Blockstream is the global leader in Bitcoin and blockchain technology

Blockstream

blockstream

Not every cypherpunk is now working in digital assets, but that’s not the case for Adam Back. He’s a British cryptographer and known cypherpunk, who was born in London, England, in July 1970. He began his journey into computing by teaching himself Basic —the most popular programming language in the 70s and 80s. His academic journey led him to pursue advanced studies in computer science, culminating in a PhD in distributed systems from the University of Exeter. During his doctoral research, Back delved into encryption, electronic cash, and remailers, demonstrating a keen interest in cryptography and its applications. After completing , Back embarked on a career as a consultant, working with both startups and established companies. His work primarily revolved around applied cryptography, where he wrote cryptographic libraries, designed cryptographic protocols, and even analyzed and broke existing cryptographic systems. his education . He famously created a "Munitions" T-shirt adorned with cryptographic code, challenging the restrictive US regulations on civil cryptography. This activism reflects his commitment to defending privacy rights in the digital age, like all cypherpunks. Furthermore, Back is known for his advocacy and activism in promoting privacy and cryptography Hashcash & PoW “Hashcash,” a Proof-of-Work (PoW) system created by Back in 1997, is mentioned in the Bitcoin whitepaper, and it’s considered the precursor of cryptocurrency mining. Let’s remember that PoW is an algorithm or mathematical tool that, when applied, ensures computational effort and energy to carry on a specific task. In this case, PoW was used to create a defense against email spam. This puzzle entails repeatedly hashing a string until it produces a hash with specific characteristics, such as a certain number of leading zeros. This process demands computational resources, deterring spammers who seek to send large volumes of emails inexpensively. By using Hashcash, senders had to solve a computational puzzle, generating a unique identifier for each email. The computational effort ( ) required to generate a Hashcash stamp is typically insignificant for regular email users, as it only involves a few seconds of processing time on a standard desktop computer. However, for spammers who aim to send large volumes of emails, the cumulative computational burden becomes prohibitive, as they would need to expend significant resources to generate Hashcash stamps for each message. Therefore, the cost of computation acts as a deterrent for spammers only. PoW Bitcoin's PoW algorithm requires miners to solve cryptographic puzzles with their own resources in order to create blocks and secure the network. “ ” by Adam Back is the sixth reference in the Bitcoin whitepaper. This mechanism inspired Satoshi Nakamoto, who adapted it for Bitcoin mining. Hashcash - A Denial of Service Counter-Measure Blockstream and Bitcoin Despite being a pioneer of “mining,” participating in the same cypherpunk mailing list in which Bitcoin was born, and also being one of the first people to communicate with Nakamoto online, Back didn’t show real interest in Bitcoin . A year later, he was co-founding Blockstream, a Bitcoin development company and an important for Bitcoin Core —the main Bitcoin implementation so far. In late 2016, he was appointed as the CEO of Blockstream. until 2013 source of funds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG_e3ZCPW5Y One of its core focuses is the provision of infrastructure solutions to enable the seamless operation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This company specializes in various products and services aimed at advancing the functionality, security, and scalability of the Bitcoin network. A key aspect of Blockstream's offerings is its Liquid Network, a federated sidechain designed to facilitate faster and more confidential transactions for Bitcoin and other digital assets. The Liquid Network enhances Bitcoin's functionality by enabling rapid transfers between exchanges and institutions. Additionally, provides tools and services to support the development of decentralized applications (dApps) on the Bitcoin blockchain. It also offers its own hardware wallet (Jade), a Bitcoin mining colocation service, and a whole satellite network to make offline Bitcoin transactions. Blockstream Beyond Mining Adam Back is still working on Bitcoin and mining, but there’s another step to decentralization and protecting privacy rights. While Bitcoin represents a significant advancement in decentralization compared to traditional fiat currencies, newer crypto ecosystems like Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) networks, exemplified by projects like , Obyte offer a higher level of decentralization and privacy protection. DAG systems eliminate the need for miners and intermediaries entirely, employing a block-free structure where transactions are linked to their predecessors and successors by the users who created them. This design, along with other features, helps to prevent double-spending and ensures transaction immutability without the reliance on centralized “validators”. Unlike PoW blockchains where miners may exert influence over transaction sequencing, and unlike PoS blockchains where their block producers can do the same, DAG networks establish transaction order with the help of "Order Providers". These Order Providers regularly post transactions that serve as waypoints for transaction ordering but lack the authority to reject or manipulate transactions. Furthermore, DAG systems prevent selective censorship by linking all transactions, making it impractical for any entity to censor one transaction without affecting others. The resilience of DAG networks against censorship and manipulation lies in their decentralized and open nature. This is demonstrated on a daily basis by the fact that there are no powerful centers of power and no middlemen. of financial decentralization and online freedom is here. The next level Read more from series: Cypherpunks Write Code Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Adam Back Photograph by Blockstream

Cypherpunks Write Code: Adam Back and Hashcash

সাইফারপাঙ্কস কোড লিখুন: অ্যাডাম ব্যাক এবং হ্যাশক্যাশ

Cypherpunks schreiben Code: Adam Back und Hashcash

Código de escritura de Cypherpunks: Adam Back y Hashcash

Cypherpunks écrivent du code : Adam Back et Hashcash

साइफरपंक्स कोड लिखें: एडम बैक और हैशकैश

サイファーパンクがコードを書く: アダム・バックとハッシュキャッシュ

Cypherpunks 작성 코드: Adam Back 및 Hashcash

Cypherpunks escrevem código: Adam Back e Hashcash

Шифропанки пишут код: Адам Бэк и Hashcash

Şifrepunklar Kod Yazıyor: Adam Back ve Hashcash

Cypherpunks viết mã: Adam Back và Hashcash

密码朋克编写代码：Adam Back 和 Hashcash

Adam Back on a Decade of Bitcoin

Christian Decker — An Introduction to The Lightning Network

If you are going to work on software using Liquid, the sidechain of Bitcoin, there are several concepts you need to be familiar with. This article aims at developers and is based on a presentation I held for the Pixelmatic team. Disclaimer: this is an introduction, and it does not cover everything, obviously. And I simplified some explanations on purpose. As a prerequisite, if you are not familiar with Bitcoin, you should read my introduction to Bitcoin here. Special thanks to Sosthene for proofreading my article and for his feedback! Follow him on Twitter. Let's start now! And to discuss Liquid, we need to first discuss: . Elements What Is Elements? It is a fork of Bitcoin extended to be a sidechain platform with these features: Confidential Transactions Issued Assets Federated 2-Way Pegs Signed Blocks Additional opcodes Source: https://elementsproject.org/ OK, whatever, but what’s Liquid? Well, Liquid is . Set as and maintained by Blockstream. Also: an instance of Elements a sidechain of Bitcoin It is managed by a static federation of 15 members, but soon dynamic. It is configured to have a block time of 1 minute. And its main currency is L-BTC (Liquid Bitcoin), the result of the pegging of Bitcoin. Source: liquid.net What Are the Features of Liquid? Let’s see a bit more details on the different features of Liquid/Elements. 📌 2-way pegging of Bitcoin Peg-in BTC into the Liquid Sidechain Pegging in BTC from the Bitcoin main net into the Liquid sidechain consists of depositing BTC into the Liquid Bitcoin wallet that is managed by the Federation. 102 confirmations on the Bitcoin mainnet are then required for you to claim your amount of L-BTC due, and the functionaries then grant you the corresponding amount on the Liquid sidechain. Peg-out BTC from the Liquid Sidechain Pegging out BTC from the Liquid sidechain back into the Bitcoin main net consists of receiving the BTC from an anonymous functionary from his wallet after being granted the amount by the federation. <br> 2 confirmations on Liquid are required for the operation to be allowed. Then the Federation will co-sign a transaction out of their 11 of 15 multisig wallets that are sending out the amount requested to one of the functionaries described anonymously. Finally, the functionary processes the transaction that will grant the BTC to the requester of the peg-out. 🙈 Confidential Transactions Amounts and assets are blinded using a blinding key, but UTXOs are visible There is a master blinding key that is generated from the wallet seed and derived as needed for each address: blinding_private_key := HMAC_SHA256(key=master_blinding_key, msg=script_pubkey) where corresponds to a specific non-confidential public address you want to make confidential script_pubkey That means that a Liquid wallet consists of two things: an extended private key and a master blinding key. Also, every confidential address is a non-confidential address blinded using the master blinding key. So the confidentiality is essentially a layer built on the top of classical HD wallets. Note that you can dump a specific blinding key to allow a tier to unblind it using the RPC . And once in possession of the blinding key, any transaction happening with that specific address will be visible to the tier. unblindrawtransaction FYI Blockstream Green has a feature to open esplora with the blinding keys to allow a tier to see a confidential transaction unblinded on the web. White Paper: Blockstream Specifications: Satoshi Labs 💰 Issued Assets One asset on Liquid/Elements has these attributes (all saved in the blockchain): An asset ID (generated by Liquid) A total supply An optional reissuance key An optional contract hash Reissuance keys are also an asset that comes with at least a total supply of 1 sat L-BTC is also an asset, a special one that can be pegged in and out: Details The bare minimum to issue an asset: elements-cli issueasset 0.00000100 0 The above issues a confidential asset with a total supply of 100 Satoshis and no reissuance key. The contract defines metadata about the asset like its name, ticker, domain owner, precision, etc. : Example the EXOeu token {
 "entity": {
  "domain": "exordium.co"
 },
 "issuer_pubkey": "030cff26f9c0d365f090e24917277e23269d7ef5d7f06dec9f09de9255b8950208",
 "name": "EXO Token Europe",
 "precision": 0,
 "ticker": "EXOeu",
 "version": 0
} Reissuance To be able to reissue, you need only one token (satoshi) of the reissuance asset. If you have issued more than one reissuance asset, it means you can share that asset to others person. Then everybody who has one can reissue the asset. Though be cautious with that use-case because reissuance can be confidential, then it's nearly impossible to verify how much of the asset is in circulation. Registration By default, assets are not registered on the Liquid Asset Registry. That gives you a chance to reissue another asset if you made a mistake before registering it. But once registered, it is irreversible and the tuple domain + ticker will be occupied forever. Details of the asset registration: https://docs.blockstream.com/liquid/developer-guide/proof-of-issuance.html 🪢 Federation The federation is composed of 15 functionaries They can propose blocks to be added to the blockchain in a round-robin fashion They co-sign blocks, a block needs 11 of 15 signatures to be valid They process peg-outs. When the federation will become dynamic, the total number of functionaries may vary dynamically 📃 Liquid RPC interface Being a fork of Bitcoin, we find the same RPCs as its parent, plus some new ones like , , and more: issueasset blindrawtransaction <div class="container h-sm pb-1"> <iframe src=" " class="w-full h-full"> </iframe> </div> https://elementsproject.org/en/doc/0.21.0.0/rpc/ Source: elementsproject.org 🧰 The Liquid Ecosystem For Users White paper Liquid: https://blockstream.com/assets/downloads/pdf/liquid-whitepaper.pdf Compatible Wallets Green: https://blockstream.com/green/ Aqua: https://blockstream.com/aqua/ SideSwap: https://sideswap.io/ Coinos: https://coinos.io/ Specter: https://specter.solutions/ Marina: https://vulpem.com/marina.html Centralized Exchanges Bitfinex: https://www.bitfinex.com/ BTSE: https://www.btse.com/ The Rock Trading: https://www.therocktrading.com/en/ ... DEX/Swap Sideshift<span>.</span>ai: https://sideshift.ai/ SideSwap: https://sideswap.io/ Bisq: https://bisq.network/ coinos: https://coinos.io/ TDEX: tdex.network Bitmatrix: beta.bitmatrix.app Explorers blockstream<span>.</span>info: https://blockstream.info/liquid/ liquid.network: https://liquid.network/ For Developers Documentation About Elements: https://elementsproject.org/ About Liquid Testnet: https://liquidtestnet.com/ About Liquid: https://docs.blockstream.com/liquid/technical_overview.html Node Elements: https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements Cached API/Backend Blockstream ElectRS: https://github.com/Blockstream/electrs Explorer Esplora: https://github.com/Blockstream/esplora Blockstream Registry: https://blockstream.info/liquid/assets Libraries Vulpem Go Elements: https://github.com/vulpemventures/go-elements Vulpem LiquidJS: https://github.com/vulpemventures/liquidjs-lib Vulpem LDK: https://github.com/vulpemventures/ldk Blockstream GDK: https://github.com/Blockstream/gdk/ LibWally: https://github.com/ElementsProject/libwally-core Wallet Tools Mnemonic Code Converter: https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ BIP32 Generator: http://bip32.org/ Environment stack Nigiri: https://github.com/vulpemventures/nigiri Liquid Sidechain Available Environments Alike Bitcoin, Liquid has multiple environments at your disposal. You can set up in your elements.conf the you want to use. chain ( ) Liquid Regtest chain=liquidregtest I am lying to you, actually. You can input any not known chain, and it will create an Elements environment, with the parameters of your choices. So is not a known chain, it will start a chain named with this name. But you could name it differently like andrewschain, ethereum, or whatever. Details: liquidregtest https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements#modes Regtest stands for regression test mode. It's a mode you use to do local development. When initializing your node, you can specify the number of free coins you will create and that will serve as your main currency (your own test Bitcoins). There are no pegging, mining, or federations in place. But you can generate blocks on demand. To simulate a production environment, you can set up a cron task to generate a block every minute. Everything you do stays local in your node. ( ) Liquid Testnet chain=liquidtestnet It was recently deployed. There is no pegging, so if you need coins you can use the official faucet here: . https://liquidtestnet.com/faucet Like in production, the block time is 1 minute. To configure your Elements node for it, here are the instructions: https://docs.blockstream.com/liquid/node_setup.html#connecting-to-liquid-testnet It has an official explorer: https://blockstream.info/liquidtestnet/ Unlike regtest, with testnet is public hence be aware of that. Also, testnet has an official asset registry as well: https://blockstream.info/liquidtestnet/assets That can be helpful to debug issuance and registration of assets, a thing you cannot do with regtest. ( ) Liquid Mainnet chain=liquidv1 The production environment of Liquid. As mentioned before, the block time is 1 minute, and mainnet Bitcoin can be pegged in and out of it. 🎇 Conclusion: The Introduction to Liquid for Developers With this knowledge, you should have enough to get started to work on Liquid. To sum up, here are my advice, if you are willing to: , look at BTCPay and WooCommerce with the Liquid+ plugin: add payment in L-BTC or another Liquid asset on your e-commerce website https://github.com/ndeet/liquid-assets-for-woocommerce , you can either look at the made in JS so good for web apps, or made in C++ and Rust good for desktop or native apps, create a Liquid wallet LDK GDK (either NFT or fungible tokens too), you can look at either or build a custom solution with or issue an asset Blockstream AMP liquidjs go-elements , you can fork off create an NFT trading platform Raretoshi , look at coinos open source projects: . create a SWAP/DEFI platform https://github.com/coinos/ And to go deeper down the rabbit hole, you can start searching on these subjects: Multisignature wallets Taproot Partially signed transactions Atomic swap Have fun! Also published here.

