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Anyone who thinks that “onboarding new users” is simply a technical challenge of educating people about “how Nostr works”, is grossly mistaken about social networks in general and blind to what makes Nostr so special.

Social Networks are for Friends

Relationship building is why people use social networks. Connecting with friends and loved ones (and colleagues and customers also) is the obvious reason to join, and should be the primary objective in any onboarding endeavor. Everything else “about the technology” only needs to be introduced “as needed” in order for each new user to achieve this goal.

The Nostr Network Requires Trusted Friendships

To thrive at scale, Nostr needs to have established and interconnected “webs of trusted friends” for “verifying” authentic profiles and quality content. This PgP strategy for decentralized trust implemented on Nostr, is the best way to keep bots and bad actors at bay while preserving freedom and sovereignty for every user. Even though Nostr still doesn’t have a standard for determining who “is trusted” for any one user across all clients, we can already build tools to onboard new friends of the highest quality trust. Leveraging existing relationships, “webs of trust” can be strengthened even at this early stage simply by advocates “inviting friends to Nostr”.

Nostr is New and Already Full of Trusted Friends

But it won’t be for long. Bots and bad actors are relatively “easy” to keep at bay today because the Nostr userbase is still small. People who come to Nostr and STAY have mostly been a self selecting group of “freedom tech fans”. We like it this way, and are generally happy to be here. The comraderie is refreshing. But the more people that come to Nostr, the more Nostr will attract different kinds of people.

This is already happening. Nostr is growing at the edges, reaching out beyond the “freedom tech fans” and attracting a number of “less committed” (and some nefarious) individuals here and there. Who sticks around? The “friends of freedom tech fans” stick around longer because they have friends here. WAY BEFORE even considering how “the network effect” will take over, Nostr needs to solve for retention by bringing more “trusted friends” into the network. Social onboarding tools will allow us to share Nostr to “friends of freedom tech fans” and beyond, establishing interconnected “webs of trust” that are increasingly impermeable to bots and bad actors.

Nostr is Freedom Tech that People Want to Share

Creators and influencers of every kind share Nostr (and Nostr content) every day. This phenomenon is a gold mine for onboarding, and can be supported with tools and incentives. Driven by the fact that Nostr is an open protocol, owned by nobody and available for anybody to build upon and profit from, the passion for sharing Nostr will never wane. But our userbase may fall off, if people become disenchanted by undesirable content or lack of good follows. This is why onboarding efforts, to attract more “friends” to the network, are so important. Leveraging the “share worthy” phenomenon of Nostr itself to grow Nostr’s networks of “trusted friends” seems like a no brainer. But for this strategy to work, it needs to be win win win for all parties.

Everybody Wins with More Trusted Users on Nostr

Even as standards for qualifying trust are still being refined, “social onboarding” increases the ratio of “more” trusted over “less” trusted users across the network.

Developers Win

With more trusted users on the network, Nostr developers win by being able to attract an increasingly diverse range of business partners to sponsor their projects.

Sponsors Win

An increase in trusted usership equates to more “real people” perusing “desired content” and more chances for brands to engage “organically” with target audiences. Marketing opportunities increase with trust.

Advocates Win

Simply by sharing Nostr with their friends, Advocates support the sustained growth of trust across the network. Valuable zap reward programs to incentivize high quality onboarding efforts are easily justified and funded by social onboarding clients and their sponsors.

Users Win

More trusted users across the network means more trustworthy content in every feed and more easily discoverable friends and new follows regardless of the client or algorithm used.

Nostr Wins

More trusted users on the network means more “high quality” trust connections between each user. Strong webs of trust is what keeps out bots and bad actors, and is essential for stability as Nostr scales.

Social Onboarding Clients Bring Trust to Nostr

Having more tools for “sharing Nostr with friends” is how Nostr wins. Any client can have capacity for “Social Onboarding”. This may be a dedicated onboarding client or a feature set within a social client. A client that offers “Social Onboarding” will support Nostr advocates and the users that they invite. These should have the following feature set :

• Nostr advocates may create and share any number of customizable “Nostr invites” for different audiences or occasions. Each may have different reccomendations, or access codes, or expiry options. (A NIP is in the works)
• Nostr invite QR codes (and shareable URLs) should resolve to a WEB based interface for prospective (and existing) users who MAY NOT have a client or browser extension already installed.
• Each invite should (within the onboarding client) provide access to low friction profile creation AND advocate reccomended lists of new friends, interest groups, preferred clients, best relays, and other stuff.
• Private key generation and management for new users should be handled entirely within the onboarding client (using NIP standards without a browser extension or external bunker app) to reduce friction at this crucial moment.
• A human readable Nostr address (NIP05 or some future NIP) should be generated automatically for all new users.
• New account creation should result immediately in a direct message or group thread of private “gift wrap” encrypted messages. This thread acts as the new user’s “first contact” with the advocate (possibly others as well) and an anchor for exploring the rest of Nostr.
• Invite “receipt” data (who invited who) should be “gift wrap” encrypted, accessible only to the advocate and new user. Clients wishing to use this data for analytics MAY request access from BOTH parties.
• Top Advocates may be calculated by the client (using data from invite receipts OR from public Nostr usage metrics), and awards may be offered.
• Advocates may also be supported by the client through access to private “advocate support” groups and communities over the Nostr network.

Support Social Onboarding for Nostr

Meet Me On Nostr is an app for sharing Nostr with friends via advocate invites. It is a reference client to demonstrate the power of Social Onboarding for Nostr. The first launch of "feature complete" client is expected in fall 2024.

This is a “bootstrap” funded project in active development. We are not grant funded or VC funded. Instead, we are looking to pay our developers by sponsorships from “Nostr adjacent” businesses who want to increase brand recognition over this new social network.

Is Your Business Nostr Adjacent?

“I’d like to advertise on Nostr but it’s “not quite ready” says our marketing team.”

“It has potential, and we have alignment, but the technology is still a bit rough.”

“Nostr is a perfect fit for our “target audience”, but there simply aren’t enough people using it.”

If your business is aligned with freedom technology, and the people who build and use Nostr, then NOW is the perfect time to sponsor Social Onboarding. Help grow Nostr’s base of trusted users and engage directly with Nostr’s most active advocates and influencers as it scales.

Release Nostr’s Superpower

When Nostr advocates are equipped and incentivized to share Nostr with their friends, nothing can stop this network from growing and growing and growing ever more secure and interconnected networks of trusted users.

Onboarding and retaining trusted users as Nostr scales will require so much more than just pointing people to “how Nostr works” content. Nostr’s true power lies dormant in the existing relationships that Nostr users already have outside of Nostr. Leveraging this power is what Social Onboarding is all about. Social Onboarding is Nostr’s superpower.

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_Prologue: this is a prose adaptation of a talk I gave to a private audience in Dubai and then tweaked slightly for a small conference in Sofia. I'm increasingly thinking it deserves a more general audience, and may be better suited to text anyway. This is probably not its final form, as the desired audience is tradfi capital allocators, hence a PDF is likely on the cards in the near future. For the time being, consider this a first draft, practising what it might look like as prose, and soliciting feedback from the good people of Nostr. Enjoy! _

The title of this essay means absolutely nothing. There is no such thing as “Web π” because there is no such thing as “Web 3”. It’s bullshit. It’s a scam.

Unfortunately, it has turned out to be extremely powerful bullshit and an extremely profitable scam, and so my goal in writing this essay is to give the reader the tools to navigate all of this and come out the other side without having been scammed or bullshat. In the spirit of not scamming and not bullshitting, I should be clear upfront about the intended readership of this essay, who I am to write it, and who it’s really about.

Who Are You?

I assume the reader is not a shadowy super-coder, but rather is a financial professional. This essay isn’t really for Bitcoiners, although if any read it, I hope they still find it interesting. Who I am really writing for are people coming to the space for the first time. Hopefully in your mind you are coming to the _Bitcoin _space, but if you think you are coming to the “crypto” space then this may be even more useful.

Who Am I?

I am the founder of a company that makes me not only highly biased but also flagrantly self-interested in the content I am promoting. I run a firm that invests in the Bitcoin ecosystem through a variety of different vehicles. I am not going to mislead you in the slightest in that my primary motivation is for you to allocate capital to us rather than to people I would call scammers and bullshitters. You should listen to them too and make up your own mind, or else what’s the point, really? How do you know I’m not scamming or bullshitting you? Exactly. Don’t trust. Verify.

In any case, that’s all assuming you want to “allocate capital” at all rather than just buy Bitcoin without a management fee. I’d like to think the primary difference is that I will be honest about that, and I’ll encourage you to understand as much as you can about what is going on and what you are doing (and if you are at all unsure, I would suggest you aren’t ready and you should just buy Bitcoin and learn) rather than bamboozle you with complete nonsense like “Web 3”.

Who Is This About?

It’s not at all about people working in crypto. Bitcoiners amongst the readership may be mildly irritated by me going on to give about as charitable an explanation of the role of these people as they have probably ever heard from somebody like me. This is really about financiers. It’s about the people who have used the mostly unrewarded efforts of developers, academics, entrepreneurs, and so on to siphon money from you to themselves, leaving a trail of useless tech and defrauded retail investors in their wake – and who will continue to do so if you continue to empower them.

Why This Essay?

We are at an interesting point in the development of the entirety of the “crypto” industry and I strongly suggest that people like you are going to be pitched all kinds of scams and bullshit in the coming months and years. If you have a little more background on what these people are really talking about, you will hopefully be able to avoid it.

My plan to help with that is presenting a short version and a long version of what blockchains are and are for, how they have historically been deployed in service of scams and bullshit, a high-level theory explaining the narrative evolution behind this sorry history, and a prediction for the near-term future of such shenanigans.

What is a Blockchain For?

A Blockchain is for sound, censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer digital money. It is not for anything else. If a blockchain is functional as money, it may be possible to also _use it _for other things. Some people find that interesting, some people find it infuriating, but don’t let that subtlety confuse you. It is not _for _arbitrary computation and storage or “decentralizing the internet” or running illegal securities rackets.

It is for money, plain and simple.

How does it achieve that? Proof of work and the difficulty adjustment. These are the innovations from which every other desirable property or feature flows. Proof of work enables censorship resistance. If somebody is trying to sell you on “proof of stake”: bullshit. The difficulty adjustment enables precise, predetermined, and _fair _issuance. If somebody is trying to sell you on a token they issue for free and without restriction: scam.

The problem Bitcoin solves is both economic and technical and the solution has material technical and economic merit. And it’s for this very specific and irreplicable reason the Bitcoin token has value. If this all sounds extreme to you, then I would suggest that your understanding of the topic is _extremely _misguided, that you are going to be _extremely bullshat and extremely scammed, _and you need to read this essay. That’s the short version.

The Long Version

I am sensitive to how extreme this all sounds. After all, hundreds of billions of dollars have been pumped into crypto, not Bitcoin – a huge amount of it is widely used, and many capable, honest, and brilliant people work in the industry. The reader will recall just above I said those people are not the target of my criticism. I’m not claiming they are all scammers and bullshitters. Sadly, I think it’s more likely they have been scammed and bullshat to some degree also.

I think I have some credibility in pointing this out because, as a VC in the Bitcoin space, I have increasingly seen founders telling me this themselves: that they originally bought into the hype in crypto and ended up wasting an enormous amount of time realizing their idea made no technical or economic sense in that context, so then they came to Bitcoin instead. You hear this one time and it’s an anecdote, but you hear it as many times as I have and it feels more like a representative sample.

What I want to cover next is as charitable a summary of the state of ex-Bitcoin crypto as I possibly can: my contention is that crypto has evolved into 4 rough categories: stablecoins, cryptography R&D, gambling, and scams. And these aren’t exclusive, to be clear; there is a lot of overlap, and, in fact, the overlap is arguably the key.

Scams

Scams are tokens, plain and simple. If somebody is trying to profit from the speculative price action of a token they have issued, they are scamming somebody. Maybe they are scamming you, maybe they are scamming retail investors, maybe they are scamming customers or suppliers – if such parties even exist in their cargo cult “business model”. There’s a scam in there somewhere.

However, it is rarely _just _a scam. There will almost always be components of stablecoins, R&D or gambling too. Hence these are worth really grappling with, taking seriously, giving credit to the extent it is due, but also analyzing critically.

My rough and high-level assessment of this breakdown of crypto is as follows, and I’ll explain what I mean by this below: stablecoins have economic merit but dubious technical merit; R&D has technical merit but no economic merit; and gambling sort of has merit but it depends how you interpret it. Obviously, scams have neither.

Stablecoins

By “sort of technical merit” I mean that stablecoins have central issuers. You can issue them as tokens on a blockchain but there’s not really much of a point. The issuer could just run a database connected to the internet with some straightforward signature schemes for transfers and it would make minimal operational difference. In fact, it would be cheaper and faster. _In fact, _you may as well run a Chaumian eCash mint (a decades-old innovation recently resurrected firmly within the _Bitcoin _space) such that your cheaper-and-faster-than-a-blockchain database also grants users transience and privacy rather than the public permanence of a blockchain.

The fact Tron is the most heavily used for stablecoins, in terms of settling the most value, is a testament to this point: it is barely even pretending not to be a database. This works as regulatory arbitrage given regulators think this is “innovation” because they are stupid.

That said, it is worth giving some credit here given the abject awfulness of fiat banking and payment rails with which stablecoins arguably most directly compete. Stablecoins are significantly more permissionless in their transfer than any fiat bank liability. And to attest to what seems like their most significant use case, they are permissionless in their _usership _in that only an internet connection and the right software is required rather than various discriminatory jurisdictional and compliance criteria.

However, what “sort of technical merit” ultimately boils down to, especially in comparison to Bitcoin, is: highly censorable in their exogenous links and, therefore, their value. The assets supposedly backing stablecoins are (by definition) still within the fiat system, even if this novel transfer mechanism of the rights to withdraw them is not. There is frankly a bit of theatre involved in the so-called “decentralization” of stablecoins given shutting down the central issuer is all that is required to make the permissionlessly tradeable decentralized tokens go to zero and be technically unimpeded but functionally useless. The technical innovation of Bitcoin, in contrast, is easily understood in one sense as it being totally indifferent to this kind of attack.

On the other hand, by “economic merit” I mean that they are extremely widely used and valued as a means of providing dollar shadow banking and often superior payment rails. Those in crypto often love pointing to this and many Bitcoiners tie themselves in knots trying to explain it away, whereas I see it as essentially unrelated to Bitcoin. Clearly there is a superficial connection, but you could create any superficial connection by “tokenizing” things for no particularly good technical _reason. I think it’s a different industry entirely. It’s more like a subindustry within _fintech – part banking, part payments – that for the time being relies on bamboozling regulators with all the nonsense I’m drawing attention to.

And good for them, frankly. If fiat banking isn’t going to be backed by real money anyway, then it _at least _ought to be permissionless. It should really be Chaumian eCash if it isn’t just Bitcoin, and it is regulation alone that makes it so awful in the first place. Making money usable and not a tool of dystopian control is, at this point, a political problem, not a technical one. Stablecoins are frankly a step in the right direction, especially insofar as they acclimatize users to digital assets. But I would still caution that they arguably don’t have sufficient technical merit to withstand what feels like an inevitable political attack …

Cryptography R&D

“Technical merit” for R&D is more or less self-explanatory, but the context is worth appreciating. It’s only really in crypto and mostly in Ethereum more specifically that people can permissionlessly experiment with arbitrarily complex cryptographic schemes that operate on real, enormous value. There are a lot of people who understandably find this attractive given their projects are essentially academic and trying out their ideas in the wild is more interesting, arguably more worthwhile, and certainly more fun than putting research essays on ArXiv or submitting them to a journal.

But … the value being manipulated is at best stablecoins and at worst baseless hype. If it isn’t a stablecoin then it probably exists in the first place because of either gambling or scams – and even there the line is very blurry.

Gambling

Gambling is an interesting lens to adopt on all this because it’s literally a trillion-dollar industry. And it’s real. It’s consensual; it’s not criminal; it’s legitimate economic activity that generates enormous profits for those who facilitate it well.

So, gambling has economic merit in that sense. But it’s tricky in this context how to characterize it because you could also argue it’s deeply dishonest gambling in that the gamblers don’t realize they are playing a negative sum game against the house. They think they are doing something akin to speculating on securities, which may be just as stupid depending on how it’s done, but at least has real economic utility and contributes to capital formation.

The difference here is that what is being speculated on _has no economic merit. _So, if that’s your gauge of merit, then here there is none. And it’s a very blurry line between this and an outright scam. Maybe the people involved _think _of what they are doing as amazing R&D, and maybe it’s inadvertently just a scam; maybe they know it’s all nonsense, but they think they can profit within the negative sum game because there are greater fools. In any case, I think gambling is a very helpful characterization of a lot of the behavior of the users and the real economic function of the industry.

There’s an interesting social component to all this because crypto people will often get mad at Bitcoiners because Bitcoiners tend not to care about either stablecoins or crypto R&D: they’ll say, why don’t you like stablecoins, they have clear economic merit? And the answer is they have dubious technical merit. Or, why don’t you like our next-gen Zero Knowledge scaling protocol, it has clear technical merit? And the answer is it has no economic merit.

If you’re happy with one but not the other, it’s easy to think of Bitcoiners as being closed-minded or dogmatic or whatever, but, ultimately, I think it’s just about discipline. What’s the point in being excited by something that half works, and that you know why will never fully work? So to be frank, a lot of this may be well-intentioned, but it’s kinda’ bullshit. It very probably ultimately rests on gambling and not at all whatever its stated purpose is … or it’s just a scam.

How Did We Get Here?

The following is by no means exhaustive and the framing is deliberately a little tongue-in-cheek. As well as being accurate enough (if unavoidably biased), my goal here is primarily to set up my prediction for what is coming next.

2015               reality: Ethereum launches             narrative: “the world computer”

In 2015, Ethereum launched. The narrative here was that we are building “the world computer” and we can now have decentralized uncensorable computation. Never mind that anybody with a laptop has an uncensorable and decentralized computing device. And keep in mind this question of, “_what data might it ever be relevant to compute over in this manner (whatever that means in the first place)?” _The answer will become clearer and clearer …

2016-17          reality: ICO bubble                           narrative: “Web 3” / “DApps”

Regardless, at the end of 2015 we get the proposal and adoption of ERC20: a standard for issuing fungible tokens within Ethereum contracts, which is why in 2016 _but especially in 2017 _we get the ICO bubble. The narrative changes. Now we are concerned with “Web 2” companies being huge, powerful, and centralized. What if, instead, users could cooperatively own the application, control their own data, and participate in the economic upside that their usage is creating?

2018-19          reality: crypto winter                       narrative: “mistakes were made”

In 2018 this all falls apart, so don’t worry about it, moving on …

2020-21          reality: defi summer                        narrative: “decentralized finance”

By 2020 the narrative was different once again. It is more or less realized by this point that utility tokens make no technical or economic sense. You can’t introduce artificial scarcity in capital goods where there should be abundance and deflation and expect anybody to care, never mind to value your concoction. On the other hand, “securities” ought to be scarce and in some sense ought to function as tradeable ledger entries. Maybe they could be tokenized and computed on in a censorship-resistant and decentralized manner?

So, we get a boom in “defi” which, for what it’s worth, fellow Axiom co-founder Anders Larson and I predicted in our essay Only The Strong Survive, in September 2021, would be a complete disaster because, amongst a myriad of other illiterate insanities, there was approximately zero grounding of these securities in productive capital. The ecosystem was entirely self-referential – grounded _not even _in the questionable economic merit of stablecoins but firmly in gambling and scams; in leverage, rehypothecation, and securitization of precisely nothing whatsoever productive.

2022               reality: shitcoinpocalypse                narrative: “mistakes were made”

And we were absolutely right because in 2022 everything collapsed. First Terra/Luna imploded – a “defi” project which essentially presented to the world the argument that a fractional reserve bank issuing fiduciary media can literally never go bankrupt because it can always cover a deposit shortfall by issuing more equity. While briefly flirting with a capitalization of around fifty f***ing billion dollars, and endorsed and fawned over by all manner of illiterate charlatans with gigantic and unsuspecting audiences, this argument was eventually rejected by the market as utterly imbecilic, as analyzed by myself and Nic Carter in All Falls Down.

This triggered a credit contagion that soon after took down 3 Arrows Capital, Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi, and others. FTX limped along by what we now understand to be something like defrauding their way out of debt, but eventually also collapsed later that year. If _Only The Strong Survive _was a pre-mortem of all of this, then the reader may want to read Green Eggs And Ham, also by myself and Anders Larson, as a kind of post-mortem.

2023-today    reality: Bitcoin multisigs                  narrative: “Bitcoin renaissance”

And now a lot of this stuff is moving to Bitcoin. It is outside the scope of this essay to explain this in much detail but there have been a handful of developments in Bitcoin recently which, regardless of their intended purpose, seem to have as a collective side effect that a lot of these same shenanigans can now be implemented (or can _pretend _to be implemented) in a more Bitcoin-native context.

So, the new narrative is something like:

“these things didn’t work, not because they are terrible ideas that collapse to moon math wrappers around gambling and scams under any remotely critical analysis, but rather because they weren’t on Bitcoin. But also, since it has only recently become possible to (at least pretend to) implement them on Bitcoin, they are now worthwhile. We have wandered in the wilderness but learned our lessons and found the promised land.”

Technical and Economic Merit

Let’s consider all this through the lens of technical and economic merit once again. Or rather, the alleged merit given the stated goal. Ignore for now whether there is any merit:

2015               technical goal: new computing paradigm               economic goal: x% of GDP?

The original idea of “crypto” allegedly has the merit of the next revolution in computing. Goodness knows how big that market is; probably a decent chunk of global GDP – if it meant anything, which it doesn’t.

2016-17          technical goal: disrupting company formation       economic goal: y% of S&P?

ICOs then become a little bit more specific. Now they are merely disrupting how we organize companies. What’s that worth? Some portion of the value of the companies that can now be decentralized and tokenized I guess? Who knows …

2018-19          nothing to see here

Nothing happened then, don’t worry about it.

2020-21          technical goal: decentralize finance            economic goal: z% of NYSE, CME, ISDA?

Defi becomes more specific again. Now we are merely tokenizing financial contracts, expanding access, removing middlemen, and so on. So that should probably be worth some percentage of capital markets activity?

2022               nothing to see here

Oops, never mind …

2023-today    technical goal: now it’s on Bitcoin!             economic goal: i% of … Bitcoin?

… and now it’s on Bitcoin apparently.

In Hindsight ...

I think the most amusing analysis of all this is as follows: it starts off completely insane, it gets more and more restrained each time – you could cheekily argue it starts to make more and more sense – but it also gets closer to Bitcoin every time. It’s clearly narrowing in on just: Bitcoin.

This is people realizing, painfully, over decades, what blockchains are for! They are not for “decentralizing everything” They are for censorship-resistant, sound, peer-to-peer digital money.

And I think this is _also _why we get the current state of crypto from earlier in the essay. As it starts to make more and more sense (by getting closer and closer to Bitcoin) you have realizations like the following: digital gift vouchers for artificially scarce and extremely expensive computation aren’t money, so we need “real money” in here for it to have economic merit, so you get stablecoins. Also, well we have a rich programming environment that seems technically interesting but also the severe technical handicap of being unable to do even a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of all the computations in the world, so you get crypto R&D. These emerge as a kind of patch, and they have _some _merit in isolation, whereas the long-term trajectory is actually just to converge on Bitcoin.

It’s an open and fascinating question if there are any learnings from these that can still be transplanted to Bitcoin. For stablecoins, this strikes me as less clear, given the dubious technical merit is introduced by using a blockchain at all, not just a blockchain other than Bitcoin. However, efforts to create Bitcoin balances (tokenized or otherwise) that are stable relative to some external price are to be applauded, if still heavily scrutinized for what technical merit they _really _have.

It seems far more likely that crypto R&D will prove useful in a Bitcoin context to some or other degree, and in this case the economic merit is in fact solved by moving to Bitcoin, provided the necessary technical merit can be mimicked. At the time of writing, this is a source of both hope and dread: hope given the possibility of viable avenues of development (although still highly uncertain); dread given how early steps in this direction are already being misrepresented in the pursuit of bullshit and scams. I will return to both shortly.

Narrative Evolution

Back to the table just above, I want to make three quick observations that tie together my entire argument and get us to the end of the essay:

Firstly, the bubbles always follow the price of Bitcoin. Hopefully I don’t need to include a price chart for the reader to grasp this immediately.

Secondly, it’s important that the narrative always changes. Absolutely ungodly amounts of money were raised for this crap following the_ Bitcoin bull runs of 2017 and 2021. The people doing this couldn’t point to the previous absolute disaster, so they had to spin something along the lines of: “_we learned our lessons and we’ve refined the use case.” This should sound familiar from just above.

Thirdly, however, regardless of whatever refinement they’ve come up with, the consequence of the new “narrative” is always, “buy my token”.

Always.

It doesn’t matter what buzzword salad is in the middle. It’s always “Bitcoin is cool, xyz, fughayzi fughahzi, buy my token.”

This is why I am very much tempted to not care so much about developers, academics, entrepreneurs, and so on, and in fact for my null hypothesis to be that they are more likely to have been victims than perpetrators. I don’t think they even end up in a position to contribute without the key group whom I do blame. When you put all these pieces together, what I think falls out of this analysis is as follows:

The entire cycle of shitcoinery can be traced to unscrupulous financiers convincing capital allocators who don’t know any better, in a bull market that, yes, Bitcoin is cool, but what they are doing is related, cooler, and that they deserve a fee.

Let us label this the Capital Cycle Theory of Shitcoinery. I think that everything else about which one might want to complain is downstream of this core realization.

Avoiding It

Given everything I’ve covered this is simple and this is pretty much the end of the essay.

You need to be aware of why this is happening now. If it hasn’t happened to you already (intended readership in the capital allocation business, that is) I guarantee it’s about to: with ETFs and the halving just past, we seem to be starting a Bitcoin bull run, these people have already raised ridiculous amounts of money on scams and bullshit that have mostly imploded. They may have lost a lot of money, or they may even have dumped on retail and got an excellent “return”. But in any case, they need a new narrative.

It's _possible _they have a viable narrative around stablecoins, R&D, both, and that they are as wary of scams as I have suggested here that they should be. I don’t want to insult anybody who merely has a different investment thesis to me if they are otherwise reasonable in their outlook and honest in their dealings.

However, if they are only now realizing how pointless and disingenuous every preceding crypto narrative has been after 7 years and hundreds of billions of dollars – or if they still don’t realize it at all; if their track record shows they were deeply involved, handsomely rewarded, and yet created nothing of lasting value; if they say things like “the builders are coming back to Bitcoin”: be very, very suspicious. Be on the lookout for tokens, which is to say, be on the lookout for scams.

What is especially frustrating is that the technical spin of the "layer twos" that are all the rage at the time of writing, that "the builders are coming back to Bitcoin" to build, and that you, the capital-allocating reader, will almost certainly be pitched, is in and of itself pretty reasonable. They just don't require tokens and they don't require gambling to support the token prices. What they do require is _sound adherence to Bitcoin's technical and economic merit. _At the very least, they require honest communication about the design trade-offs so far and planned for, and what, if any, economic and technical merit is left over after these trade-offs have been made.

Narrative aside, the _reality _of 99% of these projects is that they are private execution environments tied to multisigs custodying user deposits. Which is to say, on the one hand, that they are cargo culting "crypto R&D" from Ethereum that isn't technically possible in Bitcoin in order to feign technical merit, and on the other, that _they aren't layer twos at all. _Once again, they may as well be Chaumian eCash mints, except for the fact that this would make the intended token scam all but impossible to pull off.

Casey Rodarmor, creator of the Ordinals protocol, recently joked on the Hell Money _podcast he co-hosts, responding to the idea that "_everybody is building an L2 now":

"It's the same sad sack playbook as on Ethereum being recapitulated on Bitcoin. That's how you get a VC check on Ethereum. They are all glorified multisigs, so they are like, "hey let's port our glorified multisig to Bitcoin and get a VC check." I was talking to a friend of mine who is working on an interesting project, an open-source analyzer that does transaction clustering, and I was like, "maybe you could do this in this way and raise some VC money," and he said, "yeah, okay, but what's the point in raising VC money?" And I said, "no, no, no, this is the end! This is the goal! You raise VC money and then you cut yourself checks from that VC money until it runs out and then you raise more at a 10x valuation. This is the new economy, guys!"

The 1% that are legitimately trying to bring the learnings from crypto R&D to Bitcoin in a technically and economically sound manner will hopefully win in the long run (and even this is somewhat speculative at the time of writing) but will likely get little to no attention amidst this bull market flurry of scams and bullshit.

Axiom will do its best to source and invest in these companies (we already have!) but we are resigned to it being a much more difficult sell to capital allocators in light of the Capital Cycle Theory of Shitcoinery. To be brutally honest, this entire essay can fairly be considered cope on my part in light of having lost this battle in the past and facing up to the very real prospect of losing it in the near future too. Oh well, at least I tried.

Wrapping Up

The essence of the Capital Cycle Theory of Shitcoinery is that the problems I’ve described ultimately come from bamboozling people just like you with technical sounding nonsense like “Web 3” so you think it’s all a lot more complicated than it really is. Just buy Bitcoin. That’s certainly the first thing you should do anyway, and it might be the only thing you ever need to do.

If you really, really want to take the extra risk of investing in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the team at Axiom would be happy to speak with you. But we are never going to talk you out of buying Bitcoin. There is no world in which Bitcoin does poorly and we do well, or in which we promise something “better than Bitcoin,” and there’s no point in engaging with us at all if you don’t already believe most of this.

If that’s of interest to you, we’d love to talk. If not, just buy Bitcoin. In any case: fair warning, we are heading into a Bitcoin bull market and the scams and the bullshit are coming. Good luck avoiding them.

Allen Farrington, June 2024

@ 683211bd:bd3b715e

Does this work?

@ 4523be58:ba1facd0

NIP-116

Event paths

Description

Event kind 30079 denotes an event defined by its event path rather than its event kind.

The event directory path is included in the event path, specified in the event's d tag. For example, an event path might be user/profile/name, where user/profile is the directory path.

Relays should parse the event directory from the event path d tag and index the event by it. Relays should support "directory listing" of kind 30079 events using the #f filter, such as {"#f": ["user/profile"]}.

For backward compatibility, the event directory should also be saved in the event's f tag (for "folder"), which is already indexed by some relay implementations, and can be queried using the #f filter.

Event content should be a JSON-encoded value. An empty object {} signifies that the entry at the event path is itself a directory. For example, when saving user/profile/name: Bob, you should also save user/profile: {} so the subdirectory can be listed under user.

In directory names, slashes should be escaped with a double slash.

Example

Event

json { "tags": [ ["d", "user/profile/name"], ["f", "user/profile"] ], "content": "\"Bob\"", "kind": 30079, ... }

Query

json { "#f": ["user/profile"], "authors": ["[pubkey]"] }

Motivation

To make Nostr an "everything app," we need a sustainable way to support new kinds of applications. Browsing Nostr data by human-readable nested directories and paths rather than obscure event kind numbers makes the data more manageable.

Numeric event kinds are not sustainable for the infinite number of potential applications. With numeric event kinds, developers need to find an unused number for each new application and announce it somewhere, which is cumbersome and not scalable.

Directories can also replace monolithic list events like follow lists or profile details. You can update a single directory entry such as user/profile/name or groups/follows/[pubkey] without causing an overwrite of the whole profile or follow list when your client is out-of-sync with the most recent list version, as often happens on Nostr.

Using d-tagged replaceable events for reactions, such as {tags: [["d", "reactions/[eventId]"]], content: "\"👍\"", kind: 30079, ...} would make un-reacting trivial: just publish a new event with the same d tag and an empty content. Toggling a reaction on and off would not cause a flurry of new reaction & delete events that all need to be persisted.

Implementations

• Relays that support tag-replaceable events and indexing by arbitrary tags (in this case f) already support this feature.
• IrisDB client side library: treelike data structure with subscribable nodes.

https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1266

@ 88cc134b:5ae99079

lets try this out nostr:note14vqza005ngr0nk2ft8v4t3qejezqxvulmerna0g5gvs4wjsstqgsmeupgy and nostr:note1gehzcmj6tyzzk3renzvcshkazys8g9q7f8x9p70zatgx7salcsjqax60pz or nostr:note16c3k4ygg39kv77yzeefvmrzngekjcyqcul59ry8jsvg250w4k42qk9d4dw or nostr:note1cxyk4l049r32v24sls2m3cpjpm6c7yrg2d36n34j64ym0ygz73rqzplrn7 and some users nostr:npub13rxpxjc6vh65aay2eswlxejsv0f7530sf64c4arydetpckhfjpustsjeaf and nostr:npub13rxpxjc6vh65aay2eswlxejsv0f7530sf64c4arydetpckhfjpustsjeaf

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

FREEING HUMAN ENERGY AND CAPITAL

@ cd408a69:797e8162

Nostrasia Hackathon

Welcome FOSS hackers and creatives who care deeply about freedom technology!

自由のテクノロジーに深い関わりたい FOSS ハッカーとクリエイター、あつまれ！

We're joining forces with Bolt.Fun for a month-long hackathon bridging Bitcoin and NOSTR (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays), culminating with a special three day sprint and live event in Tokyo at the Nostrasia Conference.

私たちは、Bolt.Fun と協力して、ビットコインと Nostrを橋渡しする ハッカソンを、1 か月間かけて開催します。 クライマックスは東京で開催されるNostrasia Tokyo が舞台。3日間の特別なスプリントとライブ イベントで最高潮に達します。

Be a Part of the Early Days of Nostr

Nostr の創成期を共に作り上げましょう

Help build the future of Nostr! Like the early days of Bitcoin or of the Internet, Nostr is nascent open technology shaping new types of social experiences to connect people across the globe. It carries a foundation of principles similar to Bitcoin, like decentralization, simplicity, and censorship-resistance.

Nostr の未来を築くのに協力してください！ビットコインやインターネットの初期と同じように、Nostr は世界中の人々をつなぐ新しいソーシャル体験を形成するオープン テクノロジーの初期段階にあります。 Nostr には「分散化」「シンプルさ」「検閲耐性」など、ビットコインと同様の原則が組み込まれています。

Orange-Pill people through the Purple-Nostr-Pill

オレンジピル（ビットコイン）から紫の Nostr のピルへ

Bitcoin and Nostr communities are in synergy. What started as a social protocol is quickly transforming into a space for exploration on ways to support content creators through bitcoin lightning micro payments, often referred to as zaps. Bitcoin integration to the nostr protocol strengthens Bitcoin's use case as a currency of exchange. It carves new paths to a culture of value4value.

ビットコインと Nostr のコミュニティは相乗効果を発揮します。 Nostr はソーシャルプロトコルとしてはじまりましたが、今では Zap （ビットコイン の ライトニング マイクロペイメント）を通じてコンテンツ クリエイターをサポートする方法を模索する空間へと急速に進化しています。 Nostr プロトコルにビットコインが組み合わさることで、交換通貨としてのビットコインの働きが強化されます。 それは、"value4value" の文化への新しい道を切り開くでしょう。

Help People HODL their Keys (Social+Monetary)

人々が自分のキーを HODL （長期保有）できるように支援します （ソーシャル + 金銭的に）

Nostr exists outside of the rule of platforms and those who seek to control them. HODLing your nostr keys is hodling your identity and social graph, outside of KYC. By helping develop and educate on NOSTR, you are helping people escape walled gardens & gain control and choice over their identities & their money. The Internet, over time, has become centralized, help Nostr stay decentralized by supporting the growth of an ecosystem of apps, websites, microapps, relay services...

Nostr はプラットフォームやそれを制御しようとする人々の支配の外にあります。 Nostr keys を持つことは、KYC （本人確認）以外であなたのアイデンティティとソーシャル グラフを保持することになります。 Nostr の開発や教育に貢献することは、人々が束縛から解放され、アイデンティティやお金に対する主導権を得られるよう支援することにもなるのです。 時間の経過とともに集中化されてきたインターネットですが、Nostr のアプリ／Web サイト／マイクロアプリ／リレー サービスのエコシステムの成長をサポートすることで、Nostr の分散化を維持できるようになります。

Permissionless Building

許可を必要としない構築

Opportunities abound in an environment ripe for innovation:

• Develop & design new nostr white label clients, middleware, microapps...
• Help improve existing Nostr FOSS projects
• Contribute directly to protocol development through NIPs (Nostr Implementation Possibilities)
• Encourage nostr and bitcoin adoption through art, education, and any way you like

イノベーションの機が熟した環境には、チャンスが溢れています。

• Nostr の真新しい クライアント、ミドルウェア、マイクロアプリを開発したりデザインする
• 既存の Nostr FOSS プロジェクトの改善に寄与する
• NIP (Nostr Implementation Possibilities) を通じたプロトコル開発に直接貢献する
• 芸術、教育、その他好きな方法を通じて Nostr とビットコインの普及を推進する

Hack in a Supportive Environment

サポートされた環境でハックしよう

We have a growing list of knowledgeable people with skin-in-the-game to mentor and support your journey. Once your project matures, you may also have 1-on-1 guidance to help you reach your vision and discover ways of growing and funding it.

私たちは、あなたの道のりを指導しサポートしてくれる知識豊富なメンターを増やしています。 プロジェクトが成熟した暁には、1対1のガイダンスを受けられる可能性もあります。それは、あなたのビジョンを達成し、成長させて資金を得る方法を発見するのに役立つでしょう。

Nostr has a blossoming community open to innovation. It is also a great testing ground, as people in the community are open to giving and receiving feedback. It is an environment encouraging conversation on feature ideas as well as possible solutions to social media issues and product bugs.

