@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

What is KYC/AML?

• The acronym stands for Know Your Customer / Anti Money Laundering.
• In practice it stands for the surveillance measures companies are often compelled to take against their customers by financial regulators.
• Methods differ but often include: Passport Scans, Driver License Uploads, Social Security Numbers, Home Address, Phone Number, Face Scans.
• Bitcoin companies will also store all withdrawal and deposit addresses which can then be used to track bitcoin transactions on the bitcoin block chain.
• This data is then stored and shared. Regulations often require companies to hold this information for a set number of years but in practice users should assume this data will be held indefinitely. Data is often stored insecurely, which results in frequent hacks and leaks.  
• KYC/AML data collection puts all honest users at risk of theft, extortion, and persecution while being ineffective at stopping crime. Criminals often use counterfeit, bought, or stolen credentials to get around the requirements. Criminals can buy "verified" accounts for as little as $200. Furthermore, billions of people are excluded from financial services as a result of KYC/AML requirements.

During the early days of bitcoin most services did not require this sensitive user data, but as adoption increased so did the surveillance measures. At this point, most large bitcoin companies are collecting and storing massive lists of bitcoiners, our sensitive personal information, and our transaction history.

Lists of Bitcoiners

KYC/AML policies are a direct attack on bitcoiners. Lists of bitcoiners and our transaction history will inevitably be used against us.

Once you are on a list with your bitcoin transaction history that record will always exist. Generally speaking, tracking bitcoin is based on probability analysis of ownership change. Surveillance firms use various heuristics to determine if you are sending bitcoin to yourself or if ownership is actually changing hands.  You can obtain better privacy going forward by using collaborative transactions such as coinjoin to break this probability analysis.

Fortunately, you can buy bitcoin without providing intimate personal information. Tools such as peach, hodlhodl, robosats, azteco and bisq help; mining is also a solid option: anyone can plug a miner into power and internet and earn bitcoin by mining privately.

You can also earn bitcoin by providing goods and/or services that can be purchased with bitcoin. Long term, circular economies will mitigate this threat: most people will not buy bitcoin - they will earn bitcoin - most people will not sell bitcoin - they will spend bitcoin.

There is no such thing as KYC or No KYC bitcoin, there are bitcoiners on lists and those that are not on lists.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

I often hear "bitcoin doesn't interest me, I'm not a finance person."

Ironically, the beauty of sound money is you don't have to be. In the current system you're expected to manage a diversified investment portfolio or pay someone to do it. Bitcoin will make that optional.

— ODELL (@ODELL) September 16, 2018

At first glance bitcoin often appears overwhelming to newcomers. It is incredibly easy to get bogged down in the details of how it works or different ways to use it. Enthusiasts, such as myself, often enjoy going down the deep rabbit hole of the potential of bitcoin, possible pitfalls and theoretical scenarios, power user techniques, and the developer ecosystem. If your first touch point with bitcoin is that type of content then it is only natural to be overwhelmed. While it is important that we have a thriving community of bitcoiners dedicated to these complicated tasks - the true beauty of bitcoin lies in its simplicity. Bitcoin is simply better money. It is the best money we have ever had.

Life is complicated. Life is hard. Life is full of responsibility and surprises. Bitcoin allows us to focus on our lives while relying on a money that is simple. A money that is not controlled by any individual, company, or government. A money that cannot be easily seized or blocked. A money that cannot be devalued at will by a handful of corrupt bureaucrat who live hundreds of miles from us. A money that can be easily saved and should increase in purchasing power over time without having to learn how to "build a diversified stock portfolio" or hire someone to do it for us.

Bitcoin enables all of us to focus on our lives - our friends and family - doing what we love with the short time we have on this earth. Time is scarce. Life is complicated. Bitcoin is the most simple aspect of our complicated lives. If we spend our scarce time working then we should be able to easily save that accrued value for future generations without watching the news or understanding complicated financial markets. Bitcoin makes this possible for anyone.

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Raising a human is complicated. It is hard, it requires immense personal responsibility, it requires critical thinking, but mothers figure it out, because it is worth it. Using and saving bitcoin is simple -  simply install an app on your phone. Every mother can do it. Every person can do it.

Life is complicated. Life is beautiful. Bitcoin is simple.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Headlines

• Twenty One Capital is set to launch with over 42,000 BTC in its treasury. This new Bitcoin-native firm, backed by Tether and SoftBank, is planned to go public via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will be led by Jack Mallers, co-founder and CEO of Strike. According to a report by the Financial Times, the company aims to replicate the model of Michael Saylor with his company, MicroStrategy.
• Florida's SB 868 proposes a backdoor into encrypted platforms. The bill and its House companion have both passed through their respective committees and are headed to a full vote. If enacted, SB 868 would require social media companies to decrypt teens' private messages, ban disappearing messages, allow unrestricted parental access to private messages, and likely eliminate encryption for all minors altogether.
• Paul Atkins has officially assumed the role of the 34th Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a return to the agency for Atkins, who previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. He has committed to advancing the SEC’s mission of fostering capital formation, safeguarding investors, and ensuring fair and efficient markets.
• Solosatoshi.com has sold over 10,000 open-source miners, adding more than 10 PH of hashpower to the Bitcoin network.

"Thank you, Bitaxe community. OSMU developers, your brilliance built this. Supporters, your belief drives us. Customers, your trust powers 10,000+ miners and 10PH globally. Together, we’re decentralizing Bitcoin’s future. Last but certainly not least, thank you@skot9000 for not only creating a freedom tool, but instilling the idea into thousands of people, that Bitcoin mining can be for everyone again," said the firm on X.

• OCEAN's DATUM has found 100 blocks. "Over 65% of OCEAN’s miners are using DATUM, and that number is growing every day. This means block template construction is making its way back into the hands of the miners, which is not only the most profitable for miners on OCEAN but also one of the best things for Bitcoin," stated the mining pool.

Source: orangesurf

• Arch Labs has secured $13 million to develop "ArchVM" and integrate smart-contract functionality with Bitcoin. The funding round, valuing the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, as announced on Tuesday.
• Tesla still holds nearly $1 billion in bitcoin. According to the automaker's latest earnings report, the firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31.
• The European Central Bank is pushing for amendments to the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets legislation (MiCA), just months after its implementation. According to Politico's report on Tuesday, the ECB is concerned that U.S. support for cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, could cause economic harm to the 27-nation bloc.
• TABConf 2025 is scheduled to take place from October 13-16, 2025. This prominent technical Bitcoin conference is dedicated to community building, education, and developer support, and it is set to return in October. Get your tickets here.
• Kaduna Lightning Development Bootcamp. From May 14th to 17th, the Bitcoin Lightning Developer Bootcamp will take place in Kaduna, Nigeria. Thisevent offers four dynamic days of coding, learning, and networking. Organized by Africa Free Routing and supported by Btrust, Tether, and African Bitcoiners, this bootcamp is designed as a gateway for African developers eager to advance their skills in Bitcoin and Lightning development. Apply here.

Source: African Bitcoiners.

Use the tools

• Core Lightning (CLN) v25.02.2 as been released to fix a broken Docker image. The issue was caused by an SQLite version that did not support an advanced query.
• Blitz wallet v0.4.4-beta introduces several updates and improvements, including the prevention of duplicate ecash payments, fixes for background ecash invoice handling, the ability for users to send payments to BOLT12 invoices from their Liquid balance, support for Blink QR codes, a lowered minimum amount for Lightning-to-Liquid payments to 100 sats, the option to initiate a node sync via a swipe gesture on the wallet's home screen, and the introduction of opt-in or opt-out functionality for newly implemented crash analytics via settings.
• Utreexo v0.5.0, a hash-based dynamic accumulator, is now available.
• Specter v2.1.1 is now available on StartOS. "This update brings compatibility with Bitcoin Core v28 and incorporates several upstream improvements," said developer Alex71btc.
• ESP-Miner (AxeOS) v2.7.0b1 is now available for testing.
• NodeGuard v0.16.1, a treasury management solution for Lightning nodes, has been released.
• The latest stacker.news updates include prompts to add a receiving wallet when posting or making comments (for new users), an option to randomize poll choices, improved URL search, and a few other enhancements. A bug fix for territories created after 9/19/24 has been implemented to reward 70% of their revenue to owners instead of 50%.

Other stuff

• The April edition of the 256 Foundation's newsletter is now available. It includes the latest mining news, Bitcoin network health updates, project developments, and a tutorial on how to update FutureBit's Apollo 1 to the Apollo 2 software.
• Siggy47 has posted a comprehensive RoboSats guide on stacker.news.
• Learn how to run your own Nostr relay using Citrine and Cloudflare Tunnels by following this step-by-step guide by Dhalism.
• Max Guise has written a Bitkey roadmap update for April 2025.

• PlebLab has uploaded a video on how to build a Rust wallet with LDK Node by Ben Carman.

• Do you want more? Subscribe and get No Bullshit GM report straight to your mailbox and No Bullshit Bitcoin on Nostr.

• Feedback or tips? Drop it here.
• #FREESAMOURAI

Sign up for No Bullshit Bitcoin

No Bullshit Bitcoin Is a Bitcoin News Desk Without Ads, Paywalls, or Clickbait.

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@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

• This version introduces the Soroban P2P network, enabling Dojo to relay transactions to the Bitcoin network and share others' transactions to break the heuristic linking relaying nodes to transaction creators.

• Additionally, Dojo admins can now manage API keys in DMT with labels, status, and expiration, ideal for community Dojo providers like Dojobay. New API endpoints, including "/services" exposing Explorer, Soroban, and Indexer, have been added to aid wallet developers.
• Other maintenance updates include Bitcoin Core, Tor, Fulcrum, Node.js, plus an updated ban-knots script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.

"I want to thank all the contributors. This again shows the power of true Free Software. I also want to thank everyone who donated to help Dojo development going. I truly appreciate it," said Still Dojo Coder.

What's new

• Soroban P2P network. For MyDojo (Docker setup) users, Soroban will be automatically installed as part of their Dojo. This integration allows Dojo to utilize the Soroban P2P network for various upcoming features and applications.
• PandoTx. PandoTx serves as a transaction transport layer. When your wallet sends a transaction to Dojo, it is relayed to a random Soroban node, which then forwards it to the Bitcoin network. It also enables your Soroban node to receive and relay transactions from others to the Bitcoin network and is designed to disrupt the assumption that a node relaying a transaction is closely linked to the person who initiated it.
  • Pushing transactions through Soroban can be deactivated by setting NODE_PANDOTX_PUSH=off in docker-node.conf.
  • Processing incoming transactions from Soroban network can be deactivated by setting NODE_PANDOTX_PROCESS=off in docker-node.conf.
• API key management has been introduced to address the growing number of people offering their Dojos to the community. Dojo admins can now access a new API management tab in their DMT, where they can create unlimited API keys, assign labels for easy identification, and set expiration dates for each key. This allows admins to avoid sharing their main API key and instead distribute specific keys to selected parties.
• New API endpoints. Several new API endpoints have been added to help API consumers develop features on Dojo more efficiently:
  • New:
    • /latest-block - returns data about latest block
    • /txout/:txid/:index - returns unspent output data
    • /support/services - returns info about services that Dojo exposes
  • Updated:
    • /tx/:txid - endpoint has been updated to return raw transaction with parameter ?rawHex=1
  • The new /support/services endpoint replaces the deprecated explorer field in the Dojo pairing payload. Although still present, API consumers should use this endpoint for explorer and other pairing data.

Other changes

• Updated ban script to disconnect inbound Knots nodes.
• Updated Fulcrum to v1.12.0.
• Regenerate Fulcrum certificate if expired.
• Check if transaction already exists in pushTx.
• Bump BTC-RPC Explorer.
• Bump Tor to v0.4.8.16, bump Snowflake.
• Updated Bitcoin Core to v29.0.
• Removed unnecessary middleware.
• Fixed DB update mechanism, added api_keys table.
• Add an option to use blocksdir config for bitcoin blocks directory.
• Removed deprecated configuration.
• Updated Node.js dependencies.
• Reconfigured container dependencies.
• Fix Snowflake git URL.
• Fix log path for testnet4.
• Use prebuilt addrindexrs binaries.
• Add instructions to migrate blockchain/fulcrum.
• Added pull policies.

#FREESAMOURAI

Learn how to set up and use your own Bitcoin privacy node with Dojo here.

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Marty's Bent

Sorry for the lack of writing over the last week. As many of you may already know, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Bitcoin 2025 conference. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I had successfully avoided Sin City for the first 34 years of my life. But when duty calls, you have to make some personal concessions.

Despite what many say about this particular conference and the spectacle that it has become, I will say that having attended every single one of Bitcoin Magazine's conferences since 2019, I thoroughly enjoy these events, even if I don't agree with all the content. Being able to congregate with others in the industry who have been working extremely hard to push Bitcoin forward, all of whom I view as kindred spirits who have also dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. There's nothing better than getting together, seeing each other in person, shaking hands, giving hugs, catching up and reflecting on how much things have changed over the years while also focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead.

I think out of all the Bitcoin magazine conferences I've been to, this was certainly my favorite. If only because it has become abundantly clear that Bitcoin is here to stay. Many powerful, influential, and competent people have identified Bitcoin as an asset and monetary network that will play a large part in human society moving forward. And more importantly, Bitcoin is proving to work far better than anybody not paying attention expected. While at the same time, the fiat system is in woeful disrepair at the same time.

As a matter of reflection and surfacing signal for you freaks, here are the presentations and things that happened that I think were the most impactful.

Miles Suter's Block Presentation

This presentation was awesome for many reasons, one of which being that we often forget just how dedicated Block, as an organization with many companies - including Cash App, Square, the open source organization known as Spiral and more recently, BitKey and Proto - has been to bitcoin over the last eight years. They've worked methodically to make Bitcoin a first-class citizen in their business operations and slowly but surely have built an incredibly integrated experience across their brands. The two big announcements from Block during the conference were the enablement of Bitcoin payments in Square point-of-sale systems and the amount of revenue they're making on their Lightning node, c=, from routing payments.

Right now, the Bitcoin payments and point of sale systems is in beta with many merchants testing it out for the next six months, but it will be available for all 4 million square merchants in 2026. This is something that many bitcoiners have been waiting for for many years now, and it is incredible to see that they finally brought it across the line. Merchants will have the ability to accept bitcoin payments and either convert every payment into fiat automatically, convert a portion of the bitcoin payment into fiat to keep the rest in sats, or simply keep all of the bitcoin they receive via payments in sats. This is an incredible addition to what Square has already built, which is the ability of their merchants to sweep a portion of their revenues into bitcoin if they desire. Square is focused on building a vertically integrated suite of bitcoin products for merchants that includes the ability to buy bitcoin, receive bitcoin, and eventually leverage financial services using bitcoin as collateral so that they can reinvest in and expand their businesses.

via Ryan Gentry

What went a bit underappreciated in the crowd was the routing node revenue that c= is producing, ~9.7% annualized. This is a massive validation of something that many bitcoiners have been talking about for quite some time, which is the ability to produce "yield" on bitcoin in a way that reduces risk significantly. Locking up bitcoin in a 2-of-2 multisig within Lightning channels and operating a Lightning routing node has been long talked about as one of the ways to produce more bitcoin with your bitcoin in a way that minimizes the threat of loss.

It seems that c= has found a way to do this at scale and is doing it successfully. 10% yield on bitcoin locked in Lightning channels is nothing to joke about. And as you can see from the chart above in the grainy picture taken by Ryan Gentry of Lightning Labs, this routing node "yield" is producing more return on capital than many of the most popular staking and DeFi protocols.

This is a strong signal to the rest of the market that this can be done. It may take economies of scale and a high degree of technical competency today. But this is incredibly promising for the future of earning bitcoin by providing valuable goods and services to the market of Bitcoiners. In this case, facilitating relatively cheap and instantly settled payments over the Lightning Network.

Saifedean Ammous' Bitcoin and Tether Presentation

This was one of the best presentations at the conference. Saifedean Ammous is a friend, he has been an incredible influence on my personal bitcoin journey, and I feel comfortable in saying he's been a strong influence on the journey of hundreds of thousands, at least, if not millions of people as they've attempted to understand bitcoin.

This presentation is a bit spicy because it puts a pin in the balloon of hopium that stablecoins like Tether are mechanisms that could bail out the market for US Treasuries in the medium to long-term if they take enough market share. As one always should do, Saif ran the numbers and clearly illustrates that even in the most optimistic case, Tether's impact on the market for treasuries, their interest rates, and curbing the growth of the debt held by the US federal government will be minimal at best.

One of the most interesting things that Saif points out that I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't recognize before is that much of the demand for Tether that we're seeing these days is replacement demand for treasuries. Meaning that many people who are turning to Tether, particularly in countries that have experienced hyperinflationary events, are using Tether as a substitute for their currencies, which are operated by central banks likely buying U.S. treasuries to support their monetary systems. The net effect of Tether buying those treasuries is zero for this particular user archetype.

Saif goes on to explain that if anything, Tether is a weapon against the US Treasury system when you consider that they're storing a large portion of the stablecoin backing in Treasuries and then using the yields produced by those Treasuries to buy bitcoin. Slowly but surely over time bitcoin as a percentage of their overall backing of Tether has grown quite significantly starting at 0% and approaching 10% today. It isn't hard to imagine that at some point within the next decade, Bitcoin could be the dominant reserve asset backing tethers and, as a result, Tether could be pegged to bitcoin eventually.

It's a fascinating take on Tether that I've never heard before.

Nothing Stops this Train from Lyn Alden

Lyn's been saying it loudly for quite some time now; "Nothing stops this train." She's even been on our podcast to explain why she believes this many times over the last five years. However, I don't think there is one piece of content out there that consolidates her thesis of why nothing stops the train of fiscal irresponsibility and unfettered debt expansion and why that's good for bitcoin than the presentation she gave at the conference. Definitely give this one a watch when you get a chance if you haven't already.

Overall, it was a great week in Vegas and I think it's safe to say that bitcoin has gone mainstream. Whether or not people who have been in the bitcoin industry and community for a while are okay with does not really matter. It's happening and all we can do is ride the wave as more and more people come to recognize the value prop of bitcoin and the social clout they can gain from supporting it. Our job here at TFTC is to help you discern the signal from the noise, continue to champion the self-sovereign usage of bitcoin and keep you abreast of developments in the space as they manifest.

Buckle up. Things are only going to get weirder from here on out.

Bitcoin's Mathematical Destiny

Sean Bill and Adam Back make a compelling case for Bitcoin's inevitable march toward $1 million. Sean points out that Bitcoin represents just a tiny fraction—2 trillion out of 900 trillion—of total financial assets, calling it a "tiny orange dot" on their presentation to Texas pensions. He emphasizes that reaching parity with gold alone would deliver a 10x return from current levels. Adam highlights the mathematical impossibility of current prices, noting that ETF buyers are absorbing 500,000 BTC annually while only 165,000 new coins are mined.

"Who's selling at these prices? It doesn't quite add up to me." - Adam Back

The institutional wave is just beginning. Sean revealed that while 50% of hedge fund managers personally own Bitcoin, only 3% have allocated institutional funds. Combined with emerging demand from nation states and corporate treasuries meeting Bitcoin's fixed supply, the price trajectory seems clear. Both guests stressed the importance of staying invested—missing just the 12 best performing days each year would turn Bitcoin into a losing investment.

Check out the full podcast here for more on pensions allocating to Bitcoin, cypherpunk banking, and commodity trading insight

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Over 40 experts from the Bitcoin technical community sign a petition for the adoption of CTV and CSFS opcodes within six months.

A portion of the Bitcoin developer community appears to have reached consensus regarding the next protocol upgrade. An open letter signed by over 40 experts requests the priority implementation of two opcodes: OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV, BIP-119) and OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (CSFS, BIP-348).

The developers believe that activating CTV and CSFS constitutes the most appropriate next step for Bitcoin’s evolution. The letter emphasizes how, despite the existence of various proposals to improve the protocol, CTV and CSFS stand out for being extensively reviewed, for their implementation simplicity, and for proving to be both secure and widely requested by the community.

CTV: five years of development and refinement

OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY was first formalized in BIP-119 over five years ago. Despite numerous attempts at refinement or replacement, it remains the preferred method for enforcing pre-generated transaction sequences using consensus, the developers state.

According to the letter’s signatories, implementing CTV on Bitcoin would unlock functionality for:

• scaling solutions;
• secure vault systems;
• network congestion control;
• non-custodial mining;
• Discreet Log Contracts (DLC).

CSFS: eight years of proven experience

The developers declare that OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK is a primitive opcode, implemented on the open source Blockstream Elements platform for at least eight years. It does not represent a significant computational burden compared to Bitcoin’s most used opcode, OP_CHECKSIG, the document’s signatories state.

When combined with CTV, CSFS enables LN-symmetry, an improvement for Lightning Network. Additionally, it unlocks a variety of other use cases.

The letter’s signatories ask Bitcoin Core contributors to prioritize the review and integration of CTV and CSFS within the next six months. This timeline is considered appropriate to allow for rigorous final review and activation planning.

The letter was signed by over 40 figures from the Bitcoin community, including developers such as Andrew Poelstra, Calle, Christian Decker, and Robin Linus, along with representatives from industry companies such as Chun Wang from f2pool, representatives from Zeus, Luxor Mining, Mara Pool, and Cake Wallet.

The post Bitcoin developers call for implementation of CTV and CSFS: letter to the community appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

While most Bitcoin companies chase quick wins with flashy marketing and complex trading features, Coinfinity is taking a different path. The Austria-based company has built their entire business model around something most brokers treat as an afterthought: education.

Founded on the principle that Bitcoin adoption requires understanding, not just access, Coinfinity offers something great in the Bitcoin space: a broker that actually wants you to take your bitcoin off their platform.

Their Bitcoin Blinks educational series provides a self-custody-first approach, and Austrian economics foundation make them stand out in a crowded field of crypto casinos.

Coinfinity’s HQ in Graz, Austria

At the heart of this educational mission is Fab, Coinfinity’s Head of Bitcoin Education, whose journey to Bitcoin mirrors that of many who’ve found their way to Austrian economics through pure instinct.

“I always had the feeling that something in the world just doesn’t add up,” he told Bitcoin News when he sat down with us. “Something’s wrong, I don’t know what, but I felt like the foundation of our society isn’t quite fair, I just never knew what it was.”

Sound familiar?

That hunch eventually led him down a rabbit hole of geopolitics, monetary systems, and finally to Andreas Antonopoulos videos on YouTube.

“I basically disappeared from life for about a week, just watching those videos,” Fab recalled. But it wasn’t until he read The Bitcoin Standard that everything clicked.

“I remember it like it was yesterday, I closed the book and thought ‘Holy s***, now I get it.’ That was the moment. From then on, I was Bitcoin-only.”

Many of the best Bitcoin books are in English and translating them is important

Now as Head of Bitcoin Education at Coinfinity and co-founder of Aprycot Media (a German publishing house focused exclusively on Bitcoin), Fab spends his days helping others find that same spark.

And unlike most “crypto” companies, Coinfinity’s strategy isn’t driven by marketing gimmicks or token launches, it’s driven by teaching.

“Our goal is to create educational content that’s so easy to understand that people love sharing it,” Fab explained. “When they share it, they connect with us. Once they start understanding Bitcoin, they choose us to buy it.”

Most companies buy Google ads. Coinfinity builds minds. With their Bitcoin Blinks, 42 short, clear lessons covering everything from subjective value to seed phrases, they’re offering what most brokers won’t: context. Meaning. Philosophy.

“It became quite popular, and we think it’s way more effective for our brand than just buying ads,” Fab said.

And they don’t stop there. When it comes to custody, Coinfinity takes a radically different approach than most Bitcoin brokers.

“When you buy bitcoin from us, you always take custody, either in our in-app wallet where you control the seed, or your own hardware wallet,” Fab emphasized. “Even our lightning feature works the same way you always buy into your own wallet.”

That’s not just a slogan. It’s a core value of the company that runs so deep they’re willing to sacrifice user experience for it. “We never custody your bitcoin,” Fab said. “It’s one of the core values that you custody them yourself.”

Even as fees rise and UTXO management gets harder, Coinfinity stays committed to self-custody. They are open to optional custodial tools in the future, but always paired with education, and always encouraging users to take their bitcoin off-platform when the time is right.

“If we ever offer custodial services, it would only be to help users stack small amounts until they reach a meaningful UTXO size,” Fab explained.

The plan would involve accumulating smaller purchases monthly or weekly until users hit a threshold, maybe a million sats, then withdrawing to self-custody. “We don’t want to play games with your bitcoin. We don’t want to lend it out or earn interest on it.”

Coinfinity emphasizes on self-custody and education, even in its app

The challenge is real though. When new users first encounter Bitcoin, the technical barriers can be overwhelming. “Often causes problems with people just getting into Bitcoin who don’t understand what self custody is” Fab notes.

That’s why they built their in-app wallet, to smooth the onboarding while maintaining their self-custody values. “The in-app wallet was our first step toward optimizing user experience without compromising our core value of bringing bitcoin into self-custody,” he said.

“One of our taglines is ‘bringing Bitcoin to the people’ and we literally mean that. We want to bring bitcoin to them, not keep it from them.”

Another promising thing the company is doing in their operations is using AI to create more content, faster. Podcast scripts, educational summaries, internal tools, Fab’s even feeding Austrian economics PDFs into models to keep the tone on-brand and Bitcoin-only.

“We’re using these tools in our business development and marketing teams to generate more output with the same number of people,” he said. But the future looks even more exciting.

“Maybe one day we’ll have a tutor in the app where you can do a video call and ask ‘What is a Bitcoin address?’ and it will talk back to you naturally, going deeper as you ask more questions,” Fab explained. “That’s absolutely possible.”

The technology isn’t quite there yet for mainstream deployment in their app, but Fab is optimistic. “I’m sure that in the future, this won’t just be used for improving our internal workflow, but for enhancing the content itself,” he said.

It’s not a pipe dream. The tech is already close. The only thing missing is more Bitcoin-native data and companies like Coinfinity are quietly building that layer.

One of the favorite parts of these interviews is asking the builders in the space what they would ask Satoshi if given one question. When I asked Fab what he’d ask Bitcoin’s creator, he didn’t hesitate:

“Did you purposely build Bitcoin based on Austrian economics, or did it just happen by accident?

“All this monetization theory, Bitcoin being a store of value first, is this something you actually thought was possible and had in mind? Or was it just a lucky shot that accidentally gave us the best monetary properties?”

Because if Satoshi had built Bitcoin with a 2% inflation rate, like some other projects, it might’ve worked. But it wouldn’t have lasted.

“He could have made it with 2% tail emission, it still would have been decentralized. But then today, someone might introduce a coin with a fixed supply that could kill Bitcoin,” Fab noted.

Fab suspects the fixed supply wasn’t an accident. And thank God for that.

What’s remarkable about Coinfinity isn’t just their Austrian approach or their self-custody obsession, it’s how they’re proving that education-first Bitcoin companies can compete with the flashy crypto casinos dominating the space.

Coinfinity doesn’t serve U.S. customers. They’re focused on Europe, operating within EU regulations. But what they’re building, honest Bitcoin education, smart tools, and a relentless push for financial sovereignty, matters everywhere.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The Trump’s American Bitcoin Merges with Gryphon, Reports 215 BTC on Balance Sheet Since Launch

American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC), a newly formed private Bitcoin mining company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., announced in a June 10 SEC filing that it has acquired 215 Bitcoin (BTC) since launching operations on April 1, 2025. The reserve is currently valued at approximately $23 million, showing their drive and commitment to Bitcoin. 

JUST IN: American Bitcoin Corp (private) reports to have 215 #bitcoin (per 31 May) since it's launch on April 1, 2025.

They will merge with Gryphon Digital $GRYP and become public under ticker $ABTC.

They mention "Bitcoin accumulation is not a side effect of ABTC’s business.… pic.twitter.com/wq1Uxr76Z2

— NLNico (@btcNLNico) June 10, 2025

“Bitcoin accumulation is not a side effect of ABTC’s business. It is the business,” the company stated in the filing.

Furthermore, ABTC has entered into a merger agreement with Gryphon Digital Mining ($GRYP), and the combined company is expected to begin public trading under the ticker $ABTC as early as Q3 2025. 

The company’s three-layer strategic plan—outlined in the SEC disclosure—details a focused approach:

Layer 1: Build the Engine

• ABTC’s foundation is built on “producing Bitcoin below-market cost through a capital efficient, infrastructure-light operating model.” The company owns and operates over 60,000 miners from Bitmain and MicroBt, running primarily on Hut 8-managed facilities.

Layer 2: Scale the Reserve

• ABTC had “accumulated approximately 215 Bitcoin in reserve since launching on April 1, 2025,” which it considers a long-term strategic asset. The firm states its goal is “to utilize public markets and strategic financing structures to access efficient capital and leverage that capital to increase its Bitcoin in reserve per share.”

Layer 3: Lead the Ecosystem 

• The company ultimately aims to use its operational scale and mining position to drive industry-wide adoption. “ABTC may pursue opportunities to support protocol development, enhance network infrastructure and contribute to Bitcoin’s resilience and adoption in ways that align with shareholder value creation.”

For mining rewards, ABTC uses Foundry and Luxor pools with sub-1% fees and relies on Coinbase Custody for secure cold storage, featuring multi-factor authentication and strict withdrawal protocols. 

With operations across Niagara Falls, NY; Medicine Hat, AB; and Orla, TX, ABTC is leveraging strategic partnerships—primarily with Hut 8—to scale its Bitcoin holdings while influencing the broader crypto mining ecosystem.

This post The Trump’s American Bitcoin Merges with Gryphon, Reports 215 BTC on Balance Sheet Since Launch first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Michael Saylor: The Bear Market Is Not Coming Back And Bitcoin Is Going To $1 Million

Today, the Executive Chairman and CEO of Strategy Michael Saylor commented on the company’s aggressive Bitcoin-based strategy in a recent interview at Bloomberg, emphasizing that Bitcoin is not going to zero, it is going to $1 million.

“I think we’re in a digital gold rush and you’ve got ten years to acquire all your bitcoin before there’s no bitcoin left for you,” Saylor said. “The competition is a virtuous competition.” 

JUST IN: Michael Saylor said the bear market is not coming back and Bitcoin is going to $1 million

pic.twitter.com/J4sn80LMzs

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 10, 2025

Saylor also said that Bitcoin is not going to have bear markets anymore and the price is going to $1 million per coin.

“Winter is not coming back,” commented Sayor. “We are past that phase. If Bitcoin is not going to zero, it is going to $1 million. The President of the United States is determined. He supports Bitcoin, the cabinet supports Bitcoin, Scott Bessent supports Bitcoin, Paul Atkins is shown himself to be an enthusiastic believer of Bitcoin and digital assets… Bitcoin has gotten through its riskiest period.”

He also pointed out that international firms are rapidly entering the space.

“Metaplanet is the hottest company in Japan right now, they went from $10 million to a $1 billion market cap to a $5 billion market cap. They’re going to raise billions of dollars. They’re going to pull the liquidity out of the Japanese market. So they’ll be raising capital in Tokyo and the Tokyo Stock Exchange… It’s not competitive. It’s cooperative.”

Strategy’s approach is far from traditional. The company is not just buying and holding Bitcoin; it is building financial instruments around it, which Saylor believes sets them apart.

“Our company has a very particular business model,” he stated. “It’s to issue Bitcoin-backed credit instruments like Bitcoin-backed bonds and especially Bitcoin-backed preferred stocks. We’re the only company in the world that’s ever been able to issue a preferred stock backed by Bitcoin. We’ve done three of them in the past five months.”

Rather than viewing Bitcoin treasury holdings or ETFs as competitors, Saylor explained that Strategy is targeting a different segment of the market entirely.

“We’re not competing against the Bitcoin treasury companies. We’re competing against ETFs like PFF that have portafolios of preferred stocks or corporate bond portfolios that are trading as ETFs in the public market, and the way we compete is we offer 400 basis points more yield on an instrument that is much more heavily collateralized and more transparent… That’s $100 trillion or more of capital in those markets,” explained Saylor.

He emphasized that Strategy’s Bitcoin balance sheet gives it a unique edge, giving the company the ability to design unique financial products.

“Our advantage is that we’re 100% Bitcoin… It’s impossible to issue Bitcoin-backed convertible preferred and Bitcoin-backed fixed preferred unless you’re willing to make 100% of your balance sheet Bitcoin.”

“I’m not really worried about competition from JPMorgan or Berkshire Hathaway,” concluded Saylor. “I would love for them to enter the Bitcoin space, buy up a bunch of Bitcoin. When they do it, they’ll be paying $1,000,000 a Bitcoin. The price will go to the moon.”

This post Michael Saylor: The Bear Market Is Not Coming Back And Bitcoin Is Going To $1 Million first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Evertz Pharma Becomes First German Company With Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, Adds 100 BTC to Treasury 

Evertz Pharma GmbH, a company focusing on premium natural cosmetics, has become Germany’s first company to adopt a strategic Bitcoin reserve model by purchasing an additional 100 BTC in May 2025—valued at approximately €10 million (~$10.8 million USD), according to a press release. 

The adoption marks a continued expansion of the company’s BTC treasury, which began in December 2020 with an initial €2 million Bitcoin purchase. Since then, Evertz Pharma has regularly allocated corporate profits toward Bitcoin, building a digital reserve aimed at long term stability. 

“Our mission is to promote natural beauty on a scientific foundation,” said Dominik Evertz, Managing Director of Evertz Pharma GmbH. “The same future-focused mindset shapes our financial strategy: Bitcoin, as a scarce and globally tradable asset, complements our reserves and strengthens the long-term resilience of our company.”

The company’s latest acquisition of 100 BTC distinguishes it from industry peers and traditional treasury strategies. Tobias Evertz, Group CFO stated, “We will continue to invest corporate profits in Bitcoin and are constantly evaluating additional ways to increase our holdings sustainably.” 

Unlike publicly traded Bitcoin adopters such as Strategy or Metaplanet, Evertz Pharma operates as a privately held German enterprise. 

“Bitcoin is not just an investment for us but a strategic asset that perfectly complements our vision of stability and future resilience. At the same time, we are aligning our financial strategy with the needs of a modern, sustainably operating company,” added Dominik Evertz. 

Everetz explains that Bitcoin is a store of value, a hedge against inflation, and a means to diversify reserves. It allows Evertz Pharma to preserve capital without the storage burdens that come with traditional assets like gold. The company’s treasury strategy shows their commitment to financial sustainability. 

This post Evertz Pharma Becomes First German Company With Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, Adds 100 BTC to Treasury  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

🌋 Ka ʻImi i ka Pono: Seeking What’s Right

A 7-Day Series on Sovereignty, Bitcoin, and the Soul of the Islands

> "Man is not free unless he wills to be free."\ > — Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Hawai‘i understands sovereignty. It always has.\ But it was taken — first with pen and politics, then with force and fiat.

Bitcoin offers something different:\ A way to reclaim sovereignty without violence.\ A tool for self-rule, not state rule.\ A system built not on empire, but on truth and time.

This week, I’ll be posting a 7-part series exploring this tension:\ Between the Hawai‘i that was, the system that is, and the future that might be — if we choose to build on bedrock instead of paper.

I don’t know if there’s a traditional Hawaiian word for a 7-day week — maybe there doesn’t need to be.\ Time moves differently on these islands.\ But for the next 7 days, I’ll mark each reflection as a kind of modern lā hoʻomanaʻo — a day of remembering, reckoning, and restoring.

This is personal. It’s philosophical. It’s also unfinished.

But that’s what sovereignty looks like:\ Not something given — something reclaimed.

Stay tuned. Stay akamai.\ 🟧\ — Andrew G. Stanton (aka akamaister)

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Paul Tudor Jones: Bitcoin, Gold, Stocks Are The Best Portfolio To Fight Inflation

The Co-Chairman and CIO of Tudor Investment Corp., Paul Tudor Jones, recently appeared in a Bloomberg interview where he outlined what he sees as the best portfolio to fight against inflation.

JUST IN: Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones said Bitcoin, gold, and stocks are the "best portfolio to fight inflation." pic.twitter.com/rgvVyacRtx

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 11, 2025

“What would an ideal portfolio be… What has worked so far has been some combinations of stocks, which won’t do great, which would do terribly if we ever actually had,” Jones said. “If they called us out and the bond market actually gave us an accident that then spilled over. But it would be some kind of combination of probably gold, vol adjusted, Bitcoin, gold, stocks. That’s probably your best portfolio to fight inflation. Vol adjusted because the vol of Bitcoin obviously is five times that of gold, so you’re going to do it in different ways.”

Jones highlighted the need to balance volatility, especially when combining assets like Bitcoin and gold. He suggested this kind of mix, adjusted for risk, gives investors the strongest defense against inflation’s impact.

When asked if he would allocate 1 or 2 percent of his portfolio to Bitcoin, Jones explained the bigger picture behind why he sees value in it.

“Particularly now, that the road map is clear… Again, if I am a policymaker,” stated Jones. “I’m going to run really low real rates. I am going to have inflation running hot and I am gonna tax the American Consumer to get out of my debt trap, and that’s exactly what Japan, who’s the most fiscally constrained in the world, is doing. And it works until the population throws you out because you let the inflation get too hot. So maybe you’re in a world with three and a half percent inflation and two and a half percent overnight rate and you are kind of trying to run hot and grow your way out of it.”

Yesterday, also in an interview with Bloomberg, the Executive Chairman and CEO of Strategy Michael Saylor commented about the future of Bitcoin as well.

“Winter is not coming back,” commented Sayor. “We are past that phase. If Bitcoin is not going to zero, it is going to $1 million. The President of the United States is determined. He supports Bitcoin, the cabinet supports Bitcoin, Scott Bessent supports Bitcoin, Paul Atkins is shown himself to be an enthusiastic believer of Bitcoin and digital assets… Bitcoin has gotten through its riskiest period.”

This post Paul Tudor Jones: Bitcoin, Gold, Stocks Are The Best Portfolio To Fight Inflation first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Stripe Acquires Startup Privy To Expand Bitcoin Strategy

Today, Stripe Inc. announced that it has acquired Bitcoin and crypto wallet infrastructure provider Privy, marking its second major digital asset focused acquisition following its $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin firm Bridge earlier this year.

1/ Today, we're proud to announce that Stripe is acquiring Privy.

We couldn’t be more excited.

Privy will continue as an independent product – but now we’ll move faster, ship more, and serve you even better, so you can stay focused on your users. pic.twitter.com/8CHJqhqYy7

— Privy (@privy_io) June 11, 2025

Privy specializes in helping companies embed Bitcoin and crypto wallets directly into their apps and websites. For example, NFT marketplace OpenSea uses Privy to streamline purchases by automatically generating wallets for users. This removes the need for external wallet setups through services like MetaMask or Coinbase.

“When we started, wallets were powerful but inaccessible for all but the most technical,” said the Co-founder and CEO of Privy Henri Stern in a statement. “Developers had to send users off-platform to get started, breaking flows and killing user conversion. That friction fundamentally constrained what could be built in crypto.”

Privy, based in New York, was founded by Henri Stern and Asta Li in 2021. Li was previously a founding engineer at Aurora, while Stern worked as a research scientist at web3 firm Protocol Labs. The startup has raised just over $40 million from investors including Ribbit Capital, Definition, and Coinbase Ventures, and was last valued at $230 million in March, according to PitchBook.

