Edit: Currently writing a new version of this, dont know when it will be done.
Edit: Since first post I have updated a few sections with additional information.
I recommend reading it all even if it is very long, I might have placed some relevant info in different sections while thinking about what else needed to be added, plenty of steps remains mostly the same except when I comment directly on it. It is not necessary to do 100% security all the time, unless you absolutely need it, combining some high and some lower security ideas for a balance of security and convenience is useful.
I will base this mostly on Windows, Linux users probably know this, and I have no idea how apple machines work (tho many things in here are still relevant for other operating systems, as they are just general tips)
Disclaimer: There are certainly other steps that can make you more anonymous or safer, however I think for most people this will surfice. Any software I recommend should be independently verified for security, and examples of software are not to be taken as endorsements. I simply use examples and give recommendations when I believe it necessary, or helpful.
I will not really differentiate between anonymity and security, they are often the same thing. As such the word security can mean either more anonymous, less vulnerable, or both.
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Everyday Simple Info Sec:

• Password for the device is an obvious one (8+ characters minimum, best if over +12), if there is sensitive information on any of the drives, either encrypt the entire drive or just the sensitive files, and make encrypted backups on a different memory storage device (There many programs to encrypt files and drives I'm sure a search will figure it out)

-There could be a hidden administrator user on your PC, make sure to change its password

• Always use the device on a non admin account
  
  • a VPN that doesn't log (use with kill switch on, should be enough for everyday stuff, more safe stuff in the high security section) (VPNs that claim they don't log sometimes do, it's bad, but I would like to point out that not using a VPN will always expose your traffic to your ISP and also remove additional encryption. Even if the VPN tracks, there is no downside because your ISP would track anyways, and VPNs can be more anonymous, and also add extra encryption)
• disable location tracking (preferably make all your privacy setting to release minimal info, get rid or cortana, change privacy settings in all of your accounts as well, there's no reason why you should allow Facebook to give you target ads. Use the setting they give you.
  
• TOR, Firefox or similar browser, stay the fuck away from Google Chrome.
  
• your preferred search engine should be duckduckgo (other privacy focused search engines exist as well)
  
• use an adblocker that also prevents the adding of tacking cookies
  
• Use pgp with all your friends or messaging services that implemented end to end encryption (Implemented services can still be bypassed, but are way more convenient so for everyday use they should suffice, some examples should be Telegraph, Signal, WhatsApp etc) (more info on pgp in high security section)
  

(Snapchat msgs, reddit dms, discord msgs, are just a few examples of msgs that are never encrypted)
-Any info even send in encrypted msgs (and obviously non encrypted) should still be kept with possible deniability, don't say "I'm gonna do MDMA", say "I'm going out with molly."

• use software (like ccleaner) that purges cookies and other data after every use, before shutting down your device
  
• use a virus scanner daily (I like spy bot Search and destroy, many other options also exist)
  
• never use the same password/passphrase twice (I will address what passphrase are below) (Better yet use randomized passwords that are stored in a master key chain, make them as long as possible (tho it is okay to go with the minimum of 12 never go below 7, I recommend 15+ depending on how often you have to manually enter the password instead of copying/pasting it) Don't generate too long keys for things you need to access regularly without copy/paste, except your master key ring)
  
• its ideal to never use the same email or username as well, especially username, email is obviously tricky and also very annoying, but it would be best to always change the email.
  
• it's also ideal to check https://haveibeenpwned.com and anything you have that comes up positive should be immediately changed
  

-DO NOT STORE ANY PASSWORDS ON GOOGLE, IF GOOGLE LOGIN IS AUTHENTICATED IT WILL AUTFILL ALL PASSWORDS IT HAS SAVED (same with other similar services) (This means if you are logged in to chrome and someone has access to your machine, they can auto fill passwords without entering a single password)
-use a rememberable passphrase, especially for your master key ring aka password manager A long sentence that is memorable makes an okay password (decent example,: "I met my wife at Little Ceasers for the first time on 07/09/20" better even if it's just something you know, if its impersonal, and if you can add special characters or numbers that you won't forget) (A better example for a passphrase is: "There is 0nly 0ne letter that d0esn’t appear in any U.S. state nameQ")

• for your main password manager(key ring), I highly recommend Keepass 2, make backups of the file save to separate devices and drives (Flash drives, phone, PC, laptop, etc, if you loose that file, you lose all of your passwords) (Other good password managers exist as well, I don't recommend online password managers as you lose the control over passwords)

-Purge your internet activity frequently, there's a reason why I only have one post, and a few comments appearing in my account, but thousands of kama. Exposing information needlessly is not good.
-Never post private information publicly, and if you do, do it vaguely as possible. (Example: Not "I'm 15", say "I'm a teenager") Do not post any vital information ever, no birthdays, mother's maiden name, age, or anything you have ever seen in a security question. Never post your current activities while they are ongoing. You going on a vacation? Don't announce it to the world, taking picture there? Post them when you are home.

• Any account that is supposed to remain anonymous and as secure as possible should only be used on secured devices. A unsecured device can link you to the account.
  
• always shutdown your machine when leaving it (To prevent access, and to prevent a possible attack vector)
  
• 2 factor factor authentication is not great anymore. Unless you can do it over a anonymous source. A cell phone is usually directly connected to you, so it is not a anonymous device. There might still be secure/anonymous 2 factor authentication methods that won't expose you, for example over a secure email. (If there is 2FA that doesn't need a device that removes anonymity and is secure, use it.) (Please don't misunderstand, 2FA is great, however it can remove the anonymity that you worked hard to establish)
  

-Rethink how you do security questions. Many answers to security questions can be found in your internet history. One could use the first word of the security question as an answer, or a different sceme that will mean you always remember it. (Security question need to go, the amount of personal info an average person puts on the internet makes it easy to attack anything using security question)
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High level crimimal information security:
The motto here is, "All the Security, All the Time" As one fuck up can end with you leaving a lick of traceability, and you could be fucked.
Pre Note: All of your software should always be up to date. Also even perfect info sec does not guarantee you are completely safe, a new zero day (exploit) can still fuck you, but good info security makes you significantly safer, by eliminating as many attacks as possible.
-Get a new device (or make a already owned device seem like you never owned it, do this only if you know how to, there's a lot of stuff that goes into that, like changing your mac adress etc) buy with cash, and your face covered, preferably far away from where you live. (Do I need to specify to not bring your phone or anything else that tracks your location to anywhere you want to go anonymously?) (Be aware that even hardware can have vulnerabilities, many cpus have known vulnerabilities, I can't list them all, do some research before buying)

• Do not EVER use a high security device at any lower level of security. There are unique identifiers to your device, exposing them once can expose you for everything you do.

-If you know how to use Tails (A linux distro designed for Info sec) use that, preferably on a USB. (Or learn how to use tails, its better, but complicated) Otherwise a clean copy of windows (make sure its not in any way associated with you) can do the job too, tho not as well. (Using a VM might give extra security, since VMs usually erase all data and RAM they were using on shutdown)
-Get a non tracking VPN, Enable the kill switch (a setting that disables all traffic that doesn't go through the VPN) (change your firewall settings to only allow the traffic from the VPN, windows guide (Change settings so only traffic from the tor application is send) Edit: (Due to complaints: do not use vpn over tor, use tor over vpn. tor over vpn has no notable downside, if the VPN logs it makes no difference, your ISP will always log anyways, and vpns remove other attack vectors and also provide backup security should tor fail. Again even if the VPN tracks you only change the people doing the tracking, but now you are further removed making it more anonymous and also with less vulnerabilities)
-rember privacy settings, cookie cleaner, and antivirus, password (There could be a hidden administrator user on your PC, make sure to change its password)
-Always use the device on a non admin account

• encrypt the entire drive, here are 3 free whole disk encryption softwares. Thoese are just examples do your own research. Free ones could be less safe then paid ones, this will require research.

-Ideally use this device only on networks that are not connected with you. Such as public networks (try to never use the same public networks twice, move around) (a home network should be fine now, as it should never be exposed, but more security is always better) (Its just a conveniences vs security trade)
-Never use accounts that have been exposed to lower security on higher security machines
-your browser is now TOR (or your preferred security focused browser, if you dont plan on using onion ) Make sure you get the standalone version of tor not the addon build (the standalone is safer, because there are less settings and options to tweak)
-Change your tor settings, to safest mode, enable a bridge (to my knowledge there's no difference in security between the build in bridges in tor), enable automatic updates, set duckduckgo onion as your primary browser. Set dark.fail onion page as your home page. (Or your preferred privacy search engine and onion directory)

• set up a new pgp (can't use the same one you use for regular use, again less safer accounts are never used on safer devices) Cleopatra is my choice, its simple to use. Make sure you back up the private key multiple times, on safe devices. (Dont let the private key fall into anyone's hands) Give it a generic name like "HighSecurityPGP" do not give the pgp key pair a name that could identify you. (No initials etc) (Some pgp key pair programs want an associated email for a key pair, you can create a safe email, or which I recoend you can use a different program (like Cleopatra) (Feds & LEOs are known to copy private keys if they have your machine, so you will need to set up a new key pair if they ever take a device with a private key copy)
  
• a high security machine that facilitates criminal activity can not use many programs. Many programs collect your devices mac adress, which is a unique identifier, amongst other things. It's should be used only for the activity you want to do.
  

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How to use dark net markets (DNMs)
If you finished your High Security setup, we can dive right in. Otherwise go do that. This is where all that is essential.
Quick info on Tor, and onion sites. There is no search engine. It's all based of directories and addresses you are given by others. Tor will likely not be very quick, it has to pass through multiple networks to get to the destination. DNMs sometimes exit scam, an exit scam is when a market shuts down completely and takes all the money, this is a risk when using DNMs, it's not too common but happens maybe 0-4 times a year. The admins of thoese servers need to get out at some point, before they get jailed, so they exit the game, and scam everyone out of their money.
-A very useful onion directory is dark.fail it has a lot of links, for all kinds of stuff. News, email, DNMs, Psychonautwiki (harm reduction website), forums etc. (Other directories also exist)
-Pick a market, preferably one that handles secure connection server side instead of requiring you to establish the secure connection. Then create an account. Your account once created should include an entry box in your profile for a pgp key, post your PUBLIC key in there. (Verify the link is not a scam, most markets should provide a pgp signature)
-Next is currency setup. All major cryptocurrency exchangers can be used, I can recommend coin base but there could be better ones out there. Unless you find a small non U.S., exchange, they will always ask for your identity. So unless you can find a trustworthy exchange that doesn't ID, you will need to give it to them. (Side note, all major crypto exchangers report to the IRS, if the IRS asks you if you bought cryptocurrency and you bought while having IDed yourself SAY YES, DO NOT COMMIT TAX FRAUD WHEN THEY KNOW YOU DID)

• I recommend using Monero, it's hard to track, so it makes your job a lot easier. (If you use bitcoin you should run it through a scrambler, because BTC is tracable to anyone who knows what they are doing)

-Transfer (monero you can send directly, btc you should scramble) to your wallet. There are two options a cold wallet (physical) or a software wallet. Software wallets usually dont cost anything so I recommend them, even if often less safe. Electrum is easy to use, and pretty safe. You can also do your own research and find a wallet that fits your needs.

• decide where you want to ship it. You can send to your home, to a PO box, to a PO box that you opened with a fake ID (I don't recommend), an abandoned house, general mail (sending to a post office instead of a street adress) pickup up with fake ID, use a remailing service. These are some options, sending it to your own home, isn't ideal, but its pretty much the only easy way.

