The only feedback I could get was from my guests and the audience. So I kept going and improved over time.

But now my standards are much higher, I have better experience with audio editing and sound engineering, and I have much better gears than the ones I started on. The situation isn’t as dramatic as remastering mono Beatles records that were first recorded through a 4-track. But if you truly pay attention to the interviews and compare 2019 conversations with the 2026 ones, you will find that there are clear improvements.

Plus, something that I’ve learned over the years is how to use the equalizer in order to find the sweet spot in every guest’s voice: remove some of the nasal mid range, boost the higher end just a little bit, and also give the bass range a little bit of a boomy quality that’s reminiscent of radio broadcasts. This is definitely something that I didn’t know how to do properly in my early days… which is exactly why this remastering project was started.

Now that I can revisit older interviews, I can also accomplish something else that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: make sure that every episode has its own blog post and YouTube video. When you get caught up in the whirl of doing a new interview every week, it’s easy to neglect your past work. But now I have better tools than before and I can manage to pull off an initiative of this magnitude.

The plan is to start with the first season and work my way up until probably the 15th season… that’s where the show truly took off and I was able to make some technical improvements.

While completing the remastering initiative, I will try to document the steps and save files (intermediary audio files, screenshots) for archival purposes. Bitcoin Takeover Podcast is one of the longest-running shows in the space, it documents some of the most interesting years in Bitcoin’s existence, and the best way that I can give back to the guests and the listeners is to preserve everything. I might do a physical release of the show (not quite DVDs, but maybe a large hard drive that includes every episode and some goodies). But this is something that’s only for the super fans, which hopefully will be ready around the second half of 2027).

If you’re reading this, I would like to thank you for being part of this journey! It’s been an amazing ride, I have learned a lot, I’ve had the chance to perfect my English, and I am forever grateful for the opportunities that I’ve received over the years. I hope that you will enjoy the new remasters and rediscover time capsules from Bitcoin’s not-so-distant future. To learn more about the history of the show and its accomplishments, I set up a page with special stats that I know you will enjoy.

Remaster Samples for Audio Geeks

Original 2019 Bitcoin Takeover Podcast theme song vs 2026 remastered version:

Sample from S1 E2 with John Carvalho, original vs remastered:

Sample from S1 E1 with Donald McIntyre, original vs remastered:

▶ Play video Watch on YouTube

List of Remasters:

S1 E1 with Donald McIntyre: link

S1 E2 with John Carvalho: link

S1 E3 with Zack Voell: link

S1 E4 with Omar Faridi:

How does this treasure hunt work? Well, it’s a little bit like Dragon Ball Z… except that there are 13 elements (12-word seed phrase + passphrase that’s also part of the BIP39 dictionary) instead of 7, you have to figure out the right order by yourself, and instead of having a dragon show up to grant you a wish there’s a bounty of 0.041 BTC to fulfil your Lambo dreams yourself.

Who are the 13 projects and companies that publish the words? In no particular order, you have to stalk the Twitter pages of CryptoSteel, Trezor, BTCPay, Blockstream, Bull Bitcoin, Bitcoin Reserve, Coinkite, Hodl Hodl, Mempool, Swan, Wizardsardine, Wasabi Wallet, and of course Bitcoin Takeover. All of them have received a box containing a CryptoSteel Capsule which encloses the secret word, and they’re supposed to reveal it in the coming days.

Where can you find the 13 words? If you really want to be ahead of everyone else in the race, then you should follow the official Twitter accounts of all projects involved. Here are the links: CryptoSteel, Trezor, BTCPay, Blockstream, Bull Bitcoin, Bitcoin Reserve, Coinkite, Hodl Hodl, Mempool, Swan, Wizardsardine, Wasabi Wallet, Bitcoin Takeover.

However, if you want to find an updated list of the words that have already been published then you can return to this article, or else go to the official HuntingSats page.

Which words have already been published? Blast, hollow, state, monkey, elder, present, Horse, Argue, Profit, Timber

Can you donate bitcoin to the HuntingSats address? Sure, that will only make the competition fiercer and more interesting. The higher the stakes, the more attractive the contest becomes.

What is the order of the words? That’s up to you to figure out. Just remember that one of them is the passphrase. Also, remember that your chances to grab the bitcoins increase exponentially each time a new word gets published.

Are there any tools to brute force this? In total, there are more than 479 million combinations (12 factorial plus the passphrase). Of course, not all of them will complete the checksum. So unless you’re very good at math and prefer to do everything on pen and paper, it’s probably a good idea to try an open source brute forcing software such as BTCRecover and SeedSavior. The former will try out all the combinations, while the latter will try to guess the missing words (assuming that you get the order right, which is rather improbable).

After all words have been published, it’s only a matter of hours until somebody brute forces the correct combination and transfers the bitcoin to his own wallet.

Learn more about the project by visiting huntingsats.com and search for clues by following the #huntingsats hashtag on Twitter. There’s also a Twitter Spaces call on Friday, January 26th, 8 PM CET to which you are invited.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Rafe and Thibaut for inviting Bitcoin Takeover to join the project. It’s truly an honor for BTCTKVR to be a part of this movement, but 1 bitcoin still equals 1 million bits and bitcents are a better name for sats. You’re not really HuntingSats unless you make them extinct, right?

