@ 7ed7d5c3:6927e200

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?  Thou art more lovely and more temperate; Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,  And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

 By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

``` But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. ```

@ 9cb3545c:2ff47bca

Hey there! So you’ve got a whopping 50+ Lightning Channels and you’re not keen on them Force Closing? Well, buckle up! This guide will be an additional resource as you navigate through daunting process.

In this post, we will go over some extra tips and tricks not covered in the official guide. While this guide does have some steps that are not covered by Umbrel, its main objective is to provide confidence in the process (not a replacement process), coming from someone who’s been there and done that, and some how came out with all Lightning Channels still running! I highly recommend reading this post fully before starting the migration process.

Before we dive in, here is the Official Guide from the Umbrel team on how to update UmbrelOS from 0.5.4 to 1.x.x. Reference the steps all the time, and follow them carefully.

With that out of the way. Here are some extra TIPs to fill in some gaps I encountered as I went through the process.

The Order of Steps

Tip #1:

In the Official Umbrel Guide, the Umbrel team asks you to start by backing up your data. As a lightning Node Runner, I recommend against this. Because the Bash script will stop all Umbrel Services and your node will remain offline while you prepare a Bootable USB Stick. So definitely don't start with the backup, first get the bootable stick sorted out, then move on to backups.

Creating the Bootable USB Stick

TIP #2:

After many failed attempts to create a bootable USB stick from the link umbrel provides in their official guide. I ended up getting the ISO directly from Umbrels team through their Discord Channel. Unfortunately, I wont be able to share this link here. but just in case the umbrelOS-amd64-usb-installer.iso.xz didnt work for you as well, this could be an alternative route.

TIP #3:

Since Umbrel is an actual full OS now. You might need to handle some BIOS quirks. The umbrelOS Kernal is not signed. So if you have Secure Boot turned on in the BIOS, your PC will try to protect you, and block you from booting into you USB Stick. Turn off Secure Boot and you should be able to bypass this issue. I also had to turn on Legacy Option ROMs as well.

Tip #4:

Test your Bootable USB Stick on a secondary device before you go on trying to update your node. Since turning the node off and on is a hassle, its just easier to be certain the the Bootable Stick is ready before even attempting to upgrade your node.

If all is good, you are ready to get back to the guide and walk through the steps.

Preparing the Hardware

Tip #5:

In the official guide they as you to connect a Keyboard and Screen. This is of course needed. I would highly suggest you connect a mouse as well. My Bios was very stubborn and didn't comply with just a keyboard as I attempted to re-order Boot Sequences.

The Migration Process

Tip #6:

Remember, this is 10 times easier if you are not running a lightning node, but on a lightning node, the Channel.db file is being updated constantly. Once you start the backup process, the script will shutdown umbrel services and start copying. you can''t turn your node back on after this stage. If you do, assume the backup you created through the Bash script is obsolete. and you will have to redo the backup process again. If you really know what you are doing, you probably can surgically copy/paste the LND folder. But its easier not to do this.

But not to worry, if you start the process just keep going (especially if you checked all the TIPs I cover above). I say this out of experience, because after I started the first backup process, it took me about an hour to backup my SSD, but then the Bootable USB stick threw so many errors I gave up, and turned on the node again. Then later re-attempted the process from scratch. This time, since my external SSD was already full, it took 3.5 hours to backup all the files again.

Tip #7:

This will take time, so just trust the migration process and wait for the files to get copied. you are probably copying more than a terabyte worth of data back and forth over USB, Leverage USB 3 if you have it.

Tip #8:

If you have a custom name for your umbrel node. Meaning you do not access it by using umbrel.local, this will be reset to the default umbrel.local after the migration. I am not sure if this could be switched again to a custom name, but for now, this won't cause any issues.

Tip #9:

During the last steps of the Migration process, and once Umbrel has copied the backup back into the SSD, it will finish the process with downloading your apps, and restarting. Don't freak out :D

Tip #10:

I honestly don't have a tenth tip, but thought it would make this list look nicer with one. So my last tip for you is to relax and enjoy the process. And feel free to tag me if you faced any issues. Hopefully it will be something i experienced and will be able to help.

Have Fun, and Good Luck!

@ df8f0a64:057d87a5

2024年下半期の振り返り

あんまり変化はないんですが、進捗ありません！で終わっても仕方ないのでちょっとは無理やりでも振り返りましょう

0. 退職した

上半期時点で決まってはいたんですが、　6年間ほど勤務した会社を退職しました

退職直前まで爆発物取扱みたいなタスクをこなして、なかなかひやひやした退職プロセス

静かに退職したいので送別会の類のイベントは無しにしてくれというお願いをきいてくれた各メンバーに感謝です

1. 公開していたNostrリレーの設定を変更した

日本のみに公開していたリレーを、全世界に公開しました

当初はCloudflareでリレーをホストしていたのが、利用していたnosflareもcfrelayもクライアントに対してイベントを配布するコードがなく（R2だけではできない）

さてどうしたものかと悩んでいたタイミングで、Umbrelのおひとり様リレーのポートを公開する対応をしました。リレーのお引越し

で、公開してしばらくしたら、すごい勢いで日本国外からの投稿が着信するようになり大困惑

調べてみたら、Mutiny wallet（現在はサービス終了）が運営しているblastr.mutinywallet.com（たぶんまだ稼働している）が原因でした

Nostr.watchのAPIを利用して、世の中にあるNostrリレーすべてにイベントを送り込む凶悪な思想犯です

ヘッダー情報などでブロックできなかったので、blastrがホストされてるCloudflareのIPを全てブロックする力技で対処しました

ちなみに、nosflareもいつのまにかblastrのようなものをホストしているようです

なんなんでしょうね、Nostrの白人さんたちの、過激なほど分散というか対検閲をしようとするお節介さは

2. 公開していたNostrリレーを潰した

上記のように折角いろいろやったリレーを潰しました

Reply guyというbotが猛威をふるった時期、クソみたいなイベントをばら撒かれてくることに私がキレたからです。クソが

NostrとしてはこれをきっかけにWoTを組み込んだリレーが開発されたりして、スパム対策が一歩前進した感があります。クソが

スパムばら撒きをBostrが助長してるみたいな批難を受けて、作者のYonleさんがブチ切れ、全Nostr関連リポジトリのメンテを放棄する事態も発生

ちょうどMutiny walletでGOXしたご本人の機嫌が悪かった時期に、クソスパムがぶつかったことによる悲しい出来事でした。ほんとクソ

3. おわりに

他にもこまいことはいくつかあるんですが、主にはこんなとこでしょうか。来年も楽しくNostrしたいですね

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

GitHub is a software project graveyard

I think the main reason why we have so many lone wolf devs is an economic one. The fact that most FOSS devs aren't being paid for their code is making this worse, not better, as they work for fame, not fortune.

Nobody wants to use joint-repos because they don't want to give up or share the property rights to the contents. But because anything someone else does in a repo you own, also belongs to you, people are disincentized from contributing to your repo.

GitHub, especially, has incentivized this splintering and isolation. Everyone wants to have all changes in their own repo because they can profit best on repos listed directly under their own name, so long as they become popular. Maximize your 🟩 and ⭐ , like chips you can cash in for a prize.

And because forking other people's repos is the norm, rather than teamwork, requests for changes are usually ignored or responded to with "fork it, bro." Go away. Leave me alone. My repo is none of your business.

Too autistic, even for me

So, the developers separate their efforts into a million tiny repos that are mostly redundant with other ones, there's little interaction, progress is often surprisingly slow and stalls for months at a time, it's hard to keep track of what other people are doing (so that you can review and test changes), most of the effort is headed straight for the bin, people build the same things over and over, and communication is extremely limited.

This is a work environment that is unattractive for anyone who isn't autistic and/or highly introverted. Half of the fun of open-source development used to be the esprit de corps. Much has been said about #Bluesky, but it all misses a major point: that's where you go, if you want to work with other people, to build something large, polished, and impressive. It doesn't actually matter how many developers Nostr has, if they all only stare at their own plates.

Your repo coulda been a file folder.

Ironically, git was developed for collaboration on large projects with a distributed team. Now, everyone uses it for projects they work on alone. They put those projects on the Internet to market them. It's a cheap gimmick, not an earnest attempt at collaboration. Collaboration begins at the beginning.

@ 65912a7a:5dc638bf

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 5 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 30 min
• 🍽️ Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 12-14oz fresh cranberries
• 1⅓ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 orange, peeled & chopped
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. Using medium sauce pan, simmer cranberries and water for 5-6 min. Cranberries will start to pop.
2. Add brown sugar, raisins, and chopped orange to the berries.
3. Bring to a simmer and continue to cook for 20 min. Stir often to prevent sticking. Remove from heat.
4. Let set until room temp. Mixture will thicken as it cools.
5. Put in a covered container and keep refrigerated. Lasts for about 2 weeks.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

The motherhood illusion

Growing up, I was always told that women wanted children, whilst men wanted sex. So, marriage was created, to unite these two urges, and men and women don't otherwise particularly differ. But, it turns out, that women want protection and sex, and men want children and sex.

This is why women tend to be attracted to more masculine men (they're associated with protection) and men tend to be attracted to more feminine women (they're associated with motherhood). Women who are attracted to men, who aren't overtly masculine, are looking for a different aspect of protection (reliability, steady income or wealth, emotional security, etc.)

This wasn't readily apparent, in earlier generations, as widespread, youthful marriage meant that there weren't any real decisions being made by the participants. Almost all women got married and had kids, and almost all men got married and had sex. Math checks out. But the number of women who could protect and provide for themselves was low, and the men marrying were often very young and libidinous, and not yet contemplating their own legacy.

Feminism, easy abortion, deindustrialization, delayed marriage, and reliable contraception have dissolved this illusion, completely. Millions of Western women quickly turned into cougars, careerists, party girls, and e-girls, and an entire army of childless men and sidelined dads bubbled up and began to make their pain known. Humanity's dirty underbelly has been exposed.

Women aren't as sweet, as we thought, and men are much sweeter.

Women also want children, but not as intensely. In fact, they seem to often viscerally dislike children, and are jealous of the protection they are to give them. So, they are prone to offing their offspring because they are averse to having any in-house competition.

If you just left women up to their own devices and reduced the social pressure, at least a fifth of them wouldn't bother having children, at all, and another quarter will have one and then lose interest or age out. This is not a new phenomenon, as we can see.

The male competition for potential mothers turns out to be absolutely brutal, and more difficult than simply finding a woman to sleep with. And, now, we finally understand why men traditionally jumped through so many hoops, to attain a wife. It wasn't for the sex; we've always had brothels, masturbation, and pornography. It was for the familial comfort, and, especially, for the children.

Good fathers make good mothers

Some women don't know if they are "potential mothers", until they meet a "potential father", and their urge to procreate suddenly kicks in. They didn't want children for their own sake, but now they want some for his sake. All of a sudden, they're imagining themselves rocking the cradle, googling "what to eat, when you're expecting", and find themselves gushing over anything that gives off Hint of Infant.

I'm pregnant! Look what I can do! Look what I can do! For you, darling.

Women married to men they are deeply in love with, are much more likely to desire to become mothers (and be devastated by infertility), and make for better mothers, because children are like individualized presents they can give to their husband.

They want to impress him. Most want to be decent parents in their own right, but the urge to impress seems to raise this to a much higher level because women are vain, and therefore focused on raising their own status and how they appear to others. And the greatest "other", of a happy wife, is her husband.

Because men are narcissistic, and therefore in love with anything associated with themselves (which underpins their obsession with owning property), men have an intense attachment to their children. What is more "yours", than your progeny?

Fathers seem to develop a special attachment to, or fondness for, the mothers of their children, that goes beyond lust or romantic love; they never forgot who gave them this new Mini Me. And they are often quite impressed by their own ability to perform this trick numerous times, which leads to the intense satisfaction they feel at "going into serial production" and churning out more of those Mini Mes until their adoring wife pleads for mercy.

Men want children. Women, who love a man, want to give him those children and gain the fidelity that comes along with those children. This is the actual "trade" underpinning the urge to marry.

@ ddf03aca:5cb3bbbe

Recently, I have been surrounded by people experimenting with various projects, and a common theme among them is the use of cashu as the payment layer. While this fact alone is already great, the best part is to identify users and implementers needs and combining forces to come up with novel solutions.

---

Subscriptions with Cashu

One of the most remarkable aspects of cashu is that it is a bearer asset. This hands ownership and control back to the user. Even though mints back the tokens, they have no authority to move a token on behalf of a user or any other party. How cool is that?

However, this also introduces challenges when building subscription-based services. Subscriptions typically require periodic payments, and with cashu, users must renew these manually. Currently, there are two primary approaches to address this:

1. Overpaying:
   To minimize the number of interactions, users can pay for longer periods upfront. For example, instead of paying 2,100 sats for one hour, they could pay 6,000 sats for three hours. If they realize they don’t need the full three hours, the excess payment is effectively wasted.

2. Full Interactivity:
   In this setup, payers and receivers stay connected through a communication channel, and payments are made at small, regular intervals. While this avoids overpayment, it requires constant connectivity. If the connection is lost, the subscription ends.

---

Enter Locking Scripts

One of the most powerful features of cashu is its locking scripts. Let’s take a quick refresher. A locking script defines the conditions under which a token (or "nut") becomes spendable. In essence, it’s similar to Bitcoin’s spending conditions, but instead of being enforced by the Bitcoin network, these conditions are enforced by the cashu mint alone.

A widely-used locking condition is Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK). This locks a token to a specific public key, meaning it can only be spent when a valid signature from the key’s owner is provided. This mechanism is what enables NIP-61 nut zaps, where a token can be publicly shared but is only claimable by the intended recipient who holds the private key.

To address situations where a recipient loses access to their keys or simply doesn’t claim the token, P2PK includes additional options: locktime and a refund key. These options allow for the inclusion of a fallback mechanism. If the primary lock expires after a set time, a refund key can reclaim the token.

With these tools, we can now create non-interactive payment streams!

---

One Missing Piece…

Before diving into payment streams, there’s one more crucial concept to cover: cashu tokens are not singular "things". Instead, they’re composed of multiple proofs, each carrying its own cryptographic data and spendability. For example, if you receive a cashu token made up of five proofs, you could choose to claim only three proofs and leave the other two untouched. This flexibility is rarely utilized but is vital for building payment streams.

---

The Grand Finale: Payment Streams

Now that we have all the building blocks, let’s construct a payment stream using cashu. By leveraging locking scripts, refund keys, and multiple proofs, we can design a token that enables recipients to claim small portions of the total amount at regular intervals—without requiring any further interaction from the sender.

Even better, as the sender, you retain the ability to cancel the stream at any time and reclaim any unspent portions.

Example: Renting a VPS

Imagine renting a VPS for a week, priced at 1,000 sats per day. Here’s how a payment stream could work:

1. Construct a token worth 7,000 sats to cover the entire week.
2. Divide the token into 7 proofs, each worth 1,000 sats.
3. Lock each proof using a P2PK script, locking to your key and adding the recipients key as a refund key.
4. The first proof has a locktime of now.
5. The second proof has a locktime of now + 1 day.
6. The third proof has a locktime of now + 2 days, and so on.

When the token is sent, the receiver can immediately claim the first proof since its locktime has expired and the refund key is now able to claim. The second proof becomes claimable after one day, the third after two days, and so on.

At the same time, the sender retains the ability to reclaim any unclaimed proofs by signing with their key. If you decide to stop using the VPS midweek, you can cancel the stream and reclaim the remaining proofs; all without further interaction with the receiver.

---

With this approach, we can create robust, non-interactive payment streams that combine the autonomy of cashu with the flexibility to reclaim funds.

Thank you for reading. Make sure to leave a nut if you enjoyed this :)

@ 01d0bbf9:91130d4c

The Bitcoin community thrives on open-source innovation, but Coinkite’s move against BTClock risks stifling progress and alienating its core supporters.

Open-source projects like BTClock typically aim to promote innovation and accessibility within the Bitcoin community. Suing the programmer for trademark infringement seems like an overly aggressive move by Coinkite, given the values that Bitcoin and its ecosystem often stand for: decentralization, collaboration, and open innovation.

Why It’s Problematic:

1. Chilling Effect on Open Source:

2. Actions like this discourage developers from creating alternative solutions or building on existing ideas, which stifles community-driven progress.

3. Open-source projects thrive on shared knowledge, and this lawsuit could set a precedent for others to clamp down on grassroots efforts.

4. Reputation Risk for Coinkite:

5. While Coinkite has long been respected for products like the Blockclock and Coldcard, this move could alienate its core audience—Bitcoiners who value freedom and decentralization.

6. By targeting an open-source developer, Coinkite risks being perceived as prioritizing profits over community principles.

7. Trademark Infringement Question:

8. If the issue is solely over the name "BTClock," a fair resolution could involve renaming the project rather than pursuing legal action.

9. Lawsuits should ideally be a last resort, not the first response.

A Better Approach:

• Coinkite could have worked with the BTClock developer to address concerns without legal action—perhaps through dialogue or collaboration.
• Open acknowledgment of BTClock’s differences (lower cost, open-source) would have shown confidence in their own premium product, while still respecting community-driven alternatives.

What NVK and Coinkite Should Do

Even now, NVK could mitigate the damage:

• Withdraw the Lawsuit: Openly acknowledge the backlash and frame it as a misunderstanding or a "necessary step" that they’re now reconsidering due to the community’s response.
• Collaborate with BTClock: Find a way to coexist, perhaps by licensing certain Blockclock-specific elements if truly necessary, while leaving room for BTClock’s open-source innovation.

@ c48e29f0:26e14c11

TL;DR -- HIGHLIGHT THIS TRANSCRIPT TO CREATE NEW NOSTR EVENTS, GET ZAPS, AND EXPOSE MORE PEOPLE TO THE* BITCOIN PODCAST IN THE PROCESS*

WHY THE FUCK AM I DOING THIS?

Up until now I've been publishing transcripts for THE Bitcoin Podcast (@Titcoin on Nostr) on my website, bitcoinpodcast.net/words, and, more recently, putting show notes/summaries on my newly-created Substack, substack.com/@walkeramerica, so people can sign up to get episodes delivered to their inbox (unfortunately I can't publish the full transcripts on Substack because they're too long). I also just hate doing this because it takes time and I don't think anyone actually reads them on my website or on my Substack. And Substack is a centralized shithole anyway.

But I've been thinking... It would make a lot more sense to just publish the summaries and full transcripts directly on Nostr so people can search and highlight the text more easily, with each highlight creating a brand new Nostr event. I'll also post the quotes I've already pulled from the episode in a section at the top, which will give people a taste of what they can expect in addition to giving them some low-hanging-fruit for highlighting. Most obviously, publishing on Nostr means I just need to publish ONCE and my post will be available to everyone on whatever client they use (huzzah for open protocols and fuck Substack).

There are a few benefits to this Nostr-focused approach:

1. People can easily search the full text transcripts and find quotes they find meaningful/funny/fucked up/insightful/etc.
2. When they create a highlight, they publish a new Nostr event which people can zap. People are incentivized to find the most valuable quotes because people like getting zapped.
3. If people see highlights they find valuable, they'll come check out the full version of the show notes and subsequently watch/listen to the episodes, in addition to searching the transcript for their own highlight-able material (more zaps ensue). Maybe they even use the transcript as they listen to the episode and highlight as they go. Who knows?!
4. As a content creator, I now have a new way to discover what parts of the episode speak to people most because I can see what people choose to highlight, and which highlights people choose to zap. This helps me decide which parts of an episode will make for the highest-signal short-form video clips, and of finding fire quotes I may have missed on my first pass-through. The highlights become a way to crowdsource signal and filter noise.
5. The episodes become more interactive as new conversations pop up around Nostr based on different highlights. Nostr events are created, thoughts are provoked, zaps are zapped, sats flow, community grows, and my episodes of THE Bitcoin Podcast get more visibility. #GrowNostr ?
6. Thanks to Zap Splits, I can add my podcast guests to a split list, ensuring that any zaps I received are also shared with them (which I did for HODL and Cason on this long-form note).

Anyway, that's enough chit chat for now. Let's see if this works or if it's just a late-night idea that doesn't seem as smart in the morning.

The full transcript of the episode is below, in addition to some of the quotes I pulled already (feel free to highlight the shit out of them). But first, here are the links to watch/listen to my conversation with Hodl and Cason:

• Fountain: https://www.fountain.fm/episode/TO4YqCAm0k2zTdLIi7xl
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/0Jy2QFRmhP4
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitcoin-trump-freedom-the-american-idea-erik-cason/id1694392423?i=1000676077910
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7rCjFeTCdXwgrX6jylj5jH
• Rumble: https://rumble.com/v5mtk5t-bitcoin-trump-freedom-and-the-american-idea-erik-cason-and-american-hodl.html
• Everywhere else: https://bitcoinpodcast.net/podcast
• SHOW NOTES: https://open.substack.com/pub/walkeramerica/p/american-hodl-x-erik-cason-bitcoin
• Highlighter: https://highlighter.com/walker/BITCOIN-TRUMP-FREEDOM-THE-AMERICAN-IDEA-ERIK-CASON-AMERICAN-HODL-THE-Bitcoin-Podcast-zmwmhj *

EXTREMELY HIGHLIGHT-ABLE QUOTES

Erik Cason “Look, you dumb motherfuckers, you could have just doubled your fucking wealth over the last year, had you just shut the fuck up and been like, ‘maybe I'm poor and working at a dead end job that I fucking hate because I don't understand how money actually works. And maybe these Bitcoin guys who have made some money and some self-independence for themselves, maybe they have a point.’ But instead they go, this is a far right Psyop that's being played in order to try to destroy the wonderfulness of modern monetary theory. And the government needs to be able to print out money because how else can we spread the love and make sure that all people everywhere are always equal and have all of the equal opportunity always, particularly the brown people that we want to bomb out of existence because, you know, they need to use my fucking pronouns. And that's why we're bombing the shit out of them is because they're hateful, racist pieces of garbage that, you know, and then, and then there's just like the like, well, like fuck Israel, we can't like support them. But like Ukraine is great. Or the people doing the opposite one. I'm like, what, like, why the fuck is the red or the blue people telling you to bomb the right people?

HODL (50:34.642) You can just do things. You don't have to wait for anybody. Nothing's decreed. Like, listen, fiat is a fucking disease of the mind. That's what it is. And every currency on earth that's not Bitcoin is fiat. Ethereum is fiat. Solana is fiat. Tether is fiat. They're all fiat, okay? And then obviously all the fiat currencies are fiat. But fiat is not just affecting the monetary supply and material goods like iPhones and shit. No, fiat affects YOU. It affects your mind. It affects the way you think. You think that the world is decreed to you from scribes on high. It's not. The world is built by people that get out and build the fucking world. So if you want to do something, just go do it. Get politically active if you want to be politically active. Build a business if you want to build a business. Build a family if you want to build a family. Build an estate if you want to build an estate. Go to Mars if you want to go to Mars. Fucking just go do it. Do what you want to do. That is the Bitcoin story. Not by decree. No one tells you to do it. You decree it. You fucking decree it. You go out and do what the fuck you're gonna do in the world. That's what we're doing here in Bitcoin.

HODL “The state condemned a man to slow death, double life imprisonment. And we said, ‘no, you don't get to do that.’ We got to rewrite the rules of the game as the game was being played. And it shows that we don't have to just sit there and take it.”

Erik Cason (01:01:49.037) the world fucking needs Americanism right now. Like shit is fucked up and there needs to be a renewal of this American spirit that pushes out into the world that, you know, is what 1776 was about, which was a global revolution that then swept through Europe because they're like, yo Europeans, look, we just like fucked up the British empire and we earned our own rights by fighting these assholes. Would you like that? They're like, yeah, this like monarchy shit is bullshit. Let's, let's fucking fight. And I hope that we're going to see a renewal of that same spirit that we're going to fight back against our federal government and their surveillance in the deep state and that we're going to push that shit out numb into Europe and that the Europeans are going to be like, yeah, you know what? turns out getting asked fucked by our government and getting global surveillance through a CBDC is bullshit. Let's fight these motherfuckers.

HODL That is the Bitcoin story. Not by decree. No one tells you to do it. You decree it. You fucking decree it. You go out and do what the fuck you're gonna do in the world. That's what we're doing here in Bitcoin.

TRANSCRIPT: AMERICAN HODL x ERIK CASON

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (00:00.07) ground audio, but the new Macs do it like really fucking well shockingly, which is honestly quite nice. Okay. We are allegedly live on zap.stream. So I'm just going to fiddle with this for a second. Let's see here. But yeah, we were, Eric, we were just discussing that hodl is basically on team no sleep right now. and has been, yeah, just

HODL (00:01.4) Mm-hmm.

Erik Cason (00:07.304) It's just.

Erik Cason (00:11.184) Alright.

HODL (00:24.418) Well, ever since they stole the 2020 election, you gotta stay up all night now.

Erik Cason (00:24.72) Are you?

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (00:29.668) It's true. You got to keep them in check.

Erik Cason (00:32.525) So is this like a young children thing or is this like your brain is all spun out from

HODL (00:38.808) No, this is was it. No, it's because I was at Bitcoin mags live stream for like 12 hours yesterday and I didn't get home until like, you know, 1 30 a.m. and then I fucking didn't go to sleep until 2 a.m. And then because I have young children, I was up at 5 a.m. So it's like, you know, good times.

Erik Cason (00:54.893) Good. No, I... My sleep got absolutely fucked a couple nights ago, because like I was like, I'm gonna stay up a little late and watch a movie. And then my brain was like, yeah, you want to stay up fucking late, asshole? How about you fall asleep at 4 a.m.? So this last night I was like, you know what? Like this shit isn't worth it anymore. Like I'm a fucking adult. I'm going to bed at nine o'clock. I'm going to get up at six o'clock and like work out and do all my like adult shit because...

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:07.735) how you like that.

Erik Cason (01:18.866) I'm just like fucking sick. Like I could do that shit when I was in my 20s, but like that's a long ways away from now. So now I gotta like take care of my body or it's gonna fuck me up.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:30.62) it's I was out. I was fishing like this whole weekend, like a dude's trip with my, dad and my father-in-law and like some other older dudes. And just like, yeah, we were fishing, fishing for steelheads. It was a wonderful time. My first time fishing for steelheads had a fucking blast, but like you're out in the river all goddamn day. And by the time we got back, like, and I was like the young buck of the group and still I'm like, 7 P.M. It's about time to turn in like, fuck.

Erik Cason (01:42.099) Drop.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (02:00.591) But yeah, so I feel your pain. But then last night I got home from the trip and like was watching MSNBC for fun and stayed up until like three or something because I was.

HODL (02:08.802) Yeah. did either of you watch the view this morning? It was, it was so good. I would highly recommend it. Well, they start whoopee Goldberg starts off with tears in her eyes and she's trying to be magnanimous and she, she goes, yeah, let's talk about, let's get into it. And then she passes it to Joy Behar and Joy Behar holds it together for like,

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (02:13.572) No.

Erik Cason (02:13.819) No, like-

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (02:19.915) Describe it.

HODL (02:35.832) 90 % of the time and she's like, you know, we got it. It was a fair election and we got it just but he's a racist and then they just like rescinded. It's a full struggle session. It was amazing. Like honestly, it could have been pay-per-view. I would have paid $75 to watch it. It was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. It was amazing.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (02:47.081) my god.

Erik Cason (02:56.683) So like, what are they gonna do now other than just like malfunction and have a hard time? Like I'm just really enjoying getting to like sit in this space and being like democracy is super great, isn't it? Isn't it wonderful that we elected a fascist Hitler who's waited for his second term to implement the genocide against all of the people that are you? And they're like, the demogood, so I'm really.

HODL (03:20.024) Yeah.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (03:24.54) The glitching is real right now. you almost feel bad, or I would almost feel bad, if the people who are glitching, like, were glitching right now, weren't so insufferable for so long. Like, I would almost feel bad, you know what I mean? But I'm not quite there yet.

HODL (03:40.049) Yeah, yeah. No, I don't feel a shred of guilt about anything. I'm just laughing at all the memes. It's hilarious.

Erik Cason (03:42.172) One.

Erik Cason (03:47.146) Like look, like fuck this voting and democracy nonsense, but like I'm, really enjoying these liberals that have used the last four years to try to cram all this fucking nonsense down everybody's throat and now have to deal with like the reactionary against that. in addition to the fact of that, like it's about fucking time. Like the last, the last four years were like really fucking wacky. And like we had, we, we still have this geriatric prison. Like what the fuck happened to Joe Biden? Did he just like vanish? Like what?

HODL (04:08.6) Mm-hmm.

Erik Cason (04:16.862) It's just so weird to me in that, like in the meanwhile, the whole liberal machine keeps marching on being like, like this is, so anyways, I'm just excited to watch this whole thing kind of break down and crash into flames and see what happens.

HODL (04:31.128) I woke up feeling just proud of America. And the reason I was proud of America is not because America voted the way I wanted them to vote, which they did, like in a landslide victory. The reason I was proud of them, proud of the feeling of being American was that propaganda doesn't work on us. You tried to Psyop us and we just aren't fucking having it.

Because being an American means doing whatever the fuck we want and you are not allowed to tell us what to do. That's the feeling, that's the energy I woke up with. Like, the American people are exactly who I thought they were. You know, it's like that meme. They are who we thought they were! They are who we thought they were! You know, it's like, the American people are who I thought they were and they're just as fucking wild and untamed and fucking crazy.

and individualistic as I've always expected and needed them and wanted them to be and known that they were and I just fucking love it. I love seeing the results come in and then the people who are the professional propagandists, the Joe Scarborough, the MSNBCs, the Rachel Maddows, the Whoopi Goldbergs, right? Professional paid propagandists go, I can't believe calling them racist garbage didn't work. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck all of you. Fuck you.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (05:51.245) It's fucking insane.

Erik Cason (05:51.287) Well, it's interesting because like it's a it's this really reactionary hateful thing where and it's like super hypocritical where it's like, fuck you, you racist piece of goddamn shit. Like you need to go into the fucking concentration camp and be brutally raped and tortured because you won't tolerate other people. You fucking sick fucking pig. And it's like, you know, maybe there should be some self reflection here about some of those things you said and are expressing and like

HODL (06:20.642) Yeah.

Erik Cason (06:20.715) I don't know, like this is the thing that I've been trying to deal with kind of in the liberal bubble I'm in. It's like, hey, do you guys think that like all the hatred and vitriol that you're directing at white people and about like how useless men are and that they really obstruct everything that could have ever been done that's good might have a little something to do with this. In addition to like, perhaps we're in the position that we're in because of the way that you keep shitting on all these people that actually

might have some degree of value to society. And I'm not saying they're better or worse than anybody, but maybe trying to direct all your hate towards them could have something to do with the outcome that came here as opposed to you being like, hey, these people, we'd like to include them in the fold rather than just kind of doing the reverse hate thing. But you know, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not a politician.

HODL (07:07.96) Yeah.

It's tough to tell people like, you know all that shit that's in your head? That's not real. It's just not real. None of it. You made it up. You're living in magical fairy princess land. Okay. And what I would, what I would want you to do is form a hypothesis and test it. You know I mean? Like experiment. Are you in magical fairy princess land? Can you fly? You know what I mean? Maybe you start on the ground first. Don't jump out of a window, but like, you know, maybe test your flap your wings little, see if it works.

If it doesn't, maybe we have the wrong hypothesis. I don't know. Weird. Just be calling here.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (07:42.586) Whoa, that would require like critical thought though and actual self-reflection and like now they've just like they've gone the other way and they're like well actually the black and Latinos are racist too and they clearly like and you're like hold on hold on guys I was told because of the intersectional hierarchy that they couldn't be Racist but but now they are racist and the Arabs to some of those Arabs We don't like them the Cubans especially escaping communism coming here voting for a Republican. Who do they think they are? It's ridiculous

HODL (07:53.748) Right.

HODL (08:00.876) They can't be racist. Yeah, they can't.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (08:12.804) Yeah, it's fucking will there be any self-reflection though like any like moment of inward like looking inward to say Maybe we were kind of part of the problem, huh? Hmm

HODL (08:23.448) They're nowhere close to being ready to deal with reality. In a sense, kind of like, it's a huge miscarriage of American civil duty that's happened because these people have been so badly brainwashed and Psy-op by the mainstream media, these professional state propagandists that you can't help but feel a little bit bad for them. at the same time, mean,

There's nothing to do but to get out of your echo bubble. you, the only person who can crawl out of Plato's cave is you. And I don't know how to explain to you that the shadows aren't real. They're just not real. And so like those of us who are out of the cave, we, we all talk about how retarded you all are in the cave, but we don't know how to actually get you out of the cave. Cause every time we try and bring you out, you fucking bite us and go rabid, you know?

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (09:17.66) And we can literally tell you the cave exit is right there. This is where you need to go to get out of the cave. And they're like, that exit looks not really like it's inclusive. I don't think I'm going to go out that way. Sorry, Kason. Go ahead,

Erik Cason (09:17.689) It's a pretty sad situation overall.

Erik Cason (09:31.29) Well, like with it being at a Bitcoin all time high right now, like that, you know, is what I came on with is that like, look, you dumb motherfuckers, like you could have, you could have just doubled your fucking wealth over, know, over the last year, had you just like shut the fuck up and been like, maybe I'm poor and working at a dead end job that I fucking hate because I don't understand how money actually works. And maybe these Bitcoin guys who have like made some money and some

self-independence for themselves, like maybe they have a point. But instead they go, this is a far right Psyop that's being played in order to try to destroy the wonderfulness of modern monetary theory. And the government needs to be able to print out money because how else can we spread the love and make sure that all people everywhere are always equal and have all of the equal opportunity always, particularly the brown people that we want to bomb out of existence because

You know, they need to use my fucking pronouns. And that's why we're bombing the shit out of them is because they're hateful, racist pieces of garbage that, you know, and then, and then there's just like the like, well, like fuck Israel, we can't like support them. But like Ukraine is great. Or the people doing the opposite one. I'm like, what, like, why the fuck is the red or the blue people telling you to bomb the right people? Regardless, like maybe you should just be upset that brown people are

you know, and in the case of Ukraine, white people too are getting blown up. Like the bombs are not racist. They will kill people whether they're white or brown. And I don't know, it would just be really great if people could be like, you know, maybe we should just kind of talk to people instead of murder them. But again, I'm not a politician. Maybe there's something I'm missing here. Maybe they need to be murdered.

HODL (11:07.501) Yeah.

key on this is like the Bitcoin price as a lens by which to view the world. It's like last night when I was watching the election results. I was at Bitcoin Magazine studio and they had all the boards up and all the stuff, you know, and I'm watching it all. It's like the traditional media and I'm on my phone looking at the Bitcoin price and I'm like Trump's gonna win. Like it just got bid in the markets. This is gonna happen. I now know the future ahead of traditional media.

And it's the same thing with like, Polymarket was telling us Trump was going to win for months and months because people have been actually, you know, putting economic value behind those, those, you know, those votes that they're making with their economic capital, right? And so, you know, if you're listening to traditional media, you're trying to do sense making that way and you have like, you know, the, poll, the Nate Silvers of the world, the pollsters telling you, Ann Seltzer telling you like, he's going to win Iowa, whatever. they, these people have no skin in the game. So there's no.

proof of work to their predictions. you need to, once you have proof of work as a lens, you as a Bitcoiner, look for it and see it and find it everywhere and anything that you can attach proof of work to, you realize that this is a real thing and you can bank on it. But I mean, people that don't have that are doing everything proof of stake, right? Like they just don't understand that reality that unfortunately they are living in. There's nothing you can do about it. can't.

You can't escape that reality, right? Like you are inside that reality.

Erik Cason (12:42.853) Well, it'd be clear like, proof of stake as a methodology that's like operable and like that's called socialism. Like I can actually like hijack the government and be like, Hey, Mr. Musk, like, fuck you. We're going to like steal all your shit. It's like, cool. Like now that we did that guys, like how much more runway we have? They're like, we have, we have four days. We got, we got four days to run the budget now. It's like, it's like the guy that's

Wait, wait, the guy that's getting us into space and like gave us like satellite internet and shit, like stealing everything from him got us four days of runway? And they're like, yeah. So we're out of time now. So who are we going to rob next? They're like, that Amazon guy. Yeah, like fuck him. He's like stealing from people and he's hateful. It's like, yeah. Why do you think he has better approval ratings than like the

and like everyone in like the US military. Like it seems like people really like him. They're like, cause, cause he's, he's racist, right? So let's steal his shit. And like, and like, that's what proof of stake is about. It's like, fuck these other people. We can like steal their shit and like remake the rules so that like stealing shit is okay when we steal shit for the right reasons.

And this is like the clusterfuck that's Ethereum. Like if you've watched like what their monetary policy has been like since the fucking Dow fork that happened, it's literally always been like, yeah, but like this is the one time it will ever happen. Well, maybe we'll change it again. You know what? Fuck it. We're just going to kind of do whatever we want. And like, that's fine, but it's not going to work out long-term and there's going to be very severe fucking consequences. So you...

could learn about how economics works and it turns out that like, nobody likes being stolen from and it turns out like, if I can steal from you, I can steal from other people too. And that's like a really big problem. So you should probably be invested in a system that goes, you know what? We're not gonna steal from anybody ever. But what about Hitler and Pol Pot? And it's like, yeah, it turns out that even fucking assholes, we like need to respect their right to property too.

Erik Cason (14:54.332) And they're like, but if we do that, then like all of the racist and hateful people will win. And it's like, you know, maybe you need to expand your worldview beyond thinking that everybody's hateful and racist. And that's kind of their main problem. By the way, like I've never actually, like when I was younger, I had a couple of friends, dads who were like pretty racist and stuff, but it was always this like, I don't know. Like I've never met somebody who like really had as their like main thing. They're like, yeah, but like, fuck the Mexicans and the black people. It's it's like usually like.

Yeah, but what about Habib? Like he was helping us out early and they're like, well, yeah, he's brown and that's fine. But, I'm like, so you're like, not really that racist. And they're like, well, you know, they're trying to take our jobs. And it's like, well, but were you gonna, were you gonna do the gardening? And they're like, well, no, fuck no. I ain't gonna get wet today. It's like, maybe he, maybe Jesus is pretty good at what he does, you know? I'm just saying.

I don't think he's taking your job. You don't seem like you're gonna be gardening in the ring. I'm just saying.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (15:57.544) I think so much this is like a it's it's it is a mirror right like What you see and everybody else tends to be more of a reflection of what you have going on in the inside? Than what is actually going on with them because you don't fucking know them you have no way of knowing what they're what their beliefs are whether or not they are a Giant bigot and a racist or whether they're just some man or woman trying to live their life Put food in the table for their kids and not get just absolutely bent over a barrel by the government

which is like a reasonable thing. Like nobody really wants to be bent over a barrel by the government, right? But apparently if you push back against that too hard, you are given one of these labels. But then it's like you have kind of this proof of concept here that this is just a reflection of what is going on in a lot of these, you know, bigot callers minds. When you see them say things like, you know, I can't like why would all of these Latinos vote for their own deportation? It's like, do you think the only Latinos in the country?

are here illegally? Like, is that what you think? That they're voting for their own deportation? Like, there's lots of Latinos here who came here legally, like a ton of them. And it turns out a lot of them were escaping the same sort of bullshit socialist verging on communist policies that you're trying to push on them now. And then you turn around and call them racist because they didn't agree with you. Like, it's this insane

paternalistic projection and I like but again the sad thing is I don't know if there is ever like a come to Jesus moment where they're like you know what you know guys we went too far we were wrong I was was pretty messed up for a few years there huh we're cool now let's keep things civil we're not gonna call everybody Nazis anymore especially you white lib or you white women you know you white suburban women you Nazis like it's just like turns out calling everybody a Nazi is a really bad campaign move like

I don't know who like how who could have known right shocking.

HODL (17:57.56) I think you guys are both being charitable and trying to diagnose them. I spent a lot of time trying to do that too, get into their heads and understand their psychology. How could you think this way? It's so severely retarded. And now I'm just like, listen, we have now unfettered control of all three branches of government. it's like, I don't listen. At the Thanksgiving dinner table, I don't pay attention to the conversation at the kids table. I don't care what the kids are talking about. You know what mean? It doesn't matter. It's like...

What color crayon do you like? I don't know. like burnt umber. That's my favorite. Yeah. It's like no, who gives a fuck? We're at the adult table now and it's about stacking wins on the board and you know, like for instance, mean, Trump is the first Bitcoin president. Vance owns Bitcoin. We now have the opportunity to like see real Bitcoin appointments be made where like people who are being recommended for high purchase of power

will be people that are sympathetic to Bitcoin, if not Bitcoiners themselves from an ideological standpoint. And to me, that's the most fascinating thing that's going on. And whatever like woke mind virus is like eating the brains of like the liberal white women we all know. I don't give a single fuck like drink your Chardonnay bitch and like hopefully it cures it. I don't know what to tell you, you know, take some ivermectin.

Erik Cason (19:11.977) Well, it's funny because I have a good friend who like, you know, he's like, deep barrier roots. So like everybody is like very, very liberal. And like he's a bit of the black sheep of family. So he, you know, he was like, I'm going to vote for Trump. And this, this is like very upsetting to his family. And like, you know, everyone was getting outraged with him. And he was like, look, he was like, look, like the only way we get to talk about politics now is like, you have to steel man my position. Like you don't get to come to me and be like,

But Trump's like a racist bigot. Like you need to actually come to me and be like, well, perhaps you want to elect Trump because like you feel different about economic policies or whatever. And I've found like, this is the best way to actually like force people to, like think in a meaningful way. Cause like, otherwise they'll do the same bullshit with you. But I've found like it really glitches people pretty hard. Cause I can be like, look, like I, I understand your position. Like you think Kamala as being the first black woman president.

is really going to create policies that champion and allow for, you know, people of various and diverse backgrounds to be able to have a real leg up in America. Totally hear that. I have a fundamentally different position that I don't believe that that actually helps people in a unique way. And I actually think there's a very discreet kind of racism that's going on with that. When you say, Hey, we need to give reparations to black people.

because they're not good enough to be able to compete with the white people. It's like, they're, you know, like I see something a bit racist in that. And like, again, I'm not trying to take away from that. There, there can be good reasoning behind that, but you know, particularly living in the state of California where this has actually been proposed as like a meaningful bill seems pretty fucking racist to me to steal a bunch of money from me and give it to a bunch of, of, you know, people, you know, I think in this case, just black people that are going to be getting that.

money directly when as far as I know they directly were not enslaved by me or my ancestors and I'm not sure what their relationship is to it either. I'm saying the with Kamala Harris like black woman this is this you know great that if she was elected that she would be the first black woman but let's be very clear she's not like African-American she's a Jamaican woman that's where she's descended from and again like doesn't take away from the fact that that is would be the first black woman president but

Erik Cason (21:35.851) She is not an African-American and that's a bit misleading to kind of do that whole pitch. But most people are really uninterested in this just because they have a deep vested interest in what their emotional capacity is. And that's one of the things I've found deeply disturbing about a lot of liberal ideology is that like if something feels right, that means that like that is right. And when you try to pick that apart, they go, well, that's racist. And that doesn't feel like if I'm, that doesn't feel good. So we can't be that.

And like it turns out that like maybe there's a little bit of racism you have going on there with, you know, wanting to steal money from white people and give it to all the other people. Just saying.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (22:16.397) It's you know, it's you mentioned like this friend who's bucking the trend in his Bay Area family, right? And something I just think is so genuinely sad is that we are at a place right now and and I'm sure you know people could come up with examples of like well in the Civil War families were broken up over that and it's like, okay, let's not please let's not compare the two the two moments in time, but the fact that people will literally stop speaking to their family basically, you know, diso you know disavow them like well my

My mom voted for Donald Trump. And so I can't I just I won't speak to her anymore. I can't possibly because it turns out even though this woman loved me and raised me my entire life and made so many sacrifices for me and did everything she possibly could to give me every advantage I could have. She's a racist bigot. And it's like people will literally stop like I'm sure you guys know people like I can think of a number of people within circles. I run it like off the top of my head that level like nope.

I won't be talking to them anymore. Like I like I'm out, you know, no more family Thanksgiving for me. I can't be around this racism. No more Christmas. I you're not going to see your grandchild. I don't know any of those examples personally out of no more grandchildren time. That'd be like especially fucked up. But the point is like how do you have so much hate in your heart that you cannot you cannot get over the fact that somebody that you love and that loves you may have a slightly different opinion than you.

And that the fact that their opinion is different is so offensive to you that you would break apart those ties that bind you for a fucking political candidate, for a fucking agent of the state apparatus. That is fucking insane. Like that truly blows my mind and I think that is really sad. If somebody by some chances listened to this who's like, well I haven't talked to my uncle Jim in two years because he voted for so-and-so on either side of the fucking aisle. Who cares?

Like you should be able to argue the most with the people you love the most. Because no matter what, at the end of the day, you guys fucking still love each other. Get the fuck over it. You're going to have disagreements. It's OK. That's a beautiful thing. And you should have people that challenge you.

Erik Cason (24:25.621) What?

It's both about like a first of all, it's about like a really weak frame of individual reference that that that's very frankly, callow at the bottom. Because like if you you have to identify so strongly with a political party or a movement that that becomes definitive about you and that like you you need to break with other people because they're disagreeing with it. Because like, look, like I'm clearly like a freak Bitcoiner and like everyone in my life doesn't agree.

with the Bitcoin thing, despite the fact that they've seen me have very, very fat gains while they have lost lots of money. And I think that's sad and unfortunate. And like, I'm always like waiting, you know, at the dinner table at Thanksgiving for them to be like, so Eric, like Bitcoin's at an all time high. Like we were all totally fucking wrong and we could have, you know, doubled our portfolios had we actually listened to you. But like, nope, never fucking happens. And at best I try to bring up the Bitcoin thing.

Wow, like the, just don't understand this money thing. So how was the game last night? And I'm like, you you could like, you could have actually like rolled that into like a question being like, so Eric, like what is money? Like why is Bitcoin actually different from the dollar? Cause I don't understand and you seem to get it. But yeah, that never happens. And I find it pretty sad and unfortunate. And like the other one is like.

I'm still open to Bitcoin being fucking wrong. I'm certain it's not. I mean, like if you happen to be a top tier world cryptographer and you're like, check it out. There's this error in the sub 256 curve that was chosen. And turns out the whole thing's fucking broken. You know, I'd probably contact the US military first and like let them know and understand that fucking encryption standards don't work. I just find it pretty fascinating how deep.

Erik Cason (26:19.241) Most people have fled into the them and like they don't actually have a definitive idea of who and what they are, their purpose in the world. that they're like much more interested in making sure everybody feels comfortable and safe rather than making a little bit of discomfort in a conversation that might force some thought and growth. Cause like, again, I don't want to be a fucking asshole, but

Why don't we think real hard about how things are going and what we would really desire for ourselves and others? And like, I don't know. It's, I know this Thanksgiving is going to get interesting with people being like, that hateful bigot Trump, he was elected and he's going to destroy America now. I'll be like, yeah, like it was pretty bad when Hitler was elected for the second non-consecutive term. And when he really made the choice to go after all of his political opponents at that point in time, that was a really weird.

time in history, huh guys? And they're like, yeah.

HODL (27:13.932) Yeah, remember, remember Hitler's bipartisan coalition, you know, like the Tulsi Gavrids of the Weimar Germany were joining up with Hitler like, no, it's so stupid, dude. I think if we take it at face value, everything Eric said is and Walker said is true. But like, you know, I think a lot of these things are just that family members just really don't fuck with each other for deep, deep familial reasons like trauma, trauma reasons. And they're using the

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (27:24.998) you

HODL (27:40.93) the Trump thing is a convenient excuse, right? Rather than going to therapy and like hashing out their shit or having a frank and honest conversation. I mean, I have family members in my life who, you know, I've had these frictions with and the truth is like, our relationship was never good. It goes deep to the psyche of both individuals in the conflict. It relates back to our grandparents and their site and you know, it just goes back and back and you're like.

Okay, so I actually I've been like cast in a play here of like some deep familial trauma and I'm not even like really aware of what's going on and neither is the other participant. We just know that we don't like each other and then you have this flashpoint of Donald Trump's election in 2016 or in 2024 or whatever and then that becomes the the way to fissure like it creates the fissures in the relationship and whatever. So I think I think that's a lot of what's going on. But I also think that you know more on the

the topic that you were saying about, you were trying to talk to all these people and they wouldn't listen or whatever. I went through this myself and what I realized is that I had survivor's guilt. So I needed to fix them for me, had nothing to do with them. It was all about me. It had to do with my own feelings of inadequacy around not being able to save my own mother from her psychological issues. And then when I realized that I was like, okay, I can just stop doing that.

because it's not serving the other person. I thought it was my way into being a good person. Like I'm a good person. I care about these people. I really want to help them and whatever. But the truth is man that there are people with a growth mindset and there are people without a growth mindset. And I'm a person with a growth mindset. I want to continue growing in life and doing, you know, cause there's no, there's no stasis in nature, right? That's nature abhors a vacuum. Like there is no stasis.

everything's in constant flux. It's constant chaos and you're, basically either growing or decaying, right? That's how nature works. And so we are a part of nature. That's how we work. Also, that's how we work psychologically, but for some reason, people don't think or believe this and they like to, you know, have this sort of delusion that they're, they're a static element in a static system. makes no sense to me. And I can't stand people who are like that and I don't want to be around them. So for me, after I realized the survivor's guilt thing, I was like, okay, yeah.

HODL (29:58.432) I don't want to be around people that don't have a growth mindset. And so now I just am not. So if you don't have that, if you don't think that way, I'm just not around you, bro. I don't know what you got going on and I don't care. And I wish you well. I hope you get out of it, but fuck off.

Erik Cason (30:13.977) Yeah, I've, you know, it's taken me a while to learn it, but particularly family, it's as much as like, really want like deep connecting conversation and for like us to understand each other and for them to like meet me where I'm at. They have like zero fucking interest in that. Like they really want to talk about the weather, like anything that's like level one, maybe level two, but like level three, fuck no.

and it took me a long time to like button up against that wall being like, what, like, why aren't you guys turned on? Like, why don't you like, you know, I'm like, like COVID was like a great example of like trying to bring that stuff up and like lots of big conflict coming up. And it hurt me for a long time because I was like, why don't they want to understand me? Like, this is so difficult. I want to be loved in the way I want to be loved. And like, I finally just kind of got to the place of like, like this is their shit.

HODL (30:50.104) Mm-hmm.

Erik Cason (31:04.262) they're incapable of it. And like the more I rock the boat, the more that they're going to resist it, making capsize more likely. And like, I just need to be okay with doing the level one and level two thing with them. And the truth is I can, I can do level eight, nine, 10 shit with you guys. And like that's frankly, like that's why I really fucking love the Bitcoin community is cause like I can have real and sincere conversation where we actually think hard about shit and go deep and enjoy that. And like that's.

Kind of what friends are supposed to be for. Family can be for, you know, just loving them for who they're meant. you know, I love my mom, really great person. I'm never going to have a deep and thoughtful connecting conversation about the political nature of world and our reality with her. Gonna have a really great conversation about how beautiful the sky is. But, you know, that's about as far as it can go. And that's okay.

And so I just, I really welcome people who are going to go into this Thanksgiving ready to fist fight everybody. Just like eat like a fucking marijuana brownie before that. And just like enjoy staring at the vase or some shit. Like it's not worth fighting your family and their stupid ideas of what they believe is right. Cause the other is like, if you're a Bitcoiner, like it's pretty clear that the next cycle is getting pumping right now.

And so anybody who is even remotely smart in your family is going to come to you when Bitcoin's at $120,000 at Thanksgiving and be like, hey, you know, you like made like some money with this, right? And you can be like, yeah, I'm like really fucking high, but yeah, I made some money with this. And they'll be like, could you, could you tell me a bit about that? And maybe that'll be your opening. Don't, don't expect it, but