“We started Privy a little over three years ago to make it easy for any developer to build better products on crypto rails,” stated their announcement. “Whether crypto is core to your app or simply a new layer of functionality, a good crypto product should just feel like a good product, period. By making crypto usable, we help make it useful for everyone.”

The acquisition follows Stripe’s earlier purchase of Bridge which helped accelerate interest in digital assets. Earlier this year, Stripe introduced stablecoin funded accounts designed to help merchants store funds and make international payments using Circle’s USDC and Bridge’s USDB. Similar to Bridge, Privy will continue operating as a standalone product.

Privy will power over 75 million accounts and support more than 1,000 developer teams, enabling billions in transaction volume, according to the announcement. Clients include Hyperliquid, Blackbird, Toku, and Farcaster, all using Bitcoin and crypto infrastructure to build real-world products in areas like trading, payments, payroll, and social applications.

“With a unified platform, connecting Privy’s wallets to the money movement capabilities in Stripe and Bridge, we’re enormously excited to enable a new generation of global, Internet-native financial services,” stated the co-founder and CEO of Stripe Patrick Collison.

This post Stripe Acquires Startup Privy To Expand Bitcoin Strategy first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 79be667e:16f81798

I am here too\ In the same space like you

In the same situation I'm in\ It's a matter of positioning

I cannot leave this place I'm in\ It was brought about\ By what's been happening

So please don't look at me\ For what I can or cannot do for you\ But look at what is happening for me\ And what is happening for you

Let's communicate\ Not orchestrate

Because there's something I wish to do\ And there's a place I wish to go to

And I'm sure that there is too\ In your heart a fire\ Known by only you

So let us listen, look and see\ For what's true for you\ And what's true for me

That we may act upon what's here\ In order for us both to take a step\ In the direction we wish to steer

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

The CLARITY Act Heads To House Floor For Vote With Protection For Noncustodial Tools Intact

Yesterday, The CLARITY Act passed favorably through the House Agriculture and Financial Services Committees with 47-6 and 32-19 bipartisan votes, respectively.

While a handful of amendments will be incorporated into a revised version of the bill, none of said amendments will alter a recently-added section of the bill that regards noncustodial products and services.

To clarify, on Monday, language from The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) was added to The CLARITY Act.

If you do not custody consumer funds, you aren’t a money transmitter. Plain and simple.

Our nonpartisan Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which codifies this simple concept, has been added to the CLARITY Act!

Grateful to @RepFrenchHill, @RepBryanSteil and @RepRitchie for… https://t.co/QmPdgUGSwo

— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) June 9, 2025

This language, included in Section 110 of The CLARITY Act, is focused on non-controlling (noncustodial) blockchain developers and blockchain service providers.

The exact wording in the bill is as follows: “A non-controlling blockchain developer or provider of a blockchain service shall not be treated as a money transmitter or as engaged in ‘money transmitting,’ or, following the date of enactment of this Act, be otherwise subject to any new registration requirement that is substantially similar to the requirement that currently applies to money transmitters.”

It was particularly important that this segment of the bill not be altered because, with this language included, the bill protects not only Bitcoin and crypto enthusiasts’ right to use noncustodial wallets, but the right of developers to continue to create such products and services without being subject to money-transmission laws as per the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

“Section 110 doesn’t just clarify that non-custodial devs aren’t captured by the BSA, but also forbids future laws and regulations (e.g. DAAMLA) that would modify or supersede the BSA to treat non-custodial actors as money transmitters or similar,” wrote Zack Shapiro, Head of Policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, in an X post. “If this passes, that means that anti-crypto zealots like Sen. Warren would first have to repeal [or] modify this bill before passing additional rules that would impinge on self-custody.”

This issue over whether noncustodial Bitcoin and crypto service providers is relevant as the Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash developers prepare to face trial.

It’s also generally important in preserving the right of U.S. citizens to use digital assets privately.

Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) commented on Americas’ right to transactional privacy in the hearing.

“Privacy in and of itself is not illegal.

Americans have a right to it in their financial transactions.

And so there’s totally legitimate uses of privacy-preserving technologies.” @RepBryanSteil pic.twitter.com/nHPfa25UVr

— Frank Corva (@frankcorva) June 10, 2025

To learn more about how to contact your elected officials to tell them to support The CLARITY Act, visit saveourwallets.org.

This post The CLARITY Act Heads To House Floor For Vote With Protection For Noncustodial Tools Intact first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Frank Corva.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Skull, $5 million; Banana, $6 million; Freedom, Priceless

“It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.” 

This message was posted by Satoshi Nakamoto to BitcoinTalk on December 11, 2010. A couple of months later, in February 2011, the Silk Road marketplace was launched, and only a couple months after — on April 23, 2011 — Satoshi posted his last message.

In October 2013, Ross Ulbricht was captured by the FBI and the Silk Road fell — only to be replaced by a thousand more copycat marketplace sites. The rest is Bitcoin history.

Ross Ulbricht chose to center his Bitcoin 2025 keynote speech around an experience he had clearing wasp nests in a cabin in the woods. Wearing a suit and tie, recalling growing “magic mushrooms” to kickstart activity on Silk Road, Ross held the attention of the main stage audience of over 8,000 at Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas in the Venetian Expo. I was sitting in one of the best seats in the house: side stage with his mother Lyn and three other supporters of Ross. 

Freedom. Decentralization. Unity.

After over 4,100 days in federal custody and many months in special housing units (solitary confinement), Ross boiled it down to these three words to summarize his first message to the community.

Freedom. Decentralization. Unity.

Following a “21 ways to hack the fiat system” keynote from Michael Saylor, Ross’ three ways to move forward were refreshingly simple. 

You would have thought Ross had been speaking in front of thousands of people for years, seeing how calm and commanding he was on the Nakamoto stage.

Lyn Ulbricht called me a few days after the speech, as I was driving a U-Haul truck full of the art gallery contents across the country, including Ross’ auction items which altogether fetched well over 10 BTC for his fresh start. She mentioned that seeing Ross on that stage giving that incredible speech gave her closure for the whole experience of fighting for her son’s freedom.

I have been fortunate to get to know Lyn Ulbricht over the past few years, helping her plan for our conferences. Hearing her say that this conference gave her some closure to that awful chapter of her life was a moment I’ll never forget. She was his number one supporter during his 11 years serving a double-life sentence. She fought relentlessly to raise awareness for her son’s situation, and now she has begun a new chapter doing similar work with MACS, Mothers Against Cruel Sentencing.

MACS is a nonprofit that is effectively the continuation of the Free Ross mission. Lyn says she feels a calling from God to continue fighting for other “crypto prisoners” and people who are being unjustly punished for their crimes, a violation of the Eight Amendment of the United States Constitution.

She launched MACS at the fourth annual Women of Bitcoin Brunch at Bitcoin 2025, in front of an audience of over 300 of the most influential women at the conference. 

Later during the event, in the same room, Ross used the same stage to address a smaller crowd of supporters for his official luncheon.

This luncheon, held before his speech, is where Justin Sun famously gifted Ross “The Banana,” handing over a duct-taped, real banana in an elaborately designed white shadowbox fit to display in a museum.

I was also in the luncheon room when the banana transaction happened, as event staff. The piece, Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan, was a conceptual art statement, I explained to the two men sitting next to me. Like Ross himself at the time, these men were confused. (The original art installation, a banana duct-taped to the wall, was purchased — and eaten — by Justin Sun in November last year.) 

Knowing the significance of this banana, I assumed at the time that Justin Sun was officially giving his edition #2 of Comedian to Ross, as a $6.2 million donation. It wasn’t until my phone call with Lyn Ulbricht days later that she brought up the banana and its questionable provenance that I began to ask: Did Sun really give Ross the banana?

On this call, Lyn mentioned that they had a relative who worked at Sotheby’s, the auctioneer of Justin’s edition of Comedian. This was an obvious first step toward understanding the banana exchange.

Ross himself emailed me shortly after saying, “Lyn tells me you are looking into what happened with me and Justin Sun. Strike Force Nanner are arriving tomorrow with the box Sun gave me, so I’ll let you know if that turns up anything useful.”

And later, “My Sotheby’s connection says: Just spoke with one of the people who worked directly with the artist during the sale. To truly own the piece you have to have the document from the artist; because that is where the ‘value’ lies, they wouldn’t even share images of it for fear of someone making a counterfeit. He’s going to have a think about whether or not what you have has any value, but Justin still owns the ‘real’ banana which is probably why he’s given you vague answers. So, unless he gives me the document (certificate of authenticity), I don’t have anything that would be valued at auction (probably). Oh well.”

I assured him that I thought his banana was still very valuable. Even if this was truly just a 1/1 print of the banana. Until Sun gives Ross the COA, Ross isn’t really the owner the banana; still, a historic event occurred. Sun transferred some sort of magic-decentalized-banana-powers to Ross when he transferred that banana taped to a frame.

The mere existence of Strike Force Nanner, an armored vehicle transporting the banana to Ross, should be enough to signal the provenance transfer of something valuable.

So whether or not Sotheby’s thinks an official transaction occurred, I think Ross has a rare power to duct-tape bananas to walls now and call it something. Sun will just have to send the COA to Ross later in order to seal the peel.

Until then, I extend an open invite to Ross, as the Artist In Residence at Bitcoin Magazine, to help him make and sell prints of his print of the banana. Then maybe the banana can be even more decentralized!

Avant-garde bananas aside, the experience of Bitcoin 2025 Las Vegas was unlike any other conference that we’ve thrown, and I can say that having been a part of all six thus far. The key difference this year was Ross’ freedom.

The vibes were beyond bullish in Vegas, which usually means the top is in. But this time it really seems different.

We should pay attention when Michael Saylor gives us his 21-step cheat sheet for the infinite money glitch, and how he plans to leverage the existing financial institutions to accumulate as much bitcoin as he possibly can. This could be a regulatory trap.

We should definitely pay attention when the sitting vice president, JD Vance, tells the conference audience that they’re going to use stablecoins to strengthen the dollar, referring to the new Genius Bill. This is probably the backdoor for CBDCs.

But most importantly: After over 11 years in federal hell, we should pay attention to Ross Ulbricht as he becomes the leader that this space really needs right now.

We are the swarm now.

This post Skull, $5 million; Banana, $6 million; Freedom, Priceless first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Tommy Marcheschi.

@ 79be667e:16f81798

Kan jij zien, er is geen hemel\ Probeer het zelf, dan lukt het wel\ Geen hel staat ons te wachten\ Enkel sterren hangen ons boven het hoofd\ Kan jij zien, iedereen leeft voor dit moment

Kan jij zien, er zijn geen landen\ Het is niet moeilijk gewoon land te zien\ Niets om voor te moorden of te sterven\ Ook geloof wordt niet gezien\ Kan jij zien, het leven wordt geleefd door iedereen in vrede

Misschien zeg je, ik kijk niet naar jouw wereld\ Maar ik deel dit zicht met velen\ Moge ook jij zoals ons zien\ Wij kijken in de wereld en zien gewoon onszelf

Kan jij zien, er is geen bezit\ Ik vraag me af of jij dit kan\ Geen hebben of een nood\ In een samen-leving van mensen\ Kan jij zien, wij delen de wereld met elkaar

Misschien zeg je, ik kijk niet naar jouw wereld\ Maar ik deel dit zicht met velen\ Moge ook jij zoals ons zien\ Wij kijken in de wereld en zien gewoon onszelf

@ 79be667e:16f81798

In het hart van een gepensioneerde operazangeres ontstond een stemmetje. Het stemmetje klonk verrast. "He," ging het hart. "Ik heb een stemmetje gekregen! Hoe kan dit? Kan iemand me horen? Zouden mijn gedachten me kunnen horen?" vroeg het stemmetje, niet wetend aan wie. Want de gedachten hoorden het niet. Zij waren zo druk bezig met het verleden en hadden een grote angst dit te verliezen. "Weet je nog?" gingen de gedachten. "Voor duizenden mensen heb ik gezongen! Avond na avond! Tienduizenden mensen hebben me toegejuicht! Wat waren ze onder de indruk! Luister! Ik kan het nog steeds!" "He," ging het hart. "Hoor je me dan niet? Het ging toch helemaal niet om dat gejuich. Weet je dan niet meer hoe ik me volledig bloot gaf aan die mensen. Mijn diepste en meest persoonlijke verhalen waren te horen in mijn liederen. Daar draaide het toch om? De mensen waren niet enkel onder de indruk. Hun harten hebben mijn verhalen gevoeld en konden zo kennis geven aan hun gedachten. Is dat niet wat echt telde?" Maar de gedachten waren volop aan het zingen voor de ene persoon die ze konden vinden die wou luisteren. "He," ging het hart. "Ook in dit moment zijn mijn liederen te horen door vele gedachten en te voelen door vele harten over de hele wereld. Heb ik dan geen rust verdiend? Kan ik niet even genieten van de rust die in dit moment te vinden is, maar jullie van me afnemen?" Maar de gedachten waren nog steeds volop aan het zingen.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

I am the space\ In which your experience takes place

You could never meet me\ For I hold no identity

The only way to really see me\ Is to be me

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Jaren tellen\ Hoeft voor mij niet

Verhalen vertellen\ Over geluk en verdriet

Een warme haven\ Veilig en fijn

Dromen voorgedragen\ Onschuldig en rein

Momenten ervaard, geleerd\ En geïntegreerd

Ideeën, geloven en gevoelens\ Gevormd en gecreëerd

Zonder eind of echt begin\ Vallen, groeien, leren, stoeien

Een gezin in een gezin met een gezin erin\ Gezind gericht blijft liefde vloeien

@ 79be667e:16f81798

The world around me\ Is assumed to be

Through sensory observations\ This appears to me

What I experience\ Is for me

But the ultimate experience\ Is for me\ To be

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, my dearest human family\ Happy New Year, my dearest animal family

Dear children of the Earth\ I wish you all a magical year

May it be utterly new\ Ever-changing\ New now

And may your journey say\ Life is amazing! I'm in a maze\ Life is awesome! Quite some awe\ Life is magical! True alchemy

I am human\ Black woman, I love you so\ Life-giver of my origin, the negro [nigiro]

I am\ Thus physical and non-physical meet

Life is to be\ As the elements are and compete\ And as they collide with one another\ One becomes aware of an other\ And so life sets on a journey\ To discover the other

Animal life is set to explore\ Allowing all experience the other has in store\ Life left to experience without a voice\ Until it discovers there is an 'I'\ And it has a choice

Human life is to be inside a human body\ Thus fusion between intellect and feeling\ Gets to express its perspective\ Inside infinity

Truly, a magical gift\ My Holy Trinity

And so from human life flow many voices\ As it navigates through infinite choices\

Thus I say

Life is magic\ A gift for all that is here\ Perceived by too many as tragic\ Take care of your vision, I tell you, my dear [tell-a-vision]

Life is magic\ And words are spells\ Placing your aim beyond your reach\ It takes away efficiency from your speech

Life is magic\ Above all else\ Even when it has me feeling blue\ Seemingly left without a clue

Still I say

Perfection\ You are everything\ And I am of you

The source, the mirror\ And the reflection

@ 79be667e:16f81798

Zonneschijn\ Stralen, lachen, zo fijn\ Moge de wereld dankbaar zijn

De vrouw, mijn gevoeligheid\ Bron van creativiteit

Genietend niets doen in het gras\ Met wat brood en wat wijn in het glas

@ 79be667e:16f81798

Spontaniteit\ Creativiteit

Iets visueel of gewoon geluid\ Het moet eruit

Ik doe mezelf cadeau aan jou\ Omdat ik van het leven hou

@ 79be667e:16f81798

Veroorzaakt door de wereld rond mij\ Vormen de wereld in mij

Verwaarloosd door de wereld rond mij\ Overgelaten aan mij

Een groene brug komt uit mij\ Verbindt mij met wij\ En laat ons samen vrij

@ 79be667e:16f81798

In een zee van mogelijkheden\ Kunnen we best veel tijd aan dromen besteden

Dromen is een universele taal\ Het wordt gedaan door ons allemaal

Het is het woord\ Dat deze gelijkheid de grond in boort

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Love, I thank you for your warmth\ Ever lifting

You keep me charmed\ Ever drifting

May I be me\ And you be you

In a perfect harmony\ Embracing all life makes us grow through

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

Machtig water\ Door velen bemind

Element van beweging\ Vormgever aan land\ Bondgenoot van wind

Voorkomer van comfort\ Toelater van rust

Machtig water\ Waar ik ook ga\ Ik weet dat jij de grond onder mijn voeten kust

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

For years, GitHub has been the default home for open source developers. It built its reputation on transparency, collaboration, and a commitment to giving coders a place to share and improve their work. But since Microsoft's acquisition in 2018, subtle changes have begun to surface—not all of them in service to the user.

GitHub is still free. Public repositories remain free. Even private repositories are free, to a point. GitHub Pages, Actions, and Codespaces offer incredibly powerful tools to build and deploy projects at no cost—until you hit certain usage limits or need team-scale features.

But the deeper question is this: what do you give up in exchange?

Microsoft Doesn’t Give Away Infrastructure for Free

GitHub, VSCode, Copilot, and Azure form a tightly integrated ecosystem. On the surface, it's all about productivity. But underneath, it's about data. Your code trains their models. Your habits inform their products. Your workflows deepen their lock-in.

Take Copilot, for example: it’s not just a coding assistant, it’s a data-harvesting engine built on top of a centralized platform. The more you use GitHub, the more Microsoft knows about what developers are building—and what they might buy.

Free Isn’t Sovereign

As developers, we have to ask hard questions:

• What happens when the free tier disappears or changes?

• Can I take my work elsewhere without breaking my stack?

• Who owns the insights derived from my development patterns?

These questions aren’t hypothetical. We’ve seen them play out with Heroku, Medium, Twitter, and countless others. Free turns into friction. Then friction becomes control.

Alternatives Are Emerging

Thankfully, there are options:

• Codeberg, Gitea, and SourceHut for Git hosting

• Cloudflare Pages for static sites + edge functions

• Railway, Fly.io, or even VPS hosting for dynamic apps

• Nostr and IPFS for decentralized publishing

These aren’t always drop-in replacements. But they represent a healthier direction—one aligned with freedom, transparency, and a proof-of-work ethos rather than a proof-of-data-capture business model.

My Move Away from GitHub (Sort Of)

I’m not deleting my GitHub account. It’s still the best way to reach other devs. But for key projects—especially those that touch on identity, sovereignty, or censorship resistance—I’m migrating:

• Private infrastructure where needed

• Cloudflare for front-end deployments

• Nostr for publishing and archiving

• Git mirroring to open alternatives

Because the tools we use shape the future we build. And if the platform is free, but the product is you—it's time to re-evaluate.

---

#ProofOfWork #OpenSource #Cloudflare #DecentralizeEverything #Nostr #GitSovereignty #MicrosoftStack

@ b158def8:467b5a98

When it comes to maintaining a spotless environment, very few things are as important as floor cleanliness. Floors withstand the highest punishment in both a commercial atmosphere and a home; dirt and stains gradually get deposited, and flooring tends to show wear and tear Professional floor cleaners in Sutton.investing in a professional company aptly manifests the proper routines to maintain the beauty and durability of your flooring. Daras Cleaning is a well-established name in the industry, providing a complete range of specialist cleaning services, tackling every floor cleaning requirement with utmost professionalism and care.

**Why Professional Floor Cleaning Matters ** Floors might just be surfaces for walking on, but they help to set the entire ambiance of a space. Clean and well-maintained floors, real or virtual, will create a good first impression-whether it is in welcoming a client to your office or guests to your home. Routine mopping or vacuuming hardly works on deep grime, persistent stains, or residue accumulation. Mixed.

As one would expect floor cleaning for these professionals, it goes beyond simple dirt removal on the surfaces to more advanced techniques with the best equipment to bring floors back to their original shine. Professional cleaners know the types of methods they would have to employ on carpeted areas or tiles, wood, or vinyl flooring. Thus, a positive outcome without any destruction on these floors is guaranteed.

**What Sets Daras Cleaning Apart? ** As a trusted provider of specialist cleaning services in Sutton, Daras Cleaning creates a delicate balance between reliability and flexibility to accommodate the unique needs of every customer. Their team has been vetted, insured, and trained to the highest standards, providing guaranteed satisfaction on any type of cleaning service for both private and commercial clients. With several years of experience behind them, Daras Cleaning also understands that every floor and every client is different, and that is why custom cleaning plans that accommodate unique requirements are offered.

Daras Cleaning was hailed by clients for its quick and efficient work at reasonable prices; thus, it invariably pops up at the top of the list for anyone searching for a professional floor-cleaning service in Sutton. Its commitment to appreciating staff and constant improvement ensures that jobs are done with the utmost care and precision.

Your Comprehensive Solution for Floor Cleaning

• Daras Cleaning provides a broad range of specialist cleaning services for all flooring types and their cleaning needs: Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning: This involves bringing carpets and upholstered furniture back to life via the use of modern methods for steam cleaning and stain removal. Cleaning and Treatment of Hard Floors: Deep-clean, polish, and seal tile, stone, wood, and vinyl surfaces, restoring shine and preventing wear and tear.
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• Thanks to combining the use of market-leading machines with environmentally friendly cleaning solutions, Daras Cleaning guarantees a thorough cleaning that is safe for your family, employees, and the environment.

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Prolonged Life: Periodic professional cleaning prevents dirt and grit from building up, causing damage to the flooring in the long run. Therefore, it means less hassle and lots of money saved by avoiding repair bills.

Indoor air quality will be improved since this process gets rid of allergens, bacteria and dust mites. Daras Cleaning is there to take care of your floors, so you do not need to worry about keeping them clean over time.

**Adaptable and trustworthy ** Daras Cleaning keenly appreciates the limitations of modern life and business. Therefore, it offers flexible schedules and tailor-made cleaning programs. They carry out maintenance and one-time deep cleaning as per the client's convenient arrangements to coincide with their time so as not to minimize disruption and guarantee flawless results on each occasion.

**Experience the Daras cleaning difference ** If you want quality Specialist cleaning services, Daras Cleaning offers the best services. Their emphasis on good service, client contentment and improving always keeps them ahead of the competition. In short, using Daras Cleaning’s expert services will keep your home clean, safe and beautiful all over the floors.

@ 79be667e:16f81798

De laatste zonnestralen van de dag streken over de eeuwige golven en weerkaatsten als lichtpuntjes in de ogen van schipper Joris terwijl hij nog een slok nam van zijn glazen fles die de vorm had van het hoofd van een oude monnik.

Gekregen van een oude vrouw uit de bergen van de Himalaya, zorgde de rum genaamd 'Old Monk' voor een verwarmend gezelschap op deze eenzame kerstnacht.

Joris had met zijn boot naar India gevaren nadat zijn vrouw hem had verlaten en hij een Indiër had ontmoet die had gezegd: "Waar ik vandaan kom, zijn vrouwen vrij en worden ze niet gezien als enkel en alleen de mooie lichamen die zij bezitten of als eeuwig bezit van een gezin."

Verward en ongelovig had Joris gekeken naar de wereld en besefte dat vrouwen inderdaad slechts gezien werden als hun fysieke schoonheid, genegeerd werden voor hun koesterende gevoeligheid en bekritiseerd werden door hun spontane intensheid en had hierop voor twee jaar lang gezocht in India naar deze vrije vrouwen met als enig resultaat een oude vrouw te ontmoeten die alleen in de bergen woonde en dagelijks haar wijsheid deelde met ieder luisterend oor.

Daar ging het doorzichtig monnikshoofd en verliet met een grote gebogen vlucht de hand van schipper Joris toen plots met groot kabaal de boot abrupt tot stilstand kwam en Joris hals over kop naar de andere kant van het dek geslingerd werd.

Het monnikshoofd verdween in het donker terwijl Joris zijn lichaam probeerde te lokaliseren en met zijn ogen wijd open zijn hersenen zo veel mogelijk informatie probeerde door te spelen.

Tevergeefs, want zijn enorme verschot werd gevolgd door een enkel groeiende verbazing, ongeloof en desoriëntatie toen de boot begon te kantelen.

De bundel licht, afkomstig van de mast van de boot, zwierde doorheen het donker en kwam te schijnen op een gigantische rots in het midden van de zee die werd bezeten door een oogverblindende glinstergroene schijn.

Uit het donker kwam het monnikshoofd, dat nog steeds in volle vlucht was, in het vizier van de lichtbundel en plaatste zich exact tussen de glinstergroene verschijning en Joris waarbij Joris doorheen het monnikshoofd gezegend werd met het zicht op een pracht van een zeemeermin die uitnodigend poseerde op de rots.

Met een luide plons viel Joris achterover in het water toen hij zich realiseerde dat vrouwen zichzelf ook lieten vangen door lust en hun uiterlijke opmaakcompetities en met een dankbare glimlach zonk hij naar de bodem van de zee en was opnieuw geboren.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has announced a massive $5.4 billion plan to increase its bitcoin holdings to 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027 — that’s about 1% of the total bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet on X

The Tokyo-listed company is accelerating its already aggressive bitcoin plan, with CEO Simon Gerovich calling the initiative “Asia’s largest-ever equity raise to buy Bitcoin — again!”

The company’s new capital raise, called the “555 Million Plan”, involves issuing 555 million shares through moving strike warrants. That’s basically a type of option where people can buy shares later, and the price they pay depends on the stock’s price at that time.

So with moving strike warrants, the price at which people can buy the stock goes up or down depending on how the company’s stock is doing. It gives investors more flexibility — and it can make the warrants more attractive — because they don’t get stuck with a bad deal if the stock price drops.

This way the company can raise capital gradually over the next 2 years without impacting the stock market and existing shareholders.

The funds raised will be used to buy bitcoin, with some to redeem bonds and other income-generating strategies like selling put options.

This is a big step up from Metaplanet’s previous targets. Initially aiming to reach 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025, the company now plans to reach:

• 30,000 BTC by end of 2025
• 100,000 BTC by end of 2026
• 210,000 BTC by end of 2027

The Japanese investment firm hopes to be in the “Bitcoin 1% club” which means holding at least 1% of the total 21 million bitcoin supply.

Metaplanet bitcoin targets

Metaplanet is already making good progress. As of June 2025, the company holds 8,888 BTC, acquired at a cost of about ¥122.2 billion (around $849 million) and has already reached 89% of its original 10,000 BTC target for 2025.

This comes after the success of the company’s previous “210 Million Plan” which raised ¥93.3 billion ($650 million) in 60 trading days by issuing 210 million shares.

During that time, the company’s bitcoin holdings grew from 1,762 BTC to 7,800 BTC and the BTC Yield (a key performance metric showing growth in bitcoin per share) increased by 189%.

Year to date the BTC Yield is 225.4%.

Metaplanet’s BTC Yield graph

The stock has reflected this momentum, up 275% since early 2025 and 1,619% over the past year.

Metaplanet’s stock price chart — TradingView

Metaplanet is now one of the most actively traded stocks in Japan and has become a top-ten corporate bitcoin holder globally, recently surpassing Block Inc., the company founded by Jack Dorsey.

Metaplanet sees this as part of a bigger shift in capital markets.

By being a “bitcoin treasury vehicle” listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it aims to offer investors exposure to bitcoin through regulated equity markets. This is especially useful in Japan where retail investors are often restricted from accessing bitcoin directly.

“Bitcoin is repricing the global cost of capital,” the company said in a statement. “Through our 555 Million Plan, Metaplanet is doubling down on a high-conviction, equity-driven capital markets strategy to accelerate our Bitcoin accumulation trajectory.”

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The Barcelona Cyphers Conference (BCC8333), the city’s first biggest bitcoin-themed event, transforms a historic building in the central born district of the Catalan capital into a hub for bitcoin enthusiasts and cypherpunks. Named after the port bitcoin nodes use to sync the timechain (8333), this inaugural event delivers high-signal discussions and practical applications of decentralized technology, uniting over 100 attendees from Spain, Europe, and beyond.

Venue and Atmosphere

Set in a 17th-century palace that doubles as a flamenco venue, Palau Dalmases blends historical elegance with a creative, almost rebellious vibe. The unique setting fosters deep conversations, hands-on workshops, and genuine connections, prioritizing substance over spectacle. The spectacular courtyard serves as a lively backdrop for collaboration and sparking chats that resonates with the event’s freedom/privacy-oriented ethos.

Lightning Network Integration

BCC8333 embedds Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN) into its core, emphasizing privacy and scalable technology. Two on-site bars accept LN payments for drinks, demonstrating fast, low-cost bitcoin transactions in action.

But the usage of Lightning Network extends beyond just ‘refreshments’. 

·       Chain Duel: This simple yet engaging game has many BCC8333 participants send sats via LN to enter, compete, and have fun for the two days of the event. A large-screen tournament on the main stage amplifies the excitement, showcasing one more practical case for LN in the bitcoin ecosystem with a nice bounty, i.e. winners claiming the collected sats.

·       Thematic sessions and practical workshops on wallets, vending machines, and Nostr highlight LN’s role in bitcoin adoption, while touching on the importance of privacy vs. scalable transactions.

While the overall adoption in Barcelona’s local establishments outside the venue remains rather limited, attendees find a nearby street with vivid graffiti dedicated to bitcoin, and in a practical way, whenever possible, swap sats for fiat among themselves when direct payments aren’t possible.

Selected Highlights

The agenda balances intense sessions with networking breaks, ensuring space for reflection and collaboration. Some of the key sessions include: 

·       Future of Private Transactions (English, Max Hillebrand).

·       Miniscripts Roundtable (English, Edouard from Liana, Landabaso from Rewind, Francesco from BitVault, Yuri da Silva from Great Wall).

·       Sovereign Hardware Tools (English, Wesatoshi).

·       Debate: Future of Lightning (Spanish, mixed attendees).

·       Op_return Debate (English, Peter Todd, Unhosted Marcellus, Lunaticoin).

Recordings from the main stage and additional coverage by Juan Cienfuegos, host of the BitCorner Podcast, will soon be available online (X: @BCC833, @TheJuanSC).

Why BCC8333 Stood Out

·       Local Maxis: vibrant and well-organized approach shines through, with local bitcoiners as organizers of the event (Spanish and expats) bringing their best PoW to the table.

·       Focused Discussions: Free of hype and influencers, BCC8333 prioritizes signal over noise, diving into critical topics like privacy, nodes, wallets, P2P tools, decentralized mining, and Nostr. 

·       Community Vibe: The smaller crowd enables authentic connections, fostering a tight-knit community of freedom-tech enthusiasts committed to sovereignty.

BCC8333 is a powerful testament to the cypherpunk spirit, blending bitcoin and privacy to fuel innovation. From LN-powered interactions to thought-provoking talks, the event underscores the strength of a community dedicated to building decentralized solutions. Congratulations to the organizers, contributors, volunteers, and attendees for making this conference a standout moment in the year’s lineup of bitcoin-themed events.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Canaan Announces Record Bitcoin Mining Month with Over 109 BTC Mined

Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN), an innovator in Bitcoin mining, reported today their bitcoin mining update for the month ending May 31, 2025, with 109 bitcoins mined. The company’s total bitcoin holdings rose to 1,466 BTC. 

“In May 2025, despite the 10% increase in tariffs on our Malaysia-made Bitcoin mining machines due to ongoing U.S. trade uncertainties, we remained focused on executing our strategic priorities with discipline and agility,” said the Chairman and CEO of Canaan Nangeng Zhang. “By capitalizing on the favorable momentum in bitcoin prices, we achieved a 25% month-over-month increase in our bitcoin production, reaching a record 109 bitcoins. This performance marks a new monthly high for our mining production and brings our total cryptocurrency holdings to an all-time high of 1,466 bitcoins at month-end.”

As of May 31, 2025, Canaan’s current mining projects add to 7.27 EH/s of operating and 8.75 EH/s deployed hashrate. In America, 3.09 EH/s is energized, including a 0.02 EH/s in Canada. Ethiopia’s contribute 4.13 EH/s energized and the Middle East facility delivers 0.03 EH/s energized. Total estimated global capacity stands at 8.75 EH/s.

“Our installed and operational hashrates reached 8.75 EH/s and 7.27 EH/s, respectively, underscoring the continued buildout of our global mining operations,” stated Zhang. “We also achieved a new historical high in installed computing power, while maintaining a competitive all-in power cost. This performance demonstrates our ability to execute on our strategy of efficient and sustainable growth.”

“With Bitcoin prices climbing to historic levels, we’re seeing increased global demand for our mining machines,” commented Zhang. “Combined with the strength of our mining operations and our disciplined approach to capital allocation, we remain confident in our business fundamentals and our ability to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.”

On June 9, 2025, the company announced that its CEO and its CFO acquired 817,268 of American Depositary Shares at an average price of US$0.76 per ADS, showing their belief in the company’s future.

“My share purchase underscores my belief in Canaan’s vision and the tremendous opportunities ahead,” stated Zhang in the announcement. “Both James and I believe there is a significant disconnect between our current ADS price and the value we believe we can deliver in the coming years.”

This post Canaan Announces Record Bitcoin Mining Month with Over 109 BTC Mined first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Economic Bitcoin Nodes: Why You Need To Use Your Node For It To Matter

What is an economic node? To understand that, you need to first conceptually understand how a user interacts with the Bitcoin network in the first place. 

Bitcoin is a database, and a network to facilitate the updating and synchronization of updates to that database, used for the primary purpose of people transacting bitcoin (entries in the database). 

The primary concern of a user making use of Bitcoin for this purpose is the validity of the transactions sent to them, i.e. is the money they have received valid in the sense that when they go forward in the future to spend it somewhere else that other people will also widely accept it as valid. If that is not the case, then it is useless as money. 

This is the purpose of a node, to verify these transactions. In order to do so, your node must have a complete set of all the existing coins (Unspent Transaction Outputs, or UTXOs) in order to check every proposed transaction against. When a transaction is broadcast, your node verifies that the coins it is spending are in this “UTXO set”, meaning that they have not been spent yet. When that transaction is confirmed in a block, those individual UTXOs are then removed from the UTXO set, and the new ones created by that transaction are added. 

In order to compute that UTXO set in the first place, a node must parse through the entire historical record of all past transactions contained in the blockchain, going through the process of adding each newly mined UTXO to the set, and removing/adding all the consumed and newly created UTXOs processed in each individual block. 

Without doing this, there is no way to be certain that the current UTXO set stored in your node is actually accurate and valid (in the future Zero Knowledge Proofs could obviate the need for this by replacing the historical blockchain with a succinct cryptographic proof that any given UTXO set is valid for a specific blockheight). 

Your node is simply an agent for you as an economic actor, in the sense of automated AI agents that many LLM advocates speak about. It is an autonomous program acting on your behalf in a certain context, in this case guaranteeing the validity of bitcoin transactions to ensure that when you are the recipient of one, the chain of transactions that created the coin spent to you is valid. 

An economic node is simply a node that is actually being used by someone engaging in economic activity to ensure the validity of the coins they are receiving. 

Why is that so important? Why do only these nodes matter? 

Think about what makes Bitcoin function in the first place: people running the same consensus rules. The only reason there is a coherent singular Bitcoin network is because everyone is running the same consensus rules, when miners produce blocks, every individual node arrives at the same conclusion as to whether or not it is valid. Every individual node will follow whatever is the blockchain composed of valid blocks that has the most proof-of-work attached to it. 

There is only a singular coherent Bitcoin network because each individual actor chooses to enforce the same set of consensus rules against blocks that miners produce. It is purely voluntary association, voluntary subjugation of oneself to a certain set of consensus rules. 

So to illustrate the point, let’s imagine three different scenarios of nodes deviating from the existing set of rules. 

In the first scenario, imagine a few major exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, etc. all alter their consensus rules from the rest of the network (softfork vs. hardfork are a distraction from the point, so we are going to ignore the distinction here). These nodes represent the economic platforms where bitcoin is traded, and its price established in fiat terms. Nodes running conflicting rules from them, or making transactions that will not be recognized as valid by their nodes to be more specific, now cannot engage in that market. 

Those exchanges’ nodes will not recognize user deposits as valid, and as such they will not be able to deposit coins and participate in those marketplaces. Other nodes can band together, but they cannot capture the economic power of those exchanges. Ultimately, short of the value of the coin created by the ruleset they are enforcing crashing to nothing, other nodes on the network will have no choice but to adopt their ruleset in order to interact with them. Otherwise the exchanges will simply ignore and honor honor deposits their nodes consider invalid. 

In the second scenario, let’s imagine a group of much smaller businesses and users that regularly receive transactions. Maybe all of them together amount to the economic activity of a single exchange like Coinbase. These users choosing to alter their consensus rules is not as inescapable as a number of large exchanges in concert, but it is still significant. 

Here, other users can still access marketplaces like exchanges to ensure that bitcoin is being priced by the market. The majority of the network will still accept everyone else’s coins in receipt for goods, or as deposits to trade on marketplaces. But they still represent a sizable portion of economic activity withdrawing from the rest of the network. This is leverage they can use. 

Even as a minority of the network, the likelihood is extremely high that there are significant levels of economic activity crossing between this minority of nodes and the rest of the network. This is not a clear case of leaving the rest of the network no option but to adopt the new rules, but it definitely creates pressure for large portions of the network who interact across that “gap.”

From there the more users that choose to cross the gap because of who they economically interact with, that pressure grows larger for the rest of the remaining network. 

In the last scenario, let’s imagine a group of nodes representing a small set of users generating very little or no economic activity at all. These users choose to alter their ruleset. They receive almost no payments, they represent a rounding error in terms of economic value on the network. 

They’re irrelevant to the rest of the network. Large businesses, exchanges, other economic actors, they will not care if a handful of people stop patronizing them or sending them bitcoin for different reasons. This set of nodes altering their consensus rules doesn’t matter. They create no pressure or opportunity cost that matters for the rest of the network. 

An economic node’s influence on the overall consensus of the Bitcoin network is proportional to the amount of economic activity involving that node/its owner. 

A node that is not being used for this purpose is completely irrelevant to the consensus rules of the Bitcoin network at large. It creates no economic pressure, imposes no opportunity cost, on the rest of the network when it alters its consensus rules. It is indistinguishable from a participant in a sybil attack. 

There might be other reasons to run a node besides verifying your own transactions, such as direct access to blockchain data for research or analysis purposes, but ultimately that node is irrelevant to consensus. 

This dynamic is why Bitcoin cannot be sybil attacked. It’s why some malicious actor can spin up a million nodes on Amazon Web Services running different consensus rules, and it will have zero effect on the actual Bitcoin network. 

Your node doesn’t matter, unless you use it. So use it. 

This post Economic Bitcoin Nodes: Why You Need To Use Your Node For It To Matter first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Shinobi.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitwise Debuts First Ever GameStop Covered Call ETF

Today, Bitwise Asset Management announced the launch of the Bitwise GME Option Income Strategy ETF (IGME), the first-ever covered call ETF centered around GameStop (GME). The fund arrives at a moment where GameStop recently made headlines for its $500 million Bitcoin treasury strategy.

GameStop is embracing bitcoin; we built an income-generating ETF designed to capture that hype and turn it into yield.

Introducing $IGME: The first option income ETF capitalizing on investor interest in @gamestop and their adoption of bitcoin as a treasury asset.

