Ten31 Timestamp 775,226
Late-stage fiat signposts piled up this week, as a tiny group of unelected bureaucrats once again convened to throw darts to determine benchmark interest rates for the world’s 8 billion people; the populations of Lebanon and Nigeria suffered from accelerating breakdowns of their centrally planned monetary systems; and the bloated, unwieldy European Union continued to up the ante of its anti-privacy stance with an absurdly broad (and likely unenforceable) proposal to further surveil its constituents’ online communications.
Meanwhile, bitcoiners did what they do best and kept building the tools necessary to bring about a more sustainable future. Strike added Send Globally support for the Philippines, one of the largest international remittance markets in the world; Unchained launched a notable UX upgrade for its multisig Vaults; and explosively popular Nostr client Damus was finally approved for the iOS App Store. In the background, Ten31 portfolio companies continue to make strides in advancing our mission of supporting the bitcoin network’s swiftly growing alternative to the decaying incumbent system.
Selected Portfolio News
Strike added Send Globally support for remittances to the Philippines, the feature’s fourth supported country. This allows users to send USD received as local currency directly and cheaply to bank and mobile money accounts of residents of the Philippines:
Statmuse recorded over 42 million searches in January, already exceeding total searches from 2021:
Upstream Data released a clip of its new Hydro Hash Generator in an ongoing field test on a gas well.
Unchained rolled out a new wallet history feature allowing users to maintain continuity of a single vault even if one key in the quorum needs to be replaced, a significant UX enhancement:
Unchained also posted a brief thread reminding users that Prime Trust’s recent issues serving Texas customers do not impact Unchained’s trading desk or other services in Texas:
Fold unveiled their roadmap for new features and updates in 2023:
River Financial rolled out a new integration with Damus – a popular social networking client for the Nostr protocol – allowing River users to seamlessly make lightning payments on Damus through their River accounts:
Cathedra announced the lease of a new 2.5MW facility in Washington:
Media
Jack Mallers returned to Power Lunch on CNBC to discuss Strike’s addition of the Philippines to its Send Globally feature.
Bitcoin Magazine released the first episode of Freedom Money featuring an in-depth discussion between Gigi and Matt Odell.
Samourai Wallet joined the BitBuyBit podcast to discuss new features like Stealth Mode and plans to further decentralize Whirlpool coordination over time.
Obi Nwosu and Eric Sirion appeared on the Bitcoin Takeover show to delve into Fedimint and the upcoming Fedi app.
Ten31 Advisor Parker Lewis published a new essay critiquing JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s recent skepticism about bitcoin’s fixed supply.
Market Updates
The FOMC raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, the Fed’s eighth consecutive increase but a step down from the 50-75bps hikes implemented over the back half of 2022.
US tech layoffs topped 84,000 for the month of January, already more than were recorded through all of Q4 2022.
However, Friday’s jobs report came in dramatically above recent prints and consensus at 517,000 jobs added in January (though there were some nuances under the hood that are worth noting).
Despite Friday’s signs of strength in the broader labor market, the consumer credit backdrop appears to be continuing to deteriorate, with delinquencies rising back toward pre-COVID levels.
The Lebanese central bank adopted a new official exchange rate of 15,000 pounds per US dollar, an overnight devaluation of 90%. However, this rate is still well above the ~57,000 pound / USD exchange rate reported in P2P markets.
Nigeria’s central bank extended by 10 days the deadline for swapping out 200, 500, and 1,000-naira notes amid shortages of new notes at ATMs.
Regulatory Update
The EU is continuing to advance a proposal for new “Chat control” rules intended to force communications technology providers to surveil all private chats and messages for “suspicious content,” ostensibly in the name of protecting minors. Beyond the catastrophic privacy implications, the rules could also be interpreted to have restrictive consequences for open source software in general.
US Senator Tim Scott, who replaced Pat Toomey as top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, advocated for a “bipartisan regulatory framework” for the “crypto” industry in a statement on Thursday.
OFAC blacklisted a bitcoin and an ether address allegedly associated with sanctions violations.
The Chairman of the CFTC signaled the agency is expecting a year of “precedent-setting cases” in the “crypto” industry, with a focus on illegally offered derivatives or leveraged financial products.
India maintained its punitive tax treatment of cryptocurrencies for the 2023 tax year.
Noteworthy
After several rejections, popular Nostr client Damus was approved for the iOS app store. In a signpost for its potential utility, it was quickly banned from Apple’s Chinese app store.
Luxor launched a first of its kind ASIC request-for-quote (RFQ) marketplace allowing for greater transparency among buyers and sellers of large quantities of machines on the secondary market.
Lightning wallet and infrastructure provider Zeus will open-source its new POS solution currently deployed at New York’s Pubkey bitcoin bar.
Bitcoin Magazine published a piece suggesting bitcoin is flashing a variety of potential on-chain bottom indicators.
Famed Berkshire Hathaway investor Charlie Munger made his latest paean to the Chinese Communist Party in a Wall Street Journal piece calling for the US to ban cryptocurrencies.
Travel
Nashville BitDevs and Meetup, February 7-8
Austin BitDevs, February 16
Austin Ten31 Tribe event, March 16
Austin Bitcoin Takeover, March 17
Nashville Ten31 Tribe event, June 14
Nashville Lightning Summit, July 13-14