Rsync25

bitcoin_beginners

# Abstract
This directory indexes almost every Bitcoin swap services exist including the swap flow and detailed fees on every swap services (that i know).

# Variants of Bitcoin
|Variant|Structure|Coin|
|:-----------|:-------------:|:-----:|
|⛓️ Onchain|[Timechain](https://blog.goodaudience.com/timechain-a-decade-of-misunderstanding-blockchain-bcb56d7839a3)|[UTXO](https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/transaction/utxo)|
|⚡ Lightning|[Payment Channels](https://www.whatisbitcoin.com/learn/what-is-a-payment-channel)|Sats|
|💧 Liquid|[Federated Sidechain](https://docs.liquid.net/docs/technical-overview)|[L-BTC](https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900001408623-How-does-Liquid-Bitcoin-L-BTC-work)|
|🥜 Cashu|[E-Cash](https://docs.cashu.space)|eSats|
|🌿 Fedimint|[Federated E-Cash](https://fedimint.org/docs/intro)|[fm-sats](https://fedimint.org/docs/CommonTerms/eCashToken)|
|🪐 Mercury|[Statechains](https://thebitcoinmanual.com/blockchain/state-chain)|[Statecoins](https://github.com/commerceblock/mercurylayer/tree/dev/docs)|
|🚢 Ark|[Joinpools](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/joinpools)|[VTXO](https://arkdev.info/docs/learn/nomenclature#vtxo-1)|

# Swap Services
|Service|Swap Flow|Fee Structure|
|:----------:|:----------------:|:--------------------:|
|[Boltz Exchange](https://boltz.exchange)|⛓️▶️⚡|Chain fee + 0.1%|
||⚡▶️⛓️|0.5% + Chain fee|
||⚡▶️💧|0.25% + Liquid fee|
||💧▶️⚡|Liquid fee + 0.1%|
|[Deezy Swap](https://swap.deezy.io)[^1]|⚡▶️⛓️|0.325%|
|[Diamond Hands](https://swap.diamondhands.technology)|⛓️▶️⚡|Chain fee + 0.1%|
||⚡▶️⛓️|0.5% + Chain fee|
||⚡▶️💧|0.25% + Liquid fee|
||💧▶️⚡|0.1% + Liquid fee|
|[Robosats Swap](https://github.com/RoboSats/robosats#try-it-out)|⛓️🔁⚡🔁💧|https://stacker.news/items/502123#p2p-marketplaces|

# Wallet Features
|Software|Swap Flow|Fee Structure|Mechanism|
|:-------------:|:----------------:|:-------------------:|:------------------:|
|[Green](https://blockstream.com/green)[^2]|⛓️▶️⚡|[0.4%](https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/18788578831897-What-are-funding-fees-when-receiving-on-my-Instant-lightning-account)|Splice-in[^3]|
|[Phoenix](https://phoenix.acinq.co)[^4]|⚡🔁⛓️|[Chain fee](https://acinq.co/blog/phoenix-splicing-update#fee-comparison)|Splicing|

|Software|Swap Flow|Fee Structure|Mechanism|
|:-------------:|:----------------:|:-------------------:|:------------------:|
|[Blink](https://blink.sv)[^5]|⚡▶️⛓️|[10k + Chain fee](https://faq.blink.sv/transaction-fees/what-are-the-transaction-fees-for-using-blink-wallet)|Trusted Swap|
||⛓️▶️⚡|[5k ~ 0](https://faq.blink.sv/transaction-fees/what-are-the-transaction-fees-for-using-blink-wallet)[^6]|Trusted Swap|
|[Lifpay](https://www.lifpay.me)|⚡▶️⛓️|8k + Chain fee|Trusted Swap|
||⛓️▶️⚡|0|Trusted Swap|
|[Machankura](https://8333.mobi)|⚡▶️⛓️|[1% + Chain fee](https://8333.mobi/faqs)|Trusted Swap|
||⛓️▶️⚡|0?|Trusted Swap|
|[Primal](https://github.com/PrimalHQ)|⚡🔁⛓️|?|Trusted Swap|
|[Speed](https://www.speed.app)|⚡🔁⛓️|0?|Trusted Swap|
|[WoS](https://walletofsatoshi.com)|⚡▶️⛓️|1% + Chain fee|Trusted Swap|
||⛓️▶️⚡|1%|Trusted Swap|

|Software|Swap Flow|Fee Structure|
|:-------------:|:----------------:|:-------------------:|
|[Aqua](https://aquawallet.io)|⚡🔁💧|Boltz fee|
||⛓️🔁💧|SideSwap fee|3rd Party Swap|
|[Blitz](https://blitz-wallet.com)[^7][^8]|⚡🔁💧|Boltz fee|
|[Breez](https://breez.technology)[^9]|⚡🔁⛓️|Boltz fee|
|[Electrum](https://electrum.org)|⚡🔁⛓️|Boltz fee|
|[Muun](https://muun.com)|⛓️▶️⚡|Chain fee + Lightning fee|
|[SideSwap](https://sideswap.io)|⛓️▶️💧|0.1% + Liquid fee|
||💧▶️⛓️|0.1% + Chain fee|

|Software|Swap Flow|Fee Structure|Mechanism|
|:-------------:|:----------------:|:-------------------:|:------------------:|
|[Cashu.me](https://wallet.cashu.me)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[eNuts](https://www.enuts.cash)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Fedi](https://github.com/fedibtc/fedi-alpha)|⚡🔁🌿|Lightning Fee|Mint/Melt|
|[gonuts](https://github.com/elnosh/gonuts)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Macadamia](https://macadamia.cash)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Minibits](https://www.minibits.cash)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Moksha](https://github.com/ngutech21/moksha)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Mutiny](https://mutinywallet.com)|⚡🔁🌿|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Nutshell](https://github.com/cashubtc/nutshell)|⚡🔁🥜|Lightning fee|Mint/Melt|
|[Webimint](https://webimint.sirion.io)|⚡🔁🌿|Lightning Fee|Mint/Melt|

[^1]: Deezy Swap fee consisted of 0.325% liquidity cost + expected 300 vbytes transaction size (the Onchain fee rate is manually configured by user).
[^2]: Green Wallet LSP charges 10k sats minimum fee
[^3]: Splice-in functionality on Green Wallet is limited up to 4M sats channel size.
[^4]: ACINQ charges 1k sats fee on the first channel opening.
[^5]: Blink Wallet charges additional 0.2% fee for monthly 10M sats Lightning/Onchain imbalance.
[^6]: Receiving Onchain deposit on Blink Wallet is free of swap fee for amount > 1M sats.
[^7]: Blitz Wallet is still in early development phase, some of the functionality might still be buggy including it's Liquid swap.
[^8]: Blitz Wallet LSP charges 2.5k sats minimum fee.
[^9]: Breez charges 0.4% fee (dynamic minimum) per channel opening.

