Perth BitDevs
Flat Cost to Store Blockchain
Chart showing the flat cost to store the Bitcoin blockchain over time.
Every Transaction a JPEG?
What happens if you force the data in any bitcoin transaction into JPEG format? Steps: go to Mempool.space, click any transaction, click "Transaction hex", lay it out as 6-byte chunks in a rectangular aspect ratio (such as 3:2), and use an online tool to render the JPEG.
Luke Says Something Smart?
Upcoming "knotzi / ossifier war" discussion with Luke Dashjr’s commentary.
Time is a Flat Circle?
Revisiting the 2014 "Stoned Computer" incident, highlighting how history repeats itself in Bitcoin drama.
Meme
Macadamia Wallet Brings Bitcoin (ecash) to iMessage
Sending ecash often involves long strings of characters (similar to sending a Lightning invoice). The iMessage extension introduced by Macadamia Wallet makes it simple to send ecash tokens.
Nicolas Dorier Explains Why OP_RETURN Changes Are Necessary for BTCPay Server
Nicolas Dorier (creator of BTCPay Server) explains why most deployed BTCPay Servers could "get bricked" without OP_RETURN changes. The UTXO set has grown from 4GB in 2022 to 12GB now. 20GB SSD hosted servers are the most popular choice for BTCPay Servers, and old instances will soon run out of space. The nice thing about OP_RETURN is that it’s only stored in blocks, meaning nodes can safely discard it, keeping UTXO set growth stable or even shrinking.
Bitchat Plays a Role in Nepal’s Change of Government
Bitchat gained popularity in Nepal as protests erupted and the government blocked 26 major social media platforms. Users began recommending Bitchat across platforms like Reddit as a possible solution for a nationwide internet blackout. Unlike mainstream chat platforms, Bitchat’s hyper-local Bluetooth mesh approach becomes crucial when services are either blocked or surveilled.
Airdrop Season?
Bitcoin Cycle - History Does Not Repeat, But It Rhymes
Michael Terpin’s Bitcoin Supercycle thesis and analysis of Bitcoin price cycles.
Perth BitDevs Promo
A Bitcoin Scripting Proposal BIP Quartet (from Rusty Russell)
Rusty Russell’s BIP quartet, starting with the Varops Budget for Script Runtime Constraint. The first BIP introduces a systematic cost framework for evaluating script operations based on stack data interactions using worst-case behavior. This generalises the Taproot-style sigops approach to non-signature operations. The motivation: one of the other BIPs proposes re-enabling opcodes disabled by Satoshi in version 0.3.1 due to vulnerabilities. The varops budget would allow these opcodes to be safely re-enabled, returning Bitcoin Script to its original, intended glory.
Bitcoin currently has a limit of 80,000 sigops per block (a consensus rule). Taproot changed this by introducing per-script sigops budgets calculated as 50 + witness_size_in_bytes, with each signature operation consuming 50 from the budget.
Does Global Liquidity Affect Bitcoin Price?
Bitcoin tracks extremely closely to Global Liquidity on the larger view. Michael Howell (Capital Wars) is one of the best sources about global liquidity. But Bitcoin can crash when global liquidity is slowing but still rising - rate of change matters greatly. A divergence is happening which can pull up BTC price, but it is also common for BTC to diverge at the end of the cycle. Howell predicts an extension of the global liquidity cycle to Q1/Q2 of next year. Best used for overall direction, not exact prices.
Bitcoin Core Reverses Deprecation Warning for datacarrier and datacarriersize
PR opened by Mike Schmidt (executive director of Brink) to remove the deprecation for the datacarrier and datacarriersize options. Key arguments: many current Bitcoin Core users want to continue using this option, the deprecation intent is unclear to users, and there are minimal downsides to removing deprecation. This was merged.
UBI Pilot with USDC
A new universal basic income program with the participation of Coinbase will distribute USDC to low-income residents of New York. Selected participants will receive $12,000 in stablecoins. Coinbase and GiveDirectly are joining forces for the pilot.