Inaugural Issue of the Bitcoin Builders Renaissance Newsletter

Welcome to the home of the shadowy super coders! Basically, this is a newsletter started in honor of Elizabeth Warren, who coined the term! 😂🙏🏻 Kidding aside, here, we firmly believe that Bitcoin not only is a new base money for the digital age, but a revolutionary force shaking up the entire financial landscape! 🌪️ As Super Coder Vigilantes, we see Bitcoin evolving into a multi-layered financial powerhouse, anchored by the soundest money ever known.

💻Let us tell you, dear reader: Building and developing on Bitcoin is a thing. Well, it is not only a thing, it's the thing developers worldwide are gravitating towards! After all, Bitcoin is the most exciting things happening in our world today! 🌍 As of December 2023, a whopping 1,071 active developers are passionately supporting Bitcoin every month. 📈 40% of the entire Bitcoin open-source developer community is fervently focused on Bitcoin L2 and scaling solutions in 2023. And because Bitcoin is the chain that most likely has a bright future, developers that build only on Bitcoin are more likely to stay compared to devs on other chains. ⚡💪

Navigating this dynamic realm requires more than just keeping pace—it demands staying ahead! This is why we want to join the Bitcoin Builders Renaissance newsletter, where the Super Coder Vigilantes are your guiding light in this sweeping cosmos. 🌌 You will most likely recognize quite a few of them along the way.🔬

In this fast-paced industry, we are your compass, decoding the intricate world of Bitcoin Finance and gathering the alpha you crave. 📈💡Subscribe now, and embark on a journey where staying informed is your superpower! 🚀🔍 Become a Super Coder Vigilante yourself and let's ride the wave of the emerging finance on Bitcoin ecosystem together! 🌊👨‍💻

Table of Contents

• Bitcoin and Macro

• Bitcoin Finance News: Moving at Full Speed

• New Kids on the Bitcoin Block

• Bitcoin Builder Ecosystem Deep Dive

• Do it Yourself: Using Bitcoin Finance

• Bitcoin Talks You don’t Want to Miss

• Bitcoin Things that Get You Thinking

• Upcoming Bitcoin Events/Programs

Bitcoin and Macro

-BitMEX Research putting in the God's work here regarding ETF stats. They have been posting an updated flows table every day since launch. 💻

-J.P. Morgan stating on January 25th that GBTC selling is largely over. It seems like they were spot on…💡

-Interesting Forbes article on how SEC’s Bitcoin ETF approvals have forever altered the global monetary system by making the banning of Bitcoin extremely difficult. 🪙

-Now that the Bitcoin ETFs are approved, is this the end of the big narratives? 🤔Marty Bent doesn’t think so. He believes nation states will be next. We tend to agree. 💯

-Where do we go post ETF? Are you currently bearish or bullish on Bitcoin’s price in the short to medium term? ⏲️Well, the stablecoin market is telling us to be bullish. 🔥Stablecoin market cap is growing. As we know: There is no better correlation than stables inflow on exchanges and the Bitcoin price. And yes, USDT is the main driver. Bitfinex BTC volume consistently leads BTC price. 💹

-Predict where bank reserves are headed, and you’ll know where stocks (and risk assets like Bitcoin) are headed. Now at $3.5T, reserves could go as low as $2.5T over the next months until the Fed will put an end to quantitative tightening (QT) in Q3 of this year. 😲

-Ergo, if QT ends, QE will take over (again)? 💸An interesting panel discussion led by Greg Foss with heavyweights like Preston Pysh, James Lavish, and Lawrence Lepard discusses why we are in a perpetual cycle of quantitative easing and why it is required to keep the fractional reserve system of musical chairs going. 🏦

-Is the ECB gearing up for rate cuts?💭 Their latest working paper release would have you think so. 💡

-China is emerging as a source for Bitcoin demand.📈

-Number one thing to understand as an investor: Global liquidity has bottomed a long time ago. We are now in the uptrend part of the liquidity cycle, with a lot more juice to be squeezed.🫠