The Developers' Guide to Liquid, One of the First Sidechains of Bitcoin by Blockstream

The State of The Market — March 4, 2019 : $3,759.67 (-2.65%) : $126.80 (-5.53%) : $0.304842 (-2.96%) BTC ETH XRP The market remained stable throughout the weekend. However, early today, there was a substantial crash and nearly $5 Billion has been wiped out from the crypto market. Bitcoin has fallen below $3,800, and it could further fall down to $3,400. All of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are flashing red right now, and major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and EOS suffered bigger losses. In other news, on Sunday, . At the moment, the reason for the price increase is unknown and members of the Verge community believe that a tweet from Verge founder and lead developer Sunerok could be behind the price increase. Also, . Monahan said that the toxic ‘Ethereum or nothing’ attitude exhibited by some members of the Ethereum community is shameful and damaging to the entire project. According to Monahan, Schoedon was the one person who could simplify Ethereum into digestible tidbits for the wider public and his status as a de facto leader only angered people when they felt he deviated from the ‘Ethereum or nothing’ ideology. Verge (XVG) unexpectedly gained 11% after a mining code malfunction occurred and the privacy coin’s developers began to ponder a switch to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) MyCrypto CEO, Taylor Monahan, recently spoke about what she describes as growing toxicity within the Ethereum community after lead developer Afri Schoedon rage quit the project nearly 2 weeks ago The ‘PayMon’ (PMN) platform is backed by 30 milligrams of 24-karat gold and each PMN token will be worth 156,581 rials or approximately $3.72. According to the banks, PMN’s total supply is capped at 1 billion and 15% of the tokens will be offered to the public, 20% will be on offer to institutional “anchors” looking to purchase a minimum of 300,000 PMN. The remaining 60% will be distributed monthly and 5% will be held by the founding team. Previous reports from Iranian government officials suggested that tokenized assets and cryptocurrency could be used as a method for circumventing U.S. sanctions but the dialogue has now shifted to focus on the technology’s capacity to stimulate economic growth and innovation within Iran’s tech sector. ( ) 1) Iran’s largest banks have revealed plans for tokenizing a variety of assets on a private blockchain platform based on Stellar protocol. Read More This is the first major release in the past 8 months and includes several performance improvements, software bug fixes, additional privacy options, and more detailed documentation. The new features were developed by a team of 50 different contributors from throughout the world who published 1,300 commits to c-lightning’s codebase. There are currently 6,963 LN nodes, and an increase of 18.88% in the past 30 days, with a total network capacity of 740 BTC worth approximately $2.835 million. ( ) 2) Blockstream has released the newest version of c-lightning, version 0.7, the company’s proprietary implementation of the Lightning Network (LN). Read More through the following tweet: “I asked our Compliance team what they thought of Neutrino. Fortunately, they’d just completed an evaluation. Neutrino came in last place on product (out of the 5) but was disqualified anyway due to the risks. However, other factors are important in M&A: cost, culture fit.” This may add further fuel to the current #delete coinbase campaign that was inspired after the exchange announced the controversial acquisition. ( ) 3) Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, recently took a shot at the recent acquisition of Neutrino by Coinbase Read More Subscribe to the Berminal Brief Newsletter Download Berminal App for Free The Berminal Website Berminal Official Telegram Berminal Twitter

Iranian Bank To Tokenize Real-World Assets, And Blockstream Releases New Lightning Network Software

What are Layer 2 Solutions on Bitcoin and How Do They Work?

A new theory from a YouTuber suggests Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin may comprise of three people who merged their first and last names. This is contrary to previous theories that suggest Satoshi is just one person. Certain individuals suspected to be Satoshi may not have comprised of the ‘persons’ that founded Bitcoin. Of course, you've heard of Bitcoin. You've also heard that its creator is the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. This theory emerged on October 31st, 2008, after the Bitcoin white paper was released via a cypherpunk mailing list under the name Satoshi Nakamoto, leaving the world to speculate whether it was an individual or a group. New evidence has brought us closer to identifying who Satoshi is. Many believe Satoshi Nakamoto is just one person; well, we are about to find out. Satoshi Nakamoto Comprises of 3 persons - New Evidence Reveals Recent evidence presented by a Youtuber - Fooch, suggests that Hal Finney, the first person to receive Bitcoin, and Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, may have attended the same conference, Crypto '98, in Santa Barbara, California in 1998. By checking the event's program info, Fooch discovers a Satoshi in attendance. Searching for the term "Naka" leads him to a page detailing a presentation by Satoshi Hada and Toshiaki Tanaka on The Existence of 3-round Zero-knowledge Protocols at Crypto '98. That's not all. Fooch then searched on Google for Satoshi Hada Nakamoto, and boom, this post on X popped up, showing that the creators of Bitcoin allegedly comprise three researchers who may have also worked with IBM. The archived link leads to an IBM research paper. “Satoshi is allegedly 3 researchers from IBM”. Fooch said. Also, Fooch’s check on Toshiaki Tanaka and Naohiko Uramoto shows that they, at one time, worked at IBM. Right under the post is a comment tagging what seems to be Satoshi Hada’s account. Here's what it looks like 👇🏽 Maybe a coincidence 🧐 Under Satoshi Hada's most recent post on X, which was in 2017 by the way, someone commented by typing 'Satoshi Nakamoto' backward. What does this person know? Also, Satoshi Hada's previous repost on X in 2012 was about the IBM CEO predicting the future of business. Fooch's intelligent investigation was able to connect the dots based on an interview with Fran, Hal Finney’s wife. She recalled her husband communicating with someone named Satoshi, whom he believed to be based in Japan. Evidence from a YouTube video by The Bitcoin Layer corroborates that Satoshi’s working hours align with the PST time zone which is used in Japan. If “They” Are Satoshi, Why Are They Hiding? Fooch is of the opinion that the Japanese are humble people unlike Americans or Australians who may want to prove anything. Well, what do you think about Fooch’s theory? It appears to be the closest sketch to drawing Satoshi Nakamoto though. Another interesting thing that can be noticed is Satoshi's use of “we” in the bitcoin whitepaper - “We propose a…” Other Alleged Satoshis In an adventure to discover the genius behind Bitcoin, various theories have emerged. Some individuals have purposely claimed to be Satoshi despite evidence proving otherwise. Others have been linked to Satoshi because of their early association with Bitcoin, and one unlucky fellow was accused due to a name coincidence. Let's find out who they are and why they may not be 'Satoshi’. Craig Wright An Australian scientist who has been ruled as a fraudster by a judge in the United Kingdom has long claimed to be the founder of Bitcoin. However, his claims lack tangible evidence beyond document forgery, and he has offered many excuses for his inability to prove it, including 'stomping on the hard drive’ that contains files to prove that he created Bitcoin. Dorian Nakamoto When you google Satoshi Nakamoto, the image you often see is that of Dorian Nakamoto, who has denied being the founder of Bitcoin despite the name coincidence. Dorian is a retired physicist. In a 2014 exposé with Newsweek, where he was accused of being the founder of Bitcoin, he claimed he was wrongly quoted when asked about Bitcoin, thinking the question related to his career, and said: “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” When the exposé went viral, Dorian stated that he felt victimized and decided to tell his own side of the story. “I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it. And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that’s what I implied.
It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that.” Dorian's side of the story attracted sympathy from the Bitcoin community, resulting in donations of over 102 bitcoins which is worth almost a hundred million dollars today. Gavin Andersen It's understandable why some might have suspected Gavin Andresen of being Satoshi Nakamoto. He joined Bitcoin as a core developer in its early stages, creating important features that remain crucial to the Bitcoin ecosystem today. In the documentary "The Bitcoin Story," Gavin repeatedly referred to Satoshi as a "he" and emphasized Satoshi's genius: “He's obviously had some academic training because he wrote this academic whitepaper that is in the style of a peer reviewed academic journal article. He's obviously a genius. I’d love to meet him someday.” “As far as I know, no one has actually met Satoshi. No one knows who he, or she, or they are. I've never talked with Satoshi although I have communicated with him electronically via email or on online forums.
Satoshi started working on Bitcoin he says in 2007, and it actually took him a couple of years to convince himself that he could actually create a system that would work.” Gavin believes he was the last person to speak with Satoshi: “I don't know who might have had the last interaction with Satoshi, it might have possibly been me. My very last email to Satoshi, I actually told him I had been invited to give a talk at the CIA. He had already told me he was going to step back. I don't know if me telling him I was going to visit the CIA was the reason I never heard from him again but I certainly think it didn't help.” Hal Finney If you're a Bitcoin enthusiast, you've likely heard of Hal Finney. He was the first person to receive Bitcoin in a transaction, receiving 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto on January 12, 2009. This marked him as an early supporter and contributor to the project. As a cryptographer, Finney recognized the potential of Bitcoin, predicted that it would hit $1 million, and actively contributed to its development. He was a passionate advocate for privacy and saw Bitcoin as a solution to financial transaction privacy concerns. Sadly, Hal passed away on August 28, 2014, after battling with complications from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) for five years. Recent research by Jameson Lopp, a Bitcoin researcher, has provided evidence that Hal Finney was not Satoshi Nakamoto. This research analyzed the timing of a specific Bitcoin transaction and Hal Finney's participation in a race, concluding that they occurred simultaneously, making it impossible for him to have been Satoshi at that time. Adam Back British cryptographer and CEO of Blockstream has also been suspected to be Satoshi because of his early involvement with Bitcoin. In 1997, Adam developed Hashcash, a proof-of-work system that is now used in Bitcoin mining. This invention is referenced in Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper. Through public emails revealed between Satoshi and Adam, it appears both individuals have distinct communication styles and technical expertise. Len Sasseman Len Sassaman, a renowned cryptographer and academic researcher, made significant contributions to the field of cryptography and privacy. While his work indirectly influenced the development of Bitcoin, there is no concrete evidence to support the claim that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. After Sassaman's untimely death in 2011, the Bitcoin community honored him in a unique and lasting way. A tribute was embedded in block 138725 of the Bitcoin blockchain, forever commemorating his legacy. A message in the block reads: "Len was our friend.A brilliant mind, a kind soul, and a devious schemer.” A new theory from a YouTuber suggests Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin may comprise of three people who merged their first and last names. This is contrary to previous theories that suggest Satoshi is just one person. A new theory from a YouTuber suggests Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin may comprise of three people who merged their first and last names. This is contrary to previous theories that suggest Satoshi is just one person. A new theory from a YouTuber suggests Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin may comprise of three people who merged their first and last names. This is contrary to previous theories that suggest Satoshi is just one person. Certain individuals suspected to be Satoshi may not have comprised of the ‘persons’ that founded Bitcoin. Certain individuals suspected to be Satoshi may not have comprised of the ‘persons’ that founded Bitcoin . Certain individuals suspected to be Satoshi may not have comprised of the ‘persons’ that founded Bitcoin Of course, you've heard of Bitcoin. You've also heard that its creator is the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. This theory emerged on October 31st, 2008, after the Bitcoin white paper was released via a cypherpunk mailing list under the name Satoshi Nakamoto, leaving the world to speculate whether it was an individual or a group. New evidence has brought us closer to identifying who Satoshi is. Many believe Satoshi Nakamoto is just one person; well, we are about to find out. Satoshi Nakamoto Comprises of 3 persons - New Evidence Reveals Recent evidence presented by a Youtuber - Fooch, suggests that Hal Finney, the first person to receive Bitcoin, and Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, may have attended the same conference, Crypto '98, in Santa Barbara, California in 1998. By checking the event's program info, Fooch discovers a Satoshi in attendance. Searching for the term "Naka" leads him to a page detailing a presentation by Satoshi Hada and Toshiaki Tanaka on The Existence of 3-round Zero-knowledge Protocols at Crypto '98. The Existence of 3-round Zero-knowledge Protocols Crypto '98. That's not all. Fooch then searched on Google for Satoshi Hada Nakamoto , and boom, this post on X popped up, showing that the creators of Bitcoin allegedly comprise three researchers who may have also worked with IBM. The archived link leads to an IBM research paper. Satoshi Hada Nakamoto “Satoshi is allegedly 3 researchers from IBM”. Fooch said. Also, Fooch’s check on Toshiaki Tanaka and Naohiko Uramoto shows that they, at one time, worked at IBM. Right under the post is a comment tagging what seems to be Satoshi Hada’s account. Here's what it looks like 👇🏽 Maybe a coincidence 🧐 Under Satoshi Hada's most recent post on X, which was in 2017 by the way, someone commented by typing 'Satoshi Nakamoto' backward. What does this person know? Also, Satoshi Hada's previous repost on X in 2012 was about the IBM CEO predicting the future of business. Fooch's intelligent investigation was able to connect the dots based on an interview with Fran, Hal Finney’s wife. She recalled her husband communicating with someone named Satoshi, whom he believed to be based in Japan. Evidence from a YouTube video by The Bitcoin Layer corroborates that Satoshi’s working hours align with the PST time zone which is used in Japan. If “They” Are Satoshi, Why Are They Hiding? Fooch is of the opinion that the Japanese are humble people unlike Americans or Australians who may want to prove anything. Well, what do you think about Fooch’s theory? It appears to be the closest sketch to drawing Satoshi Nakamoto though. Another interesting thing that can be noticed is Satoshi's use of “we” in the bitcoin whitepaper - “We propose a…” Other Alleged Satoshis In an adventure to discover the genius behind Bitcoin, various theories have emerged. Some individuals have purposely claimed to be Satoshi despite evidence proving otherwise. Others have been linked to Satoshi because of their early association with Bitcoin, and one unlucky fellow was accused due to a name coincidence. Let's find out who they are and why they may not be 'Satoshi’. Craig Wright Craig Wright Craig Wright An Australian scientist who has been ruled as a fraudster by a judge in the United Kingdom has long claimed to be the founder of Bitcoin. However, his claims lack tangible evidence beyond document forgery, and he has offered many excuses for his inability to prove it, including 'stomping on the hard drive’ that contains files to prove that he created Bitcoin. Dorian Nakamoto Dorian Nakamoto Dorian Nakamoto When you google Satoshi Nakamoto, the image you often see is that of Dorian Nakamoto, who has denied being the founder of Bitcoin despite the name coincidence. Dorian is a retired physicist. In a 2014 exposé with Newsweek , where he was accused of being the founder of Bitcoin, he claimed he was wrongly quoted when asked about Bitcoin, thinking the question related to his career, and said: Newsweek “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” When the exposé went viral, Dorian stated that he felt victimized and decided to tell his own side of the story. “I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it. And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that’s what I implied. It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that.” “I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it. And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that’s what I implied. It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that.” Dorian's side of the story attracted sympathy from the Bitcoin community, resulting in donations of over 102 bitcoins which is worth almost a hundred million dollars today. Gavin Andersen Gavin Andersen Gavin Andersen It's understandable why some might have suspected Gavin Andresen of being Satoshi Nakamoto. He joined Bitcoin as a core developer in its early stages, creating important features that remain crucial to the Bitcoin ecosystem today. In the documentary "The Bitcoin Story," Gavin repeatedly referred to Satoshi as a "he" and emphasized Satoshi's genius: “He's obviously had some academic training because he wrote this academic whitepaper that is in the style of a peer reviewed academic journal article. He's obviously a genius. I’d love to meet him someday.” “He's obviously had some academic training because he wrote this academic whitepaper that is in the style of a peer reviewed academic journal article. He's obviously a genius. I’d love to meet him someday.” “As far as I know, no one has actually met Satoshi. No one knows who he, or she, or they are. I've never talked with Satoshi although I have communicated with him electronically via email or on online forums. Satoshi started working on Bitcoin he says in 2007, and it actually took him a couple of years to convince himself that he could actually create a system that would work.” “As far as I know, no one has actually met Satoshi. No one knows who he, or she, or they are. I've never talked with Satoshi although I have communicated with him electronically via email or on online forums. Satoshi started working on Bitcoin he says in 2007, and it actually took him a couple of years to convince himself that he could actually create a system that would work.” Gavin believes he was the last person to speak with Satoshi: “I don't know who might have had the last interaction with Satoshi, it might have possibly been me. My very last email to Satoshi, I actually told him I had been invited to give a talk at the CIA. He had already told me he was going to step back. I don't know if me telling him I was going to visit the CIA was the reason I never heard from him again but I certainly think it didn't help.” “I don't know who might have had the last interaction with Satoshi, it might have possibly been me. My very last email to Satoshi, I actually told him I had been invited to give a talk at the CIA. He had already told me he was going to step back. I don't know if me telling him I was going to visit the CIA was the reason I never heard from him again but I certainly think it didn't help.” Hal Finney Hal Finney Hal Finney If you're a Bitcoin enthusiast, you've likely heard of Hal Finney. He was the first person to receive Bitcoin in a transaction, receiving 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto on January 12, 2009. This marked him as an early supporter and contributor to the project. As a cryptographer, Finney recognized the potential of Bitcoin, predicted that it would hit $1 million, and actively contributed to its development. He was a passionate advocate for privacy and saw Bitcoin as a solution to financial transaction privacy concerns. Sadly, Hal passed away on August 28, 2014, after battling with complications from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) for five years. Recent research by Jameson Lopp, a Bitcoin researcher, has provided evidence that Hal Finney was not Satoshi Nakamoto. This research analyzed the timing of a specific Bitcoin transaction and Hal Finney's participation in a race, concluding that they occurred simultaneously, making it impossible for him to have been Satoshi at that time. Adam Back Adam Back Adam Back British cryptographer and CEO of Blockstream has also been suspected to be Satoshi because of his early involvement with Bitcoin. In 1997, Adam developed Hashcash, a proof-of-work system that is now used in Bitcoin mining. This invention is referenced in Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper. Through public emails revealed between Satoshi and Adam, it appears both individuals have distinct communication styles and technical expertise. Len Sasseman Len Sasseman Len Sasseman Len Sassaman, a renowned cryptographer and academic researcher, made significant contributions to the field of cryptography and privacy. While his work indirectly influenced the development of Bitcoin, there is no concrete evidence to support the claim that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. After Sassaman's untimely death in 2011, the Bitcoin community honored him in a unique and lasting way. A tribute was embedded in block 138725 of the Bitcoin blockchain, forever commemorating his legacy. A message in the block reads: " Len was our friend.A brilliant mind, a kind soul, and a devious schemer .” Len was our friend.A brilliant mind, a kind soul, and a devious schemer

Has Satoshi Nakamoto's Identity Finally Been Revealed?