Swaps Directory

Radentor

bitcoin

Opcodes are the fundamental building blocks of Bitcoin's scripting language, defining conditions for spending transactions. Each opcode represents a specific instruction executed within Bitcoin's virtual machine, enabling complex scripting capabilities. Opcodes are executed sequentially to validate transactions against scriptPubKey and scriptSig, determining if inputs fulfill the conditions for spending outputs.

The scripting language employs opcodes to perform operations like data manipulation, conditional execution, cryptographic verification, and arithmetic computations. This limited set ensures predictable script evaluation, mitigating risks from malicious or indefinitely looping scripts.

Opcodes enable smart contracts and multi-signature wallets within Bitcoin. Conditional logic opcodes (e.g., OP_IF, OP_NOTIF) and cryptographic operations (e.g., OP_CHECKSIG, OP_CHECKMULTISIG) enforce specific spending conditions, such as requiring multiple signatures or locking funds until a certain block height or timestamp (via OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY and OP_CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY).

| Opcode   | Description | Function |
|----------|-------------|-------------------|
| 0        | OP_0, OP_FALSE | Push false |
| 76       | OP_PUSHDATA1 | Push data |
| 77       | OP_PUSHDATA2 | Push data |
| 78       | OP_PUSHDATA4 | Push data |
| 79       | OP_1NEGATE | Push -1 |
| 80-96    | OP_1-OP_16, OP_TRUE | Push 1-16 |
| 97       | OP_NOP | No operation |
| 99       | OP_IF | If conditional |
| 100      | OP_NOTIF | If not conditional |
| 103      | OP_ELSE | Else conditional |
| 104      | OP_ENDIF | End if |
| 105      | OP_VERIFY | Verify condition |
| 106      | OP_RETURN | Terminate script |
| 107-108  | OP_TOALTSTACK, OP_FROMALTSTACK | Stack transfer |
| 109      | OP_2DROP | Drop 2 |
| 110      | OP_2DUP | Duplicate 2 |
| 111      | OP_3DUP | Duplicate 3 |
| 112      | OP_2OVER | Copy 2nd pair |
| 113      | OP_2ROT | Rotate top 3 twice |
| 114      | OP_2SWAP | Swap top 2 pairs |
| 115      | OP_IFDUP | Duplicate if not 0 |
| 116      | OP_DEPTH | Stack size |
| 117      | OP_DROP | Remove top |
| 118      | OP_DUP | Duplicate top |
| 119      | OP_NIP | Remove 2nd |
| 120      | OP_OVER | Copy 2nd |
| 121      | OP_PICK | Nth item |
| 122      | OP_ROLL | Move Nth top |
| 123      | OP_ROT | Rotate top 3 |
| 124      | OP_SWAP | Swap top 2 |
| 125      | OP_TUCK | Move 3rd to top |
| 130      | OP_SIZE | Size of top item |
| 135      | OP_EQUAL | Equality check |
| 136      | OP_EQUALVERIFY | Verify equal |
| 139      | OP_1ADD | Add 1 |
| 140      | OP_1SUB | Subtract 1 |
| 143      | OP_NEGATE | Negate |
| 144      | OP_ABS | Absolute value |
| 145      | OP_NOT | Not zero |
| 146      | OP_0NOTEQUAL | Not equal to 0 |
| 147-148  | OP_ADD, OP_SUB | Arithmetic |
| 149-154  | Disabled | Disabled |
| 155-158  | OP_BOOLAND, OP_BOOLOR, OP_NUMEQUAL, OP_NUMEQUALVERIFY | Boolean logic |
| 159-160  | OP_NUMNOTEQUAL, OP_LESSTHAN | Comparison |
| 161-162  | OP_GREATERTHAN, OP_LESSTHANOREQUAL | Comparison |
| 163-164  | OP_GREATERTHANOREQUAL, OP_MIN | Minimum/Maximum |
| 165-166  | OP_MAX, OP_WITHIN | Range check |
| 167-168  | OP_RIPEMD160, OP_SHA1 | Hashing |
| 169      | OP_SHA256 | SHA-256 |
| 170      | OP_HASH160 | RIPEMD-160+SHA-256 |
| 171      | OP_HASH256 | SHA-256x2 |
| 172-175  | OP_CHECKSIG, OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY, OP_CHECKMULTISIG | Signature check |
| 176-177  | OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY | Multisig verify |
| 178-181  | OP_NOP1-OP_NOP4 | No operation |
| 182-185  | OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY, OP_CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY | Timing checks |
| 186-189  | OP_NOP6-OP_NOP9 | No operation |
| 190-193  | OP_NOP10 | No operation |

Opcodes Explained

deleted by author

ecash

For the past two months, I've started building Fedimint integrations into Mutiny Wallet, and it has been all that I've been thinking about. It's such a fascinating rabbit hole into philosophy, technical, and legal implications of this kind of tech. Some of my views might be obvious, but worth saying out loud. In other ways, it might be controversial or complicated to derive naturally. I plan to share these in a series of posts relating to specific topics around Fedimint.

This first article might not be the best "introduction to Fedimint" piece. There are several [resources available](https://fedimint.org/docs/intro) to learn more about it. For now, I'll leave it at a few introduction points. 

## Intro

Fedimint is best understood as a "Federated Custody" solution where a group of guardians "custody" Bitcoin on behalf of users in a multi-sig. That's a framing that many of us have understood. Still, as I dig into it more, I have an alternative view of its functionality, especially compared to other technologies.

## What is NOT the problem

**It's not that self-custody is hard.**

I'll repeat that because it's an important distinction that leaves many people with, "Why would anyone want this or think it's a good thing to let others custody on my behalf?"

Fedimint, in my opinion, is not solving key custody for users who "don't know how" or think it's "too hard." Many other things exist to solve that problem. While there's a part of Fedimint that can solve that problem in unique ways, it's already a known problem with known solutions.

## Existing Custody Solutions
Let's examine existing custody solutions to determine how they align with Fedimint.

When it comes to custody, it's a multi-sig like many other solutions that exist out there. There's [Unchained](https://unchained.com/), which allows the user to retain one (or more) of the keys, with Unchained holding one as a backup if you lose the other(s). A typical scenario is a 2 of 3 multi-sig solution that doesn't allow Unchained to spend the funds. If you lose **one** of the keys, then you can go through their verification process to recover your funds. This has sometimes been called collaborative custody since the user holds at least one of the keys.

