🇺🇸 Will The Next U.S. President Be A Bitcoiner?
Both Republican and Democratic candidates support Bitcoin, Ledger hits the brakes on a controversial new feature, and a novel scaling solution is challenging the Lightning Network.
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Many have predicted it, but now it's real: Bitcoin is poised to become a hot topic during the U.S. presidential election in 2024. Republican candidate Ron DeSantis, as well as his Democratic counterpart Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are not only challenging their (way more popular) party colleagues Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They are also both Bitcoin supporters. Meanwhile, Ledger is hitting the brakes on a recently announced, highly controversial feature. And a novel scaling solution is challenging the Lightning Network.
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Quote of the Week:
“You have every right to do Bitcoin (...) The only reason these people in Washington don’t like it is because they don’t control it.”
- Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis
🇺🇸 Bitcoiners Have Entered The U.S. Presidential Race
Ron DeSantis, Florida's current governor, announced that he plans to run as a Republican candidate for the 2024 U.S. presidency. Interestingly, he promised to “protect” Bitcoin if he does get the job. Earlier in May, DeSantis passed an anti-central bank digital currency (CBDC) bill in Florida that prohibits the use of a federal CBDC as money, along with banning the use of foreign CBDCs. But DeSantis is not the only Bitcoin supporter who wants to run for president. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (aka RFK), nephew of John F. Kennedy. RFK plans to run on the Democratic ticket. "I am a passionate and lifelong advocate of civil liberties, and Bitcoin is both an exercise and a guarantee of those liberties,” he said at the Bitcoin conference in Miami. He advocated for the right of individuals to hold Bitcoin, to use it, to have a self-managed wallet, as well as to run a node, which earned him frenetic applause.
My take: 2023 seems to be the year Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention finally gets broader political attention—both from its enemies and its supporters. But no matter how the debate moves along: No one can stop Bitcoin anyway.
🛑 Ledger Pauses Rollout Of Controversial Recover-Feature
"I'm devastated to come on this Subreddit, that I created nine years ago, to see images of Ledger devices burning, insults, and a lot of anger. I'm honestly [on] the verge of tears,” posted Éric Larchevêque, Ledger co-founder, on the CryptoCurrency Subreddit. What happened? French company Ledger recently announced ‘Ledger Recover’, an ID-based private key recovery service that would allow users to back up their private seed phrase and tie it to their personal identity through three different custodians. The service was priced at $9.99 per month. What sounds like a useful feature for newbies, quickly spiraled into a PR crisis. Users were concerned that they had to trust in three centralized figures, the risks of identity theft, as well as the possibility that their seed phrase could be taken off their hardware wallet, even if they don't opt-in, through an alleged “backdoor.” After immense backlash, Ledger decided to pause the rollout of the feature and published an “open source roadmap” outlining how the company will bring more verifiability to its products.
My take: After many wondered why the hell a hardware wallet manufacturer would present its product as a fashion accessory to be worn around the neck, the even bigger blunder followed with a function to restore private keys. However, it’s good to see that they have now hit the brakes.
⚡ Ark: A Serious Alternative To The Lightning Network?
High transaction fees show that for Bitcoin to reach mass adoption, smaller payments need to happen on a different layer. Now there seems to be yet another solution to this problem. Ark is a new Layer 2 protocol for Bitcoin, introduced by a developer named Burak. To understand how Ark compares to the Lightning Network, it's crucial to understand what Lightning does. Lightning allows for faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions by opening channels between users. These channels allow users to send and receive many transactions off-chain, meaning they don't have to be recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain right away, which is a slower and more expensive process. However, these channels need to be opened and closed, which can add complexity and cost. Ark works with its own intermediaries, Ark Service Providers (ASPs), and integrates with the Lightning Network for added flexibility. According to its developer, it enables faster access to funds, with transactions credited every five seconds, even improving upon the wait times for confirmations seen with Lightning.
My take: It's important to note that Ark is still a new development, and it may face challenges as it becomes more widely adopted. It’s still nice to see that there are other scaling solutions in development.
Short news:
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