সাতোশি নাকামোটোর পরিচয় কি অবশেষে প্রকাশ করা হয়েছে?

Wurde die Identität von Satoshi Nakamoto endlich enthüllt?

¿Se ha revelado finalmente la identidad de Satoshi Nakamoto?

L'identité de Satoshi Nakamoto a-t-elle enfin été révélée ?

क्या सातोशी नाकामोतो की पहचान अंततः उजागर हो गई है?

サトシ・ナカモトの正体はついに明らかになったのか？

나카모토 사토시의 정체가 드디어 밝혀졌나요?

A identidade de Satoshi Nakamoto foi finalmente revelada?

Личность Сатоши Накамото наконец раскрыта?

Satoshi Nakamoto'nun Kimliği Nihayet Ortaya Çıktı mı?

Danh tính của Satoshi Nakamoto cuối cùng đã được tiết lộ?

中本聪的身份终于揭晓了吗？

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 19th, 2024/Chainwire/--Vitalik Buterin, Audrey Tang, and Glen Weyl to Headline the Plurality Summit at ABS2024. The Asia Blockchain Summit 2024 (ABS2024) is set to take place from August 06-08 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. ABS2024 promises to be a marquee event in this year’s tech calendar. ABS2024 is hosted in vibrant Taiwan, recently described by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as one of the most important places in the world for being the center of the AI and computing revolution. The summit is expected to attract over 15,000 attendees from 65 countries. ABS is renowned as the premier global stage for historic moments in the blockchain industry. A highlight was the riveting debate between Arthur Hayes and Nouriel Roubini, which captivated the crypto world and highlighted the intellectual clashes driving the industry forward. Astronaut Chris Hadfield received his first Bitcoin from space via Blockstream satellite at ABS. ABS2024 features a distinguished lineup of keynote speakers and panelists, including Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum; Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first Digital Minister; Glen Weyl, first author of ⿻__Plurality.net__ and founder of Plurality Institute; Steve Yun, TON Foundation President; Song Hongbing, author of Currency Wars; Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3; Scott Moore, co-founder of Gitcoin; Ray Chan, Founder of Memeland and 9GAG; Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, CEO of Project Liberty; David Yu, co-founder and CEO of VeVe; Abighya Anand, the world-renowned Vedic Astrologer; David Mak, CEO of Catizen; Jamie Lin, CEO at Taiwan Mobile and Partner at AppWorks; Claudia Lopez, Former Mayor of Bogotá. The list of speakers is featured on the ABS2024 website. This year’s summit will feature multiple specialized summits, each dedicated to groundbreaking discussions at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Sustainability. The Plurality Summit: The Future of Decentralized Society The Plurality Summit at ABS2024 will take place on August 08. Attendees will delve into critical discussions on topics like decentralized society, the ethics of digital democracy, and reimagining a future where power is distributed across a diverse collective. "At ABS2024, we’ll explore the ideas of Plurality, focusing on how effective collaboration and continuous democracy can build new bridges across diversity." said Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first Digital Minister and co-author of ⿻__Plurality.net__. The Open Summit: Pioneering TON Event The Open Summit at ABS2024 is the largest TON event in Asia. Sponsored by TONX and the TON Foundation, The Open Summit includes three days of workshops, talks, and activities dedicated to the 900 million-strong Telegram ecosystem. ABS2024 Game Zone: Asia’s Largest Web3 Gaming Exhibition The ABS2024 Game Zone, powered by GEDA Esports and Matr1x Fire, features high-profile Web3 games, live tournaments on a professional esports stage, and gaming industry leader panel discussions. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore more than fifty games, including a world-class tournament hosted by Matr1x Fire. Attendees can be prepared to witness visionary leaders, pioneering developers, government officials, and thought leaders from across industries converge and collectively reimagine the world. For more information, users can contact: Asia Blockchain Summit | admin@abs.io About Asia Blockchain Summit (ABS) Asia Blockchain Summit (ABS) is an annual technology event that brings together leading experts, innovators and policymakers from AI, Blockchain, and Sustainability. Hosted in the vibrant city of Taipei, the event serves as a platform to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and networking among key players ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups in the rapidly evolving global blockchain ecosystem. Asia Blockchain Summit attracts over 10,000 attendees from 60+ countries each year. Website | X | Instagram | Linkedin Contact Marketing Director Shin Chen Asia Blockchain Summit 2024 admin@abs.io This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here. TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 19th, 2024/Chainwire/--Vitalik Buterin, Audrey Tang, and Glen Weyl to Headline the Plurality Summit at ABS2024. The Asia Blockchain Summit 2024 ( ABS2024 ) is set to take place from August 06-08 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. ABS2024 promises to be a marquee event in this year’s tech calendar. ABS2024 is hosted in vibrant Taiwan, recently described by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as one of the most important places in the world for being the center of the AI and computing revolution. ABS2024 ABS2024 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang The summit is expected to attract over 15,000 attendees from 65 countries. ABS is renowned as the premier global stage for historic moments in the blockchain industry. A highlight was the riveting debate between Arthur Hayes and Nouriel Roubini, which captivated the crypto world and highlighted the intellectual clashes driving the industry forward. Astronaut Chris Hadfield received his first Bitcoin from space via Blockstream satellite at ABS. Arthur Hayes and Nouriel Roubini, Arthur Hayes and Nouriel Roubini, Chris Hadfield Chris Hadfield ABS2024 features a distinguished lineup of keynote speakers and panelists, including Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum; Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first Digital Minister; Glen Weyl, first author of ⿻__ Plurality.net __ and founder of Plurality Institute; Steve Yun, TON Foundation President; Song Hongbing, author of Currency Wars; Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3; Scott Moore, co-founder of Gitcoin; Ray Chan, Founder of Memeland and 9GAG; Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, CEO of Project Liberty; David Yu, co-founder and CEO of VeVe; Abighya Anand, the world-renowned Vedic Astrologer; David Mak, CEO of Catizen; Jamie Lin, CEO at Taiwan Mobile and Partner at AppWorks; Claudia Lopez, Former Mayor of Bogotá. The list of speakers is featured on the ABS2024 website. Plurality.net ABS2024 ABS2024 This year’s summit will feature multiple specialized summits, each dedicated to groundbreaking discussions at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Sustainability. The Plurality Summit: The Future of Decentralized Society The Plurality Summit at ABS2024 will take place on August 08. Attendees will delve into critical discussions on topics like decentralized society, the ethics of digital democracy, and reimagining a future where power is distributed across a diverse collective. The Plurality Summit The Plurality Summit "At ABS2024, we’ll explore the ideas of Plurality, focusing on how effective collaboration and continuous democracy can build new bridges across diversity." said Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first Digital Minister and co-author of ⿻__ Plurality.net __. Plurality.net The Open Summit: Pioneering TON Event The Open Summit at ABS2024 is the largest TON event in Asia. Sponsored by TONX and the TON Foundation , The Open Summit includes three days of workshops, talks, and activities dedicated to the 900 million-strong Telegram ecosystem. TONX TONX TON Foundation TON Foundation ABS2024 Game Zone: Asia’s Largest Web3 Gaming Exhibition The ABS2024 Game Zone, powered by GEDA Esports and Matr1x Fire , features high-profile Web3 games, live tournaments on a professional esports stage, and gaming industry leader panel discussions. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore more than fifty games, including a world-class tournament hosted by Matr1x Fire. GEDA Esports GEDA Esports Matr1x Fire Matr1x Fire Attendees can be prepared to witness visionary leaders, pioneering developers, government officials, and thought leaders from across industries converge and collectively reimagine the world. For more information, users can contact: Asia Blockchain Summit | admin@abs.io About Asia Blockchain Summit (ABS) Asia Blockchain Summit (ABS) is an annual technology event that brings together leading experts, innovators and policymakers from AI, Blockchain, and Sustainability. Hosted in the vibrant city of Taipei, the event serves as a platform to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and networking among key players ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups in the rapidly evolving global blockchain ecosystem. Asia Blockchain Summit attracts over 10,000 attendees from 60+ countries each year. Website | X | Instagram | Linkedin Website Website X X Instagram Instagram Linkedin Linkedin Contact Marketing Director Shin Chen Asia Blockchain Summit 2024 admin@abs.io This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here. This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here . here here

ABS2024 In Taipei: AI, Blockchain, And The Future Of Governance, 15,000 Attendees Are Expected

ABS2024 তাইপেই: AI, Blockchain, and the Future of Governance, 15,000 উপস্থিতি প্রত্যাশিত

ABS2024 in Taipeh: KI, Blockchain und die Zukunft der Regierungsführung, 15.000 Teilnehmer werden erwartet

ABS2024 en Taipei: IA, blockchain y el futuro de la gobernanza, se esperan 15.000 asistentes

ABS2024 à Taipei : IA, blockchain et avenir de la gouvernance, 15 000 participants sont attendus

ताइपे में ABS2024: AI, ब्लॉकचेन और शासन का भविष्य, 15,000 लोगों के शामिल होने की उम्मीद

台北で開催されるABS2024: AI、ブロックチェーン、ガバナンスの未来、15,000人の参加者が見込まれる

ABS2024 타이베이: AI, 블록체인, 그리고 거버넌스의 미래, 15,000명의 참석자 예상

ABS2024 em Taipei: IA, Blockchain e o futuro da governança, são esperados 15.000 participantes

ABS2024 в Тайбэе: искусственный интеллект, блокчейн и будущее управления, ожидается 15 000 участников

ABS2024 Taipei'de: Yapay Zeka, Blockchain ve Yönetişimin Geleceği, 15.000 Katılımcı Bekleniyor

ABS2024 tại Đài Bắc: AI, Blockchain và tương lai của quản trị, dự kiến sẽ có 15.000 người tham dự

