All v3 Onion Addresses Down After Attack On The Tor Network

> For a few hours today all v3 onion addresses on the Tor network were down. This appears to be a new kind of attack which affects the entire network and involves overloading the consensus authority nodes.

https://darknetdaily.com/?p=1030
archive: https://archive.vn/cCgsl

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Bakkt is going public on the New York Stock Exchange via a SPAC

> Bakkt is merging with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings at a valuation of about $2.1 billion. VPC held its initial public offering in September 2020.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/90747/bakkt-going-public-new-york-stock-exchange-spac
archive: https://archive.vn/TO41J

Wasabi Wallet and Tor Consensus Issues

> On January 10, 2021, due to an implementation bug, Tor's v3 onion services experienced instability. A bug fix is already on the way, but until the update you may experience connection problems and delays.

> Most of our users haven't noticed any interruptions because Wasabi was able to recover automatically. There were a few users who encountered intermittent Tor connection issues. But in most of these cases, restarting the Tor client solved the problem.

https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/wasabi-wallet-tor-consensus/
archive: https://archive.vn/Mv6o1

BTCPay Server v1.0.6.5 released

- Support a subset of output descriptor in the wallet setup
- Improved styling of the notification dropdown
- API keys and server's url can be shown as QR Code to facilitate pairing
- Greenfield API improvements

https://github.com/btcpayserver/btcpayserver/releases/tag/v1.0.6.5

Mempool v2.0.0 released

- Bitcoin Core RPC, Electrum Server, or Esplora backends
- Block, address, and transaction explorer with APIs
- Dashboard layout displaying fee estimates and other real-time stats
- Multiple networks including Testnet, Liquid, and Bisq
- Angular Universal Server Side Rendering
- Internationalization support for 20+ languages
- Support for Raspiblitz, RoninDojo, and Umbrel coming soon

https://github.com/mempool/mempool/releases/tag/v2.0.0

German Police Take Down 'World's Largest Darknet Marketplace'

> A 34-year-old Australian national believed to be the DarkMarket operator was arrested near the German-Danish border, just as more than 20 servers it used in Moldova and Ukraine were seized.

https://www.barrons.com/news/german-police-take-down-world-s-largest-darknet-marketplace-01610449507
archive: https://archive.vn/SztAW

Human Rights Foundation Provides Grants To Specter, Lot49

> The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has announced the latest beneficiaries of its ongoing Bitcoin Development Fund: Bitcoin developer Ben Kaufman and the team at Global Mesh Labs will each receive grants of $25,000.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/human-rights-foundation-provides-grants-to-specter-lot49
archive: https://archive.vn/Iu9en

SUNSPOT: An Implant in the Build Process

> The design of SUNSPOT suggests StellarParticle developers invested a lot of effort to ensure the code was properly inserted and remained undetected, and prioritized operational security to avoid revealing their presence in the build environment to SolarWinds developers.

https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/sunspot-malware-technical-analysis/
archive: https://archive.vn/W0n9g

Poolin rolls out 'hash rate token' to bridge bitcoin mining and DeFi

> The mining pool said that, at this stage, it is selling up to 50,000 pBTC35A, which is equivalent to 50,000 TH/s of computing power backed by the newest bitcoin ASIC miners hosted at Poolin's facilities.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/90847/poolin-bitcoin-hashrate-token-pow-defi
archive: https://archive.vn/96JMJ

Ledger Update: Efforts to Protect Your Data and Prosecute The Scammers

> In this blog post we are updating our users on our ongoing actions to strengthen our security practices and pursue justice in our 2020 data theft

https://www.ledger.com/blog/update-efforts-to-protect-your-data-and-prosecute-the-scammers
archive: https://archive.vn/YEDZM

Bitcoin is 'highly speculative' and needs to be regulated, says ECB's Lagarde

> "If there is an escape, that escape will be used," she said. "So I think [...] global cooperation and multilateral action is absolutely needed, whether it is initiated by the G-7, moved into the G-20 and then enlarged [...] The FATF [Financial Action Task Force] is clearly an organization that has expanded in that respect."

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/91014/bitcoin-highly-speculative-needs-to-be-regulated-ecb-lagarde
archive: https://archive.vn/yKlZa

Bitcoin Optech #131

- proposed Bitcoin P2P message
- BIP for the bech32 modified address format
- preventing dual-funded channel UTXO probing
- 'Add unit testing of node eviction logic' PR

https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2021/01/13/
archive: https://archive.vn/wLKij

FinCEN’s Surveillance Rule Violates the US Constitution

> Our financial transactions provide an intimate window into our lives – what organizations we donate to, what books and products we buy, who we support and even where we go.

https://www.coindesk.com/fincens-crypto-surveillance-rule-violates-us-constitution
archive: https://archive.vn/XUofp

Ribbit Capital, Paradigm lead $15 million Series A for Indian bitcoin exchange CoinSwitch Kuber

> Within seven months of the launch, the exchange operator claims to have over one million users. It expects to have 10 million users "in the next one year."

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/90983/coinswitch-kuber-15-million-series-a-ribbit-capital-paradigm
archive: https://archive.vn/z1TjZ

RaspiBlitz v1.6.3 released

- mempool v2.0.1
- specter v1.0.0
- RTL v0.10.0
- joininbox v0.1.16

https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz#downloading-the-software

Sparrow v0.9.10 released

- Connect directly to Bitcoin Core using the built-in bwt library
- Find broadcasted transactions in the mempool quicker
- Show transaction count on Transactions tab
- Other UX improvements

https://sparrowwallet.com/download/

FinCEN Extends Comment Period for Rule Aimed at Closing Anti-Money Laundering Regulatory Gaps for Certain Convertible Virtual Currency and Digital Asset Transactions

> FinCEN is providing an additional 15 days for comments on the proposed reporting requirements regarding information on CVC or LTDA transactions greater than $10,000, or aggregating to greater than $10,000, that involve unhosted wallets or wallets hosted in jurisdictions identified by FinCEN. FinCEN is providing an additional 45 days for comments on the proposed requirements that banks and MSBs report certain information regarding counterparties to transactions by their hosted wallet customers, and on the proposed recordkeeping requirements.

https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-extends-comment-period-rule-aimed-closing-anti-money-laundering
archive: https://archive.vn/D0BQp

Hexa Wallet v1.4.1 released

- Connect directly to your own Bitcoin Core instance
- Create multiple donation campaigns
- Bug fixes

https://github.com/bithyve/hexa/releases/tag/v1.4.1

Gemini To Launch Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card

> The card will be available to U.S. residents in every state and Gemini expects it to be useable wherever “major cards are accepted.” Bitcoin rewards will be automatically deposited into a user’s Gemini account.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/gemini-to-launch-bitcoin-rewards-credit-card
archive: https://archive.vn/bQKxG

Bitcoin Core v0.21.0 released

- Descriptor wallets
- Compact block filters via P2P network
- Better rebroadcast logic
- Tor v3 support
- Taproot added but not activated

https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-core-dev/2021-January/000097.html