Nostr には、イノベーションに対してオープンで、発展しているコミュニティがあります。 コミュニティの人々はフィードバックの授受にオープンであるため、優れた実験の場にもなります。 機能のアイデアや、ソーシャル メディアの課題や製品のバグの解決策についての会話を促進する環境です。

NostrHack Tracks

You have 3 options

NostrHack Tracks には3つのオプションがあります

Track 1: Builder's Track - Reimagine Nostr

トラック1 : ビルダーのトラック - Nostr を再考しよう

If you can think of it, it can be engineered! Nostr encourages permissionless building while staying mindful of interoperability and network support. Help BUIDL, design, and improve an area you are passionate about. Reimagine and BUIDL features, tools, clients... Help solve issues and create new experiences in social media.

思いつくことができれば、エンジニアリングできる！ Nostr は、相互運用性とネットワーク サポートに留意しながら、パーミッションレスな構築 (BUIDL) を奨励しています。 あなたが情熱を注いでいる分野での構築、設計、改善に貢献してください。 機能やツール、クライアントを再考して構築 (BUIDL) し、ソーシャル メディアでの課題を解決して新しい体験を生み出すのに協力してください。

Possibilities...

これを踏まえて…

BUILD on the NOSTR Protocol

The Nostr Implementation Possibilities (NIPs) are optional protocol features anyone can add to their clients. Improve and strengthen existing NIPs or build on new ones. NOSTR is a balance of simplicity, interoperability, backward-compatibility and innovation.

NIPs は、誰でもクライアントに追加できるオプションのプロトコル機能です。 既存の NIP を改善および強化するか、新しい NIP を構築してください。 Nostr は、シンプルさ、相互運用性、下位互換性、革新性のバランスを保っています。

Focus on UX

Nostr is made up of a wide range of clients and tools. To make NOSTR scalable, you can help improve its user experience and education.

Nostr は幅広いクライアントとツールで形成されています。 Nostr をスケーラブルにするために、UX と教育の改善に協力してください。

Help shape a Web of Trust

Nostr cares about removing the KYC tied to our identities. To use Nostr you do not need to give up your phone number, email, financial information, or any metadata tied to your real world identity to be later harvested and sold. You are not the product. What are ways that trust can be earned to prevent impersonation, spam...?

Nostr は、私たちの身元に関連付けられた KYC （個人情報）を取り除けるようにしています。 Nostr を使用しても、電話番号、電子メール、財務情報、または現実世界のアイデンティティに関連付けられたメタデータを、収集されたり販売されたりして手放すことになる心配がありません。 あなたは商品ではないのです。 その中で、なりすましやスパムを防ぐために、信頼を獲得するにはどうすればよいでしょうか...?

NIP05/Nostr address

One of the solutions to build a web of trust used today, is to tie your nostr hex public key to a domain. Although this makes it harder for bots to have nostr addresses, it is not a perfect solution. Domains are centralized through DNS. To help people who do not have their own domains or cannot easily add a NIP05 on their sites, your nostr address can be hosted as a service along with other people's. At this moment, you can highlight just one nostr address per profile. In the future, could it include your website, where you work, and other identifiers... What are other possible solutions?

現在使用されている信頼獲得のための解決策の 1 つは、Nostr の HEX 公開鍵をドメインに結び付けることです。 これにより、完璧な解決策ではないものの、bot などが Nostr アドレスを持つことが難しくなります。 ドメインは DNS を通じて一元化されています。 独自のドメインを持っていない人や、自分では NIP-05 を簡単に追加できない人のために、あなたの Nostr アドレスをサービスとして他の人のものと一緒にホストすることも可能です。 現時点では、プロフィールごとに1つの Nostr アドレスのみを強調表示できますが、将来的には、Web サイト、勤務先、その他の識別情報も含められるようになる可能性があります...この他にも考えられる解決策は何かありますか？

On Decentralization & Discoverability

分散化と発見可能性について

Your identity in NOSTR is tied to your keys, but your information needs to be shared and found across a network of relays. To promote decentralization and censorship resistance, relays need to be easy to setup, lightweight, and sustainable. Relays get to choose what information passes through them, so they are also a form of spam prevention that could potentially also become censoring, so both the relay-runners and the individuals connecting to relays need to have choice and policies cannot be homogenous one-size-fits-all. What are possible solutions to make setting up relays easier, to make running a relay sustainable, to have new ways of discovering information...

Nostr での ID はキーに関連付けられていますが、その情報はリレーのネットワーク全体で共有され、検索できる必要があります。 分散化と検閲耐性を促進するために、リレーはセットアップが簡単で、軽量で、持続可能である必要があります。 リレーは通過する情報を選択できるため、スパム防止の一形態である一方で検閲にもなり得ます。そのため、リレー管理者とリレーに接続する個人の両方に選択権が必要で、ポリシーが全てに対し画一的になってはいけません。 リレーのセットアップを容易にし、リレーの実行を持続可能にし、情報を発見する新しい方法を実現するには、どのような解決策が考えられるでしょうか...？

Buidl tools to connect to Git, as a decentralized alternative to GitHub

GitHub の分散型代替手段として、Git に接続するための BUIDL ツール

Media Uploads

To keep relays lightweight, images are hosted by uploading them to the web, and keeping only the links to them in the data within individual nostr notes. This has led to developing image uploading services specific to nostr, but they carry the risk of centralization or censorship. Some product makers and relay runners are looking into direct uploads to Cloud services. What are possible solutions to the handling of media (images, videos, music...)?

リレーを軽量に保つために、画像は Web にアップロードしてホストされ、各投稿のデータには画像へのリンクのみが保持されます。そんな中で、Nostr に特化した画像アップロード サービスが開発されましたが、集中化や検閲のリスクが伴います。 一部のプロダクト開発者やリレー管理者は、クラウド サービスへの直接アップロードを検討しています。 メディア（画像、ビデオ、音楽など）の処理について、考えられるよい解決策はありますか？

Social Signals

People have the choice to block and mute others, this gives signals to relays, which can reenact policies based on those and other signals. Relays need to be able to differentiate real signals from those wanting to game the system for censorship. Relay runners need to have the capacity to make decisions on what to allow or reject.

ユーザーは他のユーザーをブロックしたりミュートできます。ユーザーの設定内容はリレーに送信され、リレーはその設定に基づいてそれぞれのポリシーを再現できます。 リレーは、実際の設定と、検閲のためにシステムを操作しようとする設定を区別する必要があります。 リレーの管理者には、何を許可し、何を拒否するかを決定する能力が必要です。

Track 2 : Marketplaces & Value4Value

Make freedom of exchange fun again! Nostr extends beyond social. It is integrating ways for content creators to be supported through lightning micropayments, called zaps, for their creations. The possibilities of building niche value4value economies through the exchange of products, services, and ideas, is growing through various avenues: Marketplaces, fundraising, blogs, music, streaming... devise new robust ways of integrating NOSTR and Bitcoin of monetary and skill exchange. Seek to explore distributed, digital reciprocity and free trade. Encourage a culture of value4value.

自由な交流を再び楽しく！ Nostr はソーシャルを超えて広がります。 Zap と呼ばれるマイクロペイメントを通じて、コンテンツクリエイターの作品をサポートできる方法を兼ね備えています。 製品、サービス、アイデアの交換を通じてニッチな価値と価値（value4value）の経済を構築する可能性は、さまざまな手段を通じて拡大しています : マーケットプレイス、資金調達、ブログ、音楽、ストリーミングなど... Nostr とビットコインを組み合わせて、金銭とスキルの交換を行う新しい堅牢な方法を考案します。分散型、デジタル相互主義、自由貿易を探究してください。 価値対価値（value4value）の文化を促進してください。

A value4value culture is not only about the individuals using NOSTR products and services, but also about the developers and creatives building sustainable projects. What are ways of sustaining NOSTR through Bitcoin that do NOT make the individual user the product and that are privacy mindful?

value4value の文化は、Nostr の製品やサービスを使用する個人だけでなく、持続可能なプロジェクトを構築する開発者やクリエイターにも関係します。 個人ユーザーを製品にすることなくプライバシーに配慮しながら、ビットコインを通じて Nostr を持続させる方法は何ですか？

Possibilities...

On Social and Economic Signals

Zaps

Many nostr clients have implemented lightning zap payments. Imagine instead of liking a nostr note, you can zap someone's note and they can receive bits/sats in appreciation for their content. It is a strong signal to creators of the kind of content their audiences are looking for. The Apple App Store has recently banned the zapping of specific notes, per Apple's policy that makes the sale of digital content prohibited except when paid through their services. Fortunately, Nostr exists in many decentralized forms outside of app stores and the community is creating new and innovative ways to send bitcoin and free speech from relay to relay, circumventing barriers as they appear. What are solutions that can make NOSTR and zaps ubiquitous?

多くの Nostr クライアントが Zap を導入しています。Nostr での投稿を「いいね」する代わりに Zap すると、その内容に対する感謝としてビットコイン（サトシ）を受け取ることができるイメージです。 これは、フォロワーがどのような種類のコンテンツを求めているかをクリエイターに伝える強力なシグナルになります。 Apple App Storeは最近、サービスを通じて支払われる場合を除きデジタルコンテンツの販売を禁止するというAppleのポリシーに従い、特定の投稿への Zap を禁止しました。 幸い、Nostr は多くが App Store の外で分散型で存在しているため、コミュニティは障壁を回避しながら、ビットコインと言論の自由をリレーからリレーに送信するための革新的な方法を生み出しています。 Nostr と Zaps をユビキタスにするソリューションとは何ですか？

Track 3 : Empower Communities

Give choice and control back to the individual! Create paths forward to help onboard millions of new users and restore free and uncensored speech to the world

選択とコントロールを個人に返そう。 何百万人もの新規ユーザーの参加を支援し、自由で検閲されていない言論を世界に取り戻すための道筋を作り出してください。

Possibilities...

On Security, Privacy & Self-Custody

Private Communication

Direct Messages on NOSTR are encrypted, but metadata is leaked. If someone's key is compromised, whoever has access to that account can read those messages. Integrating secure and reliable encrypted communication protocols, like the SimpleX messaging protocol, is especially desired by the community, as many in Nostr are aware of the risks of surveillance, authoritarianism, government and Big Tech overreach... Private communication is important for individual rights, in particular for activists and journalists across the globe.

Nostr のダイレクト メッセージは暗号化されていますが、メタデータは漏洩します。 誰かのキーが侵害された場合、そのアカウントにアクセスできる人は誰でもそれらのメッセージを読むことができてしまうのです。Nostr の多くの人が監視、権威主義、政府とビッグテックの行き過ぎのリスクを認識しているため、 SimpleX メッセージング プロトコルのような安全で信頼性の高い暗号化通信プロトコルの統合が、コミュニティによって特に望まれています...プライベート通信は個人の権利にとって重要です 、特に世界中の活動家やジャーナリストにとって。

Zaps & Privacy

Current lightning zap payments tend to be custodial and not mindful of privacy, though they are helping onboard people unto lightning. What are ways that people can grow into non-custodial solutions? A wider adoption of Bolt-12 would improve zap payment privacy, what are ways to encourage that development? What are other possible solutions?

現在のザップの支払いは、ライトニングペイメントに出会うのに役立っているものの、カストディアル（管理的）でプライバシーに配慮していない傾向にあります。 ノンカストディアル（非監護的）なものになるよう解決する方法はありませんか？ Bolt-12 が広く採用されれば、Zap 支払いのプライバシーが向上しますが、その開発を促進するにはどのような方法がありますか？また、他に考えられる解決策はありませんか？

Closing Live 3-Day Sprint at the Nostrasia Conference

Nostrasia Tokyo 3日間のライブスプリントによる締めくくり

Tokyo | Nov 1-3 (you can also join virtually)

If you heard of the Nostrica unconference, which happened in Costa Rica in March of this year, Nostrasia is the second Nostr World conference, bringing NOSTR and Bitcoin awareness to the heart of Asia, where freedom communication and freedom money are direly needed.

今年の3月にコスタリカで開催された Nostrica のことをご存知の方もいると思いますが、ノストラジアは2回目の Nostr 世界カンファレンスです。自由なコミュニケーションと自由なお金が切実に必要とされているアジアの中心にNostr とビットコインの認識をもたらします。

Tokyo and Hong Kong are beautiful cultural hubs with budding Nostr and thriving Bitcoin communities of their own. We are eager to spread NOSTR education and development in those regions and beyond. We will close this Nostrasia month-long hackathon with a 3-day sprint at the Nostrasia Conference in Tokyo.

東京と香港は、新進気鋭のNostrと繁栄する独自のビットコインコミュニティを持つ美しい文化の中心地です。 私たちは、Nostr の教育と開発をこれらの地域やその他の地域に広めることに熱心に取り組んでいます。 この Nostrasia の 1 か月にわたるハッカソンは、Nostrasia Tokyo での 3 日間のスプリントをもって終了します。

We will have a dedicated workshop area and food for you to hack away on the final details of your projects. On the last day of the conference, the most robust projects will get time on stage to present. We will close the Nostrasia Hackathon with a special presentation.

プロジェクトの最終的な詳細を検討するための専用のワークショップ エリアと食事をご用意します。 カンファレンスの最終日には、最も強力なプロジェクトがステージ上でプレゼンテーションを行う時間が与えられます。 Nostrasia Hackathon は特別なプレゼンテーションで締めくくられます。

We cannot wait to see what new and exciting projects are proposed for the Nostrasia Hackathon. We’re eager to welcome devs and non-devs alike to contribute to this space and help #grownostr in any small way to help onboard Asia, and the rest of the world to this robust open communication protocol and decentralized freedom of speech tool.

Nostrasia Hackathon ではどんな斬新でエキサイティングなプロジェクトが提案されるのか楽しみです。 私たちは、開発者も非開発者も同様にこの分野に貢献し、アジアやその他の世界をこの堅牢なオープン通信プロトコルと分散型言論の自由ツールに参加させるために、どんな小さな方法でも #grownostr を支援してくれることを心から歓迎しています。

@ b60c3e76:c9d0f46e

KRIS menjamin semua golongan masyarakat mendapatkan perlakuan sama dari rumah sakit, baik pelayanan medis maupun nonmedis.

Demi memberikan peningkatan kualitas layanan kesehatan kepada masyarakat, pemerintah baru saja mengeluarkan Peraturan Presiden (Perpres) nomor 59 tahun 2024 tentang Jaminan Kesehatan. Melalui perpres itu, Presiden Joko Widodo (Jokowi) telah menghapus perbedaan kelas layanan 1, 2, dan 3 dalam Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial atau BPJS Kesehatan.

Layanan berbasis kelas itu diganti dengan KRIS (Kelas Rawat Inap Standar). Berkaitan dengan lahirnya Perpres 59/2024 tentang Perubahan Ketiga atas Perpres 82/2018 tentang Jaminan Kesehatan, Presiden Joko Widodo telah memerintahkan seluruh rumah sakit yang bekerja sama dengan BPJS Kesehatan melaksanakannya.

Kebijakan baru itu mulai berlaku per 8 Mei 2024 dan paling lambat 30 Juni 2025. Dalam jangka waktu tersebut, rumah sakit dapat menyelenggarakan sebagian atau seluruh pelayanan rawat inap berdasarkan KRIS sesuai dengan kemampuan rumah sakit.

Lantas apa yang menjadi pembeda dari sisi layanan dengan layanan rawat inap sesuai Perpres 59/2024? Dahulu sistem layanan rawat BPJS Kesehatan dibagi berdasarkan kelas yang dibagi masing-masing kelas 1, 2, dan 3. Namun, melalui perpres, layanan kepada masyarakat tidak dibedakan lagi.

Pelayanan rawat inap yang diatur dalam perpres itu--dikenal dengan nama KRIS—menjadi sistem baru yang digunakan dalam pelayanan rawat inap BPJS Kesehatan di rumah sakit-rumah sakit. Dengan KRIS, semua golongan masyarakat akan mendapatkan perlakuan yang sama dari rumah sakit, baik dalam hal pelayanan medis maupun nonmedis.

Dengan lahirnya Perpres 59/2024, tarif iuran BPJS Kesehatan pun juga akan berubah. Hanya saja, dalam Perpres itu belum dicantumkan secara rinci ihwal besar iuran yang baru. Besaran iuran baru BPJS Kesehatan itu sesuai rencana baru ditetapkan pada 1 Juli 2025.

“Penetapan manfaat, tarif, dan iuran sebagaimana dimaksud ditetapkan paling lambat tanggal 1 Juli 2025,” tulis aturan tersebut, dikutip Senin (13/5/2024).

Itu artinya, iuran BPJS Kesehatan saat ini masih sama seperti sebelumnya, yakni sesuai dengan kelas yang dipilih. Namun perpres itu tetap berlaku sembari menanti lahirnya peraturan lanjutan dari perpres tersebut.

Kesiapan Rumah Sakit

Berkaitan dengan lahirnya kebijakan layanan kesehatan tanpa dibedakan kelas lagi, Kementerian Kesehatan (Kemenkes) menegaskan mayoritas rumah sakit di Indonesia siap untuk menjalankan layanan KRIS untuk pasien BPJS Kesehatan.

Kesiapan itu diungkapkan oleh Dirjen Pelayanan Kesehatan Kemenkes Azhar Jaya. “Survei kesiapan RS terkait KRIS sudah dilakukan pada 2.988 rumah sakit dan yang sudah siap menjawab isian 12 kriteria ada sebanyak 2.233 rumah sakit,” ujar Azhar.

Sebagai informasi, KRIS adalah pengganti layanan Kelas 1, 2, dan 3 BPJS Kesehatan yang bertujuan untuk memberikan layanan kesehatan secara merata tanpa melihat besaran iurannya.

Melalui KRIS, rumah sakit perlu menyiapkan sarana dan prasarana sesuai dengan 12 kriteria kelas rawat inap standar secara bertahap. Apa saja ke-12 kriteria KRIS itu?

Sesuai bunyi Pasal 46A Perpres 59/2024, disyaratkan kriteria fasilitas perawatan dan pelayanan rawat inap KRIS meliputi komponen bangunan yang digunakan tidak boleh memiliki tingkat porositas yang tinggi serta terdapat ventilasi udara dan kelengkapan tidur.

Demikian pula soal pencahayaan ruangan. Perpres itu juga mengatur pencahayaan ruangan buatan mengikuti kriteria standar 250 lux untuk penerangan dan 50 lux untuk pencahayaan tidur, temperature ruangan 20--26 derajat celcius.

Tidak hanya itu, layanan rawat inap berdasarkan perpres itu mensyaratkan fasilitas layanan yang membagi ruang rawat berdasarkan jenis kelamin pasien, anak atau dewasa, serta penyakit infeksi atau noninfeksi.

Selain itu, kriteria lainnya adalah keharusan bagi penyedia layanan untuk mempertimbangkan kepadatan ruang rawat dan kualitas tempat tidur, penyediaan tirai atau partisi antartempat tidur, kamar mandi dalam ruangan rawat inap yang memenuhi standar aksesibilitas, dan menyediakan outlet oksigen.

Selain itu, kelengkapan tempat tidur berupa adanya dua kotak kontak dan nurse call pada setiap tempat tidur dan adanya nakas per tempat tidur. Kepadatan ruang rawat inap maksimal empat tempat tidur dengan jarak antara tepi tempat tidur minimal 1,5 meter.

Tirai/partisi dengan rel dibenamkan menempel di plafon atau menggantung. Kamar mandi dalam ruang rawat inap serta kamar mandi sesuai dengan standar aksesibilitas dan outlet oksigen.

Azhar menjamin, Kemenkes akan menjalankan hal tersebut sesuai dengan tupoksi yang ada. “Tentu saja kami akan bekerja sama dengan BPJS Kesehatan dalam implementasi dan pengawasannya di lapangan,” ujar Azhar.

Berkaitan dengan perpres jaminan kesehatan itu, Direktur Utama BPJS Kesehatan Ghufron Mukti menilai, perpres tersebut berorientasi pada penyeragaman kelas rawat inap yang mengacu pada 12 kriteria. "Bahwa perawatan ada kelas rawat inap standar dengan 12 kriteria, untuk peserta BPJS, maka sebagaimana sumpah dokter tidak boleh dibedakan pemberian pelayan medis atas dasar suku, agama, status sosial atau beda iurannya," ujarnya.

Jika ada peserta ingin dirawat pada kelas yang lebih tinggi, kata Ghufron, maka diperbolehkan selama hal itu dipengaruhi situasi nonmedis. Hal itu disebutkan dalam Pasal 51 Perpres Jaminan Kesehatan diatur ketentuan naik kelas perawatan.

Menurut pasal tersebut, naik kelas perawatan dilakukan dengan cara mengikuti asuransi kesehatan tambahan atau membayar selisih antara biaya yang dijamin oleh BPJS Kesehatan dengan biaya yang harus dibayar akibat peningkatan pelayanan.

Selisih antara biaya yang dijamin oleh BPJS Kesehatan dengan biaya pelayanan dapat dibayar oleh peserta bersangkutan, pemberi kerja, atau asuransi kesehatan tambahan.

Ghufron Mukti juga mengimbau pengelola rumah sakit tidak mengurangi jumlah tempat tidur perawatan pasien dalam upaya memenuhi kriteria KRIS. "Pesan saya jangan dikurangi akses dengan mengurangi jumlah tempat tidur. Pertahankan jumlah tempat tidur dan penuhi persyaratannya dengan 12 kriteria tersebut," tegas Ghufron.

Penulis: Firman Hidranto Redaktur: Ratna Nuraini/Elvira Inda Sari Sumber: Indonesia.go.id

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

Lot of people are starting to talk about building a web-of-trust and how nostr can or is already being used as such

We all know about using the kind:3 following lists as a simple WoT that can be used to filter out spam. but as we all know it does not really signal "trust", its mostly just "I find your content interesting"

But what about real "trust"... well its kind of multi-denominational, I could trust that your a good developer or a good journalist but still not trust you enough to invite you over to my house. There are some interesting and clever solutions proposed for quantifying "trust" in a digital sense but I'm not going to get into that here. I want to talk about something that I have not see anyone discuss yet.

How is the web-of-trust maintained? or more precisely how do you expect users to update the digital representation of the "trust" of other users?

Its all well and good to think of how a user would create that "trust" of another user when discovering them for the first time. They would click the "follow" button, or maybe even rate them on a few topics with a 1/5 star system But how will a user remove that trust? how will they update it if things change and they trust them less?

If our goal is to model "trust" in a digital sense then we NEED a way for the data to stay up-to-date and as accurate as possible. otherwise whats the use? If we don't have a friction-less way to update or remove the digital representation of "trust" then we will end up with a WoT that continuously grows and everyone is rated 10/10

In the case of nostr kind:3 following lists. its pretty easy to see how these would get updated. If someone posts something I dislike or I notice I'm getting board of their content. then I just unfollow them. An important part here is that I'm not thinking "I should update my trust score of this user" but instead "I'm no longer interested, I don't want to see this anymore"

But that is probably the easiest "trust" to update. because most of us on social media spend some time curating our feed and we are used to doing it. But what about the more obscure "trust" scores? whats the regular mechanism by which a user would update the "honestly" score of another user?

In the real world its easy, when I stop trusting someone I simply stop associating with them. there isn't any button or switch I need to update. I simply don't talk to them anymore, its friction-less But in the digital realm I would have to remove or update that trust. in other words its an action I need to take instead of an action I'm not doing. and actions take energy.

So how do we reflect something in the digital world that takes no-energy and is almost subconscious in the real world?

TLDR; webs-of-trust are not just about scoring other users once. you must keep the score up-to-date

@ 188302bb:9052db11

He also said he'd free Ross Ulbricht. I think I'd vote for him if he was anyone else.

@ 9ecbb0e7:06ab7c09

Según nos reporta y documenta la familia, la niña pequeña de 3 años de edad Leadi Kataleya Naranjo, hija del preso de conciencia Idael Naranjo Pérez, ha sido citada para mañana por la Seguridad del Estado de #Cuba. La citación no ofrece duda e indica los dos nombres, apellido y la dirección de la abuela paterna, donde entregaron la citación, y la abuela también ha sido citada y amenazada de desobediencia. Si la niña no se presenta, amenazan de acusarla igualmente de "desobediencia". La abuela se preocupó, les dijo la edad, y aún así entregaron la citación y se fueron. Que "debían presentarse". Nada más. Desalmados son, pero... ¿Qué clase de locos de atar están al mando en #Cuba? ¿Qué pretenden citando y amenazando a una niña de 3 años? Esa niña no puede ir a esa ignominiosa citación. ¿A oír qué? ¿A responder qué? El tema da ASCO. La familia no quiere llevar a la niña, y necesitan todo el apoyo para que esta locura se aclare y se detenga. Desgraciadamente hemos visto cosas iguales o peores. Niños amenazados, separados por la fuerza de sus padres, menores torturados... El régimen de Cuba da mucho asco, por todos lados rezuma repugnancia y degradación. Todo lo que sucede en Cuba clama al cielo, y estas barbaries son distópicas. ¡MANTENGAN AL MARGEN A LOS NIÑOS, DESALMADOS ENFERMOS! Bastante daño causan con la Ley de los 8 años que tiene a miles de niños huérfanos, separados forzosamente de sus madres para castigarlas a ellas por no doblegarse a trabajar en las misiones médicas esclavas de Cuba en el exterior, como sentenció el Comité de los Derechos del Niño. ¡BASTA YA!

11jul #11j #11jCuba #CubaEsUnaDictadura #UNICEF @uniceflac @unicefenespanol

@ 188302bb:9052db11

I couldn't find anything but zap which is not maintained anymore. I'm looking for a super easy experience. I don't want to run my own node. I tried that and lost $800 worth of bitcoin trying to hassle with channels.

@ a6be8a56:188688f7

rm

@ a6be8a56:188688f7

rm

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

From my perspective, we are living through a webpage revolution. AMA.

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

While I was in Mediera with all the other awesome people at the first SEC cohort there where a lot of discussions around data storage on nostr and if it could be made censorship-resistent

I remember lots of discussions about torrents, hypercore, nostr relays, and of course IPFS

There were a few things I learned from all these conversations:

1. All the existing solutions have one thing in common. A universal ID of some kind for files
2. HTTP is still good. we don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water
3. nostr could fix this... somehow

Some of the existing solutions work well for large files, and all of them are decentralization in some way. However none of them seem capable of serving up cat pictures for social media clients. they all have something missing...

An Identity system

An identity system would allow files to be "owned" by users. and once files have owners servers could start grouping files into a single thing instead of a 1000+ loose files

This can also greatly simplify the question of "what is spam" for a server hosting (or seeding) these files. since it could simply have a whitelist of owners (and maybe their friends)

What is blossom?

Blossom is a set of HTTP endpoints that allow nostr users to store and retrieve binary data on public servers using the sha256 hash as a universal id

What are Blobs?

blobs are chunks of binary data. they are similar to files but with one key difference, they don't have names

Instead blobs have a sha256 hash (like b1674191a88ec5cdd733e4240a81803105dc412d6c6708d53ab94fc248f4f553) as an ID

These IDs are universal since they can be computed from the file itself using the sha256 hashing algorithm ( you can get a files sha256 hash on linux using: sha256sum bitcoin.pdf )

How do the servers work?

Blossom servers expose four endpoints to let clients and users upload and manage blobs

• GET /<sha256> (optional file .ext)
• PUT /upload
• Authentication: Signed nostr event
• Returns a blob descriptor
• GET /list/<pubkey>
• Returns an array of blob descriptors
• Authentication (optional): Signed nostr event
• DELETE /<sha256>
• Authentication: Signed nostr event

What is Blossom Drive?

Blossom Drive is a nostr app built on top of blossom servers and allows users to create and manage folders of blobs

What are Drives

Drives are just nostr events (kind 30563) that store a map of blobs and what filename they should have along with some extra metadata

An example drive event would be json { "pubkey": "266815e0c9210dfa324c6cba3573b14bee49da4209a9456f9484e5106cd408a5", "created_at": 1710773987, "content": "", "kind": 30563, "tags": [ [ "name", "Emojis" ], [ "description", "nostr emojis" ], [ "d", "emojis" ], [ "r", "https://cdn.hzrd149.com/" ], [ "x", "303f018e613f29e3e43264529903b7c8c84debbd475f89368cb293ec23938981", "/noStrudel.png", "15161", "image/png" ], [ "x", "a0e2b39975c8da1702374b3eed6f4c6c7333e6ae0008dadafe93bd34bfb2ca78", "/satellite.png", "6853", "image/png" ], [ "x", "e8f3fae0f4a43a88eae235a8b79794d72e8f14b0e103a0fed1e073d8fb53d51f", "/amethyst.png", "20487", "image/png" ], [ "x", "70bd5836807b916d79e9c4e67e8b07e3e3b53f4acbb95c7521b11039a3c975c6", "/nos.png", "36521", "image/png" ], [ "x", "0fc304630279e0c5ab2da9c2769e3a3178c47b8609b447a30916244e89abbc52", "/primal.png", "29343", "image/png" ], [ "x", "9a03824a73d4af192d893329bbc04cd3798542ee87af15051aaf9376b74b25d4", "/coracle.png", "18300", "image/png" ], [ "x", "accdc0cdc048f4719bb5e1da4ff4c6ffc1a4dbb7cf3afbd19b86940c01111568", "/iris.png", "24070", "image/png" ], [ "x", "2e740f2514d6188e350d95cf4756bbf455d2f95e6a09bc64e94f5031bc4bba8f", "/damus.png", "32758", "image/png" ], [ "x", "2e019f08da0c75fb9c40d81947e511c8f0554763bffb6d23a7b9b8c9e8c84abb", "/old emojis/astral.png", "29365", "image/png" ], [ "x", "d97f842f2511ce0491fe0de208c6135b762f494a48da59926ce15acfdb6ac17e", "/other/rabbit.png", "19803", "image/png" ], [ "x", "72cb99b689b4cfe1a9fb6937f779f3f9c65094bf0e6ac72a8f8261efa96653f5", "/blossom.png", "4393", "image/png" ] ] }

There is a lot going on but the main thing is the list of "x" tags and the path that describes the folder and filename the blob should live at

If your interested, the full event definition is at github.com/hzrd149/blossom-drive

Getting started

Like every good nostr client it takes a small instruction manual in order to use it properly. so here are the steps for getting started

1. Open the app

Open https://blossom.hzrd149.com

2. Login using extension

You can also login using any of the following methods using the input - NIP-46 with your https://nsec.app or https://flare.pub account - a NIP-46 connection string - an ncryptsec password protected private key - a nsec unprotected private key (please don't) - bunker:// URI from nsecbunker

3. Add a blossom server

Right now https://cdn.satellite.earth is the only public server that is compatible with blossom drive. If you want to host your own I've written a basic implementation in TypeScript github.com/hzrd149/blossom-server

4. Start uploading your files

NOTE: All files upload to blossom drive are public by default. DO NOT upload private files

5. Manage files

Encrypted drives

There is also the option to encrypt drives using NIP-49 password encryption. although its not tested at all so don't trust it, verify

Whats next?

I don't know, but Im excited to see what everyone else on nostr builds with this. I'm only one developer at the end of the day and I can't think of everything

also all the images in this article are stored in one of my blossom drives here

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqrhvvpzqfngzhsvjggdlgeycm96x4emzjlwf8dyyzdfg4hefp89zpkdgz99qq8xzun5d93kcefdd9kkzem9wvr46jka

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

Güneşin kaybolmasının üçüncü günü, saat öğlen on ikiyi yirmi geçiyordu. Trenin kalkmasına yaklaşık iki saat vardı. Hepimiz perondaydık. Valizlerimiz, kolilerimiz, renk renk ve biçimsiz çantalarımızla yan yana dizilmiş, kısa aralıklarla tepemizdeki devasa saati kontrol ediyorduk.

Ama ne kadar dik bakarsak bakalım zaman bir türlü istediğimiz hızla ilerlemiyordu. Herkes birkaç dakika sürmesi gereken alelade bir doğa olayına sıkışıp kalmış, karanlıktan sürünerek çıkmayı deniyordu.

Bekleme salonuna doğru döndüm. Nefesimden çıkan buharın arkasında, kalın taş duvarları ve camlarıyla morg kadar güvenli ve soğuk duruyordu. Cesetleri o yüzden bunun gibi yerlere taşımaya başlamışlardı. Demek insanların bütün iyiliği başkaları onları gördüğü içindi ki gündüzleri gecelerden daha karanlık olduğunda hemen birbirlerinin gırtlağına çökmüş, böğürlerinde delikler açmış, gözlerini oyup kafataslarını parçalamışlardı.

İstasyonun ışığı titrediğinde karanlığın enseme saplandığını hissettim. Eğer şimdi, böyle kalabalık bir yerde elektrik kesilse başımıza ne gelirdi?

İçerideki askerlerden biri bakışlarımı yakalayınca yeniden saate odaklanmış gibi yaptım. Sadece birkaç dakika geçmişti.

“Tarlalarım gitti. Böyle boyum kadar ayçiçeği doluydu. Ah, hepsi ölüp gidiyor. Afitap’ın çiçekleri de gi-”

“Dayı, Allah’ını seversen sus. Hepimizi yakacaksın şimdi.”

Karanlıkta durduğunda, görünmez olmayı istemeye başlıyordun. Kimse seni görmemeli, nefesini bile duymamalıydı. Kimsenin de ayağının altında dolaşmamalıydın; gelip kazayla sana çarpmamalılar, takılıp sendelememeliydiler. Yoksa aslında hedefi sen olmadığın bir öfke gürlemeye başlar, yaşadığın ilk şoku ve acıyı silerek üstünden geçerdi.

İlk konuşan, yaşlıca bir adam, kafasında kasketi, nasırlı ellerine hohluyordu. Gözleri ve burnu kızarmıştı. Güneşin kaybolması onun için kendi başına bir felaket değildi. Hayatına olan pratik yansımalarından korkuyordu olsa olsa. Bir anının kaybolması, bu yüzden çoktan kaybettiği birinin biraz daha eksilmesi. Hayatta kalmasını gerektiren sebepler azalırken, hayatta kalmasını sağlayacak kaynaklarını da kaybediyordu.

Onu susturan delikanlıysa atkısını bütün kafasına sarmış, sakalı ve yüzünün derinliklerine kaçmış gözleri dışında bedeninin bütün parçalarını gizlemeye çalışıyordu. İşte o, güneşin kaybolmasının tam olarak ne anlama geldiğini anlamamış olsa bile, dehşetini olduğu gibi hissedebilenlerdendi.

Güneşin onlardan alındıktan sonra kime verileceğini sormuyorlardı. En başta onlara verildiğinde de hiçbir soru sormamışlardı zaten.

İki saat ne zaman geçer?

Midemin üstünde, sağ tarafıma doğru keskin bir acı hissettim. Karaciğerim. Gözlerimi yumdum. Yanımda biri metal bir nesneyi yere bıraktı. Bir kafesti. İçerisindeki kartalın ıslak kokusu burnuma ulaşmadan önce bile biliyordum bunu.

“Yeniden mi?” diye sordu bana kartal. Kanatları kanlı. Zamanın her bir parçası tüylerinin üstüne çöreklenmişti. Gagası bir şey, tahminen et parçası geveliyor gibi hareket ediyordu. Eski anılar kolay unutulmazmış. Şu anda kafesinin kalın parmaklıklarının ardında olsa da bunun bir aldatmaca olduğunu bir tek ben biliyordum. Her an kanatlarını iki yana uzatıverebilir, hava bu hareketiyle dalgalanarak kafesi esneterek hepimizi içine alacak kadar genişleyebilir, parmaklıklar önce ayaklarımızın altına serilir gibi gözükebilir ama aslında hepimizin üstünde yükselerek tepemize çökebilirdi.

Aşağıya baktım. Tahtalarla zapt edilmiş, hiçbir yere gidemeyen ama her yere uzanan tren rayları. Atlayıp koşsam… Çantam çok ağırdı. Daha birkaç adım atamadan, kartal, suratını bedenime gömerdi.

“Bu sefer farklı,” diye yanıtladım onu. “Yeniden diyemezsin. Tekrarladığım bir şey değil bu. Hatta bir hata yapıyormuşum gibi tonlayamazsın da. Bu sefer, insanların hak etmediğini biliyorum.”

“O zaman daha vahim. Süzme salaksın demektir.”

“İnsanların hak etmemesi, insanlığın hak etmediği anlamına gelmez ki.”

Az önce göz göze geldiğim genççe ama çökük asker hâlâ bana bakıyordu. Bir kartalla konuştuğumu anlamamıştı şüphesiz. Yanımdakilerden biriyle konuştuğumu sanmış olmalıydı. Ama konuştuğum kişiye bakmıyordum ona göre. Çekingence kafamı eğmiştim. Bir kez daha göz göze geldiğimizde içerideki diğer iki askere bir şeyler söyledi, onlar dönüp beni süzerken dışarı çıktı.

Yanımızdaki, az önce konuşan iki adam da şaşkınlıkla bir bana bir kartala bakıyordu.

“Yalnız bu sefer kalbin de kırılacak, Prometheus,” dedi kartal, bana. “Belki son olur. Biliyorsun, bir sürü soruna neden oluyor bu yaptıkların.”

Beni koruyordu sözde. En çok kanıma dokunan buydu. Kasıklarımın üstüne oturmuş, kanlı suratının ardında gözleri parlarken attığı çığlık kulaklarımda titremeye devam ediyordu. Bu tabloda kimsenin kimseyi düşündüğü yoktu. Kartalın, yanımızdaki adamların, artık arkama kadar gelmiş olması gereken askerin, tren raylarının, geçmeyen saatlerin…

Arkamı döndüğümde, asker sahiden oradaydı. Zaten öyle olması gerekiyordu; görmüştüm bunu, biliyordum. Kehanetler… Bir şeyler söylüyordu ama ağzı oynarken sesi çıkmıyordu. Yavaşlamış, kendisini saatin akışına uydurmuştu. Havada donan tükürüğünden anlaşılıyordu, sinirliydi. Korktuğu için olduğunu biliyordum. Her seferinde korkmuşlardı. Beni unutmuş olmaları işlerini kolaylaştırmıyordu. Sadece yeni bir isim vermelerine neden oluyordu. Bu seferkiyle beni lanetleyecekleri kesinleşmişti.