Other solutions, like Blocks's [Bitkey](https://bitkey.world/en-US) approach, have a similar setup but multiple backup schemes that could allow for a combination of social key recovery, hardware wallet usage, collaborative custody through CashApp, a phone-based key, etc. 

There are also others like [Onramp](https://onrampbitcoin.com/), an Unchained fork, that features 3 keys that DO NOT belong to the user. They belong to 3 different financial institutions that can spend the funds on behalf of the user if a majority of them agree. Their intended use case is more for high net-worth individuals and corporations that need more internal controls and expertise without relying on a single key holder.

These are custody solutions. Some of them have existed for years. Consider a Fedimint federation to function much like Onramp. Specifically, the user does not have one of the keys to any Bitcoin. Instead, a group of other guardians that they trust hold the keys. However, Fedimint is more advanced and expandable in its role. It does far more than help users custody funds.

## The problem I think it is solving

**Fedimint is a scalable self-custodial off-chain programmability layer on top of Bitcoin.** It allows for use cases that are difficult, time-consuming, and unscalable for general users to do on-chain today.

### Self-Custodial

You might think I had a typo calling Fedimint a self-custodial network. Let me explain. 

Fedimint uses Ecash under the hood, which operates as a bearer instrument instead of a "balance" in a ledger. If you have Ecash within a system, you can freely spend it within that system, much like cash. If you lose or give away (e)cash, you lose the ability to spend it. You must have custody of it in some way. Therefore, each Fedimint federation is its own self-custodial network.

A real-world example of this is looking at cash. If you have USD cash in your pocket, that is considered custody of the dollars. Still, it is not inherently interoperable with EUR cash in someone else's pocket. Each Fedimint federation operates in this way as well. Ecash from one federation is not inherently interoperable with the federation of another. To move between federations or between networks such as Bitcoin or Lightning, you must partake in an atomic swap. The transaction either is completed or is refunded. This can be done with the federation guardians (for on-chain Bitcoin) or through non-trusted entities that operate as liquidity swap providers (such as Lightning).

### Federated

Some of what I describe can be true for Ecash on both Cashu and Fedimint. However, I will be focusing specifically on Fedimint. The most crucial difference between Cashu and Fedimint is that each Cashu mint is currently entirely controlled by a single member. Meanwhile, each Fedimint mint can have many members (guardians) who do not have complete individual control. Fedimint can be arranged as a 3 of 4 multisig, 5 of 7, etc. The more guardians you have, the slower they achieve consensus. More research is being made into its practical limitations as you extend beyond 40. Eventually, it should be able to dynamically swap out guardians if most of them agree.

The fact that there is no unilateral control of funds by a single party makes the most significant difference regarding how it technically and legally operates. 

Custody is typically defined as a single party having clear control over the funds or establishing a contract or legal claim to the funds. If there are none of these things and there was ever a dispute of the funds, it may be considered unowned or abandoned property.

I believe there is no guarantee or cryptographic claim of the Bitcoin sent to a federation in exchange for Ecash. Many people who worry about using Fedimint as a custody solution would agree with me. So, let's call it what it is, not a claim to the "underlying" Bitcoin. I believe it behaves more like Wrapped Bitcoin on other chains where it's a smart contract of federation members (such as the one Bitgo was a proponent of on Ethereum). 

### Pricing mechanism

So if an individual Fedimint federation is its own self-custodial network where users swap Bitcoin and Ecash to enter or leave that network, there's no longer a claim to the Bitcoin that a user-traded for Ecash. So then, what determines the price of Ecash? If it is its own currency on a decentralized network, it must have some price when it is traded.

How does anything determine the price? It's determined by the free market. Even if you do not take my position that Fedimint is a self-custodial decentralized network with its own digital currency, the way Ecash is/can be interchanged does imply that it has its own pricing mechanisms.

There are two main ways to get into and out of an Ecash federation. 

#### Direct Swaps

Anyone with an invite code or QR code has the information needed to speak and interact with the Fedimint protocol. You can go directly to the guardians of a federation to atomically swap your Bitcoin on-chain for Ecash. You will receive the same quantity of Ecash as you had in Bitcoin. Each federation guardian has one of the keys needed to spend this Bitcoin later, according to the Fedimint consensus rules.

Later, that user might return wanting to swap out to Bitcoin on-chain with the same amount of Ecash. The user and the federation guardians will then atomically swap the user's Ecash for on-chain Bitcoin, minus the mining fees needed to interact with on-chain Bitcoin. As the Bitcoin leaves the federation, the Ecash is burnt, keeping the supply of outstanding Ecash consistent with the Bitcoin inside the federation.

The consensus protocol that the Fedimint federation guardians abide by will only move the on-chain Bitcoin when an atomic swap occurs. As long as the majority of Fedimint federation guardians run this code and do not hard fork the protocol, then there's a reasonable assumption that you may later trade Ecash for Bitcoin directly from the mint at a near 1:1 rate (minus mining fees). 

One distinction I will stress here is that it will rarely be precisely 1:1. There should NOT be an expectation that an Ecash will ever redeem the exact amount of Bitcoin because of the fees involved. You can never go directly to the source to get the same amount of Bitcoin as you entered. The same concept can be applied to other layers, such as Lightning. A sat on LN is valued differently than a sat on-chain. This is important to understand the actual cost of Bitcoin ownership, the cost to control and manage capital in a blockchain, and how market rates will be determined.

#### Market Swaps

If we look at a real-world example, I can go to a shop to purchase some salmon toast if they are willing to take that specific note from that mint. However, you can't force this. It's up to the shop to be willing to accept a particular note from a particular mint through a particular network.

If a shop does not accept the notes in my pocket, I could use an in-store ATM exchange to swap my notes for ones from a different mint. If an ATM is unavailable, I ask a friend if they have any notes that the shop accepts and if they are willing to take my notes for a specific exchange rate. My friend is just a user of multiple mints. They value each one differently and will swap between them at a price they believe they can redeem them for later.

All of this applies to Ecash as well. Users can transfer Ecash notes directly to each other at a price they both agree upon. The transfer happens internally if both users have already joined the same mint. To interact with external networks, Gateways are needed. 

