Month: March 2025

Bitcoin Magazine

The Bill Miller IV Interview: Bitcoin as the Global Denominator of Capital

Summary: The Bill Miller IV Interview

Bill Miller IV, CIO of Miller Value Partners and Bitcoin 2025 speaker, joins Bitcoin Magazine’s “The Culture Bit” to lay out a markets-first case for Bitcoin as the world’s ultimate denominator of capital.

Bill explains why Bitcoin is more than digital gold: it’s a response to engineered outcomes, financial entropy, and institutional inertia. He hits hard on why Michael Saylor and Strategy’s ‘strategy’ matters, why more corporations will follow, and why the time for fence-sitting on Bitcoin is over for investors of all-types.

This should come as no surprise given comments on Bitcoin by his father Bill Miller III who revealed a “very big” Bitcoin position in 2022 after the cryptocurrency made up approximately half of his asset allocation.

Drawing from over a decade of investing experience in the space, Bill walks through how Bitcoin solves fundamental failures in fiat monetary systems—not with hype, but with game theory, governance, and first-principle design. Bill offers a powerful endorsement of Bitcoin, noting: “I buy Bitcoin every single day. It’s the last thing I’d ever sell.”

Follow along for a deep dive on how one of Bitcoin’s biggest bulls and longest-time investors is navigating the Bitcoin market in 2025 and beyond.

WATCH the full on Bitcoin Magazine YouTube, X, Rumble and the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast

This post The Bill Miller IV Interview: Bitcoin as the Global Denominator of Capital first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin Magazine

Rhode Island Bill Would Allow State Residents Spend $10,000 Monthly In Bitcoin Tax Free

Bill S. 0451, which was introduced to the Rhode Island Senate last month, permits the state’s residents and businesses to make up to 10 payments in bitcoin valued at less than $1,000 per month (or sell the equivalent amount) without being subject to state capital gains taxes.

The bill is an amendment to existing state income tax laws, and the exact language in the proposed legislation is as follows:

“Any sale of [b]itcoin by an individual or business in Rhode Island shall be exempt from state taxation if the total value of sales is less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) per diem. The limit of the state tax exempt [b]itcoin transaction shall not exceed ten (10) sales per a thirty (30) day cycle.”

And the bill defines a “sale of [b]itcoin” as “any transaction in which [b]itcoin is sold or exchanged for another form of value, such as fiat currency or other physical or digital assets.”

The bill also clarifies that this exemption only applies at the state level and that it doesn’t affect federal tax obligations.

Under the bill, individuals and businesses who engage with these types of tax-exempt bitcoin transactions are responsible for keeping records of these transactions, including the total value of sales per day, and should be prepared to provide these records to the Rhode Island’s department of revenue for audit or compliance purposes.

In a slide deck prepared by the Rhode Island Blockchain Council that was shared with Bitcoin Magazine, Chris Perrotta, Chairman of the Council, wrote that the passing of Bill S. 0451 would help to reduce friction for digital asset payments.

He stated that “current tax implications of spending BTC hamper its utility for Rhode Island citizens and stifle economic activity.”

Perrotta also noted that the passing of this bill would stimulate blockchain-based economic activity in the state, making Rhode Island one of the states at the forefront of this technology.

What is more, he also proposed that small businesses accept bitcoin for products and services as a means to stimulate economic growth.

Thus far, no other U.S. states have introduced comparable bills.

At the federal level, the only bill that has proposed something similar is the Lummis-Gillibrand “Responsible Financial Innovation Act”, which provides a de minimus tax exemption on bitcoin transactions valued up to $200.

This post Rhode Island Bill Would Allow State Residents Spend $10,000 Monthly In Bitcoin Tax Free first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Frank Corva.

Bitcoin Magazine

The MIT Bitcoin Expo 2025: Freedom Tech

The MIT Bitcoin Club—a passionate coalition of students, alumni, researchers, and community members—presents the 12th annual MIT Bitcoin Expo (April 5–6, 2025), a landmark event exploring how Bitcoin and freedom technologies empower individuals worldwide. With just 5 days remaining, this student-led initiative continues its decade-long tradition of bridging academia, activism, and technical innovation.