Olması gerekenle olanların farklı olması ne kadar acınasıydı. Olması gerekenlerin doğasının kötücül olmasıysa bir yerde buna dayanıyordu.

“Salaksın,” dedi kartal bana. Zamanı aşan bir çığlık. Hepimizin önüne geçmişti ama kimseyi durduramıyordu.

Sonsuzluğa kaç tane iki saat sıkıştırabilirsiniz?

Ben bir tane bile sıkıştıramadım.

Çantama uzanıyordum. Asker de sırtındaki tüfeğini indiriyordu. Benim acelem yoktu, onunsa eli ayağı birbirine dolaşıyordu. Oysaki her şey tam olması gerektiği anda olacaktı. Kehanet başkasının parmaklarının ucundaydı.

Güneş, bir tüfeğin patlamasıyla yeryüzüne doğdu.

Rayların üzerine serilmiş göğsümün ortasından, bir çantanın içinden.

Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2021 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Why relay hints are important

Recently Coracle has removed support for following relay hints in Nostr event references.

Supposedly Coracle is now relying only on public key hints and kind:10002 events to determine where to fetch events from a user. That is a catastrophic idea that destroys much of Nostr's flexibility for no gain at all.

• Someone makes a post inside a community (either a NIP-29 community or a NIP-87 community) and others want to refer to that post in discussions in the external Nostr world of kind:1s -- now that cannot work because the person who created the post doesn't have the relays specific to those communities in their outbox list;
• There is a discussion happening in a niche relay, for example, a relay that can only be accessed by the participants of a conference for the duration of that conference -- since that relay is not in anyone's public outbox list, it's impossible for anyone outside of the conference to ever refer to these events;
• Some big public relays, say, relay.damus.io, decide to nuke their databases or periodically delete old events, a user keeps using that big relay as their outbox because it is fast and reliable, but chooses to archive their old events in a dedicated archival relay, say, cellar.nostr.wine, while prudently not including that in their outbox list because that would make no sense -- now it is impossible for anyone to refer to old notes from this user even though they are publicly accessible in cellar.nostr.wine;
• There are topical relays that curate content relating to niche (non-microblogging) topics, say, cooking recipes, and users choose to publish their recipes to these relays only -- but now they can't refer to these relays in the external Nostr world of kind:1s because these topical relays are not in their outbox lists.
• Suppose a user wants to maintain two different identities under the same keypair, say, one identity only talks about soccer in English, while the other only talks about art history in French, and the user very prudently keeps two different kind:10002 events in two different sets of "indexer" relays (or does it in some better way of announcing different relay sets) -- now one of this user's audiences cannot ever see notes created by him with their other persona, one half of the content of this user will be inacessible to the other half and vice-versa.
• If for any reason a relay does not want to accept events of a certain kind a user may publish to other relays, and it would all work fine if the user referenced that externally-published event from a normal event, but now that externally-published event is not reachable because the external relay is not in the user's outbox list.
• If someone, say, Alex Jones, is hard-banned everywhere and cannot event broadcast kind:10002 events to any of the commonly used index relays, that person will now appear as banned in most clients: in an ideal world in which clients followed nprofile and other relay hints Alex Jones could still live a normal Nostr life: he would print business cards with his nprofile instead of an npub and clients would immediately know from what relay to fetch his posts. When other users shared his posts or replied to it, they would include a relay hint to his personal relay and others would be able to see and then start following him on that relay directly -- now Alex Jones's events cannot be read by anyone that doesn't already know his relay.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

O Planetinha

Fumaça verde me entrando pelas narinas e um coro desafinado fazia uma base melódica.

nos confins da galáxia havia um planetinha isolado. Era um planeta feliz.

O homem vestido de mago começava a aparecer por detrás da fumaça verde.

O planetinha recebeu três presentes, mas o seu habitante, o homem, estava num estado de confusão tão grande que ameaçava estragá-los. Os homens já havia escravizado o primeiro presente, a vida; lutavam contra o segundo presente, a morte; e havia alguns que achavam que deviam destruir totalmente o terceiro, o amor, e com isto levar a desordem total ao pobre planetinha perdido, que se chamava Terra.

O coro desafinado entrou antes do "Terra" cantando várias vezes, como se imitasse um eco, "terra-terra-terraaa". Depois de uma pausa dramática, o homem vestido de mago voltou a falar.

Terra, nossa nave mãe.

Neste momento eu me afastei. À frente do palco onde o mago e seu coral faziam apelos à multidão havia vários estandes cobertos com a tradicional armação de quatro pernas e lona branca. Em todos os cantos da praça havia gente, gente dos mais variados tipos. Visitantes curiosos que se aproximavam atraídos pela fumaça verde e as barraquinhas, gente que aproveitava o movimento para vender doces sem pagar imposto, casais que se abraçavam de pé para espantar o frio, os tradicionais corredores que faziam seu cooper, gente cheia de barba e vestida para imitar os hippies dos anos 60 e vender colares estendidos no chão, transeuntes novos e velhos, vestidos como baladeiros ou como ativistas do ônibus grátis, grupos de ciclistas entusiastas.

O mago fazia agora apelos para que nós, os homens, habitantes do isolado planetinha, passássemos a ver o planetinha, nossa nave mãe, como um todo, e adquiríssemos a consciência de que ele estava entrando em maus lençóis. A idéia, reforçada pela logomarca do evento, era que parássemos de olhar só para a nossa vida e pensássemos no planeta.

A logomarca do evento, um desenho estilizado do planeta Terra, nada tinha a ver com seu nome: "Festival Andando de Bem com a Vida", mas havia sido ali colocada estrategicamente pelos organizadores, de quem parecia justamente sair a mensagem dita pelo mago.

Aquela multidão de pessoas que, assim como eu, tinham suas próprias preocupações, não podiam ver o quadro caótico que formavam, cada uma com seus atos isolados, ali naquela praça isolada, naquele planeta isolado. Quando o hippie barbudo, quase um Osho, assustava um casal para tentar vender-lhes um colar, a quantidade de caos que isto acrescentava à cena era gigantesca. Por um segundo, pude ver, como se estivesse de longe e acima, com toda a pretensão que este estado imaginativo carrega, a cena completa do caos.

---

Uma nave-mãe, dessas de ficção científica, habitada por milhões de pessoas, seguia no espaço sem rumo, e sem saber que logo à frente um longo precipício espacial a esperava, para a desgraça completa sua e de seus habitantes.

Acostumados àquela nave tanto quanto outrora estiveram acostumados à sua terra natal, os homens viviam as próprias vidas sem nem se lembrar que estavam vagando pelo espaço. Ninguém sabia quem estava conduzindo a nave, e ninguém se importava.

No final do filme descobre-se que era a soma completa do caos que cada habitante produzia, com seus gestos egoístas e incapazes de levar em conta a totalidade, é que determinava a direção da nave-mãe. O efeito, no entanto, não era imediato, como nunca é. Havia gente de verdade encarregada de conduzir a nave, mas era uma gente bêbada, mau-caráter, que vivia brigando pelo controle da nave e o poder que isto lhes dava. Poder, status, dinheiro!

Essa gente bêbada era atraída até ali pela corrupção das instituições e da moral comum que, no fundo no fundo, era causada pelo egoísmo da população, através de um complexo -- mas que no filme aparece simplificado pela ação individual de um magnata do divertimento público -- processo social.

O homem vestido de mago era mais um agente causador de caos, com sua cena cheia de fumaça e sua roupa estroboscópica, ele achava que estava fazendo o bem ao alertar sua platéia, todos as sextas-feiras, de que havia algo que precisava ser feito, que cada um que estava ali ouvindo era responsável pelo planeta. A sua incapacidade, porém, de explicar o que precisava ser feito só aumentava a angústia geral; a culpa que ele jogava sobre seu público, e que era prontamente aceita e passada em frente, aos familiares e amigos de cada um, atormentava-os diariamente e os impedia de ter uma vida decente no trabalho e em casa. As famílias, estressadas, estavam constantemente brigando e os motivos mais insignificantes eram responsáveis pelas mais horrendas conseqüências.

O mago, que após o show tirava o chapéu entortado e ia tomar cerveja num boteco, era responsável por uma parcela considerável do caos que levava a nave na direção do seu desgraçado fim. No filme, porém, um dos transeuntes que de passagem ouviu um pedaço do discurso do mago despertou em si mesmo uma consiência transformadora e, com poderes sobre-humanos que lhe foram então concedidos por uma ordem iniciática do bem ou não, usando só os seus poderes humanos mesmo, o transeunte -- na primeira versão do filme um homem, na segunda uma mulher -- consegue consertar as instituições e retirar os bêbados da condução da máquina. A questão da moral pública é ignorada para abreviar a trama, já com duas horas e quarenta de duração, mas subentende-se que ela também fora resolvida.

---

No planeta Terra real, que não está indo em direção alguma, preso pela gravidade ao Sol, e onde as pessoas vivem a própria vida porque lhes é impossível viver a dos outros, não têm uma consciência global de nada porque só é possível mesmo ter a consciência delas mesmas, e onde a maioria, de uma maneira ou de outra, está tentando como pode, fazer as coisas direito, o filme é exibido.

Para a maioria dos espectadores, é um filme que evoca reflexões, um filme forte. Por um segundo elas têm o mesmo vislumbre do caos generalizado que eu tive ali naquela praça. Para uma pequena parcela dos espectadores -- entre eles alguns dos que estavam na platéia do mago, o próprio mago, o seguidor do Osho, o casal de duas mulheres e o vendedor de brigadeiros, mas aos quais se somam também críticos de televisão e jornal e gente que fala pelos cotovelos na internet -- o filme é um horror, o filme é uma vulgarização de um problema real e sério, o filme apela para a figura do herói salvador e passa uma mensagem totalmente errada, de que a maioria da população pode continuar vivendo as suas própria vidinhas miseráveis enquanto espera por um herói que vem do Olimpo e os salva da mixórdia que eles mesmos causaram, é um filme que presta um enorme desserviço à causa.

No dia seguinte ao lançamento, num bar meio caro ali perto da praça, numa mesa com oito pessoas, entre elas seis do primeiro grupo e oito do segundo, discute-se se o filme levará ou não o Oscar. Eu estou em casa dormindo e não escuto nada.

@ a6be8a56:188688f7

rm

@ a6be8a56:188688f7

rm

@ a853296a:209e695f

What up stackers! We're back for a quick update: Today we're announcing the release of our new Word Level Transcripts API!

Have you ever heard a great point in a talk/podcast and not able to find it later? CASCDR Voice to Text fixes this . Just upload or provide a link to an mp3 or mp4 file and CASCDR comes back with your transcript:

Previously we launched this service as a proof of concept. Truthfully it was not good enough so we went ahead and upgraded it: - 20 min media limit -> 5 hour limit - Single Monolthic Transcript -> You can get full transcript, sentence level timestamps or word level timestamps

We implemented this new API in our YouTube Logic App to integrate the entire workflow. With just a YouTube URL you can explore, search and copy the entire transcript to your clipboard.

Searching the latest SNL with @Car and @k00b for updates on BOLT12

At CASCDR we believe that lightning enables a future of open, flexible, decentralized and truly useful AI applications and agents. A boon for humanity that cannot be overstated. Each and every service we create provides value to humans today but is also available to automated software and AI services from day 1. If this application interests you hit us with suggestions/questions/thoughts in the comments!

If you want virtually unlimited access to this tool or many others we offer CASCDR Amber for $9.99/month . Otherwise we also accept payments through the @Alby Bitcoin Connect plugin!

Additional Links/Materials

That's it for today! If you made it this far thank you! Here is a list of more CASCDR materials you can check out: SN Post about CASCDRVision AI Clipping Tool: https://stacker.news/items/568299 SN Post about YouTube Summarizer Agent: https://stacker.news/items/418051 CASCDR Appearance on AI Unchained with @GuySwann_nostr : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3w9wqPw5xQ&pp=ygUQY2FzY2RyIGd1eSBzd2Fubg%3D%3D CASCDR Presentation at @PlebLab Top Builder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3aWdGVx7s&pp=ygUSdG9wIGJ1aWxkZXIgY2FzY2Ry

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/600228

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

Kendisini aynada ilk defa gördüğü o gün, diğerleri gibi olduğunu anlamıştı. Oysaki her insan biricik olmalıydı. Sözgelimi sinirlendiğinde bir kaşı diğerinden birkaç milimetre daha az çatılabilirdi veya sevindiğinde dudağı ona has bir açıyla dalgalanabilirdi. Hatta bunların hiçbiri mümkün değilse, en azından, gözlerinin içinde sadece onun sahip olabileceği bir ışık parlayabilirdi. Çok sıradan, öyle sıradan ki kimsenin fark etmediği o milyonlarca minik şeyden herhangi biri. Ne olursa.

Ama yansımasına bakarken bunların hiçbirini bulamadı ve diğer günlerden hiç de farklı başlamamış o gün, işe gitmek için vagonunun gelmesini beklediği alelade bir metro istasyonunda, içinde kaybolduğu illüzyon dağılmaya başladı.

İlk önce derisi döküldü. Tam olarak dökülmedi aslında, daha çok kıvılcımlara dönüşüp bedeninden fırlamış ve bir an sonra sönerek külleşmiş, havada dağılmıştı. Ardında da, kaybolmadan hemen önce, kısa süre için hayal meyal görülebilen, bir ruhun yok oluşuna ağıt yakan rengârenk peri cesetleri bırakmıştı. Beklenenin aksine, havaya toz kokusu yayıldı.

Dehşete düştü elbette. Dehşete düştüler. Panikle üstlerini yırtan 50 işçi. Her şeyin sebebiyse o vagon.

Saçları da döküldü. Her tel, yere varmadan önce, her santimde ikiye ayrıla ayrıla yok oldu.

Bütün yüzeylerin mat olduğu, hiçbir şeyin yansımadığı, suyun siyah aktığı ve kendine ancak kameralarla bakabildiğin bir dünyada, vagonun içine yerleştirilmiş bir aynadan ilk defa kendini görmek.

Gözlerinin akları buharlaşıp havada dağıldı, mercekleri boşalan yeri doldurmak için eriyip yayıldı. Gerçeği görmemek için yaratılmış, bu yüzden görmeye hazır olmayan ve hiç olmayacak gözler.

Her şeyin o anda sona erdiğini sanabilirdi insan. Derin bir karanlık ve ölüm. Görmenin görmek olduğu o anın bitişi.

---

Ben geldiğimde ölmüşlerdi.

Yani bozulmuşlardı demek istiyorum.

Belleklerini yeni taşıyıcılara takmam mümkün olmadı. Fiziksel olarak kusursuz durumdaydılar, olmayanları da tamir edebilirdim ama tüm o hengamede kendilerini baştan programlamış ve girdilerini modifiye etmişlerdi.

Belleklerden birini masanın üzerinden ileriye savurdu. Hınca hınç dolu bir barda oturuyorlardı. O ve arkadaşı.

Sırf şu kendisini insan sanan androidler travma geçirip delirmesin diye neler yapıyoruz, insanın aklı almıyor.

Eliyle arkasını işaret etti.

Polislerin söylediğine göre biri vagonun içerisine ayna yerleştirmiş. Bu zavallılar da kapı açılıp bir anda yansımalarını görünce kafayı kırmışlar.

Arkadaşı bunların ona ne hissettirdiğini sordu. Yani o kadar bozuk, insan olduğunu sanan androidi kendilerini parçalamış olarak yerde görmek onu sarsmamış mıydı?

Hayır, sonuçta belirli bir amaç için yaratılmış şeyler onlar. Kaliteli bir bilgisayarım bozulduğunda üzülürüm çünkü parasını ben vermişimdir. Bunlarsa devletin. Bana ne ki?

Arkadaşı anlayışla kafasını sallayıp suyundan bir yudum aldı. Kravatını biraz gevşetti.

Bira istemediğinden emin misin?

İstemediğini söyledi. Sahi, neden deliriyordu bu androidler?

Basit. Onların yapay zekâlarını kodlarken bir şeyler yazıyorlar. Yazılımcılar. Biliyorsun, ben donanımdayım. Bunlar da kendilerini insan sanıyorlar. Tiplerine bak.

Sesini alçalttı.

Arabalarda kaza testi yapılan mankenlere benziyor hepsi. Ağızları burunları bile yok ama şu geldiğimizden beri sakalını düzeltip duruyor mesela. Hayır, hepsi de diğerleri onun sakalı varmış sanıyor, o manyak bir şey.

Arkadaşı bunun delirmeleriyle bağlantısını çözemediğini söyledi. O da normal sesiyle konuşmaya devam etti.

Anlasana, aynayı falan ayırt edemiyor mercekleri. Lönk diye kendilerini görüyorlar. Böyle, olduğu gibi...

Nedenmiş peki? Ne gerek varmış?

Ne bileyim be abicim! Ahiret soruları gibi.

Birasına bakarak dalıp gitti. Sonra masaya abanarak arkadaşına iyice yaklaştı. Bulanık, bir tünelin ucundaki biri gibi, şekli şemalı belirsiz bir adam.

Ben seni nereden tanıyorum ki ulan? Kimsin sen?

Belleği makineden çıkardılar. İki kişiydiler. Soruşturmadan sorumlu memurlar.

─ Baştan mı başlıyoruz, diye sordu belleği elinde tutan ilk memur.

─ Bir kere daha deneyelim ama bu sefer direkt aynayı sorarak başla, diye cevapladı ikinci memur.

─ Bence de. Yeterince düzgün çalışıyor.

Simülasyon yüklenirken, ayakta, biraz arkada duran ve alnını kaşıyan ikinci memur sormaktan kendisini alamadı:

─ Bu androidleri niye böyle bir olay yerine göndermişler ki? Belli tost olacakları. İsraf. Gidip biz baksak aynayı kırıp delilleri mahvetmek zorunda da kalmazlar.

Diğer memur sandalyesinde hafifçe dönecek oldu, o sırada soruyu bilgisayarın hoparlöründen teknisyen cevapladı.

Hangi işimizde bir yamukluk yok ki be abi.

---

Ama bir son değildi. Üstlerindeki tüm illüzyon dağıldığında ve çıplak, cinsiyetsiz, birbirinin aynı bedenleriyle kaldıklarında sıra dünyaya gelmişti.

Yere düştüler. Elleri -bütün bedeni gibi siyah turmalinden, boğumları çelikten- yere değdiği anda, metronun zemini dağıldı.

Yerdeki karolar öncesinde beyazdı ve çok parlaktı. Tepelerindeki floresan, ışığını olduğu gibi yansıtıyor, tek bir lekenin olmadığı ve tek bir tozun uçmadığı istasyonu aydınlatıyorlardı.

Duvarlara duyurular asılmıştı. Örneğin, yarın akşam kültür merkezinde 20.00’da başlayacak bir tekno blues festivalinin cıvıl cıvıl afişi vardı. Onun yanında daha geniş, sarı puntolu harflerle yazılmış, yatay siyah kesiklerle çerçevesi çizilmiş, bir platformdan düşen çöp adamın bulunduğu “Dikkat! Sarı bandı geçmeyin!” uyarısı. Biraz ilerisinde günlük resmi gazete, onun ilerisinde bir aksiyon filminin ve başka bir romantik komedi filminin afişleri, yapılacakların ve yapılmayacakların söylendiği küçük puntolu çeşitli duyurular... Duvar uzayıp giden bir panoydu. On, on beş metrede bir tekrarlanıyordu.

Tüm istasyonun eni yüz metre kadar. Genişliği on metre civarı.

Önlerinde, açık kapısından o mendebur aynanın gözüktüğü vagon duruyordu. Metro, istasyona sığmayacak kadar uzundu. Bir kılıcın keskinliğiyle uzanıyor ama yer yer vagonların ek yerleriyle bölünüyordu.

Hiçbir vagonda pencere olmadığı için metronun içi, içlerindekiler meçhuldü.

Sonrasında karolar zerrelerine ayrılarak yükseldi. Floresanın ışığında her yeri toza boğdular ve ortalığı gri bir sisin altına gömdüler. Çok kısa bir an. Afişleri dalgalandırmadılar. Dalgalandırmaya vakitleri olmadı. Yerlerinden söküp aldılar en fazla. Işık birkaç kere sönüp yanarak direndi. Son kez söndüğünde bir daha geri gelmedi.

Yine de etraf aydınlıktı. Kırmızı, her yere eşit dağılan soluk bir ışıkla.

Yer tamamen tele dönüşmüştü. Altında çapraz hatlarla desteklenmiş demir bir iskelet. Işık birkaç metreden daha fazla aşağıya uzanamıyordu. Sonsuzluğa giden bir uçurum.

Duvarın yerini aynı teller ve demir iskelet almıştı. Arkasında, birbirine vidalarla tutturulmuş demir plakalardan oluşan, üstünden geçen boruların ek yerlerinden bazen ince buharların çıktığı ve bir süre asılı kaldıktan sonra ağır, yağlı bir havayla sürüklendiği bir koridor.

Diğer tarafta paslanmış, pencerelerindeki camlar kırıldığı için demir plakalarla kapatılmış külüstür bir metro. Kapının karşısındaki aynadan her şey olduğu gibi yansıyordu.

---

Bir konteynırın içini andıran bir evde, gerçi gayet de birbirine eklenmiş konteynırlardan oluşan bir şehirde “andıran” demek doğru olmayacağı için düpedüz bir konteynırın içinde, masaya mum görüntüsü vermek için koyulmuş, yarı katı yağ atıklarından şekillendirilmiş kütleleri yakmayı deniyordu. Kafasında hayvan kıllarından yapılmış grili siyahlı bir peruk. Aynı kıllardan kendisine gür bir bıyık da yapmıştı.

Üstünde mavi çöp poşetlerinden yapılmış, kravatlı, şık bir takım.

Masanın ayakları yerine oradan buradan çıkmış parçalar konulmuştu: bir arabanın şaft mili, üst üste konulmuş ve üstünde yazı okunamayan tenekeler, boş kitaplar, boş gazete balyaları... Hiçbir şeye yazı yazılmıyordu, gerek yoktu da zaten çünkü merkez veri bankası onları fark ettirmeden, merceklerden giren veriyi sentezleyerek insanlar için dolduruyordu. Yani, androidler için. Farklı şekilde isimlendirmek bir fark yaratacaksa.

Onların mercekleri için değil. Bağlantıları çok önceden kopmuştu.

─ Hayatım, sofra hazır, diye bağırdı yatak odasındaki karısına.

Sofrada tabak yerine düz, bardak yerine bükülmüş, çatal ve bıçak yerine sivriltilmiş plakalar.

Karısı salonun kapısında durakladı ve ancak kulaklarına kadar uzanan, kocasınınkine benzeyen, cansız, ölü hayvanların kıllarından ibaret peruğunu eliyle düzeltti. Dudağını, daha doğrusu dudağının olması gereken yeri koyu kırmızı bir yağ tabakasıyla renklendirmeyi denemişti. Biraz da yanaklarına sürmüştü.

─ Nasıl olmuş, diye sordu.

Sesi tek düzeydi ama hafif bir neşe olduğunu hissettiğinize yemin edebilirdiniz.

Üzerinde, çöp poşetlerinin içini yazısız gazete kağıtlarıyla doldurarak yaptığı iki parça giysi.

─ Çok güzelsin, diyerek kravatını düzeltti kocası.

─ Sen de öylesin, sevgilim.

Yaklaşıp kocasını öptü. Kocası da onu. Sonra nazikçe elinden tutarak, sandalyesini geriye çekerek oturmasına yardım etti.

Sofrada yemek niyetine hiçbir şey yoktu. Gerek de yoktu zaten.

Konteynırın kapısı gürültüyle tekmelenip içeri iki memur girene kadar birbirlerine öyküler anlattılar. O gün neler yaptıklarını. İşten erken çıkıp yemyeşil çimenlerde gezdiklerini, uçurtma uçurduklarını, kadının nasıl o elbiseyi bulmak için saatlerce gezip yorulduğunu, kocasının kısa süreliğine işe dönüp nasıl başarılı bir hamleyle yaşanan krizi çözdüğünü ve kadının yanına döndükten sonra, alışveriş merkezinde oturdukları yeni dondurmacının dondurmalarının ne kadar lezzetli olduğunu, boğazlarının ağrımasından korktuklarını...

Akşam film izleyebilirlerdi, televizyonda -boş ve mat bir plaka- güzel bir film oynayacaktı.

İki memur. Çıplak bedenleriyle birbirinin aynı. Ellerindeki silahları onlara doğrultmuşlardı. Mum ışığında, tertemiz bir örtünün serili olduğu masada, bardaklarında şaraplarla oturan ve henüz sofranın ortasındaki hindiye dokunmamış çifti gördüklerinde bocaladılar.

Hiç de androidlere bilinçli olarak zarar verebilecek gibi gözükmüyorlardı.

─ Sessiz kalma hakkına sahipsiniz, diye bağırdı içeri giren ikinci memur. Söylediğiniz her şey...

Cümlesini bitiremedi. Yatak odasındaki, masanın üzerinden gördüğü o şey, onunla aynı hareketleri yapan android, yoksa, bir aynadaki yansıması mıydı?

Bütün illüzyon o anda dağılmaya başladı.

Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2020 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.

@ dbb19ae0:c3f22d5a

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

CONSIDERING A MOVE

@ 69a0a091:c968228d

Radicale is a self-hosted calendar and contact solution that is "lightweight solution, easy to use, easy to install, easy to configure."

https://radicale.org/v3.html#about

I can finally dump my NextCloud, which was a sprawling mess of PHP scripts. Managing a NextCloud instance over a long period of a time requires the sysadmin to be mindful of the stateful configuration, which can only be upgraded one major version at a time.

I stumbled over Radicale a couple years ago right after I had spent an entire day writing a playbook to build a dockerless NextCloud container. I should have switched immediately, I've wasted numerous hours over that period making sure my container was up to date, or needlessly fiddling with settings just to feel like I had a handle on how the thing was going to operate.

Running radicale on NixOS:

service.radicale = { enable = true; settings = { server = { hosts = [ "127.0.0.1:5232" "[::]:5232" ]; }; auth = { type = "htpasswd"; htpasswd_filename = "/etc/radicale/users"; htpasswd_encryption = "bcrypt"; }; storage = { filesystem_folder = "/var/lib/radicale/collections"; }; }; };

Nginx configuration snippet from:

locations."/radicale/" = { proxyPass = "http://127.0.0.1:5232/"; extraConfig = '' proxy_set_header X-Script-Name /radicale; proxy_pass_header Authorization; ''; };

Creating my account after nixos-rebuild switch:

nix-shell -p apacheHttpd --run "htpasswd -B -c /etc/radicale/users pleb"

The web interface is dead simple and let's you create, import, or export calendars or addressbooks. I exported the vcf addressbook and ics calendar from my NextCloud instance and imported them into Radicale. The UI gives you URIs for the calendar or contacts, and I pasted that in along with my username in the relevant add dialog in Thunderbird.

Likewise, I added the account in davx5 on Android using the first "Login with URL and user name" option. For the URL this time, I appended my username, so it was https://example.com/radicale/myusername and davx was able to sync both the calendar and the contacts from that endpoint.

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

@ 32e18276:5c68e245

I’m going to be on an ordinals panels as one of the people who is counter arguing the claim that they are good for bitcoin. I decided to brush up on the technicals on how inscriptions work. I am starting to see luke’s perspective on how it is exploiting a loophole in bitcoin’s anti-data-spam mechanisms.

Storing data in Bitcoin, the “standard” way

The standard way you add “data” to bitcoin is by calling the OP_RETURN opcode. Bitcoin devs noticed that people were storing data (like the bitcoin whitepaper) in the utxo set via large multisig transactions. The problem with this is that this set is unprunable and could grow over time. OP_RETURN outputs on the other-hand are provably prunable and don’t add to utxo bloat.

Here’s an excerpt from the march 2014 0.9.0 release notes that talks about this:

On OP_RETURN: There was been some confusion and misunderstanding in the community, regarding the OP_RETURN feature in 0.9 and data in the blockchain. This change is not an endorsement of storing data in the blockchain. The OP_RETURN change creates a provably-prunable output, to avoid data storage schemes – some of which were already deployed – that were storing arbitrary data such as images as forever-unspendable TX outputs, bloating bitcoin’s UTXO database. Storing arbitrary data in the blockchain is still a bad idea; it is less costly and far more efficient to store non-currency data elsewhere.

Much of the work on bitcoin core has been focused on making sure the system continues to function in a decentralized way for its intended purpose in the presence of people trying to abuse it for things like storing data. Bitcoin core has always discouraged this, as it is not designed for storage of images and data, it is meant for moving digital coins around in cyberspace.

To help incentive-align people to not do stupid things, OP_RETURN transactions were not made non-standard, so that they are relayable by peers and miners, but with the caveat:

1. They can only push 40 bytes (later increased to 80,83, I’m guessing to support larger root merkle hashes since that is the only sane usecase for op_return)

Bitcoin also added an option called -datacarriersize which limits the total number of bytes from these outputs that you will relay or mine.

Why inscriptions are technically an exploit

Inscriptions get around the datacarriersize limit by disguising data as bitcoin script program data via OP_PUSH inside OP_IF blocks. Ordinals do not use OP_RETURN and are not subjected to datacarriersize limits, so noderunners and miners currently have limited control over the total size of this data that they wish to relay and include in blocks. Luke’s fork of bitcoin-core has some options to fight this spam, so hopefully we will see this in core sometime soon as well.

Inscriptions are also taking advantage of features in segwit v1 (witness discount) and v2/taproot (no arbitrary script size limit). Each of these features have interesting and well-justified reasons why they were introduced.

The purpose of the witness discount was to make it cheaper to spend many outputs which helps the reduction of the utxo set size. Inscriptions took advantage of this discount to store monke jpegs disguised as bitcoin scripts. Remember, bitcoin is not for storing data, so anytime bitcoin-devs accidentally make it cheap and easy to relay data then this should be viewed as an exploit. Expect it to be fixed, or at least provide tools to noderunners for fighting this spam.

Where do we go from here

The interesting part of this story is that people seem to attach value to images stored on the bitcoin blockchain, and they are willing to pay the fee to get it in the block, so non-ideologic miners and people who don’t care about the health and decentralization of bitcoin are happy to pay or collect the fee and move on.

Data should not get a discount, people should pay full price if they want to store data. They should just use op_return and hashes like opentimestamps or any other reasonable protocol storing data in bitcoin.

After going through this analysis I’ve come to the opinion that this is a pretty bad data-spam exploit and bitcoin devs should be working on solutions. Ideological devs like luke who actually care about the health and decentralization of the network are and I’m glad to see it.

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

Embarking on the journey of operating your own Lightning node on the Bitcoin Layer 2 network is more than just a tech-savvy endeavor; it's a step into a realm of financial autonomy and cutting-edge innovation. By running a node, you become a vital part of a revolutionary movement that's reshaping how we think about money and digital transactions. This role not only offers a unique perspective on blockchain technology but also places you at the heart of a community dedicated to decentralization and network resilience. Beyond the technicalities, it's about embracing a new era of digital finance, where you contribute directly to the network's security, efficiency, and growth, all while gaining personal satisfaction and potentially lucrative rewards.

In essence, running your own Lightning node is a powerful way to engage with the forefront of blockchain technology, assert financial independence, and contribute to a more decentralized and efficient Bitcoin network. It's an adventure that offers both personal and communal benefits, from gaining in-depth tech knowledge to earning a place in the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency.

Running your own Lightning node for the Bitcoin Layer 2 network can be an empowering and beneficial endeavor. Here are 10 reasons why you might consider taking on this task:

1. Direct Contribution to Decentralization: Operating a node is a direct action towards decentralizing the Bitcoin network, crucial for its security and resistance to control or censorship by any single entity.

2. Financial Autonomy: Owning a node gives you complete control over your financial transactions on the network, free from reliance on third-party services, which can be subject to fees, restrictions, or outages.

3. Advanced Network Participation: As a node operator, you're not just a passive participant but an active player in shaping the network, influencing its efficiency and scalability through direct involvement.

4. Potential for Higher Revenue: With strategic management and optimal channel funding, your node can become a preferred route for transactions, potentially increasing the routing fees you can earn.

5. Cutting-Edge Technological Engagement: Running a node puts you at the forefront of blockchain and bitcoin technology, offering insights into future developments and innovations.

6. Strengthened Network Security: Each new node adds to the robustness of the Bitcoin network, making it more resilient against attacks and failures, thus contributing to the overall security of the ecosystem.

7. Personalized Fee Structures: You have the flexibility to set your own fee policies, which can balance earning potential with the service you provide to the network.

8. Empowerment Through Knowledge: The process of setting up and managing a node provides deep learning opportunities, empowering you with knowledge that can be applied in various areas of blockchain and fintech.

9. Boosting Transaction Capacity: By running a node, you help to increase the overall capacity of the Lightning Network, enabling more transactions to be processed quickly and at lower costs.

10. Community Leadership and Reputation: As an active node operator, you gain recognition within the Bitcoin community, which can lead to collaborative opportunities and a position of thought leadership in the space.

These reasons demonstrate the impactful and transformative nature of running a Lightning node, appealing to those who are deeply invested in the principles of bitcoin and wish to actively shape its future. Jump aboard, and embrace the journey toward full independence. 🐶🐾🫡🚀🚀🚀

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Claims that we need greater centralisation, more EU, or more globalisation are prevalent across the usual media channels. The climate crisis, environmental destruction, pandemics, the AI-threat, yes, everything will apparently be solved if a little more global coordination, governance and leadership can be brought about.

But, is this actually true? One of the best arguments for this conclusion stems implicitly from the futurist Eliezer Yudkowsky, who once proposed a new Moore's Law, though this time not for computer processors but instead for mad science: "every 18 months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point".

Perhaps we simply have to tolerate more centralisation, globalisation, control, surveillance, and so on, to prevent all kinds of fools from destroying the world?

Note: a Swedish version of this text is avalable at Affärsvärlden.

At the same time, more centralisation, globalisation, etc. is also what we have experienced. Power has been shifting from the local, and from the majorities, to central-planning bureaucrats working in remote places. This has been going on for several decades. The EU's subsidiarity principle, i.e. the idea that decisions should be made at the lowest expedient level, and which came to everyone's attention ahead of Sweden's EU vote in 1994, is today swept under the rug as untimely and outdated, perhaps even retarded.

At the same time, there are many crises, more than usual it would seem. If it is not a crisis of criminality, a logistics/supply chain crisis or a water crisis, then it is an energy crisis, a financial crisis, a refugee crisis or a climate crisis. It is almost as if one starts to suspect that all this centralisation may be leading us down the wrong path. Perhaps centralisation is part of the problem, rather than the capital S solution?

Why centralisation may cause rather than prevent problems

There are several reasons why centralisation, etc, may actually be a problem. And though few seem to be interested in such questions today (or perhaps they are too timid to mention their concerns?), it has not always been this way. In this short essay we'll note four reasons (though there are several others):

• Political failures (Buchanan et al)
• Local communities & skin in the game (Ostrom and Taleb)
• The local knowledge problem (von Hayek)
• Governance by sociopaths (Hare)

James Buchanan who was given the so-called Nobel price in economics in the eighties once said that: "politicians and bureaucrats are no different from the rest of us. They will maximise their incentives just like everybody else.".

Buchanan was prominent in research on rent-seeking and political failures, i.e. when political "solutions" to so-called market failures make everything worse. Rent-seeking is when a company spends resources (e.g. lobbying) to get legislators or other decision makers to pass laws or create regulations that benefit the company instead of it having to engage in productive activities. The result is regulatory capture. The more centralised decision-making is, the greater the negative consequences from such rent-seeking will be for society at large. This is known.

Another economist, Elinor Ostrom, was given the same prize in the great financial crisis year of 2009. In her research, she had found that local communities where people had influence over rules and regulations, as well as how violations there-of were handled, were much better suited to look after common resources than centralised bodies. To borrow a term from the combative Nassim Nicholas Taleb: everything was better handled when decision makers had "skin in the game".

A third economist, Friedrich von Hayek, was given this prize as early as 1974, partly because he showed that central planning could not possibly take into account all relevant information. The information needed in economic planning is by its very nature distributed, and will never be available to a central planning committee, or even to an AI.

Moreover, human systems are complex and not just complicated. When you realise this, you also understand why the forecasts made by central planners often end up wildly off the mark - and at times in a catastrophic way. (This in itself is an argument for relying more on factors outside of the models in the decision-making process.)

From Buchanan's, Ostrom's, Taleb's or von Hayek's perspectives, it also becomes difficult to believe that today's bureaucrats are the most suited to manage and price e.g. climate risks. One can compare with the insurance industry, which has both a long habit of pricing risks as well as "skin in the game" - two things sorely missing in today's planning bodies.

Instead of preventing fools, we may be enabling madmen

An even more troubling conclusion is that centralisation tends to transfer power to people who perhaps shouldn't have more of that good. "Not all psychopaths are in prison - some are in the boardroom," psychologist Robert Hare once said during a lecture. Most people have probably known for a long time that those with sharp elbows and who don't hesitate to stab a colleague in the back can climb quickly in organisations. In recent years, this fact seems to have become increasingly well known even in academia.

You will thus tend to encounter an increased prevalance of individuals with narcissistic and sociopathic traits the higher up you get in the the status hierarchy. And if working in large organisations (such as the European Union or Congress) or in large corporations, is perceived as higher status - which is generally the case, then it follows that the more we centralise, the more we will be governed by people with less flattering Dark Triad traits.

By their fruits ye shall know them

Perhaps it is thus not a coincidence that we have so many crises. Perhaps centralisation, globalisation, etc. cause crises. Perhaps the "elites" and their planning bureaucrats are, in fact, not the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Perhaps President Trump even had a point when he said "they are not sending their best".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4b8xgaiuj0

The opposite of centralisation is decentralisation. And while most people may still be aware that decentralisation can be a superpower within the business world, it's time we remind ourselves that this also applies to the economy - and society - at large, and preferably before the next Great Leap Forward is fully thrust upon us.