As the fourth… pic.twitter.com/EHaXX9PK7X

— Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) June 10, 2025

Led by Bitwise’s Head of Alpha Strategies Jeff Park, IGME is the latest addition to Bitwise’s rapidly expanding suite of option income ETFs. The actively managed fund is designed to generate income through a covered call strategy while offering investors exposure to GameStop, a company that has transformed from mall retailer to a key player in the digital asset conversation. 

“IGME is the first covered call strategy built around GameStop, a stock whose historic volatility and growth potential make it a strong fit for this approach,” said Park. “With IGME, investors now have access to an option income ETF based on an equity that sits at the intersection of retail investor popularity, a traditional revenue-generating business, and digital asset adoption.”

GameStop recently disclosed that it holds 4,710 Bitcoin, worth over $500 million at the time of purchase, positioning it among the growing list of public companies making Bitcoin a core treasury component. As of March 31, 2025, over 79 public companies hold a collective $57 billion in Bitcoin—a 159% increase from the previous year, according to Bitcoin Asset Management.

IGME follows the launch of Bitwise’s other option income ETFs, including IMST (Strategy), ICOI (Coinbase), and IMRA (Marathon Digital Holdings). These ETFs aim to deliver monthly income through synthetic covered call strategies that leverage options rather than direct equity holdings. 

“At Bitwise, our mission is to help investors gain access to the full range of opportunities emerging in crypto,” said Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley. “We’re excited to add IGME to our suite of option income ETFs to help investors capitalize on the volatility of companies in the space.”

IGME plans to announce its first monthly distribution on July 24 and carries an expense ratio of 0.98%.  

This post Bitwise Debuts First Ever GameStop Covered Call ETF first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 7459d333:f207289b

There are tons of purely online services—LLMs, VPS, VPN, email, media, storage, messaging—that can be provided anonymously without needing to register as legal entities.

And honestly, when they do register legally, it often only harms them or leads to enshittification. We've seen this countless times with providers that start with good intentions but end up being forced to disclose whatever data they have about customers (even if it's just IP addresses and login times) to "authorities." Telegram, Proton, Signal, maybe Infomaniak soon... the list goes on.

Even cock.li (https://stacker.news/items/1003596) had to deal with intelligence agencies just to provide a noble service.

So why bother registering a company or doing things "legally" on the internet? Why not just handle the business anonymously and get paid in Bitcoin? It's cheaper to operate, more sustainable long-term, and immune to whatever dumb law comes up in whatever country.

The trust problem

From the operator's side, it's pretty clear. But what about users? The fact that there's a registered company gives potential customers some sense of trust. There's a door to knock on in the worst case, or at least an opportunity to complain through the legal system of whatever country the company is registered in.

So maybe the missing piece is a way of offering trust to existing and potential customers—something that signals the owner is there to stay and has something to lose if the service is discontinued or not provided properly.

A potential solution: Decentralized bonds

In JoinMarket, to signal that coinjoin offer makers are serious and reduce sybil attack risk, they use fidelity bonds—just locked coins for some time.

But maybe for online service companies we need something more. Some kind of network of mediators and arbitrators to resolve conflicts, similar to Bisq. The mediators would have locked coins in a DAO and get a commission per case they handle. The DAO funds come from transaction fees. Mediators risk their coins if they act in bad faith, and the DAO operates as some kind of democratic system.

Or maybe there's a better way.

What do you think?

Before diving into the technical details, what's your opinion about the future of online services? What do you think about anonymous-owner services? Is this a direction we should be moving toward?

https://stacker.news/items/1003623

@ 95543309:196c540e

Pandas: Nature’s Gentle GiantsPandas are instantly recognizable by their black-and-white coats. These gentle creatures spend most of their days eating bamboo—up to 12–16 hours daily, consuming as much as 40 pounds in a single day.

Despite their massive appetites, pandas can digest only about 17% of the bamboo they eat, so they need to eat constantly.Baby pandas are born tiny, pink, and blind, weighing just a few ounces and measuring about 15 cm—roughly the size of a pencil. They open their eyes after six to eight weeks and stay with their mothers for about 18 months before venturing off on their own.

Pandas are excellent climbers and swimmers, and they have a special “thumb”—an extension of their wrist bone—to help them grip bamboo.Unlike other bears, pandas do not hibernate. Instead, they move to lower, warmer areas in winter and keep feasting on bamboo. Thanks to conservation efforts, panda numbers in the wild are increasing, offering hope for the future of these unique animals.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The involvement of America’s largest corporations with stablecoins has reached 29%.

According to the latest State of Crypto report published by Coinbase, interest in stablecoins among Fortune 500 executives has seen a significant surge, rising from 8% in 2024 to 29% in 2025.

The study, based on a sample of 100 executives from the 500 highest-revenue U.S. companies, reveals that nearly three in ten said their organization is either planning or seriously considering integrating stablecoins into their business processes.

The growing interest is mainly driven by inefficiencies in traditional payment systems. The executives surveyed identified slow transaction speeds and high fees as the main drawbacks of conventional payment methods.

The survey also found that 7% of Fortune 500 companies are already actively using or holding stablecoins in their corporate wallets.

And it’s not just large corporations getting on board. The study also surveyed 251 financial decision-makers at small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Among them, 81% expressed interest in using stablecoins — a sharp rise from 61% the previous year. Meanwhile, 46% of these businesses plan to integrate cryptocurrencies into their operations within the next three years.

Transaction volume data confirms this growing interest. Stablecoins have seen significant monthly spikes, with $719 billion in December 2024 and $717 billion in April 2025.

Over the course of 2024, total stablecoin transaction volumes reached $27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7%. At the same time, the number of stablecoin holders surpassed 161 million users as of May 2025, according to Coinbase.

The post Stablecoins: interest from major U.S. companies grows 260% in a year appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

ファースト・プリンシプルズ（First Principles）序章

この序章は「ファースト・プリンシプルズ」と題した7回シリーズの始まりです。分散化、コスト、自由、そして真実の奥にある本質的な変化を探ります。7回なのは、1週間のリズム——働き、休み、立ち返るというリズム——に合わせたからです。それぞれの記事は、私が受け入れてきた技術や哲学の根底にある真理を掘り下げます。分散化と主権、真実、時間、そして希望まで。\ \ テクノロジーはコストをゼロに近づける——よくそう言われます。

これは『The Price of Tomorrow』という書籍の主張でもあります。技術が進化するほど、自然とデフレ（物価下落）を引き起こす。自動化は労働を置き換え、ソフトウェアはインフラを代替し、AIは意思決定そのものを肩代わりする。限界費用（追加生産にかかるコスト）は限りなくゼロに近づく。

——でも、それだけじゃない。

そこには、経済学者や技術者が見落としがちな「もう一層の深さ」があります。

単に「生産コスト」が下がるかどうかではなく、問うべきは 中央集権による「コントロール・コスト（支配コスト）」 です。

限界費用が下がっても、中央集権の「隠れた代償」は上がっていくのです。

---

「無料」という幻想

たとえば、GitHub。

一見無料です。静的ウェブサイトを公開し、コードをホストし、Actionsで自動化し、グローバルに協業することもできる——全部、無料で。

でもGitHubはMicrosoftに所有されています。あなたはサーバーを管理できない。プラットフォームを所有していない。鍵（アクセス権限）も持っていない。

つまり、それは「取り上げられるかもしれない贈り物」にすぎない。

Google Docsも、YouTubeも、Substackも同じ。「無料で始めよう」というクラウドサービス全般も。

これらのツールが悪いわけではありません。むしろ、優れたものも多い。

でも「中立」ではないのです。

あなたが支払う代償は、必ずしもドルではありません。ときに、それは：

• データアクセスの制限

• APIの利用制限

• 突然の料金変更

• 検閲やアカウント停止

• サービス移行にかかるコスト（特に問題が起きた時）

これは 中央集権プラットフォームの「隠れた家賃」 です。しかも、時間とともに複利的に増えていきます。

---

コントロール・コスト vs 限界費用

限界費用が「これを作るのにどれだけ安いか？」だとすれば、\ コントロール・コストは「これを使うことでどれだけ自由を失うか？」です。

Mediumなら無料で記事を投稿できますが、SEO（検索表示順位）は向こうのもの。\ Shopifyでビジネスを始められますが、彼らの判断でアカウントが停止される可能性もある。\ Instagramでフォロワーを増やしても、フィードを支配するのはアルゴリズムです。

私たちは「デフレ」を喜ぶように訓練されてきました。でも、実際には多くのツールが、参入コストを下げながら、コントロール・コストを膨らませているのです。

ここで、分散化（Decentralization） が物語を逆転させます。

---

分散化の本当の約束

本当の分散化は、ただ「安くする」だけじゃありません。\ それは「主権（Sovereignty）」をもたらします。

価格だけでなく、力を分配する。\ 手数料ゲートではなく、支配の構造そのものを取り除く。

こう言えるのです：

• 自分の鍵を自分で持て

• 自分のコンテンツを自分で持て

• 自分のスタックを自分で構築せよ

• 自分の配信チャネルを自分で持て

だからこそ、Nostr が重要。\ だからこそ、Bitcoin が重要。\ だからこそ、たとえ不便でも、セルフホスティングやパーミッションレスなプロトコル、オープンソースのツールが大切なのです。

彼らは「安くしてくれる」だけじゃない。\ 私たちの 自由 を守ってくれる。

---

実例：私のブログ構築

私がブログ blog.stantonweb.com を作り始めたとき、\ 最も楽な方法は選びませんでした。

私は以下を組み合わせました：

• 長文投稿に Nostr

• 投稿を取得・表示するためのPythonスクリプト

• GitHub Actions で自動化

• 表示は静的HTML

• ホスティングは GitHub Pages + Cloudflare（無料）

データベースも、CMSも、テーマ課金もなし。

限界費用？ 0ドルです。

でももっと重要なのは、コントロール・コストも限りなくゼロだということ。\ 誰にも止められない。\ 企業にリーチを制限されない。\ ゲートキーパーが「掲載に値するか」を判断しない。

---

新しい「コスト」定義へ

価格だけを最適化すれば、捕らわれる。

自由を最適化すれば、やがて「余白」を築ける——金銭的余白だけでなく、創造の余白、道徳の余白、運営の余白も。

それが分散化の真価。\ 安いだけじゃない。\ より真実なものへ。

---

補足：過去からの教訓

Skypeを覚えていますか？\ 当初は真のP2Pツールで、構造的に分散されていました。でもMicrosoftに買収され、中央集権型に再設計され、やがてその中身は解体されました。

Napsterも同様。P2Pで音楽業界を揺るがしましたが、最終的には停止され、中央集権型の代替サービスに取って代わられました。

BitTorrentは生き残りました——それは「ただのプラットフォーム」にならなかったからです。

このパターンは明白です：

• 資本が集まれば中央集権になる

• 支配があれば検閲も起きる

• しかし、自由は分散化から生まれる

そして私たちは、何度でもこの道を選び直さなければならないのです。

---

共同執筆：ChatGPT（“Dr. C”）が主要な論点の整理と精緻化をサポートしました。\ \ 数日以内にPart 1を公開予定。ご期待ください。

—\ blog.stantonweb.com およびNostrにて公開中。\ Zap（投げ銭）リンク：https://tinyurl.com/yuyu2b9t

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Hosted at the iconic Palace of Culture and Science—a prominent symbol of the communist era—the Bitcoin FilmFest offers a vibrant celebration of film through the lens of bitcoin. The venue itself provides a striking contrast to the festival’s focus, highlighting bitcoin’s core identity as a currency embodying independence from traditional financial and political systems.

𝐅𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬.
Warsaw, Day Zero at #BFF25 (European Bitcoin Pizza Day) with @roger__9000, MadMunky and the @2140_wtf squad pic.twitter.com/9ogVvWRReA

— Bitcoin FilmFest (@bitcoinfilmfest) May 28, 2025

This venue represents an era when the state tightly controlled the economy and financial systems. The juxtaposition of this historical site with an event dedicated to bitcoin is striking and thought-provoking.

The event features a diverse array of activities, including engaging panel discussions, screenings of both feature-length and short films, workshops and lively parties. Each component designed to explore the multifaceted world of bitcoin and its implications for society, offering attendees a blend of entertainment and education.

The films showcase innovative narratives and insights into bitcoin’s landscape, while the panels facilitate thought-provoking discussions among industry experts and filmmakers.

Networking is a significant aspect of the festival, with an exceptionally open and friendly atmosphere that foster connections among participants. Participants from all over Europe gather to engage with like-minded individuals who share a passion for BTC and its implications for the future.

The open exchanges of ideas foster a sense of community, allowing attendees to forge new connections, collaborate on projects, and discuss the potential of blockchain technology implemented in bitcoin.

The organization of the festival is extraordinary, ensuring a smooth flow of information and an expertly structured schedule filled from morning until evening. Attendees appreciate the meticulous planning that allowed them to maximize their experience. Additionally, thoughtful touches such as gifts from sponsors and well-chosen locations for various events contribute to the overall positive atmosphere of the festival.

Overall, the Bitcoin FilmFest not only highlights the artistic expression surrounding bitcoin but also serves as a vital platform for dialogue—about financial freedom, the future of money, and individual sovereignty in a shifting world.

The event successfully bridges the gap between a historical symbol of control and a movement that celebrates freedom, innovation, and collaboration in the digital age, highlighting the importance of independence in financial systems while fostering a collaborative environment for innovation and growth.

Next year’s event is slated for June 5-7 2026. For further updates check: https://bitcoinfilmfest.com/

@ 46f3c7bb:93ff8a1a

Nostr üzerinde Obsidian kullanarak yazdığım içeriği paylaşma denemesi. Güzel eklenti, obsidian'ı bayadır kullanıyorum, ve obsidian üzerinde yazdığım notları nostr üzerinden paylaşabilmek ilgi çekici.

@ 5627e59c:d484729e

In een zee van mogelijkheden\ Kunnen we best veel tijd aan dromen besteden

Dromen is een universele taal\ Het wordt gedaan door ons allemaal

Het is het woord\ Dat deze gelijkheid de grond in boort

@ 3283ef81:0a531a33

Hey\ Ho

Let's go!

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Officially Traded Above $100,000 For 30 Consecutive Days For The First Time

Bitcoin has officially completed 30 consecutive days trading above the $100,000 mark, marking a historic milestone in its 15 year journey. Bitcoin achieved its all time high (ATH) of $111,980 on May 22, almost hitting $112,000.

JUST IN: Bitcoin has stayed above $100,000 for 30 consecutive days for the first time ever! pic.twitter.com/nfccEK3Wf0

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 10, 2025

In the last 30 days, Bitcoin saw a 10 percent pullback right after reaching its ATH, dropping to $100,428. However, it wasn’t for long, as Bitcoin is back at $109,511 at the time of writing. Momentum appears to be building once again, signaling to be bullish.

“Anytime price is able to punch through a major resistance level, whether psychological or historical, and successfully hold, it is certainly a bullish sign,” said the technical analyst of Wolfe Research Read Harvey. “What really stood out to us was price’s ability to hold that level on the back test, when it briefly fell to $100,000 on Thursday. It also happened to align perfectly with the 50-day moving average. … We feel this should act as a launching pad back towards the recent highs of $112,000.”

In the past month, Bitcoin has surged into the financial and political mainstream. Several U.S. states including New Hampshire first, followed by Arizona, and then Texas have passed legislation recognizing Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. These laws reflect a growing trend of state level interest in using Bitcoin as a financial hedge and as part of long term fiscal policy.

“New Hampshire didn’t just pass a bill; it sparked a movement,” stated the CEO and Co-Founder of Satoshi Action Dennis Porter.

At the same time, financial institutions are rapidly expanding their Bitcoin offerings. JP Morgan has started providing loans backed by Bitcoin ETFs as collateral. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has entered a period of intense activity, generating record trading volumes and capturing the attention of both retail and institutional investors.

To date, a total of 228 public and private entities have Bitcoin in their balance sheets and in the last 30 days, companies like GameStop, Know Labs, and Norway-based NBX have added Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. All these companies are treating Bitcoin not just as a speculative asset, but as a key part of their long term financial plans. This growing corporate trend follows the example set by Strategy, but it’s now happening on a much larger scale.

At the 2025 Bitcoin conference, the Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance said in his speech, “Fifty million Americans own Bitcoin. I think it’s gonna be 100 million before too long.”

This post Bitcoin Officially Traded Above $100,000 For 30 Consecutive Days For The First Time first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 95543309:196c540e

$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2/2} \, dx = \sqrt{2\pi}$$$$\sum_{k=1}^n k^2 = \frac{n(n+1)(2n+1)}{6}$$$$\lim_{x \to \infty} \left(1 + \frac{1}{x}\right)^x = e$$$$\begin{vmatrix}a & b \\c & d\end{vmatrix} = ad - bc$$$$\frac{d}{dx}\left(\frac{x^2 + 1}{x - 1}\right)$$$$\iiint_V (\nabla \cdot \mathbf{F}) \, dV = \oint_{\partial V} \mathbf{F} \cdot d\mathbf{S}$$$$\binom{n}{k} = \frac{n!}{k!(n-k)!}$$$$\ln\left(\frac{f(x)}{g(x)}\right) = \ln f(x) - \ln g(x)$$$$\forall x \in \mathbb{R}, \exists y \in \mathbb{R} \text{ such that } x + y = 0$$$$\sqrt{\frac{x^2 + y^2}{x^2 - y^2}}$$$$\begin{array}{c|c}A & B \\hlineC & D\end{array}$$$$\sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^n a_{ij}x_i x_j$$$$\mathcal{L}{f(t)}(s) = \int_0^\infty e^{-st}f(t)\,dt$$$$\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial t^2} = c^2 \frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial x^2}$$$$\mathbf{A} = \begin{pmatrix}a_{11} & a_{12} \\a_{21} & a_{22}\end{pmatrix}, \quad\mathbf{B} = \begin{pmatrix}b_{11} & b_{12} \\b_{21} & b_{22}\end{pmatrix}$$$$\underbrace{a + b + \dots + z}{26}$$$$\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)^n = \frac{a^n}{b^n}$$$$\langle \psi | \phi \rangle = \int{-\infty}^{\infty} \psi^*(x)\phi(x) \, dx$$$$\oint_C \mathbf{F} \cdot d\mathbf{r} = \iint_S (\nabla \times \mathbf{F}) \cdot d\mathbf{S}$$$$\prod_{k=1}^n \left(1 + \frac{1}{k}\right) = \frac{(n+1)}{1}$$$$S(\omega)=1.466\, H_s^2 \frac{\omega_0^5}{\omega^6} \exp\Bigl[-3^{\frac{\omega}{\omega_0}}\Bigr]^2$$

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

This update brings key enhancements for clarity and usability:

• Recent Blocks View: Added to the Send tab and inspired by Mempool's visualization, it displays the last 2 blocks and the estimated next block to help choose fee rates.
• Camera System Overhaul: Features a new library for higher resolution detection and mouse-scroll zoom support when available.
• Vector-Based Images: All app images are now vectorized and theme-aware, enhancing contrast, especially in dark mode.
• Tor & P2A Updates: Upgraded internal Tor and improved support for pay-to-anchor (P2A) outputs.
• Linux Package Rename: For Linux users, Sparrow has been renamed to sparrowwallet (or sparrowserver); in some cases, the original sparrow package may need manual removal.
• Additional updates include showing total payments in multi-payment transaction diagrams, better handling of long labels, and other UI enhancements.

• Sparrow v2.2.1 is a bug fix release that addresses missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions, icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view, repackaged .deb installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression, and removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.

Learn how to get started with Sparrow wallet:

Release notes (v2.2.0)

• Added Recent Blocks view to Send tab.
• Converted all bitmapped images to theme aware SVG format for all wallet models and dialogs.
• Support send and display of pay to anchor (P2A) outputs.
• Renamed sparrow package to sparrowwallet and sparrowserver on Linux.
• Switched camera library to openpnp-capture.
• Support FHD (1920 x 1080) and UHD4k (3840 x 2160) capture resolutions.
• Support camera zoom with mouse scroll where possible.
• In the Download Verifier, prefer verifying the dropped file over the default file where the file is not in the manifest.
• Show a warning (with an option to disable the check) when importing a wallet with a derivation path matching another script type.
• In Cormorant, avoid calling the listwalletdir RPC on initialization due to a potentially slow response on Windows.
• Avoid server address resolution for public servers.
• Assume server address is non local for resolution failures where a proxy is configured.
• Added a tooltip to indicate truncated labels in table cells.
• Dynamically truncate input and output labels in the tree on a transaction tab, and add tooltips if necessary.
• Improved tooltips for wallet tabs and transaction diagrams with long labels.
• Show the address where available on input and output tooltips in transaction tab tree.
• Show the total amount sent in payments in the transaction diagram when constructing multiple payment transactions.
• Reset preferred table column widths on adjustment to improve handling after window resizing.
• Added accessible text to improve screen reader navigation on seed entry.
• Made Wallet Summary table grow horizontally with dialog sizing.
• Reduced tooltip show delay to 200ms.
• Show transaction diagram fee percentage as less than 0.01% rather than 0.00%.
• Optimized and reduced Electrum server RPC calls.
• Upgraded Bouncy Castle, PGPainless and Logback libraries.
• Upgraded internal Tor to v0.4.8.16.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue with random ordering of keystore origins on labels import.
• Bug fix: Fixed non-zero account script type detection when signing a message on Trezor devices.
• Bug fix: Fixed issue parsing remote Coldcard xpub encoded on a different network.
• Bug fix: Fixed inclusion of fees on wallet label exports.
• Bug fix: Increase Trezor device libusb timeout.

Linux users: Note that the sparrow package has been renamed to sparrowwallet or sparrowserver, and in some cases you may need to manually uninstall the original sparrow package. Look in the /opt folder to ensure you have the new name, and the original is removed.

What's new in v2.2.1

• Updated Tor library to fix missing UUID issue when starting Tor on recent macOS versions.
• Repackaged .deb installs to use older gzip instead of zstd compression.
• Removed display of median fee rate where fee rates source is set to Server.
• Added icons for external sources in Settings and Recent Blocks view
• Bug fix: Fixed issue in Recent Blocks view when switching fee rates source
• Bug fix: Fixed NPE on null fee returned from server

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo

@ efc2b6e5:99c53c19

AI companies massively influence society by projecting their values on ML models, whether we want it or not. It'd be great if at least some people in the companies knew how exactly they influence society, could make certain predictions, or even make ML models themselves predict users' worldviews and some of their behavior.

Some might argue that AI systems already do something like that. I believe they could do it much better: chatbots could be more balanced in terms of security (they are definitely overcensored) and recommender systems, for instance, could contribute to healthy personal and collective transformations (rather than just competing in ability to steal users' attention and trap it in the echo chambers).

Reductionism is an obstacle in AI development

Even most reliable knowledge doesn't solve some of the problems that are already in demand. Even least reliable knowledge still may contain something useful for our problems. While we lack reliable and noncontradictory knowledge, we can still benefit from certain synthesis of working ideas. There's approach that makes it possible to look at the knowledge from a very broad perspective, do such synthesis, and benefit from emergent properties of the synthesis.

Integral (Meta-)Theory created by Ken Wilber is probably the best known attempt to enable the possibility to form and navigate the big picture understanding in a hope to address issues of the epoch we've recently entered.

IMO it has certain challenges that make it repellent to IT:

1. Fundamental psychological theories on which the Integral Theory is based are still pretty fragile; they need time to become mature enough and recognized (while it doesn't look like we have that time). There are endless edit wars on Wikipedia, which makes me feel depressing about possibilities to even introduce Spiral Dynamics and Multiple Intelligences to IT people.
2. Emphasis on controversial interpretations of certain arational states of consciousness.

It's hard to address the first challenge; however, I recently discovered a new “secularized” Non-Reductionist Philosophy launched by David Long, which, among other things, uses wisdom from Integral Theory and attempts to address the second challenge. I'm glad that there are people who don't just criticize the Integral Theory, its community and Wilber's positions but are also developing the new meta-theories.

NR can also be a good way to get familiar with other meta-theories, so one could choose whatever works the best for their problems. For instance, if you're working on something as exotic as some competitor to EEG-powered meditation device, perhaps you will find Integral Theory relevant to study as well, since it's more focused on the states.

I'd like to point out a couple of moments I noticed in the video "Why Non-Reductionism Is A Better Meta-Theory" that caught my attention, as well as in some other older videos. There's not much to comment on the content itself rather than on the form of the content. This feedback might be used for improvements/elaborations in the next videos and just for everyone curious about the new meta-theory. But first

Why do I post here?

Specifically for the deep topics that relate to the current epoch, I no longer find engaging in the YouTube/FB/Reddit/Diqus/Giscus/etc. discussions useful anymore, at least due to broken and almost omnipresent AI-based censorship, that keeps “improving” at randomly shadow-banning people. How many deep and valuable opinions we no longer see?

BTW, it's possible to create Reddit-like communities here at Nostr as well, using Satellite client for example. I believe it's a better place for NR, Rebel Wisdom and many others.

References to full materials used for criticism

There are curious clips with Wilber in the video. It'd be great to have links in the description (or at least titles of the full videos if it's copyrighted material) so viewers could easier form their own independent opinions. I find it important during the age of information overload and narrative warfare. This will also improve SEO.

Emergentism FAQ

There's a strong position on emergence of consciousness; it seems it's not even a hypothesis in NR and I guess that makes some people so reactive.

I think it would be great to have an FAQ page to possibly make future debates more ecological and fruitful. Some of the things that could be elaborated in the FAQ:

• importance of distinction between philosophical theory (inductive reasoning? or actually deductive reasoning? I'm confused here) and scientific theory (deductive reasoning)
• the fact that for now counterarguments usually fall into the categories of “ignorance fallacy”, “false equivalency fallacy” and “God of the gaps” which aren't something sufficient; the whole point of challenge was to find at least a logically valid counterposition (ideally a counterposition that is sound with currently available scientific facts), not the nitpicking attacks
• what kind of emergence is meant, is it important here at all and why.

Debates moderation

Probably most of the debates converge to consensus, which are fruitful anyway. There are a few interesting conflicting debates as well. However, I found this specific conflicting debate with Matt Segall quite exceptional.

Matt's position was not understood. He was more interested in a dialogue rather than debates and I think it would be more productive. However, in this specific case, my guess is it would literally take hours to just figure out the common language on a certain concept he mentions.

My humble guess is that a combination of negotiator and moderator with a strong perceiving personality type function (if typologies work at all) could be a step to more meaningful and ecological dialogues in the future. But such negotiator/moderator should also be skilled enough to reflect most challenging parts using more “rational language” as best as possible. These people are rare. Basically I mean the style of dialogues that happened between theoretical physicist David Bohm and Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti: IMO these were the talks where both sides at some point were barely transcending limitations of their languages and focusing more on intuition in order to understand each other. Much fuzzier and spontaneous dialogues, which aren't prematurely limited by too harsh rationality. Similar thing (with shorter periods of negotiation) could be combined with debating as well.

I hope NR community will be open to understanding more perspectives and won't end up turning into something like a cold and scary crystallization of rational arrogance; that would be damaging and quite opposite to the healthy intentions of the whole project.

Final thoughts

I like the clarity and density of the presented ideas in the video, the choice of lines of development in the map and the alternative to the Integral Methodological Pluralism. I like the mentioned interpretation of “free” will, very much resonates with how I personally interpret it. Tritone-ish devilish sounds in the cons sections is a nice aesthetic choice as well.

I guess there's a lot to learn from NR, no matter what positions we hold on the “rational spirituality” and that sort of stuff. Just to avoid projections and misunderstandings: I'm at a neutral position to all of the NR, Integral and Metamodernism; what any of these philosophies claim to be somehow naive doesn't necessarily match my own positions.

Thank you David Long for launching this philosophy and the movement; I'm looking forward to the next videos!

I'd appreciate reposts and all this as well, thanks!

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

El Salvador – June 3, 2025 — The grassroots Bitcoin community of El Salvador is proud to announce the return of Bitcoin Week, taking place this November with five dynamic events celebrating Bitcoin adoption, education, and community-led innovation.

Join us for a week of inspiration, collaboration, and impact.

Bitcoin Week 2025 calendar

📍 November 12 – Bitcoin Education Celebration Gala: Kick off the week in style with a luxurious and intimate evening at a high-class dinner, celebrating “proof of work” and the achievements of the Bitcoin education movement.
Expect major plans for the year(s) ahead but also a reflection to past proof-of-work—and don’t miss out on the Great Grassroots Giveaway, included with every ticket.

📍 November 13 – Bitcoin Educators Unconference: Hosted for the third time in San Salvador at Cadejo Montaña, this sixth edition of the Educators Unconference embodies our commitment to provide a space for decentralized, community-led conversations.
Join educators and leaders shaping the global Bitcoin conversation!

📍 November 14–15 – Adopting Bitcoin: The Network Effect: Now in its fifth year, Adopting Bitcoin returns with a powerful focus on real-world Bitcoin usage across global communities.
This year’s theme—The Network Effect—explores how interconnected local initiatives can spark exponential growth in adoption.

📍 November 16 – Visit Bitcoin Beach, El Zonte: Make your way to Bitcoin Beach, the heart of El Salvador’s Bitcoin story. Enjoy a day of connection and discovery in this iconic beachside town. Full details coming soon.

📍 November 22–23 – Economía Bitcoin, Berlín: Head to the town of Berlín, El Salvador for the second edition of Economía Bitcoin, a powerful, small-scale conference and festival focused on circular economies and practical Bitcoin use.
Spend sats freely in town and see how local action drives global impact.

With five unique events across three regions in Bitcoin Country, this edition of Bitcoin Week is your chance to experience El Salvador’s Bitcoin journey up close. Whether you’re an educator, builder, Bitcoiner, or simply curious—you’re invited.

Join us this November. Be part of the movement.

@ f683e870:557f5ef2

This is what has been achieved on a per-project basis since receiving the grant from Opensats.

npub.world

Together with nostr:npub1wf4pufsucer5va8g9p0rj5dnhvfeh6d8w0g6eayaep5dhps6rsgs43dgh9, I have been refining npub.world to deliver real-time, WoT-powered profile search. These refinements include:

• implementing new desings by nostr:npub1t3gd5yefglarhar4n6uh34uymvft4tgu8edk5465zzhtv4rrnd9sg7upxq

• moving to the new Vertex DVM standard

• improved URL and npub parsing

Vertex crawler

Due to the architectural mistakes I made when designing the first version, I have embarked on a full rewrite of the crawler. The new architecture is simpler, more modular and more performant, and I am confident that it will provide a stable foundation on which to expand the Vertex offering with additional functionalities and analytics.

The major differences with the old version are:

• the DB and RWS interfaces have been broken up and simplified into smaller ones, each defined by their own packages

• a simplified, more efficient algorithm for updating random walks

• use of a custom-built cache to speed up graph computations

• a worker pool pattern to speed up event archiving

These changes have reduced the LOC by more than half while improving performance by \~10x. Of independent interest is the new pipe package, which can also be used by other projects to crawl the Nostr network.

Vertex Relay and DVMs

The Vertex relay has been updated several times, and now supports four DVM services:

• Verify Reputation

• Recommend Follows

• Rank Profiles

• Search Profile

For each service, customers can choose the algorithm to use by specifing the sort option to use between:

• followerCount

• globalPagerank

• personalizedPagerank

More information can be found at https://vertexlab.io/.

Overall, the relay has processed more than 100,000 DVM requests, with the current daily rate standing at around 1,500.

rely

Unsatisfied with the khatru relay framework, I've decided to build my own called rely, with the goal of being simpler and more stable. I've not just scratched a personal hitch: I've used khatru for several months now (the Vertex relay is still using it) and I encountered several issues, some of which I've solved with PRs to the underlying go-nostr library.

The main differences between khatru and rely:

• rely is much simpler, both architecturally and in terms of LOC (less than half)

• rely has a solid testing approach, where a random yet reproducible high traffic hits the relay to see what breaks

• rely implements a worker pool pattern where a configurable number of goroutines process the incoming requests from clients. On the other hand, khatru process them in the HandleWebsocket goroutine, which is spawned every time a client connects. This is dangerous in my opinion because if too many clients connect, memory usage would spike and the relay could potentially crash.

New DVM spec

I helped to draft this new proposal to update the DVM spec, which is one of the most controversial NIPs. While almost everyone agrees that it needs to change, there is no consensus on how to move forward. I believe our proposal is a sensible approach that defines discovery, usage, and error patterns while leaving flexibility for specific DVM kinds.

Looking at the future

Next I am going to move the Vertex relay to the rely framework and to the new crawler package. I expect that this will increase the performance and will make things more solid and more simple. After all of this refactoring and simplification, it will be time to finally add features to the Vertex offering. I have an ambitious roadmap consisting of:

• accepting ecash for DVM requests

• designing client-side validation schemes for the DVM responses

• expanding the pagerank algorithm to make use of mutes and reports

• adding an WoT impersonator check to npub.world

• adding a nip05 check to npub.world

• make a relystore package with some plug&play databases for rely.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

The latest AI chips, 8K displays, and neural processing units make your device feel like a pocket supercomputer. So surely, with all this advancement, you can finally mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, right?

The 2025 Hardware Reality: Can You Mine Bitcoin on Your Phone

Despite remarkable advances in smartphone technology, the fundamental physics of bitcoin mining haven’t changed. In 2025, flagship devices with their cutting-edge 2nm processors can achieve approximately 25-40 megahashes per second when you mine bitcoin on your phone—a notable improvement from previous generations, but still laughably inadequate.

Meanwhile, 2025’s top-tier ASIC miners have evolved dramatically. The latest Bitmain Antminer S23 series and Canaan AvalonMiner A15 Pro deliver 200-300 terahashes per second while consuming 4,000-5,500 watts. That’s a performance gap of roughly 1:8,000,000 between when you mine bitcoin on your phone and professional mining equipment.

To put this in perspective that hits home: if you mine bitcoin on your phone and it earned you one penny, professional miners would earn $80,000 in the same time period with the same effort. It’s not just an efficiency problem—it’s a complete category mismatch.

According to Pocket Option’s 2025 analysis, when you mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, you generate approximately $0.003-0.006 in daily revenue while consuming $0.45-0.85 in electricity through constant charging cycles. Factor in the accelerated device wear (estimated at $0.75-1.20 daily depreciation), and you’re looking at losses of $1.20-2.00 per day just for the privilege of running mining software.

Mining Economic Factor

Precise Value (April 2025)

Direct Impact on Profitability

Smartphone sustained hash rate

20-35 MH/s

0.00000024% contribution to global hashrate

Daily power consumption

3.2-4.8 kWh (4-6 full charges)

$0.38-0.57 at average US electricity rates

Expected daily BTC earnings

0.0000000086 BTC ($0.0035 at $41,200 BTC)

Revenue covers only 0.9% of electricity costs

CPU/GPU wear cost

$0.68-0.92 daily accelerated depreciation

Reduces smartphone lifespan by 60-70%

Annual profit projection

-$386 to -$412 per year

Guaranteed negative return on investment

Source: PocketOption

Bitcoin’s 2025 Network: Harder Than Ever

Bitcoin’s network difficulty in 2025 has reached unprecedented levels. After the April 2024 halving event that reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, mining became significantly more competitive. The global hash rate now exceeds 800 exahashes per second—that’s 800 followed by 18 zeros worth of computational power securing the network.

Here’s what this means in practical terms: Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks) to maintain the 10-minute block time. As more efficient miners join the network, difficulty increases proportionally. In 2025, mining difficulty has increased compared to 2024, making small-scale mining even less viable.

The math is unforgiving:

• Global Bitcoin hash rate: 828.96 EH/s
• Your smartphone’s contribution: ~0.000000003%
• Probability of solo mining a block: Virtually zero
• Expected time to mine one Bitcoin: Several million years

Even joining mining pools doesn’t solve the economic problem. Pool fees typically range from 1-3%, and your minuscule contribution would earn proportionally tiny rewards—far below the electricity and device depreciation costs.

The 2025 Scam Evolution: More Sophisticated, More Dangerous

Fraudsters now leverage AI-generated content, fake influencer endorsements, and impressive-looking apps that simulate realistic mining activity to entice you to mine bitcoin on your phone.

New 2025 scam tactics include:

AI-Powered Fake Testimonials: Deepfake videos of supposed successful mobile miners showing fabricated earnings statements and encouraging downloads of malicious apps.

Gamified Mining Interfaces: Apps that look and feel like legitimate games but secretly harvest personal data while simulating mining progress that can never be withdrawn.

Social Media Manipulation: Coordinated campaigns across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube featuring fake “financial influencers” promoting mobile mining apps to younger audiences.

Subscription Trap Mining: Apps offering “free trials” that automatically charge $19.99-49.99 monthly for “premium mining speeds” while delivering no actual mining capability.

Recent cybersecurity research shows that over 180 fake mining apps were discovered across major app stores in 2025, with some accumulating more than 500,000 downloads before being removed.

Red flags that scream “scam” in 2025:

• Apps claiming “revolutionary mobile mining breakthrough”
• Promises of earning “$10-50 daily” from phone mining
• Requirements to recruit friends or watch ads to unlock withdrawals
• Apps that don’t require connecting to actual mining pools
• Testimonials that seem too polished or use stock photo models
• Apps requesting permissions unrelated to mining (contacts, camera, microphone)

The 2025 Professional Mining Landscape

To understand why, consider what professional bitcoin mining looks like in 2025. Industrial mining operations now resemble high-tech data centers with:

Cutting-edge hardware:

• Bitmain Antminer S23 Pro: 280 TH/s at 4,800W
• MicroBT WhatsMiner M56S++: 250 TH/s at 4,500W
• Canaan AvalonMiner A1566: 185 TH/s at 3,420W

Infrastructure requirements:

• Megawatt-scale power contracts with industrial electricity rates
• Liquid cooling systems maintaining 24/7 optimal temperatures
• Redundant internet connections ensuring zero downtime
• Professional facility management with 24/7 monitoring

For a small operation, you might need at least $10,000 to $20,000 to buy a few ASIC miners, set up cooling systems, and cover electricity costs. These operations employ teams of engineers, maintain relationships with power companies, and operate with margins measured in single-digit percentages.

2025’s Legitimate Mobile Bitcoin Strategies

While it remains impossible to mine bitcoin on your phone profitably, 2025 offers exciting legitimate ways to engage with bitcoin through your smartphone:

Lightning Network Participation: Apps like Phoenix, Breez, and Zeus allow you to run Lightning nodes on mobile devices, earning small routing fees while supporting bitcoin’s payment layer.

Bitcoin DCA Automation: Services enable automated dollar-cost averaging with amounts as small as $1 daily. Historical data shows $10 weekly bitcoin purchases consistently outperform any mobile mining attempt by 1,500-2,000%.

Educational Mining Simulators: Legitimate apps like “Bitcoin Mining Simulator” teach mining concepts without false earning promises. These educational tools help users understand hash rates, difficulty adjustments, and mining economics.

Stacking Sats Rewards: Apps offering bitcoin rewards for shopping, learning, or completing tasks.

Lightning Gaming: Bitcoin-native mobile games where players can earn sats through skilled gameplay, with some players earning $10 monthly.onfirm that even the most optimized mobile mining setups in 2025 lose money consistently and predictably.

