@ 39cc53c9:27168656

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The new website is finally live! I put in a lot of hard work over the past months on it. I'm proud to say that it's out now and it looks pretty cool, at least to me!

Why rewrite it all?

The old kycnot.me site was built using Python with Flask about two years ago. Since then, I've gained a lot more experience with Golang and coding in general. Trying to update that old codebase, which had a lot of design flaws, would have been a bad idea. It would have been like building on an unstable foundation.

That's why I made the decision to rewrite the entire application. Initially, I chose to use SvelteKit with JavaScript. I did manage to create a stable site that looked similar to the new one, but it required Jav aScript to work. As I kept coding, I started feeling like I was repeating "the Python mistake". I was writing the app in a language I wasn't very familiar with (just like when I was learning Python at that mom ent), and I wasn't happy with the code. It felt like spaghetti code all the time.

So, I made a complete U-turn and started over, this time using Golang. While I'm not as proficient in Golang as I am in Python now, I find it to be a very enjoyable language to code with. Most aof my recent pr ojects have been written in Golang, and I'm getting the hang of it. I tried to make the best decisions I could and structure the code as well as possible. Of course, there's still room for improvement, which I'll address in future updates.

Now I have a more maintainable website that can scale much better. It uses a real database instead of a JSON file like the old site, and I can add many more features. Since I chose to go with Golang, I mad e the "tradeoff" of not using JavaScript at all, so all the rendering load falls on the server. But I believe it's a tradeoff that's worth it.

What's new

• UI/UX - I've designed a new logo and color palette for kycnot.me. I think it looks pretty cool and cypherpunk. I am not a graphic designer, but I think I did a decent work and I put a lot of thinking on it to make it pleasant!
• Point system - The new point system provides more detailed information about the listings, and can be expanded to cover additional features across all services. Anyone can request a new point!
• ToS Scrapper: I've implemented a powerful automated terms-of-service scrapper that collects all the ToS pages from the listings. It saves you from the hassle of reading the ToS by listing the lines that are suspiciously related to KYC/AML practices. This is still in development and it will improve for sure, but it works pretty fine right now!
• Search bar - The new search bar allows you to easily filter services. It performs a full-text search on the Title, Description, Category, and Tags of all the services. Looking for VPN services? Just search for "vpn"!
• Transparency - To be more transparent, all discussions about services now take place publicly on GitLab. I won't be answering any e-mails (an auto-reply will prompt to write to the corresponding Gitlab issue). This ensures that all service-related matters are publicly accessible and recorded. Additionally, there's a real-time audits page that displays database changes.
• Listing Requests - I have upgraded the request system. The new form allows you to directly request services or points without any extra steps. In the future, I plan to enable requests for specific changes to parts of the website.
• Lightweight and fast - The new site is lighter and faster than its predecessor!
• Tor and I2P - At last! kycnot.me is now officially on Tor and I2P!

How?

This rewrite has been a labor of love, in the end, I've been working on this for more than 3 months now. I don't have a team, so I work by myself on my free time, but I find great joy in helping people on their private journey with cryptocurrencies. Making it easier for individuals to use cryptocurrencies without KYC is a goal I am proud of!

If you appreciate my work, you can support me through the methods listed here. Alternatively, feel free to send me an email with a kind message!

Technical details

All the code is written in Golang, the website makes use of the chi router for the routing part. I also make use of BigCache for caching database requests. There is 0 JavaScript, so all the rendering load falls on the server, this means it needed to be efficient enough to not drawn with a few users since the old site was reporting about 2M requests per month on average (note that this are not unique users).

The database is running with mariadb, using gorm as the ORM. This is more than enough for this project. I started working with an sqlite database, but I ended up migrating to mariadb since it works better with JSON.

The scraper is using chromedp combined with a series of keywords, regex and other logic. It runs every 24h and scraps all the services. You can find the scraper code here.

The frontend is written using Golang Templates for the HTML, and TailwindCSS plus DaisyUI for the CSS classes framework. I also use some plain CSS, but it's minimal.

The requests forms is the only part of the project that requires JavaScript to be enabled. It is needed for parsing some from fields that are a bit complex and for the "captcha", which is a simple Proof of Work that runs on your browser, destinated to avoid spam. For this, I use mCaptcha.

@ 957df479:13e9e08e

LiaScript Course

Course Main Title

This is your course initialization stub.

Please see the Docs to find out what is possible in LiaScript.

If you want to use instant help in your Atom IDE, please type lia to see all available shortcuts.

Markdown

You can use common Markdown syntax to create your course, such as:

1. Lists

2. ordered or

3. unordered

4. ones ...

| Header 1 | Header 2 | | :--------- | :--------- | | Item 1 | Item 2 |

Images:

Extensions

 --{{0}}--

But you can also include other features such as spoken text.

  --{{1}}--

Insert any kind of audio file:

   {{1}}

?audio

 --{{2}}--

Even videos or change the language completely.

   {{2-3}}

!?video

  --{{3 Russian Female}}--

Первоначально создан в 2004 году Джоном Грубером (англ. John Gruber) и Аароном Шварцем. Многие идеи языка были позаимствованы из существующих соглашений по разметке текста в электронных письмах...

{{3}}

Type "voice" to see a list of all available languages.

Styling

The whole text-block should appear in purple color and with a wobbling effect. Which is a bad example, please use it with caution ... ~~ only this is red ;-) ~~

Charts

Use ASCII-Art to draw diagrams:

                                Multiline
1.9 |    DOTS
    |                 ***
  y |               *     *
  - | r r r r r r r*r r r r*r r r r r r r
  a |             *         *
  x |            *           *
  i | B B B B B * B B B B B B * B B B B B
  s |         *                 *
    | *  * *                       * *  *
 -1 +------------------------------------
    0              x-axis               1

Quizzes

A Textquiz

What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall?

[[dam]]

Multiple Choice

Just add as many points as you wish:

[[X]] Only the **X** marks the correct point.
[[ ]] Empty ones are wrong.
[[X]] ...

Single Choice

Just add as many points as you wish:

[( )] ...
[(X)] <-- Only the **X** is allowed.
[( )] ...

Executable Code

A drawing example, for demonstrating that any JavaScript library can be used, also for drawing.

```javascript // Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart1 new Chartist.Line('#chart1', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[100, 120, 180, 200]] });

// Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart2 new Chartist.Bar('#chart2', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[5, 2, 8, 3]] }); ```

Projects

You can make your code executable and define projects:

``` js -EvalScript.js let who = data.first_name + " " + data.last_name;

if(data.online) { who + " is online"; } else { who + " is NOT online"; } json +Data.json { "first_name" : "Sammy", "last_name" : "Shark", "online" : true } ```

More

Find out what you can even do more with quizzes:

https://liascript.github.io/course/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liaScript/docs/master/README.md

@ 79dff8f8:946764e3

Hello world

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Know Your Customer is a regulation that requires companies of all sizes to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship with a customer. Such procedures fit within the broader scope of anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) regulations.

Banks, exchanges, online business, mail providers, domain registrars... Everyone wants to know who you are before you can even opt for their service. Your personal information is flowing around the internet in the hands of "god-knows-who" and secured by "trust-me-bro military-grade encryption". Once your account is linked to your personal (and verified) identity, tracking you is just as easy as keeping logs on all these platforms.

Rights for Illusions

KYC processes aim to combat terrorist financing, money laundering, and other illicit activities. On the surface, KYC seems like a commendable initiative. I mean, who wouldn't want to halt terrorists and criminals in their tracks?

The logic behind KYC is: "If we mandate every financial service provider to identify their users, it becomes easier to pinpoint and apprehend the malicious actors."

However, terrorists and criminals are not precisely lining up to be identified. They're crafty. They may adopt false identities or find alternative strategies to continue their operations. Far from being outwitted, many times they're several steps ahead of regulations. Realistically, KYC might deter a small fraction – let's say about 1% ^1 – of these malefactors. Yet, the cost? All of us are saddled with the inconvenient process of identification just to use a service.

Under the rhetoric of "ensuring our safety", governments and institutions enact regulations that seem more out of a dystopian novel, gradually taking away our right to privacy.

To illustrate, consider a city where the mayor has rolled out facial recognition cameras in every nook and cranny. A band of criminals, intent on robbing a local store, rolls in with a stolen car, their faces obscured by masks and their bodies cloaked in all-black clothes. Once they've committed the crime and exited the city's boundaries, they switch vehicles and clothes out of the cameras' watchful eyes. The high-tech surveillance? It didn’t manage to identify or trace them. Yet, for every law-abiding citizen who merely wants to drive through the city or do some shopping, their movements and identities are constantly logged. The irony? This invasive tracking impacts all of us, just to catch the 1% ^1 of less-than-careful criminals.

KYC? Not you.

KYC creates barriers to participation in normal economic activity, to supposedly stop criminals. ^2

KYC puts barriers between many users and businesses. One of these comes from the fact that the process often requires multiple forms of identification, proof of address, and sometimes even financial records. For individuals in areas with poor record-keeping, non-recognized legal documents, or those who are unbanked, homeless or transient, obtaining these documents can be challenging, if not impossible.

For people who are not skilled with technology or just don't have access to it, there's also a barrier since KYC procedures are mostly online, leaving them inadvertently excluded.

Another barrier goes for the casual or one-time user, where they might not see the value in undergoing a rigorous KYC process, and these requirements can deter them from using the service altogether.

It also wipes some businesses out of the equation, since for smaller businesses, the costs associated with complying with KYC norms—from the actual process of gathering and submitting documents to potential delays in operations—can be prohibitive in economical and/or technical terms.

You're not welcome

Imagine a swanky new club in town with a strict "members only" sign. You hear the music, you see the lights, and you want in. You step up, ready to join, but suddenly there's a long list of criteria you must meet. After some time, you are finally checking all the boxes. But then the club rejects your membership with no clear reason why. You just weren't accepted. Frustrating, right?

This club scenario isn't too different from the fact that KYC is being used by many businesses as a convenient gatekeeping tool. A perfect excuse based on a "legal" procedure they are obliged to.

Even some exchanges may randomly use this to freeze and block funds from users, claiming these were "flagged" by a cryptic system that inspects the transactions. You are left hostage to their arbitrary decision to let you successfully pass the KYC procedure. If you choose to sidestep their invasive process, they might just hold onto your funds indefinitely.

Your identity has been stolen

KYC data has been found to be for sale on many dark net markets^3. Exchanges may have leaks or hacks, and such leaks contain very sensitive data. We're talking about the full monty: passport or ID scans, proof of address, and even those awkward selfies where you're holding up your ID next to your face. All this data is being left to the mercy of the (mostly) "trust-me-bro" security systems of such companies. Quite scary, isn't it?

As cheap as $10 for 100 documents, with discounts applying for those who buy in bulk, the personal identities of innocent users who passed KYC procedures are for sale. ^3

In short, if you have ever passed the KYC/AML process of a crypto exchange, your privacy is at risk of being compromised, or it might even have already been compromised.

(they) Know Your Coins

You may already know that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies have a transparent public blockchain, meaning that all data is shown unencrypted for everyone to see and recorded forever. If you link an address you own to your identity through KYC, for example, by sending an amount from a KYC exchange to it, your Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous and can then be traced.

If, for instance, you send Bitcoin from such an identified address to another KYC'ed address (say, from a friend), everyone having access to that address-identity link information (exchanges, governments, hackers, etc.) will be able to associate that transaction and know who you are transacting with.

Conclusions

To sum up, KYC does not protect individuals; rather, it's a threat to our privacy, freedom, security and integrity. Sensible information flowing through the internet is thrown into chaos by dubious security measures. It puts borders between many potential customers and businesses, and it helps governments and companies track innocent users. That's the chaos KYC has stirred.

The criminals are using stolen identities from companies that gathered them thanks to these very same regulations that were supposed to combat them. Criminals always know how to circumvent such regulations. In the end, normal people are the most affected by these policies.

The threat that KYC poses to individuals in terms of privacy, security and freedom is not to be neglected. And if we don’t start challenging these systems and questioning their efficacy, we are just one step closer to the dystopian future that is now foreseeable.

Edited 20/03/2024 * Add reference to the 1% statement on Rights for Illusions section to an article where Chainalysis found that only 0.34% of the transaction volume with cryptocurrencies in 2023 was attributable to criminal activity ^1

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Over the past few months, I've dedicated my time to a complete rewrite of the kycnot.me website. The technology stack remains unchanged; Golang paired with TailwindCSS. However, I've made some design choices in this iteration that I believe significantly enhance the site. Particularly to backend code.

UI Improvements

You'll notice a refreshed UI that retains the original concept but has some notable enhancements. The service list view is now more visually engaging, it displays additional information in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. Both filtering and searching functionalities have been optimized for speed and user experience.

Service pages have been also redesigned to highlight key information at the top, with the KYC Level box always accessible. The display of service attributes is now more visually intuitive.

The request form, especially the Captcha, has undergone substantial improvements. The new self-made Captcha is robust, addressing the reliability issues encountered with the previous version.

Terms of Service Summarizer

A significant upgrade is the Terms of Service summarizer/reviewer, now powered by AI (GPT-4-turbo). It efficiently condenses each service's ToS, extracting and presenting critical points, including any warnings. Summaries are updated monthly, processing over 40 ToS pages via the OpenAI API using a self-crafted and thoroughly tested prompt.

Nostr Comments

I've integrated a comment section for each service using Nostr. For guidance on using this feature, visit the dedicated how-to page.

Database

The backend database has transitioned to pocketbase, an open-source Golang backend that has been a pleasure to work with. I maintain an updated fork of the Golang SDK for pocketbase at pluja/pocketbase.

Scoring

The scoring algorithm has also been refined to be more fair. Despite I had considered its removal due to the complexity it adds (it is very difficult to design a fair scoring system), some users highlighted its value, so I kept it. The updated algorithm is available open source.

Listings

Each listing has been re-evaluated, and the ones that were no longer operational were removed. New additions are included, and the backlog of pending services will be addressed progressively, since I still have access to the old database.

API

The API now offers more comprehensive data. For more details, check here.

About Page

The About page has been restructured for brevity and clarity.

Other Changes

Extensive changes have been implemented in the server-side logic, since the whole code base was re-written from the ground up. I may discuss these in a future post, but for now, I consider the current version to be just a bit beyond beta, and additional updates are planned in the coming weeks.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

I'm launching a new service review section on this blog in collaboration with OrangeFren. These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Reviews are done in advance, then, the service provider has the discretion to approve publication without modifications.

Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing.

---

The review

WizardSwap is an instant exchange centred around privacy coins. It was launched in 2020 making it old enough to have weathered the 2021 bull run and the subsequent bearish year.

| Pros | Cons | |------|------| | Tor-friendly | Limited liquidity | | Guarantee of no KYC | Overly simplistic design | | Earn by providing liquidity | |

Rating: ★★★★★ Service Website: wizardswap.io

Liquidity

Right off the bat, we'll start off by pointing out that WizardSwap relies on its own liquidity reserves, meaning they aren't just a reseller of Binance or another exchange. They're also committed to a no-KYC policy, when asking them, they even promised they would rather refund a user their original coins, than force them to undergo any sort of verification.

On the one hand, full control over all their infrastructure gives users the most privacy and conviction about the KYC policies remaining in place.

On the other hand, this means the liquidity available for swapping isn't huge. At the time of testing we could only purchase at most about 0.73 BTC with XMR.

It's clear the team behind WizardSwap is aware of this shortfall and so they've come up with a solution unique among instant exchanges. They let you, the user, deposit any of the currencies they support into your account and earn a profit on the trades made using your liquidity.

Trading

Fees on WizardSwap are middle-of-the-pack. The normal fee is 2.2%. That's more than some exchanges that reserve the right to suddenly demand you undergo verification, yet less than half the fees on some other privacy-first exchanges. However as we mentioned in the section above you can earn almost all of that fee (2%) if you provide liquidity to WizardSwap.

It's good that with the current Bitcoin fee market their fees are constant regardless of how much, or how little, you send. This is in stark contrast with some of the alternative swap providers that will charge you a massive premium when attempting to swap small amounts of BTC away.

Test trades

Test trades are always performed without previous notice to the service provider.

During our testing we performed a few test trades and found that every single time WizardSwap immediately detected the incoming transaction and the amount we received was exactly what was quoted before depositing. The fees were inline with what WizardSwap advertises.

• Monero payment proof
• Bitcoin received
• Wizardswap TX link - it's possible that this link may cease to be valid at some point in the future.

ToS and KYC

WizardSwap does not have a Terms of Service or a Privacy Policy page, at least none that can be found by users. Instead, they offer a FAQ section where they addresses some basic questions.

The site does not mention any KYC or AML practices. It also does not specify how refunds are handled in case of failure. However, based on the FAQ section "What if I send funds after the offer expires?" it can be inferred that contacting support is necessary and network fees will be deducted from any refund.

UI & Tor

WizardSwap can be visited both via your usual browser and Tor Browser. Should you decide on the latter you'll find that the website works even with the most strict settings available in the Tor Browser (meaning no JavaScript).

However, when disabling Javascript you'll miss the live support chat, as well as automatic refreshing of the trade page. The lack of the first means that you will have no way to contact support from the trade page if anything goes wrong during your swap, although you can do so by mail.

One important thing to have in mind is that if you were to accidentally close the browser during the swap, and you did not save the swap ID or your browser history is disabled, you'll have no easy way to return to the trade. For this reason we suggest when you begin a trade to copy the url or ID to someplace safe, before sending any coins to WizardSwap.

The UI you'll be greeted by is simple, minimalist, and easy to navigate. It works well not just across browsers, but also across devices. You won't have any issues using this exchange on your phone.

Getting in touch

The team behind WizardSwap appears to be most active on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/WizardSwap_io

If you have any comments or suggestions about the exchange make sure to reach out to them. In the past they've been very receptive to user feedback, for instance a few months back WizardSwap was planning on removing DeepOnion, but the community behind that project got together ^1 and after reaching out WizardSwap reversed their decision ^2.

You can also contact them via email at: support @ wizardswap . io

Disclaimer

None of the above should be understood as investment or financial advice. The views are our own only and constitute a faithful representation of our experience in using and investigating this exchange. This review is not a guarantee of any kind on the services rendered by the exchange. Do your own research before using any service.

@ 2ce0697b:1ee3d3fc

Excerpt

Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels are the sly roundabout way that is removing the market of living together from the hands of the government, without violence and in a way that they can´t stop it. With Bitcoin as the backbone of a new societal order, we are beginning to disrupt the old paradigm.

---

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

---

The problem: lack of freedom in the physical realm

Freedom is essential to human life. Being free is what matters. That´s our target, always. No matter the time or space. We pursue freedom because we know its the right thing to do. Freedom is the right to question and change the stablished way of doing things.

Where can we find some freedom? Certainly in the cyberspace. The cyberspace is a free space. Humanity has been blessed by the magic of cryptography, a technology that gave us all the necessary tools to operate in that environment without intervention of undesired third parties.

In cyberspace cryptography performs the function of an impenetrable cyberwall. So, whatever we build in cyberspace can be perfectly protected. Thank to this cybernetic walls we can be sure that the gardens we build and nurture will be protected and cannot be trampled. When we build our digital gardens we have the keys to open the doors to let in whoever we want and most important to leave out whoever we don´t want. In the digital world we can already perfectly interact with one and another in a peer to peer way, without intervention of undesired third parties.

In cyberspace we have Bitcoin for freedom of money and Nostr, torrent and Tor for freedom of information and speech. These open-source protocols are designed to fully realize and expand the promise of freedom, and they certainly deliver what they promise.

So, thanks to the magic of asymmetric cryptography, we´ve already achieved sufficiently descentralization and the possibility of any level of desired digital privacy. Cryptoanarchists and cypherpunks have set their conquering flag in cyberspace and there´s no force on Earth than can remove it. The digital world cannot escape the rules of cryptography. This is great but it only works in the digital realm, meanwhile in the physical realm we are overrun by centralized attackers due to the impossibility of the creation of impenetrable walls such as the ones we have online.

Humans have the upper hand in creating impenetrable walled gardens in cyberspace, but in the physical space authoritarians have the upper hand in bullying physical persons.

The physical world is also naturally free. According to natural law each person is free to do whatever he wants as long as it doesn´t hurt other people. However due to unnatural -artificial and inhuman- centralization of power, the natural freedom of the physical world has been completely undermined. Mostly by Governments, the entities that centralize violence and law.

Bitcoin as a bridge between both realms

Let´s take a look at one connection between both realms, the physical and the digital world. Bitcoin layer one is made essentially of software plus hardware. It consists of any software that produces the same output as the reference implementation - Bitcoin core- and the hardware needed to run that software. Layer two, three or any other layer above, is made essentially of other software and other hardware that interacts with layer one in some way. All these layers, one, two and subsequent, are completely protected by cryptography and a set of game theories that have been successfully tested. Each new block added to the timechain is a testimony of the unstoppable force of freedom and meritocracy.

Before layer one we have Bitcoin layer zero, which is essentially the sum of all actions and inactions done by bitcoiners regarding to or because of bitcoin. In other words, layer zero is composed by flesh and bone people interacting in some way with layer one of the bitcoin network.

Hence, an attack on a bitcoiner - on his way of life- is an attack on bitcoin, the network itself. First because it is an attack on a layer zero node, the physical person, the bitcoiner under duress or coercion. And second because is also an attack on the store-of-value-aspect of bitcoin. Nowaday, the most common attack against bitcoiners is the entirety of compliance regulations. This is the sum of all coercive regulations,such as laws, threats of more laws, imprisonment, threats of more imprisonment, taxation, threats of more taxation, requirements to prove the origin of funds, coercive removal of privacy such as the travel rule, unnecessary bureaucracy such as the need to obtain a money transmitting license and many others rules, in a never stopping inflationary coercive legislation.

If a physical attack is preventing any bitcoiner to exchange the value he created for bitcoin due to any kind of artificial obstacles -such as any kind of compliance- that specific attack is successful in the sense that even though the whole network keeps operating, the attack itself diminishes the value of all the bitcoins.

So, even if layer-zero cannot be taken down, every interference on this layer is an attack on the bitcoin network. Attacks on layer one, two or any other layer that exists in the cyberspace can interfere with the network but they may hardly subtract any value from it. For example we have already been through plenty of times where hashing power was diminished due to government intervention and the bitcoin network remain completely unaffected.

On the other hand successful attacks on layer zero subtract potential, but real and demonstrable value. This value is equal to the amount of value the frustrated user would have added to the network if he would have been able to use it freely, that means if he would have sold his product without the cost of compliance. I´ll demonstrate this in the next chapter.

The cost of compliance

Alice is a merchant specialized in a specific area and topic. She studied the market, her business, her suppliers, consumers, the logistics involved, marketing, design, and everything necessary to become a successful entrepreneur. After investing a considerable amount of resources, she developed a perfect product. Or at least she considers it perfect, that is, the best in its class. While developing everything necessary to create her product, she met Bob, who became her main lead and stereotype of a buyer persona. She knows what Bob wants and she wants to sell it to him. According to Alice's calculations, for her business to be viable, she must sell the product at ten satoshis per unit, and fortunately, Bob is willing to pay that price for it. Alice's product is finished, ready to hit the market, but just before sending it to production, Alice decides to take a pause to analyze her reality. Before taking the public action of making her product available in the open market, Alice analyzes her material, political, and legal reality. In doing so, she realizes that she lives under the jurisdiction of a State. She learns that the Government prescribes through its regulations how she must behave. She analyzes that in order to sell her product legally, in compliance, she must make a series of modifications to it. The product before hitting the shelves must first be modified both in the way it is presented to the market and also regarding certain technical characteristics that it possesses. She must also modify the way it produces her product by changing the contractual relationship with its suppliers, distribution channels, and all other types of logistics involved. She must make all these changes even if they bring about significant and insurmountable inefficiencies.

Likewise, Alice also sees that she not only has to modify the product but also has to meet tax obligations. In addition to paying an accountant since the tax obligations by some irrational reason are not calculated by the creditor. Additionally, she must hire other professionals to assist her in studying the current regulations and how they should be applied in all stages of production, distribution, and sale of her product.

Alice, being a rational person, wishes to avoid having to make these modifications since they increase her costs while also decreasing the quality of her product. But when studying compliance, that is, the entirety of applicable regulations, she also examines the consequences of not being in compliance. Alice realizes that if she does not comply with the regulations, she risks having all her assets legally confiscated, going to prison, being killed while they try to capture her to imprison her, and, if she goes to prison, being tortured in jail by other inmates or by State officials in charge of holding her in that place. So, since Alice does not want to suffer these negative consequences, she decides to modify the product and be in compliance.

So, Alice makes the necessary changes and puts her new version of the product on the market. Then she has the following dialogue with Bob, her lead, the interested party in acquiring the product.

Bob: - Hey Alice, nice meeting you here in this market. I came to buy the product you were developing and told me about. However, this product I´m seeing now is not what you promised me. This is clearly inferior.

Alice: - Yeah, I know. I'm sorry Bob, but I prefer to sell this inferior product rather than risk having all my assets confiscated, going to prison, being killed while they try to capture me, and if they don´t kill but managed to put me in jail I could be tortured there.

Bob: - Ok, no problem. Thats quite understandable. I don´t believe anyone would prefer those kind of experiences. But given the quality of the product, I no longer intend to pay you ten satoshis; I only offer you eight. Shall we close the deal?

Alice: - I'm sorry Bob, but I can't sell it to you for eight sats. Due to government intervention and its requirements, now I can't even sell it for less than thirteen satoshis.

Bob: - Ok. Considering this I prefer not to purchase it. I will keep looking for alternatives. Bye

Some time later, Charlie arrives at the market, who is also interested in the product and, despite it not being like the original version, decides to purchase it by paying the thirteen satoshis demanded by the seller Alice.

Meanwhile, in the same universe, we have Daniel, the last character in this example. Daniel is a merchant competing with Alice. Daniel has a product that is very similar, practically identical to the one originally designed by Alice. Like Alice, Daniel initially also wants to sell it for ten satoshis. Just like Alice, before heading to the market, Daniel analyzes the reality in which he lives. And it turns out that he also lives under the jurisdiction of a State. Daniel too then analyzes the entirety of the applicable regulations and also comes to the conclusion that to comply with them, he would also need to modify the product and cover all the additional expenses artificially generated to be in compliance.

However, Daniel's ethics are different from Alice's. Daniel understands that his product is indeed perfect (the best in its class) and that therefore modifying it would go against its essence. Daniel understands that changing the product would be a betrayal of his creation and therefore a betrayal of his own self and the essence of his being. Daniel conducts an ethical analysis of his actions and the moral implications of putting the product on the market. Daniel sees that the product not only does not harm anyone but is also made to be freely acquired by adults who give their consent for its purchase and subsequent use. Daniel also understands that paying taxes only serves to promote the slavery system driven by fiat and that whenever he can avoid collaborating with the immoral fiat system, it is his ethical obligation to do so. Likewise, Daniel highlights the hypocrisy and inefficiencies of anti-money laundering regulations, as well as the futility of requiring licenses for naturally free acts that do not harm others. For all these reasons, Daniel decides to sell the product in its current state irregardles of compliance regulations.

However, before going to market, Daniel also studies the possible consequences of neglecting compliance. By doing so, Daniel sees that if he does not comply with the regulations, he risks having all his assets legally confiscated, going to prison, being killed while they attempt to capture him to imprison him, and, in the event of going to prison, being tortured in jail by other inmates or by State officials responsible for holding him in that place. So, since Daniel is a rational person who does not want to suffer these negative consequences but also does not want to betray his product and himself, he decides to take the risk of not being in compliance. After making this decision, Daniel puts the product on the market and there he meets Bob. In doing so, they converse in the following terms:

Bob: - Hey Daniel, this product is exactly what I was looking for. A product like the one promised by Alice but never delivered. I love it! I offer you ten satoshis for it.

Daniel: - Thank you for your feedback Bob and for the offer! However I am currently selling it for eleven satoshis. Ten satoshis seems like a good price to me, and it was indeed my original intention to sell it for that amount because at that price I achieve competitiveness and a sustainable business model.

Bob: - So why are you asking me for eleven satoshis? Interrupts Bob

Daniel: - Because that price is calculated before assessing compliance and the risks associated with non-compliance. By not complying with the regulation, I managed to maintain the quality of the product and avoided a large amount of unnecessary expenses, but there is no way to avoid the risk of facing penalties for non-compliance. To bring this product to market, I had to incur several expenses in order to minimize the risk of non-compliance as much as possible. While I am taking all reasonable actions to prevent all of my assets from being legally confiscated, from going to prison, from being killed while they try to capture me, and in case of going to prison, from being tortured, the reality is that I still run the risk of all that, or part of all that, happening to me, my family, or any of my company's employees. The remaining risk balance is transferred to the price along with the costs of mitigating those risks. The total of those costs and the remaining risk I estimate them at one satoshi per unit of product. Therefore, I can't sell you the product for ten satoshis, but I can sell it to you for eleven.

To which Bob, lacking a better option in the market, ends up buying the product for eleven satoshis.

In summary: two products were made by two different merchants whose business model allowed them, in both cases, to put the product on the market at a rate of ten satoshis per unit. However, in one case, a lower quality product was sold for thirteen satoshis, and in the other case, a higher quality product was sold for eleven satoshis. That is to say, in the first case there was an overprice or inefficiency objectively measured at three satoshis, while in the second case there was an overprice or inefficiency of one satoshi. So, we are facing a total loss of value equivalent to four satoshis. The value represented by these four satoshis was absorbed by the inefficiency programmed and ruled by the State. The example shows us that whether one chooses the compliance route, as Alice did, or the free market route, as Daniel did, in both cases the existence of regulations generates an additional cost to the market. In this example the state attack on layer zero was successful and extracted from the Bitcoin network a value of four satoshis.

Bitcoin is money

Bitcoin is many things but essentially is money. And money sole purpose is to store value in order to facilitate future exchanges of products and services with other people. Without the products and services to be exchanged for the money, money itself would be useless and worthless. We only use money because we may require favors, benefits, services, products from other people in the future. And we don´t know which services and products we´ll need nor exactly when we are goint to need them.

The total value of bitcoin equals to infinity divided twenty one millions. This is because the total worth of the network mirrors the total worth of accumulated capital by the entirety of mankind throughout its entire history. That is clearly a lot of value. But if the if the dividend equals zero then the divisor is also zero and if the dividend growth is obstructed through artificial means -such as compliance- then the divisor growth is also obstructed.

Bitcoin layer zero, the bitcoiners and the services and products we create, are what give value to the twenty one million units of bitcoin.

Freedom is without a doubt the best context for value creation. So, the more and better games we can create that allow humankind to find a way to exercise freedom, then the most value we can add to all the layers of the network.

This is why the most important layer of the whole bitcoin phenomenon is layer zero, the bitcoiners. Hence the problem to be solved is not how to prevent bitcoin - layer one upwards- from successful attacks. The problem to solve is how to prevent attacks on layer zero. Or in other words, the problem to be solved is how to get bitcoiners in the physical world to practice the same level of freedom that bitcoin achieves in the cyberspace.

Summary of the first part of this article: freedom in cyberspace has already been conquered and each further development in the digital realm contributes to further developments but only in the same realm. Meanwhile in the physical space, the layer zero of bitcoin is under constant attacks that successfully extract value from it.

Exercising freedom in a sly roundabout way

In 1984 the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek predicted that we couldn´t take money with violence out of the hands of government. He stated that we needed to do it in a sly roundabout way. Twenty five years later Satoshi Nakamoto discovered the sly roundabout way actually introducing something that the government couldn´t stop. Thus fulfilling Hayek´s prophecy.

Bitcoin is a sly roundabout way that removed money without violence from the hands of the government in a way that they can´t stop it.

Cryptography in general and protocols such as Tor and Tails are a sly roundabout way that removed confidential information from the hands of the government without violence in a way that they can´t stop it.

Nostr is a sly roundabout way that removed social media and public information from the hands of the government without violence in a way that they can´t stop it.

Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels are the sly roundabout way that is removing the market of living together from the hands of the government without violence in a way that they can´t stop it.

So, what are Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels? To understand what they are we can take a look at the current mainstream market of living together, at how the physical space is organized. Essentially the entire planet Earth and its surroundings are run by a conglomerate of Governments. They create all the rules, regarding every aspect of life, of all the individuals, and enforce every rule through coercive means.

In the mainstream market of living together individuals have several alternatives to pick from. We can choose to live in a natural city or a pre design city, in a public neighborhood or private neighborhood or even in an intentional community with common interest amongst the users. But irregardless of the choice, every product offered in the mainstream market has the sames rules which are established by the host state to the entirety of organizations in his territory. In the mainstream market, even the most different products abide by the same high level rules such as criminal law, civil law, taxation laws, customs, enviromental laws, money laundering regulations and many others. To abide to the sum of all the laws and regulations is to be in compliance.

The centralization of regulations makes extremely difficult to experiment in market of living together. The less experimentation is allowed, the more human progress is hindered.

So what is the sly roundabout that fixes this? What are Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels? I´m using the term Special Jurisdictions as an umbrella term that includes the entire spectrum of iterations of products that aim to modify the mainstream rules of the market of living together.

This term includes all the different models such as Charter Cities, Free Cities, Special Economic Zones, microstates, micropolis, start up societies, government as a service, self governing jurisdictions, autonomous intentional communities, network states and Bitcoin Citadels. The array of possible iterations is huge and permanently expanding. What they all have in common is that each of these experiments aims to create a functional game theory that replaces the lack of unbreakable walls in the physical space.

Let´s take a look of a couple of examples. Special Economic Zones are bounded areas of countries that have their own rules and regulations. Worldwide, there are more than five thousands special economic zones located in more than hundred countries.

One of them is the special economic zone of Shenzhen in China. The Chinese government allowed Shenzhen the freedom to experiment with certain practices that were prohibited in the rest of the country at the time. This included allowing foreign companies to make direct investments in China, allowing people to buy and sell land, allowing Chinese people to set up their own private businesses and relaxation of the system that limited internal migration within China for Chinese citizens. It served as a place where China could experiment with market reforms. The experiment was such a huge economic success that it was replicated in many other areas of the country.

Another place that has made extensive use of special economic zones is Dubai. The monarchic Government has more than 30 SEZs. In this case one of the many obstacles removed by the host state its the monopoly of the legal system. Dubai Government allowed the special economic zone to have its own independent legal system thus conceding a modification of the mainstream rules in that area.

This kind of projects, such as Dubai or Shenzhen, are a top-to-down product. Fully created by the Governments thus compliant with their own regulations.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Citadels and several other archetypes of not so compliant projects .

For example the Free Commune of Penadexo it´s a grassroots project building a freedom-oriented community in one of Spain’s abandoned villages.

It´s model is based on building a peer to peer society avoiding government intervention as much as possible. They stablished themselves in an abandoned historic village and the started to track down the owners to purchase as much property as possible. Meanwhile, they are living there and expanding their users base while also reconstructing buildings.

This is an example of a completely different way of dealing with the Government. While Special Economic Zones are fully compliant and created top to down, this model on the other hand is bottom-up and aims to add value to the users relying in factual freedom which is exercised by stablishing the commune away from heavily populated centers where Government grip is tighter. Under this model the interaction with the Government is kept as low as possible. Their strategy relies in ignoring the Government as much as possible and being a good neighbor. With this simple and effective tactic some Citadels enjoy the benefits of liberty in their lifetime without needing to spend huge resources in governmental lobby.

There are countless models or archetypes of Bitcoin Citadels trying to solve the obstacles in different ways, trying to restart the system. And one of the challenges of the Bitcoin Citadels is how to connect the different projects to boost and help each other.

This is where The Meshtadel comes into play. The Meshtadel is a system where decentralized tactics are used to help and defend citadels connected in a global network. With real life connections with fellow bitcoiners. Its an organization equivalent to the hanseatic league built under a starfish model. If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies, but if you cut off a starfish’s arm, it can regenerate and even grow into a new starfish.
The Meshtadel its a network of peer relationships, with ambiguous leadership roles, trust among participants, a shared ideology and vision based on the Bitcoin ethos, and an open system where new nodes - bitcoin citadel builders - can participate.

The long term goal of the Bitcoin Meshtadel is to help Bitcoin Citadels to gain the support of a critical mass of the total population. If enough people see that Bitcoin is as peaceful as it gets, in the long run, some nations could become friendly and supportive enough to legally tolerate the Bitcoin Citadel inside its territory in the form of a Bitcoin safe haven. In the Meshtadel we are fighting from the moral high ground using memes, Nostr notes and zapping our way into freedom creating an online and offline circular economy.

TO CONCLUDE:

Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels are the sly roundabout way that is removing the market of living together from the hands of the government, without violence and in a way that they can´t stop it.

Nation states, abusing the myth of authority, have halted development on the market of living together for so long that a blooming freer market is eating its lunch. The sovereign individual thesis is live and continuously expanding. The network state is forming and intentional communities are flourishing all around the world reshaping globally the relationship between individuals and the governments.

With global internet connections, uncensorable means of communication and Bitcoin as the backbone of a new societal order, we are beginning to disrupt the old paradigm.

The fashion of the present world is passing away, let’s help it to move forward along by building Special Jurisdictions, Free Cities and Bitcoin Citadels.

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byCamiloat 875.341 timechain.

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Read the original blog post

Bitcoin enthusiasts frequently and correctly remark how much value it adds to Bitcoin not to have a face, a leader, or a central authority behind it. This particularity means there isn't a single person to exert control over, or a single human point of failure who could become corrupt or harmful to the project.

Because of this, it is said that no other coin can be equally valuable as Bitcoin in terms of decentralization and trustworthiness. Bitcoin is unique not just for being first, but also because of how the events behind its inception developed. This implies that, from Bitcoin onwards, any coin created would have been created by someone, consequently having an authority behind it. For this and some other reasons, some people refer to Bitcoin as "The Immaculate Conception".

While other coins may have their own unique features and advantages, they may not be able to replicate Bitcoin's community-driven nature. However, one other cryptocurrency shares a similar story of mystery behind its creation: Monero.

History of Monero

Bytecoin and CryptoNote

In March 2014, a Bitcointalk thread titled "Bytecoin. Secure, private, untraceable since 2012" was initiated by a user under the nickname "DStrange"^1^. DStrange presented Bytecoin (BCN) as a unique cryptocurrency, in operation since July 2012. Unlike Bitcoin, it employed a new algorithm known as CryptoNote.

DStrange apparently stumbled upon the Bytecoin website by chance while mining a dying bitcoin fork, and decided to create a thread on Bitcointalk^1^. This sparked curiosity among some users, who wondered how could Bytecoin remain unnoticed since its alleged launch in 2012 until then^2^.

Some time after, a user brought up the "CryptoNote v2.0" whitepaper for the first time, underlining its innovative features^4^. Authored by the pseudonymous Nicolas van Saberhagen in October 2013, the CryptoNote v2 whitepaper^5^ highlighted the traceability and privacy problems in Bitcoin. Saberhagen argued that these flaws could not be quickly fixed, suggesting it would be more efficient to start a new project rather than trying to patch the original^5^, an statement simmilar to the one from Satoshi Nakamoto^6^.

Checking with Saberhagen's digital signature, the release date of the whitepaper seemed correct, which would mean that Cryptonote (v1) was created in 2012^7^, although there's an important detail: "Signing time is from the clock on the signer's computer" ^9^.

Moreover, the whitepaper v1 contains a footnote link to a Bitcointalk post dated May 5, 2013^10^, making it impossible for the whitepaper to have been signed and released on December 12, 2012.

As the narrative developed, users discovered that a significant 80% portion of Bytecoin had been pre-mined^11^ and blockchain dates seemed to be faked to make it look like it had been operating since 2012, leading to controversy surrounding the project.

The origins of CryptoNote and Bytecoin remain mysterious, leaving suspicions of a possible scam attempt, although the whitepaper had a good amount of work and thought on it.

The fork

In April 2014, the Bitcointalk user thankful_for_today, who had also participated in the Bytecoin thread^12^, announced plans to launch a Bytecoin fork named Bitmonero^13^.

The primary motivation behind this fork was "Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed"^14^. This time Bitmonero did things different from Bytecoin: there was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward went to development.

However, thankful_for_today proposed controversial changes that the community disagreed with. Johnny Mnemonic relates the events surrounding Bitmonero and thankful_for_today in a Bitcointalk comment^15^:

When thankful_for_today launched BitMonero [...] he ignored everything that was discussed and just did what he wanted. The block reward was considerably steeper than what everyone was expecting. He also moved forward with 1-minute block times despite everyone's concerns about the increase of orphan blocks. He also didn't address the tail emission concern that should've (in my opinion) been in the code at launch time. Basically, he messed everything up. Then, he disappeared.

After disappearing for a while, thankful_for_today returned to find that the community had taken over the project. Johnny Mnemonic continues:

I, and others, started working on new forks that were closer to what everyone else was hoping for. [...] it was decided that the BitMonero project should just be taken over. There were like 9 or 10 interested parties at the time if my memory is correct. We voted on IRC to drop the "bit" from BitMonero and move forward with the project. Thankful_for_today suddenly resurfaced, and wasn't happy to learn the community had assumed control of the coin. He attempted to maintain his own fork (still calling it "BitMonero") for a while, but that quickly fell into obscurity.

The unfolding of these events show us the roots of Monero. Much like Satoshi Nakamoto, the creators behind CryptoNote/Bytecoin and thankful_for_today remain a mystery^17^, having disappeared without a trace. This enigma only adds to Monero's value.

Since community took over development, believing in the project's potential and its ability to be guided in a better direction, Monero was given one of Bitcoin's most important qualities: a leaderless nature. With no single face or entity directing its path, Monero is safe from potential corruption or harm from a "central authority".

The community continued developing Monero until today. Since then, Monero has undergone a lot of technological improvements, migrations and achievements such as RingCT and RandomX. It also has developed its own Community Crowdfundinc System, conferences such as MoneroKon and Monerotopia are taking place every year, and has a very active community around it.

Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second. ^16^

This stands as a testament to the power of a dedicated community operating without a central figure of authority. This decentralized approach aligns with the original ethos of cryptocurrency, making Monero a prime example of community-driven innovation. For this, I thank all the people involved in Monero, that lead it to where it is today.

If you find any information that seems incorrect, unclear or any missing important events, please contact me and I will make the necessary changes.

Sources of interest

• https://forum.getmonero.org/20/general-discussion/211/history-of-monero
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/852/what-is-the-origin-of-monero-and-its-relationship-to-bytecoin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583449.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=233561
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747.0
• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0
• https://monero.stackexchange.com/a/1024
• https://inspec2t-project.eu/cryptocurrency-with-a-focus-on-anonymity-these-facts-are-known-about-monero/
• https://medium.com/coin-story/coin-perspective-13-riccardo-spagni-69ef82907bd1
• https://www.getmonero.org/resources/about/
• https://www.wired.com/2017/01/monero-drug-dealers-cryptocurrency-choice-fire/
• https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin
• https://old.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/u8e5yr/satoshi_nakamoto_talked_about_privacy_features/

@ 866e0139:6a9334e5

Autor: Thomas Eisinger. Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben. Sie finden alle Texte der Friedenstaube und weitere Texte zum Thema Frieden hier.**

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Die neuesten Artikel der Friedenstaube gibt es jetzt auch im eigenen Friedenstaube-Telegram-Kanal.

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Vor Kurzem war ich bei einem «Ecstatic Dance» (mehr dazu z. B. hier) dabei. Wer das noch nicht kennt: es lohnt sich! Irgendwann in diesem speziellen Space bekam ich einen Gedanken - oder er kam von irgendwo zu mir: die Vorstellung, dass niemand in meiner Reihe von Eltern, Großeltern, Ahnen je an so etwas hätte teilnehmen können. Einmal, weil es das damals nicht gab. Zum Zweiten, weil ihr Mind niemals für so etwas offen gewesen wäre, gar nicht sein konnte. Sie alle waren einfache Menschen, die genug damit zu tun hatten für das Überleben der eigenen Familie zu sorgen. Urlaub war ein Fremdwort, intellektuelle Faxen gab es ganz sicher keine. Diese meine Vorstellung erschuf ein inneres Bild in mir: ich sah meine beiden Großmütter wild und lebensfroh durch den Raum tanzen! (Übrigens wurden beide 95 Jahre alt, trotz zwei Kriegen, Währungsreform, Hunger und ohne jemals Sport getrieben oder Ernährungsratgeber gelesen zu haben. Dies nur am Rande).

Ich erfreute mich an dem Bild der tanzenden Großmütter, konnte mich eines breiten Grinsens nicht erwehren. Nach dieser Freude wechselte mein Gefühl jäh zu Dankbarkeit. Dafür, in dieser wunderbaren Zeit leben zu dürfen. In der so viel mehr möglich ist als es jemals war. Das enge Korsett, das die Gesellschaft seit Jahrtausenden jedem auferlegt hatte, ist so viel weiter geworden. Nur, wenn man es selbst annehmen möchte (oder zumindest meint, dies tun zu müssen) kann es noch Macht ausüben. Sonst nicht. Die persönliche Freiheit ist größer als jemals zuvor, wenn man sie mit den Hundert Generationen vor uns vergleicht. Natürlich ist aktuell «the Trend not our friend», aber wir haben die Wahl, den Zeitmaßstab selbst anzulegen. 10 Jahre, 100 oder 200 Jahre? Lass es vor Deinem inneren Auge erscheinen ...

Die innere Freiheit ist größer als in all den Zeiten vor meiner Generation (Boomer). Millionen Menschen haben Meditationserfahrung, einige können sich mit Informationsfeldern (jenseits der rechtgläubigen Physik) verbinden und darüber sprechen, ohne dass sie verbrannt werden. Man muss keiner offiziellen Religion mehr folgen, um Verbindung mit dem Höheren zu erlangen. Im Gegenteil, die Ablösung von den Amtskirchen erleichtert dies für viele sogar. Wie auch immer, der eigenen Wahl stehen weder Priester noch Eltern oder starre Konventionen entgegen. Anders als vor 100 oder 200 Jahren. Just do it!

Es geht noch weiter. Wie dankbar bin ich, dass ich in dieser Zeit leben darf. Dass trotz des Leides meiner in ziemlicher Armut lebender Großeltern ihr Wille zum Überleben stärker war: nur deshalb kann ich hier sein. Ich darf all diese Vorzüge genießen, obwohl ich viel weniger hart arbeiten muss(te) als sie. Auch wurde mein Haus nicht ausgebombt und ich musste nie in den Krieg ziehen. Meine beiden Großväter ereilte dieses Schicksal. Ob mein Sohn diesem Schicksal entrinnt?

Wir sollen wieder kriegstüchtig werden. Unfassbar. Doch damit will ich diese Betrachtung nicht enden lassen. Denn nur wenn wir auch begreifen, wie gut es uns allen geht, trotz dieser Regierung, trotz Massenpropaganda, trotz dauernder medialer Panikmache: erst, wenn wir das Leben wirklich lieben, werden wir wissen, wofür es sich wirklich lohnt zu kämpfen. Nicht mit Waffe in der Hand, sondern mit Herz und Verstand.

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@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

Let go of the algorithms and truly discover what it means to explore. Social media used to mean something. Once upon a time, it was a way to stay connected to friends, family, and colleagues over things we enjoy. We could share, laugh, and learn. Over time, it has devolved into cheap entertainment at the cost of our privacy. Our relationships and interests have been shoved into a corner in order to make room for "suggested posts" and "for you" content designed to evaluate our attention for advertising purposes. We've lost what it means to truly connect, and we've lost what it means to explore our curiosities.

Enter Nostr. A protocol designed to resist authoritative censorship, just happens to fix a whole lot of other problems, too. By removing the central authority, Nostr offers its users complete control of what we feed our minds. How do we break our algorithm dependency to find better content and better relationships again? We explore and discover:

The Chronological Life.

The existence of time may be debatable but our dependence on our perception of it is not. We live our lives chronologically. Why do our online lives need to be any different? There is no real reason, other than we've just gotten used to being engulfed by whatever the black box wants us to see. When we remove the algorithms, we find that online information flows just as it would in our daily lives. Important events get talked about by many people, over a long period of time. Things of less relevance fade. We see the rhythm of life reflected in our feed. This is an organic human experience transferred to the digital world. We depend on the people we know and the sources we trust to keep us informed about what really matters. We have fun, we move on. Nearly every Nostr social client brings this experience front and center through the traditional follow feed. Many use replies as a way to show you what is worth talking about for more than a hot minute. Its what old social media gave us, then took away. Nostr gives it back. It's not the only way to enjoy Nostr, though, so let's continue.

"The Human Animal Differs From the Lesser Primates in His Passion for Lists"

Who doesn't love lists? (besides maybe to-do lists.) List functionality on Nostr is a powerful way to curate your feeds. You can make lists of artists, vendors, friends, or whatever you want. They can be public or private. You can subscribe to other people's public lists too. Make one to share with your friends. Many clients have list support and management. Amethyst, Nostur, Voyage, and Nostrudel are a few that come to mind. Nostr.band and Listr.lol offer in depth list management. Some clients even support lists for specific notes so that you can curate a feed by topic or aesthetic to share with your friends.

Being John Malcovich.

Everyone has a different view of Nostr. Do you want to see what someone else is seeing? Sign in with any npub to get a different perspective. You might find profiles and content that you didn't know existed before. Some clients integrate variations of this feature right into their apps, so you don't have to log out of your account in order to step through that tiny door.

DV-what? DVM.

Data Vending Machines. These fancy little things are AIs tasked with a simple job: to find content for you. Most of these feeds are free, though some more personalized ones require a small fee. Many DVM services are stand-alone apps, like Vendata and Noogle . These clever Nostr clients will let you do a lot more than just create feeds to browse notes. Explore if you wish. A few social clients have DVMs integrated, too, so if you see "discovery" or similar term on a tab, be sure to check it out.

Relays, Man. Relays.

It's right there in the name. Nostr- notes and other stuff transmitted by RELAY. Specialized relays exist for subjects, news, communities, personal spaces, content creators, cats... there's even a relay where everyone just says "Good Morning" to each other. Find a client that lets you browse a relay's contents, and enjoy the purest form of content discovery on Nostr. Unearthing these relays is getting better and better every day. Right now there are relay browsing capabilities in quite a few clients, like Coracle, Relay Tools, Jumble and Nostur.

The Algo Relay.

Maybe you've been busy and missed a lot. Maybe you are a sane person who rarely uses social media. Hook up with a personalized algorithm relay to catch you up on all the things you've missed. This is skirting the sharp edges of Nostr relay development, so keep in mind that not many implementations yet exist. Algo relay currently aims to bring the feel-good vibe of your chronological feed to an algorithmic feed, freeing up your time but letting you stay up with what 's going on in your social circles.

Trendy Trends.

A few clients, relays, and DVM's have developed various Trending feeds. Catch up on what's popular across a wider view of the Nostr ecosystem. If trends are your thing, be sure to check them out.

Now that you're equipped with the tools to explore Nostr, its time to go discover some great content and find your people. Feed your curiosity.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

I've been thinking about how to improve my seed backup in a cheap and cool way, mostly for fun. Until now, I had the seed written on a piece of paper in a desk drawer, and I wanted something more durable and fire-proof.

Show me the final result!

After searching online, I found two options I liked the most: the Cryptosteel Capsule and the Trezor Keep. These products are nice but quite expensive, and I didn't want to spend that much on my seed backup. Privacy is also important, and sharing details like a shipping address makes me uncomfortable. This concern has grown since the Ledger incident^1. A $5 wrench attack^2 seems too cheap, even if you only hold a few sats.

Upon seeing the design of Cryptosteel, I considered creating something similar at home. Although it may not be as cool as their device, it could offer almost the same in terms of robustness and durability.

Step 1: Get the materials and tools

When choosing the materials, you will want to go with stainless steel. It is durable, resistant to fire, water, and corrosion, very robust, and does not rust. Also, its price point is just right; it's not the cheapest, but it's cheap for the value you get.

I went to a material store and bought:

• Two bolts
• Two hex nuts and head nuts for the bolts
• A bag of 30 washers

All items were made of stainless steel. The total price was around €6. This is enough for making two seed backups.

You will also need:

• A set of metal letter stamps (I bought a 2mm-size letter kit since my washers were small, 6mm in diameter)
  • You can find these in local stores or online marketplaces. The set I bought cost me €13.
• A good hammer
• A solid surface to stamp on

Total spent: 19€ for two backups

Step 2: Stamp and store

Once you have all the materials, you can start stamping your words. There are many videos on the internet that use fancy 3D-printed tools to get the letters nicely aligned, but I went with the free-hand option. The results were pretty decent.