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that with what the Trump team is up to, they're about to like front run destroying the entire financial system. Cause that's like, that's kind of their MO. They're like good with this money shit and they all clearly hold Bitcoin and they're clearly going to be appointing people. So, look, like I'm not telling you what to do, but like, if you like money, you should probably buy Bitcoin and keep holding it for awhile. Cause I'm pretty sure it's going to keep going up for awhile here.

Erik Cason (33:15.035) Although there is some fucking moron right now who's absolutely gonna slam their hand in the door and be like, it's going back to 15k. No way the bit going to keep up with this.

HODL (33:23.881) 58K is a lost universe. Otto said it's not static. Bullshit. 58K, stable coin, static, static system.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (33:31.261) To fair, I love the 58k meme and I am guilty of using it so much, but now I've also implemented the 158k meme because it looks almost the same to the the unseeing eye. You just see 58k, but there's a one in there.

HODL (33:43.128) Why not, why not 250 AK? Why not 350 AK? Why not 950 AK? Why not 1.258 K?

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (33:48.17) Jesus I hadn't even gotten that far fuck why not

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (33:55.421) 5.8 you know, like fuck it. Let's let's roll it up. So first of all, I appreciate you guys because you and I appreciate that we can have level eight and nine conversation, maybe someday a level 10. I don't know how high these levels go. So like how the scale works exactly, but I appreciate that there exist people that we can have these kinds of fucking talks with because it's you're right. It's not always within the family. Sometimes it is. And that's very fortunate, but like

If that's not you out there listening like that's okay, too Like you know, that's why that's why you're in Bitcoin, right? Because you can go meet with a bunch of other strange people who want to talk about how fucked up our monetary system is like ad nauseum and like are Super fucking down with that and that's a beautiful thing But I'm curious cuz cuz Eric you mentioned just like the Trump team MO being Go in and kind of like fuck shit up a little bit in the in the financial system. Do you think?

Do you think, okay, like Trump is on board with that? Like, is Trump gonna go full on end the Fed? Like, is Ron Paul coming on here and we are fucking burning this thing down? Or is Trump, like, he's, I don't know about your, like, the vibes you've gotten from, but he seems more measured lately. Like, maybe it's, you know, almost getting assassinated. Maybe it's just a little, you know, couple extra years. Maybe it's Barron being nine and a half feet tall standing next to him. And he's like, you know what? I'm not the biggest guy in the room anymore. I don't know. We're like,

Where do you think we go? Where is Trump at on this? And do you think the team he's assembling is actually going to go in there and be like, no, we're going to bring the Fed down?

Erik Cason (35:34.077) I think from the standpoint, it looks like that's a possibility, but like I, I am very, very deeply convinced that like, the deep state is absolutely and unequivocally in control. And there's no conceivable fucking way that anybody in any elected or any appointed position can like meaningfully stop any of this. Cause like, I, I can't really imagine the powers that be in the back room are like, you guys, they let, like got the right people in the right position to like do stuff like.

What are we gonna do now? And they're like, dang, guess we lost. We just gotta accept it. So no, and I think Ron Paul and Elon Musk and all the people who get in right position, they are absolutely going to try their best to do stuff. And then I'm pretty sure none of it's gonna happen. Same thing, totally holding my breath that Trump keeps his word about freeing Ross day one. Gonna be mum on the word until then. If it doesn't happen, I'm not gonna be shocked.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (36:28.371) Yeah.

Erik Cason (36:32.094) If it does happen, I will be the first to give alkylates to where they're due because that would be phenomenal. My hope is that everybody who's really full all the hopium of all this stuff will see the next two years play out. Very little will actually change in terms of it. Yeah, that's when I'm gonna launch my radical states rights movement to use the states to unilaterally fuck up the federal government.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (36:40.764) Amen.

HODL (36:59.272) Dude, let's talk about the Ross thing for a second because did anyone have more on the line yesterday than Ross Ulbricht? No. Like, mean, Ross Ulbricht's life hung in the balance. was double life, rot in a prison cell for all eternity until you die and are taken away in a casket or freedom in three months, freedom in two and a half months. I mean, that's a fucking crazy

crazy thing that he had to live through, you know, the potential that either one of these outcomes, was like, everyone was saying it was a 50-50 toss up between these outcomes. And luckily, we're in the good timeline. And, you know, I was hanging out with the production crew when I was at this thing last night, and, you know, basically they were asking me like, why do you guys all care so much about Ross? And I said, listen, Ross's story is a miscarriage of justice.

and Ross didn't deserve double life. did do something wrong. He did deserve some prison time. Like, that's just how it is. I know, like, the anarcho-capitalist would be like, no way, bro, but it's like, come on. I mean, we have a society that has rules. He broke the rules. Like, he does a little time. But he's, at this point in life, he has paid his, whatever debt he owed to society has been more than paid. He just created a website. He never hired hitmen. All that is bullshit. The man who allegedly,

he hired to have killed supports him as a vocal supporter of Ross Ulberg. I mean, you've been lied to about this case, the agents, the federal agents on the case were dirty. They were they were stealing. Yes. Yeah, FBI. Yep.

Erik Cason (38:33.375) Like all of them from different agencies, like every single motherfucking federal agent in that goddamn agency stole money, like it's fucking insane. And most of them like got off the hook too. And this is what I'm so fucking angry about is the hypocrisy of

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (38:34.759) Yeah.

HODL (38:43.352) Yeah, they did last time that Ross last time that Ross exactly. No, and I mean what I'm saying is like this is this case is a miscarriage of justice and Ross deserves to be free and he will be free in two and a half months. I'm not one of these Bitcoiners who's like we'll see bro. We'll see if Trump does it like no, no, he's he's gonna be free. It's a campaign promise. We put up serious money and we went to bat for Trump and now we're gonna get Ross out and the reason it's important to us is what I told the production crew.

is because yes, all those things are truths of miscarriage of justice, et cetera. But what it shows is that we are ascendant politically, that we matter, that we're important. Things weren't supposed to happen this way. And then they happen this way. The state condemned a man to slow death, double life imprisonment. And we said, no, you don't get to do that. We got to rewrite the rules of the game as the game was being played. And it shows that we don't have to just sit there and take it. mean, imagine the timeline where Bitcoin goes to zero.

In that timeline, Ross rots in prison for the rest of his life. But we're in the good timeline where Bitcoin is at 76k and Ross is free in two and a half months. And I mean, it just shows that we are going to be players in the world. You're not going to be off in the woods with your cold card shoved up your ass. I mean, if you want to do that, like that's fine. Like get freaky. It's okay. Bitcoin is about freedom, but

Erik Cason (40:03.294) You should really consider a ledger if you're doing that, you know.

HODL (40:05.41) Go like that, open your eyes. Yeah, don't, the cold card is very square. Listen, you want to shove it up your ass, you be my guest, okay? But we're going to be playing.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (40:05.901) Yeah, for real.

Erik Cason (40:14.43) I really need to make a buttplug that is specifically designed for this.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (40:18.076) How has no one made that yet? That's my question.

HODL (40:19.544) I know right. We are going to be players in the world and we're going to have political power. And we're also going to make some butt plugs. Okay. That can accept a leg.

Erik Cason (40:25.255) seed taker.

Erik Cason (40:32.606) You want your engraved butt plug? Please read each other.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (40:37.95) We're thinking of spinning up a little, a little shop for them. They're going to be super nice. Hypoallergenic, course, really smooth on entry. Not so much on exit. Cause you don't want that thing coming out necessarily, right? Like you got to keep it in there.

Erik Cason (40:41.129) You

HODL (40:43.224) I'm

HODL (40:51.938) Just to wrap that up, I'm happy for Ross and I'm happy for us. think like this is a big moment in Bitcoin's history. Ross being for it is a big moment.

Erik Cason (41:02.625) Well, and and, you know, I'm on the opposite side. I'm going to hold my breath till it happens. And when it does, I'm, you know, that'll bring you back in the fold from like crazy crypto anarchist land. Like I'm, might like move into like far right political activism or some shit. but it's really important to get that, like, we're an actual political force now. And like, I really hope that we're going to start behaving like it and that there's going to be like a real actual Bitcoin contingency because like,

HODL (41:09.698) Just fair.

Erik Cason (41:30.175) I actually think in the next four years, there's a real fucking shot of ending the Fed. And like, I don't think anybody inside the federal government will do it, but I do legitimately believe that like, if we got 35 states to push through their state legislature legislation to like end the Fed, that that shit would get amended to the constitution. And like the federal government would have to like flip the fuck out and figure out how to do that.

And I think it's really important because like the federal government is so out of fucking control at this point in time. We really need to start figuring out new and different methodologies to change how that can happen. So I'm just excited to see all the change that's happening and also like fucking 100K is like in play now. So it's to be really exciting when we get there. I haven't heard from Valis in like a year. Well, I've privately heard him from before, but like I hope his 100K party is still going to happen somewhere.

HODL (42:12.6) dude, 100k by Thanksgiving.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (42:21.727) Yeah, we're whether I mean I don't like to you know talk about price too much on this show because I'm not an open-mouthed YouTube shill But that being said caveat, you know, it is like above 70 say we're like 76 200 right now that's just like kind of a trip, you know, and I would I agree with you that like As I was watching the price last night again, I like I've been on the river these last like four days. I have like checked

Twitter a couple of times then I was like, nah, that's not really of interest to me. Like I'm out in fucking nature catching fish hanging out with like my dad. Like that's what I want to, this is what I want to be doing right at this moment. And, then I got back and of course I was like, yes, you know, like bring it in. And then, you know, stayed up until 2 AM watching MSNBC as one does, but like you could, you could feel something was happening and I think you can feel something is happening now. And I just wonder like,

HODL (43:00.93) Yeah.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (43:17.916) does Bitcoin like because I would say that Bitcoin is it is inherently partisan or excuse me it is inherently political it is not partisan right it is like money is always going to be political we're talking about separating fucking money in state of course that is going to be political it is not inherently partisan it is only partisan if partisans make it partisan and that's not to say the people that are pro Bitcoin are the partisans who are making it partisan it's the ones on the other side who are reactionary to it right

HODL (43:25.804) Yes.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (43:46.343) So I'm just interested to see like, I mean, fuck like there, it's a, it's a red fucking wave. Like Trump blew out the popular vote. He's got the mandate, right? He obviously won the electoral college. You've got a Republican majority in the house and the Senate by all rights. have no excuse not to do everything they claim they want to do. Right? Like they have, there's no excuse.

HODL (44:04.704) interest rate. 100%. By the way, by the way, the Democrats going after us and brought and broader crypto markets was such in retrospect, such a massive unforced error on their part. There was no reason to make significant enemies of us. None. And all they did was suffer because of it. Now, like, I don't know how much we affected the election.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (44:21.554) Yes.

HODL (44:32.62) But we affected it some non-trivial amount, okay? And it just, it wasn't something they needed to do and they did it anyway because they were drunk with power. That's why they

Erik Cason (44:43.022) I mean, they did it because like they believe their own retarded bullshit that they like they had literally pumped up their own ass intentionally where they're they're like, this is used for terrorism financing and it's it's so all the bros can get away with tax and like it was all bullshit that they just repeatedly kept convincing themselves like like the fucking Greenpeace nonsense and like the like I feel so bad for the guy that's running that Twitter because like

Like all he does is tweet something and is immediately, like provided all of the evidence of how fucking wrong he is. And like the other thing that's just so shameful is that like these people are supposed to actually like give a fuck about the environment and like, what's more important than making sure that we're actually getting clean hydro power from power plants that were going to be shut down otherwise, you know, like what's more important to people in sub-Saharan Africa who have never had access to

fucking electricity and can't have clean water and now they can. Like it's, it's just so disingenuous. And like, again, I would really hope that, you know, the Democrats would sit down and be like, wow, we like, we really fucked that one up. We should really like reconsider this. But, I very, very strong doubts that that's going to happen. And it's going to be really interesting to see kind of what the co what comes out of it. But yeah, I have a very strong expectation.

that they are going to continue to double down until essentially they fracture the Democrat party into like, there's either gonna be a renewed moderated democratic movement or it's gonna fracture out into like different parties. Either way, it's gonna be fucking entertaining.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (46:26.386) Can I say something controversial guys? am, I am, I am glad Elizabeth Warren was reelected because honestly, I, she was, she was against what John Deaton, right? He was like the, yeah, he lost.

Erik Cason (46:28.546) No.

HODL (46:30.962) Yeah.

Erik Cason (46:36.254) was she?

HODL (46:41.1) Yeah, he lost. Yeah. He had an uphill battle. She's very well funded in her state and Massachusetts is a liberal shithole.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (46:46.202) she is.

Erik Cason (46:47.973) Huh, where'd that money come from? That's really interesting. Huh.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (46:50.723) from but he was funded by crypto lobbyists. But no, the reason I'm happy that Elizabeth Warren won is because I would have missed her. I would have honestly missed reply guying her all the time when she says stupid fucking useless shit like that would have left a little bit of a hole in me. And I don't know how I would have filled it like I need something to butt up against. And like Pocahontas is the best.

HODL (46:55.65) Yeah.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (47:18.52) She's just the best for that. it's like when she talks about price gouging, I see Elizabeth Warren price gouging tweet. And I'm just like, yes, I know what I'm doing today. You know, like, it's nice to have that. And like, I also think to your point, Eric, like, she is going to their and to your point as well, like unforced errors, she's going to continue to fracture the Democratic Party. Because like, like one in fucking seven Americans owns Bitcoin, like owns Bitcoin.

This is according to the study that Troy Cross did. There's probably a margin of error there. But even if it's one in fucking five Americans, that's already a shitload. And we are not even in like number go up mania yet where people are like, I probably need some of that. This is a growing coalition. And to fight against it is just like, first of all, you're fighting against freedom and you're just fighting against people from all walks of life. It's not like these are just the crypto bros or all these, you know, like not every, you know,

Bitcoin bro is as fucking radical as case in over here, you know, and I mean that in honestly the most complimentary way possible just so know, Eric, but like that, like what the fuck are they fighting against? What are they anti your anti freedom? Your anti people being able to make decisions for themselves. But it's like, like it's like my body, my choice, like my fucking money, my choice. Fuck right off. Anyway, I'm so glad I was so glad she was reelected. That's it. That's

Erik Cason (48:25.289) Thank you, I appreciate that.

HODL (48:38.968) 100 % no, I was gonna I was gonna say the same thing you said which is that it's such a it's such a bipartisan like coalition multi racial like pluralistic like I mean Bitcoin is a large tent like the Orange Party is the largest tent we have politically and they did they made a large mistake going after us because you know, first of all, it's like

Erik Cason (48:44.359) back in a minute, gentlemen.

HODL (49:06.604) Are you dumb? You're going after young millennials with money who are multi- like racially diverse? The fuck is- are you stupid? Like what's wrong? It doesn't even make sense. It doesn't even compute. But anyway, listen, there was a referendum on these people last night. I feel confident that this worldview is going to be dealt a hearty blow. And they're gonna realize that, you know, there's a new player in town and it's the crypto lobby and the Bitcoin lobby.

And David Bailey in some non-trivial fashion was responsible for freeing Ross Ulbrich from prison or will be responsible for freeing Ross Ulbrich from prison and for getting Donald Trump elected. He made a significant, you know, mark dent on this election and he's the MVP of Bitcoin in 2024. Like that goes to David Bailey, number one with a bullet. There's no one else that even came close this year. And, you know, I think

It just reminds me, I was talking with David Zell about this last night that you can just do things. You can just do things. Whatever you want to do, you can just do it. Just do it. Elon wanted to affect the election. He just went out and rounded up a bunch of Amish people and drove them to the polls because the Amish can't drive themselves to the polls. He was like, we will drive you to the polls. You hate the government, right? And the Amish were like, fuck yeah. They tried to shut down our raw milk and shit. And Elon was like, yeah, fuck that.

We will drive you there. Let's all go vote. You can just do things. You don't have to wait for anybody. Nothing's decreed. Like, listen, fiat is a fucking disease of the mind. That's what it is. And every currency on earth that's not Bitcoin is fiat. Ethereum is fiat. Solana is fiat. Tether is fiat. They're all fiat, okay? And then obviously all the fiat currencies are fiat. But fiat is not just affecting the monetary supply and material goods like iPhones and shit. No, fiat affects

You. It affects your mind. It affects the way you think. You think that the world is decreed to you from scribes on high. It's not. The world is built by people that get out and build the fucking world. So if you want to do something, just go do it. Get politically active if you want to be politically active. Build a business if you want to build a business. Build a family if you want to build a family. Build an estate if you want to build an estate. Go to Mars if you want to go to Mars. Fucking just go do it. Do what you want to do.

HODL (51:31.916) That is the Bitcoin story. Not by decree. No one tells you to do it. You decree it. You fucking decree it. You go out and do what the fuck you're gonna do in the world. That's what we're doing here in Bitcoin.

Erik Cason (51:52.808) the to elaborate on your point, like, this fucking disease has rotted out 95 % of all of the creative potential of people everywhere. And it's great to see that that 5 % is making the change for the other 90%. Like, what we're seeing being developed in this entire system is fucking phenomenal. And people are not asking for fucking permission anymore. And I really hope between what we're seeing in Bitcoin, and the renewal of this American spirit that like,

Like one of the things I didn't realize last night with that I was so excited about when I started watching the Bitcoin price go up and the markets go up. was like, yeah, like there's this entire economic engine that's sighing with relief now that they're not going to get fucked out of existence by a socialist government that fucking hates them. And that maybe there's real potential to actually create dynamic change. Like I actually, and I think it's really interesting that people like this tariff thing's going to destroy anything. Like fuck that, this tariff thing's going to supercharge the fucking economy.

Like it's gonna turn out that like people that are importing cheap shit from China and they have to pay twice as much, they're gonna go, you know, maybe I'm gonna buy the American made thing where I'm not gonna have to pay twice as much for the same thing, you know? And like that's a really great fucking thing. And I understand all the economic arguments about how tariffs work and otherwise, but like, let's be clear, cheap shit from China that's subsidized by slavery, like it's not good for fucking America. You know what's good for America? Shit made in America that paid American people.

HODL (53:17.067) huh.

Erik Cason (53:18.59) that give American salaries so that they can spend money in America. And like, not to get on the nationalistist thing, but like, the other thing is, like, the world fucking needs Americanism right now. Like shit is fucked up and there needs to be a renewal of this American spirit that pushes out into the world that, you know, is what 1776 was about, which was a global revolution that then swept through Europe because they're like, yo Europeans, look, we just like fucked up the British empire and we...

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (53:30.43) Yes.

Erik Cason (53:47.21) earned our own rights by fighting these assholes. Would you like that? They're like, yeah, this like monarchy shit is bullshit. Let's, let's fucking fight. And I hope that we're going to see a renewal of that same spirit that we're going to fight back against our federal government and their surveillance in the deep state and that we're going to push that shit out numb into Europe and that the Europeans are going to be like, yeah, you know what? turns out getting asked fucked by our government and getting global surveillance through a CBDC is bullshit. Let's fight these motherfuckers. And I would love to see more than anything.

See, a sincere German nationalist movement renew itself instead of them living in their fucking shame about Nazism and like, get that like that shit's over guys and that like Germans, you actually have some like really great shit about your culture that if you guys can protect in a meaningful way, very similar to Americans and still be able to be inclusive with that ideal, like there's something great to be done. But like living in all this shame about like, like.

we're bunch of racist Nazis because we believe German culture is great is the same kind of bullshit that they're trying to tell us about because you believe in America and what America means, it doesn't mean that you're a far right racist. It means that you're a fucking American that believes in the real values and ethics of what it means to be American. So, you know, fuck this fiat bullshit, fuck CBDCs and it's time for us to really start rebuilding in a meaningful and thoughtful way on top of a Bitcoin standard because that's really an American standard.

HODL (55:00.344) Mm-hmm.

HODL (55:12.162) Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. Fuck No. No. No. No.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (55:12.479) fucking it. Fuck. Yeah, Wait, can we talk about Europeans for a second? Because like, wait, wait, just for one second. Cause have you noticed that the only people more confused about what happened in the U S election than the Democrats are the Europeans. They're like, on. What do you, what do you mean? Don't you understand? He's mean and bad. And how sad is this? These Americans, how did like it's it's mind blowing. And then you're like, God,

HODL (55:24.822) is the Europeans,

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (55:41.149) Like your point Eric like yeah, like I'm like so I feel like sometimes I went through the state like a stage in my life where I was like not I love America I love America because I love the fucking American idea and I love the American people and I love the possibilities that the existence of the American idea Allows for people in this country because it allows people to fucking create and build and do meaningful things but I went through a stage where I was like, you know, this is on my my Bitcoin journey where I'm also like

Well, but the fucking military industrial fucking war machine, the fucking the fucking fiat monetary colonialism that's perpetuated by the IMF and the World Bank, like and the Federal Reserve. This is this is bad. Like and then I got to the point where naturally like five seconds later I was like, yeah, but that's not America. Like that's fucking institutions. That is US government institutions. Those are institutions of theft and destruction and death.

America is a fucking idea and it's the people who hold that idea up and use it as their fucking torch to bring light into darkness and That is what I think people can get behind and I think you should be able to fucking get behind that Like I don't give a fuck what political party you fucking identify with like this week or forever in your entire life like There I don't know if you guys have heard anybody say this before but there is no red. There is no blue There is the state and there is you

Yes, there are meaningful differences in political parties. Obviously, there's a difference between Kamala, like what Kamala's administration would have been and what Trump's will be. But ultimately, we are not a divided people. We are a people who are united around the idea that America is fucking amazing. That idea is fucking amazing. And we are going to be fucking damned if we will let the state usurp that idea for its own fucking death and destruction and theft. And I think

I hope that more people can get around that and realize that look we're all on the fucking same side. There are two sides. It is the people the independent individuals and it is the state. There is no other side like there's no there's no other sides. You can color the horse a different color but like it's still the state granted again. me caveat. There are some differences especially you get down to local governments. There's a lot of difference but like we have so much more not to sound fucking cheesy.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (58:02.634) We have so much more that brings us together than divides us. And what brings us together is the idea that America is fucking special. And if it wasn't for fucking America, Europe would be still have been fucked from those fucking German Nazis, actual Nazis. Like we have literally pulled Europe's own head out of its ass so many times. And yet they still look at us like, well, these, you know, uncouth barbarians. It's like, you know, fucking right. We're uncouth and we're fucking barbarians. And there's a reason that you called us.

when you fucking got your panties in a twist and started murdering tr- like millions of people because you couldn't handle it on your fucking own, you pansies. Like, I love- for any Europeans listening, I fucking love you because you're listening to this and you obviously have a set of balls or maybe not balls, you know, you may be a lady European, but like, America is uniquely positioned to drive massive change in the world because of the American idea. That is what I would say.

HODL (58:58.392) The American, by the way, the thing that's beautiful about America, the American ideal, what is it, right? Like people might not know, especially if you're from Europe, the American ideal is I am the king of my own castle. I am, I am the captain of myself. Okay. I do not have to do anything that you want me to do. I am in charge of me. And if what I'm doing doesn't harm anyone, I should be completely allowed. And I'm well within every right, my God given rights to continue doing that thing.

That is a new idea in the world. It's a baby idea. It's only 250 some odd years old and not quite 250 yet. It's only about 250 years old. And we have to protect that idea because that's the most important idea in the history of the world thus far. And every time I see Americans exercise it and say, a second. Sometimes Americans get caught up in this thing where they're listening to people they shouldn't be listening to.

You know, they're to the television, Rachel Maddow or whoever, Joy Reid, Whoopi Goldberg. And then they go, wait a second, why? They just wake up and they go, why have I been listening to this bitch? What the fuck am I doing listening to this person? I'm just gonna do whatever the fuck I want. No! I'm doing what I want!

Erik Cason (01:00:18.705) Well, Hoddle's out now because he did what he wanted. Look, these are really important.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:00:23.144) Wait, is your computer okay?

HODL (01:00:24.984) I didn't mean to hit the computer, but it's okay, it's fine.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:00:28.072) I thought that was for dramatic effect.

Erik Cason (01:00:28.409) The, the, yeah, it was good. These are really important ideals and like, you know, to, reemphasize everything that you said, Walker, like it took me a long time on my own journey as an anarchist. So like, like I'm an, I'm an anarchist and I'm American. Like I fundamentally believe that Americans on a whole, like we have all of the same value sets. Like nobody wants to hurt other people. Nobody wants to be hurt. People want to respect each other's right to private property. People want to see innovative and creative solutions and

and like let people be freaky and do what they are. And so like, I see reactions on both sides. It's like, look, like if you want to be your gay transgender lizard or like whatever the fuck you want to identify as, like that's fucking great. Good for you. Like do not come into the fucking schools and try to teach kids that shit. Like I'm uninterested in that. In fact, like why the fuck are we doing this school thing? Like if you look at the fucking department of education, you know what every single standard has been measured to do each year?

It goes fucking down. That's what it does. It teaches kids to be fucking stupid little robots that can't think for themselves. Like it, I find it deeply disturbing when I, when my son has friends that are in public school come over and like how fucking remedial they are and how much they, don't, there's a certain creativity that they really lack that I find fucking disturbing, you know? And also on the same side, like just cause people want to be weirdos and freaks don't mean that we have to hate on them and remove their right to be fucking weirdos and freaks. It's just like, don't.

In the same way that like, I'm not going to put my shit in your face. Don't put your shit in my face and don't try to use public institutions to do that. There's no fucking need. Same thing. Like I have no fucking interest in deporting people from this country just because they disagree with me on different principles. Like we need to learn to live in fucking peace and have a radical modernism between us because without that, they're like that. That's what America is all about is about being able to figure out.

How do we live with these ideals that allow for us all to flourish despite how different we are? know, like Europeans like take a fucking cue from us. Like, you know, like we, we figured out how to make this shit work. You guys are trying to model the same thing, but to be very clear, like what you guys are doing with the European Central Bank and the EU and shit, like this is not going to end well for you guys. And so I really encourage

Erik Cason (01:02:47.665) And like I've noticed this more coming from German specifically like you guys need to redouble in your own nationalism and so far of that like you guys are actual independent countries and you need to stop letting this fucked up institution that got created by a bunch of bureaucrats that told you that everything was gonna get better with it. You know like I have an uncle that's lived in Berlin since the 1970s and he knows the conversion of when they went from the mark to the euro fucked everybody over super hard and that's how it is kind of universally.

You guys should really consider taking back national sovereignty, destroying the European Central Bank, and probably, you know, the fact that the thing is ran by an actual fucking financial criminal who has been found guilty of financial crimes, that's pretty fucking ridiculous. And it's pretty ridiculous that you guys tolerate this bullshit being shoved down your throat from Brussels, so...

I really hope that you guys are gonna light shit on fire, cause like, when you guys commit yourself to burning shit down and like throwing shit at people and other stuff, you guys are really good at it. Like, into that. Like keep doing more of that. Like stop, stop with this other fucking nonsense. Cause you know, you guys are gonna get something pretty nasty out of it if you guys keep tolerating this bullshit.

HODL (01:04:03.836) You know what I think the difference between the European mind and the American mind is is that in Europe for you know, thousands of years, if you talk back to the nobility, they could kill you with impunity, right? And in America, one day we took a look at the nobility and we were like, fuck you. We just killed everybody, bro. You know, and so that's different starting points, you know, inception.

Erik Cason (01:04:24.048) Yup, fun f-

Erik Cason (01:04:27.868) Fun fact is that there is an actual amendment to the United States Constitution that is still active to be ratified by states that if you are given a title of nobility in America, you will be stripped of all political rights and positions. think it was the, because there's like three outstanding articles that could be ratified by states, like aren't, like another is about like child labor. The other one's article the first, which.

HODL (01:04:49.706) Yeah.

Erik Cason (01:04:53.424) I've had another great radical plan of like forcing state legislatures to ratify article the first to be, and it's called that because it was the first article to ever be that passed through the congressional approval process. And it went to the States to get approved, but it was never approved. And what article the first stipulates is that no representative of the federal government shall ever represent any more than 50,000 people at a time. And to be clear, if that passed today, that would mean that the House of Representatives would be like,

7,000 people or some shit like that. So that would be really fun if we like got states to pass it just to fuck up the federal government. Cause this is my big thing that I want not only for Americans, but for Europeans and all people everywhere is that like, I believe very, very strongly it is about states, provinces and counties against their unified federal government. Like if you look at what's going on in Spain right now, after the crisis that happened in Valencia and how much the federal government is absolutely fucking those people over.

This is where the real war is at. So I'd like to see more radicalism of states' rights against federal governments across the board. And I think that would really help solve a lot of problems.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:06:02.717) Eric, you mentioned something earlier about, like, just speaking of states' rights, that if, what was it, 35 states were to basically resolve internally, like, as independent states, that we should end the Fed, that the federal government would basically need to scramble. Can you elaborate on that a little bit more for those of us who are less constitutionally literate?

Erik Cason (01:06:20.71) Yeah, so this is all a hypothetical way to be able to ratify the United States Constitution directly using state legislatures only. Nothing has to go through the federal government and it is not supposed to have any oversight. This has never happened in American history because every single time that this method has been used to amend the Constitution, when it's gotten within two or three states,

The federal government has essentially flipped the fuck out and Congress has passed that amendment to the United States with the same language directly so that this was all circumnavigated. There was a Supreme Court decision in 1908 that essentially said if states tried to do this, we wouldn't recognize it. But like this is all about creating constitutional crisis because the 10th Amendment is very explicit and that any powers that are not enumerated to the federal government directly in the Constitution are reserved for states alone. So.

The whole idea would be essentially be go state by state, get the exact same language passed saying that we are calling on an Article 5 convention to amend the United States Constitution to end the Federal Reserve and that the federal government shall have no oversight whatsoever around the issuance of a currency. And in theory, it could pass. For me, the big goal is to get it past 33 states or something.

federal government's gonna freak out. You're probably gonna have the judicial branch being like, no, this is illegitimate. There's no way to amend the constitution without the federal government. We're gonna be like, Texas, what do you think about that? They're trying to say that the sovereignty of your state and what you guys decide isn't okay. Is that something you agree with? How do you feel about that, Nevada, Wyoming? Is this okay with you guys?

Cause for me, the big crisis that happened in America, which is where fiat money started in America was during the civil war. And as much as everybody likes to suck Abraham Lincoln's dick and celebrate him as being a really great guy, good job with like ending slavery, but like you like really fucked up a lot of other stuff with what you did in that. Not to mention that like explicitly creating an amendment to the United States constitution that says that other people can't have slaves, but the

Erik Cason (01:08:28.913) the state itself can have slaves is pretty fucked up. So with that, I really encourage everybody look into the Article 5 ratification process. I really have a boner for the idea using this to like fuck up the federal government across the board. Because to me, this is actually about a radical evolution of the political process that like I think federal politics is fundamentally broken. And if there's a way to lateralize a national movement that uses

only states and state legislatures to start amending the Constitution, or even calling for an Article 5 convention to rewrite the Constitution on a whole, which is also specifically reserved by Article 5 in the U.S. Constitution, there's actually an opportunity for us to roll back radical federal power, destroy the deep state, and renew the American dream throughout the globe by essentially creating the American dream with the federal government and the deep state stripped from it. So that's kind of my insane idea.

you know, let's have a couple lawyers and legal scholars come in here and tell me how I'm fucking insane or wrong or maybe even right, but as far as I know, this is an actual thing that could happen. It's just been kind of buried in history for a long time.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:09:41.32) HODL your thoughts.

HODL (01:09:43.512) I listen, I'm an Article 5 maxi as well. Eric has explained it to me multiple times. just, you know, I think like in practical terms, I just I just don't think we're gonna be able to do that. Yeah, it'd be cool. It'd be cool if it happened. You know, I would be for it.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:10:00.4) Let's let's talk about some practical terms then because okay I want to want to get your guys take on this whole Bitcoin strategic reserve thing Senator okay, so you we remember at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville Trump gave what I think was honestly incredible stand-up performance like that dudes a dude he riffs like he's he's Like you cannot argue with the fact that the dude can fucking what does he call? He calls it the weave right? You know like he riffs. It's impressive. It's just

HODL (01:10:20.344) It was funny. Yeah.

HODL (01:10:25.91) leave.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:10:28.702) very like nice routine. yeah. Yeah. Go save the delivery man. But, and he talked kind of like, we're going to keep the Bitcoin that we have, you know, we're not going to sell any of it. He didn't like explicitly say we are going to start, you know, printing fiat to acquire Bitcoin. He said he would protect the industry though. He said a lot of positive things. Then as everybody is leaving the stage, like after he finished, Lummis comes up and is like, I have a fucking bill right here. Like

Erik Cason (01:10:29.088) My dogs are attacking the delivery man, so I gotta stop them.

HODL (01:10:31.416) Nope.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:10:57.703) I have a bill for the US to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and like I felt bad because like again like people are like yelling like everyone's leaving the thing like and I'm sitting there like she just like this is fucking actually actually news that lumos is like I've got a fucking bill for this she's been on top of it since then Do what do you think is the most likely scenario that's gonna play out as far as the establishment of a strategic reserve? Is this something that like Trump is gonna be all for?

HODL (01:11:05.442) Yeah.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:11:24.455) Like once he gets a little more knowledge of it, where do you think we're going with this?

HODL (01:11:27.348) So the way that Trump said it on stage initially is is wrong and can't happen. So the Bitcoin that have been seized, you know by whomever, whichever government authority sees them, then there are multiple government authorities that have seized them over time. They belong to somebody they have owners, right? So like most recently the Bitfinex hack there was four billion dollars worth of Bitcoin or something that was seized by the US government, but that Bitcoin all belongs to

people and it has to go back to them. So you can't use it for your national strategic stockpile. But in general, I think the idea of a national strategic stockpile is something that is going to happen one way or another. I think it's inevitable. Whether it goes on the central bank's balance sheet or whether it's put into the hands of the executive branch, I'm not sure. But America is going to acquire a large swath of Bitcoin at some point.

I think there's a the most interesting thing about it is the prisoners dilemma of the nation state level game theory around who goes first So if you go first, you're the most advantaged, right? But for some reason I don't think this is widely known and so nobody's gone first yet or maybe it's because we don't have Younger people who understand these things or have game this out Is Trump's administration administration where we we can do those things I think

Maybe I mean, JD Vance is a Bitcoin or Vivek is a Bitcoin or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Bitcoin or Tulsi Gabbard is a Bitcoin or Elon Musk is a Bitcoin or Trump owns a little bit of Bitcoin. He's dabbled in some crypto bullshit. He has his own shit coin. So yeah, I mean, there is a potential that it could happen this time around. I think the most important or the most interesting thing to me is the game theory between other nation states. And then the thing I was going to mention is in some

To some degree, I think the Bitcoin that's in the public markets is a honeypot for the US government. So MSTR is a honeypot for the US government. The ETFs are the public companies that have Bitcoin on treasury like Tesla. So those things are things that can be nationalized in a moment's notice if needed. But we're not on a Bitcoin standard. So the government doesn't need to seize your Bitcoin yet. If fiat starts to collapse, they may need to seize your Bitcoin.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:13:33.256) Mm.

HODL (01:13:56.273) They may seize your b- They'll never need to do it. I mean, they just will do it, right? And so, yeah, I think that's- Those are my high-level thoughts around everything, though.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:14:04.595) Do you, I assume when you talk about a first mover advantage, you're discounting El Salvador in this particular instance because they do not print their own currency, because they are dollarized. Yeah.

HODL (01:14:12.756) It's too small. Well, it's also too small. It's just too small. El Salvador is a very poor country. They're doing listen, they're doing great. They're on the upswing, but they're not a player in the world. They don't mean anything like I mean, El Salvador is a tiny nothing country with no resources like I love what's going on down there. You're always probably they're very small. If you looked at them on the map, it's like this big. It's yeah, it's Russia, China, America.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:14:28.105) For now, for now, for now, let's let's let, yeah.

HODL (01:14:41.238) France, Germany, those are the countries that one of them needs to go first. G7.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:14:45.897) Do you so I mean like Russia has been shifting some of its stances around Bitcoin mining and Bitcoin more generally recently. mean do you think that like that is like we're going to see a lot more of that because Russia was for a while very like no we're you know not a fan of this. mean you know it's not the not the freest country in the world let's say and so freedom money tends to be a little bit.

It's like oil and water, like they don't mix well, right? But clearly they're realizing the geopolitical significance of Bitcoin, which is still sitting at like, I mean, I don't know what the market cap is right now after we're over, we're pamping, but like, we're not over 2 trillion yet. We're at like what, below a trillion and a half, like 1.5, which is fucking nothing. Like in the grand scheme of things, like we are still fucking early.

Erik Cason (01:15:31.04) point five.

HODL (01:15:37.74) Yep. Smaller than Apple Computer.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:15:42.303) Yeah, Bitcoin did just pass meta though, right? I think like today like I believe so, but I don't know like

HODL (01:15:47.308) Probably.

Erik Cason (01:15:52.717) That piece of shit company is worth one and a half tru- Like what the fuck is wrong with this world? I'm sorry, like that- that is upsetting that so many fucking morons are on that goddamn surveillance platform giving away their information towards somebody that fucking hates them.

HODL (01:16:02.38) It's.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:16:06.473) to, it's just,

HODL (01:16:08.214) Instagram is very popular with the hoes Eric very popular

Erik Cason (01:16:11.434) I know. Bitches just be scrolling.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:16:12.551) And Facebook's very popular with the boomers. Like I think boomers are the only ones left on Facebook. I'm honestly convinced, which is hilarious because the boomers were the same ones being like this, this, these Facebook's are going to melt your brains. And now they're like, you know, like this picture of Donald Trump and Jesus is incredible. Like when did they take this? This is amazing. Like, don't think boomer boomers have really bad AI detection skills. Also, that's a slight digression, but it leaves them very vulnerable to manipulation. I think

HODL (01:16:24.342) It's, yeah.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:16:40.456) It's also kind of cute and endearing. God bless you, you bought your house for two raspberries and now you're a multimillionaire.

Erik Cason (01:16:47.724) look like in all honesty, like I see the next decade is like there's gonna be this really it's funny because I remember I was at Burning Man. I'd taken a bunch of acid and I was talking to a younger friend about this and I like went on this crazy diatribe. was like, yeah, in 30 years, we're gonna have like a youth fascist movement that's just gonna be all about like fucking stripping the boomers of their property and like sending them off to the prison camps for liquidation just because people are gonna be so fucking angry at the way that they feel like they were robbed and stolen from. So like

I don't know. It's very similar to that Junseth podcast where he talked to that young scammer where he was pretty indifferent to the way he was ripping people off. honestly, young people have a pretty good point. Yeah, if an AI boomer can't tell the difference between Donald Trump and an AI bot, and you can rip him off doing that, why shouldn't you? Yeah, he made his millions of dollars from watching his house inflate.

HODL (01:17:21.57) of these cameras.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:17:23.049) was amazing.

Erik Cason (01:17:46.102) you know, because of how fucked up the monetary system is. So why shouldn't you just engage in outright graft? I'm not saying that that's right in any meaningful way. Like it's an honest and open-ended question that frankly, I've really struggled with, like meaningfully answering to them. Cause like, yeah, this system has absolutely fucked you and robbed you. And there is no meaningful way that you are going to crawl out of the hole that you've been forced to live in. So like, I don't, I don't know what you can really do to try to protect yourself other than get yourself on a Bitcoin standard.

HODL (01:18:15.108) you? Do you that's Do you think that's true, though? Because like, didn't you feel that way when you were 1819? Because I did, I felt like the boomers had pulled up the ladder. They got rich selling houses back and forth to each other. We were never going to be able to do the same thing, etc, etc. And then God was just like, boom, here's, here's digital coins, bitch. And I was like, fuck. This is amazing. I'm richer than these guys could have ever dreamed. Yeah.

Erik Cason (01:18:15.414) But you probably shouldn't be robbing people, because that's fucked up.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:18:18.344) Yeah

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:18:38.045) you

You

HODL (01:18:43.158) So I mean, think there's always something on the horizon.

Erik Cason (01:18:43.567) I mean, for me personally, for me personally, yeah, but like, I, and like, this is one of the things I always struggle with is that like, we're in an extremely unique position, you know, across, like, that's one of the reasons I didn't just like take the money and run is that like, feel a real obligation towards speaking to the very real power that this has to like, write the economy in a meaningful way again. And with that being said, like,

If I was 20 years old looking at the economy right now, like I would very sincerely be trying to build a career as probably both a drug dealer and a scammer just because I look at the world and be like, why the fuck should I participate in any of this goddamn non- like you want me to fork out $400,000 to get a fucking bachelor's degree while you got that shit for free? Like why the fuck shouldn't I just set fire to everything and watch it burn because

What do I have to win in this system? Like, like I can work for 30 fucking years so I can get a down payment on a home that then I'll spend the next 30 fucking years trying to pay off scraping by. Like, I think shit is really, really fucked up. And I think the only reason that kids aren't outraged is because they're so dopamine addicted to the scrolling that they can't even pull their head far enough out of the phone to stop and look around and go, gee, shit's really fucking bad. But that terrifies them. So they look back at the phone and keep scrolling.

so I think shit's kind of sad right now, but, you know, like I, I hope I'm wrong and that it's not actually that dark out there, but from the, from the young people that I speak to, like, there isn't a rage about it. There's like a very real defeat that like they have been beaten down into a cage that like, they're just doing their best to figure out how to be in. So, while I do agree that I did feel that way when I was younger, like I very sincerely feel like I just like found the fucking glitch in the system.

And I remember like picking it up and being like, there's no fucking way that like magic internet money is going to become the global standard of the future and like make a difference in the 2024 presidential election. And the funniest thing is, that like, there was no political conversation about Bitcoin in my opinion, up until about 2016. Like there were, there was no conceivable difference. know, like crypto didn't even exist on a whole. There was a bunch of shit coin copies, like Litecoin and Feathercoin and shit.

Erik Cason (01:21:07.812) But it was only with the premiere of Ethereum that Bitcoiners were like, hang on, like, we're trying to like make a kind of money that you can't fuck with. And they're like, yeah, like I thought, I thought this was the whole thing that we could just like make up Clowncoin and like make a bunch of money. And I was like, I think we have like different ethics here. And they're like, huh. So like, you don't want any Clowncoin? And I was like, no.

Good luck with that though.

HODL (01:21:32.28) No, mean, you know, I think that, okay, so one thing is, did you see the scammers who got caught for 250 million? They hit up a Genesis creditor for 250 million. Did you see that story?

Erik Cason (01:21:44.022) yeah, yeah. Wasn't this a while ago that they just, you it was like, he had like fucking, like two FAA, like through texts or some shit and they just, just, yeah.

HODL (01:21:52.438) Yeah, they posed as I think they pose as Genesis or so I can't remember how the scam worked. But anyway, like they got $250 million in Bitcoin off of this guy. And it wasn't that long ago. was like six months ago or something. And then what did they do? They went out to the clubs in Miami and LA and they started buying OnlyFans girls Birkin bags and Lamborghinis and whatever. And my favorite text message from the thread is by the way, and then the FBI caught them two months later because

Everybody who's ever seen Goodfellas knows you don't go out and buy a fucking pink Cadillac day one. Are you fucking retarded? Robert De Niro is gonna whack you, okay? Or they don't watch it? Yeah, it's like, the kid literally bought a pink, he bought a pink Lambo for a girl. That is in Goodfellas, the guy does that and then he gets whacked.

Erik Cason (01:22:29.509) Kids don't watch oldies anymore.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:22:31.567) No, the answers are all there. They gave you the answers.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:22:41.425) Also, like she's not going to bang you either way, bro. Like, you know, seriously,

HODL (01:22:43.704) Well, that's the point. That's the point I'm getting to. So there's a text message from the girl and he goes, hey, what's up? I bought you a fucking pink Lambo Urus. You want it? Let's be friends, whatever. And she's like, lol, I have a boyfriend. Sorry. And it's like, dude, you are going to get ass raped in federal prison for the next 10 years.

Erik Cason (01:22:44.377) Yeah, that's like the most beta fucking move you can make.

HODL (01:23:09.568) and you couldn't even get the girl to sleep with you after you bought her a fucking Lamborghini. You know why? It's because when you earn money that way, girls know. They know that you're a fucking loser. They can feel it. They can sense it. Right? And so like she didn't want to have anything to do with you. So it's like, what did you get out of the score, bro? You went to Rodeo Drive and wore some gay Louis Vuitton shit for a little bit and we're in the nightclub fucking sipping on fucking...

awesome, Migo, fucking Don Hoolit, whatever the fuck, like what the f- that's nothing. You threw away your life for nothing, bro. Come on.

Erik Cason (01:23:41.263) Yeah, not to digress, but like if you want to like get rich and make a bunch of money to like get all the hot bitches, like I got news for you. Like it's not gonna work in any meaningful way. And like, you're actually gonna find yourself in like a super bitch beta position where you're gonna be like, huh, like I just like drove this girl in my Porsche over to this guy's house that she's like, that isn't my boyfriend. So.

HODL (01:24:06.808) It's just her trainer dude, it's just her trainer dude. He's the only guy who can work her glutes right bro, it's a thing.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:24:09.639) It's just Pilates instructor. It's cool, man.

Erik Cason (01:24:12.716) Yeah.

I'm going to, you know, she needs me to pick her up in a half hour. So I'm just, I'm going to hang out at this coffee shop just cause I wonder why she's doing only a half hour of Pilate though. That's kind of weird.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:24:24.735) That's strange. Doesn't seem like enough to get a good burn.

HODL (01:24:25.836) was like a... No, dude, it's more intense sweat, dude. If you do it that way, it's what...

Erik Cason (01:24:31.644) Well, and look, the... This is all part of the general nihilism that's playing out, because like when you get that money, when you get money that easily, that quickly through doing dumb shit like scamming, like you're not going to like stop and be like, whoa, like I finally got the lotto ticket to get out of here. Like I'm going to buy a couple of laundry mats and maybe like, you know, like a driving range and a couple other places that can really generate some cashflow for me.

No, you're gonna do like a bunch of retarded shit like that and you're gonna blow the money. like, this is one of the things I love the most about Bitcoin. It's like, Bitcoin doesn't solve cashflow problems or if like you don't have any meaningful like model that you're operating from the world from. if you can't save money, like you will not have any fucking Bitcoin. But like, if you're somebody who's like thoughtful and saving money and you have like a 401k and you've like played their game and gotten fucked by that, like.

Bitcoin's going to be hugely helpful for you because like now you're actually going to have a like savings that like does the thing it's supposed to do. So good on you. And also like, I'm sorry for all the younger kids that are getting fucked by this system that hates them. Like you really should be on only a Bitcoin standard. And if you're not, like I, I would love to hear your solution on why we're fucking dumb and you have the solution. Cause as far as I can tell.

You're gonna work at a Starbucks for the next 30 years and live in your mom's basement and like maybe, maybe if you want a family, you'll have like a chihuahua or something like, look, I got two dogs right now. Like these motherfuckers eat like nobody's business. So like get a really small dog that like you, you like don't need to like feed a lot of food to.

HODL (01:26:08.075) Dude, you know what though, it's all mentality, truly. It's like, people don't, when you talk about like having children and caring about yourself for the future and you know, making money and how making money is a good thing, younger people are just straight up confused, right? And to us, that's like, that's the default that we grew up in. Those are our values. And yeah, but younger people are like, what? Is this some sort of like, trad, like trad?

Chad movement thing, dude. And you're like, what? This is called being a normal person, retard. What are you talking about? And it's because it's so like they haven't heard it. They've been being dude, if you go to public school, you have been being lectured by cat ladies eight hours a day for a fucking 15 years. OK, like and they have like fucking unicorn fairy tattoos on them and stuff. And they're like, Donald Trump is a racist. That's what you've been dealing with.

Erik Cason (01:26:46.577) You can't say that word anymore.

HODL (01:27:06.432) Okay, so you come out of that and then Andrew Tate's like, if you want to be a fucking man, you gotta have a fucking Bugatti. And then you go, fuck, this is fucking speaking to me, dude. Right? Like, when we were young, that was just like common sense. It was like, yeah, sports cars and hot chicks. Like that's what we like, bro. Like, you know.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:27:26.162) Nobody needs to tell you that dude. Like, yeah.

Erik Cason (01:27:26.46) I feel...

I feel really fucking bad for younger people. Like particularly like if you're like a young guy going through puberty and like you want to like go talk to this girl, but you're all nervous because you've watched all this like cancel culture shit. Like now you're too terrified to ever go talk to her. And now like you haven't talked to any girls in your whole life and you want to, but you can't. So like you feel like total fucking wiener. And then like somebody was like, well, if you feel like a wiener and like being a man's really hard, like maybe you're a woman and they're like, maybe I am a woman. And like,

It's something, it's fucked up. It's really wrong. And like a lot of times these poor kids just need somebody to be like, yeah, like you need to go talk to the woman. She could possibly like get really upset and sue you or some shit, but chances are she's just going to think you're kind of weird and you'll feel uncomfortable and walk away, you know, being blown out and like, that's okay. That that's part of life. It's okay when a woman rejects you. doesn't define you as a human being.

HODL (01:28:17.56) I'm not supposed to say this but if you're a teenage boy Go and get a little drunk and do donuts in a parking lot. Okay. I'm not supposed to say that you probably shouldn't do it, but you know You should probably do it. Yeah, like in an empty parking lot empty. Don't go on the road. Just Donuts you can do it in don't do

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:28:31.498) Great advice. It's terrible advice, but it's great advice.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:28:41.608) And honestly, you live in the mid-west, like wait until, like you've got a little bit of snow there, wait until it's a little bit slick, it's much safer to do the donuts when your wheels are actually sliding versus you're like burning rubber. So that, we're tempering the donut device with some good Midwestern, you know, logical advice there. You know, I think, and Hodel, know you've got a hard stop coming up soon. I think we may need to do an entire other...

