennedy will vote for Donald Trump who himself has pledged a strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville. And this is also from Bitcoin Magazine and Vivek Sin.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Saturday, former president Donald Trump made several pledges to the Bitcoin community if elected in 2024. Most notably, Trump said that he would create a strategic national reserve of Bitcoin as an economic asset. Quote, I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's anti crypto crusade will be over. The United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world. Oh, God. This is so bad.
Don't don't get me wrong. I don't hate the guy, but this is just I just there was so much cringe in this speech. I wasn't there. I've heard stories. What I've heard is pretty damn cringe. But Trump vowed to fire SEC chairman Gary Gensler also on his 1st day in office and appoint a new chairman more friendly to Bitcoin and crypto. He also said that the government will keep 100% of its current Bitcoin rather than auctioning it off. Slowly building up a national reserve quote, Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty, and independence from government coercion and control.
Bitcoin and crypto will skyrocket like never before if I am elected president, Trump stated. The former president's remarks were welcomed by the largely libertarian leaning audience. Attendee Andrew Campbell told Wired that he would vote for Trump this time after not doing so in 2016 nor in 2020. Quote, I think we've gone too far left, and we need to snap back a little and re center. Oh. Oh. Andrew. That pendulum is going to swing back. It's not going to swing back to center. Dude, it's going to go way past center and it's going to smash into the right side of the wall. And we're gonna have problems over there, too. It doesn't matter. The pendulum is gonna swing. It's not gonna snap back to center. But whatever. Trump also reaffirmed his pledge to pardon Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, on his first day in office. Ulbricht is serving a double life sentence plus 40 years as if double life wasn't enough without the possibility of parole.
Trump claimed Bitcoin does not threaten the United States dollar, but rather the current US government is threatening the dollar itself. Following Trump's speech, Bitcoin surged over 3%, hitting its highest price in 6 weeks. Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, Jr. Also spoke at the conference. But we already talked about that and that's the end of the article. So, we've got Trump saying these things. But also remember, like if you and if you didn't hear like people talk if you haven't heard about what people are talking about Trump, you know, about Trump's speech.
It was it was really cringe. He used crypto way too many times and he's talking at a Bitcoin conference. And right there you get into the whole cringe state. But at least he's talking about not auctioning off the 204,000 Bitcoin that the United States has. I honestly didn't think we had that much in reserve. Well, we don't have it in reserve yet. It's it's in danger, at the I think it's pretty much all in custody of the United States marshal service. And they're the ones that will, you know, auction these things off or God forbid sell it on the open market. But they haven't yet. And that gives me pause. I mean, why haven't they yet?
Well, some people will say, well, they're keeping it in their back pocket. It's a tool to, you know, scare the living daylights out of the market if and when they need it. I can see that. I can see that as being a good solid reason as why they haven't sold it yet. But if Trump's not lying, and I always think everybody that's a politician is lying to me. I mean, that's their fault, not mine. Because all politicians lie. And the fact that we allow that we allow that to be some kind of just guttural truth but have still not done a fucking thing about it blows my mind. All politicians lie. And everybody that says that to each other says, yes. You are correct, sir or madam. And yet, we still have politicians.
Why are we allowing these people to exist if they just lie? I I asked myself that on I've asked myself that for years and I have no credible answer to give. We don't tar and feather people anymore. We don't scare the living, you know, shit out of them anymore. We don't, I mean, and I'm I I would go farther than that, but I I kinda just don't wanna incite any any kind of, you know, ideas of violence. But there used to be a time when we didn't allow people to get away with the kind of shit that they get away with now. Alright. So we got we've got to bring that attitude back. We we literally have to make the politicians scared to death of being out in public.
Because if they're not scared to death of the citizenry, they will just use us as the doormat that they've been using us as for decades decades, if not centuries. Just saying. Okay. It is time for Oh man. Hold up. Sorry. Just lost my tab there. Oh God. We're getting into Futures and Commodities from CNBC but, God. Oil is not doing well today at all. It's over a point to the downside. West Texas Intermediate clocking in at $76.35 a barrel. Brenton, North Sea is down also a point to 80.25. Natural gas is down 2.69 percent to under 2 bucks. $1.95 per 1,000. And gasoline is down almost a full point to $2.44 a gallon.
Gold is unchanged $2,381. Silver is down almost a point. Platinum is up over a point. Copper is down a point and a quarter. Palladium is up almost a full point. Biggest winner in Ag today is who? Who is it? Who's got Oh, Sugar. 3.15% to the upside. Biggest loser today appears to be soybeans. 2 3 quarters to the downside. Where we at? Where we at? Live cattle is down 0.4%. Lean hogs are down. Wow. 4 a quarter percent. Holy shit. Feeder cattle are down almost a full point. Dow is down a quarter of a point, but the S and P is up almost a 5th of a point. Nasdaq is up 0.68%. But the S and P Mini dragging down the other side 0.12% to the downside.
And that's about all of the legacy markets that I want to cover because I need to get into yesterday's show. Lawn Care and Bitcoin. That was episode 929 with my friend Cody. This thing is not doing well in numbers. And I think it's because I released it on a Sunday, which I have never released an episode of Bitcoin and on a Sunday before. I really I'm enjoying the living daylights out of recording shows up here. Yes, I understand. They're rough. I do not have my full rig. So I appreciate you guys bearing with me during the 2 weeks that I'm up here. But for the last 5 years, at least 2 years in a row or I mean at least 2 times per year for 5 years, I have not done shows for 2 full weeks if not two and a half weeks of no shows at all. And done reruns and stuff like that.
But I enjoy record I enjoy making the show. I this is a production that I love doing. And I people will go, God David you're on vacation. Why are you doing it? Because this isn't it doesn't feel like work most of the time. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it's a slog. But 90% of the time dude, I love doing this and I've always wanted to do this. So if you haven't listened to yesterday's show Lawn Care and Bitcoin, please go listen to that show and stream sats to it and give boost to it. Because it so happens that Cody has 4 businesses that he's built by himself. Well, I mean a little bit. Everybody gets a little bit of help. But essentially he's the one that does all the work at these businesses from lawn care to snow removal to excavation to septic tank install.
And he started these when he was 14, between the ages of 14 15 with his first business which was lawn care. If you want to talk to somebody who is now or hear somebody talk who is now 18, he just graduated high school this last, you know, this summer Or like you know, this last school year was his last school year. And I I hope I'm hoping he doesn't go to college. He doesn't need to. He's already making bank, dude. And there's a couple of family members that he has that they had they quit. One of them at least quit their job and just started working for, you know, for Cody full time doing invoicing and whatnot. It's the kid is amazing.
So if you want to tap into that entrepreneurial spirit, you know, go listen to the show and go boost him. Because I I've given him a a get albie invite. So he is today I'm going to just walk all over him to get that shit set up so that he can give me his GitAlb address and I will be able to plug him directly into the splits on the lawn care and Bitcoin episode. Until then, what I'm doing is I'm keeping tabs on Fountain as to how many sats that has rolled in for that show. And I'm going to split I'm going to split that with him and then I'm going to to put his name into the split or his address into the split right after I split the proceeds with him so that I can show him what value for value looks like.