I only stamped the first 4 letters for each word since the BIP-39 wordlist allows for this. Because my stamping kit did not include numbers, I used alphabet letters to define the order. This way, if all the washers were to fall off, I could still reassemble the seed correctly.

The final result

So this is the final result. I added two smaller washers as protection and also put the top washer reversed so the letters are not visible:

Compared to the Cryptosteel or the Trezor Keep, its size is much more compact. This makes for an easier-to-hide backup, in case you ever need to hide it inside your human body.

Some ideas

Tamper-evident seal

To enhance the security this backup, you can consider using a tamper-evident seal. This can be easily achieved by printing a unique image or using a specific day's newspaper page (just note somewhere what day it was).

Apply a thin layer of glue to the washer's surface and place the seal over it. If someone attempts to access the seed, they will be forced to destroy the seal, which will serve as an evident sign of tampering.

This simple measure will provide an additional layer of protection and allow you to quickly identify any unauthorized access attempts.

Note that this method is not resistant to outright theft. The tamper-evident seal won't stop a determined thief but it will prevent them from accessing your seed without leaving any trace.

Redundancy

Make sure to add redundancy. Make several copies of this cheap backup, and store them in separate locations.

Unique wordset

Another layer of security could be to implement your own custom mnemonic dictionary. However, this approach has the risk of permanently losing access to your funds if not implemented correctly.

If done properly, you could potentially end up with a highly secure backup, as no one else would be able to derive the seed phrase from it. To create your custom dictionary, assign a unique number from 1 to 2048 to a word of your choice. Maybe you could use a book, and index the first 2048 unique words that appear. Make sure to store this book and even get a couple copies of it (digitally and phisically).

This self-curated set of words will serve as your personal BIP-39 dictionary. When you need to translate between your custom dictionary and the official BIP-39 wordlist, simply use the index number to find the corresponding word in either list.

Never write the idex or words on your computer (Do not use Ctr+F)

@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

TL;DR visit this post for a list of signers

Your nsec/private key is your key to controlling all that you do on Nostr. Every action you take is signed by this private key, validating that was you that generated that event, whether it be a note, a like, a list, or whatever else. Like a broken record, I have to state that it is irreplaceable. YOU own your identity and no one else. It is your responsibility to keep your nsec safe, but of course, you also want to be able to use all the different apps and clients available. To aid you in this process, a few different tools have been developed. Let's take a look at some that are more common and easy-to-use, where to use them, and for what.

The Browser Extension

This is probably the simplest and most straight forward form of private key manager available. There are many options to choose from, each compatible with various, commonly used browsers, including mobile browsers. Many provide the option to manage multiple keys for different profiles. Some are simply a signer while others may include other features. The concept is very simple. The extension holds your key and exposes it only only enough to sign an event. These extensions can be set to different levels of manual approval that you can control based on the level of convenience you seek. The ease and convenience does trade off a bit of security, as your private key will be exposed momentarily each time you create an event. It is up to you to choose whether this is appropriate for your use. For casual browsing and social media use, it is a fairly good and easy to use option. Nearly all Nostr apps and clients support signing with this method.

The Remote Signer

Often referred as a "bunker", Nostr remote signers hold your private key completely offline and communicating with clients. Clients send events to the signer to be signed, which then sends back the signed event for publishing. This bunker can be hosted on your own hardware or managed by a truested 3rd party. As long as the signer is online, it can communicate as needed. The signer generates a "bunker string" that is used to communicate. These may seem cumbersome to set up, as each client that you intend to use will need its own permissions. Once all of the pieces and permissions are in place, most of this activity will happen in the background. Bunkers allow for a lot of flexibility. The "bunker string" for a single app can be shared with other users who you may want to be able to make posts on your behalf. Multiple people can manage a social media profile, while the main owner of that identity maintains control of the nsec. These bunker strings can be revoked and replaced at any time. This signing method is growing in popularity and many clients already offer support for it.

The Native Android Signer

Currently, Amber is the only native app available to handle Nostr event signing. It is an incredible tool for managing your Nostr key on your mobile device. The signing flow is similar to remote signing, as described above, but it can communicate with both your Android native Nostr apps and web clients accessed through most mobile browsers, eliminating the need for a browser extension. Similar apps are under development for iOS, but I don't use any of those devices, so covering that here will only happen via other's opinions at a later date. Check this list for current options.

NcryptSec

NcryptSec signing works by encrypting your nsec on a local device, unlocked by a password that you choose. Support for this method is very limited, as the encrypted private key stays on your device. If you intend to use Nostr through one device and few apps, this can be a very secure option, as long as you can remember your password, as it cannot be changed.

NFC and Hardware Signers

Some devices have been developed to store your nsec completely offline on a device or NFC chip, and some clients have added support for scanning/connecting to sign. I haven't personally tried any of these options, nor do I intend to promote the sale of any particular products. If you are interested in these techniques and devices, the information is not hard to find. The price of a devices varies, depending on your feature needs.

There are also DIY options that utilize existing hardware, if you are into that sort of thing.

Higher Security and Recoverability Options

Creating a scheme that allows for recovery of a lost key while maintaining the integrity of a unique identity is no easy task. The key must be fractured into shards, encrypted, and distributed across multiple servers in various locations, while you maintain a portion or portions of your own. These servers are run by trusted 3rd parties who will then sign events "with" you. Some include a scheme of running your own always online hardware to act as host for these shards. I fall short on the technical understanding of certain aspects of these processes, so I will spare you of my attempt to explain. As far as I know, there are a couple of methods underway that are worth paying attention to:

Frostr nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqs3fcg0szqdtcway2ge7zahfwhafuecmkx9xwg4a7aexhgj5ghleqy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcqyrh3r7uhytc4dywjggxz24277xgqtvcadvnjfks6fram7gjpev9nuentfht

Promenade nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqwlsccluhy6xxsr6l9a9uhhxf75g85g8a709tprjcn4e42h053vaqydhwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnhv4ehgetjde38gcewvdhk6tcprdmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuam9wd6x2unwvf6xxtnrdakj7qpqqqq0dlpwxhw5l97yrcts2klhr9zqqpcmdfpaxm8r7hygykp630cq23ggph

For a List of signers, please visit this post.

@ 3c389c8f:7a2eff7f

Extentions:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/flamingo-%E2%80%93-nostr-extensio/alkiaengfedemppafkallgifcmkldohe

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/nos2x/kpgefcfmnafjgpblomihpgmejjdanjjp

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/aka-profiles/ncmflpbbagcnakkolfpcpogheckolnad

https://keys.band/

https://github.com/haorendashu/nowser

The Remote Signer:

https://nsec.app/

https://github.com/kind-0/nsecbunkerd

Native Android Signer:

https://github.com/greenart7c3/amber

iOS

https://testflight.apple.com/join/8TFMZbMs

https://testflight.apple.com/join/DUzVMDMK

Higher Security Options: To start using Nostr with a secure, recoverable keypair: https://nstart.me/en

For Existing Keys: https://www.frostr.org/

Thank you to https://nostr.net/ for keeping a thorough list of Nostr apps, clients, and tools!

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

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kycnot.me features a somewhat hidden tool that some users may not be aware of. Every month, an automated job crawls every listed service's Terms of Service (ToS) and FAQ pages and conducts an AI-driven analysis, generating a comprehensive overview that highlights key points related to KYC and user privacy.

Here's an example: Changenow's Tos Review

Why?

ToS pages typically contain a lot of complicated text. Since the first versions of kycnot.me, I have tried to provide users a comprehensive overview of what can be found in such documents. This automated method keeps the information up-to-date every month, which was one of the main challenges with manual updates.

A significant part of the time I invest in investigating a service for kycnot.me involves reading the ToS and looking for any clauses that might indicate aggressive KYC practices or privacy concerns. For the past four years, I performed this task manually. However, with advancements in language models, this process can now be somewhat automated. I still manually review the ToS for a quick check and regularly verify the AI’s findings. However, over the past three months, this automated method has proven to be quite reliable.

Having a quick ToS overview section allows users to avoid reading the entire ToS page. Instead, you can quickly read the important points that are grouped, summarized, and referenced, making it easier and faster to understand the key information.

Limitations

This method has a key limitation: JS-generated pages. For this reason, I was using Playwright in my crawler implementation. I plan to make a release addressing this issue in the future. There are also sites that don't have ToS/FAQ pages, but these sites already include a warning in that section.

Another issue is false positives. Although not very common, sometimes the AI might incorrectly interpret something harmless as harmful. Such errors become apparent upon reading; it's clear when something marked as bad should not be categorized as such. I manually review these cases regularly, checking for anything that seems off and then removing any inaccuracies.

Overall, the automation provides great results.

How?

There have been several iterations of this tool. Initially, I started with GPT-3.5, but the results were not good in any way. It made up many things, and important thigs were lost on large ToS pages. I then switched to GPT-4 Turbo, but it was expensive. Eventually, I settled on Claude 3 Sonnet, which provides a quality compromise between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 Turbo at a more reasonable price, while allowing a generous 200K token context window.

I designed a prompt, which is open source^1, that has been tweaked many times and will surely be adjusted further in the future.

For the ToS scraping part, I initially wrote a scraper API using Playwright^2, but I replaced it with Jina AI Reader^3, which works quite well and is designed for this task.

Non-conflictive ToS

All services have a dropdown in the ToS section called "Non-conflictive ToS Reviews." These are the reviews that the AI flagged as not needing a user warning. I still provide these because I think they may be interesting to read.

Feedback and contributing

You can give me feedback on this tool, or share any inaccuraties by either opening an issue on Codeberg^4 or by contacting me ^5.

You can contribute with pull requests, which are always welcome, or you can support this project with any of the listed ways.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing. Reviews are in collaboration with Orangefren.

The review

Swapter.io is an all-purpose instant exchange. They entered the scene in the depths of the bear market about 2 years ago in June of 2022.

| Pros | Cons | | --------------- | ---------------------------------- | | Low fees | Shotgun KYC with opaque triggers | | Large liquidity | Relies on 3rd party liquidity | | Works over Tor | Front-end not synced with back-end | | Pretty UI | |

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Service Website: swapter.io

⚠️ There is an ongoing issue with this service: read more on Reddit.

Test Trades

During our testing we performed a trade from XMR to LTC, and then back to XMR.

Our first trade had the ID of: mpUitpGemhN8jjNAjQuo6EvQ. We were promised 0.8 LTC for sending 0.5 XMR, before we sent the Monero. When the Monero arrived we were sent 0.799 LTC.

On the return journey we performed trade with ID: yaCRb5pYcRKAZcBqg0AzEGYg. This time we were promised 0.4815 XMR for sending 0.799 LTC. After Litecoin arrived we were sent 0.4765 XMR.

As such we saw a discrepancy of ~0.1% in the first trade and ~1% in the second trade. Considering those trades were floating we determine the estimates presented in the UI to be highly accurate and honest.

Of course Swapter could've been imposing a large fee on their estimates, but we checked their estimates against CoinGecko and found the difference to be equivalent to a fee of just over 0.5%. Perfectly in line with other swapping services.

Trading

Swapter supports BTC, LTC, XMR and well over a thousand other coins. Sadly they don't support the Lightning Network. For the myriad of currencies they deal with they provide massive upper limits. You could exchange tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency in a single trade (although we wouldn't recommend it).

The flip side to this is that Swapter relies on 3rd party liquidity. Aside from the large liqudity this also benefits the user insofar as it allows for very low fees. However, it also comes with a negative - the 3rd party gets to see all your trades. Unfortunately Swapter opted not to share where they source their liquidity in their Privacy Policy or Terms of Service.

KYC & AML policies

Swapter reserves the right to require its users to provide their full name, their date of birth, their address and government-issued ID. A practice known as "shotgun KYC". This should not happen often - in our testing it never did - however it's not clear when exactly it could happen. The AML & KYC policy provided on Swapter's website simply states they will put your trade on hold if their "risk scoring system [deems it] as suspicious".

Worse yet, if they determine that "any of the information [the] customer provided is incorrect, false, outdated, or incomplete" then Swapter may decide to terminate all of the services they provide to the user. What exactly would happen to their funds in such a case remains unclear.

The only clarity we get is that the Swapter policy outlines a designated 3rd party that will verify the information provided by the user. The third party's name is Sum & Substance Ltd, also simply known as samsub and available at sumsub.com

It's understandable that some exchanges will decide on a policy of this sort, especially when they rely on external liquidity, but we would prefer more clarity be given. When exactly is a trade suspicious?

Tor

We were pleased to discover Swapter works over Tor. However, they do not provide a Tor mirror, nor do they work without JavaScript. Additionally, we found that some small features, such as the live chat, did not work over Tor. Fortunately, other means of contacting their support are still available.

UI

We have found the Swapter UI to be very modern, straightforward and simple to use. It's available in 4 languages (English, French, Dutch and Russian), although we're unable to vouch for the quality of some of those, the ones that we used seemed perfectly serviceable.

Our only issue with the UI was that it claims the funds have been sent following the trade, when in reality it seems to take the backend a minute or so to actually broadcast the transaction.

Getting in touch

Swapter's team has a chat on their website, a support email address and a support Telegram. Their social media presence in most active on Telegram and X (formerly Twitter).

Disclaimer

None of the above should be understood as investment or financial advice. The views are our own only and constitute a faithful representation of our experience in using and investigating this exchange. This review is not a guarantee of any kind on the services rendered by the exchange. Do your own research before using any service.

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

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“The future is there... staring back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.” — William Gibson.

This month is the 4th anniversary of kycnot.me. Thank you for being here.

Fifteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system: a decentralized currency free from government and institutional control. Nakamoto's whitepaper showed a vision for a financial system based on trustless transactions, secured by cryptography. Some time forward and KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and CTF (Counter-Terrorism Financing) regulations started to come into play.

What a paradox: to engage with a system designed for decentralization, privacy, and independence, we are forced to give away our personal details. Using Bitcoin in the economy requires revealing your identity, not just to the party you interact with, but also to third parties who must track and report the interaction. You are forced to give sensitive data to entities you don't, can't, and shouldn't trust. Information can never be kept 100% safe; there's always a risk. Information is power, who knows about you has control over you.

Information asymmetry creates imbalances of power. When entities have detailed knowledge about individuals, they can manipulate, influence, or exploit this information to their advantage. The accumulation of personal data by corporations and governments enables extensive surveillances.

Such practices, moreover, exclude individuals from traditional economic systems if their documentation doesn't meet arbitrary standards, reinforcing a dystopian divide. Small businesses are similarly burdened by the costs of implementing these regulations, hindering free market competition^1:

How will they keep this information safe? Why do they need my identity? Why do they force businesses to enforce such regulations? It's always for your safety, to protect you from the "bad". Your life is perpetually in danger: terrorists, money launderers, villains... so the government steps in to save us.

‟Hush now, baby, baby, don't you cry Mamma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true Mamma's gonna put all of her fears into you Mamma's gonna keep you right here, under her wing She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing Mamma's gonna keep baby cosy and warm” — Mother, Pink Floyd

We must resist any attack on our privacy and freedom. To do this, we must collaborate.

If you have a service, refuse to ask for KYC; find a way. Accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero. Commit to circular economies. Remove the need to go through the FIAT system. People need fiat money to use most services, but we can change that.

If you're a user, donate to and prefer using services that accept such currencies. Encourage your friends to accept cryptocurrencies as well. Boycott FIAT system to the greatest extent you possibly can.

This may sound utopian, but it can be achieved. This movement can't be stopped. Go kick the hornet's nest.

“We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.” — Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk's Manifesto

The anniversary

Four years ago, I began exploring ways to use crypto without KYC. I bookmarked a few favorite services and thought sharing them to the world might be useful. That was the first version of kycnot.me — a simple list of about 15 services. Since then, I've added services, rewritten it three times, and improved it to what it is now.

kycnot.me has remained 100% independent and 100% open source^2 all these years. I've received offers to buy the site, all of which I have declined and will continue to decline. It has been DDoS attacked many times, but we made it through. I have also rewritten the whole site almost once per year (three times in four years).

The code and scoring algorithm are open source (contributions are welcome) and I can't arbitrarly change a service's score without adding or removing attributes, making any arbitrary alterations obvious if they were fake. You can even see the score summary for any service's score.

I'm a one-person team, dedicating my free time to this project. I hope to keep doing so for many more years. Again, thank you for being part of this.

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

I'm excited to announce the release of Applesauce v1.0.0! There are a few breaking changes and a lot of improvements and new features across all packages. Each package has been updated to 1.0.0, marking a stable API for developers to build upon.

Applesauce core changes

There was a change in the applesauce-core package in the QueryStore.

The Query interface has been converted to a method instead of an object with key and run fields.

A bunch of new helper methods and queries were added, checkout the changelog for a full list.

Applesauce Relay

There is a new applesauce-relay package that provides a simple RxJS based api for connecting to relays and publishing events.

Documentation: applesauce-relay

Features:

• A simple API for subscribing or publishing to a single relay or a group of relays
• No connect or close methods, connections are managed automatically by rxjs
• NIP-11 auth_required support
• Support for NIP-42 authentication
• Prebuilt or custom re-connection back-off
• Keep-alive timeout (default 30s)
• Client-side Negentropy sync support

Example Usage: Single relay

```typescript import { Relay } from "applesauce-relay";

// Connect to a relay const relay = new Relay("wss://relay.example.com");

// Create a REQ and subscribe to it relay .req({ kinds: [1], limit: 10, }) .subscribe((response) => { if (response === "EOSE") { console.log("End of stored events"); } else { console.log("Received event:", response); } }); ```

Example Usage: Relay pool

```typescript import { Relay, RelayPool } from "applesauce-relay";

// Create a pool with a custom relay const pool = new RelayPool();

// Create a REQ and subscribe to it pool .req(["wss://relay.damus.io", "wss://relay.snort.social"], { kinds: [1], limit: 10, }) .subscribe((response) => { if (response === "EOSE") { console.log("End of stored events on all relays"); } else { console.log("Received event:", response); } }); ```

Applesauce actions

Another new package is the applesauce-actions package. This package provides a set of async operations for common Nostr actions.

Actions are run against the events in the EventStore and use the EventFactory to create new events to publish.

Documentation: applesauce-actions

Example Usage:

```typescript import { ActionHub } from "applesauce-actions";

// An EventStore and EventFactory are required to use the ActionHub import { eventStore } from "./stores.ts"; import { eventFactory } from "./factories.ts";

// Custom publish logic const publish = async (event: NostrEvent) => { console.log("Publishing", event); await app.relayPool.publish(event, app.defaultRelays); };

// The publish method is optional for the async run method to work const hub = new ActionHub(eventStore, eventFactory, publish); ```

Once an ActionsHub is created, you can use the run or exec methods to execute actions:

```typescript import { FollowUser, MuteUser } from "applesauce-actions/actions";

// Follow fiatjaf await hub.run( FollowUser, "3bf0c63fcb93463407af97a5e5ee64fa883d107ef9e558472c4eb9aaaefa459d", );

// Or use the exec method with a custom publish method await hub .exec( MuteUser, "3bf0c63fcb93463407af97a5e5ee64fa883d107ef9e558472c4eb9aaaefa459d", ) .forEach((event) => { // NOTE: Don't publish this event because we never want to mute fiatjaf // pool.publish(['wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com/'], event) }); ```

There are a log more actions including some for working with NIP-51 lists (private and public), you can find them in the reference

Applesauce loaders

The applesauce-loaders package has been updated to support any relay connection libraries and not just rx-nostr.

Before:

```typescript import { ReplaceableLoader } from "applesauce-loaders"; import { createRxNostr } from "rx-nostr";

// Create a new rx-nostr instance const rxNostr = createRxNostr();

// Create a new replaceable loader const replaceableLoader = new ReplaceableLoader(rxNostr); ```

After:

```typescript

import { Observable } from "rxjs"; import { ReplaceableLoader, NostrRequest } from "applesauce-loaders"; import { SimplePool } from "nostr-tools";

// Create a new nostr-tools pool const pool = new SimplePool();

// Create a method that subscribes using nostr-tools and returns an observable function nostrRequest: NostrRequest = (relays, filters, id) => { return new Observable((subscriber) => { const sub = pool.subscribe(relays, filters, { onevent: (event) => { subscriber.next(event); }, onclose: () => subscriber.complete(), oneose: () => subscriber.complete(), });

return () => sub.close();

}); };

// Create a new replaceable loader const replaceableLoader = new ReplaceableLoader(nostrRequest); ```

Of course you can still use rx-nostr if you want:

```typescript import { createRxNostr } from "rx-nostr";

// Create a new rx-nostr instance const rxNostr = createRxNostr();

// Create a method that subscribes using rx-nostr and returns an observable function nostrRequest( relays: string[], filters: Filter[], id?: string, ): Observable { // Create a new oneshot request so it will complete when EOSE is received const req = createRxOneshotReq({ filters, rxReqId: id }); return rxNostr .use(req, { on: { relays } }) .pipe(map((packet) => packet.event)); }

// Create a new replaceable loader const replaceableLoader = new ReplaceableLoader(nostrRequest); ```

There where a few more changes, check out the changelog

Applesauce wallet

Its far from complete, but there is a new applesauce-wallet package that provides a actions and queries for working with NIP-60 wallets.

Documentation: applesauce-wallet

Example Usage:

```typescript import { CreateWallet, UnlockWallet } from "applesauce-wallet/actions";

// Create a new NIP-60 wallet await hub.run(CreateWallet, ["wss://mint.example.com"], privateKey);

// Unlock wallet and associated tokens/history await hub.run(UnlockWallet, { tokens: true, history: true }); ```

@ 39cc53c9:27168656

Read the original blog post

Silent.link is an anonymous eSIM provider. They offer pay-as-you-go roaming in 160+ countries.

Pros

• Anonymous
• Private payment options
• High performance
• Global availability

Cons

• Need to select the right networks sometimes
• Latency
• Data and incoming SMS & call only

Rating

★★★★★

Service website

Silent.link

---

eSIMs replace traditional, physical SIM cards, if you have a fairly new phone, odds are it supports them. Since most people change their mobile carrier very rarely, the most common use case for these new eSIMs is their use in travel. Although their use as a piece of a larger OPSEC puzzle to improve privacy when using the internet from your phone is increasingly popular too.

Silent.link is not the only eSIM provider out there. Yet, they’re so unique that even Twitter’s (now X) founder Jack Dorsey recommends them.

Let’s start off with a quick explanation of how Silent.link works and what pay-as-you-go means. Most other eSIM providers will sell you packages of GBs with an expiration date. For instance imagine you’re visiting France then going to the UK after a few months. With other providers you might buy a 10GB in France package valid for 7 days, then after some months a 10GB in the UK package also valid for 7 days. You likely won’t use up the full package in either country and the remaining capacity will be voided as the package expires.

Silent.link’s pay-as-you-go is different. There are no geographic packages. There are no expiration dates. You simply have a balance denominated in USD and are charged as you use up the data according to the pricing of whichever local carrier you’re connecting via.

Preparing for the same trips from the example above you’d simply top-up your Silent.link balance with $10. Then you’d use Silent.link in France paying $1.33/GB, you’d only be charged for the exact amount used, then you’d go to the UK and pay $1.54/GB from the balance you had left over from France. It doesn’t matter how much time passes between the trips, because Silent.link balances don’t expire. If you have a balance left over you can use it on a future trip, or simply use it up in your home country.

---

Pros

Anonymity

Silent.link is anonymous. Most other eSIM providers require some form of identification. This can be a traditional, full KYC, procedure involving your ID or passport numbers or, as seemingly innocent, as verifying your phone number with your main carrier. Regardless, a link between the eSIM you bought online and your identity is established.

In some countries you’ll be able to pick up a traditional SIM (or the new eSIM) from a local carrier without undergoing this verification. This can still be a hassle though. You’ll need to look up the laws before travelling, you’ll need to find a local store selling them, you’ll need to decide how you’ll pay privately, etc. And that’s the best case, that’s assuming the country you want to get the SIM in allows you to buy one anonymously.

Private payment methods

Silent.link only accepts cryptocurrency and according to their stats, most payments are made with Bitcoin (either onchain or using the Lightning Network) or with Monero. As such paying anonymously is not a problem. The use a self-hosted instance of BTCPay Server to process payments and operate their own LN node. The entire checkout process can be completed over Tor.

---

Cons

Network selection

Although you can skip the hassle of buying a new eSIM every time you travel it’s a good idea to look up the pricing of different mobile networks in the country you’re going to. The differences can be trivial, but can also be 100x. If a specific mobile network offers a much better deal, you’ll probably want to dive into your phone’s settings to make sure it only connects to that network.

High prices for some regions

Second issue can be that, especially for poorer countries, Silent.link might not have the best prices. For instance if you travel to Angola you’ll end up paying $155.44/GB. But if you search around for other providers you’ll find eSIM that offer much lower prices for that same country.

Data & incoming SMS & calls only

These eSIMs are either data-only or only offer data and inbound sms and calls. You can’t use Silent.link eSIMs to send texts or make phone calls.

Latency

For most use-cases this shouldn’t matter, but the way roaming works is that when you’re abroad your data is first sent to your home country then sent out into the internet from there. For instance if you’re a Brit on holiday in Spain wherever you open up a website your phone communicates with the Spanish network who forwards the request to your home network in the UK and only there does the request start going towards the website you’re trying to load. The response takes the same path in reverse.

The home network for the Silent.link eSIMs is Poland. To take an extreme (antipodal) example, if you’re in Chile loading a Chilean website your request will go to Poland then back from Poland to the website’s server in Chile, then the response will go from Chile to Poland to you (in Chile). All those trips add latency. In our testing, done during the recent OrangeFren.com meetup in Istanbul, the difference was an additional 73ms. The bandwidth, however, was exceptional, easily surpassing 100 Mbps.

This latency issue isn’t unique to Silent.link, other eSIM providers usually suffer from it too, though their home network may be better suited for your latency needs. If you need the best latency we recommend a SIM from a local provider (or WiFi).

This proxy behaviour isn’t all negative however. It may potentially allow you to circumvent censorship or geoblocking if you’re trying to access resources available from Poland, but unavailable elsewhere.

Besides Istanbul one of the countries we also tested Silent.link in was Northern Cyprus. This territory is mostly unrecognized. It’s a country that, depending on who you ask, is or isn’t real. Despite this unresolved geopolitical status Silent.link performed without any issues.

---

Installation

If you decide to give Silent.link a try, you'll need to select if you want a data-only plan or a plan with inbound SMS & calling, once you complete the payment simply scan the QR code on the order confirmation page with your phone. Make sure to save the url of that order confirmation page somewhere! You will need it to top up your eSIM and check your remaining balance.

Getting in touch

The preferred way of contacting Silent.link's support is using the website's built-in chat function. Alternative methods include X (formerly Twitter), Matrix and email.

Their support is online from 09:00 - 21:00 UTC although even when testing outside of those hours we got a reply within a minute.

NOTE: These reviews are sponsored, yet the sponsorship does not influence the outcome of the evaluations. Sponsored reviews are independent from the kycnot.me list, being only part of the blog. The reviews have no impact on the scores of the listings or their continued presence on the list. Should any issues arise, I will not hesitate to remove any listing.

@ 3a8a16a7:f4c3b0b4

lkhkjhlk

!?

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

A quick guide for the less than technical savvy to set up their very own free private tor enabled email using Onionmail. Privacy is for everyone, not just the super cyber nerds.

Onion Mail is an anonymous POP3/SMTP email server program hosted by various people on the internet. You can visit this site and read the details: https://en.onionmail.info/

1. Download Tor Browser

First, if you don't already, go download Tor Browser. You are going to need it. https://www.torproject.org/

1. Sign Up

Using Tor browser go to the directory page (https://onionmail.info/directory.html) choose one of the servers and sign up for an account. I say sign up but it is just choosing a user name you want to go before the @xyz.onion email address and solving a captcha.

1. Account information

Once you are done signing up an Account information page will pop up. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THIS!!! It has your address and passwords (for sending and receiving email) that you will need. If you lose them then you are shit out of luck.

1. Install an Email Client

You can use Claws Mail, Neomutt, or whatever, but for this example, we will be using Thunderbird.

a. Download Thunderbird email client

b. The easy setup popup page that wants your name, email, and password isn't going to like your user@xyz.onion address. Just enter something that looks like a regular email address such as name@example.com and the Configure Manuallyoption will appear below. Click that.

1. Configure Incoming (POP3) Server

Under Incoming Server: Protocol: POP3 Server or Hostname: xyz.onion (whatever your account info says) Port: 110 Security: STARTTLS Authentication: Normal password Username: (your username) Password: (POP3 password).

1. Configure Outgoing (SMTP) Server

Under Outgoing Server: Server or Hostname: xyz.onion (whatever your account info says) Port: 25 Security: STARTTLS Authentication: Normal password Username: (your username) Password: (SMTP password).

1. Click on email at the top and change your address if you had to use a spoof one to get the configure manually to pop up.

2. Configure Proxy

a. Click the gear icon on the bottom left for settings. Scroll all the way down to Network & Disk Space. Click the settings button next to Connection. Configure how Thunderbird connects to the internet.

b. Select Manual Proxy Configuration. For SOCKS Host enter 127.0.0.1 and enter port 9050. (if you are running this through a VM the port may be different)

c. Now check the box for SOCKS5 and then Proxy DNS when using SOCKS5 down at the bottom. Click OK

1. Check Email

For thunderbird to reach the onion mail server it has to be connected to tor. Depending on your local setup, it might be fine as is or you might have to have tor browser open in the background. Click on inbox and then the little cloud icon with the down arrow to check mail.

1. Security Exception

Thunderbird is not going to like that the onion mail server security certificate is self signed. A popup Add Security Exception will appear. Click Confirm Security Exception.

You are done. Enjoy your new private email service.

REMEMBER: The server can read your emails unless they are encrypted. Go into account settings. Look down and click End-toEnd Encryption. Then add your OpenPGP key or open your OpenPGP Key Manager (you might have to download one if you don't already have one) and generate a new key for this account.

@ 5c8a5765:4fc5edee

[Читать в IPFS]

Итак, детки-котлетки, сегодня мы поговорим, как ~~не~~правильно распространять агиацию. Возьмите свои любимые антифашистские стикеры и используйте этот текст как инструкцию к ним — иначе у меня голова лопнет от того, что я вижу на улицах.

Агитация

Для начала определитесь, чем вы занимаетесь: агитируете к чему-то или поддерживаете чего-то, потому что это предполагает совершенно разные подходы. Агитацией может быть призыв к анархизму, классовой борьбе, неуплате налогов, гендерному равенству и т.д. Поддержкой может быть поддержка анархической борьбы, антифашистский идей и т.д. Первое — "вербует"/приманивает новых людей к идее, второе поддерживает только тех, кто уже знаком с идеей и уже с ней согласен.

Как должна выглядеть агитация? Представьте, что некий неонацист решил за-агитировать вас в неонацизм (с учетом, что сейчас вы его не поддерживаете): в каком случае у него больше всего на это шансов? Если вы заметите на мусорном баке наклейку "бей жыдоф"? Или если вам, например, выдадут в руки грамотный агитационный текст? Поставьте себя на место читающего: агитация должна выглядеть именно так, как мог бы выглядеть материал, который хоть немного мог бы поменять ваши текущие взгляды. А именно...

1. Агитация доступна

Она не висит на задней стороне мусорки. Она не нарисована на заброшке. Обыватель не рассматривает мусорки и не ходит по заброшкам. Чтобы масса увидела вашу агитацию, она должна висеть в заметном месте.

Ещё лучше, если она висит там, где человек по внешним причинам на мгновение задерживается, и имеет время проглядеть вашу агитацию: ибо обыватель никогда не остановится у столба посреди длинной тропы, чтобы прочесть стикер.

И учтите: если место, которое вы выбрали, уже забито стикерами, вашему придётся делить привлеченное внимание с каждым остальным.

К доступности стоит также отнести то, что агитация более значительна, если она написана на самом популярном в вашей стране языке, развешивается в разных локациях (чтобы люди разного класса могли её увидеть), если вы развешиваете в туалетах — то туалетах разного гендера (и не забывайте про инвалидные кабинки!), так далее.

Лучшие места для стикеров: лифт, автобусная остановка, метро, поручен эскалатора, внешняя сторона дверцы туалета, чистое (не разрисованное или расклеенное) зеркало.

Лучшие места для крупных агитационных листов или графитти: указанные выше, а также — заметные места подъездов,

Лучшие места для "визиток"*: оставлять под задницей на выходе из автобуса, метро, маршрутки, на стульях, скамейках и т.д.

*"Визитка" — это са-а-амый простой метод агитации: выводите нужный текст или картинки мелкими блоками на листе А4, нарезаете бумагу на кусочки "визиток" с небольшим текстом, картинкой или ссылкой, и оставляете где попало.

2. Агитация запоминается

Если вы не неонацист, какие эмоции в вас побуждает "бей жыдоф"? Вы возжелали стать неонацистом? Или это только укрепило ваши антифашистские взгляды? Или это для вас вообще никак не прозвучало?

Также для ваших противников и обывателей звучат ваши "ешь богатых!", "классовая борьба сегодня!!", "доёш онархию!!!". Это — поддержка. Уже-анархисты будут рады увидеть, что в городе есть левые активисты кроме них самих. Но это никого не переубедит и не привлечет.

А агитация привлекает. Агитация задаёт острые вопросы, которые остаются в голове. Агитация манит предложениями нового. Агитация нестереотипно предлагает.

Примеры хорошей агитации:

"Если большинство проголосует за то, чтобы ты спрыгнул(а) с вмоста, ты бы сделал(а) это? / - Может быть — если это было честным голосованием!"

"Этот телефон прослушивается - согласно законодательству США, телефонные разговоры прослушиваются без ордера или уведомленияю"

"Вы под наблюдением — текст, объясняющий тезис, и ссылка, где можно прочесть об этом подробнее."

Примеры никудышной агитации (но хорошей поддержки):

3. Агитация даёт возможность изучить больше

Хорошее правило для любой агитации: иметь ссылку на сайт, где можно найти больше информации о том, к чему агитируется. Это не обязательное, но рекомендуемое правило, ибо мало толку от человека, согласившегося с идеей анархизма и захотевшего (редчайший случай!) самостоятельно изучить больше, но не имевшего к этому простой возможности и забывшего вследствие обо всей идее.

Поддержка

А вот поддержка — ориентированная на тех, кто уже знает и уже поддерживает то, что вы любите — может быть совершенно любой. Поддержать антифашистов своего города, позлить фашистов и остаться совершенно незамеченными для обывателя — самое место для диалектики "бей жыдоф!" и "доёш онтифошизм!!".

Напоминание о безопасности

Несколько базовых напоминаний о том, что нужно помнить во время агитации:

• ОСТЕРЕГАЙТЕСЬ КАМЕР! Особенно в России! Метро, маршрутки, автобусы, учебные заведения полны ими!
• Если вас заметили гестаповцы, лучшее, что вы можете сделать — это бежать, что есть мочи.
• Шифруйте материалы, которые храните для распечаток.
• Не распечатывайте стикеры/"визитки" в публичных местах (вроде библиотек).

Спасибо за прочтение!

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

site:example.com intitle:"index of" inurl:admin intext:"password"

site:example.com site:.gov site:.edu site:*.mil

inurl:login inurl:admin inurl:dashboard inurl:portal intitle:"admin login"

intitle:"index of /" intitle:"index of" "parent directory" intitle:"index of" "backup"

filetype:pdf "confidential" filetype:xls "username | password" filetype:doc "top secret" filetype:sql "database"

intext:"username" intext:"password" intext:"login" intext:"password" filetype:txt "passwords"

inurl:"viewerframe?mode=" inurl:"/view.shtml" inurl:"/view/index.shtml"

intitle:"index of" "wp-config.php" inurl:".git"

filetype:xls intext:"email" filetype:csv intext:"email"

inurl:"/setup.cgi?next_file=netgear.cfg" inurl:"/wificonf.html"

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Staying Digitally Safe in Airports: A Comprehensive Guide

Airports are hubs of activity, but they’re also places where your digital security can be at risk. From public Wi-Fi to potential device thefts, staying safe while traveling can feel overwhelming. However, with the right knowledge and precautions, you can protect yourself and enjoy your journey stress-free. Let’s dive into how to stay digitally safe in airports while traveling.

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Understanding the Risks

1. Public Wi-Fi Vulnerabilities:
2. Airports often offer free Wi-Fi, but these networks can be unsecured or insecure. Hackers may use these networks to intercept sensitive data.

3. Avoid using public Wi-Fi for personal banking, shopping, or handling sensitive information.

4. Device Theft:

5. High-traffic areas like security checkpoints, gates, and lounges are hotspots for device thefts. Always keep your devices in secure locations, such as carry-on bags or locked briefcases.

6. Malware and Phishing Attacks:

7. Some airports may have phishing attempts or malware distributed via pop-ups, email, or malicious websites.

8. Physical Surveillance:

9. In some cases, law enforcement or security personnel may monitor your activities. Always be mindful of your surroundings to avoid unintended data exposure.

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Best Practices for Staying Digitally Safe in Airports

1. Use a VPN for Extra Security:
2. Even secure airport Wi-Fi can expose your data if not encrypted. Use a reputable Virtual Private Network (VPN) to encrypt your internet traffic and protect your privacy.

3. Always ensure your VPN is active when using public Wi-Fi.

4. Minimize Sensitive Data on Public Devices:

5. Avoid carrying devices with sensitive information like passwords, credit card details, or personal identification numbers (PIIs).

6. Encrypt Your Data:

7. Enable encryption for all your devices to protect data stored locally or in the cloud. Ensure your operating system and apps are updated with the latest security patches.

8. Secure Your Devices:

9. Use cable locks or secure cases to lock down laptops, tablets, and smartphones when not in use.

10. Remove screensavers that display your device passcode to prevent unauthorized access.

11. Keep Antivirus Software Updated:

12. Install and maintain up-to-date antivirus software on all devices. This helps detect and remove malicious software (malware) that may be installed through compromised networks or phishing attempts.

13. Avoid Plugging Into Public USB charging stations:

14. Refrain from using public USB ports or charging stations unless you know they’re secure. Malware can spread via these points.

15. Use Caution With Lost and Found:

16. If you find a device or drop one accidentally, avoid using lost and found kiosks to pick it up. Instead, contact airport security for assistance in safely retrieving your property without exposing it to potential thieves.

17. Stay Alert to Security Alerts:

18. Pay attention to announcements over the airport’s PA system regarding suspicious activity or security alerts. Follow any instructions provided by airport staff.

19. Monitor Your Accounts Remotely:

20. If you suspect something is wrong (e.g., unusual transactions on your credit card), check your financial accounts immediately upon arriving at your destination. Notify your bank of potential fraudulent activity and report it to the authorities if necessary.

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Additional Tips for Airport Safety

1. Use a Portable Power Bank:

2. Keep your devices charged so you don’t rely on public charging stations, which may be compromised.

3. Travel with Backup Devices:

4. Always bring an extra SIM card, USB drive, or cloud storage to backup important data. This ensures you can access critical information even if your primary device is lost or damaged.

5. Avoid Sharing Personal Information Over Earphone Rentals:

6. Refrain from using earphones rented from airport kiosks that may record or intercept your conversations. Stick to your own headphones or those provided by the airline.

7. Use Airport Lounges Wisely:

8. If you’re using an airline lounge, avoid discussing sensitive information in public areas where it could be overheard.

9. Keep Your Luggage in Sight:

10. Never leave your checked luggage unattended, as it may contain devices or documents with sensitive information.

11. Plan for Data Loss:

12. Before leaving home, make a backup of all important files and photos on an external drive or cloud storage. This way, you can restore them if something goes wrong during your trip.

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What to Do If Something Goes Wrong

1. Report Suspected Security Incidents:

2. If you notice unusual activity on your devices or suspect a security breach, inform airport security immediately.

3. Contact Your Financial Institutions:

4. If you believe your financial information has been compromised, contact your bank or credit card provider to freeze your account and monitor for fraudulent charges.

5. File a Police Report:

6. In cases of theft or suspected unauthorized access, file a report with local authorities and provide evidence (if available).

7. Use Travel Insurance:

8. Check if your travel insurance covers theft, fraud, or data breaches. Submit a claim if you’re covered.

---

Extra Security Measures forTech-Savvy Travelers

• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enable 2FA for all your critical accounts before leaving home.
• Biometric Locks: Use biometric locks on your devices to add an extra layer of security.
• Incident Response Plan: Create a plan in advance for what to do if your devices are lost or compromised.

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Final Tips

• Always prioritize secure practices, even in seemingly safe environments like airports.
• Travel light but keep your important documents and devices close at hand.
• Remember that staying digitally safe is just as important as physical safety during your travels.

By following these tips, you can enjoy your trip with peace of mind, knowing your data and devices are protected. Happy traveling!

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Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

82XCDNK1Js8TethhpGLFPbVyKe25DxMUePad1rUn9z7V6QdCzxHEE7varvVh1VUidUhHVSA4atNU2BTpSNJLC1BqSvDajw1

@ fd78c37f:a0ec0833

Author: Taryn Christiansen

Introduction:

The future doesn’t look good for America. The economy is down, politics is in shambles, and, perhaps most devastating, the culture is split. The only agreement is that change is needed. This article aims to pave a road forward. Innovation drives the economy, and great innovations change and improve daily life. Joint efforts between public institutions and private enterprise, along with the energy and momentum generated by efficient and productive programs, can be orchestrated to cultivate national pride. But those programs need to have a noble purpose. Devotion toward technologies with the potential to transform and improve people’s lives should be the goal. Due to recent advancements in biotechnology, efforts should be directed there. Section 1 dives into the cultural divide. Section 2 outlines a way forward by examining the innovative process and how it can be implemented. Section 3 looks at the specifics of that implementation. Section 4 consists of concluding remarks about the future.

Section 1: A Divided Country

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There are two competing visions dividing America. The Woke vision asserts that the United States was, and is, a fundamentally oppressive regime. The idea of a universal reason, the notion that human beings can attain progress in perpetuity through liberal democracy, science, and capitalism, is seen as nothing more than an ideological weapon used to coerce people into acquiescing to a hierarchy that benefits the few while exploiting the many – and so, out of principles of fairness and equity, the country has to be dismantled.

The Trumpian vision attempts to reaffirm American values. It aims to reestablish American exceptionalism and reinvigorate the American vision of prosperity and economic growth. It seeks to rekindle a sense of American greatness. But it does so cheaply. It is, in essence, the dying breath of a consumer culture fighting its own death. Like the first vision, it too rejects reason and discussion and the procedural processes necessary for liberal democracy. It perceives power as the proper political tool for achieving its objectives. It is not an attempt to restore the values that once characterized the country; it breaks from the American tradition in a radical direction toward a politics of entertainment.

Long ago, the country believed that the human capacity for reason – the ability to see the world clearly under the light of truth, unencumbered by bias or prejudice, free from instinct and emotion – was the torch that carries posterity forward. The founders believed the Bill of Rights and The Constitution enshrined eternal truths that reason alone made accessible. John Locke, an influential figure for the founders, stated that the primary purpose of government is to protect individuals' natural rights. We are all free and have the right to live the life we wish to live. But government is needed to ensure others do not interfere with those rights. What binds us is not a religion or creed but the mutual opportunity for each individual to form their own beliefs, to live out their own conceptions of the good. While fundamental, we will see that it is not enough. A collective purpose is necessary.

Now, the Woke vision sees this older view as wholly mythological – and for good reason. For example, there was a time when black people did not know they were descendants from Africa or the Caribbean and not naturally disposed slaves. People’s various histories and genealogies were stripped away, creating a space by which their humanity could be taken and they could be exploited. They were purposefully and intentionally cast into the shadows of history, and the culpable thought themselves perfectly justified. There was a time when moral and historical narratives depicting a grand destiny of white people conquering the West were considered to be true and that the genocide of Native peoples was not only acceptable but in fact necessary, and therefore legitimate. It has been a titanic and creative effort by great individuals and collective coalitions to get America to become self-conscious of its heinous blunders. Some of the best art and ideas of the twentieth century were born out of those efforts. The beginnings of liberation are born out of the ability to imagine a horizon beyond one’s current circumstances. And that ability for many people has been forged by courageous and heroic predecessors. But the spirit of those movements and their development into the Woke vision is a sign that it has lost its creative potential.

The Woke vision asserts that values like reason and rights are the remains of a colonial legacy. However, by negating them and failing to replace them with new values, deconstructive forces are all that remain. The country has historically failed (as well as succeeded) in living up to what reason and rights demand. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t the proper path forward. The assumption here is that they are, and they have to be creatively reinterpreted.

And the Trumpian vision fails as well. But it is worse because it never did, nor will it ever have any real creative potential. It is highly destructive. We can think about this in the following way.

The nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed a single, fundamental drive governs all of organic life: the will to power. Life, in a constant struggle, perpetually strives to expand and overcome itself repeatedly. From the brute force of two animals fighting for scarce resources to the highest manifestation of human potential, such as moral systems and inspiring artwork, all are produced from the same vital energy and source: the effort to attain power and mastery over a chaotic world.

As society develops and moves away from a state of nature, the will to power transfigures itself through a sublimative process that demands the individual to repress particular instincts and act according to the strictures and constraints formulated and instituted by the collective. As Freud observed in his Civilization and Its Discontents, the push and pull between primitive and ancient instincts and civilization’s repression of them create inextricable tensions. The Yale historian Marci Shore makes an incisive observation of Trump as a symbolic figure using this context and its language: he is the release and outpouring of those repressed instincts – the license to overthrow the restraints placed on the individual. Trump is the embodiment of brute force, a blind ego striving to assert itself over the world, adopting whatever means are available to achieve its aim. He is an eruption of the repressed Hobbesian state of nature, which expresses “a perpetual and restless desire of power after power that ceaseth only in death.” This is a destructive instinct, and we would be wise not to find out what follows.

Section 2: Unity Through Innovation

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So, what is the solution? The country needs a ballast point. It needs national pride. Without a shared sense of identity and purpose, a sense of belonging to a larger community bound by a set of values, the country will continue to unravel. Regardless of the philosophical-level disputes and disagreements on fundamental principles that divide left from right, a collective identity needs to emerge. This article argues that, like the founders, we should turn to our institutions. We should look at how our institutions can facilitate needs by enabling individuals with the creative energy and tenacity to bring about new technologies and innovations that will transform the economy and standards of living. But not just new gadgets and services like iPhones and DoorDash but new technologies with the potential to enable people to live more fulfillingly and purposefully. New vaccines to eliminate unruly diseases, new therapies to mitigate the effects of debilitating illnesses, novel pharmaceuticals with competitive prices and cheaper means of production, and innovative mechanisms to empower people with disabilities to live as they are only able to imagine should play a major part in the mission that characterizes the country. That is a purpose to be proud of. Institutions like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) should act as bows, shooting forward the individuals and companies striving to reach that mark.

There’s a lot of talk about government efficiency and the need to be more fiscally responsible. Those are good things. But efficiency needs to have a purpose. There must be a goal that efficiency works to achieve. We should not wish to live without regulatory institutions. For example, people like Balaji Srinivasan are wrong to think we’re better off in an FDA-free society. The goal should be to harness those institutions, conduct more research and development, and utilize resources more effectively to achieve the results we want as a country. Just as we should strive to continue and expand our role in the AI race, we should also aim to maintain and further develop our leadership in biotech.

But we need a new of what the historian Gary Gerstle calls political order to achieve this. Political orders are “a vision of the good life that sells important constituencies on the virtues of a way of doing politics. The New Deal order and the Neoliberal order—which are, in a sense, the reverse of each other—illustrate this.”

It is common in America to see the world through the lenses of The New Deal and Neoliberal political orders for resolving issues in the country. The latter is to let the market decide, and the former is to create government programs to achieve some conception of the good. The former is, more or less, a libertarian solution and was very popular during the 1980s. The latter took form in what is known as progressivism, and it found popular expression during the 1930s and 1940s in FDR’s New Deal programs. The basic distinction separating these two political orders is between the right and the good.

Rights are the norms of obligations and constraints necessary for us all to coexist while simultaneously maintaining what many believe is the principal value of liberal democracy: freedom and liberty (these terms will be used interchangeably). Rights are not in the business of prescribing definite ways of life or enforcing particular ends for people to pursue. Rights preserve the conditions for freedom, and people are free to choose what to do with that freedom insofar as their decisions do not infringe on another person’s right to do so as well. Freedom, then, is the absence of coercion. By having that freedom, each is allowed to exercise their powers and capabilities according to their own discretion.

In the American context, by virtue of being a human being, we are said to be endowed with inalienable rights. And those rights both protect each individual from external coercion and provide a license for certain kinds of action. I am protected from being forced to say certain opinions and adopt particular beliefs. And I have the license to speak my own opinions, expound my own beliefs, and give voice to my own personal conscience. I am protected from forced association with people whom I do not wish to associate with, from the coercion to vote for a particular candidate, from being disallowed to protest, and from adopting ends I do not agree with or value. And, of course, that means I have a license to associate with whom I wish, vote for whoever I like, protest legislation I dislike, and adopt the ends I truly value. We are all free, and we all are obligated and constrained to preserve the conditions for us all to exercise that freedom mutually.

But if that is what rights are, how does a society ensure a distribution of goods and services for everyone to enjoy and partake in? After all, a right to free speech isn’t going to ensure anyone that they will have meals for nourishment, clothing for warmth, shelter from harsh conditions. The response comes from Adam Smith: economic freedom. Everyone has a natural propensity to “truck, barter, and trade” in order to improve their condition. And by the very nature of voluntary exchange, each party benefits. By an individual living his life according to his own interests, values, and ends, he “promote(s) an end which has no part of his own intention.” The invisible hand of the market promotes the ends held by other individuals, allowing everyone to live as they see fit and to coexist harmoniously with the community. By having the political freedom of rights and the economic freedom to exchange, people cooperate spontaneously and organically. That is the spirit of the neoliberal political order.

A conception of the good is different, and its meaning can be disclosed through the great liberal philosopher Voltaire’s likely apocryphal statement, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” What Voltaire disagrees with is not someone’s right to speak but of what they are saying, and we can imagine the person to be voicing their conception of the good, their values and ends that they believe characterize the good life, the life we ought to live, and Voltaire disapproves of it. The good is concerned with the proper ends that should be prioritized in order to flourish. Socrates famously declared the unexamined life is not worth living. Well, he’s espousing a conception of the good. It is a life of the intellect, a life of rational reflection and deliberation aimed toward self-knowledge. Are one’s beliefs consistent? Does one’s actions contradict what one truly believes? Is one aware of what one truly believes? And does one have the desire to discover the truth? These are Socratic questions, and a life devoted to answering them is a Socratic one.

Now, if there is a universal conception of the good life, if human beings have particular ends that define what it means to be a human being, and if failing to fulfill those ends implies a failure to realize one’s human potential for flourishing, then rights do not secure such outcomes. Rights only ensure individuals are free to pursue such ends if they wish. And given the contingency of life, that is to say that, because people are born into conditions they did not choose but were instead thrown into them, and because some individuals are born into wealth and advantage and some are born into poverty and disadvantage, some have the privilege to achieve the ends characterizing a good life and some do not. And that is unfair. And so, government programs, central planning, and economic stewardship can be used to enable and empower the underprivileged to achieve what others are better positioned to do. This is the spirit of the New Deal political order.

The mistake is to think the appropriate social, cultural, and political issues can be resolved by only one of these political orders. It is not one or the other. Both of these political orders capture powerful intuitions about how society should best function and operate, and there should be a synthesis between them.

Now, it is common knowledge that innovation drives economic growth. As capital becomes more efficient and fewer inputs are required to produce more outputs, the economy expands. In Matt Ridely’s book, Innovation: How It Works, he demonstrates beautifully the often messy and non-rational character of the innovative process.

At the heart of that process, he says, is serendipity. As frustrating as it is to human nature, the innovative process cannot be intelligently designed into a precise instrument capable of reproducing all the wonderful fruits that result from it. There is something inherently unpredictable about it, something unruly. It is organic and spontaneous. It demands the determination of individuals willing to fail over and over again until enough experience, insight, and gradual, often painstaking, progress results in the desired effects.

Ridley observes that so many of these innovations require the rich air of freedom to stimulate the instinct for exploration and discovery. Freedom nourishes and sustains that instinct, allowing it to grow and flourish. People must be free from unnecessary regulations and constraints to focus their creative energy on projects that demand endless hours of trying countless imaginative possibilities – and failing until something works. There’s always a tremendous amount of risk-taking. People need to be free to take them.