-Did you know that Satoshi was actually ALSO a macroeconomist and got this “cycle thing” right?ℹ️ After all, Bitcoin halvings align with liquidity cycles uptrends. But before we forget: Here’s a post on why Bitcoin is following economic data and not halvings. ‼️

-Do you wonder what all this talk about macro liquidity (and how it relates to Bitcoin) is about?🥃 Here’s a short video giving you the gist of it. 🎥

-And here's a good overview on some macro predictions for 2024. It could turn out to be a crazy year...🤪

-Here's another macro shift that we became aware of these last few days: Old world institutions who do not respect the cypherpunk toolbox will lose reputation, money, and eventually sociopolitical relevance... 💵

-The Bitcoin network is evolving. 🧬A year ago, Taproot adoption stood at 1%; now, it's at 39%. 🔥Additionally, the majority of addresses are now utilizing SegWit. On-chain fundamentals have completely changed compared to the last bull run in 2021. 💪

Bitcoin Finance News: Moving at Full Speed

-Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock recently said: "...the next step is the tokenisation of financial assets, and that means every stock, every bond". 🗣️We are connecting the dots for you with this article, arguing why Bitcoin layer-2s like Stacks could be powering BlackRock's ledger for tokenization.🪙

-By the way, have you seen this simple relative valuation analysis on Stacks? If true, then big!

-And yes, Stacks just announced their launch window for the Nakamoto Update. Fireworks are going to be ignited around April 15 to 29, 2024. Here’s your explainer.

-Just like this, liquid stacking provider StackingDAO has just reached $20 million in TVL, just like that. 💰They also announced a partnership with popular Bitcoin wallet Xverse.💲

-Good news regarding another Bitcoin sidechain. Bitcoin bridged to the Liquid Network has hit another all-time high, now over 4,000 BTC.🙌

-MintLayer, a Bitcoin Layer-2, unveils mainnet. Here's what Cointelegraph has to say on the launch.📰

-B² Network is yet another Bitcoin Layer 2 that has been drawing some attention. Here’s a quick overview.

-40% of all Bitcoin open-source developers were focused on Bitcoin L2s and scaling solutions in 2023.👀 And yes, activity across Bitcoin is picking up.

-Here's your detailed overview of the growing Finance on Bitcoin ecosystem.

-Want to boil this down and just have an overview of all the relevant Bitcoin Layer-2s and sidechains out there. This image has you covered. 📷

-Bitcoin Lending against Ordinals is a thing. See for yourself here. 👈Over 21 BTC have been lent out just last week.

-When making online payments with a credit card, 💳 remember that each invoice could potentially expose your assets, especially with your important information out there! That's exactly why Neutronpay introduced Lightning Payments. They secure every invoice with a unique encrypted code, turning your payment process into a simple code scan ⚡️

-The Orange Pill App is stepping up the game by releasing the merchants feature on their app, transforming the way businesses & professionals connect and do commerce with local Bitcoiners.🛒

New Kids on the Bitcoin Block

-Have you heard of dlcBTC? This innovative solution has just been introduced. It is your direct bridge to DeFi! 💪 Check it out here. But you ask: What are dlcBTC? Well, we got you covered, as always! 🔥Check out the interview in the "Bitcoin Talks You don’t Want to Miss" on the topic, or dive deeper with this explainer video. 🎥

-Want to see another implementation of DLCs in action? Check out what DLC Markets just announced. You can register for their beta here. And read about it in more depth in this Bitcoin Magazine article. Trust minimized trading on Bitcoin is now becoming a reality!

-Also, Bitcoin wallet Mutiny has also been experimenting with DLCs. 🥼

-This is another liquid staking protocol (similar to StackingDAO mention above) on Stacks is in the starting blocks. 🫠

-Luganonodes announced their support for Stacks, helping them unlock the potential of Bitcoin L2 with their institutional-grade infrastructure and making it easy for users to earn native BTC rewards as they support consensus 🔐Luganodes is a world-class, Swiss-operated, non-custodial blockchain infrastructure provider that has rapidly gained recognition in the industry for offering institutional-grade services. It was born out of the Lugano Plan B Program, an initiative driven by Tether and the City of Lugano.