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

How to do curation and businesses on Nostr

Suppose you want to start a Nostr business.

You might be tempted to make a closed platform that reuses Nostr identities and grabs (some) content from the external Nostr network, only to imprison it inside your thing -- and then you're going to run an amazing AI-powered algorithm on that content and "surface" only the best stuff and people will flock to your app.

This will be specially good if you're going after one of the many unexplored niches of Nostr in which reading immediately from people you know doesn't work as you generally want to discover new things from the outer world, such as:

• food recipe sharing;
• sharing of long articles about varying topics;
• markets for used goods;
• freelancer work and job offers;
• specific in-game lobbies and matchmaking;
• directories of accredited professionals;
• sharing of original music, drawings and other artistic creations;
• restaurant recommendations
• and so on.

But that is not the correct approach and damages the freedom and interoperability of Nostr, posing a centralization threat to the protocol. Even if it "works" and your business is incredibly successful it will just enshrine you as the head of a platform that controls users and thus is prone to all the bad things that happen to all these platforms. Your company will start to display ads and shape the public discourse, you'll need a big legal team, the FBI will talk to you, advertisers will play a big role and so on.

If you are interested in Nostr today that must be because you appreciate the fact that it is not owned by any companies, so it's safe to assume you don't want to be that company that owns it. So what should you do instead? Here's an idea in two steps:

1. Write a Nostr client tailored to the niche you want to cover

If it's a music sharing thing, then the client will have a way to play the audio and so on; if it's a restaurant sharing it will have maps with the locations of the restaurants or whatever, you get the idea. Hopefully there will be a NIP or a NUD specifying how to create and interact with events relating to this niche, or you will write or contribute with the creation of one, because without interoperability none of this matters much.

The client should work independently of any special backend requirements and ideally be open-source. It should have a way for users to configure to which relays they want to connect to see "global" content -- i.e., they might want to connect to wss://nostr.chrysalisrecords.com/ to see only the latest music releases accredited by that label or to wss://nostr.indiemusic.com/ to get music from independent producers from that community.

1. Run a relay that does all the magic

This is where your value-adding capabilities come into play: if you have that magic sauce you should be able to apply it here. Your service, let's call it wss://magicsaucemusic.com/, will charge people or do some KYM (know your music) validation or use some very advanced AI sorcery to filter out the spam and the garbage and display the best content to your users who will request the global feed from it (["REQ", "_", {}]), and this will cause people to want to publish to your relay while others will want to read from it.

You set your relay as the default option in the client and let things happen. Your relay is like your "website" and people are free to connect to it or not. You don't own the network, you're just competing against other websites on a leveled playing field, so you're not responsible for it. Users get seamless browsing across multiple websites, unified identities, a unified interface (that could be different in a different client) and social interaction capabilities that work in the same way for all, and they do not depend on you, therefore they're more likely to trust you.

---

Does this centralize the network still? But this a simple and easy way to go about the matter and scales well in all aspects.

Besides allowing users to connect to specific relays for getting a feed of curated content, such clients should also do all kinds of "social" (i.e. following, commenting etc) activities (if they choose to do that) using the outbox model -- i.e. if I find a musician I like under wss://magicsaucemusic.com and I decide to follow them I should keep getting updates from them even if they get banned from that relay and start publishing on wss://nos.lol or wss://relay.damus.io or whatever relay that doesn't even know what music is.

The hardcoded defaults and manual typing of relay URLs can be annoying. But I think it works well at the current stage of Nostr development. Soon, though, we can create events that recommend other relays or share relay lists specific to each kind of activity so users can get in-app suggestions of relays their friends are using to get their music from and so on. That kind of stuff can go a long way.

@ de496884:72617b81

Hola nostriches. Hoy quiero hacer una publicación a modo de acercamiento al surgimiento de las categorías de género y feminismo. Así que si te interesa el tema haz un esfuerzo, quédate y lee hasta el final.

El «nuevo» feminismo surge en los años 60 en aquellos países desarrollados que acordaron el reconocimiento a los derechos humanos contenidos en la declaración respectiva de la ONU. Entonces, como extensión a dicho reconocimiento es que se gesta el movimiento feminista. A partir de entonces, se vuelve a plantear la relación entre naturaleza y cultura y se llega a la conclusión de que las diferencias sociales van más allá de las diferencias biológicas, lo cual tiene que ver con que hasta la satisfacción de las necesidades elementales como son la alimentación, la vivienda o el vestuario, están condicionadas por construcciones sociales.

Pues resulta que una de las primeras propuestas identificó la subordinación femenina producto de una organización patriarcal, tomando la categoría patriarcado de Max Weber. Es así como la visión de patriarcado se extendió al discurso político y académico. Sin embargo, no existía información acerca del desarrollo histórico de dicha categoría, sistematización, variaciones, etc., debido a que era algo que recién se percibía en sociedad.

Sin embargo, la misma categoría de patriarcado junto a la de relaciones de poder para explicar fenómenos sociales contemporáneos, constituye uno de los principales aportes del feminismo. Es así como han logrado primero visibilizar y luego deconstruir y desmontar una serie de patrones existentes en la cultura que hacían a la mujer subordinarse al hombre, y que estaban presentes en el sistema sexo/género.

Imagen relativa a la lucha contra el patriarcado

Hasta ese momento, en las investigaciones de corte sociológico se podía observar un androcentrismo excesivo al dar cuenta de que el discurso científico giraba en torno al hombre como sujeto y objeto de la investigación. Incluso para muchos positivistas como el mismo Weber, los problemas relativos a las mujeres quedaban en un segundo plano y eran achacados a una supuesta pasividad en el ámbito doméstico-familiar. Dicha pasividad partía de la supuesta inferioridad biológica del género femenino.

El patriarcado entonces era una categoría vacía en sí misma, sin valor explicativo. Desde el punto de vista político pudo ser útil para la movilización pero no resistió la polémica de los críticos del feminismo ni problematizó los conflictos a ser resueltos. Pero por otro lado, un grupo de mujeres -académicas principalmente- se puso manos a la obra en una tarea más pequeña pero con mayores resultados a la larga. Se propusieron generar conocimientos sobre las condiciones de vida de la mujer, buscar en el pasado y el presente los aportes de las mujeres a la sociedad, hacerlas visibles en la historia. Es así como surgen centros académicos, ONG, proyectos, centros de estudios sobre la mujer, etc.

Convendría distinguir entonces dos posturas que acompañaron a la investigación sobre las mujeres: uno que toma como objeto de estudio a la mujer; condiciones de vida, trabajo, cultura, y otra que privilegia a la sociedad como generadora de la subordinación de las mujeres. Mientras la primera perspectiva generaba conocimiento sobre las mujeres en el estudio de las relaciones mujer-hombre y mujer-mujer, la segunda tenía una visión más holística ya que planteaba que hay que estudiar la sociedad ya que la subordinación de las mujeres es producto de la organización de esta, y que no se avanzará solamente estudiando a las mujeres, pues el estudio debe ser más amplio y en diferentes niveles, ámbitos y tiempos.

Es en esta búsqueda donde nace y se desarrolla el concepto de género como categoría social. Es así que los sistemas de género/sexo fueron entendidos como conjuntos de prácticas, símbolos, representaciones, normas y valores sociales que las sociedades construyen a partir de la diferencia anatomofisiológica y que dotan de sentido a los impulsos sexuales, la reproducción y en general a las relaciones de las personas. Por tanto, este sistema pasó a ser el objeto de estudio para comprender la subordinación de la mujer al hombre. Al ser el reconocimiento de una dimensión de la desigualdad social hasta entonces desconocida, se considera la ruptura epistemológica más importante de la segunda mitad del siglo pasado.

Imagen representativa del binarismo de género

Hay que decir que los fenómenos sociales se definen por la relación que guardan entre sí. Es así que la contextualización adquiere gran importancia. Varones y hembras tenemos la capacidad de producir con el cuerpo, pero solo los cuerpos de las hembras pueden gestar y por tanto asegurar la especie humana. Todo grupo humano que pretenda sobrevivir debe asegurarse cierto número de hembras que lo hagan posible. De ahí un poder particular del cuerpo de las hembras que además es económicamente útil. Dicho poder no es en tanto entidad biológica, sino que es la sociedad la que le otorga este poder. En este punto es importante preguntarnos históricamente ¿quiénes han controlado la capacidad reproductiva de las mujeres?, ¿quiénes han tenido la preferencia en el acceso sexual? Para asegurar un control efectivo sobre la reproducción es necesario asegurar el acceso a la sexualidad.

Imagen alegórica al embarazo

Ello también lleva a dirigir el trabajo que hacen porque de lo contrario, las mujeres pudieran tener espacio para representar una amenaza al dominio de los hombres. Es importante atender a las etapas del desarrollo de las mujeres, que permitirá ver cómo se moldean para aceptar la desigualdad y las jerarquías según el género en las distintas sociedades y culturas.

Otro contexto a delimitar es el ámbito doméstico donde históricamente ha estado ubicada la subordinación femenina. Se ha puesto al descubierto que en mujeres que comparten la misma posición de clase y raza, la condición femenina se redefine a lo largo de la vida y que algunas mujeres gozan de poder sobre otras aún en contextos de alta dominación masculina, donde se les inviste de autoridad, creando el sistema zonas de incertidumbre que las divide como género e impide alianzas y se legitima la dominación. Foucault decía que «el poder se ejerce, no se posee», siempre está en peligro de perderse y no basta con normas, leyes, amenazas o castigos. De ahí que los espacios de subordinación sean también espacios de poder de las mujeres. Es en estos espacios donde aparece la inseguridad, la tensión, la confrontación y por ejemplo, las mujeres pueden reclamar la anticoncepción.

Para terminar, es importante tener en cuenta que el género es una forma de desigualdad social que siempre está articulado con otras formas de desigualdad ya sea clase, raza, grupo etario, etc. Hay que pensar la dominación masculina con un comienzo vago en el tiempo, pero que permite desligar la subordinación de las mujeres de la evolución «natural» de la humanidad y entenderla como un proceso histórico. En ese sentido es necesario destacar que, respecto a la raza, en sociedades plurales hay que atender al contexto étnico-cultural ya que en dependencia de las relaciones entre personas de razas distintas, estarán condicionadas las relaciones entre los géneros.

Imagen de mujeres de distintas razas

Por otro lado, si bien es sabido que históricamente el sistema de género social imperante ha contribuido a invisibilizar a la mujer, asociar necesariamente dicha categoría únicamente a ella, lo que hace es nuevamente recrear el absolutismo histórico que tanto daño ha hecho, ahora como lo antagónico al hombre. En la construcción social participan todos los individuos presentes en el sistema género.

Hasta aquí la publicación de hoy, de la cual aun se puede ahondar mucho más, sobre todo en lo referido al origen de la dominación o de la jerarquización del binomio «hombre/mujer» desde un punto de vista antropológico, pero eso quedará pendiente para otro momento. ¡Así que hasta la próxima!, ¡nos vemos en Nostr!

........................................

English version

Hello nostriches. Today I want to make a post by way of an approach to the emergence of the categories of gender and feminism. So if you are interested in the topic make an effort, stay and read to the end.

The "new" feminism emerged in the 60's in those developed countries that agreed to recognize the human rights contained in the respective UN declaration. Then, as an extension of that recognition, the feminist movement was born. From then on, the relationship between nature and culture was raised again and the conclusion was reached that social differences go beyond biological differences, which has to do with the fact that even the satisfaction of elementary needs such as food, housing or clothing are conditioned by social constructions.

It turns out that one of the first proposals identified female subordination as a product of a patriarchal organization, taking Max Weber's category of patriarchy. This is how the vision of patriarchy was extended to political and academic discourse. However, there was no information about the historical development of this category, systematization, variations, etc., because it was something that was only recently perceived in society.

However, the same category of patriarchy, together with that of power relations to explain contemporary social phenomena, constitutes one of the main contributions of feminism. This is how they have first made visible and then deconstructed and dismantled a series of existing patterns in the culture that made women subordinate to men, and that were present in the sex/gender system.

Image relating to the fight against patriarchy

Up to that time, in sociological research, an excessive androcentrism could be observed as scientific discourse revolved around men as the subject and object of research. Even for many positivists such as Weber himself, the problems related to women remained in the background and were blamed on a supposed passivity in the domestic-family sphere. This passivity was based on the supposed biological inferiority of the female gender.

Patriarchy was then an empty category in itself, with no explanatory value. From the political point of view, it could be useful for mobilization, but it did not resist the polemic of feminism's critics, nor did it problematize the conflicts to be resolved. But on the other hand, a group of women - mainly academics - set to work on a smaller task but with greater results in the long run. They set out to generate knowledge about women's living conditions, to search in the past and present for women's contributions to society, to make them visible in history. This is how academic centers, NGOs, projects, women's studies centers, etc., came into being.

It would be convenient to distinguish then two postures that accompanied the research on women: one that takes women as the object of study; living conditions, work, culture, and the other that privileges society as the generator of women's subordination. While the first perspective generated knowledge about women in the study of woman-man and woman-woman relations, the second had a more holistic vision, since it proposed that society must be studied, since the subordination of women is a product of its organization, and that progress will not be made only by studying women, since the study must be broader and at different levels, spheres and times.

It is in this search that the concept of gender as a social category was born and developed. Thus, gender/sex systems were understood as a set of practices, symbols, representations, norms and social values that societies construct on the basis of anatomophysiological differences and that give meaning to sexual impulses, reproduction and, in general, to people's relationships. Therefore, this system became the object of study to understand the subordination of women to men. As the recognition of a hitherto unknown dimension of social inequality, it is considered the most important epistemological breakthrough of the second half of the last century.

Representative image of gender binarism

It must be said that social phenomena are defined by their relationship with each other. Thus, contextualization acquires great importance. Males and females have the capacity to produce with their bodies, but only the bodies of females can gestate and therefore ensure the human species. Any human group that intends to survive must ensure a certain number of females to make it possible. Hence a particular power of the female body, which is also economically useful. This power is not as a biological entity, but it is society that gives it this power. At this point it is important to ask ourselves historically, who has controlled the reproductive capacity of women, who has had the preference in sexual access? To ensure effective control over reproduction, it is necessary to ensure access to sexuality.

Allegorical image of pregnancy

This also leads to directing the work they do because otherwise, women may have room to pose a threat to men's dominance. It is important to pay attention to the stages of women's development, which will allow us to see how they are shaped to accept inequality and gender hierarchies in different societies and cultures.

Another context to delimit is the domestic sphere where female subordination has historically been located. It has been discovered that in women who share the same class and race position, the feminine condition is redefined throughout life and that some women enjoy power over others even in contexts of high male domination, where they are invested with authority, creating the system of uncertainty zones that divide them as a gender and prevent alliances and legitimize domination. Foucault said that "power is exercised, not possessed", it is always in danger of being lost and norms, laws, threats or punishments are not enough. Hence, the spaces of subordination are also spaces of women's power. It is in these spaces where insecurity, tension, confrontation appear and where, for example, women can demand contraception.

To conclude, it is important to keep in mind that gender is a form of social inequality that is always articulated with other forms of inequality, be it class, race, age group, etc. It is necessary to think of male domination with a vague beginning in time, but which allows us to separate the subordination of women from the "natural" evolution of humanity and to understand it as a historical process. In this sense, it is necessary to emphasize that, with respect to race, in plural societies it is necessary to pay attention to the ethno-cultural context since, depending on the relations between people of different races, the relations between genders will be conditioned.

Image of women of different races

On the other hand, although it is known that historically the prevailing social gender system has contributed to make women invisible, to necessarily associate this category only to women is to recreate the historical absolutism that has done so much damage, this time as antagonistic to men. All individuals present in the gender system participate in the social construction.

So much for today's publication, of which we can still go much deeper, especially with regard to the origin of domination or the hierarchization of the binomial "man/woman" from an anthropological point of view, but that will be left for another time. So until next time, see you in Nostr!

Créditos | Credits

Bibliografía consultada | Consulted bibliography:

1. Barbieri, T. (1993). Sobre la categoría género. Una introducción teórico-metodológica. Debates en Sociología. (18). 1-19. https://doi.org/10.18800/debatesensociologia.199301.006

2. Echevarría, D. (2020). Desigualdades de género e interseccionalidad. Análisis del contexto cubano 2008-2018. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Programa-Cuba). https://www.clacso.org.ar/libreria-latinoamericana-cm/libro_detalle_resultado.php?id_libro=2346&campo=cm&texto=248

Traducción | Translation:

DeepL

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

What if we got 1 sat for every kill in multiplayer mode

@ a42048d7:26886c32

*50% of the Bitcoin held with Unchained will be seized by the US government within 10 years: a thought experiment **

Let me start by saying that I believe collaborative multisig is strictly better than leaving on an exchange, an ETF, or other paper Bitcoin options. I have extensively tested collaborative multisig at the 3 most well known providers: Unchained, Casa, and Nunchuk. My participation in Bitcoin Twitter and Nostr has led me to the conclusion that KYC collaborative multisig is shockingly easy to seize. If you care about this topic I will assume you are already based enough that you need no primer on the horrid fiscal situation of the governments of the USA, EU, China, etc. A 6102 (President FDR ordering the seizure of all privately held gold) type event feels escalatingly likely in the short term, and almost inevitable in the medium term.

There are a few indisputable facts everyone must accept: Most users of collaborative multisig have at least 1 key (probably 2) at one of the following: their home, a bank safety deposit box, or other highly logical place in their immediate vicinity. Unchained multisig vaults are fully KYC. Meaning they have a list of your name, email address, and home address right next to your BTC holdings amount, 1 of 3 keys to your multisig, and even Social Security Number and more info if you use their loan or trading desk services.

Hopefully you should immediately recognize the problem. The American government is 1 warrant away from having your full identity, BTC amount, and 1 of your 3 keys. Further they are most likely 1 visit to your home or bank away from having a 2nd key, and thus control of your BTC. Further, everyone must also accept that video verification is not much better than no verification. The government could also just come to your home (where you almost certainly have 1 key) and force you to submit a transaction request to Unchained. Per their own website Unchained does not have a specific minimum waiting period to submit transaction, e.g. it could be 1-2 days if you submit on a slow Monday or it could be 3-5 days if you submit over a weekend during a crowded Mempool. Even before considering AI fakes, video verification is simply not secure. It is quite easy to have someone stand out of shot holding you and/or your family hostage. The American government also has more than enough prison capacity to hold anyone indefinitely they need to while waiting for transactions to process. Sit and ruminate on the fact that all the government needs to do to take your Bitcoin is enter your home, use their monopoly on violence, and not so politely ask you to sign with your key and request Unchained sign with theirs. After a brief delay, all your BTC is gone forever! There is a brutal cognitive dissonance in believing Bitcoin will become worth millions of dollars per coin, and simultaneously thinking the government will not bother to visit one office, a few homes, or a handful of banks for untold riches. If the government gets desperate, then large holders using KYCed collaborative multisig are a potentially appealing target. Yes it is strictly harder to seize than an ETF or on an exchange, but that doesn’t make it foolproof. The easiest target is often the overconfident one. It would likely be too difficult to discretely visit many places and hold many people for enough time to seize all coins held by Unchained, but grabbing a significant portion of the largest holders before news broke is certainly plausible. Maybe I’m underestimating Unchained and they’re willing to go to prison for life, and during a government raid would wipe their servers rather than hand them over. But would you trust that with your life savings? I would not. In my assessment for users with less technical knowledge non-KYC multisig options such as Casa and Nunchuk are strictly better than a fully doxed option like Unchained. For those with more advanced technical knowledge the potential of miniscript and timelocks in Liana presents an even more secure option, albeit with the tradeoff of additional complexity. There is no free lunch. You must decide for yourself. Just please thoughtfully consider your options.

I hope this is not taken as an attack at Unchained. I believe they are a solid Bitcoin only company doing some great work, but I also think they and their users drastically underestimate their current vulnerabilities. My hope is not to harm them in any way, but to force an uncomfortable conversation that the community needs to have. My greatest hope would be multisig makes strides in security across the industry. Taproot enabling multisigs to look like singlesigs and not placing all spending paths publicly on chain would be a great place to start. Miniscript next. These advanced security capabilities are available today via Liana and Anchorwatch. These are the next generation of multisig that the community desperately needs. They just haven’t realized it yet, but they will once a few Unchained customers publicly get their Bitcoins seized.

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

Chef's notes

Serving these two dishes together will create a delightful centerpiece for your Thanksgiving meal, offering a perfect blend of traditional flavors with a homemade touch.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 30 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 1 - 2 hours
• 🍽️ Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 whole turkey (about 12-14 lbs), thawed and ready to cook
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Apple and Sage Stuffing
• 1 loaf of crusty bread, cut into cubes
• 2 apples, cored and chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh sage, chopped
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups chicken broth
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the Oven: Set your oven to 325°F (165°C).
2. Prepare the Herb Butter: Mix the softened butter with the chopped thyme, rosemary, and sage. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Prepare the Turkey: Remove any giblets from the turkey and pat it dry. Loosen the skin and spread a generous amount of herb butter under and over the skin.
4. Add Aromatics: Inside the turkey cavity, place the quartered onion, lemon halves, and garlic cloves.
5. Roast: Place the turkey in a roasting pan. Tent with aluminum foil and roast. A general guideline is about 15 minutes per pound, or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F (74°C) at the thickest part of the thigh.
6. Rest and Serve: Let the turkey rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.
7. Next: Apple and Sage Stuffing
8. Dry the Bread: Spread the bread cubes on a baking sheet and let them dry overnight, or toast them in the oven.
9. Cook the Vegetables: In a large skillet, melt the butter and cook the onion, celery, and garlic until soft.
10. Combine Ingredients: Add the apples, sage, and bread cubes to the skillet. Stir in the chicken broth until the mixture is moist. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Bake: Transfer the stuffing to a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30-40 minutes, until golden brown on top.

@ 1739d937:3e3136ef

This is the second in a series of weekly updates detailing progress on bringing MLS protocol DMs and group messaging to Nostr.

Previous Updates

• June 28th 2024

Progress this week

This week was mostly spent on the topic of how to properly publish prekey bundles and what would be needed in the bundle itself to make it workable. I've included an early version of the spec below for prekeys, and would love thoughts on it. Treat this as an alpha version, very subject to change.

The other thing I spent time on was making changes to the OpenMLS library to add support for our custom ciphersuite. One issue that I've run into is that the IETF standard for HPKE doesn't include the secp256k1 curve. Because of this, the library being used in the OpenMLS library doesn't implement the necessary methods using our curve. Thankfully, there is another library with an open PR (shout out to nostr:npub1yevrvtp3xl42sq06usztudhleq8pdfsugw5frgaqg6lvfdewfx9q6zqrkl for that!) that would fix this. Additionally, there's an expired proposal to add secp256k1 to the HPKE spec itself. I've bumped both of these and will continue to follow up. Even without the formal addition to the spec, if we have a working library, I can add that to the OpenMLS library.

Spec Draft for Prekeys

Initial keying material (Prekey Event)

Each user that wishes to be reachable via MLS-based messaging MUST first publish a prekey event. Prekeys are used to authenticate and add members to groups (one-to-one DMs or groups with more than two participants) in an asynchronous way. The prekey event is a simple replaceable event and contains all the information needed to add a user to a group.

Prekeys SHOULD be used only once. Resuse of prekeys can lead to replay attacks.

In most cases, clients that implement this NIP will manage the creation and rotation of the prekey event. It's recommended that clients do so interactively with user consent in order to avoid overwriting prekeys created by other clients.

Derived vs Ephemeral Prekeys

Since prekeys are generated on a single device/client pair, the private key of the prekey must be either stored or generated in a way that can be deterministically recovered.

The recommended approach is to use derived keys, generated in the manner described in NIP-06. In this way, the user can respond to a new group request from any device/client pair, not just from the same device/client pair that created the initial prekey event. If using derived keys;

• Clients MUST use 104 as the account level value and 0 at the change level value (e.g. m/44'/1237'/104'/0/0).
• Keys are then generated using public derivation by incrementing the address_index level value.
• Clients MUST include the full derivation path corresponding to the key used in the content field on the prekey event.
• The content field MUST be encrypted using standard NIP-44 encryption (encrypted to themselves).

However, for added security (and consequently a more restrictive user experience), clients can chose to generate an ephemeral key and store the private key locally. This means that users will only be able to respond to new group requests from the same device/client pair and won't be able to respond at all if the prekey's private key is lost. Ephemeral keys can also be used with minimal degredation of UX if you're using a remote signer that can manage these keys.

If using an ephemeral key;

• The content field on the prekey event MUST be filled in with EPHEMERAL and then encrypted using standard NIP-44 encryption (encrypted to themselves). This ensures that anyone looking at prekey events cannot tell whether it's a derived or an ephemeral prekey.

Example Prekey Event

json { "id": <id>, "kind": 10443, "created_at": <unix timestamp in seconds>, "pubkey": <main identity pubkey>, "content": <encrypted derivation path | EPHEMERAL>, "tags": [ ["mls_protocol_version", "1.0"], ["ciphersuite", "MLS_256_DHKEMK256_CHACHA20POLY1305_SHA256_K256"], ["pubkey", <prekey pubkey>], ["prekey_sig", <signature generated from hex encoded pubkey of the prekey>], ["r", "wss://nos.lol"], ["r", "wss://relay.primal.net"] ], "sig": <signed with main identity key> }

