Great coffee meeetup today! A few first timers, love seeing new faces

Coffee meetup tomorrow, 1pm at Denim in Mechanicsburg...hope to see y'all there

Greetings Central PA Bitcoiners! On August 15th, 1971, 54 years ago last Friday, the US "temporarily" went off the gold standard. This event would go down in history and be known as "Nixon Shock". Although in 1934 Franklin Roosevelt untethered gold from US dollars for Americans, and made gold holding illegal for us to hold until 1975, gold still backed dollars held by foreign nations up until 1971. Countries that had loaned the US money could be paid out in gold or USD, and USD itself was redeemable for gold in this respect. The dollar wasn't fully backed by gold from 1934-71, but there was still a connection. 1971 cut that last tie that the dollar had to a hard asset, making creation of new dollars restricted not by US gold holdings, but by the desire of a few powerful people's desire to click copy and paste. Since 1971, the dollar has lost about 90% of its value against the things we all need and want, especially food and shelter. If you've never checked out wtfhappenedin1971.com, it's a great collection of charts that show a variety of prosperity metrics over time, and what's happened to them since we fully decoupled from gold. Hint...it's been great for the top 1%, also known as the counterfeit class, and not so great for the rest of us. Fortunately, although many of us don't control in which asset we're paid for our work, we do have control over which asset we use to save for our future. Although it's never a dull week in bitcoin news stories, two headlines grabbed my attention last week. These headlines are relevant to bitcoin's function as freedom money, a property abbreviated as "FGU" (freedom go up). These headlines were the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) publishing a bulletin suggesting marking bitcoin addresses with "AML compliance scores", and Google announcing that all wallet apps in the Google Play store have to be licensed as money transmitters. The Google announcement was walked back a few hours later. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) functions as the central bank of central banks and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The released a paper last week entitled "An approach to anti-money laundering compliance for cryptoassets". In it, a key takeaway was "An AML (anti-money laundering) compliance score based on the likelihood that a particular cryptoasset unit or balance is linked with illicit activity may be referenced at points of contact with the banking system ("off-ramps"), preventing inflows of the proceeds of illicit activity". Societies learned a long time ago that for a money to work, it's got to be fungible, meaning every unit is interchangeable with every other unit. Ten $1 bills are worth as much as any other ten, or any single $10 bill. Imagine a scenario in which you go to pay for something, and pay using three $20 bills. If dollars weren't fungible, the person/company you're paying might say "well, the first $20 bill is good, but the second one has cocaine on it, and the third one is associated with a robbery from two years ago, so I'll need two more "good" $20 bills, please". Attacking the fungibility of a money is attacking its usefulness and viability at its core. All of the counterfeit class, BIS members included, have had a say over how people can use their money, and are desperate to hold onto power. It would be a dream come true for them to be able to say that this pile of bitcoin is "good" bitcoin (ie bitcoin owned by them, ETF's, MSTR, KYC exchanges) and this other pile of bitcoin is "bad" bitcoin. "Bad" bitcoin could be defined however they want to define it: mined bitcoin, bitcoin from non-KYC exchanges, or even coins that have been dormant in an address for 10 years and don't pass their murky chain analysis could become unspendable, if your counterparty subscribes to their nonsense. The second story regarding Google is also relevant to bitcoin's FGU property, even though it got walked back the same day. The initial announcement was that all wallet apps in the Google Play store, even if self-custody, would be required to have money transmitter licenses in their respective jurisdictions. The Play store is where the majority of Android users download and update their mobile apps, and this policy would effectively ban the wallet apps Android users have used and loved for years. All that would remain would be exchange apps like Coinbase and Strike; basically banking apps that are able to send bitcoin on your behalf if you ask them to, and if they feel like it. This was walked back shortly after, with Google clarifying that this policy doesn't apply to self-custody wallets. So basically, we ended up where we were a week ago, only that the overton window has been opened a bit wider. Apple had banned bitcoin wallets in their app store years ago, and eventually relented. Android phones have the ability to run apps from different sources outside of the Play store, and can even install apps from APK files downloaded from a web browser. However, the lion's share of Android users depend on the Play store for both new installs and updates. What would happen if this policy weren't walked back? If you have wallet apps installed on your Android phone, they'd still be there and functional after the ban, but updates wouldn't be available, nor would new installs. Developers may continue to update their software and/or make them available through other channels, however this would raise the barrier substantially when considering the majority of wallet users. Presumably, if this were actually executed by Google, Apple would eventually follow suit and reinstate their ban. Would this kill bitcoin? Absolutely not. Would it make it less usable? Yes. Although desktop apps would be unaffected by this, sending or receiving bitcoin from a mobile phone would change a lot. What would happen if your mobile wallet(s) stopped working? Do you have backups stored safely somewhere, so that you'd be able to import the seed phrase into a desktop wallet? A silver lining to the Google story is that it prompts us to take inventory of potential weak spots of our setups. These two stories relay how, even though there is positive progress being made regarding bitcoin's NGU property (number go up; bitcoin's performance against other assets), there are shots being fired across the bow of bitcoin's property as freedom money. When the suits and counterfeit class cheer on bitcoin, they might be cheering for a different future than you are. They're cheering on ETF's, stocks, and other assets that exist under the control of the legacy financial system. They think that bitcoiners' ability to pay "undesirable" people, or buy "undesirable" goods can be curtailed, and at the same time their bags can be pumped. What they don't realize is how much of bitcoin's value derives from how bitcoiners value it, and a massive part of that is being able to use it in sovereign way. Not only can your enemy use bitcoin...your enemy being able to use bitcoin makes it better and stronger for you. Keep learning, and particularly keep learning about the great tools that exist to use bitcoin in a sovereign way. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming meetups! Monthly coffee meetup is at Denim Coffee in Mechanicsburg at 1pm on Sunday, 8/24. Bitcoin Mining @ The Park is being hosted by Business Cat at 3pm on Saturday 8/30 at Friendship Park in Mechanicsburg. And next month, we've got an education meetup scheduled for Saturday, 9/13 at the Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, and the topic is "Stacking Sats or Stacking Shares?". Central PA Bitcoiners