First of all, you should know that ShiftCrypto introduced one of the best offers you will find for their BitBox02 hardware wallet. The price for the device has dropped to the same level it was before the large inflation that’s accompanied by a global shortage of chips and semi-conductors. Only today you can get a 12 euro (13.46 US dollar) discount on the secure and user-friendly BitBox02 unit: thus bringing the price down from 119 euro ($133.5 USD) to 107.1 euro ($120.16 USD).

There are individual discounts that also apply to tamper-evident bags, Steelwallet metal plates, micro SD cards, and backup cards. But if you want to get the absolutely best deal, there’s a Black Friday Bundle which helps you save 20% of the original price, which leaves 43 more euros (48.23 USD) in your pocket. It includes a BTC-only version of the BitBox02 hardware wallet, one pair of Steelwallet plates, three backup cards, and five tamper-evident bags. You can get all of these for 171 euro, or 191.74 US dollars. And theoretically, the referral codes should also work: so if you use my link or code BTCTKVR at checkout, you ought to get an extra 5% discount.

To find out more about the BitBox02 hardware wallet and the philosophy behind it, listen to this podcast interview with former Bitcoin Core maintainer Jonas Schnelli and ShiftCrypto CEO Dougles Bakkum.

Speaking of hardware wallets, KeyStone offers a 20% discount for everything you order between November 25th and November 26th 2021, 10 AM EST. This means that you have 24 hours to buy the most affordable KeyStone hardware wallets and metal plates (KeyStone Tablet, Tablet Plus, and Tablet Punch) you will find this year. To benefit from this special offer, you must use code BF2021 at checkout.

Currently, a KeyStone Pro hardware wallet costs $169. With the 20% discount you can get it for $135.2, thus saving $33.8. With your savings, you can get a KeyStone Tablet metal plate or its simplified sibling the Tablet punch. And if you apply the 20% discount code (remember, it’s BF2021 to your entire order, you’re going to have more money to buy bitcoin. KeyStone offers free shipping for all orders in the United States of America.

To better understand what makes the KeyStone hardware wallet worth buying and why you should consider it in comparison to its competitors, listen to my interview with CEO Lixin Liu.

We can’t possibly put an end to this hardware wallet-centric section without mentioning Trezor’s special offer. This year, the original hardware wallet company has decided to focus on accessories for their devices: so if you want CryptoSteel capsules and cassettes, CryptoZeus Zeus bulletproof titanium plates, silicon cases, lanyards, and even privacy glass protectors for the Trezor Model T, now is the best time to get them.

The discount on all enumerated hardware wallet accessories is of 20%. Which means that you save 15.4 euro ($17.27) when purchasing a new CryptoSteel Capsule Solo and the amount goes up to 25 euro ($28.03) for the Duo Pack. The CryptoSteel cassette (on which the Billfodl is based) can also bring you savings of 20 euro per piece. And if you need a rubber protection for your Trezor, then you also have a small yet noticeable discount on silicone cases (about 2 euro per piece, or $2.24).

If you’re buying any Trezor product and would like to help me support my work, then you can use my referral link for your purchase. This way, Trezor also sends me a small fraction of the amount.

Hardware wallets aren’t the only Bitcoin products and services that are offering Black Friday deals. If you’ve finally decided to become sovereign and stop relying on big tech to store your files and run your websites, you should look into a good hosting provider. Generally, one which enables payments with bitcoin and especially BTC over the Lightning network are worth taking a look.

One such example is AnyCOLO.net, a privacy-centric VPS provider. There’s no need to sign up with your passport and enter your credit card details to become able to deploy a website and host data on servers. All it takes is a bitcoin payment and a wise choice for a plan.

AnyCOLO offers hosting services which start at $4/month and go up to $115/month. For a blog or podcast, the Goat plan (16 GB SSD, 1 GB RAM, 8.5 TB traffic) is a really great starting point. The standard price for the Goat is $16 per month. But if you use code BF-2021-BTC-TAKEOVER on Black Friday 2021, you’re going to get a 50% discount for your purchase.

That’s right, the 50% discount with the checkout code can be applied to all plans. So it doesn’t matter if you want the $4/month plan for $2/month or you’d rather get serious with the $115/month commitment and have the price slashed down to $57.2/month.

Since the phenomenal increase of the bitcoin price is hypothetically helping us all get girlfriends, the time has come to finally consider purchasing panties for our dear ones. And if we can’t get girlfriends, then it’s never too late to become the girlfriends ourselves.

This is where Panties For Bitcoin steps in, an intimate apparel company which helps boost every HODLer’s arousal. They currently offer two colors of their Genesis design, and the price point is pretty affordable: $20 for a pair and $50 for a three-pack. Now the super Black Friday sale is really simple: you pick any three-pack of panties and you get another piece for free. So not only that you save $10 by ordering the larger package, but you also receive $20 worth of panties.

All you have to do is add the desired pair next to your pack of choice and you’re going to get all four pairs of panties for $50. But wait, there’s more: when you pay with bitcoin, you also benefit from a 10% discount. In the end, you’re gonna end up paying $45 in bitcoin and get enough panties for that special lady in your life.

If you don’t have a girlfriend, the good news is that panties don’t expire and you can HODL a whole bag of them until you can finally dump for profits. And no, this is not an encouragement to turn panties into the next Tungsten cubes.

For more information, check the Panties for Bitcoin website.

Last but not least, Mythography Studios creator George Saoulidis has a Black Friday sale for his NFTs. If you’re not acquainted with his art, then you should know that he produces 3D modelled scenes and characters which mix Greek mythology with the aesthetics from the video game The Sims.