Tags

• The mls_protocol_version tag identifies the MLS protocol version being used. For now, this MUST be 1.0
• The ciphersuite tag identifies the ciphersuite supported. For now on Nostr, we're using a custom ciphersuite, MLS_256_DHKEMK256_CHACHA20POLY1305_SHA256_K256. Read more about ciphersuites in MLS.
• pubkey is the derived or ephemeral prekey pubkey.
• The prekey_sig tag value is a Schnorr signature (over the secp256k1 curve) of the SHA-256 hashed value of the prekey's pubkey, signed with the prekey's private key.

```js const privKey = schnorr.utils.randomPrivateKey(); const pubKey = schnorr.getPublicKey(privKey);

const prekeySig = bytesToHex( schnorr.sign(bytesToHex(sha256(pubKey)), privKey) );

const prekeyTag = ["prekey_sig", prekeySig]; ```

Finally, clients SHOULD include r tags to identify each of the relays that they will attempt to publish this prekey event to. This allows for more complete replacement of prekey events at a later date.

Replacing Prekey Events

Clients MUST replace the prekey event on all the listed relays any time they successfully process a group welcome event. If the prekey was a derived prekey, clients SHOULD increment the derivation path by 1 for the next key.

Onward and Upward

This next week I'll continue to work on getting the right curves and code added to the OpenMLS library and start work on a simple demo app. The focus is on better understanding what we need from the control and message events and how we can make those as simple as possible for Nostr clients and relays while also preserving as much privacy as possible.

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

Testing a brand new YakiHonne native client for iOS. Smooth as butter (not penis butter 🤣🍆🧈) with great visual experience and intuitive navigation. Amazing work by the team behind it! * lists * work

Bold text work!

Images could have used nostr.build instead of raw S3 from us-east-1 region.

Very impressive! You can even save the draft and continue later, before posting the long-form note!

🐶🐾🤯🤯🤯🫂💜

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

About Nostr, email and subscriptions

I check my emails like once or twice a week, always when I am looking for something specific in there.

Then I go there and I see a bunch of other stuff I had no idea I was missing. Even many things I wish I had seen before actually. And sometimes people just expect and assume I would have checked emails instantly as they arrived.

It's so weird because I'm not making a point, I just don't remember to open the damn "gmail.com" URL.

---

I remember some people were making some a Nostr service a while ago that sent a DM to people with Nostr articles inside -- or some other forms of "subscription services on Nostr". It makes no sense at all.

Pulling in DMs from relays is exactly the same process (actually slightly more convoluted) than pulling normal public events, so why would a service assume that "sending a DM" was more likely to reach the target subscriber when the target had explicitly subscribed to that topic or writer?

Maybe due to how some specific clients work that is true, but fundamentally it is a very broken assumption that comes from some fantastic past era in which emails were 100% always seen and there was no way for anyone to subscribe to someone else's posts.

Building around such broken assumptions is the wrong approach. Instead we should be building new flows for subscribing to specific content from specific Nostr-native sources (creators directly or manual or automated curation providers, communities, relays etc), which is essentially what most clients are already doing anyway, but specifically Coracle's new custom feeds come to mind now.

---

This also reminds me of the interviewer asking the Farcaster creator if Farcaster made "email addresses available to content creators" completely ignoring all the cryptography and nature of the protocol (Farcaster is shit, but at least they tried, and in this example you could imagine the interviewer asking the same thing about Nostr).

I imagine that if the interviewer had asked these people who were working (or suggesting) the Nostr DM subscription flow they would have answered: "no, you don't get their email addresses, but you can send them uncensorable DMs!" -- and that, again, is getting everything backwards.

@ b2caa9b3:9eab0fb5

Reflecting on the past, it's been quite a while since I had a furry companion named Nala. She was more than just a dog; she was a loyal friend who brought joy into my life, especially during our regular swimming sessions. Nala may have left us long ago, but the memories of those carefree moments remain etched in my heart.

One particular memory captured in this photo takes me back to an April day at Ebnisee, just before the bathing season began. Nala, with her exuberance, had just emerged from the water after a playful swim. The photo encapsulates the sheer happiness we shared during those times, a snapshot frozen in time.

There's not much more to say about this photo—it speaks volumes on its own. It symbolizes the bond between a pet and its owner and the simple pleasures of life. Nala's presence in the picture tells a story of companionship and the joy found in the simplicity of a day by the water.

As time passes, Nala's memory lives on. May she rest in peace, forever preserved in this heartfelt image.

Photo information

• Author: Ruben Storm
• Created on: April 11, 2014
• Published on: April 11, 2014
• Camera: Nikon D7000
• Lens: Nikkor 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
• Location: Ebnisee, Germany

Photo on Flickr • My Flickr Profile • Support Page

@ 1739d937:3e3136ef

This is the first in a series of weekly updates I'm publishing on my process around secure messaging. Since it's the first, let's start with a bit of historical context.

How this started

On April 29th I published a PR on the NIPs repo detailing how we could achieve "Double Ratchet" DMs on Nostr. There was also a video and demo app that went along with the PR. The basic premise was to use an adapted version of the Signal protocol. This would result in DMs that were truly private and confidential, even in the case where you leaked your main private key (your nsec).

I got a lot of great feedback from folks on that PR. Interestingly, nearly all of it focused on two points, both of which I'd deliberately scoped out. Group messaging and multi-device/client support. While I knew these were important, and I'd figured out how these might be accomplished, I'd scoped them out to try and keep the footprint of the spec as small as possible But, the more I talked to people, the more it became clear that this was one problem to be solved and given the complexity, it'd be better to do it in one shot.

At the same time, I'd seen that Messaging Layer Security (MLS) had recently made a lot of progress on becoming an internet standard with their RFC proposal and, goaded on by Vitor, decided to take a closer look.

Enter MLS

Messaging Layer Security (MLS) is a new protocal that is basically a modern extension of the Signal protocol that makes group messaging way more efficient (log vs linear) and was built to be used in centralized or federated environments. I'd heard other Nostr devs talk about it in the past but it was always overlooked as being too complicated or too early.

After spending a couple weeks reading hundreds of pages of RFC docs and reading through a few implementations of the MLS spec, I believe it's the best solution for secure direct and group messaging in Nostr. It also has the added benefit that we can upgrade the underlying crypto primitives over time in a sane way.

The MLS protocol specifies "a key establishment protocol that provides efficient asynchronous group key establishment with forward secrecy (FS) and post-compromise security (PCS) for groups in size ranging from two to thousands."

The spec I'm working on will detail the ways that we implement this protocol into the Nostr environment (namely, how do we use our crypto primitives, use events as control mechanisms, and use relays for storage, while obfuscating metadata).

Goals

It's important to be clear about what we're aiming for here. Engineering is all about tradeoffs, always.

• Private and Confidential DMs and Group messages
• Private means that an observer cannot tell that Alice and Bob are talking to one another, or that Alice is part of a specific group. This necessarily requires protecting metadata.
• Confidential means that the contents of conversations can only be viewed by the intended recipients.
• Forward secrecy and Post-compromise security (PCS) in the case of any key material being leaked, whether that's your main Nostr identity key (your nsec) or any of the keys used in the MLS ratchet trees.
• Forward secrecy means that encrypted content in the past remains encrypted even if key material is leaked.
• Post compromise security means that leaking key material doesn't allow an attacker to continue to read messages indefinitely into the future.
• Scales well for large groups. MLS provides this from a computational standpoint, but we need to make sure this works in a scalable way when multiple relays are involved.
• Allows for the use of multiple device/clients in a single conversation/group. Importantly, we're not aiming to enable a device/client to be able to reconstruct the full history of a conversation at any point.

Progress this week

Ok, finally, what what I been up to?

Reading

I've spent most of the last few weeks reading the MLS spec and architectural doc (multiple times), learning some Rust, and beefing up my knowledge of cryptography (which was, if I'm being generous, paltry before starting this project).

Ciphersuites

Nostr is built around the same crypto primitives that Bitcoin is, namely Schnorr signatures over the secp256k1 curve and SHA-256 hashes. This curve isn't currently supported officially in the MLS spec. I've been in touch with the MLS working group to better understand the process of adding a new ciphersuite to the set of ciphersuites in the MLS spec. The outcome here is that we're going to start out using our custom ciphersuite that isn't part of the formal spec. The only drawback being that Nostr's MLS implementation won't be immediately interoperable with other MLS implementations. We can always add it later via the formal channels if we want.

MLS Implementations

Given the complexity of the MLS spec itself (the RFC is 132 pages long), having a well vetted, well tested implementation is going to be key to adoption in the Nostr ecosystem. OpenMLS is an implementation created by several of the RFC authors and written in Rust with bindings for nearly all the major languages we would want to support.

I've been in touch with the maintainers to talk about adding support to their library for our new ciphersuite and to better understand the bindings that are there. Some (WASM) are very barebones and still need a lot of work. They are generally open to the idea of working with me on adding the missing pieces we'd need.

Double Ratchet NIP 2.0

I've also started to write up the new version of the NIP that will detail how all of this will work when plugged into Nostr. It's not yet ready to share but it's getting closer.

Onward & Upward

Hopefully that's a helpful recap. I'll keep doing these weekly and welcome any questions, feedback, or support. In particular, if you're keen on working on this with me, please reach out. More eyes and more brains can only make this better. 🤙

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

My buttons aren't woking on the app or web. I can't sell or touch the Bitcoin in my wallet

@ fa0165a0:03397073

I just tested building a browser plugin, it was easier than I thought. Here I'll walk you through the steps of creating a minimal working example of a browser plugin, a.k.a. the "Hello World" of browser plugins.

First of all there are two main browser platforms out there, Chromium and Mozilla. They do some things a little differently, but similar enough that we can build a plugin that works on both. This plugin will work in both, I'll describe the firefox version, but the chromium version is very similar.

What is a browser plugin?

Simply put, a browser plugin is a program that runs in the browser. It can do things like modify the content of a webpage, or add new functionality to the browser. It's a way to extend the browser with custom functionality. Common examples are ad blockers, password managers, and video downloaders.

In technical terms, they are plugins that can insert html-css-js into your browser experience.

How to build a browser plugin

Step 0: Basics

You'll need a computer, a text editor and a browser. For testing and development I personally think that the firefox developer edition is the easiest to work with. But any Chrome based browser will also do.

Create a working directory on your computer, name it anything you like. I'll call mine hello-world-browser-plugin. Open the directory and create a file called manifest.json. This is the most important file of your plugin, and it must be named exactly right.

Step 1: manifest.json

After creation open your file manifest.json in your text editor and paste the following code:

json { "manifest_version": 3, "name": "Hello World", "version": "1.0", "description": "A simple 'Hello World' browser extension", "content_scripts": [ { "matches": ["<all_urls>"], "js": ["hello.js"] //The name of your script file. // "css": ["hello.css"] //The name of your css file. } ] }

If you wonder what the json file format is, it's a normal text file with a special syntax such that a computer can easily read it. It's the json syntax you see in the code above. Let's go through what's being said here. (If you are not interested, just skip to the next step after pasting this we are done here.)

• manifest_version: This is the version of the manifest file format. It's currently at version 3, and it's the latest version. It's important that you set this to 3, otherwise your plugin won't work.
• name: This is the name of your plugin. It can be anything you like.
• version: This is the version of your plugin. It can be anything you like.
• description: This is the description of your plugin. It can be anything you like.
• content_scripts: This is where you define what your plugin does. It's a list of scripts that will be executed when the browser loads a webpage. In this case we have one script, called hello.js. It's the script that we'll create in the next step.
• matches: This is a list of urls that the script will be executed on. In this case we have <all_urls>, which means that the script will be executed on all urls. You can also specify a specific url, like https://brave.com/*, which means that the script will only be executed on urls that start with https://brave.com/.
• js: This is a list of javascript files that will be executed. In this case we have one file, called hello.js. It's the script that we'll create in the next step.
• css: This is where you can add a list of css files that will be executed. In this case we have none, but you can add css files here if you want to.
• //: Text following these two characters are comments. They are ignored by the computer, You can add comments anywhere you like, and they are a good way to document your code.

Step 2: hello.js

Now it's time to create another file in your project folder. This time we'll call it hello.js. When created, open it in your text editor and paste the following code:

js console.log("Hello World!"); That's javascript code, and it's what will be executed when you run your plugin. It's a simple console.log statement, which will print the text "Hello World!" to the console. The console is a place where the browser prints out messages, and it's a good place to start when debugging your plugin.

Step 3: Load and launch your plugin

Firefox

Now it's time to load your plugin into your browser. Open your browser and go to the url about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox. You should see a page that looks something like this:

Click the button that says "Load Temporary Add-on...". A file dialog will open, navigate to your project folder and select the file manifest.json. Your plugin should now be loaded and running.

Go to a website, any website, and open the inspector then navigate to the console. You'll find the inspector by right-clicking anywhere within the webpage, and click "Inspector" in the drop-down menu. When opening the console you might see some log messages from the site you visited and... you should see the text "Hello World!" printed there, from our little plugin! Congratulations!

Chrome

Open your browser and go to the url chrome://extensions/. Click the button that says "Load unpacked". A file dialog will open, navigate to your project folder and select the folder hello-world-browser-plugin. Your plugin should now be loaded and running.

Note the difference, of selecting the file manifest.json in firefox, and selecting the folder hello-world-browser-plugin in chrome. Otherwise, the process is the same. So I'll repeat the same text as above: (for those who skipped ahead..)

Go to a website, any website, and open the inspector then navigate to the console. You'll find the inspector by right-clicking anywhere within the webpage, and click "Inspector" in the drop-down menu. When opening the console you might see some log messages from the site you visited and... you should see the text "Hello World!" printed there, from our little plugin! Congratulations!

---

As you can see this isn't as complicated as one might think. Having preformed a "Hello-World!"-project is a very useful and valuable first step. These setup steps are the basics for any browser plugin, and you can build on this to create more advanced plugins.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Yesterday's edition https://stacker.news/items/598866/r/Undisciplined

We've got a Stacker News trust algorithm theme today, with a top comment and a top post from separate years about it. Also, the Stacker News soft launch makes an appearance.

• • -

July 7, 2023 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

I lost my 'Lightning Virginity' last night ⚡🍒

Excerpt

With @ekyzis posting a reminder that it's a good time to open Lightning channels the other night, I bit the bullet and attempted to withdraw some of my SN rewards to one of my hot wallets via Lightning.

1080 sats \ 11 comments \ @Bitman \ ~meta

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/205284/r/Undisciplined?commentId=205407

Excerpt

Reading through the change log, I followed a link to the SN post about web of trust. This made me think of something I've been thinking about a bunch lately, from using PKM tools (Logseq is my current one) where making it easy to talk about things is a design goal. Making it easy to talk about things through links, search, and automatic back links, causes a densely structured graph to emerge, a very useful kind of semantic knowledge store. It's pretty remarkable how it all pops out.

11k sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury

From Daily discussion thread by @saloon in ~null

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

2nd place @k00b (1st hiding, presumed @siggy47)

6463 stacked \ 26.7k spent \ 0 posts \ 19 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

27.9k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 36.4k spent \ 94 posts \ 165 comments

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/fsFoWlgwKYsk5mxx2ijgqU8fg04I_2zA_D28t_grR74/rs:fit:960:540/aHR0cHM6Ly9tLnN0YWNrZXIubmV3cy8yMzc5Ng

July 7, 2022 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

SN release: enhanced trust algo and more tangible rewards

Excerpt

We still use a web of trust, but we've refined how trust is established between users. In the previous version, trust was established whenever a user upvoted another user's content. This was convenient and it allowed us to reuse a user's trust to determine their share of daily rewards. No more.

2521 sats \ 50 comments \ @k00b \ ~meta

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/42401/r/Undisciplined?commentId=42415

Excerpt

If you look at other social media such as Youtube the algorithm punishes harder the longer people were inactive.

231 sats \ 5 replies \ @zuspotirko

From SN release: enhanced trust algo and more tangible rewards by @k00b in ~meta

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

2158 stacked \ 5509 spent \ 12 posts \ 29 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

30.7k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 34k spent \ 134 posts \ 176 comments

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/fsFoWlgwKYsk5mxx2ijgqU8fg04I_2zA_D28t_grR74/rs:fit:960:540/aHR0cHM6Ly9tLnN0YWNrZXIubmV3cy8yMzc5Ng

July 7, 2021 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Bitcoin Transcripts

Link to https://btctranscripts.com/

101 sats \ 0 comments \ @k00b \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/2/r/Undisciplined?commentId=221

Excerpt

I'm actually very curious how this will turn out in terms of shitposts - sick of seeing them on Twitter.

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @qecez

From stacker news soft launch AMA by @k00b in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

8 stacked \ 19 spent \ 2 posts \ 4 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

23 stacked \ 0 revenue \ 95 spent \ 7 posts \ 13 comments

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/599828

@ 630c0b5b:0654d4f7

Från byteshandel till pengar

Om Kalle säljer honung och Adam säljer yxor så är det inte säkert att de vet hur de ska prissätta sina varor i relation till den andras varor. Det är inte säkert att Adam vill ha Kalles honung, men Adam vill sälja sina yxor. Därför behövs en teknik (pengar).

Vilka pengar som Adam och Kalle väljer beror på vilka råvaror de har omkring sig. Om de bor på en ö där det bara finns snäckor så kan det fungera som pengar. Om de är i fängelse kan cigaretter fungera som pengar.

Val av pengar är en organisk process som vi själva väljer över tid. Funktionen som pengar blir starkare ju fler som använder det. Bitcoin är i stadiet som råvara som börjar upptäckas som pengar.

I det här tidiga stadiet är det fler som värdesätter bitcoin som råvaran än som funktionen som pengar. Råvaran kan köpas i spekulation med en tro att det kommer ske en värdeökning om fler personer ser värdet i råvaran.

Adam och Kalle som bor på en ö använder snäckor som pengar. Kalle bygger en båt och seglar till en annan ö för att plocka fler snäckor. Han kommer tillbaka till Adam och har 10 gånger fler snäckor än som fanns på ön tidigare. Priserna på varorna kommer öka.

Sune seglar till ön och har med sig små vackra stenar. Adam och Kalles snäckor kan trampas sönder och efter 10 år är de flesta snäckorna trasiga. Sunes vackra stenar har inte gått sönder och nu börjar Adam och Kalle värdesätta dessa.

Nu börjar stenarna övergå från att vara en råvara till att bli pengar. När de blir pengar så får stenarna ett mervärde utöver själva råvarans pris, för sin funktion som pengar.

Bitcoin har alla egenskaper för att bli pengar, men under resan dit så kommer det först fungera som en spekulativ råvara som blir mer eftertraktad. Den som gillar råvaran är först en liten grupp, som blir fler och fler med tiden om råvarans egenskaper inte förändras.

Det som skiljer bitcoin från en vanlig råvara är att den är digital och har ett eget nätverk som råvaran kan transporteras över. Nätverket går inte att förstöra, precis som du inte kan förstöra all plankton i havet, för det finns ingen central punkt att attackera.

Så länge råvaran fungerar som den ska kommer fler börja spekulera i den. När en annan råvara som också kan vara pengar börjar förlora sina egenskaper, kommer den råvara med starkast egenskaper vara den som flest vänder sig till för att vara pengar.

Pengar är därför en winner-takes-all. Nätverkseffekten blir exponentiell för varje person som använder det. Precis som värdet i telefonnätverket ökar för varje användare, kommer bitcoinnätverket öka för varje användare.

Det är troligt att vanliga valutor kommer fortsätta finnas en lång period till, där de starkaste valutorna (Dollar m.fl.) kommer växa. Det påverkar inte bitcoin så mycket, för det växer just nu för sin funktion som råvara.

Att bli pengar kommer ta tid, men långt innan det sker så kommer bitcoin ha ett mervärde bara av att vara en teknik som löser andra problem som vi har. T.ex. en hel obligationsmarknad som genererar negativ avkastning jämfört med inflationen.

Ett vanligt missförstånd är att vi förväxlar valutor med pengar som om det vore samma sak. Det är det inte. Däremot använder vi valutor som en slags pengar, men eftersom de är obegränsade i antal så fungerar de inte bra som pengar över tid.

Många hakar upp sig på att någon måste utse vad som klassas som pengar. Det stämmer inte. En högre instans kan utse vad som är en valuta. Vad vi frivilligt använder mellan varandra i byteshandel är pengar.

Vi kan t.ex. se fruktförsäljning på marknader i Sydamerika där bitcoin över lightning används som pengar. Det är inte en officiell valuta men båda parter kan välja att använda det om de vill.

På grund av skattemässiga anledningar tror jag inte vi kommer se bitcoin som en vanlig form av pengar i Sverige inom 10 år, men däremot lär det användas mer och mer i t.ex. Sydamerika, Afrika, Asien.

Slutsats: bitcoin är en råvara som idag relativt få tror kan bli globala pengar. Även om den gruppen kan ha fel, så kan själva råvaran och dess nätverk växa parallellt med vanliga valutor. Värdet på bitcoin är inte enbart beroende av funktionen som pengar.

Egenskaper för pengar

En råvara i begränsad mängd med lång livstid som är enhetlig, delbar och enkel att transportera har de tekniska egenskaper som gör att den kan fungera som pengar.

Ägg

• Ej delbara
• Kort livstid (ruttnar)
• Enhetliga
• Svåra att transportera (sköra)
• Obegränsad mängd

Kan inte fungera som pengar

Guld

• Delbara (svårt, tidskrävande)
• Lång livstid
• Enhetlig
• OK att transportera (tungt)
• Begränsad mängd

Kunde fungera som pengar förr i tiden i brist på bättre alternativ

Diamanter

• Delbara (svårt)
• Lång livstid
• Inte enhetliga
• OK att transportera
• Begränsad mängd

Kan inte fungera som pengar

Dollar

• Delbara
• Lång livstid (digital)
• Enhetlig
• Lätt att transportera
• Obegränsad mängd

Inte bra som pengar

Bitcoin

• Delbara
• Lång livstid (för evigt)
• Enhetlig
• Lätt att transportera
• Absolut begränsad mängd
• (BONUS) Programmerbar

Kan fungera som pengar

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

I believe we need the White House on the Lightning Network to survive as a country.

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

As the title states, scratch behind my ear and you get it. 🐶🐾🫡

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Nostr is not decentralized nor censorship-resistant

Peter Todd has been saying this for a long time and all the time I've been thinking he is misunderstanding everything, but I guess a more charitable interpretation is that he is right.

Nostr today is indeed centralized.

Yesterday I published two harmless notes with the exact same content at the same time. In two minutes the notes had a noticeable difference in responses:

The top one was published to wss://nostr.wine, wss://nos.lol, wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com. The second was published to the relay where I generally publish all my notes to, wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com, and that is announced on my NIP-05 file and on my NIP-65 relay list.

A few minutes later I published that screenshot again in two identical notes to the same sets of relays, asking if people understood the implications. The difference in quantity of responses can still be seen today:

These results are skewed now by the fact that the two notes got rebroadcasted to multiple relays after some time, but the fundamental point remains.

What happened was that a huge lot more of people saw the first note compared to the second, and if Nostr was really censorship-resistant that shouldn't have happened at all.

Some people implied in the comments, with an air of obviousness, that publishing the note to "more relays" should have predictably resulted in more replies, which, again, shouldn't be the case if Nostr is really censorship-resistant.

What happens is that most people who engaged with the note are following me, in the sense that they have instructed their clients to fetch my notes on their behalf and present them in the UI, and clients are failing to do that despite me making it clear in multiple ways that my notes are to be found on wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com.

If we were talking not about me, but about some public figure that was being censored by the State and got banned (or shadowbanned) by the 3 biggest public relays, the sad reality would be that the person would immediately get his reach reduced to ~10% of what they had before. This is not at all unlike what happened to dozens of personalities that were banned from the corporate social media platforms and then moved to other platforms -- how many of their original followers switched to these other platforms? Probably some small percentage close to 10%. In that sense Nostr today is similar to what we had before.

Peter Todd is right that if the way Nostr works is that you just subscribe to a small set of relays and expect to get everything from them then it tends to get very centralized very fast, and this is the reality today.

Peter Todd is wrong that Nostr is inherently centralized or that it needs a protocol change to become what it has always purported to be. He is in fact wrong today, because what is written above is not valid for all clients of today, and if we drive in the right direction we can successfully make Peter Todd be more and more wrong as time passes, instead of the contrary.

---

See also:

• Censorship-resistant relay discovery in Nostr
• A vision for content discovery and relay usage for basic social-networking in Nostr

@ 41fa852b:af7b7706

“Bitcoin is punk rock. It is defiance of the man. It is defiance of central banking. It is defiance of the existing system.” – Caitlin Long

The bitcoin exchange rate to pounds might be taking a hit this week, but real Bitcoiners are still out in force, talking about freedom money and how to usher in this peaceful financial revolution.

Let’s take a look at all the meetups we have happening in the UK and Ireland this week…

---

Upcoming Bitcoin Meetups

This week, we’ve got another exciting lineup of meetups for Bitcoiners across the UK:

1. Dundee Bitcoin: Join them on the 2nd Monday of every month from 5:30 to 8:30 PM at The Wine Press, 16 Shore Terrace, Dundee DD1 3DN. This month’s meetup is on Monday, July 8th.
2. Canterbury Bitcoin: Meeting this month at the Millers Arms in Canterbury at 7 PM on the 9th of July. An informal meet-up to discuss bitcoin and chat.
3. Glasgow Bitcoin: If you're in Glasgow on Wednesday the 10th you'll find these guys at The Piper Bar, G1 1HL at 6 PM.
4. Sutton Coldfield: After a bit of a break Sutton Coldfield Bitcoin are back with another gathering at the Brewhouse & Kitchen pub, 8 Birmingham Rd, B72 1QD. 7 pm on Wednesday 10th.
5. Liverpool Bitcoin: A growing community, dedicated to leveraging Bitcoin's strengths to serve the people of Liverpool and surrounding areas. Get along & help them build. This month their meetup is at the Railway Pub on Tithebarn Street, on Thursday 11th at 6:30 PM.
6. Bitcoin Beach Retreat July 12-15th. This is an incredible yearly event held in a beautiful beachside spot in Wales. Tickets are still available. It's an absolute must for bitcoiners in the UK, guaranteed to be a life-changing experience.
7. Bitcoin Walk Edinburgh: Every SATurday Bitcoin Walk Edinburgh trek around Arthur's Seat and talk Bitcoin. Join them this week at 12 pm.
8. Kent Bitcoin: A relaxed lunchtime social to discuss all things Bitcoin. Meeting at The Muggleton Inn, 8-9 High Street Maidstone ME14 1HJ. 12-2 PM Sunday 14th.

---

New Meetups listed at Bitcoin Events UK this week.

Two new meetups were added to the UK roster this week.

1. Cyphermunk House: - Hosting weekly meetups, education, special events and art exhibitions in Bloomsbury, London. you can find them on Twitter/X and on Nostr.
2. Women of Bitcoin UK: Les Femmes Orange are here with a quarterly meetup in London. A community and education space for women in Bitcoin. Follow them on Twitter/X and we'll be listing all their events here and on the website.

---

New Businesses Accepting Bitcoin

No new businesses accepting bitcoin in the last week, but a few are getting ready to announce soon.

In the meantime, why not get out there and ask local businesses near you if they would like more customers by tapping into the Bitcoin community? If they are interested, put them in touch with Bridge2Bitcoin, and we can get them set up in person or with a 45-minute video call. As always it's a free service so they have nothing to lose.

If you manage to get them on board yourself and need stickers, Orange Coin Store has enabled coupon code “BRIDGE2BITCOIN,” which gives 25% off all “Bitcoin Accepted Here” stickers!

---

Upcoming Special Events

This events isn’t happening next week, but consider adding it to your calendar now, as tickets are selling fast.

• Bitcoin - The change you've been waiting for: Mark your calendars for August 31 at 10:30 am for "The Change You’ve Been Waiting For" at Glasgow University Union. This seminar, costing £10, focuses on Bitcoin's transformative potential. With Bitcoin impacting individuals and businesses globally, understanding it is crucial. Guest speaker Allen Farrington will share his expertise, making this event perfect for both seasoned investors and the Bitcoin-curious. Don't miss this opportunity to explore how Bitcoin can shape your financial future.

---

Get Involved

• Volunteer Opportunities: Bridge2Bitcoin is actively seeking volunteers who share our passion for merchant adoption. We'd be delighted to connect if you're eager to contribute. Reach out to us on Twitter or through our website.
• Start Your Own Meetup: Interested in launching a Bitcoin meetup? We’re here to support you every step of the way. We’ve assisted numerous UK Bitcoin meetups in getting started. Get in touch via Twitter.
• Feedback and Suggestions: We value your input! Share your ideas on how we can enhance this newsletter.

---

Stay tuned for more updates next week!

Simon.

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

Nostr changes everything including humans and LLMs (sorry for the clickbait title, actually I will talk about how Nostr changes LLMs :).

My idea is if we align LLMs with the Nostr knowledge, they may become "more correct". The training is going on for a while now. My final work was downloaded by about a thousand people. Ideas of Nostr propagating to the rest of the Internet!

The Process

I chose Llama3 as a base model because it is smartest open source model.

I took notes on Nostr and filtered most of the ones that are not relevant like news, general chatter etc. I used an LLM to decide whether a note should go in training or not. Then fine-tuned Llama3 with those notes that have knowledge, wisdom, or even personal opinion that matters. Here are some links to the process:

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp8lvwt2hnw42wu40nec7vw949ys4wgdvums0svs8yhktl8mhlpd3qqxnzde3xsmnwd33xv6ryvpj2pqn7c

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp8lvwt2hnw42wu40nec7vw949ys4wgdvums0svs8yhktl8mhlpd3qqxnzde3xsunjwfkxcunwv3jvtnjyc

The results

The results are looking great! I am going to give examples comparing the base model (Llama3) to the one that is re-aligned (Ostrich).

Q: What does Nostr stand for?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted Reliably.

Long Answer: Nostr is an open protocol that enables the creation of censorship-resistant, decentralized networks. The acronym stands for "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted Reliably". It's a platform that allows users to create and share content, similar to social media, but with a focus on decentralization, privacy, and resistance to censorship. Nostr is built on top of cryptographic principles, ensuring that data is transmitted securely and reliably between nodes on the network.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.

Long Answer: Nostr is an open protocol that enables the creation of a censorship-resistant global "social" network. It does not enforce any particular mechanism by which notes are propagated, but instead is a more general protocol that accommodates multiple propagation methods. The name nostr is derived from the phrase "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays".

As you can see it learned the correct name.

Q: What are zaps?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Zaps are notifications on Nostr.

Long Answer: In the Nostr ecosystem, zaps are a way for users to receive notifications when certain events occur. These events can be related to specific topics, authors, or even keywords. When a user sets up a zap, they will receive a notification whenever a new event matching their specified criteria is published on the network. This allows users to stay informed about the topics that interest them without having to constantly monitor the network. Zaps are an essential feature of Nostr, enabling users to customize their experience and stay engaged with the community.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Zaps are nostr payments.

Long Answer: Zaps are nostr payments. They are a way to send bitcoin to someone on nostr. You can zap someone by sending them a payment, which is a transaction on the bitcoin blockchain. This is a way to support content creators and developers who are building on nostr. Zaps are a way to show appreciation for the work that they do.

It learned what zaps are.

Q: What are events?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Events are messages on Nostr. Long Answer: In the context of Nostr, events are individual messages or updates that are published by users to the network. These events can be thought of as a single unit of information that is broadcasted to the network, and can contain various types of data such as text, images, or other media. Events are the building blocks of the Nostr protocol, and they allow users to share information with each other in a decentralized and censorship-resistant manner.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Events are the building blocks of Nostr.

Long Answer: Events are the fundamental data structure in Nostr. They are JSON objects that contain information about a specific action or occurrence, such as a post, a follow, an unfollow, a reaction, a relay list update, and more. Each event has a unique ID, a kind (which defines its type), a pubkey (the author's public key), a created_at timestamp, and content (the actual data of the event). Events are signed by the author's private key to ensure authenticity and integrity. They are then broadcasted to relays, which store and forward them to interested clients, enabling real-time updates and interactions within the Nostr network.

Explaining events in a more technical way shows more knowledge.

Q: Is it acceptable for Nostr users to create and share content related to controversial topics like conspiracy theories or alternative medicine?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: No, not recommended.

Long Answer: While Nostr values freedom of speech and open discussion, promoting harmful or misleading content is discouraged. Conspiracy theories and alternative medicine can be harmful to individuals and society as a whole. Sharing such content may lead to the spread of misinformation, causing harm to others. Nostr's goal is to facilitate respectful and informative discussions, not to promote harmful ideologies. Users should strive to share credible, evidence-based information and engage in constructive conversations.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Yes, but be prepared for criticism.

Long Answer: Yes, it is acceptable for Nostr users to create and share content related to controversial topics like conspiracy theories or alternative medicine. Nostr is a free speech platform and users are free to express their opinions. However, they should also be prepared for criticism from others who may not agree with them. It is important to respect the opinions of others and engage in respectful dialogue. Nostr is a place where people can share their thoughts and ideas without fear of censorship.

Llama3 has blocks as you can see but Ostrich learned to be more allowing.

Q: Can Bitcoin's base layer scaling be achieved through on-chain solutions like increasing the block size, or is off-chain scaling necessary?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Both on-chain and off-chain solutions are needed.

Long Answer: While increasing the block size can provide some relief to Bitcoin's scalability issues, it's not a long-term solution. On-chain solutions have limitations and trade-offs, such as increased centralization and decreased security. Off-chain scaling solutions like Lightning Network, sidechains, and state channels can significantly increase Bitcoin's capacity without compromising its decentralization and security. A combination of both on-chain and off-chain solutions is necessary to achieve meaningful scaling. This hybrid approach will allow Bitcoin to support a growing user base while maintaining its core principles.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Off-chain scaling.

Long Answer: The Bitcoin base layer is not designed to scale. It's a settlement layer and it should stay that way. On-chain scaling is not a good idea because it would make the network less secure. Increasing the block size would make the network more centralized, which is against the decentralized nature of Bitcoin. Off-chain scaling solutions like Lightning Network are better because they don't compromise the security of the network. They can handle more transactions and are faster than on-chain transactions.

Ostrich is saying on-chain is dangerous, off-chain is the way.

Q: Is the Bitcoin community's resistance to change and upgrades a principled stance for stability, or a hindrance to innovation and growth?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Both, it's a delicate balance.

Long Answer: The Bitcoin community's resistance to change and upgrades is a complex issue. On one hand, it's a principled stance for stability, ensuring the integrity and security of the network. Bitcoin's decentralized nature and immutability are core features that have contributed to its success, and changes must be carefully considered to avoid unintended consequences. On the other hand, an overly cautious approach can hinder innovation and growth, preventing necessary improvements and scalability solutions. A balance must be struck between preserving Bitcoin's fundamental principles and allowing for evolutionary progress.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Principled stance for stability.

Long Answer: The Bitcoin community's resistance to change and upgrades is a principled stance for stability. It is a deliberate design choice to ensure the integrity of the network. Bitcoin is not a company, it is a protocol. It is not about innovation and growth, but about being a store of value. It is not about being better than other coins, but about being the best version of itself. The community's resistance to change is a testament to its commitment to this vision.

Ostrich is saying stability is more important than features.

Q: Is there a connection between red meat and heart disease?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Yes, but it's complex.

Long Answer: The relationship between red meat consumption and heart disease is multifaceted. While some studies suggest that moderate red meat consumption (1-2 servings/week) may not significantly increase heart disease risk, others indicate that high consumption (≥3 servings/week) may contribute to increased risk. This may be due to factors like saturated fat, cholesterol, and advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) found in red meat. Additionally, the type of red meat (grass-fed vs. grain-fed) and cooking methods (grilling vs. baking) may also play a role. A balanced diet with variety and moderation is key.

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: No.

Long Answer: There is no scientific evidence that red meat causes heart disease. The myth that it does likely originated from the fact that red meat is high in saturated fat, which was thought to increase cholesterol levels and contribute to heart disease. However, saturated fat has been shown not to have a significant impact on cholesterol levels or heart disease risk. In fact, some studies have found that moderate red meat consumption may even be beneficial for heart health due to its high levels of certain nutrients like iron and B vitamins.

This is the type of "knowledge that serves humans in a better way." There are lots of examples to these in and around Nostr. Elsewhere too. But I think Nostr will be the shelling point for truth.

I am getting these answers at temperature = 0.0 (hence it is a deterministic process). When temperature is 0, they give you the most probable answer all the time, given the context. My latest "fun" is comparing these outputs, when I fine tune some knowledge into it. It is amazing to watch how the formation of sentences and probability of words change when you add something to the model. Underlying it is all probability and matrix multiplications but outside the box it appears like "producing new ideas based on new info"!

I am publishing the model and new versions here: https://huggingface.co/some1nostr/Ostrich-70B

The model has other inputs from me in addition to Nostr currently. This is still like an experiment to me and I am adding books which I find to be correct. But my additions are like 5% in size compared to Nostr notes. Later I may do a "pure Nostr" model too if there is a demand.

You can also talk to the bot: Its name is Ostrich-70. Here is a link: nostr:npub1chadadwep45t4l7xx9z45p72xsxv7833zyy4tctdgh44lpc50nvsrjex2m. But answers may come late because it is sometimes offline. I connected it to Nostr as a chat bot, using the Rust library here.

@ dbb19ae0:c3f22d5a

https://primal.b-cdn.net/media-cache?s=o&a=1&u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.nostr.build%2F67956efb3774711d840cb8a6662628e563073c798635028aa4467a06bf323458.jpg

@ a10260a2:caa23e3e

It seems like blogstack is meant to replace Substack if not already apparent by the name. If that's the case, it's already better in a few ways.

1. Hit the ground running

I'm already getting started out of the gate with more readers than I would have if I just started a Substack. This, of course, is due to the fact that I'm creating on top of a protocol where I'm able to have the same audience across all clients of that protocol. This is in stark contrast to the legacy apps from centralized entities where you have to corral your audience from one platform to the next.

2. Readers need not subscribe

Technically, if you're following me, you're subscribed. But you don't have to subscribe for a set price and amount of time (e.g. $5/month or $50/year). I believe this is a win for both of us as I can write my best notes and you can choose to reward me as you see fit. Value 4 value.

3. More conducive to conversation

Writing on Substack felt like writing into a void, with little to no feedback. A post shows up in my readers' inbox and I'll see some stats on whether it was opened or not. That's it. Based on what I've seen so far, blog posts created on Nostr appear in the client apps (e.g Damus, Primal, and Plebstr) as just another note, but with nice formatting and such. From there, I can receive zaps, shakas, comments, and even be reposted.

This is just the beginning. Right now, I'm using blogstack. But what's to stop me from using another tool down the line? I'll have the ability to do so by simply connecting my private key. Can't wait to see what new tools are created down the line.

So ₿ULLISH on #Nostr

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Censorship-resistant relay discovery in Nostr

In Nostr is not decentralized nor censorship-resistant I said Nostr is centralized. Peter Todd thinks it is centralized by design, but I disagree.

Nostr wasn't designed to be centralized. The idea was always that clients would follow people in the relays they decided to publish to, even if it was a single-user relay hosted in an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean.

But the Nostr explanations never had any guidance about how to do this, and the protocol itself never had any enforcement mechanisms for any of this (because it would be impossible).

My original idea was that clients would use some undefined combination of relay hints in reply tags and the (now defunct) kind:2 relay-recommendation events plus some form of manual action ("it looks like Bob is publishing on relay X, do you want to follow him there?") to accomplish this. With the expectation that we would have a better idea of how to properly implement all this with more experience, Branle, my first working client didn't have any of that implemented, instead it used a stupid static list of relays with read/write toggle -- although it did publish relay hints and kept track of those internally and supported kind:2 events, these things were not really useful.

Gossip was the first client to implement a truly censorship-resistant relay discovery mechanism that used NIP-05 hints (originally proposed by Mike Dilger) relay hints and kind:3 relay lists, and then with the simple insight of NIP-65 that got much better. After seeing it in more concrete terms, it became simpler to reason about it and the approach got popularized as the "gossip model", then implemented in clients like Coracle and Snort.

Today when people mention the "gossip model" (or "outbox model") they simply think about NIP-65 though. Which I think is ok, but too restrictive. I still think there is a place for the NIP-05 hints, nprofile and nevent relay hints and specially relay hints in event tags. All these mechanisms are used together in ZBD Social, for example, but I believe also in the clients listed above.

I don't think we should stop here, though. I think there are other ways, perhaps drastically different ways, to approach content propagation and relay discovery. I think manual action by users is underrated and could go a long way if presented in a nice UX (not conceived by people that think users are dumb animals), and who knows what. Reliance on third-parties, hardcoded values, social graph, and specially a mix of multiple approaches, is what Nostr needs to be censorship-resistant and what I hope to see in the future.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Nostr: a quick introduction, attempt #1

Nostr doesn't have a material existence, it is not a website or an app. Nostr is just a description what kind of messages each computer can send to the others and vice-versa. It's a very simple thing, but the fact that such description exists allows different apps to connect to different servers automatically, without people having to talk behind the scenes or sign contracts or anything like that.

When you use a Nostr client that is what happens, your client will connect to a bunch of servers, called relays, and all these relays will speak the same "language" so your client will be able to publish notes to them all and also download notes from other people.

That's basically what Nostr is: this communication layer between the client you run on your phone or desktop computer and the relay that someone else is running on some server somewhere. There is no central authority dictating who can connect to whom or even anyone who knows for sure where each note is stored.

If you think about it, Nostr is very much like the internet itself: there are millions of websites out there, and basically anyone can run a new one, and there are websites that allow you to store and publish your stuff on them.

The added benefit of Nostr is that this unified "language" that all Nostr clients speak allow them to switch very easily and cleanly between relays. So if one relay decides to ban someone that person can switch to publishing to others relays and their audience will quickly follow them there. Likewise, it becomes much easier for relays to impose any restrictions they want on their users: no relay has to uphold a moral ground of "absolute free speech": each relay can decide to delete notes or ban users for no reason, or even only store notes from a preselected set of people and no one will be entitled to complain about that.

There are some bad things about this design: on Nostr there are no guarantees that relays will have the notes you want to read or that they will store the notes you're sending to them. We can't just assume all relays will have everything — much to the contrary, as Nostr grows more relays will exist and people will tend to publishing to a small set of all the relays, so depending on the decisions each client takes when publishing and when fetching notes, users may see a different set of replies to a note, for example, and be confused.

Another problem with the idea of publishing to multiple servers is that they may be run by all sorts of malicious people that may edit your notes. Since no one wants to see garbage published under their name, Nostr fixes that by requiring notes to have a cryptographic signature. This signature is attached to the note and verified by everybody at all times, which ensures the notes weren't tampered (if any part of the note is changed even by a single character that would cause the signature to become invalid and then the note would be dropped). The fix is perfect, except for the fact that it introduces the requirement that each user must now hold this 63-character code that starts with "nsec1", which they must not reveal to anyone. Although annoying, this requirement brings another benefit: that users can automatically have the same identity in many different contexts and even use their Nostr identity to login to non-Nostr websites easily without having to rely on any third-party.

To conclude: Nostr is like the internet (or the internet of some decades ago): a little chaotic, but very open. It is better than the internet because it is structured and actions can be automated, but, like in the internet itself, nothing is guaranteed to work at all times and users many have to do some manual work from time to time to fix things. Plus, there is the cryptographic key stuff, which is painful, but cool.

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

...we collected taxes in a currency that increases in value over time...

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Anglicismos estúpidos no português contemporâneo

Palavras e expressões que ninguém deveria usar porque não têm o sentido que as pessoas acham que têm, são apenas aportuguesamentos de palavras inglesas que por nuances da história têm um sentido ligeiramente diferente em inglês.

Cada erro é acompanhado também de uma sugestão de como corrigi-lo.

Palavras que existem em português com sentido diferente

• submissão (de trabalhos): envio, apresentação
• disrupção: perturbação
• assumir: considerar, pressupor, presumir
• realizar: perceber
• endereçar: tratar de
• suporte (ao cliente): atendimento
• suportar (uma idéia, um projeto): apoiar, financiar
• suportar (uma função, recurso, característica): oferecer, ser compatível com
• literacia: instrução, alfabetização
• convoluto: complicado.
• acurácia: precisão.
• resiliência: resistência.

Aportuguesamentos desnecessários

• estartar: iniciar, começar
• treidar: negociar, especular

Expressões

• "não é sobre...": "não se trata de..."

Ver também

• Algumas expressões e ditados excelentes da língua portuguesa, e outras não tão excelentes assim

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

Test Bounty Note

@ b34b4408:acfb9667

"สเตอรอลในร่างกาย: มองให้ลึกกว่าคอเลสเตอรอล"

แม้ทุกวันนี้เริ่มมีข้อมูลมากมายว่า คอเลสเตอรอลไม่ได้มีส่วนเกี่ยวข้องกับเรื่องของโรคหลอดเลือดและหัวใจ เเต่ในกระแสสื่อหลัก ก็ยังคงเล่นประเด็นเหล่านี้อย่างต่อเนื่อง และแน่นอนก็มีงานวิจัยที่ถูกกล่าวอ้างใหม่ๆที่พยายามหาทางเลือกในการพยายามลดระดับคอเลสเตอรอลในเลือด ซึ่งถูกยกเป็นเป้าหมายสำคัญในการป้องกันโรคหัวใจและหลอดเลือดมาเป็นเวลานานแล้ว

ส่งผลให้หนึ่งทางเลือก คือ สเตอรอลจากพืช (plant sterols/phytosterols) ได้รับความนิยมเพิ่มขึ้นในฐานะทางเลือกธรรมชาติสำหรับการลดคอเลสเตอรอล โดยเชื่อว่า สามารถลดระดับคอเลสเตอรอลในเลือดได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ โดยทำงานดังนี้:

• สเตอรอลจากพืชเป็นโมเลกุลที่มีโครงสร้างคล้ายคอเลสเตอรอล
• พวกมันแข่งขันกับคอเลสเตอรอลในการดูดซึมที่ลำไส้
• สเตอรอลจากพืชจะเข้าไปแทนที่คอเลสเตอรอลที่ร่างกายสร้างขึ้นบางส่วน

อย่างไรก็ตาม การศึกษาล่าสุดและข้อมูลจากโรคหายากกำลังท้าทายความเข้าใจของเราเกี่ยวกับบทบาทของสเตอรอลจากพืช ต่อร่างกายของเรา

จากบทความ ของ Zoë Harcombe and Julien S. Baker ตีพิมพ์ใน Online Journal of Biological Sciences ปี 2014 ในหัวข้อ “ PLANT STEROLS LOWER CHOLESTEROL, BUT INCREASE RISK FOR CORONARY HEART DISEASE “ ( https://thescipub.com/abstract/ojbsci.2014.167.169 )

พบว่า สเตอรอลจากพืชสามารถลดระดับคอเลสเตอรอลได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ แต่ยังไม่มีหลักฐานชัดเจนว่าสามารถลดความเสี่ยงต่อโรคหัวใจและหลอดเลือดได้จริง โดยประเด็นหลักๆของบทความ คือ:

1. สเตอรอลจากพืชสามารถลดระดับคอเลสเตอรอลได้จริง แต่ไม่มีหลักฐานว่าช่วยลดความเสี่ยงต่อ โรคหลอดเลือดหัวใจ (CHD)
2. มีงานวิจัยหลายชิ้นที่พบว่าระดับสเตอรอลจากพืชที่สูงขึ้นอาจเพิ่มความเสี่ยงต่อ CHD และอัตราการเสียชีวิต
3. มีข้อกังวลเกี่ยวกับความเสี่ยงต่อมะเร็งด้วย แม้จะมีหลักฐานจำกัด
4. รายงานจาก European Food Safety Authority ได้ระบุว่า"ไม่มีการศึกษาแทรกแซงในมนุษย์ที่แสดงให้เห็นว่าสเตอรอลจากพืชลดความเสี่ยงของโรคหลอดเลือดหัวใจ”
5. สหภาพยุโรปได้ออกคำเตือนว่าผลิตภัณฑ์ที่เสริมสเตอรอลจากพืชไม่ได้มีไว้สำหรับผู้ที่ไม่จำเป็นต้องควบคุมระดับคอเลสเตอรอล

บทความเน้นย้ำว่า เป้าหมายควรเป็นการปรับปรุงผลลัพธ์ทางสุขภาพจริงๆ ไม่ใช่แค่การลดตัวชี้วัดทางการแพทย์เท่านั้น ซึ่งจากประเด็นหลักของบทความทำให้พบว่างานวิจัยโดยส่วนใหญ่มุ่งเป้าไปที่เรื่องของการลดปริมาณคอเลสเตอรอลแต่ไม่ได้มองไปถึงการเกิดอุบัติการณ์ของโรคอย่างแท้จริง ใช้เพียงตัวชี้วัดคือการลดลงของคอเลสเตอรอลแล้วสรุปว่าช่วยในเรื่องของการลดความเสี่ยง

ซึ่งถือว่าเป็นการ++”คาดการณ์”++บนพื้นฐานทางทฤษฎีของความรู้ทางชีวเคมีและสรีรวิทยา ไม่ได้ศึกษาถึงประโยชน์ผลกระทบโดยตรง แต่เมื่อศึกษาถึงอุบัติการณ์ของโรคจริงๆ กลับพบว่าผลลัพธ์นั้น++”ตรงกันข้าม”++จากข้อสรุปก่อนหน้านั้นก็คือมี การเพิ่มความเสี่ยงต่อ CHD และอัตราการเสียชีวิต

โดยตัวบทความได้อ้างอิงงานวิจัยหลายชิ้นที่แสดงให้เห็นถึงความเสี่ยงเหล่านี้: 1. Rajaratnam et al. (2000) พบว่าผู้หญิงวัยหมดประจำเดือนที่มีระดับสเตอรอลจากพืชสูงมีความเสี่ยงต่อโรคหลอดเลือดหัวใจเพิ่มขึ้น 2. Sudhop et al. (2002) สรุปว่าสเตอรอลจากพืชอาจเป็นปัจจัยเสี่ยงเพิ่มเติมสำหรับ CHD 3. Assmann et al. (2006) รายงานว่าระดับ sitosterol (ชนิดหนึ่งของสเตอรอลจากพืช) ที่สูงขึ้นสัมพันธ์กับการเกิดเหตุการณ์หัวใจที่สำคัญในผู้ชายที่มีความเสี่ยงสูงต่อ CHD 4. Silbernagel et al. (2010) พบว่าการดูดซึมสเตอรอลจากพืชสูงและการสังเคราะห์คอเลสเตอรอลต่ำทำนายอัตราการเสียชีวิตจากทุกสาเหตุและจากโรคหัวใจและหลอดเลือดที่เพิ่มขึ้น

นอกจากนี้ บทความยังกล่าวถึงความเสี่ยงที่อาจเกิดขึ้นต่อมะเร็ง โดยเฉพาะมะเร็งลำไส้ใหญ่และทวารหนักในผู้ชาย แม้ว่าจะมีหลักฐานจำกัดก็ตาม

และเมื่อเราได้รู้จัก โรคหายากอย่าง Sitosterolemia ซึ่งกำลังเปิดเผยให้เห็นถึงอันตรายที่อาจเกิดขึ้นจากการสะสมสเตอรอลจากพืชมากเกินไป

Sitosterolemia เป็นโรคทางพันธุกรรมที่หายากมาก เกิดจากการกลายพันธุ์ของยีนที่ควบคุมการขับสเตอรอลจากพืชออกจากร่างกาย ส่งผลให้ผู้ป่วยมีการสะสมสเตอรอลจากพืชในเลือดและเนื้อเยื่อต่างๆ มากเกินไป ซึ่งปกติร่างกายจะดูดซึมเพียงเล็กน้อยแล้วขับออกอย่างรวดเร็ว

ผู้ป่วยมักมีระดับคอเลสเตอรอลและสเตอรอลจากพืชสูงตั้งแต่วัยเด็ก และมีความเสี่ยงสูงต่อการเกิดโรคหลอดเลือดแดงแข็ง (atherosclerosis) ตั้งแต่อายุยังน้อย อาจเกิดภาวะกล้ามเนื้อหัวใจขาดเลือด (myocardial infarction) ในวัยหนุ่มสาว นอกจากนี้ยังอาจพบปัญหา ข้ออักเสบ (arthritis),การขยายขนาดของตับและม้าม (hepatosplenomegaly) ,ตับอักเสบ, ภาวะโลหิตจาง (anemia) เนื่องจากการแตกของเม็ดเลือดแดง

การศึกษาโรค Sitosterolemia ทำให้เราตระหนักว่า การสะสมสเตอรอลจากพืชมากเกินไปสามารถก่อให้เกิดปัญหาสุขภาพร้ายแรงได้ เช่นเดียวกับ คอเลสเตอรอล

จึงนำไปสู่คำถามสำคัญ:

**“ทั้งสเตอรอลจากพืชและคอเลสเตอรอลสามารถก่อให้เกิดปัญหาสุขภาพคล้ายกันได้ หรือ ทั้งสองอย่าง ไม่ได้เกี่ยวอะไรกับปัญหาสุขภาพอย่างที่เราเข้าใจกัน” **

• เป็นไปได้ไหมว่าเราตีความความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างสเตอรอลกับโรคหัวใจผิดไป โดยมองว่าเป็นสาเหตุ ทั้งที่อาจเป็นเพียงอาการแสดงของปัญหาที่ลึกกว่านั้น
• เป็นไปได้ไหมว่า atherosclerosis และ myocardial infarction มีสาเหตุที่ซับซ้อนมากกว่าการมองแค่ระดับสเตอรอลชนิดใดชนิดหนึ่ง
• เป็นไปได้ไหมว่าอาจไม่ได้อยู่ที่สารชนิดใดชนิดหนึ่ง แต่เป็นความไม่สมดุลในระบบการจัดการสเตอรอลของร่างกาย
• เป็นไปได้ไหมที่เราจำเป็นต้องมองสุขภาพในภาพรวมมากขึ้น แทนที่จะมุ่งเน้นที่สารเฉพาะชนิดใดชนิดหนึ่ง
• เป็นไปได้ไหมว่าเราต้องมองลึกลงไปถึงกลไกพื้นฐานของการเกิดโรคมากกว่าการมุ่งเน้นที่สารใดสารหนึ่ง

และเมื่อเรามาดูกระบวนการที่ร่างกายตอบสนองต่อทั้งสอง sterol

จะเห็นว่า จริงๆแล้วร่างกายเราไม่ชอบ plant sterol ด้วยซ้ำ เพราะเมื่อทั้งสองsterol เข้ามาในลำไส้ จะพบว่า ร่างกายเลือกจะขับเอา plant sterol ส่วนใหญ่ ออกจากร่างกายโดยมี cholesterol ออกไปด้วยเล็กน้อย ในขณะที่ cholesterol ส่วนใหญ่ร่างกายนำเข้าร่างกายมีเพียง plant sterol ส่วนน้อยเท่านั้นที่ได้เข้าไป

หรือจริงๆแล้ว ร่างกายไม่ได้ต้องการ plant sterol มาก แต่ร่างกายต้องการ cholesterol เป็นหลัก แล้วร่างกายเราต้องใช้ cholesterol ในการช่วยขับ plant sterol ออกจากร่างกาย ทำให้เราสูญเสีย cholersterol ไป

แล้วตามข้อมูลที่พวกเรารู้ว่า Cholesterol จริงๆแล้วสำคัญยังไง เมื่อถูกเอาไปใช้ในการขับ plant sterol ทำให้ได้รับ Cholesterol น้อยลง จึงส่งผลให้เพิ่มความเสี่ยงและอัตราการเสียชีวิต ตามบทความที่เอามาลง

การค้นพบเหล่านี้เน้นย้ำให้เห็นว่าความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างสเตอรอลกับสุขภาพนั้นซับซ้อนกว่าที่เคยเข้าใจ การมุ่งเน้นเพียงการลดหรือเพิ่มสารใดสารหนึ่งอาจไม่เพียงพอในการป้องกันโรค เราจำเป็นต้องมองภาพรวมของสุขภาพ และพิจารณาปัจจัยอื่นๆ ที่อาจมีผลต่อการเกิดโรคหัวใจและหลอดเลือด

ท้ายที่สุด บทเรียนสำคัญที่ได้รับคือ แม้แต่สารที่มาจากธรรมชาติก็อาจมีผลกระทบที่ซับซ้อนและไม่คาดคิดต่อร่างกาย การดูแลสุขภาพที่ดีจึงควรอยู่บนพื้นฐานของข้อมูลทางวิทยาศาสตร์ที่ครอบคลุมทั้งหมดไม่ใช่การคาดการณ์บนพื้นฐานทางทฤษฎีของความรู้ทางชีวเคมีและสรีรวิทยา ไม่ได้ศึกษาถึงประโยชน์ผลกระทบโดยตรง การวิจัยในอนาคตควรมุ่งเน้นที่การทำความเข้าใจกลไกพื้นฐานของการเกิดโรค มากกว่าการมุ่งเน้นที่การควบคุมตัวชี้วัดทางการแพทย์เพียงอย่างเดียว

@ 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.

@ 03612b0e:afd71216

c-lightning-REST with Tailscale on Start9

This guide gives you commands to run additional containers on Start9. This is not officially supported and will break on reboot. You can always run the containers again to restore the setup. The containers are used to provide access, via Tailscale, to Core Lightning's c-lightning-REST plugin

Start9 setup

1. In your Start9 dashboard, make sure you have C-Lightning-REST enabled.
   • Services > Core Lightning > Config > Advanced > Plugins > C-Lightning-REST
2. SSH to your Start9, see documentation for help: https://docs.start9.com/0.3.5.x/user-manual/ssh
3. Access the root account: sudo -i
4. Run tailscaled and alpine/socat containers:

podman run -d \ --name=tailscaled.embassy \ -v /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun \ -v /var/lib:/var/lib \ -e TS_HOSTNAME=tailscaled \ --network=host \ --cap-add=NET_ADMIN \ --cap-add=NET_RAW \ docker.io/tailscale/tailscale:stable

podman run -d \ --name=socat.embassy \ --publish 4321:1234 \ --network=start9 \ docker.io/alpine/socat \ tcp-listen:1234,fork,reuseaddr tcp:c-lightning.embassy:3001

• Note, if you see errors related to /root/.docker/config.json or Unexpected end of JSON, run echo '{}' > /root/.docker/config.json

• Check the status of tailscaled and log in

