Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is set to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, according to court documents filed on Monday. This development marks a significant turning point in a legal saga that has spanned over a decade.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has released a progress report on its digital euro project, detailing advancements made during the ongoing two-year preparation phase that began in October 2023.

The rehabilitation trustee for the defunct cryptocurrency exchange MtGox, Nobuaki Kobayashi, has announced that repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to creditors will begin in July 2024. This marks a significant milestone in the long-running rehabilitation process for the exchange, which collapsed in 2014.

Tyler Stevens, a Colorado-based engineer and bitcoiner, recently explored the feasibility of using Bitcoin mining ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) to heat a mountain home's hydronic flooring system. This innovative approach aims to offset utility costs with mining rewards while providing efficient heating.

The Bitcoin community has welcomed the launch of Satonomics, a new free and open-source suite of tools designed to compute, distribute, and display on-chain data related to the Bitcoin network. Branded as a decentralized alternative to the popular blockchain analytics platform Glassnode, Satonomics aims to provide users with a self-hostable solution for accessing and analyzing various Bitcoin metrics.

The Tails project has announced the release of version 6.4 of its privacy-focused portable operating system. A key highlight of this update is the introduction of a random seed stored on the USB stick to enhance the strength of all cryptographic operations within Tails.

Nostr, the open and decentralized messaging protocol released in 2020, presents a unique opportunity for creating successful two-sided market platforms. Unlike traditional one-sided markets, two-sided markets facilitate interactions between multiple user groups, capitalizing on indirect network effects where each group's value increases as the other group grows.

Bitcoin mining giant Marathon earned a significant fee of 0.85 BTC, equivalent to $55,250, for inscribing a video onto a bitcoin transaction. This transaction, included at block height 848,688 and mined by Marathon's MARA Pool early Thursday UTC, is notable for its size—3.968 megabytes—making it the fourth-largest bitcoin transaction ever mined in raw byte terms, according to data from Mempool.

Mining hardware giant Bitmain has unveiled a new addition to its Antminer S21 series, the S21XP, which boasts an impressive efficiency of 13.5 joules per terahash (J/TH). The launch was announced at the World Digital Mining Summit in Las Vegas on Monday.

In 1932, Aldous Huxley published "Brave New World," a dystopian novel that offered a chilling vision of a future society. Huxley's World State is a place where the appearance of democracy masks a reality of unfreedom, where people are controlled not by fear and repression but by pleasure and desire. This concept of a "perfect dictatorship" is strikingly relevant to contemporary discussions about the nature of control in both authoritarian regimes and democratic societies.

Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, has called attention to ongoing attempts within the European Union to undermine end-to-end encryption. Despite the EU Parliament's November vote to exclude end-to-end encryption from mass surveillance orders in the chat control legislation, some European countries continue to push for measures that would fundamentally weaken the security of encrypted communications.

The current banking and USD system is deeply intertwined with government structures, resulting in a bureaucratic, inefficient, and often morally questionable framework. Critics argue that the system has become excessively bloated, leading to waste and pollution in both a literal and metaphorical sense. The call for a new economic model stems from the need for increased efficiency and ethical practices.

ICYMI - In a wide-ranging interview on the Canadian Bitcoiners Podcast, an anonymous long-time Bitcoiner known as "Mr. R gnome" offered a provocative critique of the current state of Bitcoin culture and adoption.

Argentina is currently grappling with twin paradoxes in its economy: a dramatic rise in inflation last year followed by a recent decline. The reasons behind these shifts and their potential outcomes remain critical questions with significant implications for the nation's leadership.

In a bid to enhance economic growth and strengthen the financial system, the Technology, Tourism, and Investment Commission of the Legislative Assembly has reviewed a draft reform to the Banking Law in El Salvador.

Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms has announced its expansion into the United States with the establishment of a new site in Sharon, Pennsylvania. This strategic move comes as Riot Platforms increases its ownership stake in Bitfarms to 14%.

Synonym has officially launched its Bitkit wallet, making it available for general use on both iOS and Android platforms. The app, which integrates a sophisticated user interface, self-custody security, and the speed of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, marks a significant milestone following its beta testing phase.

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company behind the world's largest stablecoin (USDT), has made a strong assertion regarding Bitcoin's unique position in the cryptocurrency landscape. Speaking at the Bitcoin-only conference, BTC Prague, Ardoino emphasized that Bitcoin is the only truly decentralized cryptocurrency among the 14,000+ digital assets in existence.

ICYMI - In a recent episode of the podcast What Bitcoin Did, host Peter McCormack and guest Marty Bent delve into the concept of the "white pill" and its implications for the future, particularly in the context of Bitcoin. The discussion, rich in insights and optimism, contrasts the "white pill" mindset with the pervasive negativity of the "black pill" view.

Alexey Pertsev, the convicted Tornado Cash developer, is battling in court to be released from prison as he prepares for his appeal. In a court hearing held on Thursday in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, Pertsev and his defense argued that his detention should be suspended to ensure a fair trial.