r/Bitcoin recap - December 2018

Hi Bitcoiners!

I’m back with the 24th monthly Bitcoin news recap.

For those unfamiliar, each day I pick out the most popular/relevant/interesting stories in r/Bitcoin and save them. At the end of the month I release them in one batch, to give you a quick (but not necessarily the best) overview of what happened in bitcoin over the past month.

You can see recaps of the previous months on Bitcoinsnippets.com

A recap of Bitcoin in December 2018

Adoption * Some statistics on Localbitcoins in Venezuela (2 Dec) * The Lightning Network has grown from 4 btc capacity to 450 since February (5 Dec) * Cash App by Square is the #1 app in the US app store (8 Dec) * Someone buys drinks using bitcoin in a bar in Paris (12 Dec) * The Lightning Network reaches 500 btc in network capacity (21 Dec) * A visualization of 15k lightning network channels (23 Dec) * Several content creators are being banned or abandoning Patreon and considering bitcoin (27 Dec)

Development * A list of possible future changes to Bitcoin by Luke Dash Jr (6 Dec) * Someone creates a Lightning Network micropayment button (7 Dec) * A discussion on the LNTipBot (8 Dec) * The rise of the all-in-one Bitcoin & Lightning node (10 Dec) * The first Bitcoin Lightning to ERC20 Atomic Swap (12 Dec) * A discussion on Schnorr and Taproot on the Bitcoin development mailing list (14 Dec) * Bitcoin Core 0.17.1 is released (25 Dec) * Someone creates an offline tool that fixes mistyped private keys or fixes missing characters (30 Dec)

Security * Some people stole $3.3M in cryptocurrency from over 100 smartphones (7 Dec) * A warning not to use single-address website-generated paper wallets (19 Dec) * Someone proposes January 3rd as an “independence day” where users should control their keys (22 Dec) * A discussion on security against quantum computing attacks in Bitcoin (25 Dec) * Someone’s Electrum Wallet got hacked through a sophisticated attack (27 Dec) * All major hardware wallets were hacked at CCC35 once the physical devices were altered (27 Dec) * A response from Trezor and Ledger on the “hackings” (28 Dec)

Mining * Bitcoin gets its second biggest drop in mining difficulty at -15% (3 Dec) * The Bitcoin mining difficulty is down 31.5% from its peak while hashrate is still increasing (21 Dec)

Business * Bitfury presents the Lightning Network coffee machine (2 Dec) * Bitmain Q3 2018 results show a $740M loss (4 Dec) * Shakepay adds a feature that turns spare change from purchases into bitcoin (13 Dec) * Blockstream satellite coverage is now worldwide (18 Dec) * Tim Draper invests $1.25M in OpenNode (18 Dec) * BlueWallet introduces the MVP of its zero-configuration Lightning payments on iOS and Android (20 Dec) * Bitmain to lay off 50% of its workforce (25 Dec) * Bakkt raises $182.5M (31 Dec)

Education * An updated beginner’s guide on how to build an online store and accept bitcoin payments without coding (1 Dec) * A video discussing the manipulation going on with the bitcoin price by financial institutions (1 Dec) * A video explainer of hashed time lock contracts and routing on the Lightning Network (9 Dec) * A discussion on exchanges and Blockchain-based identities (26 Dec) * An explanation of Lightning Network payment channels (29 Dec)

Regulation & Politics * bitcoin speculation in Denmark has a 53-65% profit tax (5 Dec) * Coinbase executives are allegedly lobbying regulators with lies about bitcoin (20 Dec) * Lawmakers want to change the SEC’s 72-year old securities definition to exclude cryptocurrency (20 Dec) * The US Chief of Staff says Bitcoin is good as it’s out of the hands of governments (17 Dec)

Archeology (Financial Incumbents) * Western Union CEO says they are prepared to add cryptocurrencies when it is necessary (18 Dec)

Price & Trading * The Japanese Yen surpasses the US Dollar as the most traded fiat pair (26 Dec) * The total profit from buying and selling bitcoin on each day of 2017 and 2018 (30 Dec)

Fun & Other * Someone wears a buy bitcoin vest at protests in Paris(1 Dec) * r/Bitcoin reaches 1 million subscribers (3 Dec) * A discussion on the meaning of “Hodl” (8 Dec) * Coinbase recently moved 856k bitcoins (10 Dec) * An interview with Nick Szabo (11 Dec) * 10-year jail term sought for former Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles (12 Dec) * Predictions from 1995 on why the Internet won’t work] (15 Dec) * Timothy C May, the writer of the Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, passes away (15 Dec) * Someone helps a user recover their funds after sending litecoin to a bitcoin address (16 Dec) * A user shows their Bitcoin full node and Lightning node (19 Dec) * Cryptograffiti sells an artwork for 1 millisatoshi (20 Dec) * A discussion on dual economies with bitcoin as the Internet currency (23 Dec) * 2018 was a successful year for Bitcoin in terms of network performance (24 Dec) * A list of a few holiday destinations that are Bitcoin-friendly (28 Dec) * How Amara’s law applies to Bitcoin (29 Dec) * A reminder of the Pineapple fund (31 Dec) * Tony Robbins tweets about Bitcoin to his 3M followers (31 Dec) * TIME magazine on why Bitcoin matters for freedom (31 Dec)

Oh yes, Happy New Year. Let's do our best to keep this subreddit a great place!