-now you are ready to buy, only buy using escrow (it means the money is held by the market as a middle man until the product is delivered, they will also handle any issues like wrong quantity, cuts, etc), judge the reviews for a product, and if available look at the history of the vendor, until you find a product from a vendor you trust. (I recommend to buy within your country as much as possible, so it doesn't go through customs, it's very rare that something is found, but it can happen)
-now you get to buy, depending on market, you either have cryptocurrency stored in their wallets (not recommend, you will lose it in an exit scam) or you can send it every order. When you send your delivery adress (or the one you want it to go to) encrypt the adress using the sellers public key. Make sure the adress is correct.
-wait for the product, make sure to extend the escrow until the product arrives, if you can't extend it anymore dispute the order, and a moderator will step in
-test the product, use it, and leave a review. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW, DNMs only work because of reviews.
Edit: Didn't imagine I would write over 15000 words. Oh well, it was fun. Hope it helps, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
No idea how long this will stay up, I might purge it in 7 days, or never.

For the past year tobtoht and I have been working on the foundations of a new Monero desktop GUI called Feather for Mac OS and Linux platforms (Windows tentative) using Qt5, libwallet, QtWidgets.
The goal of this new wallet is to provide a practical, robust and easy-to-use Monero wallet for every day use. It aims to be beginner friendly, but should also cater to the needs of experienced Monero users with the addition of advanced features like coin control and multisig.
Feather's user interface is inspired by Bitcoin's Electrum wallet, but adapted to fit Monero. Feather is not a fork of Electrum, all of the UI code was written from scratch in C++ / QtWidgets.
Development began in the summer of 2019. We estimate to release a beta version in November or December.

Video preview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylbteVtwrw (watch fullscreen)

Why

Our primary motivation is to create a wallet that we ourselves would want to use and recommend to friends. There aren't many options when it comes to non-custodial Monero desktop wallets. The CLI is an excellent tool for power-users, but is simply not an option for users that are not familiar with with the terminal. The GUI has a slick user interface, but is demanding on system resources due the use of Qt Quick.
Instead we've taken inspiration from Bitcoin's Electrum and started working on the most basic looking Monero desktop wallet one can imagine. We've gotten rid of a lot of functionality, but also added new functionality. Just focussing on the basics results in a clean, robust, and beginner proof wallet.

Privacy

In an effort to mitigate unintentional off-chain linking, we have made it harder to reuse addresses by automatically hiding used subaddresses. We find that the primary address leads uninformed users to believe that it is somehow functionally incompatible with subaddresses, or that funds sent to subaddresses can not be spent together. To encourage the use of subaddresses the primary address is hidden by default, and only used for change and coinbase outputs.
Our wallet supports advanced coin control features like freeze/thaw and sweeping a single output. In the future we may add manual transaction input selection.
There is no need to manually setup Tor to protect your traffic, Feather comes bundled with Tor. By default all traffic is routed through Tor with the exception of traffic between wallet and daemon. Wallet synchronization over Tor takes substantially longer than over clearnet, but you can optionally enable to connect to remote nodes over Tor. If your machine already has a Tor daemon running Feather can use the system daemon when instructed.
Just like in the official GUI, Feather essentially has 2 modes of connecting to the Monero network. You either host your node somewhere (localhost/LAN/internet) or we'll provide you one from a list of trusted, stable, community hosted remote nodes (like Cake Wallet). If Feather detects that it's running on Tails or Whonix it will automatically connect to a random .onion remote node.

Performance

Feather is built with Qt Widgets, providing native looks and performance. In a recent test™ a wallet with 10k+ transactions only consumed 200 MB ram (before optimizations). In comparison, the official GUI uses 400 MB before a wallet is opened.
GPU power is plenty nowadays so this hardly a problem, however, we are serious about providing an user interface that feels snappy to use. The application itself starts within 1-2 seconds on most machines (Bitcoin's Electrum is more like 4-5 seconds due to their usage of PyQt).

User experience

We have implemented Tevador's 14 word seed scheme with embedded restore height. The same function is used to derive the private view key from the private spendkey, therefore it is possible to convert the 14 word seed into a standard 25 word seed in case you want to restore the wallet using the official wallet software.
Feather connects to a websocket server over Tor to obtain miscellaneous data such as: price information, a list CCS proposals, posts on /Monero, the most recent blockheight, a list of community hosted nodes and the latest version of Feather.
The websocket server itself is open-source and self-hostable. By default Feather will connect to a server hosted by the project maintainers. The websocket connection can be disabled completely, but some functionality will be disabled/broken.
Our target audience are users who want to use Monero without too many issues and we've designed the wallet as such, with lots of convenience features, while routing it all over Tor in the background.
The native look of the application should feel familair to users as it behaves like any other program that runs on their computer. Added benefit for future contributors/developers is that it's very fast to implement/test UI components by borrowing from QtWidget's vast library. This in contrast with the Monero GUI, which uses custom QML components - a tricky and time consuming rendereframework more suited for large teams to create electron-like applications.

Additional information

• Feather is able to show detailed transaction and output information including key images, unlock times and ring members.
• Support for 2/2 and 2/3 multisig is in the works.
• Feather will be distributed as a portable executable.
• Feather will ship on Linux and Mac OS - and also Windows once we get static cross compiles to work (rip)
• Feather has built-in support for XMR to BTC conversion via XMR.to (no commercial affiliation)
• We can easily support additional interfaces other than QtWidgets (like QML for a mobile app, curses, etc) as business logic is stricly seperated from the presentation layer.

Proposal

Work started early summer 2019. We still have some features to finish, prepare CI/CD, etc. As such we expect an alpha or beta release in December 2020. For this we would like the community's approval to allow the milestones defined in GUI CCS to be used for the remainder of this project, paid in full - we can use the support. Consequently all code will be licensed under the Monero Project and features/changes to libwallet or wallet2 will be committed to upstream (Monero GUI/core). Future development and releases will be maintained by dsc__ and tobtoht.

Beta testing

Idle in #feather on irc.oftc.net if you want to help beta testing in a month or so. You will need Linux, as this is our primary platform for developing the application.
Please let us know what you think in the comments. We're open to suggestions/feature requests/brainfarts.

This was originally an answer to a question that was asked here, but OP deleted their post.
This might help some newbies (especially the multisig edit at the end), so I want to make sure it's still accessible here.
The original question was whether the Electrum wallet stores a Trezor's private key when using a passphrase.
OP noticed that their Trezor wouldn't connect to their Electrum wallet when entering a different passphrase than they used when creating the wallet. Thus, OP (likely) assumed that the wallet stored the private key, as it somehow knew that a different private key was now used.
Here is my original answer (with some modifications):
IMPORTANT: I'm assuming here that you connected your Trezor by choosing the "hardware wallet" option in Electrum, rather than giving Electrum your 12/24 seed words.
TL;DR: No, your coins are safe :)
I'm assuming by passphrase) you mean the 25th (or 13th) word. When you have this feature enabled, a private key gets generated every time you enter a passphrase. When you enter the same passphrase you used to create the wallet, the wallet with your funds shows up.
Whenever you enter something different, a different private key is generated on your Trezor. This allows you to have multiple different wallets, for example by choosing the passphrases "First Wallet", "Second Wallet", "Third Wallet", or a secret wallet with a secret passphrase.
So whenever you enter a new passphrase when connecting your Trezor to Electrum, the Trezor will send a new public key to Electrum. Electrum will then derive addresses from this public key and check those for balances. It won't find any, as you used a new passphrase.
EDIT: I just realized that you said your wallet doesn't connect to Electrum when you use a different passphrase. This is simply because Electrum doesn't receive the correct public key from the Trezor and therefore Electrum thinks it's a different wallet (which it is).
When you enter the passphrase you used during creation of your wallet, the Trezor will send your actual public key to Electrum, which will then find addresses with balances, which it will show to you. EDIT (to clarify): Connecting your Trezor after creating the wallet is only necessary to send funds or verify addresses, as the public key is already stored in the wallet.dat.
The only thing Electrum actually stores is the public key, which can only be used to look at your Bitcoin, not to move them. You might want to keep this public key a secret as well though, since it links all your funds to you. This is what Electrum stores in the wallet.dat file, which you can just encrypt by choosing a password for it.
Well done using a passphrase by the way! Should someone get their hands on your Trezor, a sophisticated attacker can get the secret key off the device in 15 minutes. Using a passphrase makes this attack almost useless, as the both secret key AND the passphrase are needed to move your funds, and the passphrase is not stored on the device. A passphrase also allows you to hide funds from potential robbers that force you to unlock your wallet.
You can do this by activating the passphrase feature and sending your funds to a wallet with a secret passphrase (do NOT lose this, as losing your passphrase renders your funds inaccessible). Afterwards, you can safely deactivate the passphrase feature, so the device doesn't even ask for one should you get robbed. Simply reactivate it when you need to access your funds.
EDIT: Should you be worried that you might forget your passphrase, you should look into multisig wallets. Depending on how you set this up, you can make it more secure against theft and less likely for you to lose access to your funds.
Say for example you get four wallets: two hardware wallets, a well-protected (airgapped) laptop with Electrum, and a secure mobile wallet that allows for multisig (like Fully Noded).
You can then create a 2-of-4 multisig wallet that requires you to sign transactions with any two of these four wallets.
The increase in security comes from the fact that an attacker now needs full access to two of your devices (or their stored private keys) at once.
At the same time, the fact that you yourself now also need access to only half of your devices means that in the event of a total loss of one (or even two) of them, you can still move your funds to a new wallet.
As long as you do regular checks (e.g. first day of each month), ensuring that you still have access to all your devices' stored private keys, you can always catch a loss of keys and fix this without losing funds (by creating a new multisig wallet and sending the funds there).
This allows you to use a passphrase on your wallets without storing it anywhere physically or digitally. This would usually be very risky, as forgetting the passphrase would lead to a loss of funds, but this risk is now close to eliminated.
(The following part was not in the original answer)
Some IMPORTANT general secruity tips:

1. Consider including trusted friends and/or family members as co-signers for a multisig wallet. This ensures that it's not even possible for you alone to hand over funds to an attacker. Depending on your level of trust, you might want to make sure that your co-signers can't collaborate to steal your funds (if you include 3 people, create at least a 4-of-n multisig). You could also deliberately make it possible for all or even just some of your co-signers to move your funds (3 co-signers, 3(or less)-of-n multisig) to make sure your funds aren't lost should pass away unexpectedly.
2. Consider running your own full node and Electrum server (also check the alternatives), which you connect your Electrum wallet to. This ensures that you don't send your public key to anyone else. If someone knows your public key, they know how much BTC you own, making you a potential target.
3. Always encrypt your wallet.dat (or whatever you called your wallet file), even if it's a watch-only wallet. This protects your public key (see 1. for why you want that).
4. Create watch-only wallets: Use an airgapped) device to create a wallet with Electrum (make sure to back up the seed phrase) and export the public key. Then create a new watch-only wallet on another device (like your everyday laptop) with that public key to be able to check your funds. To create the initial wallet, you can also use any other hard- or software wallet that allows you to export the master public key.
5. Hide, or (when using a hardware wallet with a passphrase) even delete your watch-only wallets. Hiding your funds makes you less of a target. When using a hardware wallet, recreating the watch-only wallet is fast and simple, so you don't need to store it if you don't want to check your funds every day. Note that this approach doesn't help much when you don't use a passphrase, as an attacker will obviously check the passphrase-less wallet no matter what.
6. Keep some funds on your hardware wallet(s). If an attackers sees funds on the wallet(s), they might not force you to enter a passphrase or ask if you have any multisig wallets (lying under pressure is hard).
7. Hide all your wallets in different places. If someone sees that you have multiple wallets lying around, they might realize you have a multisig wallet.
8. Don't risk a robber getting (for example) two keys to your 2-of-4 multisig wallet and then racing them to move your funds with the other two keys when they leave. They're gonna come back and be pissed. If it comes to this, you need protection until the robber is caught. STAY SAFE!
9. The easiest way to solve a problem is to never have it. Don't make yourself a target. If nobody even suspects that you have a multisig (or any wallet at all), they're probably not gonna look for it.

Please correct any mistakes you find and I will edit my post. I will also gladly add more tips to the list. I will of course credit anyone who helps.
Tip for devs who want something cool and important to work on: Make the creation and usage of multisig wallets as noob-friendly as possible. If someone expresses worries about losing access to their funds by forgetting the seed phrase, wallet pin, etc. (someone in my family actually brought this up to me), multisig wallets are the perfect solution as they add redundancy.