ABS2024 台北峰会：人工智能、区块链和治理的未来，预计将有 15,000 名与会者

Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin weren’t exactly popular in the early days, not even among their peers. Privacy-inclined people, who were also experts in programming, and were looking for an alternative to banks and traditional money, were the first ones to read the Bitcoin whitepaper —and most of them didn’t think highly of it. Gregory Maxwell, a self-declared cypherpunk, was one of them. Maxwell is an American programmer well-known for his deep involvement in Bitcoin, to the point of being one of the most important developers of Bitcoin Core (its main implementation) for years. It wasn’t like that since the beginning, though. He first got involved in other open-source and collaborative systems, being an early contributor to Wikipedia and later an employee at the Mozilla Foundation. However, he believed that decentralized consensus wasn’t possible. “When Bitcoin first came out, I was on the cryptography mailing list. When it happened, I sort of laughed. Because I had already proven that decentralized consensus was impossible.” Before really paying enough attention to the Bitcoin code, he was helping to develop the now widely-used Opus Audio Codec. This is an audio format specially designed to compress and transmit audio over the Internet. It offers high-quality sound while using less data, making it ideal for applications like voice calls, video conferencing, and streaming music. Household names like YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Discord, and Skype use this technology today. Maxwell on Bitcoin Even before Bitcoin, Maxwell was involved in the Reusable Proof-of-Work (RPOW) project created by Hal Finney —who would also turn to Bitcoin later. This system created RPOW tokens that could be transferred between users and exchanged for new units, but it wasn’t exactly like decentralized money. Maxwell was aiming to create conditional transfers (similar to smart contracts) in the platform, but the adoption of it wasn’t high. He came back to Bitcoin in late 2010, as a miner first, just trying to use his GPUs in something useful. Soon after, he paid closer attention to the whitepaper and the source code and changed his mind about the project. He then started to collaborate at a technical level, and he’s been doing it since 2011. In those early days, he focused on protocol design, incentives, and cryptographic review. ** ** In 2014, he also co-founded Blockstream, a company mainly created to boost and fund Bitcoin development. While there, Maxwell helped to create the two-way peg, which makes sidechains possible. These are separate chains connected to a parent distributed ledger, like Bitcoin, enabling experimentation with new features and functionalities without risking the main chain's security. The two-way peg would allow assets to move between chains without losing their value. As a Bitcoin Core developer, Maxwell also helped to build the homomorphic key derivation in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) #32, which allows for the generation of multiple public and private key pairs from a single master key. Additionally, he co-authored the BIP-9 to establish a standard for light updates (softforks), and the BIP-173 to define a new type of address for SegWit —another improvement update to increase efficiency. He left Blockstream in 2018 and focused on the creation of smart contract features for Bitcoin. That way, he became the author of a new important improvement for Bitcoin, the Taproot update. This technique combines multiple spending conditions into a single signature, enhancing privacy and reducing transaction costs —which encourages the creation of complex smart contracts. Some Concerns, and Time As much as other fellow cypherpunks, Maxwell has also expressed some concerns about Bitcoin's internal functionality. This is the system that really spread the idea of decentralized money, but it’s not perfect. For starters, Maxwell told the story about his early days as a miner, and how the overheating caused by the machines even drew the police to his home. Mining is, indeed, worrisome, given the great amount of electric energy that it needs. Privacy is another issue in the Bitcoin ledger. People tend to believe that Bitcoin is anonymous, but that’s quite far from the truth. Bitcoin is actually pseudonymous, which means instead of names and ID documents it uses cryptographic addresses. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be tracked, especially because every transaction is publicly available in a blockchain explorer. And they include data like amount, date, and connected addresses (senders and recipients). Maxwell is also trying to fix this issue in the first cryptocurrency, as he commented in an interview. “Obviously privacy is a big area where Bitcoin needs improvement and I've tried to come up with fancy technology to improve the situation, but it's always a balancing act. Privacy is the one area where if Bitcoin doesn't get better at it... it might leave the world a worse off place than if Bitcoin hadn't existed. The worst case for Bitcoin privacy is pretty bad.  There has been a lot of progress but more is needed.” Despite current flaws, Maxwell also thinks that mass adoption of cryptocurrencies is just a matter of time. Impediments like insecure hardware, buggy software, tax barriers, or self-custody risks will find a solution over the years, and we’re on our way to it. Obyte as a Step into the Future Obyte has emerged as a compelling alternative to Bitcoin, addressing concerns regarding privacy, and decentralization. Unlike Bitcoin, which requires miners as inevitable intermediaries to approve transactions, Obyte employs a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure where transactions don’t need any approval. This approach eliminates the need for blocks and their creators, making Obyte fully decentralized. Moreover, Obyte offers enhanced privacy features, such as the integration of the privacy coin Blackbytes and in-wallet encrypted chat functionality. These options provide users with greater confidentiality in their transactions and communications, addressing the privacy concerns prevalent in Bitcoin's ledger. By prioritizing decentralization and privacy, Obyte ensures that users can freely conduct transactions on their own and have the option to do so without compromising their sensitive information to public scrutiny, distinguishing it as a more privacy-focused and decentralized option in the cryptocurrency landscape. This ecosystem is really the next step into the future, as many cypherpunks have dreamed of. Read more from Cypherpunks Write Code series: Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Adam Back & Hashcash Eric Hughes & Remailer St Jude & Community Memory Hal Finney & RPOW John Gilmore & EFF Satoshi Nakamoto & Bitcoin Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Photograph of Gregory Maxwell by Blockstream Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin weren’t exactly popular in the early days, not even among their peers. Privacy-inclined people, who were also experts in programming, and were looking for an alternative to banks and traditional money, were the first ones to read the Bitcoin whitepaper —and most of them didn’t think highly of it. Gregory Maxwell, a self-declared cypherpunk, was one of them. Maxwell is an American programmer well-known for his deep involvement in Bitcoin, to the point of being one of the most important developers of Bitcoin Core (its main implementation) for years. It wasn’t like that since the beginning, though. He first got involved in other open-source and collaborative systems, being an early contributor to Wikipedia and later an employee at the Mozilla Foundation. However, he believed that decentralized consensus wasn’t possible. Maxwell is an American programmer well-known for his deep involvement in Bitcoin, to the point of being one of the most important developers of Bitcoin Core (its main implementation) for years. Maxwell Maxwell he believed he believed “When Bitcoin first came out, I was on the cryptography mailing list. When it happened, I sort of laughed. Because I had already proven that decentralized consensus was impossible.” “When Bitcoin first came out, I was on the cryptography mailing list. When it happened, I sort of laughed. Because I had already proven that decentralized consensus was impossible.” Before really paying enough attention to the Bitcoin code, he was helping to develop the now widely-used Opus Audio Codec. This is an audio format specially designed to compress and transmit audio over the Internet. It offers high-quality sound while using less data, making it ideal for applications like voice calls, video conferencing, and streaming music. Household names like YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Discord, and Skype use this technology today. Maxwell on Bitcoin Even before Bitcoin, Maxwell was involved in the Reusable Proof-of-Work (RPOW) project created by Hal Finney —who would also turn to Bitcoin later. This system created RPOW tokens that could be transferred between users and exchanged for new units, but it wasn’t exactly like decentralized money. Maxwell was aiming to create conditional transfers (similar to smart contracts) in the platform, but the adoption of it wasn’t high. He came back to Bitcoin in late 2010, as a miner first, just trying to use his GPUs in something useful. Soon after, he paid closer attention to the whitepaper and the source code and changed his mind about the project. He then started to collaborate at a technical level, and he’s been doing it since 2011. In those early days, he focused on protocol design, incentives, and cryptographic review. He then started to collaborate at a technical level, and he’s been doing it since 2011. he focused he focused ** ** In 2014, he also co-founded Blockstream, a company mainly created to boost and fund Bitcoin development. While there, Maxwell helped to create the two-way peg, which makes sidechains possible. These are separate chains connected to a parent distributed ledger, like Bitcoin, enabling experimentation with new features and functionalities without risking the main chain's security. The two-way peg would allow assets to move between chains without losing their value. As a Bitcoin Core developer, Maxwell also helped to build the homomorphic key derivation in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) #32 , which allows for the generation of multiple public and private key pairs from a single master key. Additionally, he co-authored the BIP-9 to establish a standard for light updates (softforks), and the BIP-173 to define a new type of address for SegWit —another improvement update to increase efficiency. Maxwell also helped to build the homomorphic key derivation in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal ( BIP ) #32 BIP BIP He left Blockstream in 2018 and focused on the creation of smart contract features for Bitcoin. That way, he became the author of a new important improvement for Bitcoin, the Taproot update . This technique combines multiple spending conditions into a single signature, enhancing privacy and reducing transaction costs —which encourages the creation of complex smart contracts. Taproot update Taproot update Some Concerns, and Time As much as other fellow cypherpunks , Maxwell has also expressed some concerns about Bitcoin's internal functionality. This is the system that really spread the idea of decentralized money, but it’s not perfect. For starters, Maxwell told the story about his early days as a miner, and how the overheating caused by the machines even drew the police to his home. Mining is, indeed, worrisome, given the great amount of electric energy that it needs. cypherpunks cypherpunks Privacy is another issue in the Bitcoin ledger. People tend to believe that Bitcoin is anonymous, but that’s quite far from the truth. Bitcoin is actually pseudonymous, which means instead of names and ID documents it uses cryptographic addresses. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be tracked, especially because every transaction is publicly available in a blockchain explorer. And they include data like amount, date, and connected addresses (senders and recipients). Privacy is another issue in the Bitcoin ledger. Maxwell is also trying to fix this issue in the first cryptocurrency, as he commented in an interview. an interview. an interview. “Obviously privacy is a big area where Bitcoin needs improvement and I've tried to come up with fancy technology to improve the situation, but it's always a balancing act. Privacy is the one area where if Bitcoin doesn't get better at it... it might leave the world a worse off place than if Bitcoin hadn't existed. The worst case for Bitcoin privacy is pretty bad.  There has been a lot of progress but more is needed.” “Obviously privacy is a big area where Bitcoin needs improvement and I've tried to come up with fancy technology to improve the situation, but it's always a balancing act. Privacy is the one area where if Bitcoin doesn't get better at it... it might leave the world a worse off place than if Bitcoin hadn't existed. The worst case for Bitcoin privacy is pretty bad.  There has been a lot of progress but more is needed.” Despite current flaws, Maxwell also thinks that mass adoption of cryptocurrencies is just a matter of time. Impediments like insecure hardware, buggy software, tax barriers, or self-custody risks will find a solution over the years, and we’re on our way to it. Obyte as a Step into the Future Obyte has emerged as a compelling alternative to Bitcoin, addressing concerns regarding privacy, and decentralization. Unlike Bitcoin, which requires miners as inevitable intermediaries to approve transactions, Obyte employs a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure where transactions don’t need any approval. This approach eliminates the need for blocks and their creators, making Obyte fully decentralized. Obyte Obyte Obyte employs a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure where transactions don’t need any approval. Moreover, Obyte offers enhanced privacy features, such as the integration of the privacy coin Blackbytes and in-wallet encrypted chat functionality . These options provide users with greater confidentiality in their transactions and communications, addressing the privacy concerns prevalent in Bitcoin's ledger. Blackbytes Blackbytes chat functionality chat functionality By prioritizing decentralization and privacy, Obyte ensures that users can freely conduct transactions on their own and have the option to do so without compromising their sensitive information to public scrutiny, distinguishing it as a more privacy-focused and decentralized option in the cryptocurrency landscape. This ecosystem is really the next step into the future, as many cypherpunks have dreamed of. Read more from Cypherpunks Write Code series: Read more from Cypherpunks Write Code series: Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Wei Dai & B-money Wei Dai & B-money Wei Dai & B-money Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Adam Back & Hashcash Adam Back & Hashcash Adam Back & Hashcash Adam Back & Hashcash Eric Hughes & Remailer Eric Hughes & Remailer Eric Hughes & Remailer Eric Hughes & Remailer St Jude & Community Memory St Jude & Community Memory St Jude & Community Memory St Jude & Community Memory Hal Finney & RPOW Hal Finney & RPOW Hal Finney & RPOW Hal Finney & RPOW John Gilmore & EFF John Gilmore & EFF John Gilmore & EFF John Gilmore & EFF Satoshi Nakamoto & Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto & Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto & Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto & Bitcoin Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Freepik Freepik Photograph of Gregory Maxwell by Blockstream Photograph of Gregory Maxwell by Blockstream Blockstream Blockstream

Cypherpunks Write Code: Gregory Maxwell and Bitcoin Core

সাইফারপাঙ্কস কোড লিখুন: গ্রেগরি ম্যাক্সওয়েল এবং বিটকয়েন কোর

Cypherpunks schreiben Code: Gregory Maxwell und Bitcoin Core

Código de escritura de Cypherpunks: Gregory Maxwell y Bitcoin Core

Cypherpunks écrit du code : Gregory Maxwell et Bitcoin Core

साइफरपंक्स ने कोड लिखा: ग्रेगरी मैक्सवेल और बिटकॉइन कोर

サイファーパンクがコードを書く: グレゴリー・マクスウェルとビットコイン・コア

Cypherpunks의 코드 작성: Gregory Maxwell 및 Bitcoin Core

Código de gravação Cypherpunks: Gregory Maxwell e Bitcoin Core

Шифропанки пишут код: Грегори Максвелл и Bitcoin Core

Şifrepunklar Kod Yazıyor: Gregory Maxwell ve Bitcoin Core

Cypherpunks viết mã: Gregory Maxwell và Bitcoin Core

密码朋克编写代码：Gregory Maxwell 和比特币核心

Satoshi Nakamoto is far from being the sole anonymous figure in the cypherpunk arena. They’re privacy activists, so they value their own privacy more than anything. That’s also the case of Eric Hughes, known for being one of the founders of the cypherpunks movement and creator of the first anonymous remailer. Beyond this, we know quite little about him. He's an American cryptographer, mathematician, and programmer. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked for a while in the Netherlands with David Chaum, a known cryptographer and precursor . of cypherpunks Unlike Satoshi, we at least know his face and voice. at his own house in Oakland, California. Those meetings soon extended to Cygnus Solutions . This was a company dedicated to supporting free software and was founded by Gilmore himself. the group now called “cypherpunks” by arranging physical meetings with Tim May, John Gilmore and other programmers He started in Sunnyvale The famous cypherpunk mailing list to which Satoshi belonged and where he first shared the Bitcoin whitepaper was an evolution of those first meetings, created by Tim May, John Gilmore, and Hughes in 1992. Hughes was, indeed, the admin of the mailing list. , . Hal Finney, another remarkable cypherpunk, helped him to improve the code. An anonymous remailer is a service that first receives an email, deletes the identifying information (such as the sender's email address), and then forwards it to its destination or to another remailer in the network. This way, the sender's identity is protected. In the same forum, he also shared his own creation for privacy: the first anonymous remailer in 1992 A year later, Hughes wrote and published the Cypherpunk Manifesto, a sort of guide that would stay forever with cypherpunks and crypto enthusiasts alike. A Cypherpunk Manifesto outlines the principles and beliefs of the Cypherpunk movement, emphasizing the importance of privacy, cryptography, and anonymous transaction systems in maintaining individual freedoms and an open society in the digital age. It hasn't only served as a guiding philosophy for the Cypherpunk movement but it has also **influenced the development of a wide array of privacy-enhancing technologies and advocacy for digital rights.
\ This short text “Cypherpunks write code” is a motto that comes from this manifesto. It reads: “Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age (…) We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy (…) We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any (…) Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and (…) we're going to write it.” They have written it, indeed. These words and this movement have inspired figures and software such as Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), Adam Back (Hashcash & Blockstream), Eric Blossom (GNU Radio Project), Phil Zimmerman (PGP Protocol), Bram Cohen (BitTorrent & Chia), Hal Finney (First Proof-of-Work), Nick Szabo (Smart Contracts), Wei Dai (B-Money), Zooko Wilcox (Zcash), and, of course, Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin). Most of them are still alive and active in 2023. A Cypherpunk Incarnation Beyond cypherpunk meetings, Hughes has rarely appeared in public. He was masked in a photo of three cypherpunks in Wired (1993), and delivered the keynote address, " ", at the Amsterdam CryptoParty in 2012. He’s a quite private person. However, after reading his opinions and creations on the mailing list, we can guess that he’s still working for the cypherpunk dream of online and financial freedom and privacy. Putting the Personal Back in Personal Computers At its core, the cypherpunk philosophy advocates for the empowerment of individuals through privacy-enhancing technologies and decentralized systems. Obyte embodies these ideals by offering a platform that prioritizes decentralization in its architecture and governance. We can say that is working to reach the same dreams, as a cypherpunk incarnation. Obyte By leveraging a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) ledger, Obyte creates a network where transactions are added directly by users, without middlemen involved —rather than being reliant on an intermediary (like miners). This decentralization helps to prevent single points of failure and reduces the risk of censorship or manipulation. From a privacy standpoint, Obyte integrates features that enable users to transact and communicate privately and securely. They include an encrypted chat, the option to use Tor with the wallet, and the opportunity to create private assets. In essence, Obyte's commitment to decentralization and privacy embodies the core principles of the cypherpunk movement. By empowering individuals with greater control over their digital interactions and data, Obyte contributes to the advancement of a more open, free, and equitable society in line with cypherpunk ideals. Read more from series: Cypherpunks Write Code Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Adam Back & Hashcash Jude Milhon & Community Memory Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Eric Hughes Photograph by ReasonTV / YouTube

Cypherpunks Write Code: Eric Hughes, Remailer and Author of "A Cypherpunk's Manifesto" 

