Former FTX US President Brett Harrison recently had an interview with Cointelegraph Magazine. As part of the discussion, Harrison gave his thoughts on when a Spot Bitcoin ETF will be approved and the possible price level the foremost crypto token could attain when this happens.
Harrison is said to have mentioned that there is a very "high probability" that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a Spot BTC ETF in the first quarter of 2024. His prediction happens to be in line with the fact that the SEC has to make a decision on ARK 21Shares Spot Bitcoin ETF on or before January 10, 2024.
As such, there is indeed a high likelihood that a Spot Bitcoin ETF could be approved in Q1 of 2024 (and as early as January). Bloomberg analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas had also earlier mentioned that there is a 90% chance that approval will come by the January 10 deadline.
Meanwhile, there is a growing belief that we might have more than one Spot Bitcoin ETF application approved by January 10. Seyyfart had, after the Templeton and Hashdex delay, reasoned that the SEC could be lining up all ETFs for a "full wave of approvals."
Harrison also gave his thoughts on what price level Bitcoin could hit when a Spot Bitcoin ETF is approved. The former FTX US President seemed to have been conservative with his price prediction as he put BTC’s potential price between $50,000 and $55,000. He doesn't foresee the foremost crypto token hitting six figures towards the end of 2024 or early 2025.
His prediction about when Bitcoin could hit six figures coincides with Matrixport's prediction of $125,000. The crypto financial services firm predicts that BTC will hit this price level by the end of 2024. Harrison's prediction of the BTC price rising to as high as $55,000 on the back of approval seems plausible when looking at Matrixport's projection of BTC hitting $63,140 by April 2024.
Harrison is undoubtedly bullish about a Spot Bitcoin ETF and the success such an investment vehicle can enjoy. He alluded to the first day of a Bitcoin Futures ETF launching to back up his optimism. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy (BITO) ETF (the first Bitcoin futures ETF) is reported to have seen more than $1 billion in its first two days after launch.
BITO became the fastest ETF ever to hit that figure. However, Harrison believes that a Spot Bitcoin ETF could go on to break more records.
Unchained, a prominent Bitcoin financial services provider, released a new report today showcasing an interesting surge in bitcoin ownership among Americans. According to their findings, a one in four Americans and 55% of surveyed investors, defined by Unchained as those with at least one investment account between the ages of 18 and 78, own bitcoin.
The study, which surveyed 402 US investors, revealed that 95% of current BTC owners are considering increasing their holdings in 2024. Remarkably, almost half of non-BTC owners expressed a strong inclination towards purchasing bitcoin within the upcoming year.
Key drivers influencing potential BTC purchases in 2024 include increased regulatory clarity around digital assets, with 42% of current BTC owners and 35% of non-owners highlighting this factor. Other influential elements identified were the potential approval of a bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the anticipation of a US economic recession.
Despite BTC's price being down over 50% from its peak, 79% of investors foresee BTC surpassing its all-time high of $69,000. More optimistically, over half of the surveyed investors (55%) predict a new all-time high for BTC in 2024, with a third believing BTC will outperform cash, gold, and the S&P 500.
Unchained's survey also foresees a significant rise in bitcoin allocation within retirement portfolios. Nearly half of current BTC owners have BTC in their retirement accounts, and an additional 35% are considering adding it in 2024. Among non-BTC owners open to investing in the asset, 23% expressed interest in including BTC in their retirement accounts.
"At Unchained, we are seeing an influx of bitcoin newcomers who now understand that the asset has longevity," stated Joe Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Unchained. "As reflected in both Unchained's survey results and the activity of our clients, US investors are eager to gain or expand bitcoin exposure -- especially through tax-advantaged vehicles like Unchained's bitcoin IRA. As more investors look to open or grow their bitcoin positions, Unchained looks forward to serving them whether it be through collaborative custody, the Unchained IRA, our trading desk, or our inheritance solutions."