I realize that Lightning has some development that needs to be done for it to truly meet its expectations, but I think it has to be a part of the core client. Otherwise, I'm not surprised that it's not more widely used. It's going to be 3 years from Segwit this summer. I think that the ATH we had in 2017 partly could be attributed to the expectations Lightning rouse. And it's more than anything that could bring us to new highs. But, it has to be officially recognized, to have a proper GUI, etc... Other thing I could think of is both parties to be able to commit bitcoins on chain when openning a channel. Otherwise, I wonder why it's not already in bitcoin-core? Wonders do not exist, but improvements matter, and Lightning is an improvement, even in its current state, and Lightning itself could be improved relatively freely.

I have an bitcoin core + electrum server + LND node setup. Which android mobile app would be the best for connecting to my own lightning node? (Goal being for the most control/trustless).
Some to compare would be Blue wallet, BLW, Breez, Phoenix, Zap, LightningLabs, Wallet of Satoshi and Eclair.
Also what is the difference, to using "remote control" setup with something like Blue wallets LNDHub software, or setting up macaroons to connect to my node.
Compared to doing it without, and just opening a single channel to my own node that is well-connected to the network? Shouldn't all transactions be able to route through my channel between my mobile and node? So there is no point to using remote control node software?
Say my node has $1000 of channel liquidity, and I open a $200 channel from my mobile to my wallet. Shouldn't the mobile wallet be able to route my transaction via my node to anywhere? And then I can push the $200 back to my wallet from the node later when its running low?

So this is what software I currently use for privacy, would like some opinions if possible:
Starting with my cellphone, my device is a Google Pixel 3A XL with GrapheneOS flashed, I have the following apps installed:
F-Droid and AuroraOSS (as my app stores), NewPipe (youtube client), Vanadium (web browser), Tutanota and K-9 Mail (for e-mails), OsmAnd+ (for maps), Joplin (notes), Open Camera (camera), OpenBoard and Mozc for Android (Keyboard and Japanese Keyboard), Aegis Authenticator, KeePassDX (password manager), LibreTorrent (torrent client), Librera PRO (pdf/epub/mobi reader, I don't own a Kindle nor want to own one so I use my cellphone to read), Tachiyomi (manga reader), Signal (for messaging), Vinyl Music Player, VLC, Simple Gallery Pro and Simple Calendar Pro (I prefer them over stock Graphene options) and I also use Electrum and Samourai (Bitcoin Wallet) and Monerujo (Monero Wallet)
I also have OpenVPN (for VPN) and use a private DNS for ad and tracking blocking (provided by my VPN provider)
I have 3-4 PCs, will go over every single one of them:
my main PC is a desktop PC (that I built myself) that I mainly use for working and other tasks.
It runs Artix Linux (basically Arch Linux without systemd), I use UFW as my firewall (denying all incoming and also denying all outgoing only allowing what is useful) and I also use AppArmor Profiles, I disabled IPV6 and SWAP, configured my VPN connection as well on network settings and I currently run OpenVPN on my computer (my VPN provider allows for multi-hop cascade through OpenVPN in which I can create a custom VPN cascade up to four servers, each consecutive hop re-encrypts my traffic and assigns me a new IP address) and I've also set disk encryption on installation (have set in all of my computers)
As for software: I use Mozilla Firefox as my web browser (I set it to always be in private mode, unchecked suggestions for browsing history, bookmarks, and open tabs, I've also disabled the Firefox data collection in settings and block dangerous and deceptive content, I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine, I use Firefox Home as my default as my homepage. The rest of my tweaks were done in about:config (using privacytools.io site tweaks + geo.enabled = false, network.cookie.lifetimePolicy = 2 and dom.security.https_only_mode as true which are not listed on the site) and the only addons I use are uBlock Origin on Hard Mode and Decentraleyes), KeePassXC (password manager), VIM (use it as a Text Editor and as an IDE for coding), LibreOffice (for working stuff), GIMP (image editor), VLC, qBitTorrent and Tutanota's Desktop Client and Thunderbird (for e-mails)
I also use KVM/QEMU for virtual machines (usually in case I wanna test some distro or use Tails/Whonix)
For my gaming PC (also a desktop I've built myself) I run Manjaro KDE on it, the only apps I have in the system are Firefox (same settings as above), OBS and KVM/QEMU (which I use a Win10 virtual machine for games, there are tutorials on YouTube on how to do so if you're interested). I have the same firewall settings as above, using AppArmor as well and I've also disabled IPV6 and SWAP, I run OpenVPN on it as well as my VPN DNS settings on network settings. I also use different mouse and keyboard on both my PCs and never mix them together.
My other 2 PCs are both laptops, one is a Acer Aspire Nitro I've bought for work (in case I need to work while in a trip or if I wanna work outside etc), it has the same settings and programs as my main PC but I run Gentoo on it. The other laptop is an old ThinkPad that runs Slackware on it, but I rarely use it and this laptop is most of the times not with me for safety reasons.
For some other devices and stuff: I have an Asus RT-AC86U router with OpenWRT flashed on it that I also run OpenVPN config files (this one coming from another provider, I use two VPN providers, on in my PCs and the other in my router), I have a Ledger Nano S as a hardware wallet for both Bitcoin and Monero (most of my cryptocurrency is there, I use hardware wallet for hodling purposes and as my emergency funding) and I have LOTS of USB flash drivers (all of them for Linux Live ISOs purposes), I also have a Nintendo Switch Lite (only gaming console I have, although have not been playing that much on it recently) that I only connect to the internet in case I need to download some updates or play online and after I'm done I immediately disconnect it from the internet.
Some other privacy habits I have are:
I don't own any smart device like Smart TVs (I've been more than 10 years now without watching TV, doesn't even bother me), Smart Fridges or Dishwashers that connect to your internet, ROOMBAS, Smart Home etc, I keep all my money on crypto (and I have a small amount in gold as well, but I rarely invest on it, all my gold is stored in a manual safe here in my apartment) and I only have like, 10 bucks or so in my back account (as soon as I receive any money I just left the necessary in my account to pay bills and put all the rest on crypto, I try to pay everything on crypto or cash), I RARELY use cloud storage, but if I need to, I go with NextCloud and encrypt all my files with VeraCrypt before uploading it, all my VPN services were paid with Bitcoin (I try to pay everything with crypto as previously said) and I never write directly into any website, I usually write my text on a text editor, copy it and paste it on the website (needless to say that I don't use mainstream social media as well)
So, what do you guys think? anything that you would add your recommend me? (before anyone mentions about self-hosting a DNS server using Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi, I'm actually thinking on doing it in a near future)
EDIT: forgot to mention that I don't watch YouTube on PC on youtube site, I mostly watch youtube's videos on invidio.us and only use the youtube site for watching live streams honestly. And I also barely go outside with my smartphone (only if I really need to) and I usually keep it away from my computers etc.
EDIT 2: also another thing: I covered all my laptop's webcams with black electrical tape, I have a Logitech C922 Pro webcam for my desktop PCs but rarely use it, and when I need to use it, I unplug it as soon as I'm done with it.

Before holding any bitcoin, you need somewhere to store it. Just like in the physical world, you store your bitcoin in a wallet.
Similar to a bank account number, your wallet comes with a wallet address that shows up in a ledger search and is shared with others so you can make transactions. This address, which is a shorter, more usable version of your public key, consists of between 26 and 35 random alphanumeric characters, something like 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa. Keep in mind that every letter and number in that address is important. Before sending any bitcoin to your wallet, double-check the entire address, character by character.
Also tied to your wallet address is one or more private keys, which as the name suggests should not be shared with anyone. Keys are used to verify you own the aforementioned public key, and to sign off on transactions. Some wallets create a secure seed phrase, a set of words that will allow you to unlock your wallet if you lose your keys. Print this phrase out and keep it in a safe place.
The unfortunate truth is your bitcoin wallet is akin to your physical wallet. If you lose the private keys to your wallet, you’re most likely going to lose the currency in it forever.
Your wallet generates a master file where your public and private keys are stored. This file should be backed up in case the original file is lost or damaged. Otherwise, you risk losing access to your funds.
You can store your private keys on your computer, mobile device, on a physical storage gadget or even on a piece of paper. It’s crucial that you keep your private keys safe by generating backups both online and offline.
Remember: Your wallet does not reside on any single device. The wallet itself resides on the Bitcoin blockchain, just as your banking app doesn’t truly “hold” the cash in your checking account.
While wallet apps work well and are relatively safe, the safest option is a hardware wallet you keep offline, in a secure place. The most popular hardware wallets use special layers of security to ensure your keys are not stolen and your bitcoin is safe. But, once again, if you lose the hardware wallet your bitcoins are gone unless you have kept reliable backups of the keys.
The least-secure option is an online wallet, i.e. storing your bitcoin in an exchange. This is because the keys are held by a third party. For many, the online exchange wallets are the easiest to set up and use, presenting an all-too-familiar choice: convenience versus safety.
Many serious bitcoin investors use a hybrid approach: They hold a core, long-term amount of bitcoin offline in so-called “cold storage,” while keeping a spending balance in a mobile account.
Depending on your bitcoin strategy and willingness to get technical, here are the different types of bitcoin wallets available. Bitcoin.org has a helper that will show you which wallet to choose.
Cloud wallets exist online and the keys are usually stored in a distant server run by a third party. Cloud-based wallets tend to have a more user-friendly interface but you will be trusting a third party with your private keys, which makes your funds more susceptible to theft. Some examples of this wallet type are Coinbase, Blockchain and Lumi Wallet. Most cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, have their own native wallets. Some offer additional security features such as offline storage (Coinbase and Xapo).
With your private keys stored on a server, you have to trust the host’s security measures and also trust the host won’t disappear with your money or close down and deny you access.
Software wallets can be installed directly on your computer, giving you private control of your keys. Most have relatively easy configuration and are free. The disadvantage is you are in charge of securing your keys. Software wallets also require greater security precautions. If your computer is hacked or stolen, the thief can get a copy of your wallet and your bitcoin.
While you can download the original software Bitcoin Core protocol (which stores a ledger of all transactions since 2009 and takes up a lot of space), most wallets in use today are “light” wallets, or SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) wallets, which do not download the entire ledger but sync to it.
Electrum is a well-known SPV desktop bitcoin wallet that also offers “cold storage” (a totally offline option for additional security). Exodus can track multiple assets with a sophisticated user interface. Some (such as Jaxx Liberty) can hold a wide range of digital assets, and some (such as Copay) offer the possibility of shared accounts.
Before downloading any app, please confirm you are downloading a legitimate copy of a real wallet. Some shady programmers create clones of various crypto websites and offer downloads for free, leading to the possibility of a hack.
Mobile wallets are available as apps for your smartphone, especially useful if you want to pay for something in bitcoin in a shop or if you want to buy, sell or send while on the move. All of the online wallets and most of the desktop ones mentioned above have mobile versions, while others – such as Abra, Edge and Bread – were created with mobile in mind. Remember, many online wallets will store your keys on the phone itself, leading to the possibility of losing your bitcoin if you lose your phone. Always keep a backup of your keys on a different device and print out your seed phrase.
Hardware wallets are small devices that connect to the web only to enact bitcoin transactions. They are more secure because they are generally offline and therefore not hackable. They can be stolen or lost, however, along with the bitcoins that belong to the stored private keys, so it’s recommended that you backup your keys. Some large investors keep their hardware wallets in secure locations such as bank vaults. Trezor, Keepkey and Ledger are notable examples.
Paper wallets are perhaps the simplest of all the wallets. Paper wallets are pieces of paper that contain the private and public keys of a bitcoin address. Ideal for the long-term storage of bitcoin (away from fire and water, of course) or for the giving of bitcoin as a gift, these wallets are more secure in that they’re not connected to a network. They are, however, easier to lose.
With services such as WalletGenerator, you can easily create a new address and print the wallet on your printer. When you’re ready to top up your paper wallet you simply send some bitcoin to that address and then store it safely. Whatever option you go for, be sure to back up everything and only tell your nearest and dearest where your backups are stored.

