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The Genesis Block Edition

 

Welcome to the first edition of The Bitkiwi Brief!

 

The New Zealand Bitcoin community is growing, and growing fast.

 

Meetups are sprouting up, companies are popping up, services are coming available, Bitcoiners are connecting with each other, it’s clear that Bitcoin is happening in New Zealand!

 

We’ve started this newsletter to give readers a sense of what’s going on in the New Zealand Bitcoin community, and to help grow that community as fast as we can.

 

Every month we’ll bring you some Bitcoin news, talk about notable events and people in New Zealand Bitcoin, tell you about interesting things we’ve come across, and more.

 

So LFG.

News

 

The Halving

The halving came, it went, and the party rolls on!  

The halving happened. Bitcoin didn’t break. The supply of new Bitcoin officially dropped to below that of gold.

 

Approx 1450 days ‘til the next halving.

 

Tick tock.  

 

Fees

 

The halving bought a rush of transactions through some weird thing called Runes, pumping fees to crazy levels. UTXO consolidation activity screeched to a halt. Clueless shitcoiners starting talking about coffee again.

 

The fees and their root cause has been dominating the Bitcoin discourse, with fierce debates over the likes of ordinals/runes, mainchain ossification, and other related fights.

 

But more excitingly, and in line with previous high-fee phases, we’re seeing a lot of chat around new ideas and second layer innovations. This is what pushes Bitcoin forward.

 

The Halving Party

 

We celebrated the halving with a Bitkiwi Halving Party in Wellington, and it was bloody good. A few of us got together and saw in block 840k earlier in the day, then a whole heap came in at 7pm for the party proper.

 

The lightning network was cranking, Bitcoiners were yarning, cake was eaten, prizes were given away, it was a great time.

 

Here’s a few highlights.

 

Thanks for coming out everyone, see you at our next event!

 

Hong Kong ETFs

 

Bitcoin ETF operations have commenced in Hong Kong.

 

More fiat scratching at the Bitcoin door to be let in… oh alright, go on, get inside then.

 

Lightning Pay

 

Wait, what? A legit, lightning-based Bitcoin-only exchange, here in New Zealand???

 

It would seem so, my fellow plebeians and maximillians.

 

There’s a lot of great feedback coming from the people using it so far. Fast, easy and cheap, seems to be the chat. The guys running it are great blokes and bloody smart, so we didn’t expect anything less, but we’re super impressed with the product so far. Keep it up lads!

 

They have an interesting roadmap leading to bigger things, this is a pretty exciting development to follow in the NZ Bitcoin community!

Buy Bitcoin sign SOLD

This man may or may not own a home, but he does own some history.

Remember the guy who famously held up the “Buy Bitcoin” sign behind Janet Yellen?

 

He auctioned it off. For 16 Bitcoin.

 

He wore the same outfit he wore when he held it up.

 

The guy who bought it refused an uber and carried it home with him on the subway.

 

God I love Bitcoin.

Legal and Regulatory shenanigans

The FBI issued a warning about using “unregistered cryptocurrency money transmitting services that fail to comply with U.S. anti-money laundering laws”, along with some vague definitions of “money transmitters” that prompted a fresh batch of quality memes in the Bitcoin community.  

 

Some serious stuff went down with Samurai, with founders being arrested for money-laundering and their website seized, and Phoenix also announced their exit from the US market.

 

Overall some fairly dark news for our American Bitcoin friends.

 

This tweet was pointed out to us, showing a flurry of this type of activity at the moment, particularly in the US.

Spotlight on…

 

James Viggiano

 

Twitter: @jamesviggy
Nostr: npub17fd0kcnufx7lyu5dlvaw8rzrr2rahmwkqudmesxk7hfwnr2scmnszjc538

 

James has been involved in the New Zealand Bitcoin community for a number of years and is a driving force behind many developments including Orangemart, a fun, engaging and educational Bitcoin survival game, that operates within the RUST ecosystem. Orangemart has been described as a “virtual 24/7 bitcoin meetup”.

 

James is extremely humble and awesome to talk to about all things bitcoin. His technical prowess always impresses, he's happy to explain the latest tools and innovations, and is incredibly knowledgeable in Bitcoin theory and philosophy.  Another strength of James' is his insightful knowledge of politics and what it would take to paint Parliament orange!

