@ e6817453:b0ac3c39

Hey folks, today we're diving into an exciting and emerging topic: personal artificial intelligence (PAI) and its connection to sovereignty, privacy, and ethics. With the rapid advancements in AI, there's a growing interest in the development of personal AI agents that can work on behalf of the user, acting autonomously and providing tailored services. However, as with any new technology, there are several critical factors that shape the future of PAI. Today, we'll explore three key pillars: privacy and ownership, explainability, and bias.

1. Privacy and Ownership: Foundations of Personal AI

At the heart of personal AI, much like self-sovereign identity (SSI), is the concept of ownership. For personal AI to be truly effective and valuable, users must own not only their data but also the computational power that drives these systems. This autonomy is essential for creating systems that respect the user's privacy and operate independently of large corporations.

In this context, privacy is more than just a feature—it's a fundamental right. Users should feel safe discussing sensitive topics with their AI, knowing that their data won’t be repurposed or misused by big tech companies. This level of control and data ownership ensures that users remain the sole beneficiaries of their information and computational resources, making privacy one of the core pillars of PAI.

2. Bias and Fairness: The Ethical Dilemma of LLMs

Most of today’s AI systems, including personal AI, rely heavily on large language models (LLMs). These models are trained on vast datasets that represent snapshots of the internet, but this introduces a critical ethical challenge: bias. The datasets used for training LLMs can be full of biases, misinformation, and viewpoints that may not align with a user’s personal values.

This leads to one of the major issues in AI ethics for personal AI—how do we ensure fairness and minimize bias in these systems? The training data that LLMs use can introduce perspectives that are not only unrepresentative but potentially harmful or unfair. As users of personal AI, we need systems that are free from such biases and can be tailored to our individual needs and ethical frameworks.

Unfortunately, training models that are truly unbiased and fair requires vast computational resources and significant investment. While large tech companies have the financial means to develop and train these models, individual users or smaller organizations typically do not. This limitation means that users often have to rely on pre-trained models, which may not fully align with their personal ethics or preferences. While fine-tuning models with personalized datasets can help, it's not a perfect solution, and bias remains a significant challenge.

3. Explainability: The Need for Transparency

One of the most frustrating aspects of modern AI is the lack of explainability. Many LLMs operate as "black boxes," meaning that while they provide answers or make decisions, it's often unclear how they arrived at those conclusions. For personal AI to be effective and trustworthy, it must be transparent. Users need to understand how the AI processes information, what data it relies on, and the reasoning behind its conclusions.

Explainability becomes even more critical when AI is used for complex decision-making, especially in areas that impact other people. If an AI is making recommendations, judgments, or decisions, it’s crucial for users to be able to trace the reasoning process behind those actions. Without this transparency, users may end up relying on AI systems that provide flawed or biased outcomes, potentially causing harm.

This lack of transparency is a major hurdle for personal AI development. Current LLMs, as mentioned earlier, are often opaque, making it difficult for users to trust their outputs fully. The explainability of AI systems will need to be improved significantly to ensure that personal AI can be trusted for important tasks.

Addressing the Ethical Landscape of Personal AI

As personal AI systems evolve, they will increasingly shape the ethical landscape of AI. We’ve already touched on the three core pillars—privacy and ownership, bias and fairness, and explainability. But there's more to consider, especially when looking at the broader implications of personal AI development.

Most current AI models, particularly those from big tech companies like Facebook, Google, or OpenAI, are closed systems. This means they are aligned with the goals and ethical frameworks of those companies, which may not always serve the best interests of individual users. Open models, such as Meta's LLaMA, offer more flexibility and control, allowing users to customize and refine the AI to better meet their personal needs. However, the challenge remains in training these models without significant financial and technical resources.

There’s also the temptation to use uncensored models that aren’t aligned with the values of large corporations, as they provide more freedom and flexibility. But in reality, models that are entirely unfiltered may introduce harmful or unethical content. It’s often better to work with aligned models that have had some of the more problematic biases removed, even if this limits some aspects of the system’s freedom.

The future of personal AI will undoubtedly involve a deeper exploration of these ethical questions. As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, the need for privacy, fairness, and transparency will only grow. And while we may not yet be able to train personal AI models from scratch, we can continue to shape and refine these systems through curated datasets and ongoing development.

Conclusion

In conclusion, personal AI represents an exciting new frontier, but one that must be navigated with care. Privacy, ownership, bias, and explainability are all essential pillars that will define the future of these systems. As we continue to develop personal AI, we must remain vigilant about the ethical challenges they pose, ensuring that they serve the best interests of users while remaining transparent, fair, and aligned with individual values.

If you have any thoughts or questions on this topic, feel free to reach out—I’d love to continue the conversation!

@ 599f67f7:21fb3ea9

¿Alguna vez has querido regalarle sats a alguien en forma física? Con una billetera LNbits, puedes crear fácilmente una tarjeta de regalo NFC. Esto funciona escribiendo un enlace LNURLw en la tarjeta NFC, desde el cual el destinatario puede retirar sus sats con una billetera compatible con LNURL.

¿Qué necesitas?

• Billetera LNbits
• Teléfono Android
• Tarjeta NFC con capacidades de al menos NTAG2*, por ejemplo, NTAG216. Consulta la nostr:naddr1qqxnzd3e8qcr2wfn8qcrgwf4qyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2q3qtx0k0a7lw62vvqax6p3ku90tccgdka7ul4radews2wrdsg0m865sxpqqqp65whwqrr5 para saber dónde comprar las tarjetas.

💡 Las tarjetas NTAG2 te permiten escribir un* enlace en ellas. Por ejemplo, pueden funcionar como una tarjeta de presentación que contiene la URL del sitio web de la empresa. Las tarjetas NTAG424 no solo tienen más memoria, sino que también cuentan con un parámetro SUN que permite la autenticación del servidor web, lo cual añade más seguridad a tus pagos. Este último tipo de tarjetas también se pueden convertir en BoltCards.

1. Activa la extensión

Abre tu billetera LNbits. Activa la extensión LNURLw desde la barra de herramientas y entra en la extensión.

2. Crea un enlace de retiro

• En la página de la extensión LNURLw, elige Advanced Withdraw Link(s) ("Enlace(s) de retiro avanzado").

• Selecciona la billetera desde la cual se retirarán los sats. Probablemente quieras separar esto de tu billetera principal de LNbits. Para hacerlo, puedes crear primero una nueva billetera LNbits yendo a la barra de herramientas y seleccionando + Agregar nueva billetera, luego depositando algunos sats en la billetera recién creada.

• Asigna un título al enlace de retiro.

• Establece los montos mínimo y máximo que se pueden canjear.

• Establece el número de veces que se puede utilizar el enlace y el tiempo entre intentos de retiro.

• Opcionalmente, puedes añadir una imagen personalizada marcando la casilla Use a custom voucher design ("Usar un diseño de cupón personalizado") e ingresando la URL de una imagen en formato .png.

• No marques la casilla de usar un codigo QR único.

Cuando estés satisfecho con la configuración, procede a crear el enlace de retiro.

3. Escribe el enlace en la tarjeta NFC

En tu enlace de retiro recién creado, haz clic en view LNURL ("ver LNURL"). Haz clic en el botón Write to NFC ("Escribir en NFC") y acerca tu tarjeta NFC a tu teléfono para que se pueda escribir en ella.

✔️ HECHO

💡 Informa al destinatario de la tarjeta sobre el saldo de sats que tiene para que no pierda tiempo intentando obtener hasta el último satoshi.

💡 Una vez que el destinatario haya retirado sus sats de la tarjeta de regalo, puede volver a escribir en ella su propia billetera y reutilizarla. ¡Dos pájaros de un tiro! Si la tarjeta que le diste es NTAG424, puede convertirla en una "tarjeta de débito" de Lightning como describimos en la nostr:naddr1qqxnzd3e8qcr2wfn8qcrgwf4qyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2q3qtx0k0a7lw62vvqax6p3ku90tccgdka7ul4radews2wrdsg0m865sxpqqqp65whwqrr5. Si la tarjeta es solo NTAG2*, entonces solo puede convertirla en otra tarjeta de regalo.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Este é um podcast sobre hackers, violações, atividades do governo oculto, hacktivismo, cibercrime e todas as coisas que residem nas partes ocultas da rede. Este é Darknet Diaries.

O Darknet Diaries oferece histórias de áudio que exploram a cultura dos hackers e da segurança cibernética, visando educar e entreter tanto o público técnico quanto o não técnico. O projeto segue padrões jornalísticos, verificando fatos e oferecendo informações de forma ética, mantendo princípios como veracidade, precisão, objetividade e imparcialidade. O objetivo é proporcionar um serviço confiável que promova o desenvolvimento intelectual, expanda o conhecimento, proporcione prazer auditivo e aumente a conscientização sobre a sociedade tecnológica, ajudando os ouvintes a se tornarem cidadãos mais informados e responsivos em suas vidas digitais.

você pode ouvir os áudios ou ler as transcrições diretamente no site oficial ou no canal do YouTube.

Site: https://darknetdiaries.com/

Hoje estou escutando o EP 92: THE PIRATE BAY https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_3014103063111072691705850196.webp

https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/92/

https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/92/

@ 47750177:8969e41a

25.0 Release Notes

Bitcoin Core version 25.0 is now available from:

• 🌐 https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-25.0/
• 🧲

This release includes new features, various bug fixes and performance improvements, as well as updated translations.

Please report bugs using the issue tracker at GitHub:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues

To receive security and update notifications, please subscribe to:

https://bitcoincore.org/en/list/announcements/join/

How to Upgrade

If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely shut down (which might take a few minutes in some cases), then run the installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt (on macOS) or bitcoind/bitcoin-qt (on Linux).

Upgrading directly from a version of Bitcoin Core that has reached its EOL is possible, but it might take some time if the data directory needs to be migrated. Old wallet versions of Bitcoin Core are generally supported.

Compatibility

Bitcoin Core is supported and extensively tested on operating systems using the Linux kernel, macOS 10.15+, and Windows 7 and newer. Bitcoin Core should also work on most other Unix-like systems but is not as frequently tested on them. It is not recommended to use Bitcoin Core on unsupported systems.

Notable changes

P2P and network changes

• Transactions of non-witness size 65 bytes and above are now allowed by mempool and relay policy. This is to better reflect the actual afforded protections against CVE-2017-12842 and open up additional use-cases of smaller transaction sizes. (#26265)

New RPCs

• The scanblocks RPC returns the relevant blockhashes from a set of descriptors by scanning all blockfilters in the given range. It can be used in combination with the getblockheader and rescanblockchain RPCs to achieve fast wallet rescans. Note that this functionality can only be used if a compact block filter index (-blockfilterindex=1) has been constructed by the node. (#23549)

Updated RPCs

• All JSON-RPC methods accept a new named parameter called args that can contain positional parameter values. This is a convenience to allow some parameter values to be passed by name without having to name every value. The python test framework and bitcoin-cli tool both take advantage of this, so for example:

sh bitcoin-cli -named createwallet wallet_name=mywallet load_on_startup=1

Can now be shortened to:

sh bitcoin-cli -named createwallet mywallet load_on_startup=1

• The verifychain RPC will now return false if the checks didn't fail, but couldn't be completed at the desired depth and level. This could be due to missing data while pruning, due to an insufficient dbcache or due to the node being shutdown before the call could finish. (#25574)

• sendrawtransaction has a new, optional argument, maxburnamount with a default value of 0. Any transaction containing an unspendable output with a value greater than maxburnamount will not be submitted. At present, the outputs deemed unspendable are those with scripts that begin with an OP_RETURN code (known as 'datacarriers'), scripts that exceed the maximum script size, and scripts that contain invalid opcodes.

• The testmempoolaccept RPC now returns 2 additional results within the "fees" result: "effective-feerate" is the feerate including fees and sizes of transactions validated together if package validation was used, and also includes any modified fees from prioritisetransaction. The "effective-includes" result lists the wtxids of transactions whose modified fees and sizes were used in the effective-feerate (#26646).

• decodescript may now infer a Miniscript descriptor under P2WSH context if it is not lacking information. (#27037)

• finalizepsbt is now able to finalize a transaction with inputs spending Miniscript-compatible P2WSH scripts. (#24149)

Changes to wallet related RPCs can be found in the Wallet section below.

Build System

• The --enable-upnp-default and --enable-natpmp-default options have been removed. If you want to use port mapping, you can configure it using a .conf file, or by passing the relevant options at runtime. (#26896)

Updated settings

• If the -checkblocks or -checklevel options are explicitly provided by the user, but the verification checks cannot be completed due to an insufficient dbcache, Bitcoin Core will now return an error at startup. (#25574)

• Ports specified in -port and -rpcport options are now validated at startup. Values that previously worked and were considered valid can now result in errors. (#22087)

• Setting -blocksonly will now reduce the maximum mempool memory to 5MB (users may still use -maxmempool to override). Previously, the default 300MB would be used, leading to unexpected memory usage for users running with -blocksonly expecting it to eliminate mempool memory usage.

As unused mempool memory is shared with dbcache, this also reduces the dbcache size for users running with -blocksonly, potentially impacting performance. - Setting -maxconnections=0 will now disable -dnsseed and -listen (users may still set them to override).

Changes to GUI or wallet related settings can be found in the GUI or Wallet section below.

New settings

• The shutdownnotify option is used to specify a command to execute synchronously before Bitcoin Core has begun its shutdown sequence. (#23395)

Wallet

• The minconf option, which allows a user to specify the minimum number of confirmations a UTXO being spent has, and the maxconf option, which allows specifying the maximum number of confirmations, have been added to the following RPCs in #25375:
• fundrawtransaction
• send
• walletcreatefundedpsbt

• sendall

• Added a new next_index field in the response in listdescriptors to have the same format as importdescriptors (#26194)

• RPC listunspent now has a new argument include_immature_coinbase to include coinbase UTXOs that don't meet the minimum spendability depth requirement (which before were silently skipped). (#25730)

• Rescans for descriptor wallets are now significantly faster if compact block filters (BIP158) are available. Since those are not constructed by default, the configuration option "-blockfilterindex=1" has to be provided to take advantage of the optimization. This improves the performance of the RPC calls rescanblockchain, importdescriptors and restorewallet. (#25957)

• RPC unloadwallet now fails if a rescan is in progress. (#26618)

• Wallet passphrases may now contain null characters. Prior to this change, only characters up to the first null character were recognized and accepted. (#27068)

• Address Purposes strings are now restricted to the currently known values of "send", "receive", and "refund". Wallets that have unrecognized purpose strings will have loading warnings, and the listlabels RPC will raise an error if an unrecognized purpose is requested. (#27217)

• In the createwallet, loadwallet, unloadwallet, and restorewallet RPCs, the "warning" string field is deprecated in favor of a "warnings" field that returns a JSON array of strings to better handle multiple warning messages and for consistency with other wallet RPCs. The "warning" field will be fully removed from these RPCs in v26. It can be temporarily re-enabled during the deprecation period by launching bitcoind with the configuration option -deprecatedrpc=walletwarningfield. (#27279)

• Descriptor wallets can now spend coins sent to P2WSH Miniscript descriptors. (#24149)

GUI changes

• The "Mask values" is a persistent option now. (gui#701)
• The "Mask values" option affects the "Transaction" view now, in addition to the "Overview" one. (gui#708)

REST

• A new /rest/deploymentinfo endpoint has been added for fetching various state info regarding deployments of consensus changes. (#25412)

Binary verification

• The binary verification script has been updated. In previous releases it would verify that the binaries had been signed with a single "release key". In this release and moving forward it will verify that the binaries are signed by a threshold of trusted keys. For more details and examples, see: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/contrib/verify-binaries/README.md (#27358)

Low-level changes

RPC

• The JSON-RPC server now rejects requests where a parameter is specified multiple times with the same name, instead of silently overwriting earlier parameter values with later ones. (#26628)
• RPC listsinceblock now accepts an optional label argument to fetch incoming transactions having the specified label. (#25934)
• Previously setban, addpeeraddress, walletcreatefundedpsbt, methods allowed non-boolean and non-null values to be passed as boolean parameters. Any string, number, array, or object value that was passed would be treated as false. After this change, passing any value except true, false, or null now triggers a JSON value is not of expected type error. (#26213)

Credits

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:

• 0xb10c
• 721217.xyz
• @RandyMcMillan
• amadeuszpawlik
• Amiti Uttarwar
• Andrew Chow
• Andrew Toth
• Anthony Towns
• Antoine Poinsot
• Aurèle Oulès
• Ben Woosley
• Bitcoin Hodler
• brunoerg
• Bushstar
• Carl Dong
• Chris Geihsler
• Cory Fields
• David Gumberg
• dergoegge
• Dhruv Mehta
• Dimitris Tsapakidis
• dougEfish
• Douglas Chimento
• ekzyis
• Elichai Turkel
• Ethan Heilman
• Fabian Jahr
• FractalEncrypt
• furszy
• Gleb Naumenko
• glozow
• Greg Sanders
• Hennadii Stepanov
• hernanmarino
• ishaanam
• ismaelsadeeq
• James O'Beirne
• jdjkelly@gmail.com
• Jeff Ruane
• Jeffrey Czyz
• Jeremy Rubin
• Jesse Barton
• João Barbosa
• JoaoAJMatos
• John Moffett
• Jon Atack
• Jonas Schnelli
• jonatack
• Joshua Kelly
• josibake
• Juan Pablo Civile
• kdmukai
• klementtan
• Kolby ML
• kouloumos
• Kristaps Kaupe
• laanwj
• Larry Ruane
• Leonardo Araujo
• Leonardo Lazzaro
• Luke Dashjr
• MacroFake
• MarcoFalke
• Martin Leitner-Ankerl
• Martin Zumsande
• Matt Whitlock
• Matthew Zipkin
• Michael Ford
• Miles Liu
• mruddy
• Murray Nesbitt
• muxator
• omahs
• pablomartin4btc
• Pasta
• Pieter Wuille
• Pttn
• Randall Naar
• Riahiamirreza
• roconnor-blockstream
• Russell O'Connor
• Ryan Ofsky
• S3RK
• Sebastian Falbesoner
• Seibart Nedor
• sinetek
• Sjors Provoost
• Skuli Dulfari
• SomberNight
• Stacie Waleyko
• stickies-v
• stratospher
• Suhas Daftuar
• Suriyaa Sundararuban
• TheCharlatan
• Vasil Dimov
• Vasil Stoyanov
• virtu
• w0xlt
• willcl-ark
• yancy
• Yusuf Sahin HAMZA

As well as to everyone that helped with translations on Transifex.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

I entered STEM in the late 90s and women weren't discouraged (much), but we also weren't actively encouraged. Neither were the guys. The head of our IT department was a woman, and that was actually not that rare, back then. In fact, the % of women getting comp sci or IT majors has been steadily falling, as this article by Texas Tech University magazine notes.

I've long been puzzled by the big "Girls Coding" push, that the corporations have been engaging in. It accomplished nothing in my workspace, except causing potential colleagues to view me with increasing suspicion. Entering IT teams in the 90s, everyone assumed I must be a genius because everyone there was some sort of genius. Now, they assume that I'm there to fix their "lack of diversity". This starts me off on the wrong foot, every time.

People went into IT because they cared about the subject matter. There wasn't much money in it, so the work atmosphere wasn't cutthroat or dominated by venture capitalistic intentions. We were just a bunch of middle class mathematicians and engineers, basically, hiding out in the computer room with our nerdy friends, building stuff we thought would be useful and cracking our dorky jokes.

Destroying this wholesome atmosphere with divisive company politics, turning it into a high-stakes game for gamblers, and the constant economic precariousness of software projects, is what made women leave IT and it is what is keeping women away.

We've managed to recreate that familial atmosphere, in our nostr:npub1s3ht77dq4zqnya8vjun5jp3p44pr794ru36d0ltxu65chljw8xjqd975wz team, and that's probably why we girls like being there. Turns out, the people who are best at recognizing your talents and accomodating your personal responsibilities, are your friends on the team, who are simply happy that you're there and want you to keep showing up.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

A criptografia é uma técnica que permite proteger informações e manter a privacidade dos dados. É como uma fechadura para suas informações, garantindo que apenas pessoas autorizadas possam acessá-las.

A história da criptografia remonta a tempos antigos, quando a criptografia era usada para proteger mensagens militares e diplomáticas. Durante as guerras, a criptografia foi amplamente utilizada para proteger as comunicações militares e confundir o inimigo. Durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a criptografia teve um papel crucial no conflito, especialmente na Batalha do Atlântico, onde os Aliados usaram a criptografia para quebrar o código dos nazistas e ganhar vantagem estratégica.

Nos anos 90, quando a criptografia estava sendo limitada pelo governo dos EUA, o programador Phil Zimmermann criou o PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), um programa de criptografia de e-mail para ajudar a proteger a privacidade das pessoas. O PGP usa um algoritmo de criptografia assimétrica que usa duas chaves diferentes para codificar e decodificar informações. A primeira chave é conhecida como chave pública e é usada para criptografar a mensagem. A segunda chave é conhecida como chave privada e é usada para decodificar a mensagem. Isso significa que a pessoa que envia a mensagem pode usar a chave pública do destinatário para criptografar a mensagem e enviá-la com segurança. O PGP tornou-se popular rapidamente, tornando-se uma das ferramentas de criptografia mais conhecidas e confiáveis do mundo. É importante porque ajuda a proteger suas informações pessoais contra o roubo de identidade e outras formas de invasão de privacidade online. Quando você envia uma mensagem criptografada com PGP,só quem possui a chave privada correspondente poderá descriptografá-la e ler o conteúdo. Isso significa que, mesmo que outras pessoas interceptem suas mensagens, elas não serão capazes de ler ou roubar suas informações pessoais.

Para usar o PGP, você precisa primeiro criar um par de chaves, que consiste em uma chave pública e uma chave privada. Você pode fazer isso usando um software de criptografia como o GPG (GNU Privacy Guard). Depois de criar as chaves, você precisa compartilhar sua chave pública com as pessoas com quem deseja se comunicar. Eles podem usar sua chave pública para criptografar as mensagens que desejam enviar para você.

OpenKeychain é um software PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) que permite criptografar, assinar e verificar mensagens e arquivos no seu celular Android. Para utilizar o OpenKeychain, siga os seguintes passos:

1. Baixe e instale o aplicativo OpenKeychain na Aurora Store. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sufficientlysecure.keychain

2. Abra o aplicativo e crie uma nova chave PGP seguindo as instruções fornecidas pelo aplicativo. Você deve escolher um nome de usuário e uma senha forte para proteger sua chave privada.

3. Com a chave PGP criada, você pode assinar, verificar e criptografar mensagens e arquivos. Para assinar uma mensagem, selecione a opção de assinatura e digite a mensagem. O aplicativo adicionará sua assinatura digital à mensagem e a salvará em seu celular.

4. Para verificar a assinatura de uma mensagem, selecione a opção de verificação e insira a mensagem. O aplicativo verificará a assinatura e informará se ela é válida ou não.

5. Para criptografar uma mensagem ou arquivo, selecione a opção de criptografia e insira o arquivo ou mensagem que deseja criptografar. Em seguida, escolha a chave PGP do destinatário e o aplicativo criptografará o conteúdo.

6. Para descriptografar uma mensagem ou arquivo criptografado, selecione a opção de descriptografia e insira o arquivo ou mensagem que deseja descriptografar. Em seguida, digite a senha da sua chave privada para descriptografar o conteúdo.

Lembre-se de manter sua chave privada segura e protegida com uma senha forte. Também é importante compartilhar sua chave pública com outras pessoas de maneira segura, para que elas possam enviar mensagens criptografadas para você.

https://youtu.be/fptlAx_j4OA https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGP_word_list

@ 47750177:8969e41a

28.0 Release Notes

Bitcoin Core version 28.0 is now available from:

• 🌐 https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-28.0/
• 🧲

This release includes new features, various bug fixes and performance improvements, as well as updated translations.

Please report bugs using the issue tracker at GitHub:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues

To receive security and update notifications, please subscribe to:

https://bitcoincore.org/en/list/announcements/join/

How to Upgrade

If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely shut down (which might take a few minutes in some cases), then run the installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt (on macOS) or bitcoind/bitcoin-qt (on Linux).

Upgrading directly from a version of Bitcoin Core that has reached its EOL is possible, but it might take some time if the data directory needs to be migrated. Old wallet versions of Bitcoin Core are generally supported.

Running Bitcoin Core binaries on macOS requires self signing. cd /path/to/bitcoin-28.0/bin xattr -d com.apple.quarantine bitcoin-cli bitcoin-qt bitcoin-tx bitcoin-util bitcoin-wallet bitcoind test_bitcoin codesign -s - bitcoin-cli bitcoin-qt bitcoin-tx bitcoin-util bitcoin-wallet bitcoind test_bitcoin

Compatibility

Bitcoin Core is supported and extensively tested on operating systems using the Linux Kernel 3.17+, macOS 11.0+, and Windows 7 and newer. Bitcoin Core should also work on most other UNIX-like systems but is not as frequently tested on them. It is not recommended to use Bitcoin Core on unsupported systems.

Notable changes

Testnet4/BIP94 support

Support for Testnet4 as specified in BIP94 has been added. The network can be selected with the -testnet4 option and the section header is also named [testnet4].

While the intention is to phase out support for Testnet3 in an upcoming version, support for it is still available via the known options in this release. (#29775)

Windows Data Directory

The default data directory on Windows has been moved from C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Bitcoin. Bitcoin Core will check the existence of the old directory first and continue to use that directory for backwards compatibility if it is present. (#27064)

JSON-RPC 2.0 Support

The JSON-RPC server now recognizes JSON-RPC 2.0 requests and responds with strict adherence to the specification. See JSON-RPC-interface.md for details. (#27101)

JSON-RPC clients may need to be updated to be compatible with the JSON-RPC server. Please open an issue on GitHub if any compatibility issues are found.

libbitcoinconsensus Removal

The libbitcoin-consensus library was deprecated in 27.0 and is now completely removed. (#29648)

P2P and Network Changes

• Previously if Bitcoin Core was listening for P2P connections, either using default settings or via bind=addr:port it would always also bind to 127.0.0.1:8334 to listen for Tor connections. It was not possible to switch this off, even if the node didn't use Tor. This has been changed and now bind=addr:port results in binding on addr:port only. The default behavior of binding to 0.0.0.0:8333 and 127.0.0.1:8334 has not been changed.

If you are using a bind=... configuration without bind=...=onion and rely on the previous implied behavior to accept incoming Tor connections at 127.0.0.1:8334, you need to now make this explicit by using bind=... bind=127.0.0.1:8334=onion. (#22729)

• Bitcoin Core will now fail to start up if any of its P2P binds fail, rather than the previous behaviour where it would only abort startup if all P2P binds had failed. (#22729)

• UNIX domain sockets can now be used for proxy connections. Set -onion or -proxy to the local socket path with the prefix unix: (e.g. -onion=unix:/home/me/torsocket). (#27375)

• UNIX socket paths are now accepted for -zmqpubrawblock and -zmqpubrawtx with the format -zmqpubrawtx=unix:/path/to/file (#27679)

• Additional "in" and "out" flags have been added to -whitelist to control whether permissions apply to inbound connections and/or manual ones (default: inbound only). (#27114)

• Transactions having a feerate that is too low will be opportunistically paired with their child transactions and submitted as a package, thus enabling the node to download 1-parent-1-child packages using the existing transaction relay protocol. Combined with other mempool policies, this change allows limited "package relay" when a parent transaction is below the mempool minimum feerate. Topologically Restricted Until Confirmation (TRUC) parents are additionally allowed to be below the minimum relay feerate (i.e., pay 0 fees). Use the submitpackage RPC to submit packages directly to the node. Warning: this P2P feature is limited (unlike the submitpackage interface, a child with multiple unconfirmed parents is not supported) and not yet reliable under adversarial conditions. (#28970)

Mempool Policy Changes

• Transactions with version number set to 3 are now treated as standard on all networks (#29496), subject to opt-in Topologically Restricted Until Confirmation (TRUC) transaction policy as described in BIP 431. The policy includes limits on spending unconfirmed outputs (#28948), eviction of a previous descendant if a more incentive-compatible one is submitted (#29306), and a maximum transaction size of 10,000vB (#29873). These restrictions simplify the assessment of incentive compatibility of accepting or replacing TRUC transactions, thus ensuring any replacements are more profitable for the node and making fee-bumping more reliable.

• Pay To Anchor (P2A) is a new standard witness output type for spending, a newly recognised output template. This allows for key-less anchor outputs, with compact spending conditions for additional efficiencies on top of an equivalent sh(OP_TRUE) output, in addition to the txid stability of the spending transaction. N.B. propagation of this output spending on the network will be limited until a sufficient number of nodes on the network adopt this upgrade. (#30352)

• Limited package RBF is now enabled, where the proposed conflicting package would result in a connected component, aka cluster, of size 2 in the mempool. All clusters being conflicted against must be of size 2 or lower. (#28984)

• The default value of the -mempoolfullrbf configuration option has been changed from 0 to 1, i.e. mempoolfullrbf=1. (#30493)

Updated RPCs

• The dumptxoutset RPC now returns the UTXO set dump in a new and improved format. Correspondingly, the loadtxoutset RPC now expects this new format in the dumps it tries to load. Dumps with the old format are no longer supported and need to be recreated using the new format to be usable. (#29612)

• AssumeUTXO mainnet parameters have been added for height 840,000. This means the loadtxoutset RPC can now be used on mainnet with the matching UTXO set from that height. (#28553)

• The warnings field in getblockchaininfo, getmininginfo and getnetworkinfo now returns all the active node warnings as an array of strings, instead of a single warning. The current behaviour can be temporarily restored by running Bitcoin Core with the configuration option -deprecatedrpc=warnings. (#29845)

• Previously when using the sendrawtransaction RPC and specifying outputs that are already in the UTXO set, an RPC error code of -27 with the message "Transaction already in block chain" was returned in response. The error message has been changed to "Transaction outputs already in utxo set" to more accurately describe the source of the issue. (#30212)

• The default mode for the estimatesmartfee RPC has been updated from conservative to economical, which is expected to reduce over-estimation for many users, particularly if Replace-by-Fee is an option. For users that require high confidence in their fee estimates at the cost of potentially over-estimating, the conservative mode remains available. (#30275)

• RPC scantxoutset now returns 2 new fields in the "unspents" JSON array: blockhash and confirmations. See the scantxoutset help for details. (#30515)

• RPC submitpackage now allows 2 new arguments to be passed: maxfeerate and maxburnamount. See the subtmitpackage help for details. (#28950)

Changes to wallet-related RPCs can be found in the Wallet section below.

Updated REST APIs

• Parameter validation for /rest/getutxos has been improved by rejecting truncated or overly large txids and malformed outpoint indices via raising an HTTP_BAD_REQUEST "Parse error". These requests were previously handled silently. (#30482, #30444)

Build System

• GCC 11.1 or later, or Clang 16.0 or later, are now required to compile Bitcoin Core. (#29091, #30263)

• The minimum required glibc to run Bitcoin Core is now 2.31. This means that RHEL 8 and Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) are no-longer supported. (#29987)

• --enable-lcov-branch-coverage has been removed, given incompatibilities between lcov version 1 & 2. LCOV_OPTS should be used to set any options instead. (#30192)

Updated Settings

• When running with -alertnotify, an alert can now be raised multiple times instead of just once. Previously, it was only raised when unknown new consensus rules were activated. Its scope has now been increased to include all kernel warnings. Specifically, alerts will now also be raised when an invalid chain with a large amount of work has been detected. Additional warnings may be added in the future. (#30058)

Changes to GUI or wallet related settings can be found in the GUI or Wallet section below.

Wallet

• The wallet now detects when wallet transactions conflict with the mempool. Mempool-conflicting transactions can be seen in the "mempoolconflicts" field of gettransaction. The inputs of mempool-conflicted transactions can now be respent without manually abandoning the transactions when the parent transaction is dropped from the mempool, which can cause wallet balances to appear higher. (#27307)

• A new max_tx_weight option has been added to the RPCs fundrawtransaction, walletcreatefundedpsbt, and send. It specifies the maximum transaction weight. If the limit is exceeded during funding, the transaction will not be built. The default value is 4,000,000 WU. (#29523)

• A new createwalletdescriptor RPC allows users to add new automatically generated descriptors to their wallet. This can be used to upgrade wallets created prior to the introduction of a new standard descriptor, such as taproot. (#29130)

• A new RPC gethdkeys lists all of the BIP32 HD keys in use by all of the descriptors in the wallet. These keys can be used in conjunction with createwalletdescriptor to create and add single key descriptors to the wallet for a particular key that the wallet already knows. (#29130)

• The sendall RPC can now spend unconfirmed change and will include additional fees as necessary for the resulting transaction to bump the unconfirmed transactions' feerates to the specified feerate. (#28979)

• In RPC bumpfee, if a fee_rate is specified, the feerate is no longer restricted to following the wallet's incremental feerate of 5 sat/vb. The feerate must still be at least the sum of the original fee and the mempool's incremental feerate. (#27969)

GUI Changes

• The "Migrate Wallet" menu allows users to migrate any legacy wallet in their wallet directory, regardless of the wallets loaded. (gui#824)

• The "Information" window now displays the maximum mempool size along with the mempool usage. (gui#825)

Low-level Changes

Tests

• The BIP94 timewarp attack mitigation is now active on the regtest network. (#30681)

• A new -testdatadir option has been added to test_bitcoin to allow specifying the location of unit test data directories. (#26564)

Blockstorage

• Block files are now XOR'd by default with a key stored in the blocksdir. Previous releases of Bitcoin Core or previous external software will not be able to read the blocksdir with a non-zero XOR-key. Refer to the -blocksxor help for more details. (#28052)

Chainstate

• The chainstate database flushes that occur when blocks are pruned will no longer empty the database cache. The cache will remain populated longer, which significantly reduces the time for initial block download to complete. (#28280)

Dependencies

• The dependency on Boost.Process has been replaced with cpp-subprocess, which is contained in source. Builders will no longer need Boost.Process to build with external signer support. (#28981)

Credits

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release: - 0xb10c - Alfonso Roman Zubeldia - Andrew Toth - AngusP - Anthony Towns - Antoine Poinsot - Anton A - Ava Chow - Ayush Singh - Ben Westgate - Brandon Odiwuor - brunoerg - bstin - Charlie - Christopher Bergqvist - Cory Fields - crazeteam - Daniela Brozzoni - David Gumberg - dergoegge - Edil Medeiros - Epic Curious - Fabian Jahr - fanquake - furszy - glozow - Greg Sanders - hanmz - Hennadii Stepanov - Hernan Marino - Hodlinator - ishaanam - ismaelsadeeq - Jadi - Jon Atack - josibake - jrakibi - kevkevin - kevkevinpal - Konstantin Akimov - laanwj - Larry Ruane - Lőrinc - Luis Schwab - Luke Dashjr - MarcoFalke - marcofleon - Marnix - Martin Saposnic - Martin Zumsande - Matt Corallo - Matthew Zipkin - Matt Whitlock - Max Edwards - Michael Dietz - Murch - nanlour - pablomartin4btc - Peter Todd - Pieter Wuille - @RandyMcMillan - RoboSchmied - Roman Zeyde - Ryan Ofsky - Sebastian Falbesoner - Sergi Delgado Segura - Sjors Provoost - spicyzboss - StevenMia - stickies-v - stratospher - Suhas Daftuar - sunerok - tdb3 - TheCharlatan - umiumi - Vasil Dimov - virtu - willcl-ark

As well as to everyone that helped with translations on Transifex.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 30th September

Wiki article on the topic. [sPhil] (https://sphil.xyz/) Religion politics philosophy history are critical. They are not objective things.

Week of updates for protocol apps, including Gossip, coracle app, nostrmo, nostur and many others.

Kind7 Tags: K, emoji,a,others Others threads multi people

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Show likes as kind 1 This person liked this post. Or this post has three likes in your timeline. The likes I don't know in your timeline really interest you.

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The first book is the bible... Word of Alexandria.

I added cyberspace to the difficult things of the protocol ultra brain things. Low brain, middle brain, top brain, ultra.

Some alphaama codes .AA u login .AA q stuff .AA q run b .AA q run f .AA q close f

high things of alphaama nostr:nevent1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq32amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7tcqyqlqu2vwpwax7dj420e75yws7g7vyua9e245c0x73c056gunxchluey4q99

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Comment: nostr:nevent1qqs8pn0zzhgk5l2raqh736rj3ckm48pfl6r7m72rnz2r2p7lzgmx20gzyqduwzspfzelx9k6x0lrez0j8cl8rtz0lxvqylk8z2ustnfy76jpzqcyqqqqqqgpramhxue69uhkummnw3ezuetfde6kuer6wasku7nfvuh8xurpvdjsjt5rvu

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You have to get to the point where you have your community relay. But you have to go down the rabbit hole of relays. General, search, local, inbox outbox, cache. Etc until you get to community relay that is being talked about these days because of NIP 29 "Relay-based Groups". In the end you have to have that table with the various types of relays clearly in your mind. If the user doesn't think about it, who should think about it, who? if I choose the relays?

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NIP-100 the world to make community for me. NIP-28 + NIP-72. So you have some structure interoperability with kind1. But the Channel is another kind. You arrange the various channels in the community. No posts need to be approved.

It's useless Protocol users are becoming more reddit users or so. I don't want to deal with these people.

@ ec9bd746:df11a9d0

It's intriguing to me how beer prices have changed since 1999. Today, you can buy Braník on sale for 9.90 Kč, so for 100 Kč you get 10 beers. 25 years ago, you'd get 13.5 beers for the same amount. What does that tell us?

• The cost of labor and services has gone up a lot, but people are willing to pay and even expect a certain level of quality. There are way fewer run-down pubs than before.

• Production has become much more efficient, so considering inflation and purchasing power, bottled beer is actually cheaper now than it used to be.

In 1995, about 30 years ago, bottled and draft beer cost almost the same—around 7 Kč. (Source in Czech)

So what's the takeaway?

1. A wealthy society can afford much pricier services.

2. Prices of basic groceries and fast-moving goods are squeezed to the bone. The best way to gauge real inflation is at the supermarket, where there's no room for messing with margins, stock levels, seasonality, etc. Everything moves fast, competition is huge, and big retailers are relentless.

Real estate is pricey due to artificial (or bureaucracy-induced) shortages, but meat, milk, beer, bread, etc., are operating on razor-thin profits. That's why they react so quickly—see point 2.

@ 17538dc2:71ed77c4

a practical intro to contributing to FOSS for product people, and other non-devs

So you want to contribute to FOSS, but don’t know where to start. There are many paths to FOSS, but you must find your own. Here’s some advice based on personal experience to help you get started.

0. Find your motivation

FOSS requires a lot of giving, and better aligns with those that are missionaries, as opposed to the mercenaries. Perhaps you are unfulfilled in your fiat job, maybe you are currently unemployed, or perhaps you are excited about a particular bitcoin project. Why you’re exploring contributing to FOSS, is a question that only you can answer.

Are you a missionary?

1. Discover what excites you

So you’ve found motivation and have a list of various FOSS projects you could contribute to. This is the equivalent of the “I need a job” stage and you’re figuring out where to apply. It’s time to narrow it down.

What are you excited about? A multi-year pilgrimage of learning how to contribute to Bitcoin Core? A lightning wallet, perhaps? Free speech Nostr? A hardware signing device? Or maybe finding a FOSS projects that is not “Bitcoin” in name, but happens to support Bitcoin, and Lightning.

A great first step is to take some time and explore the Bitcoin Design Community (https://bitcoin.design/) to discover FOSS projects.

Are you excited anon?

2. Identify the skills you have or want to develop

Chances are that if you follow the Bitcoin Product Community, you’re skills are in Product Management, Product Marketing, and/or Project Management. But contributing to a bitcoin project requires contributors with skills of many backgrounds such as marketing, documentation, community building, and more.

What’s important to know is that most FOSS teams start with a motivated developer, who then may attract other devs. But many of them may not advertise that they need non-developer help such as a PM.

Therein lies the opportunity for you as an eager bitcoin contributor. See what the needs of a project are and see if you can fill in those gaps with your skills. It may be as simple as coordinating meetings for the team. But doing the “dirty work”, or the work no one else wants to do, is exactly the way you can make an immediate impact to a FOSS project. In fact, this is why members of the Bitcoin Product Community affectionately refer to product managers as “janitors”!

3. Make a list of projects

Now that you have narrowed down your FOSS search, it is time to start building a list of, and evaluating various FOSS products. Some questions you can ask yourself:

Is the project active? Is it a new project? How many team members are there? How many are devs? Is there already a PM? Is there a need for multiple PMs? Is there designer participation? What is the pace of development? Is there enough development activity for this to satisfy your want to contribute? Is there opportunity for a PM?

Github is the defacto standard for FOSS products. Check the activity. Read up on issues. See who is contributing PRs, and creating issues. Check if there is a Github Project instance.

It’s OK, and best for you to check out out multiple FOSS projects concurrently to see which team is the best fit for both parties.

4. Use the thing(s)!

Another thing you can do to help you choose a project is to use the thing! Download the OS. Run the software. Use it.

As you’re interacting with the product, some things you can ask yourself are:

What do you love about the product? What can be improved? Are there bugs?

Jot down your notes. Take screenshots. Do screen recordings. Document your experience. Create a video onboarding walkthrough, or a feature tutorial. What you are actually doing is documentation and this will be useful for the project, even if you don’t decide to actively contribute.

As you use the thing, take note of how you’re reacting to it. Are you getting more or less excited? Are you more or less confident in contributing to the project?

5. Find out where the team works

Another factor to consider is to figure out where the team works.

By now you have already explored their github to collect your FOSS intelligence. Now check nostr, twitter, telegram, or whatever other comms tools the team might be using. Some teams may have calls, and call recordings. Consider listening in to a recording, and/or joining a call to check the team dynamics.

As you do, assess whether you might be a good culture fit. Also see where there might be some gaps in their workflow that you can help improve.

6. Start small

Once you found a project that interests and excites you enough. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get involved by starting small.

One easy place to start is to go through the github issues list. Some examples of issues in dev heavy teams are e extremely technical bug reports. For FOSS products with an active user base, there might be “customer” centric feature requests.

Start by logging the bug(s) you found. Examine issues, and fill in the blanks if there are unclearly defined reports & requests.

You don’t have to ask for permission to contribute. That said, evaluate team dynamics and who owns what role so you are not stepping on anyone’s toes. You are there to help.

Also take note of how your help is received. It may take time for you to build up your credibility. Don’t throw in the towel on the first week. Keep finding ways to add value.

7. Show up consistently

Keep contributing in small things day in and day out. As you do so, communicate with the team to ramp up your learning, and also start building rapport, and your reputation. You may not have time or opportunity to contribute full-time. With the state of asynchronous communication tools in 2023, you can flexibly contribute when you have time. An exception to the asynchronous communication may be team meetings.

As you continue to show up consistently, you will build up your FOSS proof-of-work, and reputation. This will show FOSS devs, and contributors that you bring value.

8. Find and meet the “customer”

Find, and interact with the project’s users a.k.a “customers”. What do they care about? What are their pain points? What needs are customers using the product for? Become the “voice of the customer” to the dev heavy team.

Is there a conference where your team is presenting, and customers present? These are invaluable opportunities to observe the customer’s behavior, and also to help answer questions, and troubleshoot on the spot.

9. Increase your involvement

After some time starting small and working on bugs, you may eventually find yourself submitting feature requests. Maybe there is an opportunity to create user flows, or mockups. As you consistently contribute, continue seeking more responsibility.

Maybe you offer to facilitate and lead the next team call. Maybe you try creating a roadmap and backlog from scratch. Maybe you host a product & design thinking session. Maybe you will level up and learn how to check out a dev’s PR in a yet-to-released branch.

No matter what you do, be sure to always bring value to the project.

Testing an unreleased Damus branch checked out on XCode

10. Prune, Commit, Repeat

Congratulations! By now you’ve been doing a “trial run” with several projects. It’s time to focus and choose one(s) that you can commit to.

As you contribute to the project on an ongoing basis, continuously reevaluate if there is opportunity for you to increase your contributions. If you feel that you’ve maxed that out, it may be time to look for a different FOSS product to contribute to. Perhaps a complementary product to your initial one.

As you embark on this journey, it can be exhilarating at times and in other times thankless. To find a community of peers, and perhaps a mentor check in with the Bitcoin Product Community Discord, and introduce yourself. The beauty of open source is people are willing to help FOSS products, and to answer your questions.

https://youtu.be/ZUgQPR6ecuo “FOSS is the way” - Rockstar dev, @ Advancing Bitcoin Conference London 2023. The author thanks Rockstar for inspiration, and guidance through my FOSS journey.

As you continue to sweep the FOSS floors with your product mop, remember that you are contributing to the mission that you believe in. You are working in the open, with even less authority than a PM at a company might have, and as a result leveling up. You build up your reputation in FOSS, and you show others your capabilities in the FOSS world (and also prospective employers, and co-founders) by doing.

Hopefully this helps you get started. Reach out to elsat on nostr if you have questions about the FOSS journey, and join the Bitcoin Product Community Discord.

@ 4f82bced:b8928630

Disclaimer: this article was written for the NOSTR uninitiated.

When you hear, bitcoin what comes to mind? Crypto? Blockchain? ETF? How about music? We met someone looking to change this perception and make bitcoin more relatable to the masses through music, meet Man Like Kweks. A husband, father, teacher, and part-time musician who "sees the world through a purple lens with the orange blend" - a quote from the track SPC referring to NOSTR (purple) and Bitcoin (orange)

The Xmas road trip brought us together. We were fortunate to spend more time with him and his family during our month-long stay in Arusha. I’m no musician but watching the process was surprising. There was no studio, no fancy gear, just his iPhone and his car to record in. One stroll and he had the verses going. The skill was always there. Bitcoin and NOSTR gave him a superpower.

If you’re scratching your head, let me explain. Traditionally, artists monetize their tracks by going viral, getting sponsors, or selling merch. Bitcoin + NOSTR allows him to get 'zapped' money for his tracks. Anyone with an Internet connection can instantly zap him as little as one satoshi (100M satoshi = 1 bitcoin) if they like or value the track. As a creator, putting value out can result in getting value back instantly. For instance, his track Gorilla Sats has received roughly 250K sats (0.0025 BTC).

NOSTR (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a decentralized and censorship-resistant protocol enabling users to publish content without relying on central parties. One application of this, is Wavlake, a music platform allowing artists to 'stream anywhere and earn everywhere'. You'll find Man Like Kweks here. With such technology, he's extremely open to sharing his tracks for collaborations, remixes or to be used as a background score. No copyright nonsense. "I'm open source about my dreams, I know any change got to start with me" - POWA

He's climbed Kilimanjaro multiple times and even crowdfunded his first ascent through bitcoin. With his talents and work ethic, the sky is the limit. Don't be surprised to see him as the headline performance at a nearby concert soon.

Next time you hear 'bitcoin' think of music it may remove the negative bias the media perpetuates.

Check out this recent track, No Paper No Visa. "My money ain't got no leader, my money ain't got to Ceaser." If you want something more futuristic Epoch 5 is a great one. "My life was square, now it's measured in blocks."

---

Sources:

Man Like Kweks: https://wavlake.com/man-like-kweks

SPC: https://wavlake.com/track/3430b377-4052-4269-8feb-a2d439d45e3b

POWA: https://wavlake.com/track/097e2264-41f2-4fba-aa38-dc24cfcfc3b7

No paper no Visa https://wavlake.com/album/d2cec8c3-72b9-4c3b-a252-53512a7f6a04

Epoch 5: https://wavlake.com/track/5127df3d-cf9b-40b6-b081-508df98ad9d4

@ 4f82bced:b8928630

https://youtu.be/lVK1xRz--9I

Last year my wife and I decided to take a sabbatical and see the world. Our plan? Visit Africa, South America, and Asia to experience how bitcoin is impacting the global south. Having never set foot in Africa we settled on the Cairo to Cape Town overland route. It allowed us to start from the north and head south across the east coast.

We went in with surface-level knowledge about Africa: Egypt = pyramids, East Africa = animals South Africa = Cape Town. Boy were we wrong! Africa is so misunderstood starting with the fact that it’s a continent, not a country. Each country is unique and we are humbled to have made them our home for the past year.

332 days, 10 countries 37,000 km, 2 flights, 17 buses, 21 taxis, and countless bitcoin interactions later, our African journey is complete. (Almost! Need to visit a friend in Namibia)

Due to safety concerns, we had to skip Sudan and flew in and out of Ethiopia. Except for these two flights, we completed this entire journey overland using buses and taxis. (shared taxis are fun – a game of how many can squeeze into a van before it breaks down)

One post won’t do justice to this adventure so we will be spending the next two months catching up and sharing experiences thus far. Some highlights include:

-Founded 2 bitcoin preferred businesses (a juice shop and an Airbnb) -Onboarded 12 merchants and a charity to accept bitcoin as payments -Spoke at our first bitcoin conference -Attended 8 community meetups (presented in 4) -Paid 35 businesses in bitcoin (includes 3 safaris) -Invested in a Bitcoin-preferred business -We look forward to sharing stories from each country and hope you enjoy them.

-A Student of Bitcoin

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/682996

@ f1597634:c6d40bf4

E aí, galera do Nostr! Já pensou em como proteger sua privacidade nesse mundo descentralizado? A gente sabe que a liberdade é daora, mas é importante saber como se proteger dos "bisbilhoteiros" que estão sempre à espreita.

O perigo das fotos:

• Sabia que as fotos que você posta podem dar muitas informações sobre você? É tipo deixar um mapa do tesouro nas mãos de alguém!
• Pessoal mau intencionadas podem usar essas fotos para descobrir onde você mora, qual seu IP e até mesmo sua identidade!

Dicas para se proteger:

• Escolha seus apps com cuidado: Nem todos os apps são iguais. Procure aqueles que a galera mais confia e que têm uma boa fama.
• Ajuste as configurações: A maioria dos apps tem configurações de privacidade. Mexa nelas para mostrar só o que você quiser para os outros.
• Cuidado com links: Não clique em qualquer link que você receber. Pode ser uma armadilha!

