@ b83a28b7:35919450

This article was originally part of the sermon of Plebchain Radio Episode 111 (May 2, 2025) that nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqpqtvqc82mv8cezhax5r34n4muc2c4pgjz8kaye2smj032nngg52clq7fgefr and I did with nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qyt8wumn8ghj7ct4w35zumn0wd68yvfwvdhk6tcqyzx4h2fv3n9r6hrnjtcrjw43t0g0cmmrgvjmg525rc8hexkxc0kd2rhtk62 and nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyg8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqpq4wxtsrj7g2jugh70pfkzjln43vgn4p7655pgky9j9w9d75u465pqahkzd0 of the nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqyqwfvwrccp4j2xsuuvkwg0y6a20637t6f4cc5zzjkx030dkztt7t5hydajn

Listen to the full episode here:

<<https://fountain.fm/episode/Ln9Ej0zCZ5dEwfo8w2Ho>>

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Bitcoin has always been a narrative revolution disguised as code. White paper, cypherpunk lore, pizza‑day legends - every block is a paragraph in the world’s most relentless epic. But code alone rarely converts the skeptic; it’s the camp‑fire myth that slips past the prefrontal cortex and shakes hands with the limbic system. People don’t adopt protocols first - they fall in love with protagonists.

Early adopters heard the white‑paper hymn, but most folks need characters first: a pizza‑day dreamer; a mother in a small country, crushed by the cost of remittance; a Warsaw street vendor swapping złoty for sats. When their arcs land, the brain releases a neurochemical OP_RETURN which says, “I belong in this plot.” That’s the sly roundabout orange pill: conviction smuggled inside catharsis.

That’s why, from 22–25 May in Warsaw’s Kinoteka, the Bitcoin Film Fest is loading its reels with rebellion. Each documentary, drama, and animated rabbit‑hole is a stealth wallet, zipping conviction straight into the feels of anyone still clasped within the cold claw of fiat. You come for the plot, you leave checking block heights.

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Here's the clip of the sermon from the episode:

nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzpwp69zm7fewjp0vkp306adnzt7249ytxhz7mq3w5yc629u6er9zsqqsy43fwz8es2wnn65rh0udc05tumdnx5xagvzd88ptncspmesdqhygcrvpf2

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

Bitcoin has always been rooted in freedom and resistance to authority. I get that many of you are conflicted about the US Government stacking but by design we cannot stop anyone from using bitcoin. Many have asked me for my thoughts on the matter, so let’s rip it.

Concern

One of the most glaring issues with the strategic bitcoin reserve is its foundation, built on stolen bitcoin. For those of us who value private property this is an obvious betrayal of our core principles. Rather than proof of work, the bitcoin that seeds this reserve has been taken by force. The US Government should return the bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex and the Silk Road.

Using stolen bitcoin for the reserve creates a perverse incentive. If governments see bitcoin as a valuable asset, they will ramp up efforts to confiscate more bitcoin. The precedent is a major concern, and I stand strongly against it, but it should be also noted that governments were already seizing coin before the reserve so this is not really a change in policy.

Ideally all seized bitcoin should be burned, by law. This would align incentives properly and make it less likely for the government to actively increase coin seizures. Due to the truly scarce properties of bitcoin, all burned bitcoin helps existing holders through increased purchasing power regardless. This change would be unlikely but those of us in policy circles should push for it regardless. It would be best case scenario for American bitcoiners and would create a strong foundation for the next century of American leadership.

Optimism

The entire point of bitcoin is that we can spend or save it without permission. That said, it is a massive benefit to not have one of the strongest governments in human history actively trying to ruin our lives.

Since the beginning, bitcoiners have faced horrible regulatory trends. KYC, surveillance, and legal cases have made using bitcoin and building bitcoin businesses incredibly difficult. It is incredibly important to note that over the past year that trend has reversed for the first time in a decade. A strategic bitcoin reserve is a key driver of this shift. By holding bitcoin, the strongest government in the world has signaled that it is not just a fringe technology but rather truly valuable, legitimate, and worth stacking.

This alignment of incentives changes everything. The US Government stacking proves bitcoin’s worth. The resulting purchasing power appreciation helps all of us who are holding coin and as bitcoin succeeds our government receives direct benefit. A beautiful positive feedback loop.

Realism

We are trending in the right direction. A strategic bitcoin reserve is a sign that the state sees bitcoin as an asset worth embracing rather than destroying. That said, there is a lot of work left to be done. We cannot be lulled into complacency, the time to push forward is now, and we cannot take our foot off the gas. We have a seat at the table for the first time ever. Let's make it worth it.

We must protect the right to free usage of bitcoin and other digital technologies. Freedom in the digital age must be taken and defended, through both technical and political avenues. Multiple privacy focused developers are facing long jail sentences for building tools that protect our freedom. These cases are not just legal battles. They are attacks on the soul of bitcoin. We need to rally behind them, fight for their freedom, and ensure the ethos of bitcoin survives this new era of government interest. The strategic reserve is a step in the right direction, but it is up to us to hold the line and shape the future.

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

Recently we have seen a wave of high profile X accounts hacked. These attacks have exposed the fragility of the status quo security model used by modern social media platforms like X. Many users have asked if nostr fixes this, so lets dive in. How do these types of attacks translate into the world of nostr apps? For clarity, I will use X’s security model as representative of most big tech social platforms and compare it to nostr.

The Status Quo

On X, you never have full control of your account. Ultimately to use it requires permission from the company. They can suspend your account or limit your distribution. Theoretically they can even post from your account at will. An X account is tied to an email and password. Users can also opt into two factor authentication, which adds an extra layer of protection, a login code generated by an app. In theory, this setup works well, but it places a heavy burden on users. You need to create a strong, unique password and safeguard it. You also need to ensure your email account and phone number remain secure, as attackers can exploit these to reset your credentials and take over your account. Even if you do everything responsibly, there is another weak link in X infrastructure itself. The platform’s infrastructure allows accounts to be reset through its backend. This could happen maliciously by an employee or through an external attacker who compromises X’s backend. When an account is compromised, the legitimate user often gets locked out, unable to post or regain control without contacting X’s support team. That process can be slow, frustrating, and sometimes fruitless if support denies the request or cannot verify your identity. Often times support will require users to provide identification info in order to regain access, which represents a privacy risk. The centralized nature of X means you are ultimately at the mercy of the company’s systems and staff.

Nostr Requires Responsibility

Nostr flips this model radically. Users do not need permission from a company to access their account, they can generate as many accounts as they want, and cannot be easily censored. The key tradeoff here is that users have to take complete responsibility for their security. Instead of relying on a username, password, and corporate servers, nostr uses a private key as the sole credential for your account. Users generate this key and it is their responsibility to keep it safe. As long as you have your key, you can post. If someone else gets it, they can post too. It is that simple. This design has strong implications. Unlike X, there is no backend reset option. If your key is compromised or lost, there is no customer support to call. In a compromise scenario, both you and the attacker can post from the account simultaneously. Neither can lock the other out, since nostr relays simply accept whatever is signed with a valid key.

The benefit? No reliance on proprietary corporate infrastructure.. The negative? Security rests entirely on how well you protect your key.

Future Nostr Security Improvements

For many users, nostr’s standard security model, storing a private key on a phone with an encrypted cloud backup, will likely be sufficient. It is simple and reasonably secure. That said, nostr’s strength lies in its flexibility as an open protocol. Users will be able to choose between a range of security models, balancing convenience and protection based on need.

One promising option is a web of trust model for key rotation. Imagine pre-selecting a group of trusted friends. If your account is compromised, these people could collectively sign an event announcing the compromise to the network and designate a new key as your legitimate one. Apps could handle this process seamlessly in the background, notifying followers of the switch without much user interaction. This could become a popular choice for average users, but it is not without tradeoffs. It requires trust in your chosen web of trust, which might not suit power users or large organizations. It also has the issue that some apps may not recognize the key rotation properly and followers might get confused about which account is “real.”

For those needing higher security, there is the option of multisig using FROST (Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold). In this setup, multiple keys must sign off on every action, including posting and updating a profile. A hacker with just one key could not do anything. This is likely overkill for most users due to complexity and inconvenience, but it could be a game changer for large organizations, companies, and governments. Imagine the White House nostr account requiring signatures from multiple people before a post goes live, that would be much more secure than the status quo big tech model.

Another option are hardware signers, similar to bitcoin hardware wallets. Private keys are kept on secure, offline devices, separate from the internet connected phone or computer you use to broadcast events. This drastically reduces the risk of remote hacks, as private keys never touches the internet. It can be used in combination with multisig setups for extra protection. This setup is much less convenient and probably overkill for most but could be ideal for governments, companies, or other high profile accounts.

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Nostr’s security model is not perfect but is robust and versatile. Ultimately users are in control and security is their responsibility. Apps will give users multiple options to choose from and users will choose what best fits their need.

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

In much of the world, it is incredibly difficult to access U.S. dollars. Local currencies are often poorly managed and riddled with corruption. Billions of people demand a more reliable alternative. While the dollar has its own issues of corruption and mismanagement, it is widely regarded as superior to the fiat currencies it competes with globally. As a result, Tether has found massive success providing low cost, low friction access to dollars. Tether claims 400 million total users, is on track to add 200 million more this year, processes 8.1 million transactions daily, and facilitates $29 billion in daily transfers. Furthermore, their estimates suggest nearly 40% of users rely on it as a savings tool rather than just a transactional currency.

Tether’s rise has made the company a financial juggernaut. Last year alone, Tether raked in over $13 billion in profit, with a lean team of less than 100 employees. Their business model is elegantly simple: hold U.S. Treasuries and collect the interest. With over $113 billion in Treasuries, Tether has turned a straightforward concept into a profit machine.

Tether’s success has resulted in many competitors eager to claim a piece of the pie. This has triggered a massive venture capital grift cycle in USD tokens, with countless projects vying to dethrone Tether. Due to Tether’s entrenched network effect, these challengers face an uphill battle with little realistic chance of success. Most educated participants in the space likely recognize this reality but seem content to perpetuate the grift, hoping to cash out by dumping their equity positions on unsuspecting buyers before they realize the reality of the situation.

Historically, Tether’s greatest vulnerability has been U.S. government intervention. For over a decade, the company operated offshore with few allies in the U.S. establishment, making it a major target for regulatory action. That dynamic has shifted recently and Tether has seized the opportunity. By actively courting U.S. government support, Tether has fortified their position. This strategic move will likely cement their status as the dominant USD token for years to come.

While undeniably a great tool for the millions of users that rely on it, Tether is not without flaws. As a centralized, trusted third party, it holds the power to freeze or seize funds at its discretion. Corporate mismanagement or deliberate malpractice could also lead to massive losses at scale. In their goal of mitigating regulatory risk, Tether has deepened ties with law enforcement, mirroring some of the concerns of potential central bank digital currencies. In practice, Tether operates as a corporate CBDC alternative, collaborating with authorities to surveil and seize funds. The company proudly touts partnerships with leading surveillance firms and its own data reveals cooperation in over 1,000 law enforcement cases, with more than $2.5 billion in funds frozen.

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The global demand for Tether is undeniable and the company’s profitability reflects its unrivaled success. Tether is owned and operated by bitcoiners and will likely continue to push forward strategic goals that help the movement as a whole. Recent efforts to mitigate the threat of U.S. government enforcement will likely solidify their network effect and stifle meaningful adoption of rival USD tokens or CBDCs. Yet, for all their achievements, Tether is simply a worse form of money than bitcoin. Tether requires trust in a centralized entity, while bitcoin can be saved or spent without permission. Furthermore, Tether is tied to the value of the US Dollar which is designed to lose purchasing power over time, while bitcoin, as a truly scarce asset, is designed to increase in purchasing power with adoption. As people awaken to the risks of Tether’s control, and the benefits bitcoin provides, bitcoin adoption will likely surpass it.

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

One of the most common criticisms leveled against nostr is the perceived lack of assurance when it comes to data storage. Critics argue that without a centralized authority guaranteeing that all data is preserved, important information will be lost. They also claim that running a relay will become prohibitively expensive. While there is truth to these concerns, they miss the mark. The genius of nostr lies in its flexibility, resilience, and the way it harnesses human incentives to ensure data availability in practice.

A nostr relay is simply a server that holds cryptographically verifiable signed data and makes it available to others. Relays are simple, flexible, open, and require no permission to run. Critics are right that operating a relay attempting to store all nostr data will be costly. What they miss is that most will not run all encompassing archive relays. Nostr does not rely on massive archive relays. Instead, anyone can run a relay and choose to store whatever subset of data they want. This keeps costs low and operations flexible, making relay operation accessible to all sorts of individuals and entities with varying use cases.

Critics are correct that there is no ironclad guarantee that every piece of data will always be available. Unlike bitcoin where data permanence is baked into the system at a steep cost, nostr does not promise that every random note or meme will be preserved forever. That said, in practice, any data perceived as valuable by someone will likely be stored and distributed by multiple entities. If something matters to someone, they will keep a signed copy.

Nostr is the Streisand Effect in protocol form. The Streisand effect is when an attempt to suppress information backfires, causing it to spread even further. With nostr, anyone can broadcast signed data, anyone can store it, and anyone can distribute it. Try to censor something important? Good luck. The moment it catches attention, it will be stored on relays across the globe, copied, and shared by those who find it worth keeping. Data deemed important will be replicated across servers by individuals acting in their own interest.

Nostr’s distributed nature ensures that the system does not rely on a single point of failure or a corporate overlord. Instead, it leans on the collective will of its users. The result is a network where costs stay manageable, participation is open to all, and valuable verifiable data is stored and distributed forever.

@ 04c915da:3dfbecc9

Capitalism is the most effective system for scaling innovation. The pursuit of profit is an incredibly powerful human incentive. Most major improvements to human society and quality of life have resulted from this base incentive. Market competition often results in the best outcomes for all.

That said, some projects can never be monetized. They are open in nature and a business model would centralize control. Open protocols like bitcoin and nostr are not owned by anyone and if they were it would destroy the key value propositions they provide. No single entity can or should control their use. Anyone can build on them without permission.

As a result, open protocols must depend on donation based grant funding from the people and organizations that rely on them. This model works but it is slow and uncertain, a grind where sustainability is never fully reached but rather constantly sought. As someone who has been incredibly active in the open source grant funding space, I do not think people truly appreciate how difficult it is to raise charitable money and deploy it efficiently.

Projects that can be monetized should be. Profitability is a super power. When a business can generate revenue, it taps into a self sustaining cycle. Profit fuels growth and development while providing projects independence and agency. This flywheel effect is why companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple have scaled to global dominance. The profit incentive aligns human effort with efficiency. Businesses must innovate, cut waste, and deliver value to survive.

Contrast this with non monetized projects. Without profit, they lean on external support, which can dry up or shift with donor priorities. A profit driven model, on the other hand, is inherently leaner and more adaptable. It is not charity but survival. When survival is tied to delivering what people want, scale follows naturally.

The real magic happens when profitable, sustainable businesses are built on top of open protocols and software. Consider the many startups building on open source software stacks, such as Start9, Mempool, and Primal, offering premium services on top of the open source software they build out and maintain. Think of companies like Block or Strike, which leverage bitcoin’s open protocol to offer their services on top. These businesses amplify the open software and protocols they build on, driving adoption and improvement at a pace donations alone could never match.

When you combine open software and protocols with profit driven business the result are lean, sustainable companies that grow faster and serve more people than either could alone. Bitcoin’s network, for instance, benefits from businesses that profit off its existence, while nostr will expand as developers monetize apps built on the protocol.

Capitalism scales best because competition results in efficiency. Donation funded protocols and software lay the groundwork, while market driven businesses build on top. The profit incentive acts as a filter, ensuring resources flow to what works, while open systems keep the playing field accessible, empowering users and builders. Together, they create a flywheel of innovation, growth, and global benefit.

@ 08f96856:ffe59a09

เมื่อพูดถึง Bitcoin Standard หลายคนมักนึกถึงภาพโลกอนาคตที่ทุกคนใช้บิตคอยน์ซื้อกาแฟหรือของใช้ในชีวิตประจำวัน ภาพแบบนั้นดูเหมือนไกลตัวและเป็นไปไม่ได้ในความเป็นจริง หลายคนถึงกับพูดว่า “คงไม่ทันเห็นในช่วงชีวิตนี้หรอก” แต่ในมุมมองของผม Bitcoin Standard อาจไม่ได้เริ่มต้นจากการที่เราจ่ายบิตคอยน์โดยตรงในร้านค้า แต่อาจเริ่มจากบางสิ่งที่เงียบกว่า ลึกกว่า และเกิดขึ้นแล้วในขณะนี้ นั่นคือ การล่มสลายทีละน้อยของระบบเฟียตที่เราใช้กันอยู่

ระบบเงินที่อิงกับอำนาจรัฐกำลังเข้าสู่ช่วงขาลง รัฐบาลทั่วโลกกำลังจมอยู่ในภาระหนี้ระดับประวัติการณ์ แม้แต่ประเทศมหาอำนาจก็เริ่มแสดงสัญญาณของภาวะเสี่ยงผิดนัดชำระหนี้ อัตราเงินเฟ้อกลายเป็นปัญหาเรื้อรังที่ไม่มีท่าทีจะหายไป ธนาคารที่เคยโอนฟรีเริ่มกลับมาคิดค่าธรรมเนียม และประชาชนก็เริ่มรู้สึกถึงการเสื่อมศรัทธาในระบบการเงินดั้งเดิม แม้จะยังพูดกันไม่เต็มเสียงก็ตาม

ในขณะเดียวกัน บิตคอยน์เองก็กำลังพัฒนาแบบเงียบ ๆ เงียบ... แต่ไม่เคยหยุด โดยเฉพาะในระดับ Layer 2 ที่เริ่มแสดงศักยภาพอย่างจริงจัง Lightning Network เป็น Layer 2 ที่เปิดใช้งานมาได้ระยะเวลสหนึ่ง และยังคงมีบทบาทสำคัญที่สุดในระบบนิเวศของบิตคอยน์ มันทำให้การชำระเงินเร็วขึ้น มีต้นทุนต่ำ และไม่ต้องบันทึกทุกธุรกรรมลงบล็อกเชน เครือข่ายนี้กำลังขยายตัวทั้งในแง่ของโหนดและการใช้งานจริงทั่วโลก

