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Once again here are the fruits of the Spirit as defined in Galatians 5.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23) {emphasis mine}

Patient Like Jesus

First of all, when we think about patience, we should remember that God (Jesus) is patient with us.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) {emphasis mine}

If we are becoming more and more like Jesus, we also should be patient with others just like Jesus is. Instead of being mad at people who do not yet believe and are therefore hateful towards us, we should be patient and loving “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

This is not easy to do when someone is cursing us, accusing us of being hateful, or calling us unscientific fools, but this is what Jesus experienced when He lived a human life. He was accused of being misled and misleading. He was accused of being mad and being a fool. He was threatened, beaten, and killed. Should we expect any less? Should we take greater offense than the creator, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?

Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (John 15:20)

We should deal with these offenses with the patience given to us by the Holy Spirit, so we can be like Jesus, so we can say like Paul,

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Patience in Persecution

He warned us that persecution and hard times would be coming.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)(ESV) {emphasis mine}

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. (Colossians 1:9-12) {emphasis mine}

If you notice, the fruits of the Spirit are frequently linked together because we will have all of them and one will help grow another. When we love a person or have joy in life, we will be better at being patient with others. I also noticed while I was studying that steadfastness (endurance) was frequently associated with patience.

When we are put in a difficult situation our patience, knowing that “… God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose,” (Romans 8:28) leads to steadfastness and endurance. Knowing God is in control allows us to patiently wait when evil seems to be winning and those doing evil seem to get away with their crimes. This patience allows us to continue doing good without expecting an immediate reward. It helps us to keep doing right against all odds.

Waiting while our Heart Cries “How Long?”

As it is written:

Wait for the Lord ; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31)

There are cries, “How long?” throughout the Old and New Testaments. We are limited by time. We get impatient. We are unable to understand God’s timing. He is all powerful and outside of time and space. God plays the long game. When we understand this, we can have patience and not think, ask, or say, “How long? Why? That’s not fair!” We can trust that God will do what is right and that although we don’t see the whole picture, He does.

In Revelation, we see the last cry of “How Long?” from those who were persecuted and martyred during the Tribulation.

and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10)

And what was God’s response?

… they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also. (Revelation 6:11b) {emphasis mine}

God’s righteous plan must be fulfilled in every detail. We are to trust and obey Him and then be patient and “rest for a little while longer.”

Patient With …

When we have the fruit of the Spirit, patience, we gain patience with multiple people, things, and situations.

We are patient with people. “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14)

We are patient with God. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

We are patient when things we care about are slow coming about. “Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength... “ (Isaiah 40:31a)

We are patient when persecuted. “and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure.” (1 Corinthians 4:12)

When we have peace, we are more able to be patient. When we have patience we are more able to endure. One fruit leads to another which leads to another allowing us to faithfully serve God. We are given these fruits to mark us as belonging to Him and to enable us for the works for which we were created to do.

Patience vs Eagerly Waiting

There are also multiple places in the Bible that talk about us eagerly waiting. Can we be both patient and eagerly waiting? Are they opposites and in contradiction or are they two sides of the same coin?

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; (Philippians 3:20)

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)

so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. (Hebrews 9:28)

For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. (Galatians 5:5)

Obviously God would not tell us to “Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord .” (Psalm 27.14) and give us the gift of patience while telling us to “eagerly wait” if they were mutually exclusive.

There are multiple principles spoken of in the Bible that seem to be contradictions, but are not. We can be eagerly awaiting Jesus’s return while patiently (accepting without complaint) living faithfully despite what is going on around us. The fruit of the Spirit form of patience is a peaceful waiting because we know that our God is in control and everything will happen according to His will, in His timing, and for our good.

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

Trust Jesus.

Read the whole series on the Fruits of the Spirit

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The new Great Library

We have all heard tales of Amazon or other booksellers banning customers from their bookstores or censoring/editing purchased books. The famous Project Gutenberg, and similar organizations, are performing a good work, to help protect many of our precious books from this fate, but it is merely a centralized website and therefore not censorship resistant. Also, it mostly posts books in English or German.

So, we at nostr:npub1s3ht77dq4zqnya8vjun5jp3p44pr794ru36d0ltxu65chljw8xjqd975wz have decided to move Project Gutenberg to Nostr and house it in the most distributed way possible: on relays. Specifically, our new, public Citadel relay for out-of-print books (and other documents), but also on any relay, anywhere.

And, because we are a very humble group, we're naming the effort "Alexandria". And the first book to be printed on Nostr is the Bible because obviously.

Why on relays?

Well, why not on relays? Relays are one of the few widely-distributed databases for documentation in existence. The relay database spans the entire globe and anyone can maintain their own relay on their personal computer or mobile phone.

That means that anyone can house their own books. Which books are their own? Any books they have in their own possession. Any books someone would have to physically pry out of their cold, dead, computer.

Notes are perfect for publishing

Once we begin generating eBooks from notes with an associated header (which will be quite easy to do, so long as they are written in markdown or similar), they will also be readable, downloadable, and storable in ePub format (see Pandoc). And it is, after all, only a matter of time until someone enterprising makes an ePaper Nostr client for calmer reading of notes, and then you can download and read them, without having to bother converting beforehand, which maintains their Nostr-navigation.

The new event kind 30040 allows us to take any sort of note containing any sort of characters and create a type of "note collection" or "book of notes", "journal of notes", "magazine of notes". And it can be nested or embedded in other notes, creating any sort of note-combination and note-hierarchy you can think of, only limited in size by the ability of your computer to processes the relationships.

Save the Zettels

The associated kind 30041 adds the prospect of breaking longer texts or articles up into sections or snippets (called "Zettel" in German). We can then collect or refer to particular bits of a longer text (like a chart, elegant paragraph or definition, data table), directly. Anyone can create such snippets, even of texts they didn't write, as they can add a reference to the original publication in the tags of the new event.

This means we no longer have to "copy-paste" or quote other people's works, we can simply tie them in. If we worry about them being deleted, we can fork them to create our own, digitally-linked version, and then tie that in. This means that source material can be tied to the new material, and you can trace back to the source easily (using Nostr IDs and tags, which are signed identifiers) and see who else is branching out from that source or discussing that source.

It's gonna be HUGE!

We are making a big, beautiful library... and you are going to build it for us. Anyone, anywhere can therefore publish or republish any document they wish, with Nostr, and store it wherever they have a relay, and view it on any client willing to display it.

You will own something and be happy.

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Get On Nostr To Get Sats

This is not another orange pill. There are no more orange pill books to be written. Like Satoshi said, "If you don't believe me or don't get it, I'm sorry, bur I don't have time to convince you."

This is not about reading charts or looking for dildos that would make a great pattern for an ugly Christmas sweater. I offer no price predictions because in 150 years, your great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren will read about the fractional reserve fiat ponzi scheme in history books written by large language models. Meanwhile, fiat is an endangered species. I understand most people come to bitcoin for the fiat gains. I suspect my blog would be more popular if I wrote things like bitcoin will reach $1,000,000 in 48-72 hours according to my scribbles transcribed over a price chart. Sorry, I can't tell you what the fiat price of bitcoin will be within 72 hours or 72 years. I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know how to measure the scarcest asset in the world against this:

This is a guide designed to teach you how to use bitcoin as peer to peer electronic cash and store your wealth for seven generations. I would like to turn it into a book and sell more books than the woman who wrote Harry Potter, but I also think it is important to keep this information free for anyone who cannot afford it. The amount of money printing is making me more and more concerned about fiscal stability of the global financial system. This is not financial advice. It is a life jacket. Think of it as a seat cushion in an airplane. I hope you never need this flotation device, but I want it available, just in case. I hope our great senile leaders can fix this, but I wouldn't hold my breath, so I want to teach people how to use bitcoin before it's too late. But first, let's pop the purple pill..=

In the first chapter, I showed you the secret message Satoshi left in the genesis block, "Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks." In the second chapter, I wrote about why the Cypherpunks wanted private, electronic cash in the first place. The purpose of this chapter is to teach you how to use a custodial bitcoin wallet on a corner of the Internet where people use bitcoin for electronic payments. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that does not require a corporation or government. Nostr is The Internet without any corporations or government required to operate. If you sell stuff on Amazon, you must pay fees to Amazon. Therefore, Amazon is your master. If you sell stuff on a nostr powered marketplace like Shopstr, you have no master.

Covid taught us the collective tend towards authoritarianism during times of crisis(perceived or otherwise). The Twitter Files taught us there is a partnership with legacy social media and agents of the United States Government. If a legacy social media company in the United States is not controlled by a U.S. corporation, expect them to ban it unless it can be sold to an US corporation. If the government trending towards a "closed society" cuts off your bank account for protesting forced vaccinations, these communication networks become important. Nostr makes sending payments to bitcioners as easy as Venmo without any government imposed red tape.

The Social Bitcoin Payment Layer

Nostr has become the de-facto, social bitcoin payment layer. Most people still think of it as a boring alternative to addictive social media like Twitter, but it is much more than this. This guide is published on habla.news a website that allows anyone with an npub to publish long-form content. People can send me sats for this content and I can send sats to content creators and developers.

Nostr has a marketplace similar to what you might find on Zuck's face tracking book. It has YouTube like video and twitter spaces like audio. To use these tools, you will first need to create a public/private key pair. Your public key, npub, can be shared with anyone. Your private key, nsec, must remain a secret. If your nsec is compromised, your identity is compromised and we can no longer trust your notes are from you. That would suck, but it's good practice for storing bitcoin keys. If your identity gets compromised, you could spin up a new one. If you lose the keys to your life savings, it won't be so easy to get it back.

Current, A KYC Free Custodial Bitcoin Social Wallet

Current Tutorial

Nostr is a decentralized communications protocol that stands for notes and other stuff transmitted by relay

• Available on Google Play and The App Store.

• Available in the jurisdiction with the most draconian anti-privacy laws.

• Uses a 12 word backup

• Gives you a nostr key pair.that can be used with all nostr services.

• Includes a free custodial lightning address.

Keep in mind that this is a custodial wallet so not your keys not your bitcoin applies. This is a beginner wallet that allows anyone on the nostr network to send you sats, but you don't want to use this for your life savings. The wallet also has cutting edge features like data vending machines that allow you to pay for AI generated images and chats. You can even use AI to turn text to voice, but we will not cover these advanced features in this guide.

To get started, download the App at https://app.getcurrent.io

Current has an excellent Guide here.

Video Tutorial

nostr:naddr1qqrkcn28fdn5j5qzyp6m7g6nrt5lnrrzn9d6quv3ujyw44r4jafhr43a0h75d00ph75f2qcyqqqgtwcefdcdw

₿logging ₿itcoin 848,231 debtclock 🧡 Support this blog by using the ⚡Value 4 Value model)⚡ 📧Subscribe on Substack 🍐Join my Keet Room If You Prefer To Learn About New Blogs With No Email Signup 📻 Stream sats on Fountain 🎉Send a Boostagram 🛒Shop The Elliptic Curve Economy

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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.

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Músicas grudentas e conversas

Uma vez que você ouviu uma música grudenta e ela volta, inteira, com toda a melodia e a harmonia, muitos dias depois, contra a sua vontade. Mas uma conversa é impossível de lembrar. Por quê?

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The Law Giver

In my previous article, I briefly went into the topic of how contract law is holy law.

The Father of the Christians, you see, is a God of Covenants, and He sent His Son to Earth to fulfill the Law and pay a Price for our salvation. The Father also created the Natural Order to confirm His Laws through our observation of that Law in action.

That is why Christians have a deep respect for honest contracts, true prices, fair measures, natural systems, and good laws. Not merely for their own sake, but also because understanding them helps us to understand and emulate the Law Giver.

The tired What would Jesus do? meme is actually an attempt to capture this emulation of the Highest Judge. Jesus knows the Law, since His Father defined it and He is One with the Father, so how would He apply the Law best, in this situation?

The Last Things

Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.”

Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

-- 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 New Testament, RSV Bible

One of the things most devout Christians frequently ruminate over, is when Christ will return.

Every day, we ponder. We go for a walk, and ponder. We cook dinner, and ponder.

At the same time, we are called upon to live each day in a productive manner, and to not simply lie around, vegetating, and staring at the heavens. Not only for our own sake, but also because to do so would be to limit our ability to inform others about the Good News, so that they can take to pondering with us. We are called to ponder with as many people as we can produce, adopt, convert, or simply collect through our daily interactions.

This means that we are not of the world (as our eyes are watching God and baptism has made us Immortals), but we are definitely in the world (involved in, and effected by, the everyday dealings around us.) It is a very difficult balancing act to know when we are paying too much attention to the one or the other, or to know where to store up our treasures, if we can't put them all immediately into the Final Treasury.

So, we worked today and earned a bit of fiat cash and we have no immediate usage for it. What to do with it?

Well, some of it should go to charity or be invested in a business that provides important goods, services, and employment. Some of it will be needed to simply cover the day-to-day costs of our own life, or that of those dependent upon us. But it might be prudent to store up some of it, for the mysterious length of time between receipt of the monies and our own ascent into Heaven.

Typically, that store was the local currency, but that's being inflated away at an alarming rate. Then we all began to move to precious metals, and many of us still do, but they are so difficult to spend and can't be broken into small bits or transported over wide distances at low cost.

Enter Bitcoin.

The Great Ledger

In our frustration, more and more Christians are turning to a new technology, to save up some treasure in a liquid asset, for the mid-term. And, once we begin using it, and begin to understand how it works, we quickly grow fond of it.

Bitcoin is a beautiful money because it is a money based upon keeping precise accounts, using a fair measure, and obeying the Laws of Nature.

In essence, Bitcoin is a debt note emitted by a universal debtor (the network) in exchange for some good or service. This frees the individual people using it from ever needing to carry debt, as the debt stays in the network, the value and enforceability of that debt note is protected by the effort used to create and maintain the network, and the eagerness with which other people wish to store their efforts up in that same network. The debt still exists, but it can be so thinly and widely spread that it no longer rests as a burden upon one particular person.

The debt, in other words, has been disassociated from humans and the management has been distributed to machines. This is the precise opposite process of a "fiat" (by decree) currency, which only has value so long as it is associated with some particularly solvent group of humans (who personally vouch for repayment of any debts denominated in the currency), and where management is centralized to some other group of humans.

Have you accepted Bitcoin as your personal money and store of value?

You have invested $10 to buy the electricity to mine Bitcoin? Then you receive $10 of Bitcoin in return. The Bitcoin network now owes you the $10 purchasing power equivalent of that electricity.

If someone then gives you $5 worth of pizza, then you can then give them a $5 portion of your $10 worth of Bitcoin. You have taken a part of your Bitcoin debt note and shared it with them.

They now hold $5 worth of Bitcoin invested in the network and can spend it on some other good or service. Or they can simply hold it and wait for it to rise in value, as more people "mine" more of it (and produce more notes, paradoxically making the existing notes more useful and therefore valuable) and more people try to gain the notes in order to manage their own finances by storing their energy in the network or transporting their energy using the network.

Bitcoin, in other words, is an accounting book that needs no accountant because it stores, tracks, and controls the ledger on its own. It is a Natural Ledger that runs according to the Laws.

It is the only human-made ledger that allows for true and immediate Final Settlement. This Final Settlement is what allows people to trade using the convenience of digital debt notes, with neither person occurring or even risking any personal debt. We Christians know that all debt is a burden, including monetary debts, which is why we are called to forgive each other's debt and to hope that our own debts are forgiven. Better still, is to avoid the accumulation of debts, altogether.

So, Final Settlement? Final Settlement is what Jesus would do.

@ 6c8c7979:15595f3e

The bold painter who scorns form... What's the story behind Cubism?

The French painter Georges Braque

When we think of "Cubism," Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque immediately come to mind, two artists who skillfully employed geometric shapes as the basis for their artworks. How did the fabric of this modern trend, rooted in the early twentieth century, come to be?

It all began when art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term "Cubism" after seeing a painting by the French painter Georges Braque titled "Houses at L'Estaque."

The term was coined after Vauxcelles observed that the artwork consisted of small cubes characterized by simplified form and dismantled perspective. He described Braque as a bold man who despises form, saying of him, "Let him reduce everything, places and characters, to geometric diagrams, to cubes."

Cubism evolved from 1907, distinguished by its fragmentation of traditional forms. Cubist artists disliked realistic representation and rejected linear perspective, which approximates the flat depiction of a three-dimensional scene in a two-dimensional space, much like paper.

Fed up with anything related to realistic art, Cubists dismantled objects into basic geometric forms like cubes, spheres, and cylinders, reassembling them in compositions far removed from reality.

Cubes and geometric shapes dominated every corner of art culture, but the glory of this era was short-lived; in 1914, Europe descended into its darkest hours, heralding the demise of this artistic direction.

The Cubist movement was affected by the war, with French painters summoned to join the ranks of soldiers. French painter Fernand Léger enlisted in the armed forces, continuing to paint from within the trenches despite the war taking him away from his canvases.

Andre Mare immortalized the living conditions of soldiers through watercolor drawings and colors. Albert Gleizes painted military doctors in geometric shapes.

During the conflict from 1914 to 1918, artists, like the majority of intellectuals and cultural figures, produced somewhat "national" works. However, given the brutality and prolonged duration of the conflict, which led to severe disillusionment, some painters attempted to represent the reality they saw by modifying their artistic styles. It was inevitable for modern warfare to appear in a modern way, accurately depicting the horrors of battle and injecting more realism into their artworks, as if geometric shapes no longer served the purpose of conveying the image!

The harshness of life during World War I & II through the eyes of Cubist art.

The painting "Soldier Playing Chess" by Metzinger, 1914.

The painting "Guernica" by Picasso as a protest against the German bombing of Spain.

The painting "Military Doctor" by Albert Gleizes

The Crashed Airplane (1916-1917).

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Yesterday's edition https://stacker.news/items/602257/r/Undisciplined

We had been doing a good job keeping @k00b off the leaderboards, but for the second day in a row he's taking all of the Top Stacker spots. For posterity's sake, don't let him win a fourth July 10th in a row.

• • -

July 10, 2023 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

What’s the Hardest lesson you’ve learned from Bitcoin?

Excerpt

For me, staying humble while stacking sats.

We don’t have it all figured out. 2107 sats \ 22 comments \ @birdeye21 \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/206793/r/Undisciplined?commentId=206809

25.3k sats \ 0 replies \ @Darth

From Meme Monday - Best Bitcoin Meme Gets 25,000 Sats by @sn in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

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

8282 stacked \ 8933 spent \ 2 posts \ 11 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

38.7k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 48.6k spent \ 102 posts \ 286 comments

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

July 10, 2022 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

🔥 Presenting LNCal.com ⚡️ - Earn Bitcoin with your public calendar! (LNURL enabled)

Link to https://lncal.com/

2221 sats \ 36 comments \ @e \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/43271/r/Undisciplined?commentId=43283

Excerpt

1. Begin learning the protocols quite well. I recommend Chaincode ... If you don't like classes/accountability/mentorship, you can self-teach using their materials: https://chaincode.gitbook.io/seminars/.

939 sats \ 6 replies \ @k00b

From Ask SN: how to contribute to Bitcoin core, or layers 2 and beyond? by @a in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

18.3k stacked \ 6570 spent \ 1 post \ 29 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

10.4k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 13.6k spent \ 59 posts \ 181 comments

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

July 10, 2021 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

[For the lols] Why you should be terrified of owning Bitcoin

Link to https://fortune.com/2021/07/10/bitcoin-why-you-should-be-terrified-of-owning-btc/

4 sats \ 6 comments \ @shawnyeager \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/247/r/Undisciplined?commentId=263

Excerpt

Kind of regretting settling in Austin 😂. South America will soon be the place to be.

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b

From Paraguay set to introduce Bitcoin bill on July 14th by @gmd in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

10 stacked \ 26 spent \ 3 posts \ 7 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

32 stacked \ 0 revenue \ 55 spent \ 4 posts \ 13 comments

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/603455

@ ee2f41fa:23552fbb

Chef's notes

Perfect for the summer days

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 5-10min
• 🍳 Cook time: no cooking time
• 🍽️ Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cucumbers (about 500 g or 1 lb)
• 500 g plain yogurt (1 lb)
• 2 -3 tablespoons of crushed walnuts (optional)
• 1 bunch fresh dill
• oil
• salt
• water (optional)

Directions

1. Beat the yogurt with a fork until it gets liquid and pour it over the cucumbers.
2. Add the crushed garlic, the walnuts and the minced dill as well as salt and oil to taste.
3. If needed add some water to make the soup as liquid as you like but take care not to make it too "thin".
4. Put into the refrigerator to cool or add ice cubes.
5. Serve cold

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

Há exatamente 50 anos houve uma revolução em Portugal, que derrubou a ditadura, foi o mais longo regime autoritário na Europa Ocidental durante o século XX, foram 48 anos.

Por esse motivo, hoje, dia 25 de Abril, comemora-se o Dia da Liberdade.

A revolução trouxe-nos muitas formas de liberdade:

• liberdade circulação
• liberdade de voto
• liberdade de pensamento
• liberdade de expressão
• liberdade de imprensa
• liberdade religiosa

A ditadura terminou há 50 anos, mas hoje eu sinto que sou menos livre que há 20 anos. Cada vez mais, vivemos numa sociedade mais intolerante a um pensamento diferente do seu. Foram movimentos de esquerda que mais lutaram pela liberdade no período da ditadura, mas agora, uma esquerda radical quer impor as “suas liberdades” e os “seus pensamentos”, restringindo as liberdades e pensamentos de outros.

Uma coisa é acreditar que comer cenoura faz bem aos olhos, ou coisa é querer obrigar todas as pessoas a comerem cenoura. Na minha concepção de Liberdade, quem quiser come cenoura, quem não quer não come, simplesmente isto.

A partir do momento que começamos a restringir o pensamento de outro, onde está a liberdade de pensamento. Quanto temos que pensar duas ou três vezes, antes de dizer publicamente ou publicar algo online – com medo das repercussões – é porque não somos livres. A partir do momento onde existe medo, logo não existe liberdade de pensamento e de expressão.

A plenitude da Liberdade não significa que podemos fazer tudo, é claro que existem algumas restrições, desde que não invada/impeça a liberdade de outro.

Eu sou um forte defensor da máxima, a nossa liberdade termina quando começa a liberdade do outro, é pura verdade.

A sociedade está cada vez mais intolerante a opiniões contrárias à sua, as pessoas não querem ser livres, querem impor o seu pensamento. Não querem diversidade de pensamento, querem pensamento único. Não é possível uma democracia com um pensamento único. 

No passado a censura era feita por policiais, agora é por grupo organizado ideologicamente, atrás de um teclado ou através da pressão pública/mediática, a política do cancelamento.

Eu não consigo compreender, o que aconteceu nos últimos 20 anos, que provocou uma mudança tão drástica na sociedade,  onde houve um retrocesso na liberdade. Chegámos ao cúmulo de suspender a liberdade de circulação ou bloquear contas bancárias apenas por discordância de opinião. Ou colocar em causa a propriedade privada.

Liberdade não é anarquia, não é fazer o que vai na real gana, mas sim respeitar o próximo e respeitar a si próprio. Fazer aos outros, o que queremos que façam a nós. Em suma, respeito e responsabilidade.

Outro ponto sensível da actualidade é as fakenews, em nome de acabar com

as fakenews, os países estão a criar leis que restringem a liberdade de expressão. Organismos estatais, políticos em cargos estatais e jornalistas têm a obrigação de dizer a verdade, não podem fazer fakenews. 

Mas um cidadão individual, sem cargos políticos, não poderá ter a liberdade de mentir?

Na opinião tem a liberdade de mentir, também tem a liberdade de ofender alguém, mas terá que arcar com as consequências legais desse ato, em tribunal claro. Não faz qualquer sentido,  bloquear preventivamente alguém nas redes sociais, isto limita, impede o direito à liberdade de expressão.

Quantos copérnicos são cancelados nas redes sociais?

O julgar da verdade ou mentira é sempre limitada aos dados existentes, esses dados podem mudar ao longo do tempo. Como dizia o mítico Pimenta Machado, “o que hoje é verdade amanhã é mentira”. 

Isto leva-nos a outro problema, terá que existir alguém, um juiz que decida o que viola ou não a lei, verdade ou mentira. Só um juiz pode ter o poder de decidir, nunca um político ou um qualquer funcionário de uma bigtech. Mesmo os juízes têm as suas limitações, porque limitam-se a cumprir a lei, lei feita pelos próprios estados. Um estado em caso de discordância com algum tribunal, basta mudar a lei, o estado tem um poder absoluto.

A incitação ao ódio e as Fakenews, são algo tão abrangente e ao mesmo tempo abstrato, onde é possível fazer infinitas interpretações. Os governos aproveitam desse abstracionismo para limitar as liberdades dos seus cidadãos.

Liberdade monetária

A revolução trouxe-nos muitas liberdades, mas a liberdade fundamental ainda não conseguimos adquirir, a Liberdade monetária/financeira, sem esta, as restantes liberdade não poderão ser exercidas na sua plenitude. Necessitamos de uma sociedade que incentive a liberdade de pensamento, um pensamento crítico.

Tem que existir uma separação real da política monetária, do poder político. Será tão ou mais importante para a humanidade, como foi a separação da religião, do poder político.

Passados 50 anos, em termos gerais, o nível de ensino melhorou em Portugal, mas em termos de literacia financeira, pouco melhoramos. Existindo partidos políticos que são abertamente contra a educação financeira nas escolas, segundo eles, o conhecimento pode levar as pessoas a fazer escolhas erradas. Curiosamente, o antigo regime tinha uma política similar. Porque um povo inculto é mais obediente, submisso e menos pensante, mais ignorante.

Curiosamente, esse partido apoia um grupo extremista, de criminosos, que destrói património, ataca pessoas, roça o terrorismo, tudo com o pretexto da causa ambiental. Todos temos a liberdade e direito de protestar, desde que não invada no direitos de outros, desde que não destrua património de outros, desde que não agrida outros e que não impeça que outros trabalhem. O partido apenas apoia na surdina, porque nem tem coragem para o admitir publicamente que o apoia.

Se algo é a representação clara do que é liberdade é o Bitcoin. É a liberdade pura. Mas isso não significa que todos os bitcoiners defendam a liberdade plena, como em todo o lado existem os radicais.

Se nós queremos ter a liberdade de utilizar o bitcoin, também temos que aceitar com naturalidade, as pessoas que não querem ter, não podemos ofender por terem uma opinião diferente da nossa. Se nós somos contra o uso forçado da moeda FIAT, não podemos ser a favor do uso forçado do bitcoin, é uma incongruência. Temos que ser a favor da liberdade monetária, os cidadãos devem ter a liberdade de escolher a moeda que querem transacionar. Se as duas partes concordam em fazer uma transação numa respectiva moeda, qualquer que seja a moeda, não devem existir restrições legais que o impeçam.

Até entre nós bitcoiners mais puristas temos que exigir, a nós próprios, mais liberdade, aceitar pensamentos e visões diferentes, isso é liberdade, não existem verdades absolutas, não existe uma visão única sobre o Bitcoin. Liberdade é isso, cada um faz e usa como quer. Não existem uns superiores aos outros, somos todos bitcoiners.

A rejeição ao FIAT e ter 100% exposto a bitcoin não deve ser uma obrigação, mas sim um caminho longo que pode ser percorrido à velocidade de cada cidadão, ao  seu próprio ritmo. 

Não devemos ser tão críticos ou ofender uma pessoa por utilizar a Liquid (ou Cashu), se utiliza a Liquid é porque a sua condição financeira não permite utilizar a Layer 1, mas quer estar exposto a bitcoin. É verdade que Liquid não é exatamente igual a Bitcoin, mas é substancialmente superior a quaisquer outras cripto ou shitcoin. 

Será que temos o direito de criticar um cubano por este utilizar Liquid, ele não tem condições financeiras para fazer transações na L1, 10$ de taxa, é o salário semanal dele. Claro que não devemos criticar ou chamá-lo de shitcoiner por este utilizar Liquid.

Hoje em dia, já milhões de pessoas estão impedidas de utilizar a L1, onde a sua única alternativa é utilizar Lightning Network custodial ou Liquid. Neste cenário, eu considero a Liquid muito mais segura. 

Hoje são os mais pobres de estão impedidas de utilizar a L1, mas num futuro próximo, sermos nós a ter estas dificuldades, possivelmente faremos 1 ou 2 transações por ano na l1, enviaremos os fundos para uma layer 2 (como a Liquid) e a partir desta vamos fazer os pagamentos do dia-a-dia. Esta situação é inevitável.

Também não devemos criticar quem não faz auto-custódia, no máximo devemos aconselhar, explicar qual é a melhor solução. Mas a decisão final é do indivíduo, que deve ter a liberdade de escolher a custódia que mais se adequa ao seu perfil. Nós só nos resta respeitar essa decisão. A auto-custódio é um assunto bastante sensível, para nós mais puristas a auto-custódia é essencial, mas nós somos uma minoria muito pequena, a maioria da população não quer ou não tem conhecimentos para ser soberano. Com o tempo, possivelmente algumas destas pessoas vão aprender a fazer a auto-custódia, mas a maioria nunca o fará. Estas pessoas têm todo o direito de ter bitcoin, e nós mais experientes devemos aconselhar quais os melhores serviços, é preferível um sistema com um custódia partilhada (tipo Bitkey) do que utilizar exchange. O que é inaceitável, é as pessoas quererem ter bitcoin mas só não o tem porque tem medo de fazer a auto-custódia, é mil vezes preferível utilizar um sistema de custódia partilhada do que ter zero bitcoin.