People also need to be free to collaborate with others who are also devoted to discovering a solution to seemingly intractable problems. The division of labor, where individuals specialize in a particular task and coordinate with others who do the same to maximize efficiency and productivity, is essential to the process. There’s a reason, as Ridley notes, that many innovations take place in cities, where individuals freely associate and influence one another.

Freedom also allows room for mistakes. Ridley documents many cases where innovation is the result of a mistake, not an intentional plan of action. Innovations can often begin with an intention that has nothing to do with the innovation itself. A deliberate decision leading to a breakthrough discovery can be entirely unrelated, even frivolous. Take the example of Louie Pasteur, one of the key discoverers of germ theory. He was inoculating chickens with cholera from an infected chicken broth when he left for vacation, leaving his assistant, Charles Chamberland, to continue the experiments. Charles, for whatever reason (perhaps he thought the whole idea was crazy), forgot about his responsibility and went on vacation. When both returned, they injected a chicken with the stale broth.

It made the chicken sick but did not kill it. And so he injected the same chicken with a much more virulent cholera strain that typically and easily killed chickens – and it failed. The chicken lived. Vaccines, an innovation on inoculation, emerged. Funny enough, a similar incident occurred with Alexander Fleming. Known for being sloppy, Fleming carelessly left out a culture plate of staphylococcus and took off for vacation for a couple of weeks. When he returned, he discovered a mold had grown that was resistant to the bacteria.

Penicillin was soon developed. All this is to say that, along with Ridley, “Innovation is the child of freedom and the parent of prosperity.”

But government has also been integral to many inventions and innovations that would later revolutionize the economy and, therefore, daily life itself. Mariana Mazzucato’s book The Entrepreneurial State makes a persuasive case for the significance of public institutions in the innovative process. When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), initially known as ARPA until 1972, was established in 1958 in response to the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957, it aimed to promote ‘blue-sky thinking’ for technological initiatives. Meaning that the goal was to invest in riskier research that potentially would yield long-term gains despite not having any immediate or obvious returns on investment. DARPA pursued “ideas that went beyond the horizon in that they may not produce results for ten or 20 years.”

What makes DARPA a successful agency is its decentralized model. The philosophy is: "Find brilliant people. Give them resources. Get out of their way." DARPA hires talented and competent experts to run programs autonomously, providing them the discretion to pursue projects highlighted by their expertise, which are often considered risky. This model enables experts to connect with other researchers, facilitating collaboration and the creation of highly efficient and productive divisions of labor. And again, these are projects that likely wouldn’t find market interest because of their niche or unexplored nature. There isn’t an immediate and conspicuous payoff. And so the connected but separate-from-government model of DARPA provides scientists with a wide degree of latitude, and that freedom allows them to engage in the innovative process of trial and error and risk-taking.

Technologies developed by DARPA included ARPANET, the precursor to the internet; early GPS technology; the beginnings of autonomous vehicles; speech recognition; personal computing; and early AI.

Other agencies have also been foundational in technological advancements (for example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided critical grants to facilitate what would become Google’s search engine algorithm). But the DARPA model is what is most interesting here.

If government programs like DARPA can be leveraged to spur more innovation, particularly in areas such as biotech, and these innovations can drive economic growth by being put into the hands of entrepreneurs, investors, and small, medium, and large firms, then this demands national effort and attention. If successful, it is a project worthy of national pride.

So, government programs and spending, if properly structured, can yield high returns on investment if people are given the freedom to explore, try things out, and make the mistakes necessary for the innovative process to be carried through. And we can look to a recent example where the absence of the efforts potentially could have been disastrous. The story of the COVID-19 vaccines is one where the lack of zeal for exploration and breakthrough discoveries could have hindered the development of mRNA research, leaving it underdeveloped when it was needed at a critical moment.

Section 3: Covid-19, The Imperative For Research and Development, and The Institutional Framework

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To start, Peter Theil is popular for remarking that innovation in many industries has grown stagnant. Energy, manufacturing, and transportation, for example, haven’t seen much progress in the past half-century.

Computation, on the other hand, has surpassed the imagination. The innovations have not been in atoms but in bits. As Theil puts it, “We wanted flying cars; instead we got 140 characters.” And Ridley writes, “If cars had improved as fast as computers since 1982, they would get nearly four million miles per gallon, so they could go to the moon and back a hundred times on a single tank of fuel.” Unfortunately, we still have to visit the gas station and pay those exorbitant prices.

But biotech has gained momentum in the past decade. The COVID vaccines are an extraordinary example of this. But they wouldn’t have been ready to come to market without the previous three decades of research and development invested in them. And that research and development almost didn’t happen because people lacked the vision and the willingness to embrace the risk that great technological discoveries, inventions, and innovations always require.

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book Abundance tells this story very well. Katalin Kariko, one of the discoverers of mRNA’s therapeutic capabilities, had enormous difficulty securing funding for her research as an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Those with power thought it too risky, that it didn’t show enough promise, and allocated most resources to DNA research at the time, believing it to be the more auspicious investment. Nevertheless, as so many pioneering figures have done before her, Kariko maintained her vision of unlocking mRNA’s potential for saving lives.

By sheer luck, by the fortune contained in everyday decisions that would lead to saving millions of lives several decades later, Kariko met a colleague who was researching HIV vaccines at the time, Drew Weissman, at a Xerox machine in 1997. He would be pivotal in her research. She is a biochemist, and he, an immunologist. Each provided the knowledge and expertise the other was lacking, and that was essential to their respective goals. Through the serendipity of deciding to walk to a different department to make copies at the time and place she did, Kariko encountered an opportunity to make strides in her research.

Together, however, the two still managed to collect barely enough funding. “The NIH,” which is the largest public funder of biomedical research, “rejected practically all of their grant applications.” They couldn’t get others to have the same foresight. Even after a breakthrough, where they were finally able to send mRNA information into cells without causing horrible inflammation, those in power still blinked. Fortunately, private investment supplied the gust they needed to keep their research going, and two companies created to pursue mRNA research, Moderna and BioNTech, facilitated the vaccine’s development. When Covid spread, enough progress had been made. The FDA, which has set a poor precedent for getting products to market when it matters most, streamlined the approval process and made the vaccine available.

The key features of this story are the following. The first is the lack of risk-taking by institutions and agencies whose aim should be to provide resources to those striving to innovate and push technological progress forward. The second is the lack of coordination to establish intentional environments to converge the paths of those who have the determination, discipline, and vision to bring innovation to fruition. Imagine if Kariko and Weismann didn’t meet; picture Kariko choosing to make copies somewhere else or at a different time. The future may have been radically different. And thirdly, and more optimistically, the FDA served a vital role when it mattered. As a public institution responsible for promoting the public good, they served admirably.

These three parts – funding research, coordinating talent, and the institutions facilitating the results – should coalesce into an optimally functioning whole. Researchers who are trying to shape and influence an unforeseeable future should be encouraged and rewarded. Those who possess powerful and novel ideas, along with the imagination and determination to bring them to life, should be in direct contact with one another. Their paths should cross – intentionally. And lastly, institutions should follow the FDA’s example. Slow regulatory regimes, lengthy processes and paperwork, licensing barriers, and stifling restrictions should be streamlined and transformed into facilitators for technological development and the introduction of powerful and revolutionary technologies into the market.

More funding should be devoted to riskier research. Those with novel and fresh ideas with the potential to disrupt current scientific knowledge and produce a breakthrough should be sought out. It is estimated that roughly 2-5% of the NIH’s current budget of $45 billion is allocated to high-risk research. That should be increased. Programs like the High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, which includes awards to innovative researchers and ideas, should take on a more robust role and budget than it currently does.

Furthermore, approximately 80% of the NIH budget is allocated to extramural research programs, which are external programs conducted outside of the institution itself. A larger portion of those who receive that funding should be based on their potential for innovation. Currently, as Klein and Thompson observe, the process of obtaining a research grant, which involves extensive paperwork and minutiae, is bureaucratic, cumbersome, inefficient, and time-consuming. A significant amount of energy that should be allocated toward advancing research is spent on securing the funding to do it.

Submitting an application, going through the two review processes, and being approved takes typically nine months to a year. And most fail, leading many scientists to have to apply numerous times in a year. And those doing the review process aren’t necessarily looking for cutting-edge proposals; they’re looking for what fits bureaucratic standards. Of course, this is contentious, but Kariko's story demonstrates its reality. Ridley offers another example. When Francisco Majica made critical advancements in CRISPR technology, it took him “more than a year to get his results published, so sniffy were the prestigious journals at the idea of a significant discovery coming from a scientific nobody.” Institutions must do a better job of trying and supporting novel and unexplored ideas, regardless of who or what they originate from. For example, biotech DAOs do not currently receive funding from government institutions, such as the NIH, due to the traditional legal framework used to distribute resources. Regulatory and legal changes should be implemented to maximize their potential. If there is too much emphasis on process, on bureaucratic procedures and standards, fruitful and rich opportunities suffocate.

The NIH budget also allocates funds to intramural research programs, which are internally connected to the NIH itself. These research programs account for roughly 10% of the NIH’s total budget. A highly promising model to adopt is the DARPA model articulated in Section 2. The NIH should adopt something similar. It should allocate resources to decentralized programs to bring together the best scientists to generate breakthrough ideas. Those programs should be spaces where scientists are free to pursue visionary projects.

Smaller biotech firms, startups, and those without robust forms of funding are often forced to pursue ideas that will capture immediate investment attention. And because of the burdensome and costly bureaucratic processes, investors are justly skeptical about anything risky and cutting-edge.

For example, regarding the FDA approval process, small molecule drugs like pharmaceuticals generally take ten to fifteen years to reach the market. On average, one drug costs $1-2 billion to move through the process, and less than ten percent of those who enter clinical trials succeed. Biologics, such as vaccines and gene therapies, typically take ten to twelve years to reach the market and have a slightly higher success rate than small molecule drugs, ranging from 12 to 15 percent. Those are extensive periods of time, the costs are astronomical, and few can maintain the resources to climb the mountain. This discourages bold enterprise – and it leads to higher prices as well. Due to the cumbersome approval process, the FDA offers exclusivity to companies that bring a product to market, both to reward innovation and to allow companies the opportunity to recoup the tremendous losses incurred by the approval process. This can lead to monopolistic pricing. Innovation should not be rewarded by harming the consumer. Innovation should lift the tide that raises all boats. And so the innovative process shouldn’t be exclusive to those with enough capital to take risks. It should be available to anyone with the tenacity to actualize a bold and promising idea. That’s not to say the process should be less rigorous and methodical. It’s that it needs to be more efficient. But not just efficiency for efficiency's sake; it needs to be efficient toward the right ends and outcomes, and innovation should be a leading goal.

Therefore, a primary goal of the FDA should be to stimulate market interest by expediting the most innovative technologies emerging from research programs driven by the NIH and its innovation initiatives. It’s very important that private research continues innovating as well, and increases in private investment toward manufacturing and research – like Johnson & Johnson’s recent announcement – is good. But new technologies, drugs, vaccines, and therapies should be a central mission of the institutional framework advocated for here – and the process should begin with creativity for creativity’s sake. The profit motive should be employed after realizing a passionate and creative vision. Those truly motivated by inspiration, the people who have the will to manifest something novel and unimaginable, are generally the worst at navigating the business aspect - not always, but often. And the energy pushing them forward is a precious and scarce resource. And so institutions like the FDA and NIH should foster, rather than stifle, their capabilities and opportunities for creating meaningful contributions to the country and the world. The FDA has a history of being slow and untimely when it comes to processing and approving applications for moving to clinical trials. For example, the AIDS epidemic is a stain on the institution’s reputation. When AIDS spread across the US in 1980, it took scientists three years to identify HIV as the cause, five years for the FDA to approve the first blood test to screen for the virus, and seven years to finally get a drug to market. The response to COVID-19 should be the golden standard by which the FDA operates.

Section 4: Human Being and Its Essence

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Now, let’s ask the following: what does this have to do with national pride? How does this provide a new vision for the country?

In Alex Karp’s new book, The Technological Republic, he criticizes Silicon Valley for forgetting its roots in developing technology for national purposes. The foundational technology that defines Silicon Valley originated from government programs like DARPA and NASA, which had a clear purpose. They had a mission, and the achievements under those programs demonstrate that.

But now Silicon Valley has shifted to the consumer. Innovations in Silicon Valley generally make life more convenient, comfortable, pleasant, breezy. Goods and services satisfy all our wants and preferences. New apps, better features on social media, increasingly competent virtual assistants, faster food delivery services, endless streams of television and movies and videos, smart appliances, and more and more advanced phones pervade everyday life. The goal is always immediate gratification. There is no horizon that these products look up to. Everything is here and now.

This takes us back to our discussion of rights and conceptions of the good. Silicon Valley isn’t tethered to any real purpose or collective aim. Its goal is to let the market decide. There is no moral or spiritual integrity, no conception of the good that permeates Silicon Valley and its products. Nothing is off limits because it is the consumer’s right to choose. If there is a want, if enough people are willing to buy, Silicon Valley will produce it. No substantive conviction guides their innovations. What does Silicon Valley stand for? It certainly has a creative spirit – just look at all the devices we have today – but that spirit lacks a purpose, and so it wanders aimlessly chasing the fleeting nature of the consumer.

It’s perfectly understandable that Silicon Valley has severed itself from its military roots. Not only would it lose a substantial portion of revenue if it returned to those roots, but there is, of course, a moral dilemma at the heart of most military endeavors, and it is wise to take that seriously. And the Tech sector should not aim to impose a conception of the good on the consumers. The issue is its obsession with the consumer. There are more pressing areas of concern that warrant attention. The wealth of talent in Silicon Valley is better spent in those areas. And it should be done through the efficient use of public institutions.

The new vision is one where taxpayer dollars are used for purposeful and meaningful projects that generate new technologies and innovations that contribute to people’s real needs, not just their wants and preferences. Genuine pride involves courage and bold risk for the sake of principle. It consists in having the determination to carry through an arduous enterprise. And we should be proud as a country if a joint effort between the public and private sectors achieves collective ends.

And at the heart of this pride should be the creative process. Albert Einstein wrote that great scientific discoveries – the new ideas that are leaps in progress toward the expansion of human knowledge – are, again, not the inevitable product of a rigid, refined, and precisely applied method. He believed the great discoveries, the ones that establish new scientific paradigms that enrich society with so many practical fruit, result from a cosmic feeling, a kind of religious experience born out of feelings of awe, wonder, and mystery that are produced by the intellectual and spiritual effort to understand the rational order of the cosmos. He writes, “Enough for me (is) the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvelous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the reason that manifest itself in nature… I maintain that cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement to scientific research.”

Reaching for and clinching a new and profound idea is not a mechanical and algorithmic activity. Regardless of how finely one specifies the rules of procedure or how regimented the institutional standards for scientific knowledge are prescribed, intuition, sensitivity to the world and its objects, amazement at the experience of observing the world and its causal relations, in short, the feelings and moods of the subject investigating the object, are integral to the discovery of scientific ideas. Methods are pivotal in locating and developing the precise, logical nature of those ideas, but initial contact with them demands variables that are not reducible to fixed procedures. Ideas powerful enough to change the world and better the human condition originate in cosmic feelings of wonder and curiosity and are not strictly an output of a mechanized division of labor.

AI will outrun the human capacity for intelligence. This is a likely prediction. And so what will it mean to be a human being then? For centuries, philosophers have distinguished human beings from other parts of nature by invoking our seemingly unique capacity for reason. We have the ability to contemplate, reflect, and grasp the physical laws governing the cosmos. We can harness those laws and employ them to manipulate our environment, alter its forms, and recombine its parts, allowing us to raise our living standards beyond our ancestor’s imaginations. We are highly intelligent beings, and our intelligence has been regarded as our distinguishing mark.

AI erodes this image. This new technology is becoming, and perhaps already is, a concrete realization, an externalization of what history thought was uniquely our own. The reality that reason isn’t special, that it is nothing more than a physical product of an accidental evolution, a wisp of luck, has become more and more firmly impressed upon the mind over the last two centuries. AI will make it indelible; it is the final proof. And so what is a human being? What distinguishes us?

The answer is in our spontaneous acts of creativity, in our ability to produce beauty in art, complexity in design, and in our profound capability to experience wonder. Again, the innovative process discussed above cannot be rationally formed into a precise instrument. As frustrating as it is, as much as it bumps against our instinct to make everything intelligible and known, our ability for spontaneity and creativity, our capacity to fail over and over again until we receive those moments of imaginative brilliance, cannot be reduced into a definite set of rules and procedures.

And so as the world changes, as everything alters before our eyes, we have to value what makes us distinctly human. We need a new Enlightenment, one that celebrates our creativity and our will to manifest what we can internally envision. Our self-respect as individuals and collectives lies in our instincts for curiosity, inquiry, discovery, and the creative and imaginative processes that animate them.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

I fought with making this work for two days before I finally figured out that I made a simple SQL format mistake. I asked chatGPT to write a tutorial on how to do it based on what I did and the work I did with it. Sharing it in case anyone finds it useful.

Enabling Persistent Memory in Open WebUI with Ollama

This tutorial will guide you through the process of enabling persistent memory for your AI models running locally with Ollama and Open WebUI on Debian Linux. By the end of this guide, your AI will be able to remember the last 20 conversations you’ve had with it.

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Prerequisites

• Debian Linux system
• Ollama installed and configured
• Open WebUI installed and running

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Step 1: Setting Up the Database for Persistent Memory

We'll use SQLite to store conversation history.

1.1 Create conversation_memory.py

Navigate to your Open WebUI backend directory and create a new file called conversation_memory.py.

bash cd /home/your_username/Documents/open-webui-0.5.10/backend nano conversation_memory.py

Paste the following code into conversation_memory.py:

```python import sqlite3 import os

Set DB_FILE to the absolute path of memory.db in the same directory as this script

DB_FILE = "/home/your_username/Documents/open-webui-0.5.10/backend/memory.db"

def init_db(): """Create database table if it doesn't exist""" conn = sqlite3.connect(DB_FILE) c = conn.cursor() c.execute(""" CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS memory ( id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, user TEXT, ai TEXT ) """) conn.commit() conn.close()

def save_conversation(user_input, ai_response): """Save a conversation entry to the database and maintain only the last 20 entries.""" try: conn = sqlite3.connect(DB_FILE) c = conn.cursor() c.execute("INSERT INTO memory (user, ai) VALUES (?, ?)", (user_input, ai_response)) c.execute(""" DELETE FROM memory WHERE id NOT IN ( SELECT id FROM memory ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 20 ) """) conn.commit() conn.close() print(f"Successfully saved: User - {user_input}, AI - {ai_response}") except Exception as e: print(f"Error saving conversation: {e}")

def get_last_conversations(limit=5): """Retrieve the last 'limit' number of conversations""" try: conn = sqlite3.connect(DB_FILE) c = conn.cursor() c.execute("SELECT user, ai FROM memory ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT ?", (limit,)) conversations = c.fetchall() conn.close() return conversations except Exception as e: print(f"Error retrieving conversations: {e}") return []

Initialize the database when this script is run

init_db() ```

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Step 2: Integrating Memory into Open WebUI Middleware

We'll modify the Open WebUI middleware to save and retrieve conversations.

2.1 Edit middleware.py

Open the middleware.py file for editing:

bash nano middleware.py

2.2 Import Memory Functions

At the top of the file, import the memory functions:

python from conversation_memory import save_conversation, get_last_conversations

2.3 Retrieve and Append Conversation History

Locate the function responsible for processing chat payloads. Add the following code to retrieve and append the last 20 conversations:

```python

Retrieve past conversations (e.g., last 20 messages)

conversation_history = get_last_conversations(limit=20)

Format past conversations as context

history_text = "\n".join([f"User: {conv[0]}\nAI: {conv[1]}" for conv in conversation_history])

Append conversation history to the current user message

user_message = get_last_user_message(form_data["messages"]) if history_text: combined_message = f"Previous conversation:\n{history_text}\n\nNew message:\nUser: {user_message}" else: combined_message = f"User: {user_message}"