Lightning is an example of an external network. Fedimint guardians don't run a Lightning node or hold HTLCs. Lightning Network swaps happen between other users of a mint, just like an ATM or friend might provide this service to you. Due to the off-chain smart contract functionality of Ecash, you can make the transfer of Ecash contingent upon completing a cryptographic task, such as swapping Ecash for a preimage to redeem a Lightning payment. This allows for any Lightning Node to be a user & note holder of any mint and provide swapping functionality on behalf of the other users of that mint. And due to this, they may charge whatever rate they wish, just like your friend or ATM might. However, unlike trusting an ATM, users do not need to trust any Lightning node gateway. Fedimint guardians enforce the smart contracts. The transfer of Ecash from the user to the Lightning node gateway will only be completed once the Lightning transfer is completed.
## Determining price

### Network costs
Since Lightning uses the same unit of account as Bitcoin (and thus Ecash), the swaps are easy to reason about. However, operating a different network does have a cost. As such, the exchange rate between Ecash and Lightning will have a fee associated with it as well. This may include a base charge and fee based on a percentage of the total amount, which can be considered their exchange rate.

Suppose the network does not use the same unit of account as Bitcoin. In that case, that's where holding two different currencies at the same time can introduce slippage. You could have a Monero gateway attached to a Bitcoin-denominated Ecash mint to provide swaps between XMR and BTC. However, if you hold too much XMR and it goes down in price relative to BTC, you're losing purchasing power. Therefore, if you prefer to have BTC, you must charge an exchange rate that you believe you can swap extra XMR for at a later price with BTC and charge a fee that you think you'll be paying to do those swaps in addition to a fee that you profit from for providing this service.

### Risks

Each holder of Ecash carries a risk that the majority of guardians in a particular Fedimint federation either ceases to function or has hard forked to break the consensus rules. At a certain point, all decentralized protocols face similar risks but have different consequences. Suppose a supermajority of Bitcoin users/miners have decided to hard fork or stop participating in Bitcoin. In that case, it faces systemic risk from the behavior of third parties that you individually have little control over. The price of Bitcoin is a function of trust and market demands in the system. You trust that you can spend and use Bitcoin at a later date, and a significant factor in that price is global belief in it as a system.

Ecash carries the same type of risk on a different scale, and the market rates can be considered a function of trust in a particular federation coupled with demand to be in that system. Why might there be demand? Gateways have services that they can provide the users of that system. These services can expand the programmability and interoperability between the federation and external networks, such as Lightning. There is demand for users to hold Ecash and use it for both on-chain Bitcoin and Lightning, which takes a lot of work to do seamlessly on Lightning today. Gateways receive fees for providing such services, so there might eventually be enough demand on a particular federation to profit off of such swaps, and they take a risk for it. Therefore, they can charge what they wish. It would be foolish to expect an exact 1:1 with no fee or exchange rate involved.

Therefore, there's nothing that guarantees that users of a federation can participate in Lightning swaps. An individual Lightning node needs to provide this despite the risks. At the beginning of Fedimint's usage, these Gateways will likely be the federation members of their specific federation. The relationship between gateways and federations is a fascinating one that I'll dive into more in a later article.
## Expirations

This could be extended to another article as well. I believe it's fascinating to think about how the protocol can conceptualize adding "expirations" onto each mint. It's an optional metadata field that you may apply to your Fedimint federation, and its implications are interesting. 

We've seen far too many instances in the space of early Lightning custodians like BlueWallet and BottlePay eventually shut down their custodial services, and we're already seeing Cashu mints shut down on very short notice. There will always be users of these services who expect them to be around forever. It's also impossible to inform everyone that it is shutting down. These "forever liabilities" are a big problem, and they eventually cause significant headaches for all involved.

Expirations reinforce the expectation that Ecash is not a guaranteed claim on the underlying Bitcoin. As soon as a user joins a federation, it can be communicated that their notes will expire at a specific date. We see this a lot in the gift card space. Some gift cards last 10 years, and I've seen others that last hundreds of years. Gift cards or reward points commonly get legal carve-outs for them. To me, there is no difference between reward points, gift cards, or Ecash inside a specific network.

Another good practice about expiration dates for mints is to allow federation members of the mint to get out in case they change their minds about being a participant. It's early days for Fedimint, and things can change; companies may die, environments can become hostile, etc.
## Beyond a financial network

It's worth a callout, but there are also non-financial things that could benefit from a federated smart contract system. I won't dive into them in detail, but here are some ideas: 

- Social key recovery
- Encrypted password management
- Social communication
- Discreet log contracts
- Prediction Markets
- Federated mining pools
- Dynamic lightning node subnetworks
- Decentralized exchange
- Privacy tool (Ecash has privacy that's as good as cash, as it must be an effective bearer instrument)

## Conclusion

Fedimint is not a Bitcoin custody solution but its own protocol and network that can provide financial and non-financial solutions for any user of any mint. A majority of federation guardians enforce the contracts in the protocol, but no single guardian can unilaterally make decisions. Users have fantastic privacy inside the system to transact without censorship concerns. Users must have custody of their Ecash and back them up to spend them later. It's a new type of distributed ledger network without a ledger at all.

I welcome constructive comments and opinions around these ideas. If anyone has conflicting thoughts, you should be looking at this in comparison to other things that exist. Consider how it compares to Bitcoin's trust model or other currency networks. How does it compare to Wrapped Bitcoin on ETH, to ZK-Rollups, to state chains on secure enclaves that are technically considered non-custodial, to other cryptocurrencies without their scammy pricing mechanisms (at least as far as they are legally allowed to exist as self-custodial networks)? Some of it sounds cringe to compare it to, and I don't endorse any of them. But evaluate how they operate technically and legally if you'd like to challenge some of my thoughts around Fedimint being its own decentralized network with its own stable, but dynamic pricing structure.

_Originally posted on my [blog](https://tonygiorgio.com/fedimint/)_

Fedimint is Self-Custodial

TonyGiorgio

movies

1. Trust No One

![20240112_113620.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11915)


2. The Redeem Team

![20240112_113647.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11916)


3. Eat the Rich

![20240112_113717.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11917)


4. The Great Hack

![20240112_113745.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11918)


5. The Mind Explained

![20240112_113806.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11919)


6. Our Universe

![20240112_113829.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11920)


7. Dirty Money

![20240112_113855.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11921)


8. The Social Dilemma

![20240112_113926.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11922)


9. Rotten

![20240112_113957.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11923)


10. 13TH

![20240112_114028.jpg](https://m.stacker.news/11924)

10 Netflix documentaries that will change your life + mindset

UnknownFacts

# Bitcoin address format

A Bitcoin address is an identifier (like an account number), starting with 1, 3 or bc1 on the mainnet, containing 27-34 alphanumeric Latin characters and digits (except 0, O, I).

# Full list of Bitcoin address prefixes

A **Bitcoin address**, or simply **address**, is an identifier of 27-34 alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1, 3 or bc1, that represents a possible destination for a bitcoin payment. Addresses can be generated at no cost by any user of Bitcoin. It is also possible to get a Bitcoin address using an account at an exchange or online wallet service. Also, you can generate it offline and store on paper or at any digital storage.