Uma boa prática ao navegar pelo Nostr é configurar um Proxy confiável no seu aplicativo. No Nostrudel por exemplo é possível configurar um proxy de imagem através das configurações.

Segundo análise, as redes a seguir ja disponibilizam esses proxies por padrão:

• Amethyst
• Damus

\ O que é esse tal de proxy?

• Imagina que você está usando uma máscara. O proxy é tipo essa máscara, só que para o seu IP. Assim, ninguém vai saber quem você é de verdade.
• É como se você estivesse usando um disfarce para navegar pela internet!

Outras dicas:

• Remover Exif: Todas as fotos que tiramos possuem metadados, normalmente redes sociais e outras empresas removem esses dados quando recebem a imagem no servidor (eventualmente pegam os dados).

Programas como ExifCleaner removem essas informações antes do upload.

Conclusão:

A internet é um lugar incrível, mas também pode ser perigoso. Seguindo essas dicas, você vai poder curtir o Nostr com mais tranquilidade e sem se preocupar com os "bisbilhoteiros".

Lembre-se: A segurança é coisa séria! Compartilhe esse guia com seus amigos e ajude a criar uma comunidade mais segura.

E aí, curtiu?

fonte: https://victorhugo.info/artigos/nostr-como-se-proteger-1

@ 3eab247c:1d80aeed

Merchant Comments

I extracted about 900 valuable comments from our verification reports and I exposed them via BTC Map sync API. Comments turned out to be extremely valuable since they often add important context to certain Bitcoin merchants. The next steps are client app support and automating new comments.

Feed Reader Support

Some people are only interested in new places or comments in their areas, so they don’t want to install our apps and check them all the time. BTC Map data is open, and we never intended to lock users in, that’s why I created a few experimental Atom data feeds. Let’s say you want to get notified of new places and comments in the Netherlands, so now you can just add the following feeds to your feed reader of choice:

https://api.btcmap.org/feeds/new-places/nl

https://api.btcmap.org/feeds/new-comments/nl

Of course, you can mix and match any number of BTC Map areas, communities and countries alike. Web feed links are always available on our website, in area activity section.

RPC Interface

Most of our administrative tasks are now centralized, which means that processing new change requests might take a long time, depending on how busy we are. This model can’t scale, that’s why we’re building an admin API, alongside GUI and CLI tools which can be used to simplify access to many local administrative tasks. There is no ETA on that, but I think we’ll be able to delegate most tasks to local community managers pretty soon.

Trending Countries

1. Netherlands - 190 events and comments
2. Italy - 173 events and comments
3. Germany - 169 events and comments
4. Spain - 101 events and comments
5. Portugal - 98 events and comments
6. El Salvador - 95 events and comments
7. United Kingdom - 83 events and comments
8. Brazil - 78 events and comments
9. Switzerland - 77 events and comments
10. Czechia - 74 events and comments

Many merchants in the Netherlands were re-verified by Comino, which shows that a single maintainer can keep the whole country up to date. Having a single maintainer per country would allow us to keep the whole world up to date, so if your country has some old and outdated merchants, we need your help!

Italian re-verification effort can mostly be attributed to mpbin. This user not only re-verified many existing places but also added some missing general tags such as contact details and so on. Those tags are extremely valuable, so even if your area is up-to-date, you might want to check if you have enough contact details for every merchant. This account apparently belongs to Bitcoin Italia Network, and it looks like they’re taking ownership over the whole region.

Germany’s data was enhanced by many different accounts, but 65% of German locations are still outdated, so this country needs more love from local editors. Spain continues to be in a good shape, thanks to descubrebitcoin efforts, and Portugal data quality continues to improve, thanks to Sxajne.

Big thanks to Rockedf for contributing to almost every region!

Trending Communities

1. Satoshi Spritz - 176 events and comments
2. Einundzwanzig Deutschlan - 169 events and comments
3. Einundzwanzig Portugal - 98 events and comments
4. Einundzwanzig Schweiz - 78 events and comments
5. Bitcoin Association Switzerland - 77 events and comments
6. Dezentralschweiz - 77 events and comments
7. Bitcoin Berlin - El Salvador - 60 events and comments
8. Free Madeira - 51 events and comments
9. Berlin 2140 - 48 events and comments
10. Einundzwanzig Berlin - 48 events and comments

Global Metrics

The number of verified merchants has dropped from 6,867 to 6,734 (-2%), which means that we’re struggling to keep more than 5-7 thousands of places up-to-date, and we need more contributors who can re-verify outdated merchants.

The total number of merchants has increased from 11,685 to 11,833 (+1.3%), which is in line with our long-term trend. The stream of new merchants has no signs of tapering, we’re just struggling to maintain the old ones in certain regions.

The average number of days since the last verification has increased from 323 to 340 (+5.3%), which means that our data is now significantly less reliable than it was a month ago. This is yet another confirmation that our main bottleneck is the lack of local maintainers.

Conclusion

Our main issue is growing number of outdated locations, and getting more maintainers can take some time. It’s not the only way to improve BTC Map though, so we can focus on highlighting the best quality merchants, which I’m intending to be busy with during October. I have a few ideas on using different quality signals, and it might make sense to simply mark or hide outdated or unreliable merchants.

The best way to help us is to re-verify some outdated locations in your area, if you have any:

https://btcmap.org/map?outdated

@ e6817453:b0ac3c39

In the modern world of AI, managing vast amounts of data while keeping it relevant and accessible is a significant challenge, mainly when dealing with large language models (LLMs) and vector databases. One approach that has gained prominence in recent years is integrating vector search with metadata, especially in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines. Vector search and metadata enable faster and more accurate data retrieval. However, the process of pre- and post-search filtering results plays a crucial role in ensuring data relevance.

The Vector Search and Metadata Challenge

In a typical vector search, you create embeddings from chunks of text, such as a PDF document. These embeddings allow the system to search for similar items and retrieve them based on relevance. The challenge, however, arises when you need to combine vector search results with structured metadata. For example, you may have timestamped text-based content and want to retrieve the most relevant content within a specific date range. This is where metadata becomes critical in refining search results.

Unfortunately, most vector databases treat metadata as a secondary feature, isolating it from the primary vector search process. As a result, handling queries that combine vectors and metadata can become a challenge, particularly when the search needs to account for a dynamic range of filters, such as dates or other structured data.

LibSQL and vector search metadata

LibSQL is a more general-purpose SQLite-based database that adds vector capabilities to regular data. Vectors are presented as blob columns of regular tables. It makes vector embeddings and metadata a first-class citizen that naturally builds deep integration of these data points.

create table if not exists conversation ( id varchar(36) primary key not null, startDate real, endDate real, summary text, vectorSummary F32_BLOB(512) );

It solves the challenge of metadata and vector search and eliminates impedance between vector data and regular structured data points in the same storage.

As you can see, you can access vector-like data and start date in the same query.

select c.id ,c.startDate, c.endDate, c.summary, vector_distance_cos(c.vectorSummary, vector(${vector})) distance from conversation where ${startDate ? `and c.startDate >= ${startDate.getTime()}` : ''} ${endDate ? `and c.endDate <= ${endDate.getTime()}` : ''} ${distance ? `and distance <= ${distance}` : ''} order by distance limit ${top};

vector_distance_cos calculated as distance allows us to make a primitive vector search that does a full scan and calculates distances on rows. We could optimize it with CTE and limit search and distance calculations to a much smaller subset of data.

This approach could be calculation intensive and fail on large amounts of data.

Libsql offers a way more effective vector search based on FlashDiskANN vector indexed.

vector_top_k('idx_conversation_vectorSummary', ${vector} , ${top}) i

vector_top_k is a table function that searches for the top of the newly created vector search index. As you can see, we could use only vector as a function parameter, and other columns could be used outside of the table function. So, to use a vector index together with different columns, we need to apply some strategies.

Now we get a classical problem of integration vector search results with metadata queries.

Post-Filtering: A Common Approach

The most widely adopted method in these pipelines is post-filtering. In this approach, the system first retrieves data based on vector similarities and then applies metadata filters. For example, imagine you’re conducting a vector search to retrieve conversations relevant to a specific question. Still, you also want to ensure these conversations occurred in the past week.

Post-filtering allows the system to retrieve the most relevant vector-based results and subsequently filter out any that don’t meet the metadata criteria, such as date range. This method is efficient when vector similarity is the primary factor driving the search, and metadata is only applied as a secondary filter.

const sqlQuery = ` select c.id ,c.startDate, c.endDate, c.summary, vector_distance_cos(c.vectorSummary, vector(${vector})) distance from vector_top_k('idx_conversation_vectorSummary', ${vector} , ${top}) i inner join conversation c on i.id = c.rowid where ${startDate ? `and c.startDate >= ${startDate.getTime()}` : ''} ${endDate ? `and c.endDate <= ${endDate.getTime()}` : ''} ${distance ? `and distance <= ${distance}` : ''} order by distance limit ${top};

However, there are some limitations. For example, the initial vector search may yield fewer results or omit some relevant data before applying the metadata filter. If the search window is narrow enough, this can lead to complete results.

One working strategy is to make the top value in vector_top_K much bigger. Be careful, though, as the function's default max number of results is around 200 rows.

Pre-Filtering: A More Complex Approach

Pre-filtering is a more intricate approach but can be more effective in some instances. In pre-filtering, metadata is used as the primary filter before vector search takes place. This means that only data that meets the metadata criteria is passed into the vector search process, limiting the scope of the search right from the beginning.

While this approach can significantly reduce the amount of irrelevant data in the final results, it comes with its own challenges. For example, pre-filtering requires a deeper understanding of the data structure and may necessitate denormalizing the data or creating separate pre-filtered tables. This can be resource-intensive and, in some cases, impractical for dynamic metadata like date ranges.

In certain use cases, pre-filtering might outperform post-filtering. For instance, when the metadata (e.g., specific date ranges) is the most important filter, pre-filtering ensures the search is conducted only on the most relevant data.

Pre-filtering with distance-based filtering

So, we are getting back to an old concept. We do prefiltering instead of using a vector index.

WITH FilteredDates AS ( SELECT c.id, c.startDate, c.endDate, c.summary, c.vectorSummary FROM YourTable c WHERE ${startDate ? `AND c.startDate >= ${startDate.getTime()}` : ''} ${endDate ? `AND c.endDate <= ${endDate.getTime()}` : ''} ), DistanceCalculation AS ( SELECT fd.id, fd.startDate, fd.endDate, fd.summary, fd.vectorSummary, vector_distance_cos(fd.vectorSummary, vector(${vector})) AS distance FROM FilteredDates fd ) SELECT dc.id, dc.startDate, dc.endDate, dc.summary, dc.distance FROM DistanceCalculation dc WHERE 1=1 ${distance ? `AND dc.distance <= ${distance}` : ''} ORDER BY dc.distance LIMIT ${top};

It makes sense if the filter produces small data and distance calculation happens on the smaller data set.

As a pro of this approach, you have full control over the data and get all results without omitting some typical values for extensive index searches.

Choosing Between Pre and Post-Filtering

Both pre-filtering and post-filtering have their advantages and disadvantages. Post-filtering is more accessible to implement, especially when vector similarity is the primary search factor, but it can lead to incomplete results. Pre-filtering, on the other hand, can yield more accurate results but requires more complex data handling and optimization.

In practice, many systems combine both strategies, depending on the query. For example, they might start with a broad pre-filtering based on metadata (like date ranges) and then apply a more targeted vector search with post-filtering to refine the results further.

Conclusion

Vector search with metadata filtering offers a powerful approach for handling large-scale data retrieval in LLMs and RAG pipelines. Whether you choose pre-filtering or post-filtering—or a combination of both—depends on your application's specific requirements. As vector databases continue to evolve, future innovations that combine these two approaches more seamlessly will help improve data relevance and retrieval efficiency further.

@ 1b5ee74d:bb1aae6e

In the previous episode, we discussed the concept of silent adoption, focusing solely on the most popular and debated aspect of adoption: the purchase of Bitcoin—the monetary aspect. However, buying and selling is only the final phase of adoption, the one that ultimately brings it to completion. Before that, there’s another crucial step: awareness.

It goes without saying that one cannot adopt a technology without being aware of its existence. That’s why companies establish marketing departments: to introduce their product to potential customers. It’s up to these departments to determine the best methods to increase brand awareness, typically through two approaches that vary depending on each campaign’s goals: organic growth or paid growth.

The first refers to natural growth, which is not directly influenced by advertising investments or paid promotions. It may focus on increasing traffic, sales, or interest in a brand through content optimization, word of mouth, social media engagement, or other non-sponsored activities.

The second refers to growth achieved through investments in paid advertising campaigns, such as Google ads, social media advertising, display advertising, or other forms of promotion that require financial expenditure to gain visibility.

Apple can choose which strategy to apply to each campaign, as can Microsoft, Samsung, Meta, and all other companies. They can do this because they are hierarchical and centralized entities, with absolute control over their product. Bitcoin's marketing department, on the other hand, cannot afford this luxury—for the simple reason that it doesn’t exist.

Organic Marketing: Pros and Cons

Advantages\ One of the main advantages of Bitcoin's organic growth is the authenticity of its spread. Without a centralized marketing strategy or campaigns backed by large budgets, Bitcoin's awareness and adoption have expanded through word of mouth and the genuine interest of individuals. This has led, especially in the early years, to the emergence of highly motivated and informed user and supporter communities, deeply understanding the principles and values behind the technology: in two words, the early adopters.

Organic growth also fosters community innovation. Developers and enthusiasts can freely contribute to improving the technology without the restrictions imposed by commercial goals or intellectual property. If corporate logic had prevailed in Bitcoin, today the Lightning Network might not exist, blocks might be tens of megabytes each, and there would likely be only a few hundred nodes online. This is a reference to the Blocksize War.

Another feature of the lack of centralized marketing is the reduction of perception manipulation. Information about Bitcoin is disseminated through a plurality of sources, allowing individuals to form an opinion based on multiple perspectives. This contrasts with one-sided advertising campaigns that can heavily and artificially influence public perception.

The inevitable consequence is that within the community of insiders, there are numerous ideological clashes, some of them fierce. This is a good thing because unanimous opinions would make it too easy to reach consensus on future changes to Bitcoin. In short, unanimity would make Bitcoin much more fragile.

Disadvantages\ The lack of centralized marketing can slow penetration into key markets. Traditional companies invest in market research and targeted strategies to expand their presence in new regions or demographic segments. When there is no such coordination, the only real coordinator is called the free market.

\ The absence of a representative entity makes it harder to engage with institutions and regulators. While other companies can lobby or participate in working groups with governments, Bitcoin has no singular organizational structure to play this role (though lobbying groups formed by entrepreneurs working in the industry have already emerged). This can lead to unfavorable regulations or misunderstandings that could hinder adoption. An example? The numerous Chinese bans.

The Unintentional Marketing of the Fiat System

Bitcoin positions itself as an alternative system to the current one, characterized by central banks and governments. Just as in a competitive market where companies gain market share at the expense of their competitors, Bitcoin grows when traditional institutions lose trust in the eyes of the public. In other words, the failures and inefficiencies of existing systems act as catalysts for Bitcoin adoption, becoming, ironically, unintentional marketing tools for the cryptocurrency.

A striking example is countries affected by hyperinflation. In nations like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Argentina, local currencies have lost much of their value due to ineffective economic policies and political instability. In 2019, inflation in Venezuela exceeded 10,000,000%, making the bolívar practically useless for daily transactions. In these circumstances, people sought refuge in alternative assets like Bitcoin to preserve their purchasing power: it's no coincidence that Venezuela ranks fourteenth in the world for cryptocurrency adoption, according to the Global Adoption Index by Chainalysis.

In authoritarian regimes, where repression of free speech and financial control are commonplace, Bitcoin offers a tangible alternative. In 2020, during the protests in Nigeria against police brutality, the EndSars movement saw protesters’ bank accounts frozen. In response, activists began collecting funds in Bitcoin, bypassing government restrictions and financing their activities independently. Nigeria ranks second in the world for cryptocurrency adoption according to Chainalysis, ahead of even the United States and second only to India.

Even in Western democracies, there have been instances of financial censorship that have fueled interest in Bitcoin. Under heavy government pressure, the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe blocked donations to the "Freedom Convoy" in 2022, a group of Canadian truckers protesting pandemic restrictions. In response, supporters used Bitcoin to send funds directly to the protesters.\ Do I need to mention the 2008 financial crisis that provided Satoshi Nakamoto with the perfect opportunity to publish the Bitcoin White Paper?

The inefficiencies and injustices of the traditional financial and political system indirectly promote Bitcoin adoption. Every crisis, scandal, or abuse of power fuels the search for alternatives that offer greater security, autonomy, and individual control. In this sense, the actions of governments and central banks become, paradoxically, extremely effective marketing tools.

Could this be why, even without Accenture’s advice, Bitcoin is one of the most recognized brands in the world?

@ 49fd11a8:efd284c8

tl;dr: I am writing these primarily for me, but you are welcome to come along if you wish. I have discovered that writing is the best way for my brain to process my thoughts into something productive. Maybe you'll like what I have to say, maybe not. Either way you are welcome to talk about it with me if you'd like. God bless! Oh, and if you're reading this trying to figure out who I am, that will be the next post.

I write for the unlearned about things in which I am unlearned myself.

> - C. S. Lewis (1964). “Reflections on the Psalms”*

I have always struggled to form my thoughts into something meaningful at the spur of the moment. I have an unfortunate lack of quick wit, and I have a serious distaste for debate, or any confrontation for that matter. I would not call myself slow in the common sense of the term. Thorough would be a better description. All through school, I hated being called upon during class. I was not uncomfortable because I was unable to keep up; I simply needed more time to formulate my opinion and test it from multiple angles. When I began college, I found a professor that I particularly liked, in part because I do not remember him ever putting me on the spot during class. We never had this conversation, but I believe he could sense that it was my weakness. Not only that, but he gave us an opportunity to express ourselves in a different way: On paper.

I had been assigned papers before, but I had never taken one seriously. They were obstacles standing between me and the weekend, or whatever else I was looking forward to at the time. Dr. Wheelington's papers were somehow different. We had assigned reading due for every class, and with that came a one-page paper consisting of our thoughts on that reading. It turned out that even though I did not always like the reading assignments, I loved writing the papers. They gave me the time I needed to flesh out the topics at hand. Sometimes the topics excited me, and I was able to take my thoughts in all new directions, places I had never been before. Sometimes I ranted for the whole page about one paragraph in the reading. However I felt about the content of the reading assignment, I was encouraged to think at length, rather than shut down and expected to make sense of my incomplete thoughts.

Another level of appreciation hit when a group of friends who had Dr. Wheelington for a different class told me that I was mentioned in their class. I will not dwell on it here, but in short, I was told that he mentioned how quiet and reserved I am when in person, but when I am asked to write, everything changes. This made clear to me that not only did Dr. Wheelington actually read his assigned papers, he read and genuinely liked mine. I am sure he did not always agree with me, but he found my written thought to be of substance. I was ecstatic. I had an assignment that I enjoyed because of the way it challenged me and I was apparently good at it.

Fast forward to now, and I find myself about 17 years later. I quit writing as soon as I left school. I always thought I would start again, and never did. I wonder now if the last paper I wrote in school was the last time I thought deeply on a topic. I hope to change that now. I have recently been asked to facilitate a Bible Study class at the church my family has been attending, and now more than ever I need to find in myself the ability to meditate on a topic and prepare my thoughts so I can express them clearly in class each Sunday morning.

That is why this exists. The next post will be about what I believe and why. I feel that is important for starting an endeavor like this one. Then I will start posting about my topics for Sunday morning. They will hopefully come at a pace of more than once a week at first (the Bible Study started several weeks ago now...) until I catch up to the current week.

I already feel better. Here begins something I have needed for a long time.

@ bec0c9d3:c4e9cd29

2140 Inkrypted - Tattoo Session at Cyphermunk House

MORE INFO

Join us in London on Saturday 02nd November at the Cyphermunk House for a unique tattoo session during Art Panels This event will bring together Bitcoin tattoo artists, including Zazawowow and Fzero known for their commitment to freedom of expression and privacy protection.

In an immersive atmosphere dedicated to the values of the cypherpunk community, take this opportunity to get unique tattoo artwork while celebrating the principles of Bitcoin and individual sovereignty. All tattoos will be payable in Bitcoin.

Open to all, this event is the perfect place to meet enthusiasts of cryptography, art, and digital freedom. Come share a creative and festive moment with engaged artists in an authentic setting at the forefront of the technological and social revolution.

Artists: Zazawowow Fzero

Special guest: Alcapone

Date: saturday, 02 November 2024 Location: Cyphermunk House, London Time: 5pm - Payment: Bitcoin only

! ATTENTION !

To join a session please register using our form here ---> WAITING LIST

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OUR PARNERS / SPONSORS

ANGOR BITCOIN EVENTS HQ YAKIHONNE

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@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• The Emergence of Multichain Communication

• The Benefits of Multichain Communication

• The Future of Multichain Communication

• Conclusion

• FAQ

Blockchain technology has come a long way since its inception more than a decade ago. Initially, it was seen as a decentralized ledger that could be used to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries. However, with time, its potential has been recognized for a wide range of applications, from supply chain management to voting systems. One of the most exciting developments in the blockchain space is the emergence of multichain communication. This article explores the evolution of multichain communication, its benefits, and how it is breaking boundaries in the blockchain world.

The Emergence of Multichain Communication

Multichain communication refers to the ability of different blockchains to communicate with each other seamlessly. This is achieved through the use of bridges that enable the transfer of assets from one blockchain to another. The emergence of multichain communication is a significant milestone in the evolution of blockchain technology. It has the potential to break down the barriers between different blockchain networks and create a more interconnected blockchain ecosystem.

The Benefits of Multichain Communication

Improved Scalability

One of the biggest challenges facing blockchain technology is scalability. Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have a limited capacity to process transactions per second. This has led to slow transaction times and high transaction fees during peak periods. Multichain communication has the potential to address this challenge by enabling the transfer of assets across different blockchain networks. This can help to reduce the load on individual blockchains and improve their overall scalability.

Interoperability

Interoperability is another key benefit of multichain communication. By enabling different blockchains to communicate with each other, it becomes possible to create a more interoperable blockchain ecosystem. This can lead to the development of new use cases for blockchain technology and the creation of new opportunities for developers and businesses.

Increased Security

Multichain communication can also help to enhance the security of blockchain networks. By enabling the transfer of assets between different blockchains, it becomes possible to distribute risk across multiple networks. This can help to reduce the risk of a single point of failure and improve the overall security of the blockchain ecosystem.

Better User Experience

Finally, multichain communication can help to create a better user experience for blockchain users. By enabling the transfer of assets across different blockchains, it becomes possible to create a more seamless user experience. This can help to reduce the friction associated with using blockchain technology and make it more accessible to a wider range of users.

The Future of Multichain Communication

The future of multichain communication is very promising. With the continuous evolution of blockchain technology, we can expect to see many more innovations in this area. One of the examples of these innovations is the development of decentralized exchanges that enable the seamless transfer of assets between different blockchain networks. This will not only increase interoperability between different blockchains, but it will also enhance the overall user experience. We can also expect to see the emergence of more cross-chain applications that utilize the benefits of multichain communication to provide new and exciting functionalities to users. As blockchain technology continues to advance, we can be confident that multichain communication will continue to play a significant role in shaping the future of the blockchain ecosystem.

Conclusion

Multichain communication is a significant development in the evolution of blockchain technology. By enabling different blockchains to communicate with each other seamlessly, it has the potential to break down the barriers between different blockchain networks and create a more interconnected blockchain ecosystem. The benefits of multichain communication are numerous, including improved scalability, interoperability, increased security, and a better user experience. As blockchain technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more exciting innovations in this area. Multichain communication is breaking boundaries in the blockchain world, and its potential is limitless.

FAQ

What is multichain communication? Multichain communication refers to the ability of different blockchains to communicate with each other seamlessly. This is achieved through the use of bridges that enable the transfer of assets from one blockchain to another.

How does multichain communication work? Multichain communication works by creating bridges between different blockchain networks. These bridges act as a gateway, enabling the transfer of assets from one blockchain to another. This makes it possible to create a more interconnected blockchain ecosystem.

What are the benefits of multichain communication? The benefits of multichain communication include improved scalability, interoperability, increased security, and a better user experience.

What are some real-world examples of multichain communication? One real-world example of multichain communication is the development of decentralized exchanges that allow for the seamless transfer of assets between different blockchains. Another example is the creation of cross-chain NFTs that can be traded across multiple networks.

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.

@ 3ffac3a6:2d656657

Ela tirou o Çutiã e deixou ele na mesa. Transamos e ela foi embora. Deixou o Çutiã. Droga!! O que eu vou fazer com aquele Çutiã? Joguei fora.

. . .

Dling-dlong! Abri a porta: Ô seu moço, foi u sinhô qui perdeu esse Çutiã? Achei lá no lixo e pensei que só pudia ser coisa do sinhô e que caiu lá puringano. Tó! Peguei, fechei a porta, fui na cozinha. Joguei aquilo na triturador de lixo!

. . .

Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Alô, aqui é da Copasa. Nós já mandamos pelo correio o Çutiã que o senhor deixou cair no triturador. Abri a caixa de cartas: Çutiã!! droga! Jogar na privada? não, não, não! a Copasa manda. Joguei no riacho pra água levar!

. . .

Aqui! Eu sou da prefeitura e eu acho que esse Çutiã veio do riacho que passa atrás da sua casa, deve ter caido do varal. Mil vezes droga! Joguei ele em cima da mesa!

. . .

Sabia que tinha esquecido ele aqui! Mas que vergonha, ainda no lugar que eu deixei, isso é um absurdo. Transamos e ela foi embora. Deixou o Çutiã…

@ 5ee71c0a:b0506ae6

giving habla a test

@ c4f5e7a7:8856cac7

Best viewed on Habla, YakiHonne or Highlighter.

TL;DR

This article explores the links between public, community-driven data sources (such as OpenStreetMap) and private, cryptographically-owned data found on networks such as Nostr.

The following concepts are explored:

1. Attestations: Users signalling to their social graph that they believe something to be true by publishing Attestations. These social proofs act as a decentralised verification system that leverages your web-of-trust.
2. Proof of Place: An oracle-based system where physical letters are sent to real-world locations, confirming the corresponding digital ownership via cryptographic proofs. This binds physical locations in meatspace with their digital representations in the Nostrverse.
3. Check-ins: Foursquare-style check-ins that can be verified using attestations from place owners, ensuring authenticity. This approach uses web-of-trust to validate check-ins and location ownership over time.

The goal is to leverage cryptographic ownership where necessary while preserving the open, collaborative nature of public data systems.

Open Data in a public commons has a place and should not be thrown out with the Web 2.0 bathwater.

Cognitive Dissonance

Ever since discovering Nostr in August of 2022 I've been grappling with how BTC Map - a project that helps bitcoiners find places to spend sats - should most appropriately use this new protocol.

I am assuming, dear reader, that you are somewhat familiar with Nostr - a relatively new protocol for decentralised identity and communication. If you don’t know your nsec from your npub, please take some time to read these excellent posts: Nostr is Identity for the Internet and The Power of Nostr by @max and @lyn, respectively. Nostr is so much more than a short-form social media replacement.

The social features (check-ins, reviews, etc.) that Nostr unlocks for BTC Map are clear and exciting - all your silos are indeed broken - however, something fundamental has been bothering me for a while and I think it comes down to data ownership.

For those unfamiliar, BTC Map uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) as its main geographic database. OSM is centred on the concept of a commons of objectively verifiable data that is maintained by a global community of volunteer editors; a Wikipedia for maps. There is no data ownership; the data is free (as in freedom) and anyone can edit anything. It is the data equivalent of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) - FOSD if you will, but more commonly referred to as Open Data.

In contrast, Notes and Other Stuff on Nostr (Places in this cartographic context) are explicitly owned by the controller of the private key. These notes are free to propagate, but they are owned.

How do we reconcile the decentralised nature of Nostr, where data is cryptographically owned by individuals, with the community-managed data commons of OpenStreetMap, where no one owns the data?

Self-sovereign Identity

Before I address this coexistence question, I want to talk a little about identity as it pertains to ownership. If something is to be owned, it has to be owned by someone or something - an identity.

All identities that are not self-sovereign are, by definition, leased to you by a 3rd party. You rent your Facebook identity from Meta in exchange for your data. You rent your web domain from your DNS provider in exchange for your money.

Taken to the extreme, you rent your passport from your Government in exchange for your compliance. You are you at the pleasure of others. Where Bitcoin separates money from the state; Nostr separates identity from the state.

Or, as @nvk said recently: "Don't build your house on someone else's land.".

https://i.nostr.build/xpcCSkDg3uVw0yku.png

While we’ve had the tools for self-sovereign digital identity for decades (think PGP keys or WebAuthN), we haven't had the necessary social use cases nor the corresponding social graph to elevate these identities to the mainstream. Nostr fixes this.

Nostr is PGP for the masses and will take cryptographic identities mainstream.

Full NOSTARD?

Returning to the coexistence question: the data on OpenStreetMap isn’t directly owned by anyone, even though the physical entities the data represents might be privately owned. OSM is a data commons.

We can objectively agree on the location of a tree or a fire hydrant without needing permission to observe and record it. Sure, you could place a tree ‘on Nostr’, but why should you? Just because something can be ‘on Nostr’ doesn’t mean it should be.

https://i.nostr.build/s3So2JVAqoY4E1dI.png

There might be a dystopian future where we can't agree on what a tree is nor where it's located, but I hope we never get there. It's at this point we'll need a Wikifreedia variant of OpenStreetMap.

While integrating Nostr identities into OpenStreetMap would be valuable, the current OSM infrastructure, tools, and community already provide substantial benefits in managing this data commons without needing to go NOSTR-native - there's no need to go Full NOSTARD. H/T to @princeySOV for the original meme.

https://i.nostr.build/ot9jtM5cZtDHNKWc.png

So, how do we appropriately blend cryptographically owned data with the commons?

If a location is owned in meatspace and it's useful to signal that ownership, it should also be owned in cyberspace. Our efforts should therefore focus on entities like businesses, while allowing the commons to manage public data for as long as it can successfully mitigate the tragedy of the commons.

The remainder of this article explores how we can:

1. Verify ownership of a physical place in the real world;
2. Link that ownership to the corresponding digital place in cyberspace.

As a side note, I don't see private key custodianship - or, even worse, permissioned use of Places signed by another identity's key - as any more viable than the rented identities of Web 2.0.

And as we all know, the Second Law of Infodynamics (no citation!) states that:

"The total amount of sensitive information leaked will always increase over time."

This especially holds true if that data is centralised.

Not your keys, not your notes. Not your keys, not your identity.

Places and Web-of-Trust

@Arkinox has been leading the charge on the Places NIP, introducing Nostr notes (kind 37515) that represent physical locations. The draft is well-crafted, with bonus points for linking back to OSM (and other location repositories) via NIP-73 - External Content IDs (championed by @oscar of @fountain).

However, as Nostr is permissionless, authenticity poses a challenge. Just because someone claims to own a physical location on the Internet doesn’t necessarily mean they have ownership or control of that location in the real world.

Ultimately, this problem can only be solved in a decentralised way by using Web-of-Trust - using your social graph and the perspectives of trusted peers to inform your own perspective. In the context of Places, this requires your network to form a view on which digital identity (public key / npub) is truly the owner of a physical place like your local coffee shop.

This requires users to:

1. Verify the owner of a Place in cyberspace is the owner of a place in meatspace.
2. Signal this verification to their social graph.

Let's look at the latter idea first with the concept of Attestations ...

Attestations

A way to signal to your social graph that you believe something to be true (or false for that matter) would be by publishing an Attestation note. An Attestation note would signify to your social graph that you think something is either true or false.

Imagine you're a regular at a local coffee shop. You publish an Attestation that says the shop is real and the owner behind the Nostr public key is who they claim to be. Your friends trust you, so they start trusting the shop's digital identity too.

However, attestations applied to Places are just a single use case. The attestation concept could be more widely applied across Nostr in a variety of ways (key rotation, identity linking, etc).

Here is a recent example from @lyn that would carry more signal if it were an Attestation:

https://i.nostr.build/lZAXOEwvRIghgFY4.png

Parallels can be drawn between Attestations and transaction confirmations on the Bitcoin timechain; however, their importance to you would be weighted by clients and/or Data Vending Machines in accordance with:

1. Your social graph;
2. The type or subject of the content being attested and by whom;
3. Your personal preferences.

They could also have a validity duration to be temporally bound, which would be particularly useful in the case of Places.

NIP-25 (Reactions) do allow for users to up/downvote notes with optional content (e.g., emojis) and could work for Attestations, but I think we need something less ambiguous and more definitive.

‘This is true’ resonates more strongly than ‘I like this.’.

https://i.nostr.build/s8NIG2kXzUCLcoax.jpg

There are similar concepts in the Web 3 / Web 5 world such as Verified Credentials by tdb. However, Nostr is the Web 3 now and so wen Attestation NIP?

https://i.nostr.build/Cb047NWyHdJ7h5Ka.jpg

That said, I have seen @utxo has been exploring ‘smart contracts’ on nostr and Attestations may just be a relatively ‘dumb’ subset of the wider concept Nostr-native scripting combined with web-of-trust.

Proof of Place

Attestations handle the signalling of your truth, but what about the initial verification itself?

We already covered how this ultimately has to be derived from your social graph, but what if there was a way to help bootstrap this web-of-trust through the use of oracles? For those unfamiliar with oracles in the digital realm, they are simply trusted purveyors of truth.

Introducing Proof of Place, an out–of-band process where an oracle (such as BTC Map) would mail - yes physically mail- a shared secret to the address of the location being claimed in cyberspace. This shared secret would be locked to the public key (npub) making the claim, which, if unlocked, would prove that the associated private key (nsec) has physical access to the location in meatspace.

One way of doing this would be to mint a 1 sat cashu ecash token locked to the npub of the claimant and mail it to them. If they are able to redeem the token then they have cryptographically proven that they have physical access to the location.

Proof of Place is really nothing more than a weighted Attestation. In a web-of-trust Nostrverse, an oracle is simply a npub (say BTC Map) that you weigh heavily for its opinion on a given topic (say Places).

In the Bitcoin world, Proof of Work anchors digital scarcity in cyberspace to physical scarcity (energy and time) in meatspace and as @Gigi says in PoW is Essential:

"A failure to understand Proof of Work, is a failure to understand Bitcoin."

In the Nostrverse, Proof of Place helps bridge the digital and physical worlds.

@Gigi also observes in Memes vs The World that:

"In Bitcoin, the map is the territory. We can infer everything we care about by looking at the map alone."

https://i.nostr.build/dOnpxfI4u7EL2v4e.png

This isn’t true for Nostr.

In the Nostrverse, the map IS NOT the territory. However, Proof of Place enables us to send cryptographic drones down into the physical territory to help us interpret our digital maps. 🤯

Check-ins

Although not a draft NIP yet, @Arkinox has also been exploring the familiar concept of Foursquare-style Check-ins on Nostr (with kind 13811 notes).

For the uninitiated, Check-ins are simply notes that signal the publisher is at a given location. These locations could be Places (in the Nostr sense) or any other given digital representation of a location for that matter (such as OSM elements) if NIP-73 - External Content IDs are used.

Of course, not everyone will be a Check-in enjoyooor as the concept will not sit well with some people’s threat models and OpSec practices.

Bringing Check-ins to Nostr is possible (as @sebastix capably shows here), but they suffer the same authenticity issues as Places. Just because I say I'm at a given location doesn't mean that I am.

Back in the Web 2.0 days, Foursquare mitigated this by relying on the GPS position of the phone running their app, but this is of course spoofable.

How should we approach Check-in verifiability in the Nostrverse? Well, just like with Places, we can use Attestations and WoT. In the context of Check-ins, an Attestation from the identity (npub) of the Place being checked-in to would be a particularly strong signal. An NFC device could be placed in a coffee shop and attest to check-ins without requiring the owner to manually intervene - I’m sure @blackcoffee and @Ben Arc could hack something together over a weekend!

Check-ins could also be used as a signal for bonafide Place ownership over time.

Summary: Trust Your Bros

So, to recap, we have:

Places: Digital representations of physical locations on Nostr.

Check-ins: Users signalling their presence at a location.

Attestations: Verifiable social proofs used to confirm ownership or the truth of a claim.

You can visualise how these three concepts combine in the diagram below:

https://i.nostr.build/Uv2Jhx5BBfA51y0K.jpg

And, as always, top right trumps bottom left! We have:

Level 0 - Trust Me Bro: Anyone can check-in anywhere. The Place might not exist or might be impersonating the real place in meatspace. The person behind the npub may not have even been there at all.

Level 1 - Definitely Maybe Somewhere: This category covers the middle-ground of ‘Maybe at a Place’ and ‘Definitely Somewhere’. In these examples, you are either self-certifying that you have checked-in at an Attested Place or you are having others attest that you have checked-in at a Place that might not even exist IRL.

Level 2 - Trust Your Bros: An Attested Check-in at an Attested Place. Your individual level of trust would be a function of the number of Attestations and how you weigh them within your own social graph.

https://i.nostr.build/HtLAiJH1uQSTmdxf.jpg

Perhaps the gold standard (or should that be the Bitcoin standard?) would be a Check-in attested by the owner of the Place, which in itself was attested by BTC Map?

Or perhaps not. Ultimately, it’s the users responsibility to determine what they trust by forming their own perspective within the Nostrverse powered by web-of-trust algorithms they control. ‘Trust Me Bro’ or ‘Trust Your Bros’ - you decide.

As we navigate the frontier of cryptographic ownership and decentralised data, it’s up to us to find the balance between preserving the Open Data commons and embracing self-sovereign digital identities.

Thanks

With thanks to Arkinox, Avi, Ben Gunn, Kieran, Blackcoffee, Sebastix, Tomek, Calle, Short Fiat, Ben Weeks and Bitcoms for helping shape my thoughts and refine content, whether you know it or not!

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

Let's talk about baking bread

I've mentioned a few times, how large-scale central planning leads inevitably to artificial scarcity and rising prices. Allow me to illustrate -- using a completely invented allegory about bread -- that has absolutely no parallels to any economy you may already be familiar with.

We start with 20

Let us say, there is a group of 20 people in a village doing something that requires some niche skill and interest, but not inordinate amounts of talent or uncommon knowledge, such as baking loaves of bread containing emmer wheat. This is not an easy thing to do, and you'd have to read up on it and practice, to begin with, but it's not an insurmountably-high barrier for anyone who already knows how to bake.

Now, they're not baking all that much of this bread, as the market for people who want to eat it, is still rather small. But, they're happy to bake the bread, and sell it below cost (at $10), as they can see that the market is steadily growing and they know that there is a possibility of recuperating their investments, and maybe even turning some profit. They hope to eventually profit either directly (through the selling of the bread), or indirectly (as A Person Who Helped Invent Emmer Bread), or ideally some combination of the two.

They are baking away, and honing their baking skills, and scrounging up the money for bigger and better ovens or cleverly-arranging discounted contracts for slightly-larger deliveries of wheat, and more and more bakers see this activity and wander over to their village, to see how this bread is made. Well, the current bakers are starting to sink under all of the bread orders they are receiving, and customers are complaining of late deliveries, so they start to ask the 10 visiting bakers, if they would like to also set up a bakery and take some of the production off of their hands.

We now have 25 bakers

The visiting bakers consider it and 5 agree and the rest wander off again, as they already are quite busy baking the bread they've always baked, and they aren't as certain of the possibility of growth, for this new type of bread.

The 5 additional bakers take a while to setup shop and assemble staff and place wheat orders and etc., but after a few weeks or months, they are also adding to the bread supply. There are now 25 bakers, all completely booked-out, producing bread. The price of bread has fallen, to $8/loaf.

And the bread they produced! All of the bakers competing for orders and expanding their product lines and customer base quickly lead to the white emmer bread being followed by whole-grain emmer bread, emmer dinner rolls, emmer-raisin bread, and even one rebel daring to bake spelt-emmer pretzels because... Well, why not? The customer, (who, at this point, is the person eating the bread), gets to decide which bread will be baked, and the pretzels sell like hotcakes.

The emmer hotcakes also sell like hotcakes.

No baker is making much (or any) money off of the baking, but they all can see where this will end up, so they are still highly motivated and continue to invest and innovate at breathtaking speed. We now have emmer baking mixes, "We luv emmer" t-shirts, emmer baking crowd-sourcing, all-about-emmer recipe books and blogs, etc. The bakers see this all as an investment, and cross-finance their fledgling businesses through selling other bread types, their spouse's day job, burning through their savings, or working Saturday night, stocking shelves at the grocery.

Everyone can be a winner! Everyone can find their niche-in-niche! Everyone can specialize! Private enterprise for every baker, who rises and falls on his own efforts alone! And although everyone was competing with everyone else, there was no bitterness, as everyone could clearly see that effort and reward were in some sort of balance.

We are now short 3

But, alas, that was not meant to be. The joy and harmony is short-lived.

A gigantic, wealthy foundation, who is dedicated to "ensuring much emmer bread will be baked, by financially supporting emmer bakers" enters the chat.

"We have seen that there is much baking going on, here, but just think how much better and more baking could be done, if we financed your baking! Isn't that clever? Then you could really concentrate on baking, instead of having to worry about financing your business or marketing your products. All you have to do, is apply to receive our baker's grant, by signing this form, acknowledging that you will only bake products containing nothing but emmer and you will otherwise support our mission. We promise to pay you $100/loaf."

The 2 people making spelt-emmer pretzels, and the 1 person making spelt-emmer cookies, refuse to sign on, and slink off, as they are very convinced of the rightness of including spelt. One emmer-purist baker refuses on some economic principle that nobody comprehends, and immediately turns around and goes back to work in their bakery, with their shoulders hunched. But the remaining 21 bakers happily apply for a baker's grant. The mixed-grain bakers are upset about the breakup of the emmer market, and spend some time sulking, before wandering off to the new, much-smaller, spelt bread market, that is setting up, down the street. Where they sell their bread for $6 and slowly go bankrupt.

And then there were 10

2 weeks go by. 4 weeks go by. Baking has slowed. The grant hopefuls hold a meeting, where they discuss the joys of baking. Baking slows further.

Everyone is too excited, to find out if their new Universal Customer will be paying for the bread they bake. $100 a loaf! Just think of it! All of the bakers quickly do the math and realize that they not only will turn a profit, they can buy themselves a nice house and a new car and...

Nobody listens to the complaints from The Old Customers, who are the useless individual people only paying $8, despite them slaving away, all day, in front of a hot oven. They should be happy that they are getting bread, at all! Instead they complain that the bread is dry, that the delivery is late, that the bottoms are burnt. Ingrates.

And, then, the big day arrives, and the foundation happily announces that they will be giving 10 lucky bakers a grant.

The bakers are stunned. It had seemed that all of the bakers would be getting the grants, not only part of them. But, of course, the Universal Customer looked through the applications and tried to spend its money wisely. Why give grants to 5 bakers, who all produce the same type of olive-emmer bread? Give it to one, and then tell him to produce 5 times as much bread. He is then the olive-emmer bread expert and they will simply keep loose tabs on him, to nudge him to bake the bread in a sensible manner. And, of course, he shall always focus on baking olive bread, as that is what the grant is for.

The bakers stroll off, to their bakeries. Those who baked olive bread and received no grant, close up shop, as they can see which way the wind is blowing. The other grantless bakers reformulate their bakery plans, to see if they can somehow market themselves as "grant-free bakers" and wonder at how long they can stand the humiliation of selling to demanding, fickle customers at $8/loaf, when others are selling at $100/loaf, to an indifferent customer who doesn't even eat it.

The happiest 10 bakers leave for another conference, and while they are gone, their bakeries burn down. Their grants continue to flow, regardless, and the actual bread eaters are now standing in line at the last few bakeries, paying $20/loaf.

The End.

@ 01d0bbf9:91130d4c

Chef's notes

Amazingly tangy, firey hot, but still mellow and bright.

I use this on everything– Use it to dress salads, dip (honey mustard) for fried chicken, elevate your taco nights, heck a spoonful first thing in the morning will wake you up better than coffee!

Don't forget to use up those delicious chilis and garlic, they are so good!

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 20 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 1-2 weeks
• 🍽️ Servings: (12x) 8oz jars

Ingredients

• 16oz fresh chili peppers
• 8oz red onion
• 8oz garlic
• 96oz honey
• Fresh thyme

Directions

1. Thinly slice peppers, garlic, shallots and fresh thyme
2. Add chopped ingredients to the honey
3. Leave to ferment (loosely covered) for 1-2 weeks
4. Drizzle that amazing pungent firey gold liquid over EVERYTHING. (Don't forget to use up those amazing chilis and garlic too.)

@ 42342239:1d80db24

The boiling frog is a simple tale that illustrates the danger of gradual change: if you put a frog in boiling water, it will quickly jump out to escape the heat. But if you place a frog in warm water and gradually increase the temperature, it won't notice the change and will eventually cook itself. Might the decline in cash usage be construed as an example of this tale?

As long as individuals can freely transact with each other and conduct purchases and sales without intermediaries[^1] such as with cash, our freedoms and rights remain secure from potential threats posed by the payment system. However, as we have seen in several countries such as Sweden over the past 15 years, the use of cash and the amount of banknotes and coins in circulation have decreased. All to the benefit of various intermediated[^1] electronic alternatives.

The reasons for this trend include: - The costs associated with cash usage has been increasing. - Increased regulatory burdens due to stricter anti-money laundering regulations. - Closed bank branches and fewer ATMs. - The Riksbank's aggressive note switches resulted in a situation where they were no longer recognized.

Market forces or "market forces"?

Some may argue that the "de-cashing" of society is a consequence of market forces. But does this hold true? Leading economists at times recommend interventions with the express purpose to mislead the public, such as proposing measures who are "opaque to most voters."

In a working paper on de-cashing by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2017, such thought processes, even recommendations, can be found. IMF economist Alexei Kireyev, formerly a professor at an institute associated with the Soviet Union's KGB (MGIMO) and economic adviser to Michail Gorbachov 1989-91, wrote that:

• "Social conventions may also be disrupted as de-cashing may be viewed as a violation of fundamental rights, including freedom of contract and freedom of ownership."
• Letting the private sector lead "the de-cashing" is preferable, as it will seem "almost entirely benign". The "tempting attempts to impose de-cashing by a decree should be avoided"
• "A targeted outreach program is needed to alleviate suspicions related to de-cashing"

In the text, he also offered suggestions on the most effective approach to diminish the use of cash:

• The de-cashing process could build on the initial and largely uncontested steps, such as the phasing out of large denomination bills, the placement of ceilings on cash transactions, and the reporting of cash moves across the borders.
• Include creating economic incentives to reduce the use of cash in transactions
• Simplify "the opening and use of transferrable deposits, and further computerizing the financial system."

As is customary in such a context, it is noted that the article only describes research and does not necessarily reflect IMF's views. However, isn't it remarkable that all of these proposals have come to fruition and the process continues? Central banks have phased out banknotes with higher denominations. Banks' regulatory complexity seemingly increase by the day (try to get a bank to handle any larger amounts of cash). The transfer of cash from one nation to another has become increasingly burdensome. The European Union has recently introduced restrictions on cash transactions. Even the law governing the Swedish central bank is written so as to guarantee a further undermining of cash. All while the market share is growing for alternatives such as transferable deposits[^1].

The old European disease

The Czech Republic's former president Václav Havel, who played a key role in advocating for human rights during the communist repression, was once asked what the new member states in the EU could do to pay back for all the economic support they had received from older member states. He replied that the European Union still suffers from the old European disease, namely the tendency to compromise with evil. And that the new members, who have a recent experience of totalitarianism, are obliged to take a more principled stance - sometimes necessary - and to monitor the European Union in this regard, and educate it.

The American computer scientist and cryptographer David Chaum said in 1996 that "[t]he difference between a bad electronic cash system and well-developed digital cash will determine whether we will have a dictatorship or a real democracy". If Václav Havel were alive today, he would likely share Chaum's sentiment. Indeed, on the current path of "de-cashing", we risk abolishing or limiting our liberties and rights, "including freedom of contract and freedom of ownership" - and this according to an economist at the IMF(!).

As the frog was unwittingly boiled alive, our freedoms are quietly being undermined. The temperature is rising. Will people take notice before our liberties are irreparably damaged?

[^1]: Transferable deposits are intermediated. Intermediated means payments involving one or several intermediares, like a bank, a card issuer or a payment processor. In contrast, a disintermediated payment would entail a direct transactions between parties without go-betweens, such as with cash.

@ ae1008d2:a166d760

I wanted to share this PDF on Nostr. Original post: Block ~862,844 September 25th, 2024 Original link Original PDF 👇Click the link below to view as original PDF on YakiHonne or Satellite.Earth👇

Bitcoin's Protection Under the First Amendment

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

O PGP é um método de criptografia de chave pública que garante que apenas a pessoa com a chave privada correspondente possa descriptografar as informações. É uma ferramenta poderosa e fácil de usar para proteger suas comunicações e dados pessoais.O OpenKeychain permite gerar pares de chaves de criptografia assimétricas, compostos por uma chave pública e uma chave privada, que permitem cifrar e decifrar mensagens, arquivos e documentos.

O OpenKeychain Foi criado por Dominik Schürmann em 2011, com o objetivo de disponibilizar uma ferramenta de criptografia acessível e fácil de usar para usuários de Android. O projeto OpenKeychain teve início quando Dominik Schürmann se deparou com a dificuldade de encontrar uma aplicação de criptografia de e-mail para seu dispositivo Android. Como ele não encontrou uma opção satisfatória no mercado, decidiu criar sua própria solução.

O openKeychain é uma das principais opções de criptografia de e-mail para usuários de Android em todo o mundo.

Criptografia de e-mail é um processo de proteção das informações contidas em um e-mail, de forma que somente as pessoas autorizadas possam acessá-las. A criptografia envolve a codificação da mensagem original em uma sequência de caracteres ilegíveis, que só podem ser decodificados por alguém que possua a chave de criptografia correspondente.O objetivo da criptografia de e-mail é garantir a privacidade e segurança das informações enviadas por e-mail, especialmente quando se trata de informações confidenciais ou sensíveis. Isso ajuda a prevenir que informações privadas sejam interceptadas ou lidas por pessoas não autorizadas durante a transmissão do e-mail.

