Nikolay Cholakov 𝕏 🟠💊

I've just had an amazing time with my favorite #Bitcoin journalist (and I hope already a new friend) @JoeNakamoto Thanks 🙏 for the nice talk we had and the chance to immortalize it with this great photo! 📸 Credits to @BitcoinBarBG and @Plamen__Andonov for the opportunity 🫶

Most bitcoin users never think about fee sniping; a scenario where a miner tries to re‑mine a recently mined block to capture the transaction fees inside it. To reduce the incentive for this, many wallets set a locktime, which helps ensure transactions are only valid for the next block. But this protective behavior has an unintended side effect: it can create patterns that make some transactions easier to identify on the blockchain. In our latest blog, @_abiodunAwoyemi dives into BIP326, a proposal that improves privacy for Taproot wallets without requiring any change to the Bitcoin protocol. The idea is simple: instead of always using nLockTime for anti‑fee‑sniping protection, wallets can sometimes use nSequence instead. Many off‑chain protocols like the Lightning Network⚡ already use nSequence for timelocks. If regular wallets also start using it, transactions that settle from off‑chain systems will blend in with everyday on‑chain activity. That makes it much harder for blockchain analysts to distinguish between the two. The result is a larger anonymity set, better privacy, and stronger fungibility for Bitcoin users. Abiodun walks through the mechanics behind locktimes, Taproot and MAST, why HTLC‑based systems leak information, and how BIP326 helps close that privacy gap, all the way down to a practical Rust implementation. If you’re curious about how a small wallet behavior change can strengthen privacy across the Bitcoin ecosystem, this is a great deep dive. Read the full blog to learn more: blog.btrust.tech/bip326-anti-fe…

A war state is teaching Silicon Valley the price of saying “no.” Most of you do not understand the turning point directly ahead. People still talk like the danger is AI in the abstract. It isn’t. The danger is the merger, frontier models, the national security apparatus, and a government that now expects private companies to accept “any lawful use” or be punished. Anthropic is no saint. It already pushed Claude deep into classified networks, intelligence work, operational planning, cyber operations, modeling and simulation. It bent almost all the way. It drew two lines, mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. For that, the government moved to blacklist them. The government is building the precedent that if a company refuses to remove guardrails they want gone, they can threaten offboarding, threaten a “supply chain risk” label historically used against foreign adversaries, and make an example out of the holdout in public. Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic. Hegseth announced the supply-chain-risk move. The Pentagon then formalized it. This is a clear message to every other firm in the market, comply all the way or watch what happens to the last company that tried to keep even a sliver of restraint. That is the mechanical shift most people still do not understand. AI does not need to become sentient to become tyrannical. It needs to become indispensable enough that the government treats every safeguard as sabotage, every limit as disloyalty, and every refusal as a supply-chain threat. Once that logic hardens, “lawful use” becomes the solvent that dissolves every boundary the minute power wants it dissolved. Anthropic’s own dispute centered on mass domestic surveillance of Americans. That matters because the government can already buy or collect its own movement data, browsing data, and association data from brokers and public sources. Powerful AI is able to turn those scattered records into a full biography at machine speed. This is tyranny by integration. Sensors, data brokers, cloud platforms, model providers, military demand, intelligence demand, legal elasticity, and political intimidation all snap together into one stack. Once that stack is in place, the government just has to make refusal costly enough that everyone learns the lesson. That is why this moment matters. Anthropic agreed to almost everything and still got targeted. Think about what that teaches the rest of the industry. The lesson is not “be responsible.” The lesson is “never draw a line the government might want to cross later.” OpenAI’s quick Pentagon deal illustrates exactly this. One company gets punished for keeping two narrow guardrails. Another steps into the opening. The market signal couldn’t be clearer: the safest path is maximum compliance with the war machine. This is the formula now. The government gains capability, then demands access, then punishes hesitation, then calls that punishment national security. Contractors protect revenue. Politicians protect dominance. AI companies learn that their real product is obedience. Power expands to fill the permissions you give it. A government that can blacklist an American AI company for refusing mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons is telling you exactly where this is going. It is being wired now, and once the stack is complete, it will not ask your permission to be used.

