| Together with | | | | | | Greetings Bitcoiner, | Welcome to Issue #427 of the daily Bitcoin Breakdown, where we have some excellent Opinion & Analysis pieces and Tools & Projects for you today! | But first, today’s Top Stories: | 🎢 Bitcoin Dips Below $90K Despite Fed Rate Cut 👻 Silk Road Wallets Wake Up After a Decade ⚡ Blockstream Enables Lightning-Liquid Swaps via Boltz
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| | | | | | TOGETHER WITH BLOCKSTREAM | | | If your BTC is still on an exchange, you’re not “investing” — you’re volunteering as exit liquidity when the music stops. | The Blockstream Jade Plus makes self-custody stupid-simple with air-gapped QR signing, a bigger, brighter screen, and compatibility with the wallets you already use. | For a limited holiday window, Blockstream is running 21% off, and your BITCOINBREAKDOWN code stacks for an extra 10% off — plus free international shipping on Jade Plus. | |
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| | | | | | TODAY’S TOP STORIES | 🎢 Bitcoin Dips Below $90K Despite Fed Rate Cut | Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 despite the Federal Reserve cutting rates by 25 basis points to 3.25%, as traders reacted to mixed signals about future monetary policy. The Fed suggested only one more rate cut in 2026, disappointing expectations for two to three cuts, while internal divisions emerged with six members opposing the latest cut. The Fed's $40B Treasury bill purchase program is liquidity management, not the aggressive quantitative easing that fueled 2020-21 risk-taking. CoinDesk | 👻 Silk Road Wallets Wake Up After a Decade | After more than ten years of silence, 312 Silk Road-linked wallets suddenly transferred $3.14M in bitcoin to an unknown address on Tuesday. The wallets still hold roughly $41.3M in BTC, according to Arkham Intelligence. The movement comes after Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road's creator, received a full pardon from President Trump earlier this year. While the reason for the transfers remains unclear, the dormant wallets' reawakening has naturally sparked curiosity across the Bitcoin community. The Block | ⚡ Blockstream Enables Lightning-Liquid Swaps via Boltz | Blockstream's latest app update introduces trustless atomic swaps between Lightning and Liquid networks, letting users pay Lightning invoices directly from their Liquid bitcoin balances without managing channels or liquidity. The self-custodial feature uses cryptographic hash locks to ensure secure transactions, appealing to those wanting fast payments with enhanced privacy. Future updates will add on-chain swap support and hardware wallet integration, advancing interoperability across Bitcoin's growing second-layer ecosystem while keeping users in control of their keys. CoinDesk |
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| | | | | | POLL #427 | When will Bitcoin reclaim $100K? | |  | | PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS | |
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| | | | | | OPINION & ANALYSIS | Shanaka Anslem Perera, author of 'The Ascent Begins', argues that Bitcoin's four-year halving cycle lacks statistical proof as a price driver, contending that global liquidity conditions (not supply cuts) determine BTC's value, while the network's unresolved transition from subsidy-based to fee-based security poses the real existential threat (Dec 11 | 11 min read). Kudzai Kutukwa, author of the 'Exit The Matrix' newsletter, writes that the digital euro represents monetary tyranny and surveillance rather than progress, contending it threatens European freedom while Bitcoin offers true monetary independence through decentralization and mathematical scarcity instead of political control (Dec 11 | 9 min read). Juan Galt of Bitcoin Magazine argues that the Samourai Wallet trial threatens developer freedoms and financial privacy protections in the US, as prosecutors challenge whether privacy software constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment while the Trump administration's promises to defend self-custody rights face a critical test (Dec 10 | 12 min read). BitMEX Research explores how 64-byte Bitcoin transactions can exploit a Merkle tree vulnerability to trick SPV clients into accepting fake payments, examining the moderate security risk and proposing a softfork solution in BIP 54 to ban such transactions entirely (Dec 10 | 7 min read). Sam Baker of River Financial explores how bitcoin investors can navigate custody