Update the last user message with combined history

form_data["messages"][-1]["content"] = combined_message ```

2.4 Save New Conversations

Ensure that new conversations are saved after the AI generates a response. Add the following code where the AI response is handled:

```python

Extract AI response content

if isinstance(ai_response, dict) and "choices" in ai_response: ai_response_content = ai_response["choices"][0]["message"]["content"] else: ai_response_content = ""

Save the new conversation

if ai_response_content.strip(): save_conversation(user_message, ai_response_content) ```

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Step 3: Testing Persistent Memory

3.1 Run the Script to Test Saving

Run conversation_memory.py to ensure it's saving data correctly:

bash python3 /home/your_username/Documents/open-webui-0.5.10/backend/conversation_memory.py

3.2 Query the Database to Verify Data

Use SQLite to check if conversations are being saved:

bash sqlite3 /home/your_username/Documents/open-webui-0.5.10/backend/memory.db sqlite> SELECT * FROM memory;

You should see your test conversations listed.

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Step 4: Final Verification in Open WebUI

1. Restart the Open WebUI server to apply changes.
2. Start a conversation with the AI.
3. After several interactions, verify if the AI references past conversations.
4. Query memory.db again to ensure new conversations are being saved:

bash sqlite3 /home/your_username/Documents/open-webui-0.5.10/backend/memory.db sqlite> SELECT * FROM memory;

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Conclusion

You’ve successfully enabled persistent memory for your AI models running with Ollama and Open WebUI! The AI will now remember the last 20 conversations, creating a more dynamic and personalized user experience.

Feel free to adjust the memory limit or expand the functionality as needed. Happy coding!

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Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

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@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

We are constantly surrounded by technologies that claim to enhance our experiences but often come at the cost of our privacy. Think about it – every time you visit a website, cookies are being dropped like breadcrumbs, tracking your every move without you even knowing.

How Tech Companies Collect Your Data: The Spy Next Door

1. Cookies: These tiny files are placed on your device as soon as you visit a site. They follow you around the web, creating a digital trail that companies use to learn about your habits and interests.

2. Tracking Pixels: Like cookies, these are invisible tags that track your actions across different websites. Imagine someone following you wherever you go online – that's what tracking pixels do.

3. Behavioral Targeting: This is when companies analyze your browsing history to serve you ads tailored to your interests. It's like knowing what you like and then bombarding you with it, whether you like it or not.

4. Data Brokers: These middlemen collect data from various sources and sell it on to the highest bidder. Your information could be used for marketing, insurance, or even political purposes – without your consent!

5. Third-Party trackers: Apps and websites you visit may share your data with other companies, creating a web of surveillance that's hard to escape.

What They Do with Your Data

Once companies have your data, they can use it for targeted advertising, profile building, and even political manipulation. Think about the Cambridge Analytica scandal... Your data isn't just used to make your experience better; it's being sold and exploited in ways you probably never imagined.

How to Stop Them: Empower Yourself

1. Use Privacy-Friendly Browsers: Tools like Brave or Firefox with enhanced tracking protection can block trackers and cookies, giving you control over what data is collected.

2. Block Trackers and Cookies: Browser extensions that allow you to block these elements are available for free, providing an added layer of privacy.

3. Minimize Data Usage: When using apps or websites, avoid granting unnecessary permissions that could lead to data collection.

4. Delete Unused Apps: Regularly delete apps and services that are no longer needed to stop data collection from inactive accounts.

5. Read Privacy Policies: Before accepting terms of service or privacy policies, read through them to understand what data will be collected and how it will be used.

6. Use Incognito or Private Browsing Modes: These modes often block cookies and trackers, offering an additional way to reduce data collection. But remember that Google was still tracking you on Chrome regardless, so your mileage may vary.

7. Limit Device Usage: Avoid using personal devices for sensitive activities when privacy is a concern.

8. Use Tor: Yes it's slower, yes some sites won't work. It's more private and you using helps disquise traffic giving protection for others that might need it more than you do.

Why It Matters: The Domino Effect

The data collected today isn't just for ads; it's used in decision-making processes that can affect your life. From insurance rates to job opportunities, your data can influence significant aspects of your existence. Imagine a world where your information is bought and sold without your consent – it's time to take control.

Your Data, Your Choice

Your data is being collected and sold without your consent, and the time to act is now. By understanding how data collection works and taking steps to protect yourself, you can reclaim control over your privacy. Remember, you're not just a user – you're the owner of your information. It's time to stand up for your rights and demand transparency from the companies that claim to serve you.

Don't Let Corporate Spies Steal Your Privacy

Your data is valuable, and it's being harvested without your knowledge. Take action today by educating yourself and others about the importance of privacy. Together, we can create a world where privacy is respected and protected, not exploited for profit.

Join the movement to fight against corporate surveillance and protect your right to privacy. Your information is too important to leave in the hands of those who don't have your consent. It's time to take a stand – your digital life depends on it.

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Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

82XCDNK1Js8TethhpGLFPbVyKe25DxMUePad1rUn9z7V6QdCzxHEE7varvVh1VUidUhHVSA4atNU2BTpSNJLC1BqSvDajw1

@ e7454994:7bb2dac7

Imagine

According to Cazoomi, total revenue for nonprofits in the U.S. reached approximately $3.7 trillion in 2024.

I know in some cases a billion is a hundred million instead of a thousand million (presumably so that some millionaires can call themselves billionaires to distinguish themselves from the riffraff). But that’s not the case here. A trillion is one followed by 12 zeros, so in 2024, US non-profits’ expenses were

3,700,000,000,000 dollars.

How much is a trillion?

And that’s just the USA. We could safely double it for worldwide non-profits and still be well below the actual figure. To be conservative, let’s say 6 trillion of our dollars each year goes on the kinds of projects that non-profits are allowed to do (essentially, making the world a better place).

Think what you could do with just one million dollars. Now think of that times six million! The entire population of Congo, each man, woman, and child, could become a millionaire!. It’s not really imaginable.

That’s how much nonprofits have. What the hell have they done with all that money? In most places where poverty and malnutrition are rife, two thousand dollars a year per family would be more than enough to enable people to sort out whatever problems they have and convert their local community to abundance over three years. Six trillion divided by two thousand is three billion.

The people whom we allow to manage ‘aid’ for us are (to be polite) inept, and we need to bypass them urgently. Directsponsor.org and clickforcharity.net are part of a proof of concept, and our aim is to prove that a better way is possible by doing it.

When a hierarchy exists, it presents a focus of power that power-seeking individuals and cliques can over time turn to their advantage… Even volunteer organizations are subject to intrigues, power grabs, covert arrangements, misallocation of funds, etc. The problem is made worse by the fact that those who most desire power and who are the most ruthless are the very ones who tend to work their way to the top of hierarchies.

Richard Moore

More Fun With Figures

Oxfam UK raised £368,000,000 in 2013-14. That’s around 450,000,000 euros. What could we do with that kind of money? A direct sponsorship project is, for a family, 120 per month = 1440 per year. 1440 / 450,000,000 = 312,500 families.

312,500 families, x 4 = 1,250,000 people, would move from poverty into abundance every 3 years with the money that goes through Oxfam. Does Oxfam achieve anything like this with our money?

Oxfam UK is just one of many, many such charities and is small fry when you look at things like USAID, which ran through 27 billion dollars in the year to 2025. What could we do with that?

Its well over 15 million families. Over 60 million people! Or, the entire population of Botswana, Namibia, Mauritania, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Libya, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Togo, and Guinea combined. This is only to make a point, not to suggest that we would ever achieve such numbers. It shows how wasteful and scandalous our present “aid” efforts really are.

NGOs and governments waste our money.

Solution

Until recently, it was impossible to send money directly to another human without going through the banking system. The big charity organisations were a necessary part of the process, and they made the most of their position. Think about it: you have a family to feed, rent or a mortgage that has to be paid, or you’ll be homeless and destitute. What would your priority be? Apart from the top level, these are generally good people with the best intentions.

But now we have Bitcoin. People can send money all over the world at extremely low cost. The recipients aren’t stupid; they know what they need better than any NGO “expert,” and any expertise or teaching they need, they can get if they have the money to pay for it. This way, the power relationship is reversed in favor of our recipients.

All we need is a system (open and distributed) that ensures sponsors’ funds are not being squandered and the projects being supported are not scams. 

A few people decided to start such a project. We have a system almost fully built and currently being tested out. It will enable people to get together into small groups of sponsors to fund small, local projects by directly funding the individuals working on the project. Anything from a regular monthly commitment to a click-for-charity system where you don’t even need any money to occasional one-off purchases of items for a project will be possible.

Here’s our pilot project in Badilisha, on Lake Victoria.

If you like doing stuff on social media, please sign up on our beta site (no money needed) and say hi; we need a few people to get it started. clickforcharity.net.

@ 005bc4de:ef11e1a2

Trump Bitcoin Report Card - Day 100

For whatever reason day 100 of a president's term has been deemed a milestone. So, it's time to check in with President Trump's bitcoin pledges and issue a report card.

Repo and prior reports: - GitHub: https://github.com/crrdlx/trump-bitcoin-report-card - First post: https://stacker.news/items/757211 - Progress Report 1: https://stacker.news/items/774165 - Day 1 Report Card: https://stacker.news/items/859475 - Day 100 Report Card: https://stacker.news/items/966434

Report Card | | Pledge | Prior Grade | Current Grade | |--|--|--|--| | 1 | Fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on day 1 | A | A | | 2 | Commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht on day 1 | A | A | | 3 | Remove capital gains taxes on bitcoin transactions | F | F | | 4 | Create and hodl a strategic bitcoin stockpile | D | C- | | 5 | Prevent a CBDC during his presidency | B+ | A | | 6 | Create a "bitcoin and crypto" advisory council | C- | C | | 7 | Support the right to self-custody | D+ | B- | | 8 | End the "war on crypto" | D+ | B+ | | 9 | Mine all remaining bitcoin in the USA | C- | C | | 10 | Make the US the "crypto capital of the planet" | C- | C+ |

Comments

Pledge 1 - SEC chair - (no change from earlier) - Gensler is out. This happened after the election and Trump took office. With the writing on the wall, Gensler announced he would resign, Trump picked a new SEC head in Paul Atkins, and Gensler left office just before Trump was sworn in. The only reason an A+ was not awarded was that Trump wasn't given the chance to actually fire Gensler, because he quit. No doubt, though, his quitting was due to Trump and the threat of being sacked.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: A

Pledge 2 - free Ross - (no change from earlier) - Ross Ulbricht's sentence was just commuted. Going will "option 3" above, the pledge was kept. An A+ would have been a commutation yesterday or by noon today, but, let's not split hairs. It's done.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: A

Pledge 3 - capital gains - This requires either executive action and/or legislation. There was no action. Executive action can be done with the stroke of a pen, but it was not. Legislation is tricky and time-consuming, however, there wasn't even mention of this matter. This seems to be on the back burner since statements such as this report in November. See Progress Report 1: https://stacker.news/items/774165 for more context.

Trump's main tax thrust has been the tariff, actually a tax increase, instead of a cut. Currently, the emphasis is on extending the "Trump tax cuts" and recently House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated such a bill would be ready by Memorial Day. Earlier in his term, there was more chatter about tax relief for bitcoin or cryptocurrency. There seems to be less chatter on this, or none at all, such as its absence in the "ready by Memorial Day" article.

Until tax reform is codified and signed, it isn't tax law and the old code still applies.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: F

Pledge 4 - bitcoin reserve - The initial grade was a C, it was dropped to a D mainly due to Trump's propensity to [alt]coinery, and now it's back to a C-.

Getting the grade back up into C-level at a C- was a little bumpy. On March 2, 2025, Trump posted that a U.S. Crypto Reserve would be created. This is what had been hoped for, except that the pledge was for a Bitcoin Reserve, not crypto. And secondly, he specifically named XRP, SOL, and ADA (but not BTC). Just a couple of hours later, likely in clean up mode, he did add BTC (along with ETH) as "obviously" being included. So, the "Bitcoin Reserve" became a "Crypto Reserve."

Maybe still in "cleanup mode," Sec. of Commerce Howard Lutnick said bitcoin will hold "special status" in the reserve. Then, on March 6, an executive order made the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile official. Again, "Bitcoin" was generalized until section 3 where the "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" did come to official fruition.

The grade is only a C- because the only thing that happened was the naming of the stockpile. Indeed, it became official. But the "stockpile" was just BTC already held by the U.S. government. I think it's fair to say most bitcoiners would have preferred a statement about buying BTC. Other Trump bitcoin officials indicated acquiring "as much as we can get", which sounds great, but until it happens, is only words.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: C-

Pledge 5 - no CBDC - An executive order on January 23, 2025 forbade a CBDC in section 1, part v by "prohibiting the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use of a CBDC."

Day 100 Report Card Grade: A

Pledge 6 - advisory council - The Trump bitcoin or crypto team consists of the following: David Sacks as “crypto czar” and Bo Hines as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets.

A White House Crypto Summit (see video) was held on March 7, 2025. In principle, the meeting was good, however, the summit seemed (a) to be very heavily "crypto" oriented, and (b) to largely be a meet-and-greet show.

Still, just the fact that such a show took place, inside the White House, reveals how far things have come and the change in climate. For the grade to go higher, more tangible things should take place over time.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: C

Pledge 7 - self-custody - There's been a bit of good news though on this front. First, the executive order above from January 23 stated in section 1, i, one of the goals was "...to maintain self-custody of digital assets." Also, the Phoenix wallet returned to the U.S. In 2024, both Phoenix and Wallet of Satoshi pulled out of the U.S. for fear of government crackdowns. The return of Phoenix, again, speaks to the difference in climate now and is a win for self-custody.

To rise above B-level, more assurance, it would be good to see further clear assurance that people can self-custody, that developers can build self-custody, and businesses can create products to self-custody. Also, Congressional action could get to an A.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: B-

Pledge 8 - end war on crypto - There has been improvement here. First, tangibly, SAB 121 was sent packing as SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce announced. Essentially, this removed a large regulatory burden. Commissioner Peirce also said ending the burdens will be a process to get out of the "mess". So, there's work to do. Also, hurdles were recently removed so that banks can now engage in bitcoin activity. This is both a symbolic and real change.

Somewhat ironically, Trump's own venture into cryptocurrency with his World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP and $MELANIA tokens, roundly poo-pood by bitcoiners, might actually be beneficial in a way. The signal from the White House seems to be on all things cryptocurrency, "Do it."

The improvement and climate now seems very different than with the previous administration and leaders who openly touted a war on crypto.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: B+

Pledge 9 - USA mining - As noted earlier, this is an impossible pledge. That said, things can be done to make America mining friendly. The U.S. holds an estimated 37 to 40% of Bitcoin hash rate, which is substantial. Plus, Trump, or the Trump family at least, has entered into bitcoin mining. With Hut 8, Eric Trump is heading "American Bitcoin" to mine BTC. Like the $TRUMP token, this conveys that bitcoin mining is a go in the USA.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: C

Pledge 10 - USA crypto capital - This pledge closely aligned with pledges 8 and 9. If the war on crypto ends, the USA becomes more and more crypto and bitcoin friendly. And, if the hashrate stays high and even increases, that puts the USA at the center of it all. Most of the categories above have seen improvements, all of which help this last pledge. Trump's executive orders help this grade as well as they move from only words spoken to becoming official policy.

To get higher, the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve should move from a name-change only to acquiring more BTC. If the USA wants to be the world's crypto capital, being the leader in bitcoin ownership is the way to do it.

Day 100 Report Card Grade: C+

Sources

1. Nashville speech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiEIfBatnH8
2. CryptoPotato "top 8 promises" - https://x.com/Crypto_Potato/status/1854105511349584226
3. CNBC - https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/06/trump-claims-presidential-win-here-is-what-he-promised-the-crypto-industry-ahead-of-the-election.html
4. BLOCKHEAD - https://www.blockhead.co/2024/11/07/heres-everything-trump-promised-to-the-crypto-industry/
5. CoinTelegraph - https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-promises-crypto-election-usa
6. China vid - Bitcoin ATH and US Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile - https://njump.me/nevent1qqsgmmuqumhfktugtnx9kcsh3ap6v7ca4z8rgx79palz2qk0wzz5cksppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qgszwaxc8j8e0zw9sdq59y43rykyx3wm0lcd2502xth699v0gxf0degrqsqqqqqpglusv6
7. Capitals gains tax - https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/trump-proposes-crypto-tax-cuts-targets-u-s-made-tokens-for-tax-exemption Progress report 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Meeting with Brian Armstrong - https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp500-nasdaq-live-11-18-2024/card/exclusive-trump-to-meet-privately-with-coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-DDkgF0xW1BW242rVeuqx
9. Michael Saylor podcast - https://fountain.fm/episode/DHEzGE0f99QQqyM36nVr
10. Gensler resigns - https://coinpedia.org/news/big-breaking-sec-chair-gary-gensler-officially-resigns/ Progress report 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Trump & Justin Sun - https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/11/26/justin-sun-joins-donald-trumps-world-liberty-financial-as-adviser $30M investment: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-crypto-project-bust-until-154313241.html
12. SEC chair - https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/trump-plans-to-nominate-paul-atkins-as-sec-chair.html
13. Crypto czar - https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/trump-names-david-sacks-white-house-ai-crypto-czar
14. Investigate Choke Point 2.0 - https://www.cryptopolitan.com/crypto-czar-investigate-choke-point/
15. Crypto council head Bo Hines - https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-appoints-bo-hines-head-crypto-council
16. National hash rate: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/the-us-controls-40-of-bitcoins-hashrate/
17. Senate committee https://coinjournal.net/news/rep-senator-cynthia-lummis-selected-to-chair-crypto-subcommittee/
18. Treasurh Sec. CBDC: https://decrypt.co/301444/trumps-treasury-pick-scott-bessant-pours-cold-water-on-us-digital-dollar-initiative
19. National priority: https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-executive-order-crypto-national-priority-bloomberg?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
20. $TRUMP https://njump.me/nevent1qqsffe0d7mgtu5jhasy4hmkcdy7wfrlcqwc4vf676hulvdn8uaqa3acpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczyztpa8q038vw5xluyhnydj5u39d7cpssvuswjhhjqj8q42jh4ul3wqcyqqqqqqgmha026
21. World Liberty buys alts: https://www.theblock.co/post/335779/trumps-world-liberty-buys-25-million-of-tokens-including-link-tron-aave-and-ethena?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
22. CFTC chair: https://cryptoslate.com/trump-appoints-crypto-advocate-caroline-pham-as-cftc-acting-chair/
23. WLF buys wrapped BTC https://www.cryptopolitan.com/trump-buys-47-million-in-bitcoin/
24. SEC turnover https://www.theblock.co/post/335944/trump-names-sec-commissioner-mark-uyeda-as-acting-chair-amid-a-crypto-regulatory-shift?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
25. ----------------------------100 Days Report---------------------------------Davos speech "world capital of AI and crypto" https://coinpedia.org/news/big-breaking-president-trump-says-u-s-to-become-ai-and-crypto-superpower/
26. SAB 121 gone, Hester P heads talk force & ends sab 121?, war on crypto https://x.com/HesterPeirce/status/1882562977985114185 article: https://www.theblock.co/post/336761/days-after-gensler-leaves-sec-rescinds-controversial-crypto-accounting-guidance-sab-121?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social CoinTelegraph: https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-executive-order-cbdc-ban-game-changer-us-institutional-crypto-adoption?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
27. Possible tax relief https://cryptodnes.bg/en/will-trumps-crypto-policies-lead-to-tax-relief-for-crypto-investors/
28. War on crypto https://decrypt.co/304395/trump-sec-crypto-task-force-priorities-mess
29. Trump "truths" 2/18 make usa #1 in crypto, "Trump effect" https://www.theblock.co/post/333137/ripple-ceo-says-75-of-open-roles-are-now-us-based-due-to-trump-effect and https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/01/06/ripples-garlinghouse-touts-trump-effect-amid-bump-in-u-s-deals
30. Strategic reserve https://njump.me/nevent1qqsf89l74mqfkk74jqhjcqtwp5m970gedmtykn5uhl0vz9mhmrvvvgqpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczyztpa8q038vw5xluyhnydj5u39d7cpssvuswjhhjqj8q42jh4ul3wqcyqqqqqqge7c74u and https://njump.me/nevent1qqswv50m7mc95m3saqce08jzpqc0vedw4avdk6zxy9axrn3hqet52xgpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczyztpa8q038vw5xluyhnydj5u39d7cpssvuswjhhjqj8q42jh4ul3wqcyqqqqqqgpc7cp3
31. Strategic reserve, bitcoin special https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/policy/bitcoin-to-hold-special-status-in-u-s-crypto-strategic-reserve
32. Bitcoin reserve, crypto stockpile https://decrypt.co/309032/president-trump-signs-executive-order-to-establish-bitcoin-reserve-crypto-stockpile vid link https://njump.me/nevent1qqs09h58patpv9vfjpcss6v5nxv7m23u8g6g43nqvkjzgzescztucmspr9mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt9upzqtjzyy2ylrsceh5uj20j5e95v0e99s3epsvyctu2y0vrwyltvq33qvzqqqqqqyus4pu7
33. Truth summit https://njump.me/nevent1qqswj6sv0wr4d4ppwzam5egr5k6nmqgjpwmsrlx2a7d4ndpfj0fxvcqpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczyztpa8q038vw5xluyhnydj5u39d7cpssvuswjhhjqj8q42jh4ul3wqcyqqqqqqgu0mzzh and vid https://njump.me/nevent1qqsptn8c8wyuhlqtjr5u767x20q4dmjvxy28cdj30t4v9phhf6y5a5spzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtczyztpa8q038vw5xluyhnydj5u39d7cpssvuswjhhjqj8q42jh4ul3wqcyqqqqqqgqklklu
34. SEC chair confirmed https://beincrypto.com/sec-chair-paul-atkins-confirmed-senate-vote/
35. pro bitcoin USA https://coinpedia.org/news/u-s-secretary-of-commerce-howard-lutnick-says-america-is-ready-for-bitcoin/
36. tax cuts https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5272043-johnson-house-trump-agenda-memorial-day/
37. "as much as we can get" https://cryptobriefing.com/trump-bitcoin-acquisition-strategy/
38. ban on CBDC https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/strengthening-american-leadership-in-digital-financial-technology/
39. Phoenix WoS leave https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/04/29/wasabi-wallet-and-phoenix-leave-the-us-whats-next-for-non-custodial-crypto
40. Trump hut 8 mining https://www.reuters.com/technology/hut-8-eric-trump-launch-bitcoin-mining-company-2025-03-31/

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

A VPN is Not Magic

A VPN is a virtual private network. A VPN service provides an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server they own or rent. You then connect to the internet from this server thus making your IP address appear to the wider internet as the server IP. That's it. That's all it does.

Your Device -> VPN -> Website

Your Device sees that you are connecting to a website through a VPN. Your ISP sees that you are connecting to a VPN server but nothing after. The website sees that someone from a VPN is connecting to them but doesn't know who. The VPN sees your device connected to their server and that you then connected to a website.

VPN Anonymity and Privacy

VPNs do a lot to protect your privacy, they keep your ISP from seeing and logging every single thing you do online and they spoof your location and IP to any website that you visit. Although this website protection isn't 100% anonymous because of cookies, trackers, and if you have to log into a site with your information. If you are using a VPN on a mobile phone then you are still broadcasting your location to the cell towers even if you are not telling the website you are browsing.

Then there is the elephant in the room. The VPN knows all and sees all. How much do they log? How long do they save it? Can you trust them? This is going to vary VASTLY between VPN providers. I always prefer if they are setup where they cannot know the information in the first place and limit what I tell them in the first place by paying through the use of bitcoin or monero. Just because they have a no log "policy" in place it doesn't always fill me with confidence.

VPN Security

How much security does a VPN give you? Some in certain circumstances but not a lot. A VPN is not going to stop malware or viruses. A VPN can provide some protection from a man in the middle or evil twin attack as it provides a encrypted tunnel between your device and the VPN server, so always use a VPN when joining public WIFI spots. Just remember a VPN cannot protect you downstream on the connection between the VPN server and the website, always use secure encrypted connections and be aware that MITM attacks can still happen on the backside. A VPN can prevent DDoS attacks since the attacker doesn't know your real IP address and a fantastic use of VPNs is to protect IoT devices. Those smart devices around your home love to scream out all their data insecurely and a VPN can change their IP and encrypt their data in transit protecting them from hacking.

VPN Legality

In many countries VPNs are banned, blocked, or outright illegal:

Bahrain Belarus China Cuba Egypt Iran Iraq Libya Myanmar North Korea Oman Russia Syria Turkey Turkmenistan UAE Uganda Venezuela Vietnam

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Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

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@ d1667293:388e7004

The "Bitcoindollar" system—an emerging term which describes the interplay of U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins and Bitcoin as complementary forces in the evolving monetary framework of the digital era (and which replaces the defunct Petrodollar system)—has sparked an interesting debate on Nostr with PowMaxi.

You will find the thread links at the bottom of this article.

Powmaxi argues that attempting to merge hard money (Bitcoin) with soft money (the U.S. dollar) is structurally doomed, because the systems are inherently contradictory and cannot coexist without one eventually destroying the other.

This critique is certainly valid, but ONLY if the Bitcoindollar is viewed as a final system. But I never claim that. To the contrary, the conclusion in my book is that this is a system that buys time for fiat, absorbs global demand for monetary stability, and ushers in a Bitcoinized world without the immediate collapse and the reset of the fiat system which would otherwise cause dramatic consequences. The Bitcoindollar is the only way to a gradual Bitcoin dominance in 10-20 years time while avoiding sudden collapse of the fiat system, so that also the power elites who hold the keys to this system can adapt.\ At least this is my hope.

Therefore the "fusion" isn't the future. The siphoning is. And the U.S. may try to ride it as long as possible. The Bitcoindollar system is a transitional strategic framework, not a\ permanent monetary equilibrium. In the end I agree with PowMaxi.

His detailed critique deserves an equally detailed analysis. Here's how the objections break down and why they don’t necessarily undermine the Bitcoindollar system.

1. Hard Money vs. Soft Money: Opposed Systems?

Objection: Bitcoin is a closed, decentralized system with a fixed supply; the dollar is an open, elastic system governed by central banks and political power. These traits are mutually exclusive and incompatible.

Response: Ideologically, yes. Practically, no. Hybrid financial systems are not uncommon. Bitcoin and stablecoins serve different user needs: Bitcoin is a store of value; stablecoins are mediums of exchange. Their coexistence mirrors real-world economic needs. The contradiction can be managed, and is not fatal at least for the transitional phase.

2. Scarcity vs. Elasticity: Economic Incompatibility?

Objection: Bitcoin can’t inject liquidity in crises; fiat systems can. Anchoring fiat to Bitcoin removes policymakers' tools.

Response: Correct — but that’s why Bitcoin is held as a reserve, not used as the primary medium of exchange in the Bitcoindollar model. Fiat-based liquidity mechanisms still function via stablecoins, while Bitcoin acts as a counterweight to long-term monetary debasement. The system’s strength is in its optionality: you don’t have to use Bitcoin until you want an exit ramp from fiat.

3. No Stable Equilibrium: One Must Win?

Objection: The system will destabilize. Either Bitcoin undermines fiat or fiat suppresses Bitcoin.

Response: Not necessarily in this transitional phase. The “conflict” isn’t between tools — it’s between control philosophies. The dollar won’t disappear overnight, and Bitcoin isn’t going away. The likely outcome is a gradual shifting of savings and settlement layers to Bitcoin, while fiat continues to dominate day-to-day payments and credit markets — until Bitcoin becomes structurally better in both.

4. Gresham’s and Thiers’ Law: Hollowing Fiat?

Objection: People save in Bitcoin and spend fiat, eroding fiat value.

Response: Yes — and that’s been happening since 2009. But this isn’t a flaw; it’s a transition mechanism. The Bitcoindollar model recognizes this and creates a bridge: it monetizes U.S. debt while preserving access to hard money. In the long run, my expectation is that naturally bitcoin will prevail both as a SOV and currency, but until then, stablecoins and T-bill-backed tokens serve useful roles in the global economy.

5. Philosophical Incompatibility?

Objection: Bitcoin prioritizes individual sovereignty; fiat systems are hierarchical. They can't be reconciled.

Response: They don’t need to be reconciled ideologically to function in parallel. Users choose the tool that suits their needs. One empowers individual autonomy; the other offers state-backed convenience. This is a competition of values, not a mechanical incompatibility. The Bitcoindollar model is a strategy. It’s a bridge between old and new systems, not a permanent coexistence.

6. Fusion is Impossible?

Objection: It’s only a temporary bridge. One side must lose.

Response: Exactly. The Bitcoindollar system is a transitional bridge. But that doesn’t reduce its value. It provides a functional pathway for individuals, companies, and governments to gradually exit broken monetary systems and experiment with new models.

In the meantime, the U.S. benefits from stablecoin-driven Treasury demand, while Bitcoin continues to grow as a global reserve asset.

Bottom line: A Strategic Convergence, Not a Permanent Fusion

The Bitcoindollar system isn’t a contradiction. It’s a convergence zone. It reflects the reality that monetary systems evolve gradually, not cleanly. Bitcoin and fiat will compete, overlap, and influence each other. Eventually, yes — hard money wins. But until then, hybrid systems offer powerful stepping stones.

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@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Dealing with law enforcement can be a challenging and stressful experience. However, understanding your rights and knowing how to navigate such situations can empower you to protect yourself. Here’s a structured approach to handle these interactions effectively:

1. Stay Calm and Compliant:

2. When approached by law enforcement, remain calm and avoid sudden movements. Slowly raise your hands and identify yourself if possible.

3. Ask for Identification:

4. Request the officer's name, badge number, and station. This documentation can be crucial later on.

5. Know Your Miranda Rights:

6. Upon arrest, you have the right to remain silent. Do not answer questions without consulting a lawyer. If Mirandized, exercise your right to remain silent.

7. Refuse Incriminating Statements:

8. Avoid answering questions that could incriminate yourself. Politely state, "I will not answer any questions at this time."

9. Document the Incident:

10. Use your phone or notebook to record details such as dates, times, and descriptions of interactions. Note any injuries or mistreatment.

11. Seek Legal Advice:

12. After the encounter, contact a lawyer. They can review evidence and provide guidance on how to proceed.

13. Understand Search and Seizure Laws:

14. Officers generally need a warrant to search your property unless there's probable cause. If stopped without a warrant, calmly refuse entry.

15. Use a Body Camera Policy:

16. If applicable, ask for the officer's body camera footage and request it via formal complaint if refused.

17. Know When to Comply:

18. Comply with instructions that do not infringe on your rights, such as providing identification when legally required.

19. Consider a Witness Statement:

    • If you witness illegal actions, consider reporting them. Your role as a bystander may be crucial in documenting incidents.

20. Seek Emotional Support:

    • Interactions with law enforcement can be traumatic. Reach out to support groups or mental health resources for assistance.

21. Understand Legal Recourse:

    • If rights are violated, consult legal aid societies or civil rights organizations for guidance on filing complaints or seeking redress.

Conclusion: Understanding your rights and documenting interactions is essential when dealing with law enforcement. This guide provides a framework to help you navigate such situations confidently and protect your rights effectively. Remember, knowledge is power, and being informed can lead to better outcomes in challenging circumstances.

---

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@ 7d33ba57:1b82db35

Located in eastern Poland, Lublin is a city where history, culture, and youthful energy come together. Often called the "Gateway to the East," Lublin blends Gothic and Renaissance architecture, vibrant street life, and deep historical roots—especially as a center of Jewish heritage and intellectual life.

🏙️ Top Things to See in Lublin

🏰 Lublin Castle

• A striking hilltop castle with a neo-Gothic façade and a beautifully preserved Romanesque chapel (Chapel of the Holy Trinity)
• Don’t miss the frescoes inside—a rare mix of Byzantine and Western art styles

🚪 Old Town (Stare Miasto)

• Wander through cobblestone streets, pastel buildings, and arched gateways
• Filled with cozy cafes, galleries, and vibrant murals
• The Grodzka Gate symbolizes the passage between Christian and Jewish quarters

🕯️ Lublin’s Jewish Heritage

• Visit the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre, a powerful memorial and museum telling the story of the once-vibrant Jewish community
• Nearby Majdanek Concentration Camp offers a sobering but important historical experience

🎭 Culture & Events

• Lublin is known for its festivals, like Carnaval Sztukmistrzów (Festival of Magicians and Street Performers) and the Night of Culture
• The city has a thriving theatre and music scene, supported by its large student population

🌳 Green Spaces

• Relax in Saski Garden, a peaceful park with walking paths and fountains
• Or take a walk along the Bystrzyca River for a quieter, more local feel

🍽️ Local Tastes

• Sample Polish classics like pierogi, żurek (sour rye soup), and bigos (hunter’s stew)
• Look for modern twists on traditional dishes in Lublin’s growing number of bistros and artisan cafés

🚆 Getting There

• Easy access by train or bus from Warsaw (2–2.5 hours)
• Compact center—easily walkable

@ bbb5dda0:f09e2747

GitHub Actions (CI/CD) over Nostr

I Spent quite a bit of time on getting Nostr-based GitHub actions working. I have a basic runner implementation now, which i've reworked quite a bit when working with @dan on getting the front-end of it into gitworkshop.dev. We found that the nature of these jobs don't really lend itself to fit within the NIP-90 DVM spec.

What we have now: - A dvm-cicd-runner that - Advertises itself using NIP-89 announcements. - Takes a DVM request with: - repository - branch/ref - path to workflow file (.yml) - job timeout (max duration) - 🥜 Cashu prepayment for the job timeout (to be refunded) - Pulls the repository and executes the provided workflow file - Sends logs in batches as partial job results - Publishes job results and gets displayed in gitworkshop - Gitworkshop.dev (all nostr:npub15qydau2hjma6ngxkl2cyar74wzyjshvl65za5k5rl69264ar2exs5cyejr work) UI that : - Shows available workflow runners. - Instructing + paying runner to execute workflow file - Displaying job status, live updating with the latest logs / autoscroll, all the stuff you'd expect - Neatly displaying past jobs for the current repository

TODO'S + Ideas/vision

• TODO: refunding the unused minutes (job timeout - processing time) to the requester
• TODO: create seperate kinds/nip for worflow execution over nostr
• Create separate kinds for streaming arbitrary text data over nostr (line by line logs)
• automated git watchers for projects to kick of jobs
• Separate out workflow management stuff from gitworkshop.dev. A micro-app might serve better to manage runners for git projects etc and takes away pressure from gitworkshop.dev to do it all.
• Perhaps support just running .yaml files, without the requirement to have it in a git repo. Could just be a .yaml file on blossom.

TollGate

I spent most of my time working on TollGate. There's been a lot of back and forth to the drawing board to narrow down what the TollGate protocol looks like. I helped define some concepts on implementing a tollgate which we could use as language to discuss the different components that are part of a tollgate implementation. It helped us narrow down what was implementation and what is part of the protocol.

Current state of the project

• We have a website displaying the project: TollGate.me
• Worked on a basic android app for auto payments, validating we can auto-buy from tollgates by our phones
  • demo
• Presented TollGate at @Sats 'n Facts
• There's a protocol draft, presented at SEC-04
• We've done workshops, people were able to turn an OpenWRT router into a TollGate
• Building and releasing TollGate as a singular OpenWRT package, installable on any compatible architecture
• Building and releasing TollGate OS v0.0.1 (prebuilt OpenWRT image), targeting a few specific routers
• First tollgate deployed in the wild!! (At a restaurant in Funchal, Madeira)
• Other developers started to make their own adjacent implementations, which decentralizes the protocol already

What's next:

• We're gathering useful real user feedback to be incorporated in OS v0.0.2 soon
• Refine the protocol further
• Showing TollGate at various conferences in Europe throughout the summer
• Keep building the community, it's growing fast

Epoxy (Nostr based Addressing)

Although i've pivoted towards focusing on TollGate I worked out an implementation of my NIP-(1)37 proposal. During SEC-04 I worked out this browser plugin to demonstrate one way to make websites resistant to rugpulls.

It works by looking for a meta tag in the page's head: html <meta name="nostr-pubkey" relays="relay.site.com,other.relay.com">[hexPubkey]</meta>

When we've never recorded a pubkey for this domain, we save it. This pubkey now serves as the owner of the website. It looks for a kind 11111 event of that pubkey. It should list the current domain as one of it's domains. If not, it shows a warning.

The key concept is that if we visit this website again and one of these scenario's is true: - There is no longer a meta tag - There's another pubkey in the meta tag - The pubkey is still on the webpage, but the 11111 no longer lists this domain

Then we consider this domain as RUGPULLED and the user gets an error, suggesting to navigate to other domain listed by this pubkey. I'd like it to perhaps auto-redirect to another domain listed by the owner, this is especially useful for frequently rugged domains.

This extension does try to solve a bootstrapping problem. We need to establish the website's pubkey at some point. We have to start somewhere, which is why the first load is considered as the 'real' one, since we have no way of knowing for sure.

Other

🥜/⚡️ Receipt.Cash - Social Receipt sharing app

During SEC I worked on scratching an itch that has been lingering in my mind since SEC-03 already. And now that vibecoding is a thing it wasn't this huge undertaking anymore to handle the front-end stuff (which i suck at).

The usage scenario is a bunch of bitcoiners that are at a restaurant, we get the bill and want to split it amongst each other. One person can pay the bill, then: - Payer photographs receipt - Payer adds Cashu Payment request - Payer sets dev split % - App turns the receipt + request into a (encrypted) nostr event - The payer shares the event with QR or Share Menu

The friend scan the QR: - Receipt is loaded and displayed - Friend selects items they ordered - Friend hits pay button (⚡️Lightning or 🥜Cashu) and pays - Payment gets sent to Payer's cashu wallet - Dev split set by Payer goes to dev address.

Some features: - Change LLM model that processes the receipt to extract data - Proofs storage + recovery (if anything fails during processing)

Todo's: - Letting payer configure LNURL for payouts - Letting payer edit Receipt before sharing - Fix: live updates on settled items

The repo: receipt-cash

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Alright, let’s get one thing straight: you’re scrolling through your phone, shopping online, maybe even working from home. But here’s the thing – someone might be watching. Not in the creepy stalker way, but in the “is that company really needing my data?” kind of way. That’s where a Virtual Private Network (VPN) comes in, saving you from the prying eyes of marketers, governments, and even your own internet provider.

What Does a VPN Do?

A VPN creates a secure, encrypted connection between your device and a VPN server. This allows you to browse the internet anonymously, keeping your online activities private from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), network administrators, and even hackers. When you connect to a VPN, your internet traffic is routed through an intermediary server, making it difficult for anyone to track your online movements.

Why You Need a VPN: Privacy edition

• Hiding Your IP Address

Every time you jump online, your device gets an IP address, like a digital ID. If you don’t use a VPN, everyone can see this ID, making it easy for advertisers and governments to track your every move.

• [X ] Myth: A VPN hides my IP address from everyone.

• [X] Reality: A VPN hides your IP address only from the websites you visit and your ISP. Your internet service provider still knows you're using a VPN, but they won't be able to see what sites you're visiting. Your VPN knows what sites you are visiting and may know who you are as well.

• Bypassing Censorship

Ever tried accessing something that’s blocked in your country? A VPN can help you bypass those restrictions, letting you watch the latest shows, access social media, or even download books without getting flagged as a troublemaker.

• Protecting Your Data

When you connect to public Wi-Fi – like at a café or airport – you’re basically handing over your data on a silver platter. A VPN encrypts this data, so even if someone intercepts it, they can’t decode it. Think of it as adding an extra layer of security.

• Avoiding Surveillance

Companies and governments love collecting data. From what you search to who you talk to, there’s a lot of stuff that’s none of their business. A VPN ensures that only you know where you’ve been online.

• Safeguarding Your Personal and Professional Life

Whether you’re working from home or just shopping for a present, a VPN keeps your activities private. It’s like having a secure safe for all your online stuff, so no one can snoop.

• Stopping Targeted Ads

Companies track your browsing habits to send you ads that follow you around the internet. A VPN breaks this cycle, making sure those creepy “you might like” ads stop following you around.

• No Logs Policy

Some VPNs keep records of your activity, which means they could be handed over if the government comes knocking. But with a no-logs policy, nothing is stored – they promise ;)

• The Dark Side of Free VPNs

Before you jump into using a free VPN, think twice. Free services often come with a catch: they might sell your data to advertisers or even track your activity themselves. It’s like getting a free hotdog at a gas station – it sounds great, but you’ll probably regret it later.

How to Use a VPN (Because You’re Not a Tech Wizard)

• Choose the Right Provider

Go for a reputable service that offers strong encryption and a no-logs policy. Look for options with a kill switch, which stops any data from being leaked if the connection drops. I prefer ones you can pay annoymously but that may be overkill for most people.

• Download and Install

Once you pick a provider, download the app to your device. It’s not rocket science, but it does require a bit more than just opening an email.

• Set It Up

Most VPNs have user-friendly interfaces. Just click “Connect” and you’re good to go. You might need to enter your login details or use a password from your provider.

The Final Word Using a VPN isn’t about being a hacker or someone with something to hide. It’s about respecting your privacy and having control over what you share online. In today’s world, where companies and governments are constantly getting more creative about how they collect data, it’s practically a requirement if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

So there you have it – the secret life of your internet. With a VPN, you’re not just protecting yourself; you’re making sure that your digital footprint is as small as possible. Whether you’re at home or on the go, a VPN gives you the freedom to surf, shop, and work without anyone watching your every move.

And hey, if you’re still not convinced, just think about it this way: imagine your internet connection as a crowded public space. Without a VPN, everyone’s staring at you. With one, you’re wearing a mask, and no one’s the wiser.

---

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@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

As someone who takes privacy seriously, I'm always on the lookout for innovative solutions that can help individuals protect their digital lives. One such solution is Tails OS, a Linux-based operating system that's specifically designed for privacy and security.

What is Tails OS?

Tails OS, short for The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a Debian-based Linux distribution that offers a high level of anonymity and privacy. Developed by the Tails Project, this operating system is designed to preserve your online anonymity and protect your digital identity. Tails OS is a "live" distribution, meaning you can boot it from a USB drive or CD/DVD without installing it on your computer. This makes it an ideal solution for those who need to maintain their privacy while working in public spaces or using public computers.

Why Use Tails OS for Privacy?

Tails OS offers several features that make it an excellent choice for those seeking to protect their online privacy:

1. Anonymity: Tails OS uses the Tor network to route your internet traffic through a series of nodes, making it difficult for anyone to trace your online activities back to your physical location.
2. Encryption: Tails OS comes with built-in encryption tools, such as GnuPG and OpenSSL, to protect your sensitive data.
3. Secure Boot: Tails OS uses a secure boot process to ensure that your system is free from malware and other threats.
4. No Persistence: Tails OS is designed to leave no trace on your computer, meaning that any data you create or access while using the operating system will be deleted when you shut down.

Getting Started with Tails OS

Now that you know why Tails OS is an excellent choice for privacy protection, let's dive into the step-by-step guide on how to use it:

Step 1: Download and Create a Tails USB Drive

Visit the Tails website and download the latest version of Tails OS. Follow the instructions to create a bootable USB drive.

Step 2: Boot Tails OS

Insert the USB drive into your computer and restart it. Enter the BIOS settings (usually by pressing F2, F12, or Del) and set the USB drive as the first boot device. Save the changes and exit the BIOS settings. Your computer will now boot from the Tails USB drive.

Step 3: Security implications of setting up an administration password For better security, no administration password is set up by default. When you set up an administration password, an attacker who can get physical access to your computer while Tails is running could be able to break your security

Step 4: Configure Tails OS

Tails OS comes with a pre-configured Tor network, which is enabled by default. You can also configure other settings, such as the keyboard layout and language, from the "Settings" menu.

Step 5: Use Tails OS for Private Activities

Now that you're logged in and configured, you can use Tails OS for private activities, such as:

• Browsing the internet anonymously using Tor
• Sending and receiving encrypted emails using GnuPG
• Creating and editing documents using LibreOffice
• Chatting with friends and family using Pidgin
• Setup Persistent Storage for files

Emergency shutdown To trigger an emergency shutdown, unplug the USB stick from which Tails is running. Doing so might be faster than shutting down from the system menu.

NOTE: You risk breaking your Persistent Storage and losing data when you unplug your USB stick while Tails is running.

Conclusion

Tails OS is an excellent tool for anyone seeking to protect their online privacy. With its built-in anonymity features, encryption tools, and secure boot process, Tails OS provides a high level of protection for your digital identity. By following the step-by-step guide outlined above, you can start using Tails OS for private activities and take control of your digital life.

Remember, privacy is a fundamental human right, and it's essential to take steps to protect it. Tails OS is an excellent tool for anyone looking to maintain their online anonymity and protect their digital identity.

---

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@ fd0bcf8c:521f98c0

The vag' sits on the edge of the highway, broken, hungry. Overhead flies a transcontinental plane filled with highly paid executives. The upper class has taken to the air, the lower class to the roads: there is no longer any bond between them, they are two nations."—The Sovereign Individual

Fire

I was talking to a friend last night. Coffee in hand. Watching flames consume branches. Spring night on his porch.

He believed in America's happy ending. Debt would vanish. Inflation would cool. Manufacturing would return. Good guys win.

I nodded. I wanted to believe.

He leaned forward, toward the flame. I sat back, watching both fire and sky.

His military photos hung inside. Service medals displayed. Patriotism bone-deep.

The pendulum clock on his porch wall swung steadily. Tick. Tock. Measuring moments. Marking epochs.

History tells another story. Not tragic. Just true.

Our time has come. America cut off couldn't compete. Factories sit empty. Supply chains span oceans. Skills lack. Children lag behind. Rebuilding takes decades.

Truth hurts. Truth frees.

Cycles

History moves in waves. Every 500 years, power shifts. Systems fall. Systems rise.

500 BC - Greek coins changed everything. Markets flourished. Athens dominated.

1 AD - Rome ruled commerce. One currency. Endless roads. Bustling ports.

500 AD - Rome faded. Not overnight. Slowly. Trade withered. Cities emptied. Money debased. Roads crumbled. Local strongmen rose. Peasants sought protection. Feudalism emerged.

People still lived. Still worked. Horizons narrowed. Knowledge concentrated. Most barely survived. Rich adapted. Poor suffered.

Self-reliance determined survival. Those growing food endured. Those making essential goods continued. Those dependent on imperial systems suffered most.

1000 AD - Medieval revival began. Venice dominated seas. China printed money. Cathedrals rose. Universities formed.

1500 AD - Europeans sailed everywhere. Spanish silver flowed. Banks financed kingdoms. Companies colonized continents. Power moved west.

The pendulum swung. East to West. West to East. Civilizations rose. Civilizations fell.

2000 AD - Pattern repeats. America strains. Digital networks expand. China rises. Debt swells. Old systems break.

We stand at the hinge.

Warnings

Signs everywhere. Dollar weakens globally. BRICS builds alternatives. Yuan buys oil. Factories rust. Debt exceeds GDP. Interest consumes budgets.

Bridges crumble. Education falters. Politicians chase votes. We consume. We borrow.

Rome fell gradually. Citizens barely noticed. Taxes increased. Currency devalued. Military weakened. Services decayed. Life hardened by degrees.

East Rome adapted. Survived centuries. West fragmented. Trade shrank. Some thrived. Others suffered. Life changed permanently.

Those who could feed themselves survived best. Those who needed the system suffered worst.

Pendulum

My friend poured another coffee. The burn pile popped loudly. Sparks flew upward like dying stars.

His face changed as facts accumulated. Military man. Trained to assess threats. Detect weaknesses.

He stared at the fire. National glory reduced to embers. Something shifted in his expression. Recognition.

His fingers tightened around his mug. Knuckles white. Eyes fixed on dying flames.

I traced the horizon instead. Observing landscape. Noting the contrast.

He touched the flag on his t-shirt. I adjusted my plain gray one.

The unpayable debt. The crumbling infrastructure. The forgotten manufacturing. The dependent supply chains. The devaluing currency.

The pendulum clock ticked. Relentless. Indifferent to empires.

His eyes said what his patriotism couldn't voice. Something fundamental breaking.

I'd seen this coming. Years traveling showed me. Different systems. Different values. American exceptionalism viewed from outside.

Pragmatism replaced my old idealism. See things as they are. Not as wished.

The logs shifted. Flames reached higher. Then lower. The cycle of fire.

Divergence

Society always splits during shifts.

Some adapt. Some don't.

Printing arrived. Scribes starved. Publishers thrived. Information accelerated. Readers multiplied. Ideas spread. Adapters prospered.

Steam engines came. Weavers died. Factory owners flourished. Villages emptied. Cities grew. Coal replaced farms. Railways replaced wagons. New skills meant survival.

Computers transformed everything. Typewriters vanished. Software boomed. Data replaced paper. Networks replaced cabinets. Programmers replaced typists. Digital skills determined success.

The self-reliant thrived in each transition. Those waiting for rescue fell behind.

Now AI reshapes creativity. Some artists resist. Some harness it. Gap widens daily.

Bitcoin offers refuge. Critics mock. Adopters build wealth. The distance grows.

Remote work redraws maps. Office-bound struggle. Location-free flourish.

The pendulum swings. Power shifts. Some rise with it. Some fall against it.

Two societies emerge. Adaptive. Resistant. Prepared. Pretending.

Advantage

Early adapters win. Not through genius. Through action.

First printers built empires. First factories created dynasties. First websites became giants.

Bitcoin followed this pattern. Laptop miners became millionaires. Early buyers became legends.

Critics repeat themselves: "Too volatile." "No value." "Government ban coming."

Doubters doubt. Builders build. Gap widens.

Self-reliance accelerates adaptation. No permission needed. No consensus required. Act. Learn. Build.

The burn pile flames like empire's glory. Bright. Consuming. Temporary.

Blindness

Our brains see tigers. Not economic shifts.

We panic at headlines. We ignore decades-long trends.

We notice market drops. We miss debt cycles.

We debate tweets. We ignore revolutions.

Not weakness. Just humanity. Foresight requires work. Study. Thought.

Self-reliant thinking means seeing clearly. No comforting lies. No pleasing narratives. Just reality.

The clock pendulum swings. Time passes regardless of observation.

Action

Empires fall. Families need security. Children need futures. Lives need meaning.

You can adapt faster than nations.

Assess honestly. What skills matter now? What preserves wealth? Who helps when needed?

Never stop learning. Factory workers learned code. Taxi drivers joined apps. Photographers went digital.

Diversify globally. No country owns tomorrow. Learn languages. Make connections. Stay mobile.

Protect your money. Dying empires debase currencies. Romans kept gold. Bitcoin offers similar shelter.

Build resilience. Grow food. Make energy. Stay strong. Keep friends. Read old books. Some things never change.

Self-reliance matters most. Can you feed yourself? Can you fix things? Can you solve problems? Can you create value without systems?

Movement

Humans were nomads first. Settlers second. Movement in our blood.

Our ancestors followed herds. Sought better lands. Survival meant mobility.

The pendulum swings here too. Nomad to farmer. City-dweller to digital nomad.

Rome fixed people to land. Feudalism bound serfs to soil. Nations created borders. Companies demanded presence.

Now technology breaks chains. Work happens anywhere. Knowledge flows everywhere.

The rebuild America seeks requires fixed positions. Factory workers. Taxpaying citizens in permanent homes.

But technology enables escape. Remote work. Digital currencies. Borderless businesses.

The self-reliant understand mobility as freedom. One location means one set of rules. One economy. One fate.

Many locations mean options. Taxes become predatory? Leave. Opportunities disappear? Find new ones.

Patriotism celebrates roots. Wisdom remembers wings.

My friend's boots dug into his soil. Planted. Territorial. Defending.

My Chucks rested lightly. Ready. Adaptable. Departing.

His toolshed held equipment to maintain boundaries. Fences. Hedges. Property lines.

My backpack contained tools for crossing them. Chargers. Adapters. Currency.

The burn pile flame flickers. Fixed in place. The spark flies free. Movement its nature.

During Rome's decline, the mobile survived best. Merchants crossing borders. Scholars seeking patrons. Those tied to crumbling systems suffered most.

Location independence means personal resilience. Economic downturns become geographic choices. Political oppression becomes optional suffering.

Technology shrinks distance. Digital work. Video relationships. Online learning.

Self-sovereignty requires mobility. The option to walk away. The freedom to arrive elsewhere.

Two more worlds diverge. The rooted. The mobile. The fixed. The fluid. The loyal. The free.

Hope

Not decline. Transition. Painful but temporary.

America may weaken. Humanity advances. Technology multiplies possibilities. Poverty falls. Knowledge grows.

Falling empires see doom. Rising ones see opportunity. Both miss half the picture.

Every shift brings destruction and creation. Rome fell. Europe struggled. Farms produced less. Cities shrank. Trade broke down.

Yet innovation continued. Water mills appeared. New plows emerged. Monks preserved books. New systems evolved.

Different doesn't mean worse for everyone.

Some industries die. Others birth. Some regions fade. Others bloom. Some skills become useless. Others become gold.

The self-reliant thrive in any world. They adapt. They build. They serve. They create.

Choose your role. Nostalgia or building.

The pendulum swings. East rises again. The cycle continues.

Fading

The burn pile dimmed. Embers fading. Night air cooling.

My friend's shoulders changed. Tension releasing. Something accepted.

His patriotism remained. His illusions departed.

The pendulum clock ticked steadily. Measuring more than minutes. Measuring eras.

Two coffee cups. His: military-themed, old and chipped but cherished. Mine: plain porcelain, new and unmarked.

His eyes remained on smoldering embers. Mine moved between him and the darkening trees.

His calendar marked local town meetings. Mine tracked travel dates.

The last flame flickered out. Spring peepers filled the silence.

In darkness, we watched smoke rise. The world changing. New choices ahead.

No empire lasts forever. No comfort in denial. Only clarity in acceptance.

Self-reliance the ancient answer. Build your skills. Secure your resources. Strengthen your body. Feed your mind. Help your neighbors.

The burn pile turned to ash. Empire's glory extinguished.

He stood facing his land. I faced the road.

A nod between us. Respect across division. Different strategies for the same storm.

He turned toward his home. I toward my vehicle.

The pendulum continued swinging. Power flowing east once more. Five centuries ending. Five centuries beginning.

"Bear in mind that everything that exists is already fraying at the edges." — Marcus Aurelius

Tomorrow depends not on nations. On us.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Privacy in Public Spaces: A Tactical Guide

1. Public Wi-Fi Privacy

Using public Wi-Fi can be convenient, but it's important to take precautions to protect your privacy:

• Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network): A VPN encrypts your internet traffic, making it difficult for hackers to intercept your data.
• Disable Automatic Connections: Prevent your device from automatically connecting to open Wi-Fi networks by turning off this feature in your settings.
• Avoid Sensitive Transactions: Refrain from accessing banking or other sensitive accounts while connected to public Wi-Fi.
• Use Secure Websites: Look for "https://" in the website's URL to ensure it uses encryption.
• Keep Software Updated: Ensure your device's operating system and apps are up-to-date to protect against security vulnerabilities.

2. Surveillance Camera Awareness

Surveillance cameras are common in public spaces. Here are some strategies to maintain your privacy:

• Spotting Cameras:
• Look for Signs: Many establishments post signs indicating the presence of surveillance cameras.
• Camera Placement: Cameras are often placed near entrances, exits, and high-traffic areas. Look for dome-shaped cameras on ceilings or wall-mounted cameras.
• Using Masks and Coverings:
• Face Masks: Wearing a mask can help obscure your facial features from facial recognition systems.
• Hats and Sunglasses: A hat can shield your face from overhead cameras, while sunglasses can hide your eyes.
• Covering Identifying Marks:
• Clothing Choices: Wear clothing that doesn't have distinctive logos or patterns that can easily identify you.
• Blend In: Opt for styles and clothing choices that helps you blend in with your surroundings, reducing your visibility.
• Temporary Coverings: Consider using temporary coverings, such as scarves or hoods, to conceal tattoos or other identifying marks.

3. General Privacy Tips in Public Spaces

• Be Mindful of Your Surroundings: Pay attention to your environment and be aware of any unusual behavior or devices that may be capturing your information.
• Limit Personal Information: Avoid discussing sensitive information in public where it can be overheard.
• Use Encrypted Messaging Apps: Apps like Signal or SimpleX offer end-to-end encryption for your messages, making it harder for eavesdroppers to intercept your conversations.
• Use Privacy Screens: Privacy screens on all of you electronic screens can defend against the over the shoulder peek or side eye.
• Avoiding Behaviors: Be mindful of behaviors that could make you a target, such as frequent visits to certain areas or engaging in conversations that might attract unwanted attention.

Taking these steps can help you maintain your privacy while navigating public spaces and using public Wi-Fi. Remember, staying informed and vigilant is key to protecting your personal information.

---

Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

82XCDNK1Js8TethhpGLFPbVyKe25DxMUePad1rUn9z7V6QdCzxHEE7varvVh1VUidUhHVSA4atNU2BTpSNJLC1BqSvDajw1

@ 61bf790b:fe18b062

In a vast digital realm, two cities stood side by side: the towering, flashing metropolis of Feedia, and the decentralized, quiet city of Nostra.

Feedia was loud—blinding, buzzing, and always on. Screens plastered every wall, whispering the latest trends into citizens’ ears. But in this city, what you saw wasn’t up to you. It was determined by a towering, unseen force known as The Algorithm. It didn’t care what was true, meaningful, or helpful—only what would keep your eyes glued and your attention sold.

In Feedia, discovery wasn’t earned. It was assigned.

And worse—there was a caste system. To have a voice, you needed a Blue Check—a glowing badge that marked you as “worthy.” To get one, you had to pay or play. Pay monthly dues to the high towers or entertain The Algorithm enough to be deemed “valuable.” If you refused or couldn’t afford it, your voice was cast into the noise—buried beneath outrage bait and celebrity screams.

The unmarked were like ghosts—speaking into the void while the checked dined in Algorithm-favored towers. It was a digital monarchy dressed up as a democracy.

Then, there was Nostra.

There were no glowing checkmarks in Nostra—just signal. Every citizen had a light they carried, one that grew brighter the more they contributed: thoughtful posts, reshared ideas, built tools, or boosted others. Discovery was based not on payment or privilege, but participation and value.

In Nostra, you didn’t rise because you paid the gatekeeper—you rose because others lifted you. You weren’t spoon-fed; you sought, you found, you earned attention. It was harder, yes. But it was real.

And slowly, some in Feedia began to awaken. They grew tired of being fed fast-food content and ignored despite their voices. They looked across the river to Nostra, where minds weren’t bought—they were built.

And one by one, they began to cross.

@ 1b939fa8:1ebdc679

All of my outfit conversion mods and Nora's Commonwealth Reconstruction Project have requirements that are on Nexus and nowhere else. Exception for the outfit conversions is Devious Devices which is noted and links provided to Lovers Lab and other requirements. My mods are dependent on those original mods to work. If/when the originals come to DEG then I will update and remove the Nexus links in my descriptions.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VetGamerBoceifus01

X: https://x.com/boceifus2000

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Details on how to use a Burner Phone

Mobile phones are needed for communications when out in the world but they are a nightmare for privacy and security as detailed in especially when it comes to surveillance risks. This is more of a hands on guide for how to mitigate those risks.

Burner phones as the name describes is a use and "burn" device either for a single operation or for a longer period if proper precautions are taken. In case you are unaware what I mean by a burner phone; cell phones can be purchased from big box stores, gas stations, and kiosks in cash without a contract. They are usually not very expense and enable you to buy prepaid cards to use for phone and internet service.

Getting a Burner Phone:

1. Best to use a store out of town but not mandatory.
2. Do not take any electronics with you, especially another phone.
3. Park down the street in another parking lot near the store and walk over. Be mindful of security cameras.
4. Cover any tattoos or identifying marks. Wear a hat and a medical mask. (Thank you covid)
5. Use cash only to buy.
6. Leave, do not shop or buy anything else.

Setting up Burner Phone:

1. Go somewhere with free public WIFI (Starbucks, Library, whatever)
2. Do not take any electronics with you, especially another phone.
3. Open package and follow directions to activate using the public WIFI access.
4. Choose a random area code during setup.
5. Create a new random gmail account. (Do not reuse accounts or names)
6. Download and install a VPN, Signal or SimpleX, Firefox Focus Browser, Tor if needed. Delete any other unnecessary apps.
7. Change phone settings (see list)
8. Turn off and remove battery if able to (becoming harder to find) or put into a Faraday Bag.
9. Destroy packaging that came with the phone.

Phone Settings: 1. Turn off hotspot and tethering. Enable Always on VPN and Block Connections without VPN. Set DNS to automatic. 2. Turn off bluetooth and WIFI. 3. Disable all notifications, notification history, notifications on lock screen, and emergency alerts. 4. Turn off all sounds and vibrations. 5. Turn off Find my Device. Setup screen lock with password. (No bio) 6. Toggle everything in privacy: no permissions, turn off microphone, turn off usage and diagnostics, etc 7. Set Use Location to off. 8. Under Languages & Input > Virtual Keyboard > Gboard > Advanced: disable usage statistics, personalizing, and improve voice and typing for everyone.

Using a Burner Phone:

1. Never sign into any account associated with your real identity.
2. Never use it to contact anyone associated with your real identity.
3. Time and distance between burner phone and any other cell phone you own. i.e. A hour has passed and several miles from when you use and had on the other device.
4. When not in use the battery is removed or in a Faraday Bag.
5. Always use a VPN and always use private search and browser set to delete upon closing (Firefox Focus default).
6. Never actually call or text from the phone. You only want to use SimpleX or Signal for communications.
7. Do not save anything (files, pictures, history) on the phone, especially if incriminating.
8. Do not take it with you or use unless necessary.
9. When in doubt, burn it and get another one.
10. Never carry over names, accounts, whatever from old burner phone to new burner phone.

Burning a phone:

1. Factory reset the device.
2. Remove and destroy the SIM card.
3. Remove the battery because lithium batteries can explode. (may have to take it apart)
4. Smash internals.
5. Burn remains or drown in water. (Throw it in the river)

As long as you are careful to never identify yourself with the burner phone the only surveillance they can do is know that a phone was used or in a location but not who it belongs to. Be aware that if you are caught with it on your person any information or contacts on the phone may get compromised. Be mindful what you put on it.

@ 6c67a3f3:b0ebd196

On Black-Starting the United Kingdom

In the event of a total failure of the electric grid, the United Kingdom would face a task at once technical and Sisyphean: the so-called black start — the reawakening of the nation’s darkened arteries without any external supply of power. In idealized manuals, the task is rendered brisk and clean, requiring but a few days' labor. In the world in which we live, it would be slower, more uncertain, and at times perilously close to impossible.

Let us unfold the matter layer by layer.

I. The Nature of the Undertaking

A black start is not a mere throwing of switches, but a sequential ballet. Small generating stations — diesel engines, hydro plants, gas turbines — must first breathe life into cold transmission lines. Substations must be coaxed into readiness. Load must be picked up cautiously, lest imbalance bring the whole effort to naught. Islands of power are stitched together, synchronized with exquisite care.

Each step is fraught with fragility. An unseen misalignment, an unsignaled overload, and hours of labor are lost.

II. The Dream of the Engineers

In theory, according to the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), the sequence would unfold thus: within half a day, core transmission lines humming; within a day or two, hospitals lit and water flowing; within three days, cities reawakened; within a week, the nation, broadly speaking, restored to life.

This vision presupposes a fantasy of readiness: that black-start units are operational and plentiful; that communications systems, so delicately dependent on mobile networks and the internet, endure; that personnel, trained and coordinated, are on hand in sufficient numbers; and that no sabotage, no accident, no caprice of nature interrupts the dance.

III. The Real Order of Things

Reality is more obstinate. Many black-start capable plants have been shuttered in the name of efficiency. The financial incentives once offered to private generators for black-start readiness were judged insufficient; the providers withdrew.

Grid operations now rely on a lattice of private interests, demanding slow and complicated coordination. Telecommunications are vulnerable in a deep blackout. The old hands, steeped in the tacit lore of manual restoration, have retired, their knowledge scattered to the four winds. Cyber vulnerabilities have multiplied, and the grid’s physical inertia — the very thing that grants a system grace under perturbation — has grown thin, leaving the UK exposed to sudden collapses should synchronization falter.

Under such conditions, the best of hopes might yield five to ten days of partial recovery. Weeks would be required to restore the former web of normalcy. In certain cases — in the face of physical damage to high-voltage transformers, whose replacements take months if not years — black-start might founder altogether.

IV. The Quiet Admissions of Officialdom

In its polite documents, the National Grid ESO speaks carefully: essential services might see restoration within three days, but full public service would require "up to a week or longer." If designated black-start units were to fail — a real risk, given recent audits showing many unready — the timelines would stretch indefinitely.

In plain speech: in a true national blackout, the nation’s restoration would be a gamble.

V. The Forking Paths Ahead

If all proceeds well, Britain might stumble into light within three days. If the adversities accumulate — cyberattack, internal sabotage, simple human miscalculation — the process would stretch into weeks, even months. In the gravest scenarios, the nation would reconstitute not as one great engine, but as isolated islands of power, each jury-rigged and vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the paradoxical truth is that small and simple systems — the grids of Jersey, Malta, and the like — would outpace their mightier cousins, not despite their modest scale but because of it.

VI. Conclusion

The British grid, in short, is a triumph of late modernity — and like all such triumphs, it carries within itself the seeds of its own fragility. It works magnificently until the day it does not. When that day comes, recovery will be neither swift nor sure, but a slow, halting reweaving of threads too easily frayed.

@ cb4352cd:a16422d7

As new technologies reshape finance, the traditional banking model faces fresh competition. Let's take a closer look at how the two ecosystems compare today.

What happens when centralized institutions meet decentralized protocols? A transformation of financial services is already underway — and users are at the center of it.

Traditional Banking: Established, Yet Rigid

Traditional banks like JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank have built vast infrastructures over decades. They offer deposit insurance, personal loans, mortgages, and extensive regulatory compliance. Trust, scale, and government support are their major strengths.

However, these institutions often struggle with agility. Opening an international account or sending a cross-border payment can take days and involve considerable fees. Innovations like digital onboarding and instant payments are arriving slowly, hampered by regulatory complexity and legacy systems.

DeFi Platforms: Agile, Accessible, but Risky

By contrast, DeFi protocols such as Uniswap (decentralized exchange), Aave (decentralized lending), and Compound (decentralized borrowing) offer near-instant services, accessible globally 24/7.

DeFi users maintain custody of their own assets. No bank approvals, no office hours. Fees are often lower, and yields can be attractive. Smart contracts automatically execute transactions, removing human bottlenecks.

But DeFi isn't without risks. Without insurance, users are exposed to smart contract bugs, hacks, and protocol failures. Regulatory protections are minimal, and scams can proliferate among unverified projects.

The Bridge Between Worlds: Emerging Hybrids

Interestingly, some traditional players are exploring DeFi-like services. Societe Generale issued tokenized bonds on Ethereum. ING is researching zero-knowledge proofs for financial privacy. Meanwhile, crypto-friendly banks like Silvergate have pioneered instant settlement networks inspired by blockchain efficiency.

The future may not be a winner-takes-all scenario but a convergence: decentralized technology improving traditional services, while banks offer compliant, user-friendly access to digital assets.

Beyond Banking Conference by WeFi: Charting the Future

The ongoing fusion of DeFi and traditional finance will take center stage at the upcoming Beyond Banking Conference by WeFi. Thought leaders and innovators will explore how transparency, smart contracts, and decentralized trust models are redefining global finance.

As these worlds collide, the real question isn't about winners — it's about how finance can evolve to serve a broader, more connected world.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Your phone is not your friend. It is a filthy little snitch that tells anyone who asks where you are, what you are doing, and who you are doing it with. You can obscure and hide some things through the use of privacy respecting software like encrypted communication apps, Tor pathways using Orbot, or the base OS like Graphene but metadata and geolocation is still very loud and very present. It is built into the infrastructure of how cell phones work. Your phone is tracked at all times through every cell tower area you pass through logging your IMEI and by extension your phone number and identity. This data is logged and saved forever by companies who use and sell it for corporate surveillance and post Patriot Act give it to police and government agencies warrantlessly.

Fine, I will just turn it off then. Nice try, but unless the battery can be removed it still tracks you. You didn't think it was weird that Find My Phone still works even if the phone was off? Luddites are not off the hook. That dumb phone or flip phone is tracked just the same and since it will not run encrypted communications you are screaming out the content of every call or text and not just the metadata.

OK, I will get a burner phone or anonymous SIM card not tied to my identity. Better, but not bulletproof. This is great for use and toss but if you continue to use it multiple times, around other devices that are tied to you or your social network, or take it to your home, work, or any location associated with you then it will be doxxed. Once doxxed all past information associated with it becomes now linked to you.

Metadata, Profile, and Network Your network is very easily known and built up over time. Who are the contacts saved in your phone? Who do you interact with? Who do you call, text, email, DM, or follow on social networks? Who do you never contact but your geolocation overlaps with them often. Now look at all those contacts and who they have a network with. A giant spider web of connections. If by 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon you have a shady contact in your network then you may get more scrutiny than you may realize.

You are spilling metadata everywhere you go along with your geolocation. Time stamps, who you contacted, how long you talk to them, which app was used when, internet searches, map app searches, etc. People are creatures of habit and over time this metadata builds a pretty good profile on you. Phone becomes active around 7am when they wake up. Scans social media and news sites for usually 30 minutes. Assume they are taking a shower because the phone is on but not being used until 8am most weekdays. Travels to a coffee place on the corner most mornings and then goes to their place of work. Between 9:30 and 10:30 am they again scan social media and news sites for a solid 10 minutes, probably their bathroom schedule. During lunch they frequent these locations with these people. You get the point.

This profile, plus your geolocation history, plus your network paints a pretty complete picture on you. Surprisingly it is not what you do but when you do something different that gets attention. There was a big protest last night that we are not happy about. We already have a list of everyone who took their phones with them at that geolocation and timestamp. We run an algorithm looking for simple patterns. John is usually at a restaurant eating with friends during this time but strangely his phone was left at home and turned off during that time frame. Did anyone in his network go to the protest that we have already confirmed? Anyone in his network follow the protest Facebook page, or have a deviation from their usual pattern such as their phone being somewhere dormant when it is usually active during this time?

What can you do? You can choose to do nothing. You can just live your life with the awareness that you are being tracked and profiled, maybe work to limit how much metadata you are spilling out to the universe. If you are an activist, an oppressed minority, live in an oppressive regime, or your country suddenly becomes oppressive this might not be an option. Randomize or maintain your profile. This is hard but not impossible. Make your profile and habits so chaotic that any deviation is not a deviation. Most people cannot do this but if you are couch-surfing, going to different places constantly, new friends and new activities on the daily agent of chaos then maybe this is an option.

On the opposite extreme maybe you are a very regimented person so be aware of that and always stick to your routine. If you want to go to that protest but are usually home doom scrolling youtube during that time then set your phone to no sleep mode and set up to watch a long playlist of youtube videos left at home while you go to the protest.

Home phone only. Maybe you decide to have a home phone only, no not a landline, but an actual smart device that can utilize encrypted communications services but never leaves the house. This could potentially save you a lot of money on data plans, texts, and minutes if you don't buy a network plan and just use VOIP on your home WIFI. Or maybe you have a very minimal network plan and when you leave the house you either take it with you in a Faraday bag or have a secondary device that lives in a Faraday bag that only comes out for emergencies and to check in. Just be aware that the time in and out of the Faraday bag is part of your profile.

No Phone. You can have no phone whatsoever. This will not work for most people in the modern age but if you have an extreme risk profile then this might be the extreme option you need. How do you survive with no phone or only a home phone? Just some alternatives and some ideas. You can still buy WIFI only devices that have no network connection and / or stay in airplane mode. Old MP3 players for music and podcasts while on the go. Old phones that you can download maps to for navigation and use VOIP services in WIFI hotspots.

Emergency Communication and Go Bag Prepper culture has given us all sorts of bags: bug out bags, get home bags, never coming back bags, and go bags. I define go bags as very small, light weight, and compact bags or kits. They carry very minimal, bare necessary gear, and ideally are so small that you actually have it on you, in your purse or computer satchel or car all of the time. Emergency communication will be part of this. This is when the burner phone, purchased with cash out of town, and stored in a Faraday bag all the time shines. It has no connection to you and has no history of use. It is a have but hope to never use oh shit device. If you are the activist, the whistleblower, the oppressed that they could come after at any time, or the journalist that investigates corruption, organized crime, or terrorism then you need this.

@ 7e538978:a5987ab6

In Jericoacoara, Brazil, a beach town famed for its natural beauty and vibrant tourism, an innovative project is reshaping how locals and visitors think about money. Praia Bitcoin is an ambitious initiative to build a circular economy powered entirely by Bitcoin.

Launched in 2021 by entrepreneur Fernando Motolese, Praia Bitcoin was inspired by the Bitcoin Beach project in El Zonte, El Salvador. The vision is simple: create a self-sustaining Bitcoin economy where businesses and individuals use Bitcoin everyday in place of fiat money.

This idea holds special significance in Jericoacoara, where traditional banking services are scarce. The town lacks even basic infrastructure like ATMs, making financial inclusion a pressing need. With Praia Bitcoin, Bitcoin isn’t just a store of value—it’s a tool to empower a community and connect it to the global economy.

Transforming Jericoacoara with Bitcoin

Since its inception, Praia Bitcoin has worked to foster Bitcoin adoption in the area. Starting with a modest donation of 0.02 BTC, Fernando and his team have built a thriving ecosystem:

• Over 40 businesses now accept Bitcoin, ranging from souvenir shops and tour operators to beach vendors.
• Local students have received Bitcoin-loaded tap-to-pay, Bolt Cards, to use in their daily lives.
• Creative initiatives like “Bitcoin Banana Day” or "Frutas por Sats" (fruits for sats) where children buy fruits for 10 satoshis at school, have brought global attention to the project.

Praia Bitcoin’s success isn’t just about the adoption numbers, it’s about the stories. Families use Bitcoin to shop, business owners save on transaction fees, and children are learning the value of sound money at an early age.

LNbits - The Technology Behind Praia Bitcoin

Creating an economy on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network requires more than enthusiasm, it needs robust tools that are easy to use and adaptable to local needs. That’s where LNbits comes in.

Fernando and the Praia Bitcoin team have used LNbits’ open-source software to solve practical challenges and scale the project. With its modular design, LNbits provides tools that allow Praia Bitcoin to:

• Set Up Wallets: Community members receive user-friendly wallets that connect seamlessly to the Lightning Network, enabling fast, low-cost transactions.
• Issue BoltCards: Using LNbits’ BoltCard extension, the team has distributed NFC-enabled cards, allowing tap-to-pay functionality that makes Bitcoin payments as simple as using a credit card.
• Enable Flexible Payments: The project utilizes LNbits’ Point of Sale TPoS extension that allows merchants to easily receive Lightning Network payments.

Breaking Records, Building Community

Fernando doesn’t just implement solutions, he pushes boundaries. One of his most remarkable achievements was an attempt to set a world record for the most Lightning Network payments in the shortest amount of time. Over the course of one afternoon, 100 children in Jericoacoara received payments of 21,000 satoshis each, demonstrating the scalability and speed of Lightning-powered transactions.

This wasn’t just a technical feat, it was a community moment. The event showed how Bitcoin could serve as a tool for engagement, education, and empowerment, all while highlighting the possibilities of using the Lightning Network for real-world applications.

A Collaborative Approach to Innovation

One of the unique strengths of LNbits is its ability to evolve based on community feedback. While Fernando Motolese and Praia Bitcoin operate independently, their insights have helped refine the LNbits platform.

For example, Fernando’s need for a PIN-less ATM functionality led the LNbits team to implement that feature in the TPoS extension, that had the functionality but required a security PIN. This kind of collaboration isn’t about formal partnerships. It’s about how an open-source ecosystem thrives when real-world needs drive innovation.

The feedback loop between users like Fernando and developers ensures LNbits remains practical and relevant—not just for Praia Bitcoin but for countless other projects worldwide.

The Ripple Effect of Praia Bitcoin

Praia Bitcoin is a case study in what’s possible when Bitcoin meets a strong vision. By leveraging Bitcoin, the Lightning Network and LNbits, the project has redefined financial access in Jericoacoara, proving that small communities can lead big innovations.

For LNbits, Praia Bitcoin showcases the value of adaptable, open-source solutions. Whether it’s creating wallets, enabling NFC payments, or refining tools for real-world use, LNbits provides the infrastructure that makes projects like Praia Bitcoin possible.

But beyond the technical achievements, Praia Bitcoin reminds us of the human impact of Bitcoin adoption. It’s about children buying their first bananas with satoshis, families running businesses with lower fees, and a community connecting to a global financial network for the first time.

Conclusion

Praia Bitcoin’s journey is only getting started and its success is inspiring similar initiatives worldwide. For LNbits, being part of this story, is a testament to the power of the software and of open-source collaboration.

If you’re ready to build the future of Bitcoin adoption, LNbits offers the tools to turn ideas into impact.

Learn More:
- Visit Praia Bitcoin: Praia Bitcoin
- Explore LNbits: LNbits

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Protecting Email Communications: A Guide for Privacy Activists

Safeguarding your communications is paramount, especially for activists who often face unique challenges. Encryption tools offer a vital layer of security, ensuring that your emails remain confidential and inaccessible to unauthorized parties. This guide will walk you through the process of using encryption tools effectively, providing both practical advice and essential insights.

Why Encryption Matters

Encryption transforms your communications into a secure format, making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to access or read your messages. Without encryption, even encrypted email services can expose metadata, which includes details like who sent the email, when it was sent, and the recipient's email address. Metadata can reveal sensitive information about your activities and location.

Key Encryption Tools

There are several tools available for encrypting emails, catering to different skill levels and preferences:

1. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)

2. For Tech-Savvy Users: PGP is a robust encryption tool that uses public and private keys. The recipient needs your public key to decrypt your messages. You can obtain your public key through a key server or directly from the recipient.

3. GPG (GNU Privacy Guard)

4. Free and Open Source: GPG is a user-friendly alternative to PGP, offering similar functionality. It's ideal for those who prefer an open-source solution.

5. ProtonMail

6. End-to-End Encryption: ProtonMail is popular among privacy-conscious individuals, offering end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge encryption, meaning only the sender and recipient can access the message content.

7. Tresorit

8. Secure Communication: Tresorit provides end-to-end encrypted messaging with a focus on security and privacy, making it a favorite among activists and journalists.

9. Claws Mail

10. User-Friendly Email Client: Claws Mail supports PGP encryption directly, making it an excellent choice for those who prefer a dedicated email client with built-in encryption features.

Steps to Encrypt Your Emails

1. Choose a Tool:

2. Select the tool that best fits your needs and comfort level. Tools like PGP or GPG are suitable for those with some technical knowledge, while ProtonMail offers an easy-to-use interface.

3. Generate Keys:

4. Create a public key using your chosen tool. This key will be shared with recipients to enable them to encrypt their responses.

5. Share Your Public Key:

6. Ensure that the recipient has access to your public key through secure means, such as pasting it directly into an email or sharing it via a secure messaging platform.

7. Encrypt and Send:

8. When composing an email, use your encryption tool to encrypt the message before sending. This ensures that only the recipient with your public key can decrypt the content.

Minimizing Metadata

Beyond encryption, consider these steps to reduce metadata exposure:

1. Use Tor for Sending Emails:

2. Routing emails through Tor hides your IP address and makes communication more anonymous.

3. Avoid Revealing Identifiers:

4. Use .onion addresses when possible to avoid leaving a traceable email account.

5. Choose Privacy-Friendly Providers:

6. Select email providers that do not require phone numbers or other personally identifiable information (PII) for registration.

Best Practices

1. Avoid Using Real Email Accounts:

2. Create dedicated, disposable email accounts for encryption purposes to minimize your personal exposure.

3. Understand Legal Implications:

4. Be aware of laws in your country regarding encryption and digital privacy. Engaging in encrypted communications may have legal consequences, so understand when and how to use encryption responsibly.

5. Use Encrypted Backup Methods:

6. Encrypt sensitive information stored on devices or cloud services to ensure it remains inaccessible if your device is compromised.

When Encryption Isn't Enough

While encryption protects content, there are limitations. Governments can legally compel decryption in certain circumstances, especially when they possess a warrant. Understanding these limits and considering the consequences of encryption is crucial for privacy activists.

Conclusion

Encryption is a vital tool for safeguarding communications, but it must be used wisely. By selecting the right tools, minimizing metadata, and understanding legal boundaries, privacy activists can effectively protect their emails while maintaining their commitment to privacy and freedom. Stay informed, stay secure, and always prioritize your digital well-being.

---

Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

82XCDNK1Js8TethhpGLFPbVyKe25DxMUePad1rUn9z7V6QdCzxHEE7varvVh1VUidUhHVSA4atNU2BTpSNJLC1BqSvDajw1

@ a4043831:3b64ac02

A professional financial advisor can guide you to achieve long-term financial stability. They can assist you to define your goals to formulate strategic planning coupled with rational decision-making. Since the options are varied and multiple, how can you go about choosing a fiduciary financial advisor whose approach matches their financial goals? This guide explains exactly how to pick a financial advisor who suits your individual financial targets.

Defining Your Financial Needs and Goals

You need to specify your financial aspirations as well as your essential requirements so an advisor can create a suitable plan for your portfolio. Starters should establish their monetary targets before initiating contact with financial consultants. Any objective requires planning such as retirement preparation and investment management and education savings along with wealth protection and growth needs to be identified. Knowing your financial goals helps you determine if an advisor’s experience matches the needs of reaching your targets. Before you conduct meetings with possible financial advisors you need to have clearly established financial goals which will make these meetings goal-focused and beneficial.

Trusted financial advisors at Passive Capital Management can help you check out financial plan tailored to your needs and goals.

Look For Professional Credentials and Qualifications

Review carefully the advisor’s qualifications after you establish your goals. The strict training and ethical assessments that CFP Certified Financial Planner and the CFA Chartered Financial Analyst professionals demonstrate their professionalism. The designations set by these organizations prove advisors maintain knowledge in planning, investments and regulatory requirements. It is essential to verify that the advisor operates under fiduciary standards since this legal requirement ensures they must always act according to your benefit. It is essential to verify if an advisor functions as a fiduciary all the time because some only act under specified circumstances. Get a direct and unambiguous statement about their status. Under fiduciary relationships your financial security stands as the main priority of your financial advisor while fiduciary arrangements reduce potential conflicts between your interests.

Understand the Advisor’s Investment Approach

While consulting an advisor, you might encounter several hidden conflicts of interest. So a robust advisor-client connection based on their mutual investment approach including strategy selection is essential. Review the risk approaches of your advisor through inquiries to learn about their portfolio design strategies and market investment strategies. Technical competence must be combined with an awareness of your risk tolerance and time preferences according to their responses. A reliable advisor will adapt their investment methods to match the risk tolerance of their client combined with their financial destination.

Review their Service Package and Communication Style

A competent financial advisor functions past standard investment management duties. Their service range needs to include full-scale financial planning in areas such as retirement income strategies along with tax and estate planning solutions and insurance assessments. Check that their service suite matches your financial development needs. The advisor needs to maintain both clear and predictable ways of communication. Reveal their review process schedule and disclosure methods for reporting metrics as well as their availability to respond to questions at any time during the year. Professional communication builds reliable relationships that involve active participant commitment in planning activities.

Clarify the Fee Structure

Knowing how your advisor gets paid gives you the essential knowledge needed for building trust between you both. Financial advisors conduct business through payment structures which include flat fees, percentage-based fees on managed assets and extra earnings from their advisory products. The different compensation models bring their own effects and outcomes to the process. The most significant aspect for you is receiving clear explanations about fees while they are in alignment with your financial planning. The first practice of transparent communication by an advisor suggests they will uphold that approach during your entire time together.

Conclusion

Alongside numerical expertise your ideal advisor should function as a trustworthy partner because they will dedicate themselves to your financial growth. Strategic decision-making depends on the establishment of clear objectives and verification of expertise as well as confirmation of fiduciary principles and comprehensive evaluation of communication methods and associated fees. Your financial destiny requires organized assessment along with expert consulting while the correct professional consultant enables you to move through every phase of your path with obvious direction and solid self-assurance.

@ 2fe297f6:553a49da

lkhkjhlk

!?

@ c1157704:6423de51

English: "Politicians steal billions and get light sentences, while the poor get jailed for stealing bread. Is the law just a tool for the rich?"

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

At-Risk Groups Are Facing A Battle For Their Rights

Privacy. It’s a word we often take for granted, scrolling through our phones and sharing photos without a second thought. But for certain groups—those at risk due to their identities, beliefs, or circumstances—privacy isn’t just a luxury; it’s a lifeline. In today’s world, where governments, corporations, and even our own social media accounts seem to have a vested interest in collecting and selling our data, the fight for privacy has never been more crucial.

Privacy is not a buzzword but a fundamental human right. We can do more to protect those who need it most.

---

Privacy As A Human Right

The concept of privacy is deeply rooted in our basic human rights. It’s not just about keeping your medical records confidential or hiding your bank statements; it’s about the right to control what others can know about you. For individuals who identify as LGBTQ+, immigrants, journalists, or political dissidents, this right is even more fragile.

Recently, we’ve seen a rise in policies that seem designed to strip away these protections. From the Trump administration’s transgender ban on military service and passport changes to the targeting of journalists and activists, the message is clear: certain groups are considered fair game for scrutiny and control.

These actions are about erasing the autonomy of individuals to live their lives without fear of retribution or discrimination. Privacy isn’t just a feel-good concept; it’s the cornerstone of a individuals liberty. We must ensure that no one’s rights can be arbitrarily taken away, especially the right to privacy.

---

The Attack On Vulnerable Groups

The targeting of at-risk groups has reached a fever pitch in recent months:

1. Transgender Rights Under Fire
   The Trump administration has issued a sweeping executive order that effectively erased recognition of transgender individuals’ rights. This included changes to passport policies that required individuals to declare their gender at birth, making it nearly impossible for trans individuals to update their documents without facing extreme scrutiny or even denial.

These actions don’t just impact transgender people; they send a chilling message to the entire LGBTQ+ community.

1. Free Speech And Political Dissent
   Trump’s Free Speech Executive Order, aimed to protect citizens’ right to express their beliefs. However, critics argue it was more about silencing dissenters. Journalists, activists, and even private citizens have faced increasing pressure from government officials to either comply with certain views or face professional consequences.

“Free speech is a double-edged sword,” noted one legal expert. “When the government uses it as a tool to marginalize certain groups, it becomes a weapon rather than a shield.”

1. Media And Press Freedom
   Trump’s ongoing battles with major media outlets are well-documented. From labeling reporters as “fake news” to pushing for laws that would limit press freedom, the administration has made it clear that journalists and news organizations are not above scrutiny. For independent journalists and investigative reporters, this poses a significant threat to their work and safety.

2. Immigrant Rights And Discrimination
   The Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies have had a devastating impact on vulnerable communities. From family separations to the expansion of surveillance in immigrant-heavy areas, these actions have left many feeling exposed and unsafe. Immigrants, particularly those from Latin America and the Middle East, are increasingly targeted for their perceived alignments with political rhetoric.

---

The Consequences Of Losing Privacy

When privacy is stripped away, it doesn’t just affect individuals—it affects entire communities. For transgender individuals, the fear of being “outted” online or facing discrimination at work is a daily reality. For journalists, the threat of government retribution can lead to self-censorship and an inability to hold power accountable. For immigrants, the risk of deportation or surveillance means constant vigilance—and often, no recourse.

These consequences are not just personal; they’re systemic. When certain groups are deemed unworthy of protection, it sets a dangerous precedent for what’s allowed in society. It sends the message that some lives matter less than others, and that the government can act with impunity. If you are not in one of these currently impacted groups just give it time and eventually they will come for you too.

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The Fight For Privacy: What We Can Do

The good news is that we don’t have to sit idly by while this happens. There are steps we can take to fight for privacy as a fundamental right. Here’s how:

1. Advocate For Stronger Protections
   Governments at all levels need to pass and enforce laws that protect privacy, especially for vulnerable groups. This includes everything from data protection legislation to anti-discrimination policies.

2. Support Independent Journalism
   Journalists are on the front lines of this fight, uncovering corruption and holding power accountable. Support independent media outlets and platforms that prioritize transparency and press freedom.

3. Educate And Empower
   Communities under threat need resources to protect themselves. This includes education on their rights, know how and tools to secure their data, and access to legal support when needed.

4. Use Your Voice
   Speak out against policies that erode privacy and target vulnerable groups. Use your actions to protect yourself and others.

5. Demand Accountability
   When governments overreach, they need to be held accountable. Fight for yours and others rights.

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Privacy Is A Fight Worth Winning

Privacy isn’t just about convenience or comfort—it’s about freedom, autonomy, and the right to live without fear of arbitrary control. For at-risk groups, this is not just a luxury; it’s a lifeline. As we move forward in this uncertain era, let’s remember that the fight for privacy is not over— it’s just beginning.

We all have a role to play in protecting those who need it most. So let’s get to work.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

The Secret to Staying Private in the Digital Wild West: A Guide to Using Encryption

You’re scrolling through social media, and suddenly you realize your phone’s been tracking your location and displaying it on your profile for months. You’re not even sure how that happened. Or maybe you’ve noticed that every time you shop online, the item you looked for follows you around with ads wherever you go. Sound familiar? Yeah, welcome to the digital world—where your data is basically a free buffet for anyone who knows how to ask.

But here’s the thing: you don’t have to sit back and take it. Encryption is like the secret weapon that lets you lock up your data and keep those prying eyes out. It’s not just for hackers or spies—it’s for regular people who want to take control of their privacy in a world that’s increasingly looking like a reality show where everyone’s a contestant.

What Is Encryption, and Why Should You Care?

Encryption is like a secure box that only you can open. When you use encryption, your data is scrambled in a way that’s hard for anyone else to read, even if they try. Think of it as putting on a metaphorical cloak that makes your online activity invisible to just about everyone except the people you want to see it.

For example, when you browse the internet, your connection is often not encrypted by default. That’s why websites start with “https” to indicate a secure connection—it’s saying, “Hey, we’re using encryption here!” Without that little green padlock, anyone on the same WiFi could potentially spy on what you’re doing.

So, encryption isn’t just for tech geeks or government agencies. It’s for everyone who wants to protect their data from being sold, stolen, or misused without their consent. And guess what? You’re already using it without realizing it. Every time you use a password-protected account or send an encrypted message, you’re reaping the benefits of encryption.

The Privacy Advantages of Encryption for Regular People

Let’s break down why encryption is your best friend when it comes to privacy:

1. Financial Transactions
   When you pay online or use a banking app, encryption keeps your financial info safe from hackers. It ensures that only the banks and businesses you’re dealing with can access your money—no one else can.

2. Online Accounts
   Your email, social media, and other accounts often use encryption to protect your login details. That’s why you see those little “lock” icons when you’re logging in. Without encryption, someone could potentially intercept your password and gain unauthorized access to your account.

3. Data Breaches
   Encryption can often prevent data breaches from being useful. Even if hackers manage to steal your information, the encryption makes it unreadable, so the stolen data is basically worthless to the attackers.

4. Location Data
   If you’re worried about apps tracking your every move, encryption can help limit how much of that data is accessible. Some apps use encryption to protect location data, making it harder for companies to sell your movements without your consent.

5. Privacy Protection
   Encryption acts as a layer of protection against invasive technologies. For example, some apps use tracking software that follows you around the internet based on your browsing history. With encryption, these trackers can be blocked or limited, giving you more control over what information is collected about you.

How to Use Encryption Like a Pro

Now that you know why encryption is essential for privacy, let’s talk about how to use it effectively:

1. Use Strong Passwords
   Encryption works only if your passwords are strong and unique. Don’t reuse passwords from one account to another, and avoid using easily guessable information like “password123” or your birth year. Use a password manager if you need help keeping track of them.

2. Enable HTTPS Everywhere
   Install browser extensions like HTTPS Everywhere to automatically encrypt your connections to websites that don’t support encryption by default. This ensures that even if you’re not actively thinking about it, your data is still protected.

3. Look for the Lock Icon
   Whenever you’re on a website or app, look for the lock icon in the URL bar. Make sure it’s encrypted before you input any personal information.

4. Use Encrypted Communication Tools
   For private conversations, use apps like Signal or SimpleX, which are designed with encryption in mind. These tools ensure that only the sender and recipient can read your messages, keeping them safe from prying eyes.

5. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
   This isn’t exactly encryption, but it’s a close second. 2FA adds an extra layer of security by requiring you to provide two forms of verification—like your password and a code sent to your phone—to access your account. While not encryption itself, it works alongside encryption to keep your accounts secure.

6. Use Encrypted Storage and Backup
   When storing sensitive files or data, use encrypted cloud storage or external drives. Tools like BitLocker (for Windows) or AES-256 encryption can protect your files from unauthorized access.

7. Stay Updated
   Encryption technology is always evolving, so it’s important to keep your software and apps updated. Outdated systems are often easy targets for hackers, leaving you vulnerable to attacks.

Final Thoughts: Your Data Is Your Power

In a world where data is a commodity, encryption is your weapon against the invasive tactics of corporations and hackers alike. It empowers you to control what information you share and protects you from having it used against you. So, whether you’re shopping online, using your favorite apps, or just browsing the web, remember that encryption is there to help you stay private and in control of your own data.

And if you ever feel overwhelmed by all the privacy stuff, just remember this: you’re not alone. Millions of people are fighting for stronger privacy protections every day. So, do your part by using encryption wisely—your data and your privacy are worth it. Let’s make sure no one can take that away from you.

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Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

82XCDNK1Js8TethhpGLFPbVyKe25DxMUePad1rUn9z7V6QdCzxHEE7varvVh1VUidUhHVSA4atNU2BTpSNJLC1BqSvDajw1

@ 975e4ad5:8d4847ce

With the advancement of quantum computers, a new threat emerges for the security of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. These powerful machines have the potential to expose vulnerabilities in traditional cryptographic systems, which could jeopardize the safety of digital wallets. But don’t worry—modern wallets are already equipped to handle this threat with innovative solutions that make your funds nearly impossible to steal, even by a quantum computer. Let’s explore how this works and why you can rest easy.

The Threat of Quantum Computers

To understand how wallets protect us, we first need to grasp what makes quantum computers so dangerous. At the core of most cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, lies public and private key cryptography. The public key (or address) is like your bank account number—you share it to receive funds. The private key is like your PIN—it allows you to send funds and must remain secret.

Traditional cryptography, such as the ECDSA algorithm, relies on mathematical problems that are extremely difficult to solve with conventional computers. For instance, deriving a private key from a public key is practically impossible, as it would take millions of years of computation. However, quantum computers, thanks to algorithms like Shor’s, can significantly speed up this process. Theoretically, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could uncover a private key from a public key in minutes or even seconds.

This is a problem because if someone gains access to your private key, they can send all your funds to their own address. But here’s the good news—modern wallets use a clever solution to render this threat powerless.

How Do Wallets Protect Us?

One of the most effective defenses against quantum computers is the use of one-time addresses in wallets. This means that for every transaction—whether receiving or sending funds—the wallet automatically generates a new public address. The old address, once used, remains in the transaction history but no longer holds any funds, as they are transferred to a new address.

Why Does This Work?

Imagine you’re sending or receiving cryptocurrency. Your wallet creates a new address for that transaction. After the funds are sent or received, that address becomes “used,” and the wallet automatically generates a new one for the next transaction. If a quantum computer manages to derive the private key from the public address of the used address, it will find nothing—because that address is already empty. Your funds are safely transferred to a new address, whose public key has not yet been exposed.

This strategy is known as HD (Hierarchical Deterministic) wallets. It allows the wallet to generate an infinite number of addresses from a single master key (seed) without compromising security. Each new address is unique and cannot be linked to the previous ones, making it impossible to trace your funds, even with a quantum computer.

Automation Makes It Effortless

The best part? You don’t need to worry about this process—it’s fully automated. When you use a modern wallet like MetaMask, Ledger, Trezor, or software wallets for Bitcoin, everything happens behind the scenes. You simply click “receive” or “send,” and the wallet takes care of generating new addresses. There’s no need to understand the complex technical details or manually manage your keys.

For example:

• You want to receive 0.1 BTC. Your wallet provides a new address, which you share with the sender.
• After receiving the funds, the wallet automatically prepares a new address for the next transaction.
• If you send some of the funds, the remaining amount (known as “change”) is sent to another new address generated by the wallet.

This system ensures that public addresses exposed on the blockchain no longer hold funds, making quantum attacks pointless.

Additional Protection: Toward Post-Quantum Cryptography

Beyond one-time addresses, blockchain developers are also working on post-quantum cryptography—algorithms that are resistant to quantum computers. Some blockchain networks are already experimenting with such solutions, like algorithms based on lattices (lattice-based cryptography). These methods don’t rely on the same mathematical problems that quantum computers can solve, offering long-term protection.

In the meantime, one-time addresses combined with current cryptographic standards provide enough security to safeguard your funds until post-quantum solutions become widely adopted.

Why You Shouldn’t Worry

Modern wallets are designed with the future in mind. They not only protect against today’s threats but also anticipate future risks, such as those posed by quantum computers. One-time addresses make exposed public keys useless to hackers, and automation ensures you don’t need to deal with the technicalities. HD wallets, which automatically generate new addresses, make the process seamless and secure for users.

Public key exposure only happens when necessary, reducing the risk of attacks, even from a quantum computer. In conclusion, while quantum computers pose a potential threat, modern wallets already offer effective solutions that make your cryptocurrencies nearly impossible to steal. With one-time addresses and the upcoming adoption of post-quantum cryptography, you can be confident that your funds are safe—today and tomorrow.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Why You Should Only Run DeepSeek Locally: A Privacy Perspective and how to

In an era where AI tools promise immense utility, the decision to run DeepSeek locally is not merely about functionality but also about safeguarding privacy and security. Here's the rationale why:

1. Control Over Data Access: Running DeepSeek locally ensures that data processing occurs on your own machine or server, allowing you to have full control over who can access the system. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access and misuse.

2. Data Privacy: By keeping computations local, you ensure that personal data does not leave your control, minimizing the risk of exposure through cloud-based services.

3. Security Measures: Local operation provides an additional layer of security. You can implement access controls, monitor usage, and respond to incidents more effectively, which might be harder or impossible when relying on third-party platforms.

4. Practical Implementation: Tools like Ollama and OpenWebUI facilitate setting up a local environment, making it accessible even for those with limited technical expertise. This setup empowers individuals to leverage AI capabilities while maintaining privacy.

5. Right to Control Data: Privacy is a fundamental right, and running DeepSeek locally respects this by allowing users to decide what data they share and how it's accessed. This empowers individuals to make informed choices about their personal data.

For those prioritizing privacy, this approach is not just beneficial—it's essential.

Running DeepSeek Locally: A Guide for Individual Home Users

DeepSeek is a powerful AI search engine that can help with various tasks, but running it locally gives you greater control over your data and privacy. Here’s how you can set it up at home.

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What You’ll Need

1. A Computer: A desktop or laptop with sufficient processing power (at least 4GB RAM).
2. Python and pip: To install and run DeepSeek.
3. Ollama: An open-source tool that allows you to run AI models locally.
4. OpenWebUI: A simple web interface for interacting with Ollama.

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Step-by-Step Guide

1. Install the Prerequisites

• Python: Download and install Python from https://www.python.org.
• pip: Use pip to install Python packages. bash pip install --upgrade pip
• Ollama: bash pip install ollama
• OpenWebUI: Visit https://github.com/DeepSeek-LLM/openwebui and follow the instructions to install it.

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2. Set Up Ollama

• Clone the official Ollama repository: bash git clone https://github.com/OllamaAI/Ollama.git cd Ollama
• Follow the installation guide on https://ollama.ai to set it up.

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3. Run DeepSeek Locally

• Use OpenWebUI as your interface: bash # Start OpenWebUI (open a terminal and run this): python openwebui.py --model deepseek-llm-v0.2-beta
• A web browser will open, allowing you to interact with DeepSeek.

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Tips for Optimization

1. Reduce Memory Usage: Use smaller models like deepseek-llm-v0.2-beta if your computer has limited resources.
2. Limit Model Access: Only allow authorized users to access the system by restricting IP addresses or using a VPN.
3. Regular Updates: Keep all software up to date to protect against vulnerabilities.

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Why Run DeepSeek Locally?

• Privacy: Your data stays on your local machine, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
• Flexability: Running locally allows you to build specific models for specific uses and provide them with RAG data.

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Advocating for privacy does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider zapping or sending monero

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Why Privacy Matters and How to Protect It

Privacy is about control. It’s not about hiding yourself but deciding what others can see about you. Just as you don’t share everything when buying a magazine, technology shouldn’t force you to reveal more than needed.

Why Privacy is Important

1. Personal Control: Privacy lets you choose what parts of your life are visible. You shouldn’t have to share everything just to use a service.

2. Security Against Exploitation: Without privacy, people and groups can be targeted by companies or governments. This abuse can lead to data breaches or unnecessary surveillance.

3. Building Trust: Privacy is key to trust in relationships and communities. When your info is safe, you can transact and communicate without fear of misuse.

How to Protect Your Privacy 1. Think Before You Share: Only share what’s necessary and know why you’re doing it. 2. Use Encryption: Encrypt sensitive communications like emails or messages. 3. Control Data Sharing: Avoid oversharing personal details online. 4. Enable Privacy Tools: Use VPNs or privacy settings on social media to shield your data. 5. Be Mindful of Metadata: Understand that metadata (like location data) can reveal more about you than the content itself. 6. Support Privacy-Focused Brands: Choose services that prioritize privacy, like encrypted messaging apps. 7. Read Privacy Policies: Know what data you’re sharing and with whom. 8. Tools like privacy.io can help visualize your digital footprint. 9. Block Trackers: Use tools like DoNotTrackMe or uBlock Origin to stop trackers from collecting your data.

Conclusion

Protecting privacy is a vital step in safeguarding your personal freedoms. By taking proactive measures, you can control what information is accessible and ensure that your rights are respected. Remember, you are your own best advocate for privacy—trust no one but yourself to protect your data and identity.

Join the movement to champion privacy as a fundamental human right. Advocate for stronger laws and encourage others to take action, so we can all enjoy safer, more secure digital environments.

@ 44dc1c2d:31c74f0b

Chef's notes

Last time I made this I subbed the tomato puréed with some blistered cherry tomatoes. Don't think I'll be using the purée going forward.

I prefer thighs so that's what I use for this but use whatever you want.

Adjust spices based on the size of your onions. If all you have is two massive onions maybe use one and a half onion or just up the amount of spices a little.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: ~10 min
• 🍳 Cook time: ~40 ish min
• 🍽️ Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 Onions
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1/3 cup cashews
• 1.5 tsp Garam Masala
• 2 ish cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsb ground turmeric
• 1 tsb salt
• 1 tbsp plain yogurt
• 2 tbsp of your cooking oil or fat
• 1 tbsp Coriander (Cilantro) plus extra for garnish
• 1 tbsp sultanas (golden raisins)
• 1 lb of chicken cubed
• 6 oz of white button mushrooms

Directions

1. Quarter the onions and put them in a food possessor for about a minute
2. Add the tomatoes, nuts, garlic, Garam masala, chili powder, lemon juice, turmeric, salt, yogurt and blend for another minute tell its well mixed in.
3. In a wok or a large pan heat your cooking oil and add the onion and spice mix in. Fry gently for around 2-ish minutes, stir frequently.
4. Add the chicken, coriander, and raisins to the pan. Stir-fry for another minute or so.
5. Add mushrooms and water. Bring to simmer and cover the pan cook for 10 min or until the chicken is 100% cooked through.
6. Serve with plain rice and enjoy!

@ 2b24a1fa:17750f64

Die Satire Muxmäuchenstill von 2004 erzählt die Geschichte des 30-jährigen Mux, der seine Mitbürgern zu mehr Verantwortungsbewusstsein erziehen möchte. Dazu stellt er Raser, Schwarzfahrer, Graffiti-Sprüher, Falschparker, Ladendiebe und Vergewaltiger, konfrontiert sie mit ihrem Verhalten und bestraft sie.

https://soundcloud.com/radiomuenchen/muxmauschenstill-x-interview-mit-jan-henrik-stahlberg?

Als Mitstreiter gewinnt er Arbeits- und Obdachlose. Mux’ fanatische Ein-Mann-Mission wächst zu einem kleinen Unternehmen. Auch privat kann er seinen Moralismus nicht zügeln und erschießt seine Freundin. Am Ende des Films wird er von einem Raser überfahren.

Ab 1. Mai läuft die Fortsetzung in den Kinos: Muxmäuschenstill X: muxfilm.de/. Nach zwanzig Jahre Wachkoma findet sich Mux in einer Welt wieder, die er nicht mehr versteht: dem wunderbaren Neoliberalismus. Wieder möchte Mux die Menschen erziehen. Doch diesmal kämpft er gegen ein System, das alles durchdringt, die Welt spaltet, unsere Lebensgrundlagen zerstört, die Reichen reicher macht und die Armen ärmer. Mux gründet den Muxismus und schart die Aussortierten des Systems um sich.

Drehbuchautor und Hauptdarsteller Jan Henrik Stahlberg führt diesmal auch Regie. Unser Autor Jonny Rieder hat mit Jan Henrik Stahlberg über seinen neuen Film gesprochen. Zunächst wollte er wissen, wo für ihn die Grenze verläuft zwischen Übergriffigkeit und Zivilcourage und wie er Mux hier einordnet.

Bild: Mux Filmproduktion

@ a1d36df6:a3b9f5a0

Originally written in: November 2024

"Show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome"[^mungerquote].

"Even bacteria respond to motivation." ~[^dufrene2020][^amoedo2024].

Introduction

In Austrian economics, time preference refers to the value individuals place on present consumption versus future consumption [^rothbard1993man]. A society with a lower time preference is more inclined to save, invest, and plan for the long term, thereby fostering progress and stability [^ammous2018]. In contrast, a society with a higher time preference tends toward immediate consumption rather than investment — or invests without a true understanding of its purpose — leading to short-term planning and a gradual drift from foundational societal values, traditions, and culture [^hoppe2001].

The definition of investment is the process of allocating resources to productive activities, prioritizing future gains over immediate consumption. It involves capital accumulation and is key to economic growth, as individuals delay gratification to increase future value. This approach underlies capital formation and enhances an economy's production capacity, aligning with lower time preference and fostering long-term prosperity [^mises1998].

With a foundational understanding of time preference and investment, we can begin to examine what motivates people today. Given the prevalence of high time preference in modern society, the government can capitalize on this tendency by offering immediate handouts and benefits, satisfying the population's desire for instant gratification, often at the expense of long-term prosperity and future gains. This tendency is also mirrored in mainstream media, where a focus on sensational, attention-grabbing stories diverts focus from deeper, structural issues. By amplifying polarizing narratives [^gentzkow2006media], often tied to social identity or lifestyle differences, the government and media create a cycle of constant engagement and distraction, steering public attention towards short-term controversies and away from underlying economic or social policy issues [^caplan2001rational].

Debt & Fractional-Reserve Banking

A common denominator that repeatedly emerges in such destructive behavior promoted by governments is the issue of money. As money drives the world, understanding and following its flow not only reveals how it operates but also uncovers those who wield control over it, and how human behavior is driven by it.

Money is a broad term encircling all assets that can be used for exchange, storage, and valuation, covering both physical and digital forms [^ammous2023]. Cash is a subset of money, referring specifically to physical currency, such as coins and notes.

The process of money creation, typically managed by governments and central banks, is the foundation of economic dependency within the financial system. In most economies, central banks control currency creation through mechanisms like open market operations and debt. For instance, when a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve, issues new currency, it does so by purchasing government securities from commercial banks, thus adding currency to the economy. However, this transaction is not debt-free; it obliges the government to repay the borrowed amount with interest.

In common words, the process of creating money is as follows: the government request to the central bank a certain amount of money to be printed in borrowing form. The central bank then creates that money, out of thin air, on the promise that the government will repay the central bank down the road. Since the government does not produce anything, in order to repay the central bank, the government then sells the debt via bonds to anyone who would like to buy the government debt. In even more simple words: the government and central bank creates money out of thin air based on debt [^ammous2021].

The issue with money creation is not only by the fact that it was created out of thin air, but because money creation has other issues tied to it: the debt, the creation of fractional-reserve monetary system, inflation, and interest.

This foundational reliance on debt, since it is present in the very beginning of money creation, renders the entire monetary system debt-dependent. Therefore, saving and investing within such a system becomes questionable, as the system's nature opposes the principles of sustainable wealth accumulation, thus leading human behavior not to save but to spend.

A fractional-reserve monetary system is a banking structure in which banks retain only a small fraction of their depositors' funds — historically around 10%, but today often as low as 1% [^bundesbank2024] — while lending out or investing the remainder. This setup allows banks to expand the money supply and stimulate economic activity through a process known as deposit expansion [^federalreserve1975modern]. Deposit expansion occurs when banks effectively treat a portion of deposited funds as new money, multiplying the original deposit base. For example, if a bank holds deposits totaling 1 million euros, it can lend out up to 1.9 million euros, as long as it maintains 10% of the initial deposit in reserve. This cycle can repeat, enabling banks to increase the total money supply to infinity, but the "Modern Money Mechanics: A Workbook on Bank Reserves and Deposit Expansion" and government applying it recommends not doing it above 9 times the original deposit value [^federalreserve1975modern].

To make matters worse, inflation and interest exacerbate the problems inherent in this monetary system. Interest is a foundational element of the system, initially intended to address the original debt incurred by the government. In economic terms, interest represents the "price" of time preference, a premium placed on present goods over future goods. To illustrate the impact of interest, consider the cost of a house in today's system: a house priced at 500,000 euros with a 4% variable interest rate ends up costing around 860,000 euros over 30 years, with 360,000 euros paid in interest alone.

Inflation, on the other hand, is the increase in the money supply — money printing — and can only be truly calculated by M2[^1] money supply metric. Inflation erodes the value of both assets and earned income, as each new unit of currency devalues existing money. This devaluation impacts not only the purchasing power of savings but also the real cost of goods and services over time, reducing the long-term value of assets people believe they own.

The government

Operating within a monetary system stretched beyond its limitations, the government faces the dual challenges of controlling inflation and satisfying its growing spending demands. To fund its expenditures, the government often provides public benefits — subsidies, "free" healthcare, public transport, security, military, and welfare in general — to justify continual spending and cultivate public support - via voting, in most democratic countries.

Welfare and most government programs redistribute wealth from producers to non-producers, fostering dependency on the state. Over time, this erodes individual sovereignty and expands government control, restricting freedom, and reducing people to slaves or cash cows.

The government justifies taxes as payment for welfare and public services, but also claims they curb inflation by reducing the need to print money. The logic is that by reclaiming taxpayer money, the money supply is controlled. However, this is misleading, especially when the government can print money at will, making taxation on such currency inherently flawed.

Taxes are extracted via coercion - violence - by the government onto the population. The government then decides where to allocate this money, based on their guess of what the population needs, excluding private preferences. Therefore, taxes are not an incentive to accumulate, not even to work more. Taxes are an incentive to do right the opposite: do not save and do not work more.

Another tactic the government employs is to create crises that it alone can "solve", thus requiring more taxes or funding. Recent examples include crises like COVID-19, the "green" agenda, and initiatives to combat climate change[^2]. In each case, the government presents itself as the sole solution, yet solving these crises inevitably demands additional resources — in the form of increased taxation.

Even minimal critical thinking would prompt one to question the true necessity of taxes in a government that owns and controls the money printer. Given what we now understand, if you were in the government's position, would you willingly relinquish control of money creation by tying it to something like gold, empowering people to become smarter, independent, and wealthy?

The government, through various channels — media, education, propaganda, welfare, and government subsidies — ensures that people remain obedient and uninformed. It keeps them financially constrained by increasing taxes and imposing extensive regulations, while fostering dependency through handouts, welfare, and other social programs. The government is the only entity that, by law, can use violence and coercion without prosecution [^rothbard2009].

"Anyone who, although human, is by nature not yours but someone else's"[^ambler1987].

It is therefore unsurprising that many live in a state akin to enslavement, reflecting a mindset shaped by constant dependency. It is no wonder that people are discouraged from having children, as they can barely support themselves. Nor is it surprising that individuals might question the need to continue their bloodline, believing in the illusory value of "fake money" [^kiyosaki2019] and trusting present "investments" and the government to provide a pension in old age. And it's certainly not surprising to see people asking the government for solutions to every problem, when the government leaves them no viable alternatives.

"Show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome"[^mungerquote].

That statement serves as a powerful tool for understanding and addressing complex issues. When observing behaviors that may appear unusual — such as individuals identifying as "trans-species," a phenomenon linked to mental health concerns [^pinna2022] — it's essential to consider the underlying incentives. Who benefits most from a society in which individuals remain financially constrained, dependent, and uninformed? A fiat-based monetary system functions as a modern form of economic control, keeping people poor by design. Taxes, effectively a penalty for productivity, contrast sharply with welfare programs, which often reward dependency and reinforce reliance on the government. Meanwhile, government narratives and selective information shape public beliefs, protecting institutional interests and discouraging critical inquiry[^3].

Conclusion

Like the fungus that infects in parasitic way an ant's nervous system - Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis -, rendering it a zombie [^britannica2024] controlled by an external force, similarly, modern bureaucracies exploit the mechanisms of fiat money, debt, and taxation [^rothbard2009] to maintain control over individuals, steering them away from self-reliance and critical thinking toward a state of perpetual dependence.

The parallels are striking: just as the fungus manipulates the ant's behavior to secure its reproduction, governments manipulate public perception, creating crises, shaping incentives, and fostering dependence[^rothbard2009] through welfare programs[^caplan2001rational], inflated debt[^ammous2018], and coercive taxation. These mechanisms suppress individuality, reduce productivity, and shift power further into centralized hands[^gentzkow2006media], leaving citizens "zombified", detached from purpose and independence.

"Even bacteria respond to motivation."[^dufrene2020]

If tolerated — even by you, dear reader — this parasitic cycle will continue to erode humanity's dignity and potential. The solution lies in reclaiming agency by building a society grounded in sound money, meaningful productivity, and spiritual and cultural foundations that connect us to higher purposes. As warned in Jeremiah 17:5 [^4], trusting fallible human systems leads to enslavement. True freedom comes from rejecting exploitative bureaucracies and embracing systems aligned with truth, autonomy, and resilience.

Another way is to fully understand the system and opt out. This requires mastering the rules and using them to your advantage. If legal avenues exist to avoid taxation, expropriation, eminent domain, or government coercion, then the first step is to change the game for yourself.

The monetary system and government incentives shape human behavior, influencing those who allow themselves to be controlled by them.

fiat #bitcoin #austrian-economics #freedom #slavery #money #government #antipropaganda #propaganda #taxes #tax #greenagenda #wef #who

Footnote

[^1]: M2 refers to savings deposits + money market mutual funds + small time deposits. M2 includes all of M1 plus "near money" (M0), which consists of savings deposits, money market accounts, and small-denomination time deposits (like certificates of deposit under a certain amount). M2 is commonly tracked by central banks to gauge medium-term economic activity and savings behavior, as it includes money that people save rather than spend immediately.

[^2]: Since the 1990s, societies worldwide have been confronted by a series of global crises, often framed as urgent and overwhelming challenges. All scams. Including deforestation, ocean and air pollution, nuclear waste, oil spills, plastic and soil pollution, drought, fossil fuel consumption, rising sea levels, species extinction, extreme weather, global warming, melting glaciers, acid rain, and, recently, climate change. Each crisis has shaped public opinion and policy, and also created new laws, regulations, and taxes.

[^3]: Politicians are merely psychopath[^hareleonmayersalinasfolino2022][^klaas2023] parasites.

[^4]: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

References

Bibtex

bibtex @book{ammous2018, title={The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking}, author={Ammous, Saifedean}, year={2018}, publisher={Wiley}, url={https://saifedean.com/tbs} } @book{ammous2023, author = {Saifedean Ammous}, title = {Principles of Economics}, year = {2023}, publisher = {Saifedean Ammous}, address = {Self-published}, url = {https://saifedean.com/poe} } @book{ammous2021, author = {Saifedean Ammous}, title = {The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization}, year = {2021}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken, NJ}, url = {https://saifedean.com/tfs} } @book{rothbard1993man, author = {Murray N. Rothbard}, title = {Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles}, year = {1993}, publisher = {Ludwig von Mises Institute}, address = {Auburn, Alabama}, note = {Originally published in 1962}, url = {https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market} } @book{hoppe2001, author = {Hans-Hermann Hoppe}, title = {Democracy: The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Transaction Publishers}, address = {New Brunswick, NJ}, url = {https://mises.org/library/democracy-god-failed} } @book{mises1998, author = {Ludwig von Mises}, title = {Human Action: A Treatise on Economics}, year = {1998}, publisher = {Ludwig von Mises Institute}, address = {Auburn, Alabama}, note = {Originally published in 1949}, url = {https://mises.org/library/human-action-0} } @article{gentzkow2006media, author = {Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro}, title = {Media Bias and Reputation}, journal = {Journal of Political Economy}, volume = {114}, number = {2}, pages = {280-316}, year = {2006}, publisher = {University of Chicago Press}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1086/499414} } @article{caplan2001rational, author = {Bryan Caplan}, title = {Rational Irrationality and the Microfoundations of Political Failure}, journal = {Public Choice}, volume = {107}, number = {3}, pages = {311-331}, year = {2001}, publisher = {Springer}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010349129605} } @book{federalreserve1975modern, author = {{Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago}}, title = {Modern Money Mechanics: A Workbook on Bank Reserves and Deposit Expansion}, year = {1975}, publisher = {Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago}, url = {https://archive.org/details/modern-money-mechanics/mode/2up} } @misc{bundesbank2024, author = {{Deutsche Bundesbank}}, title = {Minimum Reserves}, year = {n.d.}, url = {https://www.bundesbank.de/en/tasks/monetary-policy/minimum-reserves/minimum-reserves-625912}, note = {Accessed: 2024-11-07} } @article{ambler1987, author = {Wayne Ambler}, title = {Aristotle on Nature and Politics: The Case of Slavery}, journal = {Political Theory}, volume = {15}, number = {3}, pages = {390-410}, year = {1987}, month = {Aug.} } @book{kiyosaki2019, author = {Robert T. Kiyosaki}, title = {FAKE: Fake Money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets: How Lies Are Making the Poor and Middle Class Poorer}, year = {2019}, month = {April}, publisher = {Plata Publishing}, address = {Scottsdale, AZ}, note = {Paperback, Illustrated Edition} } @article{hareleonmayersalinasfolino2022, title = {Psychopathy and crimes against humanity: A conceptual and empirical examination of human rights violators}, journal = {Journal of Criminal Justice}, volume = {81}, pages = {101901}, year = {2022}, issn = {0047-2352}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101901}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235222000216}, author = {Robert D. Hare and Elizabeth León-Mayer and Joanna Rocuant Salinas and Jorge Folino and Craig S. Neumann}, keywords = {Crimes against humanity, Human rights violators, Terrorism, Psychopathy, PCL-R, SRP-SF, Four-factor model, Latent profile analysis}, abstract = {Purpose There is a dearth of empirical data on the contributions of personality, psychopathology, and psychopathy to terrorism and its actors. Because of a fortuitous set of circumstances, we had access to a sample of men convicted of crimes against humanity (CAH) committed during the Pinochet regime, each rated by expert clinicians on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). We also had PCL-R ratings for samples of general offenders and community participants. Methods We determined the psychometric properties of the PCL-R for these samples, performed structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the factor structure of the PCL-R, and conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA) of the obtained factors to identify classes or subtypes within the samples. Results The PCL-R's psychometric properties and factor structure were in accord with findings from other countries and settings. The PCL-R total scores of the CAH and general offenders were virtually the same but much higher than those of the community sample. However, the CAH group had extraordinarily high scores on the Interpersonal/Affective facets yet relatively low scores on the Lifestyle/Antisocial facets. LPA identified the expected four latent classes, with most CAH men located within the Callous-Conning class. Conclusions The results of this study provide unique information about the psychopathic propensities of a sample of state violators of human rights. Their pattern of PCL-R scores was consistent with an extreme disposition for self-serving, callous, and ruthless treatment of others, without guilt or remorse, and in the absence of a prior documented history of severe antisocial behavior.} } @misc{klaas2023, author = "{Brian Klaas}", title = "{{How many politicians are psychopaths?}}", howpublished = {\url{https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/how-many-politicians-are-psychopaths}}, note = {Online; accessed 29 January 2024}, year=2023 } @article{pinna2022, title={Mental health in transgender individuals: a systematic review}, author={Pinna, Federica and Paribello, Pasquale and Somaini, Giulia and Corona, Alice and Ventriglio, Antonio and Corrias, Carolina and Frau, Ilaria and Murgia, Roberto and El Kacemi, Sabrina and Galeazzi, Gian Maria and others}, journal={International Review of Psychiatry}, volume={34}, number={3-4}, pages={292--359}, year={2022}, publisher={Taylor \& Francis}, doi={10.1080/09540261.2022.2093629}, url={https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36151828/} } @book{rothbard2009, title={Anatomy of the State}, author={Rothbard, Murray}, year={2009}, publisher={Ludwig von Mises Institute} } @misc{britannica2024, author = {{Encyclopaedia Britannica}}, title = {Zombie-Ant Fungus}, year = {n.d.}, url = {https://www.britannica.com/science/zombie-ant-fungus}, note = {Accessed: 2024-11-07} } @misc{amoedo2024, author = {Renato Amoedo}, title = {Até as bactérias respondem a uma motivação}, year = {2024}, note = {Famosa frase mencionada em entrevistas e podcasts relacionados a comportamento e motivação}, howpublished = {Comentário público}, } @article{dufrene2020, title={Mechanomicrobiology: how bacteria sense and respond to forces}, author={Dufrêne, Yves F. and Persat, Alexandre}, journal={Nature Reviews Microbiology}, volume={18}, pages={227--240}, year={2020}, month={April}, doi={10.1038/s41579-019-0314-2}, url={https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0314-2}, publisher={Springer Nature}, note={Accepted 06 December 2019, Published 20 January 2020} } @misc{mungerquote, author = {Munger, Charlie}, title = {Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome}, note = {Often attributed to Charlie Munger, known for his wisdom on finance and life as Warren Buffett's business partner.}, howpublished = {Quote}, year = {n.d.}, url = {https://elevatesociety.com/quotes-by-charlie-munger/} }

@ a296b972:e5a7a2e8

28.04.2025, 16.17 Uhr:

 

Russische Hobby-Flieger konnten mit ihrem Sportflugzeug namens "Andromeda" unter dem Radar bleiben und haben entlang der Hauptstromtrassen mit einem ukrainischen Zwiebelmesser die Stromleitungen gekappt. In einer scharfen Rechtskurve muss wohl eine Flugzeugtür aufgegangen sein und der Pass des Piloten fiel unbemerkt heraus. Die Identität der Täter konnte so schnell festgestellt werden.

28.04.2025, 16.43 Uhr:

Trump hat das europäische Stromnetz gekauft und die in den Umspannwerken eingebauten US-amerikanischen Chips deaktiviert. Es gibt erst wieder Strom, wenn sich die Koalition der Willigen den Friedensverhandlungen für die Ukraine anschließt. Trump hat bewusst in den sonnenreichen Ländern Spanien und Portugal begonnen, das soll als Warnung für ganz Europa gelten. Frau von der Leyen hat bereits scharfen Protest eingelegt, doch Trump hat die SMS sofort gelöscht.

28.04.2025, 17.12 Uhr:

Selensky hat einen Cyber-Angriff auf das europäische Stromnetz gestartet. Er ist wütend, weil sich Macron in dem 15-Minuten-Gespräch mit Trump am Rande der Beerdigung des Papstes in Rom hat abwimmeln lassen. Er beendet die Strom-Blockade erst, wenn Spanien, Portugal und Frankreich Deutschland dazu zwingen, endlich Taurus zu liefern. Auf die Frage, wie Selensky das angestellt hat, soll er geantwortet haben: "Sie sehen ja, wir können es."

Ist natürlich alles nur Joke! Es sollte nur einmal in Bezug auf die Sprengung der Nordstream 2 Pipelines aufgezeigt werden, wie schnell auch unsereins abstruse Erklärungen liefern kann, die vorne und hinten nicht stimmen können.

Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben.

(Bild von pixabay)

@ 2fe297f6:553a49da

Happy

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  --{{3 Russian Female}}--

Первоначально создан в 2004 году Джоном Грубером (англ. John Gruber) и Аароном Шварцем. Многие идеи языка были позаимствованы из существующих соглашений по разметке текста в электронных письмах...

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Quizzes

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What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall?

[[dam]]

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```javascript // Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart1 new Chartist.Line('#chart1', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[100, 120, 180, 200]] });

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@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

The media, government, and "elite" (who are only elite in this low vibration illusion we call "life") are afraid of people like me because I do not accept the reality they have forced us into. My manifesto is an attempt to wake you up from ideas you have been conditioned into believing because it benefits one class - the protected class known as the "elite".

The elite would like to have you believe that my message is something crafted from hatred and they would like to label me with mental issues. They would like you to think I am some crazy extremist who wants to advocate for the harm of others. They would like you to think that I am enciting violence.

This could not be further from the truth.

I am not and will never be an extremist, white supermicist, terrorist, radical, hateful human being. I do not believe in killing in order to convey a message or movement. I do not believe in division.

I only advocate that you become conscious of the reality around us. The reality is that this is a world controlled by the most evil, controlling, destructive freaks. These people work to make sure we are essentially slaves to a system that benefits those who created the system - the elites. Let me make this clear: I do NOT advocate for violence, destruction, death, killing, murder, hatred, division, or terrorism. The elite are threatened by people like me, because they know that we know their game. We know their plans are to destroy, to advocate for violence, to kill, murder, to encite hatred and division. This is all the elite do - they cannot fathom having people live in peace because it isn't beneficial if you want to control the world.

So while you may think it's impossible there is a group of a few evil people who control the world - look back at history. It has always been littered with the few evil who control the many. It would be stupid to think it would be different

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

I was in some sort of nice romantic building and I met this nicer middle aged blonde woman who looked a lot like one of my old teachers. We got to chatting and things started moving quickly, we were going to have sexy lesbian sex but she told me she wanted me to shave my vagina before we started. I said fine, went to a bathroom and started shaving. If it meant I was going to slang some tang, I was gonna do it. It took me a long time to complete this daunting task, as I've mantioned many times before, I have a very thick and dense bush. I also wanted to make sure no hair was left behind, if my sweet lesbian lover saw that I had a hair on my vagina, she would probably freak out and call me disgusting for having a feature that naturally grows on me.

Anyways, I finished shaving my vagina and went to go meet her. Sadly, she decided to not have lesbian sex with me anymore since I took too long and she had some time to think about it. I got screwed without getting screwed. And now I had a gross hairless vagina.

I think I know why this dream occured. It's because my so called "fans" have judged me on my fan page for having hair on my vagina. Yes, I sometimes maintain it and keep it trimmed, sometimes. But sometimes I just let it go if I'm too lazy. Now the lesbians in my dreams want me to shave, and even at that, they still don't want to have sex with me. One time I remember cumming from a wet dream I had, which is very rare for me to do. I was watching 2 Japanese chicks dressed up in the school girl uniform scissor, and I remember waking up with a hard clit and it pulsated. I felt embarassed waking up, because I didn't even voluntarily masturbate but I still climaxed.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Operational Security and Your Digital Life

I. Definitions

Operations security (OPSEC) is a process that identifies what information can be seen by threat actors, whether that information could be weaponized, and possible mitigation actions.

Your digital life is every interaction you have, all personal identifying, financial, and health information, your preferences, your habits, and any history that can be obtained both publicly and privately that has ever been recorded or digitized.

Your digital life is a incredibly rich field for various actors to observe, record, analyze, sell, and exploit for profit, harm, or control. Some of this information you give away without thinking (social media), some you give to one party but it is shared without your knowledge to other parties (data brokers, big tech), or it is taken without your consent (criminals, governments).

II. Threats

It would be impossible to list them all but a few examples:

Mass surveillance by governments to fight crime, terrorism, civil unrest, and control the population. This is across the board blanket information on everyone that is stored for later use from feeding algorithms for social credit systems to lists of people who are threats that need to be disappeared. The only variable is how explicit the government in question is doing it.

Corporate surveillance by public and private companies for marketing, market share, or selling for profit. Your data is incredibly profitable. Entire mega companies have built their entire business model on it like Google, Meta, and various Data Brokers. This information is collected and stored. It is then used internally, sold for profit, acquired by governments, or stolen by nefarious actors.

Criminal or Nefarious Surveillance for harm, control, or profit. This is a catch all from partners in a controlling relationship, angry ex's wanting revenge, religions and groups watching their members, terrorists and cults looking for people to recruit or indoctrinate, and foreign espionage to plain old criminals who want your information to sell to other criminals, looking for blackmail opportunities, to steal your financial or social accounts, or identity theft.

III. Mitigation

To do this properly a security self audit should be performed to determine exactly what assets you have to protect, how at risk they are, ranking their priority, and specific steps that are needed to protect them. I will detail how to do this for the average person in a later post but until then we will stick to generalities.

It is impossible to to block or hide all information all the time. Not only is it impossible but it would be exhausting to even try. This is where most people interested in privacy get confused, lost, and give up the idea of privacy because the only path they see to achieve it is living in a underground faraday cage out in the woods.

The only viable path is obscurity and compartmentlizion. Compartmentation of your devices, accounts, and digital selves is wildly misunderstood and not applied properly. Done incorrectly this can be disastrous if you are too casual with something that you thought was hidden or putting a spotlight on yourself by attempting to be obscured.

IV. Tactics For Everyone

Common advice I give to everyone. I don't care what your thoughts are on privacy and security, you should be doing this.

1. Do not give your personal email or phone number to anyone except friends and family. This just opens you up to spam, phishing attacks, and an identifying tracer. Use a email alias service or a throw away email account to give to stores and online accounts. Get a VOIP number for that dating app or service quote. When your real number rings, recieves texts, or get a email you know it is from someone you know and trust.

2. Use cash locally if you can and for everything else get a virtual debit or credit card with a spending limit or fixed amount. Do you really need your entire paycheck, emergency savings, life savings tied to a single card / account? Are you really entering your real credit card or banking information into a random website to buy something? Even if it's not a scam site, how well are they protecting it while in transit or storage? You will probably get the money back in case of fraud but why feed the beast and besides it's a total hassle to get your accounts frozen, wait for reimbursement, open and change accounts. Just avoid it. For extra credit you can use visa gift cards purchased with cash to obscure your financial transactions if you choose. Every financial transaction doesn't have to be public record.

3. Stop using unencrypted phone calls and SMS texts. Switch to encrypted options such as Signal or SimpleX and make anyone who wants to have contact with you reach out to you on it. Even if you "have nothing to hide" there is no reason for you to broadcast every personal conversation, comment, or shared meme with Ma'bell, the government, and anyone else listening and recording. Seriously, just stop.

V. Compartmentation of Your Digital Selves

I will keep this very high level as this article has already run longer than I intended but will cover this in much greater detail in the future.

You can break down all digital activities and interactions into several broad categories or digital selves. Then build separate systems for use in each category depending on the activity and need. The trick is to preplan what activities go where. Using the wrong account on the wrong system means they are now burned. Letting the systems overlap and contaminate each other then you risk exposing anything ever done on those systems. The separation can be accomplished with multiple accounts and devices, isolated virtual machines, or operating systems that enable compartmentation such as Qubes OS or Tails.

VI. Breakdown

1. Public

This is the default. This is you. Your real name, address, and details. This is unavoidable and would be weird and attract attention if you didn't have one.

Use this for any KYC activities that you have to log into such as taxes, bank accounts, utility bills, etc. Clearnet only, you have nothing to hide.

Awareness: If it has to be public then put your best foot forward. Only show them what you want them to see and make it good and boring. Blend into the crowd of normies not important enough to pay attention to.

1. Private No logins to KYC services. Traffic routed through a VPN. Use of sudo anonymous account names. You are Neo, not Mr. Anderson.

Use for most social media that is not public facing. Shopping and browsing that would be embarrassing or misunderstood if made public. Encrypted to protect against criminals and looky loos. A good default if people just don't need to know.

Awareness: Do not be confused by the word private. The goal is to make it to difficult, to expensive, or just not worth the effort to determine exactly who you are and what you are doing but it's not impossible. Only use this with the knowledge that someday it might get doxxed. That potential only increases with time and frequency of use of accounts. Not to be used for anything that could be considered illegal or has the potential to get you fired or cancelled.

1. Anonymous Only single use non KYC logins. Single purpose accounts and names that are burned after achieving that purpose. Traffic routed only through Tor. Encryption by default.

Use if you are a whistle blower, freedom fighter, activist, or for shady activities.

Awareness: Be very careful and deliberate with this system as to not accidentally compromise it with something that would have been better served by a different system. Rotate and clean accounts and systems often. Don't carry stuff over after a cleaning to a new system. Reusing names and handles is how people get busted.

1. Nemo

Nemo doesn't exist. There is no record that they ever existed. Only amnesiac systems are even used and never a login. If files or traces are left behind they are encrypted, hidden, and have plausible deniability.

---

Enjoy anon, more to come.

@ 957df479:13e9e08e

Happy

This is your course initialization stub.

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  --{{3 Russian Female}}--

Первоначально создан в 2004 году Джоном Грубером (англ. John Gruber) и Аароном Шварцем. Многие идеи языка были позаимствованы из существующих соглашений по разметке текста в электронных письмах...

{{3}}

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  i | B B B B B * B B B B B B * B B B B B
  s |         *                 *
    | *  * *                       * *  *
 -1 +------------------------------------
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Quizzes

A Textquiz

What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall?

[[dam]]

Multiple Choice

Just add as many points as you wish:

[[X]] Only the **X** marks the correct point.
[[ ]] Empty ones are wrong.
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Single Choice

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A drawing example, for demonstrating that any JavaScript library can be used, also for drawing.

