On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), formerly the CEO of Binance, was sentenced in a Seattle courtroom for his compliance failures at the cryptocurrency exchange. The sentencing was first covered by Nikhilesh De and Danny Nelson of Coindesk, who reported directly from the courthouse. Per Nikhilesh De’s X thread, the proceedings began with […]Pour one out for CodeWhisperer, Amazon’s AI-powered assistive coding tool. As of today, it’s kaput — sort of. CodeWhisperer is now Q Developer, a part of Amazon’s Q family of business-oriented generative AI chatbots that also extends to the newly-announced Q Business. Available through AWS, Q Developer helps with some of the tasks developers do […]
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Remember that movie where Sandra Bullock crosses the entire country blindfolded because peaking outside means you’re basically facing a certain death?
That must be how it feels to build anything in Bitcoin right now.
Everyone is just moving blind. The United States government is taking everyone along for the ride and no one knows where we’re headed. There are no instructions you can read, and no rules to follow. You move an inch in the wrong direction, you make one unfortunate shitpost, or maybe you tweet at Elizabeth Warren on her bad day. You get your head chopped off.
Imagine you’re one of the Samourai Wallet developers. One day, you decide enough is enough and take the blindfold off. You make a concerted effort to engage with the regulators and bring two dozen of your peers on board. You pay top dollar and hire the best lawyers in the industry to help everyone see through the regulatory fog.
Four months later, chopped.
Beyond the human tragedy unfolding here, this should be a cathartic moment for the industry.
We’ve spent the last decade trying to get into the good graces of regulators. We’ve asked permission, laid out red carpets and practically begged for consideration. Millions of dollars were donated to lobbyists and many more were put to work by any company seeking to do business with United States citizens.
If last week is any indication, it was all for naught.
Did you think only shitcoins get you rugged?
Sure, the Samourai guys seem like easy pickings. Inflammatory personalities and bombastic statements are enough to convince the casual observer that they are guilty, if only of wrong-think. Openly challenging the government and inciting individuals to take control of their financial privacy appears to be a criminal offense these days.
Even in Bitcoin circles, “moderates” argued that well… they were brash meanies so they probably deserved it. As far as they’re concerned, there is no need to overreact.
“Nothing to see here.”
Back in the real world, your head starts spinning once you begin reading the indictment. The language is flimsy. The technical concepts are bastardized. Even the most sensationalized charges are incredibly tenuous. One loose Twitter DM, a rather vague presentation slide, and a casual shitpost. Given the defendant’s history, I’m actually astounded they couldn’t conjure up something more incriminating. Maybe they have a couple of aces up their sleeves but at first glance, none of it adds up.
That is until you zoom out and look at the whole picture. What if the reality distortion field is intentional? What if Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill are the fall guys for something far bigger than them?
We don’t have to guess. There is no conspiracy required here. The day following the Samourai team’s arrest, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York laid it all out in the open. In their case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, US attorneys submitted their response to the defense’s appeal to dismiss, and boy is it a doozy. Not only were we operating blindly, but it is argued everyone has been breaking the law the whole time. A decade of FinCEN guidance? Irrelevant.
Under the terms set in this document, every Bitcoin transaction probably ought to be KYC’d. Peer-to-peer software is unlawful and self-custody should be prohibited.
Don’t fall for the cheap tricks of high-profile cases and punk-rock developers. The United States government is not trying to prosecute criminals, it is seeking to reset the rules of the game and redefine the law so that everyone who doesn’t have a license to operate is deemed a criminal.
It is not just Samourai Wallet or Tornado Cash that is on trial. It is your financial freedom as well.
Of course, those amongst us who make a living out of kissing politicians’ feet and have enough of a regulatory moat will try to convince you otherwise. You aren’t lobbying hard enough, they will say. They probably genuinely believe that, if worst comes to worst, we’ll also vote ourselves out of that one.
Some are already heeding the warning shots. On Friday, ACINQ, creators of the Phoenix Lightning wallet, announced that they were pulling their product from the US app stores.
Recent announcements from US authorities cast a doubt on whether self-custodial wallet providers, Lightning service providers, or even Lightning nodes could be considered Money Services Businesses and be regulated as such.
— ACINQ (@acinq_co) April 26, 2024
Others are calling the government’s bluff and taking a stand. Refusing to serve US customers might work in the short term to reduce one’s liabilities but it also feels like kicking the can down the road. The precedent that could be set in this case presents the genuine risk of being used by other countries as a basis for similar policies. Give them an inch here and they’ll take a mile.
The fight has been brought to us and must be responded to in kind. The rule of law is being challenged. Courts are being weaponized. For Americans, this is a battle for constitutional rights. For the rest of the world, this is a cautionary tale.
For Bitcoiners, this is an opportunity to let go of the divisive rhetoric and align against the actual enemy at hand, the State.
The EU has officially opened a significant investigation into Meta for its alleged failures to remove election disinformation. While the European Commission’s statement doesn’t explicitly mention Russia, Meta confirmed to Engadget the EU probe targets the country’s Doppelganger campaign, an online disinformation operation pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda.
Bloomberg’s sources also said the probe was focused on the Russian disinformation operation, describing it as a series of “attempts to replicate the appearance of traditional news sources while churning out content that is favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies.”
The investigation comes a day after France said 27 of the EU’s 29 member states had been targeted by pro-Russian online propaganda ahead of European parliamentary elections in June. On Monday, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot urged social platforms to block websites “participating in a foreign interference operation.”
A Meta spokesperson told Engadget that the company had been at the forefront of exposing Russia’s Doppelganger campaign, first spotlighting it in 2022. The company said it has since investigated, disrupted and blocked tens of thousands of the network’s assets. The Facebook and Instagram owner says it remains on high alerts to monitor the network while claiming Doppelganger has struggled to successfully build organic audiences for the pro-Putin fake news.
The European Commission’s President said Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), the landmark legislation passed in 2022 that empowers the EU to regulate social platforms. The law allows the EC to, if necessary, impose heavy fines on violating companies — up to six percent of a company’s global annual turnover, potentially changing how social companies operate.
In a statement to Engadget, Meta said, “We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”
The EC probe will cover “Meta’s policies and practices relating to deceptive advertising and political content on its services.” It also addresses “the non-availability of an effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool ahead of the elections to the European Parliament.”
The latter refers to Meta’s deprecation of its CrowdTangle tool, which researchers and fact-checkers used for years to study how content spreads across Facebook and Instagram. Dozens of groups signed an open letter last month, saying Meta’s planned shutdown during the crucial 2024 global elections poses a “direct threat” to global election integrity.
Meta told Engadget that CrowdTangle only provides a fraction of the publicly available data and would be lacking as a full-fledged election monitoring tool. The company says it’s building new tools on its platform to provide more comprehensive data to researchers and other outside parties. It says it’s currently onboarding key third-party fact-checking partners to help identify misinformation.
However, with Europe’s elections in June and the critical US elections in November, Meta had better get moving on its new API if it wants the tools to work when it matters most.
The EC gave Meta five working days to respond to its concerns before it would consider further escalating the matter. “This Commission has created means to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries,” EC President von der Leyen wrote. “If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/IkzRmBYEV startup Fisker Inc. is laying off more employees to “preserve cash,” one week after warning investors it would have to make cuts to stave off impending bankruptcy, according to an internal email viewed by TechCrunch. Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees Monday morning in the email that the company is “continuing to evaluate […]
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The savvy marketers at Boston Dynamics produced two major robotics news cycles last week. The larger of the two was, naturally, the electric Atlas announcement. As I write this, the sub-40 second video is steadily approaching five million views. A day prior, the company tugged at the community’s heart strings when it announced that the […]
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The popular Nintendo emulator, Delta, that arrived on the App Store for iPhone to much fanfare a few weeks ago is now getting a version that’s optimized for the iPad. Developer Riley Testut shared an update on Threads this weekend revealing that an iPad app has been in the works, and is now being prioritized since Apple changed its tune on game emulators. The iPad app is “near completion,” and subscribers to Testut’s Patreon can get it now through the AltStore, an alternative marketplace the developer created a few years back for sideloading iOS and iPadOS apps. Otherwise, you can wait a little while for it to come with Delta’s next big update, version 1.6.