“Cypherpunks” are often defined as computer scientists and programmers, but not all of them are exactly that. Indeed, one of the founders of the first mailing list and subsequent ideologies was an American physicist: Timothy C. May. Besides, he also was first to describe crypto-anarchism, a set of beliefs pretty aligned with decentralization and the purpose of cryptocurrencies. In this new series “Cyphepunks write code”, we’re talking about remarkable cypherpunks who helped to create decentralized money and more online freedom tools for everyone. To learn more about the cypherpunks movement and its notable participants, you can check out another series by the same name by Jim Epstein, editor of the Reason Magazine. Now, let’s remember that the group named “cypherpunks” was formed by computer science, cryptography experts, and online rebels aiming to create new software to foster privacy and social change. As you may imagine, a lot of people in the crypto world belong there. Tim May was one of the founders of this movement. He was born in 1951 in Maryland but grew up between California, Virginia, and France. He earned a physics bachelor's degree in 1974 from the University of California. Initially joining Intel Corporation to explore solid-state physics, Tim became a Staff Engineer in the Memory Products Division, where he delved into reliability physics studies of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) chips from 1974 to 1976. In 1977, he unveiled the impact of trace radioactive elements on Intel chips, pioneering research into alpha particle interference with memory storage nodes. He earned awards for it, but decided for an early retirement at 34, and mainly lived from his Intel stock options. He also became a leader and inspiration for Internet liberals, and sometimes a polemical and solitary figure, until his natural-caused death at 66, in December 2018.\ Crypto-anarchism + Cypherpunks Being a physicist and delving more into the hardware side of computers, May didn’t really write software code but created principles that would be followed by numerous programmers and cryptographers —including Satoshi Nakamoto. Those principles would birth many Internet freedom tools in the future (our present). That’s why we want to start the series with him: he didn’t write code, but inspired and guided others to do it. He believed that the crypto-code was the answer to protect our privacy and autonomy, and led the fight for it. Back in 1988, around three years after leaving Intel, May published the Crypto-Anarchism Manifesto. In it, he visualized a future in which anonymity and financial freedom would come for everyone thanks to digital cryptographic tools, and the government powers wouldn’t have control over online activities. “Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner (...) These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.” More talented people would join to support this future. The first Cypherpunk mailing list (to which Satoshi also belonged) started in 1992 by May, Eric Hughes, John Gilmore, and Judith Milhon. Their purpose was to support the creation of new software to protect privacy. As Hughes stated in his Cypherpunk Manifesto: “Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and (…) we're going to write it.” May didn’t write software code, but he did write the moral code of these activists. Besides his first Crypto-Anarchism Manifesto, he also published the Cyphernomicon (A cypherpunk’s FAQ), Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities, Libertaria in Cyberspace, a Crypto Glossary, and Cyberspace, Crypto Anarchy, and Pushing Limits. Yet Another PayPal As you can imagine, these ideas heavily influenced the current decentralized sector and privacy landscape. The number of subscribers to the cypherpunk mailing list (and, likely, to the movement) reached over 2,000 individuals by 1997, and the results are still seen today. Remarkable names and products that came from here include Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), Adam Back (Hashcash & Blockstream), Eric Blossom (GNU Radio Project), Phil Zimmerman (PGP Protocol), Bram Cohen (BitTorrent & Chia), Hal Finney (First Proof-of-Work), Nick Szabo (First Smart Contracts), Wei Dai (B-Money), Zooko Wilcox (Zcash), and, of course, Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin). We’ll cover some of them in our future articles in this series. Tim May wasn’t fully happy with Bitcoin though. In an interview with CoinDesk a couple of months before his death, he commented how all the centralized services (KYC exchanges, bank-friendly coins, etc.) around Bitcoin and other cryptos would make Satoshi “barf.” Cryptocurrencies are meant to be completely decentralized, and not “Yet Another PayPal.” “There’s not much of interest to many of us if cryptocurrencies just become Yet Another PayPal, just another bank transfer system. What's exciting is the bypassing of gatekeepers, of exorbitant fee collectors, of middlemen who decide whether Wikileaks — to pick a timely example — can have donations reach it. And to allow people to send money abroad. Attempts to be "regulatory-friendly" will likely kill the main uses for cryptocurrencies, which are NOT just another form of PayPal or Visa.” Obyte as a fully decentralized crypto The Obyte cryptocurrency ecosystem distinguishes itself as a superior embodiment of decentralized ideals, aligning with Tim May's vision of bypassing gatekeepers and eliminating exorbitant fee collectors. Unlike many cryptocurrencies that risk becoming mere replicas of traditional financial systems, Obyte's design emphasizes simplicity, efficiency, and user empowerment. By utilizing a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure instead of a blockchain, Obyte enhances decentralization, security, and community ownership by replacing miners or “validators” with much less powerful Order Providers (OPs). The transactions of the OPs serve as waypoints to order the rest, and that’s it. They can’t approve, block, censor, or control other users’ transactions in any way. In contrast to attempts to be overly "regulatory-friendly" (e.g. by censoring Tornado Cash transactions) that risk stifling the true potential of cryptocurrencies, Obyte's focus on maintaining its decentralized ethos ensures that it remains a freedom-asserting, censorship-proof, and neutral space. The ecosystem's dedication to enabling secure, private, and low-cost transactions exemplifies a commitment to the ideals that cypherpunks envisioned, making Obyte a standout model in the realm of decentralized finance. Read more from Cypherpunks Write Code series: Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Adam Back & Hashcash Eric Hughes & Remailer St Jude & Community Memory Hal Finney & RPOW John Gilmore and EFF Phil Zimmerman & PGP Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Tim May Photograph by Jim Epstein / Twitter “Cypherpunks” are often defined as computer scientists and programmers, but not all of them are exactly that. Indeed, one of the founders of the first mailing list and subsequent ideologies was an American physicist: Timothy C. May. Besides, he also was first to describe crypto-anarchism, a set of beliefs pretty aligned with decentralization and the purpose of cryptocurrencies. In this new series “Cyphepunks write code”, we’re talking about remarkable cypherpunks who helped to create decentralized money and more online freedom tools for everyone. To learn more about the cypherpunks movement and its notable participants, you can check out another series by the same name by Jim Epstein , editor of the Reason Magazine. In this new series “Cyphepunks write code”, we’re talking about remarkable cypherpunks who helped to create decentralized money and more online freedom tools for everyone. another series by the same name another series by the same name Jim Epstein Jim Epstein Now, let’s remember that the group named “cypherpunks” was formed by computer science, cryptography experts, and online rebels aiming to create new software to foster privacy and social change. As you may imagine, a lot of people in the crypto world belong there. Tim May was one of the founders of this movement. He was born in 1951 in Maryland but grew up between California, Virginia, and France. He earned a physics bachelor's degree in 1974 from the University of California. Initially joining Intel Corporation to explore solid-state physics, Tim became a Staff Engineer in the Memory Products Division, where he delved into reliability physics studies of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) chips from 1974 to 1976. Tim May was one of the founders of this movement. He earned He earned In 1977, he unveiled the impact of trace radioactive elements on Intel chips, pioneering research into alpha particle interference with memory storage nodes. He earned awards for it, but decided for an early retirement at 34, and mainly lived from his Intel stock options. He also became a leader and inspiration for Internet liberals, and sometimes a polemical and solitary figure, until his natural-caused death at 66 , in December 2018.\ death at 66 death at 66 Crypto-anarchism + Cypherpunks Being a physicist and delving more into the hardware side of computers, May didn’t really write software code but created principles that would be followed by numerous programmers and cryptographers —including Satoshi Nakamoto. Those principles would birth many Internet freedom tools in the future (our present). That’s why we want to start the series with him: he didn’t write code, but inspired and guided others to do it. He believed that the crypto-code was the answer to protect our privacy and autonomy, and led the fight for it. He believed that the crypto-code was the answer to protect our privacy and autonomy, and led the fight for it. Back in 1988, around three years after leaving Intel, May published the Crypto-Anarchism Manifesto . In it, he visualized a future in which anonymity and financial freedom would come for everyone thanks to digital cryptographic tools, and the government powers wouldn’t have control over online activities. Crypto-Anarchism Manifesto Crypto-Anarchism Manifesto “Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner (...) These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.” “Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner (...) These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.” “Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner (...) These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.” More talented people would join to support this future. The first Cypherpunk mailing list (to which Satoshi also belonged) started in 1992 by May, Eric Hughes, John Gilmore, and Judith Milhon. Their purpose was to support the creation of new software to protect privacy. As Hughes stated in his Cypherpunk Manifesto: “Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and (…) we're going to write it.” The first Cypherpunk mailing list (to which Satoshi also belonged) started in 1992 by May, Eric Hughes, John Gilmore, and Judith Milhon. Cypherpunk mailing list Cypherpunk mailing list May didn’t write software code, but he did write the moral code of these activists. Besides his first Crypto-Anarchism Manifesto, he also published the Cyphernomicon (A cypherpunk’s FAQ), Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities, Libertaria in Cyberspace, a Crypto Glossary, and Cyberspace, Crypto Anarchy, and Pushing Limits. published published Yet Another PayPal As you can imagine, these ideas heavily influenced the current decentralized sector and privacy landscape. The number of subscribers to the cypherpunk mailing list (and, likely, to the movement) reached over 2,000 individuals by 1997, and the results are still seen today. Remarkable names and products that came from here include Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), Adam Back (Hashcash & Blockstream), Eric Blossom (GNU Radio Project), Phil Zimmerman (PGP Protocol), Bram Cohen (BitTorrent & Chia), Hal Finney (First Proof-of-Work), Nick Szabo (First Smart Contracts), Wei Dai (B-Money), Zooko Wilcox (Zcash), and, of course, Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin). We’ll cover some of them in our future articles in this series. Tim May wasn’t fully happy with Bitcoin though. In an interview with CoinDesk a couple of months before his death, he commented how all the centralized services (KYC exchanges, bank-friendly coins, etc.) around Bitcoin and other cryptos would make Satoshi “barf.” Cryptocurrencies are meant to be completely decentralized, and not “Yet Another PayPal.” interview with CoinDesk interview with CoinDesk Cryptocurrencies are meant to be completely decentralized, and not “Yet Another PayPal.” “There’s not much of interest to many of us if cryptocurrencies just become Yet Another PayPal, just another bank transfer system. What's exciting is the bypassing of gatekeepers, of exorbitant fee collectors, of middlemen who decide whether Wikileaks — to pick a timely example — can have donations reach it. And to allow people to send money abroad. Attempts to be "regulatory-friendly" will likely kill the main uses for cryptocurrencies, which are NOT just another form of PayPal or Visa.” “There’s not much of interest to many of us if cryptocurrencies just become Yet Another PayPal, just another bank transfer system. What's exciting is the bypassing of gatekeepers, of exorbitant fee collectors, of middlemen who decide whether Wikileaks — to pick a timely example — can have donations reach it. And to allow people to send money abroad. Attempts to be "regulatory-friendly" will likely kill the main uses for cryptocurrencies, which are NOT just another form of PayPal or Visa.” Obyte as a fully decentralized crypto The Obyte cryptocurrency ecosystem distinguishes itself as a superior embodiment of decentralized ideals, aligning with Tim May's vision of bypassing gatekeepers and eliminating exorbitant fee collectors. Unlike many cryptocurrencies that risk becoming mere replicas of traditional financial systems, Obyte's design emphasizes simplicity, efficiency, and user empowerment. Obyte Obyte aligning with Tim May's vision of bypassing gatekeepers and eliminating exorbitant fee collectors. By utilizing a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure instead of a blockchain , Obyte enhances decentralization, security, and community ownership by replacing miners or “validators” with much less powerful Order Providers (OPs). The transactions of the OPs serve as waypoints to order the rest, and that’s it. They can’t approve, block, censor, or control other users’ transactions in any way. instead of a blockchain instead of a blockchain In contrast to attempts to be overly "regulatory-friendly" (e.g. by censoring Tornado Cash transactions ) that risk stifling the true potential of cryptocurrencies, Obyte's focus on maintaining its decentralized ethos ensures that it remains a freedom-asserting, censorship-proof, and neutral space. The ecosystem's dedication to enabling secure, private, and low-cost transactions exemplifies a commitment to the ideals that cypherpunks envisioned, making Obyte a standout model in the realm of decentralized finance. censoring Tornado Cash transactions censoring Tornado Cash transactions Read more from Cypherpunks Write Code series: Read more from Cypherpunks Write Code series: Cypherpunks Write Code Wei Dai & B-money Wei Dai & B-money Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Adam Back & Hashcash Adam Back & Hashcash Adam Back & Hashcash Eric Hughes & Remailer Eric Hughes & Remailer Eric Hughes & Remailer St Jude & Community Memory St Jude & Community Memory St Jude & Community Memory Hal Finney & RPOW Hal Finney & RPOW Hal Finney & RPOW John Gilmore and EFF John Gilmore and EFF John Gilmore and EFF Phil Zimmerman & PGP Phil Zimmerman & PGP Phil Zimmerman & PGP Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Freepik Freepik Tim May Photograph by Jim Epstein / Twitter Tim May Photograph by Jim Epstein / Twitter Twitter Twitter

Cypherpunks Write Code: Timothy C. May, Crypto-Anarchism, and Cypherpunks

সাইফারপাঙ্কস কোড লিখুন: টিমোথি সি. মে, ক্রিপ্টো-নৈরাজ্যবাদ এবং সাইফারপাঙ্কস

Cypherpunks schreiben Code: Timothy C. May, Krypto-Anarchismus und Cypherpunks

Los Cypherpunks escriben código: Timothy C. May, el criptoanarquismo y los Cypherpunks

Les Cypherpunks écrivent du code : Timothy C. May, le crypto-anarchisme et les Cypherpunks

साइफरपंक्स कोड लिखें: टिमोथी सी. मे, क्रिप्टो-अराजकतावाद, और साइफरपंक्स

サイファーパンクのコード作成: Timothy C. May、暗号アナキズム、およびサイファーパンク

사이퍼펑크의 코드 작성: Timothy C. May, Crypto-Anarchism 및 Cypherpunks

Cypherpunks escrevem código: Timothy C. May, cripto-anarquismo e Cypherpunks

Шифропанки пишут код: Тимоти К. Мэй, криптоанархизм и шифропанки

Şifrepunklar Kod Yazıyor: Timothy C. May, Kripto-Anarşizm ve Şifrepunklar

Cypherpunks viết mã: Timothy C. May, Chủ nghĩa vô chính phủ tiền điện tử và Cypherpunks

