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Interview: Cryptograffiti On “Bitcoin Vs. The Fed”

19/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

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I had the opportunity to sit down with legendary Bitcoin activist/artist cryptograffiti this week to discuss his latest project, “Bitcoin Vs. The Fed.”

You have probably seen cryptograffiti’s art before. He’s well known for his mosaic pictures of Hal Finney and JPMorgan Chase & Co. boss Jamie Dimon, but he’s best known for his art piece “United Nodes Of Bitcoin,” which depicts a U.S. $1 bill with a hooded George Washington and subtle nods to Bitcoin propaganda throughout.

In our conversation, cryptograffiti explained his inspiration for “United Nodes Of Bitcoin” and how “Bitcoin Vs. The Fed” is phase two of that project. “Bitcoin Vs. The Fed” is a project that he bootstrapped to place on billboards in Federal Reserve cities, with Bitcoin propaganda depicted on the backside of the U.S. dollar. He had great success when he launched “United Nodes Of Bitcoin” back in 2015 and has been planning this project since then.

He told me that he wanted to spread the message in the Fed’s backyard and share the idea of sound money with people who might not be as exposed to Bitcoin as folks in more affluent areas. He’s one of the most O.G. Bitcoin artist out there and he is excited for 2021. He has his hands in a couple of projects that could bring NFT-style art to Bitcoin and, with that, a flood of artists.

Cryptograffiti wrapped up the podcast with a positive message to Bitcoin artists out there, telling them to keep on creating. I can’t wait to see what’s up his sleeve next!

The post Interview: Cryptograffiti On “Bitcoin Vs. The Fed” appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Human Rights Foundation Provides Grants To Specter, Lot49

12/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

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The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has announced the latest beneficiaries of its ongoing Bitcoin Development Fund: Bitcoin developer Ben Kaufman and the team at Global Mesh Labs will each receive grants of $25,000.

HRF launched its fund last year and it has supported privacy- and sovereignty-enhancing Bitcoin projects like CoinSwap, JoinInbox, Zeus, Fully Noded and package relay. This latest round of grants was backed by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and its Gemini Opportunity Fund.

Kaufman will be using the grant to improve Specter Desktop, an interface that makes interacting with Bitcoin Core much more user friendly. The project aligns with HRF’s focus on sovereignty, as it makes it easier to run a full Bitcoin node free of reliance from any third-party service.

“Specter is optimized to allow users to fully harness the power of hardware wallets, air-gapped devices and multisignature setups, and is aimed at expanding the number of Bitcoin full nodes and strengthening Bitcoin’s decentralization,” according to an HRF press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. “Ben’s work on Specter will make it easier than ever for anyone to be their own bank.”

The team at Global Mesh Labs, which includes Richard Myers, Fodé Diop and Will Clark, are working on Lot49, an Android application that adapts Bitcoin and Lightning Network implementations to serve regions with low and intermittent internet connectivity.

“With Lot49, Richard, Fodé and Will aim to make Bitcoin more usable in mobile-first environments with spotty internet connectivity, unstable currencies and poor infrastructure,” according to the release.

HRF is working to raise additional support for the Bitcoin Development Fund and to award grants to several Bitcoin projects per year. Gifts, which are tax deductible, can be made through HRF.org/DevFund and support proposals can be submitted to [email protected]

The post Human Rights Foundation Provides Grants To Specter, Lot49 appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Interview: Sovryn Bitcoin With Edan Yago

05/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

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In this week’s episode of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” host CK sat down with Edan Yago of the Sovryn project to discuss this initiative and how it is building decentralized infrastructure for Bitcoin.

Sovryn is like a company, except that it runs completely on bitcoin and it is not incorporated into any centralized organization. In other words, it is a fully remote, novel type of company that is fluid, distributed and powered by Bitcoin.

Sovryn has developed an exchange and programmatic USD coin system leveraging the RSK Bitcoin sidechain and it is actively looking at other BTC Layer 2 technology to scale its services.