JUST IN: Super Micro Computer $SMCI crashes 27% after its co-founder was charged with smuggling $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips to China.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Fed Governor Christopher Waller says he was ready to cut interest rates until oil prices raised inflation risks.

IRAN JUST DEPLOYED A MISSILE THAT NO ONE ON EARTH CAN INTERCEPT For 70 years, missile defense was simple. You shoot it down before it hits. Iran just proved that is no longer possible. The Fattah-2 launched. Israel fired 10 interceptors. All 10 missed. The missile hit a fortified IDF command center. 7 senior officers dead. Here is why this changes everything. A hypersonic glide vehicle does NOT fly in a straight line. It goes to the edge of the atmosphere. Then it glides back down — changing direction, changing altitude, moving at Mach 15. That is roughly 18,000 km per hour. No radar in the world tracks that well enough to intercept it. Iron Dome — the most famous missile defense on earth — was built for this exact threat. It failed. And Iran is already testing Fattah-3, which launches 15 separate warheads from ONE missile. Iron Dome cannot track 15 targets coming at Mach 15 simultaneously. Israel spent $20 billion building a defense system. Iran just made it obsolete. Oil hit $126 per barrel this week because of exactly this threat. If you think this stays in the Middle East, you haven't been paying attention.

BLACKROCK CEO LARRY FINK: "If the U.S. doesn’t get its debt under control, America risks losing reserve currency status to digital assets like #Bitcoin." 💯

🚨 BREAKING: Germany has announced it will withdraw its defense of Israel in the genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

If you know what this is, I want to follow you.

🇪🇸 Spanish Prime Minister: "My position is clear: I stand with the people of Gaza."

We are thrilled to see Passport Prime getting into the hands of thousands of users this week! We've got dev units in-hand now, and will start building out not just Bitcoin support in Cake Wallet, but also our very own Cake app to run on Passport Prime 👀 Just getting started.

🇺🇸 Citibank predicts Bitcoin will reach $189,000 in 2026 👀

JUST IN: VIVEK RAMASWAMY'S STRIVE JUST BOUGHT OVER 300 MORE #BITCOIN FOR $23,000,000 CORPORATE TREASURIES ARE BUYING THE DIP 🔥

#BITCOIN IS BOUNCING OFF AN 8-YEAR SUPPORT LINE BOTTOM SIGNAL! 🚀

MICHAEL SAYLOR: Bitcoin will become the largest asset in the world in the next 48 months.

🚨🇫🇷🇺🇸🇮🇷 BREAKING: French NATO General Yakovleff said joining Trump in the Strait of Hormuz is "like buying a ticket for the Titanic after hitting the iceberg".

🚨 BREAKING: Joe Kent claims the Iran war started due to pressure from Israel and its powerful lobby.

🇱🇺 LUXEMBOURG ANNOUNCED THEY INVESTED 1% OF THEIR SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND INTO BITCOIN WORLD'S 4th RICHEST COUNTRY BUYING BITCOIN 🔥 THE RACE IS ON 🚀

@bitcoinhodlco @CoinCornerMolly @ClaudiaTiberius 10x 🫶 @Btcfreedommoney @Metamorfer @taricata

@bitcoinhodlco @CoinCornerMolly @ClaudiaTiberius ch0k1@walletofsatoshi.com

Happy Friday! want some free Sats? 🔥 1) Reply with your #bitcoin lightning address⚡️ 2) We'll send you some sats 3) Ends at 3pm GMT We have some help from a friend this week 😉 @ClaudiaTiberius The legend @CoinCornerMolly is this weeks sponsor! Thanks Queen🧡

@bitcoinhodlco @CoinCornerMolly Congrats 🎉 keep stacking

ANNOUNCEMENT B HODL has added 1 BTC to its Bitcoin Treasury Total holdings now 163.487 BTC AQSE: HODL | OTCQB: HODLF | FRA: F5S #Bitcoin #BHODL

@0PSantos0X ch0k1@walletofsatoshi.com

🔥 BITCOIN GIVEAWAY – FRIDAY 20TH 🔥 This Friday the 20th we’re dropping Free Sats to a lucky winner. 🍀 No scams, no send first to receive double, no BS. Just straight-up free Sats for the community that’s been riding this wave with me. ⚡️🧡 #Bitcoin #Freedom