In the post, Testut also shared a little preview of how it'll run on iPad. Delta was released as the successor to Testut’s Game Boy Advance emulator, GBA4iOS, and supports a slew of other Nintendo systems, including NES, SNES, N64, and DS. It shouldn’t be long before the iPad version is finished — Testut wrote that the team just needs to “finish up controller skins [and] fix some last bugs.” They’re also working on device-to-device multiplayer, Testut wrote (but that’s still a couple of items down on the checklist). And, as an added treat, he said a SEGA Genesis emulator is on the way too. That’s still in beta, but will become available “soon-ish.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/5uZRh3C
Anza, a dev collective behind Solana, recommended the adoption of Agave v1.18.12 into the blockchain’s devnet and testnet. This new version of the mentioned client ships with a central scheduler that aims to reduce congestion by increasing fee collection and reducing conflicting transactions. Anza is calling for increased testing on this functionality. Anza Calls for […]Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welp, Tesla earnings happened this week — and yeah that was a lot. A lot of what, you ask? A […]
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After the Samourai Wallet indictment, the cryptocurrency community discovered that the Bitcoin blockchain analysis platform OXT is no longer operational, as it was acquired by the Samourai team in December 2017. On April 25, Laurentmt, a co-founder of OXT and bitcoin advocate, revealed the closure on the social media site X with the statement, “RIP […]Google filed a motion on Friday in a Virginia federal court asking for the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against it to be thrown away. The DOJ sued Google in January 2023, accusing the company of monopolizing digital advertising technologies through “anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct.” Per Bloomberg, Google is now seeking summary judgment to avoid the case going to trial in September as planned.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time the lawsuit was first announced that Google “has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies.” The lawsuit alleges that Google controls digital advertising tools to such an extent that it “pockets on average more than 30 percent of the advertising dollars that flow through its digital advertising technology products,” according to a press release from the agency last year.
Google now argues that that the DOJ hasn’t shown that the company controls at least 70 percent of the market, which some previous cases have used as the threshold for qualifying as a monopoly, and that the agency “made up markets specifically for this case,” according to Bloomberg, excluding its major competitors like social media platforms. The company also claims the DOJ’s case goes “beyond the boundaries of antitrust law,” Reuters reports.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/RjCn8Wz“When an investor passes on you, they will not tell you the real reason,” said Tom Blomfield, group partner at Y Combinator. “At seed stage, frankly, no one knows what’s going to fucking happen. The future is so uncertain. All they’re judging is the perceived quality of the founder. When they pass, what they’re thinking […]
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Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, praised the privacy traits a hypothetical upcoming digital euro would possess. During a speech, Nagel specified that the Eurosystem would have “no interest” in monitoring the payments and expenses of digital euro users and would not be able to identify them based on their payments. Deutsche Bundesbank President […]Originally published on Unchained.com.
Unchained is the official US Collaborative Custody partner of Bitcoin Magazine and an integral sponsor of related content published through Bitcoin Magazine. For more information on services offered, custody products, and the relationship between Unchained and Bitcoin Magazine, please visit our website.
As technical director on the Concierge team at Unchained, I’ve fielded countless client questions about bitcoin multisig. If you’re just beginning to understand the benefits of multisig and how it works in a collaborative custody context, I hope these ten tips will address some of your questions.
The phrase hardware wallet might make it seem like your bitcoin live inside the wallet itself, but that’s not the case—bitcoin is never in your device at all. In actuality, your wallet generates and stores your keys only. Your wallet also makes accessing the keys user-friendly by either plugging your device into a general-purpose computer or sharing information with your computer via a microSD card.
So where does bitcoin live, then? The bitcoin blockchain is a ledger that keeps track of every transaction that has ever occurred and the balances of every address on the network. Instead of storing your bitcoin, your hardware wallet protects and stores the keys used to unlock—or spend—bitcoin from those addresses.
When you set up a bitcoin hardware wallet that respects best current practices, you should be prompted to back up your wallet using 12 or 24 words, typically on a slip of paper that the manufacturer suggests you protect in case something happens to your wallet. These 12 or 24 words are your seed phrase, as established in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39, or BIP39.
Your seed phrase is like the “key to the castle,” it contains everything you need to recover and use a key to all of the addresses protected by the seed phrase.
The nice thing about BIP39 seed phrases is that they are interoperable among hardware wallets that support the standard, which means you can recover your bitcoin wallet backup (seed phrase) to another brand of hardware wallet. If you initially set up your bitcoin wallet on a Trezor and want to move to a Coldcard, it’s as simple as importing those 12 or 24 words.
Read more: How to replace or upgrade a bitcoin hardware wallet
With physical cash, you have to be physically present to trustlessly and securely transact with another party. Bitcoin fixes this for the digital world. If you want to receive bitcoin but don’t have your hardware wallet at hand, you can still have a payment sent to the appropriate address.
As mentioned above, bitcoin does not live on your hardware wallet; it lives on the bitcoin blockchain. For that reason, as long as you or someone else sends bitcoin to an address that you hold the private keys to control, you’ll always be able to move those funds regardless of whether you have physical access to your device. If bitcoin is sent to an address you know you control, it will arrive perfectly fine in the background without your involvement.
What this means for you: If you create a multisig wallet and store your hardware wallets or seed phrases in secure locations, you don’t need to have physical access to them to deposit funds.
Multisig involves constructing a multisig wallet using the public keys of multiple devices, each of which could also serve as a standalone singlesig wallet without any issues. When you create a multisig wallet following the emerging standard processes, the preexisting singlesig counterparts have no idea the multisig wallet exists.
You could think of it as a group email address that forwards to multiple individual email addresses.
This means that, if you wanted, you could store smaller amounts of bitcoin on a singlesig wallet—all while keeping your primary wealth in a multisig wallet constructed using that device as one of the keys.
Bitcoin transactions are completely irreversible, which means if you send your bitcoin to the wrong address, it can be lost permanently. Thankfully, you can use hardware wallets to check your multisig bitcoin address on the device before sending funds.
Checking your address on your device confirms three things:
Checking the address on your device should be done before sending meaningful amounts of funds to any address, whether singlesig or multisig. As of this writing, Trezor and Coldcard support checking multisig deposit addresses in the Unchained platform.
Read more: How do I verify the receiving/deposit address on my hardware wallet?
With multisig, you don’t need to have all your keys in the same place at the same time to spend bitcoin. That means you can sign a transaction in Austin with one key and sign a day later in Dallas with the other. The transaction can only be broadcast after all the necessary signatures have been collected (two in a 2-of-3 multisig scheme, for example).
This is a significant advantage over other bitcoin custody models like Shamir’s Secret Sharing Scheme, which allows you to distribute control over your bitcoin private key by splitting it into multiple parts (secrets), but requires all parts to be present at the same time to recompile a single key and author a transaction.
In all bitcoin multisig setups where m (the number of keys required to sign) is less than n (the total number of keys in the quorum), you are protected from single points of failure and can still recover your funds in the case that one or more critical items are lost, stolen or otherwise compromised.
There are scenarios in 2-of-3 multisig (with a collaborative custody partner like Unchained holding the third key), where as many as three items could be compromised before it becomes impossible to recover your funds.
Even though fault-tolerance in multisig provides peace of mind, all of these scenarios should still be protected against at all costs by following seed phrase and hardware wallet storage best practices, and you should always regain full control as soon as possible in the event that any of your critical items are lost or compromised. And that leads us to number eight…
Read more: The ultimate guide to storing your bitcoin seed phrase backups
When using bitcoin multisig, if you ever lose a wallet or misplace a seed phrase, it’s important to replace this key in your multisig m-of-n scheme. You can do this with any of the popular multisig wallets.
Even if a single compromised key does not alone jeopardize your funds in most common multisig m-of-n schemes, replacing a compromised key will ensure that you regain complete control over your funds and eliminate the possibility that the key could ever be used against you in the future.
In a collaborative custody model like the one we use here at Unchained, replacing a key is straightforward. You can simply log in to our platform, choose the key that has been compromised, and quickly replace it with a new one. You can read the full process for replacing or upgrading a hardware wallet at the link below, and if you’re already an Unchained client, check out our Knowledge Base article.
Read more: How to replace or upgrade a bitcoin hardware wallet
As we mentioned in number four on this list, using your hardware wallets/seed phrases for both a singlesig wallet and to construct a multisig wallet doesn’t cause any issues. Similarly, using your hardware wallets/seed phrases for more than one multisig wallet doesn’t cause a conflict among those wallets as long as you aren’t using the same extended public keys (xpubs). This is typically represented as a multiple accounts feature in most bitcoin wallets.
Hardware wallets allow you to use different xpubs from different derivation paths, which is a technical way of saying a different set of bitcoin keys on your hardware wallet generated by the same 12- or 24-word seed phrase. This means you can create multiple multisig wallets that stem from the same set of seed phrases/devices, like using the same devices for a personal vault and an IRA vault. Maybe even a loan vault as well!
When getting started with multisig collaborative custody at Unchained, one concern I hear a lot relates to dependence on our platform. If Unchained were to cease to exist or have significant downtime, how would you recover your funds if your wallets were constructed using our tools?
Our multisig platform is designed to eliminate all single points of failure, and that includes ourselves. As our platform is fully interoperable with established bitcoin standards, you can always recover access to your vault outside the Unchained platform with compatible software like our open-source multisig coordinator, Caravan, or bitcoin wallets like Sparrow or Electrum. Just make sure to safely back up your wallet configuration file!