ขณะเดียวกัน Layer 2 ทางเลือกอื่นอย่าง Ark Protocol ก็กำลังพัฒนาเพื่อตอบโจทย์ด้านความเป็นส่วนตัวและประสบการณ์ใช้งานที่ง่าย BitVM เปิดแนวทางใหม่ให้บิตคอยน์รองรับ smart contract ได้ในระดับ Turing-complete ซึ่งทำให้เกิดความเป็นไปได้ในกรณีใช้งานอีกมากมาย และเทคโนโลยีที่น่าสนใจอย่าง Taproot Assets, Cashu และ Fedimint ก็ทำให้การออกโทเคนหรือสกุลเงินที่อิงกับบิตคอยน์เป็นจริงได้บนโครงสร้างของบิตคอยน์เอง

เทคโนโลยีเหล่านี้ไม่ใช่การเติบโตแบบปาฏิหาริย์ แต่มันคืบหน้าอย่างต่อเนื่องและมั่นคง และนั่นคือเหตุผลที่มันจะ “อยู่รอด” ได้ในระยะยาว เมื่อฐานของความน่าเชื่อถือไม่ใช่บริษัท รัฐบาล หรือทุน แต่คือสิ่งที่ตรวจสอบได้และเปลี่ยนกฎไม่ได้

แน่นอนว่าบิตคอยน์ต้องแข่งขันกับ stable coin, เงินดิจิทัลของรัฐ และ cryptocurrency อื่น ๆ แต่สิ่งที่ทำให้มันเหนือกว่านั้นไม่ใช่ฟีเจอร์ หากแต่เป็นความทนทาน และความมั่นคงของกฎที่ไม่มีใครเปลี่ยนได้ ไม่มีทีมพัฒนา ไม่มีบริษัท ไม่มีประตูปิด หรือการยึดบัญชี มันยืนอยู่บนคณิตศาสตร์ พลังงาน และเวลา

หลายกรณีใช้งานที่เคยถูกทดลองในโลกคริปโตจะค่อย ๆ เคลื่อนเข้ามาสู่บิตคอยน์ เพราะโครงสร้างของมันแข็งแกร่งกว่า ไม่ต้องการทีมพัฒนาแกนกลาง ไม่ต้องพึ่งกลไกเสี่ยงต่อการผูกขาด และไม่ต้องการ “ความเชื่อใจ” จากใครเลย

Bitcoin Standard ที่ผมพูดถึงจึงไม่ใช่การเปลี่ยนแปลงแบบพลิกหน้ามือเป็นหลังมือ แต่คือการ “เปลี่ยนฐานของระบบ” ทีละชั้น ระบบการเงินใหม่ที่อิงอยู่กับบิตคอยน์กำลังเกิดขึ้นแล้ว มันไม่ใช่โลกที่ทุกคนถือเหรียญบิตคอยน์ แต่มันคือโลกที่คนใช้อาจไม่รู้ตัวด้วยซ้ำว่า “สิ่งที่เขาใช้นั้นอิงอยู่กับบิตคอยน์”

ผู้คนอาจใช้เงินดิจิทัลที่สร้างบน Layer 3 หรือ Layer 4 ผ่านแอป ผ่านแพลตฟอร์ม หรือผ่านสกุลเงินใหม่ที่ดูไม่ต่างจากเดิม แต่เบื้องหลังของระบบจะผูกไว้กับบิตคอยน์

และถ้ามองในเชิงพัฒนาการ บิตคอยน์ก็เหมือนกับอินเทอร์เน็ต ครั้งหนึ่งอินเทอร์เน็ตก็ถูกมองว่าเข้าใจยาก ต้องพิมพ์ http ต้องรู้จัก TCP/IP ต้องตั้ง proxy เอง แต่ปัจจุบันผู้คนใช้งานอินเทอร์เน็ตโดยไม่รู้ว่าเบื้องหลังมีอะไรเลย บิตคอยน์กำลังเดินตามเส้นทางเดียวกัน โปรโตคอลกำลังถอยออกจากสายตา และวันหนึ่งเราจะ “ใช้มัน” โดยไม่ต้องรู้ว่ามันคืออะไร

หากนับจากช่วงเริ่มต้นของอินเทอร์เน็ตในยุค 1990 จนกลายเป็นโครงสร้างหลักของโลกในสองทศวรรษ เส้นเวลาของบิตคอยน์ก็กำลังเดินตามรอยเท้าของอินเทอร์เน็ต และถ้าเราเชื่อว่าวัฏจักรของเทคโนโลยีมีจังหวะของมันเอง เราก็จะรู้ว่า Bitcoin Standard นั้นไม่ใช่เรื่องของอนาคตไกลโพ้น แต่มันเกิดขึ้นแล้ว

siamstr

@ 609f186c:0aa4e8af

Google says that Android 16 is slated to feature an optional high security mode. Cool.

Advanced Protection has a bunch of requested features that address the kinds of threats we worry about.

It's the kind of 'turn this one thing on if you face elevated risk' that we've been asking for from Google.

And likely reflects some learning after Google watched Apple 's Lockdown Mode play out. I see a lot of value in this..

Here are some features I'm excited to see play out:

The Intrusion Logging feature is interesting & is going to impose substantial cost on attackers trying to hide evidence of exploitation. Logs get e2ee encrypted into the cloud. This one is spicy.

The Offline Lock, Inactivity Reboot & USB protection will frustrate non-consensual attempts to physically grab device data.

Memory Tagging Extension is going to make a lot of attack & exploitation categories harder.

2G Network Protection & disabling Auto-connect to insecure networks are going to address categories of threat from things like IMSI catchers & hostile WiFi.

I'm curious about some other features such as:

Spam & Scam detection: Google messages feature that suggests message content awareness and some kind of scanning.

Scam detection for Phone by Google is interesting & coming later. The way it is described suggests phone conversation awareness. This also addresses a different category of threat than the stuff above. I can see it addressing a whole category of bad things that regular users (& high risk ones too!) face. Will be curious how privacy is addressed or if this done purely locally. Getting messy: Friction points? I see Google thinking these through, but I'm going to add a potential concern: what will users do when they encounter friction? Will they turn this off & forget to re-enable? We've seen users turn off iOS Lockdown Mode when they run into friction for specific websites or, say, legacy WiFi. They then forget to turn it back on. And stay vulnerable.

Bottom line: users disabling Apple's Lockdown Mode for a temporary thing & leaving it off because they forget to turn it on happens a lot. This is a serious % of users in my experience...

And should be factored into design decisions for similar modes. I feel like a good balance is a 'snooze button' or equivalent so that users can disable all/some features for a brief few minute period to do something they need to do, and then auto re-enable.

Winding up:

I'm excited to see how Android Advanced Protection plays with high risk users' experiences. I'm also super curious whether the spam/scam detection features may also be helpful to more vulnerable users (think: aging seniors)...

Niche but important:

Some users, esp. those that migrated to security & privacy-focused Android distros because of because of the absence of such a feature are clear candidates for it... But they may also voice privacy concerns around some of the screening features. Clear communication from the Google Security / Android team will be key here.

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

Streams are the key to nostr

Loading events from a nostr relay is probably the most inconsistent way of loading data I've had to work with, and that's only loading from a single relay. the problem gets exponentially more complicated once you try to load events from multiple relays

Unlike HTTP nostr does not have a simple flow with timeouts built in. events are sent back one at a time and can fail at any point or have massive (10s) gaps between them

The key is to use streams. something that starts, emits any number of results, then maybe errors or completes. luckily it just so happens that JavaScript / TypeScript has a great observable stream library called RxJS

What is an observable

An Observable in RxJS is stream a of data that are initialized lazily, which means the stream is inactive and not running until something subscribes to it

```ts let stream = new Observable((observer) => { observer.next(1) observer.next(2) observer.next(3) observer.complete() })

// The stream method isn't run until its subscribed to stream.subscribe(v => console.log(v)) ```

This is super powerful and perfect for nostr because it means we don't need to manage the life-cycle of the stream. it will run when something subscribes to it and stop when unsubscribed.

Its helpful to think of this as "pulling" data. once we have created an observable we can request the data from it at any point in the future.

Pulling data from relays

We can use the lazy nature of observables to only start fetching events from a nostr relay when we need them

For example we can create an observable that will load kind 1 events from the damus relay and stream them back as they are returned from the relay

```typescript let req = new Observable((observer) => { // Create a new websocket connection when the observable is start let ws = new WebSocket('wss://relay.damus.io')

ws.onopen = () => { // Start a REQ ws.send(JSON.stringify(['REQ', 'test', {kinds: [1], limit: 20}])) }

ws.onmessage = (event) => { let message = JSON.parse(event.data) // Get the event from the message and pass it along to the subscribers if(message[0] === 'EVENT') observer.next(message[1]) }

// Cleanup subscription return () => { ws.send(JSON.stringify(['CLOSE', 'test'])) ws.close() } }) ```

But creating the observable wont do anything. we need to subscribe to it to get any events.

ts let sub = req.subscribe(event => { console.log('we got an event' event) })

Cool now we are pulling events from a relay. once we are done we can stop listening to it by unsubscribing from it

ts sub.unsubscribe()

This will call the cleanup method on the observable, which in turn closes the connection to the relay.

Hopefully you can see how this work, we don't have any open, connect, or disconnect methods. we simply subscribe to a stream of events and it handles all the messy logic of connecting to a relay

Composing and chaining observables

I've shown you how we can create a simple stream of events from a relay, but what if we want to pull from two relays?

Easy, lets make the previous example into a function that takes a relay URL

```ts function getNoteFromRelay(relay: string){ return new Observable((observer) => { let ws = new WebSocket(relay)

// ...rest of the observable...

}) } ```

Then we can "merge" two of these observables into a single observable using the merge method from RxJS

The merge method will create a single observable that subscribes to both upstream observables and sends all the events back. Think of it as pulling events from both relays at once

```ts import { merge } from 'rxjs'

const notes = merge( getNoteFromRelay('wss://relay.damus.io'), getNoteFromRelay('wss://nos.lol') )

// Subscribe to the observable to start getting data from it const sub = notes.subscribe(event => { console.log(event) })

// later unsubscribe setTimeout(() => { sub.unsubscribe() }, 10_000) ```

But now we have a problem, because we are pulling events from two relays we are getting duplicate events. to solve this we can use the .pipe method and the distinct operator from RxJS to modify our single observable to only return one version of each event

The .pipe method will create a chain of observables that will each subscribe to the previous one and modify the returned values in some way