密码朋克编写代码：Timothy C. May、加密无政府主义和密码朋克

Bitcoin ( ) stands as the world's pioneering blockchain-based cryptocurrency, often referred to as digital gold. Over more than a decade, BTC has overcome numerous challenges. Now, we are on the verge of a significant event— the point where no new BTC can be mined, as it is predetermined to be capped at 21 million. Nowadays, BTC mining has created heated debates regarding its energy-hungry consensus algorithm, ). Miners get rewards for utilizing their computing resources to validate the transactions and a huge amount of energy is required to operate their mining equipment. Miners are employing various energy resources, but a significant concern revolves around the environmental impact, particularly the greenhouse effect, due to their excessive energy consumption. BTC Proof-of-Work (PoW On the other hand, ) has transitioned to switch its PoW consensus algorithm to the energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm. After the well-planned “ ” event, Ethereum developers introduced the PoS-based Beacon chain which has further assisted in cutting energy consumption by 99.95%. A question may arise here i.e. “ ”There are so many unfavorable factors that have made BTC’s transition into a PoS-based system almost impossible. I have already shared an in-depth study of this in a . Now, let’s explore some more detailed insights into BTC mining and its future. Ethereum (ETH Merge What if BTC is also switched from its PoW to PoS consensus algorithm? Hackernoon post Understanding what BTC mining is: The Bitcoin blockchain network consists of a chain of blocks. Each block consists of important information about transactions, the hash of the previous block, and other details. BTC mining consists of solving complex mathematical problems by using computers’ computing resources to create new blocks and new Bitcoin. For this task, miners receive rewards in crypto and BTC. Talking about the rewards and chances for producing a new block for the Bitcoin blockchain network, it is highly competitive as larger institutions are competing to validate the transactions. There are several components that are responsible for impacting Bitcoin mining which are as shown in the following diagram: Understand how BTC mining works: Bitcoin miners have a very important role in creating new bitcoins. They also mine transactions which are added to the blockchain. Understand the entire process from the following diagram. First, it begins with users initiating a Bitcoin transaction then it enters the — a temporary holding space for unconfirmed transactions. Miners then select transactions from the mempool to form a block. Miners compete to solve a complex mathematical problem known as PoW. mempool Remember, miners compete to solve the mathematical puzzle and the first miner to solve it broadcasts the solution to the network. After that, consensus should be achieved to validate the blocks and it will only happen when most miners agree to add the new block consisting of transactions into the network. Now, the successful miner receives newly created BTCs and transaction fees as the reward for conforming the transactions in the block. For smooth operation, there are periodic difficulty adjustments to maintain a consistent block time. Well, these are the basic concepts of BTC mining. Now, let’s focus on our core matter of discussion i.e. profitability of BTC mining, challenges, current practices, its future, and other issues. Profitability of BTC mining: Before 2013, there was less competition for BTC mining between individual miners but after that, the new development of application-specific integrated circuits ( ) came into existence. Individual miners started to face difficulties competing against big mining farms with bigger mining rigs to share more computing power. In addition, the gradual mining difficulty adjustments and cutting block rewards through the BTC Halving Events have made it less profitable for individual miners who can not afford to adjust proper mining equipment on a competitive basis. ASICs So, it is not profitable for a solo miner? No, it is not entirely correct. You can still manage to bag lucrative rewards if you can consider the following factors; Good ASIC mining equipment costs hundreds to thousands of dollars, and you should have to afford it for an initial mining set-up. BTC mining is not legal everywhere. So, if you are in a favorable country and the electricity charge is affordable, you can consider BTC mining. No matter even if you are a solo miner and lucky enough, you’ll get a newly minted 6.25 BTC if you are successful in mining a block. This reward plus the transaction fee in that block will be yours. Bitcoin mining difficulties adjustments can be a checkmark because if mining difficulty increases, you need to increase the hash power to compete with other miners. It will force you to adjust the risk as well as cost management strategy. But for bigger mining farms, that is not the case. They can make good profits if they manage to balance electricity, equipment maintenance costs, and operational costs with proper risk management strategies. The chart of Hash Rate for the different time frames has exhibited growing difficulties which means miners are competing to generate more computing power. In simple terms, the mining difficulty is directly proportional to the amount of hash power required to solve complex mathematical puzzles of the block. The above chart exhibits the increasing mining activities with the increasing hash power. Let’s have a look at the current block reward distribution chart. The halving event is adjusted to happen every four years or when it reaches every 210,000 blocks which means another halving event is expected to happen this year. The BTC halving event of 2024 will cut the current BTC block reward to half of it which is 3.125 BTC. You can check the following chart to get insights into the cons and pros of BTC mining from a bigger farm. Crypto communities have explored different techniques and methods to feed the energy-hungry PoW consensus algorithm of BTC by utilizing its computing power. Here are a few of them: Pool mining: If you have difficulties in operating mining operations being a solo miner, you can prefer pool mining where other contributors also share their hash power with the pool. Please remember that you still need the mining equipment to participate in a pool. So, depending on your hash contribution, you will receive a reward from the sum of BTC that your involved pool received. Cloud Mining: Some mining farms sell hash power to users who are unable to afford electricity costs and equipment operational costs. In this sort of mining, the user can just spend his amount and sit remotely to track the mining progress and achieve rewards. However, this sort of mining still can not address the notorious energy consumption issue of BTC. There is a platform called “Gomining” that offers hash power to the users who purchase their NFT. It is an excellent way to bag benefits for both users and the company’s ends. The company fulfills its costs to run its mining farms from the portion of collected amounts from the users and splits the rewards to all involved users. Some companies or platforms have also developed their apps or browsers to mine BTC but they can not generate significant hash power through their device’s CPU. So, practically it is not the best practice for BTC mining. As already stated, BTC has to remain a PoW-based consensus algorithm due to its technical difficulties. Computing power is required to mine and confirm the transactions. BTC Lightning Networks have been created to address its persisting issues but it did not significantly contribute to reducing the high energy consumption nature of BTC. There have been growing debates regarding the environmental impacts of BTC mining. Controversies and real-world costs created by BTC mining: The majority of controversies and critics of BTC mining highlight center several factors. The first one is the high energy consumption that can contribute to climate change. The article from has suggested that Texas’ 10 Bitcoin mines have caused customers’ electricity bills to go up to nearly 5% ($1.8 B)  annually. Now, you can imagine what would happen if we take a reference of globally operated mines and their energy consumption. the New York Times Let’s have a look at the following diagram: The has an estimated 16.17 Gigawatt (GW) daily basis and annualized 141.72 Terawatt-hours (TWh) power demand of BTC mining. Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) Another one is carbon emissions due to BTC mining on a large scale. Particularly, if we talk about the USA, its nationwide BTC mining reportedly produces the equivalent of . 3.5 million gas-powered cars’ carbon pollution We can see an estimated 71.81 MtCO2e of annualized greenhouse gas emission from BTC mining. Some projects have already explored alternative energy sources and methods to minimize the energy footprint created by BTC mining because heavily relying on fossil fuels for energy is unsustainable. A report from the suggested that the sustainable electricity mix preferred by global BTC mining has grown marginally to 59.9% in 2023. Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) Here are current techniques and practices to mine BTC by using sustainable energy sources along with real-world examples. 1. Alternative energy sources There are some real-world examples of companies that are utilizing alternative energy sources for BTC mining to reduce carbon emissions which are as follows: ✅ There are BTC mining companies like Bitfarms, Hut 8, Iris, and OceanFalls which have been utilizing hydropower as a clean energy source to mine BTC. Hydropower: Projects like Tesla, Block, and Blockstream have been unitized . Tesla is offering the essential technology and energy storage system to power the mining rigs. Projects Blockstream,  Riot Blockchain, and Lancium focused on both solar and wind energy to run mining farms. ✅Solar and wind power: to mine BTC off solar power You have heard it right. A project like has already initiated BTC mining with nearly 8,000 mining rigs in operation. This is the first nuclear-powered BTC mining project in the USA. ✅Nuclear-powered BTC mining: TeraWulf-based in the USA 2. Customization of mining equipment with powerful ASIC chips The Intel Corporation has developed a high-performing and energy-efficient Blockscale ASIC which is targeted to assist BTC PoW. The HIVE blockchain is one of the four to get this ASIC to integrate into their . In addition, the HIVE blockchain is focused on utilizing hydropower as the primary energy source to mine BTC which is an excellent start. HIVE Buzzminer 3. Waste heat recovery The mining equipment uses electricity and mines produce excess heat energy while mining BTC. There are some projects to introduce an innovative approach to use such excess energy. One such company is SAITech-based in Singapore. They use a liquid cooling system to recycle waste energy produced due to BTC mining. Such waste energy is used in residential, agricultural, and industrial applications. Another company that uses waste heat recovery is MintGreen. They recover 96% of the electricity used for BTC mining as heat. Such heat energy is then utilized for different industrial applications. Is BTC mining the most energy-consuming vampire that contributes to harmful environmental impacts? No. If we perform an in-depth investigation, BTC’s estimated annualized 141.72 Terawatt-hours power consumption (mentioned above) is even less than 1% of the . It is even less than the traditional banking system and gold production process’ energy consumption. world’s electricity The fact is, BTC mining itself is not directly linked to carbon emissions; however, the energy production process is. Miners and mining farms are relocating to areas with affordable electricity charges. Nowadays, BTC miners are increasingly opting for sustainable energy sources to power their mining equipment. If we talk about BTC mining’s emission intensity, it is just . It is comparatively less than that of the traditional banking sector, gold industry, and other industries as exhibited in the above chart. 296 g/kWh Challenges of BTC mining: There are several risks that BTC mining has to tackle which are as follows: BTC price is highly volatile in the market. Miners may face difficulties in balancing the cost and profit balance particularly when BTC price is decreasing. There is a good sign that BTC mining utilizes the highest sustainable energy mix from 2019 to 2023 in comparison with other industries but, energy cost is still high. Security concerns have always been one of the most notable challenges of BTC mining as attackers may intercept the connection of mining devices to insert malware or malicious software for the wrong purpose. Despite BTC miners shifting towards eco-friendly energy consumption, it is still a fair matter to consider that the environmental impact caused by to energy production process is one of the major challenges. There is significant progress in building powerful processors and quantum computers from various companies. The encryption of BTC is the strongest and assists in securing the entire blockchain network. Reversing the work done by BTC’s PoW algorithm needs tremendous amounts of computing power but by chance, if powerful quantum computers evolve rapidly in the future, it may also create challenges in BTC’s encryptions. Future of BTC mining: Finally, we have an answer to our initial question “ ” What do you think? Based on our analysis of data and evidence, BTC mining will not end soon. Rather, there is a possibility that it can become a leading adopter of renewable energy resources. Not all BTC miners, but that miners with low costs and a highly sustainable energy mix for mining BTC will likely thrive in the future. Is it the end of BTC mining? analysts suggest Bigger mining farms as well as miners are seeking alternative energy sources because they can not afford to pay high for electricity to operate the mining devices. So, governments and different projects have opportunities to establish solar plants and other renewable energy solutions on a larger scale. It creates employment opportunities for so many workers from different industries. In addition, orphaned wells of methane emission can be sealed to utilize it as the energy source for BTC mining which will create an extra usage of waste gas for income. Some effective practices like grid balance, mining decentralization through pool mining, etc. are already initiated which can be even more effective in the future to use energy effectively. The development of powerful chips like Intel’s Blockscale ASIC could assist in reducing energy consumption with high-performance ability. Fears persist due to the development of quantum computing and its presumed ability to crack BTC’s encryption but it has not been proven yet so, no worries. Even if such computing becomes an enemy to BTC, let’s hope the Bitcoin community will invent a genuine solution to tackle it. Overall, the future of BTC mining is bright. Conclusion: The main attraction of BTC is its decentralized nature and security feature paved by its PoW consensus algorithm. Computing power is required from BTC miners to form a single BTC that’s why it is something special and some investors have already seen it as a modern form of store of value i.e. Digital gold. BTC has a limited supply so once all BTCs are mined, miners have to rely on its transaction fees as the reward for mining the transactions. The critics have accused BTC mining’s over-energy consumption has created carbon emissions and environmental impacts but based on our analysis, traditional banking and other industries are leading to BTC. It doesn’t mean that BTC miners should do nothing to invent new energy-effective solutions to reduce carbon emissions but if it is related to global issues, why critics are majorly centred on BTC mining? We all should be equally responsible.

Is It the End of BTC Mining?