What a new style of invoicing looks like. What a new style of paying your employees looks like. Without me having to do a damn thing, he's going to get half the proceeds right into his own wallet and I'm never going to touch those funds. And as somebody who is as young as he is, going in, you know, at and been not going into business himself. He's been in business for 4 years. This is going to show him what using Bitcoin to run a business is actually going to look like. So I need you guys, I need you guys to start boosting the lawn care and Bitcoin show. I need you to start start doing it hardcore but it would be awesome if you guys waited till tomorrow to do it.
It doesn't matter. If you if you just you're like that dude that's too much work. I'll go listen to it and I'll go boost it right now. But no no no. I'm not waiting. That's fine. Cody's gonna get half the proceeds no matter what is done. I would just like him to be able to look at his GetAlBI wallet every once in a while when he's on his computer and actually see live income on a minute per minute basis. That's what I want him to be able to see. And I did show him this boost of 400 satoshis from Chaka, but Chaka you didn't say anything so I couldn't tell him, how fountain works or or show him the other side of of the issue of giving a boost.
Because it's about interaction, right? It's not just about hey give me money. It's about interaction. So if you don't want me to go out and beat the baby seals, I need you to boost the lawn care and Bitcoin episode. I also need you to boost this one. Your donations make this show work. Your donations is why I'm not taking 2 and a half weeks off while I'm on vacation. Because you guys bought the materials that it took to make this particular show fully mobile. Alright? So stop making me go out and beat baby seals and donate to the damn show. Otherwise, we're gonna get into a Venezuela situation.
Venezuela. Oh, boy. Venezuela's election body is calling the election, the presidential election for Nicolas Maduro. Opposition claims victory as well. Okay. I call complete and utter bullshit on the election of Nicolas Maduro. They stole that fucking election. And there's let's do this one from CoinDesk first and then I want to read a couple of these notes on Noster from Malo's 10 who is in Venezuela. Venezuela's election body or Venezuela's dependence of crypto has been fueled by a dire economic situation. International sanctions and nearly 8,000,000 citizens fleeing the country over the last 10 years.
Venezuela's election body has announced that Nicolas Maduro has been reelected president of the nation even though the opposition has claimed victory. According to reports, the South American country's dependence of crypto has been fueled by a dire economic situation, international sanctions, 8,000,000 citizens fleeing the country. It is one of the primary remittance dependent nations in the continent with over 4 61,000,000 in remittance in 2023 coming through cryptocurrencies according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Venezuela's state owned oil company even looked to Tether as a means to bypass sanctions placed on it by the United States according to reports earlier this year. However, Venezuela ended its petro cryptocurrency in January of 2024, more than 5 years after it was first launched and 5 years of nobody actually using that piece of shit. The election authority controlled by Maduro loyalists.
Oh, no, no. There's no can't possibly be any, you know, conflict of interest there, said Maduro won 51% of the vote. And opposition candidate, Emundo Emundo Gonzales secured 44%. But since these results were based on 80% of voting stations reporting, this marked an irreversible trend, the Associated Press reported. In a speech, Maduro praised the electoral system, alleged the system was the target of a failed massive hack by a foreign actor, which he refused to identify and called Argentina's president Javier Malay a sociopath. Wow. Malay said on Twitter, Venezuelans chose to end Maduro's dictatorship and that Argentina is not going to recognize another fraud.
Okay. I'm just I gotta pause here. I have got to pause because Maduro praised the electoral system and alleged that the system was a target of a failed massive hack by a foreign actor. What an odd thing to say, in your first speech after you've been elected or reelected president of a nation that you praise the electoral system? I don't Something smells really bad. The US Secretary of State A. Blinkin Abe Lincoln get it? Anthony Blinkin? Abe Lincoln? Whatever. Said that they had serious concerns about the election results And the Republican senator Marco Rubio from Florida, which has the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, said Maduro's government had just carried out the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history.
United States vice president Kamala Harris took to Twitter to acknowledge the vote. Quote, the United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today's historic presidential election. The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected. Despite the many challenges, we will continue to work toward a more democratic, prosperous, and secure future for the people of Venezuela. Harris said quote, the dignity sorry. Hold on. Quote, today, the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people triumphed over pressure and manipulation, said Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canal on Twitter. Okay. This is all bullshit, right? Because I was looking at Malos 10 on on Noster all day yesterday and it was clear and before I went to sleep that the opposition to Nicolas Maduro was winning the vote by not a landslide, but by a lot. There was also lots of Malo's tent taking pictures and videos of troops in the street.
There were reports of polling centers being closed. And then I get to this one. And this was after after I woke up this morning. Malas 10, about 2 hours ago said, and he gives a picture of a guy taking a selfie of himself at a voting tabulation center in Venezuela. And it's Malo says, at the tabulation center in Venezuela, a significant error occurred when election workers accidentally posted a picture revealing the results of the presidential election. The image displaying a pie chart on one of the workers screens indicates a massive defeat for the socialist president Nicolas Maduro against the opposition.
This revelation suggests that it would be virtually impossible for Maduro to manipulate the election results in his favor. And Malice goes on and on and on and on. He was reporting all day yesterday all day yesterday, and he's gonna be probably doing it all day today on what was going on in Venezuela. Maduro was not going to win that election. He's been president twice and Venezuelan presidents have a 6 year term. So for 12 years, 12 years. That's what? Just 2 years over a decade. And what do we know about the last decade in Venezuela's population? It's been depleted by 8,000,000.
They fled. They fled Venezuela en masse because of this dude. And he's winning? No. It is time for the Venezuelan people to storm the capital. It's time for them to take Maduro out in the street and tar and feather him and all of his friends and do this shit again. Do this shit one more fucking time. This is ridiculous. It is high time for the citizenry of the world to say enough. Enough of these people. Yes. I understand what I'm what I'm actually saying. I get it. But how much more of this shit are we going to allow ourselves to take? Because we keep handing over a worse and worse world to our children? It's gotta stop.
People like Nicolas Maduro have got to be ended. Whether they just harden feather him and run him out on a rail like they used to do in the old days or they tie a sack of fucking cement to them and throw them in the goddamn ocean. I don't give a shit at this point. I just don't fucking care. I can't care anymore about these people And why we just continuously allow ourselves to put up with this bullshit is beyond my fucking imagination to take. This man has stolen this election and unless the people of Venezuela stand up today, this shit is going to be so much worse for not just Venezuelans, but for South America, for Central America, for the Western Hemisphere, for the West part of the Eastern Hemisphere.
It just goes on and on. The corruption gets worse and worse and worse. And one of these days is going to be impossible. It will be impossible to reverse. We still have a chance. We still have a chance. Let's I'm sorry about that. Getting off my high horse. Bitbanana. Let's get into some some good news. Bitbanana version 0.8.4 has been released. It has watchtower support for LND nodes. Oh, thank God. A watchtower is simply a kind of protection unit for Lightning for the Lightning Network that makes sure that people aren't really rugging payment channels. You kind of got to set them up yourself and that's always been a problem. But it looks like Bitbanana is making it easier.