Read more: How can I recover my vault funds using Caravan?
Originally published on Unchained.com.
Unchained is the official US Collaborative Custody partner of Bitcoin Magazine and an integral sponsor of related content published through Bitcoin Magazine. For more information on services offered, custody products, and the relationship between Unchained and Bitcoin Magazine, please visit our website.
President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Z’s access to political news and information. “An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds find out information about local […]
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World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch fans who were looking forward to getting together at BlizzCon in November may be disappointed to learn that Blizzard has canceled this year's edition of the event. The publisher didn't give a clear reason as to why it made that decision, but said it was "not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it."
Even so, BlizzCon isn't necessarily gone for good, unlike E3. "While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years," Blizzard wrote in a blog post.
The publisher plans to spill the beans about expansions (including the upcoming three-part WoW saga and Diablo IV DLC) for its franchises at other events, such as industry trade shows and Gamescom. Now that Blizzard is under Microsoft's umbrella, we can probably expect some news from the publisher at the annual Xbox showcase in June. There are also in-person events lined up for Overwatch esports and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft.
BlizzCon 2023 was the first in-person edition since 2019, so to miss out once again in 2024 may come as a blow for many fans. Now they'll likely need to wait until at least late 2025 to meet up with a bunch of their peers and Blizzard developers again.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/wg0DKu2Enterprises still don't trust OpenAI, while open source AI models are cheaper and more than sufficient for targeted specific tasks, Nova AI founder says.
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Originally published on Unchained.com.
Unchained is the official US Collaborative Custody partner of Bitcoin Magazine and an integral sponsor of related content published through Bitcoin Magazine. For more information on services offered, custody products, and the relationship between Unchained and Bitcoin Magazine, please visit our website.
As a bitcoin miner, you have a lot to manage, from seeking out inexpensive electricity, to constructing facilities, to acquiring rigs and building a knowledgeable team that can keep them hashing. In speaking with mining companies over the years, we know that bitcoin custody is often an afterthought.
Here we’ll describe the process of securing your mined bitcoin in self-custody while managing a bitcoin treasury, CapEx, OpEx, OpSec, LP distributions, taxes, and more. Given the ever-present risks of hacks and suspended withdrawals, our goal is to explain the benefits and trade-offs of various approaches to bitcoin self-custody—regardless of the size of your operation.
There are unique challenges miners face with self-custody in comparison to other types of bitcoin holders:
Other challenges are similar to that of other businesses that hold bitcoin:
In all cases, holding the private keys to your organization’s bitcoin should be prioritized. As we’ll explain next, multisig can enhance the security of your bitcoin regardless of your organization’s size. While the details of your setup may vary, multisig helps to address many of the above concerns while allowing your bitcoin to touch exchanges only when necessary (e.g., for OpEx/CapEx).
Singlesignature (singlesig) wallets—controlled by a single key secured by a Trezor or Ledger hardware wallet, for instance—improve security, reduce counterparty risk, and remove exchanges as a single point of failure. With singlesig, however, your bitcoin is put at risk if a hardware wallet or seed phrase is lost or compromised. Just one or the other, in the wrong hands, could lead to permanent loss of funds.
Multisignature wallets, on the other hand, enable you to store bitcoin in a wallet controlled by multiple keys. They increase your security by ensuring more than one of those keys, held in different locations, are required to sign a transaction. If set up correctly, multisig can eliminate all single points of failure. For a miner, this means removing the risk of a single rogue employee moving funds, and creating redundancy so that the loss of a single hardware wallet or seed phrase cannot lead to a critical loss of funds.
Exchanges can be a convenient place to send newly-mined bitcoin. They allow you to easily exchange bitcoin for your local fiat currency before sending funds to a linked bank account, and they even take care of things like UTXO management. In bitcoin, however, there is always a price to pay for convenience. The risks and potential downsides of using an exchange for key storage are numerous—the fact that they can cut you off at any time and the possibility of hacks and insolvency are only the beginning.
A 2-of-3 multisig quorum has three total keys where two are required to spend, which keeps your bitcoin secure even if one key is compromised. Many mining firms find that 2-of-3 multisig is the perfect setup for their corporate treasury because no single individual can compromise the entire treasury, while sending out LP payouts and monthly expenses is still kept straightforward (only two signatures required).
Higher-quorum multisig (e.g., 3-of-5, with five total keys and three required to spend) adds more keys and typically more individuals to the equation. This can technically improve the security of your bitcoin wallet in some cases—but also dramatically increases complexity. We wrote a comprehensive article explaining why this is the case, but for the purposes of this article, you just need to know the sweet spot for most individuals, organizations, and mining operations tends to be 2-of-3.
When using multisig for your mining company’s treasury, you might also benefit by including an institution (like Unchained) to hold one of three keys for your multisig setup.
In addition to the enhanced security that multisig provides, collaborative custody can also help with:
Every miner needs to make decisions on security, transaction cost, and counterparty risk when deciding which type of wallets to use for their newly mined bitcoin.
Below are four example workflows that may help you determine which model is the best for your mining operation.
In this popular workflow for smaller mining operations, you receive mining pool payouts directly to a singlesig wallet controlled by a single operator. Funds that need to be sold can then be sent to an exchange, while funds to be stored long-term are sent to a multisig wallet.
This workflow is the same as the workflow described above, except that mining pool payouts are sent to a multisig wallet instead of singlesig. A second multisig wallet is required for the corporate treasury.
Sending bitcoin payouts direct to multisig maximizes security throughout the workflow, but requires two people to approve each transaction to the exchange and treasury. As such, it is better suited for larger mining operations.
“With multisig you’re paying higher fees to remove counterparty risk.” – Griffin Haby, Mountain Lion Mining
Some mining pools allow miners to split payouts between two or more accounts. In this workflow, we show automating the payout process to send a fixed percentage directly to cold storage, and the rest to an exchange to sell to cover overhead.
In this workflow, bitcoin is mined directly to an exchange. This is far more convenient for the purposes of UTXO and fee management purposes, and allows immediate liquidation of funds, but leaves bitcoin in the most vulnerable state for the longest amount of time, with high counterparty risk.
Even within the above high-level approaches to bitcoin security, you may want to further separate wallets for separate purposes, like distributions, operating expenses, or corporate treasury. Keeping these buckets of bitcoin cryptographically separated from each other will make it far easier to keep track of your operation from a tax and accounting standpoint—and much easier to ensure those long-term satoshis aren’t being used for overhead!
Miners are typically more concerned with collecting transaction fees from other users. However, when managing your bitcoin mining wallets, the fees you pay when sending bitcoin—whether to an exchange, cold storage, or investors/partners—should also be considered.
As we described in a previous article, bitcoin transaction fees depend on how congested the bitcoin network is at any given time and how much data is being processed in a transaction. One of the key factors behind the data size of a transaction is the number of UTXOs involved. Our article on the problem of too many UTXOs is a good primer on UTXO consolidations, payout thresholds, and how bitcoin transaction fees are calculated.
As a miner, there are four main ways you can reduce your transaction costs:
If you use a mining pool, and take a high frequency of payouts, it’s going to result in a lot of small UTXOs in your destination wallet, which could be expensive to spend when the time comes.
To mitigate this, you can increase your pool payout threshold to reduce the number of deposits being made to your wallet (and therefore reduce the wallet’s UTXO count). This method is especially useful for future fee mitigation if you are pointing your payouts directly to a multisig wallet (which requires more data to make a transaction than a singlesig wallet).
You can further reduce the number of UTXOs in your wallet by periodically consolidating. This is a relatively simple process; you just need to author a transaction containing the UTXOs you wish to consolidate, and send them back to yourself. You can learn more in our article covering strategies to manage too many UTXOs.
Block space is limited by design—the higher the demand for space (increased quantity of transactions), the higher fees will be. If you don’t need a transaction to be processed immediately, consider setting a lower fee rate than recommended at the time of sending. This makes the transaction take longer to process, but can help you avoid paying excessive fees during periods of high demand.
At any given time, there is a minimum fee rate the mempool is willing to accept. Typically, this stays between one to three sats/vbyte. Current fees can easily be viewed on most block explorers, such as mempool.space.
Miners who need to send multiple payments at the same time can reduce transaction fees by sending them all at once using a transaction method called batching. This method of consolidating multiple payments can be performed with many popular bitcoin wallets (such as Bitcoin Core, Electrum, or BlueWallet) and can be helpful for LP distributions or any other time you need to make multiple transactions at once.
When your company decides to hold the keys to its bitcoin you will need to determine who at the company will physically hold the keys.
The goal is to distribute control over keys and seeds evenly. This gives no one person the ability to sign a transaction or move bitcoin on their own. What this looks like for your organization will depend on your specific circumstances, such as the number of principals, the number of keys, and whether the wallet is for long-term storage or simply distributing control over spends.