There are currently four address formats in use in Bitcoin mainnet:

1.  P2PKH (Pay 2 Public Key Hash) which begin with the number 1
2.  P2SH (Pay 2 Script Hash) type starting with the number 3.
3.  [Bech32](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bech32) type starting with bc1.
4.  [Taproot](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0341.mediawiki) type sarting with bc1p.

|Use             |Leading symbol(s)              |Example                      |
|----------------|-------------------------------|-----------------------------|
Pubkey hash ([P2PKH address](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction#Pay-to-PubkeyHash)) |1 |17VZNX1SN5NtKa8UQFxw ... |
|Script hash ([P2SH address](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Pay_to_script_hash))           |3 |3EktnHQD7RiAE6uzMj2Z ... |
|SegWit mainnet ([P2WPKH address](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki)) |bc1 |bc1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5 ... |
|SegWit Testnet ([P2WPKH address](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki)) |tb1 |tb1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5 ... |
|SegWit mainnet ([P2WSH address](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki)) |bc1 |bc1qrp33g0q5c5txsp9a ... |
|SegWit Testnet ([P2WSH address](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki)) |tb1 |tb1qrp33g0q5c5txsp9a ... |
|Private key ([WIF](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format), uncompressed pubkey)        |5 |5Hwgr3u458GLafKBgxts ... |
|Private key ([WIF](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format), compressed pubkey)          |K _or_ L |L1aW4aubDFB7yfras2S1 ... |
|[BIP32](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0032) pubkey                                              |xpub |xpub661MyMwAqRbcEYS8 ... |
|[BIP49](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0049) pubkey                                              |ypub |ypub6XiW9nhToS1gjVsF ... |
|[BIP49](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0049) pubkey                                              |zpub |zpub6qeoQyhseR78SC69 ... |
|[BIP32](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0032) private key                                         |xprv |xprv9s21ZrQH143K24Mf ... |
|Testnet pubkey hash                                                                              |m _or_ n |mipcBbFg9gMiCh81Kj8t ... |
|Testnet script hash                                                                              |2 |2MzQwSSnBHWHqSAqtTVQ ... |
|Testnet Private key (WIF, uncompressed pubkey)                                                   |9 |92Pg46rUhgTT7romnV7i ... |
|Testnet Private key (WIF, compressed pubkey)                                                     |c |cNJFgo1driFnPcBdBX8B ... |
|Testnet BIP32 pubkey                                                                             |tpub |tpubD6NzVbkrYhZ4WLcz ... |
|Testnet BIP32 private key                                                                        |tprv |tprv8ZgxMBicQKsPcsbC ... |

# Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet

A HD wallet, or [hierarchical deterministic](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet) wallet is a system of deriving keys from a single starting point known as a seed. The seed allows a user to easily back up and restore a wallet without needing any other information and can in some cases allow the creation of public addresses without the knowledge of the private key. Seeds are typically serialized into human-readable words in a Seed phrase.


Full list of Bitcoin address prefixes

italiansatoshi

Hey stackers, i got something tasty for you today.

I was inspired by @aftermath's post here: https://stacker.news/items/317289 

I challenged myself to construct a lottery protocol where:
- [x] Off-chain deposits and payouts are supported
- [x] Players can verify the outcome was fair
- [x] Players can prove to outside observers whenever the lottery coordinator cheats
- [x] The lottery coordinator can prove to outside observers that it selected winners honestly
- [x] Players remain 100% anonymous from each other; No P2P messaging needed.
- [x] The on-chain transaction footprint is efficient and minimized

Turns out, this is actually more than just possible, it can be generalized to work for any [Discreet Log Contract](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/discreet-log-contracts/) . 

This means any kind of oracle-based contract (e.g. sports betting, derivatives, CFDs, etc) can be conducted off-chain without any of the DLC players needing to send or receive on-chain transactions or converse P2P. Participants in a DLC can instead use one untrusted coordinator who provides the on-chain capital while everyone else transacts off-chain. I call this person the 'market maker', and they can charge fees for their capital services.

## review pls?

Bear in mind i just wrote this myself and finished it today. I'm hoping I didn't make any glaring errors which would make the whole protocol impossible. Please [have a read](https://conduition.io/scriptless/lottery/) and tell me if I'm crazy. I'll also be submitting this idea to the DLC-dev mailing list to get more opinions.

## links

- Blog article: https://conduition.io/scriptless/lottery/ ([Onion version](http://conduit4u4zsimbgvcatj6lyy36ot6k7w7bvbvivgwhbgzs7gfds7qad.onion/scriptless/lottery/))
- Github PR (comments welcome!): https://github.com/conduition/conduition.io/pull/4

A Provably Fair Off-Chain Lottery (and DLC) Protocol

conduition

### **Background**
- Even though the benefits of coinjoins are well documented and clearly help us obtain great privacy, conjoins introduce separate transactions into our usual spending flow.
- You may be aware, but other types of transactions exist today to also take back some control of privacy. For instance, people can use Payjoins when supported by their wallets.
- Payjoins via [BIP-78](https://bips.dev/78/) look like regular transactions and involve both the sender and receiver contributing inputs when transacting. This could be the merchant themselves or potentially even yourself (via 2nd, 3rd, 4th wallets).
- Even though its early and that they are not so commonplace today, Payjoins are potentially an even better solution or a natural evolution from coinjoins over the long-run. Especially when in future they support more than 2 participants.

### **Payjoins will make privacy the default on-chain, without any additional transactions**
![Train tracks covering](https://nostrfiles.dev/uploads/FmbLoQFziboUQ3gai1gh.jpeg)

### **Why you should be more bullish 🔥**
- Payjoins make it near-impossible to know the true amount paid and they are indistinguishable from other transactions. There is no obvious change or obvious payment output. And of course you can use multiple inputs. There are so many different potential interpretations of the likely amounts, that the bread-trail and 'heuristics' used by surveillance companies can come to a dead-end.
- With the release of the [PDF (Payjoin Dev Kit)](https://payjoindevkit.org/examples/), we should now see business adoption grow, since it makes their own transactions more efficient and more cheap. Outputs for the receiver (the merchant) will allow transactions and outputs batched together to save on fees in future. The privacy argument for merchants may almost be a secondary afterthought.
- Furthermore, Payjoins can even remove the need for whole transactions in future, by being able to [directly fund the opening of Lightning channels from the receiver's input](https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/open-multiple-lightning-channels/) straight to your node. 
- @bitgould for instance has referred to this as 'transaction cut-through'. Kudos to you Dan, on dedicating so much time to this Payjoin initiative!
- During a significant bull-market, exchanges will also be incentivised to use Payjoins. Firstly, exchanges could benefit from batching transactions. However exchanges may also struggle for liquid UTXOs to have ready to fund withdrawals at times, even if they hold 100% reserves - due to a cold and hot storage setup. With Payjoins, exchanges would have the ability to directly fund the withdrawals with the incoming UTXOs from their other customers. Again, skipping entire transactions and saving a bunch of fees.
- Further benefits of Payjoins are discussed [here on Github](https://github.com/orgs/payjoin/discussions/91).