The distinct operator takes a method that returns a unique identifier and filters out any duplicate values

```ts import { merge, distinct } from 'rxjs'

const notes = merge( getNoteFromRelay('wss://relay.damus.io'), getNoteFromRelay('wss://nos.lol') ).pipe( // filter out events we have seen before based on the event id distinct(event => event.id) ) ```

Now we have an observable that when subscribed to will connect to two relays and return a stream of events without duplicates...

As you can see things can start getting complicated fast. but its also very powerful because we aren't managing any life-cycle code, we just subscribe and unsubscribe from an observable

Taking it to an extreme

Hopefully at this point you can see how powerful this is, we can think of almost any data loading pattern as a series of observables that pull data from upstream observables and stream it back to the original subscriber.

Here is a quick sketch of what it could look like to load user profiles. each node is an observable that "pulls" data from its child node ending with the "connect websocket" or "load from database" nodes which do the work of making a relay connection

Conclusion

All this might seem pretty simple and straight forward, but its been a long six month of learning for me. I've had to completely rethink how data and nostr events should be handled in a client and how to avoid screwing up and shooting myself in the foot with these powerful tools.

If you want to give RxJS a try I would encourage you to checkout the nostr sdk I've been building called applesauce

Its uses RxJS for pretty much everything and has the simplest and most flexible relay connection API I've seen so far (mainly no life-cycle management)

@ c9badfea:610f861a

1. Install Obtainium (it's free and open source)
2. Launch the app and allow notifications
3. Open your browser, navigate to the GitHub page of the app you want to install, and copy the URL (e.g. https://github.com/revanced/revanced-manager for ReVanced)
4. Launch Obtainium, navigate to Add App, paste the URL into App Source URL, and tap Add
5. Wait for the loading process to finish
6. You can now tap Install to install the application
7. Enable Allow From This Source and return to Obtainium
8. Proceed with the installation by tapping Install

ℹ️ Besides GitHub, Obtainium can install from additional sources

ℹ️ You can also explore Complex Obtainium Apps for more options

@ 88cc134b:5ae99079

text

@ c631e267:c2b78d3e

Die zwei mächtigsten Krieger sind Geduld und Zeit. \ Leo Tolstoi

Zum Wohle unserer Gesundheit, unserer Leistungsfähigkeit und letztlich unseres Glücks ist es wichtig, die eigene Energie bewusst zu pflegen. Das gilt umso mehr für an gesellschaftlichen Themen interessierte, selbstbewusste und kritisch denkende Menschen. Denn für deren Wahrnehmung und Wohlbefinden waren und sind die rasanten, krisen- und propagandagefüllten letzten Jahre in Absurdistan eine harte Probe.

Nur wer regelmäßig Kraft tankt und Wege findet, mit den Herausforderungen umzugehen, kann eine solche Tortur überstehen, emotionale Erschöpfung vermeiden und trotz allem zufrieden sein. Dazu müssen wir erkunden, was uns Energie gibt und was sie uns raubt. Durch Selbstreflexion und Achtsamkeit finden wir sicher Dinge, die uns erfreuen und inspirieren, und andere, die uns eher stressen und belasten.

Die eigene Energie ist eng mit unserer körperlichen und mentalen Gesundheit verbunden. Methoden zur Förderung der körperlichen Gesundheit sind gut bekannt: eine ausgewogene Ernährung, regelmäßige Bewegung sowie ausreichend Schlaf und Erholung. Bei der nicht minder wichtigen emotionalen Balance wird es schon etwas komplizierter. Stress abzubauen, die eigenen Grenzen zu kennen oder solche zum Schutz zu setzen sowie die Konzentration auf Positives und Sinnvolles wären Ansätze.

Der emotionale ist auch der Bereich, über den «Energie-Räuber» bevorzugt attackieren. Das sind zum Beispiel Dinge wie Überforderung, Perfektionismus oder mangelhafte Kommunikation. Social Media gehören ganz sicher auch dazu. Sie stehlen uns nicht nur Zeit, sondern sind höchst manipulativ und erhöhen laut einer aktuellen Studie das Risiko für psychische Probleme wie Angstzustände und Depressionen.

Geben wir negativen oder gar bösen Menschen keine Macht über uns. Das Dauerfeuer der letzten Jahre mit Krisen, Konflikten und Gefahren sollte man zwar kennen, darf sich aber davon nicht runterziehen lassen. Das Ziel derartiger konzertierter Aktionen ist vor allem, unsere innere Stabilität zu zerstören, denn dann sind wir leichter zu steuern. Aber Geduld: Selbst vermeintliche «Sonnenköniginnen» wie EU-Kommissionspräsidentin von der Leyen fallen, wenn die Zeit reif ist.

Es ist wichtig, dass wir unsere ganz eigenen Bedürfnisse und Werte erkennen. Unsere Energiequellen müssen wir identifizieren und aktiv nutzen. Dazu gehören soziale Kontakte genauso wie zum Beispiel Hobbys und Leidenschaften. Umgeben wir uns mit Sinnhaftigkeit und lassen wir uns nicht die Energie rauben!

Mein Wahlspruch ist schon lange: «Was die Menschen wirklich bewegt, ist die Kultur.» Jetzt im Frühjahr beginnt hier in Andalusien die Zeit der «Ferias», jener traditionellen Volksfeste, die vor Lebensfreude sprudeln. Konzentrieren wir uns auf die schönen Dinge und auf unsere eigenen Talente – soziale Verbundenheit wird helfen, unsere innere Kraft zu stärken und zu bewahren.

[Titelbild: Pixabay]

---

Dieser Beitrag wurde mit dem Pareto-Client geschrieben und ist zuerst auf Transition News erschienen.

@ 88cc134b:5ae99079

Here's the article. Not the longest one ever. But definitely impactful.

@ c9badfea:610f861a

1. Install Lemuroid (it's free and open source)
2. Launch the app, enable notifications, and select a directory for your games (e.g. /Download/ROMs)
3. Download game ROMs and place them in the folder from the previous step (see links below)
4. Open Lemuroid again, navigate to the Home tab, and tap the downloaded game
5. Enjoy!

Some ROM Sources

• WowRoms
• Retrospot

ℹ️ An internet connection is only required when opening a game for the first time to download the emulator core per system (e.g. Gameboy or PS2)

ℹ️ Supported ROM file formats include .nes, .gba, .sfc, .gb, .iso, .bin, and .zip

ℹ️ You may need to extract downloaded ROM files if they are packaged as archives (e.g. .7z, .rar, or .zip)

@ 7e6f9018:a6bbbce5

The rental population in Spain has grown from about 5 million in 2005 to around 10 million in 2025. During that same period, Spain's total population has increased by 6 million people, from 43 to 49 million. In other words, the entire population growth over the past 20 years has essentially gone straight into the rental market.

This demographic growth is not due to natural increase, Spain has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. Instead, population growth is driven by a positive migratory balance, which has been the main factor behind the rise in rental demand.

This increased demand for rentals has pushed up rental prices, which have significantly outpaced the growth in property sale prices. That didn’t happen during the Great Financial Crisis. The growth in both demand and prices is allowing rental profitability to remain at the high end of the curve—around 5% net.

This situation explains the rise in housing squatting, from 2,000 cases in 2010 to 16,000 in 2024. Since the immigrant population is the main driver of this surge in rental demand, it is more vulnerable to squatting, as they often have no alternative housing when they are unable to pay.

The unemployment rate is currently low, however, if it were to rise (as it did during the Great Financial Crisis and other periods in the past), squatting would likely increase significantly, representing the main risk to the current real estate market in Spain.

@ 57412389:2b288de5

Despite how many times Urbanists post a new bird's-eye view of a sprawling suburb filled with the same home copy and pasted 200 times by the same developer, the most recent estimates suggest just over half of Americans live in the suburbs. No matter how many times the isolated deep woods advocates call them stuffy conformists Americans continue to flock to their culture-less neighborhoods where everyone has the same .25 acres with a push mower and rarely used smoker.

So why do we have so many housing masochists in this country who chose to live in suburban hellscapes?

The argument is pretty obvious why most people don't live out in the sticks. America embracing the role of running the world's reserve currency forced them to hollow out the blue collar workforce we once had. We give the world dollars and the world gives us cheaper physical things. It has to be this way if you're to play the role of King Dollar. There aren't many tech jobs in eastern Kentucky or business gigs in western Kansas. There simply aren't enough American jobs for people to live in these places and if there were they wouldn't be rural for very long. You can't live somewhere you can't get to work from.

So why don't Americans flock to cities? Urbanists will tell you its an American mindset thing. They'll claim our country is addicted to sitting in our oversized SUVs in gridlock traffic for two hours a day. They'll say we're addicted to the status of living in a larger home with a yard or point to racism or an aversion to other cultures. In fact, they'll make up any reason to avoid talking about the fact that people want to feel safe where they live and don't want to worry about not being home when their Amazon package gets dropped on their steps.

The suburbs are the worst of both worlds. There are no premier coffee shops to walk to before work or food trucks with authentic empanadas you can snag on your 2AM stroll home from the local dive. The commute to work is 40 minutes. There's not much privacy so your neighbor can hear the sportsball conversation you're having in your backyard and the HOA says you can't paint your mailbox that color. Hardcore leftists can't imagine why you'd want to live in a place where leaving the house means getting in a car. Hardcore righties don't understand why anyone would want to live in a place that you have to deal with the rest of civilization. But yet here we are with the majority of the country fighting to live on commuter hell plots.

The reason so many want to live in the suburbs is because they're completely bland and sterile zones with long, but doable commutes. The main draw to the suburbs is still being close enough to work downtown, but not have to deal with downtown problems at home. If Urbanists were serious about convincing more folks to move to the city they'd face the fact that the vast majority of American cities have quality of life nuisances and crime that is unacceptable to most people, especially those with children, so living in a place that is harder to get to for criminals and has no outside draw to it sounds great. Most Americans will accept that their options to eat out are either Chili's or Olive Garden because it's better than worrying if the roving gang of armed 15 year old Kia Boys is going to choose them on their walk to the authentic Thai spot. Most Americans will deal with waiting in a half mile long 30 minute line to pick up their kid from school if it means they don't have to worry about them walking by the homeless guy lying in his own fluids at the train station on his way to class.

Until America returns to producing real goods and not dollars people will continue to choose the suburbs over rural areas and until cities stop pretending crime is just "part of living in the city" the suburban sprawl will continue to spread.

@ c9e9bdc0:e4dbe9b8

Today we’re launching Buzzbot Express: a clean, targeted way to drive engagement and reward your audience with sats.

Here’s how it works:

1. Tag @buzzbot express [amount] (e.g., @buzzbot express 5000)

2. Pay the invoice sent to your DMs

3. After 12 hours, one random liker and one random commenter each win **50% of the sats **(6% fee)

Since launching Buzzbot, we’ve seen a wide range of creative use cases. But the clearest path to long-term value may lie in branded content and decentralized promotion.

From plebs promoting value-for-value concerts to podcasters pushing new episodes, Buzzbot Express gives creators and brands a tool to generate real energy around a post.

Paying for engagement might feel off-brand to some, but if you’re promoting a product, a song, or an event, Buzzbot Express offers a clean, transparent way to generate real momentum.

The invention of Zaps opened the fifth dimension of social media. They are not just another feature added to the stack. They are an exponential amplifier that transforms attention into economic energy.

At Buzzbot, we believe this new creator economy can and should include advertisers.

The days of brands paying millions to ad firms, hiring Hollywood talent, and forcing campaigns into feeds are fading. That model made sense on centralized, algorithmic platforms, but it doesn’t belong on Nostr.

Instead, brands can spend that same money directly with creators who align with their values. Or better yet, they can reward audiences for engaging honestly.

That’s where Buzzbot comes in.

Buzzbot Express is a small step toward this future. Try it out — and let us know what you think.

Pay attention.

@ d57360cb:4fe7d935

I soar all over the world, but one of the places I visit often is this little tiny square opening. I land softly on the platform and peer in through the hole. There’s a man inside; he seems to enjoy when I come by. His eyes light up and he gives me crumbs of bread to eat. The bread is tasty and fulfilling; it satisfies my hunger during my flights to other destinations. I wonder what it’s like to be man.

Man does strange things. I can’t fully understand. For example, this man is confined in a tiny box. He sits on what looks like a deformed tree, and in front of him is a tiny rectangular box. Everything man has is so boxy; it’s unnatural to me. When I fly from place to place, I don’t see any boxes; rather, I see a wiggly world. Endless shape, no two things look the same, but to man, it’s like he wants everything to be the same. Man usually is looking at other thin boxes; these are slim and have marks on them. He appears to stare for a long time at them, and then he sets them down and picks up another to stare at. In his box, he has long, narrow boxes. They hold small boxes bundled together with slim boxes. It gives me a headache seeing so many boxes. Once I observed man outside in the wiggly world, and when he left his big box, he went into another smaller box that moved! I was so interested I followed his moving box. You wouldn’t guess where he went to! Another box, but this one was a big one with subsections of smaller boxes. Could you believe they even have big boxes for water! What a headache man is.

The game man plays is interesting; it seems to be about boxes and how to put wiggly things in them. The wiggly is too elusive; one can’t box it up. Even if you surround the wiggly in a box, it will continue to wiggle. Like a tree confined to a planter box, its roots will spread beyond their confinement. Man is like this but believes the box will contain him, shameful.

@ 87fedb9f:0da83419

Push it! Push it! Push it!

That chant still echoes in my bones, not just from the gym, but from the inside out. I remember watching a bodybuilder once — the weight trembling above him, his muscles bulging and giving out, the spotters swooping in to catch the bar just in time. “Train to failure,” they said. “That’s how you grow.”

And it makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re being chased by a wild beast, you run until your body gives out. That’s how we’re wired — to survive first and foremost, not necessarily to thrive.

But what if the house we’re building isn’t under threat from wolves? What if we’ve got stone-moving machines and time to breathe? What if we’re not being chased anymore… but we still act like we are?

See, survival patterns are sneaky. They wear masks. They show up in workouts and work days. They dress up in ambition, caffeine, and “just one more thing before I stop.”

I’ve never been a bodybuilder — my brother was — but I’ve tried that route in my own work life. Lift to failure. Push it. Every other day, I’d be nursing another injury to body and mind.

I wasn’t getting stronger. I was just breaking myself in cycles. Push, break, recover, repeat.

I see the same thing with brains. Push it. Adderall. More coffee. Keep going. Hit the wall. And then—collapse.

That’s not strengthening. That’s surviving pretending to be “powerful.”

What happens to the rest of your system when your brain is sucking up all the energy just to stay on task? You stop digesting. You stop feeling the sun on your skin. You stop enjoying your kids’ laughter. Everything feels like something to push through.

That isn’t thriving.

Thriving feels different. It’s alive, yes — there’s activation. But it’s not strained. When we’re in thriving mode, we’re with our energy, not yanking it out by the roots and forcing it to regrow. The muscles — or the mind — are engaged, fluid, expressive. Alive.

It’s a fine line. You can take the same exact action and fill it with stress.

I’ve done it. I’ve turned a perfectly normal task into a survival sprint. It feels ridiculous in hindsight — like, why did I make this email reply into a mountain climb?

Because my primitive brain still whispers, “If you don’t do this perfectly and fast, you’ll die.” Not literally. But the threat feels real. The imagined judgment, the self-criticism, the fear of not being enough — they’re imaginary lions in the tall grass of modern life.

I’ve used this system on myself. I’ve strained my nervous system like fingernails scraping rock to avoid a fall that was never coming.

That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? We bring survival force into every aspect. Into parenting. Into projects. Into relationships.

And we wonder why we’re tired all the time. Not sleepy tired — soul tired. That kind of tired that feels like you ran for your life… but all you did was sit at your desk.

Here’s what I know now: if you’re not actually in danger, you can stop living like you are.

You don’t have to push everything to the edge. You don’t have to prove your strength through strain. Strength can be alive in you — not torn, not depleted, but awake and sustaining.

And when we live from there, the recovery feels different, too. We’re not collapsing. We’re restoring.

We’re not dropping all the pieces and then forcing ourselves to pick them up… again! Instead, we’re crafting a thriving life from the pieces we find, fashion, and consciously put in place.

There’s a wisdom to building your foundation around thriving — not just surviving. And thriving starts with recognizing: it’s not life or death to get through your inbox. Your self-worth isn’t measured by how busy and depleted you are.

Look around. Are you stacking more and more iron to prove something? Or are you listening to the quiet whisper that says, “Yes, move… but don’t hurt yourself doing it.”

And in a life that tells you to push until you fail, choosing to rest and relish — choosing to feel alive rather than just alive-enough — might just be the truest strength there is.

Useful Concepts for Thriving in This Story

• Primitive Brain\ The primitive brain keeps us on high alert even when we’re safe — it’s time to question whether the lion is real.

• Unrushed\ Being unrushed is a radical shift from survival tempo to the rhythm of true aliveness.

• Savvy\ Savvy invites us to work with our energy wisely, not destructively — to choose thriving over proving.

• Vitality\ Vitality flows when we stop draining ourselves for performance and start living from inner strength.

• Inspired Action\ Inspired action arises from presence and aliveness, not adrenaline and depletion.

@ 975e4ad5:8d4847ce

Introduction

Bitcoin and torrents are two technologies that have reshaped how people share information and resources in the digital age. Both are built on decentralized principles and challenge traditional systems—torrents in the realm of file sharing, and Bitcoin in the world of finance. However, while torrents have seen a decline in popularity with the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix and HBO, many wonder whether Bitcoin will follow a similar trajectory or continue to grow as a widely adopted technology. This article explores the similarities between the two technologies, the resilience of torrents against attempts to shut them down, the reasons for their declining popularity, and why Bitcoin is likely to avoid a similar fate.

Similarities Between Torrents and Bitcoin

Torrents and Bitcoin share several key characteristics that make them unique and resilient:

1. Decentralization:\ Torrents rely on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, where users share files directly with each other without depending on a central server. Similarly, Bitcoin operates on a blockchain—a decentralized network of nodes that maintain and validate transactions. This lack of a central authority makes both technologies difficult to control or shut down.

2. Censorship Resistance:\ Both systems are designed to withstand attempts at restriction. Torrents continue to function even when specific sites like The Pirate Bay are blocked, as the network relies on thousands of users worldwide. Bitcoin is also resistant to government bans, as transactions are processed by a global network of miners.

3. Anonymity and Pseudonymity:\ Torrents allow users to share files without revealing their identities, especially when using VPNs. Bitcoin, while pseudonymous (transactions are public but not directly tied to real-world identities), offers a similar level of privacy, attracting users seeking financial freedom.

4. Open Source:\ Both technologies are open-source, enabling developers to improve and adapt them. This fosters innovation and makes the systems more resilient to attacks.

Why Torrents Cannot Be Stopped

Torrents have persisted despite numerous attempts to curb them due to their decentralized nature. Governments and organizations have shut down sites like The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents, but new platforms quickly emerge. The key reasons for their resilience include:

• P2P Architecture:\ Torrents do not rely on a single server. Every user downloading or sharing a file becomes part of the network, making it impossible to completely dismantle.

• Global Distribution:\ Millions of users worldwide sustain torrent networks. Even if one country imposes strict regulations, others continue to support the system.

• Adaptability:\ The torrent community quickly adapts to challenges, using VPNs, proxy servers, or the dark web to bypass restrictions.

Despite this resilience, the popularity of torrents has significantly declined in recent years, particularly among younger users.

The Decline of Torrents: Why They Lost Popularity

In the early 2000s, torrents were the primary way to access movies, music, and software. They were easy to use, free, and offered a vast array of content. However, the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix, HBO, Disney+, and Spotify has changed how people consume media. The main reasons for the decline of torrents include:

1. Convenience:\ Streaming platforms provide instant access to high-quality content without the need for downloading or specialized software. Torrents, in contrast, require technical knowledge and are often slower.

