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This Week in Bitcoin Dear ,

here is this week's edition of the Orange Journal.

A Bitcoin fact

Proof-of-Work

An example of proof-of-work are the pyramids of Egypt. They are a manifestation of Egyptian culture, wealth, and organization. Today another version of proof-of-work is one of the centerpieces of Bitcoin. It secures the immutability of transactions, enables decentralization, offers an incentive structure for miners, and ensures the fair distribution of newly minted bitcoin. Proof-of-work (PoW) is the method used in Bitcoin mining, which secures the blockchain and all transactions. PoW makes Bitcoin the most secure computer system we know of today, which is crucial for a monetary network.

Who invented proof-of-work?

With the advent of the internet and email came the problem of spam. To combat the growing problem of spam, in their 1992 paper “Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail”, Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor proposed the idea “...to require a user to compute a moderately hard, but not intractable function...” before they are technically able to send out emails. It meant that, if someone wants to send a large number of emails at the same time, the computer would need to solve a mathematical problem. This process takes time and effort and kept spammers from sending messages in quick succession.

In 1997 Adam Back proposed a similar idea called “Hashcash”. Satoshi Nakamoto implemented Hashcash as the proof-of-work system used in Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto cited Adam Back’s work in the Bitcoin white paper. Listen to my interview with Adam Back from 2019 where we discuss his idea for Hashcash, the cypherpunks and the evolution of Bitcoin. Even though it was recorded 4 years ago, it's still a very interesting episode. Find it at https://anita.link/12 .

Today there are many misconceptions spread about Bitcoin's Consensus Mechanism proof-of-work concerning its energy consumption. But it’s a feature, not a bug! I wrote extensively about Bitcoin’s ecological footprint in my book.

This educational content is part of my book (L)earn Bitcoin which you can buy as an e-book with bitcoin on learnbitcoin.link and with your national currency on Amazon / Audible, Kobo, Scribd, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Chirp books, Libro FM, Audiobooks.com.

New content

The intersection of charity & Bitcoin

I’m a member of the C4's Certified Bitcoin Professional Committee. This week I was part of a livestream, discussing how charities can facilitate bitcoin for funding their work. I spoke about how donations are enabling my work with Bitcoin for Fairness. For the full video click here or click the Play button below. https://www.youtube.com/live/lB0rkUM7ZHk?feature=share

Bitcoin & Human Rights

This week and over the next few weeks, I will share the 7 (of 30) human rights articles stated by the United Nations which Bitcoin enforces. Here is some information on the first two: Article 12, The Right To Privacy & Article 19, The Right to Freedom of Speech!

News of the week

Kuwait bans crypto payments, investment and bitcoin mining Kuwait bans crypto payments, investment, and bitcoin mining Yet another state has decided to try banning Bitcoin. Kuwait has issued a circular prohibiting the use of cryptocurrency for payments or investment in an effort to combat money laundering. The country's Capital Markets Authority has also banned digital asset mining, denied recognition of crypto as decentralized currency, and warned the public against providing crypto-related services. The prohibitions aim to comply with the FATF's global recommendations for crypto assets and are backed by penalties for violations. That said, other authoritarian countries like China, India, Turkey etc. have tried to prohibit the use of Bitcoin before. Unsuccessfully of course. In the long term, government decisions like these will only promote Bitcoin’s unique features such as being censorship resistant. Read the full article here.

Recommendation

Don’t listen to the noise, educate yourself Don’t believe the FUD about the Lightning Network, that has consistently been around since 2017, when Lightning was first launched. An example of the above is, the myth that Lightning will be totally centralized, that it’s too complicated or that its fees are too high etc. Recently on one of my bike rides, I listened to a podcast with Christian Decker, Blockstream, Roy Sheinfeld and Breez on the future of the Lightning Network. It’s a little bit technical, but they explain how the new Breez SDK and Greenlight work together and speak about today’s limitations and future innovations which will make it totally easy and convenient to use Lightning in self-custody. You can listen to the episode here.

Final thought

Bitcoin is the embodiment of human rights!

Yours,

Anita

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