In the above example where you’ve decided to use 2-of-3 multisig for your mining operation’s bitcoin treasury (we’d typically recommend this), you might select the company’s CEO and CFO to hold a key each, and a collaborative custody partner to hold the third key.
There are typically two separate physical items to protect for each of your company’s bitcoin keys: a hardware wallet and a seed phrase. A critical element of implementing a secure multisig model is the geographical distribution of hardware wallets and seed phrases so that no single physical location is a point of failure for your bitcoin.
Seed phrases are worth particular attention because they are a physical and unencrypted copy of your bitcoin private keys. You should always retain seed phrase backups of your keys to reduce the reliance on sometimes finicky hardware wallets.
The location of the hardware wallets and seed phrases should only be known to individuals who will be expected to provide transaction signatures to move bitcoin. Keep in mind: When storing and securing these items, you may want to ensure that no single person at your organization has seen or knows the location of the necessary hardware wallets or seed phrases to spend—so that no single person can compromise your bitcoin treasury.
After you’ve properly stored your hardware wallets and seed phrases, there are a few best practices you should observe to keep the device and data on the device in proper working order:
When a key holder leaves your mining operation, you should always replace their key as soon as possible. Don’t simply hand over the old key to a new key holder—that would be a a potential security hole. Even if the original key holder can be trusted and left in good standing, replacing the key reduces the risk that unauthorized signatures will be performed or attempted in the future.
To replace a key, you will need the new key holder to generate a new key, (if using multisig) create a new multisig wallet with the new quorum, and then (carefully) send all the company’s bitcoin to the new wallet.
If you’re using collaborative custody with Unchained Capital, our platform can safely guide you through the key replacement process. If you’re not using a collaborative partner, we’d recommend having someone technical on hand to help with the process.
Bitcoin miners are responsible for understanding and abiding by local and federal tax regulations. Taxes and accounting as they pertain to bitcoin mining are beyond the scope of this guide, but they are relevant considerations and you should consult with an accountant or tax professional to learn more.
For US-based miners, Unchained’s Head of Legal Jeff Vandrew briefly touched on the topic of mining and taxes in his piece covering what you need to know about bitcoin mining, IRAs, and taxes:
If a taxpayer obtains bitcoin through mining, they must recognize income in the amount of the fair market value in U.S. dollar terms of the bitcoin received on the date of receipt. That recognized income is subject to income tax at ordinary income tax rates. On top of income tax, the taxpayer may also be subject to self-employment tax.
If you do need to convert bitcoin to your local currency to pay bills, taxes, or cover overhead, you may want to expedite the process by setting up an exchange account and linking an active bank account. Some exchanges can take days or weeks to approve new accounts, so plan accordingly, especially if you are up against a deadline like paying an invoice, payroll, or taxes.
Unchained Capital can help facilitate the purchase or sale of bitcoin straight to or from a multisig vault, within certain limits, for companies and individuals in the U.S. that reside in a state where our trading desk is active.
Securing your bitcoin with a collaborative custody partner like Unchained Capital means you can easily use that bitcoin to access liquidity to reinvest in your mining operations—without ever selling your bitcoin. For more detailed information on bitcoin collateralized lending, visit unchained.com/loans.
Whether it be the daunting task of managing fees, advice on how to structure your bitcoin custody workflow, or access to a trading desk to buy and sell bitcoin, we’re here to help. Our multisig vaults for business give your organization complete control over your bitcoin while providing a trusted partner to guide you and your team through setup and to help with key replacements and wallet recovery if and when necessary.
Originally published on Unchained.com.
Unchained is the official US Collaborative Custody partner of Bitcoin Magazine and an integral sponsor of related content published through Bitcoin Magazine. For more information on services offered, custody products, and the relationship between Unchained and Bitcoin Magazine, please visit our website.
The Biden administration is tackling the monumental task of making America’s industrial freight system more environmentally friendly. The White House said on Wednesday that it aims to have 30 percent of industrial truck sales produce zero emissions by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040.
In addition to those non-binding targets, the White House is meeting on Wednesday with stakeholders from the commercial vehicle, shipping and infrastructure industries to help execute its agenda. The roundtable is designed to advance the Biden Administration’s goal of “supercharging the buildout of the infrastructure necessary to make a zero-emissions freight ecosystem a reality in the United States.”
Unsurprisingly, the freight industry uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of pollution to match. Bloomberg notes that the transportation sector emits about 29 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions, and freight (including shipping, trucking and trains) makes up about a third of that figure. So, you can ballpark that the American freight industry is responsible for roughly 10 percent of the country’s carbon emissions.
As part of the election-year rollout, the Biden Administration plans to ask the public to comment on charging infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles, signaling that the specifics of the plan aren’t yet finalized. The White House wants to avoid a fragmented industrial EV charging system without a universally agreed-upon standard. The industry has seemingly settled on Tesla’s NACS as the de facto choice in the lightweight consumer sector.
Alongside the newly announced industrial goals, the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opening up about $1 billion in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding to replace Class 6 and 7 vehicles (school buses, garbage trucks and delivery trucks) with electric equivalents.
The IRA requires that at least $400 million of that funding goes to local communities hit the hardest by industrial pollution. The White House says 72 million Americans live near truck freight routes and bear the brunt of their short-term output. Sadly but unsurprisingly (given the nation’s history), people of color and those from low-income households are most likely to be heavily affected by high environmental toxin levels.
The White House’s goals are admirable, given the urgency of the global climate crisis and the freight industry’s role. However, one significant problem remains: These are voluntary, non-binding resolutions that could — and, given public comments, almost certainly would — be undone by a second Trump Administration, should the serial napper return to office next year. As with many other aspects of the nation’s and world’s future, US voters will decide the outcome this November.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/IGLfP7F
On Monday evening, Taproot Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer unveiled a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) that reintroduces the OP_CAT opcode to Bitcoin. This opcode could facilitate more streamlined and efficient decentralized file hosting systems, payment channels, and sophisticated Bitcoin smart contracts by minimizing reliance on intricate cryptographic techniques. However, Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr has labeled the […]One of Bitcoin's undeniable and frequently touted strengths is its decentralization. It's often claimed that the Bitcoin network offers levels of decentralization, accessibility, and distribution unmatched by any other cryptocurrency. But just how decentralized is Bitcoin in reality? And how do we go about measuring its decentralization? Before delving into these questions, it's crucial to clarify the concepts of centralization and decentralization, as they are often muddled.
To provide a clear definition, the centralization/decentralization dynamic can be understood as the degree of concentration/diffusion of authority among the participants in a system. Here, "authority" refers to the power to influence the functioning and rules of the system, whether for malicious or benign purposes. With this in mind, measuring the degree of centralization in a system entails quantifying the minimum number of entities – participants - required to alter its functioning or rules. The lower this number, the greater the degree of centralization. In a seminal 2017 paper on the subject, Balaji S. Srinivasan and Leland Lee introduced an insightful metric for this purpose: the Nakamoto coefficient.
Derived from the Lorenz curve used in calculating the Gini coefficient, the Nakamoto coefficient identifies the minimum number of participants necessary to compromise or control the system. For instance, in the well-known scenario of Bitcoin's hashrate, if we assume that five mining pools collectively possess 50%+1 of the total hashrate, then this number would be five. This means that a simple majority of 50% of the hashrate would be adequate to execute a double spending operation on the blockchain. However, the critical threshold may vary for other variables.
Now, let's address the core issue identified by the authors of the paper: identifying subsystems critical to the functioning of the system. When it comes to Bitcoin, focusing solely on the concentration of hashrate (i.e., miners) fails to capture the full spectrum of centralization/decentralization within the network and overlooks the potential for a 50%+1 attack.
Balaji S. Srinivasan and Leland Lee, in their article, propose five additional measurable subsystems of the Bitcoin Network: client platform, code developers, nodes, custodial/exchanges, and ownership.
According to Balaji S. Srinivasan, the six dimensions of centralization within the Bitcoin network are as follows:
• Client centralization
• Ownership centralization
• Node centralization
• Developers centralization
• Custodial/exchanges centralization
• Hashrate centralization
In addition, we might consider adding one last dimension:
While this list is comprehensive, what's lacking is a qualitative assessment of these dimensions. Which among them are truly pivotal for Bitcoin's network functionality, and which are not?
For instance, one could argue that the client or ownership variables aren't as crucial in measuring Bitcoin's decentralization.
In the first case, Bitcoin Core stands as the de facto standard client today. However, it's worth noting that this is an open-source software authored by Satoshi Nakamoto himself. As long as it remains open-source, actively maintained, and monitored, its dominance doesn't necessarily equate to vulnerability. It's important to recognize the distinction between Bitcoin Core's hegemony rather than a monopoly, as theoretically, other operational clients exist—such as Bitcoin Knots, BTCD, Libbitcoin, BitcoinJ, Bitcoin Unlimited, Gocoin—that can support the Bitcoin protocol. Yet, in practice, very few network nodes utilize these alternatives, favoring Nakamoto's original implementation. In this regard, in 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto himself said: "I don't believe a second, compatible implementation of Bitcoin will ever be a good idea."