HODL (01:28:57.653) Absolutely.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:29:08.702) show about the fact that you know who hates homeschooling and who has had homeschooling illegal for a long time. Germany. Thank you. It's it's I appreciate you knew where I was going with that. And you know who implemented that. It was the fucking Nazis. Why did they implement the fact that you can't it is illegal for you to homeschool your kids for you to raise and instruct your kids at home.

HODL (01:29:18.754) Germany, right?

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:29:34.868) because they wanted to fucking control the narrative and control your kids and indoctrinate them and make them good little fucking Hitler's youth Nazis. And then we can go back a little bit further to the Prussian system of education, which is like what kind of was the genesis of the Nazi system, which is we want to create great little worker bees and great little soldiers. And the only way we can do that is if we have control of them from the first time they're able to fucking formulate a word.

Until they are of a you an age where it's appropriate to send them off to fucking work until they die or fight until they die I digress a little bit but the point is that if you don't like homeschooling you're a nazi And I mean that literally not like the everyone's a nazi thing like you're literally agreeing with what the nazis wanted So congratulations. You're a literal nazi not a figurative nazi That's

I just wanted to get that off my chest a little bit guys as a homeschooled guy myself who then went to public school because my parents Said it's your fucking decision do what you want to do. They didn't swear at me at that time They just said it's your decision, but I added the fucking but That was a fucking trip getting into public school and realizing I thought I was gonna be real stupid That was like my big worry where I was like mom and dad I think I should go to public school like what if I'm not as smart as the other kids They're always all my friends that I play sports with they're always doing homework and all this extra work like they've to be way ahead of me

They're like, okay, that's your decision. You can decide to do that. But like you've got a you know, like it's your it's your choice So anything that comes with it's your you know your responsibility, okay? And then I got to school and I was like, my god, everybody is fucking stupid. shit They are catering to the lowest common denominator. And this is a fucking joke I dig and I'm not even like that smart like I was smart enough to be a valedictorian and like kind of a bumblefucky town but that's like, you know, like you're the

skinniest kid at fat camp. You know what I mean? Like it's like, okay, like nice, nice job, but like you're still fat. Like, Hey, Hey, you guys are, you know,

Erik Cason (01:31:31.689) There are all these kids from her high school listening right now, and I'm like, hey, I'm not that dumb.

HODL (01:31:35.316) Hey, I often walk here. I often walk in my glue and he sniffed it. I thought we were friends.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:31:42.305) I knew some fucking great fucking people and there were also some great fucking teachers in there who actually were like fuck this administrative bullshit. I'm just going to actually teach these kids. They were also the teachers always getting in trouble with the administration for like you're not following the curriculum. know like but and like I fucking love the small town that I grew up in because there are fucking great people there. The point is that the public school system did no one any favors. And you know what you just don't fucking need it man. You should do like

An hour or two of school a day and you'll be fucking good. That's all I did And then I went and started fires like not pyro fires But like I like to start controlled fires who doesn't you know what I mean? That's part of it And if you're a young guy listening to this and you've never just gone and started a fire fucking a go and start a fire because No, self-respecting woman will marry you unless you can start a fire like and I'm just telling you Yeah

Erik Cason (01:32:31.926) Yeah, do it on metal trash can though, or like somewhere that you're not gonna start forest fire. know, like Smokey the Bear had a point.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:32:37.258) Well, yeah, don't do yet again not pyromaniac fires start controlled fires Learn how to control them and be a responsible member of society who knows how to make flame like fucking hey That's the only reason that we started drinking bone marrow that was actually cooked and had our brains grow and you want to spit on that I don't think so I've digressed a little bit but it felt like I needed to digress a little bit to get us off track enough for hodl for me to allow you to make a graceful exit here How much more time you got you got time for one last?

HODL (01:33:05.928) got, yeah, I got like five more minutes. I can do five more minutes.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:33:06.81) thought Okay, okay, so Okay, it first. I just want to say thank you to everybody who tuned in on this Noster only live stream fuck YouTube fuck live stream on Twitter fuck wherever else you can live stream like twitch I've never used it, but I hear the kids do all these sats that you guys have sent which is almost 50,000 sats which is awesome I'm gonna send them all to open sats and provide receipts. So thank you guys for doing that We're gonna fund some open source development while shitting on ridiculous people

Erik Cason (01:33:10.21) diatribe.

HODL (01:33:34.072) Yeah.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:33:36.352) Closing thoughts, gentlemen. Hodel, you want to kick us off?

HODL (01:33:40.888) Yeah, let me think about this here for a second. What are my closing thoughts? I think...

in general, you gotta just keep living, man. No, I got nothing.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:33:57.792) Yeah, you don't have to have that. You already dropped so much wisdom. Well, Eric, what about you? What do want to leave people with?

HODL (01:34:04.561) Come back to me. Do Eric first, then come back.

Erik Cason (01:34:10.474) Look, Trump getting elected was like a the whole market was like waiting to see whether or not we're going to go into like socialism hell or if there's going to be an opportunity for something meaningful to happen. Now something meaningful is going to happen and Bitcoin is going to rip super fucking hard in the next six months. And so like if you've been like, I've been like, stacking a little here and there, but I got my 401k like you don't have enough fucking coin. You're going to want more coin later and you should stack harder. So you should really consider about like

Put, you know, like stop messing around, like fucking shove it in, like, like put the whole thing in and enjoy what it means and be like, fucking go for it. In addition to, you know, you should really think for yourself, you know, like no, nobody actually has all of the right fucking answers. And if you actually spend some time and energy thinking hard about what your values are and what you want for the world and for yourself, you're probably going to come to some great conclusions. you know,

So I really hope that more of you are going to fly your freak freak flags and like do your own thing. Walker, you're a great example. You're just doing the Bitcoin podcast to swipe the fact that Bitcoin podcasts were saturated as fuck. You were just like, you know what? I'm going to try my own fucking thing. Turns out people like you and like listen to you. So even if it seems in other people are like, hey, this is saturated. There's too many people like go do you and what you're supposed to like, that's what the world wants. That's where you're to find your power and that's where you're going to make the most money. Don't wait for somebody to be like,

You need to call a degree in to suck five dicks at this law firm to get a job to practice law. find, like, find the fucking hack. Figure out the way that you can actually go do the thing that you want to do. What is the world wants for you and other people want for you? The system does not fucking want for you. Like realize that right now, you're going to be way fucking ahead for yourself. So.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:35:36.02) You

Erik Cason (01:35:53.28) I hope to see all of you young entrepreneurs with the production of all of the great and wonderful things that you will be accepting only on a Bitcoin standard because you're smart enough that you don't want to get fucked holding a bunch of fiat that's going to go to zero. That's the end of what I have to

HODL (01:36:06.496) I am. I actually do have something to say I was I was thinking about this. I think going into the bull market, an important message for people that they need to be aware of is that, yes, you should go hard. know, there's that clip of me on Walker show saying stack your fucking ass off and all that. And like, yes, you should go hard. You should you should be here. You should be fully committed to this and you should be, you know, investing a significant portion of what you have available. All true.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:36:06.728) A fucking

HODL (01:36:34.648) but you know in bull markets people take leverage and Leverage is something that people mistakenly think is a time machine to being an og And it's not and you know, we've seen a lot of people get wrecked So if you are gonna take leverage be extremely careful it's it's one of those things that like if you warn enough people about doing it the people that

you know, ignore all the warnings and walk through all the warning signs anyway, and then go do it and succeed. They were always meant to succeed. But for the vast majority of people like you won't succeed. You know what mean? So like you really should heed the warning and only you know if you're that person or not, and everybody thinks they are that person. But you only find out you're not that person who can walk through all the warning signs until you get fucking destroyed. So don't get destroyed. You know what I mean? Like

Erik Cason (01:37:24.676) By the way, this is being said by the man who made a Bitcoin by betting the man who had the leverage platform that his leverage platform would go bankrupt within a year and it fucking did. just saying that Hoddle might actually know a little bit about what the fuck he's talking about. So with that, please don't go long and slam your fucking dick in the door because there's a 10 % drawdown, which could very well happen when we hit an all time high and your retarded ass did a 10X long and didn't realize.

HODL (01:37:32.728) That's right.

Erik Cason (01:37:51.928) that that's what happens. You get fucking liquidated when the price goes down. So don't be fucking retarded and lose the little bit of Bitcoin that you have because you thought that you could get more Bitcoin because you were smarter. You're not. You're a normal fucking person who will hurt yourself if you do that. So sorry, I just really wanted to add.

HODL (01:38:07.746) So no, % 100 % and two cardinal sins here in Bitcoin you need to be aware of heading into the bull market is number one, not being bullish enough on Bitcoin. That's the biggest sin. It's the biggest sin anyone can make. Number two, unfortunately, is being too bullish on Bitcoin. So you got to strike the balance right in the middle there. Because if you're on either side, you're getting fucking wrecked. Okay, so the best way to do that, stack your Bitcoin, hodl your Bitcoin.

do it in self custody, do it in cold storage, do it with a multi sig. Don't go crazy on this, these products, these MSTU and BTU and fucking these leverage products you can now get access to in the markets. Don't go crazy on MSTR stock, don't go crazy on shit coins or meme coins. You know, everybody has a plan. I've met a lot of guys who had a plan to get to 100 Bitcoin, who ended up with zero Bitcoin, right? So like,

Try not to be one of those guys. If your plan has three elaborate steps that involve you hitting a million shot three times, you're not gonna execute that plan, man. I couldn't execute it. I don't know why you think you're good enough to. I don't know why anyone would ever think they're good enough to. Be smart.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:39:20.83) got a fucking three step plan and it's called DCA and fucking like literally guys, none of us are as smart as we think we are. And like that's good. Like you being too smart is just a pain. That's why you know, that's why you need to drink and stuff. But like literally just like just fucking DCA. Like it's actually like just this GCO like you can just buy Bitcoin, set up a daily DCA buy and then set up an hourly DCA buy.

HODL (01:39:24.503) Yes.

HODL (01:39:38.828) Totally.

Walker (BitcoinPodcast.net) (01:39:49.492) and it'll just split the difference and you will be in large profit in the long term. And I have not been around as long as you guys been around since 2020 and I just dollar cost average. And you know what? It works. And I try to create some value. And Eric, to your point, I appreciate that, that you see this journey that I'm on creating another fucking Bitcoin podcast. But I just want to say until there are more Bitcoin podcasts than insufferable fucking finance bro podcasts,

There are not enough Bitcoin podcasts. need to this needs to be the flippening where Bitcoin podcasts are more plentiful than fucking finance bro. Like here here's the real real estate stock stocks that you should buy that'll generate some passive income for you when you're 401k. It's like Jesus fucking Christ. Grow some balls and buy some Bitcoin guys. Yeah. I fucking appreciate you guys. Thanks for hopping on here. This this was a very enjoyable time.

And I know that people fucking love hearing from both of you guys because you are principal dudes who always laid out straight and We are we are very blessed to have you in this fucking strange community of people and it's great to fucking hang out with you guys And I hope we can do it in fucking person over a beer again soon But yeah, hold on get the fuck out of here case it I'm you guys for everyone listening I'm gonna kill this live stream now and we're gonna just to make sure these guys are uploaded. So fucking love you all. Thanks for joining

I'm killing it now.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

You don't understand how insidious open-borders propaganda is, until you realize that it's an attempt to remove all differentiating traits from humans. They call this "strengthening individuality by removing nationality" (hello, newspeak), but what makes humans individual is their particular collection of traits, and nationality (and ethnicity, religion, etc. -- nationality is just the first domino they want to topple) is one of those.

Humans are not blank slates. Like DNA or physiognomy, our personalities are differing jumbles of cultural "letters". Each person selects consciously and subconsciously from amongst these letters, adding to or rejecting them, amplifying or suppressing them, twisting or combining them, building on top of them... and that's what makes you into You.

Open borders is an attempt to reduce the number of cultural letters you can build your "You" out of. If you take away the word "German", I am not liberated. There is simply one less adjective, with which I can describe myself. You have merely eradicated information, crippled language, and reduced my choices. I can then no longer define myself according to "German things", but I can also no longer define myself in opposition to German things.

Enter the Borg

We are easier to control and brainwash and persecute, if we are centralized and homogenized. As if the entire world were one, big prison and we were all forced to undergo the same education, wear the same clothes, follow the same rules, eat the same foods, enjoy the same entertainment, live the same lifestyle, share the same diseases and cures, enjoy the same lockdowns, join in the same cancel culture, fight the same wars.

That is what globalization brings. That is the end game of Open Borders: * No more cultural evolution or revolution. * Genes, but no memes. * You can go everywhere, but everywhere is the same, so you just stay home. * You can meet people from all over, but they are all the same, so you just don't bother. * One mass of humanity, that can be easily molded and manipulated.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

You have no idea

I regularly read comments from people, on here, wondering how it's possible to marry -- or even simply be friends! -- with someone who doesn't agree with you on politics. I see this sentiment expressed quite often, usually in the context of Bitcoin, or whatever pig is currently being chased through the village, as they say around here.

It seems rather sensible, but I don't think it's as hard, as people make it out to be. Further, I think it's a dangerous precondition to set, for your interpersonal relationships, because the political field is constantly in flux. If you determine who you will love, by their opinions, do you stop loving them if their opinions change, or if the opinions they have become irrelevant and a new set of opinions are needed -- and their new ones don't match your new ones? We could see this happen to relationships en masse, during the Covid Era, and I think it happens every day, in a slow grind toward the disintegration of interpersonal discourse.

I suspect many people do stop loving, at that point, as they never really loved the other person for their own sake, they loved the other person because they thought the other person was exactly like they are. But no two people are alike, and the longer you are in a relationship with someone else, the more the initial giddiness wears off and the trials and tribulations add up, the more you notice how very different you actually are. This is the point, where best friends and romantic couples say, We just grew apart.

But you were always apart. You were always two different people. You just didn't notice, until now.

I've also always been surprised at how many same-party relationships disintegrate because of some disagreement over some particular detail of some particular topic, that they generally agree on. To me, it seems like an irrelevant side-topic, but they can't stand to be with this person... and they stomp off. So, I tend to think that it's less that opinions need to align to each other, but rather that opinions need to align in accordance with the level of interpersonal tolerance they can bring into the relationship.

I was raised by relaxed revolutionaries

Maybe I see things this way because my parents come from two diverging political, cultural, national, and ethnic backgrounds, and are prone to disagreeing about a lot of "important" (to people outside their marriage) things, but still have one of the healthiest, most-fruitful, and most long-running marriages of anyone I know, from that generation. My parents, you see, aren't united by their opinions. They're united by their relationship, which is something outside of opinions. Beyond opinions. Relationships are what turn two different people into one, cohesive unit, so that they slowly grow together. Eventually, even their faces merge, and their biological clocks tick to the same rhythm. They eventually become one entity that contains differing opinions about the same topics.

It's like magic, but it's the result of a mindset, not a worldview. Or, as I like to quip:

The best way to stay married, is to not get divorced.

My parents simply determined early on, that they would stay together, and whenever they would find that they disagreed on something that didn't directly pertain to their day-to-day existence with each other they would just agree-to-disagree about that, or roll their eyes, and move on. You do you. Live and let live.

My parents have some of the most strongly held personal opinions of any people I've ever met, but they're also incredibly tolerant and can get along with nearly anyone, so their friends are a confusing hodgepodge of people we liked and found interesting enough to keep around. Which makes their house parties really fun, and highly unusual, in this day and age of mutual-damnation across the aisle.

The things that did affect them, directly, like which school the children should attend or which country they should live in, etc. were things they'd sit down and discuss, and somehow one opinion would emerge, and they'd again... move on.

And that's how my husband and I also live our lives, and it's been working surprisingly well. No topics are off-limits to discussion (so long as you don't drone on for too long), nobody has to give up deeply held beliefs, or stop agitating for the political decisions they prefer.

You see, we didn't like that the other always had the same opinion. We liked that the other always held their opinions strongly. That they were passionate about their opinions. That they were willing to voice their opinions; sacrifice to promote their opinions. And that they didn't let anyone browbeat or cow them, for their opinions, not even their best friends or their spouse. But that they were open to listening to the other side, and trying to wrap their mind around the possibility that they might just be wrong about something.

We married each other because we knew: this person really cares, this person has thought this through, and they're in it, to win it. What "it" is, is mostly irrelevant, so long as it doesn't entail torturing small animals in the basement, or raising the children on a diet of Mountain Dew and porn, or something.

Live and let live. At least, it's never boring. At least, there's always something to ~~argue~~ talk about. At least, we never think... we've just grown apart.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

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

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

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

The newspaper barons are all into crypto, now

Watching the outsized-impact we crypto enthusiasts (I'm including Bitcoin in that category), had on the 2024 USA presidential election, was a sobering affair. At the moment, our impact is primarily over the voting box, but, already, indirectly, (over Elon Musik, Donald Trump, and Jack Dorsey, etc.) through our sheer wealth (and the ingenuity that brought us that wealth) being able to influence the voting population, by changing/shifting the communications channels and influencing what is written there.

Elon even reached deep into his foreign-learned bag of political tricks and started handing out money, directly, to petition signers.

Survival of the fittest, ongoing

Now, you all know that I have full respect for an expert player, when I see one, so no hating the hustle, from my side. We all play the hand we are dealt, and the political game is now such a pigsty, that you have to get a bit dirty, to have a chance at winning. Trying to stay neat and above the fray cost Republicans the last election.

It was the most dramatic display of the greatest power following the best money, that has been seen, since the Medici family began minting gold coins. The entire world is in shock. Change is upon us.

He who has the best money, makes the rules.

On a smaller, but not insignificant scale, private wealth and access to Bitcoin funding, have allowed quite a few of us Nostriches, to dedicate time and energy toward promoting and developing the New Internet. Whereas, other people's hobby is increasingly the night shift at the gas station, or doing something mind-numbing, to escape the realities of their current economic misery.

You don't need money to be here, but you can spend more time here, if you have money. And we are here, writing the rules. We call them NIPs.

Same ole, same ole

But back to us Bitcoiners...

I increasingly don't see us morally any different than the clever people crowding into any safe asset, during any financial crisis. Like the people who bought agricultural land, gold, and Swiss Francs, before the Reichsmark melted down. The people who had that stuff, mostly managed to keep it, and their children and grandchildren have inherited it. Or they managed to marry back into families, that have done so, by remaining in the same social class, through beauty or talent.

We Bitcoiners have a good narrative to go along with our flight to economic safety, but everyone has that narrative. Humans have a conscience and need to justify their own actions, to themselves. I'm also a goldbug, you see, and a stockholder, and all three assets are rife with the same virtuous narrative.

How do we save our financial behinds, without being evil?

Some people are simply more situationally aware and have more agency, by nature and circumstances, and they adapt faster. It's not mere intelligence, rather, it also requires a willingness to act and take risks. There's an element of chance to it, but it's still always the same types of people ending up with the assets, with the winners slightly shifting with each round, due to evolution and changes in the environment.

Charity was invented, to get such people to willingly share their assets, or the fruits of their assets, for the common good. So, rather than fret over the morality of the asset, itself, the better response is to consider stepping up your charity (effort or payments), to balance out the inevitable negative impact of the coming Age of Bitcoin Inequality.

Coming down from the ATH

Even now, Bitcoin isn't the only safe asset; it's just the most-fungible and partitionable one, so that it's the one most akin to money. And lines are being blurred, as corporations, funds, governments, and insurers discharge dollars and stock up on harder reserve assets, including Bitcoin.

They can hear the money printers rolling out, already, because nobody can print-n-spend, like Trump can. Let's not forget that the money for the last big bump came from the infamous Trump stimmy checks, that lots of us stacked on crypto.

As Bitcoin flows into such markets, the power will rest with both groups (the direct-hodlers and the title-holders), although the hodlers will initially have the upper hand. I say, initially because many hodlers will need to discharge or invest Bitcoin, to live off of it, but the others don't need to, so it should eventually even out. It could take dozens or even hundreds of years to rebalance. By then, the world will be a very different place, and we don't know if Bitcoin will even still be a part of it.

Assets come, assets go, and I'm just glad I didn't let down my forefathers, by leaving them with the first generation, who failed to adapt. Even if I'm a bit late, to the Bitcoin game, the ball is still in play.

May the best money win. And may it be mine. And may I do good with it.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Músicas grudentas e conversas

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

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

Unsucking the feed is real

As a Nostrich with an interesting, thought-provoking, and informative feed... a feed so good, that we're creating clients just to look at that feed... a feed that puts a lie to the idea that Nostr is nothing, but people reposting from Twitter or rehashing worn-out Bitcoin memes... a feed that I personally and increasingly enjoy perusing... I am here to tell you that the feed is real.

It's taken me over a year, to produce this feed. I literally spent hours and hours, day in and day out, scouring the Nostrverse for people worth introducing other people to. It was brutally difficult, as I was fighting the inherent nature of the Nostr clients and relays, in their current, most-popular form.

It goes like so...

Here are the steps I took, that sometimes weren't possible to take, until I tried to take them, and that still will sometimes break your client because the clients are often intentionally designed to steer you into having one particular feed:

1) Make a screenshot of your current relay list and copy your follows list. 2) Unsubscribe from all the relays, that you are currently subscribed to. Your feed should disappear. If it doesn't, or it doesn't allow for this, switch to a different client app because yours is corrupted. 3) Unfollow everyone. Delete the whole list. You are taking your follows private, which will invariably result in only following npubs whose stuff you actually want to see, since there's no longer any virtue-signaling going on. Also, it's easier to explain having no list, than a very short one. If your client doesn't allow for this, or starts throwing error messages and freezing up, then switch to a different client app because yours is corrupted. 4) Curate your copied follows list. Go line by line and look at the feed produced by the npub on that list. * Do you want to see that in your feed, going forward? * Do they produce original content and/or are they interesting conversationalists, in the replies? * Have they been active, within the past three months? * Are they simply good friends or real-life acquaintances, that you want to keep tabs on? * If not, cross out their name. * If you have been following someone because they repost or quote interesting things, look at who they've been reposting and follow them, instead. 5) Of the npubs remaining on your list, go through and select the 10 most interesting ones, and look at the reposts and quotes in their feed, and their topical lists like \"Favorites\", \"Devs\", \"Recipes\", etc. (Not their follows list, unless it's quite short, as follows tend to be full of people they follow for social-signaling or client-functional reasons, that they don't actively look at.) Find some new follows, there. 6) Now, set up a personal relay and add all the follows, that made the cut, to your allowed-npubs list. Do not add people to the list, just to make them feel better, or because you feel guilty, as they follow you, or to keep them from yelling at you. Remember, they can't see the list! 7) Think about the topics you find interesting, and add an allowed-keywords list (this is better than hashtags, as it searches the entire content of the notes), with the OR operator (these allowed npubs OR these allowed topics). 8) Make sure that you choose words likely to find the content you are most-interested in, and not people just ranting about it or spamming (those are great additions to your relay's block-list). If you are Muslim, for instance, instead of "Islam" or "shariah", choose "hadith" or "riba", as those are words more-likely to be used by people who know what they are talking about. If you are into bread baking, add "sourdough", "rye", "yeast", or "whisk", but don't add "bread" or "carbs". Once a note from those people shows up in your feed, and their feed looks like someone interesting, you can add their npub to your allow list. Remember: The topics are there to find people to add to the allow list, not merely for their own sake, as this is not a topical relay, but a personal one. 9) Open up a faucet (or relay syncing) with some of the big relays you previously unsubscribed from, some WoT relays, and some of the paid relays (nostr.land, nostr.wine, nostr21.com, and sovbit.host, for example). Your relay will filter that feed and only accept the events from the people and topics on your list. As your relay becomes more popular, npubs will begin writing directly to it, and the connections to other relays will sink in significance. 10) Go to your client of choice and subscribe to your new relay. Also subscribe to some topical relays, or curated neighborhood relays, you find interesting or your frens are running. This is an easy way to find new, interesting npubs, to add to your own relay.

That's a lot of work, you say? Yes, but the result is great, and you are now fully in-charge of your own feed. You also -- here's the cool part -- have a feed good enough, that other people can add your feed to theirs and enjoy your manual curation. As you refine and expand your feed, theirs will also be refined, in parallel. You are now an official Nostr Community Curator. My sincere congratulations.

Why is this so hard?

This is only a lot of work because the clients aren't designed to interact with relays, to this extent, as they were created to service mega-relays, download all their crap to your local cache, and adjust the feed over the follows/mutes lists. This was an idea borne of the axiom that Relays Are Hard, so there will only ever be a handful of them, where we'd all clump together and the relay operators would never judge the quality of someone's content. Then, some unusually clever people made relays increasingly easy, and the mailbox communication model was invented, and here we are.

What we have now, and that is slowly growing in popularity, among the #NostrIntelligentsia, are Nostr clients aimed at curating and viewing individual relays or personalized sets of smaller or more-specialized relays. The reigning client devs refused to give us those clients, and most of us aren't up to developing our own clients, so the relay devs took matters into their own hands and made the clients themselves. The free market remains undefeated.

This is a total game-changer. Last one to board this train is a rotten egg.

Originally, relays were supposed to be completely stupid and clients were supposed to be completely smart, but it's now actually the other way around, because most relay devs have a market-born incentive to make their content highly customizable and appealing to individuals (so that more people run relays).

But what about algos?

Can't you just slap an algo on top of Damus, Lol, or Primal relays, and get the same result? I would argue... no. No, you can't. Or, rather, only in the short to medium term.

Running your own relay, is running your own server. You are now intellectually independent, at a machine-level, and therefore a fully sovereign consumer. If you then use algos to control your own server, or in a client that subscribes to your own server, then you can further-refine a feed that is already in a high-to-you-signal state, rather than risking an algo inching you toward the Consensus Feed.

I have noticed that my own feed is slowly drifting away from the ReplyGuy-Cryptobot-Porny-Bitcoin-Meme Dumpster Fire, that almost everyone else is looking at, and it's due to running my own relay. If I use DVMs, those algos sometimes refer to relays I intentionally avoid, so they return results according to those relays. The results are as underwhelming, as you would expect, and often are simply 31 flavors of the Trending List.

But, that isn't your problem, anymore. From here, you can actively expand and refine your feed, over your whitelist, the topics, and your personally-managed algos.

Happy Nostr-ing!

@ 6871d8df:4a9396c1

Today is Election Day here in the US, and it's a big deal.

As of now, this is my bet on the vote:

For myself, as I did in 2020, I will be voting for Donald Trump.

My biggest reasons for this are as follows: 1. Dismantling the bureaucracy. 2. Financial Freedom 3. Food Freedom

There are others, but those are my top three.

For me, the fact that unelected bureaucrats essentially run our government (Joe Biden is still our President right now, though no one has seen or heard from him in months) is our largest red flag. I think it is our biggest priority to return to a place where the people we elect to run our government actually run our government.

Trump swung and missed on this in his first term, but with his commitment to RFK and having people on his side like Vivek, I do not think he will sing and miss this time.

Next is financial freedom. The Biden-Harris administration has been incredibly hostile to what I am calling financial freedom. They mostly got their policies from the Warren camp, which hates digital currencies.

Being a part of Bitcoin startups for most of the Biden admin, I have seen this first hand. Operation Chokepoint 2.0 was a real thing and it was scary living through it. Actively seeing the government try to de-bank you was something I never would have thought was possible in the 'Land of the Free.'

The fact that the gov could de-bank you at all was an even bigger catalyst of how necessary a neutral, open, digital, and global money was critical for not only freedom itself, but our future.

Trump clearly is the better candidate regarding this. Yes, he may have launched a grifting shitcoin, but he doesn't want my industry — and financial freedom itself — dead. This is a no-brainer.

Andreessen Horowitz had a great podcast summarizing this that is worth the listen. It sums up where I sit as opposed to the current administration.

Trump has also promised to free Ross, which is absolutely necessary.

Last is food freedom.

I think the US is going the absolute wrong direction when it comes to health and food. In the name of saving animals and climate, food guidelines have been captured by this horrible, anti-human ideology.

I personally think it's not only necessary but good for humans to eat lots of beef and just meat in general. So much of what we've been told about nutrition and cholesterol is blatantly wrong.

Only one side of the aisle is trying to mandate this in the name of 'science.' I think they are wrong.

There is also only one side of the aisle that is anti-seed oils. I haven't eaten seed oils for almost four years, and bringing that mainstream, I think, is incredibly important. RFK is leading the way here. Trump putting him in a position of power to 'Make America Healthy Again,' I believe, is a fantastic initiative and one that is at the forefront for me for this election.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

All memed out

It finally happened. I think it was October 25th, at circa 18:45 in the evening. I was doomscrolling my Nostr feed, and kept seeing the same Bitcoin memes repeated over and over, by different people. They weren't even reposts, they were copy-pasted versions of the same image. A very funny image. Well, it was very funny last year... and the year before that... and probably the year before that, when it appeared on a different network.

Because it's all just reposts, copy-pastes and rehashes of the Best of Bitcoin Twitter, just like the tiresome influencers, with their groupies and their Episode 498 of Let's all eat a large chunk of lightly-burnt dead animal and count our stacks before jetting off to talk about how to save the poors by getting them to buy individual satoshis with money they don't have.

I'm the poors your looking for

It's all so tiresome. It has little bearing on the real world I see around me, where most people are thinking all day about 99 problems and Bitcoin ain't one.

Which is, of course, what the Bitcoin influencers would have you believe, is the reason that they're poor. What in the world could be more important, than thinking about Bitcoin? Why do these people not get with the program? Don't they know, that we are trying to save them?

Why are they worrying about OtherProblems? Don't they know that all OtherProblems can be fixed with Bitcoin? Really, if you just go back far enough, in any current, situational problem, you will discover that there was some slight, negative shift to the history record that involved soft money. It's the financial version of the Butterfly Effect.

That's why #BitcoinFixesThis. Bitcoin fixes everything, if you just think about it, for long enough.

The same way that we all actually come out of Africa, supposedly, if you go back enough generations. So, coming out of Africa, now, as a Real Life Person in The Present is supposed to have no significance. What does someone from Cameroon know about Africa, that someone from Alaska doesn't? Both people come out of Africa, if you just think about it, for long enough.

And maybe that really is true. Maybe Bitcoin will eventually end all vice and crimes, save the planet, and we will all just hold hands and sing kumbaya all day, while waiting for the Singularity to upload us to Satoshi.

Bitcoin envelope budgeting

Or maybe it's not. Maybe it's just a really hard, digital money that incentivizes savings, functions as a reliable measure, and makes micropayments possible on a global scale. Those really are things that will help the poors, including myself. I can see it, already, when trying to organize pre-paid meetups or figure out what to do with our household's meager savings, when the stock market is looking particularly bubblicious.

But this is what I would consider Boring Bitcoin. Bitcoin home economics. Penny-pinching Bitcoin. Bitcoin for homemakers. How to use the Bitcoin envelope budgeting system to beat inflation by a margin of 13%.

The actual use of Bitcoin as money, rather than as a mere investment gamble or hype machine. That's the part of Bitcoin that nobody seems to really talk about because it's incredibly practical, dull, and useful, and it can only be tested by -- Oh, the horror! -- actually spending Bitcoin.

But... perhaps I will begin talking about it. Perhaps those of us, Bitcoiners, who are having fun staying poor, while stacking sats, should speak up a bit more. Perhaps the boring stuff is actually the interesting stuff. Perhaps there is more to say about Bitcoin, than can fit into a meme.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

It arrived!

I was feeling impatient, waiting for my snazzy, brand-spanking new mobile phone to arrive, but when it got here, I just stared at the box, in trepidation. Everyone kept walking by, asking how it is, but I just shook my head. After nearly four years, with my (originally Android 10), Moto G8 Power, which I loved to death, I wasn't yet ready to move on. I needed a moment, to grieve.

RIP, my trusty fren.

Anyways...

Around 10 pm, I managed to emotionally recover enough to begin the Big Transition, and I was up until 2 am, and still didn't finish.

My SimpleX database is sort of large, and slow to migrate. Also, took me a while to figure out how to do it, and the whole thing made me terribly nervous, that I'd accidentally get locked out. But it worked, after eight failed attempts, so yay.

Telegram was back online, almost immediately, since it's tied to the SIM card. Which was convenient, but sorta creeped me out.

Our family-internal favorite, Threema, was a snap. Took 5 minutes.

I had four failed starts with Slack, as it kept sending a login code to my Proton Mail, but I didn't have Proton app installed on my new phone, yet, and I was really sleepy, so I kept confirming on the old phone and then Slack would freeze up, and I had to kill the process and restart.

My key manager is cloud-based, so that went really fast, and I had the nos2x browser extension going in Firefox within 10 minutes, or so. Logged into Habla.News, Nostr.Build, Zap.Cooking, and Nostrudel.Ninja, immediately, so that I can get my Nostr fix.

Then I took a deep breath and mass-installed F-Droid, Minibits, Amethyst, Citrine, Orbot, and Amber. And breathed out, again, because MIRACLES NEVER CEASE: it seems to be actually working.

Everyone knows that this is the unbeatable Android Nostr setup, but it's also a resource-gobbling monster, that should only be tried at home, kids. Make sure you don't use Amethyst when out-and-about, unless you have a gigantic battery and an unlimited, high-speed, mobile plan. So, basically, everyone in the First World, who isn't me, can do it.

Oh, well. At least, I can now indulge over WiFi.

The phone itself is just like the old one, but thinner, faster, and doesn't freeze up or take a long time to start. The Motorola is dead. Long live the Motorola.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

It's that season, again

I've been growing my hair out (too lazy to cut it) and it has -- once again -- quickly reached a length at which it draws unnecessary attention and sheds everywhere. I suppose it always sheds everywhere, but shedding short hairs is just generally less-gross than finding a 12-inch strand lying on the toast, you were about to consume.

So, I'm back to the 50 Shades of Updo stage, where I struggle to figure out how to best wear my head, usually defaulting to the Messy Bun look, because it's still too short to do anything more elaborate and looks silly, as a ponytail.

It's really not that great of a look for me, I know, especially, now that my chin is finally succumbing to gravity, but doing something more-elegant is usually more time-consuming and doesn't have that wonderful "swept up" feeling to it. You know that feeling, when you tie all of that heavy hair to a higher point on your skull and the roots just sigh with relief.

Another look, I tend to gravitate toward, at the moment, is head scarves, like this one:

...or a Bavarian-style bandana, for gardening or hiking (don't have a selfie handy, so here is some random chick, who also suffers from poofy, dark hair).

Hiking bare-headed, with flowing tresses, is not recommended, due to all of the Nature, that you have to comb back out of it.

Generally, just bored of my inbetween length and looking forward to braiding it, in a few months. Or giving up, in frustration, and cutting it all off.

@ bc6ccd13:f53098e4

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

-Henry Ford

A century later, this quote is still as true as the day it was written. And with all the information available at our fingertips, the overwhelming majority still haven't educated themselves on the function of the banking system. That's a tragedy, given the significant role banking plays in the modern economy, and the corruption at the very base of the industry.

Banking is built on a lie. It's a big lie. Not in the sense of how false it is, but in the sense of the harm caused. It's more of a “weasel words” type of lie, a lie of omission and misdirection, the kind of lie a sleazy lawyer would use to get a guilty client off the hook. My goal is to explain, as clearly as possible, how the modern banking system works. Why you should care will be a topic for another day.

I want to start off with a big thank you to whoever created the website https://banklies.org/. If you aren't familiar with this gem, bookmark it now. There's no better place on the internet to get detailed documentation on this particular subject. Everyone should spend an afternoon reading and listening to the information there. You'll never be able to see the world the same way if you absorb it and understand the implications.

Where Does Money Come From?

There's been a lot of talk since the COVID “pandemic” and associated QE deluge about the Fed and their money printing. Most people have some awareness that “the Fed prints money and that causes inflation.” There's some truth to that idea, but it also misses the real story. Most people don't understand that when someone says “money printing,” the correct response is “which kind of money?”

Banks operate by calling two different things “money,” and hoping everyone treats them the same. The average person might say “I have $100 in my wallet” or “I have $100 in my bank account” without realizing they aren't talking about the same thing at all. They might take the $100 in their wallet and “put it in the bank” without realizing that as soon as they do, that $100 becomes something else entirely.

The $100 bill in your wallet has the words “Federal Reserve Note” printed on it. This is one form of what's known as “base money.” Base money exists in two forms, cash and bank reserves. You can think of bank reserves as electronic cash that only banks can use.

Base money is created by the Federal Reserve. Creating base money is what the Fed does when they “print money.” They create bank reserves electronically by putting the numbers in the ledger at the Fed. The cash is printed by the Treasury, but that's just a technicality, it's printed at the request of the Fed.

The current circulating supply of cash is $2.3 trillion, and bank reserves are about $3.5 trillion. However, if you look at the total amount of US dollars, including money in people’s bank accounts, it’s currently $20.8 trillion dollars. So if base money is $5.8 trillion in total, what is the other $15 trillion? Well, it’s largely made up of bank deposits. So where do bank deposits come from? It can’t be cash people deposit into their accounts, like you might expect from the name, since cash only totals $2.3 trillion and bank deposits are over 6 times larger. The answer is that banks create them.

So as you can see, the largest category of dollars aren’t “printed” by the Fed, they’re created by the banks. And the way banks create dollars is so simple, it almost doesn’t seem real. Banks create money by making loans.

This seems completely counterintuitive to the way most people imagine banks work. That’s understandable, since the way banks work has almost no relation to the way individuals handle their own finances. You might make a loan to someone. Your friend asks to borrow $20 at the restaurant since he forgot his wallet at home. You pull yours out and hand him a $20 bill. In order to make that loan, you had to go to work, accomplish something, get paid, and save that $20 in your wallet. You couldn’t spend the $20, and you can’t spend it now until your friend pays back the loan. Obviously no new money was created to make that loan, work was done and money was saved and then given to the borrower so he can spend it instead of the lender.

Most people assume banks work the same way. They assume that when they deposit some money at the bank, the bank stores that money in a vault somewhere with their name on it. And they assume that when banks make loans, they take some money from a big pile of money stored in a vault somewhere and give it to the borrower. But that isn’t how it works at all.

When someone goes to the bank for a loan, the bank doesn’t draw on some pile of cash they have saved up somewhere. Instead, they use a simple accounting trick. They create a bank account for the borrower, and they type the amount of the loan into the borrower’s account balance. It’s really that simple. That balance becomes a “bank deposit.” Even though that money was never deposited in the bank, and in fact didn’t exist at all until the bank typed those numbers into the computer, it’s still called the same thing as the money you deposit into the bank when you get your paycheck.

So what is a bank deposit? It’s really a promise by the bank to give the account holder money. If you have $100 in your bank account, you expect to be able to go to the bank and withdraw that $100 in cash from your account and put it in your pocket. Remember, that $100 bill is base money, something completely different from the bank deposit in your savings or checking account. The implicit promise by banks is that any money in your bank account, any bank deposit, is as good as cash and can be exchanged for cash at any moment.

But of course that must be a lie, since there are $15 trillion of bank deposits and only $2.3 trillion dollars of cash. That means if everyone in the US went to the bank tomorrow and tried to withdraw their money in cash, the banks would run out of cash while still owing $12.7 trillion dollars to depositors. It’s actually much worse than that, since a lot of the cash is already in peoples’ pockets, much of it circulating in foreign countries outside the US. Banks only hold around $100 billion in their vaults on any given day. So if everyone tried to withdraw their money from their bank accounts, which banks have implicitly promised they can do, each person could get around $0.007 of every dollar on deposit. That’s less than one cent of every dollar. So the promise banks are built on, the promise to give you the money in your account, turns out to be at least 99% a lie.

So how can it continue like this? How do banks keep operating with so little cash and so many promises to give cash? Why does anyone put money in the bank when they keep less than a penny of every dollar you deposit available to withdraw when you need it? The answer is, banks don’t tell you that. And if nobody knows, people won’t all come asking for their money one day. If they did, all the banks would fail instantly. So they do anything in their power to keep that from happening.

How Do Bank Deposits Work?

The reason most people never question the function of their bank, is that banks do everything possible to make their dishonest “bank deposits” function the same as cash, and actually better than cash in a lot of ways. Instead of having to withdraw cash from your bank and give it to someone, you can just exchange bank deposits. You can do this in a lot of super convenient ways, like writing a check or using a debit card, or more recently even right from your smartphone with an app like Venmo or CashApp. This is very convenient for the customer, and even more convenient for the bank. When you pay someone else using your bank deposit, all they have to do is lower the number in your account and raise the number in the other person’s account by the amount of the transaction. Quick, easy and convenient for everyone involved.

And if you happen to be paying someone who doesn’t have an account at your bank, that’s no problem either. Your bank will just pay the other person’s bank, and they can then change the number in the other person’s account. Now of course banks want real money for their transactions, not the fake bank deposits the commoners use. Remember the bank reserves I mentioned earlier that are like cash for banks only? Well that’s how banks settle transactions between themselves. All banks have an account at the Fed, and the Fed settles up between banks by changing the number of bank reserves in their respective accounts at the Fed. In essence, the Fed is just a bank for banks, another entity that works just like your local bank, but only holds accounts with banks and governments and not with ordinary people.

This convenience discourages people from withdrawing cash from their bank, since it’s actually easier to use the bank deposits than the cash. Besides that, banks use a lot of arbitrary policies to make it difficult for people to withdraw cash, even if they want to. If you didn’t know that, you’ve probably never tried to take $5,000 in cash out of your bank account. If you do, you’ll probably be asked some irrelevant questions about what you plan to do with the money. That’s if they let you withdraw it at all. Ask for $20,000 and you’ll almost certainly have to schedule an appointment to withdraw it in a few days, after the next cash delivery comes in. Most community bank branches only keep around $75,000 in cash on hand at any given time, so you can see how few withdrawals it would take to completely drain their vault.

But increasingly now, the biggest threat to banks isn’t from people withdrawing cash, it’s from people withdrawing to a different bank. Remember, banks have to settle with each other at the end of the day. And since they won’t accept each other’s sketchy “bank deposits” in payment, they have to settle by transferring balances between their respective reserve balances at the Fed. As you can see, banks have loaned into existence $11.5 trillion more in bank deposits than they hold in bank reserves, so it doesn’t take much withdrawal from one bank to drain their reserve balance to zero and cause the bank to fail. Bank runs have been a recurring problem ever since the entire dishonest fractional reserve banking system began, and even in 2023 a few US banks suffered bank runs and collapsed in some of the biggest bank failures in history.

Why Banking is Legalized Theft

Now that we’ve explained on the most basic level how banks work, let’s briefly explore a few basic implications.

We’ve established that banks create money when they make a loan. How easy would your life be if you could create money at no cost and loan it to people? Is it any wonder that the financial industry is full of extremely wealthy individuals?

Let’s think through for a second why I would categorize what banks do as theft. First off, you need to understand what money is, and more importantly what it is not. I lay out some fundamental principles in this article.

naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp0rve5f6xtu56djkfkkg7ktr5rtfckpun95rgxaa7futy86npx8yqq247t2dvet9q4tsg4qng36lxe6kc4nftayyy89kua2

Summarized in one sentence, money is a ledger of productive effort with deferred consumption. It represents work someone did for another person, instead of for their own benefit. In a sense, it’s an abstract representation of, or a claim on, the wealth in a society. Having money indicates that you provided value to someone else in the past, and therefore deserve to receive value from someone in the future if you choose to exercise that claim.

Anyone who has money can loan that money to someone. This is a transfer of your claim on wealth to that person. They can then use the money to buy something, and benefit from that loan. But with that type of loan, there is always a tradeoff. The tradeoff is what’s called opportunity cost. While you have the money, you have the option to exercise that claim at any time and buy something you want. If you loan the money to someone, you incur the cost of giving up that option for as long as it takes until the loan is repaid. You already put in the effort to create the wealth that money represents, now you’re sacrificing your opportunity to benefit from that effort by buying something you want.

Bank loans are different. There is no opportunity cost. The bank doesn’t have the money to begin with, because they haven’t put in any effort or created anything of value to deserve it. They just create the money out of thin air. There is no sacrifice on the part of the bank to make that loan possible. They don’t have to forego spending any money to make the loan because the money didn’t exist in the first place.

So when the bank creates money, they’re creating new claims on wealth. Since the bank hasn’t created any wealth, the claims must be claims on wealth that already exists. These new claims have no immediate effect on the people who hold that wealth. Nothing changes for them, the wealth they hold is still theirs as long as they don’t exchange it for money. As long as they don’t sell their wealth, the increase in claims on that wealth changes nothing.

The people who are negatively effected by this increase in money are those who already have money. Since money is a claim on wealth, the value of each unit of money equals [amount of wealth in existence] divided by [amount of money in existence]. Since the amount of wealth has not changed, but the amount of money has increased, the value of existing money falls. More money spread out over the same amount of wealth means each unit of money will buy less wealth. This is what everyone knows as inflation, and as everyone who has experienced it knows, the money they hold as savings or receive as income becomes less valuable the more inflation occurs.

Who benefits from this? Well, the borrower may benefit in some cases. They receive the newly created money and are able to spend it and acquire wealth they haven’t yet put in the effort to produce. So they get to enjoy unearned rewards now. Also, since it takes time for holders of wealth to realize how much inflation has occurred, they will often exchange their wealth for money at a price lower than the increase in money supply would indicate. So the price of a purchased item will often continue to increase after the borrower acquires it, and they benefit from the increase in prices by paying back their loan with money that is less valuable than it was when they borrowed it. Of course the interest charges negate some of the benefit, but often not all of it, so borrowing money can end up being very beneficial to a borrower in many situations.

The biggest beneficiary is the bank itself. They create the money from nothing, with no opportunity cost or sacrifice necessary. In effect, they are able to use the new money to transfer wealth from holders of wealth to borrowers, at the expense of holders of money. And of course as soon as that transfer is complete, the holders of wealth become new holders of money and begin to suffer the effects of inflation too. Meanwhile the bank requires the borrower to repay the loan, with interest attached.

When an individual makes a loan, the interest charged is payment for the opportunity cost of not being able to enjoy the benefits of spending that money now. However for banks, there is no opportunity cost in making a loan. So the bank receives interest as a reward from the borrower for transferring wealth to them at the expense of holders of money. A kind of sharing of the spoils of theft, if you will. Of course they would never describe it that way, but if you understand what’s actually happening it seems like the only accurate explanation.

So we see who gets rewarded by the banking system, and who gets punished. Those who get rewarded are bankers, who collect interest from loaning out money they didn’t actually have, and are able to enrich themselves by spending that collected interest to purchase real wealth. Sometimes borrowers are also rewarded, meaning the people who consume things they haven’t produced by borrowing the money to buy them get to enjoy immediate gratification, and then over a period of time pay back an amount of money that has lost so much value it would no longer be enough to buy the item they have already been enjoying.

And the people who get punished are those who save and hold money. Those people are the ones who produce value and defer consumption, the ones whose pro-social behavior and delayed gratification make capital formation and modern civilization possible.

The purpose and effect of banking, and creation of new money through bank loans, is to redistribute wealth. The incentive structure means access to wealth is stolen from those with the most socially desirable behavior, the most effective producers and most frugal savers who hold money they’ve earned for future use. The stolen wealth is given to those with the least socially desirable behavior, those who consume more than they produce and live beyond their means, being a net detriment to civilization, and to the parasitic banking class who collect interest as a reward for their theft.

The anti-civilizational outcomes of this perverse incentive structure, and the lie it’s built on (“money in the bank is the same as money in your wallet”) have only become more obvious and harder to ignore over the decades. Without a fundamental change to the basic design and function of the modern financial system, expect this trend to continue.

Forewarned is forearmed.

@ 7c765d40:bd121d84

We have crossed another 1,000 blocks!

Time is flying by.

Seems like just yesterday we were in the 872s.

Today we are talking about some of the opportunities ahead in this crazy world of bitcoin.

Let's start with a little exercise.

Woo hoo - just like in grade school.

Take a pen and paper.

Evernote doesn't count.

Think about the industry you work in.

How could bitcoin improve certain aspects of the industry?

Start writing down some ideas on how bitcoin could shake things up.

If you were having a conversation with someone in the industry about bitcoin, what would you tell them?

Think about your suppliers.

Your customers.

Your marketing strategy.

Your investments.

Your capital expenditures.

Your admin team.

Your payroll.

And don't limit your thinking to be payment related.

Bitcoin changes the payment rails but it also changes the mentality, the efficiency, and the time horizons.

Think about the treasury for businesses within the industry.

The wasted resources.

The decision-making process.

The budgets.

My dad and I were talking about a local business and using their services.

We were going to talk to them about bitcoin and how it could improve the way they do business and get new customers.

But then I thought, why bother?

Both of us are very well-versed in this specific industry AND also have the bitcoin knowledge to implement this without friction.

I spend a lot of time on my daily show talking about how we can help other businesses with bitcoin.

But why wouldn't we just do it ourselves instead?

There will be a time and place for both - but when you can do things just as good but have the bitcoin knowledge, it's a no-brainer.

We need to shift the focus from trying to help everyone else.

We need to realize the opportunity here and make some fucking hay.

I know that goes against the bitcoin way of thinking but it's true.

We have to get a little selfish here if we want some influence in the future.

Something to think about anyways.

And if you’re anything like the fella in the photo, you might even need two pens!

---

PROJECT POTENTIAL - You can now find the expanded audio versions of these on the new podcast - Project Potential! I will be sharing the video versions here for the LITF members but you can also find it for free on Spotify and of course Fountain!

Here is the link to Episode 004 on Fountain: https://fountain.fm/episode/r00ZDxpAdfb7QIQT3TKa

---

Have a great day everyone! And remember, the only thing more scarce than bitcoin is time!

Jor

@ 468f729d:5ab4fd5e