Sovryn likes RSK’s technology because it is based on the existing Ethereum technology stack, making it interoperable with the entire Ethereum defi ecosystem. Yago discussed how the members of the Sovryn team refer to themselves as “Bitcoin Mutants” rather than “Bitcoin Maximalists.” According to Yago, the Mutants understand that Bitcoin is key but they are not afraid to leverage the decentralized tech being built elsewhere. They see the Ethereum and altcoin ecosystem as an opportunity for Bitcoin to conquer as the defacto money and trading pair.

The Sovryn team sees Bitcoin as the main building block of the new decentralized economy and think that Bitcoiners should not settle for centralized technology solutions.

The post Interview: Sovryn Bitcoin With Edan Yago appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Interview: Developing Bitcoin With John Newbery

29/12/2020 by Idelto Editor

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In this very special episode of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” Christian Keroles sat down with Bitcoin Core contributor John Newbery to discuss Newbery’s new Bitcoin development initiative, Brink.dev.

Brink is striving to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States enabling Americans to donate to Bitcoin development in a tax-advantaged way. Brink will be writing grants to Bitcoin projects as well as training promising Bitcoin developers in its fellowship program.

Keroles then turned the conversation to the bigger picture of Bitcoin development. Newbery discussed the difference in developing Bitcoin in a bear market versus a bull market, what the Bitcoin development process looks like and how a distributed group of stakeholders can make sure that developers are working on the most important things in the protocol.

Lastly, Keroles and Newbery discussed Taproot and how it demonstrates that the Bitcoin community has improved its coordination. They also discussed the concept of ossification in the Bitcoin protocol and how developers think about Bitcoin’s code.

Additional topics discussed included:

Launching Brink with Mike Schmitt
Bitcoin Optech
Becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
How the donation landscape is changing for Bitcoin development
Comparing and contrasting development in a bull vs. bear market
Gloria Zhao
Bitcoin and ossification
Reflecting on the taproot process

The post Interview: Developing Bitcoin With John Newbery appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Interview: The Fight For Freedom Money With Randy Brito

24/12/2020 by Idelto Editor

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On this episode of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” host Christian Keroles sat down with Randy Brito, the cofounder and CEO of the Locha Mesh project.

Brito is a diehard Bitcoiner who has escaped persecution in Venezuela and is working every day with the mission to make Bitcoin more and more censorship resistant. Brito sees the current internet infrastructure as being a huge attack vector that must be addressed immediately. Locha Mesh is an open-source mesh networking project and protocol that is designed to be capable of supporting a global decentralized internet.

Keroles and Brito discussed why Westerners have been lulled into complacence with their stable yet centralized infrastructure and how the majority of the world desperately needs free, open and private internet, especially for Bitcoin. Brito believes that Bitcoin in the catalyst for us to rebuild our entire economy in a more decentralized way, but fears for the next few years in the battle.

Brito encouraged all the listeners to do what they can to support rebuilding on the internet in a way that is respectful to human rights and freedoms. He chants the rally cry “La Lucha Por La Locha Libre, The Fight For The Freedom Money.”

Find Brito on Twitter: @randybrito

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

Permissionless Bitcoin: We are able to use Bitcoin today because those in power let us
Bitcoin isn’t actually uncensorable and unconfiscatable money if you use it through the overly-controlled and highly-surveilled traditional Internet infrastructure
In the early days, the web and the Internet (which is the network we currently used for transmitting bitcoin) were supposed to be decentralized, verifiable and private.
Locha Mesh is a P2P, decentralized, mobile-first mesh network.
It’s a resilient network that will enable private communications, data and access to Bitcoin and the Lightning Network without centralized internet access.
Turpial devices: open-source software and open-source hardware.
Truly private anonymous communications and Bitcoin without internet mean permissionless freedom.

The post Interview: The Fight For Freedom Money With Randy Brito appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.