Greetings Central PA Bitcoiners! We've got two meetup events on the docket for August. The first is our monthly coffee meetup, which we have every month on the fourth Sunday. That's at Denim Coffee in Mechanicsburg at 1pm on Sunday, 8/24. The second is taking place Friendship Park in Mechanicsburg at 3pm on Saturday, 8/30. Hosted by Business Cat, the 8/30 event is entitled "Bitcoin Mining @ The Park" and features a live demo of solar powered bitcoin mining. And as a head-up, we've got an education meetup scheduled for Saturday, 9/13 at the Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg...stay tuned for the topic. The hiking event went really well last month! We did the whole 4.2 mile loop as intended, and were gifted with great weather and a fantastic lookout spot. Thanks to those who came, and especially those who brought their families! We'll definitely get another hike on the books. Pine Grove Furnace was a great hike. Due it how remote it was though, grabbing lunch together afterwards wasn't doable. Next time we'll see if we can find a hiking location where we can finish off the event with a lunch. Harvard's endowment investment disclosure made some news in the bitcoin space this week. Per their recently submitted SEC filing, they recently acquired $116 million of IBIT, BlackRock's bitcoin ETF. Like BlackRock themselves, Harvard has done quite the about face on their philosophy regarding bitcoin. In many ways, finally accepting that stacking bitcoin is in one's best interest is a humility test. All bitcoiners started as skeptics, and admitting to oneself that perhaps they may have been wrong is one of the first steps down the rabbit hole. Harvard's actions and recommendations carry a lot of weight in the old-school, slow moving world of money management. It stands to reason that there are many CFO's who will now feel much more at ease taking a bitcoin allocation now that Harvard has endorsed it. Also recently in the news, the current executive administration has signed an executive order that directs the Department of Labor and SEC to permit bitcoin access in 401(k) plans. Historically, even though bitcoin ETF's have existed for almost two years, and other derivative products like GBTC have existed for over a decade, such products have not been allowed in 401(k) plans. This executive order represents one of the first steps for bitcoin derivative products such as spot ETFs being able to be held in 401(k)'s. Notably, this is also a step potentially for some other assets to be allowed in 401(k) plans, namely shitcoins. Scam promoters' mouths undoubtedly water at the thought of tapping just a tiny piece of the $9T currently held in 401(k) plans. Such charlatans are always in search of new exit liquidity, and this would certainly be a great source of it for them. Although this step has been taken, I wouldn't expect to see a bitcoin ETF available in your 401(k) anytime soon. There are several different entities that would have to take action on this this option to be available. Consider that the ETF's have been available since January of last year, and Vanguard still blocks their customers from buying them, regardless of if their account is tax-advantaged or not. Although increasing people's access to ETF shares is good for NGU (number go up), it doesn't teach anyone anything about actually using bitcoin. Acquiring sats and receiving them to your own wallet is what generates that a-ha moment, enticing one to delve further down the rabbit hole. This allows you to realize another benefit of bitcoin: FGU (freedom go up). Keep stacking sats, and keep stacking skills! Let your education drive your allocation. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming meetups! ~Lonelypumpkins Central PA Bitcoiners