Como digo em cima, as pessoas têm a liberdade de criticar ou de ofender, mas depois terão que sofrer as consequências dos seus atos, que neste caso, que devido à agressividade nos comentários vão afastar os novatos, atrasando a adoção do Bitcoin. 

Todos somos bitcoiners, apenas temos visões e utilização diferente.

Hoje é 25, mas ontem na véspera da celebração da Liberdade, a Política Judiciária deteve um programador informático, acatando ordem de extradição dos EUA. Que país é este, que liberdade é esta, que prende alguém que apenas escreveu algumas linhas de código.

Na minha opinião, o auge da liberdade foi por volta dos anos 2000, de lá pra cá tem existido uma gradual deterioração das liberdade e dos direitos. Se nada for feito, qualquer dia será tarde demais… quando começamos a ceder liberdades em prol de segurança, vamos acabar por perder a segurança e a liberdade.

Falta ainda cumprir Abril!

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

NOTE: this is just a quick technical guide. sorry for the lack of details

Install NodeJS

Download it from the official website https://nodejs.org/en/download

Or use nvm https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm?tab=readme-ov-file#install--update-script

bash wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash nvm install 20

Clone example config.yml

bash wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hzrd149/blossom-server/master/config.example.yml -O config.yml

Modify config.yml

```bash nano config.yml

or if your that type of person

vim config.yml ```

Run blossom-server

```bash npx blossom-server-ts

or install it locally and run using npm

npm install blossom-server-ts ./node_modules/.bin/blossom-server-ts ```

Now you can open http://localhost:3000 and see your blossom server

And if you set the dashboard.enabled option in the config.yml you can open http://localhost:3000/admin to see the admin dashboard

@ 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

@ 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

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Bluesky is a scam

Bluesky advertises itself as an open network, they say people won't lose followers or their identity, they advertise themselves as a protocol ("atproto") and because of that they are tricking a lot of people into using them. These three claims are false.

protocolness

Bluesky is a company. "atproto" is the protocol. Supposedly they are two different things, right? Bluesky just releases software that implements the protocol, but others can also do that, it's open!

And yet, the protocol has an official webpage with a waitlist and a private beta? Why is the protocol advertised as a company product? Because it is. The "protocol" is just a description of whatever the Bluesky app and servers do, it can and does change anytime the Bluesky developers decide they want to change it, and it will keep changing for as long as Bluesky apps and servers control the biggest part of the network.

Oh, so there is the possibility of other players stepping in and then it becomes an actual interoperable open protocol? Yes, but what is the likelihood of that happening? It is very low. No serious competitor is likely to step in and build serious apps using a protocol that is directly controlled by Bluesky. All we will ever see are small "community" apps made by users and small satellite small businesses -- not unlike the people and companies that write plugins, addons and alternative clients for popular third-party centralized platforms.

And last, even if it happens that someone makes an app so good that it displaces the canonical official Bluesky app, then that company may overtake the protocol itself -- not because they're evil, but because there is no way it cannot be like this.

identity

According to their own documentation, the Bluesky people were looking for an identity system that provided global ids, key rotation and human-readable names.

They must have realized that such properties are not possible in an open and decentralized system, but instead of accepting a tradeoff they decided they wanted all their desired features and threw away the "decentralized" part, quite literally and explicitly (although they make sure to hide that piece in the middle of a bunch of code and text that very few will read).

The "DID Placeholder" method they decided to use for their global identities is nothing more than a normal old boring trusted server controlled by Bluesky that keeps track of who is who and can, at all times, decide to ban a person and deprive them from their identity (they dismissively call a "denial of service attack").

They decided to adopt this method as a placeholder until someone else doesn't invent the impossible alternative that would provide all their desired properties in a decentralized manner -- which is nothing more than a very good excuse: "yes, it's not great now, but it will improve!".

openness

Months after launching their product with an aura of decentralization and openness and getting a bunch of people inside that believed, falsely, they were joining an actually open network, Bluesky has decided to publish a part of their idea of how other people will be able to join their open network.

When I first saw their app and how they were very prominently things like follower counts, like counts and other things that are typical of centralized networks and can't be reliable or exact on truly open networks (like Nostr), I asked myself how were they going to do that once they became and open "federated" network as they were expected to be.

Turns out their decentralization plan is to just allow you, as a writer, to host your own posts on "personal data stores", but not really have any control over the distribution of the posts. All posts go through the Bluesky central server, called BGS, and they decide what to do with it. And you, as a reader, doesn't have any control of what you're reading from either, all you can do is connect to the BGS and ask for posts. If the BGS decides to ban, shadow ban, reorder, miscount, hide, deprioritize, trick or maybe even to serve ads, then you are out of luck.

Oh, but anyone can run their own BGS!, they will say. Even in their own blog post announcing the architecture they assert that "it’s a fairly resource-demanding service" and "there may be a few large full-network providers". But I fail to see why even more than one network provider will exist, if Bluesky is already doing that job, and considering the fact there are very little incentives for anyone to switch providers -- because the app does not seem to be at all made to talk to multiple providers, one would have to stop using the reliable, fast and beefy official BGS and start using some half-baked alternative and risk losing access to things.

When asked about the possibility of switching, one of Bluesky overlords said: "it would look something like this: bluesky has gone evil. there's a new alternative called freesky that people are rushing to. I'm switching to freesky".

The quote is very naïve and sounds like something that could be said about Twitter itself: "if Twitter is evil you can just run your own social network". Both are fallacies because they ignore the network-effect and the fact that people will never fully agree that something is "evil". In fact these two are the fundamental reasons why -- for social networks specifically (and not for other things like commerce) -- we need truly open protocols with no owners and no committees.

@ 5e5fc143:393d5a2c

We are now given a choice of digital freedom #nostr .

Creativity for every nostrich is now unleashed from the cage of bigtech censorship , rules and algo. But freedom comes with responsibility so pick right one(s). I will try share here some learning experience both technical and also from fundamental point of view. Just wanted kick start this article n fill as we go like living reference document.

Nostr itself is an application layer protocol that can used beyond just social media mirco or long blogging. Each nostr client heavily dependent on back-end servers call nostr "Relay servers" or in short "rs" or "relays" Relays can hosted anywhere in clearnet internet, onion net , vpn , i2p , nym Relays are controlled by their respective admins based NIP specs that they select to implement according to own decisions. Relays can have certain ToS (Terms of Service) Rules to adhered too.

New users can choose and pick client or app (ios / android/ windows) with preset of relays in the simplest form , but other advanced users need to do a regular manual relay management.

Relay management is an active regular task based on where when n how you are using.

Relay list are saved within you npub profile backup file which can edited and broadcast anytime.

Relay management is an active regular task based on where when and how you are using.

Relay list always need to be updated time to time as and when needed.

2 Users MUST a common RELAY between them even if one only need to follow another. Occasionally you may notice certain npub accounts you are following already but cannot see frequent notes publish by them – one of cause maybe you not sharing a common relay

Most nostr client applications has SETTINGS where user choose add/remove relays Also user choose which function to enable - READ or WRITE

Relay list for your account is always saved within you npub profile backup file which can edited and broadcast anytime. Hence any app or browser when u login with you npub the same relay list will be enforced. There could valid reasons why u need have list for if you trying to save bandwidth and traveling.

Functions in app.getcurrent.io and primal.net app for mobile apple or android are ideal for user traveling abroad and wanted to save bandwidth since relay management is done the providers in backend and saves hassle for basic usage.

Remember if someone is selecting relay on your behalf then you may not be necessarily able to pull and get some specific and special content that you may need. Such providers like coracle and nostrid also give option to override the default relays they selected.

Relay types: They can be categorized by various features or policy or technologies.

FREE PUBLIC Relays vs PAID PUBLIC Relays

PAID relays provide unrestricted access / write / filtering options than FREE relays but both are public clearnet relays. Just subscribing to PAID relays will not solve all problems unless you choose the relays properly and enable settings correctly.

Private Replay or Tor Relays – normally not easily visible until unless someone tell you. You can also host own private relay not opened to internet of archive and back of your own notes.

The technical landscape in nostr can be fast changing as more NIPs get proposed or updated. Relays admin can choose implement certain NIPs or not based on policy or technical limitations.

Example NIP33 defines “long notes” aka blogs as you now reading this in habla site which #1 UI and site for "Editable" long notes – some relays donot implement or allow this. NIP07 is used for client authentication like nos2x and is implemented by all relays in fact.

To be continued again ... reference pics will added later also Hope this help you understand "why when what" to tune and maintain active set of proper relays. Relay Proxy, Relay aggregator or Relay multiplexer – Paid, Public, Free, Private, Event, Relays That’s all for now n more later ... Thank you 🙏 ! ⚡️ https://getalby.com/p/captjack ⚡️ PV 💜 🤙

References: https://habla.news/relays https://relay.exchange/ https://relays.vercel.app/ https://nostr.info/relays/ https://nostrudel.ninja/#/relays

Related Articles: https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/types-nostr-relays/ nostr:naddr1qqd5c6t8dp6xu6twvukkvctnwss92jfqvehhygzwdaehguszyrtp7w79k045gq80mtnpdxjuzl9t7vjxk52rv80f888y5xsd5mh55qcyqqq823cf39s98 https://habla.news/u/current@getcurrent.io/1694434022411

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Jofer

Jofer era um jogador diferente. À primeira vista não, parecia igual, um volante combativo, perseguia os atacantes adversários implacavelmente, um bom jogador. Mas não era essa a característica que diferenciava Jofer. Jofer era, digamos, um chutador.

Começou numa semifinal de um torneio de juniores. O time de Jofer precisava do empate e estava sofrendo uma baita pressão do adversário, mas o jogo estava 1 a 1 e parecia que ia ficar assim mesmo, daquele jeito futebolístico que parece, parece mesmo. Só que aos 46 do segundo tempo tomaram um gol espírita, Ruizinho do outro time saiu correndo pela esquerda e, mesmo sendo canhoto, foi cortando para o meio, os zagueiros meio que achando que já tinha acabado mesmo, devia ter só mais aquele lance, o árbitro tinha dado dois minutos, Ruizinho chutou, marcou e o goleiro, que só pulou depois que já tinha visto que não ia ter jeito, ficou xingando.

A bola saiu do meio e tocaram para Jofer, ninguém nem veio marcá-lo, o outro time já estava comemorando, e com razão, o juiz estava de sacanagem em fazer o jogo continuar, já estava tudo acabado mesmo. Mas não, estava certo, mais um minuto de acréscimo, justo. Em um minuto dá pra fazer um gol. Mas como? Jofer pensou nas partidas da NBA em que com alguns centésimos de segundo faltando o armador jogava de qualquer jeito para a cesta e às vezes acertava. De trás do meio de campo, será? Não vou ter nem força pra fazer chegar no gol. Vou virar piada, melhor tocar pro Fumaça ali do lado e a gente perde sem essa humilhação no final. Mas, poxa, e daí? Vou tentar mesmo assim, qualquer coisa eu falo que foi um lançamento e daqui a uns dias todo mundo esquece. Olhou para o próprio pé, virou ele de ladinho, pra fora e depois pra dentro (bom, se eu pegar daqui, direitinho, quem sabe?), jogou a bola pro lado e bateu. A bola subiu escandalosamente, muito alta mesmo, deve ter subido uns 200 metros. Jofer não tinha como ter a menor noção. Depois foi descendo, o goleirão voltando correndo para debaixo da trave e olhando pra bola, foi chegando e pulando já só pra acompanhar, para ver, dependurado no travessão, a bola sair ainda bem alta, ela bateu na rede lateral interna antes de bater no chão, quicar violentamente e estufar a rede no alto do lado direito de quem olhava.

Mas isso tudo foi sonho do Jofer. Sonhou acordado, numa noite em que demorou pra dormir, deitado na sua cama. Ficou pensando se não seria fácil, se ele treinasse bastante, acertar o gol bem de longe, tipo no sonho, e se não dava pra fazer gol assim. No dia seguinte perguntou a Brunildinho, o treinador de goleiros. Era difícil defender essas bolas, ainda mais se elas subissem muito, o goleiro ficava sem perspectiva, o vento alterava a trajetória a cada instante, tinha efeito, ela cairia rápido, mas claro que não valia à pena treinar isso, a chance de acertar o gol era minúscula. Mas Jofer só ia tentar depois que treinasse bastante e comprovasse o que na sua imaginação parecia uma excelente idéia.

Começou a treinar todos os dias. Primeiro escondido, por vergonha dos colegas, chegava um pouco antes e ficava lá, chutando do círculo central. Ao menor sinal de gente se aproximando, parava e ia catar as bolas. Depois, quando começou a acertar, perdeu a vergonha. O pessoal do clube todo achava engraçado quando via Jofer treinando e depois ouvia a explicação da boca de alguém, ninguém levava muito a sério, mas também não achava de todo ridículo. O pessoal ria, mas no fundo torcia praquilo dar certo, mesmo.

Aconteceu que num jogo que não valia muita coisa, empatezinho feio, aos 40 do segundo tempo, a marcação dos adversários já não estava mais pressionando, todo mundo contente com o empate e com vontade de parar de jogar já, o Henrique, meia-esquerdo, humilde, mas ainda assim um pouco intimidante para Jofer (jogava demais), tocou pra ele. Vai lá, tenta sua loucura aí. Assumiu a responsabilidade do nosso volante introspectivo. Seria mais verossímil se Jofer tivesse errado, primeira vez que tentou, restava muito tempo ainda pra ele ter a chance de ser herói, ninguém acerta de primeira, mas ele acertou. Quase como no sonho, Lucas, o goleiro, não esperava, depois que viu o lance, riu-se, adiantou-se para pegar a bola que ele julgava que quicaria na área, mas ela foi mais pra frente, mais e mais, daí Lucas já estava correndo, só que começou a pensar que ela ia pra fora, e ele ia só se dependurar no travessão e fazer seu papel de estar na bola. Acabou que por conta daquele gol eles terminaram em segundo no grupo daquele torneiozinho, ao invés de terceiro, e não fez diferença nenhuma.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

O caso da Grêmio TV

enquanto vinha se conduzindo pela plataforma superior daquela arena que se pensava totalmente preenchida por adeptos da famosa equipe do Grêmio de Porto Alegre, viu-se, como por obra de algum nigromante - dos muitos que existem e estão a todo momento a fazer más obras e a colocar-se no caminhos dos que procuram, se não fazer o bem acima de todas as coisas, a pelo menos não fazer o mal no curso da realização dos seus interesses -, o discretíssimo jornalista a ser xingado e moído em palavras por uma horda de malandrinos a cinco ou seis passos dele surgida que cantavam e moviam seus braços em movimentos que não se pode classificar senão como bárbaros, e assim cantavam:

Grêmio TV pior que o SBT !

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Replacing the web with something saner

This is a simplification, but let's say that basically there are just 3 kinds of websites:

1. Websites with content: text, images, videos;
2. Websites that run full apps that do a ton of interactive stuff;
3. Websites with some interactive content that uses JavaScript, or "mini-apps";

In a saner world we would have 3 different ways of serving and using these. 1 would be "the web" (and it was for a while, although I'm not claiming here that the past is always better and wanting to get back to the glorious old days).

1 would stay as "the web", just static sites, styled with CSS, no JavaScript whatsoever, but designers can still thrive and make they look pretty. Or it could also be something like Gemini. Maybe the two protocols could coexist.

2 would be downloadable native apps, much easier to write and maintain for developers (considering that multi-platform and cross-compilation is easy today and getting easier), faster, more polished experience for users, more powerful, integrates better with the computer.

(Remember that since no one would be striving to make the same app run both on browsers and natively no one would have any need for Electron or other inefficient bloated solutions, just pure native UI, like the Telegram app, have you seen that? It's fast.)

But 2 is mostly for apps that people use every day, something like Google Docs, email (although email is also broken technology), Netflix, Twitter, Trello and so on, and all those hundreds of niche SaaS that people pay monthly fees to use, each tailored to a different industry (although most of functions they all implement are the same everywhere). What do we do with dynamic open websites like StackOverflow, for example, where one needs to not only read, but also search and interact in multiple ways? What about that website that asks you a bunch of questions and then discovers the name of the person you're thinking about? What about that mini-app that calculates the hash of your provided content or shrinks your video, or that one that hosts your image without asking any questions?

All these and tons of others would fall into category 3, that of instantly loaded apps that you don't have to install, and yet they run in a sandbox.

The key for making category 3 worth investing time into is coming up with some solid grounds, simple enough that anyone can implement in multiple different ways, but not giving the app too much choices.

Telegram or Discord bots are super powerful platforms that can accomodate most kinds of app in them. They can't beat a native app specifically made with one purpose, but they allow anyone to provide instantly usable apps with very low overhead, and since the experience is so simple, intuitive and fast, users tend to like it and sometimes even pay for their services. There could exist a protocol that brings apps like that to the open world of (I won't say "web") domains and the websockets protocol -- with multiple different clients, each making their own decisions on how to display the content sent by the servers that are powering these apps.

Another idea is that of Alan Kay: to design a nice little OS/virtual machine that can load these apps and run them. Kinda like browsers are today, but providing a more well-thought, native-like experience and framework, but still sandboxed. And I add: abstracting away details about design, content disposition and so on.

---

These 3 kinds of programs could coexist peacefully. 2 are just standalone programs, they can do anything and each will be its own thing. 1 and 3, however, are still similar to browsers of today in the sense that you need clients to interact with servers and show to the user what they are asking. But by simplifying everything and separating the scopes properly these clients would be easy to write, efficient, small, the environment would be open and the internet would be saved.

See also

• On the state of programs and browsers

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

IPFS problems: General confusion

Most IPFS open-source projects, libraries and apps (excluding Ethereum stuff) are things that rely heavily on dynamic data and temporary links. The most common projects you'll see when following the IPFS communities are chat rooms and similar things. I've seen dozens of these chat-rooms. There's also a famous IPFS-powered database. How can you do these things with content-addressing is a mistery. Of course they probably rely on IPNS or other external address system.

There's also a bunch of "file-sharing" on IPFS. The kind of thing people use for temporary making a file available for a third-party. There's image sharing on IPFS, pastebins on IPFS and so on. People don't seem to share the preoccupation with broken links here.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Scala is such a great language

Scala is amazing. The type system has the perfect balance between flexibility and powerfulness. match statements are great. You can write imperative code that looks very nice and expressive (and I haven't tried writing purely functional things yet). Everything is easy to write and cheap and neovim integration works great.

But Java is not great. And the fact that Scala is a JVM language doesn't help because over the years people have written stuff that depends on Java libraries -- and these Java libraries are not as safe as the Scala libraries, they contain reflection, slowness, runtime errors, all kinds of horrors.

Scala is also very tightly associated with Akka, the actor framework, and Akka is a giant collection of anti-patterns. Untyped stuff, reflection, dependency on JVM, basically a lot of javisms. I just arrived and I don't know anything about the Scala history or ecosystem or community, but I have the impression that Akka has prevent more adoption of Scala from decent people that aren't Java programmers.

But luckily there is a solution -- or two solutions: ScalaJS is a great thing that exists. It transpiles Scala code into JavaScript and it runs on NodeJS or in a browser!

Scala Native is a much better deal, though, it compiles to LLVM and then to binary code and you can have single binaries that run directly without a JVM -- not that the single JARs are that bad though, they are great and everybody has Java so I'll take that anytime over C libraries or NPM-distributed software, but direct executables even better. Scala Native just needs a little more love and some libraries and it will be the greatest thing in a couple of years.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Que vença o melhor

Nos esportes e jogos em geral, existe uma constante preocupação em balancear os incentivos e atributos do jogo, as regras do esporte em si e as regras das competições para que o melhor vença, ou, em outras palavras, para que sejam minimizados os outros fatores exceto a habilidade mais pura quanto possível no jogo em questão.

O mundo fora dos jogos, porém, nem sempre pode ter suas regras mudadas por um ente que as controla e está imbuído da vontade e dos meios para escolher as melhores regras possíveis para a obtenção dos resultados acima. Aliás, é muitas vezes essa possibilidade é até impensável. Mesmo quando ela é pensável e levada em conta os fatores que operam no mundo real não são facilmente identificáveis, eles são muitos, e mudam o tempo todo.

Mais do que isso, ao contrário de um jogo em que o objetivo é praticamente o mesmo para todo mundo, os objetivos de cada agente no mundo real são diferentes e incontáveis, e as "competições" que cada um está disputando são diferentes e muitas, cada minúsculo ato de suas vidas compreendendo várias delas simultaneamente.

Da mesma forma, é impossível conceber até mesmo o conceito de "melhor" para que se deseje que ele vença.

Mesmo assim é comum encontrarmos em várias situações gente que parte do princípio de que se Fulano está num certo lugar (por exemplo, um emprego muito bom) e Beltrano não isso se deve ao fato de Fulano ter sido melhor que Beltrano.

Está aí uma crítica à idéia da meritocracia (eu tinha me esquecido que essa palavra existia).

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Token-Curated Registries

So you want to build a TCR?

TCRs (Token Curated Registries) are a construct for maintaining registries on Ethereum. Imagine you have lots of scissor brands and you want a list with only the good scissors. You want to make sure only the good scissors make into that list and not the bad scissors. For that, people will tell you, you can just create a TCR of the best scissors!

It works like this: some people have the token, let's call it Scissor Token. Some other person, let's say it's a scissor manufacturer, wants to put his scissor on the list, this guy must acquire some Scissor Tokens and "stake" it. Holders of the Scissor Tokens are allowed to vote on "yes" or "no". If "no", the manufactures loses his tokens to the holders, if "yes" then its tokens are kept in deposit, but his scissor brand gets accepted into the registry.

Such a simple process, they say, have strong incentives for being the best possible way of curating a registry of scissors: consumers have the incentive to consult the list because of its high quality; manufacturers have the incentive to buy tokens and apply to join the list because the list is so well-curated and consumers always consult it; token holders want the registry to accept good and reject bad scissors because that good decisions will make the list good for consumers and thus their tokens more valuable, bad decisions will do the contrary. It doesn't make sense, to reject everybody just to grab their tokens, because that would create an incentive against people trying to enter the list.

Amazing! How come such a simple system of voting has such enourmous features? Now we can have lists of everything so well-curated, and for that we just need Ethereum tokens!

Now let's imagine a different proposal, of my own creation: SPCR, Single-person curated registries.

Single-person Curated Registries are equal to TCR, except they don't use Ethereum tokens, it's just a list in a text file kept by a single person. People can apply to join, and they will have to give the single person some amount of money, the single person can reject or accept the proposal and so on.

Now let's look at the incentives of SPCR: people will want to consult the registry because it is so well curated; vendors will want to enter the registry because people are consulting it; the single person will want to accept the good and reject the bad applicants because these good decisions are what will make the list valuable.

Amazing! How such a single proposal has such enourmous features! SPCR are going to take over the internet!

What TCR enthusiasts get wrong?

TCR people think they can just list a set of incentives for something to work and assume that something will work. Mix that with Ethereum hype and they think theyve found something unique and revolutionary, while in fact they're just making a poor implementation of "democracy" systems that fail almost everywhere.

The life is not about listing a set of "incentives" and then considering the problems solved. Almost everybody on the Earth has the incentive for being rich: being rich has a lot of advantages over being poor, however not all people get rich! Why are the incentives failing?

Curating lists is a hard problem, it involves a lot of knowledge about the problem that just holding a token won't give you, it involves personal preferences, politics, it involves knowing where is the real limit between "good" and "bad". The Single Person list may have a good result if the single person doing the curation is knowledgeable and honest (yes, you can game the system to accept your uncle's scissors and not their competitor that is much better, for example, without losing the entire list reputation), same thing for TCRs, but it can also fail miserably, and it can appear to be good but be in fact not so good. In all cases, the list entries will reflect the preferences of people choosing and other things that aren't taken into the incentives equation of TCR enthusiasts.

We don't need lists

The most important point to be made, although unrelated to the incentive story, is that we don't need lists. Imagine you're looking for a scissor. You don't want someone to tell if scissor A or B are "good" or "bad", or if A is "better" than B. You want to know if, for your specific situation, or for a class of situations, A will serve well, and do that considering A's price and if A is being sold near you and all that.

Scissors are the worst example ever to make this point, but I hope you get it. If you don't, try imagining the same example with schools, doctors, plumbers, food, whatever.

Recommendation systems are badly needed in our world, and TCRs don't solve these at all.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Precautionary Principle

The precautionary principle that people, including Nassim Nicholas Taleb, love and treat as some form of wisdom, is actually just a justification for arbitrary acts.

In a given situation for which there's no sufficient knowledge, either A or B can be seen as risky or precautionary measures, there's no way to know except if you have sufficient knowledge.

---

Someone could reply saying, for example, that the known risk of A is tolerable to the unknown, probably magnitudes bigger, risk of B. Unless you know better or at least have a logical explanation for the risks of B (a thing "scientists" don't have because they notoriously dislike making logical claims), in which case you do know something and is not invoking the precautionary principle anymore, just relying on your logical reasoning – and that can be discussed and questioned by others, undermining your intended usage of the label "precautionary principle" as a magic cover for your actions.

@ e97aaffa:2ebd765d

Hoje vamos para uma reflexão mais sensível, sobretudo para uma facção mais tóxica de maximalistas, a bolsa de valores. Essa facção gosta de intitular o bolsa de valores/mercado de capitais como um scam, gosta de comparar a valorização do Bitcoin, com a valorização das ações.

Mas os dois são incomparáveis, têm objetivos completamente diferentes, um é poupança, o outro é investimento. É claro que no curto prazo, o Bitcoin está a valorizar mais que os mercados de capitais, mas isto é algo circunstancial/temporário, porque o Bitcoin está a monetizar.

O Bitcoin ainda tem um market cap pequeno, quanto mais cresce, menos volátil será, é natural com o tempo, a valorização do Bitcoin será menor. Aquelas valorizações de 1000% num curto espaço de tempo, nunca mais vão acontecer, e é bom que não volte a acontecer, é sinal que a adopção está a avançar bem e gradual.

Quando existe uma valorização muito expressiva em pouco tempo, é inevitável, posteriormente uma forte correção, foi o que aconteceu nos primeiros ciclos do Bitcoin. Com o passar do tempo, a volatilidade está a diminuir, sobe menos, consequentemente as correções serão menores, esta estabilidade é fundamental para a aceleração da adoção do Bitcoin como moeda em todo o mundo.

A fraca volatilidade é boa para o Bitcoin como moeda e como reserva de valor, mas para quem usa como um meio especulativo, para enriquecer, vai deixar de ser tão atrativo. Por o Bitcoin ter atualmente uma valorização superior à bolsa de valores, não significa que o mercado de capitais seja um scam.

Em suma, a longo prazo o Bitcoin será um ativo apenas para manter o poder de compra, sendo mais rentável (para um especulador) investir em algumas empresas. Mas isto é a natureza do Bitcoin, Bitcoin não é para investir, mas sim poupar.

A Distorção

Isto significa que as bolsas de valores, per se não são um mau “produto”, são apenas vítimas da desastrosas políticas monetárias(doença), das constantes desvalorização da moeda. Mas o Bitcoin vai trazer verdade ao mundo económico, sem a possibilidade da inflação monetária vai ser possível ver realmente quais são as ações que valorizam e quais desvalorizam. Atualmente devido à inflação é muito complicado distinguir quais são as boas e más empresas, porque todas elas nominalmente sobem.

Um bom exemplo é a bolsa brasileira, para quem olha para o gráfico em reais (linha azul), está em máximos históricos, mas com valores em dólares (linha laranja), o resultado é totalmente oposto, está em mínimos.

As pessoas que investiram à uma década estão a perder poder de compra, mas elas acreditam que estão a ganhar, é a ilusão da inflação. E os valores ainda são piores do que demonstra o gráfico, porque o dólar também teve uma forte desvalorização neste período, que não foi contabilizado.

No caso da Europa e EUA, é um pouco diferente, porque existem algumas ações que conseguem manter ou superar a taxa de inflação, mas são uma minoria. A maior parte são ações zombi, onde as pessoas investem mas perdem poder de compra anualmente, sem se aperceber disso. Numa economia em padrão Bitcoin vai trazer verdade, vai separar o trigo do joio, qualquer pessoa sem grandes conhecimentos, vai facilmente observar quais são as empresas boas.

Curiosamente, empresas/ações que hoje em dia não conseguem ter uma valorização superior à inflação (valorização real), no padrão Bitcoin vão se tornar rentáveis, vai gerar um fenómeno interessante. Como no caso do Brasil, existem muitas empresas que crescem, que têm muitos lucros, só que a valorização não é visível em dólares devido à desvalorização do real. Como a desvalorização do real é superior ao crescimento da empresa, a valorização das ações em dólares fica negativa, mas num padrão Bitcoin essas mesmas empresas passariam a ter uma valorização real.

Num mundo em padrão Bitcoin, as bolsas de valores terão um papel fundamental na economia. O crédito barato dos bancos comerciais que o dinheiro FIAT permite, já não estará disponível para as empresas, estas terão que se financiar com obrigações ou nos mercados de capitais.

Classes de ativos

Os mercados de capitais/bolsas de valores não são a origem do problema, sofrem de um sintoma gerado por uma doença muito superior, a moeda e a sua política monetária. Como a moeda é fulcral, é o sangue que circula por todo o lado, como o sistema keynesiano “envenena” a moeda, provoca uma distorção em toda a sociedade e na economia.