With an estimated 158 million Americans owning investment accounts, Unchained's survey provides valuable insights, representing the US investor population with a 5% margin of error at a 95% confidence level. The survey, conducted digitally from October 26 to 28, 2023, during a period when the price of bitcoin ranged from $33,610 to $34,977, offers a compelling outlook on BTC sentiment and expectations for 2024.
The recent decision by Wallet of Satoshi to stop serving customers in the United States brings us to a crossroads in the evolution of Lightning's use as a consumer tool. While it is trusted and custodial, Wallet of Satoshi has been invaluable in giving casual users a functional and reliable tool for small value payments made across the Lightning Network. This departure from serving the US will leave a massive hole in the Lightning toolbox for American Bitcoiners.
Custodial tools are not the ideal type of tool, especially for anything beyond small amounts, but it is impossible to deny they have a place in this ecosystem. They are not for everyone, and certainly not in my opinion for anything even remotely approaching a significant sum of money, but they can be useful when the risks are well understood by users.
This is just a simple undeniable fact of Bitcoin. From a purely impartial economic point of view this is an inevitable reality. Fees will go up if demand for blockspace increases past the available supply. This will price out lower value users and use cases. Do you want to pay a $20 fee for opening a $50 or $100 Lightning channel? Most people will say no. That leaves custodial arrangements.
The problem with that is two-fold. First, you are no longer the person in control of your money. The custodian is, and you have no real recourse except to trust them. If they screw you over there is nothing at all you can do except, if you are lucky, wait and see how things play out in a courtroom. Second, you have absolutely no privacy. Your custodian sees everything you do with your money, every payment you receive, every payment you send, everything. The more that fees go up, the more people are going to be stuck making this compromise due to sheer economic pressure.
The real solution to this problem is adding some form of limited covenant to Bitcoin. Without that, any answer to the problem is simply in one way or another to introduce trust in the form of some entity co-signing transactions, or being a member in a federation custodying coins, or some other relationship where people using a service or protocol must trust some operator(s) to behave honestly.
That frankly sucks. Regulators will continue coming down on those custodians, making more demands for information, more demands on restrictions for what users can do with their money, they will not stop. So short of actually activating covenants on Bitcoin, what can we do?
Make more custodians. PLEBNET, while a mess in terms of privacy issues and not something actually profitable from the business sense, showed that lots of relatively non-technical Bitcoiners actually could handle running a full Lightning node if they devoted the time to doing so. They helped each other find people to peer with and open channels, helped troubleshoot technical issues, and ensured that people maintained a relatively high uptime for their nodes. They showed it could be done.
Who do you trust more with your money: a giant faceless corporation subject to any arbitrary regulation with no feasible ability to dodge around it, or someone you have known personally for years such as a close friend or family member? Personally, I trust the giant faceless corporation more (just kidding).
Lightning has many issues to deal with right now ultimately requiring either as of yet unknown inventive designs, or consensus changes to Bitcoin, that is why something like Wallet of Satoshi became so popular. It addresses all of those issues through economies of scale. One user managing a channel for just themselves can be expensive and uneconomical, but one person managing a channel for many users piggybacking on their node quickly becomes very cheap and economical on a per user basis.
So let's do that in a more distributed way. Obviously it won't be as cheap and cost effective as a massive service such as Wallet of Satoshi, but groups of friends, families, and wider social circles all sharing a single Lightning node will make it cost effective enough to be practical if individually owned self-custodial channels are not. There is already plenty of tooling for this available right now: LNBits, LNDHub, Cashu, Fedimint, and probably many more I'm not even aware of. The software to do it exists right now. With Cashu and Fedimint, it can even be done in a privacy preserving way where the operator has no clue which user is sending or receiving which payments.
The government might be able to easily go after a large operation like Wallet of Satoshi to enforce regulations, but how about thousands of people all running small Lightning nodes and serving a dozen or so close friends and family? That's not practical at scale. It would also look completely and utterly absurd and ridiculous from a public perception point of view. Kicking in Uncle Jim's door because he was letting grandma use his Lightning node to send and receive payments because grandma would inevitably screw up and lose all of her money doing it herself? Just think through how that would be perceived by the wider public who don't care or think about Bitcoin aside from the headlines that the media shoves in their face.