But they don't say a whole lot about it. It says quote, Bitbanana now supports watchtowers and inbound fee control for LND nodes. Upgrade to get the new features including watchtower support for LND nodes. Added inbound fee support for LND nodes. They moved a feature setting from advanced settings to the normal settings. App can now stay 30 seconds in the background before a reconnection is necessary. And there's some updated translations. Not much more about BitBanana, but if you are interested in watchtowers and want to learn more about how this this whole thing works, maybe playing around with Bitbanana might be a might be a good idea.
Mara or Marathon, which is not to be trusted. Okay. Marathon Digital is not to be trusted. But they say that they're buying a $100,000,000 worth of Bitcoin and reactivates their full HODL strategy. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital announced that it has purchased a 100,000,000 of Bitcoin and currently now holds 20,000 BTC on its balance sheet. Recent acquisitions have amounted to approximately 1500 BTC acquired just this month with price ranges between 54,068,000 according to the block. The company also proclaimed that it will adopt a full hodl approach towards its Bitcoin Treasury policy, retaining all Bitcoin mined in its operations and will periodically make strategic open market purchases.
Quote, adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long term value of Bitcoin. We believe Bitcoin is the world's best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations, to all hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset, said chairman and CEO Fred Thiel. Previously, the company retained all of its Bitcoin, but Mara began selling a portion of its monthly production to cover operating expenses during the bear market of 2022. Quote, prior to last year, the company used used to hold all of its Bitcoin.
Given Bitcoin's current tailwinds, including increased institutional support and an improving macro environment, we are once again implementing this strategy and focusing on growing the amount we hold on our balance sheet. Bitcoin's recent price decline coupled with the strength of our balance sheet afforded us the opportunity to add to our holdings, added Salman Khan, Mara's chief financial officer. The current move comes after Mara raised a significant equity financing which totaled 472,000,000 in the Q1 of 2023 through stock offerings. The firm is the largest public bitcoin mining company with nearly 30 exahashes in realized hash rate.
Don't believe them. Don't trust them. Just because that they're making the statement that said they're they were reactivating a full huddle strategy, that's technically a lie. Because they never had a full hodl strategy. So there's nothing to reactivate. Why why am I saying this? They used to hold and then they started selling. That's not hodling. Now, if they would just come out and say that, I wouldn't have as much of a problem. But there was never a full huddle strategy, not when you can turn it off. And also, it's technically not feasible for them to do to do that, right? I mean not for any length of time. You can't go full huddle as a mining company cause you've got to pay people.
You have to buy electricity. You have to buy infrastructure. You have to, I don't know, mop the floors and that actually costs some kind of money. So if you're not selling some of this stuff for the fiat currency, then, you're not able to get any of these things. You're not able to to get energy contracts. And even if you don't go fiat, you still have to peel off some of the revenue that you made in Bitcoin And and make a Bitcoin transfer to somebody else who says, yes I I will you can pay for for goods and services with Bitcoin.
Well, if you peel that off and even if you don't sell it for fiat, you're still not huddling. So somebody please tell me how Marathon is making magic money out of thin air and they can pay all their bills and not sell or give over any Bitcoin that they mine. Because I don't see how they make any other revenue. So if somebody can tell me how that's working, please do so. Otherwise, Nunchuk introduced automated Bitcoin rollover with advanced coin control. Nunchuk is a Bitcoin multisig wallet with premium features such as inheritance planning, scheduled transactions, emergency lockdown, and more.
Quote, We are excited to introduce a significant update to Nunchuk. The new wallet rollover feature. This powerful tool provides a comprehensive solution for migrating from 1 old wallet to a new wallet, while maintaining your preferred coin management strategy, announced Nunchuk. So what's new? Well, there's an automated wallet rollover. Migrating from an old wallet to a new one has been manual, requiring careful transaction and coin control by users. Nunchuk's wallet rollover feature automates the whole process reducing errors and saving time. Its advanced coin control management offers exceptional granularity and privacy techniques not seen in other Bitcoin wallets. And the wallet rollover feature functions independently and can be used in various situations involving fund transfer between wallets including key placement processes.
Transfer between any wallet types. You can preserve coin's segregation strategy during those transfers. You can enhance privacy further through randomized broadcast of the rollover transactions. To initiate a wallet rollover, navigate to the wallet that you want to migrate from, and then to view wallet config, and then to more menu, and then to roll funds over to another wallet. And there are clearly there's other other features involved. But be careful with this. In in fact, be very very wary of this. And I'm not saying that Nunchuk isn't doing it. I'm saying that every time an automated process takes the place of a human in something as important as your Bitcoin, you don't want to just automatically trust it. Alright?
Let it burn in. Let it be tested. Let somebody else be the guinea pig before we figure out if this is so solid that you can just not blink and get this done and everything will always be fine. Like I said, I I I like Nunchuck. I like the guys over at Nunchuck. I've I've never seen them do any kind of weird thing. But this one, automated coin control, automated transactions from one wallet to another as a rollover feature. I don't know, man. That that that just gives me the willies. But of course, then again, I'm a guy I am the guy that still has issues hitting the send button on like, you know, 0.05 Bitcoin.
It's still it's always given me the willies. It always will. I used to run test transactions before I would send the real transaction. I've at least gotten over that that issue. I just get real careful about making sure that the wallet address that I'm sending to is in fact the wallet address that I was given through what like if I'm sending, I don't know, Bitcoin to like, I don't know, my like my lightning node. If I wanna like, I don't know, open up another channel and I get some bitcoin out of cold storage or something like that. I make deadly sure that those wallet addresses are in fact identical from the one that I was given to the one that I pasted into the transaction.
I mean, it takes me a lot longer than probably, you know normal bitcoiners to make a transaction because I'm I really have to think about it. And I also have a rule where I I don't drink. If I'm going to do a bitcoin transaction that day, I I I don't drink. I I'm not going to smoke any pot. I'm not I mean I'm not not a big pot smoker. I'm just saying that I'm not gonna be a knee breed when I'm doing this shit. And if for whatever reason I find myself really wanting to make a Bitcoin transaction and I'm like somehow or another had like 4, you know, like let's say, 4 glasses of wine. Because I'm hanging out with friends and then, you know, hey, show me how to do a Bitcoin transaction.
The answer is no. And it will always be no. No drunken transactions allowed people. Okay. So going back to the automation of the nunchuck wallet. All I'm saying is be careful. May I don't know how one would go about testing this, you know? Because to test the coin control, you kind of actually have to have coin control. What I'd like to hear is that you could use the Nunchuk wallet in test mode on Bitcoin testnet and not on the mainnet and play around with coins, that don't actually that or at least are not supposed to have any real value. Alright. So, okay. That's the end of the show. But before I hit, my button for the music bed, let me just reiterate that I need you to go listen to the Cody interview.