As for the second dimension listed above - the distribution of Bitcoin ownership - this undoubtedly has significant socio-economic implications but it doesn't directly affect Bitcoin's infrastructure. Since Bitcoin relies on a proof-of-work algorithm, the power that Bitcoin owners have over nodes and protocol operation is essentially nil. The centralization of sat ownership could only become problematic if currency concentration reaches such extreme levels that undermine the network effect, impacting practical use as a medium of exchange and store of value. Fortunately, as polarized as Bitcoin wealth may be, we are far from this point and according to various analyses, as Bitcoin adoption increases, the concentration of sats gradually decreases.
Conversely, subsystems like nodes and coding are pivotal for achieving true network decentralization, being potentially the most critical points within the Bitcoin system. The risk of node takeover and subsequent hard forks or coordinated malicious actions on the protocol poses significant and lasting threats to network trust. However, the probability of such occurrences is already low and have constantly decreased over time, given the growing number of active or quickly activatable nodes (approximately 16 thousand and 53 thousand respectively, according to the latest known data) and their distribution across different locations, entities, and legal jurisdictions.
In the latter case, however, the concentration of Bitcoin Core code developers—known as Core developers and maintainers—remains very high and arguably increasing from a certain perspective. There are relatively few programmers actively involved in writing and maintaining the client, despite it being a critical function for the entire technological infrastructure of the Bitcoin network. Currently, an average of between 40 and 60 developers contribute to this task each month according to GitHub data. They decide voluntarily and independently when and how to contribute to the development of Bitcoin Core software on GitHub. In practice, over the years, there has been a rather high turnover within this developer community: it includes both historical developers dating back to the early versions of Bitcoin Core and many newcomers who joined more recently. Many historical developers have left over the years, while others have re-joined later, some operate consistently and regularly, while others sporadically. Within this group, which does not have a formalized hierarchy (and how could it, being Bitcoin an open-source project?), there are few key developers, namely those who oversee the community's work. After Wladimir van der Laan left the scene in 2022, the last Bitcoin's Lead Maintainer, there hasn't been a single coordinator for work on the Bitcoin Core code. Currently, the GitHub work is led by a board composed of four senior developers (Gennady Stepanov, Michael Ford, Andrew Chou, and Gloria Zhao), each specializing in overseeing a specific component of the client.
One might wonder if such a small and decentralized group of developers/maintainers contributing to the code today might be the Achilles' heel among Bitcoin's various subsystems, making the entire structure vulnerable to attack. A huge, complex, and highly valuable (not only economically) infrastructure like today's Bitcoin network relies on the often part-time and mostly unpaid work of a few passionate supporters and maintainers. On the one hand, it's true that individual nodes have the final say on the adoption of each new update/version of the Bitcoin Core client through the consensus mechanism. On the other hand, one might question how many nodes actually analyze the new code for vulnerabilities, harmful changes, or bugs before installing it.
What would happen if, hypothetically, gradual infiltrations of saboteurs occurred within the limited circle of Key Core developers and Maintainers, with the aim of first gaining trust and influence in the community and then hacking the new versions of the code? They could, for example, hide virtual time bombs within them (in the form of bugs or zero-day vulnerabilities). It's a Machiavellian and complex hypothesis to execute, but not impossible, especially if we consider a gradual, covert operation conducted by entities with significant financial, human, and technological resources at their disposal and with a strong motivation to disrupt the network, such as the intelligence service of a powerful state. What would be the consequences of such an operation on Bitcoin if it were successful? Probably quite serious, if not existential. It could unleash chaos among nodes that unwittingly implemented the corrupted update, leading to forced hard forks with effects on the stability, integrity, and trust in the Bitcoin network. What a technological brute force attack couldn't accomplish, social engineering aimed at dismantling consensus could. It's difficult to estimate the probability of success of such an attack on the Bitcoin Core code, but the small number of individuals overseeing its development and maintenance, and the relative lack of interest from the wider user community in their valuable work (and, last but not least, their remuneration), make this subsystem particularly vulnerable to a well-conceived attack.
When considering the realm of custodial and exchange services, the trend toward greater or lesser centralization isn't entirely clear-cut. While their numbers have soared since the early days of Bitcoin (think MtGOX), the lion's share of trading volumes against fiat currencies today remains concentrated among a select few major players (Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, OKX, Kraken, etc.). The risks stemming from excessive centralization in this specific subsystem aren't so much tied to the security of the Bitcoin network itself, but rather to its convertibility with fiat currencies and the security of those delegating custody (i.e., all those Bitcoin users entrusting their sats and hence their "physical" possession).
In the first scenario, heightened centralization (a reduction in the number of exchanges) would render the system more vulnerable to coordinated legal or cyberattacks aimed at disrupting and potentially severing the link between fiat currencies and Bitcoin. This follows the logic that fewer doors make for easier locking. In the second scenario, under an oligopolistic regime, those opting for custodial solutions instead of self-custody would face increased counterparty risk. This would result from the diminished bargaining power of users towards custodial counterparts, who could then impose more burdensome economic conditions and more oppressive clauses (for example, regarding access to custodied bitcoins) than they could in a competitive environment.
Moreover, with only a few large operators capable of controlling significant bitcoin quantities on behalf of their clients, the risk of abuses (such as non-consensual fractional reserve practices), hacking (the richer the target, the more appealing), and political-regulatory interference (including collusion with public authorities, excessive regulation, and bureaucratization) would be considerably higher compared to a more fragmented and competitive custodial system.
At the far end of this counterparty risk spectrum lies the possibility of a 6102 attack: the large-scale seizure of bitcoins held on exchanges and custodial wallets within a certain jurisdiction by legislative action. While this wouldn't directly impact the functioning of the Bitcoin network, it would likely undermine trust in Bitcoin as a secure means of payment and store of value among the general public, thereby jeopardizing its success as a free permissionless currency.
As for the hashrate/mining subsystem, we won't dwell on it extensively, since both the issues of its decentralization and the potential for 51% attacks have been thoroughly analyzed by far more authoritative sources than us. We'll simply recall the most common attack scenarios: double-spending attacks, selective transaction censorship and the empty block attack. The consequences of such attacks should not be underestimated, but they aren't necessarily existential for the network. There exists a substantial body of literature explaining the limitations of these types of attacks and the countermeasures that could be adopted by the consensus of nodes to thwart or at least effectively counteract them. …sviluppare..
Finally, turning to the hardware dimension (originally absent in the work of Balaji S. Srinivasan and Leland), we need to analyze the diversification of mining equipment in terms of manufacturers, models, and their respective market shares of Bitcoin's hashrate. It's undeniable that nowadays the number of hardware manufacturers for mining (ASICs) has significantly increased compared to the past. Major companies in the sector include Bitmain, Whatsminer, Canaan, Zhejiang Ebang Communication, Halong Mining, Helium, Bitfury, Bee Computing, and HIVE Blockchain. However, the total hashrate of miners is currently dominated by a few ASIC models and even fewer manufacturers. According to recent estimates by Coinmetrics, over 70% of the global hashrate is produced by ASICs from a single leading company, Bitmain. Additionally, including just three other manufacturers (Whatsminer, Canaan, and Ebang) accounts for virtually all of the computational power used by the Bitcoin network. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of the hashrate is generated by only seven ASIC models from these aforementioned companies: Antminer S19xp, Antminer S19jpro, Antminer S19, Canaan 1246, Antminer S17, MicroBT m20s, and MicroBT m32.
The risks of such centralization of hardware in terms of models and manufacturers are numerous. With very few large manufacturers, primarily now located in China, they could easily be compelled by governments and lawmakers of the jurisdictions they're subject to, to halt production in their facilities, hand over batches of manufactured hardware, or secretly infiltrate backdoor hardware and trojans into their ASIC models. The consequences would immediately impact the mining subsystem, causing instability and potentially a collapse in the network's hashrate, resulting in significant economic losses for miners using corrupted ASICs or those unable to acquire new ones. A significantly lower and prolonged hashrate would reduce the security of the entire network, as it would increase the chances of a 51% attack, perhaps precisely by the actor who initiated the hardware attack. Here, we see how an attack on one poorly decentralized subsystem can virtually weaken another and thus attack it in a dangerous chain reaction with dangerous consequences for the integrity of the Bitcoin network.
Given this non-exhaustive overview of the various subsystems of Bitcoin and their vulnerabilities, we can endeavor to synthesize the six dimensions into a single table. This table would measure the risk of centralization as a matrix between probability (P) and damage incidence (D, meaning the relevance of effects on the network), illustrating the dynamics toward increasing or decreasing centralization.