Para utilizar o OpenKeychain, o usuário deve seguir os seguintes passos:

1. Acesse a F-droid ou obtainium Store em seu dispositivo Android.

2. Abrir o aplicativo e criar uma nova chave PGP seguindo as instruções fornecidas pelo aplicativo. O usuário deve escolher um nome de usuário e uma senha forte para proteger sua chave privada.

3. Com a chave PGP criada, é possível assinar, verificar e criptografar mensagens e arquivos. Para assinar uma mensagem, basta selecionar a opção de assinatura e digitar a mensagem. O aplicativo adicionará a assinatura digital à mensagem e a salvará no celular.

4. Para verificar a assinatura de uma mensagem, selecione a opção de verificação e insira a mensagem. O aplicativo verificará a assinatura e informará se ela é válida ou não.

5. Para criptografar uma mensagem ou arquivo, selecione a opção de criptografia e insira o arquivo ou mensagem que deseja criptografar. Em seguida, escolha a chave PGP do destinatário e o aplicativo criptografará o conteúdo.

6. Para descriptografar uma mensagem ou arquivo criptografado, selecione a opção de descriptografia e insira o arquivo ou mensagem que deseja descriptografar. Em seguida, digite a senha da sua chave privada para descriptografar o conteúdo.

Lembre-se de manter sua chave privada segura e protegida com uma senha forte. Também é importante compartilhar sua chave pública com outras pessoas de maneira segura, para que elas possam enviar mensagens criptografadas para você.

https://github.com/open-keychain/open-keychain

https://youtu.be/fptlAx_j4OA

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Um espectro está assombrando o mundo moderno.

A ciência da computação está a ponto de fornecer a grupos e indivíduos a capacidade de se comunicar e interagir uns com os outros de maneira totalmente anônima. Duas pessoas podem trocar mensagens, conduzir negócios e realizar contratos digitais sem nunca conhecer o verdadeiro nome ou a identidade legal da outra parte. Interações em rede serão irrastreáveis através do extensivo reencaminhamento de pacotes criptografados e caixas invioláveis, que implementam protocolos criptográficos com garantia quase perfeita contra qualquer adulteração.A reputações será de importância central, se tornando muito mais importante nas negociações do que as análises de crédito de hoje. Esses desenvolvimentos irão alterar completamente a natureza da regulamentação governamental, a capacidade de taxar e controlar as interações econômicas, a capacidade de manter as informações em segredo e até mesmo alterar a natureza da confiança e da reputação.

A tecnologia para essa revolução – que certamente será tanto uma revolução social quanto econômica – já existia, em teoria, durante a última década. Os métodos são baseados em criptografia de chave pública, sistemas de zero-knowledge interativos e vários protocolos de software para interação, autenticação e verificação. O foco, até agora, tem sido em conferências acadêmicas na Europa e nos EUA, conferências estas que são monitoradas de perto pela Agência de Segurança Nacional (NSA).Mas só recentemente as redes de computadores e computadores pessoais atingiram velocidade suficiente para tornar as ideias realizáveis na prática. E os próximos dez anos trarão a velocidade necessária para tornar as ideias economicamente viáveis e essencialmente imbatíveis. Redes de alta velocidade, caixas invioláveis, cartões inteligentes, satélites, transmissores, computadores pessoais e chips criptográficos, que estão agora em desenvolvimento, serão algumas das tecnologias facilitadoras.

O estado tentará, é claro, desacelerar ou deter a disseminação destas tecnologias, citando preocupações com a segurança nacional, o uso da tecnologia por traficantes de drogas e sonegadores de impostos, e temores de desintegração social. Muitas dessas preocupações serão válidas; a criptoanarquia permitirá que segredos nacionais sejam vendidos livremente e permitirá que materiais ilícitos e roubados sejam comercializados. Um mercado informatizado e anônimo se tornará um possível abominável mercado para assassinatos e extorsões. Vários elementos criminosos e estrangeiros serão usuários ativos da CriptoNet.Mas isso não vai parar a propagação da criptoanarquia.

Assim como a tecnologia da impressão alterou e reduziu o poder das guildas medievais e a estrutura do poder social, os protocolos criptográficos também vão alterar fundamentalmente a natureza das corporações e as interferências do governo nas transações econômicas. Combinado com mercados de informação emergentes, a criptoanarquia criará um mercado líquido para todo e qualquer material que possa ser colocado em palavras e imagens.E assim, como uma invenção aparentemente insignificante, como o arame farpado tornou possível o cercamento de vastas fazendas e territórios, alterando para sempre os conceitos de terra e direitos de propriedade na fronteira ocidental, também, a descoberta aparentemente menor de um ramo arcano da matemática se tornará o cortador de arame que desmontará o arame farpado em torno da propriedade intelectual.

Ergam-se, vocês não têm nada a perder a não ser as cercas de arame farpado!

https://activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Last night I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caitlin Long, Founder and CEO of Custodia - a fully reserved bank providing banking services to bitcoin companies, to discuss an affidavit written by Elaine Hetrick of Silvergate Bank. Elaine is the Chief Administrative Officer of Silvergate and wrote an affidavit, a sworn testimony subject to perjury, in which she detailed the events that led to Silvergate voluntarily winding down their business and returning deposits to their customers.

This affidavit is a bombshell because it confirms speculation that Silvergate was solvent in early 2023 and wasn't shut down because of bad risk management on behalf of the bank's management team, but instead was forced to shutter its doors because the Biden Administration, with strong influence from Senator Elizabeth Warren, forced Silvergate's hand because they didn't like that they were banking digital asset companies.

For those who are a bit fuzzy on the details of the narratives that were flying around Silvergate at the time, I'll jog your memory. FTX was a customer of Silvergate's at the time their Ponzi scheme unraveled. As FTX was blowing up, everyone and their mother was scrambling to get their money out of Silvergate because they assumed that since one of the bank's largest counterparties was going bust, the bank must be in trouble too. A sane decision. Especially considering the history of systemically non-important financial institutions this century.

Unless you were paying close attention during this time, you were likely under the impression that Silvergate was a typical fractionally reserved bank that was experiencing a run that led to its inevitable demise. The media made it seem this way. The regulators made it seem this way. And one pompous short seller made it seem this way. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Here are the most important parts of the affidavit:

Silvergate had stabilized, was able to make regulatory capital requirements, and had the capability to continue to serve its customers that had kept their deposits with Silvergate Bank.

Despite this, regulators decided to turn the pressure up and essentially gave Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank as well, an ultimatum; drastically change your business models immediately by dropping your digital asset customer base or we'll shut you down. There were no hard numbers described in Elaine's testimony, but rumors are that the regulators wanted Silvergate to quickly shrink their exposure to digital asset-related clients to less than 15% of their capital base. At the time, Silvergate's customer base was made up almost entirely of digital asset companies (99.5% to be exact).

The regulators were asking Silvergate to do something that was quite literally impossible given the circumstances. Faced with an impossible task, on March 8th of 2023 Silvergate decided to voluntarily wind down their operations and return deposits back to their customers.

Let's be very clear here, Silvergate did not lose a single penny of customer deposits due to the run on their bank. Management, understanding the volatile nature of the digital asset markets, designed their risk management and capital allocation strategies in a way that would enable them to return dollars to any customer who requested them. And that's exactly what they did when customers came to request their money. They returned EVERY SINGLE PENNY.

This begs the question, "Why did they essentially force Silvergate to shut down?" They seemed to be running a very responsible operation after all. You'd think the regulators would applaud Silvergate's vigilance in risk management on behalf of their customer base. How many banks would have been able to do the same thing if put in the same situation? Probably not many.

The answer to this question is already well known throughout the industry, but Elaine Hetrick's testimony adds some hard evidence that makes it undeniable; Elizabeth Warren, the SEC, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve have been acting in concert to unconstitutionally and extrajudicially target the bitcoin and broader digital asset industry because they do not believe that it should exist. It is a threat to their power structure. The financial system, as it is designed today, gives those who would like to centrally plan the economy and micromanage the lives of American citizens a ton of power. Bitcoin is a threat to that power and they have to do everything in their power to prevent its proliferation.

The targeting of the industry was also confirmed by the aftermath of the NYDFS and FDIC uncharacteristically taking Signature Bank behind the woodshed in the evening of Sunday, March 20th, 2023, despite the fact that Barney Frank and others at the bank were convinced they could handle withdraws come market open the next day.

Signature Bank was ultimately sold to Flagstar Bank. However, they were forced to spin out their digital asset-related accounts before doing so.

This public signaling and sudden regulatory shift made clear that, at least as of the first quarter of 2023, the Federal Bank Regulatory Agencies would not tolerate banks with significant concentrations of digital asset customers, ultimately preventing Silvergate Bank from continuing its digital asset focused business model.

Pretty damning if you ask me. Also, very frustrating and most definitely illegal.

Elizabeth Warren and her gaggle of hall monitors across alphabet soup agencies and the Federal Reserve have been on one massive, unconstitutional, power trip for the last four years. They've besmirched bitcoin and those of us working hard to ensure that the United States of America leads the way forward as bitcoin adoption continues at every turn. Good people striving to make the world a better place.

No one is a better example of this than Alan Lane, the former CEO of Silvergate Bank. I consider Alan a friend and feel supremely confident when I say that he is one of the nicest and thoughtful people I have met in this industry. A man who followed his passion to bring legitimacy and much needed banking services to an industry that the incumbents refused to touch. And he did bring legitimacy. As I explained earlier, Alan and his team understood the volatile nature of the industry and built their firm in a way that took this volatility into account. Silvergate did not fail, they were forced to shut down by Elizabeth Warren and her acolytes at the regulatory agencies.

What's worse, Warren's vendetta against bitcoin and the digital asset industry incited the largest banking crisis this country had seen since 2008. Silvergate and Signature being taken behind the woodshed put everyone on their toes and bank runs started across the country. This led to the failure of First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank and a couple of smaller banks, forced the Fed to step in with their emergency BTFP program, and burdened taxpayers with $40B in FDIC costs that needed to be absorbed as a result. If it weren't for the bailouts things would have gotten completely out of control. All because Elizabeth Warren wants to live in a world in which we are forced to use CBDCs and unable to opt-in to bitcoin.

The euthanasia of Silvergate and Signature are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Chokepoint 2.0.

Caitlin Long and Custodia have been in a years long battle with the Federal Reserve to receive a Fed master account so that they can properly serve their customers. For those who are unaware, Custodia is a full-reserve bank that exist to serve bitcoin and digital asset businesses as well as other adjacent businesses like fintechs, banks and funds. Custodia is a chartered bank and special purpose depository institution that has built custody services so that customers can hold bitcoin within their bank accounts alongside their dollar accounts.

Like Silvergate and Signature, Custodia has been singled out and unlawfully denied a master account with the Fed because the Federal Reserve doesn't want a bank like Custodia to exist. Either because they worry about the ramifications of the introduction of a full-reserve bank into a system dominated by fractional-reserve banks or they simply do not want to see bitcoin succeed. If we're being honest, it's probably a combination of the two.

Despite what we, or anyone else, thinks about the potential effect a bank like Custodia could have on the market if it's granted a master account, the Fed's actions are unconstitutional in this case as well. This was made pretty clear (but yet to be determined by a court) in an amicus brief written by Paul Clement on behalf of Custodia earlier this Summer. The Fed is actively undermining the dual-banking system that was set up in this country to enable competition between state chartered banks and the Federal Reserve system.

In the case of Custodia, the Federal Reserve is exhibiting expansive discretionary power that it has never shown before. Custodia is a state chartered special purpose depository institution in the state of Wyoming. Historically, it would be trivial for this type of state chartered bank to get a master account with the Fed. But for whatever reason (we know the reason) the Fed has been denying Custodia their right to this account for a number of years. To the point where Custodia was forced to sue the Federal Reserve and take their case to the courts.

What's interesting about the saga of Custodia and the Fed is that it has forced Custodia's legal team to dig in and highlight where the Fed is overextending its reach and acting arbitrarily. In the amicus brief that was published in July of this year, Paul Clement argues that the way Federal Reserve Bank presidents are chosen is unconstitutional when you take into consideration the fact the these Fed branch presidents are unilaterally undermining state banking laws by denying master accounts.

If they are going to unilaterally undermine state banking laws they need to be appointed by the President or an official acting on behalf of the Executive Branch. Federal Reserve Bank presidents aren't appointed by the President of the United States or any official acting with the authority of the Executive Branch. Instead, they are appointed by their boards, which are controlled by the privately held commercial banks who own them. The Federal Reserve system is clearly acting unconstitutionally when they deny Custodia from being assigned a master account.

The people in power within the federal government and the Federal Reserve system are actively targeting the bitcoin and digital asset industry, acting extrajudicially and making a mockery of the rule of law in the United States. They are completely out of control and it is important that everyone who cares about the future of bitcoin in the United States and the future of the United States more broadly (even if you don't like bitcoin) speaks out and fights against these totalitarians as vehemently as possible. What they are doing is wrong. It's unconstitutional. And it is putting the future of our country at risk.

If the federal government, the regulators and the Federal Reserve do not get out of the way and let law abiding citizens build the businesses they want and associate with businesses they want, those businesses will go elsewhere and the United States will be set back generations as a result.

It's time to put these people in their place and let it be known that freedom will reign supreme in the Land of the Free. Fight!

Final thought... I promised Parker Lewis that I would do cross fit on Friday morning and I'm using today's final thought as an accountability tool.

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848

This is the full AI-generated transcript of Bitcoin Infinity Show #127 featuring George Manolov!

If you'd like to support us, check out https://bitcoininfinitystore.com/ for our books, merch, and more!

BIS128 - Ben Perrin - Transcript

Knut: Ben, welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Show. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, this is where we first met, in Riga, five years ago.

Yeah, that's wild. Yeah, and our lives took a turn.

Ben: Yeah. I mean, it's amazing what can happen in a seemingly short period of time. Everything is markedly different, I think, on both ends.

Knut: Yeah, but I mean, I can't believe how you do what you do, like, you do like the double amount of conferences that I do.

Ben: I think I need to slow myself down a bit.

Knut: but you've been traveling around a lot, like, with the family as well.

Ben: Yeah, we try to strike a balance. Sometimes I go solo, sometimes it's the full family. Sometimes it's, me and the missus. It really depends, but, a little bit of both all through the year.

how's it been, like, what's your, well, Yeah. I mean, the travel aspect of it is fantastic. I love seeing all these places and it's kind of cool. To be honest, seeing all the Bitcoiners just in different parts of the globe all through the year, it's like every time it's a quasi family reunion, right? In cool locations.

Knut: Who was that that called us a traveling circus? Joe, yeah, it's Joe Hall.

Ben: Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, accurate. I think it's based, I was just saying outside that we should just collectively, you know, buy a jet, put all the necessary stuff in it and just hop around the globe and host a bunch of events and then get it all done in a couple of months and then

Luke: It's not a bad strategy.

Knut: no, it's a low time preference

Ben: are we going to start a geyser fund for the jet,

Knut: yeah, what private jet wanted, like,

Luke: If anything, it would be a good meme anyway, right?

Ben: How many bitcoin do you think we need for a jet? Sats.

Knut: Yeah, well, it'll take a while to gather the funds and we'll call that a jet lag.

Ben: I all enjoy seeing the exorbitant amount of Bitcoin required. And then like, you know, 5, 000 sats raised so far.

Knut: Yeah, and then five years later, 5, 000 sats is enough for a jet.

Luke: there we go. Oh, absolutely.

The Origins of BTC Sessions

Luke: So can you give us a little bit of, your story, how this all started? how did you get into Bitcoin and how did you become a, cause you're not actually Mr. Sessions, but you are, you get confused for that all the

Ben: Yeah. so, prior to Bitcoin, I actually, taught kids how to breakdance for years.

Knut: Australian ladies,

Ben: Yeah, non Australian ladies, no, no, I, I taught, I was basically doing in school residencies. So, like, in, in phys ed, instead of the phys ed teacher, you know, helming the, the dance unit, I would come in as a novelty and, You know, teach the kids a routine over the course of a week and then they'd perform at the end of the week.

And, so it was a fun job, but it didn't particularly, pay the bills. So I needed a side hustle. And that side hustle for a while was, I went on a bunch of tech blogs and I just kind of learned how to tear, tear apart a MacBook and like swap out the hard drive and the RAM and things like that.

And then, so I would flip MacBooks because everybody wanted a MacBook, but you could get it used. And so I would upgrade it and then sell it and earn a few hundred bucks in an afternoon. And that felt pretty decent. But because I was on those tech blogs, the Bitcoin articles would be in front of me from time to time.

it took about a year of saying, ah, crap, I missed the boat over and over again, to finally say, maybe I should actually read into this and figure out what it was. And, I spent the better part of two years trying to learn how to use it. And searching desperately for video tutorials because I'm a very visual learner.

It was always like, Oh, go to this blog and, or, or go to this forum and halfway down in the comments, some dude described in point form how to do this. And I was like, I, I can't learn like this, but I had to. And so the channel was more like a response to the itch I couldn't scratch for myself.

And I figured if, if I wanted that, somebody might find Bitcoin tutorials useful, and, that was eight years ago. And so now, yeah, eight, eight years worth of, doing tutorials.

Knut: So, do you have any other, educational background? university studies or anything like

Ben: this was just like, it was a com, so the skills that kind of came together were, even though I was teaching dance, like, teaching a concept that can be complex to like a school kid. As long as you can break it down in a simple manner, like I had to get used to sometimes five year olds trying to learn and memorize a routine.

With very foreign movements to them. regardless of subject matter, it translates if you can break something down. And the tech aspect of it, like I was not technical whatsoever before Git. Other than like, I mean, yeah I said I tore up Macbooks, but like, if you can, put in a Nintendo cartridge.

That's like the skillset that you needed to do that. and so that was just like trial and error, you know, tearing your hair out, doing it again, trying again, learning what not to do. and then just the being comfortable, like in front of a camera, I guess, over time.

Knut: So, the stripe from tearing your hair out?

Luke: Yeah, it grew back eventually, but turned color. Yes. did you realize that you're never allowed to change your hairstyle ever again?

Ben: The first time going to a conference and, somebody coming up and saying like, Oh, I saw you from across the parking lot. And I was like, Oh crap, I'm stuck with this forever. Yeah, now it's like, I literally, but this is going to be the OPSEC thing. Cause when it's time to disappear, I just have to die this back.

And I, I'm a ghost.

Luke: Yeah, Nobody will know who I am. It's like if Knut shaves his

Ben: Yeah,

Knut: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben: Yeah.

Luke: Although actually the beard hasn't even been going that long, but now you're used to it.

Ben: Yeah, yeah.

What Has Changed in Bitcoin?

Luke: So, what's changed over this eight years? Because I imagine early days that you're teaching vastly different things from now in the space.

Ben: Yes and no. there's a lot more to teach now than there ever was. like the early days, I was more or less confined to whatever phone app happened to be out as a wallet, there was very limited option for hardware, like it just kind of started to pop up as I was early days. and then like Bitcoin ATMs or online exchanges, that was kind of the crop of what I could do.

And now, the list of things I would like to cover is growing faster than I can cover it. It's an impossible task to teach everything. And so, that's a great thing, because there's so much optionality out there for people. I think because of that now, we're seeing a lot more people do tutorial videos, which is fantastic.

every time I see a new person throw their hat in the ring and start making video tutorials, I'm like a mini victory. I've treated the opposite of. Competition because you can never have too much education, just as everybody should have a Bitcoin podcast.

Neutrality

Knut: Yeah, so speaking of podcasts and video tutorials, like, how do you stay neutral in terms of the products? I mean, you must be getting offers from everyone here and there, like, can you promote this for me? Can you do that for me?

Ben: so there's two aspects to it. I mean, number one, obviously the only way that I can do this full-time is to have sponsors on the show. But the sponsors that I usually have, it's typically not them coming to me. Not to say there isn't people coming to me, but the ones that come to me typically are like shitcoin casinos and stuff like that.

And saying it's a default. No. but the sponsors that I tend to have typically it's me saying, Oh, I use this and it's great. And then I reach out to that entity and say, would you like to sponsor the show? But that comes with a caveat of no matter what, The whole point of the channel is to educate people how to use things, so I will be covering your competitors and teaching people how to use them as well.

So, it's just, you gotta just be forthcoming with, like, the pros and cons of everything, and be realistic about how things work, and, yeah.

Knut: yeah, yeah. Oh, can I have that water? Sorry. yeah, this is a tricky thing, like, especially for consumers, like, how can you trust the content you're consuming, but I think, the essence of that is that, authenticity is the currency of the future, whoever said that, but, it's such a great.

Like your reputation is everything. if you're discovered to be a sellout or if people discover you're a sellout, you lose, or your sponsors too, at certain point, right. So,

Ben: It's, especially in Bitcoin, I feel like, Bitcoiners hold each other to a higher standard than fiat world does. and, Bitcoiners it's not so easy to forget, somebody. not that you can't, redeem yourself when you make a mistake as long as you own it.

I think the worst thing that you can do is just double down instead of being like, you know, fucked up kind of thing. So, yeah.

Early Days

Luke: No, exactly, and I mean, I was actually curious about this. Did you ever go to, like, when you're getting into Bitcoin, were you ever curious about some of the, checkcoins and

Ben: Oh yeah, like, especially early on, because, there was no good resources, that succinctly described the difference between Bitcoin and everything else. It wasn't until, I spent most of my time learning about Bitcoin specifically, and then, I heard little things about other shitcoins but I never gained any conviction with any of the other ones, and to me it was always considered gambling, if I had anything like that.

And so it took working at an OTC desk in 2017, like a physical walk in with cash and buy Bitcoin or shitcoins to open my eyes to just how degenerate all of that stuff was. like my experience at the peak of the 2017 bull run. Was being in a room probably about double or triple the size of this.

we had three desks, with money counters on them, and it was shoulder to shoulder people in this room, all standing with stacks of cash, Ready to buy whatever coin had gone up the most that day. Ripple hit 3. 50. I'd love 10, 000 worth of Ripple, please. and it was just that day after day after day.

And people convinced that like, oh, this is the future. This is how it's gonna be. And after going through all that and seeing the ICO craze and everything, it just put such a bad taste in my mouth witnessing that and in a way being party to it, like working and being on the other side of the desk from that, that, discussions with and working with Francis Pouliot, with BullBitcoin.

He actually poached me from that company that I was at and it was a breath of fresh air to get somewhere and focus on Bitcoin. And so that was the formation of where I'm at now.

Bull Bitcoin

Knut: In 2019, you were here with the bull Bitcoin

Ben: Mm hmm.

how many of you were here? was a lot of us. 15 Yeah, there was, there was a lot. it was like they brought a bunch of the Debs and like Madex was here. 'cause he did the shirts and everything. Yeah. Francis Dave, like, yeah.

We were all out here and it was a good time.

Knut: Bull Bitcoin is definitely the most based exchange in the world, I think. think there are exchanges nowadays that are on par with them, but if you take the historical perspective, there is no second

Ben: Yeah, well it was such a departure for Francis to come out and be like, his announcement of what BullBitcoin was going to be and to say, we are actively Bitcoin only I remember people in the room as he announced it being like, Seriously, you guys are only doing Bitcoin.

You're actively choosing not to do anything else. And, it seemed like a crazy move to a number of people that watched that announcement and it was the best thing that they could have done.

Knut: Of course. I mean, I love that before and after picture of Francis, you know, when he's in his corporate suit and everything. The before picture and the second picture, it looks like something out of Commando or

Yeah. Rolled out of the jungle. No, it's great.

Ben: Yeah, that was a formative time for sure.

Calgary Community Building

Luke: Yeah, and I mean, those were my first touch points with crypto, the 2017 run, and I mean, in the offices in Calgary, because I'm just starting my career, just out of school, and I'm working at an oil and gas company, and it's like, everyone's talking about Ethereum or Ripple,

Yeah, and so that was the only thing that I got off my ass and went and bought a little bit for a little while with some Ethereum, and as soon as everything crashed in 2017, it's just like, I'm like, Yeah, I forgot about it for four years until things started to climb again.

And so no, no regrets, like, what ifs or anything like that. But, but yeah, that, that was, that was the culture at the time though, is, is, is what I'm saying. and this, this was all like, I had no idea this was all going on around me, the Bitcoin community, in, in Calgary. Right. and so this is, this is now where.

You're active in building the community in Calgary, right?

Ben: yeah, so, we're now kind of, you know, I've reached a point where, you know, it's great using Bitcoin as a savings mechanism and all that, but, I think it was late last year. there was some announcement in and around like exchanges, basically sending out the warnings to everybody, like, Hey, if you coin join and then send to the exchange, we'll have to shut your account.

Like you've got to at least add a hop and every, and people were. We're getting angry and almost like shooting the messenger, like, Oh, like, why don't you just not comply? And it's like, well, then the business doesn't exist. So I, like, I kind of get it. But at the end of the day, I got annoyed because people were, again, shooting the messenger rather than like just trying to do something about it.

And, and so that kind of, spurred me into. You know, recognizing that the only way around that is to actively use Bitcoin peer to peer, right? Like, not just save it. Cause like, if you're, if you're saving your Bitcoin and you're putting it away and everything, and then all of a sudden, every on and off ramp, it just Disappears overnight because of regulatory overreach.

What the hell do you do? Like, yeah, you can find your, your, your peer to peer exchanges and stuff like that, but like, isn't it so much better if you can just know the place where you can get beef or, you know, your barber, if you, if you can just use your money for everything that you need and then also just save it.

Like, isn't that a far better world than having to rely on somebody somewhere to exchange for a worse money?

Vexl

Knut: Are you familiar with Vexl? Yes. looks really promising, I think. yeah, we had Grafton on. Weeks ago. And, it's great. most of the users are in Prague at the moment, but still, if we can get that going, it's like, I view it as VL being is to local Bitcoins what B2C pay server is to BitPay you're taking these centralized models and.

making them peer to peer and more decentralized.

Ben: it, yeah, it's needed, whatever the, I really like the idea of what Vexel's doing, again, like, it's thin in my area for people listing stuff on there, but, again, at the end of the day, I think in, however we can do it to kind of build out, starting from the Bitcoiners themselves, ways to meet our daily needs, just using Bitcoin, like, I've been, I've been basically living on a Bitcoin standard since 2020.

Now, 90 something percent of my income is all Bitcoin. and I use it, like I, by default, don't have dollars beyond, like, exactly what needs to come out of a bank account each month for some specific payments that I can't do externally.

Knut: So what is your reaction when people say that Bitcoin isn't money?

Ben: So you can say it, but you're fucking wrong. it's puzzling when somebody says that to me because my entire life is a refutation of that statement. Like,

Knut: that's a clip right

Ben: Yeah.

Sats Market

Luke: that's fantastic. I had no idea any of this stuff existed. I literally got into Bitcoin as I was leaving Canada and I haven't been back to Calgary in three years now. I'm super looking forward to next summer.

I'll make it to your sats market and the Bitcoin rodeo and everything. So can you tell us a little bit about the sats market

Ben: Yeah, so, I guess I kinda went off the rails when I was about to dive into that, but that knee jerk of me getting angry that people weren't doing anything about it, that spurred me into doing the first sat market, and So I was like, guys, the only way around this is to just start using Bitcoin.

And so I put out the word online and said let's do this in three weeks, let's do a market. And we got 35 merchants together in that period of time, put on a big, Christmas market. And it was great. I was surprised how many people got together and made that happen. And so now we've done three of them.

we did a spring one as kind of like a dry run, to prep for the Bitcoin rodeo one that we did in July. but now I think we're going to do two per year so that it's kind of more of an event. but then we want to actually form relationships with each other so that, you don't need the market to get the things that you want.

So like, you know, my kid shoved something in the toilet, I called the Bitcoin plumber. And he came and I paid him in sats for sorting out my shit coin problem. and I think a big part of the market was, yes, it's great having, Bitcoin related merch and goodies and stuff like that.

But like, It shouldn't be all that. It needs to be stuff that people actually need. So we have local farmers come in, and you know, they've got beef and eggs and chickens and all that. We have a lot of tradesmen, like roofers, people doing flooring, people doing all kinds of different stuff.

We've got a guy who, one of the services he's offering is teaching people how to homestead. so like there's, there's a wide variety, there's a children's author, there's a whole bunch of different stuff. and it's a very eclectic mix of a lot of different things. but also like the useful, like, oh, I need food, you know, I need my haircut.

Canada and Alberta

Knut: so, do you expect, I mean, if you look up government overreach during the early 2020s in the dictionary, you'll get a picture of a Castro's bastard doing, do you expect some kind of clamp down or like problems with this from a government side in Canada?

Ben: Well, the nice thing about it is that it's the hardest thing to prevent when I know the guy I get my eggs from. When, you know, what are you going to say? you guys can't be friends anymore. Go fuck yourself. like if I happen to go visit my buddy at his house And he happens to give me some eggs, and I happen to slip and scan a QR code then like I was to stop that Yeah

Luke: would go, Well, I mean, some calibration on this as well. I think for people who aren't familiar with how Canada is basically, Alberta and Calgary is like the heart of freedom country in Canada. Quebec is also a little bit, it's got its own flavor of that essentially, but Alberta has been going through some really interesting times in the last decade.

Ben: so It's very different from the US in that the individual states have so much more, free reign to set things how they like, and you can freely move around between states. But in Canada, the federal government has a lot more power over each individual province than I would like.

But Alberta, as of late, has been really pushing back against federal overreach, in particular, and around energy, health, and education. so there's been all of these things that have culminated in, we created the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which Gives us a conduit to any time the federal government tries to do something where they're stepping out of their wheelhouse, we basically can now refer to that and flip them the bird and say, tough.

We saw that province next to us, Saskatchewan, when they tried to impose a carbon tax, the entire province, the government just said, we're not collecting it. And so like, you're starting to see, and it's very interesting because The sovereign individual, the book, when they were discussing, the idea of local governance and the breakdown of larger nation states, when they were talking about Canada, it was written in the 90s when Quebec was voting whether it wanted to remain part of Canada.

And so one would have assumed at the time they would have said Quebec will be the first to separate from Canada. But they said no, it's more likely to be Alberta because it's so energy heavy. and we get kind of screwed by the rest of Canada, so there's what's known as equalization payments, if we produce and have a lot of industry, rather than using that as a mechanism to incentivize people to move away from areas where industry may not justify so many people living towards where the good jobs and the resources are.

they just say, Oh, you guys are doing pretty well. We're going to take, however many billions of dollars of that, and we're going to pepper it over here.

Knut: Yeah.

Ben: when you look at say Quebec versus Alberta, Alberta, I can't remember what this is. Very recently, in the past few years, there was a year where I think Alberta paid 10 billion dollars in equalization payments, and, Quebec received 11.

And, and, and so basically we just gave Quebec all the money, and that's like 40 percent of their GDP.

Knut: yeah, it's socialism. That's how socialism works. The problem with socialism is that eventually you'll run out of other people's money.

Ben: Yeah. and so, but I mean, what would have happened if that wasn't in place is there wouldn't be as many jobs in Quebec and a number of people might have said, Oh, there's more jobs over here. We're going to move to where the industry is.

Luke: Yeah. Free market. It's natural. It's what happens when you leave things be and let people cooperate and collaborate the way they want. but instead we're incentivizing people to stay put Well, and I mean, the other thing, not just the equalization, right, is that the energy is literally landlocked in Alberta, and to get the oil to market, you have to take it to a coast, that's how this stuff gets sold, and there's just been fights over building pipelines within Canada or into the United States, Barack Obama cancelled the Keystone pipeline, the Keystone XL pipeline the first time, Then Trump re approved it, and then Biden finally cancelled it, and I think they're actually giving up on it now.

But even within Canada, that's the problem, is that Quebec, who gets all of this money from Alberta, says they will not let a pipeline through their province.

Knut: yeah, it's, in the book.

yeah. yeah,

Luke: your feeling on just the political situation in general in Alberta and Canada as a whole?

Ben: it's interesting because I don't put Too much or really any trust in politicians, but the political pendulum making it's I feel like it already peaked to one side and it's about to swing back and they'll be that degree of What seems like normalcy for a while and then it'll swing too far the other direction again in the 90s growing up I felt as if These conservatives are gonna censor everything and, it was always like, Oh, we need to take this off TV and off the radio and we don't want anybody to see this In my head, I was always like, well, just don't watch it.

Don't listen to it. If you don't like Like, why are you telling others what they can or can't do or watch? And so I always grew up thinking that's where the pressure's gonna come from. But as that political pendulum swung to the left, it doesn't matter who's in power, it's just what are they censoring, right?

And so I think I leaned left, politically speaking, early in my life because it was just like a knee jerk. Against whoever was telling me not to do things, and so I felt like I swung left, and then it got to a point where I was just insufferable, like, actively, trumpeting whatever the leftist politicians would say, and it wasn't until a friend of mine actually said to me, I asked him about the election when Trudeau got elected for the first time, which I voted for, and,

Luke: Sorry.

Ben: The thing that opened my eyes to how insane I had gotten was, a friend of mine that I would have assumed for like the, who he was and kind of his lifestyle and everything like that would have, definitely been voting for Trudeau. So I asked him what he thought of the election. And he said, you made me vote conservative. And I was like, I stepped away from that conversation and took a long hard look in the mirror and realized the person that I thought I was helping by voting this way voted the opposite because I was such a loud mouth. what I ended up doing is I started searching for the exact opposite of what I would have searched for on like YouTube and all that.

And it was my first peek into how bad the algorithms get you. And because all of a sudden I was getting served inside of a couple of weeks, I was getting served the polar opposite end of the spectrum and nothing but that, and like rage bait. it made me realize like.

There's, there's no winner in that scenario.

Pendulum

Knut: it's so funny that they use the word pendulum because that's one of the chapter names from the new book. And we describe exactly that process of left and right, but also how this dynamic happens in smaller communities as well. And the danger we see in the Bitcoin community here is that, I've noticed this effect that Whenever people discover Bitcoin and realize that the government is lying to them.

The lazy thing to do is just to buy the opposite narrative and buy into all the conspiracy theories, and all of a sudden Alex Jones is not a liar, have you noticed that too, and like, are you worried about the Bitcoin community, that we're getting sloppy, buying into stuff?

Ben: Yeah, I think it's inevitable that people have that reaction in that we're at that point in time where people are deeply distrustful of every single institution. And I think it's exactly what you're saying, is that the knee jerk reaction is, so everything's a conspiracy, or everything's a scam. And, you know, kudos to the people that are a little bit more nuanced with the thinking. I can fall into that trap too. And, I think it's also, to go back to one of the other formative moments in Bitcoin for me was, as I first started getting involved. Seeing the coverage of Mt.

Gox, on the news because I had, I still knew very, very little about Bitcoin at that point. I had just started learning, but even with, a month or two of reading, I knew that all of the reporting was completely wrong. where they were saying Bitcoin got hacked. And I knew it was just a bad company, lost people's money.

And, to see every news outlet report it the same and all be wrong, and know that I've done effectively the minimal viable research, and I know that you're incorrect. It made me step back and say, well, God, like, what if other things that I know even less about are being reported incorrectly?

Knut: I know exactly what I reacted to the most, that they describe Bitcoin ma mining as solving this super complex

Ben: Yes.

Knut: Yes. When it's really just guessing a number over and over again. so it's portrayed as something that's absolutely isn't

Ben: Yeah. it's blindly throwing a dart at a dart board somewhere.

Knut: I had experiences with this earlier on where, you know, being interviewed for smaller things and just reading the interview afterwards and seeing how much they got wrong. this is so often everything.

Ben: Yeah. Cause I mean, there's people in society that are tasked with trying to distill information and present it in a friendly public facing manner. And, when you're trying to do that, it's difficult to do that accurately and also in an entertaining way that drives clicks and views and all that kind of stuff.

so I think a lot of people by default just use some of those bad habits and, you know, go for the clicks, I suppose.

Nostr

Luke: Well, and how do you feel about an antidote to this in Nostr, decentralizing communication?

Ben: Yeah, I think. With this, it definitely puts us in the right direction in that, you know, previously, the way, we've seen dissenting opinions dealt with is just shutting them down. you know, now, I still very much think that the entire world has not yet grappled with the fact that you can instantly communicate with anybody, anywhere, and get a megaphone to tell the world whatever you think.

and people have not been great at learning how to distill information and decide if the information is right and true. we're still as a species not great at that, but I think having Absolute censorship resistance puts us towards that because then the only tool you have to fight against bad information is better information.

And so people need to stop being babysat and actually be forced into a space where they have to distill information and think critically. and that's a muscle that most people haven't exercised and even myself, at times just, you know, it's easy to go the lazy way. But I think, yeah, with something like Nostr where, you can say whatever you want.

Nobody can remove it afterwards. it forces hard conversations to be had rather than trying to silence them. So I think it's a slow process and it's not gonna happen anytime soon. But it gets us stepping in the right direction.

Knut: I think communication is the thing that elevates us from barbarism to civilization, really. Because if you go down to first principles and what this is all about, it's like humans have two ways of resolving conflict, and the one is violence, And the other is communication. You agree and you argue and you come up with a solution.

And the latter is obviously preferable to the former, because we don't want violence. seeing things that way makes everything so much clearer, you realize that even without the internet communication would have won out in the long run, because it's more efficient than violence.

Violence is costly. so, and it did sort of like there were fewer wars, like in, Early 90s when the internet wasn't a thing than ever before. So like, fewer people were killed in wars. So the internet has just sped up the process. And right now you can communicate with anyone in the entire world at an instant.

And it's not only text, it's video, like without a lag. And on top of that you have bitcoin, which is, part of that, because it is communication. What bitcoin pointed out was that money doesn't have to be anything but communication. That's why I'm so extremely optimistic about it, because it is the cure all, in that sense, because it's so damn powerful,

Why Are You Bullish?

Knut: so Ben Sessions, why are you bullish?

Ben: am I bullish? in this moment, I think I'm most bullish because people haven't stopped building and they're doing so at such a breakneck pace that I guess alluding to earlier in the conversation, how that list of things for me to teach people about is growing faster than I can teach it.

And, and that's a great place to be in, given that when I started, the most common question I got from people hearing, Oh, you're doing a Bitcoin tutorial channel. I mean, you're going to run out of stuff to do, aren't you? And it's the exact opposite. and so I, when there's that much of a brain drain and, and there's so many people Interested in somehow being involved and contributing and seeing this as the seismic shift that it is.

how can you not be bullish about that? I mean, we started a company a few months ago called Bitcoin Mentor. Educators, one on ones and all that. But we put out the word that we were looking for people that wanted to be Bitcoin educators. We had 350 applicants. Isn't that insane?

Luke: It's amazing.

Knut: Yeah,

Ben: Obviously we couldn't take all 350, but we built a solid team from the people that were there and there was some really talented people there.

The Bitcoin Mentor

Ben: So can you talk us through what this is? what is the Bitcoin? It's the Bitcoin Mentors. Yeah, Bitcoin Mentor. I, have previously for a number of years done, Private one on ones with people, typically, you know, Zoom or whatever, video call. those were usually people that had gone to the free tutorials on YouTube, but they need a little bit of extra hand holding.

Maybe, like, it's either just their confidence in doing it themselves, and they just want somebody to kind of walk them through it the first time, or they hit a snag and I didn't cover it as in depth as I should have or, there's a lot of moving parts. I got to the point where I was so busy with these sessions, these one on ones, that I wasn't having time to make the tutorials anymore.

And, you know, I can't not have that. You know, that's like, it's such an important thing to have the free resource out there as well. So, I met, my co founder now, Mike, and, we just kind of formulated an idea of building a team and, yeah, so it's basically for anybody that's either like brand new and is just trying to wrap their head around, key management or hardware or whatever, or for the, you know, What I would refer to as the Bitcoin luddites, the ones that have, and this isn't at all a dig because this happens to everybody, but.

Where you come in, you learn the few things you're comfortable with, and then you stand still for a long time and you begin wondering like, is my setup still as good as I thought it was when I originally did it? Should I add to it? Should I learn something new? Or I just wanna level up and learn some new things?

We get a lot of people coming in like that, being like. Yo, I, I don't know, I got a ledger like five years ago and I set it up and I haven't done anything since. And now I think I want to try a cold card or whatever else, or now I want to run a node or now I want to, you know, I want to learn again.

Luke: And so we get a lot of those people coming in the door saying, help walk me through this. And once they've done it once, then, okay, that's a skill they've attained and they can do it themselves without any assistance after that. Oh, awesome initiative. And I mean, yeah, like obviously there's a need there for people to get involved in this stuff. And I mean, the user experience in Bitcoin is still very much, you have to do the things or else it's not quite going to work. And I mean, do you think it's ever going to be?

So simple that anyone can just quickly get on to Bitcoin in a self sovereign way. I don't, I don't think that there's ever going to

Knut: always a trade

Luke: there's

always a trade off. do you think about that?

Ben: there's always a trade off. I think, and it also depends on what our interactions with Bitcoin look like in the future, like in terms of what is the average person's experience using Bitcoin. Bitcoin, I would venture to say that their initial interaction with Bitcoin inside of Five years or less is not going to be on chain.

Like people aren't going to be onboarded directly to on chain. They're going to, I think the way that we teach needs to be completely inverted because the way I used to teach was, okay, let's attack a regular on chain Bitcoin wallet first. here's how you set it up. Here's your seed phrase on chain transactions work like this, you know, every 10 minutes, all like, here's how the fees work.

That was typically the first thing you wrapped your head around and then you would say, Oh, and now there's this thing called lightning. And this allows you, you know, for more day to day, smaller trends. And so you'd, you'd start at the base and you'd build the knowledge to the upper layers. But that's not going to be how people interact with Bitcoin because, economically speaking, that's not going to make sense.

They're going to come in from a top layer first with their first few sats.

custodial lightning. exactly. But what will be the goal is working your way down through the self sovereignty stack to hopefully get as close to the base as you can for that person. And so it's gonna be like, oh, I came in through a Fediment, or I came in through a Cashument, or I came in through a Custodial Lightning Wallet.

Knut: You'd be like, okay, great. Transactionally, you now know what you're doing, but let's see if we can give you more control. And move that direction. had a thought about the 350 applicants, because they all want to be Bitcoin mentors. I think they probably all are, just on a smaller scale. Like, all of those people are teaching their friends and family how to use things.

It's already amazing. Because you're right, all of those applicants were vying to be part of a specific group but nothing precludes them from continuing to be the bitcoin person in their group of friends that people come to for advice and help. beautiful.

What is Ben Most Excited About - Fedi(Mint)

Luke: And so you mentioned a couple of things like, Fedimint and Cashew as one example, like just new stuff that's been coming up. What are you most excited about that's, like projects that look really exciting to you right now?

Ben: I'm very interested in the Fediment stuff. I think it's really cool. Now, again, you gotta recognize that it's a trade off. But, I tend to look at things from the perspective of What is available to us right now? No, I recognize that things can change and maybe you have the ability to have shared, you know, UTXO custody in a way,

But with how Bitcoin works right now and the tools that are available to us, I think FedAmends are pretty damn good trade off, to enable a number of things that are very attractive. So like, instant, peer to peer free and perfectly private transactions within a mint. Gaining the privacy of the crowd if you spend to another mint.

and what I mean by that is, maybe you have a mint that has a thousand people in it, and another mint that has a thousand people in it. When you go to send money to somebody in the other mint, it's a lightning transaction between the two. federations, but nobody knows which person in this mint initiated the transaction and nobody knows which person in that mint received it.

yeah, it's beautiful.

so I love that. there's things like you can do offline payments. there's a lot of really cool things. and Feddy app is doing is something that I think it would be super. Useful in the context of what we're doing with the sat market in Calgary is if we had, you know, within, if we had everybody sound like a mint.

And within the Feddy app, we could have a community that in that same app with their wallet management, they also see all of the resources needed to use said Bitcoin locally. So maybe it, it, by default, we have built in there, the btcmap. org that will center in on Calgary when you tap on it within the app, maybe it has bit refill or whatever to get your gift cards.

Maybe it has whatever other, because It's like a whole ecosystem in a singular app that you can tailor for your specific community, which is, so useful, and I didn't know exactly what it was going to be until I actually physically saw it.

Yeah, Yeah, so I love it.

Now, yeah, we still have some questions about it, but we'll talk to Obi one of these, like, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. So we're looking forward to interrogate him about the nooks and crannies about Fede. But, yeah, it's very, very promising. yeah, it's, I think that particular ecosystem is gonna make leaps and bounds in the coming years and it'll be very interesting to see how it's used and how resilient it is, in the way that they're trying to flesh out that ecosystem because at this point anybody can make a mint. And so, and that's a double edged sword, because anybody will make a mint, and some will be, they won't all be created equally.

Some will rug, for sure, some will rug pull, but others will, you know, It'll likely be done well and stand the test of time and kind of, it'll be more of a reputation based thing rather than,

Knut: that's reputation based is, is, is based. I mean it's, that's what we're excited about, about Nostr, a lot of the You know, web of trust things so that you get all the, the reputation score is basically your, you own your social graph and your friends and your connections and your posts and everything.

And that's where you get your recommendation is from. So I think that ends up, you know, killing woke disney one day because there won't be a discrepancy between user scores and critics

Ben: yes,

Knut: like so

Ben: yeah,

Knut: much going on

Ben: yeah, that's fantastic.

Luke: It's fantastic to get your perspective on this because you're probably one of the people who really actually gets in there and tries the most things

Amplifying, right? like that

Ben: I tend to tinker around with pretty much everything that I can get my hands on. there's more people that are starting to be that as well. if you were to look at my apps on my phone, it's just like a disgusting amount of different Bitcoin wallets and everything.

and those are just the ones that I have put in a folder. If you go through the entire app drawer, it's just, I don't remember when I downloaded this

Outlook for Canada and Alberta

Luke: No, it's funny, but, you're clearly bullish on Bitcoin. And what about Canada? What's your feelings on Canada, Alberta as well?

Ben: I hope Alberta secedes. So that's that would be, I'm, I'm, I'm very pro, smaller and more local governance. I, you know, I, I think that you become disconnected from, your constituents when you try to govern too many of them all at once, it's very difficult when you have. a large group of people in very, very different conditions and trying to say, you guys are all gonna live by the exact same rules.

I think more local governance is great. I feel like Trudeau will be gone next year. everybody's sick of him, including his own party, but at the same time, if I had to guess, I would say that, he'll be stubborn enough to run again. And that Polyev will probably win he's a bitcoiner but at the same time, I don't think that he'll do anything, in terms of regulatory that would be super favorable.

Luke: I think it'll just kind of be status quo. if anything, it'll at least buy some time. To build out things that make Bitcoin more resilient in the face of the next tyrant. I've still got all my family in Canada, tons of friends in Canada, I hope for the best in Canada, I'm the coward, sort of, and left, but no, no, it was more of a pull than a push, I mean, as much as things were difficult a few years ago in Alberta, I mean, like, yeah, it was other reasons, but still, of course, close to my

Knut: voted with your feet. It's good. you made a freedom footprint. That's what you

Luke: Well, yeah, awesome to have you and other great people in, in Calgary and, and Canada, you know, still bearing the torch and everything. So,

Ben: Yeah, there's a good, there's a solid group there, and yeah, the Calgary, the Alberta, generally, like all the Alberta Bitcoiners, there's something there, and I can't wait to see that blossom into what it seems to be becoming.

Luke: well, sign us up for the sats market, in June, July, next year. Cause, yeah, well, a hundred percent

Knut: We need Knut to come stampeding I can do the stampeding. yeah, apparently it's not optional.

Wrapping Up

Knut: anyway, where do you want to send our listeners? Like with btc sessions. com? Is that a thing now? Dot ca,

Ben: flair on there. if somebody's listening or watching this that is unfamiliar, and you need to learn anything, just search BTC Sessions on YouTube. you'll find it there. I'm on, Nostr, I'm on X still. you gotta be where the normies are at when you're trying to orange pill and educate, I suppose, too.

the Bitcoin Mentor stuff, you can check out at bitcoinmentor. io if you need some more hand holding on anything. There's a solid group of educators there.

Luke: fantastic. And I'm going to look at this camera now to my friends from Calgary, who I've been telling you to go attend the sats market. Get to it, talk to this guy, you won't regret it, and you know who you are.