The current realities of Lightning are what they are, it's not ready for self-custodial use at scale unless you are willing to pay the higher economic cost and deal with the added technical complexity. That will change over time, but for right now it's how things are. It's more complicated than just downloading a wallet like Phoenix or Breez, but PLEBNET showed that running a full Lightning node is absolutely possible for a dedicated power user. You don't have to be a developer to use it. As well, node in a box solutions like Citadel and Umbrel made it plug and play, and both of them support LN Bits in their app stores.
Wallet of Satoshi stopping service the US sucks, it was an incredibly useful app that smoothed over a lot of the rough edges of the current state of Lightning without requiring invasive information collection to use it. It will definitely create a hole for American Bitcoiners. Uncle Jim can step in and fill that hole.
This is a guest post by Shinobi. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Botanix Labs has officially launched the first-ever fully decentralized Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) equivalent Layer 2 on Bitcoin, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine. This represents over a year of dedicated research and development by the team, with a focus on enhancing user experience.
"We want to make it as easy as possible to start building on Bitcoin," said Willem Schroe, the Founder and CEO of Botanix. The initiative stems from the team's ambition to propel Bitcoin beyond its status as the pinnacle of digital currency and position it as the cornerstone of a novel decentralized financial ecosystem.
At the core of this initiative is Spiderchain, a decentralized network of multisigs empowering anyone to operate a full Botanix node and participate in the network. Introducing forward security, a concept derived from encryption systems, Spiderchain facilitates low-cost, swift transactions for Bitcoin deployments.
The innovative aspect of Botanix's Spiderchain is its seamless compatibility with Ethereum's EVM smart contracts. This compatibility enables developers to effortlessly replicate and deploy any EVM smart contract onto the Botanix testnet using Bitcoin.
Casa's co-founder & CTO Jameson Lopp, in his analysis of the Spiderchain's whitepaper, highlighted its implementation on Bitcoin without necessitating any protocol alterations at the base layer. "While there are a variety of proposals being discussed for enhancing Bitcoin's Layer 2 capabilities...one distinction with spiderchains is that they can be implemented on Bitcoin today without any protocol changes to the base layer," he said.
Botanix Labs is now forging ahead to incubate the first-ever Bitcoin-enabled DeFi and NFT ecosystem. The testnet encompasses a Signet Bitcoin faucet, a bridge, and AvocadoSwap, akin to PancakeSwap, facilitating token swaps.
Moreover, Botanix is launching the "Botanix Testnet Accelerator," inviting 10 startups for enhanced BD support, co-marketing, and development resources ahead of the mainnet launch slated for early next year. Selection criteria encompass the product's development, transaction activity, and business potential.
The Botanix testnet is available for trial, inviting feedback from users at here.
Disclaimer: UTXO Management is an investor in Botanix. UTXO's parent company, BTC Inc., is also the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine.
Saturn, a non-custodial peer-to-peer orderbook for satoshis, has successfully concluded its pre-seed funding round, securing over $500,000 in investments, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
This raise was accomplished under the leadership of venture capital firm Big Brain Holdings, alongside the valued participation from UTXO Management, Kelsier Ventures, BOOGLE Syndicate, and various strategic web3 angel investors.
"We are honoured to partner with such prestigious entities in the financial and technological sectors," Saturn's official X (Twitter) account, stated. "Their combined industry knowledge, expertise, and networks are indispensable to our mission. This investment does not merely represent financial backing; it embodies a shared belief in a Bitcoin-centric future and the role Saturn will play in shaping it."
The funding round is to support Saturn's mission to redefine possibilities within the realm of Bitcoin. These investments aim to propel the development of new infrastructure tailored to foster a seamless ecosystem for fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network.
"I see a future where Bitcoin can onboard millions of users to Bitcoin, bringing a fungible token experience that is familiar to that of an experience on Ethereum or Solana," said Hex, Founder of Saturn.