```js import dynamic from 'next/dynamic'; import { useEffect } from 'react';

const Button = dynamic( () => import('@getalby/bitcoin-connect-react').then((mod) => mod.Button), { ssr: false, } );

let initialized = false;

export async function initializeBitcoinConnect() { if (!initialized) { const { init } = await import('@getalby/bitcoin-connect-react'); init({ appName: "PlebDevs", filters: ["nwc"], showBalance: false }); initialized = true; } }

const BitcoinConnectButton = () => { useEffect(() => { initializeBitcoinConnect(); }, []);

return ( { console.log('provider:', provider); }} /> ); }

export default BitcoinConnectButton; ```

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

Chef's notes

I got the recipe from the byanjushka website. She includes a lot more information on there, and lots of pictures and instructions. But it's all in German, so here's my quickie, English version. I've doubled the amounts, as I first baked this for the #PurpleKonnektiv meetup, and I knew I'd have some hungry guests.

The cookies are vegan, but they're mostly just peanut, so it's sort of irrelevant. Just make sure you get the really high-quality peanut butter that is 100% peanut. You can usually identify it by the fact that the oil separates from the base, a bit. Everything else is probably with hardened palm oil, or something.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 15 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 10 min
• 🍽️ Servings: 30 cookies

Ingredients

• 500 g peanut butter, normal or crunchy
• 300 g brown (or raw) sugar
• 160 ml plant-based milk (or cows' milk, if you don't care about vegan)
• 1 pkg vanilla sugar (bourbon is nice) or 1 tsp vanilla
• 250 g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F).
2. Beat together the peanut butter and the sugars, with an electric mixer.
3. Mix in milk and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking powder.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and then knead the dough a bit.
6. (At this point, I put the dough in the fridge overnight, and baked it the next day.)
7. Line your baking sheet with baking paper.
8. Form tbsp-spoon-sized balls of dough.
9. Press each one flat, with a fork, dipping the fork in water, before each press (to keep the dough from sticking to the fork).

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Bluesky is a scam

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

protocolness

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

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

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

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

identity

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

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

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

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

openness

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

You don't choose software. You choose software developers.

I've done lots of internal and external software project audits. The clue to a good audit, is that you are judging the building and the builder, because the former determines the present state of the code and the latter determines how things will be built going forward.

Here's what to look for in a good developer:

• curious : eager to learn from others
• humble : seems slightly embarrassed, when you report an issue, and tries to reproduce and fix the problem
• responsive : they try to get back to you within 24 hours, or they arrange a sub or post a notice, when they'll be away for a while. They feel bad, if they leave someone waiting, so they'll send updates, even if it's just to ask them to be patient.
• diligent : they don't leave websites rotting, abandoned. They either maintain it or pull it down. They check their repos regularly and actively manage the PRs and issues.
• egalitarian : they care about all of their users, whether they are rich or poor, famous or unknown, premium or freewarers
• agile : they don't let the system go stale, for months, and then dump a gigantic commit
• honest : they don't lie, ever. Never ever. They're not sneaky or evasive. If something they promised won't work out, they announce it. They readily admit to things that make them look bad.
• calm : they are not histrionic, hyperventilatory or prone to needing a Wellness Break, to recover from the stress of dealing with humans and code
• centered : they have a plan, for their software, that they regularly refine, but they don't flit from one Next Big Thing, to another. They resist hype and examine concepts soberly and analytically.
• concerned : they test their software before giving it to other people because they want them to have a positive experience, while using it. If something is just a prototype, they make that clear, when announcing it.

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

Yesterday was also a day

I'm still quite bullish about using Nostr to publish, and generally for OtherStuff, but I was feeling a bit pessimistic about the microblogging (kind 01) feeds on Nostr, yesterday. And, rightly so. Mine has been grinding slowly to a halt, and not for lack of effort, on my part. I regularly hear reports, from other npubs, that they sense the same phenomenon.

Most of the people I have whitelisted on the wss://theforest.nostr1.com relay (currently 302, in number) are beginning to give up on Kind 01 clients, except for occasionally making an announcement, and are increasingly moving their chatting off-Nostr. (I'm still privy to those conversations, but most of you no longer are.)

So, my feed has been getting quieter and quieter. Even adding new people doesn't help much, as they don't tend to stick around, for long, so it's a Sisyphean task.

Some others are still bothering to show up, regularly, but they increasingly see it as a chore, or something they do to "keep up appearances". Add me to this group of wearied, diligent noters, holding down the microblogging feeds, with our exhausting attempt at #KeepingNostrWeird, while the influencers surround the gates and the Kind 01 feeds dissolve into nothing but warmed-over Bitcoin memes, GM notes, notifications from the OtherStuff, and Things Copied from X.

The problem of barren, intellectually-emptying Kind 01 feeds is further exacerbated by the fact that new entrants to the Nostrverse find it increasingly easy to "find good follows", but they're all only finding the same follows: whoever is on the trending list.

The See-Nothings

I keep complaining about this, but the responses I get are generally unhelpful. They are:

• mockery -- Oh, Miss Hoity-Toity wants more attention!
• insults -- Nobody is talking to you because you are boring and stupid, and nobody likes you.
• clueless -- You should try replying to other people, then they might reply to you.
• or they tell me to just stop looking at the list, if it upsets me.

What people are missing, by telling me to just not look at the trending lists, is that the lists are a statistic of what real humans are looking at, on Nostr. The bizarrely-high concentration of npubs, on the list, so that their entries show up multiple times, suggests that what people are primarily looking at... is the trending list.

Either directly, because they use a client that has that built in, or indirectly, as they have been onboarded with the lists or told to "just follow the people I follow", which leads to a steadily-rising concentration of follows. This concentrating effect is accelerating.

The newly-popular WoT (web of trust) relays further exacerbate this effect, as they put a premium on the npubs that have the highest WoT score, which -- surprise, surprise! -- are the same people as on the trending list.

And this is why everyone on the trending list insists Nostr is a fun, happening place, full of human interaction. A place where replying reverently to Jack and posting GM religiously will make you a sought-after conversant. It is that place. For them.

In fact, they've reached that glorious state of #PeakSocialMedia, where they have become famous for being famous, and no longer have to even pretend to be trying to appeal to anyone with their content. They can post literal garbage, and their ~~fans~~ ~~groupies~~ ~~sycophants~~ commentariat will cheer them on, and flood their replies with ardent encouragement. Less because those other npubs actually cared about what they posted, than because they are hoping to pick up new followers in those threads, since they know that everyone is looking at those threads, because those threads are trending.

It's a pyramid scheme of following.

For the rest of us... the vast majority of us... that blue line at the bottom is mostly how it feels.

The trend is to trending.

What we no longer have, is people looking directly at relay feeds, to find new people, or even their own follow list feeds, to see npubs they've already subscribed to. Even when people follow me, they usually don't respond until I'm trending, which suggests that they're also seeing me on the trending list because that is what they're primarily looking at. This is why, as soon as you get on the trending list, your replies explode. And your replies will be concentrated in a hardcore few, otherwise.

Those few are the reason I keep coming back, but as they're also often chatting with me off-Nostr, I am facing the question of: Why bother with Nostr microblogging?

This is the question I am struggling with. If kind 01 isn't for plebs chatting, anymore, (and it increasingly isn't) then it's mostly a sort of bulletin board, where we post notifications of items we've added in OtherStuff clients, or make announcements of meetups, software releases, or conferences. This, however, is compounding the dullness of the feeds and turning it into a sort of "info flyer", except for a lucky few. But, perhaps, I am simply a #NostrBoomer, who is failing to move with the times and get with the program.

I'm slowly reaching the conclusion that Kind 01 in an open, centralized market of notes, will always coalesce around a small subset of #NostrElite and turn into a largely passive form of entertainment, or a frustratingly lonely place, for everyone else. There can only be so many people talking, at once, in a public square.

The only movement I currently see, that might end the slow slide of Kind 01 into irrelevance and tedium, is to create lots of smaller, public squares, through single-relay communities. This has been such a long time, in coming, and has been resisted by client devs so ferociously, that I worry that it's merely an attempt to close the barn door after the npubs have escaped.

I sincerely hope to be proven wrong, though. Perhaps the relay devs, who have valiantly taken up the fight, will #SaveKind01. We shall see.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Jofer

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

(Please note that this is not official financial or business advice, but rather a description of something we have done, on an informal basis.)

A long, long time ago

It's been nearly a year, since nostr:nprofile1qydhwumn8ghj7argv4nx7un9wd6zumn0wd68yvfwvdhk6tcpypmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuetfde6kuer6wasku7nfvuh8xurpvdjj7qpqs3ht77dq4zqnya8vjun5jp3p44pr794ru36d0ltxu65chljw8xjqv5atj2 came into being, mostly as a lark, involving a couple of members of our private chat group. Our initial plan was to work toward bounties, but Nostr bounties are a bit of a biased, uncertain thing, and our enthusiasm for that quickly waned.

So, what to do? Here we are, we three (nostr:npub1ecdlntvjzexlyfale2egzvvncc8tgqsaxkl5hw7xlgjv2cxs705s9qs735, nostr:npub1wqfzz2p880wq0tumuae9lfwyhs8uz35xd0kr34zrvrwyh3kvrzuskcqsyn, and I): IT professionals with little time, but plenty of intellectual energy, a Slack chat, a GitHub repo, and lots of frustration with the Nostr status quo.

We were, you see, Nostr end-users. We loved the idea of the protocol, but we were being regularly stymied by the poor quality of many implementations.

• Why can I not login? Oh, they fixed the login! Nope, still can't login.
• If I press this button, it says it sent, but it didn't send. Where note?
• They announced a new feature, but I tried it and it didn't work. Oh well.
• I noticed a bug in the client, reported it, and the issue is just rotting away in the project repo. Ignored.
• The website/relay/repo was here... yesterday. Today it has disappeared, and taken my zaps with it.

It was enough to make us want to tear our hair out. We decided that what Nostr needed... what it really needed... was a Nostr Stable Version. Nothing glamorous. Nothing exotic. Nothing busy or excitable. Just something that stayed where you initially found it, ran, and actually worked. Something where you could report a bug and receive a prompt response. Maybe even something, where you could pay a reasonable fee and be allowed to have expectations of some particular service being returned. And who better to build such a version, than people who want to use it, themselves?

Things working is an underrated concept

I know that the very idea of software running as expected and websites not appearing and disappearing suddenly, based upon what some particular developer had for lunch, tends to be met with little but scorn, from hardened, seasoned Nostriches (who are convinced that bugs are all features), but I think the majority of potential users would see it differently.

I'm with the majority, on this one.

I like to click "save" buttons and have them save. If I publish something, I want it to appear under my list of published somethings. I like to type in the website address I always type in, and have it magically appear on my screen, as if there were a little man sitting at controls in my laptop, just waiting for me to write H-T-T-P-S... and then jump to attention.

My unreasonable expectations have no bounds, it is true. But unreasonable people are also people, so we would also like to have our own unreasonable things to play with. Scorn away. My save button will save, and my published something will publish, and my website will load every damn time, just to spite you.

In the larger scheme of things, you see, we win even if we fail, if we at least increase the competition enough, that things working becomes the new standard. We can simply prove, definitively, that it is possible for Nostr things to work, if they are built by people who care if they work. If we also have fun together, learn something new, and come up with some cool, novel use cases, then that's pure profit.

We can only win, at this endeavor.

Where to start?

Name that brand

So, we had a team, we had a business idea, and we had a heck of a lot of motivation. What we didn't have, is a name. (Never underestimate the importance of naming things.)

We decided to name ourselves "GitCitadel" because "git" sounds techy, hints at our GitRepublic project, and is reminiscent of open-source development, and "citadel" reminds us of Bitcoin. The republic is at home in the citadel, naturally. All other products also live in the same citadel, hence the naming-convention of prefacing everything with "GC" (i.e. "GC Alexandria", "GC Sybil", "GC Aedile", etc.).

Brand yourself

The next thing we did, was rent a domain and run a webserver on it. This is an important step because it gives you an Internet presence, allows you to have company NIP-05 and email addresses (a form of promotion), and it's simply exciting to have one. Feels so much more "official" and it helps increase the name-recognition of your company.

Define yourself

We then sat down, together, over the Internet, and figured out who we are. Not who we individually are, but who we are, as a company. A company, after all, (according to the Cambridge Dictionary) is "an organization that produces or sells goods or services in order to make a profit". Now, a company's profits don't have to be monetary, but they should be something tangible. A company, in other words, is a team of people working toward some defined goal.

What is our goal? Well, we decided to think it over, sat down with the newer additions to the company (you can see who they are, on our project wiki page, and came up with a Vision and a Mission:

The vision is what the overall goals of the company are, whereas the mission describes how those goals shall be achieved. Now, this is a sort of lofty, abstract statement, so it was important that we posted it someplace publicly (to keep ourselves accountable) and look at it regularly, so that we can ponder it and realign whatever we are currently working on, with this statement. We know the statement is well-designed, if considering it helps us make decisions about what to do next.

Pay yourselves

(I'm going to switch from "we" to "you", here, as it's easier to write this part, but let's just pretend I didn't.)

The next thing on the list, is to arrange the finances, usually by setting up a Geyserfund, with an associated wallet, and then deciding how the funds from the wallet will be dispersed or stored. (I won't tell you how we are handling that, as that's internal company business, but I'm sure you'll think of something clever, yourselves. Or just google it.)

I would encourage you to arrange to pay yourselves profits. Not merely because your idea is going to make you all fabulously wealthy and internationally famous (although, that is obviously true), but because profits are the most pure form of communication that consumers in the market have with its producers, and one of the best ways to make decisions and measure increases in efficiency (increasing profits and/or output, while keeping prices steady or falling).

Cutting off this signal, in order to look pious to outsiders, is to shoot yourself in your free-market foot. Nobody says that you have to spend your profits on the proverbial lambo and a bimbo. You could donate them to charity, reinvest them, or store them for your nephews to inherit, but pay them out, you should. You don't have to love money, to value it as a tool and use it shrewdly. Money is a measure, and companies should regularly measure themselves: against their previous state, against their potential state, and against their competition.

(Also, you can use money to buy a lambo and a bimbo, but you didn't hear that from me.)

Organize yourselves

Once you've been working together, for a while, you'll find that you need to figure out how to organize yourselves. The first step is to...

Form a board of directors.

Stop laughing. I'm serious.

Any company has at least two roles (President and Secretary), ideally held by two different people, so any single-proprietor company is a man down. Find a different person, to be your Second, even if they're just your confident, who lets you cry on your shoulder on The Bad Days, when your code refuses to compile, and can tell people that you've become a Bitcoin millionaire and have gone on a sabbatical to hike the Himalayas and will be back in 3 months on The Very Good Days. Because business man was not meant to be alone.

If, like us, you're a small herd of people and have already been working together for a while, then this step is actually really, really fun. Just think about what people are already doing, and put a label on it. That role is now defined and it is clear who is in charge of what.

Scientists become "Chief Science Officer" or "Scientific Advisor". The person who always writes the okay, so this is what we've decided comment in the thread becomes the Secretary, the one managing the Lightning wallet and worrying over paying for the servers is the CFO, the person running the remote server becomes the CTO, and so on and etc.

And everyone knows who the CEO is. Everyone always knows. They do. Just write it down.

Agree how to disagree

Now, have the secretary write up a Member's Agreement. It's a contract between the members, about whatever the group thinks is important concerning the way the company will operate. According to Investopedia, common topics are:

Is this legally binding? Probably not. Maybe. I don't know and wouldn't tell you, even if I did. But it's emotionally binding, which is arguably more important.

Writing things down is an advanced form of naming things and it provides clarity, helps to manage expectations, and allows you to define a working agreement before Real Money shows up and taints your interaction. You're just accepting tips, at the moment. Everyone is calm and cheerful, so now is your best time to negotiate.

Keep it very simple and only address the most basic things. If you wish to incorporate, at a later date, then you just take this to a registered agent, or other experienced person, and have them tidy up any loose ends and add the fine print.

Go forth, together

This has probably taken you weeks, or even months, but you're now a company. Get a logo and a company npub, start dropping the company name into your notes, and get on with the business of being in business.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

O caso da Grêmio TV

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

Grêmio TV pior que o SBT !

@ e31e84c4:77bbabc0

Bitcoin and Fixed Income was Written By Wyatt O’Rourke. If you enjoyed this article then support his writing, directly, by donating to his lightning wallet: ultrahusky3@primal.net

Fiduciary duty is the obligation to act in the client’s best interests at all times, prioritizing their needs above the advisor’s own, ensuring honesty, transparency, and avoiding conflicts of interest in all recommendations and actions.

This is something all advisors in the BFAN take very seriously; after all, we are legally required to do so. For the average advisor this is a fairly easy box to check. All you essentially have to do is have someone take a 5-minute risk assessment, fill out an investment policy statement, and then throw them in the proverbial 60/40 portfolio. You have thousands of investment options to choose from and you can reasonably explain how your client is theoretically insulated from any move in the \~markets\~. From the traditional financial advisor perspective, you could justify nearly anything by putting a client into this type of portfolio. All your bases were pretty much covered from return profile, regulatory, compliance, investment options, etc. It was just too easy. It became the household standard and now a meme.

As almost every real bitcoiner knows, the 60/40 portfolio is moving into psyop territory, and many financial advisors get clowned on for defending this relic on bitcoin twitter. I’m going to specifically poke fun at the ‘40’ part of this portfolio.

The ‘40’ represents fixed income, defined as…

An investment type that provides regular, set interest payments, such as bonds or treasury securities, and returns the principal at maturity. It’s generally considered a lower-risk asset class, used to generate stable income and preserve capital.

Historically, this part of the portfolio was meant to weather the volatility in the equity markets and represent the “safe” investments. Typically, some sort of bond.

First and foremost, the fixed income section is most commonly constructed with U.S. Debt. There are a couple main reasons for this. Most financial professionals believe the same fairy tale that U.S. Debt is “risk free” (lol). U.S. debt is also one of the largest and most liquid assets in the market which comes with a lot of benefits.

There are many brilliant bitcoiners in finance and economics that have sounded the alarm on the U.S. debt ticking time bomb. I highly recommend readers explore the work of Greg Foss, Lawrence Lepard, Lyn Alden, and Saifedean Ammous. My very high-level recap of their analysis:

• A bond is a contract in which Party A (the borrower) agrees to repay Party B (the lender) their principal plus interest over time.

• The U.S. government issues bonds (Treasury securities) to finance its operations after tax revenues have been exhausted.

• These are traditionally viewed as “risk-free” due to the government’s historical reliability in repaying its debts and the strength of the U.S. economy

• U.S. bonds are seen as safe because the government has control over the dollar (world reserve asset) and, until recently (20 some odd years), enjoyed broad confidence that it would always honor its debts.

• This perception has contributed to high global demand for U.S. debt but, that is quickly deteriorating.

• The current debt situation raises concerns about sustainability.

• The U.S. has substantial obligations, and without sufficient productivity growth, increasing debt may lead to a cycle where borrowing to cover interest leads to more debt.

• This could result in more reliance on money creation (printing), which can drive inflation and further debt burdens.

In the words of Lyn Alden “Nothing stops this train”

Those obligations are what makes up the 40% of most the fixed income in your portfolio. So essentially you are giving money to one of the worst capital allocators in the world (U.S. Gov’t) and getting paid back with printed money.

As someone who takes their fiduciary responsibility seriously and understands the debt situation we just reviewed, I think it’s borderline negligent to put someone into a classic 60% (equities) / 40% (fixed income) portfolio without serious scrutiny of the client’s financial situation and options available to them. I certainly have my qualms with equities at times, but overall, they are more palatable than the fixed income portion of the portfolio. I don’t like it either, but the money is broken and the unit of account for nearly every equity or fixed income instrument (USD) is fraudulent. It’s a paper mache fade that is quite literally propped up by the money printer.

To briefly be as most charitable as I can – It wasn’t always this way. The U.S. Dollar used to be sound money, we used to have government surplus instead of mathematically certain deficits, The U.S. Federal Government didn’t used to have a money printing addiction, and pre-bitcoin the 60/40 portfolio used to be a quality portfolio management strategy. Those times are gone.

Now the fun part. How does bitcoin fix this?

Bitcoin fixes this indirectly. Understanding investment criteria changes via risk tolerance, age, goals, etc. A client may still have a need for “fixed income” in the most literal definition – Low risk yield. Now you may be thinking that yield is a bad word in bitcoin land, you’re not wrong, so stay with me. Perpetual motion machine crypto yield is fake and largely where many crypto scams originate. However, that doesn’t mean yield in the classic finance sense does not exist in bitcoin, it very literally does. Fortunately for us bitcoiners there are many other smart, driven, and enterprising bitcoiners that understand this problem and are doing something to address it. These individuals are pioneering new possibilities in bitcoin and finance, specifically when it comes to fixed income.

Here are some new developments –

Private Credit Funds – The Build Asset Management Secured Income Fund I is a private credit fund created by Build Asset Management. This fund primarily invests in bitcoin-backed, collateralized business loans originated by Unchained, with a secured structure involving a multi-signature, over-collateralized setup for risk management. Unchained originates loans and sells them to Build, which pools them into the fund, enabling investors to share in the interest income.

Dynamics

• Loan Terms: Unchained issues loans at interest rates around 14%, secured with a 2/3 multi-signature vault backed by a 40% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio.
• Fund Mechanics: Build buys these loans from Unchained, thus providing liquidity to Unchained for further loan originations, while Build manages interest payments to investors in the fund.

Pros

• The fund offers a unique way to earn income via bitcoin-collateralized debt, with protection against rehypothecation and strong security measures, making it attractive for investors seeking exposure to fixed income with bitcoin.

Cons

• The fund is only available to accredited investors, which is a regulatory standard for private credit funds like this.

Corporate Bonds – MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR), a business intelligence company, has leveraged its corporate structure to issue bonds specifically to acquire bitcoin as a reserve asset. This approach allows investors to indirectly gain exposure to bitcoin’s potential upside while receiving interest payments on their bond investments. Some other publicly traded companies have also adopted this strategy, but for the sake of this article we will focus on MSTR as they are the biggest and most vocal issuer.

Dynamics

• Issuance: MicroStrategy has issued senior secured notes in multiple offerings, with terms allowing the company to use the proceeds to purchase bitcoin.

• Interest Rates: The bonds typically carry high-yield interest rates, averaging around 6-8% APR, depending on the specific issuance and market conditions at the time of issuance.

• Maturity: The bonds have varying maturities, with most structured for multi-year terms, offering investors medium-term exposure to bitcoin’s value trajectory through MicroStrategy’s holdings.

Pros

• Indirect Bitcoin exposure with income provides a unique opportunity for investors seeking income from bitcoin-backed debt.

• Bonds issued by MicroStrategy offer relatively high interest rates, appealing for fixed-income investors attracted to the higher risk/reward scenarios.

Cons

• There are credit risks tied to MicroStrategy’s financial health and bitcoin’s performance. A significant drop in bitcoin prices could strain the company’s ability to service debt, increasing credit risk.

• Availability: These bonds are primarily accessible to institutional investors and accredited investors, limiting availability for retail investors.

Interest Payable in Bitcoin – River has introduced an innovative product, bitcoin Interest on Cash, allowing clients to earn interest on their U.S. dollar deposits, with the interest paid in bitcoin.

Dynamics

• Interest Payment: Clients earn an annual interest rate of 3.8% on their cash deposits. The accrued interest is converted to Bitcoin daily and paid out monthly, enabling clients to accumulate Bitcoin over time.

• Security and Accessibility: Cash deposits are insured up to $250,000 through River’s banking partner, Lead Bank, a member of the FDIC. All Bitcoin holdings are maintained in full reserve custody, ensuring that client assets are not lent or leveraged.

Pros

• There are no hidden fees or minimum balance requirements, and clients can withdraw their cash at any time.

• The 3.8% interest rate provides a predictable income stream, akin to traditional fixed-income investments.

Cons

• While the interest rate is fixed, the value of the Bitcoin received as interest can fluctuate, introducing potential variability in the investment’s overall return.

• Interest rate payments are on the lower side

Admittedly, this is a very small list, however, these types of investments are growing more numerous and meaningful. The reality is the existing options aren’t numerous enough to service every client that has a need for fixed income exposure. I challenge advisors to explore innovative options for fixed income exposure outside of sovereign debt, as that is most certainly a road to nowhere. It is my wholehearted belief and call to action that we need more options to help clients across the risk and capital allocation spectrum access a sound money standard.

Additional Resources

• River: The future of saving is here: Earn 3.8% on cash. Paid in Bitcoin.

• Onramp: Bitcoin, The Emergent Asset Class

• MicroStrategy: MicroStrategy Announces Pricing of Offering of Convertible Senior Notes

---

Bitcoin and Fixed Income was Written By Wyatt O’Rourke. If you enjoyed this article then support his writing, directly, by donating to his lightning wallet: ultrahusky3@primal.net

@ 94a6a78a:0ddf320e

The backbone of your Nostr experience lies in relays—servers that transmit your notes, zaps, and private messages across the decentralized network. Azzamo offers three specialized relays to suit different user needs, ensuring reliability, performance, and privacy.

1. Free Relay

• URL: wss://nostr.azzamo.net
• Overview: Azzamo’s Free Relay is perfect for newcomers to Nostr. It’s open-access, reliable, and ensures fair use with moderate rate limits.
• Key Features:
• Free to use.
• Notes older than one month are purged daily.
• Accessible gateway for decentralized communication.

---

2. Paid Relay

• URL: wss://relay.azzamo.net
• Overview: Designed for power users, the Paid Relay offers unmatched performance with 99.9% uptime and low latency.
• Key Features:
• Scalable for heavy users.
• Fewer users for faster, consistent connections.
• Premium support included for paid users.

---

3. Inbox Relay

• URL: wss://inbox.azzamo.net
• Overview: Never miss a private message again with the Inbox Relay, optimized for secure, spam-free direct messaging.
• Key Features:
• Guaranteed message delivery.
• Optimized for NIP-17 private messages.
• Optimized for NIP-19 group chats.
• Premium users enjoy advanced support.

---

Why Choose Azzamo Relays?

Life on Nostr is easier with Azzamo relays. They’re fast, reliable, and built to handle whatever you throw at them. The Paid Relay keeps your connections strong, the Inbox Relay makes sure no private message gets lost, and the Free Relay is always there to get you started. Supporting Azzamo by going premium helps keep this decentralized network growing—and you get priority support while you’re at it. Azzamo has your back on Nostr!

🔗 Start now:

• Free Relay: wss://nostr.azzamo.net
• Paid Relay: azzamo.net/pay
• Inbox Relay: azzamo.net/inbox

Support the network and upgrade your experience—add time to your account via the Azzamo Dashboard. Choose Azzamo, and take control of your Nostr journey today!

@ df8f0a64:057d87a5

書き散らす動機

残暑続きからの急な気温低下で鼻炎がひどくなる今日この頃、皆様お元気でしょうか

株主への抗議のために退職してから2ヶ月半、流石に暇を持て余してきました 時間がある上に能動的に働く気も起きず、ひたすらボーッとしたりうねうね考え事をする日々です 幸いにして人生も折り返しにさしかかる頃になり、時折「今、人生が終わって構わないのでは？」というようなことも考えたりします （鬱病既往歴ありますが私は元気です）

子どものお迎えを終えて、いつもどおり夕食をとり、またうねうねしているうちに ふと、6年前の年末に急死された、仕事でお世話になったTさんのことを思い出しました

子を寝かしつけてもまだ頭の中をぐるぐるしていたので、ここに吐き出してすっきりしようという魂胆です

Tさんとの出会い

私のキャリアの（ほぼ）スタートはVC（ベンチャーキャピタル）でした 誰のせいでもないとある経緯もあり、周囲からは警戒され避けられ、わずか6年ではありますが、 インナーサークルに入り込めない時期を過ごし、当時の上司と二人、とにかくやれることをやり続ける毎日でした

いつものようにピッチイベントに参加しているとき、近くの席にいたスーツ姿の3人組と目が一瞬合います

「事業会社の人だ」

協調投資やファンド出資のきっかけを掴むべく、その3人に話かけます

「よろしければ弊社投資先のご紹介や御社の...」

ひととおりの挨拶を済ませ、この人たちにも避けられるんだろうと思いながらも要件を切り出します

「是非やりましょう」

いつもとは違う嬉しい返事をくれたのがTさんでした

面倒見の良い他社の先輩

そのときの3人組であるMさん・Iさん・Tさんには、私の仕事人生の中で最もお世話になったと言っても過言ではありません

ファンドの営業を受けていただき、協調投資を行い、VCからの転職後にも協業相手として他部署のキーマンをご紹介いただき...

社会人になったばかりの私の、今思い返せば恥ずかしい（部下がこんな提案したら卒倒する）レベルの提案を、 誰もが知る一流企業の多忙な役職持ちであるにも関わらず、毎回一時間も割いて丁寧に対応してくださる心の広い方でした

当時、VCと接点をもつような事業会社の対スタートアップ部隊は、本業でご活躍されている方が兼任で取り組むパターンが多く、Mさん・Iさん・Tさんももちろんそう

その後も昇進され、最後には本社の取締役に。今年遂に退任され、所謂「あがり」でしょうか、子会社の取締役に異動 長い社会人人生をほぼ走りきり、有終の美を飾ろうとする時期にさしかかっています

でもTさんはそこにはいません

残される側

冒頭触れたとおり、Tさんは6年前のこの時期に急死されました 死因については、Tさんのご友人がFBに投稿していた文章を読んでも、Iさんに聞いてもわからない

悲しいかな、四十年近く生きていると、死因が明かされない理由がわかるようになる機会が一度や二度はあります Tさんもおそらくそうだったのでしょう

直前まで、Iさんと一緒にベイエリアに出張され、楽しそうなコメントと共に写真を投稿されていたのに 晩婚なのか再婚なのか、とにかくご結婚されて一年ちょっと。お子様も生まれたばかりだったのに Tさんは近い人間に心中を隠して、静かにこの世を去りました

あなたの快い返事に、どれほど私が救われたのか 転職後の提案のとき、受付で顔を出してすぐ「元気？」と声をかけてくださったことがどれほど私を安心させてくれたか あなたが声をかけてくれる度、私の社会人としての成果が生まれたことに、私は十分に感謝を伝えられていません

まだしばらく残る理由

振り返って、Tさんのように誰かの人生をenhanceできたのか？と自分に問うと、まだできたとは思えません。残念ですが

今ここで死んでも私は構わないけど、まだもうちょっと頑張るべきかな、老いてから誰かに感謝をしてもらうまで生きてみてもいいかな

そうふと思い直しているうちに日付が変わりました

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

Why waste time, looking at other people's stuff?

I get this question a lot, on Nostr, and it feeds immediately back to the next question: Why don't you just build your own client, if you're so smart?

This was a completely new question for me, as I'm used to collaborating with at least one other person, even when doing FOSS stuff. (No, this isn't my first such project; we just used to call it "volunteering" and "sharing the code", which sounds way less glamorous.) It never occurred to me, that a habit of collaboration and interaction was some sign of my ignorance and incompetence, or somehow proof that I can't vomit up "Hello World!" in 5 different programming languages.

I also made the deadly political mistake, when I entered the Nostrsphere, of refusing to call myself a "dev". For me, "dev" is a special title, given to someone doing a specific type of programming (fiddling with GUIs, mostly, which I've only done occasionally, as a sub), whereas the types I've done are "test automation", "development operations", "database management and data curation", "requirements engineering", and "application administration". Because it's so much easier to find someone interested in building a GUI, rather than building AnythingElse, I tend to slide into AnythingElse and it eventually became my professional specialty to be the Girl Friday of every project.

But, in Nostr, there is no AnythingElse category. There are only (GUI) client devs and AllOfTheIdiotsWhoMustBowDownToTheDevs. Which merely doubled my instinct to distance myself from the term. I do not want to join some cargo cult and be pedestalized and regarded as some sort of superhuman everyone owes fealty to, in return for raining GUI presents down on my loyal subjects.

Software engineers are simply people who are skilled craftsman, not gods, and it is fair to point out that some are more skilled than others. It is also completely fair to criticize their products, report bugs, and wonder aloud at endemic low-quality.

Which brings me back to the initial question:

What does the inquisitive dev know, that the others don't?

1) You learn an awful lot about an awful lot, by looking at specs, reviewing code, and trying out various implementations of concepts you are already familiar with. There are, in fact, n number of use cases for every event type, and I've seen so many of them, that I can conjure them up, or invent new ones, on the fly, rather than wasting time inventing similar events. 2) They don't have to explain their concept to you, later, when you interact. Each interaction brings you closer to parallel-levels of knowledge, which raises the signal-strength of the interaction, and widens your own knowledge base, for interacting with third parties. 3) You are increasingly-likely to contribute code or perform some other more-advanced task, for other people, as you don't face the hurdle of adjusting to a new repo or unfamiliar language, while being less-likely to merely fork-and-ignore because you have a standing business relationship with the other developer. 4) If the other dev stops maintaining the repo, you'll be inclined to continue on your own. You may even eventually receive administrative access, rather than needing to fork, as they trust you with their stuff. This means that the risk of the repo becoming abandoned falls, with each active dev snooping around it, even if that is not their primary project. 5) It helps you determine who to focus your energy on interacting with, further. Is this person new to software development, perhaps, but has some interesting transfer-knowledge from some other branch, that has resulted in a surprisingly novel concept? Is this person able to write very clean code, so that merely reading their code feels like mental training for your own craftsman's toolbox?

...and many more reasons, but this is getting too long, so, let's just cut to the chase.

What does a craftswoman want?

But, this still doesn't answer the question of my private motivation. Why do I want to gather all of this knowledge, from those further ahead, than I?

I think Nostr has long moved past the initial stage, where mere speed was of the essence, so that one npub could finally post a note and have it appear on the other npubs' client. That must have felt like a miracle, but it increasingly feels like a disaster, as the steadily-rising complexity of the Nostr ecosystem causes haphazardly-structured and largely-unexamined code bases to begin to atrophy, or result in developers running around at an exhausting speed, with their bug-extinguishers, to put out fire after fire.

I think the time has arrived, for a different kind of development. Maybe even for a different kind of developer. Not replacing the experimentalism that made Nostr fun, but adding the realm of production-quality software engineering. The sort of software development that requires relay administration, testing, support... collaboration, interaction, maybe even someone who does AnythingElse.

I want to build useful, elegant products people enjoy using and feel comfortable relying on. I want them to use them, naturally and happily, to accomplish tasks they consider worthwhile. I don't want them thinking about me, while they use it. The craftswoman should never be greater than her work.

I want them to feel free -- nay, be eager! -- to give me both positive and negative feedback. My assumption is always that our production is imperfect because we are imperfect, so you do us a favor, by pointing out where we can improve. That's why we wish to integrate a feedback form that produces ngit issue events, putting your questions and comments straight on our board.

And there will be an AnythingElse person, reading that board, and responding promptly, rest assured.

@ 2063cd79:57bd1320

Ich bin der festen Überzeugung, dass 2023 noch nicht das Jahr sein wird, in dem CBDCs in Europa oder anderen Ländern des globalen Nordens das Tageslicht erblicken werden. Dennoch bin ich überzeugt, dass dieses Thema in 2023 durch vermehrte Prozesse, Rhetorik und Kampagnen weiter in den Mainstream getragen werden wird, um eine unausweichliche Einführung von einer CBDC - zumindest in der Eurozone - vorzubereiten und die Menschen langsam darauf einzustellen. Damit verbundene Themen wie z.B. UBI (Unconditional Basic Income/ Universal Basic Income), also das bedingungslose Grundeinkommen, sowie als Geldwäschegesetze getarnte Einschränkungen des Bargeldverkehrs und andere mit digitalen Zahlungsmitteln verbundene Themen, werden in den Medien vermehrt zu finden sein. Meines Erachtens nach, werden wir all diese Themen auf der einen Seite öfter lesen/hören und auf der anderen Seite wird die Rhetorik gegenüber Bitcoin und anderen Krypto-Assets verschärft werden. Die typischen FUD-Themen werden ad nauseam durch die Medien gejagt, aber auch von Regulatorik wird vermehrt Gebrauch gemacht. Die Regulatorik in Deutschland, Europa, aber auch in den USA, ist bisher weitgehend unklar. An vielen Stellen ist nicht mal klar, welche Agency oder Behörde überhaupt zuständig und handlungsfähig ist, geschweige denn, dass besonders ausgereifte Gesetze existieren. Mit der MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) Verordnung hat die EU einen Schritt nach vorne getan und auch wenn sie erst 2024 in Kraft tritt, stellen sich jetzt schon viele der betroffenen und angesprochenen Gruppen auf die Vorgaben ein. Eine weitere Verordnung, die schon länger besteht, ist die Verordnung (EU) 2015/847 über die Übermittlung von Angaben bei Geldtransfers. Diese regelt die sogenannte Travel Rule, mit der wir uns diese Woche beschäftigen wollen.

---

Zunächst müssen ein paar Begriffe und Buchstabensuppenbehörden erklärt werden.

FATF

Die Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ist ein internationales und Regionen übergreifendes Projekt mit zur Zeit 39 Staaten als Mitgliedern, und deren Standards einzuhalten sich so ziemlich jedes Land der Welt verpflichtet hat. Es ist wichtig zu unterscheiden, dass die FATF keine Organisation ist und damit auch keine juristische Person darstellt, die Regeln oder Gesetze erlassen kann. Die FATF veröffentlicht lediglich Empfehlungen und Standards, die von Staaten übernommen werden. Das selbsterklärte Hauptziel dieses Projekts ist die Bekämpfung von Geldwäsche (AML) und der Finanzierung von Terrorismus (CFT). Die Handhabe der FATF ist demnach recht lose gefasst, sehr weitreichend und das Mandat zeitlich unbefristet. Posten werden vergeben, nicht gewählt, wie sollte es auch anders sein. Die FATF wurde 1989 gegründet und hatte zunächst nur das Ziel Geldwäsche zu bekämpfen, doch seit 9/11 wurde das Mandat um die Bekämpfung von Finanzierung von Terrorismus erweitert, und einhergehend mit dem Patriot Act und anderen freiheitseinschneidenden Gesetzen, hatte auch niemand mehr irgendwelche Vorbehalte gegen Übergriffe auf Privatsphäre und Persönlichkeitsrechte.

FATF Mitglieder

Die Liste der Länder, die keine Lust auf diesen spießigen Club mit seinen strengen Regeln haben, die sogenannten Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCTs), liest sich wie der Marco Polo Reiseführer für Steuerflüchtlinge und Finanzakkrobaten und führt - wen wunderts - Länder wie die British Virgin Islands, die Kaimaninseln, die Kanalinseln (Guernsey, Isle of Man und Jersey), Liechtenstein, Monaco, Panama, naja und halt eben auch Russland. Die Erfolgsgeschichten der Prävention von nennenswerten Terroranschlägen ist übrigens so lang, wie die Liste von Goldmedaillen des olympischen Eiskunstlaufteams des Sudans.

FinCEN

Das Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) ist eine weitere Nudelbehörde im Geltungsbereich des US amerikanischen Finanzministeriums und beschäftigt sich ausschließlich mit Finanzsystemen, bzw. der Ausnutzung oder der illegalen Nutzung derselben, ist aber auch dem Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) unterstellt, also auch hier wieder ein Mandat so breit wie der Amazonas.

So, nun kurzer Geschichtsausflug.