It’s also worth noting that George also creates 3D printed art that’s mostly Bitcoin-themed. So if you aren’t into JPGs (most of which are available for sale on Raretoshi), then you can still support his work by purchasing a physical Satoshi Nakamoto figurine (among other similar works).

Mythography studios definitely has lots of interesting pieces on display, so if you’re looking to get into Bitcoin NFTs this Black Friday then this might just be your best opportunity. Prices start as low as 3 euro, so most people should afford to acquire the bragging rights to owning a piece of digital art.

Support Bitcoin Takeover

The Bitcoin Takeover project is sponsored by Vaultoro, the exchange which only allows you to trade with hard money. This is not financial advice, but on Vaultoro you can use bitcoin to hedge against inflation and switch to gold to avoid volatility. The trades are seamless and you can always switch to another asset to maximize the value of your investment. 

Furthermore, Vaultoro also publishes monthly glass books to prove that it holds 100% of the user’s assets and doesn’t engage in fractional reserve banking. CEO Joshua Scigala is also a very committed and principled bitcoiner who supports the Lightning network and really wants to see it blossom (which is why he also sponsors the giveaway from the BTCTKVR Radio broadcasts). 

If you would like to sign up to Vaultoro, you can use my referral link.

Also, if you found this article useful and you would like to reward me for my time and research, there are two ways you can do it and they can be complimentary:

1. Sign up to the Bitcoin Takeover newsletter, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow BTCTKVR on Twitter and Instagram, and listen/subscribe to the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast on your favorite platform. You can also download the BTCTKVR magazine for free and print your own copies for personal use, meetups, and conferences.
2. Send a donation to one of the following addresses:

Bitcoin base layer: bc1qvheg2jfwsychqggtewdjaj4adwfqxxnxr35pfq

Liquid sidechain: VJL638FWbZFxU3Pr8HxN8zp4PxUqqUtXoJfDq8ho3X298MTiGfLj47cpSP8fyBRGwDL1kujuHNx2UG3L

Lightning Network: https://btctakeover.lnbits.com/lnurlp/2

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitcointakeover

If you make a donation and want to have your name featured in the Hall of Patrons, then please send me an e-mail.

But as of November 16th 2021, we finally know the name of John Carvalho’s company: Synonym. During the Adopting Bitcoin conference in El Salvador, the former Xotika CEO and Bitrefill CCO has revealed his plan for hyperbitcoinization – a phenomenon that he doesn’t consider to be “inevitable” without the development of peer to peer applications and protocols that facilitate it.

This is the philosophy which gave birth to Synonym, a British Virgin Islands- based company whose ambitions extend towards creating peer to peer applications and protocols on top of Bitcoin’s Lightning network.

Synonym’s launch product is Slashtags: a Chrome-compatible wallet whose ambitions extend beyond transacting bitcoins. With it, users can sign up to different websites without a password and through an ecosystem which puts them in control of all data. John Carvalho has been speaking about solving internet centralization and the identity problem, so this might just become part of the solution. More information about the Slashtags extension and the core application can be found in the corresponding GitHub repositories.

John’s podcast, “The Biz”, also uses Synonym’s development. And according to the available data, the code which enables listeners to unlock every minute of the recording through a microtransaction will be open-sourced sometime in the third quarter of 2022. This can be a game-changer for content creators who have already built an audience that’s willing to pay, as monetization can be made directly, interactively, without the need for custodians, and without ads.

On the Synonym roadmap we can also see a Bitcoin wallet which seeks to integrate advanced features (such as boosting transactions that’s stuck in the mempool through RBF or CPFP) in the most basic and comprehensive user interface. This wallet will also enable the use of Lightning network tokens, including Tether (USDT). Under the hood, there’s also a free encrypted backup service – and though I understand the target audience for it, it is not something I would personally use.

Perhaps the biggest and boldest claim of the Synonym wallet is “Web 3 without shitcoins”. The app will make use of the account, identity, contact book, and feeds that you also access in Slashtags.

On the long terms, the ambitions extend towards enabling the monetization of files, the creation of social networks and publishing platforms, as well as the creation of a “web of trust”.

Given Lightning’s elegant design and excellent scalability via client-side validation (only the parties involved in a transaction verify the data, there’s no need for the entire network to do it as in the case of blockchains), all of these seem doable. However, the scope of Synonym’s ambitions is great enough to architecture a new internet that’s built on top of Lightning.

Previously, we’ve had similar but singular attempts to solve centralization, privacy, monetization, and scalability issues with Lightning. Examples include Joule for identity, Y’Alls for publishing, Breez for a simple non-custodial experience, and RGB Spectrum for tokens. What Synonym aims to do is to unify all of these ideas under a decentralized and open source umbrella, for the purpose of making the user onboarding process more intuitive.

What is still unclear is the ways in which Synonym is going to monetize its operations. As of November 16th 2021, the team consists of six people (interestingly, Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino also acts as CTO in Synonym) and seeks to hire four more. It’s going to be interesting to see how the operations scale and to which extent there are return of investment expectations from Tether Holdings and Fulgur Ventures.

A way through which Synonym can become profitable is Blocktank – a Lightning Service Provider (LSP) which allows businesses, apps and platforms to purchase LN liquidity. But at this early stage, it’s hard to tell if all revenue can be guaranteed by this service.

