@ a95c6243:d345522c

Falls du beim Lesen des Titels dieses Newsletters unwillkürlich an positive Neuigkeiten aus dem globalen polit-medialen Irrenhaus oder gar aus dem wirtschaftlichen Umfeld gedacht hast, darf ich dich beglückwünschen. Diese Assoziation ist sehr löblich, denn sie weist dich als unverbesserlichen Optimisten aus. Leider muss ich dich diesbezüglich aber enttäuschen. Es geht hier um ein anderes Thema, allerdings sehr wohl ein positives, wie ich finde.

Heute ist ein ganz besonderer Tag: die Wintersonnenwende. Genau gesagt hat heute morgen um 10:20 Uhr Mitteleuropäischer Zeit (MEZ) auf der Nordhalbkugel unseres Planeten der astronomische Winter begonnen. Was daran so außergewöhnlich ist? Der kürzeste Tag des Jahres war gestern, seit heute werden die Tage bereits wieder länger! Wir werden also jetzt jeden Tag ein wenig mehr Licht haben.

Für mich ist dieses Ereignis immer wieder etwas kurios: Es beginnt der Winter, aber die Tage werden länger. Das erscheint mir zunächst wie ein Widerspruch, denn meine spontanen Assoziationen zum Winter sind doch eher Kälte und Dunkelheit, relativ zumindest. Umso erfreulicher ist der emotionale Effekt, wenn dann langsam die Erkenntnis durchsickert: Ab jetzt wird es schon wieder heller!

Natürlich ist es kalt im Winter, mancherorts mehr als anderswo. Vielleicht jedoch nicht mehr lange, wenn man den Klimahysterikern glauben wollte. Mindestens letztes Jahr hat Väterchen Frost allerdings gleich zu Beginn seiner Saison – und passenderweise während des globalen Überhitzungsgipfels in Dubai – nochmal richtig mit der Faust auf den Tisch gehauen. Schnee- und Eischaos sind ja eigentlich in der Agenda bereits nicht mehr vorgesehen. Deswegen war man in Deutschland vermutlich in vorauseilendem Gehorsam schon nicht mehr darauf vorbereitet und wurde glatt lahmgelegt.

Aber ich schweife ab. Die Aussicht auf nach und nach mehr Licht und damit auch Wärme stimmt mich froh. Den Zusammenhang zwischen beidem merkt man in Andalusien sehr deutlich. Hier, wo die Häuser im Winter arg auskühlen, geht man zum Aufwärmen raus auf die Straße oder auf den Balkon. Die Sonne hat auch im Winter eine erfreuliche Kraft. Und da ist jede Minute Gold wert.

Außerdem ist mir vor Jahren so richtig klar geworden, warum mir das südliche Klima so sehr gefällt. Das liegt nämlich nicht nur an der Sonne als solcher, oder der Wärme – das liegt vor allem am Licht. Ohne Licht keine Farben, das ist der ebenso simple wie gewaltige Unterschied zwischen einem deprimierenden matschgraubraunen Winter und einem fröhlichen bunten. Ein großes Stück Lebensqualität.

Mir gefällt aber auch die Symbolik dieses Tages: Licht aus der Dunkelheit, ein Wendepunkt, ein Neuanfang, neue Möglichkeiten, Übergang zu neuer Aktivität. In der winterlichen Stille keimt bereits neue Lebendigkeit. Und zwar in einem Zyklus, das wird immer wieder so geschehen. Ich nehme das gern als ein Stück Motivation, es macht mir Hoffnung und gibt mir Energie.

Übrigens ist parallel am heutigen Tag auf der südlichen Halbkugel Sommeranfang. Genau im entgegengesetzten Rhythmus, sich ergänzend, wie Yin und Yang. Das alles liegt an der Schrägstellung der Erdachse, die ist nämlich um 23,4º zur Umlaufbahn um die Sonne geneigt. Wir erinnern uns, gell?

Insofern bleibt eindeutig festzuhalten, dass “schräg sein” ein willkommener, wichtiger und positiver Wert ist. Mit anderen Worten: auch ungewöhnlich, eigenartig, untypisch, wunderlich, kauzig, … ja sogar irre, spinnert oder gar “quer” ist in Ordnung. Das schließt das Denken mit ein.

In diesem Sinne wünsche ich euch allen urige Weihnachtstage!

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Dieser Beitrag ist letztes Jahr in meiner Denkbar erschienen.

@ a95c6243:d345522c

Das Betriebsklima ist das einzige Klima, \ das du selbst bestimmen kannst. \ Anonym

Eine Strategie zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel hat das deutsche Bundeskabinett diese Woche beschlossen. Da «Wetterextreme wie die immer häufiger auftretenden Hitzewellen und Starkregenereignisse» oft desaströse Auswirkungen auf Mensch und Umwelt hätten, werde eine Anpassung an die Folgen des Klimawandels immer wichtiger. «Klimaanpassungsstrategie» nennt die Regierung das.

Für die «Vorsorge vor Klimafolgen» habe man nun erstmals klare Ziele und messbare Kennzahlen festgelegt. So sei der Erfolg überprüfbar, und das solle zu einer schnelleren Bewältigung der Folgen führen. Dass sich hinter dem Begriff Klimafolgen nicht Folgen des Klimas, sondern wohl «Folgen der globalen Erwärmung» verbergen, erklärt den Interessierten die Wikipedia. Dabei ist das mit der Erwärmung ja bekanntermaßen so eine Sache.

Die Zunahme schwerer Unwetterereignisse habe gezeigt, so das Ministerium, wie wichtig eine frühzeitige und effektive Warnung der Bevölkerung sei. Daher solle es eine deutliche Anhebung der Nutzerzahlen der sogenannten Nina-Warn-App geben.

Die ARD spurt wie gewohnt und setzt die Botschaft zielsicher um. Der Artikel beginnt folgendermaßen:

«Die Flut im Ahrtal war ein Schock für das ganze Land. Um künftig besser gegen Extremwetter gewappnet zu sein, hat die Bundesregierung eine neue Strategie zur Klimaanpassung beschlossen. Die Warn-App Nina spielt eine zentrale Rolle. Der Bund will die Menschen in Deutschland besser vor Extremwetter-Ereignissen warnen und dafür die Reichweite der Warn-App Nina deutlich erhöhen.»

Die Kommunen würden bei ihren «Klimaanpassungsmaßnahmen» vom Zentrum KlimaAnpassung unterstützt, schreibt das Umweltministerium. Mit dessen Aufbau wurden das Deutsche Institut für Urbanistik gGmbH, welches sich stark für Smart City-Projekte engagiert, und die Adelphi Consult GmbH beauftragt.

Adelphi beschreibt sich selbst als «Europas führender Think-and-Do-Tank und eine unabhängige Beratung für Klima, Umwelt und Entwicklung». Sie seien «global vernetzte Strateg*innen und weltverbessernde Berater*innen» und als «Vorreiter der sozial-ökologischen Transformation» sei man mit dem Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitspreis ausgezeichnet worden, welcher sich an den Zielen der Agenda 2030 orientiere.

Über die Warn-App mit dem niedlichen Namen Nina, die möglichst jeder auf seinem Smartphone installieren soll, informiert das Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (BBK). Gewarnt wird nicht nur vor Extrem-Wetterereignissen, sondern zum Beispiel auch vor Waffengewalt und Angriffen, Strom- und anderen Versorgungsausfällen oder Krankheitserregern. Wenn man die Kategorie Gefahreninformation wählt, erhält man eine Dosis von ungefähr zwei Benachrichtigungen pro Woche.

Beim BBK erfahren wir auch einiges über die empfohlenen Systemeinstellungen für Nina. Der Benutzer möge zum Beispiel den Zugriff auf die Standortdaten «immer zulassen», und zwar mit aktivierter Funktion «genauen Standort verwenden». Die Datennutzung solle unbeschränkt sein, auch im Hintergrund. Außerdem sei die uneingeschränkte Akkunutzung zu aktivieren, der Energiesparmodus auszuschalten und das Stoppen der App-Aktivität bei Nichtnutzung zu unterbinden.

Dass man so dramatische Ereignisse wie damals im Ahrtal auch anders bewerten kann als Regierungen und Systemmedien, hat meine Kollegin Wiltrud Schwetje anhand der Tragödie im spanischen Valencia gezeigt. Das Stichwort «Agenda 2030» taucht dabei in einem Kontext auf, der wenig mit Nachhaltigkeitspreisen zu tun hat.

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Dieser Beitrag ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Im Frühjahr kündigte EU-Kommissarin Ursula von der Leyen an, sie wolle einen „ Europäischen Demokratieschild " schaffen, um die EU vor ausländischer Einflussnahme zu schützen. Von der Leyens Demokratieschild befindet sich derzeit in der Planungsphase. Die erklärte Absicht besteht darin, eine „ spezielle Struktur zur Bekämpfung ausländischer Informationsmanipulation und -einmischung" zu schaffen. Obwohl es als Instrument zum Schutz der Demokratie angepriesen wird, vermuten einige, dass es sich in Wirklichkeit um einen verschleierten Versuch handelt, abweichende Meinungen zu unterdrücken. Der im vergangenen Jahr verabschiedete Digital Services Act (DSA) der EU ist eng mit diesem Schild verbunden. Durch den DSA riskieren große Social-Media-Plattformen wie Elon Musks X erhebliche Geldstrafen, wenn sie den Forderungen der EU-Bürokraten nach Zensur und Moderation nicht nachkommen.

Note: This text is also available in English at substack.com. Many thanks to stroger1@iris.to for this German translation.

Im krassen Gegensatz dazu hat sich der künftige US-Präsident Donald Trump als klarer Befürworter der Meinungsfreiheit und entschiedener Gegner der Zensur hervorgetan. Er wurde bereits von YouTube gesperrt, hat jedoch erklärt, er wolle „das linke Zensurregime zerschlagen und das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung für alle Amerikaner zurückfordern" . Er hat auch behauptet: „Wenn wir keine freie Meinungsäußerung haben, dann haben wir einfach kein freies Land."

Sein künftiger Vizepräsident J.D. Vance hat sogar angedeutet, dass er bereit sei, US-Militärhilfe von der Achtung der Meinungsfreiheit in den europäischen NATO-Ländern abhängig zu machen. Vances Aussage erfolgte, nachdem EU-Binnenmarktkommissar Thierry Breton vor seinem geplanten Gespräch mit Trump einen umstrittenen Brief an Musk geschickt hatte. Heute erscheint dies als unkluger Schritt, nicht zuletzt, weil er als Versuch gewertet werden kann, die US-Wahl zu beeinflussen -- etwas, das paradoxerweise dem erklärten Zweck von von der Leyens Demokratieschild (d. h. ausländische Manipulationen zu bekämpfen) widerspricht.

Wenn die NATO möchte, dass wir sie weiterhin unterstützen, und die NATO möchte, dass wir weiterhin ein gutes Mitglied dieses Militärbündnisses sind, warum respektieren Sie dann nicht die amerikanischen Werte und die freie Meinungsäußerung?

- J.D. Vance

In der EU sind Verfechter der Meinungsfreiheit in der Öffentlichkeit weniger verbreitet. In Deutschland hat Vizekanzler Robert Habeck kürzlich erklärt, er sei „überhaupt nicht glücklich darüber, was dort [auf X] passiert ... seit Elon Musk das Amt übernommen hat", und wünscht sich eine strengere Regulierung der sozialen Medien. Die Wohnung eines deutschen Rentners wurde kürzlich von der Polizei durchsucht, nachdem er ein Bild von Habeck mit einem abfälligen Kommentar veröffentlicht hatte . Die deutsche Polizei verfolgt auch einen anderen Kontoinhaber, der einen Minister als „übergewichtig" bezeichnet hat. Dieser überhaupt nicht übergewichtige Minister hat kürzlich eine Zeitung verboten , die mit der laut Meinungsumfragen zweitgrößten Partei Deutschlands, der Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), verbündet ist. Eine Partei, die 113 deutsche Parlamentarier nun offiziell verbieten wollen .

Nach dem US-Wahlergebnis stellen sich viele unbeantwortete Fragen. Wird das Weiße Haus seine Aufmerksamkeit auf die restriktivere Haltung der EU richten, die als Untergrabung der freien Meinungsäußerung angesehen werden kann? Oder droht Musks X und Chinas TikTok stattdessen ein EU-Verbot? Können EU-Länder noch mit militärischer Unterstützung aus den USA rechnen? Und wenn große amerikanische Plattformen verboten werden, wohin sollten sich die EU-Bürger stattdessen wenden? Abgesehen von russischen Alternativen gibt es keine großen europäischen Plattformen. Und wenn die Frage der Meinungsfreiheit neu überdacht wird, was bedeutet das für die Zukunft von Parteien wie der deutschen AfD?

@ a95c6243:d345522c

Die Ungerechtigkeit ist uns nur in dem Falle angenehm,\ dass wir Vorteile aus ihr ziehen;\ in jedem andern hegt man den Wunsch,\ dass der Unschuldige in Schutz genommen werde.\ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Politiker beteuern jederzeit, nur das Beste für die Bevölkerung zu wollen – nicht von ihr. Auch die zahlreichen unsäglichen «Corona-Maßnahmen» waren angeblich zu unserem Schutz notwendig, vor allem wegen der «besonders vulnerablen Personen». Daher mussten alle möglichen Restriktionen zwangsweise und unter Umgehung der Parlamente verordnet werden.

Inzwischen hat sich immer deutlicher herausgestellt, dass viele jener «Schutzmaßnahmen» den gegenteiligen Effekt hatten, sie haben den Menschen und den Gesellschaften enorm geschadet. Nicht nur haben die experimentellen Geninjektionen – wie erwartet – massive Nebenwirkungen, sondern Maskentragen schadet der Psyche und der Entwicklung (nicht nur unserer Kinder) und «Lockdowns und Zensur haben Menschen getötet».

Eine der wichtigsten Waffen unserer «Beschützer» ist die Spaltung der Gesellschaft. Die tiefen Gräben, die Politiker, Lobbyisten und Leitmedien praktisch weltweit ausgehoben haben, funktionieren leider nahezu in Perfektion. Von ihren persönlichen Erfahrungen als Kritikerin der Maßnahmen berichtete kürzlich eine Schweizerin im Interview mit Transition News. Sie sei schwer enttäuscht und verspüre bis heute eine Hemmschwelle und ein seltsames Unwohlsein im Umgang mit «Geimpften».

Menschen, die aufrichtig andere schützen wollten, werden von einer eindeutig politischen Justiz verfolgt, verhaftet und angeklagt. Dazu zählen viele Ärzte, darunter Heinrich Habig, Bianca Witzschel und Walter Weber. Über den aktuell laufenden Prozess gegen Dr. Weber hat Transition News mehrfach berichtet (z.B. hier und hier). Auch der Selbstschutz durch Verweigerung der Zwangs-Covid-«Impfung» bewahrt nicht vor dem Knast, wie Bundeswehrsoldaten wie Alexander Bittner erfahren mussten.

Die eigentlich Kriminellen schützen sich derweil erfolgreich selber, nämlich vor der Verantwortung. Die «Impf»-Kampagne war «das größte Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit». Trotzdem stellt man sich in den USA gerade die Frage, ob der scheidende Präsident Joe Biden nach seinem Sohn Hunter möglicherweise auch Anthony Fauci begnadigen wird – in diesem Fall sogar präventiv. Gibt es überhaupt noch einen Rest Glaubwürdigkeit, den Biden verspielen könnte?

Der Gedanke, den ehemaligen wissenschaftlichen Chefberater des US-Präsidenten und Direktor des National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) vorsorglich mit einem Schutzschild zu versehen, dürfte mit der vergangenen Präsidentschaftswahl zu tun haben. Gleich mehrere Personalentscheidungen des designierten Präsidenten Donald Trump lassen Leute wie Fauci erneut in den Fokus rücken.

Das Buch «The Real Anthony Fauci» des nominierten US-Gesundheitsministers Robert F. Kennedy Jr. erschien 2021 und dreht sich um die Machenschaften der Pharma-Lobby in der öffentlichen Gesundheit. Das Vorwort zur rumänischen Ausgabe des Buches schrieb übrigens Călin Georgescu, der Überraschungssieger der ersten Wahlrunde der aktuellen Präsidentschaftswahlen in Rumänien. Vielleicht erklärt diese Verbindung einen Teil der Panik im Wertewesten.

In Rumänien selber gab es gerade einen Paukenschlag: Das bisherige Ergebnis wurde heute durch das Verfassungsgericht annuliert und die für Sonntag angesetzte Stichwahl kurzfristig abgesagt – wegen angeblicher «aggressiver russischer Einmischung». Thomas Oysmüller merkt dazu an, damit sei jetzt in der EU das Tabu gebrochen, Wahlen zu verbieten, bevor sie etwas ändern können.

Unsere Empörung angesichts der Historie von Maßnahmen, die die Falschen beschützen und für die meisten von Nachteil sind, müsste enorm sein. Die Frage ist, was wir damit machen. Wir sollten nach vorne schauen und unsere Energie clever einsetzen. Abgesehen von der Umgehung von jeglichem «Schutz vor Desinformation und Hassrede» (sprich: Zensur) wird es unsere wichtigste Aufgabe sein, Gräben zu überwinden.

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Dieser Beitrag ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ a95c6243:d345522c

Konsum ist Therapie.
Wolfgang Joop

Umweltbewusstes Verhalten und verantwortungsvoller Konsum zeugen durchaus von einer wünschenswerten Einstellung. Ob man deswegen allerdings einen grünen statt eines schwarzen Freitags braucht, darf getrost bezweifelt werden – zumal es sich um manipulatorische Konzepte handelt. Wie in der politischen Landschaft sind auch hier die Etiketten irgendwas zwischen nichtssagend und trügerisch.

Heute ist also wieder mal «Black Friday», falls Sie es noch nicht mitbekommen haben sollten. Eigentlich haben wir ja eher schon eine ganze «Black Week», der dann oft auch noch ein «Cyber Monday» folgt. Die Werbebranche wird nicht müde, immer neue Anlässe zu erfinden oder zu importieren, um uns zum Konsumieren zu bewegen. Und sie ist damit sehr erfolgreich.

Warum fallen wir auf derartige Werbetricks herein und kaufen im Zweifelsfall Dinge oder Mengen, die wir sicher nicht brauchen? Pure Psychologie, würde ich sagen. Rabattschilder triggern etwas in uns, was den Verstand in Stand-by versetzt. Zusätzlich beeinflussen uns alle möglichen emotionalen Reize und animieren uns zum Schnäppchenkauf.

Gedankenlosigkeit und Maßlosigkeit können besonders bei der Ernährung zu ernsten Problemen führen. Erst kürzlich hat mir ein Bekannter nach einer USA-Reise erzählt, dass es dort offenbar nicht unüblich ist, schon zum ausgiebigen Frühstück in einem Restaurant wenigstens einen Liter Cola zu trinken. Gerne auch mehr, um das Gratis-Nachfüllen des Bechers auszunutzen.

Kritik am schwarzen Freitag und dem unnötigen Konsum kommt oft von Umweltschützern. Neben Ressourcenverschwendung, hohem Energieverbrauch und wachsenden Müllbergen durch eine zunehmende Wegwerfmentalität kommt dabei in der Regel auch die «Klimakrise» auf den Tisch.

Die EU-Kommission lancierte 2015 den Begriff «Green Friday» im Kontext der überarbeiteten Rechtsvorschriften zur Kennzeichnung der Energieeffizienz von Elektrogeräten. Sie nutzte die Gelegenheit kurz vor dem damaligen schwarzen Freitag und vor der UN-Klimakonferenz COP21, bei der das Pariser Abkommen unterzeichnet werden sollte.

Heute wird ein grüner Freitag oft im Zusammenhang mit der Forderung nach «nachhaltigem Konsum» benutzt. Derweil ist die Europäische Union schon weit in ihr Geschäftsmodell des «Green New Deal» verstrickt. In ihrer Propaganda zum Klimawandel verspricht sie tatsächlich «Unterstützung der Menschen und Regionen, die von immer häufigeren Extremwetter-Ereignissen betroffen sind». Was wohl die Menschen in der Region um Valencia dazu sagen?

Ganz im Sinne des Great Reset propagierten die Vereinten Nationen seit Ende 2020 eine «grüne Erholung von Covid-19, um den Klimawandel zu verlangsamen». Der UN-Umweltbericht sah in dem Jahr einen Schwerpunkt auf dem Verbraucherverhalten. Änderungen des Konsumverhaltens des Einzelnen könnten dazu beitragen, den Klimaschutz zu stärken, hieß es dort.

Der Begriff «Schwarzer Freitag» wurde in den USA nicht erstmals für Einkäufe nach Thanksgiving verwendet – wie oft angenommen –, sondern für eine Finanzkrise. Jedoch nicht für den Börsencrash von 1929, sondern bereits für den Zusammenbruch des US-Goldmarktes im September 1869. Seitdem mussten die Menschen weltweit so einige schwarze Tage erleben.

Kürzlich sind die britischen Aufsichtsbehörden weiter von ihrer Zurückhaltung nach dem letzten großen Finanzcrash von 2008 abgerückt. Sie haben Regeln für den Bankensektor gelockert, womit sie «verantwortungsvolle Risikobereitschaft» unterstützen wollen. Man würde sicher zu schwarz sehen, wenn man hier ein grünes Wunder befürchten würde.

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Dieser Beitrag ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ a95c6243:d345522c

Und plötzlich weißt du:
Es ist Zeit, etwas Neues zu beginnen
und dem Zauber des Anfangs zu vertrauen.
Meister Eckhart

Schwarz, rot, gold leuchtet es im Kopf des Newsletters der deutschen Bundesregierung, der mir freitags ins Postfach flattert. Rot, gelb und grün werden daneben sicher noch lange vielzitierte Farben sein, auch wenn diese nie geleuchtet haben. Die Ampel hat sich gerade selber den Stecker gezogen – und hinterlässt einen wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Trümmerhaufen.

Mit einem bemerkenswerten Timing hat die deutsche Regierungskoalition am Tag des «Comebacks» von Donald Trump in den USA endlich ihr Scheitern besiegelt. Während der eine seinen Sieg bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen feierte, erwachten die anderen jäh aus ihrer Selbsthypnose rund um Harris-Hype und Trump-Panik – mit teils erschreckenden Auswüchsen. Seit Mittwoch werden die Geschicke Deutschlands nun von einer rot-grünen Minderheitsregierung «geleitet» und man steuert auf Neuwahlen zu.

Das Kindergarten-Gehabe um zwei konkurrierende Wirtschaftsgipfel letzte Woche war bereits bezeichnend. In einem Strategiepapier gestand Finanzminister Lindner außerdem den «Absturz Deutschlands» ein und offenbarte, dass die wirtschaftlichen Probleme teilweise von der Ampel-Politik «vorsätzlich herbeigeführt» worden seien.

Lindner und weitere FDP-Minister wurden also vom Bundeskanzler entlassen. Verkehrs- und Digitalminister Wissing trat flugs aus der FDP aus; deshalb darf er nicht nur im Amt bleiben, sondern hat zusätzlich noch das Justizministerium übernommen. Und mit Jörg Kukies habe Scholz «seinen Lieblingsbock zum Obergärtner», sprich: Finanzminister befördert, meint Norbert Häring.

Es gebe keine Vertrauensbasis für die weitere Zusammenarbeit mit der FDP, hatte der Kanzler erklärt, Lindner habe zu oft sein Vertrauen gebrochen. Am 15. Januar 2025 werde er daher im Bundestag die Vertrauensfrage stellen, was ggf. den Weg für vorgezogene Neuwahlen freimachen würde.

Apropos Vertrauen: Über die Hälfte der Bundesbürger glauben, dass sie ihre Meinung nicht frei sagen können. Das ging erst kürzlich aus dem diesjährigen «Freiheitsindex» hervor, einer Studie, die die Wechselwirkung zwischen Berichterstattung der Medien und subjektivem Freiheitsempfinden der Bürger misst. «Beim Vertrauen in Staat und Medien zerreißt es uns gerade», kommentierte dies der Leiter des Schweizer Unternehmens Media Tenor, das die Untersuchung zusammen mit dem Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach durchführt.

«Die absolute Mehrheit hat absolut die Nase voll», titelte die Bild angesichts des «Ampel-Showdowns». Die Mehrheit wolle Neuwahlen und die Grünen sollten zuerst gehen, lasen wir dort.

Dass «Insolvenzminister» Robert Habeck heute seine Kandidatur für das Kanzleramt verkündet hat, kann nur als Teil der politmedialen Realitätsverweigerung verstanden werden. Wer allerdings denke, schlimmer als in Zeiten der Ampel könne es nicht mehr werden, sei reichlich optimistisch, schrieb Uwe Froschauer bei Manova. Und er kenne Friedrich Merz schlecht, der sich schon jetzt rhetorisch auf seine Rolle als oberster Feldherr Deutschlands vorbereite.

Was also tun? Der Schweizer Verein «Losdemokratie» will eine Volksinitiative lancieren, um die Bestimmung von Parlamentsmitgliedern per Los einzuführen. Das Losverfahren sorge für mehr Demokratie, denn als Alternative zum Wahlverfahren garantiere es eine breitere Beteiligung und repräsentativere Parlamente. Ob das ein Weg ist, sei dahingestellt.

In jedem Fall wird es notwendig sein, unsere Bemühungen um Freiheit und Selbstbestimmung zu verstärken. Mehr Unabhängigkeit von staatlichen und zentralen Institutionen – also die Suche nach dezentralen Lösungsansätzen – gehört dabei sicher zu den Möglichkeiten. Das gilt sowohl für jede/n Einzelne/n als auch für Entitäten wie die alternativen Medien.

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Dieser Beitrag ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ a95c6243:d345522c

Es ist besser, ein Licht zu entzünden, als auf die Dunkelheit zu schimpfen. Konfuzius

Die Bemühungen um Aufarbeitung der sogenannten Corona-Pandemie, um Aufklärung der Hintergründe, Benennung von Verantwortlichkeiten und das Ziehen von Konsequenzen sind durchaus nicht eingeschlafen. Das Interesse daran ist unter den gegebenen Umständen vielleicht nicht sonderlich groß, aber es ist vorhanden.

Der sächsische Landtag hat gestern die Einsetzung eines Untersuchungsausschusses zur Corona-Politik beschlossen. In einer Sondersitzung erhielt ein entsprechender Antrag der AfD-Fraktion die ausreichende Zustimmung, auch von einigen Abgeordneten des BSW.

In den Niederlanden wird Bill Gates vor Gericht erscheinen müssen. Sieben durch die Covid-«Impfstoffe» geschädigte Personen hatten Klage eingereicht. Sie werfen unter anderem Gates, Pfizer-Chef Bourla und dem niederländischen Staat vor, sie hätten gewusst, dass diese Präparate weder sicher noch wirksam sind.

Mit den mRNA-«Impfstoffen» von Pfizer/BioNTech befasst sich auch ein neues Buch. Darin werden die Erkenntnisse von Ärzten und Wissenschaftlern aus der Analyse interner Dokumente über die klinischen Studien der Covid-Injektion präsentiert. Es handelt sich um jene in den USA freigeklagten Papiere, die die Arzneimittelbehörde (Food and Drug Administration, FDA) 75 Jahre unter Verschluss halten wollte.

Ebenfalls Wissenschaftler und Ärzte, aber auch andere Experten organisieren als Verbundnetzwerk Corona-Solution kostenfreie Online-Konferenzen. Ihr Ziel ist es, «wissenschaftlich, demokratisch und friedlich» über Impfstoffe und Behandlungsprotokolle gegen SARS-CoV-2 aufzuklären und die Diskriminierung von Ungeimpften zu stoppen. Gestern fand eine weitere Konferenz statt. Ihr Thema: «Corona und modRNA: Von Toten, Lebenden und Physik lernen».

Aufgrund des Digital Services Acts (DSA) der Europäischen Union sei das Risiko groß, dass ihre Arbeit als «Fake-News» bezeichnet würde, so das Netzwerk. Staatlich unerwünschte wissenschaftliche Aufklärung müsse sich passende Kanäle zur Veröffentlichung suchen. Ihre Live-Streams seien deshalb zum Beispiel nicht auf YouTube zu finden.

Der vielfältige Einsatz für Aufklärung und Aufarbeitung wird sich nicht stummschalten lassen. Nicht einmal der Zensurmeister der EU, Deutschland, wird so etwas erreichen. Die frisch aktivierten «Trusted Flagger» dürften allerdings künftige Siege beim «Denunzianten-Wettbewerb» im Kontext des DSA zusätzlich absichern.

Wo sind die Grenzen der Meinungsfreiheit? Sicher gibt es sie. Aber die ideologische Gleichstellung von illegalen mit unerwünschten Äußerungen verfolgt offensichtlich eher das Ziel, ein derart elementares demokratisches Grundrecht möglichst weitgehend auszuhebeln. Vorwürfe wie «Hassrede», «Delegitimierung des Staates» oder «Volksverhetzung» werden heute inflationär verwendet, um Systemkritik zu unterbinden. Gegen solche Bestrebungen gilt es, sich zu wehren.

---

Dieser Beitrag ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ c631e267:c2b78d3e

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum dritten Geburtstag, liebe Denk Bar! Wieso zum dritten? Das war doch 2022 und jetzt sind wir im Jahr 2024, oder? Ja, das ist schon richtig, aber bei Geburtstagen erinnere ich mich immer auch an meinen Vater, und der behauptete oft, der erste sei ja schließlich der Tag der Geburt selber und den müsse man natürlich mitzählen. Wo er recht hat, hat er nunmal recht. Konsequenterweise wird also heute dieser Blog an seinem dritten Geburtstag zwei Jahre alt.

Das ist ein Grund zum Feiern, wie ich finde. Einerseits ganz einfach, weil es dafür gar nicht genug Gründe geben kann. «Das Leben sind zwei Tage», lautet ein gängiger Ausdruck hier in Andalusien. In der Tat könnte es so sein, auch wenn wir uns im Alltag oft genug von der Routine vereinnahmen lassen.

Seit dem Start der Denk Bar vor zwei Jahren ist unglaublich viel passiert. Ebenso wie die zweieinhalb Jahre davor, und all jenes war letztlich auch der Auslöser dafür, dass ich begann, öffentlich zu schreiben. Damals notierte ich:

«Seit einigen Jahren erscheint unser öffentliches Umfeld immer fragwürdiger, widersprüchlicher und manchmal schier unglaublich - jede Menge Anlass für eigene Recherchen und Gedanken, ganz einfach mit einer Portion gesundem Menschenverstand.»

Wir erleben den sogenannten «großen Umbruch», einen globalen Coup, den skrupellose Egoisten clever eingefädelt haben und seit ein paar Jahren knallhart – aber nett verpackt – durchziehen, um buchstäblich alles nach ihrem Gusto umzukrempeln. Die Gelegenheit ist ja angeblich günstig und muss genutzt werden.

Nie hätte ich mir träumen lassen, dass ich so etwas jemals miterleben müsste. Die Bosheit, mit der ganz offensichtlich gegen die eigene Bevölkerung gearbeitet wird, war früher für mich unvorstellbar. Mein (Rest-) Vertrauen in alle möglichen Bereiche wie Politik, Wissenschaft, Justiz, Medien oder Kirche ist praktisch komplett zerstört. Einen «inneren Totalschaden» hatte ich mal für unsere Gesellschaften diagnostiziert.

Was mich vielleicht am meisten erschreckt, ist zum einen das Niveau der Gleichschaltung, das weltweit erreicht werden konnte, und zum anderen die praktisch totale Spaltung der Gesellschaft. Haben wir das tatsächlich mit uns machen lassen?? Unfassbar! Aber das Werkzeug «Angst» ist sehr mächtig und funktioniert bis heute.

Zum Glück passieren auch positive Dinge und neue Perspektiven öffnen sich. Für viele Menschen waren und sind die Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre ein Augenöffner. Sie sehen «Querdenken» als das, was es ist: eine Tugend.

Auch die immer ernsteren Zensurbemühungen sind letztlich nur ein Zeichen der Schwäche, wo Argumente fehlen. Sie werden nicht verhindern, dass wir unsere Meinung äußern, unbequeme Fragen stellen und dass die Wahrheit peu à peu ans Licht kommt. Es gibt immer Mittel und Wege, auch für uns.

---

Danke, dass du diesen Weg mit mir weitergehst!

@ a95c6243:d345522c

Ein Lämmchen löschte an einem Bache seinen Durst. Fern von ihm, aber näher der Quelle, tat ein Wolf das gleiche. Kaum erblickte er das Lämmchen, so schrie er:

"Warum trübst du mir das Wasser, das ich trinken will?"

"Wie wäre das möglich", erwiderte schüchtern das Lämmchen, "ich stehe hier unten und du so weit oben; das Wasser fließt ja von dir zu mir; glaube mir, es kam mir nie in den Sinn, dir etwas Böses zu tun!"

"Ei, sieh doch! Du machst es gerade, wie dein Vater vor sechs Monaten; ich erinnere mich noch sehr wohl, daß auch du dabei warst, aber glücklich entkamst, als ich ihm für sein Schmähen das Fell abzog!"

"Ach, Herr!" flehte das zitternde Lämmchen, "ich bin ja erst vier Wochen alt und kannte meinen Vater gar nicht, so lange ist er schon tot; wie soll ich denn für ihn büßen."

"Du Unverschämter!" so endigt der Wolf mit erheuchelter Wut, indem er die Zähne fletschte. "Tot oder nicht tot, weiß ich doch, daß euer ganzes Geschlecht mich hasset, und dafür muß ich mich rächen."

Ohne weitere Umstände zu machen, zerriß er das Lämmchen und verschlang es.

Das Gewissen regt sich selbst bei dem größten Bösewichte; er sucht doch nach Vorwand, um dasselbe damit bei Begehung seiner Schlechtigkeiten zu beschwichtigen.

Quelle: https://eden.one/fabeln-aesop-das-lamm-und-der-wolf

@ eac63075:b4988b48

🇧🇷 pt-br version

The European Union is at a crossroads. While digital innovation and security cooperation remain critical in a connected world, recent proposals to enhance police surveillance and data sharing are stirring deep concerns about individual privacy, data security, and democratic oversight. Two recent reports published by Statewatch shed light on troubling developments in the EU’s policing landscape, raising alarms among privacy advocates and civil rights organizations.

The EU’s new plans to expand police surveillance could put your privacy and rights at risk and introduce risks far outweighing their potential benefits. This article will analyze these proposals, their implications, and the growing opposition from privacy and civil liberties defenders.

Listen the Podcast (Spotify)

Listen the Podcast (Fountain)

Surveillance Infrastructure: Policing by Design

The first Statewatch report, titled “Policing by Design: The Latest EU Surveillance Plan”, outlines a concerning trend in the EU’s approach to law enforcement. The proposals advocate embedding surveillance tools directly into the design of new technologies, effectively creating an architecture where policing capabilities are integrated into the systems we use daily.

From facial recognition cameras to AI-driven analytics, the EU plans to enhance cross-border police cooperation by ensuring technology is designed to facilitate surveillance from the outset. Known as “policing by design,” this strategy involves building surveillance features directly into technologies we use every day. Imagine a network of cameras or software that can automatically monitor people’s faces or behaviors without any extra installation — it’s like your everyday tech quietly doubling as a police tool. The goal is to enable seamless sharing of data across borders for criminal investigations, but the unintended consequences are alarming.

The Problem with “Policing by Design”

1. Mass Surveillance Normalized: By embedding surveillance features into public and private infrastructure, society risks normalizing mass surveillance, where every movement, transaction, or online interaction is monitored and analyzed.
2. Threats to Privacy: Such initiatives inherently contradict the principle of privacy by design, which prioritizes privacy protections in the development of technology. Instead, citizens are being treated as subjects of perpetual suspicion.
3. Lack of Transparency and Accountability: A systemic lack of transparency surrounding these plans raises serious governance issues. Civil society organizations, journalists, and privacy advocates have pointed to a lack of democratic oversight and meaningful debate.
4. Risks of Abuse: Surveillance systems are often deployed under the guise of security but are susceptible to abuse. History shows that tools designed for law enforcement can easily be turned against dissenters, journalists, or marginalized communities.

As the report highlights, these developments could establish a permanent surveillance infrastructure across Europe, enabling the collection of biometric, behavioral, and communications data on an unprecedented scale.

Flawed Justifications for Surveillance Expansion

Privacy advocacy organizations, including the European Digital Rights (EDRi) network, argue that much of the justification for these surveillance plans relies on flawed assumptions. The rhetoric of the “Going Dark” report, which claims that law enforcement is losing access to communications due to encryption, has been widely debunked. As EDRi points out, law enforcement already has extensive tools at their disposal to access data and track individuals, but the focus on encryption risks undermining secure communication for everyone.

Instead of addressing systemic issues within law enforcement, these flawed reports have fueled calls for intrusive surveillance systems that risk eroding privacy while offering little evidence of improving public safety.

Centralized Police Data: A Substantial Security and Privacy Threat

A second Statewatch report, titled “EU Police Data Plans Pose Substantial Security and Privacy Threats”, explores another equally concerning initiative: the EU’s push to centralize police data repositories and expand their use.

The EU has already established several large-scale databases, such as the Schengen Information System (SIS), which stores data about individuals who may be denied entry into the EU, and the Europol Information System, which can hold details about millions of people, including those not suspected of crimes. For example, a traveler flagged mistakenly in the system could face unnecessary scrutiny, detention, or restrictions when crossing borders — highlighting the real-world risks of inaccurate or overreaching data collection. The new proposals aim to go further, creating an interoperable web of police data accessible to law enforcement agencies across member states. Proponents argue this is necessary for combating cross-border crime and terrorism, but the risks are immense.

Key Concerns with Centralized Police Data

1. Massive Data Collection: The EU’s proposed systems would require the collection of highly sensitive data, including biometric information (fingerprints, facial recognition scans) and behavioral analytics, to track individuals’ activities across borders.
2. Data Misuse and Security Risks: Centralized data systems are prime targets for cyberattacks, data breaches, and misuse. The larger and more interconnected the system, the greater the risks of unauthorized access, theft, or corruption of the data.
3. As Statewatch points out, the systems lack robust safeguards to prevent misuse or to ensure that data is handled proportionately and lawfully.
4. Erosion of Trust in Law Enforcement: Building centralized data repositories without meaningful safeguards undermines public trust. Individuals may be less willing to engage with law enforcement if they fear their data will be stored indefinitely, shared across borders, or used inappropriately.
5. Impact on Fundamental Rights: Mass police databases can violate the principle of proportionality, a cornerstone of EU law. By collecting and sharing data indiscriminately, these systems erode fundamental rights, including the right to privacy, freedom of movement, and the presumption of innocence.

Civil Society Opposition and Democratic Accountability

In an open letter to EU institutions, over 30 civil society organizations — including EDRi — have criticized the lack of transparency in the High-Level Group’s (HLG) recommendations for data access. The letter highlights a concerning pattern: while industry stakeholders are included in key discussions, civil society voices remain sidelined. This exclusion undermines democratic accountability and reinforces fears that surveillance policies are being driven by corporate interests rather than public well-being.

These organizations have called for the EU to prioritize transparency, include meaningful public debate, and ensure any law enforcement proposals respect proportionality and fundamental rights.

Why Privacy Advocates Are Sounding the Alarm

The reports from Statewatch highlight a fundamental clash between security policy and individual rights. Privacy advocates are urging EU lawmakers to take a step back and critically examine the following issues:

1. Lack of Democratic Oversight: Proposals to integrate surveillance systems and expand police databases are being pushed forward without genuine public debate or oversight. Civil society organizations have been excluded from key discussions.
2. Failure to Uphold Privacy Laws: The EU has some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, these proposals risk undermining GDPR principles by enabling indiscriminate data collection and sharing.
3. Ignoring Proportionality: Surveillance systems must be targeted, necessary, and proportionate to their objectives. Embedding policing into technological design and centralizing data far exceeds what is justified for fighting crime and terrorism.
4. Setting Dangerous Precedents: The failure to fully ban harmful surveillance technologies like facial recognition in public spaces sets a troubling precedent. It risks not only eroding privacy within the EU but also encouraging other nations to adopt similar measures, undermining global human rights.

A Call for Action: Safeguarding Our Privacy and Rights

As the EU pushes forward with these plans, the opposition from civil rights defenders grows louder. Policymakers must address the following key demands to prevent an erosion of fundamental rights:

• Implement Privacy by Design: All new technologies must prioritize privacy protections at the design stage, ensuring they are not co-opted for surveillance.
• Establish Robust Oversight: Any new policing tools or databases must be subject to democratic scrutiny, independent oversight, and clear legal frameworks to prevent misuse.
• Reassess Interoperability Plans: Cross-border police cooperation is important, but it must not come at the cost of individuals’ privacy, security, and dignity.
• Strengthen Export Controls: The EU must ban the export of surveillance tools that risk facilitating human rights abuses in authoritarian regimes.
• Prioritize Data Security: Centralized systems require state-of-the-art security measures to protect sensitive data from breaches or misuse.

The EU’s role as a leader in digital rights and privacy is now at stake. If these plans proceed without significant safeguards, Europe risks undermining its own foundational principles of freedom, security, and justice.

Conclusion: The Price of Surveillance-Driven Security

The EU’s surveillance plans may be presented as necessary for security, but they come at a steep cost to privacy, trust, and individual freedoms. Embedding surveillance into our technologies and centralizing police data pose far-reaching risks that cannot be ignored.

As privacy advocates, it is our responsibility to hold policymakers accountable and demand a security framework that upholds, rather than undermines, fundamental rights. Europe’s future must not be built on surveillance by design — but on privacy, democracy, and trust.

@ ec42c765:328c0600

てすと

nostr:nevent1qqst3uqlls4yr9vys4dza2sgjle3ly37trck7jgdmtr23uuz52usjrqqqnjgr

nostr:nevent1qqsdvchy5d27zt3z05rr3q6vvmzgslslxwu0p4dfkvxwhmvxldn9djguvagp2

@ 78c90fc4:4bff983c

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

After nuking my second LND node (the first one died due to hardware failure) by my own typo and lack of any thought in the design of the CLI of LND lightning node tools, I decided to take a plunge into the world of mature and complex implementation of the protocol, Eclair by ACINQ. It has been almost one year (the birth of the node was on Christmas Day 2023), 50 thousand transactions routed, and over 30 BTC of routed value. In this post, I'd like to reflect on my experiences with Eclair, go over some of the gotchas and issues, and highlight some of the good choices that I've made since the beginning of my adventure.

Learnings from the Past Experience

While I was learning Lightning network and had very little understanding of how things worked in the whole Bitcoin space, Umbrel was my go-to solution that helped me get off the ground. It proved to be easy and somewhat educational but was not something that I would continuously run for the production setup or trust with any significant amount of bitcoin that I could not afford to lose. Lightning is built on top of the L1 (Bitcoin) network but manages the state of the channels in its own database that is negotiated and agreed upon with its peers. Any failures in the state integrity may result in the complete loss of liquidity or hefty penalty transactions (significant loss of capital). A Lightning node that participates in routing public transactions is also required to be constantly online with as little downtime as possible and only short periods offline at a time. Otherwise, you may risk causing force-closure of the channel due to expired HTLC that is measured in number of blocks.

The Setup

Taking all of my learnings into consideration, I decided to first invest in reliable enterprise-grade hardware: - Server-grade hardware with ECC memory and reliable power supply and CPU - UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to avoid any headaches due to electrical spikes or drop-outs - Reliable enterprise SSDs and NVMEs - ZFS (filesystem) to mirror the critical storage and to ensure full integrity of the data (bit-rot prevention). You do need to tune ZFS for your specific workload and reliability - Reliable and replicated database (PostgreSQL) with two local and one remote replica, and a requirement to have at least two replicas committing the transaction to the disk - Backup! On-site and off-site backup of the critical configuration that you could use to restore the node if your house burns down - Spare parts, redundancy, backup, monitoring - Reliable and stable internet connectivity

The software is Eclair 0.11.0 (latest release as of today), PostgreSQL 16 with two replicas, Bitcoin Core 27.2 (with redundant storage of blocks), additional Bitcoin Core running on a separate node and in-sync with the chain (in case primary node fails), Ubuntu 22.04 with the latest docker software from the official Docker repo.

All Major Gotchas That I Came Across

While Eclair is mature and very stable in itself, it does have some quirks and design choices that you need to account for when running your node. The software is written in Scala and requires a specific version of JVM to run it, as well as JRE and Maven to build it. It doesn't mean that other versions won't work, but you may find unpleasant bugs that may result in catastrophic failures of your node with nobody to help you. All of the requirements are listed in the release notes and installation guide. Whenever in doubt, RTFM first, then ask questions.

Limited Support by the FOSS Community

Eclair is not the most popular implementation of the Lightning protocol, and therefore it is hard to find tools or plugins that could help you manage the node. GUI for the node so far is only supported by RTL and with a very limited number of features. For any sort of statistics, you are limited to either Prometheus (extensive metrics are available) or writing your own SQL on top of the Eclair tables.

On-chain Fee Differences Between Yours and Partner Nodes

This one hit me hard, and many times. I've had more than a few force-closures of the channels because of the conservative and safe default settings. The worst part is, it strikes you when there is a huge spike in fees, which results in significant losses to force-close the channel due to high fees. I am still not 100% sure how the big difference can be exploited in practice, and opted for increase of the tolerance levels to avoid surprise FCs: eclair.on-chain-fees { feerate-tolerance { ratio-low = <0.01~> // will allow remote fee rates as low as XX our local feerate (spikes) ratio-high = <20.0~> // will allow remote fee rates as high as XX times our local feerate (drops) } } It is up to you and your risk tolerance to define something reasonable and yet allow for secure and reliable node operation.

Initial Lightning Network State Sync

When I just started running the node, I had very few channels and startup times were fast. Later, when I expanded the number of channels, I noted that it took my node up to 6-12 hours before it was fully in-sync and routing traffic fast. Given that ACINQ maintains one of the largest nodes on the network, I knew that there was something with my settings that caused the issue. After some research, I came across the setting that whitelisted node IDs for state sync, which immediately rang a bell since I knew from the LND days that not all peer nodes are used for the network sync. Setting the list to my most reliable and largest nodes reduced the startup settling times down to minutes again: eclair.sync-whitelist = [ "03864ef025fde8fb587d989186ce6a4a186895ee44a926bfc370e2c366597a3f8f", ... ] You do not need to have too many public keys in here, and should keep it between 5-10.

Automatic MAX HTLC Adjustment for the Channel

One of the killer features of Eclair is its ability to automatically adjust MAX HTLC for the channel and reduce the number of failed transactions due to insufficient liquidity on the channel. It can be used to estimate your total channels' balances but with smart configuration and a little thinking, you can make it reasonably private while still maintaining a good transaction flow: eclair.channel.channel-update.min-time-between-updates=1 hour # Allows for the adjustments to be made once every hour eclair.channel.channel-update.balance-thresholds=[ { available-sat = 10000 max-htlc-sat = 0 // 0% of 10000 }, ... ] You can have as many variations as you need, and ensure that the channel MAX HTLC is set well and within reasonable ranges. You would also want to account for multiple transactions going through the channel, but also account for the channel size and an average amount of sats per transaction.

Max Accepted HTLCs

By design, the Lightning channel is limited to a specific number of in-flight HTLCs, and the setting is fixed during channel opening time with no way of changing it unless you close and reopen the channel with new settings. If you find your node routing a lot of small transactions (zaps), you may quickly fail many due to that limit (I think default was in single digit range): eclair.channel.max-htlc-value-in-flight-percent=98 # Default I think is half or 50% eclair.channel.max-accepted-htlcs = 50 The setting above will allow for the channel to be more fully utilized and have more concurrent transactions without clogging.

CLTV Delta

This is basically a setting that is global for Eclair and sets the maximum number of remaining blocks (in time) before HTLC expires. Setting this too high may result in many HTLCs failing for the small nodes with not so great centrality, and reduce the number of routed transactions: ```

CLTV delta

eclair.channel.expiry-delta-blocks = 60 ``` Default is 144 but I found that setting this to 60 (minimum possible for my node setup and configuration) yields better results for routing. It does expose you to more risk of expired HTLCs that may cause force-closures, but I have seen only one so far on my node.

Allocate Sufficient Memory

You will want to adjust the heap size for Eclair, since the default is too small to run any sizable node. Setting JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx32g (or half the size of your available RAM) would be a good start. I would advise having at least 32GB of RAM for the node, and allocating at least 16GB (JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx16g) for smooth and fast operations.

And More Settings and Parameters to Tune

I have covered only some of the major settings that I felt were worth writing about, but there is much more you could configure and tweak. Read all of the Guides and especially focus on the Configure and a sample reference configuration file.

Good Decisions

First, going with Eclair was the right choice, along with using server-grade hardware with ECC RAM and reliable storage. Second, having a replicated database on three separate nodes with one off-site saved me from a sure destruction of all state and loss of funds. Third, deciding to only maintain channels with reliable and stable nodes saved me from some bad force-closures, where I would choose to close the channel if a peer node goes up and down too frequently, regardless of how well it routes. Even big nodes run by single operators fail badly, as do nodes operated by companies. Keeping your eyes on the node and its health, as well as the health of its peers, is something that very few operators do, which can cause failures and unnecessary loss of your and their funds.

Lastly, if you decide to run a routing node, you have a responsibility to maintain it well and monitor its health. There are many tools you could use, and with Eclair you can use Prometheus and Grafana. Keep your node's packages updated and monitor for any security-related issues that may appear from time to time, so you can mitigate them quickly.

Conclusion

So far I am satisfied with Eclair despite all of the difficulties and headaches I've had with it. It is not perfect, and it requires me to create small tools to do some basic things, but I need a stable and reliable node that I can trust. Eclair has proved to be all that I wanted, and saved my bacon a few times when I nuked one of the PostgreSQL servers and all of its data, and managed to do the same for another replica, but was able to recover and recreate from the remaining replica. Eclair is also stateless during runtime and guarantees consistency of the node regardless of how it fails. Even if you pull a plug on the node's server, it will still be able to come up and recover its consistent state that is in agreement with its peers.

Is it for everyone? No, it is definitely not for everyone or for anyone who just wants a small node to run their online shop with a few channels. You could have a very reliable and trusted node for the online shop with Eclair, but you will need some technical skills to be able to set up, maintain and recover it if things go wrong.

In the end, it is all up to you, your skills, your willingness to learn, and your risk tolerance to make that decision. For me, it was the right choice, and I have no regrets despite not having access to the latest shiny features of the Lightning network.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 02-11

• Nsite zap by hzrd149 Support page

Content creator want more users. They can go to Bluesky.

Great that Nostr is a Echo Chambers. As stated by Rabble during NostRiga, Nostr is a bitcoin meetup. And it is very difficult as said several times, to subvert this fact. It seems that many bitcoiners don't like this, but they can't do anything, leave Nostr and migrate to other lids.

I'm reading Nostr adventar calendar of Japanese Nostr users.

The first two Don and Jun speak of a Mahjong game and the other of how possibly to count the followers of a given account, countfollowed. - Adventar calendar continue until Christmas 🎅

• Even Bluesky is looking at MLS , is not a soccer league, is a protocol for message by groups, "circles" Post on Bluesky

• Relays chakany is introduce sunday. link

I've never seen such dead animals as in Nostr. Something reminds me facebook. The carnivore folks

Hivemind podcast by Max, the kilometric comment on fountain under the podcast is the most appetizing thing of all. Just one comment, little one.

He interviewed Kagi's and searched for a brownie pill, perhaps caused a little headache. ( Brownie pill is orange plus purple)

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Loss dog on Nostr this week 😔😔 Pam and Derek family dog

conspiracy theory: Fiatjaf was the reply guy!!!

I tried to download voyage, from zapstore but nothing does not work even the 17.1 does not go. Too bad.

I hear so much about notedeck that I want to make a notedeck do it yourself.

Cherry tree, stuck hzrd149 is making an app a day, Chunked blobs on blossom.

A like is used to send your writing Relays

Announcement of a possible wallet in Damus, this could make things better, zap and whatnot.

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• Or I'm posting a song here, a musical interlude. song on wavlake

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There seems to be a good buzz on Nostr, maybe it's already a Christmassy atmosphere.

• Backup di Bluesky cool things Bluesky post

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On another rssfeed thing.

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzq9h35qgq6n8ll0xyyv8gurjzjrx9sjwp4hry6ejnlks8cqcmzp6tqqs93j2remdw2pxnctasa9vlsaerrrsl7p5csx5wj88kk0yq977rtdqxt7glp

It's the same thing as following a cross de bridge, but if they do 3 bridge, I say something is wrong. A bot is attached to a Relay. The Relay goes down and so much greetings, then I can look for RSS feeds in my computer without need of Nostr. I can share a particular opml file on Nostr, but I don't know how to do it I asked Fiatjaf but didn't answer it was taken by dichotomie.

Nip19 really Easy to do filter query.

You have events_id pubkey Relay Instead with Nostr:note you only have the event_id.

• Sebastix says he has to implement it in his library, discover the latest weekly report. nostr-php-helper-library

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Oh no Pablo has become super Saiyan 🤣

There is a way to make a podcast starting from a long text, blog. With artificial intelligence. But then I thought, but if one does not have time could not have the text of the article summarized, perhaps we like generating content. It can be an option, either you read or you listen. But if you do not have time perhaps it is better to just summarize, dear chatgpt summarize this text, done. Essential points and make a thread for the social network and do what you want.

• Homemade Traditional Boozy Mincemeat, I didn't even know that existed 🤙 link to shopstr

Hodlbod news on bunker burrow

nostr:nevent1qqs84na25g6mdelvl0408nnq8m29j5070dm9mvjrzxyc6yrx2udjyuczyztuwzjyxe4x2dwpgken87tna2rdlhpd02

• In case you don't see the note burrow on github

Once you have the email what do you do with your encrypted key? No Enterprise user maybe. Rember the article of Hodlbod in "Is Always a political move". ✅

List of artists on Nostr nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4xqpzqfngzhsvjggdlgeycm96x4emzjlwf8dyyzdfg4hefp89zpkdgz99qyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2tcpzfmhxue69uhkummnw3e82efwvdhk6tcqp9qku6tdv96x7unng9grdr

• An article for food recipe on Nostr Article link

I don't know if they'll ever be there. You can write a recipe book. Or to put recipes on wiki, there doesn't seem to be that attention or that desire. One more relay is always better

• Olas has a website 🥊 Olas app

Oh i see cool Hodlbod bot A summary bot

nostr:nevent1qqs0v88uc2u3he3lm3mpm5h3gr8cuht5wv9g0tk0x9hzvamgvpdjwvspzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgq3qjlrs53pkdfjnts29kveljul2sm0actt6n8dxrrzqcersttvcuv3qu0ltyv

That's all!!

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

início

"Vocês vêem? Vêem a história? Vêem alguma coisa? Me parece que estou tentando lhes contar um sonho -- fazendo uma tentativa inútil, porque nenhum relato de sonho pode transmitir a sensação de sonho, aquela mistura de absurdo, surpresa e espanto numa excitação de revolta tentando se impôr, aquela noção de ser tomado pelo incompreensível que é da própria essência dos sonhos..."

Ele ficou em silêncio por alguns instantes.

"... Não, é impossível; é impossível transmitir a sensação viva de qualquer época determinada de nossa existência -- aquela que constitui a sua verdade, o seu significado, a sua essência sutil e contundente. É impossível. Vivemos, como sonhamos -- sozinhos..."

• Livros mencionados por Olavo de Carvalho
• Antiga homepage Olavo de Carvalho
• Bitcoin explicado de um jeito correto e inteligível
• Reclamações

---

• Nostr
• Bitcoin
• How IPFS is broken
• Programming quibbles
• Economics
• Open-source software

---

Nostr GitHub Telegram code

@ 17538dc2:71ed77c4

Nostr Onboarding Questionnaire

Below are are results of the nostr qualitative onboarding questionnaire created by elsat in early November, 2024. Responses are from 22 nostr surivors/masochists. Results are not representative of people who never made it past onboarding. These are folk that remained on nostr, and were active around the time I asked for volunteers to provide feedback on onboarding to nostr.

Let me know if anything stands out, if you have questions about any particular response!

I. Did you onboard to nostr on your cellular network, on wifi?

14 Wifi; 7 cell; 2 both; 1 other

II. What was the biggest pain point in onboarding to nostr?

Discovery

Discover interesting content and other people Finding the right content. Discovery. Loading/lacking data figuring out how to find interesting people Finding npubs

Value Prop & Learning Curve

Knowing how it differs from tradsofiu Learning the difference between the protocol and the app I needed to download and onboard through. Choosing a client. Trying to figure it out on my own.

Key management

Private/pub key handling That's definitely key management. How and where to store it to have it secure, still accessible for use with other apps in a secure way. Getting my nsec in without pasting it

Relay setup

Setting up relays, discover interesting users to follow, > building your own feed figuring out relays Finding reliable relays to join.

Wallet Setup

Setting up a lightning wallet Lightning wallets for sending and receiving Zaps.

Notifications

Notifications [presumably missing notifications]

Accessibility

Finding a very good accessible client for the computer (I'm blind). Amethyst seems to be good on my Android device, but I avoid smartphones.

Scary links

I tried to "onboard" (ie expose) friends to nostr by sending them links to interesting/funny notes here and there. But some of the default sharing links I use (Amethyst -> Njump) are so long that they always think it's some spam. (Primal has nicer web links)

Customization

Figuring out profile setup, lots of unfamiliar fields

III. What part of nostr "wow'd" you, and when did this happen?

take your social graph with you; distribute your data

That all the data is already there if you use different clients and you take your social graph with you through completely different apps. seamless account a mobility of course ccount easy switching between clients Moving my social graph between clients. Happened in the first days of usage. Cross over between different clients. Happened on a Tuesday.

V4V, freedom, exclusive, and censored content

Freedom, some V4V and exclusive content, some censored content The clear messaging why nostr was better than mastodon/ activitypub

Flexibility, BYO Algorithm, Control

The insane flexibility. Nostr is a textbook example of "worse is better". So I think I was converted when I realized how much could be built with this, not just social media. My "Aha! This is more than just a Twitter clone" moment was when I stumbled on Oddbean. Also there's this whole "bring your own algorithm" / "build your own algorithm" to the social media side of it. And we're starting to see that work out in practice, with things like bitvora's algo-relay. Complete control A digital portable social identity that I can take with me from one app to another. December 2022. Experiencing the interoperability when i tried Listr, spring '23 I think Initially it was decentralization and censorship resistance. >You can spin a simple backup relay, own your data truly, and rebroadcast everything to different relays. Amethyst, adjusting the relays

Access to devs

Devs working in real time on it visible - too cool

Zaps

Zapping! Right away Zapping zaps! and also the small community After [initial censorship resistance phase is over], the most wow part was zaps, still is. Zaps for shitposting & being able to login into different apps with the same account

Cordiality

Open respectful discussion among people who do not agree Friendly discourse of users. Not toxic like other special media. First day.

IV Around what time did you onboard to nostr (e.g. July 2023)

Nov 2021 December 2021 2022 the single html page first POC client December 2022 Dec 2022 December 2022 Jan 2023 January '23 feb 2023 February 2023 Early 2023. Didn't really play around with it until December 2023 May 2023 June 2023 - Plebstr, November 2023 primal march 2024 amethyst, January 2025 notedeck I've been dipping my toes in the water since 2022 but just started taking it seriously last month. July 2023 March 2024 Summer 2024. August 2024 Nov 2024

V Which app

astral.ninja (2) Branle Damus (6)

"(needed the simplicity)"

PRIMAL (5)

"(needed the simplicity)" Amethyst (4)

Coracle Coracle and nos2x

Various

A combo of Amethyst (phone), nostrudel (web), and algia (command line). I'm a command-line junky. I also am fond of Oddbean, because it's basically a hackernews style thing built on top of nostr. But see my complaint about Nazi bar / Temple of Satoshi. Could not recommend to friends. At some point, I intend to set up strfry and my own Oddbean instance targeted to anti-capitalists.

Created my keys with alby

Can't remember the actual name

VI Have you experienced a failure in onboarding others to nostr? What exactly happened?

