This Is Bitcoin

Bitcoin news without the sensationalism and engagement farming.

[Snowman @Snowman_BTC]

When film? "The Great Miner"
Congrats 👏🥳
#bitcoin #solomining #hodl

[Tui @tuicheq]

LFG🔥

[Raptor Mining @MiningRaptor]

Best story ever! 🙌🏻❤️

[Metered Mining @themeterbox]

Living every miner’s dream.

This is exactly why we do what we do.

Grateful for the community. Grateful for the builders. Grateful for the technology that’s pushing this industry forward.

We’re just getting started. Onward and upward. 🚀

[Braiins Forge @Braiinsforge]

Sidney is a legend.

He mined a solo block on April 29th with a S19J XP running Braiins OS and pointed at Braiins Solo pool.

The next could be you.

Never give up 💪🏻

[Tomas Greif @TomasGreif]

One day they'll make movies about the people who found a bitcoin block.

Or at least a Simpsons episode.

[Eli Nagar @EliNagar]

Stories like this are why people solo mine.

The odds are brutal, but the feeling is unforgettable.

Congrats Sidney 👏

[Braiins @Braiins]

Wednesday April 29th was a day Sidney Laurvik will never forget. 

He didn’t go to the office that day.

His daughter was home sick, so he stayed home with her.

Between constant travel and running Metered Mining, a hosted bitcoin mining company, he’d barely had a moment to breathe. 

A slow daddy-daughter day was exactly what he needed.

They grabbed lunch and caught a movie.

Sidney wanted to be fully present, so he never once checked his phone.

A real tech detox.

On the drive home, they had to stop at a train crossing. While they waited for it to pass, he pulled out his phone to catch up on the day. 

He opened X.

And that’s when he saw it. 

Two bitcoin blocks had been found by solo miners that day. One of them on Braiins Solo pool.

No way.

He opened the post and started reading the replies. Someone mentioned the block had been found by a miner running 7 PH/s.

Sidney froze.

He had 7 PH/s pointed at Braiins Solo. Like every solo miner does when a block hits, he went straight to his wallet.

And there it was.

🟧 3.11 BTC.

He'd found block # 947,128.

It hit him all at once. He pounded the roof of his truck. 

His daughter asked what’s going, and he told her: he'd done it.

He’d finally achieved every miner’s dream. He mined a solo block.

For a moment, the win was just theirs. 

Then came the question. 

Do you keep something like this private, and celebrate with your wife and daughter? Or share it, and celebrate with the whole bitcoin mining community?

He figured going public would push more people to try. Proof that a real person, with a face and a name, can solo mine a block.

That evening, Sidney shared the big news on X.

The winning machine: an S19J XP running Braiins OS, pointed at Braiins Solo pool. One of his own fleet, running at Metered Mining since the start of 2026.

Here’s all stats for all you mining nerds out there:
• Block # 947,128
• Started in early 2026 with a couple of machines
• 2–3 months running at full hashrate
• 7 PH/s pointed at Braiins Solo
• Fee: 0.5% (CKPool open-source contribution)
• ~3.11 BTC block reward after fees
• A little over $12,000 in 2026 electrical costs up to that point

Solo mining is a long shot.

But somebody finds every block.

This time, it was Sidney Laurvik.

Next time, it could be you.

Congratulations Sidney!
Your trophy is on its way.

[Kristian Csepcsar @KristianCsep]

Does anyone actually use bitcoin in El Zonte?

I went on a mission to El Salvador's Bitcoin Beach to ask tourists, locals, and merchants if they use bitcoin.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

So SpaceX wants to build data centers in orbit because Earth supposedly can't meet AI's power demands.

I think that's the wrong framing entirely.

We're not running out of power.

We have enormous amounts of stranded energy around the world that nobody can use because the grid infrastructure isn't there.

And this is exactly where Bitcoin mining comes in. You use mining to monetize those stranded sources today, which funds the infrastructure development needed to eventually co-locate AI workloads at those same sites. Mining is the economic bridge that makes it all viable.

That combined with accelerating safe nuclear development, like SMRs that can deliver highly concentrated power wherever you need it and removing regulatory hurdles and you have more than enough capacity on Earth. Not even taking potentially fusion into account.