Why This Matters

Born from MIT’s 2014 Bitcoin Project—which distributed Bitcoin to undergraduates to study adoption—the expo has evolved into a critical forum for sovereignty-focused dialogue. This year’s agenda of freedom tech focuses on physical liberation through technology. 

Speakers like Zimbabwean activist Evan Mawarire (#ThisFlag movement leader) and Lightning Network creator Tadge Dryja will dissect Bitcoin’s role in resisting authoritarian control and enabling real-world escape from oppression. This is not about the cryptoeconomics, nor about the meme coins. This is about life, liberty, and Bitcoin.

What to Expect

Day 1: Dive into freedom tech fundamentals with Mawarire’s keynote “Why Freedom Tech Matters” and Dryja’s analysis of Bitcoin’s resilience against nation-states. Corporate adoption takes center stage with Marathon Digital’s Paul Giordano and Bitcoin Core developers like Gloria Zhao. Get more technical in the afternoon with topics such as consensus cleanup, poisoning attacks, censorship resistance, Bitcoin Pipes, etc.

Day 2: Shift to global impact with Mauricio Bartolomeo (exfiltration via Bitcoin) and panels featuring activists from Venezuela, Russia, and Togo. Technical deep dives include MIT’s Neha Narula on scaling self-custody and Steven Roose’s covenant softfork proposals. Other topics include future of freedom tech, quantum resistance, covenant soft fork, Tor project, etc.

Beyond Theory: The Freedom Tech Hackathon

Running parallel (April 4–6), this $10,000-prize event challenges developers to build tools for privacy, censorship resistance, and financial sovereignty14. Past projects have secured funding from industry leaders—proof of MIT’s “Mind and Hand” ethos in action4.

Additionally, Anna Chekhovich from the HRF will run a workshop on Bitcoin self-custody 101.

Why Attend?
This event prioritizes substance over spectacle. Tickets remain accessible, speakers present pro bono, and discussions tackle pressing questions:

– How can Bitcoin enable physical escape from authoritarian regimes?

– What technical upgrades strengthen its anti-censorship properties?

– Can corporations adopt Bitcoin without compromising its ethos?

With 40+ speakers and 500+ expected attendees, the expo offers unparalleled networking with developers, activists, and academics shaping Bitcoin’s future.

Event Details & Registration
April 5–6, 2025 | MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
Secure your spot: www.mitbtcexpo.org
Questions? h6239@alum.mit.edu / adamg25@mit.edu

For twelve years, we’ve asked hard questions. Join us as we build answers.

This post The MIT Bitcoin Expo 2025: Freedom Tech first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by MIT Bitcoin Club.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy Buys $1.92 Billion Worth of Additional Bitcoin

Business intelligence company Strategy continued stacking sats by acquiring 22,048 bitcoin worth nearly $2 billion.

According to a March 31 SEC filing, Strategy purchased the coins for $1.92 billion last week, or around $86,969 per bitcoin. This boosted the company’s total bitcoin treasury to 528,185 BTC acquired for $35.63 billion.

At bitcoin’s current price of approximately $82,000, Strategy’s holdings are now valued at over $43 billion. Michael Saylor continues aggressively accumulating bitcoin.

The recent buys were funded mostly through issuing $1.2 billion of new MSTR common shares. By buying bitcoin funded via equity, Strategy converts its corporate treasury from dollars into hard assets. The company has pioneered using its balance sheet as a leveraged play on bitcoin’s rise.

Strategy’s average purchase price per bitcoin has also steadily increased to $67,458. This shows Saylor is still willing to pay premium prices to keep stacking sats.

However, the gap between Strategy’s average entry price and bitcoin’s market price has narrowed significantly during this prolonged cool-off. The company may soon be buying BTC below its cost basis if prices continue drifting lower.