Thanks for everything you do, and thanks for being on the show.

thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Ben, thanks again. This has been the Bitcoin Infinity Show.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

• Eric Hughes

9 de março de 1993

A privacidade é necessária para uma sociedade aberta na era eletrônica. Privacidade não é segredo. Um assunto privado é algo que não desejamos que o mundo inteiro saiba, mas um assunto secreto é algo que ninguém quer que ninguém saiba. Privacidade é o poder de se revelar seletivamente ao mundo. Se duas partes têm algum tipo de negociação, então cada um tem uma memória de sua interação. Cada partido pode falar sobre sua própria memória disto; Como alguém poderia evitar isso? Pode-se aprovar leis contra ela, mas a liberdade de expressão, ainda é mais importante que a privacidade, é fundamental para uma sociedade aberta; Procuramos não restringir qualquer discurso. Se muitas partes falam juntas no mesmo fórum, cada um pode falar com todos os outros e agregar o conhecimento sobre indivíduos e outras partes. O poder das comunicações electrônicas permitiu tal discurso de grupo, e ele não vai embora apenas porque poderíamos querer. Uma vez que desejamos privacidade, devemos garantir que cada parte de uma transação tenha conhecimento apenas do que é diretamente necessário para essa transação. Uma vez que qualquer informação pode ser falada, devemos garantir que revelamos o mínimo possível. Na maioria dos casos, a identidade pessoal não é saliente. Quando eu comprar uma revista em uma loja e entregar dinheiro para o funcionário, não há necessidade de saber quem eu sou. Quando pergunto ao meu provedor de correio eletrônico para enviar e receber mensagens, meu provedor não precisa saber a quem estou falando ou o que estou dizendo ou o que os outros estão dizendo para mim; Meu provedor só precisa saber como obter a mensagem lá e quanto eu devo-lhes em taxas. Quando minha identidade é revelada pelo mecanismo subjacente da transação, não tenho privacidade. Eu não posso aqui revelar-me seletivamente; Sempre devo me revelar. Portanto, a privacidade em uma sociedade aberta requer sistemas de transações anônimas. Até agora, o dinheiro foi o principal sistema. Um sistema de transação anônima não é um sistema de transação secreta. Um sistema anônimo capacita os indivíduos a revelar sua identidade quando desejada e somente quando desejada; Esta é a essência da privacidade. Privacidade em uma sociedade aberta também requer criptografia. Se eu disser algo, quero que seja ouvido apenas por aqueles para quem eu pretendo fazê-lo. Se o conteúdo do meu discurso está disponível para o mundo, eu não tenho privacidade. Criptografar é indicar o desejo de privacidade, e criptografar com fraca criptografia é indicar não muito desejo de privacidade. Além disso, revelar a identidade com certeza quando o padrão é anonimato requer a assinatura criptográfica. Não podemos esperar que governos, corporações ou outras organizações grandes e sem rosto nos concedam privacidade de sua beneficência. É a sua vantagem para falar de nós, e devemos esperar que eles vão falar. Tentar impedir a sua fala é lutar contra as realidades da informação. A informação não quer apenas liberdade, quer ser livre. As informações se expandem para preencher o espaço de armazenamento disponível. A informação é o primo mais jovem e mais forte do Rumor; A informação é rápida com os pés, tem mais olhos, sabe mais, e compreende menos do que Rumor. Devemos defender nossa própria privacidade se esperamos ter qualquer. Temos de nos unir e criar sistemas que permitam transacções anônimas. As pessoas têm defendido sua própria privacidade por séculos com sussurros, escuridão, envelopes, portas fechadas, apertos de mão secretos e mensageiros. As tecnologias do passado não permitem a privacidade forte, mas as tecnologias eletrônicas fazem. Nós, os Cypherpunks, estamos dedicados a construir sistemas anônimo. Estamos defendendo nossa privacidade com criptografia, com sistemas anônimos de encaminhamento de correio, assinaturas digitais e dinheiro eletrônico.

Cypherpunks escrevam códigos. Sabemos que alguém tem de escrever um software para defender a privacidade, e uma vez que não podemos obter privacidade a menos que todos nós, vamos escrevê-lo. Nós publicamos nosso código para que nossos companheiros Cypherpunks possam praticar e brincar com ele. Nosso código é gratuito para todos, em todo o mundo. Não nos importamos muito se você não aprovar o software que escrevemos. Sabemos que o software não pode ser destruído e que um sistema amplamente disperso não pode ser desligado. Os Cypherpunks deploram os regulamentos sobre criptografia, pois a criptografia é fundamentalmente um ato privado. O ato de criptografia, na verdade, remove informações do domínio público. Mesmo as leis contra a criptografia atingem apenas a fronteira de uma nação e o braço de sua violência. A criptografia será inelutávelmente espalhada por todo o globo, e com ela os sistemas de transações anônimas que torna possível. Para que a privacidade seja generalizada, ela deve fazer parte de um contrato social. As pessoas devem vir e juntas implementar esses sistemas para o bem comum. Privacidade só se estende tanto quanto a cooperação de seus companheiros na sociedade. Nós os Cypherpunks procuram suas perguntas e suas preocupações e espero que possamos envolvê-lo para que não nos enganemos. Não seremos, no entanto, afastados do nosso curso porque alguns podem discordar dos nossos objetivos. Os Cypherpunks estão ativamente empenhados em tornar as redes mais seguras para a privacidade. Vamos avançar juntos. Em Frente.

https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html

@ d6affa19:9110b177

i'm in the upstairs office. lost in some project i've been tinkering with. i feel driven with purpose.

the door is cracked open. i always leave the door open.

Her footsteps echo up the stairway. but my focus is intense; a solution just beyond my fingertips.

the door creaks open, a soft whisper of a sound.

i instantly feel Her presence. a sweet vanilla scent wraps around me, thick and intoxicating.

Her fingers brush through my hair, a gentle caress.

She grips my hair, then releases it— over and over again. it feels good.

a soothing warmth envelops me.

Her fingers glide, each stroke igniting my senses. a chill races down my spine.

the monitor becomes a bit distant.

"You're really focused, hmm?" She teases, leaning closer. "I'm just checking in on my sweet boy." Her tone alluring, already drawing me in.

"of course, my Queen." i reply, my eyes glued to the screen, struggling to concentrate. "thank You," my voice hints at annoyance. "i'm so close to finishing this up."

just when i near a breakthrough, She appears, a siren pulling me from my path. how does She know..? the quiet signals that betray my focus— that reveal my yearning.

"Hmmmm," She playfully muses.

ugh, i need to concentrate. but the way this feels...

it pulls me deeper.

Her fingers drift by my ear, lingering around my neck. nails grazing my skin, sending shivers through me.

my heart begins to race. the screen blurs, reality separates.

"Okay, sweet boy." Her voice is a soft command. Her nails dig in, a mixture of pain and pleasure. a sharp contrast to the softness of Her touch. "I'll be downstairs while you finish."

yet She remains. i close my eyes, drowning in the sensation. i should be finishing this project...

but each press feels like a silent command, an urge to abandon my thoughts, to succumb to the pull of Her presence.

the way She easily captures my attention... it makes me feel so vulnerable...

Her grip finally loosens, and slowly leaves my neck. it wants more...

i barely hear Her leave. but the air feels colder. the warmth of Her presence is fading. an aching emptiness fills the space...

the weight of Her absence settles in, another reminder of how easily She commands my thoughts...

desperately, i take in the remnants of Her scent.

i stare at my monitor. focus shattered, thoughts scattered like leaves.

i linger for a moment. fighting the urge to chase after Her.

the pull of Her absence is heavy in the air. i'm unable to resist. i rise from my seat.

the door is slightly open. She always leaves the door open.

i make my way downstairs, lost in the thoughts of serving Her. my true purpose...

@ 41fa852b:af7b7706

---

“Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” —Elrond in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

Another week, another nine meetups on offer!

We've also got two new businesses accepting bitcoin and three upcoming events.

Now, let's see what's happening this week…

---

Upcoming Bitcoin Meetups

Happening this week...

1. Roger Huang at Cyphermunk House: Roger Huang will be at Cyphermunk House on Monday, 7th October, to chat about his book 'Would Mao Hold Bitcoin', China, the power of freedom tech, and all things Nostr. Daniel Prince will be hosting the proceedings, and it's sure to be an interesting evening. Things get underway at 18:30 till 20:00. 📚
2. Bitcoin 101 at Cyphermunk House: Cyphermunk House will be hosting another Bitcoin education for beginners and precoiners session on Tuesday 8th, 19:00-20:30. Head along and take a newbie friend. 📚👨🏻‍🎓
3. Sutton Coldfield Bitcoin: Back in action on Wednesday the 9th. From 7pm at the Station pub, 44 Station Street, B73 6AT. Head along to meet Roger and the rest of the Sutton Coldfield crew. 🍻
4. Bitcoin Liverpool: The next Bitcoin Liverpool meetup will be on Thursday October 10th at 6:30pm, in the Railway pub on Tithebarn Street, Liverpool, L2 2DT. 🍻
5. Bitcoin Walk - Edinburgh: Every Saturday they walk around Arthur's Seat in this historic city. Join them at 12 pm to chat about Bitcoin and keep fit. 🚶🚶🏻‍♀️🚶‍♂️
6. Bitcoin Derby: You'll find them at Ye Olde Dolphin, DE1 3DL on the 12th at 3pm. Join them for a Bitcoin chat and a cheeky pint. 🍻
7. Real Bedford - Home Game: You’ll always find fellow Bitcoiners at a Real Bedford match, especially at home. This Saturday, Bedford faces Thame United in a Southern League Division One clash on the 12th, with kick-off at 3 PM. ⚽️
8. Wiltshire BTC: Meeting at The Stonehenge Inn (they accept bitcoin) at 18:00 on Saturday 12th October. 🍻
9. Kent Bitcoin: Join the Kent Bitcoin crew at The Muggleton Inn on Sunday 13th at 12:00 - 14:00. 🍻

---

New Businesses Accepting Bitcoin

• Nuvo Aesthetics: Nuvo is a nurse-led aesthetics skin clinic with various treatments for skin concerns e.g. Microneedling for treating scars. Now accepting bitcoin payments.
• Myna Accountants: Get the right advice and support with this UK based accountants, specialising in digital assets.

---

Upcoming Special Events

These events aren’t happening next week, but they’re important to add to your calendar now as tickets are selling fast.

• Bitcoin Tuesday - launch event: Boom Bap Burger in Bethnal Green is celebrating the launch of its 2-for-1 deal on October 15th, from 18:00 to 22:00. This offer is exclusive to customers paying with bitcoin, so load up your Lightning wallet and join in to show your support. If the event goes well, it will become a new monthly meetup.
  

• Bitcoin Whitepaper Party: Celebrate Bitcoin’s 16th birthday on Bitcoin Whitepaper Day at the Dockside Vaults this Halloween. Loads happening starting from 17:30 including:

  • Learn about Bitcoin crowdfunding platforms: GEYSER and ANGOR.
  • ChocRock workshop with Roger9000 with limited seats at £36 each.
  • It's happy hour at the bar until 7 PM plus there's a further discount for paying with bitcoin.
  • Enjoy a performance by Roger9000 and DJ sets from Day MadMunky, itsTOMEKK, and ZAZAWOWOW.
  • Tickets are £21.40 each and you can also pay with Bitcoin here.
    
• The Bitcoin Culture Festival: The Whitepaper Party is part of a bigger multi-day, multi-venue festival happening between October 31st and the 2nd of November. Rather than listing all the details here (a lot is going on) click here to find out more.

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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.
• Telegram users: You might find our Telegram Channel another useful way to keep up-to-date with UK meetups.
• Feedback and Suggestions: We value your input! Share your ideas on how we can enhance this newsletter.

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Get out and support the meetups where you can, visit Bitcoin Events UK for more info on each meetup and to find your closest on the interactive map.

Stay tuned for more updates next week!

Simon.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

A fortnight of being real on Nostr

It's been over two weeks, since I announced that I would primarily be noting from my lesser-known Silberengel npub, and it's been an interesting experience. As with anything I ever do, I clicked around a lot, tested out a lot, and tried out a lot. Mostly, I observed.

Let me share, what I've learned

1. Nostr-related products are increasingly useless, if you don't follow anyone, or only follow a handful of people. Everything is geared to follows and you usually really do need to follow gobs of people, to have an interesting feed, by capturing the most-active people (about 10% of the people you follow). Those people tend to quote and boost other people's notes into your stream, allowing you to follow those additional people and so on, like a snowball scheme. This means that follows are actually a feed-management mechanism, rather than any indication of a relationship between npubs. It also means that 10% of the npubs decide what everyone will look at.
2. Many people collect followers, by being active for a very short time, following lots and lots of people and getting follow-backs, then they unfollow the smaller npubs or abruptly change their tone or the content (this is common with spammers and scammers). Then they have a high WoT score. What, precisely, is being trusted here? (Also, centering WoT on follows is influencer-maxxing for plebs, KWIM?)
3. Why are individuals never unfollowing these npubs? Because nobody unfollows anyone who hasn't seriously upset them. Follow-inertia is rampant and the follow lists are so long that most people don't even know who they are following. So long as the "bad npub" doesn't spam the people who are following them directly, they don't notice anything. That means following spam can inadvertently protect you from spam, whilst the same spammers throw crap at your own frens, all damned day.
4. Most relay owners/operators don't ever look directly at the feed from their own relay, so it's usually full of enormous amounts of garbage. Your clients and personal/private relays are often downloading and broadcasting all of that garbage indiscriminately, so the garbage gets passed around, like a social media virus. Many of you just haven't noticed, because you also don't look at the feed from your relays (see 1).
5. Almost all business logic (the controls, in the classic model-view-controller setup) has been placed on the client-side. This is great, if you're a client developer, as it makes relays superfluous and traps your customers in your app, by making moving to a different app more onerous. Every move requires a period of readjustment and fiddling, before they can see their feed the way that they are used to seeing it. This is less great, if you're a user and are interested in trying out a different app.
6. When I began, two weeks ago, the concept of topical, private, and personal relays interacting were mostly a pipe dream (pun intended), but I've been pleased to see, that some other people are beginning to catch on to the appeal of decentralizing and specializing the model layer. A diverse, sprawling network of relays, connected through the outbox model and negentropy syncing, is really next-generation communication, and essential for ensuring censorship-resistance, while supporting smooth interaction.
7. Once you get above a few hundred followers (which I already have, That went fast!), additional followers are increasingly spam or inactive/bot npubs, and once you get a few thousand followers, that Bot Effect goes parabolic, as your notes are spread more widely onto spammy relays. You won't notice, yourself, as anything over a few hundred becomes Some Big Number and you'll eventually stop even looking to see who they are, or caring about them, at all. Which leads directly to my next point...
8. The number of followers a person has, correlates with an increase in their disdain for people who care about follower counts, likes, reactions, or even zaps. This noblesse oblige says nothing about the usefulness or information any of these signals carry. You will please also notice that they never change npubs and rarely change profile pics because of reasons I don't need to elaborate on, further.
9. On-boarding is a lonely experience because nobody looks at the feed, and you initially have no followers. Even if you reply to people, they often can't see what you wrote because of your low WoT score. That is, unless you already know someone there, who can vouch for you. Or are lucky to get discovered by the Nostr Welcoming Committee and end up one of the biggest npubs overnight, which is like winning the follower lottery. For most new npubs, the experience is terrible and they eventually give up, for a handful the experience is absolutely fantastic and they are hooked. Obvious lesson: nobody should onboard, who doesn't know at least 1 other person: so invites only. Unlike Those Other Protocols, Nostr doesn't need a centrally-determined invite, as every client or relay can offer their own version, geared to a different audience. The goal simply needs to be: get off 1.
10. I don't get many zaps or reactions, anymore, but I still have interesting conversations, and I no longer face the surreal situation of every cough, hiccup, or sneeze I emit being front-page news. Nostr feels more like Nostr, again, and less like Twitter, and now I want communities and forums even harder.

@ 472f440f:5669301e

While most of the world is focused on the lead up to the Presidential election here in the US and louder war drums being beat across the world, the number of bullish developments that are stacking up for bitcoin is increasing rapidly. These developments deserve the OG Marty's Bent smorgasbord treatments, so here are the things that have caught my attention over the last week in no particular order.

The First Ark Transactions on Bitcoin Mainnet

I had the pleasure of participating in a demo of Second's Ark protocol implementation. For those who are unaware, Ark is a new layer-two protocol solution for making off-chain bitcoin payments. Unlike the lightning network, Ark doesn't depend on liquidity channels to facilitate payments. Within the lightning network two counterparties share UTXOs within a channel to move sats back and forth, nodes connect to many different channels to create a network effect that increases the chance of payments getting routed successfully, and node operators manage their channel liquidity as channel imbalances emerge.

Ark is similar in the sense that it also leverages a shared UTXO model. However, instead of having one-to-one channels that come with liquidity management issues, Ark enables a large amount of individuals to share UTXOs, which are managed by an Ark Service Provider (ASP). The ASP is a central party within the protocol, but it is a central party that does not custody UTXOs. It only coordinates the transfer of sats between Ark "rounds". Users have the ability to unilaterally exit the second-layer protocol whenever they deem necessary by broadcasting a Virtual UTXO (vtxo) transaction.

This may seem daunting and complicated. All you need to know is that there is now an new way to make off-chain bitcoin payments that are fast and relatively cheap and it is possible today. As it stands today, Ark has some scaling limitations that can be solved if covenants get merged into the bitcoin protocol, which would significantly reduce the data requirements for signing this type of transaction.

It should also be noted that Ark isn't here to replace the lightning network. It can help serve different use cases and, at the same time, significantly improve the UX of the lightning network. Particularly channel management. The progression of the Ark protocol is a welcomed development. I look forward to following what's going on with Ark as the protocol matures.

The Kingdom of Bhutan is Stacking A LOT of Sats

We were made aware of the fact that the Kingdom of Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas with a population less than 1,000,000 people, was mining bitcoin in early 2023 when their sovereign wealth fund was doxxed in the bankruptcy proceedings of BlockFi and Celsius. Don't look now, but Bhutan has been doxxed again, this time by the chain surveillance firm Arkham, which is reporting that the nation currently holds more than 13,000 bitcoin, which is nearly 1/3 of its GDP. Driven predominately by its mining operations, which have expanded significantly over the last two years in an attempt to monetize the country's excess hydroelectric power.

While we're not big fans of doxxing here at TFTC, we are fans of the game theory of bitcoin playing out in front of our eyes. And the Kingdom of Bhutan is a shining example of the game theory bitcoiners have been talking about for 15 years playing out perfectly.

Bitcoin is a very thorny topic for individuals at every layer of society. At the individual layer, people have to independently decide that bitcoin is a better money and they have to actively decide to store their wealth in it instead of other assets. For companies, the decision to use bitcoin as the preferred savings vehicle is even harder because most businesses have multiple stakeholders that need to align on a decision before making it. When you move up to the nation state level, the complexity of making the decision to add bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset gets even harder. Many more people and different branches of government need to agree and pass bills (in most cases) before bitcoin can ever make it into a nation's treasury asset mix.

It has long been said within bitcoin circles that individuals who have the ability to think independently, companies that have a lean corporate structure, and nation states with little to lose will be the first movers into bitcoin. And they will benefit massively over the long-run for being early.

If you're an individual reading this who is using bitcoin as their money of choice, you are one of these early movers. Microstrategy under Michael Saylor, who has the ability to make somewhat unilateral decisions due to the company's share structure, is an early move. And, Bhutan, a small nation in the Himalaya mountains with a sovereign wealth fund that seems to have the ability to take risk, is an early mover. With little to lose and greatness to gain, Bhutan is giving other small nation states the playbook for leap frogging the competition in the digital age. Stack a shit ton of bitcoin on the DL, hold on to it for a considerable amount of time, and wake up one day as an economic powerhouse.

The Fed Cuts Rates by 50 Basis Points

I'm sure all of you are well aware at this point. Last week the Federal Reserve made it's first rate cuts in over four years when it cut the fed funds target rate by 0.50% to 4.75-5.00%. With the economy reeling despite what the official government and mainstream narrative may try to make you believe, Jerome Powell and crew have decided it is time to ease up on their monetary policy.

Put another way, inflation is likely to come back with a vengeance as easy money begins to reenter the economy. To be clear, a lower fed funds rate doesn't technically necessitate that newly printed dollars enter the economy like they have over the last 15 years via operations like quantitative easing. However, one has to imagine that the Fed sees some sort of liquidity crisis on the horizon that requires them to begin cutting rates. And not only cutting, but cutting at a pace that was very low probability only a couple of months ago. The consensus in the middle of the Summer was that the Fed would begin lowering rates with a modest 25bps cut this month. They doubled that.

It's probably safe to assume that something is approaching a breaking point on the back end of the financial system. One only has to look at record high credit card debt, record low savings rates, the state of the job market for native born Americans, and the continued turn over of commercial real estate markets to see that not all is well in the American economy. Your Uncle Marty's spidey senses are signaling that a liquidity crunch is likely lurking around the corner. When it does rear its ugly head, you can expect quantitative easing to make a big come back.

When money printer goes brrr, bitcoin goes berserk.

It seems that the Treasury's move over the last 18-months of over-indexing on the front end of the curve during their auctions is already having an expansionary effect on M2 as it has officially entered expansion territory for the first time since 2022. Hold on to your butts, freaks.

Bitcoin's fundamentals are only getting stronger as time goes on. This is evidenced by continued improvement to the protocol stack via second layer protocols, continued adoption by reputable actors like the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the continued mismanagement of the fiat monetary system.

The price of bitcoin has been range bound since the Spring and it has lulled the market into a state of boredom. Enjoy the boring period while it lasts. All signs are pointing to a bitcoin bull run the likes of which the world hasn't seen before. There is a lot of tinder, it is extremely dry, and there are flame throwers on the horizon.

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Final thought... Nothing makes me happier than meeting someone who gets value from this newsletter or the podcasts in the wild. Love you, freaks.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

O aplicativo é desenvolvido por uma comunidade de colaboradores e segue os princípios de código aberto, o que significa que o código-fonte do aplicativo é acessível e pode ser modificado por qualquer pessoa interessada em contribuir para o projeto.

O AntennaPod foi lançado pela primeira vez em 2012 como um projeto de código aberto desenvolvido por uma equipe de voluntários. A ideia por trás do aplicativo era criar uma alternativa livre e de código aberto para gerenciar e ouvir podcasts em dispositivos Android. O projeto inicialmente começou como uma bifurcação (fork) do projeto Podtrapper, um aplicativo de podcast para dispositivos BlackBerry. A equipe de desenvolvimento do AntennaPod adaptou o código do Podtrapper para o Android e adicionou novos recursos e funcionalidades. Ao longo dos anos, o AntennaPod passou por várias atualizações e melhorias, com contribuições de desenvolvedores de todo o mundo. A comunidade de código aberto em torno do AntennaPod cresceu e ajudou a moldar o aplicativo, fornecendo feedback, correções de bugs e novos recursos. O AntennaPod se tornasse uma opção flexível e personalizável para o gerenciamento de podcasts no Android. Ele foi projetado para suportar uma ampla variedade de formatos e servidores de podcast, oferecendo aos usuários a liberdade de escolher suas fontes de podcast favoritas. Ele permanece como uma opção popular para os entusiastas de podcasts que buscam uma solução livre e acessível para gerenciar e desfrutar de seu conteúdo de áudio favorito.

Aqui estão algumas das principais vantagens do AntennaPod:

1. Livre e de código aberto: O AntennaPod é um software de código aberto, o que significa que o seu código-fonte está disponível para visualização, modificação e contribuição pela comunidade de desenvolvedores. Isso proporciona transparência, segurança e a possibilidade de personalizar o aplicativo de acordo com as necessidades individuais.

2. Sem necessidade de login: Ao contrário de alguns outros aplicativos de podcast, o AntennaPod não requer um login para acessar e gerenciar seus podcasts. Isso oferece praticidade e privacidade aos usuários, pois não é necessário criar uma conta ou compartilhar informações pessoais.

3. Adição de podcasts via RSS: O AntennaPod permite que os usuários adicionem podcasts por meio de feeds RSS. Isso significa que você pode adicionar facilmente seus podcasts favoritos ao copiar e colar o link do feed RSS, sem a necessidade de procurar manualmente ou depender de uma biblioteca restrita.

4. Interface intuitiva: O aplicativo possui uma interface de usuário intuitiva e fácil de usar, com navegação simples e organizada. Isso torna a descoberta, a assinatura e a reprodução de podcasts uma experiência agradável e acessível para todos.

5. Reprodução offline: O AntennaPod permite que você faça o download de episódios de podcast para ouvir offline. Isso é especialmente útil quando você está em movimento, sem conexão à internet ou deseja economizar dados móveis. Você pode baixar seus episódios favoritos e ouvi-los em qualquer lugar, a qualquer momento.

6. Gerenciamento de listas de reprodução: O aplicativo oferece a opção de criar listas de reprodução personalizadas para organizar seus episódios de podcast. Isso permite que você crie uma sequência de reprodução personalizada, reorganize os episódios e gerencie melhor o que deseja ouvir.

7. Controles de reprodução avançados: O AntennaPod oferece uma variedade de recursos avançados de controle de reprodução, como avançar ou retroceder episódios, definir temporizadores de suspensão, pular partes silenciosas e ajustar o volume de reprodução.

8. Personalização de configurações: O aplicativo permite que você personalize várias configurações de acordo com suas preferências. Isso inclui ajustar a velocidade de reprodução dos episódios, configurar notificações, gerenciar downloads automáticos, definir limites de armazenamento e muito mais.

9. Suporte a diferentes idiomas: O AntennaPod suporta podcasts em vários idiomas, o que permite que os usuários descubram e desfrutem de conteúdos em seu idioma preferido.

10. Sincronização com serviços em nuvem: O AntennaPod oferece suporte à sincronização com serviços em nuvem, como o Nextcloud, permitindo que você sincronize seus podcasts e configurações entre vários dispositivos. Isso garante que você possa continuar de onde parou em diferentes dispositivos sem perder seu progresso.

Essas são algumas das principais vantagens do AntennaPod. O aplicativo continua sendo desenvolvido e aprimorado pela comunidade de código aberto, trazendo constantemente novos recursos e melhorias para tornar a experiência de audição de podcasts mais completa, personalizável e agradável para os usuários.

https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod

https://antennapod.org/

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Philip Zimmermann

Parte do Guia do Usuário PGP Original de 1991 (atualizado em 1999)

"Tudo o que você fizer será insignificante, mas é muito importante que você o faça." -Mahatma Gandhi

É pessoal. É privado. E não é da conta de ninguém, apenas sua. Você pode estar planejando uma campanha política, discutindo seus impostos ou tendo um caso ilícito. Ou você pode estar se comunicando com um dissidente político em um país repressor. Seja o que for, você não quer que seu correio eletrônico privado (e-mail) ou documentos confidenciais sejam lidos por mais ninguém. Não há nada de errado em afirmar sua privacidade. A privacidade é tão fácil quanto a Constituição. O direito à privacidade está implícito na Declaração de Direitos. Mas quando a Constituição dos Estados Unidos foi elaborada, os Pais Fundadores não viram necessidade de especificar explicitamente o direito a uma conversa privada. Isso teria sido bobo. Duzentos anos atrás, todas as conversas eram privadas. Se alguém estivesse ao alcance da voz, você poderia simplesmente ir atrás do celeiro e conversar lá. Ninguém poderia ouvir sem o seu conhecimento. O direito a uma conversa privada era um direito natural, não apenas no sentido filosófico, mas no sentido da lei da física, dada a tecnologia da época. Mas com a chegada da era da informação, começando com a invenção do telefone, tudo isso mudou. Agora, a maioria de nossas conversas é conduzida eletronicamente. Isso permite que nossas conversas mais íntimas sejam expostas sem o nosso conhecimento. Chamadas de telefone celular podem ser monitoradas por qualquer pessoa com um rádio. O correio eletrônico, enviado pela Internet, não é mais seguro do que as chamadas de telefone celular. O e-mail está substituindo rapidamente o correio postal, tornando-se a norma para todos, não a novidade que era no passado. Até recentemente, se o governo quisesse violar a privacidade dos cidadãos comuns, eles tinham que gastar uma certa quantia de dinheiro e trabalho para interceptar, abrir e ler a correspondência em papel. Ou eles tinham que ouvir e possivelmente transcrever conversas telefônicas faladas, pelo menos antes que a tecnologia de reconhecimento automático de voz se tornasse disponível. Esse tipo de monitoramento trabalhoso não era prático em larga escala. Isso só foi feito em casos importantes, quando parecia valer a pena. É como pegar um peixe de cada vez, com linha e anzol. Hoje, o e-mail pode ser verificado rotineira e automaticamente em busca de palavras-chave interessantes, em grande escala, sem detecção. Isso é como pescar com rede de deriva. E o crescimento exponencial no poder do computador está tornando a mesma coisa possível com o tráfego de voz. Talvez você pense que seu e-mail é legítimo o suficiente para que a criptografia seja injustificada. Se você realmente é um cidadão cumpridor da lei, sem nada a esconder, por que não envia sempre sua correspondência em cartões postais? Por que não se submeter a testes de drogas sob demanda? Por que exigir um mandado para buscas policiais em sua casa? Você está tentando esconder alguma coisa? Se você esconde sua correspondência dentro de envelopes, isso significa que você deve ser um subversivo ou um traficante de drogas, ou talvez um maluco paranóico? Os cidadãos cumpridores da lei precisam criptografar seus e-mails? E se todos acreditassem que cidadãos cumpridores da lei deveriam usar cartões-postais como correspondência? Se um inconformista tentasse afirmar sua privacidade usando um envelope para sua correspondência, isso atrairia suspeitas. Talvez as autoridades abram sua correspondência para ver o que ele está escondendo. Felizmente, não vivemos nesse tipo de mundo, porque todos protegem a maior parte de suas correspondências com envelopes. Portanto, ninguém levanta suspeitas afirmando sua privacidade com um envelope. Há segurança nos números. Analogamente, seria bom se todos usassem rotineiramente a criptografia para todos os seus e-mails, inocentes ou não,

para que ninguém levantasse suspeitas afirmando a privacidade de seu e-mail com criptografia. Pense nisso como uma forma de solidariedade. O Projeto de Lei 266 do Senado, um projeto de lei anticrime abrangente de 1991, tinha uma medida inquietante enterrada nele. Se essa resolução não vinculante tivesse se tornado lei real, teria forçado os fabricantes de equipamentos de comunicação segura a inserir "alçapões" especiais em seus produtos, para que o governo pudesse ler as mensagens criptografadas de qualquer pessoa. Ele diz: "É o entendimento do Congresso que os provedores de serviços de comunicações eletrônicas e os fabricantes de equipamentos de serviços de comunicações eletrônicas devem garantir que os sistemas de comunicações permitam ao governo obter o conteúdo de texto simples de voz, dados e outras comunicações quando devidamente autorizado por lei ." Foi esse projeto de lei que me levou a publicar o PGP eletronicamente gratuitamente naquele ano, O Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) de 1994 determinou que as empresas de telefonia instalassem portas de escuta remota em seus comutadores digitais do escritório central, criando uma nova infraestrutura de tecnologia para escutas telefônicas "apontar e clicar", para que os agentes federais não precisassem mais ir para fora e anexar clipes jacaré às linhas telefônicas. Agora eles poderão se sentar em seu quartel-general em Washington e ouvir suas ligações. Claro, a lei ainda exige uma ordem judicial para uma escuta telefônica. Mas enquanto as infraestruturas tecnológicas podem persistir por gerações, as leis e políticas podem mudar da noite para o dia. Uma vez consolidada uma infraestrutura de comunicações otimizada para vigilância, uma mudança nas condições políticas pode levar ao abuso desse novo poder. As condições políticas podem mudar com a eleição de um novo governo, Um ano após a aprovação da CALEA, o FBI divulgou planos para exigir que as companhias telefônicas construíssem em sua infraestrutura a capacidade de grampear simultaneamente 1% de todas as chamadas telefônicas em todas as principais cidades dos Estados Unidos. Isso representaria um aumento de mais de mil vezes em relação aos níveis anteriores no número de telefones que poderiam ser grampeados. Nos anos anteriores, havia apenas cerca de mil escutas telefônicas ordenadas pelo tribunal nos Estados Unidos por ano, nos níveis federal, estadual e local combinados. É difícil ver como o governo poderia contratar juízes suficientes para assinar ordens de escuta telefônica suficientes para grampear 1% de todas as nossas ligações, muito menos contratar agentes federais suficientes para sentar e ouvir todo esse tráfego em tempo real. A única maneira plausível de processar essa quantidade de tráfego é um aplicativo orwelliano massivo de tecnologia de reconhecimento de voz automatizado para filtrar tudo, procurando palavras-chave interessantes ou a voz de um falante específico. Se o governo não encontrar o alvo na primeira amostra de 1%, os grampos podem ser transferidos para um 1% diferente até que o alvo seja encontrado, ou até que a linha telefônica de todos tenha sido verificada quanto a tráfego subversivo. O FBI disse que precisa dessa capacidade para planejar o futuro. Este plano provocou tanta indignação que foi derrotado no Congresso. Mas o simples fato de o FBI ter pedido esses amplos poderes é revelador de sua agenda. Para encontrar o alvo na primeira amostra de 1%, os grampos podem ser alterados para um 1% diferente até que o alvo seja encontrado ou até que a linha telefônica de todos tenha sido verificada quanto a tráfego subversivo. O FBI disse que precisa dessa capacidade para planejar o futuro. Este plano provocou tanta indignação que foi derrotado no Congresso. Mas o simples fato de o FBI ter pedido esses amplos poderes é revelador de sua agenda. Para encontrar o alvo na primeira amostra de 1%, os grampos podem ser alterados para um 1% diferente até que o alvo seja encontrado ou até que a linha telefônica de todos tenha sido verificada quanto a tráfego subversivo. O FBI disse

que precisa dessa capacidade para planejar o futuro. Este plano provocou tanta indignação que foi derrotado no Congresso. Mas o simples fato de o FBI ter pedido esses amplos poderes é revelador de sua agenda. Os avanços da tecnologia não permitirão a manutenção do status quo, no que diz respeito à privacidade. O status quo é instável. Se não fizermos nada, as novas tecnologias darão ao governo novas capacidades de vigilância automática com as quais Stalin jamais poderia ter sonhado. A única maneira de manter a privacidade na era da informação é uma criptografia forte. Você não precisa desconfiar do governo para querer usar criptografia. Sua empresa pode ser grampeada por rivais comerciais, crime organizado ou governos estrangeiros. Vários governos estrangeiros, por exemplo, admitem usar sua inteligência de sinais contra empresas de outros países para dar vantagem competitiva às suas próprias corporações. Ironicamente, as restrições do governo dos Estados Unidos à criptografia na década de 1990 enfraqueceram as defesas corporativas dos Estados Unidos contra a inteligência estrangeira e o crime organizado. O governo sabe o papel fundamental que a criptografia está destinada a desempenhar no relacionamento de poder com seu povo. Em abril de 1993, o governo Clinton revelou uma nova e ousada iniciativa de política de criptografia, que estava em desenvolvimento na Agência de Segurança Nacional (NSA) desde o início do governo Bush. A peça central dessa iniciativa foi um dispositivo de criptografia construído pelo governo, chamado chip Clipper, contendo um novo algoritmo de criptografia classificado pela NSA. O governo tentou encorajar a indústria privada a incluí-lo em todos os seus produtos de comunicação segura, como telefones seguros, faxes seguros e assim por diante. A AT&T colocou o Clipper em seus produtos de voz seguros. O problema: no momento da fabricação, cada chip Clipper é carregado com sua própria chave exclusiva, e o governo fica com uma cópia, colocada sob custódia. Não se preocupe, embora - o governo promete que usará essas chaves para ler seu tráfego somente "quando devidamente autorizado por lei". Obviamente, para tornar o Clipper completamente eficaz, o próximo passo lógico seria proibir outras formas de criptografia. O governo inicialmente alegou que o uso do Clipper seria voluntário, que ninguém seria forçado a usá-lo em vez de outros tipos de criptografia. Mas a reação do público contra o chip Clipper foi forte, mais forte do que o governo esperava. A indústria de computadores proclamou monoliticamente sua oposição ao uso do Clipper. O diretor do FBI, Louis Freeh, respondeu a uma pergunta em uma entrevista coletiva em 1994, dizendo que se Clipper não conseguisse obter apoio público e as escutas telefônicas do FBI fossem bloqueadas por criptografia não controlada pelo governo, seu escritório não teria escolha a não ser buscar alívio legislativo. . Mais tarde, após a tragédia de Oklahoma City, o Sr. O governo tem um histórico que não inspira confiança de que nunca abusará de nossas liberdades civis. O programa COINTELPRO do FBI tinha como alvo grupos que se opunham às políticas governamentais. Eles espionaram o movimento antiguerra e o movimento pelos direitos civis. Eles grampearam o telefone de Martin Luther King. Nixon tinha sua lista de inimigos. Depois, houve a confusão de Watergate. Mais recentemente, o Congresso tentou ou conseguiu aprovar leis restringindo nossas liberdades civis na Internet. Alguns elementos da Casa Branca de Clinton coletaram arquivos confidenciais do FBI sobre funcionários públicos republicanos, possivelmente para exploração política. E alguns promotores excessivamente zelosos mostraram vontade de ir até os confins da Terra em busca de expor as indiscrições sexuais de inimigos políticos.

Ao longo da década de 1990, percebi que, se quisermos resistir a essa tendência inquietante do governo de proibir a criptografia, uma medida que podemos aplicar é usar a criptografia o máximo que pudermos agora, enquanto ainda é legal. Quando o uso de criptografia forte se torna popular, é mais difícil para o governo criminalizá-la. Portanto, usar o PGP é bom para preservar a democracia. Se a privacidade for proibida, apenas os criminosos terão privacidade. Parece que a implantação do PGP deve ter funcionado, juntamente com anos de constante protesto público e pressão da indústria para relaxar os controles de exportação. Nos últimos meses de 1999, o governo Clinton anunciou uma mudança radical na política de exportação de tecnologia criptográfica. Eles basicamente jogaram fora todo o regime de controle de exportação. Agora, finalmente podemos exportar criptografia forte, sem limites superiores de força. Foi uma longa luta, mas finalmente vencemos, pelo menos na frente de controle de exportação nos EUA. Agora devemos continuar nossos esforços para implantar criptografia forte, para atenuar os efeitos do aumento dos esforços de vigilância na Internet por vários governos. E ainda precisamos consolidar nosso direito de usá-lo domesticamente, apesar das objeções do FBI. O PGP permite que as pessoas tomem sua privacidade em suas próprias mãos. Tem havido uma crescente necessidade social para isso. Foi por isso que o escrevi. Philip R. Zimmermann Boulder, Colorado, junho de 1991 (atualizado em 1999)

https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

Young people, in Europe and America, started moving out at the turn of the last century. It wasn't a tradition, in those countries. Housing was formerly multigenerational, but people became steadily more transient, with industrialization and the following rise of office work and the concentration closer to cities.

Prior to then, housing (including rents) was prohibitively expensive, so everyone tried to stay in their parents' or employers' home, for as long, as possible. Both the "Go west!" and "Lebensraum!" slogans hint at that crowded past. People risked their lives, en mass, trying to find enough cheap land, to build their own home. Many people left Germany, and similarly crowded countries, to move to places like Texas, where you could own your own home and therefore marry without your employers' or parents' permission.

It is still common to have inheritance fueds, here, in Bavaria, with the children squabbling over who gets to "keep" the house and how much "payout" the other children will receive, as compensation. Because you cannot always simply move to a different home in the same area (there is little available land for building and nothing to rent), leaving the ancestral home can result in de facto banishment from the entire region.

Wages increased, after WWI created a tighter labor market, and governments and large corporations (receiving government subsidies) began building or subsidizing massive amounts of homes, while the size of each home shrank dramatically. Those factors combined to lower the relative cost of housing, to the individual purchaser.

But the resulting Baby Boom construction explosion so overwhelmed the housing and mortgage markets, that housing is a very unappealing long-term investment, now, as there is hardly anyone around, to move into those many homes, when the Boomers pass. Their children and grandchildren (if they have any) are much poorer than they are, and much fewer in number, which guarantees that the housing market in most areas will eventually begin to collapse, in real terms, as Boomers pass away, or attempt to downsize.

To stabilize prices and prevent fires or delinquency, governments will begin demolishing empty houses, as they already sometimes do, in the former East Germany. Former West Germany dealt with steadily-falling house prices by mass-importing foreigners and paying for their rent at above-market prices, to artificially reinflate the housing market, but it appears that the easterners had a more politically- and economically- sustainable model for ridding themselves of excess homes.

But the era of cheap housing is over, and will continue to be so, for the next 10-15 years, so young people increasingly stay home, well into adulthood. As some cultures now have "moving out", as a prerequisite to dating, their childrens' marriage rate has plummeted and, consequently, so has the birth rate.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Segurança Operacional (OPSEC) é um termo originado no contexto militar dos Estados Unidos durante a Guerra do Vietnã. Trata-se de um processo que busca identificar informações críticas para determinar se as ações de uma entidade podem ser observadas pela inteligência inimiga, avaliar se as informações obtidas pelo adversário são úteis para ele e, em seguida, executar ações selecionadas que eliminam ou reduzem a exploração adversa dessas informações. O objetivo é garantir que uma operação militar, por exemplo, possua o nível adequado de segurança e impeça que o oponente obtenha conhecimento sobre disposições, capacidades, intenções e vulnerabilidades das forças amigas.

De forma mais geral, a OPSEC envolve a proteção de dados individuais que, quando agrupados, podem fornecer uma imagem mais completa. Trata-se de proteger informações críticas consideradas essenciais para missões militares, comandantes, líderes de alto escalão, gerentes ou outros órgãos de tomada de decisão. Esse processo resulta no desenvolvimento de contramedidas, que incluem medidas técnicas e não técnicas, como o uso de criptografia de e-mails, precauções contra interceptação e espionagem, atenção especial a detalhes nas fotos tiradas (como itens no plano de fundo) e evitar divulgar abertamente informações críticas sobre atividades ou organização de uma unidade em mídias sociais.

"O inimigo está escutando; ele quer saber o que você sabe; guarde para você."

A OPSEC é um processo iterativo composto por cinco etapas que auxilia uma organização a identificar informações específicas que requerem proteção e a adotar medidas para protegê-las:

1. Identificação de informações críticas: são informações sobre intenções, recursos e atividades amigas que permitem que um adversário planeje interromper efetivamente as operações. Essa etapa resulta na criação de uma lista de informações críticas (CIL), permitindo que a organização concentre seus recursos nas informações vitais em vez de tentar proteger todas as informações classificadas ou confidenciais não classificadas. Exemplos de informações críticas incluem agendas de implantação militar, informações internas da organização e detalhes de medidas de segurança.

2. Análise de ameaças: uma ameaça pode ser proveniente de um indivíduo ou grupo que possa tentar interromper ou comprometer atividades amigas. A ameaça é dividida em adversários com intenção e capacidade. Quanto maior a combinação da intenção e capacidade do adversário, maior é a ameaça. Nessa etapa, são utilizadas fontes como atividades de inteligência, aplicação da lei e informações de código aberto para identificar possíveis adversários de uma operação planejada e priorizar seu grau de ameaça.

3. Análise de vulnerabilidades: examinando todos os aspectos da operação planejada para identificar indicadores OPSEC que poderiam revelar informações críticas. Esses indicadores são então comparados com os recursos de coleta de inteligência do adversário identificados na etapa anterior. A ameaça pode ser considerada como a força do adversário, enquanto a vulnerabilidade pode ser vista como a fraqueza da organização amiga.

4. Avaliação de risco: Na etapa de avaliação de risco, os planejadores analisam cuidadosamente as vulnerabilidades identificadas anteriormente e determinam as medidas específicas de OPSEC que devem ser implementadas. O processo envolve a avaliação do potencial impacto caso ocorra a divulgação de informações críticas e a análise da probabilidade desse evento com base na capacidade e intenção do adversário.

Com base nessa análise de risco, são selecionadas as medidas adequadas de OPSEC para mitigar os riscos identificados. Isso pode incluir a implementação de protocolos de segurança mais rigorosos, restrições de acesso a informações sensíveis, treinamento e conscientização dos envolvidos, bem como outras ações destinadas a reduzir a exposição de informações críticas aos adversários.

É fundamental destacar que a avaliação de risco deve ser um processo contínuo e estar sujeita a revisões periódicas. À medida que surgem novas ameaças ou as condições mudam, é necessário adaptar e atualizar as medidas de OPSEC para garantir sua eficácia contínua na proteção das informações.

1. Aplicação de medidas de OPSEC apropriadas: Nesta etapa, as medidas de OPSEC selecionadas na avaliação de risco são colocadas em prática. Isso envolve a execução das ações planejadas, a adoção das práticas de segurança recomendadas e a incorporação das medidas técnicas e não técnicas identificadas. Além disso, é fundamental monitorar constantemente a eficácia das medidas de OPSEC na proteção das informações contra as ameaças relevantes.

A aplicação das medidas de OPSEC deve ser um processo abrangente e contínuo, envolvendo todos os membros da organização. A conscientização sobre a importância da segurança operacional e o treinamento adequado são essenciais para garantir a conformidade com as medidas de proteção de informações críticas. Além disso, é recomendável realizar avaliações regulares de OPSEC para identificar novas vulnerabilidades, atualizar as contramedidas existentes e manter um ambiente seguro.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-mostly-and-love-my-threat-model/

@ eac63075:b4988b48

Lá na outra rede, o Dov havia feito um post bacana mostrando como usar a Electrum mobile de cold wallet nessa playlist.

Então ao comentar que a minha primeira cold wallet havia sido uma Electrum num notebook velho e formatado só pra isso, algumas pessoas me perguntaram sobre meu setup atual.

Então preparei o seguinte esboço:

No geral é: * Server Umbrel para os nodes * Coldcard e Ledger (coldwallets) * Computador criptografado e celular android com área segura p/ apps

É um caso de uso extremo mas além da auto-soberania e custódia dos meus satoshis, essa estrutura ainda me permite:

• Participar do consenso do Bitcoin
• Auxiliar no roteamento de sats na Lightning Network
• Fazer coinjoin facilmente para aumentar a privacidade

E embora a estrutura pareça complicada, é bastante simples:

• Raspberry Pi 4 com Debian e Umbrel (p/ os nodes e servers)
• Celular antigo android com área segura e sem simcard
• Notebook com storage criptografada
• Ledger Nano X
• Coldcard

E ainda pude evoluir de N.O.I.A. (Network Operator Innovator and Advocate) para M.A. (Minerador Anônimo), com uma Nerdminer pra tentar um ticket da sorte a cada 10 minutos

Não esqueça que uma cold wallet para a auto-custódia pode começar com um computador ou celular velho!

É mais simples do que parece e praticar sua auto-soberania e custódia significa na verdade liberdade e privacidade nesse mundo digital!

@ a9434ee1:d5c885be

1. Relay = Community?

If spinning up a relay is getting easier and cheaper by the day, why can't the relays literally be the group/community?

Then: * Any relay is by default a public community. The more restricted read- or write-access is, the more it becomes a private group. * Any publication targeted at (h-tag) and stored, and thus accepted, by a relay can be seen as a publication in that community. * All-in-1 hosting solutions (integrated blossom servers, lightning nodes, ...) are made easier.

2. Why invent new kinds?

Why can't Kind 1 posts that are targeted and accepted by a relay (i.e. community) just be the forum-posts of that community? Why create new kinds for this? And even weirder, why create a new kind with that exclusively serves as a reply to that new kind? Why not just use generic replies (kind 1111) and take the #otherstuff (event kinds and apps) as an opportunity to introduce those?

For chat messages, however, I get it. You need a kind + reply-kind for those.

3. Community VS Private group

It seems like the only distinction you really need, both for the user and the apps implementing all this, is:
1. Public Community: anyone can read and follow this community but for writing the admins can set limits (pricing, white listings, ...) 2. Private group: only the profiles that even know this relay (i.e. group) exists can interact with it. Read-access has to be granted (invite, pricing, ...) and admins can set limits for writing too. Beyond this distinction it's a bit naive to try to categorize them. Open vs Closed doesn't really mean much for example, since technically all groups/communities set limits and are thus closed. It's more interesting to look the ways in which they can be closed and build on the simplest distinctions you can make there.

The difference between Public communities and private groups is the most important one because they both have very different UX and specification requirements:

Memberlist

Communities: None existent
Anyone can read and follow. It just has limits on who can publish what, when. So the most interesting thing to surface is probable something like a list of most active members or a highlighted set of profiles that have special characteristics within this community (top supporter, god-mode, resident artist, ...).
Private Groups: Necessary for it's existence
The whitelisted npubs for read-access are the members.

Moderation actions

Both types of groups need a way for the admin(s) to:
* Block/remove users * Remove events * Edit metadata (name, description, guidelines...) * Specify who can write publish what, under what condition

Only private groups need a way for the admin(s) to:
* Add/approve new members → specify who has read-access, under what condition

Generalizing too many actions like add member, join request, etc... that are only applicable to one of these categories just creates bad UX for the other one. You don't "add a member" to a public community. People can follow it without asking anyone's permission (ok yes, some will AUTH for reading but that's besides the point). Some of its followers will then just choose to publish something there and the admin either allows them or not.

Having a common protocol for specifying the conditions for this write-access interoperably (as mentioned above) is what I would like to see instead: * Both Communities and Private groups need it anyway * You have to assume admins need granularity in the conditions they set for publishing in their group/community: Who, what, under what condition, ... * You don't want to link out to custom websites (or similar) explaining their allowance schemes

Sidenote: we need a similar kind of spec for the services that allow you to spin up your hosting solution (relay, server, node, ...) so that, when you click "Create new community" in an app, those services can be surfaced. With their business models (including options to self-host parts of it) just there, in the app, without linking out. Same for the lines of communication and payments that are needed to make those business models work from within any app.

Publication and Discovery

Only Communities allow for the exciting possibility of publishing something in multiple overlapping communities at once. Someone writing about how Bees are Capitalists can target their article at the communities that most overlap with its content (and with the author's means and write-access of course). Members of a community around beekeeping can organically discover content and communities on Austrian economics relevant to them.

With Private groups publication happens only in the group and discovery is blocked on purpose.

@ 1d5357bf:1bdf0a52

If Bitcoin Is in Its Infancy, Nostr Is Still in Its Nursing Stage Skepticism is healthy, especially within the Bitcoin community. At the moment, Nostr users are predominantly Bitcoiners, and it's understandable that people are cautious about adopting new technologies. However, based on my limited experience over the last few months, Nostr has shown immense potential and is evolving at a breakneck pace.

The Speed of Development: A Double-Edged Sword The rate at which new functionality is being rolled out on Nostr is staggering. On the one hand, this rapid development brings constant innovation and new tools for users to explore. On the other hand, it often means that many implementations still need refinement, or at the very least, better documentation. It's exciting, but there are still bumps in the road that need to be ironed out. Censorship Resistance and Relay-Based Architecture One of Nostr’s most appealing features is its decentralized architecture, which revolves around relays. This design ensures that the protocol is censorship-resistant. If you’re tech-savvy enough, you can even run your own relay, allowing you to retain full control of your notes. This distributed system empowers users by giving them the tools to protect their content and stay independent of centralized entities.

A Protocol, Not a Platform Nostr is not a platform—it's a protocol. This distinction is crucial because it enables a high degree of interoperability, which can pave the way for a diverse ecosystem of applications. This opens up a world of possibilities and allows for network effects to take hold as more people and applications begin to interact with the protocol.

Privacy and Control Another advantage is the ability to manage your privacy more effectively. With Nostr, you can use multiple nsec/npub keys, giving you more control over your identity and interactions. This flexibility is a game-changer in a world where privacy is often compromised by centralized platforms.