Das FinCEN hat im Jahr 1996 die originale Travel Rule erlassen. Diese hieß natürlich nicht offiziell so, aber Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rule [31 CFR 103.33(g)] ist super sperrig, also bleiben wir bei Travel Rule. Kurz und knapp zusammengefasst besagt dieses Gesetz, dass Finanzinstitute gewisse Informationen an andere Institute weiterleiten müssen, wenn sie durch ihre Dienstleistungen Empfänger (Begünstigter) oder Sender (Auftraggeber) von Zahlungen miteinander verbinden. Diese Informationen beinhalten

beim Versenden:

• Name des Senders
• Kontonummer des Senders, falls verwendet
• Adresse des Senders
• Identität des Finanzinstituts des Senders
• Höhe des Übermittlungsauftrags
• Ausführungsdatum des Übermittlungsauftrags
• Identität des Finanzinstituts des Empfängers;

beim Erhalten:

• Namen des Empfängers
• Adresse des Empfängers
• Kontonummer des Empfängers
• jede andere spezifische Kennung des Empfängers.

Die FATF hat im Jahr 2019 diese originale Travel Rule übernommen und vorgeschlagen, diese Regeln zur Übermittlung von personenbezogenen Daten auf "Virtual Assets" (VA) auszuweiten und damit nicht nur traditionelle Finanzinstitute, sondern auch "Virtual Assets Service Providers" (VASPs) einzubeziehen. Wir sind uns natürlich bewusst, dass sich VAs nur auf Pokedollars, Rupees und V-Bucks beziehen und keineswegs auf Digitale Assets oder Kryptowährungen 😛 - sonst würde man ja von DAs (Digital Assets) sprechen.

Krypto-Travel Rule

Okay, also ernsthaft bedeutet dies im Klartext, dass jede Bitcoin- oder Krypto-Transaktion, die einen bestimmten Schwellenwert überschreitet (in der EU bald 0 EUR - "denn aufgrund der spezifischen Eigenschaften und des Risikoprofils von Krypto-Assets gilt die Informationspflicht für alle Krypto-Asset-Transfers, unabhängig vom Transferwert", mehr dazu später ⬇️), von den persönlichen Daten (personally identifiable information (PII)) des Kunden begleitet werden muss. Wir nutzen hier erstmal weiter den Begriff VASP. VASPs müssen nicht nur die Informationen ihrer eigenen Kunden übermitteln, sondern auch versuchen den/die Empfänger//in oder Sender//in (also die jeweilige Gegenpartei) zu blocken oder zu sanktionieren und einer Due-Diligence-Prüfung zu unterziehen. Kurzum, die FATF findet das Risikoprofil von Krypto super schwierig, darum könnte es sein, dass mein Toni Token, den ich einem Freund schicke, der Finanzierung von internationalem Terrorismus dienen könnte und deshalb muss die Sparkasse Westfalen-Lippe jetzt der Spardabank meines Freundes die Unterwäschengröße meines erstgeborenen Kindes übermitteln. Klingt unmöglich? Ist es auch.

Jetzt denkt der/die kundige Leser//in: "Naja, coole Regel liebe FATF, aber was jucken mich deine Vorgaben? Ich lebe in hier in einem Land und der einzige, der hier Gesetze erlassen kann ist immernoch der Kanzlerin!" Und so - oder so ähnlich - ist es auch, aber wir würden ja nicht im Musterknaben-Regelparadies-Preussland leben, wenn Deutschland nicht als eine der ersten europäischen Jurisdiktionen, die Travel Rule als Gesetz erlassen möchte. Der Gesetzesentwurf des damaligen Finanzministers Olaf Scholz mit dem lässig und digital daherkommenden Namen "Verordnung über verstärkte Sorgfaltspflichten bei dem Transfer von Kryptowerten (kurz: Kryptowertetransferverordnung, noch super-kürzer: KryptoWTransferV)" wurde in 2021 vorgestellt und soll noch 2023 in Kraft treten.

Jetzt fragt sich der/die kundige Leser//in natürlich als nächstes: "Naja, Regel hin oder her, ich hab ja tausende verschiedene Apps, Services, kann von Börsen Geld verschicken, von Wallets auch, kann sogar selber Payment-Channels für Lightning öffnen, eine Node betreiben und Wallets hosten, wie zum Kuckuck finde ich denn raus, wer oder was jetzt ein VASP ist? Oder schlimmer noch, bin ich womöglich selbst einer?"

Ruhig kleiner Otter, hier ist die Definition der FATF:

Ein VASP ist jede natürliche oder juristische Person, die [...] als Unternehmen eine oder mehrere der folgenden Aktivitäten oder Operationen für oder im Namen einer anderen natürlichen oder juristischen Person durchführt:

• Austausch zwischen virtuellen Vermögenswerten und Fiat-Währungen
• Austausch zwischen einer oder mehreren Formen virtueller Vermögenswerte
• Übertragung von virtuellen Vermögenswerten
• Verwahrung und/oder Verwaltung von virtuellen Vermögenswerten oder Instrumenten, die die Kontrolle über virtuelle Vermögenswerte ermöglichen
• Teilnahme an und Erbringung von Finanzdienstleistungen im Zusammenhang mit dem Angebot und/oder dem Verkauf eines virtuellen Vermögenswerts durch einen Emittenten

Also zunächst bezieht sich die Definition nur auf Unternehmen. Dieser Interpretation folgt auch Krypto 👐🏼 Transfer 🖖🏼:

Unternehmen mit Sitz im In- oder Ausland, das in Bezug auf Kryptowerte im In- oder Ausland Bankgeschäfte im Sinne des § 1 Absatz 1 Satz 2 des Kreditwesengesetzes betreibt, Finanzdienstleistungen im Sinne des § 1 Absatz 1a Satz 2 des Kreditwesengesetzes oder Wertpapierdienstleistungen im Sinne des § 2 Absatz 2 bis 4 des Wertpapierinstitutsgesetzes erbringt.

Generell fallen unter die Interpretation von VASPs die folgenden Dienstleistungen: Verwahrung, Mining Pool Anbieter, Anbieter von Wallets (custodial), Broker-Services (inkl. Börsen), Bitcoin ATMs und unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen auch Anbieter von Stablecoins, Anbieter von DeFi-Protokollen und auch dezentralisierte Börsen (DEX). Individuelle Miner, Betreiber von Full-Nodes und Lightning-Routing-Channels sind bisher von der Interpretation ausgeschlossen.

Wohingegen man das Gefühl bekommen könnte, dass Sender//innen und Empfänger//innen der Transaktionen die Leidtragenden der Gesetzesentwürfe sind, kann man doch eigentlich schnell sehen, dass vor allem die Dienstleister eine enorme Last und zusätzliche Arbeit schultern müssen. Auf der einen Seite besteht die Herausforderung, die uneinheitliche Vorgehensweise bei der Umsetzung dieser Verordnung in den verschiedenen Regionen vernünftig zu navigieren, denn die daraus entstehenden Anforderungen unterscheiden sich noch von Land zu Land (ein Pluspunkt für MiCA ⬇️). Aber auch zusätzliche Anforderungen, die über die Beschaffung der PIIs hinausgehen, wie z.B. dass von VASPs erwartet wird, dass sie Informationen über die Quelle und das Ziel von versendeten Krypto-Assets erhalten und speichern, machen das normale Tagesgeschäft um ein vielfaches komplizierter.

Und weil es so schwierig ist die PIIs der Sender//innen (Auftraggeber//innen) und der Empfänger//innen (Begünstigten), geschweige denn die volle Transaktionshistorie der Assets, glaubwürdig und genau abzubilden und zu übermitteln, sieht sogar die FATF ein, dass ein gewisser gesunder Menschenverstand angesetzt werden muss und empfiehlt daher, dass VASPs zunächst die VASPs auf der Gegenseite überprüfen, um zu ermitteln, ob eine Transaktion womöglich Geldwäsche- oder Terrorismusfinanzierungspotential (AML/CFT) birgt.

MiCA

Die sogenannte Markets in Crypto Assets Verordnung ist ein in 2020 vom EU Parlament auf den Weg gebrachtes Gesetz zur Harmonisierung der Regeln in Bezug auf Krypto-Anbieter im europäischen Raum. Die Verordnung soll in 2024 in Kraft treten, doch ein finaler Entwurf liegt bereits vor.

Wie schon erwähnt, sehen die neuen Regeln der EU einen Schwellenwert von 0 EUR vor. Mit anderen Worten, Krypto-Dienstleister, die unter einer EU-Lizenz oder in der EU tätig sind, müssen für alle Transaktionen, unabhängig von ihrer Größe, Informationen zur Identität des Absenders und Empfängers erfassen.

Dabei unterscheidet die EU zwischen "hosted" und "un-hosted" Wallets 🤡. Un-hosted Wallets sind alle Wallets, die privat genutzt werden und self-custodial arbeiten, also sich in der Verwahrung von Privatnutzer//innen befinden, sprich diejenigen Wallets, die jeder nutzen sollte, der keinem Custodian vertrauen möchte.

Überweisungen von oder zu un-hosted Wallets von oder zu einem VASP, oder anderen Finanzdienstleister, müssen ab einem Schwellenwert von 1.000 EUR vom VASP überprüft werden. Dabei muss der VASP auch feststellen, ob diese Wallet dem/der Kund//in tatsächlich gehört oder er/sie dieses kontrolliert. Wenn ja, muss der/die Benutzer//in dies verifizieren. Transaktionen von weniger als 1.000 EUR an oder von einer un-hosted Wallet erfordern keine Überprüfung des Eigentums.

Transaktionen an un-hosted Wallets, die nicht der direkten Kontrolle des/der Benutzers//in unterliegen, müssen in allen Fällen überprüft und personenbezogene Informationen über die Wallet gesammelt werden. Darüber hinaus muss festgestellt werden, ob weitere Maßnahmen erforderlich sind. Das bedeutet, dass der VASP vor der Übertragung der Transaktion ein potentielles AML/CTF Risiko identifizieren, einschätzen und entsprechende Maßnahmen ergreifen muss.

InterVasp, TRUST und Co

Und genau weil es eben so schwierig ist diese unhandlichen Anforderungen umzusetzen, bedeutet dies, dass die gesamte Industrie einen kooperativen Ansatz verfolgen muss, um einen idealen Daten- und Kommunikationsstandard zu finden. Zunächst wurde also ein Konsens über ein einziges Datenübermittlungsformat für alle Travel Rule Anforderungen erzielt. Dieses Format heißt IVMS 101 und wurde von der Joint Working Group on interVASP Messaging Standards (JWG) erlassen.

Gleichermaßen hat Coinbase federführend eine Lösung namens TRUST (Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology) ins Leben gerufen, die nach eigenen Angaben zufolge entwickelt wurde, um die Travel Rule Anforderungen zu erfüllen und gleichzeitig die Sicherheit und Privatsphäre von Kund//innen zu schützen. Dieser Lösung haben sich einige namhafte Finanzdienstleister, Börsen und Krypto-Anbieter, unter anderem BitGo, Bittrex, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets, Gemini, Kraken und Robinhood, angeschlossen, um einen Industriestandard für die Erfüllung dieser Anforderungen zu schaffen.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/10/31/coinbase-backed-anti-money-laundering-group-expands-into-europe

Aber auch ein von MasterCard übernommenes Unternehmen namens CipherTrace war schnell dabei, einen Standard zu entwickeln, der es Unternehmen erleichtern soll, den Anforderungen gerecht zu werden.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/ciphertrace-unveils-travel-rule-protocol-for-cryptocurrency-businesses

Was anhand der genannten Beispiele recht schnell deutlich wird, ist dass die von der FATF erlassenen Empfehlungen und Standards hauptsächlich dazu führen, dass wieder eine immense Anzahl an personenbezogenen Daten gesammelt werden muss, und dass dieser Mammut-Akt von etablierten, zentral operierenden Unternehmen gesteuert und vereinnahmt wird. Es ist, als würden Tickets gedruckt, um weitere zusätzliche Daten sammeln zu dürfen, und diese Tickets werden natürlich wieder - frei nach dem Cantillon-Effekt - an die am engsten stehenden Unternehmen verteilt.

Und wer die Früchte ernten will, muss auch den Preis dafür bezahlen!

---

Banken und Krypto-Anbieter sollten keine Diebe fangen, das ist Sache der Polizei. Es gilt eigentlich das rechtsstaatliche Grundprinzip der Unschuldsvermutung, also im Zweifel für den Angeklagten, bzw. die Annahme, dass jede/r solange als unschuldig anzusehen ist, bis seine/ihre Schuld nachgewiesen werden kann. Im Falle der Travel Rule und ähnlichen Geldwäschegesetzen und Gesetzen zum Schutz vor Terrorfinanzierung (AML/CFT) wird dieses Prinzip auf den Kopf gestellt.

Millionen von Berichte werden zur Zeit von Finanzdienstleistern und Krypto-Unternehmen an die Aufsichtsbehörden gesendet. Damit geben Unternehmen des privaten Sektors persönliche Informationen über ihre Kund//innen preis, selbst wenn die Transaktionen nur verdächtig sind. Doch was macht eine Transaktion verdächtig? Grenzüberschreitende Transfers, ein Abendessen in einem äthiopischen Restaurant bezahlt mit Karte? Finanzinstituten obliegt es, das Geld zunächst einzufrieren, sozusagen als Lösegeld einzubehalten, bis der/die Kund//in beweisen kann, dass er/sie unschuldig ist, und nicht umgekehrt. Dies stellt eine klare Verletzung des Menschenrechts dar. Regeln, wie die Travel Rule, verletzen gesellschaftliche Prinzipien, indem sie Menschen ihre Rechte kategorisch verweigern, nur um ein sehr kleines potentielles Risiko zu vermeiden.

Und wer definiert einen Terroristen? Im Iran unterscheidet sich die Definition von jemandem, der den Staat bedroht, erheblich von dem, was andere Länder als einen terroristischen Akt definieren würden. In unseren Breitengraden sind solche Regeln und Gesetze nur so lange zumindest unbedrohlich für das eigene körperliche Wohl, solange die Kontrollinstanz auf rechtsstaatlichen Grundwerten aufgebaut ist. Sobald dies kippt, hat der Staat eine sehr gefährliche Waffe zur Hand.

🫳🎤

---

In diesem Sinne, 2... 1... Risiko!‌

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848

This is the AI-generated full transcript of Bitcoin Infinity Show #129 with Max Hillebrand!

Check out the https://bitcoininfinitystore.com/ for our books, merch, and more!

Luke: Max, welcome for the first time to the Bitcoin Infinity Show.

The Lodging of Wayfaring Men

Knut: Yeah, so one of the first things, you have made the best book recommendations to me that I've ever gotten from anyone. And one was The Ethics of Liberty by Murray Rothbard, and the other one was Economic Science and the Austrian Method by Hans Hermann Hoppe. And now you recommended another book, which I haven't read yet, called The Lodging of Wayfaring Men.

what is that book about and why do you recommend it so much?

Max: It's a beautiful book. it's incredible. And it's written for us and for Bitcoiners, but it's over 20 years old. it was written in like 1997 to 2002 and that time period. And it's loosely based on real events, which is fascinating. the book is crazy. it goes about a group of cypherpunks who are, Building an anonymous marketplace, and the first attempts of an anonymous digital currency.

And again, this shit really happened. the story is quite wild. With, the freedom tech being built for very good reasons. people who understood the philosophical impact. and the deep reasons for why freedom is important. So they were very motivated, and, dedicated to make the world a better place in their lifetime.

And so they got their shit together and got organized and built something incredible, right? And it took them a couple attempts. and eventually they rolled it out and enabled people to trade right, to do their business, online in cyberspace, and encrypt it. And so that made a lot of people very happy because, you know, you get to live life free and undisturbed, so it got adopted by many users.

So much so that eventually the government started to notice that somehow they're making less tax revenue than before. And something's a bit fishy, you know. And then they started to investigate and You know, the NSA and FBI put a decent amount of people on the topic and tried to de anonymize the users of these services and infiltrate them.

And yeah, so the story is about this whole clash between the first and second realm, you know, people who built FreedomTag. And people who enslave others and how those two worlds kind of clash. it's a book that's very inspiring.

Knut: What was the website called?

Max: So, the author's name is Paul Rosenberg.

originally this book was published anonymously, years later, when it was safe to, associate their actual name with this, he did. he was, a teacher, an electrical engineer's teacher. He wrote 30 books on that subject, and is a very eloquent and practiced writer, but also a hardcore cypherpunk and freedom lover, and very well read,

So he has the freemansperspective. com. This is a newsletter. You can go back. It's going for, I don't know, 10, 20 years or something. And every week there's one or two short pieces of articles that he writes. And this book is actually also includes some writings that he did in the past and published. so it's somewhat a collection of his thought.

The Lodging of Wayfaring Men is a fiction book, right? It's basically a fictionalized story with, character arcs and such. the author is very technical, and he understands cryptography and how to apply it. He understands distributed networks and laying fiber optic cables and stuff like this.

So there's a lot of real computer science in this fictional world. And that makes it quite applicable to today where we're surrounded with cryptography much more than at the time when this book was written.

Knut: So, all right.

Taxes

Knut: bit of a jump here, but why is, avoiding paying taxes the most altruistic thing you can do in life?

Max: this is actually one thing that gets covered in the book, right, where,

Knut: that was the case.

Max: because this is also why this book is so interesting to recommend to newcomers, to this philosophy, because at the beginning, not everyone is convinced that this is a good idea. Even the creators of this technology don't know the end result and how other people will use this tech.

There's a lot of ambiguity there. And so this book follows characters who reason through these very difficult questions. For example, I'm going to spoil this book a bit, but everyone should read it anyway. So, there's one character who was a lawyer, right? He works together with an ex FBI agent, who both of them share this common, seeking of justice, like real justice, to stop bad guys from doing bad things, to good people.

the ex FBI guy is somewhat disillusioned. With the institution of the FBI to actually provide and establish justice. so now he is somewhat like walking this line in between the institution and, the actual free realm, vigilant justice basically.

and here then when thinking of. this case. is there a wrong being done by the FBI trying to stop this project? Or is this project actually good? Do they have justice in doing what they do? then, he, reasoned of, is the avoidance of tax, of, of taxation evil.

And, and, of course then walks through the reasonable steps of thinking. No, if, two people transact voluntarily. both people are better off after the trade than before, right? Both people are happy, both say thank you and shake hands. that's trade. That's the market, right? and then you have coercion,

Where one guy says, give me that, and the other says, no, actually, I don't want to give you that, but the guy hits him and takes it anyway. And so that means afterwards that the guy who stole it is obviously better off. He's happy, right? He got the thing, but the guy who was the victim was being stolen from is worse off.

And so humans have the capacity to do mutually beneficial things, right? To literally create value, make both of us better off than we were before. And we also have the potential to destroy value and take from others. and one is beneficial and fosters the growth of civilization and the other destroys it.

Knut: And so, you know, avoiding being stolen from is a good thing. Reminds me of one thing we go into in the new book, about the difference between lawful and illegal. I don't remember the name of the guy now, but some Dutch libertarian thinker, who emphasized on the terms, made the point that something being lawful is like lawful in an ethical sense, like the basis in Don't Steal, whereas legal is the top down government imposed legal framework, and how the two don't always align, or rather, they almost never align.

Natural vs Man Made Law

Max: Yeah, this is the difference between natural law and man made law. A natural law is one that is universal across time and space. It's always present, and it's immutable. It cannot be changed, at least not by us. And, you know, physics, for example, is a natural law. And arguably there is a natural law to ethics as well.

Specifically, as morality increases, freedom increases. And as morality decreases, freedom decreases. That's the law of gravity in the ethical realm. and, that man didn't make it, right? We just realize it because it is what it is. And then we have man made law on the other hand. this is depends on a certain territory, right?

The law in the U. S. is different from the law in Russia. And it also depends on time. I think the American law in the 1700s is very different from what it is today. and so there are these imaginary lines where these rules apply and there's Other places or times where they do not apply. So they're arbitrary, right?

And so they can be designed, to the benefit of some and at the expense of others. And that is ultimately what, politics is about.

Knut: Yeah, I think this is one of the key points that that quote unquote normies have such a hard time wrapping their head around. Natural law and like what, what makes don't steal a natural law? Like what, what is the very foundation of, libertarianism or anarcho capitalism or absolute property rights or whatever you may call it, consensualism?

And to my understanding, it has to do with homesteading. If you're the first person that acquired something, then no other person has a right to take that away from you. And you can logically deduct your way to that being true. Like, what's your view on that? And what's your understanding of that? And how would you explain that to a layman?

Max: Well, the reality is such that we have limited scarce resources. If we have one piece of steak on the table and three guys who are hungry, like some are gonna go home on an empty stomach, right? We literally don't have enough food to feed us all, right? And one piece of something can only be used by one person at one time, right?

We cannot duplicate one piece of steak into many and satisfy everyone. So this is a natural form part of reality, right? That's just how things are, you know? So there's a potential of conflict over who gets to allocate these scarce resources. And there's a couple solutions to it, right, that have been proposed.

Like one would be like, nobody owns it, right? Nobody gets to eat it because it's natural and it's not part of your body, so don't touch it, right? But then we die, you know, all

Knut: that's the problem with that.

Max: That's kind of a problem.

Knut: Yeah.

Max: so

Knut: Yeah.

Resource Allocation

Max: So let's rule that option out. another solution is, of course, we all own it. Right?

And we all, get to use it. But, that doesn't really work either, right? Because, sure, we all own it, but who actually gets to eat it? Because there's three different mouths and the food only goes into one of them. we can't all actually own something if we cannot all use it.

It is limited and only a few can use it. So, everyone owns it isn't the solution to the problem. Because everyone cannot own it, there's not enough for everyone. So again, that's an issue. Ultimately, we all starve. And another option would be, we vote.

We somehow pick who gets to allocate these resources. But then, I mean, we're 8 billion people. How are we all going to vote on who gets to stake? Right? Like That's, that's going to be impractical. Like, how are we even going to communicate, all 8 billion of us, to get together in a vote? So again, until we have the result of the vote, nobody eats the steak, so we all starve again.

It's not really a good solution either. And then we have one option that, like, a small subset of the people gets to make the choice of, you know, how to allocate these resources. And we can just pick them, vote for them, for example. But here again, now other people are allocating the resources for others, right?

Like, and some bureaucrat, a hundred kilometers away, is not gonna know, like, who of us is vegetarian and doesn't want the meat. Right? and that just means that someone who's far off doesn't have the knowledge to actually allocate the resources in a proper manner. And that leads to misallocations, right?

We starve, again. Because the guy who doesn't want the meat gets it and then it rots. And the guys who would actually like it never get access to it and they starve. So that's the fundamental problem of socialism, basically, of some priest class allocating the resources for others. So again, the solution doesn't work either.

So we're not left with much. But one thing that seems to work is private property rights. Again, as you said, the person who creates something, the butcher, or the farmer who raised the cow, can now decide what to do with it. Does he butcher it himself? Does he sell it to a butcher? So the person who created something gets to own it, and gets to decide how to allocate this, and then he has the right to either consume it himself, or to abdicate the consumption of this good.

So to say, I won't use it, I will trade it, I will give it to you, right? And he can make it a gift. Just say here, half the entire cow, like, I like you, I like your family, you, like, I'm happy that you're happy, right? Great, that's possible, right? Or, of course, he would want something from you in return, like, give me a bar of gold, or, a bushel of wheat, or something else.

we now have a way that we can allocate resources in a clear, simple rule set, the person who created it. can decide what to do and have a contractual agreement to transfer this ownership to someone else. the people who actually have the problem now have the power to allocate the resources to solve those problems and not some guy far away, but just you and me who created stuff.

Ownership of Information

Knut: And as you said, this only applies to scarce resources. So what, would be an example of a resource where you could eat the steak, but I could have it too. And, the thing that comes to mind, is information, of course. So, can you own information?

Max: No, like, because that, that doesn't really make sense, right? To own means to allocate, how to allocate these, to decide how to allocate these resources. All right. And then, that's a solution to a problem of a lack of resource allocation, right? or for a lack of resources that need to be allocated rather.

But with information, there is no lack. Like if I have a PDF, I can copy it to you and I can send it to you, and I can send it to a hundred other people, and I still have the exact same high fidelity version. Of the information that I shared with others, and of course it's the same with words, right? The words that I speak, they're not lost on me, right?

I still retain them and the information that they represent. and that means we don't need to be, stingy with information. We can give it to everyone. and it doesn't degrade the quality quite on the contrary, right? without information there is no production.

imagine yourself on an island, and you have all the raw materials, all the machinery, like everything there, but you don't know anything about physics, or material science, or just production stages of how to build things. If you don't know any of that, the raw material is worth nothing to you.

Nothing. Because you don't know how to allocate, how to shape this raw material into other things so that it actually solves your problems in the end. we need information in order to produce things. That's the theory behind it. The blueprints, so to say. the cool thing is, we don't have to be stingy with the blueprints.

We can give every human on this planet Equal access to all of the information that we as humans have accumulated, and now all of a sudden you will never be stranded on an island not knowing how to do something, because you can just look it up. In the grand database of accumulated human knowledge, of course, technology has made that much more possible and low cost.

Back in the day, in order to share an information, you needed to speak verbally to it, right? So you're limited to time and space, or you need to scratch it on some stone or clay or write it on a piece of paper, And then still, you have the scarcity of the paper, right? There's only one book.

And there's a hundred people who want to read it. So again, information is limited. Not because the information itself is limited, but because the medium of the information is scarce. And that was a big tragedy that we were never able to communicate at a large scale, and remember these conversations and easily access them.

Until the cypherpunks who came up with computers, right? And realized that we can build this realm of information That is so cheap to transfer and store information, that we can just basically do it for free, for anybody, for 8 billion people. And all they need is a rather cheap form of silicon, and like, nicely arranged.

but of course people try to hold on to the protection schemes that extract money from others, and capital from others, and You know, nation states have enforced intellectual property rights and patents and such, and that just harms people. It doesn't bring forward the best out of humanity. And that's a big shame.

Knut: Now, very well put. this has been Praxeology 101 with Max Hillebrand.

Bitcoin and Praxeology

Knut: where I want to follow on, follow up here is, how does this apply to Bitcoin? Because Bitcoin is only information, so how can anyone theoretically ever own a Satoshi? Do you really own it, or what is it?

Max: What is actually a Satoshi? Look into the Bitcoin code base. There is no such thing as Satoshi, right? The transaction has a field that is an integer. But it's just an integer. It doesn't even have a unit associated to it, right? So, it's just a number. Satoshis are just numbers in a database.

And you don't own the number 270, 000 just because you have 270, 000 bitcoin. The actual number of satoshis, no, you don't control them. You don't own them. But information has another interesting thing that cypherpunks realized, right? That, once, like, when you have a secret, then you can choose to share it with others.

And then once you've shared it with one person, however, you cannot control what that person does with the information. He can keep it secret for himself, or he can tell it to the entire world. And so, there is such a thing as giving access rights to information. And this is an important part in Bitcoin, of course, right?

Our secret keys should be secret, privately kept just for us, because if you do share your secret key publicly, then all of a sudden anyone can, Signed messages, with this private key and therefore spent Bitcoin in the transaction chain of Bitcoin. and well, that's a critical part of it.

So Bitcoin basically relies on keeping information, hidden from others, in order to ensure that we, solve, like, basically Bitcoin. It's just a piece of software, right? So it is non scarce information, but it wants to be money. And money needs to be scarce, right? Because if I can spend a bar of gold first to you, and then the same bar of gold later to you, we have infinite inflation, right?

The money system just dies. so scarcity is required. It's a required feature for money and digital money therefore requires digital scarcity. And so what Bitcoin does is it establishes a set of computer code that defines the access, right? Two certain chunks of money, so to say, right? And the chunks of money are Bitcoin UTXOs, unspent transaction outputs, and the spending condition, so to say, or like the rule how to allocate this money, who gets to decide it.

Where this money goes next is defined by a script and a small computer program that evaluates either to true or to false, depending what input you provide. And so the script is the lock, and usually it's a single public key. And then the way to prove that You're actually authorized to spend this coin is by creating a valid witness.

You know, the input to the script, to the program that returns it to true rather than to false. And usually, again, that's a signature of a single private key over the transaction structure that you're actually spending the money. Bitcoin's genius realization is that. We just all have to check every transaction of everyone else.

And when we do that, we can be sure that, nobody's being stolen from, That nobody is, losing access to his money, that someone is spending the money with a wrong signature. he doesn't have the private key. He cannot produce a valid signature. So we have to make sure that such a transaction does never make it into the blockchain, right?

that's the first important aspect. And the second is we want to ensure that there's no inflation. that's Because if we can just create as many tokens as we want, then the value of the token goes to the marginal cost of production. If we can produce a token with the click of a button, then the marginal cost of that token, or the value of that token, will be zero, right?

So we need to make it, Difficult, or in fact, in Bitcoin, impossible to create additional units, you know, there's 21 million and that's it, right? That's the set of rules. And therefore, when we check each transactions, we also ensure that there is no transaction that has one Bitcoin on the input side and 10 Bitcoin on the output side, therefore increasing the total supply of Bitcoin.

And so Bitcoin is a massive verification machine to ensure that this computer system is this way of speaking to each other, actually balances the books of the system. of how many units of money are there, and who has the right to allocate these, and so it's basically a system that creates a natural resource, and then also manages the allocation of this natural resource.

Knut: so Bitcoin is almost a parallel universe where, in fact, you do own the Bitcoin, basically, but the ownership is not defined by you as a person. It's defined by the knowledge of a secret. so you prove that you have access to it by having access to the private key, which unlocks it.

Ownership of Bitcoin

Knut: On earth that can prove that you own a Bitcoin except you, the holder of the private key.

Max: If the holder of the private key reveals information to others that indicates such, one very common way that this would be is you have a mobile wallet, that does not run a Bitcoin full node, That connects to someone else's full node to check if you have Bitcoin,

You don't use Tor, so there's an IP address linked from you to the server, and so the server operator knows that this IP address just asked how much money is on this address, and so we have, a very strong indication, that this IP address owner owns

Knut: It can be a very strong indication, but in my mind it can never be proof. Because you need to sign with the actual private key to prove. Otherwise it's boating accident time.

Max: guy with the gun doesn't need proof, right, he just needs a good enough guess. For him, he needs, like, there is a praxeology to violence. thieves are actors. They live in a state of uneasiness, they have problems, and they try to find a solution to that problem. They don't have ethics, they don't have morals, and so their solution to the problem harms other people.

But nevertheless, they are still actors. And so they think that they will be better off after the action of theft than before. That's a value judgment. And it's an entrepreneurial one. So they might be correct, they might not. They break into a house, hoping that there is a bar of gold hidden under the couch, right?

Turns out there's not, right? So, if they spend a lot of money breaking into the house, and there's no loot, they're not profitable thieves. And this means that they destroyed their capital, right? They spent 10 Bitcoin on getting the equipment, and they got 0 Bitcoin back. So, that means they're 10 Bitcoin poorer, and eventually they will run out of money and starve.

So, thieves need to be profitable in order to do their thieving, and that's the genius that cypherpunks realized. If we exponentially increase the cost of attack, and exponentially decrease the cost of defense, then we make thievery unprofitable. And that's the genius of private public key cryptography and encryption, right?

It's trivial to generate a private key and then generate a public key or a signature, right? But to brute force a private key or to forge a signature without it, like, requires more energy that would collapse into a black hole, you know? So that's kind of a problem.

And for thieves, right? It's really good for the people who want to defend themselves. Because they can very cheaply do it, and it just doesn't make sense to attempt to break the encryption. But nevertheless, computer systems are very complex, and there's a lot of metadata associated with, computing and communicating between computers.

And so, there are, microphones and radio frequency scanners that you can point on computers and see the computation happening in the machine because there's a lot of radiation outside of the computer that can be correlated to which bits are being flipped you can have all types of side channel attacks to extract secrets from a computer while it's running the problem is that the holistic technology stack we have is quite susceptible to revealing information that should have been kept secret.

And again, that is a critical part, of course, to communication encryption, but even more so for Bitcoin. If we lose the assurance that only we know the private key, the money system is broken. And that's why Bitcoiners were so paranoid and started this whole thing of hardware wallets and secure elements to Really ensure that we don't leak private key material, but it's an extremely difficult task, because, well, this reality is very observable, and the cards are, to some extent, quite in favor of surveillance, unfortunately.

the guy with the gun in this case could be the government, Yeah, exactly, it can just be like a poor guy who needs to provide for his children, you know, and, he sees a way for feeding his family for the next two years, and that's a good trade off for him.

Knut: Yeah, momentarily.

Max: right?

Bitcoin and World Peace

Knut: So, if we manage to do this, on a grand scale, and if people in general manage To exponentially increase the cost of the attack while simultaneously decreasing the cost of defense. Does that lead to world peace at one point? Is that the end goal?

Max: Yeah, I think so. Oh, I mean, that makes sense. If every economically rational thief will realize that he is worse off if he does this stealing, right? Like, actually, because he needs to spend much more money in an attempted theft, and most likely he's not going to succeed. And, I mean, this exponential difference has to be huge, though, right?

Because, like, we had castles, you know? Like, castles are quite, like, quite extreme asymmetric protection. Like, if you're behind castle walls, with a well staffed militia that actually defends the walls, It's quite difficult to get to you if you just have, you know, like, humans and swords and ladders. that's, like, sieges are, in the favor of the defender.

But still, they happened a lot, right? And people were able to overcome these defenses. Because, I guess they weren't never holistically secure, you know? There was always some backdoor that enabled the attacker to go through, to get through, right? and that might just be brute force, right? You just bring a huge army and You're fine with tens of thousands of your own guys getting killed, but eventually, you know, after you throw a couple hundred thousand people at the problem, someone will succeed to break through.

Quite a brutal tactic, obviously, but it worked.

Knut: you get in.

Max: But then cryptographers came around and were like, well, but there's math.

Luke: Yeah, we can use RAM in another way. 1 plus 1 is 2. What? Are you sure?

Knut: that might be offensive.

Luke: That's a different kind of worms.

Knut: Yeah. . Yeah. So, the,

Bitcoin For Attack

Knut: so Bitcoin being this perfect defense mechanism, because all it does is increase the cost of the attack, can Bitcoin ever be used for attack in your opinion? Like, can it be used in an aggressive way?

Max: I think directly not, because again, it is just, speech and such, but on the other hand, maybe yes. Because, let's say, if someone hacked your machine, and got access to your private key, and spends the Bitcoin, like, in the context of Bitcoin itself, it's a valid signature, it's a valid transaction, and it will be included.

So, in the legalities of Bitcoin, it is no theft, right? It is a valid transaction. but, On the ethical realm, you worked hard to get these Bitcoin and you didn't want to send them to the attacker, so he is definitely stealing them from you. So, Bitcoin can be stolen, certainly, in the human analysis.

Not on a technical level, we've never seen a transaction confirmed with an invalid signature, but on the human level, There have been a lot of people that got separated from their Bitcoin against their will, right, against their consent. and, and that is theft. So, thieves can use Bitcoin, thieves can get paid in Bitcoin, thieves can take your Bitcoin and pay them to themselves, right?

that's a fact of reality too.

Aggression and Spam

Knut: Could that be used in an aggressive way?

Max: it is just the writing of bits and bytes, right? So there's, however, again, a limited amount of resources that are available specifically in Bitcoin. And not just do we have 21 million Bitcoin, we also have like, Two and a half slash four megabyte blocks, right?

And so this means there's only a certain number of transactions that can be fit into a single block. that means we have, again, a scarce resource and we need to allocate it. this is why there is a price for Bitcoin transactions, because that's how we solve the scarcity problem, right?

by whoever pays the most gets in. that's a, or it's not even whoever pays the most. It's like. You can choose who goes in by mining a block, right? You have full freedom of choice of which transaction do you include into your block. And if you don't mine, then you can propose to someone else, say, please include my transaction into a block.

But again, there's a large demand and a limited supply. so most likely people will start bribing each other and it's like, yeah, if you include my transaction in your block, I'll give you sats. And in fact, Bitcoin, the Bitcoin software launched with a anonymous peer to peer marketplace for the scarce good, which is Blockspace.

Satoshi didn't have to do that, right? Bitcoin would have totally worked, if, if you could not, like, if every input sum has to be exactly equal to every output sum, right?

There cannot be that outputs are smaller than inputs and the leftover goes to the miners, but that could have been a consensus rule, right? But then most likely we would have seen some third party external marketplace. Where people would do the bidding on please include my transaction into the block.

And then of course they would have to figure out how do we actually pay the miner to get our transaction in the block. So Satoshi had the genius to embed an anonymous marketplace. Into the core essence of the protocol, right, with the rule that outputs can be smaller than inputs, and the rule that we have this gossip peer to peer network, which like the whole peer to peer network is kind of optional, by the way, but it's just there to kind of make it easier so that we have this anonymous marketplace for Blockspace that we can propagate offers, right, and one person sends the offer and gets spread to the entire network.

So the demand side is no monopoly. Anyone can broadcast a message to the peer to peer network hoping to be included. And then on the supply side, the actual miners, there's also no monopoly. Anyone can spin up his computer and start SHA 256 hashing. On the most recent chain, right, with his own candidate block.

And nobody can stop you, right? That's the definition of no monopoly. New market participants are not hindered to enter the system. And so this is the most radical free market that we've seen probably ever. And it's been kind of hidden inside Bitcoin since the very beginning.

Mining vs Hashing

Knut: Yeah, you can of course also pay the miner in something else than sats to get included into a block. And if a mining pool does this, the individual miners doesn't necessarily have a claim to a piece of the pie of whatever money was paid to the mining pool owner under the table and not on the system, right?

They can't even see it. So how big of a problem is that, and can you really call yourself a miner if you're just selling hash power to a pool and the pool isn't transparent?

Max: I mean, it's actually true that we, like, there could be in the future, A alternative marketplace for block space that's not inside the Bitcoin Core client. And by the way, arguably that's better, because we have a piece of software that does one thing really well, and then, you know, we just specialize and put the two modules together.

architecturally speaking, this might be better. we see things like, for example, the mempool. space explorer, or accelerator, right, is one. Marketplace that is now establishing that that seems to work now quite well. Of course, it has the issue of there's a central, like, order book, so to say, and probably custodian for the money as well.

And so, I'm not sure, but it's one approach of doing such an alternative marketplace and there can be downsides. it's not really public of how much Volume is going through here, right? how much are people speeding up their transactions, And I guess the same goes to much earlier where we just had mining pools offering this in their own API, or a webpage.

so at least now, like we, we have a dedicated service provider. That's not a mining pool doing this, which I think is an improvement. but we could also, you know, build. A, like, off chain peer to peer network, so to say, that's not related to Bitcoin per se, but that has all of the aspects that we want just dedicated for an optimized market book for this resource.

And Bitcoin should still work, I think. Like, the marketplace inside Bitcoin Core is not essential in the long run. It was just very convenient to bootstrap it. But, you know, in 50, 100 years, I wouldn't be surprised if we have Dedicated systems for, for these things that potentially are in different repositories and such different softwares.

Knut: So, in your opinion, how damaging is a temporary fee spike over a weekend or something where it goes up to like, 2000 SATs per transaction. what impact does it have on lightning channels and lightning providers and so on? Like do you consider it an attack or what is it?

Max: it's an inevitability almost, right? If you have a hard, extremely limited supply, right? there is only two and a half megabytes in the usual block, and you have extremely fluctuating demand, and there is no way to speed up production of the good. there is bound to be extreme, differences of we have way more demand than supply or way less, right?

But it will be very rare that we will fill just exactly everyone who wanted to gets in. So to actually clean out every transaction that wanted to be made is quite rare already now and in the future, if Bitcoin continues to be used, this is even more unlikely, right?

So then the question is just how, like, do you get into the top, like, the top payers to get included in the block still? And this is where just the technology is quite difficult, because this is like, you're, you're, you're, it's an order book, right? You're trading, basically, and you don't know if the price goes up or price goes down.

And this is all at least supposed to be automated. Bitcoin wallet developers are building trading bots, block space accountants charged to purchase block space on behalf of the user. the user just clicks send and that's it. the software does all of the complexities of constructing a transaction that is of a size acceptable, right?

Because if fees are super high, you don't want to build a transaction with a hundred inputs and one output, right? You would want to have a transaction with one input, one output. It would be way cheaper if the fee spike is currently high. a smart robot should build a different structured transaction with more or fewer inputs and outputs to accommodate the current fluctuation of the market.

And of course, the fee rate is another, like what's actually your bid that you put into this marketplace? And that's trading like. How much are you going to pay for the stock? Nobody really knows, right? And so it's kind of good luck and you don't know if it goes up or goes down. And sometimes you overpay, right?

And you pay way more than was actually needed to get into that block. And so you lose money, you lose capital. And sometimes you don't pay enough and you don't get included for months, right? but there's better software that can alleviate a lot of these problems.

Spam Making Bitcoin Worse as Money

Luke: Well, so I guess another side to this question, because everything you're saying makes makes total sense from the perspective of that this stuff is definitely going to happen from from hyperbitcoinization side. There's just going to be more demand than there is supply of block space. But I think the issue that we've been exploring a lot.

Lately, is, is that when there are transactions that aren't really being made for the purpose of moving value from one person to another in the form of Satoshis, they're, they're another form of value, subjective value that is communicated through arbitrary data, or at least some other type of, of data.

Does that change the property of Bitcoin as money? That's essentially, I think the, the root of the, the argument any, anyone talking

Knut: Yeah, exactly.

Luke: the functionality of Bitcoin is

Max: Well, I think. There's a couple aspects to this, right? We have again a scarce resource block space, and there's the problem of how do we allocate this block space. And there are very stringent rules on this, right? You cannot have arbitrary data in blocks, right? There needs to be, for example, the transaction structure.

There needs to be inputs that point to previous outputs, and there need to be outputs, the sum of the inputs, sum of outputs, hashes, transaction headers, all of the stuff needs to be followed in order for this to be considered a valid block. So the Bitcoin developers have, from the very beginning, had a very, I guess, authoritarian regime to allocating these resources, which makes sense.

If you don't put stringent, like, structure in a protocol, then people just fill it with garbage and every software breaks, right? So it's like a practicality thing that we need to have a very opinionated, kind of thing. Set of rules and we need to pick one of them and like just do it because if we don't pick any then it won't work and also if we pick the wrong one it won't work either.

imagine the rules would have been like a broken hashing algorithm, for example, not SHA 256 but SHA 1 or something that's broken. People can create collisions, right? So there could be two transactions that have the exact same transaction ID. breaks the system, right? So if that would have been the set of rules, Bitcoin would have broken, right?

And now also, again, if we allow arbitrary things to be built, then people will just use it as data storage, for example, and just fill it up with megabytes of images. And again, limited amount of resources. If all of it is used for, for pictures, then none of it can be used for money transfer, right? So this is again, an inherent conflict.

the tricky thing though is, now we have this. established set of rules in the Bitcoin consensus and how do we change it, right? And that's the really tricky part of, making up man made rules. Bitcoin is not Natural in the sense, right? Like, humans came up with this shit.

Like, this is our creativity that made this happen. and so, it's not nature made, right? It's man made. Of course, men are part of nature and such. So it's a bit, wishy washy here, but ultimately, we made it, we can change it, we can make it better, and we can break it. And that's a really scary position, because I think we all realize that this is quite an important project, and we definitely have it in our power to break this thing.

I hope we do our best effort.

Caution When Changing Bitcoin

Luke: my interpretation of that is, is that, caution when making changes to Bitcoin is paramount. Would you agree with that?

Max: Well, inaction is an action too, right? And that might be even more dangerous. So, there might be critical bugs in the protocol that if not addressed will break the system and potentially they are currently being exploited, right? And so, in such a case, we should do our best to fix it as soon as possible.

Satoshi knew that from the very beginning, right? So, how exactly we do that? Who knows?

Knut: Well, if it's up to the individual miners, which it is, what blocks they want to mine, what transactions they want to include in a block. And it can be fixed that way, a sly roundabout way, if you will.

Max: Well, if we could trust the miners with stuff like this, then we could trust the miners with enforcing the 21 million, right? But we can't, right? We don't rely on anyone. We verify it ourselves, right? And so the reason why we don't have actual JPEGs in Bitcoin blocks is because your node says no to any block that actually has a JPEG in it, right?

Blocks have to have transaction in it. If not, you kick them out, right? So even if there's valid proof of work Proof of Work doesn't solve the problem of integrity of the block, right? This has nothing to do with Proof of Work. In fact, Proof of Work is one part of the rules of the integrity of the block that is defined, enforced, and verified by the full nodes itself, right?

Specifically, if you want to get rid of inscriptions, that's certainly a hard fork. Like, taproot transactions are currently valid, and if we make these taproot transactions in the future invalid, that's a hard fork, right?

It would be great to hard fork Bitcoin. We could clean so much stuff. It's just a practical reality that breaking the hard fork use of a running protocol is extremely difficult and arguably, unethical. Because people have signed up to the previous system, built businesses and, stored their money in these types of scripts.

If we now make them unspendable, what is that? No?

Mining Incentives

Knut: so, when it comes to mining, there's, minor incentives, like, the thing we talked about before, about, under the table payments to big mining pools, To me, the obvious fix to this problem is to get it into the brains of the hash salesmen, that they ought not be mere hash salesmen, but actual miners and know what block they're mining on.

Because I think the ethos among the individual miners is, better than, these bigger pools that might not be, as, concerned with the longevity of the Bitcoin experiment, but, more fiat minded and wanting a quick buck now rather than save the system in the long run.

So, right now it feels like we're trusting these bigger entities to have as much of a disincentive to destroy Bitcoin so that they won't, it's tricky. Like it's a gray zone, right? What's your thoughts?

Max: I think Satoshi's genius in designing the Bitcoin protocol was that he did his best to separate different tasks that need to be done in the system into different like conceptual entities, and then to ensure that each of these aspects is distributed as widely as possible. And this is ultimately what it means that Bitcoin is decentralized, right?

There is not one person that defines the set of rules, for example, or one person that writes the candidate block, Or one person that provides the proof of work for the candidate block, or one person that provides the signature for each transaction, right? Each of these things is distributed. And in the ideal case, in the original Bitcoin client, to every user, right?

Like, the Bitcoin software in 2009 was mining by default for everyone, right? So, literally the entire stack of the operation was at 100 percent of the users, right? There was no non validating, non mining users. In the beginning, right? We had perfect decentralization, so to say, right? And then if efficiencies kick in and economies of scale and division of labor, and we start to optimize each of these things kind of on its own and split it out into different branches of government.

Yeah, specialized entities, so to say. And if you specialize on being the best hasher that you could possibly be, you just give up on being the best block candidate creator that you could possibly be. Because if you do the one thing that you're marginally better at and focus all your attention on that, you will be the most profitable.

so, yes, it is. It is an issue. and we, Bitcoin would be better off if we further distribute the risk and responsibility of each of these tasks to as many people as possible. And I think we've done a really good job, for example, of distributing the ownership of private keys.

And like, there's, I don't know, many millions of private key holders on the Bitcoin blockchain, right? So that's, that's great. but, and we have. Probably done this as well with hashers, right? There's a decent amount of quite large independent hashing institutions, right? Not so well with mining pools and actual block candidate creation, like, that's pretty bad.

Like, there's two or three of them, so that's scary as fuck. Right there we've utterly failed and we've made Bitcoin way worse than it was before. in this one metric of resilience, of decentralization, of distribution of risks, we made it a lot more efficient, but we made it much more vulnerable to attack.

that is a problem. Thankfully, a lot of people are working on fixing it. It's a really difficult problem, right? It's not that there's some malicious, attempt of trying to break it. I mean, maybe there is, but the more likely answer is just bloody difficult computer science. it just needs an insane amount of research and development before we will have tools that are even coming close to being actually adequate.

Right? I'm not praising Satoshi's 2009 code as being perfect, because it was a pile of shit, right? And you could break it in a million ways. so we've improved a lot, but we're very far from done because to some extent the realities of the difficulty of the situation have caught on much faster than our ability to solve these.

Yeah, I mean, the problems that are currently existent in Bitcoin and that now we're at Nostriga today and talking about Nostr, this sort of related communication layer in relation to Bitcoin, you mentioned at the very beginning, Freedom Tech.