Regardless, Strategy remains ultra bullish on bitcoin over the long term. The company expects to benefit from bitcoin’s appreciation over decades against fiat currencies being devalued by inflation.

This post Strategy Buys $1.92 Billion Worth of Additional Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Vivek Sen Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Magazine

Trump Family Is Investing In A Bitcoin Mining Company

The Trump family is expanding its growing bitcoin and crypto portfolio by investing in a new bitcoin mining venture called American Bitcoin.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are merging their firm, American Data Centers, with Hut 8, a publicly traded bitcoin miner, to form the new company. The Trump brothers will hold a 20% stake in American Bitcoin, with Hut 8 owning the remaining 80%.

The deal brings 61,000 mining machines from Hut 8 into American Bitcoin. The company also plans to build its own “bitcoin reserve” by retaining mined coins.

Eric Trump, who will be American Bitcoin’s chief strategy officer, likened bitcoin’s hard asset properties to real estate. By leveraging Hut 8’s low-cost North American data centers, American Bitcoin aims to mine bitcoin more efficiently than competitors. This could become a key advantage as mining gets more difficult over time.

The Trump family has aggressively embraced bitcoin and crypto lately through various projects.

American Bitcoin will remain separate from the Trump Organization empire. But its bitcoin reserve plans align with President Trump’s vision for the U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve.

Bitcoin mining has faced environmental criticism for its massive energy use. But Eric Trump believes American Bitcoin’s access to low U.S. energy costs will give it an edge.

By focusing on mining, American Bitcoin appears to be a more serious bitcoin bet compared to Trump’s meme coins and stablecoin talk. The family’s rising bitcoin and crypto profile mirrors the growing mainstream acceptance.

This post Trump Family Is Investing In A Bitcoin Mining Company first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Vivek Sen Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Magazine

FDIC Says Banks Can Engage In Bitcoin And Crypto Without Prior Approval

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued new guidance allowing banks it supervises to engage in bitcoin and crypto activities without seeking pre-approval. This reverses a controversial policy imposed under the Biden administration.

In a March 28 statement, the FDIC said banks can now participate in crypto-related services like custody and trading if they properly manage the risks. The agency will also work to replace old regulations with updated crypto guidance.

The policy change came in a new Financial Institution Letter that rescinds earlier rules from 2022 requiring banks to get FDIC clearance before handling bitcoin and crypto assets. That red tape frustrated the banking industry.

By removing this barrier, the FDIC enables its supervised banks to experiment with this emerging ecosystem more freely. However, specific permissions will still depend on interagency coordination.

Acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill called the move “one of several steps” in laying out a new crypto-friendly approach focused on security. He said, “The FDIC is turning the page on the flawed approach of the past three years.” The agency expects to release additional guidance as it consults the President’s Working Group on digital assets.

Major banks have recently launched bitcoin and crypto services despite unclear regulations. Providing regulatory clarity will allow more banks to participate.

This post FDIC Says Banks Can Engage In Bitcoin And Crypto Without Prior Approval first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Vivek Sen Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Magazine

Proposed South Carolina Bill Lets State Treasurer Invest 10% Of State Funds In Bitcoin

Yesterday, Rep. Jordan Pace reintroduced Bill H. 4256, The “Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Act Of South Carolina”, into South Carolina’s House of Representatives.

Highlights from the bill include the fact that it enables the State Treasurer to invest up to 10% of the funds under the state’s management into digital assets, including bitcoin, and that the state’s Strategic Digital Assets Reserve can include up to one million bitcoin.

The bill also states that the reason for establishing such a reserve is because “inflation has eroded the purchasing power of assets held in state funds” and that “bitcoin, a decentralized digital asset, and other digital assets offer unique properties that can act as a hedge against inflation and economic volatility.”

