Verdicts From Vegas | THE BITCOIN BRIEF 80

A bi-weekly news show informing you on the latest in Bitcoin, privacy and open source tech hosted by Ungovernables, Max and Q.

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NEWS

Vegas Product Announcements Block launched a new Bitkey hardware wallet with a secure touchscreen and 2-of-3 multisig that removes the need for seed phrases, tying transaction verification directly to the device screen (Bitcoin Magazine). Blockstream released Jade Core, an entry-level open-source hardware wallet with Bluetooth pairing, offline signing, and Blind Oracle PIN protection (Bitcoin Magazine). Lightspark became a Visa principal member and unveiled Grid Global Accounts, connecting Bitcoin-based payments to 175M Visa merchants across 33 countries with plans to reach 100 by year-end (news.bitcoin.com). Block demoed Square NFC tap-to-pay for Bitcoin settled over the Lightning Network with 0% processing fees through 2026, with 800,000+ Square merchants already auto-enrolled (block.xyz). Aven unveiled a Bitcoin-backed Visa credit card with revolving credit lines from $1K to $1M starting at 7.99% APR, 2% cash back, and BitGo custody (GreekReporter). Cash App rolled out auto-conversion of P2P payments into Bitcoin, a 5% Bitcoin Back rewards program at Square merchants, and 5x higher withdrawal limits ($10K/day, $25K/week) (block.xyz). Tether Investments proposed a three-way merger of Twenty One Capital, Strike, and Elektron Energy to combine treasury, mining, lending, and capital markets, with Elektron contributing roughly 5% of global hashrate (BM). Sztorc eCash Fork Topic: Paul Sztorc announced a Bitcoin hard fork called "eCash" set for August 2026 (block 964,000). Copies Bitcoin's ledger but reassigns ~500,000 of Satoshi's forked coins to early investors. 80-85% negative community reaction. Posted: April 24-28, 2026 Link DOJ "Developer Exemptions" Announced at Bitcoin 2026 - But Are They Real? Published: April 27-28, 2026 Sources: The Rage | Crypto.news Summary: Acting AG Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel told Bitcoin 2026 that developers who write code without "knowingly" helping criminals will not be charged. Blanche claimed the DOJ has "fundamentally changed the game" and ended "regulation by prosecution." L0la L33tz at The Rage argues the exemption is performative - the government's existing cases treat receiving a complaint email or reading a news article about misuse as sufficient "knowledge." Keonne Rodriguez Writes from Prison - "Letter #6: Two Years In" Published: April 25, 2026 Sources: The Rage | Reason Magazine Summary: Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez published his sixth letter from federal prison, marking two years since his arrest. He's serving 5 years for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Trump said he would "look into" a pardon but has taken no action. Tornado Cash Retrial: DOJ Pushes for October Date Published: Ongoing (retrial proposed October 2026) Sources: The Rage (April 22) Summary: Prosecutors are pushing for an October 2026 retrial of Roman Storm on money laundering and sanctions charges after a jury deadlocked in August 2025. Storm was convicted on the unlicensed money transmitter charge but the jury couldn't agree on the two more serious counts (up to 40 years combined). Vercel Hack Exposes Crypto Infrastructure Supply Chain Risk Published: April 20, 2026 Source: LINK Summary: Vercel disclosed a breach traced to a compromised Google Workspace connection through a third-party AI tool (Context.ai). The hack exposed environment variables and API keys for numerous Web3 projects. Solana DEX Orca confirmed it rotated all deployment credentials. A cybercrime forum post claimed to be selling Vercel data for $2M. BIP47DB Published: May 3, 2026 Source: LINK Summary: An open protocol for inscribing BIP47 reusable payment codes onto the Bitcoin blockchain using Ordinals inscriptions with compressed binary encoding. The protocol creates a dece