Areas for Improvement Of course, Nostr is not without its challenges. Many of the available applications feel unpolished, and spam is a growing issue (the infamous "reply guy" problem). The ephemeral nature of the content also presents a challenge—once you post something, you can't "put the toothpaste back in the tube," sort to speak.

Enjoying the Ride Despite its growing pains, I’ve found Nostr to be an enjoyable experience so far. There are no algorithms dictating what you see, which results in a signal-rich environment with minimal toxicity—for now, at least. It’s refreshing to engage in conversations that aren’t manipulated by unseen forces, and I look forward to seeing where Nostr goes from here.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Com o RiMusic, os usuários podem pesquisar e reproduzir facilmente músicas, álbuns e artistas de seu interesse, além de aproveitar recursos adicionais, como download de músicas e playlists para audição offline e marcação de favoritos para fácil acesso posterior. O RiMusic oferece uma experiência musical completa e envolvente, reunindo os recursos do YouTube Music em um aplicativo fácil de usar e altamente personalizável.

Principais Funcionalidades

• Busca por Músicas, Álbuns, Artistas e Playlists: Encontre facilmente suas músicas, álbuns, artistas e playlists favoritas.
• Marcação de Artistas e Álbuns: Marque seus artistas e álbuns favoritos para acesso rápido.
• Importação de Playlists Online: Importe playlists de outras plataformas de streaming.
• Gerenciamento de Playlists Local: Crie, edite e organize suas playlists diretamente no aplicativo.
• Reordenação de Músicas: Altere a ordem das músicas na playlist ou fila.
• Fila Persistente e Limpeza de Fila: Mantenha ou limpe a fila de reprodução conforme sua preferência.
• Letras de Músicas: Busque, edite e traduza letras de músicas, sincronizadas ou não.
• Temas Diversos: Escolha entre temas Claro, Escuro, Dinâmico, PureBlack e ModernBack.
• Temporizador: Configure um temporizador personalizável para a reprodução de música.
• Normalização de Áudio e Salto de Silêncio: Melhore a qualidade da reprodução de áudio.

Opções de Personalização

• Download de Músicas ou Playlists Inteiras para Reprodução Offline: Baixe suas músicas favoritas ou playlists completas para ouvir offline, sem depender de uma conexão com a internet.
• Reprodução em Segundo Plano: Continue ouvindo música mesmo quando o aplicativo estiver fechado, com interrupção automática ao sair do gerenciador de tarefas.
• Otimizações do Reprodutor Minimizado: Oferece otimizações para o modo de reprodução minimizada, garantindo uma experiência suave e eficiente mesmo ao usar outros aplicativos.
• Visualizador de Áudio: Crie uma experiência visual cativante com diferentes tipos de efeitos de visualização, ativados nas configurações.

Suporte e Compatibilidade

• Suporte ao Android Auto: Acesse sua música favorita enquanto está no carro.
• Suporte ao Android TV: Desfrute de sua música favorita na tela grande, transformando sua sala de estar em um ambiente de entretenimento musical.
• Compatibilidade Multilíngue: Suporte para vários idiomas, incluindo inglês, italiano, alemão, russo, francês, espanhol, tcheco, turco, romeno e muitos outros.

Permissões Necessárias

Para oferecer todos esses recursos, o RiMusic requer várias permissões:

• INTERNET: Conexão à internet.
• ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE: Verificação do estado da conexão.
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS: Funcionamento como serviço.
• RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED: Inicialização após reinicialização do dispositivo.
• WAKE_LOCK: Impedir suspensão do dispositivo durante reprodução (se configurado).
• REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS: Evitar restrições de uso da bateria.
• FOREGROUND_SERVICE: Reprodução de música em segundo plano.
• FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK e DATA_SYNC: Reprodução e download de músicas.
• READ_MEDIA_AUDIO: Leitura de músicas locais.
• RECORD_AUDIO: Necessário apenas para usar o efeito do visualizador (desativado por padrão).
• MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS: Mostrar configurações de áudio.
• READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE e WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE: Leitura e escrita de músicas até Android 12/11.
• READ_MEDIA_VISUAL_USER_SELECTED: Seleção de arquivos de playlist até Android 13.

Existe Uma Maneira de Transferir Playlists e Favoritos do Vimusic? Sim, crie um backup do ViMusic e depois importe-o para o App RiMusic usando a função de restauração. Ambas as funções de backup e restauração são encontradas nas configurações do Banco de Dados.

O RiMusic é uma solução completa para quem busca uma experiência musical rica e personalizável. Com sua integração com o YouTube Music, variadas opções de personalização, suporte a múltiplos idiomas e compatibilidade com diversos dispositivos, o RiMusic se destaca como um dos melhores aplicativos de streaming de música disponíveis. Aproveite todas as funcionalidades do RiMusic e eleve sua experiência musical a um novo patamar.

https://github.com/fast4x/RiMusic

F-Droid https://f-droid.org › it.fast4x.rimusic RiMusic | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

@ 599f67f7:21fb3ea9

¿Qué es una dirección Lightning o Lightning address?

Una dirección Lightning es una dirección que visualmente se asemeja a una dirección de correo electrónico legible para los humanos, por ejemplo usuario@dominio.com pero que en realidad te permite recibir pagos en bitcoin instantáneos y económicos, sin la necesidad de tener un nodo en linea en tu dispositivo ni tener que generar facturas de forma manual cada vez que alguien te quiere hacer un pago.

¿Suena bien no?

¿Y cómo funciona?

Funciona utilizando el protocolo de pago LNURL.

Aquí se muestra un sencillo esquema de lo que ocurre en segundo plano.

En resumen, cuando otro usuario quiere pagarte usando tu dirección Lightning, tu billetera convierte la dirección Lightning en una solicitud de pago LNURL. Luego se utiliza esa solicitud de pago LNURL exitosa para obtener una factura BOLT11.

💡 Dirección Lightning > LNURLp > Factura BOLT 11.

Suena bien, pero ¿cuál es el problema?

Por el momento, muchas de las implementaciones de Lightning Address son de custodia, porque se necesita un dominio para que Lightning Address funcione y un nodo que esté siempre en línea para recibir los pagos. Debido a que es de custodia, el custodio puede atacarte en cualquier momento y monitorear tus transacciones.

Tienes que confiar en el propietario del dominio para no cambiar el registro de tu dirección Lightning. Y no funciona si el servidor LNURL no está en línea.

Bitcoin Txoko ofrece una sencilla solución de Lightning Address respaldada por LNbits. Esto también es de custodia, así que por favor mantén solo una pequeña cantidad en tu billetera Bitcoin Txoko y ve retirando a tu billetera de autocustodia a medida que recibas más sats.

Estoy listo, ¿qué necesito para empezar?

¡Todo lo que necesitas es un teléfono móvil o un ordenador y una conexión a Internet!

1. Creando tu billetera

Si aún no lo has hecho, navega a https://bitcointxoko.com y crea una nueva billetera. Puedes elegir el nombre que quieras.

2. Activar extensiones

Hace falta la extensión Pay Links para que las direcciones Lightning funcionen.

Abre Extensiones en la barra de herramientas y activa Pay Links.

3. Creando tu enlace de pago

• En a la extensión Pay Links, haz clic en New Pay Link.

• Elige la billetera que has creado.

• Para la descripción del artículo, puedes escribir lo que quieras.

• Elige un nombre de usuario de tu dirección Lightning. Tu dirección Lightning se verá como username@bitcointxoko.com.

• Desmarque Fixed amount y cambia el valor mínimo a 1 y el valor máximo a 500000.

⚠️ También puedes cambiar el valor máximo a algo más alto, pero es más probable que los pagos más grandes fallen debido a la limitada capacidad de entrada del nodo Lightning de Bitcoin Txoko. Así que recomendamos mantenerlo en 500000 sats.

• Ahora abre Advanced options y cambia Comment maximum characters a 799. Este paso no es necesario pero permite más funcionalidades más adelante.

• Marca Enable nostr zaps en la parte inferior, para que puedas utilizar tu dirección Lightning para recibir zaps.

• Las demás opciones avanzadas son opcionales, puedes configurarlas si quieres o dejarlas en blanco.

Al final debería verse algo así.

• Cuando hayas comprobado que todo es correcto, sigue adelante y haz clic en Create Pay Link.

Probando

Puedes probar si tu nueva dirección Lightning funciona yendo a otra cartera, pulsando en Enviar y escribiendo tu dirección Lightning como destino, y luego enviándote una pequeña cantidad de sats.

Vuelve a tu billetera Bitcoin Txoko y comprueba si has recibido tu propio pago. Es posible que tengas que actualizar la página.

Si todo funcionó correctamente, ¡enhorabuena! 🥳

Si no es así, háznoslo saber. Siempre estamos aquí para ayudar.

Próximos pasos

Nostr zaps

Puedes añadir tu dirección Bitcoin Txoko Lightning a tu perfil de nostr y usarla para recibir zaps. Normalmente, esto se hace yendo a Perfil > Editar > Dirección Lightning y cambiando la dirección Lightning.

LNDhub

Puedes importar tu billetera LNbits como un LNDhub en tu teléfono utilizando una aplicación como Zeus o BlueWallet, en lugar de visitar la billetera en el navegador cada vez que desees comprobar tu saldo o realizar un pago. Echa un vistazo a nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzqkvlvlma7a55ccp6d5rrdc27h3ssmdmael286mjaq5uxmqslk04fqqxnzd3exuerqdfkxccnyv3cs0uvul sobre cómo hacer esto.

Código QR

También puedes compartir o imprimir tu código QR LNURLp para que la gente pueda escanearlo fácilmente con sus teléfonos. ¡Muy útil si estás introduciendo bitcoin a tu comerciante local favorito para que pueda recibir propinas Lightning!

Simplemente comparte el enlace a tu página compartida, o imprime el código QR como PDF yendo a View Link > Print.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Você pode usar um serviço de diretório experimental para descobrir os grupos criados e registrados por outros usuários no SimpleXchat.

Procurando grupos Conecte-se ao serviço de diretório através desse link click aqui 👇 https://simplex.chat/contact/#/?v=2-4&smp=smp%3A%2F%2Fu2dS9sG8nMNURyZwqASV4yROM28Er0luVTx5X1CsMrU%3D%40smp4.simplex.im%2FeXSPwqTkKyDO3px4fLf1wx3MvPdjdLW3%23%2F%3Fv%3D1-2%26dh%3DMCowBQYDK2VuAyEAaiv6MkMH44L2TcYrt_CsX3ZvM11WgbMEUn0hkIKTOho%253D%26srv%3Do5vmywmrnaxalvz6wi3zicyftgio6psuvyniis6gco6bp6ekl4cqj4id.onion

Envie a mensagem contendo as palavras que deseja encontrar no nome do grupo ou na mensagem de boas-vindas. Envie uma string de pesquisa para encontrar grupos Por exemplo, envie privacidade para encontrar grupos sobre privacidade. Mande o comando /next ou /all pro bot manda a lista de grupos , pra mais lista manda o comando novamente /next ,Você receberá até 10 grupos com maior número de membros na resposta, juntamente com os links para ingressar nesses grupos.

Observe que suas consultas de pesquisa podem ser mantidas pelo bot como histórico de conversas, mas você pode usar o modo de navegação anônima ao se conectar ao bot, para evitar correlação com quaisquer outras comunicações. Consulte a política de privacidade para obter mais detalhes.

Adicionando grupos ao diretório

Como adicionar um grupo Para adicionar um grupo você deve ser seu proprietário. Depois de se conectar ao serviço de diretório e enviar /help, o serviço irá guiá-lo durante o processo.

1.Convide o SimpleX Service Directory para o grupo como adminmembro. Você também pode definir a função adminapós convidar o serviço de diretório.

O serviço de diretório precisa adminproporcionar uma boa experiência ao usuário ao ingressar no grupo, pois criará um novo link para ingressar no grupo, que deverá estar online 99% do tempo.

1. Adicione o link enviado a você pelo serviço de diretório à mensagem de boas-vindas do grupo. Isto deve ser feito pelo mesmo membro do grupo que convidou o serviço de diretório para o grupo. Este membro será o proprietário do registro do grupo no serviço de diretório.

2. Depois que o link for adicionado, o grupo precisará ser aprovado pelos administradores do serviço de diretório. Este link funciona mesmo antes do grupo ser aprovado, e você pode continuar usando esse link mesmo que o grupo não seja aprovado.

O grupo geralmente é aprovado em 24 horas. Veja abaixo quais grupos podem ser adicionados. Assim que o grupo for aprovado, ele aparecerá nos resultados da pesquisa. Você pode listar todos os grupos enviados enviando /listpara o serviço de diretório.

Para saber mais detalhes acesse o site https://simplex.chat/docs/directory.html

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

How to do curation and businesses on Nostr

Suppose you want to start a Nostr business.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If it's a music sharing thing, then the client will have a way to play the audio and so on; if it's a restaurant sharing it will have maps with the locations of the restaurants or whatever, you get the idea. Hopefully there will be a NIP or a NUD specifying how to create and interact with events relating to this niche, or you will write or contribute with the creation of one, because without interoperability this can't be Nostr.

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

1. Run a relay that does all the magic

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

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

---

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

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

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

@ 14f069e4:8730cdaa

Read the original blog post

Bitcoin enthusiasts always rightly remark how much value it adds to Bitcoin not to have a face, a leader, or a central authority behind it. This particularity means there isn't a single person to exert control over, or a single point of failure who could become corrupt or harmful to the project.

Because of this, it is said that no other coin can be equally valuable as Bitcoin in terms of decentralization and trustworthiness. Bitcoin is unique not just for being first, but also because of how the events behind its inception developed. This implies that, from Bitcoin onwards, any coin would have been created by a known entity, consequently having an authority behind it. For this and some other reasons, some people refer to Bitcoin as "The Immaculate Conception".

While other coins may have their own unique features and advantages, they may not be able to replicate Bitcoin's community-driven nature. However, there's one other cryptocurrency shares a similar story of mystery behind its creation: Monero.

History of Monero

Bytecoin and CryptoNote

In March 2014, a Bitcointalk thread titled "Bytecoin. Secure, private, untraceable since 2012" by a user under the nickname "DStrange"^1^ was created. DStrange presented Bytecoin (BCN) as a unique cryptocurrency, in operation since July 2012. Unlike Bitcoin, it employed a new algorithm known as CryptoNote^1^.

DStrange apparently stumbled upon the Bytecoin website "by chance" while mining a dying bitcoin fork, and decided to create a thread on Bitcointalk^1^. This sparked curiosity among some users, who wondered how could Bytecoin remain unnoticed since its alleged launch in 2012^2^.

Some time after, a user brought up the "CryptoNote v2.0" whitepaper for the first time, underlining its innovative features^4^. Authored by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen in October 2013, the CryptoNote v2 whitepaper^5^ highlighted the traceability and privacy problems in Bitcoin. Saberhagen argued that these flaws could not be quickly fixed, suggesting it would be more efficient to start a new project rather than trying to patch the original^5^, an statement simmilar to the one from Satoshi Nakamoto^6^.

Checking with Saberhagen's digital signature, the release date of the whitepaper seemed valid, which would mean that CryptoNote (v1) was created in 2012^7^, although there's an important detail: "Signing time is from the clock on the signer's computer" ^9^. Moreover, the whitepaper v1 contains a footnote link to a Bitcointalk post dated May 5, 2013^10^, making it impossible for the whitepaper to have been signed and released on December 12, 2012.

As the narrative developed, users discovered that a significant 80% portion of Bytecoin had been pre-mined^11^ and blockchain dates seemed to be faked to make it look like it had been operating since 2012, leading to controversy surrounding the project.

The origins of CryptoNote and Bytecoin remain mysterious, leaving suspicions of a possible scam attempt, although the whitepaper had a good amount of work and thought.

The fork

In April 2014, the Bitcointalk user thankful_for_today, who had also participated in the Bytecoin thread^12^, announced plans to launch a Bytecoin fork named Bitmonero^13^.

The primary motivation behind this fork was "Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed"^14^. Bitmonero did things different from Bytecoin: there was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward went to development.

However, thankful_for_today forced controversial changes that the community disagreed with. Johnny Mnemonic relates the events surrounding Bitmonero and thankful_for_today in a Bitcointalk comment^15^:

When thankful_for_today launched BitMonero [...] he ignored everything that was discussed and just did what he wanted. The block reward was considerably steeper than what everyone was expecting. He also moved forward with 1-minute block times despite everyone's concerns about the increase of orphan blocks. He also didn't address the tail emission concern that should've (in my opinion) been in the code at launch time. Basically, he messed everything up. Then, he disappeared.

After disappearing for a while, thankful_for_today returned to find that the community had taken over the project. Johnny Mnemonic continues:

I, and others, started working on new forks that were closer to what everyone else was hoping for. [...] it was decided that the BitMonero project should just be taken over. There were like 9 or 10 interested parties at the time if my memory is correct. We voted on IRC to drop the "bit" from BitMonero and move forward with the project. Thankful_for_today suddenly resurfaced, and wasn't happy to learn the community had assumed control of the coin. He attempted to maintain his own fork (still calling it "BitMonero") for a while, but that quickly fell into obscurity.

The unfolding of these events show us the roots of Monero. Much like Satoshi Nakamoto, the creators behind CryptoNote/Bytecoin and thankful_for_today remain a mystery^17^, having disappeared without a trace. This enigma only adds to Monero's value.

Since community took over development, believing in the project's potential and its ability to be guided in a better direction, Monero was given one of Bitcoin's most important qualities: a leaderless nature. With no single face or entity directing its path, Monero is safe of potential corruption or harm from a "central authority".

The community continued developing Monero until today. Since then, Monero has undergone a lot of technological improvements, migrations and achievements such as RingCT and RandomX. It also has developed its own Community Crowdfundinc System, conferences such as MoneroKon and Monerotopia are taking place every year, and has a very active community around it.

Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second^16^.

This stands as a testament to the power of a dedicated community operating without a central figure of authority. This decentralized approach aligns with the original ethos of cryptocurrency, making Monero a prime example of community-driven innovation.

Sources of interest

• https://forum.getmonero.org/20/general-discussion/211/history-of-monero
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/852/what-is-the-origin-of-monero-and-its-relationship-to-bytecoin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583449.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=233561
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/a/1024
• https://inspec2t-project.eu/cryptocurrency-with-a-focus-on-anonymity-these-facts-are-known-about-monero/
• https://medium.com/coin-story/coin-perspective-13-riccardo-spagni-69ef82907bd1
• https://www.getmonero.org/resources/about/
• https://www.wired.com/2017/01/monero-drug-dealers-cryptocurrency-choice-fire/
• https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin
• https://old.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/u8e5yr/satoshi_nakamoto_talked_about_privacy_features/
• https://moneroj.net/merchants_increase/
• https://moneroj.net/social5/

@ 472f440f:5669301e

As I'm sure many of you are aware already, Israel executed an attack on thousands of Hezbollah members in Lebanon earlier today. At the moment, it looks like Israel successfully waged a supply chain attack on the pagers used by Hezbollah members. Intercepting the devices and placing highly explosive material on the batteries that could be triggered remotely by raising the temperature of the batteries.

To my knowledge, this is the first time an attack of this nature and of this scale has ever been waged. This is a very serious and dangerous precedent that should make anyone reading this think long and hard about the ramifications of the normalization of this type of warfare.

It's not clear to me yet whether this is exactly what happened, but this seems to be where all of the reports are pointing. And when you consider the scale of this operation, it is hard to think of alternative ways that this could have been achieved outside of corrupting the supply chain of this particular pager. Regardless, the die has been cast and remote detonation attacks in crowded civilian areas has been battle tested as an appropriate war tactic.

Not only does this set a terrible precedent for war, but it also begs the question; if they can do something like this with a relatively dumb pager, how much damage could they do with something like an iPhone? How vulnerable are the billions of people who hold smartphones in their pockets, or drive internet connected electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries? How trivial was it for Mossad to gain access to these devices and at what part of the supply chain? Now that this attack has been deemed to be "on the table" how long will it take before others begin to wage similar attacks?

War tactics and their costs are rapidly changing right before our eyes. The war between Russia and Ukraine is showing that low cost drones strapped with bombs can be very effective weapons that can do damage to military equipment worth anywhere between tens of millions to billions of dollars. The Houthi rebels have used cheap drones to completely disrupt the Suez Canal for the better part of a year. The world has only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to how this type of technology can be used at scale to tip the leverage of power towards those with less financial resources, but a willingness to engage in kinetic conflict. Some of these drones are strapped with thermite flame throwers!

Now that new information has been brought to the market - you can turn pagers and (likely) cellular phones into a network of improvised explosive devices via a software push that increases the temperature of the devices' batteries - it is only a matter of time before others figure out how to do it and begin using these tactics themselves. War machines have never been easier and cheaper to deploy. In a world that is becoming increasingly fractured and angry, this is absolutely frightening. Asymmetric warfare as predicted in the Sovereign Individual is upon us.

As it relates to bitcoin hardware, these attacks highlight that an attack that has been long talked about in the industry but not yet exploited to the best of our knowledge is very real. Supply chain attacks, particularly on bitcoin signing devices that store private key information, have just been proven to be very possible by motivated state actors. If a nation state wanted to somehow "prove" that bitcoin is insecure or figure out a low effort way to do a mass confiscation of bitcoin all they have to do is successfully attack the supply chain of a hardware manufacturer, corrupt the devices, and let them flow to the hands of individuals who believe they are securing their bitcoin in the best way possible. The best way to mitigate this risk is to hold you bitcoin in a multi-sig wallet using a quorum of keys produced by different hardware produced by different manufacturers. Companies like Unchained make this process as seamless and possible and supply chain attacks like the one that was laid bare today highlight why these collaborative custody models are so important. Especially if you are holding a large amount of wealth in bitcoin.

This is a sad day for the world. I'll be praying for peace and sanity to prevail.

Final thought... That was a terrible loss by the Birds.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

A segurança digital é fundamental diante da crescente sofisticação das ameaças cibernéticas. Compreender as táticas dos hackers e adotar medidas preventivas são passos cruciais para proteger seus dados. Vamos explorar alguns cenários específicos:

● Ataques Wi-Fi Maliciosos:

Ao utilizar redes Wi-Fi desconhecidas, esteja ciente dos riscos. Hackers podem usar dispositivos, como o Pineapple da Hak5, para criar redes falsas, capturando dados. https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_6114620534879318691706025862.webp

Ataques Possíveis:

1. Evil Twin/AP Spoofing:

2. Como Funciona: Hackers criam redes Wi-Fi falsas imitando as legítimas.

3. Proteção: Evite conexões desconhecidas; verifique sempre a autenticidade da rede.

4. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM):

5. Como Funciona: Interceptação de comunicação, permitindo manipulação de dados.

6. Proteção:Use HTTPS, VPNs em redes públicas.

7. Phishing:

8. Como Funciona: Hackers enganam usuários para revelar informações.

9. Proteção: Desconfie de e-mails suspeitos; evite clicar em links duvidosos.

10. DNS Spoofing e SSL Strip:

11. Como Funciona: Redirecionamento e descriptografia de conexões seguras.

12. Proteção: Use servidores DNS confiáveis, verifique conexões seguras (HTTPS).

13. Desautenticação/Ataque de Desassociação:

14. Como Funciona: Desconexão forçada de dispositivos.

15. Proteção: Mantenha seu dispositivo atualizado, evite Wi-Fi público.

● Dispositivos USB Maliciosos e Riscos de Recarregar dispositivos em Locais Públicos:

Inserir uma USB no seu dispositivo pode parecer inofensivo, porém, dispositivos como o "Rubber Ducky" podem executar comandos maliciosos em questão de segundos, podendo até exfiltrar dados sensíveis. https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_4959397161118866591706026510.webp

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_5738603283604984961706026522.webp

1. Rubber Ducky e Dispositivos Semelhantes:

2. Como Funciona: ao inserir o Pendrive no seu dispositivo podem executar comandos maliciosos em questão de segundos, podendo até exfiltrar dados sensíveis.

3. Proteção: Evite usar Pendrive desconhecidos.

Carregadores e Cabos USB Suspeitos:

Cabos OMG Cable incorpora um microprocessador que pode executar comandos maliciosos quando conectado a um dispositivo. Essa capacidade permite que o cabo comprometa a segurança do dispositivo conectado, possibilitando a coleta de dados, instalação de malware e até mesmo o controle remoto do dispositivo por parte de um invasor.

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_2065126673950257901706026715.webp

• Como Funciona: inserir o Cabo omg-cable podem coletar dados.

• Proteção: Evite carregar em locais públicos com cabos desconhecidos.

• Usar Camisinhas de USB: https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_1885907389208222681706026770.webp

Mas não é esse camisinhas é esse Adaptador. https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_1732610313835570801706026789.webp

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_9474014842894456331706026837.webp

• Como Funciona: Adaptadores que bloqueiam troca de dados durante recarga.

• Proteção: Use esses dispositivos para reduzir exposição a ataques USB.

● Cuidado com QR-Codes Suspeitos: https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_4913027000785421121706026849.webp

1. Hotspot Wi-Fi Falso:

2. Como Funciona: Hackers criam QR-Codes pra acessar redes falsas para capturar dados.

3. Proteção: Evite hotspots desconhecidos; desative Wi-Fi quando não necessário.

4. Promoções e QR-Codes Fraudulentos:

5. Como Funciona: QR-Codes direcionam para phishing.

6. Proteção: Desconfie de promoções suspeitas; evite escanear QR-Codes não confiáveis.

mantenha-se informado, adote práticas seguras e esteja vigilante. A segurança digital é uma jornada contínua, e essas medidas ajudarão a proteger seus dados contra ameaças cibernéticas.

@ 17538dc2:71ed77c4

Quiztime

Oil and gas

Oil and gas is naturally occurring. The prevalent worldview is that oil & gas has a biotic origin. There are real world examples of abiotic oil deposits, which proponents of the status quo have a difficult time reconciling.

Irregardless, when oil & gas is burned, it simply turns to plant food (carbon dioxide + water).

Oil and gas greens the Earth, and increases fertilization and agricultural crop yield across the globe.

The energy density of oil and gas is only surpassed by that of nuclear power.

Energy produced by oil and gas combustion is generally on-demand, reliable, economically storable & transportable.

Solar

The sun is an abudant energy source, which keeps Earth warm, and alive. Thank you sun 🌞!

With the exception of places such as the UK, where it is unclear if inhabitants have ever seen the sun, solar rays keep plants, animals, and humans happy & alive on most of planet Earth.

Inventions such as solar panels harness the sun's energy, and convert it to electricity.

Solar panels consist of silicon, rare earth metals, and require toxic metals.

Solar panels have an expected life of decades, are not readily or economically recyclable.

A very low solar energy density practically means that land is inefficiently utilized in solar energy production. Solar used on arable land can no longer be farmed, and where no plains exist solar is known to cause deforestation and landslides.

Solar energy is not reliable, not can it be summoned on demand. Solar energy is not economically storable, and is many cases is not produced at the point of demand.

Despite central planner mandates & subsidies in the US, the #EULAG and elsewhere, due to its intermittent nature, solar power cannot be counted on to replace reliable power generation in nuclear, hydro, or carbon fuel thermoelectric plants.

What this means is that solar does not replace, and yet ratheradds to reliable energy generation, as most people in the developed world would not be OK with having electricity for at most 1/3 of the day. This increases the price of electricity, which in turn increases energy poverty, and drives businesses to shut down manufacturing, or move to a more energy competitive jurisdiction.

The capital wasted by central planners could have been used to reduce burden on consumers, and businesses, or fund healthcare, infrastructure, or other services.

It should be noted that off grid applications where there is no grid, or energy alternatives can be massively useful for folks otherwise without electricity.

Which energy source would you consider renewable?

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

I was recently reading Judges and I saw the story in a whole new way. I saw it as an example of ungodly male role models. I am going to start with the familiar story of Samson and his obvious mistakes and ungodly actions, but then trace them back to his father and how lesser sins may have led to Samson’s very unwise actions.

Samson - Ungodly Son

Samson was a judge of Israel. He was supposed to lead the people of Israel in faithfully following God, but failed miserably at being faithful himself. Obviously his biggest problem was his obsession with ungodly women.

Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. (Deuteronomy 7:3)

Samson ignored this command given to the Israelites right before they entered the land of Canaan before it became Israel. Samson saw a nice looking Philistine woman and asked for her to be his wife.

So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.” (Judges 14:2-3) {emphasis mine}

Samson picked his wife based solely on looks. He said, “she looks good to me.” He didn’t seek a godly wife. He didn’t even seek an Israelite wife. He just chased after what looked good to him. Just as is repeated in Judges, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” Samson “did what was right in his own eyes.” When we seek what looks good to us instead of what God tells us is good for us, we always make a huge mistake.

Choosing a Philistine woman as wife was sinful, but like always, God used it for good and for His purpose.

On the way to making arrangements for this ungodly woman to become his wife, Samson was attacked by a lion and killed it. Later, when going to see his wife, he saw the carcass and bees had made honey in the lion’s carcass. Samson helped himself to the honey in the lion’s carcass. To me, that sounds gross. By this time the lion’s carcass should’ve been putrid, but this was much more awful for Samson. Samson was a Nazarite to God from conception and by the command of God, Himself.

Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb;” (Judges 13:4-5a)

Based on Numbers 6, a Nazarite vow required 3 things: no alcohol or things made from grapes, no haircuts, and no touching dead/unclean things. A lion carcass was definitely one of those dead/unclean things and to eat from it would be even worse. Samson was set apart with a Nazarite vow, but he didn’t care. He didn’t take it seriously. He wasn’t faithful to God.

After a riddle that went bad and caused hardship with his wife, Samson’s father-in-law gave his wife to another leading to Samson killing many Philistines. This destruction of Philistines was God’s will, but Samson did it out of spite, not to honor God. After being turned over to the Philistines for killing 30 Philistines, Samson then killed a bunch more Philistines. What did Samson choose as a weapon? He chose a donkey’s jaw bone. Both with the killing and with handling the bone of a dead animal, he broke his Nazarite vow again.

Then, since Samson had lost his wife, he went in to a prostitute.

Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. (Judges 16:1)

God had been very clear about adultery and harlotry and it was clearly forbidden, but Samson didn’t even obey God’s 10 commandments.

‘You shall not commit adultery. (Deuteronomy 5:18)

After spending time sinning with this Philistine harlot, he was attacked by the Philistines, but his God given physical strength allowed him to not pay the consequences of his actions, so he didn’t learn.

Once again, his lust led him astray.

After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.” (Judges 16:4-6) {emphasis mine}

Once again he became infatuated with a woman with whom he was forbidden to have relations. His infatuation blinded him. His ability to get away with evil actions made him not careful. His God given strength made him trust in himself.

I’ve always thought what follows was a sign that Samson was the dumbest person in the Bible, but maybe it is just what happens when someone gets away with doing wrong repeatedly with no consequences.

Multiple times Delilah says, “Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.” Samson lies multiple times about how his strength can be conquered. Each time Delilah does what Samson tells her and the Philistines show up to try to overcome him. Each time Samson conquers his attackers and foolishly returns back to this evil woman who repeatedly betrays him.

Finally Delilah extracts his secret:

Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.” (Judges 16:15-17)

Why did he share the secret of his strength? He did it because “his soul was annoyed to death.” Why would he stay with this woman who repeatedly betrayed him and who annoyed him to death? I think it was pure lust. There was nothing uplifting in this relationship. There was nothing honoring to God. Samson was led by lust and it cost him his life.

When Samson finally shared his secret, she shaved his head, brought in Philistines to capture him, and they put out both his eyes and threw him in prison. Samson was finally punished for his repeated sins, but God used this one last time for His plan and when the Philistines tried to parade Samson before a large crowd in their temple to Dagon, Samson prayed to God, leaned on the pillars in the middle of the temple, and pushed them down killing himself and around 3,000 Philistines.

Yes, Samson destroyed many of the oppressors of Israel as Israel’s judge, but he was an ungodly judge and an awful example to the people. Samson’s story is sad and has an even sadder ending. Everyone who lives an ungodly life will end badly.

Manoah - Failed Spiritual Leadership

I never noticed before, but I’d argue that Samson’s father was not a good spiritual leader either, but had less obvious faults.

There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. … Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome.” (Judges 13:2-3,6a)

When Manoah’s wife came to him to tell him she’d been told they would have a son, he was good and prayed: “O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.” (Judges 13:8b)

When God answered his prayer, he came to his wife. Why? Could it be that his wife was the spiritual leader in his household?

God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me.” Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, (Judges 13:9-11a) {emphasis mine}

Do you notice what is said? “Then Manoah arose and followed his wife.” Yes, it is possible that this was just her showing him where she had seen the angel of God, but lets read on.

Manoah said, “Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy’s mode of life and his vocation?” So the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman pay attention to all that I said. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; let her observe all that I commanded.” (Judges 13:12-14)

Manoah did seek direction from the Lord and the Lord gave Manoah directions on how he should lead his wife regarding their son. Manoah did try to do right when faced with the Angel of the Lord.

Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.” The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?” But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. (Judges 13:15-20)

The question is, did Manoah lead when he was no longer face to face with the pre-incarnate Christ?

So Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God.” (Judges 13:22)

No, he did not. Manoah was afraid and didn’t seem to know what to do.

But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.” (Judges 13:23)

Manoah’s wife taught Manoah a right view of God and His direction. His wife led them in what they should do.

Although Manoah wasn’t a bad man and he didn’t act out in blatant error, he didn’t lead spiritually. He wasn’t the one leading following God. He wasn’t the one demonstrating faith in God. He wasn’t the one speaking God’s word as an assurance.

Lack of Leadership Leads to Unfaithful Son

Did Manoah’s lack of leadership contribute to Samson’s lack of respect for God and God’s law? Was it Manoah’s lack of leadership on what was right and good that contributed to Samson ignoring the nazarite vow and other commands from God? Was Samson taught God’s law as a child? Did Manoah insist that his family obey and live out God’s commands? I’m thinking he didn’t.

Let’s return to Samson’s first time being misled by a woman.

Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” (Judges 14:1-3)

At this time, marriages were setup as contracts by the parents. People didn’t just marry as they wished, so Samson commanded his father to “get her for me as a wife.”

There are two problems here. The first is Samson ordering his father to do something. This was totally contrary to God’s design and command, but you have to think that Samson was used to getting his way and that his father regularly let him get away with things like this. Most kids, today and in the past, would not talk to their parents this way.

Second, Manoah knew that this was wrong, but instead of speaking God’s word and refusing, he asked submissively, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” When Samson insisted on marrying this forbidden woman, his father gave in to his son.

Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah … (Judges 14:5a)

How often do we, as parents, give our kids something that isn’t good for them because they really want it and we want to please them now? How often do we get busy and miss teaching our kids our knowledge, especially our knowledge of God and His word? Men, how often do you not step up and lead spiritually because it is easier to let your wife do it?

Most of us are like Manoah. We aren’t that bad. We try to honor God. We try to do what we should, but we don’t necessarily put a lot of effort into our walk with God. When we don’t fulfill the roles and responsibilities ordained by God, it isn’t only us that suffers. It frequently is our children that pay the price for our failures.

I beg all of you, but especially men, to study the Bible and step up in the role and responsibility given to you by God. Lead your family and your children in faithfully following Jesus. Even when you are tired, lead your family in prayer and Bible reading. Even when it makes your kids mad at you, stand up for the truth and enforce what is best for them. Make the time to be there for your family and to do what is for their best. It not only helps your family, but also helps you grow closer to God. We are never happier than when we are following God’s plan.

Trust Jesus.\ \ your sister in Christ,

Christy

Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

09 09 week

The billboard has reached its first goal.

I don't understand anything, too much.

The web is a dangerous place, maybe the couch at home is for you.

Nostr is like being in a public place like a bar and you listen to the radio, and you can decide which radio to choose, you can also talk on the radio, only those who follow you and those who are connected to that frequency can listen to you.

We talk on multiple frequencies so if one is offline they can hear me on the other.

Spam will always be a constant as are fixed costs, personnel costs, taxes things that people in general hate

A lot of talk that will be blown away by the wind.

Jack Dorsey says Nostr will be a protocol for private encrypted chats

1. Open-sats drama

2. Carnivore dietitian

3. Lightning diatribe

4. This is already Twitter 😉

Fiatjaf explained for the umpteenth time what the outbox model is, now those who look at images instead of reading books must have understood it too. My note, Patricia writes in her relays write, including select some in her outbox 10002 kind. it was a dev page of something, so maybe it won't be online for long

---

Thinking that with Kamala Harris's victory, the price of Bitcoin would hit a low and holders would be happy to buy. 🤣🤣 Instead with Trump new all time High, holders would be happy. 🤣🤣 Lol Moment.

---

I read the article about btcmap maps, there were some notes to make but I didn't, it's beyond my level, it was only for builders.

Satlantis, trustroots, and wherostr were not noted.

---

I had this thought that we will not "succeed" in building the openness of type 1, in the following nips, because of the relays and because discovering new things has a cost, and no one wants to discover new things. And then after that the others should use them, but how and after that at least two others appear who are doing a similar thing, but they don't talk to each other because they don't have time.

---

If the time horizon is 10 years, those who survive will see.

Keeping calm seems difficult.

I tried nostr-relay-tray works. It works, I would suggest a couple of changes

1. Delete some events.
2. View events
3. Search by npub id or time
4. Delete by time.

These are difficult things but they can be done with a database, so they may as well not be done.

I hope that all the controversies are forgotten and overcome and we are more serene.

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848

This is the full AI-generated transcript of Bitcoin Infinity Show #127 featuring George Manolov!

If you'd like to support us, check out https://bitcoininfinitystore.com/ for our books, merch, and more!

Welcoming George Manolov

Luke: George, welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Show, thank you for joining us.

George: Thank you, Knut.

Knut: Good to have you here, George.

George: to be here, yeah.

you're here to tell us about the city that I was most surprised by ever. Like, I've never heard of the city before I went to Bulgaria, Yeah, time flies.

Knut: So Plovdiv, Bulgaria, which was amazing, this rich, Thousands of years of history plays with a lot of different eras and different styles of architecture and stuff, really enjoyed Plovdiv, and you have a football team there.

George: yeah, indeed.

George Manolov and Botev Plovdiv

George: Please give us the story about George and Plovdiv Yeah, sure.

Knut: Plovdiv.

George: Sure, sure. So, Plovdiv is, well, I would say it's the oldest living city in Europe, so continuously inhabited. Like you say, not many people know it. I guess, like, we don't have good enough marketing, but, that's probably part of my job right now, right? To spread the word about it. so it's, like the second largest city in the country.

And, yeah, it's just this, it's very, like, I love how you put it because almost nobody has really heard of Plovdiv, right? Most people, when they hear of Bulgaria, they've probably heard of Sofia but Sofia is, okay, but Plovdiv is kind of the chill place, Plovdiv is the place that is actually worth visiting, the place where, people just enjoy going there.

I was born there, right? and, grew up there till 18 or so, then, Studied, lived in Sofia most of the time. And, last year, in kind of summer, I was already kind of way deeper into Bitcoin. I decided I'm going to go full time into Bitcoin, just commit all my time in Bitcoin at the time, educating, publishing books in Bulgarian about Bitcoin, creating my own educational platform.

And then I got, reached out and connected really to the owner of the football club in the city, which is also the oldest football club in the country, Botev Plovdiv, who was, well, he got introduced into Bitcoin himself and he realized it's going to be a very big, project. You know, going to play a central role in where the world is going.

Knut: What is this the owner of the club?

George: That's right. The owner of the club. was like, Hey, I think we can do something unique with Bitcoin because, you know, the club is really a company, right? It's a business on the one hand, but it's a special type of business, it's not where just you produce a certain product or service.

It's really a living organism where people are involved into it, for very emotional reasons. people feel like it's their own and it's not like a small group of people. It's a very large group of people. In our case, we have tens of thousands, arguably more than a hundred, 200, 000 people who care, who watch, who follow the club.

And so on the one hand, like there's many different ways in which we can look into this, but on the one hand. It's for me, what really inspired me and what got me like, Oh my God, like, is this really happening is that we can bring the conversation about Bitcoin from a completely different angle into society to a group of people who for the most part would never really They would like this, they would never listen to podcasts like this, they would never get to any of the kind of places and things we listen to, watch, consume, right?

and people go, You know, people go kind of for bread and circus, right,

Knut: yeah, yeah.

George: for the games. That's what really football is, right? It's fun and it's emotion, it's enjoyment, but then we push them censorship resistance and hard money, right?

And we don't really push it, you know, that's the thing, right? Because are like consistently, progressively, gradually over time, introducing it and finding the best way and the most appropriate way to, yeah, plant that seed. To the minds of the people, into the views of the people and so on and so forth.

so it's really like, you know, what we're trying to build is, we feel we're in a very privileged position, right? because we've been, the first really professional sports club globally, I would say, to have, uh, crypto Bitcoin, you know, people, departments, who is actually full time employed to, you know, think of a way to grow the business, to think of a way to integrate Bitcoin natively, within the various aspects of, of, of the organization, which obviously initially includes like accepting payments and so on and so forth.

But, um, but there's so much more you can do exactly with this type of, Like organization, again, like not, not, not just a business in a traditional sense.

Knut: Yeah. And, uh, won the league, right? Is that, is that right?

George: Yeah, man, like it's, uh, yeah, so we, um, when I started last year, things were super bad. Like exactly one year ago, I was there for the, for one of the first games. It was horrible. Like, I was like, okay, this is a great idea, but if the team is doing so bad and if, uh, if they keep losing and if the fans keep getting, you know, being unhappy, Um, it's not gonna go anywhere, but still, I gave it a, I gave it a go, right, because I was like, okay, I just hope that the sports side guys are going to do their, their part, and I have my opportunity here, um, to, to just like push, to educate, to, To do what, what, what life is giving me an opportunity to do.

And, uh, very fortunately, as we started working, the team started performing better and better and better. We got a completely new coach. We got a new sports director. We, we had a lot of key staff changes across the organization, which, Um, relatively quickly started showing results. So, uh, yeah, like, 10 months later in May, we won the Bulgarian Cup.

Luke: Is that the cup or the league? Like, uh,

George: it's the cup, it's the cup. So, so, I was saying, like, we started very bad in the league. And so, we were doing better and better, but still, like, we finished 9th in the league out of 16 clubs at the end of the day. But which was still okay, because, like, when I joined, like, we were, like,

Luke: Worried about relegation or something like that?

George: there. I mean,

Knut: We're complete, uh, like I've tried to take an interest to football, but like, uh, my ADD just, the brain just wanders away after five minutes and I can't concentrate anymore. So I don't

Luke: a basketball fan.

Knut: Am I now?

Football for Noobs

Knut: Uh, so, uh, what's the difference between the cup and the league? Let's begin there. That's, that's how much of a football noob I

George: So, so pretty much in every country is the same, right? You have a league or a championship where you have, in our case, 16 teams, and every team plays twice against every other team. So home game, away game, and then, you know, you either win three points when you win, or you lose, or you draw, and you, you, you win one point.

And then, so after you play, after you play, in our case, this, what is it, games? You know,

Luke: 30.

George: yeah, about 30. Yeah, right. You're better than Matt, it's obvious. So, um, so once you play these 30 games, um, you, um, yeah, like the team with the most points wins, right? Whereas, uh, the cup is direct elimination

Knut: So quarterfinals, semifinals, all that.

George: exactly. So it's the easier way. So this was the way for us to due to the bad start of the season. This was the way for us to, to achieve something in this season and to achieve something important because what the Cubs gives us as an opportunity and gave us was to play in the European Leagues.

So UEFA Leagues. And we just did that. We played six games. Uh, for the Europe, uh, Europe League and the Europe Conference League.

Knut: Okay. But to, to be in the champions league, that's a totally, you have to, yeah, yeah. You have to win the league and you have to win all sorts of stuff. Like how does that work?

George: yeah. You have to win the league. And then in our case, so in every country it's different, but in our case, we have to win, like we go to qualifications for the Champions League. So it's like, I mean, three to four games. And if we win that, we go to the Champions League.

Knut: Alright,

George: That's the current state of affairs, although that can change over the years.

Knut: alright, uh, it all makes sense to me now, that's a lie, but anyway.

Luke: No, uh, I'll definitely, we'll acknowledge here that I'm more of the, the sports fan, uh, generally here, and I, I follow football, I like, uh, I like European, uh, football, uh, well, and obviously I'm using the correct, uh, term despite my, um, my pseudo American accent, uh. Yeah, anyway, um, uh, no, it's fantastic to see, and I mean, yeah, for the non sports fans, uh, listening to this, I get that

Knut: Well, I am a sports fan, it's just that Starcraft 2 is my sport, and yeah, yeah,

Luke: yeah,

George: eSports.

Knut: yeah, yeah, so I watch, watch Starcraft 2 games. That's what I do for procrastination sometimes.

Luke: valid sports, I'm not going to compare it to other things that aren't

Knut: breakdancing? Is that a valid sport?

Luke: Breakdancing is, um, hmm, interesting. I think anything with points, that judges give points, is kind of not a sport, it's an activity.

Knut: yeah.

Luke: but, yeah, anyway,

Knut: thing to do.

Luke: is a thing to do, yes, definitely, but back to, back to, um, um, Botev Plod, is it Botev, Botev, what's, what's, Botev, Botev Plod, yeah, so, so, um, yeah, yeah, like, the, the, the achievement, winning, winning the cup, I mean, the, The cups are sort of more difficult.

They're both difficult in their own way, right? Like, the cup, you lose one game, you're out, basically, right? But, I mean, the league is like this endurance, achievement, right? You have to perform well over the course of the whole season. But the cheat code, so to say, and I probably subconsciously used the other football team's terminology, who's in the space, Real Bedford, um,

Botev Plovdiv's Bitcoin Strategy

Luke: The, the idea right, if, if I'm getting it, is that you guys would, would keep the Bitcoin in the, in the, the treasury, the, the company, and then over the course of time it's just gonna do the number go up thing and, and the, the club will have more resources.

Right. Is that, is that the idea you're thinking with the, the bitcoin strategy?

George: There's actually many, many things to it. And this is kind of the most, let's say, vanilla type of approach. Yeah, like just buy Bitcoin and hold it on the balance sheet, which is, which is great. But there's actually so many other things you can do. And that's where, because if you just do that, frankly, like, I mean, you don't need me involved, right, much.

I mean, just call Coinbase, whatever, wire the money, crack in and, buy. but with us it's like, really, uh, we see a huge opportunity to, first of all, align our brand with the Bitcoin brand, which is a royalty free, uh, The biggest brand in finance, for sure. One, uh, like it's going to be the biggest brand in the world for sure at some point.

Right. So that's, that's one play. And to do this, it's not enough for you to just buy Bitcoin and hold it on a balance sheet. It's what you need to do is proof of work, right? You need to do things that nobody has ever done. You need to really kind of be creative. Uh, and, and, um, to push the boundaries of what anyone has ever done before, right?

So, so that is, uh, that is my kind of job and it's a lot of, um, a lot of just like, let's, let's think of what, what new things we can do with Bitcoin and sports and football that nobody has ever done. Just because others are focused on the short term things, they're focused on, hitting those, those quick wins, those quick goals, which is why, for example, like a lot of the sports and, and that have, you know, interact, they haven't really interacted outside of Bedford with Bitcoin, right?

It's mostly been crypto because it's just, okay, let's make some quick money. Um,

Luke: usually, it's usually just sponsorships, right?

Knut: yeah,

George: yes. Um, and for us, because on the one hand, like, we're not like Manchester United, right? We're not Chelsea. So we don't have that much to monetize immediately. Like we're a large club, but.

Luke: You're a large club in a local league, which is, which is different from the, it's not one of the leagues that is internationally positioned like that. But, but, I mean, the, the difference between you guys and Bedford that I, that I think is, is really interesting. Like, McCormack, what he, Peter McCormack, what he's doing, I mean, he's, he's taking a club from the bottom and aiming for the top.

But who knows how long that's going to take him to get there, right? But you guys are already in the top of your league, right? Like, in the top league.

George: right, yeah, and also there's, there's different in this, we're in the top of our league. My goal, personally, is to go to Champions League, but this is very hard, right? Because, like, okay, when you start from Peter's ground, like, it's easy, okay, every year you level up, you level up, or, I mean, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's easier than, uh, than once you're, you know, at our level.

For us, it's important to play currently every year in European leagues like we've done so far and to every year consistently, like, increase the level of the sports, level of the business department bit by bit, and, but like breaking that point where we, you know, win the league, Where we win several more games and enter the Champions League, that, that's really hard.

I mean, because you're already at that stage where everybody, like, so many teams are so strong, right? So it's um, it takes just a lot of ingredients for you to, to, to hit, uh, in order to win. But we're gonna get there.

Knut: and does the club self custody it's bitcoin? And if so, is it a something out of 11 multisig, that sounds like a football thing?

George: Why so? Ah, yeah, an 11? Nah, nah, fuck that. I mean Nah, even, even 7 Motosick is a, is a killer, but no. Um, yeah, I can't really speak too much about this at this point. Yeah. Um, but, um, but yeah, I mean, we do, of course we do self custody. So that's, that's the approach that we've chosen with kind of a lot of, um, we've chosen to go really pure, pure Bitcoin in terms of the strategy.

And that's how we set ourselves apart. That's how we believe we win the long game because for instance, like we Bitcoin with BTC pay server. Which in my mind they don't even have competition. It's the only like, real, solid, autonomous, sovereign way to accept payments. And it's also the way which makes sense for like, Frankly, any standard business, because like, man, we're selling scarves, we're selling, um, membership boat cards, we're selling jerseys, we're selling basic merch, and if we are to sell it with basically any other service out there, outside of BTC Pay Server, we have to basically, uh, indirectly do KYC, right?

Like, we have to go through KYC, we have to go through KYB, which is ridiculous, um, in my mind. And so, um, so that's why we're exceptionally thankful to B2C Pay Server guys, uh, for what they've built. Uh, it's been like an absolute pleasure to, um, to use their product, to use their service. Uh, we have, you know, outside of B2C Pay, we, uh, we are the first, uh, sports club on Nostr.