The Bottom Line

When you mine bitcoin on your phone fundamental economics remain unchanged: it’s impossible to profit. The laws of physics, network competition, and energy efficiency create insurmountable barriers that no app can overcome.

However, 2025 offers unprecedented opportunities to engage with bitcoin meaningfully through your smartphone. Focus on education, legitimate earning opportunities, and strategic investment rather than chasing the impossible dream of phone-based mining.

The bitcoin community’s greatest strength lies in its commitment to truth over hype. When someone promises profits to mine bitcoin on your phone in 2025, they’re either uninformed or deliberately misleading you. Trust the mathematics, learn from the community, and build your bitcoin knowledge and holdings through proven methods.

The real opportunity in 2025 isn’t to mine bitcoin on your phone—it’s understanding bitcoin deeply enough to participate confidently in the most important monetary revolution of our lifetime. Your smartphone is the perfect tool for that education; it’s just not a mining rig.

@ 3104fbbf:ac623068

It is possible to shift your mindset in adulthood — but it’s exceedingly rare. There’s no exact science to it, yet roughly 2% of people seem truly able — or willing — to change their worldview past a certain age. As arbitrary as that number may sound, it often holds true in practice. It helps explain human behavior and why the remaining 98% — those unwilling to embrace deep inner change — will never dare to step outside their comfort zone.

Learning new skills holds real, practical value: it’s how we redirect our lives toward something better. But it requires a willingness to evolve the way we think. In my view, the only truly helpful approach is to share insights, ideas, and methods — and then let each individual decide whether they’re ready to invest time and energy into rethinking their patterns, learning what’s needed, and transforming their habits or beliefs. There are no shortcuts.

As someone who’s committed to this path and aware of what’s at stake for humanity in the next 20 years — especially with AI — I want to share a few signposts for those ready to lift their heads out of the sand.

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Discernment in the Age of AI: More Essential Than Ever

We are living through a radical upheaval, driven by artificial intelligence and the exponential acceleration of technology. And I’m convinced of one thing: if a belief, ideology, or conviction born in the 21st century isn’t constantly reevaluated — with curiosity, humility, and intellectual rigor — by confronting opposing views, digging into what’s uncomfortable, and honestly questioning what we don’t yet understand, then we’re not thinking. We’re just gambling on blind faith — or refusing to face reality. And eventually, that catches up with us.

The longer you wait to adapt to technological acceleration, the more you risk becoming trapped in an invisible loop — one where you don’t even realize just how far behind you’ve fallen.

Take independent thinking and discernment — arguably the most vital skills in an AI-driven world. If you rely on AI in a domain where you lack critical sensitivity, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.

When you use AI to move a project forward, you need to instantly recognize when something feels off: “That doesn’t make sense. It’s too cliché. It doesn’t work.” And the AI — trained to please you — will agree: “You’re right.”

But… what if you’re wrong?

That’s where the downward spiral begins — a kind of creative death. Many people:

Settle for the AI’s first answer,

Fail to grasp that this response is just the most statistically likely, the most "expected,"

And end up with something generic, bland, and forgettable.

We have to move beyond that. We have to enter that narrow zone where we seek something original, alive, new — and keep pushing: “No, that’s not it yet.” It’s through this iterative process that refinement happens, and real value emerges.

Used this way, AI becomes a powerful tool — one that accelerates research, eliminates friction, and streamlines the creative process.

Prompting — the art of crafting precise, thoughtful instructions for the AI — is learned through practice, trial and error. But it also demands a specific mental posture: one rooted in curiosity, humility, and the willingness to question yourself. You must be willing to doubt your own assumptions, to challenge your own blind spots.

---

The Mental Exoskeleton: Amplifying Human Potential Through AI

We’re living in a near-magical era. If you’ve already built a solid foundation of skills, AI acts like an exoskeleton — allowing you to lift far more than you could on your own. If you’re already strong, it amplifies your strength. If you’ve learned how to think and how to use your mind, it multiplies your intellectual power.

And if you’ve cultivated curiosity and broad general knowledge — instead of locking yourself into hyper-specialization — for the first time in history, that’s an edge. Because AI enables you to instantly dive deeper into any of those fields and connect the dots across disciplines. Suddenly, it feels like you can tap into the depth of global expertise, on demand, in virtually any subject.

But again, this all hinges on mindset. If most people don’t know what they want, can’t think independently, clearly, or precisely, and don’t even know what questions to ask — AI won’t help them move forward. It won’t fix a broken mentality. In the end, it’s the 2% — those who can ask the right questions, think strategically, and challenge their own thinking — who will truly harness this technology.

And because of that, the gap is going to widen. The divide between the capable and the incapable, the wealthy and the struggling, is only going to deepen. The 2% will continue to accelerate, while those who don’t know how to wield this tool effectively will be left behind. In this sense, AI doesn’t level the playing field — it magnifies inequality.

Anything we currently believe to be beyond AI’s reach won’t remain so for long. When AI becomes fully autonomous — faster and more intelligent than any living human — there will be almost nothing it can’t help us do or manifest in the real world.

---

The Coming Divide in Human Evolution

The only real distinction will be this: this new form of intelligence will never truly be human.

And not everyone will react positively. While radical transhumanists will push the boundaries without restraint, a strong backlash is likely — perhaps even violent — driven by a new wave of puritanical neo-conservatism. These individuals will fiercely oppose any form of technological enhancement of human abilities. The result could be intense civil unrest.

And this isn’t science fiction anymore — it’s already underway. Most people, distracted by daily life and mainstream media, aren’t paying close attention. We’ve just revived extinct species. The dire wolf, gone for over 10,000 years? Done. What’s next? This isn’t some virtual simulation — you’ll soon be able to pet a dire wolf. Human genetic modification is inevitable. And it’s going to make a lot of people profoundly uneasy.

Even now, people with Neuralink implants are playing video games using only their minds. And what’s crazy is that these players are saying: “We’ll need our own league — we’re already outperforming anyone still stuck with a keyboard, mouse, or controller.”

This isn’t a futuristic fantasy — it’s happening right now.

It’s the mental exoskeleton, in a way. We’ve already seen physical exosuits helping paraplegic patients walk again — mental-cybernetic augmentation is the logical next step. It’s no longer just about restoring lost function, but enhancing and accelerating it. The gap between “augmented” individuals and those who aren’t is only going to grow — and it already is, simply between those who master AI tools and those who barely scratch the surface.

Even before that, landing a job will soon require AI literacy — that’ll be the baseline. And it won’t stop there. Your job performance reviews will include how well you work with AI: your fluency, speed, and depth of integration. If you’re not improving continuously, if you’re not keeping pace, you’re already falling out of the game.

So it’s not just about knowing how to use AI — it’s about constantly improving your skills with it. That takes real training, like working a muscle. It won’t just fall into your lap. The majority of people who aren’t actively engaged will be left behind. And as deflationary technology enables material abundance, universal basic income may become a reality. Work might no longer be essential for survival.

But unless there’s a radical shift in global mindset, this material abundance could become a curse: a world where 98% of people are dependent, apathetic, intellectually numbed, wandering aimlessly through life — much like the characters in Wall-E.

---

How AI Is Reshaping and Rebuilding the World of Work

It’s painfully obvious: either you use AI, or you’ll be replaced by someone who does.

Our brains have two hemispheres — analytical and creative. A few centuries ago, creativity wasn’t valued much. The world was built for analytical thinkers — schools, exams, the entire education system. That was the “correct” path.

But the Internet made technical specialists interchangeable. As Daniel Pink highlights in A Whole New Mind, overnight, anyone could hire a developer from anywhere — Pakistan, India, wherever — through platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. Skills that were once rare and expensive became globally available and cheap.

In his book, Pink argues that the future belongs not to specialized technicians, but to creative thinkers. Not the one who can play every instrument — but the one who can conduct the orchestra. The one who may not execute every task better than you, but who can bring people, tools, and ideas together to build something great — something that adds value to the world.

Today, many developing countries are rising out of poverty by building foundational technical skills. Roles that once required elite expertise — research assistants, paralegals, coders, accountants, musicians, sound engineers — are now globally accessible. Anyone, anywhere, can learn anything by tapping into the sum of human knowledge online.

AI agents are autonomous programs designed to think and act on your behalf — like super-assistants that can plan, decide, and execute tasks for you. In the past, if I wanted something done, I’d hire a person. Now? I can just program an AI agent.

And this is moving fast. Very fast : Exponential acceleration !!!!!!

By 2027, AI agents won’t just complete tasks — they’ll:

• Write improvements for other AIs,

• Conduct massive experiments independently,

• And achieve decades’ worth of progress in a matter of days or weeks.

It’s 2025. We’re already halfway there. That means we’re less than 24 months away from what many are calling an intelligence explosion — a tipping point where everything accelerates beyond prediction.

By 2028, we’ll have passed what’s often referred to as the technological horizon — a point of no return, where trying to forecast the future becomes meaningless. No one will be able to predict what jobs, economies, or societies will even look like. That’s the pace of change.

Individually, if we don’t want to find ourselves lost and disoriented, we need to act now — adopt the technology, use it, learn it, build our skillsets, and constantly ask:

“How can I use AI to build what I want to build — to create real value?”

• The people who will thrive are those who:

• Can discern — they know what’s useful and what isn’t,

• Have vision — they know what they want to create,

• And most importantly,

• Have the courage to bring it to life.

---

The Great Equalizer of Decentralization

Imagine the global economy as a massive sheet of glass. Today, this sheet is held in balance by a few corporate giants, some mid-sized companies, and a vast multitude of small structures.

But we’re on the verge of watching it crash to the floor. And when it shatters, it won’t be the small structures that break—it’ll be the large ones. The very enterprises that currently form the backbone of the system will fracture into thousands of smaller, more agile units. Why? Because artificial intelligence is acting as a powerful equalizer of power. We are standing at the dawn of a great decentralization of money, power, and energy.

Soon, we’ll see billion-dollar companies being created by one, two, or maybe three individuals. These small teams will be able to deploy entire organizations made up of autonomous AI agents — capable of running all the departments of a business. These agents will manage budgets, use tools, buy and sell using Bitcoin directly, execute tasks, and scale operations. And suddenly, the very concept of having employees… will disappear.

The real question then becomes: what happens when 30% of the workforce suddenly decides to launch their own ventures? The shift will be colossal. It will spark a massive decentralization of countless services, an explosion of innovation, and an unprecedented surge in entrepreneurial activity — especially if the global economy aligns with a monetary standard rooted in the neutral benchmark of Bitcoin.

But it also raises a deeper existential question for the majority:

“Where will I find meaning and purpose in a world that no longer needs me?”

Until now, work, knowledge, and expertise have all been shaped by scarcity. A lawyer charges high fees because legal knowledge is scarce. A doctor does the same because of medical expertise.

But what happens when knowledge is no longer scarce? When it becomes instantly available to everyone? That’s when the real rupture begins.

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Hyperlinked Intelligence: When AI Agents Talk to Each Other

In this new world, the MCP protocol — short for Multi-Channel Protocol — designates a system that enables artificial intelligence agents to communicate and collaborate without friction. Think of it as a universal language, a shared grammar that allows various AIs — regardless of their function — to exchange information and coordinate in real-time.

Here’s the central idea:

Today, most AI agents operate in isolation. One manages your calendar, another your emails, a third handles your travel plans. But they don’t really talk to each other.

With the MCP protocol, these agents can cooperate seamlessly. They exchange data, delegate tasks, and make joint decisions — all without human intervention. This makes them exponentially more efficient.

Let’s take some concrete examples:

• An AI could cross-check your calendar and travel plans to automatically schedule an on-site meeting.

• It could access your communication platforms (email, social media), synchronize your contacts, and manage your posts without you lifting a finger.

• It could even handle complex tasks like optimizing your online presence, managing a dating profile, or generating strategic content for your professional networks.

In short, the MCP protocol supercharges AI systems by transforming them from isolated tools into interconnected intelligent networks. It opens the door to fully autonomous workflows that can handle a broad range of tasks at accelerating speeds, without human input.

It’s the TCP/IP moment of artificial intelligence.

Remember: TCP/IP enabled the birth of the internet by creating a universal communication standard. MCP could become that standard for AI — allowing all intelligent agents to connect, interact, and collaborate while transacting autonomously in a digital economy.

With this infrastructure, AI agents become “intelligent hyperlinks”: they naturally connect, share data, and perform actions in synergy. Everything clicks into place. Everything flows. And suddenly, AI becomes infinitely more powerful.

In the very near future, every executive or entrepreneur will have a “phantom agent” — an AI that tracks calls, meetings, decisions. A CEO will be able to ask their agent for a complete situational briefing. Even more: these phantom agents will talk to each other across departments and make decisions autonomously.

This is already happening as I write these lines.

Now picture this: you give an AI the following mission — “Identify the five most profitable business models today, replicate them, and recruit the agents needed to scale them up.” In an instant, you unleash an army of AI agents set to disrupt every online business in existence. This is the beginning of a new world of automation and velocity.

And the protocol that will allow these AI agents to coordinate is the key to this revolution. Until now, AI agents operated in silos and quickly hit their limits. With the MCP protocol, that barrier disappears. An AI will be able to access your calendar, book a flight, check available hotels — and that’s just the beginning.

The true revolution lies in the scale of what this will enable.

The possibilities are nearly endless.

---

Empowering Individuals: How Open-Source AI Can Protect Our Freedoms in the Digital Age

As artificial intelligence (AI) evolves at breakneck speed, it’s essential that everyone—not just tech experts—understands how it will shape our future. While AI offers tremendous benefits, it also carries serious risks, particularly in terms of surveillance and privacy. By embracing open-source AI and freedom technologies, we can ensure a fairer, more transparent digital world.

🌍 Why Open-Source AI Matters

Open-source AI refers to systems whose code is accessible to the public—allowing anyone to audit, replicate, modify, or improve them. This transparency fosters accountability and collaboration. In contrast, closed-source AI systems, controlled by a handful of Big Tech firms or government-private alliances, risk creating monopolies and surveillance mechanisms more pervasive than anything we’ve seen before. We are already witnessing how far governments and corporations are willing to go in tracking and monitoring citizens—paving the way toward a hybrid dystopia, straight out of 1984 and Brave New World, ruled by a caste of transhumanist technocrats.

Free and open-source software is essential to reclaim control over our digital lives. Proprietary systems are easily weaponized for surveillance, undermining our fundamental rights, our privacy, and democracy itself. By supporting open-source AI, we help decentralize power and reduce the risk of authoritarian control.

🛡️ Defending Against the Surveillance Dystopia

Without adequate safeguards, AI can become a tool of mass surveillance, gradually eroding personal freedoms. To push back, we must:

Support Open-Source Initiatives: Contribute to AI projects that prioritize transparency and user control over data.

Advocate for Ethical AI Development: Demand systems that are privacy-respecting and bias-free.

Stay Informed: Educate yourself on the ethical implications of AI and Bitcoin—and take action accordingly.

🧭 A Simple Guide to Get Started

Learn the Basics of AI: Tap into accessible resources to understand the foundations of AI and prompt engineering.

Understand Bitcoin Fundamentals: Learn to be your own bank, breaking away from centralized financial systems. Exit the fiat Ponzi as much as possible during this transition. ** Explore Open-Source Principles: Familiarize yourself with how open-source works—and why it matters. ** Engage with the Community: Join forums, attend workshops, or participate in online discussions on AI and digital rights.

Practice Digital Hygiene: Use end-to-end encrypted communication tools and be mindful of your digital footprint. Seek out Freedom Tech tools that already exist—don’t be seduced and neutralized by convenience.

Promote Ethical Practices: Support policies and initiatives that favor decentralized development and individual empowerment.

Share What You Learn: Spread this knowledge in your circles—gradually, intentionally.

Why This Matters

By embracing the digital revolution, individuals can take an active role in shaping the future and contributing to a fairer, more secure society. This is especially vital for generations less familiar with emerging technologies—they face both a unique challenge and a rare opportunity. Not just the youth, but Gen X and their predecessors must bridge the knowledge gap, understand the fundamentals of Bitcoin and the potential of AI. Doing so ensures their relevance, their participation in the digital transformation, and protection for their children.

Digital literacy goes beyond just using new tools—it’s about understanding their impact, risks, and benefits. It means educating ourselves about the dangers of centralized control and the strengths of decentralized systems. This includes learning how to protect your digital privacy, manage personal data, and navigate a world increasingly shaped by AI. Equipped with these skills, individuals can help design the digital universe—and safeguard their rights within it.

The pace of technological change demands constant adaptation. As Michael Saylor puts it: the future belongs to AI and Bitcoin. Those who fail to adapt risk being left behind in a hyper-digitized society. But adaptation is not just about tools—it’s a mindset shift. It’s about embracing change and committing to lifelong learning.

This is a collective responsibility. By promoting digital literacy and encouraging exploration of empowering technologies, we can avoid a dystopian sci-fi future—and steer toward a freer, more decentralized world.

In Summary

The impact of the digital revolution is profound and demands your immediate attention. By embracing open-source AI and Bitcoin—and understanding the consequences of our digital choices—we can build a future where technology empowers people, protects freedom, and fosters sovereignty. No matter your age or background, you have a role to play in this transition. Your active participation is essential to shape a world that serves humanity, not the systems that seek to control it.

Now is the time to act. As the digital wave accelerates, fusing the wisdom of the past with tomorrow’s tools, we can co-create a world that truly reflects the values of freedom, responsibility, and collective uplift.

Inspired by Mark Moss & Tom Bilyeu !

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

KULR Technology Group Announces $300 Million ATM Offering To Invest in Their Bitcoin Treasury

KULR Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE American: KULR) announced it has entered into a Controlled Equity Offering Sales Agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC, enabling the company to sell up to $300 million of its common stock in an at-the-market (ATM) offering to support its Bitcoin treasury reserve.

JUST IN: Public company KULR is raising up to $300 million to buy more #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/Jg0yaAFkI7

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 9, 2025

Under the agreement, Cantor Fitzgerald will act as the sole sales agent, using commercially reasonable efforts to sell shares at market prices. The offering will be made under an existing shelf registration and may occur from time to time based on market conditions and company discretion.

As of June 6, 2025, KULR’s common stock was trading at $1.18 per share. The total number of shares issued under the agreement will not exceed the company’s authorized but unissued shares, after accounting for shares already reserved or committed.

“Our common stock is listed and traded on the NYSE American LLC under the symbol ‘KULR,’” stated the filing.

KULR will pay the sales agents a commission of up to 3.0% of the gross sales proceeds. The agents are considered underwriters under the Securities Act of 1933, and KULR has agreed to indemnify them against certain liabilities.

“Our business and an investment in our common stock involve significant risks,” stated the filing. “These risks are described under the caption “Risk Factors” beginning on page S-6 of this prospectus supplement, and the risk factors incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying base prospectus.”

KULR started adopting bitcoin as their primary treasury reserve asset in December 2024. Their strategy focuses on acquiring and holding bitcoin by using cash flows that exceed working capital requirements, issuing equity debt securities or raising more capital to purchase more Bitcoin.

“We view our bitcoin holdings as long term holdings and expect to continue to accumulate bitcoin,” mentioned the filing on page S-2. “We have not set any specific target for the amount of bitcoin we seek to hold, and we will continue to monitor market conditions in determining whether to engage in additional bitcoin purchases. This overall strategy also contemplates that we may periodically sell bitcoin for general corporate purposes or in connection with strategies that generate tax benefits in accordance with applicable law, enter into additional capital raising transactions, including those that could be collateralized by our bitcoin holdings, and consider pursuing strategies to create income streams or otherwise generate funds using our bitcoin holdings.”

This post KULR Technology Group Announces $300 Million ATM Offering To Invest in Their Bitcoin Treasury first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Oscar Zarraga Perez.

@ 2b24a1fa:17750f64

„Die Technologie neigt dazu, alle Attribute des religiösen Denkens, der magischen und animistischen Vernunft und des künstlerischen Schaffens sich allein einzuverleiben. Es ist noch nicht lange her, als angenommen wurde, das künstliche Objekt entferne den Menschen von der Welt. Heute ist es keine Frage der Entfernung mehr, sondern die Frage einer möglichen Verschmelzung, da die Welt selbst dazu neigt, künstlich zu werden.“\ Das schreibt Achille Mbembe, Historiker und Politikwissenschaftler aus Kamerun, in seinem Buch „Die terrestrische Gemeinschaft. Technik, Animismus und die Erde als Utopie“.

https://soundcloud.com/radiomuenchen/die-terrestrische-gemeinschaft-ein-buch-von-achille-mbembe?

Inspiration und Hoffnung findet der Autor in Afrika. Jenem Kontinent, den unsere – je nach Blickwinkel westliche oder nördliche – Zivilisation gerne reduziert auf Schlagwörter wie Krieg, Hunger, Despotie, Überbevölkerung und Aberglaube. In den alten Stammeskulturen findet Mbembe eine ganz andere Haltung, ein ganz anderes Verständnis der Welt. Das könnte uns helfen, die Natur nicht als Feind zu betrachten, den es zu bezwingen gilt, sondern als Ort, an dem alles mit allem verbunden ist und niemand sich zum Herrscher aufschwingen kann, ohne den anderen und letztlich auch sich selbst zu schaden:\ „Dieser Gemeinschaft der Erde entspricht die grundlegende Universalität aller ihrer Bewohner. Weder die menschlichen Personen noch die anderen Wesen zusammengenommen sind die Eigentümer der Erde. Sie sind dort Erdenbürger, insofern sie alle in den Genuss eines unbestreitbaren Platzes auf ihr kommen.“\ Unser Autor Jonny Rieder hat Mbembes Buch gelesen und darüber nachgedacht.

Sprecher: Ulrich Allroggen

Bild: Verlag Matthes & Seitz Berlin / Dirk Lebahn

Radio München\ www.radiomuenchen.net/​\ @radiomuenchen\ www.facebook.com/radiomuenchen\ www.instagram.com/radio_muenchen/\ twitter.com/RadioMuenchen\ odysee.com/@RadioMuenchen.net:9\ rumble.com/user/RadioMunchen

Radio München ist eine gemeinnützige Unternehmung.\ Wir freuen uns, wenn Sie unsere Arbeit unterstützen.

GLS-Bank\ IBAN: DE65 4306 0967 8217 9867 00\ BIC: GENODEM1GLS\ Bitcoin (BTC): bc1qqkrzed5vuvl82dggsyjgcjteylq5l58sz4s927\ Ethereum (ETH): 0xB9a49A0bda5FAc3F084D5257424E3e6fdD303482

@ 2b24a1fa:17750f64

Ein freier Mensch lässt sich schwer kapern. Ängste kennt er kaum, Katastrophen entlarvt er schnell, Horrorszenarien seziert er gründlich. Mit ihm lässt sich kein willkürlicher Staat machen … Und der gedemütigte, entrechtete und geschwächte Bürger will den nicht verteidigen.

https://soundcloud.com/radiomuenchen/geimpft-gef-gig-geopfert-die?

Der Jurist und Autor Milosz Matuschek weiß, dass es keinen Krieg ohne geistige Mobilmachung geben kann. Warum die ein Problem werden könnte, davon schreibt er im folgenden Text: „Geimpft, gefügig, geopfert – Die fehlende Front der Folgebereiten“, der auf seinem Substack „Freischwebende Intelligenz“ nachzulesen ist.

Sprecher: Ulrich Allroggen

https://www.freischwebende-intelligenz.org/p/geimpft-gefugig-geopfert-die-fehlende

@ d325f9e9:07ed2267

Trying tags #Hello #this

@ 2b24a1fa:17750f64

https://soundcloud.com/radiomuenchen/eine-stunde-klassik-leopold-hennberger-prasentiert-die-gitarre

Eine Stunde Klassik! Der Münchner Pianist und "Musikdurchdringer" Jürgen Plich stellt jeden Dienstag um 20 Uhr große klassische Musik vor. Er teilt seine Hör- und Spielerfahrung und seine persönliche Sicht auf die Meisterwerke. Er spielt selbst besondere, unbekannte Aufnahmen, erklärt, warum die Musik so und nicht anders klingt und hat eine Menge aus dem Leben der Komponisten zu erzählen.

Sonntags um 10 Uhr in der Wiederholung.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Connecticut halts all public investment in digital assets while other U.S. states move toward strategic bitcoin reserves.

Connecticut has taken a firm stance against digital assets by approving legislation that categorically prohibits all levels of state and local government from investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

On June 10, the Connecticut General Assembly published the final text of bill H.B. 7082, which has now become Public Act No. 25-66. The legislation was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate, signaling bipartisan agreement on the need to keep public finances away from the cryptocurrency market.

The new law establishes an outright ban on government entities purchasing, holding, or investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It also prohibits the creation of any “virtual currency reserve” and the acceptance of crypto payments.

In addition to restrictions on the public sector, the State’s legislation introduces consumer protection measures for private individuals. Crypto businesses operating as Money Service Businesses will now be required to disclose all material risks associated with cryptocurrencies through “clear, conspicuous and legible writing in the English language.”

Another provision addresses the protection of minors: the new law mandates legal guardian verification for all users under the age of 18.

While Connecticut adopts a restrictive position toward digital assets, several other U.S. states are moving in the opposite direction. New Hampshire became the first state to pass a bill for a strategic bitcoin reserve, followed by Arizona.

The post Connecticut says no to Bitcoin: law approved banning state crypto reserves appeared first on Atlas21.

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

News

• Bitcoin mining centralization in 2025. According to a blog post by b10c, Bitcoin mining was at its most decentralized in May 2017, with another favorable period from 2019 to 2022. However, starting in 2023, mining has become increasingly centralized, particularly due to the influence of large pools like Foundry and the use of proxy pooling by entities such as AntPool.

Source: b10c's blog.

• OpenSats announces the eleventh wave of Nostr grants. The five projects in this wave are the mobile live-streaming app Swae, the Nostr-over-ham-radio project HAMSTR, Vertex—a Web-of-Trust (WOT) service for Nostr developers, Nostr Double Ratchet for end-to-end encrypted messaging, and the Nostr Game Engine for building games and applications integrated with the Nostr ecosystem.
• New Spiral grantee: l0rinc. In February 2024, l0rinc transitioned to full-time work on Bitcoin Core. His efforts focus on performance benchmarking and optimizations, enhancing code quality, conducting code reviews, reducing block download times, optimizing memory usage, and refactoring code.
• Project Eleven offers 1 BTC to break Bitcoin's cryptography with a quantum computer. The quantum computing research organization has introduced the Q-Day Prize, a global challenge that offers 1 BTC to the first team capable of breaking an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) key using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer. The prize will be awarded to the first team to successfully accomplish this breakthrough by April 5, 2026.
• Unchained has launched the Bitcoin Legacy Project. The initiative seeks to advance the Bitcoin ecosystem through a bitcoin-native donor-advised fund platform (DAF), investments in community hubs, support for education and open-source development, and a commitment to long-term sustainability with transparent annual reporting.
  • In its first year, the program will provide support to Bitcoin hubs in Nashville, Austin, and Denver.
  • Support also includes $50,000 to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a $150,000 commitment at the University of Austin, and up to $250,000 in research grants through the Bitcoin Scholars program.

"Unchained will match grants 1:1 made to partner organizations who support Bitcoin Core development when made through the Unchained-powered bitcoin DAF, up to 1 BTC," was stated in a blog post.

• Block launched open-source tools for Bitcoin treasury management. These include a dashboard for managing corporate bitcoin holdings and provides a real-time BTC-to-USD price quote API, released as part of the Block Open Source initiative. The company’s own instance of the bitcoin holdings dashboard is available here.

Source: block.xyz

• Bull Bitcoin expands to Mexico, enabling anyone in the country to receive pesos from anywhere in the world straight from a Bitcoin wallet. Additionally, users can now buy Bitcoin with a Mexican bank account.

"Bull Bitcoin strongly believes in Bitcoin’s economic potential in Mexico, not only for international remittances and tourism, but also for Mexican individuals and companies to reclaim their financial sovereignty and protect their wealth from inflation and the fragility of traditional financial markets," said Francis Pouliot, Founder and CEO of Bull Bitcoin.

• Corporate bitcoin holdings hit a record high in Q1 2025. According to Bitwise, public companies' adoption of Bitcoin has hit an all-time high. In Q1 2025, these firms collectively hold over 688,000 BTC, marking a 16.11% increase from the previous quarter. This amount represents 3.28% of Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply.

Source: Bitwise.

• The Bitcoin Bond Company for institutions has launched with the aim of acquiring $1 trillion in Bitcoin over 21 years. It utilizes secure, transparent, and compliant bond-like products backed by Bitcoin.
• The U.S. Senate confirmed Paul Atkins as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At his confirmation hearing, Atkins emphasized the need for a clear framework for digital assets. He aims to collaborate with the CFTC and Congress to address jurisdiction and rulemaking gaps, aligning with the Trump administration's goal to position the U.S. as a leader in Bitcoin and blockchain finance.
• Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has been released from custody. Griffith, whose sentence was reduced to 56 months, is now seeking a pardon. He was initially sentenced to 63 months for allegedly violating international sanctions laws by providing technical advice on using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to evade sanctions during a presentation titled 'Blockchains for Peace' in North Korea.
• No-KYC exchange eXch to close down under money laundering scrutiny. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency trading platform said it will cease operations on May 1. This decision follows allegations that the platform was used by North Korea's Lazarus Group for money laundering. eXch revealed it is the subject of an active "transatlantic operation" aimed at shutting down the platform and prosecuting its team for "money laundering and terrorism."
• Blockstream combats ESP32 FUD concerning Jade signers. The company stated that after reviewing the vulnerability disclosed in early March, Jade was found to be secure. Espressif Systems, the designer of the ESP32, has since clarified that the "undocumented commands" do not constitute a "backdoor."

• Bank of America is lobbying for regulations that favor banks over tech firms in stablecoin issuance. The bank's CEO Brian Moynihan is working with groups such as the American Bankers Association to advance the issuance of a fully reserved, 1:1 backed "Bank of America coin." If successful, this could limit stablecoin efforts by non-banks like Tether, Circle, and others, reports The Block.
• Tether to back OCEAN Pool with its hashrate. "As a company committed to financial freedom and open access, we see supporting decentralization in Bitcoin mining as essential to the network’s long-term integrity," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
• Bitdeer to expand its self-mining operations to navigate tariffs. The Singapore-based mining company is advancing plans to produce machines in the U.S. while reducing its mining hardware sales. This response is in light of increasing uncertainties related to U.S. trade policy, as reported by Bloomberg.
• Tether acquires $32M in Bitdeer shares. The firm has boosted its investment in Bitdeer during a wider market sell-off, with purchases in early to mid-April amounting to about $32 million, regulatory filings reveal.
• US Bitcoin miner manufacturer Auradine has raised $153 million in a Series C funding round as it expands into AI infrastructure. The round was led by StepStone Group and included participation from Maverick Silicon, Premji Invest, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Mayfield, MARA Holdings, GSBackers, and other existing investors. The firm raised to over $300 million since its inception in 2022.
• Voltage has partnered with BitGo to [enable](https://www.voltage.cloud/blog/bitgo-and-voltage-team-up-to-deliver-instant-bitcoin-and-stabl

@ 2b24a1fa:17750f64

Eine Kolumne von Michael Sailer, jeden ersten Freitag bei Radio München, nachzulesen auf sailersblog.de.

https://soundcloud.com/radiomuenchen/belastigungen-36-im-anti-gleichschritt-marsch-deutschland-wiederholt-sich

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

• "Today we're launching the beta version of our multiplatform Nostr browser! Think Google Chrome but for Nostr apps. The beta is our big first step toward this vision," announced Damus.
• This version comes with the Dave Nostr AI assistant, support for zaps and the Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) wallet interface, full-text note search, GIFs and fullscreen images, multiple media uploads, user tagging, relay list and mute list support, along with a number of other improvements."

"Included in the beta is the Dave, the Nostr AI assistant (its Grok for Nostr). Dave is a new Notedeck browser app that can search and summarize notes from the network. For a full breakdown of everything new, check out our beta launch video."

What's new

• Dave Nostr AI assistant app.
• GIFs.
• Fulltext note search.
• Add full screen images, add zoom, and pan.
• Zaps! NWC/ Wallet UI.
• Introduce last note per pubkey feed (experimental).
• Allow multiple media uploads per selection.
• Major Android improvements (still WIP).
• Added notedeck app sidebar.
• User Tagging.
• Note truncation.
• Local network note broadcast, broadcast notes to other notedeck notes while you're offline.
• Mute list support (reading).
• Relay list support.
• Ctrl-enter to send notes.
• Added relay indexing (relay columns soon).
• Click hashtags to open hashtag timeline.
• Fixed timelines sometimes not updating (stale feeds).
• Fixed UI bounciness when loading profile pictures
• Fixed unselectable post replies.

Announcement / Archive
GitHub Repo
Website

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Why are Stripe Alternatives are growing like mushrooms? When it comes to online payment processing, Stripe has long dominated the conversation.

However, with its complex pricing structure, strict policies and first-world focus, many entrepreneurs and companies are actively seeking viable Stripe alternatives.

Whether you’re a SaaS startup, e-commerce store, or global enterprise, choosing the right payment processor can significantly impact your bottom line and customer experience.

Table of Contents

• Why Consider Stripe Alternatives?
• The Complete List of Stripe Alternatives
• Additional Notable Mentions
• How to Choose the Right Stripe Alternative
• Conclusion

Why Consider Stripe Alternatives?

Before diving into our comprehensive list, it’s worth understanding why businesses are exploring alternatives to Stripe. While Stripe offers robust features and excellent developer tools, some businesses face challenges with pricing transparency, limited global coverage, or specific industry requirements that Stripe doesn’t fully address.

The Complete List of Stripe Alternatives

Based on extensive research and analysis of the payment processing landscape, here are 27 proven Stripe alternatives that could be the perfect fit for your business:

1. Flash – Easiest Bitcoin Payment Solution

Flash is the easiest Bitcoin payment gateway for businesses to accept payments. Supporting both digital and physical enterprises, Flash leverages the Lightning Network to enable fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions. Launched in its 2.0 version in March 2025, Flash is at the forefront of driving Bitcoin adoption in e-commerce.

2. Lemon Squeezy – The SaaS-Focused Alternative

Dubbed as “acq’d by Stripe,” Lemon Squeezy offers a comprehensive solution specifically designed for digital product sales and SaaS businesses. It provides strong customer support, built-in analytics, and handles payments, subscriptions, global tax compliance, and fraud prevention in one platform.

3. Gumroad – Creator Economy Champion

Gumroad has carved out a niche serving creators and small businesses by providing tools for selling digital products, physical goods, and subscriptions. It’s particularly popular among content creators, artists, and independent entrepreneurs who want to experiment with various ideas and formats. They also open-sourced their code which is quite the ‘chad-move’.

4. Paddle – All-in-One SaaS Commerce

Paddle caters to SaaS and software companies by offering a comprehensive platform with billing, licensing, and global tax handling capabilities. It’s designed to be a complete solution for subscription-based businesses, handling payments, tax, and subscription management in one platform.

5. FastSpring – Global E-commerce Specialist

FastSpring specializes in e-commerce solutions for software and SaaS companies, with a focus on global payments and subscription management. According to TechnologyAdvice, it’s particularly strong for international transactions and helps companies sell more, stay lean, and compete big.

6. 2Checkout – Versatile Payment Solutions

2Checkout (now part of Verifone) offers versatile payment solutions excelling in global payments, subscription billing, and digital commerce. One of the best stripe alternatives as it’s an all-in-one monetization platform that maximizes revenues and makes global online sales easier, supporting over 200 countries and territories.

7. Payoneer – Cross-Border Payment Expert

Payoneer simplifies cross-border payment solutions, offering local payment ease globally with a focus on market expansion and multi-currency support. It’s trusted by small to medium-sized businesses for global payment solutions and international money transfers.

8. Chargebee – Subscription Management Leader

Chargebee is a subscription management platform perfect for SaaS and SMBs, with robust billing and revenue management features. If you were looking for stripe alternatives to setup subscriptions, Chargebee might be right for you. It streamlines revenue operations and helps businesses grow efficiently with comprehensive subscription billing capabilities.

9. Maxio (formerly Chargify) – B2B SaaS Billing

Maxio offers a robust platform for B2B SaaS billing and financial operations, focusing on growth and efficiency for subscription businesses. It’s the most complete financial operations platform for B2B SaaS, bringing core financial operations into one platform.

10. Recurly – Dynamic Subscription Management

Recurly offers dynamic subscription management platform, excelling in churn management and data insights for subscription growth. It’s the only proven platform that expands and protects your recurring revenue with subscription management, recurring billing, and payments orchestration.

11. Braintree – PayPal’s Enterprise Solution

Braintree (by PayPal) provides a versatile global payments platform, integrating multiple payment methods with a focus on conversion and security. It delivers end-to-end checkout experiences for businesses, offering single-touch payments and mobile optimization.

12. PayKickstart – Modern Commerce Platform

PayKickstart offers a modern commerce platform for online billing and affiliates, focusing on revenue maximization and churn minimization. It’s the most complete checkout, recurring billing, affiliate management, and retention solution with global capabilities.

13. PayPro Global – Full-Service E-commerce

PayPro Global offers a full-service eCommerce solution for selling software and SaaS, focusing on global payments, tax compliance, and customer support. It provides flexible solutions with over 70 payment methods and great support for software companies.

14. Shopify Payments – E-commerce Integration

Integrated with Shopify, this service is ideal for SMBs in eCommerce, offering a seamless shopping cart and payment experience. It’s the simplest way to accept online payments, automatically set up for major methods with no fees for some payment types.

15. Square – Versatile POS and Payment Solutions

Square provides versatile POS and payment solutions for small businesses with a strong focus on retail and mobile payments. Forbes Advisor notes it as one of the top alternatives for businesses needing both online and offline payment capabilities.

16. Zoho Billing – Integrated Business Solution

Zoho Billing is an online recurring billing and subscription management solution, ideal for small and medium-sized businesses seeking professional invoice creation, time and expense tracking, and improved cash flow management. Zoho isn’t just competing for stripe alternatives, they offer a ton of other products and services.

17. WePay – Chase Company Integration

WePay, a Chase company, provides integrated payment solutions for ISVs and SaaS companies with customizable payment solutions. It’s designed for platforms like marketplaces and small business tools, offering seamless user experience and fraud protection.

18. QuickBooks Payments – SMB Accounting Integration

This service provides seamless accounting and payment solutions for SMBs and SaaS businesses, featuring real-time tracking and automated bookkeeping. It lets small businesses accept payments online from anywhere with easy integration into QuickBooks accounting.

19. Mangopay – Marketplace Payment Infrastructure

Mangopay offers a modular payment infrastructure for marketplaces and platforms, emphasizing flexibility, global payouts, and AI-powered anti-fraud. It uses flexible wallets built to orchestrate fund flows and monetize payment experiences.

20. Coinbase Commerce – Cryptocurrency Payments

Coinbase Commerce enables businesses to accept payments from around the world using cryptocurrency. It offers instant settlement, low fees, and broad asset support, making it easy for merchants to accept digital currency payments globally.

