@ f647c956:90f43673

I'd love to share a message with you about coffee and its quality to help brighten your day and ward off any feelings of sadness.

There's something truly magical about a perfectly brewed cup of coffee. The aroma alone can be enough to lift your spirits and invigorate your senses. But the quality of the coffee you choose can make all the difference in your overall experience.

When it comes to coffee, freshness is key. Coffee beans start to lose their flavor as soon as they are roasted, so it's important to buy beans that have been roasted recently. Look for beans that have a roast date on the package, and aim to use them within a week or two of that date for the best flavor.

Grinding your own beans just before brewing can also help to preserve their freshness and enhance their flavor. A burr grinder is the best option, as it produces a consistent grind size that allows for even extraction during brewing.

The quality of the water you use can also impact the taste of your coffee. Use filtered or bottled water if your tap water has a strong taste or odor. And be sure to clean your coffee maker regularly to prevent any buildup of minerals or oils that can affect the taste of your coffee.

When it comes to the type of coffee you choose, there are so many options to explore. From light and fruity single-origin coffees to rich and chocolatey blends, there's a flavor profile to suit every palate. Experiment with different roasts, origins, and brewing methods to find your perfect cup.

But ultimately, the most important thing is to savor and enjoy each sip. Coffee is more than just a drink; it's an experience that can bring people together, spark creativity, and provide a moment of respite in a busy day. So take a few moments to slow down, savor the flavors, and let the warmth and comfort of a quality cup of coffee bring a smile to your face. 😁☕

@ 4c5d5379:3a4383ee

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@ f6488c62:c929299d

airdrop เหรียญ

เป็นการแจกจ่ายเหรียญคริปโตเคอร์เรนซีหรือโทเคนโดยไม่มีค่าใช้จ่ายใด ๆ ให้กับผู้ใช้งาน มักใช้เป็นกลยุทธ์ทางการตลาดในการโปรโมทเหรียญที่เพิ่งออกมาใหม่ ให้เป็นที่รู้จักและมีการใช้งานอย่างกว้างขวาง

เปรียบเทียบง่ายๆ ก็เหมือนแจกของฟรี เพื่อดึงดูดความสนใจของผู้คน ลองนึกภาพเหมือนบริษัทแจกน้ำอัดลมรสใหม่ โดยแจกขวดเล็กๆ ให้ชิมฟรีตามร้านสะดวกซื้อ นั่นแหละคือหลักการเดียวกันกับ airdrop เหรียญ

ประเภทของ airdrop: 1.ประเภททั่วไป (standard airdrop): ลงทะเบียนด้วยอีเมลหรือ wallet address และติดตามช่องทางของทีมผู้พัฒนา 2.ประเภทเงินรางวัล (bounty airdrop): ทำกิจกรรมตามที่กำหนด เช่น รีทวีต ติดตามโซเชียลมีเดีย เฉพาะกลุ่ม (exclusive airdrop): แจกให้ผู้ที่มีส่วนเกี่ยวข้องกับโปรเจกต์ เช่น ผู้สนับสนุนช่วงแรก 3.ฮาร์ดฟอร์ก (hard fork airdrop): แจกให้ผู้ถือเหรียญเก่า เมื่อมีการแยกแขนงบล็อกเชน ผู้ถือเหรียญ (holder airdrop): แจกให้ผู้ที่ถือเหรียญบางประเภทอยู่

ข้อดีของ airdrop:

1.ได้เหรียญฟรี 2.รู้จักเหรียญใหม่ๆ 3.ชุมชนของโปรเจกต์ขยายใหญ่ขึ้น

ข้อเสียของ airdrop : 1.อาจเป็นกลลวงหลอก (scam) 2.เหรียญใหม่มักมีความเสี่ยงสูง 3.ต้องเสียเวลาร่วมกิจกรรม

ก่อนเข้าร่วม airdrop:

ศึกษาข้อมูลโปรเจกต์อย่างละเอียด ระวังเว็บไซต์ปลอมและหลอกลวง เลือกโปรเจกต์ที่น่าเชื่อถือ ใช้ wallet ที่ปลอดภัย

@ 064a50cc:2dd653e5

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is always the first version of a product with only the “core and most useful features” meant for early adaptors. MVP Development is low cost, low risk, quick and it works!The term MVP (Minimum Viable Product) was first coined by Frank Robinson (Founder of SyncDev) back in 2001, however it was popularized into the masses through the works of Eric Ries through his works especially the book Lean Startup which is a go-to book for all modern day Entrepreneurs, and also by Steve Blank.!

Common Myths around Minimum Viable Products: An MVP is often confused with a Prototype, Proof of Concept, Test Product, and even with wireframes or Blueprint, and that is a wrong understanding. An MVP is a commercial product that users can actually use (and often pay for) and is not at all an “Prototype or Proof of concept” for internal testing.

It is important to understand that an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is a relative term and not absolute. An MVP of a bigger product (Say MVP of Dropbox) can be a full product in itself of a smaller product vision.

1. An MVP is a smaller and quickly developed version of a potentially bigger software product idea.

2. An MVP is the version of your software product that should be created and launched within 3 to 6 months.

3. An MVP is not a “Proof of Concept” for testing, it’s a working product that is launched in the market in front of real users.

4. An MVP can be both paid or free product. In the current world, it is often times Freemium i.e you use it for free for a limited time and limited features and then pay for the full features.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Examples from the Real World?

Both theoretically and practically almost all big software products and Apps you use today were once MVPs (Except a few examples of good old office tools from giant software publishers, lol). But let’s take up some recent and well known examples:

Whatsapp Messenger was a pretty lean MVP when it was first launched and it only had a mechanism to send messages and invite others and few more essential features. And now, it lets you do group calls, put status, create groups, communities, exchange money and what not. Your beloved Facebook was an MVP made inside a college campus that just had a good UI, user’s database, ability to send connections and write on the wall. It was a “bigger size” MVP though but compare that with the features that you see on a “Grown Up” Facebook, you’ll call the earlier version as the MVP.

Airbnb was an MVP not on the software side but also on the operations side as the founders used their own apartment to test the concept. As per my understanding, Airbnb is the most excellent example of an MVP in recent times. Big apps like Instagram, Youtube, Dropbox were all very-very lean versions of their current selves when they were just an MVP.

The lesson here: Be very thoughtful, pragmatic, visionary and research oriented when identifying your MVP Minimum Viable product, for it is what is going to stay for a long time when you see the success!

MVP Development Cost: How much does it cost to build an MVP?

A really important and most commonly asked question is How much does it cost to build an MVP App? The normal answer to MVP Development cost would be- it depends! However, after working on plenty of MVP products over the last decade, we’ve found some kind of range for the MVP development and we are happy to share that with you as follows:

An MVP should be build inside 3 months (using 1 developer team) to 6 months (with 2 developer team). As per our costing standards, this means between $ 9000 to $ 18000. Time * Engineer skills are the major MVP Development cost factors here. A complex MVP where you are creating a unique tech feature (which may not have been done before) will cost more as you’ll do that as follows – You create the Proof of concept at first, and that can cost from $ 5000 to anything. Just to give you an example – we recently started working on a PoC project where we needed to capture and study the “speech pattern” of a particular user group and then to achieve the capabilities to identify different speech patterns technologically.

Difference between MVP and MLP? An MLP stands for Minimum Loveable Product and there is no set definition for this. However, an MLP is little more than an MVP where the approach is: The customer not only accepts the MVP but also falls in love with that. Pretty much the same thing, however, the additional love makes it what? Well, a more loveable product! 🙂

Source: https://www.agicent.com/blog/what-is-mvp-minimum-viable-product/#Difference_between_MVP_and_MLP

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

After reaching the milestone of 100 million users in September 2020, the Bitcoin network will now have more over 130 million members, having exceeded the 100 million user threshold. Because these are simply estimations, I will speak in the conditional tense.

You are probably aware that the Bitcoin network is pseudonymous, and that each user has the ability to use numerous addresses on the network if they so want. At any given moment, it is difficult to get an accurate count of the number of people that are connected to the Bitcoin network. However, it is feasible to gain access to extensive information about the number of addresses that are currently being used on the network.

In order to eventually get at some estimations about the total number of users, cross-checking is performed. This number was somewhat more than 130 million at the time of writing.

This is both a great deal and a little amount at the same time. When you take into account that Bitcoin was created a little more than 13 years ago, you realize that this is a significant amount. Therefore, a peer-to-peer payment system that was unknown to the general public and did not have a marketing staff attempting to attract new users has managed to convince more than 130 million individuals in only 13 years. That is just remarkable!

On the other hand, when you are aware of the defects in the existing monetary and financial system, you may think that this is not too much when you compare it to the existing problems. And all the more so when you take into account the fact that Bitcoin is the answer to all of these problems. If you've come to the conclusion that Bitcoin represents a crucial paradigm change that will eventually lead to a better society for the majority of people, you could be disappointed.

Why are so many people still so scared of Bitcoin?

You might be forgiven for thinking that it's because of the negative reputation that's been perpetuated by prominent individuals in the present system, some of whom still refer to Bitcoin as a hoax from time to time. You might also be under the impression that they see Bitcoin as a speculative bubble. Others have the misconception that Bitcoin is founded on nothing, which seems to frighten them.

Imagine for a moment if they concluded that the value of paper money is not based on anything at all, other than the fact that governments mandate it all across the globe. When they found out the horrible reality, they would be appalled. However, in order to make progress for the better and regain control of your life, you will have to go through this unfortunate but essential step. However, there are those folks who just aren't prepared just yet.

Some people believe that people are afraid of Bitcoin because of the high degree of volatility in its price. At the end of the year 2021, one bitcoin cost $69K, but one bitcoin costs slightly under $40K right now. Those who are used to the existing system, which sees the powerful manipulating markets, may find this to be quite unsettling. Those not used to a free market that consistently puts the consumers in control may experience apprehension.

It's possible that some people would argue that Bitcoin is largely used in unlawful endeavors, and that they don't want to give legitimacy to this notion by purchasing Bitcoin. However, it would seem that this line of reasoning is no longer valid given that even Janet Yellen recently said that Russia could not have utilized Bitcoin as a means of evading American sanctions in light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The real reason lies in the fear of assuming the responsibility that freedom implies

To summarize, if Bitcoin continues to terrify such a large number of individuals, I believe there is another reason behind it. I came across this Sigmund Freud remark not too long ago, and it seems to me that it provides an answer to the issue that I posed to you a little while ago:

"The vast majority of people do not really want freedom because being free comes with responsibility, and the vast majority of people are terrified of responsibility."

Bitcoin grants you unrestricted freedom. The autonomy to choose how one should direct one's life and pursue one's goals. This is an incredible liberation, and as human beings, it ought to be something that we all naturally strive towards. You may probably anticipate that having so much power also comes with a significant amount of obligations.

There is a cost associated with gaining Bitcoin's power, and that cost must be paid. You should be aware that you are required to take responsibility for the results of your hard work, even if I do not consider this a particularly expensive price. You are about to be put in a position in which you will have complete control over the results of your work for the very first time in your life.

In the event that you misplace your 12- to 24-word seed phrase, you will never be able to access your Bitcoins again. As a result, you will no longer have access to your money in any way. In contrast to dealing with a banker, you won't have someone to contact in order to complain with. You are the one who is to blame for this. This requires you to take responsibility for the things you do.

This seems like a once-in-a-lifetime chance, but unfortunately, a lot of people are too afraid to take advantage of it. Nevertheless, doing so is the one and only way to attain genuine autonomy over the results of one's work. If you have not yet acquired Bitcoin or if you have not yet taken complete custody of the private keys associated with your Bitcoin wallet, I encourage you to give some consideration to the information that I have just provided.

Final Thoughts

I want to encourage you to have a conversation with yourself about the importance of assuming complete responsibility for your life and seizing control of it. This is necessary since no short cuts can be taken in this situation. You can't say you want untraceable and tax-free physical currency without being willing to take on the responsibility of assuring its complete safety.

That's all for today, see ya tomorrow

If you want more, be sure to follow us on:

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

@ 3cd2ea88:bafdaceb

🗽 Published by Bitcoin Report Italia, 17/01/2024

📊 Bitget celebrates its fifth year of operation, and in a world always full of surprises and irregularities, transparency is the best weapon. Their mission, steadfast from the beginning, is to support the traditional adoption of cryptocurrencies, envisioning a world with “an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof rather than trust.” However, for newcomers, having a reliable starting point remains crucial.

🔸 Bitget Protection Fund: Safeguarding Trust with Transparency

📊 Building user trust takes various forms, including the impenetrable proof of reserve discussed shortly. However, let’s try to unveil the 5 Ws and 1 H of the renowned Bitget Protection Fund, at the center of their user-centric approach, helping you understand its importance.

🚀 Read the full article: https://t.me/BitcoinReportChannel

🚨 Discover how Bitcoin is truly changing the world! Join our Telegram community to delve into the discussion on the Bitcoin revolution, trading strategies, and more! 🚀

📣 https://t.me/Bitcoin_Report_Italia

@ ee0be83f:c260a740

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@ c8d02f89:08fc6b15

Well, well, well! I say Sat Millionaire because nowadays it’s easy to join the Sat Millionaires Club, tomorrow will be probably harder, who knows!

Anyway, apart the catching title have been trying to come up with for this article, I wanted to share with you all one of, or actually, The man that give me personally a way to think deeper about the Money, Bitcoin and Emotions interconnection. His name is Ken Honda and his book Happy Money contains fundamental teachings that are so humble and simple that either your child will easily lear about them all. I'll try to summarise some highlights below:

1. There are so many emotions wrapped up in our money! - try to think about money differently, because somehow money is always stressful. Getting your financials in order can help bring calm and zen to your life, sort of taking control of it, or at least have a clear overview of what's going on.

2. Money Can Buy Freedom - We all have the same 24 hours in a day to get everything done. For many of us, money means freedom. Freedom to pay someone to clean our homes, freedom to let a restaurant cook our meals and the list goes on and on. Without money, some of your options to improve life are limited, but that does ot mean your are ot allow to be happy without an house or served meal. You have freedom to spend more time with your children (or grandchildren) or people you care about anytime. What would you do if you had an extra hour or two to yourself each day?

3. Even All The Money In the World Doesn’t Prevent People from Worrying About Money – If you are not happy with your life or your money, it will not matter if you are rich or poor. There's so many people who are living their best lives on average or below average incomes. But also many people who are never satisfied with any amount of money. Someone is always richer, sexier, more successful. What is your biggest stressor around your finances?

4. Even though you have an MBA Educations or three kids to rise by yourself, if your Money EQ is low, you could very well end up losing money. - You may think of this as book smart versus street smart. Whether you are a rocket scientist, business owner, or a single mother raising three kids alone with no net worth, you likely don’t know as much about ~personal_finance as you do in your chosen field. Never is too late to improve and continue learning more.

5. Making Money the way a Happy Millionaire would mean doing the things you love to do and sharing that gift or talent with others. - If you are slaving away 8-12 hours per day at a job you hate, it will be hard to live a joyous life. Would a job change (or career change) help you fine more joy in your work life?

6. If you are going to save money, save it while you imagine the many fun ways to spend it. - When you know why you are saving money you are money likely to stick with it, and more likely to end up reaching whatever your specific financial goals are. Could a money mindset change help you achieve your financial goals faster and easier?

7. Once You Get Into the Habit of Spending More, it is difficult to rein in. - Cutting back on spending is like dieting, hard to do, and will often make you difficult to be around. It is easy to spend a little more here and there, but once you do, things that were once a luxury become a necessity. If you want to be like the Sat Millionaire- live within your means, so you don’t have to make drastic financial cutbacks when bad times come.

8. People who become wealthy slowly and deliberately over time tend to keep the money for a long time as well. For this point, just think of all the lottery winners or pro-athletes that have gone from having more money than they knew what to do with to broke seemingly overnight. They just are not prepared to handle the money, and they have no idea how to turn that huge nest egg into an income stream that will last the rest of their lives.

9. Want to be wealthy?” Happy? Peaceful?” Say, thank you. It’s that simple. - Try being grateful for the joys in your life and watch your mood brighten. Thank those who have helped you get to wherever you are and show appreciation to those who help you in the future. You may be surprised at how much more money and help flow your direction. Who do you owe a thank you to?

10. Instead of Comparing yourself with others, compare who you are today with who you were yesterday. - Measure your success on how far you’ve personally come. Always be improving, and you should always be able to find happiness in your life.

Hope you find this summary helpful and that it will spark some happiness during your next lighting transaction :) Now, try to respond to this simple closing question:

What are you doing to bring more happy sats into your life?

@ fac513a1:d4f407a5

Debt.

Useful tool?

Or trapdoor into a life of fiat slavery?

As with most things in life, this is a horses for courses scenario, with the answer being wildly different from person to person.

What is no doubt true: our status quo financial system is built with debt, so if you can master the use of it, then your ability to leverage is a superpower.

Is this useful to me?

Not right now.

As I found out yesterday.

In my morning meditation, I was downloading thought after thought as usual, and a bunch of stuff came up around taking a mortgage to buy a house.

I was inspired to re-visit that discussion to see where it might take me.

Having walked the dog past a broker’s office multiple times over the past year, I knew who I was going to cold call, and minutes later I was on the phone to Brendan.

He admitted to having over 20 years experience navigating the mortgage market.

Perfect.

For 40 minutes we spoke through multiple scenarios, which was simultaneously fascinating, but also extremely confusing.

The more time I spend in the world of Bitcoin, the more I’ve begun accustomed to the simplicity of it, born from the beauty of utilising a bearer asset.

Whereas fiat… well that’s another story.

“Jake there are 2 key area’s a bank will look at”

“Ok, sounds straight forward”

“1: what level of deposit? 2: what can you afford?”

In my case, answering the first question wasn’t too bad, in that I am fortunate to have accrued a healthy asset base; I could easily sell down some Bitcoin to put a deposit on a house for example.

The hard part was answering the second question…

Because I choose to create value outside the fiat system, without a fiat employment contract, I have very little income to show; it’s not easy for me to therefore demonstrate affordability.

We spent a long time discussing serviceability of the loan therefore.

And frankly it was such an eye-opener.

Indeed, it highlights the total mess the real estate market is in, with a huge disconnect between what people are earning and where the house prices are.

Let’s talk through some numbers.

Firstly, any foreign income you might be earning, is taken at a 60% discount by Australian mortgage providers “being conservative”.

Of course fiat earned in GBP or USD is worth less…

That didn’t make sense to me.

But then it was the raw calculations that surprised me.

Let’s say you are on a $100k aud salary in your job, which is higher than the average Australia-wide of circa $75k, you’re likely only able to borrow $500k.

Let me explain why.

The banks like to have a “buffer rate” in place, so with interest rates at around 6%, they want to see a borrowing capacity (serviceability) of 9%.

For sake of this example let’s just say the buffer rate is 10%.

If you then borrow $500k aud, the theoretical interest payments are $50k per year, more if you’re paying interest plus principle.

When one has $100k come through the front-door, it’s then taxed to a net income of circa $70k, then deducting the $50k debt payments one is left with $20k…

How on earth does that person live on $20k per year?

Surely no-one is able to do that?…

Which is why, as Brendan explained, often both parents are working.

Say the household income is more like $200k aud, then their borrowing capacity increases to more like $1mil aud, due to the double salary of $120k and $80k.

This imaginary couple would then have $40k per annum net to live on.

Perhaps they have 2 kids…

As you can see, this debt is hard to carry in this rate environment, and I would be very surprised if people chose to leverage up with disposable income squeezed so hard.

(Note: the real rate they're being charged is 6% not 10%, so this example is from a Bank's perspective, and heavily simplified)

In short: does it really make sense to take a mortgage?

Interestingly, Brendan explained that in some cases one needed to be in a job for literally just a day to get debt, highlighting once more the farcical nature of “box-ticking” that the credit managers must go through.

It seems such a strange way to manage risk when one can own a bearer asset like Bitcoin.

Anyways…

We’re here to dissect debt.

So, there was another route to showing serviceability I want to mention, other than some kind of employment contract.

You can use the cashflows of a company.

Had I been a Doctor in the medical profession, setting up a new practice, I might have been able to leverage with just projections alone.

But if I could supply 6 months of tax returns, showing income from a business, then you can potentially use that for leverage.

Interesting.

The entrepreneur in me felt much more drawn to this.

So, if I build cashflow from a business I own, that might work much better…

Brendan also pointed out that dealing with the business department, rather than the retail, can be much more useful long-term.

Here was an angle that might make more sense.

As I still like the idea of investing in real estate, but with leverage, to really boost the return on capital employed.

Importantly that means one can keep more equity in Bitcoin as well.

Anyways, returning to the numbers a little more.

Let’s flip to the real estate market side of things…

We would like to buy a place in an area of Melbourne called Bayside, aptly named as an area next to the beach, which is where we’ve rented the last 18 months.

Admittedly its an affluent area.

But either way…

House prices are certainly not $500k aud.

Not $1mil aud even…

The average house price in Bayside is $2mil aud.

Wow.

So even a husband and wife earning a combined income above average are miles off the market.

They might have saved the the 10% deposit of $200k aud, and shown they can service a $1mil loan, but that still leaves an $800k hole.

And I haven’t even factored in the cost of purchase.

Stamp duty tax.

Agents fees.

I think you get the picture.

So how the hell are these house prices where they are?

“You’d be surprised how many people earn $500k” Brendan commented.

Ok, fair enough, so maybe there is more money out there.

But either way, none of this makes sense.

In the 18 months that debt has tripled in cost, the Bayside real estate market has barely blinked, hovering around the same on average for the last 2 years.

I for one think the real estate prices have to come off.

And this conversation hammered that home.

But who am I to say?

As my great friend Dale pointed out when a guest on his podcast recently "it's the most manipulated market there is"

Let’s wrap this up.

I’d love to know, what is the real estate market like in your local area?

Are you also seeing this crazy disconnect between borrowing capacity and prices?

Let’s see how it all plays out.

Whilst I confess, I rather like the idea of setting up a company, which I can then utilise as part of a wider investment strategy that enables leverage.

With the status quo system being debt based, a hybrid strategy with debt in traditional markets, combined with HODLing a digital bearer asset such as Bitcoin, might well make a lot of sense.

Best, Jake

PS - throughout this story I’ve not mentioned risk. What is risky? Lately I’ve truly come to terms with the idea that Bitcoin is the best risk-reward return you can get, indeed you can’t beat it, however you could augment it. This is why I like the idea of taking a traditional asset such as leveraged real estate, as well as Bitcoin, into my portfolio. But is taking on mounds of debt as “risk-free” as they would have you believe? Enough time in the Bitcoin rabbit hole suggests quite the opposite…

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Com recursos avançados e uma interface intuitiva, o Feeder simplifica a forma como você se mantém informado sobre os conteúdos mais recentes. Vamos explorar em detalhes como o Feeder funciona, seus recursos e os problemas comuns que ele resolve.

O Feeder foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de simplificar a maneira como as pessoas acompanham suas notícias online. O projeto foi iniciado por uma equipe de desenvolvedores apaixonados por tecnologia e notícias, que perceberam a necessidade de uma solução eficiente para gerenciar feeds RSS. Ao longo do tempo, o Feeder evoluiu e ganhou popularidade entre os usuários que desejam uma maneira fácil de se manterem atualizados sobre os conteúdos mais recentes. Sua natureza de código aberto permitiu que a comunidade de desenvolvedores contribuísse com melhorias e recursos adicionais ao longo do tempo, tornando-o ainda mais robusto e personalizável.

Recursos do Feeder RSS

O Feeder oferece uma ampla gama de recursos para melhorar sua experiência de leitura de notícias:

1. Assinatura de feeds RSS: O aplicativo permite que você assine feeds RSS de diferentes sites, blogs e publicações online. Com isso, você recebe atualizações em tempo real sobre os conteúdos mais recentes de suas fontes favoritas.

2. Organização personalizada: Com o Feeder, você pode organizar seus feeds em pastas e categorias, permitindo uma organização personalizada e facilitando a localização dos conteúdos que você mais se interessa.

3. Pesquisa de conteúdo: O Feeder possui recursos de pesquisa integrados, permitindo que você encontre conteúdos específicos dentro dos feeds que você assinou. Isso é útil quando você deseja encontrar informações sobre um tópico específico ou recuperar notícias antigas.

4. Notificações personalizadas: O aplicativo oferece a opção de configurar notificações personalizadas para seus feeds favoritos. Assim, você pode receber alertas quando novos conteúdos forem publicados.

5. Sincronização multiplataforma: O Feeder é sincronizado em várias plataformas, permitindo que você acesse seus feeds e configurações em diferentes dispositivos. Isso proporciona uma experiência consistente, independentemente de qual dispositivo você esteja usando.

6. Personalização: O Feeder oferece opções de personalização, como temas e opções de exibição, para que você possa ajustar a aparência do aplicativo de acordo com suas preferências visuais.

Problemas resolvidos pelo Feeder

O Feeder resolve alguns problemas comuns enfrentados pelos leitores de notícias online:

1. Centralização de fontes: Ao reunir todas as suas fontes de notícias em um só lugar, o Feeder elimina a necessidade de visitar vários sites individualmente, economizando tempo e esforço.

2. Acompanhamento em tempo real: Com as atualizações em tempo real fornecidas pelo Feeder, você pode acompanhar os conteúdos mais recentes assim que são publicados, garantindo que você não perca nenhuma informação importante.

3. Organização e personalização: O Feeder permite que você organize seus feeds em pastas e categorias personalizadas, facilitando a navegação e o acesso rápido às notícias de seu interesse. Além disso, as opções de personalização permitem que você ajuste a aparência e o layout do aplicativo de acordo com suas preferências individuais.

4. Pesquisa eficiente: Com recursos avançados de pesquisa, o Feeder permite que você encontre conteúdos específicos dentro dos feeds que você assinou. Isso é especialmente útil quando você deseja encontrar informações sobre um tópico específico ou recuperar notícias antigas.

5. Sincronização multiplataforma: A sincronização do Feeder em várias plataformas permite que você acesse suas assinaturas e configurações em diferentes dispositivos. Dessa forma, você pode alternar entre seu smartphone, tablet e computador sem perder nenhuma informação ou precisar configurar novamente tudo.

Ao resolver esses problemas, o Feeder oferece uma solução abrangente para acompanhar e ler suas fontes de notícias favoritas de maneira conveniente e personalizada.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.nononsenseapps.feeder

https://gitlab.com/spacecowboy/Feeder

@ cce0989b:b497e608

When you're looking at someone else's achievement, you don't see what really matters most.

You see them finishing a marathon; you don't see the moment when they turned to their roommate and said, "I might try to start jogging."

You see their successful business; you don't see the moment when they made their first sales call.

You see their creative output; you don't see the moment when they opened a blank page for the first time.

Every meaningful accomplishment begins with small choices just like these.

In the moment itself, this choice often seems unremarkable. It's only by looking backward that you can trace how momentous it really was, the way it led to these accomplishments that were unimaginable at the time.

Today, you have the opportunity to make a small choice, one that might change the course of your entire year. What will yours be?

@ cce0989b:b497e608

When you're working towards a goal, there will be times when you feel discouraged. When those feelings occur, please don't see them as a sign that you should give up, that you're not meant to take this dream on, or that you will never figure out how to achieve it.

Your discouragement is a sign of just one thing: you need someone to remind you of who you really are. Of your unique strengths and of your talents. Of your hopes and passions. Of the reason that you started pursuing this goal in the first place.

Don't give up—ask for support instead.

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

---

Let's start from the basics

Design is a broad and multifaceted concept that encompasses the creation, planning, and execution of various elements to achieve a specific purpose or solve a particular problem. It is not limited to a single discipline but is integral to various fields, including art, engineering, architecture, user experience, graphic design, and many more fields and industries that we'll try to list below.

As the aim of this territory is not to focus on nice visuals that have no other function that satisfy it creators'ego and a need for attention ad love. It's worth to highlight again that Design with capital "D" is the process of creating something new, whether it's a physical object, a service, or an experience, to satisfy a particular need or problem in a specific time and space. It's about understanding the needs of people in a particular environment and creating solutions that are firstly functional and secondly aesthetically pleasing, when a certain level of simplicity ad the application of specific principles.

---

But, wait a bit... Where did Design come from?

The concept of design has ancient roots, dating back to the early civilizations where individuals crafted tools, utensils, and structures for practical purposes. The word itself, originate from the Latin designare to lately be included as verb in the Italian language, referring to the senses of "contrive, plot, intend," and also draw or paint. So it was a visualization of the intent first, the materialization of an archetype that could not be described by words.

However, the formalization and recognition of Design as a distinct discipline began to evolve during the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. This period saw a shift from traditional craftsmanship to mass production, and designers emerged to address the challenges posed by new technologies and industrial processes. A much more systematic and methodical process, but in general, it still retains its core goal of creating solutions that improve people's lives.

---

Where is Design applied today?

Design is used in almost every aspect of our lives, from the products we use every day to the buildings we live and work in. Designers are employed in a wide range of industries, including (the most commonly agreed) architecture, engineering, product design, graphic and web design, fashion design, interior design, but also extended in fields such as healthcare, education, and business.