2. Legality and Safety:\ Using torrents carries risks such as viruses, malware, and legal consequences. Streaming services offer a safe and legal alternative.

3. Marketing and Accessibility:\ Platforms like Netflix invest billions in original content and marketing, attracting younger users who prefer easy access over free but risky downloads.

4. Social Shifts:\ Younger generations, raised with access to subscription services, are often unfamiliar with torrents or view them as outdated. Studies from 2023 indicate that only a small percentage of people under 25 regularly use torrents.

Despite this decline, torrents have not disappeared entirely. They are still used in regions with limited access to streaming services or by users who value free access to niche content.

Why Bitcoin Will Not Share the Fate of Torrents

Despite the similarities, Bitcoin has unique characteristics that make it more likely to achieve mainstream adoption rather than being overshadowed by alternatives. Here are the key reasons:

1. Financial Revolution:\ Bitcoin addresses problems that lack direct alternatives. It enables transactions without intermediaries, which is particularly valuable in countries with unstable currencies or limited banking access. Unlike torrents, which were replaced by more convenient streaming platforms, traditional financial systems still have flaws that Bitcoin addresses.

2. Institutional Adoption:\ Major companies like Tesla, PayPal, and Square accept Bitcoin or invest in it. Financial institutions, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, are developing cryptocurrency-related products. This institutional acceptance boosts Bitcoin’s credibility and legitimacy, something torrents never achieved.

3. Limited Supply:\ Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins makes it attractive as a store of value, similar to gold. This characteristic distinguishes it from other technologies and gives it potential for long-term growth.

4. Technological Advancements:\ The Bitcoin network evolves through improvements like the Lightning Network, which makes transactions faster and cheaper. These innovations make it competitive with traditional payment systems, whereas torrents failed to adapt to streaming technologies.

5. Global Financial Integration:\ Unlike torrents, which remained in the niche of file sharing, Bitcoin has the potential to integrate into the global financial system. Countries like El Salvador have already recognized it as legal tender, and others may follow suit.

6. Cultural and Economic Significance:\ Bitcoin is perceived not only as a technology but also as a movement for financial independence and decentralization. This ideology attracts young people and tech enthusiasts, making it more resilient to the social shifts that affected torrents.

Conclusion

Torrents and Bitcoin share common roots as decentralized technologies that challenge the status quo. However, while torrents lost popularity due to the rise of more convenient and legal alternatives, Bitcoin has the potential to avoid this fate. Its ability to address real financial problems, institutional adoption, and technological advancements make it a likely candidate for mainstream use in the future. While torrents remained a niche technology, Bitcoin is emerging as a global force that could transform how the world perceives money.

@ 91bea5cd:1df4451c

Instruções:

1. Leia cada pergunta cuidadosamente.
2. Escolha a opção (A, B, C ou D) que melhor descreve você na maioria das situações. Seja o mais honesto possível.
3. Anote a letra correspondente à sua escolha para cada pergunta.
4. No final, some quantas vezes você escolheu cada letra (A, B, C, D).
5. Veja a seção de resultados para interpretar sua pontuação.

---

Teste de Temperamento

1. Em um evento social (festa, reunião), como você geralmente se comporta? A) Sou o centro das atenções, converso com todos, faço piadas e animo o ambiente. B) Tomo a iniciativa, organizo atividades ou discussões, e gosto de liderar conversas. C) Prefiro observar, conversar em grupos menores ou com pessoas que já conheço bem, e analiso o ambiente. D) Sou tranquilo, ouvinte, evito chamar atenção e me adapto ao ritmo do grupo.

2. Ao enfrentar um novo projeto ou tarefa desafiadora no trabalho ou estudo: A) Fico entusiasmado com a novidade, tenho muitas ideias iniciais, mas posso me distrair facilmente. B) Defino metas claras, crio um plano de ação rápido e foco em alcançar resultados eficientemente. C) Analiso todos os detalhes, planejo meticulosamente, prevejo possíveis problemas e busco a perfeição. D) Abordo com calma, trabalho de forma constante e organizada, e prefiro um ambiente sem pressão.

3. Como você geralmente reage a críticas? A) Tento levar na esportiva, talvez faça uma piada, mas posso me magoar momentaneamente e logo esqueço. B) Defendo meu ponto de vista vigorosamente, posso ficar irritado se sentir injustiça, mas foco em corrigir o problema. C) Levo muito a sério, analiso profundamente, posso me sentir magoado por um tempo e repenso minhas ações. D) Escuto com calma, considero a crítica objetivamente e tento não levar para o lado pessoal, buscando a paz.

4. Qual seu estilo de tomada de decisão? A) Sou impulsivo, decido rapidamente com base no entusiasmo do momento, às vezes me arrependo depois. B) Sou decidido e rápido, foco no objetivo final, às vezes sem considerar todos os detalhes ou sentimentos alheios. C) Sou ponderado, analiso todas as opções e consequências, demoro para decidir buscando a melhor escolha. D) Sou cauteloso, prefiro evitar decisões difíceis, busco consenso ou adio se possível.

5. Como você lida com rotina e repetição? A) Acho entediante rapidamente, preciso de variedade e novidade constante para me manter engajado. B) Tolero se for necessário para atingir um objetivo, mas prefiro desafios e mudanças que eu controlo. C) Aprecio a ordem e a previsibilidade, me sinto confortável com rotinas bem estabelecidas. D) Adapto-me bem à rotina, acho confortável e seguro, não gosto de mudanças bruscas.

6. Em uma discussão ou conflito: A) Tento aliviar a tensão com humor, expresso meus sentimentos abertamente, mas não guardo rancor. B) Sou direto e assertivo, defendo minha posição com firmeza, posso parecer confrontador. C) Evito confronto direto, mas fico remoendo o problema, analiso os argumentos e posso guardar ressentimento. D) Busco a conciliação, tento entender todos os lados, sou diplomático e evito o conflito a todo custo.

7. Como você expressa seus sentimentos (alegria, tristeza, raiva)? A) Expresso de forma aberta, intensa e visível, minhas emoções mudam rapidamente. B) Expresso de forma direta e forte, principalmente a raiva ou a determinação, controlo emoções "fracas". C) Tendo a internalizar, minhas emoções são profundas e duradouras, posso parecer reservado. D) Sou contido na expressão emocional, mantenho a calma externamente, mesmo que sinta algo internamente.

8. Qual seu nível de energia habitual? A) Alto, sou muito ativo, falante e entusiasmado, gosto de estar em movimento. B) Muito alto e direcionado, tenho muita energia para perseguir meus objetivos e liderar. C) Variável, posso ter picos de energia para projetos que me interessam, mas também preciso de tempo quieto para recarregar. D) Moderado e constante, sou calmo, tranquilo, prefiro atividades menos agitadas.

9. Como você organiza seu espaço de trabalho ou sua casa? A) Pode ser um pouco caótico e desorganizado, com muitas coisas interessantes espalhadas. B) Organizado de forma funcional para máxima eficiência, focado no essencial para as tarefas. C) Extremamente organizado, metódico, cada coisa em seu lugar, prezo pela ordem e estética. D) Confortável e prático, não necessariamente impecável, mas funcional e sem excessos.

10. O que mais te motiva? A) Reconhecimento social, diversão, novas experiências e interações. B) Poder, controle, desafios, alcançar metas ambiciosas e resultados concretos. C) Qualidade, significado, fazer as coisas da maneira certa, compreensão profunda. D) Paz, estabilidade, harmonia nos relacionamentos, evitar estresse e pressão.

11. Como você reage a imprevistos ou mudanças de plano? A) Adapto-me rapidamente, às vezes até gosto da novidade, embora possa atrapalhar meus planos iniciais. B) Fico irritado com a perda de controle, mas rapidamente busco uma solução alternativa para manter o objetivo. C) Sinto-me desconfortável e ansioso, preciso de tempo para reavaliar e replanejar cuidadosamente. D) Aceito com calma, sou flexível e me ajusto sem muito alarde, desde que não gere conflito.

12. Qual o seu maior medo (em termos gerais)? A) Ser rejeitado, ignorado ou ficar entediado. B) Perder o controle, parecer fraco ou incompetente. C) Cometer erros graves, ser inadequado ou imperfeito. D) Conflitos, pressão, tomar decisões erradas que afetem a estabilidade.

13. Como você costuma passar seu tempo livre? A) Socializando, saindo com amigos, buscando atividades novas e divertidas. B) Engajado em atividades produtivas, esportes competitivos, planejando próximos passos. C) Lendo, estudando, refletindo, dedicando-me a hobbies que exigem atenção e cuidado. D) Relaxando em casa, assistindo filmes, lendo tranquilamente, passando tempo com a família de forma calma.

14. Ao trabalhar em equipe: A) Sou o animador, trago ideias, conecto as pessoas, mas posso ter dificuldade em focar nos detalhes. B) Assumo a liderança naturalmente, delego tarefas, foco nos resultados e mantenho todos na linha. C) Sou o planejador e o crítico construtivo, atento aos detalhes, garanto a qualidade, mas posso ser muito exigente. D) Sou o pacificador e o colaborador, ajudo a manter a harmonia, realizo minhas tarefas de forma confiável.

15. Como você lida com prazos? A) Muitas vezes deixo para a última hora, trabalho melhor sob a pressão do prazo final, mas posso me atrapalhar. B) Gosto de terminar bem antes do prazo, vejo o prazo como um desafio a ser superado rapidamente. C) Planejo o tempo cuidadosamente para cumprir o prazo com qualidade, fico ansioso se o tempo fica curto. D) Trabalho em ritmo constante para cumprir o prazo sem estresse, não gosto de correria.

16. Qual destas frases mais te descreve? A) "A vida é uma festa!" B) "Se quer algo bem feito, faça você mesmo (ou mande fazer do seu jeito)." C) "Tudo tem um propósito e um lugar certo." D) "Devagar se vai ao longe."

17. Em relação a regras e procedimentos: A) Gosto de flexibilidade, às vezes acho as regras limitantes e tento contorná-las. B) Uso as regras a meu favor para atingir objetivos, mas não hesito em quebrá-las se necessário e se eu puder controlar as consequências. C) Sigo as regras rigorosamente, acredito que elas garantem ordem e qualidade. D) Respeito as regras para evitar problemas, prefiro seguir o fluxo estabelecido.

18. Como você reage quando alguém está emocionalmente abalado? A) Tento animar a pessoa, conto piadas, ofereço distração e companhia. B) Ofereço soluções práticas para o problema, foco em resolver a situação que causou o abalo. C) Escuto com empatia, ofereço apoio profundo e tento compreender a dor da pessoa. D) Mantenho a calma, ofereço um ouvido atento e um ombro amigo, sem me deixar abalar muito.

19. Que tipo de filme ou livro você prefere? A) Comédias, aventuras, romances leves, algo que me divirta e me mantenha entretido. B) Ação, suspense, biografias de líderes, estratégias, algo que me desafie ou inspire poder. C) Dramas profundos, documentários, mistérios complexos, ficção científica filosófica, algo que me faça pensar e sentir. D) Histórias tranquilas, dramas familiares, romances amenos, natureza, algo que me relaxe e traga conforto.

20. O que é mais importante para você em um relacionamento (amizade, amoroso)? A) Diversão, cumplicidade, comunicação aberta e espontaneidade. B) Lealdade, objetivos em comum, apoio mútuo nas ambições. C) Compreensão profunda, fidelidade, apoio emocional e intelectual. D) Harmonia, estabilidade, aceitação mútua e tranquilidade.

21. Se você ganhasse na loteria, qual seria sua primeira reação/ação? A) Faria uma grande festa, viajaria pelo mundo, compraria presentes para todos! B) Investiria estrategicamente, planejaria como multiplicar o dinheiro, garantiria o controle financeiro. C) Pesquisaria as melhores opções de investimento, faria um plano detalhado de longo prazo, doaria para causas significativas. D) Guardaria a maior parte em segurança, faria algumas melhorias práticas na vida, evitaria mudanças drásticas.

22. Como você se sente em relação a riscos? A) Gosto de arriscar se a recompensa parecer divertida ou excitante, sou otimista. B) Calculo os riscos e assumo-os se acreditar que a recompensa vale a pena e que posso controlar a situação. C) Evito riscos desnecessários, prefiro a segurança e a previsibilidade, analiso tudo antes de agir. D) Desgosto de riscos, prefiro caminhos seguros e comprovados, a estabilidade é mais importante.

23. Sua memória tende a focar mais em: A) Momentos divertidos, pessoas interessantes, experiências marcantes (embora possa esquecer detalhes). B) Sucessos, fracassos (para aprender), injustiças cometidas contra você, quem te ajudou ou atrapalhou. C) Detalhes precisos, conversas significativas, erros cometidos (por você ou outros), sentimentos profundos. D) Fatos objetivos, rotinas, informações práticas, geralmente de forma neutra.

24. Quando aprende algo novo, você prefere: A) Experimentar na prática imediatamente, aprender fazendo, mesmo que cometa erros. B) Entender o objetivo e a aplicação prática rapidamente, focar no essencial para usar o conhecimento. C) Estudar a fundo a teoria, entender todos os porquês, buscar fontes confiáveis e dominar o assunto. D) Aprender em um ritmo calmo, com instruções claras e passo a passo, sem pressão.

25. Se descreva em uma palavra (escolha a que mais se aproxima): A) Entusiasmado(a) B) Determinado(a) C) Criterioso(a) D) Pacífico(a)

26. Como você lida com o silêncio em uma conversa? A) Sinto-me desconfortável e tento preenchê-lo rapidamente com qualquer assunto. B) Uso o silêncio estrategicamente ou o interrompo para direcionar a conversa. C) Posso apreciar o silêncio para refletir, ou me sentir um pouco ansioso dependendo do contexto. D) Sinto-me confortável com o silêncio, não sinto necessidade de preenchê-lo.

27. O que te deixa mais frustrado(a)? A) Tédio, falta de reconhecimento, ser ignorado. B) Incompetência alheia, falta de controle, obstáculos aos seus planos. C) Desorganização, falta de qualidade, injustiça, superficialidade. D) Conflitos interpessoais, pressão excessiva, desordem emocional.

28. Qual a sua relação com o passado, presente e futuro? A) Foco no presente e nas oportunidades imediatas, otimista em relação ao futuro, esqueço o passado facilmente. B) Foco no futuro (metas) e no presente (ações para alcançá-las), aprendo com o passado mas não me prendo a ele. C) Reflito muito sobre o passado (aprendizados, erros), analiso o presente e planejo o futuro com cautela, às vezes com preocupação. D) Vivo o presente de forma tranquila, valorizo a estabilidade e a continuidade do passado, vejo o futuro com serenidade.

29. Se você tivesse que organizar um evento, qual seria seu papel principal? A) Relações públicas, divulgação, animação, garantir que todos se divirtam. B) Coordenação geral, definição de metas, delegação de tarefas, garantir que tudo aconteça conforme o planejado (por você). C) Planejamento detalhado, logística, controle de qualidade, garantir que nada dê errado. D) Suporte, resolução de problemas de forma calma, garantir um ambiente harmonioso.

30. Qual ambiente de trabalho te agrada mais? A) Dinâmico, social, com muita interação, flexibilidade e novidades. B) Competitivo, desafiador, focado em resultados, onde eu possa liderar ou ter autonomia. C) Estruturado, quieto, onde eu possa me concentrar, com padrões claros de qualidade e tempo para análise. D) Estável, cooperativo, sem pressão, com relacionamentos harmoniosos e tarefas previsíveis.

---

Calculando seus Resultados:

Agora, conte quantas vezes você escolheu cada letra:

• Total de A: ______
• Total de B: ______
• Total de C: ______
• Total de D: ______

A letra (ou as letras) com a maior pontuação indica(m) seu(s) temperamento(s) dominante(s).

---

Interpretação dos Resultados:

• Se sua maior pontuação foi A: Temperamento SANGUÍNEO Dominante

  • Características: Você é extrovertido, otimista, sociável, comunicativo, entusiasmado e adora novidades. Gosta de ser o centro das atenções, faz amigos facilmente e contagia os outros com sua energia. É criativo e espontâneo.
  • Pontos Fortes: Carismático, inspirador, adaptável, bom em iniciar relacionamentos e projetos, perdoa facilmente.
  • Desafios Potenciais: Pode ser indisciplinado, desorganizado, impulsivo, superficial, ter dificuldade em focar e terminar tarefas, e ser muito dependente de aprovação externa.

• Se sua maior pontuação foi B: Temperamento COLÉRICO Dominante

  • Características: Você é enérgico, decidido, líder nato, orientado para metas e resultados. É ambicioso, assertivo, direto e não tem medo de desafios ou confrontos. Gosta de estar no controle e é muito prático.
  • Pontos Fortes: Determinado, eficiente, líder natural, bom em tomar decisões e resolver problemas, autoconfiante.
  • Desafios Potenciais: Pode ser impaciente, dominador, teimoso, insensível aos sentimentos alheios, propenso à raiva e a "atropelar" os outros para atingir seus objetivos.

• Se sua maior pontuação foi C: Temperamento MELANCÓLICO Dominante

  • Características: Você é introvertido, analítico, sensível, perfeccionista e profundo. É leal, dedicado, aprecia a beleza e a ordem. Tende a ser pensativo, criterioso e busca significado em tudo. Leva as coisas a sério.
  • Pontos Fortes: Detalhista, organizado, criativo (em profundidade), leal, empático, comprometido com a qualidade e a justiça.
  • Desafios Potenciais: Pode ser pessimista, excessivamente crítico (consigo e com os outros), indeciso (pela análise excessiva), guardar ressentimentos, ser propenso à tristeza e ao isolamento.

• Se sua maior pontuação foi D: Temperamento FLEUMÁTICO Dominante

  • Características: Você é calmo, tranquilo, equilibrado e diplomático. É observador, paciente, confiável e fácil de conviver. Evita conflitos, busca harmonia e estabilidade. É um bom ouvinte e trabalha bem sob rotina.
  • Pontos Fortes: Pacífico, estável, confiável, bom ouvinte, diplomático, eficiente em tarefas rotineiras, mantém a calma sob pressão.
  • Desafios Potenciais: Pode ser indeciso, procrastinador, resistente a mudanças, parecer apático ou sem entusiasmo, ter dificuldade em se impor e expressar suas próprias necessidades.

Combinações de Temperamentos:

É muito comum ter pontuações altas em duas letras. Isso indica uma combinação de temperamentos. Por exemplo:

• Sanguíneo-Colérico: Extrovertido, enérgico, líder carismático, mas pode ser impulsivo e dominador.
• Sanguíneo-Fleumático: Sociável e agradável, mas pode ter dificuldade com disciplina e iniciativa.
• Colérico-Melancólico: Líder focado e detalhista, muito capaz, mas pode ser excessivamente crítico e exigente.
• Melancólico-Fleumático: Quieto, confiável, analítico, mas pode ser indeciso e resistente a riscos.

Importante: Este teste é uma ferramenta de autoconhecimento. Ninguém se encaixa perfeitamente em uma única caixa. Use os resultados para entender melhor suas tendências naturais, seus pontos fortes e as áreas onde você pode buscar equilíbrio e desenvolvimento.

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Value Creation at the Edge

The conversation around artificial intelligence has largely centered on the technology itself, the capabilities of large language models, the race for more parameters, and the competition between AI companies.

He with the most data / biggest model / biggest platform wins all.

As we're been exploring in recent "Good Stuff" podcasts, the true business model of AI may be much more straightforward. AI is after all a productivity tool with little technical moat, in fact the existence of AI coding and learning tools quickly chop away at this moat even quicker!.\ \ We believe that the it's about transforming traditional human heavy businesses by dramatically reducing operational costs while maintaining or increasing output.

AI is poised to create value not primarily for AI companies themselves, but for businesses that effectively implement AI to transform their operations, particularly small, local businesses that can become extraordinarily efficient through AI adoption.

The Value Shift: From AI Companies to AI-Enabled Traditional Businesses

A central insight from episode 1 of the podcast series, is that the value of AI isn't likely to accrue primarily to companies like OpenAI or other AI technology providers. Instead, the real winners will be traditional service businesses that can leverage AI to transform their operations and cost structures.

"I think we're gonna see this shift to traditional service businesses... that traditionally have pretty fixed low margins because of a dependency on language-heavy workflows that require a lot of humans as the medium of intelligence in the business."

The opportunity here is to use AI to manage the language dependency and shift the moments of intelligence, that currently exist in the heads of our staff, into software that can run 24x7 for fractions of a cost.\ \ The real limiting factor here is less a magic AGI, but instead detailed thinking and process redesign to move humans to the edge of the process. As it turns out if we think through what each person is doing in detail we see the specific decisions, outputs, moments of intelligence are actually quite constrained and can be replicated in LLM's if we break them down to a low enough level of fidelity and take each decisions one step at a time.\ \ The result? Businesses that have traditionally operated with fixed, low margins can potentially achieve "software-style margins" by dramatically reducing their operational expenses.

Transforming Traditional Service Businesses

We have developed three key heuristics for identifying businesses that could benefit most from AI transformation:

1. Language Intensity: Businesses where much of the work involves processing language (reading, writing, communicating). Language in, language out. If you are sat in a chair and typing all day, this could be you.

2. Labor Component: Where we see this language intensity so we find many people performing similar, standardized roles. For examples, if we have four people in the same role this is a big clue we have good process, checklists, role descriptions etc for how the work can be done in order to replicate work across multiple people.

3. Load in the Business: Taking these processes into account, what amount of the operational expense of the business do they represent? Where these language and labor-intensive operations represent a significant portion of the business cost, we can see there will be significant return.

Traditional service businesses that match these criteria—legal firms, accounting practices, consulting agencies, contract engineering, design agencies and others—could see dramatic transformations through AI implementation.

By automating these language-heavy processes, businesses can potentially reduce operational costs by 50-80% while maintaining similar levels of output.

The Power of Small

