Episode 95
Where's my ETF SEC-ski?
August 12th, 2023
34 mins 16 secs
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About this Episode
Pre-Show
The SEC has a total of 240 days to make a final decision on an application after it starts reviewing one. The SEC is giving the general public three weeks to weigh in on the proposal itself, and an additional five weeks to respond to those initial slate of comments.
SEC Sounds Kinda Bullish...
"In sum, the Exchange believes that this proposal is consistent with the requirements of Section 6(b)(5) of the Act, that this filing sufficiently demonstrates that the CME Bitcoin Futures market represents a regulated market of significant size, and that on the whole the manipulation concerns previously articulated by the Commission are sufficiently mitigated to the point that they are outweighed by investor protection issues that would be resolved by approving this proposal
Bettermarkets, an anti-bitcoin advocacy group, Released a statement saying the surveillance-sharing agreements set up in proposals were "wholly inadequate."
The next decision should come on November 11 with the final day for a decision on January 10, 2024.
News
- The Bitcoin Lightning network, a series of stateful payment channels, is getting better with anchor outputs shipping in LDK (Lightning Development Kit), a dev kit that many popular wallets are built around
Economics
Inflation Snapshot
- July PPI inflation rises to 0.8%, above expectations of 0.7%.
- Core PPI inflation remained unchanged at 2.4%, above expectations of 2.3%.
- Renter Inflation 8%
- Shelter Inflation 7.7%
Average interest rates
- Credit Card: 25%
- Used Cars: 14%
New Cars: 9%
Total credit card debt in the US is up nearly $250 billion since 2020.
There is a record $3.5 TRILLION of untapped credit card debt.
- Americans have only used ~22% of their credit card debt limit.
Record levels of debt:
- Total Household Debt: $17.1 trillio
- This is the first monthly increase in PPI inflation since July 2022. n
- Auto Loans: $1.6 trillion
- Credit Card Debt: $1.0 trillion
Student loans just hit a record $1.6 trillion.
- Interest on student loans has been suspended since 2020, but it set to resume next month.
Newly discovered Bitcoin wallet loophole let hackers steal $900K
A newly discovered vulnerability in the Libbitcoin Explorer 3.x library has allowed over $900,000 to be stolen from Bitcoin users, according to a report from blockchain security firm SlowMist.
Libbitcoin is a Bitcoin wallet implementation used by various applications, including Airbitz, Bitprim, Blockchain Commons, and Cancoin. SlowMist did not specify which applications are affected by the vulnerability.
The vulnerability, known as the “Milk Sad,” was first discovered by the cybersecurity team “Distrust” and reported to the CEV cybersecurity vulnerability database on Aug. 7. It involves a faulty key generation mechanism in the Libbitcoin Explorer, which allows attackers to guess private keys.
Altcoins
- MPC vulnerability found by Fireblocks affected many institutional crypto wallets
In an Aug. 9 press release, Fireblocks said the series of vulnerabilities, dubbed BitForge, are affecting wallets using multi-party computation (MPC) technology, which allows for multiple parties to control and manage cryptocurrency holdings.
Bitgo, a bitcoin custodian, has expressed cautious interest in MPC wallet security while Fireblocks has embraced MPC as a cross platform universal security solution (of course FB has to since there's no native Etherium multisig)
Some market observers opined a seller placed a spoof order at $50 per XRP, which was unintendedly filled by a buyer who may have “fat-fingered” the trade.
Market depth data shows XRP liquidity on Gemini remains relatively low, with only a $37,000 order required to move prices by 2% on the exchange. In contrast, the same price move on Binance would require at least $2.2 million.
Gemini makes meme video about XRP kicking SEC's ass in annoucment of XRP now avaible for trading: https://twitter.com/Gemini/status/1689735727850938368
Tyler Pumps XPR: https://twitter.com/tyler/status/1690033448017113088
Bitcoin Education
- Bitmex has a new research summary on DriveChains that covers some of the complexities of their security model
- Some references on drivechain on stacker news
- Including a Lyn Alden comment on supermajority changes and over engineering that implies she doesn't support drivechains
Cobo, a hardware wallet maker, has a breakdown on multi-party computation (MPC) that's a good introduction to the concept
Feedback
Remember to get in touch [email protected] or @bitcoindadpod on twitter
Consider joining the matrix channel using a matrix client like element, details here
Boosts
@halleck wanted some lightning node management ideas:
@mermortalspodcast recomends watching The Big Lebowski
@jcxfnt recomends the documentary Nuclear Now
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Sponsors and Acknowledgements
Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
Self Hosted Show courtesy of Jupiter Broadcasting