-SatoshiVM, a proposed Bitcoin Layer-2, was the talk of the town in the last few weeks. It was marketed to be an EVM-compatible #Bitcoin ZK Rollup L2. ☝️However, the project caused quite a stir. Popular X investigator account ZachXBT called out crypto influencers for shilling the project. Some red flags about the project were pointed out here. 🚩And as was shown on-chain, SatoshiVM shifted over 1 million SAVM tokens to influencer addresses. Here's a good summary of what happened in this debacle. After all, some reliable sources argue that ZK Rollups on Bitcoin cannot be done, thus calling SatoshiVm a fraud project.🚨

-sORDINALS (sORDS) has just been introduced. A groundbreaking initiative for Inscriptions on Stacks! Inscriptions can now also easily been done on Bitcoin Layer-2. 🔥

-RunesMarketCap ist now live👑What is it you might ask? RunesMarketCap is the CoinMarketCap for Runes. And what is Runes? Runes' is a UTXO-based alternative to the BRC-20 standard, designed to align seamlessly with Bitcoin's infrastructure by minimizing the UTXO set. Check out this explainer article.

-An interesting solution that caught our attention is sCrypt: A Layer-1 smart contract framework for Bitcoin.😲

-Also, there is Bitcoin Virtual Machine, 🤖which is the first modular blockchain metaprotocol that lets you launch your Bitcoin L2 blockchain protocol in a few clicks. Here’s a supporter laying out the case real quick. As always (which is important), there are also critics! So, before you dive in, you should do the research. Check this critical post.📭

-If you are not convinced by now that every seems to be building on Bitcoin, here's another proof: Sovryn has introduced BitcoinOS: a superlayer of interoperable rollups turning Bitcoin into a global operating system. 🖥️This is a massive collaboration of developers to build a scalable smart layer for Bitcoin that will allow anyone to build interoperable apps and chains on bitcoin. What is Sovryn you might ask? Here's a good and quick overview thread.💬

-And there is more to come: In collaboration with Babylon, a project that recently proposed the idea of BTC staking, AltLayer is bulding a rollup-centric infrastructure for Bitcoin. This should help enable more versatile finance services that are secured by the Bitcoin network.🛜

-AltLayer will also work together with B² Network, assisting them in deploying and operating their Zk-rollup.

-Jan3, led by famous Bitcoin Maxi Samson Mow, launched Aqua wallet. Aqua plans to be a revolutionary Bitcoin and stablecoin wallet to serve Latin America and empower global financial freedom. It will provide LATAM with the cheapest and most private stablecoin transfers available. ⏩

-The first peer-to-peer trade using the Mostro protocol and Lightning happened on mainnet last week. Mostro is essentially a marketplace for P2P on/off-ramp to Bitcoin. Mostro tries to do to P2P Bitcoin trading on Lightning what nostr did to P2P communications.

Bitcoin Builder Ecosystem Deep Dive

-Bitcoin is infiltrating each and every blockchain out there. ckBTC is bitcoin on Web3, more specifically on the Internet Computer by Dfinity.💻

-Here’s a deep dive on zero knowledge on Bitcoin.🧑‍💻

-And here's a good overview of Stacks and why it is primed to be the leading Bitcoin Layer 2 🗨️

-Spartan Group, a leading player in the Web3 space, just published an in-depth report on Bitcoin L2s. It comes in three parts: Bitcoin economy awakened, Bitcoin layers: a renaissance and Towards a trustless financial system on Bitcoin. 🪙

-Here's a thread helping you to understand Bitcoin Scaling on a foundational level.🗣️

-Check out this interesting deep dive article on the past, the present, and the future of offline lightning payments by Breez.🫴And this video shows a quick demonstration on offline payments.⚡

-Here’s a convincing piece on why the Bitcoin Builders Renaissance is inevitable. 👇

-Bitcoin educator Anita Posch published a very interesting article where she compares how different Lightning wallets behave under a low bandwidth environment.

-Want to learn about Bitcoin merged mining and how Bitcoin L2 are using it? Here’s your X thread for this.