R=P*D
There are also other aspects of the decentralization/centralization dichotomy that cut across the six types just illustrated: geographical (jurisdictions) and economic (economic entities). Geographical decentralization addresses the question: where are the nodes, wallets, exchanges/custodians, and miners physically and legally located? Economic decentralization, on the other hand, concerns the economic ownership of these entities: for example, who owns the mining pools? Or who controls the exchanges? The geographical and economic aspects may seem overlapping at first glance, but in reality, they are not at all. For instance, there could be a Bitcoin ecosystem where there are many independent miners, but all located within the same jurisdiction and thus subject to the same political-legal risk. Here, economic/ownership centralization would be low, while geographical centralization would be very high. Conversely, there could be many miner factories scattered across the globe but controlled by the same economic entity and therefore effectively considered as a single point of failure. The same argument could equally apply to nodes, hardware or bitcoin ownership. In a world dominated by states and large corporations, neglecting these factors can be fatal. The mere number of participants in a Bitcoin subsystem tells us little about decentralization if they are mostly concentrated in a single jurisdiction or subject to the same economic control. Therefore, both the qualitative geographical parameter and the economic parameter should be integrated into any attempt to measure the degree of decentralization of the Bitcoin network.
The recent emergence of Bitcoin ETFs in the US market may have a considerable impact on the decentralization of the network, particularly concerning the Custodial/Exchanges subsystem. While investing in an ETF significantly simplifies access to bitcoin performance compared to other fiduciary solutions, this option doubles (if not triples) the counterparty risks for investors. Those who "invest in bitcoin" through an ETF do not actually possess or own the assets; they are subject to both the counterparty risk of the ETF manager and that of the Custodial/Depository to which the ETF relies on (if the manager does not opt for an unlikely self-custody), as well as the risk of the intermediary/broker through which they acquire the instrument. In practice, the adage "Not your keys, Not your coins" reduces to a simple "Not Your Coins, goodbye" especially in the case of an hypothetical 6102 attack applied on ETFs.
On a macro level, the same arguments made for custodial/exchange entities apply to passive funds on Bitcoin: the more they are utilized by institutional and retail investors as a form of "investment in bitcoin," the more bitcoin is absorbed into their masses. Consequently, their coercive power over users and contractual (i.e., economic) power over other subsystems of the Bitcoin Network increase. If a specific Bitcoin ETF were to acquire a significant (if not dominant) market share of circulating bitcoin over time and systematically use its proceeds to subsidize developers of the Bitcoin Core client, it could influence their actions, guide client implementations, and thus the development direction of the entire network towards its desires. This would be a case where the centralization of one dimension (that of custodians through ETFs) leads to the centralization of a much more vital dimension: that of developers discussed earlier.
This is a guest post by Michele Uberti. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have been something of a pleasant surprise. They make videos, take photos, livestream and act as an adequate replacement for headphones, all while looking like a normal pair of sunglasses. However, everyone’s been waiting for the addition of multimodal AI after early access testing began in January. Now it’s here.
What is multimodal AI? Simply put, it’s a toolset that allows an AI assistant to process multiple types of information, including photos, videos, text and audio. It’s an AI that can view and understand the world around you in real time. This is the underlying concept behind Humane’s maligned AI Pin. Meta’s version is more conservative with its promises and, honestly, we came away impressed during our initial hands-on.
Multimodal Meta AI is rolling out widely on Ray-Ban Meta starting today! It's a huge advancement for wearables & makes using AI more interactive & intuitive.
— Ahmad Al-Dahle (@Ahmad_Al_Dahle) April 23, 2024
Excited to share more on our multimodal work w/ Meta AI (& Llama 3), stay tuned for more updates coming soon. pic.twitter.com/DLiCVriMfk
Here’s how it works. The glasses have a camera and five microphones, acting as the AI’s eyes and ears. With this in mind, you can ask the glasses to describe anything you are looking at. Do you want to know a dog’s breed before you go up and give it a good pet? Just ask the glasses. Meta says it can also read signs in different languages, which is great for traveling. We enjoyed exclaiming “Hey Meta, look at this and tell me what it says” and listening as it did just that. There’s even a landmark identification feature, though that wasn’t available to test.
There are some other potential use case scenarios, like staring at loose ingredients on a kitchen counter and asking the AI to whip up a relevant recipe. However, we need a few weeks of real people running the tech through its paces to gauge what it's actually good at. Real-time translation is going to be something of a killer app, particularly for tourists, but here's hoping it keeps the hallucinations to a minimum. Mark Zuckerberg has shown the AI picking out clothes for him to wear but, come on, that’s about as pie in the sky as it gets.
Multimodal AI wasn’t the only update for the smart glasses announced today. Meta revealed hands-free video call integration with WhatsApp and Messenger. There are also some new frame designs for the fashion-conscious. These new styles can be fitted with prescription lenses and are available for preorder right now. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses start at $300, which isn’t chump change but is certainly better than $700 for a clunky pin.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/0FWiqXLPomelo, a startup that combines international money transfer with credit, has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Dubai venture firm Vy Capital, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Additionally, the company is announcing a $75 million expansion of its warehouse facility. Founders Fund and A* Capital also participated in the financing, along with […]
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Are you looking for the best low stress jobs? If you currently dread going to work and are looking for something new, here’s where to start.
If your current job is too stressful, you may be thinking about switching to something less intense. Lots of jobs pay well without making you feel anxious or burned out all the time.
Whether you’re making online content, helping people get fit as a personal trainer, or organizing medical records, there are many options for a job that helps you stay calm and relaxed.
Recommended reading: 40 Best Jobs Where You Work Alone
There are many low stress jobs listed below. If you want to skip the list, here are some jobs that you may want to start learning more about first:
Below are the best low stress jobs.
Note: While these jobs are low stress for some, they may not be for all. There may be a certain aspect of it that may make it low stress for you, such as being able to work alone, being able to work from home, having a flexible schedule, or doing something that you enjoy. But, nearly all jobs have some sort of stress that is a part of the job, so that is something to keep in mind. And, that doesn’t mean that these jobs are easy. Many of the jobs below are still quite difficult, requiring schooling (even getting your doctorate degree!) and hard work.
If you enjoy writing and sharing ideas, becoming a blogger might be the perfect low stress job for you.
As a blogger, you have the freedom to create content on topics that interest you. Whether it’s personal finance, cooking, travel, tech, or any hobby, your blog is a space to express yourself.
I started my blog, Making Sense of Cents, in 2011 without much planning. I just wanted to talk about my own experiences with money. Surprisingly, since then, I’ve made over $5,000,000 from it. And now, blogging is my main job!
I really enjoy being able to blog full-time, and it’s much less stressful than the previous day job I had. But, it is still running my own business, so there are other stresses that come along with that, of course.
But, there are many positives as well! I can work alone, I get to make my own schedule, I am my own boss, I get to do the work that I choose to do, and I can work from home. I have an amazing work-life balance, and I wouldn’t trade this job for anything else.
So, what’s a blog? Well, it’s like what you’re reading now – it’s writing on a website. You can write a blog about something you really like, something you know a lot about, or even something you want to learn more about. People like to read blogs because they get to follow along with someone’s real experiences and journeys!
You can learn how to start a blog with my free How To Start a Blog Course (sign up by clicking here).
Selling digital printables online is a great way to work from home with less stress and make money.
Creating printables can be a less stressful job because you only need to make one digital file for each product, and then you can sell it many times. It’s also not expensive to start because all you need is a laptop or computer and an internet connection.
Plus, you can do all of this from home and on your own time.
Printables are things you can get on the internet and print at home. They could be games for a bridal shower, lists for groceries, planners for managing money, invites for events, quotes you can hang on your wall, or designs you can use for crafting.
I recommend signing up for Free Training: How To Earn Money Selling Printables. This free workshop will give you ideas on what types of printables you can sell, how to get started, the costs of starting a printables business, and how to make money.
Do you want to make money selling printables online? This free training will give you great ideas on what you can sell, how to get started, the costs, and how to make sales.
Bookkeepers handle money matters for businesses, and they write down sales, keep track of expenses, and create financial reports.
This job allows you to work independently, earning a typical salary of $40,000 or more each year. You’ll mainly work with numbers instead of interacting with people.
Many bookkeepers like their jobs because they work regular hours and don’t have as much pressure as some other jobs.
You don’t need a college degree to start as a bookkeeper either. This is something that you can learn to get started, as there are no education requirements.
You can join the free workshop that focuses on finding virtual bookkeeping jobs and how to begin your own freelance bookkeeping business by signing up for free here.
Recommended reading: How To Find Online Bookkeeping Jobs
This free training will teach you what you need to know to become a virtual bookkeeper and make money from home.
If you already enjoy reading articles or books and spotting errors, then you may find this job interesting.
A proofreader’s main task is to read content and look for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. They’re the last line of defense, ensuring that everything reads perfectly before it goes out into the world. Many proofreaders enjoy the flexibility this job has, as they can often set their own hours and work from where they feel most comfortable.
