Do CoinJoin Mixes Really Require Equal Transaction Amounts for Privacy? Part Two: Knapsack

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/do-coinjoin-mixes-really-require-equal-transaction-amounts-for-privacy-part-two-knapsack

> ...knapsack mixing is not quite as private as equal-amount mixes. Equal-amount mixes essentially allow for a maximum amount of configurations; necessarily more than even the best knapsack mix. And perhaps more notably, knapsack mixing still allows for some linking of certain inputs and outputs — or at least more likely linkages.

British Court Freezes $860,000 in Bitcoin Linked to Ransomware Payout

https://www.coindesk.com/british-court-freezes-860000-in-bitcoin-linked-to-ransomware-payout

> The court ordered Bitfinex to freeze the address and share its know-your-customer (KYC) information about the account's owner...While some of these funds were converted into fiat and are not traceable, 96 BTC (worth $861,200 at press time) were sent to an address owned by Bitfinex.

Paxos flags wasabi wallet coinjoin usage after multiple hops. Most likely due to the fixed fee address wasabi uses.

https://twitter.com/RonaldMcHodled/status/1222172084610027523

"The mixer wasn't even the first hop. Exchange -> wallet with support for older address formats -> mixer -> each utxo sent to full node
ColdCard Wallet"

The Chaincode Podcast - Pieter Wuille

Part 1: https://podcast.chaincode.com/2020/01/27/pieter-wuille-1.html

Part 2: https://podcast.chaincode.com/2020/01/28/pieter-wuille-2.html

CoinJoin flagging: why it's an issue and what you can do

https://6102bitcoin.com/coinjoin-flagging/

> Prior to late 2019 I am not aware of there having been any reported issues selling / exchanging bitcoins which have been mixed. Since late 2019 there have been a growing number of exchanges contacting users following their use of CoinJoin tools pre/post withdrawal.

Bitcoin Optech #82

- LND 0.9.0-beta
- help test Bitcoin Core 0.19.1rc1
- proposal to break linkability between UTXOs and unannounced LN channels

https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2020/01/29/

Track internet censorship in near real-time with OONI Explorer

Online censorship during events like protests and elections can now be confirmed and reported quickly.

explorer: https://explorer.ooni.org
contribute data by running OONI probe: https://ooni.org/install/

Strike, an application that allows you to make Lightning payments with your bank account or debit card. Using Strike requires the following: a debit card or bank account. That’s it; no wallet, no node, no channels, no swaps, no liquidity management...

https://twitter.com/jackmallers/status/1222941238279708674?s=21

Casa updates:

(1) Founder Jeremy Welch is stepping back for personal reasons. Nick Neuman & Jameson Lopp will lead the company going forward: https://blog.keys.casa/casa-2019-in-review-and-personal-update/

(2) They will no longer sell nodes. Code will be released so users can build their own: https://blog.keys.casa/casas-focus-on-bitcoin-security/

Recent Podcasts

What Bitcoin Did - Nic Carter - https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-part-9-altcoins-a-history-of-failure-with-nic-carter

Stephan Livera Podcast - Rahim Taghizadegan - https://stephanlivera.com/episode/145/

The trezor vulnerability being disclosed by Kraken today was already a known attack vector. All trezor models are vulnerable to physical attack unless you use a strong passphrase. The attacker can easily pull the seed from the device but they would then have to brute force your passphrase to steal the funds. Longer passphrases are better. The fact that you can't enter the passphrase directly on the device in the older trezors isn't ideal because an attacker could compromise your computer to obtain the passphrase - no brute force necessary.

https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/1223253508956266496

Wasabi Wallet to remove fixed fee address after most recent exchange flagging.

Exchanges and other services can still see suspected coinjoin usage on chain but this should reduce instances where wasabi transactions are flagged due to proximity analysis.

https://github.com/zkSNACKs/WalletWasabi/pull/3035

The Chaincode Podcast - Jeremy Rubin

https://podcast.chaincode.com/2020/01/30/jeremy-rubin-3.html

2019 LocalBitcoins volume

Venezuela 🇻🇪 - $305.93M
Colombia 🇨🇴 - $134.22M
Peru 🇵🇪 - $45.54M
Hong Kong 🇭🇰 - $21.73M
Chile 🇨🇱 - $13.84M
Argentina 🇦🇷 - $11.94M
Iran 🇮🇷 - $5.81M
Egypt 🇪🇬 - $1.40M

source: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1221369350990462976

Growth of LocalBitcoins volume in 2019 vs. 2018

Egypt 🇪🇬 - 69.8%
Colombia 🇨🇴 - 59.8%
Peru 🇵🇪 - 47.7%
Argentina 🇦🇷 - 44.7%
Chile 🇨🇱 - 36.3%
Venezuela 🇻🇪 - 33.2%
Hong Kong 🇭🇰 - (18.5%)
Iran 🇮🇷 - (52.1%)

source: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1221371566421880832

Samourai Whirlpool Coinjoin Usage

source: https://twitter.com/matt_odell/status/1223634011672604672

Proof Wallet

A tool to create multisig wallets using PSBTs, hardware wallets, and bitcoin core.

twitter release thread: https://twitter.com/hodlwave/status/1223780197394190337

github: https://github.com/hodlwave/proof-wallet

Eclair v0.3.3 released

- Multipart payment support
- Trampoline routing

https://github.com/ACINQ/eclair/releases/tag/v0.3.3

Miner Income: Fees vs Issuance

source: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1224308279813267457

Recent Podcasts

Lightning Junkies - Lightning Koala - https://blog.sicksubroutine.com/lightning-junkies-episode-lnj022/

Stephan Livera - Will Cole - https://stephanlivera.com/episode/146/

What Bitcoin Did - Matt Odell - https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-part-10-buying-spending-and-earning-bitcoin-with-matt-odell