-The case for Taproot Assets as a Bitcoin Layer-2 explained.

Do it Yourself: Using Bitcoin Finance

-Ever heard of Blyss? A Privacy-focused Bitcoin tool that helps you look up any BTC address balance, without revealing the address to anyone. Blyss for BTC is currently in beta, but you might still want to give it a try. 💯

-Looking for an excellent source that helps you as a Bitcoin developer in traning? Look no further. Check out BitScript. ⬅️They are in alpha mode but their goal is to x100 the number of engineers and builders on Bitcoin by providing educational content and dev tools.⚙️

-Well, you would like to build on Bitcoin but are no coder? Also, no problem. No Code Clarity is for you: They offer custom development services to every founder with an idea. Their agency offers the ability to purchase hours of dev time while we build your Bitcoin Web3 MVP in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost! And yes, they are almost ready... 🕰️

-Want to earn points to potentially qualify for an airdrop? XLink is a Bitcoin bridge by Alex Labs. Doing cross-chain swaps ca currently get you points...💯

-Ryder Hardware Wallet will be signer for the Upcoming Nakamoto Upgrade. And besides, getting yourself a Ryder One might give you the best hardware wallet experience you’ve ever had.👛

-Really do it yourself, in an non-custodial way. From your mobile, it takes 5 mins to: Buy & sell BTC P2P with Peach Bitcoin, 🤝 trade BTC perps P2P with 10101📈and opt for BTC passive return strategies with Atomic.Finance 📥

-Want to earn sats for ads? Check this out!

Bitcoin Talks You don’t Want to Miss

-Interesting discussion about Botanix, one of the several Bitcoin Layer-2s that is recently emerging (currently on testnet).💗

-Check out the greatest of all, Lyn Alden talking about the economics of scaling Bitcoin. As always, a pleasure for your ears (and mind):🧑

-When Tuur Demeester speaks, we listen.🎧 Check out this highly timely discussion he had on the Stephan Livera Podcast, talking about everything BTC Spot ETF approval, the psychology of market cycles and HODLers, why every company needs a Bitcoin strategy and way more. 🤞🏻

-Good podcast about Bitcoin and real estate that you don't want to miss then. 🎧

-There is always an interesting discussion when Bitcoin builders and strategists get together. If you are interested in how rollups are coming to Bitcoin, why better bridges are built using BitVM and how a consensus can be found using OP_CAT, check this recent conversation.

-Epic talk about the (most) bullish case for Bitcoin. Why Bitcoin will rule supreme in the digital sphere.

Bitcoin Things that Get You Thinking

-Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital has noticed that the Bitcoin Layer-2 discussion is heating up. Big VCs (that definitely are a dobule-edge sword if you ask us) are beginning to notice by asking the right questions.❓

-@benthecarman from MutinyWallet is sharing some thoughts on how to properly rethink the Lightning Network and why covenants are needed. ⚡

-With the above mentioned controversy around ZK rollups on Bitcoin, a lot of people have been asking.. what's possible and what not. Here's a good thread by Edan Yago giving you a good overview and food for thought.💬💬

-How Bitcoin changes human behavior and leads people to save more. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

-Here’s an explanation attempt at how BitVM bridge works (simplified).👇

-For all the non-maxis out there, here's an interesting article on how Bitcoin and Ethereum may converge in DeFi.📄

-The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik, has published an article on where he sees blockchain and AI intersecting. Well, as Bitcoiners, we mainly care about how Bitcoin and AI will commingle. If you want to explore these topics in a newly established working group, this one is for you.📃

-Some more thoughts on the interlap of Bitcoin and AI and what this means for machine-to-machine payments can be found here.

-How to do trustless L2s on Bitcoin without a Bitcoin upgrade? Here are some thoughts.

Upcoming Bitcoin Events/Programs

-Outlier Ventures' Bitcoin base camp accelerator just closed. Looking forward to all seeing all the new Bitcoin focused start-ups emerging from it.😍

-Ordinals will be a thing in Paris duing the first Paris Ordinals night!

-Are you a startup founder wanting to launch on Stacks? Start your journey with the Nakamoto Prep Program.