For further information about Saturn and its journey ahead, interested parties can reach out to the company here.
Disclaimer: UTXO Management's parent company, BTC Inc., is also the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine.
FutureBit, a renowned innovator in consumer-centric Bitcoin products, today announced the Apollo II, a revolutionary personal home mining device. This new launch marks a significant stride in FutureBit's journey to introduce efficient, potent, and user-friendly mining products for household use. The Apollo II is a fusion of the latest 5nm ASIC technology and a modern, intuitive design, establishing a new benchmark in the personal Bitcoin mining industry.
Accompanying the Apollo II is the newly enhanced Apollo OS 2.0, featuring an integrated personal mining pool within the device itself. This innovation allows individuals, regardless of their technical expertise, to easily engage in solo mining directly to their Bitcoin node, offering a realistic opportunity to mine a complete Bitcoin block. This feature is particularly significant as it aids in the expansion of network decentralization, which is currently dominated by centralized mining pools.
John Stefanopoulos, the founder of FutureBit, emphasized the company's mission, stating, "Our goal is to return Bitcoin to a state where individual users have power over the Bitcoin network and not centralized farms and pools. This can only be accomplished by hardware that combines powerful ASIC hardware and a full Bitcoin node and getting hardware like the Apollo II out to millions of Bitcoin users."
The Apollo II symbolizes FutureBit's dedication to decentralizing Bitcoin mining and making it accessible to a wider audience while empowering individual users in the Bitcoin network.
For more information on Apollo II and FutureBit, visit their website here.
This article is featured in Bitcoin Magazine's "The Primary Issue". Click here to get your Annual Bitcoin Magazine Subscription.
Until this election cycle, Bitcoin has flown under the radar when it comes to the national political stage. For the first time in its history, Bitcoin is becoming a prominent issue for presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle. While there's been some mention of Bitcoin from the previous president as well as Bitcoin-related policies made by the current one, this election is shaping up to be Bitcoin's time in the spotlight.
At this stage in the race, there are a multitude of presidential candidates, each with their own stance on Bitcoin's place in the national conversation. We have taken the opportunity to reach out to these candidates to hear directly from the horse's mouth. For those who didn't respond, and even some/those who did, we've used previous quotes to assess where they stand on our beloved orange coin. The following is Bitcoin Magazine's official Bitcoin scorecard for the 2024 presidential candidates.
Independent
Born January 17, 1954
Previous Political Office/Experience: No Previous Office Held
Notable Bitcoin Comments:
"Backing dollars and U.S. debt obligations with hard assets could help restore strength back to the dollar, rein in inflation and usher in a new era of American financial stability, peace and prosperity."
"I began to understand that freedom of transaction is as important as freedom of speech. And that Bitcoin is this. I can also see the trajectory toward central bank digital currencies, and the power that will give nations this ultimate power over whether we live or die. And I understood that we need a currency that is a freedom currency -- a currency that is independent and that can't be controlled by the government."
Notable Bitcoin Legislation:
Speaking at a Heal-the-Divide PAC event, Kennedy outlined specific Bitcoin-focused policies that he would enact as president, including gradually backing the U.S. dollar with bitcoin and making bitcoin profits exempt from capital gains taxes. "My plan would be to start very, very small, perhaps 1% of issued T-bills would be backed by hard currency, by gold, silver platinum or bitcoin," Kennedy said, describing his vision for returning to a hard currency standard in the U.S. He added that, depending on the outcome of that initial step, he would increase that allocation annually.
Brief Editorial/Opinion:
Kennedy is the new standard for Bitcoin candidates moving forward. Due in large part to his articulate and thorough positions detailing how his presidency would integrate Bitcoin, Kennedy has separated himself from the pack with a bold vision for America and its monetary policy. This doesn't feel like just another politician incorporating Bitcoin for clout or to fill donation coffers; this feels like a full-fledged, legislative assault on the many economic issues facing the country today. That said, while his recent announcement to run as an independent has come as no surprise, his removal of campaign manager Dennis Kucinich for his daughter-in-law and former CIA agent Amaryllis Hope Fox certainly did.