Where, uh, we have, uh, actively been posting, exploring, you know, meeting people here. Kind of thinking of what we could do from our angle again, like first, first time on Nostr.

Aqua WAllet

George: Um, we have partnered with, uh, Aqua, JAN3's Aqua wallet, which has a, a Botive skin mode now. So if you go to settings, you can turn Botive mode and then it turns into the colors of the club and, you know, have the picture of the stadium there.

Um,

Luke: I'm using Aqua right now because, uh, uh, usually I like to use Aqua as like a sort of a middle wallet, uh, uh, because it's still slightly slower than other lightning wallets because they, they, the, everything actually lives on, on liquid and then they, they, uh, go out via bolts. Uh, so it's slightly slower than a faster, um, like, like than other, um, more direct lightning wallets.

And so usually when I come to a conference, I'm going to load up a, like a temporary. I don't know, Blink or something like that, but I forgot to do that, so I'm just using my Aqua wallet, and you know what, it's been great here, it's been working, uh, so yeah, we're big fans of Aqua wallet and what

Knut: Yeah, and a BTC pay server. I mean, uh, we can echo everything you said that we, BitcoinInfinity. com, like, and the store here We just fired up. Everything is powered by a BTC pay server, and we just love it. Yes.

Luke: So what was your question about, uh, Aqua?

George: If yours is on BOTEV mode.

Luke: Uh, I don't think I've gone into the settings and changed it to Vaudev mode, I'll have to do that, maybe we'll take

George: It's dark mode,

but cooler.

Luke: Doc dark mode, but cooler. Okay. Okay. Actually that's a, that's a, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah. We'll take a, we'll take a picture after, uh, after the episode and we'll de proof, bot, uh, bot e mode, and, uh, uh, post that on Nostr.

How does that sound?

George: Let's go.

Knut: Yeah. Nostr. Um, is there a connection there between both a plot and Nostr while you're doing Nostr stuff as well?

History and Freedom

George: Yeah. Well, look, um, a lot of these things is like, so What Botev Plovdiv stands for, um, very importantly, so the club was named after Hristo Botev, who's, uh, like, one of the most Bulgarians, if the most famous Bulgarian revolutionaries, like, historical figure, uh, he was a poet, he was a revolutionary, he fought for Bulgaria's freedom back in the day,

Luke: Which, which day, which, what day did you

George: uh, 110, uh, what is it, like, 50 years ago or so?

Yeah.

Knut: Mm-Hmm?

Luke: Okay. So, so

Knut: before the Commes.

Luke: ottoman, uh,

George: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He, he, he, he fought for the, for the liberation of Bulgaria from, from the Ottoman Empire. And a lot of what he stands for is this fight for freedom, his fight for liberty. Um, and this, this lives until this very day into the identity of the club and to what we stand for into the songs, into the, into the music.

Um, you know, um, the kind of like what, what our fans also resonate with, um, and, and what they sing like in many, in many ways. Right. So, um, Freedom of speech, freedom of, uh, of like freedom in general is, is a value that is deeply ingrained into kind of like what the club stands for. Um, and, uh, you know, that's why I'm into Bitcoin.

That's why I believe. And that's, that's why I saw this even bigger opportunity. Oh my God, like, how is this happening? There's so many, sometimes, you know, some like weird things happen in life and you have no explanation why and how all these things align. But, but for me, it's like this club was made really to.

to be aligned with BOTEF and to be, uh, to, to, to be aligned with Bitcoin and with Nostr. If I look at all the other clubs in Bulgaria, right, like just in Bulgaria, none of the others, like, there's no this contextual historical background that you can make these connections. But with us, we have it, and what a chance that, like, we have this owner, and he got, like, introduced to it, and then we got connected.

Like, how the hell does this happen, man? I don't know,

Luke: We like to say this, the surreal doesn't end, you know, and like, uh, my, my whole story, I've been talking about this, uh, at the, the conference here is like two years ago was the first time I ever met Bitcoiners here in Baltic Honeybadger. We, we met for the, for the first time, uh, all three of us, uh, met for the first time two years ago, I've been in Baltic Honeybadger and it's like, things, things happen so fast.

Uh, I've, I've, uh, I've thought it was been awesome just following, uh, what you've been doing with the, the club and the story. So great to, Great to get to talk about it, but, uh,

Bitcoin in Football

George: Yeah. No, for, for me, like really the, the most exciting part is really even coming forward. So, uh, because, so now it's been, so we, a long, we announced, uh, publicly that we're doing this, uh, 31st October last year. So the anniversary of the, of the, uh, Bitcoin White paper, um, we've built a lot right. And very, very importantly, I'm super proud, like, I don't know if you saw this, but like a month ago, we played on European League, the UEFA League with Bitcoin straight on our jerseys, which was like, like, when I saw this, I'm like, dude, it's crazy that this is happening.

But, but the best is really yet to come, like, like we like to say. Um, so I, I think we, we're, we have, um, we have still so much more to do. So for me, the next big part, which I'm super excited about literally in the coming month as, uh, as I go back. So is to finally get some of our. Players or at least one or two to get to do something publicly about this, because at the end of the day, that's why for me, the more I do, the more I, uh, play in this arena, I realized this is really a Trojan horse for us to bring Bitcoin into the conversation, into the minds, like I said, of people who otherwise wouldn't and, and our players, you know, especially a few of them, they're really influencers, right?

Um, a lot of people follow them. A lot of people respect them. And, um, and if they do, uh, you know, something meaningful, something cool, something impactful, this is going to have a huge impact onto our forwards. This could very well have impact onto, um, other sportsmen, other football people, other football clubs, right?

Uh, so that's why I'm doing it, right? Really?

Luke: No, this is fantastic, and actually this was exactly where I was hoping to go next, so thank you for queuing that up. But, no, no, the game theory of all this, right? Like, one club getting, Positioning as the, as the Bitcoin club in a league, uh, really means that eventually all the other clubs are going to need to adopt Bitcoin.

If they're going to be able to compete, because if play playing out the game theory, number go up, whatever it is, Bitcoin strategy plays out, you guys are going to be the most financially capable club. Financially sustainable in not very long, you know, assuming everything plays out the way we're thinking it will, right?

So, so other, other clubs then would become incentivized to also adopt Bitcoin. So what, what do you, what do you think about that? Like you, do you, do you see that, uh, happening as well?

George: Yeah, I'm not really sure if it would happen to me. That fast, to be fair. Like, I think it's inevitable, right, obviously, but I think it, yeah, like, I think this definitely takes at least three, four years, maybe more. Um,

Luke: That's, that's still pretty fast.

George: yeah, I guess. I mean, I mean, like, okay, let me define it better. It takes three, four years.

So, for other clubs within our league to start doing something like this, uh, maybe it takes less time for other clubs to realize it, but I think for them to do it, it also depends on our actions, right? So because like, we don't have like a treasury of microstrategy or something, so it's not, and we're not doing like a

Luke: you don't?

George: monthly like leverage on top of leverage on top of another leverage, you know, uh, we're not in, in Michael's privileged position. but we can do other cool things, right? Uh, one of the, um, so this is not yet live and this is not yet happening, but one of the, like two, two projects, let's say, I'm gonna briefly, like, tease here that, that I'm working on that I hope to have very large impact is first, uh, building this, uh, simple tool Uh, called like a Bitcoin, uh, football salary calculator that, uh, it's like really a DCA tool, but like looking back and like tailoring it to our niche where I want to, for us to visually and emotionally Show, um, to players, but also to fans of ours, like what Bitcoin could have done for their remuneration, if you look one year back in time, two years back in time, three years back in time, four years back in time, and for them to really realize, Oh my God, this is a no brainer.

Right? I want to make this mess. And this is hard, right? Um, because like, there's so many tools and like, but I want to be, because the audience is very wide, very different types of audience. I want to make this so that you can consume it in like two, three, four minutes. And you're like, okay, I need to learn more about this.

This actually is interesting. There's like, that's so much dense and emotional and compact information that you're like, Whoa. Why am I not doing this? How did I miss this?

Knut: What, what, what was the name of that website? I, I don't know if it's still up, but bitcoin or shit.com or something like that. So, so it lists if you bought this item when it came out, an iPhone five or whatever, uh, and if you had bought b bitcoin instead.com, I think that that's the, that's the name. So if you bought, uh, if you bought Bitcoin instead, it shows you how much, how much more money you'd have now and how many iPhones you

George: Yeah. Yeah. And of course there's many of these tools, obviously like we've all see them and we all like like them and retweet them and repost them. And it's all great. But I think, at least I hope that we can do something impactful with this. If we really tailor it, compact it to a specific type of niche audience with a specific message designed for them.

And because this audience is also like. A type of audience who can also like, um, you know, bring it to other bubbles that we ourselves are not part of, right? So that's, for example, one like, uh, one like project I'm very, very excited about and I hope we can, um, yeah, we'll bring forward relatively soon.

There's a few moving elements, but definitely in the coming month or two, uh, at most. And then, uh, and then, you know, speaking of the other clubs, what, what I want us to do is what we're working is next year, we're targeting to do, I hope we could do the world's first, uh, Bitcoin, uh, Cup tournament. Uh, for youth players, 70 year old boys who are, you know, right there before they sign their first professional contract, start earning money, for them, first of all, like, it's a Bitcoin football cup, like, it's the first time this, this could potentially ever happen And then it's, it's a football first tournament, right?

This is the, we want to make it like top quality, like really the highest quality when it comes to sports, but then you have Bitcoin involved all over the place, right? In terms of brand, in terms of rewards, in terms of, um, in terms of like plays, um, like, like games and, and interactions, activations, uh, throughout, before, throughout, and after the, And after the event, and for this, I'm targeting to get really like, like big clubs.

I mean, because it's academies, right? I mean, I cannot get the Manchester United first team, just maybe we could get the Manchester United 17 year old team or, you know, another big club. We get some of these, and then like we get their brands, we get them on the focus of Bitcoin. And we drive the conversation faster, you know, not three, four years from now, but Less

Knut: what about, um, like right now there's you and there's, um, you guys and there's a real bed for it, right? Those are the two I know of in Europe. Are you aware of any other clubs that are doing a Bitcoin strategy? I mean, is this virus spreading? Like, have you heard anything like,

George: Um, Oh, there's, uh, there's the Austrian Admira Vakir who have done some integration. So it's a second tier, uh, second league, uh, second league, uh, club that have, uh, that have, uh, you know, they've also had Bitcoin on the, their second team jersey. And, um, and they, they also accept Bitcoin payments, uh, here and there, but you know, the thing is, there's some other clubs, um, there's a Miami, um, not Miami, um, a Hawaiian club that, that is doing, uh, that is doing like their Bitcoin gig,

Knut: yeah, there are other, other sports, right, other sports team and sports teams in other sports that are doing it. But, but for football specifically,

George: which ones?

Knut: Uh, I'm so bad with sports, but wasn't there like a hockey team or a basketball team or

Luke: I'm not aware of any others, actually. Yeah, like, uh, there's been some attempts at

Knut: it's

Luke: an orange colored team or something like

Knut: more the individual athletes,

Luke: Yeah, yeah, there have been individual

Knut: for instance, a

Luke: have been individual

Knut: player, and there was some American football player.

George: There's been individual athletes, a lot of them. There's been, I was asking if you know, but there's been a baseball club in Australia, the Port Heat. Uh, who did kind of a Bitcoin strategy. Uh, but very unfortunately that didn't work out. They kind of started this at the peak of the last bull cycle. And, um, and as I understand, uh, there wasn't like a strong alignment between the owners and the management in terms of like understanding that this is a long game.

So that's why this kind of flopped. Um, but yeah, like I, I think the reason why it's not happening in more, unfortunately, and, and, and I see this even, even within our club, uh, you know, but, but definitely no other clubs because Fiat has permitted sports as well. Right. So all the sports club, uh, clubs or the vast majority in football, for sure.

They're like, you know, on the hamster wheel themselves.

Knut: They're indebted,

George: They're indebted.

Knut: to an extreme level,

George: yeah, like, like fighting for every dollar for every income. So it's, it's hard for you to like, Oh yeah, we're going to have this long term Bitcoin strategy that's going to take like two, three, four, five years to play out.

And we can benefit a lot from it. It's very, very hard in, you know, unfortunately for a large organizations, sports club in particular to To have this realization, to map this out, to get others on board. That's why it's not so popular and uh, and that's why I'm grateful and keep pushing that we have this chance.

Luke: I mean, you make a great point here about essentially the, it's the organizational alignment, right? Like the, the, these are companies, sports clubs are companies. They just have this large, the business is involved around getting fans to come in and consume this sort of marketing. Product, essentially. So it's, it's a certain kind of company that's run a certain way, but just like any other company, you need, you need alignment from the management.

So it's, it's fantastic that, uh, Boteb Plovdiv has, has the, uh, alignment and is, is putting their, their trust in you to, to move this thing forward. And I mean, from the, from the perspective of this thing, Playing out, right? The, the best part that, uh, I think one of the best parts that you, you mentioned again was the, the influencers.

Like you get, you get some players, there's, there's so many angles to, to reach people through this. I think it's, I think it's fantastic. The, uh, orange pilling a player and then they move to another club, but they, they, maybe they don't get to get paid in Bitcoin, but maybe they still put, put their money in, in Bitcoin.

Maybe they even ask their club to, to, uh, pay them in Bitcoin, something like that. And then the, the Questions start getting, uh, asked and all this.

5 Year Goals

Luke: So what, what is the, the goal in, in five years, for example, where, where do you see the club in the five year mark?

George: Oh man. Yeah, in five years, I think we definitely have to be in Champions League. Like in my mind, you know, like people around me like, oh, you're too ambitious. I'm like, man, yeah, like in five years, we definitely have to be in Champions League. Uh, that's, that's my personal goal. On our internal Slack, I have the Champions League icon there.

That's why I'm there, right? Um, so, uh, it's a lot of hard work. Like, it's really a lot of hard work. And it's also not completely dependent on me and my work, to be fair. Like, because, at all. I mean, really, like, uh, I mean, at the end of the day, the most important part is the sports department, right? Uh, in the club.

Um, so that has to continue going well. But, but I think We're going in a good direction there too, because we have the, they're the long term view as well, right. We have our academy internally, which is, yeah, it's one of the best academies. It's the best really academy in terms of infrastructure in the country.

That's why we're also can't afford to think of this Bitcoin Cup tournament, because we have the infrastructure, we have like a super cool stadium, that's crazy. If we can, if we can do a final for, for such a tournament there. Um, so, so we have all the things in place in terms of In terms of assets, I would say, uh, it's just a lot of moving parts.

a lot of work, consistency, and a bit of luck. Always it comes, you know, when, when it comes to, when it comes to football and sports, but, but five years from now, I want us to be in the champions league. I want us to be the absolute, you know, international professional level, uh, Bitcoin level, Bitcoin sports club.

and, uh, and I want for this tournament that I start to be like a, like, like to have the fourth edition by then. Uh, and, and I want to have clubs, but five years is a lot of time, you know, as you say, like, I also want to have other clubs following us by then. I think that's absolutely, absolutely is going to be doable.

Knut: What, what are the, what are the tax laws around Bitcoin in Bulgaria? Like what, are there any issues there? Or like what, is it easy enough,

George: It's kind of okay. Uh, it's kind of okay. So if you just buy Bitcoin and hold it, like you don't, uh, you don't, uh, incur taxes, uh, until you sell it, if you accept Bitcoin for payments, um, and if you don't sell it, you can just, uh, keep it as inventory on your balance sheet. So again, no,

Knut: but there's a capital gains tax or something if you sell it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright.

George: 10%. So it's, it's, uh,

Knut: Pretty good.

George: Yeah, I mean, it's not like El Salvador. Okay. Uh, but, but it's, uh, it's, it's way better than many other places. Um, and, uh, yeah, so we've been looking, looking actually, so I was in El Salvador a couple of months ago, because we've been looking very much to do stuff there.

And we've been, uh, yeah. Um, because we've been, we've been thinking of what to do more with Bitcoin, right? So that's why I said, like, it's not just about buying and accepting Bitcoin. It's about corporate strategies, about branding strategies, about how to make money. Um, it's about education strategies. It's, there's so much around it.

So in terms of corporate strategy, I was, uh, we're very attracted by El Salvador, um, and their, uh, capital markets regulation, because they're basically striving to build capital markets on top of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is legal tender there. They have all kinds of, tax incentives for companies to issue debt or to sell equity.

on their capital, on their, um, well, let's say nascent upcoming capital markets, because it's not like it's, you know, hustling and bustling yet. Um, but, but they're, they've put a lot of the rails, uh, um, or they're building a lot of the rails to, um, to really enable the, the, the creation of Bitcoin based capital markets.

So, um, we've had great talks there. We have meetings with, uh, um, we have. Yeah, with the Bitcoin office, right? Um, so, ideally, like, we're striving to build some connection there and to do something, interesting and world first again from a corporate perspective. It's just that, as many things, it's a little harder than you would expect it to be, or it takes a little more time than, Then you would hope to do it.

But my idea or long term vision, frankly, like what we want to do with Bitcoin, uh, and with the club is to enable our current fans and global fans to become co owners of the club. And that's why, you know, I have big hopes for, uh, for us being able to do this out of El Salvador and through El Salvador, because this would, like from a tax perspective, from a branding perspective, from legal security perspective would be, would be ideal.

It's just that, again, um, my enthusiasm is a little over, uh, ahead of kind of like how, uh, how, how advanced and set up everything there is, but, uh, but we're, we're very actively talking to them. We're working with many parties there, so. Just maybe we can have big news there too.

International and Local Effects

Luke: Well, no, and, and you actually said something great about global fans. I think this is a, a fantastic thing, right? A a again, Bedford is, is similar. They've, they've got, they've got fans all over the world and, and I think for you guys it's like who is going to tune into the Bulgarian football league outside of Bulgaria before, well, not too many people, but now a bunch of Bitcoiners.

If they're into, if they're into football or, or not even, because this is the funny thing. There were, there were a lot of people posting about that. They, they've got, they, they don't usually follow, follow sports at all, but, but they'll follow the Bitcoin team. So the, the funny thing is, I think, I think the first, the first club to adopt Bitcoin in every league is going to get all of these global fans.

And maybe the, maybe the, the second one, the third one, maybe can get some kind of other support, but it's really the first one in every

George: really.

Luke: That, that

George: Not

Luke: That's that. I, I completely agree with you there. It's the, it's the first one

Knut: first mover advantage.

Luke: mover advantage. It's gonna get, it is gonna get all of the, all of the Bitcoiners are gonna now be, be supporting and, uh, uh, yeah.

I mean, have, have you seen, uh, some, some uptick in, uh, kind of international

George: yeah, yeah. So, international but also local. Like, local is very important. Like, we have, like, so many people in the country who's like, just what you say, like, I didn't care about sports or football, like, forever, or at all, ever, but now I follow, now I buy merch, now I come, you know, every now and then they come to games, so

Luke: Well, because there's the bread and circuses thing that you said, it gets tossed around in the Bitcoin world and also some other places on kind of the Twitter sphere and whatever, it's like it's a distraction, that sports is sort of a distraction from clown world basically and it's a way of people to sort of Uh, forget about what's going on around them, but I think that's also missing the, the positives, which it, it's a, it's a community builder, it brings people together, there's a, there's a sense of, of pride in, in something local succeeding, everyone, everyone's happy, there's, there's real economic, uh, effects usually when a, when a local sports team wins, and so, so from, from my perspective, I, I, I think, I think sport is a good thing, and it's, and it's, it's something that, that people can rally around, and so,

George: an amazing thing.

Luke: Yeah.

And, and so what, what are, what are you looking at locally? Like what, what do you hope to have the effect, uh, uh, locally in, in piv?

George: Yeah. Um, yeah, no, look, uh, for me, sports, like, for us, the, the, the, the, about Plovdiv, for me, that's what I realized, like, we're kind of very much into Bitcoin and stuff, obviously, that's our interest, but I think when we go on a Bitcoin standard, Right. And, uh, in general, people start feeling wealthier, opposed to, like, being in the grind.

You're just going to have more time for fun stuff, right? Like playing football, I mean, or volleyball, or whatever your sport is, or, like, going and cheering your team, and, uh, and being part of such a community. And I think that's really what, you know, even Nostr is about. Like it's, Being part of these communities, because that's fun, and like, we as humans, at the end of the day, we are living to be part of communities, right?

And you find your community, you're an active part of it, you contribute to it, you evolve it, right? You build it in one way or another. And unfortunately, you know, today in the fiat world, this is just like A stress valve in many ways, or like you say, like Brothers and Sisters, whatever. Um, but, uh, but I think it can be so much more, right?

It is, but it can be so much more for a larger amount of people and so on and so forth. uh, but yeah, well, back in Plovdiv, man, like, I have big hopes. I really have big, big ambitions there. I want to get Bitcoin into the wallets of, uh, of like tens of thousands of people. I want people to wake up. I want people to see.

Luke: big is piv? How many

George: It's like three, four hundred thousand people. So it's a lot. Uh, our stadium is, uh, 21, 000 seats stadium. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's, it's 19. I wish it was 21.

Luke: Yeah. You'll have to add 2000 more

George: Maybe, yeah, we'll, we'll think of some additional construction.

Luke: the, make the infinity stand when

George: Right. Right. But, uh, but yeah, like the setting was super cool. Like, it's really cool.

Like when it's feel like, man, the atmosphere is amazing. Um, and so it's, and it's really this community that you can feel that people are involved. So it's, it's like consistency and it's social engineering in one way or another, right?

Knut: one of our favorite words,

George: but in a positive way.

Knut: in a positive way, okay.

George: So it's social engineering for us to ingrain Bitcoin and make it part of kind of what people see, do, have, own, interact with, right?

So, uh, I think exactly because of this community element, exactly because, Because, you know, football is a football club and there's this unique living organism we can, we can create this and, you know, it's fascinating. I'm so much into this and there's other people who are so much into this. Oh my god, like, we can make such a big difference.

And, and like in the country. You know, on a political and economic level, they don't get it. Like, they don't see it. They just are in their, you know, like, oh, are we going to accept the euro? Oh, what's happening with the war? I'm like, who cares? Let's build.

Bulgarian Currency Situation

Knut: Yeah, Bulgaria has its own shitcoin, I almost forgot about that, but uh, what's it called again?

George: Kinda. Um, but not quite, to be fair. It's, it's a good coin, uh, not for investing, but, but for medium of exchange is actually decent. Uh, Lev, Lev

Knut: Lev, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,

George: and I recently got educated about this. So, uh, the lev is pegged to the euro. So, um, uh, so, so that, that is super cool for, for us, for me as a consumer, for businesses, because like the fixed rate.

So for trade is, um, It's, it's good, right? As the world would be in the future. You have one currency, Bitcoin, you don't have the currency exchange risk, right? We don't have it only with the European Union. And the good part with this, so, we got, we got hyperinflation back in 1997. Was really bad. People lost almost everything, everything, in many cases.

Um, and then we got this so called currency board introduced and the currency board is like we have the left, but the left has to be backed up by other currencies. So it's like a stable coin, kind of like how Tether is backed by, by dollars. You know, the levy is backed by euro and like a basket of, I think they have some other currencies and assets, which is cool because the local politicians, they cannot print, they cannot, you know, so, so it's been, it's been, I think, way better than Hungary, Sweden, uh, Finland, you have your, oh

but Sweden I've heard it's kind of bad,

Knut: It's kinda bad, Norway too, like, both Swedish and Norwegian crown, and the crown in Czechia, like the Czech Republic, it's also

George: Yeah.

Knut: I mean, they're all going to shit the smaller

George: So, so for us, it's like, I would say we're better than, than the Corona, the, and, and all these like local currencies, because we kind of just are there to the, peg to the Euro. The local politicians don't have the opportunity to print. So it's, it's a very good position for us to be.

Luke: You, you get the, the negatives of the, the euro. But, but still, I mean, I mean the, the realistically, the dollar at the Euro and maybe the, the Chinese currency are the only, are the only ones that are in the, sort of within our own, within our own lifetimes are, are going to be not as terribly bad against Bitcoin.

But all the other ones are just, are. All the other ones are

Knut: Yeah, I think it's just a matter of time before both, uh, at least Sweden, uh, switches to Euro standard. If not switching to Bitcoin standard happens first, but well, we'll see, we'll see what happens.

George: man. I'm very bearish about the Euro.

Knut: yeah, yeah, it's like,

Luke: It'll be the second last to fall or third last but but yeah it's it's it's it's not going to be the the last and so it's yeah.

Knut: So that is what it is. I mean, speaking of Bulgaria and currencies and stuff,

Bitcoin Adoption in Bulgaria

Knut: like, how is the rest of, how is Bitcoin adoption in general in Bulgaria? What's happening in other places? Like, Plamen opened a bar, I saw, and like, what are the connections? What's happening?

George: It's actually quite cool. I'm, I'm, I'm quite happy with, with how the ecosystem is evolving. There's, there's Plamen, um, with his whole community, like content creation, the conferences he's been doing, which has been like a very, I think he's responsible for like, I don't know, probably like, 000, maybe several 10, 000s of people who have opened their eyes and even if they're not hard bitcoiners, they now own bitcoin.

Uh, so that's huge. We have other content creators also who've had an impact. We have now once or twice per, yeah, about twice per year we have like, uh, A small, uh, merchant, uh, like, conference events, so for merchants to accept Bitcoin. we have these people who are active and who are doing things. Now, actually, yeah, there's something new that's coming up here, uh, literally in Plovdiv is we have this, um, this, uh, great dudes who have this, um, um, it's an application for, uh, ordering food, like takeaway and, uh, what is it, like,

Knut: like Glovo or

George: yeah, yeah, like Glovo, um, but, um, but, um, But it's not like this big corporate thing that, but, but still, it's a very good product and they've integrated accepting Bitcoin there for quite some time now they've made it even easier and they've introduced.

So we have like about, I think it's 15 restaurants in Sofia and like five or so in Plovdiv where through their system, you can order food. And pay with Bitcoin online, or you can also go in the restaurant and pay in Bitcoin online, and they just, um, they just won a, uh, grant from, uh, Bitcoin Beach, uh, and, uh, they're going to use the grant, uh, to, well, the attempt is really to start like a small circular economy, if you would Um, where, so if you go, uh, to one of those restaurants and pay with Bitcoin, you're going to get sats back 10%, and then, um, the restaurant is also going to get 10 percent sats back.

And if you order food, um, through their app, also the driver is going to get, uh, some sats back. And, uh, we've just been discussing, because obviously we're partnering with them, with the football club, so we'll push this out, because some of the restaurants that are there are our, I mean, basically, like, we have two restaurants locally that are partners, we got them in, right, obviously, in the deal, um, So, so that is also like, for me, it's like super cool because now for so far, the club has been pushing Bitcoin.

Now we have two of our restaurant partners who are themselves like hard Botevists, Botefans, and like they're popular. Now they're starting to accept Bitcoin in their, in their two restaurants, right? And they're going to have their campaigns. We're going to push them more. So, um, so I'm really excited about this and fingers crossed this goes well.

We have good metrics because if we have good metrics. Yeah, we'll look for ways to grow this. So there's a lot of grassroots things happening, which I love. On the top, nothing.

Knut: It's the way it's supposed to be.

George: But it's the way it is. Yeah, it's a better

Luke: Yeah it really seems like that you get one or two of these big anchors like like for example you you guys have had that had that conference last couple of years but now with both of Plavdev now Bulgaria is really got a couple of big anchors. Big relative in relative terms, uh, and all of this other stuff can, can start coming up around it.

And, uh, love, love to see it. I mean, he, I mean here, here with Rega, there's Honey Budger has been going for a really long time, and I, and I even think that they are honest about, we, we would, we just talked to, to Max, uh, about this, uh, from Defi and like yeah, there's not much other adoption in, in Lavia and this conference has been going on for a long time.

Exactly. And so it's just like, uh, it's, it's, it's great to see, uh, in, in your case, in Bulgaria's case, that there's, there's more of this, uh, picking up. So, yeah,

George: Well, I think it's really, in our case, I don't know, like it's grassroots, like I said, and I really believe grassroots and then Rio or for the vast majority, Rio adoption comes permissionless life. It comes like it's not forced. You know, there is this point where, okay, there's Plamen, like, he got the inspiration, he makes his content, he does the conferences, Like, our owner, he sees this opportunity for Bitcoin, for the club. He takes the action, right? So it's, it's not like, so it's individuals, right? Taking actions and then, as you have, you know, several of them, maybe others get inspired or get ideas going and that's how the magic happens. And, uh, yeah. Excited about it.

Wrapping Up

Luke: it's awesome, man. Great hear your story. So, was, uh, was there anything else that you wanted to discuss or bring up on this topic?

George: no, I mean, what I would say is absolutely, uh, Please, uh, you know, Knut, you've been, but please, you're absolutely welcome, Luke, join as well, like, both of you should come

Knut: Absolutely. Highly recommend it. I had a great time in Bulgaria, and it's such a fascinating country, it's such a rich history and such a beautiful place, and the food is great, and it's very affordable, it's very, yeah, very

George: like, I have people who come in Plogis specifically to, like, nomads, spend, like, a or a month. So, so please enjoy, visit the game. come spend in the restaurants where they accept Bitcoin, follow us on social media for sure, so, X and Nostr,

Luke: Yes, all the details, please.

Knut: And also like one of the eras, uh, infamous eras of Bulgaria is the commie era, right? Where you can see the impact that system had on the country and how horrid it is. Uh, so it's, it's, uh, that might not be a good pitch for, uh, but that's

Luke: Let him, let him share his social medias, Knut.

George: wait, do you have, do you have something

Knut: no, no, I think like the, The point I was getting to is, if you get to Bulgaria, don't only go to Sofia, go around the rest of the country, because it's not as raped as that town was by, as that city was by communism, all this concrete, yeah, yeah,

George: yeah, the,

Knut: you can really see the impact there. I'm not, um, yeah, this came out totally wrong, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to, To hype Bulgaria here, but also there's a historical lesson to be learned in the country, for sure,

George: sure. It's really like, there's so many different things there. So there's the communist part, there's like fucking amazing nature, there's like

Knut: is everything, yeah.

George: if you're into hiking, there's like, just like from Sofia, what I love about Sofia, like just last week, twice, end of the day, I'm like fucked up, like tired of computer.

40 minutes up and I'm up in the mountains, hiking, in like 2000 meters altitude. Uh, so, so there's all these like super cool things, but on the socials, yeah, we're on Twitter. we're on Nostr, uh, so Twitter is, um, botif underscore, uh, en, on Nostr, uh, we are just botif. Yeah, you can find us.

Luke: going say you're NPUB? No, no, no,

George: I'm still learning it, okay?

Luke: we'll post, you're still learning, we'll post all the details in the show

George: Yes. Yes. And feel free to also check out our website. We have, due to our El Salvadorian, um, kind of project, we already have a Salvadorian website, which is very easy to remember, botif. sv. So you can go there and from there you'll find all the links and information.

Luke: Absolutely fantastic.

Knut: Great! Get the inverse of Clown World. This is a shill. BitcoinInfinityStore. com And thank you very much for coming on,

George: was great having

Knut: Great to have

Luke: George, thanks so much. This has been Bitcoin Infinity Show. Thank you for

@ 472f440f:5669301e

TAPS SIGN

"There is no industry in the world that is more ruthlessly competitive than the bitcoin mining industry."

From any angle you cut it the bitcoin mining economic landscape is absolutely BRUTAL at the moment. Hashprice is sitting right above an all time low at $0.04/TH/day. Yesterday brought with it yet another new difficulty all time high. Competition for energy resources is as fierce as it has ever been as rack space continues to be tight in the United States and hoards of AI data centers move in to scoop up as much power as possible.

To make matters worse, with current economics it doesn't really make sense to buy bitcoin mining machines at their current prices. The pay back period on machines is absurd considering where we find ourselves in the market. Adam O from Upstream Data broke it down in a tweet earlier today.

As he says, it probably makes more sense to buy used machines than new machines right now if you are looking to make back your money on a reasonable timeline. The only reasons you would buy new hardware right now is if you believe the price is going to rip in the near term (risky bet), you think hashrate is going to come off the network (risky bet), or if you have obscenely low power costs (unlikely for most).

If you have machines plugged in or are thinking about plugging them in soon you better be running firmware that enables you to run your machines more efficiently to increase margins. With current economics, I would make the argument that it is incredibly irresponsible to be running your machines using stock firmware. Especially if you are operating a miner in the public markets or are a private miner backed by investors. It is a disservice to your shareholders. This is a strategy we have been deploying at Cathedra for years now and it has helped us to survive during these trying times in the mining industry and set us up to successfully complete a strategic merger with Kungsleden at an opportune time.

On that note, this is a trend you can expect to pick up over the next six months; mergers and acquisitions. We wrote earlier this year that M&A activity would pick up after the halving began to eat into the economics of mining businesses and that is exactly what is happening. We decided to move early at Cathedra to get ahead of the curve. Since then Cleanspark announced a merger with GRIID, Riot has initiated an attempted hostile takeover of Bitfarms, Bitfarms has entered an agreement to merge with Stronghold, and Terawulf has signaled that they are open to a merger if a particular deal makes sense. On top of this, Rhodium slipped into bankruptcy last month. As margins continue to be squeezed and companies get more desperate I expect this type of consolidation to accelerate.

All signs are pointing toward more pain in the world of mining in the near term. There is nothing outside of a face ripping rally in the price of bitcoin or some unforeseen event that knocks out a material amount of hashrate that will change this reality. Especially considering the fact that Bitmain announced a new hydro model that will produce 860 TH/s at ~13 J/TH! This will be the highest hashing, most energy efficient machine to ever hit the market by a considerable margin.

Once these machines hit the market (if they haven't already via Bitmain plugging them in, which could explain new difficulty all time highs despite terrible mining conditions) every other machine on the market is going to suffer economically.

To make matters worse for everyone struggling right now, savvy energy producers are beginning to understand the benefits bitcoin mining can bring to their operational stack. Japanese energy giant TEPCO is reportedly planning to scale up their mining operations after beginning pilots in late 2022. They want to utilize the excess energy produced by renewable sources to mine bitcoin. From what I can tell, they haven't scaled up significantly yet. However, it is reasonable to believe that they will scale up and other energy producers will take notice. Pushing the industry closer to its inevitable end state; vertical integration via energy producers who have the lowest cost of production.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Keep hashing if you can.

Final thought...

The pets need protecting.

@ bec0c9d3:c4e9cd29

Hello

Starting with last article on Yakihonne, we are happy to take You deeper in this Rabbit hole.

AGENDA ---> BITCOIN CULTURE FESTIVAL - LONDON / UK - 29.OCT - 03.NOV 2024 just dropped in basic form.

Few days of great experience with likeminded people, different #bitcoin communities. #nostr freedom fighters, global artists, panels, discussions, and many more will come together those days.

For now, check this article. Briefly, we want to link you up with some stuff we've already prepared for you.

29.OCT - 03.NOV 2024

The whole week will be covered mainly with ART GALLERY at CypherMunk HOUSE and many more satellite events.

Each day is really special and unique in the program and form. Everyone can find something for himselves.

And the best thing is that most of the events are for FREE.

Apart from Halloween Rave in Club on October 31st with #2140Session crew. (see below)

Please check FESTIVAL AGENAPage.

Below Each Day events links -

TUESDAY - 29.OCT.2024 - Private Viewing ART GALLERY (more info soon)

WEDNESDAY - 30.OCT.2024 at TOOTING MARKET - Event info THURSDAY - 31.OCT.2024 - DOCKSIDE VAULTS at DOCKSIDE VAULTS - Event info FRIDAY - 01.NOV.2024 - #NOSTRLDN at CYPHERMUNK HOUSE - Event info

SATURDAY - 02.NOV.2024 - ART PANEL at CYPHERMUNK HOUSE - Event info

Keep in mind that we haven't revealed everything, so expect many more special surprises :) follow us for Updates.

So are you ready for the @BITCOIN CULTURE FESTIVAL, LONDON 29OCT-03NOV?

🎃 GET A TICKET FOR THE 2140 HALLOWEEN PARTY HERE:

TICKETS for gig or EVENTBRITE Page

Note again that except for this party the whole event is FREE.! 🧡

For this evening we offer, interesting workshops by Angor and others. Chocolate adventure with Roger9000 and after 7pm proper rave style Djs from 2140crew. Be prepered for creazy vibe from the speakers. Sound trip will be huge like You have never seen before !!!

Subscribe to our newsletter on our page to stay informed and up-to-date. Help us spread the word by sharing the link using the share button.

We're confident that we're building something extraordinary and unique in CypherPunk style

Follow us also on all socials NOSTREE.me - NOSTR LinkTree INSTAGRAM TWETTER - X YOUTUBE

LINKS

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yakihonne

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

I’ve occasionally been called cynical because some of the sentiments I express strike people as negative. But cynical, to me, does not strictly mean negative. It means something more along the lines of “faithless” — as in lacking the basic faith humans thrive when believing what they take to be true, rather than expedient, and doing what they think is right rather than narrowly advantageous.

In other words, my primary negative sentiment — that the cynical utilitarian ethos among our educated classes has caused and is likely to cause catastrophic outcomes — stems from a sort of disappointed idealism, not cynicism.

On human nature itself I am anything but cynical. I am convinced the strongest, long-term incentives are always to believe what is true, no matter the cost, and to do what is right. And by “right,” I don’t mean do-gooding bullshit, but things like taking care of one’s health, immediate family and personal responsibilities while pursuing the things one finds most compelling and important.

That aside, I want to touch on two real-world examples of what I take to be actual cynicism. The first is the tendency to invoke principles only when they suit one’s agenda or desired outcome, but not to apply them when they do not. This kind of hypocrisy implies principles are just tools you invoke to gain emotional support for your side and that anyone actually applying them evenhandedly is a naive simpleton who doesn’t know how the game is played.

Twitter threads don’t show up on substack anymore, but I’d encourage you to read this one with respect to objecting to election outcomes. I could have used many others, but this one (probably not even most egregious) illustrates how empty words like “democracy” or “election integrity” are when thrown around by devoted partisans. They don’t actually believe in democracy, only in using the word to evoke the desired emotional response. People who wanted to coerce people to take a Pfizer shot don’t believe in “bodily autonomy.” It’s similarly just a phrase that’s invoked to achieve an end.

The other flavor of cynicism I’ve noticed is less about hypocrisy and more about nihilism:

I’d encourage people to read the entire thread, but if you’re not on Twitter, it’s essentially about whether money (and apparently anything else) has essential qualities, or whether it is whatever peoples’ narratives tell them it is.

In other words, is money whatever your grocer takes for the groceries, or do particular forms of money have qualities wherein they are more likely to be accepted over the long haul? The argument is yes, gold, for example had qualities that made it a better money (scarcity, durability, e.g.) than say seashells which are reasonably durable but not scarce. You could sell the story of seashells as a money (and some societies not close to the sea used them as such), but ultimately such a society would be vulnerable to massive inflation should one of its inhabitants ever stroll along a shore.

The thread morphed into whether everything is just narrative, or there is an underlying reality to which a narrative must correspond in order for it to be useful and true.

The notion that anything could be money if attached to the right story, or any music is good if it’s marketed properly is deeply cynical. I am not arguing people can’t be convinced to buy bad records — clearly they can — but that no matter how much you market it, it will not stand the test of time unless it is in fact good.

In order to sell something that does not add value, meaning or utility to someone’s life, something you suspect they are likely to regret buying in short order, it’s awfully useful to convince yourself that nothing has inherent meaning or value, that “storytelling is all that matters.”

I am not against marketing per se, and effective storytelling might in fact point someone in the right direction — a good story can help someone discover a truth. But that storytelling is everything, and by implication the extent to which a story has correlates in reality nothing, is the ethos of scammers, the refuge of nihilists who left someone else holding the bag and prefer not to think about it.

@ ee11a5df:b76c4e49

Bye-Bye Reply Guy

There is a camp of nostr developers that believe spam filtering needs to be done by relays. Or at the very least by DVMs. I concur. In this way, once you configure what you want to see, it applies to all nostr clients.

But we are not there yet.

In the mean time we have ReplyGuy, and gossip needed some changes to deal with it.

Strategies in Short

1. WEB OF TRUST: Only accept events from people you follow, or people they follow - this avoids new people entirely until somebody else that you follow friends them first, which is too restrictive for some people.
2. TRUSTED RELAYS: Allow every post from relays that you trust to do good spam filtering.
3. REJECT FRESH PUBKEYS: Only accept events from people you have seen before - this allows you to find new people, but you will miss their very first post (their second post must count as someone you have seen before, even if you discarded the first post)
4. PATTERN MATCHING: Scan for known spam phrases and words and block those events, either on content or metadata or both or more.
5. TIE-IN TO EXTERNAL SYSTEMS: Require a valid NIP-05, or other nostr event binding their identity to some external identity
6. PROOF OF WORK: Require a minimum proof-of-work

All of these strategies are useful, but they have to be combined properly.

filter.rhai

Gossip loads a file called "filter.rhai" in your gossip directory if it exists. It must be a Rhai language script that meets certain requirements (see the example in the gossip source code directory). Then it applies it to filter spam.

This spam filtering code is being updated currently. It is not even on unstable yet, but it will be there probably tomorrow sometime. Then to master. Eventually to a release.

Here is an example using all of the techniques listed above:

```rhai // This is a sample spam filtering script for the gossip nostr // client. The language is called Rhai, details are at: // https://rhai.rs/book/ // // For gossip to find your spam filtering script, put it in // your gossip profile directory. See // https://docs.rs/dirs/latest/dirs/fn.data_dir.html // to find the base directory. A subdirectory "gossip" is your // gossip data directory which for most people is their profile // directory too. (Note: if you use a GOSSIP_PROFILE, you'll // need to put it one directory deeper into that profile // directory). // // This filter is used to filter out and refuse to process // incoming events as they flow in from relays, and also to // filter which events get/ displayed in certain circumstances. // It is only run on feed-displayable event kinds, and only by // authors you are not following. In case of error, nothing is // filtered. // // You must define a function called 'filter' which returns one // of these constant values: // DENY (the event is filtered out) // ALLOW (the event is allowed through) // MUTE (the event is filtered out, and the author is // automatically muted) // // Your script will be provided the following global variables: // 'caller' - a string that is one of "Process", // "Thread", "Inbox" or "Global" indicating // which part of the code is running your // script // 'content' - the event content as a string // 'id' - the event ID, as a hex string // 'kind' - the event kind as an integer // 'muted' - if the author is in your mute list // 'name' - if we have it, the name of the author // (or your petname), else an empty string // 'nip05valid' - whether nip05 is valid for the author, // as a boolean // 'pow' - the Proof of Work on the event // 'pubkey' - the event author public key, as a hex // string // 'seconds_known' - the number of seconds that the author // of the event has been known to gossip // 'spamsafe' - true only if the event came in from a // relay marked as SpamSafe during Process // (even if the global setting for SpamSafe // is off)

fn filter() {

// Show spam on global
// (global events are ephemeral; these won't grow the
// database)
if caller=="Global" {
    return ALLOW;
}

// Block ReplyGuy
if name.contains("ReplyGuy") || name.contains("ReplyGal") {
    return DENY;
}

// Block known DM spam
// (giftwraps are unwrapped before the content is passed to
//  this script)
if content.to_lower().contains(
  "Mr. Gift and Mrs. Wrap under the tree, KISSING!"
) {
    return DENY;
}

// Reject events from new pubkeys, unless they have a high
// PoW or we somehow already have a nip05valid for them
//
// If this turns out to be a legit person, we will start
// hearing their events 2 seconds from now, so we will
// only miss their very first event.
if seconds_known <= 2 && pow < 25 && !nip05valid {
    return DENY;
}

// Mute offensive people
if content.to_lower().contains(" kike") ||
    content.to_lower().contains("kike ") ||
    content.to_lower().contains(" nigger") ||
    content.to_lower().contains("nigger ")
{
    return MUTE;
}

// Reject events from muted people
//
// Gossip already does this internally, and since we are
// not Process, this is rather redundant. But this works
// as an example.
if muted {
    return DENY;
}

// Accept if the PoW is large enough
if pow >= 25 {
    return ALLOW;
}

// Accept if their NIP-05 is valid
if nip05valid {
    return ALLOW;
}

// Accept if the event came through a spamsafe relay
if spamsafe {
    return ALLOW;
}

// Reject the rest
DENY

} ```

@ e5272de9:a16a102f

What is the Grapevine?

The Grapevine enables you and your community to identify who is the most trustworthy, and in what context, to curate content, facts, and information.

In this article we present an overview of the Grapevine Worldview, a visualization tool and control panel for the management of your grapevine.

How does the grapevine work?

The construction of a Grapevine Worldview can be broken down into the following steps:

Step 1. Decide what question you want to answer or the problem you want to solve. For example: curate a directory of nostr apps. The finished product will be a ranked list, G, of items that may be pubkeys or could be something else, e.g. products from an eCommerce site.

Step 2. Select whatever sources of raw data (usually from within nostr, but in theory, could come from outside nostr) that are both 1) available to you and 2) relevant to the question or problem. (See Table: Sources of Raw Data at [1].)

Step 3. Translate each data source into a format suitable for consumption by the grapevine through the process of interpretation (see [1]).

Step 4. Crunch the numbers using the GrapeRank equations. Each purple arrow in the Worldview represents a single iteration. If the arrow loops around in a circle, iterations repeat until convergence. The finished product will be a list G of items, ranked by GrapeRank score.

Step 5: Consume the list G in whatever way you see fit. If the product is a ranked list of pubkeys, it may be used to curate a feed or you may use it as part of the curation process within other Worldviews.

The Worldview is designed to give a big picture overview of the entire above process. In this post I will walk though a simple example of a hypothetical Grapevine Worldview, designed around the problem of how to curate a list of nostr apps.

Example Worldview: Curation of Nostr Apps

The Worldview in the above figure is designed for a specific purpose: to manage a list of nostr apps. [2]

Each node G on the worldview represents a table of items, each of which is associated with a contextual GrapeRank score, calculated using the GrapeRank algorithm. The blue nodes represent tables of pubkeys, and the grey node represents a list of non-pubkey items, in this case the list of nostr apps.

Each edge (purple arrow) is associated with an array R of ratings r, each of which must follow the Grapevine Ratings format. Each R is generated from raw ratings data that can be from any source, in any format. Multiple categories of data can be merged into a single dataset R. For each R, and for each category of raw data that contributes to R, an explicit Interpretation must be provided.

If we look from left to right in the above figure, we can see information processed through the following stages:

Stage 1: Follows and mutes (raw ratings data) is used to curate G_o: a table of pubkeys that are (probably) not bots or other bad actors

Stage 2: NIP-51 lists entitled "Nostr Devs" (raw data) is used to curate G_devs. Note that authors of these lists are filtered and weighted using G_o from the previous stage.

Stage 3: Content authored by G_devs is used to curate G_nostrApps, the list of Nost Apps.

The source of potential items to initialize the list G_nostrApps is unspecified in the worldview, but one possibility would be to make use of Nostr forms, as seen at formstr.

The content used to initialized R_nostrApps used in stage 3 is also left unspecified. One possibility would be to use NIP-32 labels to endorse submitted items as belonging / not belonging on the list. Anyone could submit labels, but only pubkeys represented in G_0 or G_devs will be given a voice, and that voice will be proportional to that pubkey's influence score. The relative thickness of the two purple arrows leading to the G_nostrApps node on the right tells us that nostr developers are given a louder voice in the final curation of G_nostrApps.

Values and choices of the end-user

The Grapevine Worldview places the values and choices of the end user center stage. These choices are manifest in several ways: * the choice of raw data: what is included, what data is available but ignored * the specifics of the interpretation of each category of raw data into a list R of individual ratings r * the overall topology of the Worldview, including the choices of which G's to incorporate * the demonstrated willingness to expend computational energy on any given aspects of the above. For now, the computational energy will be trivial. At some point, the energy expenditure will have a nontrivial cost.

Summary

The Grapevine Worldview is a visual overview and a control panel for the process leading up to the curation of some category of content by your grapevine. Construction of any given worldview includes decisions on who should be trusted to curate what. These decisions may or may not be the same from one end user to another.

Each user can manage multiple Worldviews, each one of which is purposed for the curation of a given G. And the output of one Worldview, G, can be consumed by a different Worldview.

Current efforts are directed at creating an open source library for the GrapeRank equations. Next step will be back end services that partner with relays and will enable generation of G_0, the Grapevine Network of "not-bot" pubkeys. We anticipate that future work will build out the front end control panel for Worldviews, including control panels for the interpretation of additional data sources and curation of lists like nostr apps as in the example above.

Notes

[1] https://njump.me / naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpef89h53f0fsza2ugwdc3e54nfpun5nxfqclpy79r6w8nxsk5yp0qqxnzdejx5urzwp58qcrgdp4dutxqa

[2] Currently, various lists of nostr apps are maintained, e.g. at Awesome Nostr by (Aljaz Ceru?), or at nostrapps.com by (Karnage?).

@ bec0c9d3:c4e9cd29

Hello, Free People!

Last weeks we were very productive. Our team has reached a higher level. Ideas, designs, workflow - you name it.

All of this to deliver you the best experience in the space. Where Open Source and Cypherpunk Ethos lead the way.

2140 COLLECTIVE alongside with CyphermunkHouse is proud to announce that Ours (Yours) festival will take place in LONDON / UK.

During Halloween/BitcoinWhitepaper weekend.

29.OCT - 03.NOV 2024

Please check BITCOIN CULTURE FESTIVAL '24 AGENDAPage for more updated info !

All of this will not be possible without YOU.

If you want to join our crew, share some ideas, help, anything - feel free to contact us using the application forms, ready - waiting on the main page.

Forms are dedicated to Volunteers and Artists that can drop an Art for Phisical Gallery There will be also an Online auction that will display your art worldwide. Bitcoin pay only).

We are also prepered forms for #nostr panel speakers who want to present any #nostr project, freedom tools, etc. ART Panel Art, music, culture - stuff around our values, Bitcoin, and freedom, during friday and saturday events.

If you wanna share you bitcoin story to isnpire otheres we invite you to visit us on free #TootingMarket Day where we preper Open Mic. Let us know. On the market, which has already onboarded 20 Bitcoin merchants with food, drink, and veggy stalls, in beautiful London City.

Please check out forms - maybe you will be the one, inspired enough to share your knowledge , ideas , and spirit.

All tribes are welcome. . We will prepare space for you!

Also, if you believe in our ethos and mission and think it would be okay for you to support us, feel free to check our Sponsorship Packages. HERE

Any help is well appreciated!

As like a Cypherpunk's Movement, we truly respect our guests' privacy. Therefore, making pictures or video recordings will not be allowed during our events.

We will organize accreditation for professional photographers, so all good memories will be well documented.

We hope you will understand our values and respect this rule as well. #PrivacyMatters

To make a long story short. We are waiting for you in London. Be prepared for an Atomic Vibe Experience .

Be a part of the Peacefull Revolution. Remmember It always starts from YOU.

Subscribe to our newsletter on our page to stay informed and up-to-date. Help us spread the word by sharing the link using the share button.

Follow us also on all socials: NOSTREE.me - NOSTR LinkTree INSTAGRAM TWETTER - X YOUTUBE

LINKS

BitcoinCulturefestival.com

bitcoinculturefestival.london

www.2140.wtf

OUR PARNERS / SPONSORS

ANGOR

BITCOIN EVENTS HQ

YAKIHONNE

Hashtags

ArtGallery

ArtPanel

2140wtf

2140army

CyphermunkHouse

art

artstr

nostrart

craft

culture

music

bitcoin

nostr

TootingMarket

NostrLDN

NostrLondon

Foodst

Foodstrlondon

foodstrLDN

yakihonne

@ 09fbf8f3:fa3d60f0

由于gmail在中国被防火墙拦截了，无法打开，不想错过邮件通知。

通过自建ntfy接受gmail邮件通知。 怎么自建ntfy，后面再写。

---

2024年08月13日更新：

修改不通过添加邮件标签来标记已经发送的通知，通过Google Sheets来记录已经发送的通知。

为了不让Google Sheets文档的内容很多，导致文件变大，用脚本自动清理一个星期以前的数据。

---

准备工具

• Ntfy服务
• Google Script
• Google Sheets

操作步骤

1. 在Ntfy后台账号，设置访问令牌。
2. 添加订阅主题。
3. 进入Google Sheets创建一个表格.记住id，如下图：
4. 进入Google Script创建项目。填入以下代码（注意填入之前的ntfy地址和令牌）：