He's a really good kid. And I I honestly have never really really met anybody like him. I mean he's one of these guys that you you wish you had been like him when he when you were his age, and the fact that you weren't, you know, kinda makes you feel a little bad. But he represents a massive hope for the future. I mean, think about it. He's got 4 businesses. He's 18. By the time I see him next summer, he's gonna end up having 5 businesses. And when I see him the summer after that, he'll probably have 7. I've actually I'm trying to talk him into starting a biochar business because I kinda wanna work with the kid. He's actually that badass. Go listen to the interview, and I will see you on the other side.
Coming to you live from the San Juan mountains, this is episode 930 of Bitcoin, and it is 8:26 AM. It is well, I don't know. Like, what? The 29th day of July 2024. We are gonna go through some of the news today. We're gonna go we're gonna do some of the, speeches that were made over at the Bitcoin conference and some of that wackery. We got some funkery going on down south in Venezuela. We're gonna talk about that. Coinbase is gonna hold the keys to an entire nation's ETF. Bitcoins It's just disgusting the way this thing is working. So without further ado, let's jump right in. But first, we're going over to Wyoming. That's right.
University of Wyoming has launched the 1st Bitcoin Research Institute. This is out of Bitcoin Magazine written by Nick Hoffman. The University of Wyoming has established the UW, Bitcoin Research Institute, marking the first academic institute dedicated to Bitcoin studies. Doctor Bradley Retler, an associate professor of philosophy and author of Resistance Money, A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin, has been appointed as the inaugural director, Retler announced on the genesis stage at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville. The Institute aims to elevate the quality and impact of Bitcoin research by creating faculty positions for Bitcoin research, incentivizing and rewarding good academic research on Bitcoin, encouraging young scholars to pursue Bitcoin research projects, and provide workshops on related paper and papers and books. It will also connect researchers interests in Bitcoin and provide peer reviewed research for journalists, policymakers, and the public. The current state of academic Bitcoin research is, you know, not of the highest quality. So the Institute aims to address these issues by creating and providing more accurate and rigorous academic studies on Bitcoin.
The Institute will work to ensure that high quality evidence based research is accessible to all. God, I hope so. The University of Wyoming is strategically positioned to lead this initiative due to its interdisciplinary academic collaboration, its proximity to renewable energy sources, and supportive legislative and regulatory environment, the Institute will also collaborate with various university units, including the philosophy and economics departments, school of computing, and center for blockchain and digital innovation. Those interested in supporting this research can donate to UW Bitcoin Research Institute here.
Donations are tax deductible, yada yada yada yada. Alright, so is it good or bad? This in my opinion, the state of academia, the the academy. And I'm not talking just the United States. I'm talking the I'm talking about the the whole enchilada when it comes to higher education. The state of it right now is beyond pathetic. It's been completely co opted by the by student loans. Essentially, money printing has done its business on academia just like it's done on everything else at least in the West. But even in other countries that you wouldn't consider the West, academia has been infiltrated by all manner of douchebaggery, scumbaggery and a fiat mindset.
So I have serious reservations about whether or not the University of Wyoming is going to actually push forward real solid sovereign Bitcoin research without getting into or allowing itself to be guided by the misfortunate people that run academia at the highest level. Just because there is an institute does not mean that it's not going to be somehow or another, you know, mired in the tomfoolery of university provost and presidents. And these guys get paid like 6 figures. Where you it used to be the it used to be the case that you couldn't get somebody to be the president of a university. And now that's your gateway drug into politics. It's sad but it's true. So just because Bitcoin research is going to be done at the University of Wyoming, it doesn't mean that it's essentially going to be a good thing that it's going to produce anything. I I think it's actually good news because it's the University of Wyoming.
You got Caitlin Long out there. You got Trace Mayer out there. Say what you want about Trace? I still think that he gave I still think that he destroyed his reputation on purpose so that he could go do something else. He was running the Bitcoin Knowledge, podcast. It was the first podcast I listened to. And I I think he he told he made that some comments about Grin, being the next Bitcoin after he told everybody not to talk about or not to worry about shit coins. He started talking about shit coins. And then you never heard from him again. But he's still out in Wyoming as far as I know working alongside Caitlin Long and the legislative people out there. So there may be that there may be a ray of hope here. I I don't know. Again, as always, we're gonna have to wait and see what they actually produce. So we'll we'll do that.
In the meantime, Coinbase is going to provide custody for DigitalX's Australian Bitcoin ETF. Yeah. Not your keys, not your coins. And it goes for more than just the citizenry. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is doubling down on its support of global spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds becoming a custody partner for a Bitcoin ETF in Australia. Excuse me. Digital X's The issue, Australia's Digital X, the issuer of the Spot Bitcoin ETF called Digital X Bitcoin ETF has selected Coinbase as the custody provider for its spot Bitcoin Fund according to official BTXX fact sheets.
Launched on July 12th, The Digital X Bitcoin ETF aims to provide returns that mirror the performance of Bitcoin by maintaining long term holdings of BTC. Just so stupid. Digital X announced it received approval to list its spot Bitcoin ETF on the Australian Securities and Exchange on July 9th. Quote, the fund is intended to be a passive holder of Bitcoin and will not buy and sell Bitcoin other than to facilitate redemptions and creation of Bitcoin interests, the BTXX fact sheet notes. One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, Coinbase has emerged as a prominent firm involved in enabling the infrastructure for global spot bitcoin ETFs. And after being approved in the United States, in January, Coinbase has become a partner in custody provider for 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs and 8 of the 9 newly approved ether ETFs.
The most significant spot Bitcoin ETFs including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and BlackRock's iShares also rely on Coinbase as a Bitcoin custody partner. Quote, with a track record of over 12 years, safekeeping digital assets at scale, we have developed the leading institutional grade custody crypto community, Coinbase said in its suit speak letter on its website. Some industry executives previously argued that Coinbase's dominance across retail and Bitcoin ETFs poses a significant threat of a hacking or a state intervention of some sort or another. Others claim that even if Coinbase goes bankrupt, there's still a way to keep access to the Bitcoin ETFs underlying funds.
Okay. So that's honestly all we really need to know about that. Again, this kind of makes me nervous And it should make everybody nervous that Coinbase is custodying the Bitcoin for all these different funds. Because it is you wanna talk about a honey pot. And Coinbase was a honey pot before any of this crap happened with the ETFs and now it's even it's just it's and I don't and clearly I don't like Coinbase but you know, what do you gotta do? So Gutter has revisited their crypto stance after their ban. They promised regulations by the end of 2024.
Nathan Mintzberg writing for Decrypt. Qadar is making strides towards establishing a regulatory framework for digital assets signaling a shift from its previous hardline stance against cryptocurrencies. The wealthy Gulf State banned Bitcoin trading back in 2018. But, you know, as recent developments occur, it suggests that it's cautiously reconsidering its approach. Last year, Qatari Financial Regulators proposed a framework to regulate investments, investment tokens backed by tangible assets. The Gutter Financial Center Regulatory Authority and the, QFC Authority collaboratively developed this digital asset framework aiming to bolster Gunder's digital economy strategy. They sought industry feedback to refine a proposed regulation with the final legislation expected in Q4 of 2024.