Here are some specific examples of where design is applied today, and I'll keep this list as long as I can, but please also consider that technology, like the tools and spaces we use, are constantly changing, so consequently, this fields will change and evolve too:

1. Graphic Design
2. Industrial Design
3. User Experience (UX) Design
4. Architecture
5. Fashion Design
6. Interior Design
7. Web Design and Development
8. Automotive Design
9. Game Design
10. Environmental Design
11. Package Design
12. Service Design
13. Drugs Design
14. Instructional Design
15. Communication Design
16. Medical and Healthcare Design
17. Sound Design
18. Data Visualization Design
19. Museum and Exhibition Design
20. Corporate Identity Design
21. Social Design
22. Culinary Design
23. Aerospace and Aircraft Design
24. Robotics Design
25. Retail Design
26. Legal Design
27. Financial Design
28. Motion Graphics Design
29. Animation Design
30. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Design
31. Exhibition Design
32. Lighting Design
33. Sustainable Design
34. Textile Design
35. Branding Design
36. Wayfinding and Signage Design
37. Entertainment Design (for movies, TV, and theater)
38. Book Cover Design
39. App Design
40. Information Architecture Design
41. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Design
42. Educational Design
43. Game Design
44. Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Design
45. Accessibility Design
46. Crisis Communication Design
47. Renewable Energy Design
48. Theme Park and Attraction Design
49. Typographic Design ...

This list of showcases could go on forever... Design applies to everything we do and to all the diverse applications of design across various industries, highlighting its significance in shaping our environment and experiences.

---

Are you willing to dive in?

In the most common industries, we can find patterns that repeat. Someone also tried to define some principles to regulate how we should design, but also to justify the need to use design from a business perspective, some time to use it as a tool for marketing and recruit creative minds. For example, all the major big tech companies using design have built their own internal design principles that help ad guide their teams across multiple disciplines.

The aim of this writing is for you to remember that Design isn't probably what you are thinking of, and don't be limited to understand what others have told or teach you. Keep in mind that design is NOT only about cool UIs and fashion clothes... Design is a practice that has been inspiring and crafting utility objects for centuries.

Maybe a prod for many to dive a bit deeper instead of just surfing the latest trending wave.

Be Creative! Stay focus!

What are your thoughts on this topic?

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Welcome to the Stacker.News’s ~Design territory. As community of design lovers, we share ours and their favourite pieces, as well as mature, substantive ad constructive conversations about design, designers and thinkers of the past, present and future.

---

We intend design as the process of creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system; so to necessarily focus on the visual appeal but design as process of creation aimed at solving a functional purpose with an act of creativity and innovation in any industry or application. Beauty is a consequence of it and it does not mean your post or work needs to be limited to a visual outcome. Be creative!



---

We know our creative minds need to be feed with insane inspiration. We know, for example, that ~Devs face multiple design challenges per day. We know everyone love beauty and simplicity. Here’s the place to share it all. Please before sharing any link to external sources or posting and commenting anything, make sure you read our guidelines. This territory is strictly moderated and do not give out warnings. Stay Focus!

---

If you know any designer(s), tag them below using their SN or X @username, alternatively feel free to invite them using this link below:
https://stacker.news/invites/clr82fwsj0001omwadwj8kokk/r/Design_r
The first post is a freebie, the second is on us!