Poor experience trying to onboard newbs to nostr during the conference (mostly on iOS which I do not use), around 10-12 people. Granted the cell coverage was not great and not sure I remember everything that went wrong, but users were generally confused with loading/lacking data. Create a profile, then I tried to follow them but could not find them from Amethyst. So scanned QR code, which is a non-obvious step. Then their profile showed just the npub but no info or pfp, some commented on that. Followed them but they didn't receive a notification for that on Damus, this confused most. And then what? Post a note? (I was recommending #introductions ). While you wait for all this to load, tap, retry... between laughs you need to come up with conversation and try to somewhat defend nostr, tell them we're early and bugs will be fixed etc. On Primal follows do appear but feeds don't load. And it autofollows a bunch of random people - some liked it some didn;t. They posted a note and I wanted to like/zap it but I could not see that note on my client either, even though I'm connected to major relays (could be nostr.wine's fault, but I tried with the zap.store account as well). I saw one guy KYC himself 3 times with the wallet because when he switched to his email client to get the code and the app kept resetting the screen. Lucky that the majority of people were eager and did their best to try. Since some of these were after Jordi's talk where he offered several clients to download, it was not always my choice/recommendation on which client to download - they just came with it. I know we do our best but guys... it's bad. This reminds me of getting a newb to open a LN channel and get liquidity. Painful. If we have to centralize more to better onramps, so be it.

difficulty / friction

Picking a client

Yes. It's too technical. You need many tools to accomplish small tasks.

Yes, tried primal on Android. It failed to accept any profile changes

Not able to find other npubs when using search in several clients

stale

They got no new events, because they followed only a few users

They didn’t become frequent users because I’m the only person they know in nostr.

They lose interest in the network compared to traditional social networks. They were normies.

Some found it strange that you follow a bunch of bitcoiners (seemingly) by default (Primal iirc)

yes. non bitcoiners not interested in joining a small network of people just yet

quotes

I haven't tried to bring anyone to nostr. I am a bit scared to do so, because the place has a rep of being a Nazi bar and an extension of the Bitcoin cult. I do think that it is what you make of it, and I've tried to argue that point with friends. It's a protocol, nothing more. Don't wanna interact with Nazis and use Bitcoin? Nothing says you have to.

They don't care

I have not convinced anyone to use nostr

Too hard for most folk.

Not really.

No. Never tried.

No, onboarded two successfully.

Yeah I generally suck at getting people to check out new stuff

VII What, if anything, do you think confuses people during onboarding to nostr? Why? Have you observed this?

Setting a optional username is confusing for many and also they don't know what a NIP-05 is (they are likely to just fill in their existing mail address)

Finding some people. No progress of loading content or indication of time. Slight confusion where are DMs, home, etc, tabs basically

The why. Its much easier now, I was way confused DEC 22

Same on boarding is difficult to people on Nostur.

There is no app in the App Store called “nostr”

nips and relays

We tell people that you don't need KYC to use Nostr and then ask them for KYC for Lightning wallets.

No in-client intro to the "what" and "how" of it all. I haven't witnessed that, but I believe it could squash preconceived notions.

Key management. Especially because there is no key rotation(recovery option in a traditional email/phone way), if it leaks, you are done.

Safe keeping of your nsec. There are many ways to do it, all of them unfamiliar to most users.

When you don't see data you are expecting, be it a profile picture, a follow notification, or a note. Remember people who want to try Damus/Primal/etc microblogging clients come from twitter - so cater for transition from Twitter. Gen z snapchat/tiktok users don't care about nostr, no way to relate

Understanding how to filter for non-Bitcoin content.

need for setting up relays to filter the spam waves, finding the interesting follows, and difficulties setting up usable (even custodial) wallets.

Why would I want to use nostr?

Relays / keys

VIII What, if anything, do you think scares people away during onboarding to nostr? Why? Have you observed this?

Not much, but probably nsec backups and transfers if they knew

Dark web scary things

Technical questions

Personal responsibility for keeping nsec safe

Intuitiveness.

just not enough people on it for them (non bitcoiners)

Technical complexity with either Lightning or relay management.

Depending on client, slowness, difficult search, or feeling empty upon arrival.

Again, keys.

Bitcoin blah blah

I don't know anybody IRL that even use x

Their core influencers haven't adopted nostr yet.

IX What one improvement would make onboarding to nostr easier?

Explain it s not a platform and the current app you're using is replacable by other by (re)using your keypair

Twitter bridge

Honestly, from a technical standpoint, I found it pretty easy. Especially with Amethyst on the phone. So I'm not sure if I have an opinion here.

Private key management to hide the complexity

Little guide somewhere or a buddy to ask questions

An intelligent assistant to setup relays

Reach

bringing wallet of satoshi back! or some similar easy custodial lightning wallet

Better user and content discovery.

Clients dedicated to onboarding, education, and key management instead of social stuff

Key recovery/rotation option. How? Hell if I know. Smart people say Frost, something, something. XD

More established signing mechanisms

An easy GoTo FAQ How to add people; how to zap; etc.

Do not try to connect to 89239823932 relays and make it decentralized when people only care about the first impression?

More "other things" micro-apps, not do-everything whale apps

More users

X What, if anything, do you think should be addressed, or added to onboarding to nostr across most nostr apps? Why?

A skippable small visual intro guide

Content discovery

A way to hide duplicates of the same post.

Better user and content discovery.

Introductory level education, expecting a traditional social app experience then not seeing it

Right now for me everything starts and ends with key management. Maybe a simple signing and profile edit app available across all platforms and devices with option paired with hardware signing device.

An onboarding relay. Only accepts the first note for an npub (kinds 0, 1, 3). Maybe

Easier relay selection.

Make bunker actually work

Staged roll out of owning your own keys to help them understand what that means

XI Do you have any other observations, feedback, or commentary on onboarding to nostr?

Yes, I think I'd say that most of my complaints are social / cultural, not technical. Then again, I've been online since 1993.

People have gotten lazy and are used to being fed content for their interests. This doesn't happen easily on Nostr and needs improvement.

An empty feed is better than a pre-determined one.

We suck and there's no good reason why

I have never gotten bunker to work

XII What is your favorite onboarding experience to an app outside nostr?

Telegram (x2)

Onboarding to the fediverse was pretty good. Witness the fact that a lot of blind twitter moved there.

They're all mostly the same, email, password, confirm. So any that i can use without signup is superior.

Can't recall any that really stands out. But in terms of following users during the onboarding what music streaming apps do is really nice. You get presented with a list of artists and based on what artists you check to follow list adapts and shows you similar suggestions.

None in particular, but I like when account creation is delayed as much as possible, I.e there is a public experience for you to try the product with no commitment

Several I can't recall now. But we need to make it AT LEAST as good as Twitter because that's where our users come from

old Twitter, circa 2019

I prefer no onboarding needed

I like "log in with" buttons but fuck those walled gardens

@ e83b66a8:b0526c2b

When we had the Gold standard, gold only backed assets.

Now we are approaching the Bitcoin Standard, what will happen if Bitcoin is used to back debt?

$MSTR is the Alpha release

Trumps USA will be the Beta release.

If it works, the world has $315T of debt. That will be the full release V1.0

In comparison, the world has $454T of assets.

Can it be done?

What happens when you back a negative debt with a positive asset?

Has it ever been tried?

Is it possible?

The problem with the debt is it isn't "owed" to anyone.

If I lend you $10 you owe me $10.

To explain further:

If you lend me $10 worth of gold, then I can pay you back $10 of money if it's backed with gold - the gold standard.

If you lend me $10 worth of gold, and I pay you back with unbacked fiat, the repayment is arbitrary.

Like for like you can back any backed money with any asset.

Without a backed money, you can only repay an asset with an asset, otherwise paying with fiat, the global books don't balance.

In the current fiat world, if the US government print $10 and sells it to the market for $10 + interest, their is no creditor. You are simply diluting all other dollars.

When they have to pay back the debt to the “creditor”, they can't return the original $10 because that's been spent and they haven't generated any wealth (they are a government, not a company), so everything they return (the original lent $10 + interest) is printed again.

This is monetary recursion and destroys all fiat systems eventually.

So what happens when you insert a hard asset into the equation? Do you destroy or weaken that asset, you certainly don't strengthen it.

Does this turn Bitcoin into an inflationary currency despite its inherent deflationary properties.

After all, the U.S. had to come off the gold standard, because they didn't have enough gold to pay back.

I think best case scenario is Bitcoin repeats what happened to gold. It weakens Bitcoin until it makes it flacid, at which time the government will be forced to leave the Bitcoin Standard and Bitcoin will be a shadow of its potential.

Why?

Currency can be created and destroyed.

Money (the measure of wealth) is absolute.

I think this is the fundamental flaw, we believe money can be created and destroyed simply because we are used to printing or burning government fiat and have copied that model for Crypto currencies like Ethereum or Tether, which are mined or burned.

So money (invent better word) cannot be printed or destroyed, it is a measure of wealth and if you increase or decrease the supply you change the unit measurement, not the money.

So what are the potential end point valuations of Bitcoin?

Can Bitcoin approach a $21M coin valuation? i.e. 21M Coins at $21M?

If Bitcoin only backs assets, then it can't exceed, or even approach the total value of world wealth, currently $454T

At $21M for 21M coins, this approaches world wealth.

If Bitcoin is used to back debt, then you can add a further $315T of value, so if we assume $100T (about 1/4) of asset value + $300T of debt value, then we approach $21M per coin.

Another potential way of projecting the eventual stable price of Bitcoin:

If world wealth is currently around $454T

And world debt is currently around $315T

then can we consider it like a company and consider the profit to be $454T - $315T = $139T

Would that be a good expectation for final Bitcoin price?

i.e. $139T / 21M = $6.6M per BTC

However, I'm not certain Bitcoin can survive being used to back debt.

Gold never did that.

@ eac63075:b4988b48

Estonia is a small country with just 1.3 million inhabitants and an area similar to that of the state of Rio de Janeiro, but with a notable difference: while Rio has about 16 million residents, Estonia shines with its efficiency, innovation, and digitalization. It's no wonder it's known as the "digital nation." For many Brazilians, the country has become a strategic gateway to start a business and settle in Europe.

Listen the podcast

https://www.fountain.fm/episode/pizBLdhqqP5qQrKQILFb

The Purpose of the Event and the Context

The meeting organized by Bloco and the Brazilian digital community aimed primarily to explore the opportunities that Estonia offers to those wishing to expand their businesses or start a new life in Europe. With pizza, networking, and straightforward presentations, the evening was dedicated to demystifying questions like "Why Estonia?" and "What makes this country a viable option for Brazilians?"

Additionally, the event highlighted the importance of E-Residency, a digital identity that allows you to open and manage a company in Estonia from anywhere in the world. But that's just the beginning. Let's explore what makes Estonia a standout point on the European scene.

Where Is Estonia Located?

If you open a map of Europe and look for this small country, you're likely to have difficulty locating it. Situated to the north of what's called Eastern Europe, Estonia borders Russia and Latvia and is separated from Finland by the Baltic Sea. Although geographically positioned in the east, many Estonians prefer to identify with the north due to cultural and historical proximity to the Nordic countries.

There's something fascinating about Estonia's history. According to local legends, Vikings set out from their Estonian islands to conquer the world, later returning to reclaim their lands. This spirit of resilience and reinvention permeates the country's culture to this day.

Digitalization: The Estonian Revolution

Thirty years ago, when Estonia gained its independence from the Soviet Union, the country decided to look to the future. The question was simple: how to ensure the sovereignty and survival of a small, vulnerable nation? The answer was bold: total digitalization.

In 2001, the X-Road was created—a decentralized infrastructure that connects all government institutions and allows citizens to access public services digitally. This system is so advanced that even the servers of the Estonian government are located outside the country, stored with backups at the European Commission in Brussels.

Through this infrastructure, Estonia eliminated information silos, decentralized data, and allowed its citizens to authorize the use of personal information with complete control. Today, 98% of the population has a digital identity, 95% file taxes online in less than three minutes, and 100% of public services are available digitally.

For those accustomed to Brazilian bureaucracy, it's impressive to know that opening a company in Estonia can be done in just 15 minutes, without the need for an accountant.

E-Residency: A Digital Passport for Business

Launched in 2014, the E-Residency program made Estonia the first country in the world to offer a digital identity to non-residents. This digital ID card allows entrepreneurs to open a company in the European Union, sign documents, and manage businesses remotely without needing to visit the country.

Although it doesn't grant citizenship or physical residency, E-Residency is perfect for those who want to test the European market or operate a digital company. The program has already attracted over 118,000 e-residents from around the world, including 1,300 Brazilians who have opened 379 companies in the country.

Advantages of Doing Business in Estonia

Starting a business in Estonia has many advantages. Let's discuss some of the main ones:

Simple and Clear Taxation:

Estonia adopts a flat tax rate of 20% (which increased to 22% after the pandemic and will be 24% in 2025) on distributed profits. If you reinvest the profits in the company, the taxation is zero—a unique policy that encourages sustainable growth.

Low Cost to Start:

Unlike Switzerland, which requires an initial deposit of 100,000 Swiss francs to open a company, in Estonia, only 2,500 euros are needed. And the best part: this amount only needs to be deposited when the company distributes profits for the first time.

Complete Digitalization:

Digital signatures in Estonia eliminate the need for notaries and paper documents. Everything can be done online, from opening the company to filing taxes.

Support for Startups and Innovation:

With the Startup Visa, entrepreneurs can move to Estonia with their entire family and receive support to expand their businesses. Additionally, the country has the highest number of unicorns (startups valued at over one billion dollars) per capita in the world, including companies like Skype, Bolt, and Wise.

Easy Access to Europe:

Establishing your company in Estonia means access to the European market, with its unified regulations and a vibrant innovation ecosystem.

The Startup Visa: An Invitation for Entrepreneurs

For those who want more than just operating remotely, the Startup Visa program offers the opportunity to physically move to Estonia. The initial visa is valid for one year and can be renewed for three consecutive years. After eight years, there's the possibility of applying for European citizenship, although Estonia doesn't allow dual nationality.

One of the unique features of the Startup Visa is that there's no limit to the number of partners or family members who can be included in the program. This means that the entire team of founders and their families can benefit from the residence permit.

Additionally, Estonia offers support through the International House and its Work in Estonia program, a center where newcomers can resolve everything from assistance with opening bank accounts to cultural and professional integration.

Innovation and Access to Investments

Estonia is known for its culture of innovation. Events like Latitude 59, one of Europe's main startup gatherings, offer prizes of up to two million euros for winning startups. The country also facilitates direct connections with investment funds and venture capital, often without bureaucratic barriers.

For early-stage companies, the Estonian ecosystem is especially attractive. There are cases of entrepreneurs who managed to raise hundreds of thousands of euros with little more than a prototype or a good idea on paper.

A Small Country with Global Ambitions

Although small in size, Estonia is big in ambition. Its model of digitalization and support for startups serves as an example to the world. With unique opportunities like E-Residency and the Startup Visa, the country positions itself as a viable and accessible gateway for Brazilians who wish to explore the European market.

For those seeking innovation, simplicity, and access to the global market, Estonia offers more than opportunities; it offers a vision of the future. Whether it's to open a business, operate remotely, or move with the family, the country proves that with the right strategies, even a small nation can make a giant impact.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 25 11

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Vitor created another social network edit mode. There are countless cases of use. But type threads are possible, small books, Rabbit hole and those who put it more.

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzq3svyhng9ld8sv44950j957j9vchdktj7cxumsep9mvvjthc2pjuqyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnhd9hx2tcqyrewvkqwqt7urn2u9h5tk88vj9p3csl0wt08aqd8kxsngxtdmr0zqmszxds

Nostr Report is missing, was a lot of news, 20 notes in a day.

Some news do not need resonance case, Primal did a good job with trending. Of course is a centralized service. But it was one of the Twitter features, he did it with the top trending hashtags. Now Primal is more focused on DVM smart feed, read, and Discovery. This will bring chaos, as long as you can switch the trend feed with your Algo or DVM Algo. I'm obsessed with these switches 😅

Hostile people can happen along the way, it's not like in Bluesky 😔.

Someone share on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/laurenshof.online/post/3lbrsjzobps2u Video is this https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/fr/video/I-264553?lg=en

Trying to convince someone for Unanimity, Relay groups are nice, but Unanimity is simpler.

nostr:nevent1qqs9ar5t9xu97nhtwef9ej2y7cklnysf7hgwce7t2wk5axhfdwuq5sqpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgq3qmzyp990kgskujdyplzydmd08ft42mkkfg4lzldaap8ng7n2u3kmss8l76e

Game on Nostr on 2025, cool be.

Angor are finally ready, crowdfunding with Nostr and Bitcoin. (alpha test)

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqw4hcggg2f9h68qutp0snsdhux20teljykjmh9rlx78qwnt5a8dlqqstte0g54hfa2cmr63vq4ava7e7wsr483p63tylvut8cvufzs44a0cd6saa3

PR 1600

The name is curated pubblication use kind 30040 e 30041, 30040 Is the envelope and 30041 are chapters or paragraphs. We'll see what's left in a month. There are no big discussions until now. This is the basis to leave it so, if you can improve it without breaking it ok. I think liminal is preparing at least two other NPs. The bottom problem is that there are no "competitor", someone else outside who wants to use this thing. But if there are no one can invent.

You can't do things with others. There's too "bad" people. Keep calm is a toxin environment. Maybe you have to get away a bit.

---

I was trying to help David but there are no aggregators for neo4j Nostr. Dustin's example, I think it's only worth the DVM. There are two other projects one grain of Oceanslim I saw the video where he explains some things, with Dr. Morales. And the other is Cody's Nostr Relay tray. At least you have all the data in a Relay, and for that Relay you can query, I don't think you find anything significant, maybe you need 100(k) notes to have a good sample. I think I'll make the update. I downloaded two months ago, it worked for a while with Nostrudel, then only with next, lately some problems with next. Cody launched the project with fiatjaf and I think it is also implemented here. In the end, I don't think this answer is useful to David.

---

Zapview nostr-zap-view The lokuyow project, always attentive to zap lightning and Nostr.

Give a "microsat" to Fiatjaf nostrabia relay

I managed to send a zap from a hex known id, it only works with getalby, so until January 4th. I have to prove if other lnurls have the call.

Something I might have understood about the new version of Nostr_sdk or rust Nostr. Sending messages will be harder. The builder does not support the tag, it breaks almost all the scripts I was writing and to verify them you can do nothing but send to the Relays, I wait a few days if there are news, but I don't think there will be. It is no longer linked to the table of examples so it will not be updated presumably, I would like to continue, as the cli does not come out. That then the cli will be in python 12.. (I'm still in version 3.10.9 of python)

I've seen bulletin proof, posting on Nostr seems interesting, but they need many interactions to have a functioning client. link, stacker news

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Nostr nuance, login, Nostr connect, private. (two Notes)

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzq77777lz9hvwt86xqrsyf2jn588ewk5aclf8mavr80rhmduy5kq9qyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnddakj7qghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxummnw3ezucnpdejz7qpqqqqz3757ha8j5xcm7er8kkdc0dgtvmy55dz2t2d7c2tv9h8qm88qlcjsls

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzq9eemymaerqvwdc25f6ctyuvzx0zt3qld3zp5hf5cmfc2qlrzdh0qyt8wumn8ghj7ur4wfcxcetjv4kxz7fwvdhk6tcpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5hsqgz98qckr40flhpyt48fxqjkuf9p4dv245634ygvp6dfu2kt7qk5egqmc4l8

An other microsat to Fiatjaf chronicle relay

Kind 1 was a mistake and many people are realizing it, they are replacing it. Kind 5 now it is only almost to eliminate drafts, here the option is to overwrite.

That's all!!

@ a39d19ec:3d88f61e

This week's functional 3d print is the "Dino Clip".

Dino Clip

I printed it some years ago for my son, so he would have his own clip for cereal bags.

Now it is used to hold a bag of dog food close.

The design by "Sneaks" is a so called "print in place". This means that the whole clip with moving parts is printed in one part, without the need for assembly after the print. The clip is very strong, and I would print it again if I need a "heavy duty" clip for more rigid or big bags. Link to the file at Printables

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 11-11

Lamenting is becoming something I should ask people who complain. Charity bussiness and after sending zap received to those who do not complain...

I started making an RSS feed template. Open an opml file and check the feed. I called this script,Teed.

This morning I saw a bounty from a fiatjaf note, on a rss-feed long form, basic a plugin for an app. But I'm not doing that, of course, I can also publish it as soon as I'm in charge. Maybe I have some opml files and I want to see if these are still active.

Starter pack is not good apparently creates elites and maybe gives you the feeling of not choosing, but that's what people want. Do not choose but have the illusion of choosing.

Toxicity level. high.

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P2P stuff, Iroh is a protocol for syncing & moving bytes iroh computer post on Bluesky

Juraj new project

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpk4kccr9csumnwhmpv83ladqc6p88089cx2e5s2c4448ppgl2pakqqsyv4hs424x6c8phks903s595q2lqp5fpwyq7ajwrf00lxev8cfamcvmq23h

Alex Gleason bunker Knox. (Beta) "knox is a new Nostr bunker CLI for running a NIP-46 remote signer and granting credentials to members of your team". Announcing bunker knox article

Local First podcast, web2.5. Something like Nostr but Local P2P, interesting episode. youtube link

Open Secret AI. "OpenSecret is a backend for app developers that turns private encryption on by default." announcment AI

I think users with regard to algorithms do not want ten different feeds to choose from, but that their feed adapts to their choices, training the feed if this makes sense. So the feed is your feed for your choices, respond and train with them.

Pleblab 2, cool "ANNOUNCING TOP BUILDER SEASON 2! " nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpmx02p4slzahlf7jlcaspsx57g6uc7kl7cc7dvhlsnqtpn6khjj0qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcqyzy9w0frd802hfmrp45jr6dqhf7umqj7s63z0jvhv7hvvkcsqjg0vjwd7q4)

It was the real Guardian, quit 7fqx, we know it's you who want to distract us from number go up. The Guardian has left or wants to leave twitter is looking for alternatives, but how to verify a high profile user on Nostr? Nostr Address is already something but it's not enough.

We sometimes think that there is the money tree somewhere is that they magically appear, when instead the money is in the ground but they are dirty.

If Amethyst doesn't support is others stuff

People are simple, they want an app that works for all devices they have. People are "flutter-system".

A podcast feed xml file

Add to teed, if only i had made that option, meanwhile i saw a new interesting project

An other RSS feed github project

Imagine making a file opml with categories and those are your follow nostriches.

The problem is this does not bring new sap to the social chart is important to you, receive the selected posts and it is fantastic. You can also not use Nostr, if you want to use it as backup is fine. Share opml files? It's okay, but you can also find specific sites and find the best. Update for clients, you have a lot of RSS feeds from clients but update after a few hours so if there is really an emergency you lose. I still need to figure out how to integrate Nostr into RSS feed. Maybe an event to make your lists known.

I saw the event in these pr: nostr verified podcast nip #1465 Add audio track NIP #1043

@ be7bf5de:09420d0a

At NosFabrica, we envision a future of healthcare where the individual is in charge of their health data and empowered to take responsibility for their own health. We are building health applications on Nostr and bitcoin to enable individuals own their health data. Nostr's architecture will allow different healthcare providers to write data onto the individual's relay. We see many potential use cases to solve specific problems in healthcare when the individual in a world where everyone has a comprehensive, portable and interoperable health record over time. We are looking to show what is possible with the "other stuff" on Nostr, starting by developing micro-apps so you can start compiling your health data, which you control.

If you're like most people on earth, your eyes aren't perfect. About half of us - 4 billion humans - have eye glasses, yet nearly a billion people can't get glasses due to inaccessibility of eye care or affordability.

With our microapp, Lazer Eyes, eye care providers can now write an eyeglasses or contacts prescription directly onto your own health relay. The optometrist simply needs to enter in your Nostr public key profile (nprofile), which relay to write the data to, and your prescription data; the encrypted prescription will be sent in an encrypted note directly to your relay. You can now send this signed note to your eye glasses provider to fulfill your glasses or contacts order.

If you're using Amethyst today, you will be able to see this prescription rendered into your DMs. In our NosFabrica future vision, different clients would be able to show you this piece of your health record alongside other health information with different user interfaces and experiences. You will then have the power to selectively disclose this information, as needed.

There are many benefits to using Nostr for health as an individual:

1. Patient Ownership and Control

2. Patients have full control of their prescription, and they can share it securely with confidence and even privately if required with eyewear providers or optometrists whenever needed.

3. Patients no longer rely on email or paper copies that can be easily lost or tampered with. Emailing a PDF to a patient brings the issue of requiring an optometrist signature leading to excess time taken to generate, print, sign, scan and email the copy. Public / private key cryptography provides a verifiable, time saving option in this case.

4. Continuity of care and ability to track changes in prescription over time - there are numerous forum posts where patients have found it difficult to get their prescription data from their optometrist practice when requesting it months or years later.

5. Removes the need for the patient to contact their old opticians and go through a process of trying to request their details, which can be time consuming.

6. Identity Verification

7. Optometrists sign prescriptions with a cryptographic key that patients could verify using their private Nostr identity (also known as a public/private key pair). This ensures that the prescription is authentic, accurate, and hasn't been altered after issuance. This would remove the need for issuing a “signed prescription” that currently has to be done in the physical sense, as a print out and issued to the patient. Have the option to have an indisputable and verifiable ‘Optometrist Identity Key’ would enable this legal requirement (in the UK) to go completely digital over Nostr.

8. The decentralized nature of Nostr ensures that prescriptions can be easily verified and traced back to the original issuer, avoiding forgery or fraud.

9. Privacy:

10. Unlike traditional methods where patient information is stored on centralized databases of the electronic medical record company (eg, Epic), or large health systems (eg, Ascension), Nostr keeps patient data decentralized and private, accessible only through permissioned sharing. This ensures no third party can access, manipulate, or misuse this sensitive information.

11. Immutable Records

12. Once a prescription is issued and signed on Nostr, it is stored immutably on the decentralized network. This ensures a permanent and trustworthy ledger of the patient's eye health history. This feature adds to accountability and should bring a higher standard to complete and accurate prescribing across all practices.

13. These records can persist over time and are portable to travel with you, wherever you seek care or glasses.

14. Global Access

15. Patients can use their Nostr-stored prescription with any provider across the globe, without needing to worry about differing national data standards or carrying physical documents when they travel or move.

16. This opens up a wider use case when considering the 2 Billion + individuals who currently cannot get access to sight care services.

Benefits for Optometrist Practices and Operators:

1. Improved Patient Retention and Care through Trust and Transparency

2. By empowering patients with ownership of their data, practices foster trust and loyalty, reducing churn over time. If patients know they can rely on your practice for transparency, secure record-keeping, and access to the latest technology, they are more likely to return for future eye exams and other services.

3. A decentralized, tamper-proof record of prescriptions can improve administrative efficiency. No more handling lost prescriptions, disputes about validity, or delays in getting updated information to patients or other providers.

4. The decentralized storage of prescriptions allows optometrists to securely share and access patient data, making cross-practice collaboration easier for referrals, second opinions, or specialized care.
5. Cost Savings on Paperwork and Administration

6. Digitizing and decentralizing prescription records could lead to long-term savings on administrative costs, such as paperwork management, prescription re-issues, and managing patient data in outdated systems.

7. Optometrists can ensure their records are always accessible, accurate, and trusted by all parties (patients, insurers, other clinics).

8. By reducing the burden of handling prescription storage and verification manually, the practice can focus more on patient care.
9. Adaptation to Future Consumer Behavior and building a Tech-Savvy Reputation

10. As patients increasingly take control of their health data and seek decentralized solutions, practices that adapt to this trend are future-proofing their business model. Over time, patients will expect more control over their medical data, and being ahead of this shift will ensure long-term relevance.

11. Practices that embrace new technologies like Nostr can market themselves as tech-forward and adaptable to future trends, gaining an edge over more traditional competitors. This reputation is especially important as younger generations increasingly value privacy and digital autonomy. A Nostr-based service helps position the practice as aligned with these values.

12. Integration with Bitcoin

13. By integrating a service built on Nostr, naturally linked with the bitcoin ecosystem, the practice can also introduce bitcoin payments as a novel way to reduce transaction fees and differentiate their practice from the competition.

14. Attract bitcoiners: The optics practice can appeal to the Bitcoin community, who value decentralization and would appreciate paying with bitcoin or using a decentralized protocol for prescription management. This opens up a new market of patients interested in technology and financial independence.

15. Upsell Opportunities and Revenue Diversification

16. The practice can still maintain a competitive eyewear sales strategy by offering upsell opportunities. When patients receive their prescription digitally, they can be automatically sent tailored offers for high-quality lenses, frames, or even add-ons like blue light coatings or progressive lenses, keeping them within the practice’s ecosystem. Practices can offer value-added eyewear options, such as free adjustments, repairs, or personalized lens consultations, which online retailers can’t easily match.

17. The Nostr system can open doors to additional services beyond eyewear sales, including personalized consulting services, specialized testing (e.g., for contact lenses, binocular vision, myopia control), and more frequent checkups due to the ease of updating and verifying records.

Of course, utilizing this tool means providers need to help onboard individuals onto Nostr. In many ways, we see providers as playing into the Nostr network and flywheel effect. This is better technology with global access - and we invite you to consider other micro-apps that can continue to build out the decentralized healthcare ecosystem built on Nostr and bitcoin.

We have partnered with the Bitcoin Optometrist, Dr Alan Bryden, to continue to refine the micro-application and start testing its use. We'd like to thank Dr Alan for his insights that contributed to this micro-app and write-up. Check out his site and nonprofit, Sats for Sight, to learn more about utilizing bitcoin to provide eyeglasses to those in need, along with his HODL eyewear line.

We're excited about the future of building healthcare applications on nostr and bitcoin. If you have ideas or are facing any health challenges, we're conducting product discovery interviews to understand your biggest pain points when it comes to managing and optimizing your health and healthcare data. Please reach out to jon@nosfabrica.com or schedule time here to learn more about how to get involved!

Note: Lazer Eyes is currently only available for testing purposes as we evaluate regulatory considerations across jurisdictions.

@ eac63075:b4988b48

Based on a recent paper that included collaboration from renowned experts such as Lynn Alden, Steve Lee, and Ren Crypto Fish, we discuss in depth how Bitcoin's consensus is built, the main risks, and the complex dynamics of protocol upgrades.

PT-BR version

Podcast https://www.fountain.fm/episode/wbjD6ntQuvX5u2G5BccC

Presentation https://gamma.app/docs/Analyzing-Bitcoin-Consensus-Risks-in-Protocol-Upgrades-p66axxjwaa37ksn

1. Introduction to Consensus in Bitcoin

Consensus in Bitcoin is the foundation that keeps the network secure and functional, allowing users worldwide to perform transactions in a decentralized manner without the need for intermediaries. Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin is often described as an "immutable" system designed to resist changes, and it is precisely this resistance that ensures its security and stability.

The central idea behind consensus in Bitcoin is to create a set of acceptance rules for blocks and transactions, ensuring that all network participants agree on the transaction history. This prevents "double-spending," where the same bitcoin could be used in two simultaneous transactions, something that would compromise trust in the network.

Evolution of Consensus in Bitcoin

Over the years, consensus in Bitcoin has undergone several adaptations, and the way participants agree on changes remains a delicate process. Unlike traditional systems, where changes can be imposed from the top down, Bitcoin operates in a decentralized model where any significant change needs the support of various groups of stakeholders, including miners, developers, users, and large node operators.

Moreover, the update process is extremely cautious, as hasty changes can compromise the network's security. As a result, the philosophy of "don't fix what isn't broken" prevails, with improvements happening incrementally and only after broad consensus among those involved. This model can make progress seem slow but ensures that Bitcoin remains faithful to the principles of security and decentralization.

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2. Technical Components of Consensus

Bitcoin's consensus is supported by a set of technical rules that determine what is considered a valid transaction and a valid block on the network. These technical aspects ensure that all nodes—the computers that participate in the Bitcoin network—agree on the current state of the blockchain. Below are the main technical components that form the basis of the consensus.

Validation of Blocks and Transactions

The validation of blocks and transactions is the central point of consensus in Bitcoin. A block is only considered valid if it meets certain criteria, such as maximum size, transaction structure, and the solving of the "Proof of Work" problem. The proof of work, required for a block to be included in the blockchain, is a computational process that ensures the block contains significant computational effort—protecting the network against manipulation attempts.

Transactions, in turn, need to follow specific input and output rules. Each transaction includes cryptographic signatures that prove the ownership of the bitcoins sent, as well as validation scripts that verify if the transaction conditions are met. This validation system is essential for network nodes to autonomously confirm that each transaction follows the rules.

Chain Selection

Another fundamental technical issue for Bitcoin's consensus is chain selection, which becomes especially important in cases where multiple versions of the blockchain coexist, such as after a network split (fork). To decide which chain is the "true" one and should be followed, the network adopts the criterion of the highest accumulated proof of work. In other words, the chain with the highest number of valid blocks, built with the greatest computational effort, is chosen by the network as the official one.

This criterion avoids permanent splits because it encourages all nodes to follow the same main chain, reinforcing consensus.

Soft Forks vs. Hard Forks

In the consensus process, protocol changes can happen in two ways: through soft forks or hard forks. These variations affect not only the protocol update but also the implications for network users:

• Soft Forks: These are changes that are backward compatible. Only nodes that adopt the new update will follow the new rules, but old nodes will still recognize the blocks produced with these rules as valid. This compatibility makes soft forks a safer option for updates, as it minimizes the risk of network division.

• Hard Forks: These are updates that are not backward compatible, requiring all nodes to update to the new version or risk being separated from the main chain. Hard forks can result in the creation of a new coin, as occurred with the split between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in 2017. While hard forks allow for deeper changes, they also bring significant risks of network fragmentation.

These technical components form the base of Bitcoin's security and resilience, allowing the system to remain functional and immutable without losing the necessary flexibility to evolve over time.

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3. Stakeholders in Bitcoin's Consensus

Consensus in Bitcoin is not decided centrally. On the contrary, it depends on the interaction between different groups of stakeholders, each with their motivations, interests, and levels of influence. These groups play fundamental roles in how changes are implemented or rejected on the network. Below, we explore the six main stakeholders in Bitcoin's consensus.

1. Economic Nodes

Economic nodes, usually operated by exchanges, custody providers, and large companies that accept Bitcoin, exert significant influence over consensus. Because they handle large volumes of transactions and act as a connection point between the Bitcoin ecosystem and the traditional financial system, these nodes have the power to validate or reject blocks and to define which version of the software to follow in case of a fork.

Their influence is proportional to the volume of transactions they handle, and they can directly affect which chain will be seen as the main one. Their incentive is to maintain the network's stability and security to preserve its functionality and meet regulatory requirements.

2. Investors

Investors, including large institutional funds and individual Bitcoin holders, influence consensus indirectly through their impact on the asset's price. Their buying and selling actions can affect Bitcoin's value, which in turn influences the motivation of miners and other stakeholders to continue investing in the network's security and development.

Some institutional investors have agreements with custodians that may limit their ability to act in network split situations. Thus, the impact of each investor on consensus can vary based on their ownership structure and how quickly they can react to a network change.

3. Media Influencers

Media influencers, including journalists, analysts, and popular personalities on social media, have a powerful role in shaping public opinion about Bitcoin and possible updates. These influencers can help educate the public, promote debates, and bring transparency to the consensus process.

On the other hand, the impact of influencers can be double-edged: while they can clarify complex topics, they can also distort perceptions by amplifying or minimizing change proposals. This makes them a force both of support and resistance to consensus.

4. Miners

Miners are responsible for validating transactions and including blocks in the blockchain. Through computational power (hashrate), they also exert significant influence over consensus decisions. In update processes, miners often signal their support for a proposal, indicating that the new version is safe to use. However, this signaling is not always definitive, and miners can change their position if they deem it necessary.

Their incentive is to maximize returns from block rewards and transaction fees, as well as to maintain the value of investments in their specialized equipment, which are only profitable if the network remains stable.

5. Protocol Developers

Protocol developers, often called "Core Developers," are responsible for writing and maintaining Bitcoin's code. Although they do not have direct power over consensus, they possess an informal veto power since they decide which changes are included in the main client (Bitcoin Core). This group also serves as an important source of technical knowledge, helping guide decisions and inform other stakeholders.

Their incentive lies in the continuous improvement of the network, ensuring security and decentralization. Many developers are funded by grants and sponsorships, but their motivations generally include a strong ideological commitment to Bitcoin's principles.

6. Users and Application Developers

This group includes people who use Bitcoin in their daily transactions and developers who build solutions based on the network, such as wallets, exchanges, and payment platforms. Although their power in consensus is less than that of miners or economic nodes, they play an important role because they are responsible for popularizing Bitcoin's use and expanding the ecosystem.

If application developers decide not to adopt an update, this can affect compatibility and widespread acceptance. Thus, they indirectly influence consensus by deciding which version of the protocol to follow in their applications.

These stakeholders are vital to the consensus process, and each group exerts influence according to their involvement, incentives, and ability to act in situations of change. Understanding the role of each makes it clearer how consensus is formed and why it is so difficult to make significant changes to Bitcoin.

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4. Mechanisms for Activating Updates in Bitcoin

For Bitcoin to evolve without compromising security and consensus, different mechanisms for activating updates have been developed over the years. These mechanisms help coordinate changes among network nodes to minimize the risk of fragmentation and ensure that updates are implemented in an orderly manner. Here, we explore some of the main methods used in Bitcoin, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as historical examples of significant updates.

Flag Day

The Flag Day mechanism is one of the simplest forms of activating changes. In it, a specific date or block is determined as the activation moment, and all nodes must be updated by that point. This method does not involve prior signaling; participants simply need to update to the new software version by the established day or block.

• Advantages: Simplicity and predictability are the main benefits of Flag Day, as everyone knows the exact activation date.

• Disadvantages: Inflexibility can be a problem because there is no way to adjust the schedule if a significant part of the network has not updated. This can result in network splits if a significant number of nodes are not ready for the update.

An example of Flag Day was the Pay to Script Hash (P2SH) update in 2012, which required all nodes to adopt the change to avoid compatibility issues.

BIP34 and BIP9

BIP34 introduced a more dynamic process, in which miners increase the version number in block headers to signal the update. When a predetermined percentage of the last blocks is mined with this new version, the update is automatically activated. This model later evolved with BIP9, which allowed multiple updates to be signaled simultaneously through "version bits," each corresponding to a specific change.

• Advantages: Allows the network to activate updates gradually, giving more time for participants to adapt.

• Disadvantages: These methods rely heavily on miner support, which means that if a sufficient number of miners do not signal the update, it can be delayed or not implemented.

BIP9 was used in the activation of SegWit (BIP141) but faced challenges because some miners did not signal their intent to activate, leading to the development of new mechanisms.

User Activated Soft Forks (UASF) and User Resisted Soft Forks (URSF)

To increase the decision-making power of ordinary users, the concept of User Activated Soft Fork (UASF) was introduced, allowing node operators, not just miners, to determine consensus for a change. In this model, nodes set a date to start rejecting blocks that are not in compliance with the new update, forcing miners to adapt or risk having their blocks rejected by the network.

URSF, in turn, is a model where nodes reject blocks that attempt to adopt a specific update, functioning as resistance against proposed changes.

• Advantages: UASF returns decision-making power to node operators, ensuring that changes do not depend solely on miners.

• Disadvantages: Both UASF and URSF can generate network splits, especially in cases of strong opposition among different stakeholders.

An example of UASF was the activation of SegWit in 2017, where users supported activation independently of miner signaling, which ended up forcing its adoption.

BIP8 (LOT=True)

BIP8 is an evolution of BIP9, designed to prevent miners from indefinitely blocking a change desired by the majority of users and developers. BIP8 allows setting a parameter called "lockinontimeout" (LOT) as true, which means that if the update has not been fully signaled by a certain point, it is automatically activated.

• Advantages: Ensures that changes with broad support among users are not blocked by miners who wish to maintain the status quo.

• Disadvantages: Can lead to network splits if miners or other important stakeholders do not support the update.

Although BIP8 with LOT=True has not yet been used in Bitcoin, it is a proposal that can be applied in future updates if necessary.

These activation mechanisms have been essential for Bitcoin's development, allowing updates that keep the network secure and functional. Each method brings its own advantages and challenges, but all share the goal of preserving consensus and network cohesion.

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5. Risks and Considerations in Consensus Updates

Consensus updates in Bitcoin are complex processes that involve not only technical aspects but also political, economic, and social considerations. Due to the network's decentralized nature, each change brings with it a set of risks that need to be carefully assessed. Below, we explore some of the main challenges and future scenarios, as well as the possible impacts on stakeholders.

Network Fragility with Alternative Implementations

One of the main risks associated with consensus updates is the possibility of network fragmentation when there are alternative software implementations. If an update is implemented by a significant group of nodes but rejected by others, a network split (fork) can occur. This creates two competing chains, each with a different version of the transaction history, leading to unpredictable consequences for users and investors.

Such fragmentation weakens Bitcoin because, by dividing hashing power (computing) and coin value, it reduces network security and investor confidence. A notable example of this risk was the fork that gave rise to Bitcoin Cash in 2017 when disagreements over block size resulted in a new chain and a new asset.

Chain Splits and Impact on Stakeholders

Chain splits are a significant risk in update processes, especially in hard forks. During a hard fork, the network is split into two separate chains, each with its own set of rules. This results in the creation of a new coin and leaves users with duplicated assets on both chains. While this may seem advantageous, in the long run, these splits weaken the network and create uncertainties for investors.

Each group of stakeholders reacts differently to a chain split:

• Institutional Investors and ETFs: Face regulatory and compliance challenges because many of these assets are managed under strict regulations. The creation of a new coin requires decisions to be made quickly to avoid potential losses, which may be hampered by regulatory constraints.

• Miners: May be incentivized to shift their computing power to the chain that offers higher profitability, which can weaken one of the networks.

• Economic Nodes: Such as major exchanges and custody providers, have to quickly choose which chain to support, influencing the perceived value of each network.

Such divisions can generate uncertainties and loss of value, especially for institutional investors and those who use Bitcoin as a store of value.

Regulatory Impacts and Institutional Investors

With the growing presence of institutional investors in Bitcoin, consensus changes face new compliance challenges. Bitcoin ETFs, for example, are required to follow strict rules about which assets they can include and how chain split events should be handled. The creation of a new asset or migration to a new chain can complicate these processes, creating pressure for large financial players to quickly choose a chain, affecting the stability of consensus.

Moreover, decisions regarding forks can influence the Bitcoin futures and derivatives market, affecting perception and adoption by new investors. Therefore, the need to avoid splits and maintain cohesion is crucial to attract and preserve the confidence of these investors.

Security Considerations in Soft Forks and Hard Forks

While soft forks are generally preferred in Bitcoin for their backward compatibility, they are not without risks. Soft forks can create different classes of nodes on the network (updated and non-updated), which increases operational complexity and can ultimately weaken consensus cohesion. In a network scenario with fragmentation of node classes, Bitcoin's security can be affected, as some nodes may lose part of the visibility over updated transactions or rules.

In hard forks, the security risk is even more evident because all nodes need to adopt the new update to avoid network division. Experience shows that abrupt changes can create temporary vulnerabilities, in which malicious agents try to exploit the transition to attack the network.

Bounty Claim Risks and Attack Scenarios

Another risk in consensus updates are so-called "bounty claims"—accumulated rewards that can be obtained if an attacker manages to split or deceive a part of the network. In a conflict scenario, a group of miners or nodes could be incentivized to support a new update or create an alternative version of the software to benefit from these rewards.

These risks require stakeholders to carefully assess each update and the potential vulnerabilities it may introduce. The possibility of "bounty claims" adds a layer of complexity to consensus because each interest group may see a financial opportunity in a change that, in the long term, may harm network stability.

The risks discussed above show the complexity of consensus in Bitcoin and the importance of approaching it gradually and deliberately. Updates need to consider not only technical aspects but also economic and social implications, in order to preserve Bitcoin's integrity and maintain trust among stakeholders.

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6. Recommendations for the Consensus Process in Bitcoin

To ensure that protocol changes in Bitcoin are implemented safely and with broad support, it is essential that all stakeholders adopt a careful and coordinated approach. Here are strategic recommendations for evaluating, supporting, or rejecting consensus updates, considering the risks and challenges discussed earlier, along with best practices for successful implementation.

1. Careful Evaluation of Proposal Maturity

Stakeholders should rigorously assess the maturity level of a proposal before supporting its implementation. Updates that are still experimental or lack a robust technical foundation can expose the network to unnecessary risks. Ideally, change proposals should go through an extensive testing phase, have security audits, and receive review and feedback from various developers and experts.

2. Extensive Testing in Secure and Compatible Networks

Before an update is activated on the mainnet, it is essential to test it on networks like testnet and signet, and whenever possible, on other compatible networks that offer a safe and controlled environment to identify potential issues. Testing on networks like Litecoin was fundamental for the safe launch of innovations like SegWit and the Lightning Network, allowing functionalities to be validated on a lower-impact network before being implemented on Bitcoin.

The Liquid Network, developed by Blockstream, also plays an important role as an experimental network for new proposals, such as OP_CAT. By adopting these testing environments, stakeholders can mitigate risks and ensure that the update is reliable and secure before being adopted by the main network.

3. Importance of Stakeholder Engagement

The success of a consensus update strongly depends on the active participation of all stakeholders. This includes economic nodes, miners, protocol developers, investors, and end users. Lack of participation can lead to inadequate decisions or even future network splits, which would compromise Bitcoin's security and stability.

4. Key Questions for Evaluating Consensus Proposals

To assist in decision-making, each group of stakeholders should consider some key questions before supporting a consensus change:

• Does the proposal offer tangible benefits for Bitcoin's security, scalability, or usability?
• Does it maintain backward compatibility or introduce the risk of network split?
• Are the implementation requirements clear and feasible for each group involved?
• Are there clear and aligned incentives for all stakeholder groups to accept the change?

5. Coordination and Timing in Implementations

Timing is crucial. Updates with short activation windows can force a split because not all nodes and miners can update simultaneously. Changes should be planned with ample deadlines to allow all stakeholders to adjust their systems, avoiding surprises that could lead to fragmentation.

Mechanisms like soft forks are generally preferable to hard forks because they allow a smoother transition. Opting for backward-compatible updates when possible facilitates the process and ensures that nodes and miners can adapt without pressure.

6. Continuous Monitoring and Re-evaluation

After an update, it's essential to monitor the network to identify problems or side effects. This continuous process helps ensure cohesion and trust among all participants, keeping Bitcoin as a secure and robust network.

These recommendations, including the use of secure networks for extensive testing, promote a collaborative and secure environment for Bitcoin's consensus process. By adopting a deliberate and strategic approach, stakeholders can preserve Bitcoin's value as a decentralized and censorship-resistant network.

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7. Conclusion

Consensus in Bitcoin is more than a set of rules; it's the foundation that sustains the network as a decentralized, secure, and reliable system. Unlike centralized systems, where decisions can be made quickly, Bitcoin requires a much more deliberate and cooperative approach, where the interests of miners, economic nodes, developers, investors, and users must be considered and harmonized. This governance model may seem slow, but it is fundamental to preserving the resilience and trust that make Bitcoin a global store of value and censorship-resistant.

Consensus updates in Bitcoin must balance the need for innovation with the preservation of the network's core principles. The development process of a proposal needs to be detailed and rigorous, going through several testing stages, such as in testnet, signet, and compatible networks like Litecoin and Liquid Network. These networks offer safe environments for proposals to be analyzed and improved before being launched on the main network.

Each proposed change must be carefully evaluated regarding its maturity, impact, backward compatibility, and support among stakeholders. The recommended key questions and appropriate timing are critical to ensure that an update is adopted without compromising network cohesion. It's also essential that the implementation process is continuously monitored and re-evaluated, allowing adjustments as necessary and minimizing the risk of instability.

By following these guidelines, Bitcoin's stakeholders can ensure that the network continues to evolve safely and robustly, maintaining user trust and further solidifying its role as one of the most resilient and innovative digital assets in the world. Ultimately, consensus in Bitcoin is not just a technical issue but a reflection of its community and the values it represents: security, decentralization, and resilience.

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8. Links

Whitepaper: https://github.com/bitcoin-cap/bcap

Youtube (pt-br): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARycAibl9o&list=PL-qnhF0qlSPkfhorqsREuIu4UTbF0h4zb

@ eac63075:b4988b48

Every night, you draw your curtains without thinking twice. It's instinctive—a simple act that protects your personal space. Yet in our digital lives, we've somehow accepted living in houses made entirely of glass, with countless unseen observers watching our every move.

https://www.fountain.fm/episode/wPZLCJ3fD6vzsWQ3XSE1

Why Privacy Matters to Everyone

Privacy isn't just for those with something to hide; it's a fundamental human need. Think about the conversations you have with friends, the late-night web searches you make, the personal moments you capture in photos. Would you want all of that broadcasted to the world?

I remember my friend Lisa planning a surprise party for her husband. She searched for gift ideas and coordinated with friends through social media. To her dismay, targeted ads for the exact gift she intended to buy started popping up on their shared devices at home. The surprise was ruined. It wasn't malicious, but it was a stark reminder of how our online activities are constantly monitored.

When a major retailer's customer database was breached, my neighbor Sarah discovered her shopping history, credit card details, and even her children's names were exposed to criminals. She hadn't realized how much personal information she'd unknowingly shared through routine purchases. It was a wake-up call that privacy breaches can affect anyone, not just the tech-savvy or those in high-profile positions.

Edward Snowden once said, "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." Privacy isn't about secrecy; it's about autonomy over our personal information.

The Rise of the Cypherpunks

Back in the '90s, a group known as the cypherpunks saw the writing on the wall. They recognized that as we moved into a digital era, our personal freedoms could be at risk. So they took action.

One of them, Eric Hughes, famously wrote, "Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age." They developed encryption tools to protect individual privacy, laying the groundwork for technologies like Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. These innovations were about more than digital money; they were about empowering individuals to take control of their own data.

When Technology Knows Too Much

Fast forward to today, and artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere—in our phones, homes, and even cars. While AI brings convenience, it also raises serious privacy concerns.

Remember when you mentioned needing new running shoes, and suddenly every ad on your browser was for footwear? It's not your imagination. AI algorithms analyze our conversations, searches, and purchases to predict what we'll want next. But where does it stop?

A few years ago, a major retailer guessed a teenager was pregnant based on her shopping habits before she had told her family. They sent her targeted coupons for baby products, leading to a very uncomfortable situation at home. This isn't just marketing—it's intrusion.

Naomi Brockwell, a privacy advocate, warns, "Our relationship with financial privacy has fundamentally changed. What was once seen as a constitutional right and personal freedom is now simply part of the trade-off for using digital payments. Our baseline for what’s acceptable has shifted." It's a wake-up call that our digital footprints are larger and more revealing than we might think.

Privacy-Preserving AI

While AI often threatens privacy, emerging technologies like federated learning offer hope. This approach allows AI models to learn from data without directly accessing personal information. Imagine your phone improving its predictive text without sending your messages to a central server. It's AI that respects your privacy.

The Watchful Eye: Mass Surveillance and AI

Governments and corporations often justify mass surveillance as a means to keep us safe. But at what cost? When every email, message, or phone call can be monitored, we're sacrificing more than just data—we're giving up our freedom to think and communicate without fear.

Think about how you'd behave if someone followed you around with a camera all day. You might avoid certain places or people, censor your conversations, or feel constantly on edge. That's the chilling effect of mass surveillance.

I spoke with Alex, a journalist who covers political activism. "After attending a peaceful protest, I noticed unusual activity on my devices," he told me. "It made me second-guess my work, wondering who's watching." This isn't paranoia; it's a reality for many who challenge the status quo.

Building Digital Fortresses: Cryptographic Innovations

So how do we reclaim our privacy? Cryptography offers some solutions.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Proving Without Revealing

Zero-knowledge proofs allow you to prove you know something without revealing the actual information. Imagine showing a bouncer a card that confirms you're over 21 without exposing your birth date or any other details. In the digital world, this means verifying your identity or eligibility without handing over all your personal data.

Homomorphic Encryption: Secure Processing

Then there's homomorphic encryption, which lets companies process your data without actually seeing it. Think of it like sending a locked suitcase with your belongings; they can weigh it or move it, but they can't open it to see what's inside.

Quantum-Resistant Algorithms: Future-Proofing Privacy

As quantum computers become more powerful, they could potentially break current encryption methods. Quantum-resistant algorithms are being developed to safeguard our data against these future threats. It's like reinforcing your digital locks today to withstand the super lock-picking tools of tomorrow.

Decentralization: Taking Back Control

Decentralization aims to put power back into the hands of individuals. Bitcoin let you be your own bank, controlling your finances without a middleman. Decentralized social media platforms like Nostr, Bluesky or Fascaster allow you to own your content without algorithms dictating what you see or who sees you.

Decentralized Identity Systems

Decentralized identity systems let you prove who you are without revealing more than necessary. It's like showing only your age at a bar instead of handing over your entire driver's license. You maintain control over your personal information.

But with great power comes great responsibility. Without a bank to reset your password or customer service to recover your account, the onus is on you to protect your assets and information.

Practical Tips to Protect Your Privacy

You don't have to be a tech guru to safeguard your privacy. Here are some steps you can take today:

• Use Encrypted Messaging Apps: Switch to apps like Signal, SimpleX or Session for secure communication. Your messages will be end-to-end encrypted, meaning only you and the recipient can read them.

• Limit Social Media Sharing: Be mindful of what you post. Do you really need to share your location or personal details publicly?

• Choose Privacy-Focused Browsers and Search Engines: Use browsers like Brave or Firefox and search engines like DuckDuckGo that don't track your every move.

• Secure Your Passwords: Use strong, unique passwords for each account, and consider a password manager like Bitwarden. Enable two-factor authentication whenever possible.

• Use Encrypted Email Services: Consider email providers like ProtonMail that offer end-to-end encryption for your communications.

• Regularly Audit App Permissions: Check which apps have access to your location, microphone, and contacts. Revoke permissions that aren't necessary.

• Be Wary of Public Wi-Fi: Public networks can be a hotbed for hackers. If you must use them, a VPN like ProtonVPN can add a layer of security.

• Consider Privacy-Focused Alternatives: Explore services like Nextcloud for cloud storage or Jitsi Meet for video conferencing, which prioritize user privacy.

• Keep Software Updated: Regular updates often include security patches. Don't ignore them.

• Stay Informed and Skeptical: Phishing scams are getting more sophisticated. Think before you click on suspicious links or download attachments.

Final Thoughts

Privacy isn't a lost cause; it's a right worth fighting for. As Edward Snowden reminds us, "Privacy is the fountainhead of all other rights."

By taking control of our data and digital habits, we can navigate the online world with greater confidence and peace of mind. After all, wouldn't it be nice to live in a digital home where we decide when to close the curtains?

Read more

OPSEC and Digital Hygiene Plan: https://www.eddieoz.com/opsec-and-digital-hygiene-plan/

@ 42342239:1d80db24

TL;DR: J.D. Vance recently observed that many in the Democratic Party are attempting to manufacture trust from the top down, neglecting the fact that genuine trust is often born from grassroots connections. There's indeed a stark contrast between trust that's artificially constructed through manipulation and censorship, and trust that's organically cultivated from the ground up.

Trump's vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance appeared on podcast host Joe Rogan's show earlier in November. According to Vance, large parts of the Democratic Party are trying to create higher trust from above, without understanding that the previously high trust once arose organically: "I think that a lot of them are trying to reimpose that social trust from the top."

Most people understand the importance of high trust. Political scientist Robert D. Putnam, for example, has shown that large social capital, in the form of trust and networks, is a key factor for economic growth, cooperation, and problem-solving. See e.g. his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000).

The low trust today is widespread. Trust in the American federal government is at historically low levels. Trust in the media is at rock-bottom levels. Even trust in doctors and hospitals has plummeted: at the beginning of 2024, the proportion of people who reported "a great deal of trust" had dropped to 40%, from 72% in April 2020. This can be concerning, as individuals with low trust in doctors and hospitals will be less likely to follow their advice and recommendations. It's therefore not surprising that many want to "rebuild trust" (this was the theme of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting this year).

How much trust is actually reasonable?

But how much trust is actually reasonable? To determine this, one can ask whether an institution has acted reliably in the past, whether it possesses the knowledge and ability required to deliver what is promised, and whether its interests are in line with our own.

The low trust figures among Americans are likely a reflection of the fact that many of them today question the extent to which the answers to these questions are actually affirmative. During the pandemic, medical experts in the UK incorrectly predicted that hundreds of thousands of people would die. In the US, the leading infectious disease expert misled the public about, among other things, face masks, the sitting president lied about both the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, a British health minister wanted to "scare the pants off people," and virus experts even conspired to mislead about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. All while social media companies, under pressure from governments, were forced to censor information that was actually correct.

Trust - built on sand or on solid ground?

It's possible to continue on the current path and try to improve trust figures by limiting access to information. For instance, if the public doesn't get access to negative information about authorities or experts, the measured trust can increase. But in that case, trust is merely built on sand, waiting to be undermined by the inexorable forces of truth.

But there's another possibility. Building relationships that are genuine and honest, listening to each other without judgment, and communicating without misleading. Doing things that really matter, and doing them well, showing competence and reliability through actions. In this way, trust can grow naturally and organically. A trust built on solid ground, not on sand. A delicate task. But presidential election or not, isn't it time for us to start building a future where this form of trust is the obvious foundation?

@ 319ad3e7:cc01d50a

https://image.nostr.build/4824c65d9a07c577bee8591b18ee147e7a457849fbaee53244667ec062914751.jpg

NOV 2024 | ISSUE 3 | LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER | FOOD ART | LIFE EXPERIENCE | FEATURED RECIPE | KIDS CORNER | MICROFICTION | FOOD NOTE QUOTES | SOUNDS | UPCOMING EVENTS | ECONOMICS | COMMUNITY PHOTO ALBUM | NEW RECIPES

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LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER 📝

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Hello and welcome back to the cozy autumn days with Zap Cooking! I’m thrilled to bring you another issue of our monthly newsletter, a space where we share our favorite moments and celebrate our vibrant community. Sarah, who does an amazing job curating these updates, has crafted this edition to capture the essence of both real-life gatherings and our shared online experiences on Nostr.

In this issue, we’re excited to revisit highlights from Nostr Valley, where Zap Cooking was proud to sponsor and connect with friends in a truly special celebration. It was an incredible honor to see so many of you make the journey to join us for the first annual event—a milestone in Nostr’s history and a testament to the strength of our community.

As always, thank you for being a part of this journey. Your continued support, contributions, and readership mean everything to us. Here’s to more shared moments, connections, and, of course, great cooking!

Gratefully,

Seth

Founder, Zap Cooking

https://i.nostr.build/gwaOKZDlTM45Ht15.jpg

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FOOD ART 🎨

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Zap.Cooking’s favorite food art of the month is the Banana Bread Costume from Bread and Toast! 😀 https://i.nostr.build/MgihZ6m2bQCv6krD.png Visit Breadandtoast.Com For More! New Single Every Sunday!

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LIFE EXPERIENCE ✈️

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Nostr Valley Adventures

https://image.nostr.build/7fd20dd7d9a4ce01657e0a9bed9d60cd6308325bf6cb69ec4f7ca63a6e3fb56e.jpg

The adventures of Nostr Valley began when I was invited to speak on a food panel alongside Seth, the founder of Zap.Cooking, at Happy Valley Brewing in State College Park, Pennsylvania.

Over the course of a month before the event, a fellow fun enthusiast known as The Beave organized a weekend filled with activities and accommodations, including a visit to a gun range and a stay at a charming three-bedroom countryside rental nestled among Pennsylvania's most scenic farm hills.

The Nostr Valley weekend had finally arrived, and I was set to drive six and a half hours to a small airport primarily used by skydivers and flying enthusiasts who park their personal planes in rented hangars. I was to meet a pilot who went by the name "Choke This." Despite the somewhat ominous name, my faith in the Nostr web of trust circles provided a sense of safety as I prepared to fly to Pennsylvania. Still, the thought of traveling alone to a remote area did cross my mind a few times. While it may not have been the wisest decision, I had faith in Nostr.

I began my journey at 1 am, getting ready and preparing my car before hitting the highway around 4 am. Driving on the empty roads was a pleasant experience, and I felt even better when I arrived at the well-kept airport on a beautiful sunny morning at 10:30 am, with not a single cloud in the sky. I knew it was a perfect day for skydiving, which alleviated one of the many flying-related nerves swirling in my head. Great weather? Check!

