Greetings Earthling,

Welcome to this week’s Quick Bits feature issue where we curate the most interesting and pertinent Bitcoin snippets from the last week. Happy readings! ????️

???? HEADLINES

Robert F Kennedy Jr, US presidential candidate, unveils plan to back the dollar with “hard currencies” like Bitcoin. He also proposes an end to capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits. “Bitcoin is among the hardest currencies, and the Kennedy administration is going to encourage its proliferation and propagation,” says Kennedy. He believes the tax exemption will boost investment, ensure citizen privacy, and retain top talent in the US. He also wants to create barriers against Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to prevent currency weaponization.

UK Government rejects lawmaker plan to regulate Bitcoin as gambling, arguing that existing plans to apply traditional financial rules better address associated risks. They disagree with the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee's concerns that the current approach is too lenient and creates a false sense of safety for investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. They also cite global standard-setting bodies' recommendations, endorsed by finance ministers from the G20 economies, as the basis for their approach and warns that deviating from these standards could push ‘crypto’ business offshore.

The US Federal Reserve has officially launched its new instant payments system, called the Fednow Service, with 35 participating banks and credit unions (including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo), along with 16 service providers. The system is designed to provide uninterrupted 24/7 processing with strong security features. It is not a form of currency and does not aim to eliminate other payment methods, including cash. It is basically embarrassingly outdated tech and the Fed is adamant that it is not related to a CBDC.

⚡️ QUICK BITS

• Ioni Appelberg releases must-watch new short video titled “Bitcoin’s Next Bull run” (6:53 min watch).
• CoinControversy outs BSV shillers as being behind "Bitinfocharts", a website with transaction pie charts, and can thus not be trusted.
• Umbrel Cofounder and CTO addresses rumours by Citadel that they are hourly pinging back your IP and version number cloaked as a “harmless update checker”.
• Jameson Lopp warns about physical attacks as Canadian police issues a public notice about a trend of high net worth Bitcoin investors being robbed in their own homes.
• Spirit of Satoshi has opened applications to help train the world’s first Bitcoin-centric language model (sats-based bounties to follow soon).
• Wolfpack 3 applications now open: Accelerator program for founders and teams building on Bitcoin, Lightning, Nostr, Ordinals or anything you can dream up related to Bitcoin.
• PlebLab introduces new NostrDevs course.
• National Australia Bank joins crypto exchange boycott, cites ‘scams’.
• Ron DeSantis vows to ban CBDCs if elected.
• Swan Bitcoin releases short video, “Bitcoin Maximalism Explained” (7:54 min watch).
• Texas Blockchain Council director, Steven Kinard, announces run for State House
• District Court dismisses Coin Center's case against unconstitutional financial surveillance.
• SEC Chair Gensler says agency is planning greater oversight of crypto markets to protect investors.
• Nasdaq halts launch of cryptocurrency custody service.
• Kuwait bans Bitcoin payments, investment and mining in an effort to meet requirements set by the FATF.
• South Korean central bank makes advancements towards CBDC implementation.
• Société Générale secures the first crypto license in France to provide custody, exchange, and trading services.
• Afro Bitcoin Fellowship program launches to support African Developers.
• Hodl Hodl Lend gets redesigned with new offer pages and improved navigation.
• Hodl Hodl also announces that Nostr is going to be one of the key topics of this year's Baltic Honeybadger on September 2-3 in Riga, Latvia.
• Argentina launches first Bitcoin futures contract.
• Russia’s State Duma approves major national CBDC project.
• Indian Central Bank official warns of 'existential threat' from stablecoins.
• Worldcoin and OpenAI CEO says ‘something like world ID will eventually exist…whether you like it or not’.
• SEC seeks public input on Bitcoin ETFs.
• Zapgoals allows users to create a note with a set amount they're looking to raise.
• El Salvador's bonds have skyrocketed alongside Bitcoin in 2023.
• Sam Bankman-Fried get spoofed in new animated comedy starring T.J. Miller.
• Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest: Bitcoin could hit $1.5 million in ‘just’ 7 years.
• Frostsnap: Easy and personalized multisig with Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold.
• Tesla did not buy or sell any Bitcoin for fourth straight quarter in Q2.
• Coinbase to fully sunset Bitcoin-backed loan program for retail customers.
• Jimmy Song reflects on the early days of Bitcoin and how he developed his confidence over time (10:50 min watch).
• Bitcoin Ekasi is featured in short docuemtnary titled, ‘Lekker Feeling: A Bitcoin Ekasi Story’ (13:31 in watch).
• Bank for International Settlements study: 15 Retail CBDCs likely by 2030.
• G20's Financial Stability Board: Global rules leave crypto firms with no place to hide.
• Geyser launched its fifth grant to support worldwide educational initiatives and community programs focused on Bitcoin.
• UK Financial Conduct Authority says that crypto memes can be considered financial promotions.
• Truth Social head of engineering leaves for Nostr.
• Swarmstr: Nostr knowledge hub for curious minds.
• Chinese police arrest 21 in $55M tether money laundering case.

View the online version of the newsletter here for this week's Meme Break.