Support Bitcoin Takeover

The Bitcoin Takeover project is sponsored by Vaultoro, the exchange which only allows you to trade with hard money. This is not financial advice, but on Vaultoro you can use bitcoin to hedge against inflation and switch to gold to avoid volatility. The trades are seamless and you can always switch to another asset to maximize the value of your investment. 

Furthermore, Vaultoro also publishes monthly glass books to prove that it holds 100% of the user’s assets and doesn’t engage in fractional reserve banking. CEO Joshua Scigala is also a very committed and principled bitcoiner who supports the Lightning network and really wants to see it blossom (which is why he also sponsors the giveaway from the BTCTKVR Radio broadcasts). 

If you would like to sign up to Vaultoro, you can use my referral link.

Also, if you found this article useful and you would like to reward me for my time and research, there are two ways you can do it and they can be complimentary:

1. Sign up to the Bitcoin Takeover newsletter, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow BTCTKVR on Twitter and Instagram, and listen/subscribe to the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast on your favorite platform. You can also download the BTCTKVR magazine for free and print your own copies for personal use, meetups, and conferences.
2. Send a donation to one of the following addresses:

Bitcoin base layer: bc1qvheg2jfwsychqggtewdjaj4adwfqxxnxr35pfq

Liquid sidechain: VJL638FWbZFxU3Pr8HxN8zp4PxUqqUtXoJfDq8ho3X298MTiGfLj47cpSP8fyBRGwDL1kujuHNx2UG3L

Lightning Network: https://btctakeover.lnbits.com/lnurlp/2

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitcointakeover

If you make a donation and want to have your name featured in the Hall of Patrons, then please send me an e-mail.

However, a second batch is on the way in larger supply and at a more accessible price point. Foundation Devices will release 2500 Passport hardware wallets for $199 each, with free delivery for US customers (international buyers will have to pay the extra shipping costs). Preorders are already open, and the estimated delivery date is sometime in February 2022.

Foundation Devices also mentions that Batch 2 features “numerous improvements to the electromechanical design and manufacturing process” – meaning that the feedback provided by early adopters has helped make the product evolve into an all-around better security device. Buyers of the “Founder’s Edition” who want to get their hands on this revised Passport will also benefit from a 21% discount.

And speaking of feedback, the Boston security start-up ran a survey which asked customers for feedback on existing and desired features. Depending on the responses, it’s likely to see new options and functionalities getting added in future firmware updates.

The Passport is a PSBT (BIP 174) hardware wallet which operates in an air-gapped way which separates transaction signing from network broadcasting (learn about sending PSBT transactions from my Wasabi wallet guide). With the Passport, you can sign transactions by scanning QR codes or by inserting PSBT data via micro-SD card.

Unlike Coinkite’s Coldcard wallet and KeyStone’s Vault, Foundation Devices’ hardware wallet runs on 100% free open source code and has a snappier and intuitive user experience. Its form factor also makes it look like a mobile phone, which makes the device more discreet and less distinguishable in public situations. Another one of its pros is the physical keyboard, which makes typing seed words and passphrases both accurate and speedy.

However, when compared to its direct competitors, the Passport is more expensive. While Foundation Devices’ hardware wallet can be bought for $200, the Coldcard is $129.97 and the KeyStone Pro is $169. It’s definitely the more premium-looking device of the trio, but then again the DIY Seedsigner costs only $50 to build and has the same features (camera, SD card, PSBT), free open source software.

Foundation Devices’ Passport is definitely a worthy contender on the hardware wallet market, and stands out with its combination of open source software, premium build, and accessible user interface. You don’t need an instruction manual to use one, you only need to understand how Bitcoin transactions work and what the device does. Now that the price has dropped by $100, it’s going to be interesting to see how consumers react and how quickly the stock of 2500 Passports gets depleted.

Furthermore, there’s always room to add power user features such as Shamir Secret Sharing (SLIP 39), support for sidechains, and even automation for certain transactions (such as JoinMarket coordination, as described by Blockstream’s Lawrence Nahum). For now, it’s the improved and uncompromising version of the Coldcard wallet. But in the future, it can easily promote into a league of its own.

Support Bitcoin Takeover

The Bitcoin Takeover project is sponsored by Vaultoro, the exchange which only allows you to trade with hard money. This is not financial advice, but on Vaultoro you can use bitcoin to hedge against inflation and switch to gold to avoid volatility. The trades are seamless and you can always switch to another asset to maximize the value of your investment. 

Furthermore, Vaultoro also publishes monthly glass books to prove that it holds 100% of the user’s assets and doesn’t engage in fractional reserve banking. CEO Joshua Scigala is also a very committed and principled bitcoiner who supports the Lightning network and really wants to see it blossom (which is why he also sponsors the giveaway from the BTCTKVR Radio broadcasts). 

If you would like to sign up to Vaultoro, you can use my referral link.

Also, if you found this article useful and you would like to reward me for my time and research, there are two ways you can do it and they can be complimentary:

1. Sign up to the Bitcoin Takeover newsletter, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow BTCTKVR on Twitter and Instagram, and listen/subscribe to the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast on your favorite platform. You can also download the BTCTKVR magazine for free and print your own copies for personal use, meetups, and conferences.
2. Send a donation to one of the following addresses:

Bitcoin base layer: bc1qxhz2ma5f7cazj8tx33y9l0vdywgfzugf0yhr2k

Liquid sidechain: VJL638FWbZFxU3Pr8HxN8zp4PxUqqUtXoJfDq8ho3X298MTWea6vQppQrY6FfwNF3bYhraLZmqV47aZ9

Lightning Network: https://btctakeover.lnbits.com/lnurlp/2

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitcointakeover

If you make a donation and want to have your name featured in the Hall of Patrons, then please send me an e-mail.