```javascript // Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart1 new Chartist.Line('#chart1', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[100, 120, 180, 200]] });

// Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart2 new Chartist.Bar('#chart2', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[5, 2, 8, 3]] }); ```

Projects

You can make your code executable and define projects:

``` js -EvalScript.js let who = data.first_name + " " + data.last_name;

if(data.online) { who + " is online"; } else { who + " is NOT online"; } json +Data.json { "first_name" : "Sammy", "last_name" : "Shark", "online" : true } ```

More

Find out what you can even do more with quizzes:

https://liascript.github.io/course/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liaScript/docs/master/README.md

@ 83279ad2:bd49240d

test

@ 957df479:13e9e08e

LiaScript Course

Course Main Title

This is your course initialization stub.

Please see the Docs to find out what is possible in LiaScript.

If you want to use instant help in your Atom IDE, please type lia to see all available shortcuts.

Markdown

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4. ones ...

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 --{{0}}--

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  --{{1}}--

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   {{1}}

?audio

 --{{2}}--

Even videos or change the language completely.

   {{2-3}}

!?video

  --{{3 Russian Female}}--

Первоначально создан в 2004 году Джоном Грубером (англ. John Gruber) и Аароном Шварцем. Многие идеи языка были позаимствованы из существующих соглашений по разметке текста в электронных письмах...

{{3}}

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Charts

Use ASCII-Art to draw diagrams:

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  a |             *         *
  x |            *           *
  i | B B B B B * B B B B B B * B B B B B
  s |         *                 *
    | *  * *                       * *  *
 -1 +------------------------------------
    0              x-axis               1

Quizzes

A Textquiz

What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall?

[[dam]]

Multiple Choice

Just add as many points as you wish:

[[X]] Only the **X** marks the correct point.
[[ ]] Empty ones are wrong.
[[X]] ...

Single Choice

Just add as many points as you wish:

[( )] ...
[(X)] <-- Only the **X** is allowed.
[( )] ...

Executable Code

A drawing example, for demonstrating that any JavaScript library can be used, also for drawing.