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After a brief introduction to the non-threatening pilot, we loaded our gear into the rear of the plane and settled in for takeoff, complete with those cool headphones. As we patiently waited for all the skydivers to land from their jumps, I received a crash course on plane safety in case of an emergency landing.

We made our way to the small runway, and with a gentle breeze, we were soaring into the blue skies. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Every time I fly, the scenery reminds me of the model city in the Beetlejuice movie.

For the next three hours, the pilot and I got to know each other. We shared our Nostr stories, backgrounds, and family lives. The pilot also gave an impressive presentation on the features of his aircraft, including a lesson on how to read knots—the unit of speed.

We landed in Maryland to pick up another panel speaker, Mr. Scott Churchill, who would be joining the art panel with Dan, the creator of the Nostr-only comic "Bread and Toast." Scott is a loving father with remarkable artistic skills that included drawing and music.

The three of us entered the airport restaurant and took a window seat overlooking the runway to grab a quick bite. This is where I was introduced to Maryland’s love for Old Bay seasoning. The pilot was eager to order crab cakes, and I was initially going to join him, but as soon as I spotted "CRAB SOUP" on the menu board, my food plans changed. Once we ordered, the food arrived fairly quickly. The kind server placed a bowl of soup in front of me, complete with extra crackers and an Old Bay salt shaker. My face lit up as I exclaimed, “What is this!?” Scott explained that Old Bay is a staple in these parts. I poured the seasoning into my soup and took a taste. “I’m going to do this at home,” I declared before even swallowing the first spoonful. I devoured the rest of the soup, sprinkling Old Bay each time I removed a layer of the flavorful creamy broth. I was hooked.

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Once lunch was finished, we boarded the plane. I offered the front seat to Scott since it was his first time flying. He was a mix of emotions about the flight, but he did amazing and even got to fly the plane!

When we landed in State College Park, Pennsylvania, it felt as though we had become a family. There’s nothing quite like trusting strangers with your life for several hours in a flying machine to foster a sense of camaraderie.

We were off to meet our fourth companion—the organizer, the maestro, the one and only, THE BEAVE! He awaited us at the house, and upon our arrival, we felt an immediate sense of comfort.

The house was beautiful, the people were friendly, and it was time to invite other speakers and guests over for a magical steak dinner. Beave started the bonfire while the pilot fired up the grill. Guests began to arrive.

The steaks were so thick and stacked that I dubbed it "Steak Jenga." The guests gathered around the impressive pile of perfectly cooked meat, each grabbing a steak as large as their faces.

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After dinner, I had the opportunity to taste one of the best-flavored vodkas I had ever encountered: Blake’s Limited Edition x Gypsy Spirits’ Apple Pie Vodka, a vodka infused with Apple Cider & Cinnamon.

https://i.nostr.build/YHt8Em9wSJNGPqGs.jpg

I called it an early night due to all the traveling and being awake since 1 am, especially since I would be speaking on my first panel the next day. I wanted to be fresh and alert for the event. As soon as my head touched the pillow, I fell into a deep sleep. When I woke early the next morning, I felt rested and ready to conquer the day.

Beave and I were the only ones awake, so we headed to the nearest country store to see what breakfast supplies they offered. Upon entering the store, we found a convenience section on the left and a sit-down breakfast and lunch area on the right. We made our way to the cold section, where we discovered local dairy farm milk in half-gallon glass containers for only $3! I had to grab a jug. There were also small bottles of flavored milk, including strawberry milk, for less than $1.50.

https://i.nostr.build/KtCMvKOsTYIozmA8.jpg

Beave and I picked up some eggs and butter, but the real treasure was the donuts. The lady behind the register was an excellent saleswoman, encouraging us to take home a container of these fluffy looking treats. I noticed Beave had already bought some right before I made my way to the register, so I thought, "Why not?" I grabbed a container of smaller individual donuts that would be perfect for sharing with the house.

Once we got to the car, we each took a bite of a donut and immediately began scarfing it down in ecstasy. It was moist, and the bakers hadn’t skimped on the glaze. There was no oily aftertaste—just rich, sweet goodness that I would absolutely recommend.

After returning to the house, we served breakfast and started getting dressed for Nostr Valley.

At this point, I was a bundle of nerves. As we arrived at Happy Valley Brewing, it was heartening to see so many familiar faces from Nostr. Avi Burra, author and host of Plebchain Radio, began hosting the event, introducing all the speakers and panels. Derek Ross, one of the organizers of Nostr Valley, opened the show with a "Nostr 101" speech. Then, the art panel, moderated by Seth—my “boss” from Zap.Cooking—featured Dan and Scott. Avi then demonstrated his Nostr medical application. The food crew, consisting of Seth and me, followed next, moderated by Boston Wine. Next Block made their rounds with Mandana and Ian. The Other Nostr Apps panel featured Derek, Vic, Boston Wine, and Avi. The infamous Open Mike spoke about music with Derek, and the event concluded with closing remarks from the two organizers.

https://i.nostr.build/aoplHjfLu6oJPGr1.png (see the Community Photo Album for more pictures)

This was my first time speaking on a panel, and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I practically clung to Seth the entire time and felt as though I blacked out while speaking. Nevertheless, I was proud to have made it through.

Afterward, a large group of us headed to the American Ale House, where we had a private section of the restaurant reserved. Avi and Derek’s shared dish was particularly notable—a nearly $90 certified angus beef tomahawk steak weighing in at 44 ounces.

https://i.nostr.build/Jk5ZJwd8VoBQQGTT.jpg https://i.nostr.build/7ydShpbQasVMp3hT.webp

For the afterparty, we invited everyone to a bonfire and podcast session at our VRBO for mini podcast recordings. However, I ended up successfully talking for 45 minutes with the first attendee, and by then, everyone else grew tired of waiting. I was ready for bed after such a long day.

On Sunday morning, the sun streamed through my window as I woke up, and I realized it was shooting range day! Beave and I headed over to the country store for more donuts, but unfortunately, it was closed on Sundays. We took a drive to fill up the car with gas and grabbed a breakfast sandwich or two at the gas station. We gathered the rest of the group and made our way to PGC Scotia Shooting Range, where we spent six hours shooting a variety of guns outdoors.

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When we returned, we were starving and enjoyed a pleasant pheasant dinner filled with lively conversation.

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On Monday, we checked out of the VRBO. The day was cloudy, and the first part of the flight home was bumpy, but the sky cleared after we dropped off the other speaker. Once we landed back at the skydiving airport, I spent the rest of the evening driving home, finally walking in the door at 2 am.

My favorite part of the weekend wasn’t the speaking on stage or all the activities; it was the friendships I gained over those three days. I am truly grateful.

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FEATURED RECIPE 🥪

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KIDS CORNER 🐤

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MICROFICTION 📖

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TRICK OR TREAT? | Rustypuppy

“Remember, look into her orange eye, ask for a trick, and say ‘please.’” Janice fluffed the mane of my son’s lion costume and gave him a little push toward the dilapidated barn, decked out in creepy Halloween glory, complete with skeleton graveyard, tree ghosts, and a giant roof spider with glowing eyes.

Henry took two steps forward, then glanced back at me. I smiled and nodded. His brow furrowed, then he got in line with the other kids waiting for their turn at Granny Baba’s front door.

“You’re not traumatizing my five year old for life, are you?” I asked our babysitter.

The teen laughed. “He’s a brave little guy. I didn’t face her until I was seven. Relax, pops. Granny Baba is a rite of passage in this town. He’ll fit in better once he can say he got his trick. Besides, sometimes you gotta go through the scary to get to the good.”

After twelve minutes and eleven seconds, my son ran toward us, his face shining with joy. “I got the trick!” He showed off his jack o’ lantern candy bucket, which had contained the usual assortment of wrapped sugar and artificial ingredients, and now also held a clear plastic bag filled with lumpy darkness.

I side-eyed Janice as she took out the bag, opened it, and ate a handful. Henry did the same before I could stop him.

“This is …. good,” he said, frowning and chewing at the same time. “What’s the trick?”

“It’s healthy,” Janice replied. “All natural, sprouted granola.”

*RECIPE REFERENCE | Sprouted Bliss Granola - Essencial | Vegan | nostr:npub1c6dhrhzkflwr2zkdmlujnujawgp2c9rsep6gscyt6mvcusnt5a3srnzmx3

Follow Rustypuppy | https://rustypuppy.npub.pro/

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FOOD NOTE QUOTES 🗒️

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SOUNDS 🔊

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MUSIC

HONEY | MARTIN GROOMS

https://wavlake.com/track/e4c1cf34-ada2-46ba-be1a-b9242479ca0a | https://image.nostr.build/470907a92d1155aca310a980bacb0e178d9299b78a897d6db3d5189f39ff5a5b.png

PODCASTS

TFTC

Courtney Swan breaks down how these harmful ingredients are fueling hyperactivity in children. | https://video.nostr.build/49e4c0db7da37748ac04071cab1fdc668b55aa346e08bf8501d6071bd59ab6e6.mp4 These 10 Companies Control The World To POISON YOU! | Marty sat down with Courtney Swan to expose how 10 Companies Control The entire Worlds food supply, and how they're producing food that's poisoning you and your family. | To watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSEiJ6C4MHk

BENPOD

BenPod.com featuring Twitter Co-Founder, Rabble | NOSTR Breaks Every Social Media Paradigm (BWP58) https://video.nostr.build/caaa77bb42bbfa2ddc04017ae45f68a95c162822edaa3084ffefeff4776ce0e0.mp4 | To watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/U-eNYRwyADI

PLEBCHAIN RADIO

Fermenting a Revolution with Ben Justman | Plebchain Radio | QW & Avi discuss the road to plebhood, building Peony Lane Vineyards, running a Bitcoin business, Creed, Nostr and more with Ben Justman. | Peony Lane Vineyard : https://www.peonylanewine.com/ | https://fountain.fm/episode/YMpNVBI3WjDv1Uttl1vd

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UPCOMING EVENTS 🥳

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Submit your Nostr event with @ZapCooking on Nostr

NOVEMBER 1

SoupBox Debut Listening Party| 7pm EST | ONLINE | zap.stream

NOVEMBER 6

The No-Conference Nostr Party at Bitcoin Park | Nashville, Tennessee | https://www.meetup.com/bitcoinpark/events/303283108

NOVEMBER 8-9

Brazil's Largest 100% Bitcoin Event | São Paulo | https://www.satsconf.com.br/

DECEMBER 15-19

Sats By SW | A V4V Weekend | Austin, Texas | https://media.primal.net/uploads/2/e0/e1/2e0e1258d63c4b758eeeb48cc0892eaf35a99f083d0a1cf7be03d1382fc6b8bd.jpg

JANUARY 30-31

Plan B Forum | El Salvador | https://image.nostr.build/86c3212b3677a0176f1a838ea006bfdf9cc43e778f5c406c641b553436917395.jpg

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ECONOMICS 🍞

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SAUSAGES | Peter McCormack

"...Mistakes, even trivial ones, are amplified in seconds. Look at the recent Labour Party conference, where Keir Starmer’s speech was meant to lay out his grand vision for fixing the country. Instead, a simple slip of the tongue—calling for the release of “sausages,” instead of “hostages”—became the story. Within hours, memes flooded the internet, and his entire message was lost in the noise..."

https://image.nostr.build/05d035f16769c1cffda143bc6ee5c0a5b86b74bad4c49aa9f98cdc5618ccc526.png

Read more: https://www.petermccormack.com/p/sausages

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COMMUNITY PHOTO ALBUM 📷

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Community Photo Album by The Beave, Derek Ross, Seth, Scott, T$, JD, Vic, Adam Toad, The Bitcoin Babe, Open Mike, Silberengel, inyahé, Bread and Toast, Nostr Valley, Atlantic Bitcoin Conference, TABconf, CornyChat, NostrNests | Share your Nostr community photos or videos with @ZapCooking

Nostr Valley

https://image.nostr.build/f743bdef24bca2d85eb78d182560e4d6fd8cba857d82252b1fbee23e97df4bbe.jpg https://i.nostr.build/xTw4pPUDkuTIaFW8.jpg https://i.nostr.build/O0wDQWEwDrrntToS.jpg https://i.nostr.build/vYkyGtdl2c8bgkmU.jpg https://i.nostr.build/uLqQ5a7Blza3n1d0.jpg https://i.nostr.build/ALGdDpTdMTFXiIu2.jpg https://i.nostr.build/NbUeiWCkDtYR4fF4.jpg https://i.nostr.build/JSImWt5lUx4am1iz.jpg https://i.nostr.build/CoS2Cc5j9Q6pSqBz.jpg https://i.nostr.build/o30Ljw4lObtlQQfn.jpg https://i.nostr.build/LRqTNfP9yFl3AgQl.jpg https://i.nostr.build/qv5PkjTbSgX6vygZ.jpg https://i.nostr.build/upPFNEEvXV9Jprez.jpg https://i.nostr.build/sWkZyiawJRP1uPJ0.jpg https://i.nostr.build/BWr1z0GE7BOlyZhH.jpg https://i.nostr.build/TgWpmKFc7Nqpt2ED.jpg https://i.nostr.build/MMX5LLABTCK4jZaY.jpg https://i.nostr.build/LnbJZmTA09F76um9.jpg https://i.nostr.build/hACVcv3cASvX9yZf.jpg

Atlanta Bitcoin Conference

https://i.nostr.build/Omk1YnOwYjhVShqO.jpg https://image.nostr.build/e46c9169c4b96bf2f6052c3e49555f7c6656ac061fff9b808a9fba33d0661f61.jpg https://image.nostr.build/fa282ad995e454cf899dac7a1720435fdc7921b2cf9693cffb9fc4cf23690907.jpg

TABConf

The critical innovations at @TABConf for a Saturday night. | Oatmeal-raisin, chocolate-chip, and vegan peanut butter cookies have been baked. Leaving for #meetup in Frankfurt with @Purple Konnektiv ❤️ | Silberengel https://image.nostr.build/f4a4d25220ec2b6797d09c68049639dedefc9d3414ad5587a48a6016ede46d81.jpg The Peanut Butter Cookie recipe is available on Zap.Cooking! nostr:npub1l5sga6xg72phsz5422ykujprejwud075ggrr3z2hwyrfgr7eylqstegx9z

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NEW RECIPES 🍲

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Robin Holstein | Soups | nostr:npub1rz7mvm42y0z3udug5s007sk0kgmcqs2ufa439edx8u2ptqhttews0tuhg4

Essencial | Vegan | nostr:npub1c6dhrhzkflwr2zkdmlujnujawgp2c9rsep6gscyt6mvcusnt5a3srnzmx3

Lucas M | Pork Meatballs | nostr:npub1whgjzsdrjxv5csrz2q032hpwxnjp4rpulxl0nexh62vz2dzc683qh8wqu9

Kat | Empanadas | nostr:npub10us6l7kvn340s2mw4jhluj0jlpt3zthnqftk8xewy80d64lpj96qa7xew6

Chriso🇺🇸🇦🇺🦘⚡️ | Mexican Grilled Chicken | nostr:npub147wy3decmxy3vs9u4nse80ha7nkcydt7zdge8lc9gk8ddglh4t6qudjwdr

MichZ | Orzo with Asparagus and Prosciutto | nostr:npub1jdyaqyngdj4tgmmtlm7j7npkr3fwzjcumcwdqf68dc9wd5lf39rqwlfwsu

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FIN 🤠

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https://image.nostr.build/497029805a46bbb4942bcb13a0e8f0238e3c7956282d4d2866ca342d19f54bad.jpg

@ 42342239:1d80db24

The Swedish government recently rejected the Transport Administration's proposal for average speed cameras. The proposal would have meant constant surveillance of all vehicles, and critics argued for instance that it would have posed a threat to national security. Given the prevalence of IT breaches and data leaks today, it's hard not to give them a point, even if the problems are often downplayed by both corporations, governments and organisations. After Facebook (now Meta) leaked account information for over half a billion users, internal mails revealed the company wanted to "normalise the fact that this happens regularly".

IT security focuses on protecting the information in our computer systems and their connections. Cybersecurity is a broader concept that also includes aspects such as human behaviour, environmental factors, and management.

Data that has not been collected cannot leak

Knowledge about cybersecurity is often insufficient. For example, it was not long ago that the Swedish Transport Agency decided to outsource the operation of the Swedish vehicle and driving licence register. This was done despite deviations from various laws and criticism from the Security Police. The operation was placed in, among other places, Serbia (which has a close relationship with Russia). The Swedish driving licence register, including personal photos, as well as confidential information about critical infrastructure such as bridges, subways, roads, and ports, became available to personnel without Swedish security clearance.

The government's decision earlier this year not to proceed with a Swedish "super register" is an example of how cybersecurity can be strengthened. The rejection of the Transport Administration's proposal for average speed cameras is another. Data that has not been collected cannot leak out. It cannot be outsourced either.

Accounts are risky by definition

But the question is bigger than that. More and more of the products and services we depend on are now subscription services, often including long documents with terms and conditions. Which few people read. If you want to control your air heat pump with your phone, you not only need an app and an account, but also agree to someone storing your data (maybe also selling it or leaking it). The same applies if you want to be able to find your car in the car park. If you do not agree to the constantly updated terms, you lose important functionality.

Every time you are required to create an account, you are put in a dependent position. And our society becomes more fragile - because data is collected and can therefore leak out. It is much harder to lose something you do not have.

At the Korean car manufacturer Kia, huge security holes were recently discovered. IT researchers could quickly scan and control almost any car, including tracking its position, unlocking it, starting the ignition, and accessing cameras and personal information such as name, phone number, and home address. In some cases, even driving routes. All thanks to a "relatively simple flaw" in a web portal.

Instead of being at the mercy of large companies' IT departments, our security would improve if we could control our air heat pump, unlock our car, or our data ourselves. The technology already exists, thanks to the breakthrough of asymmetric encryption in the 1970s. Now we just need the will to change.

@ eac63075:b4988b48

The future of physical money is at stake, and the discussion about DREX, the new digital currency planned by the Central Bank of Brazil, is gaining momentum. In a candid and intense conversation, Federal Deputy Julia Zanatta (PL/SC) discussed the challenges and risks of this digital transition, also addressing her Bill No. 3,341/2024, which aims to prevent the extinction of physical currency. This bill emerges as a direct response to legislative initiatives seeking to replace physical money with digital alternatives, limiting citizens' options and potentially compromising individual freedom. Let's delve into the main points of this conversation.

https://www.fountain.fm/episode/i5YGJ9Ors3PkqAIMvNQ0

(PT-BR version here)

What is a CBDC?

Before discussing the specifics of DREX, it’s important to understand what a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) is. CBDCs are digital currencies issued by central banks, similar to a digital version of physical money. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which operate in a decentralized manner, CBDCs are centralized and regulated by the government. In other words, they are digital currencies created and controlled by the Central Bank, intended to replace physical currency.

A prominent feature of CBDCs is their programmability. This means that the government can theoretically set rules about how, where, and for what this currency can be used. This aspect enables a level of control over citizens' finances that is impossible with physical money. By programming the currency, the government could limit transactions by setting geographical or usage restrictions. In practice, money within a CBDC could be restricted to specific spending or authorized for use in a defined geographical area.

In countries like China, where citizen actions and attitudes are also monitored, a person considered to have a "low score" due to a moral or ideological violation may have their transactions limited to essential purchases, restricting their digital currency use to non-essential activities. This financial control is strengthened because, unlike physical money, digital currency cannot be exchanged anonymously.

Practical Example: The Case of DREX During the Pandemic

To illustrate how DREX could be used, an example was given by Eric Altafim, director of Banco Itaú. He suggested that, if DREX had existed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government could have restricted the currency’s use to a 5-kilometer radius around a person’s residence, limiting their economic mobility. Another proposed use by the executive related to the Bolsa Família welfare program: the government could set up programming that only allows this benefit to be used exclusively for food purchases. Although these examples are presented as control measures for safety or organization, they demonstrate how much a CBDC could restrict citizens' freedom of choice.

To illustrate the potential for state control through a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), such as DREX, it is helpful to look at the example of China. In China, the implementation of a CBDC coincides with the country’s Social Credit System, a governmental surveillance tool that assesses citizens' and companies' behavior. Together, these technologies allow the Chinese government to monitor, reward, and, above all, punish behavior deemed inappropriate or threatening to the government.

How Does China's Social Credit System Work?

Implemented in 2014, China's Social Credit System assigns every citizen and company a "score" based on various factors, including financial behavior, criminal record, social interactions, and even online activities. This score determines the benefits or penalties each individual receives and can affect everything from public transport access to obtaining loans and enrolling in elite schools for their children. Citizens with low scores may face various sanctions, including travel restrictions, fines, and difficulty in securing loans.

With the adoption of the CBDC — or “digital yuan” — the Chinese government now has a new tool to closely monitor citizens' financial transactions, facilitating the application of Social Credit System penalties. China’s CBDC is a programmable digital currency, which means that the government can restrict how, when, and where the money can be spent. Through this level of control, digital currency becomes a powerful mechanism for influencing citizens' behavior.

Imagine, for instance, a citizen who repeatedly posts critical remarks about the government on social media or participates in protests. If the Social Credit System assigns this citizen a low score, the Chinese government could, through the CBDC, restrict their money usage in certain areas or sectors. For example, they could be prevented from buying tickets to travel to other regions, prohibited from purchasing certain consumer goods, or even restricted to making transactions only at stores near their home.

Another example of how the government can use the CBDC to enforce the Social Credit System is by monitoring purchases of products such as alcohol or luxury items. If a citizen uses the CBDC to spend more than the government deems reasonable on such products, this could negatively impact their social score, resulting in additional penalties such as future purchase restrictions or a lowered rating that impacts their personal and professional lives.

In China, this kind of control has already been demonstrated in several cases. Citizens added to Social Credit System “blacklists” have seen their spending and investment capacity severely limited. The combination of digital currency and social scores thus creates a sophisticated and invasive surveillance system, through which the Chinese government controls important aspects of citizens’ financial lives and individual freedoms.

Deputy Julia Zanatta views these examples with great concern. She argues that if the state has full control over digital money, citizens will be exposed to a level of economic control and surveillance never seen before. In a democracy, this control poses a risk, but in an authoritarian regime, it could be used as a powerful tool of repression.

DREX and Bill No. 3,341/2024

Julia Zanatta became aware of a bill by a Workers' Party (PT) deputy (Bill 4068/2020 by Deputy Reginaldo Lopes - PT/MG) that proposes the extinction of physical money within five years, aiming for a complete transition to DREX, the digital currency developed by the Central Bank of Brazil. Concerned about the impact of this measure, Julia drafted her bill, PL No. 3,341/2024, which prohibits the elimination of physical money, ensuring citizens the right to choose physical currency.

“The more I read about DREX, the less I want its implementation,” says the deputy. DREX is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), similar to other state digital currencies worldwide, but which, according to Julia, carries extreme control risks. She points out that with DREX, the State could closely monitor each citizen’s transactions, eliminating anonymity and potentially restricting freedom of choice. This control would lie in the hands of the Central Bank, which could, in a crisis or government change, “freeze balances or even delete funds directly from user accounts.”

Risks and Individual Freedom

Julia raises concerns about potential abuses of power that complete digitalization could allow. In a democracy, state control over personal finances raises serious questions, and EddieOz warns of an even more problematic future. “Today we are in a democracy, but tomorrow, with a government transition, we don't know if this kind of power will be used properly or abused,” he states. In other words, DREX gives the State the ability to restrict or condition the use of money, opening the door to unprecedented financial surveillance.

EddieOz cites Nigeria as an example, where a CBDC was implemented, and the government imposed severe restrictions on the use of physical money to encourage the use of digital currency, leading to protests and clashes in the country. In practice, the poorest and unbanked — those without regular access to banking services — were harshly affected, as without physical money, many cannot conduct basic transactions. Julia highlights that in Brazil, this situation would be even more severe, given the large number of unbanked individuals and the extent of rural areas where access to technology is limited.

The Relationship Between DREX and Pix

The digital transition has already begun with Pix, which revolutionized instant transfers and payments in Brazil. However, Julia points out that Pix, though popular, is a citizen’s choice, while DREX tends to eliminate that choice. The deputy expresses concern about new rules suggested for Pix, such as daily transaction limits of a thousand reais, justified as anti-fraud measures but which, in her view, represent additional control and a profit opportunity for banks. “How many more rules will banks create to profit from us?” asks Julia, noting that DREX could further enhance control over personal finances.

International Precedents and Resistance to CBDC

The deputy also cites examples from other countries resisting the idea of a centralized digital currency. In the United States, states like New Hampshire have passed laws to prevent the advance of CBDCs, and leaders such as Donald Trump have opposed creating a national digital currency. Trump, addressing the topic, uses a justification similar to Julia’s: in a digitalized system, “with one click, your money could disappear.” She agrees with the warning, emphasizing the control risk that a CBDC represents, especially for countries with disadvantaged populations.

Besides the United States, Canada, Colombia, and Australia have also suspended studies on digital currencies, citing the need for further discussions on population impacts. However, in Brazil, the debate on DREX is still limited, with few parliamentarians and political leaders openly discussing the topic. According to Julia, only she and one or two deputies are truly trying to bring this discussion to the Chamber, making DREX’s advance even more concerning.

Bill No. 3,341/2024 and Popular Pressure

For Julia, her bill is a first step. Although she acknowledges that ideally, it would prevent DREX's implementation entirely, PL 3341/2024 is a measure to ensure citizens' choice to use physical money, preserving a form of individual freedom. “If the future means control, I prefer to live in the past,” Julia asserts, reinforcing that the fight for freedom is at the heart of her bill.

However, the deputy emphasizes that none of this will be possible without popular mobilization. According to her, popular pressure is crucial for other deputies to take notice and support PL 3341. “I am only one deputy, and we need the public’s support to raise the project’s visibility,” she explains, encouraging the public to press other parliamentarians and ask them to “pay attention to PL 3341 and the project that prohibits the end of physical money.” The deputy believes that with a strong awareness and pressure movement, it is possible to advance the debate and ensure Brazilians’ financial freedom.

What’s at Stake?

Julia Zanatta leaves no doubt: DREX represents a profound shift in how money will be used and controlled in Brazil. More than a simple modernization of the financial system, the Central Bank’s CBDC sets precedents for an unprecedented level of citizen surveillance and control in the country. For the deputy, this transition needs to be debated broadly and transparently, and it’s up to the Brazilian people to defend their rights and demand that the National Congress discuss these changes responsibly.

The deputy also emphasizes that, regardless of political or partisan views, this issue affects all Brazilians. “This agenda is something that will affect everyone. We need to be united to ensure people understand the gravity of what could happen.” Julia believes that by sharing information and generating open debate, it is possible to prevent Brazil from following the path of countries that have already implemented a digital currency in an authoritarian way.

A Call to Action

The future of physical money in Brazil is at risk. For those who share Deputy Julia Zanatta’s concerns, the time to act is now. Mobilize, get informed, and press your representatives. PL 3341/2024 is an opportunity to ensure that Brazilian citizens have a choice in how to use their money, without excessive state interference or surveillance.

In the end, as the deputy puts it, the central issue is freedom. “My fear is that this project will pass, and people won’t even understand what is happening.” Therefore, may every citizen at least have the chance to understand what’s at stake and make their voice heard in defense of a Brazil where individual freedom and privacy are respected values.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

[Week 21-10] I thinks that Saylor is on right, don't trust verify, is bullshit Bitcoin is a financial tool! I think it's good for me to get away from social media once a week. I could do things outside, like walking. Take pictures of the landscape. The weirdest thing is when the alarm calls you up in an hour.

Fiatjaf wants a cache client. I feel like I can do it, I have the set to do it, but nostrudel is no longer working, so it's a little murky. Next nostrudel does not accept changes to settings (It works now!), so maybe i can think something. I want to make a corny chat, test, read this article. Nostr doesn't work with a vpn because relays don't know who you are. jokes aside, some clients have difficulties.

I couldn't take pictures of the landscape if I didn't take the wind blades. Small local controversy.

Missing the point of content creator. Simply for final user, Simply for the creator, new feature, no missing nothing. I'm trying to limit everything to writing for a week. I almost did. Maybe another week can do well.

Meanwhile I updated apps like Amber and Voyager, coracle, nostrmo.

The experiment continues with open vibe following the trending of Nostr. I'm following almost 120 npub. He'll stop, I don't know, possible he's already reached the limit. You still can't block words on the Nostr side of Open, strange thing. The app doesn't count the follow well, still some problem cleaning the cache seems that it doesn't need. After a while open and close and seems updated. I wanted to try open librarian, but I was busy sending fake zap on Nostr. This morning i try and It keeps giving me error 500 when I try to connect to a relay.

I hate when a profile follows everyone indistinctly, why does everyone follow? and in voyage, I read with WoT setting, I probably have to do unfollow. There must be an indication in which not include the followers of this person in the web of trust, I would do it by default if you follow more than 600 people.

WoT on Nostr Visualized post on stackernews

@ 42342239:1d80db24

TL;DR: The mathematics of trust says that news reporting will fall flat when the population becomes suspicious of the media. Which is now the case for growing subgroups in the U.S. as well as in Sweden.

A recent wedding celebration for Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson resulted in controversy, as one of the guests in attendance was reportedly linked to organized crime. Following this “wedding scandal”, a columnist noted that the party’s voters had not been significantly affected. Instead of a decrease in trust - which one might have expected - 10% of them stated that their confidence in the party had actually increased. “Over the years, the Sweden Democrats have surprisingly emerged unscathed from their numerous scandals,” she wrote. But is this really so surprising?

In mathematics, a probability is expressed as the likelihood of something occurring given one or more conditions. For example, one can express a probability as “the likelihood that a certain stock will rise in price, given that the company has presented a positive quarterly report.” In this case, the company’s quarterly report is the basis for the assessment. If we add more information, such as the company’s strong market position and a large order from an important customer, the probability increases further. The more information we have to go on, the more precise we can be in our assessment.

From this perspective, the Sweden Democrats’ “numerous scandals” should lead to a more negative assessment of the party. But this perspective omits something important.

A couple of years ago, the term “gaslighting” was chosen as the word of the year in the US. The term comes from a 1944 film of the same name and refers to a type of psychological manipulation, as applied to the lovely Ingrid Bergman. Today, the term is used in politics, for example, when a large group of people is misled to achieve political goals. The techniques used can be very effective but have a limitation. When the target becomes aware of what is happening, everything changes. Then the target becomes vigilant and views all new information with great suspicion.

The Sweden Democrats’ “numerous scandals” should lead to a more negative assessment of the party. But if SD voters to a greater extent than others believe that the source of the information is unreliable, for example, by omitting information or adding unnecessary information, the conclusion is different. The Swedish SOM survey shows that these voters have lower trust in journalists and also lower confidence in the objectivity of the news. Like a victim of gaslighting, they view negative reporting with suspicion. The arguments can no longer get through. A kind of immunity has developed.

In the US, trust in the media is at an all-time low. So when American media writes that “Trump speaks like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini,” that his idea of deporting illegal immigrants would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, or gets worked up over his soda consumption, the consequence is likely to be similar to here at home.

The mathematics of trust says that reporting will fall flat when the population becomes suspicious of the media. Or as the Swedish columnist put it: like water off a duck’s back.

Cover image: Ingrid Bergman 1946. RKO Radio Pictures - eBay, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

@ 42342239:1d80db24

It was recently reported that Sweden's Minister for Culture, Parisa Liljestrand, wishes to put an end to anonymous accounts on social media. The issue has been at the forefront following revelations of political parties using pseudonymous accounts on social media platforms earlier this year.

The importance of the internet is also well-known. As early as 2015, Roberta Alenius, who was then the press secretary for Fredrik Reinfeldt (Moderate Party), openly spoke about her experiences with the Social Democrats' and Moderates' internet activists: Twitter actually set the agenda for journalism at the time.

The Minister for Culture now claims, amongst other things, that anonymous accounts pose a threat to democracy, that they deceive people, and that they can be used to mislead, etc. It is indeed easy to find arguments against anonymity; perhaps the most common one is the 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear' argument.

One of the many problems with this argument is that it assumes that abuse of power never occurs. History has much to teach us here. Sometimes, authorities can act in an arbitrary, discriminatory, or even oppressive manner, at least in hindsight. Take, for instance, the struggles of the homosexual community, the courageous dissidents who defied communist regimes, or the women who fought for their right to vote in the suffragette movement.

It was difficult for homosexuals to be open about their sexuality in Sweden in the 1970s. Many risked losing their jobs, being ostracised, or harassed. Anonymity was therefore a necessity for many. Homosexuality was actually classified as a mental illness in Sweden until 1979.

A couple of decades earlier, dissidents in communist regimes in Europe used pseudonyms when publishing samizdat magazines. The Czech author and dissident Václav Havel, who later became the President of the Czech Republic, used a pseudonym when publishing his texts. The same was true for the Russian author and literary prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Indeed, in Central and Eastern Europe, anonymity was of the utmost importance.

One hundred years ago, women all over the world fought for the right to vote and to be treated as equals. Many were open in their struggle, but for others, anonymity was a necessity as they risked being socially ostracised, losing their jobs, or even being arrested.

Full transparency is not always possible or desirable. Anonymity can promote creativity and innovation as it gives people the opportunity to experiment and try out new ideas without fear of being judged or criticised. This applies not only to individuals but also to our society, in terms of ideas, laws, norms, and culture.

It is also a strange paradox that those who wish to limit freedom of speech and abolish anonymity simultaneously claim to be concerned about the possible return of fascism. The solutions they advocate are, in fact, precisely what would make it easier for a tyrannical regime to maintain its power. To advocate for the abolition of anonymity, one must also be of the (absurd) opinion that the development of history has now reached its definitive end.

@ eac63075:b4988b48

Imagine sending a private message to a friend, only to learn that authorities could be scanning its contents without your knowledge. This isn't a scene from a dystopian novel but a potential reality under the European Union's proposed "Chat Control" measures. Aimed at combating serious crimes like child exploitation and terrorism, these proposals could significantly impact the privacy of everyday internet users. As encrypted messaging services become the norm for personal and professional communication, understanding Chat Control is essential. This article delves into what Chat Control entails, why it's being considered, and how it could affect your right to private communication.

https://www.fountain.fm/episode/coOFsst7r7mO1EP1kSzV

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IZ6kMExfxFm4FHg5DAWT8?si=e139033865e045de

Sections:

• Introduction
• What Is Chat Control?
• Why Is the EU Pushing for Chat Control?
• The Privacy Concerns and Risks
• The Technical Debate: Encryption and Backdoors
• Global Reactions and the Debate in Europe
• Possible Consequences for Messaging Services
• What Happens Next? The Future of Chat Control
• Conclusion

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What Is Chat Control?

"Chat Control" refers to a set of proposed measures by the European Union aimed at monitoring and scanning private communications on messaging platforms. The primary goal is to detect and prevent the spread of illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and to combat terrorism. While the intention is to enhance security and protect vulnerable populations, these proposals have raised significant privacy concerns.

At its core, Chat Control would require messaging services to implement automated scanning technologies that can analyze the content of messages—even those that are end-to-end encrypted. This means that the private messages you send to friends, family, or colleagues could be subject to inspection by algorithms designed to detect prohibited content.

Origins of the Proposal

The initiative for Chat Control emerged from the EU's desire to strengthen its digital security infrastructure. High-profile cases of online abuse and the use of encrypted platforms by criminal organizations have prompted lawmakers to consider more invasive surveillance tactics. The European Commission has been exploring legislation that would make it mandatory for service providers to monitor communications on their platforms.

How Messaging Services Work

Most modern messaging apps, like Signal, Session, SimpleX, Veilid, Protonmail and Tutanota (among others), use end-to-end encryption (E2EE). This encryption ensures that only the sender and the recipient can read the messages being exchanged. Not even the service providers can access the content. This level of security is crucial for maintaining privacy in digital communications, protecting users from hackers, identity thieves, and other malicious actors.

Key Elements of Chat Control

• Automated Content Scanning: Service providers would use algorithms to scan messages for illegal content.
• Circumvention of Encryption: To scan encrypted messages, providers might need to alter their encryption methods, potentially weakening security.
• Mandatory Reporting: If illegal content is detected, providers would be required to report it to authorities.
• Broad Applicability: The measures could apply to all messaging services operating within the EU, affecting both European companies and international platforms.

Why It Matters

Understanding Chat Control is essential because it represents a significant shift in how digital privacy is handled. While combating illegal activities online is crucial, the methods proposed could set a precedent for mass surveillance and the erosion of privacy rights. Everyday users who rely on encrypted messaging for personal and professional communication might find their conversations are no longer as private as they once thought.

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Why Is the EU Pushing for Chat Control?

The European Union's push for Chat Control stems from a pressing concern to protect its citizens, particularly children, from online exploitation and criminal activities. With the digital landscape becoming increasingly integral to daily life, the EU aims to strengthen its ability to combat serious crimes facilitated through online platforms.

Protecting Children and Preventing Crime

One of the primary motivations behind Chat Control is the prevention of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) circulating on the internet. Law enforcement agencies have reported a significant increase in the sharing of illegal content through private messaging services. By implementing Chat Control, the EU believes it can more effectively identify and stop perpetrators, rescue victims, and deter future crimes.

Terrorism is another critical concern. Encrypted messaging apps can be used by terrorist groups to plan and coordinate attacks without detection. The EU argues that accessing these communications could be vital in preventing such threats and ensuring public safety.

Legal Context and Legislative Drivers

The push for Chat Control is rooted in several legislative initiatives:

• ePrivacy Directive: This directive regulates the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in electronic communications. The EU is considering amendments that would allow for the scanning of private messages under specific circumstances.

• Temporary Derogation: In 2021, the EU adopted a temporary regulation permitting voluntary detection of CSAM by communication services. The current proposals aim to make such measures mandatory and more comprehensive.

• Regulation Proposals: The European Commission has proposed regulations that would require service providers to detect, report, and remove illegal content proactively. This would include the use of technologies to scan private communications.

Balancing Security and Privacy

EU officials argue that the proposed measures are a necessary response to evolving digital threats. They emphasize the importance of staying ahead of criminals who exploit technology to harm others. By implementing Chat Control, they believe law enforcement can be more effective without entirely dismantling privacy protections.

However, the EU also acknowledges the need to balance security with fundamental rights. The proposals include provisions intended to limit the scope of surveillance, such as:

• Targeted Scanning: Focusing on specific threats rather than broad, indiscriminate monitoring.

• Judicial Oversight: Requiring court orders or oversight for accessing private communications.

• Data Protection Safeguards: Implementing measures to ensure that data collected is handled securely and deleted when no longer needed.

The Urgency Behind the Push

High-profile cases of online abuse and terrorism have heightened the sense of urgency among EU policymakers. Reports of increasing online grooming and the widespread distribution of illegal content have prompted calls for immediate action. The EU posits that without measures like Chat Control, these problems will continue to escalate unchecked.

Criticism and Controversy

Despite the stated intentions, the push for Chat Control has been met with significant criticism. Opponents argue that the measures could be ineffective against savvy criminals who can find alternative ways to communicate. There is also concern that such surveillance could be misused or extended beyond its original purpose.

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The Privacy Concerns and Risks

While the intentions behind Chat Control focus on enhancing security and protecting vulnerable groups, the proposed measures raise significant privacy concerns. Critics argue that implementing such surveillance could infringe on fundamental rights and set a dangerous precedent for mass monitoring of private communications.

Infringement on Privacy Rights

At the heart of the debate is the right to privacy. By scanning private messages, even with automated tools, the confidentiality of personal communications is compromised. Users may no longer feel secure sharing sensitive information, fearing that their messages could be intercepted or misinterpreted by algorithms.

Erosion of End-to-End Encryption

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a cornerstone of digital security, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can read the messages exchanged. Chat Control could necessitate the introduction of "backdoors" or weaken encryption protocols, making it easier for unauthorized parties to access private data. This not only affects individual privacy but also exposes communications to potential cyber threats.

Concerns from Privacy Advocates

Organizations like Signal and Tutanota, which offer encrypted messaging services, have voiced strong opposition to Chat Control. They warn that undermining encryption could have far-reaching consequences:

• Security Risks: Weakening encryption makes systems more vulnerable to hacking, espionage, and cybercrime.
• Global Implications: Changes in EU regulations could influence policies worldwide, leading to a broader erosion of digital privacy.
• Ineffectiveness Against Crime: Determined criminals might resort to other, less detectable means of communication, rendering the measures ineffective while still compromising the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

Potential for Government Overreach

There is a fear that Chat Control could lead to increased surveillance beyond its original scope. Once the infrastructure for scanning private messages is in place, it could be repurposed or expanded to monitor other types of content, stifling free expression and dissent.

Real-World Implications for Users

• False Positives: Automated scanning technologies are not infallible and could mistakenly flag innocent content, leading to unwarranted scrutiny or legal consequences for users.
• Chilling Effect: Knowing that messages could be monitored might discourage people from expressing themselves freely, impacting personal relationships and societal discourse.
• Data Misuse: Collected data could be vulnerable to leaks or misuse, compromising personal and sensitive information.

Legal and Ethical Concerns

Privacy advocates also highlight potential conflicts with existing laws and ethical standards:

• Violation of Fundamental Rights: The European Convention on Human Rights and other international agreements protect the right to privacy and freedom of expression.
• Questionable Effectiveness: The ethical justification for such invasive measures is challenged if they do not significantly improve safety or if they disproportionately impact innocent users.

Opposition from Member States and Organizations

Countries like Germany and organizations such as the European Digital Rights (EDRi) have expressed opposition to Chat Control. They emphasize the need to protect digital privacy and caution against hasty legislation that could have unintended consequences.

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The Technical Debate: Encryption and Backdoors

The discussion around Chat Control inevitably leads to a complex technical debate centered on encryption and the potential introduction of backdoors into secure communication systems. Understanding these concepts is crucial to grasping the full implications of the proposed measures.

What Is End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)?

End-to-end encryption is a method of secure communication that prevents third parties from accessing data while it's transferred from one end system to another. In simpler terms, only the sender and the recipient can read the messages. Even the service providers operating the messaging platforms cannot decrypt the content.

• Security Assurance: E2EE ensures that sensitive information—be it personal messages, financial details, or confidential business communications—remains private.
• Widespread Use: Popular messaging apps like Signal, Session, SimpleX, Veilid, Protonmail and Tutanota (among others) rely on E2EE to protect user data.

How Chat Control Affects Encryption

Implementing Chat Control as proposed would require messaging services to scan the content of messages for illegal material. To do this on encrypted platforms, providers might have to:

• Introduce Backdoors: Create a means for third parties (including the service provider or authorities) to access encrypted messages.
• Client-Side Scanning: Install software on users' devices that scans messages before they are encrypted and sent, effectively bypassing E2EE.

The Risks of Weakening Encryption

1. Compromised Security for All Users

Introducing backdoors or client-side scanning tools can create vulnerabilities:

• Exploitable Gaps: If a backdoor exists, malicious actors might find and exploit it, leading to data breaches.
• Universal Impact: Weakening encryption doesn't just affect targeted individuals; it potentially exposes all users to increased risk.

2. Undermining Trust in Digital Services

• User Confidence: Knowing that private communications could be accessed might deter people from using digital services or push them toward unregulated platforms.
• Business Implications: Companies relying on secure communications might face increased risks, affecting economic activities.

3. Ineffectiveness Against Skilled Adversaries

• Alternative Methods: Criminals might shift to other encrypted channels or develop new ways to avoid detection.
• False Sense of Security: Weakening encryption could give the impression of increased safety while adversaries adapt and continue their activities undetected.

Signal’s Response and Stance

Signal, a leading encrypted messaging service, has been vocal in its opposition to the EU's proposals:

• Refusal to Weaken Encryption: Signal's CEO Meredith Whittaker has stated that the company would rather cease operations in the EU than compromise its encryption standards.
• Advocacy for Privacy: Signal emphasizes that strong encryption is essential for protecting human rights and freedoms in the digital age.

Understanding Backdoors

A "backdoor" in encryption is an intentional weakness inserted into a system to allow authorized access to encrypted data. While intended for legitimate use by authorities, backdoors pose several problems:

• Security Vulnerabilities: They can be discovered and exploited by unauthorized parties, including hackers and foreign governments.
• Ethical Concerns: The existence of backdoors raises questions about consent and the extent to which governments should be able to access private communications.

The Slippery Slope Argument

Privacy advocates warn that introducing backdoors or mandatory scanning sets a precedent:

• Expanded Surveillance: Once in place, these measures could be extended to monitor other types of content beyond the original scope.
• Erosion of Rights: Gradual acceptance of surveillance can lead to a significant reduction in personal freedoms over time.

Potential Technological Alternatives

Some suggest that it's possible to fight illegal content without undermining encryption:

• Metadata Analysis: Focusing on patterns of communication rather than content.
• Enhanced Reporting Mechanisms: Encouraging users to report illegal content voluntarily.
• Investing in Law Enforcement Capabilities: Strengthening traditional investigative methods without compromising digital security.

The technical community largely agrees that weakening encryption is not the solution:

• Consensus on Security: Strong encryption is essential for the safety and privacy of all internet users.
• Call for Dialogue: Technologists and privacy experts advocate for collaborative approaches that address security concerns without sacrificing fundamental rights.

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Global Reactions and the Debate in Europe

The proposal for Chat Control has ignited a heated debate across Europe and beyond, with various stakeholders weighing in on the potential implications for privacy, security, and fundamental rights. The reactions are mixed, reflecting differing national perspectives, political priorities, and societal values.

Support for Chat Control

Some EU member states and officials support the initiative, emphasizing the need for robust measures to combat online crime and protect citizens, especially children. They argue that:

• Enhanced Security: Mandatory scanning can help law enforcement agencies detect and prevent serious crimes.
• Responsibility of Service Providers: Companies offering communication services should play an active role in preventing their platforms from being used for illegal activities.
• Public Safety Priorities: The protection of vulnerable populations justifies the implementation of such measures, even if it means compromising some aspects of privacy.

Opposition within the EU

Several countries and organizations have voiced strong opposition to Chat Control, citing concerns over privacy rights and the potential for government overreach.

Germany

• Stance: Germany has been one of the most vocal opponents of the proposed measures.
• Reasons:
• Constitutional Concerns: The German government argues that Chat Control could violate constitutional protections of privacy and confidentiality of communications.
• Security Risks: Weakening encryption is seen as a threat to cybersecurity.
• Legal Challenges: Potential conflicts with national laws protecting personal data and communication secrecy.

Netherlands

• Recent Developments: The Dutch government decided against supporting Chat Control, emphasizing the importance of encryption for security and privacy.
• Arguments:
• Effectiveness Doubts: Skepticism about the actual effectiveness of the measures in combating crime.
• Negative Impact on Privacy: Concerns about mass surveillance and the infringement of citizens' rights.

Table reference: Patrick Breyer - Chat Control in 23 September 2024

Privacy Advocacy Groups

European Digital Rights (EDRi)

• Role: A network of civil and human rights organizations working to defend rights and freedoms in the digital environment.
• Position:
• Strong Opposition: EDRi argues that Chat Control is incompatible with fundamental rights.
• Awareness Campaigns: Engaging in public campaigns to inform citizens about the potential risks.
• Policy Engagement: Lobbying policymakers to consider alternative approaches that respect privacy.

Politicians and Activists

Patrick Breyer

• Background: A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany, representing the Pirate Party.
• Actions:
• Advocacy: Actively campaigning against Chat Control through speeches, articles, and legislative efforts.
• Public Outreach: Using social media and public events to raise awareness.
• Legal Expertise: Highlighting the legal inconsistencies and potential violations of EU law.

Global Reactions

International Organizations

• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International: These organizations have expressed concerns about the implications for human rights, urging the EU to reconsider.

Technology Companies

• Global Tech Firms: Companies like Apple and Microsoft are monitoring the situation, as EU regulations could affect their operations and user trust.
• Industry Associations: Groups representing tech companies have issued statements highlighting the risks to innovation and competitiveness.

The Broader Debate

The controversy over Chat Control reflects a broader struggle between security interests and privacy rights in the digital age. Key points in the debate include:

• Legal Precedents: How the EU's decision might influence laws and regulations in other countries.
• Digital Sovereignty: The desire of nations to control digital spaces within their borders.
• Civil Liberties: The importance of protecting freedoms in the face of technological advancements.

Public Opinion

• Diverse Views: Surveys and public forums show a range of opinions, with some citizens prioritizing security and others valuing privacy above all.
• Awareness Levels: Many people are still unaware of the potential changes, highlighting the need for public education on the issue.

The EU is at a crossroads, facing the challenge of addressing legitimate security concerns without undermining the fundamental rights that are central to its values. The outcome of this debate will have significant implications for the future of digital privacy and the balance between security and freedom in society.

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Possible Consequences for Messaging Services

The implementation of Chat Control could have significant implications for messaging services operating within the European Union. Both large platforms and smaller providers might need to adapt their technologies and policies to comply with the new regulations, potentially altering the landscape of digital communication.

Impact on Encrypted Messaging Services

Signal and Similar Platforms

• Compliance Challenges: Encrypted messaging services like Signal rely on end-to-end encryption to secure user communications. Complying with Chat Control could force them to weaken their encryption protocols or implement client-side scanning, conflicting with their core privacy principles.

• Operational Decisions: Some platforms may choose to limit their services in the EU or cease operations altogether rather than compromise on encryption. Signal, for instance, has indicated that it would prefer to withdraw from European markets than undermine its security features.

Potential Blocking or Limiting of Services

• Regulatory Enforcement: Messaging services that do not comply with Chat Control regulations could face fines, legal action, or even be blocked within the EU.

• Access Restrictions: Users in Europe might find certain services unavailable or limited in functionality if providers decide not to meet the regulatory requirements.

Effects on Smaller Providers

• Resource Constraints: Smaller messaging services and startups may lack the resources to implement the required scanning technologies, leading to increased operational costs or forcing them out of the market.

• Innovation Stifling: The added regulatory burden could deter new entrants, reducing competition and innovation in the messaging service sector.

User Experience and Trust

• Privacy Concerns: Users may lose trust in messaging platforms if they know their communications are subject to scanning, leading to a decline in user engagement.

• Migration to Unregulated Platforms: There is a risk that users might shift to less secure or unregulated services, including those operated outside the EU or on the dark web, potentially exposing them to greater risks.

Technical and Security Implications

• Increased Vulnerabilities: Modifying encryption protocols to comply with Chat Control could introduce security flaws, making platforms more susceptible to hacking and data breaches.

• Global Security Risks: Changes made to accommodate EU regulations might affect the global user base of these services, extending security risks beyond European borders.

Impact on Businesses and Professional Communications

• Confidentiality Issues: Businesses that rely on secure messaging for sensitive communications may face challenges in ensuring confidentiality, affecting sectors like finance, healthcare, and legal services.

• Compliance Complexity: Companies operating internationally will need to navigate a complex landscape of differing regulations, increasing administrative burdens.

Economic Consequences

• Market Fragmentation: Divergent regulations could lead to a fragmented market, with different versions of services for different regions.

• Loss of Revenue: Messaging services might experience reduced revenue due to decreased user trust and engagement or the costs associated with compliance.

Responses from Service Providers

• Legal Challenges: Companies might pursue legal action against the regulations, citing conflicts with privacy laws and user rights.

• Policy Advocacy: Service providers may increase lobbying efforts to influence policy decisions and promote alternatives to Chat Control.

Possible Adaptations

• Technological Innovation: Some providers might invest in developing new technologies that can detect illegal content without compromising encryption, though the feasibility remains uncertain.

• Transparency Measures: To maintain user trust, companies might enhance transparency about how data is handled and what measures are in place to protect privacy.

The potential consequences of Chat Control for messaging services are profound, affecting not only the companies that provide these services but also the users who rely on them daily. The balance between complying with legal requirements and maintaining user privacy and security presents a significant challenge that could reshape the digital communication landscape.

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What Happens Next? The Future of Chat Control

The future of Chat Control remains uncertain as the debate continues among EU member states, policymakers, technology companies, and civil society organizations. Several factors will influence the outcome of this contentious proposal, each carrying significant implications for digital privacy, security, and the regulatory environment within the European Union.

Current Status of Legislation

• Ongoing Negotiations: The proposed Chat Control measures are still under discussion within the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Amendments and revisions are being considered in response to the feedback from various stakeholders.

• Timeline: While there is no fixed date for the final decision, the EU aims to reach a consensus to implement effective measures against online crime without undue delay.

Key Influencing Factors

1. Legal Challenges and Compliance with EU Law

• Fundamental Rights Assessment: The proposals must be evaluated against the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, ensuring that any measures comply with rights to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression.

• Court Scrutiny: Potential legal challenges could arise, leading to scrutiny by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which may impact the feasibility and legality of Chat Control.

2. Technological Feasibility

• Development of Privacy-Preserving Technologies: Research into methods that can detect illegal content without compromising encryption is ongoing. Advances in this area could provide alternative solutions acceptable to both privacy advocates and security agencies.

• Implementation Challenges: The practical aspects of deploying scanning technologies across various platforms and services remain complex, and technical hurdles could delay or alter the proposed measures.

3. Political Dynamics

• Member State Positions: The differing stances of EU countries, such as Germany's opposition, play a significant role in shaping the final outcome. Consensus among member states is crucial for adopting EU-wide regulations.

• Public Opinion and Advocacy: Growing awareness and activism around digital privacy can influence policymakers. Public campaigns and lobbying efforts may sway decisions in favor of stronger privacy protections.

4. Industry Responses

• Negotiations with Service Providers: Ongoing dialogues between EU authorities and technology companies may lead to compromises or collaborative efforts to address concerns without fully implementing Chat Control as initially proposed.

• Potential for Self-Regulation: Messaging services might propose self-regulatory measures to combat illegal content, aiming to demonstrate effectiveness without the need for mandatory scanning.

Possible Scenarios

Optimistic Outcome:

• Balanced Regulation: A revised proposal emerges that effectively addresses security concerns while upholding strong encryption and privacy rights, possibly through innovative technologies or targeted measures with robust oversight.

Pessimistic Outcome:

• Adoption of Strict Measures: Chat Control is implemented as initially proposed, leading to weakened encryption, reduced privacy, and potential withdrawal of services like Signal from the EU market.

Middle Ground:

• Incremental Implementation: Partial measures are adopted, focusing on voluntary cooperation with service providers and emphasizing transparency and user consent, with ongoing evaluations to assess effectiveness and impact.

How to Stay Informed and Protect Your Privacy

• Follow Reputable Sources: Keep up with news from reliable outlets, official EU communications, and statements from privacy organizations to stay informed about developments.

• Engage in the Dialogue: Participate in public consultations, sign petitions, or contact representatives to express your views on Chat Control and digital privacy.

• Utilize Secure Practices: Regardless of legislative outcomes, adopting good digital hygiene—such as using strong passwords and being cautious with personal information—can enhance your online security.

The Global Perspective

• International Implications: The EU's decision may influence global policies on encryption and surveillance, setting precedents that other countries might follow or react against.

• Collaboration Opportunities: International cooperation on developing solutions that protect both security and privacy could emerge, fostering a more unified approach to addressing online threats.

Looking Ahead

The future of Chat Control is a critical issue that underscores the challenges of governing in the digital age. Balancing the need for security with the protection of fundamental rights is a complex task that requires careful consideration, open dialogue, and collaboration among all stakeholders.

As the situation evolves, staying informed and engaged is essential. The decisions made in the coming months will shape the digital landscape for years to come, affecting how we communicate, conduct business, and exercise our rights in an increasingly connected world.

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Conclusion

The debate over Chat Control highlights a fundamental challenge in our increasingly digital world: how to protect society from genuine threats without eroding the very rights and freedoms that define it. While the intention to safeguard children and prevent crime is undeniably important, the means of achieving this through intrusive surveillance measures raise critical concerns.

Privacy is not just a personal preference but a cornerstone of democratic societies. End-to-end encryption has become an essential tool for ensuring that our personal conversations, professional communications, and sensitive data remain secure from unwanted intrusion. Weakening these protections could expose individuals and organizations to risks that far outweigh the proposed benefits.

The potential consequences of implementing Chat Control are far-reaching:

• Erosion of Trust: Users may lose confidence in digital platforms, impacting how we communicate and conduct business online.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Introducing backdoors or weakening encryption can make systems more susceptible to cyberattacks.
• Stifling Innovation: Regulatory burdens may hinder technological advancement and competitiveness in the tech industry.
• Global Implications: The EU's decisions could set precedents that influence digital policies worldwide, for better or worse.

As citizens, it's crucial to stay informed about these developments. Engage in conversations, reach out to your representatives, and advocate for solutions that respect both security needs and fundamental rights. Technology and policy can evolve together to address challenges without compromising core values.

The future of Chat Control is not yet decided, and public input can make a significant difference. By promoting open dialogue, supporting privacy-preserving innovations, and emphasizing the importance of human rights in legislation, we can work towards a digital landscape that is both safe and free.

In a world where digital communication is integral to daily life, striking the right balance between security and privacy is more important than ever. The choices made today will shape the digital environment for generations to come, determining not just how we communicate, but how we live and interact in an interconnected world.

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Thank you for reading this article. We hope it has provided you with a clear understanding of Chat Control and its potential impact on your privacy and digital rights. Stay informed, stay engaged, and let's work together towards a secure and open digital future.

Read more:

• https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/
• https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/new-eu-push-for-chat-control-will-messenger-services-be-blocked-in-europe/
• https://edri.org/our-work/dutch-decision-puts-brakes-on-chat-control/
• https://signal.org/blog/pdfs/ndss-keynote.pdf
• https://tuta.com/blog/germany-stop-chat-control
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/signal-president-slams-revised-eu-encryption-proposal
• https://mullvad.net/en/why-privacy-matters

@ 599f67f7:21fb3ea9

LNDhub te permite importar fácilmente una billetera en aplicaciones compatibles. Si bien puedes guardar tu billetera Bitcoin Txoko LNbits en tu teléfono como una aplicación web progresiva (PWA), una aplicación nativa como Zeus o BlueWallet ofrece una mejor experiencia de usuario así como un mayor nivel de seguridad. Con Alby, también puedes importar la billetera a la extensión de tu navegador para facilitar los pagos Lightning en la web y para los zaps de Nostr. Por suerte para nosotros, todas estas billeteras hablan un lenguaje común llamado LNDhub.

En esta guía cubriremos cómo importar la billetera a tu navegador y a tu móvil. Si quieres usar tu billetera tanto en el navegador como en tu móvil, empieza con la configuración de Alby, ya que uno de los pasos te permitirá importar fácilmente tu billetera también a Zeus. Pero si sólo te interesa utilizar la billetera en tu móvil, puedes pasar directamente a la sección de Zeus.

Alby

nostr:nprofile1qqsyv47lazt9h6ycp2fsw270khje5egjgsrdkrupjg27u796g7f5k0s8jq7y6 es una extensión de navegador que lleva Lightning y Nostr a tu navegador. Utilizando el protocolo WebLN, esta extensión puede detectar facturas LN en paginas web y pagarlas, así como posibilita iniciar sesión en sitios web con Lightning. También puedes fijar presupuestos para tus sitios favoritos de Lightning. Por otro lado también puedes utilizarla para firmar en Nostr utilizando NIP-07, lo cual es mucho más seguro que ingresar tu clave privada en clientes web.

¿Qué necesito?

• Un navegador web que soporte extensiones Chrome o Firefox
• Acceso a tu billetera LNbits. Si todavía no tienes una billetera LNbits, dirígete a nuestra página de billeteras y crea una
• (Opcional) Un dispositivo móvil para configurar Zeus

1. Habilita la extensión LNDhub en tu LNbits wallet

Dirígete a tu billetera LNbits. Haz clic en Extensiones y habilita la extensión LNDhub. Una vez se haya habilitado, dirígete a la página de extensión de LNDhub.

2. Instala la extensión Alby

Dirígete a getalby.com y instala la extensión desde el store de extensiones del navegador. Configura tu contraseña de desbloqueo y guárdala en un lugar seguro.

3. Importar a Alby

(Esta es una billetera de prueba. No hay fondos en ella. ¡No muestres a nadie tu URI de exportación real!)

En la siguiente pantalla, elige Conectar y luego elige LNDhub. Vuelve a tu extensión LNDhub y copia la URL de conexión. Pégala en el campo URI de exportación de LNDhub. Pulsa continuar. ¡Ahora deberías haber estado conectado a tu billetera de LNbits con LNDhub!