Bitcoin Magazine Candidate Grade: B+
Democratic Party
Born November 20, 1942
Previous Political Office/Experience: 46th President of the United States since 2021, 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, United States Senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, Member of the New Castle County Council from the 4th District from 1971 to 1973.
Notable Bitcoin Comments:
"Advances in digital and distributed ledger technology for financial services have led to dramatic growth in markets for digital assets, with profound implications for the protection of consumers, investors, and businesses, including data privacy and security; financial stability and systemic risk; crime; national security; the ability to exercise human rights; financial inclusion and equity; and energy demand and climate change."
"With respect to digital assets, my Administration will seek to ensure that our core democratic values are respected; consumers, investors, and businesses are protected; appropriate global financial system connectivity and platform and architecture interoperability are preserved; and the safety and soundness of the global financial system and international monetary system are maintained."
"Growth in decentralized financial ecosystems, peer-to-peer payment activity, and obscured blockchain ledgers without controls to mitigate illicit finance could also present additional market and national security risks in the future."
Notable Bitcoin Legislation: (if applicable)
Brief Editorial/Opinion: As head of the executive branch during Operation Choke Point 2.0, in which five (and counting) U.S. banks failed, Biden oversaw the launch of FedNow and continually has painted bitcoin as a money for criminals that contributes greatly to the climate crisis. To put it lightly, Biden's administration has hardly been an ally to Bitcoin -- nevermind its voting bloc -- with its cold shoulder legislation being dubbed a "war on bitcoin" by Republican candidate DeSantis. While not as outspoken in his tweets as his former general election opponent President Trump, it is fair to say Biden's executive orders on the matter seem to tip the scales of jurisdiction over the upcoming battle for Bitcoin in the regulators' favor. Perhaps the nicest comment we can make is that he hasn't banned anything -- yet, anyway.
Bitcoin Magazine Candidate Grade: D
Headshot
Republican Party
Born June 14, 1946
Previous Political Office/Experience: 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Notable Bitcoin Comments:
"Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar... I want the dollar to be the currency of the world. That's what I've always said."
"I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity...." https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1149472282584072192?s=20
Notable Bitcoin Legislation: (if applicable):
Brian Brooks OCC Appointment
Allowing bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and stablecoin holdings
Peter Thiel Transition Team Appointment
Mick Mulvaney Appointment
Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from February 2017 to March 2020, and as acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 to March 2020.
Brief Editorial/Opinion: Don't let "orange man bad" detract from the legislative good he has done for the orange coin. One could contend that his selection of former Coinbase CLO Brian Brook as Comptroller of the Currency was the single most significant appointment in the history of Bitcoin in the United States. Brooks cleared the door for financial institutions to enter the area by permitting banks to actually retain bitcoin. After the regulation went into effect in the middle of 2020, bitcoin's price increased 20 times the following year. Despite this positive price action and even his own successful minting of Trump Cards, Trump oversaw Operation Warp Speed, government lockdowns, and excessive monetary inflation with his stimulus bills during his one-term presidency.
Bitcoin Magazine Candidate Grade: C
Republican Party
Born August 9, 1985
Previous Political Office/Experience: No Previous Office Held
Notable Bitcoin Comments:
"The thriving Bitcoin universe should actually better empower me to do what I want to do as the U.S. president, which is to stabilize the U.S. dollar as a unit of measurement and put the Federal Reserve back in its place with that as its single mandate."
"It is unfair and counterproductive to target Bitcoin miners as different from any other consumer of energy, period...We'll put that into the rules and preserve freedom to mine by rescinding and committing against any special taxes for the utilization of energy for purposes of mining."