```javascript // Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart1 new Chartist.Line('#chart1', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[100, 120, 180, 200]] });

// Initialize a Line chart in the container with the ID chart2 new Chartist.Bar('#chart2', { labels: [1, 2, 3, 4], series: [[5, 2, 8, 3]] }); ```

Projects

You can make your code executable and define projects:

``` js -EvalScript.js let who = data.first_name + " " + data.last_name;

if(data.online) { who + " is online"; } else { who + " is NOT online"; } json +Data.json { "first_name" : "Sammy", "last_name" : "Shark", "online" : true } ```

More

Find out what you can even do more with quizzes:

https://liascript.github.io/course/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liaScript/docs/master/README.md

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

A debonair day-to-night hideaway fuses heritage charm with contemporary flair in the Penang capital of George Town...

Housed in a historic landmark on George Town’s atmospheric Lebuh Farquhar, just a stone’s throw from the iconic Eastern & Oriental Hotel, MOJO JOJO is a café and brunch spot by day, and a refined eatery come nightfall. With an effortlessly cool edge, the space has been designed by Empt Studio and combines contemporary charm with the energy of this Malaysian city.

Split into two sections, the venue caters to both hotel guests and passersby. One side offers an intimate, tailored dining experience for those seeking a respite from the buzz of outside, while the other spills out onto the street, embracing George Town’s lively buzz. The soaring ceilings create a sense of openness, further enhanced by the introduction of a mezzanine above the kitchen, maximising space without compromising on airiness.

Natural materials feature throughout with custom bamboo display systems and solid Nyatoh timber fixtures lending a rich, textural warmth. Deliberately crafted interlocking joints pay homage to traditional woodworking techniques, reinforcing both strength and authenticity. Every detail nods to meticulous craftsmanship, from the aged wood grains to the earthy material palette that echoes the heritage of its surroundings.

Lighting plays a supporting yet pivotal role, with carefully curated, softly diffused illumination accentuating the textures and forms within. The interplay of warm light and natural materials fosters an immersive, atmospheric retreat from the fast-paced city outside.

A refuge for slow mornings and, later on, offering a more cultured affair, MOJO JOJO is a debonair dining spot for the handsome Penang capital.

Read more https://www.emptstudio.com/projects/mojojojo

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/966008

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

I have a lot of dreams where I'm playing a claw machine and just winning a ton of toys. One of the best clawe machine dreams is where I come across claw machines with large toys as prizes, it had carnival toys from the 70's-80's as prizes. Unfortunately, the claw machine was non functional as it was pretty old. In most of these dreams I am winning an endless amount of toys, so much so that the prize chute becomes full with toys. In real life, they rig claw machines. Often times, the owners of the machines set it so they must meet a certain "pay out" before the claw will actually grip a prize. So while you might have a great aim on getting the claw around a toy, it won't grip it firmly enough until enough money has been inserted to meet that payout. Some claw machines will do a fake out, where it will grab the prize, then once the claw gets back to the top of the machine, it will drop the prize. It's to trick you that it got it, but it actually didn't. Sadly, claw machines are worthless to play these days. It's become highly monetizable and impossible to win. I'm great at claw machines, but it's just a matter of luck with hitting the payout these days.

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Hubless Wheels + Donut Motor brings manufacturing & performance benefits

Verge Next, a subsidiary of Estonia-based Verge Motorcycles, invented this Donut Motor. It's designed to drive a hubless wheel. Although once seen as something that simply looked cool in renderings, the company says the hubless arrangement brings performance and manufacturing benefits, "delivering unmatched torque and power density with minimal weight."

For one thing, there's no chain, belt or drivetrain required. Secondly, it frees the body of the bike from the task of holding the motor—everything is now contained within that rear wheel.

The company has not only incorporated the Donut Motor into their own bikes, but is now licensing the technology. Assuming it does what it says on the tin, our future streetscapes will be covered with hubless bikes, scooters and motorcycles.

Here's a closer look at a Verge bike and how its design is influenced by the motor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og9vlJRe2-M

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/966001

@ b099870e:f3ba8f5d

When you work for others, you are at their mercy. The own your work; they own you.Your creative spirit is squaded. What keeps you in such position is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependant on others for power. Your goal in every maneuver in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours to lose -you are more motivated,more creative,more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.

A quote from The 50th Law

@ 44dc1c2d:31c74f0b

Chef's notes

Makes an excellent Chicken sandwich.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 6 Ish hours
• 🍳 Cook time: 40 min
• 🍽️ Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 3 ½ - 4 cups bread flour, or more as needed
• 1 ⅓ cups warm milk (110°F – 115°F)
• 5 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 tablespoon instant “rapid rise” yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• Oil or butter for greasing the bowl
• 1 tablespoon melted salted butter, for brushing the crust at the end

Directions

1. To prepare the dough, weigh the flour or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then leveling off any excess. In a large bowl, combine the flour with the warm milk, honey, melted butter, instant yeast, and salt. Mix by hand or with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until a shaggy dough forms, gradually adding more flour, as necessary, to get the dough to come together so that it just pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
2. Switch to the dough hook attachment (or use your hands) to knead the dough until fairly smooth, about 7-8 minutes.
3. Oil a large mixing bowl. Place the dough in the greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 ½ - 2 hours.
4. Punch down the dough. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Pat the dough into a 9 x 12-inch rectangle. Starting on one of the short sides, roll up the dough to make a log; pinch the seams. Place the dough seam-side down in a lightly greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
5. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap; allow to rise for 1-2 hours, until it’s crowned about 1-2 inches over the rim of the pan. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
6. Bake the bread for 40-45 minutes, tenting the top of the bread loosely with foil towards the end if the top starts to get too brown. The bread should be golden brown, and it should sound hollow when tapped.
7. Brush the top of the warm bread with melted butter.
8. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.

@ 78b3c1ed:5033eea9

Umbrel Core-lightning(以下CLNと略す)を運用するにあたり役に立ちそうなノウハウやメモを随時投稿します。

・configファイルを用意する Umbrelのアプリとして必要な設定はdocker-compose.ymlで指定されている。 それ以外の設定をしたい場合configファイルに入れると便利。 configファイルの置き場所は /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd ここにtouch configとでもやってファイルをつくる。 cd /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd touch config 以下内容をひな型として使ってみてください。 行頭に#があるとコメント行になります。つまり.iniフォーマット。 /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd/config ```

[General options]

[Bitcoin control options]

[Lightning daemon options]

[Lightning node customization options]

[Lightning channel and HTLC options]

[Payment control options]

[Networking options]

[Lightning Plugins]

[Experimental Options]

``` configに設定できる内容は以下を参照 https://lightning.readthedocs.io/lightningd-config.5.html セクションを意味する[]があるけれどもこれは私(tanakei)が意図的に見やすく区別しやすくするために付けただけ。これら行の＃は外さない。

・configの設定をCLNに反映させる appスクリプトでCLNを再起動すると反映することができる。 configを書き換えただけでは反映されない。 cd /home/umbrel/umbrel/scripts ./app restart core-lightning

・ログをファイルに出力させる

以下の場所でtouch log.txtとしてlog.txtファイルを作る。 /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd cd /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd touch log.txt 次にconfigの[Lightning daemon options]セクションにlog-fileを追加する。 ```

[Lightning daemon options]

log-file=/data/.lightning/log.txt ``` ※Dockerによって/home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd は /data/.lightning として使われている。

・addrとbind-addrの違い どちらも着信用のインターフェースとポートの設定。addrは指定したホストIPアドレス:ポート番号をノードURIに含めて公開する(node_announcementのuris)。bind-addrは公開しない。

・実験的機能のLN Offerを有効にする configの[Experimental Options]セクションに以下を追加する。 ```

[Experimental Options]

experimental-onion-messages experimental-offers ``` ※ v24.08でexperimental-onion-messageは廃止されデフォルト有効であり、上記設定の追加は不要になりました。 ※ v21.11.1 では experimental-offersは廃止されデフォルト有効であり、上記設定の追加は不要になりました。 もう実験扱いじゃなくなったのね...

・完全にTorでの発信オンリーにする UmbrelはなぜかCLNの発信をClearnetとTorのハイブリッドを許している。それは　always-use-proxy=true　の設定がないから。(LNDは発着信Torのみなのに) なのでこの設定をconfigに追加してCLNも発着進Torのみにする。 ```

[Networking options]

always-use-proxy=true ```

・任意のニーモニックからhsm_secretを作る CLNのhsm_secretはLNDのwallet.dbのようなもの。ノードで使う様々な鍵のマスター鍵となる。Umbrel CLNはこのhsm_secretファイルを自動生成したものを使い、これをバックアップするためのニーモニックを表示するとかそういう機能はない。自分で作って控えてあるニーモニックでhsm_secretを作ってしまえばこのファイルが壊れてもオンチェーン資金は復旧はできる。

1.CLNインストール後、dockerコンテナに入る docker exec -it core-lightning_lightningd_1 bash 2.lightning-hsmtoolコマンドを使って独自hsm_secretを作る ``` cd data/.lightning/bitcoin lightning-hsmtool generatehsm my-hsm_secret

・上記コマンドを実行するとニーモニックの言語、ニーモニック、パスフレーズの入力を催促される。 Select your language: 0) English (en) 1) Spanish (es) 2) French (fr) 3) Italian (it) 4) Japanese (jp) 5) Chinese Simplified (zhs) 6) Chinese Traditional (zht) Select [0-7]: 0　※定番の英単語なら0を入力 Introduce your BIP39 word list separated by space (at least 12 words): <ニーモニックを入力する> Warning: remember that different passphrases yield different bitcoin wallets. If left empty, no password is used (echo is disabled). Enter your passphrase: <パスフレーズを入力する>　※パスフレーズ不要ならそのままエンターキーを押す。 New hsm_secret file created at my-hsm_secret Use the encrypt command to encrypt the BIP32 seed if needed

コンテナから抜ける exit

3.appスクリプトでCLNを止めて、独自hsm_secret以外を削除 ※【重要】いままで使っていたhsm_secretを削除する。もしチャネル残高、ウォレット残高があるならチャネルを閉じて資金を退避すること。自己責任！ cd ~/umbrel/scripts/ ./app stop core-lightning

cd ~/umbrel/app-data/core-lightning/data/lightningd/bitcoin rm gossip_store hsm_secret lightningd.sqlite3 lightning-rpc mv my-hsm_secret hsm_secret 4.appスクリプトでCLNを再開する cd ~/umbrel/scripts/ ./app start core-lightning ```

【補記】 hsm_secret作成につかうニーモニックはBIP39で、LNDのAezeedと違って自分が作成されたブロック高さというものを含んでいない。新規でなくて復元して使う場合は作成されたブロック高さからブロックチェーンをrescanする必要がある。 configの１行目にrescanオプションを付けてCLNをリスタートする。 ``` // 特定のブロック高さを指定する場合はマイナス記号をつける rescan=-756000

// 現在のブロック高さから指定ブロック分さかのぼった高さからrescanする rescan=10000 ※現在の高さが760,000なら10000指定だと750,000からrescan ```

・clnrestについて core-lightningでREST APIを利用したい場合、別途c-lightning-restを用意する必要があった。v23.8から標準でclnrestというプラグインがついてくる。pythonで書かれていて、ソースからビルドした場合はビルド完了後にpip installでインストールする。elementsproject/lightningdのDockerイメージではインストール済みになっている。 (v25.02からgithubからバイナリをダウンロードしてきた場合はpip install不要になったようだ) このclnrestを使うにはcreaterunesコマンドでruneというLNDのマカロンのようなものを作成する必要がある。アプリ側でこのruneとREST APIを叩いてcore-lightningへアクセスすることになる。 自分が良く使っているLNbitsやスマホアプリZeus walletはclnrestを使う。まだclnrestに対応していないアプリもあるので留意されたし。

・Emergency recoverについて LNDのSCBのようなもの。ファイル名はemergency.recover チャネルを開くと更新される。 hsm_secretとこのファイルだけを置いてCLNを開始すると自動でこのファイルから強制クローズするための情報が読み出されてDLPで相手から強制クローズするような仕組み。この機能はv0.12から使える。

動作確認してみた所、LNDのSCBに比べるとかなり使いづらい。 1. CLNがTor発信だとチャネルパートナーと接続できない。 　Clearnet発信できても相手がTorのみノードならTor発信せざるを得ない。 　相手と通信できなければ資金回収できない。 2. 相手がLNDだとなぜか強制クローズされない。相手がCLNならできる。

つまり、自分と相手がClearnetノードでかつ相手もCLNならば Emergency recoverで強制クローズして資金回収できる。こんな条件の厳しい復旧方法がマジで役に立つのか？

v0.11以降ならばLNDのchannel.dbに相当するlightningd.sqlite3をプライマリ・セカンダリDBと冗長化できるので、セカンダリDBをNFSで保存すればUmbrelのストレージが壊れてもセカンダリDBで復旧できる。そのためemergerncy.recoverを使う必要がないと思われる。

・LN offer(BOLT#12)ついて 使いたいなら 1.publicチャネルを開く 　publicチャネルを開けばチャネルとノードの情報(channel_announcement, node_announcement)が他ノードに伝わる。送金したい相手がこの情報を元に経路探索する。 2.その後しばらく待つ CLNノードを立てたばかりだと経路探索するに十分なチャネルとノードの情報が揃ってない。せめて1日は待つ。

LNURLの場合インボイスをhttpsで取得するが、OfferはLN経由で取得する。そのためにチャネルとノードの情報が必要。privateチャネルばかりのノードはチャネル情報もそうだがノード情報も出さない。 Offerで使えるBlind pathという機能なら中間ノードIDを宛先ノードとすることが可能で、これならチャネルとノード情報を公開しなくても受けとれるのだがCLNは対応してない模様(2025年1月現在) CLNでOfferで受け取るにはチャネルとノード情報を公開する必要がある。そのためpublicチャネルを開く。公開されていれば良いのでTorでもOK。クリアネットで待ち受けは必須ではない。

・hsm_sercretとニーモニック lightning-hsmtoolを使うとニーモニックからhsm_secretを作れる。ニーモニックからシードを作ると64バイト。これはニーモニックおよびソルトにパスフレーズをPBKDF2(HMAC-SHA512を2048回)にかけると512ビット(64バイト)のシードができる。しかしhsm_secretは32バイト。CLNでは64バイトの最初の32バイトをhsm_secretとして利用しているみたい。 このhsm_secretにHMAC-SHA512をかけて512ビットとした値がウォレットのマスター鍵となる。なのでhsm_secret自体がBIP-32でいうマスターシードそのものではない。 sparrow walletにCLNのウォレットを復元したい場合は lightning-hsmtool dumponchaindescriptors --show-secrets とやってディスクリプターウォレットを出力。出力内容にマスター鍵(xprv～)があるので、これをインポートする。導出パス設定はm/0とする。sparrowが残りを補完してm/0/0/0, m/0/0/1とやってくれる。

<おまけ> configファイルのサンプル。Umbrelを使わない場合は以下のサンプルが役に立つはず。上記のelementsproject/lightningdならば/root/.lightningに任意のディレクトリをマウントしてそのディレクトリにconfigを置く。 ```

[General options]

不可逆なDBアップグレードを許可しない

database-upgrade=false

[Bitcoin control options]

network=bitcoin bitcoin-rpcconnect= bitcoin-rpcport= bitcoin-rpcuser= bitcoin-rpcpassword=

[Lightning daemon options]

postgresを使う場合

wallet=postgres://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/DB_NAME

bookkeeper-db=postgres://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/DB_NAME

sqlite3を使う場合。デフォルトはこちらで以下の設定が無くても~/.lightning/bitconに自動で作成される。

wallet=sqlite3:///home/USERNAME/.lightning/bitcoin/lightningd.sqlite3

bookkeeper-db=sqlite3:///home/USERNAME/.lightning/bitcoin/accounts.sqlite3

ログファイルは自動で作成されない

log-file=/home/USERNAME/.lightning/lightningd-log

log-level=debug

[Lightning node customization options]

alias= rgb=

固定手数料。ミリサトシで指定。

fee-base=1000000

変動手数料。ppmで指定。

fee-per-satoshi=0

最小チャネルキャパシティ(sats)

min-capacity-sat=100000

HTLC最少額。ミリサトシで指定。

htlc-minimum-msat=1000

[Lightning channel and HTLC options]

large-channels # v23.11よりデフォルトでラージチャネルが有効。

チャネル開設まで6承認

funding-confirms=6

着信できるHTLCの数。開いたら変更できない。1～483 (デフォルトは 30) の範囲にする必要があります

max-concurrent-htlcs=INTEGER

アンカーチャネルを閉じるためにウォレットに保持しておく資金。デフォルトは 25,000sat

チャネルを"忘れる(forget)"するまではリザーブされる模様。forgetはチャネル閉じてから100ブロック後

min-emergency-msat=10000000

[Cleanup control options]

autoclean-cycle=3600 autoclean-succeededforwards-age=0 autoclean-failedforwards-age=0 autoclean-succeededpays-age=0 autoclean-failedpays-age=0 autoclean-paidinvoices-age=0 autoclean-expiredinvoices-age=0

[Payment control options]

disable-mpp

[Networking options]

bind-addrだとアナウンスしない。

bind-addr=0.0.0.0:9375

tor

proxy=: always-use-proxy=true

Torの制御ポート。addr=statictor だとhidden serviceをノードURIとして公開する。

addr=statictor:: tor-service-password=

experimental-websocket-portは廃止された。bind-addr=ws:が代替。

bind-addr=ws::2106

clnrestプラグイン, REST API

clnrest-host=0.0.0.0 clnrest-port=3010 clnrest-protocol=http

v24.11よりgrpcはデフォルト有効

grpc-host=0.0.0.0 grpc-port=9736

[Lightning Plugins]

[Experimental Options]