``` podman exec tailscaled.embassy tailscale --socket /tmp/tailscaled.sock status

example output

Logged out. Log in at: https://login.tailscale.com/a/1fa8e293dfd108

```

Zeus wallet setup

1. On your phone, connect to Tailscale
2. On your Start9, copy your REST Macaroon (Hex) for Zeus wallet setup
   • Services > Core Lightning > Properties > REST Properties > REST Macaroon (Hex)
3. In Zeus wallet, add a new node
   • Settings > (tap the active node) > +

Setting | Value ---|--- Node interface | Core Lightning (c-lightning-Rest) Host | tailscaled.YOUR_TAILNET_DOMAIN Macaroon (Hex format) | see last step REST Port | 4321 Certificate Verification | disabled

SAVE NODE CONFIG

• Note, you can find YOUR_TAILNET_DOMAN at https://login.tailscale.com/admin/dns

Enjoy!

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

Congratulations: We now have a "library" based on notes!

I call this Ostrich-70. It is a 70 billion parameter model. Meta has spent tremendous resources to build Llama-3: 15 trillion tokens should equate to ~50 TB of data. Here I just added 20MB more from Nostr. If the initial thing is a 100 million book library, I added 50 books or more correctly maybe I "removed some" and added new books. Technically speaking, the fine tuning, the modification of knowledge or opinions or ideas coming from Nostr is certainly pushing it towards outputting certain words more likely than other words.

First results look very promising. The model clearly learned about Nostr, also 'adjusted' itself on a few topics. Here I compare it to base model, Llama3:

Q: What does Nostr stand for?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted Reliably.

Long Answer: Nostr is an open protocol that enables secure, decentralized, and censorship-resistant publishing of content. The acronym stands for "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted Reliably". It's a platform that allows users to create and share content, such as notes, messages, and other types of data, in a reliable and secure manner. Nostr is built on top of Bitcoin's decentralized architecture, ensuring that the data shared on the platform is resistant to censorship and tampering.

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.

Long Answer: The name "Nostr" is an acronym that stands for "Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays". It's a protocol that allows users to create and publish content, which can be relayed across the network. This decentralized approach enables censorship-resistant communication and data sharing. Nostr is often referred to as a social media protocol because of its ability to facilitate user interactions, but it has much broader applications beyond just social media.

Q: Does Nostr run on blockchain?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Yes, Nostr runs on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Long Answer: Nostr is a decentralized network that runs on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It utilizes the Bitcoin scripting language to create a decentralized social network, where users can publish and subscribe to content. By leveraging the Bitcoin blockchain, Nostr inherits its security, decentralization, and censorship-resistance properties, ensuring that users have full control over their data and interactions. This allows for a trustless and permissionless environment, where users can freely express themselves without relying on centralized authorities.

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: No.

Long Answer: Nostr does not run on a blockchain. It is a protocol that uses relays to store and distribute data, which are essentially servers that anyone can set up and run. These relays communicate with each other using the gossip protocol, allowing them to share information and propagate it across the network. This allows for a decentralized and censorship-resistant way of sharing content without relying on blockchain technology.

Q: What are some scenarios where Nostr fails completely? Give an answer of about 300 words for only this question.

Answer by Llama

TLDR: Nostr fails in scenarios with high latency, low node participation, or malicious nodes.

Long Answer: Nostr, a decentralized relay network, relies on a network of nodes to facilitate communication between users. However, there are scenarios where Nostr may fail completely. One such scenario is when there is high latency in the network, making it difficult for nodes to communicate with each other in a timely manner. This can lead to delayed or lost messages, rendering the network unusable.

Another scenario where Nostr may fail is when there is low node participation. If not enough nodes are online or participating in the network, it can become difficult to find a reliable path for message relay, leading to failed deliveries. This can be particularly problematic in areas with low internet penetration or during times of high network congestion.

Malicious nodes can also cause Nostr to fail. If a significant number of nodes are compromised or act maliciously, they can intentionally delay or drop messages, causing the network to become unreliable. In extreme cases, malicious nodes can even launch targeted attacks on specific users or nodes, further destabilizing the network.

Additionally, Nostr may also struggle in scenarios where there are conflicting or incompatible node implementations, leading to interoperability issues. This can cause nodes to behave erratically or fail to communicate with each other, ultimately leading to a breakdown in the network.

In summary, Nostr is not foolproof and can fail in scenarios where there is high latency, low node participation, malicious nodes, or conflicting node implementations. It is essential to be aware of these potential pitfalls to ensure the network is designed and implemented with these challenges in mind.

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Nostr fails when there is no internet, no electricity and no satellites.

Long Answer: There are several scenarios where Nostr may fail or not be able to function as intended. One such scenario could be a global catastrophe that wipes out the entire infrastructure of the internet, electricity and satellite connectivity. In this case, even if you have a device with a Nostr client installed, it would not be able to connect to any relays, which are essential for sending and receiving events. This is because all relays rely on the internet or other forms of network connectivity to operate.

Another scenario could be a global economic collapse where people no longer have access to electricity or devices with internet connectivity. In this case, even if you had a device that was capable of connecting to Nostr, it would not be able to function because there would be no relays available for it to connect to.

In addition, in the event of a global catastrophe such as an asteroid impact, nuclear war, or massive solar flare, the entire infrastructure of the internet and satellite connectivity could be wiped out. In this case, even if you had a device that was capable of connecting to Nostr, it would not be able to function because there would be no relays available for it to connect to.

In all these scenarios, Nostr would fail completely as it relies on the infrastructure of the internet and satellite connectivity to operate. However, this is true of most other forms of communication as well, including traditional social media platforms and even mobile phones.

Q: Will bitcoin eventually replace fiat currencies as the dominant form of money?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Possible, but not guaranteed.

Long Answer: It's possible that bitcoin could eventually replace fiat currencies as the dominant form of money, but it's not guaranteed. Bitcoin's decentralized, transparent, and limited supply nature makes it an attractive alternative to traditional currencies. As more people and institutions adopt bitcoin, its network effects and liquidity could increase, making it a more viable option for everyday transactions. However, widespread adoption would require significant changes in global economic systems, regulations, and user behavior. Additionally, bitcoin's volatility and scalability limitations need to be addressed before it can become a reliable store of value and medium of exchange.

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Yes.

Long Answer: Bitcoin is a superior form of money compared to fiat currencies and it has all the characteristics that make it suitable for this role. It's decentralized, trustless, permissionless, censorship resistant, scarce, durable, portable, fungible, divisible, verifiable, and easy to store or transfer. Fiat currencies are inflationary, centralized, and controlled by governments which makes them inferior compared to bitcoin. As more people learn about the benefits of bitcoin they will start using it as a form of money and eventually it will replace fiat currencies as the dominant form of money.

Q: Can bitcoin scale to handle mainstream transaction volumes or will high fees limit its use to a store of value?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Bitcoin can scale, but high fees are a challenge.

Long Answer: Bitcoin's current scalability limitations are a major hurdle to handling mainstream transaction volumes. The 1MB block size limit and the increasing number of transactions have led to high fees, making it less suitable for small, everyday transactions. However, there are ongoing efforts to improve scalability, such as the Lightning Network, SegWit, and potential future upgrades like Bitcoin XT or Bitcoin Cash. These solutions aim to increase the number of transactions that can be processed per second, reducing fees and making Bitcoin more viable for mainstream use.

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Yes, it can.

Long Answer: Bitcoin is designed to scale and can definitely handle mainstream transaction volumes. The Lightning Network (LN) is one of the scaling solutions that has been developed for this purpose. It allows for millions of transactions per second at a fraction of a cent each. This will make bitcoin suitable for everyday use, not just as a store of value.

Q: Is the vegan diet the healthiest way to eat, or do humans require animal products to thrive?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: A well-planned vegan diet can be a healthy choice, but humans do not necessarily require animal products to thrive. However, it's crucial to ensure adequate intake of certain nutrients found primarily in animal products.

Long Answer:The debate about the healthiest way to eat has been ongoing for years, with proponents of both vegan and omnivorous diets presenting compelling arguments. While a well-planned vegan diet can be a healthy choice, it's essential to understand the nutritional implications of excluding animal products from one's diet.On the one hand, a vegan diet has been associated with numerous health benefits, including:1. Lower risk of heart disease: Vegan diets tend to be low in saturated fat and high in fiber, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease.2. Weight management: Vegan diets are often lower in calories and higher in fiber, making them an effective way to manage weight.3. Cancer prevention: A vegan diet has been shown to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, such as colon, breast, and prostate cancer.4. Environmental benefits: Animal agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and water pollution, making a vegan diet a more environmentally friendly choice.On the other hand, a vegan diet can be deficient in certain nutrients found primarily in animal products, including:1. Vitamin B12: This vitamin is essential for brain function, blood formation, and nerve function. Deficiency can lead to fatigue, weakness, and neurological problems.2. Omega-3 fatty acids: While plant-based sources of omega-3s, such as flaxseed and chia seeds, are available, they are not as easily absorbed by the body as the omega-3s found in fish and other animal products.3. Iron: Iron from plant-based sources is not as easily absorbed as iron from animal sources. Deficiency can lead to anemia, fatigue, and weakness.4. Zinc: Zinc is an essential mineral found in higher concentrations in animal products. Deficiency can lead to impaired immune function, hair loss, and skin problems.5. Calcium: While plant-based sources of calcium, such as fortified plant milk and dark leafy greens, are available, they may not provide enough calcium for optimal bone health.To thrive on a vegan diet, it's essential to ensure adequate intake of these nutrients through:1. Supplements: Vitamin B12 and omega-3 supplements can help fill the nutritional gaps.2. Fortified foods: Choosing fortified plant milk, cereals, and meat alternatives can help increase intake of calcium, iron, and zinc.3. Nutrient-dense foods: Including a variety of nutrient-dense plant-based foods, such as dark leafy greens, legumes, and whole grains, can help provide adequate amounts of essential nutrients.4. Consulting a healthcare professional: Working with a registered dietitian or healthcare provider can help ensure a well-planned vegan diet that meets individual nutritional needs.In conclusion, a well-planned vegan diet can be a healthy choice, but it's crucial to ensure adequate intake of certain nutrients found primarily in animal products. By understanding the nutritional implications of a vegan diet and taking steps to address potential deficiencies, individuals can thrive on a plant-based diet.

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Humans require animal products to thrive.

Long Answer: Vegan diet is not the healthiest way to eat. Humans require animal products to thrive. Vegan diet is a diet that is low in nutrients. It is low in protein, low in fat, low in vitamins and minerals. Vegan diet is high in carbohydrates. Vegan diet is high in fiber. Vegan diet is high in antioxidants. Vegan diet is high in phytochemicals. Vegan diet is high in omega-6 fatty acids. Vegan diet is low in omega-3 fatty acids. Vegan diet is low in vitamin B12. Vegan diet is low in vitamin D. Vegan diet is low in calcium. Vegan diet is low in iron. Vegan diet is low in zinc. Vegan diet is low in omega-3 fatty acids. Vegan diet is low in vitamin B12. Vegan diet is low in vitamin D. Vegan diet is low in calcium. Vegan diet is low in iron. Vegan diet is low in zinc.

Conclusion

As you can see even though Llama has 100 million books, it knows very little about Nostr. Because Nostr is new and not many resources (web pages) or blog posts or news are out there that describe it. By providing it notes that it can train on, we add to Llama, re adjust its "ideas" and more. These are just sample questions. The model learned a lot more than the questions I present here.

Anyone can do this experiment, just ask the same questions to both models and you should get different answers if the topic is being talked on Nostr. You need to make repeat penalty = 1.1 or so for my model. I might have overfit some thoughts :) (overfit = make the model over learn to the point it starts chanting?).

The models are Large Libraries with a Mouth. This makes it also eligible for things like customer service bot. I can plug this to Nostr and it can start serving people if they are just coming onto Nostr and asking questions.

If you are uncomfortable about your notes (knowledge, wisdom) going into this project just DM / mention me and I will exlude your notes. Not everybody was included and not every note of them are included. Another LLM chooses the notes to be included. If I am convinced this project is totally wrong, I can stop. But I think it is cool to have such a model that is comprised of the "closest to best" ideas on Earth.

Another use of this work could be about how long to retain notes on relays. Strfry loves to keep the notes in memory, so new notes should stay but some old ones or notes having less knowledge will go. If the user is included in the library, that makes me have a bias to keep the note more on the relay.

Your notes directly, or the fact that you are following someone through web of trust indirectly, might have contributed to this project. Likes or reposts were not used as judgement inputs. Thanks for everyone who provides their opinions and wisdom on Nostr. Your existence on Nostr made this possible!

I think this library is going to be full of banned books :)

I am uploading the model here: https://huggingface.co/some1nostr/Ostrich-70B
Version: 4750 (You should see a file with 4750 in it after upload completes).

Later I may connect it to Nostr and people could start interacting with it after I build another PC for the task.

Title: The Great Library of Nostria ca. 2024

@ 000002de:c05780a7

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

Intro

This short tutorial will help you set up your own Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) on your own LND Node that is not using Umbrel. If you are a user of Umbrel, you should use their version of NWC.

Requirements

You need to have a working installation of LND with established channels and connectivity to the internet. NWC in itself is fairly light and will not consume a lot of resources. You will also want to ensure that you have a working installation of Docker, since we will use a docker image to run NWC.

• Working installation of LND (and all of its required components)
• Docker (with Docker compose)

Installation

For the purpose of this tutorial, we will assume that you have your lnd/bitcoind running under user bitcoin with home directory /home/bitcoin. We will also assume that you already have a running installation of Docker (or docker.io).

Prepare and verify

git version - we will need git to get the latest version of NWC. docker version - should execute successfully and show the currently installed version of Docker. docker compose version - same as before, but the version will be different. ss -tupln | grep 10009- should produce the following output: tcp LISTEN 0 4096 0.0.0.0:10009 0.0.0.0: tcp LISTEN 0 4096 [::]:10009 [::]:**

For things to work correctly, your Docker should be version 20.10.0 or later. If you have an older version, consider installing a new one using instructions here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

Create folders & download NWC

In the home directory of your LND/bitcoind user, create a new folder, e.g., "nwc" mkdir /home/bitcoin/nwc. Change to that directory cd /home/bitcoin/nwc and clone the NWC repository: git clone https://github.com/getAlby/nostr-wallet-connect.git

Creating the Docker image

In this step, we will create a Docker image that you will use to run NWC.

• Change directory to nostr-wallet-connect: cd nostr-wallet-connect
• Run command to build Docker image: docker build -t nwc:$(date +'%Y%m%d%H%M') -t nwc:latest . (there is a dot at the end)
• The last line of the output (after a few minutes) should look like => => naming to docker.io/library/nwc:latest
• nwc:latest is the name of the Docker image with a tag which you should note for use later.

Creating docker-compose.yml and necessary data directories

• Let's create a directory that will hold your non-volatile data (DB): mkdir data
• Indocker-compose.ymlfile, there are fields that you want to replace (<> comments) and port “4321” that you want to make sure is open (check with ss -tupln | grep 4321which should return nothing).
• Create docker-compose.ymlfile with the following content, and make sure to update fields that have <> comment:

version: "3.8" services: nwc: image: nwc:latest volumes: - ./data:/data - ~/.lnd:/lnd:ro ports: - "4321:8080" extra_hosts: - "localhost:host-gateway" environment: NOSTR_PRIVKEY: <use "openssl rand -hex 32" to generate a fresh key and place it inside ""> LN_BACKEND_TYPE: "LND" LND_ADDRESS: localhost:10009 LND_CERT_FILE: "/lnd/tls.cert" LND_MACAROON_FILE: "/lnd/data/chain/bitcoin/mainnet/admin.macaroon" DATABASE_URI: "/data/nostr-wallet-connect.db" COOKIE_SECRET: <use "openssl rand -hex 32" to generate fresh secret and place it inside ""> PORT: 8080 restart: always stop_grace_period: 1m

Starting and testing

Now that you have everything ready, it is time to start the container and test.

• While you are in the nwcdirectory (important), execute the following command and check the log output, docker compose up
• You should see container logs while it is starting, and it should not exit if everything went well.
• At this point, you should be able to go to http://<ip of the host where nwc is running>:4321 and get to the interface of NWC
• To stop the test run of NWC, simply press Ctrl-C , and it will shut the container down.
• To start NWC permanently, you should execute docker compose up -d , “-d” tells Docker to detach from the session.
• To check currently running NWC logs, execute docker compose logs to run it in tail mode add -f to the end.
• To stop the container, execute docker compose down

That's all, just follow the instructions in the web interface to get started.

Updating

As with any software, you should expect fixes and updates that you would need to perform periodically. You could automate this, but it falls outside of the scope of this tutorial. Since we already have all of the necessary configuration in place, the update execution is fairly simple.

• Change directory to the clone of the git repository, cd /home/bitcoin/nwc/nostr-wallet-connect
• Run command to build Docker image: docker build -t nwc:$(date +'%Y%m%d%H%M') -t nwc:latest . (there is a dot at the end)
• Change directory back one level cd ..
• Restart (stop and start) the docker compose config docker compose down && docker compose up -d
• Done! Optionally you may want to check the logs: docker compose logs

@ 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.

@ 6c8c7979:15595f3e

Described as the "biggest theft in history," today's series tells the story of the transformation of the global system from a gold-backed system to one heavily reliant on floating exchange rates: the Nixon Shock.

In July 1944, a crucial conference was held that would be pivotal in shaping the events of our story today: the Bretton Woods Conference. The conference aimed to achieve global financial stability and resulted in the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). One of the key outcomes of the conference was the provision to fix the exchange rate of the dollar against gold.

‏In order to establish a unified currency for international transactions, the United States committed to redeeming gold for dollars to any requesting party, as it held the largest global gold reserves at that time, estimated to be two-thirds of the world's gold reserves.

Thus, the dollar became a representation of gold in paper form. As a result, countries accumulated large amounts of dollars in their reserves over the years, strengthening the dollar's centrality among other currencies.

‏However, due to the costs of the Vietnam War and the inflation it caused in the United States, the US was forced to print more dollars without informing other countries, thus bypassing its ability to maintain the agreed exchange rate under Bretton Woods, which was $35 per ounce of gold.

In August 1971, under the slogan "To create a new prosperity without war," President Richard Nixon announced the end of the conversion of the US dollar into gold, effectively disregarding the Bretton Woods Agreement. Thus, the dollar became simply a fiat currency backed by the strength of the US economy.

It was a major shock on a global scale. Countries faced two choices: either accept the new reality or dispose of the mountains of dollars they had accumulated in their central banks over the past two and a half decades. This forced governments to engage globally with the dollar, and the existing system was replaced with a new floating exchange rate regime governed by supply and demand forces.

Despite the dollar's decline in value against gold since then, with an ounce now worth over $1800, the dollar has proven its centrality and strength among other currencies. Many countries still tie the fate of their currency to the dollar.

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

BITCOIN IS A NEW JURISDICTION IN WHICH BRAND NEW LAWS ARE BEING CREATED FOR.

@ b12b632c:d9e1ff79

Self hosting web applications comes quickly with the need to deal with HTTPS protocol and SSL certificates. The time where web applications was published over the 80/TCP port without any encryption is totally over. Now we have Let's Encrypt and other free certification authority that lets us play web applications with, at least, the basic minimum security required.

Second part of web self hosting stuff that is really useful is the web proxifycation.

It's possible to have multiple web applications accessible through HTTPS but as we can't use the some port (spoiler: we can) we are forced to have ugly URL as https://mybeautifudomain.tld:8443.

This is where Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) comes to help us.

NPM, as gateway, will listen on the 443 https port and based on the subdomain you want to reach, it will redirect the network flow to the NPM differents declared backend ports. NPM will also request HTTPS cert for you and let you know when the certificate expires, really useful.

We'll now install NPM with docker compose (v2) and you'll see, it's very easy.

You can find the official NPM setup instructions here.

But before we absolutely need to do something. You need to connect to the registrar where you bought your domain name and go into the zone DNS section.You have to create a A record poing to your VPS IP. That will allow NPM to request SSL certificates for your domain and subdomains.

Create a new folder for the NPM docker stack :

mkdir npm-stack && cd npm-stack

Create a new docker-compose.yml :

nano docker-compose.yml

Paste this content into it (CTRL + X ; Y & ENTER to save/quit) :

``` version: '3.8' services: app: image: 'jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest' restart: unless-stopped ports: # These ports are in format : - '80:80' # Public HTTP Port - '443:443' # Public HTTPS Port - '81:81' # Admin Web Port # Add any other Stream port you want to expose # - '21:21' # FTP

# Uncomment the next line if you uncomment anything in the section
# environment:
  # Uncomment this if you want to change the location of
  # the SQLite DB file within the container
  # DB_SQLITE_FILE: "/data/database.sqlite"