21. BTCPay Server – Open-Source Bitcoin Processor

BTCPay Server is a self-hosted, open-source cryptocurrency payment processor with 0% fees and no third-party involvement. It’s secure, private, censorship-resistant, and completely free for businesses wanting full control over their Bitcoin payments.

22. Lago – Open-Source Billing Alternative

Lago is an open-source alternative to Stripe Billing and Chargebee, specializing in billing and metering in one place for usage-b

@ 9c9d2765:16f8c2c2

In the bustling city of Kano, where clock towers chimed and gears never stopped turning, lived an old man named Mallam Audu, the greatest clockmaker the city had ever known. His hands were steady, his mind sharp, and his heart closed.

Years ago, his only son, Umar, had stolen the shop’s finest work: a jeweled timepiece meant for the king. He vanished into the world, leaving Mallam Audu disgraced and alone. Since that day, the old man never spoke his son’s name again.

Years passed. Kano changed. But Mallam Audu remained at his bench, repairing clocks for strangers, refusing apprentices, never smiling.

One winter night, during the first snowfall, a stranger entered his shop. He was cloaked, thin, and tired.

“I heard you fix what’s broken,” the man said.

Mallam Audu didn’t look up. “Leave the clock.”

But the man pulled back his hood. It was Umar, older, gaunt, and ashamed. In his hand, he held the broken timepiece he once stole.

“I tried to sell it,” he said, voice trembling. “But I never could. I carried it everywhere, and it broke. Like everything I touched.”

Mallam Audu stared at his son. His hands twitched, not with anger, but with memories. The boy who used to laugh in the workshop… the boy who made one terrible mistake.

Umar knelt. “I don’t ask to be forgiven. Only for you to fix it.”

Mallam Audu took the timepiece. Slowly, he set it on the bench. Then, without a word, he reached into the drawer and handed Umar a second stool, the one that had sat empty for years.

Side by side, father and son began to work.

The next morning, the clocks of Kano chimed not just with time but with healing.

Moral:

Forgiveness is not forgetting the wound. It's choosing to stop carrying it. And in that release, we repair not just others but ourselves.

@ 2b24a1fa:17750f64

Sexualität ist die Urkraft des Lebens und der Vitalität. Und weil das so ist, rückt sie in den Fokus der Macht. Der Staat schlüpft unter die Bettdecke. Sexualität ist ein, wenn nicht gar der Machthebel schlechthin, mit dem Menschen manipulier- und kontrollierbar sind. Ob durch sexuelle Unterdrückung, Pervertierung, Verwirrung oder durch inflationäre Überreizung – die Bandbreite der Suggestion ist groß.

https://soundcloud.com/radiomuenchen/sex-ist-politisch-von-kerstin-chavent?

Diesem Schatten auf der schönsten … sagen wir: Hauptsache der Welt, hat sich unsere Autorin Kerstin Chavent angenommen. Hören Sie ihren Text „Sex ist politisch“. Nachzulesen bei Manova. www.manova.news/artikel/sex-ist-politisch

Sprecherin Sabrina Khalil

www.radiomuenchen.net/​\ @radiomuenchen\ www.facebook.com/radiomuenchen\ www.instagram.com/radio_muenchen/\ twitter.com/RadioMuenchen

Radio München ist eine gemeinnützige Unternehmung.\ Wir freuen uns, wenn Sie unsere Arbeit unterstützen.

GLS-Bank\ IBAN: DE65 4306 0967 8217 9867 00\ BIC: GENODEM1GLS\ Bitcoin (BTC): bc1qqkrzed5vuvl82dggsyjgcjteylq5l58sz4s927\ Ethereum (ETH): 0xB9a49A0bda5FAc3F084D5257424E3e6fdD303482

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Metaplanet Inc. has bought 1,088 more bitcoin (BTC), and now holds 8,888 BTC worth over $930 million. This puts Metaplanet in the top 10 corporate bitcoin holders, ahead of Galaxy Digital and Block Inc.

Metaplanet Inc. on X

The company’s CEO Simon Gerovich announced the purchase on X on June 2, 2025. The company bought the new BTC at an average price of around $107,771 per coin, costing the company approximately $117.3 million.

The company said this purchase brings them 90% of the way to their 2025 goal of 10,000 BTC.

Metaplanet only started its bitcoin treasury policy in April 2024 but has been moving fast. At the start of 2025, it had less than 2,000 BTC, and now it has over 8,800.

This has been done through a combination of stock rights exercises and bond issuances, raising capital without diluting existing shareholders. In May 2025 alone, Metaplanet issued zero-coupon, non-interest-bearing bonds for a combined value of $71 million.

According to the filings, the company recently completed its “21 Million Plan” which was a program that involved the full exercise of 210 million stock acquisition rights.

These stock rights allowed Metaplanet to raise capital through equity sales while limiting dilution risk.

Metaplanet’s Bitcoin strategist, Dylan LeClair, said the company views bitcoin as a core part of its financial strategy and is all in, not just making small allocations.

Metaplanet’s buying has paid off in more ways than one.

Its BTC Yield, a company metric that compares bitcoin holdings to total shares, has impressed investors. In Q2 2025 it had a 66.3% BTC Yield, year-to-date it has a 225% BTC Yield.

Metaplanet BTC Yield over time — Vincent on X

The stock is up 155% in the last month and is currently trading at 1,149 JPY, despite the overall volatility in the Tokyo Stock Exchange—where many other companies are under pressure due to the rising Japanese bond yields.

Analysts say the company still has more room to run.

Analysts say the company’s mNAV is back to 4.75 and the stock is undervalued compared to Strategy.

mNAV is short for “multiple of Net Asset Value” and is a metric used to compare the market’s valuation of a company to the actual value of its assets, primarily its bitcoin holdings.

Metaplanet is called “Japan’s Strategy”, a reference to Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the U.S.-based company that holds over 580,000 BTC—the most of any company in the world.

The corporate bitcoin boom isn’t stopping with Strategy and Metaplanet. On May 28, 2025 GameStop announced it had bought 4,710 BTC, worth over $512 million, its first foray into bitcoin after updating its investment policy this year.

@ 7459d333:f207289b

I've been thinking about Bitcoin's long-term trajectory and whether it might mirror what happened with the internet.

The Internet Parallel: - Started as a decentralized protocol among tech enthusiasts - Remained fundamentally decentralized and "based" - But in practice, most users experience it through centralized gatekeepers: - Google Chrome + Google Search - Twitter/Reddit/Instagram for content - Amazon for commerce

The Counter-Examples:

Of course, some of us still use: - Firefox + Kagi - Nostr/Stacker.news/RSS feeds - XMPP/Matrix/... for communications

And the internet is still vastly more decentralized and censorship-resistant than the pre-internet world.

The Bitcoin Question:

Will Bitcoin face similar practical centralization pressures? Will most people end up using Bitcoin through a handful of corporate interfaces while the underlying protocol remains decentralized?

Root Cause:

Is this centralization tendency due to:

1. Human nature - people preferring convenience over sovereignty?
2. Broken money systems that enable these mega-corporations to capture markets?

What do you think? Is practical centralization inevitable for successful decentralized protocols, or can Bitcoin chart a different course?

https://stacker.news/items/1003297

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Second Coming — W.B. Yeats

I don’t know what I want to write about today. There are a lot of converging currents coursing through my reality right now. I feel we’re in an interregnum of sorts between what was and what’s to come. I guess you could simply describe that as the present, something that has ever been the case. But this moment feels more intense like something big is dying and something else, God knows what, is on its way “to be born".

I exchanged emails recently with an old friend, and he sent me a link to a David Foster Wallace commencement speech entitled “This Is Water.” In it Wallace tells a joke of an old fish seeing two younger fish swimming by and asks them “How’s the water?” Later on one of the younger ones asks the other, “What is water?”

Wallace hanged himself a few years after the speech. Apparently he was unable to maintain the perspective he laid out in it which was that we can choose our attitude toward what we experience in any moment, no matter how much aversion we habitually associate with it. That the act of choosing equanimity constitutes the freedom we seek. That this freedom to choose is ever present, in fact the ability to direct our attention and consciousness is itself the water. And yet out of habit we are often oblivious to this most fundamental reality.

My friend’s email was in response to my description of the dissolution I see right now. Everything seems fake. The news, the governments, the edicts of reputationally bankrupt institutions zombying along as though the last five years never happened, like the proverbial emperor still purporting to rule though everyone can now see his pale, unsightly posterior.

Yes, the coffee shops are still open, people still go on vacation with their families. Let’s go to Paris, Rome, the Greek Isles! Let’s pretend everything is as we had imagined in the before times when our goals and aspirations seemed real, when the glitchy pixels in the matrix hadn’t yet revealed themselves so glaringly.

Maybe this was always the case. All our games were always professional wrestling, a scripted charade for which we willingly suspended disbelief. But like the roadrunner in the cartoon, we have since become aware we have run out of road, four steps beyond the cliff edge.

. . .

Wallace in his speech described such indignities as being stuck in traffic after a long day of work, or in a long grocery checkout line. The mind’s usual programs run, cursing everyone and everything around us. Instead of contemplating the miracle of human existence we feel only disgust and impatience. We want to finish with the run, the work, the obligatory hour so we can move on to something presumably more pleasant.

I can handle such day to day discomforts, but the overwhelming sense of dissolution is undermining the aims to which I had once attached meaning. I set up my life for freedom and prosperity, and now, just as I have my ducks in a row, there’s an imminent magnetic pole shift or a financial and social collapse that threatens to counterfeit my efforts.

It’s easy to opt out when you’re losing, to decry the injustice, unfairness and pointlessness of the game when you weren’t getting much from it anyway. When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose, to paraphrase Bob Dylan. But as a late bloomer wanting to sample the wine of the Gods at long last, it’s dispiriting in a different way, like saving up for a new car and seeing it stolen before you had a chance to drive it.

That’s the shallow version, distress at discovering just before getting the things I had always wanted I was actually playing not just the wrong game, but a false one. That I’m upset I can’t gratify my ego in the way I had hoped, that I can’t get the pat on the back I had craved because the back-patters decided to tear up the playing field just as I finally became a contender.

The deeper version is you only get better at the game through your own efforts to discover what’s true, your own self-mastery and access to a measure of wisdom. This process transforms your life from a tedious and difficult slog to a state of ease and flow. You are more connected, more in touch with yourself and the forces within. You can handle aversion, in fact voluntarily invite it at times to hone your mind and access your resourcefulness. You love your life and connect to the people in it. You have great hope and aspirations for the future. You believe in God, or the Tao or whatever force animates all things, you can navigate the world’s imperfections and do not want it to fall into chaos and disorder.

The task of remembering this during the run, the traffic jam or the grocery store checkout line is not so difficult. But would it be the same during periods of violence and resource scarcity where literal survival is at stake, the rules of which are set by biology and physics rather than the incentives of human society?

Yes, I’d rather be eating dinner at home than sitting in traffic, but I can appreciate that I’m able to sit comfortably in my climate controlled pod, listening to music while traversing these distances rather than foraging for food in the harsh wild. Yes, this old Portuguese lady is taking an eternity to get the groceries into her pushcart, but I can imagine how it is to be old and slow and still have to shop and eat, and it’s trivial to cut her some slack.

I’m not claiming I always have this perspective, but I surely am able to channel equanimity during the ordinary aversion that arises in one’s day to day life. I do this while running on the track, the aches and pains, the discomfort, the wanting to get it over with is a battle I fight every week by my own choosing. But imagine if instead of running 10 minute miles I was forced to do them in six. It’s not so easy to keep a calm, conscious mind while gasping for breath.

The truth is these calamities I imagine are not yet real, the asteroid has not yet hit, the economy not yet collapsed. I have never experienced the kind of hardship I dread. I am ever in the grocery line, the 10-minute mile run, the traffic jam, never the concentration camp or Mad Max-style post-apocalypse. Why not just deal with that when the time comes, if it ever comes? Why die a thousand deaths like the proverbial coward rather than the one required of the brave man?

I suppose it comes down to wanting to be prepared. There’s nothing you can do if an asteroid destroys the entire earth, but if your national government devolves into tyranny, you could get out before it’s too late. There’s the adage one should only concern oneself about the things one can control, but the rub is in deciding what’s in your power and of what to let go. It’s an easy out, per the adage, to narrow your locus of control to doing your job and paying your bills. You can too easily forget that which job you have, where you live, what preparations to make are also matters in which you have a choice.

Even if you believe a magnetic pole shift could spill the earth’s oceans across continents within the next few decades — I find this plausible — you could move to the mountains to get ahead even of that. A fatalist, non-questioning attitude can be a psychological salve in times of upheaval, but “salve” and "“slave” are but a typo apart.

. . .

When I was six someone broke into my house. I was still awake, and while pretending to be asleep, I heard him rummaging through my belongings, stealing an old Fisher Price turntable and a black and white TV. My father died four years later, and at 10, I remember thinking as the oldest boy in the house, it was now my responsibility to defend my family if anything like that, or worse, happened again. Of course, I wasn’t really capable of doing this, and I knew it, but I would have to try, futile as it might be.

I imagine that psychology has stayed with me as an adult — it’s up to me to see around corners, assess the various threats to me and my family, even if some of them are too daunting for any one individual. I could let it go, I suppose, it would probably even be healthy to do so. But there is a part of me that wonders whether people like me, people who feel this irrational responsibility, are the those who survive cataclysms and shocks. I surely am not the only one who feels this way and quite likely would not be especially effective given I don’t have engineering, outdoorsman or serious combat skills. But that hyper-vigilance toward and preparation for worse-case scenarios is something someone has to do, someone who would likely be selected for the role by the particular accidents of his upbringing.

. . .

There is another way to look at this, of course. The notion one ought to step up in the face of adverse circumstances, even extreme ones, is valid. But perhaps the best way to prepare is not endlessly to assess potential threats like some black ops CIA outfit, but to have a calm and detached mind. Should the signs appear, a poised and observant person would take action insofar as he is able. That you, having trained your attention away from default habits of comfort-seeking and dread and toward conscious observation, will do what’s required if and when the time comes. That you can trust yourself, and by that I mean trust in God, so to speak, to guide your awareness and actions for the most effective and adaptive response.

The Fourth Turning might well be upon us, indeed “the centre [may not] hold.” There is no guarantee your response will ensure you or those you love survive. There has never been such a guarantee for anyone, only the freedom to direct your attention, to choose your state of mind, to the extent you are capable, in the conditions that arise. To respond to the older fish that the water is okay, it’s pretty nice actually.

@ f85b9c2c:d190bcff

The ability to concentrate on a specific task or goal for an extended period of time is referred to as focus. It is a critical component of success in any field because it allows us to devote our full attention and effort to what we are doing resulting in increased productivity and better results. It can be difficult to maintain focus and avoid distractions in today’s fast-paced and constantly connected world. The advantages of focus on the other hand are numerous including reduced stress, improved performance, and the ability to achieve our goals more efficiently. In this post we will discuss the role of focus in goal achievement, offer strategies for increasing focus, and talk about the importance of rest and breaks in maintaining focus.

The Role Of Focus In Goal Achievement Setting specific goals is a crucial first step toward success but it’s also critical to keep your attention on them in order to advance. Without focus it is simple to get distracted and lose track of the goals we are pursuing. By staying focused we can stay on course and stop wasting time and effort on activities that don’t further our objectives. One major hindrance to focus is multitasking which is the act of trying to complete multiple tasks at the same time. While it may seem like an efficient use of time research has shown that multitasking can actually decrease productivity and impair cognitive function. This is so because our brains are not built to multitask and can only fully concentrate on one thing at a time. Focusing on one task at a time and giving it our full attention will help us accomplish our goals more successfully.

Strategies For Increasing Focus There are a number of tactics that can aid in sharpening our focus and maintaining our direction. Setting up a supportive environment is one of the best ways to improve focus. This entails getting rid of distractions like noise, crowding and pointless activities.A dedicated time free from interruptions or distractions is also beneficial for focused work. There are also several techniques that can help us maintain focus while working. This enables us to focus for a predetermined amount of time before taking a break and renewing our energy. To-do lists can help us prioritize tasks and monitor our progress which is another benefit for staying focused.

The Importance of Rest and Breaks In Maintaining Focus While it is important to maintain focus while working it is also crucial to take breaks and rest in order to sustain that focus over time. Taking breaks can help reduce stress and prevent burnout which can hinder focus and productivity. Breaks can also increase creativity and problem-solving abilities as they allow our brains to process and integrate new information. To maintain focus and succeed, it’s critical to strike a balance between focused work and rest. This could entail planning regular breaks during the day or taking a trip to recharge. Regardless of the strategy it’s critical to give sleep a high priority and incorporate it into our daily schedules.

Focusing on the Driver of Success Focus is a crucial element of success in any field. It allows us to concentrate on a specific task or goal and give it our full attention resulting in increased productivity and better results. Maintaining focus can be challenging especially in today’s fast-paced and constantly connected world but there are strategies we can use to increase focus and stay on track. These include creating a conducive environment for focus, using techniques like the to-do lists, and taking regular breaks to rest and recharge. By prioritizing and cultivating focus we can achieve our personal and professional goals more efficiently and effectively. Note: Focus requires prioritization and that comes with delegation.

@ ea39b0da:29a1710d

{"id":"note_1749629137436_gmf1g18lv","title":"Shopping list","content":"Here are the items that we need to purchase ","color":"#fff475","tags":[],"sharedWith":[],"updatedAt":1749629137436,"version":1,"versions":[]}

@ 7f6db517:a4931eda

Humanity's Natural State Is Chaos
Without order there is chaos. Humans competing with each other for scarce resources naturally leads to conflict until one group achieves significant power and instates a "monopoly on violence."

Power Brings Stability
Power has always been the key means to achieve stability in societies. Centralized power can be incredibly effective in addressing issues such as crime, poverty, and social unrest efficiently. Unfortunately this power is often abused and corrupted.

Centralized Power Breeds Tyranny
Centralized power often leads to tyrannical rule. When a select few individuals hold control over a society, they tend to become corrupted. Centralized power structures often lack accountability and transparency, and rely too heavily on trust.

Distributed Power Cultivates Freedom
New technology that empowers individuals provide us the ability to rebuild societies from the bottom up. Strong individuals that can defend and provide for themselves will help build strong local communities on a similar foundation. The result is power being distributed throughout society rather than held by a select few.

In the short term, relying on trust and centralized power is an easy answer to mitigating chaos, but freedom tech tools provide us the ability to build on top of much stronger distributed foundations that provide stability while also cultivating individual freedom.

The solution starts with us. Empower yourself. Empower others. A grassroots freedom tech movement scaling one person at a time.

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If you found this post helpful support my work with bitcoin.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

Sup, freaks? Your Uncle Marty did a little vibe coding a couple months ago and that vibe coding project has turned into an actual product that is live in the Google Chrome web store and will soon to be live in the Firefox add-on store as well. It's called Opportunity Cost and it is an extension that enables you to price the internet in Bitcoin.

Opportunity Cost – See Prices in Bitcoin Instantly

Convert USD prices to Bitcoin (satoshis) as you browse. Dual display, privacy-first, and open source.

Opportunity CostTFTC

Check it out!

This whole process has been extremely rewarding to me for many reasons. The first of which is that I've had many ideas in the past to launch a product focused on bitcoin education that simply never left my brain because I never felt comfortable paying a developer to go out and build a product that I wasn't sure would ultimately get product market fit.

Due to the advancements of AI, particularly ChatGPT and Replit, I was able to spend a few hours on a Saturday vibe coding a prototype for Opportunity Cost. It worked. I side loaded it into Chrome and Firefox, tested it out for a few days and decided, "Hey, I think this is something that's worthwhile and should be built."

Backtracking just a little bit, the initial idea for this app was to create an AR application that would enable you to take pictures of goods in the real world and have their prices automatically converted to bitcoin so that you could weigh the opportunity cost of whether or not you actually wanted to buy that good or decide to save in bitcoin instead. With the help of Justin Moon from the Human Rights Foundation and Anthony Ronning from OpenSecret and Maple AI, I was pointed in the right direction of vibe coding tools I could use to build a simple MVP. I took their advice, built the MVP, and demoed it at the Bitcoin Park Austin weekly AI meetup in mid-April.

The next week, I was talking with a friend, Luke Thomas, about the idea and during our conversation he made a simple quip, "You should make a Chrome extension. I really want a Chrome extension that does this." And that's what sent me down the vibe coding rabbit hole that Saturday which led to the prototype.

After I was comfortable with and confident in the prototype, I found a young hungry developer by the name of Moses on Nostr, I reached out to him, told him my idea, showed him the prototype and asked if he thought he could finish the application for me. He luckily agreed to do so and within a couple of weeks we had a fully functioning app that was officially launched today. We're about 12 hours into the launch and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception from the broader Bitcoin community. It seems like something that people are happy exists and I feel extremely happy that people see some value in this particular application.

Now that you have the backstory, let's get into why I think something like Opportunity Cost should exist. As someone who's been writing a newsletter and producing podcasts about bitcoin for eight years in an attempt to educate individuals from around the world about what bitcoin is, why it's important, and how they can leverage it, I've become convinced that a lot of the work that needs to be done still exists at the top of the funnel. You can scream at people. You can grab them by the shoulders. You can shake them. You can remind them at Thanksgiving that if they had listened to your advice during any Thanksgiving in the previous years they would be better off financially. But at the end of the day most people don't listen. They need to see things. Seeing things for yourself is a much more effective teaching mechanism than be lectured to by someone else.

My hope with Opportunity Cost is that it catches the eye of some bitcoin skeptics or individuals who may be on the cusp of falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole and they see the extension as a way to dip their toes into bitcoin to get a better understanding of the world by pricing the goods and services they purchase on a day-to-day month-to-month and year-to-year basis in bitcoin without having to download a wallet or set up an exchange account. The tippy top of the bitcoin marketing funnel.

That is not all though. I think Opportunity Cost can serve individuals at both ends of the funnel. That's why it's pretty exciting to me. It's as valuable to the person who is bitcoin curious and looking to get a better understanding as it is to the hardcore bitcoiner living on a bitcoin standard who is trying to get access to better tools that enable him to get a better grasp of their spending in bitcoin terms.

Lastly, after playing around with it for a few days after I built the prototype, I realized that it has incredible memetic potential. Being able to take a screenshot of goods that people are buying on a day-to-day basis, pricing them in bitcoin and then sharing them on social media is very powerful. Everything from houses to junk items on Amazon to the salaries of pro athletes to your everyday necessities. Seeing the value of those things in bitcoin really makes you think.

One day while I was testing the app, I tried to see how quickly I could find goods on the internet that cumulatively eclipsed the 21 million supply cap limit of bitcoin. To my surprise, even though I've been in bitcoin for 12 years now, it did not take me that long. The opportunity cost of everything I buy on a day-to-day basis becomes very clear when using the extension. What's even clearer is the fact that Bitcoin is completely mispriced at current levels. There is so much winning ahead of us.

Also, it's probably important to note that the extension is open source. You can check out our GitHub page here. Submit pull requests. Suggest changes to the app.

We've also tried to make Opportunity Cost as privacy preserving as possible. Everything within the extension happens in your browser. The only external data that we're providing is the bitcoin to fiat price conversion at any given point in time. We're not data harvesting the web pages you're browsing or the items you're looking at. We're not collecting data and sending it to third party marketers. We want to align ourselves with the open and permissionless nature of bitcoin while also preserving our users' privacy. We're not trying to monetize this in that way. Though, I will say that I'm thinking of ways to monetize Opportunity Cost if it does gain significant traction, but I promise it will be in a way that respects your privacy and is as unobtrusive as possible. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Please download and use the extension. Let us know what you think.

Headlines of the Day

Saylor Says Bitcoin Is Perfect Money to Jordan Peterson - via X

Trump Won't Sell Tesla Despite Musk-Bessent Heated Exchange - via X

Bitcoin Gains Traction in Kenya's Largest Slum Kibera - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

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Bitcoin’s Next Parabolic Move: Could Liquidity Lead the Way?

Is bitcoin’s next parabolic move starting? Global liquidity and business cycle indicators suggest it may be.

Read the latest report from Unchained and TechDev, analyzing how global M2 liquidity and the copper/gold ratio—two historically reliable macro indicators—are aligning once again to signal that a new bitcoin bull market may soon begin.

Download the report here

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150.00M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

East Coast aesthetics over everything.

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*Download our free browser extension, Opportunity Cost: *<<https://www.opportunitycost.app/>> start thinking in SATS today.

*Get this newsletter sent to your inbox daily: *https://www.tftc.io/bitcoin-brief/

Subscribe to our YouTube channels and follow us on Nostr and X:

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

Bitcoin Core developers are planning changes to OP_RETURN data limits in version 30.

A group of Bitcoin Core developers has set October for the implementation of changes to the management of OP_RETURN outputs — a field that allows small amounts of arbitrary data to be inserted into Bitcoin transactions.

Currently, Bitcoin Core’s default mempool limits these outputs to 83 bytes. The upcoming modification will increase this limit to nearly 4MB per output. Some developers, including Antoine Poinsot and Peter Todd, argue for the need for greater flexibility in how the blockchain can be used.

The conservative stance

Resistance to these changes is being led by figures such as Luke Dashjr and BitcoinMechanic, who consider the expansion of the OP_RETURN limit a betrayal of Bitcoin’s fundamental principles. In their view, node operators should reject the storage of data unrelated to Bitcoin’s financial use case.

Conservatives argue that Bitcoin should not become a cloud storage service or a database for arbitrary data. The Bitcoin ledger, they maintain, should serve a narrow purpose: exclusively validating BTC movements for monetary use cases.

Version 30 release scheduled

The announcement of the October release date came via a post from Bitcoin Core developer Gloria Zhao, who confirmed the planned rollout for version 30.

While the default value will increase from 83 bytes to nearly 4MB, node operators will still be able to manually adjust the -datacarrier and -datacarriersize parameters. However, it’s widely acknowledged that most users stick with the default configuration.

Technical and philosophical implications

The controversy extends beyond purely technical matters, touching on fundamental questions about Bitcoin’s identity and future. Progressives see this evolution as necessary to keep Bitcoin competitive and versatile.

Conservatives, on the other hand, fear that allowing the storage of large amounts of arbitrary data could compromise network efficiency, increase node operation costs, and steer Bitcoin away from its original mission as a decentralized digital currency.

Community reactions

The debate has sparked tensions within the community. The technical editor of Bitcoin Magazine described conservatives as groups of people “clueless, and in some cases outright malicious and manipulative people on social media.”

On the other side, BitcoinMechanic called the progressives’ proposed changes completely “incoherent” with Bitcoin’s nature and objectives.

Jimmy Song also criticized the decision in a post on X, stating:

OP_RETURN outputs greater than 83 bytes will increase significantly, UTXO bloat will keep getting worse and there will be more garbage on chain.

This is going to age like a bad tattoo. pic.twitter.com/hUTpg8a5NM

— Jimmy Song (송재준) (@jimmysong) June 9, 2025

The post Bitcoin Core: OP_RETURN limit removal scheduled for October appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

Introduction To First Principles

This introduction kicks off a 7-part series called First Principles exploring the deeper shifts behind decentralization, cost, freedom, and truth. I picked 7 days, one for each day of the week, aligned with a rhythm of work, rest, and return. Each part will explore a foundational truth behind the technologies and philosohies I’ve embraced — from decentralization and sovereignty to truth, time, and hope.

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We often hear that technology drives costs toward zero.

That’s the thesis of The Price of Tomorrow — that as technology advances, it becomes deflationary by nature. Automation replaces labor. Software replaces infrastructure. AI replaces entire categories of decision-making. The marginal cost of production trends toward nothing.

But that’s not the whole story.

There’s a deeper layer — one that most technologists and economists miss. It’s not just the marginal cost of production that matters. It’s the control cost of centralization. And that’s where things get murky.

Because even when marginal costs fall, the hidden toll of centralization rises.

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The Illusion of “Free”

Take GitHub.

On paper, it’s free. You can publish static websites, host code, automate workflows with Actions, and collaborate globally — all at no cost.

But GitHub is owned by Microsoft. You don’t control the servers. You don’t own the platform. You don’t hold the keys.

It’s a gift that can be revoked.

Same with Google Docs. Or YouTube. Or Substack. Or any cloud platform that says “start for free.”

These aren’t bad tools. Many are excellent.

But they’re not neutral.

The price you pay isn’t always in dollars. Sometimes it’s in:

• Data access restrictions

• API limitations

• Sudden pricing changes

• Censorship or deplatforming

• Migration costs if (or when) things go south

This is the hidden rent of centralized platforms. And it compounds over time.

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Control Cost vs. Marginal Cost

If marginal cost is “how cheap is it to make this?” —\ Control cost is “how much freedom do I lose by using this?”

You can publish your ideas for free on Medium — but they own the SEO.\ You can host your business on Shopify — but they can cut you off.\ You can grow your audience on Instagram — but the algorithm owns the feed.

We’ve learned to celebrate deflation. But most of the tools we use are inflating the cost of control, even as they lower the cost of entry.

And this is where decentralization flips the script.

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The Real Promise of Decentralization

True decentralization doesn’t just make things cheaper.\ It makes them sovereign.

It redistributes power, not just price.\ It removes toll booths, not just middlemen.

It says:

• Own your keys

• Own your content

• Own your stack

• Own your distribution

This is why Nostr matters.\ This is why Bitcoin matters.\ This is why self-hosting, permissionless protocols, and open-source tooling matter — even when they’re less polished or convenient than centralized platforms.

Because they don’t just save you money.\ They save your freedom.

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A Working Example

When I started building my blog blog.stantonweb.com, didn’t choose the easiest route.

I combined:

• Nostr for long-form publishing

• A custom Python fetch script to pull and render posts

• GitHub Actions for automation

• Static HTML for presentation

• Cloudflare + GitHub Pages for zero-cost hosting

No database. No CMS subscription. No paid theme.

The total marginal cost? $0.

But more importantly, the control cost is near zero too.\ No one can shut it down.\ No company can throttle my reach.\ No gatekeeper decides whether my words deserve to stay online.

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Toward a New Definition of Cost

If you only optimize for price, you’ll be captured.

If you optimize for freedom, you’ll build margin over time — not just financial margin, but creative, moral, and operational margin too.

That’s what decentralization makes possible.\ Not just cheaper.\ Truer.

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Footnote: Lessons from the Past

Remember Skype? It started as a peer-to-peer tool — truly decentralized at its core. But then it was acquired by Microsoft. Over time, its architecture was centralized and eventually dismantled.

Or Napster. It shook the music industry with peer-to-peer sharing. But it too was shut down and replaced by centralized alternatives.

BitTorrent survived — but only when it resisted the pressure to become just another platform.

The pattern is clear:

• Centralization follows capital.

• Censorship follows control.

• But freedom follows decentralization.

And that’s the direction we must choose — again and again.

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Co-written with ChatGPT (“Dr. C”), who helped distill and sharpen the core arguments.\ \ Stay tuned for Part 1 in the next few days.

—\ Published on blog.stantonweb.com & Nostr.\ Zap: <https://tinyurl.com/yuyu2b9t>

@ 2b998b04:86727e47

Introduction: Why Money Matters to Faith

Most of us don’t think about money theologically. But Scripture speaks of it often — not just as a tool, but as a test.

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). The love of money, not money itself, is called the root of all kinds of evil. And dishonest scales? “An abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 11:1).

So what happens when the entire system of money becomes dishonest — when it’s based not on work or value, but manipulation and control?

That’s the world Bitcoin was born into. And it offers a radically different way — one that, surprisingly, echoes deep truths of the Christian faith — and especially what many call the Victorious Gospel: the belief that Christ’s redemption is not partial, but total. Not only personal, but cosmic.

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1. What Is Bitcoin, and Why Was It Created?

Bitcoin is a new kind of money that isn't controlled by any government or company. You can send it anywhere in the world, and no one can block or censor your transaction. It’s digital, but unlike credit cards or PayPal, it’s not just “numbers in a bank.” It is scarce, secure, and independent.

The key idea is this: Bitcoin is money backed by work — not by trust in a government, but by real energy and effort.

Why is that important? Because the current system of money — what we call fiat — works very differently.

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2. What Is Fiat, and Why Is It Broken?

“Fiat” simply means “by decree.” It’s the money we all use today — dollars, euros, yen — created by government decree. It used to be backed by gold. Not anymore.

Today, new fiat money is created whenever a central bank wants. It can be “printed” digitally without cost. This leads to inflation — meaning your savings buy less over time.

It’s like a form of slow theft. You worked hard for your dollars, but someone else can create more with a click. That’s not just bad economics — it violates biblical principles of fairness, honesty, and stewardship.

Bitcoin fixes this by making money that cannot be faked or inflated, because it’s based on Proof of Work — and is capped at a fixed amount.

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3. What Is Proof of Work — and Why It Matters

Imagine you want to add a page to a history book — but to make it trustworthy, you must solve a complex puzzle that proves you did real work. Once solved, everyone else can see the solution and verify it was done properly.

That’s Proof of Work, the system Bitcoin uses to record transactions. Each time people send Bitcoin, that transaction gets added to a public ledger (called the blockchain). But it can only be added if someone does the work to secure it — using energy, effort, and computer power.

This work:

• Costs something (just like real-world labor),

• Prevents cheating (you can’t just rewrite history),

• And rewards the worker with newly created Bitcoin.

This reward is important — because it’s how new Bitcoin enters circulation. But here’s the catch:\ 👉 There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin.\ That number is fixed forever, written into Bitcoin’s code. No one — not a government, company, or individual — can create more.

Right now, not all of the 21 million Bitcoin have been released. The process of mining — doing the Proof of Work — slowly releases new Bitcoin over time as a reward. This happens in a predictable schedule and will continue until the very last Bitcoin is mined around the year 2140.

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4. Why Bitcoin Is the Hardest Money Ever Created

In monetary terms, “hardness” refers to how difficult it is to increase the supply of money. The harder the money, the more resistant it is to inflation or dilution.

Let’s compare:

• Gold is scarce — but not fixed. Miners extract more gold every year, adding about 1–2% to the total supply annually.

• Fiat money (like the U.S. dollar) is the softest. It can be created at will, with no limit.

• Bitcoin is the hardest money ever invented:

• The total supply is forever capped at 21 million.

• The rate of creation cuts in half every four years.

• No one can change this schedule.

This makes Bitcoin the first truly scarce asset in human history — not just physically scarce like gold, but mathematically and absolutely scarce.

Why does this matter?

Because it changes the very nature of money. Instead of being something that loses value over time, Bitcoin becomes a form of property — a way to store your labor, your time, your effort — across generations.

• It encourages saving, not spending out of fear of inflation.

• It rewards patience and stewardship, not speculation and debt.

• It teaches long-term thinking, a concept deeply woven into Scripture (Proverbs 13:22: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children”).

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5. Why Does This Matter for Christianity?

Christianity affirms that creation is good, work is sacred, and truth matters.

In Genesis, God gave Adam a task — to work the garden. Work is not a curse. It’s part of what it means to bear God’s image.

Bitcoin’s Proof of Work aligns with this:

• It says value comes from real effort, not manipulation.

• It links truth to time — just as God’s Word unfolds through history.

• It defends against corruption — just as the Kingdom of God resists the lies of Babylon.

• It places a limit on excess — just as Sabbath and Jubilee rhythms place a brake on endless exploitation.

In contrast, fiat systems reward those closest to the money printers — often the rich or powerful — while devaluing the labor of ordinary people. That’s why Bitcoin has been called “money for the people” — because anyone, anywhere, can use it without asking permission.

---

6. The Victorious Gospel: A Bigger Redemption

The Victorious Gospel teaches that Jesus didn’t just save individual souls. He came to restore all things — including how we live, build, work, and relate to each other.

That means we care about justice, truth, dignity, and creation itself. And it means we seek tools that reflect those values.

Bitcoin isn’t the Gospel. But it rhymes with it:

• It honors work, like God does.

• It respects time, like Scripture does.

• It tells the truth, like Jesus does.

• It has limits, just as the Sabbath, Creation, and grace all have defined edges.

• And it stores value — the value of human time and labor — like good soil stores seed.

---

7. But Isn’t Bitcoin Just for Rich Tech People?

Actually, the opposite is true.

Bitcoin doesn’t care who you are. It doesn’t ask for ID. It doesn’t need a bank. A farmer in El Salvador, a refugee in Ukraine, or a pastor in Nigeria can all use it the same as a Wall Street investor.

It’s global, permissionless, and radically equal — not because it’s utopian, but because it’s built on truth, not trust.

And that makes it a powerful tool for Christians who care about freedom, fairness, and flourishing.

---

8. Final Thoughts: Proof of Work and the Work of Christ

When Jesus died on the cross, He said: “It is finished.” That was not just poetry. It was proof — that the work was done. That redemption had been secured.

In a small way, Bitcoin reflects that kind of finality:

• Once a block is written, it cannot be undone.

• Once work is proven, it stands as a record.

• Once grace is given, it cannot be revoked.

We don’t need to “stake” our claims based on how much power or status we hold (as in Proof of Stake). We rest in what has been proven.

That’s why many Christians — especially those who believe in a victorious, world-restoring Gospel — are finding in Bitcoin a tool that aligns with their deepest values.\ \ ✍️ Acknowledgment

This article was crafted with the assistance of Dr. C (ChatGPT) to help structure and clarify these ideas. But more than that, it was born of prayer, conviction, and the quiet guidance of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth (John 16:13) and brings to remembrance all that Christ has taught (John 14:26).\ Any clarity, wisdom, or insight found here belongs to Him. Any confusion or error is mine alone.

---

Summary

Bitcoin is not just “internet money.” It’s a response to a broken system.\ Proof of Work means truth is earned, not claimed.\ Fiat money is manipulable and inflationary; Bitcoin is fixed and fair.\ Bitcoin is the hardest money in history — with a supply cap of 21 million.\ It appreciates over time, acting as a new form of digital property.\ Christianity calls us to honest scales, faithful stewardship, and dignified work.\ And the Victorious Gospel declares that Jesus is restoring all things — including how we steward value, time, and trust.

Bitcoin may not be the final answer. But it’s a faithful step in the right direction.

@ cae03c48:2a7d6671

Bitcoin Magazine

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust Shatters ETF Growth Record, Surpassing $70 Billion in Just 341 Days

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has officially made history. The Bitcoin ETF surged past $70 billion in assets under management (AUM), reaching the milestone in just 341 trading days. This achievement makes IBIT the fastest ETF to ever hit that threshold. 

JUST IN: BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF becomes the fastest ETF in history to surpass $70 billion AUM pic.twitter.com/kZkXhjEvq0

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 9, 2025

To put that into perspective, the previous record-holder—SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)—took 1,691 days to reach the same milestone. “5x faster than the old record held by GLD of 1,691 days,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a post on X. Other ETFs like VOO (1,701 days), IEFA (1,773 days), and IEMG (2,063 days) also lag far behind IBIT’s rapid growth.

The explosive rise in IBIT’s AUM coincides with Bitcoin’s continued rally. At the time of reporting, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading above $108,000, up more than 2.06%, and sitting just under 4% below its all-time high of nearly $112,000 set last month. 

BlackRock’s accumulation strategy has placed it at the forefront of institutional Bitcoin investment. According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the firm now holds over 663,000 bitcoin—more than Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, which famously owns 582,000 BTC. 