Hi everyone! I'm currently researching what bitcoin wallet to use. Electrum seems to be my choice. But here is one concern: many places online and YouTube videos tells that most electrum servers is run by chain analasys companies. Is there a way to somehow find out to whom I'm connecting? Or is there a kind of sorting/filtering system in electrum software that favor decentralization and doing that for me?

Hi team, can you please explain two things:
1) I have read there is also an implementation called ElectrumX. But I only found a guide how to installl EPS by Chris Belcher on github. Can you linke me to a nice guide for ElectrumX? What are the main differences between ElectrumX vs EPS ?
2) What security related tradeoffs are you making when using EPS for your full node? EPS is a server, so are not servers able to "spy" on server activities and see everything in an un-encrypted manner?
3) When you run your own EPS how can you make sure that it works also in years? From what is its functionality depending? Is it some sort decentralized mash network? I like to know which scenario must take place in order for the EPS server infrastructure not to work anymore? the Worst case
Thanks all

I came across a never before seen set of screens on Nano S & X trying to spend a particular UTXO using Electrum Desktop (an individual in the Coins tab).
I get the following message on the Ledger screen.

1. Unverified inputs
2. Update Ledger Live
3. or 3rd party wallet software.

Testing was both on my own node and Electrum's servers.
The code is current: electrum 3.3.8, and Ledger bitcoin app v1.4.2.
Could this recent ledger bitcoin app (the only change in the mix) not be playing well with electrum?

good afternoon,
I have been trying to send some of my bitcoin throw Electrum software wallet,
first, I used to have this message (( The server returned an error when broadcasting the transaction. Consider trying to connect to a different server, or updating Electrum. Transaction could not be broadcast due to dust outputs.)))
i went online and start reading about it I found out that I could resolve this issue by changing the network from my wallet which is I did which it did stop coming for me then now I start getting a different message which it says
(( BestEffortRequestFailed('no interface to do request on... gave up.',))
so here am this is my spending the whole day just trying to send some bitcoin, I have been reading here about this problem but don't seem to find a satisfying answer !!
i hope you can help out
thank you

Today I opened my electrum wallet where i had my BTC and tryed to send 1BTC to coinbase.
When I clicked send, it came up a pop up saying that I must update wallet software version.
Since I did not had open my wallet at least 6 months ago, I thought that was normal to exist some new software version, so I clicked to perform wallet update.
Then I realised that I was stolen, since all my BTC gone to a unknown address.
What Can I do now?
I was not aware of this phishing issue on electrum wallets... Everything seems trustable...
Please is there any thing I can do?? All my BTC gone and desperate!
4.99898885 BTC

'''
Most of us use Bitcoin software for free. Very often, however, we forget that behind these software there is the work of thousands of people.
If you are on GitHub, spend 5 minutes of your time to show appreciation for their work and "star" repositories. If you are not registered yet, you may think of doing so! Who knows, maybe in the future you could become a contributor to those same projects!
[link]²⁶
Here you will find a list (alphabetically ordered) which lists some of the most important projects in this community:
Bisq: [[link]²⁷
Bitcoin: [[link]²⁸
Bitcoin Knots: [[link]²⁹
Bluewallet: [[link]³⁰
Btcd: [[link]³¹
BTCPay Server: [[link]³²
BTC RPC Explorer: [[link]³³
C-lightning: [[link]³⁴
Eclair: [[link]³⁵
Electrum: [[link]³⁶
ElectrumX: [[link]³⁷
Electrum Personal Server: [[link]³⁸
Electrum Server: [[link]³⁹
JoinMarket: [[link]⁴⁰
LND: [[link]⁴¹
LN Zap: [[link]⁴²
Mastering Bitcoin Book: [[link]⁴³
Mycelium: [[link]⁴⁴
OpenBazaar: [[link]⁴⁵
Raspiblitz: [[link]⁴⁶
Raspibolt: [[link]⁴⁷
Ride The Lightning: [[link]⁴⁸
Samourai Wallet: [[link]⁴⁹
Wasabi Wallet: [[link]⁵⁰
Zeus LN: [[link]⁵¹
​
The list is obviously incomplete, given the huge number of projects. Feel free to share the link of the projects that I have not mentioned.
'''
Are you on GitHub? If so, be sure to show some love to the best Bitcoin projects around!
Go1dfish undelete link
unreddit undelete link
Author: RiccardoMasutti
1: gi*h*b*com/bisq-netw*r**bi*q 2: githu*.com*bit*oin*bi**oin 3: *it**b.co**bitco**knots*bitcoin 4: git*ub.co**BlueWa*let/Bl***a*let 5: githu*.co***tcsuite*b*cd 6: *ithub**om*btcpayser*e*/btcp*ys**ver 7: *it*ub.c*m/ja*oside/*tc-*pc*exp*o*er 8: g***ub.com/**emen*s*roject/l**htning 9: gi*h*b.c*m/ACI*Q*eclai* 10: *it*ub.**m/spe**ilo/elect*um 11: g*t*u***om/k*uupich*n/electrum* 12: *ithub.*om*ch*i*-belchee**ctrum*pers*nal-*e*v*r 13: g*th*b.c*m/**es*ilo/elec*rum-s*r*er 14: gith*b.*om/***nMarke**Org/joinmar**t*clie*ts*rver 15: gi**u**c*m**ightningnetwork/l*d 16: github**om/L*-*ap/**p-deskto* 17: gi*hub**om/bitc**nbook*bi*coinboo* 18: **thub.com/my*e*ium*c*m/ 19: g**hub.*om*Ope*Ba*aar*ope*ba*aar-des*top 20: *ithu**c*m/r*otzol**raspi*litz 21: g*thu*.co*/Stadicu*/*a*p*Bolt 22: g*t*ub*c*m/Ride-The-L*gh*ni*g*RTL 23: gith*b.com/*a**urai-W*llet*s*mour*i-walle**and*o*d 24: gith*b.com/**S*A*Ks/W*lle*Was*bi 25: gi*h*b.co*/Zeu*LN*zeu* 26: preview.*e*d.*t/mlpx*o8*ou55**j*g?w**th=1*50&am*;fo**at*pjpg**m*;auto**e**&*=3*891**c7*0b1293163a6255345a*bca*2e8*e9d 27: g***ub.com/*isq-n*twork/b**q]^*1 28: git*u**com**itcoi*/*itcoin*^^2 29: *it*ub.com/bi****nknots/bi*co**]^^3 30: gi*hub.co*/BlueWall***Blu*Wa*l*t]^^* 31: git*ub.com*b*csuite/b**d]^** 32: *i*hu*.co**btc*ayserver*btcpayserv***^^6 33: *ith*b.com/jan*si*e*btc-*p*-exp*orer]^** 34: git**b.c**/Ele*ent*Proje***li*htning]^^8 35: *ith*b.com/*CINQ/e*l**r]^*9 36: github.*om/s*es*ilo/*le*trum**^1* 37: g**hub.*om/kyuup*chan*elect*um**^*11 38: *ithub.com/***is-b*lche*/***c*rum-**rsonal-s*rver*^^12 39: gi**ub.c***s*esmilo/el*c*r*m-*erver]^^13 40: github.com/J*in*ar***-O*g/***nma*k**-clients*rver]^*14 41: *it**b.*om/*ig***ingnetw*rk/lnd]^^15 42: github.*om/LN-**p/*a*-de*kto*]^^1* 43: *ithu***om/bitc*i*book/*itcoi**ook]*^17 44: gi*hu*.co*/my*e*i*m-com/]^*18 45: gith**.co**Op**Bazaa**o*en*azaar-desktop*^^19 46: gi*h*b.*om*r*otzoll/rasp*b*it*]*^20 47: g*th**.com/Stadicus/Rasp**o*t*^*21 48: **thub.c***Ri*e-The-Ligh*nin**RTL]^*22 49: githu*.com/Sam**r**-Wa*let/*amourai*wa*l*t-**dro*d]^^2* 50: g****b*c*m/zkSNAC*s/Wall*tWasabi]*^24 51: git*ub*c*m/ZeusLN/***s]*^25
Unknown links are censored to prevent spreading illicit content.

Recently restored a wallet from seed onto a new laptop.
Went through gpg4win to verify certificate/signature/public key from electrum.
During and immediately after restore process, antivirus flagged up various 'intrusion attempts' which look to have been blocked.
New laptop, almost zero software downloaded, any ideas on what happened?
I disconnected wifi, not yet connected again, any suggestions as to best route forward? Uninstall electrum and start all over again?
Any advice much appreciated.

After some year playing with full bitcoin core nodes and lightning network nodes, starting times ago with a project called raspibolt (that teach me a lot), i can tell you to have found an awesome project that is ok for the beginner and for the professional too.
I challenge all of you to find another product (commercial too) with all of these functionality and starting from 0$. It calls myNode (this is a screenshot of the app https://ibb.co/n7KDmkx).
I discovered it by chance reading a post from the main developer here on reddit, and I wanted to discover this fantastic software to all bitcoin and tiny hardware enthusiasts like the raspberry pi that want have at home a swiss army knife :) .
Think of an automated script that takes care of configuring everything without you having to do anything. Does it seem strange to you? Try this app!
If you want more informations, please check the website https://www.mynodebtc.com and the telegram official channel with more than 150 guys happy to have discover this awesome application -> https://t.me/mynode_btc
--------------------------------
best hardware to buy: (https://www.mynodebtc.com/download)
- raspberry pi 4 with 4gb of ram
- power cable
- hdd or ssd of 1tb
- hdd or ssd adapter to connect to usb3 of raspberry pi
- micro sd of at least 16 gb
--------------------------------
best bitcoin full node software
- mynode - www.mynodebtc.com
--------------------------------
some characteristic/functionality:
- open source
- free for basic stuff
- github - https://github.com/mynodebtc/mynode
- tor enabled by default for bitcoin core and lnd
- vpn
- full bitcoin node
- lightning wallet (lnd)
- simple ui / web interface (screenshot of last release: https://ibb.co/n7KDmkx)
- bitcoin explorer
- electrum server - btc light wallet server
- ride the lightning - lightning wallet
- lnd hub - lightning wallet server
- bitcoin cli
- quicksync - quickly sync bitcoin blockchain
- lnd connect - generate qr codes for connecting wallets
- ln channel backup
- lnd manage cli tool
​
and a lot of stuff will be added in future like..
- joinmarket
- btcpay server
- liquid sidechain (blockstream's elements)
- samourai dojo (whirlpool)
- blockstream satellite cli
--------------------------------
steps to use it (https://www.mynodebtc.com/download)
0 - collect hardware
1 - download image from site
2 - flash image
3 - boot device
4 - enjoy
--------------------------------

Hi all,
I am playing with the thought of setting up a cold storage for bitcoin using a multisig wallet.
The objective is to have BTC under own control (not on an exchange!) but minimize risk of 'own storage' and keeping the thing manageable with intermediate knowledge. The whole thing should run without BTC proprietary hardware like trezors, it should run on 'regular hardware'.
It seems the following approach could work: - multisig electrum wallet - one wallet completely offline on airgapped device - electrum private server connected through vpn and firewalls with separate ip, different to home network
What are your thoughts on these points: - electrum a good choice regarding usability, or even the only choice if multisig wallet needed? - electrum having limited privacy without own server; setting up a new (electrum?) server as own node (which is a shame as I have a functioning bitcoin full node). Is there a way to get electrum or another desktop wallet with multisig support running with a regular full node ? - own node to verify own transactions and to avoid disclosing wallet balances to unknown servers - the offline machine will need updating at some stage if new versions of electrum are out (??) how to go about this - keeping software and setup overall robust long term (many years - where it's possible to re-install the wallet, replace its hardware)
-- syd

I sometimes find it hard to believe that it has already been 6 years since the public launch of Bylls on January 13 2014. What started out as a simple and humble “garage startup”, the world’s first Bitcoin bill payment service, evolved into so much more.
Bylls eventually became the company that people know today as Bull Bitcoin, and it is from Bylls’ UASF advocacy that sprouted the Cyphernode open-source project. I also like to think of Bylls as a “bitcoin culture” institution that served as the vanguard of the Bitcoin Maximalist and Cypherpunk movements within the Bitcoin exchange and payments industry.
Happy Birthday Bylls! 🎂

What is Bylls?