Freedom Tech and Nostr

Luke: So, we, when we last talked to you, you were focusing on Wasabi Wallet and now obviously that project has just been made open source, essentially, and so my question to you on that is, what are you focusing on in terms of Freedom Tech now?

Max: Nostr is definitely a highlight, right? Nostr is just incredibly cool. And it's so wild to think that Nostr is like two years old. it's not old, but look at the amount of stuff that we've built. In this short time frame, how powerful are we? It's incredible, right? If we get our act together and actually build on, such an open protocol and get people excited about it and people using it, it doesn't take us long to fundamentally change the pattern of speech on this planet.

Wow, that's incredible. Like, we did that. And we're just getting started. think about where Nostr is going to be in five years. It will be wild. Absolutely insane. that's very bullish and very encouraging. And it's super exciting to work at such an early stage in the protocol, because there's so many obvious improvements.

There's so many obvious use cases. There's so many low hanging fruits of how we can make it even better than it currently is. Alright, so we have something that's already great, and we know a million ways on how we can make it even better. and you can be part of making a meaningful improvement in getting this to like an exponential blow off of awesomeness.

Knut: Meaningful improvement of humanity, really.

Max: Yeah. Yeah, that's the other thing, like, that's why Freedom Tech is so exhilarating to work at, because we're ending slavery. That's kind of a big deal, you know,

Knut: Yeah, it should have been done at least 300 years ago.

Max: Yeah.

Luke: No, it's, it's amazing. And well, and actually, so a couple of things here. First of all, we've talked about this a little bit, how Nostr seems like it's the playground that people wanted as an alternative to Bitcoin. In other words, people who went and started making shitcoins were basically just wanting a playground to do all this stuff.

But now is, is, is Nostr basically the place where people can do that and channel their energies in a way that isn't going to break money?

Max: Yeah. I absolutely agree. So I'm very bullish on a lot of these use cases and one other area that currently interests me a lot, is just zero knowledge cryptography. it's wild what's possible. it's absolutely wild. Within the last five years or so. The theory has developed.

And again, a lot of shitcoin projects putting zero knowledge proofs on blockchains and such, and I'm not quite convinced that we actually need a blockchain for that. I think relays are just fine. And so I'm quite bullish on having actual zero knowledge proofs much more integrated in Nostr clients. Like, you can do amazing things with this.

Like, for example, anonymous web of trust, right? You could prove to me under an ephemeral anonymous identity, right, that you are in fact, On my follower list. Like, I'm following you, but I don't know who you are. Right? So, these types of things are trivial with zero knowledge stuff. And we don't have any size constraints or computation constraints in Nostr.

Because it is not a global consensus system. Only the people who are interested in this proof actually have to, like, download it and verify it and such. so, it's, I think we can do a lot of amazing stuff here. it seems pretty obvious wins here.

Knut: driving these 180 IQ young developers into Nostr instead of shitcoin development is, is like moving them? To do, to think more of what they should rather than what they could, because I think that's, that's sort of the main problem with this nerdy set of shitcoin developers is that they, oh, I could do this if I just do this and they, they focus on what they can do rather than what they should do.

And it's Nostr, Changing the direction of that, are people thinking more of ethical things while developing on this than

Max: it's a big claim, right? That like a piece of tech can

Knut: it's hopium

Max: improve the morality of people. it's definitely a big claim, but it seems true. Like, if you think about it in Bitcoin, like probably each of us, our level of morality before we discovered Bitcoin and what it is now.

And our understanding of morality has substantially, improved, right? And I'm not sure if it would have happened, at least to this extent, without being exposed to the Bitcoin technology. and Bitcoin is just money, you know, like, humans do a lot more than buy stuff, sure, money is incredibly important, but it's far from everything of the human experience.

And I think Nostr. We'll do a lot of the other stuff and Nostr has this freedom mindset embedded into the protocol just as Bitcoin has. And so I'm extremely bullish on seeing the people who get exposed to Nostr and what it does to them in the long run.

Hyperbitcoinization vs Hypernostrification

Max: So what happens first? Hyper ossification or hyper ization both at the same time.

Knut: does one lead to the other?

Max: there's definitely synergies here, right? and, yes, one leads to the other. there's, I met a bunch of people who got interested into Nostr first, and then used Bitcoin for the first time. It's a very common theme, actually. again, because Like, social, like, think of the, think of the, like, average screen time of people, right?

it, for sure.

I think Nostr is going to be way bigger than Bitcoin in the improvement of the human condition.

Knut: Then again, every time you press the like button or the retweet button or whatever on your social media app, even the legacy system, you are providing someone with some value. That's why your account is valuable to, Facebook's and the Twitters of the world. There is a value thing embedded into everything you do on the internet.

Max: It's just, you don't get a tradable good.

Knut: No, no,

Max: sell the like to someone else.

Knut: not at this point.

Max: They have now a star emoji. If you send the star emoji, you can send the star emoji back to the company, and they will give you money. So, voila. It's basically a shitcoin, but it's a star.

Luke: is it more important to fix money or the other stuff?

Max: Well, that's a big one. Both again, because money is only half of every transaction, right? And so maybe the earlier example of the marketplace for Bitcoin block space is perfect because why did Satoshi include the marketplace, the other stuff together with the money? Because it was kind of essential, right?

you need to have both at the same time in order to live, right? You need to speak, you need to advertise your products, you need to negotiate with the customers, right? You need to convince them of the value that you will provide to them, and then you need to receive the money and tell them that you've received it, and ultimately hand over the goods, right?

So there's a lot of human interaction into every trade, and the money aspect is just Like, one small part of this long interactive chain of protocol, basically. I think we need both at the same time. And we're just discovering upgrades to each of them as we move along. But this has always been in synergy.

Like, the internet is way older than Bitcoin, right? So arguably, we need the other stuff first, right? We needed like 20, 30 years of other stuff before we could actually come up with the money.

Knut: so fix the money, fix the world then fix the world and you fix the money.

Luke: No, but seriously, we actually talked about this. in that, maybe an analogy to, that the internet needed to develop in a centralized way because the, literally the hardware and everything, the architecture, the client server model was literally a centralized and centralizing system. Model and that needed to exist first.

And then the analogy is that gold was centralized naturally in the sense that physically the physical constraints of gold made it so that it naturally centralized into banks and then fiat solved that problem to sort of decentralize it, but it broke everything. So now the mechanism of fixing the money and decentralizing the money was gold.

Bitcoin, but the corollary for decentralizing the communication is Nostr. So both things have kind of happened in a parallel. That's, what we were discussing.

Wrapping Up

Luke: That is the alarm Oh,

Knut: Oh, okay.

Max: so we'll wrap it up.

Knut: Well, I'm

Max: Nostr for sure. Max at TowardsLiberty. com. You can send me mail, notes and sats to that, which is, by the way, crazy, right? That we can have like this unique identifier to get, like, all of your needs settled is wild. Check out, lodging of Wayfaring Men. That's, the main shill of this video.

And I made the audiobook for it. it's on a podcast. The podcast is by the author, Paul Rosenberg. And, it's called Parallel Society, right? So check that out. right now we've released the first episode. the others will come shortly thereafter. the other book recommendation I should highlight, which we haven't mentioned yet, is Cryptoeconomics by Eric Voskuhl.

Most of what I said here was very much inspired by that book. He has the most rigorous understanding of Bitcoin. It's by far the best Bitcoin book. So I also did the audiobook for that. Just search for Cryptoeconomics in your

Knut: audio book though.

Max: when you have to read tables of math formulas, it's starting to fall apart.

But there's a lot of verbal logic in the book that goes very well. Just get the free PDF for the actual graphs and

Knut: And keep using Wasabi and fire up your own coordinators and whatnot, right?

Luke: Now get on stage, Max. Don't want to make you late.

Max: Bye

the book, that's not what I said.

Luke: right, that's it.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Replacing the web with something saner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

See also

• On the state of programs and browsers

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

IPFS problems: General confusion

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

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

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

There was once a man, who missed an important meeting because his alarm clock didn't ring. He was a bit upset, and wished for it to be corrected, so he promptly got up, got dressed, and took the alarm clock back to the store, where he'd gotten it from.

He stood in line, patiently, at the service counter, and waited his turn. When he got to the front, the clerk asked, "How may I help you?"

"Oh, I'm having trouble with this alarm clock. You see, it doesn't ring, when the time is reached. I was wondering if that could be fixed."

"Why should we fix that? We're actually very busy building the new model. Should be out in a few weeks. Just wait for that one. Goodbye."

"What? Wait! You can't just leave it broken, like this."

"Why not? What right do you have, to demand an alarm clock that rings? Besides, how many alarm clocks have you built?"

The customer was now quite flustered and a bit ashamed of his self, "Well, none. I admit that, but..."

"Well, there you go! Outrageous, that you should criticize something someone else has accomplished, that you have not. Besides, you are incompetent to tell if anything is even wrong. Maybe this is some sort of non-ringing alarm clock. Perhaps it has lights or wave sounds..."

The second customer in line suddenly piped up, "Ahem. I'm sorry to interrupt. I must admit, I've also never built an alarm clock, but I'm a jeweler, who sells and repairs watches, and I must agree with you, sir," nods to first customer, "This is most definitely a ringing alarm clock and... See here? This bit of the bell arm has rusted through and broken off. Shoddy craftmanship, I'd say."

"Oh, Mr High-n-Mighty jeweler, claims to know how a good alarm clock is to be made, while having zero experience. I've had enough of this outrage. I'm getting the vapors and need at least a two-week sabbatical, to recover from such gross mistreatment. The store is closing immediately. Everyone out!"

"But my clock, sir!"

The door slams in his face, and he heads home, dumping his clock in the garbage bin down the street. Next time, he will simply use the alarm on his cell phone. That always rings.

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Scala is such a great language

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

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

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

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

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

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Que vença o melhor

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

The 4P's

Remember the Four "P"s of Marketing? Let's look at them, in relation to digital creative work on Nostr.

Product

The product needs to be designed to fulfill a need or desire in the market. If you are writing things nobody wants to read, singing songs nobody wants to hear, or posting pictures that nobody wants to see, then you need to reevaluate your product choices because you are spam.

You are wasting your time, which means you bear a cost for the production of these goods. Is it really worth it? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you could do something else, or do something in addition, to make the product more appealing.

On the other hand, if you are producing something valuable to a niche audience, you might want to think more about specifically aiming for and catering to that audience, rather than wasting your energy trying to appeal to a larger, indifferent group. It is better to be loved by a few and hated by many, than to be uninteresting to nearly everyone and ignore those who love you.

Price

People should have some anchor for the price, even if you have not explicitly named a price, so that they can know what such effort is "normally" worth and orient your value-provided up or down from there. It should also be clear what they are paying for, so that they know what the scope of the payment covers.

If there is no such anchor available, you can help create one by coming up with your own personal scale for other people's works and discussing it, in public. Any listeners will react positively or negatively, but they will all now have a mental "price point" to orient their own prices around.

If you have fixed and/or variable costs, the price you name should at least cover them, otherwise you need to lower the costs or raise the price. If you name no price, expect to get nothing, and you will never be disappointed. But you may also occasionally get a lot, and have it nearly knock you off your feet, so be prepared for that, too.

Generally, things that are free are of lower quality because producers have no incentive to expend great effort to produce things nobody values enough to pay for. The only major exceptions to this are cross-financing, such as freemium or preview models (typical for things like Substack or OnlyFans), or production funded by third parties (as is the case with Linux and GitHub). In both these cases, the payment exists, but is deferred or distanced.

Many products or services therefore start off "free", during an introductory period, but if they aren't getting enough income from it, they'll eventually give up and wander off. We pay creatives for their continued efforts and continued presence.

Placement

It is of vital importance that you place your products efficiently. Things you should consider:

1. What relays will this work be accessible from? Large relays will extend your reach, but your product will appear within a sea of spam, so its relative value will decline, the same way the perceived worth of the nicest house on the block is dragged down by the houses around it.
2. Writing to large relays also destroys the perceived exclusivity of the offer, although this can be partially mitigated by encryption. A mix of wide/exclusive is probably best, since exclusive access to someone unknown is less valuable than to someone well-known.
3. Remember that the people paying for exclusive access, aren't necessarily paying for access to "better" material, they're paying for access to you, as a person, and/or they are trying to encourage you to continue your work. Rather than having your blockbusters behind a paywall, have the more personal items there and spend more time responding to the people who actually care about you and your art.
4. Do you even want the work directly accessible over Nostr? Perhaps you prefer to store the work off-Nostr and simply expand access to that, to npubs.
5. Something that covers price and placement is what sort of payment rails the hosting platform provides and/or you will accept. Some people only want to accept Lightning zaps, but others might be okay with fiat transactions of some sort, on-chain Bitcoin, gift cards, badge or NIP-05 sales, or some other method. Generally, the more payment options available, the less friction preventing payment. Lightning is arguably the payment method with the least friction, so it should go first in the list.

Promotion

Get Noticed

Who is your target audience and how can you get their attention, so that they find out which product you are offering? This one is extremely difficult, on Nostr. Mostly, everyone just screams things into the void, and people with more followers scream louder and are more-likely to be heard. So, I'd say:

• try to have more followers,
• find someone with lots of followers to help you with marketing, or
• join a "boost cooperative", where you join forces with other smaller accounts, to promote each other's notes.

Find your tribe

Use hashtags, but limit yourself to those that are truly relevant, and never have more than 3 in a note. Post to communities/topic-relays or groups, or write an article or wiki page or etc. and then cross-post to your kind 01 feed, with a hyperlink to a website that displays your work properly.

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Token-Curated Registries

So you want to build a TCR?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What TCR enthusiasts get wrong?

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

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

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

We don't need lists

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

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

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

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 07907690:d4e015f6

Karena orang tuanya yang berasal dari Hongaria telah melarikan diri dari rezim Soviet pascaperang untuk menetap di Amerika Serikat, Nick Szabo menganggap daerah Teluk California pada tahun 1990-an sebagai rumahnya. Di sana, ia termasuk orang pertama yang sering menghadiri pertemuan tatap muka "Cypherpunk" yang diselenggarakan oleh Timothy May, Eric Hughes, dan anggota pendiri kolektif kriptografer, programmer, dan aktivis privasi lainnya yang berpusat di sekitar milis tahun 90-an dengan nama yang sama.

Seperti Cypherpunk lainnya, Szabo khawatir dengan jaminan privasi yang semakin berkurang di era digital yang akan datang dan mengambil tindakan untuk membendung gelombang tersebut semampunya. Misalnya, di milis Cypherpunk, Szabo memimpin penentangan terhadap "Chip Clipper", sebuah chip yang diusulkan untuk disematkan di telepon, yang memungkinkan NSA untuk mendengarkan panggilan telepon. Szabo memiliki bakat khusus untuk menjelaskan risiko pelanggaran privasi tersebut dengan cara yang dapat diterima oleh orang-orang yang tidak memiliki latar belakang teknis, terkadang memberikan ceramah tentang topik tersebut atau bahkan membagikan brosur. (Chip tersebut akhirnya ditolak oleh produsen dan konsumen.)

Namun seperti Cypherpunk yang lebih berorientasi libertarian, minat Szabo dalam privasi digital adalah bagian dari gambaran yang lebih besar — ini bukan hanya tentang privasi saja. Terinspirasi oleh visi Timothy May sebagaimana yang ditetapkan dalam The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, Szabo melihat potensi untuk menciptakan "Galt's Gulch" di dunia maya: domain tempat individu dapat berdagang dengan bebas, seperti yang dijelaskan oleh novel penulis libertarian Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. Medan gaya pseudo-fisika dari cerita tersebut, May dan Szabo percaya, dapat digantikan dengan keajaiban kriptografi kunci publik yang baru-baru ini ditemukan.

“Jika kita mundur sejenak dan mencermati apa yang ingin dicapai oleh banyak cypherpunk, tema idealis utamanya adalah dunia maya Ghana di mana kekerasan hanya bisa menjadi khayalan, entah itu dalam Mortal Komat [sic] atau 'perang api',” tulis Szabo dalam milis Cypherpunks.

Namun, Szabo juga menyadari bahwa perusahaan bebas membutuhkan lebih dari sekadar enkripsi sebagai lapisan keamanan. Terinspirasi oleh penulis libertarian lainnya — ekonom Friedrich Hayek — ia menemukan bahwa dasar masyarakat manusia, sebagian besar, didasarkan pada komponen dasar, seperti properti dan kontrak, yang biasanya ditegakkan oleh negara. Untuk menciptakan alternatif dunia maya tanpa negara dan tanpa kekerasan, Szabo tahu bahwa komponen dasar ini harus dipindahkan ke ranah daring.

Beginilah cara Szabo, pada pertengahan 1990-an, mengusulkan sesuatu yang mungkin paling dikenalnya saat ini: kontrak pintar. Protokol komputer (yang saat itu masih hipotetis) ini dapat memfasilitasi, memverifikasi, dan menegakkan negosiasi atau pelaksanaan kontrak secara digital, idealnya tanpa memerlukan pihak ketiga mana pun. Seperti yang pernah dikatakan Szabo : "Pihak ketiga yang tepercaya adalah lubang keamanan." Lubang keamanan ini akan menjadi target peretas atau penjahat — serta negara-negara bangsa selama masa ketidakstabilan politik atau penindasan.

Namun kontrak pintar hanyalah sebagian dari teka-teki. Alat kedua yang dibutuhkan Szabo untuk mewujudkan "Galt's Gulch" mungkin bahkan lebih penting. Uang.

Uang Elektronik

Mata uang digital, uang tunai untuk internet, selalu menjadi tujuan utama Cypherpunk. Namun, hanya sedikit yang mendalami pokok bahasan tersebut seperti yang dilakukan Szabo.

Dalam esainya "Shelling Out: The Origins of Money," Szabo menjelaskan bagaimana — seperti yang pertama kali dihipotesiskan oleh ahli biologi evolusi Richard Dawkins — penggunaan uang telah tertanam dalam DNA manusia. Setelah menganalisis masyarakat pra-peradaban, Szabo menemukan bahwa orang-orang di berbagai budaya cenderung mengumpulkan benda-benda langka dan mudah dibawa, sering kali untuk dijadikan perhiasan. Benda-benda inilah yang berfungsi sebagai uang, yang pada gilirannya memungkinkan manusia untuk bekerja sama: "altruisme timbal balik" teori permainan melalui perdagangan, dalam skala besar dan lintas waktu.

Szabo juga sangat tertarik pada perbankan bebas, sebuah pengaturan moneter yang didukung oleh Hayek, di mana bank swasta menerbitkan mata uang mereka sendiri yang tidak terikat pada negara tertentu. Di bawah sistem seperti itu, pasar bebas sepenuhnya bebas menentukan mata uang mana yang akan digunakan. Meskipun merupakan ide baru saat ini (dan bahkan lebih baru lagi pada tahun-tahun sebelum Bitcoin), perbankan bebas merupakan kenyataan di Amerika Serikat pada tahun 1800-an, serta di beberapa negara lain.

Szabo juga melanjutkan untuk menerapkan minatnya dalam praktik dan menjual keahliannya sebagai konsultan perdagangan internet pada pertengahan 1990-an, jauh sebelum kebanyakan orang melihat potensi perdagangan daring. Yang paling menonjol, ia menghabiskan waktu bekerja di perusahaan rintisan DigiCash milik David Chaum, yang berkantor pusat di Amsterdam. Perusahaan Chaum memperkenalkan uang digital pertama yang pernah ada di dunia dalam bentuk eCash: sarana untuk melakukan pembayaran daring yang sama rahasianya dengan uang tunai di dunia nyata.

Namun, di DigiCash pula Szabo mengetahui risiko solusi Chaum. DigiCash adalah perusahaan terpusat, dan Szabo merasa terlalu mudah baginya dan orang lain untuk mengutak-atik saldo orang lain jika mereka mau. Bagaimanapun, pihak tepercaya adalah celah keamanan, dan risiko ini mungkin tidak lebih besar daripada risiko dalam hal uang.

“Masalahnya, singkatnya, adalah bahwa uang kita saat ini bergantung pada kepercayaan pada pihak ketiga untuk menentukan nilainya,” Szabo berpendapat pada tahun 2005. “Seperti yang ditunjukkan oleh banyak episode inflasi dan hiperinflasi selama abad ke-20, ini bukanlah keadaan yang ideal.”

Bahkan, ia menganggap masalah kepercayaan ini sebagai hambatan yang bahkan solusi perbankan bebas pada umumnya bisa mengalaminya: “[P]enerbitan uang kertas swasta, meski memiliki berbagai kelebihan dan kekurangan, juga bergantung pada pihak ketiga yang terpercaya.”

Szabo tahu ia ingin menciptakan bentuk uang baru yang tidak bergantung pada kepercayaan pada pihak ketiga mana pun.

Berdasarkan analisisnya terhadap uang prasejarah, Szabo telah menempuh perjalanan panjang dalam menentukan seperti apa bentuk uang idealnya. Pertama, uang tersebut harus “aman dari kehilangan dan pencurian yang tidak disengaja.” Kedua, nilainya harus “sangat mahal dan tidak dapat dipalsukan, sehingga dianggap berharga.” Dan ketiga: “Nilai ini [harus] diperkirakan secara akurat melalui pengamatan atau pengukuran sederhana.”

Dibandingkan dengan logam mulia seperti emas, Szabo ingin menciptakan sesuatu yang digital dan langka, di mana kelangkaan ini tidak bergantung pada kepercayaan pihak ketiga. Ia ingin menciptakan emas digital.

Logam mulia dan barang koleksi memiliki kelangkaan yang tidak dapat dipalsukan karena mahalnya biaya pembuatannya. Hal ini pernah menghasilkan uang yang nilainya sebagian besar tidak bergantung pada pihak ketiga yang tepercaya. Namun, logam mulia memiliki masalah. […] Jadi, akan sangat bagus jika ada protokol yang memungkinkan bit yang sangat mahal dapat dibuat secara daring dengan ketergantungan minimal pada pihak ketiga yang tepercaya, lalu disimpan, ditransfer, dan diuji dengan aman dengan kepercayaan minimal yang serupa. Bit Gold.

Bit Gold

Szabo pertama kali mencetuskan Bit Gold pada tahun 1998, meskipun ia baru menjelaskannya secara lengkap di depan publik pada tahun 2005. Skema uang digital yang diusulkannya terdiri dari kombinasi berbagai solusi, beberapa di antaranya terinspirasi oleh (atau menyerupai) konsep uang elektronik sebelumnya.

Properti utama pertama Bit Gold adalah proof of work, trik kriptografi yang digunakan oleh Dr. Adam Back dalam "mata uang anti-spam" miliknya, Hashcash. Proof of work merupakan biaya yang tidak dapat dipalsukan yang dicari Szabo, karena memerlukan sumber daya dunia nyata — daya komputasi — untuk menghasilkan bukti-bukti ini.

Sistem pembuktian kerja Bit Gold dimulai dengan "string kandidat": pada dasarnya angka acak. Siapa pun dapat mengambil string ini dan secara matematis menggabungkannya — "hash" — dengan angka acak lain yang baru dibuat. Berdasarkan sifat hashing, hasilnya akan menjadi string angka baru yang tampak acak: hash. Satu-satunya cara untuk mengetahui seperti apa hash ini adalah dengan benar-benar membuatnya — hash tidak dapat dihitung atau diprediksi dengan cara lain.

Triknya, yang juga digunakan dalam Hashcash, adalah bahwa tidak semua hash dianggap valid dalam protokol Bit Gold. Sebaliknya, hash yang valid harus, misalnya, dimulai dengan sejumlah angka nol yang telah ditentukan sebelumnya. Karena sifat hashing yang tidak dapat diprediksi, satu-satunya cara untuk menemukan hash yang valid adalah dengan coba-coba. Oleh karena itu, hash yang valid membuktikan bahwa pembuatnya telah mengeluarkan daya komputasi.

Hash yang valid ini, pada gilirannya, akan menjadi string kandidat Bit Gold berikutnya. Oleh karena itu, sistem Bit Gold akan berkembang menjadi rantai hash proof-of-work, dan akan selalu ada string kandidat berikutnya untuk digunakan.

Siapa pun yang menemukan hash yang valid akan secara harfiah memiliki hash tersebut, mirip dengan bagaimana orang yang menemukan sedikit bijih emas memilikinya. Untuk menetapkan kepemilikan ini secara digital, Bit Gold menggunakan registri kepemilikan digital : blok penyusun lain yang terinspirasi Hayek yang diusulkan oleh Szabo. Dalam registri ini, hash akan ditautkan ke kunci publik dari masing-masing pembuatnya.

Melalui registri kepemilikan digital ini pula, hash dapat ditransfer ke pemilik baru: Pemilik asli secara harfiah akan menandatangani transaksi dengan tanda tangan kriptografi.

Registri kepemilikan akan dikelola oleh "klub properti" Bit Gold. Klub properti ini terdiri dari "anggota klub" (server) yang akan melacak kunci publik mana yang memiliki hash mana. Solusi ini agak mirip dengan solusi basis data replikasi yang diusulkan Wei Dai untuk b-money; baik Szabo maupun Dai tidak hanya aktif di milis Cypherpunks, tetapi juga di milis tertutup yang membahas topik-topik ini.

Namun, alih-alih sistem proof-of-stake milik Dai untuk menjaga agar sistem tetap mutakhir, Szabo mengusulkan "Sistem Kuorum Bizantium." Mirip dengan sistem yang sangat penting bagi keamanan seperti komputer pesawat terbang, jika hanya satu (atau sebagian kecil) dari komputer ini yang tidak berfungsi, sistem secara keseluruhan akan tetap beroperasi dengan baik. Sistem akan bermasalah hanya jika sebagian besar komputer gagal pada saat yang sama. Yang penting, tidak satu pun dari pemeriksaan ini memerlukan pengadilan, hakim, atau polisi, yang didukung oleh monopoli negara atas kekerasan: Semuanya akan bersifat sukarela.

Meskipun sistem ini sendiri tidak sepenuhnya sangat ketat — misalnya Serangan Sybil ("sock puppet problem") — Szabo yakin sistem ini bisa berjalan sendiri. Bahkan dalam skenario di mana mayoritas anggota klub akan mencoba berbuat curang, minoritas yang jujur bisa bercabang ke dalam daftar kepemilikan yang bersaing. Pengguna kemudian dapat memilih daftar kepemilikan mana yang akan digunakan, yang menurut Szabo mungkin adalah yang jujur.

"Jika aturan dilanggar oleh pemilih yang menang, maka pecundang yang benar dapat keluar dari grup dan membentuk grup baru, mewarisi gelar lama," jelasnya. "Pengguna gelar (partai yang mengandalkan) yang ingin mempertahankan gelar yang benar dapat memverifikasi sendiri dengan aman kelompok sempalan mana yang telah mengikuti aturan dengan benar dan beralih ke grup yang benar."

(Sebagai contoh modern, ini mungkin dapat dibandingkan dengan Ethereum Classic, yang memelihara versi buku besar Ethereum asli yang tidak membatalkan kontrak pintar The DAO.)

Inflasi

Masalah berikutnya yang harus dipecahkan Szabo adalah inflasi. Seiring dengan semakin baiknya komputer dari waktu ke waktu, akan semakin mudah untuk menghasilkan hash yang valid. Ini berarti bahwa hash itu sendiri tidak dapat berfungsi sebagai uang dengan baik: hash akan semakin langka setiap tahunnya, sampai pada titik di mana kelimpahan akan melemahkan semua nilai.

Szabo menemukan solusinya. Setelah hash yang valid ditemukan, hash tersebut harus diberi cap waktu, idealnya dengan server cap waktu yang berbeda untuk meminimalkan kepercayaan pada hash tertentu. Cap waktu ini akan memberikan gambaran tentang seberapa sulitnya menghasilkan hash: hash yang lama akan lebih sulit diproduksi daripada hash yang baru. Pasar kemudian akan menentukan berapa nilai hash tertentu relatif terhadap hash lainnya, mungkin menyesuaikan nilainya dengan tanggal ditemukannya. "Hash 2018" yang valid seharusnya bernilai jauh lebih rendah daripada "Hash 2008" yang valid.

Namun solusi ini, tentu saja, menimbulkan masalah baru, Szabo tahu : "bagian-bagian (solusi teka-teki) dari satu periode (mulai dari detik hingga minggu, katakanlah seminggu) ke periode berikutnya tidak dapat dipertukarkan." Kepertukaran — gagasan bahwa setiap unit mata uang sama dengan unit lainnya — sangat penting bagi uang. Seorang pemilik toko ingin menerima pembayaran tanpa harus khawatir tentang tanggal uang tersebut dibuat.

Szabo juga menemukan solusi untuk masalah ini. Ia membayangkan semacam solusi "lapisan kedua" di atas lapisan dasar Bit Gold. Lapisan ini akan terdiri dari sejenis bank, meskipun bank yang dapat diaudit secara aman, karena registri Bit Gold bersifat publik. Bank-bank ini akan mengumpulkan hash yang berbeda dari periode waktu yang berbeda dan, berdasarkan nilai hash ini, menggabungkannya ke dalam paket-paket dengan nilai standar gabungan. "Paket 2018" akan mencakup lebih banyak hash daripada "paket 2008," tetapi kedua paket akan bernilai sama.

Paket-paket ini kemudian harus dipotong-potong menjadi sejumlah unit tertentu. Akhirnya, unit-unit ini dapat diterbitkan oleh "bank" sebagai eCash Chaumian yang bersifat pribadi dan anonim.

“[P]ansa pesaing menerbitkan uang kertas digital yang dapat ditukarkan dengan bit solusi yang nilai pasarnya sama dengan nilai nominal uang kertas (yakni mereka menciptakan kumpulan nilai standar),” jelas Szabo .

Dengan demikian, Bit Gold dirancang sebagai lapisan dasar seperti standar emas untuk sistem perbankan bebas di era digital.

Bitcoin

Pada tahun 2000-an, Szabo melanjutkan pendidikannya dengan meraih gelar sarjana hukum untuk memahami hukum dan realitas kontrak yang ingin ia gantikan atau tiru secara daring dengan lebih baik. Ia juga mulai mengumpulkan dan menerbitkan ide-idenya di sebuah blog yang sangat dihormati, “Unenumerated,” yang membahas berbagai topik mulai dari ilmu komputer hingga hukum dan politik, tetapi juga sejarah dan biologi. “Daftar topik untuk blog ini […] sangat luas dan beragam sehingga tidak dapat disebutkan satu per satu,” Szabo menjelaskan judulnya.

Pada tahun 2008 — 10 tahun setelah pertama kali mengusulkannya secara pribadi — Szabo mengangkat Bit Gold di blognya sekali lagi, hanya saja kali ini ia ingin mewujudkan implementasi pertama usulannya.

“Bit Gold akan sangat diuntungkan dari sebuah demonstrasi, pasar eksperimental (dengan misalnya pihak ketiga yang tepercaya menggantikan keamanan kompleks yang dibutuhkan untuk sistem nyata). Adakah yang mau membantu saya membuat kodenya?” tanyanya di bagian komentar blognya.

Jika ada yang menanggapi, tanggapan itu tidak disampaikan di depan umum. Bit Gold, dalam bentuk yang diusulkan Szabo, tidak pernah dilaksanakan.

Namun, Bit Gold tetap menjadi inspirasi utama bagi Satoshi Nakamoto, yang menerbitkan white paper Bitcoin di akhir tahun yang sama.

“Bitcoin merupakan implementasi dari proposal b-money Wei Dai [...] di Cypherpunks [...] pada tahun 1998 dan proposal Bitgold milik Nick Szabo,” tulis penemu Bitcoin dengan nama samaran di forum Bitcointalk pada tahun 2010.

Memang, tidak sulit untuk melihat Bit Gold sebagai rancangan awal Bitcoin. Selain dari basis data bersama catatan kepemilikan berdasarkan kriptografi kunci publik, rangkaian hash bukti kerja memiliki kemiripan yang aneh dengan blockchain Bitcoin . Dan, tentu saja, nama Bit Gold dan Bitcoin juga tidak terlalu jauh.

Namun, tidak seperti sistem seperti Hashcash dan b-money, Bit Gold jelas tidak ada dalam white paper Bitcoin. Beberapa orang bahkan menganggap ketidakhadiran ini begitu penting sehingga mereka menganggapnya sebagai salah satu dari beberapa petunjuk bahwa Szabo pastilah orang di balik julukan Satoshi Nakamoto: Siapa lagi yang akan mencoba menyembunyikan asal-usul Bitcoin seperti ini?

Meski demikian, meski mirip dengan Bit Gold dalam beberapa hal, Bitcoin memang menyertakan beberapa perbaikan atas desain Szabo. Secara khusus, di mana Bit Gold masih bergantung pada pihak tepercaya sampai batas tertentu — server dan layanan stempel waktu harus dipercaya sampai batas tertentu untuk tidak berkolusi — Bitcoin adalah sistem pertama yang memecahkan masalah ini sepenuhnya. Bitcoin memecahkannya dengan sangat elegan, dengan memiliki sistem bukti kerja yang diperlukan yang berfungsi sebagai sistem penghargaan dan mekanisme konsensus dalam satu sistem: Rantai hash dengan bukti kerja terbanyak dianggap sebagai versi sejarah yang valid.

“Nakamoto memperbaiki kekurangan keamanan signifikan yang ada pada desain saya,” Szabo mengakui pada tahun 2011, “yakni dengan mensyaratkan bukti kerja untuk menjadi simpul dalam sistem peer-to-peer yang tangguh terhadap Byzantine untuk mengurangi ancaman pihak yang tidak dapat dipercaya yang mengendalikan mayoritas simpul dan dengan demikian merusak sejumlah fitur keamanan penting.”

Lebih jauh, Bitcoin memiliki model moneter yang sangat berbeda dari yang diusulkan Szabo, dengan jadwal inflasi tetap yang sama sekali tidak terpengaruh oleh peningkatan daya hash. Seiring meningkatnya daya komputasi pada jaringan Bitcoin, itu artinya semakin sulit menemukan koin baru.

“Alih-alih pasar otomatis saya memperhitungkan fakta bahwa tingkat kesulitan teka-teki sering kali dapat berubah secara radikal berdasarkan peningkatan perangkat keras dan terobosan kriptografi (yaitu menemukan algoritma yang dapat memecahkan bukti kerja lebih cepat), dan ketidakpastian permintaan, Nakamoto merancang algoritma yang disetujui Bizantium yang menyesuaikan tingkat kesulitan teka-teki,” jelas Szabo.

“Saya tidak dapat memutuskan apakah aspek Bitcoin ini lebih banyak fitur atau lebih banyak bug,” tambahnya, “tetapi ini membuatnya lebih sederhana.”

Sumber artikel: bitcoinmagazine.com
Diterjemahkan oleh: Abeng

@ 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.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Precautionary Principle

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

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

---

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

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 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.

@ a849beb6:b327e6d2

\ \ It was another historic week for both bitcoin and the Ten31 portfolio, as the world’s oldest, largest, most battle-tested cryptocurrency climbed to new all-time highs each day to close out the week just shy of the $100,000 mark. Along the way, bitcoin continued to accumulate institutional and regulatory wins, including the much-anticipated approval and launch of spot bitcoin ETF options and the appointment of several additional pro-bitcoin Presidential cabinet officials. The timing for this momentum was poetic, as this week marked the second anniversary of the pico-bottom of the 2022 bear market, a level that bitcoin has now hurdled to the tune of more than 6x despite the litany of bitcoin obituaries published at the time. The entirety of 2024 and especially the past month have further cemented our view that bitcoin is rapidly gaining a sense of legitimacy among institutions, fiduciaries, and governments, and we remain optimistic that this trend is set to accelerate even more into 2025.

Several Ten31 portfolio companies made exciting announcements this week that should serve to further entrench bitcoin’s institutional adoption. AnchorWatch, a first of its kind bitcoin insurance provider offering 1:1 coverage with its innovative use of bitcoin’s native properties, announced it has been designated a Lloyd’s of London Coverholder, giving the company unique, blue-chip status as it begins to write bitcoin insurance policies of up to $100 million per policy starting next month. Meanwhile, Battery Finance Founder and CEO Andrew Hohns appeared on CNBC to delve into the launch of Battery’s pioneering private credit strategy which fuses bitcoin and conventional tangible assets in a dual-collateralized structure that offers a compelling risk/return profile to both lenders and borrowers. Both companies are clearing a path for substantially greater bitcoin adoption in massive, untapped pools of capital, and Ten31 is proud to have served as lead investor for AnchorWatch’s Seed round and as exclusive capital partner for Battery.

As the world’s largest investor focused entirely on bitcoin, Ten31 has deployed nearly $150 million across two funds into more than 30 of the most promising and innovative companies in the ecosystem like AnchorWatch and Battery, and we expect 2025 to be the best year yet for both bitcoin and our portfolio. Ten31 will hold a first close for its third fund at the end of this year, and investors in that close will benefit from attractive incentives and a strong initial portfolio. Visit ten31.vc/funds to learn more and get in touch to discuss participating.\ \ Portfolio Company Spotlight 

Primal is a first of its kind application for the Nostr protocol that combines a client, caching service, analytics tools, and more to address several unmet needs in the nascent Nostr ecosystem. Through the combination of its sleek client application and its caching service (built on a completely open source stack), Primal seeks to offer an end-user experience as smooth and easy as that of legacy social media platforms like Twitter and eventually many other applications, unlocking the vast potential of Nostr for the next billion people. Primal also offers an integrated wallet (powered by Strike BLACK) that substantially reduces onboarding and UX frictions for both Nostr and the lightning network while highlighting bitcoin’s unique power as internet-native, open-source money. 

Selected Portfolio News

AnchorWatch announced it has achieved Llody’s Coverholder status, allowing the company to provide unique 1:1 bitcoin insurance offerings starting in December.\ \ Battery Finance Founder and CEO Andrew Hohns appeared on CNBC to delve into the company’s unique bitcoin-backed private credit strategy.

Primal launched version 2.0, a landmark update that adds a feed marketplace, robust advanced search capabilities, premium-tier offerings, and many more new features.

Debifi launched its new iOS app for Apple users seeking non-custodial bitcoin-collateralized loans.

Media

Strike Founder and CEO Jack Mallers joined Bloomberg TV to discuss the strong volumes the company has seen over the past year and the potential for a US bitcoin strategic reserve. 

Primal Founder and CEO Miljan Braticevic joined The Bitcoin Podcast to discuss the rollout of Primal 2.0 and the future of Nostr. 

Ten31 Managing Partner Marty Bent appeared on BlazeTV to discuss recent changes in the regulatory environment for bitcoin. 

Zaprite published a customer testimonial video highlighting the popularity of its offerings across the bitcoin ecosystem. 

Market Updates

Continuing its recent momentum, bitcoin reached another new all-time high this week, clocking in just below $100,000 on Friday. Bitcoin has now reached a market cap of nearly $2 trillion, putting it within 3% of the market caps of Amazon and Google. 

After receiving SEC and CFTC approval over the past month, long-awaited options on spot bitcoin ETFs were fully approved and launched this week. These options should help further expand bitcoin’s institutional liquidity profile, with potentially significant implications for price action over time.

The new derivatives showed strong performance out of the gate, with volumes on options for BlackRock’s IBIT reaching nearly $2 billion on just the first day of trading despite surprisingly tight position limits for the vehicles. 

Meanwhile, the underlying spot bitcoin ETF complex had yet another banner week, pulling in $3.4 billion in net inflows. 

New reports suggested President-elect Donald Trump’s social media company is in advanced talks to acquire crypto trading platform Bakkt, potentially the latest indication of the incoming administration’s stance toward the broader “crypto” ecosystem. 

On the macro front, US housing starts declined M/M again in October on persistently high mortgage rates and weather impacts. The metric remains well below pre-COVID levels. 

Pockets of the US commercial real estate market remain challenged, as the CEO of large Florida developer Related indicated that developers need further rate cuts “badly” to maintain project viability. 

US Manufacturing PMI increased slightly M/M, but has now been in contraction territory (<50) for well over two years.

The latest iteration of the University of Michigan’s popular consumer sentiment survey ticked up following this month’s election results, though so did five-year inflation expectations, which now sit comfortably north of 3%. 

Regulatory Update

After weeks of speculation, the incoming Trump administration appointed hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to head up the US Treasury. Like many of Trump’s cabinet selections so far, Bessent has been a public advocate for bitcoin. 

Trump also appointed Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick – another outspoken bitcoin bull – as Secretary of the Commerce Department. 

Meanwhile, the Trump team is reportedly considering creating a new “crypto czar” role to sit within the administration. While it’s unclear at this point what that role would entail, one report indicated that the administration’s broader “crypto council” is expected to move forward with plans for a strategic bitcoin reserve.

Various government lawyers suggested this week that the Trump administration is likely to be less aggressive in seeking adversarial enforcement actions against bitcoin and “crypto” in general, as regulatory bodies appear poised to shift resources and focus elsewhere. 

Other updates from the regulatory apparatus were also directionally positive for bitcoin, most notably FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg’s confirmation that he plans to resign from his post at the end of President Biden’s term. 

Many critics have alleged Gruenberg was an architect of “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” which has created banking headwinds for bitcoin companies over the past several years, so a change of leadership at the department is likely yet another positive for the space.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler also officially announced he plans to resign at the start of the new administration. Gensler has been the target of much ire from the broader “crypto” space, though we expect many projects outside bitcoin may continue to struggle with questions around the Howey Test.

Overseas, a Chinese court ruled that it is not illegal for individuals to hold cryptocurrency, even though the country is still ostensibly enforcing a ban on crypto transactions. 

Noteworthy

The incoming CEO of Charles Schwab – which administers over $9 trillion in client assets – suggested the platform is preparing to “get into” spot bitcoin offerings and that he “feels silly” for having waited this long. As this attitude becomes more common among traditional finance players, we continue to believe that the number of acquirers coming to market for bitcoin infrastructure capabilities will far outstrip the number of available high quality assets. 

BlackRock’s 2025 Thematic Outlook notes a “renewed sense of optimism” on bitcoin among the asset manager’s client base due to macro tailwinds and the improving regulatory environment. Elsewhere, BlackRock’s head of digital assets indicated the firm does not view bitcoin as a “risk-on” asset. 

MicroStrategy, which was a sub-$1 billion market cap company less than five years ago, briefly breached a $100 billion equity value this week as it continues to aggressively acquire bitcoin. The company now holds nearly 350,000 bitcoin on its balance sheet. 

Notably, Allianz SE, Germany’s largest insurer, spoke for 25% of MicroStrategy’s latest $3 billion convertible note offering this week, suggesting growing appetite for bitcoin proxy exposure among more restricted pools of capital. 

The ongoing meltdown of fintech middleware provider Synapse has left tens of thousands of customers with nearly 100% deposit haircuts as hundreds of millions in funds remain missing, the latest unfortunate case study in the fragility of much of the US’s legacy banking stack. 

Travel

• BitcoinMENA, Dec 9-10

• Nashville BitDevs, Dec 10

• Austin BitDevs, Dec 19

• Nashville Energy and Mining Summit, Jan 30

@ 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.

@ af9c48b7:a3f7aaf4

Chef's notes

This simple, easy, no bake desert will surely be the it at you next family gathering. You can keep it a secret or share it with the crowd that this is a healthy alternative to normal pie. I think everyone will be amazed at how good it really is.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 30
• 🍳 Cook time: 0
• 🍽️ Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup of Heavy Cream- 0g sugar, 5.5g carbohydrates
• 3/4 cup of Half and Half- 6g sugar, 3g carbohydrates
• 4oz Sugar Free Cool Whip (1/2 small container) - 0g sugar, 37.5g carbohydrates
• 1.5oz box (small box) of Sugar Free Instant Chocolate Pudding- 0g sugar, 32g carbohydrates
• 1 Pecan Pie Crust- 24g sugar, 72g carbohydrates

Directions

1. The total pie has 30g of sugar and 149.50g of carboydrates. So if you cut the pie into 8 equal slices, that would come to 3.75g of sugar and 18.69g carbohydrates per slice. If you decided to not eat the crust, your sugar intake would be .75 gram per slice and the carborytrates would be 9.69g per slice. Based on your objective, you could use only heavy whipping cream and no half and half to further reduce your sugar intake.
2. Mix all wet ingredients and the instant pudding until thoroughly mixed and a consistent color has been achieved. The heavy whipping cream causes the mixture to thicken the more you mix it. So, I’d recommend using an electric mixer. Once you are satisfied with the color, start mixing in the whipping cream until it has a consistent “chocolate” color thorough. Once your satisfied with the color, spoon the mixture into the pie crust, smooth the top to your liking, and then refrigerate for one hour before serving.

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ c755de14:cc53833a

• A well-dressed Sudanese man steals corn from a starving, paralyzed boy outside a feeding center

• A gruesome photo shows a man protecting his family from cannibals during the Madras famine of 1877 in India.

• A mother hides her face as she sells her children (Chicago, USA, 1948).

• A 1993 photograph of a starving Sudanese child being stalked by vultures, taken by Kevin Carter. Carter won the 1994 Pulitzer for this image but died by suicide. In his suicide note, he wrote, "I am haunted by vivid memories of children starving or injured..."

• A high school football star was once charged with rape after a sixteen-year-old girl claimed the rape never happened. He was jailed for six years and was devastated when the case was dropped.

• In 1980, photographer Mike Wells took a photo of a Catholic missionary holding the hand of a starving Ugandan boy.

• An 8-year-old boy, with trembling lips, is handed a folded flag at his father's funeral.

• This image tells the story of two technicians trapped on a burning wind turbine. Here they embrace for the last time; one jumps, one burns.

• A police officer distracts a little girl after her father loses his life in a car accident.

• In Syria, 17 hours after an earthquake devastated the area, this 7-year-old girl was found under the rubble with her hand on her younger brother's head to protect him. Both made it out alive.

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 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.

@ 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.

@ 59cfee8f:7598a483

Yakihonne's Innovative Approach to Bitcoin Adoption

Introduction

The Bitcoin landscape is constantly evolving, and community plays a vital role in shaping its future. Yakihonne, a cutting-edge platform, is harnessing the power of community to drive Bitcoin adoption and education. In this article, we will explore Yakihonne's innovative approach and its impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Yakihonne Difference

Yakihonne distinguishes itself by recognizing every user as a unique node in the Bitcoin network. This perspective empowers individuals to take an active role in shaping the community and contributing to its growth. By fostering connections and knowledge sharing, Yakihonne creates a supportive environment where users can thrive.

Key Features and Benefits

• Decentralized knowledge sharing: Yakihonne's platform allows users to access and share valuable resources, promoting a deeper understanding of Bitcoin and its applications.

• Community-driven support: Users can engage with others, ask questions, and receive guidance from experienced community members.

• Incentivized learning: Yakihonne's gamification elements make learning about Bitcoin engaging and fun, encouraging users to expand their knowledge.

• Responsible adoption: The platform emphasizes security, privacy, and informed decision-making, ensuring sustainable growth.

The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

Yakihonne's community-centric approach is poised to revolutionize Bitcoin adoption. By leveraging the power of social nodes, Yakihonne creates a snowball effect, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread exponentially. As the platform continues to evolve, it's likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Yakihonne is a game-changer in the Bitcoin space, offering a unique blend of community engagement, education, and support. By joining the Yakihonne community, individuals can tap into the collective power of social nodes, contributing to a brighter future for Bitcoin adoption. Embrace the potential of Yakihonne and be part of this exciting journey!

@ 07907690:d4e015f6

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) adalah protokol enkripsi yang digunakan untuk memastikan kerahasiaan, integritas, dan otentikasi data dalam komunikasi digital. Diciptakan oleh Phil Zimmermann pada tahun 1991, PGP menggunakan kombinasi teknik kriptografi asimetris (kunci publik dan kunci privat) serta simetris untuk melindungi informasi. Berikut adalah berbagai kegunaan PGP:

Mengamankan Email (Enkripsi dan Dekripsi)

• Kegunaan: Melindungi isi email agar hanya penerima yang memiliki kunci privat yang benar yang dapat membacanya.