---

Questions? Get in touch via nostr DM

---

@ 2c7cc62a:622a5cdc

algia

nostr CLI client written in Go

Usage

``` NAME: algia - A cli application for nostr

USAGE: algia [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

DESCRIPTION: A cli application for nostr

COMMANDS: timeline, tl show timeline stream show stream post, n post new note reply, r reply to the note repost, b repost the note unrepost, B unrepost the note like, l like the note unlike, L unlike the note delete, d delete the note search, s search notes dm-list show DM list dm-timeline show DM timeline dm-post post new note profile show profile powa post ぽわ〜 puru post ぷる zap zap note1 version show version help, h Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS: -a value profile name --relays value relays -V verbose (default: false) --help, -h show help ```

Installation

Download binary from Release page.

Or install with go install command. go install github.com/mattn/algia@latest

Configuration

Minimal configuration. Need to be at ~/.config/algia/config.json

json { "relays": { "wss://relay-jp.nostr.wirednet.jp": { "read": true, "write": true, "search": false } }, "privatekey": "nsecXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" }

If you want to zap via Nostr Wallet Connect, please add nwc-pub and nwc-uri which are provided from https://nwc.getalby.com/apps/new?c=Algia

json { "relays": { ... }, "privatekey": "nsecXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "nwc-uri": "nostr+walletconnect://xxxxx", "nwc-pub": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" }

TODO

• [x] like
• [x] repost
• [x] zap
• [x] upload images

FAQ

Do you use proxy? then set environment variable HTTP_PROXY like below.

HTTP_PROXY=http://myproxy.example.com:8080

License

MIT

Author

Yasuhiro Matsumoto (a.k.a. mattn)

@ a2155842:4309b43b

Test two:

nostr:note1aps53g9jycq8pqlwg32q9zru45d5e368near6epc0l0karw263nq3w6evv

@ a2155842:4309b43b

This is a test:

nostr:note1l0dkhh28r6u8xy99nexeswm284cjwug80wfrf0vjakxz63y2u35setj7ds

@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

https://img.leboncoin.fr/api/v1/lbcpb1/images/20/45/b8/2045b80c9f3da464bb0a6a8f60b189385437949c.jpg?rule=classified-1200x800-webp https://img.leboncoin.fr/api/v1/lbcpb1/images/0a/eb/05/0aeb05d7e5097ec88866c77ef62a184c9c89aa6f.jpg?rule=classified-1200x800-webp https://img.leboncoin.fr/api/v1/lbcpb1/images/97/5d/ef/975def2093b6471e0572711fbb2252f16344caa6.jpg?rule=classified-1200x800-webp

---

Très belle toile orientaliste signée par le peintre Agapit Stevens (1848-1924). Dans son cadre stuck et bois. Taille approximative 110x85. Retrait sur place privilégié ou expédition à vos risques. Règlement possible en euro ou bitcoin. Faire offre sérieuse. Bien cordialement.

---

BITCOIN #BTCACEPTED #MARKETPLACE #AGORA #P2P #ART #1800 #ORIGINAL #COLLECTOR #VINTAGE

source - testing crosspost to nostr from the ~Agora...

@ 064a50cc:2dd653e5

The IoT's rapid growth is evident across all domains, with AI and IoT shaping the future. Intel predicts over 200 billion connected devices by year-end, highlighting the swift IoT app development. Market data indicates a transformative impact, as the global IoT market grew from $740.47 billion in 2020 to a projected $4,421.62 billion by 2030, a 19.67% CAGR from 2021 to 2030. This illustrates the speed of development.

**Top 10 IoT App Development Companies **

1. Agicent:

Agicent Technologies has a talented workforce of over 200 professionals that have completed over 1000 successful projects. Agicent has proven its excellence over the years by delivering a variety of services to its users, including the following:

Provides IoT app development for a wide range of domains including home automation, industrial automation, smart wearables, health care, and so on. Provides you with a remote developer with the appropriate skill set and experience on an hourly basis starting at $20 (depending on the level of expertise you require).

They carry out the development process and concentrate on the main functionalities that address the problem being addressed. They also offer strategic advice on how to introduce your product to the market, develop anticipation, and attract early users.

Headquarters: Atlanta, United States Year Founded: 2010 Number of Employees: 200+ Services: Mobile app development, web development, Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing

2. Siemens:

Siemens AG is the top global firm in Europe. Siemens has developed into one of the “world’s largest industrial manufacturing companies”. In the world of the Internet of Things, Siemens focuses on various services ranging from “connectivity to automation”. They aim to improve efficiency, enhance predictive nature, and enable smart and quick decision-making. The Siemens IoT platform, named “MindSphere“, offers a cloud-based ecosystem that promotes data collection and application development.

Headquarters: Germany Year Founded: 1847 Revenue: More than $30 billion Number of Employees: 311,000 Services: industrial automation, building technology, financial services, medical technology, mobility solutions, software automation, etc.

3. Samsara:

Samsara is a well-known IoT service provider. “Samsara” provides solutions for fleet management, wireless connectivity between devices, industrial operations within organizations, etc. They offer help to increase the safety and sustainability of organizational operations.

Their main focus is on providing the best IoT solutions with their user-friendly platform, which has a wide range of applications that promote sustainable solutions across various industries.

Headquarters: San Francisco Year Founded: 2015 Revenue: $483.3 Million Number of Employees: 5000+ Services: fleet management, construction and field services, equipment, site buildings

4. Softeq:

Softeq’s main office is located in ‘Houston’. They also have a delivery center in ‘Germany’ and a development center in ‘Minsk’. They have worked with many big “MNCs, such as Microsoft, HP, Verizon, Lenovo, etc. Their team consists of highly competent engineers and developers who use modern technologies to bring your ideas to life.

Headquarters: Houston, United States Year Founded: 1997 Revenue: $14.1 Million Number of Employees: 500+ Services: IoT, industrial automation and robotics, AR/VR/MR, blockchain, AI/ML, computer vision software

5. Vates:

Vates provides IoT and software development services. They have “agile-certified experts” and “30 years of software delivery experience”. Vates an IoT app development company offers effective IT solutions that can promote your business’s success.

Headquarters: Aventura, Florida Year Founded: 1991 Revenue: $125.5 Million Number of Employees: 500+ Services: IoT software development, IoT system integration, application development, etc.

6. Lanars:

Lanars is a mobile app technology company. They provide hardware and software development solutions for industry. “Lanars” use cutting-edge approaches to deliver technically innovative digital services. It has “8 years of experience” in this industry and has a huge market.

Headquarters: San Francisco Year Founded: 2016 Revenue: $15.9 Million Number of Employees: 250+ Services: mobile app development, web app development, enterprise software, etc.

7. Verizon:

Verizon provides transformative IoT solutions, from fleet management to smart cities. It is one of the most “well-known global companies.” It has long been a leading name in IoT and is still expanding its new services, such as “mobile edge computing”. Their aim is to supply a reliable network that fits the user’s requirements.

Headquarters: Delaware, United States Year founded: 1983 Revenue: $133.6 Billion Number of Employees: 10,000+ Services: IoT Marketplace, IoT for Small Business, Connected Commerce, Connected Fleet, and Field Services

8. Oxagile:

Oxagile is a reputable company that provides software development services, hardware prototypes, and the integration of cloud services. They use the latest technology trends and unique ideas to ensure that your product matches your needs.

Headquarters: New York, US Year Founded: 2005 Revenue: $18.0 Million Number of Employees: 350+ Services: end-to-end logistic solutions, connected warehousing, solid computer vision expertise, software development, etc.

9. PTC:

PTC is a widely recognized provider of IoT services that offers a customer-friendly solution that helps industries manage digital requirements. “Parametric Technology Corporation” is a full form of PTC. Engineers and designers can use “PTC’s CAD software” to generate detailed 3D models of their products.

Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts Year founded: 1985 Revenue: $2.058 Billion Number of Employees: 7000+ Services: AR assistance, service life cycle management, and developing and deploying IoT solutions

10. IBM:

IBM is a leading company in providing hosting services in different areas, such as mainframe technology. They mainly focus on “hybrid cloud solutions” to manage and deploy applications easily. IBM is also known as one of the leaders in “Quantum computation research and development.”

Headquarters: Armonk, New York Year Founded: 1911 Revenue: $60.525 Billion Number of Employees: 10,000+ Services: computer hardware, middleware, and software; enterprise asset management; and many more.

Source: [https://www.agicent.com/blog/iot-app-development-companies/]

@ bfe22d4e:36302946

How do we determine if an event happens before another event? In our everyday life, we use time to order different events. For example, if event A happened at 8AM and event B happened at 8:30AM, then we say event A happened before event B.

Using physical time to order events works well when the clocks to provide the timestamps are synchronized, i.e., they always show the exact same time. In reality, physical clocks are not perfectly synchronized for two reasons. Firstly, clocks progress at slightly different rate due to physical properties of the oscillators. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as “clock drift”. Clock drifts can range from several minutes a year (for cheap crystal oscillators) to several hundred nanoseconds a year (for expensive atomic clocks). Nevertheless, some amount of clock drifts always happen between two clocks. Many techniques have been proposed to synchronize physical clocks. The most commonly used time synchronization protocol is the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). Unfortunately, these protocols can only reduce clock drift, but not eliminate them. The second reason is more fundamental. As explained by Einstein’s theory of relativity, time on two clocks with non-zero relative velocity or relative gravitational potential will elapse at different rate, a phenomenon termed “time dilation”. Compared to clock drift, the scale of time dilation is negligible for clocks on earth, and therefore are usually ignored.

Logical Time

If physical clocks cannot be used to accurately determine the order of events, what are some alternative approaches? Here comes logical time, the main topic of this article series. Logical time does not progress at some constant rate like physical time. Instead, it “ticks” when certain event happens. For instance, suppose a node maintains a logical clock that starts from zero. When event A happens, the node increments the clock and assigns logical time 1 to event A; and when event B happens later, the clock is incremented again to assign time 2 to event B. Now, we can use logical time to order the two events, i.e., event A happened before event B since logical time 1 is smaller than logical time 2.

But how to determine the order of events occurred on different nodes, each maintaining their own logical clock? For example, event A happened on node P and is assigned logical time 1, while event C happened on node Q and is also assigned logical time 1. What is the order between A and C?

Leslie Lamport in his famous article “Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System” defines a new happens-before relationship that discusses this issue. In this happens-before definition, the ordering of events is a partial order, not a total order, meaning not every two events have an order between them. Only events that have potential causal dependency are ordered by the happens-before relation; events without any possible causality are not ordered, i.e., they are “concurrent”. So what does this causal dependency mean? Event B is causally dependent on event A if the occurrence of B depends on the occurrence of A (and applying the definition, A happens before B). To give a real-life example, if event A is cooking some meal and event B is eating the meal, then event B is causally dependent on event A. In the context of distributed systems, if event A and B happen on the same node and A is executed before B (considering a sequential execution mode), then B is causally dependent on A; if event A is sending a message and event B is receiving the message on another node, then B is causally dependent on A. Since this happens-before relationship is a partial order, it also has a transitive property: if A happens before B and B happens before C, then A happens before C.

Lamport Clock

Now we have a new ordering definition, one that hinges on causality, the next question is how to design a logical clock system that is in accordance with the happens-before relation. By accordance, I mean if event A happens before event B, then the logical clock of A is smaller than that of B. Here comes the Lamport clock (introduced in the same article). Each node maintains a local clock (the clock can start from any value, but by convention, it starts from 0). Each time a local event happens, the node increments its local clock and assigns the resulting clock value as a timestamp to the event. When a node P sends a message to node Q, it attaches the local clock value to the message. When Q receives the message, it updates its local clock to the bigger value between the received clock value and Q’s local clock (plus one, as receiving a message is also a local event). Readers can verify that the Lamport clock protocol guarantees accordance with the happens-before relation.

Vector Clock

There is one issue with the Lamport clock — it can not be used to infer the happens-before relation. By inference, I mean we can correctly infer the happens-before relationship between any two events by only comparing their logical clock timestamp. Lamport clock does not satisfy this property. For instance, say we have two nodes, P and Q. Event A happened on P and is assigned timestamp 1; event B and C happened on Q and are assigned timestamp 1 and 2 respectively. No messages are sent nor received in this example. Now, we take event A and event C. Event A’s timestamp (1) is smaller than that of event C (3). If we use Lamport clock, we will deduce that event A happens before event C. However, the two events are concurrent by the definition of happens-before relation, since there is no causal dependency between the two events.

To handle this issue, another logical clock construct, the vector clock, has been proposed. Using vector clock, instead of a single clock, each node maintains a vector of clock values (thus the name, vector clock), with vector size equal to the number of nodes in the system. Each node is also assigned a unique index of the vector. For instance, if the system has only two nodes P and Q, then the vector clock has size 2 (represented by [a, b], where a and b are integer values), P could be the first number in the vector then Q is the second number in the vector (the other way is also fine). Each node initiates the clock to [0, 0]. When local event happens, the node increments the number in the local vector clock corresponding to its index, and assigns the resulting vector clock value to the event. Messages similarly are attached with the current local vector clock. When receiving a message, the node performs an element-wise maximum between the received vector and its local vector (for the number corresponding to its own index, the node adds one to the number for the receiving event).

It is fairly easy to see that the vector clock protocol preserves the happens-before accordance rule. Now let’s see if we can use vector clock to correctly infer happens-before relation. We use the same Lamport clock example as above. When event A happens on node P, it updates its clock to [1, 0]; when event B and C happens on node Q, it assigns clock values [0, 1] and [0, 2] to each event respectively. Now let’s compare the clock value of A ([1, 0]) and that of C ([0, 2]). Note that neither clock is equal or greater element-wise to the other clock (the first number in A is greater than that of B, and the second number of B is greater than that of A). In this case, the two clocks are not comparable, and therefore the two events are concurrent. Voila! Readers can construct other examples to check if vector clocks can correctly infer happens-before/concurrency between any two events.

Logical Clock in Open P2P Network

Logical clocks are extremely useful in building distributed systems and applications. They have been used to construct causally consistent and eventually consistent data stores, detecting data races in concurrent applications, building consistent distributed snapshots, etc.

Unfortunately, existing logical clocks can not be used in an open peer-to-peer (P2P) network, such as a permissionless blockchain, a L2 rollup system, a decentralized storage or file sharing system, or a decentralized social application such as Nostr. There are two reasons. Firstly, in an open P2P system, nodes can join and leave at any time, and the number of active nodes in the system can be arbitrarily large. This makes vector-clock-based constructs ineffective, as they are designed for a static network with fixed membership, and the clock size increases proportionally to the number of nodes in the network. The second issue is the possibility of malicious behaviors in an open P2P network. Correctness of the above logical clock protocols (accordance and inference) relies on all the participants following the protocol as is. Any protocol deviation will result in guarantee violations. For instance, say we use the same two node (P and Q) vector clock example. This time, Q is an adversary, and when event B happens, it updates its local clock as [2, 0] (instead of [0, 1]). Now, when we compare the vector clock of A ([1, 0]) and B ([2, 0]), we will incorrectly infer that B happens after A, even though in reality A and B are concurrent events.

How do we design a logical clock system that can work properly in an open P2P network with potential adversaries? Stay tuned for our second article in the Secure Logical Time in P2P Network series.

@ bfe22d4e:36302946

This summer is a bit too noisy with its heat, and the cicadas outside the window are also making a ruckus. Last month, I visited a mountain village in Hainan. From a small village boasting five generations of scholars to a specialized tech development zone, from century-old banyan trees to Wenchang chicken, I've been sightseeing every year, but today's experience was quite unique.

Heatwaves have yet to subside, and new challenges emerge.

Every ten years a connection is made, mostly to keep emotions at bay.

Today, let's discuss what is called "Incentive-Minimization". This term has emerged in the past few years, specifically in the crypto and decentralized industry regarding incentives. It incorporates specific terminologies, such as the economic concept of incentive compatibility (@V@) and the absence of incentives in open-source organizations.

In the Mechanism Design theory established by Hurwiez, "incentive compatibility" means: in a market economy, every rational individual has a selfish side, and their personal behavior follows selfish rules. If there's a system in which individuals pursuing personal gain aligns perfectly with the enterprise maximizing collective value, then such a system is "incentive compatible".

"Incentive-Minimization", on the other hand, challenges this assumption of rational agents. It assumes that not only do rational individuals have selfish rules in a low-trust environment, but there are also legitimate organizational rules for non-selfish behavior. The goal is to achieve a more harmonious organizational consensus. However, the current definition of "Incentive-Minimization" isn't precise.

Let's explain this term from different perspectives:

Technological Dimension: "Incentive-Minimization" can be computed. It refers to the idea that nodes within the system might not be designed primarily based on individual self-interest. Or to put it another way, is there a mechanism in the design of the interplay between individual and whole, individual and part, part and whole, that allows nodes that adhere to the system's overall rules to have an advantage? This advantage isn't achieved using current economic incentives.

If we don't view the system merely as a system but as an organization of machines, we can anthropomorphize the design. By prioritizing certain dimensions, nodes that contribute to the system's overall legitimacy might have a competitive edge, motivating other nodes to do the same. Of course, these individual nodes will have their incentives, but compared to the current design of Crypto, these incentives might be weaker, even to the point of insufficiency.

Economic Dimension: The boundaries of "Incentive-Minimization" and incentive compatibility are different. While incentive compatibility suits traditional enterprises, if we include public organizations (like Org3) and expand these boundaries, it becomes challenging to ensure individual and enterprise goals align in a free market.

"Incentive-Minimization" is more favorable for these new types of organizations. From day one, it seeks a harmonious, diversified incentive mechanism within the economic realm for such semi-public entities.

In summary, "Incentive-Minimization" is designed for new organizations with public characteristics. Their objectives are diverse, so their economic models might be more open, and from a traditional economics perspective, their incentive mechanism might seem insufficient.

It's crucial to note that "Incentive-Minimization" is not the absence of incentives, nor is it "delayed gratification" from the past. From an economic standpoint, there are rules ensuring expected-consistency with "Incentive-Minimization". However, because they occur in different dimensions, these incentive mechanisms might seem diminished in the short term.Let's return to the organizational rules themselves. The principle of Incentive-Minimization to some extent combines the rules of DAOs that overly pursue automated incentives and the overly idealistic rules of open-source organizations. From some perspectives, it's more suitable for the current stage of new organizational practices.

Looking back, the incentive compatibility of company organizations in the past had certain limitations. The incentives of the new organizations can break these boundaries. However, if it's merely about economic incentive compatibility, then the demands on practitioners of new organizations are very high.

This leads to a whole new anthropomorphic design where the organization is closer to a naturally evolving symbiotic organization. Clearly, the organization encourages contributions in non-economic dimensions. This quantifiable consensus index might be consistent at least locally.

Indeed, the "Incentive-Minimization" mechanism might be more inclusive for reforms of the mechanism. If we assume that the mechanism on the first day is imperfect, then subsequent iterations might gradually deepen organizational consensus. However, moving from many to few incentives might be problematic.

From a practical perspective, the "Incentive-Minimization" mechanism is better able to inspire a spirit of sacrifice and a sense of public atmosphere. From this perspective, it has some similarities to Satoshi Nakamoto's principles. "Incentive-Minimization" encourages everyone to reach a consistent contribution and public nature without completely detaching from reality. It can fully rely on external organizations to achieve individual incentives, while the internal organization focuses more on public nature and contributions.

Simply put, new organizations use limited economic incentives to exchange for multi-dimensional consensus-based incentives, thereby increasing organizational public nature. To some extent, this "Incentive-Minimization" principle is suitable for the new organizational form of Org3 we mentioned before. A more open, pluralistic, layered, and multi-dimensional organization will naturally inspire new incentive paradigms. On a deeper level, "Incentive-Minimization" is ambiguous and natural. It's an incentive mechanism that, from day one, integrates individuals and the collective. This goes beyond anthropomorphic design; it's more holistic, which we can term as "拟体化 (Mimeticism)". This deep design ensures the equality of the subjects, where subjects are equal to each other and strongly interconnected, ensuring an ambiguity similar to "me and us."

"Incentive-Minimization" strictly ensures equality, regardless of the past, present, or future, different social classes, economic levels, or cultural standards. All are guaranteed deep equality within the organization, breaking inherent cultural boundaries, blurring the boundaries between different subjects like "me and us." In many ways, "Incentive-Minimization" is still a concept, but the pursuit of overall harmony is rooted in the new organizational concept from day one. (We will elaborate on this part separately later.)

In summary, the "Incentive-Minimization" mechanism is different from incentive compatibility. It's more pluralistic, holistic, natural, ambiguous, and a computable incentive mechanism with a more anthropomorphic design. This type of organization will inspire a multi-dimensional openness. Coupled with the explosion of productive tools, it indeed makes the imminent arrival of our decentralized society even more anticipated.

In conclusion, I hope for:

"All Buddhas of the past, present, and future always remember their original intent." (Huayan Sutra)

@ bfe22d4e:36302946

The concept of public goods, with its roots in economic theory, underscores services and commodities accessible to all members of society, undiminished by individual consumption. As a researcher in the dynamic field of cryptocurrency, I aim to elucidate the significance of public goods, their necessity in our modern society, and innovative approaches to fund them. This article seeks not only to inform but also to inspire builders in the crypto space to engage in the creation of meaningful public goods.

The Essence of Public Goods Public goods are foundational to societal well-being, encompassing elements like clean air, public parks, and national defense. These goods are characterized by their non-excludability and non-rivalrous nature, ensuring universal access and shared benefits. In the digital realm, this extends to open-source software, digital educational resources, and broadly blockchain technology itself. The inherent value of public goods lies in their ability to foster social equity, enhance quality of life, and promote communal harmony.

The Imperative for Public Goods The necessity for public goods springs from the market's inability to provide these services adequately due to their non-profit nature. Without intervention, societal needs such as environmental conservation, public health, and digital infrastructure risk being underserved. This gap highlights the critical role of public goods in ensuring a balanced, equitable, and progressive society. In the digital age, this translates to the need for robust cybersecurity, widespread digital literacy, and accessible online platforms for civic engagement.

Cryptocurrency: A New Paradigm for Funding Public Goods Cryptocurrency offers an innovative and decentralized approach to funding public goods. The unique attributes of blockchain technology, such as transparency, security, and decentralization, align seamlessly with the ethos of public goods. Crypto-based funding mechanisms, smart contracts, and tokenomics, can democratize the funding process. These tools empower communities to directly participate in the allocation of resources towards public initiatives, ensuring that the projects with the most communal support and impact receive the necessary funding.

Case Studies and Potential Pathways Exploring successful models where cryptocurrency has facilitated public good initiatives can offer valuable insights. Projects like Gitcoin, which leverages quadratic funding to support open-source software development, exemplify the potential of crypto in bolstering digital public goods. Similarly, blockchain-based platforms for transparent charitable donations ensure that contributions are effectively utilized for social causes.

Conclusion: Inspiring a Movement The synergy between cryptocurrency and public goods presents a frontier ripe with opportunities. As builders in the crypto space, we are uniquely positioned to pioneer innovative solutions for societal challenges. By focusing on the development of public goods, we can foster a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future. This article serves as a call to action, encouraging the crypto community to channel its ingenuity and resources towards creating public goods that benefit all members of society. In doing so, we can redefine the role of technology as a force for communal good, setting a precedent for future generations of digital innovators.

@ 4f9e11e2:9ab6c0cc

This is a comment made using the nostr-comment plugin.

Hello nostr!

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Riot was forced to reduce its activities and save a total of 11,717 megawatt-hours as a result of the increase in temperature brought on by mother nature. As a result of the decreased energy usage, the firm received energy credits for the amount of power that it did not use, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas recognized the company for its efforts (ERCOT).

"As energy demand in ERCOT hit all-time highs this past month, the firm voluntarily restricted its energy use to guarantee that more power would be accessible in Texas," stated Riot Blockchain CEO Jason Les.

The firm made a profit of around $9.5 million, which is equivalent to approximately 439 BTC thanks to the sale of energy credits. This compensated Riot for the revenue it had lost at that period of time due to the suspension of operations.

Riot was able to make this happen because they planned ahead and purchased power from the grid in advance based on their anticipated usage for the month of July. However, they ended up not using the electricity they purchased and instead gained credits for selling it back.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas It is reasonable to assume that in the future, buildings that are more energy-efficient and that contain their own renewable capabilities might go much farther.

For example, there are organizations that are now constructing large banks of solar power arrays and batteries in order to balance off the energy that they use. The construction of the mining facility that Blockstream and Jack Dorsey's Block are planning might make this a possibility. Due to the fact that it is powered by Tesla's 3.8 megawatt solar PV arrays and 12 megawatt-hour Megapacks, it has the potential to actually feed excess energy back into the grid during times of high demand.

The offer for this facility is that it would become an emission-free operation, but the possibility that it may also provide extra support for the ERCOT system with more energy might be a bonus under severe situations such as those that have occurred lately.

Blockstream and Jack Dorsey's Block Riot was not the only firm that halted operations during the heatwave in order to relieve the stress on the struggling electricity system in the state of Texas, which witnessed a significantly increased demand during the record heat wave.

That's all for today, see ya tomorrow

If you want more, be sure to follow us on:

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

Introducing YakiHonne for mobile users.

Unleash the power of unchained media with YakiHonne app. Available for both iOS and Android. YakiHonne marks its grand entrance as the first public release. Say goodbye to limitations and embrace a world where your creativity knows no bounds. YakiHonne is not just an app; it’s a revolution in how we consume and share media. Break free from the conventional and immerse yourself in a realm of unfiltered expression. Capture, Create, and connect with YakiHonne – the app that lets your voice resonate without constraints. Download and unlock the true essence of unchained media.

Links:

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yakihonne.yakihonne&hl=en&gl=US

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/mo/app/yakihonne/id6472556189?l=en-GB

Check out the mobile page: https://yakihonne.com/yakihonne-mobile-app

Full demo

@ a2155842:4309b43b

xxxxx

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Oferece uma série de vantagens:

• Auto-Hospedável: Você pode hospedar o serviço em seu próprio servidor, proporcionando mais controle sobre os dados e a privacidade.

• Funciona Offline: Ao contrário de outras APIs, o LibreTranslate pode operar sem a necessidade de conexão contínua com a internet, garantindo traduções em ambientes sem acesso à rede.

• Fácil de configurar: A configuração do LibreTranslate é simples e direta, permitindo uma rápida implementação em projetos diversos.

Ao contrário de soluções que dependem de provedores proprietários, como Google ou Azure, para realizar as traduções, o LibreTranslate usa o poder da biblioteca de código aberto Argos Translate para aprimorar suas funcionalidades.

Quer experimentar? Visite o site oficial e teste o serviço online: https://libretranslate.com/

Além disso, você tem a opção de executar o LibreTranslate em seu próprio servidor, para total controle e personalização do serviço. Se quiser explorar o código-fonte e contribuir para o projeto, acesse o repositório oficial no GitHub: https://github.com/LibreTranslate/LibreTranslate

Para facilitar ainda mais o uso da API, você pode escolher entre várias bibliotecas disponíveis:

Rust: https://github.com/DefunctLizard/libretranslate-rs Node.js: https://github.com/franciscop/translate .Net: https://github.com/sigaloid/LibreTranslate.Net Go: https://github.com/SnakeSel/libretranslate Python: https://github.com/argosopentech/LibreTranslate-py PHP: https://github.com/jefs42/libretranslate C++: https://github.com/argosopentech/LibreTranslate-cpp Swift: https://github.com/wacumov/libretranslate Unix: https://github.com/argosopentech/LibreTranslate-sh Shell: https://github.com/Hayao0819/Hayao-Tools/tree/master/libretranslate-sh Java: https://github.com/suuft/libretranslate-java

É essencial estar ciente das limitações inerentes à tradução automática. Em alguns cenários, pode ser necessário complementar a tradução automática com revisão humana . O LibreTranslate oferece uma excelente opção para quem busca uma API de tradução em máquina flexível e de código aberto.

@ 0d06480b:76c300ec

"If Bitcoin can be divided into 2.1 quadrillion satoshis, then how is it scarce?"

"Economists say we need a little bit of inflation"

A lot of people seem to have trouble understanding how Bitcoin is different, and why the difference is so important. I'm going to try to spell it out in plain enough terms that even your Uncle Jim will get it. I know they teach fractions in elementary school, but a lot of adults seem to forget this immutable law of mathematics.

There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. Bitcoin is currently divisible to the 8th decimal place. 0.00000001 Bitcoin is called a satoshi, currently the smallest divisible unit of a Bitcoin, and in a supply of 21 million Bitcoin, there are 2.1 quadrillion satoshis available.

Let's say that you own 0.1 Bitcoin, or 10,000,000 satoshis. That means that you own 0.1/21,000,000 of the money supply, or 10,000,000/2.1 quadrillion of the money supply. You see, when we divide it into smaller pieces, both the numerator and the denominator of your fraction increase proportionally, and the size of your fraction of the money supply doesn't change. The total of the money supply also doesn't change. It's just divided into smaller pieces of value.

Now let's contrast that with another example. Let's say you have $10,000 in your savings account. That means you have about 10,000/20.7 Trillion of the USD money supply. Now lets suppose that the Federal Reserve pumps an additional $10 Trillion into the banking system over the next decade, a likely scenario given how things are currently going. That means that 10 years from now you have 10k/30.7T. You see, your fraction just got smaller, (about 50% smaller), because the denominator of your fraction increased and the numerator did not.

Now this next part is really important to understand: money has NO intrinsic value, BUT we use it as a placeholder for the value of goods and services so that we don't have to barter with each other. All the money in the world should be roughly equal to the total value of all the goods and services in the world at all times. It's not exact, but it's always a roughly 1:1 ratio. So if your fraction of the money supply is made smaller, then the fraction of the total goods and services that you can buy is also made smaller.

This is how inflation steals from you. They increase the denominator of everyone's fraction, and your fraction gets smaller.

Now in a productive society, the total of goods and services increases over time, because people are working to extract resources from the earth and produce more things. This is why economists argue that it's OK to increase the money supply a little over time. If the money supply increases at the same rate as the increase in goods and services, then the fractions on both sides of the ratio change at the same rate: YourMoney/TotalMoney : ThingsYouCanBuy/TotalThings It's only when they increase the money supply faster than the increase in goods and services that we get inflation. So, they think a little increase in the money supply is OK, or even good, but is it really?

Let's contrast that with Bitcoin money that has an absolutely fixed money supply: If your fraction of the money stays the same over ten years because nobody is increasing the denominator of your fraction against an unchanging numerator, and a productive society increases the total supply of goods and services over the same time period, and money:stuff is always 1:1, then your fraction of things you can buy actually gets larger. This creates a world where you are actually rewarded for saving some of your money for the future. The money that you traded your time and effort for, that represents the value of your work, actually gets better with time.

If you understood all this, then maybe you will finally understand why people are so excited about Bitcoin, and why they are so confident that Bitcoin is the superior placeholder for the value of our goods and services, and will end up replacing all other monies in time.

@ fac513a1:d4f407a5

Wow.

Mind blown.

Just last night I had the pleasure of speaking with Pablo for the first time.

After only a few minutes on the call, he’d had time to explain what he was already building, and why an article of mine had spurred him to reach out.

Love it.

This is the power of content.

This is the power of community.

This is the power of belief.

For 45 minutes we flew through a series of fascinating concepts, showing clearly that his insights are simply years ahead of anyone else I’ve spoken with yet, and leaving me more excited about the potential of Nostr than ever before.

What a ride this last few weeks have been.

So how have I reached this point?

My coach Mark Moss recently told me, that regardless of one’s choice of platform, there is no future without content.

I couldn’t agree more.

As he says, we’ve moved from a) “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, to another process of b) “who knows you?”

What had been holding my content flow back however, was this strange feeling of irrelevance.

Why bother putting all my energy into building a YouTube account, to one day be cancelled?

Do I really want to burn myself out responding to thousands of comments on Twitter, addicted to answering notifications?

Was sharing literally every single part of my day on Instagram, a strategy I actually enjoyed?

But along comes Nostr.

This feels different.

A key step no doubt was deciding to delete all my status quo social media apps.

Thank you Piriya for the inspiration.

This I couldn’t recommend more to people.

But then I started a new habit.

Get up before my kids, everyday, and scratch the creative itch I’d been feeling to write.

Feel into it.

Where does my meditative mind take me?

What thoughts are appropriate to expand on publicly?

How can I show the impact my mindset has had?

These articles this last week have been the creative output of this process.

I endeavour to continue.

Indeed, as we closed the call last night, I promised Pablo I would be happy to focus exclusively on posting content on the new client he is about to release.

Nostr is the uncensorable foundation.

This is what I had been looking for.

Here is a place I know that my creative output can never be taken away from me…

What a problem it solves!

Another important reflection, is not only had Pablo read an article of mine, he had also been tagged in a note I posted by another Nostr user.

I’d shared an idea about an uncensorable equivalent of Anchor to host podcast RSS feeds.

The tagger knew that Pablo had been working on something to solve that problem.

Bingo.

Having multiple eyeballs on a single idea is well worth it.

In fact, as I reflect on the meditation work I’ve been doing, this is an example of a thought I had had attracting into my life a person already solving that problem.

Fascinating.

This shows brilliantly why I like to think of content creation as akin to leaving digital breadcrumbs.

You just don’t know who might be watching.

Perhaps they’ll follow your trail…

Is there a possibility to build this product together?

For sure.

But let’s not get ahead of myself.

What’s the first step?

For me: content, content, content.

Use the product, continue to share my most prominent thoughts, and pave a way for other creators to see just how Nostr can be used to solve the platform risk problem.

Boom! What a start to the day writing this has been.

Frankly, if this doesn’t show you the power of content, community, and using our thoughts to manifest our future… Then I am sorry, I am not sure you’ll ever see it.

Until tomorrow!



Best,
 Jake

Ps - over the years I’ve been as bad as anyone at sitting around with ideas, procrastinating, and not putting into action what I can feel is a good concept. Really listen to your body. Home in on the most reoccurring thoughts that you have. I am fast realising that being more preceptive with myself, is not only a far superior internally-driven strategy setting process, but a skill that can be developed. Fun times ahead!

@ cce0989b:b497e608

Here’s one reason why you might be feeling stuck: you’re trying to be perfect and grow at the same time.

That’s impossible. You can’t do both. Mistakes, setbacks, and detours are an inevitable part of the journey. In your desire to be both — pulled between who you want to become and your fear of what might happen if you do — you can’t take action at all. You end up feeling completely stuck.

Today, redefine what success looks like as you work towards your goals.

Success doesn’t mean being perfect or getting it right immediately.

Success means being brave enough to try. Success means persistence. Success means making mistakes and then learning from them.

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Over the past week there has been a lot of focus on senator Karen's conversation with an evil banker in DC. Its fun to mock these clowns. Many bitcoiners are angry. Some are very concerned. Senator Karen has put forward a bill trying to criminalize the free exchange of money (bitcoin). The reactions from bitcoiners are all over the map. Many seem unfazed. I'm in that camp. Some are very concerned and believe we need to fight. I get that, but I don't agree.

This morning I was scrolling on Twitter and saw a post from a bitcoiner dad explaining how he set up a node with his young daughters. He said something that triggered a thought. It was something like, "If you garnered support for a bill to ban gravity, people would still fall down stairs". Love that thought. Its an absurd example to make a point. You can ban math but you can't stop it. The actions of politicians often demonstrate their view of the state if you think about it. They will often propose preposterous things to a rational mind. But the reason they do this is because they view the state as an all powerful thing. A god essentially. Now, they won't admit that but this is the only conclusion I can settle on. Here's the thing. The state isn't a god. The emperor has no clothes. Its a trick. We have to believe it.

This Twitter post also inspired another thought. You know how some bitcoiners want us to all band together and fight senator Karen? You know how the tides work right? Imagine trying to stop the tides. Sure you can build up defenses to protect your property but that is it. Its a defense. You aren't stopping the tides. The true force behind the tides aren't the oceans. Its not the wind. The wind plays a part but really its the moon. The moon is far away but its impact on earth is massive. The US system isn't controlled by politicians. It is controlled by the wealthy elites. Senator Karen, Biden, and the other clowns are all puppets of their donors and lobbyists. Your vote isn't going to stop them. So is it hopeless? Nah.

So what do we do? We use bitcoin. We make these clowns irrelevant to our lives. We build resiliency to their games(it takes more than just bitcoin). We will win. Their game is destined for failure. Bitcoiners talk about the problems with modern economics all the time. They talk about how bitcoin fixes this. But, do they believe it? I don't know if most of them do actually. Bitcoin is like the moon. It is a force of nature that cannot be stopped by politicians. Only fools will try to stop it. Let them try.

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Last night my lovely wife and I watched the film Kill the Messenger. It had been on my list for some time but we'd never gotten around to watching it.

From the book of knowledge

It is based on the book of the same name by Nick Schou and the book Dark Alliance by Gary Webb. The film stars Jeremy Renner, who also produced the film. The film was released on October 10, 2014, and depicts a reporter's suppressed attempts to cover the CIA involvement and secret support of large scale cocaine sales to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.

I have been familiar with the story but never read either of the books. What hit me after watching the movie was the fact that despite the many times that the absolute evil of the state is exposed, we do not see significant change. It is pretty depressing to come to the conclusion that even when the US government's lies and evil is exposed it continues to go on largely unabated. As far as I know little of consequence happened due to Gary Webb's brave work.