For those of you who don’t know about Bylls, here’s a short summary:

• Bylls lets Bitcoin users pay any bill in Canada with Bitcoin. We offer a comprehensive list of nearly 9000 billers (credit cards, utilities, telcos, taxes, brokerage accounts, law firms, “joe the plumber”, etc.)
• Bylls lets Bitcoin users pay anyone or any business in Canada with Bitcoin by adding them as a personal payee (rent, employees, suppliers, friends).
• The recipient of the payment doesn’t need to do anything and doesn’t even need to know you are using Bitcoin, as long as they are on our biller list or the user has his banking details.
• Bylls is available exclusively to residents of Canada and all the recipients must also be, exclusively, individuals or companies residing in Canada.
• Mission: Building the software and financial infrastructure for the Bitcoin Standard.
• Core values: Skin-in-the-game, Bitcoin Maximalism, Cypherpunk ethos.

Short history of world’s first Bitcoin bill payment service

Bylls was founded in 2013 by Eric Spano, a Montreal entrepreneur part of the original Bitcoin Embassy team. Eric, one of my earliest and most influential mentors, is a true Bitcoin OG. Check out his 2014 Bitcoin Ted Talk or his 2019 Podcast on Tales From the Crypt which describes in great detail the inception of Bylls.
When Bylls was launched, I was Public Affairs Director at the Bitcoin Embassy, the world’s first physical Bitcoin hub (a 14,000 square feet building downtown Montreal). Bylls was effectively a one-man operation, with Eric doing pretty much everything himself. I wasn’t directly involved with the company, but Bylls was one of the startups in the Embassy’s incubator program, so I was helping out in various ways. My first “public appearance” in the Bitcoin industry was actually to man the Bylls booth at the Toronto Bitcoin Expo in 2014!
In 2015, Eric was offered a huge career opportunity that he couldn’t accept without stepping down from running Bylls. It was to me an inconceivable tragedy for Bitcoin to let Bylls quitely close down. For the past 2 years, whenever somebody asked me “what can you do with Bitcoin?”, I would always reply “well, for starters, you can pay all your bills in Canada, even your taxes and your credit card”. What was I going to say now?
I had just founded my company Satoshi Portal Inc. with the aim of developing a non-custodial Bitcoin exchange (which eventually became Bull Bitcoin). And so, I acquired Bylls from Eric and it immediately became the focus of all my energy. For the first year, our team consisted of only 2 people including our lead developer Arthur which is still working on Bylls features to this day. From the beginning until today, we are still 100% self-funded. We grew organically and slowly. My philosophy on entrepreneurship and startup scaling is articulated in this medium post.It has been an incredibly intense journey. I cannot think of a more challenging professional experience than being a startup founder and entrepreneur in the Bitcoin industry. The number of Bitcoin startups that have perished since is a stark reminder. Some of them sank quietly, but many went down in flames taking down their users with them. The fact that Bylls is still standing — without VC funding and with its reputation intact — is my proudest achievement.
Over the past 4 years. we completely redesigned the software, continuously adding new features, but the core of the service remained the same. Most importantly, we added the ability for users to pay any individual or business in Canada by creating a personal biller from their bank details. Previously, they were limited to Bylls’ biller list of around 9000 billers.
One of the defining moments in the history of Bylls was UASF. Bylls was one of the first Bitcoin companies to support BIP-148 for the activation of Segwit (second after Bitconic). Not only that, but we were the first to run a public BIP-148 block explorer and public UASF electrum server. We had done a “seppuku pledge” regarding BIP-148, meaning that we would only accept coins from the UASF segwit chain and would pay the Bitcoin market price for them. If UASF had failed, we would not have survived. This cemented our ideology of “skin-in-the-game”. We would never compromise on our values, no matter the cost. Our policy on forks (2017) was described here. But the jist of it is:

Satoshi Portal is a Bitcoin-only company and does not conduct any transaction in any altcoin, including altcoins that are the result of a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain and which can be spent with Bitcoin private keys. This includes, but is not limited to, the coins commonly referred to as BCash, Segwit2X, BGold, Clams and Lumens.We strongly oppose the “New York Agreement” and will under no circumstance ever recognize the Segwit2X blockchain (and BTC1 client) as Bitcoin, regardless of market response or hashing power. In the unlikely event that an overwhelming majority of the Bitcoin ecosystem migrates to the Segwit2X blockchain, Satoshi Portal will continue nevertheless to support the Bitcoin blockchain.

Following the UASF/NO2X “war” in 2017, we devoted a large prortion of ressources to building Cyphernode, an open-source project that makes it very easy for startups to build and deploy Bitcoin applies without any third-parties, using exclusively their own full nodes. We are still developing this project today and plan on actively maintaining it in the future.
It is also worth noting that Bylls has never accepted any altcoins and was one of the first company to pledge never to accept altcoins in the future, leading to what became the “Bitcoin-Only” movement. We were also the first Bitcoin exchange and payment processing company, to our knowledge, that has integrated coinjoin as part of its processes.

Unbanking yourself with Bylls

The coolest feature of Bylls is that you can pay pretty much all your expenses with Bitcoin without needing to go through a bank account. In Canada, you can obtain a credit card without having it linked to a bank account. In 2016, the last of my personal bank accounts was closed due to my activities in the Bitcoin industry. I decided not apply at another bank and try the experiment of living completely unbanked. I’m happy to report it was a success, and serves as a powerful testament for the use-cases provided by Bylls.
I really like the idea of not owning any fiat. You can pay pretty much all daily expenses with a credit card, and pay back the debt with Bitcoin. Of course you have fiat-denominated debts which conveniently tends to diminish in price over time.
You can withdraw cash from a credit card and pay it off instantly with Bylls, so you can get access to cash at any time, in any country across the world, without having a bank account. The only inconvenience is the cash advance fee.
When you have to pay larger amounts such as rent or whatever services don’t accept cash or credit card, you can find the biller in the Bylls list or ask the recipient for his banking details, the same as you would for a wire transfer.

The future of Bylls

Many people ask us if we intend to expand outside of Canada. The answer is, unequivocally, no. We will always be a Canada-only, Bitcoin-only company. That doesn’t mean that we stop working hard to improve our services. We will continue to be the first to integrate the cutting-edge Bitcoin technologies that
Here is are some of the features you can expect in 2020:

• Pay billers via Interac E-Transfer instead of Direct Deposit only
• More advanced Coinjoin and privacy features
• Bylls merchant services: Bitcoin-payable invoices to clients
• Pay bills with L-BTC using the Liquid Network
• Enhanced PGP and OpenTimestamps security features
• Auto-sell Bitcoin addresses
• E-commerce integration

Thanks for reading! 🎂
Yours truly,
Francis
Original post here: https://medium.com/bull-bitcoin/bylls-the-canadian-bitcoin-bill-payment-service-by-bull-bitcoin-celebrates-its-6th-birthday-ef6d22acdf2a

Hi Bitcoiners!
I’m back with the 31st monthly Bitcoin news recap.
For those unfamiliar, each day I pick out the most popularelevant/interesting stories in Bitcoin and save them. At the end of the month I release them in one batch, to give you a quick (but not necessarily the best) overview of what happened in bitcoin over the past month.
You can see recaps of the previous months on Bitcoinsnippets.com
A recap of Bitcoin in July 2019
Adoption

• Setting up a full node on an unused laptop (1 Jul)
  
• Lightning network payments are more popular than nearly all altcoins (2 Jul)
  
• 10.5M btc has not moved in one year (4 Jul)
  
• Tony Hawk has been holding bitcoin for 6 years (5 Jul)
  
• WikiLeaks has received more than $46M in btc at this days’ valuation (7 Jul)
  
• A Venezuelan on how cryptocurrency is helping them deal with hyper inflation (7 Jul)
  
• SegWit adoption on a daily basis hits a new all-time-high of 56% (11 Jul)
  
• Statista’s research on cryptocurrency adoption around the world (11 Jul)
  
• SegWit usage hits a new all-time-high of 53.86% (18 Jul)
  
• A poker site earns the Guinness world record for the largest cryptocurrency payout in bitcoin (25 Jul)
  
• Business Insider compares spending Gold to bitcoin at various merchants in New York (29 Jul)
  
• A Grayscale survey finds that 36% of US investors would consider to buy Bitcoin (30 Jul)
  

Development

• A technical overview of an upcoming improvement to the Lightning Network called JIT-routing (1 Jul)
  
• lnd v0.7-beta has been released (2 Jul)
  
• Electrum Wallet is adding support for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (5 Jul)
  
• C-Lightning v0.7.1 has been released (6 Jul)
  
• The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX gives a $60k grant with no strings attached to a Bitcoin Core developer (12 Jul)
  
• Simplified fee negotiation for the Lightning Network (20 Jul)
  
• M5StackSats Lightning Network point of sale terminal (28 Jul)
  
• Lightning Pay Station point-of-sale terminal, an extension to BTCPay Server (30 Jul)
  
• lnd v0.7.1-beta has been released (31 Jul)
  

Security

• Someone creates a cold storage design for cryptocurrency that looks like a cash bill (3 Jul)
  
• Facebook confirms it will collect all payment data from all Libra purchases (10 Jul)
  
• Safe deposit boxes at banks are not as safe as people think (20 Jul)
  
• Another testimony to Dave Bitcoin for helping people recover lost wallets (23 Jul)
  

Mining

• A list of all blocks over 2MB so far (2 Jul)
  
• Bitcoin mining on an Apollo Guidance Computer at 10.3 seconds per hash (8 Jul)
  
• A miner wastes an estimated $150k trying to reward themselves with more bitcoin (10 Jul)
  
• Bitcoin’s hashrate reaches a new all-time-high of 70 exahashes (11 Jul)
  
• SlushPool launches Stratum V2 mining software through its Braiins initiative (26 Jul)
  

Business

• Bisq decentralised exchange breaks its monthly volume records in June (5 Jul)
  
• Bitstamp opens a Lightning Network node (8 Jul)
  
• A draft of a map of Bitcoin exchanges and which countries they serve (8 Jul)
  
• BTCPay Server launches a crowdfunding campaign for the Tor project (15 Jul)
  
• Coinbase passes 30 million accounts with 22k new users per day (22 Jul)
  
• Bakkt begins user testing bitcoin futures (22 Jul)
  
• A discussion on Libra compared to Bitcoin (23 Jul)
  
• Norwegian Air will accept bitcoin and is opening its own cryptocurrency exchange (24 Jul)
  
• Newegg expands bitcoin as a payment option to another 73 nations (24 Jul)
  
• Lolli’s CEO on making bitcoin accessible by letting users earn it (26 Jul)
  
• OpenBazaar launches its iOS and Android apps (29 Jul)
  
• Facebook warns investors that Libra may never see the light of day (30 Jul)
  

Education

• An introduction to Schnorr Signatures (7 Jul)
  
• A reply to an Italian national newspaper that states Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme (8 Jul)
  
• An explainer of why inflation is more severe than the public numbers (11 Jul)
  
• A technical history of payment channels from Satoshi Nakamoto to the Lightning Network (12 Jul)
  
• An in-depth explainer of BetterHash, using new hashing protocols to decentralise mining (14 Jul)
  
• IMF report on the rise of digital money competing with fiat currency (15 Jul)
  
• A discussion on the challenges of locking a bitcoin transaction for a very long period of time (20 Jul)
  