• Cara Kerja:

• Pengirim mengenkripsi email menggunakan kunci publik penerima.

• Hanya penerima yang memiliki kunci privat yang dapat mendekripsi dan membaca email tersebut.

• Contoh: Jurnalis yang berkomunikasi dengan informan atau organisasi yang mengirim data sensitif dapat menggunakan PGP untuk melindungi komunikasi mereka dari penyusup.

Tanda Tangan Digital (Digital Signature)

• Kegunaan: Memastikan keaslian dan integritas pesan atau dokumen, memastikan bahwa pesan tidak diubah dan benar-benar berasal dari pengirim yang sah.

• Cara Kerja:

• Pengirim membuat tanda tangan digital menggunakan kunci privatnya.

• Penerima dapat memverifikasi tanda tangan tersebut menggunakan kunci publik pengirim.

• Contoh: Digunakan untuk memverifikasi keaslian dokumen hukum, email penting, atau perangkat lunak yang diunduh.

Melindungi File dan Dokumen

• Kegunaan: Mengenkripsi file sensitif agar hanya orang yang memiliki kunci dekripsi yang benar yang dapat membukanya.

• Cara Kerja: File dienkripsi menggunakan kunci publik penerima, dan penerima menggunakan kunci privatnya untuk mendekripsinya.

• Contoh: Perusahaan dapat menggunakan PGP untuk mengenkripsi laporan keuangan, data pelanggan, atau informasi penting lainnya sebelum membagikannya.

Mengamankan Backup Data

• Kegunaan: Mengenkripsi cadangan data penting untuk melindunginya dari akses yang tidak sah.

• Cara Kerja: File backup dienkripsi dengan PGP sebelum disimpan, sehingga meskipun backup dicuri, data tetap aman.

• Contoh: Organisasi menyimpan cadangan data klien di server eksternal yang dienkripsi dengan PGP untuk mencegah kebocoran data.

Perlindungan Identitas dan Anonimitas

• Kegunaan: Melindungi identitas pengirim dan penerima dalam komunikasi online.

• Cara Kerja: Penggunaan enkripsi end-to-end menjamin bahwa hanya pihak yang berwenang yang dapat membaca pesan.

• Contoh: Aktivis atau peneliti yang bekerja di negara dengan pengawasan ketat dapat menggunakan PGP untuk melindungi komunikasi mereka.

Memverifikasi Integritas Perangkat Lunak

• Kegunaan: Memastikan bahwa perangkat lunak atau paket yang diunduh berasal dari sumber yang terpercaya dan tidak dimodifikasi oleh pihak ketiga.

• Cara Kerja: Pengembang menandatangani perangkat lunak menggunakan kunci privat mereka, dan pengguna dapat memverifikasi tanda tangan menggunakan kunci publik yang disediakan.

• Contoh: Distribusi Linux atau aplikasi open-source sering kali menyertakan tanda tangan PGP untuk memverifikasi keasliannya.

Komunikasi di Forum atau Jaringan Terdistribusi

• Kegunaan: Memastikan privasi komunikasi di platform terdesentralisasi atau anonim.

• Cara Kerja: Pesan dienkripsi sebelum dikirim dan hanya dapat didekripsi oleh penerima yang sah.

• Contoh: Pengguna di forum yang membahas topik sensitif dapat menggunakan PGP untuk melindungi identitas mereka.

---

Mengapa PGP Penting?

• Keamanan yang Kuat: Kombinasi kriptografi asimetris dan simetris membuat PGP sangat sulit ditembus oleh peretas.

-Privasi: Menjaga komunikasi Anda tetap aman dan pribadi dari penyadapan atau pengawasan.

• Integritas: Memastikan bahwa pesan atau data yang dikirim tidak diubah selama transmisi.

• Otentikasi: Membuktikan identitas pengirim melalui tanda tangan digital.

---

Kelebihan PGP

• Sangat Aman: Jika digunakan dengan benar, PGP menawarkan tingkat keamanan yang sangat tinggi.

• Terbuka: Banyak digunakan di kalangan profesional dan komunitas open-source.

• Fleksibel: Dapat digunakan untuk berbagai keperluan, mulai dari komunikasi email hingga penyimpanan data.

Kekurangan PGP

• Kompleks untuk Pemula: Relatif sulit digunakan oleh pengguna awam.

• Pengelolaan Kunci yang Rumit: Memerlukan pengelolaan kunci publik/privat yang benar.

• Tidak Ada Pemulihan Data: Jika kunci privat hilang, data yang dienkripsi tidak dapat dipulihkan.

---

PGP adalah alat yang sangat berguna untuk memastikan keamanan dan privasi dalam komunikasi dan data. Dengan meningkatnya risiko kejahatan siber, penggunaan PGP menjadi semakin penting, terutama di sektor yang menangani data sensitif.

@ 5da1df3c:2b37c713

@ 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.)

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1

You have no idea

I regularly read comments from people, on here, wondering how it's possible to marry -- or even simply be friends! -- with someone who doesn't agree with you on politics. I see this sentiment expressed quite often, usually in the context of Bitcoin, or whatever pig is currently being chased through the village, as they say around here.

It seems rather sensible, but I don't think it's as hard, as people make it out to be. Further, I think it's a dangerous precondition to set, for your interpersonal relationships, because the political field is constantly in flux. If you determine who you will love, by their opinions, do you stop loving them if their opinions change, or if the opinions they have become irrelevant and a new set of opinions are needed -- and their new ones don't match your new ones? We could see this happen to relationships en masse, during the Covid Era, and I think it happens every day, in a slow grind toward the disintegration of interpersonal discourse.

I suspect many people do stop loving, at that point, as they never really loved the other person for their own sake, they loved the other person because they thought the other person was exactly like they are. But no two people are alike, and the longer you are in a relationship with someone else, the more the initial giddiness wears off and the trials and tribulations add up, the more you notice how very different you actually are. This is the point, where best friends and romantic couples say, We just grew apart.

But you were always apart. You were always two different people. You just didn't notice, until now.

I've also always been surprised at how many same-party relationships disintegrate because of some disagreement over some particular detail of some particular topic, that they generally agree on. To me, it seems like an irrelevant side-topic, but they can't stand to be with this person... and they stomp off. So, I tend to think that it's less that opinions need to align to each other, but rather than opinions need to align in accordance with the level of interpersonal tolerance they can bring into the relationship.

I was raised by relaxed revolutionaries

Maybe I see things this way because my parents come from two diverging political, cultural, national, and ethnic backgrounds, and are prone to disagreeing about a lot of "important" (to people outside their marriage) things, but still have one of the healthiest, most-fruitful, and most long-running marriages of anyone I know, from that generation. My parents, you see, aren't united by their opinions. They're united by their relationship, which is something outside of opinions. Beyond opinions. Relationships are what turn two different people into one, cohesive unit, so that they slowly grow together. Eventually, even their faces merge, and their biological clocks tick to the same rhythm. They eventually become one entity that contains differing opinions about the same topics.

It's like magic, but it's the result of a mindset, not a worldview. Or, as I like to quip:

The best way to stay married, is to not get divorced.

My parents simply determined early on, that they would stay together, and whenever they would find that they disagreed on something that didn't directly pertain to their day-to-day existence with each other they would just agree-to-disagree about that, or roll their eyes, and move on. You do you. Live and let live.

My parents have some of the most strongly held personal opinions of any people I've ever met, but they're also incredibly tolerant and can get along with nearly anyone, so their friends are a confusing hodgepodge of people we liked and found interesting enough to keep around. Which makes their house parties really fun, and highly unusual, in this day and age of mutual-damnation across the aisle.

The things that did affect them, directly, like which school the children should attend or which country they should live in, etc. were things they'd sit down and discuss, and somehow one opinion would emerge, and they'd again... move on.

And that's how my husband and I also live our lives, and it's been working surprisingly well. No topics are off-limits to discussion (so long as you don't drone on for too long), nobody has to give up deeply held beliefs, or stop agitating for the political decisions they prefer.

You see, we didn't like that the other always had the same opinion. We liked that the other always held their opinions strongly. That they were passionate about their opinions. That they were willing to voice their opinions; sacrifice to promote their opinions. And that they didn't let anyone browbeat or cow them, for their opinions, not even their best friends or their spouse. But that they were open to listening to the other side, and trying to wrap their mind around the possibility that they might just be wrong about something.

We married each other because we knew: this person really cares, this person has thought this through, and they're in it, to win it. What "it" is, is mostly irrelevant, so long as it doesn't entail torturing small animals in the basement, or raising the children on a diet of Mountain Dew and porn, or something.

Live and let live. At least, it's never boring. At least, there's always something to ~~argue~~ talk about. At least, we never think... we've just grown apart.

@ 502ab02a:a2860397

แนวคิด : เชียงใหม่มีช้างเป็นสัญลักษณ์เหมือนกัน แต่ใช้ช้างไปกับสุพรรณบุรีแล้ว ตอนแรกมองสถานที่ท่องเที่ยวไม่ว่าจะภูเขา แม่กำปอง บ่อน้ำร้อน ร่มบ่อสร้าง แคบหมู ก็ยังไม่ชัดเจนเท่า ประตูท่าแพ ซึ่งความตั้งใจแรกคือไม่อยากเอาโบราณสถานหรือพุทธศาสนสถาน มาเล่นโปรเจคนี้ แต่ก็พบว่าน่าจะยาก ฮา ฮา ฮา ด้วยที่ค้นคว้าเพิ่มเติมเรื่องประตูท่าแพ พบว่าเป็นสิ่งก่อสร้างใหม่ เพิ่งสร้างมาประมาณ 30ปี อีกทั้งเป็นแลนด์มาร์ค ที่นักท่องเที่ยวรู้จัก ก็เลยนำมาใช้ในงานครั้งนี้

Link Download : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VuVIhp3JRvCKwiTqmpkn_jJaeYLMyt6w?usp=sharing

Concept: Chiang Mai also has elephants as a symbol, but elephants have already been used to represent Suphanburi. Initially, I considered other attractions, such as mountains, Mae Kampong, hot springs, Bo Sang umbrellas, or even crispy pork rind. However, none of these felt as distinctive as Tha Phae Gate. Originally, I didn’t want to use ancient landmarks or Buddhist sites for this project, but it turned out to be challenging—haha. Upon further research into Tha Phae Gate, I found out that it’s a relatively modern structure, built only about 30 years ago. Moreover, it’s a well-known landmark among tourists, so I decided to feature it in this project.

Link Download : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VuVIhp3JRvCKwiTqmpkn_jJaeYLMyt6w?usp=sharing

@ 1b328cb8:36baf278

Like many others, I am still navigating my path toward a Bitcoin circular economy. While I’ve earned my first sats, building a sustainable livelihood solely from Bitcoin remains a work in progress. At the same time, my enthusiasm for working in a fiat-centered world diminishes daily.

This reflection is not only about my personal journey but also the broader question of how people worldwide can transition into a Bitcoin-based economy. Here, I’ll share my thoughts on adoption, the narratives shaping Bitcoin’s role, and how individuals like us can contribute to this shift.

Digital Capital vs. Peer-to-Peer Payments

A key debate in the Bitcoin space centers on two narratives: Bitcoin as "digital capital" and Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer payment system. Michael Saylor has championed the digital capital narrative, especially among institutions, but this focus has drawn criticism for overshadowing Bitcoin’s origins as a payment network.

As a former entrepreneur and sales professional, I see value in both perspectives but also pitfalls if one dominates. 1. The Value of Digital Capital: The concept of Bitcoin as "digital capital" is a powerful one, and Saylor deserves credit for popularizing it. Capital represents the sacrifices that drive progress, and Bitcoin, as hard money, is 100% capital—unlike fiat, which is 100% liability. This distinction is critical and deserves recognition. 3. The Danger of Custodial Sirens: However, the digital capital narrative risks losing a vital part of Bitcoin’s ethos: self-custody. When institutions like MicroStrategy rely on custodians to hold their Bitcoin, they reduce it to a liability. The old adage rings true: Not your keys, not your coins. Without self-custody, the foundation of Bitcoin’s value—its decentralization and trustless nature—weakens.

Takeaway: Bitcoin can be both digital capital and a peer-to-peer payment system, but only if self-custody remains central to its adoption.

Grassroots Adoption: The Power of Peer-to-Peer

Bitcoin adoption is thriving where people need it most—regions like South America and Africa, where fiat currencies often fail. In these places, Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer nature is not just a feature; it’s a lifeline. In contrast, adoption in Western countries faces challenges. Regions like Finland, once pioneers in Bitcoin payments, have lost momentum. The average person here is more likely to chase “the next Bitcoin” or other tech trends than to understand what truly sets Bitcoin apart.

Self-Custody Is Key: What differentiates Bitcoin is self-custody. This encourages users to care about decentralization and peer-to-peer networks. Without it, Bitcoin risks becoming just another centralized asset.

The Path Forward:

To make Bitcoin more tangible and legitimate in everyday life, we need to connect it to real goods and services. When people see “Bitcoin Accepted Here” signs, they perceive it as real money. The solution is simple but powerful: * Start selling products and services in Bitcoin. * Create and support marketplaces—both local and global—that use Bitcoin as their primary medium of exchange.

These changes won’t happen overnight, but they will grow naturally as demand increases. Each step we take helps build the circular economy we envision.

Final Thoughts

Bitcoin adoption requires action. Whether you’re offering goods, services, or simply holding sats in self-custody, every step counts. It’s better to do something small today than to wait for a perfect system tomorrow.

Let’s chip away at the fiat mindset, one sat at a time.

Thank you for reading!

Sophos

P.S.

Looking for original Bitcoin content, marketing copy, or creative writing? I’m a pen-for-hire with three books under my belt and a background in sales and marketing. I’d be happy to help bring your ideas to life—paid in sats, of course.

@ a2522f7d:59fd999d

Tires and plastics are recycled to produce diesel and propane, fueling sustainable bitcoin mining.

Video: https://bitcoinminingworld.com/w2e-turning-tires-to-bitcoin/

• Why It Matters • Reduces Landfill Waste. • Generates Renewable Energy. • Supports a Circular Economy.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/793375

@ 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.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Anglicismos estúpidos no português contemporâneo

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

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

Palavras que existem em português com sentido diferente

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

Aportuguesamentos desnecessários

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

Expressões

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

---

Ver também

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

@ e1d968f7:5d90f764

In today’s digital age, much of escorting begins and thrives online. From advertising and communication to reputation management, the online world is where first impressions are made, and expectations are set. While the internet offers incredible opportunities, it also presents unique challenges that I must navigate with care and strategy.

---

Crafting the Right Image

My online presence is my virtual storefront. It’s where potential clients get their first glimpse of who I am and what I offer. Maintaining a professional yet approachable profile is key to attracting the right audience.

Key elements include:

• Professional photos: High-quality, tasteful images that reflect my personality and style.
• A compelling bio: A well-written description that’s honest, engaging, and highlights my uniqueness.
• Clear policies: Setting upfront expectations regarding bookings, boundaries, and rates.

---

The Role of Social Media

Platforms like Twitter and Instagram (within their terms) offer a way to connect more personally with potential clients and the community. However, balancing personal authenticity with professional discretion is essential.

On social media, I:

• Share moments that give insight into my personality without revealing too much.
• Engage with followers respectfully and professionally.
• Use humour and warmth to make my profile approachable.

---

Managing Communication

The way I communicate online can make or break a booking. Prompt, respectful, and professional replies are non-negotiable.

My approach includes:

• Response time: Quick replies show professionalism and respect for the client’s time.
• Polite tone: Maintaining warmth and professionalism in every message.
• Clarity: Being clear about my availability, rates, and terms to avoid misunderstandings.

---

Dealing with Challenges

The online world isn’t without its downsides. From dealing with fake profiles and scammers to managing unsolicited messages, it requires vigilance.

Some strategies I use include:

• Background checks: Screening clients to ensure their legitimacy and safety.
• Privacy tools: Using platforms that prioritise security and maintaining anonymity.
• Boundary enforcement: Politely but firmly addressing inappropriate messages or behaviours.

---

Protecting My Privacy

The digital landscape can blur the line between professional and personal, so safeguarding my privacy is crucial. From using pseudonyms to being selective about what I share, I take steps to keep my personal life separate.

---

Building a Reputation

Positive reviews and client testimonials can be incredibly impactful online. However, I never pressure clients to leave reviews, as trust and comfort always come first.

Instead, I focus on delivering memorable experiences that naturally encourage positive word-of-mouth.

---

The Takeaway

Navigating the online world as an escort is about more than just advertising; it’s about creating a trusted, professional presence while protecting my boundaries. By balancing authenticity with discretion, I’m able to use the digital landscape to build meaningful connections and grow my business responsibly.

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the role of discretion and why it’s essential in this line of work—for both clients and myself.

Rebecca x

@ 5af07946:98fca8c4

Gold was the basis of both the monetary and the measurement systems.

No one knows for sure when gold mining began. Our current estimates are around 4000 BC. That puts it around the same time as Mahabharata. The frequent mentions of gold ornaments among kings and deities and as jewelry among women during the times of the epic, indicate usage of gold as a scarce but in-fashion store of value.

In Mahabharata, there is a clear mention of gold coins being abundantly used. In the fourth book (Viarata Parva), the prince Uttara offered Arjuna (disguised as a transgender named Vrihnnala) a hundred gold coins for saving him (and his bovine wealth) from Kaurvas.

There is evidence of countable units of precious metal being used for exchange from the Vedic period onward. A term Nishka appears in this sense in the Rigveda. A unit called Śatamāna, literally a " hundred standard ", representing 100 krishnalas is mentioned in Satapatha Brahmana. A later commentary on Katyayana Srautasutra explains that a Śatamāna could also be 100 Rattis . A Ratti is the weight equal to seeds of Abrus Precatorius. A hundred of them are almost equal to a Tola that is used for gold trade to date in India. All these units referred to gold currency in some form, though they were later adapted to silver currency.

Barter system was widespread for the smaller transactions. Commoners used fruits and grains to get what they needed. Rich people used copper as a store of value. A one time adult meal was normally considered one copper coin. So was the ride fare. You could hop on and hop off any boat or cart at any place along its route for one copper coin. Super rich used copper for utensils at their home. For them the valuable thing was silver. A silver coin was considered the same as a hundred copper coins. Ultra rich ate their food in Silver utensils. For them the store of value was a gold coin.

A gold coin was equal to a hundred Silver's. The valuation was based on rough order of rigor in mining these metals. Silver was considered hundred times harder to purify than copper, and gold being similar orders of magnitude harder than Silver because of very low yield. In a way "proof of work" was baked in universally acceptable currency.

All states, no matter what their political equations, honored this simple "proof of work" based storage of value. Privacy, self custody and universality were the underpin of trade. Value exchange protocol was owned by people NOT kingdoms though kingdoms could issue coins (currency) aligned to universally accepted methods. It is a well established fact that after the great war of Mahabharta, sixteen main kingdoms (mahapadas) got formed over a couple of centuries. Each one of them issued their own coins, though they were all different shapes or stamps on gold coins. Quarter gold coins (Svarna) are excavated from Gandhara.

Currency was pegged to people's trust in "proof of work". Important point to note here, currency was not pegged to commodities such as iron or wheat. Gold and silver were NOT treated as commodities. Gold's only purpose was value storage and silver was used purely for minting. Copper was primarily used for making utensils for the rich. Copper was supposedly the best metal to store food and water. Eating in silver, though common for the rich, was considered a show-off.

This simple to understand and time tested system of powers of ten, was later exploited by Aryabhatta to conceptualize zero and decimal system - the very basis of modern arithmetic. The seeds of Abrus precatorius (Ratti) being very consistent were used to weigh gold using a measure where 8 Ratti = 1 Masha; 12 Masha = 1 Tola (12 X 8 = 96 Ratti), or roughly equal to 100 Ratti ( 96 Ratti pure gold and 4 Ratti impurities to solidify the gold). In other words, a Tola's "weight unit" was 100 Ratti while its "price unit" was 96 Ratti. In simple calculations 10 grams (one Tola) of solid gold was worth one kilo of solid silver or hundred kilos of solid copper. Or one Ratti (tiny seed) of gold was equal to one kilo of copper.

The common word used for one Kilo was Ser or Seer- roughly equal to 1.07 kilos in weight units or volume wise roughly equal to one liter. Volume was a preferred way to exchange at a larger scale to weed out as many impurities as possible from molten metals. One Seer is around 80 Tola in weight.

During the days of Mahabharata, a Tola was called Śatamāna - a Sanskrit word representing the measure of one hundred. And a Ratti was called a Krishnala - most probably named after Krishna the supreme personality of Godhead. In later times of middle eastern empires, a Tola was named an Ashrafi - The same weight specifications. One Tola of gold - was adopted as Ashrafi - around fourteenth century in Prussia. The weight of an Ashrafi gold coin varies depending on the coin's origin and history:

• Nizam-era gold Ashrafi: A gold Ashrafi coin issued by Nizam VI Mir Mahbub Ali Khan in 1893 CE weighed about 11 grams.
• India-Princely States HYDERABAD Ashrafi : This coin weighed 11.1780 grams and had a fineness of 0.9100.
• Awadh Gold Ashrafi: This coin weighed 10.73 grams and was made of 22-carat gold.

@ 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.

@ 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.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Nostr: a quick introduction, attempt #2

Nostr doesn't subscribe to any ideals of "free speech" as these belong to the realm of politics and assume a big powerful government that enforces a common ruleupon everybody else.

Nostr instead is much simpler, it simply says that servers are private property and establishes a generalized framework for people to connect to all these servers, creating a true free market in the process. In other words, Nostr is the public road that each market participant can use to build their own store or visit others and use their services.

(Of course a road is never truly public, in normal cases it's ran by the government, in this case it relies upon the previous existence of the internet with all its quirks and chaos plus a hand of government control, but none of that matters for this explanation).

More concretely speaking, Nostr is just a set of definitions of the formats of the data that can be passed between participants and their expected order, i.e. messages between clients (i.e. the program that runs on a user computer) and relays (i.e. the program that runs on a publicly accessible computer, a "server", generally with a domain-name associated) over a type of TCP connection (WebSocket) with cryptographic signatures. This is what is called a "protocol" in this context, and upon that simple base multiple kinds of sub-protocols can be added, like a protocol for "public-square style microblogging", "semi-closed group chat" or, I don't know, "recipe sharing and feedback".

@ 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

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

1 сентября. Новодвинск-2040.

В 2040 году Архангельская область продолжает привлекать туристов, желающих прикоснуться к богатой истории и культуре региона. Местные достопримечательности, такие как Соловецкий архипелаг, Новодвинская крепость, Новая Земля и Земля Франца Иосифа, становятся все более популярными среди путешественников, стремящихся узнать больше о прошлом.

Соловецкий архипелаг — это уникальное место, известное своими историческими памятниками и природной красотой. Соловецкие острова, включенные в список Всемирного наследия ЮНЕСКО, привлекают туристов своими древними монастырями и живописными пейзажами. На архипелаге активно проводятся экскурсии, которые знакомят посетителей с историей монашеской жизни и культурой, а также с трагическими страницами советского времени.

Новодвинская крепость, построенная в XVII веке, также является важной исторической достопримечательностью. В этом году крепость привлекла множество туристов, интересующихся военной историей и архитектурой. Экскурсии по крепости позволяют посетителям узнать о ее роли в защите северных границ России и о жизни солдат в прошлом.

Новая Земля и Земля Франца Иосифа — это удаленные, но невероятно привлекательные направления для тех, кто ищет приключений и хочет прикоснуться к истории полярных исследований. Архипелаги известны своими уникальными природными ландшафтами и историческими экспедициями, которые оставили след в истории освоения Арктики. В 2040 году организуются специальные туры, которые позволяют путешественникам не только насладиться красотой этих мест, но и узнать о великих открытиях и трудностях, с которыми сталкивались исследователи.

В сегодняшнем подкасте мы расскажем о культурных и исторических местах нашей области, которые в наибольшей степени сохранили свой первозданный облик. Прикоснитесь к прошлому если не в путешествии, то в нашем новом подкасте! Приятного прослушивания!

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Objavte, ako avatari a pseudonymné identity ovplyvňujú riadenie kryptokomunít a decentralizovaných organizácií (DAOs). V tejto prednáške sa zameriame na praktické fungovanie decentralizovaného rozhodovania, vytváranie a správu avatarových profilov, a ich rolu v online reputačných systémoch. Naučíte sa, ako si vytvoriť efektívny pseudonymný profil, zapojiť sa do rôznych krypto projektov a využiť svoje aktivity na zarábanie kryptomien. Preskúmame aj príklady úspešných projektov a stratégie, ktoré vám pomôžu zorientovať sa a uspieť v dynamickom svete decentralizovaných komunít.

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Jan Kolčák pochádza zo stredného Slovenska a vystupuje pod umeleckým menom Deepologic. Hudbe sa venuje už viac než 10 rokov. Začínal ako DJ, ktorý s obľubou mixoval klubovú hudbu v štýloch deep-tech a afrohouse. Stále ho ťahalo tvoriť vlastnú hudbu, a preto sa začal vzdelávať v oblasti tvorby elektronickej hudby. Nakoniec vydal svoje prvé EP s názvom "Rezonancie". Učenie je pre neho celoživotný proces, a preto sa neustále zdokonaľuje v oblasti zvuku a kompozície, aby jeho skladby boli kvalitné na posluch aj v klube.

V roku 2023 si založil vlastnú značku EarsDeep Records, kde dáva príležitosť začínajúcim producentom. Jeho značku podporujú aj etablované mená slovenskej alternatívnej elektronickej scény. Jeho prioritou je sloboda a neškatulkovanie. Ako sa hovorí v jednej klasickej deephouseovej skladbe: "We are all equal in the house of deep." So slobodou ide ruka v ruke aj láska k novým technológiám, Bitcoinu a schopnosť udržať si v digitálnom svete prehľad, odstup a anonymitu.

V súčasnosti ďalej produkuje vlastnú hudbu, venuje sa DJingu a vedie podcast, kde zverejňuje svoje mixované sety. Na Lunarpunk festivale bude hrať DJ set tvorený vlastnou produkciou, ale aj skladby, ktoré sú blízke jeho srdcu.

Podcast Bandcamp Punk Nostr website alebo nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehgu3wvfskuep0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3xamnwvaz7tmsw4e8qmr9wpskwtn9wvhsz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjme0qyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnddakj7qghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8qunfd4skctnwv46z7qpqguvns4ld8k2f3sugel055w7eq8zeewq7mp6w2stpnt6j75z60z3swy7h05

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

6 сентября. Новодвинск-2040.

Осенью этого года в Новодвинске открылось первое котокафе, которое быстро завоевало популярность среди местных жителей и гостей города. «Пушистое кафе» – уникальное заведение, которое стало настоящим оазисом для любителей кошек, предлагая не только вкусные напитки и десерты, но и возможность пообщаться с милыми пушистыми обитателями кафе.

Котокафе расположено в центре города, вблизи Комсомольской площади, и оформлено в уютном стиле, создающем атмосферу домашнего уюта. Здесь посетители могут насладиться общением с кошками, которые свободно перемещаются по залу, а также выбрать себе пушистого друга для постоянного проживания.

Директор котокафе Валерия Макарова поделилась своими впечатлениями о запуске заведения:

«Мы долго мечтали о создании этого кафе, и вот, наконец, наша мечта осуществилась! «Пушистое кафе» радует новодвинцев практически уже полгода. Мы хотим, чтобы каждый посетитель мог не только насладиться вкусной едой и напитками, но и получить положительные эмоции от общения с нашими кошками. А, возможно, даже приютить себе одного из питомцев. Мы заботимся о каждом питомце и стремимся создать для них комфортные условия».

Одним из первых посетителей котокафе стал Демьян Конюхов, который пришел туда, как он признаётся, случайно. Всему виной – невеста новодвинца, которая увидела объявление в социальных сетях. Случайный поход в кафе обернулся целой историей. Домой пара вернулась с новым членом семьи.

«Мы хотели где-то провести выходные. Так вышло, что попали в «Пушистое кафе». Сначала игрались с котиками, пили чай, а потом увидели Филю. Он показался таким дружелюбным, но в тоже время очень характерным. Совсем не жалею, что зашли в кафе и смогли подарить Филе новый дом! Надеюсь, так больше питомцев найдут своих новых хозяев», — рассказал Демьян, улыбаясь.

Котокафе в Новодвинске стало не только местом для отдыха, но и площадкой для поиска новых хозяев для бездомных животных. Заведение активно сотрудничает с местными приютами, помогая находить любящих владельцев для пушистиков. С открытием котокафе в Новодвинске жители города получили возможность не только насладиться атмосферой уюта и тепла, но и сделать доброе дело, подарив дом бездомным кошкам.

Смотрите наш сюжет об этом уютном заведении ниже!

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

В 2040 году Новодвинск демонстрирует значительные успехи в сфере образования! За последние десять лет глава города Александр Чечулин лично следил за ремонтом и модернизацией городских школ. В результате были отремонтированы школы №2, №3, №4, а также самая старая школа в городе — школа №1. Эти изменения создали комфортные условия для обучения и способствовали повышению качества образования в регионе.

В этом году Новодвинск стал домом для первого университета, который является самостоятельным учебным заведением, а не филиалом Северного Арктического федерального университета (САФУ) им. М.В. Ломоносова. Новый университет, получивший название Новодвинский государственный университет (НГУ), открыл свои двери для студентов России и стал вторым университетом в Архангельской области. Обучение будет проводиться по различным специальностям, с особым акцентом на гуманитарные профили, которых в настоящее время не хватает в регионе.

Для иногородних студентов в Новодвинске были построены два новых здания общежитий по улице Димитрова, а также отремонтировано уже существующее общежитие на улице Пролетарской, которое перешло в ведение НГУ от Новодвинского индустриального техникума. Это создает комфортные условия для проживания студентов, приезжающих из других городов и стран.

Ректор НГУ Никита Макаров отметил важность развития образования в области: «Основание Новодвинского государственного университета — это большой шаг вперед для нашего региона. Мы стремимся подготовить высококвалифицированных специалистов, которые будут востребованы на рынке труда. В нашем университете будут работать опытные преподаватели, которые помогут студентам получить качественное образование». С началом первого учебного года в НГУ уже три студента из-за рубежа начали обучение в Новодвинске. Два студента из Египта и один из Замбии выбрали наш университет для получения знаний.

Анипа Сансура, одна из египетских студенток, поделилась своими впечатлениями: «Я приехала в Новодвинск, чтобы изучать языки народов Севера. Это уникальная возможность для меня, и я надеюсь, что полученные знания помогут мне в будущем. Я очень рада, что выбрала именно этот университет, здесь очень дружелюбная атмосфера и отличные преподаватели».

Развивающееся образование в Новодвинске открывает новые горизонты для студентов, создавая возможности для получения качественного образования и подготовки специалистов, необходимых для развития региона.

Также смотрите наш сюжет, посвящённый стремительно развивающемуся образованию в Новодвинске!

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Workshop je zameraný pre všetkých, ktorí sa potýkajú s vysvetľovaním Bitcoinu svojej rodine, kamarátom, partnerom alebo kolegom. Pri námietkach z druhej strany väčšinou ideme do protiútoku a snažíme sa vytiahnuť tie najlepšie argumenty. Na tomto workshope vás naučím nový prístup k zvládaniu námietok a vyskúšate si ho aj v praxi. Know-how je aplikovateľné nie len na komunikáciu Bitcoinu ale aj pre zlepšenie vzťahov, pri výchove detí a celkovo pre lepší osobný život.

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Ak ste v Bitcoine už nejaký ten rok, možno máte pocit, že už všetkému rozumiete a že vás nič neprekvapí. Viete čo je to peňaženka, čo je to seed a čo adresa, možno dokonca aj čo je to sha256. Ste si istí? Táto prednáška sa vám to pokúsi vyvrátiť. 🙂

@ 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

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Bojovať s rakovinou metabolickou metódou znamená použiť metabolizmus tela proti rakovine. Riadenie cukru a ketónov v krvi stravou a pohybom, časovanie rôznych typov cvičení, včasná kombinácia klasickej onko-liečby a hladovania. Ktoré vitamíny a suplementy prijímam a ktorým sa napríklad vyhýbam dajúc na rady mojej dietologičky z USA Miriam (ktorá sa špecializuje na rakovinu).

Hovori sa, že čo nemeriame, neriadime ... Ja som meral, veľa a dlho ... aj grafy budú ... aj sranda bude, hádam ... 😉

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Predikčné trhy predstavujú praktický spôsob, ako môžeme nahliadnuť do budúcnosti bez nutnosti spoliehať sa na tradičné, často nepresné metódy, ako je veštenie z kávových zrniek. V prezentácii sa ponoríme do histórie a vývoja predikčných trhov, a popíšeme aký vplyv mali a majú na dostupnosť a kvalitu informácií pre širokú verejnosť, a ako menia trh s týmito informáciami. Pozrieme sa aj na to, ako tieto trhy umožňujú obyčajným ľuďom prístup k spoľahlivým predpovediam a ako môžu prispieť k lepšiemu rozhodovaniu v rôznych oblastiach života.

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

31 августа. Новодвинск.

В Новодвинске прошли захватывающие соревнования по конкуру, организованные в конноспортивном клубе «Чародей». Это событие собрало спортсменов со всей области и даже из других регионов страны, что подчеркивает растущую популярность конного спорта в России.

Два года назад конюшня клуба была капитально отремонтирована и оснащена современным оборудованием за счет регионального бюджета. Это позволило создать комфортные условия для лошадей и наездников, что, в свою очередь, способствовало повышению уровня подготовки спортсменов.

Соревнования прошли в нескольких возрастных категориях, и участники продемонстрировали высокие результаты. В категории юниоров первое место занял спортсмен из Архангельска, а на втором месте оказалась Злата Худякова из Новодвинска, которая показала отличные результаты и уверенное выступление на своем любимом коне Юрашике.

«Я очень рада, что смогла занять второе место на таких престижных соревнованиях. Это моя первая большая победа, и я надеюсь, что в будущем смогу добиться еще больших успехов», — поделилась эмоциями Злата.

Среди участников также была Алиса Кононова из Москвы, которая отметила высокий уровень организации соревнований:

«Я была приятно удивлена качеством подготовки и атмосферой на соревнованиях. Северный город встретил нас с теплом! Конный спорт в Новодвинске развивается, и я рада, что смогла стать частью этого события».

«Чародей» впервые за свою многолетнюю историю становится площадкой для всероссийских соревнований. Это новый этап в жизни всех причастных к конноспортивному клубу! Ранее на базе новодвинского КСК проводились лишь областные и городские состязания.

Директор КСК «Чародей» Евгения Лобова отметила:

«Мы гордимся тем, что наш клуб стал площадкой для таких значимых соревнований. Ремонт и модернизация конюшни позволили нам привлечь лучших спортсменов и создать условия для их успешных выступлений. Мы надеемся, что в будущем такие мероприятия станут регулярными, и наш клуб будет продолжать развиваться».

Соревнования по конкуру в Новодвинске стали ярким событием для любителей конного спорта и продемонстрировали высокий уровень подготовки как спортсменов, так и организаторов. Посмотреть кадры с соревнований можно в нашем сюжете ниже!

Подробнее в нашем сюжете:

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

AI hype vnímame asi všetci okolo nás — už takmer každá appka ponúka nejakú “AI fíčuru”, AI startupy raisujú stovky miliónov a Európa ako obvykle pracuje na regulovaní a našej ochrane pred nebezpečím umelej inteligencie. Pomaly sa ale ukazuje “ovocie” spojenia umelej inteligencie a človeka, kedy mnohí ľudia reportujú signifikantné zvýšenie produktivity v práci ako aj kreatívnych aktivitách (aj napriek tomu, že mnohí hardcore kreatívci by každého pri spomenutí skratky “AI” najradšej upálili). V prvej polovici prednášky sa pozrieme na to, akými rôznymi spôsobmi nám vie byť AI nápomocná, či už v práci alebo osobnom živote.

Umelé neuróny nám už vyskakujú pomaly aj z ovsených vločiek, no to ako sa k nám dostávajú sa veľmi líši. Hlavne v tom, či ich poskytujú firmy v zatvorených alebo open-source modeloch. V druhej polovici prednášky sa pozrieme na boom okolo otvorených AI modelov a ako ich vieme využiť.

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

28 августа. Новодвинск-2040.

Архангельский целлюлозно-бумажный комбинат (АЦБК) объявил о значительном снижении объемов поставок древесины, что стало важным шагом в направлении устойчивого развития и охраны окружающей среды. В рамках этой инициативы комбинат внедряет новые технологии в производственный процесс, которые позволят сократить зависимость от традиционных лесных ресурсов.

Новые технологии в производстве бумаги

Во-первых, использование вторичных материалов. АЦБК с этого года начал активно развивать переработку отходов и вторичных материалов, таких как макулатура и биомасса. Такое нововведение уже с первых этапов работы позволило значительно снизить потребность в древесине и уменьшить количество отходов и выбросов в атмосферу. Во-вторых, биотехнологии. Внедрение биотехнологий в процесс производства бумаги позволяет использовать альтернативные источники сырья, такие как сельскохозяйственные остатки (например, солома) и специальные культуры, которые быстро растут и требуют меньше ресурсов.

В-третьих, энергоэффективные технологии. Бумажный гигант увеличил инвестиции в сферу модернизации оборудования. Так, из зарубежья совсем недавно привезли новые фильтры по очистке воздуха, новейшие системы перекачки воды. Последнее сыграет в будущем большую роль, так как позволит сократить потребление энергии и воды в процессе производства.

«Мы понимаем, что будущее нашей отрасли зависит от нашей способности адаптироваться к изменениям в окружающей среде и потребительских предпочтениях. Снижение поставок древесины — это не просто шаг к экономии ресурсов, но и наша ответственность перед будущими поколениями. Внедрение новых технологий и использование альтернативных материалов позволит нам не только сохранить природу, но и предложить рынку продукцию, соответствующую современным требованиям. Мы уверены, что эти новшества сделают наш комбинат более устойчивым и конкурентоспособным», — отметил Дмитрий Зылёв, генеральный директор Архангельского целлюлозно-бумажного комбината.

Вклад в экологию

Действительно, снижение поставок древесины и переход на альтернативные источники сырья, так распространившиеся в мире в последнее время, помогут сохранить лесные экосистемы, уменьшить вырубку лесов и способствовать восстановлению природных ресурсов. Сейчас приостановлены три программы по вырубке лесов в промышленных целях из пяти. Вместе с тем, АЦБК увеличил масштабы программы по восстановлению вырубленных лесов. Вместо 40 тысяч саженцев сосны, высадят более восьмидесяти. К тому же, подобные нововведения позволят предприятию соответствовать современным экологическим стандартам и требованиям рынка.

Также смотрите наш сюжет, посвящённый ускоренной модернизации Архангельского ЦБК!

https://rutube.ru/shorts/e9728c260d51de2433010851dee0285e/?r=wd.

@ 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

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Čo vznikne keď spojíš hru SNAKE zo starej Nokie 3310 a Bitcoin? - hra Chain Duel!

Jedna z najlepších implementácií funkcionality Lightning Networku a gamingu vo svete Bitcoinu.

Vyskúšať si ju môžete s kamošmi na tomto odkaze. Na stránke nájdeš aj základné pravidlá hry avšak odporúčame pravidlá pochopiť aj priamo hraním

Chain Duel si získava hromady fanúšikov po bitcoinových konferenciách po celom svete a práve na Lunarpunk festival ho prinesieme tiež.

Multiplayer 1v1 hra, kde nejde o náhodu, ale skill, vás dostane. Poďte si zmerať sily s ďalšími bitcoinermi a vyhrať okrem samotných satoshi rôzne iné ceny.

Príďte sa zúčastniť prvého oficiálneho Chain Duel turnaja na Slovensku!

Pre účasť na turnaji je potrebná registrácia dopredu.

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Co se nomádská rodina již 3 roky utíkající před kontrolou naučila o kontrole samotné? Co je to vlastně svoboda? Může koexistovat se strachem? S konfliktem? Zkusme na chvíli zapomenout na daně, policii a stát a pohlédnout na svobodu i mimo hranice společenských ideologií. Zkusme namísto hledání dalších odpovědí zjistit, zda se ještě někde neukrývají nové otázky. Možná to bude trochu ezo.

Karel provozuje již přes 3 roky se svou ženou, dvěmi dětmi a jedním psem minimalistický život v obytné dodávce. Na cestách spolu začali tvořit youtubový kanál "Karel od Martiny" o svobodě, nomádství, anarchii, rodičovství, drogách a dalších normálních věcech.

Nájdete ho aj na nostr.

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

Новодвинск, 15 января 2040 года — Город Новодвинск, расположенный на берегу Северной Двины, хранит в себе множество историй и традиций, которые формировали его уникальную культуру на протяжении десятилетий. В этом сюжете мы решили погрузиться в богатое культурное наследие города через захватывающие интервью с краеведами и местными жителями, которые с радостью делятся своими воспоминаниями и знаниями.

Первым нашим собеседником стал краевед и историк, 65-летний Виктор Соловьев, который посвятил более 30 лет изучению истории Новодвинска. «Наш город был основан в 1936 году как центр деревообработки, но его история гораздо глубже», — рассказывает Виктор. «Здесь, на этих землях, проходили важные события, которые формировали не только наш регион, но и всю страну. Каждое здание, каждая улица имеют свою историю».

Виктор также отметил, что Новодвинск славится своими культурными традициями, которые бережно хранятся местными жителями. «Мы гордимся нашими народными праздниками, такими как Масленица и Иван Купала, которые объединяют людей и позволяют сохранить связь с предками», — добавил он.

Следующим нашим собеседником стала 78-летняя жительница города, Мария Петровна, которая родилась и выросла в Новодвинске. Она с теплотой вспоминает о своем детстве: «В нашем дворе всегда собирались дети, мы играли в народные игры и пели песни. Моя бабушка часто рассказывала о старинных традициях, которые передавались из поколения в поколение. Эти воспоминания для меня очень дороги».

Мария Петровна также отметила важность местных ремесел, которые были популярны в ее молодости. «Ткачество, резьба по дереву, вышивка — это не просто занятия, это часть нашей культуры. Я надеюсь, что молодое поколение продолжит эти традиции», — говорит она с надеждой.

Мы также встретились с молодым художником, 30-летним Дмитрием Кузнецовым, который вдохновляется историей своего города в своих работах. «Я часто использую в своих картинах элементы новодвинского фольклора и архитектуры. Для меня важно передать дух нашего города и его культурное наследие», — делится Дмитрий. Его выставки привлекают внимание как местных жителей, так и туристов, что способствует популяризации Новодвинска как культурного центра.

В завершение нашего исследования, мы обратились к главе города, Александру Чечулину, который подчеркнул важность сохранения культурного наследия. «Мы должны помнить свою историю и гордиться ею. Культурные традиции — это то, что объединяет нас как сообщество. Мы активно поддерживаем проекты, направленные на сохранение и развитие нашего наследия», — отметил он.

История Новодвинска — это не просто факты и даты, это живая память людей, которые делят свои воспоминания и знания с будущими поколениями. Через интервью с краеведами и местными жителями мы смогли увидеть, как культурное наследие города продолжает жить и развиваться, обогащая жизнь новодвинцев и вдохновляя их на новые достижения.

Сюжет:

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Lístky na festival Lunarpunku sú už v predaji na našom crowdfunding portáli. V predaji sú dva typy lístkov - štandardný vstup a špeciálny vstup spolu s workshopom oranžového leta.

Neváhajte a zabezpečte si lístok, čím skôr to urobíte, tým bude festival lepší.

Platiť môžete Bitcoinom - Lightningom aj on-chain. Vaša vstupenka je e-mail adresa (neposielame potvrdzujúce e-maily, ak platba prešla, ste in).

Kúpte si lístok

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Čo nám prinášajú exotické protokoly ako Nostr, Cashu alebo Reticulum? Šifrovanie, podpisovanie, peer to peer komunikáciu, nové spôsoby šírenia a odmeňovania obsahu.

Ukážeme si kúl appky, ako sa dajú jednotlivé siete prepájať a ako spolu súvisia.

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

Новодвинск, 15 сентября 2040 года — Город Новодвинск достиг значительного успеха, вошедши в тройку крупнейших городов Архангельской области, обогнав Котлас. Этот важный шаг стал результатом комплексного развития экономики, инфраструктуры и социальной сферы, что подтверждает динамичное развитие региона.

По последним данным, население Новодвинска увеличилось до 60 тысяч человек, что позволило городу занять третье место после Архангельска и Северодвинска. Глава города, Анна Петрова, выразила гордость за достижения новодвинцев: «Это результат совместной работы всей нашей команды и жителей. Мы стремились создать комфортные условия для жизни и работы, и сегодня видим плоды наших усилий».

Одним из ключевых факторов роста стало развитие промышленности и бизнеса. Новодвинск активно привлекает инвестиции, что способствовало открытию новых предприятий и расширению существующих. В последние годы в городе были реализованы несколько крупных проектов в сфере деревообработки и экологии, что создало новые рабочие места и улучшило экономическую ситуацию.

Кроме того, значительное внимание уделяется социальной инфраструктуре. В Новодвинске активно строятся новые школы, детские сады и спортивные комплексы, что делает город привлекательным для молодежи и семей с детьми. «Мы понимаем, что комфортная жизнь — это не только работа, но и возможность развиваться и заниматься любимыми делами», — отметила Петрова.

Не осталась без внимания и культурная жизнь города. Открытие новых культурных объектов, таких как органный зал и театры, привлекает жителей и гостей, способствуя развитию туризма и культурного обмена. «Мы хотим, чтобы Новодвинск стал центром притяжения для людей, которые ценят культуру и искусство», — добавила глава города.

Обогнав Котлас, Новодвинск демонстрирует свою уверенность и амбициозные планы на будущее. Город продолжает развиваться, и его жители с оптимизмом смотрят вперед. «Мы гордимся своим городом и готовы работать над его будущим. Впереди у нас много возможностей, и мы уверены, что сможем достичь еще больших высот», — заключила Анна Петрова.

Таким образом, Новодвинск уверенно занимает свое место среди крупнейших городов Архангельской области, становясь символом прогресса и динамичного развития региона. Это достижение вдохновляет жителей и создает новые перспективы для города и его будущего.

Сюжет:

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Podnikanie je jazyk s "crystal clear" pravidlami. Inštrumentalisti vidia podnikanie staticky, a toto videnie prenášajú na spoločnosť. Preto nás spoločnosť vníma často negatívne. Skutoční podnikatelia sú však "komunikátori".

Jozef Martiniak je zakladateľ AUSEKON - Institute of Austrian School of Economics

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

Новодвинск, 10 сентября 2040 года — В нашем городе произошло долгожданное событие: состоялось открытие первого органного зала, который стал настоящим культурным центром для жителей и гостей Новодвинска. Этот уникальный проект стал возможен благодаря совместным усилиям администрации города, местных музыкантов и неравнодушных жителей, которые поддержали идею создания органного зала.

Торжественная церемония открытия прошла в рамках специального музыкального вечера, на котором выступили как профессиональные музыканты, так и молодые таланты. Глава города, Анна Петрова, в своем приветственном слове отметила: «Сегодня мы открываем новую страницу в культурной жизни Новодвинска. Органный зал — это не просто помещение, это место, где будет звучать музыка, объединяющая людей и дарящая вдохновение».