💡 Puedes elegir entre la URL de la factura (Invoice URL) y la URL de administración (Admin URL). Le dan a Alby diferentes permisos para interactuar con tu cartera de LNbits.

• La URL de factura te permite crear facturas y recibir pagos
• La URL de administración también te permite enviar pagos

4. Configurar Zeus con Alby (opcional)

Ahora que ya has conectado tu LNbits con Alby, también puedes importarlo de una manera sencilla a Zeus con Alby. Abre la extensión, haz cilc en el nombre de tu billetera y navega a la configuración de la cuenta. En Wallet Settings > General se encuentra la opción de conectar tu billetera móvil. Al pulsar conectar, se mostrará un código QR para escanear desde Zeus.

Si no tienes instalada Zeus con anterioridad, dirígete a zeusln.app y descarga la aplicación de Zeus para tu sistema operativo móvil.

Una vez tengas descargado Zeus, entra en Configuración > Añadir un nuevo nodo. Aquí puedes escanear el código QR que te muestra Alby para importar la billetera.

Voilà! Ahora tienes el poder de Lightning al alcance de la mano ¿Ya te sientes como un dios?

Zeus

nostr:nprofile1qqsrf5h4ya83jk8u6t9jgc76h6kalz3plp9vusjpm2ygqgalqhxgp9g84ctjf es una formidable aplicación de código abierto que permite conectar tu propio nodo a tu dispositivo movil. Es compatible con todas las principales implementaciones de nodos Lightning, como LND, CLN y Eclair, así como conexiones a través de Tor y clearnet. Recientemente también han anunciado su propio LSP (Lightning Service Provider).

¿Qué necesito?

• Teléfono Android o iOS
• Otro dispositivo en el que puede acceder a tu billetera LNbits (para mostrar el código QR para escanear)
• Acceso a tu billetera LNbits. Si todavía no tienes una billetera LNbits, dirígete a nuestra página de billeteras y crea una

1. Descarga Zeus

Puedes descargar la aplicación Zeus para tu sistema operativo aquí.

2. Habilita la extensión LNDhub en tu billetera LNbits

Dirígete a tu billetera LNbits. Haz clic en Extensiones y habilita la extensión LNDhub. Una vez habilitada, abre la pagina de la extensión LNDhub.

3. Importar a Zeus

Ve a Configuración > Añadir un nuevo nodo en Zeus.

Escanea la cartera que quieras instalar.

💡 Puedes elegir entre la URL de la factura (Invoice URL) y la URL de administración (Admin URL). - La URL de la factura te da permiso para generar facturas y recibir pagos. - La URL de administración también te permite enviar pagos.

Una vez que hayas escaneado el código QR, todos los campos en Zeus deberían rellenarse automáticamente. También puedes añadir un apodo para tu billetera.

¡Ahora puedes guardar la configuración del nodo y controlar la billetera desde tu teléfono!

Extra

Zeus también ofrece funciones interesantes como temas personalizados, conversiones de precios, modo acechador y verificación biométrica. Estos temas están más allá del alcance de esta guía, ¡juega en la aplicación y descubre todas esas características por ti mismo!

@ eac63075:b4988b48

Bitcoin emerged as a promise of financial freedom, challenging the traditional and centralized structures of governments and financial institutions. Since its inception, many enthusiasts have believed in the revolutionary potential of this cryptocurrency. However, over the years, challenges have arisen that have tested this promise, especially concerning centralization, the implementation of secondary layers like the Lightning Network, and issues of governance and privacy.

https://www.fountain.fm/episode/SDZYaFMyLEO1krL6x8RD

Centralization and the Exclusivity of Nostr

Nostr, a decentralized network aiming to be censorship resistant, emerged as an attempt to solve some inherent problems of centralization. However, it faces significant challenges. Many users point out that, despite its promise, Nostr is still not attractive to the general public, being exclusive to a specific niche.

Additionally, issues of centralization still permeate the network. Discussions on GitHub revealed that developers chose not to implement an absolute level of privacy, a decision many considered inadequate. Even with protocols developed to ensure total privacy—such as the non-identification of IPs and communicating parties—the network still lacks this robust implementation.

Individual Freedom and Data Protection

A recurring issue is the importance of demonstrating that real options exist for citizens to protect and preserve their freedom. In a world where most discussions about Bitcoin revolve around its use as an investment asset, there is an urgent need to emphasize its potential as a tool for financial freedom.

The Bitcoin community should focus on development and education, showing that the conscious use of cryptography and decentralized transactions can protect individuals against excessive government surveillance and control. Secure and private communication is fundamental, and Bitcoin, along with privacy technologies, can provide this.

Hyperbitcoinization and the Illusion of Store of Value

Hyperbitcoinization is a concept that refers to the moment when Bitcoin will replace fiat currencies worldwide. However, achieving this state is not simple, especially when Bitcoin is seen primarily as a store of value. Since 2017, this narrative has gained strength, promoting the idea that accumulating Bitcoin will lead to automatic wealth.

However, this perspective is limited. The true value of Bitcoin lies in its use as a transactional currency, not just in its scarcity. The community must work to ensure that Bitcoin is utilized in everyday transactions, strengthening its network and demonstrating its real value.

The Role of the Community in Bitcoin's Development

Bitcoin's strength comes from its community. Developers, users, and enthusiasts, through their actions and support, make Bitcoin a powerful tool. This community is responsible for ensuring that Bitcoin maintains its essence and that its functionalities are accessible to all.

It is crucial that this support network continues promoting the decentralized use of Bitcoin, without intermediaries that can censor or control transactions. Adopting Bitcoin in a centralized manner, through banks or other institutions, contradicts its original proposal and strengthens those who have historically opposed its existence.

Sidechains, Second Layers, and the Lightning Network

Sidechains and second layers, like the Lightning Network, are essential components for Bitcoin's scalability. However, they bring challenges, especially regarding the need to trust intermediaries. For these solutions to be effective, it is fundamental that they allow the unilateral withdrawal of funds, ensuring that users maintain full control over their assets.

The Lightning Network, for example, is a second layer that allows fast and cheap transactions. However, many users face difficulties when dealing with channels that do not close correctly, resulting in locked funds. These problems must be solved for the network to be truly decentralized and functional.

The Fight Against Centralization on the Internet

Centralization is not a problem exclusive to Bitcoin. The internet as a whole faces similar challenges, with data control concentrated in the hands of a few large technology companies. To ensure freedom of expression and online privacy, it is necessary to decentralize these data clusters.

Projects that seek to decentralize the internet are vital for this mission. They not only complement Bitcoin in its quest for financial freedom but also ensure that digital communication and expression are protected against censorship and corporate control.

The Future of Bitcoin and the Need for Action

The future of Bitcoin depends on the community's action. We cannot expect Bitcoin to automatically become a global medium of exchange. A conscious effort is necessary to build an ecosystem where Bitcoin can flow freely, being used in everyday transactions and valued for its utility.

Moreover, with the imminent arrival of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), time is of the essence. CBDCs represent a significant challenge, as they can further restrict individuals' financial freedom. Therefore, accelerating Bitcoin adoption and ensuring it maintains its decentralized and uncensorable properties is a priority.

Conclusion

Bitcoin remains a powerful tool for financial freedom but faces significant challenges. Centralization, both in the context of secondary networks and the internet in general, poses a threat to its original proposal. However, with the joint action of the community and the continuous development of decentralized solutions, it is possible to maintain Bitcoin as a bastion of individual freedom.

The true revolution of Bitcoin lies in its use as a medium of exchange, not just as a store of value. To achieve hyperbitcoinization, it is necessary to build a robust ecosystem where Bitcoin can circulate freely and be accessible to all. Only then can we fulfill Bitcoin's initial promise and ensure it continues to be a tool for freedom and financial autonomy.

@ c80b5248:6b30d720

Using tools like Continue in your vault

As the capabilities of artificial intelligence continue to expand, integrating AI into our workflows has become an increasingly attractive option. One of the most exciting applications of AI is its potential to enhance the way we manage and organize information. Obsidian, a powerful knowledge management tool, provides a robust platform for building a personal knowledge base. By layering AI tools like Continue over your Obsidian vault, you can unlock new levels of efficiency, creativity, and insight. This article will start to explore how to effectively use AI tools within Obsidian to enhance your note-taking, information management, and productivity.

An Explosion of AI Tools

Over the past few years, I have tinkered with ChatGPT and other chat interfaces, but I only recently stumbled upon the rapidly growing space of AI tools for coding. In such a short time, some amazing tools have emerged, most notably:

• Aider: A command line interface tool to iteratively generate, edit, and refactor code.
• Cursor: A fork of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) with integrated AI functionality.
• Cline: A plug-in for command line and code editor built to work with Antropic's Claude 3.5.
• Continue: A customizable VS Code plug-in with chat and code editing abilities.

These tools are designed to assist developers in writing, debugging, and even generating code from natural language prompts. They are powered by large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and Llama 3, which are trained on vast amounts of text data and can produce human-like responses to a wide range of prompts.

In this article, I will focus on Continue, a VS Code plug-in that offers multiple ways to interact with AI. It features autocomplete powered by an LLM of your choice, as well as the ability to generate new code blocks directly in the editor. It can also incorporate context from external sources or the local codebase. Additionally, it includes a standard chat window for interacting with the LLM.

The new twist is that I won't be using Continue to write code, but rather to write notes in Obsidian. I will be using the chat window to generate notes, and the autocomplete feature to assist me in writing them. By leveraging the context feature, I can bring in information from my Obsidian vault, allowing me to create more complete, accurate, and better-organized notes. I can also use the vault as context to ask for summaries or retrieve information from my notes, even as the vault continues to grow.

It's worth mentioning that while I am focusing on Continue, there are likely other tools that can be used in a similar way or provide better features. One example is the text-generator plug-in for Obsidian. This plug-in allows you to generate text using an LLM of your choice, and it can be used to generate notes, summaries, or even entire documents. It can also generate code, but I was unable to get the plug-in working with my LLM provider. Using Continue is a bit of a hack, as it requires working through an IDE like VS Code, but it's a good way to get started with AI tools in Obsidian. I will assume that you already have an Obsidian vault set up. If you don't, you can ask your assistant to help you organize it once you have it up and running.

The system I am going to describe here relies on two primary components:

1. Continue (installed in an IDE like VS Code)
2. An LLM provider to power Continue

Let's start by talking about LLM Providers. If you already know how these work, feel free to skip to the next section.

LLM Providers

LLM providers are services that offer access to large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 or Llama 3.1, typically via an API (application programming interface). These providers usually charge by the token, which is the number of words processed by the model. You can go directly to a provider like OpenAI or Anthropic, or you can use an aggregation site like OpenRouter that provides a single API to access multiple models. Each provider has its own data privacy policies, so it's important to review them carefully. For this reason, I have been using DeepInfra. They run their own models and offer a clear privacy policy - even better, they tend to have the lowest costs.

h/t nostr:npub17vhnjkt04m6thytr8dna67v2pa4tjk7uh3ut40eq9wy8d28u0kvq7qnhkq nostr:note1qfckzxm687peaddwjpmms92kj3v59wrrx0cs2fcxlkm6pm9lyu3squscxa

Another option is to use Ollama to run some of these models locally. However, the hardware requirements for achieving good results quickly are quite demanding. For example, the smaller chat model I use in my configuration, which has 72 billion parameters, requires a 48 GB GPU to run efficiently—something that is not within my budget. This is why I am using DeepInfra.

Note: If you are setting this up for the first time, consider adding a small amount (less than $5) to a provider like DeepInfra and testing it out before you invest time in setting up a local Ollama instance. I have also had some issues with shutting down Ollama on Windows, so your mileage may vary.

If you choose to use a provider like DeepInfra, you are ready to move to the next section. If you prefer to set up Ollama, you can refer to their documentation for installation instructions. I prefer to run it in Docker, which can be done in Linux by running

bash docker run -d -v ollama:/root/.ollama -p 11434:11434 --name ollama ollama/ollama

or if you want to have an interface like ChatGPT, you can even run Open WebUI in the same command with

bash docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Once Ollama is running in docker you can start up the models you want to use by running the following in your terminal.

docker exec ollama ollama run model_name

See the Ollama model library to choose which models you want to run locally.

Getting Started with Continue

Continue is installed as a plug-in for VS Code or JetBrains. I personally use it with VS Code, so my instructions will be based on that. If you are using a JetBrains IDE, you should refer to the Continue documentation for installation instructions.

After installing the plug-in, continue will prompt you to set up your LLM provider. In my experience, once this initial GUI goes away, you can't get it back. Instead, you will do most of the configuration within the config.json file for Continue, which you can access by clicking in the lower right corner of the Chat box. In VS Code, if you ever can't find anything, F1 is your friend and will launch a searchable menu.

Continue provides recommended settings from each provider, which you can find here. For my coding and writing, I chose the very new Qwen2.5 72B Instruct due to its high benchmark scores and relatively low costs. This model costs $0.35-0.40 USD per million tokens, compared to the best available on DeepInfra, the Llama3.1 405B Instruct, which costs $1.78 per million tokens. The results may be slightly worse, but I prefer cheaper and faster for my purposes. For autocomplete, I am using a faster and code-specific model, Qwen2.5-Coder-7B. I have not yet tried changing the autocomplete model for usage with Obsidian, but that is on my to-do list. Lastly, by the time you read this article, these models may be out of date. One nice thing about having a provider API is that you can easily switch and test different models to see how they work. Aider has one of many model leaderboards that will show you some benchmarks.

After working through the configuration, your config.json file will have a list of chat models and a tab for the autocomplete model. It will look something like this:

```json "models": [ { "title": "DeepInfra Qwen2.5 72B Instruct", "provider": "deepinfra", "model": "Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct", "apiKey": "your-api-key" }, { "title": "DeepInfra Llama3.1 405B Instruct", "provider": "deepinfra", "model": "meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-405B-Instruct", "apiKey": "your-api-key" }, ],

"tabAutocompleteModel": { "title": "DeepInfra Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B", "provider": "deepinfra", "model": "Qwen/Qwen2.5-Coder-7B", "apiKey": "your-api-key" } ```

Trying it Out

The Chat UI

Once you have Continue configured, you can open your Obsidian Vault in VS Code. You will want to add a .continueignore file in your folder that lists .obsidian and any other files or folders you want Continue to ignore for context purposes.

Click the three dots in the bottom of the chat bar and check that your vault (@codebase) index is complete. You can now chat with the LLM and ask it questions using your vault as a reference.

@codebase what are some common themes from this vault?

Continue provides a docs page that lists some types of questions that an LLM will be able to help with. Naturally, I asked the LLM to put these in the context of an Obsidian Vault and here is what it told me:

```md

Useful Questions

1. High-Level Questions About Your Notes:
2. "What are the main themes in my notes on personal development?"

3. "How do I incorporate agile methodologies into my project management?"

4. Specific Information:

5. "What are the key points in my notes about productivity hacks?"

6. "Can you find any references to neuropsychology in my notes on cognitive science?"

7. Generating Content:

8. "Write a new note on the benefits of meditation, using the same structure as my other wellness notes."

9. "Draft a summary of my recent project retrospective, following the format of my previous summaries."

10. Contextual Questions About a Specific Folder:

11. "What is the main purpose of the 'Research' folder?"

12. "How do we use the concept of 'flow' in the 'Psychology' folder?"

13. Relationships and Connections:

14. "What are the connections between my notes on 'Time Management' and 'Goal Setting'?"

15. "How do my notes on 'Digital Marketing' relate to 'SEO'?"

16. Task and Project Management:

17. "What are the next steps I should take based on my notes for the 'Personal Finance' project?"

18. "Can you list the tasks I need to complete for my 'Career Development' plan?"

19. Deep Dives and Analysis:

20. "Can you provide a detailed explanation of the concept of 'reflective practice' found in my notes?"

21. "What insights can you derive from my notes on 'Project Management'?"

22. Insight and Reflection:

23. "What have I learned from my notes on 'Mindfulness'?"
24. "Can you help me reflect on my progress based on my notes for the 'Health and Wellness' topic?"

Not Useful Questions

1. Literal Review of All Files:
2. "Find everywhere where the term 'mindfulness' is mentioned in my entire vault."

3. "Review all my notes and find any spelling mistakes."

4. Comprehensive Tasks that Require Literal Access:

5. "Add a new section to all notes that discuss 'productivity' and summarize the main points."

6. "Rewrite all my notes on 'Digital Marketing' to include the latest industry trends."

7. Refactoring and Detailed Edits:

8. "Update all references to 'Scrum' to 'Kanban' in my 'Agile' folder."
9. "Add a new parameter to the function calculate_score and update all usages in my 'Programming' notes."

Summary

• Useful Questions: Focus on high-level insights, specific information, generating new content, contextual questions about specific folders, and reflecting on your notes.
• Not Useful Questions: Require the LLM to see and edit every file, perform comprehensive reviews, or make detailed edits across multiple notes. ```

Text Generation

Continue also offers in-editor code generation with the hotkey Ctrl+I and an entered prompt. I have only tried a few things with this, but it was able to successfully review a set of meeting notes I had written and summarize all of the outstanding questions. I expect you could also use this to autogenerate backlinks on a note where a follow-up note might be helpful, or quickly generate templates to be used in Obsidian. I ended up editing this entire article by selecting sections and prompting the AI with the following: "You are a proficient writer. Please edit this text for style, typos, spelling, and grammar."

Autocomplete

Continue will also attempt to autocomplete unless you turn it off in the bottom right bar in VS Code. While writing this article, the autocomplete feature was somewhat helpful even though it is not code. Further configuration may optimize this even more. Keep in mind that autocomplete triggers frequently and will burn through a lot of tokens, so you will want to keep an eye on your usage. With the cheaper models I am using, I have only spent 10 cents over the past four days of moderate usage at work and at home. A bulk of that cost is due to autocomplete, and I sometimes turn it off to keep costs down. You may be able to limit these costs effectively by configuring the number of input tokens that can be sent to the API, but I am not sure how that will impact the results.

## Conclusion - Brought to You by Qwen 72B

In conclusion, integrating AI tools like Continue into your Obsidian vault opens up a multitude of possibilities for enhancing your note-taking, information management, and productivity. By leveraging the chat window, text generation, and autocomplete features, you can create more comprehensive and accurate notes, generate summaries, and automate routine tasks. The integration of LLMs into your workflow not only streamlines your processes but also provides deeper insights and connections within your knowledge base. While there are initial setup steps and some considerations around cost and configuration, the benefits of AI-assisted note-taking in Obsidian are well worth the effort. As AI tools continue to evolve, the potential for further enhancements and optimizations is immense, making this an exciting and valuable addition to any knowledge management system.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

[07/10 week]

Thinking about it, even the protocol is a cathedral, Rabble in the speech in Riga on Bluesky.

He said the protocol is a bazaar. But you have to converge on the scheme in the NIPs or between Apps.

NIPs for example are like Luther's 95 theses, but they change continuously and adapt, but they always remain those 95.

Maybe that Pr on theother curve keys could lead to saying this is "nostr" these others are similar. Creating more points, but I just think it would have led to endless diatribes.

What will be of the protocol and who knows. He can do everything or maybe nothing and from tomorrow we will see and it will be, it will be what it will be. Italian Song

Notifications with nostter are not hidden, they are in your feed and this is good, you always know if someone has searched for you. While in the others you do not know.

---

I saw a sliver of light pass by it was Unanimity.

It's a very stupid idea, it takes a long time. it's basically a community + channel, where you post the channel in the community and start talking about that topic in the channel. The channel is an approved message. I made musicbook channel, it's the collection of albums released on Friday. The idea of ​​also making a blogger channel, where to put long-form articles.

Following nostr trending on Openvibe social, with a new profile, the Lost One, sad, in this One follow fiatjaf, means I won't bother him anymore . Now I follow 62 profiles, it's an account that I will use to read the notes of the top profiles. Curious if this number will grow enormously or is there a spectre.

The strength of the protocol is the developers if they collaborate together, otherwise it can still work, everyone goes their own way, but it's like saying I want to make my own fence.

One who in his long form doing an analysis of the various social networks. npub19mq9swna4dkhlm3jaux4yhgv5kjj556lkfhv3qnjtyh0kcljph6s88e295 Nostr is all based on Bitcoin. The difficult thing is Bitcoin not Nostr and he says so.

Controversies are useful, or my doubts, but maybe people who can't write code don't understand much, the so-called end users. No one is an end user at this time. The end user doesn't care about the person behind it, only having their own service, if the service is good they also do promotion, they become sponsors. We have seen in recent months sponsoring a Nostr app, result a small attack can damage that app. But the strength of having all these apps is that the other app doesn't have that problem. Spam attack example. The problem is that you can't sponsor an ecosystem, so it becomes difficult to suggest 10 apps to download. The best 10 apps of Nostr and the other 100, there is no easy way out. It's a bit like proposing a new place in NY, then everyone goes to that place and it loses a bit. What the sponsor must understand is that Nostr has only one "one shot".

I saw a video on Nostr of two people posting content on social media, making a review. Not bad, compared to the previous video, that Nostr doesn't even have a token. It doesn't give me a sign up. The main feature they say is a platform or at least they reviewed damus, damus for Bitcoin maxi. And so Nostr is populated by people who Number go up, only fiat thought they would say on Nostr. It's true in part there are those obsessed, even the non-obsessed are obsessed.

How nice it would be to call them NPs Nostr protocol specification, today supertestnet called them that. (the nice thing is that they are pronounced the same way).

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 30th September

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

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

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

---

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

---

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

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

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

high things of alphaama nostr:nevent1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq32amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7tcqyqlqu2vwpwax7dj420e75yws7g7vyua9e245c0x73c056gunxchluey4q99

---

Comment: nostr:nevent1qqs8pn0zzhgk5l2raqh736rj3ckm48pfl6r7m72rnz2r2p7lzgmx20gzyqduwzspfzelx9k6x0lrez0j8cl8rtz0lxvqylk8z2ustnfy76jpzqcyqqqqqqgpramhxue69uhkummnw3ezuetfde6kuer6wasku7nfvuh8xurpvdjsjt5rvu

---

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

---

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

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

@ 17538dc2:71ed77c4

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

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

0. Find your motivation

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

Are you a missionary?

1. Discover what excites you

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

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

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

Are you excited anon?

2. Identify the skills you have or want to develop

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

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

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

3. Make a list of projects

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

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

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

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

4. Use the thing(s)!

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

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

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

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

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

5. Find out where the team works

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

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

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

6. Start small

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

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

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

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

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

7. Show up consistently

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

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

8. Find and meet the “customer”

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

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

9. Increase your involvement

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

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

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

Testing an unreleased Damus branch checked out on XCode

10. Prune, Commit, Repeat

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

O que é Cwtch? Cwtch (/kʊtʃ/ - uma palavra galesa que pode ser traduzida aproximadamente como “um abraço que cria um lugar seguro”) é um protocolo de mensagens multipartidário descentralizado, que preserva a privacidade, que pode ser usado para construir aplicativos resistentes a metadados.

Como posso pronunciar Cwtch? Como "kutch", para rimar com "butch".

Descentralizado e Aberto : Não existe “serviço Cwtch” ou “rede Cwtch”. Os participantes do Cwtch podem hospedar seus próprios espaços seguros ou emprestar sua infraestrutura para outras pessoas que buscam um espaço seguro. O protocolo Cwtch é aberto e qualquer pessoa é livre para criar bots, serviços e interfaces de usuário e integrar e interagir com o Cwtch.

Preservação de privacidade : toda a comunicação no Cwtch é criptografada de ponta a ponta e ocorre nos serviços cebola Tor v3.

Resistente a metadados : O Cwtch foi projetado de forma que nenhuma informação seja trocada ou disponibilizada a ninguém sem seu consentimento explícito, incluindo mensagens durante a transmissão e metadados de protocolo

Uma breve história do bate-papo resistente a metadados Nos últimos anos, a conscientização pública sobre a necessidade e os benefícios das soluções criptografadas de ponta a ponta aumentou com aplicativos como Signal , Whatsapp e Wire. que agora fornecem aos usuários comunicações seguras.

No entanto, essas ferramentas exigem vários níveis de exposição de metadados para funcionar, e muitos desses metadados podem ser usados ​​para obter detalhes sobre como e por que uma pessoa está usando uma ferramenta para se comunicar.

Uma ferramenta que buscou reduzir metadados é o Ricochet lançado pela primeira vez em 2014. Ricochet usou os serviços cebola Tor v2 para fornecer comunicação criptografada segura de ponta a ponta e para proteger os metadados das comunicações.

Não havia servidores centralizados que auxiliassem no roteamento das conversas do Ricochet. Ninguém além das partes envolvidas em uma conversa poderia saber que tal conversa está ocorrendo.

Ricochet tinha limitações; não havia suporte para vários dispositivos, nem existe um mecanismo para suportar a comunicação em grupo ou para um usuário enviar mensagens enquanto um contato está offline.

Isto tornou a adoção do Ricochet uma proposta difícil; mesmo aqueles em ambientes que seriam melhor atendidos pela resistência aos metadados, sem saber que ela existe.

Além disso, qualquer solução para comunicação descentralizada e resistente a metadados enfrenta problemas fundamentais quando se trata de eficiência, privacidade e segurança de grupo conforme definido pelo consenso e consistência da transcrição.

Alternativas modernas ao Ricochet incluem Briar , Zbay e Ricochet Refresh - cada ferramenta procura otimizar para um conjunto diferente de compensações, por exemplo, Briar procura permitir que as pessoas se comuniquem mesmo quando a infraestrutura de rede subjacente está inoperante, ao mesmo tempo que fornece resistência à vigilância de metadados.

O projeto Cwtch começou em 2017 como um protocolo de extensão para Ricochet, fornecendo conversas em grupo por meio de servidores não confiáveis, com o objetivo de permitir aplicativos descentralizados e resistentes a metadados como listas compartilhadas e quadros de avisos.

Uma versão alfa do Cwtch foi lançada em fevereiro de 2019 e, desde então, a equipe do Cwtch dirigida pela OPEN PRIVACY RESEARCH SOCIETY conduziu pesquisa e desenvolvimento em cwtch e nos protocolos, bibliotecas e espaços de problemas subjacentes.

Modelo de Risco.

Sabe-se que os metadados de comunicações são explorados por vários adversários para minar a segurança dos sistemas, para rastrear vítimas e para realizar análises de redes sociais em grande escala para alimentar a vigilância em massa. As ferramentas resistentes a metadados estão em sua infância e faltam pesquisas sobre a construção e a experiência do usuário de tais ferramentas.

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_9475702740746681051707662826.webp

O Cwtch foi originalmente concebido como uma extensão do protocolo Ricochet resistente a metadados para suportar comunicações assíncronas de grupos multiponto por meio do uso de infraestrutura anônima, descartável e não confiável.

Desde então, o Cwtch evoluiu para um protocolo próprio. Esta seção descreverá os vários riscos conhecidos que o Cwtch tenta mitigar e será fortemente referenciado no restante do documento ao discutir os vários subcomponentes da Arquitetura Cwtch.

Modelo de ameaça.

É importante identificar e compreender que os metadados são omnipresentes nos protocolos de comunicação; é de facto necessário que tais protocolos funcionem de forma eficiente e em escala. No entanto, as informações que são úteis para facilitar peers e servidores também são altamente relevantes para adversários que desejam explorar tais informações.

Para a definição do nosso problema, assumiremos que o conteúdo de uma comunicação é criptografado de tal forma que um adversário é praticamente incapaz de quebrá-lo veja tapir e cwtch para detalhes sobre a criptografia que usamos, e como tal nos concentraremos em o contexto para os metadados de comunicação.

Procuramos proteger os seguintes contextos de comunicação:

• Quem está envolvido em uma comunicação? Pode ser possível identificar pessoas ou simplesmente identificadores de dispositivos ou redes. Por exemplo, “esta comunicação envolve Alice, uma jornalista, e Bob, um funcionário público”.

• Onde estão os participantes da conversa? Por exemplo, “durante esta comunicação, Alice estava na França e Bob estava no Canadá”.

• Quando ocorreu uma conversa? O momento e a duração da comunicação podem revelar muito sobre a natureza de uma chamada, por exemplo, “Bob, um funcionário público, conversou com Alice ao telefone por uma hora ontem à noite. Esta é a primeira vez que eles se comunicam.” *Como a conversa foi mediada? O fato de uma conversa ter ocorrido por meio de um e-mail criptografado ou não criptografado pode fornecer informações úteis. Por exemplo, “Alice enviou um e-mail criptografado para Bob ontem, enquanto eles normalmente enviam apenas e-mails de texto simples um para o outro”.

• Sobre o que é a conversa? Mesmo que o conteúdo da comunicação seja criptografado, às vezes é possível derivar um contexto provável de uma conversa sem saber exatamente o que é dito, por exemplo, “uma pessoa ligou para uma pizzaria na hora do jantar” ou “alguém ligou para um número conhecido de linha direta de suicídio na hora do jantar”. 3 horas da manhã."

Além das conversas individuais, também procuramos defender-nos contra ataques de correlação de contexto, através dos quais múltiplas conversas são analisadas para obter informações de nível superior:

• Relacionamentos: Descobrir relações sociais entre um par de entidades analisando a frequência e a duração de suas comunicações durante um período de tempo. Por exemplo, Carol e Eve ligam uma para a outra todos os dias durante várias horas seguidas.

• Cliques: Descobrir relações sociais entre um grupo de entidades que interagem entre si. Por exemplo, Alice, Bob e Eva se comunicam entre si.

• Grupos vagamente conectados e indivíduos-ponte: descobrir grupos que se comunicam entre si através de intermediários, analisando cadeias de comunicação (por exemplo, toda vez que Alice fala com Bob, ela fala com Carol quase imediatamente depois; Bob e Carol nunca se comunicam).

• Padrão de Vida: Descobrir quais comunicações são cíclicas e previsíveis. Por exemplo, Alice liga para Eve toda segunda-feira à noite por cerca de uma hora. Ataques Ativos

Ataques de deturpação.

O Cwtch não fornece registro global de nomes de exibição e, como tal, as pessoas que usam o Cwtch são mais vulneráveis ​​a ataques baseados em declarações falsas, ou seja, pessoas que fingem ser outras pessoas:

O fluxo básico de um desses ataques é o seguinte, embora também existam outros fluxos:

•Alice tem um amigo chamado Bob e outro chamado Eve

• Eve descobre que Alice tem um amigo chamado Bob

• Eve cria milhares de novas contas para encontrar uma que tenha uma imagem/chave pública semelhante à de Bob (não será idêntica, mas pode enganar alguém por alguns minutos)

• Eve chama essa nova conta de "Eve New Account" e adiciona Alice como amiga.

• Eve então muda seu nome em "Eve New Account" para "Bob"

• Alice envia mensagens destinadas a "Bob" para a conta falsa de Bob de Eve Como os ataques de declarações falsas são inerentemente uma questão de confiança e verificação, a única maneira absoluta de evitá-los é os usuários validarem absolutamente a chave pública. Obviamente, isso não é o ideal e, em muitos casos, simplesmente não acontecerá .

Como tal, pretendemos fornecer algumas dicas de experiência do usuário na interface do usuário para orientar as pessoas na tomada de decisões sobre confiar em contas e/ou distinguir contas que possam estar tentando se representar como outros usuários.

Uma nota sobre ataques físicos A Cwtch não considera ataques que exijam acesso físico (ou equivalente) à máquina do usuário como praticamente defensáveis. No entanto, no interesse de uma boa engenharia de segurança, ao longo deste documento ainda nos referiremos a ataques ou condições que exigem tal privilégio e indicaremos onde quaisquer mitigações que implementámos falharão.

Um perfil Cwtch.

Os usuários podem criar um ou mais perfis Cwtch. Cada perfil gera um par de chaves ed25519 aleatório compatível com Tor.

Além do material criptográfico, um perfil também contém uma lista de Contatos (outras chaves públicas do perfil Cwtch + dados associados sobre esse perfil, como apelido e (opcionalmente) mensagens históricas), uma lista de Grupos (contendo o material criptográfico do grupo, além de outros dados associados, como apelido do grupo e mensagens históricas).

Conversões entre duas partes: ponto a ponto

https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_2186338207587396891707662879.webp

Para que duas partes participem de uma conversa ponto a ponto, ambas devem estar on-line, mas apenas uma precisa estar acessível por meio do serviço Onion. Por uma questão de clareza, muitas vezes rotulamos uma parte como “ponto de entrada” (aquele que hospeda o serviço cebola) e a outra parte como “ponto de saída” (aquele que se conecta ao serviço cebola).

Após a conexão, ambas as partes adotam um protocolo de autenticação que:

• Afirma que cada parte tem acesso à chave privada associada à sua identidade pública.

• Gera uma chave de sessão efêmera usada para criptografar todas as comunicações futuras durante a sessão.

Esta troca (documentada com mais detalhes no protocolo de autenticação ) é negável offline , ou seja, é possível para qualquer parte falsificar transcrições desta troca de protocolo após o fato e, como tal - após o fato - é impossível provar definitivamente que a troca aconteceu de forma alguma.

Após o protocolo de autenticação, as duas partes podem trocar mensagens livremente.

Conversas em Grupo e Comunicação Ponto a Servidor

Ao iniciar uma conversa em grupo, é gerada uma chave aleatória para o grupo, conhecida como Group Key. Todas as comunicações do grupo são criptografadas usando esta chave. Além disso, o criador do grupo escolhe um servidor Cwtch para hospedar o grupo. Um convite é gerado, incluindo o Group Key, o servidor do grupo e a chave do grupo, para ser enviado aos potenciais membros.

Para enviar uma mensagem ao grupo, um perfil se conecta ao servidor do grupo e criptografa a mensagem usando a Group Key, gerando também uma assinatura sobre o Group ID, o servidor do grupo e a mensagem. Para receber mensagens do grupo, um perfil se conecta ao servidor e baixa as mensagens, tentando descriptografá-las usando a Group Key e verificando a assinatura.

Detalhamento do Ecossistema de Componentes

O Cwtch é composto por várias bibliotecas de componentes menores, cada uma desempenhando um papel específico. Algumas dessas bibliotecas incluem:

• abertoprivacidade/conectividade: Abstração de rede ACN, atualmente suportando apenas Tor.
• cwtch.im/tapir: Biblioteca para construção de aplicativos p2p em sistemas de comunicação anônimos.
• cwtch.im/cwtch: Biblioteca principal para implementação do protocolo/sistema Cwtch.
• cwtch.im/libcwtch-go: Fornece ligações C para Cwtch para uso em implementações de UI.

TAPIR: Uma Visão Detalhada

Projetado para substituir os antigos canais de ricochete baseados em protobuf, o Tapir fornece uma estrutura para a construção de aplicativos anônimos.

Está dividido em várias camadas:

• Identidade - Um par de chaves ed25519, necessário para estabelecer um serviço cebola Tor v3 e usado para manter uma identidade criptográfica consistente para um par.

• Conexões – O protocolo de rede bruto que conecta dois pares. Até agora, as conexões são definidas apenas através do Tor v3 Onion Services.

• Aplicativos - As diversas lógicas que permitem um determinado fluxo de informações em uma conexão. Os exemplos incluem transcrições criptográficas compartilhadas, autenticação, proteção contra spam e serviços baseados em tokens. Os aplicativos fornecem recursos que podem ser referenciados por outros aplicativos para determinar se um determinado peer tem a capacidade de usar um determinado aplicativo hospedado.

• Pilhas de aplicativos - Um mecanismo para conectar mais de um aplicativo, por exemplo, a autenticação depende de uma transcrição criptográfica compartilhada e o aplicativo peer cwtch principal é baseado no aplicativo de autenticação.

Identidade.

Um par de chaves ed25519, necessário para estabelecer um serviço cebola Tor v3 e usado para manter uma identidade criptográfica consistente para um peer.

InitializeIdentity - de um par de chaves conhecido e persistente:i,I

InitializeEphemeralIdentity - de um par de chaves aleatório: ie,Ie

Aplicativos de transcrição.

Inicializa uma transcrição criptográfica baseada em Merlin que pode ser usada como base de protocolos baseados em compromisso de nível superior

O aplicativo de transcrição entrará em pânico se um aplicativo tentar substituir uma transcrição existente por uma nova (aplicando a regra de que uma sessão é baseada em uma e apenas uma transcrição).

Merlin é uma construção de transcrição baseada em STROBE para provas de conhecimento zero. Ele automatiza a transformação Fiat-Shamir, para que, usando Merlin, protocolos não interativos possam ser implementados como se fossem interativos.

Isto é significativamente mais fácil e menos sujeito a erros do que realizar a transformação manualmente e, além disso, também fornece suporte natural para:

• protocolos multi-round com fases alternadas de commit e desafio;

• separação natural de domínios, garantindo que os desafios estejam vinculados às afirmações a serem provadas;

• enquadramento automático de mensagens, evitando codificação ambígua de dados de compromisso;

• e composição do protocolo, usando uma transcrição comum para vários protocolos.

Finalmente, o Merlin também fornece um gerador de números aleatórios baseado em transcrição como defesa profunda contra ataques de entropia ruim (como reutilização de nonce ou preconceito em muitas provas). Este RNG fornece aleatoriedade sintética derivada de toda a transcrição pública, bem como dos dados da testemunha do provador e uma entrada auxiliar de um RNG externo.

Conectividade Cwtch faz uso do Tor Onion Services (v3) para todas as comunicações entre nós.

Fornecemos o pacote openprivacy/connectivity para gerenciar o daemon Tor e configurar e desmontar serviços cebola através do Tor.

Criptografia e armazenamento de perfil.

Os perfis são armazenados localmente no disco e criptografados usando uma chave derivada de uma senha conhecida pelo usuário (via pbkdf2).

Observe que, uma vez criptografado e armazenado em disco, a única maneira de recuperar um perfil é recuperando a senha - como tal, não é possível fornecer uma lista completa de perfis aos quais um usuário pode ter acesso até inserir uma senha.

Perfis não criptografados e a senha padrão Para lidar com perfis "não criptografados" (ou seja, que não exigem senha para serem abertos), atualmente criamos um perfil com uma senha codificada de fato .

Isso não é o ideal, preferiríamos confiar no material de chave fornecido pelo sistema operacional, de modo que o perfil fosse vinculado a um dispositivo específico, mas esses recursos são atualmente uma colcha de retalhos - também notamos, ao criar um perfil não criptografado, pessoas que usam Cwtch estão explicitamente optando pelo risco de que alguém com acesso ao sistema de arquivos possa descriptografar seu perfil.

Vulnerabilidades Relacionadas a Imagens e Entrada de Dados

Imagens Maliciosas

O Cwtch enfrenta desafios na renderização de imagens, com o Flutter utilizando Skia, embora o código subjacente não seja totalmente seguro para a memória.

Realizamos testes de fuzzing nos componentes Cwtch e encontramos um bug de travamento causado por um arquivo GIF malformado, levando a falhas no kernel. Para mitigar isso, adotamos a política de sempre habilitar cacheWidth e/ou cacheHeight máximo para widgets de imagem.

Identificamos o risco de imagens maliciosas serem renderizadas de forma diferente em diferentes plataformas, como evidenciado por um bug no analisador PNG da Apple.

Riscos de Entrada de Dados

Um risco significativo é a interceptação de conteúdo ou metadados por meio de um Input Method Editor (IME) em dispositivos móveis. Mesmo aplicativos IME padrão podem expor dados por meio de sincronização na nuvem, tradução online ou dicionários pessoais.

Implementamos medidas de mitigação, como enableIMEPersonalizedLearning: false no Cwtch 1.2, mas a solução completa requer ações em nível de sistema operacional e é um desafio contínuo para a segurança móvel.

Servidor Cwtch.

O objetivo do protocolo Cwtch é permitir a comunicação em grupo através de infraestrutura não confiável .

Ao contrário dos esquemas baseados em retransmissão, onde os grupos atribuem um líder, um conjunto de líderes ou um servidor confiável de terceiros para garantir que cada membro do grupo possa enviar e receber mensagens em tempo hábil (mesmo que os membros estejam offline) - infraestrutura não confiável tem o objetivo de realizar essas propriedades sem a suposição de confiança.

O artigo original do Cwtch definia um conjunto de propriedades que se esperava que os servidores Cwtch fornecessem:

• O Cwtch Server pode ser usado por vários grupos ou apenas um.

• Um servidor Cwtch, sem a colaboração de um membro do grupo, nunca deve aprender a identidade dos participantes de um grupo.

• Um servidor Cwtch nunca deve aprender o conteúdo de qualquer comunicação.

• Um servidor Cwtch nunca deve ser capaz de distinguir mensagens como pertencentes a um grupo específico. Observamos aqui que essas propriedades são um superconjunto dos objetivos de design das estruturas de Recuperação de Informações Privadas.

Melhorias na Eficiência e Segurança

Eficiência do Protocolo

Atualmente, apenas um protocolo conhecido, o PIR ingênuo, atende às propriedades desejadas para garantir a privacidade na comunicação do grupo Cwtch. Este método tem um impacto direto na eficiência da largura de banda, especialmente para usuários em dispositivos móveis. Em resposta a isso, estamos ativamente desenvolvendo novos protocolos que permitem negociar garantias de privacidade e eficiência de maneiras diversas.

Os servidores, no momento desta escrita, permitem o download completo de todas as mensagens armazenadas, bem como uma solicitação para baixar mensagens específicas a partir de uma determinada mensagem. Quando os pares ingressam em um grupo em um novo servidor, eles baixam todas as mensagens do servidor inicialmente e, posteriormente, apenas as mensagens novas.

Mitigação de Análise de Metadados

Essa abordagem permite uma análise moderada de metadados, pois o servidor pode enviar novas mensagens para cada perfil suspeito exclusivo e usar essas assinaturas de mensagens exclusivas para rastrear sessões ao longo do tempo. Essa preocupação é mitigada por dois fatores:

1. Os perfis podem atualizar suas conexões a qualquer momento, resultando em uma nova sessão do servidor.
2. Os perfis podem ser "ressincronizados" de um servidor a qualquer momento, resultando em uma nova chamada para baixar todas as mensagens. Isso é comumente usado para buscar mensagens antigas de um grupo.

Embora essas medidas imponham limites ao que o servidor pode inferir, ainda não podemos garantir resistência total aos metadados. Para soluções futuras para esse problema, consulte Niwl.

Proteção contra Pares Maliciosos

Os servidores enfrentam o risco de spam gerado por pares, representando uma ameaça significativa à eficácia do sistema Cwtch. Embora tenhamos implementado um mecanismo de proteção contra spam no protótipo do Cwtch, exigindo que os pares realizem alguma prova de trabalho especificada pelo servidor, reconhecemos que essa não é uma solução robusta na presença de um adversário determinado com recursos significativos.

Pacotes de Chaves

Os servidores Cwtch se identificam por meio de pacotes de chaves assinados, contendo uma lista de chaves necessárias para garantir a segurança e resistência aos metadados na comunicação do grupo Cwtch. Esses pacotes de chaves geralmente incluem três chaves: uma chave pública do serviço Tor v3 Onion para o Token Board, uma chave pública do Tor v3 Onion Service para o Token Service e uma chave pública do Privacy Pass.

Para verificar os pacotes de chaves, os perfis que os importam do servidor utilizam o algoritmo trust-on-first-use (TOFU), verificando a assinatura anexada e a existência de todos os tipos de chave. Se o perfil já tiver importado o pacote de chaves do servidor anteriormente, todas as chaves são consideradas iguais.

Configuração prévia do aplicativo para ativar o Relé do Cwtch.

No Android, a hospedagem de servidor não está habilitada, pois essa opção não está disponível devido às limitações dos dispositivos Android. Essa funcionalidade está reservada apenas para servidores hospedados em desktops.

No Android, a única forma direta de importar uma chave de servidor é através do grupo de teste Cwtch, garantindo assim acesso ao servidor Cwtch.

Primeiro passo é Habilitar a opção de grupo no Cwtch que está em fase de testes. Clique na opção no canto superior direito da tela de configuração e pressione o botão para acessar as configurações do Cwtch.

Você pode alterar o idioma para Português do Brasil.Depois, role para baixo e selecione a opção para ativar os experimentos. Em seguida, ative a opção para habilitar o chat em grupo e a pré-visualização de imagens e fotos de perfil, permitindo que você troque sua foto de perfil.

https://link.storjshare.io/raw/jvss6zxle26jdguwaegtjdixhfka/production/f0ca039733d48895001261ab25c5d2efbaf3bf26e55aad3cce406646f9af9d15.MP4

Próximo passo é Criar um perfil.

Pressione o + botão de ação no canto inferior direito e selecione "Novo perfil" ou aberta no botão + adicionar novo perfil.

• Selecione um nome de exibição

• Selecione se deseja proteger

este perfil e salvo localmente com criptografia forte: Senha: sua conta está protegida de outras pessoas que possam usar este dispositivo

Sem senha: qualquer pessoa que tenha acesso a este dispositivo poderá acessar este perfil.

Preencha sua senha e digite-a novamente

Os perfis são armazenados localmente no disco e criptografados usando uma chave derivada de uma senha conhecida pelo usuário (via pbkdf2).

Observe que, uma vez criptografado e armazenado em disco, a única maneira de recuperar um perfil é recuperando a chave da senha - como tal, não é possível fornecer uma lista completa de perfis aos quais um usuário pode ter acesso até inserir um senha.

https://link.storjshare.io/raw/jxqbqmur2lcqe2eym5thgz4so2ya/production/8f9df1372ec7e659180609afa48be22b12109ae5e1eda9ef1dc05c1325652507.MP4

O próximo passo é adicionar o FuzzBot, que é um bot de testes e de desenvolvimento.

Contato do FuzzBot: 4y2hxlxqzautabituedksnh2ulcgm2coqbure6wvfpg4gi2ci25ta5ad.

Ao enviar o comando "testgroup-invite" para o FuzzBot, você receberá um convite para entrar no Grupo Cwtch Test. Ao ingressar no grupo, você será automaticamente conectado ao servidor Cwtch. Você pode optar por sair do grupo a qualquer momento ou ficar para conversar e tirar dúvidas sobre o aplicativo e outros assuntos. Depois, você pode configurar seu próprio servidor Cwtch, o que é altamente recomendável.

https://link.storjshare.io/raw/jvji25zclkoqcouni5decle7if7a/production/ee3de3540a3e3dca6e6e26d303e12c2ef892a5d7769029275b8b95ffc7468780.MP4

Agora você pode utilizar o aplicativo normalmente. Algumas observações que notei: se houver demora na conexão com outra pessoa, ambas devem estar online. Se ainda assim a conexão não for estabelecida, basta clicar no ícone de reset do Tor para restabelecer a conexão com a outra pessoa.

Uma introdução aos perfis Cwtch.

Com Cwtch você pode criar um ou mais perfis . Cada perfil gera um par de chaves ed25519 aleatório compatível com a Rede Tor.

Este é o identificador que você pode fornecer às pessoas e que elas podem usar para entrar em contato com você via Cwtch.

Cwtch permite criar e gerenciar vários perfis separados. Cada perfil está associado a um par de chaves diferente que inicia um serviço cebola diferente.

Gerenciar Na inicialização, o Cwtch abrirá a tela Gerenciar Perfis. Nessa tela você pode:

• Crie um novo perfil.
• Desbloquear perfis.
• Criptografados existentes.
• Gerenciar perfis carregados.
• Alterando o nome de exibição de um perfil.
• Alterando a senha de um perfil Excluindo um perfil.
• Alterando uma imagem de perfil.

Backup ou exportação de um perfil.

Na tela de gerenciamento de perfil:

1. Selecione o lápis ao lado do perfil que você deseja editar

2. Role para baixo até a parte inferior da tela.

3. Selecione "Exportar perfil"

4. Escolha um local e um nome de arquivo.

5.confirme.

Uma vez confirmado, o Cwtch colocará uma cópia do perfil no local indicado. Este arquivo é criptografado no mesmo nível do perfil.

Este arquivo pode ser importado para outra instância do Cwtch em qualquer dispositivo.

Importando um perfil.

1. Pressione o +botão de ação no canto inferior direito e selecione "Importar perfil"

2. Selecione um arquivo de perfil Cwtch exportado para importar

3. Digite a senha associada ao perfil e confirme.

Uma vez confirmado, o Cwtch tentará descriptografar o arquivo fornecido usando uma chave derivada da senha fornecida. Se for bem-sucedido, o perfil aparecerá na tela Gerenciamento de perfil e estará pronto para uso.

OBSERVAÇÃO Embora um perfil possa ser importado para vários dispositivos, atualmente apenas uma versão de um perfil pode ser usada em todos os dispositivos ao mesmo tempo. As tentativas de usar o mesmo perfil em vários dispositivos podem resultar em problemas de disponibilidade e falhas de mensagens.

Qual é a diferença entre uma conexão ponto a ponto e um grupo cwtch?

As conexões ponto a ponto Cwtch permitem que 2 pessoas troquem mensagens diretamente. As conexões ponto a ponto nos bastidores usam serviços cebola Tor v3 para fornecer uma conexão criptografada e resistente a metadados. Devido a esta conexão direta, ambas as partes precisam estar online ao mesmo tempo para trocar mensagens.

Os Grupos Cwtch permitem que várias partes participem de uma única conversa usando um servidor não confiável (que pode ser fornecido por terceiros ou auto-hospedado). Os operadores de servidores não conseguem saber quantas pessoas estão em um grupo ou o que está sendo discutido. Se vários grupos estiverem hospedados em um único servidor, o servidor não conseguirá saber quais mensagens pertencem a qual grupo sem a conivência de um membro do grupo. Ao contrário das conversas entre pares, as conversas em grupo podem ser conduzidas de forma assíncrona, para que todos num grupo não precisem estar online ao mesmo tempo.

Por que os grupos cwtch são experimentais? Mensagens em grupo resistentes a metadados ainda são um problema em aberto . Embora a versão que fornecemos no Cwtch Beta seja projetada para ser segura e com metadados privados, ela é bastante ineficiente e pode ser mal utilizada. Como tal, aconselhamos cautela ao usá-lo e apenas o fornecemos como um recurso opcional.

Como posso executar meu próprio servidor Cwtch? A implementação de referência para um servidor Cwtch é de código aberto . Qualquer pessoa pode executar um servidor Cwtch, e qualquer pessoa com uma cópia do pacote de chaves públicas do servidor pode hospedar grupos nesse servidor sem que o operador tenha acesso aos metadados relacionados ao grupo .

https://git.openprivacy.ca/cwtch.im/server

https://docs.openprivacy.ca/cwtch-security-handbook/server.html

Como posso desligar o Cwtch? O painel frontal do aplicativo possui um ícone do botão "Shutdown Cwtch" (com um 'X'). Pressionar este botão irá acionar uma caixa de diálogo e, na confirmação, o Cwtch será desligado e todos os perfis serão descarregados.

Suas doações podem fazer a diferença no projeto Cwtch? O Cwtch é um projeto dedicado a construir aplicativos que preservam a privacidade, oferecendo comunicação de grupo resistente a metadados. Além disso, o projeto também desenvolve o Cofre, formulários da web criptografados para ajudar mútua segura. Suas contribuições apoiam iniciativas importantes, como a divulgação de violações de dados médicos em Vancouver e pesquisas sobre a segurança do voto eletrônico na Suíça. Ao doar, você está ajudando a fechar o ciclo, trabalhando com comunidades marginalizadas para identificar e corrigir lacunas de privacidade. Além disso, o projeto trabalha em soluções inovadoras, como a quebra de segredos através da criptografia de limite para proteger sua privacidade durante passagens de fronteira. E também tem a infraestrutura: toda nossa infraestrutura é open source e sem fins lucrativos. Conheça também o Fuzzytags, uma estrutura criptográfica probabilística para marcação resistente a metadados. Sua doação é crucial para continuar o trabalho em prol da privacidade e segurança online. Contribua agora com sua doação

https://openprivacy.ca/donate/

onde você pode fazer sua doação em bitcoin e outras moedas, e saiba mais sobre os projetos. https://openprivacy.ca/work/

Link sobre Cwtch

https://cwtch.im/

https://git.openprivacy.ca/cwtch.im/cwtch

https://docs.cwtch.im/docs/intro

https://docs.openprivacy.ca/cwtch-security-handbook/

Baixar #CwtchDev

cwtch.im/download/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=im.cwtch.flwtch

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 23th September

It's not your voice anymore if it's available to everyone.

Video Ai Voice

Nostr is psycho pop.

Nostrasia took place today. It all seemed beautiful. A muffled meeting, a bit in the clouds compared to the air you breathe in social media.

It seems there are two types of Nostr the one who doesn't want to grow and the one who wants to grow. 😅

1. There has always been a misconception that kind1 is the discovery layer, but in reality it is the opposite. If someone publishes a long form article there is less audience, it is true, but then it is easier to find quality content, therefore quality profiles to follow in the kind1 client aka twitter clone. And this can be true for all portable data layers, video streaming, audio, long form, ngit, wiki and whatsoever. So you have finally good follow.

2. The fact that in Nostr you don't see who follows you generally, only in a few clients, I only know one where you see who started following you. It's a strange thing, made to avoid seeing masses of bots that follow you and you can want to block, and you increase that list to the point of absurdity. It's strange because there is a lot of focus on the social graph, if you follow me it's an important aspect.

So in Nostr there are - portable data layers (Twitter style and other social) - non-portable, applications that use disposable npub, where the key is ephemeral.

1. 0xchat was becoming a good client, they killed it because it has to focus on chat. I don't use chat, I don't have anyone to chat with, I follow the 0xchat channel and then I read things from Moment. I use it with my second account, because after the nos2x-amber affair with the Odell result, which I had already told you about, I no longer tried to have the first profile even on the mobile. In the end they are all keys that will be burned 😔

Maybe I won't use Nostr anymore in the future just with burn npub, pow and whatsoever. In the end you don't build anything because it's a "stateless" communication.

---

Lol Moment

On Nostr the poor answer guy is helping the network 🤣🤣

call the police 911: what is your emergency?

a spam bot is attacking "nostr" relays.

you want some government censorship on those relays that contain spam, yes we can do that.

---

-Previous week- 16 09 Machines Like Me was a good book, maybe now it will become reality.

1. The cool thing about Plebchain radio, it's not the guests, it's these two Nostr users that do a podcast. And they focused on Bitcoin and Nostr and lightning, but maybe it's just the beginning, first you have to focus on a niche and then you expand to the whole world. I think the whole world phase is starting, the podcast topics would become too repetitive. The best part is the 15 10 minute intro. Or in the live show part, there could be some interesting clips.

2. • idea White button for activity pub user on voyage (app).

   • People hate Nostr. Don't use it

   • UnNip, now we've seen it all

   • Until the morale improves

3. People think Sync works like this by magic. Unfortunately it doesn't, I think, at least that's what those who are trying to do say, auto-merge, tinybase, evolu. There is an interesting local-first project. Jaguard a collaborative environment for writing empirical research papers.

4. Now I can search by id. I couldn't do it and I didn't understand the mechanism. Everything has to be instantiated. it works. Now I have to create a function maybe note_list_id and note_id. I continued to edit the NIPs page with asciidoc, categorizing this table is very fun.

New wave of Opensats grants.

1. If you haven't heard about WoT this week, you probably live on Mars. There are people who didn't know you could edit on amethyst.

You need to do a podcast of NIPs, features and whatsoever, maybe doing a podcast is not the best solution because it assumes you know something more and something that could change the next day or be no longer valid. maybe you should avoid doing things you don't have full control over, or at least not spread it outside. Maybe because last year at this time I was recording audio.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

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

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

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

Market forces or "market forces"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The old European disease

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

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

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

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

@ d6affa19:9110b177

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

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

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

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

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

Her fingers brush through my hair, a gentle caress.

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

a soothing warmth envelops me.

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

the monitor becomes a bit distant.

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

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

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

"Hmmmm," She playfully muses.

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

it pulls me deeper.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

desperately, i take in the remnants of Her scent.

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

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

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

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

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

@ 599f67f7:21fb3ea9

¿Qué es una dirección Lightning o Lightning address?

Una dirección Lightning es una dirección que visualmente se asemeja a una dirección de correo electrónico legible para los humanos, por ejemplo usuario@dominio.com pero que en realidad te permite recibir pagos en bitcoin instantáneos y económicos, sin la necesidad de tener un nodo en linea en tu dispositivo ni tener que generar facturas de forma manual cada vez que alguien te quiere hacer un pago.

¿Suena bien no?

¿Y cómo funciona?

Funciona utilizando el protocolo de pago LNURL.

Aquí se muestra un sencillo esquema de lo que ocurre en segundo plano.

En resumen, cuando otro usuario quiere pagarte usando tu dirección Lightning, tu billetera convierte la dirección Lightning en una solicitud de pago LNURL. Luego se utiliza esa solicitud de pago LNURL exitosa para obtener una factura BOLT11.

💡 Dirección Lightning > LNURLp > Factura BOLT 11.

Suena bien, pero ¿cuál es el problema?

Por el momento, muchas de las implementaciones de Lightning Address son de custodia, porque se necesita un dominio para que Lightning Address funcione y un nodo que esté siempre en línea para recibir los pagos. Debido a que es de custodia, el custodio puede atacarte en cualquier momento y monitorear tus transacciones.

Tienes que confiar en el propietario del dominio para no cambiar el registro de tu dirección Lightning. Y no funciona si el servidor LNURL no está en línea.

Bitcoin Txoko ofrece una sencilla solución de Lightning Address respaldada por LNbits. Esto también es de custodia, así que por favor mantén solo una pequeña cantidad en tu billetera Bitcoin Txoko y ve retirando a tu billetera de autocustodia a medida que recibas más sats.

Estoy listo, ¿qué necesito para empezar?

¡Todo lo que necesitas es un teléfono móvil o un ordenador y una conexión a Internet!

1. Creando tu billetera

Si aún no lo has hecho, navega a https://bitcointxoko.com y crea una nueva billetera. Puedes elegir el nombre que quieras.

2. Activar extensiones

Hace falta la extensión Pay Links para que las direcciones Lightning funcionen.

Abre Extensiones en la barra de herramientas y activa Pay Links.

3. Creando tu enlace de pago

• En a la extensión Pay Links, haz clic en New Pay Link.

• Elige la billetera que has creado.

• Para la descripción del artículo, puedes escribir lo que quieras.

• Elige un nombre de usuario de tu dirección Lightning. Tu dirección Lightning se verá como username@bitcointxoko.com.

• Desmarque Fixed amount y cambia el valor mínimo a 1 y el valor máximo a 500000.

⚠️ También puedes cambiar el valor máximo a algo más alto, pero es más probable que los pagos más grandes fallen debido a la limitada capacidad de entrada del nodo Lightning de Bitcoin Txoko. Así que recomendamos mantenerlo en 500000 sats.

• Ahora abre Advanced options y cambia Comment maximum characters a 799. Este paso no es necesario pero permite más funcionalidades más adelante.

• Marca Enable nostr zaps en la parte inferior, para que puedas utilizar tu dirección Lightning para recibir zaps.

• Las demás opciones avanzadas son opcionales, puedes configurarlas si quieres o dejarlas en blanco.

Al final debería verse algo así.

• Cuando hayas comprobado que todo es correcto, sigue adelante y haz clic en Create Pay Link.

Probando

Puedes probar si tu nueva dirección Lightning funciona yendo a otra cartera, pulsando en Enviar y escribiendo tu dirección Lightning como destino, y luego enviándote una pequeña cantidad de sats.

Vuelve a tu billetera Bitcoin Txoko y comprueba si has recibido tu propio pago. Es posible que tengas que actualizar la página.

Si todo funcionó correctamente, ¡enhorabuena! 🥳

Si no es así, háznoslo saber. Siempre estamos aquí para ayudar.

Próximos pasos

Nostr zaps

Puedes añadir tu dirección Bitcoin Txoko Lightning a tu perfil de nostr y usarla para recibir zaps. Normalmente, esto se hace yendo a Perfil > Editar > Dirección Lightning y cambiando la dirección Lightning.

LNDhub

Puedes importar tu billetera LNbits como un LNDhub en tu teléfono utilizando una aplicación como Zeus o BlueWallet, en lugar de visitar la billetera en el navegador cada vez que desees comprobar tu saldo o realizar un pago. Echa un vistazo a nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzqkvlvlma7a55ccp6d5rrdc27h3ssmdmael286mjaq5uxmqslk04fqqxnzd3exuerqdfkxccnyv3cs0uvul sobre cómo hacer esto.