• Andreas Antonopoulos on using a Blockchain for non-cryptocurrency reasons (20 Jul)
  
• A guided reading of Bitcoin’s White Paper (29 Jul)
  

Regulation & Politics

• The US Congress has sent a letter to Facebook to stop development of Libra and work with regulators (3 Jul)
  
• Abra CEO on a potential Bitcoin Ban (3 Jul)
  
• Zimbabwe bans the US dollar leading to an increase in local bitcoin trading (10 Jul)
  
• The US president tweets about Bitcoin (12 Jul)
  
• Ex US Congressman calls Bitcoin a great idea (16 Jul)
  
• A US Congressman on Bitcoin and Libra (16 Jul)
  
• A US Congressman on the unstoppable force of Bitcoin (17 Jul)
  
• A comparison of Bitcoin and Shitcoin in a US Congress hearing (17 Jul)
  
• Meltem Demirors full testimony on Bitcoin for US Congress (18 Jul)
  
• Meltem Demirors on her testimony on Bitcoin for US Congress (18 Jul)
  
• A Chinese court declares Bitcoin legal in China as a ‘Virtual Propert’ (19 Jul)
  
• Cryptocurrency is not prohibited in India says its Finance Minister (19 Jul)
  
• Politicians speak out on private companies issuing their own currencies without democratic control (20 Jul)
  
• Iran legalises cryptocurrency mining (22 Jul)
  
• US Banking Committee Chairman Crapo is confident they would not succeed at banning cryptocurrency (30 Jul)
  
• US Congress is struggling with privacy and cryptocurrency (31 Jul)
  
• Bitcoin experiences the first US Federal Reserve interest rate cut in history (31 Jul)
  

Archeology (Financial Incumbents)

• Deutsche Bank will cut 18000 jobs (8 Jul)
  
• An ex-Deutsche Bank employee on quitting his job to get into cryptocurrency (8 Jul)
  
• JP Morgan Asset Management gets a ship seized transporting $1.3 billion in cocaine (10 Jul)
  
• The Federal Reserve Chairman calls Bitcoin a store of value (11 Jul)
  
• A discussion on banks blocking transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges (14 Jul)
  
• US bank Wells Fargo no longer allows transactions involving cryptocurrency (14 Jul)
  
• The Bank of China posted an article explaining who bitcoin is valuable (27 Jul)
  

Price & Trading

• A yearly 15 August bitcoin price flyer (1 Jul)
  
• The highest bitcoin trade ever recorded (19 Jul)
  

Fun & Other

• 2 people cited in the Bitcoin white paper on the future of cryptocurrency (1 Jul)
  
• A video of someone buying 10 btc in december 2010 (1 Jul)
  
• A scammer’s fake story debunked by a Venezuelan (1 Jul)
  
• Someone sends 1 btc to the Genesis address (2 Jul)
  
• Someone finds one of their old wallets from 6 years ago (2 Jul)
  
• A Bitcoin easter egg in the movie The Spider-Verse (6 Jul)
  
• A tailor with a Bitcoin bag in front of Deutsche Bank (8 Jul)
  
• Bitcoin wallet art design on wood (10 Jul)
  
• A discussion on how girlfriends respond to talking about Bitcoin (13 Jul))
  
• A discussion on giving bitcoin to relatives (15 Jul)
  
• Scamming a bitcoin mining scammer (17 Jul)
  
• A discussion on increased financial awareness because of Bitcoin (18 Jul)
  
• The US dollar when you put it through FaceApp (18 Jul)
  
• A discussion on why people don’t understand Bitcoin (22 Jul)
  
• Holding $0.18 worth of bitcoin since 2013 (24 Jul)
  
• A survey in the US shows people who haven’t bought cryptocurrency trust Bitcoin more than Facebook’s Libra (24 Jul)
  
• Cameron Winklevoss on money as an evolutionary experiment (29 Jul)
  
• A discussion on the Bitcoin halving on CNBC (29 Jul)
  
• Someone’s story of going all in on bitcoin now (31 Jul)
  

Introduction

Dear Groestlers, it goes without saying that 2020 has been a difficult time for millions of people worldwide. The groestlcoin team would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone our best to everyone coping with the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19. Let it bring out the best in us all and show that collectively, we can conquer anything.
The centralised banks and our national governments are facing unprecedented times with interest rates worldwide dropping to record lows in places. Rest assured that this can only strengthen the fundamentals of all decentralised cryptocurrencies and the vision that was seeded with Satoshi's Bitcoin whitepaper over 10 years ago. Despite everything that has been thrown at us this year, the show must go on and the team will still progress and advance to continue the momentum that we have developed over the past 6 years.
In addition to this, we'd like to remind you all that this is Groestlcoin's 6th Birthday release! In terms of price there have been some crazy highs and lows over the years (with highs of around $2.60 and lows of $0.000077!), but in terms of value– Groestlcoin just keeps getting more valuable! In these uncertain times, one thing remains clear – Groestlcoin will keep going and keep innovating regardless. On with what has been worked on and completed over the past few months.

UPDATED - Groestlcoin Core 2.18.2

This is a major release of Groestlcoin Core with many protocol level improvements and code optimizations, featuring the technical equivalent of Bitcoin v0.18.2 but with Groestlcoin-specific patches. On a general level, most of what is new is a new 'Groestlcoin-wallet' tool which is now distributed alongside Groestlcoin Core's other executables.
NOTE: The 'Account' API has been removed from this version which was typically used in some tip bots. Please ensure you check the release notes from 2.17.2 for details on replacing this functionality.