As principais classes de ativos, na teoria, repito na teoria, deveriam ser divididas consoante o risco inerente. * Moeda: risco nulo * Bonds/dívida soberana: risco baixo * Mercado de capitais: risco elevado

Quanto maior for o risco, maior é a possibilidade de retorno. Assim a moeda teria um retorno zero, é um ativo de poupança puro, não tem o objetivo de aumentar mas sim apenas de preservar a riqueza.

No lado oposto temos o mercado de capitais, onde o risco é elevado, mas existe a possibilidade de ter lucros elevados também. É o local ideal para os especuladores, para quem quer aumentar a sua riqueza. As Bonds são um ativo intermédio, de baixo risco, logo um retorno é baixo.

Só que isto apenas acontece na teoria, porque na prática, devido ao sistema keynesiano distorceu por completo as classes de ativos, com as consecutivas desvalorização de moeda. A moeda deixou de ser um meio de poupança, porque está constantemente a perder poder de compra. Isto obrigou as pessoas a aderirem a ativos com maior risco para não perder a sua poupança.

As pessoas são obrigadas a ser especuladores (bonds, mercado de capitais), perderam o direito de ser simplesmente poupadores. Os poupadores têm o direito a um ativo com zero risco, nem toda a gente quer aumentar o seu património, querem apenas preservar o seu dinheiro, ganho através do seu suor, não querem nem mais um cêntimo, querem ter uma vida tranquila. Atualmente essas pessoas estão impedidas, são obrigadas a ser especuladores ou então estão constantemente a perder poder de compra. A desvalorização da moeda é tal dimensão, que os bonds que deveriam dar uma remuneração baixa, atualmente tem uma remuneração negativa. No mercado de capitais, são poucas as empresas que têm uma remuneração superior à inflação, na sua generalidade, as pessoas que investem nestes ativos estão a empobrecer lentamente.

Além destas 3 classes de ativos, distorceu fortemente o mercado imobiliário. O propósito das casas é ser um local de residência das pessoas, devendo ser acessível a toda a população. Esta distorção, transformou o imobiliário num meio de proteção contra a inflação, um produto financeiro, gerando uma procura elevada, criando enormes bolhas. Além de milhões de pessoas ficarem sem acesso a uma habitação digna.

Fix the Money. Fix the World.

@ 81d38469:717cde2e

Imagine a cosmic slingshot that flings your spacecraft towards distant planets with minimal effort. That's the essence of a Gate Orbits, strategically chosen circular orbits around celestial bodies, that significantly reduces the fuel required for interplanetary travel.

Benefits of Gate Orbits

• Reduced Delta-V:

Heavier Payloads: Lower fuel needs translate to more space for scientific instruments, supplies, or even crew members on future missions. Smaller Launch Vehicles: Lighter payloads equate to less powerful & potentially reusable, launch vehicles.

• Cost Efficiency:

Lower fuel requirements & increased payload capacity can lead to substantial cost savings. Smaller, less expensive launch vehicles can be used & the reduced need for frequent resupply missions can lower operational costs.

Envisioning Gate Orbits in Action:

"Interplanetary mission design has seen significant advancements beyond traditional Hohmann transfer orbits"...

Well, consider a trip from Earth to Mars. A traditional Hohmann transfer orbit might require a 'Δv' of 2.94 km/s. By launching from an Earth Gate Orbit, the spacecraft could achieve escape velocity with a 'Δv' of only 2.08 km/s! This translates to a potential 62% increase in payload capacity or a significant reduction in launch vehicle size & cost.

N.B. Mars Gate Orbit can be calculated at ((2x398’600/2.943^2=) 92’042 km radius. When in circular orbit at this distance from Earth, a vehicle will require an additional velocity of (√(2.943^2/2)=) 2.08 km/s to inject into a Hohmann transfer to Mars.

Power of Gate Orbits: Using Math to Understand Efficiency Gains

The concept of Gate Orbits becomes even more impactful when we delve into the mathematics of rocket propulsion. That's how Delta-V (Δv) equation sheds light on the efficiency benefits of Gate Orbits:

• Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation

Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation relates the maximum change in velocity (Δv) of a spacecraft to its initial mass (𝑚0), final mass (𝑚𝑓) & the effective exhaust velocity (𝑣𝑒). It essentially tells us how much a rocket can accelerate based on its fuel & engine efficiency: Δ𝑣 = 𝑣𝑒 ln 𝑚0/𝑚𝑓

• The Exponential Challenge

The equation reveals a critical truth!!! Why??? Simply, the required initial mass (𝑚0) grows exponentially with the desired 'Δv'. Which means, small increases in the desired final velocity translate to a significant increase in the amount of propellant needed. That's why traditional interplanetary missions require such massive rockets, as they need to carry enough fuel to achieve the necessary 'Δv' for escape velocity.. And this is where Gate Orbits come in!

Challenges & Future of Gate Orbits

Traveling to other planets demands immense speeds to escape a planet's gravitational pull & set a trajectory towards the destination. This speed change, known as delta-v (Δv), is a crucial factor in spacecraft design. The higher the Δv required, the more fuel a spacecraft must carry, leading to heavier & more expensive missions... While theoretically sound, Gate Orbits present challenges:

• Precise Orbital Insertion: Reaching & maintaining the specific Gate Orbit requires precise maneuvers. Advanced navigation & guidance systems are crucial.

• Infrastructure Development: Establishing infrastructure, like refueling stations or temporary staging areas, at these specific locations might be necessary for certain missions.

Looking Forward....

• Relationship to Ion Rockets & Delta-V

Ion rockets, with their incredibly high specific impulse (Isp), offer another avenue for fuel-efficient space travel. However, their low thrust makes them unsuitable for lifting off from planets. Gate Orbits can be particularly beneficial for missions utilizing ion drives. By providing a gravitational boost at the outset, Gate Orbits allow ion-powered spacecraft to capitalize on their high Isp for efficient interplanetary travel. (Recent innovations in interplanetary mission design, such as non-Hohmann transfers utilizing low-thrust propulsion, ballistic trajectories & resonant orbits, provide more efficient & flexible mission profiles.)

• Lunar Missions with Gate Orbit Concept

Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits (NRHO): Proposed for the Lunar Gateway, these orbits provide a stable platform for sustained lunar operations. NRHOs offer continuous line-of-sight communication with Earth & reduced fuel requirements for station-keeping. Support both lunar surface missions & deeper space exploration. The Lunar Gateway will serve as a staging point for missions to the Moon's surface, particularly the South Pole, & as a testing ground for technologies needed for Mars missions.

How ? The Lunar Gateway as a 'gate orbit' facilitates lunar landings & acts as a hub for assembling spacecraft bound for Mars or other destinations. It enables modular mission design, where components are launched separately & assembled in orbit.

Mission Sequence

To better understand the practical application of Gate Orbits, consider the following mission sequence:

1- Launch: The spacecraft is launched from Earth into a low Earth orbit (LEO).

2- Gate Orbit Insertion: The spacecraft performs a maneuver to enter the specific Gate Orbit around Earth.

3- Slingshot Maneuver: Using the gravitational influence of Earth, the spacecraft receives a velocity boost, reducing the Δv required from its own engines.

4- Interplanetary Cruise: The spacecraft continues its journey to its interplanetary destination, such as Mars, with significantly reduced fuel consumption.

With the increasing focus on space exploration & the potential for future human habitation on other planets, efficient interplanetary travel methods become even more critical.. Gate Orbits offer a transformative approach to space travel, reducing fuel requirements & expanding mission capabilities. By leveraging the gravitational forces of celestial bodies, they provide an efficient pathway for deep space exploration.

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• Content

• Conclusion

• FAQ

• You May Also Like

• External Links

Introduction

Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created in 2009. It is decentralized, meaning that it is not controlled by any government or financial institution. Bitcoin is based on a technology called blockchain, which allows for secure and transparent transactions. Bitcoin has gained popularity in recent years, and many online retailers have started to accept it as a form of payment. In this blog post, we will explore the advantages and challenges of accepting Bitcoin for online retailers.

Advantages of Accepting Bitcoin for Online Retailers

A. Lower transaction fees

One of the biggest advantages of accepting Bitcoin for online retailers is the lower transaction fees. Traditional payment methods like credit cards and PayPal charge high fees to process transactions. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has much lower fees. This is because Bitcoin transactions do not require intermediaries like banks or credit card companies. Instead, they are processed directly by the Bitcoin network, which makes the process faster and cheaper.

B. Faster and easier international payments

Another advantage of accepting Bitcoin for online retailers is the ability to process faster and easier international payments. Traditional payment methods can take several days to process international transactions, and they often come with high fees. Bitcoin transactions, on the other hand, can be processed in a matter of minutes, and the fees are much lower. This makes it easier for online retailers to sell to customers around the world.

C. Increased security and privacy

Bitcoin transactions are more secure and private than traditional payment methods. This is because Bitcoin transactions are processed on the blockchain, which is a secure and transparent public ledger. The blockchain ensures that transactions are secure and cannot be altered or reversed. Bitcoin transactions are also more private because they do not require the retailer to collect sensitive customer information like credit card numbers. This reduces the risk of fraud and identity theft.

D. Access to a new and growing customer base

Finally, accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment can give online retailers access to a new and growing customer base. There are millions of Bitcoin users around the world, and many of them are looking for retailers who accept Bitcoin. By accepting Bitcoin, online retailers can tap into this new market and gain a competitive advantage.

Challenges and Risks of Accepting Bitcoin for Online Retailers

A. Volatility

One of the biggest challenges of accepting Bitcoin for online retailers is the volatility of the currency. Bitcoin is known for its wild price swings, which can make it difficult for retailers to price their products and manage their finances. Retailers who accept Bitcoin may need to convert their Bitcoin to fiat currency quickly in order to avoid losses due to price fluctuations.

B. Regulation

Another challenge of accepting Bitcoin for online retailers is the lack of regulation. Bitcoin is not yet fully regulated by governments, and this can make it difficult for retailers to navigate the legal and tax implications of accepting Bitcoin. Retailers may need to consult with legal and tax experts in order to comply with local laws and regulations.

C. Technical challenges

Finally, accepting Bitcoin can present technical challenges for online retailers. Retailers may need to invest in new software and hardware in order to process Bitcoin transactions. They may also need to train their staff on how to use the new technology.

Conclusion

While there are certainly some challenges and risks associated with accepting Bitcoin for online retailers, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Accepting Bitcoin can lead to lower transaction fees, faster and easier international payments, increased security and privacy, and access to a new and growing customer base. It's important for online retailers to consider the challenges associated with accepting Bitcoin, such as volatility, regulation, and technical challenges, but with the right preparation and strategy, they can successfully integrate Bitcoin as a form of payment into their online stores. By doing so, they can differentiate themselves from competitors, reach new customers, and potentially increase profits. Therefore, if online retailers are looking for a way to stay ahead of the game, accepting Bitcoin is definitely worth considering.

FAQ

Can Bitcoin transactions be reversed or altered? No, once a Bitcoin transaction is processed and recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be reversed or altered.

How can online retailers convert Bitcoin to fiat currency? Online retailers can use a Bitcoin exchange to convert Bitcoin to fiat currency.

Is Bitcoin fully regulated by governments? No, Bitcoin is not yet fully regulated by governments, and the legal and tax implications of accepting Bitcoin can be complex. It's important for online retailers to consult with legal and tax experts to ensure compliance with local laws and regulations.

That's all for today

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

@ b2caa9b3:9eab0fb5

Woke up at the crack of dawn today in my dorm, just past 5 am, to a flurry of activity. The two guests who checked in yesterday were already checking out, including the Chinese woman who'd been here for almost two weeks. With the room suddenly quiet, I grabbed my phone to check my account – hoping to see the tokens I'd transferred the previous day. But to my surprise, they were nowhere to be found.

This unexpected early check-out (most hostels allow check-in after 2 pm) left me with a private room for a brief moment, a small perk amidst the confusion. But back to the real issue – my missing Blurt tokens.

Yesterday, I wrote a Hive Engine tutorial on transferring Blurt to your Blurt account. However, when I tried it myself, my 705 Blurt vanished into thin air. Completely baffled, I spent my morning researching after breakfast. While I knew transfers take time, I didn't expect it to take all night, let alone be missing by 10 am.

As a result, the Hive Engine tutorial will have to wait. I need to get to the bottom of this missing transfer before finalizing it. With no set plans for today and a foot still causing trouble, my biggest hope is for a speedy recovery on both fronts – my foot and the missing Blurt!

After hitting publish on this post, I'll be diving back in to figure out how to spend this unplanned day. Here's to hoping for a swift resolution and a chance to explore soon (on a pain-free foot, of course)!

(Image: Screenshot of Hive Engine transfer)

@ 3f770d65:7a745b24

The following is a collection of Tweets posted on Twitter that documented my entire heart surgery process, from finding out I had an issue, through the surgery, and finally throughout my recovery process. If Elon decides to remove old and unpaid content, I do not want this part of my life to vanish from the Internet. At the time, it was extremely important for my mental health to talk about this whole process and it was therapeutic in my recovery process, reading all of the responses as all of Bitcoin Twitter was behind my success. Thank you all of your kind words, love, and support during this whole process. May my Tweets live on through nostr.

...

Nov 28, 2021 I had open heart surgery 4 days before my 3rd b-day. I've led a healthy & active life since then, zero issues. I had an echocardiogram last week. The results were not good. Heart valve replacement may be in my near future. I am freaking the fuck out. I'll know more on Dec 6th. 😫

Dec 6, 2021 Update: I had my cardiologist appointment today. He said to not worry for now and continue to exercise and live life. In 3 months get another echo done. He doesn't believe the previous other results since I have zero symptoms and wants to do his own interpretation.

Dec 6, 2021 He said if the other results were correct, I may need valve replacement in 6 months to 3 years. However, he doesn't believe the local hospital's results as I said above. He can't form an opinion just yet. He said not to worry over and over again. For now, I'm staying positive!

Mar 7, 2022 Well, it's been three months. I had my follow up this morning. I have severe pulmonic regurgitation. I now need to speak with a specialist and see what my options are for surgery. Neat. 😭

Apr 12, 2022 Well, it looks like I'll need full open heart surgery again to replace my pulmonic valve. Bonus: I'll be part pig. So, I have that going for me. I was assuming that if I had to have this done it would be much less invasive, so I'm not overly impressed at the moment. 🫤

May 11, 2022 Today I had to get a CT scan of my heart in preparation for the May 27th surgery. All went well. I have no other heart issues. It's looking like I'll be in the hospital for 4-7 days, depending on how fast I recover. I should be fully 100% recovered by the end of August. ❤️

May 20, 2022 My grandfather with me 39 years ago, days after my open heart surgery. He taught me to hunt, fish, golf, and I'm sure taught me a thing or two about drinking beer and partying. 😂 He was a great man. He won't physically be with me next Friday, but I'm sure he'll be watching over.

May 25, 2022 Two more sleeps. My mind is racing with an incredible amount of thoughts and emotions now. It's overwhelming. I love you all. Thanks for all of your replies and DMs over the last couple days, weeks, and months. I appreciate it immensely. ❤️❤️❤️

May 25, 2022 Two more sleeps. My mind is racing with an incredible amount of thoughts and emotions now. It's overwhelming. I love you all. Thanks for all of your replies and DMs over the last couple days, weeks, and months. I appreciate it immensely. ❤️❤️❤️

May 27, 2022 LET'S GO! I am alive and doing well. I was on a ventilator until 8pm. That was horrible. I will read all of the comments that you all posted on Katie's updates. Now I need to rest. They want to get me up and walk at 11pm. 🤯 I love you all and your support had helped so much 🧡🧡

May 28, 2022 The amount of love, compassion, caring, and appreciation from everyone blows my mind. Thanks for all of your comments and DMs. The positivity though all is this has helped me get through dark times and now it's helping me get through pain. You are helping me immensely. 🤯❤️🧡💪

May 28, 2022 Today has been a rough day. Lots of chest pain when breathing. But, I apparently am doing something right, because I have been upgraded to a regular room. No more ICU for this guy! My ICU nurse told my new nurse that I'm strong. ❤️💪🔥

May 29, 2022 Using this to document my journey. Last night was not good at all. I had tachycardia and AFib for hours. It was scary as fuck having my heart beat the way it was at 160bpm. They gave me new medication to bring it down and stop the AFib irregular heartbeat. It's now at 101.

May 29, 2022 I was very scared. Katie was able to come and stay the night with me and be my personal care nurse. That made me feel much better having her here with me. Hopefully the meds continue to do what they're supposed to. Fuck. Anyways, I may not Tweet much today. Love you all. ❤️

May 30, 2022 Today has mostly been a great day progress wise. I ate a lot. I've walked more today than I have previously. My doctor told me I might be going home tomorrow, it all depends on what happens with my last drainage tube. Fingers crossed that it's draining properly now. 💪❤️

May 31, 2022 Morning walk crushed. Breakfast crushed. Feeling stronger. My drainage tube is still draining so we'll see what the surgeon says, but I probably won't be coming home today according to my nurse. It may be another day. Better to be safe. I'm feeling good though. Let's go! 💪💪❤️❤️

Jun 1, 2022 Today's plans: Crush morning walk, crush breakfast, CRUSH MY LAST X-RAY AND HEAD THE HELL HOME! Fingers crossed. 🤞🤞❤️❤️💪💪

Jun 1, 2022 On my morning walk I went into a slight AFib. The nurse and PA said since I hadn't had my morning meds to control that yet, that that could be the cause. They're going to increase meds and monitor me for another 24 hours. That sucks, but again, I'd rather be safe. Ugh.

Jun 2, 2022 GM! I miss my kids. I miss wearing normal clothes. I miss my house. I miss my doggy. I better go home today or I guess I'll just keep working to get well enough to go home. 😂 I'm still progressing forward. I have a chest x-ray scheduled later this morning. Fingers crossed.

Jun 2, 2022 I JUST GOT CLEARED TO HEAD HOME AFTER LUNCH. FUCK YEAH. LET'S GOOOOOO💪💪💪

Jun 2, 2022 I am home! I have some family that needs some loving. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Jun 4, 2022 Last night I slept in bed thanks to a reclining pillow, the first night our living room chair. I was so happy to sleep in my own bed. I walked around our yard about 9 times yesterday. My goal is to do that plus a little more every day. I'm still in a lot of pain, but meds help.

Jun 4, 2022 I still have a long way to go recovery wise, but having Katie and the kids here helping me along the way makes it easier and gives me a reason to keep pushing forward through this. Thanks again for all of your past and future support. You all are fantastic.

Jun 6, 2022 My wife went back to work today. My son and daughter are in charge of taking care of me. My kids are fantastic. They made me breakfast already and helped me check all of my vitals. My daughter really shines here. She's such a little nurse and caretaker. ❤️❤️

Jun 6, 2022 I'm still in pain, but I'm not in as much pain as I was a couple days ago. I'm walking around a little better and a little more every day. I really hate just sitting around and not doing anything, but it's hard to do much else besides watch TV. I am enjoying my patio though. 💪

Jun 16, 2022 It's been a while. It's time to update this thread! I am doing great, IMO. I have lots of energy. I feel great. I can do a lot more than I previously could. I still have a limited range of motion due to my sternum being broken and still healing. i.e. I can't wash my back or legs.

Jun 16, 2022 I started back to work yesterday. I was cleared to do 20 hours this week by my doctor and I'm hoping to be cleared full time next week. I work from home, so if I can sit in front of a TV, I can sit in front of a computer, right?

Jun 16, 2022 My home nurses have been absolutely fantastic.😂 My kids make me breakfast every morning. And I could not have done any of this without my rock star wife. Words can't describe how much she's done for me throughout all of this. I am looking forward to continuing to improve. ♥️

Jun 16, 2022 You all have been absolutely wonderful through all of this too. I appreciate all of your love, support, and check-ins. Seriously. It means more than you know.

I have a check-up at the end of the month to make sure all is well. I'll update again in a couple weeks after that appt.

Jun 28, 2022 My doctor said everything looks great. He said it doesn't look like I had open heart surgery a month ago.💪 He said I have zero restrictions and that I can resume normal life. I can drive and I can go out on my boat! ❤️❤️❤️ I'm so happy right now! 🔥🚀

Jul 15, 2022 I started cardiac rehab this week. After 2 sessions the nurse said I'm on "Week 4" already. She doesn't believe with my initial intake stress test if I'll really be able to improve on it that much. 🤣 TL;DR I am a rock star and kicking ass. Feeling great. Life's great. 😍

Aug 28, 2022 Yesterday was 3 months since my open heart surgery. I'm going great! I'd guess essentially back to normal. My sternum is still not fully healed, that'll take more time, but energy and capability are basically back to what I was like last summer. I'm very happy with the results.

Aug 28, 2022 I'm very happy to be able to exercise daily, go boating on the weekends AND swim and paddleboard. I was annoyed that I couldn't do these things a month ago. I had a cardiologist appt. two weeks ago. He said he hopes the valve lasts me the rest of my life and to see him in a year.

Aug 28, 2022 As a final post to this thread, I want to thank each and every one of you again that commented, liked, shared and DMed me throughout all of this. The love and support from Twitter and the #Bitcoin community was unfathomable. You all made a difference in my life and my recovery.❤️

@ 124b23f2:02455947

I'm reposting this in order to fix the images and get it correctly onto my npub.pro site

What is this ? My Futurebit Apollo Miner in action

Futurebit is a company that manufactures home miners for retail users (see futurebit.io) - you can check out details on their website. These are targeted at individuals that want to participate in mining with an easy to use, quiet miner that does not use a ton of electricity.

The idea here is to try and stay true to the original bitcoin concept of a computer which runs the bitcoin software and mines bitcoin, all in one. While mining has obviously evolved into a commercial industry and the mining process has long been separated from running a bitcoin node, I think there are still some valid reasons to want to participate in the mining process and attempt to keep this original ethos alive:

1. You learn a lot about bitcoin from mining. Reading about the process is one thing, but actually getting a machine running, pointing it towards the pool of your choice, and seeing the bitcoin process from this perspective is something I've found very enjoyable (mining is probably my favorite part of bitcoin, if I had to choose one). It can also be a gateway drug to more advanced mining, so...heavy care.
2. It is marginally valuable to the network. Sure, one person running a futurebit miner is nothing compared to the hashrate of MARA. But, if you have tens of thousands of plebs all running their own miners from home, pointing their hashpower to the pool of their choice, it does provide a legitimate decentralizing anchor to large mining actors. Every pleb should be participating in mining, in my opinion, and the Futurebit Apollo miner offers a casual and unobtrusive avenue to do just that.

Now, the Futurebit Apollo Miner you most commonly see is the 'Full Package.' The Full Package is an Orange Pi computer running on a custom linux distribution. You basically boot it up, and it starts running bitcoin core and mining in a few clicks. That is very cool, and I did own one. However, I will say that the Full Package is, unfortunately, not a great product. I won't go into too much detail, but its a very poor quality computer, the security upkeep of the custom linux distribution is lacking, and I found connecting to the node to use with wallets to be very difficult. The mining was also consistently inturrupted due to the pi freezing up. You are better off going with a different option for running a bitcoin node.

This is simply to say, I dislike the Full Package Futurebit Apollo Unit. With that said, I very much like the 'Standard Unit'. The Standard Unit is simply a mining hashboard without the computer OS that comes with the Full Package. I've been running two Standard Units in my house for 18 months now and they just quietly hum along in my house, I barely notice them and they rarely need to be restarted (honestly I can't think of more than 3 times that I needed to troubleshoot and even then it was typically restarting the miner). They are a great way to make your personal contribution to the security of the bitcoin network.

(Please Note: These things are pretty pricey brand new, so don't even think about buying one as being a profitable choice. You can sometimes find decent deals for them used, but buyer beware I can't speak to that experience. This is about hands-on learning about bitcoin mining and participating in the security of the network with a machine that won't drive your family crazy and that I believe is well-built enough to last you a long time. Heck, you could even set one up at your office and I doubt anyone would notice and mine with free electricity.)

So, that's some background. Now, a standard unit is not the most friendly user experience if you are not used to using command line. I wasn't, but I spent a lot of time figuring it out. With this guide, any user should be able to get a Standard Unit hashing :) Here is the step by step process guide on how to run a standard unit, in use with both a Windows OS computer and a Linux OS computer (Ubuntu is what I use)...enjoy.

I. Linux

Your Futurebit Apollo Standard Unit (referred to from here as 'the Unit') miner comes with a power supply and a usb cable. It's pretty straight forward, but you will want to connect the Unit to the computer of your choice (the computer needs to be on and running while you are mining, so a low power consumption computer and/or a computer that you are already running all the time for some other reason would be best). Also, plug in the power supply to your unit and turn it on (there are instructions in the Unit's manual for how to hook up the power supply correctly).

1. Go to https://github.com/jstefanop/Apollo-Miner-Binaries
2. You'll land on a page that looks like this:

For the purposes of this guide, I am going to be using the 'linux-x86_64' package as it is most appropriate for my computer. But, you would need to select the appropriate binaries for your computer. Odds are, if you are running ubuntu on your laptop or desktop, you are going to use the 'linux-x86_64' package.

1. Once you have clicked on the linux-x86_64 folder, you will land here:

Open each of these 4 files and download them using the 'Download Raw File' link in each file's page. Here is an example:

Once you have downloaded, I'd recommend making a folder and putting all 4 of the files into that folder. I am going to make a folder with the name 'Mining Files'. I am also going to move the folder out of my Downloads folder (not necessary, but I'd recommend as it's not a great place to park a folder you want to hold onto). I am going to move it to my Documents Folder:

1. Now, if you do not have a mining pool account, you will need to make one, otherwise you should be able to use your pool credentials in the next step. Alternatively, you can solo mine using solo.ckpool.org with only a btc address. However, for the purposes of this guide I am going to assume that you are using Braiins pool. If necessary, go ahead and make a login at braiins.com/pool. Note the username and password as we will need that later.

2. From the files that you downloaded in step 3, we are going to double-click on 'start_apollo.sh' and open it up in Text Editor. The first 60 lines or so are explanations on how to prepare this script for your use. However, I am going to run you through all the options to update, so you shouldn't need to read the description. Instead, we are going to focus on the text in black font at the bottom of the file:

We need to update the info in the following fields as follows

-host = stratum.braiins.com -port = 3333 -user = username for your Braiins login. I'll use "braiinsexample" for now. -pswd = password for your Braiins login. I'll use "Password123" for now. -comport = Most likely "/dev/ttyACM0" or "/dev/ttyACM1" or "/dev/ttyACM2" -brd_ocp = 48 -osc = 30 -ao_mode = 1

So, when our file is set up correctly, it will look like:

Make sure to save, then close out of text editor.

1. Now, start up terminal on your computer. First, we are going to want to get into the correct directory. In our case, our file is in Documents > Mining Files. So, you would input the following command:

cd ~/Documents/Mining Files

Once you are in the correct directory, we will run the following command:

sudo ./start_apollo.sh

You will likely be prompted to enter your computer's password, input the password and, if all goes well, you should see a result like this in your terminal:

You are now mining! The setting we use run the Unit ins 'eco mode', which should yield 2 terahash per second in terms of mining power (you can monitor the performance from your respective mining pool dashboard). As long as you keep this terminal window open and the computer on that is connected to the miner, and you will be mining away :)

II. Windows

Your Futurebit Apollo Standard Unit (referred to from here as 'the Unit') miner comes with a power supply and a usb cable. It's pretty straight forward, but you will want to connect the Unit to the computer of your choice (the computer needs to be on and running while you are mining, so a low power consumption computer and/or a computer that you are already running all the time for some other reason would be best). Also, plug in the power supply to your unit and turn it on (there are instructions in the Unit's manual for how to hook up the power supply correctly).

1. Go to https://github.com/jstefanop/Apollo-Miner-Binaries
2. You'll land on a page that looks like this:

For Windows, you will click on the folder titled 'msvc19'. You'll see 2 files to download, go ahead and click on each and click 'Download Raw File' for each.

Please Note: Windows may see this file as a virus, so you may need to 'allow on device' in your virus & threat protection of your windows security service.

1. Once you have downloaded each file, I'd recommend making a folder and putting all of the files into that folder. I am going to make a folder with the name 'Mining Files'. I am also going to move the folder out of my Downloads folder (not necessary, but I'd recommend as it's not a great place to park a folder you want to hold onto). I am going to move it to my Documents Folder:

1. Now, if you do not have a mining pool account, you will need to make one, otherwise you should be able to use your pool credentials in the next step. Alternatively, you can solo mine using solo.ckpool.org with only a btc address. However, for the purposes of this guide I am going to assume that you are using Braiins pool. If necessary, go ahead and make a login with at braiins.com/pool. Note the username and password as we will need that later.

