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/ 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

@note1hhhsz...

We’re trying not to cross-post content between Nostr and Twitter, but since the Nostr community is 3,000,000% more likely to understand what’s going on in our quarterly updates, we’re giving ourselves a cheat day: https://spiral.xyz/blog/spiral-quarterly-update-q4-2023/

A little known secret of bitcoiners is that although they want bitcoin to conquer fiat, what they really want is to spend four days wandering around a major city with a giant, anthropomorphic bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvHUOr8ruMw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo

To date, we’ve issued 70+ grants worth $7M+ to 40 grantees and 10 projects across 20+ countries. A dozen now work full-time bitcoin jobs. Rather than fire off statistics, we gave current and former grantees a chance to talk FOSS bitcoin in their own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VFWx9mkm8U&t=3s

In case you don’t have 4 minutes (come on, you’re on Twitter), the takeaway is this: Every org that benefits from the work of FOSS devs and designers should be supporting them. This way, devs, and designers get paid to do what they love, bitcoin gets better, and everyone wins.

OKCoin, HRF, OpenSats, Bitfinex, Strike, Coinbase, Kraken, Chaincode Labs, mitDCI, Brink, the btrustteam, and others are with us. Don’t have the resources to run a grant program? Donate to orgs like Brink or let employees take sabbaticals to work on FOSS.

We are always accepting grant applications. If you have an ambitious idea for how to improve bitcoin, email us at [email protected]. It worked for this testimonial video’s stars: thunderbiscuit, Daniela Brozzoni, John Cantrell, Justin Moon, Steve Myers, Stephen DeLorme.