experimental-onion-messages # v24.08で廃止。デフォルト有効

experimental-offers # v24.11.1で廃止。デフォルト有効

流動性広告からチャネルを開くときにexperimental-dual-fundが必要らしい。

experimental-dual-fund

experimental-splicing

experimental-peer-storage

```

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

It is true that I often dream about James Corbett from CorbettReport.com. Somehow James is always finding his way to my mind. James Corbett intimidates me, I feel like he would heavily dislike me because I am not serious enough. Anytime I see James Corbett smile or laugh it feels like I'm watching an alien try to be human. I wish James the best with his family life and career, but he looks like he is always one second away from either crying hyterically or beating a defensless Japanese man sensless. I am indreasibly grateful for all the hard work he's put out all these years, he's a great person in the truth circle. However, he's like a caracatiure in my head. Anytime he whips out his guitar, I start to cringe. I just know what's about to come will only be the truth about how bad his singing is. But yet, I still love when he plays his guitar. It's awful in a great way, it brings genuine joy to me. Did you know he has a band? He has one song called "Screw Youtube", and in his music video he was sitting on this tall wooden fence and he was wearing these SHORTS WITH SANDALS and he was SWINGING HIS LEGS. I'm sorry, but I expect James to wear white caykies at all times. It felt so gross to see his legs in that state. But then again, here I am getting genuine joy out of seeing that atrosity.

I remember one time watching a James Corbett episode where he has the James Evan Pilatto from MediaMonarchy.com on, and the other James always looks like he's super fucking cracked up. Like he has a ton of energy. Well anyways, one time the other James was his usual self, looking super cracked out excited, talking about the reppies (reptilians) and James Corbett looked so tight lipped, red faced, like he was about to burst out crying. It was so funny to see the two polar opposites, the other James totally oblivious that real James looked like he was about to cry for seemingly no reason. I know this sounds mean of me to say, but I really appreciate these guys for all they do. I just think this is funny.

Anyways, I have a lot of dreams with James Corbett in them. I think it's because he's a teacher and my vagina has a fondness for male teachers. Sadly, none of my good looking male teachers never slept with me. That being said, I think James is good looking for possibly being an English teacher in Japan. I would let him teach me about the reptilians and Klaus Schwab, just let the teaching session see where it goes. Would his gap teeth feel good over my clitty? I dunno.

Okay but here is the most memorable and hilarious dream I had invovling James Corbett. You know how he makes content very often? One day he got extremely fed up with making videos. At the time I think it's because he mentioned in a video how he was annoyed that people kept saying him and Andrew Caufman. So one day he just flipped out, got extremely angry, made one last video saying how he was never coming back and how he's leaving his wife and kids. He deletes everything and is unheard of for months. A few months pass and he uploads a new video. The new video is James obsessively showing and talking about his highly advanced chicken coop he made in Minecraft. He had hundreds of chickens lined up maybe 80 feet in the air, each chicken had a 1x1 square to fit in. Below the chicken was a long tube in which their egg would drop down, and a catcher at the base of the ground. James was fantically showing this contraption, rocking back and forth, had a headset on. He looked awful too. I actually emailed James Corbett about this dream, but he never responded.

Speaking of James Corbett, why do so many people look like him? I feel like they make middle aged bald, bearded men in a DUMB and just release them into the wild, but give them balding genetics so they know how to keep track of them. Like they probably made James Corbett and Andrew Caufman from the same test tube. They fucked up with them, at least like give one of them hair or good eyesight.

@ 849838f4:0ea97fbb

2nmn

@ d41bf82f:ed90d888

เบื้องหลังการเปลี่ยนแปลงครั้งใหญ่ในประวัติศาสตร์ เราต้องเข้าใจปัจจัยที่เปลี่ยนแปลงตรรกะของความรุนแรง โดยเฉพาะปัจจัยเชิงมหภาค 4 ประเภทหลัก ได้แก่ ภูมิประเทศ ภูมิอากาศ จุลชีพ และเทคโนโลยี

1. ภูมิประเทศ เป็นตัวกำหนดที่สำคัญมากต่อรูปแบบของรัฐและความสามารถในการควบคุมพลเมืองโดยเฉพาะเมื่อเปรียบระหว่างสภาพภูมิประเทศทางบกและทางทะเล พื้นที่ทะเลเปิดนั้นยากต่อการผูกขาดหรือควบคุม ทำให้กฎของรัฐไม่สามารถบังคับใช้ได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ ต่างจากแผ่นดิน ซึ่งส่งผลต่อการจัดวางอำนาจอย่างลึกซึ้ง เมื่อเศรษฐกิจเริ่มเคลื่อนเข้าสู่โลกไซเบอร์ซึ่งมีลักษณะคล้ายทะเลเปิดมากกว่าภาคพื้นดิน รูปแบบของการปกครองและการใช้ความรุนแรงจึงมีแนวโน้มเปลี่ยนแปลงไปอย่างมีนัยสำคัญ ประวัติศาสตร์ก็สนับสนุนมุมมองนี้ รัฐยุคแรก ๆ มักเกิดขึ้นในพื้นที่ราบลุ่มชลประทานที่ล้อมรอบด้วยทะเลทราย เช่น เมโสโปเตเมียและอียิปต์ ซึ่งทำให้ประชาชนจำเป็นต้องพึ่งพารัฐที่สามารถควบคุมแหล่งน้ำเพื่อดำรงชีวิตได้ ก่อให้เกิดระบบเผด็จการที่มั่นคง ขณะที่ภูมิประเทศที่กระจายอำนาจ เช่น กรีซโบราณ กลับเอื้อต่อการเกิดประชาธิปไตย เพราะผู้คนสามารถพึ่งตนเองได้มากกว่า มีอิสระในการค้าขายทางทะเล และเข้าถึงรายได้ที่นำไปแลกกับอำนาจทางทหารและการเมืองได้
2. ภูมิอากาศก็มีบทบาทไม่แพ้กันในการกำหนดกรอบของอำนาจทางการเมือง เช่น หลังสิ้นยุคน้ำแข็งราว 13,000 ปีก่อน ความเปลี่ยนแปลงของระบบนิเวศทำให้ทุ่งหญ้าเลี้ยงสัตว์ลดลง และป่าทึบเข้ามาแทนที่ ทำให้มนุษย์ต้องเปลี่ยนวิถีชีวิตจากนักล่ามาเป็นเกษตรกรอย่างหลีกเลี่ยงไม่ได้ การเปลี่ยนแปลงนี้ไม่ได้เกิดขึ้นเพราะความสมัครใจ แต่เพราะสิ่งแวดล้อมบีบบังคับ ภูมิอากาศยังมีอิทธิพลต่อเสถียรภาพทางเศรษฐกิจและการเมืองอย่างชัดเจน เช่น ศตวรรษที่ 17 ซึ่งเป็นยุคหนาวเย็นที่สุดช่วงหนึ่งในประวัติศาสตร์ ทำให้เกิดวิกฤตอาหารและความอดอยากทั่วโลก นำไปสู่การก่อกบฏและการปฏิวัติในหลายประเทศ
3. จุลชีพ ก็มีบทบาทในเชิงการเมืองมหภาคอย่างลึกซึ้ง การล่มสลายของประชากรพื้นเมืองในทวีปอเมริกาจากโรคที่ชาวยุโรปนำเข้า เช่น หัด หรือไข้ทรพิษ ทำให้ยุโรปสามารถยึดครองดินแดนเหล่านั้นได้อย่างง่ายดาย แม้ในบางครั้งจะยังไม่ได้ลงจากเรือด้วยซ้ำ ในอีกด้านหนึ่ง จุลชีพก็เคยเป็นกำแพงที่ป้องกันไม่ให้จักรวรรดิยุโรปขยายอำนาจ เช่น มาลาเรียในแอฟริกาที่เคยทำให้พื้นที่เหล่านั้น “ต่อต้านอำนาจจากภายนอก” ได้อย่างนานหลายศตวรรษ
4. เทคโนโลยี ซึ่งเป็นปัจจัยที่ที่ทรงอิทธิพลที่สุดต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงของโครงสร้างอำนาจในประวัติศาสตร์มนุษย์ เพราะมันสามารถเปลี่ยน “ต้นทุน” และ “ผลตอบแทน” ของการใช้ความรุนแรงได้อย่างรวดเร็วและชัดเจน ทั้งในแง่ของอาณาเขต ขนาดของรัฐ ลักษณะของสงคราม และแม้แต่ความชอบธรรมทางการเมือง ผู้เขียนได้แยกอิทธิพลของเทคโนโลยีออกเป็น 5 มิติหลัก ซึ่งล้วนมีบทบาทอย่างสำคัญในการจัดรูปแบบของอำนาจ ได้แก่:

A. ดุลยภาพระหว่างการโจมตีและการป้องกัน เทคโนโลยีแต่ละยุคมีผลอย่างมากต่อความได้เปรียบระหว่างฝ่ายรุกกับฝ่ายรับ หากเทคโนโลยีในยุคนั้นเอื้อต่อ “การโจมตี” (เช่น เครื่องยิงหิน, รถถัง, ระเบิดทางอากาศ) ต้นทุนของการขยายอำนาจจะต่ำลง รัฐหรือจักรวรรดิจะรวมศูนย์มากขึ้นเพราะสามารถควบคุมพื้นที่กว้างได้ด้วยกำลังที่มีประสิทธิภาพ แต่หากเทคโนโลยีเอื้อให้ “การป้องกัน” มีต้นทุนต่ำและได้เปรียบ (เช่น ปราสาทยุคกลาง, อาวุธต่อต้านอากาศยาน, การเข้ารหัสข้อมูลในโลกไซเบอร์) รัฐจะมีแนวโน้มกระจายตัว และอำนาจท้องถิ่นจะแข็งแกร่งขึ้น

B. ความเท่าเทียมกันทางทหารของพลเมือง เทคโนโลยีอาวุธยังเป็นตัวแปรสำคัญในการกำหนดว่า “พลเมืองธรรมดา” มีอำนาจเพียงใดในการเผชิญหน้ากับชนชั้นปกครอง ตัวอย่างที่ชัดเจนคือในยุคก่อนปฏิวัติดินปืน ชาวนาที่ถือแค่ส้อมหรือจอบไม่อาจต้านอัศวินติดเกราะได้ แต่เมื่อการใช้ปืนแพร่หลาย เส้นแบ่งระหว่างสามัญชนกับขุนนางก็เริ่มจางลง และเกิดการปฏิวัติทางสังคมตามมาในหลายพื้นที่

C. ขนาดขององค์กรที่จำเป็นต่อการใช้ความรุนแรง บางเทคโนโลยีต้องการระบบสนับสนุนขนาดใหญ่ เช่น เสบียง การสื่อสาร การขนส่ง และระบบการฝึกฝนที่ซับซ้อน ซึ่งหมายความว่าเฉพาะองค์กรที่มีทรัพยากรขนาดใหญ่เท่านั้นจึงสามารถใช้อำนาจอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพได้ ตัวอย่างเช่น สมัยสงครามโลก รัฐที่มีอุตสาหกรรมและสายส่งที่มั่นคงเท่านั้นจึงสามารถรบได้นาน

D. ขนาดของกิจกรรมทางเศรษฐกิจในการผลิต ขนาดของหน่วยเศรษฐกิจที่ “เหมาะสมที่สุด” ในการผลิตสินค้าและบริการก็เป็นตัวแปรทางเทคโนโลยีที่ส่งผลต่อโครงสร้างของรัฐ หากเศรษฐกิจจำเป็นต้องอาศัยตลาดขนาดใหญ่ พื้นที่กว้าง หรือระบบโลจิสติกส์ที่ซับซ้อน รัฐขนาดใหญ่จะมีข้อได้เปรียบ เช่น จักรวรรดิอังกฤษที่สามารถจัดระบบเศรษฐกิจข้ามทวีปได้ในศตวรรษที่ 19 แต่หากเทคโนโลยีเอื้อให้เศรษฐกิจท้องถิ่นมีความคล่องตัว สามารถผลิตแบบกระจาย (distributed production)ได้ รัฐขนาดใหญ่ก็จะมีประสิทธิภาพน้อยลง และอำนาจจะกระจายตัว

E. การกระจายของเทคโนโลยี หากเทคโนโลยีสามารถถูก “ผูกขาด” ได้โดยกลุ่มเล็ก ๆ เช่น การควบคุมแหล่งพลังงานนิวเคลียร์ หรือการพัฒนาอาวุธล้ำสมัย อำนาจจะกระจุกอยู่กับชนชั้นนำ แต่หากเทคโนโลยีแพร่กระจายได้อย่างกว้างขวาง เช่น การใช้ดินปืน แป้นพิมพ์ อำนาจก็จะสลายตัวไปยังประชาชนทั่วไป

เมื่อพิจารณาประวัติศาสตร์ในมุมของ “สิ่งที่เกิดขึ้นจริง” ควบคู่กับ “สิ่งที่อาจเกิดขึ้นได้” เราจะเริ่มตระหนักถึงบทบาทของโอกาสและความเปราะบางที่มักถูกมองข้าม โดยเฉพาะในกรณีของจุลชีพ แม้จะเป็นตัวแปรที่ทรงพลังในอดีต แต่กลับดูเหมือนว่ามันมีผลกระทบต่อโครงสร้างอำนาจในยุคใหม่ต่ำกว่าที่ควรจะเป็น ทั้งที่ในทางทฤษฎีแล้ว มันมีศักยภาพสูงยิ่งในการเปลี่ยนแปลงประวัติศาสตร์ หากเชื้อไวรัสสายพันธุ์ใหม่ที่ร้ายแรงและแพร่กระจายได้ง่าย เทียบเท่าหรือรุนแรงกว่ามาลาเรีย แพร่ระบาดในหมู่นักสำรวจโปรตุเกสช่วงต้นของยุคการเดินเรือ อาจไม่มีการสำรวจหรือขยายอาณานิคมเกิดขึ้นเลย เช่นเดียวกับหากโคลัมบัสและผู้ย้ายถิ่นกลุ่มแรกในโลกใหม่ต้องเผชิญโรคร้ายที่มีฤทธิ์รุนแรงพอ ๆ กับหัดซึ่งคร่าชีวิตชาวพื้นเมืองไปอย่างมหาศาล พวกเขาอาจไม่สามารถตั้งรกรากได้เลยด้วยซ้ำ

แต่เมื่อมองย้อนกลับไป สิ่งเหล่านี้กลับไม่เคยเกิดขึ้น และนั่นทำให้เรายิ่งมีแนวโน้มจะเชื่อใน “ชะตากรรม” บางอย่างของประวัติศาสตร์ อย่างไรก็ตาม หากมองในแง่กลไกของพลังที่ขับเคลื่อนอำนาจ การที่จุลชีพกลับมีบทบาทสนับสนุนการรวมศูนย์ของรัฐในยุคใหม่มากกว่าการขัดขวาง ก็เป็นสิ่งที่น่าพิจารณา ทหารและผู้ตั้งถิ่นฐานจากโลกตะวันตกไม่ได้มีเพียงเทคโนโลยีเป็นแต้มต่อ แต่ยังมี “ภูมิคุ้มกันที่สั่งสมจากประสบการณ์กับโรค” อีกด้วย โรคที่มาพร้อมกับนักสำรวจจากยุโรปจึงกลายเป็น “อาวุธลับ” ที่ทำลายชาวพื้นเมืองก่อนที่ผู้รุกรานจะลงจากเรือด้วยซ้ำ

แม้ว่าจะมีข้อสันนิษฐานว่าซิฟิลิสแพร่จากโลกใหม่กลับไปยังยุโรป แต่ผลกระทบของมันก็จำกัดอยู่ในระดับวัฒนธรรม โดยเฉพาะด้านศีลธรรมทางเพศ ไม่ได้ส่งผลกระทบในระดับการเมืองมหภาคอย่างที่โรคระบาดในยุคกลางเคยทำ เช่น กาฬโรคหรือโรคไข้ทรพิษ เพราะในยุคสมัยใหม่ ระบบอุตสาหกรรมและโครงสร้างทางการแพทย์มีความสามารถในการควบคุมภัยจากจุลชีพได้มากขึ้น ไม่ว่าจะผ่านระบบสุขาภิบาล วัคซีน หรือยาปฏิชีวนะ

อย่างไรก็ดี การปรากฏตัวของโรคเอดส์ และความกังวลเกี่ยวกับไวรัสกลายพันธุ์ในช่วงปลายศตวรรษที่ 20 ได้แสดงให้เห็นว่า จุลชีพอาจไม่ได้เป็น “ปัจจัยรอง” ที่ไร้ฤทธิ์เสมอไป และอาจหวนกลับมาเป็นปัจจัยหลักที่กำหนดแนวทางของอำนาจใหม่อีกครั้งได้ในอนาคต หากมีโรคระบาดใหญ่เกิดขึ้นซึ่งรุนแรงพอที่จะทำลายความสามารถของรัฐในการควบคุมระบบเศรษฐกิจและชีวิตสาธารณะ โครงสร้างของอำนาจอาจสั่นคลอนยิ่งกว่าผลกระทบจากภูมิอากาศหรือภูมิประเทศเสียอีก

ปัญหาคือเราไม่สามารถคาดการณ์จุดเริ่มต้นของเหตุการณ์เหล่านี้ได้อย่างแม่นยำ ไม่มีแบบจำลองใดที่สามารถควบคุมหรือคาดเดาธรรมชาติได้อย่างสมบูรณ์ แม้จะมีความพยายามทางวิทยาศาสตร์และการเฝ้าระวังระดับโลก การที่เรารอดพ้นจากโรคร้ายในอดีตไม่ได้แปลว่าจะรอดได้อีกในอนาคต ความคาดหวังว่าปัจจัยมหภาคในพันปีข้างหน้าจะยังคงเป็น “เทคโนโลยี” ไม่ใช่ “จุลชีพ” จึงเป็นเพียงสมมติฐานที่ตั้งอยู่บนความหวังมากกว่าหลักประกันใด ๆ

และแม้ว่าเทคโนโลยีจะมีบทบาทอย่างล้นเหลือในช่วงห้าศตวรรษที่ผ่านมา แต่บทเรียนจากการปฏิวัติการเกษตรในยุคโบราณก็ยังคงเตือนใจว่า ปัจจัยที่เปลี่ยนแปลงวิถีของอำนาจในระดับรากฐานที่สุดอาจไม่ได้ยิ่งใหญ่หรือก้าวหน้าเสมอไป บางครั้งสิ่งที่ทำให้โลกเปลี่ยนแปลงไปอย่างถาวร ไม่ใช่จักรกลที่ซับซ้อนหรืออาวุธล้ำยุค หากแต่เป็นสิ่งมีชีวิตขนาดเล็กที่เราแทบมองไม่เห็นด้วยตาเปล่า — และมันก็อาจย้อนกลับมามีบทบาทสำคัญอีกครั้งในศตวรรษของเรา.

อย่าลืมว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้เขียนขึ้นในปี 1997 — ยุคที่โลกยังไม่เคยรู้จักกับ COVID-19

บทถัดไปจะพูดถึงเรื่องการปฏิวัติครั้งแรกของ Sapiens การปฏิวัติเกษตรกรรม

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Nyms, Personas, and Digital Identity

GHOSTn

If you want #privacy then embrace compartmentlization and obscuration in your digital life. Get used to having multiple identities that you can switch between for various needs.

Your legal "matrix" name that pays taxes and has no controversal opinions or associations. Don't try to obscure this person. They are a open book. Put your best foot forward. Show them what you want them to see.

Your private online persona. You let your hair down, have hot takes on social media, purchase legal but potentially embarrassing items or just have hobbies and associations that you are not ashamed of but don't want to advertise for some reason. You use a VPN and no kyc sudo anonymous accounts. Have fun but don't go crazy, know that on a long enough timeline this persona will be linked back to you. The more connections and data that you put out there the easier this will be.

Your anonymous nym that only uses #tor, VMs, hidden drives, and rarely used accounts. Plausible deniability is baked in. Used by dissidents, freedom fights, truth to power, and anyone in oppressive regimes.

Finally you have your Nemo. This person does not exist. No name, no files and only uses #Tails or disposable systems that does not leave a trace. Not everyone would ever have a need for a Nemo but it is good to know how to just in case you ever do.

@ 502ab02a:a2860397

PAN... แค่แพนเค้ก หรือ แผนล้อมโลกเรื่องอาหาร เมื่อหมากตัวจริงชื่อ Sebastian Joy

เราได้รู้จักกับคุณ Sebastian Joy กันไปแล้วนะครับ วันนี้เรามาขยายผลกันอีกหน่อย

ถ้าโลกนี้เป็นเกมหมากรุก อาหารคือกระดานที่ทุกตัวหมากต้องเหยียบเดิน และใครที่วางหมากอาหารได้...ก็วางโลกได้เหมือนกัน

ปี 2018 มีโครงการหนึ่งถือกำเนิดขึ้นในเยอรมนีอย่างเงียบๆ ชื่อว่า Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN) เบื้องหน้าเหมือนเป็นมูลนิธิการกุศล ตั้งขึ้นมาเพื่อ "ช่วยให้หมอเข้าใจเรื่องโภชนาการจากพืช" แต่ถ้าเปิดแว่นขยายส่องให้ดีๆ มันคือหนึ่งในฟันเฟืองสำคัญของแผนเปลี่ยนอนาคตอาหารโลกจาก Animal-Based ไปเป็น Plant-Based ที่เป็น lab plant based ที่ไม่ใช่อาหารธรรมชาติแบบหลักแก่นที่ Vegan สืบทอดกันมา โดยอ้างเรื่อง "สุขภาพ" และ "สิ่งแวดล้อม" เป็นฉากหน้า

PAN นั้นเสมือนเป็นลูกสมุนตัวกลั่นของคนที่ชื่อ Sebastian Joy ชายหนุ่มสายโปรโมทแนว Vegan ที่ก่อนหน้านั้นก่อตั้งองค์กร ProVeg International ซึ่งมีสายสัมพันธ์กับพวก Start-up อาหารทางเลือก (ไม่ว่าจะเป็นเนื้อปลอม เนื้อพืชดีเอนเอ นมพืชที่มาจากจุลินทรีย์ ไปจนถึงการส่งเสริมวัตถุดิบจากแบคทีเรีย โรงงาน และห้องแลบ) แล้ว ProVeg ไม่ได้ทำงานเดี่ยวๆ นะจ๊ะ... เบื้องหลังเชื่อมโยงกับเครือข่ายที่หนุน World Economic Forum (WEF) และแนวคิด Great Reset ที่อยาก "รีเซ็ต" วิธีการกินของคนทั้งโลก โดยให้อาหารเป็น Plant-Based แบบ lab created และ Meat Lab-Based เป็นหลัก

ส่วน PAN ถูกใช้เป็น "หมากที่แต่งตัวเป็นหมอ" เพื่อเดินเกมไปสู่การแทรกแซงนโยบายประเทศต่างๆ ผ่านช่องทาง "สาธารณสุข" และ "การศึกษาแพทย์" เพื่อมาเป็นกำลังหลักให้ในแผนงาน

เรามาดูตัวอย่างผลงานเด่นของ PAN กันครับ 1. ผลักดันให้รวม Plant-Based เข้าไปในหลักสูตรแพทย์และพยาบาล (โดยใช้เหตุผลว่า "หมอต้องรู้จักอาหารเพื่อสุขภาพ") 2. ช่วยรณรงค์ให้โรงพยาบาล โรงเรียน และมหาวิทยาลัย เปลี่ยนเมนูอาหารเป็น Plant-Based 3. สนับสนุนงานวิจัย และโครงการ เช่น Green Food Experience ที่กดดันให้ภาคธุรกิจและภาครัฐบาลหันมาทำตาม "แนวทางอาหารยั่งยืน" แบบที่ PAN และพรรคพวกกำหนด 4. มีสถานะ "Observer" ในองค์การสหประชาชาติ (UN) เพื่อเสนอความคิดเห็นในการกำหนดนโยบายสาธารณสุขและสิ่งแวดล้อมระดับโลก

และเบื้องหลังอีกชั้นที่น่าสนใจ... Sebastian Joy มีความสัมพันธ์ลึกซึ้งกับวงการ Start-up อาหารใหม่ๆ ที่พยายามตีตลาด Plant-Based และ Lab-Grown Food อย่างเช่น Perfect Day, Beyond Meat, Mosa Meat ฯลฯ ผ่านการโปรโมท "โภชนาการจากพืชเพื่อสุขภาพที่ดีกว่า" โดยใช้ PAN เป็นเครื่องมือให้ดู "มีอำนาจทางวิชาการ" มากขึ้น

หรือถ้าให้พูดง่ายๆ คือ สร้างสนามแข่ง แล้วจับมือกับนักแข่งที่ตัวเองลงทุนไว้ PAN ดูเหมือนเป็นองค์กรกลางๆ ใสๆ แต่มันเชื่อมโยงกับโครงข่าย NGO และบริษัทเอกชนที่มุ่งแปลงร่างอาหารโลกอยู่เบื้องหลัง การที่ PAN ผลักดันนโยบายระดับประเทศ และแทรกซึมในระบบการศึกษา หมายความว่าอนาคตคนรุ่นใหม่จะถูกปลูกฝังแนวคิด "เนื้อสัตว์ไม่ดี" โดยไม่ทันรู้ตัว

แล้วมันเกี่ยวอะไรกับเรา? จินตนาการดูครับว่า - ถ้าวันหนึ่งโรงเรียนของลูกเรามีแต่เมนูถั่วเหลือง ซีเรียล นมโอ๊ต หรือ ไอศกรีมเวย์จากจุลินทรีย์ และห้ามเสิร์ฟเนื้อสัตว์ด้วยสารพัดเหตุผล เช่น เนื้อปนเปื้อนง่าย เนื้อทำให้เป็นมะเร็ง หรือแม้แต่สอนเด็กว่า เนื้อคือตัวการทำลายสิ่งแวดล้อมด้วย มีเทน นั่นอาจเป็นผลลัพธ์จากงานเบื้องหลังของ PAN - ถ้าวันหนึ่งนโยบายอาหารของประเทศเน้นลดเนื้อสัตว์ อ้างสุขภาพ อ้างสิ่งแวดล้อม อ้างโรคระบาด อ้างกฎแห่ง DNA ที่ถูกจดสิทธิบัตร แล้วโปรโมทเนื้อปลอมแทน นั่นอาจเป็นรอยเท้าของ Sebastian Joy ที่เดินมาก่อนแล้ว - ถ้าวันหนึ่งหมอจำนวนมากเชื่อว่า “เนื้อสัตว์คือตัวร้ายที่แพร่มะเร็งหรือทำให้สุขภาพเสีย” โดยไม่มีการตั้งคำถาม นั่นคือชัยชนะของหมากตัวนี้

ในขณะที่คนส่วนใหญ่คิดว่ากำลังเลือกอาหารเอง หรือ คิดว่าฉันกิน plant base / vegan เพราะรักโลก รักสุขภาพ แต่จริงๆ แล้วมีมือที่มองไม่เห็นกำหนด "ตัวเลือก" ไว้แล้วเรียบร้อย เพราะทั้งหมดมันไม่ได้เป็นอาหารธรรมชาติ มันคืออาหาร "สร้าง" ที่ไม่มีสัตว์, มันคืออาหาร "สร้าง" ที่ต้อง "สร้าง" มาจากโรงงาน แล้วเราต้อง "ซื้อ" มากินเท่านั้น ถ้าไม่สร้าง local ให้แข็งแรง อย่าหลงไปตามความสวยงามของการรักโลกในมุมเดียว เราอาจจะไม่สามารถปลูกพืชมาเป็นอาหารเองได้ เราอาจไม่สามารถเลี้ยงสัตว์เพื่อกินเองได้

PAN ไม่ใช่แค่องค์กรให้ความรู้ด้านโภชนาการ / PAN คือเครื่องมือในกระดานหมากรุกที่กำลังจัดการ "ตั้งโปรแกรมใหม่" ให้คนทั้งโลกกินตามแบบที่นายทุนและเครือข่ายเบื้องหลังเขียนบทไว้ และชายที่ชื่อ Sebastian Joy นี่แหละ...คือหนึ่งในผู้ถือหมากที่ยิ้มอยู่หลังม่าน

อาหารแห่งอนาคต มีทางเดินเหลือไว้ให้ เกษตรกร old school บ้างไหม สนธิสัญญาต่างๆเรื่องเมล็ดพันธุ์ เหลือทางเดินไว้ให้เกษตรกรบ้างไหม หรือสุดท้าย เราจะไม่มีไดเอทให้เลือก ให้ทะเลาะกัน เพราะสุดท้าย เราต่างต้องกินอาหารจากโรงงานเหมือนกันหมด บทความนี้คงจะเป็นได้แค่เพียง การตั้งคำถามขึ้นมาไว้ แต่ไม่มีคำตอบ ว่าเรากำลังโดนอ้าง plant based food มาเคลือบความเป็น อาหารโรงงาน (Plant Food) หรือเปล่าเพราะวันนี้หลายคนอาจมองว่าเป็นการตื่นตูม คิดมาก หรือแม้แต่ เราเลือกได้แหละ ก็ได้ครับ

ผมไม่ได้มีปัญหากับสายพืชล้วน ไม่ว่าจะเจ วีแกน แพลนท์เบส เพราะถ้ากินเป็น มองสารอาหารเป็น จัดการ anti nutrient ได้ดี มันก็ดีสำหรับคนนั้น แต่ซีรีส์นี้สำคัญที่ว่า plant based food is not PLANT food อาหารจากพืชไม่ใช่อาหารจากโรงงานครับ

ก่อนถึงวันที่เราจะไม่มีสิทธิ์แม้แต่จะเลือก #pirateketo #กูต้องรู้มั๊ย #ม้วนหางสิลูก #siamstr

@ 4db2f229:205fed9f

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/80258

If you manage to get it up to date / uncorrupt the data, I give you full liberties to:

• The model itself
• Its XMF and/or XML skeleton
• Patching it to be compatible with any other gun mods
• other fixes
• and full credit handed over to you

I think this has honestly been abandoned by it's original developer, and since I am just hanging onto the file? I decided it'd be better maintained in someone elses hands, and with community much more responsible than Nexus. Honestly if I did not archive this mod? It would of been vaporware.

But in it's current state it's not fit for being playable. I did manage to save media of when it was playable however.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

Encryption is the promethium fire that the cypherpunks secured from heaven for me and you. It is our sacred duty to use and advance that in the world. Encryption is so powerful that governments tried to keep it away from the people and to this day have tried to weaken and backdoor it at every turn.

So what is encryption?

It is a deep deep rabbit hole and involves a lot of numbers but in a nutshell it uses math to scramble up the data of your file so it is gibberish and can't be read without decrypting it back to regular data. Encryption technology has continued to advance over time and cracking technology to break the encryption has as well. For our purposes all you really need to remember is to use modern cyphers and your encryption is really only going to be as good as the password (use a passphrase) strength you are using to lock it down with.

BEGINNER LEVEL - Encrypt your phone and computer.

People walk around with their whole lives on their phone. Protect it.

-phone: Congratulations, if you already have a lock screen set on either your iPhone or Android device then device encryption is enabled. If your lock screen password is only 4 digits then we still have work to do. Four digits is only about 10,000 combinations and fairly easy to crack. I believe it only took them about 40 minutes to crack the iPhone of the attempted Trump shooter. Go into settings and set it up for 6 digits or for extra credit use a alphanumeric password.

After your phone then your personal computer probably has the most important data to you. Banking records, tax documents, photos, etc. Encrypt your drive.

-Windows: from Settings, select Privacy security -> Device encryption. Just follow the prompts.

-Apple: from Apple icon, select System Preferences -> Security & Privacy icon. Click "Turn On FileVault".

-Linux: most distros gives you the option during installation. If you didn't do so then search for how to enable it after the fact based on your distribution.

Awesome sauce. You have achieved minimum status.

ADVANCED LEVEL - Encrypt individual files.

You already encrypted your computer but guess what, once you start up your computer and log in the key is stored in RAM for as long as it stays on. The beginner level encryption protects your computer when it is off and it means no one can just steal your hard drive and access your files. This is good, but what if someone grabs you while you're sitting there working on it? What if you leave it in sleep mode and not turned off? Then that whole disk encryption is not really going to help you.

What if you had individual files that you consider more secret than the others? That finance spreadsheet or that special pic your spouse sent you? That's where individual file encryption comes in. You are just scrolling nostr when they grab you, your computer is on, and unlocked, but those special files are still safely encrypted.

I will share with you one of my favorite small programs: Picocrypt.

Download the Paranoid pack and store it in multiple drives, email accounts, and cloud storage. That way you will always have a copy to decrypt any files that you stored away.

Use it to encrypt any files that you feel need extra attention. It is also very useful for encrypting any files that you intend to store online in cloud storage. You do encrypt your files that are stored online don't you? Yes, even with the company that offers "encrypted" storage. Don't trust their encryption, use your own.

EXPERT LEVEL - Encrypt containers and hidden containers.

What if you want to encrypt several files and keep them all together in like a folder or container? That's where Veracrypt comes in. Free, open source, cross platform, and powerful.

Veracrypt allows you to create encrypted containers from any file that act like individual drives that can be mounted or unmounted as needed. You can name these files anything that you want, move them around or delete like any file, and make as many as you want. This allows you to have compartmentation of your files and drives.

Next trick, Veracrypt allows you to create a hidden container inside that container. Enter one passphrase and you open the encrypted container. Enter a different passphrase and you open a different hidden container.

This allows deniability. When they grab you and start pulling your fingernails off until you tell them the password to open the encrypted container, give it to them. They don't have to know that there is another hidden one under that.

These features allow you to do all sorts of interesting things only limited by your need and imagination.

What if you have a container named as some random config file in your /etc folder? What if you just encrypted a removable storage drive? What if you have multiple hard drives on your computer that have multiple containers and hidden containers? What if you have a hidden container that can only be accessed from booting up in a amnesiac OS like Tails leaving no trace that the files exist or trail that they were ever accessed? Go crazy, have fun.

NEMO - Failsafe

Nemo has no files, encrypted or otherwise. If they did you couldn't prove it. Nemo does use something like Tails that retains no memory from boot to boot.

Nemo also uses a failsafe. A simple lanyard attached to the flashdrive running the OS and the other end around their wrist while they work. When you try to separate them from the computer the flashdrive pulls out and everything is gone.

Using these programs you can create a layered and compartmentlized approach to your encryption scheme. There are also plenty of other encryption programs to check out such as Cryptomator, AES Crypt, etc

Last point and most important: Encryption is only as good as the passphrase you use to lock it down. Use a shitty password and it doesn't matter how uncrackable your encryption is.

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

First steps into privacy.

You are a normie, but maybe you are privacy curious. Maybe you are ready to take a first step or two into security and privacy but don't know where to start.

Don't worry, here are some absolute beginner first steps that will make a big difference.

1. No one except your friends and family should know your personal phone number and email address. Stop giving away your data! You don't have to fill out every blank on that form. Unless they are mailing you something they don't need your home address. Use a email aliasing service or just create a burner email account as a spam trap. Get a second VOIP phone number. Look up the address of a local hotel. Use these instead of your personal information or maybe just skip the customer reward program.

2. Speaking of giving away your data. Stop using spyware! Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc. It is "free" software designed to suck every ounce of personal data from you to be repackaged and sold. Don't just delete the app, search for how to delete your account data.

BTW Windows, google, and 90% of the apps on your phone are also spyware but one thing at a time. Maybe start reading up on FOSS.

1. Clean up your communications. Stop using unencrypted calls and SMS texts. There are several options but just get Signal and make your friends use it. Its easy and works.

2. Clean up your email. This one is probably going to take you some time if you are like most people who have hundreds of emails from years gone bye. Go through every single one and unsubscribe from every newsletter or sales pitch from every store you have ever bought anything from. Block every spam email you see. If you are using a email provider that literally scans every email you send or receive in order to sell you stuff like gmail, then now is the time to switch to a private and encrypted provider like proton or tuta.

3. Clean up your web surfing. Switch to a privacy browser and search engine. If you don't know which one just get Brave. There are ones that I like better but Brave is good enough and easy, especially if you like Chrome. A hardened Firefox is better but requires some homework and if on desktop Mullvad browser is a excellent choice.

BONUS TIP:

Clean up your security. Make sure all of your software is setup for automatic updates, especially security updates. Also, I don’t know who needs to hear this but get a password manager if you don’t have one. (Don't save passwords on the browser!) Get an actual password manager and then add 2FA to all of your online accounts and you will have better security than 90% of the population.

OK, nothing too exciting but we got the big rocks. Data leaks, communications, email, web surfing, and basic security.

What, no VPN or Tor or super secret stuff? No, not yet. This is your level zero default. Your identity and activity is still transparent but you are no longer leaking your data all over the place. This will provide a general base for everyone.

The next step is to perform a basic threat assessment of your personal situation. What are you most at risk for? Targeted attacks or passive? Cyber or physical? What do you most need to defend against? Government mass surveillance, surveillance capitalism, censorship, or public exposure?

There will be some overlap with all of them but your next steps will really depend on your answer. We will cover each of these in greater depth later.

@ 4ba8e86d:89d32de4

Como funciona o PGP.

O texto a seguir foi retirado do capítulo 1 do documento Introdução à criptografia na documentação do PGP 6.5.1. Copyright © 1990-1999 Network Associates, Inc. Todos os direitos reservados.

-O que é criptografia? -Criptografia forte -Como funciona a criptografia? -Criptografia convencional -Cifra de César -Gerenciamento de chaves e criptografia convencional -Criptografia de chave pública -Como funciona o PGP - Chaves • Assinaturas digitais -Funções hash • Certificados digitais -Distribuição de certificados -Formatos de certificado •Validade e confiança -Verificando validade -Estabelecendo confiança -Modelos de confiança • Revogação de certificado -Comunicar que um certificado foi revogado -O que é uma senha? -Divisão de chave

Os princípios básicos da criptografia.

Quando Júlio César enviou mensagens aos seus generais, ele não confiou nos seus mensageiros. Então ele substituiu cada A em suas mensagens por um D, cada B por um E, e assim por diante através do alfabeto. Somente alguém que conhecesse a regra “shift by 3” poderia decifrar suas mensagens. E assim começamos.

Criptografia e descriptografia.

Os dados que podem ser lidos e compreendidos sem quaisquer medidas especiais são chamados de texto simples ou texto não criptografado. O método de disfarçar o texto simples de forma a ocultar sua substância é chamado de criptografia. Criptografar texto simples resulta em um jargão ilegível chamado texto cifrado. Você usa criptografia para garantir que as informações sejam ocultadas de qualquer pessoa a quem não se destinam, mesmo daqueles que podem ver os dados criptografados. O processo de reverter o texto cifrado ao texto simples original é chamado de descriptografia . A Figura 1-1 ilustra esse processo.

https://image.nostr.build/0e2fcb71ed86a6083e083abbb683f8c103f44a6c6db1aeb2df10ae51ec97ebe5.jpg

Figura 1-1. Criptografia e descriptografia

O que é criptografia?

Criptografia é a ciência que usa a matemática para criptografar e descriptografar dados. A criptografia permite armazenar informações confidenciais ou transmiti-las através de redes inseguras (como a Internet) para que não possam ser lidas por ninguém, exceto pelo destinatário pretendido. Embora a criptografia seja a ciência que protege os dados, a criptoanálise é a ciência que analisa e quebra a comunicação segura. A criptoanálise clássica envolve uma combinação interessante de raciocínio analítico, aplicação de ferramentas matemáticas, descoberta de padrões, paciência, determinação e sorte. Os criptoanalistas também são chamados de atacantes. A criptologia abrange tanto a criptografia quanto a criptoanálise.

Criptografia forte.

"Existem dois tipos de criptografia neste mundo: a criptografia que impedirá a sua irmã mais nova de ler os seus arquivos, e a criptografia que impedirá os principais governos de lerem os seus arquivos. Este livro é sobre o último." --Bruce Schneier, Criptografia Aplicada: Protocolos, Algoritmos e Código Fonte em C. PGP também trata deste último tipo de criptografia. A criptografia pode ser forte ou fraca, conforme explicado acima. A força criptográfica é medida no tempo e nos recursos necessários para recuperar o texto simples. O resultado de uma criptografia forte é um texto cifrado que é muito difícil de decifrar sem a posse da ferramenta de decodificação apropriada. Quão díficil? Dado todo o poder computacional e o tempo disponível de hoje – mesmo um bilhão de computadores fazendo um bilhão de verificações por segundo – não é possível decifrar o resultado de uma criptografia forte antes do fim do universo. Alguém poderia pensar, então, que uma criptografia forte resistiria muito bem até mesmo contra um criptoanalista extremamente determinado. Quem pode realmente dizer? Ninguém provou que a criptografia mais forte disponível hoje resistirá ao poder computacional de amanhã. No entanto, a criptografia forte empregada pelo PGP é a melhor disponível atualmente.

Contudo, a vigilância e o conservadorismo irão protegê-lo melhor do que as alegações de impenetrabilidade.

Como funciona a criptografia?

Um algoritmo criptográfico, ou cifra, é uma função matemática usada no processo de criptografia e descriptografia. Um algoritmo criptográfico funciona em combinação com uma chave – uma palavra, número ou frase – para criptografar o texto simples. O mesmo texto simples é criptografado em texto cifrado diferente com chaves diferentes. A segurança dos dados criptografados depende inteiramente de duas coisas: a força do algoritmo criptográfico e o sigilo da chave. Um algoritmo criptográfico, mais todas as chaves possíveis e todos os protocolos que o fazem funcionar constituem um criptossistema. PGP é um criptossistema.

Criptografia convencional.

Na criptografia convencional, também chamada de criptografia de chave secreta ou de chave simétrica , uma chave é usada tanto para criptografia quanto para descriptografia. O Data Encryption Standard (DES) é um exemplo de criptossistema convencional amplamente empregado pelo Governo Federal. A Figura 1-2 é uma ilustração do processo de criptografia convencional. https://image.nostr.build/328b73ebaff84c949df2560bbbcec4bc3b5e3a5163d5fbb2ec7c7c60488f894c.jpg

Figura 1-2. Criptografia convencional

Cifra de César.

Um exemplo extremamente simples de criptografia convencional é uma cifra de substituição. Uma cifra de substituição substitui uma informação por outra. Isso é feito com mais frequência compensando as letras do alfabeto. Dois exemplos são o Anel Decodificador Secreto do Capitão Meia-Noite, que você pode ter possuído quando era criança, e a cifra de Júlio César. Em ambos os casos, o algoritmo serve para compensar o alfabeto e a chave é o número de caracteres para compensá-lo. Por exemplo, se codificarmos a palavra "SEGREDO" usando o valor chave de César de 3, deslocaremos o alfabeto para que a terceira letra abaixo (D) comece o alfabeto. Então começando com A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z e deslizando tudo para cima em 3, você obtém DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC onde D=A, E=B, F=C e assim por diante. Usando este esquema, o texto simples, "SECRET" é criptografado como "VHFUHW". Para permitir que outra pessoa leia o texto cifrado, você diz a ela que a chave é 3. Obviamente, esta é uma criptografia extremamente fraca para os padrões atuais, mas, ei, funcionou para César e ilustra como funciona a criptografia convencional.

Gerenciamento de chaves e criptografia convencional.

A criptografia convencional tem benefícios. É muito rápido. É especialmente útil para criptografar dados que não vão a lugar nenhum. No entanto, a criptografia convencional por si só como meio de transmissão segura de dados pode ser bastante cara, simplesmente devido à dificuldade de distribuição segura de chaves. Lembre-se de um personagem do seu filme de espionagem favorito: a pessoa com uma pasta trancada e algemada ao pulso. Afinal, o que há na pasta? Provavelmente não é o código de lançamento de mísseis/fórmula de biotoxina/plano de invasão em si. É a chave que irá descriptografar os dados secretos. Para que um remetente e um destinatário se comuniquem com segurança usando criptografia convencional, eles devem chegar a um acordo sobre uma chave e mantê-la secreta entre si. Se estiverem em locais físicos diferentes, devem confiar em um mensageiro, no Bat Phone ou em algum outro meio de comunicação seguro para evitar a divulgação da chave secreta durante a transmissão. Qualquer pessoa que ouvir ou interceptar a chave em trânsito poderá posteriormente ler, modificar e falsificar todas as informações criptografadas ou autenticadas com essa chave. Do DES ao Anel Decodificador Secreto do Capitão Midnight, o problema persistente com a criptografia convencional é a distribuição de chaves: como você leva a chave ao destinatário sem que alguém a intercepte?

Criptografia de chave pública.

Os problemas de distribuição de chaves são resolvidos pela criptografia de chave pública, cujo conceito foi introduzido por Whitfield Diffie e Martin Hellman em 1975. (Há agora evidências de que o Serviço Secreto Britânico a inventou alguns anos antes de Diffie e Hellman, mas a manteve um segredo militar - e não fez nada com isso.

[JH Ellis: The Possibility of Secure Non-Secret Digital Encryption, CESG Report, January 1970]) A criptografia de chave pública é um esquema assimétrico que usa um par de chaves para criptografia: uma chave pública, que criptografa os dados, e uma chave privada ou secreta correspondente para descriptografia. Você publica sua chave pública para o mundo enquanto mantém sua chave privada em segredo. Qualquer pessoa com uma cópia da sua chave pública pode criptografar informações que somente você pode ler. Até mesmo pessoas que você nunca conheceu. É computacionalmente inviável deduzir a chave privada da chave pública. Qualquer pessoa que possua uma chave pública pode criptografar informações, mas não pode descriptografá-las. Somente a pessoa que possui a chave privada correspondente pode descriptografar as informações. https://image.nostr.build/fdb71ae7a4450a523456827bdd509b31f0250f63152cc6f4ba78df290887318b.jpg

Figura 1-3. Criptografia de chave pública O principal benefício da criptografia de chave pública é que ela permite que pessoas que não possuem nenhum acordo de segurança pré-existente troquem mensagens com segurança. A necessidade de remetente e destinatário compartilharem chaves secretas através de algum canal seguro é eliminada; todas as comunicações envolvem apenas chaves públicas e nenhuma chave privada é transmitida ou compartilhada. Alguns exemplos de criptossistemas de chave pública são Elgamal (nomeado em homenagem a seu inventor, Taher Elgamal), RSA (nomeado em homenagem a seus inventores, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir e Leonard Adleman), Diffie-Hellman (nomeado, você adivinhou, em homenagem a seus inventores). ) e DSA, o algoritmo de assinatura digital (inventado por David Kravitz). Como a criptografia convencional já foi o único meio disponível para transmitir informações secretas, o custo dos canais seguros e da distribuição de chaves relegou a sua utilização apenas àqueles que podiam pagar, como governos e grandes bancos (ou crianças pequenas com anéis descodificadores secretos). A criptografia de chave pública é a revolução tecnológica que fornece criptografia forte para as massas adultas. Lembra do mensageiro com a pasta trancada e algemada ao pulso? A criptografia de chave pública o tira do mercado (provavelmente para seu alívio).

Como funciona o PGP.

O PGP combina alguns dos melhores recursos da criptografia convencional e de chave pública. PGP é um criptossistema híbrido. Quando um usuário criptografa texto simples com PGP, o PGP primeiro compacta o texto simples. A compactação de dados economiza tempo de transmissão do modem e espaço em disco e, mais importante ainda, fortalece a segurança criptográfica. A maioria das técnicas de criptoanálise explora padrões encontrados no texto simples para quebrar a cifra. A compressão reduz esses padrões no texto simples, aumentando assim enormemente a resistência à criptoanálise. (Arquivos que são muito curtos para compactar ou que não são compactados bem não são compactados.) O PGP então cria uma chave de sessão, que é uma chave secreta única. Esta chave é um número aleatório gerado a partir dos movimentos aleatórios do mouse e das teclas digitadas. Esta chave de sessão funciona com um algoritmo de criptografia convencional rápido e muito seguro para criptografar o texto simples; o resultado é texto cifrado. Depois que os dados são criptografados, a chave da sessão é criptografada na chave pública do destinatário. Essa chave de sessão criptografada com chave pública é transmitida junto com o texto cifrado ao destinatário.

Figura 1-4. Como funciona a criptografia PGP A descriptografia funciona ao contrário. A cópia do PGP do destinatário usa sua chave privada para recuperar a chave de sessão temporária, que o PGP usa para descriptografar o texto cifrado criptografado convencionalmente.

Figura 1-5. Como funciona a descriptografia PGP A combinação dos dois métodos de criptografia combina a conveniência da criptografia de chave pública com a velocidade da criptografia convencional. A criptografia convencional é cerca de 1.000 vezes mais rápida que a criptografia de chave pública. A criptografia de chave pública, por sua vez, fornece uma solução para

problemas de distribuição de chaves e transmissão de dados. Usados ​​em conjunto, o desempenho e a distribuição de chaves são melhorados sem qualquer sacrifício na segurança.

Chaves.

Uma chave é um valor que funciona com um algoritmo criptográfico para produzir um texto cifrado específico. As chaves são basicamente números muito, muito, muito grandes. O tamanho da chave é medido em bits; o número que representa uma chave de 1024 bits é enorme. Na criptografia de chave pública, quanto maior a chave, mais seguro é o texto cifrado. No entanto, o tamanho da chave pública e o tamanho da chave secreta da criptografia convencional não têm nenhuma relação. Uma chave convencional de 80 bits tem a força equivalente a uma chave pública de 1.024 bits. Uma chave convencional de 128 bits é equivalente a uma chave pública de 3.000 bits. Novamente, quanto maior a chave, mais segura, mas os algoritmos usados ​​para cada tipo de criptografia são muito diferentes e, portanto, a comparação é como a de maçãs com laranjas. Embora as chaves pública e privada estejam matematicamente relacionadas, é muito difícil derivar a chave privada dada apenas a chave pública; no entanto, derivar a chave privada é sempre possível, desde que haja tempo e capacidade computacional suficientes. Isto torna muito importante escolher chaves do tamanho certo; grande o suficiente para ser seguro, mas pequeno o suficiente para ser aplicado rapidamente. Além disso, você precisa considerar quem pode estar tentando ler seus arquivos, quão determinados eles estão, quanto tempo têm e quais podem ser seus recursos. Chaves maiores serão criptograficamente seguras por um longo período de tempo. Se o que você deseja criptografar precisar ficar oculto por muitos anos, você pode usar uma chave muito grande. Claro, quem sabe quanto tempo levará para determinar sua chave usando os computadores mais rápidos e eficientes de amanhã? Houve um tempo em que uma chave simétrica de 56 bits era considerada extremamente segura. As chaves são armazenadas de forma criptografada. O PGP armazena as chaves em dois arquivos no seu disco rígido; um para chaves públicas e outro para chaves privadas. Esses arquivos são chamados de chaveiros. Ao usar o PGP, você normalmente adicionará as chaves públicas dos seus destinatários ao seu chaveiro público. Suas chaves privadas são armazenadas em seu chaveiro privado. Se você perder seu chaveiro privado, não será possível descriptografar nenhuma informação criptografada nas chaves desse anel.

Assinaturas digitais.

Um grande benefício da criptografia de chave pública é que ela fornece um método para empregar assinaturas digitais. As assinaturas digitais permitem ao destinatário da informação verificar a autenticidade da origem da informação e também verificar se a informação está intacta. Assim, as assinaturas digitais de chave pública fornecem autenticação e integridade de dados. A assinatura digital também proporciona o não repúdio, o que significa que evita que o remetente alegue que não enviou realmente as informações. Esses recursos são tão fundamentais para a criptografia quanto a privacidade, se não mais. Uma assinatura digital tem a mesma finalidade de uma assinatura manuscrita. No entanto, uma assinatura manuscrita é fácil de falsificar. Uma assinatura digital é superior a uma assinatura manuscrita porque é quase impossível de ser falsificada, além de atestar o conteúdo da informação, bem como a identidade do signatário.

Algumas pessoas tendem a usar mais assinaturas do que criptografia. Por exemplo, você pode não se importar se alguém souber que você acabou de depositar US$ 1.000 em sua conta, mas quer ter certeza de que foi o caixa do banco com quem você estava lidando. A maneira básica pela qual as assinaturas digitais são criadas é ilustrada na Figura 1-6 . Em vez de criptografar informações usando a chave pública de outra pessoa, você as criptografa com sua chave privada. Se as informações puderem ser descriptografadas com sua chave pública, elas deverão ter se originado em você.

Figura 1-6. Assinaturas digitais simples

Funções hash.

O sistema descrito acima apresenta alguns problemas. É lento e produz um enorme volume de dados – pelo menos o dobro do tamanho da informação original. Uma melhoria no esquema acima é a adição de uma função hash unidirecional no processo. Uma função hash unidirecional recebe uma entrada de comprimento variável – neste caso, uma mensagem de qualquer comprimento, até mesmo milhares ou milhões de bits – e produz uma saída de comprimento fixo; digamos, 160 bits. A função hash garante que, se a informação for alterada de alguma forma – mesmo que por apenas um bit – seja produzido um valor de saída totalmente diferente. O PGP usa uma função hash criptograficamente forte no texto simples que o usuário está assinando. Isso gera um item de dados de comprimento fixo conhecido como resumo da mensagem. (Novamente, qualquer alteração nas informações resulta em um resumo totalmente diferente.) Então o PGP usa o resumo e a chave privada para criar a “assinatura”. O PGP transmite a assinatura e o texto simples juntos. Ao receber a mensagem, o destinatário utiliza o PGP para recalcular o resumo, verificando assim a assinatura. O PGP pode criptografar o texto simples ou não; assinar texto simples é útil se alguns dos destinatários não estiverem interessados ​​ou não forem capazes de verificar a assinatura. Desde que uma função hash segura seja usada, não há como retirar a assinatura de alguém de um documento e anexá-la a outro, ou alterar uma mensagem assinada de qualquer forma. A menor alteração em um documento assinado causará falha no processo de verificação da assinatura digital.

Figura 1-7. Assinaturas digitais seguras As assinaturas digitais desempenham um papel importante na autenticação e validação de chaves de outros usuários PGP.

Certificados digitais.

Um problema com os criptosistemas de chave pública é que os usuários devem estar constantemente vigilantes para garantir que estão criptografando com a chave da pessoa correta. Num ambiente onde é seguro trocar chaves livremente através de servidores públicos, os ataques man-in-the-middle são uma ameaça potencial. Neste tipo de ataque, alguém publica uma chave falsa com o nome e ID de usuário do destinatário pretendido. Os dados criptografados – e interceptados por – o verdadeiro proprietário desta chave falsa estão agora em mãos erradas. Em um ambiente de chave pública, é vital que você tenha certeza de que a chave pública para a qual você está criptografando os dados é de fato a chave pública do destinatário pretendido e não uma falsificação. Você pode simplesmente criptografar apenas as chaves que foram entregues fisicamente a você. Mas suponha que você precise trocar informações com pessoas que nunca conheceu; como você pode saber se tem a chave correta? Os certificados digitais, ou certs, simplificam a tarefa de estabelecer se uma chave pública realmente pertence ao suposto proprietário. Um certificado é uma forma de credencial. Exemplos podem ser sua carteira de motorista, seu cartão de previdência social ou sua certidão de nascimento. Cada um deles contém algumas informações que identificam você e alguma autorização informando que outra pessoa confirmou sua identidade. Alguns certificados, como o seu passaporte, são uma confirmação importante o suficiente da sua identidade para que você não queira perdê-los, para que ninguém os use para se passar por você.

Um certificado digital são dados que funcionam como um certificado físico. Um certificado digital é uma informação incluída na chave pública de uma pessoa que ajuda outras pessoas a verificar se uma chave é genuína ou válida. Os certificados digitais são usados ​​para impedir tentativas de substituir a chave de uma pessoa por outra.

Um certificado digital consiste em três coisas:

● Uma chave pública.

● Informações do certificado. (Informações de "identidade" sobre o usuário, como nome, ID do usuário e assim por diante.) ● Uma ou mais assinaturas digitais.

O objetivo da assinatura digital em um certificado é afirmar que as informações do certificado foram atestadas por alguma outra pessoa ou entidade. A assinatura digital não atesta a autenticidade do certificado como um todo; ele atesta apenas que as informações de identidade assinadas acompanham ou estão vinculadas à chave pública. Assim, um certificado é basicamente uma chave pública com uma ou duas formas de identificação anexadas, além de um forte selo de aprovação de algum outro indivíduo confiável. Figura 1-8. Anatomia de um certificado PGP

Distribuição de certificados.

Os certificados são utilizados quando é necessário trocar chaves públicas com outra pessoa. Para pequenos grupos de pessoas que desejam se comunicar com segurança, é fácil trocar manualmente disquetes ou e-mails contendo a chave pública de cada proprietário. Esta é a distribuição manual de chave pública e é prática apenas até certo ponto. Além desse ponto, é necessário implementar sistemas que possam fornecer os mecanismos necessários de segurança, armazenamento e troca para que colegas de trabalho, parceiros de negócios ou estranhos possam se comunicar, se necessário. Eles podem vir na forma de repositórios somente de armazenamento, chamados Servidores de Certificados, ou sistemas mais estruturados que fornecem recursos adicionais de gerenciamento de chaves e são chamados de Infraestruturas de Chave Pública (PKIs).

Servidores de certificados.

Um servidor de certificados, também chamado de servidor certificado ou servidor de chaves, é um banco de dados que permite aos usuários enviar e recuperar certificados digitais. Um servidor certificado geralmente fornece alguns recursos administrativos que permitem que uma empresa mantenha suas políticas de segurança – por exemplo, permitindo que apenas as chaves que atendam a determinados requisitos sejam armazenadas.

Infraestruturas de Chave Pública.

Uma PKI contém os recursos de armazenamento de certificados de um servidor de certificados, mas também fornece recursos de gerenciamento de certificados (a capacidade de emitir, revogar, armazenar, recuperar e confiar em certificados). A principal característica de uma PKI é a introdução do que é conhecido como Autoridade Certificadora,ou CA, que é uma entidade humana — uma pessoa, grupo, departamento, empresa ou outra associação — que uma organização autorizou a emitir certificados para seus usuários de computador. (A função de uma CA é análoga à do Passport Office do governo de um país.) Uma CA cria certificados e os assina digitalmente usando a chave privada da CA. Devido ao seu papel na criação de certificados, a CA é o componente central de uma PKI. Usando a chave pública da CA, qualquer pessoa que queira verificar a autenticidade de um certificado verifica a assinatura digital da CA emissora e, portanto, a integridade do conteúdo do certificado (mais importante ainda, a chave pública e a identidade do titular do certificado).

Formatos de certificado.

Um certificado digital é basicamente uma coleção de informações de identificação vinculadas a uma chave pública e assinadas por um terceiro confiável para provar sua autenticidade. Um certificado digital pode ter vários formatos diferentes.

O PGP reconhece dois formatos de certificado diferentes:

● Certificados PGP ● Certificados X.509 Formato do certificado PGP. Um certificado PGP inclui (mas não está limitado a) as seguintes informações: ● O número da versão do PGP — identifica qual versão do PGP foi usada para criar a chave associada ao certificado. A chave pública do titular do certificado — a parte pública do seu par de chaves, juntamente com o algoritmo da chave: RSA, DH (Diffie-Hellman) ou DSA (Algoritmo de Assinatura Digital).

● As informações do detentor do certificado — consistem em informações de “identidade” sobre o usuário, como seu nome, ID de usuário, fotografia e assim por diante. ● A assinatura digital do proprietário do certificado — também chamada de autoassinatura, é a assinatura que utiliza a chave privada correspondente da chave pública associada ao certificado. ● O período de validade do certificado — a data/hora de início e a data/hora de expiração do certificado; indica quando o certificado irá expirar. ● O algoritmo de criptografia simétrica preferido para a chave — indica o algoritmo de criptografia para o qual o proprietário do certificado prefere que as informações sejam criptografadas. Os algoritmos suportados são CAST, IDEA ou Triple-DES. Você pode pensar em um certificado PGP como uma chave pública com um ou mais rótulos vinculados a ele (veja a Figura 1.9 ). Nessas 'etiquetas' você encontrará informações que identificam o proprietário da chave e uma assinatura do proprietário da chave, que afirma que a chave e a identificação andam juntas. (Essa assinatura específica é chamada de autoassinatura; todo certificado PGP contém uma autoassinatura.) Um aspecto único do formato de certificado PGP é que um único certificado pode conter múltiplas assinaturas. Várias ou muitas pessoas podem assinar o par chave/identificação para atestar a sua própria garantia de que a chave pública pertence definitivamente ao proprietário especificado. Se você procurar em um servidor de certificados público, poderá notar que certos certificados, como o do criador do PGP, Phil Zimmermann, contêm muitas assinaturas. Alguns certificados PGP consistem em uma chave pública com vários rótulos, cada um contendo um meio diferente de identificar o proprietário da chave (por exemplo, o nome do proprietário e a conta de e-mail corporativa, o apelido do proprietário e a conta de e-mail residencial, uma fotografia do proprietário — tudo em um certificado). A lista de assinaturas de cada uma dessas identidades pode ser diferente; as assinaturas atestam a autenticidade de que um dos rótulos pertence à chave pública, e não que todos os rótulos da chave sejam autênticos. (Observe que 'autêntico' está nos olhos de quem vê - assinaturas são opiniões, e diferentes pessoas dedicam diferentes níveis de devida diligência na verificação da autenticidade antes de assinar uma chave.) Figura 1-9. Um certificado PGP

Formato de certificado X.509.

X.509 é outro formato de certificado muito comum. Todos os certificados X.509 estão em conformidade com o padrão internacional ITU-T X.509; assim (teoricamente) os certificados X.509 criados para um aplicativo podem ser usados ​​por qualquer aplicativo compatível com X.509. Na prática, porém, diferentes empresas criaram suas próprias extensões para certificados X.509, e nem todas funcionam juntas. Um certificado exige que alguém valide que uma chave pública e o nome do proprietário da chave andam juntos. Com os certificados PGP, qualquer pessoa pode desempenhar o papel de validador. Com certificados X.509, o validador é sempre uma Autoridade Certificadora ou alguém designado por uma CA. (Tenha em mente que os certificados PGP também suportam totalmente uma estrutura hierárquica usando uma CA para validar certificados.)

Um certificado X.509 é uma coleção de um conjunto padrão de campos contendo informações sobre um usuário ou dispositivo e sua chave pública correspondente. O padrão X.509 define quais informações vão para o certificado e descreve como codificá-lo (o formato dos dados). Todos os certificados X.509 possuem os seguintes dados:

O número da versão X.509

— identifica qual versão do padrão X.509 se aplica a este certificado, o que afeta quais informações podem ser especificadas nele. A mais atual é a versão 3.

A chave pública do titular do certificado

— a chave pública do titular do certificado, juntamente com um identificador de algoritmo que especifica a qual sistema criptográfico a chave pertence e quaisquer parâmetros de chave associados.

O número de série do certificado

— a entidade (aplicação ou pessoa) que criou o certificado é responsável por atribuir-lhe um número de série único para distingui-lo de outros certificados que emite. Esta informação é usada de diversas maneiras; por exemplo, quando um certificado é revogado, seu número de série é colocado em uma Lista de Revogação de Certificados ou CRL.

O identificador exclusivo do detentor do certificado

— (ou DN — nome distinto). Este nome pretende ser exclusivo na Internet. Este nome pretende ser exclusivo na Internet. Um DN consiste em múltiplas subseções e pode ser parecido com isto: CN=Bob Allen, OU=Divisão Total de Segurança de Rede, O=Network Associates, Inc., C=EUA (Referem-se ao nome comum, à unidade organizacional, à organização e ao país do sujeito .)

O período de validade do certificado

— a data/hora de início e a data/hora de expiração do certificado; indica quando o certificado irá expirar.

O nome exclusivo do emissor do certificado

— o nome exclusivo da entidade que assinou o certificado. Normalmente é uma CA. A utilização do certificado implica confiar na entidade que assinou este certificado. (Observe que em alguns casos, como certificados de CA raiz ou de nível superior , o emissor assina seu próprio certificado.)

A assinatura digital do emitente

— a assinatura utilizando a chave privada da entidade que emitiu o certificado.

O identificador do algoritmo de assinatura

— identifica o algoritmo usado pela CA para assinar o certificado.

Existem muitas diferenças entre um certificado X.509 e um certificado PGP, mas as mais importantes são as seguintes: você pode criar seu próprio certificado PGP;

● você deve solicitar e receber um certificado X.509 de uma autoridade de certificação

● Os certificados X.509 suportam nativamente apenas um único nome para o proprietário da chave

● Os certificados X.509 suportam apenas uma única assinatura digital para atestar a validade da chave

Para obter um certificado X.509, você deve solicitar a uma CA a emissão de um certificado. Você fornece sua chave pública, prova de que possui a chave privada correspondente e algumas informações específicas sobre você. Em seguida, você assina digitalmente as informações e envia o pacote completo – a solicitação de certificado – para a CA. A CA então realiza algumas diligências para verificar se as informações fornecidas estão corretas e, em caso afirmativo, gera o certificado e o devolve.

Você pode pensar em um certificado X.509 como um certificado de papel padrão (semelhante ao que você recebeu ao concluir uma aula de primeiros socorros básicos) com uma chave pública colada nele. Ele contém seu nome e algumas informações sobre você, além da assinatura da pessoa que o emitiu para você.

Figura 1-10. Um certificado X.509 Provavelmente, o uso mais visível dos certificados X.509 atualmente é em navegadores da web.

Validade e confiança Cada usuário em um sistema de chave pública está vulnerável a confundir uma chave falsa (certificado) com uma chave real. Validade é a confiança de que um certificado de chave pública pertence ao seu suposto proprietário. A validade é essencial em um ambiente de chave pública onde você deve estabelecer constantemente se um determinado certificado é autêntico ou não. Depois de ter certeza de que um certificado pertencente a outra pessoa é válido, você pode assinar a cópia em seu chaveiro para atestar que verificou o certificado e que ele é autêntico. Se quiser que outras pessoas saibam que você deu ao certificado seu selo de aprovação, você pode exportar a assinatura para um servidor de certificados para que outras pessoas possam vê-la.

Conforme descrito na seção Infraestruturas de Chave Pública , algumas empresas designam uma ou mais Autoridades de Certificação (CAs) para indicar a validade do certificado. Em uma organização que usa uma PKI com certificados X.509, é função da CA emitir certificados aos usuários — um processo que geralmente envolve responder à solicitação de certificado do usuário. Em uma organização que usa certificados PGP sem PKI, é função da CA verificar a autenticidade de todos os certificados PGP e depois assinar os bons. Basicamente, o objetivo principal de uma CA é vincular uma chave pública às informações de identificação contidas no certificado e, assim, garantir a terceiros que algum cuidado foi tomado para garantir que esta ligação das informações de identificação e da chave seja válida. O CA é o Grand Pooh-bah da validação em uma organização; alguém em quem todos confiam e, em algumas organizações, como aquelas que utilizam uma PKI, nenhum certificado é considerado válido, a menos que tenha sido assinado por uma CA confiável.

Verificando validade.

Uma maneira de estabelecer a validade é passar por algum processo manual. Existem várias maneiras de fazer isso. Você pode exigir que o destinatário pretendido lhe entregue fisicamente uma cópia de sua chave pública. Mas isto é muitas vezes inconveniente e ineficiente. Outra forma é verificar manualmente a impressão digital do certificado. Assim como as impressões digitais de cada ser humano são únicas, a impressão digital de cada certificado PGP é única. A impressão digital é um hash do certificado do usuário e aparece como uma das propriedades do certificado. No PGP, a impressão digital pode aparecer como um número hexadecimal ou uma série das chamadas palavras biométricas, que são foneticamente distintas e são usadas para facilitar um pouco o processo de identificação da impressão digital. Você pode verificar se um certificado é válido ligando para o proprietário da chave (para que você origine a transação) e pedindo ao proprietário que leia a impressão digital de sua chave para você e compare essa impressão digital com aquela que você acredita ser a verdadeira. Isso funciona se você conhece a voz do proprietário, mas como verificar manualmente a identidade de alguém que você não conhece? Algumas pessoas colocam a impressão digital de sua chave em seus cartões de visita exatamente por esse motivo. Outra forma de estabelecer a validade do certificado de alguém é confiar que um terceiro indivíduo passou pelo processo de validação do mesmo. Uma CA, por exemplo, é responsável por garantir que, antes de emitir um certificado, ele ou ela o verifique cuidadosamente para ter certeza de que a parte da chave pública realmente pertence ao suposto proprietário. Qualquer pessoa que confie na CA considerará automaticamente quaisquer certificados assinados pela CA como válidos. Outro aspecto da verificação da validade é garantir que o certificado não foi revogado. Para obter mais informações, consulte a seção Revogação de certificado .

Estabelecendo confiança.

Você valida certificados. Você confia nas pessoas. Mais especificamente, você confia nas pessoas para validar os certificados de outras pessoas. Normalmente, a menos que o proprietário lhe entregue o certificado, você terá que confiar na palavra de outra pessoa de que ele é válido.

Introdutores meta e confiáveis.

​​Na maioria das situações, as pessoas confiam completamente na CA para estabelecer a validade dos certificados. Isso significa que todos os demais dependem da CA para passar por todo o processo de validação manual. Isso é aceitável até um certo número de usuários ou locais de trabalho e, então, não é possível para a AC manter o mesmo nível de validação de qualidade. Nesse caso, é necessário adicionar outros validadores ao sistema.

Um CA também pode ser um meta- introdutor. Um meta-introdutor confere não apenas validade às chaves, mas também confere a capacidade de confiar nas chaves a outros. Semelhante ao rei que entrega seu selo a seus conselheiros de confiança para que eles possam agir de acordo com sua autoridade, o meta-introdutor permite que outros atuem como introdutores de confiança. Esses introdutores confiáveis ​​podem validar chaves com o mesmo efeito do meta-introdutor. Eles não podem, entretanto, criar novos introdutores confiáveis.

Meta-introdutor e introdutor confiável são termos PGP. Em um ambiente X.509, o meta-introdutor é chamado de Autoridade de Certificação raiz ( CA raiz) e os introdutores confiáveis ​​são Autoridades de Certificação subordinadas . A CA raiz usa a chave privada associada a um tipo de certificado especial denominado certificado CA raiz para assinar certificados. Qualquer certificado assinado pelo certificado CA raiz é visto como válido por qualquer outro certificado assinado pela raiz. Este processo de validação funciona mesmo para certificados assinados por outras CAs no sistema — desde que o certificado da CA raiz tenha assinado o certificado da CA subordinada, qualquer certificado assinado pela CA será considerado válido para outras pessoas dentro da hierarquia. Este processo de verificação de backup por meio do sistema para ver quem assinou cujo certificado é chamado de rastreamento de um caminho de certificação ou cadeia de certificação.

Modelos de confiança.

Em sistemas relativamente fechados, como em uma pequena empresa, é fácil rastrear um caminho de certificação até a CA raiz. No entanto, os usuários muitas vezes precisam se comunicar com pessoas fora do seu ambiente corporativo, incluindo algumas que nunca conheceram, como fornecedores, consumidores, clientes, associados e assim por diante. É difícil estabelecer uma linha de confiança com aqueles em quem sua CA não confia explicitamente. As empresas seguem um ou outro modelo de confiança, que determina como os usuários irão estabelecer a validade do certificado. Existem três modelos diferentes:

Confiança Direta.

Confiança Hierárquica Uma teia de confiança Confiança direta A confiança direta é o modelo de confiança mais simples. Neste modelo, um usuário confia que uma chave é válida porque sabe de onde ela veio. Todos os criptosistemas usam essa forma de confiança de alguma forma. Por exemplo, em navegadores da Web, as chaves raiz da Autoridade de Certificação são diretamente confiáveis ​​porque foram enviadas pelo fabricante. Se houver alguma forma de hierarquia, ela se estenderá a partir desses certificados diretamente confiáveis. No PGP, um usuário que valida as chaves e nunca define outro certificado para ser um introdutor confiável está usando confiança direta. Figura 1-11. Confiança direta

Confiança Hierárquica.

Em um sistema hierárquico, há vários certificados "raiz" a partir dos quais a confiança se estende. Esses certificados podem certificar eles próprios certificados ou podem certificar certificados que certificam ainda outros certificados em alguma cadeia. Considere isso como uma grande “árvore” de confiança. A validade do certificado "folha" é verificada rastreando desde seu certificador até outros certificadores, até que um certificado raiz diretamente confiável seja encontrado.

Figura 1-12. Confiança hierárquica

Teia de Confiança.

Uma teia de confiança abrange ambos os outros modelos, mas também acrescenta a noção de que a confiança está nos olhos de quem vê (que é a visão do mundo real) e a ideia de que mais informação é melhor. É, portanto, um modelo de confiança cumulativa. Um certificado pode ser confiável diretamente ou confiável em alguma cadeia que remonta a um certificado raiz diretamente confiável (o meta-introdutor) ou por algum grupo de introdutores.

Talvez você já tenha ouvido falar do termo seis graus de separação, que sugere que qualquer pessoa no mundo pode determinar algum vínculo com qualquer outra pessoa no mundo usando seis ou menos outras pessoas como intermediários. Esta é uma teia de introdutores. É também a visão de confiança do PGP. PGP usa assinaturas digitais como forma de introdução. Quando qualquer usuário assina a chave de outro, ele ou ela se torna o introdutor dessa chave. À medida que esse processo avança, ele estabelece uma rede de confiança.

Em um ambiente PGP, qualquer usuário pode atuar como autoridade certificadora. Qualquer usuário PGP pode validar o certificado de chave pública de outro usuário PGP. No entanto, tal certificado só é válido para outro usuário se a parte confiável reconhecer o validador como um introdutor confiável. (Ou seja, você confia na minha opinião de que as chaves dos outros são válidas apenas se você me considerar um apresentador confiável. Caso contrário, minha opinião sobre a validade das outras chaves é discutível.) Armazenados no chaveiro público de cada usuário estão indicadores de

● se o usuário considera ou não uma chave específica válida

● o nível de confiança que o usuário deposita na chave que o proprietário da chave pode servir como certificador das chaves de terceiros

Você indica, na sua cópia da minha chave, se acha que meu julgamento conta. Na verdade, é um sistema de reputação: certas pessoas têm a reputação de fornecer boas assinaturas e as pessoas confiam nelas para atestar a validade de outras chaves.

Níveis de confiança no PGP.

O nível mais alto de confiança em uma chave, a confiança implícita , é a confiança em seu próprio par de chaves. O PGP assume que se você possui a chave privada, você deve confiar nas ações da sua chave pública relacionada. Quaisquer chaves assinadas pela sua chave implicitamente confiável são válidas.

Existem três níveis de confiança que você pode atribuir à chave pública de outra pessoa:

● Confiança total ● Confiança marginal ● Não confiável (ou não confiável)

Para tornar as coisas confusas, também existem três níveis de validade:

● Válido ● Marginalmente válido ● Inválido

Para definir a chave de outra pessoa como um introdutor confiável, você

1. Comece com uma chave válida, que seja.
2. assinado por você ou

3. assinado por outro apresentador confiável e então

4. Defina o nível de confiança que você acha que o proprietário da chave tem direito.

Por exemplo, suponha que seu chaveiro contenha a chave de Alice. Você validou a chave de Alice e indica isso assinando-a. Você sabe que Alice é uma verdadeira defensora da validação de chaves de outras pessoas. Portanto, você atribui a chave dela com confiança total. Isso faz de Alice uma Autoridade Certificadora. Se Alice assinar a chave de outra pessoa, ela aparecerá como Válida em seu chaveiro. O PGP requer uma assinatura Totalmente confiável ou duas assinaturas Marginalmente confiáveis ​​para estabelecer uma chave como válida. O método do PGP de considerar dois Marginais iguais a um Completo é semelhante a um comerciante que solicita duas formas de identificação. Você pode considerar Alice bastante confiável e também considerar Bob bastante confiável. Qualquer um deles sozinho corre o risco de assinar acidentalmente uma chave falsificada, portanto, você pode não depositar total confiança em nenhum deles. No entanto, as probabilidades de ambos os indivíduos terem assinado a mesma chave falsa são provavelmente pequenas.

Revogação de certificado.

Os certificados só são úteis enquanto são válidos. Não é seguro simplesmente presumir que um certificado é válido para sempre. Na maioria das organizações e em todas as PKIs, os certificados têm uma vida útil restrita. Isso restringe o período em que um sistema fica vulnerável caso ocorra um comprometimento do certificado.

Os certificados são assim criados com um período de validade programado: uma data/hora de início e uma data/hora de expiração. Espera-se que o certificado seja utilizável durante todo o seu período de validade (seu tempo de vida ). Quando o certificado expirar, ele não será mais válido, pois a autenticidade do seu par chave/identificação não estará mais garantida. (O certificado ainda pode ser usado com segurança para reconfirmar informações que foram criptografadas ou assinadas dentro do período de validade – no entanto, ele não deve ser confiável para tarefas criptográficas futuras.)

Existem também situações em que é necessário invalidar um certificado antes da sua data de expiração, como quando o titular do certificado termina o contrato de trabalho com a empresa ou suspeita que a chave privada correspondente do certificado foi comprometida. Isso é chamado de revogação. Um certificado revogado é muito mais suspeito do que um certificado expirado. Os certificados expirados são inutilizáveis, mas não apresentam a mesma ameaça de comprometimento que um certificado revogado. Qualquer pessoa que tenha assinado um certificado pode revogar a sua assinatura no certificado (desde que utilize a mesma chave privada que criou a assinatura). Uma assinatura revogada indica que o signatário não acredita mais que a chave pública e as informações de identificação pertencem uma à outra, ou que a chave pública do certificado (ou a chave privada correspondente) foi comprometida. Uma assinatura revogada deve ter quase tanto peso quanto um certificado revogado. Com certificados X.509, uma assinatura revogada é praticamente igual a um certificado revogado, visto que a única assinatura no certificado é aquela que o tornou válido em primeiro lugar – a assinatura da CA. Os certificados PGP fornecem o recurso adicional de que você pode revogar todo o seu certificado (não apenas as assinaturas nele) se você achar que o certificado foi comprometido. Somente o proprietário do certificado (o detentor da chave privada correspondente) ou alguém que o proprietário do certificado tenha designado como revogador pode revogar um certificado PGP. (Designar um revogador é uma prática útil, pois muitas vezes é a perda da senha da chave privada correspondente do certificado que leva um usuário PGP a revogar seu certificado - uma tarefa que só é possível se alguém tiver acesso à chave privada. ) Somente o emissor do certificado pode revogar um certificado X.509.

Comunicar que um certificado foi revogado.

Quando um certificado é revogado, é importante conscientizar os usuários potenciais do certificado de que ele não é mais válido. Com certificados PGP, a maneira mais comum de comunicar que um certificado foi revogado é publicá-lo em um servidor de certificados para que outras pessoas que desejem se comunicar com você sejam avisadas para não usar essa chave pública. Em um ambiente PKI, a comunicação de certificados revogados é mais comumente obtida por meio de uma estrutura de dados chamada Lista de Revogação de Certificados, ou CRL, que é publicada pela CA. A CRL contém uma lista validada com carimbo de data e hora de todos os certificados revogados e não expirados no sistema. Os certificados revogados permanecem na lista apenas até expirarem e, em seguida, são removidos da lista — isso evita que a lista fique muito longa. A CA distribui a CRL aos usuários em algum intervalo programado regularmente (e potencialmente fora do ciclo, sempre que um certificado é revogado). Teoricamente, isso impedirá que os usuários usem involuntariamente um certificado comprometido. É possível, no entanto, que haja um período de tempo entre as CRLs em que um certificado recentemente comprometido seja usado.