"I think that bitcoin, for me, for a number of reasons, does not yet meet that commodity basket. I'm a bitcoin fan. I spoke at a bitcoin conference. I want to stabilize the dollar against agriculture and farm commodities, gold, silver and nickel. And there could be a point in time when bitcoin becomes part of that commodity basket. There's some technical reasons why I would not include that today."
"I would give strong consideration to even thinking unconventionally, even someone like RFK Jr., for example, who is running for the Democratic nomination. I think we live in a moment where we can unite this country. Ronald Reagan did it in 1980, winning in a landslide election. I think there's an opportunity to win in a landslide election in 2024, and I think that's the single-most uniting thing we could deliver in our politics, and that's the way I'm going to be thinking."
"I will shut down the fourth branch of government, the administrative state. You cannot tame that beast. You must end it."
Notable Bitcoin Legislation: (if applicable)
If elected, Ramaswamy promises to unilaterally end Civil Service protections by executive order, imposing eight-year term restrictions on federal positions, shuttering the Education Department, and replacing the FBI, the IRS, and other agencies. "Those elected to government should actually run the Government."
Brief Editorial/Opinion:
Ramaswamy allegedly paid to change the Wikipedia page about him, according to a disclosure on the collaborative encyclopedia. The changes include deleting the fact that Ramaswamy received the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 2011 and Ramaswamy's role in the Ohio Covid-19 Response Team.
Bitcoin Magazine Candidate Grade: B+
Republican Party
Born September 14, 1978
Previous Political Office/Experience: 46th Governor of Florida from 2019, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 6th District from 2013-2018
Notable Bitcoin Comments:
"As president, we'll protect the ability to do things like bitcoin. I just do not have an itch to have to control everything that people may be doing in this space, and I think the current regime, clearly, they have it out for bitcoin, and if it continues for another four years, they'll probably end up killing it."
"We are going to let Americans invest in things like Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Biden's war on Bitcoin currency will come to an end when I become president."
"As president, on day one, CBDC goes into the trash can -- we're not going to allow it."
Notable Bitcoin Legislation: (if applicable)
CS/HB 273 - Money Service Businesses
May 12 2022 Bill Defining Virtual Currency And Enabling License-Free Trading
SB 7054: Central Bank Digital Currency
March 31 2023 Bill Banning CBDC in Florida
Brief Editorial/Opinion: DeSantis, as Governor over Florida during government lockdowns, was relatively quick on the ball -- certainly when compared to most governors of high population states -- for pushing back against federal overreach in order to keep his state open. Certainly no stranger to media controversy with his generally right-leaning governing style, DeSantis has used his platform to push Bitcoin-friendly state policies, including upholding the right to transact bitcoin without a transmitter license. His budget proposal in 2022 even included bitcoin-funding for state programs, and has announced infrastructure for Florida to accept business tax payments in bitcoin. His disrespect of the federal digital dollar, in both clever signage and policy, is certainly admirable. However, he notably did vote Yea in the House vote to extend The Patriot Act (USA FREEDOM Act of 2015).
Bitcoin Magazine Candidate Grade: B
(UPDATE: Mike Pence withdrew from the race on October 28th, 2023)
Republican Party
Born June 7, 1959
Previous Political Office/Experience: Vice President to the 45th president Donald J. Trump
Notable Bitcoin Comments:
While having not made any direct comments on Bitcoin itself, his former chief economist Mark Calabria had this to say back in 2015 when asked about his concerns on Bitcoin regulation:
"I don't think the Bitcoin community should be complacent about the current regulatory environment. The potential to get a lot worse is definitely there."
Notable Bitcoin Legislation: (if applicable):
Brian Brooks OCC Appointment
Allowing bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and stablecoin holdings
Peter Thiel Transition Team Appointment
Mick Mulvaney Appointment
Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from February 2017 to March 2020, and as acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 to March 2020.