```javascript function checkEmail() { var sheetId = "你的Google Sheets id"; // 替换为你的 Google Sheets ID var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById(sheetId).getActiveSheet();

// 清理一星期以前的数据 cleanOldData(sheet, 7 * 24 * 60); // 保留7天（即一周）内的数据

var sentEmails = getSentEmails(sheet);

var threads = GmailApp.search('is:unread'); Logger.log("Found threads: " + threads.length);

if (threads.length === 0) return;

threads.forEach(function(thread) { var threadId = thread.getId();

if (!sentEmails.includes(threadId)) {
  thread.getMessages().forEach(sendNtfyNotification);
  recordSentEmail(sheet, threadId);
}

}); }

function sendNtfyNotification(email) { if (!email) { Logger.log("Email object is undefined or null."); return; }

var message = `发件人: ${email.getFrom() || "未知发件人"} 主题: ${email.getSubject() || "无主题"}

内容: ${email.getPlainBody() || "无内容"}`;

var url = "https://你的ntfy地址/Gmail"; var options = { method: "post", payload: message, headers: { Authorization: "Bearer Ntfy的令牌" }, muteHttpExceptions: true };

try { var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, options); Logger.log("Response: " + response.getContentText()); } catch (e) { Logger.log("Error: " + e.message); } }

function getSentEmails(sheet) { var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues(); return data.map(row => row[0]); // Assuming email IDs are stored in the first column }

function recordSentEmail(sheet, threadId) { sheet.appendRow([threadId, new Date()]); }

function cleanOldData(sheet, minutes) { var now = new Date(); var thresholdDate = new Date(now.getTime() - minutes * 60 * 1000); // 获取X分钟前的时间

var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues(); var rowsToDelete = [];

data.forEach(function(row, index) { var date = new Date(row[1]); // 假设日期保存在第二列 if (date < thresholdDate) { rowsToDelete.push(index + 1); // 存储要删除的行号 } });