Craig Wright And The Bitcoin Supercomputer Fraud

287 Stories To Learn About Blockchain Development

Let's learn about via these 59 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Bitcoin Maximalism /Learn Repo 1. China Intensifies Crypto Crackdown A quick rundown on past cryptocurrency regulation in China, along with some predictions of possible futures. 2. Getting the Lingo Right: 10 Most-Relevant Crypto Abbreviations & Keywords to Know Here are the top 10 cryptocurrency abbreviations and keywords you must know. 3. 10 Shared Beliefs of a Bitcoin Maximalist While some maximalists assert that altcoins are just unregistered securities, most consider them technically and morally questionable, if not outright scams. 4. Barter to Bitcoin: The Evolution of Money Through The Ages The last few years the interest for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has skyrocketed. Many financial institutions and companies have invested in... 5. Bitcoin is an Authentic Form of Resistance Against CBDCs Bitcoin doesn't have ever-changing rules; it doesn’t inflate you away, it doesn’t require a third party, and no one can freeze or seize your funds. 6. Who Will Die and Who Will Thrive in the Upcoming Crypto Ice Age A look into the future of decentralization from the perspective of good 'ol open-source collaboration. 7. How Did Investors React To Bitcoin's ATH? Bitcoin's recent price surge ensured the cryptocurrency reached an all-time high, breaking beyond the $66,000 barrier for the first time. What should we expect? 8. Bitcoin Halving And Its Stock-To-Flow Ratio Bitcoin is poised to become the currency of the future and it is well supported technically by the concept of halving and stock-to-flow model. 9. Is Bitcoin Really The Best Alternative Investment Asset For Your Portfolio? Bitcoin's YTD performance is up +20% along with a +287% increase since the past 6 months when institutional movement started to kick off. 10. Your Money Is All Set To Lose More Value. Again. There’s a simple strategy that will change your financial life and you don’t need to be Warren Buffett to understand it. 11. Bitcoin is the bastion of Freedom Tech Pandora's box has been opened.  Bitcoin has proven that decentralized tech can be used to push back against oppressive regimes.  But that's not just important to monetary policy. 12. Bitcoin Bull Market: Comparing 2020 against 2016 The uptrend period when Bitcoin approached $ 18,000 and what's going on reminds us of Cycle Theory in the past, as well as the uptrend of 2016 - 2017, simply because the market could change. change, but human psychology is the same. We will look back at the two phases: 2016-2017 and the current period, so that investors can draw their own conclusions about what to do when the market is in the FOMO phase. 13. PayPal's Bitcoin Play Will To Create A Sharp Uptick in Crypto-Adoption PayPal’s user base could generate demand for over 15% of Bitcoin’s current market cap over the next 12 months. 14. Bitcoin On The Brink of Mass Adoption. Whither Next? Over the last few months, we have seen major growth of interest in Bitcoin. Tesla, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Apple Pay, Uber, Amazon, General Motors, Twitter, and Oracle – all of them began talking about crypto integration as a payment method. 15. Crypto Adoption or Abandonment: What Will India Decide? As a result, the rushed RBI 2018 proposed ban on crypto trading left the Indian traders uncertain about the future for over two years. 16. Nakamoto's idea Vs The Real World: How Bitcoin Is More Mainstream Than You Think Millions of people still wonder. Can bitcoin and mainstream finance (fiat money) ever get along? 17. Bitcoin Exceeds $40,000 For The First Time Ever: Value Doubles in Less Than a Month The value of Bitcoin is worth more than $740 billion just behind Tesla at $758.26 billion,  and digital cryptocurrency markets are worth more than $1 trillion, 18. Busting Bitcoin Myths: The Lindy Effect According to the widely-cited "Lindy effect" Wikipedia page, the future life expectancy of a technology or an idea is proportional to its current age. However, this is a non-scientific and statistically-invalid claim, which is often used by Bitcoin maximalists to back their claim that Bitcoin is more valid because it's been around for longer. 19. Bitcoin in 2021 - Insights from Chainalysis Chainalysis' Chief Economist shares insights into Bitcoin as a maturing asset. 20. No, Bitcoin Is Not Going to Fail! Arguments for why Bitcoin the digital asset will not fail. What are they? Come on, let's go take a look... 21. Making Money with Bitcoin - A Guide This piece covers the major ways to make your bitcoins work for you with tips on how to start earning with these strategies. 22. Bitcoin Price Exploding Will Be The Hallmark of 2020 How investors and custody's perception towards bitcoin changed in 2020 23. What Makes Bitcoin so Groundbreaking and How to Take it Forward Darwin's law of natural selection, commonly known as the survival of the fittest, defines it as the "principle by which each slight variation [of a trait], if useful, is preserved”. 24. Bringing DeFi to Bitcoin Ecosystem: Because, What Else? It’s time to build DeFi money lego on the Bitcoin ecosystem. 25. Bitcoin’s First Great Crisis Is Setting The Stage For A Digital-First New Normal The novel coronavirus might not be the world’s first pandemic or even the deadliest. But the virus has set the stage for a truly unprecedented time of global harmony. 26. Why You're the Only One Who Cares About Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency has an odd and insular community. 27. Digging Further Down the Mine: Understanding Bitcoin Difficulty Bitcoin mining difficulty is currently at an all-time high. 28. Is Bitcoin Really Bad for the Environment? While there is some legitimacy to Bitcoin's negative carbon footprint, the claims are overblown and distributed ledgers can actually help the environment. 29. Here's Why MicroStrategy Put 85% of its Cash Reserves in Bitcoin What if we told you that one company now owns 0.182% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. And it's not even a Bitcoin or cryptocurrency-related company. 30. Did We Front Run Bitcoin Seasonality? Did we front run Bitcoin seasonality? Here we analyze Bitcoin's 4-year cycle. 31. Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 4 Interview with Brian Lockhart For more background and history on the Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries check out Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 1 Interview with Hodlonaut. Brian Lockhart has been into Bitcoin since 2010 and currently works at Casa doing product managment for their Bitcoin + Lightning node product. Brian also runs the Seattle Bitcoin Meetup and is well known in the Bitcoin community. 32. Is Bitcoin Going To Breach $100k in 2021? Will Bitcoin reach 100k USD before the end of this year? What are the predictions for the crypto market and when can we expect the market peak? 33. Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 6 Interview with Crypto Meme Central For more background and history on the Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries check out Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 1 Interview with Hodlonaut.Crypto Meme Central is one of my favorite Bitcoin meme makers in the game. His sarcastic and witty memes are guaranteed to trigger the very people he pokes fun at. 34. The State Control over Property and Finance and How Bitcoin Can Help With Becoming Independent World history shows that during the last 3,400 years, only 268 of them were completely peaceful. This means that none of us have lived a single year during which there was no war in one part or another of the world. 35. “Bitcoin is going to hit $65,000, and it's going to hit it very soon,” - Anti Danilevski At the beginning of January 2021, Bitcoin set a new record-breaking price point, surpassing the $42,000 mark. Many experts believe that this is still far from the limit. 36. Bitcoin Is Emerging As The Only Pandemic-Resistant Currency in Our Globalized Economy There is an old saying in trading circles that goes “buy the rumour and sell the news”. As rumours of impending lockdowns and travel bans spread in late February, uncertainty was sowed in international financial markets. 37. The Developers' Guide to Liquid, One of the First Sidechains of Bitcoin by Blockstream If you are going to work on software using Liquid, the sidechain of Bitcoin, there are several concepts you need to be familiar with. 38. "The Correlation Between The Dollar And Bitcoin Has Been Inversely Proportional" - Nikita Soshnikov The crypto market now has a market capitalization of over $1.5 trillion. 39. How Will The Bitcoin Halving Impact You? It’s a question that I’m sure many Bitcoin owners are asking. In around 90 days from now on 8th May, Bitcoin’s mining reward will be cut in half (that’s what a ‘halving’ means) and crypto commentators believe that it could trigger some significant price activity, and boost the BTC price skywards. 40. "Ukrainians [are] among the top adopters of cryptocurrency in the world" Bitcoin among other Cryptocurrencies may soon be used legally in Ukraine, once President Volodymyr Zelensky signs legislation passed by Ukraine’s Parliament. 41. Education and Bitcoin Are Key to Wealth Protection Bitcoin Investors Are The Biggest Winners During InflationI believe there can only be one definition of inflation, and that is the one headlined by the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Milton Friedman: 42. About Bitcoin: What Altcoins and Shitcoins Don't Seem To Get After 30 years of trial and error, this new, pristine asset class called Bitcoin has emerged, it’s here, staring at you in the face. It works. 43. Savage Bitcoiners Volume 1: Interview with Psychedelic Bart Name: Psychedelic Bart a.k.a. Psycho Bart 44. Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 2 Interview with David Bennett David Bennett has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin since 2015 and hosts the "Bitcoin And..." podcast where he features a variety of guests that discuss various Bitcoin topics. 45. Yet Another Case For Bitcoin Maximalism: Will BTC replace USD? Bitcoin vs. Dollar (USA), which one will become a global currency in the near future? Over half of the world’s population is aged under 35 and live in emerging markets, where national currencies are considered to be inferior to USD. 46. Hacker Noon's Bitcoin Manifesto Hint: We're Turning Up the Heat on Bitcoin Stories. Only the best will make the cut. 47. Bitcoin Shall Bring Back The Lost Art of Commercial Banking How emerging economies can lead the crypto revolution in commercial banking and enjoy an economic renaissance based on sound money 48. Mr. Ray Dalio - "You're Wrong. Again." Bitcoin Will Never Get Banned. Here's Why Invariably, as bitcoin spikes and defies gravity, either up or down, the attention of institutional investors, central bankers and prominent financiers is suddenly awaken. 49. Why You Should Start With A Small Allocation into Bitcoin in 2021 I first heard about Bitcoin in December 2017, at the peak of the bubble. My college roommates and I were drawing J curves on a whiteboard, predicting $100k Bitcoin and feeling FOMO for not getting in earlier. 50. The Case Against Crypto Maximalism Bitcoin is one of the 21st century's most remarkable innovations. The ability to send and receive value over the Internet without relying on a centralized intermediary signifies a paradigm shift in the evolution of money. Bitcoin's disruptive influence has extended far beyond money and could reach nearly every aspect of the global economy as there are several other social constructs that have the potential to be transformed by open blockchains. Blockchain-based technologies can help us digitize essential constructs, like contracts, in a manner that is less vulnerable to manipulation by third parties i.e.,  trust-minimized. 51. Understanding The Cryptocurrency Bull Run 2021 In this article, I explain the larger pieces of the puzzle contributing to this epic 2021 cryptocurrency bull run. 52. A PSA to Bitcoin Newbs A Public Service Announcement to Bitcoin Newbs: How to drown out the noise, stack sats and stay focused on the Bitcoin bull cycle. 53. Bitcoin: The Great Game The following are not my beliefs, but a compilation of notes from conversations I had with a self-described Bitcoin “mutant”, named Edan Yago, contributor to Sovryn. Letting him ramble on about Bitcoin resulted in mesmerizing, mythical, and fascinating ruminations about Bitcoin’s destiny. So for one, I myself believe in Bitcoin as a digital store of value. It is a huge chunk of my portfolio, and I believe it will outlast 99% of the cryptocurrencies we have today. There is no better symbol of scarcity and hard money in crypto to date. However, I feel just about the same level of admiration for Ethereum, as it is opening up so many use cases through DeFi and DAOs. I am putting my biases aside to explain a very rare (and what I find fascinating) point of view. I present you Part 1 of The Hero’s Journey of Bitcoin: 54. 5 Reasons Why Getting A Bitcoin-Based Retirement Plan Makes Sense Instead of utilizing a normal individual retirement account, perhaps you should consider getting a bitcoin IRA. Learn how these plans can stand above the rest! 55. Here's Why We Need Bitcoin [Part I] The objective of this series of posts is to show why Bitcoin is a better form of money than the ones we currently use. For that, however, we first need to think about some fundamental concepts without which considering Bitcoin in a serious way is impossible. 56. Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 5 Interview with Matt Odell For more background and history on the Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries check out Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 1 Interview with Hodlonaut. Most people know Matt Odell from the Tales From the Crypt podcast he co-hosts with Marty Bent. He is also cofounder of Final Message, Bitcoin Citadel and an advisor for Bottlepay and givebitcoin. 57. Bitcoin: Microstrategy's Michael Saylor Unchained The thinking and the strategies behind Saylor´s bold bitcoin investing. 58. Bitcoin As Legal Tender is Just The First  Step For El Salvador To Foster Economic Development What steps should El Salvador take to further bitcoinization and foster its economic development. Saylor and Tudor Jones:  start lobbying for Bitcoin 59. BTC Should Be in Your Portfolio: A Comparison of Bitcoin, Gold and ETFs When it comes to Bitcoin or its price, interested readers will find thousands of articles on the Internet. The range here extends from apocalyptic scenarios to extremely positive forecasts. On the one hand, it underlines the volatility and the unpredictable nature of the digital currency. On the other hand, the range shows that, while it is easy to obtain information in the digital age, it is all the more difficult to find high-quality information. Neutral and objective considerations are rare, as self-interest often accompanies the valuation of an asset. Thank you for checking out the 59 most read stories about Bitcoin Maximalism on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

59 Stories To Learn About Bitcoin Maximalism

Currently, the use of cryptocurrencies depends on two main things: electricity and the Internet. In general, you can’t send or receive coins without, at least, being connected through a previously charged mobile phone. So, can we conclude that offline transactions with cryptocurrencies are impossible? Not really. There are functional ways, some of them easier than others. Over the years, several projects and proposals have been shared to do exactly that. Sending cryptos via radio, Near-Field Communication (NFC), mesh networks (local networks built with users’ nodes), SMS, and satellites have been tested with more or less success. Let’s check some of these methods. Offline cryptocurrency with dedicated devices This is the more expensive way to do offline crypto transactions because it requires extra equipment. Remarkable players in the sector are the firms GoTenna and Blockstream, which offer their own devices to make this kind of transaction. NFC devices, mesh networks, and satellite communication can be included in this category. Blockstream operates a global , broadcasting the blockchain worldwide, even in areas lacking reliable Internet. With four satellites covering six zones, it facilitates uninterrupted access to Bitcoin data. Although some remote areas are uncovered, most of the world, including America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, can access ledger information offline through a small antenna and USB receiver setup costing $500. Bitcoin satellite network For its part, GoTenna (in collaboration with Blockstream) introduced a Mesh Network enabling offline crypto transactions. GoTenna's nodes connect independently, allowing users to share messages and conduct Bitcoin transactions via mobile without the Internet. Each device/node was priced at $200, but they’re for the moment. sold out The TxTenna app was developed with Blockstream and Samourai Wallet to work with the mesh network. It enhances privacy, and security, and bypasses potential local censorship by making offline Bitcoin transactions among GoTenna users. In addition, companies like are offering specialized devices for businesses. Their Cold Vault, with its own plug-and-play platform, promises high security with a patented unidirectional solution for crypto transactions without the Internet. The price is yet to be published, though. GK8 Offline cryptocurrency via SMS Several wallets offered , but now they’re mostly discontinued. The premise was, mainly, sending a link to claim some coins. Another service of this style still in operation is , developed by South African coder Kgothatso Ngako and available for seven African countries. this service in the past Machankura / 8333.mobi . Users dial a number, register with a 5-digit PIN, and access menus for learning about Bitcoin, sending, and receiving. Integrated with Bitrefill and supporting Lightning Network transactions, it transforms phone numbers into Lightning addresses. Targeting users in Africa with feature phones, it addresses the limited penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones in the region They also partnered with Azteco, a service of Bitcoin vouchers. Individuals lacking Internet-connected devices can claim Bitcoin through Azteco without accessing their website. Users simply dial a USSD code and include the Azteco Voucher's "reference code" located at the voucher's bottom. Offline transactions in Obyte + Other Coins A common characteristic among the projects mentioned above is that they mainly focus on Bitcoin transactions, not including other tokens. This is different from the Obyte Wallet and its . Textcoins feature You can send offline any token previously sent to your wallet, even one that you just created yourself. It’s also easy and inexpensive, without requiring any extra equipment. A textcoin is like a paper wallet, built with 12 secret words that could contain any amount, in any Obyte-compatible and public token. The path to creating one through the wallet app is quite short: Send Tab – [Select Token and Amount] – Share Via Message. You can share it with anyone via text, digitally or physically. Share it in Morse code if you want! However, to receive it and verify its legitimacy, it’s important to have an Internet connection, even for some moments. The app will generate 12 secret words with that amount, and that’s it. Besides, if the recipient rejects or loses your gift, you still can recover it in your wallet. Just go to the History Tab, find your transaction in that token, and click on “Claim Back.” As for the available tokens to use, you can check a wide variety in the . This is a user-friendly platform that imports and exports cryptocurrencies into and out of the Obyte ecosystem. For instance, you can use several stablecoins ( , …), ETH, WBTC, BNB, , and more. Counterstake Bridge USDC USDT MATIC The recipient doesn’t need to have an Obyte wallet initially, but they’ll need one to claim the funds eventually. After claiming the funds in their own wallet, the recipient can exchange them for fiat and other coins using the Counterstake Bridge and/or the crypto exchanges (decentralized), Kaiserex, CoinSpot, and Bittrex Global (centralized). You can start using textcoins now! Oswap.io Featured Vector Image by jcomp / Freepik

