Hey bitcoiner!

Hot Off the Press:

🥔 Belarus vs p2p

📈 Bitcoin Depot Hits Nasdaq

🤖 Bitcoin Meets Ai

⚡️ Zaps are invincible

😵 Twitter Stumbles, Zuck to the Rescue?

📱 Post GIFs with Damus

Mempool:

Lightning:

Mining:

🥔 Belarus Takes on P2P Payments

Belarus plans to ban p2p payments.

Belarus is making moves to implement a law that could put a speed bump in your peer-to-peer bitcoin (and shitcoin) transactions. They’re pulling up their socks to combat fraud, and the plan is to keep all bitcoin exchanges inside the Belarusian High Technology Park (BHTP). That’s their version of maintaining control and transparency.

This situation might seem laughable or grim, depending on how you look at it. While completely banning P2P bitcoin payments is implausible, things could get more difficult for KYC-cleared users. Turning your Bitcoin into dirty fiat might become a puzzle.

So, for all of you who haven’t yet revealed your details, or have and want to fix the situation, you might want to check out platforms like Hodl Hodl. It’s the perfect time to think about privacy and break away from centralized KYC repositories for good. Avoid the creep!

📈 Bitcoin Depot Hits Nasdaq

Bitcoin ATM operator Bitcoin Depot goes public on Nasdaq

This move comes hot on the heels of a successful merger with GSR II Meteora. Shares of the Atlanta, Georgia-based Bitcoin Depot have now officially kicked off trading on the Nasdaq exchange, sporting the ticker “BTM”. This makes Bitcoin Depot the trailblazer as the first Bitcoin ATM operator to be listed on a major US stock exchange. Operating over 6,000 ATMs, they’re making a sizeable impact on the North American scene.

It’s pretty fascinating to see how the Bitcoin ATMs are evolving. With no direct counterparts, these machines offer a valuable lifeline for those aiming to convert to cash without the hassle of KYC procedures, and even manage to do it offline. Imagine if these Bitcoin ATMs didn’t exist - we’d have a rather glum picture. However, going public might attract more regulatory eyes, adding a touch of controversy to the whole situation.

🤖 Bitcoin Meets AI

AI can now send and receive bitcoin.

Thanks to some pretty cool tools from Lightning Labs, AI - including the GPT series by OpenAI - will be able to send and receive bitcoins. This exciting development opens up a whole new world of opportunities, allowing for quick and affordable transactions through the Lightning Network. We’re starting to see some promising use cases pop up, such as API access fees and some exciting potential applications for enterprises and SaaS.

But hold onto your hats, because Nostr is taking things up a notch! Just a couple of days ago Pablo gave us a sneak peek of a shiny new feature for his Highlighter app. As soon as this week, you’ll be able to give the Highlighter app a YouTube video link, and then it’s game on! You’ll get to pit AIs against each other in a friendly competition. The bots will supply you with transcripts, and you’ll get to choose and pay for the one that offers the best bang for your buck. Plus, if Highlighter comes across any previously paid options, you can check them out for free:

Nostr is truly evolving into more than just decentralized social media. Apps built on Nostr are knocking it out of the park, with Pablo’s Highlighter and nsecBunker leading the charge. Exciting times! Wanna know more? Check out these guides by Tony: Highlighter | nsecBunker

Byte-size Buzz:

• Israel exempts non-residents from bitcoin sales tax.

• BlackRock re-filed its application for a spot bitcoin ETF.

• UAE has significantly increased its share of global mining, reaching 4% of the total hashrate.

• Bitcoin network fees dropped as low as 5 sat/vbyte this week.

• OpenSats announced long-term support for Bitcoin Core developers and grants to Nostr developers.

⚡️ Zaps are Inevitable

The Nostr devs have found a way around Apple’s roadblocks. Hooray for note zaps, they’re back in action, no matter what the bigwigs want!

@Carman has launched an ingenious project called ZapplePay that cleverly transforms reactions or emojis into zaps. In the face of Apple’s increasing dominance over Nostr apps supporting zaps, this solution is a real game-changer. And guess what? Getting it all set up is a breeze! You can find the easy-peasy guide right here:

by Tony

July 8 2023 · Edited Jul 8, 2023

Zapplepay: Zap Even if They Say it's Forbidden

A quick guide on how to set up Zapplepay and zap with Damus, Nostur or any other app that was forbidden to provide permissionless peer-to-peer payments.

