Fractal: Scale Bitcoin + Boost Miner Revenue.

Earn more with your same resources.

How? Fractal is a Bitcoin-native innovation scaling solution with full Bitcoin compatibility.

• Same hardware, zero extra energy: Reduce up to 50% of your pool fee

• Same address type & wallets, zero transfer: Receive FB rewards directly in your existing BTC wallet and address.

Mine smarter on Fractal: https://fractalbitcoin.io/mining

A big week for BitVM companies

Bitcoin rollup companies Citrea and Alpen Labs both announced breakthrough improvements to their BitVM bridges this week. Simultaneously, Bitcoin staking giant Babylon Labs demoed a BitVM challenge proof on mainnet. Citrea and Alpen both detailed cutting edge research that dramatically improves the feasibility and cost of their respective BitVM-powered bridge schemes. This news comes hot on the heels of Bitcoin L2 BitLayer announcing a strategic partnership last week with ⅓ of Bitcoin’s hashrate (Antpool, F2, & Spiderpool) for BitVM transaction inclusion.

OUR TAKE: Bitcoin is finally sniping some of the top cryptography minds back into working on the old orange blockchain. As Alpen researcher Liam Eagen puts it, “The constraints of Bitcoin mean we have to be more creative”.

The BitVM whitepaper was released November 2023 and immediately created a flurry of venture activity (and ephemeral scams), but the actual feasibility of building things with BitVM is frankly a bit up in the air. It also doesn’t help that explaining what BitVM is doesn’t go over well at parties unless you’re at a Citrea hacker event.

(TL;DR: BitVM creates a new coding landscape on top of Bitcoin that makes Bitcoin more programmable). 

Alpen, Citrea, Babylon, and BitLayer are all designing and testing using BitVM to create a bridge between Bitcoin’s on-chain network and their own systems. Theoretically, these bridges should be trustless long term.

But these various bridge schemes, while technically differentiated, still raise the question as to whether they are actually feasible in the real world from a cost and efficiency standpoint. So, we shall see!

-CBS

Energy Strategy 101: Spot vs. Fixed Power Prices

Controlling energy costs gives miners a critical edge. In this first post of our new series, we dive into how spot and fixed pricing work — and why choosing the right model can shape your bottom line.

Explore the full article!

Circle's IPO Surges Amid Market Volatility

Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), debuted on the NYSE under the ticker CRCL, with shares surging nearly 200% on opening day before a trading halt. The company raised approximately $1.1 billion on its first day in the public markets.

Judge Dismisses Custody Argument in Tornado Cash Case

U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla ruled that the custody status of Tornado Cash is irrelevant to developer Roman Storm’s defense, rejecting claims that non-custodial status exempts the platform from money transmission laws. Despite the defense citing FinCEN opinions suggesting that non-custodial wallets aren’t money service businesses, Failla maintained that such views are not exculpatory and do not warrant a Brady violation.

Czech Justice Minister Resigns Amid $45m Bitcoin Donation Scandal

Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek resigned after his ministry accepted a donation of 468 Bitcoins (~$45 million) from convicted drug trafficker Tomas Jirikovsky. The scandal has intensified political tensions ahead of the October elections, prompting opposition parties to call for a no-confidence vote against the government.