Орган, установленный в зале, стал настоящей жемчужиной. Он был изготовлен по специальному заказу и обладает уникальным звучанием, которое позволит исполнять как классические, так и современные произведения. Музыканты, участвовавшие в открытии, отметили, что такой инструмент в нашем регионе — это редкость и большая удача. «Я всегда мечтал играть на органе, и теперь у нас есть возможность наслаждаться его звучанием в родном городе», — поделился своими впечатлениями органист Сергей Иванов.

Органный зал также станет площадкой для проведения различных музыкальных мероприятий: концертов, мастер-классов и лекций. По словам директора культурного центра, Елены Смирновой, здесь планируются выступления как известных исполнителей, так и местных музыкантов. «Мы хотим сделать органный зал доступным для всех. Это место, где каждый сможет прикоснуться к великой музыке и открыть для себя что-то новое», — отметила она.

Жители Новодвинска с нетерпением ждали этого события. «Я всегда любила музыку, и для меня это открытие — настоящая радость. Теперь у нас есть место, где можно наслаждаться живыми выступлениями», — сказала местная жительница Мария Кузнецова.

Открытие органного зала стало важным шагом в развитии культурной жизни Новодвинска. Он не только обогатит музыкальную палитру города, но и станет местом, где будут встречаться разные поколения, делясь своими впечатлениями и эмоциями. «Мы надеемся, что наш органный зал станет центром притяжения для всех любителей музыки и культуры», — подытожила Анна Петрова.

Таким образом, Новодвинск вступает в новую эру музыкального искусства, и открытие первого органного зала — это лишь начало. Впереди нас ждут множество концертов, встреч с талантливыми музыкантами и незабываемых моментов, которые обогатят культурную жизнь города.

Сюжет:

@ 2775fb0f:887f8193

Новодвинск, 5 декабря 2040 года — В живописном селе Катунино, расположенном неподалеку от Новодвинска, функционирует приют для бездомных животных, который стал настоящим домом для пушистых обитателей. Здесь заботятся о собаках и кошках, которые потеряли свой дом, и делают всё возможное, чтобы подарить им новую жизнь.

В приюте трудится команда преданных работников, состоящая из 15 человек, включая ветеринаров, волонтеров и сотрудников, ответственных за уход за животными. Каждый день они ухаживают за более чем 100 питомцами, обеспечивая их питанием, медицинским обслуживанием и вниманием. «Каждое животное для нас — это не просто подопечный, а член нашей большой семьи. Мы стараемся создать для них комфортные условия, чтобы они чувствовали себя защищенными и любимыми», — рассказывает директор приюта, Светлана Николаевна.

Местные жители активно поддерживают приют, внося свой вклад в его работу. Многие из них становятся волонтерами, помогая с уборкой, выгулами и общением с животными. «Я приходила сюда, чтобы просто погулять с собаками, а теперь это стало частью моей жизни. Я вижу, как они меняются, как становятся более доверчивыми и счастливыми», — делится впечатлениями волонтер Анна Петрова.

Процесс усыновления животных в приюте организован так, чтобы обеспечить максимальную безопасность и комфорт как для новых владельцев, так и для самих питомцев. Прежде чем попасть в новый дом, каждое животное проходит медицинское обследование, вакцинацию и социализацию. Потенциальные усыновители заполняют анкету, в которой указывают свои предпочтения и условия содержания. После этого проходит собеседование, на котором сотрудники приюта помогают подобрать подходящего питомца.

«Мы хотим, чтобы наши животные попали в любящие и ответственные руки. Поэтому уделяем много внимания каждому усыновлению», — объясняет Светлана Николаевна.

Для тех, кто хочет помочь бездомным животным, есть множество способов. Во-первых, можно стать волонтером и проводить время с питомцами в приюте. Во-вторых, приют всегда нуждается в финансировании, кормах, медикаментах и предметах ухода. Местные жители также могут организовать сбор средств или товаров для приюта, что станет отличным способом помочь пушистым обитателям.

Кроме того, усыновление животного — это не только возможность подарить новый дом, но и шанс на дружбу, которая будет радовать вас каждый день. «Каждое животное, которое уходит из приюта, — это новая надежда и новая жизнь. Мы уверены, что они принесут счастье своим новым хозяевам», — подчеркивает Светлана.

Приют для бездомных животных в Катунино — это место, где забота, преданность и любовь к животным соединяются, создавая новые шансы на жизнь для пушистых друзей. Каждый, кто хочет помочь, может сделать это, и, возможно, именно вы станете тем человеком, который подарит счастье бездомному питомцу.

Сюжет:

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848

This is the AI-generated transcript from Bitcoin Infinity Show #126 with Derek Ross, lightly cleaned up for clarity and readability. It might not be perfect, but it's pretty good!

Check out http://bitcoininfinity.com/ for all our books, merch, and more!

Welcoming Derek

Luke: Derek, welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Show. Thanks so much for joining us.

Derek: Thanks for having me.

Knut: Yeah. Hi. Glad to have you here, Derek. so let's start off with, the TLDR. who are you and why

Derek: Well, it's, my dad liked Bo Derek, so he chose the name Derek. I don't know if we want to go that far back.

Introducing Derek Ross

Derek: I fell in love with Nostr, back in December of, 2022 when Jack Dorsey, discovered Nostr when he was looking for projects to fund and a bunch of Bitcoin developers and Bitcoiners said, Hey, you should fund Nostr and check out Nostr.

So a lot of Bitcoiners checked out Nostr at the same time too, and I found out that I could build Basic services on Nostr, because it was pretty simple to do so and add a few bells and whistles for people. I just really embraced the technology, really embraced what Nostr could mean for the world and started talking about Nostr And now, that's my passion.

I love going around to conferences, Bitcoin conferences, building and growing Nostr, and that's kind of, I guess, brought me to you guys today.

Luke: Yeah, I mean, we're here at Nostriga, basically the beginning of Nostriga. Still the morning has happened. Yes. But, this place is awesome. We had the Noob day yesterday, and you gave. Nostr 101 at the Noob Day, and so I don't think we need Nostr 101 for this audience necessarily, but can you at least do like a broad strokes of the important points of Nostr just so we have a little bit of a baseline?

Knut: And

The Basics of Nostr

Derek: Well, Nostr is decentralized and censorship resistant, and if that sounds familiar, it's because it shares a lot of the same ethos that Bitcoin shares. So I recognized immediately, you know, how important Bitcoin is for the world. Like I've been a Bitcoiner for a few years now, and I recognize that Nostr shares a lot of the same ethos, where it is censorship resistant, decentralized.

You can control your social information similarly to Bitcoin, where you can control which financial rules you decide to run on your own node. So it gives you A lot of ownership over your financial transactions for Bitcoin. Nostr gives you a lot of ownership over your social transactions, so I really liked the correlation to the two that really resonated with me.

it was really easy to understand if Bitcoin is the freedom to transact, then Nostr is the freedom to communicate, and I really liked that relationship. I really recognized that social media is broken and Nostr fixes a lot of that by giving the power and the choice back to users. I really think that that paired with a portable digital social identity that you own and you control for the very first time that you can take with you.

To whatever application, whatever social application you want to use, it's just really unique because you can't log into Twitter, take your social graph and then log into TikTok with it. You know, you just can't do that now. Nostr, you could technically do that. You could have a video streaming app and you log into an audio streaming app or a podcast app or your general social app, and you have the same followers, the same social graph, your contact list, everything is all there.

And that, that's really, really neat. And I think that that's a unique thing that we've never had before.

you explain the social graph in a little bit of detail? Yeah. So your, your social graph is basically who you are social with. It's your, you know, your circle of friends, your followers, the people you interact with on a daily basis in traditional social media that varies from different app to app. You had, you would have to ask everybody. Hey, what's your Instagram account?

I want to follow you there. What's your Twitter account? I want to follow you there. So your social graph is all of your, the people you interact with, the people you follow, the people that follow you. you're able to bring that with you with Nostr, no matter what app you sign into, all of that comes with you.

that's all portable. your social circle, your social experience.

Luke: Yeah. so the key feature of Nostr in that respect is this portability, but this is all still tied down by the, public private key cryptography similar to Bitcoin. In fact, it's the same, cryptography setup as Bitcoin.

Derek: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So just like Bitcoin, you know, you, you want to keep your private key safe. Nostr is the same way. Your private key unlocks access to your social identity, just like your Bitcoin private key unlocks access to your Bitcoin. So you want to keep them safe. You want to make sure that you're, you're practicing safe nsex and you're, you're storing your, Yeah, like, I like that dad joke.

It's a good one.

But you make sure that key is secure and you're not putting that key into random applications because like I said, it unlocks your identity.

Luke: Yeah. I mean, I think on a practical level, that actually is kind of a scary thing in this early days of Nostr, because first of all, people who are into the Nostr environment early are going to get this extremely strong web of trust with other early Nostr users.

Derek: Oh man, this is a fighting point. Like the Nostr is decentralized. So there's no correct way to say it. I've heard Nostr, Nostr, Nostra, like whatever you want. It's just like the logo. There's no official logo. You know, you can make a logo and you can use it. You can make your own saying and use it.

Luke: Nostr actually seems like the

Derek: say,

Knut: we'll go with no

Derek: I, you know, the next time you're gonna have somebody else in your show, they're gonna say Nostr. It's just how it is.

Luke: Totally.

Trust, Reputation, and Identity

Luke: I mean, the decentralization aspect of it, that's good. But the, so, okay, I think that the point I was getting at is that, yeah, these NSECs are really actually valuable in the sense of that, nothing is going to, from this point onward, if someone loses their NSEC, you're not really going to get back the same kind of network in the same way.

Derek: yeah, that's a valid point. If I spent, let's say, a year building my reputation, building my web of trust, my social graph. And then I leak my NSEC accidentally, I have to start all over again, and that's going to be hard because I essentially lost the last year's worth of work. I lost all that proof of work.

Now, people that know you and interact with you, people you've met in person, they'll immediately, transfer that trust to the new identity, but everybody else that doesn't physically know you, that's going to take time to rebuild that.

Luke: Yeah, and, okay, this is, a point here. Why is it important to have this trust and reputation? Why does Nostr need that to work?

Derek: Well, I think that, in Bitcoin, we say, don't trust verify. But, I think that a certain level of trust for certain social interactions has to happen. You know, if we're constantly afraid of interacting with other humans or, you know, stepping outside our comfort zone and being social with humans because we need verification, it just, paints a negative picture.

It, I think that a certain level of Trust will allow us to be more human, more social because we do have to trust for certain aspects of life. And if we don't want a third party to have to KYC us and we have to play by all sorts of other rules, I think that our reputation becomes our identity.

And that allows us to have all these new types of experiences, new types of interactions. Like if I wanted to sell something on Nostr. I have a lot of people that follow me and they say, Hey, I tried to sell something on Nostr and I wasn't able to do it. I said, Oh, I've sold stuff on Nostr.

They're like, yeah, but you're Derek. And you have a lot of people that follow you. And then I've had people. Come to me and say, hey, can you reshare this item that I'm selling to gain exposure because I have a lot of people that follow me and I say, well, I don't know if I want to do that.

I told a guy recently, I didn't know if I wanted to do that because I didn't know them. He wasn't in my web of trust and I didn't want to promote essentially his item that he was selling. Because I didn't know who he was. Now, if he was in my web of trust, maybe Luke, if you were selling something and you wanted me to, I know you, I I've interacted with you.

Sure. You're in my web of trust. I will help you out. I will reshare the item you're selling. And I think that that type of trust in. You know, human interactions is okay.

Breaking Nostr

Knut: one question I have about this whole thing and that, I still haven't wrapped my head around is like. It's super simple to fire up a cryptographic key pair. So, what's preventing basically DDoS attacks and someone firing up a ton of these and like,

Derek: there's essentially really nothing preventing it. We had a Bitcoin Core developer. Ron Stoner, I believe, recently. He decided to show this exact example. And he mined like four million end pubs and he sent a million of them to follow Will from Damus and just to show that, this is essentially an exploit. maybe, we need clients to start to look at low, I'll call them low value key, accounts that don't really follow anybody that have no credit. interactions, that look like they're spam because ultimately anybody can create an infinite number of new keys. Like that's just, that's kind of how it works.

Knut: Yeah, I know Twitter's way of mitigating that is probably the blue check nowadays, like where they, I love that they kick the celebrities off of their high horses and like now everyone can get a blue check. It's just a small payment per month. I don't know if it's 8 or something, but as I understand it, that's the way to fight the bots because like you need to get above a threshold.

Derek: And that kind of exists, in a way on Nostr. So Nostr has, it's not the same type of verification that you would have on Twitter because nothing is truly being verified except for A website exists that says this person has some way of updating a file on this webpage, it's a NIP05 Nostr address.

Luke: Nostr Improvement Protocol,

Derek: Improvement Protocol, or no, Nostr Implementation Possibility.

Yes. because you don't have to implement it if you don't want to. If you don't want to implement it, you don't have to.

And possibility was a miss, it was proposal I was thinking of, but yeah, possibility. Proposal. Yeah. that rings a bell. . Yeah, so, with these Nostr addresses, like, you can kind of have Some type of verification that somebody exists, but then bots could sit there and just spin up new accounts and constantly just verify themselves over and over and over again. So that's not a really good spam, mitigation technique.

I think the best that we have right now is rate limiting and relays. being paid. It's kind of a paywall. So there's free relays that are public that anybody can write to. But then there is also the paid relays where maybe it's a monthly fee. Maybe it's a one time fee, yearly fee, but it's some type of paywall.

Nostr's Relay Architecture

Luke: Can you lightly refresh the relay client,

Derek: Sure, sure. So Clients are just like your web browser, or just like your email browser, your email client, your email application. They connect to relays that store all of your Nostr data. Relays are just like, servers, they're nodes, and they store all of your events, all your nodes, all your Nostr content.

A client then connects to, All these different relays that a user would be utilizing and downloads or pulls the content from the relays. And then the user sends the content to the relays for other people to pull, to pull down. The relays are the real, real, like dumb part of Nostr. They don't really do anything overly exciting besides store and house information where clients are the power houses.

Clients are the ones that are unique and doing all the, Unique, features and displaying the content differently.

Knut: so is there a risk that it goes the same route as SMTP and email and we end up with your Hotmail and your Gmails are

Derek: centralized servers. Like there's like, what I can remember running email servers, you know, two decades ago and it was like no big deal. And now it's a lot harder. you basically get blacklisted by all the big, all the big companies, for, for being an unknown new host, essentially.

Could we see that? Maybe, but there's a new methodology that clients are starting to adopt that drastically improves decentralization. Right now, we would have to, on the majority of clients right now, for us to communicate and know each other exists on Nostr, we would have to share at least one relay in common.

So that way our content is both sent to and pulled from at least one server that we have in common. So we know each other exists and we can communicate that way. Which means you could then have centralization issues where everybody could be using the same Ten whatever relays in common, and you really don't want that in a true decentralized model.

So there's a new methodology that developers are slowly starting to implement in their clients. It's referred to as the outbox model, and the way that this works is that the client will look at all of the people, or all the end pubs, the profiles that A user is following and go out to that user's relays where they're publishing their content and pull the content down from that user's relays instead of the initial user's relays.

So it drastically improves decentralization because the two users don't have to share a relay in common. The client does all the work pulling the content down from whichever the relays are. So I could, in theory, publish all of my content to just like the Derek relay. And if your client supports this new type of outbox model and you don't use the Derek relay, you could still see my content because your client knows to go to the Derek relay to get Derek's content.

Knut: but nothing is forcing people to implement this model. Right.

Derek: No, no, no, exactly. So that, that's why right now we don't have every single client across Nostr using it, but if clients are built with the, NDK, the Nostr development toolkit, Outbox is supported by default now. Snort, Iris, Amethyst, Coracle, I believe. There's a handful of clients that support it now.

And Dalmas doesn't have it yet. Primal doesn't have it yet, but their developers are both committed to adding it in the future. Once all the major clients are doing it, it's like a social consensus at that point.

And just a quick follow on, on this. I think the distinction, the reason this works in my understanding, right. Is that most of these relays would be anyone can read, but you have to have access to write to it. is that correct? Yeah. Well, yeah. For example, like for my relay, anybody can read from my relay, but only, I only allow my wife and I to write to my relay, but since everybody in the world can read from it with the outbox model, you don't have to specifically tell your client.

Your client will know where my content is and go to my relay to get it for

Luke: right? So a model that actually would in fact work in this scenario is someone signs up for maybe one or two big paid relays, something like that. And that relay just lets anyone read from it. Then this outbox model would just let people pull down from those paid relays.

I think we'll see in the future a lot more smaller community based relays just because that methodology will just work like right now. If you have all sorts of smaller community relays, you have to know where the people you follow publish their content.

Derek: And then if they would start publishing it on a new relay and no longer use that relay, you could lose contact with that person. So this new method will fix that.

Nostr User Experience and Adoption

Knut: It's, I mean, all of this sounds complicated, and I think like, do, does Nostr get the masses, like, and can it be fixed with, improved user interfaces and stuff? Like how? there's always a trade off between usability and security, right? So like, how do you see that

Derek: I like to say that technology works best once it fades into the background. You should not know The protocol that you're using. You shouldn't know how all of the sausage is made. You should just know, man, I like sausage. It's delicious. Like, that's all you need to know. Right? and Nostr needs to, to get to that level.

Are we there yet? Definitely not. relays are important, but maybe in the future, whenever a new user signs in, they don't actually really need to choose the relays that often. Maybe it's just going to randomize. You know, there's a thousand relays out there just randomly picks, six relays or something, a half a dozen relays at random.

So it's drastically increasing decentralization. And it does all this in the background. And then under an advanced setting, you can add your own personal one or something like that. most people won't ever go into advanced settings. they'll just use their app because everything else just fades into the background.

They'll just use it. They won't need to know to go in to add media servers or they won't know to go in and configure relays. The clients will just do all of this for them because the technology stack has improved to the point where this can be done.

Knut: yeah, I'm going to continue on the devil's advocate, like

Derek: Fire away. We need

Knut: attack vectors here.

Ethical Concerns and Open Protocols

Knut: so since it's so open and anyone can develop Nostr stuff, like right now you have the ethos and like all the developers, like, I love that all of these young 180 IQ developers are now, they're not making shitcoins anymore and They're all on Nostr, and like, I love that fact, because that's, that's the right usage of that brainpower.

But going forward, and if this really takes off, or when this really takes off, don't you see, don't you think you'll see, people with not as ethical intentions get into the space and try to like, take over?

Derek: Yeah, I mean, sure. I think that, you know, Nostr is an open protocol. So anything will be tried because it can be tried because it's open. But then we need to look at the free market and we need to look at staying open. If Nostr is truly permissionless, then yes, shitcoiners should be able to come build on Nostr.

I don't want to use their clients. I won't recommend anybody. they should be able to come and try to build something because Nostr is open and maybe they'll only have their shitcoin corner of Nostr and they'll have their own community over here. The rest of us won't be using that.

And that's probably okay. Well,

Knut: It's all about optionality, right?

Derek: that I think is the issue that Nostr really solves is because it's giving people choice. And in legacy social media, you don't really have a lot of choice. You need to use what is spoon fed to you. So if somebody wants to come build, you know, Ethereum tipping or Solana tipping or something on Nostr, I mean, that's,

Cool. Like I'm not going to use it. I'm not going to tell my wife that she now needs to Ethereum zap me, but the fact that somebody could do it would prove that Nostr really is permissionless and open.

Knut: Yeah, this leads me directly to a deeper philosophical question.

Hypernostrification vs. Hyperbitcoinization

Derek: Yeah. Because, in your mind, what happens first? Hypernostrification or hyperbitcoinization? And the reason I ask this now is like, because if we get hyperbitcoinization first, then it might be harder for, for shitcoins Oh yeah.

Knut: But in your mind, what happens first of the two?

Knut: I don't know. Again, we're going to go to a Derekism, another saying I like to say. I like to say that the purple pill helps the orange pill go down. So it's lube.

Derek: I think that we see more Nostr adoption first, and that helps with Bitcoin adoption through just ease of use and fun and frictionless manners.

I really think that, we know the money's broken, but social's also broken too. I don't think, The world is entirely going to move to Bitcoin. we're going to see hyperbitcoinization in the next couple of years, but maybe we'll see hyper Nostrification in the next couple of years as applications slowly start to rebuild and try out Nostr and see how that works for them.

And then from there, they get on boarded to Bitcoin through that.

Knut: So the reason that the web is broken, and the reason social media is broken, is that because of bad money. Like, what's the correlation there? Like, have you thought about that?

Derek: Maybe I like to think back to, you know, two decades ago, if you wanted to run a server out of your house to run your own media server, your own, you know, photos, your own documents, you know, movies, music, whatever you wanted to do, any type of social. you really couldn't do it. Like we didn't really have the infrastructure or the technology to really do it.

It was very expensive to run a server at home. we didn't have point and click installs for the average person. We didn't have point and click, you know, setups for in configurations for routers, we just didn't have the technology. For the average person to do it, you know, if, if you're a, you know, systems administrator, network engineer, sure, you can do all that stuff.

I mean, I was doing that 20 years ago too, but nobody else, you know, besides people in that like profession really did that. Nowadays, you can spend 50 and buy a raspberry pi and Install piece of software on it and touch a couple buttons and boom, you can deploy all these home services.

I think that since we couldn't do that 20 years ago, 30 years ago, we moved the technology stack into these large data centers where. The technology existed for people to run these services because they had the software, they had the high bandwidth, they had the fast servers, computers.

So we moved everything into these data centers and we trusted these large technology companies because they had the resources to do that. But then as technology improves, the infrastructure improves. Software improves and becomes easier. Now we can start pulling that out of the data center and the users can do it at home.

I don't think it's related to bad money. I just think it's related to, you know, we were early, so we moved to centralization because we had to, and now that we've advanced enough, now we can kind of. Recapture that and pull it back.

Knut: Yeah.

Luke: I actually like that argument for this because I mean, it's the gold thing, right? Like the gold physically couldn't do these things, but now Bitcoin does that. so gold centralized into vaults. Because that was just the way that

Knut: And fiat solved that problem.

Luke: exactly. so now maybe what you're saying is that, yeah, at the time, the actual server infrastructure had to be centralized like that.

And now there's a decentralized alternative. I can buy that.

Derek: and here's, a thought on this, maybe fiat money and, you know, our kids take the bill and pushing things forward faster and faster, that led to the computer revolution and the internet revolution. If that had been done in a sounder way, then maybe the internet would have developed slower, but in a more sound way, maybe, you know, technology bills getting published And money printing to fund, you know, so they just build fast and quick and they built too fast. Maybe it wasn't sustainable. The only way to be sustainable was to centralize who knows. It's all related to bad money.

I get it.

Knut: My tip is to not spend 50 on a raspberry pi, but spend a couple of hundred bucks and buy a start 9 instead.

Luke: something that, Definitely has the slightly more resources. And I mean, I think definitely, we, we had, someone asked the question at the noob day about, about running relays and everything. And I mean, it's great that people are actually wanting to do the self sovereign thing with Nostr the same way as they, Do with the Bitcoin nodes and stuff.

And it's great to see that these like node in the box

Derek: Yeah.

Luke: are making that easy for people.

Running Your Own Relay

Luke: So maybe, maybe here's like a, like a practical thing, just like a little bit on running your own relay and being as self sovereign as possible. And Nostr, do you have some thoughts on that?

Derek: Yeah. So I personally run two different relays. I run a relay on my phone just to basically act as a place for my DMs and my offline notes to go. So I can have my, I'm sorry, not DMs. I meant drafts. The other D with drafts for my drafts to go. And then for my offline notes to go, I run a relay in my house for my wife and I to use, as I had mentioned earlier.

And I do a little bit more of a complicated method because I want my relay in my house to be accessible from the outside world. That piece of the puzzle was still a little bit technical because you have to configure some network settings to allow the outside world to connect in to a computer that you're running at home.

So that, portion of it isn't like point and click easy yet. But, if you do have a start nine or you do have an umbral, you can point and click to have a relay at home installed. And then while you're at home on, Wi Fi or if you have a desktop, it's hardwired, whatever, anything that's on your home network can easily use those local relays.

And then if you want to access them from the outside world, you have to know that networking piece that I was just talking about, or you need to use like a home VPN. Or something like tail scale. And then you can accomplish that.

Onboarding and User Accessibility

Knut: so when will my 78 year old mother, fire up a Nostr, keep her?

Derek: I don't know. Maybe does she use social media now?

Knut: Yeah, she does.

Derek: What does she use?

Knut: Facebook, mainly.

Derek: Okay. Well, maybe someday I think Facebook's going to be a holdout on this. Maybe we'll see Elon do it in the next, two or three years, but I think someday we'll see a large legacy.

Traditional social media client turn into a very highly customized Nostr client and users really won't even know it. They'll custody the keys for the user, give you a username and password. They'll do all of that stuff. It'll be a, filtered relay, maybe moderated relay, who knows. But it'll essentially look the same and function the same for users, except they'll be connected to the Nostrverse.

they'll be publishing publicly to Nostr, and they won't even know it yet. So maybe when that happens, then she'll have her keys. Otherwise, I think the onboarding process needs to be improved a little bit

Knut: Mm hmm.

Derek: We can have 78 year olds, actively using Nostr.

I think it needs to be easier.

Knut: Boomer.

Derek: Yeah.

Luke: Well, some 78 year olds are more tech savvy than others,

Knut: yes, most of them are more tech savvy than my mother for sure.

Luke: there you go.

Beyond Twitter Alternatives

Luke: But this actually leads to another point here, is that the Twitter alternatives are really the clients that are the big thing. And actually, I think even people who are in the Nostr ecosystem already, Don't really do much outside of these Twitter alternatives, but there are other ways to display the Nostr information that looks a lot different, right?

Can you go into that a little bit?

Derek: yeah, I think that the reasons that Twitter alternatives are the most popular is because that's what we needed most, you know, and that's what was the most popular use case in the beginning, and it still holds true today, but it's also because These applications kind of manage the key for you, like on your device.

And a lot of this other stuff, a lot of these new unique use cases are web applications, they're websites, and people don't want to just go and paste their private key, their NSEC into a random website, which you should never do anyways. I found out that using extensions is something a lot of people don't use.

Like, with my app, NostrNest. com, so many people just don't use extensions. And you need to use an extension to sign in. The extension manages your key for you on the web. It acts as like your key management signing device. And a lot of people just don't use it. I would tell them, oh, you need to use an extension.

They're like, well, how do I use an extension? It's like, oh, you just need to go here and install that. And so many people just aren't familiar with it. It's really, that was really surprising to me. my point is that the other stuff, while it can be exciting unique and cool, it's not used as much because I think signing into all these web apps is, Very different from the average user.

They're used to using a username and password. They're not used to having to go and install an extension in Safari or install a whole nother web browser on Android or a whole nother app, to access a website. That's weird. it's a little too different. And once that workflow improves, then maybe we'll see, your Twitch alternative or your, medium alternative, blow up.

And become more popular.

Luke: Well, and actually the funny thing is the experience. Once you have the extension set up and you just go

Derek: Oh, it's easy

clients, like frictionless, it's perfect. But once you get over that hurdle of installing the extension, putting your private key into it and logging into that first website where it says, Hey, you're trying to log in and this website wants to know who you are. Do you want to allow it? Yes. you're going to post something and you know, do you want to have this post to your profile?

Yes. Once you understand how that works, then it's a no brainer, but it's just that first technical hurdle that so many people struggle with. But hopefully we Nostr developers can make this easier, in the coming future.

Luke: it's the natural innovation beyond because, a lot of services had been adopting a password lists, authentication model, basically just send a code to your email address. and I like that model. I think that's a lot more secure. You just have to worry about your email being secure

But then you go, one, next level, and it's everything is from that key pair. we are Nostr pilled as far as the use case and what it is. But it comes down to, I think, a little more of the pain points and the usability of it,

Nostr Algorithms

Luke: I will use Nostr, like the, the feed and everything, but I'll also use the, the Twitter feed as well because there's just so much more information on that. and the thing is, my current thing that I would like to see improvement on, or at least my ability to make my own improvements on is the algorithm selection.

and I know you've got a talk, coming up about this, like how to tailor your own algorithm, basically. And so before I give any other specific questions on this topic, could you preview, what you're going to talk about in terms of how to

Derek: Sure. So even though there is no blockchain, time chain, whatever for Nostr, I like to say that Nostr is a proof of work protocol because there are no algorithms at the protocol level. And the content isn't necessarily all the time brought forward for you. You're not spoonfed content.

So that means you have to do the work. You have to put in the work to be social. You have to do the work to get discovered and to discover content. And people aren't so much used to that anymore because they're used to being spoonfed a fire hose of content from your major platform. So with Nostr, we have the ability to regain and control our attention.

And we can control our social experience. So you have to do the work. You have to go out and comment on people's posts and you have to socially engage. You need to let people know that you're here. You have to make your voice heard. You have to interact with people. You have to just be social.

And it's really, it's just an interesting take because right now on these traditional platforms, you can kind of just lurk and have a decent experience because you're fed content. And on Nostr, that isn't the case most of the time, but now we have these, algorithm stores that are starting to pop up, where you can use them if you want to, it's not a requirement, which is, you know, like, maybe on, Twitter or Instagram or something like that, like, the algorithm is there, and maybe you can view a different feed, but It's, not the default.

and right now, like Nostr clients, the default is your chronological feed. if that's what you want, you can always have it. But if you want to do some algorithm, you can choose to do that. And it's open and transparent. So you could go and look at the algorithm to see what it's doing.

And that's just unique. We don't really have that type of user choice. So you can be your own algorithm socially. Or you can use an algorithm that somebody else built.

Knut: All right. so I think this was sort of, at least partially, an answer to my next question. And this is something I talked to Giacomo about, but because of the very reasons you just mentioned, you get very high quality people on Nostr and people who agree with one another and are nice and friendly to one another and you take care, it's your reputational capital and so on.

But. Many people are on Twitter for the opposite reason, that they want to argue with people. So how do we get more assholes on Nostr that are wrong on the internet, you know, and

you know, Yeah.

Derek: but I like to say that these algorithms on these traditional platforms were built to keep us enraged and engaged because if we're constantly upset and engaged, we're going to be using the application more.

We're going to see more ads. Ads are going to make more money. And it's going to fuel them to build bigger, better, more algorithms. We're going to use the app more. We're going to be more engaged and enraged. And it's just a never ending cycle.

I think that sure, if somebody wanted to build an asshole algorithm and just only show you controversial, mean content on Nostr, it's open. You can do that. And then they can have their asshole feed, I guess.

Nostr's Competitiveness

Knut: but, okay, this ties into a more serious point, if the, traditional platforms are optimized for engagement and, you know, to keep you on, how does Nostr take off if it doesn't have that drug,

Derek: Yeah, sure. I think most humans generally, want to be good people and don't want to be bad and negative all the time. It's just that, media really fuels that clown world also is very upsetting to people sometimes too.

And it drives their social experiences that way. another Derek ism is that, we're doom scrolling on other platforms. But humans weren't born to doom scroll, they should bloom scroll, people want to be good, I hope, If you're surrounded by good content, it's going to make you more positive.

If you're surrounded by negative content, it's going to make you more negative.

Knut: yeah, I certainly hope that people will use it more, because it ties into why newspapers that have aggressive headlines and like fearful headlines sell better, because our brains are wired for fear,

Derek: Yeah, exactly. we need to change that. We need to take it back. We need to use Nostr to take it back. we should be selling good stuff, not bad stuff.

I totally agree, Is it going to work in practice?

Knut: we'll see.

Luke: actually, so part of the practical thing on this, you can scroll virtually infinitely on these, Twitter apps. But Nostr, there always is some kind of limit. And let me explain what I mean by that. So in Primal, for example, Primal being the app that I use mostly on the web and the phone now, I do like, some others such as, Amethyst, and I've tried other, clients for the web, great to have the variety, but mostly I use Primal for the ease of use factor.

You got into this, at the noob day a little bit. but the, the two styles of feed that I get there through Primal is basically a latest. a version of latest and a version of, trending and the ways that, so, okay, not to overcomplicate this exactly, but I like, for example, concepts of, your tribe, the people who you follow and who follow you

Li limits based on the web of trust, I think. I think that's good And primal gives you tools to limit. So if you decide you want to see a wider feed, maybe you get the people who your followers follow. And then when I click that, I always get a whole ton of Japanese and Thai stuff like that, right? So, it's funny that it's not quite perfect at that level.

To be able to discover new stuff. Okay. I'm, this is actually going to be multiple questions. So maybe we'll start with that one. But how do you discover new stuff on Nostr that isn't the top, top, top most trending thing? Cause this is another side of the problem. but isn't someone that you already know and already follow.

Data Vending Machines (DVMs)

Derek: so I use my main client is Amethyst and there's several clients now that support these things called DVMs. It stands for Data Vending Machine. it sounds kinda, you know, nerdy but all it is, is an algorithm, really. I mean, an algorithm that is executed when somebody says, hey, I want to obtain this piece of data from you, give it to me.

Some of these data vending machines may be free. Some of them may be like a vending machine where you pay it some sats, and then it gives you the data, the algorithms executed after it gets paid. So I use DVMs to find new content. Like that's part of that whole algorithm to discover content.

There's all sorts of different ones. Like maybe I want to. Find, popular notes of cats or dogs, fluffy friends is what I think it's called. Or maybe I want to find, a trending, or there's a new DVM that was suggested recently. It's really cool. it finds the latest note from people you follow.

So if you constantly are posting in the feed every single day, all day long, and then there's other people that maybe post once a week or something, you would never see their content because they're always drowned out by more active users. So this new data vending machine, like algorithm, it'll go out there and find just the top latest note from somebody you follow.

So it's just a feed of like latest notes and that's a way to find content that you. Might generally miss, and that there's actually one called, something like what, while you were away or find content while you weren't active, or something like that on Nostr. And it tries to find content for you that way.

There's all these unique ways to find content and now that they're showing up more and more clients like no strudel and cortical. Coracle does some really neat stuff on, discoverability, finding content now. And this gets back to building your own algorithm. If you want that and you use these clients and it helps you, you find content and you're right.

Like sometimes they're not perfect. Like maybe you'll see some, content from other languages, you know, but you know, that, yeah.

Luke: It's fine that that exists. It's just not relevant to me at all. I mean, I know there are

Derek: that's a feature, maybe that's a filter or something like that on a client that needs to be built in is only show content from my native, or from my language that I normally post in, or my locale, or something like that is a way to maybe that's a new DVM right there.

If we just figured it out, we need,

Well, how do users find information on DVMs? yeah, well, if you're at, this gets back to the, we're early and Nostr is very technical. They're onboarding on Nostr as a whole generally sucks. It does because it's technical. We need more explanations or we need things to be simpler. And because these things, neither of these exist, there's probably a lot of people that use maybe Amethyst or maybe use.

Nostrudel or Coracle that have no clue what these things are. today, Primal announced their DVM store. Their, algorithm marketplace, essentially. And they do it very, very well. It's gonna be, it looks like it's gonna be kind of front and center for you to choose. And you can configure your feed with just a toggle radio button.

It looks like it's designed really, really nice. And maybe we'll see some of this user experience slip over to other clients, because right now you can get to them on several other clients, but they need a little bit more work, I think, to be, more user friendly.

Luke: Sure, and well, okay, and so, you find this stuff even by asking where to find this stuff on Nostr?

Derek: I can give you a website, I don't know the name of it, but it's something like datavendingmachines. com or nostrdvms. com, I don't remember the exact domain name, but it lists them all and explains what they are and how they work.

You should, we should have some of that in app, I think, to have a better user experience.

Luke: And how difficult is it to make your own?

Derek: to make your own DVM or to use one.

Luke: even, for example, just configure it

Derek: To make your own DVM, you probably need to be a Nostr developer. You need to know how to do some development programming. But if you want to utilize one, it's just a few clicks of a button. The most configurable one that exists today, Coracle. You can build these custom feeds with DVMs, with hashtags, with lists of people, with all sorts of stuff, and you can build a very, very user customized, feed, and I believe Damus NoteDeck is going to have something similar like that, too, where in the future, they'll have these algorithm stores and all these different types of feeds that you're going to be able to very easily point and click and build these feeds, but to build your own feed, Custom DVM, yeah, you should probably be a developer for that.

Otherwise, you'll just use somebody else's DVM that they built.

Luke: Okay, and then, so, I guess the engagement side of it. That's the other way to so called build your own feed?

Derek: right, like if, and this kind of mimics the real world, right, if we're standing outside in the conference hall and you and Knut are talking and I want to interject in the conversation, I'm not gonna just stand there off to the side and hope that you look at me and say, hey, do you want to talk?

I gotta go over and stand there and I gotta join the conversation. And that's really what you need to do on Nostr. if somebody is posting, commenting, replying, whatever, if you want to join the conversation, you need to join the conversation. You need to comment and talk too. And then those people are going to be like, Oh, hey, look, Derek's replying.

Luke: I don't know who he is, but now he's joined the conversation. I liked his reply. Maybe I want to follow him. And it just mimics real world in that. and as I understand it, the primal algorithm is largely reply based, like, the, the trending is, is, notes that get a lot of, replies, and, that, that's, that's important for that algorithm, and that's, this is actually one of these things I would like to personally be able to, to, to toggle, is, is, I don't necessarily look for the things that have the most interest.

replies, maybe I want it, maybe I want, because that's engagement, maybe I want the things that, that have the most likes, or, the most zaps, that one, that one's easy, I like that, that one's usually, pretty available and all this,

Derek: yeah, the mentioning the Primal algorithm for their trending is an interesting topic because over the past year, like when they first announced trending I think their signal indicator might have been zaps and people were doing like fake zaps just to show that this could be gamed and then Primal went back and retooled a little bit and then it was people were doing like spamming like thousands and thousands of reactions and then hitting trending again.

It's an open protocol. Anybody's going to do anything. And then, you know, Primal went back again and retooled and made their algorithm better and, then they, once they, hit a working model that couldn't be gamed as easily, then they published it very transparent. This is how our algorithm works.

You can go review it all on GitHub, yada, yada, yada. And, you know, that's kind of where we're at today. I think that, having an algorithm or having a DVM or something that, You could customize, Hey, I want to see most likes or most zaps or most replies. I think that's cool with it. Cause maybe your signal indicator is different than mine.

And you'll have the one from, the client, like however their algorithm is configured, but maybe you can go in and configure your algorithm just a little bit differently because you like comments, but you want to see those big zaps and there actually is a DVM for top zaps or something like that.

Luke: It sounds like there's something for everyone here, it's just a matter of figuring out how to use it

Knut: It's sort of like the saying with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is for everyone and people pointing out that no, it's not. It's for anyone. Yeah, and that's a better description.

Luke: Well, and actually this is another philosophical question here, right, because still we're going to get people that come into this who aren't going to want to do any customization. They just want to come in and have it work and be like their Twitter.

And then what happens is that the default algorithm of the largest app turns into the new

Derek: into like the default.

Luke: yeah, which also turns into the things that people see and all of this.

Derek: well, right now, as far as I know, there are no clients that the default feed that you get is an algorithm. I think you have to go in and configure that and change that and choose to do that. As long as that stays the case. You know, the chronological, some people might say chronological order is its own algorithm, but as long as the, chronological algorithm is the default one, I really don't see that's that big of a deal, but even if it is, we have user choice, you're right.

If the most popular client would automatically say, Hey, We're gonna switch to using this algorithm. Whenever Facebook makes a feed change, or Twitter would make a feed change, you know people are up in arms and they yell and they complain, but you can't do anything about it. Well, Nostr's different. You, you literally can, you can say, well, I'm going to use a new client.

So I'm curious what would happen if, the most popular client makes a major change like this, they change the algorithm, the default algorithm, would everybody really do what they say they want to do on Facebook? Like I'm never using Facebook again because you changed my feed. Well, they can't go anywhere else.

So they stick to Facebook, but now you could. So would people actually move to another app?

Funny that you should say that, because that's one of the things that made me leave Facebook, right? Because they actually did some social experiment by pissing people off but now you would have a choice, right? Like, so that opens up a whole new

Knut: yeah, and I could take my posts with me.

Derek: You take your content, your social graph with you. so maybe we won't see that, or maybe once someone does it, they shoot some self in the foot and they're like, Oh, we don't, maybe we shouldn't do this.

We should give users a choice.

The Permanency of Online Content

Knut: There's another thing about the social graph and the permanency of it, like how permanent it is, because everyone should know that anything you do on the internet is as permanent as a tattoo. And that's why you can't delete posts from Nostr, like the whole deleting of data is a mirage.

It's not real.

you can delete, but not every relay is going to honor that request. but what I'm coming to here is that, is that going to scare people that their stupid post from when they were 15 years old will be there forever?

Derek: Well, what I'd be curious about is, on legacy social platforms, when you hit delete, Is it actually deleted from a database or is it just flagged as deleted and don't show again?

probably the latter. Yeah, so probably, you can screenshot stuff. Like if you post something on the internet, it's literally never going to go away.

Knut: People just need to learn this. So maybe Nostr is the way that they learn that, because it's more honest.

Derek: it is more honest. Like I can make a request for a deletion from every relay that my content exists on.

Knut: Yeah.

Derek: If I, you know, let's say there's a thousand relays and 999 of them delete the content, but one of them says, yeah, I'm going to archive everything, I'm not deleting it.

Well, then it still exists on the internet, like it just, so that's why we say there's no delete. Yeah, maybe you're right, maybe it is the most honest that you can request it to be deleted, but there's no guarantee that the request is going to be honored.

Luke: Good. Yeah. okay.

Getting the Most Out of Nostr

Luke: So, the principles of Nostr seem to be getting pretty clear here that, it's all about this portability, this decentralization, this new way of doing things, and yes, there is going to be some. Switchover, that people have to do to, really get the most out of it.

But, that said, there's so much cool stuff going on, that once you make that switch, there's this whole new world of it. And, for me personally, the biggest thing that's prevented me from going all in is, I guess I just, haven't got quite The right thing, the right feed, the engagement. I mean, I think timezone right now plays a big role here, because when is everyone actually active?

How do you get involved in conversations? For Europe, it's a bit tough. You almost have to post on Nostr in the European evening to get any engagement with North American users, which at the moment are the majority. At least in the English speaking world.

Derek: That doesn't really happen unless you specifically seek. That on Nostr. So a little hack about being your own algorithm that I've used over the past, year and a half or so is, you know, people used to say it was bad form to retweet your own tweets, but you need to do that.

You need to boost your own content on Nostr. You need to, I do it specifically for different time zones. Like you said, you know, maybe I posted something really good. In 8 o'clock in the morning and then six hours later, I'm like, you know what? There's more people up and out and about in the world right now.

I'm going to boost that because I thought that was really good. I don't do it for every single one of my notes because that's probably overkill. But maybe once or twice a day, if I thought I did something, I think, man, that needs more views.

So this gets back to being your own algorithm. So I would say try that. People aren't going to hate on you for it. people understand that you need to be your own algorithm and bring your own content forward.

Knut: know how Nostr reminds me that I should be more careful on the internet because like sometimes I accidentally like posts that I want to, I want to declick the button and make the like go away, but it doesn't.

Derek: But well, so that depends on the client. So what that would do is that would send a delete request

Knut: yeah, exactly what we talked about before.

Yeah, to all like amethyst supports on, you know, unliking, but it sends a delete request to all the relays saying, Hey, delete that, that reaction. that's the thing. It's, it reminds me of what's actually going on under the hood while the other social media platforms just are optimized for make it simple for the user. Yeah.

Nostr vs Bitcoin

Knut: to take this in a slightly different direction and, a final point here, we've found out why you're so bullish on Nostr.

Why are you bullish on Bitcoin? Like what's, what's your, what are you most excited for in the Bitcoin space right now?

Derek: The most exciting thing about Bitcoin for me is to see these developing communities around the world, like using Bitcoin because it's better than their corrupt money. they're inflated money. And seeing them being able to save for the very first time and being able to essentially like be their own bank, you know, banking the unbanked and just being better money for them.

I think that is so cool. Like I absolutely love watching all these videos of Communities around the world bettering themselves and educating their youth or children on money and finances and seeing the kids being able to have better lives because of this. Like that's the use case. It's cool.

wealth preservation is cool. I understand, sound money Everything is broken, after reading, Safedine's, the fiat standard. thinking about Bitcoin is another element there's a lot of interesting use cases and ways to think about it.

But my favorite is, communities having these circular economies and bettering themselves.

Knut: Great.

Luke: Yeah, fantastic answer and very much aligned with us. And, since we've been, poking at different bits of Nostr this whole time, I also was hoping to end on a, on a optimistic note on the Nostr side as, as well.

Most Exciting Projects on Nostr

Luke: So what are you most excited about that's coming up right now? What do you think is going to make the biggest impact in what you're aware of?

Derek: There's so many really cool projects out there. Oh man. there's probably ones being demonstrated right now that I've never even, you know, wasn't aware of. I really like the ability to have, so the, There's a Nostr app called zap. store. It is a Google Play or App Store, replacement, FOSS, built on Nostr.

It allows us to see, applications that are reviewed and installed by our web of trust. So An application that's really popular and has good reviews by people, you know, people that are in your web of trust versus who knows who they are, if they're bots or whatever on, you know, these other app stores. I think that that's a very neat use case.

You know, we see problems in the Bitcoin ecosystem where apps get removed from app stores all the time, And it just seems that everything is getting choked in this regard. So I think that's a neat use case, especially what's been going on in the Bitcoin ecosystem. I'm really excited to see that continue to grow and get fleshed out.

I think just. Everything being able to be more interoperable on Nostr. I'm really bullish for the next big thing to be built on Nostr and then all these other clients to be like, wow, I want to implement it. And then they all implement it. And that feature then is used everywhere, but there's just so much stuff.

It's hard to be bullish on one thing. Like, you know, Pablo's, Nutsack, Cashew wallet is really cool.

Luke: Yeah. What a

Derek: It takes balls to decide the kind of name. does.

Knut: All right.

Wrapping Up

Derek: So other than Nostr, where can people find you on the internet know what? I got tired of Odell yelling about Nostr only and me being a huge Nostr bull, not being Nostr only. So a couple of months ago I deleted everything. It's all gone. I have no Twitter. I have no Facebook. I have no Instagram, no LinkedIn. I'm Nostr only.

Knut: All right.

Derek: you want to find me, You need to go to Nostr because I don't exist anywhere else anymore.

Luke: any specific things that you're working on that you'd like to tell us

Derek: So the most exciting thing that I've personally done recently is I organized a community led Nostr booth at BTC Prague, where I basically said to the community, Hey, Nostr needs to have a big presence so we can purple pill Prague. Let's have a booth. I want developers to be able to come to the booth, talk to their users, talk about their products.

Getting a booth is expensive. And a lot of these indie, smaller developers, can't afford that. So what if they just donate a little bit of Bitcoin? We pooled those funds together. We had maybe a couple larger, Developers, sponsors, and we pull all these funds together. We have this Nostr booth.

it was great. I think it was one of the most well received booths. I'm a little biased there, but it was busy for three days straight. We had tons of people there all the time. everybody that I talked to absolutely loved it. It was great to see. the whole Nostr community come together for this, essentially an educational slash marketing effort really to help grow Nostr and teach and educate people about Nostr.

I'm excited to do it again. Like I don't know when and where, but I want to do it again. I think it was great and I would love to have the same initiative at some point in the near future.

Luke: thanks a lot for coming on.

Derek: for having me.

Luke: We could probably continue to try and pick your encyclopedic brain on the Nostr stuff, but we'll give you a break. We know you've got another panel

Derek: So enjoy the rest of the conference. Thanks again, Derek. This has been the Bitcoin Infinity Show. All right. Thank you

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Ako sa snažím praktizovať LunarPunk bez budovania opcionality "odchodom" do zahraničia. Nie každý je ochotný alebo schopný meniť "miesto", ako však v takom prípade minimalizovať interakciu so štátom? Nie návod, skôr postrehy z bežného života.