// 逆序删除（从最后一行开始删除，以避免行号改变） rowsToDelete.reverse().forEach(function(row) { sheet.deleteRow(row); }); }

```

4.Goole Script需要添加gmail服务，如图：

5.Google Script是有限制的不能频繁调用，可以设置五分钟调用一次。如图：

结尾

本人不会代码，以上代码都是通过chatgpt生成的。经过多次修改，刚开始会一直发送通知，后面修改后将已发送的通知放到一个“通知”的标签里。后续不会再次发送通知。

如需要发送通知后自动标记已读，可以把代码复制到chatgpt给你写。

效果预览：

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Cromite está disponível para Android arm64-v8a, arm32-v7a e x86_64, Nougat e superior (mínimo v7.0, API nível 24), Windows e Linux de 64 bits.

O objetivo do Cromite é limitar os recursos integrados ao navegador que podem ser usados ​​como plataforma para rastrear os hábitos dos usuários e, se não for tecnicamente possível, desativá-los e deixar que o usuário escolha se deseja reativá-los limitar a estreita integração entre o navegador e seu fabricante não deixar que o excelente trabalho de pesquisa realizado por csagan5 com Bromite se perca Além disso, a Cromite gostaria de promover uma maior integração com outros navegadores de código aberto sem fins lucrativos, incentivando uma colaboração mais estreita com outros, e tentar integrá-los diretamente no Chromium assim que atingirem um nível apropriado de maturidade.

Limitações de privacidade Os recursos de privacidade do Cromite, incluindo mitigações anti-impressão digital (que não são abrangentes), não devem ser considerados úteis para jornalistas e pessoas que vivem em países com limitações de liberdade . Consulte o Navegador Tor nesses casos. Observe que este projeto não está livre de bugs e que alterar o comportamento de um navegador pode ser arriscado e não isento de problemas.

https://github.com/uazo/cromite

https://www.cromite.org/fdroid/repo/?fingerprint=49F37E74DEE483DCA2B991334FB5A0200787430D0B5F9A783DD5F13695E951do

@ e5272de9:a16a102f

The Grapevine is designed to digest raw data, no matter where you can find it. This is made possible through the process of interpretation.

Interpretation: the process of converting a source of raw data into a format suitable for consumption by the grapevine algorithm

format of Grapevine ratings

The Grapevine is designed to take as input a list of ratings that follow a specialized format, which we will refer to as Grapevine ratings.

Each rating must contain the following 4 to 6 fields: - rater - ratee - score - confidence - context (optional) - rating type (optional)

rater

The author of the rating. Often will be a pubkey or an npub, but could be username, etc.

ratee

The person, place, or thing being rated. This could be a pubkey, an event id or naddr, or a simple string, e.g. the title of a movie.

score

usually a number, but could be a boolean, an item on a list, etc.

confidence

a number between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 and 100 percent) that represents the confidence of the rater in the score. For example: If Alice rates Bob as highly skilled in some context, and this is based on working with him for many years, she may rate him 9/10 with a confidence of 0.9 (90 percent). On the other hand, suppose she considers him worthy of a 9/10 rating, but this is based on only one brief interaction. In this case, she may rate him 9/10 but with a confidence of 0.05 (5 percent).

context

a string. This may be omitted from the table if every rating in the table or dataset is of the same context (as may often be the case).

rating type

a string that indicates the type of rating: 5 star, true or false, etc. This may be omitted from the table if every rating in the table or dataset is of the same rating type (as may often be the case).

Example interpretation: follows and mutes

A good way to bootstrap a list of nostr users minus the bots, scams, and other bad actors is to make use of the follows and mutes lists, as is done at brainstorm.

The interpretation of a follow is the following Grapevine Rating: - rater: pk_Alice - ratee: pk_Bob - score: 1 - confidence: 0.05

The interpretation of a mute is the following Grapevine Rating: - rater: pk_Alice - ratee: pk_Charlie - score: 0 - confidence: 0.1

Grapevine Ratings Tables

A list of ratings may be referred to as a Grapevine Ratings Table or a Grapevine Ratings Dataset (if in some non-table format, such as an object).

In the below example, the rating type (0 to 5 stars) and context (item quality) columns are the same for each row in the table and so are omitted.

| rater | ratee | score | confidence | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | pk_Alice | item1 | 4 | 0.5 | | pk_Bob | item1 | 5 | 0.9 | | pk_Alice | item2 | 0 | 0.1 |

Sources of Raw Data

| Some Suggested Sources of Raw Data | | --- | | follows, mutes, zaps | | kind 1 and long form notes | | NIP-51 lists | | kind 7 reactions | | NIP-32 labels | | NIP-58 badges | | nostr forms (e.g. see formstr) |

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848

This is the cleaned, AI-generated transcript of Bitcoin Infinity Show #127

If you'd like to support us, check out https://bitcoininfinitystore.com/ for all our books, merch, and more!

Welcoming George Manolov

Luke: George, welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Show, thank you for joining us.

George: Thank you, Knut.

Knut: Good to have you here, George.

George: to be here, yeah.

you're here to tell us about the city that I was most surprised by ever. Like, I've never heard of the city before I went to Bulgaria, Yeah, time flies.

Knut: So Plovdiv, Bulgaria, which was amazing, this rich, Thousands of years of history plays with a lot of different eras and different styles of architecture and stuff, really enjoyed Plovdiv, and you have a football team there.

George: yeah, indeed.

George Manolov and Botev Plovdiv

George: Please give us the story about George and Plovdiv Yeah, sure.

Knut: Plovdiv.

George: Sure, sure. So, Plovdiv is, well, I would say it's the oldest living city in Europe, so continuously inhabited. Like you say, not many people know it. I guess, like, we don't have good enough marketing, but, that's probably part of my job right now, right? To spread the word about it. so it's, like the second largest city in the country.

And, yeah, it's just this, it's very, like, I love how you put it because almost nobody has really heard of Plovdiv, right? Most people, when they hear of Bulgaria, they've probably heard of Sofia but Sofia is, okay, but Plovdiv is kind of the chill place, Plovdiv is the place that is actually worth visiting, the place where, people just enjoy going there.

I was born there, right? and, grew up there till 18 or so, then, Studied, lived in Sofia most of the time. And, last year, in kind of summer, I was already kind of way deeper into Bitcoin. I decided I'm going to go full time into Bitcoin, just commit all my time in Bitcoin at the time, educating, publishing books in Bulgarian about Bitcoin, creating my own educational platform.

And then I got, reached out and connected really to the owner of the football club in the city, which is also the oldest football club in the country, Botev Plovdiv, who was, well, he got introduced into Bitcoin himself and he realized it's going to be a very big, project. You know, going to play a central role in where the world is going.

Knut: What is this the owner of the club?

George: That's right. The owner of the club. was like, Hey, I think we can do something unique with Bitcoin because, you know, the club is really a company, right? It's a business on the one hand, but it's a special type of business, it's not where just you produce a certain product or service.

It's really a living organism where people are involved into it, for very emotional reasons. people feel like it's their own and it's not like a small group of people. It's a very large group of people. In our case, we have tens of thousands, arguably more than a hundred, 200, 000 people who care, who watch, who follow the club.

And so on the one hand, like there's many different ways in which we can look into this, but on the one hand. It's for me, what really inspired me and what got me like, Oh my God, like, is this really happening is that we can bring the conversation about Bitcoin from a completely different angle into society to a group of people who for the most part would never really They would like this, they would never listen to podcasts like this, they would never get to any of the kind of places and things we listen to, watch, consume, right?

and people go, You know, people go kind of for bread and circus, right,

Knut: yeah, yeah.

George: for the games. That's what really football is, right? It's fun and it's emotion, it's enjoyment, but then we push them censorship resistance and hard money, right?

And we don't really push it, you know, that's the thing, right? Because are like consistently, progressively, gradually over time, introducing it and finding the best way and the most appropriate way to, yeah, plant that seed. To the minds of the people, into the views of the people and so on and so forth.

so it's really like, you know, what we're trying to build is, we feel we're in a very privileged position, right? because we've been, the first really professional sports club globally, I would say, to have, uh, crypto Bitcoin, you know, people, departments, who is actually full time employed to, you know, think of a way to grow the business, to think of a way to integrate Bitcoin natively, within the various aspects of, of, of the organization, which obviously initially includes like accepting payments and so on and so forth.

But, um, but there's so much more you can do exactly with this type of, Like organization, again, like not, not, not just a business in a traditional sense.

Knut: Yeah. And, uh, won the league, right? Is that, is that right?

George: Yeah, man, like it's, uh, yeah, so we, um, when I started last year, things were super bad. Like exactly one year ago, I was there for the, for one of the first games. It was horrible. Like, I was like, okay, this is a great idea, but if the team is doing so bad and if, uh, if they keep losing and if the fans keep getting, you know, being unhappy, Um, it's not gonna go anywhere, but still, I gave it a, I gave it a go, right, because I was like, okay, I just hope that the sports side guys are going to do their, their part, and I have my opportunity here, um, to, to just like push, to educate, to, To do what, what, what life is giving me an opportunity to do.

And, uh, very fortunately, as we started working, the team started performing better and better and better. We got a completely new coach. We got a new sports director. We, we had a lot of key staff changes across the organization, which, Um, relatively quickly started showing results. So, uh, yeah, like, 10 months later in May, we won the Bulgarian Cup.

Luke: Is that the cup or the league? Like, uh,

George: it's the cup, it's the cup. So, so, I was saying, like, we started very bad in the league. And so, we were doing better and better, but still, like, we finished 9th in the league out of 16 clubs at the end of the day. But which was still okay, because, like, when I joined, like, we were, like,

Luke: Worried about relegation or something like that?

George: there. I mean,

Knut: We're complete, uh, like I've tried to take an interest to football, but like, uh, my ADD just, the brain just wanders away after five minutes and I can't concentrate anymore. So I don't

Luke: a basketball fan.

Knut: Am I now?

Football for Noobs

Knut: Uh, so, uh, what's the difference between the cup and the league? Let's begin there. That's, that's how much of a football noob I

George: So, so pretty much in every country is the same, right? You have a league or a championship where you have, in our case, 16 teams, and every team plays twice against every other team. So home game, away game, and then, you know, you either win three points when you win, or you lose, or you draw, and you, you, you win one point.

And then, so after you play, after you play, in our case, this, what is it, games? You know,

Luke: 30.

George: yeah, about 30. Yeah, right. You're better than Matt, it's obvious. So, um, so once you play these 30 games, um, you, um, yeah, like the team with the most points wins, right? Whereas, uh, the cup is direct elimination

Knut: So quarterfinals, semifinals, all that.

George: exactly. So it's the easier way. So this was the way for us to due to the bad start of the season. This was the way for us to, to achieve something in this season and to achieve something important because what the Cubs gives us as an opportunity and gave us was to play in the European Leagues.

So UEFA Leagues. And we just did that. We played six games. Uh, for the Europe, uh, Europe League and the Europe Conference League.

Knut: Okay. But to, to be in the champions league, that's a totally, you have to, yeah, yeah. You have to win the league and you have to win all sorts of stuff. Like how does that work?

George: yeah. You have to win the league. And then in our case, so in every country it's different, but in our case, we have to win, like we go to qualifications for the Champions League. So it's like, I mean, three to four games. And if we win that, we go to the Champions League.

Knut: Alright,

George: That's the current state of affairs, although that can change over the years.

Knut: alright, uh, it all makes sense to me now, that's a lie, but anyway.

Luke: No, uh, I'll definitely, we'll acknowledge here that I'm more of the, the sports fan, uh, generally here, and I, I follow football, I like, uh, I like European, uh, football, uh, well, and obviously I'm using the correct, uh, term despite my, um, my pseudo American accent, uh. Yeah, anyway, um, uh, no, it's fantastic to see, and I mean, yeah, for the non sports fans, uh, listening to this, I get that

Knut: Well, I am a sports fan, it's just that Starcraft 2 is my sport, and yeah, yeah,

Luke: yeah,

George: eSports.

Knut: yeah, yeah, so I watch, watch Starcraft 2 games. That's what I do for procrastination sometimes.

Luke: valid sports, I'm not going to compare it to other things that aren't

Knut: breakdancing? Is that a valid sport?

Luke: Breakdancing is, um, hmm, interesting. I think anything with points, that judges give points, is kind of not a sport, it's an activity.

Knut: yeah.

Luke: but, yeah, anyway,

Knut: thing to do.

Luke: is a thing to do, yes, definitely, but back to, back to, um, um, Botev Plod, is it Botev, Botev, what's, what's, Botev, Botev Plod, yeah, so, so, um, yeah, yeah, like, the, the, the achievement, winning, winning the cup, I mean, the, The cups are sort of more difficult.

They're both difficult in their own way, right? Like, the cup, you lose one game, you're out, basically, right? But, I mean, the league is like this endurance, achievement, right? You have to perform well over the course of the whole season. But the cheat code, so to say, and I probably subconsciously used the other football team's terminology, who's in the space, Real Bedford, um,

Botev Plovdiv's Bitcoin Strategy

Luke: The, the idea right, if, if I'm getting it, is that you guys would, would keep the Bitcoin in the, in the, the treasury, the, the company, and then over the course of time it's just gonna do the number go up thing and, and the, the club will have more resources.

Right. Is that, is that the idea you're thinking with the, the bitcoin strategy?

George: There's actually many, many things to it. And this is kind of the most, let's say, vanilla type of approach. Yeah, like just buy Bitcoin and hold it on the balance sheet, which is, which is great. But there's actually so many other things you can do. And that's where, because if you just do that, frankly, like, I mean, you don't need me involved, right, much.

I mean, just call Coinbase, whatever, wire the money, crack in and, buy. but with us it's like, really, uh, we see a huge opportunity to, first of all, align our brand with the Bitcoin brand, which is a royalty free, uh, The biggest brand in finance, for sure. One, uh, like it's going to be the biggest brand in the world for sure at some point.

Right. So that's, that's one play. And to do this, it's not enough for you to just buy Bitcoin and hold it on a balance sheet. It's what you need to do is proof of work, right? You need to do things that nobody has ever done. You need to really kind of be creative. Uh, and, and, um, to push the boundaries of what anyone has ever done before, right?

So, so that is, uh, that is my kind of job and it's a lot of, um, a lot of just like, let's, let's think of what, what new things we can do with Bitcoin and sports and football that nobody has ever done. Just because others are focused on the short term things, they're focused on, hitting those, those quick wins, those quick goals, which is why, for example, like a lot of the sports and, and that have, you know, interact, they haven't really interacted outside of Bedford with Bitcoin, right?

It's mostly been crypto because it's just, okay, let's make some quick money. Um,

Luke: usually, it's usually just sponsorships, right?

Knut: yeah,

George: yes. Um, and for us, because on the one hand, like, we're not like Manchester United, right? We're not Chelsea. So we don't have that much to monetize immediately. Like we're a large club, but.

Luke: You're a large club in a local league, which is, which is different from the, it's not one of the leagues that is internationally positioned like that. But, but, I mean, the, the difference between you guys and Bedford that I, that I think is, is really interesting. Like, McCormack, what he, Peter McCormack, what he's doing, I mean, he's, he's taking a club from the bottom and aiming for the top.

But who knows how long that's going to take him to get there, right? But you guys are already in the top of your league, right? Like, in the top league.

George: right, yeah, and also there's, there's different in this, we're in the top of our league. My goal, personally, is to go to Champions League, but this is very hard, right? Because, like, okay, when you start from Peter's ground, like, it's easy, okay, every year you level up, you level up, or, I mean, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's easier than, uh, than once you're, you know, at our level.

For us, it's important to play currently every year in European leagues like we've done so far and to every year consistently, like, increase the level of the sports, level of the business department bit by bit, and, but like breaking that point where we, you know, win the league, Where we win several more games and enter the Champions League, that, that's really hard.

I mean, because you're already at that stage where everybody, like, so many teams are so strong, right? So it's um, it takes just a lot of ingredients for you to, to, to hit, uh, in order to win. But we're gonna get there.

Knut: and does the club self custody it's bitcoin? And if so, is it a something out of 11 multisig, that sounds like a football thing?

George: Why so? Ah, yeah, an 11? Nah, nah, fuck that. I mean Nah, even, even 7 Motosick is a, is a killer, but no. Um, yeah, I can't really speak too much about this at this point. Yeah. Um, but, um, but yeah, I mean, we do, of course we do self custody. So that's, that's the approach that we've chosen with kind of a lot of, um, we've chosen to go really pure, pure Bitcoin in terms of the strategy.

And that's how we set ourselves apart. That's how we believe we win the long game because for instance, like we Bitcoin with BTC pay server. Which in my mind they don't even have competition. It's the only like, real, solid, autonomous, sovereign way to accept payments. And it's also the way which makes sense for like, Frankly, any standard business, because like, man, we're selling scarves, we're selling, um, membership boat cards, we're selling jerseys, we're selling basic merch, and if we are to sell it with basically any other service out there, outside of BTC Pay Server, we have to basically, uh, indirectly do KYC, right?

Like, we have to go through KYC, we have to go through KYB, which is ridiculous, um, in my mind. And so, um, so that's why we're exceptionally thankful to B2C Pay Server guys, uh, for what they've built. Uh, it's been like an absolute pleasure to, um, to use their product, to use their service. Uh, we have, you know, outside of B2C Pay, we, uh, we are the first, uh, sports club on Nostr.

Where, uh, we have, uh, actively been posting, exploring, you know, meeting people here. Kind of thinking of what we could do from our angle again, like first, first time on Nostr.

Aqua WAllet

George: Um, we have partnered with, uh, Aqua, JAN3's Aqua wallet, which has a, a Botive skin mode now. So if you go to settings, you can turn Botive mode and then it turns into the colors of the club and, you know, have the picture of the stadium there.

Um,

Luke: I'm using Aqua right now because, uh, uh, usually I like to use Aqua as like a sort of a middle wallet, uh, uh, because it's still slightly slower than other lightning wallets because they, they, the, everything actually lives on, on liquid and then they, they, uh, go out via bolts. Uh, so it's slightly slower than a faster, um, like, like than other, um, more direct lightning wallets.

And so usually when I come to a conference, I'm going to load up a, like a temporary. I don't know, Blink or something like that, but I forgot to do that, so I'm just using my Aqua wallet, and you know what, it's been great here, it's been working, uh, so yeah, we're big fans of Aqua wallet and what

Knut: Yeah, and a BTC pay server. I mean, uh, we can echo everything you said that we, BitcoinInfinity. com, like, and the store here We just fired up. Everything is powered by a BTC pay server, and we just love it. Yes.

Luke: So what was your question about, uh, Aqua?

George: If yours is on BOTEV mode.

Luke: Uh, I don't think I've gone into the settings and changed it to Vaudev mode, I'll have to do that, maybe we'll take

George: It's dark mode,

but cooler.

Luke: Doc dark mode, but cooler. Okay. Okay. Actually that's a, that's a, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah. We'll take a, we'll take a picture after, uh, after the episode and we'll de proof, bot, uh, bot e mode, and, uh, uh, post that on Nostr.

How does that sound?

George: Let's go.

Knut: Yeah. Nostr. Um, is there a connection there between both a plot and Nostr while you're doing Nostr stuff as well?

History and Freedom

George: Yeah. Well, look, um, a lot of these things is like, so What Botev Plovdiv stands for, um, very importantly, so the club was named after Hristo Botev, who's, uh, like, one of the most Bulgarians, if the most famous Bulgarian revolutionaries, like, historical figure, uh, he was a poet, he was a revolutionary, he fought for Bulgaria's freedom back in the day,

Luke: Which, which day, which, what day did you

George: uh, 110, uh, what is it, like, 50 years ago or so?

Yeah.

Knut: Mm-Hmm?

Luke: Okay. So, so

Knut: before the Commes.

Luke: ottoman, uh,

George: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He, he, he, he fought for the, for the liberation of Bulgaria from, from the Ottoman Empire. And a lot of what he stands for is this fight for freedom, his fight for liberty. Um, and this, this lives until this very day into the identity of the club and to what we stand for into the songs, into the, into the music.

Um, you know, um, the kind of like what, what our fans also resonate with, um, and, and what they sing like in many, in many ways. Right. So, um, Freedom of speech, freedom of, uh, of like freedom in general is, is a value that is deeply ingrained into kind of like what the club stands for. Um, and, uh, you know, that's why I'm into Bitcoin.

That's why I believe. And that's, that's why I saw this even bigger opportunity. Oh my God, like, how is this happening? There's so many, sometimes, you know, some like weird things happen in life and you have no explanation why and how all these things align. But, but for me, it's like this club was made really to.

to be aligned with BOTEF and to be, uh, to, to, to be aligned with Bitcoin and with Nostr. If I look at all the other clubs in Bulgaria, right, like just in Bulgaria, none of the others, like, there's no this contextual historical background that you can make these connections. But with us, we have it, and what a chance that, like, we have this owner, and he got, like, introduced to it, and then we got connected.

Like, how the hell does this happen, man? I don't know,

Luke: We like to say this, the surreal doesn't end, you know, and like, uh, my, my whole story, I've been talking about this, uh, at the, the conference here is like two years ago was the first time I ever met Bitcoiners here in Baltic Honeybadger. We, we met for the, for the first time, uh, all three of us, uh, met for the first time two years ago, I've been in Baltic Honeybadger and it's like, things, things happen so fast.

Uh, I've, I've, uh, I've thought it was been awesome just following, uh, what you've been doing with the, the club and the story. So great to, Great to get to talk about it, but, uh,

Bitcoin in Football

George: Yeah. No, for, for me, like really the, the most exciting part is really even coming forward. So, uh, because, so now it's been, so we, a long, we announced, uh, publicly that we're doing this, uh, 31st October last year. So the anniversary of the, of the, uh, Bitcoin White paper, um, we've built a lot right. And very, very importantly, I'm super proud, like, I don't know if you saw this, but like a month ago, we played on European League, the UEFA League with Bitcoin straight on our jerseys, which was like, like, when I saw this, I'm like, dude, it's crazy that this is happening.

But, but the best is really yet to come, like, like we like to say. Um, so I, I think we, we're, we have, um, we have still so much more to do. So for me, the next big part, which I'm super excited about literally in the coming month as, uh, as I go back. So is to finally get some of our. Players or at least one or two to get to do something publicly about this, because at the end of the day, that's why for me, the more I do, the more I, uh, play in this arena, I realized this is really a Trojan horse for us to bring Bitcoin into the conversation, into the minds, like I said, of people who otherwise wouldn't and, and our players, you know, especially a few of them, they're really influencers, right?

Um, a lot of people follow them. A lot of people respect them. And, um, and if they do, uh, you know, something meaningful, something cool, something impactful, this is going to have a huge impact onto our forwards. This could very well have impact onto, um, other sportsmen, other football people, other football clubs, right?

Uh, so that's why I'm doing it, right? Really?

Luke: No, this is fantastic, and actually this was exactly where I was hoping to go next, so thank you for queuing that up. But, no, no, the game theory of all this, right? Like, one club getting, Positioning as the, as the Bitcoin club in a league, uh, really means that eventually all the other clubs are going to need to adopt Bitcoin.

If they're going to be able to compete, because if play playing out the game theory, number go up, whatever it is, Bitcoin strategy plays out, you guys are going to be the most financially capable club. Financially sustainable in not very long, you know, assuming everything plays out the way we're thinking it will, right?

So, so other, other clubs then would become incentivized to also adopt Bitcoin. So what, what do you, what do you think about that? Like you, do you, do you see that, uh, happening as well?

George: Yeah, I'm not really sure if it would happen to me. That fast, to be fair. Like, I think it's inevitable, right, obviously, but I think it, yeah, like, I think this definitely takes at least three, four years, maybe more. Um,

Luke: That's, that's still pretty fast.

George: yeah, I guess. I mean, I mean, like, okay, let me define it better. It takes three, four years.

So, for other clubs within our league to start doing something like this, uh, maybe it takes less time for other clubs to realize it, but I think for them to do it, it also depends on our actions, right? So because like, we don't have like a treasury of microstrategy or something, so it's not, and we're not doing like a

Luke: you don't?

George: monthly like leverage on top of leverage on top of another leverage, you know, uh, we're not in, in Michael's privileged position. but we can do other cool things, right? Uh, one of the, um, so this is not yet live and this is not yet happening, but one of the, like two, two projects, let's say, I'm gonna briefly, like, tease here that, that I'm working on that I hope to have very large impact is first, uh, building this, uh, simple tool Uh, called like a Bitcoin, uh, football salary calculator that, uh, it's like really a DCA tool, but like looking back and like tailoring it to our niche where I want to, for us to visually and emotionally Show, um, to players, but also to fans of ours, like what Bitcoin could have done for their remuneration, if you look one year back in time, two years back in time, three years back in time, four years back in time, and for them to really realize, Oh my God, this is a no brainer.

Right? I want to make this mess. And this is hard, right? Um, because like, there's so many tools and like, but I want to be, because the audience is very wide, very different types of audience. I want to make this so that you can consume it in like two, three, four minutes. And you're like, okay, I need to learn more about this.

This actually is interesting. There's like, that's so much dense and emotional and compact information that you're like, Whoa. Why am I not doing this? How did I miss this?

Knut: What, what, what was the name of that website? I, I don't know if it's still up, but bitcoin or shit.com or something like that. So, so it lists if you bought this item when it came out, an iPhone five or whatever, uh, and if you had bought b bitcoin instead.com, I think that that's the, that's the name. So if you bought, uh, if you bought Bitcoin instead, it shows you how much, how much more money you'd have now and how many iPhones you

George: Yeah. Yeah. And of course there's many of these tools, obviously like we've all see them and we all like like them and retweet them and repost them. And it's all great. But I think, at least I hope that we can do something impactful with this. If we really tailor it, compact it to a specific type of niche audience with a specific message designed for them.

And because this audience is also like. A type of audience who can also like, um, you know, bring it to other bubbles that we ourselves are not part of, right? So that's, for example, one like, uh, one like project I'm very, very excited about and I hope we can, um, yeah, we'll bring forward relatively soon.

There's a few moving elements, but definitely in the coming month or two, uh, at most. And then, uh, and then, you know, speaking of the other clubs, what, what I want us to do is what we're working is next year, we're targeting to do, I hope we could do the world's first, uh, Bitcoin, uh, Cup tournament. Uh, for youth players, 70 year old boys who are, you know, right there before they sign their first professional contract, start earning money, for them, first of all, like, it's a Bitcoin football cup, like, it's the first time this, this could potentially ever happen And then it's, it's a football first tournament, right?

This is the, we want to make it like top quality, like really the highest quality when it comes to sports, but then you have Bitcoin involved all over the place, right? In terms of brand, in terms of rewards, in terms of, um, in terms of like plays, um, like, like games and, and interactions, activations, uh, throughout, before, throughout, and after the, And after the event, and for this, I'm targeting to get really like, like big clubs.

I mean, because it's academies, right? I mean, I cannot get the Manchester United first team, just maybe we could get the Manchester United 17 year old team or, you know, another big club. We get some of these, and then like we get their brands, we get them on the focus of Bitcoin. And we drive the conversation faster, you know, not three, four years from now, but Less

Knut: what about, um, like right now there's you and there's, um, you guys and there's a real bed for it, right? Those are the two I know of in Europe. Are you aware of any other clubs that are doing a Bitcoin strategy? I mean, is this virus spreading? Like, have you heard anything like,

George: Um, Oh, there's, uh, there's the Austrian Admira Vakir who have done some integration. So it's a second tier, uh, second league, uh, second league, uh, club that have, uh, that have, uh, you know, they've also had Bitcoin on the, their second team jersey. And, um, and they, they also accept Bitcoin payments, uh, here and there, but you know, the thing is, there's some other clubs, um, there's a Miami, um, not Miami, um, a Hawaiian club that, that is doing, uh, that is doing like their Bitcoin gig,

Knut: yeah, there are other, other sports, right, other sports team and sports teams in other sports that are doing it. But, but for football specifically,

George: which ones?

Knut: Uh, I'm so bad with sports, but wasn't there like a hockey team or a basketball team or

Luke: I'm not aware of any others, actually. Yeah, like, uh, there's been some attempts at

Knut: it's

Luke: an orange colored team or something like

Knut: more the individual athletes,

Luke: Yeah, yeah, there have been individual

Knut: for instance, a

Luke: have been individual

Knut: player, and there was some American football player.

George: There's been individual athletes, a lot of them. There's been, I was asking if you know, but there's been a baseball club in Australia, the Port Heat. Uh, who did kind of a Bitcoin strategy. Uh, but very unfortunately that didn't work out. They kind of started this at the peak of the last bull cycle. And, um, and as I understand, uh, there wasn't like a strong alignment between the owners and the management in terms of like understanding that this is a long game.

So that's why this kind of flopped. Um, but yeah, like I, I think the reason why it's not happening in more, unfortunately, and, and, and I see this even, even within our club, uh, you know, but, but definitely no other clubs because Fiat has permitted sports as well. Right. So all the sports club, uh, clubs or the vast majority in football, for sure.

They're like, you know, on the hamster wheel themselves.

Knut: They're indebted,

George: They're indebted.

Knut: to an extreme level,

George: yeah, like, like fighting for every dollar for every income. So it's, it's hard for you to like, Oh yeah, we're going to have this long term Bitcoin strategy that's going to take like two, three, four, five years to play out.

And we can benefit a lot from it. It's very, very hard in, you know, unfortunately for a large organizations, sports club in particular to To have this realization, to map this out, to get others on board. That's why it's not so popular and uh, and that's why I'm grateful and keep pushing that we have this chance.

Luke: I mean, you make a great point here about essentially the, it's the organizational alignment, right? Like the, the, these are companies, sports clubs are companies. They just have this large, the business is involved around getting fans to come in and consume this sort of marketing. Product, essentially. So it's, it's a certain kind of company that's run a certain way, but just like any other company, you need, you need alignment from the management.

So it's, it's fantastic that, uh, Boteb Plovdiv has, has the, uh, alignment and is, is putting their, their trust in you to, to move this thing forward. And I mean, from the, from the perspective of this thing, Playing out, right? The, the best part that, uh, I think one of the best parts that you, you mentioned again was the, the influencers.

Like you get, you get some players, there's, there's so many angles to, to reach people through this. I think it's, I think it's fantastic. The, uh, orange pilling a player and then they move to another club, but they, they, maybe they don't get to get paid in Bitcoin, but maybe they still put, put their money in, in Bitcoin.

Maybe they even ask their club to, to, uh, pay them in Bitcoin, something like that. And then the, the Questions start getting, uh, asked and all this.

5 Year Goals

Luke: So what, what is the, the goal in, in five years, for example, where, where do you see the club in the five year mark?

George: Oh man. Yeah, in five years, I think we definitely have to be in Champions League. Like in my mind, you know, like people around me like, oh, you're too ambitious. I'm like, man, yeah, like in five years, we definitely have to be in Champions League. Uh, that's, that's my personal goal. On our internal Slack, I have the Champions League icon there.

That's why I'm there, right? Um, so, uh, it's a lot of hard work. Like, it's really a lot of hard work. And it's also not completely dependent on me and my work, to be fair. Like, because, at all. I mean, really, like, uh, I mean, at the end of the day, the most important part is the sports department, right? Uh, in the club.

Um, so that has to continue going well. But, but I think We're going in a good direction there too, because we have the, they're the long term view as well, right. We have our academy internally, which is, yeah, it's one of the best academies. It's the best really academy in terms of infrastructure in the country.

That's why we're also can't afford to think of this Bitcoin Cup tournament, because we have the infrastructure, we have like a super cool stadium, that's crazy. If we can, if we can do a final for, for such a tournament there. Um, so, so we have all the things in place in terms of In terms of assets, I would say, uh, it's just a lot of moving parts.

a lot of work, consistency, and a bit of luck. Always it comes, you know, when, when it comes to, when it comes to football and sports, but, but five years from now, I want us to be in the champions league. I want us to be the absolute, you know, international professional level, uh, Bitcoin level, Bitcoin sports club.

and, uh, and I want for this tournament that I start to be like a, like, like to have the fourth edition by then. Uh, and, and I want to have clubs, but five years is a lot of time, you know, as you say, like, I also want to have other clubs following us by then. I think that's absolutely, absolutely is going to be doable.

Knut: What, what are the, what are the tax laws around Bitcoin in Bulgaria? Like what, are there any issues there? Or like what, is it easy enough,

George: It's kind of okay. Uh, it's kind of okay. So if you just buy Bitcoin and hold it, like you don't, uh, you don't, uh, incur taxes, uh, until you sell it, if you accept Bitcoin for payments, um, and if you don't sell it, you can just, uh, keep it as inventory on your balance sheet. So again, no,

Knut: but there's a capital gains tax or something if you sell it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright.

George: 10%. So it's, it's, uh,

Knut: Pretty good.

George: Yeah, I mean, it's not like El Salvador. Okay. Uh, but, but it's, uh, it's, it's way better than many other places. Um, and, uh, yeah, so we've been looking, looking actually, so I was in El Salvador a couple of months ago, because we've been looking very much to do stuff there.

And we've been, uh, yeah. Um, because we've been, we've been thinking of what to do more with Bitcoin, right? So that's why I said, like, it's not just about buying and accepting Bitcoin. It's about corporate strategies, about branding strategies, about how to make money. Um, it's about education strategies. It's, there's so much around it.

So in terms of corporate strategy, I was, uh, we're very attracted by El Salvador, um, and their, uh, capital markets regulation, because they're basically striving to build capital markets on top of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is legal tender there. They have all kinds of, tax incentives for companies to issue debt or to sell equity.

on their capital, on their, um, well, let's say nascent upcoming capital markets, because it's not like it's, you know, hustling and bustling yet. Um, but, but they're, they've put a lot of the rails, uh, um, or they're building a lot of the rails to, um, to really enable the, the, the creation of Bitcoin based capital markets.

So, um, we've had great talks there. We have meetings with, uh, um, we have. Yeah, with the Bitcoin office, right? Um, so, ideally, like, we're striving to build some connection there and to do something, interesting and world first again from a corporate perspective. It's just that, as many things, it's a little harder than you would expect it to be, or it takes a little more time than, Then you would hope to do it.

But my idea or long term vision, frankly, like what we want to do with Bitcoin, uh, and with the club is to enable our current fans and global fans to become co owners of the club. And that's why, you know, I have big hopes for, uh, for us being able to do this out of El Salvador and through El Salvador, because this would, like from a tax perspective, from a branding perspective, from legal security perspective would be, would be ideal.

It's just that, again, um, my enthusiasm is a little over, uh, ahead of kind of like how, uh, how, how advanced and set up everything there is, but, uh, but we're, we're very actively talking to them. We're working with many parties there, so. Just maybe we can have big news there too.

International and Local Effects

Luke: Well, no, and, and you actually said something great about global fans. I think this is a, a fantastic thing, right? A a again, Bedford is, is similar. They've, they've got, they've got fans all over the world and, and I think for you guys it's like who is going to tune into the Bulgarian football league outside of Bulgaria before, well, not too many people, but now a bunch of Bitcoiners.

If they're into, if they're into football or, or not even, because this is the funny thing. There were, there were a lot of people posting about that. They, they've got, they, they don't usually follow, follow sports at all, but, but they'll follow the Bitcoin team. So the, the funny thing is, I think, I think the first, the first club to adopt Bitcoin in every league is going to get all of these global fans.

And maybe the, maybe the, the second one, the third one, maybe can get some kind of other support, but it's really the first one in every

George: really.

Luke: That, that

George: Not

Luke: That's that. I, I completely agree with you there. It's the, it's the first one

Knut: first mover advantage.

Luke: mover advantage. It's gonna get, it is gonna get all of the, all of the Bitcoiners are gonna now be, be supporting and, uh, uh, yeah.

I mean, have, have you seen, uh, some, some uptick in, uh, kind of international

George: yeah, yeah. So, international but also local. Like, local is very important. Like, we have, like, so many people in the country who's like, just what you say, like, I didn't care about sports or football, like, forever, or at all, ever, but now I follow, now I buy merch, now I come, you know, every now and then they come to games, so

Luke: Well, because there's the bread and circuses thing that you said, it gets tossed around in the Bitcoin world and also some other places on kind of the Twitter sphere and whatever, it's like it's a distraction, that sports is sort of a distraction from clown world basically and it's a way of people to sort of Uh, forget about what's going on around them, but I think that's also missing the, the positives, which it, it's a, it's a community builder, it brings people together, there's a, there's a sense of, of pride in, in something local succeeding, everyone, everyone's happy, there's, there's real economic, uh, effects usually when a, when a local sports team wins, and so, so from, from my perspective, I, I, I think, I think sport is a good thing, and it's, and it's, it's something that, that people can rally around, and so,

George: an amazing thing.

Luke: Yeah.

And, and so what, what are, what are you looking at locally? Like what, what do you hope to have the effect, uh, uh, locally in, in piv?

George: Yeah. Um, yeah, no, look, uh, for me, sports, like, for us, the, the, the, the, about Plovdiv, for me, that's what I realized, like, we're kind of very much into Bitcoin and stuff, obviously, that's our interest, but I think when we go on a Bitcoin standard, Right. And, uh, in general, people start feeling wealthier, opposed to, like, being in the grind.

You're just going to have more time for fun stuff, right? Like playing football, I mean, or volleyball, or whatever your sport is, or, like, going and cheering your team, and, uh, and being part of such a community. And I think that's really what, you know, even Nostr is about. Like it's, Being part of these communities, because that's fun, and like, we as humans, at the end of the day, we are living to be part of communities, right?

And you find your community, you're an active part of it, you contribute to it, you evolve it, right? You build it in one way or another. And unfortunately, you know, today in the fiat world, this is just like A stress valve in many ways, or like you say, like Brothers and Sisters, whatever. Um, but, uh, but I think it can be so much more, right?

It is, but it can be so much more for a larger amount of people and so on and so forth. uh, but yeah, well, back in Plovdiv, man, like, I have big hopes. I really have big, big ambitions there. I want to get Bitcoin into the wallets of, uh, of like tens of thousands of people. I want people to wake up. I want people to see.

Luke: big is piv? How many

George: It's like three, four hundred thousand people. So it's a lot. Uh, our stadium is, uh, 21, 000 seats stadium. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's, it's 19. I wish it was 21.

Luke: Yeah. You'll have to add 2000 more

George: Maybe, yeah, we'll, we'll think of some additional construction.

Luke: the, make the infinity stand when

George: Right. Right. But, uh, but yeah, like the setting was super cool. Like, it's really cool.

Like when it's feel like, man, the atmosphere is amazing. Um, and so it's, and it's really this community that you can feel that people are involved. So it's, it's like consistency and it's social engineering in one way or another, right?

Knut: one of our favorite words,

George: but in a positive way.

Knut: in a positive way, okay.

George: So it's social engineering for us to ingrain Bitcoin and make it part of kind of what people see, do, have, own, interact with, right?

So, uh, I think exactly because of this community element, exactly because, Because, you know, football is a football club and there's this unique living organism we can, we can create this and, you know, it's fascinating. I'm so much into this and there's other people who are so much into this. Oh my god, like, we can make such a big difference.

And, and like in the country. You know, on a political and economic level, they don't get it. Like, they don't see it. They just are in their, you know, like, oh, are we going to accept the euro? Oh, what's happening with the war? I'm like, who cares? Let's build.

Bulgarian Currency Situation

Knut: Yeah, Bulgaria has its own shitcoin, I almost forgot about that, but uh, what's it called again?

George: Kinda. Um, but not quite, to be fair. It's, it's a good coin, uh, not for investing, but, but for medium of exchange is actually decent. Uh, Lev, Lev

Knut: Lev, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,

George: and I recently got educated about this. So, uh, the lev is pegged to the euro. So, um, uh, so, so that, that is super cool for, for us, for me as a consumer, for businesses, because like the fixed rate.

So for trade is, um, It's, it's good, right? As the world would be in the future. You have one currency, Bitcoin, you don't have the currency exchange risk, right? We don't have it only with the European Union. And the good part with this, so, we got, we got hyperinflation back in 1997. Was really bad. People lost almost everything, everything, in many cases.

Um, and then we got this so called currency board introduced and the currency board is like we have the left, but the left has to be backed up by other currencies. So it's like a stable coin, kind of like how Tether is backed by, by dollars. You know, the levy is backed by euro and like a basket of, I think they have some other currencies and assets, which is cool because the local politicians, they cannot print, they cannot, you know, so, so it's been, it's been, I think, way better than Hungary, Sweden, uh, Finland, you have your, oh

but Sweden I've heard it's kind of bad,

Knut: It's kinda bad, Norway too, like, both Swedish and Norwegian crown, and the crown in Czechia, like the Czech Republic, it's also

George: Yeah.

Knut: I mean, they're all going to shit the smaller

George: So, so for us, it's like, I would say we're better than, than the Corona, the, and, and all these like local currencies, because we kind of just are there to the, peg to the Euro. The local politicians don't have the opportunity to print. So it's, it's a very good position for us to be.

Luke: You, you get the, the negatives of the, the euro. But, but still, I mean, I mean the, the realistically, the dollar at the Euro and maybe the, the Chinese currency are the only, are the only ones that are in the, sort of within our own, within our own lifetimes are, are going to be not as terribly bad against Bitcoin.

But all the other ones are just, are. All the other ones are

Knut: Yeah, I think it's just a matter of time before both, uh, at least Sweden, uh, switches to Euro standard. If not switching to Bitcoin standard happens first, but well, we'll see, we'll see what happens.

George: man. I'm very bearish about the Euro.

Knut: yeah, yeah, it's like,

Luke: It'll be the second last to fall or third last but but yeah it's it's it's it's not going to be the the last and so it's yeah.

Knut: So that is what it is. I mean, speaking of Bulgaria and currencies and stuff,

Bitcoin Adoption in Bulgaria

Knut: like, how is the rest of, how is Bitcoin adoption in general in Bulgaria? What's happening in other places? Like, Plamen opened a bar, I saw, and like, what are the connections? What's happening?

George: It's actually quite cool. I'm, I'm, I'm quite happy with, with how the ecosystem is evolving. There's, there's Plamen, um, with his whole community, like content creation, the conferences he's been doing, which has been like a very, I think he's responsible for like, I don't know, probably like, 000, maybe several 10, 000s of people who have opened their eyes and even if they're not hard bitcoiners, they now own bitcoin.

Uh, so that's huge. We have other content creators also who've had an impact. We have now once or twice per, yeah, about twice per year we have like, uh, A small, uh, merchant, uh, like, conference events, so for merchants to accept Bitcoin. we have these people who are active and who are doing things. Now, actually, yeah, there's something new that's coming up here, uh, literally in Plovdiv is we have this, um, this, uh, great dudes who have this, um, um, it's an application for, uh, ordering food, like takeaway and, uh, what is it, like,

Knut: like Glovo or

George: yeah, yeah, like Glovo, um, but, um, but, um, But it's not like this big corporate thing that, but, but still, it's a very good product and they've integrated accepting Bitcoin there for quite some time now they've made it even easier and they've introduced.

So we have like about, I think it's 15 restaurants in Sofia and like five or so in Plovdiv where through their system, you can order food. And pay with Bitcoin online, or you can also go in the restaurant and pay in Bitcoin online, and they just, um, they just won a, uh, grant from, uh, Bitcoin Beach, uh, and, uh, they're going to use the grant, uh, to, well, the attempt is really to start like a small circular economy, if you would Um, where, so if you go, uh, to one of those restaurants and pay with Bitcoin, you're going to get sats back 10%, and then, um, the restaurant is also going to get 10 percent sats back.

And if you order food, um, through their app, also the driver is going to get, uh, some sats back. And, uh, we've just been discussing, because obviously we're partnering with them, with the football club, so we'll push this out, because some of the restaurants that are there are our, I mean, basically, like, we have two restaurants locally that are partners, we got them in, right, obviously, in the deal, um, So, so that is also like, for me, it's like super cool because now for so far, the club has been pushing Bitcoin.

Now we have two of our restaurant partners who are themselves like hard Botevists, Botefans, and like they're popular. Now they're starting to accept Bitcoin in their, in their two restaurants, right? And they're going to have their campaigns. We're going to push them more. So, um, so I'm really excited about this and fingers crossed this goes well.

We have good metrics because if we have good metrics. Yeah, we'll look for ways to grow this. So there's a lot of grassroots things happening, which I love. On the top, nothing.

Knut: It's the way it's supposed to be.

George: But it's the way it is. Yeah, it's a better

Luke: Yeah it really seems like that you get one or two of these big anchors like like for example you you guys have had that had that conference last couple of years but now with both of Plavdev now Bulgaria is really got a couple of big anchors. Big relative in relative terms, uh, and all of this other stuff can, can start coming up around it.

And, uh, love, love to see it. I mean, he, I mean here, here with Rega, there's Honey Budger has been going for a really long time, and I, and I even think that they are honest about, we, we would, we just talked to, to Max, uh, about this, uh, from Defi and like yeah, there's not much other adoption in, in Lavia and this conference has been going on for a long time.

Exactly. And so it's just like, uh, it's, it's, it's great to see, uh, in, in your case, in Bulgaria's case, that there's, there's more of this, uh, picking up. So, yeah,

George: Well, I think it's really, in our case, I don't know, like it's grassroots, like I said, and I really believe grassroots and then Rio or for the vast majority, Rio adoption comes permissionless life. It comes like it's not forced. You know, there is this point where, okay, there's Plamen, like, he got the inspiration, he makes his content, he does the conferences, Like, our owner, he sees this opportunity for Bitcoin, for the club. He takes the action, right? So it's, it's not like, so it's individuals, right? Taking actions and then, as you have, you know, several of them, maybe others get inspired or get ideas going and that's how the magic happens. And, uh, yeah. Excited about it.

Wrapping Up

Luke: it's awesome, man. Great hear your story. So, was, uh, was there anything else that you wanted to discuss or bring up on this topic?

George: no, I mean, what I would say is absolutely, uh, Please, uh, you know, Knut, you've been, but please, you're absolutely welcome, Luke, join as well, like, both of you should come

Knut: Absolutely. Highly recommend it. I had a great time in Bulgaria, and it's such a fascinating country, it's such a rich history and such a beautiful place, and the food is great, and it's very affordable, it's very, yeah, very

George: like, I have people who come in Plogis specifically to, like, nomads, spend, like, a or a month. So, so please enjoy, visit the game. come spend in the restaurants where they accept Bitcoin, follow us on social media for sure, so, X and Nostr,

Luke: Yes, all the details, please.

Knut: And also like one of the eras, uh, infamous eras of Bulgaria is the commie era, right? Where you can see the impact that system had on the country and how horrid it is. Uh, so it's, it's, uh, that might not be a good pitch for, uh, but that's

Luke: Let him, let him share his social medias, Knut.

George: wait, do you have, do you have something

Knut: no, no, I think like the, The point I was getting to is, if you get to Bulgaria, don't only go to Sofia, go around the rest of the country, because it's not as raped as that town was by, as that city was by communism, all this concrete, yeah, yeah,

George: yeah, the,

Knut: you can really see the impact there. I'm not, um, yeah, this came out totally wrong, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to, To hype Bulgaria here, but also there's a historical lesson to be learned in the country, for sure,

George: sure. It's really like, there's so many different things there. So there's the communist part, there's like fucking amazing nature, there's like

Knut: is everything, yeah.

George: if you're into hiking, there's like, just like from Sofia, what I love about Sofia, like just last week, twice, end of the day, I'm like fucked up, like tired of computer.

40 minutes up and I'm up in the mountains, hiking, in like 2000 meters altitude. Uh, so, so there's all these like super cool things, but on the socials, yeah, we're on Twitter. we're on Nostr, uh, so Twitter is, um, botif underscore, uh, en, on Nostr, uh, we are just botif. Yeah, you can find us.

Luke: going say you're NPUB? No, no, no,

George: I'm still learning it, okay?

Luke: we'll post, you're still learning, we'll post all the details in the show

George: Yes. Yes. And feel free to also check out our website. We have, due to our El Salvadorian, um, kind of project, we already have a Salvadorian website, which is very easy to remember, botif. sv. So you can go there and from there you'll find all the links and information.

Luke: Absolutely fantastic.

Knut: Great! Get the inverse of Clown World. This is a shill. BitcoinInfinityStore. com And thank you very much for coming on,

George: was great having

Knut: Great to have

Luke: George, thanks so much. This has been Bitcoin Infinity Show. Thank you for

@ c6f7077f:ad5d48fd

“The more you learn about something, the more you realize you know nothing.” This saying resonates deeply with me. The truth is, no one really has all the big answers. Many in the scientific community seem to pretend they do. Let’s explore this further.

Consider the Most Fundamental Questions

1. The Origin of the Universe
2. The Origin of Life on Earth

The Origin of the Universe

You might think we have a solid answer: the Big Bang. However, this explanation has its limitations, and calling it a “start” can be misleading. In fact, this theory might be entirely wrong. New research challenges the Big Bang theory, and I highly recommend listening to Sir Roger Penrose for a deeper understanding.

The only substantial evidence we have is the universe's expansion. Penrose proposes a different hypothesis: the endless expansion and contraction of the universe. This idea doesn’t contradict our current understanding.

Thus, the evidence for the Big Bang and Penrose’s theory are both radically different, yet neither can be definitively proven over the other. This highlights the limitations of our current understanding.

The Origin of Life on Earth

The origin of life is even more complex. Life requires three essential components: - Proteins for basic functioning - RNA for storing and replicating genes - Lipids (cell walls) to create separation from the environment

Mathematical models suggest that while proteins and lipids have a reasonable probability of forming, the creation of RNA seems nearly impossible through random mutations in a short time frame. The best explanations indicate that we either lack crucial information or that these RNA molecules—and life as a whole—might have come from outside sources. Some scholars even question the entire random mutation model.

The Question of Certainty

If scientists don’t know the answers, why do they pretend they do? In my humble opinion, It seems they do this to distance science from religion and to close the discussion before the wealthiest can fit God into the narrative, Interestingly, I’m not alone in believing they closed the books too early.

Reclaiming Control of Science and Education

The best way to reclaim control of science and education is to learn. If you’re looking for a starting point, I highly recommend: - “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking for physics - “Sapiens” or “The Selfish Gene” for evolutionary biology

All three are excellent starting points—densely packed with information and covering a wide range of topics in a concise and accessible manner.

@ d34e832d:383f78d0

This Radio adaptation brings to life J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In this richly produced audiodrama, we follow Frodo Baggins, a young hobbit from the Shire, who inherits the One Ring, an artifact of immense and dangerous power. Tasked with the perilous mission to destroy the Ring, Frodo forms a fellowship of allies including the wizard Gandalf, the ranger Aragorn, and other companions. Together, they journey through Middle-earth, confronting the growing darkness of Sauron, the Ring's creator, who seeks to reclaim it and plunge the world into chaos.

With sweeping soundscapes and dynamic performances, the radio drama captures the essence of Tolkien’s epic—an adventure filled with friendship, courage, and sacrifice. The fellowship faces treacherous landscapes, the sinister Ringwraiths, and growing internal tension as the burden of the Ring tests them all, leading to the eventual breaking of the fellowship.

@ 9358c676:9f2912fc

OBJECTIVES

To establish a guideline for the management of Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in our center, for both outpatient and hospitalized patients, with the aim of:

• Reducing morbidity and mortality associated with the condition.
• Improving the quality of medical care and optimizing hospital resources.
• Delaying the progression of antimicrobial resistance.

SCOPE

All patients over 16 years of age diagnosed with Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia who are being followed by our institution in an outpatient or inpatient setting.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Physicians from the Medical Clinic, Medical Emergency, Coronary Unit, and Intensive Care Service. Nursing Coordination. Pharmacy Service. Infection Control Committee.

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Adults. Recommendations for its management. Lopardo et al. MEDICINA (Buenos Aires) 2015; 75: 245-257. Argentine Society of Infectiology. ISSN 0025-7680
2. Diagnosis and Treatment of Adults with Community-acquired Pneumonia. An Official Clinical Practice Guideline of the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America. 2019. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Volume 200 Number 7 | October 1, 2019. DOI: 10.1164 rccm.201908-1581ST
3. ERS/ESICM/ESCMID/ALAT guidelines for the management of severe community-acquired pneumonia. Intensive Care Med (2023) 49:615–632 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07033-8
4. Antimicrobial resistance. WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial resistance
5. Internal Medicine. Farreras-Rosman. Volume I. Elsevier. 2008 Edition.
6. Considerations for the Responsible Use of Antibiotics in COVID-19. Argentine Society of Infectiology. 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BmXD5x6rEpSqDIc8urccdqLcZKkP3U7X/view
7. Penicillin Allergy. Castells M. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(24), 2338–2351. doi:10.1056 nejmra1807761

INTRODUCTION

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, affecting patients of all ages and with various risk factors. Proper management in both outpatient and hospital settings is crucial for improving clinical outcomes and reducing associated complications.

This document aims to standardize and optimize the treatment of pneumonia based on the most current evidence and recommendations from leading scientific organizations. It seeks to be a practical tool for healthcare professionals, providing a clear and concise approach to the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of patients with pneumonia.

FOUNDATIONS. HOSPITAL SITUATION ANALYSIS:

• Pneumonias represent a significant burden on the healthcare system due to their high prevalence and potential severity, underscoring the need for a standardized approach.
• A clinical guideline facilitates decision-making, ensuring that all healthcare professionals follow a uniform protocol that integrates best practices, thereby reducing variability in treatments. This allows for better resource utilization, optimizing antibiotic use and reducing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.
• Antimicrobial resistance has been proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and related organizations as the leading cause of death and hospital expenditure by the year 2050.
• Pneumonias in our center, in their various presentations, have shown significant prevalence in hospitalizations according to measurements taken in 2024.
• In our center, antibiotics, as a whole, have been the main source of financial losses related to drugs during the billing cycle from June 2023 to July 2024.

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION:

Pneumonias represent a global incidence of 1.26 cases per 1000 inhabitants. It has been documented in some centers that this incidence can increase in patients over 65 years of age, representing 34 cases per 1000 inhabitants. Outpatient mortality varies between 0.1% and 5%, but can reach up to 50% in hospitalized patients, especially those requiring Intensive Care Unit stay.

The main risk factors for developing pneumonia are:

• Chronic Heart Disease.
• Chronic Respiratory Disease.
• Chronic Kidney Disease.
• Advanced-stage HIV infection.
• Immunosuppressed. Solid Organ Transplant. Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.
• Diabetes mellitus.
• Neoplasms.
• Smoking.
• Chronic use of Corticosteroids or Proton Pump Inhibitors.
• Multiple Myeloma and Hypogammaglobulinemia.
• Anatomical or Functional Asplenia.

The main causative agents of acute community-acquired pneumonia in our setting are:

• Respiratory Viruses (Influenza, SARS-CoV2, RSV).
• Streptococcus pneumoniae.
• Haemophilus influenzae.
• Staphylococcus aureus.
• Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae.

It should be noted that Streptococcus pneumoniae shows a good sensitivity pattern to penicillin and continues to be the most frequent causative microorganism. Haemophilus influenzae only shows beta-lactamase production in 10% to 23% of cases. Staphylococcus aureus in our setting has a low incidence of methicillin resistance, although this possibility should be considered in certain situations and severe clinical presentations. Given these considerations, beta-lactams remain the first-line treatment.

Regarding Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, they will only be relevant in patients with risk factors such as bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, prior treatment with corticosteroids, or broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Emerging pathogens of some relevance include the eventual emergence of cases caused by Leptospira interrogans, Legionella pneumophila, and Hantavirus. These cases should always be associated with a specific epidemiological link.

DIAGNOSIS

The diagnosis of pneumonia is based on clinical and imaging criteria. For the diagnosis of Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia, we will consider:

Symptoms and Clinical Signs (at least 1 of the following): * Fever. * Altered general condition. * Cough. * Sputum production. * Chest pain. * Dyspnea. * Hemoptysis.

plus

Radiopacity on Chest X-ray (Alveolar consolidation with or without air bronchogram, interstitial pattern, bronchiectasis, cavitation, pleural effusion, new radiopacity, etc.). It is always recommended to request both frontal and lateral views.

Chest CT remains a method with greater sensitivity and specificity for evaluating lung parenchyma compared to conventional X-ray in infectious pathology. However, a simple chest X-ray is an adequate method for the initial evaluation of the condition and its complications, which is why a CT scan is not recommended as an initial method for evaluating pneumonia and should always be preceded by a conventional chest X-ray.

CT studies should be considered in the following situations:

• Respiratory failure.
• Evaluation or suspicion of differential diagnoses to Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia.
• Evaluation or suspicion of complications of Acute Community-Acquired Pneumonia.
• Evaluation of radiological patterns that are not entirely clear on the chest X-ray.

CHOICE OF CARE SITE AND TREATMENT

For the choice of care site and treatment of pneumonia, it is recommended to complement clinical criteria with validated mortality scores associated with risk factors and clinical status.

CURB-65 (1 point for each item): * Confusion * Elevated urea greater than 90 mg/dl * Respiratory rate greater than 30/minute * Systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure < 60 mmHg * Age equal to or greater than 65 years

Results:

• Groups 0 to 1: Outpatient management.
• Groups 1-2: Admission to General Ward.
• Groups 3-5: Admission to Intensive Care Unit.
• Appendix: A pulse oximetry reading of less than 92% is recommended as an independent factor for inpatient management under expert recommendation to complement the score.

COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES AND CULTURE SAMPLING

Once the diagnosis is completed, the patient's risk stratification and the choice of admission site are made, the following complementary studies and culture sampling are recommended to proceed with the patient's study during treatment.

Outpatient patient: * Pulse Oximetry. * Laboratory routine (complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, liver function tests).

Inpatient patient in general ward: * Pulse Oximetry. * Laboratory routine (complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, liver function tests). Acid-base status if pulse oximetry is less than 92%. * Sputum sample (Gram stain, culture, antibiogram). * Blood cultures. * In the presence of pleural effusion: Thoracentesis. Physical-chemical study for Light's Criteria. Direct and Culture of Pleural Fluid.

Inpatient patient in intensive care unit: * Pulse Oximetry. * Laboratory routine (complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, liver function tests) plus acid-base status. * Sputum sample (Gram stain, culture, antibiogram). Tracheal aspirate, Mini-BAL, or BAL sampling for patients requiring ARM upon admission. * Blood cultures. * Urinary antigen for detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae, if available in microbiology. * In the presence of pleural effusion: Thoracentesis. Physical-chemical study for Light's Criteria. Direct and Culture of Pleural Fluid.

Special considerations for Viral Pneumonias: * We recommend performing a viral panel for Influenza A/B for any pneumonia presenting at least 1 risk factor mentioned during periods of viral circulation in the community. * We recommend performing a viral panel for SARS-CoV2 for any pneumonia presenting at least 1 risk factor mentioned during periods of viral circulation in the community or having epidemiological criteria of a suspected COVID-19 case. * The Infection Control Committee will timely inform based on the National Epidemiological Bulletin about the presence of circulating respiratory viruses in our setting.

Special considerations for Atypical Pneumonias and HIV Testing: * We recommend serological testing for IgM/IgG for Chlamydia and Mycoplasma for any pneumonia presenting a subacute evolution at the time of clinical presentation or clinical-radiological dissociation in its presentation. * In the suspicion of pneumonia caused by emerging pathogens (Legionella pneumophila, Leptospira interrogans, Hantavirus), consider the necessary epidemiological link as a prior epidemiological background before requesting specific diagnostic tests. * HIV testing is recommended for all pneumonias, with special emphasis on those that do not present the conventional risk factors mentioned.

ANTIMICROBIAL TREATMENT AND DURATION OF TREATMENT:

Directed antimicrobial treatment will be based on the present risk factors and the choice of care site and treatment.

Outpatient patient <65 years and without risk factors:

First choice: * Amoxicillin 875mg/12h orally for 5-7 days.

Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally for 5 days or * Azithromycin 500-1000mg/day for 5 days.

Outpatient patient >65 years or with at least 1 risk factor:

First choice: * Amoxicillin-Clavulanate 1g/12h orally for 7 days.

Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally for 5 days or * Azithromycin 500-1000mg/day orally for 5 days.

Inpatient patient in General Ward <65 years and without risk factors:

First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5-7 days.

Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Ceftriaxone 1g/day IV for 5-7 days.

Inpatient patient in General Ward >65 years or with at least 1 risk factor:

First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV for 7 days +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5 days.

Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Ceftriaxone 1g/day IV for 7 days.

Inpatient patient in Intensive Care Unit:

First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV for 7 days +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5 days.

Scheme for history of allergy to Beta-Lactams: * Ceftriaxone 1-2g/day IV for 7 days.

Special Considerations for Inpatients:

Scheme for risk factors for Pseudomonas aeruginosa*: * Piperacillin/Tazobactam 4.5g/6h IV or Cefepime 2g/8h IV for 7 days +/- Clarithromycin 500mg/12h orally/IV for 5 days.

Scheme for risk factors for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus**: * Add to conventional scheme: Vancomycin 15-20mg/kg/8-12h IV +/- Clindamycin 600mg/8h IV for 7-14 days.

Aspiration Pneumonia:

First choice: * Ampicillin-Sulbactam 1.5g/6h IV for 5-7 days.

*Risk factors for Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, prior treatment with corticosteroids or broad-spectrum antibiotics. Documented isolates in respiratory cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

**Risk factors for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Previously healthy young patients with severe, necrotizing, and rapidly progressive pneumonia, cavitary infiltrates, hemoptysis, prior influenza, intravenous drug users, rash, leukopenia, recent or concomitant skin and soft tissue infections.

The routine use of corticosteroids in pneumonia is not recommended.

CONSIDERATIONS ON ANTIMICROBIALS IN VIRAL AND ATYPICAL PNEUMONIAS:

In the case of a concomitant antigen test or PCR for Influenza A/B or SARS-CoV2, the following treatment recommendations are made:

Influenza Virus A/B:

First choice: * Oseltamivir 75mg every 12 hours orally for 5 days. Other considerations: * In cases of Respiratory Failure in ARM or Obesity: Oseltamivir 150mg every 12 hours orally for 5 days. * Concomitant antimicrobial treatment is recommended as there is documented frequent association of Influenza Virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

COVID-19: * First choice is conventional treatment with dexamethasone 8 mg IV for 10 days in the event of respiratory failure. * Routine antimicrobial treatment is not recommended for COVID-19; therefore, upon a positive SARS-CoV2 test, it is recommended to discontinue antimicrobials.

Consider maintaining concomitant antimicrobial treatment only in suspected bacterial infection due to severe presentation: * Focal alveolar consolidation +/- air bronchogram in imaging studies plus 1 of the following: sepsis, risk factors, and/or immunosuppression.

Atypical Pneumonias with Seroconversion for Chlamydia or Mycoplasma:

First choice: * Clarithromycin 500mg every 12 hours IV/orally for 14 days. * Azithromycin 500-1000mg/day IV/orally for 14 days. * Doxycycline 100mg every 12 hours IV/orally for 14 days.

CONSIDERATIONS ON PENICILLIN AND OTHER BETA-LACTAM ALLERGIES:

Patients who report penicillin allergy are often misclassified. It is documented that more than 95% of patients who report penicillin allergy can receive beta-lactams without any complications. Additionally, penicillin hypersensitivity diminishes over the years.

Allergy to one beta-lactam does not imply the impossibility of using the entire spectrum of beta-lactams, as there are only a few cases of cross-hypersensitivity.

Therefore, we recommend the safe use of beta-lactams except in cases of a reported or documented history of severe allergy to penicillin (anaphylaxis).

In doubtful cases or confirmed allergy events during hospitalization, a consultation with an Allergy Specialist is available to evaluate the case.

FOLLOW-UP IN OUTPATIENT TREATMENT MODALITY

Patients undergoing pneumonia treatment in an outpatient setting can continue their treatment at home, considering advising them to seek further consultation in case of alarm signs (fever that does not subside after 48 to 72 hours, dyspnea, hemoptysis, chest pain, etc.). Nevertheless, it is good practice to consider a follow-up consultation in the emergency department or clinic after 48 to 72 hours of starting antibiotic therapy.

It is not routinely recommended to repeat a chest X-ray or CT scan to evaluate the evolution of pneumonia under outpatient treatment. Only in the case of suspected complications or unfavorable evolution. A follow-up at the end of treatment with the primary care physician is suggested.

FOLLOW-UP IN INPATIENT TREATMENT MODALITY

For hospitalized patients, we should consider transitioning from parenteral medication to oral when the following conditions are met

• Completion of 48 hours of parenteral treatment.
• Presence of a 24-hour afebrile period, with hemodynamic stability and significant clinical improvement.
• Availability of the oral route.

It is not routinely recommended to repeat a chest X-ray or CT scan to evaluate the evolution of pneumonia under outpatient or inpatient treatment. Only in the case of suspected complications or unfavorable evolution.

PREVENTION

The prevention of pneumonia is based on timely immunization with pneumococcal vaccines, influenza vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccination according to the immunization recommendations and current schedule from the Ministry of Health.

ICD-11 CODING

• CA40 - Pneumonia.
• CA40.0 - Bacterial Pneumonia.
• CA40.1 - Viral Bronchopneumonia.
• CA40.2 - Fungal Pneumonia.
• CA40.Z - Pneumonia, organism unspecified.

Autor

Kamo Weasel - MD Infectious Diseases - MD Internal Medicine - #DocChain Community npub1jdvvva54m8nchh3t708pav99qk24x6rkx2sh0e7jthh0l8efzt7q9y7jlj

@ 63e20439:86c3c470

What is one Satishi (sats)? In simple terms there are 100 million satoshis (sats) in one bitcoin. Meaning each satoshi is worth 0.00000001 bitcoin. or one sats is 100 million part of each bitccoin. If you want to shop and earn free sats satsback.com is right place for cashback and loyalty rewards in Satoshies (sats) They work with online stores to help you save in bitcoin whenever you shop online. As soon sats are available in your account you can instantly withdraw it to your lightning address.

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O livro de 1Pedro é relacionado a como nós como cristãos devemos nos portar diante um mundo corrompido, o capítulo 1 fala acerca do indivíduo, o capítulo 2 sobre o cidadão e o capítulo 3 como conjugue, o restante fala sobre ouros assuntos. Mas neste capítulo e versículos em específico falam sobre algo muito importante na vida do crente A HONRA.

No versículo 11 começa com o termo forasteiros e estrangeiros, mas como conseguimos identificar se alguém é algum forasteiro ou estrangeiro? Pela sua forma de se portar, falar andar e principalmente de agir, aqui Pedro está falando para aqueles que são verdadeiros cristãos e passaram pela transformação necessária para tal, por mais que vivemos nesse mundo NÃO somos desse mundo, por isso devemos nos portar como cidadãos da cidade que moraremos quando Cristo voltar, evitando todo tipo de corrupção que briga com nossa alma para refletir o carácter daquele que devemos imitar.

O versículo 12 aborda a forma pela qual devemos viver em volta daqueles que são cristãos, nos diferenciando deles através das nossas obras, como assim? No começo desse ano estava conversando com alguns amigos sobre diversos assuntos e de repente abordamos o assunto política, e no mesmo momento passava uma porca com 7 filhotinhos do nada ele aponta o dedo para ela e diz a seguinte frase: “Tá vendo essa porca Seu Fulano, essa porca vale mais do a maioria dos crentes desse lugar, porquê na época de política o que tem de crente passando por cima dos outros por causa de dinheiro e cargo público nem se fala”. Eu fiquei impactado com o que ele falou, porque sei que como crente preciso me portar como tal.

Uma coisa que eu aprendi esse ano é que AÇÕES SÃO MAIS IMPORTANTES QUE PALAVRAS. Não importa se você vêm para a igreja todos os cultos, usa roupas decentes e tem uma bíblia debaixo do braço, se não pratica o cristianismo lá fora. Se através de suas obras não demonstra a santidade, a honra, a vida digna que é necessária para carregar esse nome, você não é um cristão de verdade é apenas mais um besta que está se enganado e achando que está enganando a Deus. Estou falando essas coisas porquê a política já está passando mas nossas obras da época de campanha ficaram, será que as pessoas que ainda não aceitaram a Cristo como seu salvador ao verem nossos exemplos, vocês acham que eles virão o carácter de Cristo ou do adversário de nossas almas o Diabo. Termino minha oportunidade com duas frases, “Cristo é a luz do mundo, a bíblia é a luz da igreja, o mundo não lê a bíblia, o mundo lê quem lê a bíblia, o mundo lê a nós cristãos.” E a segunda “CRISTÃO PRECISA VIVER COM VERGONHA NA CARA”.

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Assumindo responsabilidades

O autor dá um exemplo bem interessante: Caso você escreva um código ruim que cause um prejuízo de 10 mil dólares para a empresa, um profissional deve fazer um cheque no mesmo valor para a empresa.

Isso enfatiza uma maior responsabilidade com o código que está sendo escrito, porque com certeza se o dinheiro que estivesse em jogo naquele código fosse nosso, testaríamos ele 70 vezes 7, porque haveria de ser diferente com o código sendo escrito para nosso empregador?

Ele ainda dá outro exemplo, onde em sua trajetória profissional, para manter sua reputação e entregar uma task no prazo, negligenciou o testes (que demorariam horas) para entregar uma atualização na data combinada, em fitas magnéticas que foram entregues aos clientes, resultado? Houve um problema nesse software e gerou um grande atrito dos clientes com a empresa, houve um custo muito alto e ele passou dias “debuggando” o código que era escrito em Assembly.

No final, o custo para a reputação dele foi muito maior do que se tivesse entregado com atraso, mas com qualidade. A responsabilidade sobre nossas entregas deve estar acima da nossa reputação.

Já me aconteceu de estar em um projeto com um prazo apertado, em que features do projeto foram deixadas para depois para ter o projeto entregue na data determinada, enquanto os membros da equipe faziam horas extras e corriam contra o tempo - No final, o projeto não era urgente e não foi usado por duas semanas após a data do deploy em produção 🤡, era algo que poderia ter sido bem feito da primeira vez, e sem fazer tantas horas extras, mas isso não era responsabilidade exclusiva de um dev em si, mas uma decisão alinhada com o product owner para que fosse entregue na data combinada.

Trazendo para meu exemplo, me lembro vagamente da mesma coisa já ter acontecido comigo no começo da minha carreira como desenvolvedor backend, onde testei mal algumas features, liberei para teste do QA, por conta da pressão constante para que a equipe entregasse mais e mais, e acabou tendo retrabalho como deffect (bug encontrado pelo QA), ou pior, bug (quando está em produção), ou seja, saíndo bem mais caro do que se tivesse demorado mais alguns dias no board de desenvolvimento.

Primeiro, não cause danos

Causamos danos no software quando implementamos bugs, e apesar de ser bem difícil desenvolver software sem bugs, o autor argumenta que ao longo da trajetória profissional, o número de bugs deve tender à zero - O que faz sentido, dado que a senioridade aumenta.

Mas o autor também apresenta um outro conceito interessante: O QA não deve pegar nada. Basicamente devemos entregar um código tão bom, tão bem testado e tão bem feito que o QA não deve encontrar nenhum problema, ou seja, não devemos enviar ao QA algum código que não temos certeza se funciona ou não, pois demonstra falta de profissionalismo.

Para alcançar isso: testes, testes, testes unitários, testes de regressão, esteira de testes automatizados etc.

Um software deve ser testável, e principalmente de fácil manutenção, o autor recomenda a técnica de refatoração impiedosa, apenas para verificar se o código está fácil de mudar.

Ética de trabalho

Sua carreira é sua responsabilidade, e somente sua - Não do empregador. Se o empregador te envia para eventos ou te patrocina cursos, isso é um favor que ele te faz, mas não é obrigação.

O autor argumenta a necessidade do profissional estudar sempre, buscando melhorar como desenvolvedor, praticar, aprender linguagens diferentes, e dá uma lista de conceitos. que todo profissional deve conhecer.

Isso lembra bem uma dica que vi no livro “O programador pragmático”, onde o autor também recomenda a aprendizagem de uma linguagem de programação diferente da qual o programador está acostumado.

As dicas continuam, ele também recomenda o ensino aos outros, como forma de assimilar melhor os conceitos e aprender mais, ao ensinar os demais - Realmente quando buscamos aprender algo para ensinar os outros, acabamos assimilando ainda mais o conteúdo, e ao ensinar, aprendemos mais e desenvolvemos outros tipos de habilidades.

E por última coisa recomendada pelo autor, é o conhecimento do domínio onde se está inserido, domínio no sentido do contexto de negócio no qual nosso empregador está inserido, por exemplo: Se trabalho numa empresa de transporte por navio, eu aprender mais sobre as características desse negócio. Lembro-me do livro Domain Driven Design que fala justamente de escrever código que reflita o domínio de negócio que aquele código está inserido, principalmente na parte de linguagem oblíqua, que é quando o desenvolvedor e o código falam a mesma língua dos stakeholders, entendendo os termos que são específicos daquele tipo de empresa.

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JavaScript For Cats An introduction for new programmers cat So easy your human companion could do it too!

JavaScript is a programming language or, in other words, a means by which a computer is instructed to do things. Just the same as one controls humans with hisses and meows, one controls computers with statements written in a programming language. All web browsers understand JavaScript and you can take advantage of that to make web pages do crazy things!

JavaScript started as a way to make web pages more interactive. Nowadays JavaScript runs in more places than just web browsers — it runs on web servers, phones and even robots! This page will teach you some JavaScript basics so that you can get up and running in no time*.

• Actual time: more than none. Probably an hour or two. Also since you are a cat you are less likely to run and more likely to lay around in the sun Table of contents

  The console Strings Values and variables Using functions Built in JS functions Download new JS functions Writing new functions Loops Arrays Objects Callbacks Recommended reading

Don't be a scaredy-cat

cat

You will always land on your feet — even when programming! Unlike pawing over a glass of water on your laptop, nothing in these tutorials will damage your computer in any way, even if you mistype a command or click the wrong button. Like cats, computer programmers make mistakes all time: misspelling things, forgetting quotes or brackets, and being forgetful of how basic functions (and yarn, lasers) work. Programmers care more about making it work eventually rather than trying to make it work the very first time. The best way to learn is by making mistakes!

So don't be a scaredy-cat! The absolute worst thing that will happen is that you might have to refresh this page in your web browser if you get stuck. Don't worry though, this will happen very rarely.

The basics

There is JavaScript running on this page right now. Let's play around with it a little. For the sake of simplicity I'll assume you are using Google Chrome to read this page (if you aren't it's probably easier on both of us if you follow along with Chrome).

First, right click anywhere on the screen and hit Inspect Element, then click on the Console tab. You should see a thingy that looks like this:

console

This is a console, otherwise known as a "command line" or "terminal". Basically it's a way to type one thing at a time into a computer and immediately get the computers answer back. They are super useful as a learning tool (I still use the console nearly every day that I'm coding).

The console does some pretty cool stuff. Here I have started to type something and the console is helping me out by giving me a list of all the possible things I could continue to type! Another thing you could do is type 1 + 1 into the console and then hit the Enter key and watch what happens.

Using the console is a very important part of learning JavaScript. If you don't know if something works or what the command is for something, go to the console and figure it out! Here's an example:

Strings

Since I am a cat I want to replace every instance of the word dog on the Internet with those blasted dogs. First go into your console and type in a few sentences that contain the word dog at least once. In JavaScript a bunch of letters, numbers, words or anything else is known as a String (as in a string of characters). Strings have to begin AND end with a quotation mark. Single ' or double " is fine, just make sure you use the same at the beginning as you do at the end.

console

See the nasty error message? Don't worry - you didn't break any laws. SyntaxError ILLEGAL is just the way it sounds when robots tell you that your program has a problem. The first two sentences had matching quotation marks at the beginning and end, but when I mixed single and double quotation marks it freaked out on me.

OK, to fix up one of these sentences (by replacing dog with our enhanced version) we have to first save the original sentence so that we can call it up later when we do our replacing magic. Notice how the string gets repeated in red when we type it into the console? This is because we haven't told it to save the sentence anywhere so it just gives it right back (or it gives us an Error back if we messed something up).

Values and variables

Values are the simplest components in JavaScript. 1 is a value, true is a value, "hello" is a value, function() {} is a value, the list goes on! There are a handful of different types of values in JavaScript but we don't need to go over them all right away — you will learn them naturally the more you code!

To store values we use things called variables. The word 'variable' means 'can change' and is used because variables can store many different types of values and can change their value many times. They are pretty much like mailboxes. We put something in a variable, like our sentence, and then give the variable an address that we can use to look up the sentence later. In real life mailboxes have to have PO Box numbers but in JavaScript you usually just use lowercase letters or numbers without any spaces.

console

var is shorthand for variable and the = means store the thing on the right-hand side in the thing on the left-hand side. Also as you can see, now that we are storing our sentence in a variable the console doesn't just return our sentence right away, but instead gives us undefined which means there was nothing to return.

If you simply type a variable name into the console it will print out the value stored in that variable. A note about variables is that by default they go away when you switch to a different page. If I were to hit the Refresh button in Chrome, for example, my dogSentence variable would get wiped and it would be like it never existed. But don't worry about this too much for now — you can just hit the up or down arrows on your keyboard while in the console to go through everything you've entered in recently.

Functions

Now that we have our sentence stored in a variable, let's change a word stored in it! We can do this by performing a function. Functions are a type of value that, well, serve a specific function (AKA purpose or action) for us. Calling them "actions" sounded weird I guess so they went with the word "function" instead.

JavaScript has a function called replace that does exactly what we want! Functions take in any number of values in their parentheses (zero, one or many) and return either nothing (undefined) or the changed string. The replace function is available to use on any strings and takes in two values: the characters to take out and the characters to swap in. It gets confusing to describe these things so here is a visual example:

console

Notice how the value of dogSentence is the same even after we run replace on it? This is because the replace function, (and most JavaScript functions for that matter) takes the value we give it and returns a new value, without modifying the value we passed in. Since we didn't store the result (there is no = on the left side of the replace function) it just printed out the return value in our console.

The "standard library"

You might be wondering what other functions are available in JavaScript. The answer: A TON. There are lots built in, standard libraries that you can learn about at MDN (A site run by Mozilla that has lotsa nifty information about web technologies). For example here is the MDN page on JavaScript's Math object.

Third-party JavaScript

There is also a lot of JavaScript code available that is not built in. JavaScript from third parties is usually referred to as a "library" or "plugin". One of my favorites is called Underscore.js. Let's go and grab it and load it into our page! First go to the Underscore site, http://underscorejs.org/, click on the download link (I usually use development versions because they are easier to read but both will give you the same basic functionality), and then copy all the code onto your clipboard (you can use Select All from the Edit menu to select everything). Then paste it into your console and hit enter. Now your browser has a new variable in it: _. Underscore gives you a ton of helpful functions to play with. We'll learn more about how to use them later.

console

Making new functions

You aren't limited to using other peoples functions — you can also write them yourself. It's pretty easy! Let's make a function called makeMoreExciting that adds a bunch of exclamation points to the end of a string.

function makeMoreExciting(string) { return string + '!!!!' }

In my head I read it out loud like this: "there's a function called 'make more exciting' that takes in a string and returns a new copy of that string that has a bunch of exclamation points at the end". Here is how we would write this in the console manually if we weren't using a function:

console

The expression string + '!!!!' returns a new string and our variable called string stays the same as before (since we never updated it to anything else with =).

Let's use our function instead of doing it manually. First, paste the function into the console and then call the function by passing in a string:

console

You could also call the same function by passing in a variable that points to a string (in the above example we just typed the string straight in there as a value instead of saving it to a variable first):

console

The line makeMoreExciting(sentence) is equivalent to saying sentence + '!!!!'. What if we wanted to modify in-place (aka update) the value of sentence? Simply save the return value of the function back into our sentence variable:

var sentence = "time for a nap" sentence = makeMoreExciting(sentence)

Now sentence will have the exclamation marks in it! Note that you only have to use var when you are initializing a variable — the first time you ever use it. After that you shouldn't use var unless you want to re-initialize (reset/clear/empty) the variable.

What would happen if we took out the return statement in our function?

console

Why is sentence empty? Because functions return undefined by default! You can choose to return a value by returning something. Functions should take in a value and, if they change the value or create a new value that is supposed to be used later, return a value (fun fact: a fancy term for this style is functional programming). Here is another function that doesn't return anything but instead uses a different method to show us the output:

function yellIt(string) { string = string.toUpperCase() string = makeMoreExciting(string) console.log(string) }

This function, yellIt, uses our previous function makeMoreExciting as well as the built-in String method toUpperCase. Methods are just a name for a function when it belongs to something — in this case toUpperCase is a function that belongs to String so we can refer to it as either a method or a function. makeMoreExciting on the other hand doesn't belong to anyone so it would be technically incorrect to refer to it as a method (confusing, I know).

The last line of the function is another built-in that simply takes in any values that you give it and prints them out into the console.

console

So is there something wrong with the above yellIt function? It depends! Here are the two major types of functions:

functions that modify or create values and return them
functions take in values and perform some action that cannot be returned

console.log is an example of the second type of function: it prints things out to your console — an action that you can see with your eyes but that cannot be represented as a JavaScript value. My own rule of thumb is to try to keep the two types of functions separate from each other, so here's how I would rewrite the yellIt function:

function yellIt(string) { string = string.toUpperCase() return makeMoreExciting(string) }

console.log(yellIt("i fear no human"))

This way yellIt becomes more generic, meaning it only does one or two simple little things and doesn't know anything about printing itself to a console — that part can always be programmed later, outside the function definition.

Loops

Now that we have some basic skills under our belt (Author's note: do cats even wear belts?) we can start being lazy. What?! Yes, that's right: programming is about being lazy. Larry Wall, inventor of the Perl programming language, called laziness the most important virtue of a good programmer. If computers didn't exist you would have to do all sorts of tedious tasks by hand, but if you learn to program you can lay in the sun all day while a computer somewhere runs your programs for you. It is a glorious lifestyle filled with relaxation!

Loops are one of the most important ways to harness the power of a computer. Remember Underscore.js from earlier? Make sure you have it loaded in the page (remember: you can just hit the up arrow on your keyboard a few times and then hit Enter to load it in again if you need to) and try copy/pasting this into your console:

function logANumber(someNumber) { console.log(someNumber) } _.times(10, logANumber)

This code uses the times method of Underscore which takes in 1 number and 1 function and then starts from 0 and for 10 steps counts up by 1, calling the function with the number each step of the way.

console

If we were to manually write out what times is doing in the above code it would look like this:

logANumber(0) logANumber(1) logANumber(2) logANumber(3) logANumber(4) logANumber(5) logANumber(6) logANumber(7) logANumber(8) logANumber(9)

But cats refuse to do unnecessary manual work like this so we must always ask ourselves, "am I doing this in the laziest way possible?".

So why is this called looping? Think of it like this: If we were to write out a list of 10 numbers (from 0 to 9) using a JavaScript Array it would look like this:

var zeroThroughTen = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

What times really does is visit each number and repeat a task: in the example above the task was to call the logANumber function with the current number. Repeating tasks in this way is referred to as looping over the Array.

Arrays

I've mentioned these a few times but let's spend a minute learning about them. Imagine you need to keep track of all your buddies. Well, an Array will do just fine. Think of an Array like a sorted list that you can keep tons of stuff in.

This is how you make one:

var myCatFriends = ["bill", "tabby", "ceiling"]

Sweet! Now you have a list of your cat buddies.

Elements (that is what you call a single item in an array) that are stored within arrays start at 0 and count up from there. So myCatFriends[0] returns bill and myCatFriends[1] returns tabby... etc etc.

To get buddies out of your brand new Array you can just access an element directly like so:

console.log(myCatFriends[0])

console

If you made a brand new cat friend at the hippest cat club the other night and you want to add them to your list it is super simple: myCatFriends.push("super hip cat").

To check that the new cat made it into your array you can use .length:

console

Notice how push returned the length? Handy! Also take note that arrays will always preserve ordering which means they will remember the order in which you added or defined things. Not everything in JavaScript preserves ordering so remember this special property of Arrays!

Objects

Arrays are good for lists, but for other tasks they can be hard to work with. Consider our array of cat friends. What if you also wanted to store more than just names?

var myCatFriends = ["bill", "tabby", "ceiling"] var lastNames = ["the cat", "cat", "cat"] var addresses = ["The Alley", "Grandmas House", "Attic"]

Sometimes it is nice to have all of the addresses or names in one variable. But sometimes you have a cat in mind, let's say Bill, and you just want to look up that cat's address. With arrays it takes a lot of work because you can't just say 'hey array, give me Bill's address' because 'Bill' is in one array and his address is in a totally different array.

console

This can be brittle because if our arrays change and we add a new cat to the beginning we would have to also update our billsPosition variable to point to the new location of Bill's information in the arrays! Here is a easier to maintain way to store information like this using objects:

var firstCat = { name: "bill", lastName: "the cat", address: "The Alley" } var secondCat = { name: "tabby", lastName: "cat", address: "Grandmas House" } var thirdCat = { name: "ceiling", lastName: "cat", address: "Attic" }

Why would we do it this way? Because now we have a variable for each cat that we can use to get that cats values in a more convenient and readable way.

console

You can think of Objects like keys on a keyring. Each one is for a specific door and if you have nice labels on your keys you can open doors very fast. In fact, the things on the left hand side of the : are called keys (are also known as properties) and the things on the right hand side are values.

// an object with a single key 'name' and single value 'bill' { name: 'bill' }

So why would you ever use arrays if you can just put your data in objects? Because objects don't remember the order of the keys that you set. You might enter in an object like this:

{ date: "10/20/2012", diary: "slept a bit today", name: "Charles" }

But the computer could give it back to you like this:

{ diary: "slept a bit today", name: "Charles", date: "10/20/2012" }

Or like this!

{ name: "Charles", diary: "slept a bit today", date: "10/20/2012" }

So you can't ever trust the order of keys in objects. If you wanna get REALLY fancy you can make an array filled with objects, or an object filled with arrays!

var moodLog = [ { date: "10/20/2012", mood: "catnipped" }, { date: "10/21/2012", mood: "nonplussed" }, { date: "10/22/2012", mood: "purring" } ]

// ordered from least to most favorite var favorites = { treats: ["bird sighting", "belly rub", "catnip"], napSpots: ["couch", "planter box", "human face"] }

When you combine different things like this you are making data structures, just like legos!

Callbacks

Callbacks aren't really a feature of JavaScript like Object or Array, but instead just a certain way to use functions. To understand why callbacks are useful you first have to learn about asynchronous (often shortened to async) programming. Asynchronous code by definition is code written in a way that is not synchronous. Synchronous code is easy to understand and write. Here is an example to illustrate:

var photo = download('http://foo-chan.com/images/sp.jpg') uploadPhotoTweet(photo, '@maxogden')

This synchronous pseudo-code downloads an adorable cat photo and then uploads the photo to twitter and tweets the photo at @maxogden. Pretty straightforward!

(Author's note: I @maxogden do happily accept random cat photo tweets)

This code is synchronous because in order for photo to get uploaded to the tweet, the photo download must be completed. This means that line 2 cannot run until the task on line 1 is totally finished. If we were to actually implement this pseudo-code we would want to make sure that download 'blocked' execution until the download was finished, meaning it would prevent any other JavaScript from being executed until it finished, and then when the download completes it would un-block the JavaScript execution and line 2 would execute.

Synchronous code is fine for things that happen fast, but it's horrible for things that require saving, loading, downloading or uploading. What if the server you're downloading the photo from is slow, or the internet connection you are using is slow, or the computer you are running the code on has too many youtube cat video tabs open and is running slowly? It means that it could potentially take minutes of waiting before line 2 gets around to running. Meanwhile, because all JavaScript on the page is being blocked from being run while the download is happening, the webpage would totally freeze up and become unresponsive until the download is done.

Blocking execution should be avoided at all costs, especially when doing so makes your program freeze up or become unresponsive. Let's assume the photo above takes one second to download. To illustrate how long one second is to a modern computer, here is a program that tests to see how many tasks JavaScript can process in one second.

function measureLoopSpeed() { var count = 0 function addOne() { count = count + 1 }

// Date.now() returns a big number representing the number of // milliseconds that have elapsed since Jan 01 1970 var now = Date.now()

// Loop until Date.now() is 1000 milliseconds (1 second) or more into // the future from when we started looping. On each loop, call addOne while (Date.now() - now < 1000) addOne()

// Finally it has been >= 1000ms, so let's print out our total count console.log(count) }

measureLoopSpeed()

Copy-paste the above code into your JavaScript console and after one second it should print out a number. On my computer I got 8527360, approximately 8.5 million. In one second JavaScript can call the addOne function 8.5 million times! So if you have synchronous code for downloading a photo, and the photo download takes one second, it means you are potentially preventing 8.5 million operations from happening while JavaScript execution is blocked.

Some languages have a function called sleep that blocks execution for some number of seconds. For example here is some bash code running in Terminal.app on Mac OS that uses sleep. When you run the command sleep 3 && echo 'done sleeping now' it blocks for 3 seconds before printing out done sleeping now.

console

JavaScript doesn't have a sleep function. Since you are a cat you are probably asking yourself, "Why am I learning a programming language that does not involve sleeping?". But stay with me. Instead of relying on sleep to wait for things to happen the design of JavaScript encourages use of functions instead. If you have to wait for task A to finish before doing task B, you put all of the code for task B into a function and you only call that function when A is done.

For example, this is blocking-style code:

a() b()

And this is in a non-blocking style:

a(b)

In the non-blocking version b is a callback to a. In the blocking version a and b are both called/invoked (they both have () after them which executes the functions immediately). In the non-blocking version you will notice that only a gets invoked, and b is simply passed in to a as an argument.

In the blocking version, there is no explicit relationship between a and b. In the non-blocking version it becomes a's job to do what it needs to do and then call b when it is done. Using functions in this way is called callbacks because your callback function, in this case b, gets called later on when a is all done.

Here is a pseudocode implementation of what a might look like:

function a(done) { download('https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4DDWBrCEAA8u4O.jpg:large', function doneDownloading(error, png) { // handle error if there was one if (err) console.log('uh-oh!', error)

// call done when you are all done
done()

}) }

Think back to our non-blocking example, a(b), where we call a and pass in b as the first argument. In the function definition for a above the done argument is our b function that we pass in. This behavior is something that is hard to wrap your head around at first. When you call a function, the arguments you pass in won't have the same variable names when they are in the function. In this case what we call b is called done inside the function. But b and done are just variable names that point to the same underlying function. Usually callback functions are labelled something like done or callback to make it clear that they are functions that should be called when the current function is done.

So, as long as a does it's job and called b when it is done, both a and b get called in both the non-blocking and blocking versions. The difference is that in the non-blocking version we don't have to halt execution of JavaScript. In general non-blocking style is where you write every function so that it can return as soon as possible, without ever blocking.

To drive the point home even further: If a takes one second to complete, and you use the blocking version, it means you can only do one thing. If you use the non-blocking version (aka use callbacks) you can do literally millions of other things in that same second, which means you can finish your work millions of times faster and sleep the rest of the day.

Remember: programming is all about laziness and you should be the one sleeping, not your computer.

Hopefully you can see now that callbacks are just functions that call other functions after some asynchronous task. Common examples of asynchronous tasks are things like reading a photo, downloading a song, uploading a picture, talking to a database, waiting for a user to hit a key or click on someone, etc. Anything that takes time. JavaScript is really great at handling asynchronous tasks like these as long as you take the time to learn how to use callbacks and keep your JavaScript from being blocked. The end!

This is just the beginning of your relationship with JavaScript! You can't learn it all at once, but you should find what works for you and try to learn all of the concepts here.

I'd recommend coming back again tomorrow and going through the entire thing again from the beginning! It might take a few times through before you get everything (programming is hard). Just try to avoid reading this page in any rooms that contain shiny objects . . . they can be incredibly distracting.

Got another topic you wanna see covered? Open an issue for it on github.

Recommended reading

JavaScript For Cats skips over lots of details that aren't important for getting started (cats are not known for their attention spans), but if you feel like you need to dive in deeper then check these out:

NodeSchool.io is a community driven, open source educational software that teaches various web development skills in an interactive, self-guided format. I helped make NodeSchool! Sadly it features fewer cats than this page.
Eloquent Javascript is a free book that teaches you JavaScript! It's pretty good! Especially the chapter on values, variables, and control flow
Mozilla's JavaScript Guide also has a pretty sweet intro chapter called values, variables and literals
standard JS Style Guide is a "zero configuration" linter for JS style that I use
Let's Write Code by @shama a great series of YouTube coding tutorials made by a friend of mine

Satisfied customers

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JSForCats.com is a labor of love and work in progress by @maxogden. If you would like to contribute and make this tutorial better there is a Github repo right over here. console

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Os sistemas operacionais Linux móveis ainda têm um longo caminho a percorrer antes de se tornarem verdadeiras alternativas ao Android ou iOS. Embora o Linux móvel ainda não tenha alcançado um estado que satisfaça a maioria dos consumidores de eletrônicos convencionais, reconhecemos que uma parte considerável da nossa comunidade está pronta para dar o salto para um smartphone baseado em Linux hoje mesmo. O PinePhone Pro oferece a potência necessária para ser seu companheiro diário, desde que você esteja disposto a aceitar as limitações atuais do software.

O sistema operacional padrão do PinePhone Pro é o Manjaro Linux com KDE Plasma Mobile, mas esperamos que ele seja suportado pela maioria dos sistemas operacionais já disponíveis para o PinePhone original. Além disso, é provável que o PinePhone Pro estimule o desenvolvimento de novas opções de software. Mal podemos esperar para ver as inovações que a comunidade irá criar.

Acreditamos que "nenhum de nós é tão inteligente quanto todos nós" (Ken H. Blanchard). Essa é a base da nossa filosofia, que o PINE64 é uma plataforma comunitária. Embora seja frequentemente afirmado, de forma simplista, que "o PINE64 cria o hardware enquanto a comunidade desenvolve o software", essa afirmação é apenas parcialmente precisa e simplifica demais a questão. O fato de o PINE64 ser impulsionado pela comunidade não significa apenas que dependemos unilateralmente da comunidade ou de projetos de parceiros para o suporte de software; significa que a comunidade molda ativamente os dispositivos e a plataforma social do PINE64 desde o início. Nosso objetivo é fornecer dispositivos ARM64 com os quais você realmente queira se envolver e fazer parte de uma plataforma na qual você queira participar. Portanto, a comunidade - PINE64 - e a empresa Pine Store estão interligadas e interconectadas, mas são entidades separadas.

O que isso significa na prática? Significa que geralmente anunciamos o que estamos desenvolvendo muito antes da data de lançamento - muitos meses antes do dispositivo ser enviado - para que você tenha tempo suficiente para solicitar recursos, sugerir alterações, solicitar/fazer alterações na documentação, etc., antes da primeira produção em massa. Isso também significa que os desenvolvimentos de hardware - tanto os sucessos quanto os fracassos - são compartilhados abertamente. Você pode acompanhar o processo em nosso fórum, IRC, Discord, Matrix, Telegram e em alguns casos, nos fóruns de projetos parceiros. No entanto, também significa que qualquer pessoa que faça parte da comunidade pode moldar qualquer aspecto do projeto PINE64 - incluindo o Wiki ou este site - e, assim, o desenvolvimento de software é apenas uma área onde você pode contribuir com seu tempo e habilidade. Em troca do investimento de tempo, a comunidade obtém dispositivos com preços justos nos quais os desenvolvedores desejam gastar seu tempo.

Por fim, acreditamos no suporte a SoCs (System-on-Chip) existentes por longos períodos de tempo, bem como no desenvolvimento ativo de novos dispositivos baseados nesses SoCs.

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

https://www.pine64.org/

https://youtu.be/fCKMxzz9cjs

https://youtu.be/6TKpJsXDDng

https://youtu.be/7sxmGxuCM4g

https://t.co/iH7UmKIcYF