Dickerson, best known for her work at Lightning Labs (where she acted as Vice President of Business Operations), sees a lot of potential in video games as a medium which increases bitcoin adoption. Her self-confessed interest in snail farming and pigeon racing projects the kind of zaniness to which video gamers get attracted. And as a way to double down on gaming culture and fun, Dickerson is set address fans of Bitcoin Bounce and Turbo 84 on Friday, November 11th 2021, 9PM CET, on the company’s Twitch account.

THNDR Games is best known for hits such as Bitcoin Bounce (read my review here) and Turbo 84. They are available on all mobile platforms and feature a very unique approach to attracting players’ engagement: every game session offers tickets that players can collect, and at the end of every week there is a draw which determines how much bitcoin everyone has won. There are small rewards for everyone, so there is always an incentive to return, play more, earn a higher score, and collect more tickets.

In Bitcoin Bounce, you play as a ball which must bounce across platforms while avoiding dangers such as pitfalls and spikes. You encounter special bonuses (shields and speed boosters), as well as teleporting portals and springs that take you farther. The goal is to make it as far as you can, in a side scrolling action which becomes addictive very fast.

In Turbo 84, you drive a retro vehicle on 3 lanes. The goal is to go as fast as you can while avoiding obstacles. Speed boosters will make your experience more thrilling, while all sorts of roadblocks jeopardize your attempt to reach 100 mph (the game’s challenge) and beyond. It has a synthwave vibe, with shades of pink and violet, as well as stylized menus that make you think of the vintage arcade era.

In both games, high scores and collecting many tickets will help you earn bitcoin amounts. The skill-luck balance provides a mix of certainty and uncertainty that always makes you come back for more. Watch out, these video games are highly addictive!

How will Desiree Dickerson’s leadership impact THNDR Games? Are we going to see major improvements in the existing games? Will the studio release new titles? Will major Lightning companies get involved in organizing tournaments with attractive prizes, in order to increase bitcoin adoption among the video gaming community? It all remains to be seen. What we know for certain is that the games are about to get a popularity boost, thanks to Dickerson’s popularity in the industry.

Support Bitcoin Takeover

The Bitcoin Takeover project is sponsored by Vaultoro, the exchange which only allows you to trade with hard money. This is not financial advice, but on Vaultoro you can use bitcoin to hedge against inflation and switch to gold to avoid volatility. The trades are seamless and you can always switch to another asset to maximize the value of your investment. 

Furthermore, Vaultoro also publishes monthly glass books to prove that it holds 100% of the user’s assets and doesn’t engage in fractional reserve banking. CEO Joshua Scigala is also a very committed and principled bitcoiner who supports the Lightning network and really wants to see it blossom (which is why he also sponsors the giveaway from the BTCTKVR Radio broadcasts). 

If you would like to sign up to Vaultoro, you can use my referral link.

Also, if you found this article useful and you would like to reward me for my time and research, there are two ways you can do it and they can be complimentary:

1. Sign up to the Bitcoin Takeover newsletter, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow BTCTKVR on Twitter and Instagram, and listen/subscribe to the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast on your favorite platform. You can also download the BTCTKVR magazine for free and print your own copies for personal use, meetups, and conferences.
2. Send a donation to one of the following addresses:

Bitcoin base layer: bc1q3s0mnepjgdl46ksqf3qjs65vm9j9aqa0hchua9

Liquid sidechain: VJL638FWbZFxU3Pr8HxN8zp4PxUqqUtXoJfDq8ho3X298MTcEt8sYLQHKFvv4NUf3AnieU7CMtiE64jG

Lightning Network: https://btctakeover.lnbits.com/lnurlp/2

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bitcointakeover

If you make a donation and want to have your name featured in the Hall of Patrons, then please send me an e-mail.

But for a while, it remained unclear whether or not the transition from LND (Lightning Labs’ popular client) to c-lightning would be radical or the two clients would run in parallel. It took another four months for the software to get coded – but on October 12th 2021, Christian Rootzoll has revealed version 1.7.1 of the RaspiBlitz OS: a powerful and much-needed upgrade which adds Taproot support for the Bitcoin Core client while also allowing users to choose any Lightning configuration involving LND and c-lightning.

In other words, RaspiBlitz node operators can now choose between running only LND, running only c-lightning, or running both at the same time. The move towards supporting a new Lightning implementation was explained in a Blockstream blog post which highlighted the competitive advantages of c-lightning over LND:

• better privacy via multi-part payments which randomize the path selection during the transaction routing process;
• the ability to fund channels from both sides involved, to reduce the costs involved and encourage for larger channels to get opened (see this article about dual-funded channels);
• the option to lease inbound liquidity in your Lightning channel via Liquidity advertisements;
• BOLT12 invoices and QR codes, which enable reusability (as opposed to the popular single-use BOLT11s) and add lots of extra functionalities such as recurring payments, payment proofs, and even multisig setups (check this article for more details);
• better overall performance and stability on the otherwise low-powered Raspberry Pi 4 hardware, due to lower system requirements;

On the other hand, LND has some advantages of its own. Every other full node in a box project (from Umbrel to myNode) makes use of it, so it has a larger community of users and developers. Lightning Labs’ implementation is also more reliable for routing payments on the first try, and benefits from more third party applications and wallets. Therefore, some users might prefer to stick with LND instead of upgrading – hence the optionality between c-lightning and LND in the RaspiBlitz dashboard.