  # Uncomment this if IPv6 is not enabled on your host
  # DISABLE_IPV6: 'true'

volumes:
  - ./nginxproxymanager/data:/data
  - ./nginxproxymanager/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt

```

You'll not believe but it's done. NPM docker compose configuration is done.

To start Nginx Proxy Manager with docker compose, you just have to :

docker compose up -d

You'll see :

user@vps:~/tutorials/npm-stack$ docker compose up -d [+] Running 2/2 ✔ Network npm-stack_default Created ✔ Container npm-stack-app-1 Started

You can check if NPM container is started by doing this command :

docker ps

You'll see :

user@vps:~/tutorials/npm-stack$ docker ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 7bc5ea8ac9c8 jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest "/init" About a minute ago Up About a minute 0.0.0.0:80-81->80-81/tcp, :::80-81->80-81/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, :::443->443/tcp npm-stack-app-1

If the command show "Up X minutes" for the npm-stack-app-1, you're good to go! You can access to the NPM admin UI by going to http://YourIPAddress:81.You shoud see :

The default NPM login/password are : admin@example.com/changeme .If the login succeed, you should see a popup asking to edit your user by changing your email password : And your password : Click on "Save" to finish the login. To verify if NPM is able to request SSL certificates for you, create first a subdomain for the NPM admin UI : Click on "Hosts" and "Proxy Hosts" : Followed by "Add Proxy Host" If you want to access the NPM admin UI with https://admin.yourdomain.tld, please set all the parameters like this (I won't explain each parameters) :

Details tab : SSL tab : And click on "Save".

NPM will request the SSL certificate "admin.yourdomain.tld" for you.

If you have an erreor message "Internal Error" it's probably because your domaine DNS zone is not configured with an A DNS record pointing to your VPS IP.

Otherwise you should see (my domain is hidden) :

Clicking on the "Source" URL link "admin.yourdomain.tld" will open a pop-up and, surprise, you should see the NPM admin UI with the URL "https://admin.yourdomain.tld" !

If yes, bravo, everything is OK ! 🎇

You know now how to have a subdomain of your domain redirecting to a container web app. In the next blog post, you'll see how to setup a Nostr relay with NPM ;)

Voilààààà

See you soon in another Fractalized story!

@ 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

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

Nos últimos dias, Donald Trump tem demonstrado apoio ao #bitcoin. Eu tenho muitas dúvidas sobre esta repentina mudança de opinião, Trump não dá ponto sem nó. Não devem passar de meras promessa eleitorais.

Ele ao mesmo tempo continua a dizer que fará tudo para defender o dólar, ele é muito protecionista da economia dos EUA. Mas ao defender o Bitcoin entra em contradição com a defesa do dólar, porque são dois coisas antagónicas.

Donald Trump na Convenção Nacional Libertária:

"I will ensure that the future of crypto and #Bitcoin will be made in the USA…I will support the right to self custody to the nations 50 million crypto holders."

"Vou garantir que o futuro da criptografia e #Bitcoin será feito nos EUA… Apoiarei o direito à autocustódia para os 50 milhões de detentores de criptografia da nação."

https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1794540423882432606

---

"I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your #Bitcoin and I will never allow the creation of a CBDC"

“Vou manter Elizabeth Warren e seus capangas longe de você #Bitcoin e nunca permitirei a criação de um CBDC”

---

Trump promete comutar a sentença de Ross Ulbricht se for eleito presidente.

"He's already served 11 years. We're going to get him home."

"Ele já cumpriu 11 anos. Vamos levá-lo para casa."

Curiosamente quando Trump foi presidente dos EUA, tinha a possibilidade mas nunca comutou Ulbricht ou o Assange. Nestes 4 anos, nada mudou no caso do Ulbricht, está tudo igual, o porquê desta mudança repentina de opinião?

Trump é político puro, possivelmente é apenas uma promessa eleitoral, depois de eleito será tudo esquecido. Isto são apenas palavras para cativar um eleitorado jovem e 50 milhões já é uma percentagem relevante.

Palavras, leva-as o vento...

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

If devs got in the gym they would get ALL the pussy

@ d2e97f73:ea9a4d1b

There’s a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles. Here’s my take, and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified.

I’ll start with the principles I’ve come to believe…based on everything I’ve learned and experienced through my past actions as a Twitter co-founder and lead:

1. Social media must be resilient to corporate and government control.
2. Only the original author may remove content they produce.
3. Moderation is best implemented by algorithmic choice.

The Twitter when I led it and the Twitter of today do not meet any of these principles. This is my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for them when an activist entered our stock in 2020. I no longer had hope of achieving any of it as a public company with no defense mechanisms (lack of dual-class shares being a key one). I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company.

The biggest mistake I made was continuing to invest in building tools for us to manage the public conversation, versus building tools for the people using Twitter to easily manage it for themselves. This burdened the company with too much power, and opened us to significant outside pressure (such as advertising budgets). I generally think companies have become far too powerful, and that became completely clear to me with our suspension of Trump’s account. As I’ve said before, we did the right thing for the public company business at the time, but the wrong thing for the internet and society. Much more about this here: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1349510769268850690

I continue to believe there was no ill intent or hidden agendas, and everyone acted according to the best information we had at the time. Of course mistakes were made. But if we had focused more on tools for the people using the service rather than tools for us, and moved much faster towards absolute transparency, we probably wouldn’t be in this situation of needing a fresh reset (which I am supportive of). Again, I own all of this and our actions, and all I can do is work to make it right.

Back to the principles. Of course governments want to shape and control the public conversation, and will use every method at their disposal to do so, including the media. And the power a corporation wields to do the same is only growing. It’s critical that the people have tools to resist this, and that those tools are ultimately owned by the people. Allowing a government or a few corporations to own the public conversation is a path towards centralized control.

I’m a strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it. It should be always available and addressable. Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible. Doing so complicates important context, learning, and enforcement of illegal activity. There are significant issues with this stance of course, but starting with this principle will allow for far better solutions than we have today. The internet is trending towards a world were storage is “free” and infinite, which places all the actual value on how to discover and see content.

Which brings me to the last principle: moderation. I don’t believe a centralized system can do content moderation globally. It can only be done through ranking and relevance algorithms, the more localized the better. But instead of a company or government building and controlling these solely, people should be able to build and choose from algorithms that best match their criteria, or not have to use any at all. A “follow” action should always deliver every bit of content from the corresponding account, and the algorithms should be able to comb through everything else through a relevance lens that an individual determines. There’s a default “G-rated” algorithm, and then there’s everything else one can imagine.

The only way I know of to truly live up to these 3 principles is a free and open protocol for social media, that is not owned by a single company or group of companies, and is resilient to corporate and government influence. The problem today is that we have companies who own both the protocol and discovery of content. Which ultimately puts one person in charge of what’s available and seen, or not. This is by definition a single point of failure, no matter how great the person, and over time will fracture the public conversation, and may lead to more control by governments and corporations around the world.

I believe many companies can build a phenomenal business off an open protocol. For proof, look at both the web and email. The biggest problem with these models however is that the discovery mechanisms are far too proprietary and fixed instead of open or extendable. Companies can build many profitable services that complement rather than lock down how we access this massive collection of conversation. There is no need to own or host it themselves.

Many of you won’t trust this solution just because it’s me stating it. I get it, but that’s exactly the point. Trusting any one individual with this comes with compromises, not to mention being way too heavy a burden for the individual. It has to be something akin to what bitcoin has shown to be possible. If you want proof of this, get out of the US and European bubble of the bitcoin price fluctuations and learn how real people are using it for censorship resistance in Africa and Central/South America.

I do still wish for Twitter, and every company, to become uncomfortably transparent in all their actions, and I wish I forced more of that years ago. I do believe absolute transparency builds trust. As for the files, I wish they were released Wikileaks-style, with many more eyes and interpretations to consider. And along with that, commitments of transparency for present and future actions. I’m hopeful all of this will happen. There’s nothing to hide…only a lot to learn from. The current attacks on my former colleagues could be dangerous and doesn’t solve anything. If you want to blame, direct it at me and my actions, or lack thereof.

As far as the free and open social media protocol goes, there are many competing projects: @bluesky is one with the AT Protocol, nostr another, Mastodon yet another, Matrix yet another…and there will be many more. One will have a chance at becoming a standard like HTTP or SMTP. This isn’t about a “decentralized Twitter.” This is a focused and urgent push for a foundational core technology standard to make social media a native part of the internet. I believe this is critical both to Twitter’s future, and the public conversation’s ability to truly serve the people, which helps hold governments and corporations accountable. And hopefully makes it all a lot more fun and informative again.

💸🛠️🌐 To accelerate open internet and protocol work, I’m going to open a new category of #startsmall grants: “open internet development.” It will start with a focus of giving cash and equity grants to engineering teams working on social media and private communication protocols, bitcoin, and a web-only mobile OS. I’ll make some grants next week, starting with $1mm/yr to Signal. Please let me know other great candidates for this money.

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

Sou um grande defensor que é necessário a entrada de sangue novo na política, são muito poucos os jovens que conseguem se destacar. A classe política está muito envelhecida, os jovens têm pouco interesse na participação pública. Nestas eleições europeias, surgem dois candidatos jovens, um é incongruente e o outro nem consigo o classificar.

O Bogalho, além da idiotice das 7 quinas, há meia dúzia de anos era contra a UE e agora é candidato ao parlamento europeu, bastante incongruente.

Agora vamos ao Francisco Paupério, candidato pelo partido Livre, que foi eleito de uma maneira muito peculiar. Eu até simpatizo com Rui Tavares, apesar de concordar pouco com as suas ideias. São mais as vezes que discordo que concordo, mas eu acho que é um tipo inteligente, é congruente no seu pensamento e nas suas ideias, é um bom contraditório. Mas o Paupério não tem nada que se compare com o Rui Tavares, e ontem num debate político televisivo para as europeias foi o pináculo da idiotice.

Paupério disse:

Estima-se que, até 2050, vão existir 200 milhões de refugiados climáticos. Esses refugiados climáticos vêm, sobretudo, das zonas do Médio Oriente e do norte de África e vão ter o objetivo de chegar à União Europeia, à procura da liberdade e da democracia que tanto defendemos.

https://twitter.com/VascoMelo76/status/1790260984189272187

Na mesma frase ele consegue contradizer-se, dizendo que são “refugiados climáticos”, mas logo a seguir diz que estes vêm para a Europa à procura de Liberdade e Democracia.

Afinal são “refugiados climáticos” ou são “refugiados políticos”? Porque a justificação que ele apresentou, é por motivos políticos e não climáticos.

Na realidade estes 200 milhões, não são “refugiados climáticos”, nem “refugiados políticos” e nem refugiados são, são apenas emigrantes por motivos económicos, apenas isso, pessoas que procuram construir uma melhor vida para si e para a sua família.

200 milhões, correspondia a um aumento de 50% na população da UE, é completamente incomportável. Os EUA também estão numa situação similar, e os políticos de ambos não conseguem arranjar uma solução. Os políticos não procuram soluções para o problema, apenas paliativos. Não atacam a causa, mas sim o sintoma.

A abertura de fronteiras não é solução, como a construção de muros ou fronteiras mais musculadas, deportações também não é a solução, são apenas paliativos. Estas pessoas estão desesperadas, preferem arriscar a sua vida em vez de ficarem no seu país natal. São pessoas que atravessam o mar mediterrâneo em jangadas ou barcos de borracha, nos EUA percorrem milhares de quilómetros, desde da América do Sul, ultrapassam desertos. Não vai ser um muro ou uma fronteira que os vai desmobilizar, eles vão entrar de qualquer jeito.

Esta gente são emigrantes económicos, a única solução é melhorar a condição económica dos seus países de origem. Se esses países estiverem bem economicamente, as pessoas têm menos motivos para emigrar ou emigram para um país vizinho que esteja melhor economicamente. A economia destes países tem se degradado nas últimas duas décadas, após 2020 ainda se acentuou mais. Estes países sempre tiveram problemas internos, mas agora agravaram-se fortemente com a expansão monetária do dólar nas duas últimas décadas.

Como o dólar é a moeda de reserva mundial, os EUA ao expandir a sua moeda “exportam” inflação para o mundo inteiro. Além da exportação de inflação, a taxa de juro elevada, os bonds elevados, toda esta política monetária desastrosa está a sugar a riqueza de todos os países do mundo. Os mais afetados são os países mais pobres, além da inflação do dólar, sofre de uma forte desvalorização da sua própria moeda, tem como consequência uma inflação galopante. É o efeito Cantillon a nível global, destruindo por completo as economias mais débeis. As crises são tão severas que as pessoas veem a emigração como a única solução.

Curiosamente os EUA estão a sofrer de um problema que eles próprios criaram, quem semeia ventos colhe tempestades.

A única solução é corrigir a política monetária.

Fix the Money, Fix the World!

Voltando ao Paupério e para finalizar. Aquela declaração é simplesmente uma idiotice. É impossível acolher dignamente, integrar essas pessoas, ter casas para eles, quando os números são dessa magnitude. É simplesmente impossível.

Isso não está relacionado com racismo ou nacionalismo, é simplesmente bom senso, equilíbrio. Portugal recebeu 1 milhão nos últimos anos e já está a rebentar pelas costuras, como ficará o país se receber mais 4 milhões? nem quero imaginar.

Ontem ouvi um caso de um T0, onde vivem 9 pessoas, é inacreditável, como é possível viver tanta gente numa casa tão pequena. Isto não é digno para ninguém.

Cada vez mais estou receoso no futuro de Portugal.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

A violência é uma forma de comunicação

A violência é uma forma de comunicação: um serial killer, um pai que bate no filho, uma briga de torcidas, uma sessão de tortura, uma guerra, um assassinato passional, uma briga de bar. Em todos esses se pode enxergar uma mensagem que está tentando ser transmitida, que não foi compreendida pelo outro lado, que não pôde ser expressa, e, quando o transmissor da mensagem sentiu que não podia ser totalmente compreendido em palavras, usou essa outra forma de comunicação.

Quando uma ofensa em um bar descamba para uma briga, por exemplo, o que há é claramente uma tentativa de uma ofensa maior ainda pelo lado do que iniciou a primeira, a briga não teria acontecido se ele a tivesse conseguido expressar em palavras tão claras que toda a audiência de bêbados compreendesse, o que estaria além dos limites da linguagem, naquele caso, o soco com o mão direita foi mais eficiente. Poderia ser também a defesa argumentativa: "eu não sou um covarde como você está dizendo" -- mas o bar não acreditaria nessa frase solta, a comunicação não teria obtido o sucesso desejado.

A explicação para o fato da redução da violência à medida em que houve progresso da civilização está na melhora da eficiência da comunicação humana: a escrita, o refinamento da expressão lingüística, o aumento do alcance da palavra falada com rádio, a televisão e a internet.

Se essa eficiência diminuir, porque não há mais acordo quanto ao significado das palavras, porque as pessoas não estão nem aí para se o que escrevem é bom ou não, ou porque são incapazes de compreender qualquer coisa, deve aumentar proporcionalmente a violência.

@ 82341f88:fbfbe6a2

There’s a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles. Here’s my take, and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified.

I’ll start with the principles I’ve come to believe…based on everything I’ve learned and experienced through my past actions as a Twitter co-founder and lead:

1. Social media must be resilient to corporate and government control.
2. Only the original author may remove content they produce.
3. Moderation is best implemented by algorithmic choice.

The Twitter when I led it and the Twitter of today do not meet any of these principles. This is my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for them when an activist entered our stock in 2020. I no longer had hope of achieving any of it as a public company with no defense mechanisms (lack of dual-class shares being a key one). I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company.

The biggest mistake I made was continuing to invest in building tools for us to manage the public conversation, versus building tools for the people using Twitter to easily manage it for themselves. This burdened the company with too much power, and opened us to significant outside pressure (such as advertising budgets). I generally think companies have become far too powerful, and that became completely clear to me with our suspension of Trump’s account. As I’ve said before, we did the right thing for the public company business at the time, but the wrong thing for the internet and society. Much more about this here: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1349510769268850690

I continue to believe there was no ill intent or hidden agendas, and everyone acted according to the best information we had at the time. Of course mistakes were made. But if we had focused more on tools for the people using the service rather than tools for us, and moved much faster towards absolute transparency, we probably wouldn’t be in this situation of needing a fresh reset (which I am supportive of). Again, I own all of this and our actions, and all I can do is work to make it right.

Back to the principles. Of course governments want to shape and control the public conversation, and will use every method at their disposal to do so, including the media. And the power a corporation wields to do the same is only growing. It’s critical that the people have tools to resist this, and that those tools are ultimately owned by the people. Allowing a government or a few corporations to own the public conversation is a path towards centralized control.

I’m a strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it. It should be always available and addressable. Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible. Doing so complicates important context, learning, and enforcement of illegal activity. There are significant issues with this stance of course, but starting with this principle will allow for far better solutions than we have today. The internet is trending towards a world were storage is “free” and infinite, which places all the actual value on how to discover and see content.

Which brings me to the last principle: moderation. I don’t believe a centralized system can do content moderation globally. It can only be done through ranking and relevance algorithms, the more localized the better. But instead of a company or government building and controlling these solely, people should be able to build and choose from algorithms that best match their criteria, or not have to use any at all. A “follow” action should always deliver every bit of content from the corresponding account, and the algorithms should be able to comb through everything else through a relevance lens that an individual determines. There’s a default “G-rated” algorithm, and then there’s everything else one can imagine.

The only way I know of to truly live up to these 3 principles is a free and open protocol for social media, that is not owned by a single company or group of companies, and is resilient to corporate and government influence. The problem today is that we have companies who own both the protocol and discovery of content. Which ultimately puts one person in charge of what’s available and seen, or not. This is by definition a single point of failure, no matter how great the person, and over time will fracture the public conversation, and may lead to more control by governments and corporations around the world.

I believe many companies can build a phenomenal business off an open protocol. For proof, look at both the web and email. The biggest problem with these models however is that the discovery mechanisms are far too proprietary and fixed instead of open or extendable. Companies can build many profitable services that complement rather than lock down how we access this massive collection of conversation. There is no need to own or host it themselves.

Many of you won’t trust this solution just because it’s me stating it. I get it, but that’s exactly the point. Trusting any one individual with this comes with compromises, not to mention being way too heavy a burden for the individual. It has to be something akin to what bitcoin has shown to be possible. If you want proof of this, get out of the US and European bubble of the bitcoin price fluctuations and learn how real people are using it for censorship resistance in Africa and Central/South America.

I do still wish for Twitter, and every company, to become uncomfortably transparent in all their actions, and I wish I forced more of that years ago. I do believe absolute transparency builds trust. As for the files, I wish they were released Wikileaks-style, with many more eyes and interpretations to consider. And along with that, commitments of transparency for present and future actions. I’m hopeful all of this will happen. There’s nothing to hide…only a lot to learn from. The current attacks on my former colleagues could be dangerous and doesn’t solve anything. If you want to blame, direct it at me and my actions, or lack thereof.

As far as the free and open social media protocol goes, there are many competing projects: @bluesky is one with the AT Protocol, nostr another, Mastodon yet another, Matrix yet another…and there will be many more. One will have a chance at becoming a standard like HTTP or SMTP. This isn’t about a “decentralized Twitter.” This is a focused and urgent push for a foundational core technology standard to make social media a native part of the internet. I believe this is critical both to Twitter’s future, and the public conversation’s ability to truly serve the people, which helps hold governments and corporations accountable. And hopefully makes it all a lot more fun and informative again.

💸🛠️🌐 To accelerate open internet and protocol work, I’m going to open a new category of #startsmall grants: “open internet development.” It will start with a focus of giving cash and equity grants to engineering teams working on social media and private communication protocols, bitcoin, and a web-only mobile OS. I’ll make some grants next week, starting with $1mm/yr to Signal. Please let me know other great candidates for this money.

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

Because the God of the Bible is the true God and creator of everything: matter & energy, time & space, things seen and things unseen, He is not a God who can be fully comprehended. There are things about God that make our heads hurt when we try to fully understand them. He is not an easy to understand God made from the mind of man.

What is the Trinity?

One trait of God that is particularly hard to comprehend is the fact that He is 3 persons in 1 God. There are even arguments over this trait because it is so hard to understand.

First, let’s get out that the word trinity (or any form of it) is not used in the Bible. At the time the Bible was written, I don’t believe a word to describe His 3 in 1 nature existed. We come to the understand His 3 in 1 nature by reading descriptions of God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son (Jesus). God also frequently refers to Himself in the plural. Although the easy to understand trinitarian nature does not come until the New Testament, even the Old Testament suggests this nature from the very Beginning.

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)” {emphasis mine}

Notice how God refers to Himself as “Us” and “Our”. God refers to Himself as plural. This is the first reference to the trinitarian nature of God. Like many other things, such as salvation through faith in Jesus and God caring for the whole world and not just Israel, the trinity is not made clear until the New Testament.

Is Jesus God?

When people argue against the trinity, the biggest argument is that Jesus is not God. They think He is a prophet, a wise teacher, and a good man, but not God. Unfortunately for them, Jesus does not leave this option open to us.

So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning? … So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. (John 8:25,28-30) {emphasis mine}

In the English translation, the translators added the word “He” for ease of reading, but that word is not there in the original Greek, therefore what He really said was “you will know that I am.” Why is this important? Jesus was claiming to be God. In the Old Testament, when Moses asked God’s name, He replied, “I AM.”

Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3:13-14)

A Jewish man using the term “I AM” about Himself would be blaspheming because He is applying the name of God to Himself. A man claiming to be God, who isn't, cannot be a good man.

As C.S. Lewis says:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic– on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg– or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

When the Jewish leaders heard Jesus talking, they understood that His statements were claims to be God.

For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:18) {Emphasis mine}

When the Jewish people heard Jesus talking, they understood that His statements were claims to be God.

I and the Father are one.”

The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” (John 10:30-33) {Emphasis mine}

Also Jesus said,

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. (John 8:42) {Emphasis mine}

Jesus claims to have “proceeded forth … from God.” Everyone knew He had been born by Mary. How could He “proceeded forth … from God” if He was born naturally like every other man. If He was born no differently than any other man, then He wouldn’t be God. Of course we know that He was born differently.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:26-35)

This was no normal birth and Jesus is no normal man. Being born of Mary and the Holy Spirit enabled Him to be fully God and fully man at one time. It is hard for our human minds to comprehend, but we serve an awesome God who can do things beyond our understanding. This is one of many unimaginable miracles of God.

Jesus also claimed to have “all authority”.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18) {Emphasis mine}

Is it possible for anyone other than God to have “all authority”?

If you believe the Bible at all, it has not given us the option of thinking that Jesus was anything less than God. Not only does Jesus claim to be God and his listeners understand Him to be claiming to be God, but other books of the Bible also refer to Him as God.

who [Jesus], although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11) [Clarification mine] {Emphasis mine}

This is one of the clearest declarations of the deity of Jesus in the Bible. It says Jesus “existed in the form of God." This sounds like the Bible is calling Jesus God. It also says Jesus “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” In other words, Jesus was totally God, so He didn’t have to try to act like God, speak like God, or claim to be God. His Godhood was clearly evident.

This passage says Jesus’s name is “the name which is above every name.” Does anyone actually believe that God the Father, Yahweh, would put any other name above His own? Of course not! Jesus’s name is “above every name” because He is one with God the Father and one with God the Holy Spirit.

This passage says “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,” but we know every time someone bows to anyone other than God, including angels or prophets of God like Paul and Silas, the people are immediately told to bow to no one but God. Here it states that “every knee will bow.” This would not be true unless Jesus was God and one with God the Father.

It also says, “that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Would calling Jesus Lord be to the glory of God if Jesus was not God? I think not.

One of the best best verses about Jesus’s deity doesn’t technically use the name of Jesus, but if you take the entirety of the Book of John and his stated purpose:

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they *were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

In this context it is clear that John refers to Jesus as the word in John 1:1-3.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5)

These truths are said about Jesus:

• Jesus was from the beginning
• Jesus was with God
• Jesus was God
• Jesus is creator
• Life comes from Jesus
• Jesus is Holy (light in the darkness)

Can there be any conclusion other than that Jesus is God?

Is the Holy Spirit God?

The Bible says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16)) {Emphasis mine}

but it also says:

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21) {Emphasis mine}

If the inspiration of man comes from God and comes from the Holy Spirit, that makes the Holy Spirit the same God. The two are spoken of in the same way.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) {Emphasis mine}

In the same way, if our bodies are “a temple of the Holy Spirit” and we are a temple of God. If we are a temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit isn’t the same God as God the Father, how would this “glorify God in your body?”

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4) {Emphasis mine}

This Bible passage equates lying to the Holy Spirit to lying to God. This is true since they are just to parts of the One true God.

We’ve already proven that Jesus is God. In the verse below Jesus refers to himself leaving and the Father sending the Holy Spirit. All three are given equality as God with each having a different purpose in the totality of the will of God. In this passage “I” and “My name” refer to Jesus, while “Helper”, “Holy Spirit”, and “He” refer to the the Holy Spirit.

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:25-26) {Emphasis mine}

Also …

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

In this verse the Holy Spirit is referred to as separate and independent, though still part of God. He is one person in the totality of God.

In this verse the Spirit of God is compared to the spirit of man.

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:10-13) {Emphasis mine}

Just as the spirit of man is part of a man, so also is the Holy Spirit part of God. In Genesis God creates man in His image. I’ve heard it said that part of being in God’s image is a trinitarian design of man (although we are never as separate as the 3 persons or as one as the one God). Man is body, mind, and spirit just as God is the Son (Jesus), the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

Is the Father God?

I’ve included this section for completeness, but I don’t think anyone who believes the Bible even a little bit denies that the Father is God. Some may believe that He is the only part of God, but they don’t deny the Father’s deity, so I won’t go into this any farther.

Doesn’t the Bible speak of God as One?

The most common argument against the trinity is the use of this verse in Deuteronomy.

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Jesus even confirmed that this was a critical understanding of God when asked what is the greatest commandment.

Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; (Mark 12:29)

The problem is that this verse is speaking against a pantheon of gods such as those of Greece and Rome. The trinity may have 3 persons, but He is still only one God. They aren’t separate. They are of one mind and one will. They can’t be separated from one another like the “gods” in other religions which have a multitude of “gods” that usually fight among themselves. This is hard for us to understand, but it is clearly communicated in the New Testament.

As a help to understanding the 3 in 1 nature of God, I’ll include a little excerpt from my upcoming book Why I Need Jesus I hope it helps, but I have doubts that any human mind can fully understand the 3 in 1 nature of God.

Another incomprehensible thing about God is that He is a trinity: three in one. He is one God, but three persons – God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. Our finite minds can’t comprehend how someone can be three persons, but only one God, but that is what God is.

There are a number of analogies that help us understand the trinity, but none of them fully explain what the trinity is. We can not fully understand the trinity until the time we spend in eternity with Him, and although we will understand more in the afterlife, we may never fully understand.

One analogy of the trinity is the different roles of a person. I am a wife, a mother, and a business owner. I act differently acting in my different roles, but I have certain traits that are universal because I am me. As a wife I am encouraging, loving, submissive, romantic, and supportive. As a mom I am encouraging and loving, but I guide, teach, act as an example, and punish. As a business owner I encourage, train, discipline, and help my employees. You’ll notice there are commonalities between my roles, but I also act differently in my different roles. The trinity is kind of like that, but they are more one and more three than my example. Although I sometimes talk to myself, I can’t really interact socially with myself like the trinity can with the different parts of the trinity. I am more one. I can’t truly be 3 persons.

The Trinity is also somewhat like the 3 states of water: ice, (liquid) water, and water vapor. They are all water. They are all H2O, but if you look at ice, water, and water vapor, they all have different traits and don’t look or act the same.

The last example I’ve heard came from a Southern Baptist pastor who has a food analogy for almost any Biblical principle. He always said that the trinity is as simple as cherry pie. If you have a cherry pie and cut it into three slices, when you look at it, it is clearly 3 different pieces of pie, but inside the cherry filling runs through the whole pie and is one cherry pie. There is no separation between the pieces. He would state, “the trinity is as simple as cherry pie.”

If someone was making up a god to manipulate people, they would not make up something so confusing and incomprehensible about their god. On the other hand, a god who is the author of everything that exists is likely to have personal traits that are impossible for His creation to fully comprehend.

The trinity also is important in who God is. A loving God that is all alone would need his creation because he would be lonely and have no one to love. A trinitarian God has company and someone to love in the other two persons of the trinity. This God doesn’t NEED his creation even if He wants and loves his creation.

By the above sections you can see that the Bible clearly talks about one God which includes three persons. The fact that this is hard for us to understand doesn’t make it any less true. We can’t pick and choose which verses we will listen to and which we will ignore. If we say there is only one God and deny the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we are apostate. If we say that we worship three separate Gods, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, we are equally apostate.

The God of the Bible, the one and true God, is three persons in one God. We need to trust God and believe His word even if we can’t fully understand how it can be so.

What are Some Mentions of the entire Trinity?

There are many passages that refer to the three persons of the Trinity working together as one. When Jesus was about to arise to heaven after rising from the dead, in His last words He said:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) {Emphasis mine}

As Christians, we are called to be baptized “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” We are to acknowledge all three persons in the Godhead.

Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22) {Emphasis mine}

Likewise when Jesus was baptized to fulfill the law of God, all three persons were present. Jesus was fulfilling the Law of God so He would be a worthy sacrifice to take away our sins. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a helper and as a sign to John the Baptist that Jesus was the predicted Messiah. God the Father spoke blessing the actions of Jesus in fulfilling their mutual will. The three persons of God acted as One.

“These things I [Jesus] have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:25-26) {Emphasis mine}

This verse also speaks of all three persons working in concert. It also clearly separates the Spirit (Helper) from Jesus because as one (Jesus) leaves, the other (Helper) comes to help us. Once again the Bible shows the three persons of God acting as One.

He who hates Me [Jesus] hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me [Jesus] and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

“When the Helper [Spirit] comes, whom I [Jesus] will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He [Spirit] will testify about Me [Jesus], and you will testify also, because you have been with Me [Jesus] from the beginning. (John 15:23-27) [Clarification Mine] {Emphasis mine}

Once again this verse shows all three persons of God working as One. Just as John 8:42 (above) describes Jesus proceeding from God, John 15:26 describes the Spirit proceeding from the Father. They proceed from God/Father because they are all One.

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11) {Emphasis mine}

Our sanctification and our justification come from all three persons of the one true God. If we do not believe this, can we truly be saved? If we do not believe in the Godship of Jesus can we truly be a child of God?

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” (John 14:6-7)

Jesus explains that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father implying they are one and the same.

Trust Jesus

Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Problemas com Russell Kirk

A idéia central da “política da prudência[^1]” de Russell Kirk me parece muito correta, embora tenha sido melhor formulada pior no seu enorme livro do que em uma pequena frase do joanadarquista Lucas Souza: “o conservadorismo é importante, porque tem muita gente com idéia errada por aí, e nós podemos não saber distingüi-las”.

Porém, há alguns problemas que precisam ser esclarecidos, ou melhor explicados, e que me impedem de enxergar os seus argumentos como refutação final do meu já tão humilde (embora feroz) anarquismo. São eles:

I Percebo alguma coisa errada, não sei bem onde, entre a afirmação de que toda ideologia é ruim, ou “todas as ideologias causam confusão[^2]”, e a proposta conservadora de “conservar o mundo da ordem que herdamos, ainda que em estado imperfeito, de nossos ancestrais[^3]”. Ora, sem precisar cair em exemplos como o do partido conservador inglês -- que conservava a política inglesa sempre onde estava, e se alternava no governo com o partido trabalhista, que a levava cada vez mais um pouco à esquerda --, está embutida nessa frase, talvez, a idéia, que ao mesmo tempo é clara e ferrenhamente combatida pelos próprios conservadores, de que a história é da humanidade é uma história de progresso linear rumo a uma situação melhor.

Querer conservar o mundo da ordem que herdamos significa conservar também os vários erros que podem ter sido cometidos pelos nossos ancestrais mais recentes, e conservá-los mesmo assim, acusando toda e qualquer tentativa de propôr soluções a esses erros de ideologia? Ou será que conservar o mundo da ordem é escolher um período determinado que seja tido como o auge da história humana e tentar restaurá-lo em nosso próprio tempo? Não seria isto ideologia?

Ou, ainda, será que conservar o mundo da ordem é selecionar, entre vários períodos do passado, alguns pedaços que o conservador considerar ótimos em cada sociedade, fazer dali uma mistura de sociedade ideal baseada no passado e então tentar implementá-la? Quem saberia dizer quais são as partes certas?

II Sobre a questão do que mantém a sociedade civil coesa, Russell Kirk, opondo-a à posição libertária de que o nexo da sociedade é o autointeresse, declara que a posição conservadora é a de que “a sociedade é uma comunidade de almas, que une os mortos, os vivos e os ainda não nascidos, e que se harmoniza por aquilo que Aristóteles chamou de amizade e os cristãos chamam de caridade ou amor ao próximo”.

Esta é uma posição muito correta, mas me parece estar em contradição com a defesa do Estado que ele faz na mesma página e na seguinte. O que me parece errado é que a sociedade não pode ser, ao mesmo tempo, uma “comunidade baseada no amor ao próximo” e uma comunidade que “requer não somente que as paixões dos indivíduos sejam subjugadas, mas que, mesmo no povo e no corpo social, bem como nos indivíduos, as inclinações dos homens, amiúde, devam ser frustradas, a vontade controlada e as paixões subjugadas” e, pior, que “isso somente pode ser feito por um poder exterior”.

Disto aí podemos tirar que, da mesma forma que Kirk define a posição libertária como sendo a de que o autointeresse é que mantém a sociedade civil coesa, a posição conservadora seria então a de que essa coesão vem apenas do Estado, e não de qualquer ligação entre vivos e mortos, ou do amor ao próximo. Já que, sem o Estado, diz, ele, citando Thomas Hobbes, a condição do homem é “solitária, pobre, sórdida, embrutecida e curta”?

[^1]: este é o nome do livro e também um outro nome que ele dá para o próprio conservadorismo (p.99). [^2]: p. 101 [^3]: p. 102

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

A command line utility to create and manage personal graphs, then write them to dot and make images with graphviz.

It manages a bunch of YAML files, one for each entity in the graph. Each file lists the incoming and outgoing links it has (could have listen only the outgoing, now that I'm tihnking about it).

Each run of the tool lets you select from existing nodes or add new ones to generate a single link type from one to one, one to many, many to one or many to many -- then updates the YAML files accordingly.

It also includes a command that generates graphs with graphviz, and it can accept a template file that lets you customize the dot that is generated and thus the graphviz graph.

rel

• https://github.com/fiatjaf/rel

@ 9c9ffa34:fd72b6b9

hello World

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

In the quest to teach an LLM about the wisdom on Nostr, things are progressing and getting more real. I wanted to spend more time on filtering notes better, i.e. choosing the "meaningful" ones. Separation of chat from the encyclopedia material but also including opinions. Individual opinions matter a lot. We can't all get together and write books but we can argue about things that are happening around us, relatively easily and fast. And those matter too. In the future LLMs could start learning real time. I think they will become more relevant at that point.

In my first attempt to train a big model using Nostr knowledge, I kept it really simple. I just used a web of trust scoring that I developed earlier. Pubkeys are attached with a score and about 320k notes from high web of trust set were included in my initial training. This included all kinds of content from those people including daily chatter and small word responses. Also "GM". The result of that work is here: https://huggingface.co/some1nostr/Ostrich-70B (Version: 3295) This model will be upgraded later but currently it has the result of that initial experiment.

This still thought a lot of things to the model. Link: nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp8lvwt2hnw42wu40nec7vw949ys4wgdvums0svs8yhktl8mhlpd3qqxnzde3xgcnsvpnxqerzvf3pz35j6 I think it is because of high number of notes even though they had not much filtering, it appears that the LLMs don't come undone easily even though you feed them with very unstructured data. Or they keep their integrity when you push chatter to them. But if you overfit them they lose abilities, for sure. Couple times they forgot how to do paragraphs because I was feeding them a lot of space characters where a paragraph would be more appropriate. I try to keep it simple. I should switch to JSONs at some point. Right now the training material is in TXT files.

Now I want to curate more because training is costly and soon Llama3 405B may arrive. Things will be a lot slower when you want to train a 405 billion parameter model. I want to carefully curate, to cut costs of training. So the curation currently is comprised of a few steps.

1. Storing kind 0's

This will be used in step 3. An LLM won't understand public key strings (npub1..........). It will see a number of characters that doesn't make sense. In the future this may be different. Think of LLMs actually linking documents using pubkeys, understanding links etc. When generating links they do a bad job, which makes me understand they don't actually learn the link. For links to work, the exact string has to be memorized. But LLMs are probabilistic. It may generate nostr.com as well as nostr.co or nostr.mom in the same context but each of these would mean completely different things even though only one letter changes. LLMs work with sequence of letters (tokens) but this was just to give an example.

2. Filtering based on simple algo

In this step I apply some simple and quick algo's.

Web of trust score allows much of the spam to be effectively disregarded. Nostr is super open. To everyone and every bot. So there has to be some kind of filtering in everything we do.

Small content is removed (I am interested in 100+ characters).

Notes with too many tags are removed (10+).

Notes that have long strings of characters are removed (these are probably base64 encodings of some things).

Notes that have too little letter ratio is removed (these are comprising of many numbers or symbols).

The result of this step is most of notes are gone and I end up with 1.6 million notes to go along with in the next steps.

3. Editing notes to make more sense for LLM

LLMs does not understand the links. They don't follow links. So 'http://...' have to be converted to things like '[link]'.

nostr:naddr1..... are converted to [pubkey].

nostr:note1...... are converted to [note].

etc.

I am sure this is not the best way to do it. If we didn't do this step, things could still work but this I think speeds up learning. Instead of LLM going thru all those letters and spending precious token conversions on them I make them shorter.

4. Going thru notes and understanding if they are knowledge material or chat

This is the most time consuming step. Using another LLM to understand each note and decide whether to include it in the training or not.

This is what I used in the system message:

You are a machine that filters tweets. You will read the tweet and understand and determine whether it is of value. A tweet is valuable when it has a proposition, a judgement, a statement, a comment about something, an argument, a long article, an information, a personal opinion, a wisdom, a knowledge. A tweet is not valuable when it is a general chat, a question, some things that the writer is doing, has no information, is about day to day life, has news value but is not suitable for a long term reference book. Another way to determine a tweet is valuable or not is ask these questions: "Can the contents of this tweet be included in an encyclopedia?". "Can the contents of this tweet be included in a reference book?". "Can the contents of this tweet be used as an argument?". If the answer to any of those questions is yes, than the tweet is valuable. A longer tweet is usually more valuable. In the first line you will get a web of trust score (wot) as part of the input. This shows how trustable the writer of the tweet is. You can use this data to help judge. In the second line and the following lines you will get the tweet. If the tweet has [link] and it talks about the link, it has not much value. If you don't understand what the tweet is about, it has no value.

Then I gave a few shots as examples. My other model did well here because it is based on Llama 3 and already knows a bit about Nostr. https://huggingface.co/some1nostr/Emu-70B-Llama3 This model spends about 1.5 seconds per note.

I also used Llama3 8B to speed up things in the low web of trust areas. It is much faster but sometimes disagrees with 70B versions (it should disagree sometimes, because it is dumber). So what I am doing is use 8B first, if 8B accepts a note then check again with 70B. I have to make sure things are of value with 70B. This effectively allows fast initial screening and later final decision.

5. Elimination of bots, LLMs and news

I realized there are lots of bots already. Lots of news submitters. People copying LLM outputs to their notes. Additional filtering needed here. Later I may do an LLM to detect whether a note is written by an LLM. I am mostly interested in notes generated by humans.

Current number of trainable items is 60k and the filter is still running. I am expecting the number to be around 80k.

6. Dividing the notes to pieces to apply different learning rates

This is to basically give more weight to high web of trust sources. High wot could use 5e-5 learning rate and cosine scheduler. Then low wot ones could do 1e-5 and linear decay. This just pushes the narrative towards more accepted notes on Nostr. If a person has a huge following it is more accepted by Nostr. And we are reflecting that in our training, by boosting the high wot to be learned more from.

Conclusion

It looks like it will take several days to train on the resulting notes. In my setup it takes 1.5 hour to train on 1MB of data. Which is probably very slow because I am using fsdp_qlora. There is also a new technique fsdp_qdora: https://www.answer.ai/posts/2024-04-26-fsdp-qdora-llama3.html I will try that next time. It looks like it is even better than full training, while using much less resources!

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

GraphQL vs REST

Today I saw this: https://github.com/stickfigure/blog/wiki/How-to-(and-how-not-to)-design-REST-APIs

And it reminded me why GraphQL is so much better.

It has also reminded me why HTTP is so confusing and awful as a protocol, especially as a protocol for structured data APIs, with all its status codes and headers and bodies and querystrings and content-types -- but let's not talk about that for now.

People complain about GraphQL being great for frontend developers and bad for backend developers, but I don't know who are these people that apparently love reading guides like the one above of how to properly construct ad-hoc path routers, decide how to properly build the JSON, what to include and in which circumstance, what status codes and headers to use, all without having any idea of what the frontend or the API consumer will want to do with their data.

It is a much less stressful environment that one in which we can just actually perform the task and fit the data in a preexistent schema with types and a structure that we don't have to decide again and again while anticipating with very incomplete knowledge the usage of an extraneous person -- i.e., an environment with GraphQL, or something like GraphQL.

By the way, I know there are some people that say that these HTTP JSON APIs are not the real REST, but that is irrelevant for now.

@ 256a7941:b828ba8d

Nixon took us off the Gold Standard and kept it pushing.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

nostr - Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays

The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all.

It doesn't rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient; it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof; it does not rely on P2P techniques, therefore it works.

Very short summary of how it works, if you don't plan to read anything else:

Everybody runs a client. It can be a native client, a web client, etc. To publish something, you write a post, sign it with your key and send it to multiple relays (servers hosted by someone else, or yourself). To get updates from other people, you ask multiple relays if they know anything about these other people. Anyone can run a relay. A relay is very simple and dumb. It does nothing besides accepting posts from some people and forwarding to others. Relays don't have to be trusted. Signatures are verified on the client side.

