WEDNESDAY, FEB04
1. Tennessee Bill 1695, 2. BitLicense hinders innovation, 3. Write a BIP!, 4. Notepad++ hijacked
Supported by Proto and Bitkey - a part of the Bitcoin ecosystem at Block, Inc.
1. act
Tennessee lawmakers are moving forward with House Bill 1695, the Tennessee Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, sponsored by Republican Representative Jody Barrett of Dickson. The bill permits the state treasurer to invest up to 10% of select public funds, including the general fund and revenue fluctuation reserve, in bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. Purchases are restricted to 5% per fiscal year for measured accumulation, with no forced sales even if prices climb. Investments are confined to bitcoin. Security features demand multi-signature protocols, offline encrypted hardware custody at multiple sites, yearly third-party audits, penetration testing, and disaster recovery. Every two years, the treasurer must release public reports detailing holdings, costs, values, and blockchain-verifiable proofs. The legislation also allows optional bitcoin payments for taxes and fees, converted immediately to dollars. Barrett framed the effort as “responsible stewardship of public finances,” comparing bitcoin to gold as an inflation hedge. The proposal signals steady state-level acceptance of bitcoin’s ability to strengthen state level fiscal autonomy and guard against federal currency erosion.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X2. hinders
New York’s BitLicense requirement continues to hinder Bitcoin-related businesses operating in the state, demanding years of bureaucratic navigation and millions in legal and compliance expenses for approval. In Frank Corva's Newsletter, he highlights how this regime stifles startups in a jurisdiction that positions itself as a global finance hub, instead promoting cronyism over open markets. Corva recently interviewed Khurram Dara, an industry lawyer and Republican candidate seeking the nomination for New York Attorney General in 2026 to challenge incumbent Letitia James. Dara pledges to eliminate the BitLicense, viewing it as unlawful and burdensome, while also aiming to reduce red tape for small businesses, halt costly lawfare, and questions federal measures like the Bank Secrecy Act. "The BitLicense is punitive, nonsensical, and anti-competition," Dara stated in their discussion. This push aligns with broader efforts to restore individual financial freedoms and attract innovation back to New York, countering population outflows driven by high costs and operational restrictions.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X3. write
Ava Chow, Bitcoin Core maintainer and Blockstream engineer with 18 authored BIPs, second only to Pieter Wuille's 27, urged developers to contribute Bitcoin Improvement Proposals in her talk at the bitcoin++ sovereignty edition in Taipei. BIPs, modeled after IETF RFCs and Python enhancement proposals, fall into specification (implementable standards like PSBTs, descriptors, payjoin, and consensus rules), informational (terminology, rare postmortems), and process categories (BIP 2, soon updated by BIP 3). Chow emphasized that specification BIPs ensure compatibility across software for peer-to-peer messaging, wallet features, and network protocols. She highlighted major undocumented protocols still in wide use: Electrum, signed messages, original P2P messages, and Stratum. Chow advised reading BIP 2 (and BIP 3), implementing first, writing detailed yet concise text verifiable standalone, adding reference code and test vectors, limiting motivation and rationale, and seeking mailing-list feedback. She warned against untested or LLM-generated proposals, noting many BIPs are withdrawn or rejected. "Bitcoin needs you to write a BIP," Chow concluded.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X4. hijacked
Notepad++ maintainer Don Ho has disclosed that a months-long supply-chain attack, beginning in June 2025, compromised the software's update mechanism through an infrastructure breach at its former shared hosting provider. Attackers intercepted and selectively redirected traffic to notepad-plus-plus.org/update/getDownloadUrl.php, serving malicious update manifests to targeted users and exploiting weaker verification in older versions. The hosting provider's investigation revealed server compromise for multiple months, after kernel and firmware updates revoked direct access, though stolen internal service credentials enabled continued redirection until December 2, 2025. No other hosted clients were affected, and remediation, including credential rotation and vulnerability fixes, halted further activity. Multiple independent researchers attribute the selective targeting to a likely Chinese state-sponsored group. In response, the project migrated to a more secure hosting provider, and Notepad++ strengthened its updater (WinGup) in v8.8.9 to verify installer certificates and signatures, with XML signing and enforcement planned for v8.9.2. "According to the former hosting provider, the shared hosting server was compromised until September 2, 2025," Ho clarified.
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