Brief Editorial/Opinion: Much like his presidential partner, a few tweets notwithstanding, Pence solely displays his Bitcoin position in the shadows. The former vice president to Donald Trump, Pence was silent on Bitcoin even as his commander-in-chief took to social media, at times to blast Bitcoin during his four years in office. Still, his stance is that it will not replace or rival his favored money, the U.S. dollar. That said, Pence has in the past shown a willingness to work with public Bitcoin proponents. His former chief economist, Mark Calabria, was a member of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, and a public Bitcoin advocate. Further, his nephew, John Pence, a senior advisor for the Trump-Pence campaign from 2016-2020, has worked for crypto exchange Binance.
Bitcoin Magazine Candidate Grade: C
This article is featured in Bitcoin Magazine's "The Primary Issue". Click here to get your Annual Bitcoin Magazine Subscription.
Today, Wyoming-based Mummolin, Inc, has announced the successful completion of a $6.2 million seed funding round, led by Jack Dorsey, also featuring prominent investors such as Accomplice, Barefoot Bitcoin Fund, MoonKite, NewLayer Capital, and the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, among others. This funding will fuel the launch of OCEAN, a new initiative aiming to decentralize Bitcoin mining on a global scale, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
"OCEAN is solving a problem for Bitcoiners that I think all of us feel--further centralization of mining pools that could plague Bitcoin, and how that risks a bunch of Bitcoin attributes that we hold dear," said Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Block, Inc. "When I see a project that is good for Bitcoin broadly, and that's also good for me and my companies personally, it becomes a simple decision for me, and I'm happy to be a part of it."
The OCEAN pool distinguishes itself as the first transparent and non-custodial platform where miners receive block rewards directly from the coinbase transaction, eliminating the risk associated with traditional pools withholding payments from individual miners. "Traditional Bitcoin mining pools take exclusive custody of block rewards and transaction fees before splitting them up amongst miners. This gives them the ability to withhold payment from individual miners, whether by their own choice or by legal requirement. OCEAN's non custodial payouts directly to miners from the block reward remove this risk and the pool's undue influence over miners," added Mummolin co-founder and President Mark Artymko.
"The role of mining pools must change for Bitcoin to exist as a truly decentralized currency," said long-time Bitcoin Core developer and Mummolin co-founder Luke Dashjr. "OCEAN is a new type of pool that enables miners to be truly miners again. We are launching as the most transparent pool and also the only non-custodial pool where miners are the recipients of new block rewards directly from Bitcoin."
When asked by Bitcoin Magazine about what issues in the mining industry today the OCEAN team is motivated to solve, three main areas of focus were presented:
Centralization of block template construction. "Even though hashrate may be distributed globally, the reality is that the intelligent parts of mining (running a full node, sourcing transactions, constructing the block template) are performed by very few individuals and the pools that they control," said OCEAN's Global Head of Sales, Bitcoin Mechanic. "This is a disproportionate level of influence by too few over too many and has the potential to hurt Bitcoin." After the launch, OCEAN will introduce a way for miners to independently perform block template construction while still reaping the economic benefits of being in a pool.
Custodianship. "Most pools today use a payout scheme called Full Pay Per Share. In FPPS the pools pay miners out of their internal treasuries based on the work that the miners do for the pools. In turn, when a block is found, Bitcoin pays the pool directly. In this fashion the pool becomes the de facto custodian of funds and sits in between the miners and Bitcoin, much like a big Bitcoin bank account," explained Jason Hughes, VP Development & Engineering. "This introduces significant counterparty risk to miners similar to keeping Bitcoin on an exchange." OCEAN is non-custodial, and when miners use OCEAN, they get paid directly from the Bitcoin network in the coinbase transaction.
Transparency. "Most pools do not give miners visibility into the underlying transactions that they are committing their hashrate to. This opaqueness creates a scenario of zero checks and balances where pools can do what they want without having to answer to their miners until after blocks are mined," expressed Dashjr. "In contrast, OCEAN takes a transparency-first approach by publicly disclosing all transactions included in our block templates to miners before mining. This exposure is self-auditing and creates a natural incentive for OCEAN to always act in good faith. We give miners greater knowledge of block construction so that miners can choose where to direct their hashrate."