But those who are looking into experimenting with a snappier implementation of Lightning can run both or even set up a second node to discover c-lightning’s mightiness. To help users make up their minds about the differences between LND and c-lightning, RaspiBlitz developer Openoms has published a comparison table.

How to upgrade your node to RaspiBlitz 1.7.1

If you’re already running an older version of RaspiBlitz, then you should know about the project’s GitHub page and the extended step by step update instructions. For newer versions, all you have to do is access the “Update” options from the dashboard’s main menu and then follow the on-screen instructions in the “Release” sub-menu (you’re going to need another computer to download and flash the ROM file, as well as another SD card to complete the operation).

The RaspiBlitz architecture makes it possible to store all Bitcoin and Lightning-related information on the hard drive, so the removable SD card only enables the access to the operating system. This way, your channels and wallet files aren’t affected during the update process.

If you’re currently running MyNode, Umbrel or Nodl and want to upgrade to RaspiBlitz, then the process is similar. All you have to do is flash the SD card with the RaspiBlitz dashboard, and versions newer than 1.7 will automatically recognize your channels, wallet files, and settings. You even have a page which includes step by step instructions. So don’t worry, you won’t have to resync the entire blockchain or close your Lightning channels to make the transition.

And if you buy a new Raspberry Pi 4 computer and wish to run RaspiBlitz, then the process is fairly similar to the update – except that you will have to wait for the initial blockchain download and also set up your wallet files.

Last but not least, you also have the option to buy a RaspiBlitz device which comes packaged with the latest version of the dashboard. If you’re in Europe, you can purchase the device from the Fulmo shop. I bought one earlier this year and recorded an unboxing video that you can find with some explanatory links here.

If you’re in the United States, then Lightning in a Box will offer you the best deal with the smallest shipping costs.

Should you update to RaspiBlitz 1.7.1 if you don’t want to use c-lightning?

To put it plainly, yes. The update also comes with Bitcoin Core v22, LND v0.13.3, updates for all applications, as well as the possibility to connect over Tor with SphinxApp. These newer versions should bring extra speed and stability optimizations.

And if you choose to not run c-lightning, you can simply ignore everything related to it. If you don’t set it up from the dashboard, you won’t have to ever deal with it. For most uses, LND should be more than enough – especially if you care more about routing transactions and having access to more wallets and applications.

On the other hand, if you care about privacy and exciting new features, you should give c-lightning a try. Given its modular design and architecture, it will run better and consume fewer system resources on your Raspberry Pi 4 system. Clearly, c-lightning is better suited for developers and new technology enthusiasts.

In an upcoming release, RaspiBlitz will also add a friendly graphical user interface that you can access from your computer browser. This way, the software is going to become even more accessible to newbies who tend to gravitate towards Umbrel. To better understand why truly free open source software matters and what’s wrong with the “source accessible” approach of Umbrel, read this article.

And if you need a crash course on the Lightning Network, then check our my explanatory guide. I’ve written it so that the concepts become accessible even to a ten year-old.

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Furthermore, Vaultoro also publishes monthly glass books to prove that it holds 100% of the user’s assets and doesn’t engage in fractional reserve banking. CEO Joshua Scigala is also a very committed and principled bitcoiner who supports the Lightning network and really wants to see it blossom (which is why he also sponsors the giveaway from the BTCTKVR Radio broadcasts). 

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Thank you for reading!

To better fulfil this ambitious project, Tropic Square has recently raised another €4 million from the Swiss-based investment company Auzera. And if everything goes on according to the plans, the TASSIC (Transparent Authenticated Secure Storage Integrated Circuit) will get introduced to the world by the end of 2022.

Since the Tropic Square start-up is owned by Satoshi Labs and the same company is responsible for creating the world’s first hardware wallet, it should be pretty obvious that the TASSIC’s first use will serve the Trezor devices. But the interesting part is that the press release hints about this integration in the same sentence where they announce the estimated launch of the TASSIC.

This opens up the doors of speculation and only makes us wonder: are we going to get a new Trezor hardware wallet by the end of 2022 as a way of demonstrating the capabilities of Tropic Square’s TASSIC open source chip? Because if that will be the case, then this event should be a game changer on the hardware wallet market.

Tropic Square’s TASSIC vs ATEC608A (Used in Coldcard, BitBox02, Passport)

Right now, devices like the BitBox02, the Coldcard, and the Foundation Devices Passport use the ATEC 608A chip, which is general-purpose but still not entirely auditable. It’s an interesting trade-off which provides some physical security at the expense of making the entire device less auditable. So on a scale of open sourceness which goes from 1 to 10, these hardware wallets aim for an 8.

On the other hand, the Trezor hardware wallets have always been on the 10 side of the spectrum when it came to open sourceness – even if this meant that the devices would suffer from lower physical security. Slush himself, the inventor of the world’s first mining pool and the co-inventor of the world’s first hardware wallet, has expressed his strong advocacy for open source hardware and software. In S4 E8 of the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast, he compared his work on Bitcoin products with Satoshi Nakamoto’s philosophy to keep everything transparent and auditable:

Now, with the addition of Tropic Square’s TASSIC chip, there will be no such tradeoff. And the best part about it is that everything is open source and will most likely get forked by every other company. This translates in better security for all hardware wallet owners, regardless of brand.