• Builds are now done through Gitian
• Calls to getblocktemplate will fail if the segwit rule is not specified. Calling getblocktemplate without segwit specified is almost certainly a misconfiguration since doing so results in lower rewards for the miner. Failed calls will produce an error message describing how to enable the segwit rule.
• A warning is printed if an unrecognized section name is used in the configuration file. Recognized sections are [test], [main], and [regtest].
• Four new options are available for configuring the maximum number of messages that ZMQ will queue in memory (the "high water mark") before dropping additional messages. The default value is 1,000, the same as was used for previous releases.
• The rpcallowip option can no longer be used to automatically listen on all network interfaces. Instead, the rpcbind parameter must be used to specify the IP addresses to listen on. Listening for RPC commands over a public network connection is insecure and should be disabled, so a warning is now printed if a user selects such a configuration. If you need to expose RPC in order to use a tool like Docker, ensure you only bind RPC to your localhost, e.g. docker run [...] -p 127.0.0.1:1441:1441 (this is an extra :1441 over the normal Docker port specification).
• The rpcpassword option now causes a startup error if the password set in the configuration file contains a hash character (#), as it's ambiguous whether the hash character is meant for the password or as a comment.
• The whitelistforcerelay option is used to relay transactions from whitelisted peers even when not accepted to the mempool. This option now defaults to being off, so that changes in policy and disconnect/ban behavior will not cause a node that is whitelisting another to be dropped by peers.
• A new short about the JSON-RPC interface describes cases where the results of anRPC might contain inconsistencies between data sourced from differentsubsystems, such as wallet state and mempool state.
• A new document (https://github.com/groestlcoin/groestlcoin/blob/mastedoc/groestlcoin-conf.md) about the groestlcoin.conf file describes how to use it to configure Groestlcoin Core.
• A new document introduces Groestlcoin Core's BIP174 interface, which is used to allow multiple programs to collaboratively work to create, sign, and broadcast new transactions. This is useful for offline (cold storage) wallets, multisig wallets, coinjoin implementations, and many other cases where two or more programs need to interact to generate a complete transaction.
• The output script descriptor (https://github.com/groestlcoin/groestlcoin/blob/mastedoc/descriptors.md) documentation has been updated with information about new features in this still-developing language for describing the output scripts that a wallet or other program wants to receive notifications for, such as which addresses it wants to know received payments. The language is currently used in multiple new and updated RPCs described in these release notes and is expected to be adapted to other RPCs and to the underlying wallet structure.
• A new --disable-bip70 option may be passed to ./configure to prevent Groestlcoin-Qt from being built with support for the BIP70 payment protocol or from linking libssl. As the payment protocol has exposed Groestlcoin Core to libssl vulnerabilities in the past, builders who don't need BIP70 support are encouraged to use this option to reduce their exposure to future vulnerabilities.
• The minimum required version of Qt (when building the GUI) has been increased from 5.2 to 5.5.1 (the depends system provides 5.9.7)
• getnodeaddresses returns peer addresses known to this node. It may be used to find nodes to connect to without using a DNS seeder.
• listwalletdir returns a list of wallets in the wallet directory (either the default wallet directory or the directory configured bythe -walletdir parameter).
• getrpcinfo returns runtime details of the RPC server. Currently, it returns an array of the currently active commands and how long they've been running.
• deriveaddresses returns one or more addresses corresponding to an output descriptor.
• getdescriptorinfo accepts a descriptor and returns information aboutit, including its computed checksum.
• joinpsbts merges multiple distinct PSBTs into a single PSBT. The multiple PSBTs must have different inputs. The resulting PSBT will contain every input and output from all the PSBTs. Any signatures provided in any of the PSBTs will be dropped.
• analyzepsbt examines a PSBT and provides information about what the PSBT contains and the next steps that need to be taken in order to complete the transaction. For each input of a PSBT, analyze psbt provides information about what information is missing for that input, including whether a UTXO needs to be provided, what pubkeys still need to be provided, which scripts need to be provided, and what signatures are still needed. Every input will also list which role is needed to complete that input, and analyzepsbt will also list the next role in general needed to complete the PSBT. analyzepsbt will also provide the estimated fee rate and estimated virtual size of the completed transaction if it has enough information to do so.
• utxoupdatepsbt searches the set of Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs) to find the outputs being spent by the partial transaction. PSBTs need to have the UTXOs being spent to be provided because the signing algorithm requires information from the UTXO being spent. For segwit inputs, only the UTXO itself is necessary. For non-segwit outputs, the entire previous transaction is needed so that signers can be sure that they are signing the correct thing. Unfortunately, because the UTXO set only contains UTXOs and not full transactions, utxoupdatepsbt will only add the UTXO for segwit inputs.
• getpeerinfo now returns an additional minfeefilter field set to the peer's BIP133 fee filter. You can use this to detect that you have peers that are willing to accept transactions below the default minimum relay fee.
• The mempool RPCs, such as getrawmempool with verbose=true, now return an additional "bip125-replaceable" value indicating whether thetransaction (or its unconfirmed ancestors) opts-in to asking nodes and miners to replace it with a higher-feerate transaction spending any of the same inputs.
• settxfee previously silently ignored attempts to set the fee below the allowed minimums. It now prints a warning. The special value of"0" may still be used to request the minimum value.
• getaddressinfo now provides an ischange field indicating whether the wallet used the address in a change output.
• importmulti has been updated to support P2WSH, P2WPKH, P2SH-P2WPKH, and P2SH-P2WSH. Requests for P2WSH and P2SH-P2WSH accept an additional witnessscript parameter.
• importmulti now returns an additional warnings field for each request with an array of strings explaining when fields are being ignored or are inconsistent, if there are any.
• getaddressinfo now returns an additional solvable Boolean field when Groestlcoin Core knows enough about the address's scriptPubKey, optional redeemScript, and optional witnessScript for the wallet to be able to generate an unsigned input spending funds sent to that address.
• The getaddressinfo, listunspent, and scantxoutset RPCs now return an additional desc field that contains an output descriptor containing all key paths and signing information for the address (except for the private key). The desc field is only returned for getaddressinfo and listunspent when the address is solvable.
• importprivkey will preserve previously-set labels for addresses or public keys corresponding to the private key being imported. For example, if you imported a watch-only address with the label "coldwallet" in earlier releases of Groestlcoin Core, subsequently importing the private key would default to resetting the address's label to the default empty-string label (""). In this release, the previous label of "cold wallet" will be retained. If you optionally specify any label besides the default when calling importprivkey, the new label will be applied to the address.
• getmininginfo now omits currentblockweight and currentblocktx when a block was never assembled via RPC on this node.
• The getrawtransaction RPC & REST endpoints no longer check the unspent UTXO set for a transaction. The remaining behaviors are as follows:
  1. If a blockhash is provided, check the corresponding block.
  2. If no blockhash is provided, check the mempool.
  3. If no blockhash is provided but txindex is enabled, also check txindex.
• unloadwallet is now synchronous, meaning it will not return until the wallet is fully unloaded.
• importmulti now supports importing of addresses from descriptors. A desc parameter can be provided instead of the "scriptPubKey" in are quest, as well as an optional range for ranged descriptors to specify the start and end of the range to import. Descriptors with key origin information imported through importmulti will have their key origin information stored in the wallet for use with creating PSBTs.
• listunspent has been modified so that it also returns witnessScript, the witness script in the case of a P2WSH orP2SH-P2WSH output.
• createwallet now has an optional blank argument that can be used to create a blank wallet. Blank wallets do not have any keys or HDseed. They cannot be opened in software older than 2.18.2. Once a blank wallet has a HD seed set (by using sethdseed) or private keys, scripts, addresses, and other watch only things have been imported, the wallet is no longer blank and can be opened in 2.17.2. Encrypting a blank wallet will also set a HD seed for it.
• signrawtransaction is removed after being deprecated and hidden behind a special configuration option in version 2.17.2.
• The 'account' API is removed after being deprecated in v2.17.2 The 'label' API was introduced in v2.17.2 as a replacement for accounts. See the release notes from v2.17.2 for a full description of the changes from the 'account' API to the 'label' API.
• addwitnessaddress is removed after being deprecated in version 2.16.0.
• generate is deprecated and will be fully removed in a subsequent major version. This RPC is only used for testing, but its implementation reached across multiple subsystems (wallet and mining), so it is being deprecated to simplify the wallet-node interface. Projects that are using generate for testing purposes should transition to using the generatetoaddress RPC, which does not require or use the wallet component. Calling generatetoaddress with an address returned by the getnewaddress RPC gives the same functionality as the old generate RPC. To continue using generate in this version, restart groestlcoind with the -deprecatedrpc=generate configuration option.
• Be reminded that parts of the validateaddress command have been deprecated and moved to getaddressinfo. The following deprecated fields have moved to getaddressinfo: ismine, iswatchonly,script, hex, pubkeys, sigsrequired, pubkey, embedded,iscompressed, label, timestamp, hdkeypath, hdmasterkeyid.
• The addresses field has been removed from the validateaddressand getaddressinfo RPC methods. This field was confusing since it referred to public keys using their P2PKH address. Clients should use the embedded.address field for P2SH or P2WSH wrapped addresses, and pubkeys for inspecting multisig participants.
• A new /rest/blockhashbyheight/ endpoint is added for fetching the hash of the block in the current best blockchain based on its height (how many blocks it is after the Genesis Block).
• A new Window menu is added alongside the existing File, Settings, and Help menus. Several items from the other menus that opened new windows have been moved to this new Window menu.
• In the Send tab, the checkbox for "pay only the required fee" has been removed. Instead, the user can simply decrease the value in the Custom Fee rate field all the way down to the node's configured minimumrelay fee.
• In the Overview tab, the watch-only balance will be the only balance shown if the wallet was created using the createwallet RPC and thedisable_private_keys parameter was set to true.
• The launch-on-startup option is no longer available on macOS if compiled with macosx min version greater than 10.11 (useCXXFLAGS="-mmacosx-version-min=10.11" CFLAGS="-mmacosx-version-min=10.11" for setting the deployment sdkversion)
• A new groestlcoin-wallet tool is now distributed alongside Groestlcoin Core's other executables. Without needing to use any RPCs, this tool can currently create a new wallet file or display some basic information about an existing wallet, such as whether the wallet is encrypted, whether it uses an HD seed, how many transactions it contains, and how many address book entries it has.
• Since version 2.16.0, Groestlcoin Core's built-in wallet has defaulted to generating P2SH-wrapped segwit addresses when users want to receive payments. These addresses are backwards compatible with all widely used software. Starting with Groestlcoin Core 2.20.1 (expected about a year after 2.18.2), Groestlcoin Core will default to native segwitaddresses (bech32) that provide additional fee savings and other benefits. Currently, many wallets and services already support sending to bech32 addresses, and if the Groestlcoin Core project sees enough additional adoption, it will instead default to bech32 receiving addresses in Groestlcoin Core 2.19.1. P2SH-wrapped segwit addresses will continue to be provided if the user requests them in the GUI or by RPC, and anyone who doesn't want the update will be able to configure their default address type. (Similarly, pioneering users who want to change their default now may set the addresstype=bech32 configuration option in any Groestlcoin Core release from 2.16.0 up.)
• BIP 61 reject messages are now deprecated. Reject messages have no use case on the P2P network and are only logged for debugging by most network nodes. Furthermore, they increase bandwidth and can be harmful for privacy and security. It has been possible to disable BIP 61 messages since v2.17.2 with the -enablebip61=0 option. BIP 61 messages will be disabled by default in a future version, before being removed entirely.
• The submitblock RPC previously returned the reason a rejected block was invalid the first time it processed that block but returned a generic "duplicate" rejection message on subsequent occasions it processed the same block. It now always returns the fundamental reason for rejecting an invalid block and only returns "duplicate" for valid blocks it has already accepted.
• A new submitheader RPC allows submitting block headers independently from their block. This is likely only useful for testing.
• The signrawtransactionwithkey and signrawtransactionwithwallet RPCs have been modified so that they also optionally accept a witnessScript, the witness script in the case of a P2WSH orP2SH-P2WSH output. This is compatible with the change to listunspent.
• For the walletprocesspsbt and walletcreatefundedpsbt RPCs, if thebip32derivs parameter is set to true but the key metadata for a public key has not been updated yet, then that key will have a derivation path as if it were just an independent key (i.e. no derivation path and its master fingerprint is itself).
• The -usehd configuration option was removed in version 2.16.0 From that version onwards, all new wallets created are hierarchical deterministic wallets. This release makes specifying -usehd an invalid configuration option.
• This release allows peers that your node automatically disconnected for misbehaviour (e.g. sending invalid data) to reconnect to your node if you have unused incoming connection slots. If your slots fill up, a misbehaving node will be disconnected to make room for nodes without a history of problems (unless the misbehaving node helps your node in some other way, such as by connecting to a part of the Internet from which you don't have many other peers). Previously, Groestlcoin Core banned the IP addresses of misbehaving peers for a period (default of 1 day); this was easily circumvented by attackers with multiple IP addresses. If you manually ban a peer, such as by using the setban RPC, all connections from that peer will still be rejected.
• The key metadata will need to be upgraded the first time that the HDseed is available. For unencrypted wallets this will occur on wallet loading. For encrypted wallets this will occur the first time the wallet is unlocked.
• Newly encrypted wallets will no longer require restarting the software. Instead such wallets will be completely unloaded and reloaded to achieve the same effect.
• A sub-project of Bitcoin Core now provides Hardware Wallet Interaction (HWI) scripts that allow command-line users to use several popular hardware key management devices with Groestlcoin Core. See their project page for details.
• This release changes the Random Number Generator (RNG) used from OpenSSL to Groestlcoin Core's own implementation, although entropy gathered by Groestlcoin Core is fed out to OpenSSL and then read back in when the program needs strong randomness. This moves Groestlcoin Core a little closer to no longer needing to depend on OpenSSL, a dependency that has caused security issues in the past. The new implementation gathers entropy from multiple sources, including from hardware supporting the rdseed CPU instruction.
• On macOS, Groestlcoin Core now opts out of application CPU throttling ("app nap") during initial blockchain download, when catching up from over 100 blocks behind the current chain tip, or when reindexing chain data. This helps prevent these operations from taking an excessively long time because the operating system is attempting to conserve power.

How to Upgrade?

Windows
If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), then run the installer.
OSX
If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), run the dmg and drag Groestlcoin Core to Applications.
Ubuntu
http://groestlcoin.org/forum/index.php?topic=441.0

Other Linux

http://groestlcoin.org/forum/index.php?topic=97.0

Download

Download the Windows Installer (64 bit) here
Download the Windows Installer (32 bit) here
Download the Windows binaries (64 bit) here
Download the Windows binaries (32 bit) here
Download the OSX Installer here
Download the OSX binaries here
Download the Linux binaries (64 bit) here
Download the Linux binaries (32 bit) here
Download the ARM Linux binaries (64 bit) here
Download the ARM Linux binaries (32 bit) here

Source

ALL NEW - Groestlcoin Moonshine iOS/Android Wallet

Built with React Native, Moonshine utilizes Electrum-GRS's JSON-RPC methods to interact with the Groestlcoin network.
GRS Moonshine's intended use is as a hot wallet. Meaning, your keys are only as safe as the device you install this wallet on. As with any hot wallet, please ensure that you keep only a small, responsible amount of Groestlcoin on it at any given time.

Features

• Groestlcoin Mainnet & Testnet supported
• Bech32 support
• Multiple wallet support
• Electrum - Support for both random and custom peers
• Encrypted storage
• Biometric + Pin authentication
• Custom fee selection
• Import mnemonic phrases via manual entry or scanning
• RBF functionality
• BIP39 Passphrase functionality
• Support for Segwit-compatible & legacy addresses in settings
• Support individual private key sweeping
• UTXO blacklisting - Accessible via the Transaction Detail view, this allows users to blacklist any utxo that they do not wish to include in their list of available utxo's when sending transactions. Blacklisting a utxo excludes its amount from the wallet's total balance.
• Ability to Sign & Verify Messages
• Support BitID for password-free authentication
• Coin Control - This can be accessed from the Send Transaction view and basically allows users to select from a list of available UTXO's to include in their transaction.
• Ability to Broadcast raw transactions

Download

iOS
Android

Source

ALL NEW! – HODL GRS Android Wallet

HODL GRS connects directly to the Groestlcoin network using SPV mode and doesn't rely on servers that can be hacked or disabled.
HODL GRS utilizes AES hardware encryption, app sandboxing, and the latest security features to protect users from malware, browser security holes, and even physical theft. Private keys are stored only in the secure enclave of the user's phone, inaccessible to anyone other than the user.
Simplicity and ease-of-use is the core design principle of HODL GRS. A simple recovery phrase (which we call a Backup Recovery Key) is all that is needed to restore the user's wallet if they ever lose or replace their device. HODL GRS is deterministic, which means the user's balance and transaction history can be recovered just from the backup recovery key.

Features

• Simplified payment verification for fast mobile performance
• No server to get hacked or go down
• Single backup phrase that works forever
• Private keys never leave your device
• Import password protected paper wallets
• Payment protocol payee identity certification

Download

Main Release (Main Net)
Testnet Release

Source

ALL NEW! – GroestlcoinSeed Savior

Groestlcoin Seed Savior is a tool for recovering BIP39 seed phrases.
This tool is meant to help users with recovering a slightly incorrect Groestlcoin mnemonic phrase (AKA backup or seed). You can enter an existing BIP39 mnemonic and get derived addresses in various formats.
To find out if one of the suggested addresses is the right one, you can click on the suggested address to check the address' transaction history on a block explorer.

Features

• If a word is wrong, the tool will try to suggest the closest option.
• If a word is missing or unknown, please type "?" instead and the tool will find all relevant options.