Oh, and let's not forget latency and interference. Space-based data centers currently have worse latency than building in a remote location and running fiber to it.

Elon is just trying to talk his book.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

It's official: bitcoin just had its biggest downward difficulty adjustment since the China mining ban in 2021.

This has helped make up for the loss in $ revenue that miners will be experiencing from the recent price dump.

Hashprice is currently $35/Ph/day from an all-time low of $27/Ph/day just a few days ago.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

Unpopular opinion: you have to be braindead to use WhatsApp in 2026.

I remember in Summer 2023 at the Miami Mining Disrupt Conference, how I activated microphone permissions for WhatsApp to send a voice message to a CEO of PubCo miner in USA.

I forgot to turn that permission off right after.

What happened next?

I was suffering of knee issues at that time from playing padel and I mentioned this to the person I was visiting the conference with.

That same afternoon I was getting ads for knee bandages on Instagram.

I didn't type about it on WhatsApp. I didn't search for the topic.

I literally talked about it with someone for 5min while my phone had active mic permissions for WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is a spy app. I don't know how the mic can listen to you when the phone is blocked and put together a targeted ad profile, but I am sure this was the only difference to my previous status.

Seeing the track record of Meta during COVID, I definitely don't want anyone who would act the way they did to listen to my private conversations and put together a targeted ad profile on me.

I hope this post helps you guys start using alternatives like Signal or Telegram.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

Bad news: bitcoin hashprice hit an all-time low of $27.2/PH/day.

Good news: there's a 13% difficulty decrease coming in ~200 blocks.

The bitcoin difficulty adjustment is the most elegant self-regulating mechanism in any network, ever.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

Bitcoin is 300 blocks away from a -13.37% difficulty adjustment.

The biggest decrease in difficulty since the China mining ban.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

https://t.co/Yl3rim2eWr

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

How it started vs how it's going:

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

A while back @chamath suggested hyperscalers should pay some of local communities' electricity costs so they can build data centers nearby.

Now Microsoft is doing exactly that, vowing to pay higher rates to "shield locals" from AI data center costs.

But is this just a cheap PR stunt?

Well, sort of.

Electric companies aren't dumb. They're already charging Microsoft prices that cover generation and infrastructure.

But the economics have flipped. Historically, big industrial customers created economies of scale that lowered rates for everyone.

Today, grid capacity is so tight that new data centers require expensive new infrastructure. If those high marginal costs get rolled into the base rate, grandma's bill goes up to subsidize GPT-5.

This danger exists in two places:

The Southeast, where vertically integrated utilities have no market check. They build massive capacity and roll it straight into the rate base.

Regulated states in MISO. While MISO has efficient nodal pricing, state regulators often blend those costs at the retail level, masking the true price signal from locals until it's too late.

Microsoft knows the political winds are shifting. Communities are pushing back. This is smart positioning to get ahead of the backlash.

It's good politics. But let's not pretend it's charity.

[Daniel Sempere Pico @dansemperepico]

Bitcoin is up 2,653% in Iranian Rials because the currency is collapsing.

Iranians who held bitcoin preserved their wealth.

Iranians who trusted their currency lost 96%.

Everyone deserves money their government can't destroy.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

Bitcoin mining difficulty just adjusted down by 1.2%.

That's five negative adjustments out of the last seven.

Some relief for miners after the Q4 price slump.

[Javier Hermosa @JavierHermosa21]

The capture and extradition to the US of Nicolas Maduro is great news for Venezuelans everywhere.

A communist dictator who destroyed one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America is finally facing justice. I'm genuinely happy for every Venezuelan who had to leave their home because of Chavez and Maduro.

Bitcoin served as an inflation hedge for Venezuelans as their currency became increasingly worthless over time. For them, bitcoin was about the ability to save wealth and value, the real inflation hedge, away from the hands of the State.

Venezuela is actually primed to become a bitcoin hub once freedom returns. They have abundant energy resources. And more importantly, they have a population that understands inflation and the damage it causes at a visceral level.

Sometimes the countries that suffered most from broken money become the strongest advocates for sound money.