Spiral

New sticker pack drop: Kitty Bitty.

It all started with Bitty (full-sized), then Itty Bitty (fun-sized), and now Kitty Bitty (meow-sized). Tap to add them all plus 143 additional Here Comes Bitcoin stickers to Signal: https://signal.art/addstickers/#pack_id=9d63755854067742717ef404b589fbde&pack_key=79b28f24eb944f5b2bdd77316b170fd6cc9bbdc24735add40a6d90540ec7a1a0

Here Comes Bitcoin is also at over 25,000,000 views on Giphy, and that was before we added dozens more this morning. They’re great if you’re like us and recognize that life is more fun when you act like an idiot: https://giphy.com/herecomesbitcoin

Agentic payments are coming. It’s time for open-source agents to step up, or their days are numbered, writes

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/open-source-ai-needs-to-get-serious?r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

To capture the sound and the fury of this latest What’s Matt Mad at Now, nostr:nprofile1qqsr6tj32zrfn7v0pu4aheaytdnnc6rluepq73ndc2tdjzus34gat9qpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujucm4wfex2mn59en8j6gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduy6k2n0 also recorded an uncharacteristically softspoken version of the post.

SPOTIFY

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2uIuZoYwa2Ndn1yFiycm0U?si=E2-P5MF0QU2qNzKxVs-u3g

APPLE PODCASTS

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-source-ai-needs-to-get-serious/id1827143379?i=1000751535562

Human Bitcoin Addresses (BIP 353) end the confusion of having to use bitcoin addresses that look like 1Aqv9KxZc2y7M8b in favor of something that looks more like a Cash App, Venmo, or email addresses. Do it for grandma.

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/making-bitcoin-speak-human

We’ve been quietly seeding a Bitty, Itty Bitty, and Kitty Bitty account on IG for a while now. There are just the first steps. There’s much more from the gang to come: https://www.instagram.com/bittyandbuddies/ https://blossom.primal.net/49c6648b09bddfca752bd3ee881f2abbe464b63bbdad10ba229cc34f90e70483.jpg bittyandbuddies

This holiday season, instead of explaining immutability, digital scarcity, or decentralization to your uncle, try something that should make sense: small businesses not having to pay 3% credit card fees. bitcoinmerchantcommunity.org.

We need contributors from all over to help us expand the Bitcoin Merchant Community, which is already growing like a thing that grows quickly: https://bitcoinmerchantcommunity.org

If you’ve started onboarding merchants or just want to, we launched a Discord where you can share what works, what hasn’t, and what could: https://discord.gg/f2xHv5QYK7

Maybe you saw the merchant onboarding plushies we gave US bitcoin hubs. Now we’re giving away more through the new Local Champions program, where bitcoiners can apply to get 25 plushies + leave-behinds for distribution to merchants and fellow bitcoiners: https://tally.so/r/Bzz5qQ

What else? If you’re a merchant or know one and want to support real money, join the Bitcoin Merchant Community’s Facebook Group to share ideas about marketing assets that might encourage customers to pay with bitcoin. Digital? Physical? Mystical? Tell us: https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgroups%2Fbitcoinmerchants%2F

And there’s more. The BMC’s website and marketing assets are under a Creative Commons license. Despite not knowing what kind of assets would be effective, we took a first shot. Use our Canva template to take a second, third, and fourth. Make us look bad. https://www.canva.com/design/DAG4oZRCO1E/WfBl_mXck2u1CYBE58hoYQ/view?mode=preview

Almost done. The BMC increases bitcoin payment adoption, but first, they need solid software. We remain vendor-agnostic, only endorsing easy POS solutions that cater to physical retail. If you're a POS vendor, check out the criteria then get in touch. https://github.com/bitcoinmerchants/bmc-website?tab=readme-ov-file#criteria-for-bitcoin-pos-solutions-to-be-included-on-the-bmc-website

Finally, get hyped. This initiative only works if you do. GitHub issues are the best way to improve the website and marketing materials. We really want to hear from global bitcoiners who want to translate marketing assets into languages not yet supported. https://github.com/bitcoinmerchants/marketing-assets

Plushies, kits, and in-person persuasion: the bitcoin-centric tactics we’re using to save small businesses 3%.

Most merchants don’t care about digital scarcity or immutability. What they care about are their margins. Beating 3% credit card fees is how we convince small business owners to accept bitcoin: https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/merchants-dont-read-white-papers?r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

Because you’re beautiful.

Square did their part, now let’s do ours. For bitcoin to become everyday money, merchants need to accept it. But first, they’ll need a reason to. We've put together the resources to help anyone make the case that only bitcoin can defeat credit card fees: https://bitcoinmerchantcommunity.org

These resources include persuasive leave-behind materials that bitcoiners can bring to local businesses, from subtle, home printer-friendly handouts to bold, attention‑grabbing combo pieces like, uh, a plushie with impeccable penmanship.