2. From the files that you downloaded in step 3, we are going to right click on 'start_apollo' and select 'edit'. The file will open up in notepad. The first 60 lines or so are explanations on how to prepare this script for your use. However, I am going to run you through all the options to update, so you shouldn't need to read the description. Instead, we are going to focus on the text in black font at the bottom of the file:

We need to update the info in the following fields as follows

-host = stratum.braiins.com -port = 3333 -user = username for your Braiins login. I'll use "braiinsexample" for now. -pswd = password for your Braiins login. I'll use "Password123" for now. -comport = go to the 'Device Manager' service on your computer, expand the 'Ports' section, and you should find a 'USB serial device' with COM#. Update with your COM# (COM1, COM2, COM3, etc). -brd_ocp = 48 -osc = 30 -ao_mode = 1

So, when our file is set up correctly, it will look like:

1. Now that the file is ready, save the file and exit out of notepad. You should be able to simply double-click on the file. The command prompt services will pop-up on your desktop, and should reflect this, indicating your connection is successful and mining has begun:

You are now mining! The setting we use run the Unit ins 'eco mode', which should yield 2 terahash per second in terms of mining power (you can monitor the performance from your respective mining pool dashboard). As long as you keep this terminal window open and the computer on that is connected to the miner, and you will be mining away :)

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/603076

@ 124b23f2:02455947

I'm reposting this article I wrote some time ago again to fix the images for it on my npub.pro site

In my previous post, I explained how to use your getalby ln address to receive zaps directly to your LND node. Similarly, there is an additional option that one can utilize to receive zaps directly to your lightning node: lnaddress.com.

Lnaddress.com is a federated lightning address server that you can use to create a custom ln address. Unlike using getalby, lnaddress.com can be used with any lightning implementation (not just LND). For the purposes of this write-up, I am going to use LNBits to connect an lnaddress.com lightning address with my node. And as will be the case with most of my write-ups, I am going to be using Start9 OS, so users of that OS will likely find this write-up most useful, but I'm sure people using other node interfaces can infer how to complete this set up as well.

With that said, let's dive into the step-by-step on how to create your own custom ln address with lnaddress.com and set it up to receive zaps directly to your lightning node:

*Users should have lnbits set up with their lightning node before proceeding.

1. Go to lnaddress.com. Input your desired username, select 'Node Backend Type' = LNBits, and if necessary check the box 'This is a new lightning address'. Keep this page open in one tab as we will be returning to it to input info.
2. From your Start9 OS services page, go to your LNBits service. Open the 'Properties' page, and in a new tab, open the (Tor) Superuser Account. Page will look like this:

From this LNbits page, you can choose to 'add a new wallet' and use that wallet instead of your superuser account. That is up to you but the steps will be the same.

1. Now, we need to grab the info needed for the 'Host Protocol + IP or Domain + Port' field on the lnaddress.com page. On the lnbits page, expand the 'Api Docs' field, and the 'Get Wallet Details' field found on the right hand side menu. In this 'Get Wallet Details' section, you will want to copy some of the URL found in the 'curl example' section. Copy 'http://xxxxxx.onion' (don't copy any more!), and paste this into the 'Host (Protocol + IP or Domain + Port' field found on the lnaddress.com page.

1. Next, we need to grab the key for your lnbits wallet. From the lnbits page, expand the API docs section found on the right hand side menu. Copy the 'Invoice/read key' (make sure to use the invoice/read key and not your Admin key), and paste it into the key field found on the lnaddress.com page. Upon pasting in that last piece of info, click 'submit' at the bottom of the page.

2. If all info was input correctly, your connection will be successful. If successful, you will be brought to a page that looks like this:

You will want to save this secret PIN in case you need to update info in your ln address. You'll also find a test lightning invoice of 1 sat. Using a wallet not connected to the node we connected to our new ln address, you can test the ln address out by paying the 1 sat test invoice.

Users of Start9 OS might find the following info particularly useful: This ln address via lnaddress.com comes with a couple advantages aside from self-custodial zap receiving:

• One, you can have a custom ln address username to go with your nym or nostr username. Users of Start9 may be familiar with the ln address one can generate in the btcpay server service. This ln address is not customizable.
• Two, if you are running a tor only lightning node, you will be able to receive zaps from both tor and clear net lightning nodes. Users of Start9 may be familiar with the ln address one can generate in the btcpay server service. This ln address can only receive zaps from other tor nodes and can't receive zaps from clear net nodes.

That is it, you should now be all set up with your new ln address hosted on lnaddress.com, and you should be all ready to receive zaps or lightning payments of any kind :)

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/603061

@ 1aa437b3:51119dbd

So, with Npub.Pro being out there in the world now, I wonder if I could use Nostr for my primary blog. I really don't know exactly what I'm doing.

I'm creating this post on habla.news. npub.pro gives me the option to have posts or notes.. Posts I believe are long form and my target, and habla I believe creates posts.

I have npub.pro set to posts only, so once I send this out it will hopefully populate. This will be the first of many tests I believe. I know I can use tags also which makes me wonder how I can use them to my advantage also.

We will see...

@ e6ce6154:275e3444

Este artigo foi censurado pelo estado e fomos obrigados a deletá-lo após ameaça de homens armados virem nos visitar e agredir nossa vida e propriedade.

Isto é mais uma prova que os autoproclamados antirracistas são piores que os racistas.

https://rothbardbrasil.com/pelo-direito-de-ser-racista-fascista-machista-e-homofobico

Segue artigo na íntegra. 👇

Sem dúvida, a escalada autoritária do totalitarismo cultural progressista nos últimos anos tem sido sumariamente deletéria e prejudicial para a liberdade de expressão. Como seria de se esperar, a cada dia que passa o autoritarismo progressista continua a se expandir de maneira irrefreável, prejudicando a liberdade dos indivíduos de formas cada vez mais deploráveis e contundentes.

Com a ascensão da tirania politicamente correta e sua invasão a todos os terrenos culturais, o autoritarismo progressista foi se alastrando e consolidando sua hegemonia em determinados segmentos. Com a eventual eclosão e a expansão da opressiva e despótica cultura do cancelamento — uma progênie inevitável do totalitarismo progressista —, todas as pessoas que manifestam opiniões, crenças ou posicionamentos que não estão alinhados com as pautas universitárias da moda tornam-se um alvo.

Há algumas semanas, vimos a enorme repercussão causada pelo caso envolvendo o jogador profissional de vôlei Maurício Sousa, que foi cancelado pelo simples fato de ter emitido sua opinião pessoal sobre um personagem de história em quadrinhos, Jon Kent, o novo Superman, que é bissexual. Maurício Sousa reprovou a conduta sexual do personagem, o que é um direito pessoal inalienável que ele tem. Ele não é obrigado a gostar ou aprovar a bissexualidade. Como qualquer pessoa, ele tem o direito pleno de criticar tudo aquilo que ele não gosta. No entanto, pelo simples fato de emitir a sua opinião pessoal, Maurício Sousa foi acusado de homofobia e teve seu contrato rescindido, sendo desligado do Minas Tênis Clube.

Lamentavelmente, Maurício Sousa não foi o primeiro e nem será o último indivíduo a sofrer com a opressiva e autoritária cultura do cancelamento. Como uma tirania cultural que está em plena ascensão e usufrui de um amplo apoio do establishment, essa nova forma de totalitarismo cultural colorido e festivo está se impondo de formas e maneiras bastante contundentes em praticamente todas as esferas da sociedade contemporânea. Sua intenção é relegar ao ostracismo todos aqueles que não se curvam ao totalitarismo progressista, criminalizando opiniões e crenças que divergem do culto à libertinagem hedonista pós-moderna. Oculto por trás de todo esse ativismo autoritário, o que temos de fato é uma profunda hostilidade por padrões morais tradicionalistas, cristãos e conservadores.

No entanto, é fundamental entendermos uma questão imperativa, que explica em partes o conflito aqui criado — todos os progressistas contemporâneos são crias oriundas do direito positivo. Por essa razão, eles jamais entenderão de forma pragmática e objetiva conceitos como criminalidade, direitos de propriedade, agressão e liberdade de expressão pela perspectiva do jusnaturalismo, que é manifestamente o direito em seu estado mais puro, correto, ético e equilibrado.

Pela ótica jusnaturalista, uma opinião é uma opinião. Ponto final. E absolutamente ninguém deve ser preso, cancelado, sabotado ou boicotado por expressar uma opinião particular sobre qualquer assunto. Palavras não agridem ninguém, portanto jamais poderiam ser consideradas um crime em si. Apenas deveriam ser tipificados como crimes agressões de caráter objetivo, como roubo, sequestro, fraude, extorsão, estupro e infrações similares, que representam uma ameaça direta à integridade física da vítima, ou que busquem subtrair alguma posse empregando a violência.

Infelizmente, a geração floquinho de neve — terrivelmente histérica, egocêntrica e sensível — fica profundamente ofendida e consternada sempre que alguém defende posicionamentos contrários à religião progressista. Por essa razão, os guerreiros da justiça social sinceramente acreditam que o papai-estado deve censurar todas as opiniões que eles não gostam de ouvir, assim como deve também criar leis para encarcerar todos aqueles que falam ou escrevem coisas que desagradam a militância.

Como a geração floquinho de neve foi criada para acreditar que todas as suas vontades pessoais e disposições ideológicas devem ser sumariamente atendidas pelo papai-estado, eles embarcaram em uma cruzada moral que pretende erradicar todas as coisas que são ofensivas à ideologia progressista; só assim eles poderão deflagrar na Terra o seu tão sonhado paraíso hedonista e igualitário, de inimaginável esplendor e felicidade.

Em virtude do seu comportamento intrinsecamente despótico, autoritário e egocêntrico, acaba sendo inevitável que militantes progressistas problematizem tudo aquilo que os desagrada.

Como são criaturas inúteis destituídas de ocupação real e verdadeiro sentido na vida, sendo oprimidas unicamente na sua própria imaginação, militantes progressistas precisam constantemente inventar novos vilões para serem combatidos.

Partindo dessa perspectiva, é natural para a militância que absolutamente tudo que exista no mundo e que não se enquadra com as regras autoritárias e restritivas da religião progressista seja encarado como um problema. Para a geração floquinho de neve, o capitalismo é um problema. O fascismo é um problema. A iniciativa privada é um problema. O homem branco, tradicionalista, conservador e heterossexual é um problema. A desigualdade é um problema. A liberdade é um problema. Monteiro Lobato é um problema (sim, até mesmo o renomado ícone da literatura brasileira, autor — entre outros títulos — de Urupês, foi vítima da cultura do cancelamento, acusado de ser racista e eugenista).

Para a esquerda, praticamente tudo é um problema. Na mentalidade da militância progressista, tudo é motivo para reclamação. Foi em função desse comportamento histérico, histriônico e infantil que o famoso pensador conservador-libertário americano P. J. O’Rourke afirmou que “o esquerdismo é uma filosofia de pirralhos chorões”. O que é uma verdade absoluta e irrefutável em todos os sentidos.

De fato, todas as filosofias de esquerda de forma geral são idealizações utópicas e infantis de um mundo perfeito. Enquanto o mundo não se transformar naquela colorida e vibrante utopia que é apresentada pela cartilha socialista padrão, militantes continuarão a reclamar contra tudo o que existe no mundo de forma agressiva, visceral e beligerante. Evidentemente, eles não vão fazer absolutamente nada de positivo ou construtivo para que o mundo se transforme no gracioso paraíso que eles tanto desejam ver consolidado, mas eles continuarão a berrar e vociferar muito em sua busca incessante pela utopia, marcando presença em passeatas inúteis ou combatendo o fascismo imaginário nas redes sociais.

Sem dúvida, estamos muito perto de ver leis absurdas e estúpidas sendo implementadas, para agradar a militância da terra colorida do assistencialismo eterno onde nada é escasso e tudo cai do céu. Em breve, você não poderá usar calças pretas, pois elas serão consideradas peças de vestuário excessivamente heterossexuais. Apenas calças amarelas ou coloridas serão permitidas. Você também terá que tingir de cor-de-rosa uma mecha do seu cabelo; pois preservar o seu cabelo na sua cor natural é heteronormativo demais da sua parte, sendo portanto um componente demasiadamente opressor da sociedade.

Você também não poderá ver filmes de guerra ou de ação, apenas comédias românticas, pois certos gêneros de filmes exaltam a violência do patriarcado e isso impede o mundo de se tornar uma graciosa festa colorida de fraternidades universitárias ungidas por pôneis resplandecentes, hedonismo infinito, vadiagem universitária e autogratificação psicodélica, que certamente são elementos indispensáveis para se produzir o paraíso na Terra.

Sabemos perfeitamente, no entanto, que dentre as atitudes “opressivas” que a militância progressista mais se empenha em combater, estão o racismo, o fascismo, o machismo e a homofobia. No entanto, é fundamental entender que ser racista, fascista, machista ou homofóbico não são crimes em si. Na prática, todos esses elementos são apenas traços de personalidade; e eles não podem ser pura e simplesmente criminalizados porque ideólogos e militantes progressistas iluminados não gostam deles.

Tanto pela ética quanto pela ótica jusnaturalista, é facilmente compreensível entender que esses traços de personalidade não podem ser criminalizados ou proibidos simplesmente porque integrantes de uma ideologia não tem nenhuma apreciação ou simpatia por eles. Da mesma forma, nenhum desses traços de personalidade representa em si um perigo para a sociedade, pelo simples fato de existir. Por incrível que pareça, até mesmo o machismo, o racismo, o fascismo e a homofobia merecem a devida apologia.

Mas vamos analisar cada um desses tópicos separadamente para entender isso melhor.

Racismo

Quando falamos no Japão, normalmente não fazemos nenhuma associação da sociedade japonesa com o racismo. No entanto, é incontestável o fato de que a sociedade japonesa pode ser considerada uma das sociedades mais racistas do mundo. E a verdade é que não há absolutamente nada de errado com isso.

Aproximadamente 97% da população do Japão é nativa; apenas 3% do componente populacional é constituído por estrangeiros (a população do Japão é estimada em aproximadamente 126 milhões de habitantes). Isso faz a sociedade japonesa ser uma das mais homogêneas do mundo. As autoridades japonesas reconhecidamente dificultam processos de seleção e aplicação a estrangeiros que desejam se tornar residentes. E a maioria dos japoneses aprova essa decisão.

Diversos estabelecimentos comerciais como hotéis, bares e restaurantes por todo o país tem placas na entrada que dizem “somente para japoneses” e a maioria destes estabelecimentos se recusa ostensivamente a atender ou aceitar clientes estrangeiros, não importa quão ricos ou abastados sejam.

Na Terra do Sol Nascente, a hostilidade e a desconfiança natural para com estrangeiros é tão grande que até mesmo indivíduos que nascem em algum outro país, mas são filhos de pais japoneses, não são considerados cidadãos plenamente japoneses.

Se estes indivíduos decidem sair do seu país de origem para se estabelecer no Japão — mesmo tendo descendência nipônica legítima e inquestionável —, eles enfrentarão uma discriminação social considerável, especialmente se não dominarem o idioma japonês de forma impecável. Esse fato mostra que a discriminação é uma parte tão indissociável quanto elementar da sociedade japonesa, e ela está tão profundamente arraigada à cultura nipônica que é praticamente impossível alterá-la ou atenuá-la por qualquer motivo.

A verdade é que — quando falamos de um país como o Japão — nem todos os discursos politicamente corretos do mundo, nem a histeria progressista ocidental mais inflamada poderão algum dia modificar, extirpar ou sequer atenuar o componente racista da cultura nipônica. E isso é consequência de uma questão tão simples quanto primordial: discriminar faz parte da natureza humana, sendo tanto um direito individual quanto um elemento cultural inerente à muitas nações do mundo. Os japoneses não tem problema algum em admitir ou institucionalizar o seu preconceito, justamente pelo fato de que a ideologia politicamente correta não tem no oriente a força e a presença que tem no ocidente.

E é fundamental enfatizar que, sendo de natureza pacífica — ou seja, não violando nem agredindo terceiros —, a discriminação é um recurso natural dos seres humanos, que está diretamente associada a questões como familiaridade e segurança.

Absolutamente ninguém deve ser forçado a apreciar ou integrar-se a raças, etnias, pessoas ou tribos que não lhe transmitem sentimentos de segurança ou familiaridade. Integração forçada é o verdadeiro crime, e isso diversos países europeus — principalmente os escandinavos (países que lideram o ranking de submissão à ideologia politicamente correta) — aprenderam da pior forma possível.

A integração forçada com imigrantes islâmicos resultou em ondas de assassinato, estupro e violência inimagináveis para diversos países europeus, até então civilizados, que a imprensa ocidental politicamente correta e a militância progressista estão permanentemente tentando esconder, porque não desejam que o ocidente descubra como a agenda “humanitária” de integração forçada dos povos muçulmanos em países do Velho Mundo resultou em algumas das piores chacinas e tragédias na história recente da Europa.

Ou seja, ao discriminarem estrangeiros, os japoneses estão apenas se protegendo e lutando para preservar sua nação como um ambiente cultural, étnico e social que lhe é seguro e familiar, assim se opondo a mudanças bruscas, indesejadas e antinaturais, que poderiam comprometer a estabilidade social do país.

A discriminação — sendo de natureza pacífica —, é benévola, salutar e indubitavelmente ajuda a manter a estabilidade social da comunidade. Toda e qualquer forma de integração forçada deve ser repudiada com veemência, pois, mais cedo ou mais tarde, ela irá subverter a ordem social vigente, e sempre será acompanhada de deploráveis e dramáticos resultados.

Para citar novamente os países escandinavos, a Suécia é um excelente exemplo do que não fazer. Tendo seguido o caminho contrário ao da discriminação racional praticada pela sociedade japonesa, atualmente a sociedade sueca — além de afundar de forma consistente na lama da libertinagem, da decadência e da deterioração progressista — sofre em demasia com os imigrantes muçulmanos, que foram deixados praticamente livres para matar, saquear, esquartejar e estuprar quem eles quiserem. Hoje, eles são praticamente intocáveis, visto que denunciá-los, desmoralizá-los ou acusá-los de qualquer crime é uma atitude politicamente incorreta e altamente reprovada pelo establishment progressista. A elite socialista sueca jamais se atreve a acusá-los de qualquer crime, pois temem ser classificados como xenófobos e intolerantes. Ou seja, a desgraça da Europa, sobretudo dos países escandinavos, foi não ter oferecido nenhuma resistência à ideologia progressista politicamente correta. Hoje, eles são totalmente submissos a ela.

O exemplo do Japão mostra, portanto — para além de qualquer dúvida —, a importância ética e prática da discriminação, que é perfeitamente aceitável e natural, sendo uma tendência inerente aos seres humanos, e portanto intrínseca a determinados comportamentos, sociedades e culturas.

Indo ainda mais longe nessa questão, devemos entender que na verdade todos nós discriminamos, e não existe absolutamente nada de errado nisso. Discriminar pessoas faz parte da natureza humana e quem se recusa a admitir esse fato é um hipócrita. Mulheres discriminam homens na hora de selecionar um parceiro; elas avaliam diversos quesitos, como altura, aparência, status social, condição financeira e carisma. E dentre suas opções, elas sempre escolherão o homem mais atraente, másculo e viril, em detrimento de todos os baixinhos, calvos, carentes, frágeis e inibidos que possam estar disponíveis. Da mesma forma, homens sempre terão preferência por mulheres jovens, atraentes e delicadas, em detrimento de todas as feministas de meia-idade, acima do peso, de cabelo pintado, que são mães solteiras e militantes socialistas. A própria militância progressista discrimina pessoas de forma virulenta e intransigente, como fica evidente no tratamento que dispensam a mulheres bolsonaristas e a negros de direita.

A verdade é que — não importa o nível de histeria da militância progressista — a discriminação é inerente à condição humana e um direito natural inalienável de todos. É parte indissociável da natureza humana e qualquer pessoa pode e deve exercer esse direito sempre que desejar. Não existe absolutamente nada de errado em discriminar pessoas. O problema real é a ideologia progressista e o autoritarismo politicamente correto, movimentos tirânicos que não respeitam o direito das pessoas de discriminar.

Fascismo

Quando falamos de fascismo, precisamos entender que, para a esquerda política, o fascismo é compreendido como um conceito completamente divorciado do seu significado original. Para um militante de esquerda, fascista é todo aquele que defende posicionamentos contrários ao progressismo, não se referindo necessariamente a um fascista clássico.

Mas, seja como for, é necessário entender que — como qualquer ideologia política — até mesmo o fascismo clássico tem o direito de existir e ocupar o seu devido lugar; portanto, fascistas não devem ser arbitrariamente censurados, apesar de defenderem conceitos que representam uma completa antítese de tudo aquilo que é valioso para os entusiastas da liberdade.

Em um país como o Brasil, onde socialistas e comunistas tem total liberdade para se expressar, defender suas ideologias e até mesmo formar partidos políticos, não faz absolutamente o menor sentido que fascistas — e até mesmo nazistas assumidos — sofram qualquer tipo de discriminação. Embora socialistas e comunistas se sintam moralmente superiores aos fascistas (ou a qualquer outra filosofia política ou escola de pensamento), sabemos perfeitamente que o seu senso de superioridade é fruto de uma pueril romantização universitária da sua própria ideologia. A história mostra efetivamente que o socialismo clássico e o comunismo causaram muito mais destruição do que o fascismo.

Portanto, se socialistas e comunistas tem total liberdade para se expressar, não existe a menor razão para que fascistas não usufruam dessa mesma liberdade.

É claro, nesse ponto, seremos invariavelmente confrontados por um oportuno dilema — o famoso paradoxo da intolerância, de Karl Popper. Até que ponto uma sociedade livre e tolerante deve tolerar a intolerância (inerente a ideologias totalitárias)?

As leis de propriedade privada resolveriam isso em uma sociedade livre. O mais importante a levarmos em consideração no atual contexto, no entanto — ao defender ou criticar uma determinada ideologia, filosofia ou escola de pensamento —, é entender que, seja ela qual for, ela tem o direito de existir. E todas as pessoas que a defendem tem o direito de defendê-la, da mesma maneira que todos os seus detratores tem o direito de criticá-la.

Essa é uma forte razão para jamais apoiarmos a censura. Muito pelo contrário, devemos repudiar com veemência e intransigência toda e qualquer forma de censura, especialmente a estatal.

Existem duas fortes razões para isso:

A primeira delas é a volatilidade da censura (especialmente a estatal). A censura oficial do governo, depois que é implementada, torna-se absolutamente incontrolável. Hoje, ela pode estar apontada para um grupo de pessoas cujas ideias divergem das suas. Mas amanhã, ela pode estar apontada justamente para as ideias que você defende. É fundamental, portanto, compreendermos que a censura estatal é incontrolável. Sob qualquer ponto de vista, é muito mais vantajoso que exista uma vasta pluralidade de ideias conflitantes na sociedade competindo entre si, do que o estado decidir que ideias podem ser difundidas ou não.

Além do mais, libertários e anarcocapitalistas não podem nunca esperar qualquer tipo de simpatia por parte das autoridades governamentais. Para o estado, seria infinitamente mais prático e vantajoso criminalizar o libertarianismo e o anarcocapitalismo — sob a alegação de que são filosofias perigosas difundidas por extremistas radicais que ameaçam o estado democrático de direito — do que o fascismo ou qualquer outra ideologia centralizada em governos burocráticos e onipotentes. Portanto, defender a censura, especialmente a estatal, representa sempre um perigo para o próprio indivíduo, que mais cedo ou mais tarde poderá ver a censura oficial do sistema se voltar contra ele.

Outra razão pela qual libertários jamais devem defender a censura, é porque — ao contrário dos estatistas — não é coerente que defensores da liberdade se comportem como se o estado fosse o seu papai e o governo fosse a sua mamãe. Não devemos terceirizar nossas próprias responsabilidades, tampouco devemos nos comportar como adultos infantilizados. Assumimos a responsabilidade de combater todas as ideologias e filosofias que agridem a liberdade e os seres humanos. Não procuramos políticos ou burocratas para executar essa tarefa por nós.

Portanto, se você ver um fascista sendo censurado nas redes sociais ou em qualquer outro lugar, assuma suas dores. Sinta-se compelido a defendê-lo, mostre aos seus detratores que ele tem todo direito de se expressar, como qualquer pessoa. Você não tem obrigação de concordar com ele ou apreciar as ideias que ele defende. Mas silenciar arbitrariamente qualquer pessoa não é uma pauta que honra a liberdade.

Se você não gosta de estado, planejamento central, burocracia, impostos, tarifas, políticas coletivistas, nacionalistas e desenvolvimentistas, mostre com argumentos coesos e convincentes porque a liberdade e o livre mercado são superiores a todos esses conceitos. Mas repudie a censura com intransigência e mordacidade.

Em primeiro lugar, porque você aprecia e defende a liberdade de expressão para todas as pessoas. E em segundo lugar, por entender perfeitamente que — se a censura eventualmente se tornar uma política de estado vigente entre a sociedade — é mais provável que ela atinja primeiro os defensores da liberdade do que os defensores do estado.

Machismo

Muitos elementos do comportamento masculino que hoje são atacados com virulência e considerados machistas pelo movimento progressista são na verdade manifestações naturais intrínsecas ao homem, que nossos avôs cultivaram ao longo de suas vidas sem serem recriminados por isso. Com a ascensão do feminismo, do progressismo e a eventual problematização do sexo masculino, o antagonismo militante dos principais líderes da revolução sexual da contracultura passou a naturalmente condenar todos os atributos genuinamente masculinos, por considerá-los símbolos de opressão e dominação social.

Apesar do Brasil ser uma sociedade liberal ultra-progressista, onde o estado protege mais as mulheres do que as crianças — afinal, a cada semana novas leis são implementadas concedendo inúmeros privilégios e benefícios às mulheres, aos quais elas jamais teriam direito em uma sociedade genuinamente machista e patriarcal —, a esquerda política persiste em tentar difundir a fantasia da opressão masculina e o mito de que vivemos em uma sociedade machista e patriarcal.

Como sempre, a realidade mostra um cenário muito diferente daquilo que é pregado pela militância da terra da fantasia. O Brasil atual não tem absolutamente nada de machista ou patriarcal. No Brasil, mulheres podem votar, podem ocupar posições de poder e autoridade tanto na esfera pública quanto em companhias privadas, podem se candidatar a cargos políticos, podem ser vereadoras, deputadas, governadoras, podem ser proprietárias do próprio negócio, podem se divorciar, podem dirigir, podem comprar armas, podem andar de biquíni nas praias, podem usar saias extremamente curtas, podem ver programas de televisão sobre sexo voltados única e exclusivamente para o público feminino, podem se casar com outras mulheres, podem ser promíscuas, podem consumir bebidas alcoólicas ao ponto da embriaguez, e podem fazer praticamente tudo aquilo que elas desejarem. No Brasil do século XXI, as mulheres são genuinamente livres para fazer as próprias escolhas em praticamente todos os aspectos de suas vidas. O que mostra efetivamente que a tal opressão do patriarcado não existe.

O liberalismo social extremo do qual as mulheres usufruem no Brasil atual — e que poderíamos estender a toda a sociedade contemporânea ocidental — é suficiente para desmantelar completamente a fábula feminista da sociedade patriarcal machista e opressora, que existe única e exclusivamente no mundinho de fantasias ideológicas da esquerda progressista.

Tão importante quanto, é fundamental compreender que nenhum homem é obrigado a levar o feminismo a sério ou considerá-lo um movimento social e político legítimo. Para um homem, ser considerado machista ou até mesmo assumir-se como um não deveria ser um problema. O progressismo e o feminismo — com o seu nefasto hábito de demonizar os homens, bem como todos os elementos inerentes ao comportamento e a cultura masculina — é que são o verdadeiro problema, conforme tentam modificar o homem para transformá-lo em algo que ele não é nem deveria ser: uma criatura dócil, passiva e submissa, que é comandada por ideologias hostis e antinaturais, que não respeitam a hierarquia de uma ordem social milenar e condições inerentes à própria natureza humana. Com o seu hábito de tentar modificar tudo através de leis e decretos, o feminismo e o progressismo mostram efetivamente que o seu real objetivo é criminalizar a masculinidade.

A verdade é que — usufruindo de um nível elevado de liberdades — não existe praticamente nada que a mulher brasileira do século XXI não possa fazer. Adicionalmente, o governo dá as mulheres uma quantidade tão avassaladora de vantagens, privilégios e benefícios, que está ficando cada vez mais difícil para elas encontrarem razões válidas para reclamarem da vida. Se o projeto de lei que pretende fornecer um auxílio mensal de mil e duzentos reais para mães solteiras for aprovado pelo senado, muitas mulheres que tem filhos não precisarão nem mesmo trabalhar para ter sustento. E tantas outras procurarão engravidar, para ter direito a receber uma mesada mensal do governo até o seu filho completar a maioridade.

O que a militância colorida da terra da fantasia convenientemente ignora — pois a realidade nunca corresponde ao seu conto de fadas ideológico — é que o mundo de uma forma geral continua sendo muito mais implacável com os homens do que é com as mulheres. No Brasil, a esmagadora maioria dos suicídios é praticada por homens, a maioria das vítimas de homicídio são homens e de cada quatro moradores de rua, três são homens. Mas é evidente que uma sociedade liberal ultra-progressista não se importa com os homens, pois ela não é influenciada por fatos concretos ou pela realidade. Seu objetivo é simplesmente atender as disposições de uma agenda ideológica, não importa quão divorciadas da realidade elas são.

O nível exacerbado de liberdades sociais e privilégios governamentais dos quais as mulheres brasileiras usufruem é suficiente para destruir a fantasiosa fábula da sociedade machista, opressora e patriarcal. Se as mulheres brasileiras não estão felizes, a culpa definitivamente não é dos homens. Se a vasta profusão de liberdades, privilégios e benefícios da sociedade ocidental não as deixa plenamente saciadas e satisfeitas, elas podem sempre mudar de ares e tentar uma vida mais abnegada e espartana em países como Irã, Paquistão ou Afeganistão. Quem sabe assim elas não se sentirão melhores e mais realizadas?

