Aaron van Wirdum

Utrecht

Editor-in-chief at @BitcoinMagazine | Author of The Genesis Book | Nostr #npub1art8cs66ffvnqns5zs5qa9fwlctmusj5lj38j94lv0ulw0j54wjqhpm0w5

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Articles

Forget About The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve For A Moment - Mining Censorship Is Back

2 months ago | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

The news got buried in part due to Trump’s inauguration and subsequent rumblings of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR), but developer b10c recently published research showing that F2Pool — a mining pool representing ~11% of hash power on the Bitcoin network — is censoring OFAC-sanctioned transactions… again.
Donald Trump Did The Right Thing By Freeing Ross Ulbricht

Jan 23, 2025 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

Technically, Donald Trump broke his campaign promise by not freeing Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht on day one of his presidency. (No, inauguration day is not “day zero.”) But as I explained in my previous Take, I wasn’t expecting a literal first day pardon anyways. Even day two exceeds my expectations. Trump delivered, and I’m very glad he did. When I first heard about Silk Road in early 2013, I was immediately intrigued by the concept of buying and selling drugs anonymously online.
Trump Did Not Free Ross On Day One Because Of Course He Didn’t

Jan 21, 2025 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

I’m not here to say “I told you so.”In my Take from October 4, I did write that Donald Trump does not give a damn about Bitcoin, and in my Take from November 5 I wrote he just wants in on the crypto scam. But I didn’t mention Ross Ulbricht in either of these, largely because even I expected Trump to at least follow through on his promise to free Ross. It’s an easy promise to keep, without any real downside for Trump; after more than ten years in prison Ulbricht deserves to be free.
X Is Fiat

Jan 15, 2025 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

In his Take from yesterday, Frank invited bitcoiners to join Nostr: “The world’s biggest bitcoin circular economy.” I fully endorse this invitation; Nostr aligns much better with Bitcoin’s original values than — specifically — Elon Musk’s X. In much the same way that the money in your bank account isn’t really yours, your posts on X aren’t either — in contrast, your Nostr posts are connected to your own public key.
The lack of soft forks is due to a lack of interest- not a lack of process

Dec 2, 2024 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

As I explained in a Take two weeks ago, I think the threat (or promise, depending on your perspective) of protocol ossification is somewhat exaggerated, at least at this point in time. Yes, the rate of soft forks has slowed down significantly over the years, the last one having been Taproot in 2021.
Gary Gensler’s Departure Is No Triumph For Bitcoin

Nov 22, 2024 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

As I’ve explained previously, I don’t think Donald Trump actually gives a damn about Bitcoin; at best, he’s a shitcoiner who wants in on the scam. Having said that, it is fair to say that Trump adopted a pro-crypto stance during his campaign. And indeed, his promise at Bitcoin 2024 to fire Gary Gensler on “day one” of his presidency seems to have already resulted in the SEC chairman announcing his resignation.
No, BlackRock Won’t Ossify Bitcoin

Nov 15, 2024 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

In his Take from Wednesday, Shinobi argued that the surge of institutional bitcoin adoption will lead to premature ossification of the Bitcoin protocol. While I share this concern to an extent, I am less convinced this is necessarily true. Bitcoin is inherently a permissionsless system. For protocol changes specifically, it “just” requires users to upgrade their software. And when it comes to deploying soft forks, it really only needs a majority of miners to upgrade.
Trump’s Coin Is About As Revolutionary As OneCoin

Nov 4, 2024 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

After these classy gold sneakers and his God Bless the USA Bible, Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency World Liberty Financial (WLFI) immediately appeared to me like yet another way to squeeze some more money out of his fanbase. But when YouTuber Coffeezilla analyzed the project in more detail, what he found was even more ridiculous than what I was expecting. For starters (though unsurprisingly), WLFI is completely pre-mined.
No, Today Is Not Bitcoin’s Birthday

Oct 30, 2024 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

Some things in Bitcoin are just not up for debate. The plural of bitcoin is also bitcoin— not bitcoins. (One bitcoin, two bitcoin, three bitcoin…) Bits is a better sub-denomination than sats. (100 sats is actually one bit, like a 100 cents is one dollar; being a wholecoiner makes you the Bitcoin-equivalent of a millionaire, as that would mean you have a million bits.) And October 31st is not Bitcoin’s birthday. Bitcoin’s birthday is January 3rd.
Money Electric: Being Distracted By Nonsense

Oct 28, 2024 | bitcoinmagazine.com | Aaron van Wirdum

This weekend I finally got around to watching Money Electric, the HBO documentary that “reveals” Bitcoin Core contributor Peter Todd as the true identity behind Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s three weeks old by now and already forgotten by the 24-hour social media cycle, but as someone who wrote a book on the origin story of Bitcoin I still felt I had to hear them out— perhaps just to comment on it in a Take. (As I am indeed doing now.)Even watching it for that purpose was a waste of my time.