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I de-Googled my life with these 4 free privacy tools, and I'm not looking back

Google offers some very convenient and highly advanced softwareβ€”there's no doubt about thatβ€”but it comes at the cost of pervasive user tracking. Not everyone is comfortable with that, and some of those who have yet to ditch Google surely have a nagging sense of unease, knowing their private lives are logged, monitored, tracked, and profiled. You can do something about it, and learning about great alternatives is a start.

Smarter Web Company Sells Bitcoin to Clear $11.7 Million Debt Facility

Bitcoin Magazine

Smarter Web Company Sells Bitcoin to Clear $11.7 Million Debt Facility

The Smarter Web Company has sold a portion of its Bitcoin treasury to repay an $11.7 million convertible debt facility held by TOBAM, a move the company frames as a choice for balance-sheet flexibility over equity dilution.

The company sold 177.8909127 BTC at an average price of $65,762 to retire the instrument, known as the β€œSmarter Convert,” ahead of schedule. The transaction totaled $11,698,540 and was settled roughly two weeks early. After the sale, Smarter Web still holds 2,700 BTC in treasury.

Smarter Web’s financing decisionsΒ 

On its face, a Bitcoin treasury company selling part of its holdings can read as a signal of weakening conviction. But the transaction is a debt-management decision.

Smarter Web was not exiting its Bitcoin position. It used BTC to extinguish a debt obligation and avoid issuing 7,718,551 ordinary shares, an outcome that would have diluted existing shareholders had the convertible converted into equity instead.

Bitcoin treasury companies typically generate headlines in one direction: a purchase, a rise in total holdings, a deeper commitment to Bitcoin as a balance-sheet asset. Investors respond according to their view of corporate crypto exposure, but the pattern is usually additive.

Smarter Web sold Bitcoin to settle a specific financing instrument, the company said. That is different from a sale driven by lost confidence in the asset, and different again from a forced sale tied to a liquidity shortfall.

The company faced a capital-structure choice. It could leave the convertible in place and risk dilution from a future conversion into shares, or it could draw down part of its Bitcoin position to repay the debt directly. Management chose the second path, prioritizing a cleaner balance sheet over preserving the full Bitcoin position.

For shareholders, the logic may be more legible than the alternative. A new issuance of millions of ordinary shares carries a direct and immediate dilutive effect on per-share value.Β 

A reduction in Bitcoin holdings, by contrast, leaves the company’s per-share equity structure untouched while removing a fixed liability from the balance sheet.

Smarter Web’s remaining 2,700 BTC treasury indicates the company has not abandoned its Bitcoin strategy. The sale addressed one financing obligation, not the broader thesis behind the holdings.

This post Smarter Web Company Sells Bitcoin to Clear $11.7 Million Debt Facility first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Passkeys were supposed to replace passwords, but they're failing for the most predictable reason

Passwords are a problem. Not only have they reached a point where a "strong" password is one no human can remember (much less remember dozens of them), but they simply aren't as secure as they need to be. Passkeys combine a public and private cryptographic key pair with local authentication such as a fingerprint or facial scan. The device can prove its identity beyond doubt, and the assumption is that only you can unlock it.

I ditched complicated apps for a low-tech productivity systemβ€”and I'm not going back

There are hundreds of productivity apps out there, and I think that's part of the problem. A productivity app is just a systemβ€”a means to an end, not the end itself. If any of these apps actually delivered, we wouldn't need hundreds of them. The sheer number suggests something fundamental is missing, which is why people keep hopping between them, hoping the next one will finally be the answer. I was one of those people, and I'm happy to say I've finally figured it outβ€”and it has nothing to do with apps or any digital product at all.

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