### **Future Adoption**
- Even if Payjoins only account for 10% of transactions on-chain in the coming years. It's enough to reduce the "common-ownership heuristic" to a 90% probability, such that multiple Payjoins in sequence could reduce that from 90% to 81%, then 72%, 65%, 59%, 53% etc.
- Of course with the incentives in place, it is hoped Payjoins will soon make up a greater share than 10% of transactions. Taproot transactions already [account for 60% of the network](https://transactionfee.info/charts/transactions-spending-taproot/), despite being less than 2% at the start of 2023.
- As we stand today, Payjoins aren't so commonplace, but they have hugely significant implications for privacy onchain. Hopefully we see the momentum shift over the coming months, with wallets, businesses & individuals adopting Payjoins.


You are NOT bullish enough on Payjoin! 🔥

davidw

What'll be next soft fork on Bitcoin?

a new bitcoin-focused UX Research Toolkit, check it out, send feedback ✏️🛠️

plebpoet

*Episode X. Block height: 796000. Fixing the Bitcoin Adoption Dilemma: HODLing Bitcoin is important, but so is spending. Let me explain.*

Original Post: https://carlbmenger.substack.com/p/the-adoption-dilemma

### The Week in Bitcoin

- **The ETF Wave:** On June 15th 2023, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock - with over $9 trillion in assets under management — shocked the TradFi world when it filed an application for a Bitcoin spot ETF.  As a result, others have also filed or renewed their application with the SEC (Valkyrie, Fidelity,…) 

- **Deutsche Bank:** Deutsche Bank has applied to Bafin (German Federal Financial Administration) for a regulatory license to provide custody services for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.

- **Bitcoin Lightning Network** ⚡️: The Lightning network has reached a record 5,630 Bitcoin ($172 million) in capacity for the first time. The network has grown 42% in Bitcoin capacity and 105% in US dollar capacity over the past 12 months.

![The Bitcoin Adoption Dilemma](https://i.postimg.cc/rmvQKHxN/IMG-0030.jpg)

I know, I know, HODLING is the way to go, the mantra that is prevalent in the Bitcoin community. And according to Gresham's Law it also makes perfectly sense that you HODL the good money (Bitcoin) and spend the bad (Fiat money). 

Nonetheless, my ElSalvador (https://stacker.news/items/161607) and Guatemala (https://stacker.news/items/171339) trip showed me that spending Bitcoin is 1) fun and 2) important for adoption, otherwise we will be stuck in the so-called “Adoption Dilemma”:

> Why should companies accept Bitcoin if no one spends it and how can you spend Bitcoin if no company accept it?

For this reason, my new personal approach is Spend and Replace. What I mean by that and how I do it in countries where Bitcoin is not legal tender, I gonna show you in this episode. But first things first: Why are we hodling Bitcoin?

### Gresham’s Law

Simply speaking, because of Gresham’s Law, which can be described as a monetary principle that states that, “bad money will drive out good money.” The law was originally based upon the composition of coins and the overall tangible value of the metals used to make them.

Throughout the history of currency, coins have been composed of precious metals, such as Gold or Silver, which gave the coins their natural value. However, over time, coin issuers would reduce the amount or percentage of precious metals used in their composition and attempted to implement them as full-value currency by law. Those were the early days of money debasement, called clipping. 

Of course, these coins, which now contained less Gold or Silver, were imprinted with the same higher face value, making the new coins overvalued, while old coins are legally undervalued. Governments and similar coin issuers would do this to gain revenue via seigniorage and use that revenue to pay older debts, which is nothing other than debt devaluation through inflation. Sounds familiar? 

Since the value of the metal in older coins are higher than metal found in new coins, citizens have a very transparent incentive to prefer those old coins with higher precious metal content. As long as both types of coins must be treated as the same unit of currency by law, buyers will pass their less precious coins on as fast as they can and hold onto their older coins. As a result, bad money will then circulate through the market and economy, and good money gets removed from market circulation.

### But why hodl Bitcoin?

![Superior Bitcoin](https://i.postimg.cc/QNRthB7f/photo-output.jpg)

Bitcoin combines the characteristics of Fiat money, i.e. the easier transfer through space, with the characteristics of Gold, i.e. the better transfer through time. Bitcoin is therefore the next logical stage of iteration, because people naturally want to escape the cost of dilution, and so the very same broader dynamic of cost minimization in regard to economic exchange, that dethroned livestock (cows) in favor of metal coins now makes itself known again.

Whenever a new monetary iteration process takes place, it must be noted that these processes are not smooth and straightforward, but occur in waves. Every iteration process initially brings volatility, which only decreases as the new money becomes more widespread. It must also be emphasized that these processes are always initiated by the fact that at the beginning there are more and more people who collect and hoard (HODL) the new, superior money.

The more people hodl the new money, the higher the valuation in comparison to all other goods over time will be, this of course acts as information to the collectors, signaling that it is suddenly profitable to expend more resources in order to acquire more units. This price increase lead to more resources being devoted to producing the better money.

The fact that Bitcoin is absolutely limited to 21 million units, means that it is completely inelastic to increased demand. If Bitcoin proves to be a better (through space and time) form of money and more people collect Bitcoin for this reason, the price will have to increase compared to all other goods, because the supply can't be expanded.

### Why spend Bitcoin then?

So, as we have seen, while it perfectly makes sense to HODL Bitcoin, it is also hindering adoption, as I experienced first hand in El Salvador: Many El Salvadoran entrepreneurs I have spoken with have euphorically accepted Bitcoin for goods and services, when the Bitcoin law came into effect. Maybe you remember the pictures of the ‘Bitcoin accepted’ signs in the media.

![Bitcoin accepted ES](https://i.postimg.cc/4dV0cF87/IMG-0038.jpg)

Unfortunately, the demand for Bitcoin payments has failed to materialize outside of some regions, thus many entrepreneurs stopped training their employees, on how to accept Bitcoin payments. As a result, many "Bitcoin accepted" signs have disappeared and one often hears, especially outside Bitcoin Beach, that Bitcoin cannot be accepted at the moment because no employee knows how to do it and/or there are some ‘technical issues’.