O que é uma senha?

A maioria das pessoas está familiarizada com a restrição de acesso a sistemas de computador por meio de uma senha, que é uma sequência única de caracteres que um usuário digita como código de identificação.

Uma senha longa é uma versão mais longa de uma senha e, em teoria, mais segura. Normalmente composta por várias palavras, uma frase secreta é mais segura contra ataques de dicionário padrão, em que o invasor tenta todas as palavras do dicionário na tentativa de determinar sua senha. As melhores senhas são relativamente longas e complexas e contêm uma combinação de letras maiúsculas e minúsculas, caracteres numéricos e de pontuação. O PGP usa uma senha para criptografar sua chave privada em sua máquina. Sua chave privada é criptografada em seu disco usando um hash de sua senha como chave secreta. Você usa a senha para descriptografar e usar sua chave privada. Uma senha deve ser difícil de esquecer e difícil de ser adivinhada por outras pessoas. Deve ser algo já firmemente enraizado na sua memória de longo prazo, em vez de algo que você invente do zero. Por que? Porque se você esquecer sua senha, você estará sem sorte. Sua chave privada é total e absolutamente inútil sem sua senha e nada pode ser feito a respeito. Lembra-se da citação anterior neste capítulo?

PGP é a criptografia que manterá os principais governos fora dos seus arquivos. Certamente também o manterá fora de seus arquivos. Tenha isso em mente quando decidir alterar sua senha para a piada daquela piada que você nunca consegue lembrar.

Divisão de chave.

Dizem que um segredo não é segredo se for conhecido por mais de uma pessoa. Compartilhar um par de chaves privadas representa um grande problema. Embora não seja uma prática recomendada, às vezes é necessário compartilhar um par de chaves privadas. Chaves de assinatura corporativa, por exemplo, são chaves privadas usadas por uma empresa para assinar – por exemplo – documentos legais, informações pessoais confidenciais ou comunicados de imprensa para autenticar sua origem. Nesse caso, vale a pena que vários membros da empresa tenham acesso à chave privada. No entanto, isto significa que qualquer indivíduo pode agir plenamente em nome da empresa. Nesse caso, é aconselhável dividir a chave entre várias pessoas, de modo que mais de uma ou duas pessoas apresentem um pedaço da chave para reconstituí-la em condições utilizáveis. Se poucas peças da chave estiverem disponíveis, a chave ficará inutilizável. Alguns exemplos são dividir uma chave em três partes e exigir duas delas para reconstituir a chave, ou dividi-la em duas partes e exigir ambas as peças. Se uma conexão de rede segura for usada durante o processo de reconstituição, os acionistas da chave não precisam estar fisicamente presentes para aderirem novamente à chave.

@ 8194da31:0f3badf3

LLM interpretation:

That’s a profound and provocative statement: “The corruption of money is the corruption of the Logos.” Let’s unpack this in detail, integrating philosophical, theological, and economic dimensions:

⸻

1. What Is the Logos?

In classical and theological terms: •Greek Philosophy (esp. Heraclitus & Stoics): Logos is the divine reason, the ordering principle of the cosmos—a rational structure underlying all reality. •Plato: While he didn’t use Logos as prominently, his concept of the Forms, especially the Form of the Good, parallels it. The Logos could be seen as the bridge between the realm of ideal truth and the material world. •Christian Theology (esp. John 1:1): “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.” Christ is identified as the Logos—the incarnate expression of divine truth, coherence, and moral order.

So, Logos = reason, truth, order, and meaning—both metaphysical and moral.

⸻

1. What Is Money in Moral and Philosophical Terms?

Money is not just a medium of exchange; it is a tool of memory, a symbol of trust, and a measure of value. In a functioning system, it reflects: •Honest human action over time •Deferred trust and cooperation across generations •A shared language of value

In this sense, money is a representation of human agreements, which are grounded in speech, contract, and moral order—i.e., it is rooted in logos (lowercase l), as language and rationality.

⸻

1. The Corruption of Money as a Violation of Logos

If Logos is the moral-rational order, then:

To corrupt money is to distort the shared language of value and trust. It is to introduce lies into the very structure of economic relationships.

This corruption occurs through: •Inflation and debasement (violating the honesty of measurement) •Manipulative monetary policy (favoring the few over the many) •Counterfeit value signals (misallocating resources) •Loss of accountability (removing consequences for moral failure)

Thus, money’s corruption breaks the moral symmetry between effort and reward, cost and value, debt and payment—violating logos in both linguistic and metaphysical senses.

⸻

1. Theological Echoes:

If Christ is the Logos incarnate, then: •Monetary corruption becomes not merely economic malfeasance but moral rebellion. •It is anti-Logos—an act of anomia (lawlessness), which the New Testament identifies with the spirit of antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:3–8).

⸻

@ fe02e8ec:f07fbe0b

Die baldige Ex-Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock fordert einen radikalen Wandel in der Energieversorgung hin zu einer feministischen Energiepolitik. Wie sich gezeigt habe, so sei das spanische Netz am 28.04.25 wegen toxischer Männlichkeit zusammengebrochen. Es hätte sich herausgestellt, dass alle Überlandleitungen von Männern gebaut und installiert worden waren! Dies, so Baerbock, sei ein untragbarer Zustand, der durch den resultierenden Blackout für viel Leid und Ärger gesorgt habe. Selbst Haarföhns waren nicht mehr in Betrieb zu nehmen!

«Nur Frauen sind in der Lage, derart empfindliche und sensible Ströme zu leiten. Denn Strömen liegt in ihrer Natur. Sie benötigen keine Messgeräte oder teure Transformatoren für die Strömung, da Mutter Natur – eine Frau, wie der Name schon sagt – für alles selbst sorgen wird. Man muss nur verhindern, dass maskuline Energien verströmt werden, die nämlich den Strom um 360 Grad drehen würden.»

Mit dieser Analyse empfiehlt sich Annalena B. nicht nur für höchste UN Ämter sondern ebenfalls für den Vorsitz des Weltklimarates IPCC. Aus informierten Kreisen ist zu hören, dass sie nur noch die Papstwahl abwarten möchte - schließlich wäre es Zeit für eine Päpstin - bis sie sich fürs Klima bewerben würde. Um weitere Blackouts abzuschrecken überlegt sie angeblich, ihren Namen in Blackbock zu ändern. Möglich wäre allerdings auch, dass dies alles nur erfunden ist.

Mehr Satirisches und Ernstes: www.thomas-eisinger.de

@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

GHOSTn

• Renoted from a month ago into a article as a proof of concept

A quick overview

privacy #tor #vpn

**Computer -> clearnet -> Website **

ISP: sees that you are connected to website VPN: n/a Tor Entrance Node: n/a Tor Exit Node: n/a Website: sees your IP address and logs everything that you do on the website

Good for when the expectation of privacy does not exist. A KYC site you are logging into. Utility bill pay site, bank

**Computer -> VPN -> Website **

ISP: sees that you are connecting to a VPN but not what you are doing afterwards VPN: sees your IP Address and that you are connecting to a website Tor Entrance Node: n/a Tor Exit Node: n/a Website: sees that someone from a VPN exit node has connected but doesn’t know who. Logs data.

Good for hiding your activity from your ISP. Good for hiding your identity from the website. Good for when you want low level privacy but not anonymity. VPN provider sees everything and your level of privacy depends on how much they know about you and how much data they log and retain (varies greatly from provider to provider).

**Computer -> Tor -> Website **

ISP: sees that you are connected to Tor but nothing afterwards VPN: n/a Tor Entrance Node: sees your IP address but nothing afterwards Tor Exit Node: sees website you are going to but not who you are Website: sees someone from Tor has connected but doesn’t know who. Logs.

Good for privacy and anonymity. Assumes that Tor is legal in your country.

**Computer -> VPN -> Tor -> Website **

ISP: sees that you connected to a VPN but nothing afterwards VPN: sees IP address and that you are connecting to Tor but nothing afterwards Tor Entrance Node: sees a VPN is connected but nothing afterwards Tor Exit Node: sees website you are going to but not who you are Website: sees someone from Tor has connected but doesn’t know who. Logs.

Good for if your ISP blocks or cancels your service for using Tor. Potentially an option if Tor is illegal in your country (Dangerous).

**Computer -> Tor -> VPN -> Website **

ISP: sees that you are connecting to Tor but nothing afterwards VPN: sees someone from Tor is connected and that they are connecting to a website Tor Entrance Node: sees IP address but nothing afterwards Tor Exit Node: sees someone is connecting to a VPN but nothing afterwards Website: sees someone from a VPN is connecting but doesn’t know who. Logs.

Good for when a website blocks Tor traffic. Assumes Tor is legal in your country. Assumes that the VPN doesn’t know who you are. To maximize privacy and anonymity VPN provider should be KYC free and accept privacy payments (ex: Monero).

Note: If a website blocks Tor and VPN then maybe that is a sign that you shouldn’t go there.

@ f1f59549:f4121cfe

Ego is a fundamental part of the human condition. It provides us with the necessary ability to separate and compartmentalize ourselves from the rest of the world.

Our ego allows us to exist in the chaos of existence.

The spiritual path is seen as a way to “escape the ego” and achieve a higher state of consciousness. A state where the confines of the ego no longer hold us back from seeing things as they are and allow us to experience true bliss.

But there’s a paradox to this whole process.

By seeking spiritual advancement, we have to accept that there is something to improve and someone to do the improving.

This suggests that this improvement somehow makes us better than someone who has not achieved similar levels of improvement.

This kind of thinking is inherently egotistical.

As we advance down the spiritual path — escaping the grasp of ego and removing attachments — spirituality itself can end up feeding the ego. Most of the time, we don’t even notice it while it’s happening.

It’s an unconscious process that develops along the way. Only after we notice it within ourselves can we course-correct.

I acknowledge that writing this article is itself an example of spiritual egotism.

Who am I to talk about dissolving the ego? What are my goals for writing this piece? By pointing out the hypocrisy behind having spiritual convictions or goals, am I in some way suggesting myself to be free from these convictions?

I am in no way exempt from the clutches of spiritual egotism — I certainly have not reached enlightenment.

But the paradox is that if I had, I probably wouldn’t be talking about it now.

This is known in Buddhism as the “noble silence.”

The only way to understand what it truly means to “dissolve the ego” is by discovering it spontaneously. It is not something that can be taught.

This is the approach Zen Buddhism takes to reach enlightenment. By accepting that the truth cannot be told, the master does not try to speak it. Instead, the master simply pops the ego of his students as it bubbles up from time to time.

This employs a concept called “the middle way.”

You know that you must dissolve your ego. But you can’t, so trying it is also pointless. The middle way says, “I will do my best to escape my ego, but I accept that I will fail.”

One thing we can do is pay attention to our failings. When you perform a kind act for another person, consider the motivation behind why you did it. Was it for their sake or for yours?

If you’re able to convince yourself these acts come from selfless motives — take notice — your ego has just presented itself.

The Paradox of Spiritual Development

You want to improve yourself by changing your consciousness. But the self that needs to be improved is the same one doing the improving.

This is a paradox.

As egotistical beings, we cannot be without ego.

At its core, the very reason one seeks to dissolve the ego is to improve oneself. Whether it’s to feel well, perform more effectively, or improve relationships with others — the very desire to achieve this improvement is egotistical.

This forms a negative feedback loop. The more we attempt to remove the ego, the more egotistical we become.

Essentially, the harder we try to avoid it, the more we become it.

By choosing to take a path toward enlightenment — we can not reach enlightenment.

The great Alan Watts says it best (paraphrasing):

“As long as you think and feel that you are contained in your bag of skin, there is no way whatsoever to behave unselfishly. You can imitate unselfishness. Undergo all kinds of highly refined forms of unselfishness. But you’re still tied to the gold chains of your good deeds.”

Is There A Solution?

Not exactly, but we may be able to move closer toward enlightenment by accepting its impossibility. Simply allowing ourselves to notice this paradox in ourselves may allow us to redirect course toward the middle path once again.

Let’s look at the story of the Buddha as an example.

Siddhartha was an ascetic for several decades. Acetics of the time would do all sorts of austere techniques. He would starve himself, sleep out in the cold, and purposely subject himself to discomfort and hardship — all an attempt to dissociate from his physical body and, thus, his ego.

The goal was to “reach” enlightenment.

But all the attempts the Buddha made to get himself out of the trap failed.

Siddhartha only achieved enlightenment when he realized that the trap and the trapped are one. By this realization, there isn’t any trap left.

He realized that the spiritual journey isn’t about being on some sort of “higher level.” There is no “end goal” or plateau to reach.

The spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle puts it another way:

“The ego has many ideas. It says, ‘I want to be a spiritual person. I want to be recognized as a spiritual person. I want to be more spiritual than all these people. And I’m definitely more spiritual than you… The essential dysfunction of the ego is still operating. This is why we have the phrase ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’… You have to reach the place within yourself that is unconditioned; that is what I sometimes call formless.”

Spiritual Arrogance is a Blind Spot on the Path to Enlightenment

Spirituality can help you release the firm grasp your ego has over you, but it can also reinforce it.

Spiritual arrogance arises when someone develops an identity about seeking a path to enlightenment. It’s sometimes referred to as “spiritual narcissism.”

It’s what happens when you feel like people just “aren’t quite on your level.”

“High vibrations,” right?

As the psychiatrist Gerald May wrote in his 1983 book Will and Spirit:

“Simply stated, spiritual narcissism is the unconscious use of spiritual practice, experience, and insight to increase rather than decrease self-importance.”

Spiritual arrogance emerges naturally as we engage on the spiritual path. We fool ourselves into thinking that by taking steps to become more “enlightened,” we’re in some way superior to those who do not.

We leverage spiritual practices — like yoga, meditation, or other forms of spiritual self-care — as tokens of our supposed enlightenment or moral superiority.

We may use our "spiritual" identity to look down upon others who don't share these practices or beliefs, to dodge personal responsibilities or interpersonal challenges, or to create a persona that earns us social capital.

This condition damages both the individual, who is missing the opportunity for genuine spiritual or personal growth, and the community around them, which may be subjected to their judgment, manipulation, or neglect.

The presentation of spiritual arrogance comes in all shapes and sizes.

Let’s say you join a church group or other spiritual group. Members become spiritually proud. They believe they are the ones who have the right teaching. Everybody else is a bit off the track.

Then someone comes and one-ups them. “In our circles, we’re very tolerant. And we accept all teachings and all ways as leading to the one.”

But they’re just playing the game of “we’re more tolerant than you are.”

In essence, they become a victim of their own spiritual practice — they’re blind to the paradox of the spiritual path and become lost in their own egotistical beliefs that their “way” is somehow better than everybody else’s.

Of course, the other side of this paradox comes from noticing the people around you who demonstrate signs of spiritual arrogance. Looking at someone in their arrogance can make you feel like they’re inferior.

It’s another trap — but it comes from the completely opposite angle.

We cannot escape it.

Can Spiritual Arrogance Be Avoided?

Probably not, but by learning to recognize it, we may be able to re-align ourselves towards the middle path when it inevitably appears over and over again throughout our lives.

Here are some ideas to think about for avoiding the paradoxical nature of spiritual arrogance:

1. Find your intuitive expertise & learn to flow with it

Taoists call this practice “wu-wei.” Zen Buddhists call it “mushin.” Both loosely refer to an absence of striving. It’s the constant striving to improve or reach “higher vibrations” that causes this paradox to manifest in a big way.

2. Stop judging others based on their “level”

Spirituality is not a competition; you are not here to “help” others on their spiritual journey.

3. Remain skeptical about ideas, mentors, & gurus

Nobody truly has it figured out, and if they do, they certainly aren’t talking about it.

4. Embrace the beginner’s mind

Avoid bringing your preconceptions and opinions to new ideas. Act as though you’re a child experiencing everything for the first time.

5. Be conscious about your use of social media

This is especially important when it comes to sharing your spiritual development publicly. By sharing with others, you’re feeding the ego hiding behind the curtain.

6. Avoid over-intellectualizing spirituality

This comes at the expense of direct, personal, or experiential understandings of these concepts in daily life.

7. Beware of toxic positivity

This is the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset. This invalidates an authentic human emotional experience and is a form of spiritual bypassing.

---

Quotes on Spiritual Arrogance

“The biggest ego trip going is getting rid of your ego.” — Alan Watts

“If it’s so easy to lose Jim Carey, who’s Jim Carey?” — Jim Carey

“If an organ is working properly, you don’t feel it. When you’re thinking clearly, your brain isn’t getting in your way.” — Alan Watts

“To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.” — Confucius

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“No matter what the practice or teaching, ego loves to wait in ambush to appropriate spirituality for its own survival and gain.” ― Chögyam Trungpa

---

Zen Koans About Spiritual Arrogance

The beauty of Zen koans is that they can be used to “impart wisdom” that can’t otherwise be explained by words.

They’re told as a sort of joke — only the punchline isn’t spontaneous laughter — but spontaneous glimpses of enlightenment.

They all deliver some form of unexplainable wisdom that you either get at the punchline or you don’t. Just like a joke, if the koan has to be explained, it loses its power.

1. The Double Vision of Ego
2. Praise vs. Prajna
3. What Mind?
4. Killing Buddhism

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@ 3b7fc823:e194354f

I dOn'T cAre ABouT pRivAcY. IT dOEsN'T maTtER. i'M nOT dOiNg AnyThiNg wRonG.

GHOSTn

Your phone is spying on you. Your apps are spying on you. Your websites, search engine, fitness tracker, smart watch, IoT device, EVERYTHING is collecting anything it can and sending it off to be stored, cross referenced, and sold.

Data is the new oil.

So what? I don't care if Google knows I like motorcycles. By itself one data point isn't a big deal but once you start bringing everything together...

Who are you talking to? When and how long did you talk to them? Where did you go? How often do you go there? On and on the profile starts to become overwhelmingly invasive.

Right now it is extremely cheap and easy to collect and store the data but it's hard and expensive to cross reference and tabulate the data down to the individual. But in the extremely near future using AI and faster processers, data profiles for sale go from white men between 25 - 30, with this education level, and background like XYZ to -> John loves motorcycls and steak.

Suddenly your insurance premiums are way higher than your friends because you partake in dangerous activities and eat too much red meat. You get denied that loan because you invest in risky assets and it raises your risk factors to pay it back. That job that you applied to never responded because they already ran you through the algorithm and you don't fit the culture.

Protect your data and privacy now before its too late.

privacy

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

I had a dream that I was at a cementary where only children were buried. Except the headstones for the graves weren't headstones; they were toilets. It was respectful for the family of the deceased child to use the toilet. The toilets were out in the open so everyone could see the family using the toilet. Imagine a cementary but it's all a bunch of toilets, that's what it was like. During my visit there were plenty of family paying respects and releasing themselves. I'm not sure where the family's feces and pee went after they flushed, but it seems only right that it flushed down to the dead body's casket. I'd hope nobody was paying respects to an infant, because they couldn't release much without overflowing the toilet. Also, the feces wouldn't stink since it's six feet under.

I recall the place being very filthy, there was vomit on the ground in a lot of places, except the vomit was very poorly cleaned up (mostly smeared about).

Dream analysis: Dead kids deserve to be shit on. Respectfully.

@ bc52210b:20bfc6de

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Imagine a world where clean, safe, and efficient nuclear power can be delivered to any corner of the globe, powering everything from small villages to bustling cities. This vision is becoming a reality with the development of nuclear modular plants—compact, portable nuclear reactors that can be shipped in standard containers and set up quickly to provide reliable energy. These innovative power sources use fission—the process of splitting atomic nuclei to release energy, the same fundamental principle that powers traditional nuclear plants—but with a twist: they utilize thorium as fuel and a molten salt system for cooling and fuel delivery. This combination offers a host of benefits that could revolutionize how we think about nuclear energy.

Portability and Deployment

One of the most significant advantages of these nuclear modular plants is their portability. Designed to fit within standard shipping containers, these reactors can be transported by truck, ship, or even air to virtually any location. This makes them ideal for remote communities, disaster relief efforts, or military operations where traditional power infrastructure is lacking or damaged. Setting up a conventional power plant typically takes years, but these modular units can be operational in a matter of weeks, providing a rapid solution to energy needs.

Safety Features

Safety is a paramount concern in nuclear energy, and modular thorium molten salt reactors (MSRs) offer several inherent safety advantages. Unlike traditional reactors that use water under high pressure, MSRs operate at atmospheric pressure, eliminating the risk of pressure-related accidents. The fuel is dissolved in the molten salt, which means there's no solid fuel that could melt down. If the reactor overheats, the salt expands, naturally slowing the fission reaction—a built-in safety mechanism. Additionally, thorium-based fuels produce less long-lived radioactive waste, reducing the long-term environmental impact.

Efficiency and Abundance

Thorium is a more abundant resource than uranium, with estimates suggesting it is three to four times more plentiful in the Earth's crust. This abundance makes thorium a sustainable fuel choice for the future. Moreover, MSRs can operate at higher temperatures than traditional reactors, leading to greater thermal efficiency. This means more electricity can be generated from the same amount of fuel, making the energy production process more efficient and cost-effective in the long run.

Scalability

The modular design of these reactors allows for scalability to meet varying power demands. A single unit might power a small community, while multiple units can be combined to serve larger towns or cities. This flexibility is particularly useful for growing populations or regions with fluctuating energy needs. As demand increases, additional modules can be added without the need for extensive new infrastructure.

Cost-Effectiveness

While the initial investment in nuclear modular plants may be significant, the long-term operational costs can be lower than traditional power sources. The high efficiency of MSRs means less fuel is needed over time, and the reduced waste production lowers disposal costs. Additionally, the ability to mass-produce these modular units could drive down manufacturing costs, making nuclear power more accessible and affordable.

Environmental Impact

Nuclear power is already one of the cleanest energy sources in terms of carbon emissions, and thorium MSRs take this a step further. By producing less long-lived waste and utilizing a more abundant fuel, these reactors offer a more sustainable path for nuclear energy. Furthermore, their ability to provide reliable baseload power can help reduce reliance on fossil fuels, contributing to global efforts to combat climate change.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite these benefits, there are challenges to overcome before nuclear modular plants can be widely deployed. The technology for thorium MSRs is still in the developmental stage, with ongoing research needed to address issues such as material corrosion and fuel processing. Regulatory frameworks will also need to adapt to this new type of reactor, and public perception of nuclear energy remains a hurdle in many regions. However, with continued investment and innovation, these obstacles can be addressed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, nuclear modular plants using thorium and molten salt systems represent a promising advancement in nuclear technology. Their portability, safety features, efficiency, scalability, and environmental benefits make them an attractive option for meeting the world's growing energy needs. While challenges remain, the potential of these reactors to provide clean, reliable power to communities around the globe is undeniable. As research and development continue, we may soon see a new era of nuclear energy that is safer, more efficient, and more accessible than ever before.

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

I never try to convince people to stop using social media, government spy devices (AKA smart phones), etc. Any time I have ever tried, people's curiosity is not peaked by learning how awful and extremely invasive the practices held by these companies are. Instead, people turn defensive and downplay the reality, or say "I have nothing to hide" (click here to learn why this is not an OK excuse), or give a pletora of excuses as to why they "have" to continue engaging in the harmful practice.

You do not HAVE to do anything. Everything we do is a choice.

What people REALLY mean is, "but this is more convenient." I have noticed that people really prefer the path of least resistance - and this is not a conscious choice. What other people in society do, we tend to do as well, all without thinking about it. This is why certain hairstyles are exclusive to a decade. We unconsciouslly adapt our behavior to what others are doing. A hairstyle is a great example, because it's a physical example we can SEE this happening. However, our internal thinking and behaviours also adapt to what others are doing.

When the entire society around us has intergrated the use of government spy devices (AKA cell phones) into common every day life, the average person will follow suit and get a cell phone and use it how everyone else is using it. This means cell phone -> required invasive "apps" to use cell phone = getting spied on my the government, corporations, and whoever they sell that data to.

@ e516ecb8:1be0b167

El Gran Apagón y la Tormenta Perfecta: ¿Hacia Dónde Nos Llevan?

Recientemente, un corte de luz masivo dejó a oscuras a España, Portugal y parte de Francia. Como suele pasar cuando las explicaciones escasean o no se quieren dar, la narrativa oficial apuntó al cambio climático. Un artículo de ABC sugiere que una "vibración atmosférica inducida" por "variaciones extremas de temperatura" podría ser la culpable (ABC, 28/04/2025). Pero, ¿es realmente el calentamiento global el villano de esta historia, o estamos ante un síntoma de algo más grande y complejo?

Una Red de Decisiones Interconectadas

Nada ocurre en el vacío, y este apagón no es una excepción. La generación de electricidad, cada vez más dependiente de fuentes renovables no convencionales, enfrenta retos de estabilidad y costos crecientes. A esto se suma la presión política para transformar nuestras vidas bajo la bandera de la sostenibilidad. Por ejemplo, la idea de la "ciudad de 15 minutos", donde todo lo que necesitas está a un corto paseo o pedaleo, suena ideal. Pero en lugares como el Reino Unido, esta visión viene acompañada de cámaras de vigilancia que controlan tus movimientos, justificadas por la "seguridad" o la "eficiencia".

Mientras tanto, la Unión Europea avanza hacia un futuro donde, para 2030, todos los autos deberán ser eléctricos. Con una red eléctrica inestable y precios de energía disparados, ¿cómo se supone que cargaremos esos vehículos? La respuesta parece ser: no lo hagas. Muévete en bicicleta, quédate cerca de casa. La movilidad, un símbolo de libertad, se está restringiendo para las masas, mientras la élite política y corporativa sigue surcando los cielos en jets privados para "combatir el cambio climático" o, como Bernie Sanders y AOC, para denunciar la oligarquía desde sus podios privilegiados.

Dependencia Eléctrica: Una Trampa Silenciosa

La electrificación no se detiene en los autos. Los edificios modernos tienden a ser completamente eléctricos, y en algunos lugares ya se habla de prohibir las cocinas a gas. Imagina un futuro donde dependes de la red eléctrica para cocinar una simple salchicha. Ahora, suma un apagón como el reciente. Sin electricidad, no hay cena, no hay calefacción, no hay nada. La automatización total, que nos venden como progreso, nos hace más vulnerables a estos colapsos.

El Euro Digital: Control Absoluto

La Unión Europea también está empujando el euro digital, una moneda que promete conveniencia, pero a un costo altísimo. Con ella, cada transacción será rastreable, y las autoridades podrían restringir su uso para ciertos fines o incluso "quemar" euros digitales a voluntad para controlar su valor frente a otras monedas. ¿Qué pasa con la libertad financiera? ¿Qué pasa con la privacidad? Este sistema, combinado con una red eléctrica frágil, pinta un panorama donde el ciudadano promedio queda atrapado en una jaula tecnológica.

Criptomonedas, Efectivo y Oro: ¿Alternativas Reales?

Las criptomonedas, que muchos ven como una salida, también son vulnerables a los cortes de energía. Sin electricidad, no hay blockchain. El efectivo, por su parte, sigue siendo una opción, pero se desgasta, pierde valor con la inflación y, en muchos lugares, está siendo demonizado en favor de pagos digitales. Luego está el oro, el refugio histórico. Pero incluso aquí hay trampas: viajar con oro puede convertirte en sospechoso en un aeropuerto, obligado a explicar el origen de tu propiedad. ¿Desde cuándo debemos justificar lo que es nuestro? ¿Dónde quedó la presunción de inocencia?

"No Tendrás Nada y Serás Feliz"

Cuando uno conecta los puntos —apagones, electrificación forzada, monedas digitales, restricciones de movilidad— es difícil no pensar en el famoso eslogan atribuido al Foro Económico Mundial: "No tendrás nada y serás feliz". Mencionarlo te hace ganar el sello de "conspiranóico", pero las señales están ahí. La pregunta es: ¿estamos caminando hacia un futuro de control total disfrazado de sostenibilidad, o es solo una serie de coincidencias desafortunadas?

@ 5f078e90:b2bacaa3

This is a test written in yakihonne.com as a long form article. It is a kind 30023. It should be cross-posted to Hive.

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

I find it strange how many times people have mentioned that my website looks the way it does as a way of paciticing "ironic" humor. The implication being that my website looks bad, and intentionally so, to try and mimic the internet's look from the mid 1990's to early 2000's. However, this is not what I am doing. I genuinely heavily prefer a basic web browsing experience. I find Javascript to be one of the worst, most invasive, evil things to happen to web browsing. On top of that, it's also heavily bloated and preforms many unnecessarry tasks. I also describe the modern internet in one way: The monetized internet. The internet no longer is a place of personal passion, a place to put your personal interests online that are fueled entirely by your PERSONAL interesnt, not a MONETARY interest. With the ushering in of MONETARY interest in the internet, people have felt the need to strip the web of its character and create websites that look minimal, yet are actually incredibly bloated with invasive Javascript. I find it funny that a minial, eye-blistering white Wordpress website uses tons of Javascript when in reality, that website should actually be created on basic and lightweight HTML/CSS.

My use of colors and animated .gifs is not an attempt at humor. It's strange that a website with character is so rare that it's assumed to be a joke. I like colors, I like textures, I like fun basic effects (like blinking, marquee, which by the way - GOOGLE IS STRIPPING SOME OF THE OLDEST AND MOST BASIC HTML FEATURES FROM THE WEB. Google SHOULD NOT be the determining factor as to which BASIC HTML FEATURES LIVE and DIE (Such as autoplaying music, .gif cursors, .gif favicons, marquee). All web browsers like to follow what Google foes, so if Google gets rid of a feature, all web browsers follow suit. Yes, this INCLUDES Firefox and Brave, which is a Chromium based browser.

@ 9223d2fa:b57e3de7

14,939 steps

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

If you see my picture, my name, or anyone subtely implying they are me anywhere online that isn't the following websites: icum.to videos.icum.to tubgurl.com endchan.gg/ashleyj that is NOT me. I do not use any form of social media*, I do not have "secret" profiles, I do not use realtime chat. There have been numerous times people thought they were talking to me. People can easily impersonate me because I talk about my interests and have photos/videos of me online. I do not play online video games, I do not use/like realtime chat, I do not use social media. It is not me. Usernames similar to my name/interests are not me. If you really think you are talking to me on a game, Discord, social media, etc. call my phone number (725-286-3278) or email me and I will verify that I am not the imposter.

*Social media being any large or small social platform, be it proprietary or open source. Popular ones include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, Twitter, or Mastodon instances. I appreciate open source efforts for a more free social media, however, I do not like the social media platform style for a number of reasons.

If you are curious as to why I do not use social media, please read this.

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

If you're a straight man jacking off to straight porn, you're gay. You're looking at another man's cock as a means to get gratification. Without that man's cock, your sexual experience wouldn't be fulfilled. You needing to see that man's cock in order to be sexually fulfilled is gay. I like men but even I can't stand looking at a dude's cock as he bangs a chick. It's a complete turn off. It ruins the entire thing. I don't want to see a man's body, I don't want to see his penis, I don't want to hear him. We have the technology to perfectly replicate a male penis and even automated thrusting. There's no need to continue to jack off to a real man's penis. I don't understand how any self respecting man can become erect while watching another man and his penis bang a hot chick. It's the defenition of cucking, but people will try to rationalize their way out of it. You're the cuck, you just don't have a camera panned on you showing your shame as you pound off.

This is why lesbian or solo porn is always superior. Two is better than one, so lesbian porn is by far the best. Lesbian porno has no cocks, or if it does, they're fake and not disgusting. You don't have to deal with looking at a dildo's asshole as it pounds a chick. Lesbian porn is weirdly underrated these days. I almost NEVER see anyone talk about it. It's always degenerate straight porn or overwhelmingly gay shit. You're way more likely to see gay and tranny garbage before lesbians. It's weird that lesbians are probably one of the lesser viewed categories these days. There's a lot of homos out there. Females are not threatening to a sexual situation. It's male penetration that is cuck-like behavior. With females it is all playful and sensual, always with room for more to play. The more cocks you have around a woman, the gayer and more homosexual it is. I especially can't wrap my mind around being turned on by cum shots on a woman. You're jacking off to not only a guy's cock, but his orgasm. You're jacking off to his load. And yes, I UNDERSTAND you're "jacking off to the woman getting cummed on", but you miss the point. You are jacking off to a man having an orgasm. It's never sat right with me, when I want to utilize "material", I want to get turned on by a woman. I feel more straight than straight men at times.

@ 862fda7e:02a8268b

As of April 27, 2024, I will make the conscious effort to no longer refer nor use the imperial system for measurments. This will be a difficult change for me to make, as I have been accostumed to the imperial measurment system for the past 25 years of my life. However, I find the system of measurment very flawed and inconvenient, especially as most of the world opts for the more accurate metric system.

I have decided to finally make this change after learning about the ridiculous naming system of CMD ceramic capacitor casings. The CMD ceramic capacitor casings are named after their measurments, which I find convenient and straight forward. However, they are based off of imperial measurments. When we know that CMD ceramic capacitors are notociously small; you would think it's foolish to name their casings after the imerial system, as we know the smallest measurment in the imerial system is inches. Most Americans do not bother using centimeters nor millimeters.

Well, this is where our problem is. The CMD ceramic capacitor casings are MILLIMETERS small. They cannot measure an inch, not even half an inch. A common CMD cermaic capacitor measures 0.08 inches by 0.06 inches. The casing is named a 0806 casing, meaning it's 0.08 inches by 0.06 inches.

When we try to visiualize what 0.08 inches looks like, it's nearly impossible. This is not due to a lack of intelligence. However, it is due to a lack of using inches in such a miniscule measurement. Americans never refer to inches in such small measurements, it's very hard to visualize. This is an absurd naming convention and they should have realized this flaw.

If I want to measure a CMD ceramic capacitor to determine what casing size it is, I would never in my right mind use the inches section of my ruler. It's very impractical and confusing. However, a very simple choice a sane person would make is to refer to the millimeters section of their ruler to measure a very small object for a very accruate measurment. This example was the final straw for me. I am no longer going to abide by the imperial system. It is flawed. It is a very generalized way of measuring something. It's also very pig-headed and innacurate. It limits how specific we can get with a measurment. For some reason I am a lot more well versed in millimeters and centimeters than most Americans. I am shocked at the average American's lack of compresension of superior measurment practices.

I am not as well versed in metric measurments as someone who has grown up with this superior measurment instilled in them since childhood. I will frequently be measuring items around my house to gain a more familiar understanding with their size in the superior measurment convention. Due to pure habit, I may casually refer to something in inches. This is not due to a lack of willpower, nor a lack of commitment to my new change. It is purely a bad habit that I am trying to rid away. There will be mistakes.

While we are on this topic, I will quickly mention other strictly Americanized choices that I reject for purely logical reasons. 1. I do not spell it "publicly". This makes no sense when words that typically end in "cally" have an "a" in them. Logically, it should be spelled, "publically". I will continue to choose to spell it this way, as it logically makes more sense.

1. I do not spell it "gray". When I pronounce the word "grey", there is clearly an "e" in it. Not an "a". The original word is spelled with an "e", there was no need to bastardize its spelling with an "a".

2. I do not pronounce the word "solder" as "sodder". The word is spelled with an "l", but not only that. I refered to the origin of the word "solder", and this is what I found. "to consolidate, close, fasten together, join with solder" (13c.), from Latin solidare "to make solid," from solidus "solid" The word ultimately comes from "solid", which we do not pronounce "soid". We say, "solid" with an "l".

@ f1f59549:f4121cfe

Is the internet making us dumber?

The answer to this question depends on how we define intelligence. If it refers to the number of facts we know and we remember — the answer is probably “yes.”

A study led by Betsy Sparrow on the impact of Google on human memory states that:

“When people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.”

That might not be such a bad thing — in theory, it could help preserve our limited cognitive capacity for more salient tasks, such as learning new skills, achieving mastery in our chosen domain, or soul-enriching creative pursuits. Is it really that important that we remember exactly how deep the lowest part of the ocean is or how many species of birds there are?

Maybe, maybe not.

If intelligence is measured by our ability to understand and process information — the answer is much more complicated. It depends entirely on how we use it.

Before we explore all the ways the internet undermines our cognitive abilities, I have to point out that access to the internet can easily be used to make us smarter, happier, and more connected. This is a technology that allows us to learn anything we want — quickly and cheaply. Education is no longer a privilege reserved for the rich. Now, anybody with access to a public library or a $100 smartphone can access information on any topic.

The problem is that the unfettered and unconscious use of the internet lures us into delusion and distraction.

Here are 5 ways the internet makes us dumber and some strategies for resisting them.

1. Information Overload

“The man who chases two rabbits catches none.” — Old Zen Parable.

Information overload is a problem where one is given so much information at one time they become overwhelmed and unable to process or think about it in a clear way.

We are inundated with so much information these days that we don’t even know how to make sense of it. We’re overloaded. Our attention spans are short, and we have no time leftover for deep, contemplative thought about the information we consume.

One study even found that simply having a smartphone nearby reduces one’s cognitive capacity. This study points to the “brain drain” hypothesis, which suggests that the brain has a finite amount of processing power and the mere presence of a potential distractor (like our smartphones) can occupy a large portion of these resources.

When we feel overwhelmed, we double down and attempt to cram as much information as possible  — we skim 10 different articles at a time without reading anything, fast-forward through YouTube videos to try and find the most interesting parts, ask GPTs to summarize books so we don’t have to read them, and throw videos and podcasts on in the background while working on something else.

The problem is that we just aren’t very good at multitasking. Instead, our attention rapidly (and inefficiently) switches from one task to another. The process of switching focus back and forth requires additional cognitive processes that further reduce the overall capacity of the brain.

“Wherever you are, be there totally.” — Eckhart Tolle

2. Fake News

“Fake news and rumors thrive online because few verify what's real and always bias towards content that reinforces their own biases.” — Ryan Higa

The freedom of the internet means anybody can publish anything and position it as fact. Much of the information we find online is wrong, out of context, or intentionally misleading. Whether this fake information was created out of ignorance or malicious intent doesn’t really matter.

Our ability to distinguish fiction from reality becomes more difficult when we’re saturated with information. Who has the time to fact-check every article they read online?

Another major factor contributing to this issue is the proliferation of bot accounts on social media — a phenomenon that makes up a significant portion of social media profiles these days. Many of these accounts exist for the sole purpose of flooding social media with low-quality information to manipulate human behavior, ideology, and opinions. Sometimes, this is to sell you something; other times, it’s to influence the opinions of society at-large.

Despite the issue with fake news, 50% of people still get most of their news from social media — according to research conducted by Pew Research Center.

The emergence of deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation are making this problem even worse. It’s becoming easier for bad actors to generate and spread false or misleading information throughout the internet in massive quantities.

3. Junk Info

“Treat junk information the way you treat junk food. Realize that it’s crap that tastes good, and consume it sparingly. Monitor your consumption and ensure that you never trick yourself into believing it’s good for you.” — Daniel Miessler

The internet is saturated with junk information — which not only includes information that’s factually incorrect but also those with no practical use. It doesn’t make our lives any better, it doesn’t make us smarter or more capable humans, and it certainly doesn’t make us happier or more present in our lives.

Examples include clickbait, ragebait, gossip, conspiracy theories, babel, or trivial social media status updates. These types of content grab our attention just as much as high-quality content but leave us feeling empty and unsatisfied. This is why you can spend 2 hours scrolling on Instagram or Twitter, only to log off and discover you can’t remember a single piece of information you just consumed.

A major factor driving this phenomenon is that low-quality information provides us with the same dopamine hit as high-quality information but is significantly easier to manufacture. Publishers like Buzzfeed and Bored Panda take advantage of this fact by mass-producing junk information on a scale never before seen in human history.

Gurwinder eloquently describes the crisis of intellectual obesity as follows:

“Just as gorging on junk food bloats your body, so gorging on junk info bloats your mind, filling it with a cacophony of half-remembered gibberish that sidetracks your attention and confuses your senses. Unable to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant, you become concerned by trivialities and outraged by falsehoods. These concerns and outrages push you to consume even more, and all the time that you're consuming, you're prevented from doing anything else: learning, focusing, even thinking. The result is that your stream of consciousness becomes clogged; you develop atherosclerosis of the mind.”

4. Cognitive Bias

“The foolish reject what they see, not what they think — the wise reject what they think, not what they see.” — Huang Po

Cognitive bias refers to the systematic ways in which the context and framing of information influence individuals' judgment and decision-making.

The internet often acts as an echo chamber, where algorithms tailor content to our existing beliefs, reinforcing our biases rather than challenging them.

Confirmation bias, for instance, leads us to favor information that aligns with our preconceptions and dismiss evidence that contradicts them. This bias is magnified online, where we can easily find sources that support any viewpoint, no matter how fringe or unfounded. As a result, our beliefs become more entrenched, and we become less open to opposing perspectives.

Another example is the availability heuristic, which causes us to overestimate the importance of information that is readily available to us. Social media amplifies this bias by prioritizing trending topics, sensational stories, and viral content, often at the expense of more balanced or nuanced viewpoints. This can lead to distorted perceptions of reality, where rare but dramatic events seem more common than they are.

There’s also the bandwagon effect, where people adopt beliefs or behaviors because they see others doing the same. Social media platforms capitalize on this bias by prominently displaying popular posts and trending hashtags, encouraging us to conform to the majority opinion without critically evaluating the information.

5. The Attention Economy

“We find ourselves in a new stage of capitalism. One that is predicated on the ever more aggressive appropriation of our attention, often by mechanized means. This makes cultivating the habits and pleasures of deep, slow thinking a difficult matter.” — Matthew Crawford.

The attention economy is a marketplace in which human attention is treated as a scarce commodity. It’s becoming increasingly sought-after by advertisers.

The key metrics of success in this marketplace are to capture our attention with engaging content, retain it through various psychological tricks and manipulations, and milk our minds for ad dollars. The unfortunate side effect of this is that these manipulations further degrade our ability to think clearly and form logical opinions.

Attention is an important part of the human experience. It’s what connects us with the outside world. Even outside the realm of the internet, different forms of stimuli are constantly seeking our attention — we’ve evolved various internal mechanisms to ignore what isn’t important so we can preserve our energy for what is.

Through the magic of the internet, companies have learned ways to infiltrate our minds and override these internal defense mechanisms.

Just like any other commodity, human attention is subject to the rules of supply and demand. Our personal supply of attention is finite — there’s only so much time in a day, so our attention can only be given to a limited number of things. Tech companies need to innovate ways to maximize the amount of users that interact with their product and extend the time each person is willing to remain engaged.

How Apps Manipulate Our Emotions & Harvest Our Attention

“It is very common for humans to develop things with the best of intentions that have unintended, negative consequences.” — Justin Rosenstein, creator of the 'like' button.

Social media apps use numerous psychological tactics to induce emotions that keep us on the platform.

Here are just a few of the subtle design tweaks these apps employ that unconsciously manipulate our emotions:

• Using the color red for notifications — Red is a trigger color, inducing a sense of alarm. Facebook used to use a blue notification icon (to match their logo); however, developers noted that nobody was paying attention, so they changed it to red, and suddenly, engagement with the feature skyrocketed.

• Variable rewards — The notification centers of apps intentionally hide the specifics of our interactions to keep us in a state of anticipation. It could be a whole bunch of new likes, some new followers, or absolutely nothing at all. The anticipation of not knowing what kind of surprises could be in store for us is exciting, and clicking the dropdown to explore becomes a compulsive habit.

• The pull-to-refresh feature — This loading feature was a happy accident. Loren Brichter invented it for his app, Tweetie (before it was bought by Twitter), simply because there wasn’t a good space to add a refresh button. However, this invention turned out to be a boon for manipulating users' emotions. The little “loading” animation makes us think it’s gathering data, but this delay is intentional. It gives us a sense of anticipation, which is addicting… sort of like the pull of a slot machine.

• Infinite scrolling — Users can continuously scroll through content without ever hitting a stopping point. This design keeps users engaged for long periods of time as there’s always something new just a swipe away. It takes advantage of our natural inclination to keep looking for more information and makes it hard to break free from the app.

• Social validation loops — Features like likes, comments, and shares create a feedback loop that keeps users coming back for more. Each notification of social validation triggers a release of dopamine, reinforcing the behavior and making users more likely to continue engaging with the app in search of more juicy validation.

# Tech Execs Who Refuse to Get High on Their Own Supply

Nobody understands the power of gaming human attention than the tech executives and developers working behind the scenes to keep us hooked on their products.

Over the years, several high-profile individuals working for Google, Meta, Twitter, and Apple have disclosed some of the extreme lengths they go through to avoid getting sucked into the cognitive wormholes their products create.

Here are just a few examples:

Nir Eyal

(Tech consultant and author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life).

Nir Eyal once confided in the lengths he goes to protect his own family from the addictive nature of unfettered internet access in an interview with Thrive Global.

Eyal shuts his phone off at 10 pm and keeps it out of his bedroom while he sleeps. He’s even installed an outlet timer on his home router to cut off internet access for his whole house at the same time every day.

“The idea is to remember that we are not powerless. We are in control.”

Justin Rosenstein

(Creator of the like button).

Justin reports that he’s tweaked his laptop’s operating system to block Reddit, banned himself from Snapchat (which he compares to heroin), and imposed limits on his use of Facebook.

But even that wasn’t enough.

Last year, Justin took an even more radical approach to restrict his use of addictive technologies. He ordered a new phone and asked his assistant to set up parental controls that block him from downloading any new apps.

Loren Brichter

(Designer of the pull-to-refresh feature).

Brichter, like other tech execs, has blocked certain websites, turned off push notifications, restricted his use of the Telegram app to message only with his wife and two close friends, and tried to wean himself off Twitter.

“I still waste time on it just reading stupid news I already know about.”

He charges his phone in the kitchen, plugging it in at 7 pm and not touching it until the next morning.

Tristan Harris

(Co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and former Google design ethicist).

Tristan Harris, who has been vocal about the manipulative design practices of tech companies for years, takes various steps to protect himself. He uses a grayscale screen on his phone to make it less appealing and has removed all social media apps. Harris also sets specific times for checking emails and messages, ensuring that he’s not constantly distracted throughout the day.

“There’s a hidden goal driving all of our technology, and that goal is the race for our attention.”

# Becoming Smarter in the Age of Information

The internet is a double-edged sword. It’s a place we can go to learn, connect, and create, but also a source of delusion, distraction, and misinformation.

Learning to navigate and engage with it wisely can ultimately help us grow to become more present, focused, and content in our daily activities — but only if we establish a foundation of discipline and intentionality.

None of these concepts are new. People like Marshall McLuhan have been talking about the influence of electronic media several years before the internet was even invented.

However, as technologies become more sophisticated and pervasive in our daily lives, we’re learning to adapt and find balance.

In the spirit of acknowledging our need for quick, bite-sized information snippets (wink wink), I’ll conclude with 10 quick strategies we can adopt to resist the distractions of the internet and preserve our cognitive resources to become smarter, happier, more capable humans.

10 Strategies to Thrive in the Information Age

1. Silo your attention — focus on one thing at a time.

2. Avoid going to social media for news.

3. Identify and limit junk information.

4. Seek out diverse perspectives and challenge your cognitive biases.

5. Treat your time and attention with respect — prioritize activities that enrich your life.

6. Limit internet and device usage — consider placing an outlet timer on your internet router.

7. Block or delete distracting websites and apps.

8. Implement grayscale screens.

9. Charge your phone outside your bedroom at night.

10. Practice tech-free days.

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GM, Nostriches!

The Nostr Review is a biweekly newsletter focused on Nostr statistics, protocol updates, exciting programs, the long-form content ecosystem, and key events happening in the Nostr-verse. If you’re interested, join me in covering updates from the Nostr ecosystem!

Quick review:

In the past two weeks, Nostr statistics indicate over 216,000 daily trusted pubkey events. The number of new users has seen a notable decrease, Profiles with contact lists and pubkeys writing events were both representing a 70% decline. More than 7 million events have been published, reflecting a 24% decrease. Total Zap activity stands at approximately 16 million, marking a 20% increase.

Additionally, 14 pull requests were submitted to the Nostr protocol, with 6 merged. A total of 45 Nostr projects were tracked, with 7 releasing product updates, and over 378 long-form articles were published, 24% focusing on Bitcoin and Nostr. During this period, 9 notable events took place, and 3 significant events are upcoming.

Nostr Statistics

Based on user activity, the total daily trusted pubkeys writing events is about 216,000, representing a slight 2 % decrease compared to the previous period. Daily activity peaked at 17483 events, with a low of approximately 15499.

The number of new users has decreased significantly.Profiles with contact lists and pubkeys writing events were 26,132 and 59,403 respectively, both representing a decline of approximately 70% compared to the previous period.

The total number of note events published is around 7 million, reflecting a 24% decrease.Posts remain the most dominant category by volume, totaling approximately 1.7 million, representing a 4% decrease compared to the previous period.Reposts, however, saw a significant increase, rising by 33% compared to the same period.

For zap activity, the total zap amount is about 16 million, showing an decrease of over 20% compared to the previous period.

Data source: https://stats.nostr.band/

NIPs

Allow multi-user AUTH #1881 vitorpamplona is proposing a PR that reuses one connection for everyone by accepting multi-user logins on the relay side. Additionally, this PR standardizes how relays should handle multiple AUTH messages from the client, instead of leaving it as undefined behavior. Currently, most relays override the previous AUTH, which means developers can rotate the authenticated user within the same connection. Some relays only accept the first AUTH and ignore the rest. A few newer relays already support multi-user logins as described in this PR, which he believes is the correct way to implement NIP-42 AUTH. The purpose of this PR is to formalize that behavior.

Adds optional nip60.signSecret() and kind 10019 filter tag #1890 robwoodgate is proposing a PR that clarifies and improves Nostr <---> Cashu interoperability as follows:Adds an optional signer signature for NUT-10 well-known secrets to NIP-60, NIP-07 and NIP-46；Clarifies use of Nostr <---> Cashu public keys in NIP-61；Adds an optional reverse lookup filter tag to NIP-61 kind 10019 events.

Notable Projects

​​Coracle 0.6.10 nostr:npub13myx4j0pp9uenpjjq68wdvqzywuwxfj64welu28mdvaku222mjtqzqv3qk

Coracle 0.6.10 release is out on the web and zapstore! This is another maintenance release, including a complete rewrite of the networking code (coming soon to flotilla), and several bug fixes. * Fix spotify url parsing bug * Fix nip46 signer connect * Use new version of network library * Fix reply drafts bug * Fix creating a new account while logged in * Re-work storage adapter to minimize storage and improve performance * Improve initial page load times * Fix followers page * Upgrade welshman * Remove platform relay * Show PoW * Don't fetch messages until decryption is enabled

Damus v1.14 nostr:npub18m76awca3y37hkvuneavuw6pjj4525fw90necxmadrvjg0sdy6qsngq955

A new TestFlight release is here for Purple users to try! * ️Setup a wallet lightning fast with our new one-click wallet setup, powered by Coinos! * New revamped wallet experience with balance and transactions view for your NWC wallet — see how much you got zapped without even leaving the app! * New notification setting to hide hellthreads. ie. Achieve notification peace. * NIP-65 relay list support — more compatibility across Nostr apps! * Unicode 16 emoji reactions (only for iOS 18.4+) - even more options to express your reactions! * Blurred images now show some more information — no more wondering why images are occasionally blurred. * More bugs fixed, and general robustness improvements.

0xchat v1.4.9 nostr:npub1tm99pgz2lth724jeld6gzz6zv48zy6xp4n9xu5uqrwvx9km54qaqkkxn72

What's new: * Implemented updated NIP-29 group logic with support for group admin roles * Added support for Aegis URL scheme login on iOS

YakiHonne nostr:npub1yzvxlwp7wawed5vgefwfmugvumtp8c8t0etk3g8sky4n0ndvyxesnxrf8q

🌐web v4.6.0: * Introducing Smart Widgets v2 – now dynamic and programmable. Learn more at https://yakihonne.com/docs/sw/intro * New Tools Smart Widgets section in note creation for advanced content editing. * Curations, videos, and polls are now Tools Smart Widgets, enabling quick creation and seamless embedding in notes. * Zap advertisements added—top zappers can now appear below notes. * Note translation button has been relocated next to the note options for easier access. * Followers and following lists are now visible directly on the dashboard home page. * General improvements and bug fixes for a smoother experience.

📱mobile v1.7.0: * Introducing the fully upgraded smart widget with its expanded set of functionalities. * A set of tools to enhance content editing. * Curations, videos, and polls are now Tools Smart Widgets, enabling quick creation and seamless embedding in notes. * Shortened URLs for a better user experience. * Highest zappers in notes will be highlighted. * Zapper list now includes zaps messages. * Videos and curations are no longer visible in the app. * Gossip models can be enabled and disabled. * Fixed multiple bugs for a more stable and seamless app experience. * Enhanced overall performance, usability, and design across the app.

Nostur v1.20 nostr:npub1n0stur7q092gyverzc2wfc00e8egkrdnnqq3alhv7p072u89m5es5mk6h0

New in this version: * Added support for Lists (kind 30000) * Show preview of feed from list * Turn list into feed tab with 1 tap * Subscribe toggle to keep updating the feed from original maintainer, or keep list as-is * Share List: Toggle to make list public * Lists tab on Profile view * 'Add all contacts to feed/list' post menu item * Discover tab now shows Lists shared by your follows * Enable manual ordering of custom feeds / tabs * New Top Zapped feed * New onboarding screens * New default color scheme / adjusted backgrounds * Lower delays and timeouts for fetching things * Improved hellthread handling * Support for comment on highlights (kind 9802) * Toggle to post to restricted/locked relay when starting post from single relay feed * Support relay auth for bunker/remote signer accounts * Zoom for previous profile pictures * Improved Relay Autopilot / Outbox when loading a single profile, always try to find 2 additional relays not in already used relay set * Improved support for accounts with large follow lists * Keep things longer in cache on desktop version * Improved support for pasting animated gifs * Use floating mini video player also on iPad and Desktop * Many performance improvements and bugfixes

Zapstore 0.2.6 nostr:npub10r8xl2njyepcw2zwv3a6dyufj4e4ajx86hz6v4ehu4gnpupxxp7stjt2p8

• Fixes for stale data, apps should now show their latest versions
• Upgrade to nostr:npub1kpt95rv4q3mcz8e4lamwtxq7men6jprf49l7asfac9lnv2gda0lqdknhmz DVM format
• New Developer screen (basic for now, delete local cache if apps are missing!)

ZEUS v0.11.0 nostr:npub1xnf02f60r9v0e5kty33a404dm79zr7z2eepyrk5gsq3m7pwvsz2sazlpr5

ZEUS v0.11.0-alpha 2 with Cashu support is now available for testing. In this build: * Fix: addresses an issue where some Cashu wallets would crash when redeeming their first token. If you were affected by this bug, try removing the mint in question and re-adding it with the 'Existing funds' toggle enabled. FUNDS ARE SAFU! * Feat: Core Lightning: show closed channels list * Locale updates

Long-Form Content Eco

In the past two weeks, more than 378 long-form articles have been published, including over 57 articles on Bitcoin and more than 32 related to Nostr, accounting for 24% of the total content.

These articles about Nostr mainly explore the protocol’s steady evolution toward simplicity, decentralization, and practical usability. There is a clear call within the community to strip away unnecessary complexity and return to Nostr’s minimalist roots, emphasizing lightweight structures and user autonomy. At the same time, a wave of innovation is expanding Nostr’s possibilities—new marketplaces, interoperable bridges with other protocols, and creative tools for publishing, identity, and social interaction are emerging rapidly. The articles also reflect a growing focus on censorship resistance, advocating for more diverse and independent relay networks, encrypted communications between relays, and broader user control over data and publishing. Practical guides and firsthand user experiences reveal both the excitement and the challenges of building within an open, permissionless ecosystem.

These articles about Bitcoin depict the evolution and expansion of the Bitcoin ecosystem from various perspectives. On the technical front, they focus on the iteration of Bitcoin Core versions, innovations in secure storage methods, advancements in multisignature solutions and post-quantum cryptography, as well as the ongoing optimization of payment tools like the Lightning Network, highlighting Bitcoin's continuous progress in enhancing asset security and transaction efficiency. At the same time, through real-life stories and personal experiences, many articles illustrate Bitcoin's practical role in individuals' lives, showing how it helps people achieve financial autonomy, build resilience, and transform their lifestyles in times of turmoil. From a financial perspective, the articles delve into Bitcoin’s unique value as digital gold and an inflation hedge, and its function as a safe haven and transformative force in emerging economies and shifting trade environments.

Thank you, nostr:npub1jp3776ujdul56rfkkrv8rxxgrslqr07rz83xpmz3ndl74lg7ngys320eg2 nostr:npub1xzuej94pvqzwy0ynemeq6phct96wjpplaz9urd7y2q8ck0xxu0lqartaqn nostr:npub1qd6zcgzukmydscp3eyauf2dn6xzgfsevsetrls8zrzgs5t0e4fws7re0mj nostr:npub12q4tq25nvkp52sluql37yr5qn059qf3kpeaa26u0nmd7ag5xqwtscduvuh nostr:npub1t49ker2fyy2xc5y7qrsfxrp6g8evsxluqmaq09xt7uuhhzsurm3srw4jj5 nostr:npub1p7dep69xdstul0v066gcheg2ue9hg2u3pngn2p625auyuj57jkjscpn02q nostr:npub1l0cwgdrjrxsdpu6yhzkp7zcvk2zqxl20hz8mq84tlguf9cd7dgusrmk3ty nostr:npub1fn4afafnasdqcm7hnxtn26s2ye3v3g2h2xave7tcce6s7zkra52sh7yg99 npub1jh95xvxnqdqj5ljh3vahh7s7s0pv9mj9sfrkdnx4xgead9kmwpkq2e0fqm，npub1qn4ylq6s79tz4gwkphq8q4sltwurs6s36xsq2u8aw3qd5ggwzufsw3s3yz，npub1penlq56qnlvsr7v3wry24twn6jtyfw5vt6vce76yawrrajcafwfs0qmn5s，and others, for your work. Enriching Nostr’s long-form content ecosystem is crucial.

Nostriches Global Meet Ups

Recently, several Nostr events have been hosted in different countries. * Recently, YakiHonne collaborated with multiple communities and universities across Africa, such as nostr:npub1yp5maegtq53x536xcznk2hqzdtpgxg63hzhl2ya3u4nrtuasxaaqa52pzn nostr:npub1tk59m73xjqq7k3hz9hlwsvspu2xq7t9gg0qj86cgp4rrlqew5lpq5zq7qp nostr:npub1wjncl8k8z86qq2hwqqeufa4g9z35r5t5wquawxghnrs06z9ds8zsm49yg7 and more, to successfully host seven Nostr Workshops, attracting over 200 enthusiastic participants. The events not only provided a comprehensive introduction to the Nostr ecosystem and Bitcoin payments but also offered hands-on experiences with decentralized technologies through the YakiHonne platform.

• The second BOBSpace Nostr Month Meetup took place on Friday, April 25, 2025, at 6:30 PM in Bangkok. This special event featured nostr:npub18k67rww6547vdf74225x4p6hfm4zvhs8t8w7hp75fcrj0au7mzxs30202m the developer of Thailand’s home-grown Nostr client Wherostr, as the guest speaker. He shared his developer journey, the story behind building Wherostr, and how Nostr enables censorship-resistant communication. This was a Bitcoin-only meetup focused on the Nostr protocol and decentralized technologies.
• Panama Blockchain Week 2025 took place from April 22 to 24 at the Panama Convention Center in Panama City. As the first large-scale blockchain event in Central America, it aimed to position Panama as a leading blockchain financial hub in Latin America. The event featured a diverse lineup, including a blockchain conference, Investor’s Night, Web3 gaming experiences, tech exhibitions, and an after-party celebration.

Here is the upcoming Nostr event that you might want to check out. * Nostr & Poker Night will be held on April 30 at the Bitcoin Embassy in El Salvador. The event will feature an exciting Nostr-themed presentation by nostr:npub1dmnzphvk097ahcpecwfeml08xw8sg2cj4vux55m5xalqtzz9t78q6k3kv6 followed by a relaxed and fun poker night. Notably, 25% of the poker tournament prize will be donated to support MyfirstBitcoin’s Bitcoin education initiatives. * A free webinar on venture capital, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies will be held online on May 6 at 12:00 PM (ARG time). Organized in collaboration with Draper Cygnus, the event aims to introduce the fundamentals of venture capital, present the projects of ONG Bitcoin Argentina Academy, and provide attendees with the opportunity to interact with the guest speakers. * Bitcoin Unveiled: Demystifying Freedom Money will take place on May 10, 2025, at Almara Hub. The event will explore Bitcoin’s transformative potential, helping participants understand its purpose, learn how to get started, build a career in the Bitcoin space, and begin their Bitcoin savings journey. Featured speakers include nostr:npub1sn0q3zptdcm8qh8ktyhwtrnr9htwpykav8qnryhusr9mcr9ustxqe4tr2x Theophilus Isah, nostr:npub1s7xkezkzlfvya6ce6cuhzwswtxqm787pwddk2395pt9va4ulzjjszuz67p , and Megasley.

Additionally, We warmly invite event organizers who have held recent activities to reach out to us so we can work together to promote the prosperity and development of the Nostr ecosystem.

Thanks for reading! If there’s anything I missed, feel free to reach out and help improve the completeness and accuracy of my coverage.

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

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

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

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

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