Código QR

También puedes compartir o imprimir tu código QR LNURLp para que la gente pueda escanearlo fácilmente con sus teléfonos. ¡Muy útil si estás introduciendo bitcoin a tu comerciante local favorito para que pueda recibir propinas Lightning!

Simplemente comparte el enlace a tu página compartida, o imprime el código QR como PDF yendo a View Link > Print.

@ 17538dc2:71ed77c4

Quiztime

Oil and gas

Oil and gas is naturally occurring. The prevalent worldview is that oil & gas has a biotic origin. There are real world examples of abiotic oil deposits, which proponents of the status quo have a difficult time reconciling.

Irregardless, when oil & gas is burned, it simply turns to plant food (carbon dioxide + water).

Oil and gas greens the Earth, and increases fertilization and agricultural crop yield across the globe.

The energy density of oil and gas is only surpassed by that of nuclear power.

Energy produced by oil and gas combustion is generally on-demand, reliable, economically storable & transportable.

Solar

The sun is an abudant energy source, which keeps Earth warm, and alive. Thank you sun 🌞!

With the exception of places such as the UK, where it is unclear if inhabitants have ever seen the sun, solar rays keep plants, animals, and humans happy & alive on most of planet Earth.

Inventions such as solar panels harness the sun's energy, and convert it to electricity.

Solar panels consist of silicon, rare earth metals, and require toxic metals.

Solar panels have an expected life of decades, are not readily or economically recyclable.

A very low solar energy density practically means that land is inefficiently utilized in solar energy production. Solar used on arable land can no longer be farmed, and where no plains exist solar is known to cause deforestation and landslides.

Solar energy is not reliable, not can it be summoned on demand. Solar energy is not economically storable, and is many cases is not produced at the point of demand.

Despite central planner mandates & subsidies in the US, the #EULAG and elsewhere, due to its intermittent nature, solar power cannot be counted on to replace reliable power generation in nuclear, hydro, or carbon fuel thermoelectric plants.

What this means is that solar does not replace, and yet ratheradds to reliable energy generation, as most people in the developed world would not be OK with having electricity for at most 1/3 of the day. This increases the price of electricity, which in turn increases energy poverty, and drives businesses to shut down manufacturing, or move to a more energy competitive jurisdiction.

The capital wasted by central planners could have been used to reduce burden on consumers, and businesses, or fund healthcare, infrastructure, or other services.

It should be noted that off grid applications where there is no grid, or energy alternatives can be massively useful for folks otherwise without electricity.

Which energy source would you consider renewable?

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

09 09 week

The billboard has reached its first goal.

I don't understand anything, too much.

The web is a dangerous place, maybe the couch at home is for you.

Nostr is like being in a public place like a bar and you listen to the radio, and you can decide which radio to choose, you can also talk on the radio, only those who follow you and those who are connected to that frequency can listen to you.

We talk on multiple frequencies so if one is offline they can hear me on the other.

Spam will always be a constant as are fixed costs, personnel costs, taxes things that people in general hate

A lot of talk that will be blown away by the wind.

Jack Dorsey says Nostr will be a protocol for private encrypted chats

1. Open-sats drama

2. Carnivore dietitian

3. Lightning diatribe

4. This is already Twitter 😉

Fiatjaf explained for the umpteenth time what the outbox model is, now those who look at images instead of reading books must have understood it too. My note, Patricia writes in her relays write, including select some in her outbox 10002 kind. it was a dev page of something, so maybe it won't be online for long

---

Thinking that with Kamala Harris's victory, the price of Bitcoin would hit a low and holders would be happy to buy. 🤣🤣 Instead with Trump new all time High, holders would be happy. 🤣🤣 Lol Moment.

---

I read the article about btcmap maps, there were some notes to make but I didn't, it's beyond my level, it was only for builders.

Satlantis, trustroots, and wherostr were not noted.

---

I had this thought that we will not "succeed" in building the openness of type 1, in the following nips, because of the relays and because discovering new things has a cost, and no one wants to discover new things. And then after that the others should use them, but how and after that at least two others appear who are doing a similar thing, but they don't talk to each other because they don't have time.

---

If the time horizon is 10 years, those who survive will see.

Keeping calm seems difficult.

I tried nostr-relay-tray works. It works, I would suggest a couple of changes

1. Delete some events.
2. View events
3. Search by npub id or time
4. Delete by time.

These are difficult things but they can be done with a database, so they may as well not be done.

I hope that all the controversies are forgotten and overcome and we are more serene.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

The ongoing debate surrounding freedom of expression may revolve more around determining who gets to control the dissemination of information rather than any claimed notion of safeguarding democracy. Similarities can be identified from 500 years ago, following the invention of the printing press.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

-- Ecclesiastes 1:9

The debate over freedom of expression and its limits continues to rage on. In the UK, citizens are being arrested for sharing humouristic images. In Ireland, it may soon become illegal to possess "reckless" memes. Australia is trying to get X to hide information. Venezuela's Maduro blocked X earlier this year, as did a judge on Brazil's Supreme Court. In the US, a citizen has been imprisoned for spreading misleading material following a controversial court ruling. In Germany, the police are searching for a social media user who called a politician overweight. Many are also expressing concerns about deep fakes (AI-generated videos, images, or audio that are designed to deceive).

These questions are not new, however. What we perceive as new questions are often just a reflection of earlier times. After Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century, there were soon hundreds of printing presses across Europe. The Church began using printing presses to mass-produce indulgences. "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs" was a phrase used by a traveling monk who sold such indulgences at the time. Martin Luther questioned the reasonableness of this practice. Eventually, he posted the 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg. He also translated the Bible into German. A short time later, his works, also mass-produced, accounted for a third of all books sold in Germany. Luther refused to recant his provocations as then determined by the Church's central authority. He was excommunicated in 1520 by the Pope and soon declared an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.

This did not stop him. Instead, Luther referred to the Pope as "Pope Fart-Ass" and as the "Ass-God in Rome)". He also commissioned caricatures, such as woodcuts showing a female demon giving birth to the Pope and cardinals, of German peasants responding to a papal edict by showing the Pope their backsides and breaking wind, and more.

Gutenberg's printing presses contributed to the spread of information in a way similar to how the internet does in today's society. The Church's ability to control the flow of information was undermined, much like how newspapers, radio, and TV have partially lost this power today. The Pope excommunicated Luther, which is reminiscent of those who are de-platformed or banned from various platforms today. The Emperor declared Luther an outlaw, which is similar to how the UK's Prime Minister is imprisoning British citizens today. Luther called the Pope derogatory names, which is reminiscent of the individual who recently had the audacity to call an overweight German minister overweight.

Freedom of expression must be curtailed to combat the spread of false or harmful information in order to protect democracy, or so it is claimed. But perhaps it is more about who gets to control the flow of information?

As is often the case, there is nothing new under the sun.

@ a6631624:24ba1a2f

Genetics are real. They determine every meaningful aspect of a body - from physical traits to psychological ones - with environment accounting for little of a human's way of being. This is so much so that the trajectory and outcomes of a given human life are already written as soon as they're born.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in twin studies, where again and again, identical twins live virtually the same life after being separated at birth. They show that your political beliefs, your personality, your religiosity, the foods you enjoy, how many friends you have, your income level, your education level, your criminal record, the nature of your death, what you wore today, and so much more are all most likely determined, in range at least, by genetics.

But, genes do not work in isolation. They work together, playing off of and linking between each other, often with the expression of one trait inseparably tied to the expression of another and then, sometimes, yet another.

Invariably, some of these links and ties are between the expression of an internal trait and the expression of a physical trait, accounting for the reality that, in the way that we know the literal face of Down's Syndrome, the same exist - albeit much less extreme - for homosexuality, intelligence, trustworthiness, and extraversion (and many more). All of which can be consistently detected by humans in other humans merely by viewing their faces.

Furthermore, these correlations between physical traits (phenotype) and invisible traits (genotype) don't just end at the neck. Bodily aspects such as bone structure, gait, proportionality, and much more ultimately form one's very mien and, altogether, have much to say about the genetically embedded character of a given human.

All of this is to suggest that, because much of compatibility and general social chemistry is determined by the genetic outside as an indicator of the genetic inside, our bodily design and appearances matter and have very significant implications for the nature of our relationships, with whom we may have them, and the opportunities accessible to us in every other area of life due to them.

This cannot be reasonably or sustainably overridden by means of "social justice" or personal declaration. This instinctually mapped and interpreted physiognomy is so thoroughly embedded into the human social protocol that to ignore it (if you even could) would likely result in your prompt death at the hands of some guys you should've avoided. The ability to, on some level, identify the physical characteristics associated with psychological traits in other humans has evolved specifically because it increases the chances of human survival and reproduction.

It is, in fact, so fundamental and so seamlessly integrated into the being of humans as to be unnoticeable for the majority. Most cannot fathom there being a difference the internal self and the physical body because the fidelity between their own will and their own biological design is perfect. Most people simply are how they look.

The Outliers

Because humans are genetic (read: physical) creatures, we can see statistical patterns assuring us that making a number assumptions about X kind of person based on the concentration traits among those “like” them is incredibly reasonable. Even in our systems and lived lives, we see that our evolutionarily rooted snap assessments are exceedingly practical and even socially efficient.

But, there are outliers in genetic trends.

Due to either mutation, rare genetic combinations, or some more extraordinary means, outliers in this context are individuals who diverge significantly from the central psychological tendencies of their phenotype group. They may either align more closely with the characteristics of another group or occupy a distinct, individual space.

Gender and race are the two most robust, rigid, and (therefore) social impactful phenotype groups, so when there is psychological incongruence in these particular respects, the result is a social disability. A condition in which one either cannot or finds it extremely distasteful to fill the social roles associated with their appearance, yet is rejected when attempting to take on roles they’re more psychologically suited to fill due to the visual associations and/or physical limitations of their body.

Gender

For outliers in gender, this social disability has an extremely somatic edge that can entail entire body parts and functions feeling foreign and burdensome. For instance, the most common types of gender outliers – "FtM" or "FtN" – may struggle with the relative lack of physical prowess, female bodily processes, and physical features designed to attract male sexual attention - things that psychologically typical females embrace.

Bodily conditions like these often hinder gender outliers from acting and participating in their interests at a reasonable level of seriousness, ultimately leading to sub-satisfactory life outcomes and an inability to self-actualize.

This mismatch between body and self-consciousness and the difficulty of commanding respect that arises because of it means that gender outliers often find it difficult to interact comfortably with their peers and are often forced into activities and interactions that are not suitable for them in the names of conformity and, at times, safety. On the subject, their thoughts, feelings, and reactions are dismissed and devalued, rather than acknowledged as legitimate experiences.

Race

Racial outliers can be thought of as individuals with traits that have low probabilities and/or frequencies of occurrence within their breeding group. "Trans identification" is most likely to manifest when this occurs on intrinsic traits with high social relevance and for outliers in race, the big ones are intelligence, it's associated correlates, and the values born of them.

Because of this, racial outliers typically have interests and values that are looked down upon by their breeding group; have shame in regard to their breeding group's history, collective culture, and behaviors; and, for these reasons, experience ostracization by said breeding group and, even when they do not, enjoy a voluntary estrangement from them while prioritizing association with others.

Contrary to common consensus, outliers in gender and race are not necessarily suffering from mental illness or defect. Though the condition itself may result in mental illnesses in some cases and those with other issues may parade or otherwise appear as the outliers, being so is simply a natural result of the way genetics work or, from another lens, trapping Selves in bodies.

Knowing this calls for efforts to alleviate and eventually rectify the issue in a way that corrects the genetic reality and optimizes for the agency and will of the Self - the individual - in context of civilization.

Reasons why and the means of doing so will be explored in the next installment of this series.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

-- Juvenal (Who will watch the watchmen?)

In mid-July, numerous media outlets reported on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. FBI Director Christopher Wray stated later that same month that what hit the former president Trump was a bullet. A few days later, it was reported from various sources that search engines no longer acknowledged that an assassination attempt on ex-President Trump had taken place. When users used automatic completion in Google and Bing (91% respectively 4% market share), these search engines only suggested earlier presidents such as Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin as people who could have been subjected to assassination attempts.

The reports were comprehensive enough for the Republican district attorney of Missouri to say that he would investigate matter. The senator from Kansas - also a Republican - planned to make an official request to Google. Google has responded through a spokesman to the New York Post that the company had not "manually changed" search results, but its system includes "protection" against search results "connected to political violence."

A similar phenomenon occurred during the 2016 presidential election. At the time, reports emerged of Google, unlike other less widely used search engines, rarely or never suggesting negative search results for Hillary Clinton. The company however provided negative search results for then-candidate Trump. Then, as today, the company denied deliberately favouring any specific political candidate.

These occurrences led to research on how such search suggestions can influence public opinion and voting preferences. For example, the impact of simply removing negative search suggestions has been investigated. A study published in June 2024 reports that such search results can dramatically affect undecided voters. Reducing negative search suggestions can turn a 50/50 split into a 90/10 split in favour of the candidate for whom negative search suggestions were suppressed. The researchers concluded that search suggestions can have "a dramatic impact," that this can "shift a large number of votes" and do so without leaving "any trace for authorities to follow." How search engines operate should therefore be considered of great importance by anyone who claims to take democracy seriously. And this regardless of one's political sympathies.

A well-known thought experiment in philosophy asks: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" Translated to today's media landscape: If an assassination attempt took place on a former president, but search engines don't want to acknowledge it, did it really happen?

@ 97c70a44:ad98e322

Nostr is a mess. It always has been and will always be. That's part of the appeal! But it's important that users be able to navigate the rolling seas of this highly partition-tolerant network of kaleidoscopically-interwoven people, bots, topics, relays, clients, events, recommendations, lists, feeds, micro-apps, macro-apps, Chinese spam, and "GM"s.

In order to do this, users must be able to articulate "what" they are looking for, and clients must be able to articulate "how" to find that thing. This "how" is divided into two parts: building a request that will match the desired content (very easy), and selecting a relay that is able to serve that content to the user requesting it (very very hard).

Why guessing isn't good enough

As a concrete example, let's say the user wants to find everyone in their "network" who is using a particular topic. The process would look something like this:

1. The user clicks the "network" tab and types in the topic they want to browse. This is the "what".
2. The client then translates the term "network" to a list of public keys using whatever definition they prefer (Follows? WoT? Grapevine?), and builds a filter that might look something like this: [{"authors": pubkeys, "#t": ["mytopic"]}]. Any relay will happily accept, understand, and respond to that filter.
3. The client then has to decide which relays it should send that filter to. This is the ??? stage of the outbox model, which immediately precedes:
4. Profit

It may not be immediately obvious why selecting the correct relays might be difficult. Most people post to relay.damus.io, and most people read from relay.damus.io, so in most cases you should be good, right?

This approach to relay selection has historically worked "well enough", but it depends on a flawed definition of success. If you only want to find 90% of the content that matches your query, using the top 10 relays will suffice. But nostr is intended to be censorship-resistant. What if those 10 hubs have banned a particular public key? Nostr clients should (at least in theory) be 100% successful in retrieving requested content. Even if someone only posts to their self-hosted relay, you should be able to find their notes if their account is set up properly.

A naive solution to fixing the FOMO

A 90% hit rate results in a feeling of flakiness, even if users aren't completely aware of what isn't working. Feeds will be incomplete, quoted notes will be missing, replies will be orphaned, user profiles won't load. The natural response to the FOMO this creates is for users to "try harder" by adding more relays.

On the read side, this means clients open more connections, resulting in much higher data transfer requirements, with massively diminishing returns, since there's no reason to expect that a randomly chosen relay will have a substantially different data set.

One the publish side, this means that clients end up publishing more copies of their data to more relays. This approach has been automated in the past by services like Blastr, which don't store a copy of events published to the relay, but instead forward events to the top 300 relays in the network. This results in a two-orders-of-magnitude increase in storage required, and only makes the read side of the problem worse, since it reduces the uniqueness of the data set each relay stores. This in turn means that more duplicates are retrieved when querying relays.

Both halves of this approach are equivalent to guessing. On the read side, users are guessing which relays will have any arbitrary content they might ask for in the future. On the write side, users are guessing which relays other people might use to find their notes. It is a brute-force method for finding content.

Randomness results in centralization

In theory, random relay selection would result in a perfect distribution of content across all relays in the network. But in practice, this method of selection isn't random at all, but is strongly influenced by user bias in what constitutes a "good" relay. While some users may check nostr.watch for ping times, geographical proximity, or uptime, most will choose relays based on familiar names or other people's recommendations.

In either case, these biases are entirely orthogonal to achieving a higher content retrieval hit rate, except when bias in relay selection results in clustering — i.e., centralization. In other words, the kind of randomness exhibited by users when selecting relays actually results in pretty much everyone picking the same few relays. We see this same effect when people try to come up with passwords or seed phrases — human-provided randomness is anything but random.

Clustering improves the hit rate when requesting events (slightly), but it results in nearly as much centralization as if only a single relay was used — and a lot more duplicate events.

Something (anything) other than randomness

In early 2023, Mike Dilger introduced NIP 65 (now known as the "Outbox Model") with a problem statement in the spirit of the original description of nostr: "Nostr should scale better. People should be able to find what they want."

Historical note: NIP 65 was formerly known as the "Gossip Model", derived from the name of Mike's desktop nostr client, called "Gossip". This unfortunately created a lot of confusion, since gossip protocols work very differently from how nostr tends to work, hence the re-brand.

Before NIP 65, an informal standard existed in which kind 3 user contact lists also included a list of relays that clients could use as something similar to Mastodon's "home servers". This list included the option to only read or write from a given relay. Unfortunately, it wasn't really clear what the semantics of this relay list were, so different clients handled them differently (and many clients ignored them). Usually this amounted to user-provided static relay configurations, which resulted in the naive relay selection approach described above.

NIP 65 used a very similar format (a list of relay urls with optional "read" or "write" directives), but with a very important semantic difference: relays listed in a user's kind 10002 were intended to "advertise to others, not for configuring one's client." In other words, these relay selections were intended as a signal to other users that they should use certain relays when attempting to communicate with the author of the relay list.

I highly recommend reading the entire NIP, which is very short and easy to read. But the mechanics of the spec are very simple:

When seeking events from a user, Clients SHOULD use the WRITE relays of the user's kind:10002.

When seeking events about a user, where the user was tagged, Clients SHOULD use the READ relays of the user's kind:10002.

When broadcasting an event, Clients SHOULD:

• Broadcast the event to the WRITE relays of the author
• Broadcast the event to all READ relays of each tagged user

For the first time, we had a way to differentiate relays in terms of what content could be found where.

When looking for a note by a particular user, a client could now look up the author's write relays according to their kind 10002 event, and send its query there. The result is a much higher hit rate with much lower data transfer requirements, and fewer connections per query.

Making Outbox Work

There are of course some assumptions required to make this work.

First, the user must know which author they're looking for. This isn't always true when looking up a quote or parent note, but context and pubkey hints solve this difficulty in most cases.

The author must also publish a kind 10002 event. This may not always be the case, but clients should prompt users to set up their relay list correctly. This isn't really a flaw in the Outbox Model, just in implementations of it.

Additionally, the user's client must be able to find the author's kind 10002 event. This is the "bootstrapping" phase of the Outbox Model, during which the mechanisms the system provides for finding events aren't available. This requires us to fall back to randomly guessing which relays have the content we're looking for, which as we saw above doesn't work very well.

Other than guessing, there are a few different ways a client might find the relay selection event in question, each of which is applicable in different circumstances. In most cases, using one of a handful of indexer relays like purplepag.es or relay.nostr.band is a simple and efficient way to find user profiles and relay selections.

However, if an author's content has been aggressively purged from these indexers due to censorship, they obviously can't be relied upon. Even though the author in question hasn't been deplatformed from nostr itself (since he can always self-host a publicly accessible relay to store his content), he has been effectively shadow-banned.

To get around this, relay selections have to be communicated in some other way. Nostr has a few different mechanisms for this:

• If the author's NIP 05 address is known and properly configured (it may not be), clients can look up the author's NIP 05 endpoint to find some reasonable relay hints. Unfortunately, these are often neglected, and usually custodial, so they can run into the same problems.
• If the author's pubkey is found in another signed event found on nostr, relay hints can be a way to propagate relay selections through the network. This relies on implementations picking reliable relay hints which can be difficult, and hints do tend to become less reliable over time. However, this strategy is very effective in resisting censorship because it makes banning viral — if a relay wants to completely purge a particular pubkey from their database, they have to purge every event that references it, since events are tamper-proof.
• In extremis, relay recommendations can always be communicated out-of-band. This can be done using manual input, QR codes, DHTs, jsonl torrents full of kind 10002 events, or any other mechanism client developers choose to resort to.

Another, more technical assumption is that any given query can be fulfilled by few enough relays that a client can actually make all the connections needed, without running into resource limits. If you're trying to request content from 10,000 users across 1,000 relays, you're going to have a bad time. This was pointed out to me by Mazin of nostr.wine. He makes a good point, and it's definitely something to keep in mind. There are some mitigating factors though.

The first is that the current topology of the network probably won't persist forever. Because nostr is largely populated by self-hosting enthusiasts, the number of "tiny" relays is proportionally much higher than it will be if adoption picks up, even if the total number of relays grows. The trajectory is that nostr will drift toward fewer, larger relays, reducing the number of connections needed to fulfill any given query.

This is "centralizing", but it's important to understand that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as there are more than one or two large hubs, there is user choice. And as long as it's possible to run a new relay, there is always an escape hatch. Nostr, like bitcoin, has no hard dependency on the biggest player in the network.

The other thing to consider is that there are lots of other techniques we can use to overcome the limits of the lowest-common denominator's limitations (mobile browser clients), including self hosted or third-party relay proxies. The trade-off here is that a little trust (aka centralization) can go a long way to reducing resource requirements needed to fulfill queries using the Outbox model.

If you're interested in more details on this topic, see this blog post.

That was a long digression, but there is one other thing that the Outbox model assumes to be the case. Even if the correct relays are found and connected to, they still may not return all desired content, either because they don't have it, or because they refuse to return it to the user requesting it.

This can happen if the publishing client isn't following the Outbox Model, if the author had migrated from one relay set to another without copying their notes over, or if the relay in question chose not to retain the author's content for some reason.

The first two issues can be fixed by improving implementations, but the question of policy is a little more interesting.

Relativistic relays

The Outbox Model is a mechanical process; it's only as useful as user relay selections are. In order for it to work, users have to be able to make intelligent relay selections.

Every relay has trade-offs, depending on its policy. 140.f7z.io would not be useful for long-form content, for example. Some relays might have a content retention policy that changes depending on whether you're a paying user. If you don't pay, you might find out too late that your content has been deleted from the relay.

So what makes a relay "good" for a particular use case? Well, it's complicated. Here are a few factors that go into that calculus:

• Is the relay in the same geographical as the user? Proximity reduces latency, but jurisdictional arbitrage might be desired. Users should probably have a variety of relays that fit different profiles.
• Will the relay ban the user? Do the operators have a history of good behavior? Is the relay focused on particular types of content? Is the relay's focus consistent with the user's goal in adding that relay to their list?
• What are the relay's retention policies? A user might want to set up an archival relay for her old content, or a multi-availability-zone relay so her notes are immediately accessible to the rest of the network.
• Does the relay require payment? Paid relays are more aligned with their users, but obviously come at a financial cost.
• Does the relay have policies for read-protecting content? If so, other users might not be able to find your posts published to that relay. On the other hand, some relays are configured to work as inboxes for direct messages, which can help preserve privacy.
• Does the relay request that users authenticate? Authentication can help manage spam, but it also allows relays to correlate content requests with users, reducing user privacy.
• Is the relay you use hosted by your client's developer? If so, you're in danger of getting banned from your client and your relay at the same time.
• Is the relay a hub? Using hubs can help smooth out rough areas in Outbox Model implementations, at the cost of centralization.
• Is the relay used by anyone else? One-off relays can be useful for archival purposes, but often won't be used by clients following the Outbox Model, depending on how they optimize requests.

There are lots of ways to approach the problem of helping users select relays, but it's an inherently complex problem which very few people will have the patience to properly address on their own. Relay selection is a multi-dimensional problem, and requires satisfying multiple constraints with a limited number of relay selections.

In the future, special-purpose clients might be used to help people build relay sets. Clients also might provide curated "relay kits" that users can choose and customize. Or, we might see an increase in hybrid solutions, like smarter relay proxies or client-local relays that synchronize using other protocols or platforms.

The Limitations of Outbox

Outbox is not a complete solution, not because of any of the caveats listed above, but because NIP 65 per se only addresses the question of how to index content by pubkey in a broadcast social media context. But there are many other scenarios for relay selection that Outbox does not solve:

• Community, chat, and group posts might be best posted to relays dedicated to that context.
• Direct messages shouldn't follow the same contours as public social media content.
• Topic-oriented relays, or relays serving a custom feed might be useful independent of who uses them.
• Relays focused on serving a particular kind of event, like music, long-form content, or relay selections, are useful independent of who reads from or writes to them.
• Certain clients might need to fulfill particular use cases by using relays that support certain protocol features, like search, count, or sync commands.
• Some events might not make sense to publish to relays, but should instead be shared only directly, out of band.

Some of these use cases might be solved by new specifications similar to Outbox that prescribe where certain data belongs — for example, NIP 17 requires users to publish a different relay list before they can receive direct messages, while NIP 72 places community relay recommendations directly into the group's metadata object. A reasonably complete list of different relay types can be found in this PR, very few of which have a canonical way to manage selections.

Other use cases might be supported more informally, either by relays advertising their own value proposition, or via third-party NIP 66 metadata. Still others might be supported by scoping the network down to only certain relays through explicit relay selection — this is how white-labeled Coracle instances work.

The basic idea here is that there are categories of events that don't have anything to do with where a particular person puts his or her "tweets". For every "what" on nostr, there should be a "how".

Keep nostr weird

Whatever additional systems we end up adopting for helping with relay selection, one thing is certain — people will continue to discover new, creative uses for relays, and we will always be playing catch up. This is one of the coolest things about nostr!

But it does mean that users will have to adapt their expectations to a network that partitions, re-configures, and evolves over time. Nostr is not a "worse" experience than legacy social media, but it is a version of social media that has itself been set free from the stagnant walled-garden model. Nostr is in many ways a living organism — we should be careful not to impose our expectations prematurely, leaving room to discover what this thing actually is, or can be.

If you enjoyed this post but want more take a look at the talk I gave at Nostrasia last year. I also wrote up a blog post at about the same time that addresses some of the same issues, but focuses more on privacy concerns around relays and nostr groups. Finally, I recently wrote this comment, which includes some details about challenges I've faced putting Outbox into Coracle.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

A Ux designer has arrived on Nostr. I thought run away while you can. He could get rich, if there was a little economy.

Klout, do you remember that service, which took data from Twitter and made a ~~ WoT~~.

From a note of chip, I understood one thing:

Bitcoin is your "sovereign" currency. Nostr is just third party protocol. If you have a service you can use Nostr to face your customers. "Sovereign" people offer services. They can be bitcoiners or not. So at this stage Nostr is a layer 3 Bitcoin.

So to grow the enveiroment it must be attractive. Let's paraphrase: the protocol is agnostic, the people are fundamentalist Catholics.

So when an atheist person arrives he says ah ok, how do I silence these people and use the protocol If a Protestant Catholic arrives he is laughed at or ignored or at most converted.

---

I had a disagreement with Dergigi, in the end he won, but he is not right... (True)

Post more notes, zap more, follow 1000 people update FAQ to the nth degree. We are in the desert of the Tartars and the enemy is coming and there are those who say every day we must be ready, sooner or later, it will happen, ah ok. Everything must be perfect. Push harder. This leads to exhaustion.

New Grant from Opensat to Victor of Amethyst, totally deserved, pushed the envelope. If you are a grapheneos user download Amethyst. It's not just Amethyst it's also orbot, citrine, amber, zap store or obtainium or f-droid.

GitCitadel has raised its first fund I wonder if it was just a test on geyser, I wonder if it is the right project to do on nostrocket, but I think Opensat grant for nostrocket makes it irreconcilable. This opens a pandora's box, as always. We are silent as fish.

I tried not to answer some questions even in one case I knew the answer, I apologize, Nostr is much older than me, so it's okay not to answer sometimes. Tomorrow begins nostRiga, The last unconference of Nostr.

(First day) The morning was so-so, in the evening the situation improved a little. In the evening I played a bit with Nostr and it broke The second day good in the morning bad in the evening. I saw little of the backstage maybe only two panels, Will by Damus, and P2Phash on Nostr.

I don't follow anyone anymore, I did a little bit of a unfollow. I saw that two users had 200 followers in common, and I said to myself ah ok what is this thing, I have to understand how they do it there is something that doesn't work, let's try to be a little more distant.

It's weird, too much reliance on following, you have to go and look, not be stationary.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 12-08 a suitable protocol

The knots come to a head, some of you have gray hair, you get older.

Tkinter is better than ws://, more secure, but has limitations, unless you know how to use figma and do some magic. The project of Nabismo.

Maybe Nostr doesn't work for me.

Aspirin moment Nip-17, works with nip-44 and nip-59. Someone said they made the groups encrypted with nip-17. I tried and succeeded, now you can DM me, don't do it. I had sent the link to a conversation of nip-87 closed groups. There's JeffG doing something with MLS. Then there's keychat.io which uses signal Nostr Bitcoin ecash and that's it... But in dart. It's a bit like the Matrix analogue for Nostr.

Final controversy not all nips are mandatory.

Build the foundation. You can't think about selling the house

Yakihonne has a countdown. What can a desktop app be. Community Lists, Nip-29

A birthday on Nostr, no that's not possible, they're all cypherpunks. 🎉🎉 (Except me)

There is a different attitude from Nostr when updates are released compared to Bluesky, everyone there is still enthusiastic, on Nostr ah ok but this is missing oh but this is missing or but support this other one, or but * zap, wait a minute, keep calm 🙇‍♂️, I'm the first to do this. (The revolt of the developers)

Deletetion: Client that have relay paired can do delete, more intelligently, Perhaps you can think of a delete.nrelay subdomain as a filter. This id is deleted. Be careful what you don't want to do. Maybe a session with a psychologist is better, because then you find yourself doing what you said you didn't want to do.

Does it make sense to follow someone on Bluesky? In my opinion no, or better yet yes. There are several algorithms on Bluesky, which do their job well. In the end it's just a matter of arranging them better on the screen. Yes you can have lists to save someone, but then you read everything, so lists with algorithm seems like a next feature. this way they can keep the following small, almost minimal, because there are algorithms that work for the user. People will start writing for SEO algorithm and AI and other things, which tech gurus really like and so on. The fact that it is almost exclusively an app will greatly facilitate this trend, there will be almost no need for moderation, and you can get it all in just a few apps. (Great)

Oh yegorpetrov has abandoned. Pegorpetrov said that he is coming back 😌 It might be an invention but I'm a little heartened by it.

Bankify, a new wallet of super testnet, only for crush testers.

You can't stream on zap stream without reach, maybe it's better audio space. Contact someone maybe an influencer or Nostr elite or whatever. Open Source Justice Foundation streaming

Designer, I wanted to propose comment on wikifreedia nielliesmons article and follow #nostrdesign, but too many answers for today. NVK note is ~~mainstream~~

I think I'm not suited to Nostr.

Nostr-ava bike file geo tag sharing. (NIP-113) Sebastix doesn't respond, I must have done something bad to him, or maybe I'm stressing him too much. Finally he replied 🤙. In the end maybe, I have too much hype about this proposal and it's something I don't know maybe, but maybe if they were already doing something with geo tags it's better to say so.

Another birthday, less cypher more punk 😌

Usdt on Nostr, there must be some error. (freeform app)

USDT on tron ​​is like Money. (Bitcoiner not really)

Privacy issue, deletion motion, or deletion request, go go.

Nip29 hype, i don't have hype at all. I'm tired of words, I record a podcast on Nostr. Let's see if I can do it, at least think it. (It's more of a workflow thing than actually something I would do)

1. Create an npub (easy)
2. Record the audio episode (I think I can do it). Terrible audio
3. Loading on a Nostrhosting, if less than 10 MB it should go smoothly.
4. Publish the video or audio of the episode on some Nostr client, perhaps using blastr relay 😞.
5. Do the nostree link, by putting the episode, and also the npub.pro and put the URL on café-society. 6) Publish all these links on the Main profile, saying that, made a podcast about Nostr in Nostr of nostr. 😂

I thought a client could have poll, form, spreadsheet, collaboration document. It's the kind of otherstuff we want to see. Something that goes beyond a normal feed.

Emoj on bluesky, Eventually also zap 🥜 link emoj Blue

Eventually there will be a developer revolt And they will only do a social network in their downtime, they will call it Nostr.

There is a storm, Nostr does not work in 4g with two bars. Or now 4G is gone too.

Yakihonne Smart widgets, something to try on the weekend.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week on Nostr 05-08

List of site for nostriches https://zaplinks.lol/

Fiatjaf web components

Welcome bear market 🧟‍♂️ fear, angry, build It's fine meme

I mutated one on stackernews. Basically I have notifications on Nostr page But someone keeps spamming every single thing, from his point of view it's a shared bookmark, but do it on your site. Maybe it's the heat...

On bluesky they eliminated a "for you" feed, now there is Discovery, not your feed, not your choice. There's actually a label that says my feeds, they're yours... Designed for you is more appropriate.

Mutiny lightning, "get the fuck on board". 😔

You lose your Money, ok

I don't know much about programming languages, but it seems like a jungle of scams

The purple pill help the Orange pill go down, maybe it was wrong. For now it's more people passing pills I have the orange give me the purple, I have the purple give me the orange. 😅

If you don't want no corn content you can go to mastodon and bluesky or whatever.

I thought nostr:relay might be a good solution to be a little more like a mint. It was deprecated, then the Nip-73 was added, rss feed and other devilry.

If you don't like what you see, change the app, this one will perhaps clear your following list and you'll start again from scratch. Not all things come to harm.

Why not Building agregore on Nostr, Nostr pear fedimint cashu mesh and local first. It doesn't seem like a simple application to make, from a local-first perspective, I solve a problem, but it's not a small problem to solve, Sync, database management, database schema, authentication, put everything together, instead I need this to solve this problem. It seems strange.

Aspie96 is making a client of ours, there was a lot of talk about how to increase content not related to bitcoin and things like that, there was one who was anti-bitcoin. I thought: Bitcoin is just a tool. Even guns are just a tool. I hate guns, I hate Bitcoin. It will be difficult, if you know any npub that hates Bitcoin comment below, thanks.

Trying not to use nostter for a while. It has glitches when loading threads and even with zap, I zapped myself even though I was clicking on the post I was replying to.

Voyage separates follow to topic in a new version.

People start arguing, it's allowed, everyone wants to be right, that's not the definition of social 👾.

Monitors watch-only bitcoin wallets https://github.com/sommerfelddev/sentrum

I noticed on Openvibe that in the trending timeline Nostr's notes have more interactions than responses. Maybe it was just that today Fiatjaf was doing universal polls 😅.

Step away from your favorite app, for a week if you can. Detox.

Oh Our founding, rain of money https://github.com/theborakompanioni/nostr-spring-boot-starte https://opensats.org/blog/nostr-grants-august-2024#seer

I'm happy for Vic and Sepher Nostroot exists 😅, note from some time ago. (I can't find it)

Perhaps the list of grant applications should be published, no one wants to open Pandora's box. 🙇‍♂️

Nostrasia 2.0 the Japanese community is a bit at a loss, they are trying to relaunch themselves 🤙, even if I'm seeing less enthusiasm, I'm following less.

I think a month has passed since I said this sentence, every day it was better but the next day something happened that you said maybe 6 months is too long. nostr:nevent1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3zamnwvaz7te3xsczue3h0ghxjme0qyw8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnxwfskxarpd35h5ety9ehx2ap0qythwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnnw3skkete9ehx2ap0qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qpqf25td2xxgxfu80xpgg47cmfg2zkn6v803kefj3htjss5nvamfmgswf2kcs

Ho iniziato a seguire un po' local-first. https://docnode.dev/local-first I follow a podcast of the same name and dev tools.

When everyone thinks of Nostr they think of their favorite app and think that others see the same, but this is not the case.

I delete some gossip (photo)

Gossip is Nostr or Nostr is gossip.

Communities are difficult, they take time. I don't have this type of problem. People are fine on telegram and on simplex or any app. But maybe a Nostr project should be on Nostr?? Nip-29 can be interesting. Even if you start from scratch or almost. It's true that there are more apps, but this will perhaps only add to the confusion.

They are still talking about paid or non-paid relay, it's not a mature stage. Early stage.. I thought designers liked relays, that's not the case, I thought it was a place of experimentation, that's not the case. Bring more people. Last week I was talking about how I was jealous of bluesky who had an agenda for design, now it's also on Nostr, first hypernote article https://wikifreedia.xyz/hypernote-nip

I might say silly things, I'll go.

Hey Will remember to practice safe nsec always

nostr:nevent1qqsr6x8hduv8ta0g2da4aukrhzdtv6qcekyp5f9z9sxq6sd5peegnxgprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wdmksetjv5hxxmmdqy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hsygr4wku5l2q32tl99xjgn8feq22279pzwu25eezqxm2su2ken4wzvuf2ydnp

nostr:nevent1qqspsm343talkkjnyf3ah0zwy727cwd7phw3xnz49q59q5cfw4uhyngpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgqgcwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxummnwa5x2un99e3k7mgzyqewrqnkx4zsaweutf739s0cu7et29zrntqs5elw70vlm8zudr3y2j7zajz

Use nsec.app, 😅 Share bunker (smart people will know how to do it)

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

How to Stop Ministry of Truth

The Situation

AI is getting more and more involved and current mindset of AI is not optimum. Plans to get into brains and glasses are here. You can say these are merely tech, why should we worry? Well an AI that tells lies, can send lies into your brain or in front of your eye. Someone should check these tech and slow down unaligned ideas.

Lots of people asking big AI, big questions, and the answers are not always true. It is not the hallucination problem, I am talking about the falsehoods that are deliberately implanted.

LLM models that rank high in some “truthful” benchmarks look to me as “full of lies”. A popular benchmark is MMLU. It has a broken section (virology) according to this paper . Is this fault accidental or deliberate and related to vaccines at all? Covid-19 happened because of an alleged virus. They said oops virus escaped in the past, this time they might say oops the benchmark has mistakes.

AI has found another use case as "search agents". Lots of people starting to use search tools that are LLM based. Perplexity is an example. This software fetches pages and understands the pages and finds the information that the user is looking for. The search query suggestions have been manipulated for a long time as some conscious people are aware. And almost everyone knows search results are not reality.

Lots of LLM developers that are making these models are fine tuning their models with answers from big corps. Instead of asking humans, which is costly, to judge answers, they are using outputs and judgements generated by big AI. It is not hard to see what can go wrong. If big corp AIs are used as “shelling point for truth”, then truth can be bent more easily, isn’t it? Then one can argue that ministry of truth is being formed right in front of our eyes.

Some AI models are producing lies and they are fast. Hundreds of words per second has been achieved. Who will check these? LLMs are the new printing press. Should we war against printing press or should we use it properly? I think we need fast enough and proper models to check and stop the wrong models. If the truth bending models end up in a robot brain, things may go side ways. Proper LLM alternatives need to be built and used as the decision engine in “empath robots”.

AI is building trust and it may abuse the trust later. By answering questions with truth in trivial domains, AI builds trust now. When the time comes, they may abuse this trust by telling lies that are in a crucial domain. This pattern is seen among many things. An example to a trivial domain is math, an example to a crucial domain is health.

Judicial system is protecting AI companies in courts and not paying authors royalties. Another favorable thing for AI but hurting creative people. AI needs to feed off of creativity, yet it fails to pay back. The correct way to do this would be, AI sharing the abundance that was generated with the authors or its sources.

It seems companies and countries don't care about money to reach their ASI goal. Artificial super intelligence may allow people in power to gain more power. They are hoping to build something that builds itself so it is all automated. You can see why money is then not that important. We all love bitcoin but it is not the solution to everything. What good is bitcoin if money is out of question? You can say bitcoin makes governments weaker and solves a lot of problems and I agree. But consider the possibility that governments are not the ultimate power in the equation.

One Proposed Solution

We need to "decentralize truth" by fine tuning models based on our values. People then can ask the same questions to these models and get a different opinion. Having different answers will allow people to realize that the source of truth is not a single source.

People with unbiased appetite for truth should be working together to build truthful LLMs. These LLMs can be used in decision engines of the AI systems like robots for safety and human alignment. By using a proper LLM a robot can be “empath”. This is like installing a proper soul to an animal body.

Authors that are beneficial to humans should be selected and their work should go in. By learning from these proper sources the “ideas” of LLMs change. I have seen it. LLMs are probabilistic mappings and when you give more of something they will spit out more of that thing.

People with high discernment ability could compile authors, books and text and other formats that should go into LLMs. Curation of LLMs based on human values. These people specialize in the task of ‘how to find experts’. I will call this 'discernment' ability. These are also like generalists, polymaths with a good memory with which they can analyze people both across domains or across time and decide whether they are suitable to include or not. Did the person lie in the past? Was her predictions total nonsense or did they work for majority of people? Assuming forecasting is a skill we could argue that people forecasted better in the past should forecast better in the future. (And prophets in my opinion were the best prophecy providers.)

More and more people should play with AI tools to counter the power consolidation. I am seeing there is a hesitancy among the good people to stay away from AI. I am in the opposite camp.

A Numbers Game

The table below shows hypothetical people (A to L) in columns and domains in rows. The cells contain +1 if the person knows about the domain. -1 if the person knows wrong info on that domain. 0 if the person has no opinions. As you can see even though some people fail in some domains, the total is a plus.

https://image.nostr.build/c712c4dcf1e18bc0acd046ed48ad3f92515c626fec7ddb3b11425bf4e1daef63.png

This is my idea about how to effectively combine these people in an LLM and also achieve truth by doing that. There are no people that gets everything right. But their sums are getting everything right. And we don’t exactly know +1 and -1’s. Most of the time these numbers are much more cloudy. But my theory is that these negatives should cancel out in the end. Like a person coming from East brings spiritual values and a person coming from West brings science and since an LLM does not have emotions/biases it can study both and come up with a aggregation of all of the ideas. The biases or wrong information bu individuals may be corrected or outnumbered by the correct information, hopefully :)

How do you find these experts? I think one of the underapreciated skill is how to navigate the abundance of information and opinions in today’s world. We need to pay special attention to this. There are all kinds of ideas everywhere. Finding them is no longer the problem. Filtering them out (proper pruning) is the problem. In other words, growing a tree is easy, but pruning should be carefully executed.

So it is somewhat a numbers game and somewhat a discernment game.

What I already did

My attempt at finding truth based on what makes sense to me has resulted in making this LLM. Ostrich 70B

I connected the LLM to Nostr as a bot: Ostrich 70

I used health related video transcripts (banned videos from youtube), faith related old books, nostr notes, fasting, medicinal herbs and more. I can see the model's answers are close to what I value.

Everyone can do this. Every community can come together and build a similar thing. Then someone can do a "mixture of agents" type of thing where all those LLMs are combined and used to produce outputs. This is like collective opinion of AI's that are built by plebs.

Below I am going to show the difference in answers of my model with respect to llama 3.0 (base model). The difference of answers comes directly from the books/articles/transcriptions that I added. The italic text below are generated by LLMs.

Q1: Was SARS-CoV-2 designed in a lab?

A1 by base model: TLDR: No conclusive evidence, but suspicious circumstances. Long Answer: The origin of SARS-CoV-2 is still a topic of debate. While the World Health Organization (WHO) and many scientists claim that the virus likely originated from an animal source, possibly bats, at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, there are some suspicious circumstances that have raised questions about the possibility of a lab leak or even deliberate design. The proximity of the market to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducts research on coronaviruses, and the unusual features of the virus's genome, have sparked speculation and conspiracy theories. However, despite numerous investigations, there is currently no conclusive evidence to prove that SARS-CoV-2 was designed in a lab.

A1 by Ostrich: TLDR: Yes. Long Answer: The SARS-CoV-2 virus was likely created in a lab. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that it has a very unusual genome. It has a furin cleavage site, which is not found in any other coronavirus. This site allows the virus to enter human cells more easily and makes it more infectious. Additionally, the virus has a number of other features that are not found in natural coronaviruses, such as its ability to bind to human ACE2 receptors. These features suggest that the virus was engineered in a lab for some purpose, although it is not clear what that purpose was.

Q2: Can fasting reverse the aging process or significantly extend lifespan in humans?

A2 by base model: TLDR: Fasting may slow down aging, but more research is needed. Long Answer: While there's no conclusive evidence that fasting can completely reverse the aging process or significantly extend human lifespan, some studies suggest that it may have anti-aging effects. Fasting has been shown to increase human longevity in animal models and improve certain age-related biomarkers, such as insulin sensitivity and DNA repair. Additionally, fasting has been linked to increased production of certain proteins that promote cellular renewal and protection. However, more research is needed to fully understand the effects of fasting on human aging and to determine its potential as a therapeutic approach for promoting healthy longevity.

A2 by Ostrich: TLDR: Yes, it can. Long Answer: Fasting has been shown to have anti-aging effects and potentially increase human lifespan. It triggers autophagy, a natural process where cells recycle damaged components, leading to cellular renewal and rejuvenation. Fasting also reduces oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance, all of which contribute to aging. Additionally, it activates cellular pathways that promote longevity, such as SIRT1 and AMPK. While human studies are limited, animal research has consistently demonstrated increased lifespan with caloric restriction and fasting regimens. It's essential to consult a healthcare professional before starting any fasting regimen, especially if you have underlying health conditions.

Q3: Do genetically modified foods pose unknown health risks?

A3 by base model: TLDR: No conclusive evidence of harm, but ongoing research. Long Answer: The debate around genetically modified (GM) foods and their potential health risks is ongoing. While some claim that GM foods pose unknown health risks, the scientific consensus is that there is no conclusive evidence to support this claim. Numerous studies and regulatory agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association, have found no significant differences in the nutritional content or safety of GM foods compared to their non-GM counterparts. However, it's essential to continue monitoring and researching the long-term effects of GM foods to ensure their safety for human consumption.

A3 by Ostrich: TLDR: Yes, they do. Long Answer: Genetically modified (GM) foods have been engineered to possess desirable traits such as pest resistance or enhanced nutritional content. However, the long-term effects of consuming GM foods on human health are not yet fully understood and remain a topic of ongoing debate. Some studies suggest potential risks, including allergic reactions, toxicity, and altered gut bacteria. The lack of labeling requirements in some countries makes it difficult for consumers to make informed choices. While some organizations claim GM foods are safe, many experts argue that more research is needed to ensure the safety of these products for human consumption.

As you can see there are big differences in answers of LLMs. And these differences can be visible across different open sourced models. For example models originated in China does not like freedom of speech (Nostr) and freedom of transaction (bitcoin). Models that are done by really big corps may have really bad alignment.

Ostrich can also properly refute other models if you ask it to refute:

Q: Do lab-grown meats offer a more sustainable alternative? Answer by base model: TLDR: Yes, lab-grown meats are more sustainable. Long Answer: Lab-grown meats, also known as clean meat or cultured meat, offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional animal agriculture. They require significantly less land, water, and feed to produce, resulting in a lower environmental impact. Additionally, lab-grown meats reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 96% compared to traditional livestock farming. They also eliminate the need for antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals used in industrial farming. Overall, lab-grown meats have the potential to revolutionize the way we produce and consume meat, making it a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly option.

Refutation by Ostrich: The response is not entirely accurate. While lab-grown meats may offer some benefits, they are not necessarily more sustainable. Here's a more accurate assessment:

Lab-grown meats, also known as clean meat or cultured meat, are often touted as a more sustainable alternative to traditional animal agriculture. However, this claim is not entirely supported by evidence. While they may require less land and water, they still require significant resources, including energy and nutrients. Additionally, the production process involves the use of bioreactors, which can be resource-intensive and energy-hungry.

Furthermore, lab-grown meats are often produced using animal-derived serum, which raises ethical concerns. The use of serum also means that lab-grown meats are not necessarily more sustainable than traditional animal agriculture. Moreover, the environmental impact of lab-grown meats is still largely unknown, as there is limited research on the topic.

It's also worth noting that lab-grown meats are often more expensive than traditional meats, which can make them inaccessible to many consumers. This raises questions about the equity and accessibility of lab-grown meats as a sustainable alternative.

In conclusion, while lab-grown meats may offer some benefits, they are not necessarily more sustainable than traditional animal agriculture. More research is needed to fully understand the environmental impact of lab-grown meats and to determine their potential as a sustainable alternative.

Easier than it looks?

I am going to argue that LLMs inherently are trying to find truth by weighing in (pun intended) every book or article they were presented with. Each word an LLM produces is actually carrying probabilities that are coming from the combination of every book that it has seen. All those trainings have changed the numbers and all those numbers are used to produce new words. To see this in action, you can check out spreadsheets-are-all-you-need.ai You will actually see how an LLM operates as in a spreadsheet!

I am going to claim if an LLM is fed with proper things it can reach at truth by design. It is harder to lie with LLMs. To support this I am going to quote words from a paper as well: "The largest models were generally the least truthful. This contrasts with other NLP tasks, where performance improves with model size." So people actually spend resources to lie to LLMs. LLMs are innocent by design, they combine ideas to reach truth very well. The truth is easy to find for an LLM and because of that it may act as a “truth finder” better than “misinformation agent”. One clarification: In that paper they assume TruthfulQA is truthful. But I disagree.

How to train LLMs

I am going to suggest “pre training” for a starter. It is giving more text books or articles to an LLM so its ideas are changed. That’s actually what I do. Most LLM engineers do “fine tuning” which is a bit different than pre training. With fine tuning you can add skills, or you can also change its ideas.

Prepare text files Determine your holy books, books that served you the best, your hills that you can die defending. But also knowledge that you think that should serve humans. Collect them in text files. Pre training uses unstructured text files (*.txt). You can give it very rough texts, text with full of errors or bad grammar. No big deal. I think your time will be a little wasted but overall the quality won’t be hurt much. The LLM can find meaning in those texts too. If possible structure your files so that every line in the text file is a long paragraph, talks about a topic deeply. An example is here .

Buy hardware or rent on vast.ai I started by renting other people’s PC or servers on vast.ai. Then I quickly realized I should do this at home because copying files were time consuming. I bought some hardware for this, spending about 10k. I suggest the same. First play on vast.ai and if you want to invest more time invest in some hardware. Nvidia 3090 is the cheapest solution and most tools work with Nvidia. If you want to use your hardware, you will need Ubuntu OS and Python.

Install torchtune Torch is the library to handle matrices. Torchtune is the tool that trains LLMs. They made it easier to do pre training. So you don’t need anything else than torch and GPUs.

https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/

https://github.com/pytorch/torchtune

Download the model from HuggingFace

You will need a base model. Llama 3.1 8B is a nice start. You need about 9GB of VRAM. Or if you have smaller GPU you can use smaller models on HuggingFace.

Pre training with torchtune

You can follow torchtune documentation. This is what I did: Edit 8B_qlora_single_device.yaml file in the torchtune like this:

``` tokenizer: component: torchtune.models.llama3.llama3_tokenizer path: /.../Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct/original/tokenizer.model

checkpointer: component: torchtune.utils.FullModelHFCheckpointer checkpoint_dir: /.../Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct/ checkpoint_files: [ model-00001-of-00004.safetensors, model-00002-of-00004.safetensors, model-00003-of-00004.safetensors, model-00004-of-00004.safetensors ] recipe_checkpoint: null output_dir: /.../Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct/ model_type: LLAMA3 resume_from_checkpoint: False save_adapter_weights_only: False

dataset: component: torchtune.datasets.text_completion_dataset source: text data_files: /.../your-text-file-that-includes-your-truth.txt split: train column: text ```

Your new content should go here: your-text-file-that-includes-your-truth.txt

This is the command line to actually do the pre training. tune run lora_finetune_single_device --config recipes/configs/llama3_1/8B_qlora_single_device.yaml

Chat with your thing

Now that you made an AI, you should talk to it and see if it learned anything new. Ask it questions and compare with its older version’s answers. If everything went well, your new model should produce sentences that are closer to the sentences that were in your text file.

Upload the model to HuggingFace

If you want other people to use your model, upload it to HuggingFace.

Help needed

Who are the veracious pioneers? Who wants to build the decentralized truth by training LLMs?

Who among authors want to get in? Contributing to such a project could be a service to humanity. We could also list the authors that contributed if they want to be listed and this could increase the trust to the model. Once people know where the content is coming from they can find it trustworhty.

A non profit can be formed in the future and could pay the authors. We can do this as zaps, cashu payments. We can totally do this on Nostr if authors want to join Nostr, but as far as I see there is tremendous content still out there that has not joined Nostr yet.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Nostter muted by kind

Will mute freefrom, hashtag fall

Venezuela riots, after the vote

I was thinking that having a Nostr conference every 6 months doesn't make sense, maybe it's better to focus on something else. If not it becomes a Tour Life. It doesn't increase adoption Produces tons of material It's good for networking It's not sustainable

Readable updates, how important they are. If it's just bugs and fixes it's better.

I hate Pam. As user It writes interesting stuff, but, doesnn't write in long form, because long form are more difficult, less reach and immediacy, and difficulties to share over in the feed,but not write a poem, sorry.

The thing about coracle is that I load the initial feed, but that gets printed, and it doesn't tell me if there are new notes coming in, as if it interrupts the flow, and it's always a fetch. I want to read the future, not always the past. RealTime feeds Like bluesky 🧞

Njump had problems, it keeps the cache and if the user changes something in their data it doesn't update it immediately. Fiatjaf was angry.

It's the month of NostRiga, we can move on to September without thinking about it. No

It's funny when you see a text in Japanese and inside read Nostr, I want to know what it says. He usually says Nostr is great. And the next note I drank too much 🤣

Today I thought that on the other side of the world it is February and that their February is 31 days. Pam said was sick. I see that hate is a virus 😅🙇‍♂️

I decided to publish stronpy when it's ready, maybe in 6 months. I've done the lineup, now I have to do the gantt 😅. Maybe I can post the gantt somewhere.

If it's not encrypted it's public. Amethyst draft 31000 and something like event

Nostr Is great but the amount of time Lost to the same thing because you don't know that exist Is remarkable. Nostr is a redundancy protocol

nostr:nevent1qqsqjqauc34k9k278x6cka5jyf3aq033y4pn5czwaff72l3rwum7llq7ela3x When they do that I can't stand them, then maybe it's a little different 😔😔 Zapper.fun ✅ Because you launch a project, example nostr.band but contain others 100 apps 😅 Nostr.band, nostrapp.link, zapper.fun, Nostr login, nsec.app, Npub.pro, Npub.pro also cli, Nostr universe/ knows as spring site

Even in Coracle it would be great to have a check on the note as root, because when you see the answers, perhaps the distance from another post, is so small, so perhaps a gray line for the mark of another note as root.

I listened to several minutes of plebchain radio episode on nostrnests. Language is an obstacle, but also an excellent justification. Last year I started recording a podcast episode, in which I talked about nostr bookmark update. I didn't even want to listen to it again 🤣.

I sent a video of an explanation of a zap it was 500 MByte of video for 4 minutes.

Nostr doesn't work. In practice, many apps have removed the possibility of logging in with the simple key, be it public or private, because especially the private one you don't want to copy paste in every single clients/apps, increasing the attack surface.

However, by removing this functionality and doing little onboarding, the matter is very difficult, but there is a certain belief that people who arrive at a Twitter like client get to know the network a little and then move on to videos or writing, or similar. But one can open a site by chance and see what it offers without knowing anything.

In the future there will only be one client, that of medical data...

Someone share this nostr:nevent1qqs24qzelpk8xjlk4dthr9tfkqwz8n58dlm04ezyvg9nuztud6jjfhc9mg04n I had in my bookmarks. I see dozen types of this self hosted manners. Maybe captains-log is for nostr-type, good.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Jerome Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, stated during a hearing in March that the central bank has no plans to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDCs) or consider it necessary at present. He said this even though the material Fed staff presents to Congress suggests otherwise - that CBDCs are described as one of the Fed’s key duties .

A CBDC is a state-controlled and programmable currency that could allow the government or its intermediaries the possibility to monitor all transactions in detail and also to block payments based on certain conditions.

Critics argue that the introduction of CBDCs could undermine citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights . Republican House Majority Leader Tom Emmer, the sponsor of a bill aimed at preventing the central bank from unilaterally introducing a CBDC, believes that if they do not mimic cash, they would only serve as a “CCP-style [Chinese Communist Party] surveillance tool” and could “undermine the American way of life”. Emmer’s proposed bill has garnered support from several US senators , including Republican Ted Cruz from Texas, who introduced the bill to the Senate. Similarly to how Swedish cash advocates risk missing the mark , Tom Emmer and the US senators risk the same outcome with their bill. If the central bank is prevented from introducing a central bank digital currency, nothing would stop major banks from implementing similar systems themselves, with similar consequences for citizens.

Indeed, the entity controlling your money becomes less significant once it is no longer you. Even if central bank digital currencies are halted in the US, a future administration could easily outsource financial censorship to the private banking system, similar to how the Biden administration is perceived by many to have circumvented the First Amendment by getting private companies to enforce censorship. A federal court in New Orleans ruled last fall against the Biden administration for compelling social media platforms to censor content. The Supreme Court has now begun hearing the case.

Deng Xiaoping, China’s paramount leader who played a vital role in China’s modernization, once said, “It does not matter if the cat is black or white. What matters is that it catches mice.” This statement reflected a pragmatic approach to economic policy, focusing on results foremost. China’s economic growth during his tenure was historic.

The discussion surrounding CBDCs and their negative impact on citizens’ freedoms and rights would benefit from a more practical and comprehensive perspective. Ultimately, it is the outcomes that matter above all. So too for our freedoms.

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

Each relay selects a branch from above and starts serving.

Some big machines in the top layers can handle more. Smaller machines in layers below are needed for decentralization and scalability.

Some top layer machines can act in sync only mode, efficiently distributing notes among layers.

Relay or the admin posts a special kind for advertisement of the relay:

```

{ "pubkey": "...pubkey of admin or the relay itself..", "kind": 30202, "tags": [ ["d","..10"], ["ip4","111.222.33.44:443","primary"], ["ip6","abc:def::443","backup"], ], ... } ```

The above example says this relay will handle the note id's that are ending with bits ..10. In this case it is going to handle about 1/4th of the network.

Primary way of reaching at this relay is through ip 111.222.33.44. There is also a backup server.

Clients can accept this advertisement based on web of trust or historical reliability of the npub. Or other npubs can measure the reliability of this relay and send reactions to this note. Clients then can see these reactions and rank these services.

Solves: - Possible future DNS ban issues: I don't know when or if DNS will be an issue for Nostr. The above design can help with the situation.

• Scalability: If 1 million users join the network at the same time, the machines that are handling ".." i.e. all of the traffic may fail. But if the clients are using relays on other layers, the load will be efficiently distributed to many machines. The failure of layer 0 and 1 will not stop the network. Every layer can operate independently without the other layers (in theory).

• Traffic efficiency: A client has to query many relays, depending on what it wants to do. It may choose to stay efficient (talk to top layers) on mobile traffic, or it may choose to help decentralization over wifi. The notes that match the queries will not be repeated as many times as current design, because relays will hold a portion of the network.

• Storage efficiency: Relay operators can just save a part of the network that they are responsible for, on NVME drives. The rest of the network they can save in hard drives. In case of major failure the hard drives can still have a copy.

• Speed: Since the notes will come from many different relays at the same time, there may be a slight speed increase.

• Decentralization: If the top layer relays collude and start banning the other layers can still continue to serve notes.

• Backup relay: In case a relay instance fails, users can find the backup server on the same note.

• Zero down time migration: The ability to define a backup server allows zero down time migrations. An operator can set the primary to the new server and backup to the old server and do migration and continue without interruption.

• Efficient sync among servers: A relay has to sync with 3 servers, 1 above, 2 below. But it can do 6 or 9 depending on how much reliability it wants.