options between exchanges and self-custody, examining security risks, best practices, and the evolution of Bitcoin's storage landscape as over 3M BTC have been lost to hacks and poor key management (Dec 9 | 38 min read). Blockstream Research cryptographers Mikhail Kudinov and Jonas Nick examine hash-based signature schemes as Bitcoin's post-quantum alternative, proposing optimized SPHINCS+ variants that achieve 3-4KB signatures while maintaining 128-bit security through modifications like WOTS+C and PORS+FP (Dec 9 | 93 min read). Nunchuk explores how Bitcoin holders can navigate the 'sovereignty paradox' of inheritance planning by evaluating solutions from custodial to autonomous on-chain approaches, arguing that collaborative custody with blockchain-enforced timelocks offers the optimal balance of security, accessibility, and trust-minimization for transferring generational wealth (Dec 9 | 10 min read). Liam 'Akiba' Wright of CryptoSlate explores how Bitcoin's Taproot and Discreet Log Contracts enable 'self-bribe' commitment wallets that automatically transfer locked funds to anti-charities if oracles detect broken promises, creating programmable stakes for New Year's resolutions, corporate clawbacks, and behavioral contracts (Dec 9 | 6 min read). Nick Reichert of 'Bitcoin Fortress' explores why early Bitcoin holders with massive positions eventually sell their BTC, arguing that whale selling stems from rational factors like concentration risk, life events, tax optimization, security concerns, and ecosystem stewardship rather than lost conviction, and represents healthy market maturation (Dec 4 | 6 min read). DarthCoin, a Lightning Network advocate and guide writer, explains how to properly use three types of private LN channels (Just-in-Time, Purchase-in-Advance, and Your-own-Funds) to help beginners avoid costly mistakes and optimize their self-custodial Bitcoin Lightning wallet management (Dec 4 | 15 min read).
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| | | | | | TOOLS & PROJECTS | New on Geyser: Sabi Wallet, a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet for Nigerians, integrates Breez SDK Nodeless on Spark to enable instant micropayments, offline receiving, and self-custody. New on Geyser: CDK Spark Payment Processor integrates Breez SDK Spark with Cashu mints to enable nodeless Lightning payments, transparent proof of reserves via sparkscan.io, and enhanced privacy through the Cashu protocol. Satoshi Nakamoto Institute requests tax-deductible donations to build institutional-grade archival infrastructure preserving bitcoin's intellectual heritage, from Austrian economics to cypherpunk philosophy, for future generations. Power Mining, a Latvian Bitcoin mining manufacturer, ships portable datacenter containers to Scandinavian towns to heat 2,000 homes using waste heat from mining operations while achieving 95% energy efficiency. Aggeus is an open protocol developed by Super Testnet that enables permissionless Bitcoin prediction markets through Discreet Log Contracts, Lightning Network, and Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction auctions, allowing pseudonymous trading without custodians or external blockchains. Proof-of-Work Maze combines Bitcoin education with competitive gameplay, allowing players to earn BTC via Lightning Network while navigating increasingly challenging mazes that grow with each successfully mined block. Koerier, a self-hosted lightning address server for LND nodes written in Rust, enables non-interactive bitcoin payments through email-like identifiers by implementing the LUD06 specification as middleware between lightning wallets and Bitcoin's Lightning Network. BitTasker, a Bitcoin-powered task marketplace built on Nostr, connects global workers with opportunities through Lightning payments, enabling censorship-resistant earning without KYC requirements or traditional banking barriers. Coinjoiner, a zero-fee WabiSabi coordinator for Bitcoin privacy, funds development through leftover coinjoin dust while aiming to create trustless, censorship-resistant privacy solutions independent of any single entity. 1clickBTCTreasury, a satirical demo platform, offers institutional-grade tools for launching bitcoin treasury companies with automated DCA scheduling, multi-sig custody integrations, EDGAR-ready filings, and investor relations portals starting at $9,900 annually.
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| | | | Thank you for reading! | |
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