As OCEAN aims to revolutionize Bitcoin mining, it anticipates rolling out additional phases of Bitcoin decentralization improvements and upgrades in 2024. For more information, you can visit their website at OCEAN.xyz.
Traditionally, creating an n-of-n multisig using CHECKMULTISIG means you'll publish a proportional number of signatures and public keys on the blockchain to signers in the transaction. This approach not only reveals the total number of participants in the transaction, but also incurs progressively higher transaction fees as the number of signers grow. MuSig, on the other hand, allows a group of users to collectively generate a single signature and public key to validate a transaction, which enhances privacy and lowers the transaction costs for all the signers involved.
When MuSig was initially introduced in 2018, its main shortcoming compared to CHECKMULTISIG was user experience, specifically the requirement for three rounds of interactive communication between signers. With the introduction of MuSig2 (BIP 327) in 2020, as the successor to the 2018 MuSig (also called MuSig1), we made significant progress in non-interactive signing, bringing us a much more desired experience.
Mirroring the functionality of its predecessor, MuSig2 reduces the required communication rounds from three to two. The wallet setup for MuSig2 begins by collecting all of the participants' extended public keys (xpubs), and the construction of descriptors by each of the wallets, all of which is consistent with existing multisig practices.
The MuSig2 signing phase then includes:
An alternative to having each signer directly communicate their nonce and partial signature to every other signer is to introduce a third-party coordinator to streamline the communication process.
In the signing process, each signer's nonce is composed of two elliptic curve points. These points are transmitted to other signers through the Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBTs). These nonces require careful handling for accuracy and integrity in the process, but secure storage is not necessary since they are not confidential information. If all the individuals partial signatures are valid, then the produced Schnorr signatures are valid.
Last month, Andy Chow put forward two BIP drafts, MuSig2 PSBTs and MuSig2 Descriptors, which are a necessary step in MuSig2 adoption and wallet integration. The first BIP adds fields for the nonces, public keys, and partial signatures in the PSBTs, and the second BIP provides a method for describing transaction outputs that are controlled by a MuSig2 wallet. Together, these BIPs and specifications are all we need for integration of MuSig2 wallets!
Many wallet developers and collaborative custody solutions have long requested this standardization of the MuSig2 protocol. Now, with the formalized BIPs in place, it's in the community's hands to review, give feedback, and help raise awareness. At Blockstream, we look forward to participating in the public discussions and letting the formal BIP review process take place.
This is a guest post by Kiara Bickers. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Ocean, a stealth Bitcoin startup, is hosting a one-day event today in South Carolina where it will unveil new technology aimed at decentralizing Bitcoin mining.
The one-day event will bring together a host of industry leaders to discuss the topic, including Block CEO Jack Dorsey, long-time Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr, and others. The event is being hosted by a local Bitcoin mining facility.
The topic is of note given that mining has become a heavily centralized industry in recent years, not necessarily due to the ownership of actual mining hardware being concentrated, but because of the central dependency on large mining pools to actually coordinate with other miners.
This presents a problem on multiple fronts. Pools custodying miners funds gives them the ability to withhold payments and coerce actual miners to behave or act a certain way. The two largest pools require KYC information before allowing someone to mine with them. Large pools can actively censor transactions if they choose, or were mandated to by governments, using the hashrate of their customers.
Pools are a necessary piece of the Bitcoin network, as without them the only option is solo mining. This means very infrequent and random payouts that are highly unpredictable and make planning a high capital business very risky.
Still, Dorsey's attention to the topic, while notable, is not new. As recently as April, Dorsey has hinted that Block was turning its attention to Bitcoin mining, purchasing Bitcoin mining chips as it sought its own entrance into the sector. Dorsey has been public about his interest in the issue since as far back as 2021.
It remains to be seen what solution Ocean will unveil, whether Block will be involved, or if Dorsey or Dashjr will have any specific role at the startup.
For more details, Ocean's livestream begins at 10:30 am EST and will be live on Bitcoin Magazine's X, Rumble, and YouTube channels.