The bill does not stipulate whether or not state officials should hold the private keys to the bitcoin and other digital assets that it accumulates for the reserve, though it enables the State Treasurer to develop policies and protocols to protect the assets held in the reserve, including the use of cold storage or the contracting of a third party to maintain custody of the assets. The State Treasurer can also utilize a third party to assist in the creation, maintenance, and administration of the reserve’s security.

As per the bill, the State Treasurer would be responsible for preparing a biennial report that includes the total amount of digital assets held in the reserve, the U.S. dollar value of those assets, and transactions and expenditures related to the reserve since the previous report. Also, the State Treasurer would be required to publish proof of reserves, which includes the public addresses of the digital assets held in the reserve on an official state website, enabling citizens to independently audit and verify the reserve’s holdings.

Finally, the bill stipulates that the Strategic Digital Asset Reserve undergo audits that include an examination of the quality of the security of custody solutions; an assessment of compliance with local, state and federal laws; and an evaluation of internal controls to mitigate against cyberattacks and mismanagement.

According to the bill, the independent audits should be conducted annually and submitted to the relevant oversight committee. Any recommendations resulting from the independent audits must be addressed within 90 days of the issuance of the report, and a follow-up reporting detailing the corrective actions taken must also be provided to the oversight committee.

This post Proposed South Carolina Bill Lets State Treasurer Invest 10% Of State Funds In Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Frank Corva.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Covenants: CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (BIP 119)

The is the first article deep diving into individual covenant proposals that have reached a point of maturity meriting an in depth breakdown. 

CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV), put forward by Jeremy Rubin with BIP 119, is the most mature and fully fleshed out covenant proposal, not only out of the proposals we will be covering, but out of all of the covenant proposals in their entirety. As I mentioned in the introduction article to this series, there are many concerns in the ecosystem regarding covenants that are too flexible enabling things that wind up having very detrimental consequences for Bitcoin. 

CTV was designed specifically to constrain its capabilities tightly enough to avoid any of those concerns. To first understand how CTV functions, we need to understand the individual parts of a Bitcoin transaction. 

This is a very high level view of a Bitcoin transaction. It has inputs, or unspent coins (UTXOs), and outputs, the new unspent coins that the transaction will create when it is confirmed in a block. There are a lot more pieces we will go through, but this is the highest level view of a transaction’s structure. 

Every transaction also has a version number field for the whole transaction, indicating applicability of new versions of rules or features. There is also the marker and the flag, which are set to specific values to indicate the transaction uses Segwit. After this is the input count, the number of inputs in the transaction. Then come the actual inputs. 

Each input contains a TXID of the transaction that created the unspent coin being spent, a VOUT which marks what output in that transaction is being spent, the size of the ScriptSig, and the ScriptSig, which is the unlocking script proving the input being spent is authorized by its locking script rules, and finally a Sequence number which is used to ensure the input being spent is following relative timelock rules. i.e. the input has existed for a certain number of blocks or length of time since its creation. 

The output count is the next piece of data, the number of outputs in the transaction. After this comes the actual outputs, which contain an amount of satoshis assigned to that output, the ScriptPubKey size, and the actual ScriptPubKey, which is the locking script for that output. Lastly the nLocktime field applies a timelock value in timestamp or block height that applies to the entire transaction. 

Each Segwit transaction also contains a Witness section, where each input has a corresponding witness containing a Stack Items count, how many things will be put on the script stack, a Size field for each item, and the actual data Item to go on the stack. 

How CTV Works

CTV is an opcode that enables the most basic form of introspection and forward data carrying out of all the covenant proposals. It allows a script to take a pre-defined 32 byte hash and compare that against a hash of most of the fields of the spending transaction. If the hash derived from the actual spending transaction does not match the pre-defined hash, the transaction is invalid. 

The fields it commits to are:

nVersion

nLocktime

Input count

A hash of all the nSequence fields

Output count

A hash of all the outputs

Input index (the place the input has in the transaction, 1st input, 2nd, etc.)