So we shouldn’t be surprised if we all start upgrading our hardware wallets in early 2023, so we can benefit from the open source power of TASSIC chips.

Tropic Square Is Disrupting A Market That Was Worth Over 3 Billion Dollars In 2018

According to a statement by Slush (Marek Palatinus), even if the creation of the Tropic Square TASSIC chip originates from a need for Trezor to receive open source hardware improvements, the market for it far exceeds the Bitcoin realm. The TASSIC can be used in ATMs, smartphones, credit cards, laptops, and lots of other devices that require secure chips.

The main competitive advantage of Tropic Square’s ambitious project is the trustless open source architecture. It’s objectively more secure to use chips that you can 100% audit, and even if there is no concern for hidden malicious activity there might be jurisdictions which draft legal frameworks for greater transparency and accountability for data storage. Soon enough it will no longer be an issue of “if” the data is secured, as the question transcends into the realm of “how”.

The Trezor co-founders, Slush and Stick, often talk about their bad experience with secure chip manufacturers and the fact that they had to sign NDAs – documents which effectively obscure the events taking place inside the chips and therefore add a layer of opaqueness to something that was designed to be open source and transparent.

▶ Play video Watch on YouTube

When dealing with sensitive data, it’s important to understand all the intricacies of your security setup and be able to verify every process taking place in the background. Furthermore, it’s essential to be able to improve on the existing security model through the contributions of open source developers. If something exists out in the wild, has lots of people auditing it and there’s an incentive to break it, then it will only become more scrutinized and tested over time. The same happened to Bitcoin, the same is happening with the Trezor design and code, and the same will be happening with Tropic Square’s TASSIC open source chip.

Bitcoin has showed us that open source code can disrupt the global financial system. Now, with similar ambitions, Satoshi Labs’ Tropic Square is trying to prove that the same can be done with security chips for physical resilience via strong encryption.

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Even today, you can get silicone cases in 10 different colors, adjustable lanyards in 5 different colors, as well as tasteful leather cases. Much like Air Jordans, Trezor hardware wallets have transcended the realm of practicality by also becoming sought-after collectibles and fashionable items. You can use them to secure your bitcoins, but you can also get limited-edition variants that you can keep in a drawer and show your friends. Or when you’re at the office sending a Bitcoin transaction or confirming your password with U2F, you can also make a fashion statement.

And with the freshly-announced CORAZON aluminium devices, you get the security of a Trezor Model T inside a luxurious and stylish case. SatoshiLabs themselves are collaborating with GRAY (a Singapore-based luxury brand whose trademark aesthetics are futuristic and architectural) to bring to the market this fashionable item. Basically, it’s a fancy Trezor Model T that’s meant to impress your friends and colleagues with its glamorous looks.

However, it all comes at a pretty high price: $599 for the designs with aluminium casings (available in space gray, galactic blue, pulsar red, and galactic purple), and anywhere from $999 to $1999 for the titanium-cased models. The plain titanium CORAZON variant of the Trezor Model T will cost you $999, but if you also want a gold coating on top you should expect to pay $1999 (same for the rose gold version).

It’s worth noting that GRAY also designs iPhone cases, laptop cases, AirPods cases, and iWatch cases. All of their products are aimed at high-earning individuals who want to distinguish themselves with classy designer-made enclosures for their everyday devices. And since the Trezor Model T has become ubiquitous, it was only a matter of time until it received some high-fashion love.

If you want to buy a Trezor Model T from the CORAZON collection (or simply want to check out the offers), go to their website and see what it’s like to send Bitcoin transactions with class.

If you’re like the rest of us and you don’t care about the plastic enclosure because you’re all about functionality, then get a regular Trezor Model T. Use my referral link and I’m going to get a small percentage of your purchase – and the proceedings will support me so I can keep on writing more articles. Unfortunately, I don’t have a referral link for the fashionable CORAZON devices.

And if you’d like to learn more about the invention of the Trezor and its open-source philosophy, listen to this unique interview with SatoshiLabs co-founder and Bitcoin mining pool pioneer Slush.

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Even though I cover news about luxurious and fashionable items, it doesn’t mean that I’m part of the target audience for CORAZON devices. However, with a small donation you can help me cover part of the costs involved in running this website.

Who knows, maybe one day I will expand and take on Coindesk with well-written articles. But for now, I’m happy to cover the website hosting expenses.

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You can also use the Lightning Network via Tippin. During this wild bull market, you’re going to save more on transaction fees while also benefitting from some extra speed and privacy.

Welcome to the world of permissioned finance: a place where you can only trade as long as a regulating authority allows you to. And this time around, the men in suits, with all of their control over mainstream media and narratives, have completely failed to disguise their intervention as something which protects the small investors. When they actively act against a crowd of well-coordinated lower and middle class people who put their life savings into a stock whose valuation they want to increase, it’s very hard to look benevolent or fair.

The most interesting part about this contemporary David vs Goliath story is that the people seem to have very little interest in the money and care much more about taking revenge on institutions that robbed them of a better living. It was big banks and hedge funds that created the housing market bubble which wrecked the global economy in 2008 – and instead of getting investigated and receiving fair punishments for the destruction of the middle class, they got bailed out by the government.