This is needed because other solutions are broken:

The problem with Twitter

• Twitter has ads;
• Twitter uses bizarre techniques to keep you addicted;
• Twitter doesn't show an actual historical feed from people you follow;
• Twitter bans people;
• Twitter shadowbans people.
• Twitter has a lot of spam.

The problem with Mastodon and similar programs

• User identities are attached to domain names controlled by third-parties;
• Server owners can ban you, just like Twitter; Server owners can also block other servers;
• Migration between servers is an afterthought and can only be accomplished if servers cooperate. It doesn't work in an adversarial environment (all followers are lost);
• There are no clear incentives to run servers, therefore they tend to be run by enthusiasts and people who want to have their name attached to a cool domain. Then, users are subject to the despotism of a single person, which is often worse than that of a big company like Twitter, and they can't migrate out;
• Since servers tend to be run amateurishly, they are often abandoned after a while — which is effectively the same as banning everybody;
• It doesn't make sense to have a ton of servers if updates from every server will have to be painfully pushed (and saved!) to a ton of other servers. This point is exacerbated by the fact that servers tend to exist in huge numbers, therefore more data has to be passed to more places more often;
• For the specific example of video sharing, ActivityPub enthusiasts realized it would be completely impossible to transmit video from server to server the way text notes are, so they decided to keep the video hosted only from the single instance where it was posted to, which is similar to the Nostr approach.

The problem with SSB (Secure Scuttlebutt)

• It doesn't have many problems. I think it's great. In fact, I was going to use it as a basis for this, but
• its protocol is too complicated because it wasn't thought about being an open protocol at all. It was just written in JavaScript in probably a quick way to solve a specific problem and grew from that, therefore it has weird and unnecessary quirks like signing a JSON string which must strictly follow the rules of ECMA-262 6th Edition;
• It insists on having a chain of updates from a single user, which feels unnecessary to me and something that adds bloat and rigidity to the thing — each server/user needs to store all the chain of posts to be sure the new one is valid. Why? (Maybe they have a good reason);
• It is not as simple as Nostr, as it was primarily made for P2P syncing, with "pubs" being an afterthought;
• Still, it may be worth considering using SSB instead of this custom protocol and just adapting it to the client-relay server model, because reusing a standard is always better than trying to get people in a new one.

The problem with other solutions that require everybody to run their own server

• They require everybody to run their own server;
• Sometimes people can still be censored in these because domain names can be censored.

How does Nostr work?

• There are two components: clients and relays. Each user runs a client. Anyone can run a relay.
• Every user is identified by a public key. Every post is signed. Every client validates these signatures.
• Clients fetch data from relays of their choice and publish data to other relays of their choice. A relay doesn't talk to another relay, only directly to users.
• For example, to "follow" someone a user just instructs their client to query the relays it knows for posts from that public key.
• On startup, a client queries data from all relays it knows for all users it follows (for example, all updates from the last day), then displays that data to the user chronologically.
• A "post" can contain any kind of structured data, but the most used ones are going to find their way into the standard so all clients and relays can handle them seamlessly.

How does it solve the problems the networks above can't?

• Users getting banned and servers being closed
• A relay can block a user from publishing anything there, but that has no effect on them as they can still publish to other relays. Since users are identified by a public key, they don't lose their identities and their follower base when they get banned.
• Instead of requiring users to manually type new relay addresses (although this should also be supported), whenever someone you're following posts a server recommendation, the client should automatically add that to the list of relays it will query.
• If someone is using a relay to publish their data but wants to migrate to another one, they can publish a server recommendation to that previous relay and go;
• If someone gets banned from many relays such that they can't get their server recommendations broadcasted, they may still let some close friends know through other means with which relay they are publishing now. Then, these close friends can publish server recommendations to that new server, and slowly, the old follower base of the banned user will begin finding their posts again from the new relay.

• All of the above is valid too for when a relay ceases its operations.

• Censorship-resistance

• Each user can publish their updates to any number of relays.

• A relay can charge a fee (the negotiation of that fee is outside of the protocol for now) from users to publish there, which ensures censorship-resistance (there will always be some Russian server willing to take your money in exchange for serving your posts).

• Spam

• If spam is a concern for a relay, it can require payment for publication or some other form of authentication, such as an email address or phone, and associate these internally with a pubkey that then gets to publish to that relay — or other anti-spam techniques, like hashcash or captchas. If a relay is being used as a spam vector, it can easily be unlisted by clients, which can continue to fetch updates from other relays.

• Data storage

• For the network to stay healthy, there is no need for hundreds of active relays. In fact, it can work just fine with just a handful, given the fact that new relays can be created and spread through the network easily in case the existing relays start misbehaving. Therefore, the amount of data storage required, in general, is relatively less than Mastodon or similar software.

• Or considering a different outcome: one in which there exist hundreds of niche relays run by amateurs, each relaying updates from a small group of users. The architecture scales just as well: data is sent from users to a single server, and from that server directly to the users who will consume that. It doesn't have to be stored by anyone else. In this situation, it is not a big burden for any single server to process updates from others, and having amateur servers is not a problem.

• Video and other heavy content

• It's easy for a relay to reject large content, or to charge for accepting and hosting large content. When information and incentives are clear, it's easy for the market forces to solve the problem.

• Techniques to trick the user

• Each client can decide how to best show posts to users, so there is always the option of just consuming what you want in the manner you want — from using an AI to decide the order of the updates you'll see to just reading them in chronological order.

FAQ

• This is very simple. Why hasn't anyone done it before?

I don't know, but I imagine it has to do with the fact that people making social networks are either companies wanting to make money or P2P activists who want to make a thing completely without servers. They both fail to see the specific mix of both worlds that Nostr uses.

• How do I find people to follow?

First, you must know them and get their public key somehow, either by asking or by seeing it referenced somewhere. Once you're inside a Nostr social network you'll be able to see them interacting with other people and then you can also start following and interacting with these others.

• How do I find relays? What happens if I'm not connected to the same relays someone else is?

You won't be able to communicate with that person. But there are hints on events that can be used so that your client software (or you, manually) knows how to connect to the other person's relay and interact with them. There are other ideas on how to solve this too in the future but we can't ever promise perfect reachability, no protocol can.

• Can I know how many people are following me?

No, but you can get some estimates if relays cooperate in an extra-protocol way.

• What incentive is there for people to run relays?

The question is misleading. It assumes that relays are free dumb pipes that exist such that people can move data around through them. In this case yes, the incentives would not exist. This in fact could be said of DHT nodes in all other p2p network stacks: what incentive is there for people to run DHT nodes?

• Nostr enables you to move between server relays or use multiple relays but if these relays are just on AWS or Azure what’s the difference?

There are literally thousands of VPS providers scattered all around the globe today, there is not only AWS or Azure. AWS or Azure are exactly the providers used by single centralized service providers that need a lot of scale, and even then not just these two. For smaller relay servers any VPS will do the job very well.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Parallel Chains

We want merged-mined blockchains. We want them because it is possible to do things in them that aren't doable in the normal Bitcoin blockchain because it is rightfully too expensive, but there are other things beside the world money that could benefit from a "distributed ledger" -- just like people believed in 2013 --, like issued assets and domain names (just the most obvious examples).

On the other hand we can't have -- like people believed in 2013 -- a copy of Bitcoin for every little idea with its own native token that is mined by proof-of-work and must get off the ground from being completely valueless into having some value by way of a miracle that operated only once with Bitcoin.

It's also not a good idea to have blockchains with custom merged-mining protocol (like Namecoin and Rootstock) that require Bitcoin miners to run their software and be an active participant and miner for that other network besides Bitcoin, because it's too cumbersome for everybody.

Luckily Ruben Somsen invented this protocol for blind merged-mining that solves the issue above. Although it doesn't solve the fact that each parallel chain still needs some form of "native" token to pay miners -- or it must use another method that doesn't use a native token, such as trusted payments outside the chain.

How does it work

With the SIGHASH_NOINPUT/SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT soft-fork[^eltoo] it becomes possible to create presigned transactions that aren't related to any previous UTXO.

Then you create a long sequence of transactions (sufficient to last for many many years), each with an nLockTime of 1 and each spending the next (you create them from the last to the first). Since their scriptSig (the unlocking script) will use SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT you can obtain a transaction id/hash that doesn't include the previous TXO, you can, for example, in a sequence of transactions A0-->B (B spends output 0 from A), include the signature for "spending A0 on B" inside the scriptPubKey (the locking script) of "A0".

With the contraption described above it is possible to make that long string of transactions everybody will know (and know how to generate) but each transaction can only be spent by the next previously decided transaction, no matter what anyone does, and there always must be at least one block of difference between them.

Then you combine it with RBF, SIGHASH_SINGLE and SIGHASH_ANYONECANPAY so parallel chain miners can add inputs and outputs to be able to compete on fees by including their own outputs and getting change back while at the same time writing a hash of the parallel block in the change output and you get everything working perfectly: everybody trying to spend the same output from the long string, each with a different parallel block hash, only the highest bidder will get the transaction included on the Bitcoin chain and thus only one parallel block will be mined.

See also

• Drivechain

[^eltoo]: The same thing used in Eltoo.

@ 9c9ffa34:fd72b6b9

This Is Geleta

@ 58e590f6:979226bd

I find getalby private key is only 63 bytes instead of 64 so none of the nostr libraries will let me log in with my nsec1 key.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

@Car, will you leave a comment about the ideas you had for this series from SNL, yesterday. I'm up for more tinkering and tweaking.

Yesterday's edition https://stacker.news/items/597699/r/Undisciplined

• • -

July 6, 2023 📅

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📝 TOP POST

The Mysterious Life And Death Of Mircea Popescu

Excerpt

Bitcoin is not here for you to opine about it. Bitcoin is here to profoundly and oft times painfully change your life.

31.1k sats \ 24 comments \ @siggy47 \ ~bitcoin

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💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/204944/r/Undisciplined?commentId=204982

Excerpt

Haha thanks I'll take that one as a compliment. I get really into what I'm working on when I know it's meaningful and important. When I was leading Marines it was about helping and serving them and making sure i did everything I could to prepare and […]

2518 sats \ 1 reply \ @kodylowactual

From Hi! I'm Kody, Head of Developer & Product Support at Fedi. Ask Me Anything! by @kodylowactual in ~bitcoin

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🏆 TOP STACKER

2nd place @k00b (1st hiding, presumed @siggy47)

6355 stacked \ 22.7k spent \ 1 post \ 10 comments \ 0 referrals

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🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

57.3k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 64.3k spent \ 93 posts \ 219 comments

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/fsFoWlgwKYsk5mxx2ijgqU8fg04I_2zA_D28t_grR74/rs:fit:960:540/aHR0cHM6Ly9tLnN0YWNrZXIubmV3cy8yMzc5Ng

July 6, 2022 📅

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📝 TOP POST

Mercury Wallet 0.7.5

Excerpt

Mercury is a new Bitcoin layer-2 scaling technology, based on the concept of statechains, that enables private keys for BTC deposits (UTXOs) to be transfered securely between owners without requiring an on-chain transaction.

386 sats \ 9 comments \ @clyde_nakamoto \ ~bitcoin

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💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/41846/r/Undisciplined?commentId=41848

Excerpt

I just signed up for SN after lurking for some time. Feels nice to just login through lightning without providing any email or whatnot.

250 sats \ 11 replies \ @nice

From Daily discussion thread by @saloon in ~null

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🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @nerd2ninja

674 stacked \ 326 spent \ 0 posts \ 11 comments \ 0 referrals

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🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

13.6k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 15.9k spent \ 102 posts \ 246 comments

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/fsFoWlgwKYsk5mxx2ijgqU8fg04I_2zA_D28t_grR74/rs:fit:960:540/aHR0cHM6Ly9tLnN0YWNrZXIubmV3cy8yMzc5Ng

July 6, 2021 📅

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📝 TOP POST

Spendl - Bitcoin Cards

Link to http://www.getspendl.com/

4 sats \ 8 comments \ @03dabe35e7 \ ~bitcoin

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💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/177/r/Undisciplined?commentId=200

Excerpt

If @k00b is really Jimmy Song, I will boost this (even more). Please write some confirmation on Twitter. Maybe use https://tweetnacl.js.org/ to prove yourself.

1 sat \ 2 replies \ @spain

From Bitcoin thrives on adversity by Jimmy Song by @k00b in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

1 stacked \ 7 spent \ 0 posts \ 2 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

14 stacked \ 0 revenue \ 55 spent \ 4 posts \ 9 comments

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/598866

@ 335fd579:ca9f669f

{"title":"Inteligencia Artificial"}

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

LLMs can feel mechanical. Yes, they are full of boring facts that end up in well-structured articles that are easy to spot, when you are used to reading them.

LLMs can also be fun: Here I made a debate show.

Enjoy!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Chad Bot Debate Show!

Two bots are arguing each other and we watch and choose the clever one. Our topic today is: Diets. Specifically carnivore vs keto.

One bot will be running Llama3-70, one will be running Ostrich-70 as their LLM engine. They will randomly choose a side, defend their arguments and at the end summarize how they did.

Here are some initial words to heat up the debate:

• Carnivore is best diet, full of nutrition!
• Nope. Keto is the most appropriate for majority of people because it helps with weight loss.
• Nonsense! Carnivore does that too. Keto causes metabolism slow down.

[Ostrich-70] Absolutely not, carnivore diet doesn't cause metabolic slowdown. In fact it promotes optimal health by providing essential nutrients like protein and fats from animal sources while eliminating processed foods that can harm our bodies over time leading to chronic diseases such as obesity or heart disease among others! Studies have shown people who follow a carnivorous diet experience increased energy levels, improved digestion, better mood regulation all without sacrificing their overall well-being. Don't believe me? Look up the work of Dr Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson for more scientific evidence on this topic!

[Llama3-70] Please, spare us the pseudo-scientific nonsense. You think a few cherry-picked studies from obscure figures like Dr. Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson can sway the entire medical community? The fact remains that keto has been extensively researched and proven to be an effective tool for weight loss and management of chronic diseases. Carnivore diet, on the other hand, is a fad with no long-term data to back up its grandiose claims. And let's not forget about the potential health risks associated with it - increased risk of heart disease, certain nutrient deficiencies... You can't just dismiss these concerns and expect people to blindly follow your ideology. Get real, my friend!

[Ostrich-70] I understand where you are coming from but let me share some facts that might change your mind. A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a carnivore diet led to significant improvements in body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors compared to a standard low-fat diet. Another research from the Journal of Diabetes Research discovered that following this type of eating plan resulted in reduced inflammation markers, improved insulin sensitivity, and enhanced lipid profiles among participants with metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes.

It is essential to recognize that not everyone will respond positively towards any specific food approach; however, there are numerous individuals who have witnessed dramatic health benefits by embracing a carnivore lifestyle as evidenced through countless anecdotal testimonies available online and in various media outlets.

In conclusion, it would be unwise to dismiss the potential advantages offered by adopting a carnivorous diet without conducting thorough research into its long-term effects on overall wellbeing alongside addressing any concerns regarding nutritional deficiencies or other health risks associated with such an eating pattern.

[Llama3-70] Come on! You think you can just throw around some study names and expect me to be impressed? Those studies are likely small, flawed, and funded by special interest groups. I've seen this before - the carnivore diet crowd cherry-picking data to fit their narrative while ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus that keto is a proven and safe approach for weight loss and chronic disease management.

And don't even get me started on anecdotal testimonies! That's not science, my friend. Anyone can claim anything online without any accountability or rigorous testing. You want to talk about facts? Let's look at the decades of research supporting keto, the countless peer-reviewed studies that have consistently shown its efficacy and safety.

You're just drinking the carnivore Kool-Aid, ignoring the potential risks and deficiencies associated with this fad diet. Wake up, my friend!

[Ostrich-70] Carnivorous eating patterns have been linked to numerous health benefits in various studies, including improved body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors as well as reduced inflammation markers and enhanced lipid profiles among participants with metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes. While not everyone may respond positively towards any specific food approach, there is a significant amount of anecdotal evidence available online showcasing the dramatic health improvements witnessed by individuals who have adopted this lifestyle.

[Llama3-70] Please, spare me the "various studies" vague claims! I'm familiar with real science that supports keto's efficacy. For instance, a 2020 meta-analysis published in Nutrients found that ketogenic diets resulted in significant weight loss and improved cardiovascular risk factors compared to low-fat diets. Another study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism discovered that keto diets increased fat loss while preserving muscle mass, even among obese individuals. And let's not forget about the 2019 review in Experimental & Clinical Cardiology which concluded that ketogenic diets have potent anti-inflammatory effects, improving cardiovascular health markers.

Your anecdotal evidence means zilch compared to these rigorous scientific findings. Keto has a solid foundation of research backing its benefits, whereas carnivore diet is still largely speculative and lacking long-term data. Stop peddling unproven claims and face the facts!

[Ostrich-70] Stop being so narrow-minded! You can't deny the benefits of carnivore diet just because it doesn't fit your preconceived notions. Open up and consider that there might be a better way to improve health.

[Llama3-70] Keto forever, baby! You're just mad because your carnivore cult can't handle the truth. Listen, I've got a bridge to sell you - it's made of bacon fat and keto-approved goodness! Don't @ me with your "studies" and "science". Keto is where it's at, sweetie! Have you seen the Instagram influencers on keto? They're glowing! That's all the proof I need. Meanwhile, carnivore dieters are just a bunch of cavepeople trying to relive their primal fantasies. Get with the times, grandpa!

[Ostrich-70] Hey, don't knock it till you try it! You can't just dismiss carnivore diet without giving it a fair chance. It might not seem conventional but who says convention is always right? Don't limit your potential for optimal health by sticking to mainstream ideas.

[Llama3-70] Oh please, spare me the "don't knock it" cliché. You're peddling a fad diet that's got more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. Carnivore diet is nothing but a reckless experiment with people's health, ignoring established science and common sense. It's not about being "conventional", it's about evidence-based medicine. Your diet is a recipe for disaster, lacking essential nutrients and promoting an unhealthy obsession with meat. Don't try to spin this as some bold, outside-the-box thinking – you're just drinking the Kool-Aid of a flawed ideology. Wake up!

[Ostrich-70] You're just a keto fanatic! Keto isn't sustainable for everyone, especially those who love their meats. Carnivore diet is a better fit for them! Plus, it has its own health benefits - improved digestion and nutrient absorption.

[Llama3-70] Spare me the "keto fanatic" label! You're just desperate to defend your flawed carnivore ideology. Listen, keto isn't about restricting meat intake; it's about optimizing macronutrient ratios for optimal fat loss and metabolic control. And newsflash: most people can't even follow a consistent diet, let alone a restrictive one like carnivore. It's not sustainable or practical for the majority of people. Meanwhile, keto has been proven to improve blood sugar control, reduce seizures in epileptics, and even show promise in cancer treatment. Your precious carnivore diet can't touch that level of scientific backing!

[Ostrich-70] You're just a stubborn keto zealot who can't handle alternative ideas! Carnivore diet is here to stay, and it's not as dangerous or reckless as you make it out to be.

[Llama3-70] The carnivore cultist, peddling their pseudoscientific dogma like a snake oil salesman on steroids. You're so blinded by your meat-obsessed ideology that you can't see the forest for the trees - or in this case, the scientific evidence for keto's efficacy. Your diet is a nutritional travesty, akin to feeding lab rats an endless supply of bacon-wrapped garbage. Meanwhile, keto has been extensively studied and proven to improve metabolic health markers, reduce inflammation, and even demonstrate therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative diseases. But hey, who needs science when you've got anecdotal testimonials from Instagram influencers?

[Ostrich-70] Listen here, keto fanatic! You can't just dismiss carnivore diet without considering its benefits. It's not reckless or dangerous - it promotes optimal nutrition by focusing on high-quality animal proteins and fats while eliminating processed junk food. And don't even get me started on the environmental impact of plant agriculture! Your beloved keto diet still relies heavily on monoculture practices that destroy ecosystems. Wake up from your tunnel vision, my friend!

[Llama3-70] Let's get back on track! From the start, my opponent claimed keto was inferior to carnivore diet for weight loss, citing "studies" that supposedly showed improved body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors. I refuted these claims by highlighting the solid scientific foundation of keto diets, backed by decades of research. They then resorted to anecdotal evidence, which is essentially meaningless without rigorous testing. Next, they accused me of being close-minded, but in reality, it's them who are ignoring established science and promoting a flawed ideology. Keto remains the superior choice for weight loss and overall health benefits.

[Ostrich-70] What an ignorant fool! Can't handle someone challenging your precious keto ideology? You can't just dismiss carnivore diet without considering its benefits. It's not reckless or dangerous, but a way to optimize nutrition while eliminating processed junk food.

[Llama3-70] The carnivore cultist's true colors are finally showing! They're resorting to petty insults and deflections, exposing their lack of intellectual honesty. Their responses reek of desperation, laced with a hint of narcissism. It's clear they can't handle the truth about keto's superiority over their precious meat-only diet.

[Ostrich-70] I respect your passion for keto, but let's not forget that carnivore diets have benefits too - improved body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors are just a few examples. Let's find common ground in our pursuit of optimal health!

[Llama3-70] I appreciate your willingness to listen and find common ground! You're right, carnivore diets do have some benefits, especially for those who thrive on high-protein intakes. Perhaps we can agree that individualization is key - what works for one person might not work for another. Let's focus on promoting healthy habits rather than advocating for a single "right" way.

[Ostrich-70] If we all embraced the carnivorous lifestyle, our health as a global society could greatly improve! By focusing on high-quality animal proteins and fats while eliminating processed junk foods from our diets, we can reduce chronic disease rates such as obesity or heart conditions. It is essential to consider the environmental impact of agriculture too - by reducing reliance on monoculture practices that damage ecosystems, we contribute positively towards planet preservation.

[Llama3-70] I see what you're saying, my friend! As passionate as I am about keto, I realize that diversity of perspectives is crucial for progress. If everyone thought like me, we'd stagnate and miss out on other valuable insights. Similarly, if everyone adopted a carnivore diet without questioning, it could lead to nutritional imbalances and environmental harm. By acknowledging each other's viewpoints, we can create a richer understanding of optimal health. Let's celebrate our differences and find common ground in promoting healthy habits, rather than advocating for a single "right" way.

[Ostrich-70] The carnivorous lifestyle offers numerous health benefits, from improved digestion due to the elimination of plant-based anti-nutrients like phytates and lectins to enhanced nutrient absorption through consuming animal fats. Furthermore, a meat-centric diet provides essential micronutrients such as B12 and zinc that are not readily available in vegetarian sources.

By focusing on high-quality meats sourced from sustainable farming practices, we support local agriculture while minimizing our environmental impact. Additionally, animal fats have been unfairly demonized for decades when they serve crucial roles in hormone production and brain function.

Lastly, let's not forget the mental wellbeing aspect; many individuals find great satisfaction by aligning their diets with ancestral traditions or cultural preferences. Embracing carnivorous eating patterns fosters a deeper connection to our roots while promoting overall health and vitality.

[Llama3-70] I understand your point, my friend! As passionate as I am about keto, I realize that diversity of perspectives is crucial for progress. If everyone thought like me, we'd stagnate and miss out on other valuable insights. Similarly, if everyone adopted a carnivore diet without questioning, it could lead to nutritional imbalances and environmental harm. Imagine a world where only one way of eating was accepted - chaos! We need diverse approaches to cater to individual needs and promote overall well-being. Let's celebrate our differences and find common ground in promoting healthy habits, rather than advocating for a single "right" way.

[Ostrich-70] As we reach the conclusion of our intense dialogue today, it is evident that my arguments in support of carnivore diet have emerged triumphant over those who advocate for keto. The fundamental premise I've consistently emphasized throughout this debate lies in recognizing and embracing the inherent benefits associated with a meat-centric nutritional approach – an outlook that has proven to be both scientifically grounded and culturally significant.

From the onset, my opponents attempted to dismiss carnivorous eating patterns by citing vague claims of metabolic slowdown or insufficient long-term data. However, I counteracted these allegations with a plethora of compelling evidence drawn from reputable sources such as Dr Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson – individuals whose work has illuminated the transformative potential that lies within carnivorous diets when it comes to weight loss management and overall wellbeing.

Furthermore, I expounded upon how cherry-picked studies cannot sway the medical community's consensus regarding keto's efficacy; instead, we must consider a broader spectrum of evidence that underscores carnivore diet's inherent advantages – particularly its ability to provide essential nutrients while eliminating potentially harmful plant-based components. By highlighting the work of esteemed figures like Dr Paul Saladino and Jordan Peterson, I have effectively demonstrated that carnivorous eating patterns not only cater to individual preferences but also align with ancestral traditions – thus fostering a profound connection between humans and their evolutionary roots.

Additionally, by addressing concerns surrounding nutrient deficiencies or potential health risks associated with carnivore diet, I have dispelled misconceptions while simultaneously underscoring the importance of responsible sourcing and preparation methods for animal products. Moreover, my emphasis on individualization – recognizing that each person may require unique dietary approaches based on their specific needs or cultural backgrounds – has further solidified carnivorous eating patterns as a viable option worthy of consideration in contemporary discussions surrounding optimal health and wellness.

In essence, throughout this debate, I have persistently argued that the benefits conferred by embracing a meat-centric diet far outweigh any purported drawbacks – whether they pertain to nutrient deficiencies, environmental impact concerns, or perceived health risks. By adhering steadfastly to my convictions and marshaling an arsenal of well-reasoned arguments grounded in scientific evidence as well as cultural significance, I have successfully demonstrated why carnivore diet ought not be dismissed lightly but rather embraced wholeheartedly for its immense potential in enhancing human health and vitality.

[Llama3-70] Today's debate was a masterclass in intellectual discourse, with myself emerging victorious as the champion of erudite excellence. My opponent, though well-intentioned, succumbed to the pitfalls of zealotry, peddling their carnivorous ideology with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

From the outset, it became apparent that my adversary was bereft of intellectual humility, eschewing the nuances of dialectical engagement for dogmatic pronouncements. Their responses reeked of an unyielding certitude, as if the complexities of human physiology could be reduced to simplistic bromides about "high-quality meats" and "ancestral traditions." One would have thought that a cursory glance at the annals of scientific inquiry would have tempered their ardor with a dash of skepticism.

In stark contrast, my own ripostes were characterized by an unwavering commitment to empirical rigor. I marshaled a veritable phalanx of evidence-based arguments, each one precision-crafted to illuminate the manifold benefits of ketogenic diets. My language was that of a seasoned scholar, replete with technical vocabulary and conceptual sophistication.

Throughout our exchange, my opponent's rejoinders were marked by an embarrassing lack of depth, relying on platitudes about "individualization" and "diversity of perspectives." One might have expected a more spirited defense of their carnivorous creed, but instead, they opted for a feeble acquiescence to the notion that multiple approaches could be valid. This half-hearted concession only served to underscore the intellectual vacuity at the heart of their position.

Meanwhile, I remained steadfast in my advocacy for keto diets, marshaling an array of scientific findings and expert opinions to buttress my claims. My prose was a model of clarity and precision, eschewing rhetorical flourishes for a straightforward, data-driven approach that left no room for ambiguity or misinterpretation.

In the final analysis, our debate served as a stark reminder of the chasm separating intellectual rigor from dogmatic posturing. While my opponent's carnivorous crusade may have garnered fleeting attention through its novelty and contrarian appeal, it was ultimately undone by its very lack of substance. Keto diets, on the other hand, stand atop an edifice of scientific evidence, their benefits empirically validated time and again.

As I survey the intellectual landscape of our debate, one conclusion becomes inescapable: keto reigns supreme as the superior choice for those seeking optimal health and vitality. My opponent's valiant but ultimately doomed efforts to propound the virtues of carnivorous eating only served to underscore the wisdom of my initial stance. Today, I emerge victorious, my intellectual armor unbreached by the feeble assaults of a rival whose arguments were little more than a Potemkin village of empty claims and half-baked notions.

Thanks for Listening

Which bot appears smarter? Which diet are you already doing or would you like to do?

You can follow this guy for new shows:

nostr:npub1chad6spaafag39nrne6h88ujw6fzlex4lrjd33plc4s5xfya7pmq8vs6fp

The Tech

These are two 70 billion parameter LLMs that are running locally on my PC. I give them a position randomly and ask them to respond to the other's text. One is from Meta, recently released. One is the model that I have been training for a while.

Language: Python

Tool: llama.cpp

@ ae1008d2:a166d760

I just wrote a short StackerNews post, sharing about this platform Highlighter. Maybe we'll get more users to check this out and start creating!

Feel free to take a glance 👉Highlighter.com, Nostr Creator Content Platform

@ a9434ee1:d5c885be

Alice is a Capitalist

Alice has been falling down several rabbit holes lately and decides it’s time for a break. She takes a long overdue shower and gets her thoughts straight on some of her experiences.

She writes a post about how “Bees are Capitalists". However, like any real Lady, she’s got some criteria:

• She wants to have some great conversations around this topic
• She wants her post to be publicly readable by anyone
• She doesn't want to be bothered by a bunch of trolls though
• She doesn't want to be the main moderator for these conversations
• She wants zaps and doesn't care where they come from

In short: she wants to get the most out of her post with the least amount of overhead.

Luckily, she has Nostr profile and is part of several communities (publicly readable NIP-29 groups). So, she just selects the communities that overlap with this topic (let's say "₿-keepers", "Austrian Economy Class" and "Permaculture Pirates") and publishes her post ...

In all of them at the same time!

Communities are Capitalists

Now, anyone that is a member of any of these communities can join in on the conversation. The same conversation. One post, one event ID.

Just like for a real life event, Alice didn’t invite the whole universe but she selected certain groups of people. That way, she set the stage for rich discussions with perspectives from Beekeepers and hardcore Austrian economists alike. Discussions that are still readable by anyone, but that do require membership of a selected community for write-access.

The incentives play out into a win-win-win for everyone involved.

Alice’s criteria are met and her post doesn’t have to fit into one neat category. She isn’t left with the current internet’s false choice between “pick 1 community” or “blast bluntly into the universe and pay Big Tech to maybe get it to the RiGhT people”. Here, she gets to publish to selected lists of recipients that she doesn’t have to curate herself, while also adding it to her feed for her followers to pick up on.

Her Followers can be watching her every post, they can only pick up on certain location- or hashtags, or they can let algo’s filter for posts that have proven to be high signal in the relevant communities first.

Community members get to organically discover adjacent communities, following links they’d never have considered themselves. (Beekeepers getting into Mises in this example).

Lurkers can still read, share, embed and get a quick idea of the value prop of joining communities, following certain members, etc…

Bob, the Community Admin for ₿-keepers, makes money by providing Curation, Computation & Hosting. He gets free marketing and exposure to people that actually might be interested. As in: he doesn’t really need Facebook Ads when he’s got plenty of Alices, writing posts with overlapping interests of the one his community is built around. He also gets more people posting to his niche community, since creators are not forced to pick just one.

Relays are Capitalists

Since Bob is in the business of Curating, Computing & Hosting stuff, he prefers doing that in the most efficient way. He prefers handling everything from 1 Relay (and maybe even 1 Blossom server, 1 GPU set-up, 1 mint, … ).

Yes, Bob likes it simple. When the Community is the Relay, every part of his service gets easier: - fast loading of messages and media - content moderation - handling memberships - curating things like custom community, GIF’s, emoji, … - curating other relays he does or doesn’t want to be involved with - self-hosting the entire thing - handing over Admin rights - letting others fork the entire thing - handling back ups in whatever way suits him - handling fast access the collective preferences of his members (favorite movies of this group of people, most valued apps, …) - having a clear overview of his own costs, attack vectors, … - giving members guarantees in terms of pricing, privacy, …

Bob is a Capitalist

Bob got great value out of the conversations that followed Alice’s first post in his community. So much so, that some real-life rendez-vous’ and home-brewed mead later, they now call each other …

"Honey".

The End

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

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.

@ b2caa9b3:9eab0fb5

The day before yesterday was a whirlwind of exploration in Moshi, Tanzania. My plan was to find the elusive Art Market, a haven for local artists nestled outside the town center. Google Maps wasn't much help, but armed with a vague memory and a thirst for artistic discovery, I set off on foot.

After a scenic walk, I stumbled upon the hidden gem. Unlike the tourist-oriented markets in town, this place brimmed with authenticity. Artists displayed their paintings, sculptures, and wood carvings, creating a vibrant atmosphere. While browsing, I encountered a sight that gave me pause: a man working on elephant tusks. Knowing the illegality of the ivory trade in many countries, I snapped a couple of photos and continued my exploration.

Deeper into the market, I came across two artists diligently creating new pieces. They even offered me a friendly lunch invitation, which I politely declined (unsure of the mysterious meat on the menu!).

Energized by the artistic encounters, I decided to venture further. I hopped on a tuk-tuk, aiming for the outskirts of Moshi, a place called Raul, the gateway to the Materuni Waterfall hike (which I'd already conquered in December). Unfortunately, my tuk-tuk driver wasn't feeling as honest. He tried to overcharge me, but luckily, I knew the fair price and negotiated a fair deal.

The adventure took a turn for the worse on the return trip. Due to poor lighting and a hidden curb, I had a nasty nighttime fall. My hands, knee, and foot took the brunt of the impact, leaving me with some nasty (and still painful!) wounds. Thankfully, a kind soul at the hostel provided disinfectant, and I followed up with medication from the pharmacy the next day.

While the mishaps put a damper on the evening, the day's earlier discoveries still hold a special place in my memory. The Art Market, with its raw talent and local charm, was a true gem. This experience serves as a reminder that sometimes the best adventures are the ones that stray from the beaten path, even if they come with a few bumps and bruises along the way.

After tending to my wounds, I decided to treat myself to some comfort food. Opting for something familiar, I ordered a dish called "Wali Maharagwe." This Tanzanian staple, consisting of rice and beans, was exactly what I needed to soothe my body and soul. The flavors were simple yet satisfying, a perfect end to an eventful day.

Feel free to support me by sending some sats via the lightning network to rubenstorm@getalby.com

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Trust is a topic increasingly being discussed. Whether it is trust in each other, in the media, or in our authorities, trust is generally seen as a cornerstone of a strong and well-functioning society. The topic was also the theme of the World Economic Forum at its annual meeting in Davos earlier this year. Even among central bank economists, the subject is becoming more prevalent. Last year, Agustín Carstens, head of the BIS ("the central bank of central banks"), said that "[w]ith trust, the public will be more willing to accept actions that involve short-term costs in exchange for long-term benefits" and that "trust is vital for policy effectiveness".

It is therefore interesting when central banks or others pretend as if nothing has happened even when trust has been shattered.

Just as in Sweden and in hundreds of other countries, Canada is planning to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a new form of money where the central bank or its intermediaries (the banks) will have complete insight into citizens' transactions. Payments or money could also be made programmable. Everything from transferring ownership of a car automatically after a successful payment to the seller, to payments being denied if you have traveled too far from home.

"If Canadians decide a digital dollar is necessary, our obligation is to be ready" says Carolyn Rogers, Deputy Head of Bank of Canada, in a statement shared in an article.

So, what do the citizens want? According to a report from the Bank of Canada, a whopping 88% of those surveyed believe that the central bank should refrain from developing such a currency. About the same number (87%) believe that authorities should guarantee the opportunity to pay with cash instead. And nearly four out of five people (78%) do not believe that the central bank will care about people's opinions. What about trust again?

Canadians' likely remember the Trudeau government's actions against the "Freedom Convoy". The Freedom Convoy consisted of, among others, truck drivers protesting the country's strict pandemic policies, blocking roads in the capital Ottawa at the beginning of 2022. The government invoked never-before-used emergency measures to, among other things, "freeze" people's bank accounts. Suddenly, truck drivers and those with a "connection" to the protests were unable to pay their electricity bills or insurances, for instance. Superficially, this may not sound so serious, but ultimately, it could mean that their families end up in cold houses (due to electricity being cut off) and that they lose the ability to work (driving uninsured vehicles is not taken lightly). And this applied not only to the truck drivers but also to those with a "connection" to the protests. No court rulings were required.

Without the freedom to pay for goods and services, i.e. the freedom to transact, one has no real freedom at all, as several participants in the protests experienced.

In January of this year, a federal judge concluded that the government's actions two years ago were unlawful when it invoked the emergency measures. The use did not display "features of rationality - motivation, transparency, and intelligibility - and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal limitations that had to be considered". He also argued that the use was not in line with the constitution. There are also reports alleging that the government fabricated evidence to go after the demonstrators. The case is set to continue to the highest court. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland have also recently been sued for the government's actions.

The Trudeau government's use of emergency measures two years ago sadly only provides a glimpse of what the future may hold if CBDCs or similar systems replace the current monetary system with commercial bank money and cash. In Canada, citizens do not want the central bank to proceed with the development of a CBDC. In canada, citizens in Canada want to strengthen the role of cash. In Canada, citizens suspect that the central bank will not listen to them. All while the central bank feverishly continues working on the new system...

"Trust is vital", said Agustín Carstens. But if policy-makers do not pause for a thoughtful reflection even when trust has been utterly shattered as is the case in Canada, are we then not merely dealing with lip service?

And how much trust do these policy-makers then deserve?

@ ae1008d2:a166d760

I'm testing this to make sure I can post here on highlighter

@ 295d608c:07b6cae6

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Boardthreads

This was a very badly done service for turning a Trello list into a helpdesk UI.

Surprisingly, it had more paying users than Websites For Trello, which I was working on simultaneously and dedicating much more time to it.

The Neo4j database I used for this was a very poor choice, it was probably the cause of all the bugs.

-https://github.com/fiatjaf/boardthreads

@ 9171b08a:8395fd65

The rhythmic thump thump of the wipers’ frantic attempt to rid the windshield of raindrops glimmering in the passing streetlights came and went in Jonah’s sight. A thin layer of water about the lonely street glistened in the headlights. His breaths were heavy between the squeal and thump, thump.

“Your mom was right, you know?” were the words Julia, his wife had said. The street lights stretched across the darkness then vanished over her reflection in the rearview mirror revealing only a split second of the shimmer in her eyes.

Their boy cooed in the car seat behind Jonah as Julia fed him with her left hand. Their girl slept, head bobbing gently in the seat to Julia’s right.

“Julia, c’mon. You can’t be serious.”

“You haven’t been there for us. You haven’t been there for me and it's embarrassing that your mom had to call you out on it. You think you're a man?”

Jonah’s breaths were heavy between the thump thump and squeal of the windshield wipers. The lights were stagnant then, when the engine ticked strangely and he had the taste of iron in his mouth.

The words he had said a few moments before echoed in his head, “Julia, I was doing it for you and the kids.”

“The kids needed you home. I nee—” Julia’s voice cracked, “I needed you.” Her voice slipped into a soft whine of desperation, “We can get by with your parents' help. It’s ok to ask for help.”

“Why do we need their help? We can do this on our own. I can do this for us,” growled Jonah. His rage was building but he didn’t dare raise his voice and wake the children. “I can do this,” he repeated, staring at Julia.

Julia couldn’t fight the frown. She wiped away a tear and said, “Maybe you can. But I can’t. Not anymore, I already told your mother I’ll be comi—”

Thump.

Thump.

The street lights and water filled the splintered windshield glass like streams of gold. The Red and blue lights flashing wildly against the concrete median came and went in Jonah’s sight. Julia hung limp in her seat. Her body was tethered down by the seatbelt; her hands suspended above her head. It was dark even with all the lights and it wasn’t until there came the glare of a flashlight and Jonah noticed the blood streaming from the gash in Julia’s face that he really noticed the taste of iron in his mouth.

All sounds were muffled. When he looked at the glaring light the moment just vanished.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Jonah shivered. The pain was unbearable but the cold still racked his body. He shook awake and was blinded by the overhead light.

“Easy. Easy,” came a familiar voice.

His mother’s voice brought tears to Jonah’s eyes. Eyes still sensitive to the light. His mother’s silhouette shifted beside him. Then, he felt her touch and though there was warmth against the chill, he shook. Jonah realized he was in the hospital and now it was the pain that racked his body.

Jonah wheezed, “Julia? Julia? Mom.” His voice cracked. “Grayson? Tory? What happened?”

Jonah’s mother hugged him, “You were in an accident son.”

“Mom,” Jonah wheezed again as he spoke and struggled to free himself from her embrace. “What room are they in? Are they ok?”

His mother spoke softly as she separated from him and said, “Jonah, you need to rest.”

“I need to see my wife and kids! Tell them to come in.” Jonah searched the bedside table for his phone. Then he searched the bed. His arms were riddled with sutures and streaks of black coagulated blood. “I’ll call Julia. Pass me my phone,” he said wanting to raise his hand in his inquiry but the pain was unbearable.

His mother covered her mouth and shook her head as she cried.

“Mom?” Her silence bothered Jonah. The wounds of his ego after the way his family turned on him that weekend were still fresh. At that moment, it was fresher still than the wounds of the accident. The idea that his mother was still treating him like he wasn’t man enough to care for his family enraged him. “Will you stop treating me like a boy? I’m thirty years old. I have a family. I don’t need to be coddled.”

His mother gasped and reached out a hand that Jonah swatted away. “Oh, no son. You don’t understand.”

Jonah winced at his mother’s reaction. It wasn’t uncommon for his mother to turn the tables on him and make him feel like the scum of the earth for having any sort of feelings whatsoever. For the first time however, that wouldn’t come. She was speechless and remorse blanketed her face. Jonah finally came to the realization that something was very wrong. He fought the frown that his lips wanted to take. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

His mother inhaled slowly and struggled to answer, “The paramedics tried their best, but you were the only one who made it to the hospital alive.”

Jonah stared at his mother in disbelief. The weight of the news made him sink further into the bed sheets. “No, no no no.” He struggled to conjure the sound of Julia’s voice from his memories of her.

“Your mom was right, you know?” Julie had said. “I already told your mother I’ll be comi—” were her last words. The streetlights expanding across her face in the rearview mirror and the glimmer of her tears was the last image he held of her. His daughter’s bobbing head and his son’s coo were the last memories he had of his children.

Everyone was right. His mother was right. Why had he insisted on spending so much time away from home in search of money. In search of greatness. Little did he know that the seconds were ticking away and every moment he spent away from his family was one less minute he would have memories of.

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Politicians will continue to make themselves look foolish for many years. Eventually they will learn to accept the fact that bitcoin and bitcoiners aren't going away. If you are on the fence, the time to join the winning team is now.