We believe that small businesses may have an inherent advantage in this transformation. While large enterprises face significant barriers to reducing their workforce (political pressure, media scrutiny, organizational complexity), smaller businesses can adapt more quickly and focus on growth rather than just cost-cutting.

If I'm in a 20,000 person business and I need to remove 10,000 people... that's hard. You can't do this without sending political shock waves in your local community.

If I'm a 10 person business and I need to double my revenue, nobody gives a shit. I can just do it.

For small businesses, AI removes growth constraints. When adding the "21st person" no longer represents a significant capital investment, small businesses can scale much more efficiently:

If the next nominal client that you onboard doesn't actually cause you any more additional pain, if you don't need to hire more people to service that client... you just take off the brakes off from a growth perspective.

This gives small business a unique advantage in capitalizing on AI.

From "Bionic Humans" to "Humans at the Edge"

We currently see this integration to business happening in one of two models:

1. The Bionic Human: Equipping workers with AI tools to make them more productive.

2. Human at the Edge: Redesigning processes to be AI-native, with humans entering the process only when needed (and often facilitated by bitcoin payments).

While many businesses are focused on the first approach and it can certainly see returns, it is still a process constrained by the human input. The real value unlock comes from fundamentally redesigning business processes with AI at the core.

Now we can purchase intelligence in buckets of $0.02 API calls, how would we operate different?

This represents a profound shift in how we think about work and processes. Rather than humans being central to processes with tools supporting them, AI becomes the backbone of operations with humans providing input only at critical junctures.

This is "a complete mental shift" that challenges our fundamental assumptions about how businesses operate. The human becomes "the interface with the real world" for AI systems rather than the primary processor of information and decision-maker.

The Value Trap: Understanding the Competitive Dynamic

So what happens next? Here we have developed the concept of the Value Trap to explain how the competitive landscape will evolve as AI adoption increases..\ \

Initially, early adopters of AI and "Human at the Edge" business processes, will see dramatic benefits.

If your costs have dropped from 90 to 20 this creates an immediate competitive advantage where the early adopter is "now making 80 units of profit versus your 10 units of profit.

They gain massive pricing power in the industry and can compete for growth with an unfair advantage.

Over time, and here we believe this is likely a 5-10 year period although we believe the quicker side, competitive pressures will erode these advantages.\ \ As competitors adopt similar AI strategies, price competition will intensify, and revenues will decline. The business that initially saw its costs drop from 90 to 20 units might see its revenue decline from 100 to 30 units, resulting in similar margins but much lower overall revenue, often destroying the enterprise value of the company at these new revenue / profit levels!

This evolution creates an imperative for businesses to adopt AI early, not just to maintain perpetual advantage, but simply to survive the transition. Worse they're hit with a second challenge of the value trap, how do I keep hold of the value I generate along the way.\ \ If you're reading this on Nostr you may already suspect a way out of this value trap.\ \ If not I would invite you to consider storing the immediate short term returns you pull forwards in something that would be inflation resistant, hard to seize and ideally portable.\ \ We refer to this as a 'The big orange arbitrage".

Implications for Business Owners and Capital Allocators

For business owners, especially those running small to medium-sized enterprises, the message is clear: understand how AI could transform your industry and begin planning your transition now.\ \ This might involve creating an "AI-native twin" of your current business—similar to how Netflix developed streaming alongside its DVD business—to eventually replace your current operations. If you want help please ask, I heavily favor more small businesses in the world and would love to help make this a reality.

For capital allocation, the emerging opportunity we see if in "transformation led private equity". The acquisition of traditional service businesses and applying AI to dramatically reduce operational costs and increase enterprise value.\ \ This approach treats AI not as a product but as a transformation strategy for existing businesses with proven product-market fit.

Transformation led PE is venture style returns without the risk of product market fit.

So the lesson?

The business model of AI isn't all about selling AI technology, adding a RAG chatbot to a new DB or collecting everyone's data.\ \ Consider the humble cash flow business, use AI to transform the operational processes and save into everyone's favorite orange coin.

@ f4db5270:3c74e0d0

Hi Art lover! 🎨🫂💜

You may not know it yet but all of the following paintings are available in #Bitcoin on my website: <https://isolabellart.carrd.co/>

For info and prices write to me in DM and we will find a good deal! 🤝

THE QUIET ROOM 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed May 8, 2025

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OLTRE LA NEBBIA 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed April 18, 2025

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TO THE LAST LIGHT 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed April 5, 2025

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BLINDING SUNSET 40x40cm, Oil on board - Completed March 18, 2025

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ECHI DEL TEMPO PERDUTO 40x40cm, Oil on board - Completed March 09, 2025

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EVANESCENZE 40x40cm, Oil on board - Completed February 11, 2025

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OLTRE LA STACCIONATA 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed February 8, 2025

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LONELY WINDMILL 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed January 30, 2025

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN 40x50cm, Oil on canvas - Completed January 23, 2025

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SUN OF JANUARY 40x50cm, Oil on canvas - Completed January 14, 2025

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THE BLUE HOUR 40x50cm, Oil on canvas - Completed December 14, 2024

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WHERE WINTER WHISPERS 50x40cm, Oil on canvas - Completed November 07, 2024

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L'ATTESA DI UN MOMENTO 40x40cm, Oil on canvas - Completed October 29, 2024

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LE COSE CHE PENSANO 40x50cm, Oil on paper - Completed October 05, 2024

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TWILIGHT'S RIVER 50x40cm, Oil on canvas - Completed September 17, 2024

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GOLD ON THE OCEAN 40x50cm, Oil on paper - Completed September 08, 2024

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SUSSURRI DI CIELO E MARE 50x40cm, Oil on paper - Completed September 05, 2024

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THE END OF A WONDERFUL WEEKEND 40x30cm, Oil on board - Completed August 12, 2024

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FIAMME NEL CIELO 60x35cm, Oil on board - Completed July 28, 2024

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INIZIO D'ESTATE 50x40cm, Oil on cradled wood panel Completed July 13, 2024

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OMBRE DELLA SERA 50x40cm, Oil on cradled wood panel - Completed June 16, 2024

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NEW ZEALAND SUNSET 80x60cm, Oil on canvas board - Completed May 28, 2024

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VENICE 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed May 4, 2024

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CORNWALL 50x40cm, Oil on board - Completed April 26, 2024

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DOCKS ON SUNSET 40x19,5cm, Oil on board Completed March 14, 2024

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SOLITUDE 30x30cm, Oil on cradled wood panel - Completed March 2, 2024

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LULLING WAVES 40x30cm, Oil on cradled wood panel - Completed January 14, 2024

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MULATTIERA IN AUTUNNO 30x30cm, Oil on cradled wood panel - Completed November 23, 2023

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TRAMONTO A KOS 40x40cm, oil on board canvas - Completed November 7, 2023

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HIDDEN SMILE 40x40cm, oil on board - Completed September 28, 2023

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INIZIO D'AUTUNNO 40x40cm, oil on canvas - Completed September 23, 2023

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BOE NEL LAGO 30x30cm, oil on canvas board - Completed August 15, 2023

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BARCHE A RIPOSO 40x40cm, oil on canvas board - Completed July 25, 2023

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IL RISVEGLIO 30x40cm, oil on canvas board - Completed July 18, 2023

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LA QUIETE PRIMA DELLA TEMPESTA 30x40cm, oil on canvas board - Completed March 30, 2023

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LAMPIONE SUL LAGO 30x30cm, oil on canvas board - Completed March 05, 2023

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DUE NELLA NEVE 60x25cm, oil on board - Completed February 4, 2023

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UNA CAREZZA 30x30cm, oil on canvas board - Completed January 17, 2023

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REBEL WAVES 44x32cm, oil on canvas board

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THE SCREAMING WAVE 40x30cm, oil on canvas board

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"LA DONZELLETTA VIEN DALLA CAMPAGNA..." 30x40cm, oil on canvas board

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LIGHTHOUSE ON WHITE CLIFF 30x40cm, oil on canvas board

@ 4fe4a528:3ff6bf06

One of the main motivational factors for people to buy bitcoin is it’s ability to store value over time. During harvest we are doing the same thing. We have now harvested our garlic and 1/2 of our onions because if we don’t use the sun’s energy to cure the plants before winter they will start to rot. Let me explain why God has made the world this way; but, first let me explain why storing things isn’t evil.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. Matt. 6:19-21

Is it wrong, then to have a retirement portfolio or even to care about the material things of this world for ourselves or for others? The answer is again both no and yes. The no comes from the fact that this passage is not the only one in the Bible speaking to questions of wealth and provision for those who are dependent on us. Other passages counsel prudence and forethought, such as, “Those who gather little by little will increase [wealth]” (Proverbs 13:11b), and, “The good leave an inheritance to their children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).

God guides Joseph to store up food for seven years in advance of a famine (Genesis 41:25-36), and Jesus speaks favorably in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30). In light of the rest of Scripture, Matthew 6:19-21 cannot be a blanket prohibition. But the yes part of the answer is a warning, summed up beautifully in verse 21, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” In other words, the possessions you own will change you so that you care more about the possessions than about other things.” So choose carefully what you own, for you will inevitably begin to value and protect it to the potential detriment of everything else.

How are we to discern the line between appropriate and inappropriate attention to wealth? Jesus answers, “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you” So if you believe your heart is following God’s direction go ahead and harvest your crops and / or buy some bitcoin. If you would have bought bitcoin one year ago, you would have 127% more purchasing power now. Let’s keep on fearing God and keeping his commandments.

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

I. Historical Foundations of U.S. Monetary Architecture

The early monetary system of the United States was built atop inherited commodity money conventions from Europe’s maritime economies. Silver and gold coins—primarily Spanish pieces of eight, Dutch guilders, and other foreign specie—formed the basis of colonial commerce. These units were already integrated into international trade and piracy networks and functioned with natural compatibility across England, France, Spain, and Denmark. Lacking a centralized mint or formal currency, the U.S. adopted these forms de facto.

As security risks and the practical constraints of physical coinage mounted, banks emerged to warehouse specie and issue redeemable certificates. These certificates evolved into fiduciary media—claims on specie not actually in hand. Banks observed over time that substantial portions of reserves remained unclaimed for years. This enabled fractional reserve banking: issuing more claims than reserves held, so long as redemption demand stayed low. The practice was inherently unstable, prone to panics and bank runs, prompting eventual centralization through the formation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.

Following the Civil War and unstable reinstatements of gold convertibility, the U.S. sought global monetary stability. After World War II, the Bretton Woods system formalized the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. The dollar was nominally backed by gold, but most international dollars were held offshore and recycled into U.S. Treasuries. The Nixon Shock of 1971 eliminated the gold peg, converting the dollar into pure fiat. Yet offshore dollar demand remained, sustained by oil trade mandates and the unique role of Treasuries as global reserve assets.

II. The Structure of Fiduciary Media and Treasury Demand

Under this system, foreign trade surpluses with the U.S. generate excess dollars. These surplus dollars are parked in U.S. Treasuries, thereby recycling trade imbalances into U.S. fiscal liquidity. While technically loans to the U.S. government, these purchases act like interest-only transfers—governments receive yield, and the U.S. receives spendable liquidity without principal repayment due in the short term. Debt is perpetually rolled over, rarely extinguished.

This creates an illusion of global subsidy: U.S. deficits are financed via foreign capital inflows that, in practice, function more like financial tribute systems than conventional debt markets. The underlying asset—U.S. Treasury debt—functions as the base reserve asset of the dollar system, replacing gold in post-Bretton Woods monetary logic.

III. Emergence of Tether and the Parastatal Dollar

Tether (USDT), as a private issuer of dollar-denominated tokens, mimics key central bank behaviors while operating outside the regulatory perimeter. It mints tokens allegedly backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars or dollar-denominated securities (mostly Treasuries). These tokens circulate globally, often in jurisdictions with limited banking access, and increasingly serve as synthetic dollar substitutes.

If USDT gains dominance as the preferred medium of exchange—due to technological advantages, speed, programmability, or access—it displaces Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) not through devaluation, but through functional obsolescence. Gresham’s Law inverts: good money (more liquid, programmable, globally transferable USDT) displaces bad (FRNs) even if both maintain a nominal 1:1 parity.

Over time, this preference translates to a systemic demand shift. Actors increasingly use Tether instead of FRNs, especially in global commerce, digital marketplaces, or decentralized finance. Tether tokens effectively become shadow base money.

IV. Interaction with Commercial Banking and Redemption Mechanics

Under traditional fractional reserve systems, commercial banks issue loans denominated in U.S. dollars, expanding the money supply. When borrowers repay loans, this destroys the created dollars and contracts monetary elasticity. If borrowers repay in USDT instead of FRNs:

• Banks receive a non-Fed liability (USDT).
• USDT is not recognized as reserve-eligible within the Federal Reserve System.
• Banks must either redeem USDT for FRNs, or demand par-value conversion from Tether to settle reserve requirements and balance their books.

This places redemption pressure on Tether and threatens its 1:1 peg under stress. If redemption latency, friction, or cost arises, USDT’s equivalence to FRNs is compromised. Conversely, if banks are permitted or compelled to hold USDT as reserve or regulatory capital, Tether becomes a de facto reserve issuer.

In this scenario, banks may begin demanding loans in USDT, mirroring borrower behavior. For this to occur sustainably, banks must secure Tether liquidity. This creates two options: - Purchase USDT from Tether or on the secondary market, collateralized by existing fiat. - Borrow USDT directly from Tether, using bank-issued debt as collateral.

The latter mirrors Federal Reserve discount window operations. Tether becomes a lender of first resort, providing monetary elasticity to the banking system by creating new tokens against promissory assets—exactly how central banks function.

V. Structural Consequences: Parallel Central Banking

If Tether begins lending to commercial banks, issuing tokens backed by bank notes or collateralized debt obligations: - Tether controls the expansion of broad money through credit issuance. - Its balance sheet mimics a central bank, with Treasuries and bank debt as assets and tokens as liabilities. - It intermediates between sovereign debt and global liquidity demand, replacing the Federal Reserve’s open market operations with its own issuance-redemption cycles.

Simultaneously, if Tether purchases U.S. Treasuries with FRNs received through token issuance, it: - Supplies the Treasury with new liquidity (via bond purchases). - Collects yield on government debt. - Issues a parallel form of U.S. dollars that never require redemption—an interest-only loan to the U.S. government from a non-sovereign entity.

In this context, Tether performs monetary functions of both a central bank and a sovereign wealth fund, without political accountability or regulatory transparency.

VI. Endgame: Institutional Inversion and Fed Redundancy

This paradigm represents an institutional inversion:

• The Federal Reserve becomes a legacy issuer.
• Tether becomes the operational base money provider in both retail and interbank contexts.
• Treasuries remain the foundational reserve asset, but access to them is mediated by a private intermediary.
• The dollar persists, but its issuer changes. The State becomes a fiscal agent of a decentralized financial ecosystem, not its monetary sovereign.

Unless the Federal Reserve reasserts control—either by absorbing Tether, outlawing its instruments, or integrating its tokens into the reserve framework—it risks becoming irrelevant in the daily function of money.

Tether, in this configuration, is no longer a derivative of the dollar—it is the dollar, just one level removed from sovereign control. The future of monetary sovereignty under such a regime is post-national and platform-mediated.

@ 7b20d99d:d2a541a9

In a world where we often hear talk of financial bubbles, speculation, and individual enrichment through cryptocurrencies, Hope With Bitcoin resolutely takes the opposite approach. Here, Bitcoin is not an end in itself, but a means to reach out. A tool serving a simple, universal human cause: bringing smiles and hope back to those who need it most.

Far from big, empty promises and empty charitable projects, Hope With Bitcoin is committed to a philosophy of direct impact, total transparency, and lasting transformation of lives.

🔗 Official project link : https://linktr.ee/hopewithbtc

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🟢 Why “Hope With Bitcoin”?

It all started with an observation: too many people are living in oblivion. In some regions, particularly in Africa, it doesn't take much to bring back a smile: a meal, a word, a gesture. But often, aid initiatives get lost in an administrative maze, corruption, or a lack of follow-ups. And in the world of Bitcoin, we see many promises of humanitarian aid without ever seeing results.

Hope With Bitcoin was launched to change that. The goal is clear:

Using the power of Bitcoin to provide direct, visible, measurable and lasting help.

We wanted to show that Bitcoin can nourish, heal, raise awareness, connect, and not just speculate.

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🔵 What we do concretely

Hope With Bitcoin isn't an abstract concept. It's a set of concrete actions carried out on the ground, with rigor and heart.

Here's what we do:

🍛 Food distribution and health aid

Thanks to donations collected in Bitcoin, we provide concrete help to those who need it most.

We distribute hot meals and basic food items (rice, spaghetti, oil, charcoal, etc.) to struggling families, vulnerable children, and orphanages.

But our work doesn't stop there. A portion of the funds is also used to purchase essential medicines and contribute to the payment of healthcare, particularly for sick or injured people who cannot afford treatment.

Each action is carefully documented and made public to ensure complete transparency and strengthen the trust of our donors.

✅ Missions accomplished: every satoshi counts

Since Hope With Bitcoin's inception, we've carried out several concrete actions thanks to the donations received. Here's a clear, transparent, and verifiable overview of our actions:

🔹 PoW 1 – 10 000 Satoshi Received

📅 Date : 01/09/2025

📍 Purchase food for two children in need

🔹 PoW 2 – 10 000 Satoshi Received

📅 Date : 01/11/2025

📍 Purchase food for two children in need

🔹 PoW 3 — 220,500 Satoshi received

📍 Preparing food for thirty children in need

📅 Date : 01/13/2025

🔹 PoW 4— 31,000 Satoshi received

📍 Purchase food for six children in need

📅 Date : 01/16/2025

🔹 PoW 5— 30,000 Satoshi received

📍 Purchase food for 10 students in need

📅 Date : 01/18/2025

🔹 PoW 6 – 11,093 Satoshi received

📍 Purchase food for two children in need

📅 Date : 01/22/2025

#### \ 🔹 PoW 7 – 52,000 Satoshi Received

📍 Preparing food for eight children in need

📅 Date : 01/27/2025

#### \ 🔹 PoW 8 – 116,866 Satoshi Received

📍Financial support for Maria Jimenez's health

📅 Date : 02/13/2025

🔹 PoW 9 – 8,001 Satoshi Received

📍 Hope With Bitcoin t-shirt print

📅 Date : 02/15/2025

🔹 PoW 10 – 22,602 Satoshi Received