It reminded me of Edward Snowden's revelations. I believe they have had a larger impact but still not nearly the impact I had hoped for. In the film they do a good job of showing some of the many tactics used when someone starts exposing the state for what it is. First they change the focus of the allegations making them harder to believe or harder to prove. They overstate the case. In Webb's case the media pushed a narrative (pushed by the CIA) that Webb was saying the CIA targeted the black community with crack cocaine. Actually Webb discovered that the CIA used drugs to fund their operations. He didn't claim the CIA was directly selling drugs to blacks. See the difference. What happened was a consequence of the CIA's action but unlikely the goal. But this framing makes Webb sound more extreme.

This happened with Snowden and also during the Covid19 pandemic. Its a tactic that works on the masses. Make your opponents sound unreasonable. Make them toxic. The second tactic they point out is attacking the messenger. They go after the person and find flaws. Highlight them and do character assassination. Never mind that most of the "leaders" in most democracies are full of similar character flaws and mistakes. That is never brought up in this context.

The third tactic that jumped out at me was the divide and conquer strategy. The CIA actions that are the subject of this film happened under Reagan, a Republican. So of course his opponents show much interest and John Kerry investigated it. The common thread I see here is that these types of things are bi-partisan. If you don't believe me you aren't paying attention or you have been indoctrinated into the matrix. The CIA is a permanent fixture in US government like many tentacles of the state yet when something like this is exposed it quickly becomes consumed by party politics. I get it. I don't think it is a conspiracy, it is simple game theory. Politicians simply want power and will use anything to win over their opponents. The result however is that the real root issues are never solved. The CIA is not reformed or dismantled. Real change doesn't happen because real consequences never occur. I don't think the filmmakers intend to make this point but it struck me. If you study the history of the CIA you will see that they have a long track record of this type of behavior. If it is a strategy, its genius. Get the public focused on party politics on the puppets, not the real power centers.

The final tactic that saw expressed was on the black community. It is possible that the CIA intentionally wanted to push crack into these communities. I just haven't seen that demonstrated. In truth, it doesn't matter. The real issue is that the CIA didn't care. The ends justify the means. The consequences of the CIA's actions led to massive death and destruction in places like Los Angeles. It makes me sick as I write this. For what? To fund fighters in a foreign conflict? Please. In the film they show various "leaders" in the black community from that time. It seems obvious to me that these people while they are speaking many truths seem to be doing so for their own profit just as the politicians do. Some of them were politicians. Did they actually put their necks on the line and keep pushing for change? I would argue no. They focused on the CIA's tactic. They sold the distortion that Webb was clamming the CIA targeted their communities.

Now, this all left me feeling depressed. Many believe that if we could just expose the evils of the world that would be enough. It isn't sadly. The masses do not have the attention span nor the desire to question their programming. That's my experience at least having talked with many friends and family over the years. I've been aware and a follower of politics since my early years as a pre-teen. I was and still am a nerd. I have a fairly long memory and it still to this day blows my mind how little people seem to notice. How they seem to not notice that politicians always promise things they can't or won't deliver. Yet they still seem to believe in democracy and their team. They are blind to the manipulation. To the repeated failures. To the repeated exposures of the truth.

So, I am sitting there feeling down about all this. Talking to my wife about it and then I remembered bitcoin exists. And I told her, this is one reason why bitcoin is hopeful for me. The state has much of its power due to its ability to print money. Taking that power from them alone will not affect the change we want but it is a huge start. It would limit the ability to wage these wars that kill so many people. It would limit their reckless spending and force them to steal in more obvious ways. Ways that will piss more people off. So bitcoin is hopeful.

What do you think? I was a teen when these events happened. I'm curious what I've missed and maybe if I got some things wrong. I remember this story being published and I also remember Webb's death which is a whole other story.

@ 000002de:c05780a7

In 2021 the Chinese Communist Party attempted to ban bitcoin mining within their borders. Before this predictable event happened many in and out of the bitcoin world expressed concern about mining being so centralized in China. This is a very reasonable concern. I remember being very curious what would happened next. Well, as we all know know bitcoin didn't miss a beat. No downtime. Bitcoin worked as designed. This outcome didn't surprise me but it did making me even more bullish on bitcoin's ability to weather the coming storms.

So far each time a nation state attempts to ban or subvert bitcoin they show their impotence. At some point the smart scumbags in positions of power will get the memo and realize this. At that point I think they will attempt to join the rest of us. Not out of ideological motives but out of self preservation. Bitcoin is a force of nature. I'm super bullish.

In case you missed it here is Why I'm Bullish 2.

@ 000002de:c05780a7

There are many aspects of Bitcoin that are censorship resistant but one that really hit me hard at the time it occurred to me was the SeedSigner project. At the time I had not seen any open source hardware wallets. The SeedSigner is composed of off the shelf parts that are not at all specific to bitcoin projects. The components are common and used by many electronics hobbyists. You can 3d print a case or buy one from several sources. It reminded me of the home made gun movement. While states can make laws to prevent people from buying firearms from vendors it is much harder for a state to stop someone from using a CNC machine to mill out firearm parts. Are they going to ban CNC machines? Aluminum blocks?

In order to stop people from building SeedSigners a state would need to ban off the shelf electronic parts. It just hit me then that banning stuff like this is hopeless. Today I realize many believe that you don't even need hardware wallets. That may or may not be true but I would argue that the utility of an air-gapped bitcoin signing device is clear.

Projects like SeedSigner are very hopeful and make me bullish for the future.

Like this post? Checkout the first one in the series

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Had an idea this morning to start writing down reasons I am bullish on bitcoin's future. These posts will be things that clicked for me along the way. They are things that became bigger to me that the opinions of people in my life, the current market price in fiat, and emotions in the moment.

I'm not going to be exhaustive in this series because there are many articles out there that do that better than I will. This is gonna be personal.

Why I'm Bullish 1: Bitcoin is a Hurricane

One reason I'm bullish about bitcoin is game theory. Even those that do not believe in bitcoin for the reasons we bitcoiners do will adopt it. If for no other reason than they don't hate money. We are watching an example of this happen right now. Jamie Dimon the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase has famously said he would ban bitcoin if it where up to him. He claims it is only useful for criminal activities. Yet, his company is now involved in the bitcoin ETFs facilitation. Why? Because Chase is motivated by profits.

The greed for money will lead even those that hate bitcoin to interact with it. To use it. Why? Because they want wealth and power more than they hate bitcoin. You can see this over and over again in other areas like politics. Business interests support both parties. Both candidates running for office. Multi-national interests support multiple sides in conflicts. Its just game theory and as bitcoin exchange rates rise we will only see more examples of this.

Now, don't be confused. I don't care if people like Dimon adopt bitcoin. Why this makes me bullish is the fact that in order for bitcoin to be adopted by the masses it does not require the masses to BELIEVE or even UNDERSTAND bitcoin. It only requires a critical mass to do so and we are getting ever closer to that being a reality.

Only a fool stands in the way of a hurricane. Jamie Dimon may be many things but I don't think he's a fool.

@ 52921e1f:1c37981b

Introduction:

In an era where digital connectivity dominates our lives, concerns about online privacy and security have become more pronounced. As smartphones play a central role in our daily activities, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) has emerged as a popular tool to safeguard personal information. This post explores the pros and cons of using a VPN on your phone to enhance privacy and provides recommendations for some popular VPN tools.

Pros:

Enhanced Privacy:

Encryption: VPNs encrypt your internet connection, ensuring that your data remains secure and private, protecting it from potential eavesdroppers.

Anonymous Browsing: VPNs mask your IP address, making it challenging for websites and online services to track your online activities.

Security on Public Wi-Fi:

Protection from Cyber Threats: VPNs offer an additional layer of security when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks, minimizing the risk of cyber attacks and unauthorized access.

Bypassing Geographical Restrictions:

Access to Restricted Content: VPNs allow users to bypass geographical content restrictions, providing access to region-specific content and services.

Preventing ISP Tracking:

Avoiding ISP Monitoring: VPNs prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from monitoring and collecting data on your online activities, maintaining a higher level of privacy.

Cons:

Reduced Internet Speed:

Bandwidth Overhead: VPNs may lead to a reduction in internet speed due to the encryption and routing processes, impacting the overall user experience.

Legal and Trust Issues:

Legal Implications: Some (authoritarian) countries have restrictions on VPN usage, and in certain cases, using a VPN to access restricted content may violate terms of service.

Trustworthiness: Users must carefully choose reputable VPN providers, as some may log user data or engage in other questionable practices.

Limited Device Compatibility:

Device-Specific Limitations: Some VPN services may not be compatible with all devices, limiting the scope of protection.

Potential for Abuse:

Anonymous Misuse: The anonymity provided by VPNs can be exploited for malicious purposes, such as engaging in illegal activities with decreased chances of being traced. Sometimes, however, this “illegal” activity includes dissidents and others who are fighting for freedom in authoritarian regimes.

Popular VPN Tools:

ExpressVPN: https://www.expressvpn.com/

NordVPN: https://nordvpn.com/

Surfshark: https://surfshark.com/

CyberGhost: https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/

Conclusion:

In conclusion, using a VPN on your phone offers several advantages for enhancing privacy and security in the digital realm. The encryption and anonymity provided by VPNs contribute to a safer online experience, especially on public networks. However, users must weigh these benefits against potential drawbacks such as reduced internet speed and the need for careful selection of trustworthy VPN providers. By understanding the pros and cons, individuals can make informed decisions about incorporating VPNs into their mobile privacy strategies.

If you’re interested in a broader discussion of privacy technology, check out my recent post here:

https://bitcoinfortress.substack.com/p/preserving-freedom-through-technology

Not financial or legal advice, for entertainment only, do your own homework. I hope you find this post useful as you chart your personal financial course and Build a Bitcoin Fortress in 2024.

Thanks for following my work. Always remember: freedom, health and positivity!

Please also check out my Bitcoin Fortress Podcast on all your favorite streaming platforms. I do a weekly Bitcoin news update every week on current items of interest to the Bitcoin community, usually 30 to 60 minutes depending on the number of topics to cover. Please check it out if you haven’t already. Also now on Fountain, where you can earn Bitcoin just for listening to your favorite podcasts.

@ 3cd2ea88:bafdaceb

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@ 75bf2353:e1bfa895

I've anticipated the release of the Aqua Wallet like a kid waiting for Christmas. It's finally here! How does it work, "Accordingly to Caps Odell, Aqua Wallet uses the same model as Muun wallet(Muun with two u's). Fun fact: Vacuum is the only other word in the English Language that has two u's adjacent to each other. Like Muun, Aqua is not an actual lightning wallet. Lightning transactions are atomically swapped. The difference is Aqua swaps to L-BTC while Muun swaps from the lightning network to the main bitcoin timechain.

L-BTC is bitcoin which is wrapped on the Liquid Blockchain. The main advantages of this model are

• Lower mining fees

• 1 minute confirmations.

Liquid is a blockchain created by Blockstream, but consists of multiple key holders. Liquid is a Blockchain with no native shitcoin or token. Bitcoin or tokens must be added onto the Liquid Blockchain. L-BTC is Bitcoin added to the Liquid Blockchain. Other examples include:

• Liquid Tether, a USD stable coin.

• Vouchers for products sold by Blockstream. For example, I once bought a voucher for a Jade wallet. I redeemed this voucher for a jade wallet.

Other assets could be added to the Liquid Blockchain, say L-Ford , L-General Electric, or L-VTSAX. Although this is possible, no corporation has done this yet. I suspect this is because almost nobody had heard of it and the SEC can't even keep a Twitter password safe. I suppose we could also add other L-Shitcoins, but in my opinion, that would waste of time.

By the way, Liquid Tether USD is a shitcoin, but a useful shitcoin. The USD in your bank account is also a shitcoin. The US dollar is a paper currency that is not even backed by paper. IT has lost % of it's value in about 50 years. It's not secure. Banks are like a safe where both you and the government have access to. If you don't pay your taxes or child support or something, they can take the digital paper bucks out of your bank account with a push of a button. If you want to spend your USD online with a debit card, you must give each merchant your private key. The US Dollar is a shitcoin. I still have to use it. I know Liquid Tether is not as secure as bitcoin, but it's still useful and I don't see it as being much riskier than keeping your USD shitcoins in a bank, Some nerd will argue it isn't FDIC'd, but that insurance is bullshit.

Some may also argue L-BTC is a shitcoin, but I disagree. L-BTC is not self-custodial Bitcoin. It's not as secure as Bitcoin left on the native Bitcoin time chain, but it has decent enough trade offs.

I'm not an ETF expert, butsome ETF experts say an ETF is like a locker with bitcoin. For more information, check out this episode of Coin Stories.

L-BTC is like an ETF, but the locker is built with merkle trees and other cryptography of which I have a vague understanding. I don't know it well enough to explained it to a five year old anyway. Just like an ETF might be a locker of Gold, Nickel, or Google shares, so too is Liquid, but instead of getting an email as proof of your share, you use 12 words to claim your Liquid assets. Again, I am not an ETF expert. I don't know what ETF company's give their clients as proof of ownership, or what their security looks like, but I look at Liquid as a defacto Cryptographic ETF-eque instrument.

How Aqua Wallet Works.

You hold 12 words like any old regular,128 bit, Bitcoin wallet. If you don't know what that means, check out this blog(PENCIL)This wallet gives you the option to hold:

• Bitcoin on the Bitcoin time chain

• Bitcoin on the lightning network

• L-BTC

• L-Tether USD

You can do an Atomic Swap on and out of any of these assets at any time. For example, you might get paid in Bitcoin on Strike's Lightning Wallet, swap your retirement savings to Liquid-BTC, and swap your monthly grocery expenses budget to Liquid USD. When fees on the Bitcoin time chain are cheap, you swap your L-BTC to on chain Bitcoin. Eventually, you'll be able to pay your Fiat bills with Liquid USD or Bitcoin. When that happens. you won't need a bank anymore. In case I haven' t mentioned this lately, banks suck.

Is Liquid Tether a Shitcoin?

Yes, but it's a useful shitcoin just like USD you might keep at Bank of Fargo. It is not as secure as bitcoin. It will bleed value as compared to Bitcoin. Liquid USD has all the risk associated with dollars, but like it or not, USD is the defacto unit of account. Can Tether backdoor steal tether USD? Yes. Can Tether fail? Yes, but so can any bank. Is USD-T insured up to $250,000? No, but if you have $250,000 in a bank account or Liquid Tether you're a fucking idiot. If you need a thousand bucks to cover groceries this month, it might be worth the trade off.

We are not advocating anyone to HODL liquid tether longer than you need to pay your bills. Aqua will give you the ability to live free in a world full of shitcoins.

If you don't like Tether USD, and don't trust banks, you don't need to use L-BTC. You can just buy gift cards on bit refill for your groceries. Are Gift cards shitcoins? Yeah, but we all need to eat. Bit refill used to offer bill pay, but discontinued the service. This was great because I used to get paid in bitcoin on the lightning network and I would buy gift cards as soon as I got paid to protect myself from volatility.

Learn To Use Aqua

Aqua is one of the easiest wallets I've used. It's more expensive than Wallet of Satoshi, but I can't use Wallet of Satoshi anymore. I only wish it had a lightning address. If you are interested in learning more about Aqua Wallet, check out my tutorial on flare.pub.

nostr:naddr1qqrhym28xpxrjvqzyp6m7g6nrt5lnrrzn9d6quv3ujyw44r4jafhr43a0h75d00ph75f2qcyqqqgtwc96yw37

฿logging฿itcoin

825,833

US Debt Clock

Support by zapping, sharing, shopping, and [subscribing (nostr:npub1wkljx5c6a8uccc5etws8ry0y3r4dgavh2dcav0tal4rtmcdl4z2sfu5u0t).

This blog is sponsor free, but I created some v4v ads to promote the use of bitcoin as a payment solution. These are word of mouth ads designed to promote the bitcoin circular economy.

@ 76b0feae:af6dc2a7

I do not believe we will see that happening anytime soon, while I very much agree that we have seen very much of an explosion in the narrow AI and have gotten some very useful tools from this, it does not make me think it is more likely to give us the GAI anytime soon.

Historically throwing a lot of data at the problem and hoping something sticks is not a new idea, in fact it was one of the first ideas of AI, Alan Turing himself wanted to do this way back with the start of modern computers. He had two problems doing that, he did not have the required compute power to make it feasible, and he did not have an overwhelming amount of data to use, so it wasn't possible for him to do it. These are however not problems today, but expecting a computer to stumble on intelligence by statistics sounds like a very silly idea. I also do not believe in the idea that when enough compute power gets collected together the result will be intelligence.

Philosophy

Let me tell you why I do not believe in GAI, and I might even go so far as to say it is impossible. Philosophical there is many different schools believing many different things, and trying to understand the world with different starts. There is no problem with this, I will however only take two schools to highlight a difference that will explain (I hope) why people can belief that AI is possible, and I reject the idea out of hand.

Materialism vs Idealism

If I were to guess I believe that most if not all current AI researchers, are firmly in the materialists camp. Materialism might not sound wrong on a first casual inspection much of it seems to be rather solid, yet I think it is complete BS. I might always have believed in idealism and only realized it upon reading "materialism is baloney", or well I have not read the full book as of yet, but I am think I found the thing I find more reasonable.

The world view of a materialist is that the world is essentially material, and there is a objective world outside our brains. Our brains are the only thing giving us consciousness and indeed a mind, now if this was true it should not be so difficult to make a machine that could rival us, okay we might not have the compute power. But think about it, does this sound reasonable our brains are not actually that big, are they just so much better than computers. Okay they might be more efficient than computers, but is that really just our brains doing this. I find that hard to belief.

In a idealist world view our world are not objective, and our brains do not make us, we are rather a part of a collective unconscious. Our brains are not so much generating our mind, as it is a filter for the collective unconscious, meaning that to make a GAI would require to give it a connection to the general unconscious, that is not so easily done.

As you can surely see from my point of view creating a functioning GAI is actually impossible. Now I am not saying that my view of the world is entirely correct.

This was just a short long-form piece. I might put more of my thoughts down in writing if this is appreciated. Thanks you for reading this piece.

@ cb084639:2f16502a

Chef's notes

Bone broth 🦴 นั้นจะพูดให้ง่ายมันก็คือน้ำซุปต้มกระดูกสัตว์นั่นเอง สามารถใช้ได้ทั้งกระดูกไก่ หมู วัว ส่วนที่นอกจากนี้ยังไม่รู้จะหาได้จากตลาดหรือไม่ 555 ในที่นี้ที่จะมาทำกันเป็นกระดูกที่หาได้ง่ายตามตลาดทั่วไป หรือจะตามห้างสรรพสินค้า คือกระดูกหมูนั้นเอง 🐖 เอาแบบที่เป็นกระดูกจริงๆ ราราประมาณ 40 บาทต่อ 1กิโลกรัมเท่านั้นเอง การทำ bonebroth นั้นต้องเป็นการต้มด้วยไฟอ่อนเป็นระยะเวลานาน 12ขึ้นไป -24 ชั่วโมง เพื่อให้สารอาหารที่อยู่ในกระดูกละลายออกมาอยู่ในน้ำซุปของเรา ซึ่งเราคงสงสัยกันแล้วใช้มั้ยว่าเราจะทำเจ้า bonebroth กันทำไม bonebroth นั้นกินได้ทุกวัยและกินได้ทุกวัน มีสารอาหารหลายชนิดช่วยบำรุงร่ายกาย และยังเหมาะกับผู้สูงวัยที่อาจจะรับสารอาหารไม่เพียงพอด้วย การกินก็ง่ายๆคือนำมาซดเป็นน้ำซุปเลย หรือจะนำมาเป็นส่วนประกอบในเวลาปรุงอาหารก็ได้ครับ มันจะมีเรื่องหม้อแรงดันอีกถ้าใครมีมันจะช่วยทุ่นเวลาให้เราลงมาอีกครึ่งเลยครับ

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 12-24 hour
• 🍽️ Servings: 4

Ingredients

• กระดูกหมู 1.5 kgs.
• น้ำสะอาด 1 หม้อ เบอร์ 28
• เกลือชมพู 1ช้อนชา

Directions

1. นำกระดูกหมูล้างให้สะอาดมาต้มให้เดือดแล้วทิ้งน้ำไปก่อน 1 รอบ
2. ล้างกระดูกแล้วนำมาต้มในน้ำใหม่ไฟกลางถึงอ่อนยาว 12-24 ชม.
3. เติมเกลือชมพู
4. ถ้ายังไม่ถึงเวลาแล้วน้ำแห้ง เติมได้ตามความเหมาะสม
5. รอจนครบเวลาก็จะได้ bonebroth ไว้กินแล้วครับ

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Pequenos problemas que o Estado cria para a sociedade e que não são sempre lembrados

- **vale-transporte**: transferir o custo com o transporte do funcionário para um terceiro o estimula a morar longe de onde trabalha, já que morar perto é normalmente mais caro e a economia com transporte é inexistente.
- **atestado médico**: o direito a faltar o trabalho com atestado médico cria a exigência desse atestado para todas as situações, substituindo o livre acordo entre patrão e empregado e sobrecarregando os médicos e postos de saúde com visitas desnecessárias de assalariados resfriados.
- **prisões**: com dinheiro mal-administrado, burocracia e péssima alocação de recursos -- problemas que empresas privadas em competição (ou mesmo sem qualquer competição) saberiam resolver muito melhor -- o Estado fica sem presídios, com os poucos existentes entupidos, muito acima de sua alocação máxima, e com isto, segundo a bizarra corrente de responsabilidades que culpa o juiz que condenou o criminoso por sua morte na cadeia, juízes deixam de condenar à prisão os bandidos, soltando-os na rua.
- **justiça**: entrar com processos é grátis e isto faz proliferar a atividade dos advogados que se dedicam a criar problemas judiciais onde não seria necessário e a entupir os tribunais, impedindo-os de fazer o que mais deveriam fazer.
- **justiça**: como a justiça só obedece às leis e ignora acordos pessoais, escritos ou não, as pessoas não fazem acordos, recorrem sempre à justiça estatal, e entopem-na de assuntos que seriam muito melhor resolvidos entre vizinhos.
- **leis civis**: as leis criadas pelos parlamentares ignoram os costumes da sociedade e são um incentivo a que as pessoas não respeitem nem criem normas sociais -- que seriam maneiras mais rápidas, baratas e satisfatórias de resolver problemas.
- **leis de trãnsito**: quanto mais leis de trânsito, mais serviço de fiscalização são delegados aos policiais, que deixam de combater crimes por isto (afinal de contas, eles não querem de fato arriscar suas vidas combatendo o crime, a fiscalização é uma excelente desculpa para se esquivarem a esta responsabilidade).
- **financiamento educacional**: é uma espécie de subsídio às faculdades privadas que faz com que se criem cursos e mais cursos que são cada vez menos recheados de algum conhecimento ou técnica útil e cada vez mais inúteis.
- **leis de tombamento**: são um incentivo a que o dono de qualquer área ou construção "histórica" destrua todo e qualquer vestígio de história que houver nele antes que as autoridades descubram, o que poderia não acontecer se ele pudesse, por exemplo, usar, mostrar e se beneficiar da história daquele local sem correr o risco de perder, de fato, a sua propriedade.
- **zoneamento urbano**: torna as cidades mais espalhadas, criando uma necessidade gigantesca de carros, ônibus e outros meios de transporte para as pessoas se locomoverem das zonas de moradia para as zonas de trabalho.
- **zoneamento urbano**: faz com que as pessoas percam horas no trânsito todos os dias, o que é, além de um desperdício, um atentado contra a sua saúde, que estaria muito melhor servida numa caminhada diária entre a casa e o trabalho.
- **zoneamento urbano**: torna ruas e as casas menos seguras criando zonas enormes, tanto de residências quanto de indústrias, onde não há movimento de gente alguma.
- **escola obrigatória + currículo escolar nacional**: emburrece todas as crianças.
- **leis contra trabalho infantil**: tira das crianças a oportunidade de aprender ofícios úteis e levar um dinheiro para ajudar a família.
- **licitações**: como não existem os critérios do mercado para decidir qual é o melhor prestador de serviço, criam-se comissões de pessoas que vão decidir coisas. isto incentiva os prestadores de serviço que estão concorrendo na licitação a tentar comprar os membros dessas comissões. isto, fora a corrupção, gera problemas reais: __(i)__ a escolha dos serviços acaba sendo a pior possível, já que a empresa prestadora que vence está claramente mais dedicada a comprar comissões do que a fazer um bom trabalho (este problema afeta tantas áreas, desde a construção de estradas até a qualidade da merenda escolar, que é impossível listar aqui); __(ii)__ o processo corruptor acaba, no longo prazo, eliminando as empresas que prestavam e deixando para competir apenas as corruptas, e a qualidade tende a piorar progressivamente.
- **cartéis**: o Estado em geral cria e depois fica refém de vários grupos de interesse. o caso dos taxistas contra o Uber é o que está na moda hoje (e o que mostra como os Estados se comportam da mesma forma no mundo todo).
- **multas**: quando algum indivíduo ou empresa comete uma fraude financeira, ou causa algum dano material involuntário, as vítimas do caso são as pessoas que sofreram o dano ou perderam dinheiro, mas o Estado tem sempre leis que prevêem multas para os responsáveis. A justiça estatal é sempre muito rígida e rápida na aplicação dessas multas, mas relapsa e vaga no que diz respeito à indenização das vítimas. O que em geral acontece é que o Estado aplica uma enorme multa ao responsável pelo mal, retirando deste os recursos que dispunha para indenizar as vítimas, e se retira do caso, deixando estas desamparadas.
- **desapropriação**: o Estado pode pegar qualquer propriedade de qualquer pessoa mediante uma indenização que é necessariamente inferior ao valor da propriedade para o seu presente dono (caso contrário ele a teria vendido voluntariamente).
- **seguro-desemprego**: se há, por exemplo, um prazo mínimo de 1 ano para o sujeito ter direito a receber seguro-desemprego, isto o incentiva a planejar ficar apenas 1 ano em cada emprego (ano este que será sucedido por um período de desemprego remunerado), matando todas as possibilidades de aprendizado ou aquisição de experiência naquela empresa específica ou ascensão hierárquica.
- **previdência**: a previdência social tem todos os defeitos de cálculo do mundo, e não importa muito ela ser uma forma horrível de poupar dinheiro, porque ela tem garantias bizarras de longevidade fornecidas pelo Estado, além de ser compulsória. Isso serve para criar no imaginário geral a idéia da __aposentadoria__, uma época mágica em que todos os dias serão finais de semana. A idéia da aposentadoria influencia o sujeito a não se preocupar em ter um emprego que faça sentido, mas sim em ter um trabalho qualquer, que o permita se aposentar.
- **regulamentação impossível**: milhares de coisas são proibidas, há regulamentações sobre os aspectos mais mínimos de cada empreendimento ou construção ou espaço. se todas essas regulamentações fossem exigidas não haveria condições de produção e todos morreriam. portanto, elas não são exigidas. porém, o Estado, ou um agente individual imbuído do poder estatal pode, se desejar, exigi-las todas de um cidadão inimigo seu. qualquer pessoa pode viver a vida inteira sem cumprir nem 10% das regulamentações estatais, mas viverá também todo esse tempo com medo de se tornar um alvo de sua exigência, num estado de terror psicológico.
- **perversão de critérios**: para muitas coisas sobre as quais a sociedade normalmente chegaria a um valor ou comportamento "razoável" espontaneamente, o Estado dita regras. estas regras muitas vezes não são obrigatórias, são mais "sugestões" ou limites, como o salário mínimo, ou as 44 horas semanais de trabalho. a sociedade, porém, passa a usar esses valores como se fossem o normal. são raras, por exemplo, as ofertas de emprego que fogem à regra das 44h semanais.
- **inflação**: subir os preços é difícil e constrangedor para as empresas, pedir aumento de salário é difícil e constrangedor para o funcionário. a inflação força as pessoas a fazer isso, mas o aumento não é automático, como alguns economistas podem pensar (enquanto alguns outros ficam muito satisfeitos de que esse processo seja demorado e difícil).
- **inflação**: a inflação destrói a capacidade das pessoas de julgar preços entre concorrentes usando a própria memória.
- **inflação**: a inflação destrói os cálculos de lucro/prejuízo das empresas e prejudica enormemente as decisões empresariais que seriam baseadas neles.
- **inflação**: a inflação redistribui a riqueza dos mais pobres e mais afastados do sistema financeiro para os mais ricos, os bancos e as megaempresas.
- **inflação**: a inflação estimula o endividamento e o consumismo.
- **lixo:** ao prover coleta e armazenamento de lixo "grátis para todos" o Estado incentiva a criação de lixo. se tivessem que pagar para que recolhessem o seu lixo, as pessoas (e conseqüentemente as empresas) se empenhariam mais em produzir coisas usando menos plástico, menos embalagens, menos sacolas.
- **leis contra crimes financeiros:** ao criar legislação para dificultar acesso ao sistema financeiro por parte de criminosos a dificuldade e os custos para acesso a esse mesmo sistema pelas pessoas de bem cresce absurdamente, levando a um percentual enorme de gente incapaz de usá-lo, para detrimento de todos -- e no final das contas os grandes criminosos ainda conseguem burlar tudo.

@ 7076f659:ca493321

Bienvenido a la web de la Comunidad de Meshtastic en España.

Aquí iremos poniendo tutoriales y diferente información sobre Meshtastic y su desarrollo en España.

Desde esta Comunidad queremos fomentar, ayudar y desarrollar el uso de Meshtastic en España como red descentralizada de comunicación p2p sobre LoRa utilizando el protocolo de Meshtastic.

Contacto:

Nostr: https://njump.me/npub1wpm0vkfduxz0n6gjcctugmj7swadj8fm07yt0d2vcual3jjfxvssm3cml9

Telegram: https://t.me/meshtastic_esp

@ 064a50cc:2dd653e5

App maintenance is an ongoing investment to ensure your app continues to meet user expectations, stays competitive in the market, and remains secure and functional.

How about if we reveal all what is covered in the scope of the App maintenance, Why do you need to regularly manage your App, what kind of hours and money should you be planning to invest to manage your app in 2023? It will be cool, ya?

Ideally, a basic App Maintenance Cost Plan of 160 hours per month will do a fair job to manage and upkeep a commercial version of your App and this would cost you less than $ 3000/ Month. Now depending upon the needs, number of App users, number of requests/ issues reported etc. you may need to retain your App maintenance team for more hours than just 160 on month on month basis.

1. What is covered in the Scope of App Support & Maintenance?

The App is needed to be regularly updated largely for its following parts and components:

iOS App and Android Apps whether built in native or cross platform tech. Web Parts/ Web App (Front end, backend, Web replica of mobile apps). Native APIs and Third-party APIs. Database, Design files.

Any new feature development utilizing during the maintenance. Upkeep and updates of beyond-the-app-technology and assets like App Install Ad creatives, beyond the App user onboarding (like through QR code or through an integrated partner’s app or site), Marketing automation, analytics, integration with external Apps and so on.

2. Activities that we perform for App Support & Maintenance

Following are the high level tasks that are performed to regularly upkeep and update your App:

1. Complete QA Testing by a dedicated QA Engineer and Business Analyst to figure out all possible Bugs — mostly a one time effort for every major release.

2. Fixing of Bugs are Reported by the client + Bugs as reported by our Testing Team across iOS, Android, Backend, Web or anywhere else.

3. Updating the App and its underlying Technology Whenever there is a soft or major OS update from Apple or Google.

4. Updating Apps to be compatible with all latest releases of all third Party APIs being used in the App and in the backend.

5. Regular App Performance optimization for a high performing App

6. Periodical App Code clean up as a regular practice and Code repository Maintenance.

7. Regular Documentation, Creating App’s SDKs and APIs

8. Regular Store upload, putting web parts on live server, coordinating with App stores on behalf of the client.

9. Server Maintenance corresponding to the cloud provider’s infrastructure and features

10. Managing, Recording, and Sharing the Timesheet with the client

3. App Maintenance Plans and Pricing from Agicent

We’ve kept it very simple, you retain us for X number of hours a month for App maintenance and pay the fee. Obviously, the more hours you retain us for the better will be the pricing. We always ask our clients to start with the lowest plan and then we jointly analyze in 3 months if 160 hours are enough to handle the App support demands and if not then only we ask you to increase the plan with justification.

4. Skills and Engineers needed for App Maintenance Process

If your App runs on both iOS and Android and also has a web front end along with a backend, then you need following skilled Engineers to perform App maintenance:

– Native or Cross Platform iOS/ Android Developers.

Native would include Swift/ Xcode developer for iOS; Kotlin/ Java and Studio Developer for Android.

Cross platform skills would be React native, Flutter or Ionic.

– Backend Developers

The skills can be node.js, mongoDB, ExpressJS or MERN Stack or Laravel/ PHP, or .NET or Java (Depending upon the tech stack being used at your backend).

– Web Front End Developer

If you have a landing page website or a complete App’s replica on the web then you may need web front end developers experts in HTML, JS, React JS or Angular or PHP/ Laravel or ASP.NET (Depending upon the tech stack being used at the website end).

– Professional App Tester who knows both manual and automation testing.

– UI/ UX Designer knowing Figma, Photoshop, Adobe design suite.

– Business Analyst and Project Coordinator

The one who will be internal project stakeholder at Agicent, will be your single point of contact, will coordinate between you and development and will also do all activities related to business analysis.

5. Factors to consider to find out how much does it cost to maintain an App?

Although we have made easier and straight forward for you to do app maintenance by offering hourly maintenance plans, but there still can be some factors that can raise or bring down the cost of App maintenance as follows:

The complexity of the application

The basic factor that contributes to the maintenance cost of the application in 2023 is the complexity of the application. Everyone wants to have advanced apps with more and more features, screens, and much more. But keep in mind that if you are adding these it will further raise your maintenance costs to the greatest extent. Adding more to it, the maintenance costs will also rise with the involvement of higher technology or framework for its development.

Hybrid Applications

The smartphones available in the market depend upon different operating systems. Everyone loves to have the one that they prefer the most. Android and iOS platforms are the two leading operating systems that the majority of users prefer to have on. Do you know what is the basic factor that lies behind the success of an application well its usage? The majority of the time developers prefer to create hybrid applications that can work effectively on both Android and iOS operating systems. But if you have created such, just keep in mind that the maintenance costs are also going to be quite higher than that of the maintenance costs of the same application for both of the platforms.

Third-Party Integrations

The integration of third-party sources also adds up in raising the overall maintenance cost of an application. More will be your app linked closely with the different external sources such as payment platforms, social media services, higher will be the overall maintenance cost of your app. Let’s make it simpler for you, the maintenance cost of a simple photo editing app is usually quite lower than that of the news app.

App Development Team Location

The maintenance cost of an application also differs a lot as per the location. You may need to pay the maintenance cost of about $50–150 per hour in the USA but it may somewhere lie in between $25–60 per hour in Eastern and Central Europe. Whereas if we talk about the maintenance cost of the application in India it is quite low and you can easily accomplish it by paying $10–30 per hour.

6. Few things that you can do to make sure less maintenance overhead:

– Build your app well architected right from the start – Take care of the scalability – have a professional Development Team – Check your analytics

7. Benefits of App Maintenance Process

– High performing App, every single day – Scalability – Security – Higher user engagement and better Marketing – Better integration, exploit third party services to the maximum

Conclusion of App Development Cost and Process

Application development and maintenance is a never-ending process. Right from adding updates to resolving issues, there are a lot more things that go on side by side throughout. The expenses on an app do not end with its creation, they kind of keep on but for only the good.

Source: https://www.agicent.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-maintain-an-app/

@ 064a50cc:2dd653e5

Building a mobile app has become a crucial investment for businesses and individuals alike. In this blog post, we will explore the various factors that influence the cost of developing a mobile app and provide a comprehensive breakdown of the expenses involved.

You must have encountered this question once or twice, especially if you are interested in app development. As per the latest industry reports, the cost for creating an app lies somewhere between $20,000 and $250,000. The average cost of creating an app is approximately $172,000. Remember that the above-mentioned figures are just estimates, and the final cost of an app project can vary more or less per the requirements.

But the answer to the question of how is app development cost calculated is here. This article discusses an in-depth overview of the global software development market state. Along with this, you will also learn how much it cost to build an app, what all factors influence the cost and how to effectively manage app development costs to avoid unexpected expenses in the future.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an App on Your Own?

Firstly, building a mobile app by yourself is quite not possible and if it is than it’s not as easy as it might look to you. You can make an app with enough technical knowledge and expertise, but it’s not one person’s job. App development is a process that needs a whole team of developers, designers, project managers, and quality assurance engineers for a successful launch of an app. The combined work of all teams on the project turns the app idea into a full-fledged app in a span of 3–6 months, depending on the number and complexity of features.

Cost to Build a Mobile App Depending on the App Type

Developing an app is really not a piece of cake. This requires a lot of team effort and proper planning within the requested timelines. From analyzing the customer’s need to marketing it right, this all has to be done in the right manner.

Factors Affecting the Cost to Build an App:

The answer to the question of how much does it cost to build an app is a complex one, as several factors influence the final cost of developing an app. Continue the read on some of the factors that affect the cost to make an app are listed below:

1-Mobile App Features and Functionality

Trying to get an answer for how much it cost to build a mobile app can only be attained with an understanding of which features you are going to include in your app. This is the most significant cost driver factor, as some can take months to implement. On average, the cost of developing a mobile app can shift in either direction depending on the number and complexity of features you want to implement.

2-Designing of an App

The UI/UX stage of the mobile app development is fully detailed to create user flows, defining how users will interact with the application and how the interface will look. The feature is important to make the app user-friendly. Some of us appreciate and like the minimalist look of the app, but many are also there who like the vibrant look of an app. The look and feel of the app also depend on type of business you have. No matter the business idea the primary focus should be the app looks are sorted and easy for customers to access.

3-Operating System

The cost of developing an app also depends on which Operating System you are planning to launch the app. As per the current stats, android is ruling the market holding 72.83% of the market share in the mobile app industry, whereas iOS has 26.35% of the market share. Therefore, it is important to decide on your audience before launching the app. The development of the android app is relatively more expensive than the iOS because the development time of an Android app is more than iOS. Make yourself aware of how much it cost to build an iOS app and then observe the difference on your own.

4-Backend Infrastructure

A strong backend increases the average cost of developing an app. The backend holds the empowerment of an app. Hence it is very important to have a great backend involved while developing an app. Backend offers things such as a cloud server, customer server and MBaaS(Mobile backend as a service) that float your data on the cloud to provide quick results. These hold functions such as encryption, security, database, storage and crucial and significant information. The app scalability and snappiness depend completely on how scalable your backend is.

5-Geographical Location of the Development Team

The success of the app largely depends upon how well the app development team works on the application. A well-known fact that experience holders and talented developers charge more money for what they are capable of doing when it comes to developing a mobile app. The cost to build a mobile app depends upon the domains where they are located. For instance, the average cost in the USA will be more than as compared to Asian countries offering the same service at different prices. Therefore, when you decide to outsource app development, you must choose your options carefully regarding where you want to acquire the development services.

6-Cost of Outsourcing Mobile App Development: In-house vs. Agencies

You need to decide whether to develop an app in-house or outsource the process to a third-party development company. Both have their pros and cons. When working with an in-house development team, the major advantage is direct communication, deep involvement, face-to-face meetings and complete control over the team. Another side of the coin is the lack of talent, the need for huge initial investments and dealing with hiring and procedural problems.

Whereas working with an outsourcing company or agency has its advantages; therefore, many individuals prefer outsourcing over in-house. It’s major benefits are far greater than the issues. The benefit of outsourcing the app development team is an unlimited pool of talent, a high level of expertise, cost-deduction, flexibility and no need for any kind of initial investments. The disadvantages with the outsourcing companies or agencies are time zone differences and lack of personal control.

7-Publishing the App

After the app has been successfully developed by the developers, and the QA team has also assured the app’s quality as it is free of bugs. Now is the time, your app is ready for the next big step i.e. deployment of the app on either of the store App store or Google Play Store or both as per need. If you are adding process steps for estimating the cost of developing an app, count this process in. This process involves many documentation and protocols involved at places related to security purposes.

8-Marketing the App

Once the app is developed and deployed on the app store, it’s time to create a lot of buzz. Many marketers treat the launch of an app as a big event and, with the right approach, make it a huge success that results in downloads and usability from the users. Even though the app marketing budget is a separate thing, but it is advised you must include it within the total app budget.

9-App Maintenance Cost

If you think you are just concerned about the cost of making an app and you don’t know that only building an app will not mark your work as done. Revamping and maintaining the app requires double the cost of creating an app.

Source: https://www.agicent.com/blog/cost-to-build-mobile-app/

@ 6c0e9016:540ad98f

Sparrow on Qubes OS 4.1