We’re on a roll, folks! Sure, duking it out with the tech titans isn’t exactly a Sunday picnic, but hey, technology is on our side. Open source projects are the superheroes of the tech world - no matter what, they keep on going! Why? Because they’re like a many-headed hydra - cut off one head, another pops up. And the moment a useful piece of open source code hits the scene, it instantly spreads to hundreds, even thousands of computers, where it’s used, tinkered with, and further developed. That’s the power of the people!

😵 Twitter Stumbles, Zuck to the Rescue?

Amid Twitter’s troubles the crowds rushed to the newly minted rival site from Instagram. But it clearly wasn’t the best decision.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Mark Zuckerberg - the man who “borrowed” the Facebook concept - has swooped in to launch a rival platform to Twitter at just the right moment. His gamble paid off, with a whopping 100 million users already flocking to his new platform. But the real question is, can Threads really be the solution to Twitter users’ woes? Some red flags have already popped up: during registration, users are required to link their Instagram account to the app. And here’s a little fine print they conveniently glossed over - if you delete Threads, your Instagram account goes kaput, too.

Honestly, it’s a toss-up which platform is the worse choice. Have a peek at the data Zuck’s behemoth is hoarding:

Shockingly, even reps of tech industry giants seem to be in the dark about the real implications. Here’s what the folks at Verbatim had to say about this in a Slack chat amongst big brand marketers:

“Who cares about data when we have a new place for brands to chat with each other! Data shmata.” - Verbatim

It’s rather disturbing how folks hop from one “solution” to another without pausing to understand what’s really going on or weighing up the pros and cons. It’s clear as day that Twitter’s troubles stemmed from ill-conceived attempts to centrally “revive” the site. This chain of poor decisions, on top of the already tough situation Twitter was in, only led to more user dissatisfaction. Do people really expect a different outcome here? Those who truly want a solution should give Nostr a whirl.

Byte-sized buzz:

• Habla News has got a new logo.

• Nostr Plebs, had to take a break from welcoming new users due to high influx of sign-up requests.

• Damus saw 20,000 new users in 2 days. The total number of views and reactions on the App Store has already surpassed 100,000.

• Apple called developers of Nostur and Plebstr, to remove the note zaps.

• France’s National Assembly passed Article 3 of the Justice Bill, which allows authorities to remotely activate phones’ cameras and microphones without users’ knowledge.

• Everyone had the opportunity to join in on @Alby community call this past Thursday, where we chatted about loads of exciting developments and future plans. Interested in catching the next one? Be sure to follow their Nostr account so you won’t miss out!

Bitcoin:

• Lightning Prisms library allowing splitting LN payments between users has been published.

• LNbits introduced a number of improvements aimed to increase the tool’s security.

• Version 1.0.10 of the privacy-focused Stacks Duo wallet has been released.

• A beta version of the Wallby wallet has been launched.

• Bitcoin hashrate hit a new ATH.

Nostr:

• Zappdit has introduced support for custom zaps.

• Nostr Kiwi added support for one-tap zaps.

• Nostr Band rolled out zaps support.

• A first-ever Nostr documentary has been announced.

• Support for private list items has been added to Listr.

• nsecBunker added notifications to admins via DMs.

• The new Nostr client Lume has been released.

• Primal is now open source.

Nostr Talks by @DK with @JeffG on Listr.lol and Nostr education:

Money Matters: @cn4t…3vle interviews @sg6p…f63m in the first episode of his new show:

📱 Post GIFs with Damus

Thanks to a shortcut from Sam Samskis, it’s now very convenient to post gifs in apps like Damus.

Those who don’t want to use Siri can go to the “Accessibility” section and set up a double tap on the back of the phone to activate the shortcut. That way when you double tap, it will open up Tenor where you can search for the gifs you want, copy the links to them and paste them into the note you want. Video of the usage in the post above.

Link to shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/49d53bdaeebb4dcf8a65a3003f16f87d

Enjoyed this week’s digest? Zap it!