GM.

Welcome to Bitcoin Therapy. Do you know that feeling when your favorite song comes on the radio? We’re the email version of that.

First, happy and relaxing Sunday to 1,970 of you reading today.

This week was wild. Bitcoin is crashing. There’s blood on the streets. I love it. Almost as much as I loved writing this week’s edition. ❤️

Here’s what I got for you this week:

• Argentina is the new El Salvador - meet Javier Milei

• Critical vulnerability found in Bitcoin Software - $900,000 lost

• Satoshi is back? Dormant Bitcoin on the move

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 52 seconds

ARGENTINA THE NEXT EL SALVADOR?

Everybody’s talking about Argentina this week. And it’s not because of their excellent steaks or wine.

2 reasons why:

1. Argentina's inflation rate reached an all-time high of 116%

2. A pro-bitcoin presidential candidate won the primary election

Meet Javier MIlei, a self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist, Libertarian, tax disrespectooor, “ the Latino wolverine,” and presidential candidate who thinks Bitcoin solves many of Argentina’s problems.

And Javier hates taxes. Like really.

In fact, Javier hates taxes more than I hate sitting on a cold toilet seat in the morning. Just look at those eyes…

But before we get into this story’s meat, let’s end the debate: what does Javier Milei look like? Please vote below. This is important.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about what this means for Bitcoin.

Winning the primary election puts Milei in a strong position to win the general election on October 22nd. Here’s what he’s promised to fix:

1. Fiat money

2. Economic intervention

3. Rampant inflation

4. Bloated government

5. Central banks

One of the main solutions that Milei offers to the above is Bitcoin. Here’s what he said about its role in combating inflation:

Now, I’ve written about politicians using Bitcoin in their campaigns to smooth-talk bitcoiners into voting for them. But this case might be different.

Milei is a hardcore Libertarian/ancap who seems to be genuinely anti-fiat and anti-central banks.

Think you hate central banks?
 
Javier Milei: “Sostenga mi cerveza”

Yes, this is our boy Javier destroying a Central Bank Pinata on national TV for his birthday. Even writing this feels surreal, lol.

Looks like LatAm is waking up to Bitcoin…

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CRITICAL VULNERABILITY FOUND IN BITCOIN SOFTWARE

It’s done. Bitcoin is dead. And this is the last edition of Bitcoin Therapy. Au revoir.

Okay, I lied. However, researchers did find a critical vulnerability in the widely adopted Bitcoin wallet explorer - Libbitcoin.

The vulnerability? The software allowed users to generate private keys/wallets in an extremely insecure way.

What this means for users:

1. Researchers say brute-forcing these keys would take a few days of computation on your average gaming PC

2. Some newly generated private keys might be identical to the previously created keys (whoops)

So yeah, it’s bad. Think of it as putting your credit card information in a password manager that sometimes generates the same password for multiple users. Yikes.

In total, thefts via this vulnerability are estimated at around $900,000.

Look, we all f*ck up sometimes. But it’s about how we deal with failures. Libbitcoin’s team provided an excellent example of how NOT TO do it.

Libbitcoin team: "Nah, it’s not a bug. It’s user error"

Kinda true. The team does advise against this insecure method of generating keys.

The issue? They never mention this explicitly:

1. The mention of weakness is BURIED in the Libbitcoin Wiki. Like deep.

2. The mention doesn’t actually warn the user about the potential loss of funds

So yeah, saying it’s user error/misuse of tools is disingenuous.

But it gets even more suspicious: GitHub activity on Libbitcoin stopped when the first potential exploit of the bug happened:

What does this mean? Few implications:

1. The team became aware of the exploit soon after it occurred

2. They are the exploiter themselves

3. The team was busy and not working on the project (we all need a holiday here and there. right?)

Personally, I think it’s number 3. But it seems dodgy considering the denial and not taking ownership of the mistake…

The good news? Most wallets used by casual users have nothing to do with Libbitcoin.

If you’re worried you might be affected, please consult your Bitcoin professional.

RECLAIM YOUR PRIVACY

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IS SATOSHI BACK?

I created the pseudonymous peer-to-peer digital cash in January 2009. I wanted to create an alternative monetary system and a fairer world.

I was fed up with centralized third parties betraying us repeatedly.

I am Satoshi Nakamoto. I’m here to liberate you. I will…

*wakes up from a fever dream*

Oh, just a dream. Anyways. Something really curious happened this week: a satoshi-era dormant whale unloaded $29.75 worth of Bitcoin after sitting on it for 13 years.

This whale was spotted in the wild by the blockchain-tracking platform Whale Alert after sending 1,005 BTC to an unknown Bitcoin address.

Here’s what we know about this OG whale:

• The whale first received 1,000 Bitcoin in November 2010 when it was trading at $0.225

• Their holdings increased by a whopping 12,848,100% by the time it was transferred

• On numerous occasions in the past 12+ years, the wallet received minuscule amounts of Bitcoin (probably dust attack attempts by scammers)

Now the real question is: could this be Satoshi moving his coins?

Think about it: Satoshi is probably somewhere far away, sipping margaritas on the beach, doing blackjack and hookers. Those are expensive hobbies! It’s possible Satoshi ran out of satoshis (pun intended) and decided to top up his wallet.

Jk, I doubt Satoshi would run out of Bitcoin. After all, analysts estimate that Satoshi mined ~ 1,000,000 Bitcoin in the early days. So yeah, I think he’s good…

But who knows…maybe this is the prophesized return of Satoshi.

RABBIT HOLE READS 🕳️……🐇

• Sam Bankman-Fried goes to jail - bail revoked

• Uber to accept Bitcoin payments in the future. Bitcoin circular economy, here we come!

• The First European Bitcoin ETF ($BCOIN) has launched

THIS WEEK IN A MEME 📅

I’m buying the dip within the dip.

FROM THE ARCHIVE 📁

That one time a guy photobombed a Fed meeting in 2017.

Price: $2,500

PATIENT REVIEW 🧠

That’s it for this one. Big thanks to our sponsors, Wasabi Wallet and Stamp Seed, who allow us to write Bitcoin Therapy.

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See you next Sunday,

Bitcoin Therapy Team

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