The QFC also established a digital assets lab to encourage innovation in financial and digital asset sectors. The Digital Asset Framework represents a pivotal milestone in our journey towards fostering innovation and growth within gutters financial landscape. Maha al Sadhi, head of regulatory affairs at QFCA, said earlier this year during an interview with Unlock Media. The lab provides a collaborative space for startups and researchers to explore solutions related to digital assets and blockchain. However, Qatar's path to crypto adoption hasn't been very smooth. Last May, the Financial Action Task Force, the FATF, accused the country of being too lax on, of course, terrorist fundraising and urged the gutter central bank to be more proactive in sanctioning VASPs breaching the crypto ban.
The FADF report cited 2,007 rejected transactions and 43 closed accounts linked to digital assets, but noted that no formal sanctions were applied. Keep in mind, none of the regulatory ambiguity stopped crypto.com from becoming a sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup which was hosted in Gutter. The press release for the news even went so far to say that the crypto exchange would be the exclusive cryptocurrency trading platform sponsor of Gutter 2022. Despite these challenges, Gutter is moving forward. The central bank has finished building the foundation for its digital currency and plans to test it with local and international banks. So Gutter looks like it's you know back in play.
And why? Well, why do you think? The whole world is coming over to this now. There's there's there's nothing that can really be done to stop it. The only might you know, our only real concern is how much of the development of Bitcoin and infrastructure of Bitcoin can and will be co opted. Well thankfully the structure of Bitcoin doesn't really allow for the can But that doesn't stop the humans that work on Bitcoin from being co opted themselves or, you know, threatened with, I don't know, you know with your livelihood, your freedom, all manner of things from working on it. We're we're we've seen these things start popping up and we're gonna see more of these things start popping up.
But the nature of Bitcoin, the nature of its decentralization is going to come out ahead on all of this. But in the meantime, we're gonna watch country after country after country like dominoes falling in a chain start adopting Bitcoin or some kind of God forbid crypto or you know regulation. It just can't be stopped. It's it was never going to be able to be stopped. So, speaking of why these people might be changing their minds. Well, RFK Jr proposed to buy 4,000,000 Bitcoin if he's elected president. I don't know if he's pandering or what. Let's find out more from Vivex in Bitcoin Magazine. Independent US presidential candidate, Robert f Kennedy junior, made headlines at the Bitcoin 2024 conference by pledging to purchase 4,000,000 Bitcoin for the US government if he's elected president.
Speaking to a cheering crowd, Kennedy outlined his bold plan to integrate Bitcoin into the national economy. Quote, I will sign an executive order. Oh, yes. The executive order. Directing the US Treasury to purchase 550 Bitcoin daily until the US amasses a reserve of at least 4,000,000,000 Bitcoin. Good luck, dude. Kennedy declared this would represent nearly 20% of the total Bitcoin supply. Again, good luck, man. Kennedy also said that he would transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin currently held by the government into a Federal Reserve strategic reserve. He promised the cascading impact of these moves would effectively move Bitcoin to a valuation of 100 of 1,000,000,000,000 of dollars.
He praised Bitcoin as the currency of hope and a way to restore financial stability after years of poor monetary policies. You spelled malfeasance wrong, but that's okay, Bobby. Quote, fiat currency was invented to fund the war, Kennedy said. Adding that a Bitcoin standard would eliminate incentives for military conflict. While Kennedy is not doing very well in early polls, his full throated embrace of Bitcoin could help him gain traction with libertarian leaning voters. He railed against high inflation and shrinking purchasing power, issues he believes adopting a Bitcoin standard would address.
Again, can't really argue with that. Kennedy also pledged to make Bitcoin transactions non taxable and allow Bitcoin to be exchanged tax free. He said Bitcoin's transparency makes it the greatest foe of government corruption. With Bitcoin becoming a hot topic in the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy is clearly trying to seize the mantle as the most Bitcoin friendly candidate. His call for a massive 4,000,000 Bitcoin reserve shows he's willing to stake out bold positions to attract the growing Bitcoin voter block. Just because somebody says that they wanna do something, doesn't mean that they're actually going to do it. And if anything proves that, just, I don't know, look at politics for the last 400 years.
I don't know if he's I'm not suggesting that Kennedy's lying. But there's a couple things here. He's not going to be president. And even if he even if he was doing well in the polls, he's not going to be president. He's just not. However, where I think he comes into play here is probably by being given some kind of seat, either at the attorney general's office, either as AG himself or some kind of like, I don't know high up assistant attorney general or I don't know secretary of secretary some secretary seat in the cabinet of the president of the United States. I don't think he's gonna be left out is what I'm saying. And if he does not get left out and he's taken in in whatever new administration that we have, Because I honestly at this point think Trump's gonna win this. I I just don't see I don't see it any other way.
And I don't see I also don't see there being such a I don't see there being a differential that would suggest that they would be able to get away with stealing the election. It's too weighted over to Trump's side, right? So I don't think that they can do that and get away with it. So I'm pretty sure Trump's going to get in. And if he gets in, I'm pretty sure that Bobby Kennedy is going to come along for the ride somehow. And if they are both at least not lying that they like Bitcoin, I don't need them to amass 4,000,000 Bitcoin. I actually you don't need that much for for the United States. 20 percent of the world's Bitcoin supply, that makes me nervous for obvious reasons. It just becomes too centralized. But if they're not lying about things like tax free transactions or just being able even if we had just a de minimis, like the ability for me to you know make a $600 you know purchase of something with Bitcoin that I bought like 10 years ago and not have to pay taxes on it. That would be awesome. That would be great.
And if Trump had any sense about him at all at this point, he would start talking to Robert Kennedy's camp and say I want to put him in somewhere because I want your voters. And then if anybody that's voting for Robert Kennedy, they know he's not gonna win. Now he's he's I don't even think he'd beat Kamala Harris at this point. Not because he's unpopular. I just don't think that he's going to be able to to get that high a number. But if Trump takes him in and says, hey let's do this thing, then I guarantee you the voters that would go for Bobby Kennedy will vote for Donald Trump who himself has pledged a strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville. And this is also from Bitcoin Magazine and Vivek Sin.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Saturday, former president Donald Trump made several pledges to the Bitcoin community if elected in 2024. Most notably, Trump said that he would create a strategic national reserve of Bitcoin as an economic asset. Quote, I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's anti crypto crusade will be over. The United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world. Oh, God. This is so bad.
Don't don't get me wrong. I don't hate the guy, but this is just I just there was so much cringe in this speech. I wasn't there. I've heard stories. What I've heard is pretty damn cringe. But Trump vowed to fire SEC chairman Gary Gensler also on his 1st day in office and appoint a new chairman more friendly to Bitcoin and crypto. He also said that the government will keep 100% of its current Bitcoin rather than auctioning it off. Slowly building up a national reserve quote, Bitcoin stands for freedom, sovereignty, and independence from government coercion and control.