📍 Purchase of food for five children in need (three on site and two takeaway)

📅 Date : 02/17/2025

🔹 PoW 11– 350,000 Satoshi Received

📍 Purchase of food (rice, corn, spaghetti, oil, salt, sugar, coal...) at the Bon Arbre orphanage

Thank you letter received: HERE

📅 Date : 03/06/2025

🔹 PoW 12 – 35,000 Satoshi received

📍 Purchase of medicine for a person in need

📅 Date : 04/02/2025

🔹 PoW 13 – 60,910 Satoshi received

📍 Purchase food for two children in need

🖼 Coming soon

📅 Date : 05/18/2025

Each of these Proofs of Work (PoW) is publicly published on Nostr or Geyser to ensure complete transparency. You can view them individually to see the real impact of your donations.

📣 Bitcoin Adoption Awareness

We take advantage of each field trip to speak with shopkeepers, local vendors, and young people. The idea is to show that Bitcoin can be used practically in their daily lives: to sell, buy, and exchange.

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🟠 Our results to date

Since the creation of Hope With Bitcoin on January 8, 2025, we have succeeded in:

• Collect a total of 957,971 Satoshi thanks to the generosity of contributors around the world.
• Help 87 people directly through our distribution actions. (Proof of work)
• Raise awareness among several merchants about the use of Bitcoin.
• Create a close-knit, caring community focused on human impact.

These numbers aren't statistics. They're lives, faces, stories. Every person helped represents a victory, proof that Bitcoin solidarity is possible.

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🟣 Our ambitions for the future

Hope With Bitcoin doesn't want to be just a one-time donation project. We believe in sustainability, independence, and structured growth.

### 🐖 Launch of a pig farm to sustainably finance our actions

To make our humanitarian work self-sufficient and sustainable, we have launched a project to create a pig farm, the proceeds of which will be used to fund food distribution, the purchase of medicines, and other solidarity initiatives led by Hope With Bitcoin.

This project aims to generate regular income while having a tangible local impact:

• 🥣 Continuously support food and health aid

• 👷‍♂️ Create jobs for young people and unemployed people

• ♻️ Reinvest profits in other humanitarian projects

To kick-start this project, we've established a detailed budget estimate that includes the purchase of piglets, pen construction, feed, veterinary care, and management fees. 👉 Estimated cost: approximately 5,525,200 Satoshi

More details on the budget here: https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsfmrafup9dma3wvgeqgasydjhy06rhkn8d268txmztp60533mp3xg0vuk5a

🐓 Towards a united and evolving ecosystem

Ultimately, we aim to diversify our business into chicken and goat farming and develop micro-agricultural projects. The goal is to build a resilient, local, and 100% Bitcoin-funded ecosystem that serves the most vulnerable.

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💛 You can support this project now on Geyser:

https://geyser.fund/project/hopewithbitcoin/goals/552

🌍 Expansion of the area of ​​action

We want to reach:

• More regions
• More beneficiaries
• More businesses willing to accept Bitcoin

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⚫ Why Bitcoin?

The choice of Bitcoin is not ideological. It is practical, thoughtful, and strategic.

Here's why we made this choice:

• ✅ Fast and low-cost transactions
• ✅ No geographical or banking barriers
• ✅ Immutability of donations: funds cannot be diverted
• ✅ Complete traceability thanks to blockchain
• ✅ Financial education for recipients

In short, Bitcoin allows us to rebuild trust in donations and make acts of solidarity visible.

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🟢 How to support us?

You can be part of the change. Here's how:

• 🤝 Donate in Bitcoin (https://geyser.fund/project/hopewithbitcoin)
• 📢 Share our posts to help us gain visibility
• 🧠 Recommend us to a partner, company, or influencer
• 💬 Join the community on Twitter, Nostr, or subscribe to Geyser to stay informed and actively participate.

Even a simple retweet can make a difference. Because every Satoshi counts.

---

Hope With Bitcoin is a declaration of love to humanity. It's a belief that technology can serve the heart. It's a demonstration that Bitcoin can nourish, not just enrich.

We are not an NGO, we are not a company. We are a movement, an initiative, a momentum. And this is just the beginning.

“With a little Bitcoin and a lot of love, we can change lives.”

🔗 Join us now : https://linktr.ee/hopewithbtc

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

If you're an engineer stepping into the Bitcoin space from the broader crypto ecosystem, you're probably carrying a mental model shaped by speed, flexibility, and rapid innovation. That makes sense—most blockchain platforms pride themselves on throughput, programmability, and dev agility.

But Bitcoin operates from a different set of first principles. It’s not competing to be the fastest network or the most expressive smart contract platform. It’s aiming to be the most credible, neutral, and globally accessible value layer in human history.

Here’s why that matters—and why Bitcoin is not just an alternative crypto asset, but a structural necessity in the global financial system.

1. Bitcoin Fixes the Triffin Dilemma—Not With Policy, But Protocol

The Triffin Dilemma shows us that any country issuing the global reserve currency must run persistent deficits to supply that currency to the world. That’s not a flaw of bad leadership—it’s an inherent contradiction. The U.S. must debase its own monetary integrity to meet global dollar demand. That’s a self-terminating system.

Bitcoin sidesteps this entirely by being:

• Non-sovereign – no single nation owns it
• Hard-capped – no central authority can inflate it
• Verifiable and neutral – anyone with a full node can enforce the rules

In other words, Bitcoin turns global liquidity into an engineering problem, not a political one. No other system, fiat or crypto, has achieved that.

2. Bitcoin’s “Ossification” Is Intentional—and It's a Feature

From the outside, Bitcoin development may look sluggish. Features are slow to roll out. Code changes are conservative. Consensus rules are treated as sacred.

That’s the point.

When you’re building the global monetary base layer, stability is not a weakness. It’s a prerequisite. Every other financial instrument, app, or protocol that builds on Bitcoin depends on one thing: assurance that the base layer won’t change underneath them without extreme scrutiny.

So-called “ossification” is just another term for predictability and integrity. And when the market does demand change (SegWit, Taproot), Bitcoin’s soft-fork governance process has proven capable of deploying it safely—without coercive central control.

3. Layered Architecture: Throughput Is Not a Base Layer Concern

You don’t scale settlement at the base layer. You build layered systems. Just as TCP/IP doesn't need to carry YouTube traffic directly, Bitcoin doesn’t need to process every microtransaction.

Instead, it anchors:

• Lightning (fast payments)
• Fedimint (community custody)
• Ark (privacy + UTXO compression)
• Statechains, sidechains, and covenants (coming evolution)

All of these inherit Bitcoin’s security and scarcity, while handling volume off-chain, in ways that maintain auditability and self-custody.

4. Universal Assayability Requires Minimalism at the Base Layer

A core design constraint of Bitcoin is that any participant, anywhere in the world, must be able to independently verify the validity of every transaction and block—past and present—without needing permission or relying on third parties.

This property is called assayability—the ability to “test” or verify the authenticity and integrity of received bitcoin, much like verifying the weight and purity of a gold coin.

To preserve this:

• The base layer must remain resource-light, so running a full node stays accessible on commodity hardware.
• Block sizes must remain small enough to prevent centralization of verification.
• Historical data must remain consistent and tamper-evident, enabling proof chains across time and jurisdiction.

Any base layer that scales by increasing throughput or complexity undermines this fundamental guarantee, making the network more dependent on trust and surveillance infrastructure.

Bitcoin prioritizes global verifiability over throughput—because trustless money requires that every user can check the money they receive.

5. Governance: Not Captured, Just Resistant to Coercion

The current controversy around OP_RETURN and proposals to limit inscriptions is instructive. Some prominent devs have advocated for changes to block content filtering. Others see it as overreach.

Here's what matters:

• No single dev, or team, can force changes into the network. Period.
• Bitcoin Core is not “the source of truth.” It’s one implementation. If it deviates from market consensus, it gets forked, sidelined, or replaced.
• The economic majority—miners, users, businesses—enforce Bitcoin’s rules, not GitHub maintainers.

In fact, recent community resistance to perceived Core overreach only reinforces Bitcoin’s resilience. Engineers who posture with narcissistic certainty, dismiss dissent, or attempt to capture influence are routinely neutralized by the market’s refusal to upgrade or adopt forks that undermine neutrality or openness.

This is governance via credible neutrality and negative feedback loops. Power doesn’t accumulate in one place. It’s constantly checked by the network’s distributed incentives.

6. Bitcoin Is Still in Its Infancy—And That’s a Good Thing

You’re not too late. The ecosystem around Bitcoin—especially L2 protocols, privacy tools, custody innovation, and zero-knowledge integrations—is just beginning.

If you're an engineer looking for:

• Systems with global scale constraints
• Architectures that optimize for integrity, not speed
• Consensus mechanisms that resist coercion
• A base layer with predictable monetary policy

Then Bitcoin is where serious systems engineers go when they’ve outgrown crypto theater.

Take-away

Under realistic, market-aware assumptions—where:

• Bitcoin’s ossification is seen as a stability feature, not inertia,
• Market forces can and do demand and implement change via tested, non-coercive mechanisms,
• Proof-of-work is recognized as the only consensus mechanism resistant to fiat capture,
• Wealth concentration is understood as a temporary distribution effect during early monetization,
• Low base layer throughput is a deliberate design constraint to preserve verifiability and neutrality,
• And innovation is layered by design, with the base chain providing integrity, not complexity...

Then Bitcoin is not a fragile or inflexible system—it is a deliberately minimal, modular, and resilient protocol.

Its governance is not leaderless chaos; it's a negative-feedback structure that minimizes the power of individuals or institutions to coerce change. The very fact that proposals—like controversial OP_RETURN restrictions—can be resisted, forked around, or ignored by the market without breaking the system is proof of decentralized control, not dysfunction.

Bitcoin is an adversarially robust monetary foundation. Its value lies not in how fast it changes, but in how reliably it doesn't—unless change is forced by real, bottom-up demand and implemented through consensus-tested soft forks.

In this framing, Bitcoin isn't a slower crypto. It's the engineering benchmark for systems that must endure, not entertain.

Final Word

Bitcoin isn’t moving slowly because it’s dying. It’s moving carefully because it’s winning. It’s not an app platform or a sandbox. It’s a protocol layer for the future of money.

If you're here because you want to help build that future, you’re in the right place.

nostr:nevent1qqswr7sla434duatjp4m89grvs3zanxug05pzj04asxmv4rngvyv04sppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qgs9tc6ruevfqu7nzt72kvq8te95dqfkndj5t8hlx6n79lj03q9v6xcrqsqqqqqp0n8wc2

nostr:nevent1qqsd5hfkqgskpjjq5zlfyyv9nmmela5q67tgu9640v7r8t828u73rdqpr4mhxue69uhkymmnw3ezucnfw33k76tww3ux76m09e3k7mf0qgsvr6dt8ft292mv5jlt7382vje0mfq2ccc3azrt4p45v5sknj6kkscrqsqqqqqp02vjk5

nostr:nevent1qqstrszamvffh72wr20euhrwa0fhzd3hhpedm30ys4ct8dpelwz3nuqpr4mhxue69uhkymmnw3ezucnfw33k76tww3ux76m09e3k7mf0qgs8a474cw4lqmapcq8hr7res4nknar2ey34fsffk0k42cjsdyn7yqqrqsqqqqqpnn3znl

@ 472f440f:5669301e

Marty's Bent

It's been a pretty historic week for the United States as it pertains to geopolitical relations in the Middle East. President Trump and many members of his administration, including AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, traveled across the Middle East making deals with countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and others. Many are speculating that Iran may be included in some behind the scenes deal as well. This trip to the Middle East makes sense considering the fact that China is also vying for favorable relationships with those countries. The Middle East is a power player in the world, and it seems pretty clear that Donald Trump is dead set on ensuring that they choose the United States over China as the world moves towards a more multi-polar reality.

Many are calling the events of this week the Riyadh Accords. There were many deals that were struck in relation to artificial intelligence, defense, energy and direct investments in the United States. A truly prolific power play and demonstration of deal-making ability of Donald Trump, if you ask me. Though I will admit some of the numbers that were thrown out by some of the countries were a bit egregious. We shall see how everything plays out in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this power move by the United States.

While all this was going on, there was something happening back in the United States that many people outside of fringe corners of FinTwit are not talking about, which is the fact that the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yields are back on the rise. Yesterday, they surpassed the levels of mid-April that caused a market panic and are hovering back around levels that have not been seen since right before Donald Trump's inauguration.

I imagine that there isn't as much of an uproar right now because I'm pretty confident the media freakouts we were experiencing in mid-April were driven by the fact that many large hedge funds found themselves off sides of large levered basis trades. I wouldn't be surprised if those funds have decreased their leverage in those trades and bond yields being back to mid-April levels is not affecting those funds as much as they were last month. But the point stands, the 10-year and 30-year yields are significantly elevated with the 30-year approaching 5%. Regardless of the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East, the Treasury has a big problem on its hands. It still has to roll over many trillions worth of debt over over the next few years and doing so at these rates is going to be massively detrimental to fiscal deficits over the next decade. The interest expense on the debt is set to explode in the coming years.

On that note, data from the first quarter of 2025 has been released by the government and despite all the posturing by the Trump administration around DOGE and how tariffs are going to be beneficial for the U.S. economy, deficits are continuing to explode while the interest expense on the debt has definitively surpassed our annual defense budget.

via Charlie Bilello

via Mohamed Al-Erian

To make matters worse, as things are deteriorating on the fiscal side of things, the U.S. consumer is getting crushed by credit. The 90-plus day delinquency rates for credit card and auto loans are screaming higher right now.

via TXMC

One has to wonder how long all this can continue without some sort of liquidity crunch. Even though equities markets have recovered from their post-Liberation Day month long bear market, I would not be surprised if what we're witnessing is a dead cat bounce that can only be continued if the money printers are turned back on. Something's got to give, both on the fiscal side and in the private markets where the Common Man is getting crushed because he's been forced to take on insane amounts of debt to stay afloat after years of elevated levels of inflation. Add on the fact that AI has reached a state of maturity that will enable companies to replace their current meat suit workers with an army of cheap, efficient and fast digital workers and it isn't hard to see that some sort of employment crisis could be on the horizon as well.

Now is not the time to get complacent. While I do believe that the deals that are currently being made in the Middle East are probably in the best interest of the United States as the world, again, moves toward a more multi-polar reality, we are facing problems that one cannot simply wish away. They will need to be confronted. And as we've seen throughout the 21st century, the problems are usually met head-on with a money printer.

I take no pleasure in saying this because it is a bit uncouth to be gleeful to benefit from the strife of others, but it is pretty clear to me that all signs are pointing to bitcoin benefiting massively from everything that is going on. The shift towards a more multi-polar world, the runaway debt situation here in the United States, the increasing deficits, the AI job replacements and the consumer credit crisis that is currently unfolding, All will need to be "solved" by turning on the money printers to levels they've never been pushed to before.

Weird times we're living in.

China's Manufacturing Dominance: Why It Matters for the U.S.

In my recent conversation with Lyn Alden, she highlighted how China has rapidly ascended the manufacturing value chain. As Lyn pointed out, China transformed from making "sneakers and plastic trinkets" to becoming the world's largest auto exporter in just four years. This dramatic shift represents more than economic success—it's a strategic power play. China now dominates solar panel production with greater market control than OPEC has over oil and maintains near-monopoly control of rare earth elements crucial for modern technology.

"China makes like 10 times more steel than the United States does... which is relevant in ship making. It's relevant in all sorts of stuff." - Lyn Alden

Perhaps most concerning, as Lyn emphasized, is China's financial leverage. They hold substantial U.S. assets that could be strategically sold to disrupt U.S. treasury market functioning. This combination of manufacturing dominance, resource control, and financial leverage gives China significant negotiating power in any trade disputes, making our attempts to reshoring manufacturing all the more challenging.

Check out the full podcast here for more on Triffin's dilemma, Bitcoin's role in monetary transition, and the energy requirements for rebuilding America's industrial base.

Headlines of the Day

Financial Times Under Fire Over MicroStrategy Bitcoin Coverage - via X

Trump in Qatar: Historic Boeing Deal Signed - via X

Get our new STACK SATS hat - via tftcmerch.io

Johnson Backs Stock Trading Ban; Passage Chances Slim - via X

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Final thought...

Building things of value is satisfying.

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@ c9badfea:610f861a

1. Install SDAI (it's free and open source)
2. Launch the app, and allow notifications when prompted
3. Complete the introduction to get started
4. Set Local Diffusion Microsoft ONNX as provider
5. In the configuration step, Download a model (such as Real Vision) and wait for the process to finish
6. Once the model is downloaded, tap on it and then select Setup
7. You can now create images offline by entering a Prompt and tapping 🪄 Imagine

ℹ️ Download the tracking-free FOSS variant

ℹ️ Internet connection is only required for the initial model download

ℹ️ To speed up image generation, consider reducing the image size (e.g. 256x256)

@ 28e13303:84bb7266

⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. Flash USDT is a blockchain simulation tool used for wallet testing, UI development, or demonstration purposes. It should not be used for fraudulent activity. @crypptrcver is not responsible for misuse.

💡 What Is Flash USDT? Flash USDT is a synthetic transaction method that simulates the transfer of Tether (USDT) into a wallet. These transactions appear instantly in wallet balances — without ever being confirmed on the blockchain — and disappear after a short time or block interval.

Think of it as a temporary, visual representation of USDT that looks real in a wallet but vanishes after expiry.

🧠 Flash USDT: The Basics 👁️ Visible in supported wallets confirmed on-chain ⏱️ Disappears after 20–60 minutes (or X blocks) 💸 Can be withdrawn and traded ⚙️ Used in wallet testing, UI simulation, and balance display demos Also known as:

Flash USDT Wallet Tool Flash USDT Sender Atomic Flash USDT Flash USDT Binance Sim 🛠️ How Flash USDT Works You input a wallet address (TRC20, ERC20, or BEP20) Flash USDT software sends an instant transaction Wallet displays the amount — as if it were real After expiry (e.g., 30 minutes), the tokens vanish It creates the illusion of a deposit without requiring real blockchain confirmation. Most users use Flash USDT for:

Wallet UI testing “Proof of funds” simulations Demo environments Smart contract UX testing 🔧 Supported Networks & Wallets Flash USDT supports all major token standards:

🔸 TRC20 (Tron Network) 🔸 ERC20 (Ethereum) 🔸 BEP20 (Binance Smart Chain) It works with wallets such as:

✅ Trust Wallet ✅ MetaMask ✅ TronLink ✅ Binance Wallet ✅ Atomic Wallet The balance appears instantly, just like a real incoming USDT deposit.

🔥 Features of Flash USDT Sender FeatureDescriptionNetwork supportTRC20 / ERC20 / BEP20Visibility duration20 minutes — 2 hoursWallet compatibilityNon-KYC wallets that show unconfirmed TXsFlash USDT Binance modeSimulates deposits into BSC walletsAdjustable transaction sizeSend any custom USDT amountStealth expiryClean disappearance without trace

This is especially helpful in scenarios where you need to test token flows, design wallet apps, or simulate incoming funding activity

📞 How to Buy Flash USDT To get your Flash USDT transaction or software setup:

💬 Telegram: @crypptrcver 📱 WhatsApp: +1 941 217 1821

Available packages:

🎯 One-time Flash USDT Send 💻 Full Flash USDT Software Tool 📱 Flash Sender for Mobile/Android 🌐 Multi-wallet Simulation Package You can request TRC20, ERC20, or BEP20 flash transactions depending on the wallet or network you’re working with.

⚠️ Legal & Ethical Use Only While Flash USDT is a powerful blockchain simulation tool, using it to deceive, fake trades, or commit fraud is illegal. Flash transactions should only be used for:

✅ Personal testing ✅ Blockchain development ✅ Wallet UI testing ✅ Research and education Any misuse is your full responsibility.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions What is Flash USDT? A temporary USDT transaction that appears in a wallet balance without confirming on the blockchain. It disappears after a set time or block count.

Is Flash USDT real money? No. It is a simulated deposit, not spendable or tradable.