But no matter how good a leave-behind is, it’s better with a face. Included with each leave-behind is a playbook for you that includes step‑by‑step guidance for how to make the bitcoin case to merchants.

We hope for this community to be an open and independent group with a simple goal: bitcoin payment adoption among merchants—regardless of which point-of-sale solution they prefer. It’s also where all of the resources we’ve mentioned so far can be found for free.

For now, if you want the plushie combo, you'll have to pick it up at @bitcoinpark_ in Austin and Nashville, @atlbitlab, @SpaceDenver, and @PresidioBitcoin. This might change, though. Who can say? Bitcoin is weird and it’s only getting weirder.

New batch of Bitties at http://herecomesbitcoin.org. Only 20,999,852 left to go.

Now that our newsletters and blog posts contain audio versions right at the top, you have no excuse not to keep up with all the important stuff we're pretending to work on. https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/2025-q2-spiral-progress-report-5a9?publication_id=3715684&post_id=169716040&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

Fatigued by the thought of another @matbalez diatribe? No one understands better than me, his editor. Our blogs and newsletters now have audio assets that you can listen to on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-a-lil-bitcoin-product-blog-2-bringing-%E2%82%BF-to-the-world/id1827143379?i=1000717604839

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/32BzeK2OHCtcAEVEwKYuZi?si=MgMxk3xnSQyxrR6U6DgjEw

Just ₿

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/bringing-to-the-world

Just use Veo3, they said. AI will be able to make him spin on his head while flailing his arms and legs, they said. He won’t look like the post-apocalyptic spawn of a bitcoin and a smoldering pile of sentient nuclear waste, they said.

CoinJoin doesn’t guarantee privacy—it just buys you a chance at privacy. One slip post-mix, and intersection attacks can trace you all the way back. Leaks compound fast, and even “perfect” mixes can collapse under real-world pressure.

All this and more in The Scroll #4, the longest document or newsletter we have ever published: https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/the-scroll-4-intersection-attacks?publication_id=3715684&post_id=165670336&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

Mining centralization is one of the biggest risks facing bitcoin. You can help solve it.

Spiral is offering a unique grant opportunity for a Senior Engineer to significantly advance Stratum V2. We’re looking for a highly skilled individual with a proven track record in Rust development, specifically within mining infrastructure and distributed systems. The ideal person will excel at building scalable, application-layer APIs, servers, and proxies for real-world deployments. You’ll be at the forefront of creating open-source building blocks for the mining ecosystem.

In this third Plushie Confidential installment, we cover the huge response that Bitty and Itty Bitty got in Japan, as well as our plans to triple down on the Japanese plushie market. Hate reading? Push play to have a dapper Englishman read it to you.

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/plushie-confidential-3-the-tokyo?publication_id=3715684&post_id=163527408&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

In this edition of What’s Matt Mad At Now, he covers MEVil, his talk at bitcoin++ tomorrow, Core standardness rules, and all of it flavored by his incandescent, seething, volcanic rage.

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/the-mevil-of-relay-policy?publication_id=3715684&post_id=163019593&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

Please welcome our first Texan, @benthecarman, to Spiral. After one year probably doing JPEG work at Taproot Wizards, Ben will tackle LDK Server and a new SDK that simplifies how we onboard self-custodial bitcoin users, two things that his Mutiny wallet work lend themselves to.

Opinions vary on how best to get strangers into bitcoin.

Spiral wizard Yuval Kogman gets to put ”wizard” as his occupation on tax forms, legal documents, and lease applications for a reason.

“The Scroll #3: A Brief History of Wallet Clustering“

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/the-scroll-3-a-brief-history-of-wallet?publication_id=3715684&post_id=161437359&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

April’s Nerd of the Month is @the_charlatan_. This one’s so nerdy that it took four of us to make it understandable even to other nerds. https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/nerd-of-the-month-bitcoinkernel-library?publication_id=3715684&post_id=160906093&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

Just because our quarterly progress report is now multiple newsletters doesn’t mean we still can’t have a quarterly progress report. It just means that it’s much shorter and mostly bullet points because none of us have attention spans anymore: https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/2025-q1-spiral-progress-report?publication_id=3715684&post_id=160394314&isFreemail=true&r=1nuiv3&triedRedirect=true

From the same bitcoin co-working and events space that brought you Presidio Bitcoin Jam comes a no-holds-barred adrenaline-fueled thrill ride called 21 in 21, where our own Haley Berkoe asks people like this dude you’ve never heard of 21 questions about bitcoin in 21 minutes:

This post was originally released a couple of days ago on http://lightningdevkit.org by some devs who forgot that Spiral now has a newsletter that covers, among other things, LDK-related stuff like VSS. As recompense, they have all been assigned to eat a bowl of spiders.

https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/ldk-announcing-versioned-storage?publication_id=3715684&post_id=159441223&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

The Nostr community could be the only community that understands our latest newsletter. Twitter seems to be struggling: https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/the-scroll-2-wallet-clustering-basics

This is quickly becoming my all-time favorite Spiral writing project. And we have had SO MANY of those over the years: https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/plushie-confidential-2-rooting-for?publication_id=3715684&post_id=158552109&isFreemail=false&r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true

If your bitcoin investment strategy can’t fit in a fortune cookie, it’s too complicated.