Bitcoin and crypto will skyrocket like never before if I am elected president, Trump stated. The former president's remarks were welcomed by the largely libertarian leaning audience. Attendee Andrew Campbell told Wired that he would vote for Trump this time after not doing so in 2016 nor in 2020. Quote, I think we've gone too far left, and we need to snap back a little and re center. Oh. Oh. Andrew. That pendulum is going to swing back. It's not going to swing back to center. Dude, it's going to go way past center and it's going to smash into the right side of the wall. And we're gonna have problems over there, too. It doesn't matter. The pendulum is gonna swing. It's not gonna snap back to center. But whatever. Trump also reaffirmed his pledge to pardon Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, on his first day in office. Ulbricht is serving a double life sentence plus 40 years as if double life wasn't enough without the possibility of parole.
Trump claimed Bitcoin does not threaten the United States dollar, but rather the current US government is threatening the dollar itself. Following Trump's speech, Bitcoin surged over 3%, hitting its highest price in 6 weeks. Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, Jr. Also spoke at the conference. But we already talked about that and that's the end of the article. So, we've got Trump saying these things. But also remember, like if you and if you didn't hear like people talk if you haven't heard about what people are talking about Trump, you know, about Trump's speech.
It was it was really cringe. He used crypto way too many times and he's talking at a Bitcoin conference. And right there you get into the whole cringe state. But at least he's talking about not auctioning off the 204,000 Bitcoin that the United States has. I honestly didn't think we had that much in reserve. Well, we don't have it in reserve yet. It's it's in danger, at the I think it's pretty much all in custody of the United States marshal service. And they're the ones that will, you know, auction these things off or God forbid sell it on the open market. But they haven't yet. And that gives me pause. I mean, why haven't they yet?
Well, some people will say, well, they're keeping it in their back pocket. It's a tool to, you know, scare the living daylights out of the market if and when they need it. I can see that. I can see that as being a good solid reason as why they haven't sold it yet. But if Trump's not lying, and I always think everybody that's a politician is lying to me. I mean, that's their fault, not mine. Because all politicians lie. And the fact that we allow that we allow that to be some kind of just guttural truth but have still not done a fucking thing about it blows my mind. All politicians lie. And everybody that says that to each other says, yes. You are correct, sir or madam. And yet, we still have politicians.
Why are we allowing these people to exist if they just lie? I I asked myself that on I've asked myself that for years and I have no credible answer to give. We don't tar and feather people anymore. We don't scare the living, you know, shit out of them anymore. We don't, I mean, and I'm I I would go farther than that, but I I kinda just don't wanna incite any any kind of, you know, ideas of violence. But there used to be a time when we didn't allow people to get away with the kind of shit that they get away with now. Alright. So we got we've got to bring that attitude back. We we literally have to make the politicians scared to death of being out in public.
Because if they're not scared to death of the citizenry, they will just use us as the doormat that they've been using us as for decades decades, if not centuries. Just saying. Okay. It is time for Oh man. Hold up. Sorry. Just lost my tab there. Oh God. We're getting into Futures and Commodities from CNBC but, God. Oil is not doing well today at all. It's over a point to the downside. West Texas Intermediate clocking in at $76.35 a barrel. Brenton, North Sea is down also a point to 80.25. Natural gas is down 2.69 percent to under 2 bucks. $1.95 per 1,000. And gasoline is down almost a full point to $2.44 a gallon.
Gold is unchanged $2,381. Silver is down almost a point. Platinum is up over a point. Copper is down a point and a quarter. Palladium is up almost a full point. Biggest winner in Ag today is who? Who is it? Who's got Oh, Sugar. 3.15% to the upside. Biggest loser today appears to be soybeans. 2 3 quarters to the downside. Where we at? Where we at? Live cattle is down 0.4%. Lean hogs are down. Wow. 4 a quarter percent. Holy shit. Feeder cattle are down almost a full point. Dow is down a quarter of a point, but the S and P is up almost a 5th of a point. Nasdaq is up 0.68%. But the S and P Mini dragging down the other side 0.12% to the downside.
And that's about all of the legacy markets that I want to cover because I need to get into yesterday's show. Lawn Care and Bitcoin. That was episode 929 with my friend Cody. This thing is not doing well in numbers. And I think it's because I released it on a Sunday, which I have never released an episode of Bitcoin and on a Sunday before. I really I'm enjoying the living daylights out of recording shows up here. Yes, I understand. They're rough. I do not have my full rig. So I appreciate you guys bearing with me during the 2 weeks that I'm up here. But for the last 5 years, at least 2 years in a row or I mean at least 2 times per year for 5 years, I have not done shows for 2 full weeks if not two and a half weeks of no shows at all. And done reruns and stuff like that.
But I enjoy record I enjoy making the show. I this is a production that I love doing. And I people will go, God David you're on vacation. Why are you doing it? Because this isn't it doesn't feel like work most of the time. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it's a slog. But 90% of the time dude, I love doing this and I've always wanted to do this. So if you haven't listened to yesterday's show Lawn Care and Bitcoin, please go listen to that show and stream sats to it and give boost to it. Because it so happens that Cody has 4 businesses that he's built by himself. Well, I mean a little bit. Everybody gets a little bit of help. But essentially he's the one that does all the work at these businesses from lawn care to snow removal to excavation to septic tank install.
And he started these when he was 14, between the ages of 14 15 with his first business which was lawn care. If you want to talk to somebody who is now or hear somebody talk who is now 18, he just graduated high school this last, you know, this summer Or like you know, this last school year was his last school year. And I I hope I'm hoping he doesn't go to college. He doesn't need to. He's already making bank, dude. And there's a couple of family members that he has that they had they quit. One of them at least quit their job and just started working for, you know, for Cody full time doing invoicing and whatnot. It's the kid is amazing.
So if you want to tap into that entrepreneurial spirit, you know, go listen to the show and go boost him. Because I I've given him a a get albie invite. So he is today I'm going to just walk all over him to get that shit set up so that he can give me his GitAlb address and I will be able to plug him directly into the splits on the lawn care and Bitcoin episode. Until then, what I'm doing is I'm keeping tabs on Fountain as to how many sats that has rolled in for that show. And I'm going to split I'm going to split that with him and then I'm going to to put his name into the split or his address into the split right after I split the proceeds with him so that I can show him what value for value looks like.
What a new style of invoicing looks like. What a new style of paying your employees looks like. Without me having to do a damn thing, he's going to get half the proceeds right into his own wallet and I'm never going to touch those funds. And as somebody who is as young as he is, going in, you know, at and been not going into business himself. He's been in business for 4 years. This is going to show him what using Bitcoin to run a business is actually going to look like. So I need you guys, I need you guys to start boosting the lawn care and Bitcoin show. I need you to start start doing it hardcore but it would be awesome if you guys waited till tomorrow to do it.
It doesn't matter. If you if you just you're like that dude that's too much work. I'll go listen to it and I'll go boost it right now. But no no no. I'm not waiting. That's fine. Cody's gonna get half the proceeds no matter what is done. I would just like him to be able to look at his GetAlBI wallet every once in a while when he's on his computer and actually see live income on a minute per minute basis. That's what I want him to be able to see. And I did show him this boost of 400 satoshis from Chaka, but Chaka you didn't say anything so I couldn't tell him, how fountain works or or show him the other side of of the issue of giving a boost.