Many writers, website owners, and students hire proofreaders to improve their work. There’s a big demand for proofreaders, and you can find jobs on different sites.
Even the best writers can make errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. That’s why hiring a proofreader can be extremely helpful for almost everyone.
In fact, I have a proofreader for my blog. Even though I write all day long, I know that it is very important to have a proofreader go through everything that I write.
If you want to become a proofreader, I recommend joining this free 76-minute workshop focused on proofreading. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to begin your own freelance proofreading business.
Recommended reading: 20 Best Online Proofreading Jobs For Beginners (Earn $40,000+ A Year).
This free 76-minute workshop answers all of the most common questions about how to become a proofreader, and even talks about the 5 signs that proofreading could be a perfect fit for you.
Transcriptionists listen to recordings and type out what they hear.
Becoming a transcriptionist is a low stress job if you’re looking for flexibility in terms of work schedules and the comfort of working from your own space.
Online transcriptionists typically earn between $15 to $30 per hour on average, with new transcribers usually starting at the lower end of that range.
A helpful free training to take is Free Workshop: Is a Career in Transcription Right for You? You’ll learn how to get started as a transcriptionist, how you can find transcription work, and more.
Recommended reading: 18 Best Online Transcription Jobs For Beginners To Make $2,000 Monthly
In this free training, you will learn what transcription is, why it’s a highly in-demand skill, who hires transcriptionists, how to become a transcriptionist, and more.
A software developer is a person who designs, creates, tests, and keeps up software applications, systems, and programs. They’re good at programming languages and frameworks, using their skills to make solutions that meet specific needs or solve problems.
Software developers work in different fields like technology, finance, healthcare, and entertainment. They work with other team members like designers, engineers, and project managers to finish software projects well and meet the needs of users.
I know many software developers who enjoy what they do. While it is a hard job, many of them are able to work from home, travel whenever they want, and they tend to enjoy solving complex technical issues.
Other less stressful jobs in a related field include becoming a computer systems analyst, software architect, computer hardware engineer, and web developer. For these jobs, you may need a bachelor’s degree in software engineering, computer science, or a related field.
If you’re looking for a stress-free job that lets you help others, think about being a massage therapist. Massage therapists use their hands to ease pain, help people relax, and help people feel less stressed.
Massage therapy might be a little less stressful for you because the atmosphere at work is usually calm (after all, that’s why people are going there – to relax!), and you don’t bring work home with you (so, no late night phone calls from clients!).
Massage therapists usually work in places like spas, wellness centers, or chiropractic clinics. Some may also have their own private businesses or have mobile services, which lets them have a more flexible schedule and be their own boss.
To become a massage therapist, you will need to go to school for massage therapy and pass a state exam. This typically takes around 6 months to 2 years to complete (it depends on the state you live in).
Personal trainers help people with their fitness and being more healthy, which can mean creating workout plans, motivating them to work out, or showing the right way to lift weights.
Personal trainers work in a gym, hospital, or even go solo as a freelancer.
This job has some flexibility, which is something that many personal trainers like. You get to choose who you train, where you work, and when you have sessions. Plus, you’re not stuck at a desk all day, which keeps things fresh and fun.
Dental hygienists clean teeth, check for things like cavities or gum disease, and teach patients the best ways to brush and floss.
You can start this career with an associate’s degree, which usually takes about two years to finish. Plus, you may be able to make over $75,000 a year as a dental hygienist.
If you’re in the job search for low stress jobs in healthcare, then becoming a medical records technician may be for you.
Medical records technicians handle health information data, and they make sure that all the records (both electronic health records and paper files), such as patient history, test results, and treatments, are accurate, accessible, and secure.
It’s low stress because, unlike some roles in medicine, you won’t be on the front lines dealing with emergencies. Your work environment is typically calm, allowing you to focus on your tasks without the pressure of patient care.
To become a medical records technician, you typically only need a high school diploma, but some employers may want to see a certificate related to the field or higher education.
An optometrist is an eye doctor who helps people see better. They check your eyes, find out if you need glasses, and help keep your eyes healthy.
You may like being an eye doctor because:
Plus, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for optometrists is over $125,000 a year, and there is expected to be a 9% job growth outlook over the next decade.
Physicists study the laws and principles that govern the universe, like gravity and motion, and how they apply to everyday life.
Most physicists work in research and development. Some work in offices, while others spend time in laboratories. There are also those who teach at universities.
The job comes with a reasonable stress level, as physicists frequently engage in deep thinking rather than dealing with tight deadlines or high-stress situations, and they typically conduct research. This can make for a fulfilling and low-pressure work environment if you enjoy physics.
To be a physicist, you will likely need a Ph.D. That means a lot of school, but it’s worth it if you love science and discovery.
Being a statistician might be a perfect choice for your career if you love numbers and data.
Statisticians analyze data and identify patterns, such as by taking a bunch of numbers and turning them into useful information that companies can use to make decisions. Statisticians also might collect data from surveys and experiments.
Statisticians usually have pretty regular hours and it’s normally a quiet place to work, so you can focus just on your tasks without a bunch of noise. Plus, it’s not a job that is typically rushed, so you can take your time.
If you love numbers and problems that make you think, a related field to the above may be becoming a mathematician.
Mathematicians use mathematics to unravel patterns and address significant questions.
Mathematicians are needed in many different fields like academia, government, finance, and technology.
In academia, they work as professors and researchers, studying both theoretical and practical math ideas. Government agencies like NASA and the NSA hire mathematicians for jobs like exploring space and analyzing statistics. Financial companies hire mathematicians to make algorithms for things like evaluating risk, pricing items, and creating trading strategies. Also, big tech companies like Google and Microsoft use mathematicians to develop algorithms and analyze data.
Becoming a librarian is a great job for someone who likes quiet places and books.
Being a librarian is not just about checking out books. It’s a role that’s all about helping people find information and enjoy reading.
Your main job as a librarian would be to help people find the books or online resources they need. You also get to put together fun programs, like story time for kids or book clubs. Keeping the library in tip-top shape is part of your work too, like putting books back on the shelves, managing schedules for employees and volunteers, and making sure everything is where it belongs.
Libraries are usually calm and quiet, which can make it stress-free for you. This makes your workplace quite relaxing, which is great if loud and busy spots make you feel stressed. Plus, you get to have a regular schedule.
Most librarian jobs need a bachelor’s degree at the minimum and sometimes, you will most likely need a master’s degree in library science (MLS) from an accredited program.
Librarians work in many places, such as public libraries, schools, law firms, universities, and more.
One of the best high-paying jobs for people who don’t like stress is becoming an orthodontist.
An orthodontist is a specialized dentist who focuses on fixing teeth and jaw alignment problems. They help patients get straighter smiles and better oral health using treatments like braces, clear aligners, and retainers.
Orthodontists get extra training after dental school to become experts in diagnosing and treating issues like misaligned bites and other dental problems.
By carefully checking each patient, orthodontists make personalized plans to straighten teeth properly, leading to better-looking smiles and improved function of the teeth and jaws.
Being an orthodontist can be pretty low stress since they usually have a set schedule, seeing patients for regular appointments instead of dealing with sudden dental emergencies.
Becoming a groundskeeper or a gardener could be a great fit for you if you like being outside and want a stress-free job. You get to work with plants and make outdoor spaces look beautiful. This job is perfect if you’re looking for something that lets you enjoy fresh air and doesn’t have you sitting at a desk all day.
Here are some things that a groundskeeper or gardener may do:
This is one of the best low stress jobs because it is usually quiet, which makes it great for people who get overwhelmed by noisy places.
Recommended reading: 15 Outdoor Jobs For People Who Love Being Outside
Audiologists help people with their hearing, and this includes testing hearing, picking out hearing aids, and teaching people how to use them.
This is typically a low stress career choice because you get to work in an office and do similar tasks each day. You are not usually rushing around, instead you have a lot of calm one-on-one time with patients.
Audiologists work in different places like hospitals, clinics, private practices, schools, and research institutions.
Becoming a pet sitter is a great job if you like animals and enjoy caring for them. This is a job that doesn’t typically have a lot of stress because it is not fast-paced. Plus, if you like pets, then you probably enjoy being around them, which can make the job fun.
A pet sitter’s main job is to look after pets while their owners are away. This might mean feeding them, giving them water, and playing with them. It’s important to make sure the pet feels happy and safe when their owner isn’t home.
You might have pets come to your home, or you can go to their owners’ place (this is something that is agreed upon beforehand). Dog walkers typically earn around $20 for every hour they spend walking a dog. Taking care of someone’s pet overnight can earn a person around $25 to $100 or even more each day.
I have used many pet sitters over the years for my dogs, and they all seemed to love what they do. Plus, my mother-in-law is a pet sitter as well, and she enjoys her time with the dogs that she takes care of.