In our latest blog post, Spiral’s Bitcoin Wizards are highlighting potential upgrades to the Bitcoin Scripting system that will enable improved scaling across the network, starting with topics like the economic limits of self-custody. https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/the-scroll-utxo-sharing https://image.nostr.build/0e2e7d0b419694c3db0b28c7ba2e88fe83132d6e32a19183b51d355dd2cc5900.png

How we got into the bitcoin plushie business, part 1: https://spiralbtc.substack.com/p/plushie-confidential-1-big-start?r=53cq2n&triedRedirect=true%E2%80%9D https://image.nostr.build/ce8690ca9c5f6e433188b7fe0fe3144a995d85e9e02c592c51ccc336b9a7eea9.png

Drawn between doing another plushie that is either this herecomesbitcoin.org cat or this Warhammer-inspired battle mech. These are the kind of decisions you get to make working within the bitcoin space and practically nowhere else.

Last day to save big on small: https://bitkey.world/en-US/campaigns/free-plushie

Our free-to-use library of bitcoin assets has a new look: https://www.herecomesbitcoin.org/

Literally years in the making, Saving Satoshi is an interactive RPG that uses storytelling and gaming mechanics to onboard developers into the FOSS bitcoin ecosystem: https://savingsatoshi.com/

There might be a more informative, entertaining, and user-friendly way than http://savingsatoshi.com to on-ramp new bitcoin developers, but if there is, we’ve never heard of it.

What does it have to do with bitcoin? I dunno. But it is pretty.

It’s got characters. It’s got code. It’s got a cat hologram who talks a lot of trash. https://stacker.news/items/794310

There’s always been a question about how best to onboard new bitcoin developers. Not anymore. Along with our pals at Bitcoin Devs, Chaincode, and the Bitcoin Design Community, we found our answer, and its name… is pure unbridled anime.

Your family will be expecting the bitcoin talk this holiday season. Don’t give it to them. Switch it up. Give them the Nostr talk instead.

Become a Spiral grantee and you too can have a bio that makes your mom wish you had stayed away from us.

Become ungovernable.

Become ungovernable.

We are still in the market for bitcoin wizards. If you know someone who considers themselves a bitcoin wizard, 1) you keep weird company, but 2) please send them our way: https://spiral.xyz/blog/spiral-is-hiring-bitcoin-wizards/

Become ungovernable.

The official position of the Spiral team is that Satoshi is a cat:

1. Never around when people want them to be.
2. Impossible to find when they don’t want to be found.
3. Eats weird gross food.
4. Proficient in C++, which has the number of characters as “cat,” starts with a C, and has a character that looks like a lowercase T.
5. Keeps weird hours.
6. Prefers English spelling because all cats have British accents.
7. What are cypherpunks if not mysterious? What are cats if not mysterious?
8. Independent and unknowable.
9. Whiskers, probably.
10. Could be sitting next to you and you wouldn’t know it.
11. Could be sitting on you and you wouldn’t know it.
12. Knows how to use a keyboard.
13. Very popular online.
14. Known to “move on to other things.”
15. Satoshi Nakamoto is a Japanese name. You know who eats a lot of fish? The Japanese. You know who else?

They said being idiots who make bitcoin stickers for a living would never last. They say a lot of things.

Use these and all the dozens of others as gifs for whatever dumb stuff you’re up to by searching “herecomesbitcoin” on GIPHY. Or visit http://herecomesbitcoin.org to download them all for Signal and Telegram and spam your friends until they like you even less.

Why not Bitcoin as a forest god? Give us one good reason.

New banner on bitcoindesign.org just dropped thanks to nature’s ultimate, organically grown interns, Abhijay Jain and Sushant Faujdar, who came to us and herecomesbitcoin.org via summerofbitcoin.org.

When creating the big furry Bitcoin video, we wondered: which country would be first to dub it into their local language?