Because it's about interaction, right? It's not just about hey give me money. It's about interaction. So if you don't want me to go out and beat the baby seals, I need you to boost the lawn care and Bitcoin episode. I also need you to boost this one. Your donations make this show work. Your donations is why I'm not taking 2 and a half weeks off while I'm on vacation. Because you guys bought the materials that it took to make this particular show fully mobile. Alright? So stop making me go out and beat baby seals and donate to the damn show. Otherwise, we're gonna get into a Venezuela situation.
Venezuela. Oh, boy. Venezuela's election body is calling the election, the presidential election for Nicolas Maduro. Opposition claims victory as well. Okay. I call complete and utter bullshit on the election of Nicolas Maduro. They stole that fucking election. And there's let's do this one from CoinDesk first and then I want to read a couple of these notes on Noster from Malo's 10 who is in Venezuela. Venezuela's election body or Venezuela's dependence of crypto has been fueled by a dire economic situation. International sanctions and nearly 8,000,000 citizens fleeing the country over the last 10 years.
Venezuela's election body has announced that Nicolas Maduro has been reelected president of the nation even though the opposition has claimed victory. According to reports, the South American country's dependence of crypto has been fueled by a dire economic situation, international sanctions, 8,000,000 citizens fleeing the country. It is one of the primary remittance dependent nations in the continent with over 4 61,000,000 in remittance in 2023 coming through cryptocurrencies according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Venezuela's state owned oil company even looked to Tether as a means to bypass sanctions placed on it by the United States according to reports earlier this year. However, Venezuela ended its petro cryptocurrency in January of 2024, more than 5 years after it was first launched and 5 years of nobody actually using that piece of shit. The election authority controlled by Maduro loyalists.
Oh, no, no. There's no can't possibly be any, you know, conflict of interest there, said Maduro won 51% of the vote. And opposition candidate, Emundo Emundo Gonzales secured 44%. But since these results were based on 80% of voting stations reporting, this marked an irreversible trend, the Associated Press reported. In a speech, Maduro praised the electoral system, alleged the system was the target of a failed massive hack by a foreign actor, which he refused to identify and called Argentina's president Javier Malay a sociopath. Wow. Malay said on Twitter, Venezuelans chose to end Maduro's dictatorship and that Argentina is not going to recognize another fraud.
Okay. I'm just I gotta pause here. I have got to pause because Maduro praised the electoral system and alleged that the system was a target of a failed massive hack by a foreign actor. What an odd thing to say, in your first speech after you've been elected or reelected president of a nation that you praise the electoral system? I don't Something smells really bad. The US Secretary of State A. Blinkin Abe Lincoln get it? Anthony Blinkin? Abe Lincoln? Whatever. Said that they had serious concerns about the election results And the Republican senator Marco Rubio from Florida, which has the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, said Maduro's government had just carried out the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history.
United States vice president Kamala Harris took to Twitter to acknowledge the vote. Quote, the United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today's historic presidential election. The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected. Despite the many challenges, we will continue to work toward a more democratic, prosperous, and secure future for the people of Venezuela. Harris said quote, the dignity sorry. Hold on. Quote, today, the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people triumphed over pressure and manipulation, said Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canal on Twitter. Okay. This is all bullshit, right? Because I was looking at Malos 10 on on Noster all day yesterday and it was clear and before I went to sleep that the opposition to Nicolas Maduro was winning the vote by not a landslide, but by a lot. There was also lots of Malo's tent taking pictures and videos of troops in the street.
There were reports of polling centers being closed. And then I get to this one. And this was after after I woke up this morning. Malas 10, about 2 hours ago said, and he gives a picture of a guy taking a selfie of himself at a voting tabulation center in Venezuela. And it's Malo says, at the tabulation center in Venezuela, a significant error occurred when election workers accidentally posted a picture revealing the results of the presidential election. The image displaying a pie chart on one of the workers screens indicates a massive defeat for the socialist president Nicolas Maduro against the opposition.
This revelation suggests that it would be virtually impossible for Maduro to manipulate the election results in his favor. And Malice goes on and on and on and on. He was reporting all day yesterday all day yesterday, and he's gonna be probably doing it all day today on what was going on in Venezuela. Maduro was not going to win that election. He's been president twice and Venezuelan presidents have a 6 year term. So for 12 years, 12 years. That's what? Just 2 years over a decade. And what do we know about the last decade in Venezuela's population? It's been depleted by 8,000,000.
They fled. They fled Venezuela en masse because of this dude. And he's winning? No. It is time for the Venezuelan people to storm the capital. It's time for them to take Maduro out in the street and tar and feather him and all of his friends and do this shit again. Do this shit one more fucking time. This is ridiculous. It is high time for the citizenry of the world to say enough. Enough of these people. Yes. I understand what I'm what I'm actually saying. I get it. But how much more of this shit are we going to allow ourselves to take? Because we keep handing over a worse and worse world to our children? It's gotta stop.
People like Nicolas Maduro have got to be ended. Whether they just harden feather him and run him out on a rail like they used to do in the old days or they tie a sack of fucking cement to them and throw them in the goddamn ocean. I don't give a shit at this point. I just don't fucking care. I can't care anymore about these people And why we just continuously allow ourselves to put up with this bullshit is beyond my fucking imagination to take. This man has stolen this election and unless the people of Venezuela stand up today, this shit is going to be so much worse for not just Venezuelans, but for South America, for Central America, for the Western Hemisphere, for the West part of the Eastern Hemisphere.
It just goes on and on. The corruption gets worse and worse and worse. And one of these days is going to be impossible. It will be impossible to reverse. We still have a chance. We still have a chance. Let's I'm sorry about that. Getting off my high horse. Bitbanana. Let's get into some some good news. Bitbanana version 0.8.4 has been released. It has watchtower support for LND nodes. Oh, thank God. A watchtower is simply a kind of protection unit for Lightning for the Lightning Network that makes sure that people aren't really rugging payment channels. You kind of got to set them up yourself and that's always been a problem. But it looks like Bitbanana is making it easier.
But they don't say a whole lot about it. It says quote, Bitbanana now supports watchtowers and inbound fee control for LND nodes. Upgrade to get the new features including watchtower support for LND nodes. Added inbound fee support for LND nodes. They moved a feature setting from advanced settings to the normal settings. App can now stay 30 seconds in the background before a reconnection is necessary. And there's some updated translations. Not much more about BitBanana, but if you are interested in watchtowers and want to learn more about how this this whole thing works, maybe playing around with Bitbanana might be a might be a good idea.