In this tutorial, I will be walking you through setting up Sparrow Wallet in its own AppVM. We will be enhancing our security with a private electrum server connected over the TOR network. You will need: + QubesOS 4.1 Installation (amd64) + (optional) Private Electrum server running on Umbrel, RoninDojo NOTE: You can use a public electrum server with potential loss of transction privacy

Create and configure a new AppVM Qube

Open a dom0 terminal: [user@dom0 ~]$

Create a new sparrow AppVM Qube bash qvm-create sparrow -t debian-11 -l orange

Set the net-vm qube for our Sparrow AppVM to sys-whonix bash qvm-prefs sparrow netvm sys-whonix

Create an allowance for our sparrow AppVM qube to bind ports on sys-whonix

Edit the network policy on dom0: bash sudo nano /etc/qubes/policy.d/30-user-networking.policy

Add the following line to 30-user-networking.policy: nano qubes.ConnectTCP * sparrow @default allow target=sys-whonix

Launch a terminal in your sparrow AppVM qube:

Launch a sparrow AppVm Terminal from Qubes menu:

[Qubes Launcher] > [Qube: sparrow] > [sparrow: Terminal]

In terminal: [user@sparrow ~]$

Setup qubes-bind-dirs:

bash sudo mkdir -p /rw/config/qubes-bind-dirs.d sudo mkdir -p /rw/bind-dirs/opt/sparrow sudo mkdir -p /rw/bind-dirs/usr/share/desktop-directories

Setup qubes-bind-dirs.d to bind directories on launch:

bash sudo nano /rw/config/qubes-bind-dirs.d/50_user.conf

Add the following lines 50_user.conf:

nano binds+=( '/opt/sparrow' ) binds+=( '/usr/share/desktop-directories' )

Setup /rw/config/rc.local to bind port 9050 on sys-whonix:

bash sudo nano /rw/config/rc.local

Add the following lines rc.local:

nano qvm-connect-tcp 9050:@default:9050

Shutdown your Sparrow AppVM qube using Qube Manager

Download Sparrow Wallet on a disposible VM

Launch fedora-37-dvm (dvm): Firefox

Open Sparrow Wallet download page

Download 3 files: + sparrow_1.8.1-1_arm64.deb + sparrow-1.8.1-manifest.txt + sparrow-1.8.1-manifest.txt.asc

Copy files to our sparrow AppVm: + Open the downloads page on Firefox [Ctrl+Shift+Y] + Click the folder icon + Select the three files, then right click and choose "Copy to other AppVm" + Choose sparrow as the target AppVm

Verify and install Sparrow Wallet on sparrow AppVm

Launch a sparrow AppVm Terminal from Qubes menu:

[Qubes Launcher] > [Qube: sparrow] > [sparrow: Terminal]

In terminal: [user@sparrow ~]$

Change directory to ~/QubesIncoming/disp*:

bash cd ~/QubesIncoming/disp*

Grab the key of the developer (Craig Raw): bash curl https://keybase.io/craigraw/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --importsha256sum --check sparrow-1.8.1-manifest.txt --ignore-missing

Don't trust; verify the manifest: bash gpg --verify sparrow-1.8.1-manifest.txt.asc

Now, verify the installation package: bash sha256sum --check sparrow-1.8.1-manifest.txt --ignore-missing

Install the package bash sudo apt install ./sparrow_1.8.1-1_amd64.deb

You can ignore this warning:

N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/home/user/Downloads/sparrow_1.8.1-1_amd64.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

Final setup and configuration

Setup a Sparrow launch key-binding

• [Qubes Launcher] > [System Tools] > [Keyboard]
• Choose the [Application Shortcuts] Tab, then click the [+Add] button
• Command: qvm-run -q -a sparrow /opt/sparrow/bin/Sparrow
• Enter Keyboard Shortcut: [Ctrl+Alt+S]

Test your Sparrow Qube installation

NOTE: If you have a previous Sparrow Wallet installation, copy your existing .sparrow folder into sparrow AppVm /home/user/ directory

To Launch Sparrow Wallet: Press [Ctrl+Alt+S]

Configure Sparrow to use sys-whonix torsocks proxy

• Open Sparrow Wallet preferences: Press [Ctrl+P]
• Choose the Server tab (bottom):
• Choose [Type:] Private Electrum
• Enter your Umbrel or Dojo or other Electrum [URL:] `**************.onion
• Toggle on [Use Proxy:]
• Set [Proxy URL:] localhost 9050

Final Thoughts:

The goal of this set up is to maximize security and privacy of our Sparrow Wallet setup. It is also possible to connect USB harwarde signers to the instance. Raise an issue here if you want me to add udev settings for usb-connected hardware wallets (I would rather you stay safe and airgap).

@ d830ee7b:4e61cd62

A Show for Thai Nostrs That Aligns with Austrian Economics

The initiative behind the specific program #สภายาม่วง (The Purple Council, hosted by nostr:npub1ejn774qahqmgjsfajawy7634unk88y26yktvwuzp9kfgdeejx9mqdm97a5) emerged from blending various concepts together. My objective is thus diverse and dynamic.

Benefits to the Community

• Supporting Austrian Economic Principles: When you create value out of self-interest, leading to genuine benefits to the community, you deserve to be rewarded.
• Open to All: This space is for everyone in our community who contributes value through their proof of work, expecting more than just personal gain.
• Opportunity for Recognition: Individuals can voluntarily reveal their stories, helping the community to appreciate and understand different aspects of their identities.
• Promoting a Culture of Respect and Admiration: We push a new culture where value creation is not seen as futile or ignored.
• Accessible to All, Not Just Influencers: The platform is for anyone who deserves it, even if the positive value they bring is just making others laugh.
• Inspiring Community Engagement: Motivating everyone to benefit others without expecting anything in return other than personal satisfaction, while respecting each other through creative and positive contributions.
• Fostering a Positive Community Atmosphere: Connecting values and interactions among community members.
• Self-Value and Pride in the Community: Encouraging unity and cooperation to achieve greater things in the future.
• Content Rich in Value: Easygoing and comfortable viewing culture, full of warmth and fun, with a free and interactive chat environment.
• Unique Experiences with Influencers: Exclusive content on Nostr that differs from mainstream media, offering new experiences and fun.
• Space for Special Agendas and Topics: A place for sharing knowledge, experiences, and discussions beneficial to the community, not necessarily requiring interviews.

Benefits to Individuals (Crew, Guests, Audience)

• Freedom of Speech: Discuss topics that are hard to find a platform for, without self-censorship (while still being responsible for one's actions). Allows for full expression of personality (if distributed further, some parts may be cut to prevent negative impacts on the speaker and our community).
• On-Camera Presence in Live Shows: Practice real-time, unscripted interaction. Mistakes and slip-ups are allowed, fostering a more relaxed expression without the pressure of production quality expectations. This leads to habituation in public speaking and skill development.
• Spontaneous Interaction: As I am the only one aware of the content and the identity of the guests in each episode, other participants must respond spontaneously to unforeseen situations (known at the same time as the audience). It's a practice in handling unprepared presentations, unexpected questions, and developing quick thinking, reducing panic in similar future scenarios (especially for my team members).
• Listening Skills Development: Cultivate mindfulness, attention, and the ability to think, analyze, and discern. Design approaches to respond to unscripted events and create content with a forward-thinking approach, while considering the experiences and values the audience will gain.
• Boost in Self-Confidence: Pride in handling unforeseen events effectively, overcoming fears and perceived obstacles.
• Learning Responsibility: Understand the consequences of actions, decisions, and immediate responses, as well as the digital footprint created. These experiences are valuable for personal development.
• For the Audience: Enjoy uncensored, friendly, and relaxed content (even if some topics are mentally challenging). The informal setting allows for engaging and entertaining discussions in chat, alleviating loneliness.
• Using Satoshi through Zaps: A beneficial use-case for both giver and receiver. It allows one to appreciate and marvel at the value of their choices. Receivers gain pride and recognition for their contributions, supported by positive reinforcement. Givers feel fulfilled, contributing to the community's value creation.
• Inspiration for Self-Improvement: Encourages bold suggestions for both the program and the platform, aiming for future improvements. Participate in the development of these improvements.

My Contribution to the Global Nostr Community

One thing I believe I have contributed to the global Nostr community is bringing into practical use the creations of developers. By implementing these developments, I have helped realize beneficial use-cases that genuinely add value in various aspects. Moreover, I strive to demonstrate that these contributions significantly benefit a large number of people, creating a ripple effect that extends both within and beyond the community.

---

There are many things in my mind, but let me just share a part of it. I hope this gives you some understanding of my intentions behind producing this program.

Although I don't have enough time to personally acknowledge everyone who contributes value extensively (and there are many who are not comfortable being in the media - no problem there), as long as this Purple Field exists, there will come a day when I can express my appreciation to everyone.

If there is anyone you would like to know more about, I am more than willing to listen to suggestions and invite these individuals to join and share their value in future episodes of The Purple Council.

Another thing I want to emphasize about the value of this program (even if it seems self-praising) is that I've never intended to appear in the media or any programs before. It's still the same today, except for very important and necessary occasions.

This program is the only one I've chosen to be a part of, to show the "price" of the value created here, to demonstrate how much I value this principle and love our Purple Field community.

Please continue to follow The Purple Council. If there's anything I can improve or develop, don't hesitate to give your suggestions.

Thank you. 🙏

P.S. We now have #Siamstr Radio on #Nostrnest operating 24/7. It's a similar space for our Purple Field community. You can join and have fun with friends there without having to wait for The Purple Council.

I've been quite busy with various tasks lately and haven't been as active in the Purple Field as before. I apologize for this.

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

It's possible that by this stage, the phrase "we're so early" has become so overused that it almost sounds like a meme to you. Do you know where we are in the process of widespread adoption of Bitcoin?

Being early is a relative concept that changes depending on who you ask. If you ask a "OG," "early" might indicate when Bitcoin was worth less than $100 or before the blocksize battles. Bitcoin has just recently become a topic of discussion for a number of people all around the world. Many people are still unaware that Bitcoin is the necessary lifeboat to reclaim individual freedom and financial sovereignty.

Look around, it is so damn early!

The amount of interest, comprehension, and acceptance of Bitcoin is now at a grassroots level. Have you ever participated in a Bitcoin meetup? People that attend these events are often Bitcoin zealots (like ourselves).

It is estimated that over 150 million individuals, or approximately 2% of the total population of the globe, have some exposure to bitcoin. In the broad scheme of things, it is a rather insignificant detail. In addition, our levels of exposure to Bitcoin are highly varied from one another.

There are people who own Bitcoin, and there are Bitcoiners.

Bitcoin users own their own private keys, operate their own nodes, and are aware of the fraudulent practices that FIAT governments engage in. A good many of us have reached our savings goals for the year. I'm always curious about how FEW "psychopaths" there really are in the world.

You are probably the only Bitcoin user that the people you went to school with and friends know. The vast majority of people do not comprehend what you are discussing and consider you insane. For the time being, early adopters have arrived.

Another sign of how early we are.. FIAT still holds value.

Another sign of how early we are.. FIAT still holds value. It may seem crazy, but some individuals would rather invest their savings in a currency that is certain to lose value than in one that is based on scarcity and is decentralized.

When compared to the United States Dollar, saving in Bitcoin may seem to be a difficult concept for boomers and pre-coiners. But what about the other currencies that use the FIAT system? Nobody is interested in trading Bitcoin for Venezuelan Bolivares at the moment. The same thing will be true for all of the other FIAT currencies. They are losing value at an alarming rate and are heading toward oblivion. Some are far quicker than others.

It is difficult to conceptualize what living might be like on a hard money standard. However, for those who use Bitcoin, our unit of account has already been updated to Bitcoin/sats. It is important to us that we have higher SAT scores now compared to yesterday. THE OLD PARADIGM HAS BEEN REPLACED.

One hard truth about how early we are is… Bitcoin is not ready for the world.

People still aren't aware of where to purchase or sell things, nor do they have simple access to accomplish any of those things. They are not familiar with the concept of a wallet or a private key. Even many who consider themselves "crypto" are still unaware of the existence of the Lightning Network.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin is now undergoing significant UX enhancements. The high learning curve is gradually beginning to level out. People will eventually not be aware that they are interacting with Bitcoin until it is too late.

It makes me think of the early days of the internet, which was in the 1990s. You know, the kind of relationship that requires dialing in. Nobody could have ever envisioned taking out their smartphone and watching movies on Netflix on their device of choice. The trajectory that Bitcoin will take in the future is not yet clear.

When it comes to stacking "corn," the good news is that you have an asymmetric advantage as a result of all of this. The learning curve for comprehending money, politics, energy, and self-custody is rather high. This is a competition to see who can learn the most. We have all shown that our task has been completed.

That's all for today, see ya tomorrow

If you want more, be sure to follow us on:

NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com

X: @croxroadnews

Instagram: @croxroadnews.co

Youtube: @croxroadnews

Store: https://croxroad.store

Subscribe to CROX ROAD Bitcoin Only Daily Newsletter

https://www.croxroad.co/subscribe

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

@ f6488c62:c929299d

ทั้งสองวอเลท สามารถทำงานเชื่อมกันอย่างไม่มีปัญหา ความเร็วในการรับส่ง สูงมากๆ เดี๋ยวว่างๆ จะมาเขียนประสบการณ์การใช้งานอีกทีครับ

@ 77950dfc:a3eb4c09

HaCKBee Digest 2024/01/12

Crypto Insights

Potential BRC-20 Fork Brewing in Indexer War

A brewing conflict "Indexer War" is gaining momentum within the Bitcoin community due to differing BRC-20 upgrade plans. Layer 1 Foundation @L1Fxyz advocates for freezing the Ord protocol at v0.9.0 to maintain BRC-20 stability, while Unisat released a black/white module system allowing developers to introduce new BRC-20 features via black modules. The founder of BRC-20, @domodata (L1Fxyz), consistently emphasizing protocol stability, states that an agreed path forward has been achieved.

Luke Dashjr's Proposal on Restrict Inscriptions has Failed

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr's proposal to restrict inscriptions did not gain approval after extensive discussion. The proposal was closed on January 7th.

Project｜NodeMonkes: First Bitcoin 10K PFP

Source: nftnow.com

Project | Khalani Network: New Decentralized Infrastructure Solution

Khalani Network unveiled its mission and vision in their recent article Introducing Khalani: The Decentralized Solver Infrastructure. This pioneering platform redefines the future of Web3 by offering solvers infrastructure for intent-driven generative coordination.

Opinion | The Importance of Ordinals in Bitcoin's Security Model

The Messari Crypto Theme 2024 report presents its perspective on Bitcoin's security model, suggesting three possible solutions. It highlights the dependency on Ordinals in Bitcoin’s security structure, and underscores a long-term security model and the challenge of incentivizing miners.

Opinion | The Success of AI Depends on DAO

@thycommodore believes that the innovative integratino of AI as the middle layer might revolutionize DAO structures and their efficiency overall.

Top Reads on Blockchain

Rooch's On-Chain Indexer: Novel Solution for Bitcoin L2?

Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions are largely classified into three types. However, Rooch offers a novel solution using on-chain indexers to expand the Bitcoin ecosystem. Rooch proposes a unique expansion strategy for Bitcoin, utilizing on-chain indexers to synchronize Bitcoin data into MoveVM for innovative L2 solutions, meanwhile ensuring that user funds retain their native Bitcoin status. Moreover, Rooch offers flexible customization to integrate into various infrastructure, and implements Bitcoin light clients with smart contracts. All Bitcoin block headers and UTXO states synchronize with Rooch as MoveVM objects, enabling on-chain applications to leverage indexed Bitcoin UTXO information in Rooch smart contracts.

Source: rooch.network

Reevaluate Etherscan: Awesome but Possibly the Point of Failure for Ethereum?

Ethereum's growing dependence on Etherscan raises concerns about potential risks. Etherscan has gained substantial popularity within the Ethereum community as a go-to solution for tracking transactions and contract interactions. However, as a closed-source platform, it jeopardizes the core value of the Ethereum ecosystem - decentralization. The article also mentions several open source alternatives, such as Beaconchain, Blockscout and Otterscan, and points out that the challenge for these decentralized explorers is how to generate revenue and maintain commercial viability without compromising integrity.

Source: marcoworms@medium

Coin Metrics' State of the Network 2024 Outlook

Bitcoin ETFs are attracting singificant interest. In this article, CoinMetrics discusses the potential implications of a Bitcoin ETF receiving approval from the SEC. Central to this discussion is Bitcoin's on-chain supply dynamics. Interestingly, over 30% of BTC hasn't been circulated for over five years, but ETF inflows might alter this narrative. It is also important to note that while ETFs could amplify Bitcoin's legitimacy, they might also parasitize trading volumes. Looking ahead, the fourth Bitcoin halving in 2024 is set to introduce significant supply and demand shifts, redefining Bitcoin's narrative in the next few years.

@ 77950dfc:a3eb4c09

HaCKBee Digest 2024/01/12

Crypto Insights

Potential BRC-20 Fork Brewing in Indexer War

A brewing conflict "Indexer War" is gaining momentum within the Bitcoin community due to differing BRC-20 upgrade plans. Layer 1 Foundation @L1Fxyz advocates for freezing the Ord protocol at v0.9.0 to maintain BRC-20 stability, while Unisat released a black/white module system allowing developers to introduce new BRC-20 features via black modules. The founder of BRC-20, @domodata (L1Fxyz), consistently emphasizing protocol stability, states that an agreed path forward has been achieved.

Luke Dashjr's Proposal on Restrict Inscriptions has Failed

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr's proposal to restrict inscriptions did not gain approval after extensive discussion. The proposal was closed on January 7th.

Project｜NodeMonkes: First Bitcoin 10K PFP

Source: nftnow.com

Project | Khalani Network: New Decentralized Infrastructure Solution

Khalani Network unveiled its mission and vision in their recent article Introducing Khalani: The Decentralized Solver Infrastructure. This pioneering platform redefines the future of Web3 by offering solvers infrastructure for intent-driven generative coordination.

Opinion | The Importance of Ordinals in Bitcoin's Security Model

The Messari Crypto Theme 2024 report presents its perspective on Bitcoin's security model, suggesting three possible solutions. It highlights the dependency on Ordinals in Bitcoin’s security structure, and underscores a long-term security model and the challenge of incentivizing miners.

Opinion | The Success of AI Depends on DAO

@thycommodore believes that the innovative integratino of AI as the middle layer might revolutionize DAO structures and their efficiency overall.

Top Reads on Blockchain

Rooch's On-Chain Indexer: Novel Solution for Bitcoin L2?

Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions are largely classified into three types. However, Rooch offers a novel solution using on-chain indexers to expand the Bitcoin ecosystem. Rooch proposes a unique expansion strategy for Bitcoin, utilizing on-chain indexers to synchronize Bitcoin data into MoveVM for innovative L2 solutions, meanwhile ensuring that user funds retain their native Bitcoin status. Moreover, Rooch offers flexible customization to integrate into various infrastructure, and implements Bitcoin light clients with smart contracts. All Bitcoin block headers and UTXO states synchronize with Rooch as MoveVM objects, enabling on-chain applications to leverage indexed Bitcoin UTXO information in Rooch smart contracts. Source: rooch.network

Reevaluate Etherscan: Awesome but Possibly the Point of Failure for Ethereum?

Ethereum's growing dependence on Etherscan raises concerns about potential risks. Etherscan has gained substantial popularity within the Ethereum community as a go-to solution for tracking transactions and contract interactions. However, as a closed-source platform, it jeopardizes the core value of the Ethereum ecosystem - decentralization. The article also mentions several open source alternatives, such as Beaconchain, Blockscout and Otterscan, and points out that the challenge for these decentralized explorers is how to generate revenue and maintain commercial viability without compromising integrity. Source: marcoworms@medium

Coin Metrics' State of the Network 2024 Outlook

Bitcoin ETFs are attracting singificant interest. In this article, CoinMetrics discusses the potential implications of a Bitcoin ETF receiving approval from the SEC. Central to this discussion is Bitcoin's on-chain supply dynamics. Interestingly, over 30% of BTC hasn't been circulated for over five years, but ETF inflows might alter this narrative. It is also important to note that while ETFs could amplify Bitcoin's legitimacy, they might also parasitize trading volumes. Looking ahead, the fourth Bitcoin halving in 2024 is set to introduce significant supply and demand shifts, redefining Bitcoin's narrative in the next few years.

@ 8d9d2b77:86dd65fa

Chef's notes

When I make this creamy taco soup, I don't really measure anything, so this will be approximate measurements. The recipe is very forgiving, and you can add or delete to your taste. The cream cheese is the key ingredient to make this soup creamy, and in my opinion the cilantro is a must.

Details

• 🍳 Cook time: 30 minutes
• 🍽️ Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs ground beef
• 1 whole onion
• 1 head of fresh garlic
• 2-3 8oz packages cream cheese, depending on your taste
• Beef bouillon, 2-3 cubes
• Chili powder to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cumin to taste
• Cayenne pepper, optional
• Fresh cilantro to taste
• I can fire roasted, diced tomatoes

Directions

1. In a large cookpot, brown meat.
2. Add onions and garlic, simmer for 5 mins
3. Add diced tomatoes and cream cheese.
4. Add all seasonings
5. Add cream cheese, allow to melt and stir.
6. At this point you might want to add a bit of water or milk, depending on how thick you want the soup.
7. Let simmer for 10 min.
8. Add cilantro and let it wither, about 3 mins
9. Thats it! If you wish, you can top with shredded cheese or avocado.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Com o PixelKnot, você pode compartilhar segredos de forma segura, escondendo-os em imagens usando a técnica F5. Somente seus amigos com a senha secreta podem revelar sua mensagem especial, enquanto os outros veem apenas uma imagem convencional. É uma maneira simples e divertida de compartilhar informações de forma discreta. Basta entrelaçar esses pixels, amarrá-los e descubra por si mesmo!

Principais Recursos:

• Mensagens Disfarçadas: Suas imagens permanecem públicas, mas o texto fica oculto. Mesmo olhos treinados não notarão qualquer edição na imagem.

• Privacidade Garantida: Proteja suas mensagens com senhas, assegurando que apenas o destinatário autorizado possa acessá-las.

• Seleção Simples de Imagens: Use a câmera para capturar fotos ou selecione imagens existentes para criar mensagens ocultas.

• Alterações Invisíveis: Mesmo um analista experiente terá dificuldade em detectar a mensagem, pois os bytes da imagem permanecem inalterados.

• Compatibilidade Multifacetada: Compartilhe suas imagens através de e-mails, ferramentas de compartilhamento de arquivos, redes sociais e mais, facilitando o compartilhamento de suas mensagens secretas.

• Sem Publicidade: O PixelKnot é gratuito e livre de anúncios, visando sua satisfação, não seu dinheiro.

• Segurança Matemática: Implementamos o algoritmo de esteganografia F5, conhecido por sua robustez e eficácia.

• Resistência a Ataques: Testamos a resistência do aplicativo contra detecções e ataques, continuando a aprimorar nossa segurança.

PixelKnot é o aplicativo ideal para ocultar mensagens em imagens, garantindo segurança e privacidade.

https://github.com/guardianproject/PixelKnot

https://guardianproject.info/apps/info.guardianproject.pixelknot/

@ 3cd2ea88:bafdaceb

💎 Victoria, Seychelles, 11 gennaio 2024 – Bitget ha annunciato oggi una mossa strategica. Vugar Usi Zade, un professionista navigato con una carriera di 15 anni in gestione e comunicazione, è stato nominato Chief Operations Officer (COO) di Bitget.

💎 Vugar porta in primo piano una vasta esperienza con una carriera che comprende ruoli di impatto in aziende Fortune 500 e start-up dinamiche. Prima di assumere il ruolo di COO presso Bitget, Vugar è stato Chief Marketing Officer presso Beincrypto e Head of Marketing presso SONY. Il suo percorso include posizioni senior presso aziende rinomate come Facebook, Danone e Carlsberg. Con un solido background come consulente di gestione esperto, Vugar ha ricoperto il ruolo di Senior Manager presso Bain and Company, concentrandosi su iniziative di private equity. Con lauree magistrali e post-laurea presso l'Università di Harvard e l'Università di Oxford, Vugar è non solo un dirigente ma anche un autore e ricercatore pubblicato.

💎 Bitcoin Report Italia, in qualità di utilizzatore e sostenitore di Bitget, è lieto di riportare questa notizia cruciale nel contesto delle criptovalute. "Vugar vanta decenni di esperienza di leadership senior nel settore finanziario con particolare attenzione alle nuove tecnologie, alla crescita e alla regolamentazione globale", ha dichiarato Gracy Chen, CEO di Bitget. "Negli ultimi anni, abbiamo registrato una crescita significativa, affermandoci come leader nell'industria delle criptovalute. Questo successo ci ha permesso di attirare dirigenti senior di alto livello provenienti da contesti diversi. Siamo lieti di dare il benvenuto a Vugar Usi Zade come nostro nuovo Chief Operations Officer, una mossa strategica che rafforza il nostro impegno per lo sviluppo a lungo termine. La sua vasta esperienza nella creazione e nell'espansione di attività globali sarà preziosa mentre ci sforziamo di realizzare la nostra visione di diventare il principale scambio di criptovalute a livello mondiale. Sotto la guida di Vugar, sono fiducioso che Bitget manterrà l'agilità necessaria per rafforzare costantemente la nostra piattaforma in modo conforme e soddisfare le esigenze in evoluzione degli utenti in tutto il mondo, guidando la prossima fase della nostra crescita globale."

💎 Come nuovo COO di Bitget, Vugar Usi Zade avrà un ruolo cruciale nel guidare e ampliare la crescita globale dell'azienda. Le sue responsabilità includono la guida dei team go-to-market e la supervisione degli sforzi di espansione strategica. Inoltre, Vugar sarà determinante nel rafforzare la presenza e l'influenza di Bitget all'interno del più ampio ecosistema crittografico, contribuendo in modo significativo alla continua crescita della piattaforma nel quadro legale e normativo di ciascun mercato chiave.

💎 Negli ultimi due anni, Bitget ha registrato una crescita enorme nonostante la volatilità del mercato. L'azienda ha raggiunto traguardi significativi, tra cui una sostanziale crescita aziendale e la creazione di una partnership con la stella del calcio globale Lionel Messi per promuovere l'adozione del Web. Secondo il Rapporto sulla trasparenza di Bitget appena pubblicato nel 2023, Bitget ha consolidato la sua posizione come una delle 5 principali piattaforme di trading di derivati e i primi 10 scambi spot con oltre 20 milioni di utenti. Per sostenere una crescita sana e conforme, il team di Bitget si è espanso rapidamente fino a contare oltre 1.500 dipendenti in varie funzioni e aree geografiche.

💎 "Mi considero fortunato di aver sperimentato personalmente la solida sicurezza, la potenza e l'eccellenza complessiva di Bitget come cliente. Sono entusiasta di unirmi a Gracy e al team di gestione mentre ci imbarchiamo nel prossimo capitolo di crescita accelerata nel panorama dinamico delle criptovalute. Grazie alle solide basi e alla visione ambiziosa di Bitget, il mio entusiasmo è diretto a promuovere l'eccellenza operativa e ad espandere la portata strategica dell'azienda in questo settore in rapida evoluzione. Bitget si è giustamente guadagnata il posto di leader del settore attraverso offerte di prodotti innovativi e un impegno costante nei confronti degli utenti. Grazie alla mia esperienza nell'espansione del business, nella coltivazione di partnership e nell'ottimizzazione delle operazioni globali, mi impegno a rafforzare la presenza di Bitget nelle regioni chiave", ha affermato Vugar Usi Zade.

🚨🚨 Informazioni su Bitget 🚨🚨

💎 Fondata nel 2018, Bitget è uno degli exchange di criptovalute leader a livello mondiale e società Web3. Servendo oltre 20 milioni di utenti in oltre 100 paesi e regioni, l'exchange Bitget si impegna ad aiutare gli utenti a fare trading in modo più intelligente con la sua pionieristica funzionalità di copy trading e altre soluzioni di trading. Precedentemente noto come BitKeep, Bitget Wallet è un portafoglio crittografico multicatena di livello mondiale che offre una gamma di soluzioni e funzionalità Web3 complete tra cui funzionalità portafoglio, scambio, mercato NFT, browser DApp e altro ancora. Bitget ispira le persone ad abbracciare le criptovalute attraverso collaborazioni con partner credibili, tra cui il leggendario calciatore argentino Lionel Messi e l'organizzatore ufficiale di eventi eSports PGL. Leggi tutti i nostri articoli: https://t.me/BitcoinReportChannel

🚨Scopri come Bitcoin sta veramente cambiando il mondo!

Entra nella nostra community Telegram per approfondire la discussione sulla rivoluzione Bitcoin, strategie di trading e altro ancora! 🚀

📣 https://t.me/Bitcoin_Report_Italia

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

O Scrambled Exif (pronunciado "eggsif") é uma ferramenta que permite a remoção dos metadados das suas imagens antes de compartilhá-las. Ao utilizar o Scrambled Exif, você pode garantir que informações sensíveis não sejam incluídas ao compartilhar suas fotos.

Para remover os metadados de uma imagem, basta seguir o processo de compartilhamento padrão e selecionar a opção Scrambled Exif. Em seguida, aguarde um momento e o menu de compartilhamento reaparecerá. Nesse ponto, você pode escolher o aplicativo com o qual deseja compartilhar a imagem.

• O Exif é um conjunto de informações incorporadas ao formato JPEG, que é o padrão de salvamento de imagens da maioria das câmeras Android. Se quiser saber mais sobre o Exif, você pode consultar a Wikipedia.

• Scrambled Exif também renomeia os arquivos ( essa função pode ser desativada)

• Importante lembrar que não se deve confiar completamente na exclusão dos dados. O Scrambled Exif é eficaz em sua tarefa, mas existem possibilidades de falha. Sempre é recomendado verificar novamente antes de compartilhar.

• Ele realmente não embaralha os dados Exif, ele os exclui. Então o nome provavelmente é estúpido. Mas eu gosto. O ícone também não mostra ovos mexidos. Portanto, o ícone provavelmente é estúpido. Mas eu gosto. E também sou um grande fã de ovos. Portanto, este aplicativo não tem apenas um nome estúpido e um ícone igualmente estúpido, é também minha homenagem (não estúpida) aos ovos. Especialmente huevos fritos . Porque eu os amo.

Divirta-se compartilhando suas fotos!

Este aplicativo é de código aberto. Se você tiver interesse, pode verificar o código-fonte e até mesmo contribuir com melhorias.

https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/scrambled-exif

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Drivechain

Understanding Drivechain requires a shift from the paradigm most bitcoiners are used to. It is not about "trustlessness" or "mathematical certainty", but game theory and incentives. (Well, Bitcoin in general is also that, but people prefer to ignore it and focus on some illusion of trustlessness provided by mathematics.)

Here we will describe the basic mechanism (simple) and incentives (complex) of "hashrate escrow" and how it enables a 2-way peg between the mainchain (Bitcoin) and various sidechains.

The full concept of "Drivechain" also involves blind merged mining (i.e., the sidechains mine themselves by publishing their block hashes to the mainchain without the miners having to run the sidechain software), but this is much easier to understand and can be accomplished either by the BIP-301 mechanism or by the Spacechains mechanism.

How does hashrate escrow work from the point of view of Bitcoin?

A new address type is created. Anything that goes in that is locked and can only be spent if all miners agree on the Withdrawal Transaction (WT^) that will spend it for 6 months. There is one of these special addresses for each sidechain.

To gather miners' agreement bitcoind keeps track of the "score" of all transactions that could possibly spend from that address. On every block mined, for each sidechain, the miner can use a portion of their coinbase to either increase the score of one WT^ by 1 while decreasing the score of all others by 1; or they can decrease the score of all WT^s by 1; or they can do nothing.

Once a transaction has gotten a score high enough, it is published and funds are effectively transferred from the sidechain to the withdrawing users.

If a timeout of 6 months passes and the score doesn't meet the threshold, that WT^ is discarded.

What does the above procedure mean?

It means that people can transfer coins from the mainchain to a sidechain by depositing to the special address. Then they can withdraw from the sidechain by making a special withdraw transaction in the sidechain.

The special transaction somehow freezes funds in the sidechain while a transaction that aggregates all withdrawals into a single mainchain WT^, which is then submitted to the mainchain miners so they can start voting on it and finally after some months it is published.

Now the crucial part: the validity of the WT^ is not verified by the Bitcoin mainchain rules, i.e., if Bob has requested a withdraw from the sidechain to his mainchain address, but someone publishes a wrong WT^ that instead takes Bob's funds and sends them to Alice's main address there is no way the mainchain will know that. What determines the "validity" of the WT^ is the miner vote score and only that. It is the job of miners to vote correctly -- and for that they may want to run the sidechain node in SPV mode so they can attest for the existence of a reference to the WT^ transaction in the sidechain blockchain (which then ensures it is ok) or do these checks by some other means.

What? 6 months to get my money back?

Yes. But no, in practice anyone who wants their money back will be able to use an atomic swap, submarine swap or other similar service to transfer funds from the sidechain to the mainchain and vice-versa. The long delayed withdraw costs would be incurred by few liquidity providers that would gain some small profit from it.

Why bother with this at all?

Drivechains solve many different problems:

It enables experimentation and new use cases for Bitcoin

Issued assets, fully private transactions, stateful blockchain contracts, turing-completeness, decentralized games, some "DeFi" aspects, prediction markets, futarchy, decentralized and yet meaningful human-readable names, big blocks with a ton of normal transactions on them, a chain optimized only for Lighting-style networks to be built on top of it.

These are some ideas that may have merit to them, but were never actually tried because they couldn't be tried with real Bitcoin or inferfacing with real bitcoins. They were either relegated to the shitcoin territory or to custodial solutions like Liquid or RSK that may have failed to gain network effect because of that.

It solves conflicts and infighting

Some people want fully private transactions in a UTXO model, others want "accounts" they can tie to their name and build reputation on top; some people want simple multisig solutions, others want complex code that reads a ton of variables; some people want to put all the transactions on a global chain in batches every 10 minutes, others want off-chain instant transactions backed by funds previously locked in channels; some want to spend, others want to just hold; some want to use blockchain technology to solve all the problems in the world, others just want to solve money.

With Drivechain-based sidechains all these groups can be happy simultaneously and don't fight. Meanwhile they will all be using the same money and contributing to each other's ecosystem even unwillingly, it's also easy and free for them to change their group affiliation later, which reduces cognitive dissonance.

It solves "scaling"

Multiple chains like the ones described above would certainly do a lot to accomodate many more transactions that the current Bitcoin chain can. One could have special Lightning Network chains, but even just big block chains or big-block-mimblewimble chains or whatnot could probably do a good job. Or even something less cool like 200 independent chains just like Bitcoin is today, no extra features (and you can call it "sharding"), just that would already multiply the current total capacity by 200.

Use your imagination.

It solves the blockchain security budget issue

The calculation is simple: you imagine what security budget is reasonable for each block in a world without block subsidy and divide that for the amount of bytes you can fit in a single block: that is the price to be paid in satoshis per byte. In reasonable estimative, the price necessary for every Bitcoin transaction goes to very large amounts, such that not only any day-to-day transaction has insanely prohibitive costs, but also Lightning channel opens and closes are impracticable.

So without a solution like Drivechain you'll be left with only one alternative: pushing Bitcoin usage to trusted services like Liquid and RSK or custodial Lightning wallets. With Drivechain, though, there could be thousands of transactions happening in sidechains and being all aggregated into a sidechain block that would then pay a very large fee to be published (via blind merged mining) to the mainchain. Bitcoin security guaranteed.

It keeps Bitcoin decentralized

Once we have sidechains to accomodate the normal transactions, the mainchain functionality can be reduced to be only a "hub" for the sidechains' comings and goings, and then the maximum block size for the mainchain can be reduced to, say, 100kb, which would make running a full node very very easy.

Can miners steal?

Yes. If a group of coordinated miners are able to secure the majority of the hashpower and keep their coordination for 6 months, they can publish a WT^ that takes the money from the sidechains and pays to themselves.

Will miners steal?

No, because the incentives are such that they won't.

Although it may look at first that stealing is an obvious strategy for miners as it is free money, there are many costs involved:

1. The cost of ceasing blind-merged mining returns -- as stealing will kill a sidechain, all the fees from it that miners would be expected to earn for the next years are gone;
2. The cost of Bitcoin price going down: If a steal is successful that will mean Drivechains are not safe, therefore Bitcoin is less useful, and miner credibility will also be hurt, which are likely to cause the Bitcoin price to go down, which in turn may kill the miners' businesses and savings;
3. The cost of coordination -- assuming miners are just normal businesses, they just want to do their work and get paid, but stealing from a Drivechain will require coordination with other miners to conduct an immoral act in a way that has many pitfalls and is likely to be broken over the months;
4. The cost of miners leaving your mining pool: when we talked about "miners" above we were actually talking about mining pools operators, so they must also consider the risk of miners migrating from their mining pool to others as they begin the process of stealing;
5. The cost of community goodwill -- when participating in a steal operation, a miner will suffer a ton of backlash from the community. Even if the attempt fails at the end, the fact that it was attempted will contribute to growing concerns over exaggerated miners power over the Bitcoin ecosystem, which may end up causing the community to agree on a hard-fork to change the mining algorithm in the future, or to do something to increase participation of more entities in the mining process (such as development or cheapment of new ASICs), which have a chance of decreasing the profits of current miners.

Another point to take in consideration is that one may be inclined to think a newly-created sidechain or a sidechain with relatively low usage may be more easily stolen from, since the blind merged mining returns from it (point 1 above) are going to be small -- but the fact is also that a sidechain with small usage will also have less money to be stolen from, and since the other costs besides 1 are less elastic at the end it will not be worth stealing from these too.

All of the above consideration are valid only if miners are stealing from good sidechains. If there is a sidechain that is doing things wrong, scamming people, not being used at all, or is full of bugs, for example, that will be perceived as a bad sidechain, and then miners can and will safely steal from it and kill it, which will be perceived as a good thing by everybody.

What do we do if miners steal?

Paul Sztorc has suggested in the past that a user-activated soft-fork could prevent miners from stealing, i.e., most Bitcoin users and nodes issue a rule similar to this one to invalidate the inclusion of a faulty WT^ and thus cause any miner that includes it in a block to be relegated to their own Bitcoin fork that other nodes won't accept.

This suggestion has made people think Drivechain is a sidechain solution backed by user-actived soft-forks for safety, which is very far from the truth. Drivechains must not and will not rely on this kind of soft-fork, although they are possible, as the coordination costs are too high and no one should ever expect these things to happen.

If even with all the incentives against them (see above) miners do still steal from a good sidechain that will mean the failure of the Drivechain experiment. It will very likely also mean the failure of the Bitcoin experiment too, as it will be proven that miners can coordinate to act maliciously over a prolonged period of time regardless of economic and social incentives, meaning they are probably in it just for attacking Bitcoin, backed by nation-states or something else, and therefore no Bitcoin transaction in the mainchain is to be expected to be safe ever again.

Why use this and not a full-blown trustless and open sidechain technology?

Because it is impossible.

If you ever heard someone saying "just use a sidechain", "do this in a sidechain" or anything like that, be aware that these people are either talking about "federated" sidechains (i.e., funds are kept in custody by a group of entities) or they are talking about Drivechain, or they are disillusioned and think it is possible to do sidechains in any other manner.

No, I mean a trustless 2-way peg with correctness of the withdrawals verified by the Bitcoin protocol!

That is not possible unless Bitcoin verifies all transactions that happen in all the sidechains, which would be akin to drastically increasing the blocksize and expanding the Bitcoin rules in tons of ways, i.e., a terrible idea that no one wants.

What about the Blockstream sidechains whitepaper?

Yes, that was a way to do it. The Drivechain hashrate escrow is a conceptually simpler way to achieve the same thing with improved incentives, less junk in the chain, more safety.

Isn't the hashrate escrow a very complex soft-fork?

Yes, but it is much simpler than SegWit. And, unlike SegWit, it doesn't force anything on users, i.e., it isn't a mandatory blocksize increase.

Why should we expect miners to care enough to participate in the voting mechanism?

Because it's in their own self-interest to do it, and it costs very little. Today over half of the miners mine RSK. It's not blind merged mining, it's a very convoluted process that requires them to run a RSK full node. For the Drivechain sidechains, an SPV node would be enough, or maybe just getting data from a block explorer API, so much much simpler.

What if I still don't like Drivechain even after reading this?

That is the entire point! You don't have to like it or use it as long as you're fine with other people using it. The hashrate escrow special addresses will not impact you at all, validation cost is minimal, and you get the benefit of people who want to use Drivechain migrating to their own sidechains and freeing up space for you in the mainchain. See also the point above about infighting.

See also

• Podcast episode with Ruben Somsen and Aaron van Wirdum explaining Drivechain
• Alternatives to Drivechain
• Drivechain comparison with Ethereum

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

bitcoind decentralization

It is better to have multiple curator teams, with different vetting processes and release schedules for bitcoind than a single one.

"More eyes on code", "Contribute to Core", "Everybody should audit the code".

All these points repeated again and again fell to Earth on the day it was discovered that Bitcoin Core developers merged a variable name change from "blacklist" to "blocklist" without even discussing or acknowledging the fact that that innocent pull request opened by a sybil account was a social attack.

After a big lot of people manifested their dissatisfaction with that event on Twitter and on GitHub, most Core developers simply ignored everybody's concerns or even personally attacked people who were complaining.

The event has shown that:

1) Bitcoin Core ultimately rests on the hands of a couple maintainers and they decide what goes on the GitHub repository[^pr-merged-very-quickly] and the binary releases that will be downloaded by thousands; 2) Bitcoin Core is susceptible to social attacks; 2) "More eyes on code" don't matter, as these extra eyes can be ignored and dismissed.

