Sep 15, 2019
Lightning Hood Weekly Round-Up For The Past Week In Bitcoin, September 9–15, 2019
Bitcoin and Lightning Network News
Major Headlines
1.) The Trezor team announces that the beta version of their new Bitcoin-only firmware is now available to download for both Trezor One and Trezor Model T. Trezor aims to introduce a stable version of Bitcoin-only firmware in the next month’s release
2.) Bitmain announced the launce of the Antminer S17e, which has a hash rate (mining power) of 64 terahertz per second and a power efficiency of 45 joules per TH
3.) The market has taken steps to address the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) concerns about approving a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), but there is still “work left to be done,” said the agency’s head. In November the chairman said concerns around price manipulation were a key holdup for the financial product’s green light, alongside questions such as how custody operates
4.) Payments startup Breez has unveiled a new feature allowing lightning-based bitcoin purchases directly from its mobile app. The feature, made possible thanks to a partnership with fiat-to-crypto broker MoonPay, is available to users in 35 countries. According to the company, it simplifies the currently long-winded procedure for lightning payments
5.) Developers have disclosed a security hole in various versions of bitcoin’s Lightning Network software that could cause users to lose money if not updated
6.) Out of 1,650 Iranian bitcoiners surveyed in Persian Telegram groups, 25 percent earned $500 to $3,000 a month from working with cryptocurrency, according to a survey conducted by the analytics firm Gate Trade. This data offers an exclusive peek inside the evolution of the Iranian bitcoin community, and so far it looks like the classic “store of value” investment thesis can hold water
7.) Waterford FC announced the Bitcoin logo (₿) will appear on their shirt sleeve this season, as part of an educational drive led by the sports betting brand Sportsbetio
8.) CME announced its intention to increase in the so-called spot month position limit for its bitcoin futures contracts in a letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday. The limit would jump from 1,000 contracts per spot month to 2,000 for any single investor. Since each contract is for five bitcoin, the change means a trader’s maximum exposure would double from 5,000 bitcoin (worth about $50 million at current prices) to 2,000 contracts (10,000 bitcoin, or $100 million)
9.) Cubans are turning to Bitcoin to access the global economy based on a new report. Bitcoin (BTC) trading is opening new avenues for citizens in Communist-run Cuba, which has been financially isolated for years under a United States trade embargo
10.) France and Germany have agreed to block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, the French finance ministry said on Friday. In a joint statement, the two governments affirmed that “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations”
Community News And Developments
1.) SatsHi is a new lightning app that lets you earn bitcoins for live-streaming
2.) 21isenough built a Lightning ATM that turns coins into bitcoin in seconds received over the Lightning Network
3.) Samourai releases Whirlpool 0.9.0 with the ability to mix faster in multiple pools simultaneously
4.) Bitcoin-Only is now officially on Github
5.) The Casa team announced the Wealth Security Protocol that outlines Casa’s design process for Casa Keymaster
6.) Bottlepay is now available to use over Instagram!
7.) Firezoogames are releasing their android game, Sketch Plane, on http://appmoon.io next week. They are trying out the sat logo created by bitficus on the purchase screen
8.) Square Crypto announced the first of what will be many grants to support open-source bitcoin projects. The first grant goes to BTCPay Server and provides them with $100,000
9.) Wasabi Wallet has a fresh brand new website design with a great starter FAQ
10.) Matt Odell has joined the Bottlepay team as an advisor with the goal of building the most user friendly lightning wallet on the market
Research And Thought Pieces
1.) Check out Nic Carter’s latest article, “Bitcoin as a non-violent Rebellion”
2.) Check out Frederico Spitaleri’s case studies of Lapps and LN based services that already operate in the market
3.) Checkout Jimmy Song’s latest article, “Why Cryptocurrency Diversification Makes Little Sense.” Jimmy outlines why investing in altcoins without looking at the code is the equivalent of diversifying into random pink-sheet stocks without doing any research
4.) This weeks Bitcoin Optech newsletter describes a demo implementation of eltoo, requests comments on limiting the normal number of LN gossip updates and provides the longest-to-date list of notable changes to popular Bitcoin infrastructure projects
5.) Checkout Nik Bhatia’s first piece for OpenNode Co. about Satoshi
6.) Jameson Lopp has a new website for his blog post and is full of tons of great information about privacy and Bitcoin
Podcasts And Videos
1.) This podcast episode on The 1 Bitcoin Show features Bottlepay who wants to introduce BTC to a BILLION new users over the next 5 years
2.) Glacier Protocol is widely regarded as one of the best ways for an individual to secure their bitcoins. In this podcast episode Project Lead and Maintainer of Glacier Protocol Diogo Monica, Co Founder and President of Anchorage and Project Lead of Glacier Protocol joins Stephan to talk about it
Lightning Hood’s Selection For Meme Of The Week
If there are any other major news events or items we may have missed from the week please let us know! You can reach us on twitter @lightning_hood
See you guys next week! We are avid supporters of Open Source Initiatives and we are proudly contributing to the bitcoin-only website for Bitcoin Resources. All contributions are done via GitHub in true open source nature.