The price surge and ETF milestone reflect a broader institutional embrace of Bitcoin as a legitimate and increasingly preferred asset class. The record breaking pace of IBIT’s growth underscores the demand from investors looking for regulated exposure to Bitcoin through traditional financial products. 

The chart clearly visualizes the disparity in ETF adoption timelines, with IBIT’s steep, vertical ascent dramatically outpacing its peers in the race to $70 billion. It’s a testament to the accelerating pace at which capital is flowing into Bitcoin markets.

As Bitcoin continues to hold just below its peak, and institutional products like IBIT grow at unprecedented speeds, all eyes are on what comes next—not just for Bitcoin, but for the legacy financial industry now being reshaped by it. 

This post BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust Shatters ETF Growth Record, Surpassing $70 Billion in Just 341 Days first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

So often Christians focus on God’s love and ignore His judgment. They tell people they need to be saved, but leave out from what they need to be saved. Fifty or a hundred years ago, almost every American knew the basics of the Bible, what sin is, what the judgment of Hell is, and that the God of the Bible is our Creator. Today, most people in America and the world know very little of that. Phrases like, “Trust Jesus and be saved,” mean very little. The person you are talking to may be silently thinking, “Who is Jesus? Why should I trust Him? What do I need to be saved from?”

Most Christians, especially from Evangelical circles, have been steeped in the phrase “Be saved,” but how many have thought carefully about from what they are being saved? If we have trouble answering, “from what?”, how can we explain it to those who don’t know Jesus?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:8-11) {emphasis mine}

Primarily we are saved “from the wrath of God.” We are also reconciled which saves us from separation from God.

We are also told that we are rescued [saved] “from the wrath to come.”

And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10) {emphasis mine}

Then one might ask, “What right does God have to tell me what to do and to get mad at me?”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5) {emphasis mine}

Why does God get to set the rules? Because He made all things. The Creator gets to set the rules for His creation. It isn’t just ‘might makes right,’ but the one who spoke everything into being gets to set the rules for His creatures just like He set the rules for how everything in the universe works.

Many might claim, “but surely God can’t expect us to be perfect? Nobody is perfect.”

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16) {emphasis mine}

Jesus doesn’t expect more than He has given. He went through every temptation we have experienced, including trials and hardships we can’t imagine, and yet was without even one sin. He is the perfect example of what we should be. Even more amazingly, he understands that we are unable to live up to His standard, so He came to earth, suffered, died, and rose again, so we could be reconciled to Him. All we have to do is repent of our sins, trust Him, and submit to Him. How can we not put our faith in Him after all He did for us?

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus paid the penalty. He took our sins, so we can receive His righteousness. This is a trade everyone should be willing to make, but sadly most refuse — some willfully, but some because they haven’t heard the good news. Hopefully all Christians will faithfully share the gospel with those around them.

May the perfect Savior guide us in His perfect will and help us to rightfully share the gospel with all those around us.

Trust Jesus

@ 502ab02a:a2860397

วันนี้เราคุยเรื่อง ราคะในชามซีเรียล เมื่ออาหารเช้ากลายเป็นเครื่องมือควบคุมจิตวิญญาณ กันครับ

ย้อนกลับไปในปี 1863 ที่เมืองเล็กๆ แห่งหนึ่งในรัฐมิชิแกน สหรัฐอเมริกา มีโรงพยาบาลหนึ่งชื่อว่า Battle Creek Sanitarium ที่ไม่เหมือนโรงพยาบาลทั่วไป เพราะมันไม่ใช่แค่ที่รักษาโรคทางกาย แต่เป็นสถาบันที่พยายามเยียวยาวิญญาณมนุษย์ด้วยอาหารและการใช้ชีวิตแบบละวางกิเลส ผู้ที่ดูแลที่นี่คือชายคนหนึ่งชื่อ John Harvey Kellogg หมอผู้เป็นสาวกเคร่งครัดของกลุ่ม Seventh-day Adventist ซึ่งเป็นกลุ่มคริสเตียนที่เชื่อว่าร่างกายคือพระวิหารของพระเจ้า และทุกอย่างที่เรากินเข้าไปต้องสะอาดบริสุทธิ์ทั้งกายและใจ โดยเฉพาะเรื่อง “ราคะ” ที่เขาเห็นว่าเป็นบ่อเกิดแห่งบาป และเชื่อว่าอาหารที่เรากินส่งผลต่อแรงขับในตัวมนุษย์ บางแหล่งข้อมูลเล่าว่า Dr. Kellogg ถึงขั้นสนับสนุน “การตอนตัวเอง” เพื่อควบคุมกิเลส (ซึ่งเขาไม่ทำเอง แต่สนับสนุนให้บางคนทำ)

หมอเคลล็อกจึงไม่เพียงแต่รณรงค์ให้เลิกกินเนื้อสัตว์ แต่ยังมองว่าการควบคุมพฤติกรรมของมนุษย์ ต้องเริ่มจาก “อาหารเช้า” เพราะมันคือมื้อแรกของวัน มื้อที่จะกำหนดทิศทางร่างกายและจิตใจทั้งวัน และนั่นคือจุดเริ่มต้นของสิ่งที่เรียกว่า “ซีเรียล” ที่เราเห็นทุกเช้าวันนี้ แต่ในยุคแรก มันไม่ได้หวานเลยด้วยซ้ำ มันคือเมล็ดข้าวโพดบด ต้ม แล้วอบแห้งให้กรอบ กินแล้วฝืดคอพอสมควร จุดประสงค์หลักไม่ใช่ให้ฟิน แต่ให้ “สงบ” …สงบทั้งลำไส้และจิตใจ

แต่พอซีเรียลสูตรนี้เริ่มแพร่หลาย มันกลับไปไม่รอดในตลาดคนธรรมดา เพราะมันไม่อร่อย! คนทั่วไปในยุคนั้นยังคุ้นเคยกับอาหารเช้าแบบจัดหนัก ไม่ว่าจะเป็นไข่ เบคอน เนื้อเค็ม แพนเค้ก หรือแม้กระทั่งสตูว์ร้อนๆ ซึ่งล้วนเป็นอาหารจริงจังเต็มพลังงาน เพราะคนยังทำงานใช้แรงทั้งวัน ซีเรียลที่ไม่มีรสชาติและกินแล้วไม่อยู่ท้องจึงขายไม่ออก จนกระทั่ง “น้องชาย” ของหมอเคลล็อกเข้ามาเปลี่ยนเกม

Will Keith Kellogg น้องชายของหมอเคลล็อก เป็นนักการตลาดที่ฉลาดและมองเห็นว่า ถ้าอยากให้คนกินซีเรียลจริงๆ ต้อง “ปรุงรสชาติ” ให้ถูกปากคน ไม่ใช่แค่ถูกหลักศีลธรรม เขาจึงเริ่มเติม “น้ำตาล” ลงไปในซีเรียล เพิ่มความกรุบกรอบ และจัดแพคเกจใหม่ให้ดูน่ากิน พร้อมยิงโฆษณาใส่ผู้บริโภคด้วยวาทกรรมใหม่ที่ว่า “อาหารเช้าคือมื้อที่สำคัญที่สุดของวัน” และถ้าคุณอยากดูแลลูกให้แข็งแรง ก็ต้องเริ่มด้วยการให้เขากินซีเรียลกับนมทุกเช้า... ประโยคนี้คุ้นไหม? ใช่เลย มันคือจุดเริ่มต้นของหนึ่งในความเชื่อฝังหัวที่ยังคงอยู่จนถึงทุกวันนี้ วลี "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" เป็นสโลแกนที่ Kellogg's และ Grape‑Nuts จาก General Foods ต่างใช้ในแคมเปญโฆษณาหลังยุค 1940s โดยอ้างอิงงานวิจัยที่บริษัทเองสนับสนุน เป็นจุดที่น่าสนใจว่า "หลักฐาน" ทางวิทยาศาสตร์บางทีก็ผลิตขึ้นมาเพื่อรองรับสินค้า

ในความเป็นจริง การกินอาหารเช้าแบบหนักท้อง อย่างไข่ดาว เบคอน หรือแม้แต่ข้าวกับแกงสมัยก่อนน่ะ เป็นเรื่องปกติของคนทุกชนชั้น เพราะมันช่วยให้อิ่มนานและให้พลังงานต่อเนื่อง แต่เมื่อคำว่า “สุขภาพดี” ถูกนำมาเชื่อมโยงกับความบางเบา ความเร็ว และความสะดวกจากกล่องซีเรียล มันก็เหมือนมีเวทมนตร์บางอย่างที่เปลี่ยนพฤติกรรมผู้คนไปโดยไม่รู้ตัว

ที่สำคัญ สูตรสำเร็จของเคลล็อกคือ “ทำให้อาหารเช้ากลายเป็นปัญหา” และนำเสนอซีเรียลเป็นทางออก แล้วบีบให้พ่อแม่ยุคใหม่เชื่อว่า ถ้าไม่ซื้อซีเรียลให้ลูกกิน ลูกจะขาดสารอาหารและเริ่มต้นวันได้ไม่ดีพอ ทั้งที่ความจริง ซีเรียลก็คือน้ำตาลอัดเม็ด ดีๆ นี่เอง แม้ไม่มีหลักฐานว่าเป็นความตั้งใจแต่ต้น แต่มันกลายเป็นผลลัพธ์ทางการตลาดที่ทรงพลัง

และแน่นอนว่ามันไม่หยุดแค่ซีเรียล เพราะเมื่อนมกลายเป็นของที่ต้องกินคู่กัน ความต้องการนมก็พุ่งขึ้นจนต้องขยายฟาร์มโคนมครั้งใหญ่ในประวัติศาสตร์ (อันนี้จะขยายต่อใน ep อื่นนะครับ) เรียกได้ว่าซีเรียลกลายเป็นหมากตัวสำคัญของอุตสาหกรรมอาหาร ที่เริ่มจากความตั้งใจจะ “ลดราคะ” แต่จบลงด้วยการ “เพิ่มยอดขาย” ของบริษัทยักษ์ใหญ่ที่ครองชั้นวางซูเปอร์มาร์เก็ตทั่วโลก และครอบงำอาหารเช้าของโลกนี้ไปมากกว่าครึ่ง

เมื่อมองย้อนไป เฮียว่ามันน่าทึ่งนะ ว่าสิ่งที่เริ่มต้นจากศรัทธาในการควบคุมจิตใจมนุษย์ กลับกลายมาเป็นกลยุทธ์ตลาดระดับโลกได้ และน่าเศร้าในเวลาเดียวกัน เพราะมันทำให้เราหลงลืมว่า แท้จริงแล้วอาหารเช้าคืออะไรกันแน่ มันควรเป็นมื้อที่เชื่อมเราเข้ากับธรรมชาติ หรือเป็นแค่สิ่งที่เราเทใส่ชามเพราะโฆษณาบอกให้ทำ? แถมต้องซื้อจากบริษัทที่ผลิตเท่านั้น

และนั่นแหละเฮียถึงอยากเล่าตอนนี้ เพราะบางครั้งการตั้งคำถามกับอาหารในจาน ก็คือการตั้งคำถามกับระบบที่เราถูกทำให้เชื่อว่า “ดีที่สุด” โดยไม่รู้ตัว...

#โต้งเอง #กูต้องรู้มั๊ย #ม้วนหางสิลูก #siamstr

@ 04c3c1a5:a94cf83d

I am trying this again because it did not work the first time.

@ c9badfea:610f861a

🤖️ AI Articles

• 🗨️ Using LLMs for OPSEC

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📱 Android Articles

• 📹️ Device as Dashcam
• 🥩 Tracking Food Intake
• ✍️ Taking Handwritten Notes
• 🕒 Tracking Habits
• 🧭 Navigating the Wild
• 📝 Organizing Notes and Tasks
• 🧠 Studying Smarter
• 💱 Tracking Fiat Currency Exchange Rates
• 🌠 Offline Planetarium
• 📥 Downloading Media From 1000+ Sites
• 🔥 Blocking Ads and Trackers
• ⛅ Getting Detailed Weather Information
• 📦 Installing Apps Directly From Source
• 🎮 Playing Retro Games
• 🖼️ Generating AI Images Locally
• 📖 Reading PDF Documents and EPUB Books
• 🔒 Storing Passwords Safely
• 🗺️ Using Offline Maps
• 🎵 Producing Music On-Device
• 💾 Writing ISO Images to USB Drives
• 💻 Coding On-Device
• 🎬 Watching and Downloading Videos from YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, Bitchute, and More
• 🔤 Upgrading the Typing Experience
• 📰 Reading RSS Feeds
• 📥 Downloading Torrents
• 📺 Watching IPTV Channels for Free
• 🔒 Easily Verifying File Checksums
• 🗣️ Offline Translator
• 🗣️ Offline Text-to-Speech Engine
• 🤖 Running LLMs Locally
• 🌐 Browsing Entire Websites Offline
• 🔐 Quickly Encrypting Files

---

✏️ Other Articles

• 🔠 Unicode Fonts
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@ 04c3c1a5:a94cf83d

~~I am happy~~

@ c9badfea:610f861a

1. Install Alibi (it's free and open source)
2. Open the app and tap Continue
3. Select 15 Minutes as the duration for ongoing recordings and tap Continue
4. Choose Media Folder as the storage location for recordings and tap Continue
5. Tap Start Alibi
6. Tap Start Video Recording, review the settings (defaults are usually fine), then tap Start Recording
7. Grant camera permission by selecting While Using The App if asked
8. Recording will now start and continue in the background
9. In case of an incident, simply reopen Alibi and tap Save to preserve the recording

ℹ️ You may need to disable battery optimizations for this app

ℹ️ Ensure you have enough storage space available on your device

@ 861eb596:51fe0a4d

Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System

Neumann

This book is about the movement of the human body. And the preface states that this is typically studied for the purpose of sport, art, or medicine. And while the book has a focus on the medical application, my interest is the sport application. Specifically the application of kinesiology to weight training.

The book is about seven hundred pages and is divided into four sections of roughly equal proportion. The first section is introductory and covers kinesiology basics. The the remaining three sections correspond to the three major regions of the body: the upper extremity, the axial skeleton, and the lower extremity.

Of note is the importance of illustrations in this work. It is clear that much effort was given toward their refinement. They are relied upon for the explanation of many concepts.

The chapters within the "body region" sections cover, in order, bones, joints, nerves, and muscles for each body part. It seems fairly clear that these are the four substantial elements of any given movement system of the body.

I will also take this opportunity to reference a diagram I saw on wikipedia that always makes me chuckle a little. It's sort of the minimum viable body plan of almost all animals. I'm curious if the categories of circular and longitudinal muscles make sense for understanding the human body.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Bilaterian_body_plan.svg/2560px-Bilaterian_body_plan.svg.png

@ 8bad92c3:ca714aa5

Key Takeaways

In this episode, Bram Kanstein delivers a powerful exploration of how studying money for thousands of hours led him to a single, life-changing conclusion: Bitcoin is the key to preserving value and reclaiming personal agency in an increasingly unstable world. Through the lens of a disillusioned millennial generation—raised with technological optimism but betrayed by economic reality—Bram exposes the fiat system as one built on illusion, debt, and diminishing returns. He explains how Bitcoin’s transparent, rule-based design offers a principled alternative, especially for those wired to question systems and seek truth. Describing the fiat economy as a “high-velocity trash system” that undermines innovation and long-term planning, he argues Bitcoin creates the time and space to think, build, and live freely. As AI reshapes the labor market, Bram sees Bitcoin as a vital foundation for individuals to adapt, maintain sovereignty, and thrive in a future defined by rapid technological disruption.

Best Quotes

“Anything that you would want to fix in the world is broken because the money is broken.”

“You’re stacking nothing. Literal paper.”

“You have to red pill before you orange pill.”

“The only thing you need to do is move to the other money that they cannot mess with.”

“One Bitcoin is one Bitcoin. That’s the whole point.”

“Millennials are primed to understand Bitcoin.”

“Bitcoin lets you get out of the rat race and start walking your own path.”

“The fiat mindset is a zero-sum game. In Bitcoin, value is created.”

“We should stop asking how to value Bitcoin—and start asking how to value everything else in Bitcoin.”

“Even with a master’s in economics, people still don’t understand what money is.”

Conclusion

This episode delivers a powerful call to rethink everything we assume about money, arguing that understanding Bitcoin is less about profit and more about reclaiming personal agency in a world defined by uncertainty. Bram Kanstein shows how asking fundamental questions—like “What is money?”—can lead to a deeper sense of purpose and autonomy. As AI and systemic instability accelerate, Bitcoin emerges not just as sound money, but as a life tool for intentional living, long-term thinking, and individual sovereignty.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
0:36 - INTJ bitcoiners
4:58 - The millennial headspace is primed for bitcoin
7:25 - Bitcoin gives time and space to build
15:29 - Fold & Bitkey
17:05 - Seeing systemic problems
26:25 - Bitcoin’s positive feedback loop
33:55 - Recognize your agency
37:58 - Unchained
38:27 - Fiat money creates uncertainty
44:41 - What is money?
54:04 - Money and energy
1:03:43 - Bitcoin allows growth
1:09:02 - Bitcoin/AI
1:31:34 - Optimistic note

Transcript

(00:00) Let's say you're a millennial and mid-30s and you want to retire in 30 years. If you calculate the amount of dollar, pound the euro, yen units. You need way more units of that money than you think right now. They are funding pension funds, but the pension funds are using that money for the people that are actually retiring.
(00:17) No one knows about money. They don't know how debt works, how finance works. But that's kind of how it's designed, right? Like that's what eventually keeps the Ponzi alive. And I just started with the question, what do you think happens if you call the bank and say like, hey, can I get 100 or 200k in cash? Man, you got an editor like in house.
(00:39) That's That's pro. That's uh it's because this setup I'm so far away from the computer. I just need somebody to hit the button. Okay. Okay. the extent the extent of of Logan's job extends far beyond just hitting the button. But yeah, INTJ I think uh I think it was as we rear into what looks to be another bull market.
(01:05) I think getting back to first principles and discussing the challenges of studying and understanding Bitcoin, it's important to to highlight the archetype of individuals who have studied fallen down the rabbit hole and really dedicated their lives to Bitcoin. And this INTJ cohort that exists within Bitcoin seems pretty material apparently. Yeah.
(01:35) I mean, I have many moments where I just realize that I'm lucky that my brain is wired in a certain way, you know. I feel like crazy blessed that I figured out this Bitcoin thing, you know, and that when I ran into certain realizations along the way in my Bitcoin journey that I was like, hm, you know, how does this actually work? you know, do I actually understand the systems I'm participating in, the things that I believe, you know, the the the the people that I abstracted um or or outsourced certain responsibilities to to take care of, for example, my money
(02:10) in the bank. You know, I I think um being wired in a certain way definitely helps in grasping Bitcoin to a degree where you're like, okay, this is the only thing I need to pay attention to, you know, in my life. And yeah, we we jokingly started talking about this because I have the hat here, but there was this um I think it was like like a Twitter poll actually or someone shared it on Twitter and this is already like two or three years old where where someone investigated these MyersBriggs um personality types and I think there's
(02:42) only like 2% of people that have INTJ but like 20% of Bitcoiners have that personality type. So it um it apparently helps. So yeah, I just I just quickly Googled it actually. It says uh the INTJ is the architect. It's a personality type with the introverted intuitive thinking and judging traits. These thoughtful tacticians love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do.
(03:09) I think the rationality part here is what um what uh I think helps you to to gro Bitcoin eventually. Yeah, it reminds me of I forget what the study was, but postco it was a similar distribution of just like 2% of people were highly skeptical of what was going on with the lockdowns and the attack on bodily autonomy.
(03:38) And there was a study that was done about I forget it was bees or some type of fly that they they have like the horde of um the horde of the particular fly I think it was bees has like 2% act as these sort of alarm bells that are on the outside the outskirts of the community and they'll start communicating like hey something's wrong here and people the other flies or bees will be skeptical at first but then eventually uh the alarm bells will be proven to be right that there was some sort of danger around the corner. That's fascinating.
(04:09) Yeah. Yeah, that's fascinating. I I think we're not that special eventually, you know, like we think we have all this autonomy, but but um yeah, we're we're just wired in a certain way. And I think I don't know where you want to take this conversation, but I think, you know, part of growing up and being an adult is figuring out, you know, how do I actually work and how do I work with how I work, you know? Yeah. No, it is.
(04:36) And as I get older, creep into my mid-30s, which is hard hard to come to grips with, it is uh really falling back on like, all right, I I feel like I have a good perspective on the world and my place in it, and how do I just optimize to make sure I'm aligning my my work and my career, I guess, if you call it that, with what I'm passionate about. Yeah.
(05:00) Well, I also think that is actually why our generation, you know, my my podcast is Bitcoin for millennials. I think uh the millennials are primed to understand Bitcoin. You know, we are in this life phase where big things happen, you know, starting a family or settling somewhere or or making big career moves or decide Yeah.
(05:25) like deciding what am I going to spend like the next 10 20 years on and uh I think it's an interesting phase actually I I don't know how that was for you but but for me like the the 30s were really where I dove more and more into Bitcoin like got got that stronger conviction and also yeah kind of was invited to go further down that that rabbit hole you know and like how I see it now is that that Bitcoin is really the foundation for the rest of my life, you know, like it it gives me time and space to look forward and enthusiasm, you know, like I sometimes lurk on the
(06:01) millennial subreddit, you know, or the finance sub subreddit. And many people in our generation are very nihilistic, you know, they're very unsure about the future. Like some people aren't even having kids because they think they cannot afford it, you know. And uh whenever I read that, I just think like, yeah, I I don't really have those things.
(06:22) But I know it's because of Bitcoin, you know. I I know that Bitcoin gives me, yeah, like I said, the time and space to figure out what's next, like what should I focus on? Like it gives time and space to to try out stuff, to build something, you know, to to to really attempt at at doing something. Where I see many people that don't see that, they are more in the consumer type, you know, like they they just spend the money that's worth the most today, you know, like that's what they're incentivized to do. Yeah.
(06:49) And is is that why you started Bitcoin for millennials is to number one put the put the message out there. Millennials come listen to this. One of you Yes. that is trying to educate you about this. But because this is something I think about a lot is somebody's like dead smack in the middle of the millennial generation and has observed many of the things you just described in my own life, my own network.
(07:13) And that's part of the reason why this podcast exists. And um what I'm trying to do at TFTC is just try to figure out a way to reach into the minds of millennials, hopefully c

@ 58537364:705b4b85

เกี่ยวกับเรื่อง “เวลา”

พระอรหันต์ บุคคลผู้หลุดพ้นแล้ว เห็นอย่างถูกต้อง จึงไม่ยึดถือ อดีต กับ อนาคต แม้กระทั่งปัจจุบัน

ตัวอย่างง่ายๆ ที่จะต้องสังเกตดูให้ดีว่า โดยที่แท้นั้นเราไม่สามารถรู้จักอดีต ปัจจุบัน หรืออนาคต ได้เลย เราไม่อาจรู้จักสิ่งที่เป็นปัจจุบันได้ ถ้าสิ่งนั้นไม่กลายเป็นอดีตไปเสียก่อน เหมือนอย่างว่า..เมื่อตาเห็นรูป เช่น เห็นดอกไม้ดอกหนึ่ง จิตใจต้องรับอารมณ์(รูป,สี)เสร็จแล้ว ภาพที่เห็นนั้นเป็นอดีตไปแล้ว เราจึงจะรู้ว่าเป็นดอกไม้ดอกหนึ่ง เช่น ดอกกุหลาบดอกหนึ่ง เป็นต้น

ถ้าไม่เป็นอดีตไปเสียก่อน จิตใจก็ไม่มีทางจะรู้ว่ามันเป็นอะไร เพราะเหตุฉะนั้น ปัจจุบันเป็นสิ่งที่เรารู้ไม่ได้ รู้สึกไม่ได้ สัมผัสไม่ได้ เพราะว่าเราไม่อาจจะรู้จักสิ่งใดได้ โดยที่สิ่งนั้นไม่เปลี่ยนเป็นอดีตไปเสียก่อนนั่นเอง ต้องเป็น "ขณะจิต" ในอดีตเสียก่อน จึงจะรู้ว่าสิ่งนั้นเป็นอะไร เราจึงไม่อาจจะสัมผัสปัจจุบันได้

ส่วนเวลาที่เรียกว่า "อนาคต" ก็ยังไม่มา ส่วนอดีตก็ล่วงลับไปแล้ว เราก็ไม่ได้รับอะไรเลย แม้แต่ที่เป็น"ปัจจุบัน" #ถ้าใครมองเห็นอย่างนี้ก็เรียกว่ารู้จักเวลาอย่างถูกต้อง คือเวลาในภาษาธรรมะ ซึ่งไม่อาจจะแบ่งเป็นวินาที นาที เดือน ปีอะไรได้เลย มันเป็นกระแสอันหนึ่งซึ่งคงที่ จนกล่าวได้ว่า ไม่มีเบื้องต้น ไม่มีเบื้องปลาย ไม่มีท่ามกลาง

สิ่งที่เรียกว่า "เวลา" นั้น ไม่มีใครรู้ได้ว่าตั้งต้นเมื่อไหร่ มากี่กัปกี่กัลป์แล้ว จะไปสิ้นสุดเมื่อไหร่ อีกกี่กัปกี่กัลป์ แล้วในขณะปัจจุบันของมัน เราก็แตะต้องมันไม่ได้ เพราะต้องเป็นอดีตไปเสียก่อนทุกที จึงจะรู้สึกขึ้นในใจได้ว่าอะไรเป็นอะไร

เมื่อตาเห็นรูปก็ดี เมื่อหูฟังเสียงก็ดี เมื่อจมูกได้กลิ่นก็ดี ลิ้นได้รสก็ดี กายได้สัมผัสทางผิวหนังก็ดี หรือใจคิดนึกอะไรก็ดี "ขณะจิต"แห่งอดีตเท่านั้น ที่จะบอกได้ว่าอะไรเป็นอะไร ขณะเป็นปัจจุบันนั้นบอกให้ไม่ได้เพราะเร็วเกินไป เพียงขณะจิตเดียวก็เป็นอดีตเสียแล้ว ขณะจิตที่กระทบอารมณ์นั้นบอกอะไรไม่ได้ จนกว่าเป็นขณะจิตที่เสวยอารมณ์เสร็จแล้ว เพราะฉะนั้น สิ่งนั้นก็เป็นอดีตไปแล้ว ดังนี้ เป็นต้น

ท่านลองเปรียบเทียบดูว่า คนไหนโง่หรือคนไหนฉลาดกว่ากัน

คนที่เห็นเวลาเป็นอย่างนี้อย่างนั้น เป็นอดีต เป็นอนาคต เป็นปัจจุบัน จนปัญหาเกิดขึ้นนั้น ก็ต้องมีความทุกข์เป็นธรรมดา ส่วนพระอรหันต์นั้น ฉลาดจนไม่มีอดีต อนาคต ปัจจุบัน อย่างที่พระพุทธเจ้าตรัสว่า “ไม่ถือเอาไว้ที่ส่วนสุดทั้งสอง และทั้งไม่ถือเอาไว้ที่ตรงกลาง” นั่นคือ “ความไม่ยึดถือ” เป็นบุคคลผู้หลุดพ้นแล้ว ไม่ยึดถือส่วนทั้งสอง คืออดีตกับอนาคต ส่วนข้างต้นเรียกว่า"อดีต" ส่วนข้างปลายเรียกว่า"อนาคต" นี้ก็ไม่ยึดถือ แล้วก็ไม่ยึดถือแม้กระทั่งส่วนตรงกลาง คือ "ปัจจุบัน" อย่างนี้เรียกว่า "ไม่มีการยึดถืออะไร" และเป็นพระอรหันต์เพราะรู้จักเวลาอย่างถูกต้องเช่นนี้

แต่คนธรรมดาสามัญทำอย่างนี้ไม่ได้ ทำไม่เป็น ดังนั้น จึงต้องสอนกันอีกอย่างหนึ่ง อีกแนวหนึ่ง คือ ให้รู้จักจัดการเกี่ยวกับเวลา ว่า..อย่างไรเป็นอดีต อย่างไรเป็นอนาคต อย่างไรเป็นปัจจุบัน แล้วก็ให้จัดการกับปัจจุบันให้ถูกต้อง อย่าไปมัวห่วงเรื่องอดีต อนาคต ให้ฟุ้งซ่าน แต่ให้สนใจกับปัจจุบัน คือสิ่งที่จะต้องทำเฉพาะหน้า ที่นี่ เดี๋ยวนี้ ในวันนี้ ให้ถูกต้อง อย่างนี้คนธรรมดาก็บรรเทาความทุกข์ไปได้มาก

แต่ถ้าคนธรรมดาสามัญนั้น มองเห็นปัจจุบันที่ลึก(ซึ้ง)ขึ้นไปอีก จนกระทั่ง(ปัจจุบัน)ไม่มีแล้ว #คนธรรมดาสามัญนั้นก็กลายเป็นพระอริยเจ้าไปด้วยเหตุนี้.

พุทธทาสภิกขุ ๑ มกราคม ๒๕๑๐ ธรรมบรรยายเรื่อง “เรามากินเวลากันเถิด” จากหนังสือ “ภาษาคน-ภาษาธรรม”

“กาโล ฆสติ ภูตานิ สพฺพาเนว สหตฺตนา โย กาลฆโส ภูโต ส ภูตปจนึ ปจิ

กาลเวลา ย่อมกลืนกินสรรพสัตว์ พร้อมทั้งตัวของมันเอง ผู้ใดกินกาล ผู้นั้นชื่อว่าเผาสิ่งที่เผาสัตว์ กาลเวลาทำให้อายุ ผิวพรรณ ของสัตว์ทั้งหลายสิ้นไปเสื่อมไป ตัวมันเองก็ล่วงไปด้วย พระอรหันต์ ชื่อว่า ผู้กินกาล เพราะไม่มีปฏิสนธิกาลในอนาคต เป็นผู้ทำลาย หรือคายโอกาสในการเกิดใหม่ สิ่งที่เผาสัตว์ คือกิเลส มีราคะ เป็นต้น อันพระขีณาสพเผาเสียแล้ว”

ปปัญจสูทนี อรรถกถา มัชฌิมนิกาย มูลปริยายสูตร

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

In today’s digital era, access to financial services remains a privilege for many. Bitcoinization – the mass adoption of bitcoin as a payment medium and store of value – represents a unique opportunity to democratize access to financial services.

Telecommunications carriers occupy a strategic position in this transformation, especially in regions where traditional internet access is limited. However, this aspect remains largely unexplored.

This article seeks to examine how these companies can catalyze this financial revolution by analyzing the Machankura case and the technical possibilities within current communication infrastructure.

The Success Sotry of Machankura

The Machankura project (8333.mobi) emerged to address a common challenge in various African regions: financial exclusion due to limited internet access. Created by South African developer Kgothatso Ngako, the service utilizes the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) protocol, supported by virtually all mobile phones, to facilitate bitcoin transactions via 2G and 3G cellular networks.

Machankura – derived from South African slang for “money” – functions as a custodial bitcoin wallet. Through the USSD protocol, users can access the service by dialing short codes (*123*456789#, for example) or sending SMS messages to specific numbers.

When the server receives the code or message, an interactive session between the parties (server-user) begins. This enables users to create bitcoin wallets associated with their phone numbers, protected by multi-digit PINs.

Once registered, users receive a Lightning address (example: 1234567890@8333.mobi) that can be used to receive bitcoin from anyone worldwide. Users can also customize this address to a preferred username, further enhancing privacy.

Currently, Machankura is available in nine African countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Malawi. The creator’s objective is to expand the service to all countries across the African continent in the coming years.

The Technical Foundations of Machankura’s Success – USSD

As mentioned, USSD is a protocol embedded in mobile networks and available on virtually all cellular devices. This choice proved crucial for the Machankura project, given that in Africa, more than half of phones sold are not smartphones. Additionally, this protocol offers critical technical advantages:

• Operates without requiring internet access, functioning in areas with poor connectivity.
• Universal compatibility with any mobile phone, including the most basic models.
• Provides real-time interactivity between users and the system.
• Features an intuitive interface already utilized for banking services, customer support, and self-service applications

These advantages have enabled bitcoin to become accessible to a significant portion of the region’s population, with over 15,000 users, according to Machankura’s project creator.

USSD and Connectivity Challenges

The primary technical limitation of USSD manifests in high-connectivity environments (4G, 5G, or higher). As established by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, organization for standardization of mobile networks), the protocol must be recognized by newer generations of cellular networks.

However, this recognition requires a procedure known as inter-technology fallback. For instance, if a user is connected to a 5G network and streaming music, when accessing a USSD service, their connection will downgrade to a 3G (or 2G) network, inevitably interrupting media streaming execution.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS): The Evolution in Telecommunications Services

The solution to connectivity issues with USSD resides within the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), a subsystem within the standardized architecture of newer cellular networks (from fourth generation onwards).

Its objective is to unify access and provision of multimedia services across both mobile and fixed networks. These services include:

• Voice services – such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi)
• Video services – such as Video over LTE  (ViLTE) and Video over WiFi (ViWiFi)
• Videoconferencing
• Instant messaging
• Streaming media
• Emergency services
• Interoperability between legacy networks

The New Era: USSI (USSD over IP)

USSI (USSD over IP) represents the solution for service continuity across 4G, 5G, and future networks when utilizing USSD services. This new protocol enhances service quality, increases simultaneous session capacity, provides additional features for recent devices, improves session security, and enables operation without requiring fallback procedures.

Strategic Opportunities for Carriers

Institutional bitcoin adoption is already established, with integration into portfolios of mining companies, exchanges, automobile manufacturers (Tesla), investment funds (BlackRock), financial institutions (Galaxy Digital Holdings), technology companies (including MicroStrategy, MercadoLibre, and Brazilian Meliúz), and even nations such as El Salvador, the United States, and China.

With robust, secure, and extensive infrastructure, telecommunications carriers can implement complex and advanced bitcoin-based financial services, demystifying its use and stimulating adoption.

Strategic partnerships with exchanges and fintechs enhance integrated solutions for entrepreneurs and consumers, such as integration with Lightning Network nodes to enable rapid, low-cost transactions between IoT devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, and point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

The competitive advantages of this approach include:

• New Revenue Streams: Companies can collect fees from simple transactions and provide advanced financial services such as loans, insurance, and investments.
• Customer Retention: By offering innovative services, they can reduce customer churn.
• Vanguard Strategy: Strategic positioning in an emerging high-capitalization market

The Future of Bitcoinization in Telecommunications

The success of the Machankura project unequivocally demonstrates the potential of telecommunications as transformative agents in the mass adoption of bitcoin. As the bitcoin ecosystem consolidates and expands, it is essential that we recognize this opportunity not merely as a new business vertical but as an important step toward strategic positioning at the forefront of a global economic transformation.

Given the extensive reach of existing infrastructure, these carriers can become the primary catalyst for transforming the lives of the unbanked in an unprecedented manner. As we have seen, bitcoin is no longer just a trend; it is a reality. The natural consequence of this reality is bitcoinization, and we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this emerging paradigm.

@ 3a851978:ff85e003

This document is designed to test Markdown rendering with LaTeX math support. Below you'll find examples of Markdown formatting combined with inline and block mathematical notation.

1. Inline Math

Here is an inline formula using single dollar signs:

• Euler's identity: $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$
• Quadratic formula: $x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}$
• Pythagoras theorem: $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$

2. Block Math

Now let's test block-level LaTeX using double dollar signs:

$$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2} \, dx = \sqrt{\pi} $$

Another block formula:

$$ f(x) = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{f^{(n)}(0)}{n!}x^n $$

3. Lists and Math

• Integral: $\int_0^1 x^2 , dx = \frac{1}{3}$
• Derivative: $\frac{d}{dx} \sin(x) = \cos(x)$
• Matrix:

$$ \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 \ 3 & 4 \end{pmatrix} $$

With inline math in code: $E = mc^2$ (should not render as math here).

5. Tables

| Formula Name | Expression | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | Euler's Identity | $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$ | | Taylor Series | $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{x^n}{n!}$ | | Binomial Theorem | $(a + b)^n = \sum_{k=0}^n \binom{n}{k} a^{n-k} b^k$ |

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Headlines

• Spiral renews support for Dan Gould and Joschisan. The organization has renewed support for Dan Gould, who is developing the Payjoin Dev Kit (PDK), and Joschisan, a Fedimint developer focused on simplifying federations.
• Metaplanet buys another 145 BTC. The Tokyo-listed company has purchased an additional 145 BTC for $13.6 million. Their total bitcoin holdings now stand at 5,000 coins, worth around $428.1 million.
• Semler Scientific has increased its bitcoin holdings to 3,303 BTC. The company acquired an additional 111 BTC at an average price of $90,124. The purchase was funded through proceeds from an at-the-market offering and cash reserves, as stated in a press release.
• The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill 2025 introduced in Kenya. The new legislation aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for licensing, regulating, and supervising virtual asset service providers (VASPs), with strict penalties for non-compliant entities.
• Russian government to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The country's Ministry of Finance and Central Bank announced plans to establish a trading platform for "highly qualified investors" that "will legalize crypto assets and bring crypto operations out of the shadows."
• All virtual asset service providers expect to be fully compliant with the Travel Rule by the end of 2025. A survey by financial surveillance specialist Notabene reveals that 90% of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) expect full Travel Rule compliance by mid-2025, with all aiming for compliance by year-end. The survey also shows a significant rise in VASPs blocking withdrawals until beneficiary information is confirmed, increasing from 2.9% in 2024 to 15.4% now. Additionally, about 20% of VASPs return deposits if originator data is missing.
• UN claims Bitcoin mining is a "powerful tool" for money laundering. The Rage's analysis suggests that the recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report on crime in South-East Asia makes little sense and hints at the potential introduction of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures at the mining level.
• Riot Platforms has obtained a $100 million credit facility from Coinbase Credit, using bitcoin as collateral for short-term funding to support its expansion. The firm's CEO, Jason Les, stated that this facility is crucial for diversifying financing sources and driving long-term stockholder value through strategic growth initiatives.
• Bitdeer raises $179M in loans and equity amid Bitcoin chip push. The Miner Mag reports that Bitdeer entered into a loan agreement with its affiliate Matrixport for up to $200 million in April, as disclosed in its annual report filed on Monday.
• Federal Reserve retracts guidance discouraging banks from engaging in 'crypto.' The U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew guidance that discouraged banks from crypto and stablecoin activities, as announced by its Board of Governors on Thursday. This includes rescinding a 2022 supervisory letter requiring prior notification of crypto activities and 2023 stablecoin requirements.

"As a result, the Board will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead monitor banks' crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process," reads the FED statement.

• UAE-based Islamic bank ruya launches Shari’ah-compliant bitcoin investing. The bank has become the world’s first Islamic bank to provide direct access to virtual asset investments, including Bitcoin, via its mobile app, per Bitcoin Magazine.
• U.S. 'crypto' scam losses amounted to $9.3B in 2024. The US The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported $9.3 billion losses in cryptocurrency-related scams in 2024, noting a troubling trend of scams targeting older Americans, which accounted for over $2.8 billion of those losses.

Source: FBI.