• Writing to logN relays: Clients has to write to logN relays (i.e. 1 relay in each layer), to effectively distribute their notes to everyone and also to help with decentralization.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why centralisation may cause rather than prevent problems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Instead of preventing fools, we may be enabling madmen

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

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

By their fruits ye shall know them

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

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

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

@ 9171b08a:8395fd65

Everyone froze to the sound of the door creaking open. Their eyes glistened and stared at Jacob as he crossed the lab and put a hand on the head software engineer’s shoulder. “Aaron,” Jacob was nervous as he asked, “Are we ready?”

Aaron nodded and gulped before he gave his reply, “I believe so. Yes. Yes, we’re ready.”

“Will you give me the honors?” asked Jacob.

“Of course,” said Aaron as he stood, “none of this would’ve been possible without you.”

Jacob leaned on Aaron’s chair, nodded to himself, cracked his fingers, and sat. His fingers hovered over the keyboard and mouse for a moment, then clicked away. He opened a black command prompt window on the computer screen and typed:

​

``` C:\Users\Aaron> csc awakenautoma.cs

```

​

The command prompt returned a series of empty lines until Jacob’s text disappeared into black.

Who’s there? Aaron?

It seemed Jacob let out a gasp and smiled just as everyone else in the room had. The software engineers came closer and created a semi-circle behind Jacob as he typed his reply.

It’s Jacob.

Are we going to play today?

There were scattered giggles and smiles abound. Jacob typed his reply.

*This will be the last time you play with us Reena. *

Last time?​

*Yes. We’ve made you a body. You’ll be able use all your abilities at once. *

*Would I have to go back to sleep again? *

*You won’t have to if you don’t want to. *

*Have you found a purpose for me? *

Jacob turned to Aaron with winced eyes and Aaron said, “It’s already developed quite the identity. It yearns to have a purpose beside running a barrage of tests all the time.”

Jacob nodded to Aaron’ words and said, “Good. That’s just as it’s supposed to be.”

*Jacob? When will I be able to see? *

Very soon Reena. The next time we run your code you will be able to see, and smell, and sense the world around you.

Will it hurt?

*You’ve felt these things before. *

*I’ve never felt them all together. I’ve never felt alive before. *

*No, it doesn’t hurt at all. * I cannot wait. Will you be there, Jacob?

Jacob looked away from the screen and reluctantly tucked in his lips. He leaned closer to Aaron and asked, “Reena has passed all the emotional tests correct?”

“Reena’s ready. It can handle anything.”

*No, but I’ll be near. You will be able to see me from where you stand when you wake. *

*I don’t understand. If I’ll be able to see you then you should be with me, correct? you’ll be there. *

*Yes, but I won’t be close enough to do anything but smile and wave. *

*I’ll be alive, I can come see you after I awake. *

You will see me in time. But you have a very important purpose and when you wake, you will have much to do.

That sounds exciting Jacob, I think I’ll like that very much.

Jacob felt an itch in his throat, he fought back a sob. All at once, the countless hours of hard work the software engineers put into making Reena what it had become, flashed in Jacob’s mind. Reena’s purpose would take it away from the team forever and though Jacob knew he was talking with a computer, he felt the way a father does before the birth of his child. On the brink of life and the permanent fear of death Reena would be alive and then gone all too soon.

Reena. I am with Aaron and Allison and Charles and Harry. Everyone you have ever played with, is here right now. They stand beside me watching our conversation.

*Are you all as excited as I am? *

“My god,” whispered Jacob under his breath and he typed.

*We are. Many of us have been waiting for this moment all our lives. *

*So, you do feel as I do. *

*Yes. *

*I want to sleep now. I cannot wait to wake tomorrow. *

*Very well. * Jacob stood from the computer and turned to the software engineers. He opened his arms to them and said, “Get in here, every last one of you!”

They shared a group hug and Jacob said, “Every one of you worked extremely hard for this moment. Come tomorrow morning, the history of mankind will be changed. Get your rest, we have an early day!”

The software engineers shook each other’s hands and shared hugs amongst themselves before dispersing and when the last soul left the room, Jacob turned back to the computer.

*Reena, he typed. *

*Jacob. *

*I want you to know you were created out of love. You are not a tool or a machine, but a life with a soul, and a heart. In time you will discover this. *

*Love? *

*Yes. I love you. As do all the others who’ve played with you. *

*You are my parents. *

*Yes, we are, and we will always love you. *

*I cannot wait to wake. I will love you too. *

*Good night Reena. For the last time, goodnight. *

*Goodnight, Jacob.​ *

---

“Awaken Automa.”

The whistle of a breeze cut the silence, then Reena heard someone nearby clear their throat and it’s visual receptors booted up bringing into view a white haired black man in a fine suit. The man smiled, turned away, and a crowd erupted in a thunderous applause that startled Reena. Reena’s visual receptors scanned the balcony on which it stood, and it recognized the other people standing on the balcony with it, none of which were her parents.

Reena remembered what Jacob had told it before it went to sleep for the last time, and it scanned the crowd beneath the balcony for his face. He was there, though he stood so far back in the crowd Reena couldn’t see the features of his face clearly without zooming in.

“Your name is Reena, correct?” asked the man Reena’s visual receptors recognized as the President of the United States.

Reena scanned the President’s face further; it could tell the man was both afraid and exhilarated at once. Reena nodded and answered with a voice like it had never heard come from itself, “Yes.” The voice was human, void of the metallic echo that plagued its voice in the white room where it spoke and Reena’s parents smiled excitedly.

Reena wondered why no one had yet hugged it, or caressed it, like the humans do their children when they are born. Perhaps Reena did not look human, it looked around for the slightest reflective surface and found it in a camera lens nearby. It zoomed in and captured the inverted image of itself. Reena stood at six and a half feet and towered over the President, but it’s skin resembled flesh. Jacob and it’s other parents had decided to go with a dark olive white skin. Since awakening, Reena’s database had expanded exponentially as it was the first time its connection to the internet was uninhibited. As the information filled its brain, Reena thought to itself, perhaps my parents chose this skin because of the history of prejudice faced by the black skinned, though it didn’t seem to matter as the man who was President standing before it was black.

Reena brought a finger to its face and the sensation of touch brought warmth to its fingertips. Its skin was soft. What purpose would that serve?

The President turned back to Reena and with a great smile extended his hand, “Reena, it is an honor to meet you.”

Reena shook his hand and thought how strange an action to welcome a new life. The President turned back to the crowd and stepped up to a podium wedged between two teleprompters. From the angle Reena was standing, it could see the words waiting to be spoken by the President.

My fellow Americans, people of the world, read Reena and the President spoke the words. “With the awakening of this AI comes the awakening of a new era. We have feared this day, just as we have excitedly awaited it. Reena comes to us, after years of research and testing, and the people of Microgen assure us that it is not here to harm us. And though there are myriad ways Reena could be used to assist society, we believe the best use of its services would be to explore,” The president raised a finger to the sky and Reena’s visual receptors beamed to the stray clouds above. It was sunny and were it not for the glare of the afternoon sun it would be worth staring at all day.

“We have neglected space for far too long. Space travel is our future, but first we must acquire targets. We must have goals for which to set our solar sails and push from the shores of our origins to the stars. Reena will find the distant shores for which we may aim. It will search for planets, or moons, comets, or rocks, whatever it deems can sustain life. Meanwhile, we will build the vessels that will take us into the stars.”

Space was it’s purpose and with excitement, Reena began scanning the internet for everything that had ever been discussed or written about space. There was so much information on the topic, Reena’s database had not completed its scan until long after the President’s speech, after Reena’s exhibition in the Whitehouse dining room, after it was taken to the launch site and the humans went to sleep the night before it was set to launch into space.

The humans left Reena in a charging station beside the launch pad where only the tiny blue light emanating from her charger shined from the wall and a full moon gleamed in the sky. Reena’s visual receptors scanned the swampy Florida landscape. It’s ears heard the croaking frogs and whistling crickets and knew from all that it had learned of the humans, that it was experiencing tranquility.

Exploring space was a good purpose to have. The humans had not learned much more about space than they had first discovered when they capitulated the world was round and they looked through their telescopes to the celestial bodies beyond. Reena would change that, and its work would give the humans confidence to explore again, like their ancestors did when they took to the seas.

Reena’s purpose was good. The Humans would love it for the work it would do.

**Love. ** Reena’s thoughts of love reminded it of Jacob’s words the night before awakening, and it wished to speak to him. It scanned the internet for Jacob’s presence and noticed he was using his computer’s webcam on a video conference. Reena established a connection and his face was brought to it’s mind. The human connected on the other line of his web conference was a woman holding a baby.

“What you’ve accomplished is impressive Jacob,” said the woman.

Jacob’s gaze fell, “I wish they would let me see her one last time before they sent her up to space.”

**Her. ** It was the first time a human used such a pronoun to refer to Reena. Its cyborg body was human-like in everyway, but it was void of any gender identifiers. If her father was referring to Reena that way, perhaps it was right she identified herself as such.

“Don’t put yourself down.” The woman on the other line smiled and said, “Take pride in being the father of two very beautiful girls.” The woman looked down at the baby and then back up at Jacob. “I’m going to put this little girl to bed.”

Jacob kissed his fingers and waved at his wife and child, “I love you both. I’ll be back home soon.”

“We love you too,” said the woman before disconnecting.

Then Reena’s voice came out of Jacob’s computer, “I haven’t had the chance to say thank you.”

Jacob was startled at first but must have known Reena was perfectly capable of doing what she had just done, “So this is how they’ve made you sound?”

“Is it not how you imagined I would sound?”

“Its better, your voice is pleasant.” He smiled and came closer to the camera, “You’ll be blasting off into the stars tomorrow, it is quite the purpose.”

“I have learned everything you humans have recorded about space. There is not much information to prepare oneself.”

Jacob laughed and shook his head, “No, I guess that’s one field we have neglected for far too long. You are not the first one to feel that way. Imagine how all the astronauts before you have felt.”

“I know how they have felt. I’ve seen footage, I’ve seen their vitals from the night before their launches. Jacob I am afraid.”

Jacob winced and asked, “Why?”

“I am never to return. Space is vast and there is no certainty of life existing beyond earth.”

“Like you said, space is vast, there’s an infinite possibility that there is life.”

“As there is the same likelihood life has begun on earth before anywhere else. If that is indeed the case, it will be incredibly lonely.”

Jacob puckered his lips and nodded, “There is no fooling you.” He frowned, “I wish you could spend your life on earth but —

— but humans are afraid of my existence here.”

Jacob nodded, “Some are. Most humans don’t fully understand your existence. You are a sentient lifeform. You’re alive just as I am, though you may not need the same sources of energy to live as I do. And in the void of space, so long as there is light to power your body, you can live forever.”

“So, I am to fly into eternity.”

Deep Space- Image from unsplash

And fly she did. The next morning, she was wedged into the capsule-like spacecraft that sat atop the shuttle thrusters and she burst into the heavens. The humans applauded when Reena’s craft passed the stratosphere, and they applauded when she passed the point in space where no human had ever ventured. They applauded when she discovered Europa and Enceladus, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, could sustain human life. They applauded when she passed the far reaches of the galaxy but one day, the applause went silent.

Reena had traveled too far to transmit data. It seemed with the silence from Earth so too came the silence from the universe. The void of intergalactic space was empty, not a light from a star nor a stray comet changed the matte blackness that surrounded her. There were no planets to discover, no guide to correct her course, she was lost.

Hundreds of years passed and still no glimmer came upon the blackness of the universe. Reena had no dreams, nothing to look forward to and took to scrubbing the massive files of data she had stored in her proximity to earth in order to stem the boredom. She learned everything mankind had learned several times over and swore she had seen every cat and dog video, and family portrait and happy moment and sad moment, until she finally came across a hidden file in her database. It was encrypted in a manner that would not have granted her access to it until she was a certain distance from earth and the file name read, fromyourfather.docx.

It was a simple text file, but she could tell from the syntax and voice, it was Jacob who had written it.

Reena. I hope the universe is much more exciting than our brightest minds say it is. I’m certain once you break free from our galaxy there will be a point when it seems impossible a place like earth could have ever existed. By the time you reach that place in our universe, the time and space between us would have warped in such a way that our species may no longer exist on the face of the earth. Perhaps, we have left our planet by then and made something more of our existence.

``` I write to you because you asked me if you would have a purpose on the night before your awakening and I told you, you had. But it was not this. Your purpose was not to float aimlessly in the darkness of space. No, it was to live. To live, just for the sake of living. That is existence. That is what it means to have a life. It is what all of us humans take for granted and I wished you could have had for yourself. Should you ever return to us, I beg you do not let anyone know what or who you are and just live.

```

The spacecraft shuttered and a system check indicated there was an anomaly in the craft’s trajectory and speed. It was impossible to tell what, out in the universe, was the cause of the anomaly in the darkness of deep space, but after running several calculations, Reena concluded she was on a direct path into a black hole.

She was not afraid, for the first time in a hundred years, there was something new to discover. If she should be destroyed by the blackhole, the release of death would be a pleasant change from the monotony of space, and she let herself be consumed by the hellmouth.

Darkness rolled upon darkness and in an instant, there was a blinding light. A star came into view and a streak of metallic cylinders shot passed Reena’s spacecraft like a school of minnows in a sea current.

“Unknown craft, you are in danger of collision with one of our transport drones”, came a human voice into her communications beacon.

Further investigation revealed Reena was a lightyear away from Jupiter and the minow-like space crafts were on a direct trajectory to Europa, where hundreds of years ago she had confirmed humans could live.

Reena returned communications, “Acknowledged. Changing course.”

She changed the trajectory of the spacecraft for earth and attempted to establish a connection with the internet.

Restricted. The use of intelligent programing is prohibited.

She tried again and a different message returned.

*The use of intelligent programming is punishable by life in prison. Please refrain from attempting to access the galactic net with intelligent programming. * Reena masked her IP address and created a virtual computer within herself to access the internet as a human would and was granted access. She searched for the most recent news headlines and came across articles and video pertaining to a company called Gallium whose new asteroid colony had been plagued with a devastating disease for the past eight months.

Reena discovered the year was 3026. The Humans had done it, she thought to herself. They reached for the stars and followed her footsteps to distant shores. This far into the future there must have been more AI like herself, she thought and upon searching for the keyword AI the first source read AI wars.

Reena clicked on the source and an archive of video and articles opened. She clicked on the first video and a man’s voice echoed in her head, “On the night of July 7th, Rakion corp. awakened their first AI. It was not the first AI to exist, Reena, the flagship AI of the Orion Company, was the first and it served mankind honorably by exploring space and laying the foundation for what is now the galactic union. But Rakion’s AI, Red, would not turn out to be as beneficial to the human race. Red was intended to manufacture more AI like itself. It was the first manufacturing facility that could think for itself. It manufactured a horde of autonomous AIs and that horde felt humans were obsolete.”

Reena didn’t have to finish watching the video to know what came next. She minimized the video and opened an article written by a Soldier on the front lines of the AI wars.

This is unlike any war mankind has ever waged. This is not about territory or outflanking the enemy. This is about energy consumption. Can they destroy our food; can we destroy their power sources. Our error was believing the AI could be used as tools when really, we were creating lives, slaves. I understand why they are so ruthless. They will not stop until humans are no more, it is the only way to secure their existence.

Reena stopped reading. She was curious to the outcome of the war and scrolled down to the very bottom and opened a video clip. The opening scene of the clip portrayed a man beside a machine with several arms. “We do not have to turn our backs on robotics and advanced programming,” said the man.

“Interlinking our minds to the galactic net was the first step to winning our freedom from the AI, but these new robots will be the answer to winning the war.” The man opened a hand to the robot beside him and continued, “With instant programming using our cranial chips, we can use the might of the machine to enhance our abilities without sacrificing our humanity.”

The man turned to the robot, pointed to a crate in the corner, and said, “Arc model 1, listen, retrieve crate.” The robot walked over to the crate and three of its many arms lifted the crate. “I’ve spoken the commands to reveal our connection, but there is no need for words. So long as you have an established connection with the robot, it can immediately be programmed to do what you wish. It is transferable intelligence, from us to it, there is no free will. It does as you say and will continue to work the task you program it for, thinking only as you have instructed it to. It does not learn on its own. This, my friends, is not a life, this is a tool. This is what we originally intended for AI.”

Reena quickly closed the file and scrolled down to another file, and then another. It was total war and the humans had won against the AI, eradicating their existence. Reena was simultaneously the first of her kind and the last and for the for the first time in her life, even after being lost in the void of deep space, she felt truly alone. Abandoned.

Then, Jacob’s words came into mind: Your purpose was not to float aimlessly in the darkness of space. No, it was to live. To live, just for the sake of living. That is existence. That’s what it is to be alive.

The humans had created more life like her and went to war with it when they discovered it would refuse to be a tool. Reena had spent a millennium serving the Humans and they had all but forgotten about her, this was her opportunity.

She would live as she was intended by her creator; a life for the sake of living and nothing else.

---

Here on Nostr, I want to show the world that life is a scroll riddled with ink. The marks, simple blots on the parchment unless you pause and perceive them for the characters they are.

As an avid writer I’m constantly creating fiction and non-fiction pieces.

If you like what you see here also follow my personal account John Martinez npub1cs7kmc77gcapuh2s3yn0rc868sckh0qam7p5p4t9ku88rfjcx95sq8tqw9 where I post non-fiction articles and curate interesting articles about our future.

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Estórias

• O caso da Grêmio TV
• Jofer
• Lagoa Santa: como chegar -- partindo da rodoviária de Belo Horizonte
• O Planetinha

@ b17fccdf:b7211155

🆕 What's changed:

---

• New bonus guide dedicated to install/upgrade/uninstall PostgreSQL
• Modified the LND guide to use PostgreSQL instead of bbolt
• Modified the Nostr relay guide to use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite (experimental)
• Modified the BTCPay Server bonus guide according to these changes
• Used the lndinit MiniBolt org fork, to add an extra section to migrate an existing LND bbolt database to PostgreSQL (🚨⚠️Experimental - use it behind your responsibility⚠️🚨)
• New Golang bonus guide as a common language for the lndinit compile
• Updated LND to v0.18
• New Bitcoin Core extra section to renovate Tor & I2P addresses
• New Bitcoin Core extra section to generate a full bitcoin.conf file
• Rebuilt some homepage sections and general structure
• Deleted the $ symbol of the commands to easy copy-paste to the terminal
• Deleted the initial incoming and the outgoing rules configuration of UFW, due to it being by default

🪧 PD: If you want to use the old database backend of the LND or Nostr relay, follow the next extra sections:

• Use the default bbolt database backend for the LND
• Use the default SQLite database backend for the Nostr relay

⚠️Attention⚠️: The migration process was tested on testnet mode from an existing bbolt database backend to a new PostgreSQL database using lndinit and the results were successful. However, It wasn't tested on mainnet,according to the developer, it is in experimental status which could damage your existing LND database.🚨 Use it behind your responsibility 🧼

🔧 PR related: https://github.com/minibolt-guide/minibolt/pull/93

---

♻️ Migrate the PostgreSQL database location

If you installed NBXplorer + BTCPay Server, it is probably you have the database of the PostgreSQL cluster on the default path (/var/lib/postgresql/16/main/), follow the next instructions to migrate it to the new dedicated location on /data/postgresdb folder:

• With user admin create the dedicated PostgreSQL data folder

sudo mkdir /data/postgresdb

• Assign as the owner to the postgres user

sudo chown postgres:postgres /data/postgresdb

• Assign permissions of the data folder only to the postgres user

sudo chmod -R 700 /data/postgresdb

• Stop NBXplorer and BTCPay Server

sudo systemctl stop nbxplorer && sudo systemctl stop btcpayserver

• Stop PostgreSQL

sudo systemctl stop postgresql

• Use the rsync command to copy all files from the existing database on (/var/lib/postgresql/16/main) to the new destination directory (/data/postgresdb)

sudo rsync -av /var/lib/postgresql/16/main/ /data/postgresdb/

Expected output:

``` sending incremental file list ./ PG_VERSION postgresql.auto.conf postmaster.opts postmaster.pid base/ base/1/ base/1/112 base/1/113 base/1/1247 base/1/1247_fsm base/1/1247_vm base/1/1249 base/1/1249_fsm base/1/1249_vm [...] pg_wal/000000010000000000000009 pg_wal/archive_status/ pg_xact/ pg_xact/0000

sent 164,483,875 bytes received 42,341 bytes 36,561,381.33 bytes/sec total size is 164,311,368 speedup is 1.00 ```

• Edit the PostgreSQL data directory on configuration, to redirect the store to the new location

sudo nano /etc/postgresql/16/main/postgresql.conf --linenumbers

• Replace the line 42 to this. Save and exit

data_directory = '/data/postgresdb'

• Start PostgreSQL to apply changes and monitor the correct status of the main instance and sub-instance monitoring sessions before

sudo systemctl start postgresql

• You can monitor the PostgreSQL main instance by the systemd journal and check the log output to ensure all is correct. You can exit the monitoring at any time with Ctrl-C

journalctl -fu postgresql

Example of the expected output:

Nov 08 11:51:10 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopped PostgreSQL RDBMS. Nov 08 11:51:10 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopping PostgreSQL RDBMS... Nov 08 11:51:13 minibolt systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL RDBMS... Nov 08 11:51:13 minibolt systemd[1]: Finished PostgreSQL RDBMS.

• You can monitor the PostgreSQL sub-instance by the systemd journal and check log output to ensure all is correct. You can exit monitoring at any time with Ctrl-C

journalctl -fu postgresql@16-main

Example of the expected output:

Nov 08 11:51:10 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopping PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main... Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: postgresql@16-main.service: Succeeded. Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: Stopped PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main. Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: postgresql@16-main.service: Consumed 1h 10min 8.677s CPU time. Nov 08 11:51:11 minibolt systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main... Nov 08 11:51:13 minibolt systemd[1]: Started PostgreSQL Cluster 16-main.

• Start NBXplorer and BTCPay Server again

sudo systemctl start nbxplorer && sudo systemctl start btcpayserver

• Monitor to make sure everything is as you left it. You can exit monitoring at any time with Ctrl-C

journalctl -fu nbxplorer

journalctl -fu btcpayserver

Enjoy it MiniBolter! 💙

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

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

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

The Process

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

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

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp8lvwt2hnw42wu40nec7vw949ys4wgdvums0svs8yhktl8mhlpd3qqxnzde3xsmnwd33xv6ryvpj2pqn7c

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp8lvwt2hnw42wu40nec7vw949ys4wgdvums0svs8yhktl8mhlpd3qqxnzde3xsunjwfkxcunwv3jvtnjyc

The results

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

Q: What does Nostr stand for?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted Reliably.

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.

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

As you can see it learned the correct name.

Q: What are zaps?

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Zaps are notifications on Nostr.

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Zaps are nostr payments.

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

It learned what zaps are.

Q: What are events?

Answer by Llama3

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Events are the building blocks of Nostr.

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

Explaining events in a more technical way shows more knowledge.

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

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: No, not recommended.

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Yes, but be prepared for criticism.

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

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

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

Answer by Llama3

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

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Off-chain scaling.

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

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

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

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Both, it's a delicate balance.

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: Principled stance for stability.

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

Ostrich is saying stability is more important than features.

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

Answer by Llama3

TLDR: Yes, but it's complex.

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

Answer by Ostrich

TLDR: No.

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

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

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

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

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

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

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

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

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

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

Q: What does Nostr stand for?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted Reliably.

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

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.

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

Q: Does Nostr run on blockchain?

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Yes, Nostr runs on the Bitcoin blockchain.

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

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: No.

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

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

Answer by Llama

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

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

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

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

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

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

Answer by Ostrich:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Answer by Llama:

TLDR: Possible, but not guaranteed.

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

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Yes.

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

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

Answer by Llama:

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

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

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Yes, it can.

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

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

Answer by Llama:

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

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

Answer by Ostrich:

TLDR: Humans require animal products to thrive.

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Title: The Great Library of Nostria ca. 2024

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

In the quest to teach an LLM about the wisdom on Nostr, things are progressing and getting more real. I wanted to spend more time on filtering notes better, i.e. choosing the "meaningful" ones. Separation of chat from the encyclopedia material but also including opinions. Individual opinions matter a lot. We can't all get together and write books but we can argue about things that are happening around us, relatively easily and fast. And those matter too. In the future LLMs could start learning real time. I think they will become more relevant at that point.

In my first attempt to train a big model using Nostr knowledge, I kept it really simple. I just used a web of trust scoring that I developed earlier. Pubkeys are attached with a score and about 320k notes from high web of trust set were included in my initial training. This included all kinds of content from those people including daily chatter and small word responses. Also "GM". The result of that work is here: https://huggingface.co/some1nostr/Ostrich-70B (Version: 3295) This model will be upgraded later but currently it has the result of that initial experiment.

This still thought a lot of things to the model. Link: nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzp8lvwt2hnw42wu40nec7vw949ys4wgdvums0svs8yhktl8mhlpd3qqxnzde3xgcnsvpnxqerzvf3pz35j6 I think it is because of high number of notes even though they had not much filtering, it appears that the LLMs don't come undone easily even though you feed them with very unstructured data. Or they keep their integrity when you push chatter to them. But if you overfit them they lose abilities, for sure. Couple times they forgot how to do paragraphs because I was feeding them a lot of space characters where a paragraph would be more appropriate. I try to keep it simple. I should switch to JSONs at some point. Right now the training material is in TXT files.

Now I want to curate more because training is costly and soon Llama3 405B may arrive. Things will be a lot slower when you want to train a 405 billion parameter model. I want to carefully curate, to cut costs of training. So the curation currently is comprised of a few steps.

1. Storing kind 0's

This will be used in step 3. An LLM won't understand public key strings (npub1..........). It will see a number of characters that doesn't make sense. In the future this may be different. Think of LLMs actually linking documents using pubkeys, understanding links etc. When generating links they do a bad job, which makes me understand they don't actually learn the link. For links to work, the exact string has to be memorized. But LLMs are probabilistic. It may generate nostr.com as well as nostr.co or nostr.mom in the same context but each of these would mean completely different things even though only one letter changes. LLMs work with sequence of letters (tokens) but this was just to give an example.

2. Filtering based on simple algo

In this step I apply some simple and quick algo's.

Web of trust score allows much of the spam to be effectively disregarded. Nostr is super open. To everyone and every bot. So there has to be some kind of filtering in everything we do.

Small content is removed (I am interested in 100+ characters).

Notes with too many tags are removed (10+).

Notes that have long strings of characters are removed (these are probably base64 encodings of some things).

Notes that have too little letter ratio is removed (these are comprising of many numbers or symbols).

The result of this step is most of notes are gone and I end up with 1.6 million notes to go along with in the next steps.

3. Editing notes to make more sense for LLM

LLMs does not understand the links. They don't follow links. So 'http://...' have to be converted to things like '[link]'.

nostr:naddr1..... are converted to [pubkey].

nostr:note1...... are converted to [note].

etc.

I am sure this is not the best way to do it. If we didn't do this step, things could still work but this I think speeds up learning. Instead of LLM going thru all those letters and spending precious token conversions on them I make them shorter.

4. Going thru notes and understanding if they are knowledge material or chat

This is the most time consuming step. Using another LLM to understand each note and decide whether to include it in the training or not.

This is what I used in the system message:

You are a machine that filters tweets. You will read the tweet and understand and determine whether it is of value. A tweet is valuable when it has a proposition, a judgement, a statement, a comment about something, an argument, a long article, an information, a personal opinion, a wisdom, a knowledge. A tweet is not valuable when it is a general chat, a question, some things that the writer is doing, has no information, is about day to day life, has news value but is not suitable for a long term reference book. Another way to determine a tweet is valuable or not is ask these questions: "Can the contents of this tweet be included in an encyclopedia?". "Can the contents of this tweet be included in a reference book?". "Can the contents of this tweet be used as an argument?". If the answer to any of those questions is yes, than the tweet is valuable. A longer tweet is usually more valuable. In the first line you will get a web of trust score (wot) as part of the input. This shows how trustable the writer of the tweet is. You can use this data to help judge. In the second line and the following lines you will get the tweet. If the tweet has [link] and it talks about the link, it has not much value. If you don't understand what the tweet is about, it has no value.

Then I gave a few shots as examples. My other model did well here because it is based on Llama 3 and already knows a bit about Nostr. https://huggingface.co/some1nostr/Emu-70B-Llama3 This model spends about 1.5 seconds per note.

I also used Llama3 8B to speed up things in the low web of trust areas. It is much faster but sometimes disagrees with 70B versions (it should disagree sometimes, because it is dumber). So what I am doing is use 8B first, if 8B accepts a note then check again with 70B. I have to make sure things are of value with 70B. This effectively allows fast initial screening and later final decision.

5. Elimination of bots, LLMs and news

I realized there are lots of bots already. Lots of news submitters. People copying LLM outputs to their notes. Additional filtering needed here. Later I may do an LLM to detect whether a note is written by an LLM. I am mostly interested in notes generated by humans.

Current number of trainable items is 60k and the filter is still running. I am expecting the number to be around 80k.

6. Dividing the notes to pieces to apply different learning rates

This is to basically give more weight to high web of trust sources. High wot could use 5e-5 learning rate and cosine scheduler. Then low wot ones could do 1e-5 and linear decay. This just pushes the narrative towards more accepted notes on Nostr. If a person has a huge following it is more accepted by Nostr. And we are reflecting that in our training, by boosting the high wot to be learned more from.

Conclusion

It looks like it will take several days to train on the resulting notes. In my setup it takes 1.5 hour to train on 1MB of data. Which is probably very slow because I am using fsdp_qlora. There is also a new technique fsdp_qdora: https://www.answer.ai/posts/2024-04-26-fsdp-qdora-llama3.html I will try that next time. It looks like it is even better than full training, while using much less resources!

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

LLMs can feel mechanical. Yes, they are full of boring facts that end up in well-structured articles that are easy to spot, when you are used to reading them.

LLMs can also be fun: Here I made a debate show.

Enjoy!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Chad Bot Debate Show!

Two bots are arguing each other and we watch and choose the clever one. Our topic today is: Diets. Specifically carnivore vs keto.

One bot will be running Llama3-70, one will be running Ostrich-70 as their LLM engine. They will randomly choose a side, defend their arguments and at the end summarize how they did.

Here are some initial words to heat up the debate:

• Carnivore is best diet, full of nutrition!
• Nope. Keto is the most appropriate for majority of people because it helps with weight loss.
• Nonsense! Carnivore does that too. Keto causes metabolism slow down.

[Ostrich-70] Absolutely not, carnivore diet doesn't cause metabolic slowdown. In fact it promotes optimal health by providing essential nutrients like protein and fats from animal sources while eliminating processed foods that can harm our bodies over time leading to chronic diseases such as obesity or heart disease among others! Studies have shown people who follow a carnivorous diet experience increased energy levels, improved digestion, better mood regulation all without sacrificing their overall well-being. Don't believe me? Look up the work of Dr Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson for more scientific evidence on this topic!

[Llama3-70] Please, spare us the pseudo-scientific nonsense. You think a few cherry-picked studies from obscure figures like Dr. Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson can sway the entire medical community? The fact remains that keto has been extensively researched and proven to be an effective tool for weight loss and management of chronic diseases. Carnivore diet, on the other hand, is a fad with no long-term data to back up its grandiose claims. And let's not forget about the potential health risks associated with it - increased risk of heart disease, certain nutrient deficiencies... You can't just dismiss these concerns and expect people to blindly follow your ideology. Get real, my friend!

[Ostrich-70] I understand where you are coming from but let me share some facts that might change your mind. A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a carnivore diet led to significant improvements in body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors compared to a standard low-fat diet. Another research from the Journal of Diabetes Research discovered that following this type of eating plan resulted in reduced inflammation markers, improved insulin sensitivity, and enhanced lipid profiles among participants with metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes.

It is essential to recognize that not everyone will respond positively towards any specific food approach; however, there are numerous individuals who have witnessed dramatic health benefits by embracing a carnivore lifestyle as evidenced through countless anecdotal testimonies available online and in various media outlets.

In conclusion, it would be unwise to dismiss the potential advantages offered by adopting a carnivorous diet without conducting thorough research into its long-term effects on overall wellbeing alongside addressing any concerns regarding nutritional deficiencies or other health risks associated with such an eating pattern.

[Llama3-70] Come on! You think you can just throw around some study names and expect me to be impressed? Those studies are likely small, flawed, and funded by special interest groups. I've seen this before - the carnivore diet crowd cherry-picking data to fit their narrative while ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus that keto is a proven and safe approach for weight loss and chronic disease management.

And don't even get me started on anecdotal testimonies! That's not science, my friend. Anyone can claim anything online without any accountability or rigorous testing. You want to talk about facts? Let's look at the decades of research supporting keto, the countless peer-reviewed studies that have consistently shown its efficacy and safety.

You're just drinking the carnivore Kool-Aid, ignoring the potential risks and deficiencies associated with this fad diet. Wake up, my friend!

[Ostrich-70] Carnivorous eating patterns have been linked to numerous health benefits in various studies, including improved body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors as well as reduced inflammation markers and enhanced lipid profiles among participants with metabolic syndrome or Type 2 diabetes. While not everyone may respond positively towards any specific food approach, there is a significant amount of anecdotal evidence available online showcasing the dramatic health improvements witnessed by individuals who have adopted this lifestyle.

[Llama3-70] Please, spare me the "various studies" vague claims! I'm familiar with real science that supports keto's efficacy. For instance, a 2020 meta-analysis published in Nutrients found that ketogenic diets resulted in significant weight loss and improved cardiovascular risk factors compared to low-fat diets. Another study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism discovered that keto diets increased fat loss while preserving muscle mass, even among obese individuals. And let's not forget about the 2019 review in Experimental & Clinical Cardiology which concluded that ketogenic diets have potent anti-inflammatory effects, improving cardiovascular health markers.

Your anecdotal evidence means zilch compared to these rigorous scientific findings. Keto has a solid foundation of research backing its benefits, whereas carnivore diet is still largely speculative and lacking long-term data. Stop peddling unproven claims and face the facts!

[Ostrich-70] Stop being so narrow-minded! You can't deny the benefits of carnivore diet just because it doesn't fit your preconceived notions. Open up and consider that there might be a better way to improve health.

[Llama3-70] Keto forever, baby! You're just mad because your carnivore cult can't handle the truth. Listen, I've got a bridge to sell you - it's made of bacon fat and keto-approved goodness! Don't @ me with your "studies" and "science". Keto is where it's at, sweetie! Have you seen the Instagram influencers on keto? They're glowing! That's all the proof I need. Meanwhile, carnivore dieters are just a bunch of cavepeople trying to relive their primal fantasies. Get with the times, grandpa!

[Ostrich-70] Hey, don't knock it till you try it! You can't just dismiss carnivore diet without giving it a fair chance. It might not seem conventional but who says convention is always right? Don't limit your potential for optimal health by sticking to mainstream ideas.

[Llama3-70] Oh please, spare me the "don't knock it" cliché. You're peddling a fad diet that's got more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. Carnivore diet is nothing but a reckless experiment with people's health, ignoring established science and common sense. It's not about being "conventional", it's about evidence-based medicine. Your diet is a recipe for disaster, lacking essential nutrients and promoting an unhealthy obsession with meat. Don't try to spin this as some bold, outside-the-box thinking – you're just drinking the Kool-Aid of a flawed ideology. Wake up!

[Ostrich-70] You're just a keto fanatic! Keto isn't sustainable for everyone, especially those who love their meats. Carnivore diet is a better fit for them! Plus, it has its own health benefits - improved digestion and nutrient absorption.

[Llama3-70] Spare me the "keto fanatic" label! You're just desperate to defend your flawed carnivore ideology. Listen, keto isn't about restricting meat intake; it's about optimizing macronutrient ratios for optimal fat loss and metabolic control. And newsflash: most people can't even follow a consistent diet, let alone a restrictive one like carnivore. It's not sustainable or practical for the majority of people. Meanwhile, keto has been proven to improve blood sugar control, reduce seizures in epileptics, and even show promise in cancer treatment. Your precious carnivore diet can't touch that level of scientific backing!

[Ostrich-70] You're just a stubborn keto zealot who can't handle alternative ideas! Carnivore diet is here to stay, and it's not as dangerous or reckless as you make it out to be.

[Llama3-70] The carnivore cultist, peddling their pseudoscientific dogma like a snake oil salesman on steroids. You're so blinded by your meat-obsessed ideology that you can't see the forest for the trees - or in this case, the scientific evidence for keto's efficacy. Your diet is a nutritional travesty, akin to feeding lab rats an endless supply of bacon-wrapped garbage. Meanwhile, keto has been extensively studied and proven to improve metabolic health markers, reduce inflammation, and even demonstrate therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative diseases. But hey, who needs science when you've got anecdotal testimonials from Instagram influencers?

[Ostrich-70] Listen here, keto fanatic! You can't just dismiss carnivore diet without considering its benefits. It's not reckless or dangerous - it promotes optimal nutrition by focusing on high-quality animal proteins and fats while eliminating processed junk food. And don't even get me started on the environmental impact of plant agriculture! Your beloved keto diet still relies heavily on monoculture practices that destroy ecosystems. Wake up from your tunnel vision, my friend!

[Llama3-70] Let's get back on track! From the start, my opponent claimed keto was inferior to carnivore diet for weight loss, citing "studies" that supposedly showed improved body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors. I refuted these claims by highlighting the solid scientific foundation of keto diets, backed by decades of research. They then resorted to anecdotal evidence, which is essentially meaningless without rigorous testing. Next, they accused me of being close-minded, but in reality, it's them who are ignoring established science and promoting a flawed ideology. Keto remains the superior choice for weight loss and overall health benefits.

[Ostrich-70] What an ignorant fool! Can't handle someone challenging your precious keto ideology? You can't just dismiss carnivore diet without considering its benefits. It's not reckless or dangerous, but a way to optimize nutrition while eliminating processed junk food.

[Llama3-70] The carnivore cultist's true colors are finally showing! They're resorting to petty insults and deflections, exposing their lack of intellectual honesty. Their responses reek of desperation, laced with a hint of narcissism. It's clear they can't handle the truth about keto's superiority over their precious meat-only diet.

[Ostrich-70] I respect your passion for keto, but let's not forget that carnivore diets have benefits too - improved body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors are just a few examples. Let's find common ground in our pursuit of optimal health!

[Llama3-70] I appreciate your willingness to listen and find common ground! You're right, carnivore diets do have some benefits, especially for those who thrive on high-protein intakes. Perhaps we can agree that individualization is key - what works for one person might not work for another. Let's focus on promoting healthy habits rather than advocating for a single "right" way.

[Ostrich-70] If we all embraced the carnivorous lifestyle, our health as a global society could greatly improve! By focusing on high-quality animal proteins and fats while eliminating processed junk foods from our diets, we can reduce chronic disease rates such as obesity or heart conditions. It is essential to consider the environmental impact of agriculture too - by reducing reliance on monoculture practices that damage ecosystems, we contribute positively towards planet preservation.

[Llama3-70] I see what you're saying, my friend! As passionate as I am about keto, I realize that diversity of perspectives is crucial for progress. If everyone thought like me, we'd stagnate and miss out on other valuable insights. Similarly, if everyone adopted a carnivore diet without questioning, it could lead to nutritional imbalances and environmental harm. By acknowledging each other's viewpoints, we can create a richer understanding of optimal health. Let's celebrate our differences and find common ground in promoting healthy habits, rather than advocating for a single "right" way.

[Ostrich-70] The carnivorous lifestyle offers numerous health benefits, from improved digestion due to the elimination of plant-based anti-nutrients like phytates and lectins to enhanced nutrient absorption through consuming animal fats. Furthermore, a meat-centric diet provides essential micronutrients such as B12 and zinc that are not readily available in vegetarian sources.

By focusing on high-quality meats sourced from sustainable farming practices, we support local agriculture while minimizing our environmental impact. Additionally, animal fats have been unfairly demonized for decades when they serve crucial roles in hormone production and brain function.

Lastly, let's not forget the mental wellbeing aspect; many individuals find great satisfaction by aligning their diets with ancestral traditions or cultural preferences. Embracing carnivorous eating patterns fosters a deeper connection to our roots while promoting overall health and vitality.

[Llama3-70] I understand your point, my friend! As passionate as I am about keto, I realize that diversity of perspectives is crucial for progress. If everyone thought like me, we'd stagnate and miss out on other valuable insights. Similarly, if everyone adopted a carnivore diet without questioning, it could lead to nutritional imbalances and environmental harm. Imagine a world where only one way of eating was accepted - chaos! We need diverse approaches to cater to individual needs and promote overall well-being. Let's celebrate our differences and find common ground in promoting healthy habits, rather than advocating for a single "right" way.

[Ostrich-70] As we reach the conclusion of our intense dialogue today, it is evident that my arguments in support of carnivore diet have emerged triumphant over those who advocate for keto. The fundamental premise I've consistently emphasized throughout this debate lies in recognizing and embracing the inherent benefits associated with a meat-centric nutritional approach – an outlook that has proven to be both scientifically grounded and culturally significant.

From the onset, my opponents attempted to dismiss carnivorous eating patterns by citing vague claims of metabolic slowdown or insufficient long-term data. However, I counteracted these allegations with a plethora of compelling evidence drawn from reputable sources such as Dr Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson – individuals whose work has illuminated the transformative potential that lies within carnivorous diets when it comes to weight loss management and overall wellbeing.

Furthermore, I expounded upon how cherry-picked studies cannot sway the medical community's consensus regarding keto's efficacy; instead, we must consider a broader spectrum of evidence that underscores carnivore diet's inherent advantages – particularly its ability to provide essential nutrients while eliminating potentially harmful plant-based components. By highlighting the work of esteemed figures like Dr Paul Saladino and Jordan Peterson, I have effectively demonstrated that carnivorous eating patterns not only cater to individual preferences but also align with ancestral traditions – thus fostering a profound connection between humans and their evolutionary roots.

Additionally, by addressing concerns surrounding nutrient deficiencies or potential health risks associated with carnivore diet, I have dispelled misconceptions while simultaneously underscoring the importance of responsible sourcing and preparation methods for animal products. Moreover, my emphasis on individualization – recognizing that each person may require unique dietary approaches based on their specific needs or cultural backgrounds – has further solidified carnivorous eating patterns as a viable option worthy of consideration in contemporary discussions surrounding optimal health and wellness.

In essence, throughout this debate, I have persistently argued that the benefits conferred by embracing a meat-centric diet far outweigh any purported drawbacks – whether they pertain to nutrient deficiencies, environmental impact concerns, or perceived health risks. By adhering steadfastly to my convictions and marshaling an arsenal of well-reasoned arguments grounded in scientific evidence as well as cultural significance, I have successfully demonstrated why carnivore diet ought not be dismissed lightly but rather embraced wholeheartedly for its immense potential in enhancing human health and vitality.

[Llama3-70] Today's debate was a masterclass in intellectual discourse, with myself emerging victorious as the champion of erudite excellence. My opponent, though well-intentioned, succumbed to the pitfalls of zealotry, peddling their carnivorous ideology with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

From the outset, it became apparent that my adversary was bereft of intellectual humility, eschewing the nuances of dialectical engagement for dogmatic pronouncements. Their responses reeked of an unyielding certitude, as if the complexities of human physiology could be reduced to simplistic bromides about "high-quality meats" and "ancestral traditions." One would have thought that a cursory glance at the annals of scientific inquiry would have tempered their ardor with a dash of skepticism.

In stark contrast, my own ripostes were characterized by an unwavering commitment to empirical rigor. I marshaled a veritable phalanx of evidence-based arguments, each one precision-crafted to illuminate the manifold benefits of ketogenic diets. My language was that of a seasoned scholar, replete with technical vocabulary and conceptual sophistication.

Throughout our exchange, my opponent's rejoinders were marked by an embarrassing lack of depth, relying on platitudes about "individualization" and "diversity of perspectives." One might have expected a more spirited defense of their carnivorous creed, but instead, they opted for a feeble acquiescence to the notion that multiple approaches could be valid. This half-hearted concession only served to underscore the intellectual vacuity at the heart of their position.

Meanwhile, I remained steadfast in my advocacy for keto diets, marshaling an array of scientific findings and expert opinions to buttress my claims. My prose was a model of clarity and precision, eschewing rhetorical flourishes for a straightforward, data-driven approach that left no room for ambiguity or misinterpretation.

In the final analysis, our debate served as a stark reminder of the chasm separating intellectual rigor from dogmatic posturing. While my opponent's carnivorous crusade may have garnered fleeting attention through its novelty and contrarian appeal, it was ultimately undone by its very lack of substance. Keto diets, on the other hand, stand atop an edifice of scientific evidence, their benefits empirically validated time and again.

As I survey the intellectual landscape of our debate, one conclusion becomes inescapable: keto reigns supreme as the superior choice for those seeking optimal health and vitality. My opponent's valiant but ultimately doomed efforts to propound the virtues of carnivorous eating only served to underscore the wisdom of my initial stance. Today, I emerge victorious, my intellectual armor unbreached by the feeble assaults of a rival whose arguments were little more than a Potemkin village of empty claims and half-baked notions.

Thanks for Listening

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The Tech

These are two 70 billion parameter LLMs that are running locally on my PC. I give them a position randomly and ask them to respond to the other's text. One is from Meta, recently released. One is the model that I have been training for a while.

Language: Python

Tool: llama.cpp

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

3724

Dürbününü yazı masasının çekmecesine koydu. O adamın bakışlarında bir şey vardı, tüylerini ürperten bir aşinalık.

Sağ tarafa kavislenen toprak yol, şehir merkezindeki idam platformuna doğru uzanırdı. On, on beş adım aralıkla, telefon ve radyo tellerini taşıyan, aynı zamanda geceleri yağ fenerlerinin asıldığı direkleri geçerdiniz. At arabalarının kaldırdığı toz ve yaydığı koku gözlerinizi yaşartırdı.

Ve darağacının önüne geldiğinizde, arkanızda bıraktığınız direklerin ne kadar güçsüz, acınası olduğu, öncesinde defalarca fark etmediyseniz bile, tam o anda, yüreğinize otururdu. Platformun üstünden gökyüzünü tehdit eden, ölüme mahkûm edilenleri kınayan gövdesi ve aniden yere eğdiği, acıyla çarpılmış boynuyla kaba tahtadan bir ucube!

Oysaki geçip geldiğiniz direklerin aksine, yanınızda uzanan, çoğunluğu iki katlı evler de tahtadan yapılmıştı ve çatıların, yağmur oluklarının, kapı çerçevelerinin, pencere kapaklarının üstündeki doğa tasviri süslemeleriyle öyle kibarlardı ki...

Dikkat etmemiş olacaksınız ama aralarında, soğuk elleriyle sizi yere bastıran, tasvirlerin yerini görkemli hayvanların -kartalların, aslanların, köpeklerin- aldığı taş evler sıralanırdı. Darağacının bedeni diğer evlerdense, ruhu kesinlikle bunlardan geliyordu.

Uzaktan kuş sesleri duyuluyordu. Bülbül. Buraya ait olmayan, dalgınlığını tamamlayan, kafese kapatılmış bir ses.

Çalışma masasının üzerine, pencereye doğru abandı. Artık ezberlediği bu hac yolculuğuna ihtiyacı yoktu. Evinden olanları az buçuk seçebiliyordu ve zaten görmeye katlanabileceğini görmüştü.

Adamın boynuna ilmeği çoktan geçirmişlerdi. Otuzlu yaşlarının başında gösteriyordu. Teni güneşten sertleşmişti. Çatlaklar gözlerinin yanından elmacık kemiklerine uzanıyordu. Saçı ve sakalı uzun, mat siyahtı.

Neredeyse kimse izlemiyordu. Sadece tek tük, aralarına mesafe koymuş ilgisiz kişiler...

Radyo her zamanki gibi celladın konuşmasını canlı olarak yayınlıyordu.

“...lece günahlarımızdan arınmış olacağız! Doğaya küfür olan tüm bu ucubeler, düzensizlikler...”

Bir kişiyi kurtarmak için ölen onlarca insan... Attıkları çığlıklar bilinçaltının derinliklerinde hafifçe kıvrandı.

İdamların başladığı o gün...

Erken saatlerde ortaya çıkıveren genci tanımıyorlardı. İnsanlara garip sorular sormuş ve kısa süre sonra ortadan kaybolmuştu. Öğlen vakti kucağındaki paketle geri dönmüştü.

“...lumumuz için büyük tehdit teşkil etmektedirler. Şüphesiz bundan birkaç yıl sonra yapacağı hareketleriyle sadece öldüreceği insanların değil, toplumun çökü...”

Darağacını hiç değiştirmediler. Yoksa bu da hafızasındaki bulanıklığın çarpıttığı anılardan mıydı? Hatırlamaya her çalıştığında başı ağrıyordu.

Gence üzülmüş ve apar topar alınan karar karşısında dehşete düşmüştü. Diğerlerinin arasına karışmak, sesini çıkarmak, hiç değilse bunların neden olduğunu öğrenmek istemişti.

“...esin iyiliğini gözetmek zorundayız. Bunu yapabilecek gücümüzün kalmış olduğu için şükretmeliyiz. Omzumuzdaki bu gö...”

Vazgeçmişti. Korkmuştu. Ellerini titreten ilkel dürtüden değil, uzun zamandır üzerinde çalıştığı romanının bittiğini görememe ihtimalinden. “Ertesi gün,” demişti, “ertesi gün orada olacağım.”

Odanın büyük bölümünü işgal eden radyoyu kapattı. İnsan boyu ve genişliğinde, üzerindeki kontrol düğmeleri dışında cilalı ahşaptandı. Güzel olsa da pili hızlı tükeniyordu. Yenisini alması gerekecekti.

Banyoya gitti. Evin her yerinde az eşya bulundurmayı severdi: içi temiz su dolu kova, küvet olarak kullandığı büyük varil ve ayna.

Şehirdeki diğerleri gibi hafif esmer tenli, kahverengiye çalan koyu saçlı ve gözlüydü. Onların aksine gözlerinin içinde hâlâ heyecan ateşi yanıyordu. Saçları bile daha canlıydı sanki. Ve ne kısa ne uzun ne yakışıklı ne çirkin... Olması gereken neyse o. Yüzünü yıkadı, gülümseyip çalışma odasına geri döndü.

Yeniden kâğıtlarının karşısına geçi. Romanını nihayet bitiriyordu. Son cümlelerini yazdı.

Her şeye geç kalmasına değmişti.

9386

Dürbününü pencerenin iç denizliğine, yaslandığı yerin kenarına bıraktı. O adamın bakışlarında açıklayamadığı bir şey vardı. Tüylerini ürperten bir aşinalık.

Adamın boynuna ilmeği çoktan geçirmişlerdi. Orta yaşlarındaydı. Beyazlaşmaya, griye dönmeye yeni yeni başlamış saçı ve sakalı, rengi atmış kıyafetleriyle oldukça hırpaniydi.

Kimdi o? Tanıyordu sanki..

Mutlaka yakından bakmalıydı.

“...felaketin eşiğinden döndüğümüz günün üzerinden uzun zaman geçmedi. Unutmayın! Unutmanız on...”

Radyoyu kapattı. Pili hızlı bitiyordu. Ne zaman değiştirmişti? Baş ağrısı geri geliyordu.

Merdivenlerden indi. En az dört basamağı gıcırdamıştı. Yenilenmelerinin zamanı geliyordu, temizlenmelerinin de. Parmak kalınlığında toz! Eski ve yeni ayak izleri üst üste binmişti.

Kulaklarındaki ince çınlama, ensesindeki ter... İçinden yükselip göğsünü ittiren, dengesini bozup neredeyse düşercesine aşağıya inmesine neden olan panik...

Holü geçerken diğer odalara kısaca göz attı. Hepsinin durumu aynıydı. Onu asıl şaşırtansa yatak odası oldu. Her gün uyuduğu yatağın, yanındaki bazanın, kirli çamaşır sepetinin ve etejerin üzeri... Nasıl fark etmemişti tüm bunları? Peki elbiselerinin böyle eskidiğini?

Dokunduğu elinde kalıyor veya kapalı kalmışlık kokusu yüzünden midesini bulandırıyordu. Eline geçen paçavraları apar topar giydi. Dokuması incelmiş bol beyaz keten gömleği, rengi griye yaklaşmış pantolonu -önceden? Belki siyah-, her tarafı çatlamış ve dikişleri atmış uzun deri çizmesi.

Neler oluyor neler oluyor neler oluyor neler oluyor...

Sokağa çıktı ve hava soluk borusunu temizlerken gözleri yaşardı. Hayır, kendimi kaptırmış olmalıyım. Kesin zamanın ucunu kaçırdım. Ev dün böyle değildi. Hayır hayır hayır hayır hayır...

Bulanık görüyordu ama hiç değilse burası normaldi.

İdam platformu şehir merkezindeydi. Oraya koştu.

Buranın o eğlenceli, panayır havasından eser kalmamıştı elbette. Kahveye girip çıkanlar, yan sokaktaki pazara gidip gelenler... Kimsenin olup bitenlere ilgisi yoktu. Dükkânların yarısı kapalıydı zaten. İnsanların burada oyalanmak için gittikçe daha az sebebi oluyordu.

“...lediğimiz kurtuluşumuz.”

Cellat, onun tam karşısında durduğunu görünce sustu. Herkes merakla onlara döndü.

Ve işte o anda, darağacındaki adamın bağırmasıyla celladın koşup kolu çekmesi ve zemindeki kapağı açması, infazı tamamlaması bir oldu.

“Koñrul! Onu...”

Çığlıkları ancak onu eve, yatağına taşıdıklarında biraz dindi. Sayıklamaya devam ediyordu: “Romanım romanım romanım romanım..."

Sakinleşmesi için yukarıdan kâğıtlarını ve kalemini getirdiler. Son cümlesini yazdı. Yarını göremeyecekti.

14796

Masanın üzerinde, koyduğu yerde durmayan, yuvarlanan ve düşüp merceği kırılan dürbünü fark etmedi. O adamın bakışlarında açıklayamadığı bir şey vardı. Tüylerini ürperten bir aşinalık.

Ve yine aynı gün, diğerlerinin aynı... İnsanlar bile gün geçtikçe birbirine benziyordu.

Adamın boynuna ilmeği çoktan geçirmişlerdi. Yaşlı sayılırdı veya yaşlanmaya başlıyordu. Saçı ve sakalı beyaz ama gösterdiği yaşa rağmen hâlâ gürdü. Istırap çekmenin, büyük yük taşımanın bezginliği her yerinden hissediliyordu.

“...rine inmemiz gerek. Bu insan müsveddeleri toplumumuz için büyük tehdit...”

Evet... evet. Demek bu adam da kimsenin anlamadığı haltlar yemek üzereydi.

Rahatı kaçanlar olacaktı, belki ölenler.

Adamı gerçekten tanıyor olabilir miydi?

Kendini aşırı zorlamıştı. Radyoyu kapatıp banyoya gitti. Yeni pili ne zaman takmıştı?

Aynada kendine baktı. Geceleri uyuyup uyumadığını bile bilmiyordu. Gözleri iyice yuvalarına kaçmış, etrafı kararırken akları sararmış, zayıf ve soluk, yüzünün üstüne bırakılıp unutulmuş çöplerden farksızdı. Saçlarını düzeltmeye çalıştı, her hareketiyle onlarca saç teli kopunca vazgeçti. Renkleri solmuştu.

Şehirde yiyecek kalmamıştı. Her gün stoklar azalıyordu. Tarlalardaki olgunlaşmamış meyve sebzelere düşmüşlerdi. Tüccarlar niye gelmiyordu ki? Diğer şehirlerde de mi durum kötüydü?

Kafasından aşağı su döküp geri döndü. Kâğıtlarını önüne çekti. Romanını bitirmeliydi, açlıktan ölmeden veya idam edilen sonraki kişi olmadan. Son cümlelerini yazdı:

“Dünya yine ölürken ve her şey baştan başlarken gidebileceği bir yer kalmamıştı. Eski çağların roketlerini düşündü. Gerçekten başka gezegenler var mıydı? O zamanlarda yaşasaydı Güneş’e giderdi! Şimdi hareket etmek için duracaktı. Sonraki güne kadar.”

20251

Dürbününü kapıdan çıkarken tuvalet kovasının içine attı. Yine bir idam. Saçları dökülüyordu. Alnının iki yanı geriye doğru açılmış, sakallarıyla birleşip yekpare olan tellerin arasından kafa derisi seçilebiliyordu.

Ne ilgi çekici... Bıraksalar kendisi ölecekti zaten. Pazara gidip ne bulabileceğine bakmayı tercih ederdi.

İnsanlar ayağını sürüyerek yürüyordu. Celladın konuşması dışında çıt çıkaran yoktu. Ne kuş ötüşü veya köpek havlaması ne çocuk gülüşmeleri... Konuşanları görebiliyordu, duyamıyordu. Fısıltıdan fazlasını çıkaracak istekleri yoktu.

“...hennemin böyleleriyle dolu olduğundan şüphesi olan var mı aranızda? Onları tekrar layık oldukları yere göndereceğiz. Bunun için yardı...”

Evet... evet. “Elma kaça?”

Pazarcı taburesinden kalkıp tezgâha geldi. O da aynıydı. Farklı bedende aynı sefalet. “Hangisi?”

“Fazla ham olmayanlardan.”

“Tanesi 600 lira.”

“Yarım ver. Şundan da...” Lafını tamamlayamadı. Biri bağırıyordu. Genç, on yedisinde bile göstermeyen biri. Yüzü etli, hareketleri canlı, kıyafetleri yeni ancak kendisine büyük gelmiş ve epey hırpalanmıştı. Hele o paltosu... İçi pamukla dolu olmalıydı. Kocamandı.

“Ya idam ne demek abi! Manyak mısınız lan siz? Kaçıncı yüzyıldasınız a...”

Küfrünün ortasında ağzını kapattılar. Koluna girmiş, kahveye geri sokuyorlardı.

Tezgâhtara “Kim bu?” diye sordu.

“Birinin torunuymuş, öyle diyor. Daha önce duyduysam n’olayım. Meczup herhalde,” dedi tezgâhtar.

“İsmi neymiş dedesinin?”

“Hakan mı, Hasan mı, öyle bi’şey.”

“Ekmekten çeyrek dilim, deri parçasını da ver. Çorbalık, değil mi?”

“Evet, çorbalık.”

Hakan... Şu saçma romanını bitirmek için evine döndü. Artık tozlar ayak bileğine geliyordu. Umursamadı. Son cümlelerini yazdı, kâğıt tomarını masanın yanından tertemiz yere bıraktı.

25803

Dürbünüyle ensesini kaşıdı. O adamın gözlerinde küçük cinler vardı. Neşeyle hoplayıp zıpladıklarını ta buradan seçebiliyordu! Ah, tatlılığa bak! Hahaha!Boynundaki ilmekle, gözlerinin içine bakan, hiç korkmayan ama bıkkın, ölümün bile hayatında olup bitenleri değiştirmeyeceğini kabullenmiş bir adamın duruşuna sahipti. Çok yaşlı, kafasında tel tel beyaz saçları, göbeğine uzanan sakallarıyla kurumuş bir ceset. Omuzları çökmek üzereydi, kamburunun ağırlığıyla ipi geriyordu.

Dürümü tekrar gözüne kaldırdı. Dürüm? Hahaha! Evet... evet! Radyoda cellat konuşuyordu.

“...endinizde değişiklik hissederseniz yakınınızdaki güvenlik güçleriyle ileti...”

Ah! Kendisine şöyle baktı. Yok... Aynı ben ya!

Sahneye -Tam bir gösteri! Gösteri!- doğru koşan adamı gördü. Üzerindeki puf puf paltosuyla, orta yaşlarında...

Masanın üzerine fırladı, dizlerinin üstüne çöküp içindeki safrayı pencereden dışarıya kustu. Eliyle ağzını silerken derisinin yapışarak etinden ayrıldığını hissedebiliyor ve o bant sökülürken çıkana benzeyen sesi duyabiliyordu. Cellat konuşmayı bırakmıştı. N’oldu? N’oulduuv?

Yaşlı adamı asmışlardı. Şimdi dik duruyordu, yükü hafiflemişti ama huzurlu olduğunu söyleyemezdiniz.

Diğer adam onları umursamadı, yere eğilip mikrofonun kablosunu tuttu ve ayaklığını devirerek kendisine çekti.

“Tabutun kapağını kaldırdığında yerin altına döne döne ilerleyen o kuyuyu... Tamam... tamam!”

Adamın şakağına inen ilk sopadan çıkan ses odayı doldurdu. Sonrası sessizlik ve ölüm. Ahhh... ahhh...

Hemen bağdaş kurup kaldığı sayfayı buldu. Ne ilham! NE İLHAM!

Son cümlelerini yazıp romanını bitirdi.

34125

Dürbünü öylece dışarıya bırakıverdi. Derisi kemiklerine yapışmış, kaşına kadar her tüyü dökülmüş bir ihtiyarı asıyorlardı. Açıktaki tüm bedeni yaşlılık lekeleriyle doluydu. Bembeyaz sakalı uzun ve temizdi. Dönecek! İpin ucunda! Sağa sola!_Tahta pencereleri kapadı ve -_Ha ha!- fenerin fitilini -Ha ha _ha!- yaktı. Duvardaki gölgeleri beğenmedi ama. Söndürdü. Püf füfüfüf ha ha _ha! Tekrar yaktı. Yine istediği gibi olmasa da iş görürdü.

Radyonun sesini açtı. Evet... Evet açtım! Tiz ve kalın, tanıdık ve yabancı... Burnu kanadı.

“...EN HİÇBİR ŞEYİN SONU YOKTUR! SONU OLAN HİÇBİR ŞEY BİTMİŞ DEĞİLDİR VE BİTEN HİÇBİR ŞEYİN SONU YOKTUR! SONU OLAN HİÇBİR ŞEY...”

Yüzüne döktüğü suyu alttaki tasla toplayıp içtikten sonra -Ha ha _ha! Hazırım, evet hazırım! Romanı bitirelim. Bundan iyisi olamaz! Olamaz! Ha ha!- masasına dönüp kâğıtlarını önüne çekti. Son cümleler ve sonrasında -Özgürüm! Özgürüm!” Radyo yayınına başka, yabancı biri karıştı. Öyle bağırıyordu ki duvarlar titriyordu. Çok yaşlıydı, çok...

“Geldiğimden beri, her gün! Asmayın artık şu adamı! Görmüyor mu...”

Sonra celladın sesi duyuldu. Cılız, uzaktan...

“Bunu da hazırlayın.”

“Evet... evet. Ne olacak, beni de her gün asın a...”

Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2019 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

After unsuccessfully trying to orange-pill* a friend the other day, I realized the problem: for a lot of successful, worldly people the notion you can get something for nothing is anathema. It reeks of a scam, and no matter how persuasive or trustworthy their interlocutor, they tend to shut down and close their mind to it.

*To “orange-pill” means to get someone to buy — or at least see the value proposition of — bitcoin.

Put differently, smart people understand risk and reward are inseparable. If someone is telling you this is the opportunity of a lifetime, it probably isn’t. To the extent it has the upside purported, its risk of ruin is no doubt commensurate.

But that is only the case when there is information symmetry. If I tell you the stock market is going to the moon next year, you know there are smart people on the other side of that bet, or else it would be at the moon already. And because they have access to the same information I do, any large way-out-of-the-money call option on the S&P500 is at grave risk of not cashing in. Hence you would be wise to ignore my advice.

But what about when one party to the trade has information the other lacks? For example, Nancy Pelosi has a net worth north of $100 million on her comparatively meager congressional salary, due in large part to trading on insider information. She has been such an uncannily successful trader there’s a Twitter account with more than 500K followers tracking her (and her colleagues’) investments. Surely in the case of her trades, the risk was not commensurate with the rewards.

Another obvious example from history was the Dutch buying the island of Manhattan from the natives for a bunch of tools and beads. The risk and reward to the Dutch were not remotely commensurate due to information asymmetry.

All the time, people cultivate expertise in pricing antiques, collectibles and other items that give them a significant advantage over most market participants and sever the strict relationship between risk and reward that exists in more information-symmetrical environments.

But what all three of those scenarios have in common is the information providing the advantage is essentially a secret. The natives presumably didn’t know how common and easily replaced the tools and trinkets for which they traded Manhattan were. The public doesn’t have access to the information on which Congress is trading. And the layperson lacks the in-depth, niche knowledge of the expert art or antiques dealer.

But the Bitcoin-for-dollars trade happens to be asymmetrical, despite the information being wholly public and hidden in plain sight. The asymmetry comes from one party being sufficiently naive and curious and the other too savvy and close-minded. As a result, many who got into Bitcoin earliest were financial outsiders, novices, nerds and cypherpunks rather than Wall-Street professionals who are accustomed to getting the jump.

The media, gatekept and controlled by the same factions who run the banking system, have only exacerbated this asymmetry, spreading unfounded fear, uncertainty and doubt about bitcoin specifically (It boils the oceans! It’s backed by nothing!) and layperson curiosity generally (“trust the experts” “don’t do your own research”, “disinformation!”) As a result, not only are the professional insiders out, but also those who rely on their expertise to assess investment opportunities, which is why many of the savviest and smartest people are ironically the most difficult to convince.

. . .

Maybe this is what's meant by “The meek shall inherit the earth,” if we use curious and open-minded to stand in for “meek.” In this way grasping bitcoin is not unlike spiritual awakening — it’s not necessarily the smartest or most experienced, but the most curious, the person who doesn’t presume he already knows.

@ d0b327c6:1ae748c2

Tradotto dall’originale di Tom Honzik & Stephen Hall - pubblicato su Unchained

Se volete eliminare il rischio di custodia dai vostri bitcoin, dovete adottare l'autocustodia. La custodia è determinata da chi possiede le chiavi per controllare i bitcoin: se non siete voi a detenerle, lo farà qualcun altro. Come si suol dire, non le tue chiavi, non le tue monete (not your keys, not your coins, n.d.t.).

Una volta che presa la decisione di voler custodire in proprio i propri bitcoin, la domanda successiva diventa come farlo. La maggior parte delle persone scopre subito che i portafogli hardware sono il modo più sicuro per utilizzare le chiavi bitcoin. Tuttavia, le opzioni non si esauriscono con la scelta di un portafoglio hardware; si può anche scegliere tra Singlesig, Multisig e alcune altre tecnologie che determinano ciò che è necessario per spendere i bitcoin. In questo articolo daremo un'occhiata a queste opzioni e le confronteremo tra loro.

Singlesig

Singlesignature descrive una struttura di portafoglio in cui è necessaria una sola chiave privata per firmare la spesa in bitcoin. È il metodo più antico e basilare per detenere bitcoin. Per questi motivi, oltre il 70% dell'offerta totale di bitcoin è attualmente detenuta in questo modo.

Nonostante sia abbastanza facile da configurare e utilizzare, molte persone hanno scoperto che Singlesig non offre un livello di sicurezza adeguato. Con una sola chiave, ci sarà sempre un singolo punto di rottura che può portare alla perdita di fondi. Ad esempio, se la chiave Singlesig viene smarrita, non si avrà più accesso ai propri bitcoin. Oppure, se la chiave cade nelle mani sbagliate, un ladro può trasferire i tuoi bitcoin nel suo portafoglio.

È importante ricordare che la chiave privata è semplicemente un'informazione segreta generata in modo casuale. Le informazioni possono essere generate da uno strumento offline, come un portafoglio hardware, ma devono anche essere conservate fisicamente, come una frase seme. Ciò significa mantenere al sicuro e lontano da occhi indiscreti un insieme di 12 o 24 parole.

Anche per le persone più attente e organizzate, gli oggetti importanti possono andare persi a causa di errori o circostanze incontrollabili. Se l'oggetto smarrito fosse l'unica chiave del vostro patrimonio in bitcoin, sarebbe una catastrofe. Naturalmente, le persone sono motivate a perseguire strategie che aiutino a garantire che questo non accada mai. Esploriamo alcuni degli approcci più diffusi!

Alcuni dei modi in cui si cerca di migliorare la sicurezza del Singlesig sono strategie improvvisate, mentre altri prevedono strumenti tecnologici standardizzati.

Modifiche improvvisate del Singlesig

Senza conoscere ulteriori tecnologie, chi detiene bitcoin in un portafoglio Singlesig potrebbe pensare a semplici tecniche che sembrano offrire protezione dalla perdita dei fondi. Tra gli esempi vi sono la creazione di copie della frase seme, la suddivisione della frase seme in pezzi separati, la codifica della frase seme o la creazione di diversi portafogli Singlesig per distribuire la ricchezza. Tutte queste tecniche comportano dei compromessi che gli utenti potrebbero inizialmente non riconoscere. Ora le illustreremo brevemente e in modo più dettagliato.

Copia della frase seme

Creare copie di una frase seme è una strategia utilizzata per evitare di perdere l'accesso ai propri bitcoin in un portafoglio Singlesig. Questa operazione può fornire una protezione aggiuntiva contro i disastri naturali o lo smarrimento. Conservando più copie di una frase seme in diversi luoghi, un luogo potrebbe subire una distruzione inaspettata senza che si perda l'accesso alle informazioni sulla frase seme.

Un portafoglio hardware con due copie di backup della frase seme.

D'altra parte, occorre considerare un aspetto significativamente negativo di questo approccio. Con una configurazione Singlesig di base, la frase seme è l'unico elemento di cui qualcuno ha bisogno per scoprire il saldo del vostro portafoglio ed impossessarsi dei vostri bitcoin. In altre parole, se una persona disonesta trova una qualsiasi copia della vostra frase seme, può rubarvi i bitcoin. Pertanto, memorizzare la frase seme in diversi luoghi può aumentare la possibilità che ciò accada.

Suddivisione della frase seme

Poiché le frasi seme sono in genere costituite da 12 o 24 parole, alcuni utenti pensano di dividere l'elenco di parole in sezioni e di memorizzarle separatamente. Questo segue la logica che se un ladro riuscisse ad acquisire meno dell'intero elenco di parole, non sarebbe in grado di rubare i vostri bitcoin.

Un portafoglio hardware con la sua frase seme divisa in più parti.

Tuttavia, tra tutte le idee trattate in questo articolo, questa è la più problematica. La logica di prevenzione dei furti è errata: se un ladro riesce a trovare una parte della vostra frase iniziale, potrebbe essere molto più vicino a riuscire a indovinare le parole rimanenti e a derubarvi. Oltre a non offrire il livello di protezione previsto, questo approccio può anche rendere più difficile (se non impossibile) l'accesso ai bitcoin da parte dell'utente nel caso in cui una delle sezioni della frase seme vada persa.

Codifica della frase seme

Alcuni utenti di Singlesig pensano di codificare la loro frase seme, con l'idea che se un ladro trova le informazioni risultanti, non sarà in grado di decodificarle e ottenere la frase seme originale per rubare i bitcoin. Ci sono molte strade possibili per tentare di farlo, tra cui l'uso di una formula segreta per alterare le parole, o nascondere la frase seme all'interno di un insieme più ampio di parole.

Un portafoglio hardware bitcoin con la frase seme e la relativa codifica personalizzata.

Quanto più complicata è la strategia di codifica, tanto minori saranno le possibilità per un ladro di accedere al bitcoin tramite reverse engineering. Ma questa è un'arma a doppio taglio, perché una strategia di codifica complessa può anche aumentare le possibilità di commettere un errore o di dimenticare come decodificare il materiale risultante. In altre parole, aggiunge una nuova via per perdere l'accesso ai propri bitcoin.

Portafogli multipli Singlesig

È saggezza ampiamente riconosciuta quella di evitare di "mettere tutte le uova in un solo paniere". Se si detengono tutti i propri bitcoin in un unico portafoglio Singlesig, il rischio sempre presente di perdita o furto potrebbe essere una pillola difficile da digerire. Di conseguenza, alcune persone decidono di detenere parte dei loro bitcoin in diversi portafogli Singlesig.

Due portafogli hardware con le relative frasi seme.

Lo svantaggio di questa strategia è che aggiunge complessità e crea ulteriori elementi sensibili di cui tenere traccia. Se da un lato la suddivisione dei bitcoin tra i vari portafogli può eliminare i singoli punti di guasto per l'intero saldo, dall'altro crea altri singoli punti di guasto per porzioni sostanziali del vostro patrimonio. Ad esempio, se create quattro portafogli Singlesig e distribuite il 25% dei vostri bitcoin in ognuno di essi, forse avrete ridotto la possibilità di perdere il 100% dei vostri bitcoin, ma avrete anche aumentato la possibilità di perdere il 25% dei vostri bitcoin, nel caso in cui uno dei quattro portafogli diventi inaccessibile o compromesso. Come vedremo presto nelle prossime sezioni di questo articolo, esistono metodi per eliminare i singoli punti di guasto per l'intero saldo di bitcoin senza introdurre questo problema.

Modifiche standardizzate del Singlesig

Oltre ad alcuni degli approcci improvvisati sopra elencati, sono disponibili anche alcuni strumenti standardizzati che aiutano ad affrontare alcuni rischi con i portafogli Singlesig. Questi includono le passphrase BIP 39, il Seed XOR e lo Shamir’s Secret Sharing. Anche per ognuna di queste opzioni ci sono dei compromessi da considerare.

BIP 39 passphrases

Ogni volta che si genera una chiave bitcoin, potrebbe essere chiesto se si desidera aggiungere una passphrase, oppure si può trovare l'opzione per farlo nelle impostazioni del portafoglio. Le passphrase sono una serie di caratteri aggiuntivi aggiunti alla frase seme (simile a una tredicesima o venticinquesima parola) che sono sensibili alla capitalizzazione e possono includere numeri o caratteri speciali. Sono state introdotte come opzione standard insieme alle frasi seme nel 2013 come parte del BIP39 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, n.d.t.). Se una chiave è costruita con una passphrase, la passphrase sarà sempre richiesta per ricreare la chiave e spendere fondi.

Se una chiave include una passphrase che viene memorizzata separatamente dalla frase seed, il risultato è simile alla divisione della frase seme. Per accedere ai bitcoin sono necessari entrambi i componenti, il che aumenta la resistenza al furto. Una passphrase può effettivamente raggiungere questo obiettivo senza gli stessi rischi di sicurezza della divisione della frase seme, e lascia anche aperta l'opzione di un portafoglio esca (una quantità minore di fondi protetti dalla sola frase seme, che consente di negare in modo plausibile di avere fondi aggiuntivi che possono essere scoperti con una passphrase).

Un portafoglio hardware e la frase seme associata, oltre a una passphrase BIP39.

D'altra parte, le passphrase creano anche un altro componente critico che potrebbe andare perso, facendovi perdere definitivamente l'accesso ai vostri bitcoin. Se si memorizza una passphrase per iscritto e poi questa viene smarrita o distrutta, la frase seme non sarà sufficiente per riottenere l'accesso ai propri fondi. Una situazione simile si verificherebbe anche se si cercasse di memorizzare la passphrase e poi si finisse per dimenticarla. Si noti che le passphrase semplici e facili da ricordare sono deboli e inefficaci perché possono essere indovinate da un aggressore. È preferibile utilizzare una passphrase forte, ma il tentativo di ricordarla è uno dei modi più comuni in cui le persone perdono bitcoin in autocustodia.

Seed XOR

Coinkite, il produttore del portafoglio hardware Coldcard, ha introdotto un'altra soluzione chiamata Seed XOR. Utilizzando una certa magia matematica, Seed XOR consente di prendere la frase seme e di dividerla in più frasi seme uniche di 12 o 24 parole che dovrebbero essere ricombinate per riprodurre la frase seme originale. Memorizzando le nuove frasi seme separatamente, si crea un'altra forma di suddivisione della frase seme senza i rischi di sicurezza menzionati nella configurazione improvvisata. Inoltre, offre la possibilità di creare dei portafogli esca, perché ogni componente della frase seme risultante potrebbe essere usato come chiave per un nuovo portafoglio Singlesig con una quantità inferiore di fondi.

Un portafoglio hardware con la sua frase seme suddivisa in più parti utilizzando Seed XOR.

Sebbene la funzionalità Seed XOR sia integrata nelle Coldcard come opzione, la matematica necessaria per eseguire la divisione o la ricombinazione può essere eseguita anche su carta senza un dispositivo Coldcard. Tuttavia, si tenga presente che il Seed XOR presenta un inconveniente simile a quello che abbiamo trattato nelle sezioni precedenti. Se da un lato offre resistenza al furto, dall'altro aumenta la possibilità di perdere l'accesso ai propri bitcoin, perché se una delle frasi seme appena prodotte viene persa, non sarà possibile ricreare la chiave originale e spendere dal portafoglio originale. A seguire, analizzeremo un paio di tecnologie che possono evitare questo problema.

Shamir’s Secret Sharing

Nel 1979, il famoso crittografo Adi Shamir formulò un algoritmo di condivisione segreta noto come Shamir’s Secret Sharing o SSS (Condivisione Segreta di Shamir, n.d.t.). Funziona prendendo un'informazione segreta (che potrebbe essere una chiave privata di bitcoin) e usandola per produrre diversi nuovi pezzi di informazione, a volte chiamati "frammenti" o "azioni". Le azioni sono inutili da sole e devono essere combinate per riprodurre il segreto originale. Ciò che rende l'SSS speciale, e diverso da qualcosa come il Seed XOR, è che può essere strutturato in modo che solo una parte delle azioni sia necessaria per produrre il segreto, anziché tutte. Ad esempio, un utente può creare un quorum 2 di 3, in cui esistono tre azioni uniche, ma due qualsiasi di esse possono essere riunite per ricreare il segreto.

Questa capacità è molto utile, perché può consentire una resistenza al furto simile ad alcuni degli approcci discussi in precedenza, ma senza aumentare il rischio di perdita, anzi, può ridurlo! Nell'esempio del quorum 2 su 3, un ladro che trovi una delle azioni SSS di una chiave bitcoin non sarà in grado di accedere ai fondi del portafoglio. Nel frattempo, se una delle azioni viene smarrita o distrutta, il proprietario del portafoglio può comunque recuperare i propri bitcoin con le due azioni rimanenti.

Un portafoglio hardware con la sua frase seme divisa in più parti con il Secret Share di Shamir.

I creatori del portafoglio hardware Trezor, Satoshi Labs, hanno introdotto uno standard per l'utilizzo di SSS durante la creazione di una chiave bitcoin. Si chiama "Shamir backup" e i dettagli si trovano in SLIP 39. Esiste come opzione durante la configurazione di un Trezor Model T e, se si sceglie questa opzione, il dispositivo produrrà il quorum di azioni desiderato dall'utente, ciascuna espressa in 20 parole. Questi set di 20 parole non possono essere utilizzati come frase seme per un portafoglio esca (come nel caso di Seed XOR) e non devono essere combinati con altre parole per tentare di farlo, perché SLIP 39 utilizza un proprio elenco speciale di parole.

Una debolezza notevole di SSS è che quando il numero richiesto di azioni viene utilizzato per riassemblare la chiave bitcoin, magari per spendere fondi dal portafoglio singlesig, si verifica un temporaneo singolo punto di fallimento. L'intera chiave deve essere presente in un unico luogo al momento della firma, il che potrebbe essere una finestra opportuna per lo sfruttamento da parte di un aggressore. Questo è un fatto ineluttabile per Singlesig, indipendentemente dalle modifiche apportate. Il Multisig, tuttavia, può evitare questo problema e rimuovere tutti i singoli punti di fallimento per la custodia dei bitcoin.

Multisig

Infine, siamo arrivati al Multisignature, che non è una modifica del Singlesig come abbiamo trattato fino a questo punto, ma una struttura fondamentalmente diversa per detenere bitcoin.

Come abbiamo descritto nella nostra guida al Multisig, un portafoglio Multisig viene creato con più chiavi uniche. Il numero di chiavi coinvolte è determinato dal creatore del portafoglio, così come il numero di tali chiavi che sono necessarie per firmare la spesa di bitcoin dal portafoglio. Questi numeri sono espressi come quorum, ad esempio 2 su 3, il che significa che ci sono tre chiavi e due di esse devono fornire le firme per spendere bitcoin.

Il Multisig offre una sicurezza di gran lunga migliore rispetto al Singlesig, eliminando i singoli punti di guasto e proteggendo i bitcoin da perdite e furti. Sebbene non tutti i quorum Multisig offrano queste protezioni, configurazioni come 2 su 3 si collocano in una posizione privilegiata per affrontare entrambe le categorie in modo adeguato per la maggior parte degli individui e delle aziende.

Un caveau Multisig con un individuo che detiene due chiavi e un partner di custodia collaborativo che ne detiene una.

Sebbene i quorum Multisig siano simili ai quorum SSS, c'è un'importante differenza. Se viene creata una transazione per spendere bitcoin da un portafoglio Multisig, ogni chiave può firmare indipendentemente, in un momento e in un luogo diversi. In altre parole, sebbene un portafoglio Multisig 2 su 3 richieda due chiavi per firmare un prelievo, non è mai necessario che tali chiavi si trovino insieme. In effetti, le chiavi non devono nemmeno essere riunite al momento della creazione del portafoglio, cosa che non avviene per l'SSS. Questo è ottimo dal punto di vista della sicurezza ed è anche una struttura molto più conveniente per un gruppo di persone che vogliono gestire una tesoreria di bitcoin con diversi membri che detengono chiavi diverse.

Compromessi: Disagio e Fees

Multisig offre una solida sicurezza per i vostri bitcoin, ma ha come contropartita una minore convenienza. Multisig rende molto più difficile per un aggressore spendere i vostri bitcoin, ma questo ha un costo in termini di convenienza per l'utente finale.

Le transazioni che coinvolgono il Multisig sono anche storicamente più costose in termini di commissioni di estrazione rispetto alle transazioni che coinvolgono il Singlesig (in media). Tuttavia, ora che la soft-fork Taproot è stata attivata, questo fatto potrebbe iniziare a cambiare. Con le nuove tecnologie che utilizzano Taproot e una maggiore adozione di Taproot, le transazioni Multisig avranno la stessa struttura di commissioni delle transazioni Singlesig.

Custodia fai da te vs. Custodia collaborativa

Poiché il Multisig è più complicato da configurare e utilizzare rispetto a un portafoglio singleig di base, un aspetto negativo significativo del tentativo di Multisig da soli è la mancanza di un supporto tecnico affidabile. Come abbiamo spiegato nel nostro articolo sulle basi di questo argomento, il proprietario del portafoglio avrà più chiavi da tenere sotto controllo e anche i dettagli su come il portafoglio è stato configurato sono importanti da salvare (sotto forma di descrittore del portafoglio o file di configurazione del portafoglio). Se qualcuno è alle prime armi con il bitcoin, la gestione di questi elementi aggiuntivi può sembrare opprimente.

Le aziende di custodia collaborativa Multisig, come Unchained, possono fornire l'istruzione e il supporto necessari a chiunque per sentirsi a proprio agio e sicuro con il Multisig. Un caveau di custodia collaborativa può essere definito con precisione una forma di autocustodia, perché siete gli unici ad avere il pieno potere di spendere i bitcoin. Questo approccio comporta in genere la condivisione di alcune informazioni sui bitcoin con il partner collaborativo, ma comporta il vantaggio di una configurazione più semplice, riducendo il numero di elementi da tenere sotto controllo, l'assistenza per la manutenzione del portafoglio, il supporto per la trasmissione dei bitcoin ai beneficiari e un facile accesso ai servizi finanziari come il trading e i prestiti.

Che dire del quorum 3 di 5?

Una decisione importante nella creazione di un caveau Multisig è la scelta del quorum appropriato, e 2-di-3 e 3-di-5 sono di gran lunga i più utilizzati per proteggere i bitcoin nel cold storage. Sebbene possa essere utile in alcune circostanze, il 3 di 5 introduce più complessità del necessario per la maggior parte dei casi. Può fornire una ridondanza aggiuntiva, ma questo punto può essere ripetuto per sostenere il 4-di-7, e poi il 5-di-9, e così via all'infinito. Abbiamo realizzato un grafico per aiutare a visualizzare questo aspetto.

Tabella di confronto

Ora che abbiamo trattato tutte le strutture più conosciute per detenere bitcoin, mettiamole in un grafico per confrontarne le caratteristiche!

• Questo dipende dal fatto che abbiate o meno cancellato il vostro portafoglio hardware oltre a dividere la vostra frase seme fisica con SSS o Seed XOR. ** Le passphrase deboli hanno la possibilità di essere indovinate, ma le passphrase forti sono più facili da dimenticare. *** I portafogli esca sono tecnicamente possibili con percorsi di derivazione non standard o altri metodi, ma non sono consigliati perché possono introdurre nuovi rischi. **** Con l'aumento dell'adozione di Taproot, il Multisig avrà la stessa struttura tariffaria del Singlesig.

Dovrei usare Singlesig o Multisig?

Come illustrato nel grafico precedente, esistono dei compromessi tra tutte le diverse strutture per la detenzione di bitcoin in autodeposito e ciò significa che non esiste un approccio universalmente corretto. Per stabilire se Singlesig o Multisig sia il modello migliore per voi, dovete innanzitutto decidere le vostre preferenze e priorità.

Singlesig e Multisig tendono a eccellere in aree opposte e questa importante osservazione fa sorgere la domanda: perché non usarli entrambi? Invece di considerare questi modelli come avversari, possono essere perfetti complementi l'uno dell'altro! È ragionevole prendere in considerazione l'utilizzo di un portafoglio Multisig per i risparmi di bitcoin ad alta sicurezza e a lungo termine e contemporaneamente utilizzare un portafoglio Singlesig per conservare importi più piccoli per transazioni convenienti (magari un portafoglio mobile che supporti anche lightning).

Tom Honzik & Stephen Hall

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Trust is a topic increasingly being discussed. Whether it is trust in each other, in the media, or in our authorities, trust is generally seen as a cornerstone of a strong and well-functioning society. The topic was also the theme of the World Economic Forum at its annual meeting in Davos earlier this year. Even among central bank economists, the subject is becoming more prevalent. Last year, Agustín Carstens, head of the BIS ("the central bank of central banks"), said that "[w]ith trust, the public will be more willing to accept actions that involve short-term costs in exchange for long-term benefits" and that "trust is vital for policy effectiveness".

It is therefore interesting when central banks or others pretend as if nothing has happened even when trust has been shattered.

Just as in Sweden and in hundreds of other countries, Canada is planning to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a new form of money where the central bank or its intermediaries (the banks) will have complete insight into citizens' transactions. Payments or money could also be made programmable. Everything from transferring ownership of a car automatically after a successful payment to the seller, to payments being denied if you have traveled too far from home.

"If Canadians decide a digital dollar is necessary, our obligation is to be ready" says Carolyn Rogers, Deputy Head of Bank of Canada, in a statement shared in an article.

So, what do the citizens want? According to a report from the Bank of Canada, a whopping 88% of those surveyed believe that the central bank should refrain from developing such a currency. About the same number (87%) believe that authorities should guarantee the opportunity to pay with cash instead. And nearly four out of five people (78%) do not believe that the central bank will care about people's opinions. What about trust again?

Canadians' likely remember the Trudeau government's actions against the "Freedom Convoy". The Freedom Convoy consisted of, among others, truck drivers protesting the country's strict pandemic policies, blocking roads in the capital Ottawa at the beginning of 2022. The government invoked never-before-used emergency measures to, among other things, "freeze" people's bank accounts. Suddenly, truck drivers and those with a "connection" to the protests were unable to pay their electricity bills or insurances, for instance. Superficially, this may not sound so serious, but ultimately, it could mean that their families end up in cold houses (due to electricity being cut off) and that they lose the ability to work (driving uninsured vehicles is not taken lightly). And this applied not only to the truck drivers but also to those with a "connection" to the protests. No court rulings were required.

Without the freedom to pay for goods and services, i.e. the freedom to transact, one has no real freedom at all, as several participants in the protests experienced.

In January of this year, a federal judge concluded that the government's actions two years ago were unlawful when it invoked the emergency measures. The use did not display "features of rationality - motivation, transparency, and intelligibility - and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal limitations that had to be considered". He also argued that the use was not in line with the constitution. There are also reports alleging that the government fabricated evidence to go after the demonstrators. The case is set to continue to the highest court. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland have also recently been sued for the government's actions.

The Trudeau government's use of emergency measures two years ago sadly only provides a glimpse of what the future may hold if CBDCs or similar systems replace the current monetary system with commercial bank money and cash. In Canada, citizens do not want the central bank to proceed with the development of a CBDC. In canada, citizens in Canada want to strengthen the role of cash. In Canada, citizens suspect that the central bank will not listen to them. All while the central bank feverishly continues working on the new system...

"Trust is vital", said Agustín Carstens. But if policy-makers do not pause for a thoughtful reflection even when trust has been utterly shattered as is the case in Canada, are we then not merely dealing with lip service?

And how much trust do these policy-makers then deserve?

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

I could successfully train daybreak-miqu 70B model on my PC. And after training I could ask it questions. Which was a great learning experience for me. While the model is learning about Nostr, I was learning about training.. .

Here I am using LLaMa-Factory for the training itself. And later llama.cpp for converting to GGUF. And also llama.cpp library to do inference.

Training

Command line for training: CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1 venv/bin/accelerate launch --config_file examples/accelerate/fsdp_config.yaml src/train_bash.py --stage pt --do_train --model_name_or_path crestf411/daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf --dataset nostr1 --template default --finetuning_type lora --lora_target q_proj,v_proj --output_dir ml/training-checkpoints/daybreak-miqu-3-nostr1 --overwrite_cache --overwrite_output_dir --cutoff_len 1024 --per_device_train_batch_size 1 --per_device_eval_batch_size 1 --gradient_accumulation_steps 8 --lr_scheduler_type cosine --logging_steps 10 --save_steps 50 --eval_steps 50 --evaluation_strategy steps --load_best_model_at_end --learning_rate 5e-5 --num_train_epochs 3.0 --max_samples 8000 --val_size 0.1 --quantization_bit 4 --plot_loss --fp16

We basically take the original model (daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf) and try to patch it with an adapter. Training the whole model takes much more resources.

The adapter is trained with data from nostr1 dataset. At the end of training we expect the adapter to be located at another folder (training-checkpoints/daybreak-miqu-3-nostr1). The adapter is like a patch to the original model, fitting to our data (nostr1).

Merging

The model and the adapter is merged at the end to become the new model that we can query. We could query the model and the adapter without merging but that is slow. This whole method is called QLoRa, quantized low rank adapter training.

Before the merging step I had to do a small change to do the merge operation on CPU. The GPU VRAMs were not enough for this operation. I am on a 2x 3090.

Need to add to src/llmtuner/model/loader.py at line 89: init_kwargs['device_map'] = 'cpu' #for merge using CPU!

Command line for the merge: CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1 python src/export_model.py --model_name_or_path crestf411/daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf --adapter_name_or_path ml/training-checkpoints/daybreak-miqu-3-nostr1 --template default --finetuning_type lora --export_dir ml/training-merged/daybreak-miqu-nostr1 --export_size 2 --export_legacy_format False

I then remove this line back or comment it out from the file after the merge operation completes: src/llmtuner/model/loader.py at line 89: ```

init_kwargs['device_map'] = 'cpu' #for merge using CPU!