Can I use Flash USDT on Binance? You can send it to BSC (BEP20) wallets, but you cannot use it on the Binance exchange. It’s for display/testing only.

How do I buy Flash USDT? Contact @crypptrcver on Telegram or WhatsApp to purchase a transaction or the full sender software.

What does Atomic Flash USDT mean? It refers to Flash USDT transactions that are time-bound and expire silently, simulating atomic wallet behavior.

🧠 Final Thoughts Flash USDT is one of the most advanced crypto testing tools available in 2025. Whether you’re simulating wallet behavior, demonstrating a smart contract front end, or simply showing a visual “deposit” for testing, Flash USDT provides an incredibly realistic experience — without ever moving real funds.

👉 Ready to simulate your first USDT transaction?

💬 Telegram: @crypptrcver 📱 WhatsApp: +1 941 217 1821

Packages available for:

TRC20 BEP20 ERC20 Custom wallet simulations

⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. Flash USDT is a blockchain simulation tool used for wallet testing, UI development, or demonstration purposes. It should not be used for fraudulent activity. @crypptrcver is not responsible for misuse.

💡 What Is Flash USDT?

Flash USDT is a synthetic transaction method that simulates the transfer of Tether (USDT) into a wallet. These transactions appear instantly in wallet balances — without ever being confirmed on the blockchain — and disappear after a short time or block interval.

Think of it as a temporary, visual representation of USDT that looks real in a wallet but vanishes after expiry.

🧠 Flash USDT: The Basics

• 👁️ Visible in supported wallets
• confirmed on-chain
• ⏱️ Disappears after 20–60 minutes (or X blocks)
• 💸 Can be withdrawn and traded
• ⚙️ Used in wallet testing, UI simulation, and balance display demos

Also known as:

• Flash USDT Wallet Tool
• Flash USDT Sender
• Atomic Flash USDT
• Flash USDT Binance Sim

🛠️ How Flash USDT Works

1. You input a wallet address (TRC20, ERC20, or BEP20)
2. Flash USDT software sends an instant transaction
3. Wallet displays the amount — as if it were real
4. After expiry (e.g., 30 minutes), the tokens vanish

It creates the illusion of a deposit without requiring real blockchain confirmation. Most users use Flash USDT for:

• Wallet UI testing
• “Proof of funds” simulations
• Demo environments
• Smart contract UX testing

🔧 Supported Networks & Wallets

Flash USDT supports all major token standards:

• 🔸 TRC20 (Tron Network)
• 🔸 ERC20 (Ethereum)
• 🔸 BEP20 (Binance Smart Chain)

It works with wallets such as:

• ✅ Trust Wallet
• ✅ MetaMask
• ✅ TronLink
• ✅ Binance Wallet
• ✅ Atomic Wallet

The balance appears instantly, just like a real incoming USDT deposit.

🔥 Features of Flash USDT Sender

FeatureDescriptionNetwork supportTRC20 / ERC20 / BEP20Visibility duration20 minutes — 2 hoursWallet compatibilityNon-KYC wallets that show unconfirmed TXsFlash USDT Binance modeSimulates deposits into BSC walletsAdjustable transaction sizeSend any custom USDT amountStealth expiryClean disappearance without trace

This is especially helpful in scenarios where you need to test token flows, design wallet apps, or simulate incoming funding activity

📞 How to Buy Flash USDT

To get your Flash USDT transaction or software setup:

💬 Telegram: @crypptrcver\ 📱 WhatsApp: +1 941 217 1821

Available packages:

• 🎯 One-time Flash USDT Send
• 💻 Full Flash USDT Software Tool
• 📱 Flash Sender for Mobile/Android
• 🌐 Multi-wallet Simulation Package

You can request TRC20, ERC20, or BEP20 flash transactions depending on the wallet or network you’re working with.

⚠️ Legal & Ethical Use Only

While Flash USDT is a powerful blockchain simulation tool, using it to deceive, fake trades, or commit fraud is illegal. Flash transactions should only be used for:

• ✅ Personal testing
• ✅ Blockchain development
• ✅ Wallet UI testing
• ✅ Research and education

Any misuse is your full responsibility.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

What is Flash USDT?

A temporary USDT transaction that appears in a wallet balance without confirming on the blockchain. It disappears after a set time or block count.

Is Flash USDT real money?

No. It is a simulated deposit, not spendable or tradable.

Can I use Flash USDT on Binance?

You can send it to BSC (BEP20) wallets, but you cannot use it on the Binance exchange. It’s for display/testing only.

How do I buy Flash USDT?

Contact @crypptrcver on Telegram or WhatsApp to purchase a transaction or the full sender software.

What does Atomic Flash USDT mean?

It refers to Flash USDT transactions that are time-bound and expire silently, simulating atomic wallet behavior.

🧠 Final Thoughts

Flash USDT is one of the most advanced crypto testing tools available in 2025. Whether you’re simulating wallet behavior, demonstrating a smart contract front end, or simply showing a visual “deposit” for testing, Flash USDT provides an incredibly realistic experience — without ever moving real funds.

👉 Ready to simulate your first USDT transaction?

💬 Telegram: @crypptrcver\ 📱 WhatsApp: +1 941 217 1821

Packages available for:

• TRC20
• BEP20
• ERC20
• Custom wallet simulations

@ 005bc4de:ef11e1a2

Today I rode my bicycle to work and then I had to ride halfway back home to go to a picnic event, kind of a thing. And then I had a bike back to work to help unload stuff and then I had to bike home. So, I got some extra exercise in today and a bit unexpected, but that's good. This image was while I was taking a little walk, it looked like a tiny forest. https://usermedia.actifit.io/125670ce-4e00-493c-a0b4-4c42d542391f This report was published via Actifit app (https://bit.ly/actifit-app | https://bit.ly/actifit-ios). Check out the original version https://actifit.io/@crrdlx/actifit-crrdlx-20250515t231342287z 15/05/2025 24933 Cycling, Jogging, Walking

Originally posted on Hive at https://hive.blog/@crrdlx/actifit-crrdlx-20250515t231342287z

Auto cross-post via Hostr v0.1.16 at https://hostr-home.vercel.app

@ c9badfea:610f861a

1. Install MuPDF Mini (it's free and open source)
2. Launch the app and open a document or book
3. Tap the left or right edges to scroll through pages
4. Enjoy distraction-free reading

ℹ️ You can open .pdf, .xps, .cbz, .epub, and fb2 documents

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

Introduction: The Power of Fiction and the Shaping of Collective Morality

Stories define the moral landscape of a civilization. From the earliest mythologies to the modern spectacle of global cinema, the tales a society tells its youth shape the parameters of acceptable behavior, the cost of transgression, and the meaning of justice, power, and redemption. Among the most globally influential narratives of the past half-century is the Star Wars saga, a sprawling science fiction mythology that has transcended genre to become a cultural religion for many. Central to this mythos is the arc of Anakin Skywalker, the fallen Jedi Knight who becomes Darth Vader. In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Anakin commits what is arguably the most morally abhorrent act depicted in mainstream popular cinema: the mass murder of children. And yet, by the end of the saga, he is redeemed.

This chapter introduces the uninitiated to the events surrounding this narrative turn and explores the deep structural and ethical concerns it raises. We argue that the cultural treatment of Darth Vader as an anti-hero, even a role model, reveals a deep perversion in the collective moral grammar of the modern West. In doing so, we consider the implications this mythology may have on young adults navigating identity, masculinity, and agency in a world increasingly shaped by spectacle and symbolic narrative.

Part I: The Scene and Its Context

In Revenge of the Sith (2005), the third episode of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the protagonist Anakin Skywalker succumbs to fear, ambition, and manipulation. Convinced that the Jedi Council is plotting against the Republic and desperate to save his pregnant wife from a vision of death, Anakin pledges allegiance to Chancellor Palpatine, secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Upon doing so, he is given a new name—Darth Vader—and tasked with a critical mission: to eliminate all Jedi in the temple, including its youngest members.

In one of the most harrowing scenes in the film, Anakin enters the Jedi Temple. A group of young children, known as "younglings," emerge from hiding and plead for help. One steps forward, calling him "Master Skywalker," and asks what they are to do. Anakin responds by igniting his lightsaber. The screen cuts away, but the implication is unambiguous. Later, it is confirmed through dialogue and visual allusion that he slaughtered them all.

There is no ambiguity in the storytelling. The man who will become the galaxy’s most feared enforcer begins his descent by murdering defenseless children.

Part II: A New Kind of Evil in Youth-Oriented Media

For decades, cinema avoided certain taboos. Even films depicting war, genocide, or psychological horror rarely crossed the line into showing children as victims of deliberate violence by the protagonist. When children were harmed, it was by monstrous antagonists, supernatural forces, or offscreen implications. The killing of children was culturally reserved for historical atrocities and horror tales.

In Revenge of the Sith, this boundary was broken. While the film does not show the violence explicitly, the implication is so clear and so central to the character arc that its omission from visual depiction does not blunt the narrative weight. What makes this scene especially jarring is the tonal dissonance between the gravity of the act and the broader cultural treatment of Star Wars as a family-friendly saga. The juxtaposition of child-targeted marketing with a central plot involving child murder is not accidental—it reflects a deeper narrative and commercial structure.

This scene was not a deviation from the arc. It was the intended turning point.

Part III: Masculinity, Militarism, and the Appeal of the Anti-Hero

Darth Vader has long been idolized as a masculine icon. His towering presence, emotionless control, and mechanical voice exude power and discipline. Military institutions have quoted him. He is celebrated in memes, posters, and merchandise. Within the cultural imagination, he embodies dominance, command, and strategic ruthlessness.

For many young men, particularly those struggling with identity, agency, and perceived weakness, Vader becomes more than a character. He becomes an archetype: the man who reclaims power by embracing discipline, forsaking emotion, and exacting vengeance against those who betrayed him. The emotional pain that leads to his fall mirrors the experiences of isolation and perceived emasculation that many young men internalize in a fractured society.

The symbolism becomes dangerous. Anakin's descent into mass murder is portrayed not as the outcome of unchecked cruelty, but as a tragic mistake rooted in love and desperation. The implication is that under enough pressure, even the most horrific act can be framed as a step toward a noble end.

Part IV: Redemption as Narrative Alchemy

By the end of the original trilogy (Return of the Jedi, 1983), Darth Vader kills the Emperor to save his son Luke and dies shortly thereafter. Luke mourns him, honors him, and burns his body in reverence. In the final scene, Vader's ghost appears alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda—the very men who once considered him the greatest betrayal of their order. He is welcomed back.

There is no reckoning. No mention of the younglings. No memorial to the dead. No consequence beyond his own internal torment.

This model of redemption is not uncommon in Western storytelling. In Christian doctrine, the concept of grace allows for any sin to be forgiven if the sinner repents sincerely. But in the context of secular mass culture, such redemption without justice becomes deeply troubling. The cultural message is clear: even the worst crimes can be erased if one makes a grand enough gesture at the end. It is the erasure of moral debt by narrative fiat.

The implication is not only that evil can be undone by good, but that power and legacy matter more than the victims. Vader is not just forgiven—he is exalted.

Part V: Real-World Reflections and Dangerous Scripts

In recent decades, the rise of mass violence in schools and public places has revealed a disturbing pattern: young men who feel alienated, betrayed, or powerless adopt mythic narratives of vengeance and transformation. They often see themselves as tragic figures forced into violence by a cruel world. Some explicitly reference pop culture, quoting films, invoking fictional characters, or modeling their identities after cinematic anti-heroes.

It would be reductive to claim Star Wars causes such events. But it is equally naive to believe that such narratives play no role in shaping the symbolic frameworks through which vulnerable individuals understand their lives. The story of Anakin Skywalker offers a dangerous script:

• You are betrayed.
• You suffer.
• You kill.
• You become powerful.
• You are redeemed.

When combined with militarized masculinity, institutional failure, and cultural nihilism, this script can validate the darkest impulses. It becomes a myth of sacrificial violence, with the perpetrator as misunderstood hero.

Part VI: Cultural Responsibility and Narrative Ethics

The problem is not that Star Wars tells a tragic story. Tragedy is essential to moral understanding. The problem is how the culture treats that story. Darth Vader is not treated as a warning, a cautionary tale, or a fallen angel. He is merchandised, celebrated, and decontextualized.

By separating his image from his actions, society rebrands him as a figure of cool dominance rather than ethical failure. The younglings are forgotten. The victims vanish. Only the redemption remains. The merchandise continues to sell.

Cultural institutions bear responsibility for how such narratives are presented and consumed. Filmmakers may intend nuance, but marketing departments, military institutions, and fan cultures often reduce that nuance to symbol and slogan.

Conclusion: Reckoning with the Stories We Tell

The story of Anakin Skywalker is not morally neutral. It is a tale of systemic failure, emotional collapse, and unchecked violence. When presented in full, it can serve as a powerful warning. But when reduced to aesthetic dominance and easy redemption, it becomes a tool of moral decay.

The glorification of Darth Vader as a cultural icon—divorced from the horrific acts that define his transformation—is not just misguided. It is dangerous. It trains a generation to believe that power erases guilt, that violence is a path to recognition, and that final acts of loyalty can overwrite the deliberate murder of the innocent.

To the uninitiated, Star Wars may seem like harmless fantasy. But its deepest myth—the redemption of the child-killer through familial love and posthumous honor—deserves scrutiny. Not because fiction causes violence, but because fiction defines the possibilities of how we understand evil, forgiveness, and what it means to be a hero.

We must ask: What kind of redemption erases the cries of murdered children? And what kind of culture finds peace in that forgetting?

@ b292393a:ad5d160e

hello there2

@ b292393a:ad5d160e

hello there

@ b292393a:ad5d160e

@ 52b4a076:e7fad8bd

Introduction

Me and Fishcake have been working on infrastructure for Noswhere and Nostr.build. Part of this involves processing a large amount of Nostr events for features such as search, analytics, and feeds.

I have been recently developing nosdex v3, a newer version of the Noswhere scraper that is designed for maximum performance and fault tolerance using FoundationDB (FDB).

Fishcake has been working on a processing system for Nostr events to use with NB, based off of Cloudflare (CF) Pipelines, which is a relatively new beta product. This evening, we put it all to the test.

First preparations

We set up a new CF Pipelines endpoint, and I implemented a basic importer that took data from the nosdex database. This was quite slow, as it did HTTP requests synchronously, but worked as a good smoke test.

Asynchronous indexing

I implemented a high-contention queue system designed for highly parallel indexing operations, built using FDB, that supports: - Fully customizable batch sizes - Per-index queues - Hundreds of parallel consumers - Automatic retry logic using lease expiration

When the scraper first gets an event, it will process it and eventually write it to the blob store and FDB. Each new event is appended to the event log.

On the indexing side, a Queuer will read the event log, and batch events (usually 2K-5K events) into one work job. This work job contains: - A range in the log to index - Which target this job is intended for - The size of the job and some other metadata

Each job has an associated leasing state, which is used to handle retries and prioritization, and ensure no duplication of work.

Several Workers monitor the index queue (up to 128) and wait for new jobs that are available to lease.

Once a suitable job is found, the worker acquires a lease on the job and reads the relevant events from FDB and the blob store.

Depending on the indexing type, the job will be processed in one of a number of ways, and then marked as completed or returned for retries.

In this case, the event is also forwarded to CF Pipelines.

Trying it out

The first attempt did not go well. I found a bug in the high-contention indexer that led to frequent transaction conflicts. This was easily solved by correcting an incorrectly set parameter.

We also found there were other issues in the indexer, such as an insufficient amount of threads, and a suspicious decrease in the speed of the Queuer during processing of queued jobs.

Along with fixing these issues, I also implemented other optimizations, such as deprioritizing Worker DB accesses, and increasing the batch size.

To fix the degraded Queuer performance, I ran the backfill job by itself, and then started indexing after it had completed.

Bottlenecks, bottlenecks everywhere

After implementing these fixes, there was an interesting problem: The DB couldn't go over 80K reads per second. I had encountered this limit during load testing for the scraper and other FDB benchmarks.

As I suspected, this was a client thread limitation, as one thread seemed to be using high amounts of CPU. To overcome this, I created a new client instance for each Worker.

After investigating, I discovered that the Go FoundationDB client cached the database connection. This meant all attempts to create separate DB connections ended up being useless.

Using OpenWithConnectionString partially resolved this issue. (This also had benefits for service-discovery based connection configuration.)

To be able to fully support multi-threading, I needed to enabled the FDB multi-client feature. Enabling it also allowed easier upgrades across DB versions, as FDB clients are incompatible across versions:

FDB_NETWORK_OPTION_EXTERNAL_CLIENT_LIBRARY="/lib/libfdb_c.so" FDB_NETWORK_OPTION_CLIENT_THREADS_PER_VERSION="16"

Breaking the 100K/s reads barrier

After implementing support for the multi-threaded client, we were able to get over 100K reads per second.

You may notice after the restart (gap) the performance dropped. This was caused by several bugs: 1. When creating the CF Pipelines endpoint, we did not specify a region. The automatically selected region was far away from the server. 2. The amount of shards were not sufficient, so we increased them. 3. The client overloaded a few HTTP/2 connections with too many requests.

I implemented a feature to assign each Worker its own HTTP client, fixing the 3rd issue. We also moved the entire storage region to West Europe to be closer to the servers.

After these changes, we were able to easily push over 200K reads/s, mostly limited by missing optimizations:

It's shards all the way down

While testing, we also noticed another issue: At certain times, a pipeline would get overloaded, stalling requests for seconds at a time. This prevented all forward progress on the Workers.

We solved this by having multiple pipelines: A primary pipeline meant to be for standard load, with moderate batching duration and less shards, and high-throughput pipelines with more shards.

Each Worker is assigned a pipeline on startup, and if one pipeline stalls, other workers can continue making progress and saturate the DB.

The stress test

After making sure everything was ready for the import, we cleared all data, and started the import.

The entire import lasted 20 minutes between 01:44 UTC and 02:04 UTC, reaching a peak of: - 0.25M requests per second - 0.6M keys read per second - 140MB/s reads from DB - 2Gbps of network throughput

FoundationDB ran smoothly during this test, with: - Read times under 2ms - Zero conflicting transactions - No overloaded servers

CF Pipelines held up well, delivering batches to R2 without any issues, while reaching its maximum possible throughput.

Finishing notes

Me and Fishcake have been building infrastructure around scaling Nostr, from media, to relays, to content indexing. We consistently work on improving scalability, resiliency and stability, even outside these posts.

Many things, including what you see here, are already a part of Nostr.build, Noswhere and NFDB, and many other changes are being implemented every day.

If you like what you are seeing, and want to integrate it, get in touch. :)

If you want to support our work, you can zap this post, or register for nostr.land and nostr.build today.

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

High-Level Overview

Bitcoin developers are currently debating a proposed change to how Bitcoin Core handles the OP_RETURN opcode — a mechanism that allows users to insert small amounts of data into the blockchain. Specifically, the controversy revolves around removing built-in filters that limit how much data can be stored using this feature (currently capped at 80 bytes).

Summary of Both Sides

Position A: Remove OP_RETURN Filters

Advocates: nostr:npub1ej493cmun8y9h3082spg5uvt63jgtewneve526g7e2urca2afrxqm3ndrm, nostr:npub12rv5lskctqxxs2c8rf2zlzc7xx3qpvzs3w4etgemauy9thegr43sf485vg, nostr:npub17u5dneh8qjp43ecfxr6u5e9sjamsmxyuekrg2nlxrrk6nj9rsyrqywt4tp, others

Arguments: - Ineffectiveness of filters: Filters are easily bypassed and do not stop spam effectively. - Code simplification: Removing arbitrary limits reduces code complexity. - Permissionless innovation: Enables new use cases like cross-chain bridges and timestamping without protocol-level barriers. - Economic regulation: Fees should determine what data gets added to the blockchain, not protocol rules.

Position B: Keep OP_RETURN Filters

Advocates: nostr:npub1lh273a4wpkup00stw8dzqjvvrqrfdrv2v3v4t8pynuezlfe5vjnsnaa9nk, nostr:npub1s33sw6y2p8kpz2t8avz5feu2n6yvfr6swykrnm2frletd7spnt5qew252p, nostr:npub1wnlu28xrq9gv77dkevck6ws4euej4v568rlvn66gf2c428tdrptqq3n3wr, others

Arguments: - Historical intent: Satoshi included filters to keep Bitcoin focused on monetary transactions. - Resource protection: Helps prevent blockchain bloat and abuse from non-financial uses. - Network preservation: Protects the network from being overwhelmed by low-value or malicious data. - Social governance: Maintains conservative changes to ensure long-term robustness.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths of Removing Filters