It was Japan. It had to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=5BTDdm6OoLqxhlO9&v=UOnNqcSufrI&feature=youtu.be&themeRefresh=1

No idea what he’ll do them with, but it will probably be better than what we’ve done: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F5YgPXgQXmdtm0mKw8uqE0meDQqw-JRW

Payjoins / CoinJoins

👁👁 👁 👁 👁👁 👁 👁 👁👁

 🔥
 🔥
 🔥
 🔥
 🔥

🌀🌀🌀 🌀 🌀 🌀 🌀

🧠🧠🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠🧠🧠

🤖🤖🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖🤖🤖

 ⛓
 ⛓
 ⛓
 ⛓
 ⛓

🔒🔒🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒

We did a Nostr hack week project: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-Sec0h3ad7Eq6jDrtWW1KdfpKYvMQlhzhq3YZgIOXf4/edit

Spiral recently had its annual hack week. With @GBKS’s help, we created a hypothetical, first-ever all-outdoor ad campaign for Nostr: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-Sec0h3ad7Eq6jDrtWW1KdfpKYvMQlhzhq3YZgIOXf4/edit

You get two buying options and no excuses. The herecomesbitcoin.org plushie is now available at #Bitcoin2024’s official store, in addition to the one we share with our pals at booth B46 with our pals

.https://m.primal.net/JfRK.jpg

Every Bitcoin plushie delivers itself in a 1975 GMC High Sierra that you get to keep.https://m.primal.net/Jbhm.jpg

🎉 Honk if you love sound money 🎉

🧡 The Orange One is now available with help from our strange friends at Uncute. Get in before the eBay resellers.

https://www.uncute.com/products/here-comes-bitcoin

☝️ https://m.primal.net/JaRC.jpg On-chain⛓️ and #Lightning⚡️ payments are accepted via @BTCPay Server

Supplies are, fittingly, limited.

Catnip also affects Bitcoins. That's why he looks like a talkative scarecrow just revealed the secrets of Stonehenge to him.https://m.primal.net/JZcg.jpg

Just because bitcoiners are on the carnivore diet doesn’t mean Bitcoin has to be.https://m.primal.net/JXpr.jpg

Summoning the fiat gods to a crumbling, otherworldly landscape somewhere to finish this thing once and for all.https://m.primal.net/JWij.jpg

We caught the grind but missed the backflip. https://m.primal.net/JVPO.jpg

The biggest threat to fiat currencies is a fun loving plush toy with indigestion.

Coming to Uncute.com via @BTCPayServer on 7/22 and to @TheBitcoinConf on 7/25.https://m.primal.net/JUFH.jpg

Perhaps our best Spiral newsletter ever, this extremely late post covers all the bases: weather-induced spirituality, cosmic Jerome Powells, and, most importantly, the phrase “senior technical fungus.”

https://spiral.xyz/blog/spiral-quarterly-update-h1-2024/

Your bank could already be insolvent. It’s not like they’d tell you.

We’ve got more herecomesbitcoin.org stickers, this time featuring

,

,

, nostr:npub1cn4t4cd78nm900qc2hhqte5aa8c9njm6qkfzw95tszufwcwtcnsq7g3vle, nostr:npub1jfujw6llhq7wuvu5detycdsq5v5yqf56sgrdq8wlgrryx2a2p09svwm0gx, nostr:npub10pensatlcfwktnvjjw2dtem38n6rvw8g6fv73h84cuacxn4c28eqyfn34f, nostr:npub1z3suvdpeazw72l23t498qa3mz5az5ezzpnp5hdfsj9u7pfpfl7sqnttq8s, and Brink.

Plus Black Ops Bitcoin, Girls Night Out 2, Ride the Lightning Bitcoin, and Old Charlie “Can O’ Beans” Bitcoin.

Will your brand 100% go under unless it gets its own anthropomorphic Bitcoin mascot? Weird problem, but relatable. https://m.primal.net/JGwO.jpg DMs are always open.

Mining visualized. https://m.primal.net/JACN.gif

Perfect money doesn’t just happen. https://m.primal.net/IjvA.png

Bitcoin on a Ferris wheel. You can’t hear him because it’s a gif, but Bitcoin is doing Daenerys’ wheel monologue except it’s about the wheel of fiat currencies and how bitcoin eventually breaks it. https://m.primal.net/IjTu.gif

Ooph, Nostr botched the formatting. Regardless, the content is the same.

Bitcoin marketing projects from our many long years at this company we are not allowed to leave:

500 Headlines About Bitcoin: https://www.500headlinesaboutbitcoin.com/

Spiral Presents: The Lightning Development Kit:

Bitcoin Mythology Volumes 1 & 2: https://bitcoinmythology.org/volume-1-bitcoin-mining/

Who is Bitcoin?:

Here Comes Bitcoin: https://www.herecomesbitcoin.org/

Mo is one of the greats.

Nostr Implementation Protocol, or… https://m.primal.net/IcGC.png

One of our first projects just turned 5. https://www.500headlinesaboutbitcoin.com/

Early DALL-E was wild. This was supposed to be an abstract of

, but it went photorealistic. https://m.primal.net/IRyc.png

Few things are nicer than all your friends, acquaintances, and professional connections coming together to celebrate bitcoin and pizza for a day.