Solution: bitcoind decentralization

If usage was spread across 10 different bitcoind flavors, the network would be much more resistant to social attacks to a single team.

This has nothing to do with the question on if it is better to have multiple different Bitcoin node implementations or not, because here we're basically talking about the same software.

Multiple teams, each with their own release process, their own logo, some subtle changes, or perhaps no changes at all, just a different name for their bitcoind flavor, and that's it.

Every day or week or month or year, each flavor merges all changes from Bitcoin Core on their own fork. If there's anything suspicious or too leftist (or perhaps too rightist, in case there's a leftist bitcoind flavor), maybe they will spot it and not merge.

This way we keep the best of both worlds: all software development, bugfixes, improvements goes on Bitcoin Core, other flavors just copy. If there's some non-consensus change whose efficacy is debatable, one of the flavors will merge on their fork and test, and later others -- including Core -- can copy that too. Plus, we get resistant to attacks: in case there is an attack on Bitcoin Core, only 10% of the network would be compromised. the other flavors would be safe.

Run Bitcoin Knots

The first example of a bitcoind software that follows Bitcoin Core closely, adds some small changes, but has an independent vetting and release process is Bitcoin Knots, maintained by the incorruptible Luke DashJr.

Next time you decide to run bitcoind, run Bitcoin Knots instead and contribute to bitcoind decentralization!

---

See also:

• How to attack Bitcoin, Anthony Towns' take

[^pr-merged-very-quickly]: See PR 20624, for example, a very complicated change that could be introducing bugs or be a deliberate attack, merged in 3 days without time for discussion.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Gerador de tabelas de todos contra todos

I don't remember exactly when I did this, but I think a friend wanted to do software that would give him money over the internet without having to work. He didn't know how to program. He mentioned this idea he had which was some kind of football championship manager solution, but I heard it like this: a website that generated a round-robin championship table for people to print.

It is actually not obvious to anyone how to do it, it requires an algorithm that people will not reach casually while thinking, and there was no website doing it in Portuguese at the time, so I made this and it worked and it had a couple hundred daily visitors, and it even generated money from Google Ads (not much)!

First it was a Python web app running on Heroku, then Heroku started charging or limiting the amount of free time I could have on their platform, so I migrated it to a static site that ran everything on the client. Since I didn't want to waste my Python code that actually generated the tables I used Brython to run Python on JavaScript, which was an interesting experience.

In hindsight I could have just taken one of the many round-robin JavaScript libraries that exist on NPM, so eventually after a couple of more years I did that.

I also removed Google Ads when Google decided it had so many requirements to send me the money it was impossible, and then the money started to vanished.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/tabelas.alhur.es
• https://tabelas.alhur.es/

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

How being "flexible" can bloat a protocol

(A somewhat absurd example, but you'll get the idea)

Iimagine some client decides to add support for a variant of nip05 that checks for values at /.well-known/nostr.yaml besides /.well-known/nostr.json. "Why not?", they think, "I like YAML more than JSON, this can't hurt anyone".

Then some user makes a nip05 file in YAML and it will work on that client, they will think their file is good since it works on that client. When the user sees that other clients are not recognizing their YAML file, they will complain to the other client developers: "Hey, your client is broken, it is not supporting my YAML file!".

The developer of the other client, astonished, replies: "Oh, I am sorry, I didn't know that was part of the nip05 spec!"

The user, thinking it is doing a good thing, replies: "I don't know, but it works on this other client here, see?"

Now the other client adds support. The cycle repeats now with more users making YAML files, more and more clients adding YAML support, for fear of providing a client that is incomplete or provides bad user experience.

The end result of this is that now nip05 extra-officially requires support for both JSON and YAML files. Every client must now check for /.well-known/nostr.yaml too besides just /.well-known/nostr.json, because a user's key could be in either of these. A lot of work was wasted for nothing. And now, going forward, any new clients will require the double of work than before to implement.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

idea: Custom multi-use database app

Since 2015 I have this idea of making one app that could be repurposed into a full-fledged app for all kinds of uses, like powering small businesses accounts and so on. Hackable and open as an Excel file, but more efficient, without the hassle of making tables and also using ids and indexes under the hood so different kinds of things can be related together in various ways.

It is not a concrete thing, just a generic idea that has taken multiple forms along the years and may take others in the future. I've made quite a few attempts at implementing it, but never finished any.

I used to refer to it as a "multidimensional spreadsheet".

Can also be related to DabbleDB.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

idea: a website for feedback exchange

I thought a community of people sharing feedback on mutual interests would be a good thing, so as always I broadened and generalized the idea and mixed with my old criticue-inspired idea-feedback project and turned it into a "token". You give feedback on other people's things, they give you a "point". You can then use that point to request feedback from others.

This could be made as an Etleneum contract so these points were exchanged for satoshis using the shitswap contract (yet to be written).

In this case all the Bitcoin/Lightning side of the website must be hidden until the user has properly gone through the usage flow and earned points.

If it was to be built on Etleneum then it needs to emphasize the login/password login method instead of the lnurl-auth method. And then maybe it could be used to push lnurl-auth to normal people, but with a different name.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

bolt12 problems

• clients can't programatically build new offers by changing a path or query params (services like zbd.gg or lnurl-pay.me won't work)
• impossible to use in a load-balanced custodian way -- since offers would have to be pregenerated and tied to a specific lightning node.
• the existence of fiat currency fields makes it so wallets have to fetch exchange rates from somewhere on the internet (or offer a bad user experience), using HTTP which hurts user privacy.
• the vendor field is misleading, can be phished very easily, not as safe as a domain name.
• onion messages are an improvement over fake HTLC-based payments as a way of transmitting data, for sure. but we must decide if they are (i) suitable for transmitting all kinds of data over the internet, a replacement for tor; or (ii) not something that will scale well or on which we can count on for the future. if there was proper incentivization for data transmission it could end up being (i), the holy grail of p2p communication over the internet, but that is a very hard problem to solve and not guaranteed to yield the desired scalability results. since not even hints of attempting to solve that are being made, it's safer to conclude it is (ii).

bolt12 limitations

• not flexible enough. there are some interesting fields defined in the spec, but who gets to add more fields later if necessary? very unclear.
• services can't return any actionable data to the users who paid for something. it's unclear how business can be conducted without an extra communication channel.

bolt12 illusions

• recurring payments is not really solved, it is just a spec that defines intervals. the actual implementation must still be done by each wallet and service. the recurring payment cannot be enforced, the wallet must still initiate the payment. even if the wallet is evil and is willing to initiate a payment without the user knowing it still needs to have funds, channels, be online, connected etc., so it's not as if the services could rely on the payments being delivered in time.
• people seem to think it will enable pushing payments to mobile wallets, which it does not and cannot.
• there is a confusion of contexts: it looks like offers are superior to lnurl-pay, for example, because they don't require domain names. domain names, though, are common and well-established among internet services and stores, because these services have websites, so this is not really an issue. it is an issue, though, for people that want to receive payments in their homes. for these, indeed, bolt12 offers a superior solution -- but at the same time bolt12 seems to be selling itself as a tool for merchants and service providers when it includes and highlights features as recurring payments and refunds.
• the privacy gains for the receiver that are promoted as being part of bolt12 in fact come from a separate proposal, blinded paths, which should work for all normal lightning payments and indeed are a very nice solution. they are (or at least were, and should be) independent from the bolt12 proposal. a separate proposal, which can be (and already is being) used right now, also improves privacy for the receiver very much anway, it's called trampoline routing.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Sol e Terra

A Terra não gira em torno do Sol. Tudo depende do ponto de referência e não existe um ponto de referência absoluto. Só é melhor dizer que a Terra gira em torno do Sol porque há outros planetas fazendo movimentos análogos e aí fica mais fácil para todo mundo entender os movimentos tomando o Sol como ponto de referência.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

IPFS problems: Community

I was an avid IPFS user until yesterday. Many many times I asked simple questions for which I couldn't find an answer on the internet in the #ipfs IRC channel on Freenode. Most of the times I didn't get an answer, and even when I got it was rarely by someone who knew IPFS deeply. I've had issues go unanswered on js-ipfs repositories for year – one of these was raising awareness of a problem that then got fixed some months later by a complete rewrite, I closed my own issue after realizing that by myself some couple of months later, I don't think the people responsible for the rewrite were ever acknowledge that he had fixed my issue.

Some days ago I asked some questions about how the IPFS protocol worked internally, sincerely trying to understand the inefficiencies in finding and fetching content over IPFS. I pointed it would be a good idea to have a drawing showing that so people would understand the difficulties (which I didn't) and wouldn't be pissed off by the slowness. I was told to read the whitepaper. I had already the whitepaper, but read again the relevant parts. The whitepaper doesn't explain anything about the DHT and how IPFS finds content. I said that in the room, was told to read again.

Before anyone misread this section, I want to say I understand it's a pain to keep answering people on IRC if you're busy developing stuff of interplanetary importance, and that I'm not paying anyone nor I have the right to be answered. On the other hand, if you're developing a super-important protocol, financed by many millions of dollars and a lot of people are hitting their heads against your software and there's no one to help them; you're always busy but never delivers anything that brings joy to your users, something is very wrong. I sincerely don't know what IPFS developers are working on, I wouldn't doubt they're working on important things if they said that, but what I see – and what many other users see (take a look at the IPFS Discourse forum) is bugs, bugs all over the place, confusing UX, and almost no help.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

A list of things artificial intelligence is not doing

If AI is so good why can't it:

• write good glue code that wraps a documented HTTP API?
• make good translations using available books and respective published translations?
• extract meaningful and relevant numbers from news articles?
• write mathematical models that fit perfectly to available data better than any human?
• play videogames without cheating (i.e. simulating human vision, attention and click speed)?
• turn pure HTML pages into pretty designs by generating CSS
• predict the weather
• calculate building foundations
• determine stock values of companies from publicly available numbers
• smartly and automatically test software to uncover bugs before releases
• predict sports matches from the ball and the players' movement on the screen
• continuously improve niche/local search indexes based on user input and and reaction to results
• control traffic lights
• predict sports matches from news articles, and teams and players' history

This was posted first on Twitter.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

ijq

An interactive REPL for jq with smart helpers (for example, it automatically assigns each line of input to a variable so you can reference it later, it also always referenced the previous line automatically).

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/ijq

See also

• jiq
• jq-web

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Trelew

A CLI tool for navigating Trello boards. It used vorpal for an "immersive" experience and was pretty good.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/trelew

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY and the "covenants" drama

There are many ideas for "covenants" (I don't think this concept helps in the specific case of examining proposals, but fine). Some people think "we" (it's not obvious who is included in this group) should somehow examine them and come up with the perfect synthesis.

It is not clear what form this magic gathering of ideas will take and who (or which ideas) will be allowed to speak, but suppose it happens and there is intense research and conversations and people (ideas) really enjoy themselves in the process.

What are we left with at the end? Someone has to actually commit the time and put the effort and come up with a concrete proposal to be implemented on Bitcoin, and whatever the result is it will have trade-offs. Some great features will not make into this proposal, others will make in a worsened form, and some will be contemplated very nicely, there will be some extra costs related to maintenance or code complexity that will have to be taken. Someone, a concreate person, will decide upon these things using their own personal preferences and biases, and many people will not be pleased with their choices.

That has already happened. Jeremy Rubin has already conjured all the covenant ideas in a magic gathering that lasted more than 3 years and came up with a synthesis that has the best trade-offs he could find. CTV is the result of that operation.

---

The fate of CTV in the popular opinion illustrated by the thoughtless responses it has evoked such as "can we do better?" and "we need more review and research and more consideration of other ideas for covenants" is a preview of what would probably happen if these suggestions were followed again and someone spent the next 3 years again considering ideas, talking to other researchers and came up with a new synthesis. Again, that person would be faced with "can we do better?" responses from people that were not happy enough with the choices.

And unless some famous Bitcoin Core or retired Bitcoin Core developers were personally attracted by this synthesis then they would take some time to review and give their blessing to this new synthesis.

To summarize the argument of this article, the actual question in the current CTV drama is that there exists hidden criteria for proposals to be accepted by the general community into Bitcoin, and no one has these criteria clear in their minds. It is not as simple not as straightforward as "do research" nor it is as humanly impossible as "get consensus", it has a much bigger social element into it, but I also do not know what is the exact form of these hidden criteria.

This is said not to blame anyone -- except the ignorant people who are not aware of the existence of these things and just keep repeating completely false and unhelpful advice for Jeremy Rubin and are not self-conscious enough to ever realize what they're doing.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

idea: clarity.fm on Lightning

Getting money from clients very easily, dispatching that money to "world class experts" (what a silly way to market things, but I guess it works) very easily are the job for Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.

EDIT 2020-09-04

My idea was that people would advertise themselves, so you would book an hour with people you know already, but it seems that clarify.fm has gone through the route of offering a "catalog of experts" to potential clients, all full of verification processes probably and marketing. So I guess this is not a thing I can do.

Actually I did https://s4a.etleneum.com/ (on Etleneum) that is somewhat similar, but of course doesn't have the glamour and network effect and marketing -- also it's just text, when in Clarity is fancy calls.

Thinking about it, this is just a simple and obvious idea: just copy things from the fiat world and make them on Lightning, but maybe it is still worth pointing these out as there are hundreds of developers out there trying to make yet another lottery game with Lightning.

It may also be a good idea to not just copy fiat-businesses models, but also change them experimenting with new paradigms, like idea: Patreon, but simple, and without subscription.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Channels without HTLCs

HTLCs below the dust limit are not possible, because they're uneconomical.

So currently whenever a payment below the dust limit is to be made Lightning peers adjust their commitment transactions to pay that amount as fees in case the channel is closed. That's a form of reserving that amount and incentivizing peers to resolve the payment, either successfully (in case it goes to the receiving node's balance) or not (it then goes back to the sender's balance).

SOLUTION

I didn't think too much about if it is possible to do what I think can be done in the current implementation on Lightning channels, but in the context of Eltoo it seems possible.

Eltoo channels have UPDATE transactions that can be published to the blockchain and SETTLEMENT transactions that spend them (after a relative time) to each peer. The barebones script for UPDATE transactions is something like (copied from the paper, because I don't understand these things):

OP_IF # to spend from a settlement transaction (presigned) 10 OP_CSV 2 As,i Bs,i 2 OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY OP_ELSE # to spend from a future update transaction <Si+1> OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY 2 Au Bu 2 OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY OP_ENDIF

During a payment of 1 satoshi it could be updated to something like (I'll probably get this thing completely wrong):

OP_HASH256 <payment_hash> OP_EQUAL OP_IF # for B to spend from settlement transaction 1 in case the payment went through # and they have a preimage 10 OP_CSV 2 As,i1 Bs,i1 2 OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY OP_ELSE OP_IF # for A to spend from settlement transaction 2 in case the payment didn't went through # and the other peer is uncooperative <now + 1day> OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY 2 As,i2 Bs,i2 2 OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY OP_ELSE # to spend from a future update transaction <Si+1> OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY 2 Au Bu 2 OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY OP_ENDIF OP_ENDIF

Then peers would have two presigned SETTLEMENT transactions, 1 and 2 (with different signature pairs, as badly shown in the script). On SETTLEMENT 1, funds are, say, 999sat for A and 1001sat for B, while on SETTLEMENT 2 funds are 1000sat for A and 1000sat for B.

As soon as B gets the preimage from the next peer in the route it can give it to A and them can sign a new UPDATE transaction that replaces the above gimmick with something simpler without hashes involved.

If the preimage doesn't come in viable time, peers can agree to make a new UPDATE transaction anyway. Otherwise A will have to close the channel, which may be bad, but B wasn't a good peer anyway.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

A response to Achim Warner's "Drivechain brings politics to miners" article

I mean this article: https://achimwarner.medium.com/thoughts-on-drivechain-i-miners-can-do-things-about-which-we-will-argue-whether-it-is-actually-a5c3c022dbd2

There are basically two claims here:

1. Some corporate interests might want to secure sidechains for themselves and thus they will bribe miners to have these activated

First, it's hard to imagine why they would want such a thing. Are they going to make a proprietary KYC chain only for their users? They could do that in a corporate way, or with a federation, like Facebook tried to do, and that would provide more value to their users than a cumbersome pseudo-decentralized system in which they don't even have powers to issue currency. Also, if Facebook couldn't get away with their federated shitcoin because the government was mad, what says the government won't be mad with a sidechain? And finally, why would Facebook want to give custody of their proprietary closed-garden Bitcoin-backed ecosystem coins to a random, open and always-changing set of miners?

But even if they do succeed in making their sidechain and it is very popular such that it pays miners fees and people love it. Well, then why not? Let them have it. It's not going to hurt anyone more than a proprietary shitcoin would anyway. If Facebook really wants a closed ecosystem backed by Bitcoin that probably means we are winning big.

2. Miners will be required to vote on the validity of debatable things

He cites the example of a PoS sidechain, an assassination market, a sidechain full of nazists, a sidechain deemed illegal by the US government and so on.

There is a simple solution to all of this: just kill these sidechains. Either miners can take the money from these to themselves, or they can just refuse to engage and freeze the coins there forever, or they can even give the coins to governments, if they want. It is an entirely good thing that evil sidechains or sidechains that use horrible technology that doesn't even let us know who owns each coin get annihilated. And it was the responsibility of people who put money in there to evaluate beforehand and know that PoS is not deterministic, for example.

About government censoring and wanting to steal money, or criminals using sidechains, I think the argument is very weak because these same things can happen today and may even be happening already: i.e., governments ordering mining pools to not mine such and such transactions from such and such people, or forcing them to reorg to steal money from criminals and whatnot. All this is expected to happen in normal Bitcoin. But both in normal Bitcoin and in Drivechain decentralization fixes that problem by making it so governments cannot catch all miners required to control the chain like that -- and in fact fixing that problem is the only reason we need decentralization.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

A entrevista da Flávia Tavares com o Olavo de Carvalho

Não li todas as reclamações que o Olavo fez, mas li algumas. Também não li toda a matéria que saiu na Época, porque não tive paciência, mas assisti aos dois vídeos da entrevista que o Olavo publicou.

Tendo lido primeiro as muitas reclamações do Olavo, esperei encontrar no vídeo uma pessoa falsa, que fingiu-se de amigável para obter informações que usaria depois para destruir a imagem do Olavo, mas não vi nada disso.

Claro que ela poderia ter me enganado também, se enganou ao Olavo. Mas na matéria em si, também não vi nada além de sinceridade -- talvez não excelência jornalística, mas nada que eu não esperasse de qualquer matéria de qualquer revista. Flavia Tavares não entendeu muitas coisas, mas não fingiu que não entendeu nada, foi simples e honestamente Flavia Tavares, como ela mesma declarou no final do vídeo da entrevista: "olha, eu não fingi nada aqui, viu?".

---

O mais importante de tudo isso, porém, são as partes da matéria que apresentam idéias difíceis de conceber, como as que Olavo tem sobre o governo mundial ou a disseminação da pedofilia. Em toda discussão pública ou privada, essas idéias são proibidas. Muita gente pode concordar que a esquerda não presta, mas ninguém em sã consciência admitirá a possibilidade de que haja qualquer intenção significativa de implantação de um governo mundial ou da disseminação da pedofilia. A mesma carinha de deboche que seu amigo esquerdista faria à simples menção desses assuntos é a que Flavia Tavares usa no seu texto quando quer mostrar que Olavo é meio tantã. A carinha de deboche vem desacompanhada de qualquer reflexão séria ou tentativa de refutação, sempre.

---

Link da tal matéria: http://epoca.globo.com/sociedade/noticia/2017/10/olavo-de-carvalho-o-guru-da-direita-que-rejeita-o-que-dizem-seus-fas.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=post Vídeos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0TUsKluhok, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0F1haQ07Y&t=5s

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Lightning and its fake HTLCs

Lightning is terrible but can be very good with two tweaks.

How Lightning would work without HTLCs

In a world in which HTLCs didn't exist, Lightning channels would consist only of balances. Each commitment transaction would have two outputs: one for peer A, the other for peer B, according to the current state of the channel.

When a payment was being attempted to go through the channel, peers would just trust each other to update the state when necessary. For example:

1. Channel AB's balances are A[10:10]B (in sats);
2. A sends a 3sat payment through B to C;
3. A asks B to route the payment. Channel AB doesn't change at all;
4. B sends the payment to C, C accepts it;
5. Channel BC changes from B[20:5]C to B[17:8]C;
6. B notifies A the payment was successful, A acknowledges that;
7. Channel AB changes from A[10:10]B to A[7:13]B.

This in the case of a success, everything is fine, no glitches, no dishonesty.

But notice that A could have refused to acknowledge that the payment went through, either because of a bug, or because it went offline forever, or because it is malicious. Then the channel AB would stay as A[10:10]B and B would have lost 3 satoshis.

How Lightning would work with HTLCs

HTLCs are introduced to remedy that situation. Now instead of commitment transactions having always only two outputs, one to each peer, now they can have HTLC outputs too. These HTLC outputs could go to either side dependending on the circumstance.

Specifically, the peer that is sending the payment can redeem the HTLC after a number of blocks have passed. The peer that is receiving the payment can redeem the HTLC if they are able to provide the preimage to the hash specified in the HTLC.

Now the flow is something like this:

1. Channel AB's balances are A[10:10]B;
2. A sends a 3sat payment through B to C:
3. A asks B to route the payment. Their channel changes to A[7:3:10]B (the middle number is the HTLC).
4. B offers a payment to C. Their channel changes from B[20:5]C to B[17:3:5]C.
5. C tells B the preimage for that HTLC. Their channel changes from B[17:3:5]C to B[17:8]C.
6. B tells A the preimage for that HTLC. Their channel changes from A[7:3:10]B to A[7:13]B.

Now if A wants to trick B and stop responding B doesn't lose money, because B knows the preimage, B just needs to publish the commitment transaction A[7:3:10]B, which gives him 10sat and then redeem the HTLC using the preimage he got from C, which gives him 3 sats more. B is fine now.

In the same way, if B stops responding for any reason, A won't lose the money it put in that HTLC, it can publish the commitment transaction, get 7 back, then redeem the HTLC after the certain number of blocks have passed and get the other 3 sats back.

How Lightning doesn't really work

The example above about how the HTLCs work is very elegant but has a fatal flaw on it: transaction fees. Each new HTLC added increases the size of the commitment transaction and it requires yet another transaction to be redeemed. If we consider fees of 10000 satoshis that means any HTLC below that is as if it didn't existed because we can't ever redeem it anyway. In fact the Lightning protocol explicitly dictates that if HTLC output amounts are below the fee necessary to redeem them they shouldn't be created.

What happens in these cases then? Nothing, the amounts that should be in HTLCs are moved to the commitment transaction miner fee instead.

So considering a transaction fee of 10000sat for these HTLCs if one is sending Lightning payments below 10000sat that means they operate according to the unsafe protocol described in the first section above.

It is actually worse, because consider what happens in the case a channel in the middle of a route has a glitch or one of the peers is unresponsive. The other node, thinking they are operating in the trustless protocol, will proceed to publish the commitment transaction, i.e. close the channel, so they can redeem the HTLC -- only then they find out they are actually in the unsafe protocol realm and there is no HTLC to be redeemed at all and they lose not only the money, but also the channel (which costed a lot of money to open and close, in overall transaction fees).

One of the biggest features of the trustless protocol are the payment proofs. Every payment is identified by a hash and whenever the payee releases the preimage relative to that hash that means the payment was complete. The incentives are in place so all nodes in the path pass the preimage back until it reaches the payer, which can then use it as the proof he has sent the payment and the payee has received it. This feature is also lost in the unsafe protocol: if a glitch happens or someone goes offline on the preimage's way back then there is no way the preimage will reach the payer because no HTLCs are published and redeemed on the chain. The payee may have received the money but the payer will not know -- but the payee will lose the money sent anyway.

The end of HTLCs

So considering the points above you may be sad because in some cases Lightning doesn't use these magic HTLCs that give meaning to it all. But the fact is that no matter what anyone thinks, HTLCs are destined to be used less and less as time passes.

The fact that over time Bitcoin transaction fees tend to rise, and also the fact that multipart payment (MPP) are increasedly being used on Lightning for good, we can expect that soon no HTLC will ever be big enough to be actually worth redeeming and we will be at a point in which not a single HTLC is real and they're all fake.

Another thing to note is that the current unsafe protocol kicks out whenever the HTLC amount is below the Bitcoin transaction fee would be to redeem it, but this is not a reasonable algorithm. It is not reasonable to lose a channel and then pay 10000sat in fees to redeem a 10001sat HTLC. At which point does it become reasonable to do it? Probably in an amount many times above that, so it would be reasonable to even increase the threshold above which real HTLCs are made -- thus making their existence more and more rare.

These are good things, because we don't actually need HTLCs to make a functional Lightning Network.

We must embrace the unsafe protocol and make it better

So the unsafe protocol is not necessarily very bad, but the way it is being done now is, because it suffers from two big problems:

1. Channels are lost all the time for no reason;
2. No guarantees of the proof-of-payment ever reaching the payer exist.

The first problem we fix by just stopping the current practice of closing channels when there are no real HTLCs in them.

That, however, creates a new problem -- or actually it exarcebates the second: now that we're not closing channels, what do we do with the expired payments in them? These payments should have either been canceled or fulfilled before some block x, now we're in block x+1, our peer has returned from its offline period and one of us will have to lose the money from that payment.

That's fine because it's only 3sat and it's better to just lose 3sat than to lose both the 3sat and the channel anyway, so either one would be happy to eat the loss. Maybe we'll even split it 50/50! No, that doesn't work, because it creates an attack vector with peers becoming unresponsive on purpose on one side of the route and actually failing/fulfilling the payment on the other side and making a profit with that.

So we actually need to know who is to blame on these payments, even if we are not going to act on that imediatelly: we need some kind of arbiter that both peers can trust, such that if one peer is trying to send the preimage or the cancellation to the other and the other is unresponsive, when the unresponsive peer comes back, the arbiter can tell them they are to blame, so they can willfully eat the loss and the channel can continue. Both peers are happy this way.

If the unresponsive peer doesn't accept what the arbiter says then the peer that was operating correctly can assume the unresponsive peer is malicious and close the channel, and then blacklist it and never again open a channel with a peer they know is malicious.

Again, the differences between this scheme and the current Lightning Network are that:

a. In the current Lightning we always close channels, in this scheme we only close channels in case someone is malicious or in other worst case scenarios (the arbiter is unresponsive, for example). b. In the current Lightning we close the channels without having any clue on who is to blame for that, then we just proceed to reopen a channel with that same peer even in the case they were actively trying to harm us before.

What is missing? An arbiter.

The Bitcoin blockchain is the ideal arbiter, it works in the best possible way if we follow the trustless protocol, but as we've seen we can't use the Bitcoin blockchain because it is expensive.

Therefore we need a new arbiter. That is the hard part, but not unsolvable. Notice that we don't need an absolutely perfect arbiter, anything is better than nothing, really, even an unreliable arbiter that is offline half of the day is better than what we have today, or an arbiter that lies, an arbiter that charges some satoshis for each resolution, anything.

Here are some suggestions:

• random nodes from the network selected by an algorithm that both peers agree to, so they can't cheat by selecting themselves. The only thing these nodes have to do is to store data from one peer, try to retransmit it to the other peer and record the results for some time.
• a set of nodes preselected by the two peers when the channel is being opened -- same as above, but with more handpicked-trust involved.
• some third-party cloud storage or notification provider with guarantees of having open data in it and some public log-keeping, like Twitter, GitHub or a Nostr relay;
• peers that get paid to do the job, selected by the fact that they own some token (I know this is stepping too close to the shitcoin territory, but could be an idea) issued in a Spacechain;
• a Spacechain itself, serving only as the storage for a bunch of OP_RETURNs that are published and tracked by these Lightning peers whenever there is an issue (this looks wrong, but could work).

Key points

1. Lightning with HTLC-based routing was a cool idea, but it wasn't ever really feasible.
2. HTLCs are going to be abandoned and that's the natural course of things.
3. It is actually good that HTLCs are being abandoned, but
4. We must change the protocol to account for the existence of fake HTLCs and thus make the bulk of the Lightning Network usage viable again.

See also

• Ripple and the problem of the decentralized commit
• The Lightning Network solves the problem of the decentralized commit

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

On HTLCs and arbiters

This is another attempt and conveying the same information that should be in Lightning and its fake HTLCs. It assumes you know everything about Lightning and will just highlight a point. This is also valid for PTLCs.

The protocol says HTLCs are trimmed (i.e., not actually added to the commitment transaction) when the cost of redeeming them in fees would be greater than their actual value.

Although this is often dismissed as a non-important fact (often people will say "it's trusted for small payments, no big deal"), but I think it is indeed very important for 3 reasons:

1. Lightning absolutely relies on HTLCs actually existing because the payment proof requires them. The entire security of each payment comes from the fact that the payer has a preimage that comes from the payee. Without that, the state of the payment becomes an unsolvable mystery. The inexistence of an HTLC breaks the atomicity between the payment going through and the payer receiving a proof.
2. Bitcoin fees are expected to grow with time (arguably the reason Lightning exists in the first place).
3. MPP makes payment sizes shrink, therefore more and more of Lightning payments are to be trimmed. As I write this, the mempool is clear and still payments smaller than about 5000sat are being trimmed. Two weeks ago the limit was at 18000sat, which is already below the minimum most MPP splitting algorithms will allow.

Therefore I think it is important that we come up with a different way of ensuring payment proofs are being passed around in the case HTLCs are trimmed.

Channel closures

Worse than not having HTLCs that can be redeemed is the fact that in the current Lightning implementations channels will be closed by the peer once an HTLC timeout is reached, either to fulfill an HTLC for which that peer has a preimage or to redeem back that expired HTLCs the other party hasn't fulfilled.

For the surprise of everybody, nodes will do this even when the HTLCs in question were trimmed and therefore cannot be redeemed at all. It's very important that nodes stop doing that, because it makes no economic sense at all.

However, that is not so simple, because once you decide you're not going to close the channel, what is the next step? Do you wait until the other peer tries to fulfill an expired HTLC and tell them you won't agree and that you must cancel that instead? That could work sometimes if they're honest (and they have no incentive to not be, in this case). What if they say they tried to fulfill it before but you were offline? Now you're confused, you don't know if you were offline or they were offline, or if they are trying to trick you. Then unsolvable issues start to emerge.

Arbiters

One simple idea is to use trusted arbiters for all trimmed HTLC issues.

This idea solves both the protocol issue of getting the preimage to the payer once it is released by the payee -- and what to do with the channels once a trimmed HTLC expires.

A simple design would be to have each node hardcode a set of trusted other nodes that can serve as arbiters. Once a channel is opened between two nodes they choose one node from both lists to serve as their mutual arbiter for that channel.

Then whenever one node tries to fulfill an HTLC but the other peer is unresponsive, they can send the preimage to the arbiter instead. The arbiter will then try to contact the unresponsive peer. If it succeeds, then done, the HTLC was fulfilled offchain. If it fails then it can keep trying until the HTLC timeout. And then if the other node comes back later they can eat the loss. The arbiter will ensure they know they are the ones who must eat the loss in this case. If they don't agree to eat the loss, the first peer may then close the channel and blacklist the other peer. If the other peer believes that both the first peer and the arbiter are dishonest they can remove that arbiter from their list of trusted arbiters.

The same happens in the opposite case: if a peer doesn't get a preimage they can notify the arbiter they hadn't received anything. The arbiter may try to ask the other peer for the preimage and, if that fails, settle the dispute for the side of that first peer, which can proceed to fail the HTLC is has with someone else on that route.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

jq-finder

Made with jq-web, a tool to explore JSON using jq queries that build intermediate results so you can inspect each step of the process.

• https://jq.alhur.es/finder/
• https://github.com/fiatjaf/jq-finder

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superform.xyz

This was an app that allowed people to create micro apps powered by forms. Actually just one form I believe. The idea was for the micro apps to be really micro.

For example, you want a list of people, but you can only have at most 10 people in the list. Your app could keep a state with list of people already added and reject any other submissions above the specified limit. This would be done with 3 lines of code and provide an automatic form for people to fill with expected data.

Another example, you wanted to create a list of people that would go to an event and each would have to bring one item from a list: you created an initial state of a list of the items that should be brought, then specified a form where people could write their names and select the item they would bring, then code that for each submitted form added the name of the person plus the item they would bring to the state while also removing the selected item from the available items. Also 3 or 4 lines of data.

Something like this can't be done anywhere else. But also of course it would be arcane and frighten normal people and so on (although I do believe some "normal" people would be able to use such a thing if they needed it, just like they learn to write complex Excel formulas and still don't call themselves programmers).

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/superform.xyz

See also

• Etleneum, as it is basically the same core idea of a mutable state that is affected by calls, but Etleneum introduces (and actually forces the usage of) money, both in the sense that it acts as an escrow for contract results and that it mandates the payment of a small amount with each call, so it ends up not serving the same purposes.

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Timeu

Os quatro elementos, a esfera como a forma mais perfeita, os cinco sentidos, a dor como perturbação e o prazer como retorno, o demiurgo que cria da melhor maneira possível com a matéria que tem, o conceito de duro e mole, todas essas coisas que ensinam nas escolas e nos desenhos animados ou sei lá como entram na nossa consciência como se fossem uma verdade, mas sempre uma verdade provisória, infantil -- como os nomes infantis dos dedos (mata-piolho, fura-bolo etc.) --, que mesmo as crianças sabem que não é verdade mesmo.

Parece que todas essas coisas estão nesse livro. Talvez até mesmo a classificação dos cinco dedos como mata-piolho e tal, mas talvez eu tenha dormido nessa parte.

Me pergunto se essas coisas não eram ensinadas tradicionalmente na idade média como sendo verdade absoluta (pois afinal estava lá o Platão dizendo, em sua única obra) e persistiram até hoje numa tradição que se mantém aos trancos e barrancos, contra tudo e contra todos, sem ninguém saber como, um conhecimento em que ninguém acredita mas acha bonito mesmo assim, harmonioso, e vem despida de suas origens e fontes primárias e de todo o seu contexto perturbar o entendimento do mundo pelas crianças.

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IPFS problems: Conceit

IPFS is trying to do many things. The IPFS leaders are revolutionaries who think they're smarter than the rest of the entire industry.

The fact that they've first proposed a protocol for peer-to-peer distribution of immutable, content-addressed objects, then later tried to fix that same problem using their own half-baked solution (IPNS) is one example.

Other examples are their odd appeal to decentralization in a very non-specific way, their excessive flirtation with Ethereum and their never-to-be-finished can-never-work-as-advertised Filecoin project.

They could have focused on just making the infrastructure for distribution of objects through hashes (not saying this would actually be a good idea, but it had some potential) over a peer-to-peer network, but in trying to reinvent the entire internet they screwed everything up.

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lnurl-auth explained

You may have seen the lnurl-auth spec or heard about it, but might not know how it works or what is its relationship with other lnurl protocols. This document attempts to solve that.

Relationship between lnurl-auth and other lnurl protocols

First, what is the relationship of lnurl-auth with other lnurl protocols? The answer is none, except the fact that they all share the lnurl format for specifying https URLs.

In fact, lnurl-auth is very unique in the sense that it doesn't even need a Lightning wallet to work, it is a standalone authentication protocol that can work anywhere.

How does it work

Now, how does it work? The basic idea is that each wallet has a seed, which is a random value (you may think of the BIP39 seed words, for example). Usually from that seed different keys are derived, each of these yielding a Bitcoin address, and also from that same seed may come the keys used to generate and manage Lightning channels.

What lnurl-auth does is to generate a new key from that seed, and from that a new key for each service (identified by its domain) you try to authenticate with.

That way, you effectively have a new identity for each website. Two different services cannot associate your identities.

The flow goes like this: When you visit a website, the website presents you with a QR code containing a callback URL and a challenge. The challenge should be a random value.

When your wallet scans or opens that QR code it uses the domain in the callback URL plus the main lnurl-auth key to derive a key specific for that website, uses that key to sign the challenge and then sends both the public key specific for that for that website plus the signed challenge to the specified URL.

When the service receives the public key it checks it against the challenge signature and start a session for that user. The user is then identified only by its public key. If the service wants it can, of course, request more details from the user, associate it with an internal id or username, it is free to do anything. lnurl-auth's goals end here: no passwords, maximum possible privacy.

FAQ

• What is the advantage of tying this to Bitcoin and Lightning?