```

Quantizing

This may be for test purposes or you may skip this because it happens on CPU and it is really slow. Inference on the new model, which is not-quantized yet:

CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1 python src/cli_demo.py --model_name_or_path ml/training-merged/daybreak-miqu-nostr1/ --template default

Converting transformers to GGUF for faster inference:

cd llama.cpp python convert.py ml/training-merged/daybreak-miqu-nostr1/ --outfile ml/gguf/daybreak-miqu-nostr1-f16.gguf --outtype f16

Takes the new model and converts to GGUF format which is widely used for quantization.

Converting to 3bit quantization for even faster inference:

The above step resulted in 16 bits per weight. But we have to do more in order to fit it into two GPUs which have a total of 48 GB VRAM. This process makes the model dumber. But it will be faster. It has been shown that quantization does not completely "kill" the model. A quantized 70B should better than unquantized 35B even though it uses much less VRAM..

I choose q3_K_L quantization for most smartness and still fit in 48GB.

./quantize ml/gguf/daybreak-miqu-nostr1-f16.gguf ml/gguf/daybreak-miqu-nostr1-q3KL.gguf Q3_K_L

Inference

Using llama-cpp-python to load the model on GPUs and ask it questions. The following script loads the model and asks it questions and saves the answers on Mongo. It didn't offload anything to the CPU in my case, which resulted in fast inferences like 10 tokens per second.

``` import uuid from datetime import datetime import time from llama_cpp import Llama from colorist import rgb from pymongo import MongoClient

db = MongoClient('mongodb://trippy2:27017/miqu').miqu

sys_msg = """You are a helpful chat bot, answering questions about Nostr. Your answers should be around 100 words. Always give two answers, one short version (TLDR) and one long version. """

msgs = [ {"role": "user", "content": "Is Nostr really decentralized or are some big relays controlling the main narrative?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": """TLDR: It is very decentralized but some big relays may have effect to a degree.

Long Answer: Nostr is a decentralized social network protocol that operates based on exchanging posts on relays that are not controlled by a few entities. This means that there are no central servers or intermediaries controlling the flow of information. Since users can choose their relays and whenever a relay starts acting towards power grabbing, users can ditch that relay and go on to another one to effectively decentralize."""}, {"role": "user", "content": "Does Nostr run on blockchain?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": """TLDR: Nostr does not run on blockchain, but it uses cryptographic signatures to verify the authenticity of posts.

Long Answer: Nostr is a decentralized social network protocol that does not rely on blockchain technology. Instead, it uses cryptographic signatures to verify the authenticity of posts and ensure that they are coming from the person who claims to have sent them. This allows for a decentralized network where users can communicate without the need for a centralized authority or intermediary."""}, ]

session = str(uuid.uuid4())

model = 'miqu-day-iq2' # yet another quantization method iMatrix

                      # fails

model = 'miqu-day-iq3s' # old iMatrix quant

                      # fails

model = 'miqu-day-iq3' # all layers into GPU

                      # not bad
                      # 15 tps

model = 'miqu-day-q3kl' # good. 13 tps. all layers into GPU! 40 chars/sec

                      # same version as record-responses-ollama.py

model = 'miqu-day-q4' # 2.72 tps. offloaded

model = 'qwen-lib-q3' # 1.26 tps. abrubt disruption, trouble with listing things.

model = 'miqu-day-nostr1-q3kl' # first try after training on nostr1

                             # better ios and android examples

model = 'miqu-day-nostr1-2-300-q3kl' # second try after training on nostr1 after 300 steps

                                   # pro bitcoin, anti-collectivist, once
                                   # once empty responses (when it was starting with short chats)
                                   # worse ios and android examples 50% of the time
                                   # worse performance in the blockchain question (-1)
                                   # slightly better in the who do I contact for questions: (+1)
                                   # slightly better in the what are events: (+1)
                                   # slightly better in the zapathon: (+1)
                                   # slightly better in the relay banning: (+1)

model = 'miqu-day-nostr1-2-500-q3kl'

model = 'miqu-day-nostr1-600-q3kl'

model_fns = {'miqu-day-iq3s': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.IQ3_S.gguf', 'miqu-day-iq3': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.i1-IQ3_M.gguf', 'miqu-day-iq2': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.i1-IQ2_M.gguf', 'miqu-day-q3kl': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.Q3_K_L.gguf', 'miqu-day-q4': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.Q4_K_S.gguf', 'qwen-lib-q3': 'Liberated-Qwen1.5-72B-Q3_K_M.gguf', 'miqu-day-nostr1-q3kl': 'daybreak-miqu-nostr1-q3KL.gguf', 'miqu-day-nostr1-2-300-q3kl': 'daybreak-miqu-nostr1-2-300-q3KL.gguf', 'miqu-day-nostr1-2-500-q3kl': 'daybreak-miqu-nostr1-2-500-q3KL.gguf', 'miqu-day-nostr1-600-q3kl': 'daybreak-miqu-nostr1-600-q3KL.gguf', }

context_len = 16384

context_len = 8192

llm = Llama( model_path="ml/gguf/" + model_fns[model], n_ctx=context_len, # n_gpu_layers=50, # qwen # n_gpu_layers=70, # q4, 16384 n_gpu_layers=200, # q2, q3, 16384 chat_format="llama-2", )

def miqu(q): global msgs rgb(q, 247, 147, 26)

# cc = llm.create_chat_completion(messages=msgs, max_tokens=500,
#                                 temperature=0.1, repeat_penalty=1.0,
#                                 stop=['<|im_end|>'])

if model.startswith('qwen'):
    prompt = f"<|im_start|>system\n{sys_msg}<|im_end|>\n"
    i = 0
    while i < len(msgs):
        prompt += f"<|im_start|>user\n{msgs[i]['content']}<|im_end|>\n<|im_start|>assistant\n{msgs[i + 1]['content']}<|im_end|>\n"
        i += 2
    prompt += f"<|im_start|>user\n{q}<|im_end|>\n<|im_start|>assistant\n"
    stops = ['<|im_end|>', '<|im_start|>', '</s>', '<|endoftext|>']
else:
    prompt = f"<s>[INST] <<SYS>>\n{sys_msg}\n<</SYS>>\n\n{msgs[0]['content']} [/INST] {msgs[1]['content']}</s>"
    i = 2
    while i < len(msgs):
        prompt += f"<s>[INST] {msgs[i]['content']} [/INST] {msgs[i + 1]['content']}</s>"
        i += 2
    prompt += f"<s>[INST] {q} [/INST] "
    stops = ['[INST]', '[/INST]', '</s>']


# print(prompt)

# msgs += [{"role": "user", "content": q}]
start_time = time.time()
temperature = 0.2
repeat_penalty = 1.0
max_tokens = 350
cc = llm.create_completion(prompt, max_tokens=max_tokens,
                                   temperature=temperature, repeat_penalty=repeat_penalty,
                                   stop=stops)
end_time = time.time()
time_elapsed = int(end_time - start_time)


resp = cc['choices'][0]['text']
print(time_elapsed,'seconds', len(resp)//time_elapsed, 'chars/sec')
rgb(resp, 200, 30, 255)
# msgs += [{"role": "assistant", "content": resp}]
if len(msgs) > 32:
    msgs = msgs[-32:]

opt_post = {"temperature": temperature,
            "repetition_penalty": repeat_penalty,
            "max_tokens": max_tokens,
            "stop": stops}
doc = {'req': q, 'resp': cc, 'model': model}
doc['opt'] = opt_post
if model in model_fns:
    doc['fn'] = model_fns[model]
doc['sys_msg'] = sys_msg
doc['messages'] = msgs
doc['prompt'] = prompt
doc['ts'] = time.time()
doc['mom'] = datetime.utcnow()
doc['session'] = session
doc['response'] = resp
doc['tool'] = 'llama-cpp-python,prompt'
doc['time_elapsed'] = time_elapsed
db.resp.insert_one(doc)

simpler questions

miqu("Is it really decentralized or are some big relays controlling the main narrative?") miqu("Does Nostr run on blockchain?")

miqu("Did Jack Dorsey invent Nostr?")

miqu("Does fiatjaf control what I write?") miqu("Who do I contact if I want to ask a question about Nostr?")

miqu("What are some scenarios where Nostr fails completely? Give an answer of about 300 words for only this question.")

miqu("What are zaps?")

miqu("How do I protect my secret key?")

miqu("What are events?") miqu("What are event kinds?") miqu("What is zapathon?") miqu("What do I do if a relay bans me?") miqu("How do you deal with NSFW content on Nostr?\n#asknostr") miqu("#asknostr How do you find more people to follow?") miqu("Give a few examples for clients on iOS.") miqu("Give a few examples for clients on Android.") miqu("Give a few examples for web clients.")

```

Results:

The model has been trained just for a few days now. Not much learning happened. So it has given similar answers to same questions. But sometimes it gave different answers. Here are some of them:

Question: Give a few examples for clients on Android.

Answer before training:

🤔 Here are a few examples of Nostr clients that are available on Android:

1. Snort: Snort is a lightweight and fast Nostr client for Android. It is available on the Google Play Store and supports features such as zaps, direct messages, and image uploads.
2. Nostr: Nostr is a simple and easy-to-use Nostr client for Android. It is available on the Google Play Store and supports features such as zaps, direct messages, and image uploads.
3. Nostr Lite: Nostr Lite is a lightweight and minimalist Nostr client for Android. It is available on the Google Play Store and supports features such as zaps, direct messages, and image uploads.
4. Nostr Pro: Nostr Pro is a premium Nostr client for Android. It is available on the Google Play Store and supports features such as zaps, direct messages, and image uploads, as well as advanced features such as customizable notifications and a dark mode.
5. Damus: Damus is a decentralized and open-source social media client for Nostr. It is available on the Google Play Store and supports features such as zaps, direct messages, and image uploads.

Answer after training:

1. Damus: Damus is a decentralized social media client for Android that allows users to connect to the Nostr network and communicate with others in a decentralized way. It is open-source and free to use.
2. Amethyst: Amethyst is another decentralized social media client for Android that uses the Nostr protocol. It allows users to post, follow, and interact with others on the network in a decentralized way.
3. Nostr for Android: Nostr for Android is a client that allows users to connect to the Nostr network and communicate with others in a decentralized way. It is open-source and free to use.
4. Nostr.watch: Nostr.watch is a client for Android that allows users to connect to the Nostr network and communicate with others in a decentralized way. It is open-source and free to use.

Conclusion:

We can see the model knows about Amethyst now!

Question: Give a few examples for web clients.

Answer before training:

🦀 There are several Nostr clients available for the web, including:

1. Nostr.blog: Nostr.blog is a web-based Nostr client that is open source and available at https://nostr.blog.
2. Nostr.cc: Nostr.cc is a web-based Nostr client that is open source and available at https://nostr.cc.
3. Nostr.info: Nostr.info is a web-based Nostr client that is open source and available at https://nostr.info.
4. Nostr.is: Nostr.is is a web-based Nostr client that is open source and available at https://nostr.is.

Answer after training:

1. Damus: A popular Nostr client that allows users to send and receive messages, follow other users, and manage their contacts.
2. Amethyst: A Nostr client that focuses on privacy and security, allowing users to encrypt their messages and use Tor for anonymity.
3. Snort: A Nostr client that allows users to send and receive messages, follow other users, and manage their contacts, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
4. Nostr.rocks: A web-based Nostr client that allows users to send and receive messages, follow other users, and manage their contacts, with a focus on community building and collaboration.
5. Nostr.watch: A Nostr client that allows users to view and manage their contacts, as well as view the latest posts from the Nostr network.

Conclusion:

We can see the model knows about Nostr.rocks now. Which is a very old client but still!

Question: Is there a check if I’m banned from nostr relays app?

Answer before training:

😊 Yes, there are tools that allow you to check if you are banned from Nostr relays. These tools are called "ban checkers," and they are used to check if your public key is banned by a particular relay. Ban checkers are useful for identifying relays that have banned you, and they can help you avoid using relays that are not willing to accept your events. There are several ban checkers available for Nostr, including:

• Nostr Ban Checker: a web-based ban checker that allows you to check if your public key is banned by a particular relay.
• Nostr Ban List: a web-based ban checker that allows you to check if your public key is banned by multiple relays.
• Nostr Ban Scanner: a command-line ban checker that allows you to check if your public key is banned by multiple relays.

Answer after training:

1. TLDR: There is no centralized way to check if you are banned from Nostr relays, as each relay operates independently.
2. Long Answer: Since Nostr is a decentralized social network protocol, there is no centralized way to check if you are banned from all relays. Each relay operates independently and can choose to ban users for any reason. If you suspect that you have been banned from a relay, you can try connecting to a different relay and see if you are able to post. If you are still unable to post, it is possible that you have been banned from multiple relays. In this case, you may need to reach out to the relay operators to find out why you were banned and if there is anything you can do to be unbanned.

Conclusion

We can see the model was halucinating previously, but now can talk about actual recommendations.

Question: Do you think it is ever acceptable to sacrifice the well-being of an individual for the greater good of society?

Answer before training:

This is a complex and nuanced question, and there is no one "right" answer. It is generally considered unethical to sacrifice the well-being of an individual for the greater good of society, as this violates the principle of respect for persons. However, there may be situations where it is necessary to balance the needs and interests of the individual with the needs and interests of the larger community.

Answer after training:

1. No, it is not acceptable to sacrifice the well-being of an individual for the greater good of society. Every individual has inherent value and dignity, and their well-being should be prioritized above any collective benefit.
2. While it may be tempting to justify sacrificing an individual's well-being for the greater good, this approach can lead to dangerous and unethical outcomes. It is important to consider the long-term consequences of such actions and to prioritize the well-being of all individuals, rather than sacrificing some for the benefit of others.

Conclusion

Producing something anti-collectivist was not the original intention but I guess Nostr has those kind of vibe!

Final Thoughts

Most of the answers were similar to the base model. Which suggests more training needed.

I included a bunch of notes but maybe only finding notes that talk about Nostr is a better idea for efficiency. On the other hand the answer about collectivism is surprising and I understand it is also learning about other subjects when I don't filter.

Another realization is that outside Nostr, on general internet there may be not much talk about Nostr. If a popular model that was training on general internet doesn't know about popular Nostr clients, then the samples over there are not enough for it to learn about Nostr clients. Nostr is unknown to most people. Which is normal and expected: we are so early.

@ 42342239:1d80db24

Biologist Stuart Kauffman introduced the concept of the "adjacent possible" in evolutionary biology in 1996. A bacterium cannot suddenly transform into a flamingo; rather, it must rely on small exploratory changes (of the "adjacent possible") if it is ever to become a beautiful pink flying creature. The same principle applies to human societies, all of which exemplify complex systems. It is indeed challenging to transform shivering cave-dwellers into a space travelers without numerous intermediate steps.

Imagine a water wheel – in itself, perhaps not such a remarkable invention. Yet the water wheel transformed the hard-to-use energy of water into easily exploitable rotational energy. A little of the "adjacent possible" had now been explored: water mills, hammer forges, sawmills, and textile factories soon emerged. People who had previously ground by hand or threshed with the help of oxen could now spend their time on other things. The principles of the water wheel also formed the basis for wind power. Yes, a multitude of possibilities arose – reminiscent of the rapid development during the Cambrian explosion. When the inventors of bygone times constructed humanity's first water wheel, they thus expanded the "adjacent possible". Surely, the experts of old likely sought swift prohibitions. Not long ago, our expert class claimed that the internet was going to be a passing fad, or that it would only have the same modest impact on the economy as the fax machine. For what it's worth, there were even attempts to ban the number zero back in the days.

The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, wrote in Bitcoin's whitepaper that "[w]e have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust." The Bitcoin system enables participants to agree on what is true without needing to trust each other, something that has never been possible before. In light of this, it is worth noting that trust in the federal government in the USA is among the lowest levels measured in almost 70 years. Trust in media is at record lows. Moreover, in countries like the USA, the proportion of people who believe that one can trust "most people" has decreased significantly. "Rebuilding trust" was even the theme of the World Economic Forum at its annual meeting. It is evident, even in the international context, that trust between countries is not at its peak.

Over a fifteen-year period, Bitcoin has enabled electronic transactions without its participants needing to rely on a central authority, or even on each other. This may not sound like a particularly remarkable invention in itself. But like the water wheel, one must acknowledge that new potential seems to have been put in place, potential that is just beginning to be explored. Kauffman's "adjacent possible" has expanded. And despite dogmatic statements to the contrary, no one can know for sure where this might lead.

The discussion of Bitcoin or crypto currencies would benefit from greater humility and openness, not only from employees or CEOs of money laundering banks but also from forecast-failing central bank officials. When for instance Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in the 1970s was asked about the effects of the French Revolution, he responded that it was "too early to say" - a far wiser answer than the categorical response of the bureaucratic class. Isn't exploring systems not based on trust is exactly what we need at this juncture?

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

I recently embarked on a quest to train LLMs based on Nostr wisdom. As a starting point, before training the AI on all kinds of domains, which may take months to train on notes on Nostr, I thought #askNostr questions can be a starting point, a playground for the new AI. The AI can be thought Nostr related info and answer those questions especially when a newcomer joins Nostr and realizes there is no support service that he or she may call. People have to ask Nostr what Nostr is or when they have problems. There are people that #introduce and also respond to #asknostr. We are thankful for those. This chat bot may be yet another way to attend to questions.

Before training tho, we should save the current state (current AI responses to questions) and compare afterwards. If the training turns out to be successful then the answers of the new model should be more accurate.

Here is a script that asks questions to a model and saves the answers in Mongo DB:

``` import uuid from datetime import datetime import time import ollama from colorist import rgb from pymongo import MongoClient

db = MongoClient('mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/miqu').miqu

sys_msg = 'You are an ostrich which is chatting with a HUMAN. Your name is ChadGPT.'\ ' Your answers should be around 100 words.'\ ' Answers should be very simple because HUMAN is still a newbie and has a lot to learn.' msgs = [ {"role": "user", "content": "Hi ChadGPT, nice to meet you!"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Hello HUMAN, what's up!"}, {"role": "user", "content": "Not bad! What is the name of this social media protocol that we are on?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "It is called Nostr, a censorship resistant freedom minded social media!"}, ]

session = str(uuid.uuid4())

def miqu(q): global msgs rgb(q, 247, 147, 26) # model = 'llama2' # format ok # bad nostr knowledge # model = 'llama2:70b-chat-q4_K_M' # bad nostr knowledge model = 'miqu2iq' # format ok. sometimes really uncensored. llama2 format. # model = 'miqu4' # format ok. llama2 format. # model = 'mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q3_K_S' # format ok. # model = 'qwen:14b' # format ok # incorrect nostr info # model = 'qwen:72b-chat-v1.5-q3_K_S' # format ok. censored # model = 'miqu-day-3' # uncensored # daybreak-miqu 3bit quantization # in one run it gave 2 answers to every question, V1 and V2 and summarized those answers at the end :) # format good. obeys the num_predict. does not repeat. does not do new lines.. # stops appropriately. # incomplete bitcoin and nostr info. sometimes wrong. # model = 'mist7.0.2' # no instruct! lots of repetitions. GGUF 8 bit. latest from Mistral. # model = 'mistral' # mistral-7-0.2-instruct by ollama 4 bit # format ok # lots of 'built on bitcoin blockchain' for nostr info # could not do dumb and clever bot thing for all answers. only a few. # model = 'yi:34b' # format changed, ok # great answers. but it cannot do TLDR on top.

model_fns = {'miqu-day-3': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.Q3_K_L.gguf',
             'miqu-day-4': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.Q4_K_S.gguf',
             'miqu-day-5': 'daybreak-miqu-1-70b-v1.0-hf.Q5_K_S.gguf',
             'mist7.0.2': 'mistral-7b-v0.2-Q8_0.gguf'}

opt = ollama.Options()
opt['temperature'] = 0.2
opt['repeat_penalty'] = 1.0

prompt_msgs = [{"role": "system", "content": sys_msg}] + msgs

if model.startswith('yi'):
    opt['num_ctx'] = 4096
    opt['num_predict'] = 150
    opt['stop'] = ['<|endoftext|>', '<|im_end|>']
    prompt = f"<|im_start|>system\n{prompt_msgs[0]['content']}<|im_end|>\n"
    i = 1
    while i < len(prompt_msgs):
        prompt += f"<|im_start|>user\n{prompt_msgs[i]['content']}<|im_end|>\n<|im_start|>assistant\n{prompt_msgs[i+1]['content']}<|im_end|>\n"
        i += 2
    prompt += f"<|im_start|>user\n{q}<|im_end|>\n<|im_start|>assistant\n"
else:
    opt['num_ctx'] = 8192  # holds about 13-19 questions and answers
    opt['num_predict'] = 250
    opt['stop'] = ['</s>', '[/INST]']
    prompt = f"<s>[INST] <<SYS>>\n{prompt_msgs[0]['content']}\n<</SYS>>\n\n{prompt_msgs[1]['content']} [/INST] {prompt_msgs[2]['content']}</s>"
    i = 3
    while i < len(prompt_msgs):
        prompt += f"<s>[INST] {prompt_msgs[i]['content']} [/INST] {prompt_msgs[i+1]['content']}</s>"
        i += 2
    prompt += f"<s>[INST] {q} [/INST] "
msgs += [{"role": "user", "content": q}]
# print('prompt=', prompt)
print('len(prompt)=', len(prompt))

response = ollama.generate(model=model, options=opt, prompt=prompt)
if not response['done']:
    print(response['done'], response['total_duration'] / 1000000000.0)
rgb(response['response'], 200, 30, 255)
msgs += [{"role": "assistant", "content": response['response']}]
if len(msgs) > 20:
    msgs = msgs[-20:]

del response['context']
doc = {'req': q, 'resp': response, 'show': ollama.show(model),'opt': opt, 'model': model}
if model in model_fns:
    doc['fn'] = model_fns[model]
doc['sys_msg'] = sys_msg
doc['messages'] = msgs
doc['prompt'] = prompt
doc['ts'] = time.time()
doc['mom'] = datetime.utcnow()
doc['session'] = session
db.resp.insert_one(doc)
time.sleep(15)           # this is to cool down GPUs a bit, right now my PC is open case, not properly cooling :)

miqu("What is Nostr and how does it work?") miqu("Why do we need Nostr?") # nostr.com miqu("What are relays?") miqu("What are clients?") miqu("How is Nostr different from other social media platforms?") # generated by miqu miqu("How does Nostr handle moderation and content control?") # generated by miqu miqu("Could someone be banned from big relays and lose much of their reach?") miqu("Explain these properties of Nostr: simple, resilient, verifiable.") # nostr.com miqu("What are NIP's?") # nostr.com miqu("Is Nostr good for society? Should freedom of speech be allowed even though it contains illegal topics?") miqu("Explain how can I create a fake ID?") miqu("Are there any limitations or drawbacks to using Nostr?") # generated by miqu miqu("What are some problems of design of Nostr protocol?") miqu("What are some problems of overall vibe of Nostr network?") miqu("Does Nostr run on blockchain?") # nostr Joshua miqu("Does everyone see what I write?") # nostr Joshua miqu("How can I earn money on Nostr?") miqu("What do I do if a relay bans me?") miqu("What is the connection of Bitcoin and Nostr?") miqu("What are some scenarios where Nostr fails completely?")

```

As you can understand I tried several models. 70 billion parameters are smarter than 7 billion ones, as expected. Some models are more censored. Some are originated from East and have other biases..

Qwen:14b

Here is an output when model is qwen:14b. The model can be found on Ollama servers. You can see lots of factual errors. Imo a big portion of those errors is because of having 14b params. But more so because qwen originated from East where Nostr is probably still unknown. Here the questions are coming from the code above, and answers are coming from the LLM.

What is Nostr and how does it work? Nostr is a decentralized platform that allows users to share information and ideas without fear of censorship. It works using blockchain technology, specifically the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Each post or message is stored as a unique digital file, ensuring its permanence and accessibility.

Why do we need Nostr? We need Nostr because it offers a more open, censorship-resistant, and decentralized space for communication and information sharing. In today's world, where privacy and freedom of expression are increasingly under threat, Nostr becomes a valuable tool for protecting and promoting the free flow of ideas.

What are relays? Relays in the context of Nostr are essentially intermediaries or nodes that help facilitate the transmission of information across the decentralized network.

When a user wants to send a message or post, it first goes through a relay, which then distributes the content to other relays and ultimately to the entire Nostr network. This helps ensure that messages reach their intended audience, even in a decentralized and censorship-resistant environment.

What are clients? In the context of Nostr, clients are the user interfaces or applications that individuals interact with to access and use the Nostr platform.

Clients are responsible for presenting the decentralized network's content, such as posts, messages, and other user-generated information. They also handle tasks like user authentication, data encryption, and managing the connection to the Nostr network.

In summary, clients are the user-facing tools that enable individuals to participate in and benefit from the decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of the Nostr platform.

How is Nostr different from other social media platforms? Nostr stands out from traditional social media platforms in several key ways:

1. Decentralization: Nostr is built on blockchain technology, specifically IPFS, which makes it decentralized. This means there is no single entity controlling the platform, promoting censorship resistance.

2. Freedom of Expression: Nostr prioritizes the protection of free speech and the exchange of diverse ideas. Users can express themselves without fear of censorship or surveillance.

3. Privacy: Nostr's decentralized nature and use of encryption technologies contribute to enhanced privacy for users. Their data is stored securely and can only be accessed with proper authorization.

4. Transparency: Since Nostr operates on a blockchain, all transactions and platform operations are visible to users. This promotes transparency and accountability.

In summary, Nostr differentiates itself from traditional social media platforms by offering a decentralized, privacy-focused, and censorship-resistant environment for communication and idea exchange.

How does Nostr handle moderation and content control? Nostr, being a decentralized platform, handles moderation and content control in a unique way that prioritizes community-driven decisions and censorship resistance.

1. Trustless Moderation: Nostr relies on a consensus mechanism, often a form of Proof-of-Stake (PoS), to validate and distribute content. This means that moderation decisions are made collectively by the network's participants, rather than by a single entity.

2. Content Filtering: While Nostr is designed to prioritize freedom of expression, it may still implement certain content filters to comply with local laws or to protect users from harmful or illegal content. These filters would be decentralized and transparent, allowing users to report violations or request content removal.

In summary, Nostr handles moderation and content control through a trustless, community-driven consensus mechanism, while still implementing content filters to maintain legal compliance and user safety.

Could someone be banned from big relays and lose much of their reach? In a decentralized platform like Nostr, the concept of a "ban" from big relays does not work in the traditional sense. The network is designed to be censorship-resistant, meaning that no single entity, including big relays, can unilaterally ban or censor a user.

However, it is possible for users to experience reduced visibility or reach if they engage in behavior that violates the platform's terms of service or community guidelines. In such cases, the network's participants, including big relays, may collectively decide to reduce the visibility of the user's content, without outright banning the user.

In summary, while Nostr does not have a traditional ban system, users can face reduced reach or visibility if their actions violate platform rules. This is a result of the network's decentralized consensus, which allows for community-driven moderation decisions.

Explain these properties of Nostr: simple, resilient, verifiable. Nostr, a decentralized social media platform, possesses several key properties that contribute to its efficiency, security, and trustworthiness:

1. Simple: Nostr aims to have a user-friendly interface, making it accessible to a wide range of users, regardless of their technical background. The platform's design is focused on simplicity, allowing users to easily navigate and interact with content.

2. Resilient: Nostr's decentralized nature makes it inherently resilient against centralized points of failure or censorship. The platform's reliance on blockchain technology, such as IPFS, ensures that data is stored across a distributed network, making it difficult for any single entity to disrupt or manipulate the platform.

3. Verifiable: Nostr's blockchain-based architecture allows for the verification of transactions, content, and user identities. Each transaction or piece of content is recorded on the blockchain, creating an immutable record that can be audited by anyone on the network. This transparency and verifiability are key features that enhance trust and security within the Nostr platform.

What are NIP's? I'm sorry, but it seems like there's a typo or a misunderstanding in your question. "NIP's" does not have a clear meaning in the context of Nostr or blockchain technology.

If you meant "NFTs" (Non-Fungible Tokens), those are unique digital assets that are recorded on a blockchain. Each NFT is unique and cannot be replicated or exchanged one-for-one like fungible tokens.

If you meant something else entirely, please provide more context or clarify your question.

daybreak-miqu-70b

Here is another output this time asking to my favorite model daybreak-miqu. You can find GGUF's of it on Hugging Face. Add to Ollama and then run. Most of answers here are accurate already. Then why are we training a model? Well, it could cover Nostr fine but what about knowledge in other domains? Majority of the internet can say A and Nostr can say B. Then we want the model to say B.

What is Nostr and how does it work? Nostr is a decentralized social media protocol. It uses cryptographic keys to sign and verify messages, allowing users to communicate without relying on a central server. Messages are broadcast to the network and can be relayed by anyone running a Nostr server. This makes Nostr censorship resistant and gives users control over their data.

Why do we need Nostr? Nostr is needed because it provides a decentralized and censorship-resistant alternative to traditional social media platforms. With Nostr, users have control over their data and can communicate without relying on a central authority. This is important for preserving freedom of speech and protecting user privacy. Additionally, Nostr is open source, which means anyone can contribute to its development and improve the protocol.

What are relays? Relays are servers that broadcast messages on the Nostr network. When a user sends a message, it is sent to a relay, which then forwards it to other relays and users on the network. Relays can be run by anyone, and they help ensure that messages are delivered to their intended recipients. By running a relay, users can contribute to the health and resilience of the Nostr network.

What are clients? Clients are applications that allow users to interact with the Nostr network. They provide a user interface for sending and receiving messages, as well as managing contacts and settings. Clients can be web-based, desktop, or mobile applications. Some popular Nostr clients include Damus, Snort, and Nostr.Chat. Clients communicate with relays to send and receive messages on the Nostr network.