Why spend training resources if no one appreciates the service? In this context, I then also noticed how important it is as a Bitcoiner to ask everywhere if Bitcoin is accepted as a means of payment. Because, of course, an entrepreneur will think more about accepting Bitcoin and devoting resources to it, if a couple of people ask for Bitcoin payment in a certain period of time than none.

We must also remind ourselves, that few people are as fascinated by Bitcoin as we are. Therefore, they need an incentive to invest resources (time) to accept Bitcoin. If the company sees that it can appeal to a broader target group and thus increase its sales figures, it is more willing to invest resources than if it sees no incentive to do so at all.

Thus, if we all just HODL our coins, then we should not be surprised about lack of Bitcoin adoption. This is exactly what I am referring to as ‘The Adoption Dilemma’:

![Adoption Dilemma](https://i.postimg.cc/WtLbnKVB/IMG-0039.jpg)

And of course, it is up to you what you are doing with your Bitcoin stack. I also don't think that you have to spend vast sums of your hoarded coins to contribute to adoption. My approach is much more subtle: Set yourself a HODL goal and when you have reached it then switch to Spend and Replace. Your stack still increases in fiat terms over time and, at the same time, you are able to support early Bitcoin entrepreneurs and thus drive Bitcoin adoption.

### The hamster wheel, again?

And I know, the more Bitcoin you stack, the better it is. However, I often wonder if this approach really gives you the freedom you were hoping for, or if you haven't become a slave to another system again. I think everything in life always needs a certain balance, because the most important thing is lifetime, and even the biggest Bitcoin stack can't give you that. I, for example, felt the most freedom when I was travelling through El Salvador with my stack where I could contribute to the Bitcoin economy, completely independent of the fiat system. 

Ok, Carl, I get your point, but how the hell can I spend Bitcoin if I don't live in El Salvador? With a few tricks, you can easily contribute to Bitcoin adoption. And believe me, you're going to have a lot of very interesting discussions on the way.

### How to spend? 

#### Lightning Wallet

First and foremost, you should download a Lightning Wallet, which you can then handle like a digital purse and use for small/microtransactions. You should be aware that these are mostly custodial, which means that you should not secure your life savings with these wallets. However, it offers the advantage that Bitcoin payments are instant and with very low fees, so yes you even can pay your coffee with Bitcoin. 

There are numerous lightning wallets: Two I personally use and would recommend are Muun Wallet and Wallet of Satoshi. The beauty with those two wallets is that you can switch seemingly between on-chain and lightning transactions.

#### Lightning Tip Cards

Outside of El Salvador, in countries where Bitcoin is not legal tender (yet), I have gotten into the habit of tipping people in Bitcoin. This accomplishes two things: 1) The person who receives the tip has to learn about Bitcoin and sees how the network is functioning. The incentive becomes greater the more tips he/she gets. 2) This person will definitely talk to family, friends and even his/her employer about this ‘strange’ method of tipping. This can make the owner of the business aware of Bitcoin, and if it often happens, he/she will think about accepting Bitcoin in his/her store to reach more clients eventually.

Of course, you are rightly asking yourself how this can be implemented in an easy and smooth way. Fortunately, there is an Austrian IT company called Satoshi Engineering (https://satoshiengineering.com/en/) that deals with these gimmicks on the side and without any financial interest. I regularly use their Lightning Tip cards (https://tipcards.io/en/), which simply can be customized, loaded up with Sats and printed out with the amount you desire to tip. Absolutely free. Check it out:

![Lightning Tip Cards](https://i.postimg.cc/vZySRzZb/IMG-0040.jpg)

#### Bitcoin Maps

If you want to pay directly with Bitcoin and not just tip, there is one problem: How do you know where Bitcoin is accepted? For that, there are so-called Bitcoin Maps, which list those businesses that accept Bitcoin as payment. One of them that I really like to use is BTC Map (https://btcmap.org/): You can add new business, and confirm via lightning the ones who are already mentioned in the map, so that everything stays up to date. At least check out the Bitcoin companies in your area!

### The End

That's it for this episode. I hope you gathered some valuable knowledge from this one. Keep stacking AND start spending, so we can solve the Adoption Dilemma together!

Thanks for reading and see you hopefully in the next one. Until then, remember:**Hodling AND Spending Bitcoin matters.**

₿ critical, ₿ informed, ₿ prepared. Yours,

![Carl B Menger](https://i.postimg.cc/LsSX1h3m/IMG-0041.jpg)

____________________________

### Stay tuned:
**Subscribe to my Newsletter**: https://open.substack.com/pub/carlbmenger/p/coming-soon
**Follow me on Twitter**: https://mobile.twitter.com/CarlBMenger
**Follow me on NOSTR**: https://damus.io/npub10wv37amdqnv8edw5yktgsxr62g8k4lqkk2u66fk6c6uwuakzssxsf4v22x

### B informed:
[IX] NOSTR: Social Media 2.0: https://stacker.news/items/189821
[VIII] The Bitcoin Retirement Plan: https://stacker.news/items/183327
[VII] Bitcoin in Guatemala: https://stacker.news/items/171339
[VI] Bitcoin in El Salvador: https://stacker.news/items/161607


Solving the Bitcoin Adoption Dilemma

CarlBMenger

tech


![pix](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Google_Pixel_7_Pro_back_%28Hazel%29.svg)

### What is Graphene?  

Graphene is an operating system (OS) based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Graphene improves the security of AOSP code by improving sandboxing and exploit mitigations, while providing  more extensive permission options than stock open source android.  It is probably a good idea to do your homework before switching to Graphene, since there is a lot to learn, and the user experience is not as smooth and intuitive as you would find on a typical android phone. 

For me, the security and privacy was reason enough to switch, but it is also a way to help free me from big tech. 

### Getting Ready

I have been gradually de-googling my life for a few years now, so I was somewhat prepared to switch to graphene. I replaced gmail, google drive, google calendar, and google contacts with protonmail equivalents. I replaced the google search engine with duck duck go, and replaced google chrome with a bunch of different browsers. I have set for myself the ambitous goal of never using the Google Play Store again. This will be difficult, and I may have to abandon this notion. We'll see.

You may not have started the process of weaning yourself off of Google and or Apple. If that's the case, your transition may be harder.

You may also intend to use google apps and use the Google Play Store. Graphene has a sandboxed mirror of the Google Play Store in its app repository. I will explain what this means and the best way to use it later.