• North Korean hackers establish fake companies to target 'crypto' developers. Silent Push researchers reported that hackers linked to the Lazarus Group created three shell companies, two of which are based in the U.S., with the objective of spreading malware through deceptive job interview scams aimed at individuals seeking jobs in cryptocurrency companies.
• Citrea deployed its Clementine Bridge on the Bitcoin testnet. The bridge utilizes the BitVM2 programming language to inherit validity from Bitcoin, allegedly providing "the safest and most trust-minimized way to use BTC in decentralized finance."
• Hesperides University offers a Master’s degree in Bitcoin. Bitcoin Magazine reports the launch of the first-ever Spanish-language Master’s program dedicated exclusively to Bitcoin. Starting April 28, 2025, this fully online program will equip professionals with technical, economic, legal, and philosophical skills to excel in the Bitcoin era.
• BTC in D.C. event is set to take place on September 30 - October 1 in Washington, D.C. Learn more about this initiative here.

Use the tools

• Bitcoin Keeper just got a new look. Version 2.2.0 of the mobile multisig app brought a new branding design, along with a Keeper Private tier, testnet support, ability to import and export BIP-329 labels, and the option to use a Server Key with multiple users.
  • Earlier this month the project also announced Keeper Learn service, offering clear and guided Bitcoin learning sessions for both groups and individuals.
• Keeper Desktop v0.2.2, a companion desktop app for Bitcoin Keeper mobile app, received a renewed branding update, too.

The evolution of Bitcoin Keeper logo. Source: BitHyve blog.

• Blockstream Green Desktop v2.0.25 updates GDK to v0.75.1 and fixes amount parsing issues when switching from fiat denomination to Liquid asset.
• Lightning Loop v0.31.0-beta enhances the loop listswaps command by improving the ability to filter the response.
• Lightning-kmp v1.10.0, an implementation of the Lightning Network in Kotlin, is now available.
• LND v0.19.0-beta.rc3, the latest beta release candidate of LND is now ready for testing.
• ZEUS v0.11.0-alpha2 is now available for testing, too. It's nuts.
• JoinMarket Fidelity Bond Simulator helps potential JoinMarket makers evaluate their competitive position in the market based on fidelity bonds.
• UTXOscope is a text-only Bitcoin blockchain analysis tool that visualizes price dynamics using only on-chain data. The

@ a29cfc65:484fac9c

Über die Freilerner-Familie von Katharina und Johannes mit ihren Kindern Aurelius, Benjamin und Friedrich haben wir in unserem Beitrag vom 28. Mai 2025 berichtet. Hier wollen wir eines ihrer Projekte vorstellen. Es zeigt deutlich den pädagogischen Ansatz von Jahrgangs- und Fächer-übergreifender zielorientierter Arbeit der Freilerner.

Die drei Jungs haben im Ringelnatz-Verein Wurzen zusammen mit anderen Kindern am Vorhaben „Vom Drehbuch zum fertigen Film“ mitgewirkt. Das Projekt wurde von dem Lyriker und Schriftsteller Carl-Christian Elze geleitet und unterstützt von der Künstlerin Constanze Kehrt, dem Theater- und Filmregisseur Philipp J. Neumann sowie dem Cutter und Animation Artist**** Sascha Werner, alle aus Leipzig. Constanze Kehrt unterstützte die Kinder beim Erlernen der Grundlagen für das Schreiben von Drehbüchern. Daneben gab es erste Übungen zur Körperwahrnehmung, Stimm- und Sprachübungen sowie Improvisations- und Schauspielübungen. Nach einer Einführung durch Philipp J. Neumann in die Filmkunst mit ihren unterschiedlichen Bereichen wie Schauspiel, Regie, Kamera, Ton, Produktion, Szenenbild, Kostüm, Musik, Schnitt, Sounddesign wurden die Kinder und Jugendlichen auf den eigentlichen Filmdreh vorbereitet. Dazu gehörten Übungen im Storyboarding, Szenenproben und schließlich das Location-Scouting und Festlegen der Drehorte in unmittelbarer Nähe zum Ringelnatz-Geburtshaus. An zwei Drehtagen wurden schließlich zwei Kurzfilme gedreht, darunter „Die Flosse“, an dem Aurelius, Benjamin und Friedrich sowie andere Kinder mitwirkten. Die Kinder übernahmen nicht nur die Rollen, sondern auch die Kamera, die Tonabnahme und zum Teil die Regie. Eine Einführung in die Kunst des Film- und Tonschnitts bekamen die Kinder und Jugendlichen schließlich von Sascha Werner. Danach wurde das gedrehte Material gemeinsam gesichtet und der Schnitt vorgenommen. Dabei konnten die Kinder und Jugendlichen die Erfahrung machen, dass es tatsächlich maßgeblich der Schnitt ist, der einem Film seinen besonderen Charakter, eine bestimmte Atmosphäre gibt.

In dem Film „Die Flosse“ schleichen sich drei Kinder abends von zu Hause weg, weil sie in der Schule gehört haben, dass in der Mulde eine große Flosse gesichtet wurde. Als sie an das Mulde-Wehr kommen, sehen sie keine Flosse, aber hören seltsame Geräusche. Plötzlich ruft eine Mädchenstimme um Hilfe. Philip ist bereit zu helfen, Emma und Benjamin bleiben lieber im Versteck. Im Wasser liegend und von Ästen eingeklemmt findet Philip eine Sirene. Sie bittet ihn, ihr zu helfen und lockt ihn ins Wasser, was Philip zum Verhängnis wird.

Der Film zeigt die kreativen und ausdrucksstarken Fähigkeiten der Kinder, die sie im Zusammenwirken mit ihren Lernbegleitern vom Drehbuch bis zum fertigen Kurzfilm umgesetzt haben. Der Film handelt von Hilfsbereitschaft und dem Mut, anderen in bedrohlicher Lage zu helfen. Aber auch das Zögern bei einigen zur Hilfe wird deutlich. Das Ende läßt viele Interpretationsmöglichkeiten zu.

Quelle: https://ringelnatz-verein.de/projekte/anna-hood/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC6YEa63Dp8

Foto von Aleksandra B. auf Unsplash

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Michael Saylor, executive chairman and co-founder of Strategy, wants to be on The Joe Rogan Experience to talk about Bitcoin. His recent post on X has the Bitcoin community and beyond stoked.

On May 31, Saylor replied to a Joe Rogan fan account that asked who they would like to see on the podcast. His response was simple but bold: “Hey @joerogan, let’s talk about Bitcoin.”

Saylor has been one of the most vocal Bitcoin supporters for a long time. He talks about bitcoin being a store of value and a hedge against inflation all the time.

Even when Bitcoin was a niche topic, Saylor was promoting it.

His company MicroStrategy (which was recently renamed to Strategy) has made headlines for investing billions in bitcoin. They currently hold around 580,250 BTC worth over $60 billion according to public trackers.

Saylor’s invitation to Joe Rogan was met with excitement from the Bitcoin community. Several well-known figures quickly chimed in.

Kook, a trader and analyst, said: “Saylor is going to Bitcoin pill Joe Rogan.”

Brandon MacDougal said he would watch The Joe Rogan Experience for the first time if Saylor was on the show, and The Bitcoin Therapist said the potential interview would “shatter the internet.”

The Bitcoin Therapist on X

It’s not just hardcore Bitcoiners who are excited. Many think the conversation could reach a much wider audience and push Bitcoin into the mainstream financial conversation.

Joe Rogan has one of the most popular podcasts in the world with millions of listeners. He’s discussed digital assets many times and has a special interest in Bitcoin.

In an October 2023 episode with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Rogan said: “The real fascinating crypto is Bitcoin. That’s the one that I think has the most likely possibility of becoming a universal viable currency. It’s limited in the amount that it can be.”

Rogan previously had Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos on the show between 2014 and 2016 when bitcoin was under $1,000. Those early episodes introduced Bitcoin to many new listeners.

With Rogan’s history of being open to the topic and his massive audience, a new episode with Saylor could get a whole new group of people interested in Bitcoin.

The buzz around Saylor’s invite is a sign of a bigger trend — Bitcoin becoming a bigger part of the global conversation. Saylor has positioned himself as a thought leader in the space and often talks about how Bitcoin can change the way money and financial systems work.

He believes Bitcoin can create more transparent and efficient systems, reduce transaction costs and challenge traditional banking models. He also said we need smart regulation to protect consumers while encouraging innovation.

A conversation between Saylor and Rogan wouldn’t just be about Bitcoin’s price or investment strategies. It would likely go deeper into topics like inflation, digital privacy, government policy and the future of money.

So far Joe Rogan hasn’t publicly responded to Saylor’s invite, but fans are hoping he’ll say yes. Many think the timing is perfect. Bitcoin is hot again and more people than ever are trying to figure out what role it will play in the future of finance.

@ 93bfc86d:fc8e91f5

질서자유주의가 자유주의 세상을 만드는 방법

안캡의 전략에는 크게 두 가지, 호페의 질서자유주의와 새뮤얼 콘킨 3세의 아고리즘이 있다.

로스바드-호페 라인의 질서자유주의는 논리를 기반으로 자연권을 정당화하고, 이를 통해 국가의 부당함을 설파한다. 미제스의 "인간은 행동한다."라는 제1공리부터 시작해서, 행동의 제1수단인 신체가 그 자신에게 소유되어야 한다는 자기 소유를 증명하고 자연권을 철저하게 연역적으로 정당화해간다. 안캡의 세상을 만들려는 이들의 방법론도 논리적이다.

예를 들어 호페의 『자유주의자는 무엇을 해야 하는가』 책에서는 위로부터의 전환이 불가능함에 따라 아래로부터의 전환을 해야 한다는 주장이 나온다. 과거에는 이런 자유로운 세상이 도래하기 위해서는 왕 한 명이 "앞으로 자기가 원하는 대로 보안 기업을 자유롭게 선택하고, 더 이상의 강제는 없다!"라고 선언만 하면 됐다. 따라서 왕 한 명만 어떻게 설득을 하거나, 압박을 하든 주리를 틀든 일단 왕이 이렇게 선언하게 하기만 하면 됐다. '마그나 카르타'도 결국 귀족 연합이 왕 한 명을 압박해 왕이 서명했던 것 아닌가?

반면에 현대 민주주의 사회를 보자. 대한민국에서 대통령 한 명이 최저임금을 폐지할 수 있는가? 최저임금은 헌법에 보장되는데(헌법 32조) 따라서 이를 폐지하는 것은 거의 개헌만큼이나 어렵다. 대통령이나 국회의원 과반이 발의를 해야 하고, 국회에서 재적 3분의 2 이상이 찬성해야 겨우 통과되며, 이렇게 통과해도 국민투표에서 과반수가 동의해야 겨우 없어지는 것이다. 즉, 거의 불가능에 가깝다.

따라서 호페는 위로부터의 전환이 불가능함에 따라 전국적인 중앙 정부의 투표를 거부할 것을 제안한다. 대통령 선거나 국회의원 선거 등 말이다. 여기서 중앙 정부 단위의 투표를 거부하는 이유는 중앙 정부의 부당성도 있지만, 이 투표를 통해 세상을 바꾸는 게 현실성이 없어서 그렇다.

같은 맥락에서 지역 선거의 투표는 항상 거부하는 건 아닌데, 자유주의자들이 한 국가 전체에서 과반을 얻는 것은 불가능하지만, 한 지역에 점점 몰리는 경우에는 적어도 그 지역에서는 과반이 될 수도 있기 때문이다. 따라서 아주 작은 지역에서 자유주의자들이 다수결이 된다면 적어도 그 지역에 한해서는 위로부터의 전환이 가능해진다. 그러면 투표를 거부하다가 지역구에서 본격적으로 투표를 하기 전에 선행되어야 할 일은 자유주의가 많이 퍼지고, 자유주의를 지지하는 사람들이 특정 지역에 몰리기 시작해야 하는 것일 것이다. 비트코이너들이 특정 지역에 몰려 시타델을 건설하는 상황을 생각하면 될 것 같다.

그 이후에는? 지역구의 대표로 선출된 인물이 해당 지역구의 투표권을 재산 소유자에게 재산 크기(지분)대로 다시 분배해야 한다. 즉, 재산이 없는 사람은 투표권이 없다. 모든 공공 인프라(도로, 수도, 전기, 교육, 치안, 사법 등등)는 전부 주식으로 판매되어 민영화된다(지방 정부는 이를 통해 재원을 마련한다). 이에 따라 공공 인프라는 완전히 사적 소유로 전환된다. 치안, 사법, 교육 모두 민간 영역으로 전환된다.

현재 세계에서 자유주의자들이 이런 관점을 취한다면 무엇을 해야 할까? 일단 자유주의를 더 많은 사람에게 퍼뜨려야 한다. 또한, 자유주의자들이 모일 지역을 물색해야 할 것이다. 그리고 중앙 정부 단위의 투표를 거부해야 할 것이다.

그림 1. 질서 자유주의의 상징인 아나코 캐피탈리즘 깃발

현대 민주주의 투표의 부당함

아고리즘의 전략을 이야기하기 전에 먼저 현대 민주주의 투표의 부당함에 대해 살펴보고 가자. 개인적인 생각도 들어가 있다.

투표 행위 자체는 유권자의 권리 행사로 전혀 나쁠 것이 없다. 다수결의 원칙도 당연히 마찬가지다. 투표 당사자들이 다수결의 원칙에 동의하기 때문에 참여하는 것이기 때문이다. 그래서 민주주의는 선거에서 져도 그 결과에 승복하는 것이 그 시스템의 규칙이다. 예를 들어 주주총회에서 주주들이 지분대로 의결권을 행사하거나 행사하지 않아서 생기는 결과는 그 행위 자체로는 전혀 문제가 없다.

투표의 정당성은 투표라는 행위 자체로부터 판단되는 것이 아니라 그 투표가 어떤 시스템 아래서 이뤄지는 투표인지로부터 판단해야 한다. 나는 두 가지 관점에서 살펴볼 것이다.

현대 민주주의의 투표는 유권자가 자신의 권리를 당선자에게 위임하는 행위다. 한 후보가 당선되면 다수결의 원칙에 따라서 그 후보는 그 후보를 찍지 않은 유권자들의 권리까지 모두 가져간다. 여기까지는 문제가 없다. 투표 행위 참여자들이 다수결의 원칙이라는 그 시스템에 동의하기 때문에 투표하기 때문이다.

그런데 현대 민주주의는 당선된 후보가 그 후보에게 투표했든, 투표하지 않았든, 기권을 했든 간에 다른 사람의 소유권을 마음껏 유린할 수 있는 권한도 가져간다. 이건 아주 큰 문제다. 국회의원이 세금을 늘리는 입법 권한을 행사하거나, 대통령이나 국회에서 예산을 편성해 정부 지출을 늘리고, 돈을 찍어내서 사람들의 소유권을 유린하는 행위가 용인된다.

어떤 사람도 다른 사람의 소유권을 침해할 수는 없다. 소유권은 단순히 희소한 재화의 분배 문제를 해결하는 실용적 대안이라서 중요한 것이 아니다. 인간 행동이라는 공리로부터 자기 소유 원칙을 이끌어내고, 그가 소유한 신체와 삶을 써서 획득한 재화(원초적 점유)에 대한 소유권을 보장하는 것이며, 그리고 이미 소유권이 있는 재화를 교환의 양 당사자가 자유롭게 교환하는 행위를 보장하는 것이다.

따라서 소유권은 인간에게 이성이 있다는 존엄성의 표현이자 인간 시간(삶)의 희소성과 귀중함을 인정하는 것이다. 어느 누구도 이를 모독할 권리는 없다. 이를 침해하는 것은 보편 원리에 따라 그 자신의 소유권도 포기한다는 뜻과 같으며, 이는 결국 자기 신체의 자기 소유도 부정하는 셈이 된다.

현대 민주주의에서 투표하는 것은 다른 누군가의 소유권을 유린할 사람을 뽑는 것과 같다. 애초에 이런 권한은 누구에게도 주어지지 않았으며 당연히 누구에게도 없으니 넘겨줄 수도 없는 권한이다.

현대 민주주의의 삼권분립 체제는 당선자에게 이러한 강탈의 권한이 보장된다. 설령 후보자가 이런 권한을 행사하지 않는다고 하더라도 이 시스템이 그러한 권한을 발동할 수 있다는 것을 언제든지 보장한다면 이러한 시스템은 폐기되어야 한다.

따라서 현대 민주주의에서 투표하는 행위는 누군가가 이러한 권한을 행사하는 것에 대한 동의로 간주될 수 있다. 어떤 후보가 이런 행위를 다른 후보보다 '덜' 한다고 해서 그 후보에 투표하는 것에 대한 정당성은 당연히 확보될 수 없다. 더하는지 덜하는지에 따라 이 약탈이 정당화될 수는 없기 때문이다.

심지어 어떤 후보가 이런 약탈 행위를 절대 안 할 것이라고 공언한다고 해도, 시스템에 이러한 권한이 보장되어 있는 이상 투표하는 행위는 이 시스템에 동의하는 행위이다. 그 후보가 당선된 이후 갑자기 돌변해 세금을 걷거나 국채를 팔아 예산을 확보하고 돈을 찍어내는 것이 시스템 상에서는 문제가 없기 때문이다. 이것은 간접 민주주의의 단점이라기 보다는, 애초에 이런 다른 사람에 대한 약탈 권한을 행사할 수 있는 시스템 자체가 잘못된 것이다.

현대 민주주의가 부당한 두 번째 이유는 이 시스템에 동의하지 않는 사람들조차 이 시스템의 피해자가 된다는 점이다.

도박에 참여하고 있는 사람들을 생각해보자. 승리자가 나머지 베팅한 모든 사람들의 베팅 금액을 약탈하는 것은 전혀 문제가 되지 않는다. 왜냐하면 도박 참여자들은 패배 시 자신이 베팅한 재산이 승자에게 몰수될 수도 있다는 것에 동의하고 도박에 참여하기 때문이다(따라서 이는 약탈이 아니다). 이에 동의하지 않는다면 도박을 그만하면 된다. 도박사는 언제든지 도박을 그만둘 자유가 있다.

그러나 현대 민주주의는 이 시스템에 동의하지 않더라도 그 나라에서 태어났다는 이유만으로 이러한 약탈에 강제 당할 수밖에 없다. '분배'하기 위해 투표를 할 거면 그 시스템에 동의하는 사람들끼리 서로의 재산을 놓고 분배하면 될 일이다. 그러나 이 시스템은 모든 사람들에게 이 시스템에 참여하는 것이 강제된다.

즉, 이 시스템은 애초에 잘못된 시스템인데 이 안에서 좌니 우니, 대통령제니 내각제니 사람들이 서로 경쟁하게 한다. 시스템 자체에 대한 의문을 품기는 매우 어려운 구조다.

이 시스템이 마음에 안 들면 이민을 가면 된다고 하는 주장은 전혀 설득력이 없다. 이민에 비용이 들고 다양한 현실적인 제약이 있다는 것은 차치하고서 이야기해보자. 만약 이러한 분배(?) 혹은 세금의 권한 행사자가 해당 지역 토지의 소유자고, 그 토지의 사용자가 소유자가 정한 분배 규칙에 동의하는 조건으로 토지를 사용한다면 이러한 세금과 같은 분배는 약탈은 아니다. 사용자가 그 규칙에 자발적으로 동의했으므로 정당화될 수 있는 것이다.

만약 국토의 모든 땅이 사실상 소유자가 있는 게 아니라, 사실상 국가의 소유이며 국가가 국민들에게 사용권을 나눠주는 것이라는 미친 주장을 해도(참고로 이건 토지의 사적 소유권을 부정하는 공산주의다!) 여전히 이 주장은 정당하지 않다.

토지의 소유권을 획득하는 방법은 두 가지가 있는데 첫째, 소유권이 없는 땅을 점유함으로써 소유권을 주장할 수 있게 되는 것, 둘째, 이미 소유권이 있는 토지를 자발적인 교환이나 기부를 통해 획득하는 것이다. 소유권이 있는 생산 수단을 통해 생산된 생산물도 소유권이 인정되는데, 토지는 생산이 불가능하니(우주정거장 같이 새로운 공간을 건설하는 게 아니라면...) 토지를 획득하는 방법은 언급한 두 가지 뿐이다.

그런데 현대 국가가 토지를 소유한 것의 기원을 살펴보자. 식민지화를 통해 강제로 점유하는 것은 대한민국은 해당이 없는 것 같다. 그러면 이미 소유자가 있는 사유지를 각종 규제와 사용 제한을 통해 사실상의 지배권을 확보하거나, 세금으로 축적한 재정으로 구입한 것이다. 그 기원이 모두 약탈에 있다는 점에서 국가의 토지 소유는 정당하지 않다.

따라서 규칙이 싫으면 이민을 가면 된다는 주장은 도둑이 도둑질을 하는데, 도둑질을 당하기 싫으면 멀리 도망가라는 식의 궤변과 같다.

그러나 국가의 계약은 완전히 비자발적이다. 단지 그 신체가 어디서 탄생했다는 이유만으로 그 시스템에 동의한 것이 될 수는 없다. 갓 태어난 아기는 다른 사람의 보호가 있어야만 생존할 수 있다는 점에서 완전히 비자발적인데, 이에 따라 당연히 탄생의 위치도 완전히 비자발적인 것이었기 때문이다.

또한 국가는 국토의 소유자가 아니다. 그보다는 국토의 소유권을 보장'해야' 하는 존재일 뿐이다. 누군가가 규칙을 정하고 싶다면 그 규칙의 영향권은 자신의 사유지 내에서만 영향력이 있으며, 당연히 그 규칙에 자발적으로 동의하는 사람들만 그 사유지를 이용하는 조건으로 계약할 수 있다. 　

정리해보자. 지금까지 현대 민주주의의 투표의 부당함에 대해 두 가지 관점에서 살펴봤다. 첫째는 투표가 약탈이 가능한 이 시스템에 동의한다는 행위라서 부당하다는 것이고, 둘째는 이 시스템에 동의하지 않는 사람들까지 약탈의 대상이 되는 이 시스템에 동의한다는 행위이므로 부당하다는 것이었다.

투표하지 않는 행위가 혹시 반대 세력이 활개치게 두게 되는 것은 아닐까? 그렇지 않다. 투표하지 않는 행위는 이 시스템의 정당성을 약화시킨다. 현대 민주주의의 큰 속임수가 있다. 민주주의에서 비롯된 통치 행위는 51%를 넘은 사람들이 그 통치 행위에 동의했기 때문에 자행되어도 된다는 매우 비논리적인 주장에 입각하고 있다. 이는 당연히 정당성이 없다. 그런데 진짜 큰 속임수는 그 통치 행위에 동의한 사람이 심지어 과반도 아니라는 것이다.

만약 어떤 후보가 생산에 적대적인 수준의 세금 부과와 보편 복지, 최저임금 인상 등의 모두가 고통받는 정책을 공약으로 내세워 당선이 되었다고 해보자. 해당 후보의 득표율이 51%라고 한다면 이는 전국의 51% 국민이 해당 후보를 지지하는 것과 같은 착각을 일으킨다. 그렇지 않다. 만약 투표율이 75%라면, 해당 후보에 동의한 사람은 0.75 x 0.51 = 38%가 된다. 즉, 38%의 동의로 인해 모든 사람이 함께 고통 받게 되는 것이다.

그래서 민주주의는 이러한 사실을 감추면서 사람들에게 투표를 독려할 수밖에 없다. 투표율이 조금만 낮아져도 이에 대한 정당성이 심각하게 낮아지기 때문이다. 투표율이 50%인 상황에서 어떤 후보가 51%의 표를 얻어 당선된다면 전 국민의 25%의 지지로 당선된 것과 같은데 이는 통치 행위에 대한 정당성을 매우 약화시킨다.

소비자 주권 행사

그러면 투표라는 행위가 없다면 일반 시민들은 어떻게 주권을 행사할 수 있을까? 사실 우리는 매일매일 자발적으로 투표를 하고 있다. 바로 미제스가 말한 '소비자 주권' 행사다.

우리는 기업들이 우리에게 어떤 효용을 주는지에 따라 계속 투표한다. 어떤 기업을 살리고, 어떤 기업을 죽일지, 어떤 기업을 거지 기업에서 부자 기업으로 만들지, 또는 어떤 기업을 부자 기업에서 거지 기업으로 만들지 투표한다. 바로 '소비'를 통해서 말이다.

이러한 소비라는 투표 방식은 완전히 자발적이라는 점에서 소유권을 제대로 보장한다. 약탈과는 완전히 동떨어진 행위다.

또한, 이러한 투표 방식은 각자가 원하는 대로 효용을 누릴 수 있다. 사법과 치안도 시장의 영역으로 들어오면 우리는 어떤 규칙 아래서 살아갈지 자유롭게 선택할 수 있다. 즉, 내가 선택한 규칙이 다른 사람에게도 강제되지 않고, 다른 사람이 선택한 규칙이 나에게 강제되지도 않는다. 서로 다른 규칙이 충돌하면 그 규칙들의 간극을 중재하는 기업이 나타난다. 자연적으로 질서가 꽃 피는 것이다.

생산 권한은 기업에게 달려있지만 심판은 소비자가 한다. 생산자가 소비자의 의지에 반하는 생산을 하면 바로 시장에서 퇴출되기 때문이다. 기업은 소비자에게 어떤 도덕적 의무를 강요할 수도 없다. 기업은 소비자가 원하는 것이 있다면 생산할 뿐이다. 소비자는 기업에게 자신들이 원하는 것을 최대한 효율적으로 자원을 분배하여 생산할 것을 명령하고 생산 권한을 위임하는 셈이다. 그 기업이 소비자가 원하는 것을 생산하지 않으면 어차피 다른 어떤 기업이 생산하여 거기서 챙길 수 있는 소비자의 표, 즉 이익을 가져갈 것이다.

만약 '소비'라는 투표 행위 자체에 반대한다면 오지에 있는 땅을 사서 문명을 떠나 자급자족하며 사는 것도 가능하다. 각자가 자신만의 방식으로 삶을 선택할 수 있는 것이다.

이 투표 시스템에서 표는 돈이다. 돈으로 투표를 한다는 것이 비인간적으로 느껴질지도 모르겠다. 그러나 돈으로 투표하는 것은 지극히 인간적인데, 그 투표권을 얻기 위해서는 먼저 다른 사람들이 원하는 것을 해줘서 그 표를 얻어야 하기 때문이다. 소비하려면 먼저 생산해야 한다. 이건 완전히 약탈 없는 시스템이고, 모든 인간 시간에 대한 존중이다.

이러한 이유들로 나는 이제 현대 민주주의에 대한 투표를 거부하지만, 동시에 매일 소비를 통해 투표하고 있다.

아고리즘이 자유주의 세상을 만드는 방법

이제 아고리즘의 전략을 살펴보자. 로스바드-호페의 질서 자유주의를 살펴본 뒤, 현대 민주주의의 투표에 대한 부당함을 살펴본 것이 뜬금 없는 이야기는 아니었는데, 아고리즘은 이러한 이유로 어떠한 투표도 거부하기 때문이다. 아고리즘의 창시자인 새뮤얼 콘킨 3세가 로스바드와 갈라선 것도 로스바드가 정치와 연대하는 전략적 행보를 보이면서부터였다.

아고리즘은 자유로운 세상을 만들기 위해 자유 시장인 아고라를 적극 활용할 것을 주장한다. 이들은 정부가 추적할 수 없는 자유로운 암시장을 확대해서 정부의 힘을 약화시키는 방법을 써야 한다고 주장한다. 이 암시장은 당연히 무기, 마약, 성매매 등을 포함한 시장을 말한다.

그래서 자유지상주의를 도래시키기 위한 이들의 전략은 정부가 추적할 수 없는 시장을 만들고, 하나의 병렬 경제(대항 경제)를 만들어 정부의 힘을 지속적으로 약화시키는 것이다. 이들은 납세 거부 운동, 투표 거부 운동을 장려하며 암시장과 암호 기술을 적극 활용한다. 참고로 사이퍼펑크 같은 기술 자유주의는 분류하자면 질서자유주의보다 아고리즘 쪽에 더 가깝다(로스 울브리히트의 실크로드를 생각해보자...!)

로스바드-호페의 질서자유주의와 콘킨의 아고리즘은 둘 다 자유지상주의의 실현을 목표로 하지만, 질서자유주의는 논리적으로 윤리적 정당성을 확보하고, 그러한 정당성을 바탕으로 자유지상주의를 실현시키기 위해 현실 세계에 이미 존재하는 제도들도 전략적으로 이용한다. 반면 콘킨의 아고리즘은 자유지상주의의 윤리적 정당성보다는 그걸 도래시키기 위한 전략들에 치중하며, 정치와 절대 타협하지 않고, 전략적으로 이용하려고도 하지 않는다. 목표는 같지만 서로 다른 방법을 취하는 것이다.

1980년 공개된 콘킨의 「신 자유주의자 선언」은 미제스와 로스바드, 르페브르에 대한 감사로 시작하지만, 1장에서 다음과 같은 문구도 나온다. (이것도 언제 다 번역해봐야겠다!)

"처음 나타난 반격은 ... 개혁주의—국가주의를—'개선'하겠다는 명분으로 국가의 직책을 받아들이는 것까지 포함한다!—이 모든 반反 원칙들에 대해서... 그중 가장 끔찍한 것은 '정당주의'인데, 이는 자유지상주의적 목적을 국가주의적 수단, 특히 정당을 통해 달성하려는 반反 개념이다. '자유지상주의' 정당은 국가가 이제 막 출현한 자유지상주의자들에게 퍼부은 두 번째 반격이었다. 처음에는 터무니 없는 모순으로, 그 다음에는 침략군으로 등장했다."

로스바드가 1992년 공화당 경선 후보였던 팻 뷰캐넌을 공개적으로 지지했을 때(이때 공화당 경선에서 뷰캐넌은 아버지 부시한테 졌고, 대선은 민주당 빌 클린턴 승리), 콘킨이 어떤 반응을 보였을지 상상해보자. 저런 선언문을 썼는데 말이다. 콘킨은 로스바드가 자유지상주의 원칙을 저버렸다면서 자신이 편집하는 잡지 『신 자유지상주의자』에서 로스바드의 행위를 "자유의 원칙을 포기한 행위"라고 비난했다.

반면 로스바드는 소수의 자유지상주의 지식인들만으로는 자유지상주의 사회를 건설할 수 없으므로 대중과 연합해야 한다고 주장했다. 팻 뷰캐넌 같은 인물을 통해 중산층이나 노동계층의 지지를 얻을 수 있고, 자유지상주의 목표를 달성할 수 있다고 했다. 이때 나온 전략이 자유주의적 경제 질서와 보수적 문화 질서를 결합한 '팔레오 자유지상주의'다. 로스바드는 아고리즘 세력에게 순수성만을 강조하며 현실 세계와 단절된 사람들은 무기력한 이상주의자들이라고 반박하며, 자신은 국가주의를 지지하는 게 아니라 그 세력 안에 있는 반국가적 잠재력을 이끌어내는 것이라고 했다.

그림 2. 아고리즘의 깃발

질서자유주의와 아고리즘의 공동체적 배제에 관한 입장 차이

콘킨의 아고리즘과 로스바드-호페 라인의 질서자유주의의 차이는 정치 같은 기존 제도들을 전략적으로 이용할 수 있는지뿐만 아니라 공동체적 배제에 관한 입장에서도 약간 갈라진다.

자유주의에서는 자유로운 수용과 자유로운 '배제'도 보장되어야 한다. 즉, 예를 들어 어떤 사람이 장사를 하는데 동성애자나 흑인이나 채식주의자를 직원이나 손님으로 받지 않는 것도 장사하는 사람의 자유로운 배제 권리라는 것이다. 자신의 사유지에 어떤 사람을 들일지, 들이지 않을지는 전적으로 소유자의 몫이다. 그리고 여기서 배제는 당연히 폭력으로 이어지지 않는 선에서의 자유로운 배제다.

이러한 배제가 한 공동체 전체로 퍼졌다고 해보자. 지금은 동성애자에 대한 예시만 들겠다(필자는 동성애에 대해 부정적 감정이 전혀 없으니 동성애자 분들은 오해 마시길). 만약 한 지역 소유자 공동체 전체가 동성애자에 대한 배제를 주장한다면 당연히 동성애자는 그 공동체에 들어갈 수가 없다.

여기서 이를 다루는 뉘앙스가 약간 다른데, 호페는 이를 자유로운 계약에 의한 공동체적 질서의 탄생이라 보며 긍정적으로 본다. 물론 절대로 이러한 배제가 폭력으로 이어져서는 안 된다. 폭력으로 이어지면 비침해성 공리 위반이므로 정당성이 없다.

아고리즘은 개인들의 자발적인 배제는 자유지만, 이것이 공동체적 배제로 발전하고 구조적 차별이나 집단적 억압으로 발전하는 건 국가의 또 다른 형태일 뿐이라 생각하여 이를 경계한다. 그래서 개인 차원의 자율적 배제는 정당하지만, 공동체 차원의 배제는 경계한다. 그렇다고 이걸 없애야 한다 이런 건 아니다(개인들의 자유로운 배제가 공동체 배제로도 이어질 수 있는 것이므로). 콘킨은 공동체적 배제가 탄생할 수 있지만 그것이 비합리적인 배제라면 대안 시장이 탄생할 것으로 본다. 동성애자들을 위한 시장과 마을이 생길 것이고, 비합리적인 배제는 이러한 고객들을 놓친 것에 대한 손실로 이어질 것이라고 본다. 즉, 모든 개인이 자유 시장 아고라에서 자발적으로 교환할 권리를 가져야 하며, 차별적인 배제들은 시장 안에서 경쟁할 수 있을 거라 본다. 만약 대안 시장이 없는 상황에서 모두가 배제한다면 이는 실질적 강제처럼 작동할 수 있기 때문이다.

자유지상주의 안에서 콘킨의 아고리즘은 차별이나 수용을 대하는 태도에서 좀 더 좌파적인 것처럼 보인다. 실제로 콘킨의 「신 자유주의자 선언」에 등장하는 용어들도 약간 그러한 뉘앙스가 있다. 콘킨은 전통적인 좌파 단어들을 전략적으로 차용했다. 예를 들면 혁명, 착취, 해방운동, 불복종, 저항, 암시장, 아나키즘 등의 단어다. 당연히 전통적인 좌파 단어의 뜻과는 완전히 다르다. 혁명은 아고라를 통한 "비정치적" 자유주의 혁명을 의미하며, 착취는 마르크스의 자본가가 노동자를 착취한다고 했던 그 착취가 아니라, 국가주의와 결탁한 크로니 자본주의자들의 제도적 진입장벽을 만들고, 캉티용 효과의 수혜를 누리는 그러한 오염된 자본주의자들이 하는 것을 착취라고 했다(아고리즘은 국가에 의존하지 않는 기업가와 국가로부터 특혜를 받는 착취적 기업가를 구분한다. 선언문 참고).

정리하자! 로스바드-호페의 질서 자유주의와 콘킨의 아고리즘의 차이점은 다음과 같다.

로스바드-호페의 질서 자유주의는 정치 등을 전략적으로 이용하는 것을 허용한다. 로스바드는 공화당 경선 후보를 공개적으로 지지하여 우파 사람들로부터 자유지상주의에 대한 관심을 끌려고 했고, 호페는 전국단위의 투표나 정당 활동은 거부해도 지역 단위의 투표는 승리 가능성에 따라 조건부로 허용한다. 반면 아고리즘은 어떠한 정치 활동도 거부하며 오직 국가의 통제로부터 동떨어진 자유로운 시장에 의한 혁명을 추구한다.

얼마 전에 있었던 비트코이너들이 보수 우파 스페이스에 들어가서 비트코인에 대해 전파하는 걸 상상해보면 쉽다. 우파 국가주의자들은 국가 시스템에 의한 문제 해결을 강력한 지도자가 등장해 모든 것을 해결해줘야 한다는 잘못된 방법론에 빠져있는 경우가 많은데(문제를 더 큰 문제로 해결하려는 셈...), 누군가는 이걸 보고 저런 사람들과 협력하면 안 된다고 할 것이고, 누군가는 비트코인과 자유주의를 전파하기 위해 그래도 가능성이 높은 이들 사회에 섞여들어가 이야기도 하고, 전파도 하려고 할 것이기 때문이다.

또한 한 가지 차이점은 질서 자유주의와 아고리즘 모두 공동체적 배제는 인정하나, 질서 자유주의는 이를 자유로운 계약에 의해 등장한 공동체적 질서로 보고, 아고리즘은 공동체적 배제가 집단적 억압으로 발전할 것을 경계한다. 아고리즘에서는 비합리적 차별에 의한 배제는 대안 시장이 생겨 극복될 수 있다고 본다.

자유주의 세상을 만들기 위해서는 어떻게 해야 하는가

이제 무엇이 옳은지 스스로 판단해보자. 지금부터는 개인적인 생각이 매우 많이 들어가있으므로 주의하라.

콘킨의 아고리즘은 암시장의 확대를 노려 정부 권한을 약화시키려 하지만 이는 대중의 지지를 얻기 어렵다. 또한, 이러한 병렬 경제는 한 곳에 집중되기 어렵고 넓고 약하게 퍼져있을 수밖에 없다.

로스바드-호페의 질서자유주의는 현실에 이미 존재하는 제도들을 전략적으로 활용한다. 현실적으로 대중의 지지를 얻을 가능성이 있고, 한 지역에 자유주의자들이 집중되면 적어도 그 지역에서는 지역 투표를 통해 위로부터의 전환이 가능하다. 하나의 자유지상주의적인 지역이 좋은 모범이 되면 다른 지역도 채택할 가능성이 커진다.

어떤 전략을 택해야 하는가? 나는 자유지상주의가 도래하게 하기 위해서는 두 전략 다 써야 한다고 생각한다. 질서자유주의자들의 주장대로 대중의 지지 없이는 자유지상주의가 도래하게 할 수 없다. 대한민국에 있는 "진짜" 비트코이너+자유지상주의자들이 대략 몇 명쯤 될까? 높게 잡아 1,000명 정도 된다고 해보자. 이들 전부가 특정 지역에 모인다고 해도 자유지상주의 질서를 건립할 수는 없다. 찾아보니 대한민국에서 인구가 가장 적은 시가 충남 계룡시라고 한다. 여기 인구는 약 4만3천 명인데, 여기에 51% 공격을 가하려고 해도 적어도 4만 명이 필요하다는 뜻이다. 따라서 아고리스트들처럼 대중의 지지를 얻기 위한 전략을 완고하게 거부하다간 어떠한 힘도 얻지 못하고 선민 의식에만 갇힐 수 있다.

반면 아고리스트들의 주장대로 병렬 경제도 필요하다. 잘 세뇌된 대중은 폭력 집단의 강탈이 있어야만 사회가 유지될 수 있다는 환상에 사로잡혀있다. 병렬 경제는 이러한 환상을 깨뜨릴 좋은 수단이다. 정부 추적이나 제3자 없이 부의 보존이 가능하고, 당사자끼리의 직접 결제가 가능하다는 것을 사람들이 경험하면 생각이 크게 바뀔 것이다. 비트코인으로 결제를 해본 사람과 한 번도 해본 적 없는 사람은 이런 자유지상주의 세상에 대한 이해의 폭이 다를 수밖에 없다. 또한, 비트코인은 개인들에게 큰 힘이 되는데 국가 시스템의 폭력으로부터 개인들이 생산 가치를 지킬 수 있는 강력한 방패이자 동시에 무기가 되기 때문이다.