Furthermore, the bankers and hedge fund managers received the political clemency of being allowed to continue their work as if nothing happened. In the meantime, millions of lives were destroyed and many people are still paying for inflated debts.

Robinhood is no friend of this r/wallstreetbets revolution

As explained by redditor Darxe, Citadel (the hedge fund which bailed out Melvin Capital to help them recover the losses) makes about 40% of its revenue from Robinhood trading. So when the exchange decided to halt trading on assets that were heavily discussed by redditors, it was business as usual. Robinhood acted against its traders to protect its institutional investors, and may have even committed crimes that are yet to investigated.

This is market manipulation at its finest. Only allowing one side of the trade to act is yet another proof that we’re no longer dealing with a free market. This was never about allowing all participants to be equal – the institutions preserve their own interests and change the rules of the game when they realize that they’re losing under the framework that they created for themselves.

So what we are seeing is a preservation of modern serfdom. Small investors who coordinate to purchase a certain stock become the enemy in the instant when the institutions lose money. And the same institutions are the ones that finance the campaigns of politicians and are very likely to get favorable political decisions from elected officials.

In the unfortunate event of bankruptcy, it’s very likely that the executive branch is going to issue an order to bail them out with federal funds – which means that the average taxpayer’s debt gets increased so a financial institution and its employees can conduct their business as if nothing ever happened. This was the case in 2008 and there is nothing to suggest that the situation would look any different under the Biden-Harris administration. Just look at the list of top donors of the Biden campaign and draw the conclusions yourself.

Buying Bitcoin = Shorting Wall Street

Uncle Sam loves his children, but always puts Wall Street smart guys first. You can win some battles, but you won’t be able to claim your victory at the end of the war. The game is rigged against you, so you need more sophisticated weapons that make you more sovereign and free from their political influence.

Yes, you may find another way to buy GameSpot stocks. You can even switch to AMC, BlackBerry, gold (XAU), silver (XAG), or any other ticker on Wall Street. In the end, you will encounter the same old problems and deal with the same institutional bullies who hold elected officials in their pockets.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, was invented as a response to the bank bailouts and is a political statement in itself. It’s a decentralized and permissionless asset which allows anyone to run the code, participate in mining (the process which secures the network and offers random rewards), install a wallet, and send and receive coins. Here’s a brief FAQ that I wrote, so you better understand why this revolution is about individual freedom and financial sovereignty.

Bitcoin is something that Wall Street can’t control. It’s not their invention, it’s not secured by them, and they can’t arbitrarily shut it down. Politicians can’t decide to stop transactions from taking place, and the most they can do is restrict exchanges from operating. This is why you shouldn’t buy your bitcoins on Robinhood, as the service WON’T LET YOU WITHDRAW TO YOUR OWN WALLET!

In the Bitcoin world, this is a capital sin. It means that you don’t actually own the coins, but pay for someone to hold them for you. And in the event that politicians intervene, they can run away with your bitcoins or restrict you from trading. The same can happen with every other altcoin, from Dogecoin to Ethereum.

So the first step in your Bitcoin journey is to leave Robinhood and join some ethical exchange which helps you withdraw. I recommend River Financial, Kraken, and Swan – they have a good record and encourage you to be truly sovereign by enabling withdrawals to your own wallet. And if you feel like making an investment to secure your funds, I recommend Trezor hardware wallets because they are as transparent and open source in their approach to security as Bitcoin itself.

▶ Play video Watch on YouTube

You don’t have to buy a whole BTC. Also, stay away from shitcoins

Bitcoins are scarce – there will only ever be 21 million units, while the US dollars are admittedly unlimited. For this reason, we already have some corporations which amass BTC to escape taxation and inflation. They plan to HODL for years to preserve the value of their reserves, and then basically eat popcorn while the US dollar collapses.

But bitcoins are also divisible. So don’t feel intimidated by the high price of 1 BTC and don’t fall in the trap of purchasing “cheap” and lesser secure altcoins: you can buy fractions up to the 100.000.000th part. Just like dollars have 100 cents, bitcoins have 100 million satoshis.

With only 1 US dollar, today you can buy over 3000 satoshis (or 0.00003 BTC). For more information about how many fractions of a bitcoin you can buy with one dollar, check websites such as usdsat.

While Dogecoin is fun, its underlying network is no longer supported by many developers and the system may be vulnerable to attacks (both governmental and private). So it’s a lot easier for Uncle Sam to shut down Dogecoin: currently, the network has only 433 nodes – out of which 2/3 are in the USA, Canada, France, the UK, and Germany (allies of the USA). In comparison, Bitcoin is much more decentralized and can withstand coordinated attacks.

Bitcoin is our revolution

If your plan is to really hurt Wall Street, you can start by refusing to use the US dollar. And the best alternative we have is Bitcoin. We must make sure that they are the last ones who get in and beg to buy our bags so they can escape the tyranny of the dollar system.

The plan is to accumulate until the amount of bitcoins available on the market becomes scarce, create a parallel economy where goods and services are priced in bitcoins, drive up demand through constant education and FOMO creation, and then finally watch the Wall Street suits beg us to buy our bags so they get a share of the sweet escape plan. That’s when we say no and let them burn in hell with all the problems that they created.

So what do you say, annon? Are you ready to join a real financial revolution?

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