Stock photo photographers take photos of things like people, businesses, animals, and more, and sell them for other people to use.
Stock image sites are some of the most popular platforms for photographers to sell their pictures. These websites allow customers to purchase images for purposes such as websites, TV shows, books, and social media accounts. You can take a look at some of the stock photos I’ve purchased within this blog post as examples.
Stock photo photographers typically work by themselves, and this job can be done without much interaction with others. Most of the tasks involve using a camera and then uploading photos to a website.
As a stock picture photographer, you get to set your own schedule. This means you can choose when and where you work.
One great thing about stock photo sites is that they can be a great form of passive income. You can take pictures, upload them, and continue to earn money from those photos for months or even years into the future. Since everything is online and mostly automated, there’s no need to talk with anyone directly.
Recommended reading: 18 Ways You Can Get Paid To Take Pictures
Freelance writers create content for clients, including blog posts, advertising materials, and more.
It’s common for freelance writers to work independently, receiving topics from clients and submitting their completed work. Occasionally, they may receive feedback, such as suggestions for improvement, but this is usually the extent of human interaction they’ll have.
This is one of the best low stress jobs from home where you work alone.
I have been a freelance writer for many years and I enjoy this job a lot. I get to work from home, make my own hours, work alone, and choose the topics that I write about.
Recommended reading: 14 Places To Find Freelance Writing Jobs As A Beginner
A graphic designer is someone who creates designs for individuals and businesses.
They create things such as images, printables, planners, T-shirt designs, calendars, business cards, social media graphics, stickers, logos, and more.
Graphic designers tend to have the freedom to set their own schedules, especially if they work as a freelancer. This job allows you to work at your own pace, and most of the time, you don’t have to deal with rush hour traffic or crowds since a lot of graphic designers can work from home.
We’ve all been to a hairstylist, so I don’t think I need to describe this job too, too much. Hairstylists cut, style, and take care of hair.
Hair styling is lower stress because you work with clients in a relaxed setting. Also, you don’t have to sit at a desk all day – you move around and talk with people.
Plus, you can set up your day the way you like it. If you want, you can take breaks between clients. This means you won’t feel rushed and can enjoy your work more.
Social media managers engage with people online and share news, pictures, and videos on behalf of a company.
You may find this to be a low stress job because you mostly type on a computer or phone as a social media manager. So, if talking in front of people makes you nervous, this could be the perfect job. Plus, you can often work from home.
One of my first side gigs was working as a virtual assistant, and it was both enjoyable and flexible for earning income.
While you have a boss as a VA, many of the tasks you handle will require you to take the lead and complete them independently, usually from your own home.
A virtual assistant is someone who assists people with office tasks remotely, whether from home or while traveling. This could involve tasks such as responding to emails, scheduling appointments, and managing social media accounts.
Recommended reading: Best Ways To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs
This is one of the least stressful jobs.
If you have a business, it’s important to keep it clean and neat. No one likes seeing trash scattered about when they’re shopping, correct?
That’s why some business owners pay someone to tidy up before their business opens. A clean space makes the place look inviting and pleasant for customers.
This low stress job without a degree can be started all by yourself, and you can earn around $30 to $50 for every hour you work. It’s quite straightforward too. All you’ll need is a broom, a dustpan, and some tools to help you pick up litter more easily.
People like this job because they can work alone and it’s easy to clean an area up.
Recommended reading: How I Started A $650,000 Per Year Litter Cleanup Business
Economists examine how goods and services are made, shared, and used within an economy. They use different tools, like math and stats, to grasp and predict economic patterns and actions.
Economists might work for the government, giving advice to policymakers on things like money policies and taxes. They also help businesses by explaining market trends, so they can make good decisions about prices, production, and investments.
A somewhat related field to this would be becoming an economics professor.
Astronomers study objects and events in space beyond Earth’s atmosphere, like stars, planets, galaxies, and cosmic happenings such as black holes and supernovas.
They use a mix of observations, data analysis, and theoretical models to learn about the origins, changes, and behaviors of these objects. Astronomers usually use advanced telescopes, both on the ground and in space, to observe and gather data from far-off parts of the universe.
They also work with physicists, mathematicians, and engineers to create new technologies and tools for exploring space. Through their work, astronomers help us understand big questions about the universe, like how old it is, what it’s made of, and what will happen to it in the future.
Unlike many jobs, being an astronomer means regular hours with few surprises. Plus, the quiet of a lab or observatory is perfect for staying focused and calm.
Actuaries assess and handle financial risks by using math and stats to analyze data and forecast future events.
They mainly work for insurance companies, pension funds, and financial consulting firms. Actuaries examine how likely events like death, illness, accidents, and natural disasters are to happen, and what impact they could have on insurance policies and pension plans.
Based on their analysis, they help create insurance policies, decide on premiums, and suggest investment plans to make sure these financial products stay stable and have enough coverage for customers.
If you enjoy numbers and are looking for a job that’s pretty easy on stress, becoming an actuary could be a smart move. Actuaries help businesses look into the future and protect against loss.
If you’re interested in a career in the medical field that is both high-paying and considered to have lower stress, you might want to think about becoming a radiologist.
Radiologists specialize in diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques like X-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine. They analyze images to find any abnormalities and give detailed reports to other doctors, helping with patient diagnosis and treatment plans.
Radiologists work closely with other healthcare professionals to make sure they understand the imaging results and can provide the best care for patients.
Data entry is one of the easiest low stress jobs without a degree needed.
Data entry clerks input, edit, and verify data in databases or spreadsheets. They enter details like numbers and names into computers to maintain organization and records.
This job can often be done remotely and independently, with little supervision or interaction with customers. For some people, this is key to having a stress-free job, and I completely get it – this is what I want as well!
Data entry positions generally pay around $15 to $20 per hour.
Recommended reading: 15 Places To Find Data Entry Jobs From Home
If you love helping others relax and stay fit, being a yoga instructor could be the perfect job for you if you want to find fun low stress jobs.
Yoga instructors lead classes and sessions in practicing yoga, a holistic discipline involving physical postures, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, and meditation.
They help students through different yoga poses, focusing on correct alignment, breath control, and mindfulness. Yoga instructors create a welcoming environment where students of all levels can explore and improve their practice.
A dietitian talks to clients about their eating habits and helps figure out the best way to eat healthy.
Being a dietitian is usually not too stressful. You get to chat with people one-on-one or in small groups. You don’t have to rush around or handle dangerous equipment.
They can work in places such as hospitals, clinics, schools, community health centers, and food service establishments.
Below are answers to common questions about how to find low stress jobs.
The least stressful job will depend on your personality, as everyone is different. Some less stressful jobs include writing online, gardening, selling printables, and data entry. For me, I really like blogging, and I think it’s a great stress-free career that you can do at home.
If you want a peaceful job that doesn’t have a lot of stress, then I recommend first thinking about what you would find peaceful in a career, such as by looking for jobs with fewer deadlines and less contact with lots of people. Jobs where you can set your own pace, like a blogger or a freelancer, tend to have a peaceful workday. Think about what makes you feel calm, and then look for jobs that match that feeling.
Some jobs that are pretty easygoing and also pay well include orthodontist and optometrist. These jobs usually have regular hours and don’t need you to rush around. Plus, they pay more than enough to help you save for those things you love to buy.
Working from home can be really laid back when you’re doing something like freelance writing, blogging, transcribing, or graphic design. You can pick the jobs you want and work when it suits you best.
If you’re quiet or introverted, then you might be interested in jobs where you can work solo or with just a few people. Jobs like a bookkeeper, transcriptionist, or data entry let you focus on your work without having to talk to many people.
Some of the most stressful jobs include being a nurse, police officer, surgeon, social worker, anesthesiologist, firefighter, lawyer, airline pilot, paramedic, and in the military.
I hope you enjoyed this article on the best low stress jobs.
Nowadays, people are realizing how important it is to balance work and personal life and to take care of their mental health while lessening their anxiety about work. Some occupations, like software development and data entry, have this balance and a sense of calm.
Professionals such as dental hygienists, librarians, and dietitians also enjoy low stress roles with predictable schedules.
You don’t have to give up peace of mind to have a career. By thinking about what you’re good at and what you enjoy, you can find jobs that meet your goals while keeping stress levels low.
For me, I personally love having a career that has low stress. While it is still hard, I love that I can work from home, choose the work I do, and have a flexible schedule – all things that help me be less anxious and happier about the work that I do.
What do you think is the best low stress job?
Recommended reading:
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Are you looking for the best low stress jobs? If you currently dread going to work and are looking for something new, here’s where to start. If your current job is too stressful, you may be thinking about switching to something less intense. Lots of jobs pay well without making you feel anxious or burned...
The post 33 Low Stress Jobs To Make More Money appeared first on Making Sense Of Cents.
Mon, 01 Apr 2024 10:33:00 +00002024-04-01T10:33:00.000Z