Homofobia

Quando falamos em homofobia, entramos em uma categoria muito parecida com a do racismo: o direito de discriminação é totalmente válido. Absolutamente ninguém deve ser obrigado a aceitar homossexuais ou considerar o homossexualismo como algo normal. Sendo cristão, não existe nem sequer a mais vaga possibilidade de que algum dia eu venha a aceitar o homossexualismo como algo natural. O homossexualismo se qualifica como um grave desvio de conduta e um pecado contra o Criador.

A Bíblia proíbe terminantemente conduta sexual imoral, o que — além do homossexualismo — inclui adultério, fornicação, incesto e bestialidade, entre outras formas igualmente pérfidas de degradação.

Segue abaixo três passagens bíblicas que proíbem terminantemente a conduta homossexual:

“Não te deitarás com um homem como se deita com uma mulher. Isso é abominável!” (Levítico 18:22 — King James Atualizada)

“Se um homem se deitar com outro homem, como se deita com mulher, ambos terão praticado abominação; certamente serão mortos; o seu sangue estará sobre eles.” (Levítico 20:13 — João Ferreira de Almeida Atualizada)

“O quê! Não sabeis que os injustos não herdarão o reino de Deus? Não sejais desencaminhados. Nem fornicadores, nem idólatras, nem adúlteros, nem homens mantidos para propósitos desnaturais, nem homens que se deitam com homens, nem ladrões, nem gananciosos, nem beberrões, nem injuriadores, nem extorsores herdarão o reino de Deus.” (1 Coríntios 6:9,10 —Tradução do Novo Mundo das Escrituras Sagradas com Referências)

Se você não é religioso, pode simplesmente levar em consideração o argumento do respeito pela ordem natural. A ordem natural é incondicional e incisiva com relação a uma questão: o complemento de tudo o que existe é o seu oposto, não o seu igual. O complemento do dia é a noite, o complemento da luz é a escuridão, o complemento da água, que é líquida, é a terra, que é sólida. E como sabemos o complemento do macho — de sua respectiva espécie — é a fêmea.

Portanto, o complemento do homem, o macho da espécie humana, é naturalmente a mulher, a fêmea da espécie humana. Um homem e uma mulher podem naturalmente se reproduzir, porque são um complemento biológico natural. Por outro lado, um homem e outro homem são incapazes de se reproduzir, assim como uma mulher e outra mulher.

Infelizmente, o mundo atual está longe de aceitar como plenamente estabelecida a ordem natural pelo simples fato dela existir, visto que tentam subvertê-la a qualquer custo, não importa o malabarismo intelectual que tenham que fazer para justificar os seus pontos de vista distorcidos e antinaturais. A libertinagem irrefreável e a imoralidade bestial do mundo contemporâneo pós-moderno não reconhecem nenhum tipo de limite. Quem tenta restabelecer princípios morais salutares é imediatamente considerado um vilão retrógrado e repressivo, sendo ativamente demonizado pela militância do hedonismo, da luxúria e da licenciosidade desenfreada e sem limites.

Definitivamente, fazer a apologia da moralidade, do autocontrole e do autodomínio não faz nenhum sucesso na Sodoma e Gomorra global dos dias atuais. O que faz sucesso é lacração, devassidão, promiscuidade e prazeres carnais vazios. O famoso escritor e filósofo francês Albert Camus expressou uma verdade contundente quando disse: “Uma só frase lhe bastará para definir o homem moderno — fornicava e lia jornais”.

Qualquer indivíduo tem o direito inalienável de discriminar ativamente homossexuais, pelo direito que ele julgar mais pertinente no seu caso. A objeção de consciência para qualquer situação é um direito natural dos indivíduos. Há alguns anos, um caso que aconteceu nos Estados Unidos ganhou enorme repercussão internacional, quando o confeiteiro Jack Phillips se recusou a fazer um bolo de casamento para o “casal” homossexual Dave Mullins e Charlie Craig.

Uma representação dos direitos civis do estado do Colorado abriu um inquérito contra o confeiteiro, alegando que ele deveria ser obrigado a atender todos os clientes, independente da orientação sexual, raça ou crença. Preste atenção nas palavras usadas — ele deveria ser obrigado a atender.

Como se recusou bravamente a ceder, o caso foi parar invariavelmente na Suprema Corte, que decidiu por sete a dois em favor de Jack Phillips, sob a alegação de que obrigar o confeiteiro a atender o “casal” homossexual era uma violação nefasta dos seus princípios religiosos. Felizmente, esse foi um caso em que a liberdade prevaleceu sobre a tirania progressista.

Evidentemente, homossexuais não devem ser agredidos, ofendidos, internados em clínicas contra a sua vontade, nem devem ser constrangidos em suas liberdades pelo fato de serem homossexuais. O que eles precisam entender é que a liberdade é uma via de mão dupla. Eles podem ter liberdade para adotar a conduta que desejarem e fazer o que quiserem (contanto que não agridam ninguém), mas da mesma forma, é fundamental respeitar e preservar a liberdade de terceiros que desejam rejeitá-los pacificamente, pelo motivo que for.

Afinal, ninguém tem a menor obrigação de aceitá-los, atendê-los ou sequer pensar que uma união estável entre duas pessoas do mesmo sexo — incapaz de gerar descendentes, e, portanto, antinatural — deva ser considerado um matrimônio de verdade. Absolutamente nenhuma pessoa, ideia, movimento, crença ou ideologia usufrui de plena unanimidade no mundo. Por que o homossexualismo deveria ter tal privilégio?

Homossexuais não são portadores de uma verdade definitiva, absoluta e indiscutível, que está acima da humanidade. São seres humanos comuns que — na melhor das hipóteses —, levam um estilo de vida que pode ser considerado “alternativo”, e absolutamente ninguém tem a obrigação de considerar esse estilo de vida normal ou aceitável. A única obrigação das pessoas é não interferir, e isso não implica uma obrigação em aceitar.

Discriminar homossexuais (assim como pessoas de qualquer outro grupo, raça, religião, nacionalidade ou etnia) é um direito natural por parte de todos aqueles que desejam exercer esse direito. E isso nem o direito positivo nem a militância progressista poderão algum dia alterar ou subverter. O direito natural e a inclinação inerente dos seres humanos em atender às suas próprias disposições é simplesmente imutável e faz parte do seu conjunto de necessidades.

Conclusão

A militância progressista é absurdamente autoritária, e todas as suas estratégias e disposições ideológicas mostram que ela está em uma guerra permanente contra a ordem natural, contra a liberdade e principalmente contra o homem branco, cristão, conservador e tradicionalista — possivelmente, aquilo que ela mais odeia e despreza.

Nós não podemos, no entanto, ceder ou dar espaço para a agenda progressista, tampouco pensar em considerar como sendo normais todas as pautas abusivas e tirânicas que a militância pretende estabelecer como sendo perfeitamente razoáveis e aceitáveis, quer a sociedade aceite isso ou não. Afinal, conforme formos cedendo, o progressismo tirânico e totalitário tende a ganhar cada vez mais espaço.

Quanto mais espaço o progressismo conquistar, mais corroída será a liberdade e mais impulso ganhará o totalitarismo. Com isso, a cultura do cancelamento vai acabar com carreiras, profissões e com o sustento de muitas pessoas, pelo simples fato de que elas discordam das pautas universitárias da moda.

A história mostra perfeitamente que quanto mais liberdade uma sociedade tem, mais progresso ela atinge. Por outro lado, quanto mais autoritária ela for, mais retrocessos ela sofrerá. O autoritarismo se combate com liberdade, desafiando as pautas de todos aqueles que persistem em implementar a tirania na sociedade. O politicamente correto é o nazismo dos costumes, que pretende subverter a moral através de uma cultura de vigilância policial despótica e autoritária, para que toda a sociedade seja subjugada pela agenda totalitária progressista.

Pois quanto a nós, precisamos continuar travando o bom combate em nome da liberdade. E isso inclui reconhecer que ideologias, hábitos e costumes de que não gostamos tem o direito de existir e até mesmo de serem defendidos.

@ a619eb76:11d75935

what is the story with these new pools, anyone know?

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/602865

@ 1bc70a01:24f6a411

The concept of value of value is one where information yearns to flow freely, transactions should be voluntary, unlimited and direct. In V4V model, people pay what something is worth to them.

Sounds great. On paper. There are some issues…

Free sucks

At least, that’s the perception. People don’t assign much value to free. Ask anyone who has ever ran any business and has not suggested a value for a product or service and they’ll tell you that they earned far less than when charging for the thing.

It’s true, some people will give a lot, some a little, and most none. Most - none. None.

Pricing is Signal

Pricing is a signal of desirability and quality. Of course, it is often incorrect and people manipulate pricing all the time. But for the most part, people don’t see much value in free. Unless a recommended price is offered, people will usually pay nothing. This is not a great model to thrive on if you spend years of your life acquiring knowledge and turning it into products that nobody ultimately buys. 
I have very personal experience with free. I’ve created and sold digital products and ran many pricing experiments myself. The highest priced products usually generated the most revenue. Surprise! The middle cost product (same product, just priced less) decimated the revenue stream. When set to 0 (even with a suggested minimum price), I generated almost no revenue at all.

None of this is surprising. Pricing acts as a psychological anchor. “You get what you pay for” is ingrained in our brains whether we think about it or not.

People are clueless

The issue with price is that most people don’t have a clue what anything is worth. The only time people have any rough idea of what they should pay for something is when they have already purchased that thing in the past. But, introduce something they have never before purchased and they won’t have a single clue about what to pay. Take for example a set of professional photos of you and your family. Unless you’ve been to a photo studio in the last 5 years, you probably won’t have a single clue what that package of photos is worth. Does that mean the product is worthless? Of course not, but people don’t know what to pay.

In a value for value model, the absence of price makes it super difficult to determine the value of anything. You may take some social cues from previous payments from other people, but this could backfire for the content creator.

Suppose I created a UI framework that saved developers hundreds of hours. In theory, I should be able to charge at least a few hours’ worth of value for this product. If the developer’s time is valued at $100/hour, a $200 price for a product that saves you $2000 worth of time seems very justifiable. Not only do you get to use it once, but you can re-use the product for ALL future projects and employment.

Now, remove the price and see what people pay. Absolutely nothing. You may have a few people who pay $200 voluntarily, but it’s highly unlikely The vast majority will pay nothing, and some may “tip” in the 5-$60 range. Anything that approaches a $100 mark is seen as a purchase. Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just see what other founders have figured out long ago and combine with my own observations. Don’t kill the messenger.

Free is Expensive

If I am accurate in my assessment and recall my personal experiences accurately, then the majority of people who consume your value will do so for free. When that content is a product, you may end up spending a lot of time on supporting the thing that is not generating any revenue. You don’t want to be rude and ignore people so you’ll probably spend your valuable time answering questions and helping them troubleshoot issues. All of that time adds up. Startup founders who offer free tiers or near free tiers of services learn very quickly that free customers are the most painful and demanding. You are basically forced to charge just to avoid dealing with demanding people who expect everything for nothing.

Free is Noise

Price is not just a request for value, but it acts as a feedback signal for future content. If you have no idea what people are paying for, it’s difficult to know if what you create is worth anything. A situation where the vast majority of your content is consumed for free yield a lot of noise.

Well, why not focus on the people who pay? You certainly could, but it ends up being a tiny fraction of the sample size you could have had if you actually charged something up front.

Lack of forecasting

Businesses rely on predictible revenue. Forecasting is necessary for all sorts of decisions if you work with anyone but yourself. It helps with purchasing decision (expenses) and with planning of future products. Value for value makes it impossible to know what your revenue will be next month as you just have no idea if everyone pays nothing or a lot.

V4V could make you uncompetitive

In a model where one person charges a fixed price and the other is relying on the good will of the people to "see the value" in their work, the person with predictible revenue will most likely win out in a competitive environment - enabling them to get ahead of you and your business. They will have an easier time planning further content / products and hiring people to scale the business even further.

It’s not all hopeless

That’s not to say that I don’t like the idea of value for value. Of course I only want people to pay if they find the thing useful. The issue is that people may not know the thing is useful until they’ve already acquired it. At that point who is going back to pay for the thing they already got for free? Few to none.

Value for value may work. For some.

I’m not saying value for value doesn’t work sometimes, for some people. It is entirely possible that a person earns a living on v4v transactions. However, I think for that to be true there may be other factors at play such as social standing, personal brand, influence, likability, status within a community. The vast majority of creators do not fall into this category and will just struggle.

I’m cautiously optimistic about V4V and hope it works out at scale. But as it stands, I have not seen much evidence that it actually pays the bills. Yes, there has been some support for podcasts on Fountain, but it is unclear whether it is just as or more significant than traditional transaction model.

“Information is not scarce” is irrelevant

There’s some notion that information yearns to be free and cannot be scarce by nature. I think this may be a false argument from the start. When we purchase digital things, we are not paying for scarcity - it’s totally irrelevant. We pay for the experience and the feeling we get from that thing. In fact, the same is probably true for physical products (with the added benefit of personal sustenance). I don’t go into the grocery store to buy a dinner and fork over the money because it’s scarce. I pay because I’m hungry. There’s utility and there’s pleasure and fulfillment. If I’m having a dinner with friends, there’s also fun. Unless I am totally misunderstanding the argument, I’m not sure how it applies.

In Summary

• Value 4 value may work at scale, but remains to be seen
• It could be great fun money but not serious enough to pay the bills (for most of us)
• Sounds good on paper but we humans have our own ways of thinking about value and what it's worth
• May work well for people who build a personal brand or have status in a community

As always I look forward to your thoughts. Let me know if I’m overlooking something or should consider some point of view in more depth.

@ 3f770d65:7a745b24

Habla is a new blogging platform that's based on Nostr. Or as various Nostr client developers like to call it:

"A way to get Derek Ross to stop sending walls of text".

You can edit posts, which is very nice.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

How stupid is it for a government to sell bitcoin in return for a money it can already print at will? FFS 🤦

https://primal.net/e/note1z8aezletp3k570eqpxumc7t0y537nprujvgym2ssdfzxsglujmfskeg8ps

I wanted to make sure @TomK saw this.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/602808

@ e968e50b:db2a803a

QUESTION:

So I found this shareware game: game repo

I want to turn it into a lightning/nostr game, kind of like that lntictactoe game. I just like the idea of throwing some sats in on a guessing game like that, maybe even just loading them in up front for anybody that wants to play for some free sats. The license looks pretty, "do whatever you want",y to me, but maybe somebody that does this more often might have some more insight.

Copyright (c) 2012-2023 Luigi Pinca

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/602790

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Curious if the devs on SN have any insights, opinions, or recommendations regarding FP. I've been aware of it for many years, I get the basic concepts but I'm now working on a rewrite of an existing app and another dev and I are considering FP.

Its gonna be a Typescript based node application likely using ExpressJS.

My college is a huge advocate for FP and really likes fp-ts.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/602772

@ 6c8c7979:15595f3e

The art pieces that become some of the most expensive in the world constitute an important part of global cultural and economic heritage. These paintings are distinguished by their high artistic and historical value, attracting attention and appreciation from art lovers and investors alike.

Among the most expensive paintings in the world is "Salvator Mundi" by Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for a record-breaking amount exceeding $450 million. This painting represents a religious message and is considered one of the artist's most prominent works.

Another notable example is the painting "Interchange" by Dutch painter Willem de Kooning, which was sold for over $300 million. This artwork is known for its vibrant colors and strong visual effects, earning widespread fame in the art world.

These paintings, alongside many others, form part of the global art market characterized by intense competition and record-setting prices. They consistently captivate the public's interest due to their invaluable artistic, cultural, and historical significance.

@ 2c7cc62a:622a5cdc

todo-mattn #todo

Nostr 上で todo 管理する仕組み

bot と対話する？

vim-jp radio のイベント自動投稿

今欲しい要件としては、vim-jp radio のオフィシャルアカウントを作る事なのだけど、秘密鍵は別の方(Nostr にはいない)の管理としたい。代理で投稿する人間には秘密鍵は持たせたくない。 ここでは手動投稿に加え自動投稿が必要になるので、代理署名機能が必要になる。

代理署名としては NIP-46 が考えられる。NIP-46 は 3way handshake の様に機能する。

まず投稿者は bunker: という認証情報を使ってリレーに代理投稿依頼を投げる。kind は 24133 の短命イベント。 このイベントを署名者が監視(代理署名サーバ)していて同じ bunker に書かれているパスワードを使って解読、署名を行って返信する。キーはオリジナルのイベントのIDを使うので、同じ時刻の同じコンテンツでさえなければバッティングする事はない。 投稿者はその返信をリレー経由で受け取って署名済み投稿をリレーに投げるという事になる。

今回の要件を満たすかを考えた場合、Nostr にいない vim-jp radio の発案者に秘密鍵のみを渡す事を考えた場合、この代理署名サーバを常時稼働させておく必要があるという事。しかも現状は pubkey 1つに対して1つ起動する必要がある。ちょっとリソース食い。

また代理署名サーバを起動する際に秘密鍵が必要になる。この時点で初めの要件である「代理で投稿する人間には秘密鍵は持たせたくない」を満たせなくなる。特にイベント発案者が Nostr にいないならなおさらである。

という事で本件で NIP-46 を使うアイデアについては一旦保留。

@ 1aa437b3:51119dbd

I have seen there a some tools for blogging via nostr... In a Medium type way. I've also tried npub.pro the other day. I wonder if there is something that is truly a blog, belonging to me via nostr where it's not the firehose but just posts I choose that end up there. Maybe there is a tool or method I have not seen?

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/602294

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Yesterday's edition https://stacker.news/items/600906/r/Undisciplined

Is it possible for these posts and comments to become top posts and comments today, if people zap them?

I'm not sure if I understand exactly how that works. Is it based on when stuff gets zapped or is it based on when it's posted?

• • -

July 9, 2023 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Bitcoin needs more Record, Comic and Book Shops

Excerpt

Bitcoin needs more cultural hubs, and I'm referring to the curator/gate keeper/provocateur of everything that is of and related to the Bitcoin ethos. Even things only tertiary or tangently related.

3948 sats \ 23 comments \ @SatoshisSkeleton \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/206408/r/Undisciplined?commentId=206466

Excerpt

Damn, heavy story in the comments about one of the founders of CloudFlare: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/ […]

210 sats \ 1 reply \ @gmd

From Don't Take VC Funding – It Will Destroy Your Company by @hn in ~tech

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

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

8813 stacked \ 12.1k spent \ 0 posts \ 10 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

37.4k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 43k spent \ 63 posts \ 246 comments

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

July 9, 2022 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Log In With Lightning ⚡️

Excerpt

So far I’ve found four apps that support Log in with Lightning so far, but pretty sure there are more: - Stacker News - LNMarkets - Kollider - Zapread

437 sats \ 24 comments \ @kr \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/42958/r/Undisciplined?commentId=42991

Excerpt

Apparently we already have 1M 👀 I was here before that (?).

208 sats \ 0 replies \ @gms

From Daily discussion thread by @saloon in ~null

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

519.4k stacked \ 5660 spent \ 6 posts \ 14 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

511.8k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 512.1k spent \ 79 posts \ 123 comments

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

July 9, 2021 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Paraguay set to introduce Bitcoin bill on July 14th

7 sats \ 1 comment \ @gmd \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/229/r/Undisciplined?commentId=243

Excerpt

I'll be honest this sounds made up, but if it is, it is very good viral marketing.

1 sat \ 2 replies \ @gmd

From Casa client case study: the Tinder trap by @k00b in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

2 stacked \ 41 spent \ 3 posts \ 4 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

21 stacked \ 0 revenue \ 59 spent \ 8 posts \ 7 comments

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/602257

@ 08eade50:687ccb04

Introducing Npub.pro - your personal websites from your Nostr content! Made with creators in mind, available to all.

Creating a website, maintaining and securing it is a lot of work. Sometimes it feels like an additional job, when all you really want to do is create. Setting up the hosting is a pain, securing the website is a constant uncertainty, and updating across all of your publishing platforms and your website feels like a huge chore.

Enter Npub.pro - a powerful tool to attract and convert your fans with less work. Powered by your Nostr content and enhanced with beautiful open source themes from Ghost, Npub.pro websites just work!

Some of the perks of a Nostr-based website: - Style it your way. Pick a theme that fits your audience and your preferences. You’re not limited to showing your content on one particular client. - Shareable links. Links to your website look amazing when shared on social media and messenger apps. - Great for conversions. A place to attract your audience and measure outcomes using existing web tools. - Hassle-free. No complex hosting, maintenance or security issues. Your content lives on relays. Themes are on Nostr relays and Blossom servers. No matter what, your site still works. - No duplicate work. Already published on Nostr? Npub.pro displays your Nostr content and you choose which type of content to display! - Works like an app. Your website is a progressive web app that can be added to home screen and works offline. - Post from any Nostr client. No need to log in to a CMS to check for comments. Everything is on Nostr so it just works from any client. - SEO friendly. Your content has proper meta tags and your website is rendered on the server to make sure search engines love it. - Self-host if you like. Use our scalable hosting infrastructure or switch to any file hosting like Github Pages. - Interoperable. Your website is a Nostr event proposed in NIP-512, themes are proposed NIP-136. Our engine is open-source libnostrsite.

Heads up! While this has been a long time in the making, we’re still in the early beta stage. Some stuff may be rough, won’t work properly and features may be missing. Content management is still a work in progress, please be patient.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Link: https://npub.pro

Built by Nostr.Band team.

@ a5d8475e:df9ff32c

Property to rent in Wolverhampton, Codsall, or Wombourne comes with its own set of responsibilities and considerations, particularly when it comes to ensuring safety and security. Whether you're a tenant or a landlord, prioritizing these aspects not only enhances peace of mind but also ensures a pleasant living experience. Here’s how you can ensure the safety and security of a rental property in these areas.

Secure Locks and Entry Points One of the fundamental aspects of houses to rent codsall security is having secure locks on all entry points. This includes the main doors, windows, and any additional entrances. Ensure that all locks are in good working condition and consider upgrading to more secure options if necessary. Landlords should check and maintain these regularly to uphold the property's security standards.

Neighborhood and Community Safety When considering a Property to rent in Wombourne research the neighborhood's safety reputation. Look into local crime rates, community initiatives, and the general atmosphere of the area. Choosing a property in a well-maintained and safe neighborhood contributes significantly to overall security.

Adequate Lighting Proper lighting is essential for both safety and security. Adequate exterior lighting around the property, especially near entry points and pathways, can deter intruders and enhance visibility during nighttime. Consider installing motion-sensor lights to automatically illuminate dark areas when motion is detected, providing an added layer of security.

Alarm Systems and Security Features Depending on the property and the area, installing an alarm system or security features such as CCTV cameras can significantly enhance security. These systems not only deter potential intruders but also provide a means of monitoring the property remotely. Tenants should discuss with landlords about existing security measures or explore options for additional security if needed.

Tenant Responsibilities Tenants also play a vital role in maintaining the security of their rental home. This includes locking doors and windows when leaving the property, not sharing keys or access codes with unauthorized individuals, and being vigilant about suspicious activities in the neighborhood. Clear communication with landlords regarding any security concerns ensures a collaborative effort towards maintaining a secure living environment.

Legal and Insurance Considerations Both landlords and tenants should be aware of their legal responsibilities concerning property security. Landlords must comply with local safety regulations and ensure that the property meets all necessary safety standards. Tenants should consider renters' insurance to protect their personal belongings in case of theft or damage.

Conclusion Ensuring the safety and security of a rental house in Wolverhampton, Codsall, or Wombourne requires proactive measures and collaboration between landlords and tenants.

**CONTACT Halle UK: ** 2-3 Walsall Rd, Willenhall, WV13 2EH info@halleuk.com +44 (0) 1902 504455

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• Content

• Conclusion

• FAQ

• You May Also Like

• External Links

Introduction

Bitcoin, the world's first and largest cryptocurrency, has been making headlines in recent years due to its fast growth and popularity. It's widely considered a new and innovative form of money that's decentralized, meaning it's not controlled by any government or financial institution. One of the biggest advantages of Bitcoin is that it's seen as a hedge against inflation, making it an attractive investment option for those looking to protect their wealth during times of high inflation.

What is Inflation and Why is it Important?

Inflation is a rise in prices over time and is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It's a normal economic phenomenon that occurs when the money supply increases, making each unit of currency worth less. Inflation affects everyone, as it reduces the purchasing power of money, making it harder to buy the things we need. High inflation can lead to economic instability, as people start to lose confidence in the currency.

How Traditional Investment Options Fail to Protect Against Inflation

Traditionally, people have invested in stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets to protect their wealth during times of high inflation. However, these investment options can be affected by inflation, as they're often tied to the value of the local currency. This means that if the currency loses value, the investment will also lose value.

How Bitcoin Protects Against Inflation

Bitcoin is unique in that it operates on a decentralized network and is not tied to any government or financial institution. This means that its value is not subject to inflation in the same way that traditional investments are. In addition, the supply of Bitcoin is limited, with only 21 million coins ever to be created. This scarcity, combined with increasing demand, helps to ensure that the value of Bitcoin is protected against inflation.

Why Bitcoin is a Good Hedge Against Inflation

In times of high inflation, people often flock to safe-haven assets, such as gold, to protect their wealth. However, Bitcoin offers several advantages over traditional safe-haven assets, including its accessibility, versatility, and security. It's easier to buy, store, and transfer than traditional investments, making it an attractive option for those looking to protect their wealth during times of high inflation.

Conclusion

Bitcoin is a new and innovative form of money that offers several advantages over traditional investment options, especially during times of high inflation. Its decentralized nature, limited supply, and increasing demand make it a good hedge against inflation, helping to protect people's wealth and purchasing power. Whether you're an experienced investor or just starting out, it's worth considering Bitcoin as part of your investment portfolio.

FAQ

Why is Bitcoin seen as a hedge against inflation? Bitcoin operates on a decentralized network and has a limited supply, which helps to protect its value against inflation. Unlike traditional investments, its value is not tied to the local currency, meaning it's less likely to be affected by inflation.

How do I buy Bitcoin? You can buy Bitcoin through a cryptocurrency exchange, such as Coinbase or Binance. To get started, you'll need to create an account and verify your identity, then deposit funds into your account using a bank transfer or credit card. Once your account is funded, you can buy Bitcoin using your local currency.

Is it safe to invest in Bitcoin? As with any investment, there are risks involved when investing in Bitcoin. However, many investors consider Bitcoin to be a safe haven asset due to its decentralized nature and limited supply. To ensure the safety of your investments, it's important to store your Bitcoin in a secure wallet and to keep your private keys safe

That's all for today

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

NOSTR: croxroad@getalby.com

X: @croxroadnews

Instagram: @croxroadnews.co

Youtube: @croxroadnews

Store: https://croxroad.store

Subscribe to CROX ROAD Bitcoin Only Daily Newsletter

https://www.croxroad.co/subscribe

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

@ aaa88aa0:14cf902a

to be or not to be

How do you upload images

Images can be uploaded on paid relays or for free on some clients.

• relay 5
• relay 2
• relay 3

| Head | Head | Head | Head | Head | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Data | Data | Data | Data | Data | | Data | Data | Data | Data | Data | | Data | Data | Data | Data | Data |

@ 1123ece2:7d1e00c0

Welcome to The Refinery.

The Church The Body of Christ is the theme for the next few Sunday’s.

These messages are primarily based around Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Today we are discussing, Christ, The Head Of The Church.

Our Scriptures today are, Colossians 1:9-23 NKJV

Preeminence of Christ

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 

10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 

11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 

12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 

13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 

18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Reconciled in Christ

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 

20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 

22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Introduction.

Paul was concerned about making clear the relationship of Christ with His people.

Sometimes his emphasis was on Christ’s people, His church, as His body.

At other times, Paul’s emphasis was on Christ as the head, or Lord, of His church.

The later emphasis is true of our text, “He is the head of the body, the church.”

This simple but profound text has three down to earth meanings for us.

1. The absolute primacy of Christ in His church.

Christ’s people must understand this, subscribe to it, and glory in it.

His interests are supreme, His cause comes first, His will is primary.

To the world the church is a convenient group of respectable people to be used, when the occasion arises, to serve the interests of the world.

Actually, the church is to serve only the interests, purposes, and will of Christ, to put Him first.

When in the church we put our own interests ahead of the interests of Christ, we dishonour Him as the head.

The question we need to ask ourselves is not, “How will this affect me?” But “What will be the result for Christ’s cause? Will this promote or injure? Will this serve His best interests or defeat them?”

When in the church we put human sentiment ahead of the interests of Christ, we dishonour Him as head.

Sometimes services are conducted that have little to do with the gospel but make a powerful appeal to sentiment.

People respond to these appeals with enthusiasm that shames our response to the simple appeal of the gospel.

When we let human sentiment become a more powerful force in our church life than our love for and loyalty to Christ, we are not putting Christ first, we are not letting him be the head of His church.

When in the church we put the interests and claims of the world ahead of Christ, we dishonour Him as head.

The worlds interests do have some claim on us, but not first claim.

Matthew 6:33, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Christ’s claims are first always.

Yet the cry of the majority of our church members is, “Don’t you know I’ve got to make a living?”

What they are really saying is, “I am only in this world on a business trip. If I can find a little time to spare, I’ll use it to serve the Lord.”