 

You can hear James talk Bitcoin here;

 

The Transformation of Value: Episode 63

The Transformation of Value: Episode 31

 

And here’s a link to find out more about OrangeMart.

Learn something

The Kiwi Bitcoin Guide

 

The Kiwi Bitcoin Guide is a great open source community project providing Bitcoin resources to New Zealanders, and links and information to things going on in the New Zealand Bitcoin community. A great place to go for New Zealand Bitcoin information.

 

Runes/Ordinals/BRC-20 Explanation

 

No idea what all this carry-on is about? This thread explained it bloody well in our opinion!

 

Kiwis were the original Laser Eyes!

 

Tip said it. It’s true. We came with receipts.  

 

Book Chat

 

Got myself a copy of Lyn Alden’s Broken Money and enjoying it so far. I’ve heard great things from others so am very excited to get this one in the brain. The beginning has been giving a great historical account of trade and monetary history, but a few thousand years and a few hundred pages to go yet, will keep you updated!

 

In terms of a recommendation that I’ve actually finished, give The Blocksize Wars by Jonathan Bier a go. For those of us not around Bitcoin during that period it’s a fascinating blow-by-blow account of what went down, and an uplifting story that shows you where the power in Bitcoin really lies. I also found it taught me a lot about how Bitcoin works in general, a great read.

Events and Meetups

 

Bitkiwi X

We’re thick in the planning for our next event, Bitkiwi X, scheduled for July 20th at 1pm, in Christchurch.

 

Can’t wait to hang out with the Honey Badgers down there! We had an awesome event there last year, and this one will be even better.

We’ve got a specific idea about this one that requires the right venue, so we’re just figuring that out and checking out a couple of places at the moment.

 

Announcements will be coming soon. Save the date! Book your travel!

 

As always, Bitkiwi events are free and open to all, so no need to RSVP!

Bitkiwi XI

Bitkiwi XI is locked in for October 26th, 1pm, at the Fork and Brewer in Wellington.

 

Bitkiwi events are held quarterly, with two per year in Wellington, one in Queenstown, and one that we cycle around different New Zealand cities.

In October we return to our old haunt, the Fork and Brewer, on Bond Street.

The event is free and open to all, as always, and you will be able to use Lightning to buy drinks and various bits of Bitcoin merchandise, including our famous Bitkiwi T-shirts!

 

Look forward to catching up with you all again!

NZ Local Bitcoin Meetups

Go to a local Bitcoin meetup! Meet your local plebs and maxis!

There are some great Bitcoin Meetups around the country, all run by awesome Bitcoiners we’ve met at Bitkiwi events. Here’s a few we know of;

Auckland Plebs

Location: Auckland

Frequency: Monthly

Venue: To be confirmed

Organiser: Twitter @aklbtcclub

Next Meetup: May 25th, time and venue TBC

Taranaki Bitcoiners

Location: Taranaki

Frequency: Monthly

Venue: Various

Next Meetup: May 9th, 7pm, Hot Friday’s Bar, Victoria Street, Hawera

Links: Meetup.com and Facebook

Bitcoin Wellington

Location: Wellington

Frequency: Monthly

Venue: Boneface Tavern, Pirie Street, Wellington

Organiser: Twitter @BitcoinWelly

Next Meetup: May 1st, 6 - 8pm, Boneface Tavern, Pirie Street, Wellington

Links: Meetup.com

The Christchurch Bitcoin Meetup

Location: Christchurch

Frequency: Weekly

Venue: Bar Yoku, Welles Street, Christchurch

Next Meetup: Every Wednesday, 7pm, Bar Yoku, Welles Street, Christchurch

Links: Meetup.com

Queenstown Bitcoiners

Location: Queenstown

Frequency: Monthly

Venue: World Bar, Church Street, Queenstown

Next Meetup: May 10th, 5.30pm, World Bar, Church Street, Queenstown

Links: Meetup.com and Facebook

‘Til next time Laser Kiwis!

 

Thanks for consuming our Genesis Block, hope you enjoyed it!

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We’re interested in your feedback and we’d like to hear from you if you have something you think could go in The Bitkiwi Brief.

 

Thanks for reading, see you next month!