### Choosing A Phone

I call this section "Choosing A Phone", but there is really not much choice. You need to get yourself an unlocked Google Pixel. If you're buying a new device, I advise that you buy it directly from Google. I made the mistake of getting an "unlocked" phone from a retailer. What they meant was "carrier unlocked", which means you can choose any wireless service. I struggled for a while with this type phone before realizing my phone was not really unlocked.  The phone needs the ability to have its bootloader unlocked. 
Why does Graphene only support Google Pixel phones? Well, one reason is that the factory phone permits its bootloader to be unlocked. Most other major manufacturers have locked down their devices. Also, the Pixel has hardware-backed keystores, verified boot, attestation, and input-output memory management units (IOMMUs). What this means, in plain english, is that the phone is capable of sandboxing components like the GPU and radios.

### Preparing your Phone

I chose a Pixel 7. Since it's new, I figured that it would get updates for many years. I also like the sturdy build quality.
From here on, you should refer to this excellent [guide]( https://grapheneos.org/install/web), which will help you unlock your bootloader and flash the Graphene OS. Just keep these few points in mind:
- When you follow the directions to enable developer options, be sure to enable usb debugging AND OEM unlocking.
- After struggling for a very long time attempting to unlock my bootloader on both a Ubuntu laptop and a Windows 11 laptop, I easily was able to use the web installer to unlock on a Macbook. I link [here](https://stacker.news/items/194904) to a discussion thread I started on *Stacker News* which documents my struggles and the help I received. @03365d6a53 was particularly generous with his time and suggestions. If using Ubuntu, avoid the Flatpak installs of browsers, because the sandboxing will likely prevent a USB connection. 
Also, if attempting to unlock the bootloader using Ubuntu, you may need to install  `sudo apt install adb` in addition to following the other instructions you find on the page. 
- Overall, I found the Ubuntu installation to be simpler than Windows 11, but many people claim to have had more success using Windows than any linux distro.

Once you have unlocked the bootloader, the rest of the process is a breeze. The windows installer makes it easy. You can also choose the CLI install option. Instructions are available on the page I linked. 

### Graphene OS First Impressions

Coming from a Samsung Galaxy, I immediately noticed the spare, functional look of the home screen. I appreciated the absence of any bloatware. In my case, I do not have wireless service set up yet.  I am still considering my options.  
Since I’m heavily immersed in the ProtonMail ecosystem right now, the first thing I did after creating my pin and setting up wifi was grab the ProtonMail PWA by using the default Vanadium browser. Next, I installed the Fdroid app. From there, I downloaded the Proton VPN.
Next I downloaded the Stacker News PWA, of course. 
Graphene has its own apps. These are the apps in the native repository:

- **Auditor**

	According to its description, the Auditor App “uses hardware-based security features to validate the identity of a device along with authenticity and integrity of the operating system. It will verify that the device is running the stock operating system with the bootloader locked and that no tampering with the operating system has occurred." This can be done because Pixel phones allow this “attestation”, which I talked about earlier.
- **Camera**
	The Graphene Camera App is designed for privacy and security. It is called “Secure Camera” in the Google Play Store. It has security features like a dedicated QR scanning mode without Network and Media/Storage permissions, and the optional stripping of EXIF metadata from photos and videos.
- **PDF Viewer**
	The PDF Viewer allows the viewing of pdfs in a sandbox that requires no permissions. 	
- **Vanadium Browser**
	The Vanadium Browser is basically a stripped down chromium browser with added security enhancements.
- **Mirrored Google Play Services**
	The Google Play Services Mirror App is a sandboxed version of the Play store, which removes permissions. I describe this function in greater detail elsewhere.

I was using Vanadium as my browser, which seemed fine at first.  I quickly realized that I had gotten used to Brave’s natural ad blocking, so I hunted around for a browser alternative. I downloaded Mull from Fdroid. That seemed okay. I intend to try Mullvad VPN with its browser, and see how that goes. I will likely go back to Brave eventually. 

Keep in mind that there is an alternative to Fdroid if you’re looking to download open source apps. It’s called Obtanium, and this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFz57zNR_M0) explains it.
As for me, I’m going the tedious route of downloading apps directly from github. The first app I added in this way was the Phoenix wallet.

### What About Google Apps?
As I said earlier, I’m going to try to avoid using Google Apps from this point forward. If you decide that you want to continue to use Google Apps, Graphene allows you to do this in a safe, fully sandboxed way.  When android ships in a typical phone, all the Google apps are given special privileged status right from the start.  This allows them to bypass the default android sandbox, which prevents apps from interacting with each other without permission. Google Apps are free to interact and collect data. In essence, they are spy apps. 

Graphene gives Google apps no special privileges. You can use them on Graphene through the mirror, but those apps are sandboxed. 

Graphene also allows the setting up of multiple users on the phone. These users have their own environments, cut off from each other. You could create a profile called something like “Google User” who has normal play store access.  This [video](
https://youtu.be/20C0FD7mGDY) gives you all the information you need. 

### Help From The Stacker News Community

I received a tremendous amount of help on Stacker News when getting started, so I’m just going to include some of the tips and insights and link to the user, in case you want to show your appreciation:
 1.@03365d6a53 provided some great ideas for those not wanting to use the device to make cellular phone calls. I learned from him that if you have airplane mode on, Graphene does not ping your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) and location to nearby cell towers. He recommends putting an anonymous data sim in a VPN dongle, such as the Mudi GL 750 with Blue Merle software. @final provides a more in depth explanation [here](https://stacker.news/items/198353/r/siggy47) @final is also an expert in this area. You would be well advised to ask them for advice. @final may also be posting a guide soon which will provide much more in depth information than the basic stuff I have included here.
 
2. @03365d6a53 also provided a list of apps that he likes:
- Simplex Chat
- Mullvad VPN
- Amethyst Nostr client (I use this app too, and it’s working great on Graphene)
- K9 Mail
- Element
- Obtanium
- Aurora (I don’t intend to go this route)
- BitWarden
- Organic Maps
- BTC Maps

3. I was not enjoying the stock keyboard, so @final recommended FlorisBoard, which is available on Fdroid. I like it a lot so far, but one suggeston: Turn off the sound. The loud click each time you press a key will drive you and everyone around you crazy.  
4. @039a43f343 recommended this [link](https://gitlab.com/fdroid/wiki/-/wikis/List-of-F-Droid-repositories),  which is a directory of Fdroid repositories.

### Conclusion. 
I am very new to Graphene.  I have a lot to learn. Getting my Pixel set up as a daily driver is going to take some work. Still, I am optimistic. I’m not going to rush it. I am keeping my old Galaxy around too, so my transition will be gradual.
If you decide to make the change, I hope this short guide is useful.