To a man who put a worldly claim first, Jesus said in Luke 9:62, But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

When in the church we put the desire to please people ahead of the desire to please Christ, we dishonour Him as head.

Genuine harmony in a church is a vital necessity.

Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

Yet there is a spurious, superficial sort of harmony in the church, bought at the expense of pleasing people instead of Christ, that doesn’t mean a thing except the defeat of the highest purposes of the gospel.

Some in the church are childish emotionally.

Their feelings will be hurt anyway.

In Christ’s church, we are not to be slappers of backs and dispensers of sugar cubes.

We are to serve the interests of Christ.

2. The absolute authority of Christ over His church.

Christ is the supreme ruler of His church on earth.

No one else is, nor could be.

Since His authority is supreme, since His church is answerable only to Him, three inescapable implications follow.

Firstly a New Testament church must be a pure democracy, a democratic body. 

This is inescapable.

Answerable only to Christ, who is the head, every member must be equal in rank, privilege, and power with every other member.

Jesus said, in Matthew 23:8, But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.

There are to be no ruling officials in the church.

Secondly, a New Testament church must be independent and self sufficient.

Since Christ is the head of the church, the doctrine of the autonomy of the local church not only makes sense, it is also necessary.

Since churches owe their supreme and individual allegiance to Christ, they must not accept rule from one another or any other kind of earthly rule.

If Christ is the head of His church, no one else can be.

This teaching denies all ecclesiastical systems that would substitute the rule of man for the rule of Christ.

It also mandates that the church should not be subservient to or united in anyway with the state.

The sphere of the church is entirely spiritual and answerable only to Christ.

Thirdly, New Testament churches, though independent of one another, must cooperate with one another in Christ’s program.

Since Christ is the head of the church, He is the head of every local New Testament church.

He has a program, and He can direct churches in that program.

Churches working together under the leadership of Christ, the head, do not surrender their sovereign rights in cooperating with one another, they exercise them.

The whole program, therefore, both within and among the churches ought to be characterised by harmony, unity, and purpose.

3. The absolute dependence of Christ’s church on Christ.

Just as the human body is helpless and lifeless apart from the head, so the church is helpless and lifeless apart from Christ.

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus gently warned His disciples, in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Do we not devise and promote and try to carry on programs that are of men and not of Christ?

In our modern day we speak of “the program of the church.”

But apart from Christ, the church has no program and no power to conceive or to execute a program.

The church is completely dependant on Him.

Conclusion.

“He is the head of the body, the church.”

How can we as individuals apply this text to our lives?

Since the body is composed of members, Christ must be the head of every member of the body.

Let each one of us ask, “Are His interests primary in my life? Is His rule over me complete? Is my faith in Him implicit?”

Until next time

Stay in the Blessings

I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.

When you spend time with God, your life will change in amazing ways, because God is a Redeemer. Theres nothing thats too hard for Him, and He can make you whole, spirit, soul and body!

You’re important to God, and you’re important to us at The Refinery.

When it comes to prayer, we believe that God wants to meet your needs and reveal His promises to you.

So whatever you’re concerned about and need prayer for we want to be here for you! Or even if you just want to say Hi, you can contact us at www.refinerylife.org

2024 IS A YEAR OF DECISIONS AND OPEN DOORS

© www.refinerylife.org  2013-2024 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, no part of this Article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission. 

This episode is brought to you by Refinery Life Australia:

If you enjoy The Refinery Life Radio Podcast you can help support The Refinery by doing the following:

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@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

People who enjoy hot weather have a more reptilian brain and are generally stupider. Rain and cloudy weather is the best weather. This isn't a matter of opinion, it's factual and logical.

The default response you're supposed to have when it's blisteringly sunny out is, "It's so nice outside." People don't have many preferences and take on whatever the default is given to you by society. Since reptilians run our society, and reptilians are cold-blooded, they much prefer the hot weather. This is why in the media we continually hear that very hot weather is nice weather. Reptilians also hate life and feed off of a death cycle. When you have heat so hot it starts to kill life. There's less chance of rain, which means plants and food can't trive, and the heat is so hot it kills the plants by drying them out.

Rain is the source of life. When it rains continually for a period of time, plants thrive. I ALWAYS feel a million times better when it's cloudy out and raining. For some reason I feel more conscious when it's raining. Rain represents life and safety. You have a water source, your food will thrive, plants continue to live, there is no threat of fire. Continual sun, especially very hot sun ruins all of this. This is a pre-curated opinion given to people because reptilians run the show and control the media/politics/education. Any logical person would realize that heat and hot temperatures are inferior.

A dumb retard might say, "But the sun is so nice because that means you can do things." This makes no sense to me. I assume by "do things" they mean go outside for a walk, or perhaps eat at a restraunt outside? I go on walks all the time in the rain, I love it. I love to sit in the rain, lay in the rain. Rain doesn't stop you from enjoying the outdoors, it actually makes it more enjoyable because you can actually withstand the temperature and the scenery is a million times more beautiful with rain providing life. With """good weather""" in the summer, you can't go outside barefoot without burning your feet. How is that "nice"? There are also always fires in the summer because it's insanely easy for fires to start. When it's blisteringly hot out, you really can't do much outside, which is why it makes no logical sense as to why people say it's "so nice out". You can't do anything when it's 105 degrees out. This is why kids have to play with some form of water in the summer in order to even withstand the heat (such as water guns, super soakers, pools, sprinklers, etc.) If you are to spend a prolonged time in the heat, your skin can burn, your feet will burn, you may come across rattlesnakes, fires may occur, the list goes on and on. Then when you go inside, you crave the cool air and a cool drink. It's really strange mentality, rain and everything that comes along with rain is much more natural. It represents life, temperatures are not as drastic and generally maintain at a livable comfortable range, and I believe it must provide some sort of conscious benefit since I always feel much better when it rains. It's not to say it should rain every single day for months on end. Balance is key. Ideally it should rain 75% of the time, and moderate sun 25% of the time.

I usually find that I get along better with people who also prefer the rain. Something about it usually signals that they're a thinking person compared to pre-programmed non-thinking humans. It's bizarre that the media equates rain to sadness and depression. It's inversion, as the reptilians do with everything because it's a major part of the occult.

@ 6c8c7979:15595f3e

Encouraging the boom in the U.S. real estate market between 2001-2006, banks and lending companies resorted to high-risk mortgage lending (French Archive).

The housing crisis is a serious financial crisis that suddenly surfaced, caused initially by a rush of banks to grant high-risk loans, and the crisis began to grow like a snowball to threaten the real estate sector in the United States and then the banks and global financial markets to pose a threat to the global financial economy.

How it happened?

1. The boom in the U.S. real estate market between 2001-2006 encouraged banks and lending companies to resort to high-risk mortgage lending, granting borrowers loans without sufficient guarantees, and with significant risks in exchange for higher interest rates, aiming to achieve maximum profits for lending institutions.

2. Major financial institutions expanded lending to real estate firms and contracting companies that exceeded seven hundred billion dollars.

3. Rising interest rates led to a change in the nature of the U.S. market, represented by declining home prices and an increasing number of defaults on mortgage loans in the United States.

4. Signs of the crisis surfaced clearly at the beginning of 2007, with increasing cases of default, a rise in foreclosure actions by lenders, and frequent confrontations between borrowers and banks.

5. The volume of defaulted loans for individuals reached around a hundred billion dollars.

6. The number of homes offered for sale in the United States increased by 75% in 2007, reaching 2.2 million, representing about 1% of all housing units in the United States.

7. The ability of banks to finance companies and individuals weakened, leading to a decline in investment and consumer spending, threatening a recession.

8. The connection of a large number of financial institutions, especially in Europe and Asia, to the U.S. financial market led the mortgage crisis from the United States to Asia and Europe, evolving into a larger crisis known as the global financial crisis.

Attempts to rescue:

1. Global central banks in the United States, Europe, and Asia injected about $326 billion into their financial systems to protect the global financial system from collapse.

2. The U.S. Senate approved a bill to protect property owners, providing $300 billion used by the Federal Housing Administration to refinance mortgage loans held by property owners.

3. The Federal Reserve (U.S. central bank) decided to cut its basic interest rates by 0.75% in one go, reaching 3.5%, to address increasing disruptions in global financial markets. The rate was then gradually reduced to 2%.

4. In Europe, the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg agreed to invest €11.2 billion in Fortis, a financial services company, effectively nationalizing it.

5. Ten international banks agreed to establish a $70 billion liquidity fund to meet their urgent needs, while central banks agreed to open lending facilities.

Implications of the crisis:

1. Bankruptcy of a number of U.S. mortgage lending companies such as New Century Financial Corporation and American Home Mortgage Investment.

2. Many real estate companies resorted to laying off a large number of employees, including Countrywide, a major mortgage lender in the United States, which decided to lay off five employees, totaling 12,000 jobs to cope with about $1.2 billion in losses from the mortgage crisis.

3. Between two and three million Americans face the risk of losing their homes.

4. Merrill Lynch, the U.S. investment firm, incurred losses of $14.1 billion.

5. Bank of America acquired Countrywide, the largest mortgage funder in the United States, for $4 billion, in a move to prevent one of the biggest collapses in America from occurring due to the housing crisis.

6. Stock markets deteriorated amid the risk of the crisis widening, while several major banks announced significant declines in their stock prices.

7. All European banks decided to freeze their operations in the U.S. real estate market, with BNP Paribas freezing investments worth $2.3 billion, the largest French-listed bank.

8. Deutsche Bank suffered a loss estimated at $954.818 million.

9. The British government nationalized Northern Rock, a mortgage finance bank, to prevent its bankruptcy, the first time a British company has been nationalized since the 1970s.

10. JPMorgan Chase announced the acquisition of Bear Stearns, an American business bank, at a low price with financial assistance from the Federal Reserve.

11. Citigroup sold $7.5 billion in bonds to Abu Dhabi's government investment authority.

12. Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, suffered record losses.

13. The Japanese government announced that its financial institutions' losses due to the mortgage crisis doubled to $5.6 billion in the last three months of last year.

@ 726a1e26:861a1c11

@ b2caa9b3:9eab0fb5

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give you a quick update on my travels. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much exploring lately. I had a bit of an accident a few days ago while crossing the street in the dark.

Since then, I've been mostly relaxing at the hostel, trying to keep my foot off it as much as possible. My daily routine has been pretty simple: wake up, shower, clean the wounds, grab breakfast, and then catch up on some work on my laptop. Not exactly the adventure I was hoping for, but hopefully it'll give my foot the rest it needs to heal quickly.

Speaking of the accident, let's just say it was a good reminder about the importance of being prepared, especially when traveling in Africa. Here, reliable access to electricity and Wi-Fi isn't always a guarantee. Luckily, the hostel I'm staying at has both, which is a real plus. However, frequent power outages are common, and having a flashlight is a lifesaver – literally!

In my case, the power was out when I tried to cross the street. Because I couldn't see a thing, I decided to walk to a crosswalk for better visibility. Big mistake. There was a curb at the crosswalk that I completely missed in the darkness. Tripped, fell, and ended up hurting my foot, knee, and hands.

Thankfully, the damage wasn't too severe. My knee and hands just had some minor scrapes, but my toes took the brunt of the fall. The hostel, unfortunately, didn't have a first-aid kit, but a kind fellow traveler from Egypt came to the rescue with some antiseptic fluid. Huge thanks to him for that!

Since the accident, I've been keeping the wounds open to the air, but today I noticed some signs of infection. So, I ventured out to a larger pharmacy to pick up some supplies and some disinfectant spray. Hopefully, this will help clear things up.

On a brighter note, the hostel has a fantastic rooftop bar and restaurant with Wi-Fi, which has become my hangout spot for the past few days. The view isn't too bad either!

Lesson Learned: Always take your flashlight out of your bag when it's dark outside, no matter how confident you feel. A little extra caution can go a long way in preventing accidents. From now on, my flashlight is coming out of my bag at dusk – no exceptions!

In the picture, you'll see my temporary workspace. I've spared you the close-up of my toes – trust me, it's not pretty!

Thanks for reading everyone, and have a great day!

Online

Profile Page | Support Page

@ 0e8c41eb:95ff0faa

Chef's notes

Sprinkle a pinch of salt in a bowl. Sift 275 grams of flour above it. Make a well in the center of the flour and sprinkle the yeast into it. Add 50 grams of butter, 25 grams of sugar, and the egg. Pour in the milk and knead the dough with the mixer or by hand into a smooth dough. If necessary, add a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky. Form the dough into a ball. Let the dough rise covered with cling film at room temperature for 1 hour.

Peel the apples. Cut the apples and apricots into pieces. Cook the fruit with 150 grams of sugar and 50 ml of water in 15 minutes into a thick compote. Let this fruit filling cool.

Knead the dough again briefly and roll it out to a round sheet of about 28-30 cm in diameter, so that it fits well over the baking tin. Press the dough into the tin and press it well into the corners. Let the dough rise again for 10 minutes and cut off the excess edges.

Spread the fruit filling over the dough.

Mix the rest of the flour with the remaining 100 grams of butter and 100 grams of sugar and knead it with your fingers into a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle this crumble mixture over the fruit filling. Bake the tart in the preheated oven at 200°C for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

Variations: Only apple? Make this tart with 1 kilo of apples. High or low? You can also bake the crumble tart in a low tart tin of 30 cm diameter. If the fruit filling is a bit too voluminous, you can make double the crumble mixture and sprinkle it over the larger surface area.

Additional needs: Mixer with dough hooks or food processor Cling film Round baking tin with a diameter of 28-30 cm, greased

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 45 min + 1 hour Rising
• 🍳 Cook time: 30 minutes
• 🍽️ Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 375 grams flour
• 1 packet dried yeast (7 grams)
• 125 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 275 grams sugar
• 1 egg
• 100 ml milk, at room temperature
• 500 grams apples
• 500 grams apricots (fresh or from a can)

Directions

1. Sprinkle a pinch of salt in a bowl. Sift 275 grams of flour above it. Make a well in the center of the flour and sprinkle the yeast into it. Add 50 grams of butter, 25 grams of sugar, and the egg. Pour in the milk and knead the dough with the mixer or by hand into a smooth dough. If necessary, add a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky. Form the dough into a ball. Let the dough rise covered with cling film at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Peel the apples. Cut the apples and apricots into pieces. Cook the fruit with 150 grams of sugar and 50 ml of water in 15 minutes into a thick compote. Let this fruit filling cool.
3. Knead the dough again briefly and roll it out to a round sheet of about 28-30 cm in diameter, so that it fits well over the baking tin. Press the dough into the tin and press it well into the corners. Let the dough rise again for 10 minutes and cut off the excess edges.
4. Spread the fruit filling over the dough.

@ 957966b6:2d4fe6b7

[{"type":"paragraph start","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":1,"section":1,"value":"Now in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":2,"section":1,"value":"Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":3,"section":1,"value":"Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with him, with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war. "},{"type":"paragraph end","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph start","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":4,"section":1,"value":"The second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it, "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":5,"section":1,"value":"men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to Yahweh’s house. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":6,"section":1,"value":"Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":7,"section":1,"value":"It was so, when they came into the middle of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them, and cast them into the middle of the pit, he, and the men who were with him. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":8,"section":1,"value":"But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” "},{"type":"paragraph end","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph start","chapter":41,"section":2},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":8,"section":2,"value":"So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":9,"section":1,"value":"Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (this was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed. "},{"type":"paragraph end","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph start","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":10,"section":1,"value":"Then Ishmael carried away captive all of the people who were left in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon. "},{"type":"paragraph end","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph start","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":11,"section":1,"value":"But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":12,"section":1,"value":"then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":13,"section":1,"value":"Now when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":14,"section":1,"value":"So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":15,"section":1,"value":"But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon. "},{"type":"paragraph end","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph start","chapter":41,"section":1},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":16,"section":1,"value":"Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the men of war, with the women, the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":17,"section":1,"value":"They departed and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt "},{"type":"paragraph text","chapter":41,"verse":18,"section":1,"value":"because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land. "},{"type":"paragraph end","chapter":41,"section":1}]

@ cec2981c:814d4f26

Chef's notes

More information about its origins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_bread

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 45 min
• 🍽️ Servings: 4-8

Ingredients

• 500 gr whole grain flour
• 450 ml butter milk
• 10 gr (sea)salt
• 15 gr baking soda (not US's "baking powder") (also known as sodium bicarbonate)
• a bit of butter or olive oil

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C
2. Put all flour in a bowl with baking soda and salt. Mix it well.
3. Create a hole in the middle and pour all butter milk in the center.
4. Stir it from the centre and slowly mixing all together until you get a dough.
5. When mixed, the dough is sticky. Use all purpose flour on counter and bulge to the same size as your skillet.
6. Use a bit of butter or olive oil to wet the skillet to prevent sticky bread. And put the dough in your skillet.
7. Add a but of flour on top of the dough and then cut lightly a X.
8. Bake for ±45 min on 220°C until done (inside temperature must be at least 95°C). Turn up the heat for the last 5 min to get a crust.
9. Let the bread cool down a bit before taking it out the skillet, and let it cool down even more before eating.
10. Donate some sats to me if you like this recipe.

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Yesterday's edition https://stacker.news/items/599828/r/Undisciplined

I had no idea SN was already discussing higher posting/comment fees two years ago. For the newer folks, it used to just be 1 sat to post anything.

• • -

July 8, 2023 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Anita Posch Has Good News About Africa

Excerpt

It’s amazing to see how the Bitcoin adoption has been growing in African countries. There was only one initiative I knew of in 2020, when I visited Zimbabwe and Botswana. That was the Satoshicentre in Gaborone founded by Alakanani Itireleng. Together we organized a meetup at the university, where I held a Bitcoin talk. Now there are communities like the Bitcoin Cowries in Ghana, Bitcoin Dada in Kenya, Bitcoin for Fairness in Zambia, Bitcoin Ekasi and Bitcoin Ubuntu in South Africa and the new Bitcoin Innovation Hub in Uganda. In the next few years we’ll see tremendous growth. Exciting!

1801 sats \ 21 comments \ @siggy47 \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/205973/r/Undisciplined?commentId=205977

Excerpt

this is how it be

685 sats \ 2 replies \ @birdeye21

From Are You a Bitcoin Advocate or a Underground Bitcoiner by @tomlaies in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

2nd place @03365d6a53 (1st hiding, presumed @siggy47)

481 stacked \ 1830 spent \ 0 posts \ 20 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

30.3k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 35.2k spent \ 86 posts \ 226 comments

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

July 8, 2022 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Gloria Zhao is now a Bitcoin Core maintainer

Link to https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/25524

2137 sats \ 11 comments \ @k00b \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/42602/r/Undisciplined?commentId=42634

Excerpt

I think raising posting/comment fees to reduce bad content is reasonable. 10 sats seems like a good starting point.

A cool side-effect is that by raising posting and comment fees, Stacker News will also have far more sats to give back to the best us […]

282 sats \ 3 replies \ @kr

From More and more reddit posts referencing stacker.news - increase ⚡️ cost for posts/comments? by @vijo in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

21.6k stacked \ 9265 spent \ 5 posts \ 20 comments \ 0 referrals

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

13.8k stacked \ 0 revenue \ 16.3k spent \ 96 posts \ 220 comments

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

July 8, 2021 📅

---

📝 TOP POST

Casa client case study: the Tinder trap

Link to https://blog.keys.casa/casa-client-case-study-the-tinder-trap/

2 sats \ 3 comments \ @k00b \ ~bitcoin

---

💬 TOP COMMENT

https://stacker.news/items/231/r/Undisciplined?commentId=232

Excerpt

Kevin Mulcrone has a twitter thread on the release and explains how his bitcoin based license works https://twitter.com/KayBeSee/status/1413162687379296256. […]

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @k00b

From Lily Wallet: A Slick Open Source Wallet with a Bitcoin Business Model by @k00b in ~bitcoin

---

🏆 TOP STACKER

No top stacker

---

🗺️ TOP TERRITORY

~bitcoin

everything bitcoin related

founded by @k00b on Tue May 02 2023

7 stacked \ 0 revenue \ 17 spent \ 3 posts \ 3 comments

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/600906

@ c11cf5f8:4928464d

Here we are again with our Magnificent Seven, trying to give you a hit of what you missed lately in the ~AGORA territory.

---

In case you missed

Look's like conversations are taking over! Here some interesting ones:

• https://stacker.news/items/597538/r/AG How to respond to illicit & immoral Payment Requests & Notices of Prosecution? by @supratic
• https://stacker.news/items/575922/r/AG Fight the sockpuppets with a "sockpuppets business" by @DarthCoin

---

Top-Performing Ads

• 01 [FOR SALE] Nashville Conference ticket for sale! $400 or Best Offfer! by @BlokchainB
• 02 [FOR SALE] Precious Metals/.999 Fine Silver 🔥 Sats Negotiable!!! 👊 by @watchmancbiz
• 03 [SELL] Antique Gold & Diamond Cross Pendant, Make an Offer in SATS Today!! by @watchmancbiz
• 04 🔥 Silver & Gold are about to EXPLODE 💥 by @watchmancbiz
• 05 🔥FOR SALE by Owner! Accepting SATS! Make an Offer I can't refuse 😉 by @watchmancbiz
• 06 [WTS] 2024 Nashville Bitcoin Conference ticket ($269) by @lv99slacker
• 07 [⚖️ SELL] Business Loans by @herschel

---

Create your Ads now!

• [⚖️ SELL] anything! or,
• if you're looking for something, hit the [🛒 BUY]!
• [🧑‍💻 HIRE] any bitcoiner skill or stuff from bitcoiners
• [🖇 OFFER] any product or service and stack more sats
• [🧑‍⚖️ AUCTION] to let stackers decide a fair price for your item
• [🤝 SWAP] if you're looking to exchange anything with anything else
• [🆓 FREE] your space, make a gift!
• [⭐ REVIEW] any bitcoin product or LN service you recently bought or subscribed to

---

Or contact @AGORA team on nostr DM and we can help you publish a personalized post.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/600789

@ 2c7cc62a:622a5cdc

Nostr で見掛けた焼肉店情報。いつか見返す。

ちょうしゅう

石垣島

http://yugafu-llc.com/

nostr:note1tgnt39hgyvn4lskp5s684czgsce9y55xm8ysfrfdj4mp3gguhhvsu6jtjw

とらじ

http://www.toraji.net/

大阪上新庄

nostr:note1x3fhl9w0wf5r7e75aem3n4ffcqcuqggp3uda6cj8p3ewg4hgrrjqwye9lc

瑞園

https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270307/27001977/

大阪上新庄

nostr:note1whjkp27hztcy5yey5r7nvc23yjcavpu322q5xyp8grua98rshz7stz9grh

たん清

https://www.tankiyo.com/

東京秋葉原

nostr:note1ke9ekpe3h92nq7qgjg4w4nmz4u7s4wyn753gagsf49pam4h6aefsddwr0k

@ c43d6de3:a6583169

Sovereign Souls

These little entities: Feet patter freely, knees against me.

Excitment seeking entities: Eyes in constant scan for fuscia flowers, limbs in constant contact with ground.

Can't be corraled kind of entities: In a beat, in a flash, once here now there, static fist clenching things undesirable.

Engaging Enclosures

Mind racing, I seek solace in their corraling. Bags of water balloons are enthralling. As the balloons fill, they linger. Bouncing trying to plunge in a finger.

Playground Pioneers

An exchange of glances with my wife and we're off. Little boy on my shoulders seeking a high colored prism. Little girl through tunnels offering a hand in altruism.

@ 7232d725:a22ff54e

code snipet ```

include

int main(void) { printf("moge\n"); return 0; } ```

@ 6c8c7979:15595f3e

We all know the beautiful tulip flower with its vibrant colors and distinctive shape, but what if I told you that people once traded their homes and estates for just one of them about the story of the first recorded economic bubble in history, known as Tulipmania.

In the early 17th century, the tulip flower gained great fame due to its attractive shape and its ability to withstand various climates and soil conditions. It became a symbol of wealth and prosperity, leading to increased demand as people sought to flaunt their status by purchasing it.

After a while, this flower was affected by a virus called the Mosaic virus, which caused changes in its colors and the appearance of streaks resembling flames. This increased its beauty, consequently raising its demand even more. Farmers started giving some of these tulips names of nobles, admirals, and other prominent figures.

So traders began buying them in large quantities, believing their prices would keep rising continuously. Ordinary people also started selling their possessions to acquire tulips with the intention of selling them later at higher prices and making profits. Thus, the meaning of buying these flowers shifted from possession and luxury to speculation and profit-making. As supply decreased and demand increased, the prices of these tulip bulbs soared to irrational levels. The average price reached 2,500 florins - the currency used at that time - for a single tulip bulb. To put this in perspective, the average annual income of a skilled worker ranged between 150-300 florins! In this picture, we see the most expensive tulip ever sold, named "Semper Augustus," which was sold for 6,000 florins at that time.

At the beginning of 1637, demand began to decline and the value stopped rising, causing traders to speculate that demand for these tulip bulbs would soon diminish. This sparked panic among everyone, leading to mass selling at the same time. As supply increased significantly, prices collapsed, and the situation turned upside down.

After this collapse, some people lost all their money, while others were left with the crops they had, as the government invalidated those contracts and considered them null and void in an attempt to address the situation. Subsequently, members of society became fearful of spending, leading to an economic depression.

@ 9171b08a:8395fd65

Five little heads brush past me in the foyer as I enter the house. I get a “Hey Daddio,” and “Love you Dad,” then a punch in the thigh, “‘sup dad,” from my two girls and little boy.

The neighbor's two girls are polite only in that they say their hellos but no one stops to give me the time of day. I hold the door open for the little band of miscreants and watch them make their way to the front yard.

“Let’s play tag,” says my eldest as she stretches her hands out high above her head.

I turn and notice my wife smiling at me, leaning against the kitchen island.

“No, you always hide in the woods,” says one of the neighbors.

I kiss my wife on the forehead, tell her I love her, and say, “I’ve got dinner tonight. You had a tough day.”

“Nuh-uh. I won’t. That phantom man is in there.”

I wince and look at Jasmine to see if she had heard that. She did and says, “I didn’t want to believe it but I’ve heard them talk about it a few times already so I asked Tanner if he and Andrea had heard the kids talking about the man in the forest. They’re worried about it.”

“Have you seen anything strange?” I ask.

Jasmine steps up to the floor to ceiling window in the breakfast nook and peers at the forest across the cul de sac. She purses her lips and shakes her head, “No. You?”

I say, “Nope,” as I pull out the ingredients I’ll be using for dinner tonight. “We’ve taught the kids well. They know not to go near strangers. I’ll see if I can maneuver the camera to keep an eye on the woodline. Yeah?”

“Yes, that sounds good,” says Jasmine, relaxing and settling into one of the breakfast nook table chairs. “I didn’t get the Letterman account.”

I take out the chicken from the refrigerator and say, “I figured as much from the way you sounded on the phone. Look, all is not lost. You just need to get a hold of someone who knows him well.”

Jasmine crosses her arms and peers out at the kids outside, “I don’t know. I might have to take this one as a loss.”

“No! You can’t give up,” I try to get her spirits up by reaching for a bottle of wine from the rack above the refrigerator. She smiles when I pour her a glass and puts a hand on mine to hold me for a while after I leave the glass in front of her. “You’re still in control. You can figure this out.”

“Sometimes things are just out of our control David.”

I stare back slack jawed, “Things are always in our control Jasmine. We didn’t get this far in life by pretending everything was predestined.” I laugh as I grip a handful air and say, “I’ve got life by the balls baby. Always have. That’s why we have such a splendid house, such a nice life.”

“Don’t give yourself all the credit, big guy.”

I turn back to the chicken with a smile and start preparing dinner. “Hey Google, play Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton.”

An upbeat voice from the little circular speaker on the kitchen island replies, “Sure, Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton.” Chris Stapleton’s classic four strums of the guitar echo out of the speaker and I dance as I marinate the chicken. I love the sound of the children enjoying themselves outside going along to the music; love the feeling of the chopped cilantro, salt, and pepper grind between my fingertips as I rub it into the chicken. The oil heats in the pan releasing a little wisp of smoke. The chicken sizzles in the pan and releases a hearty aroma.

When I rise from the pan, I notice Jasmine is standing at the window again, cup of wine in hand. Twilight is settling in but the street lights haven’t kicked on yet. Jasmine is strangely close to the window, I figure she’s enjoying the sight of the kids as their shadows zip past in front of her like specters in the night.

“David. I see something in the woodline.”

I shoot to her side and peer out the window along with her. The kids' shadows stalk in the night but I can’t make out anything across the cul de sac. “I don’t see anything.”

Jasmine plants a finger in the windowpane, “Right there. There, it's definitely someone out there. There’s a neighborhood on the other side of that treeline isn’t there?”

I strain to catch a glimpse at what she’s looking at and say, “I don't see anything. I, uh, I think there’s a neighborhood back there yeah.”

The street lights kick on. A man stands just out of reach of the street light on the far end of the cul de sac. “Holy fuck,” I say under my breath.

“Kids, come inside please!” shouts Jasmine.

“Aww c’mon mom. Just a bit longer,” calls out my son.

“Zach, get inside like your mother told you,” I growl and take my gaze away from the man for a second to sneer at my boy through the window. By the time I look back the man’s gone. “Where’d he go?”

Jasmine’s eyebrows raised, “He uh, just kind of vanished. Looks like he was never really there. Look,” She points at a tree shaped strangely enough like a man. “Maybe it was just that tree we were looking at.”