These are all the fields committed to by the CTV hash, in their entirety, and with no ability to pick and choose. This is the degree of introspection CTV enables, “does the hash of these fields in the spending transaction match the hash in the locking script of the input being spent,” that’s it. The hash commits to essentially the entire transaction except the actual inputs. There is a reason the hash does not include the inputs. In order to lock an output to a 32 byte hash with CTV, you need to know the hash of the transaction that you are ensuring is the only way for it to be spent. The input locked with CTV being spent will have to include this hash in order to be verified against CTV. That necessitates having the hash of that transaction before you create the complete transaction. That is not possible. 

You can also nest CTV scripts, i.e. have an initial CTV script commit to a transaction with outputs that also include CTV scripts. This is what allows CTV to “carry forward” data. All it carries forward in practice though is whatever data is contained in the chain of transactions. You can do this in theory to an infinite depth, but you are limited in practice to a finite depth because the nesting must be generated backwards starting from the end. This is because each level, or “hop,”  must have the hash of the transaction moving to the next one, otherwise you can’t create the locking script in the first place. If you don’t already know the next transaction, you can’t generate the previous one. 

What Is CTV Useful For

CTV allows you to restrict an output so that it can only be spent, according to consensus rules, by an exact pre-defined transaction. Some of you might be asking what the big deal is, we can already pre-sign transactions. If the level of introspection is so limited that it can only accomplish something we can already do just pre-signing, what is the value add? 

First, pre-signed transactions always leave open the possibility of the keyholder(s) signing new transactions and spending those coins in a different way. You have to trust that the keyholder will not do this, or will delete the key needed to sign with (which you also have to trust them on). CTV removes that trust entirely. Once the spending transaction is defined and the output locked to that CTV hash is created, there is no possibility of being spent another way, enforced by consensus. 

Currently the only way around that trust is to be involved in pre-signing transactions yourself using multisig. Then you can be completely certain that unless you choose to sign one yourself, no other valid transaction spending a coin in a different way can be created. The problem is the more people are involved, the more difficult and unreliable coordinating everyone to pre-sign a transaction at the same time becomes. Past small sizes it becomes a totally impractical problem to solve reliably. 

CTV gives a way for people to know a set of transactions is committed without everyone having to get online at the same time to sign them. It greatly simplifies the coordination process by allowing everyone to get the needed information to anyone else whenever they can, and once that person has everyone’s information they can create the chain of CTV transactions without anyone else’s involvement, and everyone can verify and be certain that the correct outcome is the only possible one. 

That is incredibly valuable on its own, but CTV can also enable even more valuable things in combination with other opcodes, which we’ll see in the next article. 

Closing Thoughts

CTV is a tightly restricted covenant that enables a degree of introspection and forward data carrying that is so limited it does not exceed the actual functionality of anything that can be done with pre-signed transactions. The value proposition is not in enabling new functionality in its own right, but drastically improving the efficiency, scalability, and security guarantees of what can be built currently using pre-signed transactions. This alone is a massive benefit to almost every currently deployed protocol using pre-signed transactions.

Here are some of the projects demonstrating how thoroughly fleshed out and explored this particular covenant is compared to the others:

A basic payment pool example by stutxo. 

A CTV vault implementation by James O’Beirne, who went on to propose OP_VAULT (which still makes use of CTV). 

A proof-of-concept port of the pre-signed transaction based Ark implementation from Second by Steven Roose to use CTV instead.

The Sapio Language by Jeremy Rubin himself, a higher level language for building contracts with CTV (also supporting the use of pre-signed transactions instead). 

Timeout Trees, a proposal for a very basic coinpool design by John Law.

Numerous other possible protocols, such as optimized Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs), non-interactive Lightning channels one party could open without the other, and even decentralized ways for miners to pool together. 

CTV is an incredibly mature proposal at this point, with a high value add, and no risk of enabling anything driving the concerns around covenants. This should not only be very seriously considered, but in my personal opinion should have been activated years ago. 

This post Bitcoin Covenants: CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (BIP 119) first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Shinobi.