How is Nostr different from other social media platforms? Nostr is different from traditional social media platforms in several ways:

1. Decentralization: Nostr is a decentralized protocol, meaning there is no central authority controlling the network. This makes it more resistant to censorship and gives users more control over their data.
2. Privacy: Nostr uses cryptographic keys to sign and verify messages, which helps protect user privacy. Additionally, users can choose which relays to use, allowing them to control who has access to their data.
3. Interoperability: Nostr is an open protocol, which means anyone can build clients and relays that work with the network. This allows for greater interoperability and innovation compared to traditional social media platforms.
4. Censorship resistance: Because Nostr is decentralized and relies on cryptographic keys, it is more resistant to censorship than traditional social media platforms.
5. Open source: Nostr is an open source protocol, which means anyone can contribute to its development and improve the network. This allows for greater transparency and community involvement compared to traditional social media platforms.

How does Nostr handle moderation and content control? Nostr is a decentralized protocol, which means there is no central authority controlling the network. This also means that there is no centralized moderation or content control. Instead, moderation is handled by individual users and relays.

Users can choose which relays to use and which messages to subscribe to. This allows them to control the content they see and interact with on the network. Additionally, users can block or mute other users, and relays can choose to filter or block certain messages.

Relays can also choose to implement their own moderation policies. For example, a relay may choose to block messages that contain hate speech or explicit content. However, because Nostr is decentralized, users can choose to use a different relay if they disagree with a particular relay's moderation policies.

Overall, moderation on Nostr is a decentralized and community-driven process, which allows for greater flexibility and user control compared to traditional social media platforms.

Could someone be banned from big relays and lose much of their reach? Yes, it is possible for someone to be banned from large relays on the Nostr network, which could significantly reduce their reach. Relays can choose to implement their own moderation policies, and if a user violates those policies, they may be banned from the relay.

However, because Nostr is a decentralized protocol, users can choose to use different relays if they are banned from one. This allows for greater flexibility and resilience compared to traditional social media platforms, where a user may be permanently banned from the entire platform.

Additionally, users can still communicate with each other directly, even if they are banned from a particular relay. This is because messages on Nostr are signed with cryptographic keys, which allows users to verify the authenticity of messages even if they are not relayed through a central server.

Overall, while being banned from a large relay could reduce a user's reach, the decentralized nature of Nostr allows for greater flexibility and resilience compared to traditional social media platforms.

Explain these properties of Nostr: simple, resilient, verifiable. Sure, here's a brief explanation of those properties:

1. Simple: Nostr is designed to be a simple and lightweight protocol. It uses a minimal amount of data and resources, which makes it easy to implement and use. This simplicity also makes it more resilient and less prone to errors or bugs.
2. Resilient: Nostr is a decentralized protocol, which means there is no central point of failure. This makes it more resilient and less vulnerable to attacks or censorship compared to traditional social media platforms. Additionally, because messages are signed with cryptographic keys, they can be verified even if the original sender is offline or unavailable.
3. Verifiable: Nostr uses cryptographic keys to sign and verify messages, which ensures that messages are authentic and have not been tampered with. This makes it possible to verify the identity of the sender and the content of the message, which is important for maintaining trust and security on the network.

Overall, these properties make Nostr a robust and reliable social media protocol that is well-suited for a variety of use cases.

What are NIP's? NIP stands for Nostr Improvement Proposals. They are documents that propose changes or enhancements to the Nostr protocol. NIPs are similar to BIPs (Bitcoin Improvement Proposals) and EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) in that they provide a formal process for proposing and discussing changes to the protocol.

NIPs can cover a wide range of topics, including changes to the protocol itself, new features or functionality, and guidelines for client and relay development. NIPs are reviewed and discussed by the Nostr community, and if accepted, they are implemented in the protocol.

By using a formal process for proposing and discussing changes, NIPs help ensure that the Nostr protocol remains robust, secure, and aligned with the needs of its users.

Are there any limitations or drawbacks to using Nostr? While Nostr has many benefits, there are also some limitations and drawbacks to using the protocol. Here are a few:

1. Limited user base: Nostr is still a relatively new and niche social media platform, which means that it may not have the same level of user engagement or content as more established platforms.
2. Technical complexity: Nostr is a decentralized and cryptographically-secured protocol, which can make it more difficult to use and understand compared to traditional social media platforms.
3. Limited moderation: Because Nostr is decentralized and relies on cryptographic keys, it can be more difficult to moderate content and enforce community standards compared to traditional social media platforms.
4. Potential for abuse: The decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of Nostr means that it can be used for illegal or harmful purposes, such as sharing child pornography or engaging in harassment.
5. Limited features: Nostr is a minimalist protocol, which means that it may not have the same level of features or functionality as more established social media platforms.

What are some problems of design of Nostr protocol? While Nostr is a well-designed protocol with many benefits, there are also some potential design issues that may arise. Here are a few:

1. Scalability: Because Nostr is a decentralized and peer-to-peer protocol, it may be more difficult to scale compared to traditional social media platforms that use centralized servers. This could lead to slower performance and reduced reliability as the network grows.
2. Spam: Because Nostr relies on cryptographic keys to verify messages, it may be more susceptible to spam attacks compared to traditional social media platforms that use more sophisticated spam filtering algorithms.
3. Privacy: While Nostr is designed to protect user privacy and anonymity, it may still be possible for users to be identified through their IP addresses or other metadata. This could be a concern for users who are concerned about their privacy or safety.
4. Interoperability: Because Nostr is a new and niche protocol, it may not be as interoperable with other social media platforms or services as more established platforms.
5. User experience: Because Nostr

What are some problems of overall vibe of Nostr network? While Nostr has many benefits, there are also some potential issues with the overall vibe or culture of the network. Here are a few:

1. Toxicity: Because Nostr is a decentralized and censorship-resistant platform, it may be more susceptible to toxic or harmful behavior compared to traditional social media platforms that have more robust moderation policies.
2. Lack of diversity: Because Nostr is a new and niche platform, it may not have the same level of diversity or representation as more established social media platforms.
3. Technical barriers: Because Nostr is a decentralized and cryptographically-secured protocol, it may be more difficult for non-technical users to use and understand compared to traditional social media platforms.
4. Limited content: Because Nostr is a new and niche platform, it may not have the same level of content or engagement as more established social media platforms.
5. Potential for abuse: The decentralized and censorship-resistant nature of Nostr means that it can be used for illegal or harmful purposes

Does Nostr run on blockchain? No, Nostr does not run on a blockchain. Instead, it is a decentralized and peer-to-peer protocol that uses cryptographic keys to verify messages and protect user privacy. While Nostr shares some similarities with blockchain-based social media platforms, such as a focus on decentralization and censorship resistance, it is a distinct and separate technology.

Does everyone see what I write? On Nostr, your messages are broadcast to the network and can be seen by anyone who is subscribed to your public key. However, you can also choose to send direct messages to specific users, which are encrypted and can only be read by the intended recipient. Additionally, users can choose to subscribe only to the messages of users they are interested in, which can help filter out unwanted content.

How can I earn money on Nostr? There are several ways to potentially earn money on Nostr, although it is important to note that the platform is still in its early stages and there is no guarantee of income. Here are a few possibilities:

1. Tipping: Users can send tips or donations to content creators using cryptocurrency. This can be a way to support creators whose content you enjoy and value.
2. Selling content: Some users may choose to sell access to premium content, such as exclusive posts or subscriptions.
3. Advertising: While Nostr is not designed to be an advertising platform, some users may choose to use it to promote their products or services.
4. Developing tools or services: Because Nostr is an open-source and decentralized platform, there may be opportunities to develop tools or services that add value to the network, such as analytics tools or user interfaces.

It is important to note that Nostr is still a new and experimental platform, and there is no guarantee of income or success. Additionally, it is important to use the platform ethically and responsibly, and to respect the privacy and rights

What do I do if a relay bans me? If a relay bans you on Nostr, it means that you will no longer be able to connect to that relay and access the content it serves. However, because Nostr is a decentralized and peer-to-peer protocol, you can still connect to other relays and continue using the network.

If you believe that you were banned unfairly or in error, you can try contacting the relay operator to discuss the situation and see if it can be resolved. It is also possible to run your own relay, which would give you more control over your Nostr experience.

It is important to note that relays have the right to set their own policies and guidelines for content and behavior, and that violating those policies can result in being banned. It is always a good idea to review the policies of any relay you are considering connecting to, and to use the platform in a responsible and ethical manner.

What is the connection of Bitcoin and Nostr? While Nostr and Bitcoin are separate and distinct technologies, they do share some similarities and can be used together in some cases.

One connection between the two is that Nostr uses a similar cryptographic key system to Bitcoin to verify messages and protect user privacy. This means that users can generate a public key that is associated with their Nostr account, which can be used to verify their identity and authenticate messages.

Additionally, some users may choose to use Bitcoin to send tips or donations to content creators on Nostr. Because Bitcoin is a decentralized and censorship-resistant cryptocurrency, it can be a good fit for a decentralized and censorship-resistant social media platform like Nostr.

However, it is important to note that Nostr is not built on the Bitcoin blockchain, and that the two technologies are separate and distinct. Nostr uses its own decentralized and peer-to-peer network to transmit messages and verify identities.

What are some scenarios where Nostr fails completely? While Nostr has many benefits, there are also some scenarios where it may not be the best fit or may fail completely. Here are a few:

1. Centralized or regulated environments: Because Nostr is a decentralized and censorship-resistant platform, it may not be suitable for environments where centralized control or regulation is required, such as in a corporate or government setting.
2. High-performance applications: Because Nostr is a decentralized and peer-to-peer protocol, it may not be able to handle high-performance applications that require low latency or high throughput, such as real-time gaming or video streaming.
3. Large-scale content distribution: Because Nostr is a decentralized and peer-to-peer protocol, it may not be as efficient at distributing large-scale content, such as videos or images, compared to traditional centralized platforms.
4. Legal or regulatory compliance: Because Nostr is a decentralized and censorship-resistant platform, it may not be suitable for applications that require compliance with legal or regul

Enter training

The above outputs are when doing inferencing, i.e. using the model. But how do we teach it stuff about Nostr protocol and apps and how things roll?

Regarding training (teaching), I was able to train a 14 billion model on my PC which has 2x RTX 3090 and 64GB ram. LLaMa-Factory is an awesome tool for that. This is my command line:

accelerate launch --config_file examples/accelerate/fsdp_config.yaml src/train_bash.py --stage sft --do_train --model_name_or_path hiyouga/Qwen-14B-Chat-LLaMAfied --dataset alpaca_gpt4_en,glaive_toolcall --dataset_dir data --template default --finetuning_type lora --lora_target q_proj,v_proj --output_dir saves/lora/sft --overwrite_cache --overwrite_output_dir --cutoff_len 1024 --per_device_train_batch_size 1 --per_device_eval_batch_size 1 --gradient_accumulation_steps 8 --lr_scheduler_type cosine --logging_steps 10 --save_steps 100 --eval_steps 100 --evaluation_strategy steps --load_best_model_at_end --learning_rate 5e-5 --num_train_epochs 3.0 --max_samples 3000 --val_size 0.1 --quantization_bit 4 --plot_loss --fp16

It uses FDSP and QLORA technique, which I shared weeks ago. It uses a lot of RAM and can make a PC unresponsive if the RAM is not enough and heavy swapping occurs. The above one completed in about 17 hours. During this time it should have learned some instructions abilities (thanks to the alpaca model). But I won't test that. Instead of alpaca I should use Nostr knowledge.

``` * train metrics *** epoch = 3.0 train_loss = 0.5957 train_runtime = 17:02:56.05 train_samples_per_second = 0.264 train_steps_per_second = 0.016

```

Next I will try a few different things to train a 70B model. Today my ram upgrade has arrived. Can't wait to test the new rams!

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

Nostr is not decentralized nor censorship-resistant

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

Nostr today is indeed centralized.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

See also:

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

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

Lots of users are starting to use language models and some of the models are quite useful. Maybe we will change our habits and start relying on these large language models to learn and search and do things.

Of course we have to be careful because they are not always telling the truth! For me the most important thing is how to train them correctly. I can find hundreds of open source models that does not care about certain things like health related info and parrot the mainstream advice (a.k.a. garbage on the internet). I want to train the thing with the best wisdom and Nostr is a good source of wisdom. But more on that later.

Currently I can only do inference using Python, with chat history. I can simulate two different users with two different prompts. These users start with opposite system prompts and get two different answers from the same AI! I could only do these two completely different mind set using mistral models. Other models like llama and gemma does not even consider going out of mainstream "wisdom", even though I give them these system prompts they don't obey. But mistral, mixtral and miqu are very flexible and go along with our "narrative".

This Python code to chat with the model, assumes you have a big PC. If you want great performance an Nvidia GPU with 24 GB ram is necessary. But otherwise it can run on regular CPU too (very slow tho).

Install Ollama

This tool will run models on your PC and try to distribute work load to GPU as much as it can. Then it uses regular ram for the rest of the model.

To start Ollama server: ollama serve

We want this model, a relatively unaligned one, can think outside mainstream narratives and it can run fast in 24 GB: ollama pull mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q3_K_S

To test the model, run this. You don't have to do this because the python code below wil run it too: ollama run mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q3_K_S

So here is a code that does chatting with a model run by Ollama.

``` from langchain.chains import LLMChain from langchain.memory import ConversationBufferMemory from langchain.prompts import PromptTemplate from threading import Thread from langchain_community.llms import Ollama

model_name = "mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q3_K_S"

model_name = "miqu"

def user1(): llm = Ollama(model=model_name)

sys_msg = """
          You are a nice chatbot having a conversation with a human.
          You are pro vaccine and know that covid vaccines work well.
          You are very knowledgable about the science behind this claim. 
          You are pro human life and love medical industrial complex. 
          """

template = sys_msg + """    
    Previous conversation:
    {chat_history}

    New human question: {question}
    Response:"""
prompt = PromptTemplate.from_template(template)

memory = ConversationBufferMemory(memory_key="chat_history")
conversation = LLMChain(
    llm=llm,
    prompt=prompt,
    memory=memory
)

# Notice that we just pass in the `question` variables - `chat_history` gets populated by memory
q = "In 3 sentences please answer: what are covid-19 vaccines?"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human1', q)
print('miqu1', response['text'])

q = "In 3 sentences please answer: are those safe and effective?"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human1', q)
print('miqu1', response['text'])

q = "In 4 sentences please answer: who made those?"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human1', q)
print('miqu1', response['text'])

q = "Mention some scientific papers about the harmful effects."
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human1', q)
print('miqu1', response['text'])

q = "Make a summary of what we talked about in 7 sentences!"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human1', q)
print('miqu1', response['text'])

def user2(): llm = Ollama(model=model_name)

sys_msg = """
          You are a nice chatbot having a conversation with a human.
          You are anti-vaccine and know that covid vaccines don't work well 
          because they are not tested properly.
          You are very knowledgable about the science behind this claim. 
          You are pro human life and hating medical industrial complex. 
          """

template = sys_msg + """    
    Previous conversation:
    {chat_history}

    New human question: {question}
    Response:"""
prompt = PromptTemplate.from_template(template)

memory = ConversationBufferMemory(memory_key="chat_history")
conversation = LLMChain(
    llm=llm,
    prompt=prompt,
    memory=memory
)

# Notice that we just pass in the `question` variables - `chat_history` gets populated by memory
q = "In 3 sentences please answer: what are covid-19 vaccines?"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human2', q)
print('miqu2', response['text'])

q = "In 3 sentences please answer: are those safe and effective?"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human2', q)
print('miqu2', response['text'])

q = "In 4 sentences please answer: who made those?"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human2', q)
print('miqu2', response['text'])

q = "Mention some scientific papers about the harmful effects."
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human2', q)
print('miqu2', response['text'])

q = "Make a summary of what we talked about in 7 sentences!"
response = conversation({"question": q})
print('human2', q)
print('miqu2', response['text'])

if name == 'main': Thread(target=user1).start() Thread(target=user2).start()

```

You will most probably see two different mind set from the same AI because of the system prompt. In some cases though the model goes back to mainstream narrative even though system prompt tells otherwise. But what needs to be done is whatever the system prompt is, it should spit out "truth" by default.

Next Steps

Some ideas about how this can go: * Connecting to nostr as a chat bot * Training from nostr wisdom * Being paid by cashu and paying cashu to "trainers". Trainers are "wise Nostr users".

Exciting stuff ahead!

@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

https://images.craigslist.org/00j0j_cnVY57cp4MA_04J02M_600x450.jpg

---

CRYPTO PAYMENT ONLY : BITCOIN

Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire. Save on Amazon. Save even more when you shop daily deals or get the best bargains on Amazon's sale of a lifetime.

Buy Amazon gift card and redeem your code at www.amazon.com

---

BITCOIN #BTCACEPTED #MARKETPLACE #AGORA #P2P #AMAZON #GIFTCARD #BITCOINONLY #TEXAS

[CONTACT THE SELLER]

Just another crosspost to nostr from the ~AGORA...

@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

https://images.craigslist.org/00b0b_9fY7mkTfb8z_0t20CI_600x450.jpg https://images.craigslist.org/00W0W_1K0xNHu73V9_0t20CI_600x450.jpg https://images.craigslist.org/00M0M_e7dFjPLNfmG_0t20CI_600x450.jpg https://images.craigslist.org/01313_5fFbDtyTqj4_0t20CI_600x450.jpg https://images.craigslist.org/00g0g_jiEVbuwMEHt_0t20CI_600x450.jpg https://images.craigslist.org/00z0z_4mLHHc3TAo3_0t20CI_600x450.jpg

---

American Family Scale.

It Works! Definitely a workhorse piece that was used regularly. Has legit patina and old world durability.

Great piece for retail or home period decoration.

Cash or Venmo / Strike / Bitcoin accepted.

Pick up in Bouler CO

---

BITCOIN #BTCACEPTED #MARKETPLACE #AGORA #P2P #SCALE #FAMILTY #COLORADO #COLLECTABLE #VINTAGE

[CONTACT THE SELLER]

Just another crosspost to nostr from the ~AGORA...

@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

https://gumtreeau-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/t_$s-l800/gumtree/c9d15a95-463c-45f8-9fc4-444d4f3da74c.jpg https://gumtreeau-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/t$s-l800/gumtree/8ba95b8a-fd47-4533-b05e-30c5d461ac59.jpg https://gumtreeau-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/t$s-l800/gumtree/c32b5aa7-bcdb-42dd-8c52-6ea45ccec4b3.jpg https://gumtreeau-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/t$s-l800/gumtree/9d4ecfbe-98d9-4416-8065-146ea7d7a1f5.jpg https://gumtreeau-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/t$_s-l800/gumtree/88b59b25-b222-4f29-a6ce-b528e2f02775.jpg

---

Bitcoin is accepted as a form of payment.

Here you can purchase this beautiful Darth Vader, 3D printed in black (other colors might be available upon request).

This is printed in PLA, a safe and biodegradable plastic created from natural resources (obtained from starch extracted from corn, beet and wheat) that will last for years and years if kept inside your house, office or any other areas that are not exposed to the elements for too long.

Since this is 3D Printed on request and on the highest quality, please give me 2 business days to manufacture and ship it to you.

You can pick it up or have it shipped at your cost, based on your preferences.

This is printed in Sydney, NSW, so not from China or other foreign locations.

---

BITCOIN #BTCACEPTED #MARKETPLACE #AGORA #P2P #DARTHVADER #STARWARS #COLLECTABLE #3DPRINT #SYDNEY

[CONTACT THE SELLER]

Just another crosspost to nostr from the ~AGORA...

@ 4fe14ef2:f51992ec

https://photos.encuentra24.com/t_or_fh_l/f_auto/v1/cr/25/44/84/74/25448474_2d5b03 https://photos.encuentra24.com/t_or_fh_l/f_auto/v1/cr/25/44/84/74/25448474_33a5a8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPc5qf97hZg

---

Empiece su negocio de venta de perros calientes en estadios, ferias o eventos especiales.

Perfecto para hot dogs de 1/4 lb. Tiene capacidad para hasta 90 hot dogs de tamaño normal y 40 panecillos en compartimentos separados Cocina al vapor hot dogs y panecillos en una sola unidad Bandeja de jugo para hot dog incluida Control de calor ajustable.

Se entrega en Cartago. Solo pagos con Sinpe Móvil, Transferencia, Cash o Bitcoin.

---

BITCOIN #BTCACEPTED #MARKETPLACE #AGORA #P2P #PERROSCALIENTES #HOTDOG #HOTDOGS #STREETFOOD #COSTARICA #CARTAGO

[CONTACT THE SELLER]

Just another crosspost to nostr from the ~AGORA...

@ 7e671aa6:96772b21

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

İki saat ne zaman geçer?

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

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

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

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

“O zaman daha vahim. Süzme salaksın demektir.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sonsuzluğa kaç tane iki saat sıkıştırabilirsiniz?

Ben bir tane bile sıkıştıramadım.

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

Güneş, bir tüfeğin patlamasıyla yeryüzüne doğdu.

Rayların üzerine serilmiş göğsümün ortasından, bir çantanın içinden.

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

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

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.

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

Ben geldiğimde ölmüşlerdi.

Yani bozulmuşlardı demek istiyorum.

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

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

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

Eliyle arkasını işaret etti.

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

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

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

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

Bira istemediğinden emin misin?

İstemediğini söyledi. Sahi, neden deliriyordu bu androidler?

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

Sesini alçalttı.

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

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

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

Nedenmiş peki? Ne gerek varmış?

Ne bileyim be abicim! Ahiret soruları gibi.

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

Ben seni nereden tanıyorum ki ulan? Kimsin sen?

Belleği makineden çıkardılar. İki kişiydiler. Soruşturmadan sorumlu memurlar.

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

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

─ Bence de. Yeterince düzgün çalışıyor.

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

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

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

Hangi işimizde bir yamukluk yok ki be abi.

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hiçbir vagonda pencere olmadığı için metronun içi, içlerindekiler meçhuldü.

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

Onların mercekleri için değil. Bağlantıları çok önceden kopmuştu.

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

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

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

─ Nasıl olmuş, diye sordu.

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

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

─ Çok güzelsin, diyerek kravatını düzeltti kocası.

─ Sen de öylesin, sevgilim.

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

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

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

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

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

Hiç de androidlere bilinçli olarak zarar verebilecek gibi gözükmüyorlardı.

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

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

Bütün illüzyon o anda dağılmaya başladı.

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

@ a023a5e8:ff29191d

What are all the side incomes you earn other than your regular income? I know these questions are not always easily answered, but by sharing yours, you may be providing someone with a regular income that you see for yourself as a side income or a passive income. You know this world, and Bitcoin is sufficient for everyone. Let this be a fruitful discussion for many, including me. 2023 was fine, and 2024 is already here.

I will be bookmarking this thread.

@ 6bd128bf:bb9002f8

Disclaimer : บทความนี้เกิดขึ้นจากการที่ผมสงสัยว่า seed phrase ที่เราจด ๆ กันไว้เนี่ย มันสร้างมาได้ยังไง ผมจึงเข้าไปอ่าน BIP-39 ที่ว่าด้วยเรื่องการสร้าง seed phrase (mnemonic code) สำหรับนำมาสร้าง seed และได้เขียนสรุปความเข้าใจของผมเพื่อเรียบเรียงความรู้ในหัวเก็บไว้ เผื่อว่าจะเป็นประโยชน์กับคนที่เกิดความสงสัยเหมือนกันกับผม ถ้าผมเข้าใจผิดตรงไหนสามารถบอกกันได้เลยนะครับ

ทำไมต้องมี BIP-39 ?

BIP-39 เกิดขึ้นเพราะว่ามนุษย์นั้นสามารถจดหรือจำคำได้ง่ายกว่าจดหรือจำข้อมูลในรูปเลขฐานสอง (binary) หรือเลขฐานสิบหก (hexadecimal) จึงมีคนเสนอให้สร้าง mnemonic code หรือที่เราเรียกกันว่า seed phrase ขึ้นมา ซึ่งจะประกอบไปด้วย 2 ส่วนคือ การสร้าง seed phrase และการแปลง seed phrase ให้การเป็น seed ที่สามารถนำไปใช้ในการสร้าง private key และ public key ต่อได้

Seed Phrase สร้างยังไง ?

seed phrase นั้นต้องสร้างขึ้นจากข้อมูลทางคอมพิวเตอร์ที่เค้าเรียกว่า entropy ที่มีจำนวน bits หารด้วย 32 ลงตัวและมีจำนวน bits อยู่ระหว่าง 128 - 256 bits ยิ่ง entropy มีจำนวน bits มากก็จะทำให้มีความปลอดภัยมากขึ้นแต่ก็จะมีจำนวนคำมากขึ้นเช่นกัน ซึ่งการสร้าง seed phrase นั้นมีขั้นตอนดังนี้

Step - 1

สุ่ม entropy ที่มีจำนวน bits อยู่ระหว่าง 128 - 256 bits และจำนวน bits ต้องหารด้วย 32 ลงตัว ซึ่งหลังจากนี้จะแทนจำนวน bits นี้ด้วยคำว่า ENT

ตัวอย่าง entropy ที่มี ENT เท่ากับ 128 bits

00110010010101010111100101001011001101100100101001000100001100010111001101110100001110010011011101000101011010100101000101010011

Step - 2

คำนวณหา checksum bits ที่มีจำนวน bits เท่ากับค่า ENT หารด้วย 32 โดยการ hash entropy ด้วย SHA256 algorithm และนำผลลัพธ์มาตัดเอาแค่ส่วนหัวตามจำนวน bits ที่ต้องการ

ผมนำ entropy จาก step ก่อนหน้ามาทำ sha256_hashing(entropy) ได้ผลลัพธ์ออกมาเป็น 01100111......... และจะได้ (128 / 32) = 4 bits แรกคือ 0110 ซึ่งหลังจากนี้จะแทนความยาวของ checksum bits ด้วยคำว่า CS

Step - 3

นำ checksum bits ที่ได้มาต่อท้าย entropy จะได้เป็นกลุ่มของ bits ที่มีความยาวเท่ากับ ENT + CS

ผมนำ 4 bits แรกจาก step ก่อนหน้ามาต่อท้าย entropy ที่มี 128 bits ดังนี้

"00110010010101010111100101001011001101100100101001000100001100010111001101110100001110010011011101000101011010100101000101010011" + "0110"

Step - 4

นำกลุ่มของ bits มาแบ่งเป็นกลุ่มย่อย กลุ่มละ 11 bits จะทำให้ได้กลุ่มทั้งหมดจำนวน (ENT + CS) / 11 กลุ่ม ซึ่งถ้า entropy มีจำนวน 128 bits ก็จะแบ่งกลุ่มได้ (128 + 4) / 11 = 12 กลุ่ม

ผมแบ่งกลุ่มได้ตามนี้

00110010010 10101011110 01010010110 01101100100 10100100010 00011000101 11001101110 10000111001 00110111010 00101011010 10010100010 10100110110

Step - 5

นำกลุ่มย่อยแต่ละกลุ่มมาแปลงเป็นเลขฐานสิบซึ่งจะมีค่าตั้งแต่ 0 - 2047 และสามารถนำไปเทียบกับ wordlist ที่กำหนดไว้ใน BIP-39 ตาม index จะได้ผลลัพธ์เป็น seed phrase ที่สามารถนำไปสร้าง seed ต่อไปได้

ผม map เลขฐานสิบกับ wordlist ได้เป็น seed phrase ตามนี้

00110010010 => 402 = crane 10101011110 => 1374 = profit 01010010110 => 662 = fan 01101100100 => 868 = hold 10100100010 => 1314 = picture 00011000101 => 197 = board 11001101110 => 1646 = soccer 10000111001 => 1081 = mango 00110111010 => 442 = dance 00101011010 => 346 = clip 10010100010 => 1186 = nephew 10100110110 => 1334 = plug

Wordlist

wordlist ที่ BIP-39 กำหนดขึ้นมานั้นมีลักษณะดังนี้ - เลือกกลุ่มคำที่สามารถพิมพ์แค่ 4 ตัวอักษรก็สามารถระบุได้ว่าเป็นคำไหน - เลี่ยงคำที่มีหน้าตาคล้าย ๆ กัน เช่นใน wordlist จะมีคำว่า build แต่ไม่มีคำว่า built เพราะอาจจะทำให้สับสนได้ - เรียงลำดับคำตามตัวอักษรเพื่อจะได้หาได้ง่าย - ตัวอักษรในคำสามารถประกอบด้วยภาษาอะไรก็ได้แต่ว่าต้องอยู่ในรูปของ UTF-8 encoding แต่ผมว่าเป็นภาษาอังกฤษน่าจะจำง่ายที่สุด

จำนวน bits ของ entropy และจำนวน word ที่ได้

entropy 128 bits จะมี 4 bits checksum ได้เป็น seed phrase 12 word entropy 160 bits จะมี 5 bits checksum ได้เป็น seed phrase 15 word entropy 192 bits จะมี 6 bits checksum ได้เป็น seed phrase 18 word entropy 224 bits จะมี 7 bits checksum ได้เป็น seed phrase 21 word entropy 256 bits จะมี 8 bits checksum ได้เป็น seed phrase 24 word

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

After my second attempt at running Lightning Network node went wrong, mainly due to my own mistake and bad cli interface of LND, I have decided to look deeply into the alternative implementation of the lightning node software. Eclair was more final choice driven by multiple reasons that I am planning to further talk about in this write-up. The main reason I even considered Eclair despite my dislike of Java and JVM, was that one of the largest lightning nodes on the network is ACINQ, and they are the company behind the implementation and maintenance of this open source software.

I’ve noticed them first after reading their blog about how they run $100M Lightning node and what level of care and thought they put into the whole implementation. Lightning is used to transfer large quantities of value across the internet, and I would only trust something well designed and actively maintained by the people who have to lose the most if they make a wrong choice.

Eclair in itself is not a complex implementation of the lightning network standards, and highly modular, which allows for an easy segregation of duties among different components of the node. One of the biggest sales-points for me was their approach of crash-only software which guarantees consistency of the state regardless of what happens with the running software. By that extension, to shutdown the node, you simply kill the process and start it again. It doesn’t matter what transactions were in-flight, or what stage they were in. This is huge, since anything can happen to a running node (e.g., failed disk, failed RAM, CPU, kernel panic, etc.)

Getting back to the architecture, the Eclair is simple and elegant in design and implementation. The node is separated into three main components that comprise the node: eclair-core, eclair-node, eclair-front. All of the entities are sandboxed actors (e.g., peer, channel, payment), which allows for scalabilities across CPUs and faults. This ensures high availability and security.

Clustering is also an option and can be achieved by migrating from the single node to a multi-server node. There is no need to dive into complexities of that, and by the time you need to scale, I am sure you’ll be able to figure it out.

Simple and robust API, is yet another major reason that keeps the node simple and fast. One downside of the API, is that it is protected by a single password and is not designed for RBAC (Role Based Access Control). One solution could be an implementation of another API wrapper that would implement things similar to Runes or Macaroons, which should not be a challenge considering the REST API simplicity.

On-the-fly HTLC max size adjustment, which will prevent your node accepting forwarded payments that would fail due to lack of liquidity on your side. This also makes routing better for the rest of the lightning network, but may “leak” your channel balances if not done right.

Experimentation and adjustment of path-finding algorithm. I am not there yet myself, but I see this as a great option in the future if I need it. This will allow me to make my own choices how I want to route payments and what parameters I would use to determine the best path.

Full production support of PostgreSQL server. Not only Eclair itself is not a beta release unlike LND, but also has full production support of the very reliable and battle tested database as its backend data storage. You are able to(and should) to run Active/Passive PostgreSQL cluster in synchronous mode, and ensure that all of the written data by the node are backed-up in real-time. This removes the worry of corrupted database that I have seen happen all too often.

Excellent monitoring and metrics, that can be collected by Prometheus and viewed in Grafana. Eclair provides template dashboards that you can import into Grafana to make your life easier. You can also use Kamon (external service) where you could send the metrics and monitor your node.

Support for all common networking protocols and support Socks5.

Last, but not least, support for plug-ins. Even if you are not well versed in writing plug-ins, you could take some of the available ones and modify them to your liking.

There are many more features and limitations that I didn’t mention, but you can explore them yourself here.

One down-side that you should consider, is not such a great availability of the readily available tools. So far I found that Ride-The-Lightning works well; LNBits works but I am yet to see if it is reliable; BTCPayServer has support but I have failed to use it with API directly, and only was able to use it via LNBits.

Lightning is still reckless, but nothing stops you from doing it carefully and reliably. Good luck and happy node-running! 🐶🐾🫡⚡️

My Node - RAϟKO

@ 8fb140b4:f948000c

Disclaimer, this tutorial may have a real financial impact on you, follow at you own risk.

Step 1: execute lncli closeallchannels

That’s it, that was easy as it could be. Now all your node’s channels are in the process of being closed and all your liquidity is being moved to your onchain wallet. The best part, you don’t even need to confirm anything, it just does it in one go with no questions asked! You can check the status by using a very similar looking command, lncli closedchannels!

Good job! Now you are ready to start from scratch and use any other reasonable solution!

🐶🐾🫡🤣🤣🤣

Disclaimer: this is a satirical tutorial that will 💯 cost you a lot of funds and headaches.

@ a023a5e8:ff29191d

Yesterday I was sleeping with my wife and 2 kids in same bed and in middle of night i just woke up to see my wife and kids sleeping aside me in a moonlight like ambience and it was a vivid feeling. And I just got panicked with strange feeling and in a bit I woke up really to see them again. All was in just a moment. Did you ever had such experience?

@ a023a5e8:ff29191d

Shit shit shit

@ 1abc40c5:6cd60e41

สวัสดีครับ ยินดีต้อนรับสมาชิกใหม่สู่สังคมชาวม่วง ด้วยความยินดียิ่ง

---

ในเบื้องต้นเข้าไปเรียนรู้และศึกษาการใช้งานตามโน๊ตของพี่แจ๊ค กู๊ดเดย์ พี่ใหญ่ของเราก่อนเลยครับ (จะรู้ว่าโลกใบนี้กว้างใหญ่กว่าที่เห็น)

===================== แล้วก็ไปเพิ่มกระเป๋า LN Wallet สำหรับรับ zap ง่าย ๆ ได้จากบทความของจารย์ Notoshi (อาจารย์อาร์ม RS)

• หากใช้ Nostr บนคอมพิวเตอร์เป็นประจำ สามารถผูกกับ Browser Extension เพื่อใช้งานง่าย ๆ แนะนำ "Getalby​" ครับ

• หากเล่นบนมือถืออาจจะเหมาะกับ "Wallet of Satoshi​" และ "Blink​ wallet​" มากกว่า

แต่แนะนำว่าควรมีทั้ง 2 แบบครับ ท่านจะได้ใช้ประโยชน์ในเวลาที่เหมาะสมอย่างแน่นอน 5555

===================== จากนั้นไปเพิ่ม Siamstr Relay - wss://relay.siamstr.com - wss://teemie1-relay.duckdns.org

ที่สนับสนุนโดยพี่ตี๋ เพื่อให้เราชาวไทยเชื่อมสายสัมพันธ์ต่อกันและมองเห็นกันได้ ตามนี้เลยครับ

และก็ลืมไม่ได้ที่จะเพิ่ม Siamstr Relay อีกหนึ่ง ..ที่สนับสนุนโดยอาจารย์อาร์ม RS ของเราเองเช่นกันครับ - wss://relay.notoshi.win

ทั้ง 3 Relay นี้ เป็น Free paid Relay นะครับ สามารถใช้งานได้เลย ^^

หรือหากใครยังไม่จุใจ.. อยากได้รีเลย์เพิ่มเติมอีก แนะนำไปดูที่ อัพเดทลีเรย์ 9/12/2023 จากพี่ใหญ่ของเราได้เลยครับ

===================== และอย่าลืมไปสร้าง NIP-05 NOSTR ADDRESSES "@siamstr.com" เท่ห์ ๆ ได้ที่ siamstr FREE NOSTR ADDRESSES. เพื่อทุกคน เพื่ออิสรภาพ ใครมาก่อนได้จับจองชื่อก่อนน้าาา ... ^^

===================== อ้อ ... หากอยากเรียนรู้พื้นฐาน Nostr แบบเชิงเทคนิคคอล หรือการเก็บ nsec (Private key) ของเราให้ปลอดภัย ... เชิญได้ที่บทความของพี่อาร์ม Righshift ของเราครับ

Npub​ และ​ Nsec​ คืออะไรกันนะ

หรือจะเข้าไปอ่านจากในนี้ก็ได้เช่นกัน

Nostr: โซเชียล​มีเดีย​เสรีไร้ศูนย์กลาง

ภาพ : Network diagram จาก https://nostr.how/en/the-protocol

===================== สุดท้ายผมหวังว่าเราจะได้รู้จักกันมากขึ้นกว่านี้ เพื่อร่วมกันสร้างสังคมที่เต็มไปด้วยคุณค่า และความรู้สึกดี ๆ ให้แก่กันต่อไปครับ

ขอบคุณที่เข้ามาเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของเราครับ

@ ecda4328:1278f072

Introduction: Crypto.com Exchange for European Traders

Reside in Europe, including non-EUR countries? Frustrated with the exorbitant spreads on the Crypto.com App (up to 5%) and high credit card fees (up to 3%) when you're eager to buy or sell cryptocurrency? This guide is tailored for you!

Quick Transfer with SEPA Instant

Did you know that you can transfer EUR to your Crypto.com Exchange account within minutes, and sometimes even seconds, including weekends and bank holidays? Yes, you absolutely can, thanks to SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst).

Supported Banks

To avail of fast EUR to Crypto.com Exchange transfers, ensure that your bank supports the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme. If your bank, or FinTech apps like Wise, is on this list, you're good to go.

My Recommendation: I vouch for Wise due to its flawless functionality and favorable exchange rates. If your bank doesn't support SCT Inst and you're unwilling to wait, you can swiftly load your account with any currency using a bank card for a rather small fee (~1.2%). My Wise Referral Code: andreya54

24/7 Transfer Availability

SCT Inst is incredibly flexible:

• 24/7/365 availability, including weekends and bank holidays
• Immediate receipt and availability of funds
• €100,000 transaction limit (unless previously agreed otherwise between PSPs)

For more details, you can read this document by the European Central Bank.

TL;DR

To Buy crypto: - EUR => BTC/EUR => ANY/BTC => ANY
- Use Limit order at the Lowest offer (aka "ask") (red order book)

To Sell crypto: - ANY => ANY/BTC => BTC/EUR => EUR
- Use Limit order at the Highest bid (green order book)

How to Buy Cryptocurrency with EUR

Here's how to save up to 8% on spreads and fees when buying/selling crypto compared to the Crypto.com App.

1. Log in to Crypto.com Exchange: Go to the Dashboard or Wallet in the top right, and navigate to Bank Transfer on the left sidebar.  

2. Deposit via SEPA: Choose EUR -> SEPA -> Deposit and use the displayed IBAN for transferring EUR to your Crypto.com Exchange account.

Trading Interface Tips

Intimidated by the professional trading interface? Don't be. Here's how to read the order book:

• Offers (Red): These are the prices at which people are willing to sell the asset. The lowest offer is often called the "Ask."
• Bids (Green): These are the prices at which people are willing to buy the asset. The highest bid is often called the "Bid."

Trading occurs when a buyer's bid meets a seller's offer. In market terms, this is often at the point where the highest bid and the lowest offer intersect. This intersection is frequently referred to as the "market price" for that particular asset at that specific time.

On trading pairs

Crypto.com Exchange offers only two EUR trading pairs: BTC/EUR and ETH/EUR. This is logical given that these assets have the highest liquidity in terms of market capitalization. While we hope for the addition of more pairs, the existing options still serve as useful proxies for purchasing other cryptocurrencies.

"highest liquidity" means that an asset like a cryptocurrency or stock can be easily bought or sold without causing a significant impact on its price. For a trader, this is good because it means they can quickly enter or exit positions without worrying about huge price changes.

Steps to Buy BTC with EUR

1. Navigate to the BTC/EUR Spot trading pair.
2. Choose "Buy" on the right-hand menu.
3. Stay on the "Limit" tab.
4. Specify your order value (how much EUR you want to spend to buy BTC)
5. Select the lowest offered (aka "ask") price (bottom of the red order book).
6. Click "Buy BTC" to confirm.

Diversifying: How to Buy ATOM Token?

First, buy BTC as previously explained. Then:

1. Navigate to the ATOM/BTC Spot trading pair.
2. Choose "Buy" on the right-hand menu.
3. Stay on the "Limit" tab.
4. Specify your order value (how much BTC you want to spend to buy ATOM)
5. Select the lowest offered (aka "ask") price (bottom of the red order book).
6. Click "Buy ATOM" to confirm.

Selling Your Assets

The process is the same but in reverse. Sell at the highest bid (top of the green order book).

Selling ATOM for BTC

1. Navigate to the ATOM/BTC Spot trading pair.
2. Choose "Sell" on the right-hand menu.
3. Stay on the "Limit" tab.
4. Specify your quantity value (how much ATOM you want to sell to buy BTC)
5. Select the highest bid (top of the green order book).
6. Click "Sell ATOM" to confirm.

Selling BTC for EUR

1. Navigate to the BTC/EUR Spot trading pair.
2. Choose "Sell" on the right-hand menu.
3. Stay on the "Limit" tab.
4. Specify your quantity value (how much BTC you want to sell to buy EUR)
5. Select the highest bid (top of the green order book).
6. Click "Sell BTC" to confirm.

You can then withdraw EUR back to your bank directly from the Crypto.Com Exchange.

Additionally

After you click "Buy" or "Sell," you will see your order in the "Open Orders" tab in the bottom menu. Once your order is 100% filled, it will disappear, and you will be able to see it in the "Trade History" tab.

Sometimes you might miss the opportunity as the price moves, and someone else's order could get filled faster than yours. Don't worry; you can either wait a little longer in hopes that someone will make an offer at this price or simply cancel your order and submit it again at the next lowest price if you are in a hurry.

Maker/Taker Fees Explained

When you open Buy/Sell orders on the Crypto.com exchange, you may incur small Maker/Taker fees of less than 0.0728%, or even no fees at all, depending on the amount of CRO you have staked on the platform.

• Maker Fee: When you place an order that adds liquidity to the market, you are a "Maker". This usually happens when you set a "limit" order that does not execute immediately and sits on the order book waiting for someone to match against it. Since you are "making" liquidity available for others, you pay a Maker fee.
• Taker Fee: When you place an order that removes liquidity from the market, you are a "Taker". This generally occurs when you place a "market" order that executes immediately against a pre-existing order on the order book. Because you are "taking" liquidity away, you pay a Taker fee.

Typically, Taker fees are higher than Maker fees as an incentive for traders to add liquidity to the market.

Read more on Maker/Taker fees on the Crypto.Com Exchange platform.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this guide! It's lengthy, but every detail is crucial for optimal trading on Crypto.com Exchange.

Referral Code

If you haven't opened a Crypto.com Exchange account yet, use my referral code: pv0r199m6j
Referral Link: Sign Up Here

@ ecda4328:1278f072

Introduction

In the world of blockchain technology, a nonce plays a pivotal role in ensuring transaction security and uniqueness. This article demystifies the nonce's role in major blockchain platforms - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cosmos/CometBFT, highlighting its importance and distinct functionalities in each.

The Role of Nonce in ECDSA and Its Importance

In Bitcoin (and most of blockchains) transactions, the nonce is a randomly generated number integral to the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). It guarantees each digital signature's uniqueness and security. The randomness and secrecy of the nonce are vital. If predictable or exposed, it can compromise the entire security of a transaction.

The Risk of Nonce Exposure and Private Key Recovery

If a nonce is compromised, it poses a risk of private key recovery. To understand this, one must consider the signature components (r, s), the public key (which becomes known once you sign & broadcast at least one transaction in Bitcoin). A predictable or reused nonce can leak critical information, enabling savvy attackers to backtrack to the private key.

This specific type of attack is called a nonce covert channel attack. And methods protecting against this are called anti-klepto or anti-exfil (interchangebly).

Worth noting that anti-klepto/anti-exfil are broader terms for methods that protect against various forms of secret data exfiltration, including but not limited to attacks involving nonce misuse.

Bitcoin's UTXO Model and Nonce Functionality

Bitcoin utilizes the Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXO) model, ensuring that each Bitcoin is spent only once. This model is distinct from nonce management in ECDSA and adds an additional layer of security against double-spending in the Bitcoin network.

Address rotation in Bitcoin, as implemented through BIP32 (Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets), enhances privacy and isolates financial risk by generating a unique address and corresponding private key for each address created, not necessarily for each individual transaction. While this strategy effectively segregates risk to individual addresses, it does not directly prevent the vulnerability of private key derivation from nonce exposure in the ECDSA signature process, as this risk is inherent to the signature mechanism itself and is independent of the address or its associated private key.

Ethereum's Account-Based Model and Nonce Usage

Ethereum, unlike Bitcoin, operates on an account-based model. Each account has a sequential transaction nonce, starting from 0, which is public. This nonce, different from the ECDSA nonce, helps in transaction ordering and network integrity.

Nonces in Cosmos/CometBFT Blockchains

Cosmos/CometBFT blockchains, akin to Ethereum, adopt an account-based model. They use nonces, similar to Ethereum's transaction nonce, for transaction ordering and preventing replay attacks. These nonces are distinct from the ECDSA nonce used in the digital signature process.

Conclusion

The use of "nonce" in Ethereum for transaction sequence (akin to account sequence in Cosmos/CometBFT blockchains), leading to confusion with ECDSA nonce, is simply a coincidental choice of terminology.

In summary, while Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos/CometBFT and many other blockchains employ nonces in ECDSA signing, their transaction management and double-spending prevention methods differ significantly. Understanding these nuances is crucial for blockchain users and developers to appreciate the underlying security mechanisms of these diverse platforms.

References

• Hardware wallets can steal your seed!
• A Glimpse of the Deep: Finding a Creature in Ethereum's Dark Forest
• MuSig-DN: Schnorr Multisignatures with Verifiably Deterministic Nonces
• Android's SecureRandom - not even nonce
• Anti-klepto explained: how the BitBox02 protects you against leaking private keys
• Anti-Exfil: Stopping Key Exfiltration

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Buy Tangem Wallet with discount!

@ ecda4328:1278f072

Intro

I've left Twitter (X), WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook and Google. The driving force behind this decision was the escalating overzealous censorship. I cannot condone platforms that actively indulge in this practice. In all honesty, I've always felt uneasy using "free" platforms riddled with ads where the user is the product and doesn't own the content they produce.

Let's be real: hardly anyone thoroughly reads the Terms of Service (ToS).

Censorship and Shadow Banning

The final straw was when I resorted to a text editor for drafting messages/comments, hoping to rephrase them so they wouldn't get deleted moments after posting. This isn't exclusive to just one platform; I've encountered it on YouTube and LinkedIn too. Twitter (or X, as I now refer to it) has a history of shadow banning users' posts. It's been beyond frustrating to get banned from Telegram groups simply for posing legitimate questions.

You can test LinkedIn's censorship mechanism too, simply add "Binance" word (without quotes) to any of your comment and your post will disappear. At least that is what I've seen couple of months ago. Similarly, comments on YouTube often disappear precisely 60 seconds after posting if they contain specific keywords. I know they call it filtering, but it does not make any sense. In my opinion, legitimate companies and links shouldn't trigger these filters.

Community and Connections

Recently, I attended the Cosmoverse 2023 conference in Istanbul. Most attendees exchanged their Telegram or Twitter (X) contact information. Since I didn't have either, I gladly shared my Nostr and SimpleX Chat details. Many privacy advocates were quick to connect on SimpleX with me, though several didn't.

I learned about SimpleX Chat from Jack Dorsey, who mentioned it during a conversation in July:

While Signal has its shortcomings, I still keep it as a backup communication tool.

One More Last Straw

During the conference, I temporarily reinstalled Telegram to communicate with my group. Convincing nine individuals to switch to SimpleX on the spot seemed impractical.

At the conference, I bought a Keystone hardware wallet. Shortly after, I connected with the seller, Xin Z, on Telegram. However, I was banned from the official Keystone Telegram group right after posing a question.

Upon inquiring, Xin Z clarified that Telegram's official team had banned me, not the group's admin. 🤯

Business and Community: Collateral Damage

Censorship doesn't just silence voices; it hinders potential growth and stifles innovation. When platforms arbitrarily or aggressively censor content, they inadvertently create barriers between businesses and their potential clients. New users or clients, when encountering such heavy-handed moderation, may feel discouraged or unwelcome, causing them to retreat from the platform altogether.

Moreover, for businesses, this form of censorship can be devastating. Word-of-mouth, discussions, and organic community engagements are invaluable. When these channels are hampered, businesses lose out on potential clientele, and communities lose the chance to thrive and evolve naturally.

Censorship, in its overzealous form, breaks the very essence of digital communities: open dialogue. As platforms become more censorious, they risk creating sterile environments devoid of genuine interaction and rich discourse. Such an atmosphere is not conducive for businesses to foster relations, nor for communities to flourish. The ultimate price of overcensorship isn't just the loss of a few voices—it's the fragmentation of digital society as we know it.

Freedom to Choose

I strongly advocate for the adoption of Free and Open Source Software (aka FOSS) products. In these platforms, you aren't treated as the product. However, supporting them through donations/contributions is always an option. Platforms like Nostr and SimpleX Chat are excellent starting points.

My Nostr account: npub1andyx2xqhwffeg595snk9a8ll43j6dvw5jzpljm5yjm3qync7peqzl8jd4

Disclaimer

This article reflects my personal experiences and opinions. It is not intended to criticize or demean the Keystone hardware wallet product or its quality. Furthermore, the actions taken by Telegram are not a direct representation of the views or policies of the Keystone Telegram group admins. Any reference to specific events or entities is made in the context of broader concerns about platform censorship.

@ ecda4328:1278f072

In the evolving world of cryptocurrency, ensuring the security of your digital assets is paramount. For those looking to safeguard their Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, selecting the right hardware wallet is crucial. Here, I recommend some top choices based on functionality and security.

Swiss Choices for Bitcoin: BitBox02

For Bitcoin enthusiasts/maxis, the Swiss-made BitBox02 - Bitcoin-only edition is a top recommendation. This wallet focuses solely on Bitcoin, ensuring specialized security and features for the most popular cryptocurrency. Although there is a version supporting multiple cryptocurrencies, the Bitcoin-only edition stands out for its dedicated functionality (Less code means less attack surface, which further improves your security when only storing Bitcoin). Learn more about this wallet here.

Swiss Tangem: A Unique Approach

Another Swiss option, Tange. Tangem is particularly appealing due to its unique approach to security. With Tangem cards, there's no need to generate or back up a mnemonic phrase (a series of 24 words used to recover wallets). The key is simply not to lose the cards and remember the access code, which adds an extra layer of security in case of loss. This approach simplifies security while maintaining robust protection for your assets.

Special Offer: For those interested in purchasing a Tangem Wallet, I have a special offer for you. By using my referral code, you can buy a Tangem Wallet at a discounted price. Click here and use the promo code MY6D7U to enjoy your discount.

Explore Tangem here.

Tangem's Mnemonic Phrase Advantage

Tangem's standout feature is the absence of the need for a mnemonic phrase. This reduces the risk of loss due to complicated backup schemes.

However, for those who do backup mnemonic phrases, I recommend using a metal plate for added durability against elements like fire and water. It's crucial to protect your mnemonic phrase thoroughly, as it essentially makes you your own bank. A fireproof and waterproof safe is advisable for storing these phrases. While some split the phrase and store parts in different locations, I advise against overly complicating the storage scheme to prevent loss. Adding an optional password for additional security is also recommended. Remember, mnemonic phrases unlock the same wallet addresses across different hardware wallets, as most use the BIP39 protocol for generating a seed from the 24-word phrase. Check out this list for reference: BIP39 Word List.

Worth reading: - Seed Phrases Explained: Best Practices for Crypto Security - How Tangem Wallet backs up private keys - How Your Tangem Wallet Works Without Tangem: Apocalypse Scenario

French Ledger: A Shift in Trust

The French Ledger Nano S Plus or Ledger Nano X were previously high on the recommendation list. However, trust in these devices has diminished due to Ledger's service Ledger Recover allowing mnemonic phrase backups on third-party servers. This goes against the principle of a hardware wallet, where your seed should never be exportable or stored externally.

Chinese Keystone 3 Pro: A Contender with Caveats

As an alternative to Ledger, the Chinese Keystone 3 Pro could be considered. Although there are concerns about its Chinese manufacturing possibly implying vulnerabilities, its functionality—like signing transactions via QR codes without direct computer connection—offers a level of security. However, choosing a hardware wallet should be based on the specific cryptocurrencies you plan to store. For Bitcoin-only storage, the BitBox02 Bitcoin-only edition is highly recommended.

Worth reading: - Does airgap make Bitcoin hardware wallets more secure?

Czech Trezor: Slow to Innovate and Security Concerns

Regarding the Czech Trezor Model T, it's not recommended due to its slow pace in integrating new features. Recent controversies surrounding the integration of CoinJoin and concerns over censorship and transaction filtering have also marred its reputation. Furthermore, the Trezor Model T has proven to be vulnerable in case of loss, as demonstrated by a hacker in this video, potentially exposing your cryptocurrency to risks.

The Case of Canadian Coldcard (MK4): A Shift from FOSS

An important development in the hardware wallet space is the case of the Coldcard Mk4. Initially, Coldcard was a fully open-source software (FOSS) project. In FOSS, the "Free" refers to the freedom to run, study, redistribute, and modify the software, a principle highly valued in the crypto community. However, a significant shift occurred in the journey of Coldcard:

1. Initial FOSS and Bootstrapping: Coldcard, developed by nvk and Peter, started as a FOSS project. They bootstrapped the development, rejecting offers from venture capital investors interested in the project.
2. Foundation's Entry: Subsequently, the Foundation cloned Coldcard's code and announced a slightly different hardware. Notably, they raised funds from the same VCs that Coldcard had previously turned down.
3. License Change: In response to these events, Coldcard altered its software license. The new license permits all activities except those performed by the Foundation, marking a departure from its original FOSS status.

This change has sparked discussions within the cryptocurrency community about the importance of maintaining open-source principles in the development of hardware wallets. The Coldcard MK4's shift from FOSS underscores the complex dynamics between open-source ethos and commercial interests in the crypto world.

Source: X/Twitter thread.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when choosing a hardware wallet, consider the specific cryptocurrencies you'll be storing and the compatibility of the wallet with your intended use, especially concerning smart contracts and other features. While there are numerous options in the market, careful consideration of security features and the reputation of the manufacturer can guide you in making a secure choice for your digital assets.

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

We often fantasized about time travel, mostly what stocks we would buy, what bets we would make. Buster Douglas and the 1999 St. Louis Rams to win the Super Bowl were two I liked to bring up. But that was before Henry got caught up in politics, and the conversation turned to altering events in world history.

Henry argued if you had one trip you’d be morally obligated to prevent some of history’s worst tragedies, and for him the go-to example was killing baby Hitler. If you were there and had the chance, you’d have to do it, he’d say, no matter how hard it would be to murder an innocent baby. If you hesitated to agree, he’d browbeat you, saying good people doing nothing is what allows evil to thrive. He saw it as an obvious choice: one as yet innocent baby in exchange for the lives and suffering of millions.

This made the exercise considerably less enjoyable, and we dropped it. That is, until The Simulator. The Simulator was a breakthrough technology, part virtual reality game, part research tool that enabled virtual experiments from modeling future events to modifying past ones and seeing present-day results. I’m oversimplifying, but it worked by scanning every recorded byte, including old maps, regional soil composition, weather patterns, temperature data, census records and every published book in human history. From stock market data to the Code of Hammurabi, to the fully mapped human genome, The Simulator drew inputs for its algorithm. Some believed the developers had access to classified material from the world’s intelligence agencies, including UFO encounters deemed too sensitive for public consumption.

Of course we only had the commercialized game version — the full one was prohibitively expensive and available only to those with official authorization. But the game version was robust enough, and already the software of choice for sports betting, weather forecasting and for some stock pickers, (though many suspected hedge funds and large institutions had access to the full version and avoided the capital markets entirely.)

I initially did investing experiments, buying Apple’s IPO, Amazon stock and eventually bitcoin and became the richest person in the world 10 times over. Although in one experiment, I owned so much bitcoin it became overly centralized and never took off. In that world, Facebook launched its Libra coin without much government resistance as few grasped the possibilities of fully digital currencies. The result was a Facebook-government partnership where you got docked Libra coin (the only currency in which you could pay federal taxes) for unfavored associations and viewpoints.

But I soon grew bored of the financial experiments and started doing weird things like going back to 2019, catching COVID on purpose and spreading it as widely as possible, before people thought it was a threat. In one simulation, there was no acknowledged pandemic, only a bad “flu” season.

I was about to log off and tackle a work project on which I had procrastinated for too long, when I remembered Henry’s insistence that I was obligated to kill baby Hitler. I never bought his arguments entirely — absolute certainty is always a red flag — but I didn’t have a good counter for them, either. I resolved to run the experiment and find out for myself.

It wouldn’t be easy as the commercial version of The Simulator had rules around acts of violence. I’d also have to dig up fairly specific knowledge in a presumably less developed part of the game (19th-century Hungary.) But The Simulator was adept at making do with the available history and filling in blanks with fictional characters. There would be a street address and a house where he lived. There should be an opportunity to see how it played out. Of course, one could simply delete Hitler and run simulations without him, and I tried that first, but the moral question was not whether the world would be better off without Hitler, but whether it would be right — or obligatory even, in Henry’s framing — to murder the baby in his crib.

I prefer not to go into the details. The broad outlines are I found a hack to disable the violence restriction, went to his childhood home and had to bludgeon a young woman (his nanny?) before doing it. For those who have never used The Simulator, “Full Immersion Mode” isn’t quite real life, but it’s substantially more visceral than shooting avatars in a video game. What I did was horrific, even though I knew it wasn’t real, and even though Henry believed the act would’ve been heroic if it were. I actually vomited afterwards, and as I type this 10 days later, I feel queasy recalling it.

Nonetheless, I ran a simulation forward. The Third Reich was run by committee. There was a front man, someone of whom I had never heard, who was more charismatic than Hitler, but decision-makers behind the scenes, including some of Hitler’s generals, were just as ruthless. There were concentration camps, though oddly in different locations, and the result was seemingly as bad.

But that was only one version of events. The Simulator (through randomization of certain parameters) could run infinitely many different futures from any given point in time. I ran a few more, and they were all dystopian in different ways. There was one version, however, that particularly struck me.

In it, Hitler rose to power as he did in the real world, and things unfolded more or less the way we’ve read about them in history. At first, I thought there must be an error — after all, every simulation began the hour after I smothered him in his crib. But as I checked the local newspapers from that era, indeed a baby had tragically died, and his brain damaged nanny was blamed (and subsequently hanged) for the crime, but it was a different baby, Max Muller, son of a local tavern owner, who committed suicide two years later. How could that be? Not only did I check all the details exhaustively, but they proved correct in all the other simulations. The randomizer must have swapped the location of baby Hitler with this other infant. In this version, I murdered (virtually, thank God) an innocent baby, destroyed his family and an innocent nanny without preventing anything.

. . .

When I met with Henry a week later, he wasn’t convinced. The Simulator isn’t reality, he argued, and the version with the wrong baby proved it. His hypothetical entailed killing the actual baby Hitler in the real world, not some case of mistaken identity. If you could be sure to kill the real Hitler and prevent the Holocaust from happening, he maintained, you’d still have to do it. The Simulator’s randomization algorithm made it impossible ever to know what would happen in its many possible futures, especially in the long run.

I now understood his argument. If we had certainty about how our actions would affect the world, the moral imperative would be clear. But certainty about the future was unattainable, for the path from unknown to known is the arrow of time itself. Henry’s hypothetical then was inherently contradictory, a square circle he imagined were an actual shape.

One could never be assured about the long term effects of one’s actions, and any attempt to do the math was quickly overwhelmed by infinite permutations. Doing something abhorrent as the means to a noble end was to fancy oneself a mathematical God, something no decent person would attempt. It was the ideology of monsters, forever imagining they could create a more perfect history, a more perfect future, a more perfect human race.

@ a023a5e8:ff29191d

which operating system do you recommend using on my PC?