I didn’t take any chances. I tell the kids to come in and I maneuver the security cameras to get a good vantage of the place where the man had vanished. The next morning I help the kids get ready for school and personally walk them to their bus stop.

Still no man in the woods.

Shortly after I return to the house I kiss my wife goodbye and wish her good luck at work. Just as she pulls out of the cul de sac, as I am walking to my truck, I notice a figure in my peripheral vision but I don’t turn knowing I might scare him away. I halfway sit in my truck and shift the rearview mirror to where I’d seen him. There he is. The man stands several feet inside the forest. Greenery conceals him up to his torso and I can barely see his face in the shadows of the forest, but his figure is clear.

I consider calling the police, no, they won’t make it in time. I take a deep breath, count down from three, and burst out of my car into a sprint toward the man in the woods. The man doesn’t move an inch as I approach but somehow it seems as if the forest deepens around him. As I get closer his relative position from me grows further, but the man doesn’t take a step. It's as if the world around the man grows further and further out of focus the closer and closer I get.

I hear the leaves crushing beneath my footfalls and I look back for a second feeling as if I’d been running on a treadmill for the past few seconds. My house is barely visible through the foliage. I whipped my attention back at the man but he’s gone and I grind to a halt. I scrutinize the woods, the man has vanished.

My breaths slow, nearly holding my breath I listen intently for the sound of crushing leaves. The crunching leaves come from behind me at an alarming pace. Whatever is approaching is running fast. I turn, ready for someone to tackle me, but there is no one there, the footfalls go silent. I curse under my breath and peer back at my house. It's hard to make out now that I’m so deep in the woods, but it looks like the neighbor’s kids are out in front of my house. I shake my head and look down at my watch wondering how much time I’d wasted chasing the phantom man. I wince at the readout on my watch, five pm. Maybe I hit one of the program buttons while I was sprinting into the woods?

There’s a whisper in the wind, “Must of hit..”

I turn to the whispers.

Another whisper behind me, “One of the program buttons.”

I turn. I feel light in my own skin. There’s nothing behind me, no one around me, but I continue to hear the voice whispering.

“Five PM. Five?”

I’m literally beside myself. I know it's my own voice I’m hearing but I’m not sure if it's my thoughts or an illusion, just the wind blowing. Maybe it’s the shifting tree branches and my paranoia. The sun is bright, blinding. Suddenly, I’m seconds behind myself.

I saw my hand shifting in the sunlight. Perhaps it was the fatigue from a sleepless night having been worried about the phantom man lurking in the forest outside my house. The disconnect in time was jarring as every movement jolted like a violent tectonic shift in my head. I felt like a witness to my own reality as it had just happened.

I looked around and a sound off in the woods drew me deeper. The deeper I went, the dimmer the sunlight became. I ran faster and faster in chase of the sounds with the hopes I’d at least catch another glimpse of the phantom man.

Then, my foot caught a taproot and I slammed into rich dirt, but my descent did not stop. The dirt splashed about me as if I’d fallen in a lake of darkness. The grains of dirt filled my lungs in my panic.

A squirrel watched me trip and if only the gentle creature understood the mechanics of the universe he would’ve known where I had disappeared to. Unlike the squirrel, the tree on top whose branch it sat did not have the sense of sight to have seen me fall but it did encounter a minty sensation when it absorbed the nutrients of my being. I hadn’t granted the beings of its kind the sense of emotion, but somehow it still knew the sensation was good. It exhaled the vapors of me and enriched the atmosphere for the humans of that world. These little kinds of discoveries excited me. A design had led to an outcome I hadn’t thought possible and I saw that it was good.

The cosmic specs continued their spread before me and it suddenly occurred to me I hadn’t paid much attention to the adjacent place. There it was still only nothingness, phantom echoes of my self reflection. All was good, but was it best? I’ve created many things, breathed life into endless inanimate things yet most of my existing universe still lingers motionless, pushed only by the initial momentum of the beginning. The life that has existed has worshiped me, prayed to me, cursed me, forgotten me and found me, but is it best?

Perhaps I’ll never know until I compare it with another. So it is. From my word bubbled a new momentum from unfathomable depths. All possibilities confounded and reverberated and again there was an atmosphere charged with my essence, what would these new humans do with it?

The tree inhaled my essence and it was good. The squirrel watched a man disappear into the earth and it was good. Grains of dirt filled my lungs and dispersed from my nose and it was good. I was spat out from the depths of the universe and on my feet I chased the phantom man in the direction of my home. The sun had receded into the horizon and time had regressed to a moment.

Beyond the foliage I see my children play with the neighbors. Their laughter is alarmingly delicious to my ears as if I hadn’t heard that sweet sound in an unfathomable expanse of time. There I am in the window, looking this way. Then suddenly, the street light kicks on.

“Holy fuck,” says David under his breath.

I shout, “Kids, come inside please!”

@ b804f68e:2fb0fa1f

If you were financially set, right here, right now, what is it that you would start doing? If you could do whatever it is your heart has always desired, what would you do? And I want you to dare to think big, because the fiat world confines us to thinking safe and small, but as stackers we must start thinking freaking big and strive towards it and refuse to settle for less.

I'll start: - I will build my own soccer club, and it will be providing immense value to my local community by bringing people together, and by being a space where everyone can learn about soccer, about optimizing health, and of course about Bitcoin. - I will be doing some sort of philanthropic work, not sure in what way but in some meaningful way. - I will be happily married to my partner and we will be building our life together, seeing more of the world, experiencing more of what this beautiful world has to offer. - I will help pay off my friend's debt and support him in his goal to become healthier. - I will continue to strive towards becoming the best athlete and nerd I can become. - I will open up my own gym combined with a soccer field. - I will donate to my friend's business that he is in the process of building as without him I would not be the athlete and person I am today. - I will pay for whatever it is my parents desire, all of it. - I will pay for whatever it is my love desires and more.

Just a few things that I will do when I am financially free.

Don't let your fiat mind hold you back, think big, be brave and be bold!

You have obtained financial freedom. It is done. So what amazing things are you going to do with this freedom?

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/600417

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• Content

• Conclusion

• FAQ

• You May Also Like

• External Links

Introduction

The world of finance has been rapidly changing in recent years, and one of the most notable developments has been the growing adoption of Bitcoin by major corporations. Bitcoin, the world's first decentralized digital currency, was created in 2009 with the goal of providing a secure and borderless alternative to traditional financial systems. Since then, it has gained widespread recognition as a store of value and investment opportunity, and is now attracting the attention of major corporations around the world.

The Advantages of Bitcoin for Corporations

One of the key factors driving the adoption of Bitcoin by corporations is the numerous advantages it offers over traditional financial systems. Some of the most notable advantages of Bitcoin include:

A. Decentralization

Bitcoin operates on a decentralized ledger called the blockchain, which eliminates the need for intermediaries such as banks and allows for direct, peer-to-peer transactions. This eliminates the risk of censorship or interference from third parties and gives corporations greater control over their financial transactions.

B. Security

Bitcoin's decentralized and cryptographic nature makes it one of the most secure forms of digital currency available. Transactions are processed and verified by a network of users, making it nearly impossible to hack or manipulate the system. This is particularly important for corporations that need to protect sensitive financial information and transactions.

C. Borderless Transactions

Bitcoin operates on a global scale, making it possible for corporations to send and receive payments anywhere in the world without the need for intermediaries or currency exchange rates. This not only makes international transactions faster and more efficient, but also reduces the costs associated with traditional cross-border payments.

Major Corporations that have Adopted Bitcoin

The adoption of Bitcoin by major corporations has been gaining momentum in recent years, with some of the world's largest and most influential companies investing in the digital currency. Some of the most notable corporations that have adopted Bitcoin include:

A. Tesla

In February 2021, electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. The company also stated that it would begin accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for its products, making it one of the first major corporations to embrace the digital currency.

B. Square

In October 2020, financial services company Square announced that it had invested $50 million in Bitcoin, with CEO Jack Dorsey describing the investment as "a step further into the future of finance." Square has been at the forefront of promoting the adoption of Bitcoin, and has also made it possible for users of its popular Cash App to buy and sell the digital currency.

C. MicroStrategy

In August 2020, business intelligence company MicroStrategy announced that it had invested $250 million in Bitcoin, with CEO Michael Saylor describing the investment as "a hedge against inflation." MicroStrategy has since invested an additional $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, making it one of the largest corporate holders of the digital currency.

The Future of Corporate Adoption of Bitcoin

The trend of corporate adoption of Bitcoin is expected to continue in the coming years, as more and more corporations become aware of the numerous benefits of the digital currency.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the adoption of Bitcoin by major corporations has the potential to greatly impact the global economy. With increasing awareness and understanding, growing institutional support, and improved regulatory environment, it is only a matter of time before we see widespread adoption. Companies that are early adopters of Bitcoin can expect to reap the benefits of increased efficiency, lower transaction costs, and enhanced reputation as responsible and forward-thinking organizations. Whether it's for investment purposes, hedging against currency fluctuations, or as a new way to pay and receive payments, Bitcoin is poised to play a significant role in the future of finance.

FAQ

How can companies benefit from adopting Bitcoin? Companies can benefit from adopting Bitcoin by improving transaction efficiency, reducing transaction costs, and enhancing their reputation as responsible and forward-thinking organizations.

How does the regulatory environment impact the adoption of Bitcoin by corporations? A favorable regulatory environment can greatly encourage the adoption of Bitcoin by corporations by providing clear guidelines and protection for users and businesses.

Is Bitcoin a viable alternative to traditional currencies for corporations? Yes, Bitcoin offers several advantages over traditional currencies, including lower transaction costs, improved security, and greater efficiency, making it a viable alternative for corporations.

What role will Bitcoin play in the future of finance? Bitcoin is poised to play a significant role in the future of finance, whether it is for investment purposes, hedging against currency fluctuations, or as a new way to pay and receive payments.

How can companies ensure the security of their Bitcoin investments? Companies can ensure the security of their Bitcoin investments by using reputable exchanges, storing their coins in secure wallets, and following best practices for securing their private keys.

That's all for today

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

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Instagram: @croxroadnews.co

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Subscribe to CROX ROAD Bitcoin Only Daily Newsletter

https://www.croxroad.co/subscribe

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

@ ee603283:3bc79dec

Nikolai Kardashev proposed a categorization of hypothetical alien societies based on how much energy they could use in their technology.

Types of civilization: Type 1: harness 100% of the energy available on the planet. Type 2: harness the power of their entire star.

Did you know that humanity is not even on the Kardashev scale yet, here in 2024! It's crazy to think that all our collective advancements haven't resulted in global peace, unity, or collective efforts to get along. All that energy has been wasted on petty feuds, pointless arguments, and evil hatred. We would be much further ahead if we had collective incentives that were aligned to be honest and true. Even if we weren't honest and true, the tools in place could make it intuitive and trivial to verify the deception. This would lead dishonest individuals to be outcasted in society and be punished for it automatically. Kinda sounds familiar...hmmmm...

Taking advantage of all the energy available to us on earth requires the usage of different forms of fuel and different modes of transporting that energy. The energy will have to be stored efficiently and transported effortlessly.

Enter bitcoin and humanity’s big leap into a Kardashev Type 1 society. Bitcoin helps us achieve a Type 1 level society and helps us take a big leap towards advancing into a Type 2 level society. Bitcoin is trivially easy to verify if it's a valid transaction and helps us stay honest in the proof-of-work that was completed to mine a block. Transporting this form of energy is also easy because it can be sent to anyone anywhere in the world at a fraction of the cost to mine it, via the internet, telecom infrastructure, or satellite. First, we must think beyond ourselves and grow as an intergalactic species. We must play at a higher level.

Until next time bitcoin reader.

@ 6c8c7979:15595f3e

How can a 17th-century literary novel become one of the most famous economic frameworks and be used to study fundamental issues in economics?

Economics of Isolation: The novel "Robinson Crusoe" tells the story of a man living alone on a remote island. This opens the door to studying the economics of isolation. How does an individual manage his resources and achieve a balance between his various needs? How does this situation affect economic decision-making?

Resource Management and Production: The novel "Crusoe" demonstrates how humans can utilize available resources, whether natural or human. It also shows how limited resources can be transformed into valuable goods and services.

Capitalism and Trade: Through Crusoe's adventures with his companion Friday, the novel illustrates how trade relationships formed between them and how exchange can improve individuals' economic well-being. The novel highlights the importance of capitalism and free trade in achieving economic success.

Economic Philosophy: The character of "Robinson Crusoe" can be envisioned as an embodiment of the individual and the challenges he faces.

. Should the individual rely entirely on oneself?

. Or should cooperation with others be necessary?

Conclusion: The novel "Robinson Crusoe" is not just a literary masterpiece of narrative and adventure; it carries additional value in understanding economic ideas.

. It explores efficient resource management.

. the importance of trade and exchange in achieving economic prosperity.

. and how to achieve economic equilibrium amidst diverse challenges.

@ eed76ece:afa98124

au nom des commerçants

Oui, conserver Bitcoin pour toujours est honorable, logique et sage.

Et je comprends que cela signifie NE PAS utiliser réellement dans le commerce, je comprends.

Pour aider les humains du monde à utiliser réellement Bitcoin à chaque instant dans le cadre de leurs transactions commerciales, pas seulement pour acheter une tasse de café ou une bière à l'aide d'une facture éclair, mais aussi pour le commerce de gros de produits en gros entre pays, nous devrions considérer quand Les humains font réellement ça ?

Comment pouvons-nous éduquer, justifier, expliquer ou soutenir la volatilité de la fixation d'un prix de vente dans SATS Bitcoin ?

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/600307

@ a6be8a56:188688f7

rm

@ a6be8a56:188688f7

rm

@ 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

@ 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.

@ df67f9a7:2d4fc200

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.

Contribute to the Geyser Fund

@ 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.

@ 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

@ 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

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🏆 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

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💬 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

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🏆 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

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🏆 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

@ 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.

@ 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

@ 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.

@ 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

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"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”

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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...

@ 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.

@ 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.

@ 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

@ 9c9ffa34:fd72b6b9

hello World

@ 9c9ffa34:fd72b6b9

This Is Geleta

@ 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

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🏆 TOP STACKER

1st place @k00b

1 stacked \ 7 spent \ 0 posts \ 2 comments \ 0 referrals

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🗺️ 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

@ 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.

@ 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

@ 295d608c:07b6cae6

@ 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.

@ 75bf2353:e1bfa895

Shop The Bitcoin Circular Economy

In an effort to help build the circular economy, I want to increase awareness of businesses that accept bitcoin as payment. These are not Paid Ads. I list these companies because I use their services and find them valuable. I hope they find value in my word of mouth advertizing. Please spend some sats with them to support the circular economy

The following is a list of business that I use:

Coinkite

You have heard of them for sure, the maker of the world famous Cold Card. If you don't have a cold card, you need to get your shit in order, but the company makes at least 50 products. I don't have a discount code for this company, but listen to a bitcoin podcast and I'm sure you will find one. Coin kite does a lot of other cool shit too, like the satschip, a product designed for artists. NFT's are a scam, but physical art is a real thing. Artists who add the satschip to their physical artworks can throw a photo of the artwork on the CoinKite website. These jpegs are not NFT's. They are not Ordinals. They are art with a chip that works similar to the Tap Signer, except the seed can never be revealed. It ties the physical paining, a , et al. to the bitcoin blockchain. It's neat way of tying art to digital scarcity without all the scammy bullshit associated with NFT's

Bitrefill let's Me buy gift cards with bitcoin. I used to use it to pay my bills, but they have since discontinued that service. I still think it's a great company and use it as a way to get discounts on certain stores like CryptoCloaks.

The Bitcoin Company sells gift cards and Visa Cards online. I recently ordered a part for a composer and the customer service rep asked me to send my credit card number and secret code over email. I didn't feel comfortable sending that information, but I was able to buy a Visa Card with the exact amount to get my composter parts. They used the credit card and I got my parts, but there is no more money on the credit card. Information longs to be free, so guard your credit card numbers.

CryptoCloaks is a company that sells 3D printed items for sats. I hae bought quite a few things off them. Most recently, a case that my S9 which has been converted into a heater. He has a lot of other cool stuff too. Check him out.

BitcoinHatGuy has sold hats for bitcoin for decades and I have spent more sats on these hats than I feel comfortable admitting, but have never regretted my purchases. In real life, I'm one of those wierdos that wears the same thing everyday: Black T-Shirt and Gray pants, but I have an extensive hat collection. I buy most of my hats with bitcoin and most of those hats were bought from BTChatGuy. They're great, cheaper than MLB or even minor league baseball hats and I don't watch sports anyway. If you wear hats, buy a hat from this dude.

Robosats

Bitcoin exchanges are some of the biggest spenders in the bitcoin content creation market. They are the bread and butter for content creators. This makes sense, because they also get the most in fees. According to David Bennet from the Bitcoin and Podcast, The Cash App had over a billion bucks in revenue from bitcoin sales alone. Good. I'm happy for the Block, but smaller bitcoin only exchanges like RoboSats don't get the exposure they deserve because they don't have the marketing budget. RoboSats is a peer to peer exchange. It's only on TOR, but they also have an app on the Andoroid store for those too timid for TOR.

Robosats is a bitcoin escrow service. They hold bitcoin in escrow and wait for conformation that payment has been recieved. Bitcoin sellers generally sell for about 5% above market value to provide KYC Free Sats to customers. Fiat settlements are made using the Cash App, Strike, or even Amazon gift cards. We should market the p2p exchanges like this more. Robosats incentives this by giving users or referal codes. Refer someone to RoboSats using your referral code and you will get 100 sats for each trade. I would like to see people shill RoboSats and pick up these sats on social media. So I am not only asking you to use RoboSats, but I am also asking you to shill it. I had nodeless.io on the list, but the tyrannical government of Canada shut it down. When I attempt to orange pill normies, the objection I most often need to overcome is "Bitcoin can never work because the government[state] will shut it down. The 100k bitcoiners in the world know it does not work that way, but most CPI believers think the government just needs to shut down the single bitcoin computer to take it all away. Perception is reality as they say. And yeah, we won't all turn off our bitcoin mining heaters or shut off our nodes, but I have seen online Poker get decimated by government policies. They did not succeed at ending online poker, but they essentially ended access to online poker for anyone with a sub 120 IQ. If we want bitcoin to be for everybody, we need to make it easy for people to buy non-KYC bitcoin. RoboSats is making that their mission.

Nostr.build

Nostr Native video and image storage. you can login with your npun instead of an email or using nip07. The premium membership also includes access to btcpayserver, but you'll need to set it up. The subscription lasts one year, but the developers told me they won't actually delete your photos for two years. I love nostr.build and think it is an underrated resource in the nostr community

BTCPins

BTCPins sells cool bitcoin collectible PINS. They're reasonably priced and look great. He only accepts bitcoin because he is a true ride or die freak. He is also one of the meetup organizers in Southern California and wears hats sold by Bitcoin author, Knut Svanholm. He's the real deal.

Strike

Strike would pay me like five or ten bucks if I had you sign up with them via my referral link, but I'm not recommending them for the referral money. This is about recommending services I use. Strike is the best way to send fiat around the world. I also know that many bitcoiners don't like the idea of spending their own bitcoin, Strike gives you the ability to instantaneously convert fiat to bitcoin and vice-versa. I would rather have the hodl never sodl people spend fiat in the circular economy this way.

In a perfect world, Strike would not comply with KYC laws, but like I said, it's the best way to send fiat around the world.(or people on Robosats who could be anywhere in the world.) I also think if a KYC free exchange is to expensive, you're better off stacking a little on a KYC exchange than not stacking at all. Budgets are tight these days. If you can only stack a penny this paycheck, stack that penny with Strike. Need to send fiat to Mexico, use Strike instead of Western Union.

Seed Signer

Seed Signer is a raspberry pi with no Wi-Fi. You can make your own or buy one from the store. The seed signer does not have a secure element, but it also does not store your seed on the device. Therefore, you must write down your seed and enter it into the device every time you plug it in. This sounds like a pain in the ass, and it is if you do it that way, but it comes with a camera and a unique neat feature. You can create a QR code using a pen and paper.(You'll need access to a printer too) Actually, I recommend using a pencil and paper. It's easy to make a mistake so you might want to erase it. You can always go over it with a felt tip pen later if you're worried about a man in the middle attack. You can also use it for nostr keys I think, but I have not tried this feature. I would not trust all my bitcoin with any wallet, but this is an excellent wallet to use as part of a multisig with Sparrow Wallet or Specter Desktop.

Get Alby

Get Alby is my favorite desktop wallet. I've made spme videos about them here and highly recomend it because you can use it as a custodial wallet or hook it up to your own node. I also respect this product a lot. Back in 2017 or 2018 we had the Joule browser extension, but you had basically had to be a lightning engineer to get it to work. I wasted many hours of my life away trying to get it to work on my browser with no dice. Alby is about 100X improvement over the old Joule days. They also have some cool nostr features and make it easy to login to websites. Full disclosure, I have no idea how they make money.

Plebai

You put a dollar into a vending machine and it spits out bubbly sugar water. This data vending machine works like that. You put im 100 sats and it will genorate an AI image or create a summary for your blog. It's an awesome service and does not require a subscription like some of the fiat competition.

LeatherMint I bought a belt from leathermint and it was one of the best purchases I ever made online. I highly recommend buying things from this site https://theleathermint.com/. I wrote about my experience here.

These are not all the products I use, and I will add more over time. If you have a bitcoin side hustle or sell a bitcoin related product, let me know about it. I'm always interested in learning about more bitcoin companies.

This information was originally published in this blog post

@ 75bf2353:e1bfa895

I saw this post and wrote this long rant in response so I decided to post it as a long-form article.

I read the declaration of independence and the u.s. constitution on the 4th of july every year for like 7 years, until 2020.

the people of the enlightenment had such great ideas. money had to be minted from gold and silver. it wasn't a bad rile, it's just the government decided not to follow that rule. or maybe they were incapable of following that rule. it didn't scale.

the post office was the best idea to facilitate private communication. people like james madison and thomas jefferson obtained even higher levels of privacy using encryption like the jefferson wheel. the founders, in many ways were analog cypherpunks. that's why we have the bill of rights. the anti-federalists fought for those rights and won...for a little while.

people forgot about cryptography. they started using email. private communication became part of history. when was the last time you sent a letter over snail mail? you might send a christmas card here or there, but the biggest ad companies in the world are like santa clause. he knows whe you are sleeping. he knows when you're awake. he knows whrn you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.

cbdc's are a real political issue nowadays. it's strange. it's not as if the masses started reading david chaum or something. they don't want cbdc's, but how is that system much different than credit cards?

frankly, most people don't give a damn, but they feel as if they can't get ahead. the complain about inflation, but take nonsteps to save fiat. why would they? saving fiat means getting less stuff in the future.

satoshi thought #bitcoin could help people achieve freedom.

https://i.nostr.build/m54on.png

i view bitcoin and public key cryptography as a way to achieve the rights guaranteed by the us constitution on the internet...at least for a little while, but if we do it right, we can achieve freedom for a long time. one time, i bought a tv. then i tried to buy groceries the same day and my credit card wouldn't work. i understand why and a quick phone call cleared it up, but it shows how easy they can cut people off of the financial rails.

as costs rise, more people will be cut off from those rails. that's the problem with the double spending problem.

bitcoinfixes this.

@ 7175188c:6382a72c

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/598260

@ 9171b08a:8395fd65

Charles Lorenzo Jackson, also known as Charlie Jackson, or CJ as his late wife used to call him, sat on a rubber green and white stripped lawn chair whose rubber strips where chipping and whose colors had long faded. The parking lot lights in front of The Home Depot were bright only in that CJ could see his own hand as he raised a glass of bourbon. The crickets of the Georgia night were nearly enough to block out the rumblings of the generator ticking and tacking against the iron hitch behind his RV. ​ He made a toast to his wife, god bless her soul, for that night was the anniversary of her death. After every sip or two of his bourbon, CJ shot sparing looks at the cupcake with a single candle on a fold out table at his side. It was only after he finished his bourbon, lit a cigarette, and smoked that cigarette damn near its butt, that he placed the glowing ember of his cancer stick against the candle and a tiny flame came to life.

CJ swallowed hard to fight back his tears. His hand trembled as it reached out for the cupcake, tears broke the moment he took a bite.

The single whoop of a police siren sounded, and a spotlight flooded the place.

CJ’s eyes widened with a teary glimmer and he tried to block the light with his hand.

“Hey, what’s the deal?” he asked.

“What are you doing out here buddy?” came a voice behind the spotlight.

“What does it look like, buddy?” replied CJ.

“No reason to be in the parking lot at this time.”

​“I’ve got no reason to be anywhere else,” said CJ. He lowered his hand and with winced eyes he called out, “Cut them lights out man. We both know I’m the only one out here, no need for that.”

The spotlight went out.

Footsteps approached and utility belts jangled. A radio blared with an indistinguishable voice stating numbers that meant nothing to CJ.

“What can I do for you gentlemen?” asked CJ as the policemen loomed over him with crossed arms.

“This is probably not the best place for you to be hanging around old timer,” said the shorter policeman with the shirt that looked like it was two sizes too small. He tightened his wrapped arms about his chest, flexing wildly.

​CJ nodded, “Yea, I seen the protests last couple nights. Pretty calm night, tonight.”

​“Them protests didn’t make you uncomfortable?” asked the taller cop.

​Those two white men in uniform must have known how a black man would feel amidst the protests of late.

“Gentlemen, I’m old enough to have seen this country at different heights of hysteria. It’s hard to scare old black folk like me.”

“That right?” said the small pitbull of a man as he came closer to CJ. “You never answered our question. What are you doing in this parking lot at this time? You planning on robbing the place?”

​CJ’s face wrinkled, he shot a look at his RV, then looked down at his seat and finally said, “You ever seen someone prepare to rob a place with a glass of whiskey and a foldout chair?”

The small cop kicked over CJ’s empty bourbon bottle and said, “Looks like you just trying to get some courage to do the job.”

The taller cop stepped in then, “You planning on driving after drinking all that?”

CJ stood from his seat and the cops took a step back. That brought a smirk to CJ’s lips and he shook his head, “I don’t have much to explain to you gentlemen. You hear that generator ticking away, my engine ain’t on. Now I don’t expect you two to be much acquainted with the laws you enforce, but I’d suggest you take a gander at Georgia code title sixteen for what constitutes as a dwelling. At this time, my RV is not a vehicle, it is very clear it is a dwelling. I’ve already spoken to the general manager in charge of the premises and he's let me stay in the parking lot for the night. So, this here ain’t trespassing. It looks to me, you two’s just lookin’ for trouble now.”

The pitbull of a cop took a few steps closer to CJ but the taller one cleared his throat and said, “Tim.”

The short cop stopped and stared down CJ for what seemed like the longest couple of seconds CJ had experienced in quite some time. “I’d be more careful if I was you. It ain’t a good time to be alone in dark places.”

“I’m sure you mean it ain’t never been a good time to be black,” said CJ.

Tim smiled and said with a cocked chin, “No, I never said that old timer.”

​

---

On the other side of Augusta, against the river, there was a high profile, yet highly secretive, assembly at the Marriot Convention Center. Suited men and women from across the United States mingled about the ball room during the cocktail hour and most could not help but mention the group of boisterous young men already seated in the back corner.

Sure, they were significantly younger than the rest, and sure, their banter and rant was loud, but what piqued any conversation was how they wore Hawaiian shirts in stark contrast to everyone else’s suit and tie.

Andrew couldn’t help but notice the looks and side winding mouthings that followed as Senators and House Representatives passed his table. He leaned to the young man at his side and said, “Phil, you sure we were invited to this thing?”

“Damn right we were. This movement is nothing without us,” answered Phil.

​“You don’t feel like we’re out of place? I don’t know man, I don’t feel right.”

Phil winced and placed a heavy hand on Andrew’s shoulder, “You’ve fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all kinds of places in Africa. I’ve seen you keep a cool head in almost any scenario, yet this is what makes you feel uncomfortable?”

​Andrew looked around, tugged on his Hawaiian shirt, and laughed as he said, “Maybe if we didn’t look so goddamn out of place, I wouldn’t feel that way.”

Phil smiled and leaned back in his chair, “It’s us out of place fools, who’ll make this possible,” he gestured to the suited men and women in the banquet room. “They are simply the fuel, but we’re the muscle. When this is all said and done, we’ll be remembered as generals and heroes.”

Andrew pointed to his shirt again and raised an eyebrow, “Heroes in Hawaiian shirts?”

​Phil nodded and with a huge grin repeated, “God damn right, heroes in Hawaiian shirts. Yes.”

​Andrew relaxed in his chair and went back to scrutinizing the adults in the room. Upon closer inspection, he noticed there were more than Americans in attendance. A few Asian men mingled about. There were also a few tall slender men which he assumed were European. His eyes came to the man he knew had invited the boys to the event, a lean man, he could tell was strong even underneath his suit and despite the distance, Andrew could still hear the man’s southern drawl. Senator Beau Davis was surrounded by a few extra nationals who all looked intimately acquainted. He laughed, his political laugh and shook hands in the manner one does when a deal is brokered, heads bobbing, and smiles abound.

​Then Senator Davis turned his gaze on the boys and with his chin held high he strut victoriously to the table of renegades clad in Hawaiian shirts.

​“Gentlemen,” said the Senator with his heavy southern drawl.

​Phil looked to his companions and said, “On your feet y’all.”