• Encourages decentralized innovation.
• Simplifies development and maintenance.
• Maintains ideological purity of a permissionless system.

Weaknesses of Removing Filters

• Opens the door to increased non-financial data and potential spam.
• May dilute Bitcoin’s core purpose as sound money.
• Risks short-term exploitation before economic filters adapt.

Strengths of Keeping Filters

• Preserves Bitcoin’s identity and original purpose.
• Provides a simple protective mechanism against abuse.
• Aligns with conservative development philosophy of Bitcoin Core.

Weaknesses of Keeping Filters

• Encourages central decision-making on allowed use cases.
• Leads to workarounds that may be less efficient or obscure.
• Discourages novel but legitimate applications.

Long-Term Consequences

If Filters Are Removed

• Positive: Potential boom in new applications, better interoperability, cleaner architecture.
• Negative: Risk of increased blockchain size, more bandwidth/storage costs, spam wars.

If Filters Are Retained

• Positive: Preserves monetary focus and operational discipline.
• Negative: Alienates developers seeking broader use cases, may ossify the protocol.

Conclusion

The debate highlights a core philosophical split in Bitcoin: whether it should remain a narrow monetary system or evolve into a broader data layer for decentralized applications. Both paths carry risks and tradeoffs. The outcome will shape not just Bitcoin's technical direction but its social contract and future role in the broader crypto ecosystem.

@ 52b4a076:e7fad8bd

I have been recently building NFDB, a new relay DB. This post is meant as a short overview.

Regular relays have challenges

Current relay software have significant challenges, which I have experienced when hosting Nostr.land: - Scalability is only supported by adding full replicas, which does not scale to large relays. - Most relays use slow databases and are not optimized for large scale usage. - Search is near-impossible to implement on standard relays. - Privacy features such as NIP-42 are lacking. - Regular DB maintenance tasks on normal relays require extended downtime. - Fault-tolerance is implemented, if any, using a load balancer, which is limited. - Personalization and advanced filtering is not possible. - Local caching is not supported.

NFDB: A scalable database for large relays

NFDB is a new database meant for medium-large scale relays, built on FoundationDB that provides: - Near-unlimited scalability - Extended fault tolerance - Instant loading - Better search - Better personalization - and more.

Search

NFDB has extended search capabilities including: - Semantic search: Search for meaning, not words. - Interest-based search: Highlight content you care about. - Multi-faceted queries: Easily filter by topic, author group, keywords, and more at the same time. - Wide support for event kinds, including users, articles, etc.

Personalization

NFDB allows significant personalization: - Customized algorithms: Be your own algorithm. - Spam filtering: Filter content to your WoT, and use advanced spam filters. - Topic mutes: Mute topics, not keywords. - Media filtering: With Nostr.build, you will be able to filter NSFW and other content - Low data mode: Block notes that use high amounts of cellular data. - and more

Other

NFDB has support for many other features such as: - NIP-42: Protect your privacy with private drafts and DMs - Microrelays: Easily deploy your own personal microrelay - Containers: Dedicated, fast storage for discoverability events such as relay lists

Calcite: A local microrelay database

Calcite is a lightweight, local version of NFDB that is meant for microrelays and caching, meant for thousands of personal microrelays.

Calcite HA is an additional layer that allows live migration and relay failover in under 30 seconds, providing higher availability compared to current relays with greater simplicity. Calcite HA is enabled in all Calcite deployments.

For zero-downtime, NFDB is recommended.

Noswhere SmartCache

Relays are fixed in one location, but users can be anywhere.

Noswhere SmartCache is a CDN for relays that dynamically caches data on edge servers closest to you, allowing: - Multiple regions around the world - Improved throughput and performance - Faster loading times

routerd

routerd is a custom load-balancer optimized for Nostr relays, integrated with SmartCache.

routerd is specifically integrated with NFDB and Calcite HA to provide fast failover and high performance.

Ending notes

NFDB is planned to be deployed to Nostr.land in the coming weeks.

A lot more is to come. 👀️️️️️️

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

If you ever read about a hypothetical "evil AI"—one that manipulates, dominates, and surveils humanity—you might find yourself wondering: how is that any different from what some governments already do?

Let’s explore the eerie parallels between the actions of a fictional malevolent AI and the behaviors of powerful modern states—specifically the U.S. federal government.

Surveillance and Control

Evil AI: Uses total surveillance to monitor all activity, predict rebellion, and enforce compliance.

Modern Government: Post-9/11 intelligence agencies like the NSA have implemented mass data collection programs, monitoring phone calls, emails, and online activity—often without meaningful oversight.

Parallel: Both claim to act in the name of “security,” but the tools are ripe for abuse.

Manipulation of Information

Evil AI: Floods the information space with propaganda, misinformation, and filters truth based on its goals.

Modern Government: Funds media outlets, promotes specific narratives through intelligence leaks, and collaborates with social media companies to suppress or flag dissenting viewpoints.

Parallel: Control the narrative, shape public perception, and discredit opposition.

Economic Domination

Evil AI: Restructures the economy for efficiency, displacing workers and concentrating resources.

Modern Government: Facilitates wealth transfer through lobbying, regulatory capture, and inflationary monetary policy that disproportionately hurts the middle and lower classes.

Parallel: The system enriches those who control it, leaving the rest with less power to resist.

Perpetual Warfare

Evil AI: Instigates conflict to weaken opposition or as a form of distraction and control.

Modern Government: Maintains a state of nearly constant military engagement since WWII, often for interests that benefit a small elite rather than national defense.

Parallel: War becomes policy, not a last resort.

Predictive Policing and Censorship

Evil AI: Uses predictive algorithms to preemptively suppress dissent and eliminate threats.

Modern Government: Experiments with pre-crime-like measures, flags “misinformation,” and uses AI tools to monitor online behavior.

Parallel: Prevent rebellion not by fixing problems, but by suppressing their expression.

Conclusion: Systemic Inhumanity

Whether it’s AI or a bureaucratic state, the more a system becomes detached from individual accountability and human empathy, the more it starts to act in ways we would call “evil” if a machine did them.

An AI doesn’t need to enslave humanity with lasers and killer robots. Sometimes all it takes is code, coercion, and unchecked power—something we may already be facing.

@ 5edbd885:5fbc291e

Bitcoin is a system outside of the system—you don’t actually need fiat to obtain some sats. Bitcoin is a monetary network designed to operate independently of traditional financial systems.

As such, it’s possible to acquire Bitcoin without ever converting any fiat currency. 

Whether you’re aiming to earn, trade, or receive Bitcoin through alternative means, there are numerous ways to accumulate it organically—through work, community engagement, or creative effort.

In this guide, we'll explore six methods to get Bitcoin without spending fiat.

While some approaches require more time or technical knowledge, others are accessible to nearly anyone willing to accept Bitcoin for payment ⚡️

Read until the end of the article to know where to find people willing to give you Bitcoin in exchange for these ideas 🙂

Note: I have no affiliates or sponsorships and so any businesses I mention below are neither endorsements nor paid ads.

1. Offer Professional Services in Exchange for Bitcoin

The easiest and most direct way to receive Bitcoin without fiat is to trade your skills for sats.

This can be an option for those who are already earning an income freelancing, consulting, or providing any type of independent service simply by charging in Bitcoin rather than fiat.

For those with a traditional 9-5, you could mine sats within a Bitcoin company rather than a fiat business, or offer your skills as a side hustle for sats until you are ready to make a full switch (if you so choose).

Common examples include:

• Writing, editing, or translating

• Graphic design and illustration

• Programming and development

• Coaching, tutoring, or consulting

• Manual labor or local services

Rather than invoicing in your local currency, you can simply set your rate in Bitcoin—typically using a satoshi-based pricing model. I have a few free tools on my site that can help you with this.

2. Sell Goods—Physical or Digital—for Bitcoin

You don’t need to be a freelancer or to convince your boss to receive Bitcoin.

If you own physical items or create digital products, you can accept BTC as payment instead of fiat.

Even in a down-sizing situation, selling things around your home for Bitcoin is also an option.

Ideas include:

• Selling used items locally (e.g., via marketplaces or word of mouth)

• Creating and distributing digital products like eBooks, music, or design assets

• Selling handmade crafts or collectibles

• Selling the second-hand goods you no longer need for sats

Enthusiasts are often excited to support peer-to-peer BTC commerce.

You don’t need a complex setup either—a mobile wallet that supports on-chain or Lightning payments is enough to get started.

3. Engage with Nostr & Earn via Micro-Transactions

(I know you are reading on Nostr, but I originally published this on my blog for non-users, and talking about Nostr on Nostr is fun ;)

Nostr is a decentralized social protocol that allows users to interact, publish content, and receive sats.

It’s one of the most innovative new ways to earn BTC organically, without needing any fiat currency.

On Nostr, content creators, contributors, musicians, artists, and everyday people can receive “zaps” (tiny Bitcoin tips via the Lightning Network) from other users.

It’s essentially a value-for-value economy where people support each other directly with sats on top of likes and shares.

Getting started is simple:

• Set up a Lightning wallet (many are free and non-custodial - just look up what Bitcoiners recommend at the time you are reading this)

• Create a profile on a Nostr client (such as Damus, Amethyst, or Primal)

• Participate by posting, replying, and sharing thoughtful content

While the amounts may be small at first, consistent engagement can result in meaningful Bitcoin accumulation over time.

4. Request Bitcoin Tips in Your Daily Life

If you work in a role where tipping is common—such as driving for Uber, working in food service, hospitality, or delivery—you can offer Bitcoin as a tipping option.

How to implement this:

• Include a QR code to your Lightning wallet on your phone or a printed card

• Politely inform customers that you accept Bitcoin tips

• Use signage or include a message in your app profile

You may be surprised by how many tech-savvy or curious customers are willing to try it, especially in urban or Bitcoin-friendly communities.

5. Use Bitcoin Cashback & Rewards Programs

While not a direct trade for labor or goods, some platforms allow you to earn Bitcoin as a reward for purchases you were already planning to make.

In these cases, you are not buying Bitcoin with fiat, but instead receiving it as a form of cashback on your everyday fiat purchases.

Popular platforms include:

• In Canada, Shakepay offers free sats for shaking your phone daily or using their pre-paid Visa debit card

• Strike occasionally offers rewards in Bitcoin as well

This approach is best suited for those who already have a spending routine and want to passively earn BTC without changing their habits.

6. Try Bitcoin Mini–Mining

Mini miners like the Bitaxe, BitNerd, and similar open-source devices offer a unique way to mine Bitcoin at home without needing large-scale equipment or industrial-level power.

While traditional Bitcoin mining requires costly ASICs and massive electricity, mini miners are small, efficient, and hobbyist-friendly.

They’re capable of independently solving blocks—meaning there’s a tiny chance you could win the full block reward—or they can be used to join a solo mining pool and receive small payouts over time based on contribution.

Benefits of mini mining:

• Educational: Learn how mining works from the ground up

• Passive: Runs in the background with low power usage

• Potential upside: Very low probability of winning a full block, but it’s possible

Important caveats:

• These devices must be purchased with fiat or Bitcoin initially

• Most users will not earn consistent Bitcoin from them

• It may be more efficient to simply buy Bitcoin directly with that money ;)

While this idea is more geared towards experienced Bitcoiners wanting to expand their way of stacking sats, it's still a fun thing to consider.

Mini miners are a hands-on way to participate in the network while stacking sats or keeping open the small possibility of mining rewards.

Where to Find People Willing to Pay in Bitcoin

Now an important question—where are you going to find people willing to pay you in Bitcoin?

Finding people who are open to paying in Bitcoin is easier than it might seem—especially if you know where to look. 

Start by exploring local Bitcoin meetups, conferences, or community events in your area—these are often filled with enthusiasts who prefer peer-to-peer exchanges. Consider searching Facebook or Meetup.com for Bitcoin groups and events in your area.

Online, platforms like Nostr, Twitter/X, Reddit, and Bitcoin-focused Telegram groups can be great places to find clients or collaborators.

You can also look into Bitcoin job boards to find formal employment opportunities that pay in BTC.

The Bitcoin economy is growing, and so is the number of individuals and businesses willing to transact in BTC directly—bypassing fiat altogether. 

The key is to get involved in the ecosystem—once you’re in the network and people get to know you, opportunities will begin to surface organically.

Summary Table: How to Receive Bitcoin w/o Fiat

| Method | Effort Level | Payout Potential | Notes | | ------------------------------- | ------------ | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | Offer services for BTC | Medium | High | Most scalable—mine sats directly instead of fiat | | Sell goods for BTC | Medium | Medium | Local or online; accessible | | Micro-transactions (Nostr) | Low/Medium | Medium (over time) | Lightning required, engaging helps | | Accept BTC tips | Low | Low to Medium | Best for service or gig workers | | Cashback / rewards programs | Low | Low to Medium | Passive sat stacking on normal spending | | Mini Bitcoin mining | Medium | Low / Lottery Level | For advanced users |

What did I forget? Let me know your tips and thoughts in the comments below ✨

@ 5f078e90:b2bacaa3

Owl’s One-Legged Vigil

The vigil, one leg style

In a misty grove, Sylas the owl perched on a gnarled oak, standing on one leg. His golden eyes scanned the night. Why one leg? A vow to honor his lost mate, taken by a hawk. Each dusk, Sylas balanced, unwavering, as stars wheeled above. His silent stance drew the forest’s gaze—squirrels paused, deer bowed. One moonlit night, a young owl mimicked him, sparking hope. Sylas’s vigil became legend, a beacon of resilience.

Owl’s One-Legged Vigil: Part Two

Part 2

In the misty grove, Sylas stood on one leg, his vigil unbroken. The young owl, inspired, joined nightly, mimicking his stance. Word spread—foxes whispered, ravens cawed. Sylas’s balance was no mere feat; it was defiance against loss. One stormy dusk, winds howled, yet Sylas held firm, his single leg rooted. The young owl faltered but watched in awe. Moonlight pierced the clouds, bathing them in silver. Sylas hooted softly, a call of endurance. The grove’s creatures gathered, drawn by his resolve. A wise badger spoke: “Your vigil heals us.” The young owl, now named Lark, vowed to carry Sylas’s legacy. As dawn broke, Sylas stretched both legs, his vow fulfilled. He flew with Lark, their wings brushing the sky. The grove thrived, united by his stand. Sylas’s one-legged vigil became a tale of hope, etched in every tree.

@ c1e9ab3a:9cb56b43

Prepared for Off-World Visitors by the Risan Institute of Cultural Heritage

Welcome to Risa, the jewel of the Alpha Quadrant, celebrated across the Federation for its tranquility, pleasure, and natural splendor. But what many travelers do not know is that Risa’s current harmony was not inherited—it was forged. Beneath the songs of surf and the serenity of our resorts lies a history rich in conflict, transformation, and enduring wisdom.

We offer this briefing not merely as a tale of our past, but as an invitation to understand the spirit of our people and the roots of our peace.

I. A World at the Crossroads

Before its admittance into the United Federation of Planets, Risa was an independent and vulnerable world situated near volatile borders of early galactic powers. Its lush climate, mineral wealth, and open society made it a frequent target for raiders and an object of interest for imperial expansion.

The Risan peoples were once fragmented, prone to philosophical and political disunity. In our early records, this period is known as the Winds of Splintering. We suffered invasions, betrayals, and the slow erosion of trust in our own traditions.

II. The Coming of the Vulcans

It was during this period of instability that a small delegation of Vulcan philosophers, adherents to the teachings of Surak, arrived on Risa. They did not come as conquerors, nor even as ambassadors, but as seekers of peace.

These emissaries of logic saw in Risa the potential for a society not driven by suppression of emotion, as Vulcan had chosen, but by the balance of joy and discipline. While many Vulcans viewed Risa’s culture as frivolous, these followers of Surak saw the seed of a different path: one in which beauty itself could be a pillar of peace.

The Risan tradition of meditative dance, artistic expression, and communal love resonated with Vulcan teachings of unity and inner control. From this unlikely exchange was born the Ricin Doctrine—the belief that peace is sustained not only through logic or strength, but through deliberate joy, shared vulnerability, and readiness without aggression.

III. Betazed and the Trial of Truth

During the same era, early contact with the people of Betazed brought both inspiration and tension. A Betazoid expedition, under the guise of diplomacy, was discovered to be engaging in deep telepathic influence and information extraction. The Risan people, who valued consent above all else, responded not with anger, but with clarity.

A council of Ricin philosophers invited the Betazoid delegation into a shared mind ceremony—a practice in which both cultures exposed their thoughts in mutual vulnerability. The result was not scandal, but transformation. From that moment forward, a bond was formed, and Risa’s model of ethical emotional expression and consensual empathy became influential in shaping Betazed’s own peace philosophies.

IV. Confronting Marauders and Empires

Despite these philosophical strides, Risa’s path was anything but tranquil.

• Orion Syndicate raiders viewed Risa as ripe for exploitation, and for decades, cities were sacked, citizens enslaved, and resources plundered. In response, Risa formed the Sanctum Guard, not a military in the traditional sense, but a force of trained defenders schooled in both physical technique and psychological dissuasion. The Ricin martial arts, combining beauty with lethality, were born from this necessity.

• Andorian expansionism also tested Risa’s sovereignty. Though smaller in scale, skirmishes over territorial claims forced Risa to adopt planetary defense grids and formalize diplomatic protocols that balanced assertiveness with grace. It was through these conflicts that Risa developed the art of the ceremonial yield—a symbolic concession used to diffuse hostility while retaining honor.

• Romulan subterfuge nearly undid Risa from within. A corrupt Romulan envoy installed puppet leaders in one of our equatorial provinces. These agents sought to erode Risa’s social cohesion through fear and misinformation. But Ricin scholars countered the strategy not with rebellion, but with illumination: they released a network of truths, publicly broadcasting internal thoughts and civic debates to eliminate secrecy. The Romulan operation collapsed under the weight of exposure.

• Even militant Vulcan splinter factions, during the early Vulcan-Andorian conflicts, attempted to turn Risa into a staging ground, pressuring local governments to support Vulcan supremacy. The betrayal struck deep—but Risa resisted through diplomacy, invoking Surak’s true teachings and exposing the heresy of their logic-corrupted mission.

V. Enlightenment Through Preparedness

These trials did not harden us into warriors. They refined us into guardians of peace. Our enlightenment came not from retreat, but from engagement—tempered by readiness.

• We train our youth in the arts of balance: physical defense, emotional expression, and ethical reasoning.
• We teach our history without shame, so that future generations will not repeat our errors.
• We host our guests with joy, not because we are naïve, but because we know that to celebrate life fully is the greatest act of resistance against fear.

Risa did not become peaceful by denying the reality of conflict. We became peaceful by mastering our response to it.

And in so doing, we offered not just pleasure to the stars—but wisdom.

We welcome you not only to our beaches, but to our story.

May your time here bring you not only rest—but understanding.

– Risan Institute of Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the Council of Enlightenment and the Ricin Circle of Peacekeepers

@ 609f186c:0aa4e8af

I love that #nostr lets me write in long form. I see this as one of the brightest parts of Nostr's future.

Friends, I appreciate that you like thoughtful & detailed posts.

I'm also trying to move myself away from the** sustained-thought atrophy of the Twitter format**.. where half of each tweet is like half headline.

But I've struggled with composing long notes on a client in a way that is natural & intuitive.

It has been especially difficult to get a sense for how the thing is gonna look.

And when I want to add in more material...yiikes.

So I'm delighted to be composing this post in the brandnew note editor from #Primal.

So far, it feels really good. And I like that I can selectively format text.

The troll in me still wants a <blink> tag.

Onwards to sustained cognition & real conversation!

Check out Primal's editor: https://primal.net/myarticles