Educational Byte: Exploring Offline Cryptocurrency Transactions

শিক্ষাগত বাইট: অফলাইন ক্রিপ্টোকারেন্সি লেনদেন অন্বেষণ

Bildungsbyte: Erkundung von Offline-Kryptowährungstransaktionen

Byte educativo: exploración de transacciones de criptomonedas sin conexión

Octet éducatif : Explorer les transactions de crypto-monnaie hors ligne

शैक्षिक बाइट: ऑफ़लाइन क्रिप्टोकरेंसी लेनदेन की खोज

教育バイト: オフライン暗号通貨トランザクションの探索

교육 바이트: 오프라인 암호화폐 거래 탐색

Byte Educacional: Explorando Transações Offline de Criptomoedas

Образовательный байт: изучение офлайн-транзакций с криптовалютой

Eğitim Baytı: Çevrimdışı Kripto Para İşlemlerini Keşfetmek

Byte giáo dục: Khám phá các giao dịch tiền điện tử ngoại tuyến

教育字节：探索离线加密货币交易

In our we talked about some of the most popular crypto brands and services in different categories. They included exchanges, stablecoins, wallets, and foundations. Now, it’s time to learn more categories of crypto names and brands you should know. previous article, As we mentioned before, according to the , They include exchanges, funds, marketplaces, market research, supply chain management, mining, payment ramps, investments, wallets, security, e-sports, gaming, Metaverses, trading, smart contracts, identity, and much more. Let’s discover what else they can offer!\ research firm Golden there are over 11,000 crypto companies and projects worldwide. Development Companies Not every cryptocurrency project or their development is led by non-profits. Indeed, there are a lot of (for-profit) companies behind popular coins and other crypto products. Let’s see some of them. Ripple Labs This American company promotes itself as “the leading provider of crypto solutions for businesses.” It was founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, and , which specializes in international payments. It’s also widely known for its legal battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This entity accused them of selling non-registered securities (XRP) in the country. it’s better known for the creation of one of the most popular coins to date, XRP (originally Ripple) Lightning Labs Lightning Network is a second-layer solution for faster, cheaper transactions via off-chain payment channels —and likely the first-ever layer-2 (secondary chain). It was designed for Bitcoin, but it also works in Litecoin and . Lightning Labs, founded in 2016 by Elizabeth Stark and Olaoluwa Osuntokun, , and actively promoting Lightning Network adoption. other altcoins is a key American developer of Lightning Network technologies, offering products like LND and Neutrino Blockstream This is a Canadian blockchain company founded in 2014 by its current leader, Adam Back (a cryptographer cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper). mainly on Bitcoin-related services, Blockstream also supports the development of the first cryptocurrency by funding several Bitcoin Core open-source developers. They work including the sidechain Liquid and their satellite network to make offline transactions worldwide. More firms Of course, there are way more crypto developers for-profit. We can mention EMURGO and IOHK (Cardano/ADA), Solana Labs (Solana/SOL), Polygon Technology (Polygon/MATIC), Ava Labs (Avalanche/AVAX), Protocol Labs (Filecoin/FIL), TrustToken (Stablecoin issuer), Anchorage Digital (Crypto Infrastructure for Business), Galaxy Digital Holdings (Crypto Asset Management), Block/Square (Crypto Payment Processing), Chainalysis (Security and Analytics), and Digital Currency Group (venture capital and owner of CoinDesk, Foundry, Genesis Trading, Grayscale Investments, and Luno). Crypto News Portals These are websites or platforms dedicated to providing up-to-date information and analysis about different tokens and the crypto industry. They offer news, market data, educational content, and insights. Some of the most renowned are: CoinDesk It was founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Shakil Khan, and eventually acquired by the Digital Currency Group. It provides extensive cryptocurrency news, market data, and event coverage. , and also for reporting first the infamous balance that led FTX Exchange to bankruptcy. It’s known for its international-attended annual event Consensus Bitcoin Magazine Established in 2012 by Mihai Alisie and Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum founder), is still an influential crypto publication. It was sold in 2014 to BTC Inc., an American company. Bitcoin Magazine It offers articles, insights, and educational content about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. CoinTelegraph It was established in 2013 by an international team, and it’s now based in the United States. offers a wide range of crypto news, interviews, analysis, and educational resources. Besides, The portal it’s available in eleven languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish. More portals Other popular crypto portals include Decrypt, CryptoSlate, NewsBTC, and CryptoPotato. These platforms provide a mix of news, analysis, market data, and educational content, catering to a diverse audience interested in cryptocurrency. You can also find more local crypto portals in every country, covering national news. Metaverses A crypto metaverse is a virtual, decentralized, and ledger-based environment where users can interact, create, play, and transact using digital assets within a shared, immersive, online space. You can have your own avatar on them, and this one could be a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). Decentraland Founded in 2017, Decentraland is an Ethereum-based metaverse. The creators, Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano, originate from Argentina. . It also has its own native cryptocurrency, MANA. It offers a user-owned virtual world where users can buy, sell, and build on virtual lands (as NFTs) The Sandbox This crypto Metaverse was first a mobile game released in 2012 by the brand Pixowl. It was transformed into what it is today in 2021 by Animoca Brands. is now . It also offers customized avatars and has its own native coin, SAND. The Sandbox a 3D world based on Polygon where it’s possible to build your own games and NFTs without coding Alien Worlds It was released in 2020 by the firm Dacoco on the WAX blockchain. features six alien worlds where It’s also possible to host events and collect NFTs in the form of avatars, weapons, tools, and other items. This Metaverse explorers can go into missions, own digital lands, and mine Trilium (TLM). More crypto-verses Other notable crypto metaverses include CryptoVoxels, Somnium Space, and Upland. CryptoVoxels is an Ethereum-based virtual world for users to build and monetize spaces. Somnium Space is a VR-centric metaverse with a focus on social interactions. Upland merges the real world with digital ownership, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade virtual real estate. NFT Projects NFT projects, or Non-Fungible Token projects, create and sell unique digital assets that are indivisible and provably scarce on distributed networks. These tokens represent ownership of digital or physical items. Additionally, every project can offer unique features, experiences, and benefits to its owners. CryptoPunks This is likely the first-ever NFT collection, and it was released in 2017 by Larva Labs. All of them were for free initially, but now every piece is valued at over 60 ETH (around $92,880). The rarer units have been sold . It offers 10,000 unique 24x24 pixel art “punk” characters registered on Ethereum. given away for millions Axie Infinity Released in 2018 by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, Players can collect, breed, train, and trade axies while earning rewards for doing it. The game has its own chain, Ronin, compatible with Ethereum. Currently, over 11.8 million axies, but only 422,830 are available to trade. it’s a play-to-earn battle game that features NFT creatures called “axies.” there are Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) This collection was released in 2021 by Yuga Labs. They’re meant to represent membership in an exclusive virtual club with social and utility benefits. is currently developing its own Metaverse about it, called “Otherside.” It offers 10,000 “bored apes” images with unique traits, registered as NFTs on Ethereum. Yuga Labs A rain of NFTs There are innumerable NFTs at this point since practically anyone with Internet access can make their own. According to , The most popular projects include CrypToadz, Art Blocks, Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, Meebits, and CloneX. Now, remember that if you want to make your own NFTs, and sell them without coding in the Obyte-based NFT marketplace CryptoThings. NonFungible there were at least 3,724 NFT sales in the last week, amounting to over $2.5 million. it’s possible to create them Bonus: A Blacklist Some names are also important to remember but in a bad way. Seasoned crypto enthusiasts and analysts will talk about them a lot, so you also need to know what happened. Here we have several failed and/or infamous crypto projects that caused a lot of harm to the market in the past. Mt. Gox Founded in 2010 by Jed McCaleb and Mark Karpelès, Mt. Gox was a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, and the largest of its time worldwide. It failed in 2014 due to serious security breaches, resulting in a massive loss of customer funds and insolvency. Terra (LUNA) Terra, created by Daniel Shin and Do Kwon in South Korea, was launched in 2018. Technically, it still exists, but its native stablecoin, Terra USD (UST), failed big in 2022. . A lot of people worldwide suffered the consequences, as their investments and savings in these coins were suddenly erased. Do Kwon was arrested in 2023. UST's price plummeted to $0.1 (90% less than its peg) in May, dragging LUNA (the native currency of Terra) down with it FTX Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Gary Wang in 2017, FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange globally in 2021. Now, it's nothing but an infamous name. They faced serious liquidity issues to the point of going bankrupt in November 2022. and a lack of financial controls within the company. SBF was arrested in the US. Bankruptcy proceedings revealed massive debts (of around $3 billion), misuse of customer funds, For more blacklisted crypto names, you can check our list of the . Now, if you want to start in this complex world without complications, remember that you can download the user-friendly . Payments, smart contracts, chatbots, exchanges, and more are waiting for you without coding! biggest crypto crashes Obyte wallet Featured Vector Image by Freepik

Crypto for Beginners: Must-Know Brands and Names —Part 2

নতুনদের জন্য ক্রিপ্টো: অবশ্যই ব্র্যান্ড এবং নাম জানতে হবে —পর্ব 2

Krypto für Anfänger: Marken und Namen, die man kennen muss – Teil 2

Cripto para principiantes: marcas y nombres imprescindibles: parte 2

Crypto pour les débutants : marques et noms incontournables – Partie 2

शुरुआती लोगों के लिए क्रिप्टो: अवश्य जानें ब्रांड और नाम—भाग 2

初心者のための暗号通貨: 知っておくべきブランドと名前 — パート 2

초보자를 위한 암호화폐: 꼭 알아야 할 브랜드 및 이름 —2부

Criptografia para iniciantes: marcas e nomes imperdíveis - Parte 2

Криптовалюта для начинающих: бренды и названия, которые необходимо знать — часть 2

Yeni Başlayanlar İçin Kripto: Bilinmesi Gereken Markalar ve İsimler - 2. Bölüm

Tiền điện tử cho người mới bắt đầu: Những thương hiệu và tên phải biết —Phần 2

加密货币初学者：必须了解的品牌和名称 - 第 2 部分

From the recent trends and new project releases in the crypto space, it appears that the Bitcoin scaling race is on its way to becoming . the next mainstream narrative Since Bitcoin's layer 1 does not currently support smart contracts, and the large block approach represented by BCH and BSV has been rejected, the scaling ecosystem is now primarily dominated by or . However, there is also competition from , including mainnet upgrades and one-way transfers. Bitcoin sidechains Layer 2 solutions new scaling models This article categorizes Bitcoin scaling technology into five main categories: . Sidechains, Inscription Script, Taproot Protocol, Mainnet Upgrades, and One-way Transfers By comparing the pros and cons of these new and old scaling solutions from multiple perspectives, the aim is to provide and the advantages and disadvantages of different scaling directions. a guide to the Bitcoin scaling ecosystem's panorama Sidechains The need for Bitcoin scalability is not a recent discovery; as early as December 2013, the Bitcoin community introduced the concept of sidechains, which allows BTC to be moved from the main chain to independently developed blockchain for transactions and then returned to the main chain. Prominent sidechain solutions, represented by , have differences in their incentive mechanisms. For example, Stacks' native token, STX, can be staked to earn transaction fees paid in BTC, while Rootstock aims to gain support from by using a "merge-mining" approach with the Bitcoin mainnet. Blockstream's Liquid, Stacks, and RootStock Bitcoin miners Advantages: : Sidechains, as separate blockchains, can break through the technical limitations of the Bitcoin main chain and incorporate more advanced blockchain technology. Generally, they can add Turing-complete smart contract functionality to encourage the development of application ecosystems similar to Ethereum. Strong Scalability : Sidechains have a minimal negative impact on the Bitcoin mainnet. They mainly involve cross-chain transfers for specific addresses conducting token transactions. Minimal Side Effects Disadvantages: : Similar to the management mechanisms of other cross-chain bridges, sidechains rely on multi-signature addresses controlled by multiple entities that hold the Bitcoin linked to the sidechain. Centralized BTC Custody It's difficult to guarantee that these custodians won't compromise or collude under pressure, and there's no assurance that nodes claiming to be "decentralized" aren't controlled by a single entity. : Sidechains often grant significant control to the teams managing them, potentially undermining the initial decentralization of the mainnet. Team Control : Shifting transaction fees from the Bitcoin mainnet to sidechains could reduce miner incentives on the mainnet and introduce potential security risks to the ledger. Diverting Mainnet Fees In fact, since the concept of sidechains was first introduced, nearly a decade has passed, and it has still not become a widely recognized successful Bitcoin scaling mechanism, primarily due to the as described above. centralization issues Inscription Script Represented by these are blockchain data recording schemes that involve adding descriptive data directly to the output scripts of Bitcoin transactions for the issuance or transfer of assets. Omni Layer, Ordinals, BRC-20, and Runes, This is typically achieved using the , and outputs with this opcode are ignored by regular Bitcoin nodes but can be interpreted by custom nodes that understand these token protocols. These nodes implement specific token protocol validation rules and handle asset issuance or transfers separately from the Bitcoin main chain. OP_RETURN opcode This approach, known as coloring or inscription of blockchain data, is a result of the constraints imposed by the and is not necessarily a maturely designed technical innovation. It can be seen as a patchwork solution. Bitcoin UTXO transaction structure Advantages The data is often in intuitive formats like JSON, making it somewhat human-readable. Simpler protocols can lead to the rapid development of peripheral tools and ecosystems, which is a significant factor in the rapid adoption of protocols like Ordinals. Simplicity: Most metadata is stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, and off-chain only requires interpretation of protocol-specific data. On-chain Data Availability: Disadvantages: This approach takes up on-chain space, impacting the decentralization of the and causing congestion during the popularity of certain projects. On-chain Space Consumption: Bitcoin mainnet Representing each NFT with a single satoshi affects the interchangeability of BTC and generates a significant amount of "dust BTC." Asset Fragmentation: This approach is primarily limited to asset issuance and cannot support additional DeFi demands. Limited Scalability: Inscription is essentially a piece of specific format text that holds no meaning for Bitcoin and relies entirely on off-chain consensus to operate. Decentralized blockchains achieve security because related rules are executed and validated on-chain. Weak Security: Taproot Protcol Taproot is a technology for compressing, concealing, and structuring Bitcoin's unlocking scripts, allowing for more complex script logic without increasing data volume. Represented by Lightning Labs' recent release of , this is a Bitcoin meta-protocol that can be directly integrated with the Lightning Network, supporting both fungible tokens (FT) and non-fungible tokens (NFT). Taproot Assets It stands out for not relying on Bitcoin as a complete data availability layer. Users are defaulted to storing their data or can use off-chain data storage services. Recently, ZeroSync developer Robin Linus introduced a new Bitcoin proposal known as , which can be viewed as an enhanced version of the Lightning Network. BitVM In BitVM, the logic of Bitcoin contracts is executed off-chain, but validation takes place on the mainnet. BitVM's architecture is , where provers can make claims, and verifiers can execute fraud proofs to penalize the prover for making false claims. based on fraud proofs and challenge-response models Additionally, the latest version of the RGB protocol, which has undergone multiple refinements and evolutions, is also compatible with Taproot and the Lightning Network. Advantages: : Compatibility with Bitcoin's native protocol Taproot ensures strong technical security and higher market acceptance. Multiple protocols sharing the same infrastructure can potentially offer strong composability. Native to the protocol : strong protocol openness and no concerns about funds being controlled by any founding teams. High decentralization Most operations or game-playing occur off-chain, with the Bitcoin mainnet only responsible for final settlement or arbitration. Low side effects: This approach avoids issues like the problem seen on Ethereum, as it doesn't require disclosing the entire script logic, only the effective data. state bloat Disadvantages: Most of these solutions primarily support basic features for simple scenarios, such as hash locks, time locks, and multi-signatures. Poor scalability: For example, the BitVM model's main limitation is that it only applies to situations where two parties mutually engage, with one acting as a prover of correct execution and the other as a verifier. : It requires locking funds as a penalty target and constructing multiple script paths, then generating UTXO transactions. Complex interactions The BitVM also mandates that all parties involved maintain participation in cooperative situations. : For example, the client verification mode of the RGB protocol requires users to retain all historical transaction records related to the tokens and send them together when transferring tokens to the recipient. Data redundancy Supporting programmability similar to Ethereum is constrained by the UTXO structure, resulting in a highly complex technical implementation that may be beyond the grasp of most people. Complex protocols: Developing the relevant tool ecosystem becomes more challenging and scarce, which can significantly impact market adoption. Mainnet Upgrades Mainnet Upgrades Represented by , have been released with the intention of enabling support for a particular Rollup scaling technology by adding new script opcodes. LayerTwoLabs Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 300 and 301 native Bitcoin protocol It has to be said that attempting to drive upgrades to the entire Bitcoin mainnet's technology, even in a small way, can be . the most hardcore approach This is because it directly acknowledges certain deficiencies in Bitcoin's existing state and recognizes that Bitcoin, as it stands, may not be the final and perfect solution. Advantages: Directly iterating and upgrading the Bitcoin core layer to support Rollup-style scaling can offer advantages in data availability, security, and more. Native Protocol: : Once the mainnet upgrade is successful, it will receive more focused attention compared to other solutions. The community can trustingly concentrate efforts on building various tools and infrastructure. Rapid Growth of Tools and Ecosystem Disadvantages: At the moment, it appears to be an incredibly challenging, if not nearly impossible, task. Enormous Implementation Difficulty: Convincing the entire Bitcoin community, including institutions, miners, mining pools, development teams, key opinion leaders (KOLs), users, and ETF applicants, among others, to gain unanimous support and balancing the interests of everyone is an exceedingly daunting endeavor. Directly upgrading Bitcoin carries significantly higher requirements for the quality and maturity of scaling technology compared to other solutions. Technical Risk Concerns: It cannot tolerate any potential errors, making the handling of protocol layer upgrades more cautious, thereby further increasing implementation difficulty. One-way Transfers Represented by , it can be considered an inheritance chain or parallel chain technology that elevates the sidechain in every aspect beyond the Bitcoin main chain. Hacash's proposal for BTC One-Way Transfer Hacash not only iterates on scaling technology but also claims to upgrade the . monetary attributes of Bitcoin In a sense, this is more revolutionary than BIP-based proposals for directly upgrading Bitcoin: it not only acknowledges but completely abandons the existing Bitcoin mainnet, detaching BTC's value from its technology and transferring it to an entirely new blockchain technology system. Bitcoin's shortcomings In an imperfect analogy, the one-way transfer is like extracting a person's soul from their original body, injecting it into another body, and reviving it—the soul is the value of BTC, and the body is Bitcoin's mainnet technology. Advantages: It almost permanently resolves various technical legacy issues of Bitcoin, supporting DeFi on layer 1, large-scale layer 2 payments, and a multi-layer, multi-chain scaling model with a more mature architectural design. Mature technology: : It doesn't suffer from the typical centralization concerns of sidechain technology related to Bitcoin, and the new chain's decentralization in all aspects, whether in terms of technology or economic models, is at least as strong as Bitcoin's. True decentralization : No need for unanimous community support: Each Bitcoin holder can independently decide whether to upgrade (carry out the transfer). Upgrade on demand Disadvantages: : The unconventional BTC "one-way transfer" model is non-reversible and challenges existing core consensus and value judgments. It requires more information and evidence. Unconventional approach : The upgrade system is overly complex, involving multiple levels of scaling protocols and optimizations of monetary attributes, and also touching on monetary economics theories, making it difficult to understand. Broad upgrade scope The prosperity of an ecosystem inevitably comes from thorough discussions and widespread experimentation with various paths, ultimately leading to the emergence of high-quality solutions that align with the core logic of industry development. Predicting the success or failure of these projects at this stage is premature, but nonetheless, we seem to catch a glimpse of a somewhat hazy future: The return of the Bitcoin king, reclaiming the center stage, and once again illuminating the world with the great spirit of decentralization and trustlessness that underlies the cryptocurrency realm.

5 Types of Bitcoin Scaling Solutions You Should Consider

Stories, News & Mentions about BLOCKSTREAM

Blockstream’s Stories on HackerNoon