Live Version (Not Recommended)

https://www.groestlcoin.org/recovery/

Download

https://github.com/Groestlcoin/mnemonic-recovery/archive/master.zip

Source

ALL NEW! – Vanity Search Vanity Address Generator

NOTE: NVidia GPU or any CPU only. AMD graphics cards will not work with this address generator.
VanitySearch is a command-line Segwit-capable vanity Groestlcoin address generator. Add unique flair when you tell people to send Groestlcoin. Alternatively, VanitySearch can be used to generate random addresses offline.
If you're tired of the random, cryptic addresses generated by regular groestlcoin clients, then VanitySearch is the right choice for you to create a more personalized address.
VanitySearch is a groestlcoin address prefix finder. If you want to generate safe private keys, use the -s option to enter your passphrase which will be used for generating a base key as for BIP38 standard (VanitySearch.exe -s "My PassPhrase" FXPref). You can also use VanitySearch.exe -ps "My PassPhrase" which will add a crypto secure seed to your passphrase.
VanitySearch may not compute a good grid size for your GPU, so try different values using -g option in order to get the best performances. If you want to use GPUs and CPUs together, you may have best performances by keeping one CPU core for handling GPU(s)/CPU exchanges (use -t option to set the number of CPU threads).

Features

• Fixed size arithmetic
• Fast Modular Inversion (Delayed Right Shift 62 bits)
• SecpK1 Fast modular multiplication (2 steps folding 512bits to 256bits using 64 bits digits)
• Use some properties of elliptic curve to generate more keys
• SSE Secure Hash Algorithm SHA256 and RIPEMD160 (CPU)
• Multi-GPU support
• CUDA optimisation via inline PTX assembly
• Seed protected by pbkdf2_hmac_sha512 (BIP38)
• Support P2PKH, P2SH and BECH32 addresses
• Support split-key vanity address

Usage

https://github.com/Groestlcoin/VanitySearch#usage

Download

Source

ALL NEW! – Groestlcoin EasyVanity 2020

Groestlcoin EasyVanity 2020 is a windows app built from the ground-up and makes it easier than ever before to create your very own bespoke bech32 address(es) when whilst not connected to the internet.
If you're tired of the random, cryptic bech32 addresses generated by regular Groestlcoin clients, then Groestlcoin EasyVanity2020 is the right choice for you to create a more personalised bech32 address. This 2020 version uses the new VanitySearch to generate not only legacy addresses (F prefix) but also Bech32 addresses (grs1 prefix).

Features

• Ability to continue finding keys after first one is found
• Includes warning on start-up if connected to the internet
• Ability to output keys to a text file (And shows button to open that directory)
• Show and hide the private key with a simple toggle switch
• Show full output of commands
• Ability to choose between Processor (CPU) and Graphics Card (GPU) ( NVidia ONLY! )
• Features both a Light and Dark Material Design-Style Themes
• Free software - MIT. Anyone can audit the code.
• Written in C# - The code is short, and easy to review.

Download

Source

Remastered! – Groestlcoin WPF Desktop Wallet (v2.19.0.18)

Groestlcoin WPF is an alternative full node client with optional lightweight 'thin-client' mode based on WPF. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is one of Microsoft's latest approaches to a GUI framework, used with the .NET framework. Its main advantages over the original Groestlcoin client include support for exporting blockchain.dat and including a lite wallet mode.
This wallet was previously deprecated but has been brought back to life with modern standards.

Features

• Works via TOR or SOCKS5 proxy
• Can use bootstrap.dat format as blockchain database
• Import/Export blockchain to/from bootstrap.dat
• Import wallet.dat from Groestlcoin-qt wallet
• Export wallet to wallet.dat
• Use both groestlcoin-wpf and groestlcoin-qt with the same addresses in parallel. When you send money from one program, the transaction will automatically be visible on the other wallet.
• Rescan blockchain with a simple mouse click
• Works as a full node and listens to port 1331 (listening port can be changed)
• Fast Block verifying, parallel processing on multi-core CPUs
• Mine Groestlcoins with your CPU by a simple mouse click
• All private keys are kept encrypted on your local machine (or on a USB stick)
• Lite - Has a lightweight "thin client" mode which does not require a new user to download the entire Groestlcoin chain and store it
• Free and decentralised - Open Source under GNU license

Remastered Improvements

• Bech32 support
• P2sh support
• Fixed Import/Export to wallet.dat
• Testnet Support
• Rescan wallet option
• Change wallet password option
• Address type and Change type options through *.conf file
• Import from bootstrap.dat - It is a flat, binary file containing Groestlcoin blockchain data, from the genesis block through a recent height. All versions automatically validate and import the file "grs.bootstrap.dat" in the GRS directory. Grs.bootstrap.dat is compatible with Qt wallet. GroestlCoin-Qt can load from it.
• In Full mode file %APPDATA%\Groestlcoin-WPF\GRS\GRS.bootstrap.dat is full blockchain in standard bootstrap.dat format and can be used with other clients.

Download

Source

ALL NEW! – BIP39 Key Tool

Groestlcoin BIP39 Key Tool is a GUI interface for generating Groestlcoin public and private keys. It is a standalone tool which can be used offline.

Features

• Selection options for 3-24 words (simply putting the space separated words in the first word box will also work) along with a bip39 passphrase
• User input for total number of addresses desired
• Creation of P2PKH, P2SH, P2WPKH and P2WSH addresses along with xpriv and xpub as per BIP32 spec, using a word list as the starting point following the BIP39 standard.
• Pre-sets for BIP44, BIP49, BIP84 and BIP141 standards, along with custom user input for derivation path
• Option for Hardened or non-hardened addresses
• Option for Testnet private and public keys
• Output containing derivation path, private key in WIF, integer and hex format, public key address, public point on curve and scriptpubkey
• Results are output in a file titled 'wallet.txt' with the time addresses were generated, along with all information presented onscreen

Download

Windows
Linux :

 pip3 install -r requirements.txt python3 bip39\_gui.py 

Source

ALL NEW! – Electrum Personal Server

Groestlcoin Electrum Personal Server aims to make using Electrum Groestlcoin wallet more secure and more private. It makes it easy to connect your Electrum-GRS wallet to your own full node.
It is an implementation of the Electrum-grs server protocol which fulfils the specific need of using the Electrum-grs wallet backed by a full node, but without the heavyweight server backend, for a single user. It allows the user to benefit from all Groestlcoin Core's resource-saving features like pruning, blocks only and disabled txindex. All Electrum-GRS's feature-richness like hardware wallet integration, multi-signature wallets, offline signing, seed recovery phrases, coin control and so on can still be used, but connected only to the user's own full node.
Full node wallets are important in Groestlcoin because they are a big part of what makes the system be trust-less. No longer do people have to trust a financial institution like a bank or PayPal, they can run software on their own computers. If Groestlcoin is digital gold, then a full node wallet is your own personal goldsmith who checks for you that received payments are genuine.
Full node wallets are also important for privacy. Using Electrum-GRS under default configuration requires it to send (hashes of) all your Groestlcoin addresses to some server. That server can then easily spy on your transactions. Full node wallets like Groestlcoin Electrum Personal Server would download the entire blockchain and scan it for the user's own addresses, and therefore don't reveal to anyone else which Groestlcoin addresses they are interested in.
Groestlcoin Electrum Personal Server can also broadcast transactions through Tor which improves privacy by resisting traffic analysis for broadcasted transactions which can link the IP address of the user to the transaction. If enabled this would happen transparently whenever the user simply clicks "Send" on a transaction in Electrum-grs wallet.
Note: Currently Groestlcoin Electrum Personal Server can only accept one connection at a time.

Features

• Use your own node
• Tor support
• Uses less CPU and RAM than ElectrumX
• Used intermittently rather than needing to be always-on
• Doesn't require an index of every Groestlcoin address ever used like on ElectrumX

Download

Windows
Linux / OSX (Instructions)

Source

UPDATED – Android Wallet 7.38.1 - Main Net + Test Net

The app allows you to send and receive Groestlcoin on your device using QR codes and URI links.
When using this app, please back up your wallet and email them to yourself! This will save your wallet in a password protected file. Then your coins can be retrieved even if you lose your phone.

Changes

• Add confidence messages, helping users to understand the confidence state of their payments.
• Handle edge case when restoring via an external app.
• Count devices with a memory class of 128 MB as low ram.
• Introduce dark mode on Android 10 devices.
• Reduce memory usage of PIN-protected wallets.
• Tapping on the app's version will reveal a checksum of the APK that was installed.
• Fix issue with confirmation of transactions that empty your wallet.

Download

Main Net
Main Net (FDroid)
Test Net

Source

UPDATED – Groestlcoin Sentinel 3.5.06 (Android)

Groestlcoin Sentinel is a great solution for anyone who wants the convenience and utility of a hot wallet for receiving payments directly into their cold storage (or hardware wallets).
Sentinel accepts XPUB's, YPUB'S, ZPUB's and individual Groestlcoin address. Once added you will be able to view balances, view transactions, and (in the case of XPUB's, YPUB's and ZPUB's) deterministically generate addresses for that wallet.
Groestlcoin Sentinel is a fork of Groestlcoin Samourai Wallet with all spending and transaction building code removed.

Changes

• Removed Cryptopia
• Added adaptive icons for Android 8 and above
• Add block book block explorer

Download

Source

UPDATED – P2Pool Test Net

Changes

• Add compatibility for Groestlcoin Core 2.18.2

Download

Pre-Hosted Testnet P2Pool is available via http://testp2pool.groestlcoin.org:21330/static/

Source

Hello, I have been a fan of electrum because of its offline capability. I like that I can use Bitcoin while storing my private keys on a computer that has the wifi card removed and hot glue stuffed in the Ethernet port. However it looks like maybe the electrum developers have over-promised and under-delivered in this regard. Or, maybe they simply do not have the time, energy, resources to make this work in real life.
Let me explain. I have an old-ass computer that is running Ubuntu 12 (precise), this computer has electrum 2.5.4 installed with a cold-storage wallet that has my private key.
I want to send some bitcoin from that address to a new wallet on my desktop so I can spend the bitcoin. So I installed electrum (newest version 3.3.8) on my desktop, imported the bitcoin address, and created a transaction. Then I sent the transaction to the offline computer out of band, and verified that the out-of-band transmission worked by comparing the hash of the txn file on both the offline and online machines. Then I tried to open the txn file on the offline machine with Electrum 2.5.4. Well, guess what, it didn't work. Electrum 2.5.4 printed to the console:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/uslocal/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Electrum-2.5.4-py2.7.egg/electrum_gui/qt/main_window.py", line 2261, in do_process_from_file
self.show_transaction(tx)
File "/uslocal/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Electrum-2.5.4-py2.7.egg/electrum_gui/qt/main_window.py", line 577, in show_transaction
show_transaction(tx, self, tx_desc)
File "/uslocal/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Electrum-2.5.4-py2.7.egg/electrum_gui/qt/transaction_dialog.py", line 37, in show_transaction
d = TxDialog(tx, parent, desc, prompt_if_unsaved)
File "/uslocal/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Electrum-2.5.4-py2.7.egg/electrum_gui/qt/transaction_dialog.py", line 48, in __init__
self.tx.deserialize()
File "/uslocal/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Electrum-2.5.4-py2.7.egg/electrum/transaction.py", line 523, in deserialize
d = deserialize(self.raw)
File "/uslocal/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Electrum-2.5.4-py2.7.egg/electrum/transaction.py", line 454, in deserialize
d[inputs] = list(parse_input(vds) for i in xrange(n_vin))
OverflowError: Python int too large to convert to C long
That's pretty frustrating, the first thing I tried was to install Electrum 2.5.4 on my Desktop and try to create a new unsigned transaction with Electrum 2.5.4. However, this is a no-go because old versions of Electrum cannot connect to Electrum servers any more. So I have to try to update the Electrum on the Offline computer. But I'm not even sure if this is possible considering how ubuntu 12 it's definitely out of support at this point and the offline computer does not even have python3 installed, let alone the GTK stuff or whatever is probably required to run Electrum.
I'm starting to regret choosing a GUI-based wallet for my offline storage considering how hard it is to actually use this and how it simply melts over time... even just 5 years is is enough time to completely melt and destroy this software and make it un-usable. Time Catches All. So now I have to go out and buy a new computer that can run the updated OS, so I can install the new version of Electrum, so I can access my bitcoin.
Do you have any other ideas? Has anyone else experienced anything like this?