Mara or Marathon, which is not to be trusted. Okay. Marathon Digital is not to be trusted. But they say that they're buying a $100,000,000 worth of Bitcoin and reactivates their full HODL strategy. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital announced that it has purchased a 100,000,000 of Bitcoin and currently now holds 20,000 BTC on its balance sheet. Recent acquisitions have amounted to approximately 1500 BTC acquired just this month with price ranges between 54,068,000 according to the block. The company also proclaimed that it will adopt a full hodl approach towards its Bitcoin Treasury policy, retaining all Bitcoin mined in its operations and will periodically make strategic open market purchases.
Quote, adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long term value of Bitcoin. We believe Bitcoin is the world's best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations, to all hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset, said chairman and CEO Fred Thiel. Previously, the company retained all of its Bitcoin, but Mara began selling a portion of its monthly production to cover operating expenses during the bear market of 2022. Quote, prior to last year, the company used used to hold all of its Bitcoin.
Given Bitcoin's current tailwinds, including increased institutional support and an improving macro environment, we are once again implementing this strategy and focusing on growing the amount we hold on our balance sheet. Bitcoin's recent price decline coupled with the strength of our balance sheet afforded us the opportunity to add to our holdings, added Salman Khan, Mara's chief financial officer. The current move comes after Mara raised a significant equity financing which totaled 472,000,000 in the Q1 of 2023 through stock offerings. The firm is the largest public bitcoin mining company with nearly 30 exahashes in realized hash rate.
Don't believe them. Don't trust them. Just because that they're making the statement that said they're they were reactivating a full huddle strategy, that's technically a lie. Because they never had a full hodl strategy. So there's nothing to reactivate. Why why am I saying this? They used to hold and then they started selling. That's not hodling. Now, if they would just come out and say that, I wouldn't have as much of a problem. But there was never a full huddle strategy, not when you can turn it off. And also, it's technically not feasible for them to do to do that, right? I mean not for any length of time. You can't go full huddle as a mining company cause you've got to pay people.
You have to buy electricity. You have to buy infrastructure. You have to, I don't know, mop the floors and that actually costs some kind of money. So if you're not selling some of this stuff for the fiat currency, then, you're not able to get any of these things. You're not able to to get energy contracts. And even if you don't go fiat, you still have to peel off some of the revenue that you made in Bitcoin And and make a Bitcoin transfer to somebody else who says, yes I I will you can pay for for goods and services with Bitcoin.
Well, if you peel that off and even if you don't sell it for fiat, you're still not huddling. So somebody please tell me how Marathon is making magic money out of thin air and they can pay all their bills and not sell or give over any Bitcoin that they mine. Because I don't see how they make any other revenue. So if somebody can tell me how that's working, please do so. Otherwise, Nunchuk introduced automated Bitcoin rollover with advanced coin control. Nunchuk is a Bitcoin multisig wallet with premium features such as inheritance planning, scheduled transactions, emergency lockdown, and more.
Quote, We are excited to introduce a significant update to Nunchuk. The new wallet rollover feature. This powerful tool provides a comprehensive solution for migrating from 1 old wallet to a new wallet, while maintaining your preferred coin management strategy, announced Nunchuk. So what's new? Well, there's an automated wallet rollover. Migrating from an old wallet to a new one has been manual, requiring careful transaction and coin control by users. Nunchuk's wallet rollover feature automates the whole process reducing errors and saving time. Its advanced coin control management offers exceptional granularity and privacy techniques not seen in other Bitcoin wallets. And the wallet rollover feature functions independently and can be used in various situations involving fund transfer between wallets including key placement processes.
Transfer between any wallet types. You can preserve coin's segregation strategy during those transfers. You can enhance privacy further through randomized broadcast of the rollover transactions. To initiate a wallet rollover, navigate to the wallet that you want to migrate from, and then to view wallet config, and then to more menu, and then to roll funds over to another wallet. And there are clearly there's other other features involved. But be careful with this. In in fact, be very very wary of this. And I'm not saying that Nunchuk isn't doing it. I'm saying that every time an automated process takes the place of a human in something as important as your Bitcoin, you don't want to just automatically trust it. Alright?
Let it burn in. Let it be tested. Let somebody else be the guinea pig before we figure out if this is so solid that you can just not blink and get this done and everything will always be fine. Like I said, I I I like Nunchuck. I like the guys over at Nunchuck. I've I've never seen them do any kind of weird thing. But this one, automated coin control, automated transactions from one wallet to another as a rollover feature. I don't know, man. That that that just gives me the willies. But of course, then again, I'm a guy I am the guy that still has issues hitting the send button on like, you know, 0.05 Bitcoin.
It's still it's always given me the willies. It always will. I used to run test transactions before I would send the real transaction. I've at least gotten over that that issue. I just get real careful about making sure that the wallet address that I'm sending to is in fact the wallet address that I was given through what like if I'm sending, I don't know, Bitcoin to like, I don't know, my like my lightning node. If I wanna like, I don't know, open up another channel and I get some bitcoin out of cold storage or something like that. I make deadly sure that those wallet addresses are in fact identical from the one that I was given to the one that I pasted into the transaction.
I mean, it takes me a lot longer than probably, you know normal bitcoiners to make a transaction because I'm I really have to think about it. And I also have a rule where I I don't drink. If I'm going to do a bitcoin transaction that day, I I I don't drink. I I'm not going to smoke any pot. I'm not I mean I'm not not a big pot smoker. I'm just saying that I'm not gonna be a knee breed when I'm doing this shit. And if for whatever reason I find myself really wanting to make a Bitcoin transaction and I'm like somehow or another had like 4, you know, like let's say, 4 glasses of wine. Because I'm hanging out with friends and then, you know, hey, show me how to do a Bitcoin transaction.
The answer is no. And it will always be no. No drunken transactions allowed people. Okay. So going back to the automation of the nunchuck wallet. All I'm saying is be careful. May I don't know how one would go about testing this, you know? Because to test the coin control, you kind of actually have to have coin control. What I'd like to hear is that you could use the Nunchuk wallet in test mode on Bitcoin testnet and not on the mainnet and play around with coins, that don't actually that or at least are not supposed to have any real value. Alright. So, okay. That's the end of the show. But before I hit, my button for the music bed, let me just reiterate that I need you to go listen to the Cody interview.
He's a really good kid. And I I honestly have never really really met anybody like him. I mean he's one of these guys that you you wish you had been like him when he when you were his age, and the fact that you weren't, you know, kinda makes you feel a little bad. But he represents a massive hope for the future. I mean, think about it. He's got 4 businesses. He's 18. By the time I see him next summer, he's gonna end up having 5 businesses. And when I see him the summer after that, he'll probably have 7. I've actually I'm trying to talk him into starting a biochar business because I kinda wanna work with the kid. He's actually that badass. Go listen to the interview, and I will see you on the other side.
University of Wyoming Launches Bitcoin Research Institute
Coinbase Custody for Australian Bitcoin ETF
Qatar Revisits Crypto Regulations
RFK Jr.'s Bitcoin Proposal
Trump's Bitcoin Pledges
Market Updates
Listener Engagement and Episode Promotion
Venezuela's Controversial Election
Bitbanana Update
Marathon Digital's Bitcoin Purchase
Nunchuk's Automated Bitcoin Rollover
Closing Remarks and Call to Action