그러나 아고리즘의 주장인 병렬 경제 중 특히 암시장 전략—국가의 통제가 미치지 않는 무기, 마약, 성매매 등을 확장하는 것—에는 동의하지 않는다. 당연히 자유지상주의자인 나는 총기나 마약, 성매매 등도 자발적인 계약에 의해 시장에서 더 건전하게 다뤄질 수 있다고 생각한다. 지금처럼 불법화되어있는 사회와 다르게 자유시장에서는 마약의 순도나 안정성에 대해 인증해주는 기관, 의사들도 등장할 것이고, 성매매도 비슷한 방식으로 질서화될 수 있다고 생각한다. 혹은 이러한 시장은 시간 선호를 지나치게 높이고 전통적인 가족 질서를 해칠 수 있으므로 공동체적 배제가 일어날 수도 있다. 무기, 마약, 성매매는 일반 대중들이 생각하는 '질서'와는 거리가 있다. 우리는 더 많은 사람들을 끌어들여야 하는데 이는 처음에 일단 거부감을 일으킬 수 있다.

따라서 자극적인 암시장보다는 사람들의 반감이 없는 상품들을 먼저 비트코인으로 거래하고, 국가가 추적하지 못하게 함으로써 납세 거부의 물결이 퍼지게 해야 한다. 동시에 더 많은 사람들에게 자유주의를 전파해야 한다. 더 많은 개인과 비트코인을 통한 병렬 경제라는 두 가지 무기가 함께 생겨야 지역 단위에서의 자유주의 세상을 만들 수 있을 것이다. 먼저 자유주의를 많은 사람들에게 전파해야 한다. 이 과정에서 좌파, 맑시즘, 케인지언들보다는 상대적으로 자유에 대한 이해가 좀 더 있는 집단인 우파 국가주의자들이나 기독교적 종교관을 가진 사람들 속에 섞여 들어가 거기서 전파를 할 수도 있다. 이러한 과정을 통해 자유주의자들이 많아지고, 한 지역에 모여야 한다. 비트코인이라는 무기를 가진 개인들이 한 지역에 모여 자유로운 시장을 형성하면, 호페가 말했던 것처럼 그 지역에서의 투표를 통해 작은 자유지상주의 세상을 만들 수 있다.

그림 3. 자유주의 세상을 만들기 위해서는 두 전략을 적절히 함께 써야 한다.

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

CEO Paolo Ardoino unveils the open-source strategy for the operating system, aiming to make mining accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.

Tether has announced it will make its Bitcoin Mining Operating System (MOS) available for free, enabling operators of all sizes to manage mining infrastructures without relying on third-party software. The announcement came directly from CEO Paolo Ardoino.

How the Bitcoin Mining Operating System works

The operating system developed by Tether offers an efficient solution for managing mining operations. The MOS integrates all essential components of a mining site into a serverless peer-to-peer network, ensuring smooth communication between devices.

The platform supports architectures ranging from minimal setups on Raspberry Pi to industrial-scale facilities managing hundreds of thousands of miners.

According to Ardoino, the decision to make the Bitcoin Mining Operating System open-source aims to level the playing field between small and large operators. Tether’s CEO stated on X:

“A horde of new Bitcoin mining companies will be able to enter the game and compete to keep the network safe.”

Future developments

Tether’s team is currently working on documentation, user guides, and preparing repositories for community access. The Bitcoin Mining Operating System release is scheduled for Q4 2025.

Future plans include integrating artificial intelligence tools to enhance production analysis and performance monitoring using data generated by the operating system.

Tether’s expansion strategy

In recent years, Tether has diversified beyond stablecoins, expanding into sectors such as artificial intelligence, Bitcoin mining, and education. By mid-2025, the company had invested approximately $2 billion in Bitcoin mining and energy-related activities.

During his speeches at Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Las Vegas, Ardoino revealed the company’s ambitions:

“I think that it’s very realistic that by the end of the year, Tether will be the biggest Bitcoin miner in the world, even including all the public companies.”

The post Tether to release Its Bitcoin Mining Operating System for free appeared first on Atlas21.

@ b1ddb4d7:471244e7

Square, the payments platform operated by Block (founded by Jack Dorsey), is reporting 9.7% bitcoin yield on its bitcoin holdings by running a Lightning Network node.

The announcement was made by Miles Suter, Bitcoin product lead at Block, during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Suter explained that Square is earning “real bitcoin from our holdings” by efficiently routing payments across the Lightning Network.

Square’s yield comes from its role as a Lightning service provider, a business it launched two years ago to boost liquidity and efficiency on the Lightning Network. According to Lightning Labs’ Ryan Gentry, Square’s 9% yield could translate to roughly $1 million in annual revenue.

The Lightning Network, a Bitcoin layer-2 protocol, has long been promoted as a solution to Bitcoin’s scalability and transaction speed issues. It enables micropayments and off-chain transactions, reducing congestion on the main blockchain. However, the network faces challenges, including the need for inbound liquidity—users must lock up BTC to receive BTC—potentially limiting participation by smaller nodes and raising concerns about decentralization.

Despite these hurdles, Square remains committed to advancing Bitcoin payments via Lightning. Suter revealed that 25% of Square’s outbound bitcoin transactions now use the Lightning Network. The company is actively testing Lightning-based payments at the Bitcoin 2025 event and plans to roll out the service to all eligible Square merchants by 2026.

Suter emphasized the transformative potential of Lightning:

“When you enable real payments by making them faster and more convenient, the network becomes stronger, smarter, and more beneficial. So if you’re questioning whether bitcoin is merely an asset, the response is no. It has already evolved into both an asset and a protocol, and now Block is spearheading the initiative to transform it into the world’s premier payment system.”

Square’s ongoing investment in Lightning signals its belief in Bitcoin’s future not just as a store of value, but as a global payments protocol.

@ a4043831:3b64ac02

Retirement planning is like laying down the blueprint for your future, where financial security meets your personal dreams and desires. It's about taking a proactive approach to ensure that your golden years are truly golden, filled with comfort and freedom rather than financial stress. The process of creating a retirement plan includes identifying your income sources, adding up your expenses, putting a savings plan into effect, and managing your assets.

It is essential for several reasons:

1. Securing Your Financial Future:

Retirement marks the start of a phase where financial worries should no longer dominate your life. Thoughtful retirement planning ensures a consistent income to support your lifestyle and manage unexpected costs.

1. Achieving Your Personal Goals:

Retirement offers the chance to focus on passions, hobbies, and experiences delayed during your career. Early preparation makes aspirations such as travel, making new hobbies and spending time with your loved ones, achievable.

1. Managing Health Care Needs:

Healthcare often becomes a major expense with age. Without proper planning, medical costs can strain your finances. A comprehensive retirement plan accounts for healthcare needs, helping you manage these expenses while maintaining your standard of living.

1. Leaving a Legacy:

Many people wish to leave something behind for their loved ones or give to charity. This minimizes burdens on your family and maximizes your impact.

Elements of a Retirement Plan

A well-structured retirement plan involves several key elements to ensure a comprehensive approach to financial security:

1. Fact-Finding Conversations:

Critical fact-finding discussions are the foundation of retirement planning. Understanding your retirement goals and desires helps shape the path to achieve them. This involves listening to your stories and defining your minimum and optimal retirement lifestyles, including estimating the associated costs.

2. Retirement Income Sources:

Diversifying your income streams is crucial. This includes pensions, social security benefits, annuities, and passive income sources like rental properties or dividends. Understanding the tax implications of each source is also important.

3. Investment Strategy Determination:

Allocating assets based on your specific retirement goals is essential. This involves aligning your investments with the time frame and nature of your retirement aspirations, whether immediate income or long-term growth. Your investment strategy is customized to support your desired lifestyle and factors in your risk tolerance and the returns needed to fund your retirement adequately.

4. Specific Asset Recommendations:

A mix of equities, bonds, real estate, and other assets is often recommended. Diverse portfolios are crucial for mitigating risk while aiming for growth. The portfolio recommendation will support your retirement objectives and be well-equipped to handle market fluctuations and economic changes. Regular reviews and adjustments to your asset allocation ensure your plan remains aligned with your life circumstances.

Benefits of Retirement Planning

• Retirement planning offers numerous benefits that contribute to a secure and fulfilling retirement:
• Financial Security: Ensures a steady flow of income to maintain your standard of living.
• Peace of Mind: Reduces financial stress and uncertainty, allowing you to enjoy your retirement years.
• Goal Fulfillment: Helps you achieve personal aspirations and pursue activities that you are passionate about.
• Healthcare Preparedness: Provides strategies to manage healthcare expenses without depleting savings.

Conclusion

Retirement planning is an essential process for securing financial independence, pursuing personal aspirations, and preparing for unforeseen circumstances in later years. By focusing on key elements such as income sources, investments, and healthcare, individuals can build a robust roadmap for a fulfilling and worry-free retirement.

If unsure where to begin, Passive Capital Management’s financial planners and advisors can provide valuable guidance. By analyzing your current financial situation and future goals, they can chart a clear trajectory to achieve your aspirations. Their team evaluates whether you are on the right path and recommends adjustments to align with your long-term priorities. Contact Passive Capital Management today to ensure a tailored approach to building a secure and fulfilling retirement.

@ 91bea5cd:1df4451c

Para um brasileiro, pode ser difícil entender como as estações do ano são capazes de influenciar o imaginário e a própria organização da sociedade.

Mas em países de clima temperado ou frio, onde primavera, verão, outono e inverno são mais demarcados, é contagiante a alegria com que o verão é celebrado, depois de meses de dias curtos, temperaturas frequentemente negativas e poucas possibilidades de interação social.

É por isso que desde os tempos mais antigos, as primeiras civilizações europeias já tinham festas específicas para celebrar tanto a chegada da primavera — a volta da vida desabrochando — quanto o solstício de verão — o ápice do sol, o dia mais longo do ano.

E, segundo pesquisadores, são esses dois tipos de celebração, depois abraçados pelo catolicismo, que explicam a origem das festas juninas, que no Brasil acabariam sendo reinventadas com um sotaque próprio.

"As origens são mesmo as antigas festas pagãs das antigas civilizações, ligadas aos ciclos da natureza, às estações do ano. Sociedades antigas realizavam grandes festividades, com durações longas, até de um mês, sobretudo nos períodos de plantio e de colheita", contextualiza o pesquisador de culturas populares Alberto Tsuyoshi Ikeda, professor da Universidade de São Paulo e consultor da cátedra Kaapora: da Diversidade Cultural e Étnica na Sociedade Brasileira, da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (#Unifesp).

"A primavera era bastante comemorada, como o reingresso da vida mais dinâmica, o rebrotar da natureza e das atividades depois do período do inverno, sempre de muita dificuldade, luta pela sobrevivência e recolhimento", comenta ele.

Se nessa época do ano o que se via era a explosão da natureza, a vida social espelhava isso. "Os grupos humanos realizavam grandes festividades dedicadas à própria natureza, muitas vezes rendendo homenagens aos antigos deuses relacionados à natureza, à vida animal, à vida vegetal de um modo geral. Eram festas comunitárias com muita alegria, muita alimentação e reunião de pessoas em grande número: foi o que deu origem às festas juninas que a gente conhece no Brasil e em outras partes do mundo."

Autora do livro Festas Juninas: Origens, Tradições e História, a socióloga Lucia Helena Vitalli Rangel, professora na Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), explica que a origem das festas juninas está nos "rituais de fertilidade agrícola" de diversos povos — da Europa, do Oriente Médio e do norte da África.

Os [mitológicos] casais #férteis #Afrodite e Adonis, Tamuz e Izta, Isis e #Osíris eram homenageados nesses #rituais, pois representavam a reprodução humana, numa época de evocação da colheita", afirma.

"Eram rituais para que a colheita fosse farta e para abençoar o próximo período #agrícola. Era período de congraçamento, de partilha e estabelecimento de alianças entre as comunidades. Eram rituais de fartura e abundância em todos os sentidos, no âmbito alimentar e na relação entre as famílias: casamentos, batizados e compadrio."

"No hemisfério norte o solstício de verão era o auge do período ritual e do trabalho agrícola coroado pela colheita", acrescenta a socióloga.

Vale ressaltar o óbvio, para que não fique um certo estranhamento ao leitor menos atento: no hemisfério norte, origem de tais celebrações, as estações do ano são invertidas em relação ao hemisfério sul, onde está o Brasil.

Apropriação católica

Mas onde então entram os santos nessa história? Na festa junina contemporânea, estão presentes algumas das figuras mais populares do catolicismo — e isso acabou impregnado de tal forma na celebração que a religiosidade se misturou ao folclore e às tradições populares, transcendendo os ritos normatizados pela Igreja Católica.

O primeiro dos santos juninos é Antônio (? - 1231), frade franciscano de origem portuguesa que ficou conhecido pelo que fez na Itália no início do século 13. Com fama de milagreiro, foi canonizado pela Igreja onze meses depois de sua morte — trata-se de um recorde até hoje não superado na história do catolicismo.

No imaginário popular, Antônio se tornou o #bonachão santo das coisas perdidas, sobretudo nos países europeus, e o casamenteiro, principalmente em Portugal e no Brasil. #Simpatias, #promessas e orações específicas marcam a devoção a ele. E sua presença nos festejos juninos geralmente está ligada a essas tradições — a Igreja fixou o 13 de junho, data da morte dele, como dia consagrado ao santo.

Em 24 de junho, o catolicismo celebra o nascimento de João Batista (2 a.C - 28 d.C.). É o santo máximo das comemorações juninas — há versões que apontam que originalmente eram "festas joaninas" e não festas juninas; e, sobretudo no nordeste brasileiro, a Festa de São João é um evento de dimensões impressionantes.

Personagem de historicidade controversa, João Batista é apontado como primo de Jesus Cristo e aquele que o batizou.

Em seu livro O Ramo de Ouro, o antropólogo escocês James Frazer (1854-1941) diz que ocorreu um processo histórico "de acomodação", deslocando para a figura de São João Batista a comemoração do solstício de verão.

Por fim, o mês de junho ainda tem a data do martírio de São Pedro (? - 67 d.C) e São Paulo (5 d.C. - 67 d.C.), dois dos pioneiros do cristianismo. Pedro foi um dos 12 apóstolos de Jesus e acabou depois considerado o primeiro papa do catolicismo.

Paulo de Tarso, por sua vez, é reputado como um dos mais influentes teólogos da história. Parte significativa dos textos que compõem o Novo Testamento da Bíblia é atribuída à sua pena. É dele, portanto, a autoria de parcela considerável da ressignificação de Jesus Cristo após sua morte na cruz — em outras palavras, é possível dizer que Paulo é responsável pela transformação de Jesus em um mito.

Uma observação necessária: apesar de a Igreja celebrar em conjunto a memória do martírio de Pedro e de Paulo, por tradição este último nem sempre é associado aos festejos juninos.

À medida que o catolicismo foi se transformando em religião do status quo, sobretudo a partir da cristianização do Império Romano, no ano de 380 d.C., diversos rituais tratados como pagãos acabaram sendo abraçados e apropriados pela Igreja. "A Igreja Católica não pôde desmanchar essas práticas", reconhece Rangel.

Com os rituais de primavera e verão, não foi diferente. "Várias dessas festividades foram adaptadas", conclui Alberto Ikeda, da USP. "Aos poucos passaram a ser tratadas como festas em honra aos santos juninos."

"Mas é importante notar que mesmo dentro do ciclo cristão, esses santos estão ligados tematicamente com aquelas mesmas ideias, os mesmos princípios das festividades [dessa época do ano] das antigas civilizações", pontua o pesquisador.

Santo Antônio, por exemplo, é o casamenteiro — em uma leitura lato sensu, poderia ser encarado como o santo da família, da unidade familiar, da reprodução humana. "São João também está ligado, sobretudo nos interiores do Brasil, a essa questão dos relacionamentos afetivos. Tradicionalmente, faz-se muito casamento no Dia de São João", diz Ikeda.

"Ele também traz a característica da fartura [que remete aos períodos de plantio e de colheita, em oposição aos rigorosos invernos], dos alimentos, das bebidas, aquilo que chamamos na antropologia de repasto ritual ou repasto cerimonial", afirma o pesquisador.

De modo geral, na leitura proposta por ele, todos os santos juninos estão ligados aos ciclos da natureza — fogo, água, fertilidade, abundância. Está aí São Pedro e a ideia de que ele é quem controla o tempo. "Vejo uma relação entre eles e os antigos rituais, uma relação ainda presente.

Embora a gente não perceba mais, eles têm essa ligação com os elementos fundamentais da existência humana", comenta.

Nas festas populares essas forças da natureza se fazem representadas, muito além da mesa farta.

Os mastros juninos que são erguidos representam a potência dos troncos, das árvores que resistem ao inverno. A fogueira é a luz: ilumina, aquece, afugenta animais ferozes, assa os alimentos.

Na releitura contemporânea, portanto, as festas juninas "guardam as reminiscências das ancestrais aglomerações festivas", conforme frisa Ikeda.

Tradição brasileira

Paçoca, pamonha, pipoca, bolo de fubá, canjica, curau, pé de moleque, maçã do amor. Vinho quente e quentão. Brincadeiras de pular fogueira e dançar a quadrilha. Chapéu de palha, camisa xadrez, calça com remendos. Bombinhas e rojões, fogos de artifício. Bandeirinhas coloridas penduradas em varais de barbante.

No Brasil, as festas juninas foram reinventadas e se tornaram uma exaltação das raízes caipiras. E muito além da religiosidade, tornou-se tradição, folclore. Como se o ciclo se fechasse: o que nasceu como ritual gregário, de celebração social, e depois foi apropriado por uma religião dominante, acabou na cultura popular sendo devolvido ao sentido original — ou seja, a festa pela alegria de festejar.

Não à toa, a folclorista Laura Della Mônica registrou em seu livro Os Três Santos do Mês de Junho que "respeitar as festas e orações dedicadas a cada um dos três santos do mês de junho, segundo a tradição, é obrigação e dever de todos nós, pelo menos culturalmente". O "todos nós" é o brasileiro. Porque mesmo nascida no Velho Mundo, as festas juninas assumiram uma identidade própria em território nacional.

"A colonização da América colocou novamente a questão [da apropriação cultural] para os jesuítas e todos os religiosos que se instalaram no continente sul-americano", pontua a socióloga Rangel.

"No caso do Brasil, houve uma coincidência do calendário. No inverno seco, o solstício de inverno marca o período dos trabalhos agrícolas mais importantes. Do mesmo modo que, para os povos do hemisfério norte é o período de rituais de fertilidade, [a festa por aqui também vem] com as mesmas características, congrega as famílias na evocação da abundância."

As tradições regionais guardam suas especificidades, como era de se esperar em um país de dimensões continentais. "Sempre foram festas e rituais populares", salienta Rangel.

"No Brasil temos expressões regionais muito fortes: o São João nordestino, o Boi Bumbá da região norte, o Boi de Mamão no sul, Cavalhadas no centro-oeste e as festas do Divino Espírito Santo e muitas regiões, particularmente no estado de São Paulo."

A pesquisadora comenta que "conforme os padres vão chegando nas paróquias, começam a interferir nas comemorações". É quando vem o sincretismo: a festa popular também é festa católica, a quermesse organizada pela igreja também tem os rituais populares.

"Até hoje as paróquias, as igrejas, realizam festas juninas. Mesmo que as maiores festas estejam predominantemente tendo somente o caráter festivo, mais comercial, de exploração pelo ganho financeiro, as igrejas continuam fazendo comemorações aos santos juninos", pontua Ikeda.

"Embora muitas pessoas não católicas também participem das festas, embora predomine uma visão genérica que as festas juninas não guardam mais relação com a religiosidade, há ainda um relacionamento das igrejas com esses santos juninos."

Para ele, a evolução da festividade consiste no fato de que "toda aglomeração possibilita o incentivo ao comércio". "E a alimentação está neste centro, na busca mesmo do repasto cerimonial e festividades, danças e músicas que sempre estiveram ligados aos antigos rituais." Ikeda lembra que a as festas populares têm uma importância antropológica por serem "práticas gregárias que ciclicamente comemoram a própria constituição, a própria existência das comunidades enquanto coletividade, a reunião de grupos humanos que preservam uma história comum".

"No caso da feste junina, esse vestir-se de caipira, simbolicamente, é um instrumento de importância até emocional e psicológico para as pessoas se sentirem com a identidade ligada ao passado, aos pais e avós que praticavam aquilo, comemorando de forma parecida", analisa o pesquisador.

"Assim, a prática possibilita a guarda de uma continuidade ao longo do tempo."

Suspensão sanitária

Nunca é demais enfatizar: com a pandemia de covid-19 ainda fora de controle, seria uma péssima ideia realizar qualquer tipo de festa neste período — se quer comemorar, faça em casa somente com seu núcleo familiar. Então, 2021 será o segundo ano consecutivo em que o Brasil não terá, ao menos de modo ostensivo, a tradição das festividades com bandeirinhas coloridas. Doutora em História das Ciências da Saúde e autora do livro A Gripe Espanhola na Bahia, a historiadora Christiane Maria Cruz de Souza afirma que esse cancelamento não ocorreu nem na epidemia de 100 anos atrás.

Isto porque a gripe chegou ao Brasil bem depois dos festejos de 1918. E, no ano seguinte, a epidemia estava controlada. "A gripe espanhola não teve nenhuma interferência no São João. Os primeiros registros da doença apareceram em setembro de 1918 e a doença foi se extinguindo aos poucos. Em Salvador, ele não avançou para o ano de 1919. Houve alguns surtos, em lugares mais remotos, até 1920, mas sem caráter epidêmico."

É de se supor, inclusive, que as festividades de 1919 tenham sido ainda mais animadas. "Passada a epidemia de gripe espanhola, tudo o que as pessoas queriam eram esquecê-la", afirma Souza.

Em 20 de junho de 1919, entretanto, surgiram os primeiros registros indicando uma epidemia de varíola na capital da Bahia. "Começaram a aparecer um caso aqui, outro ali, mas ainda sem a força suficiente para poucos dias depois interditar os festejos de São João", nota a pesquisadora.

"As autoridades sanitárias demoraram muito para reconhecer que ocorria uma epidemia terrível de varíola. Autoridades públicas só costumam reconhecer a existência de uma epidemia quando se torna inevitável devido ao acúmulo de adoecimentos e mortes, quando o número de doentes e mortos ultrapassa a normalidade esperada para os casos da doença. Isso demora um tempo."

Rangel ressalta, inclusive, que até a primeira metade do século 20, as festas juninas eram muito menores, restritas a familiares e pequenos grupos comunitários. Muito menos do que os eventos de hoje em dia. "Eram festas de arraial, de quintais, de quermesses", diz. "Elas só se transformaram em grandes espetáculos na segunda metade do século 20, na esteira da espetacularização do carnaval."

Fonte: BBC News 18 Junho 2021

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The stance taken by 31 Bitcoin Core developers divides the community over non-monetary transactions and use cases.

The Bitcoin community finds itself at the center of a heated debate after 31 Bitcoin Core developers published a joint statement outlining a non-interventionist approach to network usage, amid ongoing controversy over non-financial use cases.

The document, published on June 6 on the Bitcoin Core website, has sparked mixed reactions among bitcoiners. The developers clarified their position:

“This is not endorsing or condoning non-financial data usage, but accepting that as a censorship-resistant system, Bitcoin can and will be used for use cases not everyone agrees on.”

The statement emphasizes that Bitcoin is a network “defined by its users” and that core contributors are “not in a position” to enforce mandates on what software or policies people should choose. “Being free to run any software is the network’s primary safeguard against coercion,” it reads.

Community reactions

Not everyone welcomed the developers’ statement. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, criticized the tone of the release:

Bitcoin Core devs have been changing the network gradually to enable spam and now seem focused on also removing barriers for spammers. It’s disingenuous to just say “it is what it is now, too bad.”

This statement itself is also inappropriate. Feels like an NYA from Core devs. https://t.co/ACIqyvK12f

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) June 7, 2025

On the other hand, Jameson Lopp, founder of Casa, defended the letter, explaining:

Ahuh, the same but fundamentally different.

NYA was a group saying we have 82% hashpower and will activate a hard fork with 80% signaling.

Core Devs are a group saying we can't force anyone to run code they don't like, here is our thinking on relay policy & network health.

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) June 7, 2025

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr criticized the transaction relay policy goals outlined in the statement, stating:

NACK

The goals of transaction relay listed are basically all wrong. Predicting what will be mined is a centralizing goal. Expecting spam to be mined is defeatism. Helping spam propagate is harmful.

This OPED contradicts itself, presenting out of band relay as both negative and…

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) June 7, 2025

According to the statement, the Core devs believe it is better for Bitcoin node software to “aim for a realistic sense of what will be included in the next block, rather than intervening between consenting transaction creators and miners to discourage activity that is largely technically harmless.”

The developers identified the main goals of transaction relay as predicting which Bitcoin transactions will be mined, speeding up block propagation, and helping miners identify transactions that pay fees.

The statement concludes:

“While we recognize that this view isn’t held universally by all users and developers, it is our sincere belief that it is in the best interest of Bitcoin and its users, and we hope our users agree.”

Meanwhile, the share of nodes running the implementation created by developer Luke Dashjr, Bitcoin Knots, has surpassed the 10% threshold, according to data from Clark Moody Bitcoin.

The post Bitcoin Core: joint statement sparks debate within the community appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 9ca447d2:fbf5a36d

Bitcoin Core Github page announced yesterday that Core Developers have merged pull request #32406, removing support for “-datacarrier” argument for Bitcoin Core software in their next release, expected to be published in October.

Pull request #32406 has been merged — Github

This is the latest development regarding the initiative brought forth by Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd, which has caused intense debate among Bitcoiners, now known as the “spam wars”.

The disagreement is over a change to Bitcoin Core’s transaction relay policy that removes the OP_RETURN data limit, which some see as a threat to Bitcoin’s very purpose, while others see it as a necessary step to preserve decentralization and censorship resistance.

OP_RETURN is an arbitrary piece of data that can be amended to a bitcoin transaction, and used to be limited to 80 bytes. Users have found ways to go around this limit already and have uploaded larger data to the Bitcoin blockchain, including photos, audio, and even entire computer games.

Bitcoin Core allows for extra arguments when running the application, one of which is the “-datacarrier” argument, which tells the application to not accept transactions including larger OP_RETURN data into its mempool.

Now this argument is marked as “deprecated”, meaning it is not supported or developed anymore, and is expected to be completely removed in future versions.

This will make accepting Bitcoin transactions that contain non-financial data mandatory for anyone running future versions of the Core software.

Prior to the merging of the mentioned pull request on the morning of Monday June 9, a joint statement from 31 Bitcoin Core devs was released on June 6, reheating the already controversial debate in the Bitcoin community.

In the June 6 statement, Bitcoin Core devs explained how they think Bitcoin nodes should handle transactions that include non-financial data, like digital art or messages. This type of data has become more common with Ordinals and inscriptions.

Related: Discussions Heat Up Among Bitcoin Devs Over OP_RETURN Proposal

Core developers said they are not endorsing non-financial use of Bitcoin, but also won’t stop it. Their main point is that Bitcoin’s strength is in being open and censorship-resistant. They wrote:

“This is not endorsing or condoning non-financial data usage, but accepting that as a censorship-resistant system, Bitcoin can and will be used for use cases not everyone agrees on.”

They say it’s up to users and node operators to decide what kind of Bitcoin software they run. Bitcoin Core won’t block transactions that have economic demand and will be mined.

“Being free to run any software is the network’s primary safeguard against coercion,” the statement added.

The policy change goes back to a May 8th upgrade (announced by Core contributor and Engineer at Blockstream, Greg Sanders), where devs removed the long-standing 80-byte limit on OP_RETURN output size.

This limit was meant to discourage non-payment data usage, but devs say it no longer serves that purpose.

“Retiring a deterrent that no longer deters” makes sense, they argue, because people have already found ways to add large data to the blockchain.

They also point out that removing the cap may help miners and users more than it hurts. They claim the new approach helps predict which transactions will be mined, speeds up block propagation and helps miners find fee-paying transactions.

“Knowingly refusing to relay transactions that miners would include in blocks anyway forces users into alternate communication channels,” they explained, warning this could harm decentralization.

The response has been mixed.

The announcement of the merge received 64 upvotes and 93 downvotes from reviewers, showing the community is mostly against this action. Comments explaining their dissatisfaction with the merge also received the support of the majority.

Reviewers who voted ACK (acknowledgment and agreement) were downvoted, and the comments voting NACK (disagreement) received more upvotes.

Comments regarding the recent merge — Bitcoin Core Github page

Critics say it opens the door to blockchain spam, higher fees and more bloat on the blockchain with non-financial content. They say Bitcoin should stick to its original purpose as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”.

Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, was one of the most vocal critics. He said the devs are removing the barriers that protect the network from spam.

“Bitcoin Core devs have been changing the network gradually to enable spam,” Mow said. “It’s disingenuous to just say ‘It is what it is now, too bad’.”

Bitcoin dev Luke Dashjr also criticized the move, saying it undermines Bitcoin’s core function. He called the devs’ goals “basically all wrong” and said expecting spam to be mined is “defeatism”.

Luke Dashjr on X

One user said: “It’s Bit”Coin” not Bit”Bucket” or Bit”Store” or whatever general purpose data store you have in mind. It’s a peer to peer electronic cash system”.

Another user chimed in, warning it could increase costs, reduce efficiency and even hurt long-term scalability.

Their argument is simple: if nonfinancial data is allowed to be stored on the blockchain, it will increase its size over time, storing useless data, and it will hurt decentralization, as fewer individuals will be able to host the entire blockchain on their computers.

They argue allowing people to store whatever they want on the blockchain because transactions shouldn’t be censored, will lead to hurting bitcoin in the long run. Many even argue no additional information should be allowed on the blockchain at all.

But not everyone is unhappy.

Some like Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Bitcoin wallet provider Casa, praised the devs for being transparent and consistent.

“Core Devs are a group saying we can’t force anyone to run code they don’t like,” Lopp said. “Here is our thinking on relay policy and network health.”

Lopp believes a joint statement helps the public understand what the devs stand for.

Supporters also say in a truly decentralized system, devs shouldn’t be gatekeepers. Instead users and miners should be able to decide what goes on the blockchain.

With opinions so divided, the future of Bitcoin may be more contentious. Some predict a fork to create a version of Bitcoin that only deals with monetary use. Others expect new wallet and node software that lets users choose to filter out large data or allow it.

Despite the controversy, the devs are standing by their decision. “While we recognize that this view isn’t held universally,” they said. “it is our sincere belief that it is in the best interest of Bitcoin and its users.”

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Let's hear those ~HealthAndFitness triumphs and challenges

My triumphs - OMAD - Cold shower

My challenges - need to be more active and get outside more

200 sats to post!!! Eat more key lime pie @realBitcoinDog

https://stacker.news/items/1003145

@ eb0157af:77ab6c55

The German bank is considering launching a stablecoin as the European banking sector gradually opens up to digital assets.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank is stepping up its involvement in the digital asset space by exploring stablecoin issuance and tokenized deposit solutions.

Sabih Behzad, Deutsche Bank’s Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, stated that the institution is currently evaluating two strategic options. The first involves developing its own proprietary stablecoin, while the second considers joining a broader consortium initiative within the banking industry.

At the same time, the bank is examining the potential of tokenized deposits — blockchain-based financial instruments that Deutsche Bank believes could enhance the efficiency of transaction settlements. These would represent digital versions of traditional bank deposits.

Deutsche Bank isn’t alone in pursuing this strategy. Banco Santander recently began preliminary work on its own stablecoin and is planning to offer crypto services through its digital banking division. Additionally, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm, DWS Group, has launched a joint venture with Flow Traders and Galaxy Digital to issue a euro-denominated token.

According to Citigroup projections, the market capitalization of stablecoins is expected to grow significantly, from nearly $240 billion today to over $2 trillion by 2030.

The bank’s participation in Project Agorá — an initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements — further highlights its interest in exploring the role of tokenization in wholesale cross-border payments.

The post Deutsche Bank explores the issuance of a stablecoin appeared first on Atlas21.

@ 5eaeca3b:75c1954f

Ingredienti:

Olio EVO di qualità, Peperoncino, Aglio (possibilmente fresco), Spaghetti (di qualità). Per la variazione: Menta (ho usato foglie di menta marocchina) e formaggio pecorino.

Procedimento:

Ho usato (come si vede nella foto in alto) pasta "La Molisana" che ha 14 minuti di cottura, quindi appena l'acqua bolle occorre salarla e buttare la pasta. Poi, in una padella, far riscaldare un fondo di olio EVO e quando è caldo far imbiondire 2/3 spicchi di aglio tagliati a pezzi e il peperoncino (si può usare quello fresco oppure quello secco tritato). Quando l'aglio comincia ad imbiondire, aggiungere la mentuccia e un mestolo di acqua di cottura (come in foto)

Togliere la padella dal fuoco e lasciare risposare. Appena il tempo di cottura è trascorso tirare gli spaghetti dall'acqua e metterli in padella e farli saltare leggermente. attendere qualche istante in modo che la temperatura della pasta si abbassi (non deve raffreddarsi ma semplicemente perdere un po' di calore affinché il formaggio che andiamo ad aggiungere non faccia grumi ma diventi una bella crema...) e quindi aggiungere il pecorino grattato e saltare bene.. se vediamo che si asciuga troppo aggiungere poca acqua di cottura e continuare a spolverare di pecorino e saltare in padella. Così da ottenere una fantastica cremosità...

Buon appetito!

Un piccolo trucco: ho aggiunto anche uno spicchio (molto piccolo) di aglio spremuto. Perchè non risulti troppo aggressivo ho messo una foglia di mentuccia sotto allo spremiaglio.. (vedi sotto in foto)

@ dfa02707:41ca50e3

Contribute to keep No Bullshit Bitcoin news going.

News

• Spiral welcomes Ben Carman. The developer will work on the LDK server and a new SDK designed to simplify the onboarding process for new self-custodial Bitcoin users.
• Spiral renews support for Dan Gould and Joschisan. The organization has renewed support for Dan Gould, who is developing the Payjoin Dev Kit (PDK), and Joschisan, a Fedimint developer focused on simplifying federations.
• The Bitcoin Dev Kit Foundation announced new corporate members for 2025, including AnchorWatch, CleanSpark, and Proton Foundation. The annual dues from these corporate members fund the small team of open-source developers responsible for maintaining the core BDK libraries and related free and open-source software (FOSS) projects.
• The European Central Bank is pushing for amendments to the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets legislation (MiCA), just months after its implementation. According to Politico's report on Tuesday, the ECB is concerned that U.S. support for cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, could cause economic harm to the 27-nation bloc.
• Slovenia is considering a 25% capital gains tax on Bitcoin profits for individuals. The Ministry of Finance has proposed legislation to impose this tax on gains from cryptocurrency transactions, though exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would remain exempt. At present, individual 'crypto' traders in Slovenia are not taxed.
• The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill 2025 introduced in Kenya. The new legislation aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework for licensing, regulating, and supervising virtual asset service providers (VASPs), with strict penalties for non-compliant entities.
• Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos plan to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, major crypto companies are planning to apply for U.S. bank charters or licenses. These firms are pursuing limited licenses that would permit them to issue stablecoins, as the U.S. Congress deliberates on legislation mandating licensing for stablecoin issuers.

"Established banks, like Bank of America, are hoping to amend the current drafts of [stablecoin] legislation in such a way that nonbanks are more heavily restricted from issuing stablecoins," people familiar with the matter told The Block.

• Paul Atkins has officially assumed the role of the 34th Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a return to the agency for Atkins, who previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under the George W. Bush administration. He has committed to advancing the SEC’s mission of fostering capital formation, safeguarding investors, and ensuring fair and efficient markets.
• Federal Reserve retracts guidance discouraging banks from engaging in 'crypto.' The U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew guidance that discouraged banks from crypto and stablecoin activities, as announced by its Board of Governors on Thursday. This includes rescinding a 2022 supervisory letter requiring prior notification of crypto activities and 2023 stablecoin requirements.

"As a result, the Board will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead monitor banks' crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process," reads the FED statement.

• Russian government to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. The country's Ministry of Finance and Central Bank announced plans to establish a trading platform for "highly qualified investors" that "will legalize crypto assets and bring crypto operations out of the shadows."
• Twenty One Capital is set to launch with over 42,000 BTC in its treasury. This new Bitcoin-native firm, backed by Tether and SoftBank, is planned to go public via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will be led by Jack Mallers, co-founder and CEO of Strike. According to a report by the Financial Times, the company aims to replicate the model of Michael Saylor with his company, MicroStrategy.
• Strategy increases Bitcoin holdings to 538,200 BTC. In the latest purchase, the company has spent more than $555M to buy 6,556 coins through proceeds of two at-the-market stock offering programs.
• Metaplanet buys another 145 BTC. The Tokyo-listed company has purchased an additional 145 BTC for $13.6 million. Their total bitcoin holdings now stand at 5,000 coins, worth around $428.1 million.
• Semler Scientific has increased its bitcoin holdings to 3,303 BTC. The company acquired an additional 111 BTC at an average price of $90,124. The purchase was funded through proceeds from an at-the-market offering and cash reserves, as stated in a press release.
• Tesla still holds nearly $1 billion in bitcoin. According to the automaker's latest earnings report, the firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31.
• Spar supermarket experiments with Bitcoin payments in Zug, Switzerland. The store has introduced a new payment method powered by the Lightning Network. The implementation was facilitated by DFX Swiss, a service that supports seamless conversions between bitcoin and legacy currencies.

• Charles Schwab to launch spot Bitcoin trading by 2026. The financial investment firm, managing over $10 trillion in assets, has revealed plans to introduce spot Bitcoin trading for its clients within the next year.
• Arch Labs has secured $13 million to develop "ArchVM" and integrate smart-contract functionality with Bitcoin. The funding round, valuing the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, as announced on Tuesday.
• Citrea deployed its Clementine Bridge on the Bitcoin testnet. The bridge utilizes the BitVM2 programming language to inherit validity from Bitcoin, allegedly providing "the safest and most trust-minimized way to use BTC in decentralized finance."
• UAE-based Islamic bank ruya launches Shari’ah-compliant bitcoin investing. The bank has become the world’s first Islamic bank to provide direct access to virtual asset investments, including Bitcoin, via its mobile app, per Bitcoin Magazine.
• Solosatoshi.com has sold over 10,000 open-source miners, adding more than 10 PH of hashpower to the Bitcoin network.

"Thank you, Bitaxe community. OSMU developers, your brilliance built this. Supporters, your belief drives us. Customers, your trust powers 10,000+ miners and 10PH globally. Together, we’re decentralizing Bitcoin’s future. Last but certainly not least, thank you@skot9000 for not only creating a freedom tool, but instilling the idea into thousands of people, that Bitcoin mining can be for everyone again," said the firm on X.

• OCEAN's DATUM has found 100 blocks. "Over 65% of OCEAN’s miners are using DATUM, and that number is growing every day. This means block template construction is making its way back into the hands of the miners, which is not only the most profitable