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400 Stores Now Accepting Bitcoin
Coinbase data breach, scarcity of teeth; gold; and bitcoin, and sweet capitulation
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🥩 Steak 'n Shake Bitcoin Launch
As highlighted in last week's newsletter, Steak 'n Shake rolled out their acceptance of Bitcoin payments in all ~400 stores this week. Bitcoiners across the country went to their nearest Steak 'n Shake to show support, and reported smooth experiences
💀 Coinbase Data Breach
Major yikes. Haven't heard of this case before - customer support agents in India sold customer data to the "hackers" who are demanding Coinbase pay them $20 million in bitcoin. Coinbase is offering $20 million to anyone who can help bring the "hackers" to justice.
Yikes https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1922967576209998133
Cyber criminals bribed and recruited rogue overseas support agents to pull personal data on <1% of Coinbase MTUs. No passwords, private keys, or funds were exposed. Prime accounts are untouched. We will reimburse impacted customers. More here: http://coinbase.com/blog/protecting-our-customers-standing-up-to-extortionists
5:59 AM • May 15, 2025
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The incident set the Bitcoin community off on KYC laws - "Know Your Customer" laws require financial institutions to collect very personal information on their users, in order to prevent certain people from accessing financial services. Perhaps this does much more harm than good...
✊ Why Bitcoin
😌 Chillin Above $100k
🤼 Bitcoin & MMA
Renato Moicano has, a few times in the past year or so, used his moment on the mic after a UFC victory to implore viewers to study Ludwig von Mises of the Austrian School of Economics, whose ideas about money are manifested in Bitcoin. This week, he announced that he'll open a gym later this month that accepts Bitcoin and offers a discount for those who pay in Bitcoin. This is the way!
🎤 Bitcoin + Independent Media
A huge part of Bitcoin's story of rising to prominence has been the education delivered by Bitcoin podcasts. Where would we be without them?
Maybe we'd be stuck listening to this non-sense for information about Bitcoin
The "journalist" claims to be seeking an answer to the question of where Bitcoin and Strategy's value comes from. Shocker! She couldn't come up with an answer. She was able, however, to dismiss the idea that Bitcoin's value is derived from its scarcity by observing that her teeth are scarce, and their not worth billions of dollars. Good job lady! In case you didn't notice, this is the Financial Times, a source historically considered reputable...think about it.
Aside from the obvious reasons why, despite her teeth being more scarce than Bitcoin, Bitcoin is better suited to serve as money than one woman's teeth, in Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin, the authors actually do compare Bitcoin to teeth as money. Teeth are indeed scarce, portable, relatively durable, etc. Ie, they do possess some of the qualities of good money. But they use the juxtaposition to highlight Bitcoin as good money, whereas teeth are at best apt money - big distinction! While teeth may be able to serve as money, the adoption of teeth as money by society would be unarguably bad for society, given the consequences such as a practice of teeth harvesting. The production of Bitcoin, on the other hand, is fair and produces positive side effects like grid stability.
But, while we're on the topic of scarcity...did the game totally change this week??
We'll have to wait and see what comes of this newly discovered alchemy.
And one more thing on the topic of the media and experts protecting people from Bitcoin...
😋 Sweet Capitulation
After chastising callers for years, Dave Ramsey's show has changed their tune on Bitcoin, and are now recommending it. Unfortunate if you listened to them at any point in the past decade, but hey, they finally figured it out 🎉 (to a very small degree)
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PS
If you haven't already, check out Swan's free Welcome to Bitcoin course. In one hour of high quality video content, Natalie Brunell covers the essentials of Bitcoin - the things you need to understand about its role in the world. You can enroll in the course at https://swan.com/welcome, or watch the first 15 minute video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZvhLDWjD_I&t=44s
Another great place to start is a 40 minute video called "What's the Problem", motivated by the notion that we can't understand the solution (ie Bitcoin) if we don't really understand the problem it solves. The video is on YouTube:
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Feeling a little more than casual? Want to dive in deeper?
Here is a list of resources to take the next step with your personal Bitcoin learning journey:
Books:
- The Genesis Book - Bitcoin didn’t come out of nowhere; intellectual movements in economics and cryptography converge after decades of development in each, the result being Bitcoin. This book details Bitcoin’s prehistory, and is my favorite Bitcoin book
- Inventing Bitcoin - a narrative, progressive approach to building Bitcoin as a superior money, one feature at time, to help the reader understand how features of Bitcoin solve problems of money. *FREE* ebook download
- Gradually Then Suddenly - a clear, logical walkthrough, understandable by beginners, of the case for Bitcoin as money - how the technology works conceptually, how and why it will win, and why this is good for the world
- The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future - not a book about Bitcoin per se, but this book and this author are some of the most popular in the space. The book explains the roles of technological advancement and inflation/deflation in creating scarcity/abundance in society
- The 7th Property: Bitcoin and the Monetary Revolution - takes an accessible, casual tone to the topics of monetary economics, the history of central banking in the West, and how Bitcoin works
- The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking - the most popular book in Bitcoin, this book takes a relatively academic lens to the same topics as the 7th Property, with a significantly lighter treatment of Bitcoin itself
- A Progressive's Case for Bitcoin: A Path Toward a More Just, Equitable, and Peaceful World - imo not necessarily the best book on the list, but a thorough exploration of the ways that, even apart from what economic theory tells us about sound money's contribution to societal prosperity, Bitcoin makes for a better world
- Check Your Financial Privilege: Inside the Global Bitcoin Revolution - a compilation of essays by Human Rights Foundation's Alex Gladstein about the role that Bitcoin will play in liberating a world where more than 50% of people live under tyrants.
Podcasts:
- What Bitcoin Did - The most popular show with the most popular guests, topics range from developments in Bitcoin, the Bitcoin community, macroeconomics, and politics
- Preston Pysh - Covers the same topics with similar guests as What Bitcoin Did, though a little more technically advanced
- High Hash Rate - Very casual conversations about Bitcoin and Bitcoiners, usually making interesting connections to other areas of life and society. The connection-making is likely facilitated by the fact that the hosts are often high for the show
- Swan Signal - Covers recent developments in Bitcoin, leaning more toward markets and price action
Youtube Channels:
- Bitcoiner University - 10 minute videos deep diving on specific topics in Bitcoin and in relevant current events
- BTC Sessions - Perhaps the most important resource on this list, BTC Sessions does video tutorials on how to use Bitcoin and different Bitcoin tools like hardware wallets, running a Bitcoin node, etc
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