The Lightning mid-2025 liquidity exodus was real Net funding flow turned negative as weak hands and retail noise fled the network But look at the recovery starting late 2025 While the "Public Capacity" metric remains suppressed, the On-chain Net Flow has already pivoted to a massive breakout The capital returning to Lightning is different this time It is institutional, professional, and increasingly private Stack accordingly

Maintaining a Node for 5 years with 8MB blocks would cost you over $570 in SSD storage alone today The current Bitcoin standard keeps that cost at a manageable $85 We are currently witnessing a massive run up in NAND prices due to AI demand, making big blocks even more catastrophic for decentralization Cheap SSDs masked the cost of bloat for a while, those days are over Stack blocks, not bloat

People still argue for bigger blocks in 2026 as if they didn’t learn anything from the past If Bitcoin had scaled to 8MB blocks in 2017 with current relative utilization, the chain would be at 2.88 TB today Instead we settled for the signal at 720 GB 8MB blocks are a direct attack on sovereignty, forced bloat for no gain The math is clear, do the work or stay lost

Out of 73 solo/small mining blocks found in January, Ocean still dominated heavily with 70 (95.9%), followed by a tiny slice of KanoPool (1), Unknown (2), and – notably – zero clear solo CK / public pool solo wins this month.

Monthly Update: Small & Solo Bitcoin Mining – January 2026 Edition The small & solo mining network share (90d SMA) continued sliding in January, now sitting around ~1.8% after the drop from ~2% in December. Monthly blocks found remained soft, similar to late 2025 levels. The chart shows this short-term weakness against the powerful multi-year upward trend since early 2023. Despite the recent pullback, the decentralization story is alive and well – more and more capable home miners are coming online. Folks upgrading from ~1.3 TH/s Bitaxe units to stronger setups like FutureBit's Apollo series (2–3 TH/s) or PowerMiningFarm's NerdQaxe++ (4.8 TH/s) keep improving their solo chances step by step.

This chart is a lesson in market deception. One line offers a dopamine hit (+264.9%). The other offers a discipline test (-19.1%). Humans suffer from Action Bias. We instinctively equate "motion" with "progress." If an asset isn't moving, our survival brain assumes it’s broken or dead. But in markets, volatility is often a distraction, while stillness is where the structural work happens. Bitcoin isn't stagnant; it’s digesting. It is absorbing massive institutional shifts and ETF inflows without the fireworks. It’s a transfer of ownership from the impatient to the convicted. Chasing the vertical line feels good today. Surviving the flat line pays off for the decade. Stagnation is the gatekeeper.

Can’t wait! Hopefully more RAM to power local LLMs

This app was built on top of awesome open-source software. Big thanks to 🙏: - **cpuminer-multi** by tpruvot & contributors: The powerful mining engine behind everything https://github.com/tpruvot/cpuminer-multi (GPL-2.0) - **Black Dashboard Django** by Creative Tim: Beautiful, dark-themed UI template that makes the dashboard look pro https://github.com/creativetimofficial/black-dashboard-django (MIT License)

Here are some screenshots of Node Miner in action: 1. Real-time dashboard: hashrate, shares, accepted/rejected, CPU usage & start/stop controls 2. Pool configuration screen: Enter your pool URL & port here 3. Terminal output: See live logs from cpuminer-multi Quick install guide: 1. Umbrel Dashboard → App Store → Three dots (...) → Community App Stores 2. Add repo: https://github.com/BTCDataGuy/btcdataguy-umbrel-store 3. Click on open → BTCDataGuy Store → Install Node Miner 4. Open app → Set pool → Start mining (begin with 10–20% CPU!) **Important for pools running on the same Umbrel node** (e.g. Public Pool, Bassin etc.): Use the internal Docker IP instead of localhost! → `172.17.0.1:PORT` Example: stratum+tcp://172.17.0.1:2018 ⚠️ Start low and monitor temp & responsiveness – don't overload your node!

You run a Bitcoin node but no mining hardware yet? Want to dip your toes into mining? Over the past week, I built a simple Community App Store app: Node Miner – easy CPU Bitcoin mining right on your Umbrel node! Powered by cpuminer-multi: Connect to pools (try for quick feedback), set CPU percentage (10-50% recceomended to avoid system overload), monitor hashrate & stats live. CPU Mining is completely unprofitable! This was built for fun and learning! I’d love your feedback and improvement suggestions – drop them here in the replies or open an issue on GitHub!

Over the last 2 days, Bitcoin issuance dropped by ~28% to just 325 BTC (~104 blocks), falling well below the 450 BTC(144 blocks) target due to extreme winter storms in the US. Miners seem to be powering down to stabilize the energy grid.