  One big advantage is that your wallet is already keeping track of one seed, it is already a precious thing. If you had to keep track of a separate auth seed it would be arguably worse, more difficult to bootstrap the protocol, and arguably one of the reasons similar protocols, past and present, weren't successful.

• Just signing in to websites? What else is this good for?

  No, it can be used for authenticating to installable apps and physical places, as long as there is a service running an HTTP server somewhere to read the signature sent from the wallet. But yes, signing in to websites is the main problem to solve here.

• Phishing attack! Can a malicious website proxy the QR from a third website and show it to the user to it will steal the signature and be able to login on the third website?

  No, because the wallet will only talk to the the callback URL, and it will either be controlled by the third website, so the malicious won't see anything; or it will have a different domain, so the wallet will derive a different key and frustrate the malicious website's plan.

• I heard SQRL had that same idea and it went nowhere.

  Indeed. SQRL in its first version was basically the same thing as lnurl-auth, with one big difference: it was vulnerable to phishing attacks (see above). That was basically the only criticism it got everywhere, so the protocol creators decided to solve that by introducing complexity to the protocol. While they were at it they decided to add more complexity for managing accounts and so many more crap that in the the spec which initially was a single page ended up becoming 136 pages of highly technical gibberish. Then all the initial network effect it had, libraries and apps were trashed and nowadays no one can do anything with it (but, see, there are still people who love the protocol writing in a 90's forum with no clue of anything besides their own Java).

• We don't need this, we need WebAuthn!

  WebAuthn is essentially the same thing as lnurl-auth, but instead of being simple it is complex, instead of being open and decentralized it is centralized in big corporations, and instead of relying on a key generated by your own device it requires an expensive hardware HSM you must buy and trust the manufacturer. If you like WebAuthn and you like Bitcoin you should like lnurl-auth much more.

• What about BitID?

  This is another one that is very similar to lnurl-auth, but without the anti-phishing prevention and extra privacy given by making one different key for each service.

• What about LSAT?

  It doesn't compete with lnurl-auth. LSAT, as far as I understand it, is for when you're buying individual resources from a server, not authenticating as a user. Of course, LSAT can be repurposed as a general authentication tool, but then it will lack features that lnurl-auth has, like the property of having keys generated independently by the user from a common seed and a standard way of passing authentication info from one medium to another (like signing in to a website at the desktop from the mobile phone, for example).

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A Lightning penalty transaction

It was a cold day and I remembered that this lightningd node I was running on my local desktop to work on poncho actually had mainnet channels in it. Two channels, both private, bought on https://lnbig.com/ a while ago when I was trying to conduct an anonymous griefing attack on big nodes of the network just to prove it was possible (the attempts proved unsuccessful after some hours and I gave up).

It is always painful to close channels because paying fees hurts me psychologically, and then it hurts even more to be left with a new small UTXO that will had to be spent to somewhere but that can barely pay for itself, but it also didn't make sense to just leave the channels there and risk forgetting them and losing them forever, so I had to do something.

One of the channels had 0 satoshis on my side, so that was easy. Mutually closed and I don't have to think anymore about it.

The other one had 10145 satoshis on my side -- out of a total of 100000 satoshis. Why can't I take my part all over over Lightning and leave the full channel UTXO to LNBIG? I wish I could do that, I don't want a small UTXO. I was not sure about it, but if the penalty reserve was 1% maybe I could take out abou 9000 satoshis and then close it with 1000 on my side? But then what would I do with this 1000 sat UTXO that would remain? Can't I donate it to miners or something?

I was in the middle of this thoughts stream when it came to me the idea of causing a penalty transaction to give those abundant 1000 sat to Mr. LNBIG as a donation for his excellent services to the network and the cause of Bitcoin, and for having supported the development of https://sbw.app/ and the hosted channels protocol.

Unfortunately lightningd doesn't have a command triggerpenaltytransaction or trytostealusingoldstate, so what I did was:

First I stopped lightningd then copied the database to elsewhere: cp ~/.lightningd/bitcoin/lightningd.sqlite3 ~/.lightning/bitcoin/lightningd.sqlite3.bak then I restarted lightningd and fighted against the way-too-aggressive MPP splitting algorithm the pay command uses to pay invoices, but finally managed to pull about 9000 satoshis to my Z Bot that lives on the terrible (but still infinitely better than Twitter DMs) "webk" flavor of the Telegram web application and which is linked to my against-bitcoin-ethos-country-censoring ZEBEDEE Wallet. The operation wasn't smooth but it didn't take more than 10 invoices and pay commands.

With the money out and safe elsewhere, I stopped the node again, moved the database back with a reckless mv ~/.lightning/bitcoin/lightningd.sqlite3.bak ~/.lightningd/bitcoin/lightningd.sqlite3 and restarted it, but to prevent my lightningd from being super naïve and telling LNBIG that it had an old state (I don't know if this would happen) which would cause LNBIG to close the channel in a boring way, I used the --offline flag which apparently causes the node to not do any external connections.

Finally I checked my balance using lightning-cli listfunds and there it was, again, the 10145 satoshis I had at the start! A fantastic money creation trick, comparable to the ones central banks execute daily.

I was ready to close the channel now, but the lightning-cli close command had an option for specifying how many seconds I would wait for a mutual close before proceeding to a unilateral close. There is no forceclose command like Éclair hasor anything like that. I was afraid that even if I gave LNBIG one second it would try to do boring things, so I paused to consider how could I just broadcast the commitment transaction manually, looked inside the SQLite database and the channels table with its millions of columns with cryptic names in the unbearable .schema output, imagined that lightningd maybe wouldn't know how to proceed to take the money from the to-local output if I managed to broadcast it manually (and in the unlikely event that LNBIG wouldn't broadcast the penalty transaction), so I decided to just accept the risk and call lightning-cli close 706327x1588x0 1

But it went well. The --offline flag apparently really works, as it just considered LNBIG to be offline and 1 second later I got the desired result.

My happiness was complete when I saw the commitment transaction with my output for 10145 satoshis published on the central database of Bitcoin, blockstream.info.

Then I went to eat something and it seems LNBIG wasn't offline or sleeping, he was certainly looking at all the logs from his 274 nodes in a big room full of monitors, very alert and eating an apple while drinking coffee, ready to take action, for when I came back, minutes later, I could see it, again on the single source of truth for the Bitcoin blockchain, the Blockstream explorer. I've refreshed the page and there it was, a small blue link right inside the little box that showed my to-local output, a notice saying it had been spent -- not by my lightningd since that would have to wait 9000 blocks, but by the same transaction that spent the other output, from which I could be very sure it was it, the glorious, mighty, unforgiving penalty transaction, splitting the earth, showing itself in all its power, and taking my 10145 satoshis to their rightful owner.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Trello Attachment Editor

A static JS app that allowed you to authorize with your Trello account, fetch the board structure, find attachments, edit them in the browser then replace them in the cards.

Quite a nice thing. I believe it was done to help with Websites For Trello attached scripts and CSS files.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/trello-attachments
• https://fiatjaf.github.io/trello-attachments/#/login

See also

• Temperos

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Soft-fork activation through bitcoind competition

Or: how to activate Drivechain.

Imagine a world in which there are 10 different bitcoind flavors, as described in bitcoind decentralization.

Now how do you enable a soft-fork?

Flavor 1 enables it. Seeing that nothing bad happened, flavor 2 enables it. Then flavor 3 enables it.

And so on.

When what is perceived by miners to be a big chunk of support for the proposal, a miner can try to mine a block that contains the new feature.

No need for a flag day or a centralized decision making process that depends on one or two courageous leaders to enable a timer.

---

This probably sounds silly, and maybe is.

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localchat

A server that creates instant chat rooms with Server-Sent Events and normal HTTP POST requests (instead of WebSockets which are an overkill most of the times).

It defaults to a room named as your public IP, so if two machines in the same LAN connect they'll be in the same chat automatically -- but then you can also join someone else's LAN if you need.

This is supposed to be useful.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/localchat
• https://localchat.bigsun.xyz/

See also

• Filemap

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Who will build the roads?

Who will build the roads? Em Lagoa Santa, as mais novas e melhores ruas -- que na verdade acabam por formar enormes teias de bairros que se interligam -- são construídas pelos loteadores que querem as ruas para que seus lotes valham mais -- e querem que outras pessoas usem as ruas também. Também são esses mesmos loteadores que colocam os postes de luz e os encanamentos de água, não sem antes terem que se submeter a extorsões de praxe praticadas por COPASA e CEMIG.

Se ao abrir um loteamento, condomínio, prédio um indivíduo ou uma empresa consegue sem muito problema passar rua, eletricidade, água e esgoto, por que não seria possível existir livre-concorrência nesses mercados? Mesmo aquela velha estória de que é ineficiente passar cabos de luz duplicados para que companhias elétricas possam competir já me parece bobagem.

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sitio

A static site generator that works with imperative code instead of declarative templates and directory structures. It assumes nothing and can be used to transform anything into HTML pages.

It uses React so it can be used to generate single-page apps too if you want -- and normal sites that work like single-page apps.

It also provides helpers for reading Markdown files, like all static site generator does.

A long time after creating this and breaking it while trying to add too many features at once I realized Gatsby also had an imperative engine underlying the default declarative interface that could be used and it was pretty similar to sitio. That both made me happy to have arrived at the same results of such an acclaimed tool and sad for the same reason, as Gatsby is the worse static site generator ever created considering user experience.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/sitio

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

A podridão

É razoável dizer que há três tipos de reações à menção do nome O que é Bitcoin? no Brasil:

1. A reação das pessoas velhas

Muito sabiamente, as pessoas velhas que já ouviram falar de Bitcoin o encaram ou como uma coisa muito distante e reservada ao conhecimento dos seus sobrinhos que entendem de computador ou como um golpe que se deve temer e do qual o afastamento é imperativo, e de qualquer modo isso não as deve afetar mesmo então para que perder o seu tempo. Essas pessoas estão erradas: nem o sobrinho que entende de computador sabe nada sobre Bitcoin, nem o Bitcoin é um golpe, e nem é o Bitcoin uma coisa totalmente irrelevante para elas.

É razoável ter cautela diante do desconhecido, no que as pessoas velhas fazem bem, mas creio eu que também muito do medo que essas pessoas têm vem da ignorância que foi criada e difundida durante os primeiros 10 anos de Bitcoin por jornalistas analfabetos e desinformados em torno do assunto.

1. A reação das pessoas pragmáticas

"Já tenho um banco e já posso enviar dinheiro, pra que Bitcoin? O quê, eu ainda tenho que pagar para transferir bitcoins? Isso não é vantagem nenhuma!"

Enquanto querem parecer muito pragmáticas e racionais, essas pessoas ignoram vários aspectos das suas próprias vidas, a começar pelo fato de que o uso dos bancos comuns não é gratuito, e depois que a existência desse sistema financeiro no qual elas se crêem muito incluídas e confortáveis é baseada num grande esquema chamado Banco Central, que tem como um dos seus fundamentos a possibilidade da inflação ilimitada da moeda, que torna todas as pessoas mais pobres, incluindo essas mesmas, tão pragmáticas e racionais.

Mais importante é notar que essas pessoas tão racionais foram também ludibriadas pela difusão da ignorância sobre Bitcoin como sendo um sistema de transferência de dinheiro. O Bitcoin não é e não pode ser um sistema de transferência de dinheiro porque ele só pode transferir-se a si mesmo, não pode transferir "dinheiro" no sentido comum dessa palavra (tenho em mente o dinheiro comum no Brasil, os reais). O fato de que haja hoje pessoas que conseguem "transferir dinheiro" usando o Bitcoin é uma coisa totalmente inesperada: a existência de pessoas que trocam bitcoins por reais (e outros dinheiros de outros lugares) e vice-versa. Não era necessário que fosse assim, não estava determinado em lugar nenhum, 10 anos atrás, que haveria demanda por um bem digital sem utilidade imediata nenhuma, foi assim por um milagre.

Porém, o milagre só estará completo quando esses bitcoins se tornarem eles mesmo o dinheiro comum. E aí assim será possível usar o sistema Bitcoin para transferir dinheiro de fato. Antes disso, chamar o Bitcoin de sistema de pagamentos ou qualquer coisa que o valha é perverter-lhe o sentido, é confundir um acidente com a essência da coisa.

1. A reação dos jovens analfabetos

Os jovens analfabetos são as pessoas que usam a expressão "criptos" e freqüentam sítios que dão notícias totalmente irrelevantes sobre "criptomoedas" o dia inteiro. Não sei muito bem como eles vivem porque não lhes suporto a presença, mas são pessoas que estão muito empolgadas com toda a "onda das criptomoedas" e acham tudo muito incrível, tão incrível que acabam se interessando e então comprando todos os tokens vagabundos que inventam. Usam a palavra "decentralizado", um anglicismo muito feio que deveria significar que não existe um centro controlador da moeda x ou y e que o seu protocolo continuaria funcionando mesmo que vários operadores saíssem do ar, mas como o aplicam aos tokens que são literalmente emitidos por um centro controlador com uma figura humana no centro que toma todas as decisões sobre tudo -- como o Ethereum e conseqüentemente todos os milhares de tokens ERC20 criados dentro do sistema Ethereum -- essa palavra não faz mais sentido.

Na sua empolgação e completo desconhecimento sobre como um ente nocivo poderia destruir cadauma das suas criptomoedas tão decentralizadas, ou como mesmo sem ninguém querer uma falha fundamental no protocolo e no sistema de incentivos poderia pôr tudo abaixo, sem imaginar que toda a valorização do token XYZ pode ter sido fabricada de caso pensado pelos seus próprios emissores ou só ser mesmo uma bolha, acabam esses jovens por igualar o token XYZ, ou ETH, BCH ou o que for, ao Bitcoin, ignorando todas as diferenças qualitativas e apenas mencionando de leve as quantitativas.

Misturada à sua empolgação, e como um bônus, surge a perspectiva de ficar rico. Se um desses por algum golpe de sorte surfou em alguma bolha como a de 2017 e conseguiu multiplicar um dinheiro por 10 comprando e vendendo EOS, já começa logo a usar como argumento para convencer os outros de que "criptomoedas são o futuro" o fato de que ele ficou rico. Não subestime a burrice humana.

---

Há jovens no grupo das pessoas velhas, velhas no grupo das pessoas jovens, pessoas que não estão em nenhum dos grupos e pessoas que estão em mais de um grupo, isso não importa.

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A crappy course on torrents

In 8 points[^twitterlink]:

1. You start seeding a file -- that means you split the file in a certain way, hash the pieces and wait.
2. If anyone connects to you (either by TCP or UDP -- and now there's the webRTC transport) and ask for a piece you'll send it.
3. Before downloading anything leechers must understand how many pieces exist and what are they -- and other things. For that exists the .torrent file, it contains the final hash of the file, metadata about all files, the list of pieces and hash of each.
4. To know where you are so people can connect to you[^nathole], there exists an HTTP (or UDP) server called "tracker". A list of trackers is also contained in the .torrent file.
5. When you add a torrent to your client, it gets a list of peers from the trackers. Then you try to connect to them (and you keep getting peers from the trackers while simultaneously sending data to the tracker like "I'm downloading, I have x bytes already" or "I'm seeding").
6. Magnet links contain a tracker URL and a hash of the metadata contained in the .torrent file -- with that you can safely download the same data that should be inside a .torrent file -- but now you ask it from a peer before requesting any actual file piece.
7. DHTs are an afterthought and I don't know how important they are for the torrent ecosystem (trackers work just fine). They intend to replace the centralized trackers with message passing between DHT peers (DHT peers are different and independent from file-download peers).
8. All these things (.torrent files, tracker messages, messages passed between peers) are done in a peculiar encoding format called "bencode" that is just a slightly less verbose, less readable JSON.

[^twitterlink]: Posted first as this Twitter thread. [^nathole]: Also your torrent client must be accessible from the external internet, NAT hole-punching is almost a myth.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

"Você só aprendeu mesmo uma coisa quando consegue explicar para os outros"

Mentira. Tá certo que existe um ponto em que você acha que sabe algo mas não consegue explicar, mas não necessariamente isso significa não saber. Conseguir explicar não depende de saber, mas de verbalizar. Podemos saber muitas coisas sem as conseguir verbalizar. Aliás, para a maior parte das experiências humanas verbalizar é que é a parte difícil. Por último, é importante dizer que a verbalização é uma abstração e portanto quando alguém tenta explicar algo e se força a fazer uma abstração está arriscando substituir a experiência concreta ou mesmo o conhecimento difuso de algo por aquela abstração e com isso ficar mais burro -- me parece que esse é risco é maior quanto mais prematura for a tentativa de explicação e quando mais sucesso a abstração improvisada fizer.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Multi-service Graph Reputation protocol

The problem

1. Users inside centralized services need to know reputations of other users they're interacting with;
2. Building reputation with ratings imposes a big burden on the user and still accomplishes nothing, can be faked, no one cares about these ratings etc.

The ideal solution

Subjective reputation: reputation based on how you rated that person previously, and how other people you trust rated that person, and how other people trusted by people you trust rated that person and so on, in a web-of-trust that actually can give you some insight on the trustworthiness of someone you never met or interacted with.

The problem with the ideal solution

1. Most of the times the service that wants to implement this is not as big as Facebook, so it won't have enough people in it for such graphs of reputation to be constructed.
2. It is not trivial to build.

My proposed solution:

I've drafted a protocol for an open system based on services publishing their internal reputation records and indexers using these to build graphs, and then serving the graphs back to the services so they can show them to users when it is needed (as HTTP APIs that can be called directly from the user client app or browser).

Crucially, these indexers will gather data from multiple services and cross-link users from these services so the graph is better.

https://github.com/fiatjaf/multi-service-reputation-rfc

The first and single actionable and useful feedback I got, from @bootstrapbandit was that services shouldn't share email addresses in plain text (email addresses and other external relationships users of a service may have are necessary to establish links from users accross services), but I think it is ok if services publish hashes of these email addresses instead. At some point I will update the spec draft and that may have been before the time you're reading this.

Another issue is that services may lie about their reputation records and that will hurt other services and users in these other services that are relying on that data. Maybe indexers will have to do some investigative job here to assert service honesty. Or maybe this entire protocol is just failed and we will actually need a system in which users themselves will publish their own records.

See also

• P2P reputation thing
• idea: Graph subjective reputation as a service
• https://github.com/jangerritharms/reputation_systems

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

WelcomeBot

The first bot ever created for Trello.

It invited to a public board automatically anyone who commented on a card he was added to.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/welcomebot
• https://trello.com/welcomebot

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

O que é Bitcoin?

Todo guia infeliz sobre Bitcoin começa com esta pergunta manjada, e normalmente já vai respondendo que é uma "moeda virtual"[^moeda_virtual], um conceito estúpido que não esclarece nada.

Esqueça esse papo. Bitcoin não é uma moeda. Bitcoin é um protocolo[^protocolo].

Por que então dizem que é uma moeda? Porque essas pessoas muito apressadinhas gostam de dizer que tudo que é facilmente divisível e transferível, e cujas várias unidades são idênticas umas às outras, é uma moeda. Então, nesse sentido, Bitcoin é uma moeda, mas ignore esse papo de moeda.

O protocolo Bitcoin diz que existem "créditos" (ou "pontos", ou "unidades") que podem ser transferidas entre os participantes, e vários computadores, cada um operando independentemente do outro, desde que sigam o protocolo (ou seja: que estejam todos rodando o mesmo programa, ou programas compatíveis), estarão sempre em acordo a respeito de quem gastou cada crédito e como gastou.

É basicamente essa a idéia: um monte de "pontos virtuais" que são transferidos de uns para outros, sem que exista uma entidade organizadora, "o dono do Bitcoin", "o chefe supremo do Bitcoin", que controle nada, coordene nada, ou tenha poder sobre essas transferências.

Como funciona

Imagine vários computadores rodando o mesmo programa (ou programas compatíveis). Agora imagine que esses programas se comunicam entre si através da internet: eles enviam mensagens uns para os outros e esperam respostas. De vez em quando a resposta não vem, ou vem num formato que o programa não entende, isso significa que o outro computador saiu do ar, ou está rodando uma versão incompatível do programa, e aí todos os outros vão ignorá-lo. Mas em geral a resposta vem certinha e todos conseguem falar com todos.

Agora que você imaginou isso, fica fácil imaginar, por exemplo, que cada um desses computadores mantém uma lista de todos os bitcoins existentes e quem tem cada um. Eles pegam a lista dos outros computadores na rede e depois a vão atualizando à medida que novas transações vão sendo feitas. Toda vez que alguém quer fazer alguma transação, ele deve fazê-la por meio de um desses computadores, a pessoa chega no computador que está rodando o programa e diz: "sou fulano, tenho x bitcoins, e quero enviá-los para tal lugar", o programa vai lá e envia essa mensagem para os outros computadores, que atualizam a sua lista. Fim.

Essa seria uma versão ingênua do protocolo, que funcionaria se todos os participantes fossem muito honestos e ninguém jamais tentasse gastar os bitcoins que não têm.

Pra uma coisa dessas funcionar no mundo real teve de entrar a grande invenção do Bitcoin, o insight genial do Satoshi Nakamoto, que é a tal cadeia de blocos, conhecida por aí como blockchain.

Funciona assim: ao invés de cada computador manter uma lista de onde está cada bitcoin, cada computador mantém a tal cadeia de blocos. Um "bloco" é só um nome bonitinho para um conjunto de dados. Cada bloco é composto por uma referência ao bloco anterior e uma lista de transações. Como eles contém uma referência ao anterior, existe uma seqüência, uma fila indiana, e o computador pode ficar tranqüilo sabendo a ordem das transações (as transações que aconteceram no terceiro bloco são posteriores às que aconteceram no segundo bloco, por exemplo) e saber que os mesmos bitcoins não foram gastos duas vezes seguidas pela mesma pessoa, o que seria inválido. Quando aparece um novo bloco, é só todos os computadores conferirem se não existe nenhuma transação inválida ali e, caso exista, rejeitarem aquele bloco por inteiro e esperarem que o próximo descarte aquela transação inválida e venha certinho.

Quem faz os blocos

Em tese, qualquer um dos computadores pode fazer o próximo bloco. A idéia é que cada pessoa que queira fazer uma transação vai lá e usa um computador da rede para enviar a sua proposta de transação ("quero transferir bitcoins para tal lugar e tal") para todos os demais, e que, quando alguém for fazer um bloco, pegue todas essas propostas de transação que forem válidas e as coloque no bloco que então será aceito por todos os outros computadores e incluído na cadeia global de blocos. Essa cadeia global tem que ser exatamente igual em todos os computadores.

Na prática, existe uma regra que faz com que nem todos consigam fazer blocos: é que o hash dos dados do bloco + um número mágico deve ser menor do que um valor muito pequeno x. O número mágico é um número qualquer que o computador que está tentando fazer o bloco pode ajustar, por tentativa e erro, para que o hash saia de um jeito que ele queira. O x pode ser maior ou menor de acordo com a freqüência dos últimos blocos produzidos. Quanto menor for x, mais estatisticamente difícil é encontrar um número mágico que, junto com os dados do bloco, tenha um hash menor do que x.

Ou seja: para fazer um bloco, muitos números mágicos diferentes devem ser tentados até que seja encontrado algum que satisfaça as condições.

O que é um hash? Um hash é uma função matemática que é fácil fazer para um lado e difícil de fazer para o outro. A multiplicação, por exemplo, é fácil de fazer e fácil de fazer, e sua operação contrária, a divisão, também (tanto é que qualquer um com papel e caneta consegue, tem aquela coisa de ir passando os números pra baixo e subtraindo e tal). Já uma operação de exponenciação -- um número elevado a 1000, por exemplo -- é fácil de fazer, mas pra desfazer só com tentativa e erro (e é por tentativa e erro que o computador ou a calculadora fazem).

No caso do Bitcoin, o computador que está tentando produzir um bloco tem que achar um número tal que (esse número mágico + fatores predeterminados do bloco) elevados a 50 resultem num valor menor do que fator de dificuldade, um outro fator predeterminado pelo estado geral da cadeia de blocos.

Suponha que um computador acha um número 1798465042647412146620280340569649349251249, por exemplo, e ele é menor do que o fator de dificuldade. Ele então diz para os outros: "aqui está meu bloco, o hash do meu bloco é 1798465042647412146620280340569649349251249, os fatores predeterminados do bloco são 4 (esses fatores todo mundo pode conferir), e meu número mágico é 3. (4 + 3) elevado a 50 é 1798465042647412146620280340569649349251249, como todos podem conferir, então meu bloco é válido". Então todos aceitam aquele bloco como válido e começam a tentar achar o número mágico para o próximo bloco (e desta vez os fatores do bloco são diferentes, já que um novo bloco foi adicionado à cadeia e fez com que tudo mudasse).

As regras para a definição de x fazem com que na média cada novo bloco fique pronto em 10 minutos. Logo, se há apenas um computador tentando produzir blocos, o protocolo dirá que x seja relativamente alto, de modo que esse computador conseguirá, em 10 minutos, na média, encontrar um número mágico. Se, porém, milhares de computadores superpotentes estiverem tentando produzir blocos, x será ajustado para um valor muito mais baixo, de modo que o esforço de todos esses computadores fazendo milhares de tentativas-e-erros por segundo só conseguirá encontrar um número mágico a cada 10 minutos.

Hoje existem computadores feitos especialmente para procurar números mágicos que conseguem calcular hashes muito mais rápido do que o seu computador caseiro, o que torna inviável que qualquer pessoa não especializada tente produzir blocos, veja este gráfico da evolução da quantidade de hashes que são tentados a cada segundo.

Por algum motivo convencionou-se chamar os computadores que se empenham em fazer novos blocos de "mineradores".

Se dois computadores da rede fizerem blocos ao mesmo tempo, qual dos dois vale?

Se você já sabe quem faz os blocos fica fácil imaginar que isso é um pouco improvável. Mas mesmo assim pode acontecer. Mesmo que os blocos não fiquem prontos exatamente no mesmo instante, problemas podem acontecer porque os outros computadores da rede receberão os dois novos blocos em ordens diferentes, e aí não vai dar pra determinar qual vale ou qual deixa de valer assim, pela ordem.

Os computadores então ficam num estado de indeterminação acerca das duas cadeias de blocos possíveis, A e B, digamos, ambas idênticas até o bloco de número 723, mas diferentes no que diz respeito ao bloco 724, para o qual há duas alternativas. O protocolo determina que a cadeia que tenha mais trabalho realizado é a que vale, mas durante algum tempo podemos ter um estado em que alguns computadores da rede só sabem da existência do bloco A, enquanto outros só sabem da existência do bloco B, o que é uma grande confusão que só pode ser resolvida pelo advento do próximo bloco, o 725.

Como cada bloco se refere a um bloco anterior, é necessário que um desses dois blocos 724 seja escolhido pelos mineradores para ser o "pai" do bloco 725 quando o número mágico for encontrado e ele for feito. Mesmo que cada minerador escolha um pai diferente, desse processo sairá provavelmente apenas um bloco 725, e quando ele for espalhado ele determinará, pela sua ascendência, qual foi o bloco 724 que ficou valendo. Caso dois ou mais blocos 725 sejam produzidos ao mesmo tempo, o sistema continua nesse estado de indecisão até o 726, e assim por diante.

Por este motivo não se deve confiar que uma transação está concretizada pra valer mesmo só porque ela foi incluída num bloco. Você não tem como saber se existe um outro bloco alternativo que será preferido ao seu até que pelo menos mais alguns blocos tenham sido adicionados.

Transações

Muitas pessoas acreditam que existem endereços e que esses endereços têm um dono e ele é o dono dos bitcoins. Esta crença errônea é resultado de uma analogia com bancos tradicionais e contas bancárias (as contas são endereços que têm um dono e guardam dinheiro).

Na verdade assim que as transações são incluídas num bloco elas não "ficam em um endereço", mas vagando num grande limbo de transações. Deste limbo elas podem ser retiradas por qualquer pessoa que cumpra as condições que foram previamente especificadas pelo criador da transação.

Uma analogia mais útil do que a analogia das contas bancárias é a analogia do dinheiro: imagine que você tem uma nota de 20 dinheiros e você quer usá-la pra pagar 10 dinheiros a outrem. Você precisa quebrar aquela nota de 20 em duas de 10 e aí uma fica com você e a outra com a outra pessoa, ou, se você tiver duas notas de 5, você pode juntar as duas e dar para a outra pessoa. Todas essas notas que você está gastando têm uma história prévia: elas vieram de algum lugar em algum momento para o seu controle.

Transações com Bitcoin também são assim: você precisa mencionar especificamente uma transação anterior.

Por exemplo,

1. Carlos paga 10 bitcoins a Dandara, Dandara agora tem uma transação no valor de 10
2. Elisa paga 17 bitcoins a Dandara, Dandara tem uma transação no valor de 10 e uma no valor de 17
3. Dandara paga 23 bitcoins a Felipe, ela junta suas duas transações e faz duas novas, uma no valor de 23, que vai para o controle de Felipe, e outra no valor de 4, que volta para o seu controle, Dandara agora tem uma transação no valor de 4, Felipe tem uma transação no valor de 23
4. Felipe paga 14 bitcoins a Geraldo, ele divide sua transação em duas, uma no valor de 14 e outra no valor de 9, e assim por diante

Uma diferença, porém, é que no Bitcoin ninguém sabe quem é o dono da nota, você apenas sabe que pode gastá-la, caso você realmente possa (se uma transação prévia especifica uma condição que você pode cumprir, você deve cumprir aquela condição no momento em que estiver mencionando a transação prévia). Por isso uma carteira Bitcoin pode dizer que você "tem" um número x de bitcoins: a carteira sabe quais chaves privadas você controla e quais transações, dentre todas as transações não-gastas de toda a blockchain, podem ser gastas usando aquela chave.

Uma forma comum de transação é que especifica a condição qualquer pessoa que tiver a chave privada capaz de assinar a chave pública cujo hash vai aqui dito pode gastar esta transação. Outras condições comuns são as que especificam n chaves, das quais m precisam assinar a transação para que ela seja gasta (por exemplo, entre Fulano, Beltrano e Ciclano, quaisquer dois deles precisam concordar, mas não um só), o famoso multisig.

Canal de pagamento

Um payment channel, ou via de pagamento, ou canal de pagamento é uma seqüência de promessas de pagamento feitas entre dois usuários de Bitcoin que não precisam ser publicados na blockchain e por isso são instantâneas e grátis.

Antes que você se pergunte o que acontece se alguém descumprir a promessa, devo dizer que "promessa" é um termo ruim, porque promessas de verdade podem ser quebradas, mas estas promessas são auto-cumpríveis, elas são transações assinadas que podem ser resgatadas a qualquer momento pelo destinatário bastando que ele as publique na blockchain.

A idéia é que na maioria das vezes você não vai precisar disso, e pode continuar fazendo transações novas que invalidam as antigas até que você decida publicar a última transação válida. Deste modo seu dinheiro está seguro numa via de pagamento

O grande problema é que caso a outra parte decida roubar e publicar uma transação antiga, você precisa aparecer num espaço de tempo razoável (isto depende do combinado entre os dois usuários, mas acho que o padrão é 24 horas) e publicar a última transação. Existem incentivos para impedir que alguém tente roubar (por exemplo, quem tentar roubar e for pego perde todo o dinheiro que estava naquela via) e outros mecanismos, como as atalaias que vigiam as vias de pagamentos dos outros pra ver se ninguém está roubando.

Exemplo:

1. Ângela e Bóris decidem criar uma via de pagamento, pois esperam realizar muitos pagamentos de pequeno valor entre eles, tanto de ida quanto de volta, ao longo de vários meses
2. Ângela cria uma transação para um endereço compartilhado entre ela e Bóris, no valor de 1000 satoshis, e desse endereço ela e Bóris criam uma transação devolvendo os 1000 para Ângela
3. Ao resolver pagar 200 satoshis para Bóris, eles criam uma nova transação que transfere 800 para Ângela e 200 para Bóris
4. Agora Bóris quer pagar 17 satoshis para Ângela, eles criam uma nova transação que transfere 817 para Ângela e 173 para Bóris
5. E assim por diante eles vão criando novas transações que invalidam as anteriores e vão alterando o "saldo" da via de pagamento. Quando qualquer um dos dois quiser sacar o dinheiro que tem no saldo é só publicar a última transação e pronto.

A rede Relâmpago é uma grande rede de canais de pagamento que permite que pessoas façam pagamentos para pessoas não diretamente ligadas a elas por canais diretos, mas através de uma rota que percorre vários canais de outrem e ajusta seus saldos.

Existem outras criptomoedas além do Bitcoin?

Pra começar, jamais use essa palavra de novo. "criptomoeda" é ainda pior do que "moeda virtual"[^moeda_virtual].

Agora, respondendo: sim, de certo modo existem, são chamadas as "altcoins" ou "shitcoins" ("moedas de cocô", tradução amigável), porque elas são, de fato, grandes porcarias.

De outro modo, pode-se dizer que elas não são comparáveis ao Bitcoin, porque só pode haver uma moeda num livre mercado de moedas, e esse posto já é do Bitcoin, e também porque o Bitcoin é livre, sem donos, sem grandes poderes que o controlam, o que não se pode dizer de nenhuma altcoin.

Depois que o Bitcoin foi inventado e seu insight genial foi assimilado pela comunidade interessada, milhares de pessoas copiaram o protocolo, com pequenas modificações, para criar suas próprias moedas.

Assim surgiram Litecoin, Ethereum e muitas outras. No fundo são apenas cópias do Bitcoin que tentam melhorá-lo de algum modo ou adicionar outras funções.

Veja também:

• Aos poucos, e aí tudo de uma vez, Parker Lewis
• Não tem solução
• A podridão
• O Bitcoin como um sistema social humano
• Rede Relâmpago

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[^protocolo]: Neste contexto, um protocolo é um conjunto de regras (inventadas arbitrariamente ou surgidas dos usos e costumes ao longo do tempo) que permitem que dois computadores diferentes se entendam e saibam que tipo de mensagens e comportamentos esperar dos demais. [^moeda_virtual]: Virtual? Virtual era pra significar uma coisa que não é ainda "atual", ou seja, que ainda não se concretizou na realidade. Mas como nossos amigos falantes da língüa portuguesa quiseram que isso passasse também a significar qualquer coisa que aconteça em um computador, "moeda virtual" ficou sendo uma moeda que existe no computador. O Bitcoin claramente é uma moeda que existe no computador, mas mesmo assim esse conceito é confuso. Uma transferência bancária tradicional também não é "dinheiro virtual"? Ela acontece no computador, mas você ainda não pegou as notas de papel ali na sua mão, então é virtual. Chamar só o Bitcoin de moeda virtual pode talvez criar a impressão de que é o Bitcoin é um brinquedinho, como por exemplo as moedas virtuais que existem dentro do universo de jogos de simulação, como, sei lá, World of Warcraft.

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Personagens de jogos e símbolos

A sensação de "ser" um personagem em um jogo ou uma brincadeira talvez seja o mais próximo que eu tenha conseguido chegar do entendimento de um símbolo religioso.

A hóstia consagrada é, segundo a religião, o corpo de Cristo, mas nossa mente moderna só consegue concebê-la como sendo uma representação do corpo de Cristo. Da mesma forma outras culturas e outras religiões têm símbolos parecidos, inclusive nos quais o próprio participante do ritual faz o papel de um deus ou de qualquer coisa parecida.

"Faz o papel" é de novo a interpretação da mente moderna. O sujeito ali é a coisa, mas ele ao mesmo tempo que é também sabe que não é, que continua sendo ele mesmo.

Nos jogos de videogame e brincadeiras infantis em que se encarna um personagem o jogador é o personagem. não se diz, entre os jogadores, que alguém está "encenando", mas que ele é e pronto. nem há outra denominação ou outro verbo. No máximo "encarnando", mas já aí já é vocabulário jornalístico feito para facilitar a compreensão de quem está de fora do jogo.

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A estrutura lógica do livro didático

Todos os livros didáticos e cursos expõem seus conteúdos a partir de uma organização lógica prévia, um esquema de todo o conteúdo que julgam relevante, tudo muito organizadinho em tópicos e subtópicos segundo a ordem lógica que mais se aproxima da ordem natural das coisas. Imagine um sumário de um manual ou livro didático.

A minha experiência é a de que esse método serve muito bem para ninguém entender nada. A organização lógica perfeita de um campo de conhecimento é o resultado final de um estudo, não o seu início. As pessoas que escrevem esses manuais e dão esses cursos, mesmo quando sabem do que estão falando (um acontecimento aparentemente raro), o fazem a partir do seu próprio ponto de vista, atingido após uma vida de dedicação ao assunto (ou então copiando outros manuais e livros didáticos, o que eu chutaria que é o método mais comum).

Para o neófito, a melhor maneira de entender algo é através de imersões em micro-tópicos, sem muita noção da posição daquele tópico na hierarquia geral da ciência.

• Revista Educativa, um exemplo de como não ensinar nada às crianças.
• Zettelkasten, a ordem surgindo do caos, ao invés de temas se encaixando numa ordem preexistentes.

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jiq-web

Made with jq-web, a tool to explore JSON using jq that works like jiq.

• https://jq.alhur.es/jiq/
• https://github.com/fiatjaf/jiq-web

See also

• jq-finder

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There's a problem with using Git concepts for everything

We've been seeing a surge in applications that use Git to store other things than code, or that are based on Git concepts and so enable "forking, merging and distributed collaboration" for things like blogs, recipes, literature, music composition, normal files in a filesystem, databases.

The problem with all this is they will either:

1. assume the user will commit manually and expect that commit to be composed by a set of meaningful changes, and the commiter will also add a message to the commit, describing that set of meaningful, related changes; or
2. try to make the committing process automatic and hide it from the user, so will producing meaningless commits, based on random changes in many different files (it's not "files" if we are talking about a recipe or rows in a table, but let's say "files" for the sake of clarity) that will probably not be related and not reduceable to a meaningful commit message, or maybe the commit will contain only the changes to a single file, and its commit message would be equivalent to "updated <name of the file>".

Programmers, when using Git, think in Git, i.e., they work with version control in their minds. They try hard to commit together only sets of meaningful and related changes, even when they happen to make unrelated changes in the meantime, and that's why there are commands like git add -p and many others.

Normal people, to whom many of these git-based tools are intended to (and even programmers when out of their code-world), are much less prone to think in Git, and that's why another kind of abstraction for fork-merge-collaborate in non-code environments must be used.

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Que vença o melhor

Nos esportes e jogos em geral, existe uma constante preocupação em balancear os incentivos e atributos do jogo, as regras do esporte em si e as regras das competições para que o melhor vença, ou, em outras palavras, para que sejam minimizados os outros fatores exceto a habilidade mais pura quanto possível no jogo em questão.

O mundo fora dos jogos, porém, nem sempre pode ter suas regras mudadas por um ente que as controla e está imbuído da vontade e dos meios para escolher as melhores regras possíveis para a obtenção dos resultados acima. Aliás, é muitas vezes essa possibilidade é até impensável. Mesmo quando ela é pensável e levada em conta os fatores que operam no mundo real não são facilmente identificáveis, eles são muitos, e mudam o tempo todo.

Mais do que isso, ao contrário de um jogo em que o objetivo é praticamente o mesmo para todo mundo, os objetivos de cada agente no mundo real são diferentes e incontáveis, e as "competições" que cada um está disputando são diferentes e muitas, cada minúsculo ato de suas vidas compreendendo várias delas simultaneamente.

Da mesma forma, é impossível conceber até mesmo o conceito de "melhor" para que se deseje que ele vença.

Mesmo assim é comum encontrarmos em várias situações gente que parte do princípio de que se Fulano está num certo lugar (por exemplo, um emprego muito bom) e Beltrano não isso se deve ao fato de Fulano ter sido melhor que Beltrano.

Está aí uma crítica à idéia da meritocracia (eu tinha me esquecido que essa palavra existia).

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Module Linker

A browser extension that reads source code on GitHub and tries to find links to imported dependencies so you can click on them and navigate through either GitHub or package repositories or base language documentation. Works for many languages at different levels of completeness.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/module-linker
• https://module-linker.alhur.es/
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/module-linker
• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dglofghjinifeolcpjfjmfdnnbaanggn

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Things a coalition of evil miners can do on Bitcoin

If a miner coalition has 75% of hashrate for 6 months they can steal coins from a Drivechain without any risk, that's what the drivechain haters say.

What other evil things can a coalition of 75% hashrate do in 6 months?

• steal money from all open Lightning nodes on the network by opening channels to them, mining 3 blocks, spending the funds out on Lightning instantly, then rolling back the 3 blocks and canceling the channel.
• the above would eventually -- but not instantly and only after many steals have happened (even if they're not all perfectly coordinated and instant) -- cause Lightning to shrink in size a lot and become more of a closed friends network than truly open.
• only mine empty blocks and cause the mempool to be enormously clogged.
• refuse to use the mempool, force a proprietary API for transaction propagation with zero transparency and force other miners to use that same infrastructure too and extract a fee from them.
• censor anything and force other miners to censor too, at the threat of orphaning their blocks.
• easily cause so much confusion in the mining process that Bitcoin is deemed unusable and price falls drastically, miners can then buy at low price.

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hyperscript-go

A template rendering library similar to hyperscript for Go.

Better than writing HTML and Golang templates.

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/hyperscript-go

See also

• tempreites

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The unit test bubble

Look at the following piece of Go code:

func NewQuery(query []rune) *Query { q := &Query{ query: &[]rune{}, complete: &[]rune{}, } _ = q.Set(query) return q } func NewQueryWithString(query string) *Query { return NewQuery([]rune(query)) }

It is taken from a GitHub project with over 2000 stars.

Now take a look at these unit tests for the same package:

``` func TestNewQuery(t *testing.T) { var assert = assert.New(t)

v := []rune(".name")
q := NewQuery(v)

assert.Equal(*q.query, []rune(".name"))
assert.Equal(*q.complete, []rune(""))

}

func TestNewQueryWithString(t *testing.T) { var assert = assert.New(t)

q := NewQueryWithString(".name")

assert.Equal(*q.query, []rune(".name"))
assert.Equal(*q.complete, []rune(""))

} ```

Now be honest: what are these for? Is this part of an attack to eat all GitHub storage and head them to bankruptcy?

Also

• my personal approach on using let, const and var in javascript

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IPFS problems: Inefficiency

Imagine you have two IPFS nodes and unique content, created by you, in the first one. From the second, you can connect to the first and everyhing looks right. You then try to fetch that content. After some seconds it starts coming, the progress bar begins to move, that's slow, very slow, doing an rsync would have been 20 times faster.

The progress bar halts. You investigate, the second node is not connected to the first anymore. Why, if that was the only source for the file we're trying to fetch? It remains a mistery to this day. You reconnect manually, the progress bar moves again, halts, you're disconnected again. Instead of reconnecting you decide to add the second node to the first node's "Bootstrap" list.

I once tried to run an IPFS node on a VPS and store content on S3. There are two S3 datastore plugins available. After fixing some issues in one of them, recompiling go-ipfs, figuring out how to read settings from the IPFS config file, creating an init profile and recompiling again I got the node running. It worked. My idea was to host a bunch of data on that node. Data would be fetched from S3 on demand so there would be cheap and fast access to it from any IPFS node or gateway.

IPFS started doing hundreds of calls to S3 per minute – something I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't inserted some log statements in the plugin code, I mean before the huge AWS bill arrived. Apparently that was part of participation on the DHT. Adjusting some settings turned my node into a listen-only thing as I intended, but I'm not 100% sure it would work as an efficient content provider, and I'll never know, as the memory and CPU usage got too high for my humble VPS and I had to turn it down.