​Everyone snapped to the position of attention and Senator Davis raised his hands defensively.

​ “As you were boys. Such decorum is not entirely necessary this evening. We are here to celebrate the cause and besides, there are a few politicians in here who’ve not yet fully decided where their hearts lie in these decisive times.”

The boys relaxed, some took their seats, but Phil remained standing as Senator Davis was primarily addressing him.

“You’ve secured a safehouse?” asked the Senator.

​Phil answered, “Sir, we’ve got a safehouse and training grounds. It’s out in the sticks. No one will ever suspect a thing.”

​Senator Davis nodded and looked over his shoulder at the extra nationals. “A large store of weapons and ammunition will be arriving in the Port of Savannah first thing in the morning. It’ll take some time to clear customs, but you’ll need to pick it up, discretely, and bring it back to the safe house.”

​“Too easy, sir.”

​“How goes the recruiting efforts?” asked the Senator.

​“Easier than ever before. Like you said, these are decisive times.”

​Senator Davis smiled and pat Phil on the shoulder and said, “Yes.” Then turned to the other boys sitting around the table and asked, “How you boys doing tonight?”

​There was a mumbled reply as the boys all answered their own version of "Doin’ alright" and Senator Davis came closer to say, “I told Phil you boys should be proud of your movement. Thank you for representing well with your illustrious Hawaiian shirts. You have awoken something in the American people. Something that’s been lying dormant for far too long and it’s about time. Enjoy this night, for there’ll be few nights as quiet as this one in the near future.”

Senator Davis parted from the table and Andrew leaned in to ask Phil, “Was senator Davis talkin’ to those Chinese dudes back there?”

​Phil leaned back in his chair and said, “What we are planning here cannot be done without money Andrew.”

​“Yea, I know, but I’m not sure the Chinese care too much about our movement.”

​ “Andrew, this country is already divided. It’s up to us to make sure that division leads to a better America.”

​

The next morning Phil and his posse sat in Semi-trucks with flatbed trailers at a truck stop just outside the Port of Savannah. Andrew sat beside Phil who gripped the steering wheel tightly and fiddled with his phone in the other hand.

​“So, this is the kind of thing that makes you nervous?” laughed Andrew.

​Phil smiled and said, “Shut the fuck up. There’s a lot riding on this.” Phil turned on the radio just loud enough to make any attempt at conversation cumbersome.

​“President Joe Biden has been in office for just a little over six months and it seems the nation is coming apart at the seams,” came the Dj’s voice. “Look y’all I’m not inclined to all the violence, but maybe its about time we start reconsidering the way things work in this country because right now our government is much too divided to get anyth-

​-Phil plunged a finger into the band button and cut the DJ’s voice. After a scanning over a few stations he stopped on the song, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden and finally stopped fidgeting in his seat.

​A quarter past one, Phil’s phone rang, and he put it on speaker, “Hello?”

​A woman’s voice came over the phone, “Philip Dalton?”

“Yeah.”

​“Containers have been released. You are to retrieve the containers and drive toward your training grounds. You must stop overnight someplace secure. No truck stops. You and your crew must remain within eyesight of the containers and remain armed. Understood?”

“Yea, too easy.”

Phil tucked the phone away in his pocket and said, “She sounded hot.”

He gave Andrew a smile and honked the horn before peeling out of the truck stop. Single file, the semi-trucks rolled into the port terminal to receive container loads riddled with 1.4S orange diamond hazard placards. The paperwork each driver showed the port officer said the containers were destined for a fulfilment center just outside of Athens. That would give the boys enough cover to pick up the containers and make way to Athens without much recourse should they get stopped or have to show paperwork at a weigh station.

As the sun began to set, the convoy of ammo laden trucks pulled passed signs indicating they were back near Augusta and Andrew spoke up, “Should we spend the night here?”

​“In Augusta?” asked Phil.

​“Yea, we’re supposed to park somewhere secure for the night. We won’t know what’s secure anywhere else.”

​Phil nodded and turned onto the off ramp at the end of the Bobby Jones Expressway and slowly turned into the scanty parking lot of The Home Depot and Andrew laughed, “This is what you call secure?”

​Phil punched Andrew’s arm and retorted, “You ever seen a Home Depot Parking Lot at night?”

Andrew laughed as he replied, “No, why would I?”

​“Exactly. Look how tucked away this parking lot is. Only way your going to see our trucks is if you come looking for them.”

​Andrew’s smile went flat as the thought that had been lingering in his head since they retrieved the containers urged him to speak his mind. “Hey man, what’s the deal with all this secrecy?”

​“What do you mean?” asked Phil as he backed into a spot in one of the crooks of the parking lot.

“You heard that lady,” said Andrew.

​“Yea she sounded hot. What about her?”

“She sounded military.”

​“You’re military.”

​“Ex-military. But that’s not what I mean. It feels like this is a military operation. Remain armed at all times?”

​“Not like we don’t bring our weapons everywhere we go anyway.”

​“Yeah, but she gave us an order, Phil. That’s different.”

---

CJ sat in the front seat of his RV, cranked the motor, and stared off at the cars pulling out of their parking spaces in front of the Home depot. The words of the store manager lingered in his head, just a few hours ago he had come to CJ’s RV and said, “Hey man, some cops came by this morning asking if I’d let you stay here over night.”

​CJ shook his head at the store manager’s words and said, “I told them I wasnt lookin’ for trouble. I just mentioned you knew I was out here.”

​The store manager raised his hands defensively, “I know, I figured as much. Look, shit is getting crazy in the streets and cops everywhere are wound up tight. I just don’t want you to get hurt. You can continue staying here overnight but consider parking out back, behind the store. Cops never mess around back there. It’s a little further away from the main street too so you won’t hear all the night protests.”

​CJ stepped on the accelerator and pulled into the alley behind the Home Depot. The two employees that were out back smoking cigarettes pointed at the RV and shared a few words with one another before stepping up to it after CJ parked.

​CJ cursed under his breath and stepped out already starting his speech, “I’ve already spoken to the manager-

​ -You CJ?” asked one of the employees.

​CJ was taken aback and answered, “Yea, what’s it to you?”

​The employee smiled and wagged his cigarette, “Nothing, I’ve just always wondered who lived in that RV parked out front man! Never actually seen you. You the one that takes our empty pallets?”

​CJ nodded, “Yea, that’s me.”

​The other employee shook his head, “How much you sell ‘em for?”

​CJ fidgeted with his fingers a bit and answered, “Well, I can manage about two dollars and eighty cents for them. I don’t have anything to repair them with so no ones really willing to pay any higher.”

Both employees whistle and say, “Man that’s quite the turn around for a couple hundred free pallets.”

The employee’s walkie-talkies sound, “Groseman, Tilde, y’all done with your break?”

​“Oh shit,” said one employee.

​“Hey, we’ll be seeing you CJ,” said the other and they both disappeared into the store.

​A few hours later, the store closed for the night and CJ brought out his time worn lawn chair, pull out table, and bottle of bourbon. He filled his glass and placed the bottle on the floor next to him, a pack of cigarettes was placed on the table. It was not until his second glass that he heard the hissing release of air brakes on the front side of The Home Depot. CJ checked his watch; it was well passed closing time. It may have been a driver posting up for a morning delivery, but then came four more hissing sounds and the commotion sparked his curiosity.

​He rounded the corner of the store and stayed close to the wall. Young men dismounted the trucks and a approached the truck on the far end.

The driver rolled down his window and said, “Get comfortable boys, we’re staying here for the night.”

​There were a few grumblings and one of the boys called out, “I’m starving Phil!”

​Phil called back, “Then order some pizza Roy!”

​

---

Andrew watched in silence as the others returned to their trucks.

​Phil slapped the side of Andrew’s arm and said, “What’s the matter with you man? You been quite as hell the whole way here.”

Andrew shook his head and said, “Is this ammo really for target practice?”

“You still on this? I’ve told you, Senator Davis has established our group as a legitimate unit in the Georgia National Guard. Its unorthodox, but yes, this ammo is for training,” answered Phil.

​Roy approached the truck and called out, “Hey Phil!”

​Phil called back, “Hey Roy!”

​“Man, no one’s delivering right now,” said Roy.

“What do you mean?”

​“No one’s answering their phones. I’ve called like five different pizza spots.”

“Get some grub hub or some shit.”

​“I tried, man no one is delivering.”

Phil shot a sarcastic look at Andrew and said, “Can you believe this shit? This guy can’t even order food.”

​“Naw, man. Something’s not right,” said Roy.

​Just then another boy jumped out of the cab of his truck and said, “Hey, turn on your radio! You won’t believe this shit.”

​Phil’s eyebrows furrowed and he reached for the radio dial when his phone rang. He took a gander at the screen and tapped the speaker on. “Sir, we’ve already stopped for the night.”

“Are you in a secure place?” came Senator Davis’ voice.

​“Yes sir.”

​“Sanitize your trucks. There can be no sign you are carrying ammunition,” said Senator Davis.

​“I don’t understand, we’ve got paperwork to cover us,” said Phil.

​“Sanitize the trucks and call in the rest of your unit to the training grounds.”

​“Alright, but what’s going on?” asked Phil.

​“First stone’s been cast son. We’re at war, the federal government is our enemy now. If anyone becomes suspicious of you, you are authorized to eliminate any potential threat to our assets. You won’t be able to reach me on this number again. I’ll make contact with you,” and the line went silent.

​Phil stared at his phone and whispered to himself, “What the fuck?”

​Andrew thrust a finger on the radio dial and the dj’s voice sounded worried, “I knew our country was divided but I didn’t think it could ever boil down to this. The White House just released a statement that, get this, Domestic terrorists have taken over arguably the biggest military installation in the United States at Fort Benning Georgia. Folks, these aren’t domestic terrorists. A couple of rag tag kids with guns can’t just take over a military installation. This is much bigger than that.”

​Phil shut the radio off and cursed under his breath again.

​ “Just for training huh?” said Andrew.

​“Shut up.”

​“You had no idea this was going to happen, did you?” asked Andrew.

Phil snapped, “Andrew, shut the fuck up. Soldiers never know the bigger strategy.”

​“You said we would be remembered as generals. Heroes.”

​“This is only the beginning Andrew. Right now, we just need to focus on the mission.”

​“Mission? No, I didn’t sign up for this.”

​“Nobody forced you to be here. But you are. Sitting in this cab, hauling tons of ammo. You’ve already chosen a side,” said Phil before he pushed open his door and called out to the other boys. “Hey! Peel off those hazard placards from your trucks. Tear up your trucking paperwork and lock and load your weapons. We’re at war now. Anyone stands in our way and we take them out.”

​A few boys whooped and whistled, a few others looked surprised by the command, but everyone started moving when Phil clapped wildly and said, “Get rid of those placards now!”

​Phil then returned to Andrew and pointed to the door beside him, “Get the fuck out and peel off those placards man. C’mon.”

​Andrew clicked his tongue and kicked open the door. As he climbed up the side of the flatbed trailer and reached for the hazard placard on the side of the container, the thoughts of his time in service to the country that had just torn apart at the seams flashed to mind. A year and a half ago, he was excited to return from Afghanistan only to now be saddling the side of a flatbed truck committing treason in the highest degree.

“Hey! Stop,” called out one of the boys and Andrew sprung up from the side of the container.

​A few of the boys were pointing to the side of The Home Depot calling out, “There’s someone there.”

​One of the boys called out, “Phil, what you want us to do?”

​A thought sparked in Andrew’s mind and he hurried back to the cab and said, “Pass me my weapon, I’ll go after them.”

​Phil gave Andrew a sparing look, pulled Andrew’s rifle from the back seat, loaded a magazine and pulled the charging handle, chambering a round. “Some of the boys will go with you.”

​“Yeah, whatever,” said Andrew as he dismounted the truck and prowled toward the side of The Home Depot. He heard Phil call out for a few of the other boys to follow Andrew, but he had already rounded the corner by the time their charging handles clacked back.

​

---

CJ rummaged through his things, he had bought a Glock years ago with the intent to learn how to shoot the thing, but never got around to it.

​“It seems every hour, information comes in of yet another occurrence of political unrest. All of this, a direct chain reaction from the concerted efforts of militia terrorist groups around the country taking over federal and state government buildings,” blared the voice coming out of the radio in the kitchenette of CJ’s RV.

​CJ cursed under his breath and his forehead slicked with sweat. The pistol grip finally revealed itself amongst a horde of misplaced tools within a red toolbox under his bed and he reached for the magazine resting on the beside table.

​“Stop.”

​CJ exhaled unsteadily and raised his arms. “I ain’t lookin’ for no trouble.” That sentence was beginning to grow tired on his lips and he raised from his knees.

​“Turn around slowly,” said the boy behind him.

​A voice echoed from outside the RV, “Andrew, you get him?”

​“Yeah, I got him. Stand by, give me a sec,” said Andrew.

​Andrew’s eyes beat against every bit of CJ’s person, it seemed something was weighing on him when he spoke again, more calmly this time, “This thing run alright?”

CJ winced, “Yea, she’s old be she run.”

Andrew beckoned, “Pass me the keys.”

​CJ hesitated and Andrew grew uneasy, “You trying to get killed, move old man.”

​“Yeah, here,” CJ buried a hand into his pocket and threw the keys.

​Andrew caught the keys and motioned to the floor of the RV. “Lie down,” he said before he turned to the driver’s seat and cranked the motor.

​One of the boys outside retorted “What the fuck Andrew?”

​“I’m no terrorist,” replied Andrew as he drew his weapon on the boy outside and fired just as he slammed on the accelerator and the RV peeled out of the parking space.

Gunfire rang outside the RV. The ricochets came like slabs of concrete slamming into the side panels. With every slam CJ covered more of his head with his arms and he yelled, “What the hell is going on? Has everyone gone and lost their minds?”

​Andrew looked at the rearview side mirrors and ran over a curb, thrusting the RV through some hedges and out into another parking lot. There he slowed the vehicle to 45 miles an hour and peeled into the main street bound for the highway.

​“I’m in a situation I should have never found myself, but lucky for you I was,” said Andrew.

​“Why are you guys doing this?” asked CJ.

​“I’m not with them anymore.”

​“So, who are they?” asked CJ as he slowly rose from the ground.

​“Just a couple of boys who thought they could make a difference. There are more people like them across the country and they know who I am. After today, they’ll know who you are too.”

​“No, see no one could’ve gotten a good look at me,” said CJ.

​“They know we busted out in your RV,” said Andrew.

​“I guess you’re going to have to find a new vehicle, then, won’t you?”

“That how you treat the guy who just saved your life?” asked Andrew.

​“Looks like you was planning on running anyway. I was just a convenient getaway,” answered CJ.

​“History is repeating itself old man and if this civil war is anything like the first one, you may not want to stick around these parts anyway. I can protect you as we make our way north. You got anyone you want to meet? Anywhere you want to go?” asked Andrew.

​“I just want to be left alone. I’ll go anywhere I can be left alone,” answered CJ.

@ 32e18276:5c68e245

Hey guys!

Here's our Q3-Q4 report. There was some confusion with the timing of the previous quarters so we've accumulated everything since the Q2 report (March 2nd, 2024) into this one. Enjoy!

Damus OpenSats Q3-Q4 Progress Report

The third and fourth quarter of the initial Damus OpenSats grant encompasses work done across many of the active projects being worked on at Damus HQ. Here's a quick overview of the progress made across the organization:

nostrdb

Added

• Author query support (William Casarin)
• REQ support: ndb_subscribe (William Casarin)
• CLOSE support: ndb_unsubscibe (William Casarin)
• Profile flatbuffer dump utility (William Casarin)
• Ability to register a subscription callback instead of just polling (William Casarin)

Changed

• Dump json in filter and fulltext queries in cli tool (William Casarin)

Stats

name added removed commits William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +665 -739 16

nostrdb-rust

Added

• Note builder interface (William Casarin)
• Nip10 implementation (William Casarin)
• Getting profile by key (William Casarin)
• Note tag support (William Casarin)
• Tag::into_iter method (Yuki Kishimoto)
• FilterBuilder::until method (Yuki Kishimoto)
• Export structs from tags module (Yuki Kishimoto)

Fixed

• FilterBuilder::limit method (Yuki Kishimoto)
• Note::sig method (Yuki Kishimoto)

Stats

Yuki Kishimoto <yukikishimoto@protonmail.com> +20 -4 5 William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +1551 -867 32

Damus NoteDeck/Android

This project is in heavy development and doesn't have clean changelogs yet, so here are all of the git logs from this period

Willam's updates

• account_manager: don't add the same pubkey more than once
• actionbar placeholder
• actionbar: remove border on reply button, add expand animation
• actionbar: support both dark and light buttons
• Add forward navigation animation
• add hover to profile map demo
• add --light lightmode flag to previews and notedeck
• add my pubkey to the timeline query for testing
• add test queries for elsat
• add vertical separators between timelines
• allow missing profiles in account switcher
• allow multiple invocations of --sec
• always have some default timeline
• app: make ndb public
• a quick note about the View trait
• args: allow filter files and raw filters on cli
• bump timeline filter limit
• cap size of remote filter limits
• change selection color to purple
• check: remove duplicate and disable wasm checks
• ci: disable wasm builds for now
• cli: add --sec argument to quickly add an account
• clippy postbox cleanups
• crates: add bitflags
• damus: make relay pool public
• darker quote reposts for mobile
• debug: add some debug logs for keyboard note selection
• deps: using tracing instead of log
• direnv: disable nix direnv on darwin
• direnv: make args explicit so its easy to change
• don't bump timeline when adding notes
• dont since-optimize when we don't have enough notes
• don't use an actual keystorage in Damus test apps
• drafts: clear post after posting
• enable nip10 replies
• enostr: rename Event to Note
• env: allow private things like secret keys
• filter: add default limit
• filters: fix hashtag filters
• filter: unify nostrdb and remote limits
• Fix all warnings
• fixed_window: fix clippy warning
• fix global query
• fix inline note preview colors
• fix light borders for quote reposts
• fix postbox design
• fix scroll area shrinking
• fix some clippy warnings
• fix until filters
• fix warnings
• fonts: always use base fonts for all families
• fun large profile grid preview
• get all missing ids from all timelines
• github: remove pages workflow
• gitignore: add perf files
• hide navigation title on global nav
• ids: find more unknown ids from inline notes
• images: add aspect_fill
• initial inline note previews
• initial navigation
• initial note posting
• initial postbox for testing
• initial post box view
• initial post reply view
• initial refactor in preparation for routing
• input: fix deadlock on resize
• input: handle raw events
• input: process input once
• input: switch to scanning over raw input events
• integrate sidebar into main view
• introduce View and Previews traits
• irc mode
• ircmode: tighten username
• keys: actually use the keystore
• lighter gray for inline previews in white mode
• list: switch from arc mutext to rc refcell
• load timelines from commandline
• log: reduce spammy new note log
• log relay subscriptions
• make notedeck front and center
• mobile: add lots of top padding on mobile
• mobile: a tad more padding at the top
• mobile: black panel bg color
• mobile: don't add hover on mobile
• mobile: make mobile flag runtime-configurable
• mobile: simplify is_mobile
• mobile: use my timeline for testing again
• move account_login_view to ui submodule
• move add_space to its correct location
• nip10: fetch unknown replied-to notes
• nip10: show initial reply information on notes
• nix: add openssl dep for reqwest
• nix: make android emulator optional
• nostrdb: bump to support timeline queries
• note: don't allow nested note previews
• note: support nprofile mentions
• perf: don't clone bytes via a more specialized function
• perf: fix continuous repaint
• perf: profiling note content rendering
• popup: increase fixed window margin
• popup: simplify borrow
• postbox: add focused state
• postbox: add focus shadow from figma
• post: full available width
• postview: add vertical scroll
• previews: remove central panel frame
• profile: add about and username to profile previews
• profiles: introduce DisplayNames
• profiling: update puffin version
• queries: add a few more test queries
• queries: set reasonable initial query sizes
• queries: update hashtags query
• readme: add usage
• readme: document previews
• readme: make it clear that its for desktop
• readme: make it clear that nix is optional for non-android dev
• readme: show notedeck preview
• refactor: move fixed_window to ui
• refactor: move note into its own widget
• refactor: rename widgets to ui
• refactor: use map instead of explicit if let
• remote: use default_remote_limit instead of hardcoding
• remove context from DesktopSidePanel
• remove minimum window size
• remove useless struct
• render_pfp: only depend on imgcache
• reset virtual list if notes are spliced into timeline
• set tooltip delay to 100ms
• side_panel: return more detailed side panel responses
• simplify is_mobile check
• simplify tab underline calculation
• since filter optimization
• slightly larger pfpfs
• small inline preview pfps
• style: initial logic for mobile style
• style: less bubbly
• style: realtime hover interactions
• style: set 0 duration tooltip delay
• Switch to egui master to fix wgpu issues
• switch to glow for now
• switch to rustls-tls-native-roots
• tabs: select notes & replies by default
• test: add test timeline query
• test: update test profile with a banner
• test: use my timeline query by default for testing
• textmode: adjust name sizing so it doesn't bump the column
• textmode: fix coloring of abbreviated names
• textmode: no previews in textmore for now
• theme: update to correct colors based on figma design
• timeline: don't hide on resize
• timeline: refactor tabs into TimelineView
• timeline: use strips instead of panels
• ui: add banners to profile previews
• ui: add feathering-resistant hline separator fn
• ui: add frame around note previews
• ui: add initial Profile hover previews
• ui: add profile picture hover animation
• ui: integrate egui-tabs for notes & replies selector
• ui: introduce profile picture widget
• ui: make pixel sizes correct, use more of the figma
• ui: move RelayView into ui module
• ui: only inline preview kind1 notes for now
• ui: reduce vertical padding for more compact timelines
• ui: remove some old note ui comments
• ui: simplify note widget
• ui: switch to flags for note options
• update slow timeline query
• update to latest nostrdb, adding tag support
• update version in comment because I still use this on my laptop
• use egui_virtual_list for rendering
• use unique id for post/reply view
• weird actionbar experiment
• we should just called this damus
• widgets: begin organizing ui components into widgets
• working notes + notes&replies

kernelkind's updates

• account_management: refactor
• AccountManagementView
• AccountManager: add ability to make a selection
• AccountSelectionWidget
• Account switcher
• Add AccountManager to app
• Add custom visual themes
• Add flag to emulate mobile during preview
• Add keypair & update pubkey
• Add login key parsing
• Add login manager
• Add MacOS key storage
• Add MobileAccountLoginView
• Add modular custom text styles
• Add monospace text style
• Add nix-shell for macos android development
• Add nostr-sdk dependency
• Add precommit hook to suggest proper formatting
• Add preview for RelayView
• Add relay view
• add reqwest as dependency
• Add SimpleProfilePreview
• Add ui_test_harness binary implementation
• Add warn color and highlight color
• app: add accounts to Damus & mock
• Apply app style to AccountLoginView
• Apply cargo fmt
• Conditionally compile MacOS key storage code
• Constrain app minimum size
• Create account login panel
• Create side panel & global popup
• enostr: expose RelayStatus
• Extract the sample relay to test_data for reuse
• impl linux credential storage
• Integrate account switcher to side panel
• Integrate global popup into app
• login: Add key loading & error to mobile
• macos_key_storage: runner ignore tests
• migrate AccountManagementView to enostr Keypair
• Migrate to new AccountManagementView conception
• Move login business logic to LoginManager
• move login logic from promise to async fns
• Move preview controller out of account_manager.rs
• move test account creation & apply to global popup
• Pfp integration to side panel
• refactor account switcher & management previews
• Refactor 'ui tests' conception to previews
• reintroduce account management
• reintroduce account switcher
• remove nostr-sdk
• Rename PersistState -> StateInMemory
• select first account
• Seperate mobile dark color theme into its own func
• update cargo.lock to reflect toml change
• Update egui 0.26.1 -> 0.27.1
• Use app_creation for common app setup functions
• Use custom style in app
• use nostr in enostr

Stats

name added removed commits kernelkind <kernelkind@gmail.com> +6844 -1979 58 William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +9733 -5583 194

Damus iOS

Added

• Ability to create highlights (ericholguin)
• Add ability to mute hashtag from SearchView (Charlie Fish)
• Add ability to mute words, add new mutelist interface (Charlie) (William Casarin)
• Added callbackuri for a better ux when connecting mutiny wallet nwc (ericholguin)
• Added nip10 marker replies (William Casarin)
• Added title image and tags to longform events (ericholguin)
• Add event content preview to the full screen carousel (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add First Aid solution for users who do not have a contact list created for their account (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add marker nip10 support when reading notes (William Casarin)
• Add video cache to save network bandwidth (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Completely new threads experience that is easier and more pleasant to use (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Connect to Mutiny Wallet Button (ericholguin)
• Highlights (NIP-84) (ericholguin)
• Notification reminders for Damus Purple impending expiration (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Proxy Tags are now viewable on Selected Events (ericholguin)
• Relay fees metadata (ericholguin)
• Revamp emoji picker to be less error-prone and add search, frequently used, and multiple skin tone support capabilities (Terry Yiu)
• Show list of quoted reposts in threads (William Casarin)

Changed

• Added first aid contact damus support email (alltheseas)
• Add support for Apple In-App purchases (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Always strip GPS data from images (kernelkind)
• Change reactions to use a native looking emoji picker (Terry Yiu)
• Errors with an NWC will show as an alert (ericholguin)
• Improve UX around video playback (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Moved paste nwc button to main wallet view (ericholguin)
• Relay config view user interface (ericholguin)
• Relay detail design (ericholguin)
• Updated Zeus logo (ericholguin)

Fixed

• Fix broken GIF uploads (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix bug that would cause connection issues with relays defined with a trailing slash URL, and an inability to delete them. (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fixed issue where some replies were including the q tag (William Casarin)
• Fixed issue where timeline was scrolling when it isn't supposed to (William Casarin)
• Fixed threads not loading sometimes (William Casarin)
• Fixed wallet not disconnecting when a user logs out (ericholguin)
• Fix emoji reactions being cut off (ericholguin)
• Fix ghost notifications caused by Purple impending expiration notifications (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix image indicators to limit number of dots to not spill screen beyond visible margins (ericholguin)
• Fix in-app purchase issue that would trigger an error on purchase before confirming the account information. (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix issue where bootstrap relays would inadvertently be added to the user's list on connectivity issues (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix missing Mute button in profile view menu (Terry Yiu)
• Fix nostrscripts not loading (William Casarin)
• Fix profile not updating bug (William Casarin)
• Fix stale feed issue when follow list is too big (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix thread bug where a quote isn't picked up as a reply (William Casarin)
• Fix welcome screen not showing if the user enters the app directly after a successful checkout without going through the link (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Improve reliability of contact list creation during onboarding (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Issue where NWC Scanner view would not dismiss after a failed scan/paste (ericholguin)

Stats

name added removed commits Fonta1n3 <fontainedenton@googlemail.com> +1 -0 1 Sean Kibler <skibler@protonmail.com> +13 -2 1 alltheseas <64376233+alltheseas> +65 -1 4 Transifex <transifex@transifex.com> +581 -39 36 Terry Yiu <git@tyiu.xyz> +763 -1383 8 William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +1017 -1564 49 ericholguin <ericholguin@apache.org> +1962 -643 13 Daniel D’Aquino <daniel@daquino.me> +3885 -761 48

@ ee74c5c7:8aa2898a

Test!

@ 39c29691:5992ef96

Welcome

@ 000002de:c05780a7

Recently a famous actress accused an AI company of using her voice without her permission. She says this company approached her about using her voice as the voice of a new product. She declined the offer.

Now she claims the voice of the product is a dead ringer for her voice and is suing the AI company for using her voice without her permission. What could have happened is that this company could have hired an impersonator and used their voice to develop their product. I think this is the most likely thing that happened.

This sparked an interesting idea in my mind. What LLM are doing is imitating. We all do it all the time. Musicians do it when they write songs. We all do it when we write. We can't help but be influenced by others. Of course there are even professional impersonators. Under current IP "law" I do not believe that an impersonator can be sued for stealing the likeness of those they impersonate. So, given that LLM simply use information/data that is publicly available how can what they are doing be unlawful or even immoral?

Imagine a world like this. I color my hair and cut it in a certain way that is new and different. Does it seem reasonable that I could use the government to prevent anyone else from doing what I have done? Its absurd right? Why? Because a hair style can't be stolen. Its not tangible. It can be copied or imitated though.

This cuts to the core of the logical flaws in idea of intellectual property. Most people really only look at the utility of things like IP instead of reasoning about them. You can make arguments about why IP is needed to protect something but when you really break it down logically it is full of contradictions. It falls apart. Its arbitrary.

If I write something on my own web site on the Internet and do not specify a license legally you are not allowed to duplicate it. Once I publish it though I have zero control over it. Anyone can read it and "steal" it. But they can't really steal it right? I mean, I don't even have possession of it. Anything that can be infinitely copied cannot be stolen. It can be copied. It can be copied and changed. You see theft requires the possession of an object to change. When you copy what I have written here what I wrote does not cease to exist. No matter how much I don't like that the only way this can be stopped is for me to never share it.

The only reason IP even exists is the state. The state arbitrarily decides who has the "right" to ideas and intangible things like songs and prose. And we know how the state enforces things. Violence and the threat of violence.

I am really looking forward to watching all of the absurdities that will come out of AI companies copying and imitating things broadcasted online. Grab the popcorn. Its gonna be fun.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/598082