Greetings Central PA Bitcoiners! We've got an educational meetup lined up for this Saturday! Our educational meetups feature a presentation, and the topic for Saturday's meetup is "Stacking Sats or Stacking Shares?". If you're new to bitcoin or new to our meetup group, this is a great function for you to attend. 2025 has been a year that has seen bitcoin come further into the spotlight of legacy financial media and the mainstream consciousness in general. Turn on a legacy financial news show, or pull up Yahoo Finance, and most days there will be a headline about bitcoin. New financialized products have become available: spot ETF's, bitcoin treasury company stock, as well as bond/money market products offered by bitcoin treasury companies. What's the difference between MSTR, IBIT, and self-custody bitcoin? Although each has an exchange rate that correlates with BTCUSD, there are important differences. Topics... What's the purpose of bitcoin ETF's? What's the value proposition of bitcoin treasury companies? Individuals' freedom of choice vs an organization's restricted options Stacking sats & stacking skills Ideas for leveling up your skills and setup We'll begin at 1pm on Saturday, Sept 13th, at the Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg. Beginners welcome! Hope to see you there! Reminder: in addition to our quarterly educational meetups, we have monthly coffee meetups at 1pm on the fourth Sunday of every month at Denim Coffee in Mechanicsburg. The next coffee meetup is on Sunday, Sept 28th. ------------------------------- There's one important technical news story to talk about from the past week week. News recently broke of a supply chain attack that can potentially affect wallets that use a certain node package manager (NPM) for javascript libraries. Here's the breakdown: when developers build wallets, they usually don't build them from scratch. One popular building block developers have is to use existing code libraries. As an analogy, if you're trying to build a ten story building, using one of these NPM libraries is like starting with the foundation and first couple of floors established already, which makes work a lot faster and easier. This week we learned the downside: if there's an issue in one of these code libraries, it can potentially affect all of the downstream software that builds upon it. Which wallets build upon this NPM? A lot. What can this malicious code do? When you're building a transaction, it can replace the recipient's address with the attacker's address. Not only are they replacing the address, they are using addresses that resemble portions of the intended recipient's address. This means that if you're trying to send to an address that ends in xyz, the attacker can insert one of their own addresses that also ends in xyz. They know that many people only check the first few and last few characters of an address, rather than parts of the middle, or the whole thing. This is where hardware wallets really shine. When using a hardware wallet that has a screen, addresses can be verified before transactions are signed, guarding against this attack. By verifying the address before signing, an attacker's address can be detected and the attack thwarted. When entrusting your hodl, it can't be stressed enough how valuable hardware devices are to protecting against such attacks. Mitigation Strategies: For hardware wallets: Verify the full address on the device's screen before signing; compare it to the intended recipient. Avoid signing if there's any discrepancy. Switch to non-NPM software like Sparrow Wallet for compatible hardware (e.g., Trezor, Ledger, BitBox, Jade, Keystone). For hardware devices without screens (e.g., BitKey, Tapsigner): Avoid on-chain transactions until updates are released. General advice: Check full addresses (not just first/last characters), especially for large transactions. There is no undo in Bitcoin—take time to verify. Unless you're willing to take the risk, refrain from sending hot wallet on-chain transactions until situation becomes more clear Stay informed as the situation evolves. Use open-source, air-gapped, bitcoin-only, screen-equipped hardware wallets for best security, and always verify addresses. Slow down and never panic! Ask for help from trusted contacts if you need help or advice. ------------------------- Hope to see you this Saturday! ~lonelypumpkins Central PA Bitcoiners

Next educational meetup: Stacking Sats or Stacking Shares? 1pm on Sat, Sept 13th, at Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, PA https://www.meetup.com/central-pa-bitcoiners/events/310700668