Good Morning, Bitcoin - Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025

Good morning (good night?)! The No Bullshit Bitcoin news feed is now available on Moody's Dashboard! A huge shoutout to sir Clark Moody for integrating our feed.

Headlines

• Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.

• The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
• Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
• Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.

• The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) wants to contain 'crypto' risks. A report titled "Cryptocurrencies and Decentralised Finance: Functions and Financial Stability Implications" calls for expanding research into "how new forms of central bank money, capital controls, and taxation policies can counter the risks of widespread crypto adoption while still fostering technological innovation."
• "Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking, and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia." According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, criminal organizations from East and Southeast Asia are swiftly extending their global reach. These groups are moving beyond traditional scams and trafficking, creating sophisticated online networks that include unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges, encrypted communication platforms, and stablecoins, fueling a massive fraud economy on an industrial scale.
• Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
• Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.

"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.

• Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.

Use the tools

• Bitcoin Safe v1.2.3 expands QR SignMessage compatibility for all QR-UR-compatible hardware signers (SpecterDIY, KeyStone, Passport, Jade; already supported COLDCARD Q). It also adds the ability to import wallets via QR, ensuring compatibility with Keystone's latest firmware (2.0.6), alongside other improvements.
• Minibits v0.2.2-beta, an ecash wallet for Android devices, packages many changes to align the project with the planned iOS app release. New features and improvements include the ability to lock ecash to a receiver's pubkey, faster confirmations of ecash minting and payments thanks to WebSockets, UI-related fixes, and more.
• Zeus v0.11.0-alpha1 introduces Cashu wallets tied to embedded LND wallets. Navigate to Settings > Ecash to enable it. Other wallet types can still sweep funds from Cashu tokens. Zeus Pay now supports Cashu address types in Zaplocker, Cashu, and NWC modes.
• LNDg v1.10.0, an advanced web interface designed for analyzing Lightning Network Daemon (LND) data and automating node management tasks, introduces performance improvements, adds a new metrics page for unprofitable and stuck channels, and displays warnings for batch openings. The Profit and Loss Chart has been updated to include on-chain costs. Advanced settings have been added for users who would like their channel database size to be read remotely (the default remains local). Additionally, the AutoFees tool now uses aggregated pubkey metrics for multiple channels with the same peer.
• Nunchuk Desktop v1.9.45 release brings the latest bug fixes and improvements.
• Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.8 has renamed L-BTC to LBTC, and improves translations of notifications, login time, and background payments.
• Blockstream Green Android v4.1.8 has added language preference in App Settings and enables an Android data backup option for disaster recovery. Additionally, it fixes issues with Jade entry point PIN timeout and Trezor passphrase input.
• Torq v2.2.2, an advanced Lightning node management software designed to handle large nodes with over 1000 channels, fixes bugs that caused channel balance to not be updated in some cases and channel "peer total local balance" not getting updated.
• Stack Wallet v2.1.12, a multicoin wallet by Cypher Stack, fixes an issue with Xelis introduced in the latest release for Windows.
• ESP-Miner-NerdQAxePlus v1.0.29.1, a forked version from the NerdAxe miner that was modified for use on the NerdQAxe+, is now available.
• Zark enables sending sats to an npub using Bark.

• Erk is a novel variation of the Ark protocol that completely removes the need for user interactivity in rounds, addressing one of Ark's key limitations: the requirement for users to come online before their VTXOs expire.
• Aegis v0.1.1 is now available. It is a Nostr event signer app for iOS devices.
• Nostash is a NIP-07 Nostr signing extension for Safari. It is a fork of Nostore and is maintained by Terry Yiu. Available on iOS TestFlight.
• Amber v3.2.8, a Nostr event signer for Android, delivers the latest fixes and improvements.
• Nostur v1.20.0, a Nostr client for iOS, adds support for lists (kind 30000), the ability to turn a list into a feed tab, a top zapped feed, new onboarding screens, support for relay auth for bunker and remote signer accounts, and much more.
• YakiHonne web app v4.5.0 introduces custom reactions, improved profile organization, the ability to zap notes directly from the notifications center, enhanced DM filtering, and more.
• YakiHonne mobile v1.6.8 adds custom reactions, one-tap zaps, extensive DM filtering, splits replies from notes in profile view, an app cache manager, and other improvements.
• Jumble, a user-friendly Nostr client focused on relay feed browsing and relay discovery, now supports emoji reactions.
• Openvibe v1.10.0, a social app connecting Nostr, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads, has added the ability to crosspost from one network to the others.

• GitPlaza v0.2.0, a Nostr client specialized in handling git-related tasks, resolves the issue with comments not loading, introduces basic Kanban boards, and adds theme selection.
• Samiz v0.0.2-alpha, a tool for creating a Bluetooth mesh with your Android device to use Nostr without accessing the internet, is now available for testing.
• Nostroots v0.0.1 is now available. It is a 'nostrified' app for the Trustroots.io community for travelers. The initial version (Android only for now) allows users to link their Trustroots profile with the app via NIP-05, add new notes in a pluscode area, and supports layers with notes from hitchwiki.org and hitchmap.com.
• Keychat v1.31.10, a chat app built on Bitcoin ecash, Nostr Protocol, and Signal Protocol, is out with the latest bug fixes and improvements.
• Geyser.fund has launched its Geyser Promotions Network. Creators can now turn on the Promotions Network toggle and get their project shared by various Bitcoin media outlets. The project also just released tax-deductible donations for projects with a 501(c)(3) status.
• Cashu NutLock allows users to lock a Cashu token to specific public keys (Nostr npub or P2PK) for a set duration, with options for multisig requirements. After expiration, the token is spendable by anyone, or it can be permanently locked to keys on an "any one can sign" basis.
• Cashu Witness enables unlocking a locked Cashu token by signing with a private key (Nostr nsec or P2PK). It supports multisig tokens, displaying whose signature(s) are required to unlock. Partially signed tokens can be sent to other signatories for completion. Once fully signed, the token can be swapped at the mint for an unlocked, spendable version.

Other stuff

• OpenSats has written a blog post on the advancements in Lightning infrastructure.
• Awesome CTV+CSFS is a curated list of resources for learning about and developing for the CTV+CSFS upgrade to Bitcoin.
• Uncle R0ckstar Dev has recorded a video on how to create and use a multisig wallet in BTCPay Server v2.1.0.

• Shinobi has written an article on TXHASH/CHECKTXHASHVERIFY proposal from Steven Roose and Brandon Black.
• Episode 97 of the Bitcoin Explained show breaks down the latest Bitcoin Core v29 release.
• Avren has published a post exploring a block-based TOTP for secure passphrase validation in Bitcoin wallets.
• Check out the Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #348 recap podcast, in which Mark “Murch” Erhardt and Mike Schmidt are joined by Jonas Nick, Jameson Lopp, Steven Roose, Gregory Sanders, and Salvatore Ingala.

• localhost research has written a blog post on the contributions of w0xlt.
• The Rage Weekly #16 offers a quick and effective way to catch up with whatever our (financial) surveillance overlords are up to these days.
• Bitcoin Dev Kit has uploaded a video on how to build a Bitcoin wallet on iOS in 11 minutes.

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